Our flight from Kigali arrived in Nairobi without any problems. We got our luggage, and cashed a bunch of travellers cheques to USD (losing about 10% in the process). (We needed $200 per person for the local payment for the safari tour (used for park fees etc), plus money for extras along the way). Went to a different hotel in Nairobi, to the hotel where the tour was starting the next morning.
Was up at 6am to be ready for the briefing at 7am in the hotel. It was rather dragging, an they had two different groups in the same meeting, so there was no sense in remembering names. There were 6 on our tour, and we joined up with 6 who had done the Kenyan safari first, and were now doing the Tanzanian safari. After much waiting and organizing, we were on our way by 9:30am. In our van were Carey (US), Jennifer (US), Emmeline & Paul (UK), and Marissa and I; in the other van were Yvonne & Vegar (Norway), Tom & Jean (US), Gary (UK) and Mariam (Australian).
It took us 2 1/2 hours to reach the border, and we went through the Kenyan exit and Tanzanian entry without much fanfare. I was disappointed with the lack of stamping by the Tanzanian official (just a single stamp over the visa), seeing as they requested three blank pages just to get the visa. We also transferred to our safari vehicles (Land Rovers), and met our guides/drivers (Revocatus) and cook (Alfa). Two hours to Arusha, then errand hopping (ATM, money exchange, grocery store -- bought 15L of water for myself). We were told we wouldn't have access to electricity (no recharging of camera batteries), no showers and no stores for six days! (This turned out to be incorrect).
Got to our campsite (Snake Park) on the outskirts of Arusha by 4pm, sorted out tents. I was feeling sick still, and a couple Tylenol fixed that (I'm whipping through my bottle...) Our group is mostly older, 30s - 40s. We went to a Snake Zoo, the irony of going all the way to Africa on safari and then going to a zoo was not lost on us.
There were five other large groups at the campsite in huge overlanders -- they looked like the big snow landers in the Empire Strikes Back. It made the campsite pretty crowded.
Dinner was at 7pm, beef and macaroni, and peppery soup. I still didn't have much of an appetite from being sick. After went to the bar so Marissa could charge her camera battery. Five Kili beers later, (500ml, 5%, 1500Tsh) called it a night.
Sunday, November 06, 2005
Saturday, November 05, 2005
Kigali, Rwanda
We're just about to catch our plane back to Nairobi, and tomorrow we'll start the GAP Adventure safari through Tanzania, so I may not be able to update my blog for a while.
I got a bit of a cold in Gisenyi, I think the same thing everyone had in Toronto before I left. I thought I had had it in Toronto too, and beaten it, but maybe the lack of sleep from the jetlag let it come back. Anyways, slept most of the last day in Gisenyi while Marissa hung out on the beach.
Yesterday we took a three-hour bus ride back to Kigali. We got here early enough to go see the Genocide Memorial. It was very well done, it's shocking how many people died, and how many people were complicit.
Last night was Friday night, and our hotel's bar is quite the hopping place on Fridays. They had live music, and lots of (mostly) men came by to have drinks. We think it's an upscale place because most people were drinking imported beer (Heineken). Marissa and I split a large Primus (the local beer) (the beer here comes in large bottles, shared the same way as pitchers in Canada) (72cl, 5%, $3US). Marissa had most of it, I just had a little bit so she wasn't drinking alone.
I crashed early, trying to sleep away this cold. I'm still not 100%, but should be okay for the safari.
We really liked Rwanda, the people here are really friendly. I don't think there's a flat spot in the country, there are hills everywhere. Because it's rainy season, everything is really green too. There aren't very many tourists here (I think because of the reputation leftover from the genocide), but that will probably change as more people hear about how nice it is now.
I got a bit of a cold in Gisenyi, I think the same thing everyone had in Toronto before I left. I thought I had had it in Toronto too, and beaten it, but maybe the lack of sleep from the jetlag let it come back. Anyways, slept most of the last day in Gisenyi while Marissa hung out on the beach.
Yesterday we took a three-hour bus ride back to Kigali. We got here early enough to go see the Genocide Memorial. It was very well done, it's shocking how many people died, and how many people were complicit.
