the weather gods smiled

Sometime in September, I had a brainstorm, and told D I thought it would be fun to rent a cabin in Tahoe for my birthday this year.

The tricky thing is that my birthday is in late December, and most people are out of town or with their families by then, so that pushed the date up to at least mid-December. I've lived in the Bay Area nearly my entire life, and I'm well aware that early December is very, very risky as far as snow conditions go. D convinced me that it would be fun even if the weather was sucky, just to hang out in a nice house with our friends for a weekend, so we crossed our fingers and put down a rental deposit on a five-bedroom, 4000 sq/ft house near Northstar at the beginning of October.

As luck would have it, the snow started to fall early this year, and by Thanksgiving the lifts were starting to open. The weekend before the trip, Tahoe was hit by a giant storm which deposited over two feet of snow in the North Tahoe area. I was super psyched.

The final count for the trip was thirteen adults, one toddler, and two infants. Eight of us drove up on Thursday night, of which half of us skied on Friday. The conditions were absolutely gorgeous by December standards: packed powder, good coverage, clear blue skies, and mid-40s temperatures. Since there were no lines, we managed to cram in 18 runs that day (mostly Backside and Lookout), which is a new record for me.

The remaining five people arrived on Friday night and Saturday morning, along with what seemed like half of the Bay Area. Despite that, we managed to get another good day on the mountain, before retiring to our cabin for home-cooked chili and late night board games. It was also great to catch up with everyone after having been gone so long on our around-the-world trip.

The next day, yummy burgers at Ikeda's and almost no traffic on the way back capped off an awesome weekend. Thanks, weather gods!

good clean fun

We had Christmas dinner at my uncle's house this year. After dinner an eight-person game of beer pong commenced...

my uncle: What's happening here?
my cousin (his daughter): Beer pong, Dad, wanna play?
my uncle: No thanks, not this time. Maybe your mom wants to play.

time to go home?

We have the next two days off, so there aren't that many people at work today...I'd say less than 50% of the usual suspects. Maybe that's why I've been unable to get the lights in the women's bathroom to work all day. Luckily the water still works.

simple pleasures

I get such a kick out of watching/reading sports news on days after the 49ers kick ass. I find myself constantly scouring blogs and other sites to see if any more scraps of analysis are to be found. Yes, that's very sad. No, I don't care.

Texas sized meals

It's been nearly a month since our weeklong trip to Texas, but I wanted to mention some of the restaurants we visited there.

We watched the 49ers lose to the Packers at Pluckers, an Austin-area chain that pretty much just serves wings. I particularly enjoyed the Jamaican jerk and Spicy BBQ flavors. Their onion rings were yummy, too.

The next day we ate lunch at Hoover's, where they served us cheap and generous portions of chicken-fried chicken (good!) and steak (so-so).

Then, we had dinner at El Chile Cafe, where they served their chips with a delicious mole sauce. The margaritas were also excellent.

As if that wasn't enough, on our last day in Austin, we went to Salt Lick, a BBQ place with nice juicy beef ribs.

Sadly, we did not have enough time to check out the Alamo Drafthouse. Apparently it's a combination movie theatre and restaurant which is quite popular. I've seen the concept in Taipei with fast food (beef noodle soup, etc.) but never in the US before. Next time!

Our experience in San Antonio was a bit different; we had dinner at Il Sogno Osteria, which is a high-end Italian place. By Bay Area standards it was still quite inexpensive, and they had a fun antipasti sampler option which we enjoyed very much. The white bean & garlic mousse, roasted red peppers w/ anchovy sauce, and potato & octopus salad were especially memorable.

learn to read, people

I have a pet peeve about people in our gym locker room. It's very simple. What part of "please do not dress in the shower area" is so hard to understand?

I was especially annoyed today when five people were waiting in line and someone (who had spent a good fifteen minutes inside) walked out of her shower stall dressed in at least three layers of clothing, including an overcoat, nice sweater, and knee high boots. Argh!!

amazing gingerbread houses

I like gingerbread houses. I think anything involving lots of candy appeals to me. (Like Halloween.)

Over Thanksgiving, when I was in San Antonio, we went to a place called Guenther House for breakfast. In addition to delicious cherry strudel and southern sweet cream pancakes, they had a giant gingerbread house on display. The sign said it contained 90 lbs of candy and had taken 150 hours of labor to construct:


The gingerbread house was built as a replica of the Guenther House itself. It even had a tiny gingerbread house inside:


Awesome.

Yesterday I saw some people working on a giant gingerbread house in one of our main lobbies at work. I'm kind of doubting they can beat 90 lbs of candy, but I'm looking forward to seeing the result anyway.

properly equipped

Some coworkers were rearranging our office this morning at work, and decided to take down some shelving strips. They tried doing it with a Swiss Army knife, but the screws were in pretty tight, so I volunteered to get a multi-bit screwdriver from my car. The response: "Why do you have a screwdriver in your car?"

Is it not normal for people to keep tools in their cars? I do have a habit of keeping way too many things in my car, but I would think a screwdriver would be useful for many situations.

Anyway, we got the shelves taken down, and we're now ready for our new lounge furniture (ETA early next week).

saying things that need saying

I don't usually like speeches by politicians (or maybe I've just gotten into that habit over the past ten years), but I thought Obama's Nobel Prize acceptance speech was really good. My favorite parts...

In defense of America and American foreign policy:
But the world must remember that it was not simply international institutions -- not just treaties and declarations -- that brought stability to a post-World War II world. Whatever mistakes we have made, the plain fact is this: The United States of America has helped underwrite global security for more than six decades with the blood of our citizens and the strength of our arms. The service and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform has promoted peace and prosperity from Germany to Korea, and enabled democracy to take hold in places like the Balkans. We have borne this burden not because we seek to impose our will. We have done so out of enlightened self-interest -- because we seek a better future for our children and grandchildren, and we believe that their lives will be better if others' children and grandchildren can live in freedom and prosperity.

Regarding Iran and North Korea:
But it is also incumbent upon all of us to insist that nations like Iran and North Korea do not game the system. Those who claim to respect international law cannot avert their eyes when those laws are flouted. Those who care for their own security cannot ignore the danger of an arms race in the Middle East or East Asia. Those who seek peace cannot stand idly by as nations arm themselves for nuclear war.

I think he's chastising the Chinese government in the first paragraph of this section, and voicing support for the demonstrators in Iran in the third one. At least, I hope so:
And yet too often, these words are ignored. For some countries, the failure to uphold human rights is excused by the false suggestion that these are somehow Western principles, foreign to local cultures or stages of a nation's development. And within America, there has long been a tension between those who describe themselves as realists or idealists -- a tension that suggests a stark choice between the narrow pursuit of interests or an endless campaign to impose our values around the world.

I reject these choices. I believe that peace is unstable where citizens are denied the right to speak freely or worship as they please; choose their own leaders or assemble without fear. Pent-up grievances fester, and the suppression of tribal and religious identity can lead to violence. We also know that the opposite is true. Only when Europe became free did it finally find peace. America has never fought a war against a democracy, and our closest friends are governments that protect the rights of their citizens. No matter how callously defined, neither America's interests -- nor the world's -- are served by the denial of human aspirations.

So even as we respect the unique culture and traditions of different countries, America will always be a voice for those aspirations that are universal. We will bear witness to the quiet dignity of reformers like Aung Sang Suu Kyi; to the bravery of Zimbabweans who cast their ballots in the face of beatings; to the hundreds of thousands who have marched silently through the streets of Iran. It is telling that the leaders of these governments fear the aspirations of their own people more than the power of any other nation. And it is the responsibility of all free people and free nations to make clear that these movements -- these movements of hope and history -- they have us on their side.

