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2010-04-28T21:23:00.001-05:00

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And my thanks goes to ...

2007-02-27T05:44:00.000-05:00

In the spirit of the Oscars (and since Ian started all this), I thought I would continue with the Thank You speeches as well. Since Ian went first, the music is going to be playing for mine soon, so I'll keep it short.

Thank you to both family and friends for all your support. It was comforting going into this without anyone questioning our decision. Instead, the enthusiasm we received was wonderful.

Thank you to everyone who helped us clear all our possessions by taking some home. It was surprisingly quite successful and I hope you are all still enjoying them!

Thank you to everyone who followed us through our journey on our blogs. It was great being able to share our experiences with everyone else and knowing we weren't alone.

And lastly, and most importantly, thank you to Ian for taking the chance and coming out on this trip with me. Out of your comfort zone many times, I was truly impressed with you. It was one of my biggest dreams, and I'm so glad you were there to share it with me. Thank you for some of the greatest life memories I'll ever have.

Heading out west

2007-02-22T15:45:00.000-05:00

Yep, that's right. We're heading out to Calgary on the 28th of Feb. Everyone we've talked to has told us its a booming place. We'll see! Everyone has also told me how cold it is out there. Really, it's cold but not that cold. At least not from what I've experienced the times I've been there. I might be eating my words soon enough though.

We're looking forward to the move. It'll be a good change and since we enjoy a lot of outdoor activities, it's definitely more suited to our lifestyle than Toronto is.

If anyone is heading out west, drop me an e-mail!

Lessons learned

2007-02-22T15:41:00.000-05:00

What to bring, what not to bring, and words of wisdom. Here is a list of lessons learned from our trip.

What to bring

1. Good shoes. Very important. You spend most of your time walking and a comfortable pair of good quality shoes will take you far. GoreTex as an added bonus as well for those wet days.

2. Good backpack. Another very important item. You'll be lugging this thing around for a long time so make sure it's comfortable. I have a bad lower back and the back support on my bag is amazing. It actually takes away my back pain when I put it on.

3. Silk sleep sac. This was one thing I am so glad we brought. It's lightweight, easy to clean, and so very comfortable. It gives you peace of mind when you sleep in some dingy bed potentially filled with bed bugs. Highly recommended.

4. Daypack. A good sturdy daypack is useful. You'll need one everyday for the most part to bring your daily essentials (water, snacks, camera, first aid, etc.)

5. Flip flops. You'll need a pair of sandals/flip flops that can double as shower slippers. Almost 99% of the time, you do not want to walk into that bathroom with your bare feet. These are usually provided in the rooms in China but not anywhere else.

6. Sink stopper. Important if you plan on doing your own laundry. A universal sink stopper allows you to make any sink your laundry tub.

7. Lock. Useful for locking up your backpack on train rides and in hostels.

8. Unlocked cell. You can buy a SIM card anywhere you go and this gives both you and your family/friends piece of mind.

What not to bring
1. Whistle. I have no idea why I brought a whistle in the first place. It stayed in my backpack the entire time.

2. Mirror. I brought a little mirror which again, I never used. Sometimes, you don't see yourself for a long time, but you know, you really don't miss it.

3. Pacsafe. I had bought this on sale and brought it along. I did use it for flights and on overnight trains as well but it'd be easier to bring the lighter versions which pretty much just consist of a wire and lock.

4. Ear plugs. Thought we might use these on noisy train rides, etc. but to me, they were highly uncomfortable and I never used them.

Words of wisdom
1. Never let your guard down. You're always a target anywhere you go because you are a tourist. Be aware of your surroundings and be wary of anyone who may come across as extra friendly.

2. Try as much as you can. You're away in a different place. Experience as much as you can out there. It'll be worth it.

3. Be flexible. The rest of the world is not the same as Canada. Things happen at a different pace and in different ways. Take it as it is and enjoy the experience.

4. Be patient. You'll be surrounded by touts who want to make some money of you. It's easy to get frustrated since you're always bombarded but be patient and politely tell them no.

5. Learn to bargain. We really hated the concept of bargaining for everything before we left. Soon after though, we got used to it and in fact, even started enjoying it! It's a game and just take it all in stride and have fun. Never let it get too serious.

6. Enjoy! Really, if this is your dream, go out there and take it all in. Appreciate the fact that you are out there and getting this wonderful opportunity. Relish in it!

New Perspectives

2007-02-22T15:40:00.000-05:00

Anyone doing a trip like this will most definitely come out of it with a different perspective on life. I came out with two.

First, after seeing and experiencing how others live in other areas of the world, I must say I've come to really appreciate being a Canadian citizen. We may often complain about our government and how things are run in this country but compared to many parts of the world, our government is doing an amazing job.
The support system this country offers is fantastic and it's so comforting knowing you can always rely on it. For instance, you know if you need an ambulance, it'll be there for you within a few minutes. If you need help on the streets, you know you can flag a cop down and trust them to help you out. In many other countries, these so called figures of authority are either so inefficient or corrupt you're probably better off trying to save yourself. I remember thinking when we landed in Zurich, on our way back from Nairobi, that we can now get sick and we would be okay. Being Canadian should never be taken for granted.

Second, I now realize I know so little. There is just so much out there in the world, we really are so isolated up here in the north. You really don't have a good understanding of events or the lives of others worldwide until you get there and experience it for yourself. Before our trip, I had read a lot and thought I knew enough about the places we were visiting. Unfortunately, what the media shows us is always filtered to their liking and we never really get the true picture here.

A good example would be Rwanda. So many I've talked to were surprised we visited Rwanda because the only image they have of that country is the genocide. Everyone thought it was still very dangerous but had the impression that Kenya was very safe. In fact, it is quite the opposite. Rwanda is currently one of the safest and most developed countries you could travel to in eastern Africa. Kenya on the other hand can get quite dangerous, especially in Nairobi.

Another example is Malaysia. I never understood why Malaysia was classified as a 3rd world country. From the outside, it looks amazingly advanced, more so than Canada in many ways. They have the Petronas towers (once the tallest towers in the world), they have a much better subway system, and they have gleaming shopping malls. How could this be 3rd world? After spending a few months there, I finally understood why. The way the country is run and structured is in no way as advanced as its physical structures. There is still a whole ton of corruption in that country and surprisingly, still a lot of racism. I never would have known this had I not been there for so long and experienced it for myself.

My last example here is based in China. First of all, I never realized the huge diversity this country had to offer. Did you know it has 56 ethnic groups? The Han Chinese being the majority. Unfortunately, the government is not so fond of its other ethnic groups and would prefer everyone conform to their ways. A good example of this is Tibet. Lhasa is slowly being taken over by drab Chinese stores and the Tibetan people and culture are being pushed into a smaller and smaller area. Where you see a symbol of another culture (i.e. the Potala Palace), you will always see somewhere close by, a large symbol of the Han Chinese culture. It's sad. I feel terrible for what the Tibetans have experienced in the past and are still experiencing to this day. They are being repressed and they are not the only ones in China going through this. I never would have thought that this was happening there until we got there and saw and heard it for ourselves.

These two new perspectives that I have in life today alone are well worth the trip we took. It was a fantastic journey and one that I would recommend everyone try to do at least once in their lifetime. Many think that it costs a fortune to do this but really, it doesn't. We lived out there for way less a day than we could ever do in Toronto. It's a life changing experience, I don't know what else to say. It's just completely worth it.

Highlights

2007-02-22T15:30:00.000-05:00

Since being back, I've been asked many times about what the highlight of the trip was. Surprisingly, this turned out to be a really difficult question to answer. I couldn't pick out one specific place or occasion, there had just been too many amazing experiences. So, here are the ones that stand out in my mind in chronological order.

Festival in Dali
We didn't realize there was going to be a festival in Dali the same time were there but we completely lucked out. It was a great experience being in the midst of it and partaking in their festivities.

Tiger Leaping Gorge
This trek will forever stay in my mind. First because it scared the hell out of me. And second because the scenery was breathtaking. It was fantastic trekking and staying at these remote guesthouses in the mountains.

Overland in Tibet
I cannot begin to describe how amazing this overland was. Like I said in a previous blog, the landscapes varied so much, it was hard to believe we were still in one country. On top of that, seeing Mt. Everest was spectacular and is something we will never forget.

Old town of Kashgar
Kashgar was definitely my favourite city in all of China. Oddly enough, it really didn't represent what most would picture as typical China. It represented more of the middle east and their old town was a fantastic mix of alley ways and stone buildings where life seems to be perpetually stuck in the 19th century.

Paharganj in Delhi
Given how India is so different from any other country we've seen and since Delhi was the only city we saw, it automatically becomes the most interesting one. All our senses were overwhelmed when we were there making it one of the most memorable places we've been to.

Serengeti & Crater
Yes, we complained a lot about the lack of wildlife we were expecting to see here. Looking back at our photos though, we did see a ton of animals, just not the ones we wanted to. Regardless, the scenery was breathtaking and the herds that we did see made the plains and crater even more mesmerizing.

Rwanda
Fantastic country. Mainly because only a little over a decade ago had this whole country experienced a genocide and it's amazing to see how much they have progressed in such a short amount of time. On top of that, Rwanda is a country of rolling green hills and is absolutely beautiful.

Back in Toronto

2007-02-19T19:50:00.000-05:00

As most of you know, we're now back in good ol' TO. We've been back for a couple weeks and are adjusting but this weather is really not helping. We've heard about how mild of a winter this has been and just as we get back, it becomes insanely cold and apparently one of the coldest Febs on record. Yep, welcome back huh? My favourite line these days is 'What is wrong with this country??'

There was a bit of a culture shock coming back here. You remember what it was like but after being away for so long in mostly less developed areas, this seems a bit odd. The first thing I noticed leaving the airport was how smooth the roads were. Just arriving from Africa where we were used to driving slowly over massive potholes, the smooth and fast ride was a bit strange. Everything here is also so much more structured and clean. You can always expect the cars to be on the right side of the road, you know pedestrians get right of way, and you don't have to look out for animals wherever you are walking. Having to add tax and tip was also a bit of an annoyance as well when we were so used to paying for the price (or less) of what was displayed. After being here for a couple weeks though, none of this seems peculiar any longer.

Some things I've really enjoyed since being back are hot showers. It's so nice to know that its a guarantee every morning when it had pretty much been a hit and miss all year. I'm still relishing in this. Constant electricity and water are also an added bonus. I had been getting used to being in the dark, especially from being in Africa since we were camping almost the entire time. Having sushi has also been nice. Although available worldwide, it was something we didn't dare try anywhere else we went.

In a way, it's nice to be back to a familiar place where we don't constantly have to have our guard up since we know it so well. It's much more relaxing. But, I do miss the excitement of endless new landscapes, cultures, and experiences the world gave to us.

Amazing Africa

2007-02-18T08:32:00.000-05:00

It's unfortunate we only had a month and a half to explore this amazing continent. It's even more unfortunate that we had to do it on someone else's schedule.

My complaints about our safari company may have come across as a dislike for this continent (based on some conversations I've had) but that is not at all the case. What we had seen in the short time that we've been there has just intrigued my need to explore it even further.

I'm not sure what exactly I was expecting before we arrived, but it probably included what the western media had portrayed to us. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised to be introduced to some of the nicest people we've met on our trip and some of the most beautiful sceneries we've encountered. We were often greeted by complete strangers walking by, or when we were on our truck, children and adults would wave to us as we went pass. From the white sandy beaches of Zanzibar, to the vast views of the Serengeti and the crater, to a glimpse of the cloud covered Mt. Kilimanjaro, and the rolling hills of Rwanda, and really so much more, I couldn't believe this was Africa. It was definitely much greener than I thought!

I feel like we've only touched the tip of the iceberg with this continent and it's left me itching to see some more. Someday, it'll be nice to come back, rent a 4x4 and head off to see what else this mysterious land has to offer.

Photos are up!

2007-01-29T17:37:00.000-05:00

I've managed to get some photos up on previous blogs (see below) and in the photo links on the right. Enjoy!

Giraffe Sanctuary

2007-01-29T17:26:00.000-05:00

Still on the animal theme, we also visited the giraffe sanctuary in Nairobi. It was pretty cool because you stand on this platform so you're at eye level with them and you feed them. You can also get a kiss by putting a pellet in your mouse. Their tongues are really slimey so the kiss wasn't pleasant but giraffes are beautiful animals so I'm not complaining.

Elephant Orphanage

2007-01-29T17:09:00.000-05:00

The elephant orphanage came highly recommended to us. Elephants were big on our list and since we didn't get to see any up close, we thought we'd give this a shot. I'm really glad we went. The elephants here ranged from 2 months to 2 years. It was educational and the babies were super duper cute. I just wanted to take them home!!!

Nairobi National Park

2007-01-29T16:54:00.000-05:00

While in Nairobi, we went to visit the Nairobi National Park. It's a little odd because you can see the skyscrapers from inside the park while doing a game drive. All the comotion doesn't seem to bother the animals though.

With the great luck we've been getting, the public game drive bus that runs on Sundays broke down. After waiting for 2 hours, they tell us we can pay extra for a taxi to take us in. We gave up and decided to visit the animal orphanage instead.

To our surprise, the orphanage turned out to be fantastic! We were just in time for the feeding and the first animals we saw were cheetahs! As I was trying to take photos of them, the feeder asks me if I wanted to go inside. I asked him if he was serious and he said yes. I asked if it was safe and he said yes. Sounds good to me! He told me to go ahead and pet the cheetah, just don't touch her food!! No worries there! It was really cool, their fur was coarser than I had thought. What beautiful, sleek animals.

We also managed to finally see lions up close (even if they weren't "wild").

Africa Travel Co.

2007-01-22T08:35:00.001-05:00

I cannot believe we had such a terrible experience with the overland company we booked with. It was the most expensive portion of our entire trip and the most disappointing. We're now done with them and aside for the fantastic leader, cook and driver, the impression we've come away with is that ATC is all about making money.

I've already blogged about the terrible experience we had at the Serengetti and the Crater. After speaking to others who have been there recently as well, it sounds like it's come down to the guide/driver you have during the safari. Ours was constantly in a rush and they seemed to always be on a schedule so we would be racing back to the stop point so they could break. It felt like we spent more time speeding around and resting than we did searching for animals. Others had amazing experiences out there because their driver took the time to find the animals.

