Baliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

Paradise.You know it is going to be a good week when you get picked up my your personal driver who has a cold beer.  I swam in the clearest water I have ever seen yesterday. We are living the life here in bali. We got a cook and a driver and a private pool.  We also have a solid group of people here and a fridge stocked with beer and vodka sodas. Bali should be on everyone's to do list.

My dreams came true tonight...

Picture this. Rooftop, flat screen, under the stars, watching Octopussy. In India. Yes. Octopussy, the 1983 James Bond movie. I am pretty sure my life is complete. 

We got into Udaipur bright and early this morning,  I must say this is a great little city.  It is also known as the City of Lakes...it is very romantical. There is some great architecture and the city is surrounded by mountains and old fort walls.  Sure, there are still cows and a monkey or two running around but it is alot cleaner a little quieter then the other cities we have explored. Udaipur is actually making me have a little twinge of jealousy that Brian gets to stay and do more exploring in the south. It's true, I feel like I am getting into the groove of India.  If you would have asked me that 7 days ago I would have laughed and said, hell no, I will be ready to leave!!!  How the tables have turned. Or at least made a little shift.

Why Octopussy? Well many parts of the film were shot right here in Udaipur and other parts of India. So when we go do some sight seeing and touristy things tomorrow...we will be able to say..hey this is where James Bond was standing last night!! hahaha. Oh, and I saw about 4 signs at 4 different places highlighting the fact that they had a rooftop bar showing Octopussy at 7PM.  I guess it is kinda there thing here.....

Tomorrow we tour and play in grand palaces in Udaipur.  In the evening we will celebrate the end of a great India trip with a few Kingfishers, watching the sunset over the lake and mountains...

Adventures in India

We just got in to Jaipur, India...also known as the Pink City. We are staying at a guest house that has so much character. I would have to say the places we have slept in this country are going down in history.  This guest house is a little old but there is something about it that I am really digging. Lots of porches and little common areas...I like the vibe. I think I also like that it is tucked in on a quite street and as of right now there are no horrible smells coming from anywhere. whooo hooo

Some updates..

-We tried. WE went to Indian places to eat and could never really read the menu or know what we were ordering.  I mean we did get lucky with some dishes and if I could be spoiled and have a complete explanation of what the dishes are, what's in them and how they are prepared I am sure I would have found some great meals....but that's just not how it works over here.  Danni has been eating french fries and cookies, I have tried my luck and have been eating a lot of peanuts and bananas, and Brian will eat pretty much anything. It's sad to say but I don't feel one bit guilty confessing that we found and ate Subway two days in a row. A girl has got to eat at least one good meal a day to keep her morals high. We may have also found ourselves eating McDonald's ice cream cones a few times as well...oh yeah, I like the Nan.

The Little Blue Lassi Shop

A popular place in Varanasi. Let me tell you a little about Lassi. It is curd....you know milk that has been sitting out for dayssss. Brian and I went and tried the pineapple lassi...yummmm. NOT. We got a clay pot full of this stuff and I just stirred it around laughing and gagging while Brian tried to eat it. He made me hold it while he paid. THEN HE RAN OFF. Leaving me with a clay pot and pineapple curdled milk in the little blue lassi shop with rats running around.  He had hardly made a dent. I guess the Lassi boy found me so charming when I was taking pictures of him whipping up the curd and calling him handsome that he came over and handed me a whole new pot of curd!! So now I had two clay pots full of curd...dammit Brian!!  To make a long story short I said thank you..sat there with my feet up away from the little rats and pawned it off on some Australian dudes who just loved it..thanks but no thanks on the Lassi.

Agra

Day Trip. Day Trip. We took a train from Varanasi to Agra and got in about 8AM....we had a train out of Agra at 6PM to New Delhi. Only a few hours in Agra is all you need. Gave us just enough time to grab a morning snack and check our bags then it was off to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of all. Wait. No. That's not right. We were off to see The Taj Mahal!! I sat on the princess Dianna bench and took my pic just like she did...it was a dirty fight to get a picture on that bench but we all got single pics and a group picture. The Taj was breathtaking. So beautiful....it is considered to be one of the wonders of the world and there I was laying back on the cool marble of the Taj, just soaking it all in.  After we took TONS of pictures we took Brian to the local watering holes for some Birthday beers. Yep..Brian got to spend his 23rd birthday with his two favorite girls and the Taj Mahal...what a lucky guy.

