Israel in a Nutshell

Jerusalem's Old City with the Mount of Olives in the background

Sara's Top 3:
Old City Jerusalem
Bethlehem
Experiencing Rosh Hashanah in Jerusalem

David's Top 3:
Jerusalem's Old City
Bethlehem and the West Bank
People watching (especially at the Western Wall and along the Via Dolorosa)

Impressions:  Without a doubt, Israel is one of the most interesting places in the world.  As such a holy place for three of the world's major religions, Israel certainly attracts fervent followers.  We met a lot of really good people in Israel and the West Bank, but we also witnessed a lot of tension and conflict.  It was sad to see so much tension, armed security, and animosity in a land that is so holy to so many.

Food:  The food in Israel was delicious!  We arrived during pumpkin season and enjoyed several different pumpkin salads.  We were pleasantly surprised to realize that the ever-present hummus in Jordan was also in Israel!

Accommodation:  One of our best decisions was staying at Abraham Hostel in Jerusalem.  We spent eight nights there, and it really made a difference staying at a place that we liked so much.  The price was great and the location along Jaffa Street couldn’t have been better.  We were only a 15 minute walk from the Jaffa Gate of the Old City, a 30 minute walk from the Israel Museum, and a short tram ride from Yad Vashem.  We had a private room that was as nice as most of the hotels we had stayed in.  The hostel hosts weekly Shabbat dinners and also hosted a Rosh Hashanah dinner while we were there.  We were invited to help cook the meal before enjoying it with about 40 other guests at the hostel.  These were two of our favorite nights in Jerusalem!

Weather:  We were in Israel for just under two weeks in mid-September and the weather was great -- sunny cloudless skies most days and temperatures in the 80s, which felt very comfortable to us after the higher temperatures in Turkey and Jordan.

Itinerary:  We spent quite a bit of time looking online at companies that would help us with an Israel itinerary, but everything we found was way out of our budget near the end of our trip.  Instead, we decided instead to go it alone.  Renting cars and getting around by taxi can be extremely expensive, so we opted to base ourselves primarily in Jerusalem with a couple of days in Tel Aviv on the back end.  Basing ourselves in Jerusalem allowed us to explore the city and take short day trips.  Through Abraham Hostel we booked day trips to the Sea of Galilee and Masada.  We booked our day trip to Bethlehem through Murad Tours, and we both agree that it was an incredible day.

Getting Around:  We crossed into Israel at the Aqaba-Eilat border crossing.  The crossing itself was fairly straightforward (David had to wait 20 minutes on a bench for some extra background checks), but then we spent the rest of the day at the bus station waiting for a 5 pm Egged bus (Israel's largest bus company) to Jerusalem.  To travel from Jerusalem to Tel Aviv we took a sherut (shared taxi) that was really quick and easy.  Public transportation was a great way to get around Israel -- easy, inexpensive, and safe!

Religion:  Everywhere we went in Jerusalem seemed to relate to either the Jewish, Muslim, or Christian faiths. On one of our first nights in the city we learned about Jerusalem Syndrome characterized by religious-themed obsessions or delusions triggered by visiting Jerusalem (there is debate over its validity).  Jerusalem is the most religiously intense place that we have ever visited.

Military:  National military service, three years for men and two years for women, is mandatory for men and women over 18 years old in Israel.  We never really got used seeing men and women fresh out of high school dressed in military uniforms and carrying machine guns everywhere we went.

Safety:  We signed up for the State Department's STEP program during most of our trip in order to receive any safety alerts about places we traveled.  It wasn't until our first morning in Jerusalem, as we were getting ready to leave our hostel to explore the Old City, that we received our first advisory.  It called for extra caution in the Old City.  Although we did still spend that day in the Old City, we were definitely extra cautious and avoided areas with barricades and significant military presence.  On the surface Israel seemed very peaceful, but the huge military presence kept reminding us that we were in a very tense area.

Money:  We found Israel to be very expensive, especially when compared to Jordan.  The Israeli New Sheqel (NIS) is the currency.

Clothing:  With so many different cultures and religions in Israel, especially in Jerusalem, the clothing we saw ranged from the traditional, conservative clothing worn by Hasidic Jews to the Muslim burqa to Western-style clothing that you might see in any American city.  We stuck with conservative (for us) clothing so that we wouldn’t stand out.

