Kate and Andy's adventure

Re-model Part 1

2006-12-10T09:46:00.000-08:00

America is addicted to make-over shows - yourself, your husband, your house - next season it will be your pet no doubt. Since we have no pets, you are treated to our house re-model work.

The following are before/after pics of our attic re-model that we have been doing since the beginning of October with help from a contractor. This was a messy job beginning with pulling down all the sheetrock and replacing insulation from the 50's and Andy trying his hand at electrical wiring. However, the result is definitely worth the pain. Starting in January, we begin finishing off the basement adding a new bedroom/bathroom and most importantly - closets! Closets were not a big deal in 1907 when the house was built - hence there was only 1 - but they are pretty useful in the 21st century. Strangely, this new closet in the attic at 10 feet in length/3 in width is currently vying with copious amounts of French foie gras as my favorite thing for the year.

Attic before re-model:

Attic after re-model (same perspective) - new media room with HDTV projector and the Closet!

Back for now & Brighter (the house that is) than ever

2006-09-17T14:38:00.000-07:00

Well - we have been back about 2 months from our travels and are enjoying being home and doing some projects around the house. The big one for August/September was getting our house in Wallingford painted. For those of you who have seen the house, it definitely needed a bit more life to it so we have painted it a bold color of blue which was named "Euro Gray". I am not quite sure if this is the EU's way of getting back at the American citizenry or a foolish American's idea of what the Europeans perceive as the color gray but it is a lot better than the tan/mauve of the prior color which is all we care about at this point. That and the fact that the project is actually done after a few frustrating weeks with our painters - not good for the hapless painters to have 2 unemployed project managers around.

Off tomorrow for a tour of VA and DC for the week catching up with friends and family there and showing Andy where I grew up. Will update next week of our adventures on the East Coast and progress on the job front - yes, I am actually looking to be employed again ;-).

Love, K&A

Best quote of the tournament....so far

2006-06-14T10:49:00.000-07:00

"Now I have something important to tell you, you must listen, David Hasselhof is not liked by the Germans!"

- from one of our new German friends at the pub after the drinking and watching the Brazil-Croatia match

it wasn't pretty

2006-06-14T10:34:00.000-07:00

Things started out great at the World Cup prior to the US match - we meet up with the Mott's at the train station, we find some Elvis'es, there's a beer tent every ten meters.

But then it started to turn ugly in Gelsenkirchen. We get on the bus to go to the stadium, and it's at least 120 degrees in the bus while it's stuck in traffic. We thought we had it bad until you saw a guy in a flannel hot dog outfit. Then we actually watched the game. You saw it, too. We looked bad...really bad. At least the Czech team was quality, but after the game we were just hoping we weren't the only guys losing by three goals (thanks Ukraine!). That being said, it was great to see 15,000 US supporters in the same place, and damn, it was loud. Hopefully they can make some adjustments against Italy.

But just in case, I've decided to come out of retirement and offer my offensive to the US squad.

A day at the races

2006-06-08T05:59:00.000-07:00

So, we were here during the french equivalent of the Grand National Races (horse steeplechasing if you are not familiar with it) and decided to head out for the day with our friends John, Nicole and Craig who were visiting to enjoy the weather and watch the ponies!

The racetrack is in the Bois de Boulogne which is a massive park to the west of Paris. Like all horse races, the best things are the fashions (check out the hats and Craig and Andy!)

the horses - this was the favorite for the day and the winners (as in me with my last wagers of the day.

The 6 of us had a great time and will always remember the spectacle of 1000s of pounds of horseflesh pounding over the turf and a fabulous day for all of us!

another reminder that sometimes the French just don't get it

2006-06-05T16:03:00.000-07:00

Steven Seagal in concert?
what's worse is that tickets are - ahem - 80-128 euros each

The bad bloggers return

2006-06-05T15:37:00.000-07:00

ok, ok, we're sorta back. You've hopefully received the mail announcing the photos up on snapfish.com. If not, send one of us a mail, and we'll send you the link.

An interesting note from the bookstores here in Paris - especially from one who speaks German - it seems there are no travel books in French for German destinations. There are books for Spain, Italy, the islands, even England...but you have to look hard and go to a pretty big bookstore to find anything on Germany. Old grudges die hard, I guess.

And yeah, that picture is Martina Navratilova at the French Open last week. She's 49 and still going strong - seeded in doubles. Saw her and a partner smoke a couple of Czech teenagers. Sadly, she lost the next day to a couple of Ukranian teenagers instead.

