J & I's Gap Year Adventures

That's all folks!

2007-02-19T16:05:00.000-05:00

It sure has been one amazing year and it flew by so fast. As you might know from reading J's blog, we are heading out west to Calgary. I'm looking forward to spending more time with family and to enjoy the outdoor lifestyle available there but sad to leave all the friends and memories we've made here.

But, if there's one thing I learned on this trip, it's that change is good...

This may sound stupid but I wanted to do a "Thanks" blog...

Our trip was fun, exciting, and eye opening but it wasn't just us that made it so good. There were so many other reasons it was so successful.

Firstly, the support from everyone, especially family when we told them about this. We never got a "are you crazy" reaction but exactly the opposite. It was great and never made us (ok me) think twice about what we were doing.

Secondly, thanks for all the goodluck charms. J & I had them on us all the time. It was a great reminder of the good friends back home.

Thirdly, thanks for all the prayers and thinking of us. A lot of things happened on this trip which lead me to believe how we may have had a "guardian angel" looking over us. Now I'm not religious in any way but everything definitely worked out, and everything had a purpose. I attribute it to everyone who was thinking about us. Let's call it "good" energy. Thanks! :)

Fourth, thanks for reading our blogs! I've never been that good with writing but I had fun putting these blogs together and hope you've had fun reading it as well!

And lastly, thanks to J who always knew where we were heading next, where we were going to search for a place to stay, how to ask for anything and everything we needed and to constantly push me to do things I wouldn't normally do!

That's it, that's all folks!

65,190 Kilometers...

2007-02-18T22:35:00.000-05:00

My trusty GPS says that's how far we travelled. It is truly a small world today.

I thought everyone would be interested in a blog on things we would have done different, what worked well, what I didn't use, what I used a lot....

Firstly, my backpack was 50L in size. I never thought it possible but yes, I got by just fine and actually had more than I needed. Just make sure it is comfortable. It shouldn't feel like it's pulling your shoulders back, or put any weight on your shoulders. Everything goes to your waist.

What did I have that I didn't need?

- a Hacky Sac. I think I used it once. I thought it would be a cool way to meet people and such but in the end, it just sat in my bag. I guess I had a vision of people at hostels hanging out and playing hacky sac but nope. That just doesn't happen. Although in our tour group there was someone with a hacky sac.

- Jump Rope. What was I thinking? Exercise?!?! Yeah right. I was all keen but never really got around to it. I guess after walking all day who the heck wants to jump around even more?

- Knoppix operating system. I carried 2 CD's around and for what? It sounded like a good idea, but in reality there were no internet cafe's that would let you run something separate and still have internet access. Just don't check your bank accounts or use credit cards online.

- Extra soaps, batteries and other consumable items. You can get all this stuff on the road. Unless you are super picky about something then carry extra otherwise, buy it as you need. Saves weight.

- Multi tool. Where would I have needed a phillips, flathead and saw? I already had a swiss army. Again it just sat in my bag.

What didn't I have that I should have brought?

- Our Spork! Sometimes, instant noodles and the odd can of tuna need something so you can pick at. It was titanium too so nice and light. There were times where we could have used it.

- Our brimmed hats. I personally didn't think I would need it but sure enough, the desert and on safari you can definitely use it. Bring one you like because if you buy one, you'll toss it later (plus the ones you buy over there look very touristy).

- More mosquito repellant. I didn't realize it but you can't find DEET everywhere and if you want to you can try others but I personally don't like Malaria so I would have brought a bit more of the high percentage stuff.

Things that worked out great!

- Hidden pockets. Everyone has a money belt and I think people know it too so before we left, we took a few old pants, cut the back pockets out (preferably with a button) and sewed them into the inside of the pants we brought. Make sure the pocket is big enough for your passport and you are set. I felt extra secure when everything was in there. By the way, to all the other travellers I saw doing this, a money belt should be hidden, not held in your hand or hanging outside your clothes!

- Snap buttons on the pockets. Unless you bought pants with zippers or such, they're an open target to pickpockets. We tried to make it harder by sewing some snap buttons onto any open pocket. We didn't get picked at all so I think it's definitely a good idea.

- Swiss army knife. Those Swiss knew what they were doing!

- Fishing line. We used 40 lb test line. Great to hang clothes with. Very lightweight.

- Floss. It really does work great to sew up holes in bags and other thick materials where thread just won't do.

-Duct Tape. Engineers love it, so should you! You don't need the whole roll. Just put some (5-10 ft) around a pen. You will have a pen right?

- Cypro. It WORKS (if it's bacterial)! Used up both my courses! :D

- Security for our ATM cards. Set a limit for your daily and weekly withdraw max. just in case. It worked too well sometimes when we found we needed a bit more. But hey, that's the price you pay for security! Our bank was also nice enough to waive our international fees. At $5 per transaction, it doesn't hurt to ask your bank!

- Gortex ACR Shoes. We spent more for them but I loved the waterproofness. My shoes were also antibacterial and paired with some wool socks (yes, wool, in +35 degree weather but also antibacterial) they were really comfortable for the entire trip. No blisters, fungus or toe jam!

Things I would have done differently:

- Gotten that new passport before leaving (and get the most pages you can, Canada does NOT sew pages into passports anymore)!!! After all that, can you believe I still have 2 empty pages! Those people in Africa sure find all the empty space first before using a new page!

Brrrrrr.....

2007-02-13T15:00:00.000-05:00

It's cold, damned cold!

Lucky for us though the weather held out for a day to give us a chance to grab our winter gear. But going from +30 to -25 with wind chill (ahhh how I don't miss that term), nothing we wear will make us feel warm.

Apparently we brought the seasonal weather back with us. How lucky.

Well, we are now settling back in, and preparing for our next journey which is to head west. Yes, we're moving to Alberta, part of the Canadian prairies, home to Rodeo, cows and cowboys (I vaguely remember a bad joke about Steers and Queers), but most important, on the western edge of the Rocky Mountains. I can't wait to be around that again.

There's only going to be a couple more posts for me so let me take the time to say Thanks to everyone who followed us on our journey. I hope you enjoyed reading about our experiences and who knows, perhaps it's convinced you to do something like this later (it's well worth it!).

On our way home...via Zurich

2007-02-12T16:21:00.001-05:00

Since there are no direct flights back to Toronto, our journey back to the Great White North took us through Zurich, Switzerland.

We booked through Swiss Air but the flight from Zurich is codeshared with Air Canada. As Canadians, we all know about the mediocre service we get from our national airline, however, I wasn't sure what to expect from Swiss from Nairobi to Zurich.

A few people mentioned to us how terrible the service was. Employees yelling at travellers to stay out of the isle, not being able to use the washrooms, extra baggage charges costing more than the ticket! After hearing all this, J & I expected the worst.

Well, thankfully, our experience was very pleasant. The planes were or seemed to be brand new, and the employees very cheerful and friendly. The food and wine were good and I managed to watch like 3 movies on our personal seatback TV's. Gotta love these new systems (not like AC with their projector style to the bulkhead screen).

The minute we stepped into Zurich airport it was almost a surreal experience.

Brand names, bright lights, no smoking signs...everything I had always just taken for granted came back in an "in my face" rush. All of a sudden we're not the percieved wealthy tourists anymore but just another joe schmoe.

J also summed it up nicely by saying "it's ok to get sick now". I had thought about that all throughout our trip. What would happen if we got sick? Do we trust the system where we are? Is everything clean? It's pretty much a given here that the answer is yes. But elsewhere, I'm not sure if I want a needle poked into me or drugs prescribed.

I guess this is the culture shock we are supposed to have when we arrive. You see everything in a new light and hopefully I won't take this for granted again.

Now let me get back to my half-caf, low fat, sugar and gluten free latte... ;)

Our House & Truck Mates

2007-02-11T22:09:00.000-05:00

This is what we stayed in for our entire tour. Except for the trip into Rwanda, it was basically stopping at "campsites" which were pretty nice overall. All the places had rooms you could upgrade to (background of the picture), bars to drink at and sometimes, if you were really lucky, a swimming pool to lounge at. It sure didn't feel like you were in Africa here. J&I stayed in the tent the whole time. It was fun, comfortable, and kinda reminded us of the camping we missed out on back home. It's no Algonquin Park though that's for sure.

Below is a picture of some of the people we met on the tour. We're standing in a no-stand zone near some really hot hot springs (J's got a pic of us breaking the rules) somewhere in Kenya. Great bunch of people to hang out with. Let's see...guess the majority were Aussie here but some had dual citizenship so where would you put those....ahhh it doesn't matter, J & I are in the picture! :D

That's an Internet Cafe???

2007-02-11T21:59:00.000-05:00

One of the things that amazes me on this trip was how there is internet access everywhere. You've all seen us update our blogs pretty religiously everywhere we've gone. Even the most remote places seemed to have a computer hooked up.

Simply amazing.

Although, speed is the big difference in most places, and in Africa it is much slower than everywhere else we've been. It is really hard to put any pictures up (they are up now) so we just end up doing text blogs.

The internet cafe's are pretty funny too. This one we went to was on a 2nd floor, had about 5 computers in it. This place cost 60 Kenyan shillings an hour (about $1).

What did this guy do?

2007-02-05T12:47:00.000-05:00

We were flipping through a local newspaper somewhere in Kenya one day and came across this ad....

Poor guy....

We Petted a Cheetah!

2007-01-29T11:01:00.000-05:00

Nairobi National Park was our last chance to see some big cats in the wild. Every Sunday they run a public bus through the park to view the animals so J & I headed out there and waited for the bus to show up.

After being told it would show up at 1:30 pm, and seeing 1:30 pm turn into 2:30 pm we started to think that we may not be going on this tour. It turns out the bus was having mechanical problems and wasn't going to show up. Apparently they have only one bus so that was that. No big cats, and our Africa trip ends on a low note.

Or does it?

After toying with the idea of renting a van with some other people who were waiting for the bus, we decided against it. For me, something was telling me we just weren't meant to see what we had hoped for so I reluctantly decided to save the money on the taxi and just go see the animal orphanage which was nearby.

Our timing couldn't have been better because the first animals we see were Cheetahs. AND it was close to feeding time and for me, I thought that would be cool enough. Seeing them eat big chunks of meat, I could always imagine that we were in the wild and it was a fresh Zebra kill or something....

I was also taking pictures through the fence to make it look like we were in the wild in case anyone asked later. :) This one was a pretty good shot. I could have said they came right up beside our truck and you wouldn't be able to tell.

The next thing I know, I hear J calling my name as she is heading INTO the cage! What the heck was she doing?!??! Apparently, the feeder asked if she wanted to go in and so in they went. She got to pet a couple of the Cheetahs and when she came back out, the guy pulled both of us in. Sure what the heck...they're busy eating right? I'm sure I won't taste as good as that chunk of meat...

How cool was that. We squatted down behind one, I started to pet the hind area and the Cheetah swipes at my hand with her tail! He he he....yeah, nice kitty, don't kill me was all I could think.

Not sure which one was more scary. The Tigers we petted or the Cheetahs. The Tigers were tied down at least....these ones, nothing...if I was fast enough, maybe the feeder would get caught first! ;) A VERY cool time there overall and yup, if the truck hadn't broken down, we would have missed this chance.

We also took a walk on their "Safari" walking tour. And once we got to the Lion area, this male Lion comes over to where we were standing and plops down with some of the Lionesses right in front of us. Great timing again as we had prime photo spots so I grabbed a couple.

I think he was feeling sorry for us! :D

The Equator

2007-01-26T17:00:00.000-05:00

Ok, so I've never actually been to the Southern Hemisphere before. Never seen the water turning the other way, never seeing the sun on the north side. Heck, before I was 20 something I'd never left Canada. But enough about me...

We ended up passing the equator 3 times on our tour and the second time on the way back from Rwanda we stopped an had lunch on the side. It was kind of done up for tourists. A nice yellow line ran across the street to show the equator, a small display and a demonstration of how water drains.

After I had finished my cleaning duties, J & I took a walk out to the side of the road and did the usual tourist shots of us at the equator.

I even took my GPS and had a reading right on the line. According to that though, we were 0.00018 degrees north. So the equator was actually about 15 m south of there. But of course, I had 10 meter accuracy so who knows for sure right?

Very cool nonetheless.

On the way to the Masai Mara we thought...

2007-01-22T08:40:00.000-05:00

The last big thing we were to do on this tour was the Masai Mara. The last game drive and J & I's hope of seeing some Lions, Cheetah and Leopards up close and personal.

Unfortunately, the Masai was supposedly "closed" (more on this later). Just our luck huh?

So, since we were in a group, it was up to the group to decide where we would go instead. We had 2 days to kill.

Democratically, we all decided to head to some lake northwest of Nairobi. Called something like Lake Borgoria...not exactly sure...

I'll just come out and say that the lake was the most STUPID thing I've seen on this trip so far. We wanted a game drive, and it turned out to be a fricking drive down a service road. The only thing going for it was the hotsprings shooting really hot water out.

Wtf man... W.T.F.!

I can't believe ATC (Africa Travel Co., our tour company) would suggest something so f'ing stupid! A big disappointment to me and probably the others who wanted to see some more animals.

Oh well....

Hotel Rwanda

2007-01-17T07:07:00.001-05:00

It's hard to imagine what this country has gone through just over a decade ago.

We were able to head into the Capital Kigali to visit the Genocide memorial which was a very eye opening experience on what the people went through. It's amazing to realize how much impact the West has on the rest of the world. A bit too much if you ask me.

Rwanda is a beautiful country. Our 2 hour ride into Kigali went through some extrodinary mountains. I swear the entire country is mountainous. There were very few cars on the road. Not sure why but most people walk or ride bikes through these hills.

The people were extremely friendly. I can't imagine what they are going through right now since most of these people have been affected by the 1994 Genocide in some way. They are a very strong people and it's amazing how they have been able to cope with it.

On our way out, we did manage to swing by Hotel Milles Collines, made famous by the movie.

I only wish we had another day to experience Rwanda more. One of the big problems with a tour is it's tight schedule.

Hopefully we will one day be able to come back in for a longer visit.

Trekking the Gorillas

2007-01-17T07:06:00.000-05:00

After Hell's Gate we stopped at Lake Nakuru in Kenya for another game drive. We were hoping to see more kitties up close but again it wasn't to be.

Rhinos and Giraffe were the most exciting things we saw....

Next up was the Mountain Gorilla trek. The main point for going on this tour for most people. Originally we were supposed to go to the Congo for this but we found out that ATC hasn't gone to the Congo for at least 6 months due to the unrest there. Don't ask me why we were constantly told that Congo is where we are going then!

The new plan was to go into Rwanda.

