Wanderlust

Vientiane, Laos.

Our official six months of traveling was December 2nd. We spent a couple of hours sitting on our bungalow’s porch by the Nam Ou River in Nong Khiew talking about the past six months and thinking of things based on silly criteria that we made up. So, here is our list of worsts and bests and favorites. Enjoy!

1. Favorite Touristy thing.
   1. Stephen: Devil’s Nose train ride in Riobamba, Ecuador.
   2. Gina: Whale watching and seeing the boobies at Isla de la Plata, Ecuador.
2. Favorite Day.
   1. Stephen: The first day in Beijing, China. It was so surprisingly pleasant. We walked around the two lakes, Steve had his first bottled green tea drink (which he misses now that we’re in Laos), and we went to Prince Gong’s Palace. But it also gave us as wrong impression of China since we were staying in the little hutong (alley) neighborhoods. The rest of China was nothing like these little neighborhoods in Beijing.
   2. Gina: The first full day in Laos–on our bus ride from Odomxai to Pak Mong. I just felt so happy and relaxed, even though we were in a cramped bus for hours! It was just so beautiful and we passed so many little villages with happy people taking baths and we ate crepes and baguettes and fruit smoothies! It was so nice. Especially since we had very little fruit in China (except for oranges!).
3. Favorite meal:
   1. Stephen: the ostrich dinner in Arequipa, Peru.
   2. Gina: Stephen’s ostrich dinner in Peru! No, really the first time we ate at Kelly’s in Yangshuo, China. Not because it was the best food, but because it had been so long since I’d had food that reminded me of home–including dairy!
4. Funniest day:
   1. Stephen: Getting drunk in Puerto Lopez, Ecuador and diving into the shallow water while Gina was away seeing boobies.
   2. Gina: Watching the lightening storm and the crazy tourists on top of the church while cowering in the gift shop in Quito, Ecuador. I miss lightening storms! And Stephen was a little uneasy about it since they don’t get storms like that in San Francisco. It was great!
5. Favorite animal:
   1. Stephen: The kitty at the restaurant/hostel in Latacunga, Ecuador. She was so sweet and sat on our laps all through our 2 breakfasts there. She made us really miss Elizabeth.
   2. Gina: The monkey (who I named “Monkey,” very creative, I know) in Huacachina, Peru. He was so cute the day he curled up on my lap and napped holding onto my thumb.
6. Worst Hostel:
   1. Stephen & Gina: The one in Bahia de Caraquez, Ecuador where we stayed one night before volunteering with Planet Drum. They were nice people and they gave us a yummy breakfast, but the room was a horrible, windowless cell full of mosquitoes and the noisiest fan that we thought would fall on us at any moment. It was awful!
7. Worst bus/train ride:
   1. Stephen: The train to Fenghuang, China. Our second overnight train in China where we only had seats. This time hard seats.
   2. Gina: The train to Shanghai, China from Beijing. Our first train ride in China. I just didn’t have any idea that the soft seats would be so miserable (they didn’t even recline). It was probably a little better than the hard seats to Fenghuang, but I was just caught completely off guard the first time. I knew what to expect the second time which made it a little better.
8. Favorite Hostel:
   1. Stephen: L’Aubergine in Quito, Ecuador. Nice view, best South American place, and it was cold! After the heat in Bahia for a month it was nice to be cold again and sleep with blankets.
   2. Gina: Oudomxai, Laos. The biggest, softest bed I’ve ever slept in. Hot shower, wooden furniture, TV with HBO and all for $5! After the hard beds with shared bathrooms that were expensive in China, this place was a paradise!
9. Best Western Breakfast:
   1. Stephen: Casa Hood in Banos, Ecuador. Giant pancakes.
   2. Gina: Kunming, China at Prague Cafe. Just beautiful, healthy food. It was delicious.
10. Best scenery overall:
    1. Stephen & Gina: Mongolia. Hands down. It was gorgeous.
11. Best scene:
    1. Stephen: Waking up on the 12 hour bus through the mountains from Lima to Cusco, Peru. We were so high up and there was snow covering the hills. The sun came up over the giant mountains and the canyons were full of yellow grass. Beautiful.
    2. Gina: (I slept through Steve’s favorite scene!) Fairy-land of yellow leaves by the river in the canyon in Mongolia. It was the most beautiful place I’ve ever been. I could have stayed there forever.