Jordan in a Nutshell

The Jordanian flag

Sara's Top 3:
Wadi Rum desert
Petra
Floating in the Dead Sea

David's Top 3:
Petra
Wadi Rum
Bethany Beyond the Jordan

Impressions:  We loved Jordan!  We spent twelve days in the country, longer than most visitors, but there was plenty to see and do.  We were happy to be able to spend so much time time in the heart of the Middle East and to get a good taste of the region.   We felt completely safe the entire time and very welcome in the country. 

People:  The people in Jordan are fantastic, some of the friendliest and most welcoming that we met during all of our travels!  They love their country and love sharing their culture.  We particularly enjoyed meeting and spending time with the Bedouin during our time in the Wadi Rum desert.

Food:  The food was fantastic.  When we were in Turkey we were expecting to eat more hummus than we did.  In Jordan we made up for lost time.  Hummus was everywhere.  It was served with breakfast, lunch, and dinner.  Yum!  Bedouin tea, made with sage, cardamom, cinnamon, and/or wild thyme, and always lots of sugar, was another highlight.  

Weather:  We arrived in Jordan at the beginning of September.  The weather was warm during most of our stay, but it was a nice change from chilly nights in Africa and extremely hot days in Turkey.  We were told that September and October are the nicest (and most popular) months to travel to Jordan. 

Itinerary:  We started with three days in Madaba, and from there took day trips to Jerash, Amman, and several desert castles along the highway to the east toward Baghdad.  Then we visited Mt. Nebo, Bethany Beyond the Jordan, and the Dead Sea on our way to Petra for three nights.   After Petra, it was onward to Wadi Rum for three nights, and finally Aqaba on the Red Sea for two nights.  Jordan Tracks, a travel company in Wadi Rum owned by a local Bedouin, did a fabulous job helping us plan our itinerary.

Driving:  Renting a car in Jordan would not be too difficult except for Amman, where driving is not for the faint of heart.  We opted not to rent a car in Jordan, instead hiring local drivers to take us from one place to the next.  Hired drivers are very affordable, love telling about their country, and let us keep our eyes on the sights rather than the road.  We also passed through a couple of checkpoints that could have caused some confusion if we were driving ourselves.  David did enjoy driving around the desert in Wadi Rum though!

Religion:  Jordan is predominantly a Muslim country, with an indigenous Christian minority making up about 6% of the population.  Many of the Jordanian Christians live in Madaba, the first city that we visited.  We attended a service (in Arabic) at the Church of St. John the Baptist in Madaba and also enjoyed exploring the excavations underneath the church and taking in the views from the bell tower.  Islam is the state religion, but Jordan has laws that promote religious freedom in the country and there is little sectarian conflict.

Clothing:  Being a predominantly Muslim country, the majority of men and women dress conservatively.  Most women cover their heads, shoulders, and knees.  Christian women generally do not cover their heads but still dress conservatively.  Sara felt most comfortable wearing clothing that covered her shoulders and knees.  She did not cover her head except when entering a mosque.  David wore long pants during our visit.

Politics:  The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, as it is officially known, is a constitutional monarchy.  King Abdullah II is the chief executive and commander-in-chief of the armed forces.  We understand that the government is in the midst of implementing democratic reforms in response to the Arab Spring demonstrations and protests in the region.  After leaving Jordan we saw this interview of King Abduallah II on the Daily Show when he was in New York for the UN General Assembly.

Turkey in a Nutshell

Turkish lamps in the Grand Bazaar

Sara's Top 5:
Hot air balloon in Cappadocia

Bosphorus cruise in Istanbul

Ephesus
A day on the water in Kas

Dalyan

David's Top 5:
Bosphorus cruise
Hot air balloon in Cappadocia

Wandering the Old City of Istanbul

Ephesus/Sirince

The snow-white cliffs at Pamukkale

Impressions:  Turkey is amazing!  With an entire month we felt like we really got to experience a lot of different aspects of the country from the people and food to the nature to the ancient sites.  The smells, the sounds, the colors, and the tastes all make Turkey unique!  We loved that we could rent a car and have the freedom to get around on our own at our own pace. 

People:  We really enjoyed the local Turks that we met.  Drinking tea takes up a huge part of their day.  They do it often that it really tells you something about their culture -- they aren't a people who are generally in a rush.  Almost every street in Istanbul has a shop with short stools out front where you can stop for a glass of tea.  Many people do throughout the day.

