The Weasel

Zagreb

2015-07-25T15:28:00.001-05:00

Our last full day in Croatia we spent in the capital city of Zagreb. It's a really cool town - old buildings, beautiful architecture, badass statues (some with very powerful mustaches), crazy gothic cathedrals, art galleries on every street, and lots and lots of cafes. As we travelled throughout the country I kept thinking "well, surely that had to be the most awesome part of Croatia" and then we would arrive at our next destination and it would be just as spectacular! Zagreb was different from the other places we'd been - more of an Austrian/Slavic/Russian feel to it - but still fantastic! A lovely way to end our trip, for sure.

Zagreb

2015-07-24T02:53:00.001-05:00

The city of Zagreb has free wifi! All over the city. It's awesome.

Bambi, the dumbest GPS on earth

2015-07-23T13:33:00.001-05:00

Did I mention that we named the GPS Bambi? Bambi is an asshole.

The whole trip people have told us it would take X amount of time to get to our next location, but for some reason it takes us at least twice as long. We've been able to see the countryside, which is nice, and we haven't been in a hurry or anything, but we couldn't figure out why it was taking so much longer to get around than everyone said it would.

Turns out that Bambi was programmed to avoid all toll roads and the main highway that goes through the entire country is one giant toll road!! She was taking us on these country roads through small towns but we didn't know any better because we are in Croatia, for gods sake!

About 30 minutes until the end of our last leg of the road trip, Shannon decided to check the settings and figured out what was going on. Fuck you, Bambi!!

Shannon was so angry that she said to Bambi "I can't even look at you I'm so pissed off" and flipped her to face the other direction. Then we were both laughing so hard that I couldn't drive straight.

We made it to Zagreb, our final destination, three hours later than necessary.

Plitvice Lakes

2015-07-23T12:10:00.001-05:00

OH.

MY.

GOD.

This has to be the most beautiful place on earth.

We hiked for 5.5 hours and didn't even see all of it. I want to stay here forever and ever!

A short video of one of the babbling brooks:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zelh-2NbvfY

The water is crystal clear - you can see to the bottom of all the lakes.

Look at the tree trunks in this water!

This guy was just walking down the path without a care in the world:

You can see the ducks' feet while they swim!

We climbed all the way through and to the top of this cave. Shannon was so proud, while I was mostly just grumpy. See those people waaaaaayyyyyy down at the bottom?

This was the Big Waterfall - quite amazing.

And some parting shots:

Definitely one of the most beautiful places on earth.

Zadar

2015-07-22T05:12:00.001-05:00

The town Zadar is a couple hours north of Trogir (well, with normal people driving it would be, but it took us 4 hours) and the main attraction is this thing called the Sea Organ (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_organ ). The sound was so captivating, hypnotic and indescribable. I recorded it on my phone, but can't figure out how to upload a sound file to this blog - maybe after I get home I'll figure out how to do it. But it was really, really cool. Totally worth the somewhat-out-of-the-way drive, just to have this surreal musical experience. Even with the crazy crowds, the Sea Organ was truly worth the visit.

Near the Sea Organ is another art installation called Salutation to the Sun, made of hundreds of solar panels that light up after dark for a fun disco-like experience.

Other than our fantastic hotel, the rest of Zadar wasn't much different from Trogir - very heavy Italian influence, old Roman ruins, etc.

Krka, Biljane Donje

2015-07-22T05:11:00.001-05:00

After Trogir, we began the journey towards Zadar, our next destination. Have I mentioned that my friend Shannon lied about being able to drive a stick shift and I've had to do all the driving on this trip? :-) Yep, she did. And for the entire trip our driving has taken us at least TWICE as long as it's supposed to. Sometimes it's our own doing, like when we stopped to have lunch in a castle, or when we made a detour to the beautiful Krka National Park to go swimming in the lake!

