KIA PICANTOfication, Apartheid Museum visit

We have a CAR!!!!!
We picked our new baby up today and she'll be ours for the next 31 days!
WHOO HOO!!!

South Africa has proven incredibly unfriendly for those on foot.  Yeah.  You can do it.  But it costs a lot for a taxi anywhere and although walking is serene and good exercise, I don't know if it's such a good idea over the world cup games.

This opens up a lot of opportunities for us and also gives us more options for lodging!

The first thing we did after picking up baby Kia was to head straight to the Apartheid Museum here in Johannesburg.  This country has an incredibly crazy and sad history.  They had a special section dedicated to Mendela, which I learned a lot from.  Open elections didn't occur here until 1994 when Mendela was elected with a majority vote.  For me, this explained a lot about the weird feelings I've gotten so far from the country.  It's only been 16 years for a country to come back together after ripping itself apart...not enough time.

After the extreme friendliness of Asia, I made a cultural mistake of smiling while passing a stranger on the street.  That's a no go here and after visiting the museum, I understand why.  Racial discrimination in USA is nothing compared to what these people have been through.  I kind of am OK with someone here hating my guys because I'm white...although they don't...which is pretty incredible.

We are finally starting to settle in...we'll be moving from our perfect hostel after tomorrow night (we've stayed 4 nights, because we've liked it so much.  We can use the kitchen!!!)

London Town

What a great, beautiful city filled with "THUD!"

From fish and chips to big chunky awesome government buildings...THUD!

Gigantic parks, adorable little shops, the tube and double buses, it's all sooooo CUTE!

We also had a great day at the British Museum!  What an incredible "collection" of artifacts!
Granted, there is issue with how they found it in the first place and who it belongs to, but getting to see bits of the Parthenon and the Egyptian mummies under one roof for...FREE!?!?!?  Awesome.

We even got to see the puffy hat dudes!  Talk about THUD!  They walk back and forth, back to their little huts and thud the ground hard with their boots....so THUDDY!

LOOOOOVED LONDON!
We arrived in South Africa - Johannesburg today and managed to sleep the day away in our hostel and walk about 2 miles for some very forgettable chicken burgers....tomorrow will ROCK!

London pics... posted from Johannesburg!

Photos of London? Click here!
We're in South Africa now! the Brazilian team arrived few minutes before us. We couldn't see them, though.

NY, NY

What a wonderful town!

Thanks Madison!

World Cup????

So.  One small detail about this next leg of the trip!
We're going to be witness to a little something called the World Cup....
Detail among details: Chile is playing!

What does this mean to Sarah?
We'll probably be sleeping along the side of the highway.
My husband is absolutely insane for buying these tickets.....AHHH!!!!
What are the chances of getting run down by drunkened soccer fans anyways?
Well, this will be my first live soccer match!  Why not go all the way?

What is probably going through Rodolfo's mind?
CHI CHI CHI!  LE LE LE!  VIVA CHILE!

Whether or not Chile wins or loses...
Whether or not we sleep in beds or in a tent with the hippos...
Whether or not we experience our first mugging...
This is all definitely going to be a once in a life time experience!

Let's just hope Chile does well, or I'll have a grumbly, grumpy boy on my hands for the rest of the trip!

Madison

We've spent the weekend getting to see good friends, eating good Wisconsin grub (beer, cheese, brats), sleeping in extremely comfy beds sharing a roof with people we love.

It's the exact recharge that we needed for the batteries that keep our souls going in the lonely, dark, bug infested times of the trip, which I know are soon to come.

Thankyou friends of Madison for all your kindness, smiles and hugs!!!!

1st world

It's weird how all of the differences between cultures isn't really noticeable until you transition from one place to the other.  

Eating on the street with little stools and fold up tables, chopsticks and plastic bowls
Eating at my mothers wooden kitchen table with ceramic bowls and wine glasses

riding on the back of a pick up truck
riding in the passenger seat of a heated car

sleeping on a board with a 1 inch thick mattress
sleeping on a great big fluffy mattress with layers of blankets

women selling steamed corn and grilled banana from hanging baskets over their shoulders
Gigantic grocery stores 3 blocks away with anything you'd ever want to eat!

