the guggenheim

tonight i was determined to get out of the house and visit a museum. my attempts to visit moma yesterday were thwarted by planning for my husbands birthday party. tonight we rested from the after party and finally made our way up to the upper east side. i love living in new york. museums. theater. fall. now just to take advantage of it all.

visiting the guggenheim today was a wonderful step at taking advantage of new york. on saturday nights going to the guggenheim is by donation so we always spare a few bucks, borrow the free headsets and walk through the memorable spiral. tonight we couldn't be bothered by head sets. when you see these piece you would agree! maurizio cattelan had everything from foosball to taxedermy hanging from the ceiling. he made looking down into the spiral the main attraction.

the hanging horses at the end really do it for me. the art of making something look real and suspended is amazing! he's known for being a prankster and provocative and this piece was just that to me. i couldn't take my eyes off of it but it wasn't heavy. if you haven't had a chance i'd recommend stopping by. this exhibit is supposed to be until jan 22 2012. enjoy!

travel. thailand.

after vietnam we were looking forward to thailand. we met a few of my former students in bangkok and they showed us such a lovely time! may i recommend the massages. there are tons of specials try all of them and if you like get a mani/pedi everyday they are so cheap!
leaving bangkok was only made easy by the fact that we knew we were heading to an island! so fun! we flew in to koh samui which is a gorgeous place but then we walked out of the airport to the water front to catch a boat to our island. all of the local taxi drivers were only willing to take us to a certain boat area where we knew we'd have to pay more to get to koh pangan so we managed to walk about half way until we ran into an australian names kent who we tried to get directions from and then offered to drive us over. it was such a relief.  we don't mind walking as often you get to see a little more and we had nothing but time however if you don't like a long walk, don't. just don't let those guys get the best of you, walk out to the main road and stick out your thumb offer to pay a little bit and you'll be much better off! we got to our boarding station docked the boat and headed out to sea. my favorite part of the boat ride was getting off at the end! the boat was too big and there was no real dock so we had to get off in the ocean and wade ourselves in! it was so fun! if you have tons of stuff this part really stinks but otherwise it's a great laugh. and then we were there to our island vacation far from tons of people nothing to do but eat drink and be merry. i absolutely loved our jungle bungalow. there were a few resorts to choose from one really swanky one right next to ours with beautiful carvings and decor.  it was perfect enough for us to have the cheaper place at 22 dollars a night and walk next door to the beautiful pool and spa area.

vietnam. halong bay.

from hanoi we traveled by bus to cat ba town where we immediately decided to leave and head on a cruse through halong bay to a bungalow in the jungle on the other side of cat ba island. the boat was huge and the view of the rock formations was absolutely amazing. we took the boat to a dock and were left in what seemed like a strange situation where we waited until someone came along and opened a shack full of bikes. we road the bikes to our bungalow and were one of two couples in the entire town. the food was more expensive than in the rest of vietnam but they remembered that i don't like shrimp and cooked meals according to what they through westerners would like. a few days later a korean group came through and they fed them a more eastern meal, they were spot on with accommodating tastes! every one seemed happy and it was quiet and the perfect place for a little r n r.

vietnam. hanoi lake.

we were jet lag for a week, which worked in our favor in hanoi. the city really has a different feel at 5 am and even at that early hour you feel like you're showing up late to activities that have been going on for centuries. we took a motorbike to the lake and slowly walked around as people did their morning exercises. pull ups from tree branches, sit ups under benches, and synchronized tai chi to music. it's so communal and beautiful it's hard to imagine that some of the synchronized exercises were to tunes like on top of spaghetti!

 

  

vietnam. motorbikes.

the biggest culture shock by far of traveling in vietnam were the bikes. the sheer number alone was overwhelming, crossing the roads filled with them was a death wish, but riding on the backs of them was exhilarating.  my favorite memories of vietnam were zipping through the streets of hanoi and ho chi min on the back of a motorbike. you can see in the second picture a woman on the far right crossing the road. the trick was to just go and not change your pace, you depended on the cyclist to ride around you!

travel. vietnam. powerlines.

power lines. we couldn't get over these power lines in vietnam. how does this just simply work?

street food. sugar cane.

possibly the best part of vacation is food. this is the first picture of many to come of street food. this is a sugar cane drink. when we were kids we used to go to downtown la buy sugarcane from the back of trucks and chew on it. this was reminiscent of those times, and it was super refreshing in the humid night. it was awesome, she turned on a generator and then sent the sugar cane through!