Big Bear Goes to Southeast Asia... Again... and Again

Playing Lawyer in Sydney, Australia

Hong Kong - Round 2... bringing natural disasters wherever I go

Can't Stay Away from Asia

Attention Temple Addicts.. Come to Kyoto!!

Yokohama.. avoiding quakes

The REAL Japan - Nikko

Finally out of the hustle and bustle, we got to Nikko for a day trip.  Although we were only there for about 6 hours, it was awesome to finally get out of the confusion of Tokyo and see the real areas of Japan.

Nikko is only about an hour and a half outside of Tokyo, but from the second you get off the train, you are in another world.  This area is up in the mountains just North of Tokyo and it is magnificent.  Hidden in the woods surrounding the town are countless shrines dedicated to past shoguns.  It started as a famous training site for Buddhist monks, but then declined to be almost deserted.  Tokugawa Ieyasu chose it as the site of his mausoleum, and so shrines were constructed and finished by his son after hsi death.  Now, it has become a major tourist destination since it is so close to Tokyo and allows even businessmen who have come for short trips for meetings to get out to see some of the famous shrines.

Wandering through the wooded temple grounds, I realized how vastly different the Japanese are to their Asian counterparts.  Most of Asian countries have sectioned off their temples in cities and walled them in to cut them off from the surrounding area, but in Japan, they embrace the natural surroundings and have come to create a sense of oneness with nature.  While you wander through the grounds, you can see just how in touch with nature they are, and how much they appreciate the beauty that is around them.  Passing Japanese tourists, it is not uncommon to see them carrying nice cameras (Nikons are ridiculously cheap here since they are a domestic product) and shooting pictures of the flower gardens, waterfalls, and other parts of the natural beauty.  In Thailand for example, most of the pictures are taken of stone temples and statues, never paying much attention to their surroundings at all.  Just an observation I was happy about.

I won't go into detail about the temples themselves, but I will say that I got to see the original carvings of the 3 monkey relief (Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil, See No Evil) which was pretty cool, especially since I hadn't realized it was there before coming.  The temple complex is big and impressive, following a river that winds down through the mountanis. Pretty much my favorite part of Japan as of yet.  No comparison.. even though we still have Kyoto, Osaka, and Hiroshima left to see.

(Note: Before I came, I thought internet was going to be everywhere, and cheap.  Not the case.  Internet has been hard to find and is ridiculously expensive, so I've been trying to stay off as much as possible, save for the necessary hostel reservations and financial emails I have been forced to make)

Tokyo... land of confusion and blinking lights

I have to say... I have been to a lot of cities in Asia, a place where there is almost no Roman alphabet, and I have never had this much trouble finding my way around the city.  Tokyo has to be the least tourist friendly city in the world.  There are no Roman transliterations of the Japanese ganji and it is virtually impossible to fnid your way around the city without being able to read Japanese.  This obviously pout Laura and I ina  tough spot since neither one of us could read or speak.

Outside of the extreme confusion and countless backtracking escapades along the subway lines, we did manage to have a good time in Tokyo.  Although the city is outrageously expensive compared to anywhere else in Asia (hard to compare I know), we have been able to have a good time and do some stuff for free and cheap.  Hanging out along Tokyo's infamous neighborhoods - Ginza, Harajuku, Shinjuku, Ueno, etc - we were able to take in some of the very different aspects of the city. For example, the strange fashions along Harajuku where the Cos-play girls run around ion Goth outfits that they have thrown together to try to be picked up by fashion scouts.  In Ginza, we got to wander through the Sony building, electronics Mecca, where you can check out all of the new and yet to be released Sony product lines.  Not gonna lie... had a blast playing with cameras and massive LCD screens.

I think the highlight of our time in Tokyo had to be the Imperial Palace East Gardens, where we were able to wander through some beautiful gardens and see some of the cherry blossoms that are just coming out.  You're not actually allowed into the Imperial Palace grounds themselves, but can check out the bridge crossing the moats and what not.  All and all... pretty cool.

Just to give you an idea... this is what the Tokyo subway map looks like.  This would be great if they were all the same and they were labeled in the stations in Romanized letters, but they're not.  Most of the time, we had to stand there and wait for someone who spoke any English to come over and tell us how much our ticket was going to be (they have a progressive ticket pricing scale that would confuse a Nobel Prize Economist).  Also, in the stations, the actual look of the map changes, and so do the private companies that run them.  There is the Japan Rail metro and then the Metro.  When you want to change at a station, you need to make sure it is still the same line or else you have to pay a transfer charge to change from one company to the other.     I always though the NYC subway system was confusing for tourists... but now, I realize it is child's play.

Entering the Land if the Rising Sun

We`re here in the cityof the world`s most expensive real estate... Tokyo.  After one of the worst travel experiences I have ever had in my life, we finally made it here (for a while, I didn`t think we were going to make it)

 After being left in the lurch for over an hour by the van we had booked through ABAC, we didn`t even think that we were going to make our flight.  The van was supposed to pick us up at 6am at the latest so we could be there by 6:30, but at 6:15, we were still sitting there waiting.  I went to get a guard to radio the van office, and they admitted they forgot.  Finally, they dispatched a van that took 40 minutes to get there.  Normally, I would laugh it off, but with my entire life`s worth of luggage at my feet, a room reserved in Tokyo, and a pricely plane ticket in Laura`s hand, we couldn`t afford to miss the 8am flight.  At 7:05, he arrived and we made it to the airport in a fast 15 minutes after I thoroughly yelled at him in Thai and flustered English

The ticket counter was waiting for us and got Laura through right away, but because I had changed my flight to have a stop over in Japan, they changedmy baggage allowances and never told me, causing a horrible charge that I couldn`t avoid and a sprint through the terminal to pay for the overage.  Getting held up at the Immigration lines and then again at Security, Laura was relieved when I finally boarded the flight at 8:10... after having radioed the plane not to close the gate for me since THEY screwed us up. If it wasn`t for them screwing up the reservations, we actually would have made it in the nick of time, but instead, I was "that guy."

Anyway... we`re here in the most expA\Ensive city... on a backpacker`s budget and a $40 a night room that barely fits my body across while laying on the floor... I mean bed.  Oh wait... they:re the same. The bed is the floor.  How am I paying $40 a night for a floor mat?????  Oh right... this is Tokyo.

Until Next Time...Sawasdee Krop Pathet Thai

Wrapping Up India

As my final post for India, this will be relatively short.  There were a bunch of problems with the car, causing us to miss out a lot of the stuff in our final city, Udaipur, but the trip was still an incredible one.  One that I will never forget.  If you have the chance to travel through India, do it.  Take a month and do as much of the country as you can squeeze into it. It:s an exhausting place to travel, but incredibly worth it.

