Day 173 - Vysehrad

We had one more full day in Prague, without any idea where to go. There were a couple castles that were on the outskirts of the city, accessibly by a 30 minute train ride, but we decided against it because tourist opinions on the internet said there really wasn't much to see there. So we decided to go to Vysehrad, which was in the city of Prague, just a couple metro stops away from our hotel. It was a huge park on the map, so I figured we could at least enjoy the green space one last time before heading to Italy.

There was a church called the Church of St. Peter, which we visited along with a very extravagant cemetery adjacent to the church. Here, there were large tombstones for the graves of the deceased, some in uber-huge plots of land, with statues of the dead proudly shown to the public. I'm used to seeing small tombstones, all uniform and placed neatly on a plot of land, but here, there was such a large variety of tombstones and designs. I'm not sure if these people were just wealthy or if they were important people in life, but they were proudly celebrated by their loved ones. 

We headed back to Old Town for one last shopping trip before leaving Prague. I managed to snag some postcards to send home, and also try some of Prague's hot dogs at the carts in Wenceslas Street. I didn't really like mine too much because it was overcooked on the outside, and the skin of the sausage was overly crisp and hard to bite into. That's OK though, since I think I've had a good dose of the Czech cuisine these past few days, and I'll be excited to fatten up even more with the Italian food to come...

Dinner - A Plate with Pork, Beef, AND Chicken

Day 172 - Old Town and the Astronomical Clock

This would be our 4^th full day in Prague and we were running out of thing to do! There was only one more thing that I really wanted to check out, which was the giant astronomical clock tower, so we set off to find it, somewhere in Old Town. I used to think I was good at using maps, or that maybe I improved through my travels, but it still is so confusing to follow the small roads mapped out for me! We ended up ditching the map, and trying to follow the street signs that pointed to the clock. We ended up going a roundabout way to reach our destination, only to note that it was in the Old Town Square that we visited a couple days ago, except we missed it when we were previously there.

Since we were already in the Old Town Square, I decided to get some more street food. I picked the grilled cheese sandwich, which turned out to be a hunk of grilled cheese placed on a piece of fresh bread. Fattening, but delicious!

Linh wanted to check out some of the luxury stores to see if the prices were any lower than what you could find in the US. We headed to Old Town where some of the more high-end stores were located. The prices were slightly lower, and tax free, but nothing too deeply discounted. It was a lazy day for us, as we didn't have too many things on our to-do list...

Day 169 - Old Town Prague and Wenceslas Square

My cousin Linh came from the States to meet me in Prague on a 2 week vacation from work, which is quite impressive for an American to get that much consecutive time off at once. I would travel with her from Prague to Rome to Venice before she bids farewell back to reality and back to work.

We both carried with us a Frommer's guidebook, which really didn't have much information, so we used one of the maps that I obtained from the hostel I stayed at yesterday (Usually, hostels have the BEST tourist maps). With the map, we walked around some of the closer sites today to get a small dose of Prague, but without too much detailed information on what we were looking at...

The first two stops were the Church of St. Ludmila and the National Museum, which was due to be closed for renovation. The church was not too impressive in my opinion, considering it was one of the main sights to see in Prague. The structure on the outside was beautiful, but there wasn't anything too intricate or interesting inside compared to some of the other churches that I have seen. We weren't able to go into the National Museum because it was under construction, but I noticed that much of Prague was under contruction perpetually...reminds me of UCLA, which is always under construction...

Afterwards, we headed to Wenceslas Square, an open area with wide traffic lanes in both directions. This was the site of many of the protests that occurred prior to Czechoslovakia's fall of communism. Now, it's mostly lined with hotels, pubs, and clothing stores.

Next up were parts of Old Town, which included stops at an open bazaar selling random tourist souvenirs including candies and chocolate, photographs and paintings, nutcrackers, and intricately painted Easter Eggs. It's always interesting to see what each country offers with its souvenirs. Here, easter eggs were offered everywhere. We also stopped by the Powder Gate and Municipal House.

Our last stop was the Old Town Square, which had a plethora of food stalls to incite your inner-foodie. Stalls offered food ranging from donuts to grilled cheese sandwiches to Prague ham to traditional Czech food. Linh and I decided to try the Prague Ham, continuously cooked over an open fire, to get our first taste of Czech food. We complimented our meal with 400ml of Gambrinus beers each. The ham ended up being pretty expensive because of its weight. Note: Food is usually priced per 100mg. Our hunk of ham ended up being about 300mg, which meant it was 3 times as much as we expected the price to be.