I also talked about the Masai being closed. Well it turns out it wasn't closed! It was only closed to large trucks like the one we were in. They could have easily booked smaller jeeps and we could all have gone in. We've met or heard about different people who have been during the times we were supposed to be going and had great game viewing. It makes me so mad to think that they cheaped out like that. Not only did they cheap out, the money they saved from not taking us to the Masai was never returned to us.

This company had rated pretty well when I was researching so I am very surprised at the outcome. If anyone is researching a safari company, look elsewhere.

Nightime border crossing

2007-01-22T08:15:00.000-05:00

I had forgotten to post about this crazy experience we had crossing the border into Rwanda from Uganda. We were trying to get to the border crossing by 6pm (closing time) but were driving on those crazy cliffs in Uganda. Since driving fast was out of the question, we knew there was no way we were making it on time. Our leader had friends at the border crossing so he made a call to get them to hold the border open for us.

Finally, at about 9ish or so, we get to the border. It was pitch black, our truck could not cross into Rwanda and neither could our leader because he lost his passport in a mugging in Nairobi before he started with us. We had to follow this so called trainee who basically drinks all day on the truck. Swell.

We all got off the truck on the Ugandan side with all our bags, hand our passports over to the trainee and stand around in the dark. After a while, some guy tells us to follow him. We all do so blindly and cross the border by foot, again it was pitch black. The trainee still had our passports and we weren't even sure where he was! Definitely did not feel legit at that point. We felt like we were being smuggled into Rwanda!

Once over in Rwanda, we wait around again and the trainee shows up with our passports. We fill out papers in the dark and hand them over to some guys. After about 30 mins, we all have our passports in hands with official stamps! It was quite the experience and by far the most memorable border crossing we've had!

No more Masai :(

2007-01-17T07:14:00.000-05:00

Well, we got the bad news yesterday. The Masai Mara game reserve is closed again. Trucks have been getting stuck. There goes our last chance of seeing big cats or elephants. What a complete disappointment this overland has been.

It looks like we'll be going to another national park instead but there are no cats or elephants there. We might try to go to a national park in Nairobi on our own but seeing that it's in the middle of the city, I find it highly unlikely we'll see anything good there, keeping fingers crossed though!

Our overland ends in a few days which we're both pretty happy about. It's definitely been trying the last few weeks travelling like this but we had some great moments seeing parts of Africa so it wasn't all wasted. Next time, we're renting a 4x4 and driving/camping through southern Africa! We've seen others do it and it looks like so much fun!!

Trekked and back

2007-01-15T09:50:00.000-05:00

Thanks to all for the birthday wishes! We are now back in Kampala after heading to Rwanda to trek the gorillas. Lucky me got to trek them on my birthday so it's definitely one I'll remember!

The trip to and through Rwanda was amazing. We managed to visit the genocide museum in Rwanda which was very interesting. Also managed to visit the actual hotel from Hotel Rwanda. It's such a beautiful country and I'm still amazed at what they went through just 12 years ago. We'll have to go back again someday.

The roads through Uganda were a little crazy though as we had to go through these hills/mountains on dirt rutted roads. I was sure we were going to fall off the cliff multiple times. I didn't realize we would be hitting terrain like this! It didn't help that we saw 3 big trucks tip over the cliff. Glad that is over with.

Seeing the gorillas was fantastic. Our group was 'lucky' enough to have a blackback (second in line to the silver back) who was extremely friendly and came after 2 in our group! We didn't think he was going to let one of them go. We'll have to show the footage when we get a chance. The silverback was massive and very impressive. We were supposed to stay a distance of 7 metres from them but we were usually much closer. It was a little intimidating but very cool.

We'll be heading to the Masai Mara in the next couple days and then back to Nairobi!

What you can catch in Africa

2007-01-09T07:49:00.000-05:00

Before we came to Africa, I never really worried about the potential health risks. We had our malaria pills and I figured you just had to be careful overall. After being on this safari trip for the last couple weeks, I now see a potential need to worry. :P

When we first joined the safari group, we heard about this fungal disease that had affected half the group! Lovely. Those who had it had memorable scars to display. It wasn't pleasant and us newbies knew who the fungal group was and tried to stay clear of them. I think that's all passed though.

Then, the morning we were heading into the serengeti, two guys got tested for malaria and were positive. They were on Malarone too which apparently is one of the best drugs out there for this. They both got some pills to fight it and off we went to the Serengeti. One guy recovered really quickly while the other felt terrible for the next couple days. When we got back to Arusha, he got tested again and he still had malaria. The docs put him on a more advanced course for 5 days and yesterday, he said he was feeling much better now. Apparently, if you're going to get malaria, this is the best place to get it! They have tons of pills here to fight it.

The first guy who got malaria and recovered quickly soon felt like crap a few days later again. We all thought the malaria was back but it turned out he now had a bacterial infection in his blood and intestines. That just sounds bad. They ended up injecting him with 40mls of something and gave him pills. I don't think I would have readily accepted a needle in this part of the world though.

Another girl we know had a worm in her foot and she got it extracted while it was still alive. Nice huh?

Won't you all be happy to see us when we get home? ;) Don't worry, we've got our full physicals scheduled shortly after our arrival.

Nairobi

2007-01-09T07:40:00.000-05:00

Also affectionately known as Nairobbery. Nairobi has surprised me with how modern parts of the city appear to be. There are nice shiny buildings and sidewalks! What a concept. The parts of Dar that we saw were fairly run down and a little more chaotic. Nairobi is full of contrasts though as you'll see nicely built condos and just right beside it, you see massive shanty towns. It would be a little odd to live in these condos as your view would be a constant reminder of the poverty that still exists here.

It doesn't seem as bad in Nairobi as everyone has made it sound. You just have to be smart and not bring anything of value out with you. No bag, definitely no camera, not even a watch if you can help it.

While we were there, we also went to an infamous restaurant in the area called Carnivore. Aptly titled as it specialized in game meats. We got the meat platter which consisted of Ostrich, Crocodile, Camel and we got some beef as well. Everyone had raved about Ostrich meat which turned out to be quite decent. Crocodile was like a fish steak which didn't appeal to me so much and Camel was just terrible. It was dry and a little too gamey for me. That was more than enough meat to last me for a while but good to try.

Gorilla Trekking

2007-01-09T07:33:00.000-05:00

We'll be heading into Uganda tomorrow as it's our base for gorilla trekking. Originally, we were supposed to go into the Congo to trek but we recently heard that they might be moving us over to Rwanda since the fighting in Congo has come down to the areas where the company usually treks.

We had heard that there are LOTS of trekkers in Rwanda and it might be hard to get a permit for everyone which would be really unfortunate since this is one of the highlights of the trip. Our trip leader told us today that they're still talking to Congo and will soon let us know where they're trekking. I don't know about everyone else but this seems a little worrisome to me if there is still fighting in the vicinity and there is still consideration of going in there. I do know the company will not put anyone in danger but I don't really understand how the fighting has moved on so quickly. We've also heard a lot about fighting going on north of here in Somalia. So far, nothing of that sort is really affecting Kenya except for the fact that it's a highly corrupt country. Corruption we can deal with. :)

The next time we blog, we'll probably already have seen the gorillas so we'll let you all know how it went!

Africa hot???

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

We're now in Kenya and it's been a pretty good trip so far. We're getting used to the go go go situation and we just picked up a new group a couple days ago and they're pretty good to hang out with.

It turns out the Masai Mara Reserve was closed due to flooding so they have reversed our itinerary around. We went to the Lake Nakuru national park today for more game driving and managed to see more rhinos, giraffes, zebras, etc. etc. Unfortunately, no simbas or elephants. :( Yesterday, we rode bikes into the Hell's gate national park as well and saw a family of baby giraffes nearby.

A few zebras came running up to us though but stopped as soon as they realized we were humans and ran like crazy! :D I was a little concerned about the buffalos that were in the park as we've heard of friends of friends who had been chased by them! All was well though and it was good to get a work out again.

So, back to the title of my blog. In all my previous life, I had always thought Africa was HOT HOT HOT (with the except of Kili). When booking this trip, we had read that it could get quite cold at the rim of the crater since we were quite high up. In the 3 weeks that we've been in Africa, only half of it has been hot! Ever since we've been at the Serengeti, the nights have been chilly! It gets down to about 13C which doesn't sound that cold but when you're sleeping in a tent with a super light sleeping bag, it's COLD! Thank goodness we've had the privilege of warm showers in the last little while. We'll be heading to Uganda tomorrow and apparently it's cold and wet there! Fantastic. I can't complain about the days though as they do get quite hot here. It almost feels like we're in a desert with the great amounts of fluctuation. We'll be crossing the equator for the first time tomorrow which is quite exciting!!

Game Driving

2007-01-05T03:28:00.000-05:00

We've been with our safari group for about a week now. It's been okay so far but I don't think we'll do another packaged tour like this again. The group is pretty good but it's been hard for us to adjust to such a strict schedule with the group. There has also been lots of tourist shopping stops which just adds to the frustration. (Newton, do it on your own, it seems easy enough to get around in Eastern Africa on your own.)

So far, we've hit the Serengeti and the Ngorogoro Crater and unfortunately, it has been somewhat of a disappointment for both of us. We've heard so much hype about the sheer number and the proximity of animals you would see on these game drives that we expected so much more. The Serengeti was quite empty. We did manage to see the Big 5 including some which are apparently quite hard to see (Rhino, Cheetah, and Leopard) but the last was so far away you could barely see it with binoculars. Again, maybe our expectations were too high but it looks like we're not the only ones who came away disappointed overall. The scenery was quite beautiful though.

We're heading into Nairobi today and hopefully will be going to the Masai Mara reserve in the next couple days. Unfortunately for us, we've heard it's been closed because of heavy rainfall and a bridge washed away. Sigh. It's not supposed to be raining this much this time of year but the weather has apparently been quite strange here recently. We'll keep our fingers crossed!

We won't be posting any photos for a while as internet access for us is sparse. We'll try to blog when we can though!

Paje

2006-12-29T09:28:00.000-05:00

Being on the island of Zanzibar, we couldn't pass up and opportunity to visit one of the fabulous beaches for a couple days. We heard the north was crowded and touristy so we headed for the east coast, to a village/beach called Paje.

Getting there was an interesting experience on its own as we opted to take a shared taxi out. Well, as it turns out, the drivers of the shared taxi are in with all the hotels as they wouldn't leave us alone. They wanted us to pick one of the hotels they showed us so they could collect a commission. Guess who forks out the extra $$s for that! Yeah, so when we told them we just wanted our bags and we would look around, the guy gave us some big story about how they are responsible for us and they need to register where we stay and bring it back to the police station, etc. etc. Nice try guy. As Paje was quite full, we got him to drive us to another village nearby called Jambiani. It was obvious the hotel there wasn't full but the owner sees us, starts speaking Swahili to the driver and then turns to us to tell us their full. Nice. So, we told the driver, we're going back to Paje. He took us back there and we just grabbed our bags and headed for one hotel which had a room free for a night. Those guys were really something. Of course, no names collected for the police station! I don't think they got a commission there either, good thing!

Anyways, once settled into Paje, we went out to check the beach out. Holy cow, they said the tide goes out far but I didn't think it would be this far!

We walked for quite a bit and didn't even reach the tide. It was a little nutty. The beach itself was quite beautiful though with white, powdery sand. Around 4pm in the afternoon, the tide came in, quite quickily too! The water was a beautiful turquoise colour. It was very nice.

Unfortunately, we were getting the remnants of a typhoon from India so it was a bit rainy at night and in the mornings. We did manage to get some nice time out on the beach though.

Food as another factor. There are a few restaurants with the guesthouses but we decided to try a small little shack by the beach for lunch one day. Noone else was there eating when we showed up but what the heck. We ask them for a menu, the guy spends 10 minutes writing up 5 choices on a notebook and gives it to us. Nice! :D We order and basically spend the next hour and a half to two hours waiting for lunch! It was about 20 minutes before we see this guy lug a bag of charcoal out to the grill. Hmmm... should have ordered a couple hours in advanced!

After a very long wait, we finally had our lunch. It was delicious, probably because we had to wait so long for it and I was starving by then! I think it was literal here when we said they had to go out to sea to catch our fish. :P

After a couple nights out east, we decided to return to Stone Town as the prices of hotels on the beaches were double what we paid in the town. We decided to forgoe any shared taxis this time and decided to catch the local form of transportation back to town. We weren't sure where to wait for the dalla dallas so we just sat where the locals were sitting.

After a while, a couple showed up but wow, did they ever jack up the price for us! The first two wanted 3000Sh each (about $3Cdn), we said forget it. Finally, the last dalla dalla which was packed!, took us in for 1900Sh total! I think we got a better deal than some locals. Not sure how but the going rate seemed to have been around 1000 to 1500Sh each. The ride back was so much fun! I love these forms of transportation. All the bags go on the top and we get squished in with the locals. It was funny because there are police checkpoints all over the island. As we approached one, the money collectors at the back who usually stood, told a kid to shove over and he sat on the bench. As he saw the cop approaching, he started shaking his head and smiling. The cop went to the front of the truck and he quickly ran out to talk to him. I'm not sure what the cops were looking for but they were definitely busted for something! :D

Inspiring individuals

2006-12-29T09:11:00.000-05:00

We've met some pretty interesting individuals on our journey but I must say the travellers we've met in Africa have really impressed us. Up to this point, we've mostly met travellers like us who have taken some time off from whatever it is they were doing back home to explore the other parts of the world a little.

Here, in this short while in Africa, we've managed to meet a few individuals who are spending their time working for humanitarian efforts and volunteering their time for a couple years to better this region of the world. It's amazing to hear the journeys they've had and the situations they've gone through.

For instance, this guy we met from Denmark is volunteering in northern Uganda, near Sudan. I asked him if he ever felt like he was in danger and he said, not really but sometimes you hear gun shots going off around you. Hmm.. sounds kinda scary to me! He said he had to go through some pretty intensive training and orientation before being admitted into this volunteer opportunity. They would simulate real life situations such as dealing with difficult soldiers at border crossings, having to spend a day hiking to a refugee camp with different scenarios happening around you, or experience a kidnapping. All this to find out if you can handle the stress that comes with working in these conditions. Amazing.