On our way from Jodhpur, where we had the car problems, we stopped in a amall forest town along the road to Udaipur called Ranakpur.  There is not too much to see there, but it is a relaxing place to stay and hang out in the cooler weather.  There is a huge Jain temple there where Laura and I spent some time in the afternoon before going up into the hills to see the sunset above the mountain lake there.  The temple was really cool, having 1444 pillars of stone holding the temple up, not a single pillar being carved with the same design.  It was a pretty sweet sight.  The only annoyance is the staff there.  They are quite poor, soeven the head priest was trying to make some extra money of us.  I can`t imagine walking into St. Patrick`s Cathedral and having the Cardinal walk up to someone and say "Can I show you around? Only $5!!"  Crazy.  We were wandering around the side pillars when a security guard came up to us and told us to look over the side of the wall.  There were 2 massive bee hives perched along the wall of the temple, so I took a picture of it and then the guard held out his hand saying, "you give me money for bees" and essentially stalked us through the rest of the temple.  Quite annoying until Laura gave him her "New York bitch stare" (her words, not mine).  That scared him away, and sent shivers down my spine as well.  (Don`t get on her bad side)

After the temple, we headed into the hills along some goat trail and watched most of the sunset from above the lake.  It was cool, but the best part was the shepherd we met up there.  After greeting him with the Hindi salutation "Namaste," we were treated to some warm hospitality up in his herd`s grazing area.  We got some sweet shots of him before heading on our way.

After a very short afternoon in Udaipur, we had to pack up our stuff for the final time and get ready to fly out in the morning.  That day of flying was hell... starting with a noon flight from Udaipur to Delhi on which a woman fainted in the aisle and soiled herself while going down, leaving a nice aroma in the recycling air of the cabin,  MMMM.  They let her back on the plane before taking off and then we were on our way to Delhi with a sick woman and a stifling smell in the plane. Great flight.  From there, we went back to Pahar Ganj Bazaar in Delhi to pick up our stuff from the travel agent and then head right back out to the airport to come back to Bangkok,  (There are 2 separate international and domestic airports)  Our flight wasn`t until 1am, but the driver they gave us for free couldn`t wait till later, so we went 6 hours early and sat in the passenger lounge for a few hours before going through hellish security.  Finally, we got home to my house in Bangkok about 23 hours after leaving the hotel in Udaipur, not getting any sleep at all in between.  Good times, I know.

As many problems as we had, I wouldn`t change anything about the trip and would do it again, even if I knew we were going to have car trouble and bad flights. It:s worth it to be in India!!!!

More Tata Woes

Well... we should have known better, but we assumed the worst of our car problems were behind us.  Spending 3 nights in Ranthambore (aka.. the middle of nowhere) was fine because we got to relax and knew that once it was fixed, we would be fine.  Oh no... not the case.  Now, on our way from Jaiselmer to Jodhpur, the car puttered out again, this time blowing a head gasket and sprouting lots and lots of steam as we parked on the side of the road near a small village waiting for the engine to cool and allow us to keep going a little further to make it to the outskirts of Jodhpur.

Stopped along this road, the only white people for miles, we were quite the attraction, drawing near 20 kids from 5-18 to crowd around the car and actually go so far as to stick their heads in the car to get a look at Laura.  I was not as amusing to them as I was not happy and I think they were a little petrified of me, but Laura (who stayed i the car and read her book) was very intriguing and even warranted kids to run to their houses and bring friends to have a look at "the white girl."  Laura made a great comment at one point, saying she felt like she was in a glass cage at a zoo, but in reality, I think it was closer to the feeling of being pulled straight out of "Planet of the Apes."  Quite an interesting experience, but at the same time, the kids got reallllll annoying realllll fast and we were quite happy when an older man came over and got the kids away from the car and left us to stew in our own annoyaces.

After another 11 hour day of driving and stopping, we made it to the city and left the car on the side of the road, finishing up the trip in an autorickshaw, jammed with the 3 of us and our backpacks and bags.  Another inauspicious entry into a city, but at least we got there.

I guess it was unavoidable since the first day, we looked at the car and realized the thing had a busted A/C and no radio.  It's a bare bones car, but we got a good deal, so what else can you expect?  "Mai Pen Rai" (Whatever).

PS... after returning to the hotel and awaiting the return of our car (right after posting this blurb), our driver called and told us the car is still not ready and we have to wait another whole day in Jodhpur, killing our chances of getting to stop over at Ranakpur.  Why me???

Pakistan?? Where??

Jaiselmer, the Golden City, is a jewel of a town, cut ff from most of civilization by the Great Thar Desert.  It has to be one of the coolest cities I have been to for one reason, the fort that looms over the city.  Jaiselmer Fort is one of the last forts in the world where residents still live.  As descendants of the 2 upper castes - the Brahmins (priestly caste) and the Kshatriyas (warrior caste) - are allowed to live in the sandstone fort.  From the outside, the fort looks like a legitimate sand castle in the middle of the desert.  On the inside, there is a narrow maze of ancient streets that wind through the fort, passing beautifully carved havelis (businessmen's homes) and Jain temples.  It feels like you have stepped into an Arabian city with Kashmiri rugs and textiles, spice shops, and leather workers lining the walls.

Today, Jaiselmer serves a very strategic purpose, as one of the main Air Force and Army bases in India.  Positioned only about 100 km from the Pakistani border, there were constant streams of fighter jets screaming over head to patrol the border region and on the roads into the city, we passed about 25 tanks being transported where necessary.  During the last flare up between Pakistan and India, Jaiselmer was inundated with helicopters and tanks, positioning for a possible engagement that fortunately never came.  Recently, nothing has been going on there, so it was perfectly safe to visit the border region.  (John, I tried my best to get a good shot of one of the jets flying just above the Jaiselmer Fort which was a seriously incredible sight, but everytime I tried, I couldn't get the shot)

After touring the fort and havelis throughout the city, we headed out into the Great Thar desert for a 2 day camel trek.  Along with a really cool trio of Brazilians, Laura and I hopped onto our respective camels and headed out into the desert.  Sayyah, my camel, was fond of kicking me in the calf while trying to get rid of flies, so he left a nice welt on my leg from the constant beating (they kick HARD).  Along the way, we came up to a mirage in the desert that turned out to be a real desert oasis... a little pond of collected rainwater that has somehow managed to last through the Indian heat from the monsoon season about 6 months ago.  We stopped there to top off the gas tank... and by that I mean let the camels fill themselves with water (typically drink up to 110 liters of water a day if given the chance).  As we held on for dear life as not to fall into the water as our camels bent low to drink, we were surrounded by cattle who had come to quench their thirsts as well.  Felt like we were out on the Serengheti.

