Home at Last!

It was not our intention at all to skip blogging about the end of our travels. Sorry for the delay.

After a couple more days in the Stuttgart area, we headed out of town on our way to Munich, where Jochen, Susanne, Jeremy and I planned to meet up with some friends from our time in New Zealand - a little Kiwi reunion! We stopped at Lake Constance for the night to enjoy beers and dinner with Jochen's cousin. The lake touches Switzerland and is close to Austria, so we were able to add two more countries to our list of "Places We Have Been".

Susanne and I enjoyed wine schorles (wine and sparkling water) and the boys enjoyed beers while we ate our fair share of sausages, pretzels and other delicious food. We took a gondola to the highest point in Germany, Zugspitze which is 2962 meters high. It was cold up top, but the views were great for a few minutes, before the clouds rolled in. We also stopped to see Neuschwanstein, the castle that Cinderella's castle is modeled after. Once in Munich we met up with Mascha, Jeroen, Stuart, Sander, and Mirjam for more food and lots of visits to the famous beer gardens.

We flew back to Boston on Sunday the 17th, gathered our overstuffed bags and headed through customs. We saw Jeremy's mom waiting for us with a huge welcome home sign. What we didn't notice immediately was that we had 15 other friends and family members waiting for us cheering and waving flags. It was a great, unexpected welcome home! We were whisked off to a local bar for some more drinks to wrap up our amazing adventure.

It really is great to be home. We had an awesome time traveling and hope we get to explore some more of the world someday soon. For now though, it's back to the real world!

Bonjour

As I mentioned in the last update, Jochen and Susanne organised a great BBQ on Sunday. We went out to Jochen's parents 'Estate' as thez call it, which is a piece of land they own, where they have BBQ's, etc. The weather was nice and sunny and we ate Pork Belly, Hamburgers, Steak, Chicken, Sausage, and various kinds of salad. We played some soccer as well and it was a great time. They all spoke some English which was good, because our German it's poor.

Our friends Mascha and Jeroen who live in the Netherlands were vacationing in France this week and we decided that it would be fun to meet up for a day. Susanne had to work, but Jochen, Erin, and I drove to Colmar, France which is a little over 2 hours from here and had lunch and hung out with them. We also got to meet Sophie again who is almost turning 1 years old. Colmar was a very cute town. We then headed to another small town very close (can't remember the name right now), but they are one of the best regions in France for wine. We tasted a few wines from Hugel which was the same kind that was served to Michelle Obama at the NATO summit. It was very good and Jochen bought a few bottles as well as Jeroen. We also ate some Flammkuchen which is kind of like a pizza.

We considered staying the night in Freiburg, Germany, but decided to head back home and just drove through Freiburg as well as the Black Forest.

Stuttgart

We've arrived in Germany and have been having a great time the past couple of days. Our flight landed in Frankfurt and we had the day to explore the city before our train ride to Stuttgart to meet up with Jochen and Susanne. We stored our bags at the train station and then walked around the town. We had some gulausch and a beer for lunch which was very tasty. Then while walking through the streets there was a man with a portable sausage grill on his shoulders. It was very cool, so I got 1 euro 30 out of my pocket and then bought a very good sausage...Erin got a picture of me which was great.

The train ride to Stuttgart was 1 and 1\2 hours and when we arrived Jochen was waiting right there to greet us and it was great to see him (partly because my bags were heavey and he helped out...haha). That night we relaxed with him and Susanne at their place in Köugen which is a smaller town outside of Stuttgart. (If you don't remember Jochen he was on secondment in New Zealand but came back to Germany 1 year ago.)

Germany has been great so far and although our German language skills are extremely poor, most people speak English so we've been able to get around. Although most people speak English, very little is written in English which is very different from all the Asian country's we travelled to, where many things were written in English.

Yesterday, Jochen and his Dad were able to use some of the connections to get us football tickets. Tickets are always very hard to get over here, but especially right now as the season is coming to a close. VfB Stuttgart is currently in 4th place and were playing VfL Wolfsburg who were in 1st place. So after they pulled some strings, they got us all tickets for the game and they were great seats (and free). The game was very exciting with Stuttgart winning 4-1. We then headed into the city to walk around, have a few beers and eat some dinner. They took us to a place which specializes in Swabian food (Swabian is the region of Germany that they live in). The food was delicious!!

