India & Nepal 2015

 Today we leave on our 20th wedding anniversary celebration trip! We are returning to Nepal to hike to the village of Pangboche where we were married by Lama Geshe 20 years ago. In an amazing coincidence Lama Geshe's son Jigme Sherpa works for KPMG in the New York office (the same firm as Sara), and was actually at our wedding helping his father. Pretty amazing.

Before we get to Nepal we will spend a week in Rome, where Sara has to work and John will be taking photos. On October 9th we fly to India for 10 days to visit Dharamsala (home of the Dalai Lama), the Taj Mahal and Varanasi - city on the Ganges. Should be an adventure.

Finally on October 20th we fly to Nepal and after a few days rest will fly to the village of Lukla to start our 14 day hike in the Everest region.  We are so excited to return to the mountains and have planned a fairly relaxed trek to Pangoche at 13,000ft, with plenty of time to stop and explore on the way.

After our trek in the mountains we will spend a few days in the lake town of Pokhara before starting the long journey home. Should be a fabulous way to celebrate 20 years of adventure together.

Bike Racing & Palaces

On Saturday 26^th April we headed to Belgium to spend the day watching the oldest professional bike race, the Liege – Bastogne – Liege.  We spent the night in Spa, close to the Belgium Formula One race track.  We did notice a lot of really nice fast cars in the town, must have been full of race drivers!  Spa is a cool town, and we found a very helpful person at the visitor center who gave us plenty of details about the race route for the next day. 

We got up early on Sunday and before heading out bought enough baguette sandwiches to get us through a long day.  From our previous trips to watch the Tour de France we were not sure how busy the crowds would be, and even if the roads would be open to cars.  We got to the first location in plenty of time, and chatted to a Belgium guy who used to be a professional bike racer.  As usual there was a lot of waiting around, watching first the police cars drive by clearing the road, then followed by the publicity “caravan” providing advertisement for the race promoters.  Finally the racers flew by in about 5 minutes, and it was over for that segment! 

Next we moved to beautiful hills area in the Ardennes regions, where the Battle of the Bulge occurred, where we staked out a spot on the climb ‘Cote de Wayne’.  The advice from the Spa info center and a detailed map really helped, as it is tough to know the race route exactly.  Sara did manage to persuade someone to give her an official race route sign, which will join our Tour de France souvenir sign.   It was a beautiful day, and we had a pleasant time waiting for the racers, who flew by again just as quickly as before, even though they were now going uphill!  Check out this short video of the racers.  

With just a few more days to enjoy of our trip we headed back to France, spending the night in Reims.  On Monday 28^th we spent a few hours checking out the impressive Notre Dame cathedral in the Reims city center.  Most places are closed on Mondays so the crowds were very minimal which is always pleasant.  The downside was we couldn’t climb up the cathedral to check out the architecture, but will add that to a future wish list.  In the afternoon we headed to Versailles, and realized we had booked the same hotel we stayed in 10 years ago, a great location, and luckily it had been renovated, so was much improved.

We spent a delightful afternoon wandering the Versailles Palace gardens, even venturing to the extensive park area.  The palace is normally packed with people, but being a Monday was empty and we mostly had the place to ourselves!

The next day we had an easy morning, and then drove 20 minutes to the Paris- Orly airport for our flight to London.  Orly is a great airport, easier than the busier Charles de Gaulle airport and closer to Paris.  A quick flight and trip on the Heathrow Express train and we were in London, enjoying a fabulous evening with Sara’s Mum and sister.

Finally on Wednesday 30^th April we headed home, having walked over 90 miles and consuming goodness knows how many baguettes and crepes.  We always enjoy our vacations, and look forward to planning many more.

Click here for the Bikes and Palaces Photos!

 

Windmills and Tulips

On Tuesday 22^nd April we headed to the Netherlands.  Our first stop was Kinderdijk, an area close to Rotterdam with 19 preserved windmills. We spent an enjoyable few hours walking around the area and taking photos before heading to Amsterdam.