There is nothing like riding a camel through the desert.  While it's an awesome experience to have been able to do, it was the destination that was the highlight of the trip.  After a few hours of riding and a stop at a desert vilage where we got to play with some of the kids, we reached the Sam Sand Dunes, only about 20 km from Pakistan.. we could actually see the border from the dunes.  These dunes are the largest sand dunes East of the Sahara and if we didn't know any better, we might have thought we were in the Middle East.  Camels in the background, sand whipping our faces in the oppressively hot wind, and scarves wrapped around our faces, it felt like we were in the middle of a scene from Lawrence of Arabia.  A seriously cool feeling.  As sunset approached, a few sets of camels on one of the western dunes were framed by the dunes and the blood red sky, giving me some pretty sweet sunset shots to be posted asap.  Sitting atop the eastern row of dunes, we got an amazing sunset and spent it with the 3 Brazilian backpackers (a husband and wife and their 3rd wheel).  As darkness set in, we headed back to our night's camp and set the fire.  Sitting on the sand, we ate one of the best dinners of our time in India (rice and dhal, desert chapati, curry curd (yoghurt), desert greens, and potato curry.  There was more than enough food for an entire family, so laura and I stuffed ourselves till neither one of us could escape the splitting stomachs.

The desert is a weird place to be at dusk, with the drastic change in temperature confusing your body like none other.  As the sand cannot hold the heat that beats down all day once it goes down, the night temperature drops drastically within about 20 minutes of the sun setting.  Within an hour of the sunset, Laura and I had broken out our longsleeves and turned to the fire for warmth.  Once finished with dinner, we retired to our dune bed, sleeping under the star-filled sky and a full moon (kid of creepy to be out in the middle of the desert during a full moon).  Sleep came quite easily after enjoying the star gazing nd 2 shooting stars, but in the middle of the night, the freezing winds woke us several times to wrap ourselves more tightly in the blankets.  Waking for sunrise, we enjoyed another beautiful morning and headed back to the camp for breakfast and tea. 

From there, we headed back to Jaiselmer and then to Jodhpur for the next leg of the trip.  Jaiselmer was a seriously cool city and I would have liked to stay a little longer to get to know the locals we met a little better, but it is obviously not in the cards for this time.  Maybe next time I make it out here.

Didn't have to Push the Car to Pushkar... thankfully

After Jaipur, we went to a place called Pushkar, one of the holiest cities in India, behind Varanassi which is on the River Ganges.  This town is in the middle of nowhere and stereotypically tucked away in a little nook of a mountain ridge.  The town wraps around a little lake which is considered to be the center of the holy town.  Some of the ashes of Mahatma Gandhi were spread in this lake and it attracts hundreds of pilgrims each day who come to make a puja there and bathe in the sacred waters.

As a guest, we were approached to make our own puja at the bathing ghats, a small section of the lake which is built with a stone pool enclosing it where locals and pilgrims come to cleanse themselves.  Laura and I were each given a Brahmin, or holy caste member, who recited a mantra with us and helped us through the small personal ceremony.  Women and men are kept separate during prayers, so we each did our own puja by ourselves.  The point of it was to spread prosperity, wealth, and good luck to our families and those we care about (you know who you are).  It was a pretty cool little ceremony, ending with the tying of our right wrist with a maroon and gold piece of string (how they knew my high school colors I don't know.. lol).  The only thing that spoiled the event was the man asking me for money once we finished.  He tried to convince me that all Americans donate $20, $40, $60, but I wasn't falling for it and I gave him a small donation that could have covered 2 meals for him.

After the bathing ghats (which we weren't allowed to take pictures of because of the naked pilgrims), we went into the bazaar to see some of the local art work and visit the temple to Brahma (The Creator).  In the bazaar, Laura and I got physically accosted by some beggars who grabbed us and proceeded to put henna on our hands.  She had such a tight grip and wouldn't let go, I seriously got a little nervous.  We allowed them to finish and then they tried to charge us a ridiculous price (which we actually didn't even have seeing as we had never spent that much money in an entire day before), so we got into an argument and gave them a small amount for the henna work.  With a little help of a local outside a cafe, we escaped the women and kept going on our way, newly decorated with henna on both hands.

The bazaar was pretty cool, feeling more like the typical Indian street bazaar I was expecting.  Narrow streets, lots of shops and cafes, old hippies smoking the Indian version of marijuana right in the streets (we did not partake), and lots and lots of COWS.  Tons of them.  At one point, when looking at a small t-shirt stand, one cow actually began to eat my bag!!  I swear.. he just got a hold and started nibbling.  There was a moronic European of unknown decent (probably from Simonetti's extended family) who wouldn't move even though I was pushing at him and asking him to move because a cow was feasting on my camera bag.  ugh...

The next day, we took a sunrise hike up one of the mountains surrounding Pushkar and got an amazing view.  While Laura hadn't been feeling well and was hurting on the way up, I was seriously feeling like a million bucks.  I guess it was a mixture of the previous day's puja and the vegetarian diet I have been following, but I had more energy than I have had in a long time.  We made it up the mountain stairway built of stones in about an hour... just in time for the sunrise to peak up and over the mountains on the oppostie side of Pushkar.  It was really beautiful, and was awesome to see.  Laura and I just kind of hung out up there for a while and watched the wild monkeys who inhabit the mountain. They were all stirred up by something, but we never figured out what it was.

That's about it for Pushkar.  It was a really relaxing city, except for those henna artists, and our hotel which was just outside the city center had a pool where we retreated to to cool off, leaving some nice pink shoulders and some more color.  At some point, I want to return there in November to be a witness to the Pushkar camel festival, the largest gathering of camels in one place in the world.  It is world famous and attracts pilgrims, shepherds, movie directors, camera crews, and thousands upon thousands of camels and those interested in purchasing one (only $500)

Our next stop was Bikaner which both Laura and I were disappointed with, but there are a few points of interest I will quickly list here to spare another posting about it:

-We ate at a famous sweet shop called Chottu Mottu Joshi sweet shop, primarily because of my friend Monica Joshi whom I thought might have family connections

-We found ourslves in the middle of a Gangaur festival (a ceremony held to bring good luck to the coming weddings)

-Visited a camel study ranch where we learned a decent amount about camels and drank camel milk.. mmmmmmm

-The main thng that really happened in Bikaner wasn't even in Bikaner, it was about 20 km outside in a town called Deshnok, home of the Karni Mata temple.  From the outside, the temple seems normal enough, but once you step inside, you see why it's out of the ordinary.  The temple is home to holy rats, called kabas.  There is a legend that one of the demigods from Indian lore had a son die and she prayed to Yama, the god of death, to resurrect her son.  He told her he couldn't but her son could be reincarnated as a rat.  This is said to have been done and now, every rat is considered to be a descendant of Karni Mata and the rats are worshipped as holy storytellers.  At the temple, Laura was hesitant to enter, but she did and we wandered through the halls of the temple, only to have a few rats scamper across our feet.  Laura got pretty disgusted by this, but I found it quite amusing.  While it is considered good luck to have a kaba cross your feet, Laura was not amused and we left pretty quickly to finish the drve to Bikaner.  Evidently, it did bring us good luck for a while too.