Food:  The food in Turkey was a highlight of the month!  We had so much fun trying all of the different dishes, but the things we ate time and time again were tomatoes, cucumbers, olives, cheese, eggplant, bread, and haydari.  One thing we were expecting to see more of was hummus.  At the majority of restaurants it wasn’t even on the menu.  Haydari, a cucumber and yogurt dip, was the staple instead.  Good thing we loved the haydari!   (As we write this we are in Jordan and Israel enjoying hummus with almost every meal – we weren’t expecting so much of it here).  Tea is another staple in Turkey and by the end of our month in the country our meals didn't feel complete without at least one glass!  The nargile is another staple in Turkey.  Our visit would not have been complete without giving it a try with Charles and Christie on our first night in Turkey.

Weather: We arrived in Istanbul at the beginning of July and the weather was perfect!  It was sunny and 80 °F during the day and just a bit cool at night.  After several days in Istanbul we flew to Cappadocia and the weather was nice there, too.  After Cappadocia we headed south and it got hot!  So hot that we were cheering when the car thermometer hit 115 °F!  In Antalya and Kas the best way to keep cool was on the water, and that is just what we did.  

Trans-Siberian/Trans-Mongolian in a Nutshell

Sara's Top 4:

GerCamp

Listvyanka to Ekaterinburg leg
LakeBaikal

Moscow

David's Top 4:
Ger Camp

LakeBaikal

RedSqaure and the Kremlin

Watching the passing scenery from the train

Impressions:  We both loved our journey on the Trans-Mongolian and Trans-Siberian!  I had been a bit worried about the tight quarters, bathrooms, etc., but it was really comfortable (especially compared to the India trains)!  The time flew by on the train.  Between watching the scenery, reading, meeting new friends, eating, and sleeping, we were always surprised by how quickly the legs went by.  We met a few people who weren’t making very many stop.  They told us that the train got very tiring after more than two nights, which is easy to imagine!  The key for us was stopping every one to two days.  After just a few days off the train we were usually excited to get back aboard.

People: 

Mongolia – There was a huge change from the Chinese people to the Mongolians.  Although similar in stature, the Mongolians' complexions were much darker and they had the rosiest cheeks!  They reminded us very much of the Nepalese people we met while hiking to Everest Base Camp.  The Mongolians we met were soft-spoken and friendly.  They seemed to be very happy.  For such a huge country we were really surprised to learn that Mongolia only has about 3 million people (that's less than half as many as Hong Kong).

Russia – There was another huge change from Mongolia to Russia.  For the first time on our trip we were stopped multiple times and asked for directions as if we were locals.  Finally we had found ‘our people’ -- very tall and very light complexions.  We had heard about the Russians' steely eyes (e.g., Vladimir Putin), and it turns out that was the truth.  Steely eyes and few smiles masked the generosity and kindness of many of the Russians we met, especially in Siberia.    

Food: 

On the train – There was a dining car on all but one of the trains we took.  In China and Mongolia it was fairly inexpensive, so we visited quite often.  Once we got into Russia the prices went up, so we tended to find food elsewhere.  The train made stops fairly frequently, often for 15 minutes or more.  This gave us time to stretch our legs and grab some food.  There was usually fresh fruit and pierogi on the platforms.  Luckily our tickets for the longest leg of our journey -- from Lake Baikal to Ekaterinburg -- came with one hot meal each day, either lunch or dinner, which was delivered to our cabin. 

Mongolia – While we loved the people and the landscape in Mongolia, the food wasn’t our favorite.  Mutton is the staple meat, and we ate it at almost every meal while in the country.  There wasn’t much variety in the side dishes either.  We ate a combination of root vegetables with almost every meal.  Mongolian salt tea is also very distinct – a milk tea with a very salty taste.  It is an acquired taste.  

Russia – The food was excellent in Russia!  Our favorites were borsch, Beef Stroganoff, dumplings, and pierogi.  We did try some excellent Russian vodka, but it turns out that beer, especially among the younger generation, is the drink of choice.  Sparkling mineral water is the non-alcoholic drink of choice.  Everywhere we went fizzy water was served rather than still water.  We even went into several grocery stores that didn't even have still water.  Fizzy water grew on us by the end of our journey, but we sure did miss still water.      