The next day we visited the Keukenhof gardens which was totally amazing.   We spent five hours exploring the 79 acres, containing around 7 million tulips, daffodils and hyacinths which are planted each year.  The garden is only open for 2 months, and is designed to be a living exhibit for the major growers in the country.

On Thursday 24^th we spent the day exploring Amsterdam. We wandered around the streets and canals checking out the sights and watching the crowds.   A shower of rain had us sheltering outside a shop trying to decide our dinner options when John noticed a Tibetan restaurant.  Perfect, so we hurried in for an excellent meal, including some more great local beer.

The next day we headed to the tiny harbor town of Marken, and spent a delightful few hours there, including another great meal.  It seems our vacation was mostly walking a lot, taking photos and stopping to eat!  We next stopped at another site full of windmills, which was interesting, but very busy. 

To finish the day we returned to what is now our happy place – a second visit to the Keukenhof gardens.  A perfect way to relax after the crowds.  We stayed there again until closing enjoying the flowers, the scents of hyacinths and the sounds of the birds.  A tip for future visitors, the crowds start to leave the gardens after 4pm, leaving you three hours to enjoy the place almost alone! 

Click here for the Windmills and Tulips photos

2014 European Flower Tour - France & Belgium

On April 16^th we left for a much needed break, and began our European Spring Flower Tour.  We had so much fun traveling and staying up late we didn't manage to update the blog, so for those of you who didn't see the Facebook photos we have put together this update.

We kicked off the trip in style, using miles to upgrade to first class for the night flight over.  What a treat to lie flat at night, and to be given pajamas!  Needless to say the return flight in economy did not include PJ’s or warm nuts!

Our first stop was Paris, the city of Love as we now refer to it.  Ok, it is really the city of lights, but we prefer the name for our favorite city.   Our first stop was the Pére Lachaise Cemetery, which contains the graves of many famous people, including Chopin, Proust, Oscar Wilde, and Jim Morrison.   It was a little surreal to be in a cemetery and hear someone playing Doors music on their iPhone!

We stayed out late wandering the streets and stopped to photograph the Eiffel Tower at night, thoroughly enjoying the light show.  Click here for a short video of the light show.

On Saturday 19^th we visited the Muse l’Orangerie which contains Monet’s massive paintings of water lilies, very impressive.   We made it another late night by wandering around the Moulin Rouge area which was very lively and colorful.  As an added treat we had a great blues’ singer on the metro ride back to our hotel.

The next day we continued the Monet theme and visited Monet’s house and garden in Giverny, which is about 1 ½ hours outside of Paris.  (We will spare you the trials and tribulations of actually driving out of the city!)  Monet lived and painted in this house, and created the water lily pond and flower gardens so he would have plenty to paint.  The gardens were beautiful, and it was fascinating to tour the house and imagine the painters spending time together there.

Unusual for us we had a bit of a miscommunication at the end of the day, and spent several hours trying to find each other.  I put it down to sleep deprivation, and there are now a new set of Stanford procedures for such situations!   We drove on to Ghent in Belgium, arriving rather late and getting lost once again in the city; one way systems and road work diversions do not help.   (Seems all travel blogs mention trouble finding hotels in cities.)

Monday 21^st was Sara’s birthday and we had a wonderful slow start to the day wandering around Ghent, which includes many historic churches and buildings with a river running through the middle of the city.  We made the quick drive to Bruges and spend the afternoon and evening wandering the historic city center.  We had a fantastic meal at a small family run restaurant, which included a great vegetarian meal and several glasses of local Belgium beer!

The next day we spend a few more hours walking around town, checking out the small canals and historic buildings.  Stopping of course for some excellent Belgium waffles to keep up our strength.  Later that day we headed to Amsterdam for the second phase of the trip – Windmills and Tulips.

