Whether completely by coincidence or by Sean's incredible ability of foresight and planning skills, ending the honeymoon with a few days in Madrid was perfect! During the last few days, we spent a lot of time lounging around in sidewalk cafes and reflecting on our past 3 months. Normal people do things like go to Europe and be pampered for their honeymoon, yet somehow we manage to spend our honeymoon dodging wild dogs and touts and trekking around the deserts and landing at airports at 3 AM. For our last leg, we decided to be one of those "normal" couples.

We landed in Madrid at 3 AM, which really wasn't a big problem except the Metro doesn't start running until 6 AM and we didn't want to (a) pay for a taxi and (b) show up at the hotel at 4 AM and having to pay for an extra night of hotel. What to do?!? What to do?!?! We decided that maybe we can try to find a bench at the airport and camp out for two hours. We exited the Immigration & Customs area into the main airport lounge and found quite a crowd. Bodies sprawled across chairs and benches, there was even a cafe open that was bustling with people. Who knew the airport would be such a party?!? We managed to find an empty bench that only had an arm rest every 2 seats - ahhh, a two-seater bed. Using our bags as pillows and sprawled out across the seats, the "bed" was actually quite comfortable.

Around 6 AM, we found our way onto the Metro and our hotel. Sean and I knew suprisingly little about Madrid or Spain - yea, bullfights, siesta, Barcelona, Guggenheim and the Olympics, but what is actually in Madrid? We managed to hop online the day before we departed and spent about 10 minutes scanning through Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree - every posting mentioned something about Puerto del Sol - since everyone talks about it, that must be THE place to stay right?!? Apparently, it was. We exited the Sol metro station to find people everywhere. Youngesters sitting on curbs, nursing a night of heavy partying. The first words I spoke to Sean was "Oh my gosh! Look at the hoochie mama outfits!" and "Can that skirt be any shorter?!!" After spending a month in Muslim dominated society where the women are all covered from head to toe, this was quite a sight for our eyes. Then I realized what I actually said and it was "Oh my gosh! I sound old!!!" =)

Our hotel was in this old historical beautiful building. After months of budget travel through third-world countries, our first-world hotel room seemed like the Ritz-Carlton. We couldn't stop oogling over the cute balcony with French doors, the bathroom with nice thick towels (bath and hand!!) and lemon-scented soap. Wow!

Puerto del Sol is basically in the heart of historical Madrid and everything was within walking distance. We spent our mornings (morning = around noon) visiting museums and palaces and after lunch and a nice 2 hour siesta, we would just randomly walk around the city. Then around 10:30, the sun sets and we'll find our way to a sidewalk cafe for tapas and beer.

Maybe it's the heat, maybe it's the laid-back European enviornment, but we realized that no one is really in a hurry, people just kind of go at a nice leisurely pace. The workday usually starts around 10 and 4 hours later, it'll be lunch time. Lunch lasts around 3 hours. At lunch, everything but restaurants shuts down. Most stores open back up around 5. But 5 is really just a casual frame of reference, it means that around 5, the stores will open. Sometimes, it's 5, sometimes it's 5:30 =) We loved it! What a fabulous lifestyle - no need to go-go-go. When in Spain, do what the Spaniards do right - we made sure to plop down in a park somewhere around siesta time and just chill, sleep, people watch. We passed by this one guy sprawled face-down on the grass with his arms and legs extended like he's been shot. Both of us were like "Is he okay?!?! Is he alive!?!" We passed by him again about an hour later and he rolled into a more normal sleeping position. Whew, the boy is alive, apparently just napping.

One of the days, we decided to take a day trip out to Toledo. Toledo is beautiful and amazing. A medieval city with 3 histories - it is crammed with mosques, synogogues, and cathedrals amidst small alleys that twist and turns and that appear out of nowhere and then randomly end. We attempted to follow the suggested walking tour, but after getting lost again and again and again, we decided to just give up and just walk. The city is celebrating the 400th anniversary of the first publication of Don Quixote. One of the museum had a special exhibit of about 20 cartoonist drawing their interpretation of various scenes from the book. Sean, being a fellow cartoonist loved it! There was another exhibit of various graphic art interpretation of Don Quixote. This was way cool!! I was feeling creative from just looking at them =)

The city is quite crammed with other daytrippers, so everywhere we turned, we see at least another tourist glancing around the street, glancing at the map in hand, glancing around the street and look utterly confused. With the ancient architecture, the small alleys and overlapping rooftops, Toledo reminded us a lot of Zanzibar - but without the touts and counterfeit bills. I told Sean "Who needs Zanzibar when I've got Toledo?!!" =)

On our last day, we debated between visiting the Museo del Prado (an art museum within the same rank as the MET and Louvre) or Museo Sorolla - Sorolla's house that's been converted into a museum showcasing his work. We chose the Museo Sorolla. We loved it. The museum was small and intimate with this gorgeous garden. Neither of us were familiar with his work before, but WOW!! I have found my new favorite artist. Sorolla is amazing! He is one of the few artists who can deviate from broad brush strokes to fine lines and paint mind-boggling masterpieces.

Now we're back in USA - Chicago to be exact. Hanging out with Lily's parents and looking through ALL the wedding and honeymoon photos for the first time. With about 6,000 pictures, it's taking a few days. Our little honeymoon journey isn't quite over. We'll be driving up to New Jersey to visit Sean's parents and attend a wedding (I think we're the first couple to attend a wedding while still on their honeymoon) before moosing down to Texas and back to reality.

