Prologue

50!

Happy New Year!  One of my 2016 goals was to learn code (computer lingo).  I started, but haven't even come close to accomplishing anything substantial.  This was confirmed as I spent hours today (New Year's Day) trying to incorporate code that would let me display my blog entries chronologically, so I (or anyone else vaguely interested) could read the posts in order. After failing miserably, I changed tactics and created a new blog with posts from the last year listed in the desired order.  That only took about half an hour.

Voila!  So here it is....my "2016 Year in Review" blog (starting in December 2015).  Read on below or click here to get back to the latest posts.

To go to the next post click on the forward arrow (">") below on the mobile version, or  "older post" to at the bottom of each page on the desktop version. 

Inspired! (Posted on 12/19/15)

After a fabulous celebration with family and friends marking my mom's 75th birthday and Bat Mitzvah, we left Florida for Germany on the 2nd of December (2015).

Practically the minute we landed in Hamburg - or the minute we got our first beer and donner kabab, which wasn't too much later - I told Matthias how I was already inspired to write in the blog.  We realized it was five years almost exactly to the day since we left Germany and so much had happened.  When we left, my father seemed healthy, and we were blissfully unaware about what was to come.  Living in Portland was no more than a crazy idea, a stab in the dark, and we had no idea how great it would be and how we'd grow to love it there.   Five years on, we wondered how much Europe - or we - had changed since we were last there.  Turned out, at least as far as we could tell, Germany hadn't changed much.  Of course, we got older - for example I'm now an old woman complaining about bad knees, deteriorating vision and a freaky skin condition, all of which didn't exist five years earlier.  But being in Germany brought us right back.  It was non-stop fun and amazing food!

First Donner Kebap and beer in Deutschland!  MMMMmmmm!

We arrived in Hamburg around mid-day, which gave us  enough time to grab lunch (above) take a quick nap (did I mention we're old now?) and hit the Reeperbahn in the evening.  The Reeperbahn is a street in the St. Pauli neighborhood that's famous throughout Europe as a red-light district.  I would describe it as a family-friendly red light district - and it was there that we hit our first Christmas market.  We didn't go into the "stripper tent" with its "North Pole Dancing", but enjoyed gluhwein and grunkohl and more. (for those in the know, please excuse the fact that I'm not using umlauts - too tricky on my little tablet.)

Grunkohl at the St. Pauli/Hamburg Christmas Market

Saying goodbye to the coolest Christmas Market in "Santa Pauli"

After a quick evening in Hamburg, we headed to Hannover where we visited Katja and got to see Ines, her mom, and meet the two new men in her life - her husband Timm and her adorable two-year-old son, Paul.  Despite the changes in her life, we were delighted to find that Katja hadn't changed a bit, and we had a blast touring through Hannover, enjoying the Christmas markets there, and solving the worlds problems over beer and gluhwein.  We promised to visit more often and we will!

Hannover Christmas Market with Katja

Probably after the second or third gluhwein

Breakfast with Katja, Paul and Timm (not pictured). Did I forget to mention how fabulous the breakfasts were?

Next stop was Magdeburg and a lovely visit with Matthias' parents.  Magdeburg had the best Christmas market of all so we took full advantage.  I also got to try out Achim's fantastic electric bike - can't wait to get one.  And, as if we didn't have enough good food to eat, Birgitt made us a wonderful roast duck dinner.  Mmmmm!

Eating and drinking at the Christmas market in Magdeburg

Last stop in Germany was Berlin - still one of our favorite places in the world.  We stayed in one the neighborhoods we once lived in and made sure to visit some old haunts, see the new Schloss (palace) in progress, and of course continue the eating frenzy.  We couldn't even pass up a gluhwein at the Alexanderplatz Christmas market, although we swore we had had enough.  A few donner kebaps, a few Schultheiss beers and one Schweinshaxe (each) later, we set off for Asia.

Alexanderplatz Christmas market

Construction of the new palace in progress

At one of our favorite Eck Kneipe (corner bar)

Schweinshaxe!

Because our flight to Bangkok (the cheapest one I found that didn't have a stopover in Ukraine) had a stopover in Beijing, we made use of the 72-hour visa-free travel deal and spent two nights there. Fortunately, we made it there right in between the two great smog alerts and didn't notice anything out of the ordinary (for China).  It was cold, but not as cold as we feared.  So, what did we do there?  More eating, of course, walking through the hutongs and markets, and a little bit of sightseeing that involved dragging Matthias out to see an interesting Taoist temple. The food was good and the  hutongs (old, or old-style-but rennovated neighborhoods) were fun!  Probably my most memorable experience was using one of the public toilets when we were out to dinner (most places in the hutongs didn't have their own bathrooms).  It was a row of squat toilets without doors (or real walls in between) so I could easily see the video the woman next to me was watching on her smartphone as she squatted there!  Would have stayed longer but had to rush back or Matthias would have polished off the delicious food on the table! :-)

Blue sky in Beijing! 

