After Just 1.5 Years, I Have My Visa

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June 18th, 2010

I’m very excited to announce that I finally have my Swiss visa!  It has been a long journey with many bumps in the road but it is finally over.  I will be attending ETH Zürich as a graduate student in Computer Science starting in the fall.

I am looking forward to being able to relax and settle down for a little while and no longer having to leave the Schengen area for 3 out of every 6 months!

Easter in Paris

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April 21st, 2010

Emily and I were lucky enough to spent a long weekend in Paris for Easter this year.  This was my third time in Paris and by far my favorite.  I’m think I’m starting to see what all the hype is about.  Here is a rundown of our trip:

Friday - We arrive in Paris in the evening (via plane).  We are staying at our friend Claire’s apartment, which is near the Jourdain metro stop.  Claire and her fiance are on vacation in the Dominican Republic and generously offered to let us use their apartment while they were away.  It is a great way for us to see a new part of Paris and get more of a local experience.  After we dropped off our bags at the apartment, we had an amazing dinner at Le Coude Fou (Thanks for the tip, Nikolai!).  After dinner we took a stroll around Notre Dame – a great start to the trip.

Saturday - We started the day with a run in the park by Claire’s apartment.  Then we went into the city to play tourist.  We started with a great lunch at a random brasserie; we had two French classics – les moules (mussels)  & french onion soup.  Delicious!  Then we went up to Sacré Cœur,  walked around Montmarte, and ended up by Moulin Rouge.  We bought some wine, cheese, and a baguette on the way back to the apartment.  After a little nap, we had a nice dinner at local place – L’Escargot.  We woke up at 3am to watch the big NCAA tournament game (online) – Duke vs. West Virginia.  Duke won (yes!) and, luckily, Emily is still speaking to me after the game.

Easter Sunday – We had a non-traditional Easter brunch of delicious pastries from a local boulangerie.  We spent the morning walking around the Left Bank to the Luxembourg Gardens.  Then we took a metro to the “chinatown” area where we got some Vietnamese food – pho, a vietnamese sandwich, and steamed bun (not exactly a standard Easter meal).  We passed the afternoon having a drink at one of the many outdoor cafes and then watched the sunset by the Louvre.  We finished the day by going back to Le Coude Fou for dinner again (try the goat cheese salad!) for yet another amazing meal.

Monday -  Claire returned from her vacation and we had breakfast with her before heading to our hotel.  After walking around so much the past few days and seeing all the tourist sights, we were ready for a day of relaxation.  Emily got some sushi then I tried to go to famous falafel place, L’As du Falafel,  but it unfortunately was closed.  I ended up getting a kebab instead.  We finished the day with a little picnic (a baguette and a beer) by the Pont Notre Dame.

Tuesday - Emily went to work in the Ebay Paris office.  I went for a run through Paris, past the Opera House and along the Seine, and then it was time for me to head back to the airport (Emily flew back the next day).  It was a great weekend, and I have to admit that Paris is definitely starting to grow on me.

See all our Paris pictures on Flickr

2009 Travel Summary

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February 17th, 2010

2009 was a record-breaking year for me travel-wise.  Besides moving to Switzerland, and partially due to my visa troubles there, I traveled more last year than ever before in my life (including the year that Emily and I did our around-the-world trip).  Here are the stats:

• Number of Countries Visited: 15
  • USA, Switzerland, Lichtenstein, Norway, Czech Republic, France, Spain, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands, Denmark, UK, Qatar, Thailand, Laos
• Number of US States Visited: 9
  • CA, WA, VA, NY, NC, PA, WV, IN, IL
• Number of Trips: 21
• Number of Flight Segments: 46
• Number of Miles Flown: 71,359
  
• Number of Airlines Flown: 14
  
  • Aer Lingus, All Nippon Airways, American Airlines, Austrian Airlines, Continental, Czech Airlines, Delta, Lufthansa, Qatar Airways, SAS, Spanair, Swiss, United, US Airways
• Number of Trans-Atlantic Flights: 9
  
• Number of Trans-Pacific Flights: 1

Previous Years:  2008, 2007

An Inadvertent Around-the-World Trip

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January 13th, 2010

Without meaning to, I have just completed my second trip around the world.  That’s right, I unintentionally circled the globe in 2009.  Let me explain.