China in a Nutshell

A very flexible Chinese man at Temple of Heaven Park in Beijing

Sara's Top 4:
Hiking the Great Wall
Biking in Yangshuo
Shanghai
Cruising the Yangtze

David's Top 4
Hiking the Great Wall
Shows in Yangshuo and Beijing
Eating Peking Duck
Exploring the neighborhoods of Shanghai

I have been putting off writing this China in a Nutshell post for quite awhile.  In China we saw and experienced one reality, heard about another from locals, and then saw an entirely different one being presented by the media.  A few weeks ago my sister sent me a link to a broadcast of This American Life about Americans living in China. I listened to it last week and it finally gave me the motivation to sort through my thoughts and write this post. 

~Sara

Impressions:  China is complicated.  We were surrounded by beautiful scenery, interesting culture, and some wonderful people.  It would have been easy to just chalk China up as a fantastic place to visit.  Yet we knew that we were in a country with serious civil rights issues including no government transparency, no freedom of speech, censorship, and a strict one-child policy, just to name a few.  But if we focused only on those negatives, we would have missed much of the beauty that China has to offer.  The real China has large doses of both the beauty and the repression.

People:  We had nice talks with a few locals who were very eager to tell us their views on life in China.  We also met some Belgians who had worked in Shanghai for three years.  We heard some really interesting things that gave us a bit of insight. 

A Chinese man in his 50's:

• China is 100 years behind the US.
• The Chinese government is a feudal system.
• It will be at least 20 years before the one-child policy is loosened for anyone living in cities.
• Our President is an emperor and he lives in the new Forbidden City (referring to Zhongnanhai, the headquarters of the Communist Party of China and official residence of the President).
• It is an open secret who our next President will be.

A Chinese woman in her 20's:

• It is difficult to be accepted at a university due to a lack of space and the education system needs to be improved.  
• Housing is extremely expensive and this is causing a real problem for young people who want to buy houses.
• China is 40 years behind the US.

A Belgian couple in their 50's who lived in Shanghai for 3 years:

• Young people who graduate from universities in Shanghai must have jobs immediately after graduating or they will sent back to the villages where they are from.
• A woman at my office was pregnant with her second child and was forced to have an abortion.  Our employer gave her a two-week paid vacation for the procedure, but she was very upset.

The Chinese people as a general rule are very nice and friendly, but there certainly is a language barrier that often makes in depth communication difficult.  We also found missing some of the social norms that we take for granted back home.  Littering is rampant.  Cutting in line, taboo at home, is accepted in China.  We often found ourselves physically blocking others from cutting in front.  We also found people a little "pushy" getting off subways, even before arriving at a station.  Another especially dangerous example of this phenomenon is the driving in China.  Chinese drivers in Shanghai and Beijing routinely run red lights, and we absolutely could not count on a car to yield to pedestrians.  We did not find out an explanation for these observations, but with such a large population, perhaps people find it necessary to be a little "assertive" in order to get ahead.

Food:  Delicious!  After the amazing food in Hong Kong, we weren't expecting to enjoy the food in China as much as we did. The vegetables were fresh and varied in every dish and the seasonings and sauces were excellent.  The high point was a fabulous Peking duck dinner with a friend of David's from law school who lives in Beijing.  Other highlights were braised aubergine (eggplant), dumplings, and stir fry dishes. The food is also cheap (Peking duck excepted) -- think typical meals between $2 and $10 for two people.

Some crazy things we saw:  It isn't as if we haven't seen crazy things everywhere we have visited, but we just seemed to seem them a lot more often in China.  Below are a few that we won't forget:

• Everyone spits (and smokes) everywhere in China.  The worst we saw was a woman spitting directly on the floor inside the Yichang airport.  Yuck!  As if the spitting wasn't enough, just before the spit comes a few seconds of a throat-clearing, hacking noise.  As soon as we would hear the noise, we would both quickly look around in all directions to make sure we weren't about to be spit upon accidentally.
• In our opinion, the baby bottoms in China are all missing a critical piece: the crotch!  Some of the babies wear diapers that stick out the crotchless section, but most have nothing covering their bottoms.  The reason for this is simple: parents frequently take their children to the bathroom in public by holding them over a gutter and encouraging them to go.  Not wearing a diaper and having crotchless pants certainly makes the job easy!
• Grown men wearing silk pajamas out on the streets was a common sight in China and another one that we will probably never get used to!
• Visiting China is a good way to feel like a celebrity!  Many times on most days we would look around to find camera lens pointed right at us.  At a lookout at the Longji rice terraces we had a group of Chinese men turned (their backs to the view) with cameras mounted on tripods and long lenses trained on us.  It took a bit of getting used to, but it wasn't long before we just used this as a chance to start singing "Papparazzi."
  
