Trip Reports - Road Trip: Seattle to South America

Hey folks, I have two friends, Ben and Matt, who packed up in January and drove south. After reading their "Updates" I asked and they said I could share their stories with everyone...

Enjoy! http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/smile.gif

January 23,2003
from Ben-

hola......

hello all- we are currently on the pacific coast in the (crappy) resort city of mazetlan.....soon to be on the way to peurta vallorta, which should be a much better place to be, especially since this is the season to dive with humpback whales, something that sounds very cool....

we´re having a good time, just spent a couple of days hiking throught the copper canyon (that´s right, 4 times the size of the grand canyon) and we had loads of fun other than the hours of wandering around pissed and lost, but hey, we made it, cool..... the veiws were incredible and the air was hot and dry, not a cloud in the sky to shade us, yet that didn´t stop it from being freezing at night, ah fever and chills sounds like malaria, ha ha ha.......

the car is driving quite well and ahe looks forward to getting through this country and on to others........

you will be happy to note that on the drive through durango, we did listen to ´'romance in durango' which was a nice tribute to dylan....

January 23,2003
from Matt-


Ben and I officially made it back to the tropics, having crossed that arbitrary line last night as we traversed the mountains seperating Mazatlan from Durango. The drive from Durango was only a couple hundred kilometers but it took most of the day because of the high winding mountain roads. I had no idea Mexico is such a rugged country.

We crossed the border in El Paso and went straight down to Chihauhau and made our way to the Copper Canyon. The Copper Canyon is absolutely incredible. It´s made up of 20 canyons that altogether are about four times the size of the Grand Canyon. We started by driving out to the tallest waterfall in Mexico. Even though it is the dry season it was still beautiful. Sheer cliffs surround a small river and the falls shoot out into the canyon. Cliffs and waterfalls all in one convenient package--I was happy. From there we spent a couple days touring around the top of the canyon and then took a bus down to a town in the bottom. The road was way too rough for my car. We set off on a 45km hike from the town of Batopilas to Urique. You have to be a tad masochistic hiking through the canyonlands of Mexico. The trail was brutal up and downs and was bloody hot down low and freezing cold at altitude. But the views were amazing...

Day 1 was good but day 2 we were lost most of the time. We kept losing the trail and jumping on any little trail that looked like it went northwest. We repeatedly got lost, climbed high looking for trails, and somehow made it to Urique in three days.

From there drove down to Durango which is a very nice town and now we´re in Mazatlan. To keep it brief--Mazatlan sucks. We got here last night and we´re on our way out of here in a couple hours. Next stop is Puerto Vallarta where we will hopefully scuba dive with humpback whales.

It feels great to be traveling again. The car is working well (knock on wood) although we did have to get a new tape player for it. The cheapest one we could find in America broke so we replaced it with the cheapest one we could find in Mexico. We´ll see how that goes. We were well north of the the big earthquake so we didn´t even feel a thing. But we´ll be down in that area soon and it sounds like there is quite a bit of damage.

February 2,2003
from Matt-

We{re still traveling all around Mexico. After Mazatlan we relaxed in
Puerto Vallarta for a few days which is much nicer than Mazatlan. We were hoping to dive with humpback whales but we were misinformed--no one does such trips. But we went diving anyway and saw some humpbacks surface on our way out. Very cool. Nice diving too but nothing too spectacular. Played American for a day and watched the Super Bowl in PV too. Can{t stay away from that. (As you{ve probably noticed my apostrophe isn{t doing quite what I want so you have to deal with lots of parentheses where apostrophes are supposed to be.)

After PV we made our pilgrimage to Tequila. Needless to say I will be
staying away from that liquor for a while. Drank too much the first night and then followed it up with a morning tour of the Cuervo factory which included our breakfast of samples. The best part of the tour was at the end a class of first or second graders were just starting a field trip to the Tequila factory. I{m hoping they didn{t get samples.

From Tequila we limped into Guadalajara which is nice but really just another big city. We didn{t stay long. Then down to Uruapan which is famous for its waterfalls and volcano. We hiked out to two of the most beautiful waterfalls in the world. The first was a powerful two-tier plunge falls flanked on both sides by bridal veil falls and cascades. The second falls we hiked to the bottom and were completely surrounded by waterfalls on all sides. Amazing.

