Ironically, we just received an email from our blog site that stated they had missed us and gave us a new password. So, we will post a few photos and depending on the speed of the internet, post some text, too. Well the internet was fast, but the computer shut down. Fortunately, we had saved the photos. So this will be a pictorial story. Basically we have spent 2 wks in the south of Laos and are loving it, although, one of us does think its a bit hot... Time has been spent at 2 of the 4000 islands in the [View Full Entry]

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So our last 2 weeks in India were spent in the much cooler highlands among the tea and coffee plantations. Munnar, a samll town quickly became our favorite place in S India. We stayed at a quiet questhouse just outside of town, along the river. The area has 98,000 acres of tea plantation which gives the area a very manicured look. We had a great rickshaw driver who spent the day with us showing us the area and at one point spotting 'wild' elephants way up on the hill. ('Wild' ones as compared to the temple elephants we frequently saw just [View Full Entry]

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Photos of the people of India [View Full Entry]

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Well we seem to be getting use to this beach living stuff! Having trouble pulling ourselves away. After almost a week in Varkala we headed to the southern most point on the continent - Cape Cormorin, stopping along the way at one of the larger Hindu temples. I think it was the first one we were allowed to go in as usually they do not allow non Hindus entry. It was huge with lots of alleyways and many many statues and temples inside. They were preparing for a festival so there were alot of pilgrims and many statues for the parade. [View Full Entry]

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Wow, a great way to celebrate the holidays. Started with a sampling of the Kerala coast, up to the 'jungle lodge' and finished back on the coast. The holidays began with an enjoyable backwater tour thru the canals along Kochi in both a rice barge and later a narrow wooden canoe. Learned about calcium carbonate production for cement and coir making (jute made from coconut husks). A delicious seafood platter for Christmas day and then up to the jungle lodge. The ride up was fascinating with its mixture of lots and lots of people and the occassional elephant on the road, [View Full Entry]

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Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas. We will probably be spending the day touring the backwaters on a converted Rice Barge. Rosemary, our cousin, will arrive in Kochi on Friday morning, spending 10 days, so we will celebrate Christmas and New Year's with her. Well our Bangkok segment was extended a bit longer than we had hoped. We, thinking we were being smart, had purchased our tickets to India on Travelocity. After repeated emails and phone calls assuring us the tickets would be in Guillin, they never arrived. But a very reassuring email stating we would just need to go to [View Full Entry]

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Our bags are packed we're ready to go... Hard to believe this is our last night in Guilin. Harder to believe we have been here 5 weeks. It was great fun but we are both ready to get on the road again. We teach 2 classes tomorrow, the 2nd one finishing at 4:30 then its off to the airport for our evening flight to Bangkok. A couple of days to complete our travel arrangements to India and then on to Kerala, in the south of India for some long awaited beach time. We moved our date to fly out by one [View Full Entry]

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Here's how we celebrated our Thanksgiving weekend. We left Saturday morning to go to PingAn, a 600 year old Zhuang minority village about 2 hrs north west of Guilin. It's known for its terraced rice fields and for the women who have the longest hair. They wrap it around their head, but when unwrapped it falls literally to the ground. It is pretty amazing. The village is built on the hillsides where foundations are constructed of 'dry' (no mortar) stacked slate rock. The buildings are all wood construction, a contast to the usual concrete block construction seen everywhere else. [View Full Entry]

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Pictures of our apartment. We find it homey!! Two steps above Peace Corps! (Mainly because of the washing machine, internet and air conditioning. [View Full Entry]

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We had a great week in Yangshou, enjoying the great food, fantastic scenery, and the very slow pace of the town. Several days we rented bikes and just toured around the rural countryside, among the rice fields, seeing people working the field, fishing, and the occasional water buffalo all surrounded by the beautiful karsts. There are hundreds of them and make a beautiful backdrop for the countryside. We took a bus to Xingping along the Li River but the water is so low, we were not able to take the boat ride back to Yangshou. So the next day we biked [View Full Entry]

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