To Americans who don't understand why we spend money on foreign aid:
And that's why helping farmers feed their own people -- or nations educate their children and care for the sick -- is not mere charity. It's also why the world must come together to confront climate change. There is little scientific dispute that if we do nothing, we will face more drought, more famine, more mass displacement -- all of which will fuel more conflict for decades. For this reason, it is not merely scientists and environmental activists who call for swift and forceful action -- it's military leaders in my own country and others who understand our common security hangs in the balance.

institutional stupidity

As I mentioned before, last year I received a RSA SecurID crypto keychain intended for someone else with my same name, at my office address.

A few weeks ago, I received another one, so I finally called Wells Fargo today. After talking to one customer service rep on the consumer side, his supervisor, another customer service rep on the business side, and her supervisor, they told me to return the package as undeliverable so that the account would get flagged in their system. I told them that the package was delivered through UPS and not USPS, and they said I should call UPS.

I called UPS, and after talking to another rep and supervisor, I was told to call Wells Fargo to get a new package label to return the item. The rep told me (somewhat accusingly, I might add) that because I had opened the package, it could not be returned without a new label. I asked her how I was supposed to know the package wasn't intended for me without opening it to read the letter inside, but she didn't have a good answer for that.

I gave up at that point. I mean, even if I were to succeed in returning the keychain, I'd get nothing from the whole exercise; I was just trying to help Wells Fargo and my mysterious namesake. I'm pretty sure Wells Fargo isn't going to know how to bill the return shipping cost, I'm not paying for it, and it all just seems like too much hassle for what was supposed to be a small good deed on my part. Sigh.

maybe computers are already smarter than us

Credit card fraud detection is amazing.

I spent months booking hotels, plane tickets, train tickets, and random events online. Then I travelled around the world, using the card left and right, and I never got declined. (Granted, I told them the countries and the rough timeframe.)

Yesterday, someone tried to spend $1031 and $435 with my card number online, and the bank promptly flagged my account and disabled my card.

I don't know how they tell the difference.

high tech dentistry

I went to the dentist today for a routine cleaning. My dentist had moved to a newer and larger office.

The first thing I noticed was that the patient chairs were much nicer. Doctor Jane explained they were also massage chairs, and asked me if I wanted to try, but I was in a hurry and passed.

During the cleaning (which is mostly done with some fancy high pressure water device instead of with manual scraping, which is one of the reasons I like my dentist), she noticed my lips were chapped and pulled out a tube of Vaseline (yay!).

After the cleaning, she did my dental x-rays with a new fancy digital x-ray machine. Instead of having to bite those little cards which have sharp edges and hurt your mouth, I bit on a round-ish digital sensor thing. Afterwards, the x-rays came up instantly on the computer, where Doctor Jane was able to zoom in and show me where my old fillings were going bad (boo!).

Later on, when I was setting up my followup appointment, the receptionist gave me a nifty printout detailing the services that I would be receiving, as well as the cost breakdown (the insured portion vs. the part that I would be expected to pay). Very cool.

I watch TV and I'm proud of it

A friend posted on Facebook about her cable box breaking, and lots of people rushed in to tell her how she should stop watching TV and spend more time with her family and read more books and walk on beaches, etc. etc. Bleah!

I read books. I spend time with family and friends. I play sports and games and go hiking and have plenty of social interaction. I also like watching TV. After I got back from my very long trip, I realized my DVR had filled up and stopped recording a few weeks before, and I was sad.

I guess my point is that in my mind, there are lots of things to enjoy in life, and one of them is TV, and I get annoyed when people are all self-righteous about TV being evil.

parents are crazy

Apparently New Yorkers are sending their three-year-olds to test prep classes. I distinctly remember my parents being cranky when I refused to go to SAT prep classes, but I'm not sure I would have been stubborn enough to protest had they tried to send me to some kind of class at the age of three...

what's old is new

We got back from our RTW trip a couple of days ago, and I kind of expected it to be a downer to go back to the old routine. Interestingly, it's been kind of fun; there were quite a few things that we couldn't or didn't do while we were travelling, and it's nice to do them again.

For instance:
- At work there are many buildings, and some of them are quite far apart, so there are bicycles for general use. I got on one yesterday to ride to another building, felt a little weird, and realized I hadn't ridden a bike in nearly three months, when normally I do several times a week.
- I drove to work the second day (D drove the first day) and had a slight scare when my car took longer to start than usual. I guess I'm luckily it started at all, after so long. I'd also forgotten that I actually quite like driving.
- Although we did go to some grocery stores in other countries, we were only able to buy snacks and other ready-to-eat items like bread, yogurt, and instant foods. I look forward to my first trips back to Trader Joe's, Nijiya, and Marina!
- We also didn't get to cook while on vacation, and I realized this morning while rummaging through my freezer and fridge to put together breakfast that I actually missed the whole process of planning, cooking, and eating freshly home-cooked food.
- Yes, I'm a geek. I enjoy having fast internet access 24/7. Enough said.

Tantris

On the last night of our trip, we had dinner at Tantris, a Michelin two-star restaurant in Munich.

The interior was very modern and boldly colored, with interesting lighting:

The table was set with very cute silverware. The knives were super thin but still effective, and the forks and spoons were asymmetrical (the forks had varying tine lengths, and the spoons were tilted slightly to the left, which was awesome for us right-handers but I imagine would have been annoying for a left-handed eater):

There was a 5-course option and an 8-course option, and at first we were leaning towards the 5-course, but in the end we went with the 8-course because it looked much more interesting.

We started with the cocktail of the day; a slightly alcoholic fresh quince drink with Italian soda. It was light and yummy. Soon after placing our order we were served a basket of three breads; one tasted like country French, one was plain white, and the last was one of those very heavy nutty German breads. I liked the country French best, and had to stop myself from eating several pieces of it.

The amuse bouche was a baked pikeperch with cucumber, dill, and cream sauce. They said it was baked but I swear it tasted fried (yes, I actually tried cooked fish), the crust was so good:

We had two options for the first course:
- Terrine of duck liver with figs, celeriac and confit duck breast
- Roasted lobster with marinated pumpkin and apple

I chose the lobster and D chose the duck liver:


With the exception of dessert, this was my favorite course of the evening. The combination of ingredients and sauces was amazing...as D said, there was a "lot going on" but unlike some busier dishes at other restaurants, the flavors actually went together. The lobster was tender and juicy, the thinly sliced pumpkin and radish had great texture, and there were at least four sauces on the plate. The dominant one was a tangy, lemony sauce that acted like a dressing for the vegetables. Then there was a green herb-y sauce that tasted like it might be basil, a white creamy sauce, and a couple dabs of a sauce heavily spiked with fish eggs. Finally, there was a little mound of apple compote. Yum!

Although the main component was different, the duck liver was actually prepared similarly to the lobster, very artistically with lots of sauces and garnishes. It was served with crostini, and D said he liked it very much.

Next came scallops with roasted Jerusalem artichokes, mushroom puree, and curry cream. The scallop itself was good, and the mushroom puree was amazing; I haven't seen mushroom prepared that way before anywhere. However, the curry cream was a bit salty, and I found myself wanting to eat more bread to offset that:


At this point we were supposed to be served red mullet with spinach, cabbage ravioli and port wine verjus. I had asked for a substition earlier, since mullet is fish. To my surprise, I was offered a medallion of veal with artichokes and radicchio risotto. Score!

The veal was quite yummy and I didn't mind the artichokes. The risotto was okay; the texture was not the best I've had, and it was again salty. In fact I think my most consistent complaint at Tantris was that the food tended to be saltier than I like.