Then we set off for Volcan Paricutin. Sometime in the 1940{s a volcano grew out of the flat ground about 1000m high and erupted in the 1950{s. It{s still smoldering and smoking. We hiked out to a ruined church which is engulfed in the lava field. The church is the only evidence
of hte two towns that used to stand here.

From waterfalls to butterflies. We stopped at a monarch butterfly Sanctuary in the mountains. Butterflies migrate from Canada and the US to this spot in Mexico for the winter. There were millions of butterflies covering all the trees and bushes. We got there in the morning and the trees were covered. You couldn{t even see the branches, just layers of butterflies. As the sun hit them they started opening their wings and flying around. The trees turned orange from the wings and the sky filled with butterflies.

Now we{re in Guanajuato which is an old silver town NE of Mexico City. At one time this city produced 20% of the world{s silver and made the Spanish mighty rich. The town is set on these impossibly steep hills and tunnels underneath the city carry all the traffic. The whole city is a World Heritage Site.

The car{s still running which is nice and surprising. We had a little problem with the alternator but got that fixed nice and cheaply and blew out a tire on the terrible road to the butterflies but other than that no problems (knock on wood).

February 2,2003
from Ben-

hola.....

well we got out of mazetlan and on to peurto vallarta where to my horror you can't actually dive with humpback whales, yet another mistake in the old lp.....but the town itself was very pleasant, obviously alot of tourists and many street hawkers but once you deal with it and embrace it than the place itself is a beautiful mixture of old buildings and cobblestone streets and Dominos, which i am proud to say we stayed away from...... we did end up doing some pretty good diving here although <i must say that the solomans and png spoiled my diving....but it was cool none the less, many many many eels, and <i didn{t get bit which is a plus... then on we went to tequila, and got there too late to go on a tour of a distillery and too early to go to bed so we figured hey we{re in tequila, we promised many
people to have a tequila for them so we got all those out of the way that evening and to make a long story (ok not that long) short <i shall be staying away from the vile concoction known as tequila for a while, or at least until my memory lets go of the experience, which could be tonight....he he he...

On to gudalahara we went and because the lp told us we could get super cheap digs we thought we{d stay there, but since the 5 dollar rooms turned into 15 dollars we said screw that and instead walked around all day, it was an incredible center of town with, of course, a great big intricate church and many many funky fountains... plus we got these mega ice cream bars, very good, if you have the means <i highly recomend you pick some uup......also
there was a huge exibit of photos by some local artist who flew all over the world and took arials in a helicopter, which was amazing, he even had the foliage of the northeast...

On we traveled to uruapan where they have one of the greatest waterfalls ever... ever... it was a 2 teir bad boy with cascades and other waterfalls surrounding it for 25 meters on each side coming out of the middle of cliffs, <i thought water couldn{t travel through rock, but apparently <i slept through that physics class, we also saw vulcan particutin, which grew out of no where in 1942ish and then exploded engulfing 2 villages, no on was
killed, and the only thing still standing was an uncopleted church, eerie eh?????????

okay then we took off for the butterfly park de rosario or somtething like that, which was so neat, billions (one billion butterflys,mmmmmm) of butterflys were all sleeping on these evergreens at 3000meters and chilling till the sun came up to awaken them, then they were everywhere, and <i mean everywhere, flying every which way, as butterflys do in their randomness, and <i must say that this was one of the greatest animal experiences of my life, it was unbeleivable........

well that is the synopsis <i hope that it made some sense and relayed some what the great time that <i am having and the experiences that just keep coming.....

<i hope this finds you all in good health and happyness.......

