Escape From Brooklyn

What I Did on My Summer Vacation

2009-09-07T21:24:00.000-07:00

OK, so lets backtrack to June.

We finally threw our housewarming party at the beginning of summer, and do I have photos of this joyous event? Of course not. I think we were too busy to think about it at the time. Our backyard has transformed from a complete mudpit to only 3/4ths of one now, as Paul's parents hauled over a bunch of sod they no longer needed. I am too embarrassed to even post a photo of our cracked-out looking backyard right now. Someday it will look nice, but it ain't happening anytime soon.

As for the front yard, well, that was an experiment gone wrong. We had this great idea of throwing down a ton of wildflower seed mixed with cover crop seed, and it turned into a crazy looking jungle. The grasses that sprouted kicked up Paul's allergies so badly that I wound up ripping it all out; then a disc popped in my lower back from being hunched over for 2 hrs. but that is a story for another time.

In July we went to Bend for 4th of July weekend/Paul's birthday and spent it with our good friends, Rebecca, Frank, and Hunter.

In late July we went on a 10-family camping trip to the coast. It turned out to be much better than we could have imagined, especially with all of the kids running around! The kids took care of each other while the adults ignored them and drank cocktails. Did I just say that out loud?

Despite the icy temperatures of the Pacific, August still plunged in with all of his clothes on.

You can hear how windy it was that day. Despite the wind, August loves the beach:

One of my best friend's from undergrad got married earlier this summer and had a party in Colorado, which I went to with another college friend (2nd solo vacation this year--sorry Paul! You go next, promise). It was amazing to be back in the Colorado mountains again and I forgot how stunning it is there. Leslie and I hiked to Strawberry Lake Hot Springs and relaxed for a while before hiking back to the car.

August turned 2 on August 12th and we had a small party for him in our backyard. We are still enjoying the remains of his gelato cake!

August and his best buddy, Oliver Danger:

Blowing out the candles:

Grandma and Grandpa Uusitalo were brave enough to take us up on the challenge of watching August while Paul and I took off to Burning Man at the end of the summer. They all did great and I don't think August really missed us all that much, which is a good sign of how much fun they all had. Pictures of Burning Man still to come!

What??

2009-09-07T21:18:00.000-07:00

Has it really been almost 4 months since I last posted?
How did that happen?

We are still here, really! And with lots of news and stories to report, of course.

Thanks for being patient (to the two people who actually follow this lazy-ass blog) and I'll get some action going here soon. Promise!

Swine Flu Here We Come!

2009-05-08T15:54:00.000-07:00

Prior to leaving the US, we had heard about Swine Flu hitting Mexico City. We weren't really bothered by it affecting us since we were headed to Sayulita, a small fishing village nowhere near the capital, and about 45 minutes north of Puerto Vallarta.

However, in the beginning of our stay the schools had to shut down:

The restaurants were open when we arrived, but later on in the week some were open for take-out only. Not like we would have eaten out at all, since August can last maximum 10 minutes in a restaurant before he starts to destroy the place. We ate LOADS of tacos, and they were incredible.

The 1st house we rented was huge! 3 bedrooms, 3 bathrooms, and tons of stairways and gorgeous ocean views. It was a little too big but we wanted to be next to our friends who were down there as well.

View from the deck:

We swam every single day (especially August, who we could not get out of the pool at times) and ate some incredible food. And did lots of nothing, which is pretty much what we needed.

Lots of ice cream was consumed. You can tell August is eyeing Hunter's ice cream sandwich here because he inhaled his in less than 3 minutes:

Some shots of "town":

Sunsets on the beach were fabulous:

Road Trip to Albion, WA

2009-05-08T15:21:00.000-07:00

Paul is now a biological uncle!! We finally got to meet baby Quintinn, who is now about 3 months old. It was too expensive to fly so we bit the bullet and loaded up the car. Surprisingly, August did much better than we expected for being cooped up for close to 7 hrs. (stopped once to run around and stretch).

I had heard Albion is a very small town and was prepared for a quaint little place. It is waaaaay smaller than I could have imagined. One town hall/library/fire station building. A church. And that is all. Kids take buses to schools in other towns.

Paul and I took Quinntin out for a walk in scenic Albion.

Here is some more fabulous neighborhood scenery:

Still awake?

We got a tour of the farm that Mike works on for his graduate degree program in organic agriculture. August was terrified of the bleating sounds the sheep made.

Even the quiet cows freaked him out. I am guessing that seeing photos and drawings of farm animals in books is one thing, but in real life they are a bit daunting.

Here he is clinging to me for dear life. Hopefully Quinntin will be more used to the sounds and sizes of farm animals and won't be as tramatized when he gets older!

Never mind the towel, gimme a bathrobe!

2009-04-06T21:37:00.000-07:00

August now refuses to use a towel after his bath. For someone who has hated hats his entire short life up until now, we are pretty psyched he tolerates wearing this.

Have you read "The Gas We Pass--The Story of Farts"? It is one of August's favorite books.

August repeatedly says "Baby? Baby?" whenever he sees my camera because he loves to look at photos of himself on the screen. And yes, Paul is saying "intesTYNES" on purpose, just because he knows it bugs me.

Rooftop Discovery

2009-04-06T21:21:00.000-07:00

We basically ran out of money in terms of wanting to complete every single thing we wanted for our new house, which is ok. It seemed much more important to just make it good enough to move into and worry about the stuff which isn't detrimental to our living experience later. Like the Murphy bed we were hoping to have built in the downstairs guest bedroom. Like any sort of landscaping whatsoever instead of dirt (as of this past weekend, however, we now have a little tree planted out front and some cover crop seeds are sprouting). And a rooftop deck with a collapsible ladder. We have the former, but not the latter (or ladder). It was so gorgeous out this weekend that I demanded that we all check out the roofdeck for the first time ever. So Paul hauled a ladder up to the bedroom and opened the hatch.

August now knows the word "wine", which is what he was saying repeatedly when this photo was taken. Neither of us can figure out how he learned this word so quickly. Heh.

Unfortunately we couldn't stay up long because August became obsessed with the idea of wanting to go up and down the ladder by himself multiple times.

Pre- and Post-Renovation Photos

2009-01-21T19:44:00.000-08:00

This is what it looked like when we purchased it:

And now:
The former fire place:

We had the old one torn out and placed this new one on the opposite wall:

The old kitchen was pretty gross:

Now look at it!

The former upstairs hallway:

And current:

August's old bathroom:

And new!

We have no idea if anyone we know is even looking at this blog, by the way. Make us feel like we aren't wasting our time, will you, and post a comment once in a while (not you, Suzie). Don't be shy! Let us know what you think. Thanks! (How pathetic, I am trolling for comments. Yikes.).

The Moving Van Cometh

2009-01-20T12:47:00.000-08:00

Believe it or not, we are moving. This year. This week, actually. How crazy is that?

I know it still looks like a mess, but I will post more photos after we attend one last meeting with the contractor at the house tomorrow. You will soon see that it is inhabitable as opposed to still being a construction site!

Happy Inauguration Day!

2009-01-20T12:40:00.000-08:00

Can I please burn this shirt now?

2nd Annual Wine Cellar Raid

2008-12-09T10:31:00.000-08:00

Thanks to everyone who came to raid the cellar--and brought some great wine and food to share!

We look forward to doing this every year and it is great that so many friends come from out of town to join us.

Adventures in Florida

2008-11-25T16:39:00.000-08:00

I know what you are thinking. Florida is hardly adventurous, right?

It is when you have a child who won't sleep on airplanes, finds eating to be boring because there is so much else to look at, and has two parents who chase after the child non-stop, until he eventually drops from exhaustion.

We flew from PDX to Seattle, then took a direct flight from there to Miami. Some pediatric website suggested to give slightly less than the suggested dose of Benadryl so your child doesn't sleep the entire flight and not at all later on. 3/4 the dose seemed like a good start. An hour later, August is still awake. Mellow, but awake. Hmmm. We give him the other 1/4 dose, still nothing. "Can we give him more?", asks Paul. That seems like a bad idea, so we entertain him as much as possible for the duration of the 6 hour flight.

We arrive in Miami at 10pm, take a shuttle bus to the car rental, take about 30 minutes to get our car (you just wander around the Alamo lot in the dark, looking for a car, with no help from any staff). We drive 1 hr. to Highland Beach, and August falls asleep. I go to the front desk to check in and a crabby employee helps me out. And he is very slow about it. August is of course not happy about being woken up since we need to get all the luggage in, set up his crib, etc. He is then fully awake and plays in the room until 1:30am. Wake-up time? 6:30am! Sad, but true. August is raring to go so we eat breakfast and then walk down to the beach.

One of the favorite spots we all seem to keep winding up in is the Jacuzzi, right off from the beach. August never went in past the first step, where he liked to play with his pool toys. One day this woman with an English accent came up to us and pointed out that August was not supposed to be in the Jacuzzi as it was bad for his heart (or something like that), pointed to the Rules and Regulations sign behind her, and said no one under 8 was to be in the Jacuzzi. (Actually, the sign said no one under 12 unless accompanied by their parents, but never mind).

"How old is he?", she asks.

"He's eight," I say, in a snotty voice.

"Oh, ok then."

Does she really believe he is 8, or is she being snotty back? Either way, she mutters something else and walks off in a huff. She never bugs us again, and we continue to enjoy the Jacuzzi.

After spending a few days in Highland Beach, we drive a few miles to Boca Raton to check into a different hotel, which is where the Bat Mitzvah festivities will be. I am lame and have no photos of the actual event, but I can tell you that my niece did a fabulous job and the party was incredible.

Our Florida adventures end in Miami, where we spent one night in the Embassy Suites hotel, 1 mile from the airport. Free open bar from 5:30-7:30! Just what we need to wrap up our vacation before another 6 hr. flight. For some reason August eats very little when we travel (too much going on, maybe?) but scarfed down a ton of steamed broccoli and grilled chicken in the tub. Yeah, we feed our kid in the tub. You got a problem with that?

I don't know if I have stayed in an Embassy Suites Hotel before, but man, whoever they hired to decorate the rooms must have taken a lot of LSD while on the job. Check out the curtains! Note the thatched green trim on the top:

Look at the snazzy artwork--it looks Masonic, no? It caught the eye of both of us, immediately.

Now this is kind of freaking me out. Look at this image (best I could find off Google):

This was the third image above our bed:

Can someone please tell me what the hell is going on here?

Why is the cover of an Aleister Crowley book adorning the walls of an Embassy Suites hotel? It is really freaking me out and I am dying to know the story behind this.

OK, enough for now. I will post some videos soon.

Our Punchy Child

2008-11-05T11:40:00.000-08:00

August went to his first Halloween party and wore this cute costume that his great Aunt Ginny sent him--a Gingerbread Baby. Not something we would have picked on our own, but it looks quite adorable on him.

So all the parents lined up the kiddies for a group shot on the couch. Hmm, who is that punching a monkey in the head?

Poor monkey. Now he is picking her nose:

Here he is harassing a chicken:

I wonder if we will be invited back next year?

Camping Part 2: 4 Adults, Two Toddlers, and a Dog

2008-10-06T09:44:00.000-07:00

After much debate about where to camp, it seemed that central Oregon would be less rainy than over here in the western part of the state. It was raining when we left Portland, and it just got worse from there. We drove a little less than 3 hours over the Santiam Pass to Camp Sherman, on the Metolius River and met up with our friends from Bend.

It was a really beautiful spot and we all did our best to keep the party going, despite the weather.
Luckily we had 2 easy-up canopies or else it would have been a disaster trying to cook and hang out in the rain.

Like the last time we camped, August found the dirt to be delicious:

There were loads of salmon flies attracted to the lanterns at night:

The next day, the weather would clear up and the sun would come out for a while, then the rain would resume. After several hours of this, it seemed best to pack it in and find a motel. No one knew if there was enough propane to keep the kiddies warm for 2 nights in a row, and we were pretty much out of dry clothes for August.

We headed to Sisters, OR and found a funky motor inn and crashed there. Breakfast cocktails* started off the day on Sunday--the sun was shining and we were happy to be dry!

*Note--this photo was taken after said breakfast cocktails were consumed.

Birthday photos

2008-09-24T08:56:00.000-07:00

Yes, we are slow. Slow, slow slow at updating the blog. What can I say? Time is going by incredibly fast. The house is still being worked on (possible move-in is now January '09) and the hot weather has left Portland. I am still looking for work and have been on several interviews. Of course the position I was most interested in didn't pan out, and the one I was least interested in called me back for a second interview. I completely b.s.'d my way into getting an interview at an area hospital yesterday and lets hope it wasn't so obvious that I really had no idea what I was talking about.

Although we only made it camping once the whole summer, next week we are going camping with some friends who have a toddler as well. August is unfortunately still into the phase of putting everything in his mouth so we are guessing he will have a mouth full of dirt and rocks within 5 minutes of pulling into the campsite.

Here are some very late photos of August's 1st birthday. It was over 100 degrees the day of his party so luckily that 1/4 keg of beer was around to keep the adults happy. Oh yeah, and the kiddies got a pool to play in--the same exact pool that was attacked by raccoons! We found an identical one a few weeks before the party.

Uncle Dan and Magnus the cat were obviously too hot to move around much:

I think these misters saved the day:

Here is a video of August walking--this was just shot last weekend at Mt. Tabor park:

Happy 1st Birthday to August!

2008-08-12T08:08:00.000-07:00

Well, we made it a whole year already without any significant injuries or disasters. Not bad for first time parents!

For the last 4 days Paul and I have been thinking back to what we were doing a year ago at this time--the 2 1/2 day induction; watching "Blade Runner" and "Monty Python's The Meaning of Life" while waiting for contractions to get crazy; Paul picking me fresh berries outside around the hospital campus; having the doula arrive and lend us some incredible help; and watching the sunrise together in the recovery room after the surgery.

August 12, 2007:

August 12th, 2008:

Raccoon Party in the Backyard

2008-07-27T08:54:00.000-07:00

Or was it some other animal? A family of possums?

We bought August this great blow-up pool for the backyard just a few weeks ago. Do you know how hard it is to find pools in the middle of summer? Everything is cleared out to make room for back to school stuff--in early July!! Why is summer being rushed? This drives me crazy.

Anyway, Paul found an awesome pool that had two different areas to fill up, a place to attach the hose to make water spray around, a little kiddie slide, and a ring-toss game. Spiffy, huh?

The pool was filled up last Friday on yet another hot day and that was sadly the last time it would be used. Never mind that this was the pool we were to use for August's upcoming 1st birthday party.

Saturday morning I went outside to the backyard and the pool was in a heap and mostly deflated. I wondered if Paul had drained it last night, which would be odd if he did since he was in bed before me. I didn't think much of it until Paul woke up later and I asked about the pool.

He went out to inspect it and said that it had been vandalized! Big tears cut into it! Who would do such a thing? A pack of mean drunks? Angry neighbors (OK, our music doesn't get played that loud, does it?)? Upon closer inspection, we could clearly see jagged tears, pointy claw marks and holes, and other evidence that pointed to the fact that it was not a knife that made such cuts.

