thekas's posterous http://thekas.posterous.com Most recent posts at thekas's posterous posterous.com Tue, 13 Mar 2012 16:46:00 -0700 Summing up http://thekas.posterous.com/summing-up http://thekas.posterous.com/summing-up

Total length: 6 month and 18 days

Countries covered: 22 (time spent in the country ranges from 1 day to 6 weeks)

Total pictures taken 4699

Number of extended-hand pictures taken 137

From 2011.09.10 Ljubljana

Craziest hike - Angthong Marine park. Also wins the best panoramic views!

From 2011.10.12 Koh Samui

Most unsafe hike - Pai canyon, Thailand and San Gil canyoning trip (we didn't risk bringing the camera to the San Gil hike so there are no pictures)

From 2011.10.29 Pai

Highest peak - Monserrate in Bogota, Colombia (10,341 ft)

From 2012.02.03 Bogota

Cutest animal - Too many to choose from, but here's San Gil's monkey that bites 

From 2012.02.08 San Gil

Most nobel creature - elephant at Baan Chang Elephant reserve

From 2011.10.27 Baan Chang Elephants

Greatest runner - this green guy

From 2012.01.15 Cahuita

Warmest beach - Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica

From 2012.01.22 Manuel Antonio

Laziest beach - Chaloklum, Phangan

From 2011.10.14 Koh Phangan

Most money held at one time - 5 million Laos Kip

From 2011.11.04 Huay Xai and Gibbons

Craziest house we stayed at - Tree house on Gibbon Experience, Laos

From 2011.11.04 Huay Xai and Gibbons

Best camping / oddest town - Kolka, Latvia

From 2011.08.15 Kolka

Best tour guide - Uncle Igor, Latvia

From 2011.08.13 Riga

Most adorable picture received from back home - nephew Andy, 6 month

Best old town walls - Dubrovnik, Croatia

From 2011.09.19 Dubrovnik

Craziest drivers - Everybody in Hanoi, Vietnam

From 2011.11.18 Hanoi

Worst bus ride ever - Laos to Vietnam

From 2011.11.18 Hanoi

Best travel companions - too many to choose from. Thank you guys!

Longest walk in the wrong direction - 1 hour and 40 mins, Vienna, Austria. Also the time that Levka lost his map privileges.

From 2011.09.05 Vienna

Best snacks that remind us of childhood - Dulce de leche aka boiled condensed milk, Costa Rica

From 2012.01.20 Monteverde

Gogoshi, Brasov, Romania

From 2011.09.30 Brasov

Best beer - Czech republic (no contest!)

From 2011.08.30 Prague

Favorite city - Budapest, Hungary

From 2011.09.22 Budapest

Biggest cultural shock - bathrooms in Vietnam (no picture here)

Most number of transport used for one trip - From Phangan to US (tuk-tuk, boat, bus, 3 planes and a car ride)

Worst sea sickness ever - Levka on the way to Phanghan from Surathani

Funnest mode of transportation - Anywhere on a scooter!

From 2011.10.26 Chiang Mai

Prettiest train ride - Vienna to Graz

From 2011.09.08 Graz

Shortest train - Romania

From 2011.09.28 Eger

Most "stylish" city - Hoi An, Vietnam

Pairs of shoes warn out - 6 (for the two of us)

City with most amazing architecture (it would also win Best Gallery, but we didn't get to visit it) - Dresden, Germany

From 2011.08.29 Dresden

Best joke teller - Rob (he's the one on the right, if you can't figure it out yourself)

From 2011.11.13 Kouang Si waterfall

Cheapest very good accommodation - Luang Prabang, Laos - $7 per night

From 2011.11.10 Luang Prabang

Best device for crossing flooded streets - Levka

From 2011.10.24 Bangkok

Best food - Mae Kadees, Bangkok, Thailand

From 2011.10.25 Bangkok flood

Most food eaten at one time - Grandma's house, Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine

From 2011.08.02 Dnepropetrovsk

Best Castle - Sigulda, Latvia

From 2011.08.14 Sigulda

Weirdest castle - San Felipes de Barajas, Cartagena, Colombia

From 2012.02.12 Cartagena

Town most likely to be in a Fairytale - Bled, Slovenia

From 2011.09.12 Bled

We did not really want to stop, but kinda had to. But home is not that bad either, just that whole looking for work thing is getting in the way.

From 2012.02.18 Flight back

The end.

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http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1407224/thekas.JPG http://posterous.com/users/hdo3FNMBobJSW Lev and Julie thekas Lev and Julie
Fri, 09 Mar 2012 10:57:40 -0800 Cartagena 2/12-2/17 http://thekas.posterous.com/cartagena-212-217 http://thekas.posterous.com/cartagena-212-217

[Side note: this post was started about a month ago, while we were still in Cartagena.  By now we've been back  home for almost 3 weeks, and apparently when you are unemployed you still don't have time for blogging...]

We booked our hostel in Cartagena a little bit ahead of time before we knew when exactly we'd be arriving.  The reason we did it was so that we could tell the address where we'll be staying to the manager of our hostel in San Gil, so that he'd mail Julie's phone there  (she left it charging in the lobby.) 

In the end we arrived 2 days before our reservation. Luckily the hostel had some availability, and we got a 2-room suit for the 4 of us for the first night.  From the 2nd night on they moved us to another hotel around the corner managed by the same folks; we did not have high expectations, but it turned out to be even better.  Neither of the places had hot water, but the weather during the day was in the low 30s, so it was not a huge deal.

We arrived in the second half of the day, and decided to go for a walk, to find some food.  

We made it to a restaurant, but not further because it got a bit cold for the shorts I insisted Julie should wear.  So we went back to change, stopping by a supermarket on the way.  Levys purchased enough oat meal and eggs to last us the next few days, so at least we did not have to go out for breakfasts.

The following day we spent browsing the old town. It's beautiful, clean, and very pleasant to walk about.

In the second half of the day Irin went back to the old town to paint, and Julie and I went to check out the local beaches.

They are located in the new part of town full of hotels, and (presumably) expensive residential buildings.  Can't say the beaches are anything of note, but we did swim and tan a bit.

On the 3rd day we decided to get out of town, and see one of the recommended attractions, Volcan de Lodo El Totumo, aka Mud Volcano.  We did not know quite what to expect, so when we saw a "volcano" about 15 meters high we were not too disappointed.

When we got to the top we saw about a dozen people sitting in a mud hole maybe 3x3 meters.  It looked a bit pathetic.  But we were already there, so we got in.  It was completely surreal - you can't feel the bottom, and you are  floating like a log in the gooey mud.  I rarely just float in any liquid; the last place where I could float easily was Dead Sea, so I enjoyed the experience.  You are offered a "massage" by one of the 3 or 4 local workers who sit in mud all day long, but we opted out.  When you get out you are directed towards the nearby lake where you don't get an option to wash yourself, rather you are handled by one of the local ladies who promptly helps you out of your swimming trunks, and washes you thoroughly.  All for an equivalent of 1 and a half dollars. 

On the way back we got to enjoy the local cuisine (they had to make the activities longer than the bus ride), and I got to pose as Moses.

For our last excursion on this trip, we ended up going to Playa Blanca, white beach on an island off of Cartagena. We heard that this is the best beach in Colombia.