That's about it for Bikaner.  We were only there for 1 night and there wasn't that much to do there.

Pink City? More like a dark shade of Salmon City

The first leg of our journey without a car malfunction!!!! YAY!  We actually got from Ranthambore to Jaipur in about 4 hours, exactly how long was predicted.

Jaipur is known as the Pink City.  It is known as such for a very good reason.  It's pink.  Several decades back, English royalty visited the city and the Maharajah of Jaipur declared the city be painted pink to act as a warm welcome to the royal family.  To this day, there is a law that no house or shop within the gates of Old Jaipur can be painted any color but pink.  In reality, it isn't really a pink in the strictest sense of the word, but it's close enough for government work, so who's gonna argue?

Spending only 2 full days in Jaipur, we tried to cram as much in as possible to see the most of the city. Since the breakdown threw us off of our schedule, we had to make up the extra day in Jaipur since it was the only place with some leg room to work with.  Visiting the city's most famous temple built entirely from marble, the City Museum, and taking in a Bollywood flick at the nation's most famous and prestigious theater, we hit the ground running right after we got out of the car from Ranthambore.  The temple was really spectacular, set at the base of a large cliff, just below one of the 3 forts built to surround the city.  Hindu temples are interesting, mixing the stained glass traditions of Christianity, some Moslem art and architecture, and a distinctive Indian flare to the shrine.  The city museum was nothing to write home about, so I won't.  The Bollywood flick was basically the highlight of our first day there.  "Vivah," the new and most popular Hindi movie out right now.  So hot right now.  The movie was done completely in Hindi, with about 100 words total in English.  Obviously Laura and I were captivated by the riveting dialogue.  Follownig along mostly by paying attention to gesticulation and facial expressions, we got the gist of the movie, and can't wait to buy ti when it comes out on DVD so we can watch it with subtitles.  The word "vivah" is the name for an Indian arranged marriage, and that is obviously what the movie is about.  Somewhere around 80% of the nation still marries with these vivahs, so it was interesting to see some of the traditions associated with it.  Other than that, we were lost for the 3 HOURS of cinematic confusion that was our Bollywood adventure.

The second day was awesome, bringing us about 13 km outside of Jaipur to the Amber Fort.  With a lot of similarities to the fort at Fatehpur Sikri, Amber Fort was home to 3 wives and tons of concubines.  From atop the fort, you can see across the valley to the Indian version of the Great Wall.  It was a defensive perimeter built to help notify the fort of coming attacks.  Quite impressive.  I think the most impressive part of the fort though was the mirrored hall.  Using convex mirrors, inlayed into the marble of this dining hall, the mirrors served to reflect the lights of candles held by dancing nymphs.  They danced around the maharajah and his dining companions, giving them a show as they ate.  What a life.

In a very unique and lucky chance, we actually got to see the maharajah.  He is purely there for customary purposes, but Jaipur still has a local king who presides over the problems of the city.  Our visit coincided with the final day of a small holiday which I can't for the life of me currently remember its name.  To celebrate the holiday, the maharajah came to Amber Fort and joined some of the pilgrims who made the hike out from Jaipur to worship at the shrine there.  It was pretty cool to see the last remaining maharajah.

That was most of our day, save the City Palace and observatory of Maharajah Jai Singh, the planner and founder of Jaipur who is said to have been a genius.  He built a serious observatory that was used to calculate sun positions, astrological movements, weather, and lots of other astronomical calculations.  For the time it was built, it is quite impressive to see how much they knew about astrology and astronomy.

That's about it for Jaipur.  I wish we didn't have to rush through it, but I guess it was necessary since we still have so much to see and long distances to travel between cities now.  The next couple routes are more than double the previous ones, so we're in for the real half of the journey now.  Pushkar... Bikaner... Jaiselmer... Ranakpur... Jodhpur... and then the final stage, Udaipur.  Should be interesting.  Hope all is well back home, and keep me updated on what is going on back there.  I miss hearing anything about news since we are completely cut off from all news media and have no clue what is going on in the world.

Stranded with Tigers.. or a lack of tigers

Ranthambore National Park was made famous about 8 years back when then-President William Jefferson Clinton visited the park and saw one of the park's endangered Bengali tigers.  Since then, the park has been on the tourist map and has steadily gained popularity.  From Agra, we had to head out on another supposed 3.5 hour drive to get to the town of Ranthambore.  We were a little skeptical of whether we would get there in the alotted time, but we were making amazing time until it happened.  A little pssssst and then the steam.  Radiator = kapoot... donezo... finito... el fin.  Danjee, Laura, and I all held our collective breath as he popped the hood and released a cloud of radiator fluid steam.  A beautiful sight since there was nothing near us save a small shepherd's outpost across the road.  Brilliant!  Laughing at our amazing fortune and wondering if our offerings at the temple in Delhi went sight unseen by my boy Ganesha, protector of households., we sat there and let the engine cool before removing the cap and checking out the situation we had once again found ourselves in. 

About 45 minutes later and a few litres of water from the hand pump across the street, I pushed the car back to life with the help of some motorbike riders.  Back on the road with a blown radiator.  I dunno how we made it as far as we did, but Danjee got us to the next town which would be our home for the next 4 or 5 hours.  Sitting in the car and passing our time by making faces at little children and each other, Laura and I read our way back from coronary thrombosis (is that even a real heart condition?)  Wondering if we were ever going to get to a single destination on time, or in this case, at all, we kept each other entertained while our radiator cap was welded back together.

Compltetely out of the loop as to what was going on, we sat there for hours waiting to get the "Isss okayyy" from Danjee, but it never came.  Instead, we got a lowered head and a terse statement.  "We go to Renthambore by other car."  You're the boss Danjee!!  An Mahindra jeep (a knockoff of a Land Cruiser) pulled up and off we went into the burgeoning darkness (SAT word... look it up!!) and finally arrived at the Ranthambore Palace Hotel just before the kithen closed for the night.

As well as being the place where I vowed never to cross another bovine demigod again, Ranthambore is also the place where I made a vow to remain a vegetarian lifestye for the rest of the trip, to appease the vegetarian gods and get us through the rest of this trip in some semblance of normalcy.  Meat eaters beware of India.  No meal in which I consumed animal flesh was there not repurcussions to come in the following hours.  Since I gave up meat in this ironically Lenten season, nothing.  No Delh Belly... no nothing.  A perfect bill of traveler health.  Who would have thought, the one thing that gets my goad more than anything else is the thing that would hasten my stomach's return to normalcy.  Don't worry men... there will be a return of the BBQing legend upon my exi of the subcontinent, but for the next few weeks, I'm going meatless... I'm turning to the dark side for the greater good - temporarily.

