http://gallery.atpic.com/29563

besos!

Buenos Aires is a fascinating city with so much to see, do and experience. It’s very easy to get around because the streets all gridded, and the roads span nearly the whole city’s length. We’re staying in a cute apartment in a great neighborhood called Palermo. There are lots of stores, cafes and transportation close by, but it’s still pretty quiet at night.

We visited the plaza 25 de mayo, “La Bombonera”- the La Boca fútbol stadium (that’s soccer, to all you norteamericanos), one of the many Sunday antique markets and a really cool drumming performance. We also studied a little Spanish.

School is fun (how old do you have to be to say that without sounding too dorky?) and taking up the bigger part of our day. We’re having a great time practicing speaking with the locals.

We also took a trip to neighboring Uruguay (only an hour away by ferry!) to a lovely coastal village named Colonia. A nice, charming way to get out of the city traffic and hustle.

attached are a few photos of our excursions. muchos besos!

http://gallery.atpic.com/28770

We spent he week relaxing on the beach, reading, relaxing on the beach, reading, relaxing on the beach, seeing the family, relaxing on the beach, etc., relaxing, etc., on the beach, etc… It was a lovely opportunity to see the Fraiman family (missing only 3 members out of 30), and the guacamole was fantastic!

From there we flew to Mexico City, where we spent our time discovering the fascinating cultures of Pre-Colombian America. We visited museums, archeological sights and the Government buildings. The Freida Khalo museum was very interesting, so were the Diego Rivera murals on the walls of the President’s offices, the Supreme Court and the Education Ministry, as well as on the walls of some indoor markets and the Palacio Nacional.

It was also a fun opportunity to practice our Spanish!

At the moment we are in FL, visiting the grandparents. But in 4 days time we will be boarding the flight back to the cold, snowy and familliar NYC. There’s no place like home… (so tell me again why we don’t live in Florida?)

Pix are here:

http://gallery.atpic.com/24591

love and kisses

In Qingdao we strolled through German architecture (random). and walked along the beautiful coastline that will be host for the 2008 Olympic water events. We also got some good pix of various sea creatures represented on the lunch menus across town.

The next stop was Dalian, which we reached by ship. Sailing across the newly discovered (to us) Yellow Sea. Dalian is a great modern city but not of much interest to backpackers. We got a nice room for the weekend and enjoyed a comfortable respite from the hustle and bustle of travelling. (Message from the feet: Aaah!!!)

From there we headed up to the boarder where we caught a not-so-distant glimpse of North Korea across the river. The contrast was striking. High-rise apartment buildings and shopping centers on the Chinese side, vs. a barren country side with small houses in small clusters scattered across the coastline on the North Korean side. We also visited the `Museum to commemorate U.S. Agression` documenting what we call The Korean War. It was thoroughly educational and eye opening to view the world and its conflicts through another (non-western) culture`s eyes.  

Finally, we arrived at our final destination in China, Beijing. A HUGE city where an hour taxi ride might get you from one center to the next. Or might not. We saw a touristy Kong-Fu show, The Temple of Heaven, TienNenMen sq., The Forbidden City and The Great Wall of China. Like good tourists. All were fascinating and a wonderful finale for our experience in China. We miss it already.

We have been in Japan for about a week now. In Kyoto. At first glance it was hard to feel we were in a new country. But that changed very fast. From multy story car parks with giant forklifts to place your car in its spot to electric warm toilet seats, this is a country at the pinnacle of progress. In some ways.

We saw a Geisha show that opens to the public for less than a month a year. A procession of 500 traditionally dressed locals in a festival that happens once a year. And a fantastic public transport system that happens ever day of the year. The area is full of beautiful temples and shrines surrounded by calm gardens of trees, rocks and water. This is a beautiful country with a wonderful mix of traditional culture and modern life style.