Did a bunch of raccoons pass by and want a drink, then decide to party down in the kiddie pool? Did they have fun, or were they scared by something which caused them to freak out and destroy the pool in multiple places? I guess we will never know, but it is one of those times where you wish you had a video to play back to see exactly what went on in the middle of the night!

Now we have to find another blow up pool for August's party, and hopefully there will be one last dusty one in some store to snag. Either that or we are hitting Ebay or Amazon for one. That and we are going to have to store it in the garage at night so it doesn't get ripped apart again.

First Family Camping Trip

2008-07-21T09:20:00.000-07:00

Paul took off a few days from work so we could finally get around to doing some much needed camping! It has been way too long and we figured, why not give it a try? So we loaded up the Vanagon and headed south to the Willamette Valley and camped out at Salmon Creek Falls. 3 hours in the car is just about all August can take without completely freaking out, so luckily that was about how long it took to get there.

It was really an incredibly beautiful spot! The water was crystal clear--you could see all the way to the bottom of the creek, which was pretty deep in some spots.

August became filthy so quickly that I had to keep suppressing that mother instinct of wanting to clean his hands and face constantly. I found it funny at first, thinking back to when he was a newborn and making sure everything was so clean all the time. It was the dirtiest we have ever seen him.

We got to try out our new Sherpani carrier--it rocks! August even let us keep him in it for at least 30 minutes, which is a record for him.

Somehow I was able to convince Paul to jump into the freezing cold water. Luckily it was pretty hot that day or else it would have not been as, ahh, refreshing?

Yes that is me in my saggy, baggy underwear. Stop laughing.

Attack of the Sand Eater

2008-07-01T09:24:00.001-07:00

On Saturday we drove to Cannon Beach because it was going to be 103 degrees here in Portland and only 80 or so at the coast. Luckily we got out of town fast and made it just in time to find decent parking. This was August's third time at the coast but his first time ever playing in the sand. He absolutely loved it and even found the sand to be quite delicious:

House Update

2008-06-13T09:26:00.000-07:00

Things are really moving fast now with the new house--finally it is taking shape and I can finally look at it and not feel sad about it being a pile of rubble.

The whole second floor had to be torn down and completely redone.

Adventures for April

2008-05-02T20:54:00.000-07:00

Yes, two more rounds of the plague have hit our household. Another stomach virus and believe it or not, another cold. Yeah, I know. This is just the beginning. Wait until he starts pre-school and kindergarten!

We visited friends in San Francisco in April and the weather gods were shining upon us that weekend. Even though Paul said it would be in the upper 70's, I didn't believe him. Did I bring appropriate clothing? Of course not. And it got up to the low 80's! I was roasting and had to borrow a skirt from a friend. Luckily we brought warm weather clothes for August, so he was all set.

What prompted the visit was to celebrate J's 40th birthday. As we had hoped, he was very surprised to see us and even more surprised to have a great party thrown for him. We finally got to meet J and K's son as well!

Our friends Merritt and Pierre are expecting twins. The last time we saw them was at Burning Man 1 1/2 years ago. I wish I had thought to take a photo of her when she met us at Dolores Park--she looks amazing!

In other exciting news, the co-op in Brooklyn, which has been on the market for over a year HAS FINALLY SOLD!!! Amazing, but true. But to back up a bit, there was some drama two days before the closing (which I was not present for). I get a call from the attorney's office asking who is going to be my power of attorney. "Uhh, you are, I thought," I say. "Well we never sent you a power of attorney form to have you fill out and notarize, so you need to do this immediately and overnight express it today, or else we won't be able to close." At this point I completely panic. Paul is away in Seattle for work, I have a bunch of moms and kids who are due to come over in 30 minutes for a playgroup, and now I have to run out with August and find a notary then get everything sent off! Long story short, my mom was fortunately still in town and rushed over to watch August while I ran to get things taken care of. I was furious with the attorney for waiting until the very last minute to discover this, but hey, it is all over now and the closing went smoothly. Now we can get our house built out here!

Damn Those Playgroups!

2008-03-28T09:45:00.000-07:00

No more than three weeks elapse and we get another round of colds! The last one lingered for 3 weeks, but I think this one isn't going to be as bad. August got the worst of it and has been feverish and coughing for 3 days. For some idiotic reason I keep choosing to wear dark colors this week, which makes it easy to see the snot smeared all over me that spouts from his nose. I had to escape the house yesterday after being cooped up for 2 days and Paul said, "You can't go out with that shirt on, it's covered in snot!" At least someone around here is thinking clearly.

We are planning our next big trips and are thinking about Sri Lanka. How do babies take anti-malarials? In a liquid form?

This fall we are going to Florida for my niece's Bat Mitzvah and we and thinking of going to see some friends in Brazil afterwards. Another 9-10 hour flight (direct from Miami), yikes. We might chicken out and go to the Caribbean instead, we'll see how it works out expense-wise since August is going to need his own seat this time (unlike the flight to Ireland). Paul and I have a bunch of frequent flier miles so hopefully it won't be too bad.

We've had some requests for more August movies. He does this funny thing where he scrunches up his nose and breathes rapidly in and out of it--we call it "Mr. Huff and Puff", although it is tough to catch on video. He just stares glassy-eyed into the camera most of the time.

Favorite New Activity

2008-03-03T10:35:00.000-08:00

This is for my mother, because she keeps HARASSING us to put this video of August on our blog.
I hope this appeases her. Now maybe she will actually post a comment so we know she is really looking at our blog from time to time!

Yes that is my foot kicking the exersaucer as I wanted to get August's attention so he would start spinning around.

First ER Visit

2008-02-13T08:40:00.001-08:00

I didn't believe Paul at first when he thought August had vomited Sunday morning. "I think he was dry heaving before," he said. Hmm. I nursed him in our bed and very soon after he 'spit up', or so I thought. Then he barfed downstairs, I nursed him again, he barfed, and continued to do so several more times. Nothing stayed down and the pediatrician on call said we should take him to the ER since infants can dehydrate so easily. 4 long, boring hours in the ER later, August did great and was able to hold down some electrolyte fluid. If that didn't work he was going to need an IV, which would have really sucked.

The pediatric ER was so depressing. An aquarium was partially full of water, turned off and had no fish in it. There were empty shelves and two books to look at. A very young teenage couple sat next to us with their tweaker grandparents who smelled odd and had no teeth. I couldn't wait to get out of there.

August is doing pretty well now! Too bad I caught whatever bug he had--I was wiped out yesterday.

Someday, We Will Move!

2008-01-19T08:13:00.000-08:00

Demolition work has FINALLY started on the Flanders house. Amazing, but true. We will move hopefully this year.

Here are some before photos:

And some after:

It turns out there is a lot of asbestos in the house, so that all has to get removed. You can see how dusty it is in this last photo. All the workers were wearing industrial strength dust masks, and of course me, Paul, the contractor, architect, et. al were not. Duh.

The house is in worse shape than we thought. One of the descriptors in the brochure when we were looking at this house was "good bones!"--ha, what a joke. One good discovery during demo was vaulted ceilings! So now we are getting rid of the attic to have high ceilings, which is fine by us.

Happy 2008

2008-01-01T21:44:00.000-08:00

As promised, the moms got their night out on the wild town of Ocean Shores. The dads babysat and we went to the Quinault Beach Resort and Casino where we went completely crazy and ordered two rounds of drinks, onion rings, and played the slot machines. Woohoo! Afterwards we had a drink at the Green Lantern pub and conned this newly married bride into giving us two slices of wedding cake (they were in the midst of the reception when we arrived). The bar was shutting down early that night so we went back to the beach cabin as Paul and Frank were preparing dinner. By 11pm I was so exhausted I could have cared less about staying up until midnight and dozed in a la-z-boy while everyone else whispered in a dark room so as not to wake the two sleeping kiddies. Apparently some fireworks went off at midnight and I jumped up startled from the noise, asked why it was going on, and was very grouchy and puzzled about Frank offering me champagne. I have absolutely no recollection of this and only remember happily standing up to have champagne with everyone. And none of this happened because I was drunk; rather I am not used to staying up so late these days and am generally asleep by 10 pm.

So, another wild and crazy new years has come and gone. I don't miss the hangovers, that's for sure.

Cellar Raid Party

2007-12-28T14:39:00.000-08:00

We decided to rent out the tasting room at the wine storage facility here in Portland where we stash our wine and had a great turn-out! Lots of friends from Seattle came down for the day, and one friend who never leaves the Eugene area even came by.

Here are August and Dad bellying up to the bar:

Lucky for August this was his seventh wine tasting, so he is becoming an old pro at this!

We are taking off for Ocean Shores, WA for New Year's Eve. Last year we did the same thing and it was the most sober New Year's Eve of my adult life, since I was 2 months pregnant at the time. Supposedly the dads are going to give the moms a break this year and let us go wild while they bottle-feed the little ones. I'll be sure to post an update on that next time around!

Travelling with Baby--Our First International Trip with August

2007-10-30T09:16:00.000-07:00

Well, we made it to Ireland and back in one piece, and now a week later we are headed to NYC. Yes, we are crazy.

Everything went better than we could have hoped for; August slept really well during the day which let Paul and I see the sights, and he slept a lot in the car, which was great as we were able to get in several long car trips.

However, August thought the airplane ride, both going and coming, was just too fascinating to miss and he was mostly awake during the flights (2 hrs. to LAX, 10 hours direct from LAX to Dublin).

At the airport:

Aer Lingus' idea of an in-flight bassinet is a cardboard box with pillows on the bottom of it. I am not exaggerating. So Paul and I wondered: what if you spend $4000 on a business class seat? Do you still get a cardboard box?

K. and E.'s wedding was beautiful and romantic, and August held out from 1:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. (the wedding didn't really wrap up until 3 a.m. but there was no way any of us could have gone that long).

At the Guinness factory:

Stone circle ruins on Sheep's Head Peninsula:

Mizen Head, furthest SW point in Ireland:

Time Flies

2007-10-12T17:04:00.000-07:00

Hard to believe August is almost 9 weeks old already!

We are all leaving for Ireland this coming week for 12 days and will have loads of photos to post when we get back.

He is growing really fast and already weighs 13 lbs., much to our surprise (then again, he is consistently hungry so there you have it).

Check back soon for more photos and a report back from our first big trip with him!

We have a boy! I am no longer pregnant! Woohoo!

2007-08-19T18:41:00.001-07:00

August Arthur was born at 5:08 a.m on August 12, 2007 after nearly 3 days of being induced. He must have been pretty comfy inside as he just didn't want to come out. Actually, August was in fetal distress, so our birth plan of having a natural labor and water birth went right out the window. The midwives tried every possible method of avoiding a C-section but August was unable to tolerate the induction any longer as his heart rate was dropping with every contraction. Needless to say, we are thrilled to finally meet him and that he is a very healthy baby.

Week 41, also known as Someday I Will See My Toes Again

2007-08-06T20:26:00.000-07:00

Well, according to the midwife, all systems are go according to how my body is doing and where the baby is positioned. So why am I still here, you ask? Good question. As my friend who texted back to me put it, "Good Christ, what a lazy baby you have! :)"

This is my last week of keeping all fingers and toes crossed in regards to hoping labor starts on its own as opposed to going in for an induction a week from today. 42 weeks is the longest they (the midwives) feel I should go before the baby is at risk for decreased oxygen and nutrients.

Almost at week 39!

2007-07-20T17:30:00.000-07:00

We made it out to Cannon Beach for one last getaway before Pinky arrives. Luck was on our side and we had two days of stunningly beautiful weather. Paul surprised me with getting pretty much the best room in the whole hotel, as you can see from the photo here. We could see the ocean from bed, it was really amazing.

All is well, pregnancy-wise--it continues to be relatively easy, aside from trying to get comfortable while sleeping and experiencing round ligament pain every day. At our last midwife visit this week there was some concern with Pinky's heart rate and we were asked to eat lunch and come back in 30 minutes for fetal monitoring and an ultrasound to measure the amniotic fluid. Luckily all was well above normal so that was a huge relief. The midwife is guessing Pinky weighs about 6 lbs. and that I will go into labor early. Both would be fine by me, especially if the kid has a pin-head and very narrow shoulders :)

The obligatory pregnant-woman-eating-an-ice-cream-cone shot:

The view from below, looking up:

Yes, I am making a doofy face on purpose:

34 weeks

2007-06-21T10:35:00.000-07:00

This is the only photo I was able to take this week before klutz mode set in and I dropped my camera on the hardwood floor. Now the lens won't retract and I have to send it into the Canon service center in Illinois for a "minimum" $150 repair. Note to self--next time plan on dropping the camera before the two-year warranty expires (it expired May 24, 2007---damn!).

Roughly 6 weeks to go, give or take a few depending on how things progress. I had an appointment with the midwife last week and everything is going well. So far my appointments have been pretty uneventful, not like I am complaining!

There is a new system in place at the hospital where patients are given a user ID and password which allows you to log on to their website and view all of your medical records, set up appointments, email questions to the midwives, and look up general hospital information. I tried out their system when I got home last week and had to force myself to not click on the tab that was labeled "Labs" as I knew the results of my amniocentesis would be right there, which would essentially tell me the gender of the baby. It was so unbelievably tempting to find out that I made myself shut down the computer and go do something else. Of course I have come this far without knowing and it is no big deal to wait a little while longer.

Some New House Photos

2007-05-23T15:41:00.000-07:00

As of May 22nd, we now own a 102 year old house in NE Portland! Too bad we aren't moving in for at least a year, but it is going to be a fun project to work on.

Kitchen, looking out the front door:

Kitchen, looking out the back:

Standing in the back bedroom/office:

Living room fireplace:

Looking up to the second floor:

Third Trimester

2007-05-20T18:03:00.001-07:00

Roughly 10 weeks to go (plus or minus a few) and we still haven't done a damned thing in terms of purchasing any baby items, nor have we even started on clearing out Paul's office to make way for the nursery. Plenty of time, I keep telling myself as I continue to live in denial of things to come. Not like I don't want the final outcome to take place, but sometimes I feel like the time has gone by so incredibly fast that I still need a few more months to mentally prepare for it all. Maybe if I were having a rough pregnancy I'd feel differently about it, but so far it has been surprisingly easy. Yes, I will eat these words soon, I know.

I just visited JJ, Phil and baby Hobie in La Jolla last week and had a relaxing week taking walks on the beach and lounging around at their place. Luckily JJ and Phil had a massive pile of baby clothes to pick through so at least now we have something to bring the kid home in from the hospital!

As if we didn't already have enough on our plates, this Tuesday May 22nd we close on our new house! This wouldn't be such an ordeal if it were a move-in ready house, but if you know us, we need to add more excitement to the mix. The house is going to be gutted then completely remodeled over the course of a year or so. We aren't moving in until the remodeling is finished since there is asbestos and lead paint to deal with, in addition to all the dust and crap that will be floating around. We are really excited about this whole project and will of course post photos of the process.

Fun with Pillows

2007-05-02T20:26:00.000-07:00

Melissa keeps bugging me for some goofy photos of a smiley face drawn on my belly so i'll have to get Paul to draw some up with the washable markers I just bought. But for now here are some weekly updates. As of last week I have gained 20lbs.

