We've been asked many times about our process and technology for keeping this site updated regularly.  So, we decided to shoot a short video showing all the tools we use (hardware and software) and our process.  We're not sayng it's the best way - it's just how we do it.

In the video we mention a number of resources. Our camera is the Pentax Optio WP.  Our computer is the Sony VGN-T350.  This site runs on the Drupal platform, which is hosted and supported by Bryght.  Our graphic design was done by Rain City Studios. We share our photos using Flickr.  Oh, and the post we created on the video is here.

 This post doesn't account for the mobile blogging, where we use the Palm Treo 650 to send a picture and story to this site via Flickr.  Oh, and our video camera is the Sony DCR-PC 1000.

There are people in this world that use computers and the Internet for unbelievably worthless means.  They set their computers to visit sites like TwinF and automatically generate 100s comments like this jewel:

As you can tell, they are complete nonsense and do not even serve the usual spam purpose of advertising - the link goes no where.  I awoke yesterday to find about 100 new spam comments.  Today it was about 600 - too many for me to manage, especially as we travel.

The site has a spam blocker that works well, but these comments are inconsistent so the blocker can't establish what is spam and what is not.  Unfortunately I have no choice but to turn off anonymous comments.  This means that, for now, you must be logged into TwinF to leave comments.   I hate it, but this is the only choice until we get some things worked out.

 I'm not a violent person my any means, but I really, really want one wish - and that is to punch a comment spammer right in the face one really good time. That would make me feel a little better.

The little countdown gizmo on this site tells me that we’ve been on the road for 299 days as of today.  You’d think that in that time I would have travel arrangement down to a science.  Apparently not.

We were in Narvik, Norway and needed to fly to Oslo.  Before taking off to the Lofotens, I volunteered to get tickets on Norwegian Airlines.  Somehow, I managed to get a single ticket for myself and zero for Sachi.  To make up for it, I speedily got another ticket and we were set to fly in four days.  Upon returning to Narvik and our trusty wireless Internet connection, we checked email to verify our flight time and found that something was amiss.  Apparently, in my haste, I got Sachi a ticket for a flight that left at 12:30 that day instead of my flight at 9:15 that night. Of course, we discovered this too late at about 2:30. Despite my pleas with the Norwegian customer service, we were forced to buy another ticket, this time with Sachi on the same flight as me. 

I was humiliated and embarrassed – how could I be so careless?  Apparently it was easy, because when I got the third ticket, I purchased it under my name instead of Sachi’s, creating two Lee LeFevers on same flight.  Ugghhh.   

This was further proof that Sachi and I make a great team and my part of the team needs to stay away from airline reservations for a while. Luckily though, we have a killer jump shot and lots of team spirit.

It’s quite apparent that the Russians have mixed feelings about Moscow (depending on where you ask) and after a few days there I think we feel the same. It was at once harsh and smooth, rude and friendly, ugly and beautiful.  Overall though, I’d say it was better than I expected.

Of course we had friends in the city that showed us around their neighborhoods and homes, which was a perfect introduction to the city. The warmth of the personal connection with people in Moscow made us feel at home.  However, once we ventured out on our own, other sides of the city appeared

Suddenly I found myself in center of the former Communist stronghold, surrounded by reminders of the Bolshevik Revolution, the USSR and Communism.  I saw the Kremlin-adjacent apartments where Stalin’s cronies were arrested and shot.  I ate at places where people once stood in line for bread.  All the things I learned about the Russians and Communism were right there before me and I could feel the power.  In Moscow the grandeur of the buildings are awe-inspiring – monuments to a government that controlled 1/6^th of the earth’s surface and had plans for world domination.  This was the place, right under my feet.

And it is beautiful.  Tiananmen has nothing on Red Square. The parks, rivers and thoroughfares are quite delightful, especially on a nice day.  I had no idea that Moscow was covered in parks. The legendary Metro subway system is showing its age, but still maintains a world class level of elegance and efficiency.  The street food is always-on and yummy. The drab and cold Moscow I expected was a distant vision, but some of what I had heard was confirmed.

It is said that Moscow is the “dictator” and St. Petersburg is the “artist” and having visited both, it is obvious why.  Moscow is not a warm and fuzzy sort of place for the visitor.  Customer service is very short and cold, there is no English anywhere and downtown sometimes seems covered in police. The people you encounter appear quite gloomy with very few smiles. Also, there is no affordable lodging in the center of town, forcing travelers 20 minutes outside the city.

One of the important things that travelers must remember in Moscow is to carry copies of their visa and passport with them at all times.  Often police/military will stop foreigners and ask for passports to extort large sums of money.  If an actual passport is handed over, it may cost to get it back.  One of our friends was caught urinating outdoors by a young military officer in an oversized uniform and threatened with the “Gulag” if he didn’t hand over his actual passport instead of copies. Our friend pretended to call his embassy which caused the officer to reduced the penalty to 500 Rubles (USD$20).  They ended up settling at 200 Rubles. To be fair to both sides – public restrooms are impossible to find in Moscow, and the military boys do not get paid one ruble for their two years of mandated service.

