Tips and Tricks

As the plane prepared to land in Cairo, Egypt, I felt a tinge of excitement. After all, it's a new country, a new culture, and a new continent.

The culture of modern Egypt may be new to me, but its ancient sights are definitely not. It was really cool to actually see all the things I've seen/ heard about for so long. Our first stop was, of course, the pyramids at Giza. Some people say it's disappointing because it's not in the middle of an empty desert (you can, however, take a picture from a certain angle to make it look like it is).

For me, that didn't matter. It was still amazing. It's actually pretty cool to see the ancient pyramids tower over the modern apartment buildings (imagine saying “why yes, I have a view of the pyramids from my balcony”). What was more surprising and made the pyramids more difficult to appreciate were all the touts inside the entrance that won't leave you alone, especially since we didn't have a tour guide. At one point one of the camel drivers tried to pick up Ashok and put him on the camel (the trick is that once Ashok's on, the camel will take off and then the driver can demand payment even though we never wanted to ride it in the first place).

In fact, it seems like the modern Egyptians conspire to not let you enjoy the ancient sites. We've seen our share of touts – they can get pretty bad in Vietnam and India – but in Egypt it's a whole different league. Here it's more like a very friendly, long, and persistent sell. They think nothing of spending 15-20 minutes and walking several blocks with you to try to strike up a conversation (Ashok's new name is "Hey India!"). In fact, they get offended when you try to brush them off. It gets tiring after a while because they take up soooo much time, and it's the same conversation over and over again. It's the only country where we had our guard up everytime someone approached us because everyone's in on it - the cops, the security guards at the sites, the "friendly local" that's just practicing his English but somehow always has a friend who owns a shop or hotel or is a tour guide. I guess you can't really blame them since they've had several hundred years to hone their touting skills and perfect their scams.

Here's one where the baksheesh (tip) was worth it. At Sakkara there's a "peeping hole" where you can see the statue of the king inside the tomb which the security guard showed us (unsolicited) in exchange for some baksheesh. It's in the guidebook so it's not that secretive, but we wouldn't have found it without the guy:

Of all the places, we liked Aswan because it was relatively low key in terms of the touts, and is situated on a scenic part of the Nile. We enjoyed a relaxing afternoon sailing on the Nile on a felluca (traditional wooden sailing boat):

Here are some other highlights, even though pictures really can't capture the grandness of the structures and need to be seen in person to be appreciated:

The Sakkara pyramid - this one really is in the middle of an empty desert:

The Hypostyle Hall at the Karnak Temple in Luxor:

Ashok at the Medina Habu Temple in Luxor (mortuary temple for Ramses III), where the wall reliefs are still clearly visible after thousands of years:

Abu Simbel. Judging by the graffiti we saw on the statues (from several hundred years ago), they were not as strict about not letting visitors climb all over the statues as they are today.

Philae Temple (in Aswan) at night - we decided to do a Sound & Light Show, and realized that we're really not Sound & Light show people. At least the view of the temple was nice:

We also biked around the west bank of Luxor one day. Since the sun sets in the west, the ancient Egyptians associated the West Bank with death so all the tombs and mortuary temples are on that side. These Egyptians were seriously obsessed with life after death. Just think about the amount of time and energy and money that went into the building of the pyramids and the tombs, the collection of the treasures that are buried with the dead, and the detailed rituals of the mummification and funerary process! Ironically, after all that, none of the tombs survived intact.

Despite the touts, Cairo is a fascinating city to explore: mosques with their domes and minarets dot the skyline instead of church steeples, mannequins in shops showcasing the latest fashion in black formfitting long dresses (all of the outfits come with matching head cover), men in traditional dress sitting in local coffee shops smoking sheeshas (water pipes), and boys cruising down the street on bikes in the middle of traffic with a rack of Egyptian bread on their heads.

Taking taxis around town was another interesting experience. Anyone who's traveled knows to negotiate the price beforehand if the cab does not have a meter. In Cairo, however, one does not talk price at all before getting into the taxi. One is supposed to just know the market rate and give that amount to the taxi driver at the end (we figured out the rate by asking our hotel staff). Basically the idea is that you're supposed to pay whatever you think is right. The magic number for us was 7 EGP - when we pay that, the drivers just take the money and leave (and we feel like such locals). We think it's because the local price is really 5 or 6 pounds so the extra pound makes it worthwhile for the driver not to argue.