Being stuck in Ranthambore wasn't all that bad actually.  We got a chance to catch up on some reading, some "Would You Rather" and a tiger safari in the park.  The park is a few hundred square kilometers, with 5 different safari trails to take in an attempt to see one of the endangered creatures.  After 3 hours on the canter - an oversized open aired jeep - we returned tigerless.  Not tigeress... tiger LESS.  Nothing.  Nada.  Zilch.  The safari that went off before us and the one that went off the next day both saw tigers, one seeing 4 tigers (tigeress and 3 cubs), but we saw none.  Luck of the draw I guess.  Not to leave empty handed, we took a trip up to the Ranthambore Fort and checked out the ruins of that mountain top fortress.

From Indian history, there were 22 warring states who fought constantly, trying to gain influence among the tribes.  From this era of Indian history, there are countless mountain top forts which were constructed to see for miles out over the mostly flat desert landscape.  As you drive through India, especially in the Rajastan area, you spot some really impressive forts that have been long abandoned by people and overtaken by monkeys and other wildlife.  They each have their own distinctive style and depending on which area, they have very different architecture, making it interesting to visit one after the other and not be bored by the repetition. but I'll save the descriptions of forts for Amber and Jodhpur.  For now... back to life and the city of Jaipur... after Jaipur, we're off to Pushkar, so hopefully we'll have access once we get there so I can keep boring you all with post after post from this amazing country.

Traffic, our Tata, Touts, and the TAJ

With all of the traveling I have done in this area of the world - all of the buses, cars, jeeps, pickups, tuk tuks, motorbikes, and trains - NOTHING has compared to the roads of India.  NOTHING.  The only possible way to accuratey describe the roads in India is "utter mayhem."  That is it.  To show pictures of the traffic doesn't allow you to witness the breakneck weaving and jostling for position that constantly disorients.  Jam packed with every type of transportation available, the streets of India are home to a continuous blare of horns, putter of autorickshaws (tuk tuks), hiss of truck brakes, the clatter of cow hooves, and my favorite... the spitting of camels.  That is correct sir... camels.  As all of these modes of transportation converge, it is nothing short of a miracle of Ganehsa that nobody is killed on every street corner.  At least in Vietnam there was some semblance of an order or at least an unwritten rule of how the traffic flows.  Not for the Indians.  No sir.

After leaving Delhi with the last remnants of its infamous "Delhi Belly" (figure it out for yourselves.. I think it is self explanatory) losing its grip on my inner workings, Laura and I headed out onto the road in our 1970s looking Tata hatchback.  Our driver, Danjee (spelling?) brought us out for our first experiences on the open roads of India on our way south to the "City of Love."  No... not Paris.  Agra.  With no A/C in our car (that would have made it unaffordable) and our windows rolled down, we hit the road and the smell of cow manure.  hmmmmm delicious.  Heading down the 2 lane highway, we held our hearts slightly above our epiglotis for most of the first 2 hours of the drive, gasping at Danjee's prowess at playing chicken with grain trucks.  You never know you've lived until you go barrelling down an Indian highway with a deuce and a half packed high with burlap sacks of grain coming right back 'atcha.  Who needs illici substances when you can rent a car in India??  Not this traveler!!  Don't worry oh family of mine... it's not as scary as it sounds ( lying ).  With our very powerful squeak toy horn as our protection, we made it all the way to Agra (200 km) in about 3.5 hours.  Oh wait... no we didn't.  That was when we were SUPPOSED to reach Agra.  Without a bump in the road, how could traveling be fun?  In this case, it wasn't just a bump in the road... but thousands upon thousands of bumps stretched out for miles along the dirt path that was our "Highway Construction Detour From HELL."

Apparently we got to India at the absolute perfect time, because spring is here.  The weather is a mild 90-98 everyday and the tourist high season isn't quite upon us yet.  UNFORTUNATELY for us, that also means that all the contruction is being done, making our 3.5 hour trip a nice relaxing 6.5 hours (with the complimentary spine compaction from the ruts in the road).  A 3 hour hold up and a bruised bottom weren't enough for the Hindu gods smiling down upon us with sinister laughs.  Oh no!  Not this time.  Brahma and Shiva had one more thing in store for us.. the ubiquitous "stall and push" technique that would become a routine on this oh so wonderful first day on the road.  Yes... that is correct.  With such a quality piece of automotive engineering comes the skill of pushing a car down the road to essentially crank start it.  As we kept stalling out or stopping for food, we would flag down some unsuspecting Indian passerby for a little help and enlist him to help me in pushing the car back to life.  I love it!!  "Oh India... our torrid love affair begins."        ( -Laura Bruskin)

After finally reacing Agra, we checked into the hotel and quickly got back to the car and went right back to the Tata to push her back to life and then headed off to see the most beautiful building in the entire world, the Taj Mahal.  Built by Emperor Shah Jahan as a memorial to his wife Mumtaz Mahal (died in labor with their FOURTEENTH child in 1631), this gem in the middle of a desolate landscape was a sight for sore eyes, and in our case, sore butts as well.  The night she died, the emperor's hair was said to have turned grey overnight... kind of like my mother's did from October 24th to the 25th, the grand year of my birth, 1984.  A day that will live in infamy. 

When you pull up to the parking area at the Taj, you have to transfer to an electric cart or a horse to bring you to the building itself.  With the increase in cars in the area, acid rain has become a problem in keeping the grandeur of the marble domes intact.  As you reach the outer gates, you stil cannot see the building itself.  You have to frst pay an exorbitant amount of money to enter (foreigners $24/Indians $0.50).  After paying the criminals that are the Taj Mahal ticket handlers, you walk into the outer gate under which your heart skips a beat.  There it is, staring right back at you in all of it's glory.  Personally, I thought that the hype was going to ruin the experience for me, but walking through that gate, every description I had ever heard came alive in that moment.  It is without a doubt, one of the most beautiful sights I have ever laid my eyes upon.  Reflecting in the mirrored pool running the length of the ornamental gardens, right up to the foot of the gate, you get a "double shot of Taj, no fat latte."  Hordes of people stand at this world famous photography point and along with them, I snapped what would have been an entire roll of film.  Instead, I just took up a few MBs of memory.

Entering the Taj is nothing compared to the walk up to the marble edifice.  As you get closer, you can start to make out the precious stone inlay work and the marble sculpting that cost an equivalent of $70 million and took half a decade to complete.  The entire complex, gates and guest house included, took 22 years to complete and remains one of the most magnificent monuments to love in the world today.  I really don't mean to sound redundant about its beauty, but if you have seen it, you understand how easy it is to fall in love with.