I think at this point there are seven pillows that I have been interchanging throughout the night to find comfort. I am not going to purchase any more, though I have to say this Snoogle pillow sure looks comfy. The only reason I haven't bought it yet is because I have no interest in wrassling with an alligator at night when I want to switch sides and have to lug that thing around under the covers. Dealing with the heavy Tempur-Pedic body pillow is already a pain in the ass as it is.

But I have to say so far that is really my only complaint at this point--dealing with the pillow swapping routine during the night so I don't wake up with the middle of my back feeling tight and uncomfortable all day.

Paul and I finally went on a tour of the labor and delivery ward at OHSU this evening and got a chance to see the waterbirth tub we will be using! It is larger than I thought and quite deep. It was a bit strange to see it and be standing in the room where it will all be taking place in a few months. Hopefully no one else will be signed up for a waterbirth the same time we are there or else I'll have to arm wrestle the other woman for it.

22 Weeks

2007-03-24T09:05:00.000-07:00

I gave my notice in at work and my last day will be May 4th. Now I just have to break the news to my clients, which for me is always the worst part about leaving a position. It will be that usual guilty feeling that I am once again abandoning others in pursuit of my own needs, despite the great excuse I have this time!

Paul and I started taking Bradley Method birthing classes which we can already tell are going to save our butts on the grand finale that we are gearing up for. We are also scheduled for infant CPR and first aid, newborn care, and waterbirth classes up at OHSU (Oregon Health and Science University). We are still considering hiring a doula for pre-and post-partum care. There is a doula at our Bradley Method class who primarily works with multiples, so she's gotta be pretty competent!

More surprises from 2006

2007-03-14T18:37:00.000-07:00

For those of you who don't already know, I am 20 weeks pregnant this week!
I became pregnant roughly 3 weeks after our wedding last October. As my father said, "Well, you sure didn't waste any time!" (Like his daughter, he is not one to mince his words). Who knew it would be so easy? I know several other women who took months, sometimes years to conceive, and I pretty much thought since I am going on 37 this year it might take me a little while as well. We are both really excited and terrified at the same time, and it is becoming more and more real every week. At first it took a while to sink in and I was trying to be as casual as possible about it for the first 3 months in case of a miscarriage. We had an amnio a few weeks ago and luckily everything is normal, and chose to not find out the gender.

It is still up in the air right now as to when I will resign from my job. Fortunately I have had an incredibly easy pregnancy so far, but I'm kind of "done" with my current social work position, to be quite honest. It is not really the job I want to be doing and I really need the time to study for my social work licensing exam this spring.

More pictures to come as things progress!

Michele and Paul Get Hitched!

2006-10-11T14:36:00.000-07:00

We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day. The weather was great, the food was amazing, everyone seemed to have a lot of fun, and no one was carried out on a stretcher or in handcuffs. What more could you ask for?

It feels strange that it is all over with--but in a good way. No more stress related to wedding planning and details!! I've always heard that "your wedding day flies by", which it did, but I made sure to take several moments to look around and take a few mental snapshots of everything.

Links to all of the photos will be posted in the next week or so, but for now here is one of Paul and I signing our marriage certificate.

My how time flies

2006-09-28T10:09:00.000-07:00

Jeez, I haven't posted an update since we moved to Portland!

It has been one busy summer. Most of my time has been consumed with wedding planning, and I have to say, if I had been hired at a job, part- or full-time, I would have never gotten so much accomplished. Paul and I managed to plan a wedding in just 4 months--not bad! It has been a lot of fun, to be quite honest. Everything is pretty much squared away and hopefully I will no longer lie awake in bed worrying about details that no one else will notice. NINE MORE DAYS, HOLY CRAP!! I am really excited and of course a bit nervous as well. The only things left to do are take care of the table centerpieces (which we are doing ourselves, with the help of our friend Melissa), take a few more dance lessons (who wants to look like a dork at the high school prom, rocking back and forth like Frankenstein's monster?), and find a tie for Paul.

We are skipping loads of other details which I think is making our lives so much easier: there is no wedding party (no I don't need a ring bearer or bridesmaids); the ceremony and reception is being held in one place; I am not carrying a bouquet or doing other traditional wedding stuff that makes my stomach turn (i.e. bouquet and garter toss, cake cutting ceremony, etc.)--It is a non-traditional wedding in many ways and it is going to be one hell of a good party.

In other news, we went to Burning Man again this year; my 5th time and Paul's 7th. It was an amazing year as always, and we reenacted the first time we met out on the playa and had a Burning Man wedding with several friends in attendence. Phil, our wedding officiant, was able to practice what he is (and isn't) going to say for the ceremony, and I think we all felt good about having a trial run before the big day. Our friend Shawn took some incredible photos of our Burning Man wedding (read: not legal--yes we are still single!) and i'll have to bug her to email them to me so I can post them on this site.

Other than the wedding planning and Burning Man, we have had a really fun summer cycling around Portland and getting to know our way around town. It really is a cool place and I miss certain aspects of NY sometimes, but mainly I miss my friends. I have been into this jewelry store a bunch lately and got to talking with one of the women who work there and she asked me the other day if I "feel like a Portlander yet?"---and the answer was "not really", which is true. I am comfortable here and like it a lot, but I think I am still holding a torch for good 'ol Brooklyn, which I think I might always miss in some way or another.

Some House Photos

2006-06-30T16:35:00.000-07:00

Quite a change from the Brooklyn digs, huh?

We have plenty of room--come and visit!

The End of Travelling--at Least for Now!

2006-06-21T11:05:00.000-07:00

I think we are both grateful and bummed at the same time that we are now actually rooted somewhere since all the travelling adventures are over, as it is now back to "reality", so to speak, and a return to responsibilities. Paul is working from home while I am too overwhelmed with other stuff to even start looking for work.

All of our stuff has been hauled out of storage in Bend, OR and Bronx, NY, the latter shipped out by Ben Hur Moving and storage, the former hauled out by us in a rental truck. I cannot express enough how dissapointed and angry we are with Ben Hur--DO NOT ever use them, if you can at all avoid it (they have offices located in NY and LA). Such little care was used to protect our things that we still cannot belive more things were destroyed in the move. Framed art, unwrapped and tossed into boxes! Power tools wrapped up with once-clean towels and sheets! Glass spice jars dumped all together in a box, along with 2 hats, stuff from a desk drawer, and yes, the dirty, used cat litter scoop! Both of our mountain bikes had to be taken in for repairs as they weren't even put into boxes--just tossed onto the truck which ruined the handlebars and tires. We have a huge list of complaints to file with the BBB and stupid damage insurance forms to complete. ARRGH!

On a good note, our new house is HUGE, compared to the apartment in Brooklyn. More than double the size, and with a big yard and basement! I mowed the lawn (with a push mower, no less) for my first time ever a few weeks ago. We have loads of different colored rose bushes, day lillies, hydrangeas, and a bunch of other stuff that was already planted when we moved in. I couldn't be happier; it is exactly why I left NY--more space and a nice yard. Photos to be posted soon!

My one bit of advice to those who are planning on a move, whether it is short or long distance: get rid off ALL YOUR CRAP before moving--don't ship it with you! We can't belive how much nonsense we have collected and held on to over the years, from childhood onwards. The overall goal is to get rid of 1/3 of all our stuff this summer in the form of yard sales and Goodwill donations.

Our days pretty much consist of unloading boxes and figuring out where stuff goes, buying stuff we need for the house and yard, organizing our lives--and if we didn't already have enough excitement in the past with planning a huge move, travelling overseas, then looking diligently for a place to live--we are now planning a wedding for this October! The action and decision making just doesn't stop! Neither of us can say we are bored, that is for sure.

Photo Links

2006-05-28T20:46:00.000-07:00

Here are links to the photos from the second half of our trip:

Laos & Viet Nam
http://www.flickr.com/photos/83871895@N00/sets/72157594147062554/

Nepal
http://www.flickr.com/photos/83871895@N00/sets/72157594147105879/

Bangkok
http://www.flickr.com/photos/83871895@N00/sets/72157594147127816/

Japan
http://www.flickr.com/photos/83871895@N00/sets/72157594147152645/

Kyoto, Kinosaki Onsen, Fukuoka, Tokyo and Nikko

2006-05-27T14:17:00.000-07:00

Too many pictures are coming soon, I promise. We have literally thousands to go through and know that no one wants to scroll through all of them. Since the lovely spring weather is so cold and rainy today, there is a good chance we will have some up this weekend.

After bidding adeiu to our fabulous Kanazawa hosts, we decided to risk going to Kyoto without any hotel reservation during Golden Week, one of the busiest holiday weeks of the year. As we figured, not a lot was available according to the helpful staff at the tourist office. Several places had 11pm curfews, which was out of the question on a weekend visit! We were able to score one night at a pricey business hotel, then two nights at a Ryokan, which is like staying in a traditional Japanese home.

Kyoto is a beautiful and fun city with so much to do that one could spend at least two weeks there. We visited several Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines along the hilly Eastern side of the city, which had some incredibly fancy schmancy homes and was quite peaceful.

We had our first public bath house experience in Kyoto where you ride the elevator naked! Men on one side of the building, women on the other. Neither of us wanted to make fools of ourselves so we thought it was best to follow the lead of other bathers. You are given "modesty" towels to cover your privates with but not many women used these, which was the opposite of Paul's experience. Many temples, restaruants, hotels, etc. have special toilet slippers that you are supposed to put on before using the restrooms. Don't ask me why--I guess it is a hygiene thing? And yes, the slippers clearly say TOILET on the front of them. Anyway, I had to use the toilet before getting in the elevator, and completely forgot to take the slippers off. Right before the elevator shut, a woman who was getting dressed in the locker room excitedly pointed to my feet and hurriedly said a sentence that had a word sounding like 'toilet' in it, which caused me to blush beet red and jump out of the elevator to put the toilet slippers back into the restroom. The women in the locker room were laughing, of course. Already I am making a fool of myself and I haven't even made it to the bath yet! Needless to say, all went smoothly from that point on. One could ride the elevator to the roof and sit outside in a hot tub that had some sort of seaweed in it. It was rainly lightly at the time and it felt great to be both hot and cold at the same time.

If you think shopping is popular in NYC, that place has nothing on Japan. We felt so dowdy and boring in our easy wash, no-wrinkle backpacker clothing amongst the highly fashion-conscious Japanese. A lot of people, especially the 30 and younger crowd, pay extreme attention to their clothes, shoes, and hair--both male and female. Almost as if they were trying just a little too hard to be cool and styleee in an amusing, self-conscious sort of way. Even the major train and subway stations had underground malls, filled with clothing, cosmetic, and food shops. It was a nice distraction on rainy days.

Although it was easier to get by with the language barriers in larger cities, we still had our challenges with not knowing what was behind closed doors of restaraunts and bars since you cannot see into any of them. The bars we found were tiny and usually upstairs in building complexes. Our absolute favorite find was the Happy Space Mushroom Bar--think Japanese Romper Room stuck inside of an Atari game. Huge smiley faces on the wall, toys to play with on the tables, and crazy sounding video game music.

After Kyoto, we wanted to experience the Onsen--hot mineral spring baths--and a famous town for it was Kinosaki Onsen. We stayed at a Ryokan there and were given free passes to all of the baths. Once you check into the Ryokan you turn your shoes in at the door and are given slippers to wear in your room, with yakata (Japanese robes) and geta (clonky wooden sandals) to wear outside while you roam around town going from onsen to onsen. One place was so spectacular we went to it three times! It was the swankiest of all 7 onsen in town, as it had several different mineral pools, cold pools, steam rooms, dry saunas, rooftop baths--and our absolute favorite feature--a walk in freezer!! Incredible.

From Kinosaki Onsen we wanted to get full value out of our two week Japan Rail Passes, and decided to head to the end of the Shinkansen (bullet) train line out in Fukuoka. The Shinkansen train can hit a top speed of 300km per hour! Beautiful, clean, sleek trains. The high speed mixed with the pressure from entering tunnels really plugged our ears up throughout the ride, but damn did it get us across the country fast.

Fukuoka is a funky city of 2 million people and has a huge red light district, much to our surprise. From what we read, it was off limits to Western tourists, unless they were accompanied by Japanese business partners. After 5pm, the streets were filled with business men roaming from club to club. It seemed acceptible for business men (they ALL wear ill-fitting solid black suits and white shirts--however, some of the older men who were probably more higher up in their positions wore grey suits) to get completely trashed and stagger around the streets. We definately saw a few fall into walls and smash into other stationary objects. Is it the stress of high powered jobs? Unhappy lives? The only way to blow off steam? An alternative to violence?

Our favorite bar in Fukuoka was Siberia, and we were apparently the first foreigners to ever patronize the place! The owner/bartender seemed really into rockabilly and played great music. And he made some amazing bar food, too! He knew barely any English and we knew baby-talk level Japanese (if even that) so we made great use of our two phrase books (thanks Phil and JJ for that helpful addition to our collection) and at times, were able to get some basic ideas across. At some point the bartender compared our communication difficulties to the Bermuda Triangle; thoughts and ideas get lost in translation so often that it is easy to feel stuck when expressing oneself. How true.

After Fukuoka, we took the Shinkansen all the way to Tokyo. The main station felt less daunting than when we first arrived in Japan and we both agreed it was easier to save Tokyo for last when we felt more comfortable with the language. We stayed in the Asakusa neighborhood in the eastern part of the city. There we found, completely by accident, the most famous kaiten sushi (sushi that moves around via conveyor belt--you sit around the belt and pick off what you want to eat) in all of Tokyo, according to the man sitting next to us. We had a feeling there was something special about the place because there were 20 people ahead of us waiting to sit down, so we figured it must be good. Asakusa has a cute, old section of town and Tokyo's largest Buddhist temple which seemed to be a huge tourist destination. We really loved Tokyo--so many funky neighborhoods to explore and of course, loads of underground shops and trendy malls. And I know what you are thinking: Who ever thought Michele, of all people, would want to go into a mall, right? Some of them were quite strange and entertaining and a fun way to travel underground when the weather was crappy. Some were long, massive underground labyrinthes that sold all sorts of weird stuff that we just couldn't figure out at all. Many parts of Tokyo reminded me of the "old" Times Square in NY multiplied by 10,000. Overwhelming and intense at times and way too much to get distracted by.

It was highly reccomended by several people that we take a day trip to Nikko, 2 hours outside of Tokyo. Another World Heritage Site (we have visited so many on this trip I am wondering how many there are in the whole world and want to research this!), Nikko has absolutely stunning temples, shrines, landscape and architecture. The temples were by far the most colorful and elaborate we have seen in Japan. It was obvious why people insisted we take a day trip there.

Some notes about Japan:

The toilets are great. Most have seat warmers, which sure feel nice when it is chilly in the room! There are loads of functions on them; some play music and waterscape sounds (for the pee-shy who don't want others to hear them doing their business), most have built-in bidets and front-cleaning spray action for women. And to top it off--you don't need to get up with a soggy butt! Push another button and a hot dryer turns on! Woowee! The first one I experienced was in Kanazawa. JJ and I had to go to the bathroom (by the way, there are public toilets everywhere, and they are CLEAN!) and I was curious about all the commands on the keypad (again, nothing is written in English) and I pushed a button, which turned out to be the one for the bidet. The pressure was so strong I yelped, jumped off the seat, hit my head on the wall, and the water literally shot up, hit the ceiling and went over into the stall next to me. The woman who was in the next stall over where the water came into stared up at the wet ceiling with a confused look on her face. Mortified, I ran out of the bathroom and nearly fell over laughing. Apparently, someone that JJ and Phil know did something similar--but instead, was standing over the toilet when the button was pushed and wound up with a face full of water!

