Sunrise in Dallas

How appropriate since my trip started with a sunset there. The pict was taken as I was running to my gate with minutes to spare. I'm now all sweaty. Guess it'll wash off all the crust I accumulated from the trails. OK time to switch off phone. See you all soon.

Adios Iguazu

Guess I´m all ready to go. I just took my first long stroll in town for last minute purchases until the heat, more like the humidity, became unbearable. The fan in the picture has become my best friend since arriving in this small hotel. Can´t say I´ll have the same view from my computer at home. Anyway my taxi to the airport should arrive in about 15 min so I better get off and just chill for a while. Hopefully there are no strikes today. Adios

The last supper

I can´t believe this is my 2nd to last day in South America. Where has time gone?!??! :( As such I didn´t waste a minute of my time today. After gulping down one of the best breakfast I´ve had in a long time, I caught a bus to the National Park on the Argentinian side. I was told it would be more spectacular and I wasn´t deceived one bit. The Brazilian side offers a panoramic view but the Argentinian side plunges you right in it. Since I had seen the falls from the ground and the air, the last alternative was to see it from the water. Little did I know I would get soaked to the bones. They literarily bring you near the devils throat. It felt as if someone was throwing buckets of water at you. Of course I was wearing khaki pants because I decided to save on weight on my treks and left my shorts at home. Oh...and I was too cheap to buy new ones for the ride. No worries though my pants dried in a few minutes because of the intense heat since I´ve been here. Lets not even talk about the humidity. Never experienced anything like it. I guess there´s a reason for the tropical forest around here.

I took a few more shots of the Devils throat or Garganta del Diablo as it´s known here. The sheer amount of water coming down is just unbelievable. I´m told it makes the Niagara Falls look like a trickle. Guess I´ll have to check it out one day. I took tons of pictures as usual and hopefully one of them will do a good job at capturing the immensity of it all. Fingers crossed.
I know I´ve been complaining about eating too much meat but I couldn´t resist going back to yesterday´s restaurant and indulge in a thick juicy fleshy piece of meat yet again. That has to be the best restaurant I´ ve been in Argentina thus far. And all this for just US$17.00.

OK now you might ask yourselves why do I have a picture of a toilet bowl in this blog. Venture a guess? Again the scientist in me has always wondered if flushing the toilet in the southern hemisphere would result in the water swirling the other way. All truth be told having some object in the water at the time of flushing makes a world of difference in visualizing this physical phenomenon. I thought I´d spare you on the ¨object¨. :) Do notice my ¨original flip flops¨ from Brazil though.

Well tomorrow is my travel day. I´m flying back to Buenos Aires and then to California. I´ll send a last update if possible. Good night all.

For Molly

Today there were no Koreans, no French, no Italians & no Chinese to share my dinner with. Just a litter of cute kittens begging for a piece of my bife de chorizo, a thick and juicy sirloin steak that's very popular in Argentina. This blog is for poor Molly (our kitty) who's been hurting with a urinary track infection lately. Good night all. Hope to get at least 8 hours of sleep tonight. Man what a luxuary that would be. :)

This IS Iguazu!

Just a quick note that I got here in one piece despite having slept only a few hours in the past 2 days. Story of my life on this trip. I´ll need a vacation from my vacation. I just returned from Brazil where I saw the the Iguazu falls from the ground and .......from the air!!! I had my first helicopter ride ever. And to do it over the falls left me speechless. Not sure if I was more excited about the helicopter ride itself or the beauty of the falls. I´ll have to think about that one. OK gotta get off ´cause people want to use this machine. I´ll write more later if I can. Ciao...

This is NOT Iguazu!