Next we are on to Hiroshima, which promises to be an interesting experience.   

here are the pix: http://gallery.atpic.com/19829  

A few days later we were in China! The tail wind of too-many-flights-in-too-little-time still following behind, we crashed in Kunming. A lovely and relaxing city in south-western China. We walked by the lake and watched early risers practice Tai Chi in the park. From there we moved on to Dali and Lijiang. Small old towns with traditional chinese buildings and a strong presence of small local minority groups. In Lijiang we saw a traditional Naxi concert performed by an orchestra of elderly musicians. In Dali we visited some reconstructed temples and hiked up the foothills of the Tibetan plateau.

From there we continued to Chengdu. We visited the research and breeding center dedicated to the conservation of the Giant Panda. What a life these pandas have! In the brand new highly maintained habitat they spend the day on their back in he sun munching fresh bamboo branches and wrestling each other up and down the jungle gym.

We quickly tired of the big city life Chengdu offers and moved on to Fenghuang. A small town in south central China. This is a beautiful old town straddling both sides of a river and still showing remnants of the wall that surrounded it centuries ago. The market place here was particularly interesting (according to Yitzhak. Aura thought it was a bit gross). We saw anything-you-can-imagine on a stick. Pictures posted below have been censured for the benefit of those with a weak stomach. Suffice it to say the local food includes flattened and dried pig face. And that’s the appetizing part of local cuisine…

We moved on to Yangshuo where we stayed with Wei, Yitzhak’s calligraphy teacher from 4 years ago. It was a happy encounter and we spent the mornings cycling amidst the breathtaking carst scenery of the country side, or rock climbing on one of the many peaks that stretch for miles in every direction. In the afternoon we practiced calligraphy with Wei and watched (disturbed) his wife in the kitchen. Whether or not we managed to pick up any Chinese cooking will be discovered when we’re back. (And yes, you will be our guinea pigs.)

From there we continued down to Hong Kong. We spent the Seder with Chabbad and visited the JCC for meals during Chol Hamo’ed. If we were to miraculously wake up in NYC it might take us a day or two to realize this- Hong Kong is an incredible metropolitan. From shopping malls on every corner to a multitude of people from all over the world. To escape the crowd for an hour or two we took the tram up to the peak overlooking the city. The views were spectacular though some of the high-rise buildings seem to be looking down at you even at an elevation of 500 meters over the bay.

We will spend the second holiday of Pesach in Shanghai (we have a 21+ hour train ride leaving in 2 hours!) and make our way to Beijing from there. That’s it. We’re not telling any more. You’ll just have to read the next post as well…

Pictures are here-

http://gallery.atpic.com/19204

Love you and Chag Sameach!

We took a boat out to the island temple off the coast. This is where the goddess Kanya stepped on earth. There’s a footprint in a rock, decorated with garlands of flowers and colored powder. We also saw the Indian “Statue of Liberty”, a 133ft. tall marble statue of the national poet. Some perspective for you- the national poet lived 2000 years ago!

We moved on to Kochin, home to the oldest Jewish community in India. They can offer documentation of their arrival in Kochin toward the end of the 4th century c.e. The local Maharajah gave the immigrant community the island of Mattancherry, literally meaning ‘the gift town’, to settle in.

We visited the synagogue in Jew Town and spent Shabbat there. A couple that had just moved there from Bombay invited us to their house for dinner. It was all very exciting and very interesting.

During that week we took a trip out to the ‘backwaters’ of Kerala. An intricate maze of rivers and canals serving as the highways of the inland area. We got a boat for 2 days and paddled out into the village areas. We slept in a local village where, to the amazement of our neighbores, we cooked dinner ourselves, on our portable stove. One man told us with sincerity that his children had never seen a white man cook before.

On we went, to the relaxing, and terribly expensive, state of Goa. We spent the week visiting old Portuguese churches and lazing on the beach. We got a tan and a table cloth and moved on.

On our way back to Bombay Yitzhak proceeded to throw one of our bags onto a train as it sped away, relinquishing it to fate and the rest of the Indian Rail patrons. In his defence he is reported saying “I thought it was our train”. Luckily, all the bag contained was our clothing. All of our clothing. Suspiciously, Yitzhak has been having a good time clothes shopping in Bombay for the past couple of days.

Next we will be visiting India’s new and developing wine industry on our trip to the vineyards around Nasik. All this and more on the next posting.