We woke up early, made oat meal for breakfast and headed to the pier which is a 15 min walk from the hostel. Along the way, we started to be harassed by locals trying to sell us various tours to the beach and around. We ignored them all and walked forward with determination.

We bought a ticket for a boat that was to leave at 9 am and supposedly take about 30 mins to get to the beach. As always, Colombian time does not coincide with real time so the boat left almost an hour late and took twice as long to get there. It also made a detour at some random island where the local kids swam up to the boat and begged for money. We are still unsure of why we stopped there twice (on the way there and back).  Half way to the island one of the engines started behaving oddly, and the crew changed the spark plugs.

All of us were pretty annoyed with the ride, but then the water turned to hazel blue (from an icky gray) and we knew that we were arriving to our paradise island.

The enjoyment had to be postponed once again. When we arrived, we had to jump from the boat into the water. Poor Irka, landed on some corral and took off a chunk of skin from her foot. The locals suggested to take her to the police hut down the beach who could give us some medical supplies. When we arrived there, the police were reluctant to help. But after some convincing, they gave us some basic supplies. They also called over a girl who spoke some English and she helped us talk to police. Also a nice healer-type lady stopped by and took over the disinfecting and the bandaging. The whole scene looked like this:

After all was done, we moved Irka to a shady spot and finally could enjoy the beach. The rest of the day was what you would expect from an island paradise; sand, water, palm trees, grilled fish, annoying people trying to sell you everything from jewelry to massages, and a sunburn. The latter was most pronounced on our pale friends.

For our last two days of Colombia, and of the trip, we took it easy and just roamed around Cartagena.

We found the Fort of San Felipe, which is the strangest looking structure that you can find.

The different sections of the fort are separated by unmarked tunnels. So we had to guess where we would end up next.

At one point, we walked for about 10 mins through a tunnel which we thought would lead into a dungeon. Instead it turned out to be a dead end. The climb back was fun :)

The rest of the time we spent eating and looking for souvenirs. The latter proved futile. The souvenir industry is not as developed in Colombia as in some other countries (such as Costa Rica). And the stores tend to sell the same low quality stuff. The only exception is the jewelry. Apparently, Colombia specializes in emeralds and you can literally buy them anywhere.  After months on the road, we weren't exactly on the market for precious stones, so we avoided those stores.

Here is the rest of the Cartagena pix.

2012.02.12 Cartagena

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http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1407224/thekas.JPG http://posterous.com/users/hdo3FNMBobJSW Lev and Julie thekas Lev and Julie
Sun, 19 Feb 2012 17:56:44 -0800 Santa Marta 2/10-2/12 http://thekas.posterous.com/santa-marta-210-212 http://thekas.posterous.com/santa-marta-210-212

The bus ride to Santa Marta was as much fun as any 12 hour night ride can be.  But we can’t complain – the bus was pretty decent, the movies were not too loud with earplugs, and we heard about it being super cold ahead of time, so we brought our fleece jackets as well as the sleeping bag onboard.  Instead of dropping us off in a town next to Santa Marta where we’d have to change bus to the one that would take us all the way, this bus surprised us by dropping us off directly in Santa Marta.  It took us a few minutes to realize where we were, then a few more minutes to get a cab – the first one was not able to move after we loaded up: the rear wheel was rubbing against the fender.

Julie and I did not know much about this town because in Colombia we planned even less than in any other country.  We figured it was time to relax now that we were with the Levys.  Turned out that Santa Marta itself is a port town without many attractions, and as far as tourism goes serves as a stomping ground for those about to depart to the Tayrona National Park.  But as it happened we caught the first couple of nights of the carnival, and got to see some dressed up folks.

The first day in town, after we ate, washed off and napped, we took a cab to the nearby Taganga, which is essentially a small beach with a few hostels and restaurants around it.  We did the beach thing, and headed back to Santa Marta for dinner.  It was a Friday, so we decided to celebrate Shabbat at a nice restaurant.

Next morning we were off to Tayrona National Park.

Usually people go to this park for more than one day, and either do a multi-day hike to the Lost City, or camp by the beach in tents, or simply in the hammocks.  We did not have the time for the Lost City track, and after reading about the quality of the provided accommodations decided that the camping is not for Julie or me either.  So we went for one day.  Andrey and Irin decided to play it by ear, and just in case took enough food for 2 days.

The hike was relatively easy and pleasant.  There were 2 trails that led to the Piscina beach: one that was made (recently?) for tourists, and the other one for pooping donkeys, horses and tourists who did not see the sign for the first trail.  Luckily we took the former one on the way to the beach (less luckily we decided to take a short cut, and took the stinky route on the way back.)

We spent a gorgeous day on the beach, tried an unusual and very tasty sweets made by some girls who are travelling on the budget, and get by by selling the aforementioned sweets.

Around 4pm Julie and I headed back to catch the bus back. We got lucky, and saw a species of monkeys we had not seen before, El Mico Titi.

The next morning we were going to Cartagena, and the Levys would catch up.  Later that night however Levys caught up with us at the hotel; they decided not to spend the night in the park due to circumstances outside of their control (they were in fact ready to spend the night in a pretty nasty tent, or in a mosquito-infested hammock.)

The next morning we were off to Cartagena in the last long bus ride of our trip.

2012.02.10 Santa Marta

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http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1407224/thekas.JPG http://posterous.com/users/hdo3FNMBobJSW Lev and Julie thekas Lev and Julie
Sun, 19 Feb 2012 17:44:55 -0800 San Gil 2/8-2/10 http://thekas.posterous.com/san-gil-28-210 http://thekas.posterous.com/san-gil-28-210

We arrived to San Gil from Villa de Leyva towards the evening, and after checking in went straight for food.  A couple of things were immediately apparent – that the town had a lot of hills, some of them steeper than the Lombard Street, and that during the day it would be hot (even in the evening the temperature was around 80F.)  Irin felt victim to an apparent food poisoning, so Andrey and her went to bed early.  We walked around town a bit more, but did not see anything out of the ordinary.

The next morning we decided to go on the all-in-one caving, canyoning, rappelling, waterfalling tour.  It started great – the guide came over with a baby howler monkey on his back.  He said that the monkey’s mother has abandoned him, and he just clang to the guide’s shoulder for the past few days.  Naturally Julie played with him until we absolutely had to go.

To get to the tour start the 4 of us were loaded into a beater taxi that stopped in the middle of the very first hill.  I was about to get out of the car to make it lighter when the driver said he needed to switch to gasoline from gaz. Turned out that quite a few of these cars had engines that ran on both.  Once on gasoline the car did make it to the top of the hill, not without trouble though.

At the beginning of the trail we were given $1 flashlights, and led to the cave that stank of human excrement for the first 5 minutes.  Then the stench let up.  We saw some sleeping bats, but I’m rather sure it’s not their poop that stank. For the following 20 or so minutes we walked and crawled, and sometimes got explanatory hand gestures about how to do it from our guide – he did not speak English.  Julie cursed me just a little bit when we had to get waste deep in the underground (cold) water.  When we got out of the cave the caving part started, and we were offered to make a jump into a pool of water from about 6m high.  Another guide (who spoke even less English) explained that when you hit the water you have to bend your knees.  We did not quite understand why until Andrey jumped, and discovered that the water pool is about 5 feet deep.  So of course Andrey and I jumped a couple of times. 