It's been really inspiring meeting these travellers here. I wish them all the best and much success with the causes they've been working for.

Jambo! Jambo!

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

Everywhere we go here, we are greeted with a cheery "Jambo!". It means "Hello" in Swahili. Everyone is super friendly and will just greet you as you're walking by.

Surprisingly though, many Zanzibarians expect us to speak Swahili! I don't know if this shouldn't come as a surprise but we really do speak very little Swahili. All we really know is Jambo, Habari, Mzuri, Asante and Kwaheri (Hello, How are you, Fine, Thank you, and Goodbye). Yes, it's pretty sad.

This is such a great language though. It's has such a beautiful tone and rhythm to it when you here the locals chatter away. Hopefully we'll pick up a little more as we start our safari as it's used quite a bit in Tanzania and Kenya.

Underwater world

2006-12-28T04:26:00.000-05:00

Every time we went to an island, we always thought about snorkelling but found some lame excuse not to go. After our first experience yesterday, I'm totally kicking myself for not trying it sooner!

We were both initially worried because swimming in the open sea is a little daunting for me so the guy assured us that he'd give us floaty devices (which ended up being life jackets). :P Sure, I felt a little silly but was much more comfortable in the water with it on.

It was a beautiful day but the sea was quite choppy. Luckily, they had some pills available for the sea sick weaklings among us. I was sure glad I took the pill but still felt a little quesy out there. Once we got into the water though, it was awesome. The first site we snorkelled at was just okay. It wasn't as colourful as I had imagined and the visibility wasn't great. I was also having some probems figuring out how to use the snorkelling gear and fins. Some introduction would have been nice but hey, why not jump in, swalled a ton of saltwater and figure it out for yourself. :D

The second site was totally amazing. I felt like we were in one of those huge aquariums you see. The water was turquoise and the ocean life was beautiful! Everything was colourful and we saw some pretty amazing things. A couple stingrays hiding behind coral, I was a little scared but they just stayed there. Saw a couple large jelly fishes as well and freaked! I was trying my hardest to swim away from them. There were tons of little ones though where you had no choice but to swim through them. They stung bad but we recovered okay. Lots and lots of sea urchins which were actually quite cute from our angle but definitely didn't want to get too close! We also managed to sea a "ship wreck". It was more like a boat but cool nonetheless.

To anyone who hasn't snorkelled and considering it, try it! It was so amazing being exposed to this underwater world!

Spicy!

2006-12-28T04:24:00.000-05:00

While we were here in Zanzibar, we decided to join the highly recommended spice tour. The tour takes you out to the villages of Zanizibar island where you see the local spices being grown. The tour was interesting overall but I think the initial hype was a little too high.

We saw the clove trees and found out that the farmers have to sell their crop to the government. Unfortunately, they only get 3000Sh/kg. That's basically $3CDN! Cloves aren't heavy either so they'll need a ton! Of course, this means some of it ends up on the black market but apparently the consequences are quite high if you do get caught.

We also saw the tree that grows leaves for the "quine" family malaria pills. The locals use it for malaria prevention and cure as well by making tea with the leaves.
The guide also cut off pieces of bark from a cinnamon tree which was a nice reminder of Christmas at home.

The tour ended with a nice sampling of local fruit and a yummy lunch.

Random shots of Zanzibar

2006-12-22T09:41:00.000-05:00

Traditional sail boats on the water.

Interesting architecture everywhere.

Seafood market at night. Our dinner on the grill!

On the way to Tanzania

2006-12-20T09:06:00.000-05:00

We are now in Zanzibar! It has been an adventure filled 2 days since leaving KL.

Our flight to Dubai was alright, the Emirates airplane we were on was really nice! They even had cameras on the nose and bottom of the planes so we could see what the views are like! Both good and bad though, it's quite nervewrecking to watch the take off and landing, even more so with our flight from Dubai to Dar Es Salaam. More on that later!

We arrived in Dubai around 4:30am and had about 3 or 4 hours to kill since our connecting flight was at 10am. We had read that we can get visas to go out even if we were in transit so off we went! We checked with some others at the airport and they confirmed it was fine. As we went through customs, the guy all of a sudden said, nope you can't do it. We were like, what? We were told we could! He said, nope! Impossible! Hmmm.. feeling a little down now. Then, he starts laughing and says, sure you can! He's like why didn't you ask why? I told him he was so serious! So, he kept laughing at us as he stamped our passports. Once out, we asked the tourist info booth how we get to the palm tree island and the 7 star sail hotel, the Burj. He told us we didn't have enough time, everyone was sleeping, and the palm tree islands were closed (and still under construction). Sheesh. He then told us we can take a bus into the city centre close by to look around. So, we did! We hoped onto a public bus at 5am and headed to the centre. We got there and thought, hmmm.. maybe we shouldn't have done this. First of all, it was still dark and secondly, nothing was open! We got out anyways and waked around a bit but it seemed a bit seedy at that time of day. We then decided to catch a cab to the Burj. About half an hour later, there we were! Right in front of it, unbelievable! I never thought I would ever visit Dubai because it always came across as so extremely expensive! We took some photos from the outside (not allowed in unless you're a guest or you have a reservation with the resto). Then the guards told us which bus to take back to another bus station. We managed to find it and caught another public bus back to the airport in time for our connecting flight! That was a lot of fun and quite the unexpected adventure. Now we can check Dubai off the list!

Our second flight from Dubai to Dar was fine until we tried to land. We were both watching the view from the nose and I was a little surprised at the angle we were going into the runway. All of a sudden, the pilots aborted the landing and took off again! I was like, what's going on!? Ian said they aborted it. Hmm.. that is never a good thing. As we take off again, it felt like the plane stalled and I thought we were going down. Thank goodness that wasn't it. The pilot came on and told us all that they had to abort the landing because the flight tower had given incorrect landing information and they have to try again. Oh, that's great. At this point, I turned off my video view, not good to watch it again at this point. I kept my head down the entire time until we safely landed the second time. Was I ever glad to get off that plane!

Arrival in Dar was fairly uneventful. Our visa application took a while longer than expected but quite easy other than that. First impressions of Africa is that it's somewhat similar to India but smells a little more pleasant. :) It was a bit more unsettling though because many people seem to be just hanging around and looking quite restless so we weren't sure what to expect. All that worry was quite unnecessary though as many people we've met have turned out to be very, very friendly. We met a restaurant owner at dinner whose name is Ali Baba and sat down to have a chat with us about Zanzibar and stuff. He was originally from there and a complete hoot.

This morning, we caught the second ferry into Zanzibar. On arrival, as expected, we were greeted by touts who tried to bring us everywhere. We couldn't shake this one guy off at all and by the end we had 3 guys following us around. Zanzibar is a very, very confusing place. It's a complete maze which is amazing but difficult when you're lugging your backpack around in the middle of a hot day. We told one of the guys which hotel we were looking for and he took us to this locked up building and told us this was it. It had some trouble with the cops and shut down. UH HUH. Come on, this is an old trick. So off we went again by ourselves and this other guy said he can show us where Flamingo (the one we were looking for is). He actually did! Even though he was actually selling another hotel to us. Gotta give him some credit for being honest. Anyways, we're now checked in and roaming around the city. We've gotten quite lost and found this internet cafe on the way back (we hope) to our hotel.

Zanzibar is magical. I really enjoy it so far and am looking forward to discovering more. We'll post photos later (if we can find faster connection). :P

New continent!

2006-12-18T00:52:00.000-05:00

We leave tonight for Tanzania! A mighty late flight at 2:10am with a stopover in Dubai and then we land in Dar! One night there and wednesday morning, we catch a ferry over to Zanzibar and hence begins our African adventure. :)

We'll be in touch soon from the other end of the equator!!

Moving on ...

2006-12-06T07:05:00.000-05:00

It's time. We're moving onto the next leg of our journey. We won't be heading back to India at this point so guess what's next? Yep! Africa. :D Scary and exciting!

After much research and contemplation, we have decided to book an overland safari through the east. This was no easy task! We contemplated doing it ourselves but that didn't last very long at it doesn't seem that easy to get to all the game parks, etc on your own. Public transportation is scarce in some areas and we're not the hitching type or driving ourselves in Africa type so overland it is! There are many, many overland companies out there and it's difficult to decide which countries you really want to hit. Anyways, with much thought, we picked a safari which goes across Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda. It looks like we'll be going into Congo as well if we decide to do the Gorilla trek (depends on Ian's passport situation). For those interested, here's our trip! The highlights for us include the Serengeti, Ngorongoro crater, Masai Mara Reserve, and being at the Equator! The Gorillas will be quite cool as well.

We'll be heading to Zanzibar to chill out for over a week before meeting up with our group. Zanzibar sounds very cool. Nice old town to wander through on one end and deserted beaches on the other. Can't go wrong. After that, it'll be camping for 21 days straight! All I gotta say is, we better see some amazingly huge animals out there! :D

Who's getting hungry?

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

More lunch shots for the foodies! First is mine, chicken and bbq pork rice, and the second is Ian's. Curry Laksa! Yum yum.

Petaling Street

2006-11-30T07:16:00.000-05:00

We were down in Petaling Street recently to do some shopping. Petaling Street is actually a tourist attraction where you can shop and bargain hard for a favourite "Prada", "Gucci", "LV", "Mont Blanc", etc, etc. You get the point. The quality is surprisingly good, imitation has come a long way in the last decade. I remember when I was back in '94, Calvin Klein would be spelled, Kelvin Kline, or something to that effect. Today, you wouldn't be able to tell unless you seriously inspect it.

So, I got myself a new set of sunglasses ... "Prada" baby! Yeah, I know, they're like Paris glasses, but I love 'em.

You can also get your share of movies, anything you want, here. It's funny because there will be cops coming through once in a while and all you see is these stalls dispersing quickly, and once the cops past, they all come back out again. This country, I tell ya! Here is a video of cars trying to get by some movie stalls.

There is also your share of yummy snacks everywhere!

Lunches

2006-11-30T07:14:00.001-05:00

Most of the time, we usually go to the nearby coffee shop to pick up lunch. Malaysian coffee shops consist of a seating area with many stall vendors around for you to pick from. The coffee shops are open to the outside and are usually very hot. They do have fans everywhere (some with mist!) but this only helps so much in M'sian humidity. So, we pick it up and go home to eat in A/C comfort! :)

The choices are usually quite standard. There is the Chee Cheong Fun stall (check out the video of putting CCF together), Laksa, Noodle Soup, Fried Kuay Teow, Chicken Rice, Wan Tan Mee, Nasi Lemak, and at times, the buffet style stall. Sounds like a great deal of choices but after eating there almost everyday, you can get tired of it all. But, we will be missing this food soon after we leave I'm sure. It's extremely tasty, and best of all, authentically Malaysian.

Monsoon Season

2006-11-30T07:13:00.000-05:00

While we've been in Malaysia, we've been lucky enough to be caught in the monsoon season. What does that mean? Rain, big drops of rain, lightning and at times, earth shattering thunders every single afternoon. Luckily, we're usually in the apartment when this happens so we're safe and sound. Even then, watching it from the windows still freaks me out sometimes!

Here is a video of one of the many storms we've been through.

The new toy!

2006-11-19T04:21:00.000-05:00

After much humming around, I finally gave in and we went shopping for another new gizmo for our trip. Ian had hinted at it in his recent blog. We went shopping for a new point and shoot digital camera a couple days ago!

Don't get me wrong, my DLSR has served well to this point but there are times, many, when you just want to whip out something small and discreet, take the shot and move on. Taking a DLSR out just attracts too much attention sometimes. So, after much research and narrowing down the multitude of options out there to about 10, we headed out to the electronic paradise downtown with spreadsheet in hand and did the hands on, practical test of all these cameras.

My biggest requirements were small and fast, and of course, decent quality shots. Everything else would be an added bonus.

So the 10 cameras on my radar list were:
1. Sony T50
2. Sony T10
3. Sony W100
4. Sony W70
5. Samsung L70
6. Ricoh R5
7. Pentax A10
8. Pentax S7
9. Nikon S7
10. Nikon S8

Soon enough, I was down to the Sony T10 and the Sony W70. The T50 had touch screen which was cool but not practical. The W100 had lots of features, but useless since I'm buying this camera to be fast and easy. The features come with my SLR. The Samsung was no where to be found, apparently there is no demand for it. The Ricoh has a 7 times optical zoom! Amazing but again, not what I was looking for. Never tried the Pentax A10 (had received bad reviews) and the S7 had terrible slow response speed when taking photos. Both Nikons were so so but nothing really sold me on them.

So, the Sonys. I was surprised it was narrowed down to those two since I was never a real fan of Sony cameras before this. But, both the T10 and W70 had for the most part what I was looking for. Compact and fast. I had read that the T10 was pretty good but had not so great quality in low light situations. The W70 had great reviews all around. So which one did I end up picking? The T10!!! Why you ask? Because it looks sooo coool. :D I know, it's sort of a shallow reason to pick it but it wasn't solely based on that so it's ok. :)

I've been playing with it a bit and I must say I really enjoy using it. I love the fact that you can turn it on just by pushing the front slide down. Fast. Movie quality is decent and you can zoom in and out while filming! I also really like its size. Fits in my pockets and is quite discreet. Really, really happy with the purchase!

Here is a photo of our latest addition all in white!

A non edited shot of Chilli in low light conditions. Colouring is a bit off but otherwise okay. Yes, he sleeps ALOT!

A macro shot of Chilli in daylight conditions. Great details!

Quoted on the Maglev

2006-11-01T07:54:00.000-05:00

While we were in Shanghai testing out the Maglev train, a student approached us asking if she could interview us about our experience with the train. Sure ... why not. :) She told us she was interviewing many tourists and wanted to get some good quotes.

My brother told me recently that this article has been published on the internet. You can check it out here. Looks like we were the only tourists interviewed, or maybe I just had the best quote. :) Unlikely. But I do remember her getting very excited when I said "I think the whole point of riding the Maglev is to go fast, even if it costs a lot." Anyways, enjoy.

Meet Chilli Padi

2006-10-24T03:12:00.000-05:00

OK, his real name is actually Chilli but why not Chilli Padi. Chilli seemed to suit him well, one of my dad's favourite spice. This was our mission today, to find my dad a little kitty.

