A Day in Liam's Italy Journal: Rome

We have just capped ten days with my family in Rome and Florence.  My two youngest siblings are keeping journals to document their first trip in Europe.  Here is our first day in Rome as described in my nine year old brother's journal.  It follows the day that the family was supposed to leave for Rome, but their flight was canceled out of Charlotte and they had to spend a night in the Queen City.  I have edited it for spelling, but they are completely his own words.  All pictures were taken by him on his Nintendo DSi, unless stated otherwise.

Wednesday, July 25, 2010 - Fly in the Sky
In the second day in the airport we did the exact same thing as yesterday, except we rode the plane! The plane was humongous! There were about 45 rows! There was a movie/T.V. player but it cost money, though. I slept, read, ate and played DS the whole way. It was soooooooooo long! But we got there!

In Italy
Wow, in a whole different country. During the car ride, the driver was really nice. The drive was like a tour. I saw pyramids, bridges, lakes. Our REAL hotel was really nice. But it was exactly like our other hotel EXCEPT it had 3 big beds, a BIGGER T.V., and a great view. And a better thing than all those things, Jeffrey and Magge!!!!!!

Jordan and the Balkans Wrap-Up

Facts and Figures
Length of Stay: 23 Days
Miles Traveled to Enter: 4,240 by plane from Bangkok
Miles Traveled: 800 by plane + 620 by bus + 300 by train + 160 by boat + 160 by car  = 2,040 total (37,190 since landing in Quito - yes, I realize the website's logo is now wrong)
Places Visited: Amman, Wadi Musa (Petra), Athens, Skopje, Dubrovnik, Split, Hvar.  Also drove through Kosovo, Serbia and Montenegro.
Intercity Buses Taken: 3
Trains Taken: 2
Ferries Taken: 1
Flights Taken: 1
Times a Croatian map failed us: 5

Rankings in the full post.

Croatian Walls

Most of our time in Croatia has been spent in old, walled cities and towns.  While with Marcia and Lee, we visited the UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Dubrovnik, Split and Trogir, along with the Walls of Ston.  After they returned to North Carolina, we stayed in Hvar for four days.  No pictures of half naked men here, just alleys, squares, forts and churches.

Go Take a Hike

First of all, let me apologize for the errant "Zs" and "Ys" you will undoubtedly see in this post.  Apparently they are switched on the Croatian keyboard. Silly Croatians.

Anyway!  For the past several days, to console ourselves after my mom and Lee's departure, we have been in repose on the beautiful island of Hvar about an hour off the coast of Split.  With five dazs to kill between leaving my mom and Lee, and before we meet the Bells in Italy, we decided taking it easy and recouping a bit would be a good idea.  (Those of you who have met our fabulous mothers know that one needs a lot of energy reserves to handle such forces of nature.)

Admittedly, Hvar, currently the hottest tourist destination for the rich and trashy, is admittedly not our usual scene.  We have, however, been able to look past the huge yachts and skimpy (or nonexistent) clothing, and have found a jewel of a historic little town set amongst some of the most incredible natural scenery to be found in Croatia.

Krka National Park: How to Ruin a Beautiful Place

1.  Make it overly accessible.
2.  Build large pavilions where restaurants serve overpriced food.
3.  Invite people to swim in the water.

These are the steps Krka National Park has taken to transform itself into a water park.  When I read about the park and its waterfalls and looked at the pictures, they sounded and looked pristine.  Yes, the descriptions stated that people swam at the bottom of the lowest waterfall, but I envisioned something similar to what we saw in Australia: a handful of people but by no means crowded.  Excited by the pictures, Marcia (on her birthday), Lee, Magge and I changed our plans to accommodate the hour and half trip north of Split.  When we arrived, we were very surprised at what we saw.  The park was beyond crowded, with the waterfalls and its surroundings packed with people doing their best to make Krka National Park look like the neighborhood pee-filled pool.  We had planned on taking a swim, but I don't know if we could have found any spare room in the water.  Besides, the bathrooms there charged five Croatian kuna (almost a dollar) entry fee, so the aforementioned pool is probably cleaner.

Guys Gone Wild: Dubrovnik

For many European men, Durbovnik is the Panama City Beach of the Adriatic.  It's a place where they can freely take off the shirts and flaunt what they've got, even if it's not much (or too much).

