Vietnam

We landed in Hanoi after a quick flight from Singapore. As we disembarked from the plane, a man handed us a piece of paper saying not to be fooled by scams and to find safe and legitimate transport into the city; this was something that we also encountered in the guide book as well, so as we passed through customs, we were on high alert as twenty or so men approached us offering rides. After acquiring a map from the airport tourist office and asking about taxis we were informed that there were legitimate mini buses outside, with the name of the airport on the side of the van, that would take us into the city for $3 US each. After finding our mini bus, we were told the total would be $6 US and we had to pay in US dollar, we did, but everyone else who got in the bus was allowed to pay in Vietnamese Dong, we definitely got the tourist price but I guess it was only $6. However after the thirty-minute drive into the city I would have paid $50 US to have a safer ride. A four land highway, two lanes in each direction, is really a sixteen lane highway in Hanoi, cars drive in the middle of the two lanes and motor bikes fill in the rest of the pavement space, everyone swerving in and out, exiting the highway, passing to go faster, it was madness! Some local people got out of the van early, getting picked up by family members on motorbikes closer to home. We saw a couple drive the streets and the mother was breast-feeding her child as they went along. The driver often wears a helmet but the passengers, often children, do not.

After being dropped off in the Old quarter we put on our packs and started off to find our hotel. We thought Singapore was hot but after an hour of being totally lost in the old city of Hanoi trying to find our hotel, making it through intersections, and being hassled by motor bike taxi drivers and scammers of the street we were sweating! Finally a young woman offered to help us as we poured over the map in our guide book, at first we were suspicious, because it seemed like everyone was trying to make a buck off you, that we looked at her warily but she kindly told us we were only a block away and simply smiled. She was telling the truth and we walked into the air-conditioned lobby of our hotel within minutes. After dropping the bags in our room, we were back out in the streets, armed with the location of the Kangaroo café, the café/tourist office that we were told was the best and cheapest in Vietnam for tours to both Sa Pa and Ha Long bay. As we weren’t sure what time the tourist office closed we tried to hurry, but the streets were crowded and with every block a different name we struggled, eventually we found the café and were amazed at how easy the whole tour booking experience was, they took care of everything for us, a trekking trip in Sa Pa with transport and hotel, and a trip to Ha Long Bay as well as a flight from Hanoi to Hue on the 4^th of October. After our successful mission we walked to the City View Café which is located on the top of one of the tallest buildings in Hanoi and had a drink, Jimmy had a Tiger beer and I had a cool refreshing Sea Breeze, the total was $3, it was amazing, the sun had set and the café looked over the central lake in Hanoi, that the locals view as the heart of their city, couples walked around holding hands, families enjoyed picnic dinners and for a moment everything seemed calm. We enjoyed a nice dinner a Little Hanoi, a restaurant recommended in the guide book and then ventured back to our hotel, however our ten minute walk at most turned into an hour walk through the festivities of Saturday night Hanoi, the streets were crammed with people, and vendors selling everything under the sun, we could barely walk.