  

Hong Kong in a Nutshell

The MTR in Hong Kong

Sara’s Top Four:

Junk Boat in the Victoria Harbor

Happy Valley Racecourse

Dragon’s Back Trail

Dim Sum

David’s Top Four:

Junk Boat in the Victoria Harbor

Happy Valley Racecourse

Dragon’s Back Trail

Crazy markets in Kowloon

Impressions:  Hong Kong is fantastic!  Renting an apartment for two weeks in the city (the longest we have stayed anywhere) made it even better.  It felt like we had our own place again, which was a treat.  Add to that an amazing city with so much to do and the chance to meet up with friends and it isn’t hard to see why we fell in love with Hong Kong.  

Food:  We did an entire post on dim sum in Hong Kong.  The food is fabulous in the city and there is an amazing variety.  From Asian foods to Western foods, very inexpensive to very expensive foods, HK has it all.  At the end of our stay, we both agreed that the food in HK is a big reason that it is such a great city.

Getting Around:  The HK metro system (the MTR) is excellent -- extensive, easy to use, and inexpensive.   On our first weekend, our friends Hannah and Dave recommended that we pick up an Octopus card rather than purchasing single-use tickets on the subway and needing exact change for buses and trams.  Wow!  What a difference a plastic card can make.  Rather than wasting time in line buying tickets and shuffling for exact change (or overpaying), we just tapped a card on a sensor.  Supermarkets and some restaurants even accepted the Octopus card for payment.  We were able to get reimbursed for any leftover value at the airport as we were leaving.  Very highly recommended for anyone going to HK! 

People:  It only took a day or so in Hong Kong before we noticed a really interesting phenomenon -- people walk really, really slowly.  For such a big and international city we were expecting to see people moving closer to the pace of New York or London.  Part of this can be attributed to the rampant texting (or gaming) while walking.  HK definitely is an international city -- the groups of expats from every country imaginable was staggering.  We saw more Americans, Canadians, and Brits than we had seen in months.  There is also a very large Filipino population in Hong Kong, most of whom serve as "helpers" in Hong Kong households.  Most of these helpers had Sundays off, which meant that as we walked around the city on Sundays we saw groups of mostly Filipino women sitting in parks, along sidewalks, under bridges, outside of buildings -- really anywhere that they could find a place in the shade -- talking, playing cards, and eating.

Where to Stay:   Because we knew we would be spending a few weeks in Hong Kong, we decided to use airbnb.com to rent an apartment.  We found a very well-priced apartment in the Sheung Wan neighborhood of Hong Kong Island.  We liked Sheung Wan.  It was very local while being less than a 10 minute walk from some bustling areas and not much farther to the Central-Mid-levels escalators. Before our trip we had to decide between staying on Hong Kong Island or across the harbor in Kowloon.  We would have been happy in either place, but we're glad we chose Hong Kong Island.  The hilly areas and diverse neighborhoods were fun to walk around, which is how we spent a lot of our time.  The metro and ferries make it very easy to get between the two.

Sri Lanka in a nutshell

Better late than never!!!

Our driver, Indika, and his family

Sara's Top Three
Galkadawala
Mandira Dickoya
Adam's Peak

David's Top Three
Sigiriya
Mandira Dickoya
Adam's Peak

Impressions:  We loved Sri Lanka!  It might be Sara's new favorite country.  The people were wonderful, the food was delicious, the weather was great, there was so much to do, and there weren't too many tourists.  It really is worth a visit.

Food:  The food was delicious.  We ate Sri Lankan food for almost every meal every day.  Several of the places we stayed had chefs who would fix us their favorite specialties.  Our favorites were hoppas (regular, string, and egg hoppas), vegetable curries, red rice, coconut salads, egg custard, milk rice, and of course tea!

Religion:  The majority of the people in the country are Sinhalese Buddhists.  The Tamils, a large ethnic minority from India, are Hindus.  There also are significant Muslim and Christian minorities.  We visited some quaint Christian churches from when Sri Lanka was a British colony.