The subways and trains: You can set your watch by them. Even if the electronic boards on the train don't have the name of the stop in English, you know for sure that if your stop is at 2:24, when the train stops at that time it will definately be the correct one. We got a kick out of the train ticket checkers and food cart vendors who bow and thank you every time they exit the car. Unlike the NYC subway (which I love because it runs 24/7), subways in Tokyo don't break down constantly and screech to a halt in between stations. However, it would be nice if they ran past midnight. It makes it difficult to stay out late, unless you want to splurge $50 for a taxi, which we had to do one night at 3am. Or we could have partied on for two more hours and gotten the first train at 5am!

Sumo wrestling: Sumo tournaments happen three months out of the year, and luckily May was one of them. We had watched so much sumo on TV while travelling in Japan that we knew we had to see a match. We bought the cheapest seats available and went in around 10:30 am; matches go on all day until 6pm. The junior wrestlers start first and the experience level increases throughout the day. We were able to sneak into the 3rd row in the morning--seats that cost over $450 each. The majority of the the round is a Shinto ritual and the ring resembles a Shinto shrine. A staff member at the arena told us to come back after 3pm to see the top notch guys wrestle, which we did. Lots of stomping (to scare away evil spirits) and salt-throwing (to purify the ring) goes on, with each wrestler posturing and staring down the other. Once the actual wrestling starts, it can be over in as little as 3 seconds! We were thankful to no longer be seating in the front rows as oftentimes a wrestler would get thrown out of the ring and fall directly into the crowd, who were sitting on tatami mats on the floor. It was really exciting and a great way to end our last night in Japan.

Next to come---Portland, our final destination! More hotel stays! More confusion and overwhelming feelings! And homeless on top of it!

Konichiwa

2006-05-15T05:54:00.000-07:00

In the land where the trains run at 180mph and arrive on time - to the second (no exaggeration!) - every moment counts. For example, at our current hotel here in Tokyo, somehow our request to extend our initial one night booking to run through Tuesday evening got lost and so we got a call at precisely 11:05 AM - 5 minutes after checkout time - inquiring (profoundly politely, of course) as to why we were still in our room.

So, while these 24hr Internet, DVD, Manga (comix) cafes with free beverages, comfy reclining chairs, huge libraries of books & movies, showers and special $9 overnight rates (subways shut down here at midnight. If you miss the last train, you're faced with the option of a $50 taxi ride or a $50 night in a capsule hotel, so these places have boomed as a refuge for those who can't afford to make it home) are quite something, as we are truly spending 10x more a day here than we had at any other point in the trip, we're really trying to maximize our value here and be out doing something every possible second of the day (no, we are not sleeping very much). Therefore, we're not really devoting much time to updating the blog.

Worry not though, from auto-washing-toilet mishaps (think over the stall fountain) to arduous cross-town visits to hot-spring baths in Japanese traditional garb (wooden geta shoes!), to nervously poking our heads through the doors of myriad tiny bars on the 4th, 5th, and 6th floors of building after building after building to see what was going on (and finding more that we could have ever imagined), to deep forays into the Bermuda Triangle of cross-language communications, we'll eventually give a full update of our hi-jinx here.

And good lord, given the treatment we received just purchasing $25 of incense, I'd suggest that someone with a spare $30k or so come over and buy a new car - just to see what happens...

Japan Madness

2006-05-06T21:10:00.000-07:00

We have been lazy and not been online much since we left Bangkok.

Coming to Japan was more than a culture shock than we thought it would be, and not only in terms of cost (which is still quite shocking after being in SE Asia and Nepal). A friend warned us that we should really learn some Japanese before coming here, and he was right. We arrived at the Tokyo rail station after coming from the airport to catch a train up to Kanazawa, and it was pretty mind blowing. Very busy, like Grand Central Station in NY, but to make it more confusing, nothing was in English. We felt pretty baffled as to what direction we should head in to find our connecting train. On top of that, we were hungry and wanted to eat. We found a take out sandwich/bakery place and had to guess as to what the packages said. When we brought stuff to the counter to pay, we were greeted with "Blah blah blah blah blah! (smile smile smile!) Blah blah, blah blah! Blah blah blah (smile smile smile!)". I have not felt to self conscious in a long time, and silly as well--what were they saying? What should we say back? We handed over a large bill and hoped for the best.

We stayed with JJ and Phil for a few days and it was great to see them and be in a house again! Hotels get pretty tiring after 3 months. We got schooled on a bunch of helpful things; vocabulary, phrases, food items, etc. It was a good crash course for our start in Japan.

We leave Kyoto tomorrow to head up north to Kinosaki, an expensive but fun sounding onsen (mineral hot spring) town. One night is about all we can afford, according to Paul`s research online. Then we head south for the beach to visit more onsen. We'll fill in the details of our Kanazawa and Kyoto adventures soon. Things are getting easier with the language challenges, but we still have no idea what we are doing half the time which makes it even more like a treasure hunt. The food has been amazing, to say the least, and it has been fun to see what we wind up with at every meal.

Off to the public baths, where we get to ride in an elevator naked (segregated by gender, of course) -- more reports on that to come as well!

Khumbu Map

2006-04-29T23:50:00.000-07:00

While some of the place names do not match exactly, this map gives a detailed view of almost all of our trek.

Notes From our Trekking Journal

2006-04-26T22:31:00.000-07:00

This is going to be a fairly long post. Grab a drink and enjoy!

A= ascended
D= descended
all times shown include lunch, toilet, rest and photo breaks.

Day One
April 3,
Lukla to Phakding

A: 750'
D: 1,340'
Time-4:15
Highest elev. reached today-9,520'
Elevation in Lukla-9,350'

We meet our guide, Sanga Rai, at our hotel and immediately go to the airport. It is really chaotic and Sanga literally throws our luggage on the scale to be weighed and cuts in front of many people. No one seems to think this is rude, probably because they are shoving and doing the same thing! There is no queue system in Nepal, that is for sure.
Short but semi-frightening plane flight into Lukla--the landing strip is as big as a driveway in a suburban home, with a steep upward U-curve to boot (necessitating specialized "STL" - Short Takeoff and Landing aircraft)! These runways are called "Hillary Jobs" in Nepal - after Sir Edmund Hillary whose foundation and lifelong work has done much to benefit the people of this region; airports, hospitals, schools (including the one our guide attended before going on to college), etc. Very beautiful scenery. Met Harka, our porter, in Lukla. He hiked 9 hours from his village to meet us. (Paul continuing here now.)Can't belive how cold it is our first night. After 6 weeks in the tropics we are freezing. I shake my water bottle expecting to hear ice, but then check my Suunto Vector watch and see that it's actually 60F in the room - not even chilly!

Day Two
April 4th
Phakding to Namche

A: 3,460'!!
D: 890'
Time-7:34
Current elev.: 11,340'

We were supposed to overnignt in Jorsalle but it only took us 2 hours to reach it, and it seemed silly to stop trekking at 11:30 a.m. Originally thought we might feel crappy due to the elevation and didn't want to push all the way up to Namche, but we were feeling energetic and decided to go for it. Semi-tough uphill climb; "slowly, slowly", reminded Sanga, and we took his advice. Namche is quite the booming village; loads of shops, guest houses, trekking supply stores, photo developing shops, and bakeries (electricty too!). We stay here for two days then continue on to more semi-remote places. My body is tired from the walking, especially from the climb today. It will only get easier with experience, right? (Paul continuing here now.) The trek up to Namche was through fantastically beautiful pine and fir forest with red, white and pink tree sized rhodedendrons in full bloom. We repeatedly crosed a gorgeous turquoise glacial stream over various "bridges of death" (not really that scary - very well constructed - but at certain points you could look down at least 600' to the river below). I know it's lame to make comparisons, but this lower portion of the trek could be some imaginary, vastly overscaled spot somewhere on the eastern slopes of the Cascades or Sierras. I had to stop myself from starting to hunt for Morel & Porcini mushrooms and keep my eyes on the rocky trail in front of me.

Day Three
April 5th
"Rest" Day in Namche
A= 1670'
D= 1670'
Highest elev. reached: 12,760'
Time= 4:13

Rest day--ha!
Hiked from Namche to a viewpoint close to the fancy schmancy Everest View Hotel ($400/night! Guests get flown in via helicopter and have to have oxygen pumped into their rooms. Doubt they can walk around much outside without feeling terrible).
Saw our first glimpse of Mt. Everest and Ama Dablam. Visited a local state-run museum nearby on the way down. There was an army post there and razor wire all around. Sanga said they were there in case of the Maoists. (Paul continuing here now.)Wind kicked up pretty seriously while we were at the top of our "rest climb" and again, the cold was shocking. I was actually rather worried as to how I'd handle it further up.

Day 4
April 6th--Snow Day!
Namche to Deboche
A: 2,790'
D: 1,820'
Highest elev. reached: 12,764'

We were supposed to overnight in Tengboche but all the guest houses filled up. Much colder today due to the snow that began on our ascent. The morning started off very overcast and in the clouds, so we had no view. Sanga tried to make us feel better by saying there was nothing to see, which we know was hardly the case! I don't blame him, I guess.
Visited the monastery in Tengboche. Heard the monks chant for maybe 5 minutes.
Watched goofy Tibetan pop videos in our guesthouse in the evening. The women certainly looked more glamorous than the macho men with long, flowing hair on horseback. (Paul continuing here now.) As you may know, the Khumbu (aka the "Everest Region of Nepal) is populated by the Sherpa people. The Sherpas (as they are now known - more on this later) emigrated to Nepal from Eastern Tibet around 500 years ago, bringing their Tibetan Buddhist religion with them (and a strong continued connection to Tibetan culture, religion and language). They are well know as the high altitude climbing guides that have allowed westerners to "conquer" the 8000 meter peaks of the Himalaya. Additionally, they own all the land and lodges here (and some have become quite wealthy as a result). Sanga, our guide, hoewever is Rai, as are many of the other trekking guides. They too are an upland people, though not of Tibetan origin. They are considered to be one of the original peoples of Nepal (a country of at least 86 distinct ethnic groups - each with their own language and place within the "Caste" system)and live just below (elevation-wise) of the Sherpa. For over a century know, the Rai men have comprised the backbone of the British Army's elite Ghurka fighters.

Day 5
April 7th
Deboche to Pangboche
A: 1,000'
D: 100'
Time: 1:36

Since this was such an easy day, we had an acclimatization climb scheduled as well. Sanga also said he was testing us to see if we can endure the hike.

Pangboche to the bottom of Ama Dablam Base Camp
A: 2,240'
D: 2,240'
Time: 4:50
High point reached: 14,730'!

Holy crap, what an ass-kicking climb. I felt terrible, as if I were drugged. Unsteady, disoriented, somewhat nauseated, dizzy, and extremely tired. I could have just curled up on the ground and went to sleep, but Paul refused to let me. It was very windy and cold at the top. I have never walked so slowly in my life. Tiny two inch baby steps at a time, heart beating like mad, completely out of breath, terrible headache. My legs felt they were made of lead. Sanga congratulated us when we reached the top and said, "Michele! Do not lose your exitement!", as I wanted to pass out right there. It is the highest elevation Paul and I have ever been in so far.
We are the only guests in the lodge, so in the evening it turns into a makeshift tailor shop. A man sets up a hand powered machine and holds the bobbin in one hand. He has a stack of cloth and makes pants for someone. A woman comes in with a new zipper later on to repair her down jacket. Eventually word gets around that the tailor is in action, and it turns into quite the small village scene.

Day 6
April 8th
Pangboche
Paul's sick day due to acclimatization

Paul felt terrible in the morning, "like I have an ice pick going into my eye", and Sanga decided it would be best for him to stay in bed and rest rather than climb higher. I hand-washed clothes in some very cold water. Later the four of us took a very short and easy hike and hung out on a sunny overhang that was protected by the wind. Easy relaxation day. I have started to come down with a sore throat.

Day 7
April 9th
Pangboche to Dingboche
Michele's sick day
A: 1,420'
D: 450'
Time: 3:55
Current altitude: 14,270'

I have a terrible head cold. Why now, of all possible times? It feels like I am swallowing knives and have to spit on the ground instead; it is that bad. Stuffy head, ears hurt. Started to cry while hiking because I was in so much pain and was not enjoying anything. I was relieved when we stopped; I went to sleep while Paul and Sanga went for a short hike. They brought me back throat lozenges from a local store. We are above the treeline now and no longer have wood fires at night in the stoves to keep warm. Yak dung has replaced the wood and it doesn't smell very pleasant! I really like the yaks--they are kind of cute. We eat their cheese almost every day; tastes kind of like parmesean.
Meet a filmmaker from Canada who is doing a documentary on the oldest Canadian ever to attempt to climb Everest. He died enroute of heart failure last year at Camp Two.
(Paul continuing here now) Leaving Pangboche we walked through the last of any trees we would see for a long time - junipers not unlike the ones in my yard in Bend - just lacking the gin producing berries. From here on out it was scrub rhodedendron (whose leaves are used for the most fabulous insence) low juniper bushes and yak-mowed grass.

Day 8
Dingboche to Chhukung
A: 1,290'
D: 60'
Time: 2:25
Current elev.: 15,574

Gradual uphill hike, very pleasant. I am not feeling any better, but was able to enjoy today's hike more than yesterday's.

Major ass-kicking hike to Island Peak Base Camp
A: 1,620'
D: 1,620'
Time: 6:25 (ugh!)
Elev. at Base Camp: 16,770' (first ascent over 5000 meters!)

What a screaming headache I have. Sick both of a head cold and from AMS (acute mountain sickness). Not happy, am in pain right now. I cannot eat--absolutely NO appetite, despite burning over 5,000 calories today from trekking and breathing very hard. The thought of food is revolting, but I need to eat. What to do? I hide my food like a child under a mound of rice and pretend I have eaten more than I really have so Paul and Sanga don't bug me.
Despite all this, the walk was long and oftentimes stunning to Island Peak base camp. By the time we arrived, the light hurt my eyes so much I couldn't look around to see the sights, so Paul took photos. Several people were practicing climbing for their eventual ascent to Island Peak. We drank hot Tang (very good, really!) before heading back down. Paul and I held our heads and rocked back and forth on the bed when we got back to the lodge; it felt like our brains were going to explode. The last time my head hurt that much was when I had a mild case of encephalitis. For once we run into Americans; the lodge was full of them! Several were climbers from Oregon and Washington. Paul used to live down the street from one of them, who lived in Bend! Weird. (Paul continuing here now)Agreeing with Michele, I think this was the most wiped out I felt the entire trek. Just klobbered. Could barely talk or eat.

