July 29- Ubud, Bali



We are heading to the beach today after a wonderful short week in Ubud, but we have to finish telling you about our time here. On Wednesday, we went to the Nirvana Gallery and took a batik workshop with Buddha himself. Well, not really, but this guy advertised in his brochure that he was larger than life, and he certainly was. His batik artwork was amazing, though, and the compound he had built, with galleries, studios, guest rooms, a temple, and a gorgeous home for him and his family, was an idyllic location to let the creative juices flow. The area was full of tropical plants and trees, and there was artwork hanging on every square inch of wall in the open air studios.

He began the lesson by telling us about the batik process, and then left us to be inspired to sketch out what we wanted to batik. Ari quickly decided on a mask of Hanoman, the monkey from the Ramayana story, and Jillian wanted to do a lady dancing. Ari was able to draw his out nicely, referencing a picture of the mask. Jillian got a little help from the batik master himself, and then we were off to begin the actual batik process.

In the middle of the studio space, there were pots set up cooking beeswax, and little batik "pens" for us to use to trace the wax onto our sketches. These pens consisted of a little wooden handle with a small vessel at one end, about a one inch cylinder, with a tiny spout at the tip. We would fill the vessels up with beeswax and then use the spout to draw on the fabric we had sketched on. Once we had traced all of the lines in wax, we began painting with fabric dye. The batik master gave us a lot of guidance on choosing colors, and it was good practice staying in the lines. We hadn't done that for about twenty years.

After the whole picture was painted in, we spread beeswax over the painted areas to protect them while we dyed the background indigo blue. We had a lot of help from the batik master's apprentices, and they did most of the really messy dyeing for us, but we were still proud to call the pieces our own. (They may not be on display in the permanent collection in our museum apartment, as they will be on loan in more prestigious collections).

During our class, the wife and servants of the batik master prepared a feast for lunch for us and some of his other visitors. They were kind enough to make us plenty of vegetarian options. It was the best gado-gado we had ever tasted (in the three days that we have been eating it).

After the batik class, we headed back to our bungalow to put on clean clothes, and we meandered back into town. We shopped, shmyed, and shopped a little more before we sat down for dinner. This dinner was the nicest that we had had since leavnig Hawaii, and the food was gourmet with a local flair. It may have been the wine, but we decided to go a little crazy by the time the dessert menu came around. Jillian had been hoping for creme brulee, but she was even more excited to find durian brulee on the menu.

A note about durian: We don't know if we have told you yet about this amazingly odd fruit. It is considered a delicacy in most of Southeast Asia, and the locals devour it! Unfortunately for non-locals, it smells like armpits. A lot of hotels that we have stayed in have signs posted that you are not to bring durian inside, because the smell is so offensive. While we were in Bangkok, we just had to try it and see what the rage was all about. It sort of tasted like onion custard, and after a couple bites, it began to grow on us a little. We would go so far as to say we almost enjoyed it.

So, Jillian ordered the durian brulee- when were we ever going to see that on a menu again? Ari ordered an extra spoon, but then something on the menu caught his eye. A single word: Cohiba. It was more than appropriate for him to order a Cuban at the nicest meal of our honeymoon.

Needless to say, we slept in a little the next morning, but we had to rest up because we had a long day of shopping ahead of us. No need to go into the details, but we literally spent the entire day browsing boutiques, haggling in the market, and schlepping shopping bags back to our bungalow. Our major purchase of the day was a new suitcase. The cheapest one we could find was a "same same" Burberry. We will be travelling in style now, with four backpacks and a Burberry rolly case in tow.

Yesterday, Friday, we took a Balinese cooking class. (Ari thought it was a good idea on Thursday to sign up for it, to curtail the shopping frenzy). The class turned out to be well worth the relatively nominal fee. We began with a trip to the market, where the chef explained to us about the local fruits, vegetables, and spices, and also some of the imported ones that have been incorporated into the cuisine. We have been to markets all over the place, but it was a real treat to have a gourmet guide lead us through the stalls.

Back at the restaurant, we donned aprons (which we get to bring home as souvenirs- if they fit in the new suitcase) and prepared six delicious courses. It was a vegetarian cooking class, and we were delighted to find new ways to prepare tempeh and tofu, both of which we struggle with sometimes at home. Jillian was even more thrilled to learn the secrets of gado-gado (which will be served in the museum cafe). Everything turned out delicious (but that's probably because half of the things we made were deep fried in coconut oil, and the other half were drowned in coconut milk. We got to keep recipe books of all of the things we made, plus a few other Balinese treats which we didn't make, but will experiment with at home. (Potluck, anyone?)



After the class we had time for some last minute shopping of pirated DVDs (we had had it up to our necks with batik). We went back to our bungalow, and the engineers in us came to life. We had so much stuff, in all shapes, sizes, and degrees of fragility that all needed to make it into our bags. Amazingly enough, and with a little elbow grease we got it all in.

This morning, we got up early to write this post before we head to the beaches of East Bali for our last week in paradise.

TTFN (Ta Ta For Now).

Lots of love,
Jillian and Ari

July 28th Bali, Indonesia

We finally found an internet cafe in Ubud, Bali with decent internet speeds, so we will do a big post tonight. Internet cafes here advertise that they are "high speed" but creep along at a telephone modem speed. I guess that's "same same" broadband internet, or something.

Anyway, enough kvetching, we are in Bali, afterall. We arrived here in the late morning on Monday. We had to haggle with a few taxi drivers before finding a reasonable fare, but we found a cab to take us from the airport to Ubud, a town about twenty kilometers inland renown for its cultural events and shopping. The ride took us past mile after mile of tropical road lined with palm trees and countless roadside shops selling stone and wooden sculptures of the Buddha, Hindu deities, or local deities we did not recognize, of all shapes and sizes.

We arrived in Ubud and began a short search for a place to stay. It is a great little town, chalk full of artists, galleries, shops, resorts, and rice paddies, located in the middle of the island. The accommodations in Ubud run the gamut from cheap bungalows to posh five star hotels (several of the hotels in Bali are consistently rated among the top ten best in the world.) We opted for the cheapest option, mostly because we knew Jillian was going to do some real damage in the shops selling funky, colorful everything. The first bungalow joint was too expensive (80,000 Indonesian rupiahs: roughly $9) so we held out until we found a clean bungalow for a better price (50,000 rupiahs: $5) with breakfast included!

After dropping off our luggage (which has gotten much heavier since we left NYC), we set out to explore the town of Ubud. The town is beautiful, with sloping streets lined with little boutiques selling local handmade wares. We stopped at a cute restaurant and had lunch overlooking picturesque rice paddies. The food was really good and the view was magnificent. Then we wandered through the streets and alleys of the town, past temples, mixed in with shops, and a few small rice paddies thrown in for good measure. The hours passed, and somehow it became evening.

That night we went to a Kekak Fire Dance show. We had heard that Kekak meant chanting, and we thought the fire dance would be cool, but we had no idea what a treat we were in for. The kekak dance took place on the open air patio in front of a temple, in a grove of trees, lit only with candles. The show began with one man coming into the center of the plaza, and lighting a six foot tall candleabra, which lit up the entire area. Then dozens of men came out, clad only in black and white checked sarongs, and sat in circles around the pyre. Then came the chanting. These men began and continued to chant, "chak-a-chak chak-a-chak" at different volumes and speeds for the next hour and a half. They got up and danced like flames a few times, but for the most part, they just swayed and belted their "chak-a-chaks" in place. Soon a few other fully costumed dancers came out and danced the Ramayana story for us, in and around the middle of the circle. The costumes were incredibly elaborate, complete with masks, hair and sequins.

After the completion of the Ramayana story one crazy Balinese dude came out, "riding" a straw horse all around the middle of the circle. The chanting men moved off stage, and the candleabra was replaced by a bonfire made of coconut husks. Two other men, bearing wooden rakes came out into the center with the crazy dude, and the second half of the show began. The crazy dude (wearing only a sarong- no shoes) held tight to the reigns of his "horse" and ran through the middle of the bonfire, sending coconut husk embers flying in all directions. It was cool to see them flying towards the other spectators, but when flaming coconut came flying in our direction, well, that was a little more nerve racking (We never actually got hit, but we had to pick up our feet and skooch a little to the side to make sure). That's where the men with the rakes came into the picture. While the crazy dude ran around with his horse, they swept all of the embers back into a pile, so he could charge through them again. And again. And again. This ordeal went on for about twenty minutes (with the "chak-a-chaks" going in the background the whole time) before one raker had to steal the dude's horse, while the other tackled him to the ground. The first raker had to go back and help hold him down. Then a third man (possibly a shaman?) came out and sprinkled water on the crazy dude. It was only then that we realized he had been in a trance the whole time, because we saw him come out of it. (Not that it made the whole thing any less crazy). The show was over, the house candles came on, and the crazy dude was sitting in the middle of the circle catching his breath. We went over to check him out, and his feet had been completely blackened, though he didn't seem burned. He was one crazy dude.