The next morning we woke up and had a complimentary breakfast at the hotel, hard bread and strawberry jelly – which seem to be the staple breakfast for tourist here in Vietnam. After showering and backing our bags again we checked out and walked back to the Kangaroo café to drop our bags off, as we would be departing with them to Sa Pa later that night for a three-day stay in the mountains for my birthday. After finding the café a little quicker this time we off loaded our things and we off again for a day of tourist sites. The first was the Hanoi Hilton, the prison were John McCain was detained during the Vietnam War. The prison was hard to find, located right next to, and over shadowed by a new high-rise building called the Hanoi Towers. After circling around and around the area where the prison was suppose to be, we finally found it! It was a real accomplishment; we met a couple the next day who were unable to find it, and finally gave up. What was left of the prison was quite small and most of the information regarding the prison was when it was used as a detention center for Vietnamese patriots during the war with the French before the Americans became involved. We are currently reading a book entitled Patriots to get a better grasp of the Vietnam War as we travel throughout the historic country. The book quotes a Vietnamese taxi driver proudly stating that Vietnam is the only country in the world to have defeated three of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council throughout its history; China, France, and the United States. The author tries to establish a comprehensive historical record, looking at all sides, of the Vietnam War. After the prison we walked to the Temple of Literature for a more uplifting experience. But before we entered the Confucian sanctuary and principle historic learning center in Vietnam we had lunch at the Koto restaurant, an Australian own restaurant that hires and trains underprivileged children in Hanoi culinary and dinning room skills as well as the business side of running a restaurant. The food was amazing Jimmy had a Panini and I had a mocha and a chocolate chip cookie, while sitting on purple overstuffed couches with pink and orange overstuffed pillows. After lunch we walked across the street to the Temple of Literature, which was amazing, beautiful gardens, small temple buildings and large sea turtle statues that are suppose to bring about a long life when touched. After the serine Temple experience we traveled back to the Kangaroo café to have dinner and catch our ride to the train. We got to the train station at 8:00PM and boarded the soft sleeper car shortly there after, we would be traveling on the over night train with another couple from Canada who booked with the Kangaroo café. After two hours of chatting and three beers later for Jimmy and Darren each, Jimmy asked about Canada’s national health care, this lead to another two hours of talking about its benefits as well as its down falls, over all they liked it and couldn’t image life without it. Then it was lights out and everyone seemed to be able to sleep but me. We arrived at 5:30AM in Lao Cai and took a hour and a half bus ride up into the mountains to the town of Sa Pa. The minute I say Sa Pa in the guide book sitting in the Barnes and Noble Café back home in Anchorage I knew that this was where I wanted to spend me 23 birthday, it was one of the most beautiful places I had ever seen located way up in the mountains surrounded by hundred year old villages that were home to the Hamong peoples as well as many other tribes as I came to learn. As we drove up through the mountains as the sun was beginning to rise, I was so happy my dream had become a reality. We checked into the Cat Cat View hotel and had an early beakfast on the terrace over looking the valley. After a short morning nap we met our guide in the lobby for a three hour hike to the Cat Cat waterfalls. Our guides name was Ker and she is a nineteen year old girl with belongs to the Black Hamong tribe. We had a wonderful walk with her and took many pictures. When we returned our amazing hotel that hangs of the side of a mountain, like something seen in Greece but with lush vegitation all around we couldn’t believe we were really here. We had a little dinner in town and walked through local shops, being chased by kids the whole time, calling buy from me, buy from me, the hustling never stops in Vietnam, is seems. The next morning we had an early breakfast and we off on a six hour hike through the mountains, visiting local villages, seeing their historic way of life and we even had a chance to have lunch in a Hmong family home, not a bad way to spend my birthday. After we returned I was able to catch my mom on Skype and we talked for almost forty five minutes with one of the best internet connections we have had throughout our whole entire trip thus far, its amazing how we can be in the “middle of no where” and have great internet connections and satalite TV, the world seems so small. After returning to our room I started to feel sick, unfortunately my system is not as strong as people who grew up in a Hmong village and so my birthday dinner was a box of saltine crackers and a Sprite at about 10PM at night when I started to feel a little better. However the 29 of September in Vietnam is only the 28 of September in the States so I’m going for a two-day birthday this year! We will try the nice fancy birthday dinner tomorrow night in Hanoi, because I have saved my clean new red dress for the occasion!

Today its raining here in Sa Pa, as well as the rest of Vietnam as the country get pounded by tropical storm Ketsana, which wrecked the Philippines over the weekend and has already caused serious flooding in Hue, the city we are scheduled to fly to on the 4^th of October. They say there are three more large tropical storms headed our way in the next week or so, so Jimmy and I are just watching the weather to see what where we will be going next. The plan is to travel back to Hanoi tonight and leave for Ha Long Bay the day after tomorrow, hopefully all works out as planned up to that point because Ha Long Bay looks amazing. We will keep you all updated, miss you tons, love you lots.

