I think the locals thought we were weird when taking pictures of signs and menus.  We were reminded how sensitive language is - replace a few words with synonyms and the results end up a tad off target and usually hilarious.

 This was just before boarding a cable car in China:

 Also in China, at the Three Gorges Dam.  Billions of dollars on the project and they couldn't hire a translator for the sign every tourist sees?  Welcome to China. The guy in this photo is Miles Hilton-Barber, Blind Adventurer.  Perhaps the most amazing person I've ever met. He didn't turn over.

Concern for the relics I get, but the railings? This is from the Summer Palace near Beijing.  The railings were not relics, by the way.

At Yellow Mountain in China, this is truly an earnest request.

Don't worry, I didn't take it as a compliment, really.  From a crappy state-run hotel in Guilin, China. 

Yes, China star-rates toilets.  Seriously - it was still not great.  This is inside the Forbidden City in Beijing.

Menus offered a near-daily source of laughter. This one is from a Dim-Sum menu in Hong Kong: Minced crap (I think they mean crab)

Yes, in fact, that is a cute potatoes with butter.  Japan.

I'm just not sure what this is supposed to say. Japan. 

Even when Japanese is not translated to English, it has a completely unique style.  This is from a hiking trail in Tsuwano, Japan.  See if you can decode it...

 This was my guess:

1. Scrape the bottom of your shoe

2. Place scraped matter in your hand

3. And smoke it?

I love the design of this Japanese subway sign, seriously.

Stop using rocket shoes.  From Osaka Buffaloes Baseball game.

Baseballs hurt. From Osaka Buffaloes Baseball game.

If I could do the trip over, I would build a catalog of crosswalk signs.  They exist in every country in different forms along the same lines.  This one obviously warns people to watch out for George Washington crossing with a devil child. Japan.

No one wants to see Pac Man drunk. Waka waka waka (hiccup).  Japan.

 And finally, if you're wondering what strategies Sachi and I will employ when we combine forces in 2007, this describes it perfectly:

Without yours, our trip would not have been then same- thanks.

We are both continually amazed at how having this web site has connected us with people we would have otherwise never known.  Just a couple of nights ago, we had dinner with the sister of a friend’s former roommate, Maria.  I was asked her in an email how in the world she knew about us. Here is the connection…

Maria was a housemate with my long time friend JJ in Seattle (1999-2002).  We met a few times, but only at parties etc. A couple of years ago, JJ moved to S. Carolina and Maria lost touch, so she recently Googled him, hoping to make contact.  She then found a blog post from me about his wedding in 2003.  While reading about his wedding, she noticed a reminder that Sachi and I were traveling around the world and started reading TwinF.  Once she saw us reach Barcelona, she contacted her sister Camila, who got a group of her friends from business school to take us to their favorite local tapas bar in Barcelona’s Gracia neighborhood.  Though we only barely know Maria, the tiny connection was enough to help us make new friends in a foreign country. Thanks Maria and Camila!

If this wasn’t enough, Maria also reminded us that we help her brother too…

My brother Fernando and his wife printed out all your Thailand dispatches and read them on the plane to Thailand in early September.

Crazy. We both think it is pretty amazing that suddenly, because of blogs and the Internet that these sorts of connections are possible. What a world in which we live. What a world.

Grilled fish and local cheese – that’s what we heard we should experience from people like Nancy White and local Bev Traynor before visiting Portugal. They were right – within a few hours of arriving we asked our hotel about a non-touristy restaurant and they sent us to a place they described only by the address “#94” and an assurance that it wasn’t “touristical”.  The first thing to hit the table in the flourescent lit room was a small wheel of delicious goat cheese that was followed by grilled “Rockbass” – surely the best grilled fish I’ve had.

But Lisbon is not just about food, but atmosphere. The sidewalks of the city are absolutely covered by black and white 2 inch square cobblestones in every imaginable pattern, all placed by hand.  This makes the city appear to be a giant mosaic.

Most of the atmosphere of Lisbon must be felt, smelled or experienced – things that photos cannot capture. It is the sort of city that is perfect for wandering and letting the winding streets and scenes of real life seep into you.  You need not visit a single museum to see the best of Lisbon – it happens every day on the streets and in the stand-up cafes.  