Tuesday morning, we decided to check out some of the local Batik courses to try and find one that suited us. The Lonely Planet had a few leads for us, and we didn't have much trouble finding one. We did have a little trouble making it directly there, since there were so many shops to wander in and out of along the way. Bali is known for its textiles, particularly hand painted batiks and intricately woven ikats, and the craftsmanship is amazing. We first went to ARMA, Agung Rai Museum of Art, a local art museum, resort, and place for learning. They offered many classes on Balinese culture, but we were a little disappointed in the batik offerings. We wandered around the grounds for a bit, passed by a music and dance lesson for local children, and then headed into the museum. Like many other museums in Asia that we visited, the architecture was extremely impressive and the collection was just OK. It astounded us that in the open air museum, most of the pen and ink drawings and paintings were not behind glass or protected in any manner. You could see them obviously wilting from the humidity fluctuations in Ubud. There was a distinct Ubud style to many of them, and the museum only held local works, which was cool, but half of the galleries were totally empty, which was not cool.

From ARMA, we headed to the Monkey Forest. Our bungalow is on Monkey Forest Road, so we had to see what the hubub was all about. We walked in to find monkeys everywhere. There were monkeys on the path, monkeys on the railings, monkeys in the trees, and monkeys stealing women's purses (and who says there is no pick-pocketing in Bali. Generally we saw the monkeys take any snacks, then give them back). At a spot in the woods where a few paths converged, some of the park rangers (men wearing sarongs) put out piles of raw sweet potatoes for the monkeys to feast on (and the tourists to feast their cameras on). It was quite a scene! The monkeys fought over the best potatoes or best lady monkeys or for no good reason. Most of the time they were pretty content just to sit and eat potatoes. We even saw a few mama monkeys carrying their baby monkeys on their bellies, and grabbing them by their tails when they tried to wander off (nature's first baby leash).

After we left the Monkey Forest, we started to walk back towards the center of town for dinner, when we saw a monkey walking down the sidewalk in front of us. We paused, so we wouldn't get too close (rabies was the one shot we didn't get before we left), but the monkey was not interested in us. The shopping is just so good in Ubud, even the monkeys check out the shops every once in a while.



The monkey on the sidewalk stood up, walked up four steps, and disappeared into a shop. He remerged with someone's bag of oranges before we realized, maybe we should do something (other than take a lot of pictures). Ari started to yell, and got the bag away from him with a stick. The shop owner came running over, snatched the bag back, and threw the monkey an orange. Satisfied with himself, the monkey headed home.

We got a quick dinner in town of gado-gado (Jillian's new favorite meal. It consists of boiled vegetables smothered in a sweet peanut sauce). Then we were off to see a wayang kulit (shadow puppet) show. Shadow puppetry has a long tradition in Indonesia, where puppet masters carve the puppets out of leather, and paint them beautifully, even though the audience never actually sees the puppets. Wayang Kulit is traditionally only performed on religious occasions (or when tourists pay enough). The dalang (puppeteer) trains extensively in puppetry and Hinduism to learn the stories and techniques. All of the wayang kulit stories are Hindu epics from the Ramayana.

The show itself began with the lighting of one huge candle behind the screen, which provided the light required for the shadow puppets to cast shadows. The story is one that has become old hat to us, so even though the play was not in English, we got the jist of the plot. The main action was interspersed with the puppets doing funny skits in English.

We will tell you how our batik class and the rest of our stay in Ubud went next time.

Lots of love,
Ari and Jillian

July 25- Bali, Indonesia

We arrived safely in Bali after a short flight from Singapore yesterday morning. We still need to finish telling you about Malaysia, so here goes...

We left Kuala Lumpur Thursday morning and took a 2 hour bus ride to Melaka. We arrived in the late morning, had a short orientation tour from Jamie, our guide through Malaysia, and then it was time for a Nyonya (regional cuisine) feast for lunch. Keeping a strong tradition strong, we stuffed ourselves and went shopping. Lunch was delicious, highlighted with freshly squeezed lime juice, ginger fried fish, and pineapple tarts (a local Portuguese influenced speciality).

After lunch, we walked around the town of Melaka, which is famous for its Chinese antiques and local handicraft shops. The buildings in the town were all traditional Chinese colonial shophouses painted in bright pastel colors, similar to the ones that we saw in Hoi An, Vietnam. The roads were closer to winding alley ways than actual boulevards, and the people could not have been friendlier. We did some damage shopping, before meeting up with the group for a boat ride through the town.

The boat ride was fairly ridiculous. The whole thing was narrated by Bernard, who seems to be infamous in the Melaka tourist circles. Not only did he point out the sites to be seen along the river, but he introduced us to Madonna and George Clooney, two of the river lizards we passed along the way. He described the government's effort to boost tourism in Melaka, and showed us the construction of a pedestrian walkway along the river as a part of the campaign to revitalize the riverside district. After a half hour or so, the boat turned around to head back to the pier, and Bernard began thanking us English, Dutch, Malay, Japanese, Korean, and French. He continued to thank us in more languages than we knew existed, and carried on all the way until we reached the pier again. He was even able to thank us in Californian (See you later, dude).

Back on land, we met up with the trishaw tour that had been arranged for us. Each country we have visited has a different name, and slightly different arrangements, but the Melakan trishaws take the cake. These were a regular bicycle with a cart attached to the side. Doesn't sound much different than the Vietnamese cyclos, you say? Well, the Melakan varietal was so colorful you would swear a clown had exploded all over it. Each one was covered in at least 500 silk flowers, Christmas lights, stolen medallions from cars (ours was a Beamer), umbrellas, and even speaker systems blasting everything from Bollywood hits to American 80's pop. It was quite a scene to see 10 of these streaming down the street in a row. On the trishaws, we took a tour of the cultural sites in the city; a Daoist temple, a Dutch church, and Fort Cornwallis, the local fort (every good town needs one). It was a nice tour and all, but the trishaws were really what made it an experience to remember.

That night, we separated from the group and celebrated our two month anniversary (since we forgot about the one month). We had been planning on going out for a nice romantic meal, but when we stumbled upon a dive-y little Indian restaurant in (you guessed it) Little India advertising vegetarian food, full of locals and no gringos to be seen, we decided that it was a bit more our style to dive in head first into the local scene. Not only were there no gringos, but there was no silverware. You would think that if the food was meant to be eaten with your hands, there would be some sort of scoop (think: guacamole and Tostitos) or it would be self contained (think: slice of pizza) or at least not be soup. If you were to think this about Indian food, you would be dead wrong. We washed our hands thoroughly and rolled up our proverbial sleeves and put our left hands under the table for the remainder of the meal. (If you think it is gross that they only eat with their right hands, we won't tell you what they use their left hands for.)

The waitress came over and spread a banana leaf in front of each of us, slapped down a huge pile of saffron rice and then drowned it in lentil soup. She then spooned out four smaller piles of cucumber salad, cabbage salad, pineapples in barbecue sauce, and fried tofu. After a deep breath, we dug right in and were quickly elbow deep in lentils. And it was DE-licious. After dinner, our tummies aching from being so full, we decided to revert back to plan A. We found a cute little upscale open air bar, where we sipped wine along the river's edge.

We got up early Saturday morning to catch a bus to Singapore. We were a little worried because we had heard that they fine, cane, or strike you for any violation of anything in Singapore. Not that we had any real reason to worry, but Jillian was afraid to sneeze lest she get caned for littering boogies. The bus ride was about 4 hours, and went smoothly. When the bus stopped at the border to go through Customs and Immigration, we were greeted, in true Singapore fashion, with soldiers wielding machine guns in a pristine looking building. They set the tone for Singapore perfectly.

Singapore was a very nice city to stop in for a couple days, but it was so sterile that it was pretty boring compared to most of the other cities we have been to. There was no real alternative culture, outside of the trendy club scene, and no real mainstream culture for that matter. On Saturday afternoon, we visited the Museum of Asian Civilizations, which was an absolute gem. This was one of the most beautiful museums we have ever visited, and it was chalk full of information and artifacts from all the different peoples of Asia. We had to laugh, because there were numerous displays of the very things we had bought on our trip. (We will soon instate an admission fee to come visit our apartment. Consider buying a membership if you are planning on freqenting the collection. Unfortunately, at this time we cannot offer a discount to family members).

Saturday night was the last night with our group, and we ate at a restaurant that our guide had picked out for us. He had heard the food was good, but what made the place stand out was the chef. He was a shamelessly self promoted body builder (possibly stripper) and he covered the menu with Glamour Shots of himself.

After dinner, we went to the Singapore Zoo's Night Safari. This was a special area of the zoo that is only open at night, and you can see the "nocturnal" animals sleep. We took an hour long tram ride through the park and saw lions, tigers, bears (oh my), zebras, elephants, big ugly things, rhinos, giraffes, little ugly things, capibaras, antelope, smelly things, anteaters, and scary things with big teeth (well, Jillian found all of them scary since there didn't seem to be any fences anywhere). After the tram ride, we walked through the park, and saw an abysmal zoo show, before heading home.