For me, I didn't notice the differences until we returned home to foods and things easily attainable here that people can't possibly afford in Asia.  Things we can take for granted and rely upon like working transportation, clean water and healthy food simply don't exist for other people in other parts of the world - how could they miss what they'll never know?

It makes the problems like obesity or bankruptcy here in the States unimaginable in my mind in comparison to the issues facing people else where....our only issues come from having access to things too easily???  It doesn't seem right, does it?

When we were in Laos, I began to tell a young Lao man my age about how old my car was in the States, how it was all rusted and beaten up and ready to die at any moment and began to say: "Never buy a Ford!  Go with a Nissan!" and Rodolfo looked at me, took me aside and whispered in my ear, "Sarah, he's never going to be able to buy a car!"

That realization definitely makes me appreciate everything that we have here in the States, but also makes me wonder what things we really need to live well and enjoy life...being from the 1st world, we have that choice!

HOME

Rodolfo and I made it to St. Paul MN, late Saturday night and we've never felt more spoiled and content!
Culture clash has definitely hit, but in the form of great appreciation for everything we have here!

It's the little things like having access to unlimited cold clean drinking water!  Folding my soft, lavender smelling clean clothes straight from the dryer!  Washing dishes in a great big sink!!!  Taking a shower with hot and clean water!  Sleeping in a great big soft and squishy bed with clean sheets and no fear of bugs flying around the room or creeping in the bed!

and the FOOD!!!!  I'm lucky to have parents that love us so much, they stocked the house with all the foods I love!   The first thing they did for us when we got here was make us a great big fresh spinach and fresh lettuce salad with tomatoes and olives and grill up a great big free range steak!!!

Asia has some of the worlds most incredible food, but when we grilled up some fresh farmers market asparagus with potatoes and yet more STEAK for lunch!  ....  HEAVEN!  Every mouthful of good Western food is savored and appreciated.  I've never felt so happy and thankful to be home!!!
 
The biggest change is in the feeling of safety here.  We don't have to worry about whether our stuff is safe, where our passports are, things like that!  We can eat the food, drink the water and sleep whenever we need to, knowing we don't have to take a bus the next day to our next destination!  The feeling of falling asleep in a place where I'm completely safe and secure in a room that's not boiling hot....it is absolutely wonderful!

I woke up on my parents couch this afternoon not knowing where I was!  When my brain started to focus on my family around me, it was as if my brain didn't believe it could be really true!  Is that really my brother sitting next to me?  It can't be!  How could that be???  I'm in Asia!  Am I in Asia?
"WHERE AM I?"

It's 1am here in St. Paul and I'm wide awake from jet lag, but I've never been so happy to be here!

what a day!

It's 2am here in Tokyo, but I write to say that we just checked into our hotel in Yokohama Japan after one amazing rat race of a day!!!!

Here's how it goes!

We started out at 6am in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia!
Flight leaves late because of back ups in China.  We were in China!
We make it to China to find a lady waiting for us with a great big sign that said:
RODOLFO PEREZ
SARAH DEVORE
and the running started!
To the temperature reading line...
To the immigration line....which we didn't know why we were in....
back around immigration...
up an elevator...
thru security...
and about 1 mile straight down the longest airport corridor I've ever been on!
We get to the plane....so we can wait for 3 more hours on it waiting for lift off!
So, we get to Japan 3 hours delayed (about 11pm)
And ANOTHER great big sharpied sign with my name on it going in circles around the luggage elevator.
Our bags are still in China!

So, we are here with the clothes on our backs and our camera and toothbrushes for the next few days, with our bags arriving back to us when we depart for the States on Saturday!  Perfect timing!  I should feel sad, but it was nice not having to put our backs out looking for our hotel room in the dark tonight!

I do need to give Japan Airlines some well deserved credit!!!  They got totally screwed by China traffic control, and kept their cool providing exemplory service!!!  Many drinks, snacks, movies, the best in air dinner Rodolfo and I have ever had!!  Since the plane got in so late and we missed the last trains, they gave everyone on the flight free bussing to the different areas around!   Including Yokohama!