Last night was Friday night, and our hotel's bar is quite the hopping place on Fridays. They had live music, and lots of (mostly) men came by to have drinks. We think it's an upscale place because most people were drinking imported beer (Heineken). Marissa and I split a large Primus (the local beer) (the beer here comes in large bottles, shared the same way as pitchers in Canada) (72cl, 5%, $3US). Marissa had most of it, I just had a little bit so she wasn't drinking alone.
I crashed early, trying to sleep away this cold. I'm still not 100%, but should be okay for the safari.
We really liked Rwanda, the people here are really friendly. I don't think there's a flat spot in the country, there are hills everywhere. Because it's rainy season, everything is really green too. There aren't very many tourists here (I think because of the reputation leftover from the genocide), but that will probably change as more people hear about how nice it is now.
Wednesday, November 02, 2005
Gisenyi, Rwanda
Today is our first day to relax on the trip. I finally am over my jetlag and slept through the night, getting up in time for the buffet breakfast. It's off-season, so we have almost the whole resort to ourselves.
The bus ride from Ruhengeri to Gisenyi was quite interesting. First, we had to get a taxi ride from the Gorilla Nest resort to the bus station in Ruhengeri. As we were driving into town, the driver saw a bus (which are actually minivans converted to hold four rows of passengers, holding three people comfortably per row, or four if you squish in) on its way to Gisenyi. So he flagged it down, u-turned and dropped us off. The bus was already full, but the bus ticket guy (there's usually a driver and a money guy on each bus) reorganized all the passengers so that Marissa and I could sit together.
The other passengers on the bus spoke only Swahili, so our english and limited french weren't very good. The other passengers all talked to each other, even if they were strangers (it reminded me of taking the T in Boston, where random people would just start talking about how the Red Sox were doing). Sometimes they were talking about us and then the whole bus would laugh.
...
There really isn't much to Gisenyi except for the beach. Marissa and I walked around this morning looking for bottled water (it's $2 in the resort for a 500ml bottle), and walked quite a bit before finally finding a little store ($1 for a 1.5L bottle). Otherwise the town is full of schools and offices. I think the only internet place is in the hotel too (at least it's cheap, $1 per hour).
We're just off to the beach...
The bus ride from Ruhengeri to Gisenyi was quite interesting. First, we had to get a taxi ride from the Gorilla Nest resort to the bus station in Ruhengeri. As we were driving into town, the driver saw a bus (which are actually minivans converted to hold four rows of passengers, holding three people comfortably per row, or four if you squish in) on its way to Gisenyi. So he flagged it down, u-turned and dropped us off. The bus was already full, but the bus ticket guy (there's usually a driver and a money guy on each bus) reorganized all the passengers so that Marissa and I could sit together.
The other passengers on the bus spoke only Swahili, so our english and limited french weren't very good. The other passengers all talked to each other, even if they were strangers (it reminded me of taking the T in Boston, where random people would just start talking about how the Red Sox were doing). Sometimes they were talking about us and then the whole bus would laugh.
...
There really isn't much to Gisenyi except for the beach. Marissa and I walked around this morning looking for bottled water (it's $2 in the resort for a 500ml bottle), and walked quite a bit before finally finding a little store ($1 for a 1.5L bottle). Otherwise the town is full of schools and offices. I think the only internet place is in the hotel too (at least it's cheap, $1 per hour).
We're just off to the beach...
Tuesday, November 01, 2005
Gisenyi, Rwanda
Today we saw the mountain gorillas, and it was pretty amazing! There's only 700 or so left in the world, between Uganda and Rwanda. The mountain gorillas are the main attraction in Rwanda, and the reason Marissa and I came here.
...
Yesterday from Kigali, we took a short two-hour bus ride north to Ruhengeri. To my surprise, the bus left and arrived on time and only took on as many passengers as seats! (This is not normal in developing countries). I'd heard about a nice hotel called Mountain Gorillas Nest, not listed in the Lonely Planet, so we asked around. It turned out to be in a nearby town, Kinigi Village, about 10 km north. We took a taxi, but the road was one of the worst I've been on in all my travels, and it took about 45 minutes to get there! (I've been amazed over the last few trips at how paved roads to tourist destination are now the norm, compared to say 10 years ago).
Gorillas Nest is a beautiful resort. The rooms all had decks facing the wilderness, the grounds were really well-kept with flowers and birds all around. We booked a driver for the visit to the gorillas, and then took a nap (still slightly jetlagged).