Sunday morning, we were on our own again! We decided to celebrate our freedom by (surprise, surprise) shopping in Little India. We had read that Singapore is a good place to buy cheap electronics, and Nintendo had just come out with the DS Lite, so again, our mission was clear. Ari needed to have that Nintendo, and he needed to have it cheap. We went to two electronics malls (Yes, entire malls with nothing but electronics. Needless to say, Jillian wasn't in her element). We scouted out every store to see if they had the DS, and then we had to go back and see which one would give us the best deal. It was quite an ordeal, but at the end of the day, Ari was a very happy camper. In being a thoughtful husband, one of the games he got was for Jillian. (The one he picked tests your intelligence daily, and he knew that she would enjoy beating him over and over again, which she does.)

After that, we went to check in to our hotel, so we could relax a little and Ari could try out his new toy. The hotel that we stayed in, called 1929, was super cool. It was a chic boutique hotel, with Marimekko bedspreads, rooftop jacuzzis, and fabulous retro furniture in the lobby. Our room even had a cool little music box and CD player in it. We were finally able to listen to the Malay hip-hop and Indian mantras that we had picked up.

That night, we went to Orchard Road, the high end shopping district, for dinner and shmying. Marcey had taken us to Takashimaya in New York, an upscale Japanese department store on 5th Avenue, and we wanted to check out the one in Singapore. The two were worlds apart (literally and figuratively). The one in New York boasted only exquisite Asian inspired clothing, accesories, and furniture, while the one in Singapore was immense and can only be described as KJC Penny's meets Bloomingdales. There was a lot of inexpensive Western style clothing mixed in with some well known Western designers, but very little Asian influence anywhere. We were pretty disappointed, although the 7-11 on Orchard Road had sour apple Slurpees, which made the whole trip worth it.

We headed back to our hotel on the early side, because we had to get up a few hours later for our flight to Bali, where we are now. We are having a great time here, and we will tell yyou all about Bali in our next post.

Lots of love,
Jillian and Ari

July 23- Singapore

We are back, and ready to tell you about the rest of our adventures in Malaysia and Singapore. We flew in to Kuala Lumpur and arrived in the early afternoon on Wednesday. After getting settled in our hotel, we took a wander through the streets of KL to get a feel of the flavor of the city. Our hotel was located right in Chinatown, which was a bustling area with a huge street market selling "same same" versions of all kinds of goods. Some were better than others, but you could find yourself watches, jeans, backpacks, sneakers, purses, DVDs and cheap street food.

We walked through the financial district, passing by some beautiful mosques before coming to Little India. We have become mildly obsessed with the Little India neighborhoods of the Southeast Asian cities that we visited. The bright colors of the saris, the scent of jasmine garlands adorning the temples, and the spicy Indian food make Little India a feast for the senses. We were a little disappointed by KL's version, but mostly because the one in Penang had been so awesome. (We even came home with Indian music from Penang.) In continuing our practice of trying new street food, we had to try the Indian deep fried bananas and tapioca balls. Deep fried anything is good, but deep fried Indian spiced bananas are stellar.

After some much needed alone time, we headed back to the hotel, and met up with the group for dinner. We had been disappointed with a lot of the restaurant choices of the tour company, and we had low expectations going into the meal, but we were quickly proven wrong. We walked to the Central Market, a few blocks outside of Chinatown, and walked into a restaurant decorated with exuisite Chinese antiques, with Andrea Boccelli playing over the stereo system. It was the perfect combination for us because Ari loves old Asian decor and Jillian loves blind Italians. The food was equally as good, and since no one else in the group liked tofu (Aussies eat steak three meals a day, seven days a week) there was more than enough for us.

Since we were already in the Central Market, we naturally just HAD to go shopping after dinner. After passing through stalls filled with handmade kites, cheap pashminas, and "same same" antiques, we came upon the Malaysian CD shop of Ari's dreams. He has been amassing a collection of hip-hop from around the world, and we were determined to find Malaysian hip-hop (assuming it existed). The guy working the shop could have been the clerk in any music shop anywhere in the world, because he had nothing good to say about the local taste in music. He readily directed us to the only decent Malaysian hip-hop group, Too Phat, and we have to say that we really enjoyed the CD. On the album cover, the rapper is wearing a flat brimmed baseball cap with the letters, "KL" across the front. Needless to say, our mission for the following day was laid out before us: find that hat for Ari.

After shopping, we met up with some people from our group at the Reggae Bar, back in Chinatown. Caveat: Because Malaysia is a Muslim country, there is a heavy "sin" tax on alcohol, so there are not many choices for good bars, outside of the expensive and glitzy Golden Triangle district. The only reggae song that we heard was Bob Marley's "Stir it Up." After that, they played some Ace of Base, Michael Jackson, Men at Work, and even some unkown hard rock. Oh well.

The next morning we hopped in tourist vans for a whirlwind tourist's tour of KL. Our first stop on the ride was the Grand Palace, which is not actually open to the public, but there was a lot to see in the Parking Lot. There are 9 sultans who rotate playing the role of king every five years. The Grand Palace is where the king lives, and there are other residences for the other Sultans around Malaysia. From what we could see through the fence, this was a pretty nice palace.

More interesting than the distant palace was the royal palace guard. Every country has its own version of the costumed guard standing outside its palace. In England, all of the tourists take their picture and try to taunt the Bobby into smiling. In Malaysia, all of the tourists take their picture with the guard as he falls asleep standing on his feet. We felt a little bad for him- he was wearing a skirt after all- but not really. It was pretty funny.

Even funnier than that was the Chinese tourist who thought Jillian was special. She insisted on taking several pictures of the two of them together, all in different poses. They even held hands in one. She even wanted Ari in another photo. Then we watched her grab on to the palace fence seductively for a few more glamour shots.

Back in the van again, we headed to a memorial for the Malaysians who fought against a domestic communist uprising. It was really picturesque, situated on a hill overlooking KL, with onion domes covering the pathway leading to the statue. The monument itself was designed by the same artist who created the famous American Iwo Jima statue, and this one had a very similar dramatic feel.

Our next stop was at the KL court building and the royal cricket field across the street. At one end of the field flew the Malaysian flag, on the tallest flagpole in the world. (This was not our only witnessing of a Guiness Book record holder for the day. Read on!) The court building was really beautiful too, and if we had a better internet connection we would show you our pictures. It was built in a blend of Portuguese and Muslim styles, with the tell tale pointed arch windows.

Next we headed to the Menara Tower, which is the fourth tallest communications tower in the world. Situated on a hill, it overlooked the entirety of KL. We took an elevator ride to the top (87 storeys up), for an audio tour and panoramic view of the city and its impressive skyline. The views were breathtaking.

From there we headed to the Batu caves, just outside of KL. These were only discovered about 100 years ago by an American (holla!). Soon after they were discovered the Hindus built lavish shrines inside the caves and carved into the side of the mountain. We put up a picture of a Hindu shrine at the very beginning of our trip (from Bangkok) and you can see the intricate ceramic figures painted in bright lifelike colors covering the shrines. The shrines at the Batu caves were no less brilliant and contrasted nicely with the bare stone of the mountain. Of course, to get to these caves, we had to climb up 272 steps, which we shared with the local monkeys.

Even more impressive was the immensely large statue of Shiva in front of the cave entrance, and next to the staircase. This statue was covered in gold leaf and had only been placed at the cave's entrance less than a year ago. (It wasn't even in our guidebook!) This statue extended 75 meters or more into the air, past the top of the stairs. To give you an idea of its size, standing on the top step, you were eye level with the statue's shoulder blade.

Our next stop was the Pewter factory, where Malaysian tin was made into fine pewter objects. Not exactly our cup of tea, but we had fun goofing around the museum anyways. Once we passed through the exhibition hall to the actual factory we were intrigued. There were demonstrations of the techniques used to make and decorate the goblets, door handles, coins, and other pewter tchochkes the factory workers produce. The gift shop was totally hokey, but outside, we hit world record holder number 2. This time we were privvy to see the world's largest pewter beer mug. In case you hadn't been already, we bet you are jealous of our vacation now.

Our second to last stop was the Petronas Towers. The Malaysians advertise these as the "world's only twin towers," which we found somewhat disturbing. They are built with the Muslim flair for geometric architecture, with an eight sided star as the base of each tower (think: two squares overlapping one another). This figure was a prominent design feature throughout the city. Each tower telescoped upward with five segments each, representing the five pillars of Islam. There was a glass bridge connecting the two towers on the 42nd floor, but one panoramic view of the city was enough for one day. When they were built, which was fairly recently, they were the tallest buildings in the world, but now a building in Taiwan claims this distinction. Jillian was starting to wilt a little (it was nearly 2pm and we hadn't had lunch yet) so she ran through the fountains with an umbrella as her only protection from the water spouts. This was a successful attempt to stave off the approaching crankiness. (Thank goodness we weren't in Singapore yet, or she would have been caned!)