So all in all, and exciting transportation day of 3 airlines (Southern China, Malaysia Airlines, Japan Airlines), 3 countries! (Malaysia, China, Japan) and 3 days to go before we're home!  YAY!!!!!!!

Goodbye rice! Helloooooo cheese and ice cream!!!

In about 2 hours we embark on an Air Asia flight to Kuala Lumpur Malaysia!
For anyone traveling within/to Asia, Air Asia is an incredibly kick ass airline!
Once we get to K.L., we've paid $4 each for a round trip Air Asia Bus ticket into downtown, and our second night we'll be testing out the Air Asia Tune Hotel!  Yup...we are all about Air Asia.  It's a no frills airline that does what it says it'll do for cheap!  Love it!!!!



Ok.  Enough advertising.. I LOVE AIR ASIA!!!!

Over my last week in Laos, I pretty much haven't seen or done anything thanks to my tummy, but I do finally feel like I won't leak on myself or others in any form!  What a great thing to be proud of, right?

It's a mixed bag of feelings leaving Laos... and then leaving Asia....sad and happy at the same time.
After three months, so many rivers, oceans, mountains, cliffs....
Scary hotel rooms, creepy crawly bugs,  sun burns....I mean!
Incredible fruits, incredible cultures, incredible friends!
See what I mean?
I guess that's part of travel, the mystery of not knowing what's around the corner until you're in it and then dealing with what you get for good or for bad.  It's certainly exciting!

I'd love to say that I'm soaking in all the great Lao foods and temples right at the last minute here, but nope, we're sitting in the most American-esque coffee shop in town with the free wifi and the perfect a.c. level waiting it out until we leave, dreaming about pizza and steaks and burritos!!  I can't wait!!!!

Now that we're less then a week away from U.S. soil, I have dreams about kissing the airport cement floor on arrival, running to the closest airport pizza or burrito dive and stuffing my face! CHEESE!  I'm in 3 months of withdrawal...that's a lot of non cheese eating to make up for.  Hopefully the cheese gods will somehow forgive me!  I'm also in need of some: Corn tortillas, ice cream, BREAD!  Pasta with italian tomato sauce, chocolate chip cookies, I have to stop there...I'm getting hungry!

What does Rodolfo dream of?
Steak!  Hamburgers!  A great big fresh salad, kalamata olives and about 2 giant tubs of ice cream should get him through the first few hours of arrival.

Don't get me wrong, Lao food is delicious and unique, but I've now eaten enough steamed rice for a life time!
(you can never get enough sticky rice)

voodoo doll? and TV

All right.  The joke is over.  Whoever has my voodoo doll, you can now stop poking it, throwing it, and now, squeezing all the food out of it!  Seriously....we can all act like adults about this!  It's not funny anymore!
I'm on day 3 of tummy poisoning.  Hopefully, things will get better before our multiple international flights!

The good news is that I'm now almost completely up to date on my cable movie viewing!
The Terminator
Bride Wars
Moulin Rouge
Fast and the Furious
Penelope
and this one horrible comedy with Steve Martin that gets played continually on HBO....
I hate Steve Martin.

I'm also becoming quite educated on the coming prime minister election in Great Britain...I don't have a favorite yet and it doesn't seem like Great Britain does either.  If they had someone running with a resemblence to Hugh Grant, I bet it would all be much easier!

And a note about Asian News Coverage:
Get this!  CNN in Asia?  Not from the US!  It's completely British/Australian/Indian!  Who knew?

What do Laos people like to watch here?
3 channels showing crazy line dancing with skimpy outfits to pop songs
3 channels with a dude crooning about being poor and not being able to afford a girlfriend
10 channels with Thai soap operas - let me explain the 30 minute plot of every episode:

8 women - 1 older dude
women sit around looking serious and crying
man comes in - starts yelling
one women, usually with some fur coat on, starts yelling back
more crying
then there is some serious glaring....
close up on glaring angry man
and...
SLAP!  SLAP!
women falls to the floor
crying..
women crowding around..all crying...
women stands up, yells some more...
SLAP!
more crying.
the end.

I wonder if U.S. soaps are this bad and violent without the talking?
Did I mention we have cable in our hotel room?