With our quick stop over in Agra only lasting a total of about 17 hours, we left early the next morning to visit the ancient fortified ghost city of Fatehpur Sikri.  Acting as the capital for a quick 14 years, being abandoned shortly after Akbar the Great's Death in 1585.  Laura and I got an interesting tour from a local guide who showed us around all of the main points of interest (of which I will spare you).  He even brought us to the rear palace where Akbar, his 3 wives (1 Muslim, 1 Hindu, and 1 Christian) and countless concubines resided.  It's Good To Be The King!  I think my favorite part of his palace, and a piece that will garner a chuckle from all 3 of the Bloch men (Rene included) and an eye roll from more than 1 of the women in my life was the secret passageway that Akbar built to allow him to leave directly from any one of his wives' houses and go straight to his harem.  Oh man... that's the life.  Who needs 3 wives when you could have an entire courtyard of concubines?!?  I'll leave it at that.  Off to Ranthambore National Park and what would come to be my first "Ahhh Shit!" moment of the trip.

Subcontinental Surprises

I'm finally on the subcontinent.  I have seriously been waiting for the past 9 months to get here and it is more surreal to be here than it has been to be anywhere else I have traveled to in Asia.  Since Bruskin got here, we have randomly just looked at each other and made comments like "20 days" "2 weeks!!" or somehting of the sort, just throwing out the time until we moved on to India. Now it is here and I pinch myself regularly to make sure.

We got into New Delhi really late last night and the first experiences were not part of the auspicious start I had hoped for.  We got in and immediately ran into currency exchange problems, pre-paid taxi issues, and some plain overwhelming experiences... and that was before we even got out of the airport. I thought Laura and I were going to have it out in the cab on the way back just because we were both on edge and annoyed at the situation as well as being exhausted from a really really long day (we got up early to head down to Wat Phra Kaew and Wat Pho in Bangkok before coming home, grabbing our then dry laundry, packing our bags, and heading out for the 4 hour flight to India).

Today was much different than the first night, so I have to say, I am already falling in love with India.  The sights, smells, and feeling of being grabbed by begging children come at you simultaneously and don't stop until you are back in your guesthouse.  I think Chris' advice was some of the best I had gotten before coming.  He told Laura and I, "Make sure you never let your guard down or else you're going to get taken or worse.. pickpocketed, but at the same time, be sure to let the good in while keeping the bad out.  You'll understand how when you get there."  Great words of advice and I can now understand exactly what he meant.  Just walking along the Main Bazaar road where we are staying, the ox carts, beggars, touts, auto rickshaws, bicycle rickshaws, and crush of people comes at you full speed.  Nothing is separating you from INDIA.  You just have to appreciate the craziness and embrace the crush of humanity while at the same time, make sure you are always staying on your guard for that beggar who grabs you in the wrong place or the pick pocket that sneaks up on you.  Laura and I have each other's backs here, keeping an eye out for the other, but at the same time, are making sure we soak in the atmosphere.

Today, we did the New Delhi district.  The city is split into 2 areas - New and Old Delhi.  New Delhi is the area of the city where most business takes place.  It houses the House of Parliament and the President's house which are even closer than Capitol Hill and 1600 PA Ave.  There is a saying in India about their foreign aggressors... "Build a new capital, lose India."  It has come true everytime.  Every foreign power who has ruled India has built a new capital or added to an existing one, changing the location of power even if slightly as the British did when they moved the capital from Old to New Delhi and built this new area of the city.  After 300 years, they finally lost it right after WWII in 1947, the same year Gandhi was assasinated.

We headed over to the National Museum for an introduction to Indian civilizational history and a very whilwind tour of Indian art and sculpture, taking full advantage of the free audio tour we were given with entry.  The museum is under renovgation right now, so there were a bunch of exhibits closed, but we definitely got a good introduction to Indian culture there.  After that, we headed over to a pretty disappointing Safdarjeng's Tomb and then over to Indira Gandhi's house, now a museum commemorating the work of the 3 most important Gandhis - Mahatma, Indira, and   Indira was assasinated on the property, so there is a crystal pathway dedicated to her, right where she was gunned down by her own Sikh bodyguards.

Speaking of Sikh's, after the museum, we went to Gurdware Bangla Sahib, the main Sikh temple in Delhi.  The autorickshaw driver we had for the second part of the day was a Sikh, so he was happy to come in with us and show us around the temple. giving us little tidbits of information as to what was going on.  We actually got there at the perfect time, just in time for the prayer calls.  As we walked in, everyone dropped to their knees in front of the temple, and began bowing and praying.  Laura and I got to watch it and just take it in, standing there on the marble terrace barefoot and with headscarves on in place of turbans.  We got to head into the temple and see some of the service, but the coolest part was just watching the interactions and how the Sikh's handled themselves in a temple.  I am used to Buddhist temples, so it was interesting to see the process in a Sikh temple.  Around the back is a reservoir containing water that is said to possess healing powers, so people gather around it and dip their hands, feet, and some even their whole bodies into the water to cleanse themselves.  There were some huge fish (catfish and coi) in the water as well.

Laura and I were pretty beat, so we cut the day short after the temple and headed back to Pahar Ganj, the backpackers area where we are staying again tonight.  We got a little pick-me-up snack and headed back out to the train station to set up our tickets for tomorrow's trip to Agra to see the Taj Mahal.  On our way, we were being called by tout after tout after tour, but one caught my attention by asking me if I was from Brooklyn.  I was like... huh?  So I looked at him and said "Close.. how did you figure?"  Apparently he took a random\ guess cause we looked like New Yorkers and he has a bunch of friends in Brooklyn.  Random.  Anyway... we went in and after about an hour of talking about trains and buses, we agreed upon a car rental and package which would allow us a lot more freedom for where we go, extra time in a few places, and a few extra destinations we weren;'t going to be able to see on the train/bus routes.  After doing the math, we realized that doing Rajastan this way would actually be almost as cheap as the trains/buses we had planned on taking.  Laura and I easily agreed on this new direction and pretty much completely changed our itinerary for India.  The guys at the shop are amazing and they Ishak, the one we spent the most time with, is calling me "brother" because of how open and friendly we have already become only after a few hours.  But that is for another story....  As for the rest of the trip, I'm going to be in and out of internet capable areas for the next 19 days, so I will hopefully get some posts up from Jodhpur, Jaiselmer, and Udaipur - in between remote desert out posts and national parks.  Hopefully I haven't bored you already, but if I haven't you should be excited to hear about the next legs... they should be incredible!!!!!!!     Incredible !ndia

Angkor Wat Round 2... after a 3 year intermission

Wow... I am completely flustered just thinking about where I have been in the past 3 weeks.  It blows my mind to believe that this trip is actually underway and that I have already put 2 more countries under my belt, even though one of them is a repeat.  At the moment, I am sitting in a small, closet sized internet cafe in the back of the guesthouse Laura and I are staying at in New Delhi, India.  Yep... that's right... India.

As for Cambodia, I have to say... it is one of my favorite countries and I am so happy that I got the chance to go back and further explore the areas I never got to see when I visited there 3 years ago while still a student studying abroad.  I did the same cities - Phnom Penh and Siem Reap (the only 2 cities worth spending any significant time in) - but I got to wander different areas and have different experiences in each place.