The fountain trick worked (and so did the umbrella) and we made it to our last stop of the day, the Islamic Art Museum. We headed straight for the museum cafe, so we didn't pass out before exploring the galleries. At the cafe we found a veritable Middle Eastern feast, complete with hummus, baba g., foul, vegetarian and meaty stews, saffron rice, lentil soup, and baklava. The food was so good that we asked the chef for his recipes.

We stuffed ourselves silly and then headed out to tromp through the museum. The museum itself was a beautiful space, and there were exquisite displays of ceramics, textiles, illuminated Qurans, jewelry, and furniture from all parts of the Muslim world. The collection of Chinese style Arabic calligraphic poetry was quite extensive and something we had never seen before. The textiles were also amazing. The special exhibit was a display of Ikats from around the world. Ikat refers to the way these garments were dyed. The threads were painted and dyed before the fabric was woven. Once they are woven, they create beautiful designs, each garment being unique.

After the museum, we headed to the National Mosque, which was closed for prayer time. We walked around the beautifully landscaped grounds for a little while and then headed back to the Golden Triangle, the high end shopping mall district anchored by the Petronas Towers, to fulfill our mission from the night before. We used our trusty Lonely Planet to pin down which shopping mall would be most likely to have the KL hat. All seemed lost when we were 100% disappointed with the floor that was touted as the trendy teenager floor. We headed down one level, and at the bottom of the escalator, as if by a miracle, we found a streetwear shop with fake graffiti all over the walls. If the hat was in KL, it was going to be in that shop. Lucky for us, it was. Ari was a happy camper all thugged out in his "fresh" hat, with the sticker still on it and the brim as flat as the day it was born. Mission accomplished.

Still rolling through city, full from lunch, we headed back to Chinatown to meet up with our friends for an evening stroll through KL. The city was all lit up at night, and it was a pleasant evening to see our newly familiar digs streaming with Christmas lights.

All this talk of food has made us really hungry, so we will have to tell you about Melaka and Singapore later.

Lots of love,
Jillian and Ari

July 20 - Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Its been a few days since we last posted, so again we apologize, but we had to go out and make the stories before we can tell them to you. We had been on Langkawi, a small island with nothing but beach "resorts" (half decent mini hotels, really), Asian seafood restaurants, and Malaysian Rastafarians. The beach is gorgeous and the Rastas are nice. We are now in Kuala Lumpur, the bustling capital of Malaysia, and really enjoying it. There is so much to say about the city, but first to paradise...

Monday July 17th we took a ferry from Penang to Langkawi Island. (Before we left Penang, we discovered that, just like Vietnamese street names, it is also a lot of fun to shout 'Penang!' with the gusto of a Southern Baptist minister. Try it: PENANG!) The boat ride was long and arduous, many people filled their complementary plastic sanitary bags, but Ari slept most of the way and Jillian discovered she could actually medidate (but only when she really has to!) A taxi took us to our hotel, the not-so best Best Star Hotel. The hotel was located right on the stunning beach, so we shouldn't really complain.

Our group took a short walk down the beach to a cute little beach cafe run by dreadlocked locals and had a meal that took a shockingly long time to prepare. Jillian's little egg sandwich - called a Banjo for some reason - took so long we wondered if they were waiting for a chicken to lay more eggs. It turns out, as you might suspect, Asian Rastas living on the beach are just in no hurry to do anything. I guess we're not in New York anymore, Toto.

We took the opportunity to relax on the beach, which we hadn't done since Nha Trang, Vietnam. You may remember we weren't feeling well in Nha Trang, so we didn't get as much out of the beach town as we otherwise would have wanted to. So we spent several hours on the beach, which was nice and quiet and had plenty of lush white sand to squish between our toes.

Our whole group met up for a family style dinner of Malay seafood, which was quite good. The fish was really fresh and the seasonings were delicate and delicious. The meal was included as part of our tour package, so we ate a lot to make sure we got our money's worth.

After feasting on fish curries and vegetable stir fries, we met up with a handful of people from our tour group for drinks at the cute beach cafe where we had lunch. The Malay Rastas were playing reggae (of course) and some hip hop, so it was a chill, laid back atmosphere. We ended the night with a stroll down the beach under the stars. Sounds like the kind of night you're supposed to have on a honeymoon, eh?

The following day, Tuesday July 18th, we took a boat tour around the waters around the island. Pulau Langkawi (which means 'Langkawi Island') is located in the Strait of Melaka, the body of water between peninsular Malaysia and Indonesia, near Malaysia's northern border with Thailand. We cruised in a small boat that took us through beautiful bays and past smalls islands peaking up above the water. The boat dropped us off on an island that had a fresh water lake for us to swim in. As we walked toward the lake, we realized we had been in the city too long when we confronted with the local fauna. An enormous lizard was sunning himself right on the rocks and though it didn't threaten us, (it didn't move at all really,) it scared the ba-jesus out of us. We walked past the lizard without any trouble and made our way, if somewhat warily, to the lakeside for some swimming and horseplay. It was pretty mazing to have a freshwater lake tucked between the mountains which were themselves only surrounded by salt water.

Much to our dismay, more woodland creatures came to visit as we swam. The trees near the water were soon filled with monkeys that were jumping, climbing, and doing other things that we can't describe in case younger eyes are reading the blog again. And, if that was not enough, a nice long snake was waiting for us on the path on our way back. We're not sure how big it was because as we told the story to the other people on our trip, the snake seemed to get longer and longer, but we think it was around 38 feet long.

Glad to be back on the boat, we went to a small secluded island which was little more than a small beach and a few trees. We were even more glad that these trees didn't have dirty monkey inhabitants. We jumped into the blue murky water, but were alarmed to find what we thought was a sea snake swimming next to us! Oh man, would nature just leave us alone? Jillian shrieked (yelped? squealed?) and made everyone get out of the water as she felt the snake brush by her ankle. With the whole group standing by at the water's edge, our brave tour leader went after the beast with a stick and pulled it out of the water. The 'snake' turned out to be a gnarled peice of rope, but he gave it a good whack for good measure. With the sea serpent vanquished, we were able to better enjoy the serene scene.

Lastly, the boat cruised up next to some seaside cliffs, where we noticed a large number of eagles soaring overhead. Our skipper through a generous amount of chum into the water and an awesome spectacle began. For several minutes, the eagles gracefully swooped down to the surface of the water and effortlessly pick up the chunks of fish. There were eagles of varying sizes and colors, and we noticed the larger birds definitely ate before the smaller ones could get near the fish pieces. The whole show was pretty amazing. So maybe nature isn't all that bad (from a distance) though we were really glad we weren't fish heads at that moment.

After the boat ride, we returned to our hotel and wandered across the street to a small restaurant for a lunch buffet of Malaysian food. Again, we were impressed by the food and how different it was from anything we had tasted before. There were crispy deep fried hard boiled eggs in a spicy red sauce, fillets of fish in rich curry, fried eggs topped with mango salsa, and some other meat dishes that we didn't try. We then spent some more time sunning on the beach and splashing in the water.

We snuck away from our group and had dinner by ourselves, this time Thai seafood. The food was scrumptuous and it was nice to have some quiet time. We met up once again at the beach cafe for drinks on the dunes. One of the Rastas suggested some music for us to check out once we get back to the US. It was kind of funny to get suggestions about American music from someone who lived so far away, but that is the global village we live in.

The next morning, we woke up early to walk the beach one last time before flying to Kuala Lumpur. In case you hadn't figured it out, we made it here safely and are having a great time. Unfortunately, it looks like you will have to wait to hear about our adventures in Kuala Lumpur until later because it is getting late and we have a long day of travelling tomorrow.

Lots of love,
Jillian and Ari

July 16- Penang, Malaysia

We arrived in Sukothai in the late afternoon on July 13 after a short flight from Chiang Mai (all of these places were still in Thailand, just in case you are confused.) Sukothai is a funny little town, similar to Siem Reap in that there is nothing to do but visit the nearby ruins. We were headed out to visit them the following day, so we took a dip in the hotel pool before heading out with our group for dinner.

That night, we took a new kind of transportation (we seem to be doing this every week or so now) called a 'songtel.' It is really just a big truck with bench seating placed along both sides of the truck bed. The roof was covered with a tarp, so we felt pretty secure or something.


The next morning, we hopped on bicycles and rode around Old Sukothai. Since we had already been to the current capital and the former capital of Thailand, we just had to see the original, which was Sukothai. Again we saw some pretty amazing ruins. It is remarkable how distinct the styles were of the monumental architecture. Some of the temples here bore resemblance to those we had seen in Cambodia, but there was an obvious Thai flavor to these.


We had a picnic lunch overlooking a reflecting pond adjacent to some of the ruins. It was really picturesque- sorry there is no picture.