D had the mullet, he said it was also a bit salty, and although the skin of the cabbage ravioli was good, the filling was only so-so:

After that, we were served a simple oxtail broth with strips of cut up "pancake" and what tasted like mirepoix (onions, celery, carrots):

The soup was rich and flavorful, if also a bit salty, and the strips were fun to eat.

For our last main course, we had saddle of lamb au gratin with beans and eggplant couscous:

I don't know what "saddle" means, but to me it looked like two parts of the lamb; rack and loin. I liked the dressing on the loin; it was tomato-y, fruity, and tangy. The eggplant couscous was so-so (I'm not a big eggplant fan), and the lamb rack surprisingly had less flavor than the loin. The meat itself was very good quality; no game-y taste at all. However, it seemed to be medium rather than medium rare, which I prefer. Despite that, I think this was my second favorite savory course.

For our cheese course we were served Taleggio (Italian), Chaource (French, cow's), and St. Maure (French, goat's):

The cheeses were accompanied by apple and fig compotes:

The cheeses were all quite good; my favorite was the Taleggio, while the Chaource seemed a bit bland. However, I would have prefered more variety, as all three were soft cheeses.

The first dessert was a coconut souffle with pineapple ragout:

Early in our meal, I had noticed the waiters talking to each other to speed up our service, once they realized that we ate really fast (especially by European standards). Shortly after we finished our cheeses, I noticed that one waiter subtly swung by to peek at our table, realized we'd finished, and hurried back to the kitchen to let them know. Several minutes later I saw him checking his watch, presumably to see if the souffle was ready yet. Great service all around.

Anyway, the souffle was marvelous. The texture may have been the best I've ever had; it was light and fluffy but sprang back when bitten, and it was just the perfect degree of sweetness (coconut desserts are often too sweet). The pineapple ragout was a nice flavor contrast, adding some tartness to the dish.

I thought there was no way that a sorbet dessert could match that, but the "chilled quince soup with sorbets" looked and tasted a lot better than it sounded. I really never knew how much could be done with quince, before this meal. The soup combined quince with champagne, and as a result was pleasantly frothy. The sorbets were pressed together in a pyramid shape, with very thin layers of I think chocolate in between. The flavors were lime, plum, and (of course) quince. Under the sorbets there was a scoop of chocolate mousse:

I know that sounds like way too many flavors in one dessert, but trust me, it was delicious.

Finally, we had a nice assortment of petit fours:

I thought the yellow one was key lime pie, but it didn't taste very tart. It had an almost carrot cake-like texture, and tasted nutty, but I couldn't place the exact flavor until I saw pistachio powder at our breakfast buffet the next morning. That and the raspberry tart were my favorites; there was also a coffee cake, a grape and cream tart, a vanilla bean cream puff, and a jam buckle (again, couldn't quite identify the type of jam). Very nice.

Overall, the food was quite good. I would say that several dishes were saltier than I would have liked, but not so much that it overwhelmed the other flavors. The biggest strength (food-wise) was ability to combine lots of tastes in very creative ways. However, I would say that the service was even more outstanding. The waitstaff were polite, friendly, efficient, and good at anticipating needs. Then, after the meal, we were given a free ride back to our hotel, in a gorgeously-appointed BMW, complete with new car smell. Amazing.

winding down

We're now on a train going from Berlin to Munich, so that means we only have a few days left in our trip. We've previously been to Western Europe several times before, so things are already feeling much more familiar. (In fact, I was even in Germany once, but it was nearly 15 years ago, and we only really did a Rhine cruise that time.)

I thought I would do another retrospective post now, covering our experiences in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. The past five weeks have been more interesting, more tiring, less comfortable, and more exciting, in comparison to the Australia and Southeast Asia portion of our trip. We've spent less time outdoors, and much more time learning about history and international politics. Some highlights...

Best Airline
As with the hotels, the airlines declined in quality during the second half of our trip. Egypt Air was by far the worst; nearly every flight was over 30 minutes late (4 out of 5), service was poor, and the airplanes were old and shabby. Royal Jordanian, Turkish, LOT Polish Airlines, and Air Berlin were all okay, but Lufthansa edged them out, with slightly better service.

Best New Foods
During the second half of our trip, we had the opportunity to try a lot more "new" foods. Although we ate many tasty dishes in Australia and Asia, those foods were more in our comfort zone, as they were similar to things we had eaten before. Also, as prices were more expensive than in Asia, we ended up eating at more home-style places rather than at fancy restaurants. Anyway, it was fun to discover some new favorites...

Our top five (plus one that made D's list but not mine):
- Middle Eastern mezze: All over the Middle East, meals start with a selection of appetizers they call "mezze". They reminded me a bit of the side dishes that you get at Korean restaurants. D's favorite was the baba ghanoush, mine was the hommus, and we both enjoyed the parsley-based tabbouleh. Also common were tahini, fried meat dumplings, and some yogurt-based dips. And, the omnipresent pita breads were something else; light and airy and usually fresh out of the oven, they were delicious even by themselves.

- Russian blini: D had been skeptical about blini, because in the US it's always served with cream or cheese. In Russia, you can have blini with anything, and during our week there, we did. My favorite was of course the "salmon caviar" (ikura), and D liked the pork and horseradish combination best. Also good was a similar pancake dish in Poland, which came with spinach.

- Herring and beet casserole: One day in Moscow, we ate in a shopping mall food court. There was a dish that looked like it had beets in it, and lots of people were ordering it, so D did too. It turned out to be salty pickled herring on the bottom, with a kind of beet salad on top. I was horrified. D loved it. To each his own.

- Meat jelly: I don't know the real name of this dish, but it basically consists of small meat strips congealed into some kind of gelatin-based substance. That sounds kind of gross but it's actually kind of similar to an Asian dish, and the Russians do it very well.

- Polish stuffed duck: On our first day in Krakow, we saw "traditional stuffed duck" on a lunch menu. It didn't have any other description, but we're both suckers for duck and anything that says "traditional", so we ordered it. Yum! The braised duck came stuffed with meat (only thing better than meat is more meat!), was accompanied by roasted apples, and was topped with a current or cranberry sauce. Delicious.
- Smalec: In Poland, instead of getting butter with your bread, you get "smalec", which is a pork lard-based spread. It tastes like liquid bacon. (In case you can't tell, that's a good thing.) Plus, I often felt like I was eating more lard than bread, and we still never managed to finish more than half of what we were given. Mmm, lard.

D also discovered bircher muesli on this trip; it was in pretty much every hotel breakfast buffet, although it wasn't a traditional food in any of the countries that we visited. I guess vacationing Europeans are everywhere, and they have to have their breakfast foods, just like the Americans have to have their cereal.

Best Museum
We saw many, many museums during the last few weeks, to the point where often very good displays would fail to impress us.

However, three of the museums that we visited were simply outstanding:
- Egyptian Museum: The quality and quantity of the ancient Egyptian artifacts was stunning. I felt like the museum, huge as it was, was simply not large enough to properly display the entire collection. Later I read that there were multiple new museums under construction in Cairo, and that some of them would be housing some of the items currently located at the Egyptian Museum. We spent two hours inside and saw only the top highlights (granted, it was crowded and hard to move quickly). I imagine one could spend at least three or four days wandering around in there.
- Kremlin Armory and Diamond Fund: The Armory ticket cost twice as much as the Kremlin Museums ticket, which was the first sign that the Armory would be an memorable sight. We liked the horse carriages best, but there were cool things everywhere; the Faberge eggs, crazy elaborate jewelry with gigantic gemstones, different household items totally encrusted in gold (e.g. a gold-plated castle used to burn incense), and much much more. In addition, the Diamond Fund is inside the Armory; we had to buy an additional ticket, but then we got to see the 189-caret Orlov diamond, the 88-caret Shah diamond (inscribed in Arabic), a variety of other giant gemstones, Russian imperial crowns and regalia, giant gold and platinum nuggets, and more.
- The Hermitage: By the time we got to Saint Petersburg, we had seen a lot of excellent museums, but the Hermitage was unique. The paintings, sculptures, and other items on display were quite impressive (the European section especially), but we were most struck by the Winter Palace itself. Each room was lavishly and beautifully decorated in a different style, and the entire palace has obviously been painstakingly restored and is in great shape. We spent nearly three hours enjoying both the ambiance and the exhibits.