Today we got up early, in order to be at the ORTPN office in Parque National Volcans by 7am. We checked in with the permits we had purchased in Kigali. We were then assigned into groups of 6 to 8 with the 20 other tourists seeing the gorillas, to see specific groups of gorillas.
We took an hour to drive over more bad roads to get to the starting point for the trek. The trek was really cool, through bamboo forests and then directly up a hill, at a 60* incline! I've never walked through such dense growth! We were accompanied by a guide, a lead (with a machete to clear the way), and two armed guards (in case of poachers). After 90 minutes, we were close to the group of gorillas. We were given more instructions on how to behave (no closer than 7 metres, no direct eye contact with the silverback (the head of the group), no pointing, no flash photography). Then we cut through more undergrowth, and the gorillas were right there! This particular group had 13 members, including an 8-month old that was recently named, although I forget the name. We spent an hour watching the group go about their normal life, eating bamboo shoots, playing, sitting around. The silverback was enormous, about 6' tall and 400 pounds.
I took a lot of pictures, and when I find an internet place where I can upload pictures I'll put some up.
Overall it was a pretty cool experience. It was pretty expensive (the permit itself is $375 US, plus the flight from Nairobi to Kigali put the side trip at about $1000), but worth it. Ranked against other side trips in the same price range, I'd say it's in 3rd, behind Easter Island and the Galapagos Island.
After the trek, we returned to the hotel, and then caught a bus to Gisenyi.
Gisenyi is a resort town on the beaches of Lake Kivu. We ended up in a very nice hotel, Kivu Sun, (again, not found in the Lonely Planet). We had dinner and then crashed, tired from the trek and the early start to the day.
We plan to stay here for 2-3 nights, just relaxing before heading back to Nairobi to begin the safari. There's also a free tour of the local brewery (Primus) nearby that we want to check out.
I've found Rwanda to be a very friendly country, without much of the hassling that is normal in poorer countries. Definitely my favourite country in Africa so far.
That's it for now!
...
Yesterday from Kigali, we took a short two-hour bus ride north to Ruhengeri. To my surprise, the bus left and arrived on time and only took on as many passengers as seats! (This is not normal in developing countries). I'd heard about a nice hotel called Mountain Gorillas Nest, not listed in the Lonely Planet, so we asked around. It turned out to be in a nearby town, Kinigi Village, about 10 km north. We took a taxi, but the road was one of the worst I've been on in all my travels, and it took about 45 minutes to get there! (I've been amazed over the last few trips at how paved roads to tourist destination are now the norm, compared to say 10 years ago).
Gorillas Nest is a beautiful resort. The rooms all had decks facing the wilderness, the grounds were really well-kept with flowers and birds all around. We booked a driver for the visit to the gorillas, and then took a nap (still slightly jetlagged).
Today we got up early, in order to be at the ORTPN office in Parque National Volcans by 7am. We checked in with the permits we had purchased in Kigali. We were then assigned into groups of 6 to 8 with the 20 other tourists seeing the gorillas, to see specific groups of gorillas.
We took an hour to drive over more bad roads to get to the starting point for the trek. The trek was really cool, through bamboo forests and then directly up a hill, at a 60* incline! I've never walked through such dense growth! We were accompanied by a guide, a lead (with a machete to clear the way), and two armed guards (in case of poachers). After 90 minutes, we were close to the group of gorillas. We were given more instructions on how to behave (no closer than 7 metres, no direct eye contact with the silverback (the head of the group), no pointing, no flash photography). Then we cut through more undergrowth, and the gorillas were right there! This particular group had 13 members, including an 8-month old that was recently named, although I forget the name. We spent an hour watching the group go about their normal life, eating bamboo shoots, playing, sitting around. The silverback was enormous, about 6' tall and 400 pounds.
I took a lot of pictures, and when I find an internet place where I can upload pictures I'll put some up.
Overall it was a pretty cool experience. It was pretty expensive (the permit itself is $375 US, plus the flight from Nairobi to Kigali put the side trip at about $1000), but worth it. Ranked against other side trips in the same price range, I'd say it's in 3rd, behind Easter Island and the Galapagos Island.