We pulled into a rest stop for some coffee on the drive to Zadar. While there we checked just to see how far we were from Krka, and it turns out we were really close! So we made a detour and managed to jump into the lake for a quick cool down. It was really breathtaking. Since we were swimming we didn't bring our cameras, but just do a Google image search for Krka National Park and you'll get the idea. :-)

Feeling a little more refreshed after our lake dip (have I mentioned that Croatia is in the middle of a brutal heatwave for the past couple weeks?), we got back on the road, driving through the countryside to Zadar. We passed this lady and her goats and stopped to take a photo:

As we drove further we started passing buildings that looked like they were falling apart...old bombed out buildings left from the war in the early '90's. One little town in particular was really sad (Biljane Donje) - there is a mass grave there from the Croatian War for independence from Yugoslavia. More than one person has brought up the war to us - it's still fairly fresh in the minds of many Croats.

We didn't take a ton of pictures along this leg, but here are a few. The student driver cracked us up.

Trogir

2015-07-22T05:01:00.001-05:00

We've moved much further north in Croatia, out of the Dalmatian region and into Central Croatia. There is definitely a different vibe here. In the south, there is more of a relaxed Mediterranean feel to life. Where we are now feels more like Rome - busier, slightly less welcoming, but still fascinating.

Yesterday morning we left Split and drove about 1 hour to a small seaside town called Trogir. The towns in this region center around old Roman ruins, and this one was no different. But Trogir has restored and preserved many of the ruins, and there are some very old churches still standing in the town. If you've ever traveled to Italy, this place will give you a little déjà vu. Beautiful, nonetheless!

An Adventurous Day, Indeed

2015-07-20T12:00:00.001-05:00

Dubrovnik was absolutely amazing - every where I turned was just incredibly beautiful. We walked along the old city walls, took a boat out to an island and hiked around, rode the cable car up above the city, and sweat our asses off. It was awesome!

Today we started our morning with a delicious chocolate croissant and cappuccinos before we began (what should have been) a 4-hour drive to Split. The drive out of Dubrovnik was just as breathtaking as the city, but we soon realized that we needed gas for the car and we were in the middle of nowhere. We have a GPS in the rental car, but in trying to find gas she almost made us do a Thelma and Louise off the side of a mountain. We ended up waaaaaayyyyyy high up on a mountain-top dirt road, pretty terrified. Here is a view from the front seat:

And a reaction shot :-)

Eventually we found our way back to the main road, no thanks to the GPS, and made it to a gas station just in time to avoid having to hitchhike the rest of the way.

New Rule: when you see a castle off in the distance, always go to it! We took a detour to a place called Ston and Mali Ston, these little towns made in an old fortress, connected by a 5 km wall. We had the most wonderful lunch by the water, in an old turret or guard tower. It was very cool!

The waiter talked us into a local dessert, a chocolate "cake" made out of pasta noodles! It was weird and delicious.

Back on the road, we drove for a while and came upon an elaborate toll booth. There were two booths to stop at, and at each the guard just waved us through without speaking to us or taking our money. After driving a bit, we realized that what we had passed through was not a toll booth, but actually a BORDER CROSSING into Bosnia Herzegovina. We drove around a bit in Neum until we found our way to the next "toll booth" and at this one the guard lady said "passports" but by the time we pulled them out of our purses she was waving us through. Strangest border crossing I've ever seen!

A couple hours later we found our way to Split, but again the GPS gave us crappy directions. We drove around for at least 30 minutes in the vicinity of our hotel, trying to find it. Some old men yelled at us, we drove around in circles past them at least 4 times. Finally we stopped and called the hotel and they sent a nice man named Carlos to rescue us! He found us and jumped in the car, but as my husband can attest I am incapable of parallel parking a vehicle. Carlos tried really hard to guide me into a spot, but the three of us were all laughing so hard (at me) that we all finally gave up and drove around until I found a spot to park ON THE SIDEWALK. I parked that car on a sidewalk like a boss!!!