We made it out to the local SPCA without too much trouble. Ian's getting good at navigating the city in the little Kancil (local made car) nowadays. We are lucky too since it's the Hari Raya holidays right now and many KL city dwellers have gone back home to be with their families. Because of this, the roads are fairly empty.

The SPCA had quite a few animals there, mostly dogs and cats, and a few rabbits. It was a little sad as most of the animals looked quite sick. They had a liter of kittens there with their mom but all of them looked frail and had colds :(. We then saw 3 siblings together in another cage, 2 and a half months old and all looked quite healthy. We played with them for a while and since my dad wanted a fiesty little fella, we brought Chilli home.

Chilli has been adjusting well very quickly. He was playing around in the car on the way home and has been jumping around like a maniac at home. Reminds me of another black kitty I know. :) When he sleeps though, there's no waking him up. We're pushing and pulling him, the phone rings, nothing.. not a movement.

Cute little fella. He'll be good company for my dad, independent yet affectionate.

Life in Malaysia

2006-10-13T03:02:00.000-05:00

Ian and I have now been in Malaysia for about 3 weeks since returning from India. Our days have been busy with household chores and such (we've actually learned to cook some healthy meals!) and adjusting to M'sian life while we are here.

It's interesting to learn about life here again after leaving this country 18 years ago. For one, it's definitely not as structured and shall we say straightforward as Canada. There is also a lot more crime than I remember, many in broad daylight as well. The local paper here has a comic titled 'Kee's world' and it cleverly depicts the trials and tribulations Malaysians are facing today.

Links below will take you to a few of my favourites. Enjoy!

Oh ... and India photos are posted on the right.

Back in Malaysia

2006-09-26T07:55:00.000-05:00

We have been back in KL now for a couple days and will be staying here indefinitely for now. There will probably be a lull in my blogging for a little bit but do check back once in a while.

Stay tuned ...

1 week in India

2006-09-26T07:33:00.000-05:00

Although our time in India only lasted 1 week, it has been an amazing, eye opening, and most humbling experience. Most of our time was spent in Delhi with only a couple hours in Jaipur. Regardless, the intensity of 1 week in India was so much greater than our 1 month in Thailand, and even parts of our trip in China.

While we were travelling in China, we met many travellers who had been to India who had commented on how different India and China were. They said China was so much more developed than India. I realize parts of China are quite modern but I never ever expected that the difference in development between India and China were this big.

Up to this point in our travels, everything had been fairly accessible. There were always supermarkets or convenience stores, quite easy to get goods. We went into India stocked with most things but were still expecting to be able to easily purchase many items in the big cities. We thought landing in Delhi would ease our transition into India as it was the capital and one of the largest cities there, hence most developed. Perhaps it was (given that we never saw many other cities) but it definitely wasn't quite as developed as I had imagined. Again, it could also be because of the areas we tended to be at. In the Main Bazaar (where we stayed) and in Old Delhi, we definitely couldn't find convenience stores or a supermarket. They had general stores I suppose, but they were very very small with limited selection. Here is a photo of the Main Bazaar.

Here is a photo from a roof top cafe above our hotel.

Even when we visited Connaught place which is a touristy area of New Delhi, we were suprised to find the lack of a convenience store. I admit it was a little more developed there as they did have quite a few western shops (nike, adidas, pizza hut, etc.) but it's just not the same.

On our last day in Delhi, we decided to venture down the alleys off the Main Bazaar and were amazed to find so much crammed into such a tiny area. There were so many families living in so little space, it was crazy and quite eye opening.

On our train ride out of Delhi to Jaipur, we saw the poorest people we have ever seen. We really didn't know what poor was until we saw this. They were everywhere, sleeping anywhere they could, washing up where they could. It made me speechless.

Given our short stay in India, I'm sure we've only just seen the tip of the iceberg of what India really has to offer. Regardless, just one week has managed to open my eyes so much more and humble my spirit. India is an amazing country I think all should see. Just go prepared with a lot of patience and a very open mind.

In a world of men

2006-09-20T05:13:00.000-05:00

One of the first things I noticed here in Paharganj, Delhi was the abundance of men on the street and the lack of female companionship. With the exception of foreigners, I would say the ratio is about 90% men to 10% women. The odds are a little brighter in New Delhi but not much.

In this part of Delhi, the men seem to hold all the available positions dealing with the public. Shops, restaurants, food stalls, etc. are all run by men.

As a female traveller, it can get a bit unnerving, especially since it is well known that many foreign women get harassed here in one form or another. We read in our book that we have the right to slap or punch them if we feel we have been harassed. Good to know.

We witnessed a showdown between a local woman and a man the other day. The guy got off his bike and accidentally bumped into the woman. She turned around and stared him to the ground. The guy kept apologizing profusely and she eventually left. Ian and I were wowed.

Then, my showdown came. We were in the Palika Bazaar, an underground market and this guy bumped into me. It totally took me off guard and I turned around and gave him the death stare. The guy kept apologizing and eventually left. It was nice to know my death stare has some effect when I need it.

Unfortunately, this doesn't work all the time. Sometimes, it's difficult to tell if someone bumps into your butt by accident or if it was intentional. I don't want to mistakenly slap someone who accidentally bumped into me. But then again, Ian said he's never been bumped into .... hmmm.

Rolling blackouts

2006-09-20T04:48:00.000-05:00

We've now been in Delhi for 5 days and are finally starting to get used to this place. In the past 6 months, we've experienced the odd power failure here and there but we never expected a daily blackout (twice a day) here in Delhi.

The first time it happened, we thought it was because of the crappy hotel we picked. We realized soon after that this was not the case. Every morning around 9:30am, the first blackout of the day would happen. Sometimes, the hotel staff would ring the bells to warn the guests. Then, you'll hear the generator starting up and we'll get everything back again (minus the A/C) within a minute or so. About an hour later, the power will go off for a split second as they turn off the generators and resume power. Again, in the evening around 8:15pm, all this will happen again. It's amazing how much quieter (it's all relative) the streets are when all the generators are off.

We were surprised to find that Delhi had rolling blackouts. It'll be interesting to see what the smaller cities experience.

We actually made it to India!

2006-09-17T02:02:00.000-05:00

After 3 very relaxing weeks in KL with my dad, it was time for us to move on again in our journey. It was difficult leaving as we were so comfortable and it was nice being able to spend time with both family and friends there. We knew if we didn't leave soon, we'd get too lazy so everything got packed up again in our backpacks, booked our tickets, and here we are in India!!!

We arrived in Delhi yesterday. The flight over was fairly uneventful. When checking in to our flight in KL, again we had slight problems with only having a one way ticket into India. The airline made us sign a waiver removing them from any responsibilities if we were to get deported once we arrived. Arrived in Chennai and no problems.

It is difficult to comment on first impressions of India while in Chennai as we really only saw the airport and for the most part, it looks like any other city. Airport was old and unremarkable.

However, when we arrived in Delhi, for the first time on our trip, we got seriously scammed! In the airport too, nonetheless. We were at the prepaid taxi stand getting a ticket for our taxi so we wouldn't get ripped off by the taxi themselves and the ticket guy pulled a fast one on us! The bill came to 170Rs and Ian pulled out a bill (which he thought was 1000Rs). I wasn't watching carefully and the guy handed back a 100Rs and said it was 170Rs. I handed that bill back to Ian and told him that was only 100Rs. Since neither of us were on the ball at that point (we were still in the airport!), Ian pulled out another 1000 and gave it to that guy. Later on that night, we were counting our money and realized we were missing 900Rs and linked it back to that. Bastard. I can't believe we got scammed so badly in a supposedly official place! Welcome to India, huh?

Anyways, back to my impressions of India. After we left the Delhi airport, everything changed. Holy smokes, if we thought traffic was bad anywhere else in the world we've been too, they were all nothing compared to this place. This is utter chaos. Everything is everywhere. On our taxi ride in, the streets were busy and such but nothing prepared us for the minute our taxi turned onto the Main bazaar street where most budget hotels were. I was instantly overwhelmed, this was chaos of all chaos. Cars, tuk tuks, bikes, motorcycles, rickshaws, people, and cows! everywhere.

We are finally a little more settled in today in a decent hotel and will be exploring the area. More updates to come!

I guess I really wasn't supposed to bend that way ...

2006-09-08T00:14:00.000-05:00

Remember when I was complaining about all the pain I went through during my Thai massage? Well it turns out it was all for a good reason!

Ever since I've had that massage, I've felt pressure in my left ear. It's similar to flying but I can usually get rid of that pressure easily. After a month of not being able to hear clearly, I went to see a doctor here in Malaysia and it turns out my left ear nerve has been damaged. Swell ... just swell.

He said it could possibly be from the neck cracking. He also said there is a good chance of recovery since I'm young but no guarantees as it can get worse as well. If it does recover, it could take months! Oh yah ... and here are all the pills I have to take to help the recovery!

Moral of the story: Don't get a Thai massage. :P

So glad we came

2006-08-27T05:03:00.000-05:00

I'm so glad we didn't get a chance to go to Mongolia and hence took the SEA route instead. Coming to Thailand was a blessing. It is such a beautiful country, I can't believe we didn't come sooner.

The people here are amazingly friendly, the food wonderful and the sights, breathtaking. We've both said that we have to come back for sure again some day. There is so much more we still have to see here ... and of course, we must visit our paradise again. :)

We're now in KL and it is good to be back again to see my family. The food, of course, has been mouthwatering. We already had nasi lemak, chicken rice, mee, curry laksa, chee cheong fun, and..... DURIAN! Yes, yummm.... M'sia durian I tell ya.. you just can't beat it.

We'll be hanging out here for a couple weeks before we head out to Delhi!

We found paradise .... again

2006-08-27T00:00:00.000-05:00

You might have noticed that we have been in blogging hiatus for the last couple of weeks. This is because we were in paradise.

We spent a lot of time before this trying to figure out which island to go to. It was a difficult time mainly because of the SW monsoon which pretty much took out all the Andaman islands as possibilities. This pretty much left us with the islands to the east of the gulf. Out of the 3 islands (Samui, Phangan, and Tao), we finally decided on Phangan since Samui was too developed and Tao seemed to be more of a diver's paradise. Now that we had the island in mind, we had to pick a beach. There was of course Had Rin, the spot of the infamous Full Moon Parties. That wasn't so much our style so we decided to skip it. We finally settled on Thong Nai Pan Yai. Not as busy as the roads there aren't developed yet but not completely cut off from the world.

When we got there, we knew this was it. Even though it was an overcast day, it was still beautiful. The water was absolutely clear and was amazingly green, the sand was fine and white, and there were palm trees hanging above us.

We knew which 'resort' we wanted to go to already as we had read in LP that this was the place. Unfortunately, you can't reserve with them as they don't have a phone or e-mail. We were taking our chances. We got there just in time it seems as we got the last bungalow! Hooray! I had put 'resort' in quotes earlier because it really isn't a resort in the traditional sense. It was a basic wooden shack but laid in a beautiful environment. It was called Dolphin and was owned by a Kiwi-Thai couple. They had built an amazing atmosphere with lush tropical plants everywhere and an ultra-cool lounge. (Too bad the Kiwi half was a little anal but I won't let that spoil my memories).

Back to my thought on the monsoon ... I didn't have very high hopes for the weather as I figured we'd probably get one sunny day and the others, overcast or rain. Someone must have been looking out for us as we got 9 days of pure sunshine and blue skies. It was amazing.

We spent so much time out on the sand and in the water the first couple days, we both ended up getting burns (oops). We had to spend a couple days after that lounging in the shade, sometimes on the beach but other times on the hammock on our porch. That hammock was heaven sent. It was an amazing place to dwindle away the afternoon and evening, just relaxing. We realized we lucked out with finding such a great place.

This was exactly what we needed after 5 and a half months on the road. I can't remember the last time I was this relaxed ... maybe the summers of my teenage years. This place gave us so much opportunity to let our minds wander, something we didn't really get to do beforehand as we were always preoccupied with what to do and how to do it. This was heaven sent.

Big kitty

2006-08-26T23:17:00.000-05:00

Ian loves tigers. So when we saw an opportunity to sign up and visit a tiger sanctuary in Kanchanaburi, we took it. This sanctuary began because a monk had took in a cub whose parents were killed by poachers. The original cub died but more came in later, same stories. Soon after, locals begin bringing in animals of all kinds.

When we got to the sanctuary, we see a sign saying, no hot colours! If you wear red, orange, pink, or yellow, you will not be allowed into see the tigers and you can't take a photo with them! No one told me this! Here I was wearing a yellow shirt. Great. I can't believe this. I asked them and they said it would be ok. Hm... why have a sign up if you're going to let people in anyways? I don't know about this.

We went in and I was getting a little nervous. Didn't know what to expect. We eventually got to the canyon and saw maybe nine tigers in all. They were all chained up, thank goodness but it was quite the amazing sight. No bars between you and them. Just chains you hope will hold.

They tell you to leave you bags, give them your camera and they'll take you around and take photos of you with the tigers. Apparently, if the tigers were to take a swipe at you, it'd be easy to hook you with the bag on. Great.

I give them our camera and a guy holds my hand and leads me in. He puts me behind this giant tiger and tells me I can touch him while another person takes my photo. I'm thinking, are you MAD? You want me to touch this thing that can turn our around in a second and bite my head off?! I was terrified. Didn't know if I could handle being so close to these creatures. I kept thinking, they can smell my fear. You can really see it too in the photo.

The guy then takes my hand again and leads me to another tiger. This tiger was chewing on some bones so he was a bit preoccupied. This time, I touched him. Not so bad. Kinda cute. I loosened up.

Guy takes me again and leads me to a third tiger. I'm much more comfortable now. These kitties aren't so bad. Sure they growl alot and can eat me up but they're kinda cute too. :)

Once was enough for me though. Ian went in twice for photos, he loved it!

We found paradise

2006-08-26T22:34:00.000-05:00

We've heard a lot about Erawan National Park while here in Kanchanaburi. We've read that it had a 7 tier waterfall and was one of the most beautiful parks. Sounds good, we had to check it out. Little did we know how beautiful it really was.

We got there and started our hike up to the different tiers. The first tier was pretty, the water was amazing, an aqua blue colour. Nicer than any other waterfall I've seen so far.