Best Beijing Meal!

Funky statues at the Dongyue Temple

We landed in Bangkok with a few extra kilos but were able to shed some of the winter clothes we brought with us, so it may have evened out.  Matthias did insist on a diet of sorts for the first couple days (Seriously, Thailand is no place for a diet!) but he has backed off a bit and settled for "normal-to-light eating" (as opposed to feasting).  We bypassed Bangkok and started heading north, making our way toward Chiang Rai province where we plan to do another motorbike tour.  That'll be a topic for the next post.

My first meal in Thailand was pre-packaged curry on the train - and it was delicious!

View from the basketball court in Lopbury, our first stop in Thailand

First "bike" ride outside Lopburi - more to come!

Thailand! (Posted on 1/13/16)

Hello Blog.  I've been remiss.  We've been in Thailand for a whole month and I haven't written.  It's not that I haven't had stuff to write about.  It's been fabulous - we still love Thailand, even more than before if that's possible.  But when I think about writing how great it is, it feels like gloating.  Or when I want to complain about something (like when Matthias and I want to kill each other) I think, who am I to complain about anything?!  Then again, I'm the main audience for the blog - the only one who reads it (more than once, anyway) and it's my memory bank and photo album,..so here goes.  And it's a good day.  I don't hate Matthias and he doesn't hate me - yet.

A particularly good moment on the river in Lampang

We have loved our time in Thailand, and are quite sad that we have to leave because our 30 day visa is up. We planned to make a day trip over to Myanmar to extend our visa (and spend the day in Myanmar) but we heard while we were here that you can't extend your visa that way anymore.  There are other ways to extend a tourist visa, but we're too cheap to pay the $100+ for just a few days more.  So, tomorrow we're going to Cambodia.

Thinking we had more time in Thailand, we took our time heading north - taking short train/bus hops instead of the overnight train.  After Lopburi, mentioned in the last post, we stopped in Phitsanulok, which was okay, and then spent five nights in Lampang, which was great.  Lampang is a nice smallish city with a river flowing through it, great tourist facilities (the tourist office "rents" bicycles for free) and cheap/nice accommodation (Pin Hotel - recommended!).  It was also far enough north that the weather was nice - not too hot.  One day we rented a motorbike and rode out to the elephant hospital, another day I took a bicycle along the river.  Other than that, we just walked around and enjoyed the sights, smells and tastes.

Bike Ride in Lampang

Baby Elephants at the elephant hospital

Wooden Temple (Wat) in Lamang

After Lampang we decided to head to Phayao, a lakeside Thai resort town (not too many foreigners) where we had been two years ago.  High season was in full swing and I felt fortunate to be able to get a reservation for three nights at a nice hotel there.  The hotel provided free bikes, which we used to ride around the town one day.  The next day we rented a motorbike and took a ride around the lake and through the countryside.  We spent Christmas there (celebrating with a fish dinner) and then we set out for Chiang Rai, where we rented motorbikes for our ten-day tour.  We were doing the golden triangle again, but in the opposite direction as two years ago with a few extra/different stops.

Sunset over the lake in Phayao

Yummy Khao Soi in Phayao - the best we've had

On the motorbike ride in Phayao

Our first ride was to Phu Chi Fah - a mountaintop resort area with spectacular views of the Mekong - or so we're told.  It was quite busy, but we were able to get a bungalow in the village before heading out to the mountain's peak (steep ride plus short hike up to the viewpoint).  Unfortunately, it was really foggy and we couldn't see much.  It was still pretty cool though (actually quite chilly).  We had a nice open-air dinner overlooking the valley and got to watch a cool rainstorm (under cover).  The big thing to do at Phu Chi Fah is to go up to the viewpoint early in the morning to watch the sunrise over the Mekong.  But we decided to skip it since it was so foggy (yeah, and because we were too lazy).  

The "view" from Phu Chi Fah - the Mekong is down there somewhere!

In the clouds at Phu Chi Fah

The next day we rode down the mountain to Chiang Khong, a riverside town with access to the Laos border. Chiang Khong used to be busier because tourists often spent the night before catching an early morning ferry to Laos. However, the opening of the new Friendship Bridge in 2013 8km south of town made it easier for people to make it to Laos in one day from Chiang Rai or Chiang Mai.  As a result, I think, the accommodations were plentiful and cheap - we scored a place for about 8 bucks (Boom Guesthouse - no A/C needed) and had a nice dinner across the street at the Jam guesthouse.