Thanks to each of you for sharing this incredible journey with us. We are actually quite amazed by the number of people who actually read our blogs. After the first blog and the number of replies we got, Sean and I were both like "Oh my gosh! People are actually reading our journal. Whoa!" And then you guys kept on reading =) While half-way around the world in strange lands, everytime we read a reply, it made us smile and get all warm and fuzzy inside =)

Over and out.

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We´re in Spain - enjoying this re-entry into the first world. At first, we thought we might experience a bit of culture shock, but as Sean best described it "It was returning to home cooking after months of dorm food" =)

Before I continue, let me fill you guys in on the rest of our adventures in Africa. Last time, I was doing cartwheels inside the pyramid. We soon hopped on a train and made our way down to Luxor - city of Valley of the Kings & Queens. On the train, we discovered that not only are foreigners only allowed on select trains, they´ve grouped us all into one section of one car. Is it for security? If so, who are they really protecting? The locals or the foreigners. Apparently in 1997, there was a massacar of tourists in Luxor. Since then, they´ve stepped up security. So did they put us all into one car so that they can better protect us? Or is it to isolate us so that if a terrorist wants to attack a train, at least it´s an isolated enviornment.

Anyways, we had 2 days in Luxor to see all the sights. The place is amazing. Seeing the tombs of the kings & queens were very impressive, but we were more mind-boggled by the less famous touristy spots - like the workman´s village and temple of nobles, where the reliefs and structures were expertly preserved and the sheer brilliance and size is overwhelming.

As amazing as the sites were in Luxor, dealing with the touts were less than ideal. While each individual is not as persistent as those in Zanzibar, the sheer number of them boggles the mind. Each interaction is the same:

Tout: "Felucca?" (Felucca are ancient sail boat rides down the Nile)
Us: "No"
Tout: "Guess how much?"
Us: (ignore the guy & keep on walking)
Tout: "25 pounds"
Us: (continue to ignore the guy & walk)
Tout: "okay... 20 pounds"
Us: (ignore & walk)
Tout: "okay 15 pounsd"
Us: (ignore & walk)
Tout: "okay..., okay... 10 pounds"
Us: (ignore & walk)

If they haven´t followed up with an honestly quizzical "Why you dont want to take a felucca ride??", usually around this part of the conversation, we manage to shake off the first guy, only to meet the second guy:

Tout: "Felucca?"
Us: "No"
Tout: "Guess how much?"
Us: (ignore the guy & keep on walking)
...
...

When we´re not walking by the Nile, the horse carriage guys takes over... just substitute "Carriage?" for "Felucca?" and the conversation is basically the same. And just in case the Felucca and carriage guys weren´t enough, every passing taxi thinks that you´ve been waiting all day for him to arrive and he´ll honk his horn and shout "Taxi?" and you can´t ignore the driver. If you do, he thinks you haven´t heard him and keep on honking and yelling.

So dealing with these all day, Sean and I elected to walk most of our way around the sights - even it means hiking up mountains in the midst of 100 degree temperature. At least up there, there are only goats. We literally walked across the ancient dusty mountain paths that the ancient workers used when crossing from their village into the Valley of the Kings. The view from the top into the valley was amazing! And all of Luxor and the Nile from above on the other side. WOW!

Most of tourist to Egypt arrive via tour groups, so as we are walking around Luxor, we´re usually the only ones and tour buses just buzz by us. The adults look at us strangely with this expression of "Don´t you know that you can take an A/C bus that will drive you around?!?!" while the kids usually look at us like "Whoa! They´re walking!" It does get pretty hot. One of of our walks to the Valley of the Kings - it´s about a 45 minute walk - all of a sudden, we heard sirens. We turned around and it´s an ambulence and they stopped across from us. Is it too hot? Are they worried about us dehydrating? No. The driver stops and yells at us "Taxi?" I was like, you´ve got to be kidding me right?!!? Even the ambulence drivers want to make money from tourists?!!

From Luxor, we took another train down to Aswan, one of the southern most cities in Egypt. Aswan is the region of the Nubian tribes and have some wonderful museums and temples. We thought Luxor was hot. Aswan is hot. Our first day, it got up to 118. The waiter told us that it was considered a cold day. Normal day time temperature is 131. The whole city, including air-conditioned museums basically shuts down during the middle of the day. Of course, being tourists, we aren´t wise enough to follow the ways of the locals and decided to walk around the city during the middle of the day. That got me sick in bed that night with about a 110 degree temperature. A bit worrisome when you´re in the middle of some small town where you can´t speak the langugage and there really isn´t proper health care. I drank a lot of water and took some tylenol and slept. Around 5 in the morning, my fever broke. I was so excited that I woke Sean up with "My fever broke! My fever broke!" Groggy Sean was like "What?!! Your feet are broke!?!?" =) Instead of going around and seeing the Nubian Villages the next day, I stayed in bed and drank a lot of juice & water so I was well enough to get on a 12 hour train ride back to Cairo that night. It was a LOOOONG train ride.

We departed Africa and our segment of non first-world countries in style. Due to the huge mix-up with our plane tickets, we got upgraded to business class. Whoa baby! Of course, only to be followed by 2 hours camped out at the Madrid airport because the Metro wasn´t running at 4:00 AM and we were too cheap to take a taxi! Suprising thing, the Madrid airport was packed! People buzzing and sleeping everywhere.

Our time in Madrid has been wonderful! The first day, we were walking and I stopped Sean "Listen. Do you hear that?" He was like "What?!?! I don´t hear anything." I was like "I know!!! No honking! Peace and quiet. It´s like music to my ears!"

