The Adventures of Nikki and Evan

New Years on Langkawi

2012-01-06T19:02:00.001-08:00

Near the border of Malaysia and Thailand on the Andaman Sea lies the beautiful island of Langkawi. Nikki and I learned about this vacation spot while sitting in a Malaysian tourism office a few weeks ago, and thought it would be a fantastic place to celebrate the start of 2012. We weren't disappointed. We rented a cheap, tiny (right-hand drive) car and circumnavigated the island, stopping off to see waterfalls, jungle vistas, and beautiful sunsets. We drank tea at the top of the island's tallest mountain and took a cable car to a "sky bridge" high up in the clouds. The island was teeming with wildlife, including hornbills, sea eagles, brahminy kites, and colugos (also called "flying lemurs"). We also toured the 99 island archipelago via jetski, enjoying the turquoise water surrounded by limestone cliffs and a monkey-infested, supposedly fertility-inducing lake. New years eve itself was low-key. We rang in 2012 at a beach barbeque, with requisite fireworks as well as firebreathers. Not a bad way to start another exciting year!

Holiday Update

2011-12-30T02:14:00.001-08:00

Whew! It's been another crazy couple of months. Good times continued with our friends Amy and Anthony through November. We spent Veteran's Day weekend riding Vespas along the coast from Ho Chi Minh City to the town of Mui Ne, stopping off to check out rice fields, fishing villages, and slide down sand dunes. Next we took a week off to travel to Borneo, but not before spending a couple days in Singapore. We splurged for rooms at the swanky Marina Bay Sands Hotel, mostly so we could hang out at their awesome rooftop pool overlooking the city. Sufficiently pampered, we hopped on a plane to Kuching, in the Malaysian state of Sarawak on Borneo. We spent the week doing crazy hikes, kayaking, and checking out wildlife, from proboscis monkeys, to carnivorous pitcher plants, to orangutans. The food was also delicious…mmm, roti canai….

After bidding adieu to Amy and Ant, we rushed back to Saigon in time to meet up with my mom, dad, and brother who came to visit for 2 weeks. In typical Fox fashion, we packed the itinerary, touring Hoi An, Hue, Dalat, Nha Trang, and of course Ho Chi Minh City. We also fit in time for riding Minsk motorcycles through Central Vietnam, rappelling the Marble Mountains, and riding bicycles from the mountains to the coast. But wait…there's more! We flew to Siem Reap, Cambodia as well, so my family could see Angkor Wat. We also made time to run the Angkor Wat Half Marathon, where I was runner-up for the second year in a row.

Nikki and I have kept up our rigorous travel schedule since my family left. Nikki had a week-long training course in Thailand in early December, while I ran a marine spatial planning training in northern Vietnam. We were able to meet up in Bangkok for the weekend, taking a dinner cruise and touring a floating market. For Christmas we returned to Singapore where we enjoyed all the Christmas decorations on Orchard Row and saw the musical "Wicked" on Christmas Eve. We spent Christmas day riding roller coasters on Sentosa Island and stuffed ourselves on a self-designed food-tour of Chinatown.

The adventures continue with a trip to Langkawi, Malaysia for New Years and then a month of travel for Nikki's R&R break. Happy Holidays everyone!

Vertical Run and Dalat

2011-11-09T00:14:00.001-08:00

It's been super fun having our friends Amy and Anthony visiting us in Ho Chi Minh City. First of all, it's a great excuse to try all the restaurants and bars around town that we've had on our list for a while. We've also got to take couple fun trips and have a few more coming up.

The first weekend Amy and Ant were here, Nikki and I had signed up for the Bitexco "Vertical Challenge." It's a race to the observation deck of the tallest building in Vietnam (at least for now). It was 49 floors in all, which Nikki covered in 14 minutes (good for 10th in her age group) and I did in about 6 minutes (3rd in my age group, 8th overall). I had been training with my buddy Jordan a little bit (Jordan was just a couple seconds behind me), but we weren't quite prepared for the extreme leg burn of the last 10 stories! We celebrated our survival with a BBQ on the roof of our apartment building and by drinking "Foxy-Jorge" beer, which Jordan and I had just finished brewing. Jordan returned to Europe – sad to see my buddy, training partner, and fellow brewer leave!

Last weekend Nikki, Anthony, Amy, Amy's mom, and I headed to Dalat, which is a former French hillstation in Central Vietnam. These days, it's famous among Vietnamese people as a honeymoon spot, and on our first day we rode motorbikes to check out the "Valley of Love." It was everything we hoped for – tons of photo opportunities with random sculptures, flower-covered hillsides, two-person bikes, etc. The next day, we went canyoning in a nearby river. This involved rappelling, rock slides, jumping off cliffs, and swimming. The biggest attraction was rappelling down the face of an enormous waterfall. Sunday also happened to be my 30th birthday – can't imagine a better way to celebrate!

Plenty more adventures to come – next up is a coastal motorbike ride and then Borneo!

Central Vietnam Motorbike Adventure

2011-10-17T09:06:00.001-07:00

Definitely one of the best things we have done since we arrived in Vietnam is take a 3 day motorbike tour of Central Vietnam. There just isn't a better way to really get a feel for the remote central highlands than braving the twisting roads on two wheels. So two weekends ago Nikki and I hit the road with our friends Cash and Emily – starting in Hoi An, spending the night in the tiny town of Prao, continuing on to Hue, and finally completing the circuit to Hoi An.

We went with an outfit called Hoi An Motorbike Adventures, which allows you to rent the ever-charismatic "Minsk," a 2 stroke, 125cc, soviet-made beast of a machine mass-produced in Belarus. They were loud, break-down prone, and spewed huge clouds of foul-smelling smoke, but fun to ride and handled all manner of pitted, washed out roads with no problem. So what if occasionally the clutch went out or the brakes stopped working? Right? Luckily, our guide Joe and mechanic Diu were around to help us out with our (fairly numerous) mechanical failures.

Once we got out of traffic near Hoi An, we had a blast cruising down mostly empty roads, high-fiving kids in tiny villages, and zipping across causeways dividing rice fields filled with water buffalo and farmers with conical hats. There was even a rickety old suspension bridge that we all had to navigate. The road and views only got better from there though. After spending the night in a questionable hotel near the border with Laos, we hit the Ho Chi Minh Highway surrounded by mist-shrouded green mountains. At some point, the rain started falling pretty heavily. No problem. We tossed on some rain gear (and awesomely stylish ponchos) and soldiered on, barely able to see the slick road in front of us. When we hit Hue, the roads were inundated with several feet of water. It was total chaos and I can't believe we made it to our hotel (and more importantly the bar!) in one piece. Motorbikes were going in every direction and wave after wave of hip-deep water washed over our bikes (and clothes-filled saddle bags!). Troi oi – I felt like a true Vietnamese person from the Central Region. Wish I had it on tape.

The adventure continued the next morning as we skirted the huge, scenic coastal estuaries near Hue. Around lunchtime we hit Hai Van pass, with its many twists and turns and scenic viewpoints around every dangerous corner. We paused for sandwiches near the French and US fortifications at the top and made friends with a Thai group making a multi-week tour motorbike tour of Southeast Asia. From there it was a very windy ride past Nam O Beach (where US marines landed in 1965), Danang, and China Beach before completing the circuit and heading home.

Excellent trip overall and I'd highly recommend it, despite various issues we encountered along the way. I tried to select some of our best pictures here, and have posted more on Picasa at: https://picasaweb.google.com/115993796619952960910/CentralVietnamMotorbikeTrip#

August and September Update

2011-10-01T04:12:00.001-07:00

Whew! It's been a crazy few months with plenty of travel, visitors, and fun activities. Just wanted to give everyone an update on our continuing Southeast Asian adventures.

Before I get too far along – Nikki and I found out where we are going after Vietnam! In late 2012 we will start a two year post in Harare, Zimbabwe. We are so excited! True, Zimbabwe has plenty of problems. Also, it doesn't have a coastline, which will certainly be challenging for my career. However, Nikki and I really want to explore the African continent and Harare will be a great jumping off point. We'll get to live in a big (secure) house with a yard, so we should be able to bring our dog Hina along. Also, we've got some good friends also posted there, which will be super fun. Most of all, this will be a really different experience for us – I've never even set foot in Africa – new adventures here we come!

That's all over a year away. For the time being, we are loving Vietnam. For some reason the last two months have been filled with various competitions. My buddy Minh and I were handily defeated at a badminton tournament in August (turns out the Vietnamese are pretty skilled at the sport – I believe I have now been beaten by every possible demographic in HCMC). However, we were victorious a couple weekends ago in The Amazing Race Saigon, a city-wide game organized by our friends Huong and David. Earlier this month I finished 5th at the Hoi An Triathlon here in Vietnam, coming in first in my age group. I've recently started running with my buddy Jordan, who is here from the UK for a few months, so hopefully I'll be able to improve my fitness a bit. Unfortunately, the training hasn't helped my golf game, and the HCMC consulate team lost to our friends from the Hanoi embassy at the first annual inter-mission tournament in Danang. The soccer team is on a break at the moment, though we did play a friendly game in the Mekong Delta a few weeks ago (where I had the opportunity to try rat, embryonic ducks, pigeons, and various other Delta specialties).

On the travel side of things, Nikki and I took an incredible trip to Burma/Myanmar in early September (separate post below). We took a couple trips to the Can Tho in the Mekong Delta, where we got up early to check out the floating markets and toured various small waterways and villages. We also were able to spend more time in Central Vietnam, with a trip to Hue to see the ancient capital of Vietnam and the ornate tombs of past kings. Hoi An is quickly becoming one our favorite towns, with it's historic downtown packed with tailors and shoesmiths. Using Hoi An as a base, we also explored the nearby ruins of My Son: a vestige of the ancient Cham empire. The marble mountains aren't too far away either. We had fun poking around the caves with giant buddhas and riding a rented scooter out to China beach, where Nikki's parents started dating over 40 years ago!

Two of our good friends moved on to other posts this month. Nikki's best bud Liz completed her fellowship with the US Center for Disease Control and is off to join her boyfriend in South Africa – we will miss her, but luckily our next post will not be far away. Our buddy Dave also departed to prepare for his next post in Shanghai. We organized a pub crawl for his going away party, taking over some of our favorite Saigon watering holes. We've also got plenty of friends/family coming to visit these days. Last month my cousin Stan bought an impulse ticket to Vietnam and we spent a week hitting up Hanoi, Ha Long, Hue, and of course HCMC. Next month we've got our friends Amy and Ant coming, and after that my parents and brother – busy qua!

Work is going great for both me and Nikki. I'm wrapping up a UNEP funded project addressing land based marine pollution and about to start another one doing marine spatial planning in Ha Long Bay. Nikki has moved to a new portfolio addressing economic issues, so gets to be more plugged in to environmental work. We recently took a trip together to the Mekong Delta to escort a team of scientists looking at sedimentation (read: slogging through mangrove forests) and have also attended meetings together on sustainable tourism and climate change – it's so fun to get to work on the same issues!

That's the update for now – adventures will continue next month with a multi-day motorcycle tour, a trip up north, and a vacation in either Indonesia or Nepal. Also we've got R&R coming up soon and thinking about diving in the Maldives. Woo! How did we get so lucky?

Burma

2011-09-07T19:53:00.001-07:00

It took 2 months to get our visas, but Nikki and I were finally able to visit Burma (Myanmar) with our friends Sam and Alex over labor day weekend. We took a whirlwind tour of three places over four days – Yangon (formally Rangoon), Bagan, and Mandalay. For a variety of reasons, including increased chances of getting our visas, we arranged our travel through a tour company. One downside of this approach is that we had less control over how our money was spent (i.e., harder to avoid government-owned businesses). On the plus side, our guide (who went by "James" for our benefit) was absolutely fantastic.

The biggest attraction in Yangon is the Shwedagon pagoda, which is gold-covered and topped with a 76 carat diamond (among other precious gems). You can see Shwedagon from virtually anywhere in the city and the complex around it was huge – surrounded by many smaller stupas and buildings which are impressive in their own right. Most pagodas are surrounded by "planetary posts" where one prays according to the day of the week you were born. Nikki (Thursday) was represented by Jupiter (and a mouse) while I was represented by Venus and a guinea pig (for Friday). Yangon has many other sights as well – we visited a massive reclining Buddha as well as the Royal Lake with pretty views. Alex and I took an evening walk though the historic downtown with its mish-mash of pagodas, colonial style and modern buildings while the ladies got massages, before we all headed to dinner in a building once used by General Aung San (who led the country to independence in 1948).

The next morning we hopped on a plane to Bagan. Even as we landed you could see hundreds of temples scattered on the broad, dry plain. To me, Bagan is as impressive as the temples of Angkor in terms of sheer scale. 2,000 temples (many 1,000 years old) dot the landscape, housing ancient paintings, scripts, and of course Buddha statues. We had time to visit only a handful of sights – Shwezigon Paya with its fat gold stupa, Ananda Pahto with its beautiful architecture, Manuha with its huge Buddhas in tiny enclosures, Nan Paya with its carvings, and Gubyaukgyi with its 900 year old paintings. In addition to seeing the temples, we visited a local market (where I was able to buy a longyi – a very practical piece of clothing resembling a dress), and a laquerware store/factory in Myinkaba. As the sun set, we climbed the Shwesandaw Paya for stunning views of the area, watching as horsecarts carried tourists across agricultural fields between the temples. Alex and I lingered at the top until the last possible moment, clambering down in the dark. We had breakfast the next morning at our incredible hotel overlooking the Irrawaddy River in Old Bagan. However, it was sobering to discover that the tranquil scene we enjoyed was made possible because the government had forcibly removed the local population from Old Bagan in the late 80's to make way for hotels like ours – yet another reminder of the country's underlying issues. We rushed off to the airport again for the last city on our itinerary – Mandalay.

Mandalay is one of those exotic-sounding places that everyone associates with the far east, but no one really knows much about. It turns out that the area around Mandalay hosted several capitals of the Burmese empire, before the British took the city in 1885. We started out at one of these ancient capitals, Amarapura, where we visited a monastery where 400 monks were enjoying their mid-day meal in silence (one of two meals they get each day). Next, we walked nearly a mile along U Bein's bridge, which is 200 years old and made of teak. After a boat ride back, James had arranged for us to try toddy – a mildly alcoholic beverage made by letting palm juice sit around and ferment for several hours…delicious with fried baby fish and shrimp! After a quick stop at a silk factory, we continued to Mandalay proper to visit the Mahamuni Paya, where I joined the devout in adding to the 6 inches of gold leaf on a massive Buddha. The temple also has a half dozen statues of Vishnu and other deities stolen from Angkor Wat (and transferred via conquest to Mandalay by way of the Thais and two different Burmese empires). After James treated us to a delicious local-style lunch, we visited Shwenandaw Kyaung, one of the original intricately-carved wooden buildings from the royal palace which survived fires and bombing of Allied Forces in World War II, when Japanese soldiers occupied Mandalay. The royal city still exists, but was rebuilt by the government using forced labor, so we avoided this stop. We rounded out the afternoon with a visit to Kuthodaw Paya, which houses the world's longest "book" – actually hundreds of carved stone tablets each housed in a small white pagoda recounting teachings of the Buddha.

At sunset, we climbed Mandalay hill for yet another spectacular view of the surrounding countryside. We relaxed, snapped some photos, and made friends with a couple monks and a girl selling postcards (the one above sporting thanakha, traditional face-paint/sunblock worn by many people in Burma). We relaxed in the swanky hotel bar for a couple hours before piling into a tiny truck/taxi to see the nightly performance of the "Moustache Brothers." This bizarre comedy/dance/variety show troupe performs from their garage in Mandalay, a scaled-down venue after two of the brothers were jailed and subjected to 5 years of hard labor for telling politically tinged jokes. The brothers are out of jail, but still blacklisted and seemed to avoid topics that were too contentious.