It felt like we were being smuggled into Rwanda. We arrived at the border after dark. They kept it open for us 2 hours after they close to everyone else. We had to hike it on foot across the border with our stuff to the other side where we were met with the contact there. We were happy to find out that Canadians didn't need to pay for a visa. I made sure to rub it in to everyone else who did! :)

The next morning we headed in to Volcanoes National Park to find our family of gorillas. Our guide had a sense of humor telling us we were in for a 3 hour hike to the top to find them. I was all psyched up and ready when he said, it's only about 40 minutes. Maybe less because they are coming towards us!

So off we went into the hills. What happened next was definitely not expected.

We caught up with the family and as we were all grouping together, one of the male gorillas comes running up to the last guy in the line and starts to push him around (lightly apparently).

I just heard a "help" and turned around with my camera to catch a quick second before stopping. I'll have to post that later.

We finally get everyone together when the same gorilla decides he wants to carry off one of our group. He comes right up and grabs her, tries to take her away, but the guide somehow wrestles her away from him.

All a bit nervewracking in the first 5 minutes of the trip. Apparently they are a soft fuzzy. Not bristly like an elephant.

The rest of the trek was great. Saw the family and the massive Silverback, who was in a good mood so we just hung around. He showed off his power by breaking some bamboo like toothpicks. Really amazing animals.

Well worth the money if you are in this part of the world.

GCWN8M

2007-01-09T07:58:00.000-05:00

Hell's Gate national park in Kenya. That's where this geocache is located.

We went in and rented bikes with another Aussie couple and the 4 of us set off to see the park and gorge. Going up a road towards the cache, we spot a family of Giraffe's munching on some Acacia's, with the mother eyeing us from behind. We get off our bikes and take a few pictures and continue up. Gerald's leading up and spots a massive Whart Hog cross the road. It disappears by the time I get there.

We bike up to the picnic site and start our search. It took about 10 minutes to locate it inside a small rock overhang. Inside was a Masai keychain and the usual log book. I sign for the 4 of us, leave a Twoonie and we're back on our way towards the gorge.

Time was short so we didn't get to see all of the gorge, but on the way back we spot about 5 Zebra trotting towards us. I'm thinking it was a bit weird but it was funny to see. One of them comes up fairly close (maybe 20 m away) then all of a sudden they take off. I can just imagine what it was thinking...

"Hmm....wonder what animals those are...maybe I'll go take a look....never seen tho...HOLY SH!T THEY'RE HUMANS......RUN!!!)

What a great day....got to bike, sunshine and another geocache!

What Camel, Ostrich and Crocodile Tastes like...

2007-01-09T07:46:00.000-05:00

Nairobi has a popular restaurant called "Carnivore" and for Us$30 you can eat all the meat you want. It wasn't worth it for us so we ended up going to the "Simba Saloon" which allows you to pick 5 meats (3 game meats) for two people.

Camel was like beef with a bit more gamey taste. It was really dry (all the meats were) so I didn't enjoy it all that much.

Ostrich came as ground meatballs, but still were very tasty. It was like a meatball. No poultry taste, more like beef. I can see why it is becoming more popular. I would have liked to taste a steak instead though.

Crocodile was like a shark steak. kinda fishy, kinda chickeny. Go figure.

I still wish we tried the Donkey in China too...

The (Empty) Serengeti...

2007-01-09T07:30:00.000-05:00

Was The Lion King wrong? Millions of Zebra and Wildebeast? Maybe our timing was off?

Arusha is the starting point for all Safari's into the Serengeti and Ngorogoro crater and we had high hopes while setting up camp. The next day we were going to see all these animals up close and personal!

Well, we started off well by seeing Giraffe's befre we even got into the Serengeti park. Beautiful animals, and so fluid when they run.

After checking in at the park and going through, it was like the plains of Canada. Flat and EMPTY! Well, maybe not quite, the scenery was amazing but it really was empty.

(I'll put pictures in later once we have a faster connection.)

We held our hopes up for the Crater but when we were descending into it, you can really see there wasn't much there. I'm not sure how it would look at the high times but this was definitely not what we expected. We also didn't expect to be so far away from the animals. You need to stay on the roads and most times the animals are pretty far away. Without binoculars you can't make anything out.

Again the scenery was beautiful and I'm glad we went. I just hope we'll be able to see more animals up close.

New Year's in Dar Es Salaam

2007-01-09T07:12:00.000-05:00

A bit late, but here's wishing everyone reading this a Happy New Year! All the best to you, your friends and families!

We spent our new year's eve on Kipepeo campsite on the east coast of Tanzania with our new tour group. Most of who came up from Cape Town, Jo'burg or Vic Falls so 7 of us were new to everything.

The group was pretty good. A good mix of all ages but most falling into our age group. We all sat at the bar and waited to ring in 2007 playing drinking games, chatting and laughing.

All in all a fun time. Except for the early (5:30 am) departure to Arusha. Yikes! We got 3 hours sleep that night. Welcome to the tour huh?

Next stop is Arusha and the Serengeti!

My Experience with Tanzania's Medical System

2006-12-29T08:27:00.000-05:00

You don't really realize how good the social system actually is in Canada until you travel outside and experience the local system.

I've always been worried about what would happen if we got sick. So far, aside from J's ear problem and the odd stomach bug, we've been pretty good, until today.

I can't say I had a real big problem. But it bugged me enough to warrant a trip to the local clinic.

I've blogged in the past about ear wax. And for whatever reason, my right ear has been blocked up for about 3 months (just before we got to Malaysia the first time). So on and off for 3 months I've put up with not being able to hear once in a while.

When we got to Zanzibar, it was actually getting a dull pain and we were worried it might get infected. So off to see the doctor.

I don't know about the education or what not but the equipment definitely leaves much to be desired. When I explained the problem to the doctor, he pulled out a flashlight, and a conical metal cone (which I hope was sterile) to see inside the ear canal.

I got some drops and spent 2 days trying to clear out the stuff out but it didn't work (I don't think snorkelling helped it). So pretty much it was back to the doctor to get the ear syringed.

I've had this done once before and it was a simple procedure. Took no time at all and was painless (Painless being the key here). Well...in the beginning it was ok. Water, a big syringe, a pan to catch the water. Then all hell breaks loose.

The guy (nurse?) puts the tip of the syringe in, and because it's a metal syringe, the plunger for some reason gets stuck. I guess he's trying to push harder but only really manages to push the metal tip deeper into my ear. Holy Sh!t it was painfull as heck. I pulled away and the guy just grabs my head back and continues to jab this thing into my ear. Somehow finally the water starts coming out, clears up my ear a bit but we still ended up doing about 3 more shots. Each time, the syringe got stuck, and each time, he jabs my ear until it starts shooting water. Man, WD-40 would go a long way here.

Anyways, in the end we were walking back to the hotel and I found some blood on the end of the tissue I put in my ear. Looks like there's a scrap the size of a peppercorn in there now. Nice. At least the drops I got disinfect as well so I guess I'll keep using it for a few days.

Seriously, I don't think I'll complain about our system in Canada anymore. Even about wait times in the emergency....

It's well worth it.

Snorkelling

2006-12-28T03:36:00.000-05:00

We did our first ever snorkelling trip yesterday and man was it amazing!

We're both not the strongest swimmers so when we signed up we asked for some floatation devices (ie: Life Jackets!) and yes, we were the only ones with them on! :)

It's a bit unnerving to be out in the ocean but once you're in there and looking down at the sea life, it's amazing. We ended up going to 2 different coral reefs, the second one being much better than the first.

Saw a couple stingrays, a massive conch shell with it's owner, a puffer fish, tons of sea urchins and so much more....amazing. One small drawback was all the jellyfish out there. They were small so the stings didn't hurt more than a horsefly bite, but we ended up with a few welts on our arms and legs. Good thing the dive shop gave us wet suits otherwise there'd be a lot more.

We're both glad we decided to go out. It's definitely recommended anywhere there's snorkelling available. We'll be on the look out for it more now.

No pictures though. I'm regretting not buying the waterproof case for our T10. We had a waterproof film camera and that just wasn't enough for all we saw.....sigh.

Paje and our Dalla Dalla ride

2006-12-28T03:05:00.000-05:00

We spent Christmas on the East coast of Zanzibar in a town called Paje.

What is it about beaches that makes prices double??? Ha ha....I know, I know, it was all worth it though. The beach was beautiful! White sand, blue green water....unfortunately, the tide goes out like a kilometer, and it was out during the day so if you wanted to swim, you're in for a long hike.

Once the tide came in though, man it was nice.

We ended up going back to Stone town a day early. And since we had such a fiasco going out there with the taxi drivers, we thought we'd take the local Dalla Dalla back. It's basically a truck with 2 benches and you throw your stuff on the roof.

After haggling with 2 trucks we finally got a guy to agree to our 1900 shillings for both of us, so up our bags went and into the truck we go. It was packed, it was smokey from the exhaust, but man was it fun!!! These ways of travelling are so much more fun than boring old buses.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

2006-12-25T22:22:00.000-05:00

Just wanted to wish everyone back home a very Merry Christmas!

Hope everyone enjoys the holiday season with their families and friends.

Lost AGAIN in Stone Town...

2006-12-22T09:33:00.000-05:00

That's the point apparently. To wander aimlessly in a maze of colonial buildings with no clue where you are going.

It's tons of fun, unless there's a tout following you everywhere while you are looking for a place to stay! We checked out a place that he brought us to, but then wanted to go to a place in our book. Our "friend" takes us to this closed up building and said something like "they had problems with the government". Whatever buddy...

Someone else showed us the way to the hotel and by gosh, it was still there!

Once you lose the touts, it is a really cool place to wander. There's tons of shops selling crafts and antiques and everyone greets you with "Jambo".

Apparently if you reply "Jambo" it means, hello to you too, now speak to me in english! :)

My Africa First Impressions...

2006-12-22T09:10:00.000-05:00

A friend of mine always had a saying.... "It's Hot, AFRICA Hot!"

Yes...yes it is.

It's a good thing we've been in the tropics for a while now. Otherwise, I would have melted in our fan only bedroom in Dar Es Salaam. Even then we had the fan cranked on high! Seriously no need for hot water here.

Dar Es Salaam was nice. I had my usual new place jitters but it wasn't too bad. We had a nice dinner and chatted with the manager of Chefs Pride (Mr. Ali Baba) for a bit and he was telling us all about Zanzibar and the barely covered Italian women (Zanzibar is mostly Islamic) there and how in a few years, Zanzibar will probably break away from Tanzania. He was quite funny, especially when his eyes were bulging when talking about those Italians ("There's nothing left to the imagination...it's all out there for you to see...").

We were pooped so not much else went on that day. Back to the hotel and prepared to head into Zanzibar the next morning!

It's an amazing land, with amazingly friendly people, and a culture as different and exotic as I've ever seen before. I can't wait to see more.

What to do with 3 hours in Dubai?

2006-12-20T09:33:00.000-05:00

We've all seen the palm tree style community that Dubai has built (at least we thought it was done) where everything is built on reclaimed land right out on the ocean. If viewed from above, it looks like a big palm tree. Well, we wanted to go see that, as well as the world's first 7 star hotel (The Burj).

Imagine our disappointment when the information guy tells us all those communities are under construction and so, no, we can't go see them. As for the Burj, it's a long way from the airport and we wouldn't have enough time to go see it.

Ok, then where do we go? He sent us on our way into the downtown (Diera). Armed with our map and in search of bus 401 we went in.

I didn't mention yet that it's like 5:30 am right now and nothing is open and it's still pitch black outside.

So we get off the bus and enter into something that hmm....how to describe it....wasn't so pleasant and comfortable? Yeah....sounds good.

We strolled for about 5 minutes and decided, let's catch a cab and try to go see the Burj.....

20 minutes later, we're standing in front of this crazy hotel...and when I say in front I mean in front of the gate since they wouldn't let us in to see it up close without eating there. Yeah, like we can afford that...

A few pictures and we were off back on a bus towards the airport. A funny thing about the buses there....they have a section for Ladies only at the front. Like we knew that right? So guess where we sit? Yup, right at the front. I clued in after noticing it was nothing but women up front and I'm pretty sure I got some weird looks. Sigh...

Well, we managed to get back to the airport, through customs and onto our gate in time for our trip out. What a morning!

I must say that everyone one we talked to was very very nice. Helped us out, AND could speak perfect english! Sweet!

Customs people with a sense of humor...

2006-12-20T09:15:00.000-05:00

Our flight from KL to Dubai was uneventful except for the fact that we took an earlier flight because the one we booked was full. Unfortunately I was not able to convince the ticket counter to upgrade us to first class for this trouble! Too bad.

But it turned out to be good for us anyways since we got into Dubai an hour earlier we had some time to go into the city to see what it was like. This is our first time in the Middle East.

We got up to the customs counter and I asked if they could put the stamp on a used page (see blog about my passport) and the guy kind of sighed and said, nope. Can't do it.

We're like, can't do what? And he said we couldn't go through customs....so I was a bit confused and so was J. But to confuse us even more he continues to scan our passports and then stamps mine....I'm like, ummm...dude, what are you doing?

Then he kind of laughs and asks "Why didn't you ask why you couldn't come in?".

I'm thinking, man, you're customs, I do whatever you say, I don't know your laws....

He then tells me that they're really laid back and easy going (and from what we saw it's true), but then asks us what our background is (Chinese) and then says, yeah, for Chinese nationals, we wouldn't let them in without a Visa ( :0 ).

Anyways, everything was cool and we ended up going through and into the city.

I've never met a customs person outside of Canadian customs ( :) ) who were so friendly! Turned out the lady checking when we were leaving was friendly too....

Be sure to read about our 3 hour adventure in Dubai!

Africa here we come...

2006-12-17T07:51:00.000-05:00

Well it's almost time to move again.

It's been a while and we hope we haven't lost our travelling legs.

We've stocked up on supplies, especially mosquito repellent, but unfortunately DEET is not very available here (weird) and the highest we got was an OFF brand with 7%. Hopefully it'll be enough. We'll see...we've also got a nice Citronella type stick that you put on like deodorant. Yes, people will love us on this tour! :D

Our bellies are also full from super tasty Malaysian cuisine. Mine is also very round but I'm anticipating the same kind of weight loss I had while travelling around in the first 8 months.

Not sure what the internet access is going to be like but hopefully the next time we update, we'll have some cool pics of a new land with some crazy big animals and such! Can't wait.

Sunway Mall Karaoke-in-a-Box

2006-12-15T01:35:00.000-05:00

This is awesome! We were doing our final shopping in preparation for Africa and we saw these boxes, which I thought were photo booths at first but turns out they are Karaoke booths! There are 2 stools, 2 mics, a computer and TV in each one!

What an idea. It was packed. They were all full and some people showed up to wait after this shot. I wonder if this idea would catch on in Canada? The boxes were pretty sound proof too. Couldn't hear anything outside them.