Due to some mix up with the Moroccan visa application process which is a long story in itself, we ended up spending an extra week in Cairo. A couple of things helped to make it easier to cope with the touts - our hotel, and sheeshas (for Ashok anyway). Our hotel, the Paris Hotel (parishotel_2006@hotmail.com), was our sanctuary during our stay in Cairo. It was quiet, cozy, relaxing (a premium when traveling on a budget in Cairo), and it was the one place where no one tried to sell us anything. At the same time, the owners and staff were always there to help, or at least offer tea or coffee.

The one Egyptian habit that we liked was the coffee house culture. EVERYONE in Egypt smokes sheeshas... at any time, morning or night... and the coffee houses are everywhere. These are not hip Starbucks looking cafes, although some can be really nice, like Cafe Fishawi at the Khan el Khalili square. Most are just tiny store fronts with a few tables and chairs that spill out into the sidewalk, and offer only Egyptian coffee (similar to Turkish coffee), Egyptian tea, and sheesha. It's a great way to relax and while away a few hours in the evening. I tried the sheesha but stuck to the tea (with fresh mint and sugar) since the smoking was not helping me recover from the bronchitis I had in India.

Ashok, on the other hand, really took to sheesha and, like the Egyptians, was smoking it several times a day. Luckily for him sheesha-smoking is a part of Muslim culture so he got to enjoy it all the way through to Turkey. I may have to do a post just on all the different places where he smoked sheesha.

To save money we decided to buy an open tour bus ticket to go from HCMC to Hanoi – only $41 plus we got to stop in a couple of cities in between.... ok so it wasn't the most comfortable... but then it makes for such good stories afterwards.

Our first stop, after 8 hours on the bus, is Nha Trang, a pretty popular beach town. It was late by the time we got there so we went in search of good Vietnamese food for dinner. We found this very local eating place (doesn't quite qualify as a restaurant, just an open courtyard with a few low plastic tables and stools). After much pointing and charades (at one point the guy moo'd and pointed to his butt to explain which cut of beef we were getting) we finally got our tasty dinner.

NT's supposed to have a nice beach, but since the remnants of a hurricane just passed by, the beach was littered with trash and not too enticing. This is one of the few pictures I took in NT because I thought the red star flags on the boats at the harbor make an interesting picture:

We had planned our schedule so we would be in Hoi An for our wedding anniversary (4 years!). Turned out to be a great decision. Hoi An has a charming, characteristic old town that makes it interesting to walk around. Of course it's also got the touristy part - the streets are packed with tailor shops (big thing to do but I personally think a bit over-hyped since you can do the same in Hanoi or Bangkok) but it's not too hard to avoid them. It's also pleasant to explore outside of old town on bike.

Northern Vietnam had the worst flooding in 20 years just a few weeks prior, and half of Hoi An old town was still under water when we got there. The locals made the most of it by offering boat tours through the flooded streets, proving once again how ingenuous they can be.

One of the highlights of our stay is our hotel, the Ha An Hotel. It's the ideal place: the decor has local flavors but done in a tasteful way (a rare thing in Asia especially in the mid-budget range), the amenities meet the needs of western travelers, the staff is super friendly, and the grounds are nice to relax in, but all at a reasonable rate. It was so nice to be at this place, especially after a very long, 11-hour, overnight bus ride with the bus driver's Vietnamese pop music blaring all night. If only there is a place like this everywhere we went... sigh.

We also had a memorable meal for our anniversary. The decor in this seaside restaurant is very basic, but the crab in tamarind sauce was the best we've ever had. In fact, you can put anything in that tamarind sauce and it'd taste good.

A few relaxing days and it's time to get on the bus again to go to Hanoi. It's our longest ride yet (18 hours total!), but 2 things helped us keep our sanity: Hanoi is our last stop, and the silk sleeping bags we bought in Hoi An. They are one of our best purchases because you can wrap yourself inside the sleeping bag and not worry about touching anything around you in your sleep, and they are thin so you don't get too hot.

Tourism is very well developed in Vietnam. There is a tour package for every place one may want to visit from the Cuchi tunnel and the Mekong Delta in HCMC to Ha Long Bay in Hanoi, and many tour agencies that offer them. The fierce competition has not lead to quality tours at a reasonable price, but has instead sprouted many operators that over promise and under deliver, making it tough to ensure one has a good experience. For that reason I've posted my notes for anyone thinking about going to that area and/or doing the open tour. For everyone else, stay tuned for the next post!