Weather:  The weather in Sri Lanka varies quite a bit from one part of the island to the next.  The coastal areas and low lying areas such as Anuradhapura and Habarana are very warm, similar to SE Asia.  Kandy is cooler (think no AC needed at night)  because it is closer to the hills and Dickoya was even cooler being located in the Hill Country.

Money: $1 USD = 130 Sri Lankan Rupees.  Prices were low in Sri Lankan and our dollars went pretty far.

Transportation:  A few people recommended to us that hiring a car and driver was the easiest and most comfortable way to get around Sri Lanka.  We'd have to agree!  We had two different drivers.  Both were great with excellent English and they often served as guides showing us around sites.  They were also able to tell us a lot bout Sri Lanka, which was great.  We even had the chance to spend an afternoon with our second  driver, Indika, and his family at their home drinking tea  and playing with his son and niece.  A great afternoon!  We did meet several people who got around just fine on local trains and buses, so that is definitely another (and cheaper) option, but with everything we wanted to see and do we needed a car and driver.

Clothing: Lightweight, conservative clothing in the low lying areas.  Pants and a light sweater in the hill country.  A warm jacket, hat, and gloves at Adam's Peak.

Accommodation:  The accommodation is fairly inexpensive in Sri Lanka so with our budget we were still able to stay in some great places.  Staying in the jungle at Galadawala was a highlight for Sara and staying on a tea plantation at Mandira Dickoya was a highlight for David.

Politics:  Sri Lanka is only a few years out of a civil war that lasted for thirty years and caused a lot of damage to the country and the tourism industry.  The war was fought between the Hindu Tamils (ethnic Indians) and the Sri Lankan government.

Internet:  The Internet wasn't easy to find in Sri Lanka.  A few places where we stayed had wi-fi in the lobby, but for the most part we weren't online during our week in Sri Lanka. 

Planning a trip:  We used a local travel agency recommended by a friend to help us plan our trip.  The travel agency was Red Dot Tours and we highly recommend them.  They were easy to work with, very responsive, and they helped us put together a great itinerary that allowed us to do everything we wanted in just one week.

Someday when we are back:  We met some travelers in Sri Lamka and they all offered tips of more great places to go in the country.  A few we might like to try are: Yala National Park, Jaffna and Delft (wild horses) in northern Sri Lanka, and Marissa for the beach.

Southeast Asia in a Nutshell

The senior woman in a small community along the Mekong River in Laos

This post is very long, but during our time in Southeast Asia we recorded a lot of our thoughts and wanted to capture them in one general "In a Nutshell" post.  The first bit is about Southeast Asia in general.  After the jump we divide it out by country.

Sara and David's Top Picks (they turned out to be the same):
Luang Prabang, Laos
Hoi An, Vietnam
Angkor Wat, Cambodia
Slow Boat in Laos

In general:  We loved Southeast Asia!  Great people, beautiful countries, and fabulous food!  Very easy to get around.  English was spoken almost everywhere, even in coutnries where we expected that we might have trouble.  There is virtually no language barrier.

Food: Fantastic!  Taking cooking classes was an excellent way to learn more about the food, the Hoi An Foodie Tour was great, and our home dinners were really memorable.  Eating the local food was absolutely the way to go for us and truly turned out to be one of the highlights of our visit!  We had no stomach problems even though we ate plenty of clean-looking street food in addition to hawker stalls and restaurants.  Trip Advisor often pointed us in the right direction of great places to eat.

Money:  For the most part things were very inexpensive.  However, we were reminded by a tour guide that the restaurants are created for tourists (especially in some of the smaller areas) and so it isn't always as cheap as you might expect.  But, in our opinion, still a great deal.  Especially after New Zealand and Australia!

People: The people were great in Southeast Asia - friendly, helpful, and very welcoming for the most part.

Accommodation:  We stayed mainly at hotels in Southeast Asia.  The majority of these were booked through G Adventures and were comfortable, clean, and well-located, which is how we judge a good hotel.  There seem to be places thrughout Souteast Asia to fit any budget and any preference.  From hostels to homestays to five-star hotels (except in the small towns).  Something for everyone!    

Shopping/Bargaining: There is great shopping to be done and good deals to be had.  In most places bargaining is acceptable and even expected, especially in local markets.  We purchased very few things that we didn't bargain for.  The haggling became a bit of a game sometimes and we just had fun with it!