It used to be a Lizard...

2006-12-15T01:07:00.000-05:00

It seemed our attempts to clean the A/C unit in the living room weren't too successful as water was still dripping out of the unit.

So, up I went again with the snake to try to clear whatever was blocking the bugger. It was getting hot and we need our A/C!

I managed to remove the clip and the hose from the fitting when I saw something inside the cover. It moved when I moved the hose. I saw this long thin dark thing so I picked it up with the pliers and slowly worked it out...

I told J, "there's something up here" and with that I pulled out this petrified lizard carcass!!!! It was sooooo cool!

I have no idea how it got there or how long it was there for but this thing was neat! Poor little guy. These guys are everywhere here. Because the homes aren't completely sealed from the outside, they wander inside through the holes and take up refuge anywhere they can I guess. Bad choice for this guy huh?

We've found one half stuck (head sticking out) from the shower drain before too!

The ribs are fricking cool! We've got him in a tuppeware container now as J's Dad wants to show his friends!

Fe2O3 Key

2006-12-10T06:53:00.000-05:00

What happens when you buy a lock from Canadian Tire and bring it half way around the world to a beach where you have to keep it on you as you go swimming in the warm waters of the Gulf of Thailand?

Haven't used the lock for some time and the key seems to have gotten even worse just sitting there. Maybe it has something to do with the humidity here.

Next time I splurge for the stainless option!

Is This Thing Real? Part Deux...

2006-12-08T20:38:00.000-05:00

You all thought I was joking right? About the sticker, and logging in to to see if you got a legit product?

HA!

Here's the proof....

We bought an extra battery the other day and lo and behold, it came with a sticker to check....of course I logged on, and YES it's real! Woohoo! :D

That's so funny one! (Ian's best Malaysian slang impersonation...)

(J will say it's not even close....)

Another funny thing is that we found a coupon for saving 20 RM and thought great, let's use it. When we showed the clerk, he's like, hold on and disappears for a bit. We had no idea what he was doing but I think he went to check with the manager. I guess people here don't use coupons all that much...we're probably the first.

But like I said before....we're cheap!

Brand Spanking New...

2006-12-08T20:31:00.000-05:00

This Rapid KL bus we took was so new, they didn't have time to take the plastic off...

What you don't see is the plastic covering the drivers seat still! I'm serious!

Curry in a Can...

2006-12-08T20:23:00.000-05:00

With all of J's pics of good coffee shop food, what do you think happens when we get tired of eating the same old stuff day in and day out?

We eat at home!

What do we(I) eat? Check this out!

The best damned curry in a can I've ever tasted! It's probably totally artery clogging and full of preservatives, but man, that combo sure tastes good! It's so spicy I actually had to take a Zantac!

Heat it up, use some bread to dip in the sauce and BAM, instant full!

I do hope T&T will import this into Canada soon!

Oh, and there's also a Mutton and Chicken variety! The Beef is the best in my opinion.

;P

We Saved 7 ringgit!

2006-12-07T20:03:00.000-05:00

We're cheap. Yes...very cheap. I never knew how cheap we could be until we went on this trip. Actually, I started to realize how cheap we could be when we started saving for this trip.

Anyways, we needed a case for our point and shoot and we had scouted some out at the local mall recently but kept forgetting to bring our camera along to make sure it'll fit.

Well, the other day J was getting ready to throw a pair of pants away and I thought, why not use one of the back pockets to make our case? It's got a button, and it was about the right length. We just needed to sew the sides up.

Here's the result....a bit shabby but it'll do. Works pretty good.

The things you can do with old clothes....I've even turned a pair of tearaway pants into tearaway shorts for the hot weather.

Who is Right?

2006-12-06T22:37:00.000-05:00

This article came out here in Malaysia a few days ago and immediately when I saw the title my thought was "Are you kidding me? How can you tell people how to dress?"

But now that I've thought about it for a few days it's not so clear cut. Now before you all brand me as sexist, hear me out.

There's no place for religion in politics. That's what we hear and (most of the time) that's what happens. Well, what happens when religion is a part of politics? Malaysia is an Islamic country. Now I won't pretend I know the first thing about Islam but why wouldn't the government be influenced by the teachings?

Although I think that perhaps they shouldn't force non-muslims to do this as well. But I don't know what's in their Constitution.

In Canada when we learn about our Charter of Rights and Freedoms, our Constitution etc in school, you just take it for granted that these are a given. Equal rights, free speech, freedom of assembly, it's all normal and we think that it should be the same everywhere in the world.

Obviously it's not, and a lot of the problems today seem to come from all these different thoughts of what is right and what is wrong.

I can leave Canada, but it's hard to take the Canadian out of me. I've had to tell myself so many times on this trip that we're not at home. It's how they are. You can't do anything about it. Many MANY times...

I don't know what the outcome is going to be on this issue. There are groups calling it sexist and outrageous. It's definitely not something that would have even happened in Canada, but it's interesting to see what happens in other parts of the world.

KICKAPOO Joy Juice!

2006-12-06T00:30:00.000-05:00

Why oh why did we watch Hostel?

2006-12-04T02:41:00.000-05:00

When the movie first came out I think we were in China still and we both said we shouldn't watch this movie just in case.

Well, guess what we just did?

Yup, and now we are totally regretting watching it. I personally didn't think the movie could be that gruesome but I guess horror movies have come a long way since the Jason and Freddy days. Body parts, loads of blood, drills, bolt cutters, psycho maniacs all packed into an hour and a half. Nice....

Wow, what a messed up movie. We can't understand who would think of something like that.

All I can say is that if you are about to travel, don't watch this movie!

We've still got about a weeks worth of hostel living to do and now I can't wait!!!!

No More Extra Pages...

2006-11-17T07:09:00.000-05:00

To all the Canadians out there. Canada no longer puts extra pages into your passport should you run out (say in the middle of an extended trip).

Of course, some of you may already know this or may have figured it out before hand but it never hurts to put the information out there.

Applying for a new passport doesn't seem to be a problem. The only thing is it would take about 3-4 weeks to get it.

Of course, we also read in our Africa LP book that some border crossings look suspiciously at brand new passports too!

You just can't win...

Is This Thing Real?

2006-11-16T21:17:00.000-05:00

We were at Low Yat Plaza, one of KL's electronics malls, in the downtown yesterday.

Yes, we were on another mission...and yes, J will be posting about it very soon I'm sure.

I want to talk about the funny thing that happened while we were looking for this toy, but first, some history...

A couple of weeks ago, we were down in the same mall in search of cheap memory stick pro duo's. Armed with the prices available for the 2 GB cards in Canada, we went to all the shops which sold them to get pricing. And man did it vary. There was almost a 200 RM ($66 CDN) spread in prices from cheapest to most expensive!

I was ready to settle for a card that I had bargained for already for 250 RM. Not bad I thought. A bit cheaper than what I saw online in Canada (although tigerdirect had it even cheaper I found out later!) anyways, we thought we'd hit one more shop where we saw some and to our surprise, the sales person told us it was 188 RM!!! It even came with some "free" mp3's....yes, I got 180 MB of love songs! :)

After I asked if he could go cheaper (I just had to ask! :) ), he explained something about how they were overstocked and this is cheaper than anyone else already....whatever so we bought it and it's worked great ever since.

Now back to yesterday...we're checking out this gizmo, which happens to be another memory stick pro duo user and while bargaining for it we mentioned another shop had a 1GB included for x amount...the sales guy did some calculating and said he didn't know how they could give that price UNLESS....unless the memory stick was a fake from China!!!

He told us how there are companies that have copied the outside packaging for these sticks, all with the official Sony labels and such. Appartently, it has forced Sony here in Malaysia to put out packaging with a special holographic sticker and pin number which you can log on to a website to check if it's legit.

To me it was a bit silly since if you are logging on to check this pin number, you've already bought the stick and if it's fake, there's probably not much you can do anymore. That thought aside, it left us wondering what the heck we bought 2 weeks ago? I definitely didn't have a sticker and pin number! So off we went looking at all the different shops which sold these sticks and some did and some didn't have the sticker. Some came with an adapter, some didn't. There's so much variety that I don't know what to believe.

I still don't know if what I bought was real, and we thought to avoid this problem, we would buy a Sandisk version for J's toy. Everyone pushes the 5 yr International warranty etc, but when we got home and I opened up the box, the little "warranty" sticker was ripped and only a little piece left, and on the box, it said warranty will be handled by the company we bought it from (instead of Sandisk I assume).

wtf man.....W...T...F!?!?

The Right Side is the Wrong Side...

2006-11-16T21:14:00.000-05:00

It finally happened...I "accidently" ended up driving on the right side of the road. :P

All was going so well until we got into the smaller streets across from where the coffee shops are. We were heading there to pick up lunch and I was busy talking when I made a left turn and for some reason I just ended up on the right side. I guess part of it was I was looking for a parking spot on the right side but I wasn't concentrating and just by instinct the car ended up there. Luckily, speeds don't go more than 15 km/h here (really small street).

There was only one car coming and I remember thinking "what the heck is he doing on my side of the road" before I finally realized it was me that was on the wrong side.

The other guy was probably thinking what an idiot! Sorry dude!

Should've, Could've, Would've

2006-11-11T20:17:00.000-05:00

Looks like we may be hitting a bit of a snag in our plans soon.

I didn't really give it much thought before we left but it's looking like almost every country in Africa requires a tourist visa. Now normally, it's not that big a deal to get the visa's but it is if you only have 4 empty pages left in your passport!

Shoot.

Live and learn. For anyone doing extended trips, think about gettting a brand new passport before heading out. The thing I didn't count on was you have one page for the visa, then the customs person takes another page to stamp your entry and exit. Now I did try to get the Indian customs guy to put his stamp on a used page but all he did was stare at me blankly and proceed to take up another precious empty page.

Thanks buddy.

Looks like we're heading into town tomorrow to visit the Canadian Embassy to see what options we may have.

Bad News then Good News

2006-11-11T08:02:00.000-05:00

Not news about us. This is about one of my favourite bands.

A while back Blink 182 decided to go on hiatus (ie. broke up) and when I found out, I was a bit sad to think I wouldn't get to hear anymore music from them. I don't think there's a song that they wrote that I didn't like. Some more than others for sure but they were all good with a great sound.

Now that I've had some extra time on my hands recently I've been able to read up on stuff that interests me and I was happy to find that the members hadn't stopped creating but decided to start 2 new bands!

Yes, hooray.....

Angels and Airwaves is the new group from the same person who started Boxcar Racer. He even pulled in some of the people from that group (except the drummer). The site is amazing. They're even coming out with a feature film. The demos sound pretty good. I can't wait until I get back to grab the CD.

+44 is the next group started by the remaining members. Again a great sound. Their CD comes out on the 14th of this month. Again I can't wait to get it. For those of you in Toronto who are Blink fans, +44 will be at the Phoenix on 11/21!!!! Sweet....

Now all I need to do is figure out how to spec out a sweet multi-media PC. ;)

Happy Hari Raya and Deepavali

2006-10-24T09:12:00.000-04:00

This week has seen two major celebrations here in Malaysia.

Deepavali for the Hindus and Hari Raya for the Muslims. The two rarely coincide but this year they are only 2 days apart so it's celebrations all around.

For us, it's a break from all the crowds and traffic as everyone has gone back to their villages for the celebrations. "Balik Kampung" as they call it here.

Things are much more quiet than usual except for the odd firecracker every once in a while.

This down time has also let us venture out a bit further into the city. We actually made it into Kuala Lumpur! Yes, and I was driving. There wasn't much traffic and we were on a mission.

Our Mission? Find the SPCA. Yes, that's right. But J will have a blog about our little mission I'm sure so I won't spoil it any more.

Things are going good here. It's been a while since my last blog, but there isn't anything really new.

Oh, except for the fact that we are starting to learn some Qi Gong. But I'll save that for another blog later.

Western vs. Eastern Media

2006-10-06T08:50:00.000-04:00

(Don't look at the picture if you have a weak stomach.)

I can't remember a time in Canada where I've seen really graphic pictures of accidents. The most gruesome it gets is a blood stain on the sidewalk or something like that. Perhaps they feel this isn't really necessary to get the point through. Maybe.

But here in the East, that doesn't seem to be a problem. While in Lhasa Tibet, we saw posted on a few street corners, some displays of traffic accidents which included the results of Human vs. Vehicle interactions. They were really gross actually. The one I remember the most was a picture of the back of a large 2 axle truck with dual rear tires. You can see some legs and arms protruding out both sides of one of the tires, and a large RED skid mark about 20-30 feet in length. Nice huh?

The other day while reading the local paper here in KL, there was an article on a suicidal bus driver in Chongqing, China that drove off an over pass. Of course many died but the picture they showed was one you would never see in North America. An overhead view of the bus with bodies lying everywhere.

I don't know which is better. Does the shock value of seeing these things drive the point home more? But after some time, won't you get desensitized to it all? Are we all better off not seeing this stuff? The crowd that has gathered right around all the bodies is quite interesting too. All very curious I'm sure.

There's lots of different opinions I suppose and I'm not sure which is better but in an effort to bring you both sides, here's a picture of the picture shown in the local Star Newpaper.

You decide. Too much? Or ok?

Driving on the wrong side of the road...

2006-10-01T11:38:00.000-04:00

We have access to a car here in Malaysia but for the first few days we didn't use it, choosing instead to take the bus and taxi's.

Unfortunately, the public transport system out in Subang Jaya really blows. To get anywhere, it's at least an hours ride but by car, it can be as short as 20 mins. So needless to say, we needed to learn how to drive here.

We took some time one day to take the car out just around the complex here seeing how the car drives and making sure we can work the clutch and stuff. We had no intention of leaving to go on any roads yet but as I was driving around all the one way lanes here, it eventually led us to the exit gate. Great! I've got no choice now than to leave...

Look Left, then Right, then Left...I can still remember my driving instructor drilling this into my head...and after 15+ years of doing just that, I needed to reverse it. Stay on the left, stay on the left I kept muttering to myself as we pull out of the gatehouse and make a right hand turn across oncoming traffic.

we went down the street, turned into the coffee shop area, turned around and headed home. All in all, a 5 min. ride and no problems. Sweet.

The only problems I've had so far is getting used to shifting with the left hand and holding the steering wheel with the right hand, always reaching for the seat belt on my left side and the signal bar on the right side.

So far so good.

Oh yeah, and the car we drive is a locally made Perodua Kancil... 659 cc of raw power baby! AND it has AC. SWEEEEET!

A Change of Plans

2006-09-26T01:22:00.000-04:00

Our India trip has been cut short and we are now back in Kuala Lumpur. We aren't sure if we will make it back to India or not so for those who were looking forward reading our experiences, my apologies.