I was in the USA over the summer, then I flew back to Zurich for the fall, with a stopover in Ireland on the way back.  Over Christmas, I went to Thailand for vacation with a stopover in Qatar on the way.  Then, because I had accidentally overstayed my visa in Switzerland, I couldn’t use the return leg of my Zurich->Bangkok flight.  Instead, I bought a new ticket back to the USA.  Since I was in Asia, the shortest way to get to the USA, especially the west coast, was to fly over the Pacific Ocean.  And with that flight, my RTW trip was complete.

Here is the summary:  Seattle -> Chicago -> Dublin -> Zurich -> Doha -> Bangkok -> Tokyo -> Seattle

3.5 Weeks in Thailand and Laos – Part 2

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January 13th, 2010

Continued from 3.5 Weeks in Thailand and Laos – Part 1

Koh Phangan, Thailand

From Bangkok we traveled the cheap, backpacker way and took the overnight bus to a ferry to get to Koh Phangan. The bus was surprisingly comfortable and we both were able to get some sleep. This 12ish hour journey only cost 600 baht each (~$18).

In Koh Phangan, we went back to Haad Rin, where we had been 4 years earlier on our RTW trip. For people that know Emily and I, this may seem like a surprising choice since Haad Rin is best known for its crazy full moon parties on the beach. We weren’t there for the parties, it was just nice to go back to someplace familiar; plus Koh Phangan has decent beaches, beautiful sunsets, and most importantly – delicious chicken schnitzel! We are both obsessed with these delicious non-Thai treats. Almost everyday we would go to “Mama’s Schnitzel” for lunch where we would get a chicken schnitzel sandwich and a fruit shake (coconut, pineapple, and orange). The sandwich is very basic – a bun with fried chicken, lettuce, tomato, cucumber, and sweet chili sauce – but it is amazingly delicious. I wish Mama Schnitzel would franchise and open up in the US/Switzerland!

Most of our time in Koh Phangan was spent relaxing on the beach or sharing a Chang beer while watching beautiful sunsets. We took one day trip to Koh Samui to extend my visa (apparently when you cross the border via car or train you only get a 15 day Thai visa as opposed to 30 days when you enter by plane…). We also took a longtail boat over to Hat Yao one afternoon, where I proposed to Emily. (She said yes!)

Koh Tao, Thailand

We took the short ferry from Koh Phangan to Koh Tao to get a change of scenery and to meet up with our friend CK. On Koh Tao, we headed to Hat Sairee and were lucky to find a good, cheap, basic bungalow right on the beach. Our first choice was all booked (as many places were since this was just a few days before Christmas) but they had room left at Crystal Dive Resort. Our bungalow was very basic – just a wooden shack with a bed, a fan, and a bathroom, but it was all that we needed and it was right on the beach.

In Koh Tao we met up with our friend CK and her friend Ty. (We had recently seen CK when we visited her in London a month earlier). CK and Ty stayed on a different beach than us, Mae Haad, but we met up with them everyday on the beach and for dinner.  It was a lot of fun to see some familiar faces and hang out with them.

Koh Tao is famous for its scuba diving. I did some dives here on the RTW trip back in 2005 and was excited to get back in the water. Since I hadn’t been diving since 2005, I decided to take the PADI refresher course at Seashell Divers. The refresher course consists of a brief classroom session (~30 minutes) and reviewing all of the 20 skills from the Open Water certification in the pool. I remembered how to do everything right away, but I felt more comfortable after taking the refresher course. The next two mornings I went on double dives, so I did 4 dives total. The first day we dove Green Rock followed by White Rock. Green Rock has some nice swim-throughs but is otherwise rather disappointing. White Rock has a lot more diversity of fish and coral, and I really enjoyed that dive. The next day, which happened to be Christmas Eve, we went out to Chumphon Pinnacle first, where I had an amazing dive. We saw at least 8 bull sharks that were each 6-8 feet long. Even besides the sharks, there were lots of other stuff to see including huge schools of fish and tons of sea anemones. This was by far the best dive of the trip. My final dive was back at Green Rock and was nice and long but otherwise unmemorable.

We spent Christmas on the beach in Koh Tao.  It felt very strange to be away from home and in 90 degree weather for xmas, but at least there were enough tourists and expats that we saw lots of Santa hats and heard some Christmas carols playing.  On Christmas morning, Emily and I filled stockings for each other, mostly with cheap Thai trinkets.  We both put a lychee instead of the traditional orange at the end of the stocking (well, traditional in my family at least).

