Group Tour Through Vietnam

It's been a busy few days for us and we are already into day #2 of our 10 day group tour through Vietnam. Where did we leave off?

Oh yes, we had just finished a two day tour of the Mekong Delta. Our tour was a whirlwind and included finishing in the mud wearing traditional Vietnamese costumes, lots of tropical fruit, and a homestay with a local family. The trip was very nice, but it was hot hot hot, especially as we tried to sleep. At 5am the local announcements came on over the village's PA system. Needless to say, we didn't get much shut-eye, if any. Our second day included more delicious food and tropical fruit, plus a ride on a sampan (boat) through the jungle.

We met up last night with our group here in Ho Chi Minh City. Our group is very nice and consists of 2 Kiwis, 4 Aussies, 1 girl from the UK, one from Germany, and one American, who by chance also works at PwC (although she's living in Sydney). We enjoyed a traditional Vietnamese dinner while our guide Tuyen, taught us how to say cheers - they essentially say 1, 2, 3, Cheers!

This morning we visited the Cu Chi Tunnels, which is where the town and soldiers hid from American soldiers in the "Anti-American War" as they call it here. We got to crawl into tiny hiding spots and through a very claustrobic tunnel, but it was a neat experience!

Tomorrow we take a tour of Ho Chi Minh City on a cyclo before flying to Hoi An, where we hope to get some tailored clothes made. We're having loads of fun, but wouldn't mind if the temps dropped a bit :)

The Kingdom of Cambodia

We spent 4 days 18th to the 21st of April in Cambodia (Siem Reap) to be exact. We had signed up for a 4 day Independent tour trough Intrepid Travel. We had heard great things about Interpid while in New Zealand so we were hoping that it would be nice. We arrived at the Siem Reap airport (very small) and walked off the plane to a rush of humid hot sticky air. We knew we were in for some hot weather as it was only 9am in the morning. Our guide, Kheang, and our driver, So, met us and we headed to the car. We checked into the hotel and then it was off to visit some of the amazing temples that the Khmer people built many years ago. We visited temples which were built as early as the 9th century. One of the main temples that are visited is Angkor Wat which is the largest religous monument in the world and was built in the 12th century. There were many other temples as well including the one which was used in the Tomb Raider movie.

Cambodia uses the Reil as their currency, but in actual fact, most places accept USD and the prices are in USD. There is also a lot of English used which is good, because the Khmer language is very difficult and is written a form of sanskrit which makes it difficult to read as well.

A couple of our highlights were visiting the temples of course, cruising on Tonle Sap River and seeing the boating villages which live on the large lake, visiting a local village, spending time at the night market, riding in a Tuk Tuk around town, seeing pick-up trucks packed with 30-40 people driving on the highway, and the cheap price of food, a full meals costs around 2-4 dollars (draft beer was 50 to 75 cents).

Cambodia was absolutely amazing and it's hard to put into words how much we loved the Kingdom. We would love to go back and see more of the country at some point as everyone we met was super friendly. We imagine that there may be some unfriendly people as every country has them, but we didn't find any.

We're in Vietnam now, and have just completed a 2 day trip to the Mekong Delta. We start our 10 day tour Northbound tomorrow night and will post more later.

China is done

We are finishing up our time in China and are currently in the Shanghai airport. We had a very nice time in Shanghai and is probably the one city that we have visited in China that we could potentially see ourselves living (probably not though). Seeing the difference between the Chinese and Japanese cultures has been unreal. They are so different in so many ways.

Our time in Shanghai started with a visit to the Bund area which everyone speaks very highly of. We unfortunately didn't think that it was very nice as most of it was under construction and very dirty. The city is preparing for the World Business Fair which is next May here in Shanghai. The US is being a little difficult right now and saying that they are not going to participate in the fair as they don't want to spend the money to build their pavilion.

We also went up to the top of the Jin Mao tower, the Shanghai Museum, walked around the French Concession, and went to the old city area. We didn't have a guide or do any tours here, so we managed the city on our own, using the subway which was very easy to use.

Here in Shanghai, there are a lot of people walking around the street asking if we want to go into the back alley's and buy watches, bags, etc. Erin and I created a little game with these people and as we saw them coming up to us, we would walk in two different directions and confuse them. It was very fun. Unfortunately there were times when we couldn't avoid them and they just don't take no for an answer. In one incident, Erin was rather frustrated and swatted the lady.