Internet: Everywhere and fast enough for chats on Skype (which is important for us)!  We had wi-fi in our hotels in most places we stayed, but anywhere that we didn't have internet we could find it very close by.

Laundry:  Very easy to get done for a reasonable price.   Often offered at the places we stayed, but we typically tried to find a shop close by, which was usually half the price.  Either way, for a bag full of clothes it was usually only $3 or $4.

G Adventures/Group Tours:  There were really good things about taking a group tour in Southeast Asia and other things that weren't as good.  The good outweighed the bad, so we'd definitely do it again.  We saw so many things without having to do all of the planning, which would have been very difficult  and time-consuming while traveling in other countries.  We also traveled with fun and interesting people and made friends that we hope to stay in touch with in the future.  The downside of the group tour that we were less able to get lost, explore, and just discover things on our own.  That is a highlight of travel in our eyes, so we certainly missed that for the month.

Australia in a Nutshell

A view of the Outback from our airplane

Sara's Top Three:
Melbourne - Australian Open
Sailing the Whitsundays and GBR/scuba
The Great Ocean Road Trip

David's Top Three:
Tennis at Rod Laver Arena
Sailing the Great Barrier Reef
The Barossa Valley

Wildlife
The number of animals in Australia, specifically deadly animals, is insane. There are animals from the water, the air, and the land that can and will kill you. Some are smaller than your thumb while others are more than 17 feet long. After New Zealand where nothing can kill you, this was quite a shock to the system. We saw ants, bats, lots of birds, a cassowary, dolphins, echidnas, eastern quolls, tons of fish, frogs, kangaroos, koalas, lizards, sea turtles, sharks, spiders, stingrays, a starfish, Tasmanian devils, toads, wallabies, and wombats - and probably plenty of others that we are forgetting. We have had our fill of wildlife for a while!

Transportation
 Like NZ, we did a lot of driving in Australia - it is a fabulous way to see this vast country. We rented three cars, one in Tasmania, one in Melbourne for the drive to Adelaide, and another in Queensland. I didn't expect we could drive more miles that we had in NZ, but we did by almost double. We drove a total of about 3,868 km (about 1,000 in Tasmania, 1,141 to Adelaide, and 1,727 in Queensland). We filled up our cars at least nine time at an average of AUS$60 per tank - less than NZ by just a bit. The cars we rented in Melbourne and Queensland didn't have cruise control, and and we regretted that. In NZ the road is so curvy that we rarely would have used cruise control. Australian roads are very different with long stretches of very straight and very flat roads when cruise control would have really come in handy. No speeding tickets!

Sleeping
8 nights in YHA hostels (which we were very impressed with), 8 nights in hotels, 2 nights in a beach house, and 3 nights on a boat. Due to the crowds for the Australian Open, we booked our stay in Melbourne a few months ago. Christie and Jay took care of booking all of our accommodation in Tasmania, which was awesome! Other than those bookings, we had no problems at all just booking everything else along the way. We found several places the day of and others a week or so prior.

Security and Safety
Other than being harmed by an animal, I felt completely safe during our entire stay in Australia. Flying from Melbourne to Tasmania and back, none of us had our IDs checked. Our boarding passes were checked, but we weren't once asked for an ID or passport - crazy! Gas stations here still let you pay after pumping your gas - seems like a small detail, but somehow every time we got gas, which was a lot, I took notice of this and realized Australians are a bit more trusting of each other than we are in Atlanta.

Eating
Even with the strong AUS$, we found food to be a bit less expensive in Australian than it had been in New Zealand. This was noticeable in both restaurants and grocery stores. We continued with our trend of breakfasts and lunches "in" whenever possible, meaning that we ate a lot of breakfasts of granola and yogurt (a new staple) that we purchased from grocery stores, as well as many PB&J sandwiches with fresh fruit. We did introduce some hummus, bread, cheese, and tomatoes to the mix, which felt very refined after our simpler meals. Our dinners were mostly eaten out and our favorite was Thai, which is great as we head to Thailand in a few days! Alcohol was outrageously expensive -- $40 for two 6-packs at a package store. This meant we didn't drink too much . . . but what we did drink, specifically in the Barossa Valley, was excellent! The quest to eat a bit healthier succeeded somewhat, although for a week or so Sara developed a bad habit of needing a Crunchie candy bar every day. A Crunchie is a delicious honeycomb wrapped in melt-in-your-mouth milk chocolate -- seriously good. (David says, tastes like cardboard)

Landscape and Climate
Tasmania was similar to New Zealand in some ways. Lots of trees and mountains. It seemed dry but but not too dry. It is a harsh place. The parts of Victoria that we saw were Melbourne and the coastline, and it definitely didn't seem too dry in those areas at all. South Australia is extremely flat and extremely dry - the driest state on the driest continent in the world. We definitely saw that on our drive. Queensland was green and lush along the coast and in the rainforest. Driving in Queensland we saw tons of crops - the most common being sugar cane.

