By Way of Asia

Evanston, Illinois: Given that this blog is about our trip from...

ashleyrome — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 19:06:00 -0400

Evanston, Illinois: Given that this blog is about our trip from Chicago to Evanston (by way of Asia), and given that we started the blog in Chicago, it seemed only fitting that we ended our blog in - you guessed it - Evanston. So here we are, home in Evanston, only 8 miles from where we started in May. We will be spending the next few weeks moving into our new apartment, before going to Egypt for a one-week business school orientation trip at the end of August, followed by the official start of classes on the 31st. We’ll save the majority of the pictures for when we’ve finished setting everything up, so we’ve included just one for now. Of all the places we’ve been over the past few months, this is our favorite.

Thank you so much for following along in our adventures, and our occasional misadventures. We feel so lucky to be able to have had such a wonderful journey, and to be able to share it with you all along the way.

Officially signing off (for now),

A&Z

Los Angeles, California: Three flights and approximately 8,500...

ashleyrome — Fri, 30 Jul 2010 16:35:00 -0400

Los Angeles, California: Three flights and approximately 8,500 miles later, we are officially back in the states! Our first stop: LA, to spend a few days with the lovely Natasha Kalimada. And what was our very first request upon landing at LAX? In ‘N Out Burger of course. Southeast Asia may make a mean curry, but they just can’t compete when it comes to a good old American cheeseburger.

(Photo courtesy of Tash’s iphone - thanks Tash!)

Bali, Indonesia: We’ve made good on our plan to do just...

ashleyrome — Wed, 28 Jul 2010 09:16:37 -0400

Temple thingy by the beach

Z relaxing by the pool

Our sweet suite

All dressed up

One last pretty shot

Bali, Indonesia: We’ve made good on our plan to do just about nothing here in Bali and have decided we’ll have to come back another time to actually see the sights. Soon we begin our journey back to the states - first stop LA. Here are a few last shots of Bali for the road…

Bali, Indonesia: After a quick flight from Singapore, we arrived...

ashleyrome — Sun, 25 Jul 2010 08:23:00 -0400

Paradise in Bali

Villas by the beach

The squirrels here are not shy

Lounging by the pool

The beach at Nusa Dua

Another pretty shot

Massage, anyone?

View from our floor

Lunch on the beach

The girls cleans up well

Bali, Indonesia: After a quick flight from Singapore, we arrived in Nusa Dua, Bali - where we plan to spend our last week lounging by the beach, lounging by the pool, perhaps lounging in our room…basically doing a whole lot of nothing. The lets-do-lots-of-cool-things-and-see-everything-we-can-while-we-are-here side of us that’s been so well-trained over the past 10 weeks is a bit confused, but we have a feeling it will adjust just fine. And since Ash is platinum, we got upgraded to an executive suite which, it turns out, may actually be bigger than our apartment next year. The resort is beautiful and we get to spend a few of our days here with our dear friends Allie and Teddy, who have flown in from Tokyo to meet us. Who says you can’t use a vacation from your vacation?

Singapore, (uh), Singapore: We spent our last night in Bangkok...

ashleyrome — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 06:16:00 -0400

Home sweet home

Wowee

THE SHOWER HAS WALLS!

Our backpacks relax on the chez lounge

Tea for two is served

Some sightseeing - The Singapore Flyer

Some sightseeing - boat on a skyscraper

Singapore, (uh), Singapore: We spent our last night in Bangkok paying way too much for drinks at Moon Bar - but boy was it worth it. Moon Bar is one of Bangkok’s two signature rooftop bars. Apparently Bangkok is one of the only cities that doesn’t mind putting open air, 360-degree-view rooftop bars on the 60th and 70th floor on some of its tallest skyscrapers. Probably not the safest thing in the world, but the views were pretty incredible and it was a wonderful way to say goodbye to Thailand.

The next day we arrived in Singapore to start the beginning of the final portion of our trip - we’ve officially said goodbye to backpacker digs and hello to cashing-in-our-starwood-points. First stop was the St. Regis in Singapore, where our room came with a private butler. While we did take in a few of the sights around Singapore, we spent the majority of our two days walking incredulously around our room and marveling at our shower - which was actually separate from the toilet and rest of the bathroom - and our flat screen TV…two things we haven’t seen in nearly three months.