Day 9
April 10th
Chhukung to Dingboche
A: 30'
D: 1,300'
Time: 2:00
We were supposed to trek to Thukla, but I still have a crappy case of AMS on top of a head cold. Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish which from which. Paul reminded me that I am supposed to be enjoying this, not feeling miserable. I felt lame about not being able to continue on, but from the look on my face, Sanga decides for me. Later on I realize that was the best decision. I have even considered ending the trek early; that is how terrible I feel, mentally and physically. I still cannot eat much, but more than the past few days. Headache is somewhat better due to being in a lower altitude. I am nervous about hiking to Lobuche tomorrow and tackling Everest Base Camp the day after; however I feel less defeated as I did yesterday and am not giving up yet.

Day 10
Dingboche to Lobuche
A: 2,190'
D: 300'
Time: 5:14
Current Alt: 16,270!

Loads of uphill climbing today over moving glaciers (underneath the endless sea of rocks beneath our feet from which we had to hop, hop, hop). Passed a huge section of memorials built for people who have died while ascending (or trying to ascend) Mt. Everest. Very moving and sad.
This guest house is a dump [not my exact words in the journal, mind you]. All of the other nicer places have been booked, and for good reason. Even the stream is polluted! What is wrong with people? How can they litter this high up in the clouds? They should be ashamed.
When Sanga shows us our room, there is a locked door inside. He says it is a toilet, but is locked because it "freezes" in this weather. As soon as he left, we tried picking the lock, as there was no way in hell we were going to hike up and down stairs in the middle of the night (we are literally peeing up to 5 times a night, which is a positive sign of adjusting to the altitude) to use a disgusting toilet. Paul figures out how to unscrew the lock; the toilet was nasty, but certainly NOT frozen (or unused)! It is our saving grace and we are thankful for having the luxury of a toilet in our room for once.
The walk here was steep at times, and incredibly stunning. Even walking on level ground I was huffing and puffing like mad and could barely catch my breath!
AMS symptoms have improved for both of us, but I am still hacking up nasty plegm and have a loud, harsh cough.
Big day tomorrow to Gorak Shep, then the post lunchtime hike to Everest Base Camp. Yikes. (Paul continuing here now.) As nasty as this place (the "Alpine Inn" hah!)was, and for whatever reason Lobuche is, if you have a copy of John Krakauer's "Into Thin Air", go read his section on what it was like back in 1996. It has definitely improved.

Day 11
April 13th
Lobuche to Gorak Shep
A: 1000'
D: 300'
Time: 2:50
Current elev: 16,930' (only night sleeping over 5000 meters)

The walk to Gorak Shep was really scenic [dumb statement--nothing this trip has been anything but!]. Again I have no appetite. Maybe it will return when we descend? This is not a good weight loss plan--hiking in high elevation and eating very little. I don't recommend it.

Gorak Shep to Everest Base Camp
A: 1,290'
D: 1,290'
Time: 5:56
Highest elev reached: 17,510'!
Long, rocky trek up and down hill. Unfortunately I forget my camera in the lodge and we have no photos of the base camp. This makes me even more angry and disappointed. The glaciers by the Khumbu ice fall are like giant, frozen ocean waves. I feel like we are now on the moon--it seems otherworldly. So if you want to see close up pictures of all this, I suggest Googling them, or taking the hard route and going there yourself :)

I was coughing a lot and found it exhausting to catch my breath. Why does this appear so easy for some people? Some woman who was SMOKING, for crying out loud, passed us! Maybe I should start? Ha ha!
[WARNING: This is about to be pity party for Michele time. Skip ahead if you are not interested]
When does this get easier? I feel I am walking so incredibly slow. Is my cold really slowing me down that much? I am supposed to be enjoying this but it feels like a death march.
I was so exhausted and defeated-feeling when we finally arrived at base camp. Again I had thoughts of quitting the trek and heading back to lower elevation. We sat down on a rock in the freezing wind--giant fleece under a windproof shell under a down coat! I looked at Paul and said, "I don't think i'm very good at this--I want to cut the trip short and go back down", and started to cry. I feel like a lame, weak quitter. Paul hugs me and says we'll talk about it when we get back to the lodge. Boo hoo. We spend all of 15 minutes up there. I wish we had more time, but it is getting late and need to head back. There are many expeditions up here and we wonder how many of them will make it to the top? (Paul continuing here now) Michele is of course being much too hard on herself here. It WAS very freaky how some - not even remotely fit people - seemed to cruse along with no pain at this elevation. But I think at this point we were too focused on our own goals to notice that rescue helicopters were making multi-day trips to bring people down who were at risk from dying at this altitude. And in any case, this would be a long, tiring, ankle twisting hike no matter where you did it, and unfortunately we got to base camp around 2:45 PM at which point the wind chill had dropped well below freezing (our porter and guide really really wanted to go!). I can only say that the fortitude of the people who choose to make that place "home for the 60 or so days it takes to actually summit the mountain is truly impressive.

Day 12
April 14
Gorak Shep to Kala Pattar
A: 1,600'
D: 1,600'
Time: 3:40 (including 40 minutes at summit)
Peak Trek elevation reached: 18,400'!

Still no appetite. What to do? Yesterday I was close to considering not climbing Kala Pattar (which provides the main viewpoint for Mt. Everest) and now I feel I've turned a corner (so to speak). We awoke before dawn and had some breakfast before beginning the steep climb up. I had much more energy than yesterday. It almost felt easy! I wasn't breathing as hard, but started to as we reached the top where the air was really thin. People coming down kept saying, "Keep going, it's worth it!", which was encouraging.

An they were right. It was more beautiful and jaw-dropping than I could have imagined. I started to cry again (do you think I have cried enough yet on this trip??), not because I was feeling crappy or dejected, but because for the first time since we were in Namche, I thought--I can do this and i'm not giving up! That and the view was so overwhelming-and we reached our highest peak ever on the trip!
Perfect weather and views of the largest mountains on earth in every direction, Lhotse, Nuptse, Pumori, and of course Everest, with huge glaciers stretching out below. We both congratulated ourselves on completing the highest climb of our lives.

Gorak Shep to Lobuche
A: 300'
D: 1000'
Time: 2:03
Current Elevation, 16,270

Came down in the afternoon back to Lobuche. Stayed in a much nicer lodge this time. We had been under the impression that both our guide and porter had contracted food poisoning at the "Alpine Inn", and therefore decided to reserve a better lodge for us in advance, before we went up to Gorak Shep (though it turned out that they were actually just hung over from drinking too much Nepalese whiskey).

On this portion of the trek, we definitely did not have our pick of the best rooms in the best lodges. Unlike some of the bigger treking groups (one group from England was 46 people!) which could send an unburdened porter ahead to reserve entire lodges (hours before the actual trekkers would arrive), we traveled together with our guide and porter and typically had to take whatever room was available when we arrived in the afternoon (more than a few times, we were lucky and got the last private room available, otherwise we would have been stuck in a dorm room).

Michele's appetite returned enough this evening for her to devour an entire pizza in five minutes, in addition to eating apple pie for dessert!

Day 13
April 15
Lobuche to Dzongla
A: 640'
D: 960'
Time: 3:00
Current Elevation: 15,930

Short trek day today in prep for crossing Cho La pass tomorrow. It is actually colder in our room than outside. Everyone is lazy and doesn't move much after lunch. Semi-crazy place. Toilet is nearly 100 yards from our room and very nasty. We've re-named it "The Funhouse" and can't stop laughing at the joke (not like it's really that funny) - much to the confusion of our guide.

Day 14
April 16
Dzongla to Thangnak via Cho La Pass
A: 2,190
D: 2,670
Time: 7:43
Peak elevation at Cho La Pass, 17,600'
Current elevaton: 15,420'

A tough one! Felt dizzy at the top of Cho Las pass. Also had heart burn again (Did I mention yet that I finally can eat again? I almost didn't recognize the sensation of hunger.) Saw the Canadian film crew we met on our 2nd night in Dingboche up on the pass. One of them had to go home as his AMS had become so severe his resting heart rate was over 170 beats a minute. Mentioned the heart burn to Elia (the lead film maker) and he pulled out a giant bottle of Tums and offered me some. I guess heartburn is another known problem at altitude.

We walked past ice falls & crossed a small glacier at the top of the pass. Lot's of snow up there and quite windy. The descent was really, really steep - lots of huge boulders covered in snow and ice. Feet and legs were very tired. Lodge here in Thangnak is the nicest we've been in a while. Descending below 16,000' it almost looks like spring time again - tiny purple flowers and some actual green grass & plants. Almost feels warm in the sunshine. (Paul continuing here now.) Descent from Cho La was so steep, that once we were down and perhaps a half mile or so away, when we looked back, we could not even remotely see the route we had climbed down. It looked like a cliff - impossibly steep.

Day 15
April 17
Thangnak - Gokyo
A: 650'
D 380'
Time: 2:20
Current Elev.: 15,584'

Nice easy walk over another boulder covered glacier (this one descending from Cho Oyu, another 8000 meter peak) to the Gokyo valley - a beautiful string of lakes connected by a rushing stream.

Gokyo - "4th Lake"
A: 1,140
D: 1,140
Time: 3:55

Took an afternoon hike up towards the "5th Lake" (of the string of lakes in this valley). Rugged up and down over huge glacial moraine ridges. Views from the 5th lake are supposed to be spectacular. It's right at the base of Cho Oyu, and also features excellent views of Everest (and about 1,000 other unbelievably beautiful mountains). Unfortunately clouds moved in, wind picked up, and legs were still tired from yesterday's climb over Cho La, so we turned around perhaps 40 minutes from the lake and beelined back to the lodge. Plan is to climb Gokyo Ri (another > 5000 meter viewpoint) at dawn tomorow, though legs are hoping for a cloudy weather sleep-in.

Day 16
April 18
Gokyo
A: 0'
D 0'
Time: All day

MAJOR SNOW DAY!

Awoke to thunder and lightning around midnight and looking out the window, could already see that it had snowed several inches. No 5:00AM hike up Gokyo Ri, much to my relief. Was still snowing hard when we finally got up with close to a foot already on the ground. Our plans to cross Renjo-La pass to the rarely visited Bhote valley are now cancelled due to the weather. I have mixed feelings about this. My body is very achy & tired and not wanting to hike up another 18,000' pass, yet I really was looking forward to being in a remote valley and camping out one night on the other side of the pass (there are no lodges yet in this area). Spent several hours building a snowman outside the lodge (was tough going as the snow was so dry). Until we equiped him with a nose and eyes (rocks Paul fished out of the river), the Sherpa owner of the lodge thought we were building a Buddhist Stupa. Afternoon was spent by the fire, watching the snow pile up, wondering how we were going to get out. Had our first alcoholic drinks in two weeks, now that we are no longer ascending higher--hot lemon with rum! It takes very little to make us giddy. Harka and Sanga are more than happy to help us finish the small bottle of rum we purchased.

Day 17
April 19
Gokyo - Machermo
A: 370'
D: 1,510'
Time: 8:10
Current Elev: 14,490'

ESCAPE FROM GOKYO

Major snow storm. Very difficult walk through deep snow. Waist deep postholing and frequent falls. Biting headwind threatens frostbitten cheeks. Very slow progress until we meet up with another group (9 people) and can proceed with a somewhat better broken trail. Sketchy descent down icy icy rock steps with steep cliff dropoff to the left. Can't believe Harka - our porter - manages all this with tired old boots and a basket with all of our stuff balanced on his back. Eventually the trail flattens out and we make it to Pangka for lunch. Everyone seems quite relieved. Weather clears in the afternoon and the trip down to Machermo is much easier going.

Day 18
April 20
Machermo to Phortse Tenga
A: 790'
D: 3,230'
Time: 7:34
Current Elev: 12,020

Long snowy wet melty day. Very slippery and muddy at times. It is so nice to see trees again - really beautiful. Paul and I had constant snowball fights the whole way down, very fun. The main lodge in Phortse Tenga was completely filled, so we are staying in the Himalaya Lodge. Very old school; bunk beds only, no private rooms and only a wood oven in the kitchen for heat and cooking. We are the only ones staying here and a single woman runs the whole show herself. Using just one wood fired burner she makes us the most delicious potato curry soup, grills up chipati from scratch, tops them with tomato, cheese & veggies & pops them into a double deckered steamer to make us yummy pizzas. She does this all much more quickly than do many of the big fancy lodge kitchens which are equipped with kerosene stoves.
Many helicopter rescues today. Overheard a medical resuce worker in Machermo radio for a helicopter for 2 people with HACE (high altitude cerebral edema--very dangerous) and one with pneumonia.

Day 19
April 21
Phortse Thenga to Thamo
A: 2,190'
D: 2,640'
Time: 8:00
Current Elev: 11,530

Long, long day. Very beautiful and scenic. Back to blooming rhododendrons, birch & pine (and green grass!). It like being back on earth again, whereas above the tree line was like the moon. Much warmer today and the snow is melting. Much of the trail has turned into small rivers running over our feet everywhere we go. All day we hike in soaking wet socks & boots (gaiters & plastic bags proove useless). It was really unpleasant and after more that two weeks of happy feet, blisters are now happening. Took our 2nd shower in 3 weeks at the hydro-electric plant in Thamo--K.B.C, short for Khumbu Bijuili Company. The shower room even had an electric heater! Felt like a new person.

No music allowed at dinner this night as word comes that one of the local climbing Sherpas has died (along with 2 other climbers) in an avalanche somewhere up on Everest. First real news that situation in Kathmandu may not be so stable when we get back.

Day 20
April 22
Thamo - Thame day hike then back to Namche
A: 2,760
D: 2,750
Time: 8:35
Current Elev: 11,320

Lovely hike to upper & lower Thame. Visited the monastery and enjoyed some raucous music and chating by the Buddhist monks. Sanga loaded us up on rakshi (homemade rice wine) for the hike back to Namche and we made the long distance in record time. Amazing to be back in the "big city" with stores, electricty, internet and all the trappings of "civilization".

Day 21
April 23
Namche to Phakding
A: 950'
D: 3,360'
Time: 5:38
Current elev: 8,890'

Loads of downhill action. Feet are blistered due to hiking in soaking wet shoes for 3 days. Rhododendrons and peach trees are in full bloom. Barley & wheat are now over knee high and potatoes are well on their way. So much green that we don't recongize most of the hike - even though we had walked the same trail just 3 weeks before. Was fun to speak to a group of trekkers just beginning their trip, all wide eyed, curious and cold, just like we had been.

Day 22
April 24
Phakding to Lukla
A: 1,600'
D: 920'
Time: 2:53

Great to be back. Sanga took us for amazing, spicy momos for lunch. Plane back to Kathmandu leaves at 7:30 AM tomorrow. Not sure what we'll encounter when we get there...

Whew! That is all for now. We will post some photos in Japan, if Phil and JJ let us on their home computer in Kanazawa :)

The grand total:
Number of feet ascended: 35,313
Number of feet desceded: 35,818
Total feet combined: 71,131

Safe in Kathmandu

2006-04-25T05:40:00.000-07:00

I'm sure many of you have been monitoring the political situation here in Nepal as we have been trekking, and here's our latest report.

So we were all set to spend the day at the Kathmandu airport (after flying in from the mountain town Lukla - where we started our trek) - as the city was supposed to be under an 8am to 8pm curfew and there would be no way for us to get to our hotel - when the king finally caved in to the protesters main demands (crazy things like a constitutional government elected by the people).