Altough it may look and sound the same, on a much smaller scale, it is instead the faucet at El Calafate airport where I spent most of my day on Friday. My airline had the great idea to go on strike that day. And the icing on the cake was the cancelation of my morning flight to Buenos Aires. Drama was everywhere, women crying (sorry didn´t spot any guys), and one girl was hyperventilating. That silenced the whole crowd around her very quick. But we suspect she faked it to get attention and get bumped up on the waiting list that existed at the time. Airline representatives went from speaking English fluently one sec, to having a brain fart the next and claiming they did not speak english. Of course they make sure to tell you that in perfect English. Calling the airlines directly was useless. The recording would tell you to wait (after going through a maze of options of course), and then you´d get promptly disconnected. The scientist in me tried it a few times to ensure consistency in this procedure.
You couldn´t sit at a table in the airport unless you bought a beverage or food of some sort. Oh and using a public phone is nearly impossible as it requires coins. The stores at the airport don´t like to part from their coins so it was a treasure hunt just to get these metallic things. But one positive outcome to this whole mess was that I got reunited with Liang and Susan who were also affected by the strike.
To make a long story short, the airline shuttle me back into town and put me up in a 4 star hotel in El Calafate. While there I ran into these two characters who were standing in line at the Aerolineas Argentinas counter downtown to figure out their flights. Again I´m amazed of how easy it is to run into anyone in this country. The timing is just incredible. We managed to spend a few hours together until I was wisked away back to the airport (the strike had only lasted for 8 hours) to catch a later flight (12 hours late mind you). Oh and of course by that time I had missed my connection to Iguazu.
El Calafate´s airport was total chaos. It was as if all the tourists in town had decided to converge in this small hallway to catch the remaining flights of the day. A small group of passengers and I united together as a group to grab the last few seats out that day.
In the end, I arrived at 1:30am into Buenos Aires whereI spent the night on the marble floor of the airport holding dearly to all my posessions. I like to sleep in a hard bed but this was a bit over the top. I got up at 4 am to be the first at the ticket counter to get a new one issued for Iguazu. Luck was finally on my side and I got a flight out of Buenos Aires to Iguazu.

The French

Can´t say that the bird refuge was that exciting unless getting bombarded is your idea of fun. But the highlight of my evening was someone tapping on my shoulder as I settled down for dinner. Turned out to be this French couple, Frank & Christelle, I had met about 2 weeks ago in Ushuaia. If you recall from a previous post, Frank was the photographer who cleaned my lens. As all travelers do we exchanged all our horror stories over a rather tasty meal. Yes it did include meat again! But I didn´t mind because it was great to have company instead of dining by my lonesome. But now, as usual, it´s late again and I have to get ready early in the morning to catch my flight to Iguazu. See you then.

The Koreans

And so I waved good bye to my Chinese duo and boarded the bus to El Calafate. The great thing about Argentina is that you're always sure to run into someone you've already met on a leg of your trip. You're effectively never alone. And so I did at the rest stop midway between El Chalten and Calafate. I had the pleasure to spend a bit more time with Yongho, the super young Korean lawyer, and his wife over a couple of empenadas, a doughy pastry filled with meat. They were the young Korean couple we met on the Big Ice excursion on the Perito Morino Glacier. They stood out then because of the girly pink punchos they wore to shield them from the unpredictable Patagonian weather (I have the greatest candid picture of these two). But what had more of an impact is the fact that while we all brought a sandwich of questionable taste, these guys had bento boxes with sushi and all. I was just drooling of envy. Eating too much meat does this to you after a while.

Well with an afternoon to spare I'm going to visit this lake near here which I'm told is a refuge for many species of birds (i.e. flamingos, etc.)

So long Fitz Roy

Today I start the last leg of this journey on my own and leave Liang and Susan behind. I´m heading back to El Calafate on a bus at 1pm where I´ll stay there for one last night to catch my flight to Iguazu the following day. They, on the other hand, will stay here another night and continue exploring the surrounding area. I wish them good luck with the winds we`re experiencing this morning. The winds are so strong that the roof over my head is breathing in and out. And that´s no small roof!

For those wondering, I slept like a baby and let my travel mates go on their early hike to capture the sunrise over Fitz Roy. They woke up at 5:30am and got there an hour early where they almost froze to death waiting for the sun to make a late appearance. How Susan managed to get up so early remains a mystery to me. I could tell she was exhausted when she started talking to me exclusively in Chinese and for a brief moment couldn´t mentally switch back to English. To make matters worse the sun did not cast any beautiful orange like colors like those we captured at Torres del Paine. Win some lose some I guess. The mountains remind me so much of Tintin in Peru that I always expect to run into him and his little dog Milou on one of those long winded trails.

All right time to split. Ciao

El Chalten

I have the privilege of typing this blog on a prehistoric computer where every key stroke takes about 1 minute before it pops on the screen. At least there´s a coffee bar down below me so I can run and have a cappucino after each paragraph. So don´t be too suprised if things don´t make sense after my 3rd cup.