Honorable mention goes to the Warsaw Uprising Museum; the displays were extremely creative and well presented, although the artifacts were not as unique or historic. It's a great place for non-museum types, as it's very modern in style and generally seems to cater to the ADD segment. The Pergamon Museum in Berlin was also nice; it has several very large gates and altars, and we were particularly impressed by the Ishtar Gate.


Best View
We sometimes avoid tall buildings because D doesn't like heights, but I did manage to drag him up to a few places with good views:
- Burj Al Arab Skyview restaurant: This one was actually D's idea, because it was the only way we could get into the Burj Al Arab at all. We had a delicious afternoon tea there while looking out at the ocean and the man-made Palm Island nearby.

- Movenpick Aswan panorama bar/lounge: The lounge was only on the 13th floor, but it gave us a 360-degree view of Elephantine Island. We happened to be there at sunset, and it was lovely. The drinks weren't bad, either.

- Saint Issac's Cathedral: It was really cold up at the top, as it was early in the morning and the winds were pretty strong that day, but we managed to stay up there for a good 15-20 minutes anyway. Great views of Saint Petersburg, including the Admiralty, the Winter Palace, and much more.


Best Natural Scenery
In Dubai, we went on a "sand dune bashing" tour which gave us a glimpse of the gorgeous desert outside of the city. The untouched dunes went on forever, and of course the tour was timed to take place during sunset, so the lighting was perfect.


Honorable mention goes to the Dead Sea resort; we really enjoyed floating around while basking in the warm sunlight, and also to the felucca ride we did in Aswan, which I thought was much more fun than being on the sundeck of our cruise ship. I like small boats.

Best Man-Made Sights
I'd heard a lot about the "indoor ski resort" in Dubai, and although it was not as large as I'd expected, it was more striking because it was located inside the Mall of the Emirates, which I hadn't known. Since it wasn't a very difficult slope, we didn't bother to ski it, but it was cool that we literally were sitting in a second-floor restaurant looking out on the mountain.

We also quite enjoyed our visit to the Wieliczka Salt Mines outside of Krakow. When I'd heard "salt mines", I'd thought that we would be looking at big caves, but I didn't realize that the miners had carved statues, monuments, chapels, and even a cathedral into the rock salt.


Finally, we got to hear a lot about the Aswan Dam while we were in Egypt, and it has certainly made a huge difference to the lifestyle of the Egyptian people, but I must confess that the sight of the dam itself was less than totally amazing. I thought it deserved a mention, though.

Best Ruins
We saw so many ruins during the Middle East part of our trip that at one point D declared himself "ruin-ed out". Then we went to Petra, and it turned out that we were still fascinated, spending nearly two days exploring the "City of Rose".

My top five:
- Luxor and Karnak temples: After seeing Luxor Temple and Karnak Temple on our first day in Upper Egypt, we were wondering why we'd bothered to go to Cairo at well (right, those pesky pyramids). Even after seeing Edfu, Kom Ombo, and Philae over the next few days, my favorite was still Karnak; it seems the grandest and most imposing. Or, maybe I was more easily impressed back then.

- Valley of Kings: Despite being super crowded (and despite me hating people), we had a good time visiting the tombs in the Valley of Kings. We stayed so long in the tomb of Ramesses III that the security guards yelled at us to move along. Between the Valley, and the other West Bank sights (Colossi of Memnon, Temple of Queen Hatshepsut, Rameseum, and...), it was a very memorable morning of sightseeing!
- Abu Simbel: The logistics of getting to and from Abu Simbel from Aswan (via Egypt Air, with both flights being delayed) caused us some amount of stress, but both D and I agreed that in the end it was the right decision to go. I also decided that if the headache and hassle had weeded out even half of the potential visitors, I was glad that it was a pain to get there. As for the temples, I think the photos speak for themselves.

- Petra: Jordan had been a late addition to our itinerary, mostly due to the logistical difficulties of getting to Amman (not available on our RTW ticket) and then from Amman to Petra. In the end, not only was Petra as amazing as expected, we also enjoyed Jerash (Roman-era ruins), Karak (Crusade-era ruins), the Dead Sea, and all the Jordanian hospitality. I highly recommend a visit to Jordan.

Surprisingly, the Great Pyramids did not make my list. I wonder if that's common for people visiting Egypt, or whether I'm just weird.

Best Temple/Church/Mosque
We continued to see many many temples, churches, and mosques during the second half of our trip. Many of them were very beautiful, but Saint Petersburg's Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood stands out in my mind. The Biblical mosaics all over the interior are just gorgeous; much more impressive than any of the mosaics we saw in Jordan or in the European museums. I'm not religious at all, but I can certainly appreciate great craftsmanship (craftspersonship?) and artistry. Amazing work.

Most Educational Experience
We very nearly didn't go to Auschwitz because we knew it would be so depressing. In the end, we decided that learning is an important aspect of travel, and we went. As expected, it was a gut-wrenching experience, but also very educational and worthwhile. I was a bit surprised but also heartened (after our many negative experiences with fellow tourists) that nearly everyone was respectful and orderly during the visit.

Poland in short

We only spent five days in Poland, but it was time well spent!

A few quick hits:
- What a difference a few degrees makes! Russia was interesting and I'm glad we went, but I felt sluggish the whole time, due to the freezing weather. Poland was only a few degrees warmer (highs around 5 C) but we were much more energetic and able to wander around outdoors for hours at a time.
- It's really amazing what Poland has been through, and how they have managed to rebuild and grow. Between the Nazis and the Communists, the Polish weren't really free until 1989. In the last twenty years, they have significantly improved human rights and free speech, transformed into a market economy, built impressive museums and memorials, joined NATO and the EU, and more. Remarkable.
- Polish people seem to tend towards dry humor, but are often very funny. At the Wieliczka Salt Mines, our guide would often say something, pause for several seconds, and then say something else that made us realize that the first thing had been really funny. At the Uprising Museum, the guy collecting tickets pretended to be mean and unfriendly for a few seconds before cracking a grin and becoming really helpful.
- Polish food is a combination of really yummy and more questionable stuff. I did not like the dumplings at all; they were way too doughy and bland. The Polish sausages (kielbasa!) were very tasty and my only complaint was that they start to get heavy after awhile. The "smalec" homemade lard on bread is the best invention ever, I could eat the fermented rye soup every day, and the cabbage fried with bacon/pork is delicious as well. I prefer Russian desserts, though.

name change

I found it shocking that 50% of Americans think that a woman should be legally obligated to change her name when she marries. I guess, despite my relatively high level of cynicism, I have yet to realize the degree to which American society likes to butt into other people's business. It's so depressing every time I realize that we suck.

gay parenting

I thought this article from the New York Times Magazine was really interesting. It examines the similarities and differences between children of gay and straight parents. The key observation is that children of gay parents tend to grow up less restricted by traditional gender roles and are generally more tolerant and flexible. There is also a mention of same-sex parents being better at equal parenting, which I guess makes sense. Anyway, food for thought...