Life in Paris

2006-05-29T15:34:00.000-07:00

Well - we have been in Paris about a month now are having a fantastic time. It has been really incredible to be in a place and just live without the pressure of going to see something every minute of the day. Rather, it is a process of exploring a new place, getting to know its people, the language and just recognizing the incredible beauty this city offers to all who come here.

We have a great flat just north of Hotel de Ville and Notre Dame in an area called the Marais which is the old Jewish quarter. The flat is great with the fun of precisely 108 steps (see below)

to reach it but the reward is worth it - check out the view - and of course the DSL!! which we talked our landlady into getting if we agreed to install it - our MSFT training coming in handy and a good dictionary.

Our lives have settled into a routine of sorts after 4 months on the road. I think initially the best thing about being here was we were in a place we both know fairly well and we weren't moving around. After not spending more than 5 nights in any one place since January, it was something we both really needed. And then...we began to explore - museums, parks, chateaus and yes - school.

We decided that it was time to improve our french so we have been taking classes at the Alliance Francaise for about a month for 2 hours a day. While many things are interesting about the people in our respective classes, one of the things that has been interesting albeit very challenging is that there is not a common language to use outside of French. Spanish, Greek, Farsi, Israeli, Chinese etc. are the most common languages of our fellow classmates so your acting skills or your French vocabulary improves quickly.

See Andy at school!

Luckily, we have had many friends visit over the 4 weeks from London and Seattle so we have had more than enough time to practice our English as well. Other than that, we have been going to visit museums, chateaus (check out photos of Loire valley, Bois de Boulogne) and my highlight this week was our trip to the steeplechase races that ended the season. (we even won this week)
More on the steeplechase and other Paris explorations tomorrow. Hope you all are well and we will see you soon.

Love, K&A

We are bad bloggers!

2006-05-03T04:18:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the delays in postings last month. After we got back from Indonesia last month, we had only a few days before 3 months in Europe so are a bit behind. We are now happily settled in Paris where we will be for the next 6 weeks and look forward to hearing from you all but as you can see from the photo from our friends John and Nicole's wedding - we are managing to have a good time!

Hidup Bagus Sekali (Life is very good - Indonesia part 1)

2006-03-20T03:40:00.000-08:00

Hidup bagus sekali (Life is very good)

So, sorry about the screwy order of our blog. The order of the adventure is the following and/or if you are coming to meet us:

January – Costa Rica
February – Family
March – Asia (Bangkok, Luang Prabang, Indonesia (Bali (beaches, mountains), Gili Trawangan – small island off coast of Lombok, and Jogyakarta – Javanese city)
April – Friends wedding in London, some time in Paris and Rome
April 26-May 25th – Paris with a few days in South with friends
May 25th-June 6th – somewhere ;-)
June 6th-July 4th – Germany for World Cup
July 4th-12th – London

So, right now we are in the rains on the island of Gili Trawangan and have some more time to write. We are in week 2 of our Indonesian adventure which began March 7th in Bali. Bali is still the paradise described in books and paintings for over 200 years but the effects of 2 bombings here targeted at tourists has really hurt the place.

The crazy thing about the bombings is that a. Bali is primarily a Hindu island (i.e. @85%) and b. is incredibly dependent and welcoming to tourists. The effect has been dramatic. Since my last visit here almost 7 years ago the trash on the beaches has increased ten-fold while tourism has declined at a commensurate rate. Everywhere we go, we talk to the people in my broken Bahasa and their much better English – although they love that I try – about the effect that the decline in tourism has had. Despite their concerns though, they remain resoundingly upbeat and continue to smile and laugh with us reminding me why I fell in love with this country in the first place at 22.

Our first 2 days were spent in the upmarket tourist area of Seminyak just north of Kuta Beach. Our hotel was divided into lovely lumbung (rice barn) style rooms surrounding a central pool and for the first day all we did was hang out and work on our tans. All that sightseeing had really worn us out! After that it was on to surfing part 2.

While in Costa Rica, we spent a few hours with our first ever surf lesson and were hooked. While the beach wasn’t better (see trash note above) our instructor Palu (40 year old Aussie) was fantastic. He taught us more in 2 hours than we ever could have done on our own and Andy was his star pupil (I was still too bugged by all the garbage). Riding home however, he gave us the philosophy that was to pervade our time in Indonesia – Don’t go to fast. While he was referring to the driving (he clocked a speedy 40 kph to the locals 60), we took it to mean our entire visit and maybe our lives. The Palu driving method was to come in handy just a few days later when were to rent our own car (the sturdy but VERY slow Suzuki Jimmy) who we christened “Palu 2” to take us up to Munduk (mountain area/rice fields) in northern bali and to visit Gunung Batur ( the volcano).