Split is pretty cool, but both Shannon and I agree that we prefer Dubrovnik and the countryside. In Split, the Old Town is a UNESCO heritage site and it's really neat - an old palace built by Diocletian that's 2000 years old is what the entire city is built inside and around. Inside the walls of the palace are hundreds of shops and restaurants and promenades where people hang out and walk around. Very cool.

Driving in Croatia

2015-07-20T11:55:00.001-05:00

Today we drove from Dubrovnik to Split. It was an ADVENTURE - more on that later. Just happy to have wifi again and be out of the car!!!!!!

I can't believe how beautiful this place is!

2015-07-19T03:18:00.001-05:00

Dubrovnik

2015-07-19T01:52:00.001-05:00

Shannon and I successfully navigated multiple airports and connected in Dubrovnik yesterday. Our hotel doesn't have wifi in the rooms because they "want people to enjoy their holiday" so I can't upload any pictures right now, but it is BREATHTAKINGLY BEAUTIFUL here!! Today we are going to explore the old city of Dubrovnik, gotta go catch our bus!

Suburb of Zagreb

2015-07-18T02:53:00.001-05:00

I arrived in Zagreb yesterday evening, grabbed a taxi to my hotel, took an amazing post-travel shower (those are just THE BEST), and then passed out for 10 hours straight. Bad news is I didn't get out and about...I didn't even eat dinner. Good news is that today I'm no longer jet-lagged and I'm ready to rock!

Woke up feeling starved and had a yummy breakfast at the hotel - I just love vegetables for breakfast. If only I could make myself prepare a breakfast like this every day at home!

Because I have to catch another flight in a few hours, I booked a hotel that is close to the airport and not in the city. It's a beautiful little suburb of Zagreb called Velika Mlaka. Other than proximity to the airport, I don't know why they built a hotel smack dab in the middle of a residential neighborhood, but that's where it is! Unfortunately I don't have a car yet, so I just wandered around the neighborhood this morning, sweating my ass off at 9am and waving at the neighbors.

Croatia seems to have a lot of space - the homes are on bigger lots than I expected and there are plenty of open areas, lots of undeveloped space. It's nice. And the homes are quite beautiful and modern.

The silence is also striking - in between the occasional car or motorbike driving by, it's very quiet. You can hear all the birds chirping, children playing in their homes, and the infrequent dog barking. I guess it's because nobody has A/C here, there's very little noise pollution. Peaceful!

Speaking of dogs barking, I noticed these signs on people's gates. After the first few I realized that they are custom / individualized and started taking pictures.

That last one is my favorite - I think it must say "Warning - Dragon Wolf!"

This final bit I don't really have an explanation for. It was difficult to get a good picture of the rear because the homeowner was laying out topless right behind the statues and I didn't want her to think I was taking pictures of her. But this little cluster of statues flanked her driveway / garage. Made me laugh!

Yes, that's a Prince-style assless dress on a statue.

Almost there

2015-07-17T03:26:00.001-05:00

I've arrived in Amsterdam, a giant airport that seems to be always under construction. Getting from one part of the airport to another is quite a hike! On the departure and arrival screens, they actually show how much time you need to give yourself to get to the gate.

I always forget that the rest of the world thinks "air conditioning" is about 8-10 degrees higher than what I consider to be air conditioning. I suppose all the sweating this week will be a good detoxifier for me!

An Adriatic Adventure Awaits!

2015-07-13T07:19:00.001-05:00

I'm leaving Thursday to spend a week in Croatia with my friend Shannon. Can't wait to sink my toes into the pebbly beaches of the Adriatic coast!

Three Days in Shanghai

2014-06-28T17:54:00.001-05:00

Let me start by saying that I am keeping an open mind about China and would perhaps like to visit there again some day to see more of the country. We only experienced a very tiny part of China - just Shanghai and Hangzhou. That's like coming to the United States, visiting NYC and Trenton, NJ for three days, and then forming an opinion about how much you love or hate America.

With all that being said, I think this might be the first place that I've traveled on vacation that I really didn't like and just couldn't wait to leave (Shanghai, at least).

