Germany

Is there any place in the world more desirable to visit?  Sure, people talk about white sand beaches and bustling cites, but they haven't been to Bavaria!  We caught a direct flight overnight from Johannesburg to Munich.  Upon arrival, we had one primary objective - Beer Hall.

Our first stop, however, was the Dachau Memorial.  The exact opposite of a rancorous beer hall, this is the site of Nazi Germany's first concentration camp.  Some horrific deeds were completed here, and 32,000 souls lost their lives on these grounds.  Room after room of black and white pictures depict the evils of man in its darkest hours.  A large sign reads in multiple languages "Never Again," a hope we all share.

Accomplishing our primary objective, we sidled up to Paulaner Brewery, our favorite international brewery.  Tasting your favorite beer out of its homegrown tap is second to none.  By the end of our first day, we had seen the worst and the best Germany has to offer.  Our stop was The Meininger Hotel, a good deal for a quad room at about 56 Euros/night.

We rose the next morning to visit the 1972 Olympic Stadium.  Being huge fans of Steve Prefontaine, it was significantly important for us to see where he ran as well as the site of the horrific terrorists attacks of Black September.  The track was being redone so we were unable to walk on the track but we sat in the stands while the children ran.  Also on the tour was the pool where Mark Spitz set his records.  Unfortunately, there was very little on the information side.  We left disappointed not seeing more historical items.

With the big cultural sites out of the way, we hit the largest beer hall in Munich, Hofbrauhaus.  With four levels, this beer hall rocks any night of the week.  We feasted on sausages and guzzled dark beer while a band played traditional music.  Our girls danced in the aisles.  Later that evening Kaelia was riled up from lack of sleep, climbed half way up a bunk bed ladder, and launched herself off. We spent the night in the emergency room and returned the next morning because Kaelia refused to walk and screamed bloody murder at being set down.  We carried her for the rest of the trip.

On the way out of town we rolled past the Theresienwiese, site of Oktoberfest. While nothing was going on, we vowed to return when there was.  It was a few hour drive down to our next stop, Garmisch, in the mountains on the boarder or Austria. It was our first experience on the autobahn, and we fared well.  The road had high speed limits and when "off" cars rolled along quickly.  But it never felt too fast and we were impressed by the order on the road. When we arrived, we rolled up the hill to the base of the Zugspitze, the highest peak in Germany.  We went up the cable car at the extravagant price of 50 Euros a person to the top.  From the 3000m summit we could see into four different countries.  The girls loved playing in the snow at the top because it was the first snow Kaelia could see (Taelyn wouldn't remember her snow encounters).  On the way down, we ended up in a beer house where every one of the 30 patrons was dressed in traditional Bavarian garb.

For the next few nights we crashed in Füssen, also in the southern part of the country.  In an effort to realize a romantic dream, we stayed in the most castle-looking place we could, Hotel Fantasia.The rooms were very nice, in the center of town, and looked up to a castle.  The girls loved the trampoline, Sarah the towers and archways, and Justin the large breakfasts.  From here we enjoyed several great runs along parks and rivers and into mountain lakes.  But the main purpose of visiting is to see the famous castles of Neuschwanstein and Hohenschwangau.  FYI - this was every bit as exciting there as anticipated.  Sometimes when you see so many postcards and pictures of something, it isn't as good in person, but this was. We loved hiking up the hills to the gorgeous castles and hearing all about this history.  We took a horse-drawn carriage down from one of them.  The girls ran up and down the stairs pretending they were in Cinderella.  After all, Neuschwanstein is the castle they modeled Cinderella's castle off at Disney World.  Justin and Taelyn danced in the ballroom.

Our next stop was Rothenburg ob der Tauber.  This medieval city has been around since before 1000 and some of it has original structures.  We visited the Medieval Crime and Torture Museum and saw many artifacts.  Our favorite was the barrel the drunks had to wear or perhaps the masks for women that were gossips. There were executioner swords, axes, thumb screws, an iron maiden, and much more.  Sarah and Justin went for runs around the walled city and save seeing some medal or the rare car, it felt as if it were in the 1500's. We ate Schneebälle (snowballs) of dough, sugar and chocolate, famous for the area. Sarah went on a night tour of the city led by a night watchman dressed in traditional garb.  We also visited the Christmas factory which had 4 levels of crazy holiday cheer. It was a bit overwhelming.