We keep walking. The second tier was WOW. There were people swimming in it and I was tempted but we only had limited time there and wanted to see more so we kept going.

The third tier was breathtaking. It's everything we've seen in movies and travel photos but never thought we'd get to a place like this. Massive waterfall and aqua blue water.

We kept this one in mind for swimming. The next 2 waterfalls were pretty but didn't compare. At this point, we really wanted to go swimming and decide to forgoe the last 2 since we were told they weren't good for swimming anyways.

We went back down and dipped into the pool. Water was cool but not so bad. Then a really weird thing happened, we were getting nibbled at! There were tons of fishes in the pond and they keep nibbling at you if you stay still. It doesn't really hurt, tickles more like it but still! I really wasn't enjoying the nibbling so you had to keep moving. We swam out to the waterfall and sat under it. It was STRONG but amazing. I've always dreamt of swimming under a waterfall and we did. I sat there and looked around and thought, this really was paradise. It was tropical and beautiful. Someday, I would like to camp there.

How amazing would that be?

Elephants!

2006-08-12T23:34:00.000-05:00

Since we're in Thailand, we figured it'd be a good time to go see some elephants! The elephants here seem to be smaller than what I've expected. I'm probably thinking of African elephants. Not that these are small, I wouldn't want to get under its foot for sure!

At the trek location, we got onto the elephant's back where they had a little bench tied on. Ian and I are hanging on for dear life as the benches are tiny and it seems easy enough to fall off these giant creatures. After heading into the river and out, our guide asks us if we want a photo. Sure! He gets off the head of the elephant and starts shooting away with our camera. Good for us since they charge 200 baht for one they take with their camera after!

Anyways, this guy gets us each to get onto the elephant's neck/head for photos. Not so bad, the elephant isn't moving. After a while, they get me to get on again. I'm thinking, okay, I'll just sit here for a bit, not so bad. Then the guide jumps into my seat on the bench and I'm like what?! I'm not sitting here while the elephant starts walking! It's not like I had anything to grab onto. There were his big flappy ears but I didn't think Dumbo would be too happy with that. The guide is grabbing onto the back of my shirt the entire time. Not like that would have done much if I fell!

I was leaning back and grabbing onto Ian's arm for the first little while but relaxed after a while and let go. This isn't so bad. The ride is smoother than the camel. Dumbo was kinda cute. A little hairier than I thought (never knew elephants had hair!) but not so bad.

In the end, there wasn't a stampede and all went well. Dumbo got a little huffy at points and blew out his trunk but that was all. I really enjoyed the ride and wished we could have spent more time with these wonderful creatures.

Miki's cooking

2006-08-12T22:35:00.000-05:00

While here in Kanchanaburi, we signed up for a popular cooking course at a guest house. We've always loved Thai food and what would be better than being able to make it ourselves! It has always apppeared to be somewhat complicated, with all the spices and all but suprisingly, our cooking course has thought us that it really is quite simple!

The day started out with an awesome instructor. His/her name was Miki. :) She was fabulous - lots of character. We went to the morning market where we learned about different times of spices and veggies. It was quite interesting. We were there at about 11ish and were told that this market opens at 4am! They usually go there then, get their goods and go back to sleep. Insane!

Back at the kitchen, our first dish was the infamous Tom Yum soup. She made 3 variations, one with tom yum paste, two without but one with chilli oil and the other not. Delicious.
Then she also showed us how to make Tom Kha Kai (coconut soup with chicken). Again, with and without chilli oil. My favourite was this soup with the chilli oil. Mmmm... savoury.

At this point, we were getting a little ansy though because we haven't touched the wok yet! Miki had done all the cooking and we just watched! Now, it was our turn. We were going to make Pad Thai! So insanely simple it's amazing. There were 8 of us and we got to sample each other's creations. Ours was by far the spiciest. :P All were very good.

Next, we were going to learn how to make 3 different types of curry! Can we say YUMM?! First was Massaman (originating from India, also known as Masala), then we made Red and Green Curry. Again, amazingly easy. The Red Curry was my favourite although the Massaman was a close second.

Did we ever feast that day. All 8 of us were completely stuffed. Ian and I didn't even have dinner that night. It was that good. :) Hopefully we'll still remember how to make all this stuff when we get back to Canada!

Cheap rides

2006-08-07T05:51:00.000-05:00

It's amazing, they have these commuter trains running from Bangkok to the north and west which are the cheapest forms of transportation we've ever taken! They're basically old, rickety subways (not air conditioned) going along the railroad tracks. These are considered to be 3rd class train rides here.

The first time we took one was from Bangkok to Lopburi. We figured we could survive 3 hours of hell if need be. It turned out to be semi decent, although a bit hot. This first train actually sounded like a diesel bus. It was a little weird but they had a ton of hawkers walking through the trains selling lots of goodies. This 3 hour train ride cost us 26 baht each which is less than 1 dollar CDN! It's amazing that they charge so little, that would be how much we might pay for a meal as well.

Since the first ride was ok, we hopped on another train from Lopburi to Ayutthaya. Only an hour this time. This one for whatever reason, was a little hotter but still, a great way to travel. This was more like a real train in the sense that it actually had an engine up front. Great way to see the countryside.

Oh, but you look ....

2006-08-07T05:25:00.000-05:00

Yep, you guessed it right. Apparently, we look like the locals here too. The reaction here is a little different though as the Thais end up giggling at themselves when they find out we're not. I guess the asian world hasn't seen too many asian backpackers from Canada yet as we often get shocking "Canada!" responses.

If only we can speak and read Thai, then we wouldn't have to pay farang prices. :)

Monkey business

2006-08-05T04:18:00.000-05:00

We were in Lopburi, one of the oldest cities in Thailand and the land of monkeys and ruins. As some of you know, I'm a lover of monkeys and what can be better than to see monkeys taking over a city?

When we first arrived, I was expecting to see monkeys everywhere! Nope, I think we saw one, one measley monkey on the street. I was starting to wonder what LP was talking about!

We had read that there would be lots of monkeys on the ruins and I was looking forward to it. Four ruins later and not one monkey in sight. As we were approaching one of the last ruins, I told Ian that I would be extremely disappointed if we didn't see any monkeys today. Ian tried to reassure me by telling me they'd be out later this evening. I, however, was not convinced. Not more than a minute after, we saw this whole group of monkeys coming down the street! I kid you not. It was such a weird coincidence!

They were hopping off the telephone poles, hanging off the wires, climbing up the buildings, sitting on cars, what an awesome sight!

Of course I got trigger happy and many clicks later, we walked a little further down to the ruins and was even more happily surprised with many, many more monkeys there! There were old granpas, young moms, rascal teenagers and cute little toddlers. I tried to get close to get some decent shots but were actually a little intimidated by them! They would give you this look like they're going to attack!

After a while, we decided to enter the actual ruins so we can get more shots of monkeys in ruins. As we were at the gate, a monkey jumped onto Ian's back and as I turned around, another one followed suit! I didn't know what to do! Here was Ian being harrassed by the monkeys, and I finally came to my senses. I took a photo. :)
One ended up stealing the water bottle Ian had in his backpack. The little bugger wasn't all that bright though as he ran away with the bottle upside down. Needless to say, by the time he got away, the bottle was empty.

Once inside, I ended up getting a monkey on my back once and a cute little one hanging onto my leg another time. Not so bad for me. Ian on the other hand is a monkey magnet! If he was a monkey, he'd be the alpha male. They were all flocking onto him. Everytime I tried to help him by trying to get one off his back, they would stare at me and hiss! A little territorial, aren't we?

I can't believe we were surrounded by so many monkeys! What a field day. I now have more photos of monkeys than I'll ever need! Might as well post them here!

The King of Fruits

2006-08-05T03:58:00.000-05:00

One of the fruits I had been really looking forward to in SEA was durian. I've really only had them in Malaysia and thought I should give it a go in Thailand since you can find them everywhere here!

It took me a while to actually buy some since I couldn't eat a whole durian on my own (Ian is still repulsed) and individually wrapped pieces were quite expensive. On top of that, everytime I prodded one to test its freshness, they were all quite stiff! At first I thought perhaps, these weren't the good ones, but since this was the case everywhere and locals were buying them they must be what Thai durians are made off!

I finally gave in after a few days and bought a couple large pieces for 50 baht! To put this in perspective, you can get a whole durian for 80 baht and one meal here can cost 50 baht so that was one pricey snack!

I'm sad to say that I didn't enjoy this durian as much as I thought I would. It just didn't have the fresh creamy texture and strong aroma about it. It just wasn't a Malaysian durian!

Am I supposed to bend that way?!?

2006-08-03T01:52:00.000-05:00

I'm usually a lover of massages but little did I know what I was in for when I signed up for my first Thai massage! A couple days before the full body massage, I had gotten a foot massage since we had done a lot of walking. That was a bittersweet experience as there were times when I was really enjoying it and relaxed and other times, not so much. I must be a glutton for punishment though as I put myself through 1 full hour of a full body THAI massage a couple days later!

As I sat there waiting for my turn, I watched the massages that were just finishing and thought maybe I should just get up and run! They were put into some pretty weird positions and this girl was walking on this guy's back! Hmm, that can't be a good thing. My legs didn't work though and the next thing I knew, I was on the massage table being contorted into weird positions.

I have had a pain in my right hip for the last week or so and warned the massage lady about it. Instead of going easy on it, she paid extra attention to it (which may or may not be a good thing). She kept telling me to relax which was very difficult as I was worried I wasn't going to be able to walk after this!! When I told her it was a little painful, I swear she had this menacing smile on her face. These women must like causing pain! She was probably thinking how much of a wuss all foreigners were.

After much focus on the legs, she moved to my back, neck and shoulders. Now, I usually LOVE neck massages but all I felt on this one was PAIN, PAIN, and more PAIN! How was this possible? In addition to this, my back was bent in all these weird positions and cracked many many times. The weirdest part though, was getting my neck cracked! I totally didn't expect that but it did feel a lot better afterwards.

All in all, I'm glad I did it once, but never will I do it again. I'll stick to the good ol' sissy swedish massages in Canada. :)

And we thought we were spoiled in HK ...

2006-07-29T02:10:00.000-05:00

The night before leaving for Macau we were presented with an amazing surprise from Mona and Oliver. Oliver had booked us into the Westin Resort in Macau for 2 nights! We were completely floored. We thought we had already been spoiled silly while in HK and here we were, checking into a room the next day with an ocean view! AND of course, for those of you who have stayed at the Westin before, the HEAVENLY bed! WOW.

Needless to say, we only saw a little bit of Macau during the time we were there. We did manage to explore one of the casinos there, visit the ruins of St. Paul and get a taste of Portugese food with my cousin who works there as well.

We're now in Bangkok and although it was hard leaving all that luxury behind, I'm glad we're on the road again. I'm absolutely loving Thailand so far. The people here are extremely friendly, travelling here is easier than China, and the food has been delicious!

We're not sure where to spend our time in Thailand yet so if anyone has any suggestions, we'd love to hear them!

The journey continues ...

2006-07-24T23:26:00.000-05:00

We've been in hiatus for the last week here in HK. It's been amazing having a nice place to stay in (Mona's) and getting some good R&R. We've been well fed as well and I think managed to pudge up back to our pre-travel selves in just one week. To sum it up, we've been spoiled silly and it's going to be hard getting back on the road after this!

I am, however, looking forward to continuing our journey. We are heading to Macau tomorrow to get a taste of the Portugese world and then off to Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore before making our way to India!

Stay tuned!

Tropical Storm Bilis

2006-07-20T00:27:00.000-05:00

Little did we know, we were leaving Shanghai bound for Hong Kong as tropical storm Bilis was making its presence known in southern China. Our 26 hour train ride turned into a 37 hour ride as it was 11 hours late on arrival in HK.

We boarded the train at 11am on the 15th totally oblivious and excited to be heading to HK again. The day went fine and off to bed we went thinking that we only had the next morning to kill as we were supposed to arrive in Kowloon at 1:10pm on the 16th.

As sleep is often disrupted on overnight trains, we were both awake on and off throughout and Ian thought that the train had been sitting still in spots throughout the night. In the morning, Ian pulled out his GPS and it said that we were half way between Shanghai and Kowloon. Not a good sign at all as we had been travelling for about 17 hours by then and we were only HALF way!!!

I went to ask one of the train employees what time we would get to HK and she said she didn't know. Hmmm.. not a good sign. 1pm on the 16th came and went and HK was no where to be seen. Ian started hearing people on the phone saying that we might arrive at 7pm or 11pm ... all different times. Great, just great. Finally, at around 6ish, I asked the train lady again and this time she said 1o'clock. Since my mandarin really stinks I thought maybe, I didn't hear her right. So I repeated the time and she said that was right. Holy smokes, that is 12 hours after we were supposed to arrive! She mentioned something about the bad weather, we still had no clue how bad it really was. We were wondering why we never thought of flying instead.

We found some travellers who had a cell phone handy so we could call Mona (Ian's sis in HK) to tell her that we were going to be REALLY late and now to come down to the station to meet us, we'd find our way to her place.

At 12:23am on the 17th, we finally arrived in Kowloon. Poor Ian had a rough start to his birthday, I felt terrible. Everyone was exhausted and really happy to be there. After going through customs, we were surprised to find a whole crew of tv cameras filming all the passengers departing. There were also people there directing us depending on where we wanted to go. They had chartered buses going into different parts of HK for free. What service! Never expected that. Somehow, we made it to Mona's safe and sound in the middle of the night.

The next day, we saw the severity of the storm on the news and on the paper. The storm had flooded many parts of central and southern China, right along the route our train was supposed to take. There were boulders on the tracks and many landslides. Apparently, we had taken many detours to avoid the flooded areas which explains our much delayed arrival.

We realized afterwards how completely lucky we were to have arrived at all and most importantly, in one piece.

These are clips we cut out from the paper which talks about our train delay (they said T99 but it's K99) and the many delays everyone else was experiencing.

Farewell China!

2006-07-12T06:00:00.000-05:00

I can't believe we've been in China for 4 months. The time just flew right by. We've seen so much of the country and yet we've covered so little in so many ways.