In another few minutes of skipping from one slippery rock to the next we reached a point where they strapped us into climbing harnesses, and with a bit of explanation let us rappel about 5 meters down. The 2nd guide appeared to be the “experienced” one, but also the more stoned of the two.  He ran the show, and apparently he was not satisfied with how slowly we were moving along; so after I descended he decided instead of letting everyone descend by themselves, he’ll lower us himself.  Luckily Andrey was going after me, and he’s been climbing for a while now, so as soon as he understood what that guy wanted to do he told him not to.  After Andrey and Irin climbed down the guy tried to lower Julie, at which point everybody told him not to.

Few more minutes of canyoning, and we reached the 2nd and final rappelling stop.  Here the guides took some time to setup.  Basically they carry all the ropes and equipment with them, there are no stations that are prearranged.  They’ve used 4 trees to attach the ropes. The descending person was supposed to have control over the speed of the descent, and the guide up top would have the 2nd, safety rope.  Normally that would sound great, unfortunately none of us really trusted the skills of the stoned guide.  Andrey once again went first, and safely made it to the bottom.  I figured that was the right time to send Julie – she was not liking the whole situation the most.  I promised I’d keep my hands on the safety line, and Andrey would encourage Julie from the bottom.  At the edge, before your feet leave the rock, and you drop vertically, the guides ask you to pose for a picture.  At that point Julie did not really feel like posing, but rather looked ready to climb back up, and disembody them both, so Irin, Andrey and I all cheered Julie down.  The guide once again proved incompetent, and pretty much none of us had to do anything going down, instead of spotting us he was lowering us himself at a very slow pace.

After all of us were safely down one of the guides was lowered, and then we waited for about half an hour for the 2nd one to gather the ropes, reassemble them so that he can come down himself, and then take the ropes down.  To take the ropes down he basically had to pull on one end as hard as he could.  The ropes were essentially between the rock and the hard place (another rock), so every time he does this the ropes get worn worse and worse.  As Andrey pointed out pretty much all the equipment we used would’ve been deemed unsafe loooong ago back in the States.

We kept on going down the canyon for another hour or so.  In the end there was another voluntary jump into water, this time from about 10m high.  Andrey jumped, then Irin jumped from a slightly lower ground.  I was considering jumping as well, but since Julie was not going to, I figured I’d wait to see where they’ll ask her to descend.  Neither Julie nor I could see an easy way to walk down.  Turns out we were correct.  We had to descend the slippery rock without apparent places to hold on.  I started thinking that if we jumped from the 10m mark hand-in-hand we’d be better off.  A local family had to guide us as the guides were seemingly oblivious to our struggles. 

The whole ordeal ended a few minutes later, and the guides light up a celebratory joint.  Unfortunately I did not take any pictures because my waterproof camera died back in Thailand. 

The next day Andrey and Irin planned on going whitewater rafting, but the water turned out to be too high because of the rains, so instead they went to a nearby park.  The walk in the heat must’ve been exhausting and we found them napping in the hostel’s hammocks.

We also took it easy, explored the town a bit more, visiting the local market and replenishing our supply of good fruits in time for our all night bus ride to Santa Marta.  

Not to be outdone by the South East Asians that could transport anything on a motorcycle, Colombians demonstrated how to transport a motorcycle in a bus.

2012.02.08 San Gil

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http://files.posterous.com/user_profile_pics/1407224/thekas.JPG http://posterous.com/users/hdo3FNMBobJSW Lev and Julie thekas Lev and Julie
Sun, 19 Feb 2012 17:32:21 -0800 Villa de Leyva 2/6-2/8 http://thekas.posterous.com/villa-de-leyva-26-28 http://thekas.posterous.com/villa-de-leyva-26-28

From Bogota we decided to check out a little village called Villa de Leyva. The buses to this place were inconvenient in terms of leaving super early, but we still decided to go. I guess our friends, Kutman-Levy aka the 'early risers', had helped us make this decision. We woke up at 5 to catch the 7 am bus. However, when we arrived to the bus station, after much running around, we learned that the bus is not going today. We purchased tickets for a bus about an hour later. What was supposed to be an easy 3 hour ride, turned out to be a painful six hours. For the majority of the time, the bus was traveling through some villages, mostly by unpaved roads. It also stopped often to pick up passengers.

We finally arrived to the town and it was pouring rain. We decided not to bother with getting wet and took a cab to the hostel.

The hostel turned out to be a little ways from center but otherwise really cool. Very clean, beautiful location with views and gardens and it had hot water. The latter is such a rarity in Colombia that it is worth mentioning.

We waited for the rain to subside a bit, put on water proof clothes and umbrellas and headed out to town.

The town, is really a colonial village that has been perfectly preserved. It's been declared a Colombian heritage site which helps keep it's authenticity.  

It is also known for its arts and crafts which are very different from the regular touristy knick-knacks.

And the nature is just stunning!

We roamed the town in the afternoon and then again the following morning.

We thought about staying there an extra day or two. But we had already made reservations in San Gil. Looking back, we all agree that Villa de Leyva deserves an extra day of hiking.

In the afternoon we took a ride to San Gil, our next destination.

2012.02.06 Villa De Leyva

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Sun, 19 Feb 2012 17:22:10 -0800 Bogota 2/3 - 2/6 http://thekas.posterous.com/bogota-23-26 http://thekas.posterous.com/bogota-23-26

Bogota was our first stop in Colombia, as well as the first place where we did not come by ourselves.  Irin and Andrey joined us.

We took a cab to our hostel only to realize that the hostel had 2 locations, and we were to be staying at the other one.  Luckily though it was just a couple of blocks away. An English-speaking girl came from the other location to lead us there.  She led us down the street which was full of young people; she explained that a university was nearby, and that every Friday night this neighborhood comes to life.  The neighborhood, as we later noted, was also home to multiple hostels.

After settling in we decided to check out what food options are there around us.  I forgot my camera in the room, and when I went back to get it the lady at the front desk advised me against it.  She spoke Spanish, but from what I gathered her advise was not to take the camera when it was dark.  The neighborhood did not look all that shady, but just in case I complied.

First thing we noted was the multitude of police officers.  Practically every corner had one or two policemen.  The entrance to the bank was guarded by an armed man with a mean looking dog.  On one hand that could mean that the "bad" people were all around us, on the other that we were safe with such police presence.  

The next morning we set out to see Monserrate, a mountain nearby with some history, a funicular running up there, and great views of the city.  On the way we noticed a lot of awesome graffity; in fact we even learned that there was a tour of Bogota's graffity offered by our hostel, which unfortunately we missed.

To make sure we were walking in the right direction we consulted (on two occasions) with two policemen, and both told us to watch our cameras and bags.

We assended Monserrate by funicular, but only bought a one way ticket.  We wanted to come down using the staircase, that boasted around 1500 steps.  Monserrate turned out to be high enough for both Julie and I feel a bit light-headed, but the view was indeed nice.

There was a church, and a small market on top, as well as the little climb with monuments depicting scenes from Jesus's last day.  We spent about half an hour exploring the mountain top, and headed down.

In the evening we took a cab to a fancy neighborhood of Bogota (I can't remember the name.) It turned out to be something similar to Santana Row - full with expensive shops, restaurants, and bars.  We walked around, had dinner, then stopped by a noisy pub for some beer and dancing. It took the inspiration of our friends to get us out at night and dancing!