I tried to get a picture of Magge on one of Dubrovnik's narrow streets, and a sneaky bare-chested European found his way into the frame

A rare occasion of a shirtless specimen accompanied by a female

A slight variation on the no-shirt look, but nearly as popular

This scene at Onofrio's fountain makes me think of the following image:

Happy Birthday, Dad

It's my father's birthday today, rounding out my family's birthdays for the year (Magge can now put down her color pencils for a few months).  Following our post-Communist adventure in Skopje, we're in Dubrovnik, which makes for a much better birthday sign location.  Sorry again, Colin.  See you in ten days, Dad.

Happy Birthday in Croatian on the drawbridge at Pile Gate, on the west wall looking down the street Stradun in old Dubrovnik, and just outside the west wall

Finally Got My Mamma

After spending a couple luxurious months in Southeast Asia, where almost anything can be had for a fraction of the price it costs in the States, the past week in Greece and now Croatia has been a very rude awakening. An hour of internet time in S.E.A. cost us less than a dollar (usually nothing at all because it was free wherever we were staying).  Here we are forced to pay over six dollars an hour.  So, at risk of being killed by husband, I must make my entry very short and sweet - not something that is easy for me.

To be honest, I did not have much time to get excited about seeing my mom and Lee, whom I have missed very much, because Croatia seemed so far away just two weeks ago when I was in Thailand and I knew I still had four countries to go before seeing them.  I could not contain my excitement, however, once we finally arrived in Dubrovnik, exhausted from a terrible night of traveling by bus from Macedonia.  Who would have ever thought transport in South America would seem so luxurious?

Happy Birthday, Colin Redux

My friend Mike, a famous graphic designer, added a little color to my brother Colin's birthday picture and I thought it was worth posting. Colin, now that you got two birthday posts, don't expect anything for Christmas.

Happy Birthday, Colin

The second oldest sibling in my family turns 24 today.  My sister got pictures from an active geyser field in Chile and my youngest brother got pictures from gigantic boulders in New Zealand, but Colin gets pictures from the gray, concrete, formerly Communist city of Skopje.  Sorry, Colin.  It's nothing personal, just bad timing.

Happy Birthday in Macedonian

Train from Greece to Macedonia

We were originally supposed to stay in Greece for nearly a month, but we decided to extend our time in Asia instead and reduced our time in the country to a mere three days.  From there, we were to go to Croatia to meet Magge's mother and stepfather.  On a map, that looks easy.  I figured at worst we could take a ferry.  You can take a ferry from Greece to Italy, and from Italy to Croatia, so the shorter Greece to Croatia distance must have a ferry route?  No.  The easiest way to get from Athens to Dubrovnik is to take a six hour train ride to Thessaloniki, then a three hour train ride that's actually a five hour train ride to Skopje, Macedonia, and then a twelve hour overnight bus to Dubrovnik.  I confess that I hadn't heard of Skopje two weeks ago, and my geography is usually pretty good.  Magge confesses that two weeks ago she didn't know Macedonia was still a country, but I told her to stop admitting that.

The train segment from Thessaloniki to Skopje actually was really nice, despite the lingering smell of smoke (the Balkan peninsula is Europe's ashtray) and no airconditioning.  Here are a handful of pictures from the ride.

We had a good time in Athens, but I don't know if we'll get around to posting anything on our stay there.  At most, we'll post some pictures, but there won't be much that everyone hasn't already seen many times elsewhere.

Petra

I've never had a burning desire to visit the Middle East.  I don't think I can be blamed given the standard treatment the region gets in the mainstream media in the U.S.  However, when we were looking at potential destinations, I was drawn to Petra in Jordan, thanks to Indian Jones and the Last Crusade.  Some research comforted us that Jordan was more than safe for travel, and we slotted one week there between our time in Asia and Europe.  It is one of the best planning decisions we have made.  It can be easy to get jaded after eight months of travel, but no level of road weariness could take away from this ancient city.

Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand Wrap-Up

We had an incredible two months in Southeast Asia (including our two weeks in Malaysia and Singapore), but it was bittersweet because we felt like we didn't do the region justice. Time constraints and our getting sick held us back from digging too much past the typical tourist trails. We'd love to come back to this region again and spend more time. In fact, I think Magge is already scouring job websites, trying to find me employment in Singapore or Bangkok.