As I'm sure you can tell by my blogs, I will truly miss the west. From the smiles and dances of Dali and Lijiang to the surreal experience of standing in front of Everest to being brought back in time among the donkey carts and lamb skewers of Kashgar. Those have been some of the most amazing experiences I've ever had.

I'm amazed at the diversity of landscape China has to offer. We've encountered so many extremes here from the 2nd lowest deression in the world (Turpan) to the highest lake in the world (NamTso) to the highest Mountain in the world. All in one country. Fascinating. On top of this, the numerous ethnic groups spread throughout the country were eye opening. When most think of China, most just think Chinese but there really is so much more out here.

This is a land far more dramatic than we were used to back home. The streets are constantly filled with action be it people dancing together, yelling at each other, holding an accused thief back, laughing together and sometimes, crying together. It's amazing.

We've gotten to be fairly comfortable travelling in this country as we're familiar with the faces and the way things run. We are however, ready to move on. It's time to see other faces and learn about other cultures. Maybe ... just maybe, we'll come back to China someday to visit the parts we've left untouched.

The best EGGTARTS in the world!!

2006-07-12T04:39:00.000-05:00

Wow, so here in Shanghai, we have had the most amazing eggtarts EVER! We were strolling along the pedestrian area in Shanghai and came across this area selling lots of goodies. My eye caught the eggtart stand and fought Ian's pulls away from it. :D Good thing too because we ended up buying 4 for 10Y and spent the next little while in heaven. :)

They were sooooo fresh ... piping hot! The first bite in ... the crust was nice and flakey and the custard was soooo smooth. It was DELICIOUS! I'm still drooling over how good it was. Unfortunately, the were really piping hot and both of us ended up burning the roofs of our mouths. :P Not that that would have stopped us! We just kept eating... paying for it now but they were just that good.

*Update* From the time I originally typed this blog, we've had these eggtarts 2 more times! We must have lucked out on the freshness the first day as these weren't piping hot but they were just as yummy let me tell ya. And this time, we could actually enjoy the taste a little more without getting a burn! :D mmm... mmm.. GOOD!

Shanghai saved the East!

2006-07-12T04:29:00.000-05:00

I'm happy to report that Shanghai has been amazing. The diversity in architecture and sights this city has to offer is wonderful.

We took a walking tour through the new Pudong area where the Oriental Pearl Tower and Jinmao Tower stood as well as the Bund where historical buildings still hold strong. That was quite enjoyable seeing old and new face each other only to be separated by the Huangpu river.

We also rode the Maglev train and hit 430 km/h. That was a little nutty. 30kms in 8 minutes.

What a ride ... Ian was all giddy afterwards. :D

Last week in China!

2006-07-10T03:34:00.000-05:00

We've now made our way to Shanghai after visiting Qingdao and Suzhou. So far, the east has failed to make an impression on me. I'm not sure if it's because we've been in China for almost four months but chats with other travellers tell me I'm not alone.

Suzhou was supposed to be paradise on earth with lovely women. Not sure if I saw either. :P I've seen lovelier women here (Shanghai) in one day. We did visit a garden in Suzhou which they are supposed to be famous for. Started out a little odd as it wasn't my impression of what a garden would be but in the end it turned out to be a nice stroll.

Shanghai looks to be promising though ... we'll be visiting the Bund and the French Concession over the next few days. We've also got our ticket out to HK booked for the 15th. I can't believe we're leaving China after 4 months! More updates after our Shanghai excursions!

The Northern Capital

2006-07-02T01:27:00.000-05:00

First of all, Happy Canada Day to everyone!

We've been in Bejing for almost a week now and will be catching tonight's train out to Qingdao (for some beer, beach and German architecture)! Beijing has been both intriguing and disappointing for some reason. Disappointing perhaps because I expected more advancements than they've had, both in architecture and technology. For the most part, the buildings are bland，the computers and connection much slower than many other cities in China, and the subway more archaic than Toronto (if that's possible)!

All this aside though, we walked through the forbidden city, caught a quick glimpse of pickled Mao (that was weird) in Tianammen Square, climbed the Great Wall and tobagganed down (highly recommended!), went olympic paraphernalia shopping, and had some good peking duck with some friends. It was a good time.

I'm not sure how Beijing plans to handle the crowds for the 2008 Olympics. The congestion is brutal as is. We sat in traffic for 2 hours when it really should have taken 20 minutes, the buses and subways packed but I'm sure they have great plans ... although, I know I wouldn't want to be here then.

Where should we go?

2006-06-26T01:49:00.000-05:00

Looks like our original plans of going into Mongolia have been swayed because of the Naadam festival from July 11th to the 13th. Although we've managed to find available trains to Ulaan Bataar from Hohhot in Inner Mongolia (all trains before the festival from Beijing are booked), finding available accomodations has been challenging.

Because of this, and the fact that we only have about 3 weeks left on our Chinese visa with no guarantee of a renewal in the east (and also because we're almost ready to move on from China), we have been throwing all our options up in the air. At the moment, we're thinking of flying through the east in a couple weeks and visiting Macau/HK for a bit. Then, we're thinking SEA until the fall when we go to India. All this decided in one night. I think the thought of rojak, durian, nasi lemak, asam laksa, mangosteens, etc ... have helped the decision a little too. :)

Any other suggestions?

Sights of Turpan

2006-06-22T01:15:00.000-05:00

Turpan is HOT! They weren't kidding when they said this is the hottest city in China! It is HOT! The day we arrived, it was a high of 41C. Yikes. What fun that was walking around with a big backpack trying to find a room. Alas, we found one and are really glad we came here. (We read bad reviews from another traveller and were going to skip it.)

We were surprised to see that Turpan has a lot of Chinese influence on it, although we shouldn't be that surprised as it is the closest city to the mainland. It's a small city of only 56,000 but has been a great place to relax. We've been loading up on skewers galore to get our fix before heading out to the east. Man, I'm going to miss these skewers.:( By far, Kashgar has had the best skewers in the province.

Yesterday, we hired a cab and went out to see some of the sights of Turpan. On our way to our first sight, we noticed that there were beds outside houses everywhere and there were people still sleeping in them! We never noticed this in other regions of Xinjiang but perhaps it was because we had never been out this early (8am Beijing time which is actually 6am Xinjiang time). It was amazing that everyone was sleeping outside, we aren't sure why but we assume it's just a way of life.

We first stopped off at a small grape producing village, Tuyoq, which still retains much of its tradition. Pretty cool.

Next, we stopped off on the road to check out the Flaming mountain. Apparently, in midday, the sun makes it look like the mountain is on fire. Not for us. A couple snaps and we were off!

We then stopped at the Karez. This is a cool irrigation system developed by the Uighurs 2000 years ago as a means of getting water from the mountains down to the villages. They built underground channels to distribute the flow of the water collected from the mountains down to the villages. Pretty cool.

Jiaohe ruins were next and they were totally amazing! I was expecting a couple buildings here and there but this was an entire city in ruins! This city is old too, it was first established a couple hundred years BC! It was ruined in a war in the early Ming Dynasty (early 1300s). We explored the city as much as we could but many areas were off limits as they were crumbling. It was also midday and in a city of ruins, there was barely any shade ... it was HOT! Regardless, it was fascinating to see. I can't believe it was still standing after a couple thousand years!

Last stop was just to take a quick snapshot of the Emin Minaret. Very pretty building but we didn't go in. Heard it wasn't worth it.

Had more skewers after we came back :) and some popcorn (the popcorn here is really good too!) . I'm really going to miss Xinjiang province. It's been absolutely amazing here. Another place I would highly recommend to anyone thinking of visiting this part of the world.

Tonight, we're catching a sleeper train back out to Lanzhou and another sleeper train the day after that out to Datong in Shanxi province. Slowly making our way out to Beijing where we are planning to apply for our Mongolian visas.

We made it!

2006-06-21T23:47:00.000-05:00

Yay! We made it through our 20 hour express sleeper bus ride (the regs were 25 hours!) through the desert in one piece. Surprisingly, it was fairly comfortable but the lack of a washroom on the bus made it a little more challenging. We both had the help of Immodium for the ride which was a blessing as our washroom stops consisted for the most part of walking into the desert, finding a free spot and going. It was lovely.

On the way, we saw a sleeper run off the road. We think it might have been the bus that left before ours.

The views of the Taklamakan desert from the bus were amazing though. All you see is a sea of dunes in all directions.

They have also planted reefs along the sides of the road to keep the sand from blowing onto the road. There are hoses all the way along the road by the reefs to keep they alive. These hoses are fed by tanks placed every 10-15 kms or so by little huts where one or two workers live and work ... what a job.

Once we arrived in Urumqi at 9 in the morning, we bought another ticket out to Turpan (since we decided to skip the lake trip) and left 20 minutes later on another bus. Thank goodness this trip was only 2.5 hours.

500km cross desert highway

2006-06-17T02:46:00.000-05:00

We were supposed to leave on our 18 hour bus ride across the desert this morning but unfortunately, Ian came down with a bad stomach bug. Not the greatest thing to have on a bus ride with no washrooms in the middle of a desert!

We've postponed our trip to tomorrow. Hopefully all is well and the weather holds out. We've also had a sandstorm blow through Hotan the last couple days. Apparently, a sandstorm can stop a bus on this highway for days. We've decided to skip the lake in northern Xinjiang and will be heading for Turpan from Urumqi. We will blog again then!

Carpets & Jade

2006-06-17T01:50:00.000-05:00

At our last stop on the southern silk road in Hotan, we found our way to a local carpet factory to check out how they make this stuff. It was pretty cool. We just walked in and observed the traditional way of making carpets. Nothing appears to have changed from past photos we had seen on the walls.

Walking back from the factory, we passed the Jade Dragon River where locals frequent looking for precious stones, mainly jade. We thought we would test our luck out as well and went on our jade expeditition. Unfortunately, we have no clue what raw jade looks like and thought anything green would be it! :D We ran into some guys who tried to sell us small white stones so I guess those were precious as well.

Any gemstone experts out there who can tell us if any of this is real jade?? Yah, they look like rocks, but I swear there must be a real one in there somewhere.

Off to the southern silk road

2006-06-12T04:01:00.000-05:00

We leave Kashgar tomorrow for the southern silk road through Karghilik and Hotan. We will then traverse the 500km cross desert highway through the Taklamakan highway back to Urumqi. We probably won't have a chance to blog until we're back in northern Xinjiang. More updates then!

Sunday & Livestock Markets

2006-06-12T03:09:00.000-05:00

One of the biggest attractions I've been looking forward to here in Kashgar has been the Sunday and Livestock markets. It's supposed to be one of the most mind boggling bazaars in Asia according to LP. We got up around sunrise as we heard this was when the streets start filling up. To our surprise, we found the markets don't start until 10am local time (which is noon Beijing time). Swell, we had a few hours to kill. We made our way to the Sunday market anyways. It wasn't very busy yet but there were people setting up and as time went by, it started getting fairly packed and we begin to hear the shoutings of 'Boish-boish!' (coming through!).

Parts of the Sunday market were unfortunately a little more touristy than expected but there were still areas which were full of local traders selling everything from meat to knives to fabric.

We then made our way over to the livestock market which was even more interesting! Here, they had a similar market to the Sunday market, just smaller, and a whole area dedicated to buying livestock. Many sheep's backs would be rubbed, butts pinched and teeth checked before making the deal. The black mother and baby below were bought for 250 yuan (35 cdn).

Say cheese!

2006-06-12T02:55:00.000-05:00

While strolling through the old town and the markets, we've had our cameras hanging by our sides in case a kodak moment appears. The sight of the cameras send the kids into a frenzy though as they all want their photos taken!

They were adorable. They would point at our cameras and then pose．We would then get assaulted as they try to see themselves in the viewfinder.

This poor kid had his portrait ruined by some mean person. Even his mom said "Ay!" when I showed it to her. IAN!

Droooolll ...

2006-06-12T02:20:00.000-05:00

Along with being on of my favourite cities, Kashgar has so far catered the best food in the country as well.

I've never been a big meat eater as most of you know but here, I can't get enough of these mutton kebabs! They are SOOOO GOOOD! I'm drooling just thinking of them. Kebabs come in BBQ and oven baked varieties. We both like the BBQed ones more ... much jucier.

We've also tried various common dishes as recommended by LP such as nan (breads), girde nan (bagels), samsas (baked mutton dumplings), gang pan (rice with vegetables and meat), laghman (cold spicy noodles), souman (noodles fried with tomatoes, peppers, garlic and meat),

polo (rice pilaf),

tohu gangpan (rice with spicy chicken and vegetables).

Desserts include maroji (vanilla ice cream churned in iced wooden barrels),

kharsen meghriz (fried dough balls filled with sugar, raisins and walnuts), and dogh (shaved ice, syrup, yoghurt, and iced water).

Something neither of us have ventured out to try yet, opke (broth of bobbing goat's heads and coiled, stuffed intestines).

Not sure what this was either but we didn't feel like trying it :P.

In another world ...

2006-06-12T01:44:00.000-05:00

By far, Kashgar has been one of my favourite cities in China, although it does feel more like the middle east. The tradition that has been retained in the old city impresses me. The old town here is still an actual old town where daily life continues unlike several other old towns we've been to which have been built up for tourists.

Donkey carts are still passing through the streets, metal is still being formed into buckets and boxes by hand, bread and bagels baked in coal ovens, old men getting a shave on the street, tailors sewing clothes at every corner, and the list goes on. Absolutely amazing. We've been here for 5 days now and I'm still amazed at what I see.

It's still surreal

2006-06-12T01:19:00.000-05:00

After travelling for 3 months, I've gotten used to being in new environments often and have taken it all as part of life. Sometimes, it's almost like taking it for granted and being a little annoyed at our surroundings, whether it's the lack of comfort or hygiene of those around us.

One day, we were on a rickety old bus travelling through the monotonous landscape of the desert. I was rather uncomfortable as the seats were old and I was constantly falling off. There were a few old men in the back seat behind us coughing and it was hot. I closed my eyes to try and get some rest and started thinking back to the days before our journey and how excited I was to experience everything. One of the images I had then was sitting on a rickety old bus with a bunch of locals. I opened my eyes just then and realized this was exactly what I was looking forward to and couldn't help but smile. It was perfect.

We tend to forget sometimes how lucky we are to be where we are as we deal with the everyday logistics of travelling. Sometimes, it's still hard to believe we are here and living the dream.