Check out the photo albums using the links below

Paris and Monet's Garden      Ghent and Bruges 

  

Myanmar Part Two - Mandalay and Inle Lake

Friday the 18th saw us up at 5:30am for the quick 20 minute flight to Mandalay.  Our driver Mr Toa met us at the airport and we drove an hour to our hotel. There was a bit of a problem at the hotel where we found out they didn't have our reservation, and apparently there weren't any rooms available.  We weren't that keen on the hotel and were getting ready to roll the dice and try somewhere else when magically a room appeared.  The hotel wasn't great, but we were too tired to try anywhere else so took it for just the two nights.

After lunch we explored some temples, one of which included the worlds largest book.  Basically three Buddhist books engraved on large marble stones and put inside a small marble shelter, quite impressive.  Mandalay wasn't as busy and crowed as Yangon, but still a bit overwhelming.  

On Saturday we set off to explore some areas outside of the city, and had a fabulous day.  The weather was great, and provided some extraordinary clouds which looked great in the photos.    We stopped at some marble and bronze workshops, which produced statues for the many temples in the country; always interesting to see how things are made.  

We stopped at one temple and started to wander around a bit when Mr Toa pointed out what I thought was an elephant covered in ornate coverings and said look at the dancing elephant.  To our amazement it was actually two people inside an elephant costume, and they proceeded to perform an wonderful dance.  Click here for a short video of the dancing elephant!

While the elephant was dancing we noticed the start of a parade on the road.  Turns out it was a "Buddha Day' and we were treated to an traditional Burmese parade of people, horse and oxen decorated in local costumes and flowers.  What a surprise treat.

Our next stop was Sagaing Hill, an area often referred to as a living Bagan.  It is full of working temples and monasteries and is the spiritual center of the country.  We loved the temple which contained 45 Buddhas  and the many views of the river.   We finished off the day with a fabulous sunset view of Ubien bridge, which is the worlds longest teak bridge.

On Sunday we had an early morning flight to Heho, which is the entry point to Inle Lake. The lake is beautiful and surrounded by mountains.  This was our last flight on Myanmar Airlines and we were happy to land safely.  At the start of our trip we had picked up a copy of the Wall Street Journal in the Hong Kong Airport. The paper had an article about Myanmar and mentioned an airplane had crashed on landing into Heho airport, killing 4 people and injuring a bunch of others. Since we could only get seats on the government run airline, which wasn't recommended due to their safety record,  we were a bit concerned.  However the crash was with a different airline, and we went with the theory everyone would be on full alert after the crash, which worked out!

After an hour taxi ride, and an hour ride on a long narrow wooden boat we arrived at our hotel, a delightful place, all rooms and walkways on stilts over the lake. We spent most of our time relaxing, but got up the following day for a beautiful sunrise trip on the lake to photograph the fisherman on the lake and explore the local villages.  The villages were fascinating, all buildings built on stilts over the lake, and everyone moved around on wooden long boats. It was a wonderful relaxing few days at the end of very busy trip.

Tuesday 22nd we had to sadly leave Inle lake and start the long trek home.  We flew back to Yangon and survived our scariest taxi ride of the whole trip. Our driver almost read-ended one car, and after one frightening dash across the road we were narrowly missed being hit by a bus.  Needless to say we declined his offer to drive us to the airport the next day.  

The following morning we were walking down the street and noticed a sign saying the National League for Democracy and realized we were outside their main office.  The NLD is the main opposition political  party and is lead by Aung San Suu Kyi.  Although the party won a majority in parliament in 1990 they were declared illegal by the military junta and many of their members have been imprisoned or killed.  It was another indication of how much is changing in Myanmar that we could easily go to the office and talk to the people.  

That afternoon we flew to Bangkok, and then on Thursday 23rd took the last two flights back to Dallas.  It was a wonderful trip, providing us amazing memories for years to come.  We'd like to say a special thanks to our friends Vicki Storrie, Sandy Behrens, Larry Henderson and Lee and Susan Hunnicutt for taking the time to share their experiences and suggestions from their time in SE Asia. 