I didn't really know what was traditional Czech food except for the Czech dumplings that I tried when I was in Kathmandu. For dinner, we headed one of the many local pubs that was just around the corner from our hotel. Linh ordered the Roast duck with saurkraut and potato and bread dumplings, while I ordered the garlic soup and roast beef goulash. Linh ended up getting half of a duck, which was way too much food. Usually, the duck I eat in the states is either Chinese duck that is roasted chopped to pieces, or duck breast at an American or French restaurant. It was an entirely different experience to see half a duck on a dinner plate. We couldn't finish it, but it was tasty nonetheless!

Church of St. Ludmila

Wenceslas Square

Old Town Square

Prague Ham

Garlic Soup

Roasted Duck with Saurkraut and Potato and Bread Dumplings

Beef Goulash

Day 116 - Arrival in Kathmandu and a Live Cremation Ceremony

Things have really gotten better since arriving in Nepal, but one last rant about India! The process of leaving the international airport in Delhi was quick, with a lot less security checkpoints compared to Srinagar. One thing that didn't make sense was exchanging currency at the airport. Apparently, it is illegal to bring 500 and 1,000 Indian rupee notes into Nepal and they could get confiscated upon arrival if they are found. This is due to recent counterfeiting of these Indian Rupee notes in Nepal. But for some reason, if you are travelling to Nepal, you cannot exchange your Indian Rupees to US Dollars, or any other currency for the matter... How does this make any sense? We can't get rid of these notes, but could possibly get them confiscated upon arrival! I ended up just changing my larger Indian Rupee notes to smaller ones to avoid the confiscation...

Upon arrival, I was picked up by a couchsurfer who offered to house me for a couple days. He took me to another couchsurfer's home, a French woman named Sophie, who was so kind and accommodating! We talked a little about her work at an NGO, and some of her experiences traveling the world. She has been living in Nepal for the past two years, and Kathmandu is one of her favorite cities to live in. She lived in Los Angeles for a year, but didn't like it too much.

She took me to Pashupatinath, which is the largest Hindu temple in Nepal. The Bagmati River runs through it and flows to the Ganges River in India. The water was filthy, where people bathed in it, used it as holy water, and also dumped cremated bodies into it. We witnessed a couple of public cremation ceremonies while we were there, with different platforms used for the different castes the deceased were a part of. The whole process was shocking to watch, and I got a little emotional just watching the people mourning. But then again, Sophie and her friend John told me that they sometimes hire mourners for these ceremonies. Sophie also told me that the priest who performs the cremations has to eat a part of the dead body as a part of the process. I didn't get a chance to witness this, although I don't think I would want to. It was also noted by a tour guide that kids 5 years old or younger who have died do not get cremated, but get buried at the bottom of the river because they don't have the opportunity to achieve nirvana because they didn't live long enough in the world...

There was a bull statue is in the middle of the temple as well, and legend has it, that the God Shiva and the bull agreed to have sex with each other, first Shiva would “have sex” with the Bull, and then in return, the Bull would “have sex” with Shiva. When it was time for the Bull to “have sex” with Shiva, the God ran into the temple complex, and now, the Bull waits outside for the God to come out... Interesting how some of these stories come about...

We headed back to Sophie's place, but not before having some delicious Tibetan Momo's (Buffalo Meat Dumplings). They reminded me of Chinese dumplings and I look forward to more of these in my travels through this country.

At the end of the night, John and I headed to Thamel, which is the big backpacker area for some really good sirloin steak! It would be the first time I had a western steak in my entire trip, and every bite was savory and mouthwatering! I already love the food available here too! I ended up walking back to Sophie's place alone and in the dark, and it took about 30 minutes to get there, but was so easy because all the locals were so helpful when I asked how for directions.

Swimming during Cremation Proceedings

Cremations on Platforms for Different Castes

Day 115 - Layover in Delhi

I spent a night in Delhi on layover before heading to Kathmandu. I managed to save about 450 rupees to the Srinagar airport by taking the public bus there. SCORE! On the bus ride there, I met a couple from Mumbai who worked in the financial industry. We talked a little about the accounting profession and the transition to IFRS (international accounting standards). It made me wonder where my old firm was in regards to training the associates on these new standards...

The security at the Srinagar airport was tight! I must have gone through 5 different checkpoints, all checking the contents of my baggage. Luckily I arrived at the airport 2.5 hours before departure or I don't know if I would have made my flight. The security was probably a lot tighter here due to the conflicts that had occurred in the region recently. Most of the security checkpoints were separated for different sexes and for once, the female line was a lot shorter than the male line, probably because less females travel in India?