Urumqi and now Kashgar

2006-06-09T01:21:00.000-05:00

Turns out our train to Urumqi was air conditioned and quite comfortable! We only stayed in the city for a couple days to rest up before getting on a 23 hour train journey to Kashgar for the visa renewal. Not much in Urumqi but we'll be heading back to do a trip up to a popular lake up north.

We decided we would splurge this time and try out a soft sleeper since this would be one of the longer train rides. Three words "Not worth it". Feels like less room because you are enclosed in a room and this time, you're locked in with complete strangers!

We passed some beautiful scenery on the ride though!

Unlike Urumqi, Kashgar's old town still retains much of its tradition. It's fantastic being here! I feel like I'm trapped in the past. So much is still produced by hand and there's a mosque here dating back to 1442 (will visit this afternoon). Aside from the outright discrimination we experienced in the beginning (read Ian's blog), I love being here. It feels like we're in a whole different country. The people are interesting and the food is amazing! There's gotta be something said about the influence of central asian on chinese food. Some remind me of Malaysian food ... YUMMY!

Oh! BTW, we got our renewal for another month!

On to Urumqi!

2006-06-04T01:56:00.000-05:00

After much fun camping out, we're getting on a 12 hour overnight train ride to Urumqi tonight. We heard this train wasn't air conditioned, hopefully it will be cool in the desert tonight!

We have under 2 weeks to get our visas renewed so we're hoping to make it all the way to Kashgar before then!

Camping in the Gobi

2006-06-04T00:59:00.000-05:00

Camping in the Gobi Desert was one awesome experience! I must say it ranks pretty high up there with the Tibetan overland. We never knew this was even an option and I for sure never thought we'd be riding a camel in China. We've heard that the camel rides were pretty touristy and wanted to skip them. To our pleasant surprise we found out they can arrange a camel ride out to the desert with a night of camping!! We've read many raving reviews about this experience from other travelers and were totally sold.

Lucky for us, we were the only ones who had signed up for this on that day and we met up with our guide,“Mr. Li” in the late afternoon with bare essentials. He hailed a cab and brought us to his home in a small village nearby (also where the camels were!). We got to hang out for a little bit in his house while he got the camels ready. After a while, he led us out back where we met our companions for the next 16 hours. Meet Gung Ho’and Grumpy Old Maid’ (will explain later).

After almost falling off the camels while trying to get on, we were on our way! We were going to ride the camel for about 2 hours into the desert. The trip in was pretty amazing. We soon left the small village and was greeted with a brown landscape of sand dunes. Gorgeous. Along the path, we passed a large cemetery, very interesting.

Surprisingly, it was quite a comfortable ride in for me (Ian will tell you otherwise). Slow and fairly steady. The only excitement was when we had to crest a small dune and go down again. The camels don't handle that very well. Specially mine, she liked to bob a lot.
After and amazing ride of going past many dunes, we arrived at our campsite. A small valley among the dunes. Mr. Li set up our tents and the fire while we went off to explore the dunes. They had wooden sleds there which we could use to toboggan down the dunes so up we went along the crest. Let me tell you, climbing dunes is hard work!

Anyways, we made it to a point where we thought we could head down on the sled so I hopped on ready to stick my feet out for brakes! I let go and hung on for dear life to find that I pretty much went nowhere! What the heck! I pushed off with my feet and went down a couple feet more and stopped. I tried leaning back, pushing some more, no luck! What a disappointment! I was ready for fast action! Finally gave up and got of the stupid sled and ran down the hill. That was kind of fun. It felt like real fluid motion.

We then crested a smaller dune nearby to watch the sunset. It was amazing being there. It was exceptionally peaceful there; you couldn't hear a thing except for an annoying fly once in a while. It is by far the quietest place I've ever been to in my life, who would have thought that would be in China?!

We headed back after the sun had set at 9:15ish to find Mr. Li waiting for us with a small firepot of boiling water over a small fire. Out comes the instant noodles and we had a grand feast that night. It got dark quickly and we laid back on the sand and gazed at the star ridden sky. We thought we'd see more here than in Algonquin but to our surprise, we didn't. The moon was amazingly bright but it was still so beautiful there and so very peaceful. After a couple hours we decided to call it a night.

After a windy night, we got up the next morning just before 6 to catch the sunrise. We climbed up a nearby crest and just sat there enjoying the coolness of the morning. It was nice to be able to see this sunrise after our Namtso Lake experience. We were a little worried as it was a little cloudy the day before but we lucked out.

After Mr. Li found Gung Ho and Grumpy Old Maid who were wandering off quite a distance, we packed everything up, and tried to get on our camels. Gung Ho was pretty good and kneeled so Ian could get on but was quick to get up the minute he's on. Grumpy Old Maid lived up to her name again and refused to kneel so I could mount her. After much yelling from Mr. Li and much whining from the old maid, she finally succumbed. However, the minute I tried touch her, she got right up again! Mr. Li had to hold her down while I got on quickly. The camel ride this morning was a little harsher on the behind since it was mostly downhill and was I ever glad to get off the camel at the end.

I still can't believe we were at the base of Everest about 3 weeks ago, and now we've just camped in the Gobi desert. What an awesome experience. So good to get a dose of camping in, hopefully we can do more along the Silk Road!

Mogao caves

2006-06-03T23:35:00.000-05:00

After a couple days in bed recovering from a bad tummy bug, we were finally able to head out to see the sights of Dunhuang. There are quite a few tourist outings here but we heeded the advice of many travelers before us and focused our energy on the Mogao caves and a trip out to the dunes。

The Mogao caves come with a steep entrance fee (120Y）but were well worth it. It contains some of the most treasured and amazing relics we've seen in China so far. Many of the caves we saw were built as early as the 4th century and some of the art inside was still amazingly quite well preserved. They have hundreds of caves there but you only see 10 of 20 caves open to tourists.

The ever so reliable LP (affectionately known as Lying Planet) mentioned that all surroundings are restricted from photography so we didn't bother bringing our cameras. To our not so pleasant surprise, we could have taken photos of the exterior which was pretty cool on its own. What can you do. Here are some photos from travel china guide so you can see what it looks like. Very cool and highly recommended!

Start of the silk road

2006-05-31T01:44:00.000-05:00

We've now made our way across the beginning of the silk road from Xian through to Lanzhou, Jiayuguan and now in Dunhuang.

Lanzhou was a let down in terms of the pollution, Chengdu was worse! We visited the end of the great wall in Jiayuguan and couldn't climb all the way to the tower because we're wimps ... so much for me being a mountain goat!

The trip here to Dunhuang from Jiayuguan was supposed to be 5-7 hours by bus. Instead, it turned out to be 10 grueling hours of monotonous desert landscape and stopping many times along the way to pick up hitchers. The bus also had to take a detour to bypass the police checkpoint since they had more passengers than seats. :D

Dunhuang so far has been wonderful though. Nice little oasis town in the middle of the desert where we can relax for a few days and checkout the caves and dunes.

Where is all the rice?

2006-05-28T03:06:00.000-05:00

So, I thought we'd be eating rice day in, day out in this country. This is where rice originated from, isn't it? I thought it was THE staple. To my dismay, we've only really had rice maybe 25% of the time. Noodles seem to be the big thing here. They have them in all shapes and sizes, hot and cold, spicy and not. Not sure if this is a western China thing but I'm hoping we get more of the steamed white stuff in the east.

The beginning to the end

2006-05-25T03:03:00.000-05:00

We've gotten our fill of the big cities and are now ready to head back out to less developed areas. We're slowly making our way to Xinjiang province, where the infamous silk road lies. Luckily, the beginning of the silk road starts here in Xian so we can pretend we were the brave explorers and trades people of the past making our way out west to see what lies out there.

Muslim Quarters

2006-05-24T03:44:00.000-05:00

While roaming the streets of Xian, we came upon the Muslim Quarters which was pretty cool. Lots of local snacks everwhere and many interesting sights.

There was a huge lineup for these so we thought we'd try it out. Fresh from the pan, they were hot! I was trying to cool them down. They were quite yummy ... sweet on the inside!

This is one of the famous dishes here in the muslim quarters. It's mutton in a thick broth with pieces of bread broken up. Can't say we would have it again but it was good to try once.

This man is preparing a very popular snack here. It has the consistency of sticky rice but is cold and sweet. Interesting.

Huge flames coming out of whatever it was they were making in these pots and pans!

Mmmm..... just like Tibet, lots of lovely butcher shops everywhere. These ones specialized in internal organs though! Anyone want a huge chunk of liver?

Mighty Warriors

2006-05-24T03:38:00.000-05:00

The whole purpose of coming to Xian was to see the infamous Terra Cotta Warriors. By far, this has been the most touristy thing we've done. It was a little nutty there, tour group after tour group. We were trying to stay ahead of these tour groups but weren't always so lucky.

It was an okay excursion but nothing to rave about. It's kinda like the Great Wall - if you're in China, you have to see it. I liked this particular warrior though ... poor guy.

Tang Dynasty

2006-05-24T03:32:00.000-05:00

We decided to splurge a little here in Xian and enjoyed a night in the theatre. It was a show filled with traditional Tang Dynasty music and dancing. To our surprise, it was set up much like the Lido and Moulin Rouge. We skipped the dinner portion but the show was spectacular. We both enjoyed it very much... unfortunately, we didn't think we would have been able to bring a camera in so didn't bother bringing one. Our loss, there were people recording the entire show! We should have remembered what country we were in. :D

Food in Sichuan!

2006-05-18T02:33:00.000-05:00

We've now had a couple of requests for some food shots as, we admit, we've been lacking in that area. Sometimes, what we eat just isn't all that exciting. :)

Now, we're in a province of legendary spicy food so what better place than to do a blog on food! Suprinsingly though, a lot of the food here isn't very spicey. We expected EVERYTHING to be red hot! Some have sent flames out of our ears, others are ho hum. We're still in search for rabbit head but it seems to be quite difficult to find. Until then, here are samples of our cuisine in the last few days.

Yikes!

Good thing I had my Zantac ...

Almost like a pita!

Need to cool off ...

Sichan Hot pot!

Bought at a grocery store for 2 yuan and it was yummy!

The best kung pao chicken ever!

The spiciest mapo tofu ever!

After eating those two dishes, I saw the biggest rat ever run by! Good thing we already ate!

Garlic scallops in an alley.

Black and white and cute all over

2006-05-18T02:21:00.000-05:00

We saw the cutest fuzziest creatures the other day ... the mascot of China, the Giant Pandas! They are soooo funny and so amazingly lazy. We got there fairly early and caught their feeding time. They placed their bamboo strategically so that they would entertain the crowds while munching away. They're absolutely delightful.

We also saw the Red Pandas but they really just aren't as cute. I'm not sure why both the Red and the Giant pandas have been clumped into one group as they look so completely different. Red pandas definitely look more like racoons but someone we met took a photo with them and said they were super cute.

Teahouses

2006-05-18T02:08:00.000-05:00

We've been pleasantly surprised by the number of teahouses here in Chengdu. We've tried a couple, the first being the afternoon in people's park (see Ian's blog). What a great way to spend an afternoon.

Our hostel in Chengdu is on an unpaved alleyway and we were a little weary at first but it has turned out to be truly charming. In the afternoons and especially the evenings, it gets packed with people. There are a few tea houses on this alleyway and they put tables and chairs right out onto the alley. It reminds me a little of mamak in Malaysia. They have lots of satay like snacks ... just the spicey version and lots of tea or beer of course. There are people out to chat, sing, watch travel slideshows or spend the night away playing drinking games. What a great and relaxed atmosphere hidden within this crawling cosmopolitan city.

Golden arches

2006-05-15T06:52:00.000-05:00

After 2 months I finally had a huge craving for western food and what better way to resolve this than to feast at the golden arches. :) I had the regular hamburg combo and Ian had his Big Mac. Suprisingly, it tasted exactly like in TO! Insanely expensive though ... my combo was 10 Y and Ian's was 15 Y. Not sure how people here afford to eat there often!

I must say it's nice to be in a big modern city after the last little while ... and warm too! You get a little bit of the comforts of home ... like reliable electricity and good plumbing. :) We even saw a Haagen Daz store today and Swarovski ... ahhhh.. nice.

6 accidents in 6 days

2006-05-12T07:03:00.000-05:00

Before we went on this overland, we realized there was some risk involved with going. We knew some of the roads weren't going to be great and we were going to be going over some high passes. We were putting a lot of faith in our driver and his land cruiser. We accepted these risks as you just can't come to Tibet and not do an overland. That was the best way to see Tibet ... not to mention going to EBC!

Soon enough, this risk became a reality. We had a real close call just a couple hours into our trip as we were heading to Yamdrok Lake. To get there, we had to climb this mountain to get to a 5000m pass. As we were turning a blind corner fairly high up, our driver, for whatever reason, was on the oncoming lane making the turn. All of a sudden this mack truck appears right in front of us coming down the mountain. Our driver had to swerve quickly to the outside lane in order to avoid a collision. It was too close for comfort but I'm happy to say he smartened up quite a bit afterwards and actually turned out to be quite a good driver.

Unfortunately, a few others weren't quite as lucky as we were. On the second day of our overland as we were going through a smaller mountain pass, we came upon an accident. Similar situtation, a land cruiser and a mack truck collided on a blind turn.

Luckily everyone was ok and both cars stayed on the road instead of ending up on the river bed about 150m below. This accident caused quite the jam though as noone could get through. Everyone was out and about surveying the scene.

We weren't sure what was going to happen as we weren't close to any cities and we weren't sure how long before the cops got there. One land cruiser tried to go around the truck which was insane because it was on the edge of the road. He couldn't make it though. All of a sudden we see these guys tearing up the concrete barriers to make room! I couldn't believe they were doing that. Why couldn't they just move the cruiser and the truck over a little and everyone can get by? We heard different things like the truck couldn't start or they had to wait till the cops got there. So here they are, tearing up 3 concrete barriers.

I'm thinking, there is no way I'm getting in our cruiser if it decides to go by the truck on the edge of this road. I'll wait until he's gone through and then get in. After about an hour, they successfully demolished the safety barriers (swell) and started the truck! What the hell. Why did they just spend an hour demolishing the barriers when they could have just moved the damn truck. Still don't understand to this day. But they moved the truck to the edge of the road instead and pushed the cruiser off to the side.

