Going out with a Bang in Hong Kong

Top: Brent and Zoltan with the Tower of San Miguel at trivia night

Bottom: Big Buddha in the background

Top: Our winnings at the horse races. We bet $20HK on a trio and won.
Bottom: A literal "ice bar" that served vodka shots. They give you fur coats when you walk in.

Hong Kong has been quite the experience... Let's put it this way: it's been by far the city we've stayed up the latest. We had one super tour guide in Zoltan. He planned itineraries for us and went out with us every night despite having to get up at 8am. I don't know how he did it.

Hong Kong has such amazing night life... people party until 4 in the morning every night of the week. It's sort of a weird town though in that it's a mix of New York, Las Vegas and Beijing. It's really NOT uncommon to see older businessmen with young Asian women (you probably can figure that one out) and people driving Ferraris and Maserati.

There is a layer of smog here, but beautiful mountains near by to escape the city. We got to see a giant Buddha, won $500 HK (about $125 US) at the horse races, explored the Museum of History and took quite a few cable cars to get magnificenest views of the city.

Today we're back to the States. We have mixed emotions about going back. We feel like we could keep traveling forever - we're now used to living out of a backpack and sleeping in 20 different beds throughout the month. I miss talking to my friends, seeing family and being productive in society. I miss my dog, Morgan! I can not wait to see him. I hope he hasn't forgotten about us.

Vietnam

Top: Brent in the middle of celebration around Hoan Kiem Lake in Hanoi
Bottom: Dinner at local place with tiny table and chairs, but delicious and cheap food

Top: Marianne trying sticky rice cooked in bamboo (yum) for 25 cents... and looking much larger than the Vietnamese around her ha!
Bottom: Brent put to work in the rice field in Mai Chau

Vietnam has been such an incredible experience.. .highly exceeded our expectations. We also happened to align our trip (unknowingly) to the 1000 year founding celebration of Hanoi so the place was filled with so much energy, street shows and decorations. We were lucky to have "accidentally" picked this time.

We had the opportunity to visit a small village called Mai Chau, west of Hanoi. We stayed in a stilt house owned by ethnically Thai people. The people there were so fantastic and it was such a change of pace from Hanoi. We were fed SO MUCH FOOD for every meal... like three of four meat options. I've never been fed so much in my life. We're off to Hong Kong now!

Some Pics From Sydney

Top: Man playing the Didgeridoo (maybe have messed up that spelling)

Bottom: Brent in heaven at Asian Eating World

Below: Opera House and Sydney Harbour Bridge in background

I come to Sydney to watch a play about a New Hampshire Town :-)

Brent and I arrived in Sydney safe and sound yesterday. A lot of people on our travels have told us that Sydney is "just another big city." Well, I have to disagree.

Today we went on a self-guided walking tour. We saw Parlaiment, the ANZAC memorial, the Botanic Gardens, and, of course, the Opera House and the Sydney Harbor bridge. The latter two are a site to see. We went inside the box office to see what was playing there. To our surprise, it was way more than just opera. We decided we'd try to go see a show. After finding out the comedian (Josh Thomas?!) was totally sold out, we asked about the play "Our Town." Come to find out, if you're under 30, the play is only $30 (as opposed to $90)... it was a no brainer. Funny thing is, "Own Town" is about a fictional town in New Hampshire. Yes, we come to Sydney to watch a play about NH starring actors whose accent is... eh... actually, some did a spectacular job, but some definitely still sounded Australian.

Besides the play, our favorite part(s) of the day was the food! Delicious food. We ate the Tiger Pie from the Harry's Cafe de Wheels, lamb skewers and pork suimai from the asian markets, Thai chili chicken curry from a food court, and these marshmellow chocolate things Brent really wanted. Yum.

Underwater Caving

The past few days have been so much fun. We went underwater caving in the NW (see pictures) where we were able to see glow worms, get some information about caves, black water raft with glow worms lining the ceiling, and finished up rafting down the river.

Today we went wine tasting and drove down the east coast.

A few pics from NZ

Top: Glacier walking on Franz Josef

Bottom: Visit to Puzzling World on a rainy day

Below: Atop Queenstown Hill

New Zealand

Spectacular! I have only a minute to write, but just wanted to let you know we're all safe and sound in New Zealand. We did a full day glacier walk on the Franz Josef glacier yesterday (amazing), lots of walks throughout the country and jet boating on the Shot Over River in Queenstown. I will post pictures later, but I think this is my favorite country yet...