To-Do
There is so much to do in Australia!! There are information sites in most major towns, which we used some, but they were not nearly as helpful as the ones in NZ.

Phone
At the airport in Melbourne we picked up a SIM card for our unlocked phone from Optus. It was less expensive than the card in NZ and came with ten times more minutes -- a good deal.

Internet
Free internet was a lot more common in Australia than it was in NZ. Oftentimes our hotels had free Internet or we could get online at a cafe or library. Towards the end of our time in AUS we also learned that McDonalds has free wi-fi, which we ended up using twice. Not bad! We were limited to the iPad because David's computer failed soon after we arrived in Australia. That has complicated things. He is hoping to replace the hard drive and recover files and email in Singapore.

Clothing
Other than Tasmania where long pants were needed at night, Australia was hot!!! We wore a lot of sunscreen and hats and tried to stay as cool as possible, which wasn't always easy. The places we stayed (including the boat) had A/C so that was a huge treat. Everyone we saw seemed to dress very casually, even in cities. Like NZ, shoes were optional. It was common to see people barefooted in grocery stores and even in some restaurants.

Time
There are six states and one territory in Australia and they seem to all be on a different time. Many of the time zones are 30 minutes apart, which seemed odd. Thanks to the radio for letting us know that we had just gained 30 minutes entering into South Australia from Victoria. The most confusing was flying east from Adelaide to Cairns when we gained half an hour and were suddenly behind both Adelaide and Melbourne even though we were east of both of them. Apparently Queensland does not participate in daylight savings. The confusion was made worse when the clock in our rental car from Cairns was off by an hour. We spent the majority of an afternoon with no idea of the time. We just knew we were within an hour or two of 2 pm. Good thing we had nowhere we needed to be!

Locals
Awesome!! Australians are great. They have a wonderful sense of humor and always have a smile on their faces. They are very welcoming and are happy to show off their great country.

Spelling
This stuck out to us on both of our trips to Australia. When a local is either spelling something for you or telling you a number they say "double" or "triple" instead of saying the letter or number twice. For example Woolloomooloo is "w, double o, double l, double o, m, double o, l, double o." This does have a bit of a song-like quality when coming from the mouth of a local, but it meant we needed to ask for it to be repeated about five times before we could get it right.

Phrases
Some of the phrases we heard the most were "How you going?;" "Good on you;" and "G'day mate."

Guide Book
Lonely Planet redeemed itself. We liked our guidebook - "Lonely Planet Australia."

Still to do
Drive from Darwin to Ayers Rock; explore the outback; Perth and the West Coast!

New Zealand in a nutshell

Sheep in New Zealand

A short (well, not really) New Zealand overview.  Beyond just listing our top three favorite things, this is a compilation of things that we learned while traveling around NZ.

David’s Top Three:
Waitomo Caves
Routeburn Track and Milford Sound
Bungy!

Sara’s Top Three:
Rail Trail
Tongariro AlpineCrossing/Routeburn Track (tie!)
Arrowtown

Transportation
We rented a car for our entire 22 days (loved Apex car rentals) and drove more than 2,000 km.  We figure that is at least 25 hours in the car, probably more.  That gave us plenty of time to enjoy the beautiful scenery, read about NZ, play games, and write some blog posts.  Gas is expensive - about $2.10 NZD per liter (about $6.35 per gallon), which meant about $75 to fill up the tank.

For us, having a car was absolutely the best way to see NZ!  The driving is really easy (even on the left side).  All we needed was a few road maps and we were set.  There just aren't too many roads here, and there aren't too many cars either.  Almost all of the roads outside of the big cities are two-lane, and many bridges are one-lane.

When planning our NZ leg, we really considered renting a campervan, which is really common here.  It only took a day or so before we both agreed that a campervan would have gotten tiring really quickly for us.