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Hello everyone!

When you're standing in the midst of Pyramids, if you look to one side, you see desert (just like the documentaries!) and if you look to the other side - the city (which you never see in the documentaries!).

We don't think there's a word to describe the Pyramids - they were just absolutely amazing, incredible, awesome, and BIG! The picture was taken out on a dune in the desert where there was no one around. At that distance, we've escaped the camel, donkey, horse, water touts and managed to squeeze in a few minutes of silence to just stand back and enjoy the view. In fact, Lily even managed to find a spot without any animal poo to do her cartwheel. So far she's done cartwheels in every continent except for Asia. Must return for a visit to get the cartwheel on film =)

The smallest Pyramid was closed to visitors, but we managed to climb inside for about 5 steps before being asked to turn around. Still, this allows us to say that we've now been inside all three pyramids! Suprisingly, there wasn't a lot of tourists at the Pyramid. At one point, we were the only ones inside the Great Pyramid. Wow! That was an amazing feeling to stand in the midst of this ancient wonder structure and know that we were the only ones there. This also offered the perfect time for Lily to do a cartwheel inside the King's Tomb in the Great Pyramid. Unfortunately, you can't take photos or videos inside the pyramid, so no proof =(

One of the coolest things was just randomly walking around the Giza plateau. There are tombs and secret passageways just everywhere waiting to be found and the sad thing is that it seemed like most people just visited the 3 pyramids, took some pictures and left! But not us! We walked around, got a guide to show us some "secret" stuff. There is nothing quite like seeing hyroglyphics at the actual monuments. It was like "Whoa!" As Lily said, "Not only did I get to see and walk inside the pyramids - always one of my dreams - I got to see hyroglyphics at the pyramids. Life is now complete" =)

Cairo itself is pretty cool. Depending on where you are in the city, you can go completely unnoticed by hooting taxi drivers and just enjoy the city for what it is. We stumbled onto a local take out place (equivilant to a NYC bagel or pizza place) where we each got a dinner called kushari, which was so unbelieveably delicious, and only $0.75 total. Yum! Even better, when we were walking back to the hotel after our first visit - plastic bag in hand containing the goodies, the locals would look at our bag, get a huge smile on their face and boom out a big "Welcome!" We also found this amazing local bakery. We walked in and managed to find a guy who spoke English who helped us get a batch of cookies. We were going to have a snack and save them for the train ride the next day. They were SOOOO good that we polished them off that night. We had to return the next day for the train supply.

We also visited "the city of the dead" (more formally, "The Northwestern Cemetaries"), an ancient cemetary with outdoor tombs & rooms that people now live in, side-by-side with the dead. We surmised that almost NO tourists go there, because every kid (and even a lot of the adults) were so enthralled by our presence that they'd run up and say "hello! hello!" and shake our hands or ask our names. One older guy was so exited he started guessing Lily's nationality. Once he got it, he belted out a big friendly "nihao!!" (Chinese: "hello") ... and then started speaking in French to her. Lily was so confused that it didn't even occur to her that she also speaks French. :)




Well, enough rambling for today. We've stumbled onto an internet cafe that let us plug our camera into the computer! (It's been a really long time since we've seen such modern ameneties.) :) Here are 4 photos from our last few Africa destinations. Tomorrow, The Valley of The Kings! Then on to Aswan, Egypt!

Eating lunch at the Addis Ababa Restaurant in Ethiopia

We both decided after a few places that we don't care much for Ethiopian cuisine, but you can't beat the atmosphere! :)


In the middle of the great wildabeest migration!

We were literally surrounded on all sides by wildabeests and zebras! They were running all over the place, contrary to how calm this photo seems. :)


Game playing in Zanzibar

Sean was taught a game similar to this one by his father... we saw it in Zanzibar, and it turns out it's a popular pastime all over East Africa! We'd see old guys playing on the street with their coffees, or kids drawing circles in the sand and playing with rocks. Cool!

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Hello again everyone! We've seen and done so much since our last update that it's hard to know where to start.

When last we left you, we were about to go on a safari to the Serengeti and other nearby Tanzanian national parks and conservation areas! (Something Lily has wanted to do since she saw her first nature show at like 10). The whole experience can be summarized up in one word "WOW!!!" Definitely one of the most memorable and amazing 6 days of our lives. The Serengeti is unbelieveable -- endless plains as far as the eye can see, dotted with thousands of animals in every direction -- as you drive along all alone. It was often the case that the two of us (and our driver) were the only humans within sight. And we had lions and cheetahs and baboons and giraffes walking right past our jeep!! It was pretty scarey for a lion to look you straight in the eye from under 10 feet away, with nothing but air between the two of you. SHIVER!

Lily's dream was to be chased by a elephant (or a lion) .. (or a lion chasing an elephant chasing us.) It almost came true. At one point, there was this whole herd of elephants that wanted to cross the road. Just as they indicated that they wanted to cross, our jeep stopped, blocking their way. The head elephant let out this amazingly loud trumpet, stared at us with hatred and Lily thought "oh my gosh! This might be it! We might get chased!". But alas, the elephant just made another hissing sound and continued on.

Our guide was amazing, he would know how to find the animals, even by looking for paw prints in the dust as he drove the jeep. We even stayed inside the Serengeti two nights in a lodge, where we could hear wildebeests snorting as we fell asleep. And the great wildebeest migration was quite a sight! Thousands of them running past us (sometimes around us) charging, lazing, fighting, wandering aimlessly -- you name it -- as the zebras overlooked casually.