March 7, 2003
from Matt-

Chiapas is by far the coolest state in Mexico. Basically imagine a state full of waterfalls, lakes, jungles, and Mayan ruins and imagine how happy that all makes me. We got into Chiapas and stopped at the capitol, Tuxtla Gutierrez. The city itself is not that interesting but just outside we took a motorboat up the Canon del Sumidero which is amazing. The canyon walls go 1000m straight into the air and the boat stopped for us to check out the crocodiles and monkeys. Plus there were all sorts of cool rock formations on the cliffs. From there we drove off to the Lagunas de Montebello which is a national park bordering Guatemala with 59 lakes. Lakes are at a premium in the hot humid environment so it was nice camping there and swimming around. Plus we took a raft over to the Guatemala border and crossed over to check out a little waterfall. We drove around the Lacandon Jungle to the small border town of Frontera Corozal where we jumped on another boat and went upriver to check out the Mayan ruins of Yaxchilan. We were lucky to make it up there--the boat was too expensive for us but we met up with a tour group and went along with them. The ruins themselves were nice but the real attraction was seeing them set along the banks of the Rio Usumacinta. And to add a bit of fun the campsite we stayed at had a monkey that always hangs about and would occasionally come play with us. After Yaxchilan we stayed at a small village on the outskirts of the jungle. Camped right on a small river and hiked out to an amazing waterfall. The place was like a natural waterpark. The falls themselves were broad and impressive but the whole area was full of swimming holes and a nice little cliff to jump off. Jungle, tropical rainforest, waterfalls--I was in heaven. Then off to more waterfalls in another random village. This time fewer swimming holes but a taller cliff to jump from. Plus lots of friendly families hanging around there for the day.

The ruins of Palenque are about the most impressive in Mexico. They are all set in an amazingly hot humid oppressive jungle but the setting is beautiful. We walked around and marveled at the sheer amount of effort involved in building these mammoth structures. Like most Mayan ruins all the buildings were constructed without the aid of metal tools, pack animals, or the wheel.

The area around Palenque is famous for its waterfalls so we visited some more. The best of the lot was Agua Azul which is a segment of broad river about two kilometers long chock full of waterfalls and cascades. We spent the whole day swimming and relaxing on the banks of the river. It{s fairly touristy but the beer stalls came in handy.

After Chiapas we drove over to the Yucatan. We managed to catch a few
Carnaval parades in some random towns. Lots of fun to watch all the floats and people dressed up. And I haven{t seen so many crossdressers since the last Capitol Hill Block Party. Off to Chichen Itza which is another amazing Mayan city. Again, mammoth buildings, very impressive. Then the small town of Vallodolid. The whole region is full of cenotes which are small underground lakes and ponds that the Mayans used for fresh water. The one in Vallodolid is particularly picturesque and was a great place for a swim. Then we made it to Playa de Carmen for Fat Tuesday but it was surprisingly calm for the big day. The plan was lots of diving but the harbor has been shut down by strong winds. So we took the ferry to Cozumel and did two days of diving there. The visibility is amazing--about 100 feet and lots of beautiful coral and fish. The wall dive we did on the second day was amazing and I saw my first seahorse. We{re still in Playa and hoping to dive here tomorrow.

After that we{re almost out of Mexico. We{re going to see the ruins of Tulum and then try and dive the Banco Chinchorro which is the largest atoll in the Northern Hemisphere and pretty much untouched. That means boats and diving out there is expensive but it should be worth it. I haven{t been to a secluded atoll in way too long!

We{re crossing out fingers that the car makes it all the way to Belize. The brakes are a little equivocal on whether or not they want to stop the car all the time. Small details... We{re close so hopefully we{ll make it okay. Then once we get to Belize we{ll ditch the car and start using buses. But it{s been wonderful to have the car and the freedom it gave us in Mexico to get around.

March 3, 2003
from Ben-

hello all, it´s been awhile so <i shall attempt to see what i can do to get you all (at least the ones that read this drivle) up to speed...

when you last heard about us from me I beleive that we were somewhere else than here (which is valladolid 150km west of cancun) we were in the beautiful, majestic city of guanajuato and if memory serves me well, which it almost never does, we had a blast seeing the wacky arcitecture and bizarre roadways, they are built under the city an addition that took place in the 1970´s and 80´s... an seeing as hemingway was being read we took it upon ourselves to partake of some local wine, which hit the spot, the sun also rose for us......

on to san miguel de allende, which from the lp sounded great but in real life was rather dull but with a most striking church, said to be the most beautiful in all of mexico, could be, could be......

moving right along we headed to mexico city, stopping at the tomec ruins of tula along the way, nothing to grand but some very cool huge statues of warrior figures, at 4m high quite impossing... on the way into mexico city you could feel the air die off and the smog and pollustion hit me full force like a tyson blow to the dome, ouch so that is what it feels lik to breath in a city with over 2 times the ozone as is allowed in a city in either the US or japan, stings to eyes a bit... i won´t bore you all too much with the details of our week in the city partly because it was a lot of repatition and partly due to the fact that i have forgoten (or the typings getting to my fingers, i´ve never seen them fing?) but we took a boat ride on the old
canals, we saw the immense ruins of teotihuacan, the third largest pyramid in the world is there, saw the sites of the cities, met fellow travelers and of course went to a bull fight.... the bull fight was an experience, I think i was rooting for the bulls sometimes but hey, that´s good sportmanship, and since the odor of hemingway was still in the air, some wine was drank--less than 2.50 a bottle dad--so all in all the time was good but also it was time to move on...