The next day we walked some more around town visiting the local flee market, the museum of gold, and the street that was turned to a walking/bicycling street for the day. What impressed me is that a lot of streets in Bogota become walking/ bicycling on Sundays. This is to promote healthy lifestyle and to improve the air quality. We heard that some 3 million people get on a bike every Sunday!

The next day we were off to Villa de Leyva, a place we did not plan on visiting initially, but that came highly recommended.

2012.02.03 Bogota

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Fri, 17 Feb 2012 06:14:00 -0800 La Paz Waterfall Gardens 02/01 http://thekas.posterous.com/la-paz-waterfall-gardens-0201 http://thekas.posterous.com/la-paz-waterfall-gardens-0201

La Paz Waterfall Gardens was our last stop in Costa Rica.  It's not far from the Poas Volcano, but we did not visit both attractions at the same time because we did not have a car, and did not take a tour.

Once there we were once again surprised with how expensive things have gotten.  The entrance ticket was $35.

The ticket price aside, the gardens is a great place to visit.  It's got a trail that goes by enclosures with all kinds of animals, birds,  butterflies, reptiles, and of course the waterfall itself.  There's also a lodge and a restaurant. I can't say much more than this, so here are a few pictures we took:

And here's a video of me trying out a slightly faster way to get down the multiple staircases:

2012.02.01 La Paz Waterfall and Gardens

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Thu, 16 Feb 2012 06:52:00 -0800 La Fortuna 1/30-2/1 http://thekas.posterous.com/la-fortuna-130-21 http://thekas.posterous.com/la-fortuna-130-21

We thought that La Fortuna was not far enough for our roadtripping skills, and decided to stop by the Santa Maria national park on the way.  The park sounded cool after reading about it in the Lonely Planet guide.  The roads to the park were fine, and we encountered little traffic.

As it turned out when we got to the park we failed (not the first time) to read that the park is closed on a Monday.  We asked the park rangers if there was any way for us to see the park, and they said that there was another entrance that was open.  The trail that started at that entrance did not have the attractions we read about, but we decided to give it a try anyway since we were already nearby.

Skipping the details, we failed to find the other entrance.  The road was clearly not made for tourists travelling by themselves, and there were no signs at all.  But we did see some cool things along the way.

The wind farm:

A road that cut through what appeared to be a hill made of chalk. Everything around was covered in white dust:

And of course a garbage dump, which was especially unexpected next to (or even inside?) the national park:

Having realized that we are not making it to the park we kept going towards Liberia where we had lunch before setting off for La Fortuna.  Liberia is an unimpressive town, and has a strange notion of how one should park on a busy street:

The guard asked me not to park any closer to the car behind me.

We took a few pictures next to Arenal lake.  It was a 3rd time for me, so I knew exactly where to stop for a good picture.  Julie did not always share my opinion, particularly if the spot I picked was windy and/or cold.

At another spot Julie made me get out and take some pictures of the Howler monkeys that were in a tree next to the road.

Once in La Fortuna we again spent a bit of time searching for accommodation.  The hostel that I stayed at last 2 times, which was already more expensive than the other places raised its prices again, with the private room costing around $70.  A very nice hotel next to it however agreed to rent a very nice airconditioned room for $35.

We stayed there 3 nights, and did the standard La Fortuna activities.

Ate good food:

Hiked around the Arenal volcano:

Soaked in the hot springs (no pictures from there since my waterproof camera is no more.)

Celebrated my 34th (thank you baby!)

Having felt the burden of the age I acted all grown up:

There was one more stop we wanted to make before leaving the country, La Paz waterfalls garden next to San Jose.  

2012.01.30 La Fortuna

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Thu, 16 Feb 2012 06:49:00 -0800 Roadtrip 1/28-1/30 http://thekas.posterous.com/roadtrip-128-130 http://thekas.posterous.com/roadtrip-128-130

After our successful exploration of the southern part of the Nicoya Peninsula Julie suggested we go on a road trip - just start driving up the coast, and see what we discover.  On my part I like driving, and don't like planning, so the idea sounded great.

We headed out in the general direction of Tamarindo.  Last time I was undertaking the same trip I was with Dima and Yulia (another one), and we had a detailed map of Costa Rica.  We thought we picked the shortest route, but we had to turn around a couple of times due to a bridge being washed away, and the road leading to nowhere. We also had to cross a couple of rivers, and climb/descend some rough roads.  Anticipating the same experience, but this time in a smaller, and less capable car I was rushing Julie to leave as early as possible.

The map we had this time was a free one from Hertz.  It was not anywhere as detailed, but in retrospect that might've helped us.  I'm guessing it did not show those roads that we should not have taken.  We reached Tamarindo by paved roads in about 3 hours, and started looking for a place to stay.  First we went to the same place I stayed at last time, and the cheapest room there was about $75.  Then we tried a bunch of hostels/hotels, and they were all either booked, very expensive, without hot water, or the combination of the above.  After about 1.5 hours of fruitless search we decided to head up the coast, and find something on one of the cheaper beaches.

We made a point of stopping at every single beach we passed - we wanted to see as many of them as possible, and we wanted to find a good place to stay.  

We saw them all, from those that were almost completely undeveloped:

To those that resembled Cancun's resorts:

Previously I thought Tamarindo was the most expensive beach, but that turned out to be wrong.  From our observations that honor goes to the Flamingo beach. It stood out among the other beaches with its expensive resorts, million dollar yachts, and insane views.

At one time we reached the end of the road on a lash hill of Flamingo beach, and had to drive backwards because there was no room to turn around.  At another time we realized we've gone on a road along the beach where our car should not have gone, so we turned around as well.  The search continued well into the evening.

Around 7pm we were exploring yet another road that ended next to some private housing community.  It was already completely dark, and the only lights on the road were those of our car.  We headed back to the last roadside restaurant we saw, had dinner, and found out about a cheap hotel nearby.  For $40 that "hotel" offered a room so discusting that we decided we'd rather spend the night in the car.  So we moved on.

It took us a while to get out of that little town because we kept getting lost, once ending up in front of a river crossing (without a bridge, of course.)  Around 10pm we got to a little parking next to the Ocotal beach, next to yet another private condo community.  We "chatted" with the guard, and he motioned us to follow him in our car inside the complex.  In the end he offered us an appartment for $75, which was still too expensive.  We turned around, and in about 3 minutes saw a sign "rooms for rent".  The owner offered a room with hot water for $40.  I took a look, and decided it was the winner.  The shower in our room turned out to not have hot water, but the owner was nice enough to let us use a shower in another room - the whole property had only us as guests anyway.

After discovering a couple of puppies, and considering our proximity to a nice beach we decided to stay another night.

Ocotal beach turned out to be pretty cool.  It's mostly covered in black sand, and the water is insanely clear.

So we spent some time on the beach with the puppies, drove some more to explore the beaches and towns around, chilled in the nearby very touristy Coco beach town (even got stuck in traffic because of some sort of festival), and the following day left for La Fortuna.

It was a true roadtrip experience, and we enjoyed the adventure.  Another bonus was that I got to see quite a few places in Costa Rica I have not seen before.