After our 6 day safari, we high-tailed it down to Dar Es Salaam on a 10 hour bus ride. We spent most of our time in Dar trying to find the Dar Fed Ex office, where we were to pick up our airline tickets for our final leg. (Might be nice to be able to leave Africa.) :) We finally got them, after asking zillions of people where it was. (Answer: on the other side of town from the actual address, in a building labled something else that has no address, through a door labled "Air Mauritius", up a dark stairwell, past some meshmetal gates, through an unlabeled glass door, at the cubicals of the people that work there.). In the end, it was the DHL employees who were the most helpful. I guess you gotta keep an eye on your competition right!?!?

Zanzibar is this gorgeous town with these amazing whitewashed arabian alleys and ornate ancient buildings. We wanted to like it so much, but in the end, we couldn't wait to leave. Our experience began with a tout hasseling us. This is typical in Asian and African countries. The only exception is that this guy stalked us. He would follow us, disappear and then reappear when we turned a corner like 10 minutes later. We tried every approach and he just wouldn't leave. We finally just ducked and checked into the nearest hotel to get away from him. It also happened to be this gorgeous swanky hotel right by the beach. We decided to treat ourselves to one night of luxury and got a suite with an ocean-front balcony. Ahhhh... We were safe up in the balcony.

When we left the hotel the next morning, we half expected him to be out there waiting for us. Luckily, he wasn't. Unfortunately, about 10 other touts were. It's hard to walk even 2 minutes without someone hounding you and they'll follow you! Yelling at you. When you ignore them, then they started saying things like "Hakuna Matata. What's wrong with you?!?! You're in Zanzibar now. Don't you want to talk to us??!?" I'll never look at the word "hakuna matata" the same way again. Eeeek! Like Sean said, after experience these touts, he'd take the (previously irritating) Chinese Rolex guys anyday.

When we weren't fighting off the touts, we were running around town trying to deal with counterfeit bills (LONG STORY - we'll tell you later). But the short story is someone slipped us 3 fake bills and we had to just cut our loses and gave them to the police. Neither of us have ever visited a police station before. The one in Zanzibar looks an awful alot like the ones in the U.S. (at least the ones they show in the movies and TV shows). The only exception is that their interrogation room is a big airy room with old wooden tables and chairs and window. I think both of us would have freaked if they took us to a metal room with no windows, metal tables & chairs and a mirror =) As we were walking with our packs towards the ferry pier on our last day, this taxi guy shouted "Hello! No hasseling you today because you're leaving." This got a big chuckle out of both of us. Then we were like "Wait... maybe it just makes the situation more awful because they realize how irritating they are!"

On the plus side - the locals we did manage to meet were very nice. One guy even taught Sean how to play this old game he used to play with his dad. Another old guy in a white skullcap shouted a big friendly "NIHAO!" (chinese: hello) to Lily as we walked by. We also got to chat with some of the hotel guests and were able to share advice on safaris, Ethiopia, etc.

Now we're in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Neither of us knew what to expect here. The only images we have of Ethiopia are the starving children commericals you see on T.V. We've spent about 2 days here and we've truely enjoyed our time here. The locals are probably the friendliest group of people we've met thus far... slightly nicer than even the Thais. The amount of begging is pretty minimal given what we were expecting. Unfortunately, most of the people doing the begging are very little children. Half the time, Sean and I were more worried about the kids getting run over by the cars as they follow up begging for money. The somewhat refreshing fact here is that the locals stand up for the foreigners. When they see kids following you, they yell or sometimes smack (lightly!) the kids. It's nice to have the locals on your side, helping you out. It makes you feel less "alone" in such a foriegn place. They're also truely intrigued by our presence... there's not much tourism to Ethiopia due to its image problem, so people will point or wave at us from afar, or giggle and come up to shake our hands. It's nice to be able to share a smile. Ethiopia is very proud of its heritage. It's so nice and refreshing to be in a town that's not overrun by KFCs, Pizza Huts, or McDonalds.

Oh, we also got to see "Lucy", the oldest and most complete pre-human ancestor that's been discovered thus far. It's in this unassuming wood paneled room in the basement of this very old museum. However, it does get a bit of special attention as the entrance to the room is marked by this white, laminated 8.5 x 11 copy paper sign with the words "Lucy's Room" stapled above the door frame.

We're already planning on returning to Ethiopia. We wanted to go visit Lalibela in northern Ethiopia, but due to a delay (the one runway in Addis was out due to lights malfunction), we got to spend a night at Nairobi airport, and couldn't squeeze it in. This was another first for us - our first time spending the night in an airport. Let me tell you, it was UNCOMFORTABLE!!! The floor was hard and the carpet was so rough that everytime you move a body part, it's like sandpaper. We managed to find this big plastic bag to sleep on. Plastic has never felt so comfortable! Anyway, at this rate, we have to take another 3 month trip to just visit all the countries we want to return to =)

Tonight, we hop on a plane to Cairo... It's pyramid time!! Woo hoo!

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Looking down from the plane onto the Mauritius island - it's very, very green! I guess since it's part of Africa, I was expecting brown sands with an occasional water hole. Oops. Guess we'll wait until we reach mainland Africa for that one =)

In every country we've visited thus far, we usually just walk up to a place to inquire about a place to stay for the night - this allows us to SEE the rooms before we decide - a very important factor in developing countries. We planned on applying the same method in Mauritius, but apparently, you can't go through Immigration without a hotel reservation (or at least a hotel address). So while the guy held onto our passport and our plane tickets for onward journey, we went in searching of a phone to make hotel reservation. Lessons learned #1 - always write in a hotel address just for simplicity's sake.