The strike was lifted and everything is almost completely back to normal here, just like somebody flipped a switch. I guess we missed 19 days of chaos, strike and deprivation while we were treking (we experienced absolutely no hint of any of this while we were in the mountains - only heard the smallest hints of the news from other trekkers or from the radio (translated to us of course) as we huddled around the yak dung burning stoves staying warm) Now we are back to a city full of very happy people out shopping and enjoying the late spring sunshine. Everyone has big smiles on their faces.

The only indication that anything happened at all is that the air is amazingly clear here as there has been basically no car traffic the entire time we were gone (the fact that it rained significantly for the first time since October probably helped too). That and there is still a big police presence, but things are definitely looking more hopeful for this wonderful country.

We're spending one more day here sightseeing and shopping before heading back to Bangkok on the 27th. We hope to get a few days at a beach there before we fly to Japan on April 3.

We'll try to get a full rundown of everything that transpired on the trek up in the next few days - including the vast reams of datum we recorded.

Keep the comments coming!!!

Last Day of Our Trek, and All is Well!

2006-04-24T02:49:00.000-07:00

It has been a while since we have posted, and for good reason. There was nowhere to post from!

This will be a short post as it costs a bundle to email here way up in the clouds of Lukla, Nepal (Khumbu region) and we will post a more extensive update when the price is right--possibly Kathmandu (if we are able to due to the political situation) or Bangkok.

In all we climbed and descended over 35,000' (70,000' total!), which is pretty amazing. I wanted to completely give up several times along the way as it was far more difficult than either of us had bargained for. But we stuck with it and feel pretty amazing, albeit tired.

We hit a major snowstorm while up in Gokyo and it was pretty scary hiking out. But here lower down in altitude, it is springtime; you would never know that it snowed as much as it did. Several people have reportedly died above Everest Base Camp due to the weather. We saw and heard many rescue helicopters in the past week and are thankful we were not in them.

Thanks for all your amazing comments! We love reading them.

More updates to come!

>Michele

Greetings from 12,000 feet!

2006-04-05T01:55:00.000-07:00

This will be a very quick post as it costs an arm and a leg to use the internet way up here in the middle of nowhere.

After finally leaving the beach in Mui Ne, we only spent one night in Saigon and would love to go back someday. We flew the next day to Bangkok, and the day after that, to Kathmandu, Nepal. We had a quick day of buying gear that we didn't have with us (hiking boots, etc. - all stuff that we have at home but didn't want to lug around for 6 weeks in the tropical heat), and then had the joy of an ATM Machine eating Paul's card when we were trying to get enough cash together to actually pay for our trek (we didn't know we'd need to pay cash). Repeated subsequent attempts to do a cash advance on Paul's visa failed - even after a $20 call to get it straightened out with the credit card company - but luckily Michele's card (same company!) worked fine and we were able to deliver a 3" stack of 1000 Rupee notes to our outfitter.

We entered Sagarmatha National Park (aka Mount Everest National Park) yesterday and started our trek in Lukla, which we flew to from Kathmandu.

We are currently in Namche and leave tomorrow, headed for Everest Base camp--it should take 7 days to reach it. From there we will cross two different mountain passes to explore other alpine valleys that are more off the beaten path--and it will only get colder!! We had to buy neck gaiters today and hope we have enough warm clothing.

All is well with the acclimatization process, thanks to the wonderful drug called Diamox.

Sorry for not responding to any personal emails you all have sent but we are short on time due to the high costs here, and you'll hear back from us in a few weeks (and we'll backfill on some other stuff we've skipped over then).

Send your prayers to our legs and lungs!!!

Midnight tribute to Bill Holden

2006-03-26T02:23:00.000-08:00

As you might imagine, it can get a little weird staying in a different hotel room every 3-4 days. Beds change. Room layout changes. Sometimes you use the mosquito net, sometimes you don't.

But of course the big deal is being able to find the bathroom in the middle of the night. An embarrassing secret I will admit is that I have often slept with my headlamp around my neck, just so that I could safely light my way to the john should the need arise.

Well the other night, we'd gone to sleep for the first time in our beach-front bungalow here in Mui Ne. As our room has no screens, we rigged up our mosquito net to hang over the bed before retiring. It's really kind of cool to crawl inside - kind of turns an ordinary bed into some combination of 4-poster masterpiece and cool secret hideout.

Now I remember reading for a bit then turning my head lamp off and putting it inside my book (The Great Shark Hunt) as a bookmark. At some point I wake up and need to use the restroom, but I don't really wake up quite completely enough to get the job done properly (while I'm not a sleepwalker, this sort of thing has happened to me maybe 4-5 times in my life). I somehow get out of bed, can't see a thing (are my eyes open? I don't even know now), trip over the 3" threshold that divides the main room from the bathroom (keeps the shower water from running out) and smash my forehead into a tiled corner of the bathroom wall that just out next to the sink.

I distinctly remember that (though it took some reconstruction of events the next morning to determine where it was exactly that I smashed my head). And then I have some memory of thrashing around trying to get back into bed (did I even pee?) and then didn't wake up again until 6:00.

Michele on the other had awoken to me thrashing around on the outside of the mosquito net, blathering on and on about how "I'd broke my own rule". She had no idea that I was hurt and though I was just being my usual weird self. She told me to knock it off (I have no memory of this), pulled the mosquito net apart so I could get into bed and went back to sleep.

In the morning there were several big streaks of dried blood on the net, where my head had rubbed against it.

Michele says it doesn't look to bad, but to me it's kind of like a combination of Harry Potter's lightning bolt and the poorly sewed up seam on Herman Munster's forehead.

And of course the "my own rule" that I broke was in not sleeping with my headlamp. Even in the midst of bloody delrium, always time for a little self criticism.

;-)

At least I avoided old Bill's fate.

Paul

Hello Madame! Hello sir!

2006-03-25T04:33:00.000-08:00

So much has happened since we last checked in. I think Michele is going to do the more general run down of places and events so I might just ramble here a bit about some general observations.

It has been fantastically interesting to travel through three different countries - all sharing a land space of (I'm guessing) about the size of California - that have long historic interconnections with each other, yet are so completely different culturally and economically that it's been a big shock every time we've crossed a border.

The striking thing for me about Thailand - after you get over the huge, obvious differences that come with being on a different continent in a country where you can't even read the alphabet, let alone say the simplest of words (we mastered "Hello", "Thank You" "Delicious" and "Two" - that's it (not even yes or no))- was how completely normal it was.

The highways were excellent as was the general infrastructure. The streets were fantastically clean (even though we could never find a municipal trashcan). 7-11's and other western stores were everywhere. Traffic was dense but orderly and nobody ever honked their horn (the Thai people in general were very laid back and friendly, and obviously very used to having western tourists in their presence). The ever present motorbikes and "Tuk-Tuks" were all 4-stroke, no stinky 2-stroke mix of burnt oil and gas fouling the air. Perhaps we missed them, but we saw no sprawling slums, children begging on the street, or any of the disturbing things one often encounters in "developing countries".

And most telling of all - when you purchase something in Thailand, you actually pay tax on it (7%). I can't think of any country outside of Europe or North America where I've actually seen taxes collected. Amazing. And they're obviously being put to good use.

I'm sure there's a back story to all this that as a tourist I completely missed (like perhaps how Thailand deals with the flood of illegal Burmese and Lao immigrants that pour over its borders in search of work), but (in a very complimentary way) I would almost liken Thailand to being the Canada of Southeast Asia.

Crossing over into Laos was quite a shock. Landlocked and with a tiny population (just 6 million), Laos is decades behind Thailand in terms of general development. New York city has nearly the same miles of streets that Laos has in the entire country (and only 20% of them are paved - including many dirt streets even in the major towns). The first town we stayed in - Pakbeng - has electricity only 2-3 hours each evening. I saw a man and his son cutting up firewood with a 2-man bucksaw just like my grandpa used to use. In fact, everywhere we went in Laos except the most "western" restaurants (the ones that give you food poisoning), all cooking was done over wood or charcoal (whereas propane was always used in Thailand). Most of our trip down the Mekong was through essentially uninhabited hill country. You'd probably have to go pretty far out in Alaska to float a river and see so few people or settlements. And unlike Thailand, where the hills have almost been completely deforested by logging and agriculture, the hills in Laos were for the most part green and untouched as far as the eye could see.

That being said, parts of Laos are changing very rapidly and will probably be very different in a few years. Luang Prabang - the lovely colonial town where we spent five days - was completely engulfed in a renovation boom. Streets were getting paved. Sidewalks rebuilt. Etc. Etc. I doubt it will seem quite as rustic and quaint in a few years time.

As for the people, the Lao were even more friendly and laid back than the Thais. You simply did not pass anyone on the street without saying "Sabai Di" (hello). And it wasn't just to us westerners - it was universal. We sat in Luang Prabang for hours, drinking Beer Lao and watching people cruise around on their motorbikes, never ever going faster than about 15 miles an hour.

One of the real treats of the trip was when we were standing outside one of the temples in a Buddhist "Wat" (monastery), listening to some teenage monks do the most beautiful chanting in Sanskrit (Balinese Sanskrit - we were informed) when one got up, came out to us, and asked us if we'd like to come in. We sat with them for about 20 minutes (carefully keeping our feet pointed away from the Buddha)while they finished their chanting. It was quite magical. Afterwards we had the interesting experience of explaining to the monk who had invited us in (and who spoke excellent English) where we were from. While he knew of America, he did not know of New York City - had never heard of it.

And it was very refreshing to meet an obviously educated person who was not aware of a place called New York City. With all the westernization you see here (almost every product you purchase has some bit of English* text on it, almost every store or shop has some sign written in English, the video you watch on the VIP bus is inevitably an American** movie, the music your taxi driver plays is some weird cover version (in English) of The Carpenters Greatest Hits. English is omnipresent here as is American culture. Consider if every bottle of beer or shampoo you purchased there in the good ol' USA had something written on it in Thai or Lao on it, or that your favorite pop singers perform songs from another country in another decade in a language you can't understand, and that you didn't find any of this either weird or annoying.

It's something Michele and I are both still trying to get our heads around.

As Michele has already reported, Vietnam took us quite by surprise after laid back Laos. There is nothing laid back about this place or these people. Everything is go go go and there is not much time for niceties. We gave up trying to say hello or thank you in the first few days as it was obvious that nobody here said it to each other either (doubly disconcerting for us, as these were the only two words we'd mastered in Thai and Lao, and so we'd spent a fair time in the days before our arrival here memorizing the Vietnamese versions thereof, only to have all that mental effort prove to be a waste).

While not as developed and certainly no where near as orderly as Thailand (Michele says the traffic/driving here is nearly as insane as in India (sitting on the right hand side of the bus is advised, lest a sideswipe occur with some ancient Chinese truck (honking it's horn) while the bus (honking it's horn) is passing a cluster of 20 or so stinky 2-stroke motorbikes who have swerved to the left (honking their horns) to avoid a woman walking down the side of the road balancing an entire portable restaurant (food, cookstove, utensils, tables, chairs, everything but a horn) in two baskets hanging from her shoulders), construction is booming everywhere we've been. We watched iron workers (in flip flops***, an no hard hats) on the building next to our hotel in Hue put in 12 hour days right straight through the weekend that we were there. In Hoi An, along a fairly desolate section of the beach (just a few fishing shacks & small houses) outside of town we came across a brand new section of paved road with wide sidewalks, street lights and all the trappings of a brand new American subdivision under construction. When we saw the billboards for the two new mega-resorts that were going to be built where those fishing shacks were, it all made sense.

If they approach this development with the same tenacity they display when trying to sell you a foot massage or a pineapple on the beach, or to convince you to purchase a third set of beautiful, custom made silk pants because buying just two pairs is not enough (and oh the sad sad faces when you refuse), this country is certain to be an economic powerhouse in the years to come.

Nepal will be an interesting transition from here. It's about as far physically as you can go from here yet still be in a Buddhist/Hindu culture. I'll be very curious to see how the similarities and differences play out.

Paul

* If you were a tourist in any of these three countries and did not speak either the native language (Thai, Lao or Vietnamese) or English, you would have a really really difficult time. Being tonal, none of these languages are even remotely pronounceable from a phrase book. So as a workaround, everything tourism related is done in English. Menus are in English. Shop signs are in English. Travel Agents speak their language and then English. It's quite amazing to hear Russian and French and German tourists struggle through ordering food off a menu, trying in their broken English to reach some base level of understanding with the broken English of the person that's serving them. As you might imagine, mistakes do occur.

** Ironically though American culture is here everywhere, there are absolutely no Americans here. Believe it or not, there is actually a huge contingent of people in the world doing exactly what Michele and I are doing. There are whole industries built up to serve us and almost every major town we've visited has its "Supertreker Ghetto" of western restaurants, Internet cafes, travel agencies, and budget guesthouses (and the inevitable Irish pub). The travelers that pass through these places tend to be younger than us (not by much), but are almost exclusively English, Irish, French, German, Israeli, and Australian (with a smattering of Italians and Canadians popping up from time to time). For whatever reason, Americans do not travel here.

*** If haven't spent much time traveling in the tropics/subtropics, you may have a bit of a difficult time getting your head around this one, but the plain fact is that when most of the people on this planet put on their shoes to go to work, they are putting on flip flops. Think about that the next time you're swinging a machete at the coconut you're holding in place under your right foot, arc-welding some steel railing, or balancing an entire pig carcass on your motorbike as you work your way through the public market.

Yee Haw, Back in Action!

2006-03-24T22:21:00.000-08:00

We can't seem to figure out why we are suddenly able to post to the blog again and have no idea what will happen when we reach Saigon (or even Nepal for that matter).

We escaped being run over by motorbikes quite successfully in Hanoi, although some woman clipped my elbow as she squeezed by on her bike and yelled at me. Go figure.

After being in chilly Hanoi (40 degrees colder than when we were in Laos!), we flew to Hue (which Paul just had to remind me about--it wasn't even that long ago--March 16th--but feels like an eternity ago).

Hue is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and it was heavily bombed during the "American War" as it is known as here. Hard to believe there were people fighting in the streets there, and it makes me sad to think about it. The Citadel is the main attraction of Hue; this is where the Emperor lived. It is a massive place, and very beautiful, heavily influenced by Chinese art and architecture. I didn't realize that Chinese characters were used in Viet Nam at one point, which explains why there is so much written in Chinese at historical sights.

Hue is way more toned down compared to Hanoi--you can actually cross the streets without risking your life. More bicycles and less motor scooters, which was a nice change.

We rented a private boat (all of $15 for the day) to take a trip down the Perfume River and first visited the Thien Mu Pagoda, famous residence where the monk Thich Quang Duc lived before his self immolation to protest the policies of President Ngo Dinh Diem (if you recall the famous photo of the burning monk who was sitting in the street, completely ablaze). After that the boat dropped us off on the river bank, where we had to negotiate prices with motor scooter drivers to take us where the boat could not--the tombs of previous emperors. The drivers got to wear helmets, and when I enquired where ours were, they just laughed. Great! Seeing as they were the only game in town, we each hopped on the back of one and drove through narrow dirt roads that went by neon green fields of rice paddys (paddies?) before heading onto a paved road. It was so uncomfortably hot that the breeze from the ride felt incredible and I no longer cared about wanting a helmet. We visited the tombs of Emperors Tu Duc and Minh Mang; both were pretty impressive. The latter had 105 wives and concubines, with tombs to hold them all. He had no children, apparently, as he was sterile due to having smallpox.