Easy to see the Mekong from here

We rode a short 50 km along the Mekong River the next day to the town of Chiang Saen, one of our favorites from our 2014 trip. While the place we stayed last time - run by an elderly Singaporean man - was not in business anymore, we found an even better place ("Room for Rent" - no English name) about a two minute walk from the riverside night market.  We spent new years eve there and enjoyed riverside dining, lantern lighting and random fireworks displays  Also I "won" a Chiang Beer at the local bar, just as Matthias was ready to head home, so that kept him with me until midnight.

Lighting our New Year's lantern

I won a beer!

After two days in Chiang Saen we rode to Mae Salong - a mountain village settled by Kuomintang Chinese and surrounded by hill tribe villages.  Being the new year's weekend, the busiest holiday week in Thailand, it was chock full of (Thai) tourists.  But it was still nice. We retraced our journey from two years prior, riding on small lanes through hilltop villages.  The next morning - my birthday - we started off with a delicious Khao Soi for breakfast and rode a short distance down the mountain to Tha Ton, a lovely and quiet village on the Mae Kok river.  We "splurged" for the $17 riverside hotel room and took a beautiful ride through the hills near the Myanmar border.  Then we enjoyed a few beers and a lovely and delicious riverside dinner.  A great birthday!  We decided to stay another day and ride through the nearby villages and rice paddies, along with another trip up in the hills.

Best birthday breakfast - Khao Soi!!

Birthday dinner on the river

Morning view of Mae Kok river from our hotel

Morning view from the Wat

We wrapped up our ten-day tour with  two nights in Fang, which doesn't see a lot of tourists but made a great base for a (steep and windy) ride up to Doi An Khang, another mountaintop village near the Burmese border.  Had a good lunch up there (Khao Soi, of course) and I visited the agriculture park/botanical garden while Matthias stayed outside in the plaza to warm himself up in the sun (he was really cold but I think he also didn't want to pay the entrance fee.)

Selfie in the Agriculture park

English Rose garden, Thai style

We really wanted to keep going, but we needed to start heading south toward Cambodia as our Thai tourist visa was about to expire and we had already applied for our Cambodian visa. So we took our motorbikes back to Chiang Rai (with a quick trip up the river to see our elephant friends in the Karen Village) and prepared for our journey to Bangkok.  I had absolutely no desire to go to Bangkok, but Matthias convinced me it was important to go to the dentist to get our teeth cleaned.  I did have fond memories of the overnight train ride, so I was excited about that.  But as things tend to turn out - the train ride was somewhat of a disappointment (no beer available, food wasn't included and we didn't bring any of either) but Bangkok was fun!  We stayed near the backpacker ghetto close to (but not on) Khao San Road and found a dentist right away who was able to squeeze us in that day (fortunate, as two other people were turned away while I was waiting).  Okay, the teeth cleaning was not fun, and it turns out that I may need a filling or two, but the rest was quite nice.  We enjoyed walking around Banglamphu by day and people watching at night.  On our second day there, we took the express boat up to a nice morning market in Nothanburi and in the afternoon took a bus to a huge weekend market (Chakuchak market, I think), which wasn't really our thing but somewhat interesting.  After another evening of cheap beer, grilled fish and more people watching, we caught a minibus for the five-hour journey to Trat the next morning.

Elephant village by Chiang Rai

Bangkok from the express boat

People watching in Bangkok

While we were less than enthused about leaving the lovely cool weather in northern Thailand for the sweltering heat of the south, we found Trat to be lovely  Trat is known as a necessary stopover on the way to Koh Chang, a popular island.  But since Koh Chang wasn't our goal, we decided to stay two days.  For its size Trat has a quite a large day market, and a bustling night market with great food.  On our second day there, we rented a motorbike and rode out to a local beach....and OMFG, we instantly got over our sadness about leaving the north! The beach was gorgeous - and nearly deserted! And the restaurant serving seafood noodle soup was open!  After that, I started to question our decision to move on to Cambodia. But move on we did (since I started writing this post) to where we are right now.