and on we moved, driving to tlaxcala to see a great church then on to a very long drive up to xilitla where lies las pozas, a huge surreal park built by edward james, it is a bit run down now but over all a very bizare collection of waterfalls, swimming pools and sculpture, all brought about by diverting a stream and being a little crazy and a lot rich......

then on to el tajin a very picturesque setting for the ruins that were there, surrounded by jungle and with temples and alters different to most all other sites, so a very cool spot... then to jalapa, a nice city but over hyped by the lp and we crashed there, a little disapointed by the lack of chilli rellanos (chilli´s stuffed with cheese, and meat and stuff, mmmmm good....) but <i finnally called my rent´s to say hi, i´m not all bad, eh guys?

from there to pico orizaba the largest mountain in mexico and 3rd largest in north america, and since all we have are summer things with very little to do with warmth or mountaineering, we had to just look at this gorgeous mountain and tell her we´d be back...

then to oaxaca city we went, enjoying the peaceful town and splurging on a dinner to die for, it was huge and great and tastey and everything good in the world and i want more but it was as much as we spend on food for 3 days, but that didn´t matter, it was great, meats, veggies, tortia´s,cheese, chilli´s, fried grasshoppers, all of it ruled, mmm mmm good... we saw mount alban (come on guys not the mezcal, the zapotec ruins, get your mind out of the gutter) the ruins were very impressive but the heat was on (da na na na na, da na na na na, the heat is .....on) yeah, it was very warm not much snow... bad skiing conditions... good times though good times.....

now I must take a break, I will be back soon to tell you all about the coolness of chiapas...

Are they going any further south than Mexico, or Panama?

Ternez... they are currently in Belize (some friends are flying down to meet them this weekend).

Their plans for the next three months see them going south through Panama and into South America.

April 14, 2003

Somehow after two months in Mexico and 9000 miles my old junky car managed to make it to Belize. We slowly coasted into Belize City since the brakes (like most everything else in the car) didn't work anymore and promptly traded it for US$1000 worth of diving. We were pretty amazed by our good
fortune and Alex, the divemaster, was pretty happy to get a free car. So
that worked out better than we ever hoped.

We spent a week in Belize City doing some amazing diving and then Lisa and Dave came out to visit in San Pedro. The four of us had an amazing time diving, drinking, and hanging out. An excellent vacation for all involved. And Ben and I were excited
because they stayed in a hotel with air conditioning--ahhh, the simple pleasures.

The diving was fabulous. My highlight was the Blue Hole where we dove down to 150ft to explore huge stalactites and on the way up encountered about 10 big bull sharks. The sharks even put on a little show and shot up thirty feet to eat a couple fish near us. It was a very intense dive. Beyond that we saw nurse sharks, 13 eagle rays, dolphins, eels, and just about everything you can imagine underwater. But sadly, Lisa and Dave left at the end of March and the vacation ended.

Ben and I headed west to Guatemala. First stop was the Mayan ruins of Tikal. We visited here on the sailing trip and it was fun to go back but we missed Dorian. The ruins are still amazing and the jungle was full of spider monkeys, howler monkeys, toucans, parrots, and pizotes. If you're
curious about what the area looks like, a lot of the Endor scenes of Return of the Jedi were filmed here.

Since then we've been touring the mountainous backroads of Guatemala. Basically that means amazing uncomfortable buses and spectacular scenery. My favorite stop was Lanquin where they have amazing waterfalls and underground tunnels. We also hiked/swam down an underground river that included jumping off a 15ft cliff into the dark water.

Beyond that it's just great to get to these small villages without all the gringos and explore the local culture. The buses are old US school buses and believe it or not my legs are longer than a fourth grader's. Plus they're packed full of people, chickens, produce, and anything else they can fit aboard. But it's an interesting way to travel.

We're in the town of Quetzaltenango now and tomorrow we go off to climb the tallest mountain in Central America (just under 14,000 ft). Fortunately no snow but it should be plenty cold. We'll see how it goes.