We flew back to Yangon for our last day and toured the downtown for a few hours, starting out at the golden pagoda at Sule Paya and walking past city hall, the high court, and various other colonial style buildings. Monsoonal rains hit just as we arrived at the waterfront, resulting in a soggy tour of the comings and goings of the port. We had just enough time to pick up a Burmese rock CD (Ironcross is apparently the most popular group) as well as a Burmese cookbook at a street stall with unbelievable diversity in books – from fluid dynamics to Nietzsche. On our way to the airport, we had just enough time to see a very sad white (albino) elephant exhibit and drive past the house of Aung San Suu Kyi, a political prisoner who has been under house arrest on and off since 1989 (she was released last year and just provided a rare interview in Burmese media).

The trip overall was fantastic and I'm glad we went. Burmese people are incredibly friendly, amazingly knowledgeable about world events (one of our waiters inquired about the status of hurricane Irene), and eager to talk. Burma has sights unlike anywhere else that we have visited in Southeast Asia so far. We took many more pictures that I can post here – there are more on Picasa at: https://picasaweb.google.com/115993796619952960910/Burma. There are definitely problems as well, which we were constantly reminded of as we traveled around the country and learned some of the history. Through it all, the Burmese people seem cautiously optimistic. Hopefully, the coming years will bring more stability for these wonderful people that have endured much.

Orangutans and the Sumatran Jungle

2011-07-05T02:22:00.001-07:00

After a night in Kuala Lumpur, a quick flight to Medan, and a 3 hour drive past mosques, rubber trees, and palm oil plantations, Nikki and I finally walked across a suspension bridge to reach the "ecolodge" in Bukit Lawang where we would spend 4th of July weekend. The accommodations were definitely modest – no hot water or air conditioning and Indonesian-style bathing called "mandi bersiram" – i.e. with a bucket ("gentong") and ladle ("gayung"). However, the location was unbeatable. The town backs up to Gunung Leuser National Park, which hosts, among other things, a large population of wild orangutans.

We were immediately introduced to a local guide named Sunny, who we would end up hiring to take us on a couple treks through the jungle. Sunny turned out to be very knowledgeable and could use various senses (sight, hearing, and even smell) to spot all manner of jungle critters. We saw gibbons, peafowl, lizards, insects, and of course the Orang ("person") Hutans ("forest"). We watched these amazing animals for hours at incredibly close distances (sometimes a little too close, I was unfortunately standing under one when she decided to..er..relieve herself).These hikes were no joke, and involved scurrying up vines, climbing tree roots, and sliding through mud and fallen leaves. Luckily, we were well nourished for this challenge, thanks to Sunny and his bottomless backpack filled with trail snacks – bananas, oranges, a whole pineapple, and nasi goring (fried rice), which is a delicious and filling meal on the trail.

Perhaps the best part of the hike is that we finished a few kilometers upstream of Bukit Lawang and "rafted" back into town. The raft consisted of four truck tire tubes lashed together with some rubber mats in the middle to sit on. After a swim in the clean, cool water, we boarded our sturdy vessel and ping-ponged our way down the shallow river while our guide fended off various rocks and tree stumps. We had so much fun that Nikki and I returned the following day with an innertube of our own (it was also a good break from the mandi bersiram bathing). There's nothing quite like floating into town amidst hundreds of local Indonesians flocking to the river oasis for a local holiday, amidst cries of "how are you?" and "I love you!"

One night, I found myself following Sunny into the Sumatran jungle at dusk, armed with a flashlight, half a pineapple and a huge bottle of Bintang beer (apparently they only come in one size). Earlier that day, Sunny had mentioned that a "honey bear" (or sun bear) had been spotted a few evenings prior in a nearby field. Sunny's plan was to smear something sweet on a tree in the field and wait for a couple hours to see what happened – hence the fruit and beverage I was carrying. It all (amazingly) seemed to make sense at the time, but things started going wrong from the moment we arrived in the field. After preparing the tree, Sunny spotted a couple of rattan chairs we could use while waiting for our guest. He grabbed one and indicated that I should take the second. Fumbling with my flashlight, I was just about to lift the chair when I noticed a coiled shape on the edge of the seat. As you might expect, I backed away and casually asked Sunny if there were any poisonous snakes in the area. Coming over to check it out, Sunny nearly leapt out of his skin when he saw what he thought was either a "green mamba" or a "moon snake." Either way, he kept saying, I had just had a near miss with an incredibly venomous animal. Still undeterred, Sunny and I dragged the remaining snake-free chair into the field to wait for the honey bear. We sat in silence for some time, Sunny smoking and me sipping my Bintang. At one point, I glanced over and noticed that Sunny had both of his feet pulled up underneath his body so as to avoid touching the ground. Upon further inspection, Sunny appeared to be visibly perturbed. He started telling me about cobras that has been spotted in the area and various poisonous insects, toads, spiders, etc. It wasn't until he mentioned that, in fact, the honey bear we hoped to see was rumored to be pregnant and unusually aggressive that we finally decided it was time to call it a night.

When we weren't following Sunny through the jungle, Nikki and I spent time at the orangutan rehabilitation center on the edge of the national park. In the past, the center was used to rehab orangutans rescued from captivity and re-introduce them into the wild. Since the nearby forest is now thought to be at carrying capacity for these animals, staff at the center focus on providing food (bananas and milk) to semi-wild orangutans with special requirements (e.g. pregnant or nursing mothers). The center is accessed via canoe and was a great spot for snapping up close photos, despite being somewhat crowded with people. At times, the orangutans would hop the fence delineating the viewing area, making for some very entertaining frantic scurrying as everyone tried to get out of the way.

The trip was a great success and one thing we enjoyed most were the Indonesian people themselves. From the schoolkids that performed traditional dances at our hotel each night, to the local staff that would jovially greet me as "Mr. Obama," to our driver Ricky that would make quiet conversation while playing American music he thought we would enjoy (a fantastic Michael Jackson tribute album), we were struck by the warmth and friendliness of all the Indonesians we came across. It's a great incentive to plan a return trip!

4th of July Performance

2011-07-05T00:45:00.001-07:00

Here's some footage from the performance that a few of us from the consulate put on for the Ho Chi Minh City Union of Friendship Organizations last week in celebration of the 4th of July. I think our rendition of these half dozen American songs wasn't all that bad!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sJ_WDAVHPo&feature=youtu.be

June Update

2011-07-04T08:46:00.000-07:00

It's been over a month since the last post and we have been busy! Here's a quick rundown of what we've been up to in June:

I started the month off with a presentation at the Vietnam Marine Economy Forum in Nha Trang about the importance of marine spatial planning, which generated some interest and hopefully a few project opportunities. I even gave an interview on Vietnamese television (in my terrible Vietnamese) afterwards.

After months of planning, Nikki was able to organize a weekend trip to Long An province with Habitat for Humanity for the consulate community. The event was a huge hit with 25 attendees and major progress on two homes. Yay for Nikki!

There was an awesome lunar eclipse which I nearly slept through after mis-setting my alarm, but woke up just in time.

Nikki and I attended an off-site weekend trip with the local staff community. After the requisite awkward (but ultimately fun) team-building events, we partied all night Vietnamese style with a beach barbeque and karaoke.

After our victory last month over the "Dragon" team from embassy Hanoi, the consulate "Tiger" team did a little community event with a shelter for street children where we donated clothes/shoes and played a mini-tournament (they kicked our butts). A few weeks later, we won a local tournament in town.

I did a bunch of biking with my buddies Andrew, Sene, and Rob including a trip to a random rural island in the Mekong delta (involving two ferry rides) and a trip to the Cambodian border (we were actually turned back a few km away by some hyper-cautious border police). Sadly, Andrew is leaving this month, but I've recently made some new friends who seem equally prepared for crazy bike adventures.

Along with a bunch of friends from the consulate, I performed a bunch of American songs for a Fourth of July event last week – I played guitar and mostly didn't mess up too badly! My friend Huong and I even threw in a performance of the local song Saigon Dep Lam for the mostly Vietnamese audience.

Generally, we've been having a ton of fun and hanging out with all of our friends here. Nikki has a group of ladies she hangs out with for Sunday Fun-Days, I go out with my soccer buddies, etc. There's always something going on. Above are a few pictures from a night out to say goodbye to one of my good friends here, David – major downside of this lifestyle – everyone is always leaving!

Mission Cup and Bike Trip

2011-06-01T00:19:00.001-07:00

Last weekend the Consulate Tiger Team won our long-standing annual soccer match against the Hanoi Embassy Dragon Team. We've been training for this "Mission Cup" game for months, so it was great to have all that hard work pay off. Tensions were running high and the game itself was pretty rough. Monsoon season here also predictably delivered a rip-snorting thunderstorm, which added to the fun. I played a fair amount of the game and even scored a header on a corner kick, though it was not counted due to a penalty. Pictures from the game are on the team's website: https://sites.google.com/site/tigerteamhcmc/Articles/win2-0may28againstdragonteam-hanoitigerteamhasdefendedtheirannualtrophy/triumph-s-photos-of-tigerteam

Nikki came out and cheered along with a big group of supporters, and we all enjoyed a fun party celebrating the win afterwards with food, drinks, and singing (of course, I sang the two Vietnamese songs I know – will have to memorize a few more!). The fun didn't stop there though, as my buddy David and I headed to the local Spanish bar later that night (at 1:45AM) to watch Barcelona beat Manchester United.

Tired and happy, the next day Nikki and I hopped on an airplane to Dalat, which is an old mountain hill-station oft-visited by Saigonese escaping the muggy heat of the Saigon-Mekong river delta. The town has a very interesting French-colonial vibe and we enjoyed the architecture, food, and cool weather. Our hotel, the Ana Mandara, was built on an old French estate and maintained the sense of yore with antique cars, telephones, bathtubs, and buildings.

We rose early the next morning, and after a delicious breakfast of pho and croissants, headed out with a tour operator called Phat Tire to ride bicycles from the mountains down to the coast at Phan Thiet – a total of about 70 km. The scenery was incredible – pine forests, coffee plantations, ethnic minority villages, dragon fruit farms, and rice fields. Of course we saw every kind of cute farm animal you can imagine – pigs, goats, cows, etc. After the long ride, we treated ourselves to some relaxation in the beach town of Mui Ne, where we sat by the beach/pool, got massages, and read our books. I rented a windsurfer and was promptly blown several miles down the beach, but still had a blast.

We had planned to take the train back from Mui Ne to Ho Chi Minh City, but discovered upon arrival at the train station that the tickets were sold out. However, no worries! This is Vietnam, and with some good 'ole begging and pleading, we were able to secure one and a half seats on the train, usually reserved for employees. What is a half seat? Well, it happens to be a small plastic chair sitting in the aisle. Perfectly acceptable for the 5 hour trip back to Saigon Station through plantations of dragon fruit, manioc, and rubber trees. Ahh Vietnam, the adventure continues!

Work Trip, Cute Kids, and a Triathlon

2011-05-23T07:54:00.001-07:00

I am finally getting a chance to work on some interesting environmental projects here in Vietnam (it only took me 6 months to line up enough contacts!). Most recently, I was able to attend a workshop put on by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in Hoi An to discuss the current status of marine protected areas (MPAs) in the country and their role in protecting sea turtles. MPA managers from all over the country attended and my rudimentary Vietnamese language skills are definitely coming in handy. We had the opportunity to visit a nearby MPA on Cu Lao Cham Island, which is mostly undeveloped and beautiful. Locals were selling/eating all manner of sea creatures caught around the protected area. Looks like this conference will result in a short paper, and then I'm off to another spatial zoning conference next month. Between these and my recent contract to work on land-based marine pollution, I'm feeling pretty good about my opportunities here!

Two weekends ago, Nikki and I visited a local orphanage with our friend Dave and his girlfriend. The orphanage had over 300 kids aged 0 to 16 who just wanted a little attention. We literally walked into rooms where 20 two and three year olds would raise up their arms, begging to be picked up. We spent a lot of time holding and playing with the kids, and distributed milk and treats that we had brought along. Now we are trying to organize return visits with other consulate folks

Last weekend, Nikki and I drove 4 hours east to Mui Ne, in the desert-like province of Binh Thuan to compete in the Le Fruit Offroad Triathlon (http://www.vietadventure.vn/eventdetail/item/2). We have been training fairly regularly for the race, but were totally blown away by how difficult it was!! For the swim/bike/run, Nikki's distances were 300m/20k/4k (my distances were about twice that). Sounds easy, right? Wrong! First, the ocean swim was pretty rough (Nikki swallowed several gallons of seawater). Next, the bike included an offroad portion where you had to actually carry your bike over a series of sand dunes – Nikki had her cruiser 1 ton mountain bike, which made this portion especially tough. For my race, I actually had to do the dune section three times. Finally, the run was on the beach, and we all know how much fun sand is to run in!

The good news is that the area was stunningly beautiful, and Nikki and I both finished the race. We made a couple preparation mistakes (e.g. did not bring any Gatorade/gu/energy bars for the 3 hour+ competition, and I didn't quite carry enough water – idiot!), but in the end we were proud of ourselves for gutting it out. I placed third and was 16 minutes behind the winner, but totally bonked on the run, so I know I can do better next time). We treated ourselves to a relaxing morning at Mui Ne beach the next day, lounging by the pool and in the waves before jumping in the car for the long drive home through bizarre dragon-fruit plantations.

Next week is Mission Cup – a major soccer game between the HCMC Consulate and the Hanoi Embassy. Everybody has been gearing up for it and we are hoping to win for the third year in a row. Last weekend we had a cupcake fundraiser at the consulate which was super fun – I made hideous, yet delicious peanut-butter chocolate ones – yum! This week, the team is making final preparations. Saturday is the big day, so we gotta rest up!

Laos

2011-05-05T21:37:00.000-07:00

We finally were able to make it over to Laos last week and loved the people, food, and beautiful scenery. Thanks to international labor day and "victory day" here in Vietnam (celebrating defeat of American forces), we had almost a whole week to explore both Luang Prabang and Vientiane.

Luang Prabang is located in north central Laos at the intersection of the Mekong and Nam Khan rivers and is filled with temples and beautiful architecture. One of the biggest highlights of the town is that around 6AM every morning the resident monks fill the streets in bright orange robes, where people provide them with sticky rice and other food. Our friend Alex and I both participated in the ceremony by offering rice, even though it was raining our first day. We must have snapped hundreds of pictures.

The rivers and mountains were pretty photogenic as well, which we enjoyed the next day while taking a two hour boat trip up the Mekong River to visit Pak Ou Cave, where hundreds of Buddha statues have been placed. We stopped in a riverside village along the way, where I sampled some Lao coffee and there was no shortage of cute kids. That afternoon, we hired a tuk tuk for the hour drive to Kuang Si Falls. We took an alternate path to the main waterfall, which involved a slippery muddy path and fording the river, but the sheer beauty of the place was worth it. I was able to fit in a quick swim and try out an awesome rope swing. They also had an exhibit with rescued sunbears, which Nikki of course loved!

The next day we visited an elephant sanctuary set amongst stunning mountains and a river. We were able to feed and ride the elephants, and I'm pretty sure Nikki was trying to figure out how to get one back to Ho Chi Minh City. From the sanctuary, we jumped in kayaks and followed the Nam Khan river for a few hours back to Luang Prabang, getting a riverside view of rural Laotian life.

Aside from these day trips, we had tons of fun touring around Luang Prabang proper. We climbed Phu Si to visit the hilltop temple, got Lao massages, checked out the night market and sampled street food, and of course gorged ourselves on delicious Lao food – Laap salad, pork-stuffed lemongrass, sausages wrapped in lettuce and herbs, dried Mekong river weed (good with BeerLao), various dips made from eggplant, tomato, and buffalo skin (yum!), and of course ubiquitous sticky rice.

We had only a couple days to see Vientiane, but had fun sightseeing in the Lao capital city along the Mekong river on the border with Thailand. We saw the famous gold-colored Pha That Luang Buddhist stupa, the Arc de Triomphe-like Patuxai monument, and several other wats and temples. One of the highlights was eating at restaurant Makphet, which is both delicious and benefits street children (part of Friends International, which also has restaurants in Cambodia).

In all, we loved Laos and found it to be a fantastic and somewhat overlooked travel destination. We will definitely have to return for more delicious food and adventures.

Busy Months!