The beach by Trat - Au Ton Ku

That little dot is Matthias in the water - Koh Chang is in the background

It was an easy trip from Trat through the border (since we pre-purchased our Cambodian visas) to the small town of Koh Khong.  This is another town that doesn't see a whole lot of tourists because it's possible to get to the seaside resort town of Sihanokville in one day.   But we've got 30 days to spend in Cambodia and we decided to take our time.  Found a lovely hotel here right by the river - quite a big river as we're close to the sea - and although it's very hot here, the breeze on the river is nice.  We rented bicycles today and rode out to a mangrove park, enjoying the quiet roads and smiling faces Cambodia has to offer.  Glad we came and glad we decided to spend two days here.  We're off to Sihanokville tomorrow.  Perhaps I'll have more time and more desire to write on the beach.

Welcome to Cambodia - sunset on the river in Koh Khong

Backpedaling (Posted on 2/9/16)

Heading back into Thailand after just over three weeks in Cambodia. Due to the hot and humid weather, and our intolerance for it, we didn't do as much as we planned. (For instance, we didn't go back to the temples at Ankor Wat or the capital, or visit the Mekong valley (which I imagined to be steamy). Instead, we stayed on the south coast, spending a few days in Koh Kong, which was mentioned in the last post. Next, we spent five somewhat stressful days in the seaside resort town of Sihanoukville. Our first hotel, which I booked online, turned out not to have a/c (though I swear I triple checked this on booking.com) and was really in the middle of nowhere. When I asked the host where we could rent bicycles, he didn't know. The next day we found another hotel that was quite nice, but still pretty far from the places we wanted to be. When we finally found a place that rented bicycles, they were pretty junky, so Matthias declined. But the next day after I went on about the lovely beach I rode to, he acquiesced, and we both had junky bikes for the last two days. But Sihanoukville had worn us down - it's very busy and touristy (hardly a moment without someone wanting to take you somewhere and/or sell you something), so we were more than ready to move on to Kampot after five days.

Riding out to the beach in Sihanoukville

Kampot is a more laid-back riverside town (no beach). Still very touristy, but no where as busy or big as Sihanoukville. Our hotel (booked online again) was pretty nice, and once they switched us from our assigned room where the a/c didn't work, to another which had continuous a/c (even after we removed the key fob that supposedly cut the electricity to the room) we were set. We rented bikes the first day and rode out of town through villages and salt flats looking for the coast. Because of a wrong turn, we didn't make it to the coast, so we tried again the next day and made it. But (as advertised) there was no real beach for swimming - just a rocky coast that made a nice a resting spot. It was a punishing ride on a really bumpy dirt road (and did I mention heat?) so even I was pretty much over bike riding after that. We didn't plan to rent motorbikes in Cambodia because we had heard that foreigners are often pulled over. But then we saw so many tourists on motorbikes, and so many rental places, we decided to take a chance. The first day we rode 25 km out to Kep, a small seaside resort town, where I thought we would also spend a few days. Kep had a great crab market where I had my best meal yet - Crab with Kampot Pepper! However, the town was pretty spread out -just a bunch of guesthouses, a beach and the crab market - but no real downtown area. So, we decided to spend another few days in Kampot.

Our ride to the coast near Kampot (well, 11km away down a dirt road....)

Crab in Kampot Pepper Sauce!!

At the Crab Market in Kep

The next day, we went to Bokor National Park, and rode up toward cooler weather on the mountaintop. The ride was lovely, and the cooler temperature made us happy. On top of the mountain, there was a huge Chinese casino/hotel (but hardly anyone there), a burned out old hotel/casino built by the French, a mountaintop temple and a trickling waterfall (due to the season). It was cool to be up in the clouds but I found most of the attractions to be pretty creepy, which became my new German word for the day:  gruselig.  Google also creeped me out by automatically creating a panarama photo made out of a few I pictures I had taken.  It came out really nice (though I can't figure out how to upload it here).  Now I'm waiting for Google to send me pictures I  didn't even take (e.g.,  "Your trip to Bangkok.  Google created a photo of you getting a massage.  Save to library?")

Up in the clouds at the temple in Bokor National Park (the panarama shot is better)

Inside the ruins of the old resort casino

On our last day in Kampot we rode out to a pepper farm. Kampot pepper is world famous (in France, apparently) and we were shown how it's organically grown here. Matthias had originally planned to bring some back, but when he saw how expensive it was (meaning, more than it cost back home) he decided against it. Probably the right decision. It was quite tasty, but we probably wouldn't know the difference.

at the pepper farm

As I mentioned, we thought it would be too hot to head inland to the capital, or anywhere else for that matter, but we still had some time to kill so we went back to Sihanoukville to spend a few days at the beach and a few nights eating delicious seafood.  We did find a quiet beach where people weren't trying to give me a pedicure, sell me a bracelet or tell me how much my legs needed their hair removal services every three minutes.