After the trek, we returned to the hotel, and then caught a bus to Gisenyi.
Gisenyi is a resort town on the beaches of Lake Kivu. We ended up in a very nice hotel, Kivu Sun, (again, not found in the Lonely Planet). We had dinner and then crashed, tired from the trek and the early start to the day.
We plan to stay here for 2-3 nights, just relaxing before heading back to Nairobi to begin the safari. There's also a free tour of the local brewery (Primus) nearby that we want to check out.
I've found Rwanda to be a very friendly country, without much of the hassling that is normal in poorer countries. Definitely my favourite country in Africa so far.
That's it for now!
Sunday, October 30, 2005
Kigali, Rwanda
We've spent the last 48 hours or so mostly in airports and on planes. First was a seven-hour flight to Amsterdam, and shortly after an eight-hour flight to Nairobi, on KLM. We arrived around 8pm in Nairobi (seven hours ahead of Toronto), and quickly made our way through customs and immigration and to a hotel near the centre.
We had to be back at the airport at 8am for our flight to Kigali the next morning, so this Nairobi experience was rather brief -- a taxi ride, dinner, a night in the hotel and then a taxi ride back to the airport.
I remembered this time to take a large empty suitcase to pack souvenirs for the return trip. Every time I travel, I end up buying a large cheap suitcase for this purpose, and I now have more cheap suitcases than one person needs. I left the suitcase in the hotel in Nairobi, and I'll pick it up on my last day before returning home.
(The Kenyan passport control people asked Marissa Did you enjoy your stay?, out of habit, which Marissa found funny).
The flight to Kigali was short (only 75 minutes), but we still got served breakfast! That was surprising. We had good views of Lake Victoria as we flew over it, the source of the Nile. There were no problems through customs, and Canadians receive visas free-of-charge in Rwanda!
Our only objective today was to pick up the permits at the ORTPN office to see the gorillas (Office Rwanda of Tourism and Park National, which grammatically makes more sense in french). The gorilla tourism is strictly regulated, in order to control human exposure. Only a limited number of people (40?) are allowed to see the gorillas every day, so I had called a couple weeks ago to reserve the permit.
Permits in hand, we thought about seeing some of Kigali, but jetlag took over and we napped away the rest of the afternoon. There is a memorial to the genocide here that I would like to see.
Kigali itself is in a contruction boom. The Lonely Planet says that's due to the rest of the world feeling guiltly about not intervening in the genocide, and has thrown plenty of aid money at the country. Oddly, I don't feel a sense in people here, say compared to the sense I got in San Salvador or Siem Reap, of a sadness in people's faces. Although we've only been here less than a day.
The weather has been very temperate. Mid 20s in the day, and cool at night, (Nairobi and Kigali are both at a slight altitude, around 1500m) I probably won't get hot and humid weather until I get to Zanzibar. Thank goodness!
Anyways Marissa and I are off to have dinner and a local beer or two.
We had to be back at the airport at 8am for our flight to Kigali the next morning, so this Nairobi experience was rather brief -- a taxi ride, dinner, a night in the hotel and then a taxi ride back to the airport.
I remembered this time to take a large empty suitcase to pack souvenirs for the return trip. Every time I travel, I end up buying a large cheap suitcase for this purpose, and I now have more cheap suitcases than one person needs. I left the suitcase in the hotel in Nairobi, and I'll pick it up on my last day before returning home.
(The Kenyan passport control people asked Marissa Did you enjoy your stay?, out of habit, which Marissa found funny).
The flight to Kigali was short (only 75 minutes), but we still got served breakfast! That was surprising. We had good views of Lake Victoria as we flew over it, the source of the Nile. There were no problems through customs, and Canadians receive visas free-of-charge in Rwanda!
Our only objective today was to pick up the permits at the ORTPN office to see the gorillas (Office Rwanda of Tourism and Park National, which grammatically makes more sense in french). The gorilla tourism is strictly regulated, in order to control human exposure. Only a limited number of people (40?) are allowed to see the gorillas every day, so I had called a couple weeks ago to reserve the permit.
Permits in hand, we thought about seeing some of Kigali, but jetlag took over and we napped away the rest of the afternoon. There is a memorial to the genocide here that I would like to see.