2011-04-25T10:10:00.001-07:00

Holy cow we have been crazy busy over the last couple months (hence the lack of updates to our blog). I'll try to hit the high points here, but the main gist is that I started some new projects, Nikki got to help host a VIP, we've sponsored a newly arrived couple, we saw two big concerts, I've got a big soccer game coming up, and by the end of April we will have travelled to three new countries (Philippines, Singapore, and Laos). Troi oi!

Our weeklong trip to the Philippines was fantastic. We hung out in Manila for a day, just to get a sense of the place. We had delicious food in Chinatown, checked out their pretty decent aquarium, watched the sunset over Manila Bay, rode around in a tiny tricycle taxi, and sampled the ubiquitous junk food in one of the malls. While interesting, Manila wasn't necessarily our thing and we were happy to escape south to the Bicol region to a place called Donsol. This is the place to see whale sharks, which show up pretty regularly in March and April (they are fairly rare elsewhere in the world). Here's the (WWF-approved) process: you jump on a tri-maran boat with your snorkel and wait for the spotters to see a whale shark before you roll off navy-seal style and swim as fast as you can to keep up – no touching the animals, but you are so close you could pet them if you wanted to. I was able to gaze into the eye of one of these big gentle guys for several minutes while cruising along next to him. The area also has decent diving, despite widespread use of cyanide and dynamite fishing (we even heard charges going off while in the water). I don't know if we have ever seen so many different types of nudibranchs and invertebrates, though there weren't a ton of bigger fish.

Content with our primary mission accomplished, we jumped on a bus for the hour-long drive back to the airport. Though our flight was canceled due to bad weather, and the original forecast for getting on another flight was grim, some combination of luck/persistence/bossiness landed us on another airplane the next morning, followed by a boat, tricycle ride, and walk along the beach to our cute hotel in Boracay. We spent the next few days relaxing on the white-sand beach, diving, parasailing, kite-surfing, zorbing, ziplining, and generally enjoying the food and nightlife along the sandy pedestrian beachwalk. Considering the small size of the island, there was plenty to do, and we were sad to have to head back home after a few days.

We were back home only two days before taking another plane to Singapore for the weekend to see a concert featuring John Legend and one of our new favorite bands, Trombone Shorty (this is our second concert since seeing the Backstreet Boys in HCMC last month). We traveled with our friends Alex, Liz, and Sam and thoroughly enjoyed the outdoor performances beside Marina Bay. The next day we had a few hours to explore the city and were impressed by how clean and orderly everything was! The architecture was super interesting too. Given how close/easy it is to get to Singapore, we will definitely be heading back for a return visit.

Back in Vietnam, we've been keeping in pretty good shape with yoga, running, soccer, and several exercise classes (sounds lame, but they're pretty good!). I've even had a chance to check out a local rock climbing wall. We are thinking of doing a triathlon together in a few weeks and next month is the big soccer game between the Embassy Hanoi and Consulate HCMC. The consulate team has been practicing like crazy and I've been enjoying hanging out with all my buddies while we prepare for the big match.

In other news, I started a new project helping to develop Vietnam's National Program of Action for addressing land-based marine pollution – it's great work funded through the UN Environment Program and I'm enjoying a slightly different focus than I've had in the past. Of course, I'm still involved in MPA work here and helping with an IUCN-run MPA meeting next month. Nikki is also enjoying her work, though it's been pretty busy. She was lucky enough the help host a VIP visitor last week and hopefully will have some similar opportunities in the future. In addition, we have been busy sponsoring a newly arrived couple (Eric and Danielle) – introducing them to folks, showing them around the city, etc. They are tons of fun and it's been great getting to show them all our favorite things about Ho Chi Minh City.

So that's the news. We are heading to Laos at the end of the week to check out temples, monks, and beautiful scenery. After that, Nikki's work will be picking up, so we will probably have to travel less, but if the past few weeks are any indication, I'm sure that we'll find plenty to do!

Weekend in Town

2011-03-07T06:54:00.001-08:00

Last weekend we stuck around Ho Chi Minh City, taking a break from our hectic travel schedule. Of course, the days were still packed with plenty of local adventures. The social activities kicked off with a much deserved happy hour on Friday at Nikki's work, with entertainment provided by a Wii Just Dance contest. But dancing alone wasn't enough, so the following night we gathered for our buddy Chris' karaoke-driven rooftop going away party, which ended at 3:00 AM when each remaining guest was systematically tossed in the hottub (instigated by Nikki). The theme of the party was to dress "very Vietnamese," so Nikki and I were cheesy local tourists. After a big night out, we took it easy on Sunday with a trip on the Saigon River. Chris happened to have a friend with a super-nice boat (I'm talking T-Pain style), so we cruised around sipping champagne, snapping photos, and enjoying delicious food – we were sure to bring our global elite cards!

Of course, there was some sports action as well. Nikki and I are training for some upcoming races, so we were sure to run a few miles on the treadmill (it's tough to run in the busy, exhaust-choked streets here). On Saturday, I did a 50 mile ride towards the Mekong Delta with a few buddies of mine, stopping in the tiny towns along the way to eat a steaming bowl of organ-meat soup, fix a flat tire, and have a few local beers. You had to love the local sites – huge factory in the middle of nowhere, ducks and piglets hanging off scooters, rickety wooden bridges over canals between rice fields, etc. I'm getting better at riding in traffic here (it's similar to how I imagine fish swimming in a school must feel) and navigated the streets once more on Sunday to play soccer in the blazing hot sun with my friend Dat's team (picture of me, the field, and my friend Tuoi above).

Fun and (relatively) low-key weekend; definitely nice to hang around town a bit and enjoy all of our friends here.

Hoi An is Beautiful

2011-02-27T20:04:00.001-08:00

About an hour's car ride south of DaNang is a former trade center called Hoi An. Recently recognized as a UNESCO world heritage site, the town has been maintained in its former state, with small alleyways separating several hundred year old wooden buildings, displaying a unique combination of Japanese, Chinese, and Vietnamese influences. We had a blast poking around town on foot/bicycle (there are no cars allowed in the downtown) with our friends Liz and Vanessa, and of course paying a visit to Hoi An's famous tailors for a few dresses and shirts. I enjoyed just sitting in the cool interior courtyard of B'lan (the tailor we visited), admiring the intricate woodworking and chatting with the staff while they proceeded to crank out 8 perfectly fitted dresses/shirts for us in a little over 24 hours. We took advantage of the warm weather to ride about 4km to the beach (the southernmost part of the famous China Beach) and enjoy cold beer and a refreshing dip in the South China/East Sea. As always, we enjoyed the particularly delicious local specialties, including a Cao Lau (a pork, noodle, soup-y thing), White Rose (shrimp dumplings), Com Ga (chicken rice), and Banh Xeo (crepe/pancake thing, wrapped in lettuce/rice paper – a bit different than the version down south). While we were sad to leave, we enjoyed a free upgrade to first class on the way home (I guess Vietnam Airlines has decided 20 flights in 5 months makes us frequent fliers!) – chúng tôi là high rollers! Above are some of the best shots from our trip; I've also put a few more on picasa: https://picasaweb.google.com/evanwfox/HoiAn#

Con Dao Birthday Weekend

2011-02-22T07:40:00.001-08:00

Last Saturday was Nikki's birthday!! We headed to the nearby Con Dao Islands for the long weekend to celebrate with seven of our friends. Our buddy Liz and I took it one step further, planning a surprise "Hawaiian Style" theme party on Saturday night – I'm talking fake leis, grass skirts, and umbrella drinks – we even got obnoxious orange t-shirts made to commemorate the event (I know, I know, exactly the kind of thing Nikki loves), which were deployed right off the bat at the airport. Though the hotel was a little "funky" (e.g. Liz and Sam had one of their beds reallocated to another room in the middle of the night), we had a fantastic time swimming, relaxing on the beach, and touring the tiny town. We made sure to have at least one meal at the swank Six Senses Resort, which reflected our newly acquired Global Elite status, if not our bank accounts. Our friends Huong and David made sure that things ran smoothly the whole trip (thank goodness!) and all our friends provided exceptional entertainment – I might die of laughter if I hear one more story from Joe… We got a little diving in, while our buddies Janell, Archana, and Liz snorkeled – plenty to see, though apparently the same beautiful full moonrises we were enjoying also meant poor visibility (we still saw some awesome nudibranchs). We even made time for a tour of the island's many prisons (seems there's a dark side to most vacation spots here!), which were used by both the French and Americans during the first and second Indochina wars, and are home to the notorious "tiger cages." Yikes. The whole weekend was a total blast and I think Nikki even enjoyed her birthday (a few presents sprinkled here and there, as well as not fewer than four bouquets of flowers at home might have helped that!). Here are some more pics from the trip: https://picasaweb.google.com/evanwfox/ConDaoBirthday#

We are still going strong in terms of regional travel with some more fun trips on tap – Hoi An, Philippines, Laos, and China all coming up soon – woot! Stay tuned!

Holiday in Cambodia (and Thailand)

2011-02-13T23:40:00.001-08:00

Well, it's been some time since our last update. Two weeks ago Vietnam celebrated the lunar new year (called "Tet") with flowers, fireworks, and general merriment. Nikki got a whole week off work, so we spent a few days in Southern Thailand (Phuket area) followed by a couple days Cambodia (Phnom Penh and Siem Reap).

We started out with some beautiful diving from Khao Lak, just north of Phuket. Though we didn't see the big stuff we had hoped for (whale sharks, mantas, leopard sharks), we did enjoy poking around a few gorgeous offshore islands - Koh Tachai, Koh Bon, and the Similans. Nikki snapped some great pictures from our dives. Khao Lak itself was relaxed and quiet, more or less the antithesis of our next stop – Patong on Phuket – with its crowded streets, thumping music, and all night parties. We intentionally booked a hotel in the eye of the tourist storm to witness the craziness first hand. Nikki went to sleep early the first night, so I grazed the street stalls for dinner (grilled corn, meat, and ubiquitous banana pancakes) and enjoyed people watching. We rolled out of bed early the next morning for a day trip to the Phi Phi islands, where Leonardo DiCaprio's movie "the beach" was filmed. The islands themselves are stunning, despite being somewhat mobbed with tourists. Back on Phuket, we strolled down the coastline and stopped to release a floating lantern into the evening sky for good luck before heading to a very interesting late night performance at a famous ladyboy cabaret – I must say, you would never believe that some of the performers were not born women.

After only a few hours sleep, we headed to the airport for an early morning flight to Phnom Penh via Bangkok, which took most of the day thanks to AirAsia (I guess you get what you pay for!). I would have to characterize our two days in Phnom Penh as a rollercoaster of emotions. On one hand, we were obliged to visit vestiges of a terrible, terrible, relatively recent period of Cambodian history where around 2 million people (no one knows exactly) were killed under the reign on the Khmer Rouge. We paid respects at both Tuol Sleng (high-school-turned-torture-prison) and Choeng Ek (the "killing fields" where men, women, and children were summarily executed with unbelievable brutality). The picture above is one level of a multi-tiered pagoda housing hundreds of skulls categorized by gender/age – a monument to those that were killed and reminder of mankind's capacity for carnage. These stops were, for sure, low-points in the rollercoaster ride. However, there were high points as well. We attended a fantastic US embassy-sponsored dance performance at the National Museum, staring children participating in a program supporting Cambodian youth and keeping alive the dance traditions nearly lost when 90% of the country's artists were killed 30 years ago. We also had meals at two restaurants that are part of the "Friends" network, which give job training and general support to street children. Other highlights included a trip to the National Museum, which houses the largest collection of sculpture from the Angkor temples, a visit to the Royal Palace with it's silver-tiled pagoda and diamond encrusted Buddha, a tour down dirt rice-field-and-cute-kid-lined country roads on ATVs, and sunset drinks at the riverside Foreign Correspondents Club, which had an awesome vibe that I can only describe as "frontiersy." We even got to see some of our friends, meeting up with our HCMC buddy Joe for many of our adventures and having dinner with my Cambodian friend Laska at the fancy riverside restaurant Titanic.

Nikki's parents happened to be traveling in Southeast Asia, so we met them in Phnom Penh and travelled together to Siem Reap for the last leg of our trip. Nikki and I were in Siem Reap for the Angkor Wat half marathon in December, but only saw the temples as they whizzed past on the course. This time we carved out three days to see as much as possible, starting first with temples further afield (Bantaey Srei and Kbal Spean), moving to some of the more famous ones next (Ta Prohm, Angkor Thom, Preah Khan, Prasat Kravan, and Pre Rup), and saving the biggies for last (Angkor Wat and Phnom Bakheng). The temples were all amazing in their own ways – Bantaey Srei with intricate carvings, Kbal Spean with figures carved into an actual river bed, Ta Prohm intertwined with enormous trees, etc. Of course, Angkor Wat itself was absolutely incredible and we spent plenty of time scrutinizing it's 900 year old bas-relief carvings. We also enjoyed the town of Siem Reap – meeting up with our buddies Liz and Anne for drinks, and taking a trip to the "fish spa," where everyone (even Chuck and Jacqui) let the little guys nibble on our feet for 20 minutes (with free beer and a little meditation, I was finally able to 'relax' with my feet in the fish tub).

Tired and happy, we jumped on a plane back to Ho Chi Minh City with Nikki's parents, who were able to spend a few days with us at home – checking out the consulate, meeting our friends at dinner club, touring the city, and even getting a haircut we me at my Vietnamese barber shop. As with all of our trips, we headed home with heavier bags, carting back some great art, a drum, and a stringed instrument called a tro (you should hear me attempt to play it!). Totally fun trip. Next up is Con Dao Island for Nikki's B-Day!

Phu Quoc and First Tet Party

2011-01-22T06:57:00.001-08:00

Last weekend, Nikki and I celebrated MLK's legacy with our friends Samanthe and Liz on the island of Phu Quoc, off the southern coast of Vietnam near Cambodia. We stayed at the gorgeous Chen La Resort, which had a quiet little beach, an oceanside bean bag bar, and beautiful 2 story villas with private swimming pools. The first night we signed up for "nighttime squid fishing," which turned out to be awesome. We watched the sunset while buying fresh crabs from a floating aquaculture farm, tried our luck using a handline, and marveled at the random creatures the crew pulled from the deep (Nikki cuddled with an octopus that ended up biting her!). Dinner consisted of beer-boiled crab, squid porridge, and fresh lemon/mustard seasoned sea urchin, washed down with copious amounts of Tiger draft.

The next day, Nikki and I got up early to check out Phu Quoc's marine life. The dive boat picked us up on the beach and we headed north into a pretty stiff headwind. While the visibility could have been a little better, we did see a nice big tuna, some pretty cool nudibranchs and other colorful invertebrates. We spent the rest of the day on the beach; we swam, read, wakeboarded, and puttered around in the resort's little laser sailboat (they had a hobbiecat too – which I nearly flipped the next day!). After enjoying a fantastic sunset sipping pina coladas in our beachside bean bag chairs, we headed to town and hit up the food stalls at the night market. Oh, how we love street food!

No trip to Phu Quoc would be complete without a visit to one of the islands famous fish sauce factories – so on our last day we hired a taxi and followed our noses to the site of one of the smelliest production processes around. For the uninitiated – fish sauce (or nuoc mam) is a classic (and I'd say delicious) Vietnamese condiment , which is made by packing tons of anchovies in salt and essentially letting them rot. We peered into the huge festering vats of soon-to-be sauce and even sampled the fresh stuff. Yummy. After a quick visit to a pearl farm, we headed back to the resort and soaked up some rays, before making our way back to the airport. It was a perfect long-weekend trip, and I've posted some more of our pictures on Picasa: http://picasaweb.google.com/evanwfox/PhuQuoc#

While we were enjoying Phu Quoc, the rest of Ho Chi Minh City was gearing up for the lunar new year ("Tet"), which is February 3 this year. Every day more lights and decorations appear in the streets, as stores blast music ushering in the year of the cat. The consulate threw a big Tet party on Friday, with food, drinks, music and lots of performances. Like most of the staff, Nikki and I had traditional outfits made for the occasion, which consist of a dress-like tunic called an ao dai (pronounced "ow-yay"). While Nikki looks pretty good in one, I'm not sure I'll be incorporating the man-dress as a regular part of my wardrobe, though I did rock it for karaoke and at several bars later that night…

We are taking it relatively easy this weekend – brunch, massage, soccer, pilates at our new favorite yoga studio, and maybe some rock-climbing – and gearing up for a big trip to Thailand and Cambodia next week.