Facts and Figures
Length of Stay: 43 Days
Miles Traveled to Enter: 720 by plane from Kuala Lumpur
Miles Traveled: 1,560 by train + 615 by plane + 285 by bus + 100 by boat  = 2,560 total (30,910 since landing in Quito)
Places Visited: Siem Reap (Angkor), Battambang, Phnom Penh, Chau Doc, Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon), Hanoi, Halong Bay, Bangkok, Koh Tao
Intercity Buses Taken: 2
River Ferries Taken: 1
Night Trains Taken: 3
Flights Taken: 1
Rounds Fired from the "Rambo Gun": 10
Mummified Communists Seen: 1

Rankings in the full post.

Beach Time on Koh Tao

Thailand was supposed to be the centerpiece of our time in Southeast Asia, but the Red Shirts changed that.  Even though we were told by other travelers coming from Thailand that the areas outside of Bangkok were safe, we just did not want to take the risk that the demonstrations and fighting would erupt into a more widespread problem.  Thus, Thailand was taken off the itinerary and we decided to focus on Cambodia and Vietnam.  However, three weeks, two countries and two bouts of dengue fever later, we both decided that we needed some time on a beach, and Thailand had calmed down enough that we opted to get our sand fix there instead of in Vietnam.

Puppet Show

Our last night in Vietnam, we took in in a Vietnamese water puppet show.  This traditional art form originated close to 1000 years ago on flooded rice paddies in North Vietnam.  Even though we couldn't understand any of the narration, we still enjoyed it for the most part.  I'm glad, though, that its one hour runtime wasn't any longer, as I was starting to get fidgety.

My favorite part was a dan bau solo during the musical prelude:

Puppets gone fishing:

Back to Hanoi: And Now For Something Completely Different

During our first stay in Hanoi, our daily plan was to wander around the city and we didn't take in any of the sites, besides the Hanoi Hilton.  Returning to the city from Halong Bay, we decided to focus on the sites, especially those in the Ho Chi Minh Complex.  I don't want to sound culturally insensitive, but it was a bizarre experience.

Halong Bay

Magge and I have spent the last three days on a boat in Halong Bay, in northeastern Vietnam.  A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the bay is littered with nearly 2,000 limestone karst islets. Tantalized by pictures we've seen on the internet,  we've been looking forward to seeing it since we put Vietnam on the schedule.  Seeing it in person, we were not disappointed.  The scenery borders on the surreal; the bay and its jutting rocky islands look like the whimsical paintings you see in shops in Chinatown, but assumed were based on some mythical land instead of somewhere that could possibly exist naturally.

Hanoi

It took me five minutes, the time it took the taxi to take us from the train station to our hotel, to decide I liked Hanoi.  Even at 6am, its tree-lined streets seemed to drip with character and we were looking forward to doing some exploring.  Three days later, both Magge and I have decided that Hanoi is our favorite city that we've visited on this trip.

31 Hours on the Reunification Express

From Saigon we needed to get to Hanoi, 1,000 miles away.  It would have been easy and not prohibitively expensive to fly, but what would be the fun in that?  Instead, we opted for what is often referred to as the Reunification Express, a train that runs the distance between the two cities. 

We boarded the train in Saigon at 11pm, June 15 and arrived in Hanoi at 6am, June 17.  In between, we shared a tiny compartment with a father and his two children, got two surprisingly decent nights of sleep on paper-thin mattresses, barely ate (and what we ate wasn't good), and went through an hour-long stretch of scenery that must rank near the top of the best train experiences in the world.  As you can see below, our digs weren't exactly the Four Seasons.

Pictures from the Hai Van Pass in the full post.  Despite the poor quality due to being behind the window, they still show how amazing that area is.

Pictures from South Vietnam

Here are most of the pictures that should have made it into the last post.  If anyone has any ideas on how to avoid getting viruses when using computers at internet cafes, I'd love to hear them.

Boat ride from Phnom Penh, Cambodia to Chau Doc, Vietnam

Slow Start in Vietnam

Note: we got a virus on one of our camera cards, so this post is light on pictures for now.  Will try to add some later.
 