The city of Shanghai itself is fine. It's a lot like New York City - very crowded, huge metropolitan area, financial and business hub for the country, gateway for travel, etc. And there were some interesting and pretty sights to see in Shanghai.

Rainbow Pride stairway:

Dead ducks:

Oba-mao:

Meth Lab Supply Store:

What really turned us off were some of the cultural differences. The constant hacking and spitting and shoving and belching and nose picking and staring and conning and deception and general rudeness of the people was a difficult transition for us, especially since we had just spent weeks in some of the friendliest places I've ever visited.

One part that we did enjoy was a day trip to Hangzhou. We took the fast train from Shanghai to Hangzhou and spent the day walking around the famous West Lake, which was really beautiful.

Hangzhou was also the only place we met anyone who seemed genuinely interested in being friendly (exclusive of the various con artists!). We happened to walk into what they call "English Corner," which is an area near West Lake where, for the past thirty years, Chinese people gather on Sundays to practice speaking English. They were excited to see a couple of Westerners and we chatted with the folks there for probably an hour before continuing along our walk. The guys we talked to were really friendly and smart (one guy was getting waaaaaay too deep into some philosophy theories for my tastes. I couldn't keep up!). And I also learned from him that being an accountant in China means you are good at cooking the books (OMG).

Perhaps it was road weariness or homesickness, but Buddy and I were both glad to leave Shanghai and head back to the States. Maybe we will go back one day under different circumstances and really enjoy it, who knows.

As a parting gift of sorts, when we were in the Shanghai airport waiting for our flight to leave, a Chinese guy walked over and intentionally launched a snot rocket right next to me. I am very grateful for Clorox wipes and hand sanitizer!

The Killing Fields

2014-06-26T10:24:00.001-05:00

Cambodia experienced decades of wars, both from external forces and from internal conflicts. The history is quite sad, and relics of these wars still exist all over the country. There are still millions of live land mines throughout the country, causing dozens of people to be maimed or killed every year. The Cambodian population has one of the highest percentage of amputees in the world.

Most recently, the people of Cambodia were under decades of tyrannical rule by the sociopath Pol Pot and his Khmer Rouge regime. The torture, killings and genocide that they endured for years left hundreds of mass graves throughout the country, commonly called The Killing Fields.

The Cambodian people have erected memorial sites at the Killing Fields and we visited one in Siem Reap. It was so incredibly sad. I had to leave the little museum a couple of times because I couldn't stand to see the pictures and stories of the horrific acts of torture inflicted upon these people for no reason. War is really, really fucked up.

The Killing Field and torture prison in Siem Reap was actually at the site of an old Buddhist monastery. It's kinda cool that they have now built this little monument and museum at the site, but also converted the temple back to its original purpose. Today it is once again an active Buddhist monastery, and they have planted a bodhi tree right next to the piles of skulls (Buddha was believed to have been born beneath a bodhi tree).

Angkor Archaeological Park

2014-06-25T09:25:00.001-05:00

So....we spent two days exploring this place: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/668

One could easily spend days and days and days here, but with 105 degree temperatures and 90% humidity, it's kinda hard to motivate after a few hours!

It is so hard to describe in words the sheer awesomeness of this place.

Some of these temples are over 1,000 years old, and you can still read the inscriptions in the stones and see the detailed carvings. And thanks to various restoration projects, you can even climb up many of the temples and see the beautiful Cambodian vista from the "top" of their world!

Angkor Wat selfie:

We had an awesome guide, Veasna, who drove us between sites and recounted the history of the temples and of the various Khmer kings. We learned more about the ancient Hindu religious stories than I was expecting!

It was just spectacular. Like the temples in Egypt, it's hard to believe that humans created these massive structures when they did with the simple tools available at the time.

Things We've Learned in China

2014-06-24T06:53:00.001-05:00

1. Want to use Facebook or Google or Twitter or YouTube or Dropbox or have a blog? Too bad. The Great Firewall of China has all of these blocked.