Palu – both car and person – taught me a lot about patience over the next few days. I elected to drive since I can read Indonesian and A is a better navigator but forgot how much fun (not) it is to drive a. on left hand side again and b. surrounded by 4 people on 1 motorbike. Certain I was going to kill someone the first hour, white knuckles gripped the steering wheel as we chugged through Bali’s capital city Denpasar on our way to the mountains and lovely Puri Lumbung with Andy providing directions on my left and the grinning guys on motorbikes wondering why I was driving.

Puri Lumbung in Munduk, Bali is an eco-tourism hotel that my friends Jill and Patrick Griffin recommended to us. The whole place is converted rice barns set in the middle of rice fields. Not a sound to be heard (except a lot of cicadas) disturbed us and we quickly forgot the stress of the earlier drive. The next day, we took the Patriots Hike – see A’s earlier blog – through the mountains and I did solar yoga with 5 locals who all thought I was a bit crazy and kept turning around to giggle at me. I spent some time speaking with the yoga master’s mother and she recommended some places in Java for us to visit since we were going in a few weeks but after she told me her husband died suddenly just after the trip I was a bit concerned ;-)

A few days of peace and quiet (and no other travelers since Bali is relatively deserted at the moment) convinced us that we needed to head back to some civilization. Thus, we headed towards Ubud, the Balinese artist community set in the mountains. More on that adventure and our trip to Gili’s later.

Lunch with a view

2006-03-18T06:37:00.000-08:00

looking from our table at Tamarind in Luang Prabang, Laos

maybe it's the Asian milk....

2006-03-18T06:30:00.000-08:00

if they can make a proper latte in Laos - Laos! - why can't they ever make one right in London?

Laid back in Laos

2006-03-18T06:25:00.000-08:00

If Bangkok is a modern city coming into its own, Luang Prabang (LP) is like a step back in time to colonial Asia of the early 20th century. If you spend enough time in SE Asia, someone will invariably mention the charms of Laos and assure you that LP is one of the best destinations in all of Asia. While generally skeptical of these backpacker platitudes, I have to say after our visit that the backpackers were right.

From the moment we landed at the 2 room airport in LP, you could sense the peace of the place. Quickly locating a tuk-tuk, (open air truck about the size of a Subaru popular throughout northern SE Asia) we caught a ride to our hotel driving through open countryside for a good 15 minutes before we entered the town proper. Not quite knowing what to expect, we were unprepared for the charms within.

Laos only opened to foreigners in 1995 and LP was put on the map shortly thereafter as a UNESCO World Heritage site. To date, there are over 700 sites in the town that are protected and being restored from wats (Buddhist temples/monasteries) to french colonial mansions.
The town is unique in SE Asia as the wat system is localized by neighborhood not by one central location as is typical in the other 2 well-known Asian temple landmarks (Borobudur in Indonesia and Angkor Wat in Cambodia). The latter two relied upon a strong centralized power and monastery while the former operated more loosely as independent neighborhoods and wats comng together only when under threat from an exterior foe.

This neighborhood system continues today exemplified by the monks morning walks. While not certain of the number, we estimated about 600 monks currently live in the town. Each morning for their main meal they walk the streets of the town and accept offerings of sticky rice from the local people and tourists (only if your intentions are pure) who provide them with their main meal of the day.

Unlike the monks, we were not dependent on tourists for our food and drink but rather the local restaurants which were a delight. Colonization, particularly the French variety, did have its advantages in the form of bringing great food and wine to Luang Prabang. French patisseries, fine wine, port ....mmm... our stomachs were in heaven for four days and a proper latte for 2 coffee lovers is never to be scorned. (Also - did you really think I could go 2 posts and not write about food?)

While the French food was fabulous, we equally enjoyed the local Laotian food. One of the highlights of our gourmand treats was a visit to a new restaurant called Tamarind - ok I dragged Andy there twice. The owner, a former Australian tour guide, showed us the proper way to eat sticky rice and eat the local delicacies - no utensils and always use your right hand. The latter is true throughout SE Asia and I will let your imagination figure out the reason. While similar to Thai, you also use ka paen - dried seaweed baked with different vegetable dips and the infused local rice wine mellowed me to the point where I was contemplating donning a saffron robe and joining the young monks at the wat across the street - until I remembered that they didn't get to eat at Tamarind.