Notes on Nga Trang and Open Tour buses:
The 2 companies that seemed to have the best buses from HCMC were Hahn Cafe and Sinh Cafe. The people at Hahn Cafe in HCMC were very nice so we booked with them, but the ones in the other cities were a different matter. Either way I definitely recommend spending the extra $5 for the better (sleeper) bus. The buses were as promised all the way to Hoi An, but from Hoi An to Hanoi we got stuck with older buses. It costs a little more, but the better way may be to buy the ticket separately from one city to the next so you can make sure you get the bus as promised, and the tour operators have a little more incentive to provide better service.

We didn't like Nha Trang as much although I read good things on the web about it. It may be more for people looking for a night life in addition to the beach. On the other hand, we passed by a town called Mui Ne on the way to NT which looked much nicer. It's basically one main road with a string of resorts right on the beach and looked a lot quieter and more relaxing. Just before Mui Ne was a fishing village with the most amazing mass of fishing boats all tied up together.

Huang Shan (yellow mountain) has the reputation of being the most picturesque mountain in China. The highlights, so we're told, are the sunrise and the sea of clouds that float between cliffs. Our good luck with the weather ran out when we reached Tunxi near the base of Huang Shan, so we made the best of it by going to the old Chinese villages around Tunxi. There are several old villages that have been preserved so they still look the way they did hundreds of years ago. The most popular one is Hongcun, where the movie “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon” was filmed. However, we followed our driver's recommendation and went to Chengkan and Tangmo, two other old villages that are not as touristy (we liked Chengkan better). Walking around the empty narrow alleyways void of big tour groups, one really feels transported back in time. The misty rain only added to the melancholy feeling.

Of course the impact of the past 50 years can be seen here and there. The sign over this old woman's head says “Long Live Marxism and Leninism”

In another village, the owner of a building with intricate wood carvings were forced to scrape off the all the faces on the carvings during the Cultural Revolution because they represented old capitalist ideas. The only exception were faces of any servants, farmers, etc.... because they represented the workers.

The sky started clearing up so we headed up to the summit of Huang Shan. I always thought traditional Chinese landscape paintings are abstract expressions, but after Huang Shan I realized that they are actually very realistic and that the mountains in China really do look like that. The first day the heavy rain clouds were so thick we barely saw anything but the weather is so unpredictable that all of a sudden the fog would lift and then the sea of clouds would be before your eyes. The weather continued to improve during our 3 day stay so we got to see the many faces of Huang Shan, and even a decent sunrise:





As much as we dislike rain, Huang Shan is at its best right after it rains in order to get the clouds.

There are no roads for any vehicles with wheels, motorized or not at the summit. Everything that's used (food, bed linen, water, etc.) are all carried up from the bottom of the mountain by the local workers.... a 3+ hour hike uphill!

Our hike was not anywhere near as tough as the workers' since the cable car took us most of the way up, but we did have to carry a pretty heavy load to our hotel. All because we didn't heed the advice of the hotel staff in Tunxi who told us to leave most of our luggage with them. Next time we will definitely remember to bring as little as possible up! Ashok's going down in this picture, but we had an equal (or more) number of steps up... and by the way, I had my share of heavy bags as well:

One last story of a very interesting encounter: On one of our hikes, Ashok saw an old man doing some sketches who looked interesting so we approached him to ask to take his picture. It turns out he's an art professor at an university in JianXi and comes every year at the invitation of one of the hotels to paint for them. After talking for a while, he asked if Ashok would sit for a portrait for him because he doesn't normally get a chance to do portraits of foreigners. How funny is that! Usually it's Ashok that's doing the asking. Of course we had to oblige... and that's how Ashok got his first portrait.

And so ended our tour of China. On to Southeast Asia with Bangkok as our first stop.

After almost a month of brown, dusty, deserty landscape, it's nice to finally see trees and green landscape. Chengdu was a pleasant surprise - cleaner and a lot more modern than the cities we've been seeing (besides Beijing).

Sichuan cuisine is also our favorite of all the different types of Chinese foods, yet another reason we were excited to be there. The food definitely did not disappoint. A stroll around the various food stalls around Wen Shuo Temple proved to be very rewarding for our stomach. The food is spicy, but in a way that one can still taste all the flavors as opposed to just being so hot it obliterates everything else. One of the best is the dumpling in hot chili oil... here's it's more soupy and flavorful than what you get in the US. There's not peanut butter in the sauce either... not sure why restaurants in NY think it's necessary to add it. Unfortunately Ashok was still recovering from Jiayuguan so we had to limit what we ate.