We’re pretty sure our travel book “Southeast Asia on a Shoestring” has never made it’s way into a St. Regis before. And we’re pretty sure that the concierge has never been asked where their guests could find the public bus. Oh well. Guess there’s a first time for everything.

Bangkok, Thailand: Our next stop on the temple circuit was Wat...

ashleyrome — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 07:00:00 -0400

Hey there sugar, how you doin'?

Come to big poppa

You know what they say about big feet

Coming in 2011: Godzilla vs. Buddha

Ravana (the bad guy) guards the temple

An army of bird things

A bird thing, immortalized in topiary

Outer walls of a temple

Many buddhas

We like to play with depth of field

Bangkok, Thailand: Our next stop on the temple circuit was Wat Pho, which houses the famous Reclining Buddha. The Buddha is known for its size - coming in at a whopping 150 feet long and 50 feet high. Now that’s a big Buddha.

Bangkok, Thailand: Our second day in Bangkok happened to be a...

ashleyrome — Tue, 20 Jul 2010 07:38:03 -0400

The Grand Palace

Another nice building

Dr. Seuss trees outside the Palace

The boys take a break

Lions guarding the gate

Who needs to go to Angkor Wat?

This building looked important

Some temples nearby

Bangkok, Thailand: Our second day in Bangkok happened to be a Saturday, which was very lucky (for Ash at least) because Saturday is the best day for the Chatuchak Weekend Market, one of the largest outdoor markets in the world and the largest in Asia. The market spreads out over more than 35 acres and contains an estimated 5,000 stalls. With that many stalls, you can buy almost anything (and we mean almost anything) - clothes, accessories, food, handicrafts, motorcycle parts, fine art, even baby bunnies and squirrels. A portion of the market is even dedicated to young Thai designers and artists, who decorate their small booths so they look more like miniature trendy boutiques than your typical market stall. Given that there was no way we could cover the entire market in a full day even with our early start, we resigned ourself to throwing aside the map and just wandering through the small alleyways wherever our feet happened to take us until - suffering from total shopping exhaustion - we gave up in the late afternoon. Unfortunately we have no good pictures to share, as we decided that any we took simply did not do justice to the enormity that is Chatuchak. But Ash has plenty of new shoes and dresses as proof.

On Sunday, we took in the sights as tourists should. First was the Grand Palace (which is sort of a confusing name because it houses not only the actual Grand Palace, but lots of other things too).

Bangkok, Thailand: Hello from Bangkok! After nearly a week of...

ashleyrome — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 08:10:36 -0400

Choice anxiety

Sunny does a demo

The boys make their decisions

Z gets measured...

...and measured some more

Bangkok, Thailand: Hello from Bangkok! After nearly a week of relaxing in Chiang Mai, we decided it was time to move on and made our way on an overnight train down to Bangkok to meet up with our friend John for a few days of fun. And what do three soon-to-be-business students do shortly after they arrive in a city known for dirt cheap tailors, you may ask? They go buy a custom-made suit, of course! Well, Zach and John did at least (the tailors here aren’t supposed to be as skilled at making women’s clothes so Ash mostly watched and supervised).

Based on glowing recommendations from some wonderful friends we met along the way in Vietnam (hi James and Judith!), Zach and John decided on a place called Empire Tailors. Sunny, the owner, now runs the shop after his father unfortunately passed away two years ago and has recently moved it into a beautiful new building in the heart of “tailor row.”

After a short introductory meeting with Sunny, Zach and John picked their fabric and lining, as well as decided on an overall fit, lapel, cuffs, and all the other bells and whistles. Two hours (or two beers at a pub around the corner) later, it was time for the first fitting, where Sunny made some minor adjustments to the rough body of the jacket and took a boatload of measurements. The following afternoon, the boys went back to see a first draft of their suits. Another round of tweaks, and their suits were ready for pick-up at 8pm that evening!

Since the suits won’t really look their best with a t-shirt and flip-flops, we’ll have to save the final pictures for when we get home…

Chiang Mai, Thailand: The Chiang Mai zoo is way better than the...

ashleyrome — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 23:45:00 -0400

Ostriches are silly animals

Close up on a giraffe

This monkey looked oddly human

Hello panda!

Time for lunch

LAY OFF ME I'M STARVING

Just hanging out (get it?)