All this food of course has to be worked off a bit so we also did a days adventure kayaking and elephant riding on the Mekong and Nha Kang river. The day was billed as a four hour trip divided between the two activities but in reality we spent about 1 hour with the elephant and 4-5 hours of hard kayaking in 90 degree weather. Even so, it was an incredible day. For those of you who have not ridden an elephant, the sensation is a bit like being in a giant rocking chair that stops to drink water every 5 min. They lumber through the trees and hills unconcernedly because really - who is going to mess with an elephant and perforce you because you are on one.
The kayaking was a tad more strenuous but lovely just the same. Drifting past villages, water buffalos and countless farms, you see a world still not touched much by modernity except for the occasional truck being washed in the local river ;-).

Places to stay: Apsara Hotel - great design hotel and cheap.
Places to eat/drink: Tamarind, Blue Elephant, JoMo Cafe, 3 Nagas

p.s. it's my dad's birthday today

2006-03-13T01:04:00.000-08:00

he's 80 today - send him a mail if you like at jocar1@sigecom.net

writing from the slowest connection in Bali

2006-03-13T00:49:00.000-08:00

we're up in Lovina today on the north part of the island, but sadly, the connection speed is too slow to add pictures. Hopefully will be able to post a few soon......

Did the 'patriots' walk yesterday through the moutains in the middle of the island. Was supposed to hear about how the Indonesians fought back against the Dutch oppressors in the late 1940s, but instead hiked to the largest Banyan tree in Bali, trekked through farms growing vanilla, raw cocoa, rice, coconuts, kaffir limes, and then stopped for a fresh coconut break at one of the guide's friend's fish farm. Saw thousands of tiny koi while drinking straight from a freshly hacked coconut - they hold plenty of water.

After returning, we found ourselves smack in the middle of a kids Balinese dancing class at our guest house. Turns out the teacher had spent some time driving around the US some years ago, visiting Chicago and Kalamazoo, so he insisted that we sit front and center for their renditions. Afterwards, K want to yoga in our tiny village of Munduk. The four others at the yoga couldn't stop giggling at the tall blonde girl, wondering what she was doing there. And apparently they all had stinky feet at that place. K's borrowed mat really smelled.

One last thing, the surf at Kuta is great, as long as you dodge the garbage and sewage in the water as you approach the shore. More on that and our Aussie instructor Palu later.

2006-03-06T07:52:00.000-08:00

good karma in Bangkok

back to the heat - Bangkok

2006-03-06T07:50:00.000-08:00

Returning to late February rain showers in Seattle convinced us it was time to head back to some sunshine (can’t let the tans fade too much) so we boarded a plane for SE Asia and Bangkok (Bkk). Flying to SE Asia is long – 12 hours to Tokyo and another 6 to Bangkok – add to that 2 people next to us who decided to drink the entire 12 hours to Narita and a drink tipping over and frying our laptop – and this was not one of our more stellar plane adventures.

I bother to recount the laptop debacle as it adds to how we spent some of our first 3 days in Bangkok. Without the lovely Microsoft help desk people to call upon, we had to find someone at our computer manufacturers who could repair the laptop because god forbid we don’t have a computer for a month! ;-)

The first challenge was to find someone who spoke English. As the only country in SE Asia that never had an enduring foreign presence, you cannot be assured that you will find someone who speaks either English or French like Malaysia, Vietnam, Singapore, etc. After many calls, eventually we did locate someone in Malaysia who found someone in the Thai office who could help us and we headed out to the service center. The office was cool retro white and red tile situated in a modern building 100metres from the new BTS skytrain which was finished in Dec. ’99. This office, the skytrain and the flawless service by the staff is a testament to how much Bkk has changed yet remains the same since I worked there almost 8 years ago. When I first went to Bangkok in 1992, the journey from our hotel to the service center could have taken anywhere from 30-1.5 hours in a sweltering taxi depending on traffic - today it takes less than 15 min in a “chill white” sleek train. (This of course prompts the question for us once again why Bkk can get this right in less than 10 years but Seattle can’t after 20 years of debating the monorail. But I digress. )

What remains the same in Bangkok is the charming combination of lovely, friendly, service-oriented people who are incredibly bright. You just believe that despite their obstacles (Asian currency crisis in ’99, tsunami in ’04) this country will always come back and Bkk will set SE Asian trends for many years to come. Hey – they are even hosting Fashion Week this week!