The Giant Pandas are from Sichuan so of course we paid a visit to the Panda Research Center. We got there early to see them eat breakfast. Apparently after that they pretty much just go back to sleep. Not a bad life. I know they can get mean but they just look so innocent & cuddly!

The cutest things, though, were the baby Pandas. All the newborns are put into the nursery since they're still developing their senses and cannot do much, and when the workers plop them down into the playpen they just lay there and wiggle around looking just like the soft, plush stuffed animals you can buy (sorry photos were not allowed inside).

The other thing to do is to have tea in a tea house and people watch. It was drizzling the day we went to the park so there weren't too may people to watch. However, we did see this interesting activity in the park:

This guy is getting his ears cleaned by one of the professional ear cleaners that walk around the park, while having tea and snacks, for less than $1.50! We were tempted, but didn't end up trying it.

It would've been nice to rest up in Chengdu for a few days but we had already booked tickets for Huang Shan so off we went after only a short stay.

Mongolia was an amazing experience! I've read a lot about the Gobi Desert, so of course we couldn't come to Mongolia and not see it. The majority of our 6-day road trip was spent driving through various landscapes. Most of the it were wide open plains where you can see all the way to the horizon, but then some rock formations or mountains would pop up seemingly out of nowhere, and then beyond the mountains, more open space. The terrain was constantly changing so the drive was not monotonous. Here are some pics (that's our seemingly indestructible Russian-made van in the pic):

The weather changes on a whim as well. During the day it's sunny and warm, but once the sun is gone the temperature drops down to about 20 degrees (felt colder with the wind). One afternoon we were caught in a hail storm. You can see so far out that we saw the storm clouds way ahead but our driver was not able to outrun the storm.

(Rainbow in the desert, after the hail storm. We spent the night in those gers.)

However, it's the remoteness of the place that makes this an unique experience. For most of the time, our driver and us would be the only 3 people around for as far as the eye can see, and probably even beyond that. There are parts of the midwest or the southwest where one can get that feeling. The difference is that here, there are no nicely paved highways with clearly marked signs telling you how far till the next town or gas stop. Here, there are just dirt tracks on the ground and no one around except for an occasional ger (round Mongolian tent that locals live in).

I'm not sure how our driver knows which track to follow. Sometimes he'll suddenly go off the tracks for a while and then pick up another track out of nowhere. This is they typical road we were traveling on (there are only a few paved roads in the entire country).

Once, to cut across the mountain range, our driver actually used the riverbed as the road:

We did see quite a few animals: eagles, gazelles, and foxes, in addition to the more common sights of horses, goats, and camels lazily grazing in the field. Here's a Mongolian cowboy herding his horses:

By far the most memorable part is the Khongoryn Els (sand dunes). It's a strip of sand that stretches as far as the eye can see in either direction, with the mountain range right behind it. The dunes look exactly like what one would imagine them to be:


We had a lot of fun climbing the dunes and playing in the sand:

We also spent one night at the Bayanzag region where dinosaur bones have been fossilized by the desert sand. There's nothing marked, so you have to rely on the a local guide to see them. It seems like there are lots of small fossils scattered around, each location carefully guarded by the person who discovered it. Our guide was the ger owner who took us to a carefully camouflaged location on a small hill nearby. He then carefully removed some rocks and dirt, and then folded back a plastic cover to reveal a fossilized jaw. Of course our skeptical side wonders whether or not it's really dinosaur fossils, or just some random animal. Either way, it's still pretty cool to see.

Traveling in Mongolia, on the other hand, is not for the faint-hearted. Driving on those dirt tracks is like going off-roading, or even off-off roading, imagine 4-8 hours of that each day. The gers we stayed in have no electricity or running water. The toilet is an outhouse with a deep hole and 2 planks of wood to stand on, or you can be like the Mongolians and use the great outdoors. Not to gross everyone out but we didn't get to shower except for one night when we stayed in a small town where you can pay at a public bath house to shower.

Interior and exterior of Ger:

The only source of heat in the gers is a wood burning stove which gets lit up once in the evening around dinner time so all the heat is gone by the time we went to bed. We had brought winter clothes but hadn't planned to sleep in gers for more than 1 night, and also understandably assumed that there would be heat at night. So, at night we'd put on all our layers plus the sleeping bags the guest house loaned us and still be frozen by the morning.