2012.01.28 Roadtrip

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Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:53:00 -0800 Montezuma 1/25-1/28 http://thekas.posterous.com/montezuma-125-128 http://thekas.posterous.com/montezuma-125-128

The ride from Quepos to Montezuma was pretty uneventful.  One of the ways in which Costa Rica has changed in the last 3 years - quite a few roads got paved.  One concern we had when renting the car was whether we'd be OK with a small 2WD.  

To get from Quepos to Montezuma we had to drive to Puntarenas, cross Nicoya Gulf on a ferry, and then drive some more.  I remembered that much from my first trip.  

Along the way we got to see these cute little guys under the bridge:

Once in Montezuma we started the hotel search.  The 2nd way in which Costa Rica has changed in the last 3 years is the cost of everything.  Most of the places we tried were either booked, or cost over $70.  Some of the cheaper options were not really options at all.  We drove as far as Cabuya trying to find something cheaper, but eventually found a hotel that gave us a decent room for $40.  We only had an ants problem once during our 3 nights there.

On the first day we went to my favorite part of the town - the waterfall.

The waterfall has a lower level depicted above, and the upper level depicted below.

The hike to the upper level turned out to be much harder than I remembered it.  So much so, that we opted out for another way down, via a different trail that I've not tried before.

2012.01.25 Montezuma

The following day we were considering going horseback riding, but instead decided to use our car, since we were already paying for it.  So we went exploring the Nicoya peninsula - Cabuya, Mal Pais, Monzanillo etc.  Now, those roads are not paved yet, and the road from Cabuya to Mal Pais had multiple warning signs that read "Very bad road, 4x4 only".

But we figured it was a dry season, so we should be OK.  Worst case scenario we'd backtrack the same way we went.

Mal Pais and Cabuya did not impress us much, but Monzanillo was different.  The beach was nice, and the town's athmosphere was laid back, so we stopped for deeper exploration.

We walked along the beach, cut to the main road through some yoga resort, and came upon an Israeli restaurant. We were the only couple there who did not speak Hebrew. As we discovered, the town was crawling with Israelis.

The falafel was indeed as good as the sign on the restaurant promised.

After lunch we continued our trip, looping back to our hotel.

We got back safe and sound, and the car was just a bit dirtier than before.

2012.01.27 Mal Pais and around

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Mon, 13 Feb 2012 17:47:00 -0800 Manuel Antonio 1/22-1/25 http://thekas.posterous.com/manuel-antonio-122-125 http://thekas.posterous.com/manuel-antonio-122-125

The bus ride from Monteverde to Manuel Antonio started off on almost the right foot.  We were at the bus stop at about 5:45am, about 15 minutes before the bus was supposed to leave for Puntarenas.  We figured that should be enough time to secure seats.  There were probably a dozen more backpackers waiting in line before us.  By 6am there were at least 30 people waiting.  By 6:30 there were probably 30 more, but as it turned out they were waiting for the bus to San Jose.  At 7am a bus showed up, and started loading people, but first those who were going to San Jose.  After some inquiries it turned out that our bus broke down somewhere on the way, and the San Jose-bound bus would take us to the bottom of the mountain, where another bus would meet us.  

For the next hour the bus overflowing with 60-70 people descended the mountain.  Roughly 3/4 of the way through the bus stopped, and everyone who was standing was unloaded to another "intermediate" bus.  When we did get to the bottom of the mountain, there indeed was a bus waiting to take us to Puntarenas.  By 10am we were sitting in front of a beach at a bus stop in Puntarenas waiting for our next bus to Manuel Antonio, observing locals fill coconuts with rum to make their beach experience more fun.

Around 3pm we were in Quepos, trying to negotiate a room that had something that looked like a window, but did not open, down to the price of a room that had no windows.  We met half way, took a shower, and went for food and town exploration.  Quepos turned out to be a small, and strange kind of town.  It appears to serve a role of a shopping center for the locals.  There are multiple hardware, clothing, and other "utility" stores.  In addition to that it seems to be influenced by the nearby Manuel Antonio, predominantly touristy town:  Quepos has a few cheaper options for accommodation (one of which we took), has a range of car rental places, and offers regular bus service to Manuel Antonio.  We discovered all of that on the first day by walking around the whole town.

The next morning we had a plan to go to Manuel Antonio National park, which is the main attraction.  But it turned out that it was closed on Mondays, so we went to the beach instead.  By now I've visited probably 90% of Costa Rica's beaches, and can confidently say that Manuel Antonio one is the best.

During the bus ride to Manuel Antonio I saw a familiar face.  Turned out to be Foux's student/friend Borya who I'd met when we hiked in Pinnacles.  He was there with his sister.

So we swam, worked on our tan a little bit, and hunted pelicans for a good picture.

You can clearly see Borya and his sister in that picture too.

The following day we went to the park.  As fate would have it that day the park switched to a new ticketing mechanism.  Instead of collecting money right in front of the entrance to the park (which was fast, and convenient), they contracted a private agency to issue tickets about 200 yards away from the entrance; these tickets were then checked by the actual entrance.  Since this was the first day, the agency appeared to have no idea what they were doing, and we spent about 40 minutes in the burning sun waiting to get our tickets.  Then a bit more time waiting to get our tickets checked.

We breezed through the first part of the park quite quickly, but as soon as we got to the beach we slowed down to watch all the wild life that came out to greet us.

After watching these guys for a while we headed for the beach, where our snack (not a very good one) fell victim to a family of racoons who first strolled by checking out what was laying within easy reach, and then returned for a swift operation during which they stole ours, and other people's snacks.  

After the beach we went up to the part of the trail that was closed for reconstruction.  We figured that since we spent $20 each to get to the park, we were entitled to see it in its full glory.  The trail went up the hill, and presented nice views.

The workers on the trail did not mind us being there, but looked at us with curiosity.

Before leaving the park we've stopped to watch monkeys some more (no matter how many monkeys we see, Julie is ready to watch them endlessly.)  That's when I got peed on by one.  That is it was no peeing on me directly, but it was a bit windy, so I got some.  As I mentioned in a previous post, that same night I got pooped on by a small gecko in a cafe.

The following morning we got our European import from Hertz, and were on our way to Montezuma on Nikoya Peninsula.

2012.01.22 Manuel Antonio

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Mon, 13 Feb 2012 16:32:00 -0800 Monteverde 1/20-1/22 http://thekas.posterous.com/monteverde-120-122 http://thekas.posterous.com/monteverde-120-122

We are running waaay behind.  I think it's because we are rapidly nearing the end of our trip, and prefer to spend the time doing something other than sitting in front of a computer.

Also, I've started this post previously, and lost it.  Let's pretend that I was even funnier, and even more eloquent during that attempt (if it's even possible)

So, the bus to Monteverde took a while, and was quite a bit of fun.  First of all we did not have seats assigned because the bus was sold out, but luckily when we boarded the bus we saw a large empty space for a wheelchair.  I took one of our backpacks onboard so that we could sit on it.  When the bus started moving from San Jose bus terminal there were plenty of empty seats, but within an hour they all filled up, and so did the standing room.  There were people standing shoulder to shoulder, and a couple of kids were laying on the floor next to us, playing stones.  The bus stopped once for the bathroom/food break, and we finally bought the Dulce de Leche candy I'd been telling Julie so much about. She appreciated it very much, and we kept searching for it ever since.