Click here for photos of Mandalay and Inle Lake

Myanmar Part One - Yangon and Bagan

On Sunday January 13^th we flew from Siem Reap, Cambodia to Yangon, Myanmar via Bangkok. We had to change airlines and planes in Bangkok to get to Yangon. When we got to Yangon we were standing at the baggage claim watching all the bags roll out. Out came our small blue bag but no large blue bag. We stood there for awhile hoping that suddenly the bag would show up, but no such luck.

So all of the sudden we had one of our first potential crisis. The problem was we were only going to be in Yangon for two days and if we did not get the bag we would have to completely alter our plans or maybe even have to blow off the Myanmar part of the trip. So we frantically tried to impress upon the baggage supervisor how important it was to get our bag. Trying to get that point across with a pretty big language barrier was nerve wracking.

To make matters worse Sara was pretty sick at this point, on antibiotics and definitely not feeling worth a damn. We went into the city and checked into our hotel, which was new and very clean and comfortable. We were in the central part of Yangon and the streets were crowded, noisy and not very clean; so we suffered a little culture shock once again. After dinner we walked down to the Sule Pagoda to explore and take some photos. In Myanmar you must take off your shoes and socks to enter any temple or pagoda.  Our tender feet were not ready for 10 days of barefoot temple walking. When we got back to the hotel we had the staff call and see if the lost bag made the last flight into Yangon. The answer was no so we went to sleep with a fair amount of stress.

The next morning we went to our travel agent which just by luck was only a hundred feet down the block from our hotel.  When I booked the hotel I had no idea the travel agent was so close, what a stroke of luck!  In Myanmar it is impossible to make flight reservations online, you have to use a travel agent and you have to pay in cash - American cash. Additionally there is some crazy government regulation that the American dollars have to be new unfolded money with no crease, marks, tears or any ink stamps on them. We read about this when we were doing our research but we didn't know they would be so fanatical about it. 

Every time we paid with American money we would do this little game where they would hold the money up to the light and look everything over.  Some would be rejected and we would pull more out until they finally accepted what we had. We started to get a little worried because there aren't any ATMs in Myanmar, and you can’t use credit cards. Good thing we picked up extra crisp US dollars in Cambodia!

Our next stroke of luck was when we received notification the missing bag was at the airport.  So back we went to the airport to retrieve the lost bag. A couple of hours later and $40 worth of cab rides we had the bag in our possession and all was right in the world, the trip could continue!

In the afternoon and evening we went to the Shwedagon Pagoda also known as the Golden Pagoda because it has accumulated over 60 tons of gold leaf. It is over 2,500 years old making it the oldest pagoda in Burma and the world. It is very big and very spectacular.  Unfortunately just like in Angkor Wat parts of the pagoda were being refurbished and had scaffolding around those parts making photography difficult.

Early the next morning we left the craziness of Yangon (the biggest city in Myanmar) and took a short flight to Bagan.  Bagan was very different, much smaller and peaceful, in the middle of a plain full of many temples.  In the 11th and 13 century there were 10,000 temples of which over 2,000 exist today. Bagan is dry and somewhat dusty with red dirt and temples everywhere. We checked into our hotel which was nice and in a good location. 

Once again we went through the American money game where they scrutinize the bills and we pull more out. Luckily we found a bank who took most of the money we wanted to change to Krats so we were pretty well stocked up on Myanmar money.  We talked to the two money changers about the government rule they said quite bluntly they know it is stupid and it needs to be changed!  Quite an indication the military government rule is lessening.

The next good thing which happened was our hotel found a nice taxi driver for us named Mr. Po. We ended up hiring him for three days and he did a great job taking us to all the temples and markets we had selected. He even got up before sunrise so we could climb up one of the temples for sunrise. 

All the temples have many local people set up as vendors selling their handicrafts to the tourists. They are all over you to buy something from them but still fairly polite when you say "no thanks". A lot of them are pretty poor and it is heartbreaking to have to say no but you just can't buy from all of them. We did of course find a number of things we liked and bought.  Sara really enjoyed talking to the young girls, who are very friendly and keen to practice their English.  Many of them want to become tourist guides, which is quite an involved process with about a year of study and a long exam.