At one place our ger didn't have a stove in it, so the family let us sleep in their ger with them. That was quite interesting. While we were all bundled up, the family slept in tank tops and shorts. Guess it's all what you're used to. We also drank shots of vodka with some of the families, and tried horse meat (tastes like beef, a little tougher).

Even with all the discomfort, the experience was well worth it. In addition to everything else, the stars were amazing at night. The entire sky was lit up because there's no light or anything else to block the view. We also got to meet some cool travelers from all over the world: Brits, Swedes, Korean, Irish, Czech, Dutch American, Spanish, Italian, French, German, Mexican, Australian.. some of whom we may meet up later in our travels.

All in all, this was definitely one of the most memorable trips of our lives.

But first, finding a place to stay:

We were headed to Becici, the beach just south of Budva and, we were told, the better beach. Nevermind that the woman at Meridian Travel told us her aunt's apartments in Becici are overbooked, and that it's very busy in that area right now (it is THE peak month). Emboldened by our recent experience in Kotor, and armed with all the travel agency info from Meridian Travel, we thought we would find a room for sure. To be fair, we did try to look beforehand but nothing worked out.

"Just ask the people with free rooms at the bus station", she said. "A taxi to Becici is only 3 Euros”, she also said. Neither turned out to be true. The people at the Budva station only had rooms for Budva, not Becici, even though it's only 2 km away. We called the local travel agencies, but none had anything available. Not Good. We took a taxi to Becici – it turned out to be more than double what the woman said... a big deal when you're on a tight budget. There was no one with room available signs in sight. We started to walk into each apartment to ask if they had any rooms... picture Ashok and I hauling our bags going up and down hilly streets with the mid-day sun beating down on us... for 3 hours!... and NOT ONE was available! We got nothing except very sun-burnt.

Finally we gave up and went back to Budva. There, as we were walking down the main street, a group of young guys hanging out yelled out at us if we were looking for a room. After trying for a few minutes to communicate (their English were not that good, and our Serbian even worse), one guy told us to get in his car and he'll show us to the apartment. We did... it turned out to be a good enough place (not that we had many options)... we paid him for the 4 nights in cash.. and we had a room. This was our worst experience yet on this trip, and I hope nothing else comes close.

This is what the apartment looks like from the outside. Our room is the one upstairs:

As in Kotor, we never figured out who the actual owner of the building is. We asked who we thought were the owners for a towel the first day, got only one foot towel (good thing we had our clean beach towels), and never saw them again. The next morning we ran into another guy who got us a small towel (“it's small but at least it's clean”) and a pot so we could boil water to make coffee. He turned out to be an interesting guy that we hung out with the last night but it was never clear whether or not this was indeed his apartment. These things are apparently not that big a deal in Montenegro.

Finally, the Beach:
Lonely Planet described Budva as the beach where you can build sandcastles. Not that I'm complaining about the rocky beaches of Croatia, but the idea of a soft sandy beach was really appealing. With the sleeping arrangement finally out of our way, we headed out to check out the beach and to cool down. We were very disappointed in Budva's beaches. The fact that it's a pebbly beach is the least of it. There's a boardwalk along the beach packed with open air bars that don't start to get crowded until 10pm, cheesy T-shirt and souvenir vendors, fast food stalls, and an old-style amusement park. It's clearly a party beach, but not a hip one like Hvar. For those of you that know New Jersey, Budva reminds us a lot of Belmar. The beach is jam packed with beach chairs for rent, and the water was not so clean. I'm sure lots of people love the fact that it's a party beach, but it was just too crowded and cheesy for us.

The next day we set out to check out Becici beach. It was better... still crowded but not as bad as Budva, but it's still pebbly... so we moved on to Sveti Stefan. Sveti Stefan was at one time a fishing village but is now a private hotel (currently closed for renovation). Here's a picture of it so you can see how pretty it is:

There's a stretch of beach right in front of it (the 3 white lines in the lower right corner of the picture are the beach chairs). It's still pebbly but less crowded and you can't beat the view of Sveti Stefan so we stayed.

On the bus to Sveti Stefan, we passed by some beaches that looked very nice so in the evening we walked back looking for them to see how they are. By this point we have actually walked through the entire 7 km stretch of beaches from Budva to Sveti Stefan. I know we sound like beach snobs but really we're not. It's not just about sand vs. pebbles. The thing is, people here are not very environmentally conscious, and don't think twice about leaving their cigarette butts and food trash on the beach. In comparison, the waters we swam in in Croatia were clean & clear. Maybe it's because the Montenegrans are so laid back they don't care and don't realize the environmental consequences. Sveti Stefan was the best of the bunch, Budva the worst, and the rest in between.