The number of blogs will also slow down a bit as we will be busy here and not really doing any site seeing. Maybe when there's time I will do some "best of" blogs, or a recap of some of the trip so far.

Our decision of whether to go back to India will depend on how long we are here.

1st Train Ride

2006-09-26T01:20:00.000-04:00

It had to happen sometime. We couldn't stay in Delhi forever so we decided on the next stop to be Jaipur (another corner of India's Golden Triangle) also known as the Pink City. Apparently their old city is a nice uniform shade of pink.

India had been so overwhelming since we arrived we thought that we wouldn't be able to do the cheaper trains where some are standing room only, jammed in with all the locals etc. We decided instead to go for the more spacious, air-conditioned Shatabdi Express train. Yes, we're wimps. :)

Our first experience with Indian train stations was frustrating (for me anyways). We had no idea which platform our train was on. We were told it may be on platform 10 but the sign didn't show our train number. Here we are at 5:50 am (our train left at 6:10) and we had no idea where to go. I went down onto platform 10 and saw a big sign saying "May I help you". when I got there though there was no one there. Nice.

At 6:00 there was an announcement for our train. Thank god it was in English and we figured out we needed to go to platform 2. I really didn't need that stress so early in the morning.

We found our car and seats and the train took off on time.

The train ride itself was very uneventful. We got a breakfast and free newspapers, the scenery was quite nice. Mountainous as well as with lots of farmland.

The other thing you see from the train is probably India's poorest people. Just as the train was leaving New Delhi station, you see hundreds of homemade shacks, barely big enough for a room. It made Toronto's Tent City look luxurious.

People were sleeping on old train station platforms as well, and everyone using the grass beside the tracks as their bathroom. It was really weird to see everyone squatting anywhere they could. J thought they were just squatting like Chinese people do but I don't think Indians squat for fun.

A very humbling sight to say the least.

we arrived in Jaipur without any problems. Got picked up by the owner of our hotel because there are so many touts outside the train station. He told us he always tries to pick up his customers because if we were to take a tuk tuk, they'd take us to some other hotel where they can get a commission.

I wish we could say we saw a lot of Jaipur but we pretty much checked in, had lunch, then went out to get plane tickets back to Kuala Lumpur (see next blog).

Didn't even take a picture.

Moving on from Delhi

2006-09-22T03:38:00.000-04:00

It has been a week since we landed in India and we've spent the time mostly trying to get used to the way India works.

We did manage to get out and see Connaught Place, Red Fort and the Jama Masjid, but the majority of the time was spent near our hotel on the Main Bazaar.

There have been a number of demonstrations here in Delhi over the last week. Just as we arrived, the night before there was some rioting near the mosque over the Popes comments on Islam. Luckily that didn't go further than that area. And on Wednesday, there was a protest from the Traders Association over something called "sealing". Thousands turned out and some trouble came about causing the police to fire into the crowds. 4 people were killed. Luckily again, that was a day we decided to spend indoors.

Yes, it's time to move on.

But here are some pictures from our week.

The Main Bazaar...

Connaught Place...

Yes, we broke down and ate Pizza one day for lunch! :P

But we did manage to try Tandoori Chicken and Vegetable Korma with Naan and Rice...

Culture shock...

2006-09-17T03:46:00.000-04:00

I don't think there is anything that can prepare you for the difference I've seen here in Delhi vs. anywhere else in the world. It is amazing.

While in Chennai, we saw nothing outside of the pick up drop off area in front of the two terminals. In Delhi though, once we got to the Main Bazaar in Paharganj it is extremely hard to explain.

The street is a main street in the area, yet it doesn't have sidewalks, street lines, it isn't even straight. It's just store front to street.

Pedestrians everywhere, tuk tuk's everywhere, cars everywhere, and yes, (we read about it but didn't really believe it) cow's everywhere! It's so overwhelming. I'm still not sure who has the right of way, but I do know the Cow's don't give a sh!t about anything! :)

The next thing that I haven't gotten used to is the rolling blackouts. I think every store and hotel here have back up gas generators. We went through one last night, and another while eating breakfast this morning. The street is so loud when the generators are going!

It happened at the Airport...

2006-09-17T03:23:00.000-04:00

Ok, who would think anything can happen while you are inside the secure area of an airport? We were both watching our bags carefully and such but you don't think you need to watch out for scam artists just quite yet.

Well, we were wrong. And it was a good one.

We just picked up our bags and made our way to the "pre-paid" taxi stand so we would get a set fare into Delhi. J got up and told the guy where we wanted to go and the cost ended up being 170 Rupees. I wasn't quite ready with everything and thinking we needed to break all the large bills we got in Malaysia, I decided to pull out a 1000 ($25 CDN) bill. I gave it to J and she passed it on to the guy but we were both still busy messing with our stuff when the guy said, 170 Rupees... I was thinking "What?" and he handed us back a 100 bill.

We really weren't thinking and since we did just get some smaller 100 bills earlier in Chennai, I thought it was my mistake (was still getting used to the new currency). So I brought out another bill and apologized.

We got our change and ticket, got into the cab and off we went.

Once we found a hotel and checked in, we went through what we had and I found I was missing almost 1000 Rupees. That freaked me out and looking real close, it was exactly 900 Rupees. We couldn't think of where we would have lost that much, no one picked us, and to pick only 900 is quite a feat.

I was a bit pissed and it didn't leave my mind. I thought where could we have lost 900? The only thing that came to mind was the Taxi counter. It added up. Give him 1000, get 100 back. Buddy pockets 900! Son of a ....

What luck huh? If we didn't get small change while in Chennai, we wouln't have had any 100's in our pockets and we (maybe) would have realized he made the switch. There's no way to prove it in any case.

Lesson is that you've got to watch when you pay. Don't look away for a minute!

On a brighter note, we've stayed one night so far...looked for a new hotel this morning (ours was a bit worn down and loud) and found a nice place with AC. Hope it's ok anyways. Time to start planning to see the sites.

Jet Airways

2006-09-17T03:12:00.000-04:00

We booked our flight in to India through Jet Airways. It was a very comfortable flight in and the service was quite good.

We had only one little snag again checking in and it was because we only had a one way ticket again. The lady at the counter kept saying they may not let us in and that they can't be responsible if we are turned away at the border, etc, etc...

After a bit of humming and haaing, she whips out this letter that we had to sign to say we wouldn't hold Jet Airways responsible if we were left behind. Whatever...so we signed, but reading the letter through, we basically said we wouldn't sue if we died on their plane or something like that...

Anyhoo, our itinerary had us going from KL to Chennai (Madras), then a small layover then to Delhi.

We saw nothing of Chennai, but when we landed in Delhi, that's a whole different blog...

Off to India

2006-09-13T00:25:00.000-04:00

We have been in Kuala Lumpur for 3 weeks now and are starting to get a bit restless.

We have finally booked our tickets out to India for this Saturday.

After going back and forth as to where to land (it was mainly between New Delhi and Kolkata) we agreed on New Delhi mainly because flights to India from Malaysia seemed to land at night and we thought it better to land in the afternoon. There was only one flight that landed in the afternoon and it was in New Delhi.

I'm really looking forward to seeing India. I don't even know what to expect and yes, it's a bit unnerving but should be fun nonetheless.

We'll be back soon with pictures, experiences and thoughts....

GCVNR5

2006-09-12T00:00:00.000-04:00

We needed to make another trip into KL for a follow up to J's hearing problem. I had my GPS tracking us when we were on the bus and found that we were just 500 m south from a Geocache when we arrived at Kota Raya (the end of the #10 bus from Subang Jaya).

After the appointment we headed out to look for this cache. I've been carrying around a Travel Bug since the middle of our Thailand journey and wanted to leave it here in Malaysia.

As we were walking along this busy street, the exhaust from the cars was trapped on the street level because of the tall buildings on both sides as well as a raised LRT track right above the road. Needless to say it was a bit hard to breath not to mention that I was having trouble getting a reading some of the time.

After a short 10 minute walk, we ended up coming out of the buildings and into an open area where we zeroed in on the cache.

It was at the side of Merdeka (Independence) Square just under an overpass. Not much was in it; a small action figure, used nail clippers, Alberta CDN pin (Canadians are just everywhere). I just ended up contributing another CDN Twoonie to it, dropped off the Travel Bug into the container and logged the find.

That's that....stay tuned for more finds (hopefully) in India....

Congratulations!

2006-09-09T22:30:00.000-04:00

Just wanted to Congratulate our two friends who got married today in Niagra on the Lake.

We wished we could be there to help them celebrate their big day along with all our other friends but timing just didn't work out.

We wish them all the best in their future together. They make a great couple and we couldn't be happier for them.

Way to go you two! Have a great time on your honeymoon!

So when are the kids coming, eh? ;)

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

2006-09-04T01:50:00.000-04:00

It has been a week of family reunions, visa applications, doctors appointments and eating.

We have finally gotten around to going to an internet cafe to do some blogging and other stuff.

We've been staying with J's Dad who is out in Subang Jaya and we've ventured into the heart of KL a couple times since being here. KL is just like I remember it during my last visit in 2003. Although the public transport has been improved since the last time, it needs a bit more work here in Subang Jaya. To get to the train station, it's an hour ride on a mini bus and that's if there's no traffic. Apparently traffic here is the worst in the Greater KL area. Even cabbies from KL won't come out here because of the traffic!

We'll have to venture in again tomorrow to the Indian High Commision. Our visa's are ready and need to be picked up. We'll probably end up staying down there until the traffic dies down. Maybe do some shopping, pick up some more DVD's for J's Dad and our own enjoyment. ;)

Thailand - Come and Gone

2006-08-27T01:02:00.000-04:00

What a fantastic country pretty much sums it all up. I don't know what took us so long to go to Thailand but it is a definite must do.

Our 30 day free stay was way too short to enjoy everything that Thailand has to offer. But alas, we needed to move on. For those who don't want to move on, you can just head to a border town, leave Thailand and enter again all in the same day and voila, another 30 day free stay. Padang Besar in Southern Thailand is one such city.

So what's great about Thailand?

Firstly, it is dead easy to travel through Thailand. Almost everyone at the train/bus stations speak english. And there is usually someone on the platforms asking where you are going. All they see is the backpack and they'll ask.

We went from Ayutthaya to Kanchanaburi by bus and it stopped somewhere in the middle and there was a guy who pretty much herded us into the next bus. No mess no fuss!

Secondly, the people are super friendly. After coming from a country which has a "to each their own" type mentality, it was so different to have people on the street ask where you are going or where you are from. Not being naieve or anything but there will be some of these people who want something else from you and we were mostly skeptical of people who asked us questions, but on one occasion, I had a Tuk Tuk driver ask me where we were going and I thought I'd see if he would try to lure us in. I told him we were looking for the train station (yes, we were lost in Bangkok somewhere) and he simply pointed the way for us without even offering to take us there. Very nice!

Thirdly, the food. Now, my Malaysian better half will say that the best food is in Malaysia, but I think it's a hard choice after eating the food in Thailand. For one, the rice is awesome. I don't know why but Thai rice went down soooooo good! Curries were great too and the hawker food can't be beat. It's a really hard choice as to which is better but keep in mind that Thai food is cheaper than Malaysian food (I never thought that possible but it is!). Maybe that'll tip the scale a bit? ;)

And lastly, let's not forget the beaches. Now, I can't say I have anything to compare with since most of my life has been spent inland, but our week and a half on Ko Phangan was amazing!

The laid back attitude, clear water, beautiful weather all combined to make a great relaxing atmosphere.

The only thing that is a bit annoying is the fact that you pay a surcharge for reading an english menu. At least 50-100% more. But at the exchange rate 1 CDN - 30 Baht, it's not too much. Just more of a principle thing for me.

Needless to say, J and I have already said we need to make another trip back here to do some serious shopping and more beach relaxing!

31 hours later...

2006-08-26T23:54:00.000-04:00

It's a record. We needed to go from Ko Phangan, Thailand to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and it took us a cool 31 hours in total.

Our last 30 hour run from Shanghai to Hong Kong was a lot easier than this since we only had to stay in the train, but I was actually enjoying our trip down.

We had a 1 hour ride from the beach to the ferry terminal on the island on the back of a pick up truck with 2 benches running along the bed.

A 1 hour wait for the ferry.

Next was a 3 hour ferry ride back to the mainland.

From there it was a 1 hour AC'd bus ride to the train station.

Once there, we find out almost all the trains going north were seriously delayed, but no news about going south! It does turn out that our train was an hour delayed. So along with a 3 hour layover waiting for the train, there was another hour delay.

Our train was going from Surat Thani to Butterworth in Malaysia and that was a cool 10 hours. I'm happy we went for an AC'd sleeper though. I wouldn't have wanted to do the non-AC version again. But in the end, the train was delayed arriving as well so the ride was more like 12 hours.

Once in Butterworth, we needed to find a bus into KL. Pretty easy, but we went with the wrong company and this driver was slow. And I mean slow. All the other busses were passing us and in the end, a 4.5 hour trip took 6 hours, not to mention it left a bit late again.

From the bus station in KL we had to cab it into Subang Jaya. I had forgotten how aggressive the driving is here. Very nutty! At one point the cabbie took a "shortcut" which meant he was driving on the other side of the road! Nice...

In the end: 3:00 pm from Friday to 10:30 ish pm Saturday night was spent in motion.

What a rush...

Relaxing at Ko Phangan

2006-08-26T23:27:00.000-04:00

With our 1 month free stay running out, we knew we wanted to head to one of the many islands around Thailand. After many reads through our LP guide, we decided on a small island off the east coast called Ko Phangan. We even knew which beach we wanted. One that wasn't too party like since we heard there are "Full Moon" parties which get kinda crazy (although from the ads we saw, it seems like any moon is a reason to have a party!)

Thong Nai Pan Yai is at the North East end of the island and from what we read, not as busy as some of the others.

So after an overnight train from Kanchanaburi, we got on a bus to take us to the ferry terminal where we hopped on to the ferry for a 2.5 hour boat out to the island.

Bungalows are the standard room types there. Small little wood huts built on stilts each with their own bathroom. We found a really nice one at a place named Dolphin. After settling in and walking around, we felt we got one of the best places on the beach. The owner kept as many trees as he could so it was very natural, unlike some of the other places which were just clear cut to make way for the rooms.

I've only been to one other island in my life (Tioman in Malaysia) and I must say, this place was amazing. A crescent shaped beach, soft sand, palm trees and warm waters. We couldn't ask for more.

Needless to say, the 10 days we were there went by fast and I don't think I've ever been more relaxed.

Our typical day was: sleep late, breakfast, lie in the hammock, go lie on the beach, coconut shake (YUM!), lie on the beach, swim, lie on the beach, lie in the hammock, dinner, lie in the hammock, go to bed!