The flight was painless, and when I arrived, I took a prepaid taxi to my hotel, but not before getting lost a little because the taxi driver didn't know where my hotel was, even though I had the address, and a printout of the directions from the airport to the hotel from googlemaps...

I pretty much stayed in the hotel the whole time, not really brave enough to explore the area. I ventured out just for dinner, but that was just about it. I really feel lonely here in Delhi, and so many thoughts went through my head to just head home. I really want to see friends and family and familiar faces from people who I trust, and who care about me. I skyped a few friends, who told me to just venture on, because I would regret it later... I don't know why I am letting this short trip to India get to me, but hopefully things get better, because I feel a little discouraged from continuing...

Indian Dessert Shop

Street Vendor making Samosas

Day 107 - Sky Bar in Bangkok and Eating Roaches and Crickets

We spent the last half day in Ayutthaya at the Elephant Village and Floating Market. I showed the tuk-tuk driver the location of where I wanted to get dropped off, and he agreed, but ended up taking us to a different elephant village. Good thing I was already here before, or else I would have just accepted it, but I wasn't going to be fooled this time around!

After shopping and eating some of the local delicacies, we headed back to bangkok on a charter bus. It took about 2 hours to get back and it was already dark. We checked into our hotel and got ready to visit one of the highest bars in the world, and I believe the second highest in all of Bangkok – the Sky Bar at the State Tower of Lebua. This was the bar that was featured in the The Hangover 2, and I'd been wanting to visit it for a while now because the pictures of it looked stunning.

The drinks were around $15/usd, but I think it was worth it for the experience, views, and pictures I was able to take. It was located on the 64^th floor of the hotel, and luckily it wasn't raining when we arrived, although it was sprinkling while we were standing around the circular bar. We went on a Monday, so it wasn't as crowded as I thought it would be, and the douchiness factor was low that night as well.

Afterwards, we headed back to Silom in search of some insects to devour. It was one thing Maco wanted to try, and I wanted to redeem myself after chickening out the first time I came across it the last time I was here. We found the street vendor selling a variety of these crispy snacks, and she even offered us a free cricket to try! The last time I was here with my friend Quang, the vendor offered a bag for 30 baht, or a single cricket for 20 baht. Feeling cheated, we declined the offer. This time around, I took the free cricket like it was my last meal...OK not really, but a free cricket tastes better than one that costs 20 baht right? It didn't taste too bad, and I actually ended up swallowing the piece I bit into. We tipped the vendor 10 baht for the free snack and asked how much the huge cockroaches were...10 baht each. This would be the true test, as I have a deep fear of cockroaches whenever I see them crawling around the streets or on the walls... And this cockroach was no ordinary cockroach found in the United States... these were GIANT cockroaches, as you can see by the pictures below. They were probably bigger than the length of my middle finger!

Holding the cockroach in my hand was enough to make me squirm, but I kept my composure and bit the head off...held it in my mouth, and everything was ok until I actually tried to chew and taste the insect. It was DISGUSTING and I immediately spit it out. If ever you are faced with a food shortage and you only had the choice of eating crickets or cockroaches, choose the crickets...

Bangkok at Night

Ayutthaya Elephant Village

My favorite coconut ice cream in Ayutthaya

Look at the size of that thing!

Reaction Shot

Day 100 – Food and Tour of Georgetown, Penang

Knowing that I would only get one day to explore Penang meant that I would have to try as much food here as I could, which was my main objective, with exploration of the city taking a backseat.

I ended up arriving in the city of Georgetown at 6am, way too early to check into the hostel I booked, but I ended up taking a taxi there anyways in hopes of seeing if I could just nap in the lobby. The doors were locked and no one was around, but luckily, after a couple of minutes of waiting outside, one of the staff came by to open the door and let me sleep in the staff room.

There were informative guides on the popular Penang cuisine at the hostel that I used to find some of the local delicacies. Check out the pictures below to see what I ate.

The city of Georgetown, like Malacca, is a UNESCO world heritage site. Malaysia is a fairly new country, so these two UNESCO sites were very different compared to other places I'd visited in South East Asia. The other sites had been thousands of years old, but here, the buildings are relatively newer, maybe only at the most, a couple hundred years old. Again, most of the “old city” was walkable, and I ventured around using a handy tourist map that I saw every other tourist hold as they also walked around the city. Since today was the day before Aidilfitri, many of the sites were closed and we had to resort to walking by, snapping a quick picture, and then heading to the next stop without really knowing what exactly was the significance of each stop.

Fried Oysters

Cendal

Fort Cornwallis

Guan Yin Temple