Today we are having a BBQ with their families and hopefully the weather will cooperate.

HAPPY MOTHERS DAY to all the MOMs or MUMs out there.

Zàijiàn, Sayoonara, Chum riep leah, Xin chào, Joi gin, Adeus, Good-bye to Asia

We can't believe that our time here in Asia has come to a close. We've had an amazing time here and the almost 6 weeks has absolutely sped by. Including New Zealand we've been to 6 different countries and 2 Special Administration Regions and been exposed to many different languages.

The last couple of days we spent in Hong Kong and then last night we spent in Macau. Our final 1/2 day in Hong Kong we relaxed and spent some time at the pool on the roof deck, then packed up and boarded the 1 hour ferry to Macau. We had booked accommodation at the Rio which was a good price and included buffet breakfast so we were looking forward to it. The Rio wasn't too bad, but compared to the Sheraton, it wasn't up to what we were hoping for. The hotel was slightly dated, but only a few years, so not too bad. At night we decided to check out the SPA floor, upon arriving a man came up to us and told us that it was only for MEN (you can all figure out what that means). I then said that we should check out the club and maybe have a drink...upon getting off the elevator a lady came up to us and say that it was an escort club and pushed the up elevator button for us to go back to our room...hahaha

We walked around the city and visited the ruins of St. Paul Cathedral, the War Barracks, as well as Macau Museum. Our last formal dinner in Asia was great and we ate at a Portuguese restaurant which was GREAT!! (for those who don't know Macau it is Portuguese) It's very interesting because all the signs are in Portuguese, but most people speak Cantonese.

We also headed to visit a bunch of the casino's and went to the Wynn, MGM, and Grand Lisboa (we gambled a little, and Erin was successful, but I was not).

Today we took it easy in the morning and then went over to Taipa which is an island attached by a 3.5km bridge. The Venetian is on that island and is the largest casino in the world (3400 slot machines, and 800 gaming tables)...it was absolutely huge. We spent about 4 hours there and really loved it, it was great.

We're now at the Hong Kong airport in the Cathy Pacific lounge waiting for our flight to Germany. We are very excited to see Germany and in particular Jochen and Susanne.

GOODBYE ASIA!!!

Hong Kong

We arrived safe and sound here in Hong Kong. It was late at night around 11pm when we finally made it through immigration and got our bags. We managed to figure out how to get to the hotel using the train which was nice and fast. We are staying at the Sheraton Hong Kong Towers which is very nice. Although we loved our trips through Cambodia and Vietnam, the hotels we were staying at were generally 1 star ones and the showers were not very good. We were very pleased when arriving here.

Day 1: We hit the ground running early in the morning and jumped on the Star Ferry which took us 7 minutes across the water to Central Hong Kong. After a little bit of a struggle, we managed to find the correct bus which took us to Ocean Park. It's an amusment park which is on the south side of the island in a place called Aberdeen. The park was so much fun and not crowded at all. We of course did all the fun rides including a roller coaster that went upside down 3 times. We also saw Panda Bears!
We then went up to the Night market and walked around through the various street vendors looking for some nice goods (We've purchased so much already, that we didn't end up getting anything). We then headed back to the harbour to watch the light show. Every night there is a really cool light show that happens from 8pm to 8:15pm on all of the buildings. We then had dinner at a pub on the water.

Hong Kong is MUCH more expensive than Cambodia and Vietnam and even mainland China. It's much similar to Japan, so luckily we aren't staying here for too long.

Day 2:
We decided to head to one of the surrounding islands and went to Lamma Island. It's a very small island and there aren't any cars on it. We walked 4k's from 1 village to another over the mountains, it was a lot of fun and the sun was shinning brightly. We then had some seafood lunch before jumping on the ferry back to the main island.
One of the highlights of Hong Kong is the Peak Tram. We decided to do this today as it was very sunny and would provide us with great views of the city skyline. WOW! that's what I have to say, there are so many buildings and the view is amazing. We took some nice pictures and then headed back down the tram. We went to some more outside markets and then back to our hotel to have a few drinks up on the bar which overlooks the harbour. We were able to watch the light show one more time, while having some drinks.