In most ways, the accumulated research shows, children of same-sex parents are not markedly different from those of heterosexual parents. They show no increased incidence of psychiatric disorders, are just as popular at school and have just as many friends. While girls raised by lesbian mothers seem slightly more likely to have more sexual partners, and boys slightly more likely to have fewer, than those raised by heterosexual mothers, neither sex is more likely to suffer from gender confusion nor to identify themselves as gay.

More enlightening than the similarities, however, are the differences, the most striking of which is that these children tend to be less conventional and more flexible when it comes to gender roles and assumptions than those raised in more traditional families.

There are data that show, for instance, that daughters of lesbian mothers are more likely to aspire to professions that are traditionally considered male, like doctors or lawyers — 52 percent in one study said that was their goal, compared with 21 percent of daughters of heterosexual mothers, who are still more likely to say they want to be nurses or teachers when they grow up. (The same study found that 95 percent of boys from both types of families choose the more masculine jobs.) Girls raised by lesbians are also more likely to engage in “roughhousing” and to play with “male-gendered-type toys” than girls raised by straight mothers. And adult children of gay parents appear more likely than the average adult to work in the fields of social justice and to have more gay friends in their social mix.

visiting Auschwitz

Yesterday, we went to Auschwitz to see the site where the Nazis murdered millions of people, mostly European Jews.

We'd had a good experience with Cracow Tours the previous day, so we went with them again. We were picked up at our hotel by mini-bus around 9:15am, transferred to a central location where we got on a big bus. It was certainly a popular tour as the bus was nearly full.

During the hour-plus drive from Krakow to Auschwitz I, we were shown a video featuring footage taken by the Russian Red Army when they liberated the camp in 1945. (Auschwitz consists of three actual camps; the original Auschwitz I, the largest Auschwitz II Birkenau, and the smaller Auschwitz III Monowitz, strategically located near a Germany factory so they could use the prisoners as forced labor.) As expected, it was a disturbing video, and between the video content, the somewhat bumpy ride, and the lack of circulation in the bus, both of us were a bit queasy when we arrived.

We spent nearly two hours touring the barracks and exhibits at Auschwitz I with a local guide, Simon. He was informative, opinionated, and had a strong local connection; his great-uncle had been imprisoned at Auschwitz for "political" reasons, and his wife's grandmother had nearly ended up inside as well, after trying to give food to some of the prisoners. Luckily for the grandmother, her husband had managed to bribe the SS men into letting her go.

Looking at numbers like "3 million Poles" or "6 million people", we know intellectually that it's a lot of people, but it's hard to get a real grasp on the scale of what happened there. Some of the exhibits helped a bit; there was a 30-meter long display filled with two tons of human hair (the Nazis shaved women's heads and used the hair to make blankets and jacket linings), another of thousands of eyeglasses, one of several thousand suitcases (representing a single train of arriving prisoners, when trains arrived multiple times a day), and more.

We also saw suffocation cells, starvation cells, standing cells (about a square meter, in which up to four prisoners were forced to stand), a gas chamber (where up to 3000 prisoners could be murdered at a time), a crematorium (where over 300 bodies would be cremated every day), mass gallows, a courtyard where shootings were carried out, lots of barbed wire fences, small huts where SS men would stand in inclement weather, and the infamous German "Work will set you free" sign over the gate of Auschwitz I.

Simon told us some stories; he's met several survivors of Auschwitz, and even now, they are badly scarred by their experiences. One woman can't stand striped clothing, because they were forced to wear stripes. Another man saw a funeral shortly after leaving the camp and couldn't reconcile all the crying and mourning with "just one coffin". Some former prisoners have severe reactions to white smocks, the German language, and other triggers.

We heard about a priest, Father Kolbe, took the place of another prisoner in a starvation cell, and when he failed to die after having been starved for several weeks, the frustrated SS men shot him to death. Later he was canonized by the Catholic Church and made a saint.

Simon also told us about a woman who was an obstetrician, who gave illegal abortions to women who arrived pregnant. Visibly pregnant women were immediately "selected" for death, but women who were early enough in their pregnancies might escape initial detection. Once they started showing, they would be killed, so the abortions allowed them to perhaps live longer. For the prisoners, often the only goal was to survive another day.

Several hundred people tried to escape Auschwitz, and some succeeded. In one successful attempt, four prisoners who had good "jobs" managed to steal SS uniforms and guns, and actually walked out of the camp posing as high officials. The Nazis punished escapes and escape attempts severely; if one person tried to escape, ten people from his/her barrack would be killed, to serve as a warning. There were also attempts at rebellion but none succeeded.

We saw walls and walls of prisoner photos, mostly political and non-Jewish. (After 1942, when Auschwitz evolved from a labor camp into a death camp, most Jews were killed immediately and not registered and photographed.) When prisoners arrived in the camp, 75% were "selected" for instant death by gas chamber (the elderly, the sick, children, pregnant women), and the others were sent to the labor camps to work 11 hours a day on a daily diet of 1500-1700 calories. Auschwitz II Birkenau (which was huge, 425 acres and ten times the size of Auschwitz I) was built using the forced labor of these prisoners. Those who worked generally lasted only a few months before dying of exhaustion, starvation, and/or disease.

There were only a few latrines in the camp, and prisoners were only allowed to use the facilities twice a day; once in the morning and once at night. Because of starvation diarrhea, prisoners ended up soiling themselves regularly, and as a result, typhus, dysentery, and other diseases were rampant. The Nazis actually avoided the toilet areas because they were afraid of catching the diseases, leaving one area where prisoners could more safely communicate and effect black market transactions of items found on dead bodies and in suitcases of arriving prisoners.

The belongings of the prisoners were sorted, cleaned, and sent to Germany. Gold teeth were melted down, clothing was disinfected, and jewelry and valuables were extracted from various hiding places. Belongings which had not yet been sent away were stored in storehouses which were nicknamed "Canada" by the prisoners, as Canada was considered a land of plenty. On the signs that we saw, the storehouses were actually labelled "Canada I", "Canada II", etc.

There was an exhibit with photos which attempted to document the degree to which the prisoners were starved. One woman weighed about 23 kg (50 lbs) when she was liberated. In the photos of her four months after liberation, she still looked completely emaciated. Several prisoners died after leaving the camp because they tried to eat normally, and their stomachs could no longer deal with the food.

After looking at the exhibits at Auschwitz I, we went to Auschwitz II Birkenau a few kilometers away. There was no museum there, only empty barracks, but the vastness of the place was much more striking. The Nazis destroyed much of the camp when they realized the Russian Red Army was advancing on them, but there are still ruins that go for miles.

By the numbers: about 6 million people, mostly Jews, were killed by the Nazis in concentration camps during World War II (of course, many more died outside the camps, in battle and otherwise). Other groups which were targeted were: political prisoners (Poles, Russians, and more), gypsies, homosexuals, and other "undesirables". About 1.3 million of those were imprisoned at Auschwitz, of which about 1.1 million died. Only prisoners at Auschwitz were tattooed with registration numbers. Before the war, there were about 3.5 million Jewish people in Poland, which was nearly a third of the population. About 3 million Polish Jews were killed by the Nazis in the camps, and many others must have fled, because there are only tens of thousands left today. Jews were sent to Auschwitz from all over Europe; France, Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Ukraine, and other occupied areas. Great Britain escaped this fate, as it was not occupied, having won the Battle of Britain. In one particularly brutal period, half of all Hungarian Jews (over 400,000 people) were sent to Auschwitz and murdered in a period of only 56 days. Overall, about 6 million Polish people died during World War II, which is about 20% of the pre-war population.