Not loving any of the area beaches and since Montenegro is not that big, we took a day trip to the southernmost beach, Ulcinj, just north of the border with Albania. Here, we finally got our sandy beach.... although it's just like any other beach in New Jersey/ New York or Los Angeles, which is probably why the people there are all locals or from nearby Albania. Don't get me wrong, we had a fun day on the beach. I'm just saying it's not a beach that's worth traveling to. The water was slightly warmer than the other beaches and there were actual waves (all the other ones were really calm). I don't know how clean the water is... there's 12km of beach for people to spread out, and the water's murky with the sand and the waves... probably a good thing.

Overall, I would say Montenegro was a disappointing experience. At least we got to see almost the entire Montenegro coast. It's a shame because the people are so easy going and friendly, and the coast is very pretty. We saw a lot of new development going up all along the coast, and I'm sure they will do well... it's just a question of which type of crowd it will attract. I wonder how long it will last if they don't take measures now to protect their beaches.

One final note... the relatively short ride back to Croatia turned into 6 hours including a 3.5 hour wait at the border. All because we got stuck behind 3 buses of Russians going into Croatia without Visas so they had to get issued on the spot and each person had to be manually typed in! Urgh!

If you can only go to one of Croatia's coastal cities, Dubrovnik is it. The city sits inside fortress walls built on scraggly rocks right by the water, backed up by the mountain.

Dubrovnik's old harbour:

Many of the buildings were destroyed when the Serbs & Yugoslav army bombed it during the war in the early 90's, but it's all been rebuilt with the same style of architecture. The new buildings all have red roofs so you can tell which ones were damaged (and there are lots of them).
Old vs new roofs:

The city was under siege for 2 months during the war. I'm not sure how they survived with food, but there's a fountain that's 400 years old that ended up supplying the city with water the entire time and it's still working. Now every one goes and touches or drinks from it for luck:

It is scorching hot during the day so there's no much to do except to go see some exhibits in nicely air conditioned museums (really missing the mid-day swims now). We went to two – one of Picasso's sketches which was really cool. The other one was at the War Photo Limited where there were photos from the war(s) in the Balkans and an exhibit on Child Soldiers. The photos of the Child Soldiers were from various regions of the world (Middle East, Asia, Africa) and the sad thing is, some are as recent as 2007. In some areas (think it's in Africa), kids are abducted and then given drugs before being sent off to the frontline to fight so they would be fearless, and if they resist they are beaten and tortured. Sometimes all the groups fighting each other are equally brutal so no matter who wins the people are screwed. I know that there are lots of wars going on in the world, but seeing the photos really drive it home. It also makes me realize how lucky we are to live in the US, and be shielded from much of the violence that are going on.

Once the heat got more bearable we walked on the fortress wall around the city. Everyone says it's a must do and I agree. You get a great view of the entire city with the Adriatic in the background, and in the parts that are alongside the water, you can look down and see the water slapping up against the rocks. It's just beautiful!

Dubrovnik rooftops from the wall:

View of main town square in Dobrovnik old town:

Next to the old town is the best beach in Dubrovnik, Bana. It's a pebbly beach but the clear water is so inviting:

In addition to the normal rules of conduct for the beach like no pets on the beach, they also had this as the last one on the list:

It was a good place to end our time in Croatia.

One note about Croatians. People are generally nice and helpful, especially once you get to know them. Our travel agent and the people on the boat were super friendly and explained a lot to us. However, when it comes to business you still have to watch out as what you get is often not what you're told. Our bait and switch incident on the boat was not our only experience. The room in Dubrovnik ended up costing slightly more than what we were told (at least we got to store our luggage there and they did our laundry which was very much needed); the owner of the apartment told us there is wi-fi but once we got there the wi-fi is not working due to some “technical difficulties”, etc, etc.. We also learned that it doesn't pay to be nice or polite and to be firm or they will just take advantage of you. It's marred an otherwise great experience to have to be on our toes all the time.