Viet Nam specializes in custom made silk clothing and we couldn't resist getting some stuff made. I could really go crazy with the enormous variety of fabric out here if I had the room to haul it around. Actually, we purchased a bootleg North Face bag to mule around our purchases. Bootlegged brands are huge out here. Our cheap plastic shower curtain in one of the hotels actually said "Versace--Paris--Italy"--ha! Give me a break.

After Hue we took the bus for 5 hours to Hoi An, a really cute town with a beautiful beach. We finally felt safe enough, street traffic wise, to rent bikes and cycled and easy 5km out to the beach every day. Thanks to JJ and Phil for recommending Hoi An; so far it has been my favorite place in Viet Nam. We felt really comfortable there and there are so many little streets to poke around in and get lost on. Locals seemed to enjoy messing with us on our bikes; that is one thing I will say about the Vietnamese--they are real wise asses. Twice we had people pull up from behind us on motor bikes and blare their horns, startling us. When we turned to look at what the commotion was, they just passed by and laughed. Other than those experiences, it is pretty apparent that they like to mess with each other and be pretty obnoxious, but in a friendly way. Not like I could understand what was said, but just by their body language and voice it seemed kind of obvious.

We took a day trip from Hoi An to the Cham ruins in My Son (pronounced MEE son) which took an hour to reach. The Cham people traded between Viet Nam and India, and through their contacts adopted Hinduism. The ruins were built between the 9th-12th centuries, but unfortunately the Viet Cong used them as a base to hide from American forces, and much of My Son has been destroyed. I wish I could have seen what it looked like in its heyday, and plan on researching it when we get back to the states to see if there are photos of it from before the war.

After Hoi An we took a taxi to Danang where we caught a train to Nha Trang. Not the most comfortable train I have ever taken, and after 9 hours I was pretty much ready for a cushy hotel room. We found one a block from the municipal beach for the whopping sum of $20 a night--and it was a suite--in our first hotel with an elevator (much appreciated when you are on the 5th floor)!! One and a half bathrooms, cable TV, a balcony overlooking the city, fridge, two beds, a make-up table of sorts, several chairs with a smaller table, A/C, and plenty of room to spread out. Nha Trang seemed like spring-break central for college-aged Australians, so we avoided that scene after our first night there. We spent the next day there on the beach and left the next day on a bus that took us to our current local, Mui Ne Beach, which is off the major tourist track. It is a one highway town along the beach and we really scored with a bungalow that is 5 steps from the beach--only $10 a night! Mui Ne is apparently renowned for its Asian kite surfing competitions. Today there must have been at least 30 people at any given time kite surfing, which looks like so much fun that I wish I had the patience to learn it out here. Some French guy I asked said it took him weeks to learn it, and the 10 hour lessons they give you here (which are actually really expensive--if we weren't already shelling out for the Nepal trek, I would do it) are not enough.

The hammock we have been hauling around since Thailand has finally come into good use again, as we strung it up right outside our door. It is easy to be lazy out here. Not much to do (if you don't wind or kite surf) but swim, read, eat and snooze. A constant breeze blows all day and it feels wonderful after the baking hot weather we were just experiencing in Hue and Hoi An.

Just to back track a bit here--ever since that crazy boat ride we took from Thailand into Laos down the Mekong, we have run into several people from the boat, whom we now practically consider family after being squeezed together for so long. It is really fun to run into our boat friends and we always stop and update each other on where we have been. In Hanoi, we ran into these 4 Irish women who were travelling together. Apparently they took some absolutely horrendous bus ride that was supposed to be 24 hours and ended up being 28 hours--the same trip that took us one hour by plane (going from Laos to Viet Nam--see, this is what I meant about the crappy roads in Laos!!). The bus broke down for 4 hours in the middle of the night; no one could communicate with them about what was going on due to language barriers; a man with a crocodile on board the bus was escorted off by police at the border (I am not making this up, and neither were they!), and some man with a broken leg was taken off on a stretcher. They seemed pretty relieved to be off the bus, to say the least, and called it "the bus ride from hell".

One week left in the heat and we are off to a new adventure in Nepal. I am welcoming the cold at this point and will probably eat my words in two weeks when my teeth are chattering.

Testing, Testing

2006-03-24T22:18:00.000-08:00

This is a test of the Viet Nam anti-blogging network. Please do not contact the authorities if this can be published. If posting is successful, further postings will follow. Again, this has been a test. Thank you.

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP!

Pictures!!!

2006-03-15T22:31:00.000-08:00

Pictures from our trip (up to Luang Prabang) can be seen here:

http://flickr.com/photos/83871895@N00/sets/72057594081155430/

Check it out!!!

Vientiane, Laos to Hanoi, Viet Nam

2006-03-15T21:32:00.000-08:00

Since we have left Louang Prabang, things have really cooled off significantly.

We flew from LP to Vientiane, the capital, and spent 2 days checking out the sights. It is a shame we didn't spend more time in Laos, but a lot of what we want to see is in the south where the temperatures are high and the water levels are low. Returning someday after the rainy season would be more interesting, I think. That and 80% of all roads in Laos are unpaved. Call me a wuss, but I really don't want to spend a half day to a full 24 hours on a bus going down a lumpy dirt road. Originally we were going to fly to Pakse in the south and from there, fly to Hanoi. However, the heat was already as much as I could stand up north and going into hundred-plus degree weather sounded kind of rough.

Two days ago we boarded the plane in Vientiane in t-shirts, flip-flops and thin pants and felt pretty foolish stepping off the plane in Hanoi in 50 degree temperatures! I had no idea it would be so cold. We had a taxi waiting for us and drove 45 minutes to the Old City in the center of town. What a culture shock from chilled out Laos--loads of horn honking, fast driving and thousands of motor scooters. Cars and scooters are oblivious to pedestrians here. We felt like country bumpkins visiting the big city for the first time when we stepped out of the cab and had to dodge moving objects from all directions.

I kind of like the chaos here--you really need to pay attention and have your wits about you at all times, way more so than being in NY. It's fun to sit on a street corner and watch the traffic action whizz by--very entertaining, to say the least--especially when there are near-crashes every 10 minutes. So far we have only seen one, surprisingly enough.

The food here is outstanding--noodles for every meal! There is some odd looking street food specialty we saw today that neither one of us will dare to try: soda cans with the tops cut off and a small, whole bird with head and claws still attached stuffed into it. They are then dropped into a vat of hot oil and cooked, still in the can. Some turn out pitch black, some are brown. If anyone out there reading this has tried it and/or knows the name of it, please tell me!

This morning we woke up early to see Ho Chi Minh's tomb, as the last entry is at 10:15 a.m. The line was pretty long but moved fast; we even got to see the changing of the guards outside of the tomb. After moving slowly through the line for a half hour, we finally got to enter. There he was in a glass box in an air-conditioned room with police standing on all corners keeping watch. You can't stand around and look at him as the line has to keep moving around the tomb slowly. He looked exactly as he does in photos, long white beard and all. The poor guy wanted to be cremated and now he is stuck in a glass box, sent to Russia for 3 months out of the year to be re-embalmed.

We are flying to Hue later on today, which is in central Viet Nam. The weather is going to get hotter and it will be nice to go to the beach again.

Houeixi to Louang Phabang via the Mekong River

2006-03-11T21:32:00.000-08:00

We have not quite melted yet, but have certainly started to.

The last we left off I think we were in Chiang Mai enroute to Chiang Rai. Chiang Rai is a small city that people use as a jumping off point to explore the various hill tribes that surround the region. My former Park Slope Food Coop-er, Havilah, got us in touch with her brother, Caleb, who lives in Chiang Rai and works for an NGO out there. It was great to have him show us around for the weekend, and he speaks Thai which is pretty helpful, too. He took us to an Akha village where one of his co-worker's lives with his wife and baby and it was pretty fascinating to see how the village is set up and learn a bit about their history. There were also Karen and Hmong tribes living in that region as well, and I think I would have passed out from wearing the heavy clothing and head coverings some of the women were wearing due to the heat, but I can only assume they are just used to it. Regardless, it was quite intricate and colorful.

We hired a driver to take us from Chiang Rai to the border at Chiang Khong, where we would purchase our Lao visas. It was sort of a package deal, as he drove us to various sights enroute to Chiang Kong, so we made a full day out of it. First we visited the Monkey Caves and hiked up steep steps to some dark caves full of bats and Buddha shrines, but no monkeys. The monkeys were hanging out at the bottom of the caves by some water and didn't seem too interested in people, nor did we get too close to them to avoid being bitten. After that we drove to Maesai, a big shopping town which we did none of since there isn't much room in our packs to buy stuff, but there were some great viewpoints above the city with temples and shrines. After Maesai we drove to the famous "Golden Triangle" region where you can look out and see Burma, Laos, and Thailand come together by the Mekong River. Our driver took us to this overly touristed Opium Museum, which was filled with old opium pipes, opium scales and weights and other paraphernalia, in addition to information in English on a brief history of opium. Somehow the museum staff thought it would be helpful to include a section upstairs on catfish, marijuana, bamboo waterpipes, and photos of Karen "long-necked" women. Go figure.

Kitt, our driver for the day, drove us through some really pretty countryside areas while we sweated our butts off in his "air conditioned" jeep, and in the afternoon, arrived at Chiang Khong. He found some guy, whose name and actual job description I never got, to secure us visas and tickets for the longboat journey on the Mekong into Laos. We handed over some money and our passports, and assured us he would see us at 8 a.m. the next morning with our visas and drive us to the dock.

Chiang Khong is a one-road town that is quiet and peaceful. We stayed in very modest accomodations (I think $5 a night) that served food and beer. That night we met Lynn and Andrew, she from Ireland, he from Wales, who met while travelling in New Zealand. We drank and chatted with them that night and learned they were also going on the boat the next day to Laos.

Next day, 8 a.m. we are ready to leave and no sign of the man with our passports. 8:30 comes and Paul sets off down the dirt road to find him (it is a small town, remember?). Five minutes later a motorbike comes down the road with the man with our passports and Paul on the back!! He forgot all about us, our passports, and our visas, and hurried to get them. He returned with a friend who is on a motor bike and I get on the back of one and Paul on the other, with our semi-heavy backpacks mind you. Off to the docks! Visas get stamped, exit fees from Thailand paid, we are rushed onto a longboat and away we go. Minutes later we are on the Laos side of the river in Houeixi, Laos. Paul and I are talked in to paying for a room in a guesthouse in Pakbeng, where the boat is heading to on the first leg of our journey "because it will be too dark for you to find a place when you arrive, so it is best to secure one now". Yep, we are scammed. But more on that later.

Who do we see in the restaurant before boarding the boat but Lynn and Andrew! They also purchased accomodations for the night in the same place that we were talked into, so at least we weren't alone. We board the boat and sit in front of them. Off we go with about 100 other people down the Mekong for the next 7 hours. We were pre-warned that the benches make your butt sore so we laid our yoga mats on them for some comfort. The scenery was incredible and I can only imagine it is more so after the rainy season when the water level is higher and the trees are lush and green. It was a long day on the boat and we were relieved to know they sold beer which came in quite handy after the 4th hour or so.

The benches, by the way, were not very stable and were in serious danger of collapsing from under us. I tried my best to tell this to a crew member, who only shrugged and seemed uninterested in this information. Paul lashed a daypack to the bench and connected it to a post in hopes this would prevent a disaster. When Lynn and Andrew moved temporarily to sit on the floor of the boat in front to stretch their legs, I took over their bench to have some more room. Sure enough, their bench collapsed from underneath me and some other passengers took photos of the now in pieces bench, as it was pretty hilarious. A crew member carried the pieces off, no questions asked, and didn't seem surprised in the least.

Finally we arrive in Pakbeng and loads of children race to the dock in hopes of earning some money for hauling bags up the steep steps. The four of us had none of this and grabbed our own bags and followed the guesthouse worker up the street to where we would spend the night. Mind you, it was not dark out and there were PLENTY of places to stay. Regardless, we were shown our room and it would have been ok except for one thing--the bathroom was so unbelievably disgusting that no amount of incense we lit could remove the foul stench. I actually dreaded having to use the toilet and preferred to hold it in, much less take a shower. I wish I could say I am exaggerating, but I am not. Lynn and Andrew paid a bit less to have a shared bathroom and instantly wished they had shelled out the extra buck or two to have their own, as they were pretty disgusted as well. The beds looked ok, until you sat down on them--I think they were made of wood or concrete, no joke. Despite all this, the village itself was quaint and lit by candlelight as electricity was scarce. We had a good dinner and basically called it a night.

Everyone complained of sore hips the next day from the awful beds and were pretty eager to get out of town. We ate breakfast and headed down to the boat and lets just say that was another experience all on its own. The stairs headed down were very steep and covered in sand and I had images in my head of tumbling down them while wearing my 30 lb. pack and breaking my ankle. To top it off, you had to literally walk a narrow wooden plank to get on the boat. Luckily everyone made it just fine and Lynn and Andrew nabbed some seats for us in the back where we would have more leg room.

At some point the boat pulls in to bring on more passengers and we all seemed shocked--where would they sit?? There are no seats left! There went our leg room. I'll tell you right now, if you have issues with personal space, don't take the slowboat down the Mekong! People thought nothing of squeezing in between others and just plopping down at their feet. Live roosters and baggage get piled on top of the boat, and then the boat just won't start. You can hear the engine struggling to start as someone is banging on the engine. People suddenly begin to theorize: Will we have to get off and wait for another boat? Will we get stuck here? Where are we, anyway? Someone paddles out on another boat to try and help. Next thing you know, a group of men are holding onto a heavy rope that is attached to the engine's flywheel, they start counting in Lao, do the heave-ho move and yank hard a few times until the engine roars to life again. Everyone cheers loudly and the boats takes off.

No one seems to know what time the boat is due to arrive in Louang Phabang (I see different spellings on the name--sometimes it is Prabang, other times Phabang)--some are told it is shorter than the first day and will take 5 hours, some were told 6, some 7. In all, it takes 9 hours, a total of 16 hours in two days. I have a meltdown of sorts on the last 2 hours of the trip due to a wave of pre-menstrual depression and people try hard to cheer me up, but nothing seems to work. I just stood in the head and cried, how pathetic. I hate when this happens, and luckily it does not happen every month, luckily for Paul.

Paul and I feel we have earned a night in an expensive hotel at this point after sitting for so long on a 2 day boat ride and take a tuk-tuk to a place we read about; they are fully booked and reccomend another place called the Merry Lao-Swiss. Everything there is written in German and English, and I'm not sure if I understand the connection, but there you have it. It is a lovely place and we check in, take a shower, and head to The Apsara, a swanky, New York-priced place for dinner. The food is delicious, and we both wake up around 2 a.m. feeling horrible. We have food poisoning! The next day is spent in bed but at some point I manage to make my way downstairs to let the staff know the A/C is broken, we are sick, please fix it! Within 10 minutes 3 guys come to the door to replace the relay in the A/C, and we are relieved to be spending a sick day in a comfortable guesthouse and not on the boat or in Pakbeng.