Happy New Year from Bali!

2011-01-03T07:43:00.001-08:00

We just returned from 10 days in Bali, Indonesia for Christmas and New Years (and a much belated honeymoon!). Bali is known for art, diving, surfing, and a unique Hindu-influenced culture with amazing music, dance, and architecture. We tried to absorb as much as possible! Our itinerary included:

- 4 days in Ubud - relaxed artistic center amidst picturesque rice fields. We took a cooking class, drove a scooter to temples, and hiked Mt Batur (2 am wake up call!). We also enjoyed shopping in local markets and beautiful musical and dance performances.
- 4 days in Pemuteran - three days of scuba diving and one morning dolphin watching from a traditional boat. Visited local hot springs and one of the only buddhist monasteries on the island. Enjoyed a new years eve feast with dancing and traditional music and avoided blowing our hands off with local fireworks.
- 2 days in Seminyak - beach town on the south side with plenty of waves, international restaurants, and shopping. Lots of surfing for Evan, cute purchases for Nikki, and delicious food for both.

Thanks to Nikki's planning, we stayed in the most amazing hotels we have ever seen. Balinese-style places with big windows, outdoor showers, and in two cases, private swimming pools. Even our travel around the island was fun, and we made time to visit many temples, a clove/coffee plantation, stunning rice terraces, and some cool surf spots. The food was, of course, amazing and we enjoyed all the ginger, lemongrass, and chili infused dishes. We even learned how to make a few things during our cooking class in Ubud (a major highlight of the trip).

We had a wonderful, romantic, and overall super fun vacation and are already trying to figure out when we can get back!

Quick Holiday Update!

2010-12-23T16:34:00.001-08:00

Wow it has been really busy! Apologies for only a quick update - we are on our way to the airport to enjoy Christmas and New Years in Bali!

I spent last week in the coastal city of Nha Trang helping to teach a training course for Vietnamese MPA managers. The course was put on by NOAA and I had a really great time getting to know all the participants and other instructors. I was able to share some of my experiences from MLPA in California and also practice my Vietnamese quite a bit. Every night I went out with some of my new Vietnamese friends and tried a different small food stall - these ranged from tiny tables on the street to the couches of living rooms. We had excellent Pho, Banh Xeo, and seafood. One evening, I played badminton with my friend Vy and learned that it can be a pretty competitive sport! I'm still sore. I also visited a couple of the local early morning fish markets to see what they were bringing in - Tuna, Gar, Marlin, as well as sharks and manta rays at the pelagic market, and every small fish you can imagine at the more local markets. At one market, some local fishermen rewarded my ability to speak Vietnamese with a fish - of course I was unable to refuse, so I took my little Christmas present back to the hotel and we had it for lunch. It was a fun week with many new friends (I even earned a nickname) and hopefully I'll be able to take part in similar trainings in the future! While I was teaching marine resource management in Nha Trang, Nikki was down south in Can Tho escorting some high level officials to talk with professors in the Mekong Delta about climate change. Though it was a great opportunity, it sounded exhausting! The good news is that it's looking like we will have the opportunity to collaborate on projects together in the future - fun! The next week, Nikki had a nice girls' weekend with several of her new friends - shopping, shoes, brunch, and mid-day sangria - the usual!

Holiday season here in Ho Chi Minh City is in full swing. All the stores are decorated with lights and nativity scenes (most of the nativity scenes are strangely in huge constructed caves). The consulate had a Christmas party last week with food, caroling performances, and of course Santa. I was both the MC and one of the 5 elves, so helped to dole out presents to 106 very excited children, many dressed like Santa themselves! Last night, Nikki and I went with the post language program to an area in the north part of the city that is famous for its decorations. There were soooo many people! The decorations definitely lived up to expectations - my favorite was sequin veiled Mary and baby Jesus under a disco ball. We sang carols in Vietnamese and English, had fun playing with the local kids, ate all kinds of street food, and generally enjoyed ourselves. Nikki and I came home to our decorated apartment (complete with a fake tree and stockings) and enjoyed a wonderful Christmas eve eve together opening presents. And this morning we are off to Bali!

Happy Holidays to all our friends and family and hope you are well!!!

Cambodia and The Angkor Wat Half Marathon

2010-12-06T03:35:00.001-08:00

Cambodians are some of the nicest people on Earth. Nikki and I took a 45 minute flight over to Siem Reap last weekend to participate in the 15th Annual Angkor Wat Half Marathon, and were continually impressed by the huge smiles and general friendliness of these people who have endured so much. Just look at Nikki's pictures above to get a sense – my favorite is the little girl running through the lotus field.

We arrived Friday afternoon, checked in to our fantastic hotel – which had the aura of an elegant Indiana-Jones-esque outpost – and headed downtown to get some grub. We dined al fresco on fish amok and other regional specialties while tuk tuks (moto-taxis) filled the streets and the biggest bugs I've ever seen filled the air (no wonder so many are eaten here!). We meandered through a narrow shopping/dining alley to find the night market, where Cambodian dancers took to the small stage and little kids danced and played amidst traditional music.

The next day we headed South to the Tonle Sap – a massive freshwater lake supporting millions of people living in floating villages. The size of the lake increases 4-5 fold between the dry and rainy seasons, so the position of the villages also changes throughout the year. We took a boat out and saw people moving their houses, taking in their catch, and selling their wares on the water. There was even a floating full size basketball court! We bought some notebooks/pencils and brought them to a Vietnamese-run primary school where we practiced our language skills with one of 3 teachers responsible for the 300 pupils. We hopped back in our tuk tuk and headed to a nearby temple/archaeological site, but not before stopping at a lotus farm where cute kids brought us flowers and lotus seeds to eat. The stunning site we visited was one of hundreds in the Siem Reap area and situated next to a modern Buddhist temple. After poking around for a bit and meeting a student of the monks, we grabbed a bite to eat in a peaceful butterfly garden in town, and visited the very well done National Museum, where thousands of the Angkor artifacts are on display. After a lovely dinner by the pool, we headed to bed early to prepare for an early morning…

The alarm went off at 4:00 AM and by 6:00 we had grabbed brekky, taken a bus to the site, and were watching the sun come up over Angkor Wat. There were something like 4,000 people participating, so it was a madhouse, but Nikki and I both fared pretty well. The race course wound through the huge site, passing giant temples, beautiful lakes, and the occasional pile of elephant droppings (yuk!). Nikki ran the 10k in just over 60 minutes, which was a 10 minute personal best – not bad for training on a treadmill. I placed second in the half marathon in just under 1:16, barely edging out a Japanese celebrity (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neko_Hiroshi) and losing to the Cambodian national star by almost 6 minutes. There was even a little coverage in the local press: http://www.phnompenhpost.com/index.php/2010120645172/Sport/hem-bunting-cuts-it-in-half.html. The race itself was started by a Japanese Olympic marathoner and was designed to raise money to bring artificial limbs to land mine survivors (which is a huge issue in Cambodia) and save kids from HIV/AIDS. It was really touching to see participants in the wheelchair and artificial limb categories and you had to admire their determination. A handful of other folks from the US Consulate also ran and I think they have convinced us to sign up for another iconic race in May, along the Great Wall of China.

It was a quick trip, but we really loved getting a little exposure Cambodia. We are looking forward to a return visit in February, when we will get to see Phnom Penh and more of the temples at Angkor Wat.

Thanksgiving in Kuala Lumpur

2010-11-29T23:28:00.000-08:00

Hope that everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! Nikki and I enjoyed ours in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Part 1 of our Thanksgiving meal took place at Carcosa Seri Negara, which was built to house the highest British representative in Malaysia in the early 1900's. We tramped through the surrounding gardens enroute, taking a shortcut through an open field, and arrived for the super fancy afternoon tea covered in mud. We munched on delicious scones and other snacks while monsoon rains outside rocked the hundred year old house, before taking a taxi to the art-deco style Central Market for some shopping and a visit to the fish spa. I was far too ticklish (read: wimpy) to handle the fish swarming around my feet, eating all my hard-earned calluses, but Nikki loved it! As night fell, we strolled around town checking out the Majid Jamek at the junction of the two rivers for which Kuala Lumpur is named, and various onion-domed and mogul-style buildings surrounding independence square (the country formed in 1957). We then made our way over to Chinatown for some shopping on the famous Petaling Street and part 2 of our Thanksgiving dinner at the small, cute, and delicious Old China Café.

Our hotel in KL (the Hilton) was awesome. Aside from the ever-exciting bidet, our 32nd story room had an amazing view and every amenity imaginable. The breakfast buffet was one of the best we've ever seen, with Malay, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, and European food all well-represented (tried them all, of course). After gorging ourselves, we took the light-rail over to Petronas Towers – once the tallest buildings in the world. It turns out tickets to the sky-bridge are hard to come by, so we bought tickets to the Menara Kuala Lumpur, a nearby telecommunications tower, for a higher view. We spent much of the rest of the day touring the city via hop-on-hop-off bus, getting out to see locals making batik at a crafts center and snap pictures of various landmarks. We meandered back home through an ethnic Malaysian district, stopping along the way to sample various kinds of street food – spice-filled coconut rolls steamed over a boiling pot, corn-shrimp crepes, and steamed meat-filled buns called "pau." We also ate a bunch of other delicious things at a crowded local restaurant, but I don't know what they were, since we don't speak Malay and we ordered by randomly pointing at the menu.

We spent Saturday outside of KL, touring the countryside with a private guide (what a character – more on him below). First up was a jungle hike and canopy tour at the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia. The scenery was beautiful – we even saw some monkeys – though within 30 minutes I had a huge leech attached to my foot. I proceeded to scream like a little girl and run around with my hands waving for the next few minutes. The bridges built 100 ft high in the canopy provided an excellent view of the preserve, though one had to question the structural integrity of the aluminum ladders providing the principal support. Next on the itinerary were Batu Caves – huge limestone caverns where a Hindu temple has been built and the center of a festival that draws millions of people each year. The caves themselves were stunning and the huge statue in front and various shrines were interesting. The whole place was crawling with long tailed macaques, which were pretty entertaining. We scarfed down an Indian-style lunch, where various visually unappealing, yet very tasty concoctions were scooped out of communal buckets onto banana leaves.

Everyone took a nap in the car as we rode out to the Selangor coast, with a stop at a traditional Malay-style house (100 years old, built without nails), where the third-generation resident taught us about the historic economic drivers of tapping rubber trees and harvesting palm oil. Closer to the famous straights of Melaka, we visited a cannon-circled lighthouse surrounded by silver leaf monkeys. I'm pretty sure that feeding these animals can't be a good idea (for the monkeys or humans!), but as part of the tour we were given handfuls of green beans and subsequently swarmed by these cute little guys. We even saw a few babies, which are golden-colored when they are born. Continuing our activities of questionable environmental consequence, we took a boat out into the nearby estuary to see eagles feeding (attracted with chicken bits). The estuary/river itself was beautiful as the sun set, and we had a lovely seafood meal by the water before heading back out in the boat in the evening to see the huge numbers of fireflies that congregate nearby. Our chain-smoking guide for all of these activities was an interesting guy – generally friendly and knowledgeable, but a bit unprofessional, disorganized and strangely quirky. For instance, he insisted that we shower and change our clothes after the initial hike, as he didn't want to taint the leather in his car – I didn't know I smelled THAT bad! Though a little bizarre at times, the tour turned out to be a great way to see areas outside of KL in a short period of time.

On our last day in Malaysia, we took the train south of KL to see the recently constructed administrative center called Putrajaya. This beautiful city is designed around a man-made lake, with tons of unique mosques, bridges, and government buildings, though it isn't slated for completion for a couple years. After a great $1 tour, we escaped the daily downpour by returning to Petronas Towers for a Malay-style lunch. In our last few hours before heading to the airport, we toured a pretty good bird park near the city center and paid respect to the nearby national monument (designed by the same guy that did the Iwo Jima memorial in DC). In all, it was a great quick trip and a good way to use the free business class plane ticket that I won in a race a few weeks ago. Next week we are off to Cambodia for another race – the Angkor Wat Half Marathon!

Busy Social Weekend

2010-11-24T06:58:00.001-08:00

We had a busy schedule last weekend – two fundraisers, a couple performances, a pottery class and a frisbee tournament. It started Friday night with an NFL viewing party to raise money for the consulate soccer team (the "tiger team"). Turns out all military/diplomatic posts have free access to all the games – I guess it keeps us fully American! The next morning I got up early for another beloved American sport – ultimate frisbee. It was blazing hot and humid for the all-day tournament. Unfortunately, I had to stop out early when I pulled my hamstring diving for a loose disc – so inflexible – I'm starting yoga next week. Hopefully things will heal up in time for the Angkor Wat half marathon that we are running December 5. Since I was home early, Nikki and I headed over to the consulate charity bazaar, where each of the consulates in town was selling goods representative of their respective countries – vodka from Russia, handicrafts from Malaysia, wine from Australia, cookies and cupcakes from the US (we export obesity!)

Saturday was national teachers' day in Vietnam, so in the evening we attended an event put on by our language school. I participated in more than a few performances – a group song, a skit, and a duet with one of our friends - all in Vietnamese, of course. The song for the duet was "Con Gai" ("The Girl") and I've been working to learn the words and accompanying guitar for a few weeks now. In the end I think it was pretty successful – at least no one ran screaming from the building (it was videotaped, so I'll try to post the footage for viewing pleasure later). I also entered contests for writing a Vietnamese Essay (second place!) and a home-made thank you card for our teachers (no prize – it's me – you can use your imagination…)

We got up late on Sunday, had a leisurely brunch at "the elbow room," (yeah western-style brekky!), and then meandered around town looking for a store to buy a wedding veil. No, Nikki and I have not decided to have a second, Vietnamese-style wedding (though we are thinking about getting pictures taken). It just so happens that Nikki is the "morale officer" (aka party planner) for her section at work and one of the local staff just got engaged – Nikki is helping to celebrate by making her wear a veil all day at work and throwing her a party. After finding a place (there are wedding stores everywhere) and grabbing a soda at a street stall, we taxied across town for a pottery class. The stuff that we shipped from the US by boat STILL hasn't arrived, and we drink a lot of coffee/tea, so we decided to make mugs. The nice Japanese sensei that runs the class was awesome, and with his help, our mugs turned out pretty great. We capped off our busy weekend with a trip to the Saigon Opera House with our friend Danette, where we saw performances from a visiting Korean choir, the local Saigon choir, and the Saigon Symphony (performing Tchaikovsky – they love the Russians here). The most interesting number was "Mamma Mia," in Swedish, performed by the Koreans, here in Vietnam – talk about a multi-cultural experience!

Short work-week this week and tomorrow we are off to explore Kuala Lumpur. Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends and family and hope everyone is doing well!!

Hanoi and Ha Long Bay

2010-11-21T22:33:00.001-08:00

Wow have we been busy! And the next couple weeks are going to be even crazier. To kick off the madness we took a trip up north a week ago for work and a little bit of fun. The North is different in a lot of ways – a center for government and academia and generally thought to be more conservative – which was interesting to experience firsthand.

The highlight of our trip was a visit to Ha Long Bay – a world heritage site and one if the most beautiful places I have ever seen. We spent three days on a Chinese Style junk cruising amongst hundreds of limestone islands, alternating between kayaking, swimming, reading, and eating delicious multi-course meals on the top deck amidst stunning scenery. We actually visited a place adjacent to Ha Long bay proper, called Bai Tu Long, which is a little less crowded, so we had much of the pristine landscape to ourselves. We visited a remote fishing village 30 km from the nearest port where we chatted with the locals and checked out their small scale aquaculture facility. Women from the village took us around via rowboat to see the local lagoons and let us try our hand at rowing (Nikki was pretty good!).

On our second evening, after an incredible sunset and some swimming/jumping off the top of the boat, the crew ferried us over to an island where they had prepared a candlelit dinner in a cave. Aside from the great ambiance, food, and wine – and the fact that the chef carved several mini-sculptures out of various fruits/vegetables – my favorite part was that the crew sang several songs and then invited the guests to sing a song from our respective countries. There were four Americans present, and we started things with the quintessential "take me out to the ballgame." The Auzzies (waltzing matilda), Brits (beatles song), Irish (fields of athenry), Germans and French (I don't remember, but the there was lots of waving of wine glasses in the French one) all followed suit.