It's now off to Vietnam for 1 night and then to Cambodia for 3...Hope all is well with everyone.

Xi'an and Guilin

It's been a while since we have posted last, but we have been very busy doing things in China. I will put down some of the things in bullets below, and then add in a few stories.
-Took the overnight train from Beijing to Xi'an and shared a room with 2 Chinese people
-Maria (our English speaking guide) met us at the airport and brought us to meet our driver (Mr. Bai) and then we were off
-Saw the remains of a 6000 year old tribe at an archaeological site (the tribe was called Banpo tribe)
-Saw the Terracotta Warriors which were constructed to protect the Emperors tomb (there are over 6000 of them and were discovered about 30 years ago by some farmers)...AMAZING
-Rode a double bike on the top of the old city wall
-Ate lots of dumplings
-Saw the bell and drum towers
-Flew to Guilin and took a taxi ride from a scary driver to the hotel
-Took a boat cruise on the Li River (saw amazing mountain peaks, very beautiful)
-Walked around the streets
-Went into some caves, saw Pagodas, got stared at

We have done a lot over the past few days. There are a lot of children over here who wear pants that have a hole in the crotch area. The reason for this is that diapers are expensive and a lot of people don't have money for them, so they keep it open and the kids just go to the bathroom when they have to (very weird). We saw the first kid with this in Beijing, but here in Guilin, we have seen so many more with them. In Xi'an when we were in a restaurant eating dumplings and enjoying ourselves, I looked over Erins shoulder and saw...yes that's right a kid peeing on the floor of the restaurant...I'm not joking.

Erin and I have done a lot of things over our lives where people have been watching us from performing shows, solo's, playing sports, giving speeches, to guest lecturing. All of these events have resulted in people looking at us, but NEVER in our lives have we had so many people staring at us. It's unreal, at first I thought I had something on my face, then I thought my fly was open. None of those were it, I think that many people in Xi'an and Guilin especially may be visiting from a farming village and just haven't seen people as good looking as us...hahah

The other day we took the Li River cruise here in Guilin, we booked it through the Sheraton (where we are staying) and our tour guide was David. He was very nice and as we approached the dock area, there were probably about 1000 people outside getting on various boats. He told us that it's very important to stick together just like "sticky rice". From then on, Erin and I called him Sticky David. It probably isn't funny to all of you reading this, but trust me, Erin and I are laughing right now thinking about it.

Ok, that's it from us here in Guilin, we're off to Shanghai tomorrow morning. Happy Easter!

Last night in Beijing

It's our last night in Beijing and we've heard that no trip is complete without having Peking Duck (Roast Duck). So we went to this restaurant which is known for it and it was great. The cook rolled out the full duck (with head) and carved it right in front of us, very neat.

Today we also saw the Forbidden City and Temple of Heaven. We also spent some time at the Pearl Market which is where you can get very cheap stuff.

At the Pearl Market, we were successful in doing some bargaining with the vendors, but the place is absolutely unbelievable. The vendors are so pushy, but actually very friendly. They really want you to buy their stuff, some of them actually grab your hand or arm to pull you closer and keep you interested in their stuff.

The currency here is the Yuan (more formally known as the Renminbi), but it's nickname is the Kuai (buck). 1 USD equals 6.8 Yuan or 1 NZD equals 3.9 Yuan. So if you remember our blog entry from Japan, you'll remember us mentioning that most things in Japan are very expensive well, here in China it's the opposite. We have been finding some less expensive meals which has been very good for our bank account.
-Lunch today for Annie, Erin, and myself cost 62 Kuai which included strawberry juice for all of us and 40 dumplings (so yummy). This equals 16 NZD or 9 USD. Don't get me wrong, you can pay a lot of money for certain things around here, but if you know where to go and you don't always have to get the top stuff, then you can get around relatively cheap here.

Tonight we got in the elevator coming back from the pool. A well dressed guy was in it on 1 side and an well dressed asian girl on the other. (only 1 button was pushed). He got off at his floor and she followed behind, but not very close and nothing was spoken between the two of them. It was very amusing. I've heard that there are a lot of girls that wait around nice hotels in the various cities waiting for business men to come and 'give them money'.

