travelbugs

St. Petersburg, Petershof, Pushkin, Moscow We made it to Russia, a long time dream of us. And since we are currently living in Europe , it is quite next door. We spend a week divided between European St. Petersurg and more asian Moscow. In St. Petersburg, we experienced the famous white nights. We visited the Pterhof, the Herimitage and a local Vodka bar, which was not such a good idee. In Moscow we had by chance a very good accomodation, right in the only pedestrian area of the city and a former stronghold of the 1989 revolution. The cremlin was on ly a feww minutes walking distance. WE had tickets for the Bolshoy Theater and when we went there abotu 20 minutes before the start of the performance, we were told that the Bolshoy is under ... read more

Welcome to Vietnam -- at least Northern Vietnam -- where we spent a short, but happy week! We arrived in Hanoi at 2 am after leaving Laos on a bus at 6 am the morning before. We were happy to finally make it! Hanoi is the capital of Vietnam and is a fascinating blend of East and West, with Chinese influence from centuries of dominance, and French design from its colonial past. Hanoi retains much of its older colonial charm, and, if we can find one positive side effect of war, it has kept Hanoi largely free from ugly modern architecture. As a result, few buildings in the city center area are higher than five stories and the colonial architecture remains well-preserved on narrow, atmospheric streets. Hanoi is built around a couple of lovely lakes, which ... read more

Welcome to Cambodia! It is a country with a split personality: it revels in the pride and majesty of a bygone era and still writhes from horrors of the regime under Pol Pot and Khmer Rouge. We started our travels reveling in the beauty of Angkor Wat, from the glory days of the Khmer empire. "Angkor" means "Capital City" or "Holy City" and "Wat" means "temple", so basically -- "Capital/Holy City of Temples". It is appropriately named. The temples are spread out over 400 square kilometers of jungle, and each felt grander than the previous temple. Dating back from the 9th to 15th centuries AD, Angkor reflects the best years of Khmer people. "Khmer" refers to the dominant ethnic group in ancient and current Cambodia, and their years at Angkor Wat showed the height of their ... read more

Welcome to Thailand! For all who follow our trip and did not get a notification for the Indonesia blog, due to server distribution probs, check it out! It is one of our favorite blogs with lots of good pics, videos -- even some of man-eating dragons!!!!! Ok - now back to Thailand! We started our stay on the islands of Ko Samui and Ko Tao. In Ko Samui, we just had a nice few days swimming in the warm water, enjoying massages, eating dinner on the beach and riding around the island on a moped (which I finally got the hang of - now Florian is on the back seat!). Pure and easy relaxation. Not that we're terribly stressed-out these days, but we still sincerely enjoy "beach days"! In Ko Tao, I got my open-water diving ... read more

Singapore - What a wonderful city! You've probably heard some of the stereotypes associated with Singapore: extremely clean (yup), chewing gum prohibited (not anymore!), constantly raining (that's an exaggeration), shop till you drop (that isn't!). But what you may not have heard is how beautifully green the city is, there is a really cool Chinatown and Little India minutes from the Financial District and it is extremely livable. We really liked Singapore! We stayed with my lovely friend Kim and her family. We were both nursing back (Florian) and foot (Heather) injuries and it was so great to be in a home for awhile. Singapore has a great mix of work and play. It has a modern skyline to the business district and many beautiful green areas and bike paths along the ocean. The infrastructure is ... read more