Singapore Slings & Grand Prix

Singapore Sling

We landed in Singapore around 6:00PM an hour later than expected due to our delay out of Sydney. The airport was dead, so we quickly passed customs, which was located in the most beautiful atrium with a fifty-foot ceiling exposing the setting sun outside. We found our way to the city train, bought tickets and we were on our way to the little India quarter of Singapore. On the elevated train we could see the city, everything was immaculate, the airport, train, city streets, I loved it! After transferring trains we arrived at the little India stop about forty minutes later and it was dark outside. As we climbed from the underground subway up to the street we could hear music and commotion all around, little India was a much more vibrant place than the calm, collected, organized, clean, inner city of Singapore, but as we walked through the streets of little India, shop vendors and food stalls occupied the side walks we were at awe of our surroundings, food, smells, sounds etc. We found the Footprint Hostel were we would be staying for two nights in a twelve person dorm. After checking in we went exploring, we weren’t particularly hungry because Singapore Air feeds you five course meals in coach with ice cream for desert, so we simply found a little café on our walk and had a Coke, and Jimmy watched a soccer game on TV; Jimmy has been trying to connect with other world sports, in Australia we spent a lot of time trying to understand Footy, which seems to be like rugby mixed with soccer and uniquely enjoyable to watch, but Jimmy is still keeping up to date with American football, thanks to Martha and Maggie’s dutiful updates. After returning to the room, our roommates stayed up half the night playing computer games, only later did we find out that Korea has one of the largest gaming sectors in the world, even considering it a sport, we have come to realize that gaming is big all over Asia, on a different level than anywhere we have ever seen, these guys in Singapore stayed in the hostel room all day and night gaming, its crazy.

The next morning we ventured further out into the city, walking around downtown by the river, and over into China town, it was the hottest place we had been, hotter than Darwin. It was the day before the big formula one race so areas of the city were blocked off as they set up the course. In the afternoon in Chinatown Jimmy and I had our fortunes read, we are both going to have long lives, the fortune telling said I should be a teacher or work in government and that Jimmy and I would live happily ever after. After our good fortunes we decided to go have a Singapore Sling at the Raffles Hotel were the drink was invented. The bar was very turn of the century European, a place that I’m sure Ernest Hemingway hung out in, with wood paneling and swaying palm fans on the ceiling. There were peanuts on the table and people threw the shells on the floor. The place was crawling with tourists but it was still a fun experience. That night we ate Indian food back by our hostel and went to bed. The next day we were off again in search of a durian moon-cake; a durian is a local fruit that we were told to sample by our friend Eric who spent a last summer in Singapore. Also we wanted to sample a moon cake because it is the Mid-Autumn Festival where the moon cake is the local food of choice, it was everywhere. So after finding a shop with a line half way down the block we decided that this must be the place to find the best sweets in town, however the durian is not a sweet fruit, it is probably the worst fruit ever! So our treat actually turned out to be a real bust, much to my dismay because everyone knows how much I love sweets. That night we had dinner on the river, sitting outside, and the noise from the F-1 race could be heard everywhere, Jimmy wanted to sneak in, but after dinner we were unsuccessful. We went back to the hostel, or gaming central because we had an early flight to catch in the morning to Vietnam.

The Ghan, From the City to the Sand

The Ghan Railway gives the appearance of a bygone era, and it does a good job especially when you realize that the second half of the line was not completed until, as recently as 2006 and whole thing has only been around 40 years.