Tomorrow is our last day in Beijing and then we're taking the Sleeper train to Xi'an which will take 12 hours. We're hopefully going to go to the Olympic village and see the Birdsnest and the Watercube among other things before we leave.

Beijing China

We've learned our blogging lesson and have decided that waiting a full week to provide an update is just too long and results in too much information being packed into 1 blog. Thinking about our experiences in Japan and then reading our blog, we also feel that we've left out so many great things. As a result of this:

1. We will now try and blog every few days (we're still looking for a picture uploading option, but are concerned that we will not be able to find one. If anyone has any suggestions, please let us know)\
2. We have updated a few brief bullets with some more observations from Japan as we don't want that part our our trip to miss out.

-The taxi doors automatically open and close (don't try and do it yourself or you will be yelled at)

-Art displays should not be touched or you will be yelled at (Jeremy tried to roll a ball which he thought was a toy, but was actually part of the art work...ooppss)

-The word hai (pronounced hi) is said over and over again when listening to someone else speak. It means "Yes". Dave was an expert at this.

-Correction to the last blog where I was discussing the baseball game and said that the girl vendors were carrying keys on their back as they are actually carrying KEGS!

-We worked on learning some Japaneses words during our time there and my favorite phrase that I wanted to use was i kura des ka which means "how much is that". I finally used it, but somehow forgot that they would respond in Japanese and realized that I don't know the numbers in the language past the number 2, so that failed and I just gave her a bunch of cash.

Ok, now it's time for our China excursion for which I will hand the keyboard over to Erin.

Yesterday morning we said goodbye to Dave and Nikki and headed off to catch our flight from Tokyo to Beijing. We were able to enjoy some time in the lounge before boarding, so Jeremy tried his hand at the famous beer tap that so many people told us about. It pours your beer and then spits out the perfect amount of foam. It was neat, but we weren't really eager for beer at that hour. Our flight arrived in China in the early afternoon. Our driver, Mr. Wang was eagerly waiting for us and holding up a huge JEREMY CIACCIA sign. He didn't speak any English but motioned for us to follow him, which we did. The airport is about 30 minutes from the city. The drive was fine but drivers are insane here. We've never seen anything like it. Mr. Wang passes car into oncoming traffic just to get moving. It's scary stuff!

When we arrived at the hotel, our English speaking guide, Annie was waiting for us. We quickly checked in before running off to Tianamen Square. She wanted to make sure we could do as much as possible. Tianamen Square was very big - we think it's the biggest square in the world, but could be wrong. After walking around and admiring the square, Annie took us to Qian Hai Lake which is a huge pond surrounded by bars, shops and other interesting things. We walked around the water and tried a few different treats. One was a baked dough ball covered in sesame seeds. The other was a stick of berries covered in hard sugar - very good! Our last stop of the day with Annie was the Donghuamen Night Market, a famous market that sells all kinds of random foods from fried star fish to lamb skewers. We tried a range starting safe with the dumplings and ending with fried scorpions! They were very crunchy and tasted a bit like chicken.

When we returned to the hotel, we were pretty exhausted. We enjoyed a cocktail in the bar before relaxing in our very nice hotel room.

Mr. Wang picked us up this morning at 9 am. We drove outside the city to pick up Annie on our way to The Great Wall. The part we were going to is about 1.5 hours from the city. It is supposed to be less touristy as buses don't go that far. Well, it was busy, but nothing like other places we have seen in Asia. There definitely are a lot of people over here! We decided to take a gondola ride up to the wall as the walk is a steep 40 minutes upwards. We walked from tower to tower exploring the amazing site. We were really lucky to have a great sunny day and were happy that we packed a big bottle of water! When we got to the end of the section we were exploring we had two options - walk down or luge down. I bet you can guess which we chose. LUGE time!! The ride was similar to those we have done in New Zealand but we agreed that it was much better. We whizzed down the mountain in our little carts and had a great time.

Annie took us to lunch at one of her favorite local restaurants. We enjoyed a mushroom and chicken dish as well as a beef dish. The food was delicious but we struggled a bit with the chop sticks. Annie told us not to worry though as table manners don't exist in China, thank goodness for us!