About 4 hours later we reached Monteverde.  Cool mountain air felt good after the non-airconditioned bus, but by the time we reached our hostel we felt that the wind was a bit much. As it turned out I booked the same hostel I stayed at last time I was in Monteverde, only this time we did not get upgraded to a nice appartment. Instead we were put in the only available room with the bathroom outside, which would be OK if the weather was nice, and warm, which it was not.  The wind was so strong, that our window was whistling.  Julie with her animosity towards cold was becoming unhappy, Monteverde was not particularly welcoming.

I was only able to persuade Julie to come out for food that night.  

The following morning the wind kept up, and so did Julie's poor mood. My initial attempts to persuade her that it was actually warm outside despite the wind proved futile. In about 2 hours (after we moved to a room with the bathroom) we agreed to take a stroll around town, get some food, and see what's up.  

After breakfast we decided to go for the hanging bridges walk in the cloud forest. Miraculously, when we finally got to the beginning of the walk the wind subsided.  Julie's stuborness paid off!  

The ticket we purchased included the bridges, the butterfly garden, and the calibri garden.  We started with the butterfly garden.  This particular garden looked like a large greenhouse to keep the temperature high enough for the butterflies.  It was too hot for me, but Julie loved it.  The guide told us a lot of information about the butterflies which I promptly forgot.

Next came the calibri garden.  

After visiting the butteflies and the birds we moved on to the bridges.  I've been on the bridges before, but I still love to walk on them.  Especially when I get to sway them, and see if Julie gets scared (she does not, by the way.)

In the evening we decided on the approximate plan of our further travel.  Instead of going to La Fortuna we'd go to Quepos/Manuel Antonio, where we'd rent a car, and continue our Costa Rica travel with more flexibility than buses could offer.  There was only one obsticle we had to overcome - the only bus for Quepos was leaving at 6am...

2012.01.20 Monteverde

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Tue, 31 Jan 2012 08:39:03 -0800 January 31, 2012 http://thekas.posterous.com/january-31-2012 http://thekas.posterous.com/january-31-2012
Skitched-image0

I would like to report that the birthday boy is doing well despite being a lot older today.

Happy birthday dear!
Love,
J.

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Thu, 26 Jan 2012 15:51:00 -0800 San Jose (the one in Costa Rica) 1/18-1/20 http://thekas.posterous.com/san-jose-the-one-in-costa-rica-118-120 http://thekas.posterous.com/san-jose-the-one-in-costa-rica-118-120

From Cahuita we took a bus to San Jose.  We knew that San Jose itself was not of much interest, but there was a volcano near by that I wanted to visit since I've failed to see it during my previous trips to Costa Rica; also all the buses were going via San Jose.

We stayed at Bekuo hostel.  When I booked it, the directions did not make it clear how to get to the hostel from the bus station, so I emailed them to check.  They answered shortly, and told me to get a cab; they also told me how to make sure not to get ripped off by the cab driver.  They even said that if the driver tries to charge us more than $6, tell him to wait, and come get one of them.  They really knew what they were talking about.  The taxi meter was going up and down all the way to the hostel, and when we inquired why that was the case, the driver gave us some rediculous answer about it showing the distance travelled, or something of a sort.  When we got to the hostel the meter was showing the equivalent of $11.  I told him that was not right; he replied "OK, how about $8."  I said that was not right either, and $6 was all we were going to pay.  He kept pointing to the meter, saying $6 is not enough.  So we took the hostel guys on their promise, and asked them to talk some sense into him.  As soon as the girl from the hostel came down he agreed to $6.  When she said she'd report him, he said "Why? I've agreed to $6!"

Besides the very helpful staff  (they helped us with a lot more than just the taxi driver) the hostel also had very nice rooms, a big screen TV with tons of channels showing our favorite shows, and another one with the gaming console.  Julie even played Guitar Hero for the first time.  

In the morning we went to see Poas volcano.  As I mentioned, I tried to see it twice before.  First time we arrived there in the early afternoon, and it was already covered by the clouds.  The second time we had to take a detour due to the washed away road, and arrived there even later when the park was already closed.  So this time as soon as the bus arrived to the park we ran straight for the crater, leaving the museum for later:  

That was a smart decision because 5 minutes later it disappeared behind the clouds.

It was windy, obviously cloudy, and rather cold.  We brought our waterproof jackets with us, but that only helped so much.  We set out on the trail that goes around the volcano, to a lagoon, and back to the parking lot.  The fact that it goes by the lagoon only became apparent when we reached the museum; as it turned out we had our lunch on the lagoon's viewing platform without realizing there was a lagoon - it was somewhere below the clouds.

The bus back was not leaving for 2 more hours, so we had plenty of time for the one-room museum, the coffee shop, and the suvenir shop where we had to entertain ourselves:

Back in San Jose we familiarized ourselves with churros filled with warm Dulce de Leche (вареная сгущенка), and took a couple of random pix on the streets to show that we were there:

The following is the name of some clothing store:

The next morning we caught a bus to Monteverde.

2012.01.18 San Jose

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Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:30:00 -0800 Cahuita http://thekas.posterous.com/cahuita http://thekas.posterous.com/cahuita

After spending a good 3 hours on the Panama/Costa Rican border, we managed to cross over.

Our first destination was Cahuita, a small town on the Carribean Coast. Given that Levka has been to Costa Rica two times before, he debated for a while whether he has been to Cahuita. When our bus finally arrived into town, he didn't recognize the area so we assumed that he never made it there.

The first night, we walked around for a while looking for a place to stay. The hostels that we researched were full. We found another place that seemed decent. Only after we checked in, we found out that there was no hot water. Which is apparently common in Costa Rica. So the next morning we moved to another place.

Lonely Planet describes Cahuita as a backpackers paradise with tons of hostels, little restaurants, beautiful nature and warm water. We only partially agree with that assessment. It is in fact an overpriced village. And for the town being so out of the way and so underdeveloped, the prices seem outrageous. Or maybe the prices are such because it is so out of the way. By the time you get there, you have no choice but to spend the money.

However, there were a couple really cool things that we did.

On the first day we went on an 8km walk along the ocean in Cahuita National Park. Which is the perfect kind of hike, as far as I'm concerned. Along the way we did the following:

1. Saw two monkey families

2. Saw some other random creatures including this cute green guy:

3. Took a swim in the warmest ocean water that you can imagine

4. And Levka realized that he has been on this trail before when he recognized the parking on the other end!

(Unfortunately there is no picture for this momentous occasion)

On the second day we took a recommendation from our Israeli friends and went to a Sloth Sanctuary. It is only 10km out of town and was well worth the $25 tix.

They claim that a Sloth baby is the cutest thing ever and I may have to agree!

Judge for yourself...

We learned a ton of things about this strange animal and were really impressed and touched by its stuggle to survive as the deforestation continues at very high rates in Costa Rica. If you'd like to learn more about Sloths and the Sanctuary, check out these links:

http://www.costarica.com/places-to-see/parks,-reserves-and-protected-areas/-the-sloth-rescue-center/

http://www.tripadvisor.com/Attraction_Review-g309262-d1168718-Reviews-Aviarios_del_Caribe_Sloth_Sanctuary-Cahuita_Province_of_Limon.html

 

2012.01.15 Cahuita

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Tue, 24 Jan 2012 17:03:00 -0800 Updates http://thekas.posterous.com/updates http://thekas.posterous.com/updates

We've been in Costa Rica for a while.  Julie is yet to do a write up about it :)

Meanwhile I was peed on by a monkey in a park (at first we thought it was starting to rain), and pooped on by a gecko (at a cafe) - all today.  All else is going great!