I´m afraid today´s blog will not include any pictures because

1.) They won´t give me the key to their wireless network so I can´t upload a picture from my iPhone
2.) They haven´t been introduced to USB ports in this country yet so I can´t download pictures from my regular camera either.

But enough with the technical talk.

We caught a bus to El Chalten this morning at 7:15 am and got there around noon. Worth mentioning was a bus stop in this historical hotel for a peepee stop and snacks. Turns out Butch Cassidy et. al. made a ¨technical¨stop there way back when after robbing some bank. I had no idea these guys had made it so far south. I wonder if they had a chance to taste the same delicious coffee and banana bread I had. Nah...probably not.

Anyway we settled down in our hostel and hunted a travel agency to confirm our next domestic flights. If you thought customer service sucked in the US then please come visit Argentina and you´ll have a total new perspective on things. Patience is of the essence. And god knows I can have a short fuse. But being on vacation I found it rather entertaining. More details when I return.

Today was suppose to be an easy treck where we had decided to check Mont Fitz Roy. What was suppose to be a ¨short¨hike turned into a 20 km ordeal!!!! Poor Liang was sandbaging and Susan was so tired that she tripped on some root and fell over. No harm down, just a few scratches on the pricey camera dangling on her neck. Oh and my chicken legs are still doing fine but my feet are starting to feel the last 110-105km we´ve done in the past 8 days. Sorry for you Americans but I thought km sounded much worse than me quoting a number in miles.

It´s now 12:45am and my travel mates are probably sound asleep for a short hike tomorrow morning at 6am to catch the sunrise over Fitz Roy. Personally I think I`ll catch it in my dreams and recoup a bit. :) But I´m sure they´ll pull me out of bed.. :(

On this note time for a shower because I must really stink and I should hopefuly be able to blog from El Calafate where the internet .....well still sucks ass. Otherwise it´ll be from Iguazu Falls the following day.

Good nite all and sorry for the lack of photos today. I will definitely post a comprehensive set of pictures when I return in the U.S. I´ve taken some 950 so far so I´ll have a lot of work to get it down to a more decent number.

PS: I just read all your comments and really laughed my arse out. Please be aware that no penguins were harmed on this trip. Can´t say the same about our intestinal tracks for eating so much meat though. :) But....I had a salad and pasta today and it was heaven!!

Perito Moreno

Prior to this feast we finally visited the mighty glacier Perito Moreno. Of course this consisted waking up at some ungodly hour once again to get there from El Calafate. But we were not disappointed.... Ok gotta stop. Too many people talking to me and I have to catch yet another bus in 10 min. Story of my life lately. Would have sent an update earlier but the Internet has been spotty here and my phone ran out of batteries. OK off to El Chalten. More time to blog later perhaps.

A few minutes later ....

... and three very hungry people.

Eat your heart out

Just in case you were wondering what we're eating and drinking right this moment. ;)

Back from Chile

After 47 miles of hiking, a lost passport (found soon thereafter), a broken bus at the border, a guide with the most foul BO, a longer beard and a few bottles of Chilean wine, we're back to El Calafate in Argentina. Our journey through Torres del Paine National Park was just breath taking. And the W trail was harder than any trail I've ever been on thus far. Perhaps the fact that I had a ton of bricks strapped to my back contributed to it a bit. But I'm happy to say that those chicken legs of mine held up and that the gear I bought was worth every penny. On the other hand, how I managed not to be swept away by the fierce Patagonian winds is still a mystery to me. Not so light after all perhaps. ;)

But fear not I took quite a bit of (real) pictures with my Nikon D200 and this one, from my iPhone, is just the tip of the iceberg. The colors were just amazing. I hope I was able to capture the intensity of the place. One thing that was a tad disappointing though was the lack of animals in the mountains where we happened to spend the majority of our time. All the ones we saw were at the entrance of the park in those vast wind swept lonely plains. At least I managed to get a few good shots of some. Condors even!

A great aspect of the trip has been all the people we've met so far. Be it sharing a room, walking on the trail or having a good laugh around a bottle of wine. I've collected so many email addresses that I hope I'll be able to hold my end of the bargain and share some of the pictures that were asked of me. I even got an invitation from the most organized Italian couple ever, who offered me to stay at their home for the next F1 race in Monza, Italy. Thanks Sergio!! :) I guess I'll have to wait for my return to the U.S. to relate all the stories from the past 5 days as it can be quite tedious to type on this phone of mine.