Our next stop was the Summer Palace which is where the royal families spent their time to escape the heat of the city. This place was very busy. I noticed a sign that said they had 30,000 visitors yesterday and were expecting 15,000 today. There were so many tour groups. We laughed as many of them wore matching hats. We joked that we should wear hats so Annie wouldn't lose us, but agreed that my bright yellow t-shirt would stand out in the crowd.

We have been relaxing this evening. We enjoyed a swim in the hot tub and dinner at an Indian restaurant nearby. We also took some photos of a tragic site near our hotel. A fire in February engulfed the Mandarin hotel that was being built: News Story

Our time in China has been great so far. It is definitely a struggle not speaking the language, but good fun and full of laughs as well!

Week One of the Big Trip

It's been only a week since we left our jobs in New Zealand and the place that we called home for 2 years to begin our travels through Asia. We've done so much over the past week that it'll be very difficult for us to get it all in this post, but we'll try and put in some of the details to keep all you faithful fans/readers of our blog updated.


Australia

We departed New Zealand on Sunday morning 29 March. Brian was nice enough to drive us to the airport and have a coffee with us prior to sending us through immigration to the Qantas lounge. We made it to Sydney without any problems and took the train for our first time to the Hilton Hotel. The train was extremely easy and we would suggest that anyone who goes to Sydney take the train from the airport as it's very simple and cheaper than a taxi. We relaxed in Darling Harbour, had lunch, and then went to the gym, sauna, jacuzzi, and steam room in the hotel. We then headed up to the lounge and nibbled on food and had drinks. It was an early night to bed for us.

On Monday, we headed to Royal Botanical Gardens and relaxed overlooking the harbour, Sydney Opera House and the Sydney Bridge. It was a very relaxing day, before heading to the airport for our flight to Tokyo that night. As you know, we've spent 5 days in Sydney about a year ago over Easter weekend and saw most of the key things that we wanted to, so this short trip was primarily about relaxing.

Japan

We arrived in Tokyo at Narita airport at 6am on Tuesday morning. Dave and Nikki had given us very detailed directions on how to get from the airport to their place and they were perfect. As a side note for those who don't know Dave and I grew up together and him and his fiance Nikki are living in Tokyo for a couple of years for work. They have been there for a little under a year so far.

We arrived at their place and it was great to see both of them. Dave was able to stay home to greet us before heading into work for the day. We were lucky enough to secure Nikki's time for the day to be our personal tour guide. She did great, showing us around Tokyo. We were able to meet Dave for lunch at a little Korean restaurant for some Bibimbap. (Dave and Nikki just got back from a long weekend in Korea and this was their favorite food, it was very yummy) We headed to the Imperial Palace, Hibiya Park, and then to Ginza.

At night we met up with Jamie who works for PwC and his girlfriend Reika and the 6 of us went to this great restaurant called Inayaka in Roppongi. This was a cool place where all the food was cooked in front of us and the food was very tasty.

Kyoto

(Before heading to Kyot we went to Tsukiji Fish Market with Dave. This is a massive fish market and we got there around 5am so we could watch the tuna auction. There were so many tuna's there, it was unreal and the auction was pretty neat to watch, although I had no clue what he was saying). Later that morning Erin and I left our hosts and headed down to Kyoto for a couple of days. We took the train down as we had purchased the Japanese Rail Pass for our time here. It's Cherry Blossom season here in Japan and this is one of the biggest times of year. There are so many Cherry trees throughout Japan and Kyoto has quite a few. Kyoto is also known for it's many temples and shrines. We spent time in the Gion District walking through all the cute little streets and found a neat restaurant on Pontocho Street where we were able to have a Japanese pot where we cooked the food ourselves right on our table.

We headed back to our hotel and were able to stay in a Japanese Style room which was really cool. We walked in and the only thing in there was a short table. No bed was in there, but luckily Erin was able to pull the bedding materials out of the closet and make a nice bed for us.

The 2nd day was filled with more and more temples and we also saw the very special Golden Temple. We went back up to the Gion district and were lucky enough to spot a couple of Geisha's. They are amazing looking and it was cool to see how popular they were as all the tourists were crowded around them taking pictures. That night we found a place where we were able to have a Kaiseki meal which is a traditional Japanese meal with 8-10 courses of small amounts of food. I personally think that the highlight of the day was our lunch meal. We went into this restaurant and order our meals and drinks from a vending machine. We then sat down and a lady took our tickets. Before we knew it our food was there and for the price just under 20,000 yen (100 yen is around 1 USD or .65 NZD). The food was great and there was a lot of it. It was a big hit in my book.