Alas, we did take a lot of photos and these are some of our favorites…

This is a panorama taken while looking down a long set of stairs Lisbon Castle:

Albert Einstein is HUGE is Portugal...

 These kids lost their ball on this balcony, so they pushed the little guy up to get it and let him dangle until he dropped.  He was not happy with them.

 One of our last photos from Lisbon as we waited for the Aerobus to whisk us away to the Airport at Restauradores.

On Love and Gelato, originally uploaded by LeeLeFever_TwinF.

All gelato is not made equal. Its hard to tell until that first lick - when it desolves and leaves a sweet silky smooth taste in your mouth. You can feel the love when it's real. Today I met my new favorite - pine nut ice cream. I'm still feelin the love.

In fact, we're both feeling a lot of love in Italy. Florence, Rome, Siena, San Gimignano, Lucca and tomorrow Cinque Terre - its all so amazingly rich. Culture, art, food, architecture, people, cars, colors, smells - the Italians do it differently and we like it - a lot.

Unfortunately we haven't made time for uploading pics and videos, but they are coming soon. Until then, enjoy Halloween and remember to vote in a week (if your in the US)! We totally dropped the ball for absentee ballots.

It's clear that in the short trip from Russia to Finland, we have entered a different world. Being hungry right off the train, we quickly found a cafe close to the station and walked in.  We are used to struggling through menus in other languages and this one was in Finnish.  However, what happened next did not happen for the last few months - a smiling gentleman approached us and said, in a slight Scandanavian accent  "would you like me to translate for you?"  Whahhh?  It was true - we are now in a different and more familiar world. 

The issue right now, however, is exactly which part of this world we'll see. Right now we have a place to stay tonight in Helsinki and that is the full extent of our future plans.  Before us lies the whole of Europe and where we'll go next depends on which hour you ask us.  Currently, we're considering at trip to Finnish Lapland - inside the Artic Circle. From there, maybe Sweden and/or Estonia and Latvia.    

I'm not sure what I've gotten myself into with this whole concept eating strange things in foreign countries, but the ball is rolling... downhill. I fear that I may not be able to top this one.

Also, yes, I know a scorpion is an arachnid and not an insect.

We are in Chingqing, China, thanks to some last minute planning. As of two days ago, we are embarking on a six day Yangtze River cruise from Chongqing to Shanghai. We leave at 11am tomorrow.

We had one night in Chongqing and decided to capture what we could on video. I ate a snail.

This is the route our boat will take over the next week (the top squiggly line). We doubt there will be Internet access, so you may not hear from us for a week or so. Until then, ask us some questions! :)

Lying between Thailand and Cambodia on our itinerary, Laos may have a disadvantage in being compared to seemingly richer countries. However, we were impressed with Laos overall – it was full of scenic beauty and the traveling was easier than we expected. between Luang Prabang, Vang Vieng, and Vientiane. While we enjoyed the day trips to waterfalls and river rafting, the day’s end would bring a search for dinner in the towns.

As we walked by each restaurant and café, staff would inevitably not smile, but would instead stare to see if we chose one of their tables for a meal. Once we sat down, a menu was silently dropped in front of us and the server stood, still without a smile, staring to hear a request.

We understand that cultural cues can be very different between neighboring countries and we assume that restaurant staff in general didn’t feel we were an imposition on their evening, but after coming from Thailand – the Land of Smiles – we had to remind ourselves not to feel rushed to order and eat.  The service was good and the Lao we met were kind and courteous, but often lacked the appearance of smiling friendliness.

In other Asian countries, I hadn’t felt that need to fall back on Western food, but the local Lao dishes for me seemed to lack much flavor with the exception of straight chilli peppers. We tried more than a few stir fried dishes, curries, spring rolls, meat and sticky rice on sticks, and a few handfuls of market favorites wrapped in banana leaves. It wasn’t nearly as delicious as Thai versions.  Even the dipping sauces seemed watery and lacked the salty or sweet richness in flavor the spring rolls needed, though fresh mint added to the rolls were a nice touch. I can see why, at least for foreigners, there were many more cooking schools available for Thai cuisine.