After lunch, we hopped back in the van to head to the airport again. It was really a beautiful ride past all of the rice paddies.


This time, we flew from Sukothai back to Bangkok, our old stomping grounds. Back in Bangkok (yes for the third time), we battled the Friday rush hour traffic to Kanchanaburi, a couple hours west of the city. As far as we know, it could only be 2 kilometers outside of the city, but the traffic is just so insane.

We finally arrived in Kanchanaburi, and were in desperate need of some fresh air. Luckily, the town was laden with beer gardens, and of course, the ubiquitous lady boys. Surprised as you might be, we only opted to hang out in the beer gardens. This beer garden was truly agricultural (we had to get our daily fix of Thai culture) with chickens and pigs running around trying to steal our wasabi peas. We decided to call it an early night.

The hotel we stayed at in Kanchanaburi was one of our favorites. Jillian liked it a lot because the bathroom was sort of outdoors, which meant that it was always safe to go in, even after Ari. Ari liked it because the only English channel on TV was the Cartoon Network. It was a cool bungalow style hotel, with rustic accents made of tree stumps and bark, but with the best air conditioning we've had since we left home. We won't hold it against them that for some reason it took a half hour to make us toast for breakfast.

The next morning we learned about how little we knew about world history. We took a van ride to the Hellfire Pass Memorial that commemorates the 90,000 people that died building the Thai-Burma Railroad under the brutal Japanese occupation forces during World War II. Most of the people were POWs from Australia, the UK, and the Netherlands, with about 700 Americans. In addition, several thousand locals were conscripted to work on the railroad under conditions similar to the concentration camps in Europe. The men worked backbreaking 18 hour shifts, with little food and less clothing, blasting through the rock and clearing debris with their bare hands to make way for the train to come through the mountains. We had no idea of the vast scale of the Japanese brutality.

We walked through the woods, eventually coming to Hellfire Pass itself. It was so named by the workers building it, because at night the light of the torches cast evil shadows of the guards on the hollowed bodies of the men working below. The experience was haunting.


From there, we took a train ride on the actual track laid during the War. We got off and took a short van ride so we could beat the train and watch it cross the bridge over the River Kwai. Neither of us have seen the movie, but we've seen the bridge!


Back in Kanchanaburi, we visited the Jeath War Museum, which housed artifacts left by the prisoners of the Japanese occupation. Previous visitors to the museum had sent in newspaper clippings from around the world discussing the trauma and these were also on display. One former POW from the UK had painted graphic images of the disease and harsh conditions that ravaged the prisoners in the camps. From there we went to the War Cemetery, where many of the Dutch, British, and Australian POWs who had died during the railroad's construction were buried.

The next morning we woke up to pack our bags before heading back to Bangkok, and found a visitor. There was a two inch scorpion quietly perched on Jillian's bag. Jillian snapped a photo for Jacob Roday before promptly smashing it to bits (she got an 'after' photo too.)

We were back in Bangkok by late morning, and what better to do than to go shopping? We hopped into a cab to Chattachuk Weekend Market, for the best shopping under the Asian sun. There you can buy anything from Asian antiques to baby crocodiles, t-shirts to deep fried just about anything.

After doing some damage, we needed a serious fix of shawarma, so we headed back to Khao San Road one last time. Shoshana's treated us well and filled our bellies (because that hasn't happened on this trip!)

Last night, we went out to dinner with the group on a boat cruise up and down the Chao Phraya River. It was really peaceful to see the city all lit up and to spend a little more time with the people who weren't continuing on to Malaysia with us. Now that we have been shopping, packing is getting a bit trickier, so it took us a little while last night to finagle everything into our backpacks.

We got up super early this morning to catch our flight from Bangkok to Penang, Malaysia. Luckily, we got to the airport two hours before our flight only to find that Intrepid had booked us for the flight on the following day. We banded together and were able to change the tickets without too much trouble, thanks to a very generous Dutch boy.

The rest of the flight was pretty uneventful, although we slept the whole way on account of waking up at 4am, so who really knows if we missed any excitement. We arrived in Penang and were transferred to our hotel, right in the heart of Georgetown, the busiest city on the island.

Everyone else in the group decided to take a nap, but we were hungry so we went exploring. We walked down the street that the Lonely Planet had told us was Chinatown, but we were about fifteen years too late, and the Chinese had been replaced by the Muslim Malay.

We had an outrageously delicious (and cheap) Malay lunch, and then headed to the Cheong Fatt Tze Mansion. The beautiful Chinese style mansion was built over 8 years in the 1880's, but had fallen into disrepair over the past several decades. In 1989, Fatt's youngest son died and the house was purchased by a local architect with deep pockets and an interest in restoring the home to its original splendor. The restoration was completed in 2001, and the house was a charming mix of traditional Chinese feng shui and Victorian European panache. It was painted a strikingly bright blue on the outside, and our guide told us that the paint came from ground up flower petals that had been boiled and reduced to a gentle organic paint.

After the mansion, we wandered around Little India, taking in all of the sights and smells. With all of the bright colors and delicious food, we know where we want to go on our next vacation...

On our way to the internet cafe, we were welcomed in to a Hindu temple and escorted from shrine to shrine by a gentleman who explained each deity and his/her respective significances. The shrine was beautiful, and everyone was warm and friendly to us.

Tonight, Ari busted the computer cafe. He says that it was because there were only four nails holding together the desk with two monitors and two computers on top. It's really because he has been hanging around Jillian too long.

Well, we did it! We are actually caught up with the blog! Make sure you check out all the old posts, because we added a lot of pictures tonight. We hope you enjoy them.

Lots of love,
Jillian and Ari

July 16- Penang, Malaysia

We promised we would catch up, so here we go! Please check some of our older posts as we have added some pictures to them to spice things up a little.

After we left the elementary school near the Hmong village, we took a ride to a nearby monkey farm. Yes, it actually was a monkey farm. You could feed the monkeys fruit or sit and have the monkey come play on your lap. Jillian was slightly petrified. Ari was in heaven.


We played with the monkeys (who played with themselves) but the funniest part of it all was that the monkey farm was run entirely by lady-boys and we were the only non-Muslims visiting it!


Take a moment to digest that sentence; reread it if necessary. Imagine the surreal scene: a monkey lifts weights, in front of an audience full of women wearing birkas, with an overweight Thai lady boy cheering the monkey on in Arabic and calling him 'honey'. Reread that sentence too. Take a deep breath, we are moving on. The monkeys were very talented.



Take another deep breath.


After the monkey farm we had a little more wholesome fun at the orchid farm. We walked through aisles and aisles of beautiful orchids, in all different colors, shapes, and sizes. We have seen orchids growing in a number of places in Asia, and they are generally in hanging pots with holes and their roots streaming through.


After an obligatory dose of ice cream, we climbed back into the van and headed to the airport for a flight from Chiang Mai to Sukothai.

The pictures pretty much sum up the day- not a whole lot more needs to be said.

Lots of love,
Ari and Jillian

July 16- Penang Malaysia

We flew safely to Penang this morning, but we have a lot to catch you up on from the last few days! Being with the organized group, it has been a little more difficult to find internet cafes (since we are staying in real hotels and not backpacker guest houses) but we are doing our best.

Since so many of us just finished "When the Spirit Catches You, You Fall Down" by Anne Fadiman, I feel obliged to tell you more about our experience visiting the Hmong people. (If you have not just finished reading it, I highly recommend it to everyone to read! It is about the Hmong people living in the United States and the cultural barriers they face, particularly in medicine. The book also teaches you a lot about traditional Hmong culture.)

Anyways, when we arrived at the Hmong Lodge, we stayed in traditional/tourist Hmong style homes. Traditionally, these are stilted thatched huts that are just a few rooms big. The ones we stayed in were quite nice, had electricity, hot water, windows, etc. but the homes in the village that we visited were not quite as posh. The Hmong traditionally have lived high in the hills of Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam, although most of the ones still remaining in Asia are in Thailand.


Noi, our guide, talked to us a little bit about Hmong culture, how they live with their families, how they are agricultural people, and how they are in conflict with the mainstream Thai society on a number of fronts. The biggest problem that Noi talked about was how the Hmong are "slash and burn" farmers and they have destroyed a lot of the hillside forests. Once the farmland was no good to them anymore, they would simply pick up and move to a new patch of forest and turn it into farmland.

The King (who is very highly revered for his humanitarian projects across the country) has implemented many measures to try and help the Hmong be more sustainable farmers and to send their children to Thai schools. One of the things that he has done is introduce livestock to the hilltribes, and he has given many of the tribes hundreds of chickens, so that they no longer have to hunt. The idea was to provide them with a steady source of protein, and to make it more difficult for them to move around all of the time. He also introduced fruit and vegetable farming to replace the opium that the Hmong had been growing for generations and generations. The opium was a major "medicine" of the Hmong, so the king has built medical clinics for the people. He has also insisted that the Hmong send their children to school, so he built 100 new schools across the country, near rural hilltribes. He also paved the road and brought some electricity into the village that we visited. All of these improvements really raise the standard of living for the hilltribes, but we are concerned because many of these 'advancements' seem to dilute the intrinsic nature of the culture.