A variety of political and ethical questions remain. Simon seemed to think that the Allies should have taken action during the war to bomb the camp, the train lines, or otherwise break the mechanism and delay the killings. Others question the local population and ask if they were not anti-Semitic, why they didn't do anything to help. In one heated exchange, a person on our tour accused Simon of spreading propaganda and actually compared the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to the atrocities committed by the Nazis, which I thought was ridiculous (and I think the rest of the group did too). Godwin's Law, indeed!

It was true that Simon had a strong anti-Soviet bent; he told us "anyone who says Poland accepted Communism is lying", and also mentioned that his great-uncle who survived Auschwitz only to be imprisoned by the Communists later. But, I imagine Poland suffered quite a bit during the Iron Curtain days, so his animosity is likely justified.

Anyway, Simon handled the situation pretty gracefully and proceeded with the rest of the tour. As I told D later, it's possible that Simon had a biased view, but it seemed to be a very Polish view, and that's why we're in Poland; to hear about that viewpoint.

In the end, we were both glad that we had gone to Auschwitz; it's one thing to hear in clinical terms about millions of people being killed, but it's yet another to hear the stories and see the possessions and the eerily normal-looking brick barracks.

additional impressions of Russia

There are a lot of police in Russia, kind of like there were a lot of military all over Jordan. The police don't have machine guns, though. Our tour book says to avoid attention from police, but generally they seem pretty nice and their uniform hats (the cute fuzzy ones) make them look approachable. The one police officer we actually talked to (for directions) was friendly and helpful, although he spoke no English.

People in Saint Petersburg don't walk nearly as fast as in Moscow, and they are somewhat less fashionable. This gives the whole city a more laid-back feel, which I like much better.

It appears that although they dress well, Russian people don't bother with fancy hair that needs "work"...pretty much all the women just have long, straight hair. I guess as soon as you walk out the door and put on that hat, you have guaranteed hat hair anyway.

Everything opens late here. The major tourist attractions open at 10 or 10:30am, in contrast to Egypt where they open at 7 or 8am. Part of it is probably that the sun doesn't come up until 9am or so, but I'm guessing there aren't enough tourists to justify opening earlier, either.

It's really quite necessary to learn the Cyrillic alphabet to get around here. For instance, "Restaurant" is spelled "Ресторан" and only a very few will have the Latin spelling on their signage. We might have walked right by Cafe Literature without being able to read "Литературное кафе". Street names are similarly untranslated, and less popular museum exhibits are often labelled in Cyriliic-only, as well. At the Hermitage, I stared at a sign for awhile before figuring out the artifacts were from Сирия (Syria) and Ирак (Iraq).

There are cloakrooms everywhere. Every time we walk into a restaurant, a cafe, a museum, or whatever, the first thing you do is go to the cloakroom and leave all your outerwear. In return they give you a claim tag It never costs any money, and they'll store all kinds of stuff; in the Hermitage they stored D's daypack along with his jacket.

first impressions of Russia

I'd been prepared for Russians to be grumpy and possibly hostile, especially towards Americans, but most everyone that we've met so far has been really nice. The guy who picked us up from the airport was smiley and helpful (as soon as he saw us he pointed at his jacket and said "outside! cold!" so I dug out my fleece), and our bellboy was super friendly (turns out he's going to Egypt on vacation next week). For dinner, we ventured out to a nearby cafeteria-style restaurant called "Mu Mu", and one of the guys behind the counter turned out to have excellent English, so he followed us from display to display, explaining what everything was and helping us pick our dishes.

Anything involving process takes forever. When we were in the immigration line, the pace was something like one passport every three minutes. There were at least ten people in front of us. However, Russians are pretty orderly and respect lines; the ticket line for the Armory (at the Kremlin) was not well defined but people managed to stay in order. We were chatting with some other tourists and apparently the non-Armory part of the Kremlin has been closed for three days straight, and no one could figure out why (the ticket lady helpfully told us "Kremlin closed!"). Later our concierge told us that they're preparing for some kind of festival for the first week of November.

Interestingly, US passports seem to carry some clout here. (I would have thought the opposite.) We got through immigration very quickly compared to everyone else (maybe one minute instead of three) and once we showed our passports and told them where we were from ("California") we were not required to put our luggage through the x-ray machine, even though everyone else on our flight from Istanbul seemed to be doing it.

Two black guys got picked on by security while in line; they had to show lots of extra paperwork and went to another room for awhile. Not sure what was going on there, but we had been warned about possible racism, so I'm thinking that's a distinct possibility.

There are lots of Asian-looking people around, but they all seem to speak Russian perfectly, so it seems they're locals and not tourists. Twice, we were approached by people speaking Russian asking for directions. Maybe our scarves, hats, and gloves make us blend in enough that we could possibly be mistaken for locals? Odd.

However, only about half of the people on the street are wearing hats these days. I guess barely sub-zero isn't considered very cold around here. There are definitely lots of women running around in spike-heel knee or thigh-high boots and short skirts, with about a foot of skin exposed in the middle. Did I mention it's sub-zero out there? Yikes.

Russians walk VERY VERY fast. I thought I walked fast, but I'm the slowest person on the street. Honestly, New Yorkers have nothing on Muscovites as far as speed goes. One girl (four-inch heels, tiny skirt) stopped to give a panhandler money and was still walking faster than me). No wonder they're skinny here.

Russians are also very tall. I think the guys average something like 6'3". It's harder to tell with the girls because they're all wearing such high heels, but with heels on, they probably average around 6'0" too. Apparently I'm a midget who walks too slowly and needs new shoes.

Oh, and according to D, the Russians have taken over the "hottest girls" award for this trip. I think generally they look a little pouty but they're certainly tall and model-thin and very trendy.

In the tourist areas, lots of people speak a little English, or at least understand it. Outside the tourist areas, people speak no English at all. At the train station, several people were trying to be helpful but literally could not tell us whether to go "left" or "right". One policeman ended up walking with us for awhile in the direction we were supposed to go, because he couldn't explain it to us. Nice of him, though.

The Metro is quite nice and very comprehensive, covering a lot of ground. The stations are all decorated differently, and the trains run constantly; on a weekend in the middle of the day, the trains were coming about every two minutes. The longest we've ever waited is maybe four minutes.

The Metro is pretty cheap (22 RUB = 70 cents) but everything else is very expensive. We spent 700 RUB (> 23 USD) on a cafeteria-style dinner, entrance fees are like 500 RUB per person (18 USD) and we were also quoted a taxi price of 500 RUB for a relatively short drive (we opted for Metro).

It appears that glasses are relatively uncommon in Moscow. The entire day, I spotted maybe two women wearing glasses, and maybe twenty men. This is out of hundreds, maybe thousands of people that we passed in the subway, on the street, etc.

fringe benefits

One of the nice things about travelling is that in other countries, MTV actually plays (gasp!) music videos. It's totally mesmerizing...I can go entire hour-long gym workouts just watching (probably very old) videos of Beyonce and Kanye and Coldplay and Katy Perry, singing songs that I've heard a billion times, that I've never seen on TV.

Egypt & Egyptians

Egypt Air was fairly disappointing and made Thai Airways look good. On our first flight we departed an hour late, and on the second we departed half an hour late. The first airplane was super crappy and the service was not great, either. The best moment of the flight was probably when a guy fell asleep and started snoring in the next row before takeoff.

We discovered quickly that Egyptians are big fans of President Obama. He visited Cairo University to give a speech this year, and it was a huge deal; the first speech by US president in an Islamic capital. He also visited some mosques and schools near the Citadel, which our guide mentioned several times.