After returning to port Saturday, Nikki and I settled in for the three hour trip back to Hanoi through rice paddies and tried to get a little rest before the Marine Corps Ball in Hanoi that evening. The ball is a black tie event celebrating the founding of the Corps and carried out each year wherever Marines are posted around the world (we had a dress and tux specially made for the occasion). A bunch of our friends from Ho Chi Minh City made the trip north for the party and we had a blast dancing all night and exploring the city together a bit the next day. Hanoi just celebrated its 1000 year birthday, and Nikki and I had fun poking around the old quarter where each tiny street is named after the merchandise that was originally sold there. We also checked out the Temple of Literature, where mandarins, doctors, and other members of the elite were trained. Of course, we had to also visit Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum, though the body of the revered leader was out for "maintenance."

After our brief tourist stint, we spent the next few days working from the capital city (staying at the actual Hilton in Hanoi). Nikki had the opportunity to meet her counterparts at the embassy and work on a couple of special projects, while I met with various members of the environmental community. For those of you interested, I've got a couple of irons in the fire these days – a mariculture planning project (http://www.icafis.org), my old work with MLPA (http://www.dfg.ca.gov/mlpa), and most recently helping with a NOAA-run capacity building workshop here next month. We of course made time for some great meals, including dining al fresco at a colonial-style French villa and a dinner at a place called KOTO that mentors/employs street children.

All in all it was a super fun AND productive trip and we'll have to go back to see everything we missed.

Birthday Weekend – Monkeys and Karaoke

2010-11-07T09:33:00.001-08:00

Saturday was my birthday and we celebrated in style with a trip to monkey island and karaoke. During the day, Nikki and I went with the Post Language Program to Can Gio – which is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve located at the delta of the Saigon River – a couple hours from downtown. The bus ride down was pretty cool in and of itself, as we got to see a bunch of shrimp farms, took a ferry ride, and stopped to sample water coconut fruit (big seed pods, not to be confused with coconut water).Upon arrival we got to see tons of monkeys (macaques) and "fish" for crocodiles – ie, pay $1 to dangle an eel on a long pole above their jaws… Afterwards, we hopped in a boat to speed through the mangroves at high velocity and check out an old Viet Cong base on stilts. We watched a video on the war, learned about life on the base, and met an old veteran who had fought at the base when he was 15 years old.

After another boat and bus ride, we stopped for lunch at a beautiful beach side restaurant and continued our tour of this country's great food (I had cockles and Nikki had lots of veggies). We walked out to a little hotel on the water and I took a quick swim in the ocean before we headed to a seafood market. The market had maybe a hundred tubs of different kinds of live seafood – marine snails, conch, grouper, stonefish, clams, cockles, squid, octopi, and even a horseshoe crab. We poked around for a while and our teacher Co Chau bought me a great hat for my b-day, which I proceeded to wear all night. It started to rain on the way home and all the streets were totally flooded. Cars/motorbikes were stalling, homes/stores were barricaded with sandbags, bricks, and miscellaneous hardware, and children were swimming in the street – crazy. Our friends Andrew and Ed biked home through it – can't wait for our bikes arrive so I can join them next time!

Luckily, we were able to make it to the karaoke bar where I had reserved a big room for all of our friends. A few were waylaid by the rain (our poor friend David had his car totally swamped with water!), but maybe 25 people were able to make it. We made it only half an hour before the power went out due to the storm – ohh Vietnam – but luckily it was fixed in 45 min or so. Sufficiently electrified, we had a total blast singing classic songs in English and Vietnamese – Nikki and I even performed a couple duets, including GnR's Sweet Child o Mine (I'm sure some still have ringing ears). I was so happy that all of our friends were able to make it and I even got a cake (thanks Huong, David, and Anny!) and some new soccer gear (thanks Minh, Dat, and Thuy!). We sang until they kicked us out and went home very happy.

Today Nikki and I walked around town taking care of a few things before we go to Hanoi next week – I did a final fitting for the tux I had made and we looked for shoes and a handbag to match the beautiful dress Nikki had made. We spent the afternoon at the Caravelle Hotel, where we bought tickets to sit by their nice pool and relax, before heading home for leftover pizza, a movie, and birthday cake….

What a great weekend and thanks to all of our friends here and in the US for the birthday wishes!!

Halloween and Bien Hoa Sports Trip

2010-11-01T04:26:00.001-07:00

Dressing up for Halloween is a pretty new idea here in Vietnam, but there are enough people doing it that I was able to find a costume store not too far away from our house. Given the recent Twilight fad, vampires seemed like a good idea, so I bought some capes, fake teeth, and a wig for Nikki. I also bought some sweet flashing skull sunglasses, but I'm pretty sure the Cullen family would not have approved. The consulate put on an event for the kids of both US and local employees, and we had great fun seeing all the cute costumes. A fairly elaborate (and frightening!) haunted house was constructed, much to the delight (and terror) of the kids.

Nikki was tired after a long week of work and spent Saturday getting a manicure, taking care of errands, and generally relaxing. Meanwhile, I headed northeast of town with the consulate tennis and soccer teams to play a couple of "friendship games" in the Bien Hoa province. There are some excellent tennis players at the consulate, and we spent the morning playing doubles while the weather constantly shifted from boiling hot to pouring rain. After a tasty lunch of snails, fish fritters, and noodle soup, we headed to the local soccer stadium for a pretty competitive match. Though we didn't win (ahem…we lost 1-4…), it was still fun and I had a good time hanging out with all my soccer/tennis buddies. We got to know the opposing team afterwards over drinks (Chivas shots – man they like the hard stuff here!) and hot pot (local fish called basa = catfish, in some kind of bean concoction).

Speaking of food, Nikki and I continue to find excellent restaurants here. On Friday we hit up "the elbow room," which had delicious California cuisine and live bluesy music. Saturday we tried out one of two Mexican joints in town – Mexico Lindo – and discovered decent margaritas and burritos (disclaimer - I am an extreme burrito snob). We continued the trend on Sunday, hitting up a dim sum place for lunch with a few of Nikki's work colleagues and friends. We are thinking a separate food blog may be in order… The rest of Sunday was occupied by taking care of a few things around town that we have been neglecting – buying a cabinet, picking up some picture frames, and miscellaneous shopping (my favorite!). One highlight was visiting "Metro," Vietnam's answer to Costco. It was remarkably similar to the US - except for the whole roasted pigs and waterfowl on display and a giant live/fresh fish section with crazy species I had never heard of.

On the work side – Nikki's job seems to be going well and sounds very interesting. She is getting to do quite a few side projects, including one that will take us to Hanoi next week. I'm keeping up with my MLPA Initiative stuff in California, just finished a project in the mid-Atlantic (http://marinemap.org/framework), and am just starting a new project regarding aquaculture planning here in Vietnam. We are also ramping up for some travel in the next couple months, with trips to Malaysia, Cambodia, and Indonesia in the hopper. Life is definitely full!

Vung Tau Weekend

2010-10-26T00:30:00.001-07:00

Soviet-made hydrofoils leave every half hour or so from Ho Chi Minh City for a coastal town called Vung Tau. Nikki and I jumped on one last weekend for some beach time and an opportunity to use our new camera (which takes awesome pictures). Our hotel (The Imperial) was over-the-top fancy, with 3 pools, fox-hunting pictures, Roman statues, and best of all – a beach-side club. Nikki settled into the lap of luxury with her book under our cabana, while I found the nearest board shop and got totally fried while surfing my brains out. I made lots of friends on the water - some Russian and Ukrainian surfers and later some locals who offered me watermelon and beer from a communal jug when we got out of the water (how can you refuse?).

That afternoon, Nikki and I visited Vung Tau's answer to Rio – a huge Jesus on a mountaintop facing the Eastern Sea (it's actually a little taller than Brazil's). Not satisfied with just one mountaintop deity, we took a gondola to the top of a different mountain to visit a crazy-deserted amusement park boasting rides with funny names, pigs, a waterfall, monkeys, a weird shrine, and – you guessed it – a giant Buddha. The main attraction was a totally structurally unsound "sliding car" built on what appeared to be an old mudslide where two people careen downhill on a rail while trying to remember to break when directed.

Thankful to be alive, we continued our afternoon with a stroll down the harbor promenade and took in the scene of swimmers and moored boats. We happened across a couple small vessels piloted by men using their feet to control the oars and couldn't resist their offer to take us on a sunset ride around the harbor. Let me tell you – paddling a boat with your feet is way harder than it looks, and it looks pretty tough. Content to let the expert navigate, we chatted with the boatsman and Nikki snapped some fantastic pictures. By then, the sun was down and we were hungry, so we were lucky to find a wood-fire pizza place with outdoor seating by the water – mmm, thin crust Italian pies with hot Asian peppers – delicious. We ended the night with a drink by the beach and a late-night swim in the pool under a full moon. Man, it doesn't get any better.

We got up early the next day and wolfed down an excellent free breakfast of banh xeo, fruit, French pastries, and iced-coffee (I know, weird) so we could catch the low tide. When the water is low, you can walk out to a little offshore island at the end of the beach with a pagoda on it. We rented a double-bike and peddled at high speed past all kinds of sidewalk vendors, then dismounted and explored the intertidal (cool shells and seaglass!) on our way to the land-bridge that had appeared. Once across, we had barely enough time to explore the temple before a man announced that we had 4 minutes left before we were stranded for 12 hrs. We scurried across to the mainland and rode back to the hotel in time for a quick bite to eat on the beach (I had cuddlefish) before Nikki's scheduled massage (much deserved after her first week of interviewing people). With the tide up and no surf, I went for the next best thing – I rented a paddleboard and cruised down the beach, back to the island, to get a different perspective on the place. Thoroughly content, we met up after Nikki's massage and caught the hydrofoil back home in time for me to make my Sunday evening soccer match (a whole other story…)

Food highlight of the week: "Mantis-Gambas." It's like a cross between a shrimp and a praying mantis – delicious with a tamarind glaze, but I'd be terrified of being in the water with a swarm of them.

Visitors, the Mekong, and a Wedding

2010-10-21T01:43:00.001-07:00

Hotel Fox is officially open for business. This last weekend our good friends Aditya and Priyanka came to check out HCMC and crashed at our pad. We started out with a trip to our favorite hole in the wall Banh Xeo place (no illnesses to date) and then later met up with friends at a pool hall on Friday. One highlight of the weekend was a day trip to the Mekong. It started with a three hour boat ride down the Saigon River and up one of the 9 distributaries of the Mekong River (called Cuu Long here) to My Tho and Ben Tre. It was amazing to see all the traffic – small boats, barges, tugs – all with red and white eyes painted on the bow. We took a little tour which included: seeing an apricot tree garden (important for the tet holidays), visiting a beekeeper and tasting tea with honey, tasting snake oil wine, going to a coconut candy factory and sampling the snacks, listening to a traditional music performance, and taking a "rowing boat" ride down a series of canals. And that was all before lunch! After eating, we toured the local town on bicycles that were probably perfect for very small people back in the 60's when they were made. As we made our way across the river to the bus that would take us back to Ho Chi Minh City, the skies opened up and poured, which made for a beautiful scene as we plugged along in our covered boat.

The previous day Adit and Priyanka went on a day trip to the Cu Chi Tunnels/Cao Dai Temple, so Nikki and I had stuck around town. I spent the morning playing tennis with a group of guards, drivers, and employees from the consulate. I got my butt totally kicked, especially my first game with a bunch of Vietnamese business men, but everyone was super friendly. Next time I'm bringing a ringer (Nikki).

In the evening, we attended our first Vietnamese wedding (the brother of one of my buddies from soccer). All I can say is that Vietnam has got the whole wedding thing totally figured out. The entire event was barely two hours long, but they crammed in pictures, food, dancing performances, speeches, karaoke (why does everyone in this country have a fantastic voice?), and of course lots of drinking. The bride had no fewer than 3 costume changes and there were multiple confetti cannons, exploding balloons, laser-lights, and crazy ornate costumes. I feel very lucky to have been included in the festivities (Nikki and I were the only foreigners there) and appreciated the insight into the local culture.

Food report – continued the exploration of street food with a sandwich (banh mi) from a random local stall (pictured above). I shudder to think of what might have been incubating in the pile of fish pate that was scooped into a fresh French roll along with cilantro, lemongrass, peppers, and assorted meats and presented to me for the reasonable price of $0.75 – but damn, it was delicious. I'm so happy our friend Omar made me buy one. We've also hit up fancier places around town with friends, including Villa FB (you can sit in a cube that is designed to be a giant fountain) and Nha Hang Ngon (literally, "delicious restaurant," cute indoor/outdoor courtyard). So much deliciousness and so little time. I now understand why Anthony Bourdain loves this country.

First Week of Work and Trip to Nha Trang

2010-10-14T10:24:00.000-07:00

Nikki started her job this week after three weeks of language training. The initial reviews are good – everyone seems really nice and the work is interesting. She's already got a trip to Hanoi in the works, which will be a good excuse to see the northern part of the country. Today there was a happy hour organized to welcome us and we had fun catching up with all of her work colleagues. I'm still doing some work for MLPA and MarineMap and am also working on a proposal for some new work here in Vietnam regarding aquaculture planning. I take Vietnamese classes for 1.5 hours every day and Nikki is probably going to start back up soon.

Monday this week was a holiday and we took advantage of it by booking a 30 min flight to the beach town of Nha Trang. Travel itself was pretty interesting. The lights in the airport in Ho Chi Minh City went completely dark no fewer than 8 times while we sat waiting for our flight, which was delayed several times. Then, when the flight started boarding, there was no announcement and the signs showing destinations for the gates were mixed up. Finally, we made it to Nha Trang, and took a harrowing 30 min taxi ride to our hotel along steep cliffs (which turn out to be gorgeous), where we were utterly convinced the right rear wheel of the car was going to fall off.

It was totally worth it though. The first day we went diving, chartering a "speed boat" to visit some of the outer islands. The whole area is beautiful, with fishermen in tiny round boats and steep rocky cliffs where people live and collect swiftlet nests for use in birds nest soup. Our guide, Anh, was super interesting, having worked as a deep water diver for the government for many years, and was willing to help us practice our Vietnamese. We dove nitrox for the first time and saw tons of great stuff, including at least 10 different nudibranch species (unfortunately, our underwater camera housing is still being shipped!). We got back around midday and headed for the beach, where we lounged, had delicious drinks, and caught up on our reading. When we got hungry, we sauntered down the beach to a restaurant in the sand where I got to pick out a live fish to be cooked for dinner.

We started the next day doing things we love – we started with breakfast on the beach, followed by a 4 hour massage for Nikki (approx $50) and wakeboarding for me. In the afternoon, we took the world's longest over-water gondola (2 km I think) over to Bamboo Island which is home to the Vinpearl Amusement Park. They had a ton of waterslides, a nice aquarium, delicious ocean-side dining (I had a "snake head fish"), and some barf-o-licious spinning rides. They also had a light and water fountain show that was entertaining – imagine Bellagio-style waterworks choreographed to soviet and Vietnamese patriotic folk songs. We finished the evening by visiting a bar in the backpacker park of town and having dinner at a lovely place called "lanterns."

Monday was a holiday for us, but not the rest of the country, so we had the town pretty much to ourselves. We visited a temple with a huge white Buddha and memorials to several monks that were self immolated during the "American" war. Properly introspective, we headed for the local oceanographic institute, which had lots of big fish tanks and a surprising number of preserved specimens. Finally, we visited the gallery of a local photographer that takes pictures of everyday life and develops his film with a homemade mix of chemicals. The photos were stunning and we had to purchase a couple, even though we have a ton of art on the way. We then squeezed in a lunch al fresco before heading to the airport (where we had all kinds of trouble getting our bottle of Dalat red wine back home!).

The social schedule is of course packed. We had our first evening with the dinner club last week and are going out for billiards tomorrow. Hotel Fox has officially opened and our friends Aditya and Priyanka are here this weekend for a visit. Saturday we've been invited to a wedding and there is tennis planned as well. So much to do and so much to see!!

