Stunning Shanghai, China

We're spending our final week in Shanghai, China. Picture a Chinese NYC - a mix of uber modern architecture and turn of the century French colonial. The streets are packed with people, good smells from street food and way too much shopping. I find the shopping totally stressful - because you have to bargain everything. If you even sneak a peak at someone's products, they'll chase you down to come into their shop. We took a 3-hour boat tour - first half hour was stunning skyline - one side of the river is progressive modern, the other side (the famous Bund) is old restored architecture. After that, the rest of the boat trip was shipyards, naval boats, and manufacturing plants. It was never-ending. Shanghai is THE port city to the world. We also met up with the Shanghai swingers yesterday for some dancing. Really fun to connect with "local" expats. They give you a totally unique perspective on the culture & city. Today, we're off to the Old City, which is supposed to be more like old China.

One last note: I thoroughly enjoyed watching Dave page through 20 menu pages - 2 of which were dedicated to BULL FROG. We ordered the most innocuous thing we could find: Chicken and mushroom soup. Of course, the mushrooms had the consistency of oysters. If you could have seen Dave's face - priceless!

Hanoi & Ha Long Bay

Detail to follow

Ubud , Indonesia

Hi everyone!

We've been back in lovely Bali for a little while now. After spending some relaxing days in Sanur (near the beach), we moved north to the central cultural town of Ubud. we did a hike through the rice paddies yesterday and today we motor biked all over. We were introduced to the lovely concept of indonesian corruption after we got stopped by a police barracade. We were told to pay a "penalty" (wink, wink) for not having an international driver's license. At first, they penalty was 200,000 rupiahs (about $20), then because we stalled and acted really stupid...it ended up at 100,000 rupiahs. I nearly fainted when Dave pulled out a 100 rupiah coin. The cop quickly corrected him in disbelief. Besides that little incident, our motorcade across the island was uneventful. (phew)

for more info on Ubud, click here.

near our homestay, there's a balinese ceremony happening tonight. we watched all the beautiful balinese women in their tight dresses carefully balancing their food offerings on their heads. even the kids have traditional clothes to wear to the ceremony. it's a sea of color with the gamelon orchestra playing in the background - how delightful.

we fly out to singapore tomorrow, then we'll fly to hanoi, vietnam the next day. we're hoping to make it angkor wat in cambodia. they're supposed to be some of the most amazing ruins in the world.

Tana Toraja, Sulawesi

We just returned from Sulawesi where we flew to the central town of Rantepao. This area is known for the Tana Toraja culture. It is a relatively untouched culture - maintaining many of their century old traditions.

We found a fabulous tourguide (Jo Jo, a native Torajan) that brought us closer to the culture than any book we could have read. He took us to a funeral on Wednesday which is a very elaborate, multi-day ceremony that takes place months after the person has died. Depending on the person's class, determines how elaborate the ceremony and how many pigs and water buffalo will be sacrificed. After three hours of observing the funeral ceremony and with the heat rising, Karen lost her nerve to stay and watch the water buffalo sacrifice. As we walked away, we could literally hear the animals squelling. Apparently this is the big draw for tourists.

Our highlight was a day-long trek up the mountain side - through villages and rice paddies. The children were a riot. They would see us miles away and shout across the rice paddies "gula, gula?" Do you have candy? Our guide was great and would say "Candy isn't good for you." Since we had no candy, one went on to ask for my sandals...then our car. It never hurts to ask, eh?

For more on Sulawesi, click here and/or click here
For more on Tana Toraja, click here

Bali

We arrived in Bali yesterday. We're taking a one day layover before leaving for Sulawesi tomorrow. We'll spend the majority of our time exploring Sulawesi, then we've decided to fly straight to Shanghai, China. Sorry for the short post - few internet cafes with good service. This place is amazing - lush green gardens everywhere, the indonesians are always smiling and kind, the food is delicious. We're in heaven.

Bali

Leaving for Singapore 1/10/07!!!

We arrived aroud 2:30 AM on Friday Morning. The first flight to Narita, Japan was late in taking off so we had to run and just made our connecting flight.We spent yesterday walking around Singapore and just trying to get over the jet lag. It has rained for several days straight but that didn't keep us from getting out there. Today we are going to Catherine's (a friend of Dave's that we are staying with) Dragon boat practice. It is an open practice so we will get a chance to get on the boats and see Singapore from the river. As for tonight we will be going out on the town and hopefully doing some swing dancing.