New Delhi

By the time we got to New Delhi we were ready for a little breather/break. So we thought why not go to a movie...the gods were not having it. They seemed to be telling us if you are in India, experience India for petes sakes you babies!! All the English movies were playing over an hour tuk tuk drive away so we referred back to the Lonely Planet book and came up with a game plan. 

First, we went to see where Gandhi spent the last days of his life and where he was assassinated. It was a really beautiful memorial with lots of quotes by Gandhi and loads of history about his life and his work. We saw a lot of his belongings and beautiful artwork done in his honor. So cool.  Between mass at The Mother Teresa House, floating down the Ganges at sunrise, then visiting the place of Gandhi's life and death, I have to say I am feeling pretty enlightened...and of course keep pinching my right arm to make sure this is real life.

We then headed to the National Zoo. My advice to you, if you are in India...don't go to the National Zoo!!! I kid you not there were more then a dozen exhibits of DEER. There were also a few wild birds...other then that alot of empty cages, dried up water, one white tiger, a crocodile in verrry dirty water, so many people, random mounds of dirt....I tell ya the streets of India are more zooish as well as a few of the guest houses we have stayed in have had more animal activity then the New Delhi Zoo!  This was no Como Zoo or Lincoln Park Zoo.....

New Delhi is also where we found the Subway..it is also where we decided to test our luck with public transportation. We took the Metro to the train station, it was a piece of cake! Not only was it easy, fast, and cheap...it was clean and seemed very high tech.  The El could really take some pointers from the New Delhi Metro.

So this leads me to today....our first full day in Jaipur.  We ran around an old palace and fort..Amber Fort. I had to have been a princess in a past life, it felt so natural running around a palace. We went through markets, took tuk tuk rides, walked and walked, treated myself to a fountain diet coke and now about to go find a book store because I need a new book, I am flying through books on these trains! As our days dwindle I am actually wishing I had some more time to see more cities..which means ladies and gentleman..I may one day return to India.....

No I will never get used to the smells that attack our senses every turn
or
seeing men just pissing on the side of the road/street/building
or
being cut and budged in front of by men, realizing we are in the "wrong" line. Yes, there are separate lines for men and women at most public places
or
stop rolling my eyes and throwing my hands in the air when I see the difference of prices for things. There is a foreigner price/Indian price. Example... Taj...750 Rs for us...the locals..like 20 Rs!!!! The zoo...100 Rs for us...for the locals..10Rs....COME ON!

India so far has shown me things I never thought I would see or experience. I am so thankful to have had time in this county. I can not wait to put up pictures and tell more stories. Two train rides and one city left then it is time to say goodbye.

The 1st thing that happens when I touch down in Bali is laundry. I ran out of undies and socks so I bought a bar of laundry soap and did it old school in a bucket. I am getting so skilled in the most random things over here I tell ya! I am also good at brushing my teeth using a water from a water bottle.

Till next time.....
xo

Where am I and how on earth did I get here?!?!?

One week in India and still kicking!! Boy oh boy. As much as I would like to go city by city here...and give you the highlights, the lowlights and tell you all about the flickering lights. However...I just don't think I am in the "best blogger mode" I can be.  Also, it might be more fun to tell some of these stories with pictures....just wait until the end of May, for those of you who have been loyal readers to the blog you will have lots to keep you busy! I promise! 

We have been in three Cities...Kolkata, Darjeeling, and Varanasi and headed to Agra to see the Taj on the 16th.  

I write to you from one of the oldest cities in the world and the most holy in Hinduism, Varanasi. I will just say this city has character and characters. With in the first 15 hours we saw 3 funeral processions down to the Ganges. It is on the river banks where they have public cremations....and it just so happens our guest house is just a hop, skip and a jump from "the burning place' where most of the cremations take place.  Families are carrying their loved ones down to the river...usually just wrapped in cloth...sometimes decorated with flowers..paint...and some other things I am not quite sure what they are though. 