2. Bodily functions should be fully and loudly expressed. People here hock phlegm, spit, audibly fart and burp, pick their noses, pick their butts, etc. and they do it often and in public.

3. I've wondered how the big cigarette companies are still in business, since it seems like fewer and fewer people in America still smoke. Well, we figured it out. They moved their market to China.

4. In China, Pizza Hut is a fancy dining experience, including maître d's and linen table cloths.

5. Chicken feet. They eat them. They are everywhere.

6. There is no toilet paper, except in the hotel. You have to pack and carry your TP here.

7. Hard staring, especially at foreigners, seems to be completely acceptable. And should the foreigner decide to stare back and see how long the staring contest will go on, the Chinese person will win.

8. If two innocent looking girls approach you on the street and ask you to take their photo and then start chatting you up, they are not just being sweet. They are actually trying to get you to go to a tea shop where you get conned into footing a huge bill. We saw this happening over and over! It's pretty remarkable.

9. Before checking your luggages, you can pay $3 to have everything shrink wrapped! (this is all over Asia, not just China)

Kun Khmer Kickboxing

2014-06-24T06:47:00.001-05:00

Tuesday and Thursday we visited the temples and I'll have a separate post just about that. But after our first day at the temples, we thought it best to have a "rest day" (it's really fricking hot here and intense sweating for 6 hours will take it out of you!) so we spent Wednesday visiting more of Siem Reap. Actually, first we slept in, then we ate a late breakfast, and THEN we wandered around Siem Reap. :-)

On Monday night we had met a few expats living here, one of whom started a Cambodian handicrafts business that pays good wages and provides education to their employees (http://cambolac.com/html/). Wednesday we found their shop to purchase a couple of souvenirs and did some more haggling in the markets.

One of the things that Buddy really wanted to do in Bangkok (had we spent time there) was to see a live Muay Thai match. Interestingly, it turns out that Cambodia has a very similar martial arts style called Kun Khmer AND they had a match on Wednesday in Siem Reap! Our tuk-tuk driver, Tola, took us to buy tickets for the fights and he was so cool that we asked him to join us. He is a really nice man, and he said yes, but we aren't sure if he actually *wanted* to go or if he just said yes to be nice. Either way, it was really cool to hang out with him for the evening and loads of fun to watch the fights! Plus, since everything was in Khmer, he was really helpful in letting us know what the hell was going on.

With this style of fighting, there is this whole ritual that the fighters go through in the ring right before the match starts. It's a mixture of prayer, thanking their trainers, and some sweet dance moves. It's pretty fascinating! Here is a video I took of it (no fighting in this, it's just the warm-up prayer thing):

http://vimeo.com/98623965

You may have noticed the music in the background...throughout the fight, similar music plays and gets faster and faster with each round. It's really hypnotic and gets the crowd going, as well as the fighters. Plus the fighters kind of dance and hop to the beat!

It was definitely a fun experience watching the Cambodian guys bet on the fights. During one of the matches, all the betting guys got really pissed because it looked like one of the fighters was throwing the fight. We learned that it's pretty common for someone to pay one of the fighters to intentionally lose. The judges ended up calling that match a draw, which seemed like a pretty good solution and probably prevented a riot.

And when there was a really good match, the winning fighter would get tips from the crowd! There was one guy in particular who really killed it and everyone was whooping and cheering and throwing money at him. The whole evening was a lot of fun!!!

Fishy Foot Massages & Siem Reap

2014-06-19T04:04:00.001-05:00

Our first full day in Siem Reap, Cambodia, we decided to take it easy and just wander around to get to know the place a bit. Siem Reap is the town closest to the Angkor Archaeological Park, so it's where all the tourists stay when they come to see the temples. The town has grown into a giant tourist trap - a staggering number of markets, restaurants, and hotels, plus all the little businesses that accompany those (such as laundry services, bicycle rentals, and tuk-tuk drivers).