So there we are surrounded by the elderly and the Asians. We were definitely the only ones under 30, making the long and beautiful journey across the central outback stretch of Australia. However I wouldn’t have wanted to do the trip any other way than via the rail; the pace was slow and peaceful and the stops along the way provided a great way to see the sites. Okay I must refine that statement a bit, I could have gone for a sleeper car, it didn’t have had to be the platinum or gold carriages, even the red car sleeper would have been amazing. 15 hours of sitting in a chair is a bit much. Thankfully we broke the 54-hour trip up into two parts, Adelaide to Alice Springs and Alice Springs to Darwin, five days later. We boarded the second to last car of the silver train, car R, at 1:00pm and settled into our larger than airplane sized red seats and the conductor announced we would be leaving shortly. As soon as we sat down we realized that there was an empty seat behind us, looking across the aisle, we saw a couple in their early 30’s turn the seat in front of them around, and start to “unpack,” they had definitely done this before. We soon did the same and we able to stretch out on the two rows of seats now facing each other. The train pulled out of the station and we were ready, camera in hand poised with anticipation to see a Kangaroo. The first thing we saw was not a Kangaroo but the Barossa wine valley, the area just outside Adelaide where the wine we had the night before came from. Then we entered what local Australians call the Bush, the area just outside the city, the outback would not come until the morning the train conductor told us, so we played cards, read, ate cranberries and almonds and finally it was time for bed. Just before the lights were turned off a young French kid, about our age, who had walked past our row several times throughout the afternoon finally stopped and asked us if we purchased both rows of seats, when we answered no he went into a long broken English diatribe about how he needed to sleep next to this girl, who we figured was his girlfriend. Being a young couple ourselves and not wanting karma to come back on us we let them have the seat, which the kid quickly turned around and his female French companion raced back to sit with him. Resettling ourselves we fell asleep wishing we had more room and that the French pillow talk in front of us would go to sleep too but…glad to have given a couple the chance to sit together. The next morning we woke up to the outback and no couple in front of us. They had left their stuff but were gone for the rest of the morning, not wanting to move their things we were left with our two seats and an empty forward seat that we wish we had. Although we took many wonderful pictures and learned that travelers from Afghanistan were the first people to occupy central Australia, other than the Aborigines, where they travel across the outback on camels, which they eventually let go when they left causing Australia to have wild camels today. There are also wild houses as well as rabbits, the rabbits have actually caused quite a problem, since they are not native they have very little predators, reproduce quickly and eat much of if not all the vegetation in sight. As we disembarked in Alice Springs the young “couple” was not together and the girl looked quite upset with her one night stand male companion and Jimmy was upset that we had let these two have our seats when they weren’t even together. Looking back now karma did get us anyways, in Alice Springs we were robbed! After checking into our hotel, the Desert Rose Inn, Jimmy and I ran to book a tour to Uluru or Ayres Rock for the next day. When the tour was secured we grabbed dinner and went for a walk, which was nice after sitting on the train for a day and a half. The next morning we were picked up for our tour at 6 AM not to return until midnight.

Uluru was AMAZING! Again Jimmy and I were the youngest people, by far, on the trip, but the grandma’s loved us. It was a five-hour drive to our first stop of the day, Mt. Connor, which looks very similar to Uluru but is much smaller. After visiting the Aboriginal Cultural Center and having a packed lunch we went to see the Olgas and then finally Uluru, which we walked around and saw different cultural sights and learned that Uluru was a meeting place for the Aboriginal people, to come together during big festivals, during rainy season and in times of hardship. After our long day the tour company provided us with a champagne dinner and we watched the sun set over the large rock. Jimmy read that we should take a picture every five minutes, while the sun was setting to see the rock changing colors, if think we have pictures for every five seconds but you can never have to many pictures. The whole time we were in the National Park we did not see a single Kangaroo, unfortunately we hit one with our tour bus on the way back to Alice Springs that would be the only Kangaroo sighting in all of Australia unfortunately. The next several days, in Alice Springs, were spent by the pool, reading or hiking. The town was not very big and when the Ghan arrived back in Alice Spring after five days Jimmy and I were ready to get back on. Even more so when we discovered that we had been robbed for $200 US while we were in Alice Springs, an unfortunate way to end our stay there. Once back on the train we knew the drill and settled in for another long haul north to Darwin. We decided we would disembark in Katharine for what was called a “whistle stop tour” which was where the train had to stop and there was time for passengers to get off for a couple of hours and see the sights. Jimmy and I went kayaking along the Katharine Gorge, with fresh water crocodiles, flying foxes and VERY VERY LARGE SPIDERS! After paddling for about an hour we got out on shore to have a look around. When we decided to get back in our boat a large white and black spider had taken up residence on my paddle an we could not get it off, Jimmy was brave and a little amazed by the spider and he was finally able to coax it off the paddle, we paddled back quickly not wanting to miss the bus back to the train and to get away from the spider.

Darwin was very relaxing and hot we went to the beach however Darwin’s beaches are nothing to really brag about, the tide goes very far out and the beach always looks a little muddy. We also went to an outdoor market and had tasty Chinese food and a chocolate crepe. We also frequented Darwin’s Warf area where they recently built a man made wave pool and beach area that was pleasant. There was also cheap food and ice cream down by the wharf. On our last day in Darwin we went to the Litchfield National Park, where we hiked around and swam in three waterfalls. It was a nice way to end our time in the Northern Territory, spending time outdoors, which is what they do there. The next day we flew back to Sydney where we continued to explore the city.