There were people everywhere selling things on the street. There were the usual postcards and touristy trinkets, of course, but there were also women on bikes with freshly baked pita bread, and men with boxes of tissues at stoplights, just like the people selling the fragrant flowers in Taipei.

Hotels in Cairo have extremely tight security; there were metal detectors at every entrance, bomb detectors and/or bomb sniffing dogs, and a hotel guest manifest listing guest arrivals and departures.

Health care and education in Egypt are free, all the way up to university, so a surprisingly large percentage of the population goes to college. (I forget the number.)

I didn't realize it rained so little in Egypt; we asked our Upper Egypt guide what the annual rainfall total was, and he said it rained "every couple of years". I'm not sure if maybe he meant a couple times a year, but anyway it seems it rains very little. Consequently, the Nile is the source of nearly all freshwater; outside of the valley Egypt is just a giant desert. It's actually very striking, the line between the dry sandy desert and the lush green valley, with abundant palm trees and other vegetation. I confess I always thought Egypt was just desert because the Pyramids are built on the sandy part. It turns out the pharaohs built their tombs in the high, dry areas on purpose, as it was great for preservation.

Tipping is rampant in Egypt, and the nuances are not that easy to understand. You are definitely supposed to tip in bathrooms and for porters and waiters. If you take a photo with someone they'll want a tip too. However, there are also lots of cases when people will ask for tips to which they aren't entitled; for instance, street kids will sing songs at you and ask for money. Our tour guide in Cairo was constantly tipping security guards and parking attendants, and got really good service. Egyptians also are fond of handshake greetings; I wonder if it's cause-and-effect, as the tipping is all done very smoothly via handshake.

I'd known before, but hadn't fully comprehended the extreme oldness of everything in Egypt. The mosques which were built over a thousand years ago, and the churches which were built in the Roman area, are all considered "new", compared to the relics of the pharaohs. We were at an alabaster factory and they were selling scarabs and other artifacts that were hundreds of years old, but they were considered "family possessions" rather than antiques. It's also mind-boggling that we can still see paint on carvings that are thousands of years old.

It turns out that Egyptians have lots of yummy food. Of course there's baba ghanoush and tahini and the yogurt dishes, but we also enjoyed a beef stew called tagine, the omnipresent rice mixed with pasta, and D liked their roasted eggplants. For breakfast, they have a mashed bean dish that is bland and starchy and meant to be eaten with assorted side dishes and condiments. D likened it to congee, and ate it nearly every morning. The dates, on the other hand, I think are an acquired taste.

Lots of things in Egypt seems to have been built (accidentally or on purpose) on top of other things. For instance, there was a mosque built on top of Luxor Temple, the Hanging Church is built on top of part of a Roman fortress, and Ramses VI's tomb was built on top of King Tut's (which is why it was fortuitously never found by grave robbers).

I think that there's almost too much to see, and it's all too close together, in Egypt. When we went to the Egyptian Museum, I felt that all of the items were clustered closely together, without much explanation. I remarked to D that it seemed that as large as the museum was, it needed to be at least twice as large to properly display everything. Later on we discovered there are several new museums in the works, including a new Grand Egyptian Museum at the Pyramids, and many of the artifacts will be doled out to those new museums. Similarly, when we were at Luxor, we were very impressed with the Ramsesseum (temple of Ramses II) but there were only three or four other visitors there, while the Valley of Kings and the Temple of Queen Hatshepsut were covered in people and tour buses. People go for the big name attractions, I guess.

Egypt is a poor country (I think?), but things are not cheap. We had a hard time finding hotel rooms at good value, and restaurant meals cost about $12-15 per person, which isn't a lot by American standards but is way more than the $2-3 per person that we were paying in Southeast Asia. I'm speculating that locals don't eat at restaurants, or don't eat at the same kinds of restaurants.

The Aswan Dam seems to have made a huge difference for Egypt. Before the dam, the Nile would flood the valley about 3 months of the year. Now, there are no floods, and farmers can use the water from the reservoir for irrigation.

three things

It's important when travelling to bring the things you need, but not to end up dragging the entire contents of your closet with you. Over the past two months, there are some things that I've found essential during our trip.

Three things...
- in my pocket: eye drops, lip balm, hair elastic
- on my person: sunglasses, camera, passport in money belt
- in my carry-on: laptop (w/ plug converters!), earplugs, water bottle
- in my suitcase: dri-fits (quick to wash and dry), wrist braces (my camera is quite heavy), travel humidifier

D also swears by his Bose noise-cancelling headphones, convertible pants are quite handy, and we've put our swimwear and goggles to good use, too.

notes on Dubai

Demographics in Dubai are rather interesting. There are 5 million people in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), of which 1.4 million live in Dubai. Naturalization is extremely difficult (e.g. women who marry UAE men can naturalize, but not vice versa), so citizens comprise only 21% of the population. Over 40% of the population are from South Asia (Indian, Pakistani, or Bangledeshi); most have come for the job opportunities. As a result, the ratio of men to women is over 2:1.

Women wear a variety of clothing; some wear the full black burka, some wear a headscarf, some wear no head covering at all. Some women wear skirts and flowing clothes, others wear jeans and tight shirts. There are even a few women in shorts. When we were at the Burj Al Arab, I noticed several women who were in full burka but with very fancy gold embroidery, and the black cloth itself was obviously very high quality, as it looked shinier and softer than usual. Maybe it's like bedsheets, where high threadcount is a big deal?

Dubai has developed very quickly. Oil was discovered in 1966, and in 1971 Dubai became independent of Britain. In 1980 there was a single highrise building, but there was a massive wave of building in the late 1990's and early 2000's, and now there are skyscrapers as far as you can see.

Originally, much of the economy was based on oil, but these days, only 6% of revenues are due to oil or petroleum ventures. The primary businesses are tourism, real estate, and finance; Dubai has become one of the finance capitals of the Middle East.

The government is very wealthy, so many things are free. Health care is entirely free for citizens, residents, and even visitors; you just don't bother with money or insurance when you go to a hospital in Dubai. Citizens get extra bonuses; for example, when citizens marry, the new couple is given their own residence (probably a condo). 95% of mosques are subsidized by the government.

There are many new projects going on in Dubai even now. The Dubai Metro opened in September but only a few stops are open as of yet. Once the rest are open it will probably help ease the traffic problem quite a bit; we were able to travel a distance by metro in 10-12 minutes that would have taken 30 minutes to drive in "normal" traffic conditions. Currently public transportation is mostly by bus; bus stops are enclosed and air conditioned. "The Palm" is the famous man-made island in the shape of a palm tree; it is nearly complete, but two more are in the works. In addition, there is another man-made island under construction which will be in the shape of a world map, called "The World"; it is currently 10% done. The Burj Dubai (Burj means tower), which will be the world's tallest building, is nearly finished; it will open before the end of the year.

assorted observations

I usually keep a pen and paper in my camera bag as we're walking around, so that I can note random things that I want to blog later. Most of the time those observations fall easily into our daily recaps, but I've been building up a backlog, so I'm going to just jot them down here...

Airport security varies a lot from place to place. I've accidentally gone through security with a full bottle of water (Bali) and I've been asked to shake my Kleen Kanteen metal water bottle to verify its emptiness (Singapore). The security team in Kuala Lumpur made me take out my extra camera lens so they could examine it (no one ever travels with multiple lenses, really?) while many other airports don't even make us separate out our laptops and toiletry bags. Gate-level security checks seem to be popular in Southeast Asia; I'm not sure if it's supposed to be more secure or what, but it is annoying as I'm used to filling up my water bottle after getting through departure terminal security. Practically no one makes us take off our shoes, and if you start to remove yours without prompting, you're basically broadcasting the fact that you're American.