Mauritius has a great bus system and we planned on using the buses as we travelled throughout the island. Although the bus system takes you everywhere you want to go, it is a very confusing and unmarked system. If we're lucky, a bus stop will be indicated by a hand-written "Bus Stop" sign, else, you just have to know. Every one of our bus adventures is the same - buses drives by, we ask "?", they shake their heads and we wait some more. After a while, someone will finally nod their head, we get on and then begin the game of knowing where to get off. Almost a week and we still suck at the games. =)

As we island hop, we learned one thing - because it's the slow season, places have a tendency to shut down early. One day, we arrived at Flic en Flac at around 5:00. We had this cute little hotel all picked out. When we walked to it, the office was closed *gasp*. What to do now?!? We walked around and managed to find this hotel that was still open. Actually, the guy was just locking up and getting ready to leave. Whew. Lessons learned #2 - arrive at cities in the mid morning to be able to successfully make hotel bookings.

The highlight of our time in Mauritius has been the famous "Captain Nemo's Undersea Walk". It was so awesome! You wear a rock belt and a 40 Kg oxygen helmet - which basically forces you to sink to the bottom. You walk around, surrounded by fish, for about 30 minutes. The guides give you bread to feed the fish - oh my gosh, the feeling of having like 300 fish just aiming for your hand - so very, very, very cool! We were with a really fun group of people. This one woman asked if she can wear a life vest and another guy asked if there's an elevator down to the bottom of the ocean - they were both serious!!

We stayed in Grand Baie for more days then we originally planned. As I was cleaning out the Gap bag that held our toiletries and anti-Malaria pills, we discovered that the pharmacy didn't give us enough pills. We only had enough for 11 more days. We're actually about to enter the part of the trip where we actually need the pills. *gasp* What to do!?!? Do we call the U.S. pharmacy? Do we go to a local clinic here? Will they be able to get us the medicine in time?

With visions of us arriving back in the U.S. in body bags, we decided to consult Google (after all, doesn't Google knows all?!!?). Nothing - basically every site tells you to stock up on the medicine before visiting the infected countries. We decided to ask the guy working at the Internet Cafe. He suggested the pharmacy. Voila! Jackpot! In Africa, you don't need a prescription for anti-malaria pills, they're sold over the counter! The pharmacy only had 1 box left and we needed 3 box each (eek! medicine!). They had to order the additional boxes and thus the additional days in Grand Baie. So a very scary moment turned out just fine. In fact, when we did the math, we would be spending less purchasing the pills here at full rate than in the U.S. with our co-pay amounts. Rock on!

The people here are extremely friendly and wonderful and proud of their country. Our hotel owner for our first night in Port Louis appointed himself our "guardian and tour guide" and informed us on places to go, places to stay, etc. When we ask for directions, people would actually walk us to our destination. Wow!

Now we're in Tanzania - ready to go on a 6-day safari tomorrow! Speak to y'all soon - when we're one with the wild animals. Maybe we'll get chased by an elephant or something cool =)

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If a picture is worth 1,000 words, here's 1500 pictures!

Our breakfast cafe had 2 computers, we just had to hop on and check our emails (we're addicted!). Waiting for us - our wedding pictures!!!

To view the pics, go to http://www.lifemosaics.com and click on "Clients Login" at the bottom right corner. A new window should come up, if not , please check your pop-up blocker. Enter event code lily-sean (case insensitive) and happy viewing!

We only went through the "Our Wedding Story" set (about 200 pics) so far - we looooove every single picture.

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Yesterday, we rented a car and drove to the Blue Mountains just outside of Sydney, Australia. Hopping into our car with the right-side drive and "Ummm... Sean, you're signaling a left turn, but you're making a right turn" - it was just a fantastic trip! We hiked about 45 minutes into an area called Euroko's Clearing and right there waiting for us - kangaroos! A pack/bunch/school/pride/gaggle/herd of male Kangaroos just napping and sunbathing. Every few minutes, we saw one pop up and we think they're going to do something cool, but they usually just scratch their butt (they look a lot like people when they do that) or lazily meander over to a shady area to plop down again. We did see a few hop, hop, hop away - just like the nature shows. They weren't afraid of people at all and basically ignore all humans who are going ga-ga and taking a zillion pictures.

Then we hopped to the next town to follow Charles Darwin's path to some waterfalls. A little ways before the fall, the path just ended. Sean joked that it was at that point that Darwin decided to go skinny-dipping, so they lost the scent to mark the path =)

One of the most visited sights in Sydney (so says the guidebooks) is this range of mountains called Three Sisters. Right before the sun disappeared, we hopped over to the Three Sisters and hiked down to one of the sister's nostrils. I mean - who can pass up such an opportunity!??!

We decided to take this little zig zag road back to Sydney. I looked out the passenger window and gasped - for as far as my eyes can see - stars, stars, stars everywhere! You can see the Milky Way Galaxy and the little clusters of dusts around the stars. It was just the most awe-inspiring sight. I mean, I've seen pretty night skies before, but never this. Never something so pure and so beautiful. If any of you ever have a chance to come to Australia - you must do this. It's something that everyone should witness sometimes in their lifetime because it just puts into perspective the vastness of both space and time and that we're only here for a tiny splice, so we better enjoy and appreciate it!