From Koh Tao, we took another ferry and overnight bus back to Bangkok.  We only had a day in Bangkok before we had to head back to the airport where Emily flew back to Zurich and I flew to the USA (I couldn’t go back to Switzerland due to the visa issues).  Overall, it was an amazing trip.  It felt like we were gone forever.  Long enough to forget which day of the week it is, which I think is the sign of a good vacation.  Now it is back to reality…

All Thailand photos on Flickr

3.5 Weeks in Thailand and Laos – Part 1

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January 13th, 2010

After my visa issues and stopover in Doha, it was on to Southeast Asia for 3 and a half weeks.  I feel very fortunate to be able to say that this is not the longest vacation I have ever taken (3rd longest, I think).  I spent 3 days in Laos and the rest of the time in Thailand.  This was my 3rd time visiting Thailand – its combination of beautiful beaches, great food, friendly people, and cheap prices makes it one of my favorite countries in the world.

Vientiane, Laos

I arrived in Bangkok on December 6th with one night reserved in Bangkok and no other set plans.  I was on my own until Emily arrived five days later on December 11th.  I decided to do a quick trip to Vientiane since Laos was the one place in SE Asia that I had still not been to yet, and I wanted to check it out.

To get to Vientiane you can either take an overnight bus, overnight train, or fly.  I chose the overnight train from Bangkok to Nong Khai, followed by a quick train across the Friendship Bridge into Laos.  Unfortunately, I made the bad decision to go 2nd class on the way there.  The bed was fine but they left the lights on all night long so I didn’t get any sleep at all.  So when I arrived, I was suffering from some serious “trainlag”.

Maybe it was due to my sleeping schedule being off or maybe because I got sick while I was there (cold), but Vientiane didn’t really impress me.  I stayed in a cheap guesthouse near the river, or rather, near the riverbed.  The Mekong river was extremely low (I assume just because of the season?) and it only filled about a third of the total riverbed.  So instead of eating dinner overlooking the water, I had a rather unspectacular view of dirt.  The food in Vientiane, however, wasn’t bad and was dirt cheap.  I really enjoyed the chicken laap, a traditional Lao dish.  Laap, or larb, is minced meat mixed with a lot of herbs and chilis and usually served with sticky rice.

I did get out and do some sightseeing in Vientiane one day.  I took a tuk-tuk/jumbo to the Patuxai monument and then walked back from there.  [Side note - negotiating with tuk-tuks is much more difficult in Laos than in Thailand because they are run like a cartel - the driver must get the price approved by the leader of the group before he can leave.]  Patuxai, or “Victory Gate”, is Vientiane’s Arc de Triumphe.  There is a funny story behind it; the US government gave Laos concrete to build a new airport in the 60s but the Laos government used it to build this monument instead, which is why it is often referred to as the “Vertical Runway”.  After Patuxai, I also stopped by the Talat Sao market and the That Dam stupa.

Pictures from Laos on Flickr

Bangkok, Thailand

Emily and I met up in Bangkok, after she flew in from Zürich and I took the train back from Laos (1st class this time).  We stayed in a guesthouse on Soi Rambutti, just off of the main backpacker strip of Khao San road.  We had been there on our around-the-world trip so we were already familiar with the area.  It is a bit crowded and chaotic there which was fun for a couple days, but then we were both ready to get out of Bangkok and down to the islands.

We did manage to get away from Khaosan road a couple times.  One night we took a tuk-tuk to the flower market, and another night we went to Chinatown and ate dinner at T&K Seafood, which had been recommended to us by a friend.   We ate outside on the crowded sidewalk and had a great meal.  I had the crab curry and Emily tried the sweet chili fish.  Both were great.  Emily also ate a couple of the biggest oysters I have ever seen in my life.  Even after cutting them in half, they were still enormous.

Continue to 3.5 Weeks in Thailand and Laos – Part 2

All Thailand photos on Flickr

Quick Stopover in Doha, Qatar

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January 3rd, 2010

On my way from Zürich to Bangkok (about a month ago), I managed to fit in a short stopover in Doha to visit my friend Josh Weiner and his wife, Stephanie.  I wanted to stay longer but the best I could arrange was to arrive at 6:30pm and leave at 8:00am the next morning.  When I booked the trip, I didn’t realize that Saturday night in Qatar is like our Sunday night since the weekend is Friday/Saturday instead of Saturday/Sunday.  Oops.  Even though it was a very short visit, it was still great to get the chance to see a new country and catch up with old friends.