Tomorrow is Perito Moreno where we get to climb on a glacier with crampons and all. Should be a memorable experience. I hear you get offered a shot of whiskey with ice from the glacier at the end of the trek. A bit corny but yet when you think some of that ice is over 1000 years old it's quite trippy. OK signing off and again I appologize for the crappy formatting.

Breakfast of champions

After roughly 2.5 hours of sleep a quick breakfast at 5:30am before catching our bus to Chile. This may be our last blog for a while. Ciao.

Rainy El Calafate

Despite appearances these two are very much alive!! We landed in El Calafate about 2 hours ago in rainy conditions. :) Maybe I jinxed myself in an earlier post.

Anyway I tried adding pictures to my last post but our internet access in the hostel is terrible. Took me 10 minutes to access Gmail and another 20 to lose all the work I had done to my blog. Hope no one heard me when I yelled out F@CK outloud. So you guys we'll have to stick to my last post done via iPhone. Problem is formating gets all screwed up. Oh well.

So now we find ourselves in a restaurant where they have speedy WiFi. Man do I love this iPhone. :)

I'm afraid I expect spotty, if not non existent Internet access for the next 5 days. We're crossing the border to Chile early in the morning to start our long journey in Torres del Paine. So no it won't be that we're ignoring you guys. OK better get back to all the dead animal meat in front of me. :) Ciao for now!!!!

Tierra del Fuego National Park

Our day started quite late today (11am), partly due to the late evening we had with our roommates of the day. I suspect the few bottles of fine Mendoza wine had something to do with it too. ;)

We caught a bus to Tierra del Fuego National Park which was just a short ride from our hostel. And one pound of dust in our lungs later we reached the starting point of our hike. You see paved roads are a bit of a luxuary so white dusty roads are quite the norm around here.

The "Costera Trail" bordered the shoreline of Lapataia Bay where on the right side was Argentina and on the other the Chilian Andes. My little chicken legs made it thru the 5 miles of evergreen beech and winter's bark forrest minus our heavy bagpacks which we had conveniently left at the hostel. Will our legs fair as well with the heavier bags? Stay tuned for our 5 day treck of Torres del Paine.

We're now inhaling our 2nd pound of dust (I'm writing this on the bus) and heading back in town (Ushuaia) to catch our flight to El Calafate. If all goes well we should depart at 7:15pm and arrive there at 8:25pm.

Time permitting I'll post more pictures to this post if I get near a PC. Later...

The three sisters

The night ended as usual with tons of wine being consumed. As an added bonus we shared those bottles with the Lado's sisters who happen to share the room with us. OK I better stop blogging before I make no sense at all. Good night all.

Penguin steaks

Today was definitely more rewarding than the last. Instead of chasing travel agencies for our ticket out of Ushuaia we did a small excursion to see tons of penguins on this little island called Isla Martillo in Canal de Beagle. The day started with a ride in a minibus with some 15 other folks. It was quite cramped and cozy to say the least but at least it was an invitation to mingle and talk with your neighbor. For once the French outnumbered the Chinese by one. :) We met this French couple, Franck and Christelle (sorry if I´m butchering your name guys) who had some really kick ass photo equipment. Thanks again for cleaning my lens Franck!

Once we arrived to the docking area where our boat was waiting, we were whisked away to Isla Martillo to meet our little feathery friends. These things were so damn cute you couldn´t help but want to sneak one in your bag to bring back home. As it turns out the tour company that took us there is the only one allowed by law to bring people on the island. They can only shuttle 15 people at a time and 45 people max per day. As for us we were asked to keep a safe distance of 2 meters so as to not disturb them.

After spending close to 1.5 hours mingling with the little creatures we had lunch waiting at a restaurant near the docking area where we indulged in the local delicacy: meat, meat and more meat. Penguin meat was the best by far and we all agreed it tasted like chicken. But my personal favorite since we´ve been here is chimichurri. OMG this thing is to die for. It´s the local salsa. This thing is so delicious that I had the cook come out of the kitchen and explain how it´s made. He was so proud that he sneaked back in the kitchen and brought me back a bottle full of it. Now Liang is in charge to bring it back for me because I´m so afraid it´ll open in my bag. The deal is that I cook him a dinner when we return so we can use our special sauce.