There is a whole process and it has been explained to us, I think 2 times, but there are still some holes in the whole picture because lack of communication. The last thing I would want to do is but false information up here or get it all wrong...so let me just try to piece it together...or we all could just Google it. 

This city is pretty crazy.  Cows, dogs, monkeys, pigs, rabbits....you name it, it lives here. I can't tell you how many cow pies I have stepped in....the flies are just the worst, especially  in the heat of the day. Just gross.

There are large moments of being overwhelmed. The smells, the stares, the cockroaches, the rats, the poverty, bodies, lots of getting lost and turned around, not knowing if what you put in your mouth is going to turn on you and have you curled over for hours...but your just so tired and hungry you take the chance! I am not even getting across all of the emotions we have all felt this past week. Like Brian and I discussed on the roof top of a 200 year old building (one of the buildings in her prime compared to the rest of the city) last night...this is an experience. We can't say that we are having the times of our lives or any one part of the trip as been extremely, over the top enjoyable...it has just been seriously new experiences. 

Yesterday I climbed from the roof of our guest house over to a larger buildings roof top...just like the monkeys do...and watched two boys fly kites. I did not really get it..but as the evening went on and the sunset behind the city...I learned they are not just flying kites...but kite fighting. I have a lesson...rooftop 5PM sharp tonight for my first lesson. I have to remember to bring my slingshot and stick though to scare off the monkeys..I wish I was joking!

Aw I have so many other stories I want to share but I need some food....maybe I will spend some time later tonight on the blog! Try this....you can kinda see what we are dealing with....haha!

http://johnnyvagabond.com/interactive-varanasi/

Welcome to India

Lots going on everywhere I look.

We are in Kolkata/Calcutta...and just walking about 6 feet there are about 20 different things going on. I will have to come back and put pictures and details about where we slept last night...rats, roaches, spiders, scary pictures, squatters, padlocks, dirrrrrrty sheets (we bought big scarves to lay over the sheets), ummmm we felt safe....did we feel clean, that's a negative. So we might be shelling out some more rupees in the nights to come so we can sleep soundly. An experience I will never forget thats for sure.

On the topic of experiences I will never forget...this morning I went to 6AM mass at the Mother Teresa House. It was wonderful, I wish we would have been here long enough to do some volunteer work.....IT was on the second floor right above the room where her resting place is. I will give the play by play of the morning in a post to come. I don't want to leave anything out from my walk to mass and my walk home...

Cross your fingers we have all eaten and all of us are feeling tip top....tonight we are brave soldiers taking a sleeper train....all the 1st class cabins were full so we will be strapping all our belongings to us for the 12 hour ride to the mountains...we can do it....maybe cross your toes for us too??
xo 

Leftovers

- In Laos Erin took money out of the ATM. 700,000 Kip.  It then flashed a message. No available kip in your account. We started to freak out, thinking she had drained her who bank account getting out kip. We had no idea how much 700,000 kip was. After running around to banks and talking to people.....of course there was no kip in her account. We have a BHAT account. Silly girls. overreaction moment. It was only about 3,000 BHAT which close to 100 dollars. So we all took cash out. We all got the message. Wheeeew. 1st timers.

- In Cambodia, the penthouse we rented....I was taking a nice hot shower. The power went out. Blackout. I screamed...very loud. The water went cold. I just stood in the shower made sure the door was locked. Waiting for a horror movie to begin. I could hear the voices asking if i was ok....as soon as my eyes adjusted to the darkness. I did what any normal, not scared person would do. Finished shaving my legs and washed the conditioner out of my hair. Gave a shout out to my friends to make sure they were not part of a crime scene then pranced out to Mike, Zach, and Danni sitting by candle light. I was so fresh and so clean. Power was on like 10 min later.

-There are corn ladies every where. We have 3 types of corn sold on the side of streets or out of bike baskets. We have steamed corn and roasted corn and corn with something green all over it...I missed the chance to try that kind. Whenever I see a corn lady I bargain for an ear...it's a nice little snack!

-One night in Cambodia I went to have Rachel time. Good thing too because the people that ran the guest house invited Mike and Zach to join them for a drink and a snack. The snack. DOG MEAT. I swear. I would not be surprised if some of the "beef" I have eaten is not really a cow......

-At Angkor Wat there were monkeys everywhere! Wild ones.