The next day we finally get to see the sights of Louang Prabang and have been here ever since. It is a cute place with friendly people and a laid-back atmosphere. LP is an early to bed, early to rise kind of town and there isn't much going on after 10 p.m. We have been to several Buddhist Wats, or temples, as there are loads of them. There are also many young (by young I mean at least 10 to 15 years old) "novice" boy monks with shaved heads all over town, who are here to study. They carry parasols to shade them from the hot sun and I think they look adorable.

Tonight we are off to the capital, Vientiane via Laos Airlines. More updates to come from Vientiene before we head off to Viet Nam.

Heat Wave Coming

2006-03-03T19:58:00.000-08:00

For those of you tracking our meterological progress, things are looking a bit grim.

After abandoning our shoes for flip flops the moment we got off the plane in Bangkok, we've been enjoying some pretty danged hot weather. Temps were probably in the upper 80's in Koh Phangan - where we had frequent rainstorms that cooled things off nicely in the afternoon. Ocean temps were proably around 80.

At Haad Beach Koh Island (off the North Coast of Little Rangoon) things were definitely hotter. Daytime temps were well into the 90s and the sea had to be well into the upper 80s - some of the warmest water I've ever swam in.

One night the tide came in quite high - waves maybe 15 feet from our bungalow as we were sleeping and the moist heat from the water was palpable.

Chiang Mai has been much dryer and cooler in the evenings, but afternoon highs have been in the low 90s.

As we head north we were hoping to cool off a bit in the hill country, but it looks like this part of the world is going to be pretty hot next week. Chiang Rai (our next stop) and northern Laos both look to be in the low 100s next week - temperatures we thought we would be avoiding by not going to India this time of year.

If you don't hear from us, assume we've melted into some fancy hotel with AC, a pool and a large bottle of the coldest Chang beer.

My 30 Seconds of Fame

2006-03-03T19:50:00.000-08:00

And let's just say that when a 175lb (more or less) lady decides to jump into your arms while you're simultaneously trying to get your sideways flip-flop back on straight and also boogie-down in a fashion that will be remotely entertaining to your newfound throng of cheering fans, you better be ready to catch.

Needless to say, I was not.

I was laid out flat - with her on top of me.

The crowd went wild!!!

Chiang Mai enroute to Chiang Rai

2006-03-03T19:06:00.000-08:00

Chiang Mai is Thailand's second biggest city after Bangkok and we have been here for 3 days. Paul and I stayed in a modest hotel on the bank of a river, while Frank and Rebecca, the honeymooners, stayed at this hotel called The Chedi; it is the swankiest hotel I have ever seen. Our jaws dropped when we walked in, then dropped even further when we went up to their room--they were assigned their own butler, if you can believe that. We were more than happy to live vicarously through them during cocktail hour on their terrace every evening.

Chiang Mai is a really cute city that is easy to get around. The area we stayed in was not heavily touristed and on our first day of adventuring around we looked for a place to eat lunch. Everything on the menu was listed in Thai, which gave us little choice but to wing it and see what we ended up with on our plates. I have to say that I am pretty thankful at this point I have falled off the vegetarian wagon, as it is practically impossible to avoid meat if you want to be adventurous and eat in local joints. It turns out that many restaraunts specialize in just one thing, so there is essentially one dish on the menu with a choice of either pork or chicken with broth and vegetables added in, with rice on the side. It feels odd to order hot, spicy soup in 95 degree weather but there you have it. I haven't had one bad meal yet, regardless of how much I sweat while eating it!

The other night Frank suggested this cabaret/Vegas style show at "The Simon's Dream" and it was pretty hilarious. Think extreme schlock and drag queens mixed up with traditional Thai costumes and dancing, with jungle motif. I don't know how else to explain it. The costumes were outrageous and glittery and the stage sets changed with every dance routine. Of course, the gay national anthem was played at the end--"I Will Survive"--and this fabulous trannie yanked Paul out of his seat and dragged him on stage. We were laughing so hard that I almost forgot to pull out the camera. He wound up with glowing red lipstick marks all over his face by the end of it.

We couldn't board the 10:00 bus to Chiang Rai so we are currently killing time in an internet cafe, awaiting our 12:30 V.I.P. luxury bus with toilet and air conditioning -- only $12 for two one way tickets.

We keep spacing out on bringing the USB cord out with us to upload recent photos and hope to have some up on the next post.

After Chiang Rai, it is off to Laos! Just in time for the heat wave. Wish us luck.

Mr. Pong II

2006-02-28T00:15:00.000-08:00

Just to expand on a bit of Michele's most recent post, I must tell the tale of Mr. Pong II (not to be confused with Mr. Pong I - who operates Dubble Duke seafoods on Haad Salad on Koh Phangan).

When we were last in Surat Thani a week ago, we'd just been taken by the mini-mini bus driver from "Holiday Travel" to a bogus stop at restaurant (where we thought we were going to catch the minibus to "Little Rangoon", but instead were just suckered into buying lunch before proceeding to the actual minibus station), when we managed to get in touch with Kae - the proprietor of the Haad Beach Koh Island "resort" at which we wound up staying. Kae confirmed that they had 2 bungalows available.

The problem, however, was that our minibus would arrive into Little Rangoon right as the last boat headed off the north coast would be leaving.

However, Kae informed us that her husband - Mr. Pong - the Chief of Police would meet us at the minivan.

So we depart in a pounding rainstorm, twisting through beautiful tropical mountains, Frank, Rebecca, Michele and I (and 6 of our closest friends) all scrunched into a Toyota minivan.

As in all such cases, our minivan was met in Little Rangoon by a sea of faces offering taxi and other services. Bags our getting pulled out. People are going this way and that. Somehow through the mini-throng, a smiling face appears and we realize in that magic - somehow I know you're the guy we're looking for way - that it's Mr. Pong.

Bags are tossed into the back of his truck. Michele and Rebecca get in up front, Frank and I dive into the back and he hits the gas. We tear through town, passing on the right, left and straigh up the middle. I see myself in the rear view mirror and I look like a dog in a pickup on the freeway as I watch scooters and pedestrians dive for the shoulder.

We get to the dock (not quite a Starsky & Hutch power slide, but damn close), throw our bags on the longtail boat that's been kept waiting a half an hour for us and with a quick wave goodbye, we're off into an exotic estuary of mangrove & fishing boats.

And that was the last we saw of Mr Pong II.

This time...

Re-entry into "civilization"?

2006-02-27T23:40:00.000-08:00

We just spent the most incredible week in a remote island that has no cars or roads, electricity for 4 hours a day, and empty beaches with 80 degree water. This place is so incredible that we can't even tell you where it is out of fear it will someday become "discovered" and overrun with resorts and people to ruin it; however, we promise to tell you the name of it if you ever plan on being in southern Thailand, close to the Burmese (now Myanmar) border. The people were so lovely and kind, and even the tourists help out with carrying luggage, blocks of ice, and food deliveries from the mainland when longboats pull onto the shore. It is the closest place I have ever encountered so far that is an unspoiled paradise and hope it never changes.

Last week sometime (I have lost track of dates at this point) we left Koh Pha Ngan on an early 7 a.m. ferry to Don Sok, boarded a cramped bus to Surat Thani and had to wait around for a bit until we were able to find a minibus to transport us and some other people to "Little Rangoon". From Little Rangoon we boarded a longtail boat to the island which can't be named and had to rush like mad to get on board, as word was sent ahead of time to wait for us since it was the last boat leaving the mainland for the day.

Not to sound corny or anything, but it was a pretty heartwarming sight when the boat pulled into different areas of the island to see both tourists, residents, and even dogs wade out into the water with big smiles to greet the boat. Everyone chipped in to help (except for the dogs), regardless of their age, to help ferry supplies, luggage and sometimes people ashore. It was definately a great welcome to the island to see such enthusiasm.

Today we all sadly left to come back to the mainland as it seems like time to explore new things. Our intention was to make it to Chiang Mai by this evening, which of course was overly optimistic on all counts. Back in Ranong we learned there are no flights 2 days out of the week to Bangkok so we hired a taxi to take us 3 hours back to Surat Thani, where there would be flights out of that airport. One flight had already left, one was cancelled, and the other was completely booked, and standby was a waste of time. Back again we piled into a taxi to the Surat Thani train station where we booked overnight 1st class sleeper cars that depart in 3 hours to Bangkok (12 hour trip), and from there we will hopefully fly tomorrow to Chiang Mai in the north. Chiang Mai is Thailand's second largest city, and from there we will travel up to Chiang Rai and continue travelling north into Laos.

More updates to follow when we arrive in Chiang Mai!

"Spicy now, good long time!"

2006-02-20T19:31:00.000-08:00

Well, we made it out of the US finally!

We flew directly to Tokyo from Seattle for a 3 hour layover, then flew to Bangkok, arrived at the hotel around 1 a.m., fell asleep around 3 a.m., and woke up at 7 a.m., completely wide awake. We had a few hours to walk around by our hotel, bought a few things, and was back at the airport 12 hours after arriving at it the day before!

The entire wedding party (about 25 people?) flew from Bangkok to Koh Samui (1 hr. flight) where all of our luggage was piled on top of a truck with nothing to secure it from falling off. Despite how potholed and bumpy the roads were, nothing fell off en route to the ferry (1 hr. ride), which took us to Koh Pha Ngan. Here we all piled onto the back of pickup trucks which took us out to our bungalows overlooking the ocean (Gulf of Thailand). It was a long day of transport and I still couldn't sleep well due to the jetlag, even with 10mg. of Ambien. However, I was somehow awake enough to get up at 7 a.m. to do yoga for an hour.

The whole wedding party went on a dive/snorkel trip to Koh Tao and Tong Nai Pan; really fascinating underwater scenes straight out of the Nature Channel or something. Lots of coral, reef, brightly colored parrot fish, and sea urchins. I really want to learn how to dive while out here if possible.

I had my first Thai massage ever yesterday, and this tiny woman who gave the massage was really powerful. Just what my body needed after lots of travelling, snorkeling, swimming, and yoga--ouch! The massage therapist could hear me grunting as my body was pulled like taffy as smashed back into alignment, and she laughed and said, "Spicy now, good long time!" If you have never had a Thai massage, I highly reccommend it--very intense; kind of like doing passive yoga as your body is squashed into different positions and pulled on simultaneously. "Thai massage like Thai boxing", she said. "Same thing--hurts!"

Yesterday was Rebecca and Frank's wedding in a small fishing village called Chaloklum in this beautiful bar called Shisha; very laid back and comfortable, right on the beach. (Side note: I tried Mackerel for my first time this week, and I heard there was Barracuda served a few nights ago but I'm not sure if I got any of that). The food last night was amazing, and it was quite the romantic spot to pick for a wedding. Paul's comment to me was, "How are we going to top THIS?" and I know he was joking of course; but just so you all know, don't be surprised if we try and lure all of you out to Antarctica for our wedding, ha-ha!

The Kitchen - Before and After

2006-02-15T08:13:00.000-08:00

Much of the effort involved in this grand scheme of "paint/pack/move" involved redoing the kitchen.

Here are some before and after pix so's you can see the difference.

No escape yet!!!

2006-02-15T08:05:00.000-08:00

Escape had been scheduled for Sunday Feb 12, but Brooklyn had other plans.

The moving machine hath cometh

2006-02-09T10:03:00.000-08:00

On Tuesday the 7th a moving crew came in to pack up our stuff and put it in storage, and it will eventually be hauled across the country to our new home in Portland.
I slept terribly the night before as my camping mattress sprung a leak. We were hoping to hang on to the futon until the end of the week but this woman wanted to purchase it immediately, so we are now sleeping on the floor.

So this moving crew invades at 9am and the cats immediately hide in the closet. Things are getting crammed into boxes left and right and we have to stay fully cognizant of what the movers are doing as certain items are marked off for them NOT to move. My travel clothes instantly get packed and luckily I was awake enough to jump up and save them from being put into storage for 4 months. I felt kind of bad hovering over them the whole time, but it seemed necessary to avoid having things handled poorly and broken. I was surprised at how careless the whole operation seemed, and I know the idea is to get in and out of there as quickly as possible, but I'm just hoping at this point that half of the fragile stuff survives.

I stupidly forgot to set aside a winter coat and so all of my coats got swept up in the moving maching. Of course now it is finally cold outside and I have to wear 5 layers under my fleece to stay warm and look like the Sta-Puff Marshmallow Man.

Somehow the movers thought it would be a good idea to pack up a crusty, filthy cat litter scoop and the gross rug that was under the litter box. For all we know it got tossed into a box with our cycling helmets, hats and coats, and won't that be a nice surprise when we unpack?

Last day at the nuthouse...

2006-02-03T12:03:00.000-08:00

...and one week left in Brooklyn! While I am relived it is my last day, I am sad as well---like I am the bad therapist who is abandoning her clients, which I guess is essentially what is happening. And it makes me feel worse to see some of them cry and ask,"but why do you have to go?" I want them all to be happy and get out of here as well-this is such a hard place to work in; living here must really be a nightmare. I give the women who live here a lot of credit--I don't know how long I would last mentally and physically if I were stuck in this place, with no family to help me out.
But overall it has been one amazing learning experience and it has been quite the challenge.

Somehow Paul and I have gotten most of the stuff done that we have been freaking out about; there is just a bunch of furniture and other things left to Craigslist or give away to friends, so it will have to get done in the upcoming week. We are taking relatively little with us; mainly clothing, books, a few pieces of furniture, kitchen supplies, and computer stuff.

I am alternating between tinges of sadness for leaving Brooklyn (which has been my home for almost 9 years--the longest I have lived anywhere in my adult life thus far) and being excited and anxious about embarking on an adventure. It doesn't seem quite real yet that we are leaving, and that in two weeks we'll be on a gorgeous beach in Thailand.

Four weeks and counting

2006-01-14T12:45:00.000-08:00

We somehow decided that, not only did we want to move, but travel to SE Asia and Japan as well--and had, at the time, four months to plan the whole event. Time flew by as it always does, and now one of us alternates between freaking out and being completely calm and assured at the whole idea of redoing the kitchen, painting, getting rid of stuff, shipping what we want across the US to be placed in storage, finding renters for the apartment, AND planning a huge adventure on the other side of the world. And we have one month left to do it all.

I resign from work February 3rd and am looking forward to the much needed break from "The Nut House", as I fondly call it. Not very politically correct at all of me, I know. But that's ok. Because it really is a nut house. 200 (mostly) severely mentally ill homeless women all under one roof, and I have been the only full-time social worker/therapist there for the past year, with the help of my very supportive supervisor who is far more burned out than I am. I really love working with this population, and I will miss my clients a lot. I have started saying goodbye to them and it hasn't been easy. I'm sure some are mad at me for leaving, and I don't blame them. If my therapist was moving away, i'd be pretty bummed, too. And here I am moving away from my own therapist! Maybe she's bummed? I know i'll really miss talking with her. She has been a tremendous help to me these past 2 1/2 years.

We are going to post photos of our rennovated kitchen and bathroom soon! Lots of work has been put into it, and i'm impressed at the job we have done. Especially Paul, who had no idea what he was getting into with re-tiling the kitchen floor, and did a top notch job!

>Michele