Barrel worn as punishment for public drunkenness

Our last stop was the small town of Hirschau where we visited a former UNC athlete. She hosted us in her house and we sampled small-town Germany life.  Overall we found Germany to be very clean, incredibly efficient, and beautiful.  All in all, one of our best trips ever!

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A Special Haircut

When you have one unusual haircut experience, you shake it off as part of living overseas. When you have another, well, that’s a blog entry. Let’s go back to China. Walk down any side street in Shekou and numerous salons await you. Greeted by a very metrosexual stylist who has hair bigger than a beehive do in the 50s (and probably with a pink streak in there somewhere), you were escorted into the parlor of your choice. But this isn’t your typical shop.

Hair is everywhere. Sweeping up isn’t a priory and a day’s worth of shedding coats the floor. Smoke fills the air as both employees and customers puff away during the procedure. You are asked, most likely, what you would like, but you don’t understand a word so you just point stupidly to your hair and they point mockingly to a chair. Once seated, a ballad of charades gets the work started, yet the questions in Chinese continue as if they think somehow you would suddenly snap out of your monolingual ignorance.

So how do they cut hair in China? A regular trim up the sides starts you off, but when they cut the top, that’s where it gets weird. A pair of scissors that look like two combs that clip together is randomly and aggressively passed through your hair. In short, I believe these layer the hair and give it definition. In reality, by the time it grows out, your head looks like it was last trimmed with a kitchen blender. Next, out comes the straight razor, and you know how human life is valued in China. So is that razor, new, sharp, or sanitized in anyway? Of course not. Rust lines the edge of the blade which is scrapped mercilessly around your hairline as you pray that you aren’t slit Godfather-style and that your tetanus shot is up-to-date.

Now, the winner, and I am not joking that this happened. The guy finishes my hair and then asks me something. I nod stupidly again because I have found it is the only response when you are asked a question and have no idea what they are saying. But in this case, it wasn’t, “Are you pleased with your haircut?” He walks over to a large curtain and pulls it back to reveal a semi-passed out woman, scantily clad, laying on a cot. She looks 10min from her last heroin blast. A sexually explicit gesture breaks down the language barrier like a tank and there is no longer any confusion on my part about what he asked me. Now, it is the middle of the day and I am married. Not that these are the most immediate problems with the situation in front of me. There is literally a curtain separating this service from the rest of the shop, and I don’t want whatever I am going to contract in the long run from this encounter. I pay my $2 US (for the haircut only) and bolt out of there.

It isn’t just the massage service that ends this way.

South Africa

Barber shops aren’t as plentiful here as China, so when I saw one I made a mental note to go back to get the mop chopped. When I strolled in, three Middle Eastern men were staring at the ceiling. I immediately looked up and seeing nothing, could only assume they were bored. When they saw me they jumped up and rushed over. My cashmere sweater was carefully hung and a woman came by to offer me coffee or tea. The next few minutes were haircut as usual. Out comes the straight razor, a new blade is put on and he starts shaving my hairline only in the up direction. It felt weird but came off without a hitch. So far, status quo in the hair department.

Then the guy stops, eyes me up and down, and asks, “Is this your first time with us?” I nod that it is and he wanders off, returning with what looks like a spool of thread. He bites a bit of it, twirls it around and comes in close. I swear I am about to get a tooth flossing and although this seems odd for a barber shop, hey, I am in a different country, a different hemisphere even. Then he zips the thread, which is more like fishing line, and starts zipping the hairs around my eyebrows clean off. It hurts like a mo-fo! The fuzz on my forehead, between the eyes, on top and even in my ears, all ripped away with a flick of the fingers. I want to yell out but I can’t give my torturer the satisfaction. When it stops, I am ready to tell him all my secrets but he walks off, clearly not interested in national security. Every facial feature from the neck up is beet red and burns like someone sprinkled cayenne pepper on a blistering sunburn. I pray for death.