We happen to be here in the low season, so most of the shops are not busy and there are a LOT of tuk-tuk drivers just hanging around. This means that everyone is both bored and wants your business. (Hellobuysomesing?!?!) It also means that the folks with good personalities really stand out! We've met a couple of really funny tuk-tuk drivers that cracked us up. We've also heard, more than once, a bored shop keeper just say "hellosomesing?" That's pretty funny, too. :-)

In SE Asia, massage places are everywhere and we've been taking advantage of the cheap services as often as possible. Before we arrived in Siem Reap we'd already had hour long foot massages, full body massages, Thai massage, shoulder massage, and hot stone massage! But something you see all over Siem Reap are these big fish tanks with signs that say "Please feed our hungry fish your dead skin." I had heard about these before and wanted to try it, and for a whopping $2 each we got to stick our feet in these tanks for as long as we could stand it. It tickles soooooooo badly!!! I couldn't even stand to put my whole foot in there for more than a second! The fish are really aggressive. Here's a short video for you:

http://vimeo.com/98551809

Cambodia is naturally beautiful with a tropical climate, lots of lush greenery. This is the walkway to our hotel room (!) and a view of the badass pool that's right outside our room.

This tree looks like it has dreadlocks.

And a few more photos from our wanderings around the town....

A temple we stumbled upon:

In the market - tasty snacks of fried tarantulas and grasshoppers. You'll be pleased to know that we did NOT try these...although we paid the little boy proprietor a dollar to let us take pictures and HE ate one for us!

"Best Singers!"

2014-06-18T10:14:00.001-05:00

I finally got two videos from the karaoke competition to upload!! The quality is bad because our internet here is really slow, but at least the audio came through loud and clear.

This girl was told by the judges that she used too much body language in her performance:

http://vimeo.com/98552390

And this girl was our absolute favorite of the night!

http://vimeo.com/98552438

It was so much fun!

Things We've Learned in Cambodia

2014-06-18T00:37:00.001-05:00

1. Cambodians do not know the street names or numbers. Like, AT ALL. There is basically NO REASON for the streets to even have any names, because nobody knows them.

2. Every time a waiter serves you something, they tell you to "please enjoy." So at one meal you may hear: Please enjoy your drinks! Please enjoy your bread! Please enjoy your noodles! Please enjoy your porridge! Please enjoy your fruit! :-)

3. Gender roles are very defined and followed pretty closely. See number 4 below.

4. Accounting is nearly 100% a female occupation in Cambodia. The only males who go into accounting here are actually gay.

5. "Hello buy something?" may be the only English that person knows. And it's pronounced: "hel low bye sum sing?"

6. Scam: women will come up to you with a baby in their arms and beg for milk for their baby. She will protest "I don't want money, only milk for my baby." But if you buy the milk, she will then promptly return it to the store and split the money with the store vendor. We read about this in advance so we didn't fall for it, but it was definitely tried on us.

7. Outside of Siem Reap and Phnom Penh (the major cities), Cambodians live in truly abject poverty. It's one of the poorest countries in the world. Living in huts made of palm leaves, only one water well (or sometimes NO water) for an entire village of 20+ families, hours commute for the kids to attend the nearest school (and so many do not go), etc.

8. Cambodians are some of the friendliest, kindest and happiest people we've ever met.

9. Families are very close knit and look after each other. Our temple guide had 26 people, all family members, living in one small house with only 2 bathrooms. He works to pay for his niece, nephew and daughter to attend school.

10. There are around 8-10 MILLION landmines still active and laying around Cambodia (left over from decades of wars). Still today, every year there are hundreds of people injured, maimed or killed by active landmines. It's quite terrifying to think about and there are some amazing relief efforts going on (we had an opportunity to visit with this group: http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/07/29/cnnheroes.cambodia.demining/ )

11. The Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot were fucking terrorist assholes.

12. The ancient temples are over 1,000 years old and you can still see some of the writing/inscriptions and intricate carved details in the stones. Really beautiful and amazing!!!