Singapore and Malaysia's populations are very mixed ethnically, but all the groups appear to coexist peacefully, at least on the surface. I was amused by the advertisements for "Hari Raya mooncakes" in Malaysia; since the end of Ramadan coincided with the Autumn Moon Festival this year, some marketing geniuses decided to try and sell mooncakes (halal, of course) to Muslims as well. It seemed to be working quite well, actually.

In Malaysia, D and I would generally just start out by speaking to people in English. Most of the time, if the person was of Chinese descent, they would look at us, and respond in Chinese. Occasionally, they would look at us, and respond in Hokkien, which sounds a lot like heavily accented Taiwanese, so that worked pretty well too. It's interesting that they assume anyone who looked East Asian would speak Chinese. I wonder what it would be like as a Japanese or Korean person in Malaysia.

In Chiang Mai, there were many tuk-tuks and taxi drivers roaming the city streets. Most of the time they would try to take us to the Tiger Kingdom, but they would also ask if we wanted to see the "Long Neck Karen". Apparently there is a hilltribe in Burma called "Karen", and the women have artificially elongated necks. They achieve this by adding metal rings to their necks gradually over time, starting at the age of seven or eight. Some have fled the political turmoil in Burma and escaped to Thailand, where they have the dubious choice of living in refugee camps, or being paid to live in "tourism villages" created by Thai entrepreneurs. We chose not to go and gawk at these poor women, but I'm sure lots of tourists who haven't heard about the exploitative nature of the villages end up going. We also decided not to visit the Tiger Kingdom as it sounded similarly artificial; apparently you pay to have your photo taken with a certain age of tiger (most people choose the babies and the adults) and some reviews complained that the tigers looked drugged or otherwise unhappy. However, we did go to the Elephant Camp; despite a few reports which complained about the condition of the elephants, it sounded like the majority of the people who went thought that the elephants were happy, well-fed, and well-treated. After having seen them, my biased opinion is that the elephants seemed fine, but I'm not an animal behavior expert by any means. Anyway, we've discovered that trying to be educated and non-exploitative tourists requires a lot of research!

checkpoint

We're flying from Bangkok to Dubai today, which means that we're finally leaving Asia and heading to the Middle East. We're also slightly more than halfway through with our trip, so I thought it'd be a good time to reflect on some of the highs and lows of our trip so far.

Starting with the highs...

Best Public Transportation
Bangkok's skytrain wins by a narrow margin over Singapore's subway system. The skytrain comes every few minutes, is super cheap (less than 1 USD per ride), and the trains are air-conditioned and well-maintained.

Best Food
It's too hard to pick one or two, so I'm going to name a top five:
- Tetsuya's, in Sydney, was our best fine dining experience.
- For street food, it's a tie between Penang's delicious hawker stands, and Thailand's fresh green papaya salads.
- Singapore claims the crown for best food courts, with Vivo City's "Food Republic" leading the charge.
- Most unexpectedly delicious were the scones that we had at some random tea house in the Australian outback, outside of Alice Springs. They were large, fluffy, crumbly, buttery, and very very fresh.
- I also have to mention Gugong, the bibimbap place we went to the first week in Korea. Something about it really hit the spot. I think I may like bibimbap better than both tofu soup and Korean BBQ.

Best Critter Encounters
One of my favorite parts of our trip has been all the wildlife that we've seen. My top five:
- The little penguins of Phillip Island were adorable and it was great to see them in their natural habitat. The koala spotting at the nearby conservation center was also fun, but koalas are a bit boring.
- Seeing kangaroos in the wild in the Blue Mountains was also a magical experience.
- I was amazed by the beautiful butterflies at the Penang Butterfly Farm, and had a great time photographing them.
- Meeting the snakes and lizards at the Alice Springs Reptile Center was surprisingly fun, and the reptiles that we held weren't slimy at all. We were also excited to encounter a very large (over 3 foot long) iguana at our resort in Ko Samui.
- I thought there was a chance the elephant ride in Chiang Mai was going to be touristy and lame, but I actually quite enjoyed it.

Best Natural Scenery
One more top five, with the top three from Australia:
- The sunrise walk at Ayers Rock was unforgettable; totally worth the early start and having to brave the morning winds.
- The day that we spent snorkelling at the Great Barrier Reef may have spoiled snorkelling for us forever. I was especially struck by colors of the reef itself.
- Sydney's beaches were also gorgeous and we spent a lovely afternoon wandering from one beach to another.
- Although cultivated, the orchids in Singapore's Botanical Garden were still naturally beautiful, with unbelievable variation in shape and color.
- Finally, although not as spectacular as the others listed above, the rice paddies that we saw on our first day in Bali were also an interesting and unique sight.

Best Cultural Experiences
I expected to have a good time watching "The Capulets and the Montagues" at the Sydney Opera House, and I did. A more surprising highlight was the "Barong" dance that we saw in Bali; in addition to showcasing exotic Balinese dances and costumes, it was entertaining, funny, and told a good story.

Best View
It was a pain getting up there, but once we got to the top of Penang Hill, we were treated to an amazing panorama that included Georgetown city, the Strait of Malacca, and the Penang bridge. The view from the Petronas Towers Skybridge was not nearly as good, but we enjoyed the experience of being on the Skybridge very much anyway.

Best Temple/Wat/Ruins
D was most amazed by Bangkok's Grand Palace; we spent several house there wandering through all the intricately decorated buildings and gardens. I also liked the sprawling ruin of Wat Chaiwatthanaram (in Ayutthaya) very much. Finally, despite the rain, the Pura Besakih (Mother Temple) in Bali was very impressive and worth the time and effort (and money) it took us to get there.

As for the lows, I was chatting with a friend yesterday and she asked me whether we had found anything particularly disappointing. It actually took me awhile to think of things that we hadn't enjoyed, but here are a few less-than-awesome experiences we've had...

On our last night in Ubud, we wanted to go out to a non-hotel restaurant, so we went to the extremely popular "Nacho Mama". We spent nearly two hours there, never managed to place an order, and were totally disgusted by the dirty table, not to mention the stray dog eating off the floor. Oh, and it was raining that night, so we got wet coming and going.

On our first domestic flight, from Sydney to Alice Springs, the counter agent warned us that our luggage was overweight. We had a few hours of stress before we figured out our plan of using left luggage services to store extra bags between international flights. We've had to fly with overweight carry-on most of the trip as well (turns out 5kg is really not very much at all, especially when you're carrying three camera lenses and two laptops), and there's always a small bit of anxiety associated with that.

Many of our tour experiences have been awesome, but a few have been mediocre. We had a good time in the Blue Mountains, but the morning was only moderately interesting, so it was really the kangaroo sighting that made that tour worth it. Similarly, our half-day in the Daintree Rainforest was fun, but not amazing. I guess we might have felt differently had we actually sighted a crocodile on our river cruise. Finally, we probably could have done better on our last day in Bali by hiring a driver for the day, instead of doing a private tour, as that turned out to be quite pricey.

We've been lucky for most of the trip, but we have had to deal with rain a few times; notably one evening in Penang, when it took us nearly half an hour to walk through a torrential downpour to get to a hawker food court two blocks away, and in Bali, when we toured Pura Besakih (the Mother Temple) in the rain. Honestly though, I hesitate to complain about merely non-ideal weather, when there have been so many natural disasters in Southeast Asia in the past month.

Overall we've been having a blast, and it's hard to believe that the trip is half over. I'm really not sure I'll be ready to go home when our time is up, but maybe I'll get sick of the food faster now that we're leaving Asia.