I'll end with the culinary highlights of the week. First – mushroom hot pot. What is that you say? Well, you add delicious herbs and peppers, along with your selection from 25 different kinds of shrooms to a bubbling pot of water on the middle of your table and voila! tastiness abounds! Pretty good, but the absolute highlight for me was a small Oc (better known as "little things with shells") restaurant. We had three different kinds of shellfish/snails that were cooked with lemongrass, spicy pepper sauce, butter, and other secret ingredients. We went with one of our Vietnamese teachers and rolled up our sleeves at tiny tables in a narrow alley crowded with locals. Noms! And I feel like we are just getting started.

More Exploration of HCMC

2010-10-04T06:26:00.001-07:00

During our second week in Ho Chi Minh City we've gotten a little more settled and seen some more of the local, less-frequented sites and restaurants. Oh yeah – and I won a 4k on Sunday and got a free business class plane ticket! More on that below. Some of the more practical news from this week: our first shipment of stuff from the US arrived, so we now have a few more clothes, toiletries, food, etc. This might sound boring, but it was much anticipated! Also, we hired a cook/housekeeper that makes delicious food twice a week!

On the fun side, we took field trips with our language teacher to a temple, the local zoo (learning animal names!) and a "water puppet" show. The temple was beautiful with 7 levels and various representations of the Buddha throughout. We interviewed a monk who was reluctant to talk at first, but then launched into a detailed description of his beliefs (of which I understood very little!). The zoo was interesting – orangutan, monkeys, crocodiles, white tigers, civet cats, etc – though it seems they should dedicate more of the proceeds to animal food. The water puppet show had to be one of the highlights of the week. It's an art of telling stories about the countryside using puppets in/over water set to traditional music with narration in Vietnamese (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_puppetry). These guys were super-skilled and we totally enjoyed it.

On the weekend, we had originally planned to take a hydrofoil to a nearby beach community called Vung Tao. Unfortunately, the return tickets were sold out, but it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. After waiting out a huge rain storm drinking coffee and reading our books in a café, we made our way out to Chinatown (a place called Cholon) where we toured a half-dozen different beautiful temples and were generally overwhelmed by the huge number of people, scooters, and stores. It was way more dense (and less clean) than where we live in district 1, but very interesting and "alive." We opted to walk home (about 4 miles) and saw every imaginable kind of store. We also witnessed our first scooter accident (scooter with 2 people meets bicycle), which didn't result in any major injuries – it's a wonder these things don't happen more often.

I started Sunday with a fun run. It was a charity event put on by the British Business Group in Vietnam and about 6000 people entered. Despite not running at all for about 2 months and a couple nagging injuries, I somehow managed to gut out a win (with a course record!). The whole thing was pretty interesting – I started in the middle of the pack and wove through strollers, rollerbladers, flag wavers, and a marching band to make my way to the front by the first mile. People were running in all manner of gear, including a fair number of barefoot competitors. Once I reached the police escort, things improved, though about 400 meters from the finish I had to literally jump/run over a wall of moving scooters that had failed to heed the flashing police sirens. The prize for my efforts? Free Adidas gear/shoes and a business class plane ticket to Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, or Bangkok. Nice!

After the award presentation, a performance by a Cuban band that plays locally, and a nice breakfast to celebrate, Nikki and I headed to the local horse track for a different kind of race. The entry fee was a mere 50 cents and for another $5 we sat in the VIP section, which had air conditioning. We won all that back and more with a 30:1 bet on a horse that miraculously got 1st place. Could this be a new career? After we got home we did a little work on our scuba nitrox certification. We take the practical portion on Tuesday, so we'll be certified before we go diving in Nha Trang this weekend. In the evening, we tried out a cool restaurant called Bobby Brewers that has a mini-movie theatre upstairs where you can watch free (probably bootleg) films if you order dinner. We enjoyed some mindless action-thriller (Predators) before strolling home in a light drizzle.

Here's the food update: We've been eating at home more often, but explored some more small-scale restaurants as well (after our first week of frequenting the nicest places around). We've tried out a few of the ubiquitous pho (beef noodle soup) restaurants, including a local chain called Pho 24. I'm definitely a fan, even though it often includes a random assortment of beef parts (including tripe). Another great local dish is Banh Xeo, which is basically a crepe/omelet thing with shrimp and pork wrapped in a lettuce leaf with mint and cilantro. Sound weird? It is! But super delicious. We went to a hole in the wall place (maybe "side of the street" is a better description) that specialized in the dish. The good news is that it was fantastic and we only had minor gastrointestinal issues afterwards. Other colorful dishes from this week included a "fishball coke" (half a coke with a tray of fried unidentified fish balls floating on top – yummy after-school treat) and a "California burrito" (definitely not a burrito, but not a bad attempt).

We are continuing to make friends and settle in. Nikki is looking into a book club and I have my usual soccer practice. I also got a chance to play cards last week with some US and Aussie expats which hopefully will be a regular thing. This week is our last one in language immersion before Nikki starts work formally, so we're planning on a bit more fun before getting down to business.

First week in Vietnam

2010-09-27T03:13:00.001-07:00

Wow! So much happens in a week! We are absolutely loving life here. The food is delicious, we've made some great friends, and there is so much exploring to do! This first week Nikki and I were both in one on one language class for 4 hours each day, followed by field trips or exploring on our own. The teachers are wonderful and I feel like we're learning a lot (though we (I) have a looong way to go). The other folks that work at the consulate are fun, and we've already found friends interested in travel, biking, tennis, rock climbing, a dinner club, billiards, etc. We're making local friends too – the soccer team I'm playing on is mostly local guards, and after practice this week we sat at a streetside vendor practicing our respective Vietnamese/English skills. I had this surreal feeling riding on the back of a scooter under the full moon to the place, then explaining the rules of baseball to my new friends. Plenty of interesting foreigners too – yesterday I met an expat who has been doing biodiesel/alternative fuel work in this part of the world.

This weekend has been super fun. On Saturday, Nikki and I went with the language immersion program to a Cao Dai temple and the Cu Chi tunnels, northwest of town a couple hours. We passed time on the long ride out singing Vietnamese songs and practicing listening while our guide explained the sights (I understood maybe 5%). What we learned is that Cao Dai is this interesting religion founded in 1926 in Vietnam which combines aspects of Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity and counts among its prophets Sun Yat-sen (leader of Chinese revolution), Victor Hugo and Nguyễn Bỉnh Khiêm (Vietnamese poet/official) (more at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cao_dai) The temple was beautiful and we witnessed a very colorful service. I didn't take any pictures of the people themselves, as it didn't seem cultural appropriate, but the white, red, blue, and yellow colors were all very vivid. After a lunch with the class (I ate snake) we headed to the cu chi tunnels, which are a huge (hundreds of kilometers) network of underground tunnels that the Viet Cong used during the war. We followed some for a few hundred meters (they are maybe 4 feet tall, hot, and dark) and got to see how the Vietnamese lived while they fought in the war. They also had a display of all the different traps that the Viet Cong used during the war - they usually involved numerous spikes impaling the body via some king of hinged trap door – yikes.

On Sunday we explored the immediate city a bit more. We checked out the backpacker district, where there are funky stores selling old propaganda posters, interesting t-shirts, and interesting art. We bought guidebooks for Bali, Hong Kong, Singapore, only to get home and discover they were each photocopies of actual books! Live and learn! We also visited a market selling old army gear – helmets, fatigues, compasses, gas masks, dog tags, etc. When we had seen enough, we flagged down a unique form of Vietnamese transportation called a "cyclo" for a ride over to the Chinese part of town called Cholon (big market). A cyclo is pretty much a pedicab where the passenger sits in front of the bike rider. Nikki and I squeezed in one cyclo at first, which was piloted by a man who appeared to be over 100 years old and had only one tooth remaining. Since we've been eating so well (see below) and clearly represented a hefty load together, a second cylco appeared so that each of our voluptuous selves could have our own vehicle. It was great fun tearing through the city on the front of the cyclos and luckily Saigon's daily torrential downpour didn't start until we reached our destination. We did a bit of shopping and came home in time for me to make it to my soccer game (which we won!).

No update from us would be complete without a description of the food situation. It's fantastic. Nikki and I have been eating out almost every night and this city has every cuisine imaginable. Vietnamese food itself is great – fresh ingredients, delicious soups, lots of veggies, and plenty of seafood – and on top of that it's super cheap. And no one has gotten sick…yet. Some highlights from the week include dinner on a posh rooftop near our apartment overlooking the whole city (restaurant Shri); lunch with our teacher Co Binh at an architect's sustainable-food driven restaurant which integrates old materials, local plants, and animals into the décor (restaurant Cục Gạch); lunch at a French colonial-style café, with delicious soups, salads, and coffee (the Refinery); and a gourmet all you can eat Vietnamese dinner where we had three desserts (restaurant We). We've also sampled local Indian, Italian, and Mexican(?) food (all good, though the Mexican food was a bit strange). Last night I had a different kind of dinner experience when I went with my soccer team to a restaurant owned by one of our sponsors. Sitting in a private room where our beer and chivas glasses (yes, both) never went unfilled, we were brought course after course of awesome food – whole prawns, fish cakes, some kind of baked invertebrate, hot pot, and my fave – durian (which thank goodness tastes waaay better than it smells!).

So life is good so far and we are just getting started. We are already planning trips regionally and within Vietnam. Our air freight is getting here Wednesday, though I think the bulk of our household effects are still a long way off. Our car also won't be arriving for some time, though I think we might buy a scooter in the meantime (we found out our US motorcycle licenses will transfer over – yay!). Looking forward to another action-packed week!

Welcome to Saigon!

2010-09-19T03:53:00.001-07:00

We made it! From DC to San Francisco to Maui to Hong Kong and finally to Saigon/Ho Chi Minh City. It took many months of preparation and two weeks of travel, but we have finally arrived at our new home in the southern part of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. We've only been here for a little over two days, but Nikki and I think we're going to like it here.

First or all, our apartment is amazing. Three bedrooms, a big kitchen, and a ton of windows. From our living room we can look out over a big park and a busy street with hundreds and hundreds of scooters. There's a pool and a rooftop where we can BBQ too. We are right downtown and there are a ton of really cool restaurants and shops. We've been exploring with the help of our fantastic sponsors – Robert and Kong – who have been making sure our transition goes smoothly. Yesterday (Saturday), they took us on a tour of the city, including Ben Thanh Market, which had everything you can imagine for sale. My favorite part was the seafood section. They had clams, squid, snails, eels, and a million kinds of fish. We've done a little exploring by ourselves too, and are slowly learning to cross the street. Here's the method: you wait until traffic lightens up a bit, and then just start walking slowly and steadily across the street while cars, scooters, and bicycles go around you. The city is an interesting mix of old and new, with both historical buildings and holdovers from the French, as well as new malls and skyscrapers. Looking forward to exploring further!

On Friday, I went with Nikki to the consulate for orientation. Everyone is sooo friendly and welcoming! There's this great sense of community, and people seem to hang out outside of work quite a bit – both locals and Americans. It sounds like the work will be challenging for Nikki at times, but that people are very supportive of one another (her supervisors also have great attitudes). I'm getting to know people too, and by our second day had joined the consulate soccer team. We had our first game yesterday (against the Indonesian consulate) and I didn't embarrass myself too much.

Tomorrow Nikki and I start a language immersion program, so we'll be back to improving our Vietnamese skills. We've got three weeks of that before Nikki starts her formal job. By then, I'm hoping to have a few more leads on environmental opportunities and I've already got some great contacts to follow up on. We will be sure to keep you all updated!

Hong Kong – City of the Future

2010-09-17T07:57:00.001-07:00

Wow. Nikki and I had a 24 layover in Hong Kong and it has to be one of the coolest places in the world. There's this breathtaking quality about it – something having to do with the huge green mountains, huge steel buildings, water everywhere, and mix of traditional and modern. Too bad it's ridiculously expensive! Oh well, that's the price of the future I guess!

We got in late in the afternoon and took the nearly silent high speed train in to town for a quick bite and a view of the nighttime skyline from the IFC mall. We were wiped from the 13 hr flight though, so made it an early night and returned the next morning for more sight-seeing. We started with Dim Sum at Luk Yu Teahouse, where we more or less randomly ordered whatever went floating past. Result – total deliciousness, including a weird-looking black gelatinous mass which I discovered to be a yummy tapioca-like concoction. We attempted to burn a few calories walking to our next destination, but found that a huge moving walkway existed that would do the work for us! We took in every kind of interesting shop and restaurant you can imagine as we glided up into the hills behind the city center. After stepping off the meandering walkway and hoofing it (like a sucker) to the peak tram, we shot to the top of the highest mountain around for incredible views of the city, mountains, ocean, and surrounding islands. It kinda reminded me of Rio, but with bigger buildings, no hangliders, and the occasional coal-fired power plant or strip mine on the horizon. We made our way down the hill to the water and took the ferry across to Kowloon, which apparently has every chic store known to man amongst some crazy tall buildings. We had fun people watching and taking in the sights while making our way back to the train and eventually the airport.

We just got a taste of the city, but had a ton on fun. Definitely warrants a return visit – maybe for the Redbull Luftag in a few weeks?

Quick Trip to Maui

2010-09-15T04:17:00.001-07:00

It's been a while since Nikki had a vacation, so we arranged for a couple days off in Maui before arriving to start work in Ho Chi Minh City. Man, I looove Maui and it was a very relaxing couple of days! Chuck and Jacqui arranged for us all to spend a night down at the Prince in Makena, and we took full advantage of the location with some beach time, lounging by the pool, and a wonderful dinner and brunch. One of the highlights for me was paddleboarding/kayaking – we saw turtles and dolphins during our two sessions and even Jacqui tried the standup – now I see where Nikki gets her coordination! On the way back up-country, we stopped for drinks/pupus at the country club, but not before Nikki/Jacqui did some shopping in Paia and I hit up Hookipa for a (much warmer than SF) surf session – I'm always amazed at the number of turtles in the water there and am sure I'm breaking some federal environmental protections just paddling around!

We took a quick trip to the Big Island to visit with Grams, since we weren't able to make her 90^th b-day party a couple weeks ago. It was a somber time, as her brother was not well and has since moved on, but we were glad to be there for support. It was good to catch up with Reg, Susan, Jonesy, Lisa, Naia, and everyone and we were sorry to miss the rest of the family that was out of town – Nadine and Gary – your house is beautiful!

After heading back to Maui on a tiny 9 seat plane, we got to work on final preparations for our departure. This included me getting a Hawaii driver's license after (barely) passing the driving and motorcycle tests. We spent our last day engaged in the entirely unexciting, yet necessary, process of canceling all our various contracts and changing addresses. For those interested – we are keeping our same email addresses and phone numbers (through Vonage). Finally, we packed up all our stuff – four 50 lb bags, 2 backpacks, a huge carryon, and beautiful Kirk Kurokawa original painting from Chuck and Jacqui (anniversary present) and headed to the Kahului airport. So – it's goodbye USA for 2 yrs and hello Vietnam!

Labor Day Weekend in San Francisco

2010-09-15T04:15:00.001-07:00

Nikki and I had a few stops planned on our way to Vietnam. The first one was in San Francisco over Labor Day weekend. On the work side, Nikki had a few meetings and I had a conference to attend, but the main priority was catching up with all our friends in the Bay Area. Of course, good food was a key factor as well and we didn't hesitate to hit up Alice Waters' Chez Panisse on Saturday night with our friends Annie and Jason. The food was of course excellent, though I have to say that our friends Ken and Becky Wiseman may have topped Alice's cuisine with their homemade bruchetta and quiche (as well as fantastic CA north coast champagne!) when we joined them for brunch in their exquisite garden the next day – definitely have something to aspire to!

By Monday, Nikki had unfortunately developed a pretty nasty cold, but that didn't stop her (us) from taking advantage of a bright and sunny Labor Day morning to scale Mt Tam for one of the coolest views of the Bay Area that I've ever seen. We stopped into the city to try a famous/infamous sandwich shop in the Castro called Ike's (worth the hype) and briefly catch up with Madhu, Bendett, and Amanda in Dolores Park (and set up some Indonesian New Years' plans!). Madhu's new place is pretty sweet!