While some I speak to long for the young or college age years again, I don't. But I do miss road trips! Thanks for posting these chexfan.

It's been a great read so far. Thanks for posting these stories and good luck to Matt and Ben in their continuing travels.

Thanks for sharing their road trip reports. Good luck on their trip.

April 25,2003
From Matt...

Just finished up five days of diving in Utila. It was awesome. And... we saw WHALE SHARKS!! It was absolutely amazing. Snorkelled with them between dives on two different days. We were lucky to find them--we kind of missed the prime time. But we found three that ranged from 25-35 feet long and they were so close we could almost touch them. Diving in Utila was great but other than the biggest fish in the sea nowhere near as cool as belize.

April 24,2003
From Ben...


we{ve been huffing it around guatemala since the kids left us in belize to fly home to school and work (something unfortunatly I need to do sooner rather than later, 6 weeks or so) and we{ve been having a blast....

returning to guatemala after 4 years or so gives you a bit to compare, the country is still beautiful and the people are as friendly as ever (and where else to they play metalica at the internet cafe??) the prices have gone up a bit and there are many many more tourists, mostly backpackers (and mostly hairier, smellier and unhealthier than us, however they are all vegetariens and hippies who can speak excellent spanish as opposed to my "dos cervacas por favor" and they are quite fun to talk to, interesting stuff...).

I have to say that our trip to tikal was a bit lacking.

Otherwise we are heading out in the early am to climb the largest mountain in Centeral America, okay so we didn{t even come close the the Mexico mountain, but this one has no snow and is only like a 5-6 hour hike, so if we don{t make this I am just going to resign myself to the fact that I{m way old and out of shape, and just quite everything all together, get a job as a fry jockey at mcdonalds and hope to make assistant manager by the time I am 65, and just pray that some woman takes pity on me...

so what I am saying? there{s a pretty good chance we will make this climb...

okay, <i hope that all is going well and that everyone is healthy and doing well and tipping a bit of good beer and scotch for their homeys in central america...

ps: we just saw the largest fish in the world, the whale sharks we just saw on
utila were soo cool....

[This message has been edited by chexfan (edited 05-06-2003).]

May 20, 2003
from Matt

It's been awhile since I've sent out a big email. Feel free to skim past the boring spots.....

After Guatemala we made it down to Honduras and immediately went to Utila to go diving. The diving was cheap and beautiful which is a great combo. And to top it off on two of the days we got to snorkel with whale sharks in between dives. The whale shark is the largest fish in the sea and the biggest one we saw was about 35 feet long. It's indescribeable to swim directly over a 35 foot shark. They truly are amazing animals and fortunately they only eat plankton!

After a week of the whole tropical island paradise thing we flew out to La Moskitia for a week of adventure. La Moskitia is one of the most remote areas of Central America. The only way in is by plane or boat and most residents never venture outside of the region. We flew into a small village and arranged a motorized canoe trip down the river to another village. The river was wide and beautiful and home to tons of birds and fireflies. At the next stop Ben and I both got sick which isn't too fun with just an outhouse around. We managed to meet a crazy expat named Don from Bellingham who runs a shipping business in the region and agreed to take us on his boat back to La Ceiba. We were excited to save so much money on the flight and see the area from his boat. However, he neglected to tell us he was taking four days to get back. But it worked out well and we got to see a lot of
small areas we didn't expect to visit. Really, the only problem is that we were stuck with Don who is pretty much a scumbag and tried to subject us to all sorts of stories we would as soon avoid. The guys a walking thesaurus for the female anatomy. The true price of a free ride...

We made a couple more stops in Honduras to beautiful waterfalls and national parks and then a quick stop in Tegucigulpa and then cross the border to Nicaragua. Our first stop was Granada which is a beautiful city. We ended up staying much longer than anticipated and met some great people in the city. The Spanish colonial influence is still present and the city is full of nice churches and cafes. It's also dangerously full of nice bars and we weren't able to avoid them all.

After splurging in Granada we went down to Ometepe Island in Lake Nicaragua. Lake Nicaragua is the largest lake in Central America and home to freshwater sharks and sawfish (although we didn't see any).