Nice...

Toronto and the IMBA

2006-08-12T02:10:00.000-04:00

Ok, since this blog is named Huck, Drops and Switchbacks, I thought I would do a quick Mountain Bike blog.

Those who haven't followed the link to Rocky Mountain bikes at the sidebar should go take a look at the sweeeeeeet Rocky All-Mountain Slayer.....droooool...

And if anyone would like to contribute to my Slayer 70 fund, please feel free! ;)

In seriousness though, the IMBA is really active in Toronto this year and it seems like they are going into a lot of the trails to fix them up. Should be really nice to ride on the new stuff they build. I keep getting e-mails on their activities so here's the latest one:

***********************************************
UPCOMING TORONTO TRAIL EVENTS

Next Week:
Monday August 28, 6pm - 8pm - Trail Assessment and Design of Pottery Rd. trail access
Meeting in the parking lot at the base of the slope, on the north side of Pottery Rd. just before Bayview Ave.
We will be designing a re-route and identifying key projects for the Sept. IMBA workshop.

September:

Sunday Sept. 10, 10am - 1pm - Trail Work Session - Etobicoke Creek
We will be removing old stunts and making trail improvements in Etobicoke Creek.
Meeting location will follow.

Saturday and Sunday September 16 & 17 - IMBA Trail Workshop
Join us for another IMBA Advanced Trail Workshop! Help us re-route and repair the Pottery Road trail access!
Saturday morning will be in-class, the remaining will be field work. Details to follow.

Crothers' Woods Management Master Plan - Get involved and share your vision for the Don Valley Trails
The Plan will:
Make recommendations for the Don trail network and forest management
Develop construction standards for trails and built structures
Identify guiding principles for natural surface trail management to be applied in other natural environment lands in the City

Public consultations with trail users and other stakeholders will take place. To have your voice heard and be informed of meetings, please let me know.

To register for an event, or if you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me.

I hope you are all having a great summer, and I look forward to seeing you at the upcoming workshops!

Trisha

Trisha Kaplan-Freed
Lower Don Project Specialist
Natural Environment and Community Programs
City of Toronto, Parks, Forestry and Recreation
tel: (416) 338-5053
fax: (416) 338-1069
http://www.toronto.ca/don/

Mailing Address:
City Hall, 8th Floor, West Tower
100 Queen Street West
Toronto, ON M5H 2N2

Office Address:
Don Valley Brick Works
550 Bayview AvenueToronto, Ontario
****************************************

Other news and info can be found on the Toronto trails website and the IMBA website.

Don't forget the Help Ian to Buy the Slayer 70 Fund!!!

Nice Kitty...

2006-08-11T01:01:00.000-04:00

There is an animal sanctuary here in Kanchanaburi which was originally started by a Monk to take care of an orphaned Tiger Cub. It would soon develop into a huge area with many more cubs plus a whole range of other animals which were in need.

Every afternoon, when the Tigers are out for their "excercise", people can come in to the excercise area and have their pictures taken with these felines.

When we saw we could do this, we jumped at the chance. When else were we going be get up close to real Tigers! And since I was born in the Year of the Tiger, how cool would that be to get a picture with them.

We arrived in the afternoon and followed a path leading into a large canyon. When we rounded a corner, you can see in the distance about 10 Tigers roaming around, along with people watching them and playing with them.

Now, not to give any false impressions, these cats were chained up to stakes in the ground so I guess if they did decide to charge, you'd get a head start before the beast pulls the chains out of the ground! :)

The area is quite set up for ushering people through a series of about 5 locations with good photo ops set up. A few Tigers would be lying on the ground, and some perched on top of a rock a meter in the air.

A quick spew about what was to happen came from one of the handlers.

"Leave your bags outside the area, there's less for them to grab onto, just in case"; great I thought

"We will have a handler escort you around, do NOT leave his/her side"; uh huh

"Give your camera to another handler for pictures"; ok.

Well, needless to say, Jenni went first! ;)

I watched from the side as she was led by hand to the first Tiger, some pictures taken, then to the second one, which seemed to be a bit pissed and just wouldn't sit still so they bypassed him. On to a few other ones and she was done being led out of the area.

Well, I was up next. Handing my camera over to one of the ladies another guy grabs my hand and leads me over to the first Tiger. Nice kitty I'm thinking as I size up the length of chain holding him to figure out how far I'll need to jump back if for whatever reason he turns and goes for me.

"Kneal down here and put your hand here".

As I reach down to rest my hand on the back hindquarters of the cat, the muscle twitches as my hand lands there. Phew...

Cool, I'm petting a Tiger.

A couple pics and we're off to the second grumpy one and again, he's not happy so we move on to the 3rd and 4th ones.
Most of them were too busy knawing at a bone or just sleeping so it was actually pretty safe to go through the motions. Not sure if there have ever been any injuries but I would think not.

Still, it was so amazing to be standing so close to one of these animals. There skin was so warm to the touch. Just one indication of the amount of power laying underneath there I guess.

Afterwards, the Tigers were to be lead back up into their cages and everyone, if they wanted, could have a picture taken with one of the Tigers as he headed back up. I was a bit more worried since the Tiger could easily knock down the handler holding their chains but what the heck. I gave my camera to someone, walked up behind the kitty and gave him one last pet. Jenni did the same but I guess he was a bit grumpy and they moved a bit faster and unfortunately, the shot was more of her chasing the cat instead of walking behind it.

All in all...very cool and well worth the 300 Baht each donation to help support the sanctuary.

Our Day Tour of Kanchanaburi

2006-08-11T01:00:00.000-04:00

Yes, for some reason we decided to go on another package tour of the area around Kanchanaburi. I guess we were getting lazy again. Or maybe a bit cheap since the two things we wanted to do, if we did them separately, would have cost more than this day trip everyone advertised. I guess we figured that we get to do both Erawan National Park and riding the elephants as well as a couple other things we thought would be a bonus.

First stop was Erawan National Park, which is home to a 7 tiered waterfall. Sounds nice? IT WAS!

Picture all the movies which are in a lush tropical setting. You see a shot of a nice 20 foot waterfall into a pool of bluish green water.

You see two people swimming in the water, standing around and under the waterfall itself. Relaxing, laughing all that good stuff.

Kinda cheesy if you ask me...but this place was just like that. Tiers 2-5 were big enough to swim in and we took a walk to see which one we wanted to go into and it turns out #3 was the best! A nice high waterfall into a large pool. A small rock island beside the waterfall, and a rock slab the water falls onto. Nice.

We were lucky to be here in the rainy season and the falls were nice and wide. Check out Jenni's blog for the pictures.

Before we headed up, we were warned that there are fish in the ponds and not to worry if some of them come up and bite you. They weren't pirrahna's we were told. Great...

It is such a funny feeling to have these little guys nibling on your feet and legs and arms...really weird. I kept thinking I'll start to feel pain but it wasn't too bad. It was just so weird that everytime it happened we both started flinching and scared them all away.

Well, it was a great time there. It started to pour rain just as we were finishing up. Definitely could have used a couple more hours there, but we were on a tour so off we went.

Next stop, elephant riding and a bamboo raft down the river.

We get to the elephant camp I guess, and we're told we'll do the raft first. No problem. They hustle us down to the river side and we see these "rafts" coming to dock and the first thing I notice is the pontoons supporting the bamboo! WTF is all I have to say. On top of that, they have a boat to tug you upriver about 500 m then let you go. WTF again? Why bother.

Anyways, back on shore, we head off to do our ride. The elephants are big, but not as big as I would have thought. Either way though, it was a long way to the ground if we fell off and there's no seat belts or anything. But strangely enough, I felt safer doing this than our camel ride in China.

The ride was ok I guess. We went in a big circle around this park. I don't think I would have called it a "trek" though. But it was fun. Their kinda cute animals. And the guide let Jenni get on in front for half the trip. Hahaha...here's Jenni trying to hold on, our guide has one thumb and forefinger holding her shirt (Yeah buddy, like you'll stop her fall like that!), and me sitting back in my seat taking all these pics.

All in all...not bad, but again, a little more would have been nice.

Next stop is this cave which has a Buddha in it.

Yup, that's all it was. Next.

Our train ride on the death railway. This line was built with a lot of POW's and local people in WWII and a lot of them died making it. It's got a lot of history and I thought we'd be getting on a special train which would give us a bit of info on the line and such but as the train arrived, it's a regular local train. Except that it was jammed packed with tourists and we ended up having to stand in the little space between the cars where there are no windows. Nice.

Well, that was pretty much it. On our ride back, we both felt a bit ripped off but I guess that what these tours are like. See a bit of everything.

Hopefully we'll remember this experience before we go with these day trips again.

Pimp MY Ride!

2006-08-07T06:02:00.000-04:00

West Coast Customs has got NOTHING over whoever does up these buses here in Thailand. We started to see some cool hippie style buses in Lopburi. Big chrome tailpipes and some psychedelic paint schemes, but nothing and I mean nothing can compare to this awesome bus we saw here in Ayutthaya! It was amazing. We were walking down the bus station road, and there's all these buses lined up and ALL of them are done up in some way or another.

Just as I was going to take a picture of one of them, this thing rounds the corner and stops right in front of us. Of course I had to get a picture.

I am speechless. This thing is just awesome!

GCWJ29

2006-08-07T05:48:00.000-04:00

Now, this by no way makes my failure at the WWII Ammo Dump geocache any better. I'm still feeling the hurt from the comments... :(

But we did go out and look for another one today and yes, I am happy to report that we did find it.

We are in Ayutthaya, Thailand and this island city is well known for its old ruins which date back to the 14th century, and unlike most of the historical heritages, we are able to get up close and personal with them.

We had rented bikes for the day and saw a few other ruins before heading out to look for this cache. It was really close, only about 30 mins ride away and once in the general vicinity, it took us about 10 mins to find. Hidden under some bricks in the corner of one of the ruins. Very cool.

We stole a Travel Bug, which looks like it came from Utah, and it's goal is to have its picture taken with as many dogs as possible. Go figure huh? Anyways, there's tons of wild dogs here in Thailand but I don't think I'll be trying to get any pictures of them. We'll see if I can find any to take otherwise, I'm dropping this guy off at the next stop.

We left one of the Twoonies we brought with us. But since it was an American who started the cache, I think he may be a bit disappointed with what we left. :) It's like us getting the American quarter in Qingdao.

The monkeys have taken over!!!

2006-08-05T04:50:00.000-04:00

Our next stop was to head north more into central Thailand to a small town named Lopburi.

It is one of the oldest towns in Thailand and it's very well known for it's monkeys. They are supposed to be everywhere, running on roofs, stealing food, smearing poo on windshields, etc...

How cool is that. So we hopped onto a train from Bangkok and arrived in Lopburi 3 hours later.

We were initially disappointed to see only a couple monkeys on the power lines but thought, tomorrow will be better.

Well...tomorrow came and we set out to see some cool ruins around town but upset to see no monkeys. Jenni ended up making a comment about not seeing any and about 5 seconds after she said it, I see a whole gang of them running up the street. I pointed them out to Jenni and we started to do all the picture taking we could get.

After a few shots, we ended up walking over to and old temple which must be their stomping grounds because they were everywhere. It's amazing how close you could get to them. Of course, we had a bit of hesitation. Are they going to attack us? We weren't sure how close we could get. But we still took as many pics as possible.

At one point, I was just standing around when I feel something grab on to my pant leg. Oh SH#T, I'm being attacked...I was preparing to feel sharp claws or teeth sink in to me somewhere but I guess they have hands pretty much like ours and their nails weren't sharp at all. I wonder who clips their nails???? At the same time, I think another monkey hopped on as well but I wasn't too sure since I was still kinda freaked out as to what they were going to do to me.

The little bugger started to climb all over my day pack and I'm wondering what he's doing when all of a sudden I hear big splashes of liquid hitting the ground.

"Great, he's peeing on me now!" I thought! But I am glad I was wrong. The guy hopped off me with our water bottle in hand (upside down mind you with all the liquid splashing onto the grass) and ran off.

Somehow the second guy got off (I think a local helped me get him off) and he ran off. Whew...what an experience. But it wasn't over....

We're inside still taking pics of the little babies, some squabbles between the group etc, when another cute little guy comes up and hops right on. He climbs up and start noseying around, pulling on this and that, trying to bite my watch and clean my ears out apparently. Very cute and friendly, until it came time to get him off. He didn't like Jenni trying to shoo him away and would hiss from his perch on top of my head everytime she tried. So I ended up taking off the day pack which he went for (thank god he couldn't lift it otherwise it would have been gone) then I flailed my arm and went a bit aggressive, which got me a hiss and I lost the friend I just made.

It's better that way anyways. He was a wee bit TOO friendly.

I managed to get a video of the fiasco, but arm shot videos are a bit hard to take. It is kinda amusing though.

As a final note, to show maybe I shouldn't have let them get on me in the first place, we saw a lady in a tour group who had gotten bitten by a monkey. You could see the teeth marks, but no blood. Not sure what happened to provoke it but I guess, in the end, these were still wild animals and we need to realize that they could be territorial and you never know what would set them off.

I hope she's ok. Me; I went home and showered...

What's in a Mall?

2006-08-03T02:56:00.000-04:00

After a hot morning of wandering around the largest "Open air" market in the world here in Bangkok, we thought we'd cool off by walking through some nice air conditioned mall.

Hopping onto the skytrain, we headed into the center of town and randomly chose the Siam Center mall to hang out in. Who knew it would be such a good choice. Looking at the directory, they had an auto area and to my surprise, it was a pretty sweet auto area.

BMW, Maserati, Porsche, Bentley, Lamborghini and Ferrari...yeah, not bad I guess.

Of course we headed up there and was happy to see the cars were right out in the open and you could get up close to them all (except the Ferrari which was roped off...BOOOOO!).

Now this is what I call an Auto Mall!!!

Bangkok First Impressions

2006-07-31T06:29:00.000-04:00

As we waited for our flight to Bangkok from Macau, the usual feeling of uneasyness came over me. I am usually a bit hesitant when we get into new cities, let alone a whole new country.

What's in store? Is it dangerous? Will we be pestered by persistent touts? Will we get lost??? Will we get scammed, lose all our money and have to come home early? What about all the druggings we hear about? What about those huh?

All these thoughts are running through my mind. Jenni of course is giddy with anticipation!

We had a very eventless flight into Bangkok and once we got through customs and our bags, we headed out to the bus area to get a ride into town to find our hotel.

Only a few people pushing taxi's, we declined and stepped outside for the first time! Damn it's hot and humid! And the street is bustling. Cars, busses, scooters everywhere!

My first impression of Bangkok, as we sit for 2 hours on a bus to get to our hotel, is that traffic is really really bad! Why did we decide to land at rush hour?