12. Best experience:
    1. Stephen & Gina: V.E.T.–volunteer English teachers in rural Yangshuo, China.
13. Easiest budget traveler country:
    1. Stephen & Gina: Ecuador.
14. Favorite sweet:
    1. Stephen: coco casero ice cream in Ecuador (coconut cream)
    2. Gina: Mora ice cream cone in Ecuador (mora is sort of like blackberry)
15. Strange things we miss:
    1. The man yelling “Agua de Coco!” every morning outside our apartment in Bahia, Ecuador. (he was selling coconut water)
16. Big events we missed:
    1. 2008 Presidential elections (although we did vote from China and watched the results online)
    2. Gina’s cousin Meagan’s wedding.
    3. Stephen’s nephew Aiden’s first birthday.
    4. Thanksgiving
17. Things we never want to hear again:
    1. Bob Marley
    2. “Llamada, llamada, llamada” (Women on the streets in South America selling cell phone time yelled this everywhere!)
    3. Taxi! Taxi! We couldn’t go anywhere in Peru without every taxi driver (and there were hundreds of them) yelling at us.
    4. Fire crackers. In China they set of fire crackers for the opening of new buildings, birthdays, and weddings. They were going off all of the time in Yangshuo and they were just noisy and annoying.
    5. The sound of people hawking a lougie.
    6. Roosters.
    7. Loud techno music–it blasted from stores all over China.
18. Things we miss from home:
    1. Our bed (which we sold)
    2. Friends and family
    3. Elizabeth
    4. Cooking! And going to Berkeley Bowl, arguably the best grocery store in the States
    5. A drawer full of underwear (we brought 5 pairs each so we are always washing underwear in sinks)
    6. Different food choices
    7. A dresser and a closet
    8. Projects or homework
    9. Consistent exercise
    10. How easy things are when they’re in your own language
19. Things we’ve learned.
    1. Roosters crow all of the time and are everywhere (and possibly evil)
    2. Gina cannot be happy without good food and enough sleep
    3. Stephen has trouble making decisions/thinking when he hasn’t slept all night
    4. Gina is good at communicating without language
    5. Stephen’s amazing at directions, except when going to Kelly’s in Yangshuo, China which he still can’t get to (But Gina can! hee hee!)
    6. Gina is awesome at bargaining (thanks Steve!)
    7. Not all French Canadians speak English. (weird)
    8. Canadians all have very different accents
    9. We can only understand about half of what Irish people say
    10. New Chinese cities are terribly ugly
    11. Laos is a surprisingly wonderful place
    12. There are intestinal vampire parasites that will make you miserable but not so sick that you think something is seriously wrong (like you have a parasite)
    13. Gina hates being hot.
    14. Stephen will say he doesn’t want snacks, but then will eat all of Gina’s 🙂
    15. Gina has kung-fu master-like mosquito catching skills (I can grab them out of the air… woah!–but not with chopsticks)
    16. We’re both good at chopsticks, but sometimes we have a bad chopstick day and just can’t seem to use them right
    17. Stephen gets seasick 🙁
    18. Peruvian noodles are mushy and gross (and their mashed potatoes are watery)
    19. Ostrich is really healthy and really tasty meat
    20. Stephen loves tuna fish (before the trip he refused to eat it)
    21. Cheese makes Gina gain weight, but she can’t resist it…mmm… cheese
    22. Gina’s an amazing photographer (thanks Steve!)
    23. We hate many things about traveling, but we love going to new places and meeting new people
    24. Children are both wonderful and evil
    25. Stephen sounds really scary when he raises his voice (at bad little Chinese students)
    26. We should treat ourselves to a spa/massage once a month at least!
    27. How to say hello and thank you in 4 new languages
    28. We feel comfortable in many different places, situations, and levels of comfort (bare rooms with squat toilets and 4-star hotels)
    29. If you’re around Brits long enough, you start picking up their slang–“bit,” “proper,” “pop down/over”
    30. Chinese people who’ve learned English often say “Oh my God” as an exclamation

Well, that is a very long list, but it’s been a fun 6 months and we had a really good time thinking back over it and laughing and remembering silly things.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 14th, 2008 at 11:18 pm and is filed under About Steve and Gina. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.