-Cambodia's ice cream sandwich. A loaf of bread with ice cream in the middle.

-There is laughing cow cheese everywhere.....a little bummed out they don't sell the light kind!  Also learned that does not need to be kept cold....out in the heat of the day!

-Just so you know ice cream flavored oreos are gross. They have a purple inside.The strawberry oreos.....those are safe. We got them on a bus ride as a free snack, never would I have thought pink oreos would be delicious.

- Baby powder works for everything. Smoky clothes, sweaty...uh sweaty anything and everything

Cambodian Children and the conversations :

Little Girl says to Danielle: Buy this fan from me.
Danielle: No thanks
Little Girl: Buy it for your mom
Danielle: She already has one
Little Girl: Buy it for your husband
Danielle: I don't have a husband
Little Girl: DO you know why you don't have a husband?
Danielle: Why
Little Girl: Cause you don't buy fan from me

Some quick snap shots...these are so a few weeks ago!!!!!!!

 4,000 Islands, LAOS

 THIS IS THE HUT

How cute

Uh. Crap. Pretty sure this is Vientiane, LAOS. It is a green Buddha. I decided it was an Irish Buddha.  

 Sunset in Vientiane, LAOS

 Buddha Park...remember we rode our bike long and far this day...about 24 miles..LAOS

 Saigon. Theses are the boys..they kind of look like men walking to their bikes with helmets in tow. Their heads are hangin low cause it is time to sell them back! wah wah. Glad they made it safe though the whole county of Vietnam!!! 

 Hotel room in Hoi An..my life taking over my bed. I am such a bag lady!

 Motorbikes...motorbikes...always..all over Vietnam

 Saigon. Rachel Time. Wine and Journal Time.

 Saigon. again. Please just look at the telephone pole. 

 Crossing the border from Vietnam to Cambodia...workin on my sunburn

 My go to. Phnom Phen, Cambodia. Notice the tuk tuks.

 Rach, Erin, and Annie....Hanoi, Vietnam

For those of you that have not heard..............

Cambodia....and this is the short version. Maybe take a quick bathroom break and get a coffee or cocktail.....

I am going back and forth on how to tell the tale of Cambodia. There are sooo many different things I have to share. Stories and emotions. I will try my hardest to make sure it all makes sense and flow together. If not you can send all comments, questions and concerns to Ra.dietsch@gmail.com on that note… I blog but really don’t know what is going on with anyone else. Even little baby emails with updates on your life, your mood, even a story..to be honest I don’t even know who reads this!

Ok,ok,ok, back to the tale of Cambodia…When I was in Vietnam and we had down time or a bus ride I read the book  At First They Killed My Father by Loung Ung. This book was just the tip of the iceberg of an introduction to the terrible, not so long ago, history of the Cambodian people.  It is not pretty. I am glad I read this book because it gave me some prior knowledge and some background information so even when we were pulling up to Phnom Penh I had goose bumps and a small, very small connection to the city already.

The moment we stepped off the boat we were greeted by Tony. He was a tuk tuk driver recommended to us by the man that bought the motorcycles from the boys after their trip though Vietnam.

Tony brought us first to find a place to sleep.  For $24.00 a night we were pretty much renting a 2 bedroom apartment.(6 bucks a person, what.a.bargin.) Two big rooms with bathrooms, a common area, a balcony. So much room in this place and not many things to fill the space. (My mind kept thinking…dance parties, dance parties, dance parties) The common area there was a beautiful carved wooden bench and chair to watch TV in. Comfort level about a 2, we did not really spend much time in that area. 

Tiles. Tiles on the floor, tiles on the ceiling and tiles on the walls. All white. Just a little different then carpet, or wood floors, or paint or wallpaper....just has a different feel....

After dropping our bags we went and got some food. We sat outside, it was a nice cool evening and we got some grilled beef and veggies and drank some Angkor Beer, the beer made in Cambodia. IT WAS SOO GOOD. Just what the doctor ordered after a long hot day of traveling. It was so good I had to buy a t-shirt later on in the trip dedicated to the beer with the slogan… “My beer, My country” I know it’s not my county but it is good beer and a cool t-shirt.

