Cusco, Peru - Day 7

Today is our last day in Cusco and we would be sad to leave. We’ve spent over a week in Cusco, the sacred valley, and Machu Picchu and have enjoyed our time in this cultural utopia. We decided to embark on a trip to the weekly Sunday market in Pisaq, a city about an hour away from Cusco. I managed to persuade Matt to take the local bus which costs less than a dollar each way. Not so much to save money as a tax ride would be less than 15 dollars, but more so to get an authentic experience, to travel as locals travel, and to experience the trials and tribulations of a crowded bus with people standing and holding overloaded packages. Exposing oneself to local customs whether it be food, modes of transportation, or living accommodations builds a broader perspective and forces one outside their comfort zone; in my opinion, two of the main benefits of traveling.

I’m glad that Matt is game to try most new things, so he readily agreed to take on this mini challenge. We found the bus station, a empty parking lot in the middle of a rather nondescript block, with a line of people looping around the lot and out to the street. Vendors selling food and drinks, and locals toting screaming children and large packages all added to the atmosphere. After waiting for about half an hour we were the first couple to get on the next bus and we secured a seat for the ride to Pisaq. Others were not as lucky as they crowded the aisles and loading area in the front of the bus. I half expected the bus driver to pull a ladder out for people to climb up to the roof as they do in other third world countries.

The Pisaq Sunday market is a quite an assorted vivid overload of colors, smells, sounds and unique sights. Multi-colored corn ranging from the typical yellow to the exotic brown and purple flanked exotic fruits and rainbow-like color assortment of spices and dyes.

One of the more interesting items was little penthouses built into the building’s facade which housed multiple guinea pigs in a plethora of rooms. Next to the housing complex was an oven which resembled a brick oven pizza oven in the states. It was round with a small hole in the front and a long wooden pole with a broad flat end used to transport foods in and out of the oven. On top of a big metal pan that was just recently pulled out were a couple roasted guinea pigs hanging out.

Cusco, Peru - Day 7

La Paz, Bolivia - Day 1

La Paz dazzles. It astounds. Illustrative descriptions abound. The La Paz is world’s highest capital city, highest golf course, highest football stadium, highest airport, and most dangerous road.

Unlike in most cities where the social elite tend to live on plots of land which are higher and look down on the proletariat, La Paz, because of its high altitude, has the unique distinction of having its richest citizens living at lower altitudes while the poor are scattered in mud huts high on the mountain top.

Block after block of street markets buzz with throngs of indigenous women in bowler hats, ruffled shirts, big puffy skirts, and dress shoes hawking all types of wares.

One lady was selling only fly swatters and TV antennas. Hm …a rather diversified product offering. Although I wondered what her margins were like on those items and how much volume she could possibly generate with fly swatters and TV antennas. I mean you really only ever need one…fly swatters don’t exactly break every day.

Yup those are fried chicken heads. YUM.

La Paz, Bolivia - Day 1

Sucre, Bolivia - Day 1

I spent the day exploring the museums and markets that Sucre, a UNESCO city, had to offer. I find the local markets fascinating, a culmination of the indigenous culture in one location. Where else can you so easily get a glimpse into the daily activities of the locals? Observing what they eat, wear, and buy. Observing how they live.

Sucre, Bolivia - Day 1

Buenos Aires, Argentina - Day 1

So I got into Buenos Aires and was told by the reception that I should check out the San Telmo street festival which happens every Sunday. It was about a 20 minute walk away and was a conglomeration of street performers, local artists selling wares, and various artistic shops. I had a very interesting day of wandering around and window shopping at the huge outdoor market.

Buenos Aires, Argentina - Day 1

Hanoi, Vietnam - Day 2

It doesn't take much to be a pop star in Vietnam. I ran into a music video shoot at the Temple of Literature with a 5'6'' guy lip singing to a boom box and dancing with a girl. Wasn't really impressed but afterwards my driver told me that he's the biggest thing in Vietnam right now.

Hanoi, Vietnam - Day 2

Sapa, Vietnam - Day 2

Sapa, Vietnam - Day 2

Hue, Vietnam - Day 1

Hue, Vietnam - Day 1

Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam - Day 3

So today I took a city tour consisting of: two temples, the presidential palace (extremely 70’s and rather dilapidated for a palace), the Vietnam War museum, market place (amazing foods and spices), Notre Dame Cathedral, and the post office.