Once settled into our room, we head out into the street. A street so filled with Westerners you could swear you're back home! It was unreal. Like Yangshuo in China but even more so.

The street was filled with night life. Really cool. And yes, I did feel fairly safe. :)

The city is just like any other large city. Lot's to see, lot's to do. Things are fairly cheap here but we keep comparing to China and right now, it would seem China was cheaper in all respects.

Well, we're here for a week at least so I'll post more of what we see, the differences to what we've been doing the last 4 months.

As usual, my fear of new places was just a figment of my imagination....

Macau and our SWEET surprise...

2006-07-29T03:09:00.000-04:00

It's a simple 1 hour boat ride to Macau from Hong Kong but for whatever reason, I've never really thought about going over there.

Since we were back in Hong Kong with lots of time on our hands, we thought we'd take a trip over. From everything we've read and heard from people, Macau is becoming the next Las Vegas. I pictured a massive strip with huge casinos, lots of lights and real flashy.

Well, as our ferry docks and we get off, all I can see is the Sands Casino. Huge really, but not as much flash as I would have thought. We needed to find our shuttle to the hotel, and once on it, we end up passing the "strip", or the area they will be making into a Las Vegas...there was only one casino there being built, the Venetian. Identical to the one in the US, but twice as big! Holy cow was it big! There's supposed to be another 9 or more within the next few years. We'll see how this places changes then.

Anyways, our sweet surprise was that we were being treated to two nights at the Westin Resort in Macau! Thanks again Sis and Bro in Law! What a sweet place. Ocean view, King size bed, in/outdoor pool...how exactly are we supposed to see Macau with a room like this?

We split it about 60/40...we did manage to go see the Sands Casino, walk along the historic Portugese area, saw St. Paul's ruins, and found some jerky and egg tarts. The rest of the time was spent relaxing in the pool, getting comfortable on those Heavenly Beds...which are pretty darned nice!

All in all, a very nice and relaxing 2 days in Macau. Not that we needed anymore right! ;)

The place is very easy to get around. Shuttle buses galore at the ferry terminal. You want to go to Sands...hop on the Sands shuttle bus. No problem.

Geocache attempt

2006-07-20T02:50:00.001-04:00

I found what seemed like a very cool Geocache here in Hong Kong and was hoping to get a chance to go look for it.

Apparently is was a "WWII" cache which was supposed to have some old bullet shells in there with some CD roms which I have no idea what was on them. Sounds interesting enough.

After having lunch with my sister in Shek-O, we started talking about this whole Geocache thing and she seemed interested enough and offered to drive us around the area to look for this thing.

You can imagine the scene with my GPS on her dash, me shouting out to her "650m, 600m, 550m, yes we're going in the right direction..."

After a few wrong turns we ended up in a cemetary where I thought it was going to be but after a bit of a search we found out that we were about 70m away outside the cemetary's entrance so away we went again.

We ended up pulling over to the side of the road and Jenni and I got out to go find this thing. We were 33 m away from it and we were heading into a small stone path when I saw the biggest fricking spider I've ever seen sitting in the middle of his web blocking the path. I swear it was the size of a dinner plate!!! I stopped just in time as my head hit something in the path. Instinctively I backed up and felt this sticky stuff pull off my head. As I looked up, I saw another fricking huge spider sitting in the middle of his web. I'm glad it didn't come after me as I walked into the web.

In any event, I called the search off after seeing these huge spiders. Jenni suggested we just take a branch and clear it off....ummm No.

We just left. Whatever was in the cache will stay there.... :(

Relaxing in Hong Kong

2006-07-20T02:49:00.000-04:00

Ahhhh...who would've thought one would be able to relax in a city like Hong Kong, but when you are lucky enough to have a sister who lives here and happens to have an extra apartment to stay at, it's pretty much like being at home (Thanks Sis)! It has been so great to be able to come to Hong Kong to relax and recharge before heading out for the next leg of our trip.

We actually did do a few things while here. It's amazing to me how much fun the public transportation is here in Hong Kong.

We rode the "Ding Ding" (the Tram) a couple times to get into town, took the Star Ferry a couple times to go across the harbour, the MTR, we even ventured onto a bus to get home and to North Point for no more reason than to try it. Lot's of fun. We figured out today that the Tram would be a bit faster than the bus in rush hour.

As for shopping, there's tons but most of ours was the window kind! :( Too bad.

Of course we spent some time with my sis and our little niece who's Chinese is getting so good that soon we won't be able to talk to her anymore! :)

Sigh...

I can see again....

2006-07-20T02:36:00.000-04:00

Yes, after 4 months of being censored in China, I am able to finally see what my blog looks like! Not as bad as I thought it would be. A few pictures could have been moved but nothing serious.

Well, I hope to be able to respond properly to comments and I guess now there's no excuse for a poorly formatted entry! Shoot. ;)

Unfortunately, I think Jenni read somewhere that Blogger is also banned in India. Can anyone confirm this? We'll have to see once we get there I guess.

China in Summary

2006-07-12T06:53:00.000-04:00

Well, we are preparing for our last train ride in China (Shanghai to Hong Kong). We've bought our Thailand Lonely Planet and found our China patch, so it's time to say goodbye.

Like everyone says, China is growing fast! You can see this in all the construction everywhere. You even see bridges with no roads connecting them yet. All in the near future I am sure. It's going to be really interesting to see how China's one child policy is going to affect their fast growth. From all the manual labour used to do everything, I'm thinking they will need major amounts of automation to take over the small things like making bricks, light bulbs, earth moving equipment etc...stuff no one wants to do anyways.

In terms of travel, I would recommend everyone to start on the west side before coming out east. The west has much more to offer in terms of old traditions, old architecture; basically the old ways. It was extremely cheap, and we didn't have too much trouble getting around. It's also less crowded! :)

Guangzhou can pretty much be experienced in most Chinatowns around the world. I think most people have already experienced Cantonese food and dim sum.

Guanxi is as beautiful as everyone says and a trip to Yangshuo is definitely worth it.

Yunnan, Tibet, Xinjiang are all beautiful provinces which should be experienced. Now that the Qinghai - Tibet railway is open, Tibet may begin to change even faster than it has in the past (we hear 1500 more people per DAY into Lhasa). A ride on that line would be amazing in itself. Imagine being over 3000m for the majority of the trip and travelling through some of the most beautiful and oldest mountains in the world. Don't forget the overland trip to Everest! I'm pretty sure there will soon be a paved road from Lhasa to EBC within 10 years! Load up on the mutton skewers and nan bread while doing some Uighur watching as they watch you! :)

I wouldn't bother with Inner Mongolia unless you don't plan to go to Mongolia at all in the future.

Beijing and Shanghai are a must. The capital has just too much history not to go and Shanghai is just cool to be in. The rest of the east is up to you. In to beer? Qingdao of course. Into seafood? Take your time down anywhere on the coast. Just make sure you have enough money. It's much more expensive (at least double) than the west.

Next stop: Hong Kong and Macau!

Shanghai

2006-07-12T06:29:00.000-04:00

Shanghai is definitely at the forefront of all other Chinese cities. If you're not staring at the beautiful modern skyline, or strolling through the historic European river side, you're either shopping in the 7 storey shopping malls or trying to figure out their danged subway system (took us 3 days and about 20 wasted Yuan!).

We have had a great time here just strolling around. There is definitely an energy here that isn't found anywhere else in China. We've been busy seeing all the sites in the 6 days we've been here and we could probably still use a couple more days. Maybe it's because the weather is sweltering out there and we don't move as fast but there is a lot one can do here.

Of course, my high point here was the Maglev ride. Other things I enjoyed was the quick ferry ride across Huangpu River (2Y); Walking on the Bund; And the really REALLY good eggtarts we found (see Jenni's blog). If we weren't on such a budget, I surely would have spent a few days shopping in Yuyuan Bazaar for all the Mao memorabilia we saw today!

Magnetic Levitation

2006-07-12T05:40:00.000-04:00

I can still remember way back the first time I found out that the same poles of magnets repel. How cool it was to take two round magnets and push them around the table top, or to try to actually get the two buggers to like each other!
Who would have thought 20 some odd years later I'd get the chance to ride on something using that theory!

Shanghai has the first commercially available Maglev train in the world which goes from one of their subway stations out to the airport. It cost about 1.5 Billion Yuan to build, it's a 30 km ride, it cost 80Y for a two-way ticket, and it is STUPID fast! I mean it.

I didn't even think about going on this train before I talked with some Swedish guys in Suzhou who had just come in from Shanghai. Thank god I did otherwise I would have missed one of the funnest things I could do here in China. Yes, this rates right up there with Everest Base Camp!

The station looked just like any other train/subway station. 2 tracks on 1 platform. Just the absence of rails and rail ties that give you the clue that somethings different.

The train itself is like the highspeed trains in France and Germany. Bullet shaped and very sleek for aerodynamics. We got on, and since it wasn't busy, Jenni and I searched for empty window seats and managed to find two (one on each side of the train) to sit in. We didn't need to be together for a trip like this. Window seat is the way to go!

Out comes my camera (set on video) and my GPS. I wanted to try to record the speed and position of the train over the entire 8km.

Right on the minute, you can feel the train lift up a small amount (Floating, we are now fricking floating!!!) and move forward. Of course they have an LED displaying the speed and 100 km/h came pretty quick but not so fast that you were thrown back in your seat.

Not bad I thought...really cool...we're still riding on air! Although I thought it was a bit more bumpy than I thought it would be. I remember riding on the Japanese HSST at Expo 86 in Vancouver and that was darned smooth. But I guess we were only going like 30 km/h.

I was much more interested as we passed 200 km/h and you can hear the pitch of something getting faster and faster which means we were still accelerating. 250...300...350!!! Are you serious??? Still accelerating! 400!

Holy SH!T...

Still going...430! The cars on the road are standing still, everything is flying by in a blurr...I sure hope this thing is safe! :)

After about a minute the speed goes down and we have almost travelled the 30km. I think my camera was showing about 7 minutes. Crazy! Next to a plane, this will be the fastest way I have ever travelled.

Other cool things to happen in the 8 minutes? The tracks bank. They would have to otherwise you'd be thrown to the outside of the turn. The speed in which the opposite train passes you (think "blink of an eye") along with the punch of the shockwave. Oh and did I mention we were fricking floating!?!?! :)

Too much fun. I could've ridden that thing all day. Here's a video of the first run out to the airport. Oh and the GPS? Couldn't pick up a signal. :(

Shanghai. China's largest, and our last, city!

2006-07-10T03:50:00.000-04:00

The one hour bus ride into Shanghai was probably the smoothest one we have taken thus far in China. Reminded me of the good old 401 (but with less potholes and no traffic!).

Shanghai is huge! And the apartment buildings are similar to the ones you'd see in Hong Kong. 20+ storeys high and grouped tightly together. Will have more info on the things we do here. I'm quite looking forward to our Maglev train ride to the airport and back. No wheels, 430 km/h, 8 mins to go 30 km one way! Suh-WEET!

We've got about 5 days before we hop onto the train back to Hong Kong thus ending our China leg of the trip. 4 months...just like that. Wow.

Suzhou's Gardens...

2006-07-10T03:48:00.000-04:00

We decided to stop in Suhzhou about an hour outside of Shanghai before making our way into Shanghai. We had read something about Suzhou being kind of a heaven on earth type of place so we thought it would be good to check out.

Most of Suzhou's gardens are now part of UNESCO's world heritage sites. We decided to go and check out one called "Master of the Nets". I must say at first impression, I was wondering where the garden was? It was a whole compound with houses and not much greenery.

It wasn't until we realized that the point of these gardens is to integrate it in with a home and not have a separate area with nice flowers and such like what we are used to.

All the rooms in some way flowed along with the gardens. It was actually quite soothing almost to walk through. Very peaceful.

On the other hand though, unless you are really really into Gardens, there's really no need to stay more than a night. I'm not sure where the heaven on earth tag came from but I didn't really see it there.

The Tsingtao Brewery

2006-07-05T06:34:00.000-04:00

We found our way to the Tsingtao Brewery, China's most popluar beer.

Our Lonely Planet mentioned that the only way to get a tour of the plant was to go with a tour group, but we decided not to and take our chances of going there ourselves.

We are happy to report that you can tour part of the plant and some historic buildings for 50 Yuan per person. No guide required (which is better because you can go at your own pace).

We paid the money and proceeded through. The first building is one of the original buildings from 1903 and now houses old artifacts and gives information on the history of the brewery. Very interesting to note that when Japan invaded, they took over the brewery and Tsingtao was being sold along side Sapporo, Asahi and Kirin beers! Very cool.

The second building shows the making of beer. It's all displays but still interesting to walk through. No mention of any fish guts here! Just the best hops and mineral water from nearby Laoshan.

We then hit a small bar where we were treated to fresh Tsingtao on tap, and some beer nuts! YUM! It hit the spot after all the walking.

The last part of the tour has you going through the bottling and canning lines. Very cool to see. Reminded me of the starting credits to Laverne and Shirley. Anyone remember that show? :)

After the bottling we ended back in the Tsingtao Pub where we were again treated to more free beer. This time Jenni and I had to share a pitcher. I'm not complaining as this beer was so damned good. It went down like nothing and I found myself getting all happy! We picked up our free glasses, but I wanted the ones with the Beijing Olympics on them so I staggered up to the bar and in my best Chinese, asked the guy if they sold them. He said yes, then Jenni had the idea of swapping our glasses with those so we went back and somehow, with broken Chinese, managed to swap glasses! Cool.

GO Tsingtao!

Oh and I am happy to report that according to Mexican authorities, beer IS a health food so everyone DRINK UP!!! :)

Geocaching

2006-07-05T06:31:00.000-04:00

Some of you may have heard of this already. For those who haven't, Geocaching is a world wide hobby.

Basically, there are people all over the world who decide to put a small container in some location (usually scenic and sometimes hard to get to.) It's contents are left up to the owner and can range from just a notebook to sign, to coins, to local souvenirs etc...

The owner then posts the coordinates of the geocache on the website and people who have GPS's can input them into the unit then go out and "hunt" for the container. If you find it, you can usually take a trinket in the container but you need to leave something else. That's perfect as we have some toonies and Canadian pins we brought with us.

Is it a sport? Probably not. But it's a really fun way to kill of few hours.

Jenni and I have just started this hobby since there are quite a few geocaches here in China (and it's a good excuse to make use of my GPS). We went out yesterday in search of GCPT6K, a cache located in Lu Xun Park here in Qingdao.

It was loads of fun. We walked at least 2 km to find this thing, then when you get close, since GPS's are usually only accurate to 5 or 6 meters, you have to go searching. We found this small film canister at the base of a tree under some rocks.
What was inside? A log sheet and 3 US coins. Well, I must say we were hoping for something more local but I guess it'll have to do. I picked up a quarter and left one of our Canadian pins. We sealed up the container again and I put it back where I found it for the next person.There's lot's more coming up and we'll probably try to hit a couple more before leaving China. Which by the way is sometime before the 18th!