Even though we had been in Sydney for about a week at the beginning of our trip there was still so much to see, in our last days in Sydney we spent time down at Darling Harbor and up around the Kings Cross area were our hostel was. On our last day in Sydney we went to a yoga class and got all stretched out for our 8 and half our trip to Singapore. The next morning we woke up around 6:30AM to what looked like another world. Outside everything looked red like mars and the air tasted like chalk, which had entered our room through the open window. We got ready and as we were checking out of the hostel we found out that Sydney was being hit by a very large dust storm that was moving from central Australia south eastward and had covered Sydney in a layer of dust overnight. At the airport we were not sure if we would be able to leave but our Singapore Airlines flight took off on time, to my dismay. Seated in row 51! The plane sat on the run way for 20 minutes waiting to take off, the wind blew the plane from side to side as we anticipated the take off. As the plane became airborne I looked at Jimmy and he looked a little frightened, so this was not just me being a nervous flyer. After it was safe to move about the cabin a free round of Singapore Slings were distributed and we were off to Singapore!

Adelaide & The Novaks

Adelaide and the Novak’s

Our next stop in Australia was Adelaide. While Adelaide was smaller than both Sydney and Melbourne, it boasted three features that drew us farther south, where it was even colder. First Adelaide is the beginning of the Ghan rail line that runs from southern Australia to the very northern city of Darwin. Australia is a country of immense size and barrenness and Jimmy and I felt the only way to truly experience the outback of Australia was to travel across it and see it – so we booked our tickets on the Ghan and traveled to Adelaide to start our journey. A second reason for traveling to Adelaide was because it was the home of long time friends, the Novak’s, who moved to Australia six year ago. Scott and Jimmy were inseparable bike riders back in the day and it was good to see each other and catch up. The third and final highlight of the city of Adelaide is its wine, while we didn’t have time to tour any vineyards we did sample the local wine and it was quite good. Overall our trip to Adelaide was filled with the warmth of friendship and good wine and a good send off of our last city we would see in awhile as we soon embarked on our adventure to the outback.

Melbourne

We arrived in Melbourne after a twelve-hour bus ride through the night, to a chilly spring morning. Mary immediately put on her down coat to keep warm and we walked to our YHA hostel, were we had a private room. After a little nap we ventured out into the city. The first thing we saw was the Queen Victoria Market – a bustling large market opened Wednesday through Sunday that sells locally grown fruits and vegetables as well as other tasty treats. The highlight of the market for Mary was the premade mixture of cranberries and almonds! A favorite treat of hers back home, of which we bought over a kilo for snacking on our upcoming train ride through the outback in a couple of days. After wondering through the market for over an hour and gathering all the samples we could - we were stuffed – and decided to go on a late afternoon walk to explore the city. Along the way we came upon Federation Square, just one of Melbourne’s many interesting and unique artistic architectural attractions, where we stumbled across a concert playing an assortment of music, from opera to country, in an atrium overlooking the river that runs through Melbourne. After the concert we were a bit hungry again and found this cheap Portuguese restaurant where we had a late dinner. The next day after our morning coffee we went to Melbourne’s modern art museum as well as a museum that focused on Aboriginal art. Melbourne also had many outdoor and ski shops and many of the people dressed similar to people back home in Alaska. We also found Mary a pair of Birkenstock sandals that she couldn’t find in the states and are all the rage in Australia. In addition Melbourne has gone green in a big way, the hostel we stayed at was run by solar power, recycled, didn’t use paper towels etc. Melbourne was a pleasant surprise of big city, amazing art, good food, and the familiarity of home. Only later did we find out that Victoria, where Melbourne is located has recently surpassed Queensland, where the Great Barrier Reef is located, in tourism, and we can definitely see why.

Pictures from the Outback

Uluru at Sunset
The Olgas in the Middle of the Day
View of Melbournes skyline from our hostel

Pictures from Sydney

Ben Folds at the Sydney Opera House
The Sydney Opera House!
The Harbor Bridge view from the Botanical Gardens

Hostel

Our very first youth hostel! The Original Backpackers Hostel.