The trip back was pretty uneventful otherwise. Just a long ride back with all of us nodding off. At least trying to since it wasn´t the most comfortable seats. Liang and Susan had no problems doing so. Those Chinese are build tough for sure.

One thing I miss since I left is a good cappuccino. So I had to drag Liang and Susan in a cafe to satisfy my withdrawal. They had the local drink instead called mate. It´s an infusion made of leaves of the yerba plant grown in Corrientes and Misiones. I´ll stick to coffee thank you very much. Ta ta for now.....

Good morning Ushuaia!

Getting some well needed energy in our bellies for the long day ahead. Luckily we managed to get 7 hours of sleep despite one of the 3 British birds sharing our room having nasal issues. Can't blame Liang this time around. Off we go...

Looooooooonnng day

We have to do something about those late night outs and eat at a more reasonable hour. We´re even worst than the locals. Would you believe they turned us away at midnight for dinner. I mean come on! :) Problem is you have no concept of time because of jet lag and the fact that the sun sets around 11pm or so. And what a sunset it is. The shadows are absolutely amazing. There´s so much contrast that it´s a real photographers dream. The iPhone does it no justice of course so I´ll post the real stuff when I return. By the way this is the view from our room.

Tomorrow we head out to Martillo, a town about 1.5 hours east from where we´re staying. Then it´s a boat ride to visit a penguin colony (Gentoo Penguins & Magellanic Penguins). It should be an amazing experience for sure. Lets hope the weather continues to cooperate. So far it´s been quite mild and comfortable. Hope I didn´t buy all this gear for nothing. :)

It´s now 1:15 am and Liang & Susan are getting ready to hit the sack so I better do the same and catch a few Zzzzzzzs. Good night everyone.

Extra Extra

We're now all flying to El Calafate on Wednesday evening and will absorb the cost of Liang's bus ticket which we bought earlier. Surprise surprise it is of course non-refundable. US$60 went POOF just like that. No Mendoza wine tonight.

Just off the record flying sounds much more appealing than 18 hours straight on the bus.

Oh and in case you were wondering Argentina as a wealth of WiFi at every corner. :) Yes I know ..... Nerd!

Three travel agencies later

As luck has it we ended up with a single bus ticket after all. The other got sold while we were in the last travel agency. Liang was the lucky winner, meaning Susan and I are still stuck!! They only have buses out of town every other day. Our option now is to catch a flight to our next destination and fly over Liang's bus. A real race!

In the mean time we decided to chill and taste the local delicacy: fresh King Crab. Time to stop blogging before I put crab smudges all over.

Frustration

This would be frustration captured electronically. We have now missed our shuttle twice to a national park near here because we're stuck at a travel agency to get our bus tickets for Wednesday out of Ushuaia. They appear to have only 2 left. So we're negociating a deal to have
Liang travel in the trunk with all the luggage. Stay tuned. :(

Toto we're not in Kansas anymore.

Just a quick update before we catch a bus to a national park to let you know that we're at the end of the world!

More details to follow tonight.

Swallowed a whole cow

After what feels like eating a whole cow it's now time to rest for a whole 30 minutes before our respective taxis picks us up!!!! Yes our flight to Ushuaia, the southern most city in the world as they say, happens to be at 5:30am. Seems that sleep is optional on this trip. Just so you know it's now 2:30am and it takes 45 min to get to the international airport. Good night all.

Don't cry for me Argentina

After a long day trecking around the city we decided if was time to return to our hostel and recharge our batteries. Perhaps a bad idea for Mr Chen is starting to have some flatulence issues. Not a good idea when you are in a dorm style situation. At least Susan is below him and not above him. We all know about the properties of hot gases. No more meat for him.

Our first stop of the day was Cementario de la Recoleta where we paid homage to Evita Perón. I tried not to cry for her. The cemetery was quite a maze and her grave was not even mentioned on any of the maps provided to us. Strange I thought she was quite a big icon here.

Our next taxi ride took us to colorful la Boca where we had our first choripan ( a fat sausage trapped between two pieces of bread). There went at least 3 days of hard work at the gym. At this rate, Liang and I will be able to share clothes by the end of the trip. :(

Tango dancers dot the streets and I was able to get really cool candid shots. I'll share those later as all the pictures posted on this blog are from my iPhone only.