Getting down from the Great Wall

2006-07-02T04:00:00.000-04:00

We took a trip to the Great Wall (although the Chinese translation is "Long" wall) at Mutianyu just outside of Beijing.

Finally, we made it to the wall and it didn't kick our butts! Although, to get to the wall you need to take a chairlift up. :) Oh well...
After a short 1.5 hour hike around we decided to go down and that's where the fun is. To get down you can either take the chairlift back down OR you can take a super cool toboggan ride down. Of course that's what we took.

Here's a pic of the warning sign.
It's one of the most fun things we've done. I swear Canada needs to get some of these rides made up. I think Blue Mountain needs to install a ride like this. I did manage to get a video of the whole ride.

Those of you who have been in front of Jenni while biking will be able to relate to what I felt on the ride down. That woman is a tailgator I tell ya. Check it out for yourself. ;)

p.s.: Don't mind my childish shrieks of joy as I'm going down...

Happy Canada Day!

2006-07-02T02:30:00.000-04:00

Wow, July 1st already!

Here's wishing a great big Happy Birthday to Canada. Hope everyone is out enjoying some nice weather and cold brews! I had the obligatory Tsingtao already. Too bad there's no Richard's Red, or Sleeman's here.

Hope all the Canadians we've met travelling so far are having a great holiday too!

Let's not forget our neighbours to the south and the American friends we've made since we started our trip. Here's a Happy 4th of July to you all too.

While I'm on a role, here's a general hi to all the Swedish, Finish, Korean, Chinese, Swiss, Polish, Danish and Dutch people we've met so far.

The Chairman Himself

2006-06-30T03:14:00.000-04:00

Who would have thought that we would be able to see the Father of the PRC? Yes that's right...Chairman Mao's body has apparently been preserved since his death and is now on display in the Mausoleum built in Tiananmen Square.

We took a trip there and unfortunately, you can't bring anything in, no camera, no bags, no water bottles, so needless to say I'll try to describe it for everyone.

The mausoleum is huge. I'm thinking it's about 200 x 200 m and about 8 stories high. We lined up in one long line 4 wide. As you go into the building the line is split into 2's and we go around a large statue of Mao sitting. Lot's of people were laying flowers at the statues feet. Once around the statue and behind the wall, the lines meet up and go beside both sides of a glass room where in the center laid the Chairman with 2 guards behind his bed by the wall. So strange to see. After all these years that his body is still out for display. It's up for debate whether this is a tribute to the man or not.

I did get and extra special treat by being dragged by a security guard cause I guess he wanted to keep the 2 wide line going. We were just coming around the corner after the statue and this guy is shouting something at me and motioning with his hands to move up...I motioned back that I was with Jenni and all I hear is "aiy" and then he grabs my arm and yanks me up about 5 feet. I was pretty much laughing the whole time and Jenni was coming up right behind me laughing too. Lot's of fun. I guess the good thing that came out of that was we were in the inside lane, right beside the glass to see Mao without people in front of us!

Cool...

What Line?

2006-06-29T00:53:00.000-04:00

Well, we made it into Beijing with no problems other than the mad scramble we had to make to get onto the train to Beijing.

Line ups are a funny thing here. When we got onto the platform, there were these workers holding up signs for which car we go into and they spent a lot of time to get everyone into a line up two people wide.

I tell you it's not easy to get people here to line up but in the end, it was all good. Unfortunately, the train is late so everyone is getting a bit frustrated but hey, we were still in a line!

Once the train came, it ended up stopping about 10 feet to our left and from the moment the train stopped, it was pretty much "what line"? A free for all ensued to get to the door. And since we have pretty big bags and wanted to get them into the area we were sleeping in, we both made a rush.

I tell you I was shoving old ladies, little kids and anyone else who got in my way in a rush to get on.

My apologies to everyone...

Hohhot's not so hot...

2006-06-26T02:50:00.000-04:00

Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China. A stone's throw away from Mongolia which much of the same scenery plus the usual Chinese influences.

As our LP book says, if you want to see Mongolia, go to Mongolia...

Advice which I say can be taken seriously. For whatever reason something about this town has irked me.

Could be from the multiple tour guide touts trying to sell us trips into the grasslands while we were looking at a room, or from the fact the hotel reception warned us about watching our money if we are at the train station, or from the fact that the restaurant we just ordered lunch at didn't have the beef noodle soup we wanted but instead proceeded to give us some noodle soup with egg and tomato! WTF?!?

Anyhoo...my rage aside, there's not a heck of a lot to see here and unless you want to go to Mongolia, I wouldn't bother to stop here.

An aside to Mongolia, there's a consulate here you can get your visa at, and you can buy the Hohhot to Ulanbaataar train tickets directly from the train station thus avoiding those expensive travel agent fees.

3 sleeper trains in less than a week...

2006-06-26T02:44:00.000-04:00

We're now set to go on our third sleeper train to Beijing. Woo hoooo! We have gone from Turpan, Xinjiang to Beijing in 5 days. Why you ask? You'll have to check out Jenni's blog about that. Needless to say, we are once again killing time in these internet cafe's.

Our first leg had us going 23 hrs from Turpan back to Lanzhou. One night there and we were on our next 16 hrs trip from Lanzhou to Hohhot in Inner Mongolia. Another night here and we are now waiting for our 11 hr trip into Beijing.

You can only imagine how we smell since I'll have been wearing the same "train" clothes without washings in between. NICE!

We've also slimmed down the east coast sights since our visa is running out soon. I do plan to get drunk at the Tsingtao Brewery though(don't worry, I'll have a beer for everyone! :) ). But other than that and the main cities, we'll be done within a couple weeks.

Sleeper Buses vs. Sleeper Trains

2006-06-22T00:38:00.000-04:00

We were told that taking overnight trips to new places is a great way to reduce cost since you don't need to pay for a hotel and you are moving while you would not normally be doing anything. It is so true and here in China there are two ways to go. Sleeper buses and sleeper trains.

We had only taken sleeper trains up until just recently. Being in Hotan on the Southern Silk Road, there were no railroads in that part of Xinjiang Province and so our only choice was to take a sleeper bus. It was the "express" bus (which really means it stops in less cities as opposed to going direct) and was set to take 20 hours to go from Hotan back to Urumqi.

What the heck is a sleeper bus right? Right! I had never seen one until we hit China. They're the size of a Greyhound bus but instead of seats, they've got a bunch of beds 2 high in 3 rows running the length of the bus and NO washroom (that's what the road is for.) I pictured us stopping by the road side and everyone getting off and scattering for cover, but that wasn't always the case. Although sometimes it might have been better! :)

We didn't know what to expect going in. From the outside, you think the beds are high up off the ground so when we bought the tickets we asked for the lower beds thinking you can sit with your feet on the groud like a chair. Well, once getting on the bus, we found out the lower bunk is about 3 inches off the floor! Nice. And you (well, I) couldn't sit up straight without hitting the top bunk. I guess you're supposed to lie down the enitre trip. In any case, take the top bunk. It's much less stuffy and a wee bit more headroom.

We also got yelled at because we didn't take our shoes off. But we had no idea that they do that and provided a little bag to put them in too! Cool.

I tell you there's not much room to move! The beds not much bigger than your body width. And for those with motion sickness? Don't even think about this. You feel every bump and roll of the bus so much more while lying down. When turning corners, you almost have to hang on.

Now, being an overnight bus, you think you can sleep right? Other than the bumps keeping you up, the bus stops about every 3 hours for washroom breaks. You want to sleep but the driver is screaming at you to go pee!

I didn't mention that there are 2 drivers and they take shifts driving throughout the trip. They were in the bed behind mine and I guess when one of the guys shifts ended at 2:30 am, he wasn't sleepy and proceeded to try to talk to me. For some reason the usual "I don't understand" didn't work and he kept going and going. I kept not understanding but by the end of my conversation, I know that he thinks Canada is a good country, and that I have a great wife (his thumbs up to me was what gave me the impression!). Don't get me wrong though, these 2 drivers were really nice to us and always made sure we were back on before heading out, it's just; it was 2:30 am man! :)

We have taken many sleeper trains recently as distances between cities have been quite far. The shortest ride has been about 10 hours with the longest coming today. Our trip from Turpan to Lanzhou is going to be 24 hours. Within these trains, they have hard sleepers and soft sleepers.

Hard sleepers have beds stacked 3 high (6 per compartment) while softs have 2 and doors to separate the compartments. Softs also have nicer washrooms, attendants to do stuff for you, slippers to wear etc. Hards have a bed.

Of course the soft is more expensive than the hard sleepers. Almost double the price. We decided to try it once on a 23 hr ride and found that it's not really worth the extra money. The room was stuffy with the door closed and you end up being locked in a room with up to two other people you don't know. Are they gonna rob you? Who's gonna hear? etc...I admit the beds were wider, you get a reading light and less noise but double the price?

I didn't mention that prices (trains and buses) for the bunks are different with the lower bunks more expensive than the upper ones. Don't know why but that's the way it is. There's usually about a 10-20 Yuan difference in the bunks.

Overall, I would say, if you can go by train, do it! Much more comfortable, less bumpy and we have actually come to enjoy it a bit. Cool scenery and you get to walk around. But go hard sleeper instead and spend the extra money you saved on food and beer!

The Rolling Casino

2006-06-17T03:46:00.000-04:00

We've made it to Hotan and have been resting up for our first ever sleeper bus experience through the desert (I hope the bus doesn't break down!).

Our trip in to Hotan however was much more interesting. From Kashgar, we stopped one night in a small town named Yecheng. It's small...real small...so small it's not on our map because it's that small! ;) Anyhoo, one night and next morning we're off to Hotan. A 5 hour bumpy ride. We reached the "South" Hotan bus station and some people got off and some people got on and just as the bus took off again, some guy starts yelling something in Chinese and pulls out 3 playing cards. 2 Jacks and a 4. Puts them face down on top of his jacket over his lap and starts to move them around like in the carnivals where they shift cups with a ball or cards around and you need to guess where it is.

Well, he starts this and some other people on the bus were pretty eager to play. First dude puts in 50 Yuan. The guy starts by showing where all the cards are and proceeds to shift them around. You can totally follow the 4 and for whatever reason, this guy picks the wrong card. He looked so surprised too. I was thinking no way he couldn't have followed. Then he decides to put in another 50. Shuffle shuffle shuffle...bam, same thing. Picks the wrong card!?!? "No way" I'm thinking.

Well, after that, some other guy across the isle beside me starts talking and so the dealer moves into the seat in front of him. Great, I can see clear now and so can Jenni. This new guy decides to put in like 90 Yuan and AGAIN picks the wrong card. We both saw the way the dealer shuffled and there's no way you can miss it.

Another guy from the front of the bus comes back, throws 100 Yuan in and loses the same way. I think this guy overdid it a bit, he's asking about all the rules really loud. "What if I put 50 in, what do I get?" (That's what I think anyways.) And then the dealer tries to get some other people to play including us.

We're not suckers, so we said no and the charade kept going. The guy beside me checks out the cards to make sure they're legit by crimping the corner of the 4, the dude who was asking all the questions put more money in but this time won back what he had lost. Then the dealer keeps trying to get us to play. I'm thinking everyone who has played so far is in on this. No one wanted to play and after a while, the bus comes to a stop. I don't even know how far we went but all of the guys who played in the beginning got off...and I was watching the dealer as he was trying to sucker some more people, but he ended up getting off too!

Looking back as the bus drove off you can see the 5 of them chatting together! What a riot. It WAS a scam! The locals behind us started laughing too cause they knew it was all faked.

I wish I knew what they would have done if we decided to play. My guess is, he would have saw the crimp in the card and said he needs new cards and these would have the trick in them. The driver had to be in on it too.

What great fun. I just hope we can recognize other scams when they occur.

Are there any goat's left?

2006-06-12T03:22:00.000-04:00

I thought only Germans ate a lot of meat but was I wrong! Xinjiang province, China is equal to it for sure.

The Uighur staple here is goat/lamb/mutton and it is everywhere. Kebabs are a favourite and is made in a very interesting way. It's always 1 piece meat/1 piece fat (pure)/1 piece meat/1 piece meat. There's another style where they use minced meat and put it around a skewer. They are both really fricking good! Normally chewing fat would be kinda gross but not here. Delicious! Get a Nan bread and you can't ask for much more! We have had it EVERYday and I can't believe Jenni hasn't gotten tired of it yet!

They've also got a rice dish with a big piece of mutton in it. They've got noodles with mutton in it. They've got baked dumplings with...yup, mutton in it. They even use the head! I must admit I don't have the guts to try it though...ick!

By far, this area is the best for food! We've never eaten so well. And for 1 yuan per skewer, we can gorge ourselves for under 10 yuan (1.50 CDN)! SWEET!

I do hope the Uighur way of life stays this way. It's so much fun to see how they live and go about their daily lives...the food's pretty good too!

Mo' Crazy 8 Talk...

2006-06-12T02:34:00.000-04:00

Thanks for all the comments on the rules for Crazy 8's. Jenni wants to say something here too so I'll go first and we'll see what she has to say afterwards... :P

Ian says:
Yes, we currently play the Queen of Spades picks up 5. Been toying with the idea of stacking 2's on that too!

Jacks AND 4's are miss your turns...sometimes we can put them together sometimes we can't.

Looks like we have a tie in the rules for the 2's, although I think the 2nd comment isn't based on the actual rules (Jenni's always right...what up with that?!?)! ;)

The Crazy 8 countdown sounds great! We will have to try it sometime.

We've implemented the dreaded "MISTAKE" clause and it's a pick up 2 fault and the last game we tried drinking with it. Needless to say I was plastered early in the game! But prevailed in the end as I was "Champion of the World" two nights in a row!

YEAH BABY!

Jenni says:

Sam is also always right! :)

Jenni's rules are so great, Ian has now decided to use them for the game! He now LOVES the stack the 2 rule and says it is so much more fun that way. He mentioned the rule about stacking the Q of spades with the twos above (which I suggested but he thinks it's too much (wimp)).

The mistake clause is a lot of fun and Ian did introduce that because I kept screwing up！:P But it ended up screwing him over in the end.

We also have a last card call rule which adds to the excitement. If you fail to call last card, you have to pick up 2! Yes, this is becoming EXTREME Crazy 8s!

I like the sounds of the countdown too! We'll definitely have to try that.

Ian says:

"Whatever..."

Rules to Crazy 8's

2006-06-09T03:08:00.000-04:00

Jenni and I have taken to playing Crazy 8's and we've gotten into arguments over the rules for handling the 2's

I say 2's are pick up 2. Another 2 on top is pick up 4 etc...