Josh and Stephanie picked me up at the airport and took me to the old Souk, where we got an amazing dinner of Lebanese food at Le Gourmet.  Then they drove me through downtown Doha and past all of the Qatar foundation buildings, where Stephanie works.  Afterwards, we went back to their villa and had a couple drinks on the balcony.  The drinking laws are very strange in Qatar – as I understand it, only hotels are allowed to sell alcohol and only expats and tourists can buy it.  And expats must get a special license to buy alcohol to drink at home too.  They obviously have a very different attitude toward alcohol in Qatar than in the USA or Europe (or anywhere else I’ve ever been).

In many ways Doha reminded me of Dubai – lots of huge highrises, everything under construction, and surrounded by desert (plus both are Arabic speaking, Muslim countries).  Like Dubai, Doha seems like a booming city with lots of money.  Qatar is one of the wealthiest countries in the world, but I was surprised to learn that they get most of their money from natural gas, not oil.  I was also surprised to learn that there is no income tax in Qatar.

Although almost everything in Doha is new and modern, much of the city still feels rather temporary or unfinished.  For example, the villa where Josh and Stephanie live is very nice but there is no paved road to get to it (and no plans to ever pave it).  After turning off the main road, you have to drive offroad on the dirt to get to the building.  Also, I heard that it is a common practice in Doha to tear down relatively new buildings (1-2 years old) to make room for new construction.

The traffic is crazy in Doha.  They have the biggest, scariest roundabouts I have ever seen in my life.  Seriously, we are talking about 4 to 8 lanes of cars, nobody paying any attention to lane markers, and people diving across all the lanes to exit from the innermost lane.  Crazy.

Finally, I was surprised to see so many US and western companies in Doha.  I saw far more international chain restaurants and retail stores in Doha than in Zürich.  I even saw some smaller chains such as The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf in addition to the bigger ones you may more likely expect like Dunkin Donuts.

Pictures from Doha on Flickr

Even More Visa Issues

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December 31st, 2009

[After a nice, long vacation in Thailand, I am back in the USA. I've been putting off writing this blog post both because I was upset when it first happened and because I just wanted to relax on the beach for awhile before dealing with it again. But now the time has come to revisit this issue and catch up on lots of blog posts.]

Unfortunately, the great Swiss visa saga of 2009 continues.  When I was leaving Switzerland on December 5th to go to Thailand, I was stopped at passport control.  I was prepared for this inevitable event with a detailed spreadsheet of all of my travels for the year to show that I have stayed within the legal limits of my tourist visa by only staying in Switzerland for 90 days out of 180.  Unfortunately, although I had been careful to follow the rules, I had been given bad advice by a Swiss lawyer so my accounting was inaccurate.  The actual rule is that I can stay 90 days out of 180 in ALL SCHENGEN AGREEMENT COUNTRIES, not just in Switzerland.  So even though I was in CH for less than 90 days, I had been in Schengen countries for 101 days, meaning I had overstayed my tourist visa by 11 days.  Doh!

So back to the passport control at the airport.  They noticed that I had overstayed my visa and sent me into a back office with another police officer.  They locked me in a large room with one older woman who was bawling and apologizing profusely for overstaying her visa by over 90 days.  I had to explain my situation to the (very nice) officer and fill out a form.  Then I had to pay a fine of about 250 CHF, but luckily since I was about to miss my flight, the officer accepted the 60 CHF that I had in my wallet as full payment.  Then I had to sign another form that basically said I acknowledge that Switzerland/Schengen area may deny me entry in the future because of this incident.  However, the officer said that since I had only a minor violation that this would probably not be an issue for me.  So let’s all keep our fingers crossed that I am not permanently banned from Europe…

Copenhagen & London

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November 24th, 2009

Just 24 hours after we had returned from Berlin, I went back to the airport and left for Copenhagen and London.  Emily had to go to London for work, and since I am currently unemployed, I decided to tag along.  I used up some of my frequent flier miles to get an (almost) free flight.  Since I was using a reward ticket, I couldn’t get a direct flight and had to connect in Copenhagen.  And since I had never been to Copenhagen, I decided to stop there for a free 24 hour layover on the way to London.

Copenhagen, Denmark

I only had one day to explore Copenhagen so I obviously couldn’t see or do everything.  I stayed in a hotel just south of the train station and spent the majority of the day walking from there all the way across town up to the Little Mermaid statue and back.  I really liked all of the pedestrian areas in the city center, especially Strøget which is supposedly the longest pedestrian street in the world.  Copenhagen also seemed very bike friendly, and I thought the bike infrastructure was even better than Amsterdam (although I admittedly didn’t ride a bike in either city).  One other thing that I noticed was the city’s obsession with climate change (it was hard to miss).  There were exhibits in the airport and all over the city about climate change.  After I left I found out that the UN Climate Change Conference was taking place in Copenhagen a few weeks after I left.