The most interesting stop on the tour was the war museum…which wasn’t referred to as the “Vietnam” war museum but the “American” war museum. It’s interesting to see Vietnam’s perspective on the American war. The pictures and videos of the bombing, torturing, and murdering that went on by the American army was horrific and ghastly. You could easily identify the Americans in the museum by their somber demeanor and saucer-wide eyes. I guess the atrocities of war are never fun to discuss but just like so many other countries that have wronged another (Germans and the Nazis, Chinese and Tiananmen Sq, and Japanese and Nanjing) the history is often glossed over in school and in the history books…until you see and talk to the affected parties…and then a whole different story comes out…

On a more positive note…I almost got ripped off…again…by a girl…who couldn’t have been more than 11 years old. I saw a girl selling miniature grilled rice cakes on the side of the road and figured that they would be between 4,000 and 8,000 dong (25-50 cents) or perhaps 16,000 dong (1 dollar) at the most. When I asked her the price, she said 200,000 dong (12 dollars). My jaw dropped when I realized she had marked it up nearly 25x the going rate. I thought perhaps I heard her wrong; maybe I should give her the benefit of the doubt. So I pulled two 100,000 dong bills out of my wallet and confirmed the price with her…she just smiled and nodded…wow…well I guess to a budding entrepreneur its better to sell one rice cake for 200,000 dong to a sucker than 25 rice cakes at 8,000 dong apiece. If she sells two of them, she can probably close down shop and head home for the day. But wow, tourists pricing is taken to a whole new level here.

Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam - Day 3

Siem Reap, Cambodia - Day 3

Jason's last day in Siem Reap and we spent some time chilling. We went to the gym and walked around the markets in town. We tried these "special eggs" which we thought were the fertilized baby chickens but they ended up being similar to salted hard boiled eggs. They were pretty good but there definately weren't any bones there...although I ended up trying the fertilized chicken egg in Sihanoukville later in the week.

Siem Reap, Cambodia - Day 3

Bangkok, Thailand - Day 6

After flying back to Bangkok from Chiang Mai we went out to dinner at a awesome bbq place with tons of seafood and good food. And then I was going to take a bus at 6 am to Siem Reap which is about 10 hours away to meet up with my friend Jason. But unfortunately I got really really bad food posioning in the morning and spent about 5 hours in the bathroom. I missed my bus and ended up taking a flight to Siem Reap which was a ended up working out better than the bus.

Bangkok, Thailand - Day 6

Bangkok, Thailand - Day 4

Bangkok, Thailand - Day 4

HK Round 2 - Day 8

Hong Kong Round 2 - Day 8

HK Round 2 - Day 4

Hong Kong Round 2 - Day 4

Japan Day 3

I’m starting to get writers block so I’ll just list out our itinerary for the day and let you look through the pictures….

1) Ate at a restaurant close to the hostel for breakfast. I noticed that a lot of people had the fermented soybeans so I decided to give it a try - they were probably one of the grossest things I’ve ever eaten…they were slimy and rotten smelling and tasting…they gave you some mustard and soy sauce to put on them but that barely masked any of the taste…

2) Went to Ueno which has some nice historical sites. I believe it’s also the old capital of Tokyo

3) Walked around the Ameyoko open market. Watched this weird plinko game where players had buckets of sliver beads that they fed into machines.

4) Walked around Ueno park which had a lake in the middle

5) Went to the Benten Hall temple in the center of the lake

Japan Day 3

6) Had snack of noodles at the roadside

7) Went to the Shitamachi Museum which provides a charming example of what life was like in 19th century Edo / Tokyo

Japan Day 3 - Part 2 (Shitamachi Museum)

8) Walked towards the Tokyo national museum

9) Watched a street performer entertain large crowd

10)We happened upon a large group of people sitting in a perfect square hunched over in front of a platform and microphone. We thought that it was a group of middle aged people waiting for a concert or to do some outdoor exercise – much to our surprise it was a group of homeless people who were patiently waiting for their curry and rice. It was pleasantly orderly and calm in the middle of a park in front of the largest museum in Tokyo. Another example of Japanese structure, order, and politeness shining through.