On the other side of the coin, the personal experiences we had with random Muscovites were more positive.  While looking at a map on a street corner one night (the “tourist distress call”) a friendly young woman pointed us in the right direction.  It seems that in general, the young people represent a new generation of Muscovites who are more likely to smile, provide great service and welcome foreigners.  I would love to come back to Moscow in 15 years to see how it has changed.  I’m quite sure that it will be less of a dictator.

It is a Trans-Siberian right of passage - drinking vodka with Russians on a train in the middle of Siberia. This video shares a few of the moments I'll never forget and a few that I can't really remember.

Read the story from this night

I had made a decision and I was going to act on it.  Gone were the days of standing passively in line while Chinese people wedge themselves in front of me and place an order before I could react.  I was going stand up for myself and try to be a little more Chinese.

This is not the kind of thing you can plan – it just has to happen and just last night, I had my chance.  We were in the Shanghai subway terminal in line for our first subway card at a vending machine, as we’ve done so many times before in other cities.  Just as the couple in front of me at the machine received their card and turned away, a young Chinese guy stepped directly in front of me.  So, with great determination, I stepped in front of him enough to place my right shoulder at about his eye level and in a single motion stepped directly in front of the vending machine.   It was mine!  HAHA!  I’ll show you line breaker!  I’m no push-over tourist softy!

So there I was, with this foreign and unfamiliar machine staring me in the face.  It was mine, yes, but I realized all too quickly that I had no idea how to use it.  The instructions were in English and the #1 read “Select Fare”.  Scratching my head with waves of embarrassment pending, I searched the machine for anything that said “Fare”.  Nothing.  I inquisitively pressed a couple of random buttons in the hopes that something would happen. Nothing.  My pride was on the line here and I was blowing it!  Thoughts of fleeing in shame entered my mind when I heard a voice over my shoulder, “Where do you need to go?”  It was the line breaker politely asking a simple question that I couldn’t answer completely.  All we knew was that we needed to go two stops on Line 2.  He ended up doing the whole transaction for me and after many “thank yous” I left with our subway cards in hand and my pride more than a little crushed.

The moral here is that if you’re going to try to act like a local, be prepared for the entire event.  Going off half-cocked is a good way to shoot yourself in the foot.

In Chiang Mai, we were offered two options to get to Luang Prabang, Laos. The slow boat would take a couple of days where you sit on a wooden plank for 10 hours per day and can't lean back on the metal siding because the sun makes it too hot to touch (though we've heard varied stories). Or fly in 50 minutes on Lao Airlines. We chose to fly.

As the plane took off I read our Rough Guide to Southeast Asia's instructions for getting around by planes. Here's what I read to Lee:

Most Western embassies still have travel advisories warning against flying Lao airlines. For some travellers flying Lao Airlines demonstrates bravado, but it's not really something you want to do unless you absolutely have to. 

We made it just fine. Our bravado now seems to be unstoppable. 

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.

Today we went on a little hike to the ruins of Tsuwano castle. On the way, Lee saw this sign and interpreted as follows:

 1. Scrape the bottom of your shoe

2. Place scraped matter in your hand

3. And smoke it? 

 He only glanced at it, but it really was his first impression.

It's actually about cigarettes.

We had just stopped the moped at a food cart to get some phad thai before heading home when we sat by a friendly Frenchman for a bit.  He was on the tail end of a six month journey and had been in Thailand for a few weeks.  In fact he had been to Phuket and a beach in Krabi, much like us.  He said something simple that really struck me.  He said, with a slight French accent, “You know, I have been to some of zee other places in Thailand, but sometimes zey feel like Southern Europe. In zhose places, I don’t feel like I’m in Thailand at all. Ahh but Ko Lanta, Ko Lanta feels like Thailand”

Looking back on our experience in Southern Thailand, I know what he means.  We’ve had a wonderful time and each place we go teaches us about what we’re really looking for in Thailand.  Like the Frenchman, we feel like we’ve reached a pinnacle in Ko Lanta and all the places before it were a sort of rite of passage for us. In fact, I honestly do not believe that we could appreciate Ko Lanta as we do without having gone to Phuket and Krabi first.

Don’t get me wrong, Phuket and Krabi are both absolutely beautiful places and there are gems to be found everywhere, like Baan Krating. However, what we’ve found is that we’d prefer a place that is not so developed with resorts and shopping malls. Railay Beach West was a good example.  It was a stretch of beach that had one resort on top of another.  It was almost impossible to get a feel for Railey Beach outside of how the resorts think you want to be treated.  As it turns out, we don’t need the high-end resort treatment.  It was busy, with kids running around, competition for beach chairs and higher-than-needed room rates.  We thought it was great at the time, and it was superb, but we now have the advantage of hindsight and can feel confident that we will not go back. As the Frenchman said, “I don’t feel like I’m in Thailand at all.” (Note: Railay does have an east side that is more laid back and popular among rock-climbers, but lacks a beach)

And so our rite of passage continues. Ko Lanta is not efficient, but efficiency isn’t the goal, it’s not spotless, but clean where it matters (like the water), the service isn’t great, but always comes with a smile, some of the roads are unpaved, but they go no where. You might feel like a stranger in a strange but endearing land in Ko Lanta, but it is, if nothing else, Thailand- and we’ll be back for more.