http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/WilliamandChristina/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from WilliamandChristina en-us Mon, 04 Jan 2010 17:08:54 +0000 Mon, 04 Jan 2010 17:08:54 +0000 Our flight from Cairo to Istanbul was easy and we enjoyed Egypt Air except that I think it was the most turbulent we have ever encountered The airport in Istanbul was mobbed with incoming visitors but was fairly efficient. It already felt like a different world Getting from the airport into the tourist part of the city proved easy also using the super efficient tram system there. I have to sa http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Turkey/blog-310133.html Bulgaria Romania Hungary http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Bulgaria/blog-316532.html Austria Czech Republic Germany http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Austria/blog-316547.html Well it's about time I write again and give you an update of our whereabouts and dealings. We recently flew from Cairo to Istanbul Turkey for I think the last leg of this trip after spending almost 3 weeks in Egypt. We had not intended to go there so it's interesting that we ended up there. And I must say that the whole experience was rather a 'mxed bag' for us in that there were some great hi http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/blog-310013.html Text Coming Soon http://www.travelblog.org/Middle-East/Jordan/South/Wadi-Rum/blog-307479.html HelloHere are some highlights of our time in China mostly Yunnan province in the month of June. Our first day in China and going through the border was not much fun I was still recovering from a nasty cold and that day I just wanted to go home. The officials on the China side of the border crossing from NW Vietnam confiscated our Lonely Planet guidebook for China a huge book of whi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Yunnan/Kunming/blog-295381.html We finally made it to Sapa in the northwestern Tonkinese Alps of Vietnam after 5 nights in bustling Hanoi. The Lonely Planet Vietnam suggests not booking any tours here and just exploring it on your own. We followed this advice and highly recommend if you want to come to Sapa that you do the same. We think you will have a better time on your own and you can always arrange tours and treks when you http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Northwest/Sapa/blog-279520.html Well I'm not going to say too much here as the photos and captions tell most of the story. Hanoi is an interesting city and somewhat entertaining. The old city is the highlight although on the outskirts of it are also interesting areas to walk with wide treelined streets. The opera house is near there and if we had thought of it sooner we would have attended something there as there are a varie http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Red-River-Delta/Hanoi/blog-279273.html Definitely our favorite part of centralsouthern Vietnam was Hoi An with its great beach nearby and wonderful scenery of rivers and rice fields. If you have very limited time in Vietnam we recommend visiting Hoi An over Nha Trang which is a bigger not as charming city. From this area you can easily fly or night train from DaNang south or north to get to the cities.Hoi An itself is incredibly cha http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/South-Central-Coast/blog-277113.html Pictures Of Vietnam... Text Coming http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/blog-273401.html We did the whirlwind tour through Cambodia about 10 days which is par for the course for tourists mainly interested in Angkor Wat. This seems to be the big draw these days since the movie Tomb Raider came out about 6 yrs ago and was filmed in Angkor Wat and Siem Reap the town near Angkor Wat is becomingvery built up with many many hotels from big and fancy to nice looking newer guest hous http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/blog-271455.html We flew from Cebu City Philippines to Bangkok. We spent a few days there enjoying our old haunts from last year 2007 before moving on by bus to Cambodia. Even ran into some friends that remembered us. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-271128.html My desire to visit the Philippines was based entirely on wanting to experience healings from psychic surgeons here. There are only a few places in the world where this kind of healer can be found and the Philippines is one of the most notorious. Usually the reaction I would get when I mentioned seeking a psychic healer while there or in Indonesia was skepticismcynicism or amusement as if to s http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Philippines/Luzon/blog-271124.html William and Christina write This is the island of Palawan in the Philippines. Did you know that the Philippines is over 7100 islands many of them quite small It was not easy to chose one to explore In the end we extended our visa here and stayed an extra week so we could go to another 2 islands Cebu which was our gateway to the tiny island above it called Malapascua. We decided to com http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Philippines/Palawan/blog-270526.html Manila Scam Alert For you folks visiting Manila beware of the many street scams. The one we fell for is when we went to Chinatown. We were approached to hire a horse drawn buggy to show us around by a buggy driver. We agreed on a price before getting in. After about 15 minutes of riding around the area another man got on and took over the reins and the original driver slid over. The original dr http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Philippines/blog-270515.html Dearly Beloved Family Friends and Colleagues....Well we have been away quite a while now exactly 3 12 months which is longer than William and I have ever been away from home before not counting leaving the family home. Every so often some one of you says something about our long vacation and we sort of blink or flinch because well sometimes it sounds like a put down but it's probably jus http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/blog-271805.html Not to Nyepi this was our question as we were considering exactly when to leave Bali. We had a general plan to stay for 56 weeks till the end of February but we didn't realize then that there were more interesting holidays coming up in Bali that were beconing us to stay longer. Of course if you've been to Bali you know that there is some religious festivity going on somewhere almost everyda http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Bali/Ubud/blog-268355.html This is the story of our experience going to Wayan traditional healer the one mentioned in the book Eat Pray Love in March of 2008.After being in Bali less than a week I got very very sick from something I ate. Even after one or two weeks and using everything that I had with me to recover I still felt 'off'. We knew about Wayan and had heard positive things and so I thought it might help me http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Bali/Ubud/blog-268304.html Everywhere we have been in Bali we have had many opportunities to interact with the people.Even when few words were exchanged William was there with the camera and people were willing to let us photograph them. People were interested in talking with us no matter how much english they could speak and liked to practice with us. We enjoyed their interest though it was often motivated by their need http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Bali/blog-251316.html The kids in Bali have been one of the highlights of our experience here Overall they are so happy and at least smile if not overflow with enthusiasm toward us. As you will see below we had a good time photographing them. They are not shy. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Bali/blog-251202.html