But it isn’t over. He returns with a Q-tip dipped in wax. This isn’t going to end well for me. He blows on it to cool it to a mere singe then crams it in my nose. Hardly loving that someone just blew on something that went in a mucus membrane of mine, I sat and waited till he filled my other nostril with green goop. Off he sits in the corner, bouncing his leg and humming a tune. I look at myself in the mirror, see a red walrus staring back, and look over to the guy, curious if this is all just a joke for his benefit. It isn’t. He rises, walks over, grabs the tip and yanks. Blood rushes to my face (again) and tears fill my eyes. I try to glance at the cotton swab he is holding in front of my face like a hunting trophy, but my vision is blurred. Knowing what is coming, I brace for the second nostril raping, but it is worse than the first. At least 30 of my nose hairs are perfectly removed on a chuck of wax.

I pay my money, get suggestions on shaving so as not to ruin my sideburns, and leave, a little pissed that I paid, then tipped, for getting my ass kicked. As I limped to the car a broken man, my finger picked green boogers from my nose. The next morning after my run, a little blood still trickled from my nostril.

My suggestion: Do it yourself.

Cambodia & Singapore

We were looking forward to this trip for a while! Cambodia was a blend of some of the most amazing accomplishments of man coupled with some of the darkest moments in history. We started in Phnom Penh. Everything was cheap, the food was good, but the history was horrible. One hostel had drawings of a girl who was a child sex slave. The pictures were dark and sad.
Across from our hotel was Tuol Sleng (S-21), the genocide museum. Once a school, it became a prison where 14,000 men, women, and children were tortured. Black and white mugshots of everyone of them still haunt visitors.

Not far away were the Killing Fields or Cheoung Ek. A 100-foot tower of skulls marks the entrance, and shallow graves are everywhere. It is estimated that only 8 people from Tuol Sleng didn't end up here. It was one of the most sobering places we have ever seen.
On a lighter note, we took a bus to Siem Reap, the gateway for the Temples of Angkor. This town was awesome! Food and beer for under a dollar, night markets, silk, - the shopping was endless! Then we hired a moto and hand a tour of Angkor Wat and about 15 other temples in the jungle. They were amazing! It was an excellent end to such an emotional trip.

But before we left, we went to Singapore. Although clean and beautiful, this place was expensive!! We had great dinners and ate at the Paulner Brewery, but we couldn't afford to stay long. The Singapore Zoo was one of the best around.

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Vietnam

All we knew about Vietnam was the war. But what we found was a country that was very interested in the US, was very kind, and took US dollars! We spent a few days in Hanoi beating the heat with some good beers, buying cheap dvds and silk ties on the street, and planning the next leg of our trip.
We were picked up in a van and transported to HALONG BAY, one of the world heritage sites. We spent the day on a boat, floating between islands and hiking in caves. Then we had dinner on the boat and met some people from MSU!! The next day we kayaked in the water. Pretty amazing.
We took an overnight train to the mountain town of SAPA. After hiking all day in the terraced rice fields, we were quite exhausted (I guess we shouldnt have done it in Teva sandles). We really saw how primitive people live.

The Philippines

When it was "freezing" cold in China, we got out and went to the islands of the Philippines. After the craziness of Manila, we flew to Palawan in the southwest. After getting on a jeepney (a jeep with a bed in the back, where up to 40 locals hang on for deal life), we drove 3.5 hours across the island on dirt roads, all for the cost of about a dollar.
Our home for the week was a thatched-roof hut on the beach. Blue and green waters made up our front yard. We didn't have power part of the night but when meals cost no more than $2, we were living pretty large. Our days consisted of runs on the beach, swims in the ocean, and hikes in the jungle. There was an underground river and wild monkeys, in addition to 6ft monitor lizards.
One night we went to the resort on the beach. A bottle of wine, appetizers, surf & turf, cocktails, and dessert ran $50. That was a pretty good night.
We moved back to Puerto Princesa and went scuba diving with turtles and sharks. Overall, nice and warm and it was dreadful coming back to China and the rain!

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