Back on the beach in S'nookville

Our favorite beach bar/restaurant on a quiet stretch of beack in S'nookville

Although we didn't do a whole lot in Cambodia, we did come away with a new experience and some general reflections; I'll start with the good, the bad and the ugly...

The good: To our delight, the food in Cambodia was as good as remembered, and we like it perhaps even better than Thai food (although after three weeks of it, I'm looking forward to Thai again). We found a few good versions of fish amok (coconut curry fish), seafood in pepper sauce and great noodle soup. We lasted in Sihanoukville as long as we did because the restaurant on the beach (Aloha cafe, where we spent our days) served good and cheap curry and fried veggies. Plus there was comfy a British Pub (Snooky's) near our hotel that served $0.50 beer at happy hour. And, the much recommended Cabbage Farm restaurant was even better for evening meals.  It had an extensive menu of all kinds of Khmer (Cambodian) dishes, with lots of seafood. We tried almost all of them - eel, shark, whole fish, squid, crab,  shrimp, and our favorite - "sea lobster" which looked more like large "sea roaches" (or maybe craw fish) but were delicious!

At Cabbage Farm with "Sea Lobster" in green pepper sauce

The bad: Cambodia is of course a very poor country and seemingly quite corrupt. And it felt at times they were trying to make up the national budget by taking advantage of tourists. It started at the border, where they tried to extort money for an unnecessary "health check" and overcharged for a taxi into town. Then, after renting a motorbike when we were back in Sihanoukville, we got pulled over for a "random check", or as Lonely Planet puts it - "fundraising activities".  Apparently, they pull foreigners over and give citations for not having the proper license (which, of course, the rental place doesn't check or even tell you about).   Fortunately, we got out of paying a fine, but gave up on motorbikes after that.   The day before getting pulled over we got a flat tire on the way back from the beach.  While that was bad luck, we were fortunate to be about half a mile away from a repair guy.   As Matthias wheeled the motorbike over to the guy he asked "how much" to which the guy replied "I have to see". Well, Matthias probably spent the most agonizing 20 minutes watching the guy repair/patch the tire (which he did without removing the wheel, by the way) wondering how much we were going to be charged.  When he finished, the guy asked for one dollar. We gave him $1.25 and drove gleefully away.

Patching our flat tire - with fire!

The ugly: Cambodia was dirty. There was garbage everywhere - on the street, in the fields and in the rivers (a LOT in the rivers). And they often pile it up and burn it. It seems a shame, but particularly where there is so much building and development going on - grand hotels and casinos being built - but the surrounding area is covered with garbage.  And people regularly toss garbage out of car windows and into rivers.

Cows feeding on burning garbage in the countryside

Other:

Language:  We were able to get by with English as most people could speak at least a little.  That made it easy for us, particularly for something like a haircut.  On the other hand, I  was stumped by some of the translations, as shown below.

Can water really be ultraviolated?

Matthias getting his hair cut

Currency:  They use American dollars and Cambodian currency (riel) interchangably, which made it easy for us when we went to the ATM and got dollars (not worrying about having leftover currency).  But it was also confusing.  One dollar equals 4,000 riel, soyou could think of 1,000 riel as a quarter.  Prices were quoted in either currency (but never both) and you would pay and get change in combination.  For example, if the bill was $8.50 and I paid with a $10 bill, I might get $1 and 2,000 riel back or just 6,000 riel.  It was good brain work trying to pay or count change and I think it does wonders for math skills - everyone was lightning quick at figuring it all out.  Unlike back home where many wouldn't know how much change to give back in a single currency if the cash register didn't tell them.

What's hot:  Smart phones, selfie sticks, skinny jeans, silk scarves and.....sleepwear. I really got a kick out of people wearing pajamas on the streets.  And I don't mean old sweats like one might wear on a day out to Walmart. I mean actual pajama sets.  And not just little kids.  But why not?  Cute, comfy and cool!

Pajamas!

Fast forward (or backward) back to Thailand. We are in Trat again, and we planned on going to the beach today (the first beach we saw - mentioned in the last post - and the reason we came back here) but ironically, it's too windy and cool! We're heading back to Bangkok tomorrow so I can go back to the dentist for a filling, which I'm not too psyched about. Bangkok should be nice, although I suppose it's too much to hope for that it will be as cool as it is today in Trat. Tomorrow is the lunar new year - a big deal here - so we'll see what comes with that. After that, we'll be heading through southern Thailand to Kuala Lumpur from where we will fly back to the US (via Tokyo) at the end of the month.  

Last day in Cambodia