Then Susan suggested we visit the stadium where Maradona made a name for himself. In the end, I'll remember it more for the obstacle course to get there. You see dogs are free to roam the city. And with that you better stay quite vigilant of where you step. It's like Paris in the 70's all over again.

All right I better take a nap and have a snoring competition with Liang and Susan who are already sound asleep. Dinner doesn't start until 10pm or so. Ciao.

Hola Buenos Aires!

In case you were all wondering I got here in one piece. The scariest part to my final destination happened to be the taxi ride to the hostel. Stop signs are non existant at intersections. So you just take a leap of faith and go through them blindly. I could've sworn I saw my driver cross himself at the busier intersections.

With that said I just found Liang drinking his own piss in one of the hamacs provided by the hostel. Must of been some night the day before. In fact I had to wake up Susan who was still completely passed out in her own bed at 1:30pm. Just had a shower and I'm ready to hit the town.

Keep on posting your comments. They're fun to read. Next stop la Boca!

Sunset in Dallas

Made it to Dallas ahead of schedule. Next stop Buenos Aires. Got word from Liang that they finally made it to the hostel after some 36 hours of travel time. In the end they won't see much more than me since I'm only 24 hours behind now.

Nothing worth reporting from the arm pit of America otherwise. Sorry you Texans. The landscape is still as flat as the flightdeck of an aircraft carrier.

On this note I'm signing off from gate D22 at DFW to prepare for boarding. Let the fun begin!!!

Hello stranger!

After an unevenful ride to the airport I finally made it to my seat (24F) for my flight to Dallas. Actually I wouldn't call it that uneventful. Look who I ran into at the airport. Yes, that would be Maureen, Fiona' mom. How lovely!!
Cheerio time to switch my iPhone off.

First post via iPhone

OK so I'm wasting time instead of hitting the sack. I just had to know if I can post my blogs with my phone. For sh*ts and giggles I'm posting some random picture of some dude (perhaps you can venture a guess as to the identity of this lad) and his bitch. OK all packed and to bed I go. Night night.

To Shave or not to Shave...

...that is the question I'm posing myself right now. You see every little ounce I can shave off, no pun intended, from my backpack will be greatly appreciated on those long trails in Patagonia. So again here's the question: When I return and I leave my shaver home, do I want to look like Jorn Barger (if you paid attention from my last post then you'd know who he is), or do I want to look like this guy? Tough one....

All that aside I've managed to gather all the stuff I want to carry with me. Now the difficult part, how in the world do I fit all that stuff in there???? The good thing is that I have a 70 l backpack whereas Liang as a 80 liter one. So considering he only wants to bring one pair of socks, and hopefully more underwear (God help us), I can always stuff things in his if it gets to heavy. That guy is strong as a bull. :)


I know it's hard to tell what I'm bringing but I thought one of the more interesting items was one recommended from my mom who was nice enough to make a list for me. I didn't realize until I went to the drugstore and read "Imodium caca" on that post it. I was laughing my ass off all the way to the aisle. One has to love a nurturing mother even after all these years. So mom rest assure, I won't leave a trail behind.


BTW, I just got a message from Liang and Susan about two hours ago informing me that their flight had been delayed by 10 hours!!! They left ahead of me yesterday night. Not sure if it's the one out of San Francisco or their connecting flight in Mexico City. The message was a bit cryptic so no clue. Guess I'll find out soon enough. Oh and for the record here's a picture of my traveling companions for the next two weeks. They were sampling Mendoza wines a few days back to make sure it tastes the same at the source.

What's a Blog?

Blog....what's a blog anyway? My dad has a funny way of pronouncing it. He calls it "Beelog". Well according to Wikipedia:

The term "weblog" was coined by Jorn Barger on 17 December 1997. The short form, "blog," was coined by Peter Merholz, who jokingly broke the word weblog into the phrase we blog in the sidebar of his blog Peterme.com in April or May of 1999. This was quickly adopted as both a noun and verb ("to blog," meaning "to edit one's weblog or to post to one's weblog").

Anyway, I'm writing this blog to chronicle our adventures in South America which will take us at the very end of the world. Literally. I just hope we don't fall over. What if the earth really is flat!!! Only one way to find out. But for now it's back to reality and me having to fight with some server at work that just won't cooperate with me. :( Can't wait to board that plane.

PS: BTW my other two travel companions are Liang and Susan. I'll be sure to post a picture tomorrow in case you're not familiar with these two characters.