We have decided to go for the six-person dorm style room. An upgrade from the twenty and ten-person dorms available, but not quite the private room we are used to, accompanied with shared bathrooms, definitely several steps up from Ekuk but, again something new. The Original as it is referred, is an old Victorian looking place on a tree lined street in the district of Kings Cross, a short walk from Sydney’s city center. Upon arriving, we were issued two sets of sheets and two blankets and shown our top bunk beds on opposite sides of the room. It was early and the rooms other occupants were still sleeping, so we dropped our bags, which we were told would be safe in the room, and left to explore Sydney. Later that night we met our dorm “mates” consisting of two single guys, one from Scotland, who had been traveling in Australia since last November and the other, from France, a photographer. Then there was a couple also from Scotland. Everyone seemed nice and friendly. It was interesting to see, learn how other people partook in the hostel experience. We were a little nervous leaving our things just sitting in our room but our other mates definitely were not, their clothes, towels, cameras, laptops, high-healed designer shoes, hairdryers, straighteners, etc. were strewn everywhere. As I looked at it all this morning after being in the hostel for four days now I wondered if Jimmy and I would every be so relaxed and cavalier – probably not, but maybe.

The whole event thus far has been a little out of the ordinary. When in Morocco a couple years ago we were confronted with the uneasiness, difference of the outside world but were able to escape to a private place, the hotel, and try to create a sense of normalcy. Here when returning from the outside world to the hostel the world remains foreign. The same experience happens in college dorm rooms across the world, however Jimmy and I did not have the privilege, until now, to experience such a strange but totally normal custom. A custom that must be appreciated for what it is, but not maintained for too long.

Which leads us into another element present among the backpackers we have met so far, lost. Everyone should loose themselves at one time or another, Jimmy and I certainly are, we are taking a detour from our normal life, from work, graduate school, gym memberships, favorite restaurants, etc. and we are not even completely off the grid we still have the computer, internet, cell phone, but some people seem to be loosing themselves in the world of travelers not wishing to ever go back to “normal”. Again this is a feeling that I could see as being really easy to get into, but at the same time I don’t want to be lost, I like knowing where, when and how I’m going.

For me these two aspects have been really interesting to think about. Why do I want/need privacy? And the larger, almost unanswerable question, what is ‘normal,’ for me? All in all people should be true to themselves and live their life by that truth, right mom J. But it’s always good to explore and push your limits too.

Arriving

Look Right Not Left

We deplane as we have so many times in so many strange lands; we wait for our luggage; we meander through customs; our passports are stamped, we find the shuttle to our hostel.

As Bill Bryson eloquently says, “Because we know so little about it, perhaps a few facts would be in order: Australia is the world’s sixth largest country and its largest island. It is the only island that is also a continent, and the only continent that is also a country. It was the first continent conquered from the sea, and the last. It is the only nation that began as a prison. It is the home of the largest living thing on earth, the Great Barrier Reef, and of the largest monolith, Ayers Rock (or Uluru to use its now-official, more respectful Aboriginal name). It has more things that will kill you than anywhere else. Of the world’s ten most poisonous snakes, all are Australian. Five of its creatures-the funnel web spider, box jellyfish, blue-ringed octopus, paralysis tick, and stonefish are the most lethal of their type in the world…If you are not stung or pronged to death in some unexpected manner, you may be fatally chomped by sharks or crocodiles, or carried helplessly out to sea by irresistible currents, of left to stagger to an unhappy death in the baking outback. It’s a tough place.”

We arrive here as the first stop on our long journey. And as we walk the city streets and see the sights it’s a metropolis like so many around the world, sophisticated but also a pleasantville. People sit in public parks for a two-hour lunch in business attire. Also there are many runners, men, women, of all ages shapes and sizes. We thought people in the US worked out a lot – the people of Sydney are training, the Sydney marathon is at the end of the month but maybe we, in the US, should be worried about these fit people trying to challenge us at some point, since we are worried about everyone else. But we probably won’t, because as was made evident on the fourteen-hour plane ride down south, with fifty USMCs, Australia is an ally. However as Bryson notes the people of Australia go unnoticed on the world stage. People talk about traveling to the exotic places in Australia but what about the people who actually call this amazing place their home. A land where they drive on the other side of very familiar looking cars, on the other side of the road and talk similarly but different, no foam = flat white. Hopefully over the next three weeks we will see Australia and get to know its people.

Procrastination

Procrastination: to put off intentionally the doing of something that should be done

Those of you who know Mary and I might say that we are typically far from the sort that might procrastinate, you might even say that we are too organized, anal retentive or well planned. But when it came to the biggest trip of our lives - our first time around the world, we intentionally and habitually put off every necessary thing that we could, until the very VERY last minute.