13. The USD is the main currency here. When you go to the ATM, US dollars come out!

Four Hours at the Bangkok Airport

2014-06-15T10:52:00.001-05:00

With all the political conflict happening in Thailand right now, we decided that we would not go to Thailand on this trip. We were pretty bummed about it at first, but then fell in love with Vietnam so it ended up allowing us to spend more time there. So it worked out great, but we did already have one set of plane tickets booked through Bangkok, requiring us to at least fly in and out of Thailand.

So this morning we (sadly) said goodbye to Vietnam and flew to Bangkok, then piddled around the airport for 4 hours until our flight left for Siem Reap, Cambodia.

The Bangkok airport was pretty cool, and we are excited to plan a new (future) trip just to spend time in Thailand. Here are a few pics we took in the airport. Not too shabby for an airport, eh?

After we ate some amazing Thai food, got cheap massages, and finished looking at the beautiful artwork, we took a quick flight to Cambodia and made it to our hotel in Siem Reap.

So much awesome

2014-06-14T10:38:00.001-05:00

Tonight we attended one of the highlights of my very existence. It was so phenomenal.

It was the "BMG Best Singer" semifinals. These were the Top 10 karaoke performers from the BMG International Education group. I have no idea what the BMG International Education group is, or what its significance is, but these are some college-age kids who really love karaoke.

Buddy and I were literally the only non-Vietnamese people there. We went with our friend Moon (who is so sweet!!) - she called our hotel and asked if we wanted to go to a concert tonight. We didn't know what type of concert, but we figured it would be a fun experience to try it out....and we were NOT disappointed!!!

I really, really, really wish I could get the darn videos to upload, but our internet connection is super crappy. So you will just have to wait. But I promise, it will be worth it!

Vietnamese Cooking School

2014-06-13T00:46:00.001-05:00

Yesterday we took a cooking class that was a whole lot of fun. It was a small group of 9 people and we started at the Hoi An market to buy all of the ingredients we would need for the day. I'm so glad we went with a guide, because the market is really overwhelming. Here are a few pics that don't do it justice. I didn't take any pics of the meat section because I just had to look at the ceiling or floor the whole time. But Buddy snapped a couple, included below.

This vendor sells various types of rice noodles :

Here are some fruits & veggies & eggs. There are tiny quail eggs, medium sized chicken eggs, and big duck eggs:

Here is a shot of one of the covered areas - there are fish vendors in the foreground, veggie vendors in the back:

And the disgusting meat photos from Buddy:

While in the meat section, this old woman with crazy eyes and a BLOODY mouth was walking around and looking at us. This is not her, because I kind of panicked when I saw her and just hauled ass out of there as quickly as possible without taking a photo.

Buddy thought she was chewing on raw meat or something. But we've since found out that it's actually a type of plant that some of the old Vietnamese ladies chew that gets them high...with a side effect of looking like a complete psychopath. (It's called Betel plant: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betel ).

After purchasing our ingredients, we went on a 45 minute boat ride to a small island next to Hoi An called Thuan Tinh Island:

We then transferred from our motor boat into a couple of canoes to row into the village. I took most of the pics with the good camera, so I can't post them yet. But one of our boat mates took this for us:

I really want one of those pointy hats, but can't figure out how I would pack it home. And Buddy won't let me wear it on the plane.

After we got to the village, they showed us how the rice husks are separated from the rice itself and let us try it out:

Then they showed us how to make rice milk, which was really cool!

Next we walked to the cooking school, which was an outdoor area with a set of tables under a giant bamboo canopy:

The chef was hilarious, even without knowing English. Gestures can really get you a long way here. She taught us how to make Vietnamese spring rolls with peanut sauce, Banh Xeo (!!) which is the yummy crispy rice pancake that we love, a vermicelli salad, and finally Pho! All of it was delicious and we got the recipes and two sets of cooking chopsticks to take home :-)

It was a really cool day!