I slept like a baby, we woke up and pretty much attacked the day full force. Tony picked us up about 8:30 and we went right to the Killing Fields outside of Phnom Penh.  When the Khmer Rouge took over,1975-1979 and was putting all their effort into making Cambodia a communist country,  this was one of the places hundreds and hundreds of people’s lives came to an end. I did not know much about these killing fields, they were briefly mentioned in the book I had read.  There was informational video and of course lots of history to read once we got to the site.

I never learned about this in history books or school. Danielle and I sat there and were just boggled by what happened to this county and its people. Thousands and thousands of people killed in the most brutal way possible.  For reasons we can not even begin to understand. We can read why they did or why they thought they were doing something “right”…but it’s just a mental and emotional shock. The fact is this is

not ancient history. Cambodia’s population and age in the population are a constant reminder of how recent this actually was.

Killing fields.

-Huge number of mass graves. We walked around these massive holes in the ground where hundreds of skeletons were found

Some graves were headless skeletons. 

Some graves of skulls. 

Some graves just women and children. 

Some graves just men. 

Most of them were naked and others were just graves filled with clothes. When it rains there are still pieces of fabric and bones that rise to the top of the earth. These are scattered all though the field.

It 

is 

bone 

chilling

horrible

- Two trees were marked. One the baby killing tree. Where children were thrown against the trunk then thrown into the grave by the Khmer Rouge soldiers. The second tree was known as the magic tree. This tree a loud speaker was hung blasting music so the people who lived and worked around the killing fields could not hear the moans and screams of the victims.

They made this not only a historical site but a memorial. 

A reminder. 

We walked though silent. 

There were butterflies everywhere.  

They had a small memorial/building in the center this is where they had the skulls of the victims. 

The skulls were organized according to age and sex.  

Hundreds of skulls.

What a start to our first day in Cambodia eh? Our next stop to buy a 50 kilo bag of rice. We loaded it up on the tuk tuk and Tony carted us to an orphanage. We dropped off the rice, got a tour, hung with the kids while they were eating lunch. They boys played volley ball with a few of the kids and Danni and I played with a few of the little girls who were teaching us games/songs…I can’t think of what they are called! You know…we clap our hands together and sing!??!?!? Well they taught us those…we could not really sing the words but they taught us the actions and that was good enough. They were wonderful. Loved them. Could have stayed there all day.

To end the day we headed to s-21 museum or the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum. This was a secret prison. It was a high school that turned into a place that held, tortured and executed people.  I am going to put this website link in so if you wish to learn more about it and explained in better detail you have that option. http://www.killingfieldsmuseum.com/s21-victims.html

I mean…I walked though pretty quick. I read the information. I saw the pictures of the victims. I could not help but thinking if I was somebody coming though here who had family or friends who were on these walls. Some of the pictures were so graphic. Young kids being thrown up against walls to have their mug shot taken, most of them had already had the shit kicked out of them by ruthless soldiers. It was in a school and I was very disturbed by the whole place. I needed a few minutes of Rachel time on a bench in the courtyard with my sunglasses on.

That evening consisted of a nap. Then a late night snack of chips, salsa and black beans. I was just worn out! We were eating at an outdoor place by the river where we were greeted every 3 min by a different child between the age of 4 years old to about 14 years old. I have not informed you about the children of Cambodia. They come up to you with boxes of things….usually books, bracelets, fans….anything…scarves…and they try to get you to buy it. These kids are professionals. Trained professionals.  Depending on the county you are from depends on the kids that come up to you….they can all speak one or two languages. You say you are from America they spit out facts and figures. They try to win you over to buy things!  They even have jokes and give you a hard time….these kids are funny….you want to buy things from them but the second you do…you are a goner, a sucker…and a magnet to the 50 other kids on the streets selling things.  I have a few funny conversations but I have to save that for a little later.

After a little Mexican snack I hit the sack….our last day we walked around the city some more…it was hot! After some wat visits and milling around it was time for Rachel time. I took my book and journal and found a great little lounge/café/bar and ordered myself a big glass of wine.  We had another night bus ride ahead of us….