I got to hang out with Mahoney (and of course Jillian and Joceyln) a ton on this trip since his new gym was right by our hotel/SFO. I'm sold – cross-fit is the new sensation – run, lift, and eat like a caveman! We blasted Op Ivy and ran around the gym, BBQ'd, and of course went surfing. Despite the, um, "sub-optimal" conditions which necessitated a ½ mile walk when we got out of the water, we tore up south OB. As you might expect, I actually got two sessions in that day with a nostalgic trip to Linda Mar in the morning with my buddy Eric. I'll be sorry to leave these chilly-shark-infested waters! That evening, Ken organized (at great effort!) a very touching going-away dinner with the MLPA crew – thanks to everyone that came by and the kind words!

Of course, one going away party is never enough, so Nikki and I organized a happy hour on our last night where we could catch up with all our Bay Area friends. After Nikki's meetings and my conference (during which I got to see the president of Kiribati speak!), we posted up at a place called Maya for some delicious tacos and drinks – it's going to be a while until we get good Mexican food again! It was a huge success and I'm soooo glad that so many of our friends came out – including many that we haven't seen in a long time. You guys are so great and thanks for giving us a fantastic sendoff!!

Last Weekend In DC

2010-09-01T07:28:00.001-07:00

We leave this coming Saturday for Vietnam, so last weekend was our last chance to squeeze in some fun before we take off. Of course we had to do a little packing, so Nikki and I spent the better part of Saturday at our storage facility organizing things that are coming with us (scuba and camp gear, swimsuits, various musical instruments and a ton of shoes) and things that are staying (sweaters, snowboards, Hina's chariot, etc.). Aside from our checked bags, we are allowed to take 450 lbs of air freight and send 7000 lbs via slow boat. I think we're way under that limit, but who really knows what those numbers mean?

After doing as much organizing as possible, we jumped in the car and headed an hour west to go to a restaurant called the Inn and Little Washington. This was by far the fanciest (and most expensive) meal that I have ever participated in, but Nikki and I both thought it was worth it. The service was excellent and the meal felt like a performance. Of course, the food was absolutely delicious with some highlights including: one of the best ceviche dishes we've ever had, "tuna pretending to be fillet mignon," artichoke pasta, and fois gras done two ways. There were fun little extras too like an interesting amuse bouche before the meal, a watermelon bubble tea in between courses, and a box of treats to take with us. We were also treated to a tour of the kitchen which was remarkably spotless. Very cool! Next week we are eating at Chez Panisse in Berkeley, so we'll be able to compare all these ridiculously fancy meals before heading to the land of cheap food in southeast asia.

We finished our 3 hr meal late (11:30 or so) and had an hour drive to the hotel where we would be meeting the hot air balloon company. Of course, I had neglected to pay attention to little details like how much gas was in the tank, so had to take a detour and get some fuel (we barely made it over the Blue Ridge Mountains and coasted down the other side in neutral all the way to Luray).

We were up at 5:30 the next day for our balloon ride. Wow. One of the coolest things I have ever experienced!! It's an amazing feeling to silently float above houses and treetops, waving to people below. We got lucky and had warm weather and lots of sunshine. We just set up and landed in random fields and we were both impressed with how good the guys were that ran to operation - Richy (from KY) and Duane (from AL). We continued our spectacular Sunday with brunch, a stop of the outlets in Leesburg (Nikki was excited!), and a visit to Sunset Hills winery - we're getting into the Cab Francs and Viogniers that Virginia apparently does well. We enjoyed some "winearitas" along with brie/honey and some Amish cheddar on the back porch while listening to a great old guitarist rock out to a variety of classics.

It was a great way to say goodbye to DC - good food, wine, and a balloon ride in the country. This week we are wrapping everything up and preparing to leave Saturday. It's busy, but we are feeling like things are sort of under control....

Anniversary Weekend

2010-08-26T11:27:00.001-07:00

I can't believe it's been a whole year since our wedding!! August 22, 2010 caught up with us quick and we made plans for a hot air balloon ride in rural Virginia to celebrate. Unfortunately, bad weather forced us to postpone the flight, but we had a backup plan and headed to the restaurant at Patowmack Farm for brunch instead. We had a chance to reminisce about last year's first swim, hilarious officiant, and hot weather while eating one of the best meals I've ever had. The restaurant has a produce-driven menu and grows many of the ingredients used. Nikki started with goat cheese waffles topped with Serrano Ham and I had foie gras (my first time - turns out it's delicious and not disgusting! Who knew?). For the main course, I had grilled Escolar (fish) and Nikki had a summer veggie medley - mmm, wax beans... The owner herself came out to serve dessert (peach blueberry gallette and a custard) with little happy anniversary signs - nice touch! Oh and we tried this delicious Spanish wine - Txakoli. All in all - it was fantastic. We digested a bit while walking around the farm and playing with the goats before jumping in the car to head home (Nikki was anxious to get back and play with her new Ipad that she got as an anniversary present!).

Tomorrow is a very big day - Nikki takes her Vietnamese language test!!! She will find out whether 7 months of hours upon hours of studying has enabled her to speak with moderate proficiency (i.e. as a third grader). As I sit in this coffee shop, Nikki is reviewing flash cards across from me and maintaining a very zen attitude (some may be surprised by this!) and I think she is going to do great (her classmates and teachers agree). We have a karaoke party at one of our teachers' house tomorrow night and then plan to head back to rural Virginia on Saturday to go ballooning. We've got another fancy meal at the Inn at Little Washington planned to celebrate.

And then that's it!!! Our year in Washington is coming to a close. Next week we have two days of "security overseas" training, we pack everything out and ship Hina to San Diego Thursday, rest Friday, and fly to SFO Saturday. It will take us two weeks to actually get to Saigon (we arrive Sept 16), as we are taking stops in San Francisco, Maui, and Hong Kong on the way. We've had a fantastic time in DC and both agree it's a place we can imagine living in the future. But for now, we're starting our worldwide adventure and won't be back for a while. How exciting!

Epic NorCal Trip

2010-08-17T19:22:00.001-07:00

With 3 weekends left before Nikki and I move to Vietnam, my buddy Mahoney and I decided that it was high time for a trip of epic proportions on the North Coast of California - abalone diving, surfing, and an outdoor concert were on the docket. I flew into SFO last Friday night, and after throwing a few things in the Land Rover, we were off to Salt Point State Park on the Sonoma Coast. After checking out a couple less than epic campgrounds, we found a perfect spot at Salt Point and were up early the next morning to grab some abalone.

For those of you who have not experienced the awesomeness of swimming through a gently bobbing kelp forest, sneaking up on giant snails and avoiding urchins, seals, and sharks, you are missing out on ab diving! Considering this was my second time and Mahoney's first, we fared pretty well with 5 abs in the 7 and 8 inch size range. With Mahoney dipping into a pre-hypothermic state, we made fire and cooked them with salt/pepper/garlic, wrapped in bacon, sauteed in butter, etc. We had a ton and Mahoney proceeded to offer the extras to everyone within earshot. We spent the rest of the day hiking, eating, and drinking the 5 gallons of home-made hefeweizen that one of Mahoney's friends gave him.

The next day we got up and drove south to Salmon Creek for a little surfing. The rest of the coast was dead calm, so we made use of what little swell there was and tore it up before jumping in the car and heading to San Francisco for the concert. Ditching the car at Mahoney's house in the sunset, we hoofed it a few blocks to Golden Gate Park where the Outside Lands concert was on. We were there to see Social D (who were awesome), but had fun watching The Temper Trap, Janelle Monae, Al Green, Slightly Stoopid, Phoenix, and Kings of Leon. We left just in time to get me to the airport for an 11PM flight, with the sound of KOL echoing through the sunset as we made our way back to Mahoney's house.

What an awesome weekend. We're already trying to figure out how to get to the Lost Coast and add a backpacking component at some point. The above pictures should give you a sense of things and I've uploaded a few more to Picasa at: http://picasaweb.google.com/evanwfox/EpicNorCalTrip?authkey=Gv1sRgCJy9x9LI_KDiOA#

Two weekends left!!

10 Year High School Reunion

2010-08-11T04:55:00.000-07:00

Whew! I think I'm finally caught up on our blogging. It's August now (crazy how fast the summer has gone by!) and we've only got 3 weekends left before we start our move to Vietnam (which will take 2 weeks, with stops in SF and Maui). Last weekend I headed to San Diego for my 10 year west hills high school reunion. Nikki really wanted to be able to make it, but given she has to pass her Vietnamese language test in a couple weeks (and she has way less time than any of her classmates), we just couldn't make it happen.

I headed off on Friday night and had an awesome plane flight. On my first flight, it turned out they were serving free drinks as a promotion, so I had fun drinking cocktails and chatting with a couple of really interesting people next to me. On my second leg (from Chicago to SD), I got a free upgrade to first class! Needless to say, I loved sipping on more free drinks in my comfy seat and watching the new Disney Oceans movie. I got to catch up with my parents a bit on Friday night (it's been a long time!) and see some friends afterwards in North Park - Madhu, Keshav, David, etc.

The event didn't start until 7:30 on Saturday, so I spent the morning with my parents. We had a ton of fun and I'm really glad that we could make it happen. We took a mountain bike ride out in east county out past Jamul with gorgeous views of the unique chaparral, granite-boulder topped mountains out that way. Turns out my parents are keeping in great shape mountain-biking around the county! After an unsuccessful attempt to get into a restaurant dominated by bikers in Barrett's Junction, we got sandwiches and enjoyed them on the back porch at home. The old house is looking great and my parents have done a fantastic job of putting in some cool desert plants (I like the kangaroo paws the best!). I took a quick spin on the motorcycle that Nikki and I are keeping at my parents house and we went out to coffee before I headed out to the reunion.

I met up with my buddies Nick, Tanner, Madhu, and Keshav to catch up before heading to the Catamaran in PB for the event. While I wish more people had attended, I had a really great time catching up with everyone!! It's just so interesting to see what people are doing after 10 yrs. We stayed out super late and Keshav dropped me at the airport at 3AM so I could catch my early-morning flight back to DC (you're the man Keshav!). The trip was only a little more that 24 hrs, but it felt totally worthwhile to get back home however briefly before we head to southeast asia.

Well, we've only got 3 weekends left and are keeping super busy!!! Before long, we'll be in Ho Chi Minh City setting in for our 2 yr stay...

Surprise Visit from Amy/Ant!

2010-08-11T04:23:00.001-07:00

The last weekend in July, our friends Amy and Ant happened to be driving from their home in Ft Lauderdale to NYC with their cute english bulldog, Gordita. Of course, we had to make sure we got a chance to hang out in DC! Amy/Ant didn't arrive until late Saturday, so Nikki, my sister Darcy, Hina and I all spent the morning relaxing in various capacities. Nikki and I had a late night Friday, when we drove to Gaithersburg to try a restaurant specializing in various kinds of dumplings and caught a movie after, so we started Saturday with a leisurely brunch at one of our favorite local spots called North Side Social, which has delicious egg sandwiches using eggs from Polyface Farms (featured in the book, The Omnivores Dilemma). It was so great to catch up with my sister and hear about how well med school is going (she's a 3rd year here at Georgetown). We headed back to our place for some tennis and hanging by the pool next - gotta love the facilities at the Oakwood where we live!

Amy, Ant, and Hina got in later that afternoon and after unwinding in the pool a bit, we headed into DC for an action-packed evening. First stop was the Adams Morgan area for dinner at Mama Ayeshas - middle eastern tapas and excellent service! Next, we jetted across the city in Darcy's new Forrester to catch the 11 PM show at the Palace of Wonders, which has burlesque shows. Perched above the stage with our drinks, we watched the performers eat fire, swallow swords, and hand weights from their eyelids - yo! We weren't even close to done yet though, and walked across the street to the H Street Country Club (at ridiculous name for a dive bar featuring mini-golf) for some skee ball and shuffleboard. When the bar closed and we were starving, we hit up Julias in Dupont for their famous empanadas. Mmmmmm. I have no idea what time we got home, but Hina and Gordita had probably decided that their parents were never going to return! They actually seemed to get along ok, though Hina did initiate a few scuffles and Gordita went home with some war-wounds. The next day, everyone rallied for brunch at fishers and farmers at Washington Harbor in DC where we stuffed ourselves absolutely silly. After wishing Amy/Ant/Gordita bon voyage, Darcy, Nikki, and I relaxed with a movie (Inception - it was awesome, go see it!).

A pretty successful weekend in all, with time to catch up with Darcy and Amy/Ant before we leave. With only 4 weekends left after that one, we are starting to hit the home stretch!

Annie's Wedding in LA

2010-08-11T03:56:00.001-07:00

Near the end of July, Nikki and I took a quick trip out to LA to attend the wedding of our friends Annie and Jason ("Buns"). The ceremony was really beautiful out at the LA River Center in Pasadena, with lots of personal touches (I personally loved the tie-dye ties!!). We are super happy for these guys and had fun dancing the night away to hits from the 90's! Upon recommendation from our friends Virgile and Sterling, Nikki and I visited Descanso Gardens that morning, which has a really good assortment of various flowers. We also had an awesome breakfast in San Marino and some Mexican food in downtown Pasadena - some of the last we may get for the next 2 yrs!! At the airport on Sunday, I got to quickly catch up with our friends David and Melanie, who just happened to be in town in between their many adventures. As always, we packed it in, arriving home late tired and happy!

Run for the Gulf 5K and Jack Johnson

2010-08-11T03:47:00.001-07:00

With 7 weekends to go, Nikki and I took a little bit of a "break" and stuck around DC.

We had signed up for a 5k right near our house on Friday night which was organized to raise money for the oil disaster in the Gulf. Nikki did approximately 2.5 runs to prepare herself for the race and did fantastic, especially since it was crazy-hot and humid that evening. I think this could be the start of a new trend! I ended up winning the race in 16:18, which I felt pretty good about considering how long it's been since I've done competitive running (and the fact that I did a 13 mile run that morning!). Race results are here: http://www.runpacers.com/raceresults/run_for_gulf_10/index.asp, though apparently Nikki's timing chip didn't work (bummer!). There are also some pictures online at:
http://runforthegulf5k.shutterfly.com/pictures/36#20
http://runforthegulf5k.shutterfly.com/pictures/36#36
We celebrated with a great meal at Cashions Eat Place in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of DC - nothing like good food after a race!

Saturday I recovered by taking a fun long bike ride with my buddy Virgile and Nikki and I hit up Costco to pick up supplies for our impending move to Vietnam. In the evening continued supporting environmental-causes-via-fun-events by going to a Jack Johnson concert as part of his To the Sea CD release tour. It was at the Merriweather Post Pavilion, which is outside with a big grassy lawn and space around the edge for food and booths where Jack had invited environmental organizations to set up - great idea! Jack played with ALO and G-Love and all three were really great - it was a super-fun evening!!

Delicious Food in Philly

2010-08-11T03:24:00.001-07:00

We've been so busy I've not been able to keep up with the blogging! The next few posts are an attempt to catch up.

With 8 weekends in DC left, we headed up to Philly in early July to focus on one thing and one thing alone - eating good food. This has been an evolving passion for me and Nikki and visiting the city of brotherly love turned out to be a great opportunity for seeing our buddy Jeff Glenn and tapping into his like-minded love of analyzing meals in excruciating detail and knowledge of the city.

Jeff actually did a much better job of taking pictures and documenting the meals than I can do, so I stole a few pics and included them here. Jeff's work is at: http://picasaweb.google.com/jglenner/PhillyFoodWeekendWNikkiEvan#. He's a great photographer and I would for sure check em out.

I can say that we had some of the best food I've eaten in my life. We made every meal count and Jeff and I took running tours of the city each morning to ensure that we maintained plenty of appetite.

