Travel Tips a la Loganbilian

Some people have been asking us for travel advice (shout out to you know who), and I thought I might share some of our travel strategies.

We've been staying at hostels mostly. And they'll make you lay down some serious cash for Internet when there are Internet stations down the road for cheap. One place ripped us off by charging $3 to hook up our camera to their computer via USB cable. Scott has been disappointed that wifi (his phone has wifi and Google Maps) isn't as prominent in hotels and urban areas as in America.

We brought a thumb drive here with Picasa on it. We downloaded it quickly and used it to upload everything to picasaweb.google.com/sancho. It took a while, but then you get to erase the camera memory. Picasaweb has a link in the album to "embed a slideshow." Voila, our Fiji pictures.

As for clothes -- we minimized. They tell us to bring as little clothes as possible. If you need some later, buy it along the way. One flannel, one stuffsack windbreaker. Boardshorts double as shorts and swim trunks and dry fairly quickly. So far it has worked for us, although washing and hanging on a clothesline in your hostel or hotel room can be pretty ghetto. Luckily, we've been with family enough that we've only had to wash and dry our own clothes maybe once or twice.

We spent some money at REI before we left. Scott's main concern was to buy clothes that will dry quickly. Cotton will mold in your bag if you don't have enough time to dry it. We got a piece of nylon rope for use as a clothes line. We bought clothes sacks to compress our clothes so we have room in our bags. No computer, but Scott's one novelty was a travel stereo for the iPod. Makes your hotel room so much more comfortable. Dana's was the digital SLR camera.

We also bought some plastic containers for soap (get antibacterial, my sister in law Melissa warned us about skin infections) and for laundry detergent. Bring a Tide stick for stains too. Scott personally prefers to keep toiletries and medicine in thick ziplock freezer bags. You can find stuff so much easier in a clear bag, it's waterproof, and if it's carry-on most of the airlines make you put liquids under 3 oz in a clear bag anyway.

Scott geeked out on his bag too. Whatever you do, make sure it has backpack straps. Scott's has wheels too, but it adds weight to the bag and some airlines make you keep it to under 42 lbs. It is convenient to roll your baggage though. It usually gives him some leverage to carry some of Dana's stuff too.

The Adventure Underground

So, yesterday in Waitomo, NZ, Scott and I decided to go on an underground caving adventure in the water called the Black Labyrinth. It was a 3 hour tour, most of it under the ground, spent floating on a river in a cave in a wetsuit, with a helmet and a headlamp on. We saw serene caverns with tons of glow worms, turned off all of our headlights and floated down a pitch black stream, and traveresed underground. It was great fun. More info here: http://www.waitomo.com/cave-tubing.aspx

That night, we decided to grab dinner at 8pm, not realizing that everything in the small town of Waitomo had closed. We eventually drove about 15 kilometers to another bigger village and managed to get some Chinese takeout. Who knew?

We're in Auckland today and leaving to Phillippines via Bangkok tomorrow. Until then....

Fiji

We've been in New Zealand a couple days now. But before I start talking about Tui's and glow worms, I have a few thoughts about Fiji.

FIJI CONT'D

The islands are beautiful. The people are nice everywhere and are quick to greet you with a Bula. There are fancy resorts everywhere, but we arrived at the beginning of the tourist season and there weren't too many people around. Drew and Liss are impressively resourceful. Getting to their island takes no less than 4 hours, a long bus ride, and a boat ride across what could be some very rough water. Ask the poor kid who threw up on the way home.

The restaurants are a risky proposition. I get the feeling that what you order depends less on the picture next to it than what they have in the fridge. For example, a kabob place we went to served their kabobs in hot dog buns instead of pitas (no thanks), completely ran out of shawarma (darn) -- although it was supposed to come with pita, so Drew, Liss, and I opted for what we thought was the safest thing on the menu -- the club sandwich. It was mostly a fried egg and chicken salad (mayo, cucumber, and the ligaments of some poor stringy chicken). Not exactly like the chicken burger I had at a pub last night in Rotorua. Whoa, that thing was divine.

Tanned and relaxed, Dana and I would go back to Fiji. It's a little rougher of an island spot than any I've been to. It's a bit third world - the houses are mostly built by hand by the inhabitant in land they don't necessarily own. But the villages and family's are closer knit and more inter-dependent than I've ever seen. It truly is a learning experience.

By the way, the night we spent in Suva we spent a few dollars to go to Spiderman 3. Don't bother. Even with the exchange rate, it's not worth it. I think there may have been a scene with a shark and a ramp. Here's hoping Pirates of the Caribbean 3 is better and playing in English somewhere in the Phillippines.

Photos From Fiji

Hawaii 5 ohhhhh

This is a brief post before we re-publish with the pictures we've taken recently. We're currently in Suva, Fiji. After leaving Southern CA, we went to Maui to celebrate Randy and Kristy's wedding. Congrats! It was an extremely gorgeous, fun wedding. Pictures to come. Including pictures of all of the groomsmen, the groom, and the bridesmaids, as well as some guests in the pool at the end of the evening. Woohooo!

After that we headed to Fiji with Drew and Melissa to see the village they have been living in for the last two years as part of the Peace Corps. Despite the pictures we'd seen and the descriptions we'd heard, we weren't prepared for the beauty of the island or the warm generosity of the people living in Lomanikaya (on Vatulele). We didn't realize that this is a rather exclusive island. You can only enter if you're staying at the fancy-schmancy $1000/night resort, or as a guest of the village. We had a welcoming ceremony with the chief and some villagers where they wished us a warm welcome over kava, their traditional drink. The conditions are primitive: no running water and sporadic electricity. Sporadic meaning that there are 9 month stretches with no electricity. But, the experience was amazing. We're so proud of Drew and Liss.

After a choppy boat ride back to the mainland, we're in Suva today. We've all taken hot (!!!) showers, eaten a solid Indian lunch and are gearing up to go to a Brew pub and then a movie this evening. It's Saturday night and Scott's itching (as in mosquito bites) to see Spiderman 3. On a tangent, I counted 20 mosquito bites on my right arm today. Bummer.


This week we'll be at Pacific Harbor in Fiji, then heading to New Zealand. The plan is to go North to the Bay of Islands. We'll add more to this post and add pictures soon, but we wanted to just put something up since we know some of you are wanting to hear from us.


We miss you all so much!