Back track a bit - we've been in Sydney for a week and departing for Mauritius (a little island outside of Madagascar) tomorrow. Instead of traveling all over Australia, we decided to stay put and use this weekend to rest, recup, and restock up on all supplies. This gave us a chance to really explore Sydney. The Harbour Bridge and Opera House look just like the pictures! Well, actually, the first day, it was a bit rainy and overcast, so the Opera House looked brown and dirty. But as soon as the soon came out - it shined brilliantly. Our favorite area is the Newtown/Glebe - very laid-back, bohemian, and many many restaurant covering almost every ethnic cuisine. You can literally eat your way across the globe by traversing one street. How cool!

Rewinding a bit more, we loved Thailand and spent too much time there! So we had to high-tail it through Malaysia and get to Singapore to catch our flight. Since we didn't have any time to visit Malaysia, we decided to at least take the Jungle railway and visit the Jungles of Malaysia from the train. No wild animal sightings, but very, very cool ride. It also involved a 10-hour layover in Jerantut (4 PM to 2 AM). I believe Lonely Planet describe the town the best "The worst thing about Jerantut is occupying your time because there's absolutely nothing to do". We walked through the entire town in 20 minutes. The only places to sit are in these outdoor food court type of places. We would literally walk a few tables down to waste another 10 seconds or something (those 10 seconds add up)! Sean and I are already making plans to come back and actually seeing Malaysia.

From Jerantut, we caught an overnight train to Singapore. We had 1 day to spend in Singapore. Actually, our waking hours in Singapore was going to be less than our layover in Jerantut. After basically 3 days of camping out in bug-infested, rat-infested, non-air conditioned places, Singapore was a dream! We had lunch at an air-conditioned restaurant!!! Wow!

We really enjoyed just walking around the town. It's beautiful! A really great mix of the old and the new. The old buildings are very colorful and Carribean-isk. They've done a fantastic job with new buildings - a lot of open passageways and windows in quirky angles so even though it's steel/concrete/glass - the buildings are very open and inviting - you just want to walk through them!

Note of warning - mosquitos are everywhere in Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore. The ones in Singapore are especially vicious - they would bite you like 4-5 times. I'm covered head to toe in bites. There's actually a row of bites around my arm so that it looks like a bracelet. Very cool in that totally gross kind of way. I've now learned to love bug repellent and carry it with me everywhere I go!

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Our last day in Ko Pha Ngan... we woke up early to catch one last sunrise over the horizon and to swim in the crystal clear one last time. A quick shower, an iced Thai coffee (such heaven!) and we're good to go. I opened up the little notepad where we've been keeping all of our expenses and started to write down "18-May..." 18th?!?! 18th?!? I checked our train tickets - departure date, 19-May-05. Ummm... ummm... I hollered over to Sean asking him the date - he replied with "18th". After asking him about 100 times if he's sure, I delivered the news that we had one more day on the island. OH!

Geez, one more day on this glorious, beautiful island. What punishment! I was slightly (okay, not slightly, majorly sunburned), so I spent the morning hanging out on the hammock reading a book while Sean went frolicking in the water. In the afternoon, we decided to go on a hike to see a waterfall. We started out - road signs guiding our way. So far so good. A sign indicated that we should turn off the main road onto a side street. It contradicts the map, but hey, we followed the road signage. We turn onto the side street. All signs disappeared. That's okay - we decided to follow the stream and it'll lead us to the waterfall. The stream is bone dry. Not a drop of water. Hmmm... Not good, but we kept on marching forward.

All of a sudden, these 4 wild dogs appeared - teeth-a-baring, barking, and running full force - towards us! Aaaahhhhhhh! All I can picture is that scene from "Beauty and the Beast" where Beauty gets confronted by the pack of coyotes and then pieces of our flesh lying all over the road. Sean (the guy who is deathly afraid of dogs), stepped in front of me to shelter me from the dogs and yelled at them to stop. Miraculously, they did. Sean - my very own Beast (in the best sense of the word) to the rescue.

After that episode, we lost our sense of adventure and decided to hike back to the beach and just spend the afternoon on the beach. =)

The next day - the 19th - we boarded a ferry to take us to Champhon where we boarded an overnight train to Sungai Kolok, a town right next to the Malaysian border. This time, the train was an A/C sleeper. No bugs. Yea!!!!

We arrived in Sungai Kolok, walked about 10 minutes and crossed the border. It was way cool to cross a border by foot! Another stamp in the passport! According to the Lonely Planet book, we should be able to catch a bus to take us into town. It seemed like we will cross into Malaysia, see blaring neon Vegas-style signs guiding us to bus #29. We crossed the border. Just a sign for bus terminal that goes nowhere. Luckily some locals helped us out and guided us to a corner to wait or the bus. BTW - the locals here are super nice! At that corner, we guided 3 more backpackers who were also wandering around the area, searching or this mysterious bus #29.

It's HOT! Like sweat dripping down the body hot. Bus #29 finally arrived. The bus........ has A/C. When we realized that amazing thing - it's like you can hear the heavens sing!

We get on the bus, 1/2 way there, the bus driver pulls over and disappears for about 30 minutes. No explanation. We finally figured out, it was probably prayer time. This part of Malaysia is wildly Islamic. Aha!

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Okay, we LOVE Thailand. The people are friendly, the sights are beautiful, incredible beaches, laid-back pace, and most importantly - the most fantastic coffee!

We landed in Bangkok on the 13th at 1:30 AM. In the wee hours of the morning with no idea where we were going to stay. But fear not, we have the Lonely Plant book. We hopped in a taxi and headed for the Khao San district - the backpacker haven. At 2:30 in the morning, there are still people socializing.