Here's a map of the islands we went to on this leg of the trip:

As mentioned before, we're on a small boat (14 cabins) for 7 days going between the islands of Croatia. Here's what it looks like:

The coast of Croatia is called Dalmatia collectively but no one on the boat knows why it's called that.... maybe because the coast of Croatia is dotted with 1700+ islands, some of which look like this:

The amazingly blue and clear Adriatic sea is a nice break from visiting cities. The water is on the chilly side for us, but after sitting in the scorching sun for a while it feels so refreshing, especially that first moment when you jump into the water.

The days quickly settled into a routine: breakfast at 8am (they're strict about their meal times - if you miss it you get yelled at!) as the boat pulls out of the marina and heads to another island, then sit on the deck under the sun and enjoy the view of the blue Adriatic and islands that dot the coast. Here's the view from my perspective:

Ashok relaxing on the boat (sitting in the shade because he doesn't need a tan):

Shortly before lunch the boat drops anchor somewhere so there's time for a refreshing swim. More swimming or a nap in the afternoon until about 4pm when the boat heads into town and docks for the night, in time for us to walk around and explore the old town. Yes, life is tough.

Other than 2 Canadian girls and 2 German couples, the rest of the people on our boat are Croatians so we got a good taste of the local culture - one of the things we love about traveling. We found out from the locals that the way to drink white wine in Dalmatia is to mix equal parts water and wine and then add ice. The drink is called Bevanda. Just imagine trying to do that back in the States and the looks you'd get! One sip of the local wine and we knew why it is necessary to add water... it's really strong and not that good so adding water to dilute it makes it easier to drink (tastes even better with sparkling water).

Being here also makes me realize how prudish North Americans are. Not sure if it's all Europe but the women here think nothing of taking their tops off as they lay under the sun. As the week went on and people got more comfortable with each other the number of topless women (all in their 20's) and the times they're topless went up (sorry no pictures). Ashok's definitely enjoying this cruise.

The funny thing is one of the Canadian women swam really far away from the water to take her top off for a little while just so she can say she went topless in Europe. She told us this on our last night as we were sitting on the top deck drinking whiskey. Later that night we ran into the Croatians who insisted that we try the local liquor (a hazelnut drink called Orahovica) and then out to the disco with them. This was, of all places, on the tiny little island of Sipan where it takes about 15 minutes to walk thru the harbor but the best times happen when it's unplanned.

Some interesting tidbits:

Apparently in Croatia you don't want to park where you're not supposed to. Instead of giving out tickets, here's their version of a tow truck:

The picture is a bit dark but the truck is basically picking up the entire car and moving it. Alternatively, you could avoid getting towed by getting a big car.

As I mentioned before, looking for free wi-fi somehow became a past time. In general you can't tell if there's free wi-fi or not, but in this case it was pretty obvious:

We jumped in but the wireless card on the MAC is too weak so it didn't work for us.

Here's a little info on each of the islands we went to:
Mljet (pronounced Millet): Mljet is a national park with two lakes in the middle of the island, and a small island in the middle of the lake. There's a bridge where the two lakes meet where Orson Welles use to sit on for hours. The current under the bridge carries you from one lake to the other. There are lots of nice hikes but we're not nature people so we probably could have saved the park admission fee and spent the afternoon on the beach along the coast instead.

Hvar (pronounced Hevar): is apparently where the rich and famous visit. There are lots of nice yachts docked in the harbor, and everyone walking around was dressed up in some hip outfit (EVERY woman was wearing some dress or skirt). Ashok and I felt very under-dressed in our shorts and tank tops. There's a nice old town and a fort at the top of the hill to add to the charm. The fort has a great panoramic view of the town.

Makarska: is a coastal town, not an island. After Hvar this seems a lot more casual as you see the normal shorts and t-shirt tourists (we fit in better here). It's pretty but not as much compared to the other islands. Ashok did get some good shots of these kids at swimming practice:

(Ashok is making sure I note that I copied his shot)

Korcula (Korchula): the small old town is at the tip of the island and is one of the most picturesque of all. It's also Marco Polo's birthplace. Here's a view of the sea from the Marco Polo House.

Sipan (Shipan): One of the Elifiti islands, a group of islands near Dubrovnik. It's the smallest village of all the places we stopped at... I think because we were on the non-touristy side of the island so it's still a sleepy town.

This has been a great week and we're going to miss the cool Adriatic and the beautiful scenery. I think we may have to go on a round-the-world's-beaches trip next.... maybe on a one of those yachts we saw this week (yeah right!).