Nikki and I got in on Friday night and ate at a place called Alma de Cuba - highlights of the meal were fantastic ceviche and a chocolate cigar dessert. My coconut cocktail was also damn good (if a little girly). After retracing Rocky's run through the Italian market and South St the next day, we headed to Rouge for one of the best burgers in America - I'd say it was worthy of some kind of award, though Good Stuff Eatery in DC is still my #1 fave. We took a trolley/bus tour of the city, including stops at Eastern State Penitentiary and the Art Museum, and built up an appetite for Cantonese/Peruvian fusion at Chifa. I know if sounds weird, but the tapas-style reinventions of traditional plates like bao and empanadas were delicious. The highlight was actually the free cheese-filled bread with a guava-siracha dipping sauce that we are all pretty sure had crack in it. Second dinner was at Buddakan, which had strange and wonderful modern asian concoctions like edemame ravioli and wasabi tuna carpachio pizza. Not bad drinks either - apparently yuzu is the new hot mixer these days! The bento-box dessert was sooo good - I feel like my mother would have been in heaven! We saved just enough room for pinkberry-style yogurt on the way home and called it a successful day.

The next morning, Jeff and I ran around west Philadelphia unsuccessfully looking for Will Smith while I had flashbacks of the Penn Relays. Meanwhile, Nikki got to do some quality shopping! We all built up an appetite and converged on the Continental, where the highlight was definitely a cinnamon-marscapone-stuffed waffle in bourbon syrup. Mmmmmmm. My bacon-infused vodka martini was also not bad. Of course, we had to finish our Philly trip with some cheesesteaks. With the final game of the world cup playing in the background, we cruised South Street and settled on steaks from ishkabibbles and steaks on south (SOS). After a very close taste-test competition, we decided Ishka was the winner. While Jeff hit the road, Nikki and I went back and picked up a chicken-cheesesteak for comparison (not bad) and hit up the Philly Magic Gardens, where a local artist has spent 14 years creating a huge art piece in a lot and adjacent house comprised of all kinds of junk. Pretty cool.

Riding high on our good food kick, Nikki and I continued the trend when we got back to DC and visited Eric Ripert's West End Bistro, where we made special reservations to sit at the pass between the kitchen and the restaurant. Definitely one of the coolest dining experiences we have ever had!! We got to pick the brain of the head chef and see how it gets done in a high-class restaurant first hand. I took a picture of our grilled octopus, but all the food, including grilled striped bass and shrimp and grits, was awesome. We've got a long list of places to try here in DC, so hopefully we can squeeze in a few more memorable dining experiences before we leave!

4th of July in Savannah

2010-07-06T09:07:00.001-07:00

Nikki, Hina, and I took advantage of the long weekend to meet up with Amy, Anthony, and Gordita in Savannah, Georgia for the 4th of July. It was a long drive for sure, but totally worth it. Nikki and I did the drive over two days, munching on boiled peanuts and blueberries while blasting country music and taking a detour along the South Carolina coast to check out Myrtle Beach and Charleston (we had some of the best BBQ ever in Charleston - mmm, mustard-based sauce....). Amy found us a cool little vacation rental in the historic district of Savannah, walking distance to the river/restaurants etc. We had fun cruising around the neighborhood with huge old trees covered in spanish moss, antebellum architecture, and a park perfect for running around with the dogs.

Naturally, the highlight of the weekend was the fact that Hina and Gordita finally got to meet!! Looking back through our pictures, it appears that our activities were almost exclusively confined to posing our puppies in the most ridiculously cute positions imaginable, and snapping a photo. The two girls mostly got along by the end, though there were a couple of snarly teeth-gnashing sessions (Hina and Gordita were fairly well-behaved too). We went for walks, visited a fort, hung out at restaurants and watched the world cup, and on Sunday, went kayaking around Tybee Island. Within 5 minutes of pushing off the dock, both dogs had fallen in the river - thank goodness they were wearing adorable puppy-life-jackets! That was small consultation to Amy though, as her motherly instincts drove her to immediately dive in after her floating puppy-buoy daughter, who maintained her composure and paddled around with her tongue just peaking out through her clenched teeth - she's a natural!

On Sunday, we celebrated birthdays for both Gordita and America. Amy busted out a delicious doggie-cake and Gordita, Hina, Ant, and I all wore party hats. We all enjoyed Nikki's homemade mojito-tea on the back porch before heading out for an nice dinner at the Pink House and fireworks on the river. It was a late night and Nikki and I dragged ourselves out of bed at 7 for the long drive home.

Another fantastic weekend and only eight more to go before we ship out. Next weekend we're off the Philly to meet up with Jeff Glenn and see what culinary delights the city has to offer. I think I'm going to fast until then to prepare myself.

C+O and Family Weekend

2010-06-28T09:10:00.001-07:00

Descendants of the June/Harry Grubschmidt clan and their families made their way to DC this weekend for a celebration of the twins (Carla and Bayla) b-day, my parents (John and Carla) anniversary, I believe my Uncle David's b-day, and general family togetherness. It was a long approach, starting in Paw Paw West Virginia on Tuesday and ending in Georgetown on Saturday - 150 miles on the C and O canal. Nikki, Christian, Mike and I participated in the last leg of the journey from Leesburg (at White's Ferry), heading up Friday night. Chris actually came in on Thursday, so we got a chance to hang out. We ate at perhaps the dive-y-est restaurant around that evening, enjoying both chicken-fried steak and chicken-fried chicken (yum!), had a few drinks watching Brazil/Portugal on Friday morning, and burned off most of those calories with some frisbee golf on Friday afternoon.

The bike ride was great!! The canal towpath parallels the Potomac river and is shady and beautiful throughout. We kept up a pretty good (10 mph) pace, though it was generally pretty leisurely and we took a lot of "butt breaks." Nikki got to use her new bike ("Trixy") and I pulled our trailer with Hina in the back. I only crashed the trailer once! Hina was ok and made up for it by jumping in the Potomac and covering herself with mud. We booked it home and caught the second half of the USA/Ghana game in Georgetown (so sad). After prettying ourselves up, we had a wonderful dinner at the Source in DC - food and drinks were great (though I'm not sure up to all the hype) and we had a private patio table in the balmy DC evening. We continued the good food/drinks theme on to the next morning, when we ate brunch at Chadwicks in Alexandria. There was just enough time to visit the torpedo factory for some last minute crafts-shopping before everyone dispersed (back to Pittsburgh, Philly, NYC, and San Diego). Nikki and I squeezed in a bit more fun that day - watching the exciting Argentina/Mexico game at Fados bar downtown, grabbing a bite at Zaytinya's (another restaurant that's been on our list), and a good ole brainless summer blockbuster (Knight and Day) to finish things out.

Next weekend we're driving to Savannah to meet up with Amy, Ant, and Gordita - so excited!!

DC Weekend

2010-06-22T09:30:00.001-07:00

For the first time in a few weeks, we were actually in DC for the weekend. It was great to have some fun around town and cross a few things off our list. We started the weekend right with frisbee golf in Bluemont Park. The fireflies are starting to come out and it was just magical to see them sparkling under the trees; Hina was very confused as to what they were as she bounded around chasing squirrels. Darcy finished her big post 2-year med school text (we assume she aced it), so to celebrate, Nikki, Darcy, Mike, Brian and I went to the "H Street Country Club" - great mexican food and drinks + shuffleboard/skeeball + mini golf! Who could ask for more? The golf course is all DC-themed and super funny (see the dead presidents revival with my sister in the above pic). I was still recovering from a late Thursday night watching the Celtics lose with our friend JP, but had to rally for the occasion.

Saturday we rented a row boat on the Potomac and enjoyed the warm weather floating around on the river with Hina. We hiked up to a waterfall where Hina was instantly a hit with some canoers taking a break. Hina has a new life-jacket, and so is very confident in the water (well, kinda - I still have to toss her in from time to time). We picnicked next to the river and tossed the frisbee for a bit before hitting up a movie (get him to the greek - hilarious).

We started Sunday with a french-style brunch outside in Arlington, metroed in to watch the Nats get hammered by the White Sox (turns out Carlos Quentin is on the team - go SD!), and BBQed that evening while making some fresh lemonade. Oooh and we had champagne with blood orange sorbet for dessert. I know it sounds super-bourgeois, but it was pretty great (and hey, it's NoVa anyway). The Nationals Stadium is fun, by the way. We had great seats and got the biggest chilli nachos I've ever seen.

Now the Fox/Grubschmidt clan is in town for a week-long bike ride. It's really great to see everybody and Nikki and I are going to ride in to DC with them on Saturday (with Hina "in tow," of course!). And then of course, there's the big twin b-day dinner on Saturday and my parents' 39 wedding anniversary - woot! Should be another fun weekend.

NYC - Puppy Cousins

2010-06-14T08:59:00.001-07:00

The much-anticipated meeting of the puppy cousins finally happened in New York this weekend. To everyone's relief, Hina and Lazlo are best buddies and nobody got beat up (much). We had a fantastic time hanging out with Stan, Val, and Chris and got to meet lots of their friends. Turns out Brooklyn is a pretty fun spot not too different from NoVa or the Bay Area - accessible-locally-sourced produce? check - highly exclusive hippie co-op? check. specialty beer store with myriad beverage options? check. dog-crazy residents? check. And best of all - rooftop BBQ space on a beautiful afternoon - CHECK! We got to check out a favorite local bar and brunch spot too, of course well-lubricated with hefeweizen and mimosas. We also got to see Chris' pad which is very hip (sorry Chris!). High ceilings, exposed industrial interior, 1950's appliances, and a kickin rooftop (does everyone but us have one of these?).

Nikki and I stayed in Manhattan at the New York Hilton, which we could never afford, except we did one of those time-share previews (gasp! repeat offenders!). Luckily, it was only an hour presentation and we contained ourselves enough to not sign on the dotted line (yet). We had a view of Central Park, which we explored briefly with Hina, and were close to the theater district where we saw avenue Q on Saturday (fun!). I was exhausted during the show - we got in late the night before because I took a (minor) wrong turn on the drive up and ended up in Atlantic City (I know, I know...it's a long story). The good news is we got in just in time to try out the Halal Carts outside the hotel - chicken and lamb in a tin for $5 - so awesome. The line had probably 50+ people at 2AM.

All in all, it was a great (however quick) trip up and we loved seeing everybody. Next weekend we haven't decided what to do yet, but probably will be in DC. After that we hope to see the Fox/Grubschmidt clan in DC for a celebration of the twins' b-day!!

Rocky Gap Triathlon and B-more

2010-06-07T18:54:00.001-07:00

I completed my first triathlon this weekend - woo! Good news is that I finished despite being totally out of shape. Bad news is that I crashed my bike right at the end of the ride. I was super-confident going up this hill and was flying down the other side in the rain and didn't quite think ahead enough to slow down on a 90 degree right turn. I skidded on my hip across the intersection and was thankfully not too hurt, though my hip was jacked and spasming after that (and the bike ain't too pretty either). The race was near Cumberland, MD, which is absolutely beautiful - mountains, farms, horses, lakes, etc. Nikki was my coach/#1 fan/medic and made sure I didn't die. It was tons of fun and I'm hoping to do another one before we leave for Vietnam (might even get Nikki in one too!). I put my splits below if anyone is interested (plenty of room to improve).

Nikki has a big test on Wednesday, so had to catch up on work Sunday. While she hit to books, I recovered by going to the Orioles/Sox game in Baltimore with our friends, JP and Christy. It was a perfect way to spend a Saturday, even though it rained a bit and the Sox lost. I'm always amazed how extensive Red Sox Nation is - there were definitely more Boston fans in the stadium than home team supporters. We finished up the trip with an awesome crab dinner near Fells Point and some Natty Bo's before jumping in the car to drive home.

One more weekend down and 12 to go. We're heading up to NYC next weekend to see my cousins Stan, Val, and Chris - yay!

Here's my race times for those interested:

Total Time - 2:25:06
Swim (1.5k) - 29:41 = 1:59/100m
Bike (35.5k) - 1:09:39 = 19 mph
Run (10k) - 43:03 = 6:57/mile
Swim/Bike Transition = 1:44
Bike/Run Transition = 1:01
Full results are here (scroll down to June 5):
http://www.wmtiming.com/2010race.html

Puerto Rico

2010-06-01T05:57:00.001-07:00

We took advantage of memorial day and jumped over to Puerto Rico for the weekend with our friends Amy and Anthony. San Juan is a beautiful city with colonial architecture, great food, and lots of nightlife. Was fun to practice a little bit of Spanish. Despite some rainy weather, we had a ton of fun - diving the first day, an ecotour (kayak and zipline) the second day, and a quick tour of "El Morro," the fantastic fort built in 1539 that guards the harbor, on day three. Of course, we fit some time in for great meals and a fair amount of boozing - it's memorial day weekend, right? For example, did we go to bed after arriving in PR at 11:30 on Friday night? No! We met everyone at the Old Harbor Brewery for several towers of delicious beer until 3, and then rallied for a 6:00 AM dive pickup. Talk about squeezing the most out of a vacation. Amy/Anthony's friend Jose is from PR, and showed us a great time - thanks Jose!!

13 weekends left and counting. Next weekend I'm doing a triathlon here in DC and the following one we're in NYC to see my cousins. So much to do and so little time-

Shenandoah and Hina Weekends

2010-05-23T17:58:00.001-07:00

Last weekend we were lucky enough to have my parents out in DC. We went on a fantastic hike in Shenandoah with them, Darcy, Mike, Nikki, me, and Hina. On the way home we stopped at the Barrel Oak Winery (dog friendly, of course) and had a great time sitting out in the evening air relaxing. We also added to our ever-growing stockpile of wine!! They had a dog-rescue program going and everyone got to cuddle a baby fox-hound..awe... The week flew by with Darcy, mom, and dad doing some lobbying, though we did have a chance to visit Farmers and Fishers, one of our fav places in DC - sustainable food and fantastic drinks!! (worth the $12 a pop). We hadn't had enough Shenandoah though, so this weekend Mike, Darcy, Nikki, Hina, and I rented a cabin and went up again. The cabin was soooo fun - it was cozy with a fireplace and a hot-tub and a nice porch. We ate and drank like pigs and Mike and I tried to not burn the place down or cause undo bodily harm using the grill. We had a canoeing expedition on Saturday, leisurely covering 8 miles on the Shenandoah without dumping it in the rapids (we saw some pretty comical spills). Great success.

Friday was a big event - Hina turned two years old!!! She's so mature and well-behaved now..... I kinda lost it and went all out for the party with Mike, Darcy, and Nikki - two doggie cupcakes with candles ("2" and "B-E-A-R"), special fresh dog food, several toys, special bone, disney princess plates, hats for everybody... you get the picture. Can you tell we don't have kids? Anyhow, is was super fun and we even sang happy birthday out by the grill while all the humans had wood-fired pizza and beverages. Mike had the honor of drinking my last bottle of the first beer that Jeff Glenn and I made in Boston - and it didn't taste like crap! (at least, that's what he said).

All in all - tons of fun. Only 14 more weekends until we move to Vietnam! Next weekend - Puerto Rico....

Williamsburg Weekend

2010-05-11T11:34:00.000-07:00

We took a quick trip down to Williamsburg last weekend to take advantage of our limited amount of time left in DC. On Saturday, we started the day at a fantastic farmer's market and then went to Busch Gardens amusement park and rode roller coasters. While I was a little disappointed that they no longer serve free beer (which apparently used to be the case!) we still had a ton of fun and got to go on every ride (and some twice!). On Sunday, we went to Colonial Williamsburg, which was awesome !!! (despite Tracy Jordan's disparaging comment in 30 Rock). We packed a picnic and ate on the banks of the James River where the first permanent (European) American settlement was founded in 1607. Not bad for a malarial swamp! I took a quick spin through the archaeological site before we jumped in the car for a long ride home. Talk about packing it in for the weekend!

Mornings with Hina

2010-01-11T05:36:00.000-08:00

Working on the China desk has been tough work for Nikki - she has to be AT her desk at 7:00 AM! I've been driving her in, and then taking Hina on an early morning hike. It's pretty awesome to see a different beautiful sunrise every day. The above are a few of the good ones I captured on film. We've basically toured different parts of the Potomac - from Great Falls down to Mt Vernon - hiking, snowshoeing, cross county skiing, and even 'skating' on a frozen canal.

Airboarding video!

2009-12-29T08:16:00.000-08:00

Airboarding is awesome!! Not quite sure how I pulled this trick off....
Nikki was much more graceful-