11)Walked through the Kanei-ji temple. It was listed as a really nice temple but it was closed and not so interesting.

12)Then we took the subway 2 stops to Asakusa – also another historical section of Tokyo

13)There is a huge temple called the Senso-ji temple which is the center of Asakusa. Two large gates lead up to the temple and in between the two large gates is a very long corridor of stalls selling foods and trinkets. On the outskirt of the hallway of shops and leading up to the second gate and the temple are stalls after stalls of every Japanese street food possible. Possibly one of the largest street food markets that I’ve seen in a long time.

14)There was a festival going on where about 20 people carried a shrine atop two long poles and bounced up and down while chanting. They slowly walked around the area for a good part of the afternoon and into early evening.

15)We walked down the main strip and shopped; ate some street foods – grilled chicken, noodles, and a huge vegetable pancake.

16)Took pictures at the huge Senso-ji temple, Kaminarimom (Thunder Gate) and Asakusa shrine which is a 5 story pagoda

17)Walked further north and there was more food, a handicraft museum, and a drum show.

Japan Day 3 - Part 3 (Asakusa)

Video of Asakusa shrine dance:



Video of some kind of dessert bun creation:

Japan - Day 2

So on our second day in Tokyo we woke up around 4 am as we were still jet lagged and we figured this would be a good opportunity to go to the Tsukishima fish market as most of the action happens between 6-8 am. We got there and were immediately bombarded by a ton of little trucks with produce on them that were whizzing around at crazy speeds. The cars and people walk on the left hand side of the road which we learned rather quickly. The previous night we almost caused a bike accident when a biker came up behind us…we both stepped to the right to let her pass on the left which is what we would do in the states. But since its reversed in Japan, she was expecting us to step left and she could pass on the right…she wasn’t expecting us to step right and in order to avoid us she swerved more to the right and almost ran into another biker. As we apologized, she (as with the all the Japanese that we encountered) was very gracious to the annoying foreigners causing accidents.

After walking around the fish and vegetable market and viewing a plethora of seafood and veggies – most of which I recognized, but there were a couple new items, we had breakfast at a sushi bar right next to the fish market. The fish was amazingly fresh and the meal was quite good although a little pricey due to its proximity to the market. We walked around the Shibuya area for a bit and then heading back to the hostel to hang out for a bit.

Pictures from Tokyo Day 2 -

Japan - Day 2

Then we met up with my friend Eric in Shibuya for dinner. We put our name in for a reservation at a good yakitori place and walked around to kill some time. In passing we stopped by a Mos burger and Eric swore that we had to try one…never being one to turn down food, we grabbed a burger with marinated sliced beef in between a bun made of compressed rice. The meat was really flavorful and juicy and the rice bun soaked up some of the meat juices and was surprisingly good…it was definitely rice but it didn’t fall apart. After the Mos burger appetizer, we went back to the yakitori restaurant and had some delicious food like duck skewers with wasabi, ribs, pork and ginger skewers, and shrimp balls.

Afterwards we walked around Shibuya and ran into some comical things like Shibuya boys and girls, who tease their hair out and streak it in different colors; department stores with some interesting very cheap items as well as high end LV and Gucci purses; and love hotels where you can rent space by the hour or by the day.


Pictures from Tokyo Day 2 -

Japan - Day 2 Part Duex

Hong Kong - Second Day

So for our second day in Hong Kong we were a little jet lagged, woke up early, and walked around in the “Central” area where there are a number of sights to see. We went to the high end IFC mall in the financial district right by the ferry and the wharf. There are a lot of banks and expats in that area. We walked around an open market, through the Soho district (an upscale area of restaurants and shops), to the Man Mo Temple (which is one of the first traditional style temples built during the colonial era), and through the Dr. Sun Yet Sun Museum. Then we rode up the mid level escalator which is the longest escalator in the world up to the top. There are a lot of expensive old money houses in the mid level section and a lot of expats live here. At the top we walked about half a mile down to a botanical garden where we saw some interesting primates. Then we met up with my cousin and went to the roof top of the IFC mall where there is spectacular view of the Kowloon side. We rode a ferry across to the Kowloon side and then had dinner with my uncle and cousins. We finished off the night with some traditional Chinese deserts of almond jelly and milk pudding.


Pictures of HK - Day 2

Hong Kong - Day 2