Noi also introduced us to the national sport of Thailand (other than Thai boxing). This was a combination of soccer and volleyball, played with a ball woven out of bamboo or plastic. The rules were the same as volleyball, but you were not allowed to use your hands. We played for a little while, before walking back from the real Hmong village to the fake one we were staying in.

We had a nice Hmong family style dinner, complete with fettucine alfredo and french fries. After dinner, we were entertained by some local Hmong 'performers.' We saw several traditional dances, a reenactment of a wedding, a musician playing a traditional instrument, a shaman performing a healing ceremony, and we even dueled with their large wooden tops. Ari won his duel, but it took Jillian 3 tries to even get her top to spin. It didn't spin for very long after that.


The next morning, we left our village and headed to an elementary school, 1 km down the road. All students in Thailand are entitled to 6 years of education until age 11, and after that the parents must pay. We visited several classrooms and played with the students and helped them practice their English a little. The Australians even sang them the song about the kukaburrow. (The kids may know how to spell that now, but we don't).



That's all for now, but we will try to get some more photos up soon!
Lots of love,
Jillian and Ari

July something- Sukothai, Thailand

We have fixed the settings on the blog, so you should be able to leave comments again. We tried to filter out the spam, but it seems that we filtered everyone instead. Just ignore the spam because we love hearing from you! We promise not to post any "business" opportunities, so don't click if you see any.

We got into Sukothai yesterday, about an hour's flight from Chiang Mai. We will catch you up on our adventures in Chiang Mai before we tell you what we did here.

On Sunday, our first day in Chiang Mai, we took a van ride to a big temple just outside of town. It was a particularly cool time to visit the temple because the locals were preparing for a big Buddhist holiday. The day commemorates the first sermon that was given by THE Buddha. The temple was situated on top of a big hill (translates as lots of stairs to climb) and houses a relic of the Buddha. Long ago, when Chiang Mai was the capital of Thailand, the king placed a newly discovered relic on the back of a white elephant and he said he would build a temple for the relic wherever the elephant stopped. The elephant climbed to the top of the mountain and died, and we know how he felt. Luckily, in the last few years, a road was built for cars to drive most of the way up the mountain, so we only had to do the last bit on foot, but still...


We had a lot of fun ringing all of the bells there. They are all lined up in a row, just asking to be rang (rung? ringed?) which is exactly why they are there. Unlike Jews who try to keep the kids quiet in synagogue, the Buddhists (always the pragmatists) encourage the kids to play outside with the bells during services. Which sounds more fun to you?


Back in the town of Chiang Mai, we had the afternoon free to do whatever we wanted. We decided to explore the town a little, because we felt a little silly only shopping. As it turns out, we felt a little more silly when we found there was nothing but shopping to be done. When in Chiang Mai...

That evening, we loaded up into a tourist van and headed for a Thai luau. Well, it wasn't called a luau, but there were a couple hundred tourists packed into a kitschy pagoda for moderately authentic family style food and a dance performance. It was a little hokey, but we had a lot of fun anyways (just like a luau). It was striking how similar the costumes and dances were to the Cambodian dances we had seen just a few nights prior. It was no coincidence, though, as both cultures have heavily influenced one another over the years. (The Thai don't mind taking cultural pointers from the Khmer because they are comfortable in their political stability and don't fear invasion by the Khmer anymore).


As we were leaving the dance performance, there were people in the parking lot lighting traditional Thai hot air balloons. They were cylinders that were 1 meter in diameter and 1.5 meters tall made out of thin cloth/plastic (we aren't quite sure) with an open bottom. Affixed across the bottom was a bamboo stick, and in the middle was cloth soaked in gasoline. We held on to the edge of the balloon as the cloth was lit and waited for the balloon to fill up with hot air before releasing it. This dangerous (and completely environmentally unsound) contraption rose gracefully into the air and joined the dozens of others that were being released. It was quite beautiful, really.


Back in Chiang Mai, we headed to the night market for more shopping before retiring for the night. The night market proved to be a little more disappointing than the tour book had led us to believe, but still had fun.

The next day Ari decided to sleep in (due to an unhappy tummy, which has since gotten much better) but Jillian went on a bike ride with part of the group through area surrounding Chaing Mai. It was the first bike tour with real bikes! It had gears and brakes and we even got to wear helmets this time!

We rode through town and out into the suburbs with beautiful new homes sprinkled in between the huts with thatched rooves. Our first stop was at a temple, which was fairly non-descript from the outside, but was covered with exquisite murals on the inside, detailing a story about the Buddha. We met with a few monks who were busy cleaning up from the celebrations the night before, and then we were off again.

The next stop was at the leper's hospital. It was about 60 years old, and had an idyllic setting among the trees, with little cabins for each patient. Since leprosy has come under control in Thailand, the hospital is used more as a home for the disabled now. It was started by Aussie missionaries, and they have been running the hospital since its inception. While we were there, we visited a craft workshop where the residents paint, carve, lacquer, and stitch souvenirs for visitors (much like Yad Likasheesh in Israel, and many of the other places that we have seen on this trip). It was a little bizarre to see all of the Christian parephenalia in such a Buddhist country. We had a little snack here before setting out again.

Our next stop with our bikes was at a crematorium in a small village just outside of Chaing Mai. Our tour guide showed us the old one, that the villagers have been using for centuries, which was nothing more than a concrete slab with two small cinderblock walls parallel to one another on the slab. Somehow, they use rubber tires (I missed that part of the explanation) to fuel the fire. Our guide told us (and we could only imagine) that the smell of the burning tires is wretched! Next to this was a big brand new building, resembling the Buddhist temples that we have seen all over the place, but it was completely closed. Our guide told us that the government had built the new crematorium for the locals to use, because it was more environmentally sound, and didn't require tires for fuel. The locals really don't care for the new building, have "condemned" it, and continue to use the concrete slab crematorium instead.

Our last stop on the bike tour was a small village where the locals used natural dyes to dye bamboo to make purses and placemats for souvenir shops. They had huge boiling vats of dye and stirred the bamboo mats inside with long wooden sticks. We had thought it was hot just standing in the sun, but imagine how hot it was standing over boiling vats of water all day, in the sun. Whew.


That afternoon Ari rejoined the human race and we walked back into the center of Chaing Mai (we even crossed over a moat) to explore some more temples. We found a four sided temple that was perched roughly 30 meters high, with no climbable stairs (we were somewhat relieved.) At the top of the mountainous temple, on each side, were archways opening into a partially obscurred interior. Through two of these archways you could see very large imposing Buddha figures. Sitting at that hieght, these Buddha looked quite impressive. A pulley system was attached to the top and bottom of the temple which allowed people to fill a small jug with water, to raise it to the top, and then "wash" the Buddha. We learned about the water and the temple at "Monk Chat," a little area set up where you could ask a few Buddhist monks whatever you wanted. There was a caveat posted that you should make sure that the people you were talking to were "card carrying monks" and not imposters - to ensure the accuracy of their information (yes, the sign really read "card carrying monks.")

Because it had been such a strenuous bike ride, or using that as an excuse, Jillian opted for yet another Thai massage while Ari rested. Both feeling rejuvinated, we both headed back to the temple to take part in the evening celebrations. We first headed back to the temple we had visited that afternoon, bought a carefully prepared bouquet of a lotus flower, three sticks of incense, and a candle. The lotus flower is supposed to be a flower from your home and represents the human being. The three sticks of incense represent the Buddha, his teachings, and the Buddhist monks, respectively. The candle symbolizes knowledge. We're not sure why, but everyone was walking clockwise around the main temple, with their bouquets, so we joined in.


Jillian would not make a good Buddhist. Beyond the fact that she is not good at being quiet and contemplative, she almost lit herself on fire during our procession. We started walking around with everyone else (there were hundreds of people taking part) and we noticed that most people had lit their incense and candles, so we stopped at a large candle holder to light ours. As we were walking around, trying REALLY hard to be quiet and unobtrusive, Jillian's candle caught her incense on fire. She couldn't blow it out, so she waved it around until the incense sticks burned right in half and fell off the bouquet and onto the ground. Luckily, no one was hurt and Ari shared one of his incense sticks with Jillian. He took her candle away from her, though.

We tried to redeem ourselves as Buddhists (do Buddhists believe in redemption?) by heading to another temple to check out the celebrations there. This temple was the pried and joy of Chiang Mai, and it was easy to see why. The first had been incredible ruins, but the second was beautiful and pristine. Murals covered the walls on the insides of the buildings and the colors and details were breathtaking!


By this time of the night, bunches of people had been to the temples, and the candle holders were getting full. The flames burned brightly, and lit up the whole plaza in front of the temple. It even looked like a Buddhist worse than Jillian had been there, because piles of candles lay burning on the ground, ready to cause some kind of trouble.