We were off! You would think everyone would have learned from this experience but nope, all the cruisers go speeding off down the mountain because we were all running late now *sigh*.

The couple days to follow, we saw 3 different cruisers on the back of trucks because they got into accidents. The worse was on the last day when we saw a cruiser on its side with smashed windows and all. There were cops and a group of people off to the side and we saw foreigners on the ground. Not a good sign. I hope they were okay. It was a straight stretch of road too so it was strange how this cruiser flipped. We're thinking the driver was an idiot and tried to pass and swerved in too fast.

Shortly afterwards, we were again on a low mountain pass and saw an 18 wheeler down in the river bed about 100m below. That was nuts. The truck was smashed. I'm not sure if the driver survived or not but I would guess not.

That was enough for me. I was so glad we were heading back and we're here safe and sound. While on our overland, I was considering the overland to Chengdu instead of flying (which we are now doing). This overland would go through the Sichuan-Tibet highway which is known to be some of the world's highest, most dangerous and most beautiful roads. After seeing 6 accidents in just 6 days on these roads, we were done. We're taking the good ol' airplane outta here on Sunday.

Accomodations & Toilets

2006-05-12T01:29:00.000-05:00

Throughout this overland, we've had the pleasure of being blessed with a variety of accomodations and toilets with different sceneries and scents.

A couple of the nights weren't as bad as we were staying at hotels with shared washrooms which we were quite accustomed to by now. Lucky me though, a monk tries to get into the washroom as I was using it! There is one washroom in this hotel that has a door on it and it is 'locked' with a long toothpick. Usually, if the door is closed, it means someone is using it. Guess this monk isn't familiar with this concept because he pushes the door and breaks the toothpick! All the while, he just stands there while I struggle to keep the door closed with one hand. Nice.

More interesting accomodations were found at Rongphu Monestary near EBC. As mentioned before, 8 of us who arrived late and the guesthouse was full. They took us up to the monestary where they showed us this big room with about 4 beds/couches. They kind of looked like day beds, Tibetan style (not necessarily a good thing. too bad I forgot to take a photo). We got to sleep in lovely fragrant beds in the cold with a 40 watt lightbulb we couldn't control. Needless to say, it was a sleepless night as we would wake up gasping for air everytime we fell asleep due to the elevation we were at (almost 5000m). We would be awake in the middle of the night hearing one of the other tourist gasping for air. This one guy even brought a huge oxygen pillow with him! We were quite happy when daylight broke.

The 'washrooms' at this place were the best we've seen so far! The one for the monestary was right out in the open with a wall that goes up about 4 feet high. You go where you can find a spot. Oh yeah, and we're just talking toilets here, showers do not exist. Not that you would want to anyways since it's freezing!

Lucky for us, there is a large Tibetan dog (all known to be quite vicious) guarding the washroom. I tried to go when I first got there but this dog was on top of the wall barking his head off. I put off my need out of the fear of this dog attacking me while I was going (what a story that would have been).

I thought perhaps the washroom for the guesthouse would be better. Jokes on me! You go where you can find a spot in this one too and here, you're not sure where the hole actually is so you've got to be careful where you step! At least I didn't have to worry about the dog here.

Luckily, accomodations at Namtso were actually quite nice! We stayed in yurts with 4 real beds in them. Very cosy.

This place didn't even have washrooms. When we asked, they said you go where you want to. Nice! :D. We did find something resembling a washroom further down but we might as well have gone anywhere.

Freak snow/hail storm at Namtso Lake

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

Namtso Lake was our last stop and we were looking forward to seeing the infamous sunrise there. We got there in the late afternoon and enjoyed the beauty of the lake very much. This was the highest lake in the world at 4700m. Amazing how a lake can form at such an elevation. As we were sitting by the lake, we noticed these large clouds off into the distance. We thought rain was definitely coming our way and made our way back to our yurt.

Around dinner time, there was thunder and lighting right over us. I was one scared little camper. We heard many somethings coming down on our yurt and opened the door. To our surprise, we saw hail and snow coming down!! It was nuts! It was almost like a whiteout... and how in the world is there lightning and thunder with snow? We didn't think that combination could exist but it did. It did let up a bit at night but we woke up to insane winds at 4am. I thought our tent was going to blow away!! In the morning, we woke up to a nice white landscape. So much for that sunrise we were going to catch :)

I don't think our driver was too impressed either. We had to drive over a 5000 m pass to get back to Lhasa and our land cruiser was a slippin and slidin. He had to stop to put on the 4 wheel drive in order for us to make it. Fun :D

Ads with the kids

2006-05-12T01:04:00.001-05:00

While waiting for our driver of the 'unpolluting' bus to show up, one of the tourists we were with stopped a bunch of kids on their way home from school and got them to line up, gave them each a pen and some candy and told them to pose for photos. He'd tell them where to put their hands, etc. Later, he pulled out a mouse pad and got the girl in the middle to hold it. He told us it was for an ad. What a guy! It was amusing to see this guy at work, I had to take some photos. We felt bad for these kids and ended up giving them some chocolate for their patience. I don't think they had a clue of what was going on.

Mt. Qomolongma

2006-05-12T01:04:00.000-05:00

I can't believe we were at Everest Base Camp! It was such a surreal feeling. Even now, when I think Everest, it seems like such an unreachable point but we were actually there face to face with Mt. Qomolongma. How cool is that.

Getting there was a mixture of adventure, fun, and frustration. We had to pay an entrance fee for our land cruiser of 405 yuan and an additional 65 yuan per person. This might seem reasonable if the land cruiser could actually go all the way to EBC but it actually has to stop an hour before we reach EBC so we all can take the so called 'unpolluting' bus from a small town where we had to pay an additional 80 yuan per person to sit in a Dodge cargo van. Yep, unpolluting alright. Here is the first view of Qomolongma.

This van took us to Rongphu Monestary where we were to spend the night at a guesthouse before making the 2 hour trek to EBC the next morning or you could ride a horse cart for 60 yuan. Unfortunately for us, we reached Rongphu a little late the guesthouse was full. More on this accomodation and lovely washroom adventure later. The sight of Mt. Qomolongma from Ronghu was amazing at night. The moon was so bright and the mountain was shining. We stood there in the moonlight and just gazed at the mountain. It was an amazing sight. We couldn't believe we were actually there looking at Everest!!! I wish I had a tripod then because it was just so beautiful.

In the morning, we loaded our bags with snickers bars, chips (pringles style since we heard that regular bags are bad because they may explode due to the altitude!) and peanuts (high energy!). The 2 hour trek up wasn't too bad. It was beautiful as we saw Everest in front of us the entire time.

There were portions where there were switchbacks for the horse carts but we decided to take the short cut instead and headed straight up. That was tiring. It took us a while to catch our breath afterwards (thought we might need our oxygen at that point!). Thought maybe we should have taken one of the few horse carts that had passed us by then.

Just over 2 hours later, EBC comes into view. It was a little odd at first as we were immediately greeted by a row of 'hotels'! All on EBC!! Very odd. After passing these and being constantly invited in for tea at these 'hotels', we see a clearer view of Everest and the base camp where many expedition tents were set up.

Unfortunately for us, we couldn't get close enough to these expedition tents as we would have been charged 200 USD each for crossing the line. Too bad. I really wanted to see what those expeditioners were up to and when they thought they could summit! :D You can see many expedition tents up in the distance.

Here we are enjoying Mt. Qomolongma ... and passing out from the lack of oxygen (Ian more so than me) ;)!

Amazingly diverse landscapes yet dull cities

2006-05-12T01:02:00.000-05:00

During our 6 days of overland, we went through such a diverse collection of landscapes I couldn't believe we were in one country, let alone one province! One minute, we'll be going through a sea of brown dirt road and mountains which will then change into extremely rocky terrain. At times, we swear we're on the moon or mars as there is next to no life on this earth. (Some images may be fuzzy ... car shots)

Next, we'll be within sand dunes.

One thing for sure, there is a lack of greenery to be found. The craziest sight was when we're driving along and all of a sudden we're driving in snow!! I was totally shitting my pants then because I was in the front seat and swore our land cruiser was going over one of those cliffs because of the slick roads.

We also managed to see a very cool glacier along the way.

Among all this, crystal clear turquoise lakes will suddenly appear and will be breathtaking. The first is Yamdrok Lake, the second a man made reservoir.

Oh yes, and a mini tornado!

On the contrary though, a couple of the cities we went to were rather dull and lacking of character. Unfortunately, many have been influenced by the influx of Han Chinese. Lucky for us though, we managed to see quite a few true Tibetan villages along our route which was very cool. We also saw many nomadic tents and nomads along the way. The image I had of Tibet was finally fulfilled throughout this overland.

We're back!

2006-05-12T00:39:00.000-05:00

We're now back from our 6 day overland!! We're beat but it was one hell of an experience. The sights were absolutely amazing! I've never seen so much in such a short amount of time. I think we've hit the highlight of our entire trip ... too bad it's so early into our travels but I really don't know what could possibly beat this.

During this trip, we hit 2 holy lakes, one of which is apparently the highest in the world at 4700m. We also hit the highest mountain in the world, Mt Qomolongma or Everest. We also went through some of the most diverse terrain I have ever seen. Amazing. More about all this later.

Overall, this is a must do trip if you're ever in Tibet. Sooner than later too as it is becoming more touristy as time goes by. A lot of what we saw is still the original Tibet and we're so lucky to be able to see it now before it changes. Highly recommended!!

Overland to EBC!

2006-05-05T01:56:00.000-05:00

We're finally set to go on our overland to Everest Base Camp ... we leave tomorrow!!

It's been crazy trying to plan this thing. We initially went with an agent that knew absolutely nothing about how to plan an overland for foreigners. Parts of Tibet are closed and foreigners require a permit to go to these places. Instead of getting all necessary permits for us, he puts the responsibility on us saying that we might get detained and fined! Great - thanks. I'm glad we're paying you to be so useful.

We switched to another agent who is a lot a more experienced and after a few days of delay, we finally have our permits and leave tomorrow! Here's our plan:

Lhasa - Yamdrok Lake - Gyantse - Shigatse - Shegar - Rongphu Monestary - EBC - Shigatse - Namtso Lake - Lhasa

All that in 5 nights and 6 days! You can get an idea of the locations from Lonely Planet. We check out our jeep tonight ... we'll try to pick from the best of these 10 year old Toyota land cruisers :P.

We probably won't have much internet access along the way but we'll have lots of updates when we're back!

100% cream baby

2006-05-03T04:06:00.000-05:00

Ever since we've been in the northern part of Yunnan province and Tibet we've noticed the mass amounts of yogurt being consumed by everyone. We decided to try it to see what the fuss was about in Zhongdian... and yep, now we're hooked. Their yogurt is soooooo good. We found out that it's because it is made with 100% cream. Yes, that's the way to do it. We met a Singaporean girl who was a marketing rep for Danone in China and she said low fat yogurt just does not sell here, they want the real fattening stuff. I like their way of thinking.

Here in Lhasa, we've seen many yogurt stands on street corners and decided to try some home made stuff. Now, that is GOOD yogurt. You can even add sugar to it if you want ... which we did of course. We can never go back to that low fat stuff we used to have in TO. What were we thinking!?

Rip-off Potala

2006-05-01T22:45:00.000-05:00

So, remember how taken I was with the first sight of the Potala Palace? Yeah, well it's still magnificent and all from the outside but paying to go in is just one big rip off!

We thought that we could dedicate one full day to this place as it was huge and it would take us all day to explore all the different nooks in this place. So we showed up nice and early at 9am to buy our ticket for the day and guess what? They rationed the tickets! So we had to get a stub saying that we can get in at 3pm that day! 3pm! That only gives us 2 hours to explore! That can't possibly be enough.. especially with the 100 Y entrance fee we wanted to spend all day there! We contemplated coming back at the end of the day instead to get our 9am stub for the next day. After much talk, we realized that we might not be able to explore the palace on our own and might be shuffled through ... much like Versaille. We decided to just show up at 2:30 to try and get in a little earlier which we did. Alright... 2.5 hours to explore! Jokes on us.

So much was blocked off with ropes, we were literally shuffled from room to room. We were done in pretty much an hour and a half. Great. 100Y for an hour and a half. At least we saw the tomb of the 5th Dalai Lama (14.9 m high!) ... that was quite the sight. We saw a few other tombs and thrones of other Dalai Lama's as well which was kinda cool but overall, it was a bit of a disappointment.

Pilgrimage and the Golden Buddha

2006-05-01T22:29:00.000-05:00

Walking the Barkhor Circuit was quite the experience as we were surrounded by many pilgrims doing the circuit around Jokhang Temple. Most were chanting as they twirled their prayer pole while others thumbed through their beads.

There was the odd one or two pilgrims who were doing the pilgrimage towards the temple. We were lucky enough to witness a very cool and touching exchange between two pilgrims as one gave money to the one doing the pilgrimage. Ian's video (see his blog in a couple days) managed to capture the first part of it. Afterwards, they touched forheads and some words were whispered. Ian and I turned to each other and were in awe at the sight.

Many pilgrims ended up in the front of the temple and performed the pilgrimage there ... quite the sight. We later found out what they were all praying towards when we finally went into the temple.

Inside the temple is the Holy Golden Buddha brought in from India by Princess Wenchang (the princess who requested the creation of Jokhang Temple) and this Buddha statue was blessed by Buddha himself! By luck we managed to get into the room with the Buddha by accident and we didn't even realize that that was THE Buddha! Yes we were ignorant. We found out later by tagging along an English tour group :D It was pretty cool to see so many ancient Tibetan treasures.

Poverty

2006-05-01T21:55:00.000-05:00

It's amazing how much poverty we've seen in Tibet in the last few days. Sadly, out of all the places we've been to, this is the one with the most beggers on the street. Although, I must admit that I don't fully understand this place as there are tons of pilgrims who are also asking for money. Sometimes, it's hard to differentiate between a pilgrim and a beggar. We can speculate on the high rate of poverty among the Tibetan community but we'll talk more later. :D

Speaking of beggars, there are a few kids here who have been dressed up and trained well to target tourists for money. One girl tried to block us as she 'danced' around us. We saw another guy with a girl wrapped around his leg!