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Mon, 16 Jan 2012 19:17:57 -0800 Panama http://thekas.posterous.com/panama http://thekas.posterous.com/panama

Panama city

We flew to Panama City via Miami.  After a week of “cold” weather we were back to the heat.  We shared a cab with yet another Canadian, who happened to speak some Spanish.  He translated whatever our driver had to say, and which was that the area where our hotel was located was not particularly safe to walk at night.  We contemplated briefly whether to change to the hotel where the Canadian was staying, but it was more expensive, and we decided to stick with what we our original choice.  The hotel turned out to be iffy, but pretty close to the old town, Casco Viejo.  We took a quick shower, and headed out.  The part of town where we stayed was unimpressive to say the least, but was not a complete dump.  It had a few hotels, a few corner mini marts, and some big buildings that seemed to be half-abandoned.  Luckily, after walking about 5 minutes we discovered a nice walking path along the waterfront which led right to the old town.

Right behind was the cityscape of the “new” Panama City.

Old town was very pleasant to walk around.  It had a vibe that I coined Cuban, even though we’ve never been, but I think that’s what Cuba should be like.  Colorful, but poorly up kept buildings, some of which had no insides, just the outer walls.  Those that were in good shape usually turned out to be a restaurant, or a hotel.  

We quickly discovered that we were not in Asia anymore.  The prices here were significantly higher.

The next day we headed to Miraflores Locks, i.e. Panama Canal; visited the museum, learned about the history, and the future, saw a big ocean cruiser go through, took some pictures.  The construction was impressive, even though it is not as huge as I thought it was going to be.  I was hoping to see another Hoover dam.  

This was our opportunity to catch up on the 7th grade Social Studies class. (Especially for those who didn't have schooling in the U.S.) The history and the importance of the Canal is vast and impressive. If you want to learn (or remind yourself of it) check this out:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Panama_Canal 

In the evening we headed to a place that sounded good from description, and judging by our tourist map was not far away.  After walking for about an hour on some shady streets we gave up on that idea, and ended up having dinner in the old town again.

2012.01.07 Panama City

 

Boquete

Next morning we took a bus towards Boquete.  That is we took a bus towards David, and from there we’d go to Boquete.  While waiting for the bus we met a couple of Russians from Israel, Daniel and Ben. Luckily for us Daniel, who by the way is a girl regardless of the spelling of the name, speaks Spanish fluently, and knows a lot about the region because she works as a tour guide in this area.  As Julie discovered, "Donde esta la biblioteca" is one of the very few things that she remembers from hischool Spanish. And this particular phrase proves useless as we are never actually searching for a library.

Boquete is a cozy little town that’s a favorite with the American expats of retirement age.  It’s got large communities built specifically for that purpose.

Things to do in Boquete include walking about the town, enjoying the mountain air, drinking local coffee.  For everything else you need to actually leave Boquete, which we did not realize before we came.

There are a lot of other activities that you can do – hiking, biking, white water rafting, visiting the hot springs, but all of them require either booking a trip, or getting there by some way of transport.  Booking a trip is quite costly, at least we did not see anything that looked cheap.  Getting, say, to a hot springs by bus would take about 2 hours, one of which we’d have to walk, and the bus only goes about 3 times a day; the other option was to get a cab that would cost us about $60; the third was of course a tour, that cost $30 per person.  We almost did a cool 20km hike, we were even ready to split the cab with the Russians to get us to the trail head, but then we read online that the trail was not maintained since 2009, and there was a good chance it would be at times “missing”.  So we ended up just chilling in the town instead.  On the last night we were there, a local fair of flowers and coffee started, and we got to enjoy what sounded more like a rave till about 4am.  The next morning we had to get up at 7am to catch our bus to our next destination, Bocas del Toro.

 

2012.01.09 Boquete

 

Bocas del Toro

Daniel and Ben left a couple of days before us, as soon as they learned that the hike was off.  They were heading to Costa Rica, so we did not expect to see them until some time later.  But when we got to Bocas del Toro we ran into them on the street.  Turns out when they saw the archipelago from the bus window they decided to make a detour, and stop by the islands.

Bocas del Toro is a small beach town on Isla Colon.  We heard that 5 years ago it was quite different, without any tourists, and primarily fishing industry.  Now it’s full of restaurants, hotels, and tourist agencies.  On our first day we decided to stop by the local hospital because my poison oak was not getting better even though I was out of my steroid pills, and the hospital was nearby.  The hospital was as one might expect it to be in a small fishing village, but luckily the doctor was not there after 4pm, so we promptly left never to return (poison oak got better the following day.)  

On our second day we headed to Bocas del Drago, a better beach, which was about 13km away.  Daniel told us about a local bus that would take us there.  We boarded the bus, as did the other 40 passengers, never mind that the bus was built for 20.  Luckily the ride was only about 40 minutes once we were moving – we were waiting for the bus to be sufficiently full before we started moving.  The driver kept stopping picking up passengers along the way, and somehow they all fit.  At one point Julie was sitting in my lap, at another somebody’s bag was sitting on my shoulder.  The beach turned out to be OK, the only outstanding thing about it was the multitude of starfish.

The weather was unfortunately windy, and not extremely sunny, so as soon as the nearby food vendor decided to test the limits of his very old and crappy stereo, we headed back.

The following day the plan was to take a tour to see the dolphins, to snorkel a bit, and to chill on a beach on a nearby island.  Unfortunately the morning greeted us with a heavy rain, so unwilling to waste an extra day we left the island heading for Costa Rica.

2012.01.13 Bocas Del Toro

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Thu, 12 Jan 2012 11:10:00 -0800 Catching up http://thekas.posterous.com/catching-up http://thekas.posterous.com/catching-up

We've been lazy or unmotivated and this blog has been left untouched for several weeks. Let me tell you what you missed.

Siem Reap

After Phnom Penh we took yet another bus ride to Siem Reap. The town is right next to the coolest historical ruins which is the Angkor Wat complex. We started at a wonderful guesthouse (The Best Western Guesthouse) next to the night market. It is run by a friendly Aussie, has large clean rooms with AC. We were happy with this recommendation from Yasha and Yulya. At this point we truly miss their company and their good finds!

On the first day we explored the town with our friendly Canadians, David and Lena. The town is amazingly touristy but also very cute and convenient. It features several markets (night and day ones so that tourists can spend their money at any time of day), cute restaurants, bars, coffee shops and pleasant streets. Levka was the designated tour guide for the day. Which means that he held the map and the rest of us could blame him anytime he got us lost. In this manner we covered most of town. In the late afternoon we split the tuk-tuk to watch the sunset at Angkor Wat. The ruins were stunning. The sunset was iffy as it became overcast in the afternoon.