I just caught a fish THIS big

Monkeying around

unBEARably cute

Chiang Mai, Thailand: The Chiang Mai zoo is way better than the zoos at home - they let you get so close to the animals that we almost had a giraffe lick our faces. And they have lots of funny gibbons with ridiculously long arms. And a baby panda too!

Chiang Mai, Thailand: Tired of sitting around and eating, we...

ashleyrome — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 01:13:44 -0400

Our instructor sets things up

Ash gets ready to abseil

Down she goes

Chiang Mai, Thailand: Tired of sitting around and eating, we decided to spend one of our next days rock climbing at Crazy Horse Buttress outside of Chiang Mai. We got to try our hand at some pretty nifty climbs. Oh, and we also got to abseil 60 meters into a humungous cave. It was pretty fun.

Chiang Mai, Thailand: Although the plan was to spend a few days...

ashleyrome — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 08:00:00 -0400

Fresh veggies at the market

Rice anyone?

Ash picks out her supplies

Pad Thai (of course)

Spring Rolls

Papaya Salad

Tom Ka Gai

Green Curry (post-eating...whoops)

Penang Curry

Mango with coconut sticky rice

Chiang Mai, Thailand: Although the plan was to spend a few days in Chiang Rai trekking to hilltribe villages in the surroundings mountains, upon arriving in Chiang Rai we found out that we were, in fact, trekked-out. So, we spent the remainder of our day in Chiang Rai relaxing and got up early the next day to catch the bus to Chiang Mai.

We celebrated our first night back in a semi-westernized city with a good old fashioned date night: burgers, ice cream, and a movie. It was one of the best nights we’ve had in a while.

The next day, we enrolled in a day-long cooking class with Baan Thai Cookery School to test out our Thai culinary skills. The class involved a trip to a local market to learn about (and shop for) ingredients and then a 6-dish course where we got to make each dish and then - of course - eat it. Needless to say, we skipped dinner that night.

Chiang Rai, Thailand: When we asked the owner of our guesthouse...

zsupalla — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 13:21:00 -0400

The White Temple from afar

Z posing with the artist

Some white creatures enjoying the pond

The entrance to the White Temple

See? Creepy.

Not your standard Buddhism

Check out the mirrored detailing

More mirrored detailing

Nice fountain

Goodbye White Temple!

Chiang Rai, Thailand: When we asked the owner of our guesthouse what we should do in Chiang Rai, she said “see the White Temple, of course.” This struck us as odd, because we hadn’t heard of the White Temple - turns out that’s because it’s brand new.

Brand new isn’t something you think of when you’re thinking of temples in Thailand, but this one is a contemporary work of art that is still under construction by the eccentric Chalermchai Kositpipat. The temple was beautiful, and looked almost like it was covered in snow, but it was also very odd; many of the images were not beautiful and serene, as they are in most Buddhist temples, but scary and horrible, representing the world that must be escaped to achieve Nirvana. Inside the temple there was an unbelievable mural that showed the evils of the world, represented by a giant demon with the Twin Towers in his mouth, Osama Bin Laden in one eye, and George W. Bush in the other. Unfortunately we couldn’t take pictures inside the temple, but check out the shots we got of the outside - beautiful and bizarre.

Almost English: Seen in the night bazaar in Chiang Rai, Thailand...

ashleyrome — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 18:00:00 -0400

Almost English: Seen in the night bazaar in Chiang Rai, Thailand - we were as confused as you.

A Thai-iring journey

ashleyrome — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 08:44:00 -0400

Chiang Rai, Thailand: Hello once again from Thailand (except this time much further north)! We are quite happy to be back after a grueling two and a half day trip from Luang Prabang. For those interested in a rough breakdown, here is how it went:

Put on large backpacks and smaller backpacks; shlep other large bags with gifts we’ve acquired over the past two months to the boat
Pick-up breakfast, lunch, and snacks to-go at a local coffee shop
Take “8-hour” (more like 11 hour) slow boat from Luang Prabang to Pakbeng; get to the boat an hour early to ensure we get “soft seats” (e.g., minivan seats fastened to the floor of the boat) and not “hard seats” (e.g., wooden benches)
Help console Ash when she opens up her chicken and cheese sandwich for lunch and finds only chicken
Put on large backpacks and smaller backpacks; shlep other large bags with gifts we’ve acquired over the past two months off the boat
Stay overnight in Pakbeng, a small town on the Mekong River that exists purely for the slowboat stops and whose electricity turns off at 10:30pm
Put on large backpacks and smaller backpacks; shlep other large bags with gifts we’ve acquired over the past two months to the boat
Take “8-hour” (more like 12 hours) slow boat from Pakbeng to Huay Xi, the border town in Laos where we can cross over to Thailand
Realize we’ve gotten there too late and immigration is closed for the night
Put on large backpacks and smaller backpacks; shlep other large bags with gifts we’ve acquired over the past two months off the boat
Stay overnight in Hauy Xi, a town we had never even heard of until that day; find an adorable guesthouse named Arimid’s run by the sweetest man ever (Mr. Arimid)
Wake up early so we don’t have to wait in line at immigration
Put on large backpacks and smaller backpacks; shlep other large bags with gifts we’ve acquired over the past two months to immigration
Go through immigration on the Laos side
Walk to the passenger ferry that takes people across the Mekong to the Thai side (Chiang Kong)
Make sure we still have our bags
Go through immigration on the Thai side
Walk to the tuk-tuk stand and take tuk-tuk from immigration to the Chiang Kong bus station
Breath a sigh of relief when we give our bags to the bus driver to put under the bus
Take 3 hour bus from Chiang Kong to Chiang Rai
Have Zach put on large backpacks and smaller backpacks and shlep other large bags with gifts we’ve acquired over the past two months off the bus because Ash really has to go to the bathroom and can’t hold it anymore
Take tuk-tuk from Chiang Rai bus station to guesthouse in Chiang Rai
Arrive at our guesthouse in Chiang Rai
Take best nap ever
Wake up from nap and, while getting changed to go to dinner, realize we still have the key to our room at Mr. Arimid’s in Zach’s pocket. Oops

More pictures and other goodies later…

Luang Prabang, Laos: During our last day in Luang Prabang, we...

ashleyrome — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 22:00:00 -0400

Silk worms....yuck

All those colors from roots and barks

Our silk being spun to get ready to dye

Ash cuts up the tumeric for yellow dye

Our orange dye cooking in the pot

Our dyed silk dries in the sun

Z weaving his placemat

Ash weaving her placemat

We're almost there....

Ta-da! Not bad for our first time

Luang Prabang, Laos: During our last day in Luang Prabang, we decided it was time to do something a bit more sedentary. So, inspired by the kitchy textile galleries all around town, we signed ourselves up for a day-long natural dying and weaving class with Ockpoptok - a group dedicated to supporting and promoting Lao textiles.

We arrived at Ockpoptok’s weaving center and spent the first part of the morning learning about how silk is made, from worm to scarf. We were then taught how each color is dyed using only natural ingredients found around their center (did you know tumeric dyes silk bright yellow and wild almond bark dies silk green?). After the lessons, we got to dye our own silk. We chose yellow, orange, and red.

After lunch we learned how to use a loom - who knew how cool these things were? - and spent the remainder of the day trying our hand at weaving placemats (with the aid of a master weaver). All in all, we were quite proud with our handiwork and are looking forward to using our handmade silk placemats when we get home.

Oh, and our guide made us try silk worm poo tea (a Lao delicacy)…it was actually kind of good.

Vang Vieng, Laos: Vang Vieng is an odd town, which exists...

ashleyrome — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 06:09:50 -0400

"Tubing" on the Vang Vieng

View from the riverbank

Tarzan...

...and Jane

Funny cat asleep at our guesthouse

Vang Vieng, Laos: Vang Vieng is an odd town, which exists entirely for tourists: there is nothing to do here except go tubing. And tubing is a term to be used loosely, because what we’re really talking about is bar-hopping by way of a tube. Because you can only bar-hop in one direction, the bars are named clever things like “First bar,” “Bar II,” “Bar III,” and “Last bar.” Also, there are big swings which allow you to gracefully descend into the water from a height*. It was fun.

*This sentence censored for our parents/grandparents

Luang Prabang, Laos: Okay last pictures of the elephants, we...

ashleyrome — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 12:07:57 -0400

How not to get back on an elephant

Luang Prabang, Laos: Okay last pictures of the elephants, we promise. This one is entitled, “how to give an elephant a bath.”

Ride elephant into the water
Say elephant command for “dunk”
Hold on for dear life as elephant dunks
When elephant returns to the surface, scrub scrub scrub
Don’t drop elephant scrubber in the water, because it’s never coming back (right, Ash?)