While there, we visited all of the tourist sites (Grand Palace, Wat Arun, Wat Pho and the famous reclining Buddha, etc.) These places are indescribably beautiful (check out our photos) but since many guidebook writers have figured out how to describe them, I will spend some time on the sights and sounds we will always remember that make modern Bangkok unique. One of the best was wandering Chinatown. Rows and rows of streetvendors with selection, variety and prices that would put any Walmart to shame. Want dried squid, seahorse, bat? No problem – we can take care of it. Want a sticker that says no farting – let me be right back. Literally, 4 square blocks could provide you with anything and everything you could ever want and many many things you would NEVER want or understand why anyone could need– but at least we now know what tools we need for “birds nest recovery”.

While above I waxed poetic over the BTS (skytrain) and Bkk’s new metro, we also had fun finding new routes to places via water taxi. Bkk is bounded on the west by the Chao Praya river, its main waterway and source of trading power for centuries yet it is also criss-crossed by small canals that have water taxis. These are essentially long boats with about 15 rows of benches that would fit precisely 4 Cracker Barrel loving Americans or 8 Thais as we found out when we got on what was a seemingly full boat only to see roughly 30 more people added in the space of 5 minutes. Apparently – there is no such thing as a full water taxi in Bkk.

There is also no such thing as a full “locals” section at Thai kickboxing. Following Andy’s tradition of attending any nations local sporting events (European football, Japanese sumo) we were destined from arrival to go to the Thai’s version of the “beautiful game” with Indonesian cock-fighting up next I think. The box office publishes local prices only in Thai and farang (foreigners) prices in English. Hence, you pay about 3 times the price as the locals who crowd the upper galleries. What follows is a fascinating ritual to watch that is in part centered in the ring and in party fixated on the betting process taking place in the upper gallery. Each fight (roughly 10 in a night) has 3 rounds that last 3 minutes apiece. From what we could discern of the rules, the boxers can hit any part of the body from using any appendage. The matches we saw were more about points for shots than true “knockouts” – think Olympic style boxing but as each round progressed the betting in the gallery became more frenetic. The gallery explodes between rounds 2 and 3 with the front line touts taking bets at a pace that would put any Wall Street trader to shame – maybe that is why so many of my Thai classmates in b-school went into banking?

Another highlight was getting custom tailored suits! We have both had friends who have done this but either out of lack of time or inclination, had not tried this ourselves. After a little searching on the net, I found a “blogger” that had written about “Raja’s Fashions”. Raja does no advertising – no need to as his tiny alley shop is always packed with expats and visiting dignitaries – the Bush family and John Kerry (and even my old boss at the US ASEAN Council) are satisfied customers. If you ever go to Bkk, I strongly recommend that you visit his shop. He uses only the finest cashmere and suits/tuxes/overcoats can be made in 2-3 days perfectly tailored to you. This compounded with an excellent vodka tonic while you are fitted is the epitome of luxury at a third the price of a comparable suit purchased in the US or Europe. Don’t worry though, the irony of buying suits while unemployed was not lost on us – but at least now we are ready when we have to interview again – maybe next time in Bangkok?

Seeing the fam

2006-03-06T07:48:00.000-08:00

After Costa Rica, we decided to see some family for a few weeks in February. In order to protect the innocent, we will not publish details of those few weeks outside of my counting the number of “Cracker Barrel” restaurants (722) and nail salons (an astonishing 2348) that we viewed but did partake of – ok a couple of Cracker Barrels and Andy had a pedicure or two.

As for the family time, I could write some amusing anecdotes about our visits but I think that writing about your family is only a good idea if you a. don’t care about Christmas gifts, b. are David Sedaris and will be paid a great deal of money to do so or c. plan to be far far away from them for a long period of time. Hmm…now that I think about it … Suffice it to say, we had a great time with everyone and I have new miscellaneous factoids about the aforementioned American cultural icons.

This year's destinations

2006-03-06T07:40:00.000-08:00

So we got our act together and started the blog - here's what the agenda looks like right now for 2006...

New years - Whistler w/ Craig
January - Costa Rica
February - see family around the US - Evansville, Louisville, Fayetteville, Columbus
March - Bangkok, Laos, Indonesia
April - John & Nicole's wedding in England, Italy
May - Paris
June - World Cup in Germany and some Barcelona
July - head for home on the 12th and then stay in Seattle for a while to enjoy the summer