J says another two cancels the first and makes the other person pick up 4, etc...

I need to know! Who's right?

We've even taken to changing some of the other rules now too. Ie. Can't end with an 8, person can cut in right at the beginning if they have the same card of another suit before the person who was supposed to start goes but has to say "CUT".

It's reminding me more and more of EXTREME UNO...we're even getting more rowdy! I think the drinking portion may start soon too! ;P

What other rules can we add?

You decide...

2006-06-09T02:44:00.000-04:00

Ok, we had a really interesting experience trying to find a hotel room once we came into Kashgar. Our book listed a hotel with 10 yuan beds and we thought we'd head there to check it out.

The Noor Bish Hotel it's called, and was tucked into an alleyway. We go in and there was a westerner and and middle eastern guy talking, we said hi and they pointed us to another fellow who was supposed to be the boss.

We spoke in english (since we weren't sure what language they spoke here, either Mandarin or Uighur) and asked about rooms. This guy started to say something to some other fellow to our left in what I assume is Uighur because I couldn't recognize any of it. After that the other fellow motions to Jenni that there was nothing available. We said "No more rooms?" and he just kept on waving his arms. The western guy seemed really surprised cause he also questioned "no more rooms?!?".

At the same time, I am looking at all these open doors with empty beds in them so I really don't think they were full. It's mainly a backpackers hotel too and there aren't that many out here right now.

So what do you think happened here? I've got an idea (the first one). It's not nice, but I'll throw it out with another. Let me know your opinions too...

1. Uighur and Han Chinese have a similar relationship as Tibetans and Han Chinese. We are basically seen as invading their land and forcing them to be a part of China. Apparently there's a bit of tension between the two groups. We both knew this coming in but and hoped to portray ourselves as more Canadian (hence the english) but we didn't expect to discriminated against so outright. Crappier food, worse rooms sure, but to be shut out completely? Wow. What a feeling that was. I am still amazed at having experienced that.

2. We had thought that being a Uighur guesthouse, they maybe had some issue with Jenni staying there (all the occupants did seem to be male). I don't know enough about Muslim religon but maybe this could be it.

I don't know what was going through their minds, n any event, it has changed my whole perception of this culture. It is still amazing to see the difference in how they go about their daily lives, and just how different they are from the rest of China, but I can't stop thinking in the back of my mind how much some of them may hate us just because of what we look like.

I wouldn't recommend the Noor Bish to anyone because of this. It's just not worth it.

23 hours...

2006-06-09T02:17:00.000-04:00

We had a huge amount of distance to cover to get from Urumqi to Kashgar and we were going to be on a train for 23 hours. The longest ride yet. We decided to splurg for the "soft sleepers" which were supposed to be more comfortable.

I'm still up in the air about that but I did manage to get some really good sleep so maybe it was worth the extra money. Then again maybe not cause you end up being in a locked car with other people you don't even know which is just a wee bit weird for my liking. I think we'll be heading back to the hard sleepers next trip.

The scenery was cool. From desert to snowcapped mountain tops, back to desert and then rain! What a ride!

Urumqi (Wulumuqi)

2006-06-08T05:49:00.000-04:00

Wulumuqi, Wulumuqi, Wulumuqi...the chinese pronounciation of Urumqi. I don't know why but I just love saying it!

After a jarring 2 hour bus ride into Liuyuan, we hopped onto a 10 hour overnight train to Urumqi, the Capital city of Xinjiang province and the city furthest away from any ocean!

The city is huge and with a population of over 2 million, it looks like any other major city in China. The only difference being the minorities which live in this province. There are 47 of China's 56 different minorities here. Some with very eastern european looks, you'd almost think you were in Europe. Amazing!

We didn't stay long here. We needed to head out west to Kashgar to renew our visas. Deeper into the Uighur areas. So far their food has been great. We tried a sweet potato and rice with lamb....sooooo good! Can't wait to try more. Kebabs are also a staple and we were able to enjoy some with a sort of cold beer in an open square.

The Gobi

2006-06-04T01:29:00.000-04:00

When we were arriving in Dunhuang by bus, you can see off to the left these massive sand dunes. They must've been 400 - 500 m high.

Wicked! What can we do to get out there?

Once in Dunhuang, there are many cafe's which cater to tourists and we saw a posting for camel rides! Cool, who thought we'd be able to do that here?

After doing the Mogao Caves, we signed up for an overnight trip into the Gobi on camelback! We were taken out to a nearby village where Mr. Li (our guide) lived. We sat in his living room while he got the camels ready and once all saddled, we went out back to get going. I must say, they are BIG animals! Bigger than horses for sure.

I need to get on this thing somehow and since it had stirrups, I figured it's like getting on a horse. One foot in. Grab the saddle and up and over with the other leg. Nope. Mr. Li motions to just straddle the bugger! Hmmm...ok. Well the only advice I have after straddling a camel is to fricking hold on! Once on, the camel started to get up and I tell ya, I almost flipped off the back of this thing cause I wasn't ready. What a site that would have been.
So we're on and heading out. First through the town with locals asking our guide where we are from and other things we couldn't understand...next through a cemetary...then on into the desert. You know we are in the desert when the guide takes his shoes off! Cool....heading into the dunes for the first time was amazing. So much sand...hot and dry, I was happy to be riding instead of walking.

Up, down, over and around dunes for about 2 hours and we reach our campsite. Smack dab in the middle of nothing but sand! Sweet....

We had about 2 hours before dinner so we headed out (and up) onto the big dune behind our site. Things started out really hard. Walking on soft sand at the crest is crazy hard. I think we made it up a third of the way before we figured there's no
way we'll make it up and back in time. So a couple pictures there then Jenni tried to use this sled to go down the side...well I think you need to have a really, really, really steep slope to go anywhere. Jenni hopped on and went 2 ft!

We ended up just walking/sliding down. Every step you take you go a couple feet so if you keep walking, it's almost like sliding down the dune! We ended up at a smaller dune to wait for the sunset. I tried being artsy with some footprint shots! Here's my free plug for Ecco Receptor shoes. "Built for the Gobi" is my tag line!
Just remember Ecco that these pics are copyright! ;)

The sunset was unfortunately obscurred by some clouds but it didn't change the magnificence of being alone in the desert. So quite, no cars, honking, spitting...just a pesky fly and silence! Beautiful.

Dinner was instant noodles (don't know what we would do without these things!) and followed by stargazing. Not quite as spectacular as what we've seen in Algonquin, but nice nontheless.

Morning came to quick. We were up early to see the sunrise (again obscurred by some clouds) then some tea and bread and we were off, back to civilization!

What an experience!

Things we learned?
Camels spread their legs when they pee.
There is absolutely no humidity, none, I tried fogging up my lens to wipe it and nothing, very cool.
Your butt will be very sore after the trip!
Always, always, HANG ON!

Intrepid Silk Road Travellers Jenni and Ian :)

Feeling Homesick...kind of...

2006-05-31T06:47:00.000-04:00

With our Chinese progressing at a snails pace, I think I am starting to miss the North American way of life a bit.

I have to admit the last little while has been a bit harder to deal with. I guess it's a bit of homesickness cause the smallest things would piss me off. Stuff that's not normally done in North America... ;)

I've lasted 3 months but there's only so much my 4 mini-discs worth of songs can do. James Blunt, Eminem, Green Day and Blink 182 have helped pass many sleeper train nights. I know we have a 23 and 25 hour ride coming up quite soon.

I'm sure this is just a temporary feeling and I'll be back at it full swing soon enough. We're heading into minority territory again and perhaps that will help....

The Secret to Weight Loss

2006-05-31T04:53:00.000-04:00

We came across a scale in Lanzhou and thought we'd see if we've gained or lost any weight so far.

I was really surprised to see a 15 lbs loss since we left Toronto!

Gaining weight was a long shot especially since we do so much walking and hiking, sometimes eating only instant noodles for meals (those darned overnight train rides), and the portions here being a lot smaller than those back home.

Unfortunatly, I know a good chunk of it was muscle since I decided to try to do some dips the other day and could only manage 5 before I fell off the bunk bed, but those love handles are definitely a bit smaller these days too!

I wonder how my cholesterol is doing though. I'm sure all those dough sticks, fried bread with meat and full fat yogurts haven't helped! But darn it aren't they tasty! I'm hoping the Pu Er tea I bought in Dali will help...

At this rate, no one is going to recognise me when I get back but at least I can kind of "start over" in the gym. Oh, and the biking will be a lot easier! Sweet!

The GREAT Wall Kicked our butts!

2006-05-31T02:57:00.000-04:00

We are pathetic! Yes we are...don't try to tell us otherwise!

There is something about China and our safety that just makes us chickens over here I think.

Here's the scenario.

Jiayuguan in Gansu province is along the ancient silk road and is home to the end of the Great Wall. The Lonely Planet mentions the original wall has crumbled and has been rebuilt. Thinking we could go all the way up to the top we decided to head out. Sure enough at the beginning it was very new. We walked no more than 200 meters to the start of the hill when we come across this mound of rocks and no more wall. I guess some of the original is still there but the only way up is through these rocks. It doesn't look too bad but I think the combination of knowing safety is really lacking here and the fact that we are scared of the hospitals that maybe causes us to think twice about climbing these things. Well, that's my theory and I'm sticking to it. Anyhoo, needless to say we didn't see the view from the top but we did get a great shot of the top from the bottom! Y-a-y! ;)

What Pollution?

2006-05-31T02:39:00.000-04:00

My last blog said that Lanzhou was the most polluted city in the world. I had high expectations as to what this meant on our way there. I pictured a yellow haze hovering over the city all day, barely being able to see the sun, and the people with cotton face masks.

Arriving in Lanzhou at 8:00 am we were greeted with nothing but sunshine. We got into the hotel and still nothing but sunshine! What the heck man! We stopped here just to see the smog!

I guess this isn't the first time Lonely Planet has been wrong. We've run into quite a few mistakes/typos in their book so maybe this was wrong too. I've tried to look for the most polluted city in the world but can't find a list here. Maybe someone out there knows for sure?

In any event, of the two nights we spent in Lanzhou, here's a picture of one of the mornings. There is a bit of smog, but really, nothing to sneeze at. ;)

Next stop(s)

2006-05-25T03:50:00.000-04:00

Ok, we're booked on our sleeper train to Lanzhou tonight. We first zigged over here to Shaanxi, but now our trail is zagging us back up to the Northwest but (hopefully) not through the more treacherous terrrain as that found in Northern Sichuan and Qinghai provinces.

We're going through Gansu province and hopefully following the silk road into Xinjiang as far West as we can go without going into India! Didn't know it but the end of the silk road is actually here in Xian. We found it this morning. Check out Jenni's blog.

Lanzhou has the dubious honour of being the WORLDS most polluted city. I can't wait to see what that smells like and take a picture! Should try to bottle the stuff!

Our visa's run out mid-June so we've had to pick up our pace a little to get to either Urumqi or Kashgar to renew. The race is on...check back to see if we make it! :)

Xian

2006-05-24T04:00:00.000-04:00

We've been in Xian doing the usual tourist traps as well as enjoying a really big city. With over 6 million people here, it's a bustling town day and night. Buses are always full, lot's of night life.

Just a few pics of what we've done. Not too much to say....

Stone Carvings - Can't be easy to write this stuff into stone!

Bell Tower at Night

Drum Tower at Night

Terracotta Warriors

What was I blogging about earpicks? Check this Jade beauty out.

Large Mosque in Xian.

The Pandas

2006-05-18T03:25:00.000-04:00

We did a morning tour of the Chengdu Panda Breeding Research Center in our attempt to see the elusive Panda. It's almost impossible to see them in the wild and so we thought maybe we'll be lucky if we see one or two of them here.

We show up at 8:30 am and the driver who took us there was walking us around the compound when we first come across our first Panda! The morning is feeding time so this one was pretty much sitting on his butt chowing down on the Bamboo strewn about him. So cute. Lot's of pictures and the driver moves us on to another area...

Needless to say, our worries about being able to see Pandas was unfounded. Every different area we came to there were either one, two or three of them, sitting, sleeping, playing or eating! All different ages were seen too! They are the funniest little buggers you'll ever see. So playful and lazy. Makes you just want to go up to them and give them a noogie or something!

We could have had pictures taken right beside them but that was another 400 Yuan each so we decided not to! I really would have noogied him I swear!

One of the five mascots for the Beijing 2008 Olympics is actually a Panda called Jingjing. Very cute.

Tea in the People's Park...and an ear cleaning!

2006-05-18T02:59:00.000-04:00

You are all going to hate me, but it's a hard hard life we lead right now. ;)

After a morning of walking around checking out shops, we ended up in a park to try our hand at drinking tea!

Yes, it was 4 long hours of sitting beside the man made lake, drinking our "Snow Tea", playing cards and eating our pumpkin seeds. I tell ya it was a big bag of pumpkin seeds!

Right when we got there, a few people came up to us ringing these pitch forks and showing us all these little tools with brushes at the end. We finally figured out it was for cleaning your ears!

Now, being Chinese, I grew up with the little metal picker and once in a while when I was a kid my mom would sit me down with a light and proceed to clean the wax outta my ears. I think the closest thing Westerners have are Q-tips. I have also seen the ends of matches used for the same purpose.

This guy had a hand full of tools. The little metal picker, bristles on the end of a stick and these big ass tweezers! After a while, and watching how they do it, I decided that maybe I would try it. Jenni has been getting a bit frustrated at my bad hearing lately and maybe this will help.

At first it wasn't too bad. He went in with his little brush and I didn't feel anything out of the ordinary, then he proceeded to use his little scraper, again nothing different. Next came out his little tuning fork! I don't remember what was in my ear at the time, but when he put the vibrating fork on the tool, the whole inside of my head started shaking! What a weird feeling! I think it was to give me a massage but man, it sure didn't feel like it. Just weird man....weird!

The left ear was pretty clean but the right one...boy oh boy did he pull out this huge piece of ear wax!

Jenni's all happy I can hear again!

The cleaning cost 20 Yuan, a bit steep for what was being done but the experience was worth it I think. Lot's of fun!

McDonalds is the same....

2006-05-18T02:54:00.000-04:00

Ok ok...so we broke down and decided to go to McDonalds for lunch the first day we were here in Chengdu. I must say I was expecting something a bit different but after the first bite of my Big Mac, it was exactly the same! I was impressed. Patty, lettuce, secret sauce...everything was just like home...

Next stop....Sichuan province

2006-05-12T02:22:00.000-04:00

We've bought our plane tickets to Chengdu in Sichuan province. We thought about another overland to Chengdu for about 5 seconds...

Home to Sichuan hotpot, Panda bears, and a delicacy of Rabbit Head....