In Vientiane, we ate well with French and Italian cuisine mixed in with a few Lao meals. It was a little embarrassing as we perceived our choices as those of “weak” travellers, but we greatly anticipated European food that wasn’t Spaghetti in tomato sauce. So, in the end, Vientiane’s lamb shank and caviar-salmon ravioli meals with smiling staff (3 course meals for 2 under US$10-12) were my favorites.

Before we left Seattle, I had a call with a fellow Blogger named Beth Kanter who has strong ties with Cambodia. Beth has been a wonderful contact and hooked us up with a young Cambodian guy and blogger named Mongkol who is moving to the US in a month on a Fulbright scholarship and attending Boston College. Yesterday Mongkol was our gracious tour guide to Phnom Penh.

For those that may have seen what I said on a local news story, it was that guidebooks are great, but we’d prefer to meet locals who can give us another perspective on a city and our day with Mongkol did just that.  He said “So, do you want to be with the other barangs (foreigners), or go where Cambodians eat?” We left town to “eat boiled corn”.

After about 30 minutes of driving we arrived at a strip of restaurants right on the edge of a marsh.  This was no regular restaurant.  The kitchen was on the land, but the tables (sitting areas) and roof rambled out over the marsh for about 80 yards on bamboo stilts.  With every step, the floor bounced and swayed. Each little sitting area was square and included three hammocks and a bamboo mat.

The boiled corn and pickled radish was fine, but one part of the meal will always stick out in my mind- the boiled “baby duck” eggs.  Mongkol mentioned them on the way and I remember seeing something similar on the TV show Fear Factor (not a good sign).  He ordered a few eggs and I was on the fence as he explained that some are some eggs that are more “mature” then others. He opened the first egg and I couldn’t believe my eyes – it contained a baby duck with eyes, a bill, feathers and feet.  He didn’t say it, but I think it was more mature than he wanted too.  He ate it and I found myself doubting I would do the same.

In the end, the next egg was much less mature (much more amorphous than duck-like) and I ate the whole thing.  Truthfully, the taste was not bad at all, but the idea of eating a duck fetus was not a nice image – a vegetarian’s worst nightmare I'm sure.

We both think a lot of Mongkol and look forward to hearing about his experiences in the US, where we’re sure he’ll do well.  We appreciate so much the time he spent with us answering our myriad questions and introducing us to his Cambodia, baby ducks and all.

Sachi had a very well-traveled instructor in grad school that told her that he feels confident in getting around in any country in the world- except Japan.  I agree.  If not for Sachi, I would be completely confused for most of our time here.  There is simply no English spoken or written in a number of places we go. Looking around, you find nothing but signs written in kanji or kana - the Japanese alphabet of symbols- other than on Starbucks and Mister Donut signs. 

I feel so illiterate when looking at a menu.  I know nothing- not one word, number or letter.  I just have to depend on Sachi to do her best to read and talk to the server about what they have.  I just look around at plates, point and make little utterances like “hai”, which means “yes”.

Our situation here differs from what we’ve experienced so far in the trip.  Except for Thailand, every country we’ve visited is a Commonwealth country- a former English colony.  The colonial roots make the passage of English speakers in these countries a smooth one, with decades of practice in communicating in English. And Thailand, though never colonized, has long been a destination of Europeans.

Japan, quite proudly, does not have a colonial past.  In fact, some would say that the history of Japan is more marked by isolation than anything else.  Though you see Japanese tourists all over the world, the vast majority of the population does not travel outside of Japan.  However, they do travel inside the country in great numbers.  My bet is that 95% of the tourists we’ve encountered in Japan have been Japanese.  It’s really no wonder that English speakers find Japan to be a hard nut to crack.

For now, I just smile and say my konnichi wa’s and onegaishimasu’s and look to Sachi when they come back to me with a litany of words that seem completely incomprehensible.  I know that when the sentence ends in “desuka”, it is a question and I am supposed to answer. Usually though, I have to look back at them and Sachi blankly, sending the not-too-secret message to Sachi that I’m helpless.  Thankfully, she can usually get us (me) through with flying colors and I can answer with something like "America" or "hai". Good and gracious translator, that Sachi.