The next morning we got up early, and took a bus ride one hour outside of the city to an Elephant Preservation Center. This place was dedicated to stopping the killing and population depletion of the Asian Elephants. We fed them bananas, carrots, and corn, and to show their appreciation, they covered Ari in snoodle. We played a little bit with the baby elephants and their mothers, with each pair sharing their own pen, and then it was off to ride the elephants through the park! There was a big director's chair set up on the back of each elephant, and we hopped on together for quite a ride. There were six elephants total for our tour group of 12, and Ari and Jillian led the pack on a trapse through the jungle (or really along the path that the elephants had created after plodding along the same route eight hundred times). Our elephant was quite a character, and was always stopping to munch on some leaves. (Jillian can relate to needing a snack before doing anything that involves any kind of exertion.) We went across a stream, up a little hill, down another little hill, and just as we were about to go up again, our elephant got hungry again. Apparently there were not enough good leaves along the path. As the old joke goes, where does an elephant eat when he gets hungry? Anywhere he wants to! So it was into the jungle for us. We watched back as the rest of the elephants carrying our friends rode by and we headed further and further off the path. Luckily, the man driving our elephant knew a "short cut" to get back on the path, and we caught up with everyone again. Afterwards, we bought a picture of us on the elephant that was framed in paper made of 100% elephant dung. (We can feel your jealousy all the way in Asia.)
And just in case you were wondering, big elephants make BIG doodies.


After the ride, we watched the elephant show. We watched them all bathe in the lake, shoot water out of their trunks, and play around with their trainers. Then we headed to the "theater" where we watched the elephants push and pull logs, bow, walk in line holding tails and trunks, play musical instruments, and paint pictures. It was a little sad because we couldn't quite tell if they were having fun or not. Hopefully they were.

Then we went to the Asian Elephant Hospital- the first one of its kind. Elephants are brought here from across Thailand if they are very sick or, as in the case of many of the elephants that we saw, if they step on a land mine. Motola was the first elephant to come to this hospital, after she stepped on a land mine 8 years ago along the Thai- Burmese border. It took 38 doctors (which made the Guiness Book of World Records) to perform the surgery that would save her life. She has been living at the hospital ever since. While we were visiting we saw a baby (less than a year old) that had stepped on a land mine waiting with her mother for the doctors to come see her. It was really sad because she was having so much trouble balancing her weight on her back legs. The hospital had rigged a bar for her to rest her trunk to help her balance without the use of one of her front legs, but there was not too much they could do until it healed more. She would never be able to live a happy elephant life, but the hospital was doing its best to take care of her.


Then it was back in the van for a long drive to the Hmong Lodge, up in the hills, where we got a tourist's glimpse into Hmong culture.

Lots of love,
Jillian and Ari

July 10- Chiang Mai, Thailand

We are having such a great time that we haven't been posting as often as we should, but we will try to catch you up to speed on the last few days. We last talked about Wednesday, July 5. That night we met up with Julie Kurr, Jillian's old babysitter who has been living in Bangkok for 10 months. She took us to a trendy restaurant in the Sukhamvit neighborhood- one of the newest and nicest areas of the city. We had lots of really delicious food (this seems to be a trend throughout most of our trip) and then caught a cab back to the less posh neighborhood of Khao San Road where we were staying.


On Julie's recommendation, Thursday we got up and made our way to Wat Pho, one of the biggest temples (and tourist attractions) in the city. This temple contained the reclining Buddha, and while Julie had told us that it was the size of the room, we didn't realize just how big the room would be. The reclining Buddha was truly awe inspiring. It was on a platform that was about one meter high, and about 60 meters long! The Buddha was reclining over the entire platform, and was about 6 meters tall! It was covered entirely in gold leaf, except for the soles of its feet, which were black lacquer with inlaid mother of pearl. The other buildings and statues in the temple were also beautiful, covered in ceramic mosaics, much like Wat Arun that we saw the day before.


For lunch we tried heading back to Sara Jane's (the restaurant owned by Ari's friend Jared's aunt), but we hadn't accounted for the hurrendous traffic. We got to the restaurant just a few minutes after she had left for the afternoon. Not to worry, though- we spoke with her and were able to meet her at her other restaurant for dinner. That afternoon we walked around the Silom Road area, checked out some cute shops and hit up the Patpong Night Market as it was getting started.

A few words about the Patpong Night Market: Number one, the place is overrun with "lady boys" as the Thai call them. While they are socially accepted here, it is still a little akward to have them help you pick out a purse as they clomp around in high heels and makeup. In New York, we often see them going out on a Friday night to a club or something, but here they will be behind the counter in the drug store or 7-11 in all their splendor. Not that there is anything wrong with it, but it is worth noting.

In addition, the Patpong Night Market is also the home of many a "ping-pong" show. If you are not sure what that is, you probably don't want to know. Let's just say it's for mature audiences only. These shows are quite creative, and not only do the performers use ping pongs, but they write letters, smoke cigarettes, smuggle razor blades, and somehow make flowers grow all from their nether regions. We didn't actually go into any of the shows to see if the claims were true, but as you walk down the sidewalk, touts and lady boys try to get you to come inside (both Ari and Jillian were approached numerous times) and show you a list of the girls' "talents." We will leave the rest to your imagination.

Back to dinner. We were finally able to meet up with Jane at her restaurant and we had an Esarn feast! (Esarn is the word used to describe the culture in northern Thailand.) She personally picked out all 15 of the dishes that we ate, and explained how they are cooked and how to eat them. We had a great time talking to her and rolled out the front door long after all of the other customers had left. It was funny to hear someone with such a thick Boston accent speak flawless Thai.

Since we had been so lucky the day before with Julie's sightseeing recommendation, on Friday we decided to follow Jane's advice and seek out the gold Buddha. It should be said that Thailand has a bazillion temples, each containing at least one image of the Buddha, if not several dozen, all covered in gold leaf.

About 40 years ago, an image of Buddha was discovered in some ruins, but this statue appeared to be made of concrete. Many temples in Bangkok were approached to see if they wanted this Buddha, but they all declined because he was so ugly. Poor Buddha. Finally, they asked a poor temple in Chinatown if they wanted the Buddha, and they happily accepted because any Buddha is a good Buddha. While the Buddha was being lifted by crane into the temple, the cement cracked and revealed a glimmer of gold. Once it was in the temple, the crack was widened to show even more gold. Soon all of the concrete was removed to reveal an image of Buddha that was three meters tall, made of solid gold. Big Pimpin. Historians surmise that the Buddha had been created in the 1300s and covered in concrete to protect it from the Burmese who often came over the border to pillage Thailand's riches. Buddha sat in concrete for about 700 years but he looks pretty good today.


After a long morning of walking around, it was time for another big meal. This time we decided since there was a Chabad House on Khao San Road, we had to eat there just once. We gorged ourselves on borekas, schnitzel, hummus, falafel, baba ghanoush, and challah. It was quite an experience. They even had a little commissary where you could purchase Bisli, Israeli pickles, and kosher meat. The place clearly catered to Israelis since there were no bagels on the menu, but we didn't let that stop us.

After lunch we lost our independence but gained a whole lot of comfort. It was time to leave the backpacker world for a while and join up with the rest of civilized tourist society. We took the ferry up the Chao Phraya River to meet up with our organized group, which we will be spending the next two and a half weeks with. We checked into the hotel, which had clean sheets and real pillows (quite a switch for us, but we quickly got used to it). We took a dip in the pool, and then it was off to meet the other group members for dinner. Everyone in the group is really nice, and it is a diverse group- 1 Canadian, 2 Dutchmen, and 7 Australians, plus our tour guide who is Thai.


Saturday we began with a tour of the grounds of the Grand Palace. Because she wears such short shorts all the time (not really, but you could see her ankles) she had to rent a sarong to go inside. The palace grounds were totally packed with tourists! The temples were beautiful and reserved for the king's private use. (And of course the three million tourists that come each weekend). It really was beautiful, though, and everything was in pristine condition in the temple compound.


Then we walked over to the Palace itself. It is closed on the weekends due to the high volume of tourists, but we were too hot to really care. Noi, our guide told us all about the royal family and the ten homes they have all over the country. We have told you a little bit about how highly the king is regarded here, and it is for good reason. He has several thousand projects going on around the country (all that he personally initiated) that directly benefit the people. He actually uses all 10 of his residences as he is on the road looking after these projects 300 days a year. (He works all the days that Bush takes off).

We had a quick lunch, highlighted by the airconditioning in the restaurant, and then we were off for a ride through the khlongs (canals) of Bangkok. We floated through kilometers of neighborhoods that were built along the intricate network of canals that make up a small area of the city. The clean drinking water is brought to these homes through pipes that run along the edge of the canals, one meter above the water. At each "driveway" the pipes are raised for the boats to pass beneath without too much difficulty. (Insert your own joke about Thai people being short here).