It had been a long few days. Traveling is amazing. Time for a little vent session.  Traveling is also exhausting. I had not had my own space for a month by this point. I was always sharing rooms sharing beds. Fine. I don’t mind sharing…I am getting better and better at it. However….you learn a lot about people when you are with them 24/7.  So sometimes when I needed a break from the group or people or person I usually hightail it to a coffee shop or hunt down a cheap glass of wine.  I am sure I do things that drive people crazy. I am sure people get sick of me. We all have different ways of dealing with it. I even got called out once….”Rachel….make up your mind where you are from!!!”

It’s true. Depending on who I am talking to I say I am from St. Paul, MN and sometimes I am from Chicago, IL. But when talking to people some people DON’T KNOW WHERE ST PAUL, MN IS….I know it might be hard to believe but most people have heard of Chicago. Soooo it all depended. I was honest most of the time…grew up in St. Paul….have been living in Chicago…..but sometimes when you are going around giving your introduction to a new group…that’s just to long to say all that!!!!

Alright, back to Cambodia. Lets see, I think that’s all I have to say about Phnom Penh. Except when I was drinking my wine I did talk to the owners of the place and they told me about how in Cambodia the way people deal with things is acid attacks. I don’t know much about it except that it is easy to get your hands on there and if you have a bad breakup, shady business deal that goes bad, or you want to get even with someone, dumping acid on each other seems to be the answer. It is sick really. It deforms people and it ruins people. Cruel, cruel.

Now, I have said a lot of negative things. But really Cambodia is amazing place. Let’s get to Siem Reap.  We found a great little guest house  for 3 bucks a night per person. Pretty nice for how cheap it was. Clean, hot shower, powerful fan to keep us cool. It may not have had dance party room but it had a great big wrap around deck on that was right outside my room with chairs for reading and it looked down on the neighbor kids running around naked or playing with motorbike tires. (kids hardly ever have clothes on and they do play with things that in America only adults are allowed to touch or use. We see kids with parts of machines, knifes, starting fires.. you name it....) We were not right in the center of the city but tucked in on a nice little road. Neighborhoody.  

We had a local joint next door that served $1.00 glasses of wine and free peanuts…and a few more steps away was where I ate breakfast 3 mornings in a row. A huge fresh fruit salad with yogurt and muesli and an iced coffee…drumroll please…..for $2.00. How I am still broke…eating like a king and hardly shelling out money….I don’t know.

Since we took a night bus in we got in at like 530 AM, got our rooms, slept some more, ate then went and bargained tuk tuk drivers to take us to Angkor Wat so we could get our tickets for the next day and see the sunset that night.

Since Danni and I needed to get back to BKK to do some things before India we only got a one day pass to Angkor Wat…the boys got a 3 day pass plus a tour guide. SHOW OFFS! 

Angkor Wat is one of the coolest things I have ever seen in my life. The oldest of old…thousands of years old temples in the jungle. There are tons of them but because of our time limit we only saw 4 or 5 plus the big daddy Angkor Wat. New life plan or I guess add this to my checklist…

1.      -~Learn and read as much as I can about Angkor What? I mean Wat.

2.       ~Make a lot of money so I can go back for a week and explore every temple and know what I am looking at

3.      ~ Pay for the best tour guide who can answer all my questions that I don’t already know

4.      -~Teach my someday students about Angkor Wat so if they ever decide to travel and their travels take them to Cambodia they will know to get the 3 day pass as well as be able to appreciate the unbelievable structures they are walking though and climbing through.

I will post pictures with more stories/explanations of this jaw dropping, mysterious place….after a full day of temple tours and exploring it was time for another glass of cheap wine and a good nights sleep before getting on our last bus to take us home sweeeet home.

I write this from my mini computer in the comfort of my room at ABAC. I have my tunes on, Star movies on in the background and skype dates all night.  I really loved Cambodia and out of the three countries I tackled in a month I hope I can make it back there before I head back to the states. Did I mention how one night we had a heaping plate of cooked and raw veggies, a few meat dishes, a pitcher of beer …a real belly busting meal and we each paid $2.00. I mean….thanks Cambodia.

You fed me.

You taught me.

You inspired me.

I will be back. 

CAMBODIA

Cambodia. Needless to say has been pretty fantastic. I am waiting until I get back to BKK to update with full details. 

The FOOD

The HISTORY

The PEOPLE

The SUNSETS

The SIGHTS and SOUNDS