Our time in Vietnam did not have auspicious beginnings.  I woke up in Phnom Penh, Cambodia with a pounding headache, not looking forward to the six hour trip that was ahead.  After almost vomiting during our steamy shuttle bus ride to the jetty, I tried to sleep away most of the three hour boat ride down the Mekong River.  Apparently, it was a nice ride.  Maybe I'll see it next time.  By the time we crossed into Vietnam, the headache was the worst of my life and I no longer chalked it up to general fatigue.  That night my eyes felt like they would pop out of my skull.  Combined with the unrelenting urge to throw up, it meant I didn't sleep that night in Chau Doc.  As I wrote in another post, we determined that I had contracted dengue fever.  We were supposed to continue on to Ho Chi Minh City (still called Saigon by most residents, and referred to as Saigon in this post going forward because I like the sound of it better) the following day, but I wasn't going anywhere.  As I attempted to rest on our hard bed, the skies opened up and the rainstorm proceeded to pour water into our depressingly dark, and clearly not water-sealed, hotel room.  Hello, Vietnam, nice to be here.

Khmer Rouge

OK, I'll admit it: prior to coming to Cambodia, all I really knew about the country was that there was an abundance of places to get cheap massages.  And yes, I'll also admit that inexpensive spa treatments are really all that is necessary to get me pretty darn excited, which is why I incessantly pestered Jeff about adding Cambodia to our list of destinations despite being unable to name a single other reason why I wanted to go.  But I guess that is why this trip is so amazing: the world has become our classroom. 

The Wall, Upon Further Inspection

I apparently left out a possible reason for hitting the wall: being in the early stages of a dengue fever infection. After a few days of the worst headache I've ever had, I think I'm getting better, and am proud to be part of a husband-wife duo to stare down and defeat a flavivirus. It's all part of the experience.

The Wall

I've hit it.  I suppose most people who engage in long term travel do, but until now, I had not experienced a drop in energy since since left home seven months ago.  There was just too much to see, too much to do.  Now, sitting in Phnom Penh, I'm feeling a little worn down.  Maybe it is because we've been constantly on the move since leaving Trujillo just before Christmas.  Maybe it is the incessant heat and humidity in Southeast Asia.  Maybe it was the three days spent in a hotel room in Battambang tending to my dengue-infected wife.  Regardless of why, it is coming at a bad time, as tomorrow we leave for Vietnam, one of the countries about which I was most excited.  We'll probably just take our time over the next little while and try not to do too much.  If we find a decent beach, we'll probably take a few days to relax.  We were supposed to be in Thailand right now, with a virtual smorgasbord of the world's best beaches from which to choose, so maybe the blame for the wall goes to the Thai coup-happy culture.

Do Not Get Sick in Cambodia

Four days ago, Magge developed a debilitating headache, stomach cramps, fever and a rash on her torso. Using my extensive medical skills (trust me, my dad's a doctor), I determined she had dengue fever. We went to one of the few clinics here in Battambang that supposedly has an English-speaking doctor to confirm the diagnosis and see what our treatment options were. After a short wait, we were in a room with a doctor who seemed to understand English.

Magge: "I have an intense headache and really bad stomach pains."
Doctor: (blank stare)
Me: "She also has a rash on her stomach," while pointing it out. I thought the visual would trigger the proper reaction.
Doctor: "Is it itchy?"
Magge: "No."

The doctor then wrote a prescription, and instructed Magge to take one of the medications in the morning and the other that night.

Doctor: "This will help rash."
Me: "That's it? We're not worried about the rash."
Magge: "The bigger problem is my headache."
Doctor: "Are you taking anything?"
Magge: "Yes, extra strength Tylenol."
Doctor: "Keep taking Tylenol."
Me: "What do you think is wrong? Is it dengue?"

The doctor didn't respond and started to get up. Magge and I exchange confused looks.

Me: "Does she have dengue?"

He handed Magge the prescriptions and repeated the instructions to take one in the morning and one at night. We were lead to the cashier, given the medications (and told again to take one in the morning and one at night) and charged $10. We walked out of the clinic, armed with only antihistamines to combat a tropical fever.

Magge's condition soon worsened, but there wasn't much we could do besides keeping her hydrated. After a few rough days, she's now on the mend. If she had deteriorated further, though, the owner of the guesthouse where we are staying said we'd have to go to Bangkok rather than go to Cambodia's other large cities for treatment. As he said, "you picked the wrong country to get sick in."