The roots of this trip started over four years ago, a combination of the beginning of college and an early life filled with travel, sparked the crazy idea that we have now chosen to embark on. Every year the list got longer and more ambitious. Then the day came when our ambitions crashed head first into reality! School was over, we made it through 207,000 lbs of red salmon at fish camp, the CPA and the GRE and then there was only three weeks left until we "wanted" to leave for our journey. We had no tickets, only half the visas, and no vaccinations to guard us from the natural dangers that plague the route we have chosen. However our idealism and confidence went unfazed.

We started with the vaccinations - not the ticket - and after three weeks of Japanese Encephalitis, Rabies, Tetanus, Polio, Yellow Fever, and Typhoid; there were the 300 malaria pills each, the doctor assured us we would be safe. The ticket came next, with only two weeks until our desired departure, we went to see Tom a travel agent that we found totally randomly at American Express Travel across from Fred Myers on Abbott. Tom is a kind, elderly gentleman who told us when we first met him that there was no way that we would be able to do the trip we wanted. This was the first low of procrastination of the trip - which we might not be able to go. However after four hours, a switch of airlines and a little altering we were able to make it work. The final put off, the visas finally had to be addressed with only one week until departure. Our Vietnam visas had to be to UPS by 12:30PM on Saturday August 22 in order for them to be expedited and sent back to Alaska on Wednesday, at 11:00 Jimmy and I were at the house with Johns car on empty, no printer, and the wrong visas application! We raced to Jim's house printed the right form all the while Jimmy was yelling at the printer for printing to slow, got back in the Subaru and raced to UPS only to realize that we did not have my passport picture, time 12:25, Jimmy was back in the car to the house and back in five minutes we shoved everything in the envelope by 12:30 and a few seconds realizing the new low of procrastination of the trip. One day passed and the realization that we still needed our Indian visas set in, nervous of not getting our passports back in time we concocted another hair brained idea of flying to California on Friday, picking up our Vietnam visas in San Francisco and racing across town before 11:00 AM and delivering our passports to the Indian consulate for same day visa processing. We kissed our families’ goodbye four days earlier than expected and were off to San Fran. Everything seemed smooth enough upon arrival, we collected our passports from the Vietnamese jumped into a cab only to arrive at the wrong Indian consulate office, we were redirected to the right place and soon enough we were standing in front of a consulate official who told us we had the wrong form, again! We were able to quickly reroute this problem back on track.

Anecdote from Jimmy’s point of view – Indian Consulate office. After realizing we had the wrong forms and hurrying to complete the correct ones on the online system within the consulate office, two Indian men with virtually no English vocabulary for assistance ask Mary. And well, of course Mary could not pass up the opportunity to help someone with a problem and leaves me stranded to complete both forms in seven minutes flat while she uses pictographs and hand gestures to get the two Indian men through the forms, oh and the best part is they finished first and got through the line before us.

Mary’s point of view – These two gentlemen gave us there business card, they do herbal therapy in San Francisco, and told us to contact them when we travel to India and they will arrange an airport pick up for us and help acclimate us to the India when we first arrive.

All in all we were able to get through the line and back to the consulate by 5:30 to pick up our Indian visas allowing us to travel to India.

There was also an added bonus of traveling to San Francisco, we were able to see long time and extremely loved friend Judy!

The next morning we left San Fran, headed to LA and spent our last 36 hours with Martha. We arrived at our hostel, booked on HotWire for cheap, which we soon found out only had one bed; all the rooms in the hotel only had one queen size bed. Again we made due sleeping three across in the bed like sardines. After a little California sunshine and fun we had to go, the time had come, as we sat at the airport I was 60% nervous 40% exited, which is better then when I left AK and I was 90% nervous and 10% exited. Jimmy maintained the whole time he wasn’t a bit nervous – but we all know he was a little. We boarded our fourteen-hour flight direct to Sydney, accompanied by fifty USMCs off for training, and the trip was really beginning, it was really going to happen no matter how long we procrastinated or put things off.

So now here we are in Sydney Australia looking out at a beautiful sunny day with not a care in the world. But alas, something will happen worth telling you all about so stay tuned…