Ometepe Island is a large volcanic island with two imposing peaks rising out of the lake. It's absolutely beautiful. We ended up meeting two of the guys we hung out with in Granada and we all did some hiking together. Tried to climb one of the peaks but got completely lost. We settled for a waterfall the next day. The hike was beautiful and we saw lots of parrots and other tropical birds in the trees. The waterfall was nice too but the highlight were these thick vines we were able to swing from. We climbed up a stump and jumped off and the vines swung us on a 60 foot arc about 25 feet high. Great fun.

Next stop was San Juan del Sur and the beach. We hired some surf boards and realized surfing is much harder than it looks. But there were some great waves and a beautiful beach and at least I was able to body surf.

Now we're in Leon which is a nice city but just about the hottest spot I've ever been. Tomorrow we leave for El Salvador. But it will only be a whirlwind tour because we fly back home on June 2. I'm excited to get back home.

Hope everyone's doing well!

29 May
from Matt...

We crossed into El Salvador not knowing what to expect. Not too many tourists make it in there so no one had told us much about it. Most everything I knew about it was based on old articles about civil war and insurrection. Turns out it's a wonderful country filled with the friendliest people you can imagine. We had a wonderful week there.

First stop was a medium-sized town near the Honduran border. From there we hiked up to a sulfurous crater lake. Not too much water in it since the dry season is just ending but it was still a beautiful mountain setting and a pleasant walk up. And everyone in the town was great and helpful. Every now and then we would run into Salvadorans who had lived in the States during the war. It's strange to hear American English being spoken out in a
random town in El Salvador.

I didn't expect San Salvador to be that nice but I was mistaken. Even though it's a huge city the people were still super friendly and helpful. And the city is quite nice with a good central park and nice cathedral. There were absolutely no other gringos around so we attracted quite a bit of attention. But most people just wanted to chat and say hi or shake hands. It's a high security city--I haven't been to too many bars where the bouncers carry automatic rifles.

The highlight of the country was Cerro Verde and Volcan Izalco. Volcan Izalco is still smoldering and smoking away and we climbed up to the crater rim to wander around. It's amazing to look into the steam vents and feel the awesome heat radiating out of the earth. We did a couple nice hikes and enjoyed being in the mountains. This is also the only place in the whole country we saw another tourist.

We finished up by traveling through some small mountainous coffee towns near the Guatemala border. From one town we were able to hike out to a beautiful series of waterfalls and swim in the clean cold water. And of course we drank plenty of coffee.

Now we're back in Guatemala getting ready to fly out on June 2. We're in Panajachel on Lago de Atitlan right now but the weather's pretty rainy. It's still a pleasant area to relax before we head home.

Overall, it's been an amazing trip but I am excited to get back to Seattle for the summer and be with my family and friends. Then it will be time to get a job again so I can fund the next trip...

Thank you, Chex, for posting the trip report from Matt & Ben. I found it quite interesting and after reading it, it sounds quite tempting to hop in a car and drive south http://www.flyertalk.com/travel/fttravel_forum/smile.gif ...

Mexico is a beautiful country, but my travels to Mexico have been limited to Mexico City, Cancun, Playa de Carmen, and Cozumel. Flying over Mexico is also beautiful and the scenery is amazing, even from an airplane window at 33,000 ft on flights I have taken such as DFW-MEX & LAX-MEX. My flights into Cancun/Cozumel traveled over the Gulf of Mexico (from IAH) and didn't provide the views that can be had on flights like DFW-MEX & LAX-MEX which take you overland into Mexico.

To make the journey by land sounds exciting. Chex, Any chance Matt & Ben might put up a website with pictures from their trip?

I've never been to Central America or South America, but I'm wanting to visit Belize sometime soon plus I'd like to make it down to Brazil and visit Rio. I have lots of FF miles to burn and perhaps a trip or two to Central America / South America would be a good way to put some of the miles to use (especially if I can get my award travel booked in First/Business).

I've also been wanting to visit Malaysia & Indonesia (Bali) as well, but have had second thoughts lately in light of the State Dept & the media advising against travel to some of these places. I suspect the threat in the media is overplayed and that being observant and using common sense is the best thing to do; besides, I understand there are many bargains in Bali (and other places in SE Asia) right now because of travelers being scared away plus the fear of SARS. The Malaysia Airlines flight from EWR via DXB to KUL sounds tempting, especially if I can get a stopover in the UAE as I understand DXB is an impressive city and generally safe as well.

Best,

SDF_Traveler

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"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Ben Franklin