We had some good meals in Bagan, including our favorite restaurant "The Moon", a vegetarian restaurant where we ate twice.  On the walls of many restaurants and shops we noticed  pictures of Aung San Suu Kyi, the leader of the National League for Democracy. She was released from house arrest in 2010, having spent the last 15 years either in jail or under house arrest.  She is much loved in Myanmar, and many people would tell us how much they love her, and how much they appreciate the support of the US and other countries in their move towards democracy.

At the end of our third day we were pretty "templed out" so we arranged a boat ride on the Irrawaddy river at sunset. It was a great break and a beautiful sunset. The boats they use are interesting; they are long wooden boats with a large loud Chinese motor in the back end. The boat ride ended our time in Bagan and we prepared to move on to Mandalay the next morning. Fortunately, our driver Mr. Po had a buddy in Mandalay named Mr. Toa so he arranged to pick us up at the Mandalay airport and drove for us in Mandalay.

Click here for the Photos of Yangon and Bagan

    

Angkor Wat - A World of Stone

We flew from Hanoi, Viet Nam to Siem Reap, Cambodia on Wednesday 9^th January.  Our tuk-tuk driver, Savuai met us at the airport and took us to the hotel after a quick stop at the ATM, which provided cash in crisp US dollars.  

The next day we got up before dawn to start exploring Angkor Wat, which is a huge ancient complex with many stone temples.  Sara had a high fever and a hacking cough and felt like Patient Zero in a medical epidemic!  However determined not to miss anything we spent the day exploring several temple complexes.

The temples are made of huge pieces of stone and there are many intricate carvings in the stone.   I have no idea how they moved all the stone around to construct the temples.  Many of the temples have been restored; however, a few of the lesser visited ones are being taken over by the jungle and have the iconic tree roots growing over the stone.

Angkor Wat is a huge tourist destination so there are big crowds.  We managed to avoid most of the crowds by getting up before dawn and resting during the heat of the day, before a final afternoon/dusk excursion. 

The temples are surrounded by jungle and many large moats.  It is quite hectic with tourists, tuk-tuk’s, vendors and motor scooters.  We are amazed we did not see any accidents, or get run over ourselves; although it seemed our tuk-tuk was going to be squashed by a bus several times.

Our hotel provided us with the tuk-tuk driver everyday so we could visit any temples we chose.  Savuai took great care of us, waiting patiently under a tree with the other drivers while we explored the temples.  He also took us to an excellent local Cambodian restaurant with fabulous food, and we were happy to buy him dinner, which he seemed to greatly appreciate. 

One of our favorite temples was the Bayon, full of large stone carved faces on towering pillars.  We also enjoyed Preah Khan which was very long and being taken over by the jungle.  Here we met an old nun, who gave us both a blessing.  We also spoke to an artist who was painting in the temple.  We loved his work and bought several paintings. 

On our last day, Saturday the 12^th we drove out an hour into the countryside to see Banteay Srei a small temple with very ornate carvings.  Since we arrived early it was empty and very peaceful.  That afternoon we took a ride in a tethered Helium balloon, which went to about 350  feet.  The sunset views were amazing.

When Savuai took us to the airport we shook hands and hugged and we both had a moment of emotion. John in particular had bonded in that short time in Angkor Wat. This was a 37 year old man whose father was killed by the Khmer Rouge when he was a small boy. This was a man making about $10 a day, living in one room with a wife and a small daughter. This was a man with a different color of skin living in a different part of the world speaking a different language but yet I felt a sense of brotherhood as two human beings on the same planet. Won’t it be nice if we all could have that sense of brotherhood?

Click here for photos of Angkor Cambodia

We are headed home to Dallas tomorrow, January 24th, and will work on our photos and description of our Myanmar experiences on the plane!