Unfortunately, though, it was not the ideal time to visit Denmark.  The weather was cold and lightly raining the whole time I was there.  Also, the Tivoli Gardens were closed (they reopened with Xmas lights a week later), the quaint Nyhavn harbor was deserted, and the sun set at 4 pm.  After visiting Norway when there was still snow on the ground in March and Copenhagen when it was cold and rainy in November, I’m going to implement a new policy of only visiting Scandinavia in the summer from now on.  Lesson learned.

Pictures from Copenhagen on Flickr

London, UK

From Copenhagen I flew to London and met Emily there.  We spent the first night in Richmond, near her office, and then spent the next 2 nights at a friend’s apartment near Earl’s Court.  CK somehow managed to be a great host and take us all over the city despite getting steadily more and more sick as the weekend progressed.  Thanks again, CK!

On Friday night we met up with some people on Carnaby Street, which was a part of London that I had never seen before.  The Christmas lights were already up and it seemed like a nice area.  We all ate dinner at Cha Cha Moon, which was very good and a similar style to Wagamamas.  On Saturday we went to the Borough Market, which was amazing.  It is probably my favorite place in London.  There is a ton of great food to eat there:  our favorites were the scallops, the raclette grilled cheese, fresh ravioli, and oysters (according to Emily).  The ribeye sandwich, chorizo sandwich, brownies, and turkish delight were also quite good (did I mention that we ate a lot that day?).  If anyone is ever visiting London, I would highly recommend the Borough Market.

Berlin: 20 Years After the Fall of the Wall

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November 21st, 2009

A couple of weeks ago Emily and I went to Berlin for the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall.  The wall fell on November 9th, 1989; I was only 8 years old at the time so I don’t really remember much from when it happened.  This trip to Berlin was very interesting and educational for me.  I felt like a bit of an ignorant American when I first got there, but I learned a lot about the history of Berlin and the significance of all of it.  Hopefully, I am now a slightly less ignorant American.

This was my first time visiting Berlin (Emily had been here once earlier this year).  On first impression, I really like the city.  It has a very artsy / creative / alternative vibe which I really enjoyed.  I think it might have reminded me of San Francisco in some ways.  I was somewhat surprised by how big of a city Berlin is (probably felt even bigger coming from Zürich), but it was easy to get around with the U-Bahn and our budding German skills.  While we were there, we played tourist and saw most of the famous sites of the city including the Brandenburg Gate, Checkpoint Charlie, Deutscher Reichstag (German Parliament), Berlin Cathedral, TV Tower, and the Holocaust memorial.

We met up with a few of our friends from Zürich while we were in Berlin too.  It was actually our friend Mieke who gave us the idea to come to Berlin in the first place.  We also went out to dinner one night with Katrin and Toby, who gave us the insider tips on Berlin.  Finally, we were lucky enough to stay with our friend Nikolai and his girlfriend, who are both Russian.  I know this might sound a bit cheesy, but I do think there is something symbolic about two Americans staying with two Russians for the celebration of the fall of the Berlin Wall.  Nikolai and Marina were really amazing hosts, and I hope that they make it to Zürich sometime soon so we can return the favor.

The big celebration for the fall of the wall (20 Jahre Mauerfall) was on Monday night, November 9th.  They had set up 1000 giant dominos along 1.5 km of where the wall used to stand.  This actually made it somewhat difficult to get around the city at times (although obviously nothing compared to what it used to be like 20+ years ago, so I can’t complain).  The ceremony took place at the Brandenburg Gate, but there were huge video monitors set up along the domino wall.  We ended up watching from a spot between Potsdamer Platz and the Brandenburg Gate.  Unfortunately, the weather did not cooperate that night.  It was raining most of the time, which made it difficult to see past all the umbrellas.  There were speeches from the leaders of Germany, Russia, France, Great Britain, and the USA (Hillary Clinton, plus Obama via satellite).  There were also some musical performances including Bon Jovi, which seemed a bit strange to me.  But after dragging it out as long as possible, they finally knocked over all of the dominoes and symbolically knocked down the wall for a second time.  They even had some fireworks to finish it off.  It was a neat experience and I’m glad that I went.

Random fact – You can tell you when you are in East Berlin by the pedestrian crossing lights at intersections.  The “Ampelmann” is very distinct and much different than any other city I have ever visited.

Berlin pics on Flickr