Saturday night we boarded an overnight train bound for Chiang Mai, the second largest city, found in the north of Thailand. You are just going to have to wait for our next post to hear all about our adventures in Chiang Mai because we need to get some beauty/handsome rest.

Lots of love,
Ari and Jillian

July 8- Bangkok

We had a great day on Wednesday! We began the morning with some fresh pad thai from a street vendor, and then we were off to the Chao Phraya River to take the boat for some sightseeing. After the traffic yesterday, we swore off travelling by roads for a little while. The river boat took us down stream a bit, where we visited Wat Arun, the huge temple right on the river that we posted a picture of when we were in Bangkok last time.


This temple was built Khmer style, with lots of steep steps going to the top. It had four symmetrical sides that were covered in mosaics made from Chinese porcelain. The mosaics covered figurines in the shapes of gods, demons, and animals. The clean whitewash and the colorful pottery gave it a distinctly Thai flavor, different from the carved sandstone of the Khmer temples. From the top (or at least as far as we were allowed to climb up) there were beautiful views of the river and the Bangkok skyline.


Several of the hallways were lined with golden figures of the Buddha.


Our next stop on the river boat was the flower market. We got a little skeeved out in the neighborhood before we actually found the market, but it turned out to be one of the gems of Bangkok. There were countless stalls selling bouquets of orchids and garlands of jasmine for mere pennies. Across the street was a fruit market, boasting some of the most beautiful colors we have ever seen.


From here we hopped back on the river boat and connected with the Skytrain and rode that back into the middle of the city. We did a little shmying and when started to rain, we returned to a tried and true way to pass the time... we got more Thai massages. These were by far the best that we have had, but we are not going to quit on our search to find the best Thai massage in Thailand. Let us make you even more jealous; we splurged on these because they were $5 each for an hour. We're really breaking the bank over here!

An hour was the perfect amount of time for the weather to clear up. Feeling refreshed, we took a stroll through Lumphini park. We stayed on the main path through the park, and there were many people out for their evening walk or jog. There was even music playing over the loudspeakers. Just then, it started to rain again, and we were not far from the night bazaar we had been to, so we decided to book it over there to get out of the rain. Just as we came around a bend in the path, we noticed everyone ahead of us stopped dead in their tracks. Coming from New York, we assumed it was a shooting, mugging, or ten midgets on a motorcycle (Wait- that would have been Vietnam!). We stopped running, but kept walking - it was raining and we didn't have umbrellas. Just then, a man standing next to us in the road motioned with his hand for us to stop moving and he pointed to the loudspeaker. Everyone picked up right where they left off as soon as the song ended. We realized that it had been the national anthem, and people here are patriotic enough to stand solemnly in the rain.

We have told you before that this summer there is a big celebration in all of Thailand because it is the 60th anniversary of the king's ascention to the throne, and everyone is joining in the celebration. There is an official emblem for the celebration, and it is plastered over the entire city of Bangkok. The offical color is bright yellow, and everything is clad in yellow, especially the people. There is a yellow polo shirt with the insignia on it for sale in every single shop (even the chic boutiques). The king has mandated (although there is no penalty for not following suit) that everyone in Thailand has to wear their yellow shirts on Mondays, and looking around, most people are. They even wear them on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays... This decree caused a little uproar in Parliament, because the Prime Minister told all of his cabinet members that they must wear their shirts to their weekly meetings, which falls on a Tuesday!

Lots of love,
Jillian and Ari

July 4th - Back in Bangkok

Yesterday we flew back to Bangkok from Siem Reap, Cambodia. As you probably know, we're a little behind on our posts, but we promise we will get back to talking about the temples of Angkor once we get to a internet cafe where we can post photos.

We landed in Bangkok and came back to the backpacker district of Khao San Road. We walked around for a bit and finally settled on a guesthouse that caters specifically to Israeli travelers. The menu in the restaurant and the signs in the lobby are in Hebrew, not English or Thai. We are thinking of having humus for breakfast tomorrow instead of pad thai.


After dumping our luggage in the guesthouse we hopped on a bus that took us to the edge of Chinatown to find the Phahurat Market. The guide books describe Phahurat as the Indian section of town so we went with images of colorful textiles and Indian curries dancing in our heads. We didn't find what we had expected, but we found a seemingly endless, buzzing market that went on for several blocks in all directions. We meandered through the rows of stalls and saw fabric shops stacked with beautiful silks, food stalls selling all manner of meat on a stick, and even a store specializing in Hello Kitty. Before leaving the market, we snaked on spongy green fried squares of goodness. We don't know what they are, but the woman who sold it to us swore up and down that they were vegetarian. We think they were eggplant but they may have been made of weasel.


We made our way from Chinatown to the Joe Louis Puppet Theater located in the Suan Lum Night Bazaar. The Joe Louis Theater, despite being inexplicably named for a deceased American boxer, shows performances of traditional Thai puppetry every night. The puppets are all beautifully crafted, delicately painted, and ornately decorated. Each puppet is controlled by three puppeteers and is remarkably expressive. The show we saw was a Hindu epic that used a battle between the gods and demons to give explanation for lunar eclipses and was very entertaining. After the completion of the narrative, the puppets wandered into the audience to harass young women and little children. One puppet even stole a woman's purse and only returned it after each puppeteer received a kiss.

We spent the rest of the night checking out the goods in the stalls of the night market. We found good quality stuff there, from hand made clothing to abstract paintings, to antique furniture. We were too tired to make any purchases, thankfully, but we have floated the possibility of returning to do some damage.

Today, to commemorate American Independence Day, we decided to continue doing what Americans do best: hang out in shopping malls. We headed down to Soi Thong Lo, a trendy street with trendy clothing boutiques, high end furniture shops, and an abundance of sushi restaurants. It was just like being in New York City! We spent some time browsing a shopping center called Playground! (the "!" is part of the name). Much to Jillian's delight, the second floor was littered with enormous bean bag chairs the size of VW Beetles. Jillian leaped into the center of one of the fluffier bean bags while Ari leafed through some magazines for any sign of the elusive Autistic Children. He stumbled upon a picture of one of them, in Play, a magazine dedicated to high end designer vinyl toys. The magazine had an interview with the creator of Tofu Oyaku and nestled between the images of this tofu man, who looks kind of "autistic" himself, was a picture of one of the Autistic Children, Flan Head Man, to be exact. The company is called Devilrobots. Check back here for more details...


We dined on dim sum for lunch, at a restaurant with placards claiming that it had been voted on of Bangkok's best eateries in 2005. Though we weren't sure what we had ordered until it had arrived, we have to say that the restaurant deserved accolades. The dishes were tasty and not too scary, which is all you can ask for sometimes.

With full bellies we explored a few more designer furniture shops, mostly because they had the best air conditioning. Satisfied that we had gotten all that we could out of Thong Lo, we hailed a cab to take us to the Thailand Creative and Design Center, housed on the top floor of the Emporium Shopping Center.

The Design Center was a cool space, though the permanent collection was a little bit of a bore. Unfortunately the museum was between exhibitions, but we perused the library and watched a video presentation on the fashion designer Vivian Westwood. The upcoming exhibit, which was being installed, was a retrospective on her influential work. We were amazed to learn that Vivian Westwood had single-handedly come up with the Punk Rock style - the tight bondage pants with all the zippers, the pornographic T-shirts, the ripped jeans, the spikes - while dating one of the Sex Pistols. If that's enough, she is also responsible for such fads as platform shoes and the return of the corset in the 1990's.

We then tried to take a bus back to Khao San Road, but had not fully accounted for the horrendous traffic that snarls around Bangkok at rush hour. Our bus moved only a few yards in 45 minutes, so we decided to jump off. We walked to the Skytrain station and took the elevated line as close to Khao San as we could get. Instead of trying to cram our way onto another bus, we opted to kill some time at yet another shopping center. Though it may seem like we were degenerating into junior high mall rats we should explain that the malls in Bangkok are cultural hubs with a social scene, and flea market style bargain shopping areas, gourmet supermarkets, and video game arcades. We had been to this particular shopping center on our first visit to Bangkok, but there was no way we could have seen it all in one visit.

After a little shmying, we hunted down what we hoped would be a good snack of fried noodles with vegetables. In the little food court that sold mostly street food, most of the booths had closed down for the night. They didn't have any English on their menus anyways, and we were too tired to eat weasel meat unknowingly. The guy from the only open booth promised that he could make us noodle dishes without meat, so we agreed to let him. It was a team effort with one man chopping the vegetables, another frying them, a third smiling and looking pretty, and the fourth was making the noodles for us. But actually making the noodles. We watched him stretch the raw dough by hand into three long noodles, before slapping them on the counter (we think to get a uniform thickness, but it just looked cool no matter what) and then they went into the boiling water. The last step was when the noodles went into our bellies, which was our favorite part.


We caught a bus back to Khao San Road, wandered through the street markets a bit, grabbed a beer, and went to sleep. All that shopping really wore us out.

Lots of love,
Jillian and Ari