This is Laura's first time in SE Asia, so she has never been to Cambodia.  As the veteran of the trip, I was installed as the resident tour guide.  I failed at that job in Phnom Penh, the capital city, seeing as I couldn't really remember the details of that congested and slightly annoying city, but I think I came back and redeemed myself once we got up to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat.  In Phnom Penh, we got to see the Tuol Sleng Genocide museum (S-21) where thousands upon thousands of state prisoners were held for "reeducation" before falling victim to the Khmer Rouge's genocidal forces.  Tuol Sleng was a neighborhood primary school in a residential area of Phnom Penh, buyt once Pol Pot came into power and began his campaign to "cleanse" the Khmer population and institute a socialist society, they effectively stopped education and sent their children out to the fields to support the state's agriculture needs.  (I mean come on.. who needs an educated youth when they're just going to be clubbed to death and buried in mass graves anyway? --> sorry for the dark visual)  I had been to S-21 before and it had the same effect on me this time... complete and utter silence, just staring at the cells and the pictures of the beaten and imprisoned people who came through.  Out of the thousands of people who came through S-21 in it's near decade of being open, only 7 people survived, being freed in the midst of torture when the Vietnamese came through and liberated the 7 remaining prisoners.  When the Khmer Rouge had found out that the Vietnamese army was coming though, they had killed all the rest of the prisoners less those 7.  Absolutely horrible, but I tell you this because it is important to understand what happened there to make sure we don't let it happen again.

After the emotionall draining experience at the Killing Fields and S-21, we headed back on a plane up to Siem Reap, the tourist capital of Cambodia.  Most of you probably know how obsessed I am with Angkor Wat, but for those of you who don't, you will soon realize it.  It is a photographer's dream and my second trip even surpassed the first in how much I got to see because of how much longer we were there.  The first time, spending it with Reavey, Faherty, and Santos - we only had enough time to get the 1-day pass since Reavey and I had just returned from Bali.  This time, Laura and I had 4 days in Siem Reap, so we were able to get the 3-day pass which allows for a lot more flexibility with touring the ruins and getting to see the mroe remote areas that are off the tourist trail.  Here is a quick synopsis..... (pics to follow once I get to Japan and have my laptop and a legit internet connection)

There are 2 loops that are generally accepted as the standard routes to take when visiting Angkor.  The first is the smaller, "Minor Loop" which consists of Angkor Wat (the central attraction of the ruined civilization), Angkor Thom (the royal city consisting of Bayon, Ta Prohm, the Elephant Terrace, and a ton of more minor areas), and a few subsidiary temples along the trail.  That is the crowded, overpopulated, and often congested trail.  Today, with Cambodia being so easily reached and toured, it has become a standard destination on the European/Asian backpacker route, bringing thousands of people there everyday.  While it is great to be able to open the temple up to more and more people - thus bringing more money for restoration projects, it has taken away from some of the majestic feelings of the temple.  Back in the day, it was apparently easy to find yourself completely alone and at peace in the jungle ruins, but today, with the Japanese tour groups and tuk-tuks filled with backpackers, it is a very very rare occureance.  One which Laura and I only found once in the entire first day.  This was quite annoying seeing as I had to wait for perfect timing to get shots of the temple without someone wandering into my shot.  Even with the people, it was still an amazing time and I am so glad I got to do it again.

Now... the "Grand Loop."  This is the route that is much less traveled and it was evident from the moment we got back into the temple grounds.  This loop is actually so much further away from the rest of the temple complex that we had to ride over an hour longer in our tuk-tuk to get out to the Banteay Srei temple, the temple dedicated to the Khmer women.  This is actually the most intact temple in all of Angkor, being hidden from the winds and the torments of the weather.  Walking through this red sandstone temple,. you can peer closely at the intricate relief carvings all throughout the pathways and on the temple itself.  Absolutely amazing - Laura and I were just staring, open mouthed at the carvings, trying to appreciate the craftsmanship that must have gone into it, especially thousands of years ago.  From Banteay Srei, we headed back towards the main complex and Ta Som, Phra Tom, and a bunch more that I am blanking on their names (I'll correct that when I get my journal out later).  These were all more traditional Khmer architecture, moving away from the sandstone of Banteay Srei, and back to the grey stone used throughout the majority of Angkor.  Here, in complete contrast to the "Minor Loop," Laura and I found ourselves standing amongst the ruins in complete solitude, save a few wanderers who would cross our path here and there.  Absolutely majestic!  With the sounds of the tree frogs, deafening locusts, and everything else you can imagine, Laura and I kept sitting down in little cool shaded enclaves and just took it in in silence.  Without a word, we just kind of let each other soak it in and contemplate our location.  It was funny because at the end, we both just kind of laughed and realized we each had the same idea about just sitting there and keeping our mouths shut, hoping the other would do the same.  Great minds think silently alike!

That's my really "quick" synopsis of Angkor, but again, if you are interested in going there and want to ask me about it.... feel more than free to grill me about it.  I can talk about it for hours.  It is still up in the Top 5 places I have ever been.  With that, I'll move on to India and start a new post about the first experiences on the subcontinent.

-Mhe Yak

"Shooting the Rabbits" in Pagsanjan

If you've seen the movie Apocolypse Now, then you know the waterfall we went to see.  It is the one featured in the final scenes of the movie, all the way up the river.  If you can't picture it, you can check out the pics I'll post once I get back to Bangkok tomorrow.  To get over there, we set out at about 6am with Carlo in the driver's seat, to make the 2.5 hour trip over to Laguna province's travel capital of Pagsanjan.  Caught in intermittent downpours, our moods were glum seeing as we were planning on spending most of the day out on a river, but luckily, the worst of it passed before we got out on the river, although not stopping until we got into the car to head home later in the day (irony much?)

Cramming into the middle of a legitimate bangka (made with real dugout logs), Laura and I squeezed into the bottom of the boat with 1 boatman on either side - Carlo and Colin being in their own bangka.  The first part of the river was wide open, so we had an outboard boat tug us up stream to where the river narrows.  This is where it got interesting, and where the phrase "shooting the rabbits" comes from.  (Carlos had come to Pagsanjan before, and when his friends had said they were going to "shoot the rapids," he had heard "shoot the rabbits."  Thinking they were going hunting, he wore appropriate clothes, being completely surprised when they got there and got into the boats.  Telling us this story, we all had a good laugh...) Well... to get up the river, the boatmen had paddles, but I think they spent most of their time outside of the boat.  It is really hard to explain, but these shallow draft canoes were literally PUSHED up the river by the boatmen - jumping from side to side of, from rock to rock, shoving the boat up through small rapids.  It's really hard to picture this without having seen it, but I have a pic or 2 that will help explain the process.  These guys were seriously working up a sweat, bringing us up through this narrow rocky river, up a descent set of rapids while we just sat there getting soaked by the river and the rain.