A few words about Angkor:

It's a complex of ruins that are over one thousand years old. It used to be a capital city with a population of one million. The town was left and forgotten for one thousand years. It was covered by a jungle and was discovered in the 1900s. Recently it became the most visited site in all of Southeast Asia with millions of tourists every year. I recommend reading about it here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor_Wat

On the second day we hired another tuk-tuk and a tour guide from the hotel to go for a full day of exploration at Angkor Wat. The guide came highly recommended and was a huge disappointment. He talked a lot about himself and his own accomplishments. One of those was his work as an interpreter during the filming of "Tomb Raider". Not sure how much work he actually did for the film but he spent most of the tour telling us where Angelina Jolie walked, how she looked, how he had a crush on her, etc etc. I'm pretty sure that if I wanted Hollywood gossip I could have stayed in US.

Regardless, the ruins were impressive. Our favorite was the "jungle temple", 1000 year old trees that grew through the temple walls. At this point the roots hold the stones together and look like this:

And yes, this temple was featured in Tomb Raider :-)

In the evening we got some good food and almost got in a bar fight at "Angkor What?", a local bar.

The following day we took another very long ride to Bangkok.

2011.12.14 Siem Reap

Bangkok

The ride was very long but went pretty smoothly including the border crossing (stamp in, stamp out - we are quite used to the whole process by now). In Thailand we boarded a mini bus which kept stopping for bathroom and snack breaks every hour. As a result we arrived to Bangkok after dark and 2 hours later than we expected. The hostel that we liked before was booked and we ended up using the lonely planet recommendation and staying at another hostel near by. It was very basic with beds as hard as the floor, no towels, no wifi, barely any light. It was run by a sweet old grandma who spoke no English and made us take our shoes off before entering the house.

That evening we ate at our favorite restaurant one last time. May Kadee's is the best place we have eaten at ever and we visited it about a dozen times over the three stays in Bangkok.

The rest of the evening we ran between different travel agencies trying to find the best way to get to Phangan island. We didn't do enough research about South America and were not ready to head there. So we decided to spend a couple more weeks (including New Years) at our favorite island while we order tickets to the next destination. We chose the most expensive and most convenient way of flying the next morning.

Now as I reflect on Bangkok, I can say that it had gone through quite a transformation in my mind. The first time it seemed huge, smelly and noisy. After visiting Vietnam, Bangkok seemed quite tame and nice and even green and quiet. Even Levka had changed his opinion and we both left Bangkok remembering it fondly.

Phangan

It is worth mentioning our trip to Phangan. It involved a shuttle to the airport, plane from Bangkok to Sura Thani, bus transfer from airport to ferry terminal, ferry to Phangan island and a tuk-tuk ride to the Fanta Bungalows. All in all a full day of travel which was still much more pleasant than the overnight bus alternative. 

The most memorable was the ferry ride. When we entered the boat, we were handed little plastic bags. Levka joked and asked whether they expected the ride to be that bad. And they replied with a definitive "YES!" That region was still experiencing the end of the monsoon and the waves ride was quite choppy. About five minutes into the ride, Levka turned completely white, then green and then ran to the bathroom and locked himself there for the rest of the trip. The only other bathroom was lined with passengers desperate to get in. In the meantime, I sat with a hood, headphones, eyes closed, trying to ignore everything that was going around me. In 1 hour, the boat stopped at Koh Samui for 5 minutes. Levka got out of the bathroom and looked like he just jumped into the water. As soon as the boat started to move, he ran back into the bathroom and stayed there for the rest of the trip.

At Fanta, we were met by the friendly faces of Yasha and Yulya (our last leg of the journey together). And of course we made it to Zhaba that same night to say hello our friends from the previous trip.

The rest of the time we spent our time idly. The weather wasn't as good as we hoped, mostly overcast with some rain and high waves. So swimming was limited. But there was plenty of reading and socializing. 

Another thing about Phangan was that it was completely full with Russians. It seems like you're not allowed on the island without a Russian passport during the months of Dec and Jan. 

After much research, we found out that it was a significant savings to fly to Central America through U.S. So we said goodbye to our friends at Zhaba a few days early and made it home just in time for New Years!

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Sat, 31 Dec 2011 21:53:32 -0800 Happy New Year! http://thekas.posterous.com/happy-new-year http://thekas.posterous.com/happy-new-year

2060818085

Dear all!
Happy New Year from Mt. View!!!

Lots of love and travel in the new year :)

The KAs

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Thu, 22 Dec 2011 08:46:33 -0800 Phnom Penh, 12/12/11-12/14/11 http://thekas.posterous.com/phnom-penh-121211-121411 http://thekas.posterous.com/phnom-penh-121211-121411

We were going to arrive to Phnom Penh in the evening, and it's not a small town, so we decided to be responsible, and look into the guide book for recommendations on accommodation.  They mentioned one particular place that seemed to fit our most important need in Asia - it was called "immaculately clean".  So we called ahead, and made sure there was a room waiting for us.  In fact it did, but as it turned out while it was clean, it was not very new, and the bathroom constantly smelled like stale water.  The window from the room was facing the back of the front desk, and not the street.  The guesthouse itself was located next to a busy bus station, and a local market, and there was literally nothing to do around there for at least a mile or two.  Even the tuk-tuk driver was wondering why we were going there instead of some place next to the river where all the rest of the tourists were.  But despite all this the room was acceptible, and cheap, so we stayed there for the first couple of nights.  As we were walking around town the next morning, we found another place to stay (well, it was suggested to us by Yasha and Yulia), and moved there for the 3rd night.  It was more expensive, but saved us money on tuk-tuk rides.

The first impression of Cambodia and Phnom Penh - the people are nicer, and less pushy than in Vietnam.  For example the tuk-tuk drivers only ask you once if you require their services, and when you tell them that you don't, they don't proceed on asking you where you are going still hoping to change your mind.  Second striking impression is the poverty.  There are a lot of beggars, and a lot of them are children.  It feels wrong to sit in a nice cafe drinking your $2 coffee while there are dozens of beggars, some of whom are disabled, asking you for whatever pennies you can spare.  There are also a lot of scams often including small children.  For example they might ask you to buy them food from a convenience store near by.  Shortly after they are going to return the food back to the store for a smaller price...

We spent the first full day in Phnom Penh walking around the city's major tourist sites.  We visited the Independence Monument, the Royal Palace, and the Phnom Wat.  

At Phnom Wat we witnessed a monkey steal a kid's juice box.  Monkeys just live there, stealing food wherever possible - mostly from the vendors, tourists, and little kids.

In the afternoon we discovered the Blue Pumpkin cafe that helped us catch up on our blog tremendously.  It had very comfortable couches, great food (including awesome baked goods), and the internet connection.  

On our second full day we climbed a 6 story mall for some arial shots, and visited the Russian market.  I read somewhere that the market was called "Russian" because it sold a lot of fake brand items, and Russians would go there to shop for them.

 

I can't say we found a lot of Russians there, or "good quality" fake goods, but we did find a t-shirt that had exactly the statement I'd mentioned I wanted on my shirt: "No tuk-tuk".  See, even though each tuk-tuk asks you only once whether you want to employ his services, the number of the tuk-tuks is insane. So we had to say "No, thanks" at least 10 times a minute when we were walking around town.  I told Julie that I was going to take a picture with the first tuk-tuk who offered us a ride with me wearing the t-shirt:

On the 3rd day we took a bus to Siem Reap to the one of the most well-known religious sites in the world.

2011.12.11 Phnom Penh

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