It's off to Macau tomorrow, and we'll probably head over around mid-day.

If you haven't been to Hong Kong, it's an unreal place. People always talk about all the shopping that's here, but I didn't really understand until I walked around a little bit. There are so many different stores, it's almost silly. Overall, we've really like our time here in Hong Kong and are looking forward to spending 1/2 day here tomorrow before hitting Macau.

Vietnam Done

I can't believe how long it's been since we last did a blog update. Sorry to all our faithful readers, but we have been very busy. Not only that, but the hotels where we have been staying do have computers, but they are in the lobby without air conditioning and it's difficult to sit there for too long.

We have just finished our time here in Vietnam and have had a blast. We are currently sitting in the Vietnam Airlines Lounge, waiting for our flight to Hong Kong. We are looking forward to heading north to cooler climate that's for sure.

We spent 10 days on the Intrepid Northbound tour with our leader Tuyen. He was a local from Ha Long Bay originally, but currently resides in Hanoi. Erin gave you all a brief summary on the people in our group and we had a great time hanging out with them. I'll run down some of the highlights:
-Arrived in Hoi An for a couple hectic days of getting our feet and bodies measured to have shoes and clothes made for us. We went to a corner store for our shoes close to our hotel and for our clothes went to Yaly's which is a large place. I got 3 pairs of shoes and Erin got 3 as well. I got 6 work shirts and a suit, while Erin got 2 skirts, a shirt dress, winter jacket, and a dress which she plans to wear to Tim/Jackie's wedding this summer
-We loved Hoi An as it's a very cute town. Erin, Mary, and I took a cooking class and learned how to make some great food and practiced our Chop Chop Chop of vegetables
-While walking through the streets, we saw a 2 year old boy pull his pants down and try and pee off the sidewalk into a puddle. Unfortunatly his balance wasn't so great, and we watched him fall directly into the puddle. We tried to contain our laughter, but when his mom started laughing, we figured it was ok...
-Drove to Hue where we toured the Citadel as it was the old capital of Vietnam. We also did a motorbike ride through the country. It rained a little bit, but this was a great highlight of our trip. I also tried to make an stick of insense, but failed miserably
-We jumped on the overnight train to Hanoi. Erin and I have had experience with these types of trains as you remember from our trip between Beijing and Xi'an. Well this train was very different. It was dirty as ever!!! It was a rather gross train ride, but a great experience for sure. Our bunk room was on train 10, but us and some of our tour mates spent a number of hours on train 0 (the bar train)
-Arriving in Hanoi, our rooms weren't going to be ready until 12pm, but we arrived at 4am. We shared a room with Justin and Zel just to take showers before heading to breakfast.
-We walked around the city and at night we went to the Water Puppet Show which is very famous here in Hanoi. We were in the front row, which I loved as we were right up close for the performance.
-We then headed on a 4 hour bus trip to Ha Long Bay, where we boarded a Junk boat. (It's a bad name, because the boat isn't actually a piece of junk) We spent 2 days and 1 night out in the Bay which is absolutely amazing. The weather was perfect sun the whole time and we were able to jump in the water, relax, and of course drink beers. The cabins were very nice and it was just our group on the boat which was really cool. We ate some very nice seafood dishes both of those days.
-We stopped in the Amazing cave out in the Bay which is a massive cave in a mountain, it was pretty neat, but very crowded with pushy tourists. We had a fun time trying to block them from passing us as they wanted to push through the crowds to get ahead. As you can imagine, Erin and I were good as this and didn't let people pass. Even if someone did get by, we would give them a little nudge and say a few words to let them know we were not pleased with what they were doing.
-Back in Hanoi we had our final dinner with our group and then said our goodbyes. Today we saw Ho Chi Minh's body which is currently being perserved (His wishes were to be cremated, but they obviously didnt listen to that). The security around it was very intense and we waited in line for about 1 hour.

We've had a blast in Vietnam and have enjoyed all of our experiences all the way from our time down in the MeKong to Hanoi.

Hope all is well with everyone and stay healthy.