Pix are here:

http://gallery.atpic.com/17928

From there we continued to Bangalore, IT capital of India and a busy noisy city with some of the most modern amenities we have seen here so far. We spent three days (all our budget could handle) in movie theatres and shopping malls. We also got to the State Library, horse racing tracks and city central park. The highlight of the city was our visit to the palace of the current maharaja of Bangalore. He no longer has any political power, only the title and lands that his father left him. We took a tour of his palace, where he lives today, and got as close to him as his bedroom door. Unfortunately, the Maharaja doubles as a fashion designer and was still asleep at 10am when we showed up because, as his staff informed us, “the king was out late last night at a party”. We did get to see the dressing room for the models of his recent show, and examined the racks of colorful sarees and shawls left behind. The emblem that decorates these garments is the Royal House of Mysore seal.

Next we came to Mysore (yes, it’s funny, we know) where we visited the colorful market with it’s seasonal fruit and essential oil shops. We also visited Mysore palace, the former home of the Woodiyar maharaja dynasty that had been in power for 27 generations until, in 1947, the maharaja was elected state governor. We found ourselves on the far end of the grounds and a friendly police officer allowed us to jump the fence out of the premises for only 10 rupees!

Now we are in Ooty- A small hill station in the heart of the Niligiri hills which the British termed “Snooty Ooty”, as it used to be an exclusive summer getaway. The protected forest that surrounds this town is home to tigers, black jaguars and spotted deer, of which we have seen the latter. But more impressively, it is home to 7 tribes that have inhabited the area for centuries. They have their own land in the forest and are permitted to carry on with their traditional way of life. We spent 3 days staying with a family from the Toda tribe in a 4 house village. At night we sat around with the kids playing games and during the day we hiked the magnificent landscape of the surrounding hills. This tribe is compleately vegetarian, no eggs or fish either. Only upon the event of a death do they sacrifice a buffalo, which they worship as an incarnation of Bramha (a Hindu deity), so as to keep the deceased company in his new environment.
We have still not seen any tigers.

Next we will head to Kanyakumari, the southern-most tip of India where the Arabian, India and Pacific Oceans meet. But that is for later…

Pix are here:

http://gallery.atpic.com/17556

Miss you!

From there we moved on to Bombay where the lack of cows in the street was only the first sign we had arrived in a booming, sprawling, hustling, bustling and over all flustering metropolitan city. We spent Shabbat with the Beit Chabad and walked the busy streets of Colaba. This downtown / shopping center has everything from giant sized baloons and endless drug dealers to pristine Gucci and Bvlgari shops. All and all- we missed the cows!

After that we visited Ajanta and Ellora- two world heritage sights that have ancient Buddhist and Hindu temples carved into caves. It was amazing to see how well preserved some of the temples were! the pictures only partly show the grandeur of these sights.

Now we are in the small touristy town of Hampi. This is surrounded by the ruins of a vast 13th century empire and enormous bolder feilds. We have gone bouldering and exploring and plan to hire a bike for a day of remote sightseeing.

Pics. are here:

 http://gallery.atpic.com/17176

From there we took a bus to Udaipur. A large town with a nice lake and some interesting palaces. Part of Octopussy was filmed here, so we went to see the film play at one of the many restaurants that play it nightly at 7 o`clock. We will be moving on to one of India`s favorite honeymoon resorts, Mt. Abu, for Shabbat.

Pics. from these places:

http://gallery.atpic.com/16676

Visiting Varanasi was an intense experience- in 2 days we saw burning bodies on the Ganges river, silk weavers, monkey temples and crazy bazaars. We also heard some classical indian music, attempted to get a street massage and tasted the famous local sweets… in short, Varanasi is a fascinating and colorful city and we had a great experience.

Agra was not as beautiful- although the Taj Mahal was definatley worth a day trip there. We saw the Taj at Sunrise-and though the pictures look a bit hazy we think this was the best time of day to be there.

Here are a few last pix from rishikesh:

http://gallery.atpic.com/16416

and from Varanasi and Agra:

http://gallery.atpic.com/16552

love to everyone!