We got up the next morning after about 4 hours of sleep and hit the busy noisy colorful streets. Our neighborhood was packed with street vendors atop the guesthouses and all sorts of white people. Definately different than our experiences in China thus far! We spent the day seeing the sights of Bangkok - The Grand Palace and Wat Pho were both unbelieveably amazing -- so ornate, so extravegant!

Our 2nd day in Bangkok was our last - so we spent the day wandering downtown, eating at street vendors, and mingling through the Siam Square street market, a grid of streets lined with all sorts of merchants selling clothes and trinkets and things. After a tour through the famed Jim Thompon House, we headed off via Hua Lumphong train station on a sleeper car (ugh: no A/C, bugs, making stops all night) for the southern section of the country.

That was about 3 days ago. We're currently on the island of Ko Pha Ngan, a 3 hour ferry ride off the eastern coast of the mainland... it is AMAZING here. We are in a secluded bay on a crescent beach with white sands and turquoise waters, drinking coconut milk in breezy cabanas and lazing around. We feel like millionaires on some kind of exotic retreat!! Sadly, we have to head out tomorrow... but we both want to come back here some day again! (And highly recommend any one of you do the same!)

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Hey everyone! Sorry for the Net silence - it's been suprisingly difficult to find Internet cafes. We saw one sign that said "email" with an arrow pointing to a 2nd floor in Dali. We couldn't figure out how to quite get to the 2nd floor. It might be through this dark & gloomy shop filled with guns and knives, we figure we'll just wait. The Shanghai Public Library is a much safer location! =)

Today, we're wrapping up our tour of China and heading to Bangkok. It has been a whirlwind 3 weeks. Sean and I have been keeping a journal (complete with Sean's drawings). It goes on for pages and pages! For your sanity's sake, we'll just provide some highlights!

Our tour began in Beijing before hopping on another plane to Xi'an and then hopped on a plane to Kunming, and then an overnight train to Dali and then a bus ride to Lijiang; basically navigating the circumfrence of the country. We rode in cars, buses, trains, planes, taxis -- now that we're covered the modern modes of transportation, we figure around Thailand, we can start adding animals to the list!

We started our tour around China with a tour group. A Chinese-speaking tour group. It proved to be a rather interesting time for Sean... and Lily. Lily realized that when it comes to historical references and words, her Chinese vocabulary is pretty much around nil. So most of the days was spent pretending to listening to the tour guide while we snoozed =) In the 3 days in Beijing, we went to all the major tourist sights (the Great Wall, Forbidden Palace, Summer Palace, 9 Dragon Wall, etc). All very cool. All very, very crowded. Sean became facinated with the Chinese Ming Dynasty style rooftops and took loads of pictures. It was pretty easy to look through the pictures and determine who took what pictures. If the pictures has roofs - it was Sean's =)

Our favorite sight in Beijing was the Great Wall. Words cannot describe the awesomeness and majesticness of this wonder. Everyone needs to see this. We managed to find a section of the wall where it was deserted - no crowds and no one to sell you stuff. You can almost imagine what it must have looked like to the guards on the towers centuries ago as they kept watch.

While all the historical sights in Beijing were incredible, the memories were tainted by the number of tourist gift shops we stopped at. They all pretend to be museums and spent about 5 minutes taking you on a guided tour before they open the flood gates to a mega store busting with clerks to hound you at every turn. We lost track of the number of stores we visited. By now, we're an expert at telling you how to spot a real versus fake jade. =)

Our fellow travelers are all very cool. At one of the stores, Sean and I bought our China souvenior (this "Jin Thai" vase ith 2 dragons). The store had this policy that if you spent more than 800 Yuan, you get this free fish keychain. It became the mission of the group to get a grand total of 800 so that we can get the free keychain (something about this being our honeymoon and fish is a symbl of happiness, etc). Our bus driver even offered to pitch in and buy something if we were a few yuan short. Yes, we got the fish keychain =)

From Beijing, we went to Xi'an. We loved, loved, loved Xi'an! The cheapest transportation if a bus taking you from the airport to the city. On the bus, we met our first backpackers - a British lad, a girl from Canada, and another guy from Sean's neck of the woods - South Brunswick, NJ. The guy from NJ asked Sean when he graduated from Rutgers. When Sean replied with "'98", the guy went "Oh" [Translated into "Oh my gosh, you're so old!"]. The 3 youngsters are currently teaching English in Japan and is using their holiday times to tour the various Asian countries. After a week of listening to Chinese, Sean had a grand ol' time actually carrying on a real conversation with someone other than Lily!

Why did we love Xi'an so much? From the moment we approached the bus, we loved the people. The bus employees were friendly and very helpful. While on the 30 minute ride into the city, a lady acted like a mini tour guide - she gave a history of the city and the architecture and then... this is the biggie - she went to everyone on the train to help them find their destination in Xi'an. What service! It turned out that our hotel was outside the city walls and they were going to charge us $50 USD a night (that translates to about 400 Yuan) - are they kidding us?!?! We decided to just ditch the hotel and any pre-made plans and go off and do our own thing. The bus company helped us find a hotel for 168 Yuan a night right near the town center and we booked an English tour the next day to see the Terra-cotta warriors and other sites.