The river canyon was absolutely magnificent.  This river has spent millions of years cutting its way through this canyon, and there are small waterfalls cascading over the sides of the vertical cliffs on either side.  If I didn't know it, I would have thought I was hundreds of miles away from civilization in the middle of the Amazon or Borneo's rainforest.  After about an hour or backbreaking labor, pushing the boat up the river, we finally reached the falls.  Because of how famous this waterfall is and how popular the boat trip has become in the past few years, there were a decent amount of toursists with us at the falls, mostly Koreans.  Luckily, since we got out there really early, we beat the majority of them who we passed on the way back down the river later on.

At the falls, there were bamboo rafts that you could take under the falls, to the cave behind it.  There were Filipino boatmen with ropes that pulled you along while you sat on the raft and brought you to and into the falls, giving me a nice cold and extremely powerful shower.  Once in the cave, we could get off the raft and wade into the falls.  Of course I had to do this since I don't pass up any chance to do something crazy.  Sharing the raft with Colin and a bunch of Koreans, we were of course the only stupid Americans who were crazy enough to get off the raft and make our way into the falls, but it was amazing.  The water was only chest deep and we had the ropes and lifevests in case we slipped, but we made our way slowly into the falls and tried to get Laura's attention (who chickened out from the raft) to see if she could see us, but it was a vain attempt trying to yell over the roar of the water.  Unfortunately, we don't have any pics of us walking through the falls, but got some on the raft.

I would have to say, this trip was probably the highlight of the Philippines trip, even though the whole trip was incredible.  At the moment, we are back in Manila, resting up after the exhausting couple days of trekking across volcanoes and up jungle canyon rivers - waiting till tomorrow when we catch our flight back to Bangkok and have to say goodbye to the Philippines. I really do hope I get a chance to come back here and see the North of the country since we spent all of our limited time in Manila and the southern areas of this island, not able to really explore the north (which takes about 14 hours of buses and jeepneys to get to).  We'll see if it is in the cards in the future.

Laura and I during the boat ride up the river to the falls.  I love these ghetto life jackets.

The 4 of us at the falls before heading back down the rapids

Along the Rim of a Volcano

I have to say, with all of the stuff I had read in travelogues, websites, and the Lonely Planet about the Philippines, specifically the Lake Taal area, in no way was I ready for what we were so fortunate to see.  As many of you know, a family friend, Dr. Marino, and his wife, offered me the use of their rest house south of Manila which overlooks the Taal Volcano in the province of Batangas.

Dr. Marino set us up with his brother-in-law, Jimmy, and his nephew, Carlo who lives in Manila, so we would have some way to get down to the house and show us around the area since it isn't an extremely touristy area.  This was an amazing gesture, so we were extremely grateful.  Carlo picked us up from the Pan Pacific hotel after work and drove us all the way down to the house, stopping to pick up the keys from Jimmy and Jiji.  Without knowing it, they had arranged it so that Carlo would stay with us the whole time at the house, providing us with a translator and a car to help us get around the area.  I still can't believe how amazing they were to us and Carlo treated us like we were his family.  I don't know how to repay him, but Laura and I are taking him out to dinner tonight so that we can thank him for all he did.  Anyway... back to the trip....

We got to Lake Taal in the middle of the night, so we didn't really have a chance to see it in the daylight, but I did get some cool night shots from the mountain road up to Tagaytay which overlooks the lake and volcano, so we had an idea what it looked like.  Up in Tagaytay, we had an amazing Filipino meal out on the ridge of the mountain - consisting of baked mussels, chicken/pork adobo (grilled in a soy sauce marinade), and the coup de gras of the meal... bovine tripe and oxtail stew.  Delicious.  Carlo was quite impressed with how eager Colin and I were to try everything, but Laura was sitting across the table with an interesting look on her face as we agreed to it (seeing as she is a vegetarian).  lol.  The meal was amazing, and it was a great introduction to legit Filipino cuisine from a native.  We basically talked Carlo's ear off all through dinner and then hanging out at the house afterwards because we wanted to know as much as we could about Filipino culture and his situation there.

The next morning was absolutely breathtaking.  We woke up in the traditional bamboo constructed house - which in itself is gorgeous - walked outside, and had to pick my jaw up off the floor from the view.  It was absolutely breathtaking.. and I just sat out on the porch for a while, taking it in.

We took the first day to explore the immediate area and get some day time shots from the mountain road back up to Tagaytay, but our second day was a lot more interesting.  We got up nice and early to beat the rest of the tourists headed out.  Hopping into a motorized bangka (a dugout boat with bamboo outriggers), we crossed the Taal Lake to the shores of the volcano island.  It was ridiculously hot already at 9am, so we decided to go ahead and rent horses to make the ascent up to the volcano's rim.  After paying for the horses and guide, we headed up the dusty face of the mountain, passing sizzling and steaming volcanic vents as we went up.  The horses struggled for some of the way because of how steep it was (the moment I realized we made the right decision with the horses), but we got up there in a little over an hour.  From the rim, we just stood there, looking into the sulphur lake of the crater, picking out little pockets of activity along the ridge.  The last time the volcano erupted was about 60 years ago, but it was very powerful and destroyed a lot of the surrounding area.  From the top of the rim, it's easy to see why.  The poor native population has developed the shores of the volcanic island as a staging area for the tilapia farms they have set up on the lake.  Tilapia is the most abundant fish in the area, so there are fisheries floating along the edge of the volcano on all sides.  Even a small eruption would probably wipe it out.  We spent a while up at the top, taking pictures and just taking it in, but it was so hot, we couldn't stay up there for too long, even with the small shelters they had built.

The trip up the volcano was a little harrowing as the horse stumbled up the craggly trail, but I have to say, it was nothing compared to the descent.  Filipino horses are a different breed than the ones we are used to in North America.  The horses here are much smaller, almost like ponies.  They are a lot narrower and shorter.  The shorter part was fine, because it was easy to get on and off, but the narrow back gave me some problems on the climb down.  It seriously felt like I was sliding off either side the entire time we were coming down the volcano - slipping to the right and left as "Ed" made sudden turns.  NOT comfortable.  (but worth it)

It was pretty cool crossing the island, and I'm glad we did it, even if it was a little expensive for our backpackers' budgets.  We justified it with the fact that we thankfully didn't have to pay for room and board.  The next day, we were definitely feeling it in our rear ends from bumping along the trail on the hard saddles, and to be honest, I'm still sore, but I'll leave it at that.  lol.

"It's an island in a lake on an island in a lake on an island in an ocean." -Laura Bruskin

When she said that.. I think I almost had a seizure... my mind just couldn't wrap around it

The lake was legitimately bubbling at some parts, smelling the sulphur, and you could see the yellow sulphur coming up to the surface of the volcanic lake.  Anyone for a swim?