pOkE the pLaNeT

The Year of the Rat has brought us a new adventure opportunity. Initially we thought that Beijing would be our next nomadic stop but an ever more desirable opportunity presented itself and transpired ending in our favor. We are going to Kiev (Ukraine)- yes the home of the orange revolution, boxing greats the Klitchko brothers and probably best known for the nuclear incident of Chernobyl. O.K. I'll stop with the bragging about the glamour and prestige of the place. No, but we are really happy to be going back to our familiar stomping grounds of E. Europe, spouting some russian again and see the rest of the so called neighborhood we didn't get to see previously. Not to mention the endearing backasswards (non asian) way things do or don't get done, the automatic response of "no, it is not possible" and the food (yes, the food) we have missed.

No date to leave Hanoi is confirmed as of yet but it'll probably this summer so there will be a No Vacancy sign on our door here, after May, although we will be taking advance bookings for Kiev (Kyiv).

Here are a few of my pics from our trip to Siem Reap around Angkor during Tet.
Cambodia is AWESOME!!!

Happy New Year All!!!

I was going to post pics from our trip over the holidays in Malaysia but after viewing the 30 I took, of which the 20 that are not completely black cuz my camera sucks for night photos, I ended up with a pic of drunk Ozzie soliders, the twin towers in Kuala Lumpur and some clouds from the plane. Therefore, I thought I'd spare us all the wasting of our time viewing them.

The Malaysia trip was okay, it was nice to go to the 2nd world and get a break from Hanoi but so far has been our least fav country in Asia. Aside from being kinda pricey, especially booze thanks to the muslim sin taxes imposed, it was kinda vanilla even though it possess 3 diverse cultures. Of course it could be just me and being in a country where eveyone pretty much speaks english that takes all the fun out of it for me, no funny word misinterpertations or games of charades needed to be played doesn't suit me.That experience has not extinguished my desire to travel more in Asia, we are going to Cambodia the beginning of Feb. to see Ankor Wat. We decided on Cambodia to escape Tet ( Chinese New Year )chaos here. As much fun as it might sound to stay in town while the whole country is in "Black Monday" mode for a month with inflated prices on everything only to end with a mediocer fireworks display in a sea of honking scooters in exchange for maybe 3 days of relative peace - Cambodia sounds nice.

I will see ya in the year of the rat.

“Once again, we come to the Holiday Season, a deeply religious time that each of us observes, in his own way, by going to the mall of his choice.”
- Dave Barry