Luang Prabang, Laos: Some more up-close-and-personal fun with...

ashleyrome — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 11:38:27 -0400

Those are some serious wrinkles

Z feeds the elephant a banana treat

Open wide!

"Any more bananas?"

"How about here?"

"Or maybe here?"

Saddled up and ready to go

The view from the top of an elephant

Her trunk doubles as a snorkel in water

Luang Prabang, Laos: Some more up-close-and-personal fun with the elephants…

Luang Prabang, Laos: After exploring the city a bit, we decided...

ashleyrome — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 03:23:00 -0400

Elephants trekking across the river

Z gets himself up on the neck

Z goes for his virgin ride

Ash's elephant stops for a snack

Ash's elephant helps her hop up

Time for a bath!

Z's elephant goes for a dunk

Ash's elephant is under there somewhere

Meka's elephant gets silly

Luang Prabang, Laos: After exploring the city a bit, we decided to sign up for a two-day “mahout training experience” - mahout’s are the guys who train and take care of the elephants that have been rescued from unfair work conditions or dangerous hunting environments. Unfortunately there are only about 1,000 elephants left in all of Southeast Asia, so making sure they are well taken care of is very important. We decided to go with a group called Elephant Village and signed ourselves up for two days in the jungle with the elephants where we would get to go for a few rides, learn some commands, and - the best part - give the elephants baths in the river.

Once we got to Elephant Village, about 30 minutes outside of Luang Prabang, our day started off with an hour long ride in a chair on the elephants’ back to get our “sea legs” so to speak. We then got to spend some quality one-on-one time with the little buggers, feeding them bananas (forget about peeling - they put an entire bunch in their mouths at once) and giving them some rubs on their trunk (what animal doesn’t like a good rub?). Next we learned some mahout commands (e.g., stop, go, turn left, turn right…luckily “run” wasn’t in the vocabulary) and took a turn riding “bareback” on the elephants’ neck practicing our newly-learned commands under the watchful eye of the mahout. Now mahout veterans, we then rode our elephants across the river and into the jungle, where they spend the night eating…and eating…and eating…

In the morning, we woke up early and trekked back into the jungle to wake up our sleepy friends. We hopped back on their necks and rode them back to the river where it was…you guessed it…bath time. The elephants seemed very excited as we headed to the water, picking up speed as we went and trying to pass each other. Once we got to the water, they paused to take a few big gulps (you’d be thirsty too if you ate pineapple leaves all night without access to a refreshing beverage), and then in they went - surprisingly gracefully considering they can weigh more than 12,000 pounds. They walked in until they were mostly submerged and then just hung around, letting us scrub their bodies and faces with the biggest scrub-brush you’ve ever seen. When they felt like it (or when the mahout told them), they would all of a sudden dunk themselves completely underwater, leaving us lowly humans flailing around, trying to keep both our balance on their necks and our heads above water. Occasionally, when they were feeling a little playful, they would splash their trunks hard up and down over the water, splashing everything around them. Sound fun? You bet it was. When they were all clean, we rode them back up to the camp and said a (quite sad!) goodbye.

Needless to say, we had a ridiculously good time and it was Ash’s favorite part of the trip so far.

Luang Prabang, Laos: Greetings from Luang Prabang! Luang...

ashleyrome — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 01:19:06 -0400

Luang Prabang, Laos: Greetings from Luang Prabang! Luang Prabang, the old capital of Laos, is an absolutely charming little town filled with sidewalk cafes, old cars, and beautiful colonial buildings. It’s our favorite city/town so far, and we’ve enjoyed it so much we’ve decided to stay longer than planned. One of the first things you might notice when coming to Luang Prabang is all the monks - we’ve heard there are in fact over 1,000 monks in the town and you can’t go outside without spotting them in their bright orange garb - sweeping the temple stairs, sitting under a tree, or even bartering in the night market. At dawn every morning, the monks rise and walk the town barefoot in single file talking “alms,” small donations of rice, money, or other gifts from the kneeling townspeople. According to anyone who has witnessed it, it is a must-see site. So, despite the obnoxiously early hour (e.g., 5:30am), we got our butts out of bed to see the procession for ourselves. Although we did see many monks pass by - and it was definitely beautiful to watch - we think we may have missed something because we only saw about 50 monks, not the 1,000 or so that we’ve been told participate. Oh well - perhaps we’ll try again tomorrow.