On Friday we headed to Himeji where the biggest thing to see is a Castle. This castle was amazing looking and there were Cherry Blossom Trees all around which made it even more beautiful. This was the most crowded any of the sites that we had seen were and there were hundred upon hundreds of people in the castle, so we weren't able to move too fast within it.

We caught the 3:30pm train from Himeji back up to Tokyo to get back with Dave/Nikki. On the train back, we were lucky enough to see Mt. Fuji.

Tokyo

Upon returning, they had a huge schedule mapped out for the weekend with us, it was great. We had a few drinks before leaving and they introduced us to Chu Hi's which is an alcoholic drink which comes in various fruit flavours already mixed in a can. That night we headed to Jackpot for a very good meal of Tapa type plates. We then stopped at Luxus for a quick drink and saw the massive fish tank with the sharks and turtles (We were pretty bummed when leaving because we were only there for 1 drink and no one told us that there was a 1050 yen per person table charge). We then went to Shibuya which is the busiest street crossing in the world and spent the next 2 hours singing Karaoke.

Now I'm sure most of you are thinking that we were in some big bar with 1 microphone singing a couple songs...NOPE. We had a private room which was the same place that was in the movie Lost in Translation. It was just the 4 of us and we belted out some good songs. Erin was good enough to grace us with her great rendition of Oklahoma!

Saturday was a jam packed day and we started with a western brunch at Fujimamas and then headed to a great place to get some souvenirs. The meal was good, but I had a bad experience and wanted to have an orange juice, but didn't realize that it cost over 700 yen...yikes! Dave and I were pretty hungry after that, so we got a Crepe and we were generous enough to share with the ladies. We then headed up to this place called Asakusa and saw the Senso-Ji Temple and then did a River Cruise down the Sumida River which was nice and relaxing.

That night we headed to Roppongi Hills again to have some conveyor belt sushi. Let me tell you, the sushi here in Japan is absolutely amazing. I would have loved to sit there all night and eat it, but I don't think my wallet could have taken anymore. We had dinner with two of their friends Drew and Rio who were so nice and enjoyed hanging out with them and also hung out with them on Sunday. We headed up Mori Tower to the 52 floor which gave us a great view of the city at night. It was then out on the town for some drinks and we headed to A971 and Feria, both very nice up scale bars. We made it back to Dave and Nikki's around 2am, but we were all very hungry, so Nikki-the-cook made us all pizza and then ice-cream sunday's (Nice work Nikki)!

This morning we met up with some of their friends and headed to Kawasakidaishi to see a Falace festival. It was amazing how many people were at this festival and there was a parade as well. A very interesting experience to say the least. We then headed to Yoyogi Park for Hanami. This is a big party that happens when the Cherry Blossom's are out. We brought beer and a ton of food and relaxed in the park. On our way we saw some Dancing Elvis,'s girls dressed liked Baby Dolls, People giving out free hugs (Dave and I both got one), and much more.
We couldn't stay there too long as we had to head to the Tokyo dome for a baseball game between the Yomiuri Giants and the Hiroshima Carp. The place was very cool and there are these beer girls who walk around selling beer and carry a mini-key on their back...very funny. A foul ball almost found it's way into Dave's hand, but unfortunately it just hit the top of his finger.

Our time in Japan is coming to a close and we are headed to Beijing tomorrow morning. We've had an absolute blast with Dave and Nikki and they have been so wonderful to host us, allow us to sleep in their place, and tour around with us...THANKS!

A few observations about Japan:
-There are so many vending machines
-Things are extremely clean
-All workers are extremely nice and love their jobs no matter what they do
-The toilets are electronic and very advanced (heated seats)
-Very expensive
-Food is great
-The train system is wonderful

We hope to be able to write more from China...(Sorry we weren't able to put up any pictures, but we just weren't able to load any of our pictures onto Dave/Nikki's computer. If they are able to up load some of the ones that they took, we will put a couple up to keep you interested as I realize just reading my text isn't the most entertaining and there are also probably spelling and gramatical errors).