It's nice to have the time to leisurely explore a city. The first day in any city is always the most challenging because we have to figure out a new language, the money, the public transit system, the street names, etc. Once we got past that Budapest was very easy to navigate. Just a warning: we had 8 full days there so even though it's just the highlights this post is pretty long so be prepared:

We did all the touristy stuff: walk around pedestrian only streets and on Andrassy Ut (their equivalent of Fifth Avenue), took the oldest subway in Continental Europe (the yellow M1 line), Hero Square, and Castle Hill as already mentioned. There's no castle anymore, but there are still lots of medieval buildings and also offers a great view all along the Danube.


The top of the popular funicular is also there. Best time to ride the funicular is at sunset but we ended up taking the stairs along side it instead so that Ashok can take pics from various vantage points. Because of that, we also found our way to a platform that leads to the top of the tunnel entrance that faces the Chain Bridge.
It's not meant for tour groups because to get there you have to climb through overgrown bushes and a wire fence, but lots of couples and young people go there with some wine or beer (Budapest has no open container law) to watch the sunset or the bridge lit up.

We went to Castle Hill several times so Ashok can take pictures at various times. It turned out to be a good thing because one night we saw that there was a festival on the bridge. It's something they do every weekend during the summer. In addition to the usual crafts and food stands, there were a couple of bands playing and a cool photography exhibit. There was one food stall with huge vats cooking Hungarian food that smelled so good but we had already had dinner so we went back the next day just to try it. The food was expensive but very tasty.

However, the best food we had was the meat stew at the Fakanal restaurant at the Central Market. They called it Goulash stew (as opposed to Goulash soup which everyone asks for), but I think it's actually called Porkolt and they just called it Goulash because that's what all tourists know. The meat was tender and the sauce so rich and flavorful... quite memorable.

The cloud from Czech Rep followed us and we had a couple of rainy days. On one of those days we went to the Terror House.

It's a museum located in a building that was the headquarters of the secret police during both the Nazi occupation and the Communist era. It was a sobering experience as we saw pictures of the chain bridge under water, and of tanks rolling through the same streets we just walked through. The Jews in this region suffered the same fate during the Nazi era as others and I knew about that, but seeing film footage of a bulldozer pushing heaps of dead people into a pit is just disturbing. What I didn't realize was what the Hungarians suffered during Communist rule. The Russians treated the people of these small satellite countries as dispensable labor and would just set random quotas for the local government to fill and sent the people to Siberia or other places to do hard labor with very little food and horrible living conditions. Sometimes to fill the quota people would just get pulled off the streets at random. It's a depressing experience but I would still recommend it as it provides some perspective for the local culture.

After becoming a Republic, the communist statues were all removed and some of them were taken to Szobor Park (Monument or Statue Park). After Terror House it was only appropriate to go to the park. It takes a while to get to and is not really worth it but there was an interesting exhibit where they showed footage of training videos shot by th secret police to train new recruits on how to follow people, raid people's homes, etc. Scary thought.. but interesting.

On a happier note, one of the highlights of our time there is at the Szechenyi Furdo (I'm spelling these words without the accents above the letters but it would take me forever to figure out how to do it). This is the biggest outdoor thermal bath house in the city, and is located in the Varosliget Park which is like their Central Park. Think big outdoor swimming pools but in a very grand setting.

In the middle of one of the pools is a circular current pool so you can ride along and go in circles (look in the middle of the picture). It's so much fun to ride!

The best part was that a thunderstorm passed through when we got into the water. Since we were already wet we just stayed in the pool as the raindrops fell on us. This is definitely not something that happens everyday!

We also went to the other famous thermal pool, Gellert Furdo (Furdo means bathhouse) which is mostly indoors. It's not just because of the thunderstorm experience but I think the Szechenyi bathhouse has a better setting. One thing that is similar at both bathhouses is the way they are run. Buying tickets and finding the locker room is an experience in itself... not necessarily a good one, but an experience. It's the communist era showing through.. you have these old stocky women barking orders at you, there are no directions and you wander thru these circular hallways that all look the same with many other tourists that look as lost as you until one of the ones that got there earlier takes pity on you and explains the system to you.

Lastly, a funny tidbit: because our hotel charged a lot for wireless, looking for free wi-fi connection became one of our past times. Here's a picture of Ashok sitting in a popular square with my laptop (Jen, this is where I was IM you):


In all, Budapest is one of my favorites so far and I would highly recommend it. I'd like to come back, preferably when we have an income, and try out some of the restaurants, the night life, and the shopping (that Ashok did not miss) that I didn't get to do this time.