The next day, a little bus with 11 other passengers pulled up along with our tour guide Chris (and yes, we doubt "Chris" is her real name) to see the sights. The main attractions included the grave of the first Ming Emperoror and the Terra-cotta warriors. When the first Emperor died, they forced 6 of his favorite cumcubines who didn't bear him any children to drink poison and buried them beside him. Cruel! The location of the actual grave is also a secret. They buried it 3 layers deep in a river and then covered it with mercury so that it can't be extracted (which it can't be to this day!). In addition, to make sure that no one alive knows the grave location, they also buried alive all the workers who helped dig the actual grave. Doubly cruel! The grave site is on this hill and is basically a duplication of the palace to ensure that the emperor can continue his lifestyle in the afterlife. Unbelievable!

The terra-cotta warriors are even better than the pictures or any video documentary. They've constructed buildings surrounding the 3 main pits that are currently undergoing excavation so that you can see the work in progress. Each face of the warrior is unique. When constructing the warriors, the builders actually modeled them after each other's face! Wow! The ranks of the warriors are signified by the pointiness of the shoes, the highness of the headgear and the proximity of the body armors. And yes, it's amazing the amount of information you can pick up when you understand the guide =).

The burial site has been ransaked through many wars. Looking at some of the current archieological digs - we were both amazed by how they managed to re-assemble the warriors. The pieces all look identical! How can they determine that this piece belonged to this warrior as opposed to another or... to a horse?!?! At one of the dig sites, they've uncovered a horse's butt. We're sure the entire horse is in there, but all you see right now is a butt sticking out. For some reason, this completely cracked Lily up and provided her minutes of entertainment!

From Xi'an, we hopped on a train to Kunming, only to be whisked away to the train station for an overnight train ride to Dali. Kunming, Dali, and Lijiang are known for their natural beauty. And it was BEAUTIFUL! We just wanted to take a picture of everything! Every time we blink or want to turn our head at a slight angle, we wanted to take another picture! The areas are still very poor and most residents are farmers. These people farm the old-fashion way! No heavy machinery or anything. Any wagons are pulled by oxes and the people depend on their own two hands in the fields. It's a very awe-inspiring sight to look across and see rows and rows of fields and women, men, kids standing beside each other farming the land. At one point, the bus had to stop to allow this cow to cross the road. The cow started running! When have you ever seen a cow run!!?!?

The drivers here don't quite follow the traffic rules. If a light turns red and they don't feel like stopping, they honk and continue on their merry way. So it's sort of like "Honk! I'm gonna keep on going and run you over, but I'm honking to let you know that I'm gonna run you over!" Hmmm... on that note, maybe the cow was running because it knows the crazy drivers that don't believe in stopping!

The main attraction in Lijiang is this snow-covered mountain. At 5600 meters, the mountain is the highest glacier peak in the Northern Hemisphere. Gondolas carry the tourists up to 4600 meters. High, but not THAT high. But man, this place had oxygen tanks people can buy, parkas and snow boots for rent - the whole shebang - and people were buying or renting them!!! We attempted to have a snowball fight on the top, but given that it's a glacier mountain, the snowballs were more like ice balls. After a few painful "Awwww!"s, we stopped.

After our around the China tour, we went back to Shanghai to meet up with all my relatives. This also signaled the beginning of our eating spree. We went from one gigantic mega-meal to another with no pause in between. We're sitting in front of this computer right now and holding our full-busting belly (it's a good thing all of our pants have elastic waistbands!).

These few days in Shanghai have made us started to feel like locals. We've even learned how to ride the bus! A few days ago, Sean and I were heading out early and stopped by this one street vendor to buy two buns. SO GOOD!!! We decided to stop by again the next day, the lady recognized us and gave us a huge smile ("Look! The same foreigners! They liked our food so much, they've returned!"). So now we call her our bun lady and paid her one last visit today. 'Tis a sad day to know that we won't be seeing her or her bright smiles anymore.

Wrapping it up, you might have asked yourself why the title "around China in 80 dumplings"?!?! For almost everyday of our trip, we've had dumplings. Well, technically dumplings or buns, but Sean calls the buns "dumplings" - so why get technical!?!? Each region has their own flavor. All are very, very yummy! If this dumpling eating rate keeps up, our book title might have to be "Around the world in 5000 dumplings" =)

Next stop - Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore!

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Hello everyone... we're in China - the first destination of our crazy trip! After a 14-hour flight, we finally landed in the Shanghai Pudong Airport. The first things we saw were ads for HSBC, Citibank, and Volkswagen. Hmm... have we left the U.S.?!?!? Lily's Aunt and Uncle picked us up, checked us into a ridiculously swank hotel (Sean's exact words are "This is the most comfortable toilet I've ever sat on!"), and treated us to dinner. With a tummy full of food, we collapsed. We're quite the adventurous and energetic tourists ;-)

This morning, we woke up and stumbled out to the dining hall for some breakfast and coffee. We wandered the streets of Shanghai and ordered lunch at some local place where people didn't speak English and the menus are all in Chinese. Having lost most of her reading abilities, we ordered menu under the guidance of Lily - "I think that says meat... I think that says fish" -- so the noodles were yummy, though we can't tell you what was actually in it!

Then we met up with two of Lily's other aunts and ate some yummy yummy dumplings (Sean spilled an entire cup of tea down his pants).

Tomorrow, we'll be joining a Chinese tour group and heading up to Beijing for the start of a two-week trek from Beijing to Xi'an to Kunming and back.

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Wow, we're married!! Everybody, thank you all SO SO SO much for participating in such an important part of our lives. We are who we are because of all of you, and we can't express our gratitude enough. We hope everyone had fun at our wedding and had a safe trip back to civilization. :)

Over the next 3 months as we travel around the world on our honeymoon, we will try to update these pages with little messages and maybe some pictures! So stay tuned!

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