Kigali itself is in a contruction boom. The Lonely Planet says that's due to the rest of the world feeling guiltly about not intervening in the genocide, and has thrown plenty of aid money at the country. Oddly, I don't feel a sense in people here, say compared to the sense I got in San Salvador or Siem Reap, of a sadness in people's faces. Although we've only been here less than a day.
The weather has been very temperate. Mid 20s in the day, and cool at night, (Nairobi and Kigali are both at a slight altitude, around 1500m) I probably won't get hot and humid weather until I get to Zanzibar. Thank goodness!
Anyways Marissa and I are off to have dinner and a local beer or two.
Monday, October 24, 2005
Toronto, Canada
As you can see from the nifty little sidebar, this trip is to east Africa. I'll be crossing a couple items off my list: climbing Mt Kilimanjaro, and going on safari through the Serengeti. Usually I try to have only one goal per trip, and spend the rest winging it; however, everything is pretty close and this trip has four (Mt Kilimanajaro and the safari, plus seeing the gorillas and diving off Zanzibar Island).
According to the Lonely Planet, there's plenty of internet cafes in east Africa, so I should be able to post updates frequently (except of course when I'm on safari or half way up Mt Kilimanjaro).
According to the Lonely Planet, there's plenty of internet cafes in east Africa, so I should be able to post updates frequently (except of course when I'm on safari or half way up Mt Kilimanjaro).
Sunday, May 29, 2005
Oslo, Norway
I'm back in Oslo, tomorrow morning I get on the flight back to Toronto.
It was a crappy morning in Bergen when I got on the train for the seven-hour ride back to Oslo. But after crossing the mountains, (and somewhere during a long nap), the cold and rain disappeared and it turned into a pretty nice day when we got to Oslo.
Found a cheap hotel near the train station (cheap is relative in Norway; one night here costs the same as two weeks in Nepal), and went out for dinner. It's still bright now at 11pm, my last night here. It'll seem strange back in Toronto with the sun setting *early* at 9pm.
So the jazz concert last night was pretty cool. The performance was at an old sardine factory. There were four different rooms with different bands, starting at 9pm. They were okay. The main draw was Meshell Ndegeocello, she came on after midnight on one of the larger stages (about 500? people). Me and the Washington Post folks left the other performances early to get front-row centre for her. It was really cool, I've never been that close for a live event before.
There's more pictures up at kodakgallery.com.
It was a crappy morning in Bergen when I got on the train for the seven-hour ride back to Oslo. But after crossing the mountains, (and somewhere during a long nap), the cold and rain disappeared and it turned into a pretty nice day when we got to Oslo.
Found a cheap hotel near the train station (cheap is relative in Norway; one night here costs the same as two weeks in Nepal), and went out for dinner. It's still bright now at 11pm, my last night here. It'll seem strange back in Toronto with the sun setting *early* at 9pm.
So the jazz concert last night was pretty cool. The performance was at an old sardine factory. There were four different rooms with different bands, starting at 9pm. They were okay. The main draw was Meshell Ndegeocello, she came on after midnight on one of the larger stages (about 500? people). Me and the Washington Post folks left the other performances early to get front-row centre for her. It was really cool, I've never been that close for a live event before.
There's more pictures up at kodakgallery.com.
Saturday, May 28, 2005
Bergen, Norway
Bergen's a nice little town to spend a weekend. On Friday touristed around with Tanya, and took a million pictures. A lot of places within town are UNESCO World Heritage sites, and very photogenic. Took the funicular up one of the hills surrounding the town. There's seven hills (ranging from 200m - 300m) about the town, and a couple weekends from now there's a traditional walk of the seven peaks that takes all day, that most of the townspeople participate in. It was also a rather nice day yesterday, one of the sunniest we've had so far.
Went out to an italian restaurant to celebrate Tanya's birthday and also the last night before she took off back for home. Funny thing is, the prices for dinner seem to always be the same whether we eat at a nice restaurant or a cheap one or McDonald's (though we haven't eaten dinner there). Had a few drinks at fusion kaffe&bar, which had a DJ playing old-school New York lounge music.
This morning Tanya took off for the "Norway-in-a-nutshell" tour back to Oslo. I've met up with a couple of people from the Washington Post (Stacey and Michael), and I'm hanging out with them until I leave. Tonight we're going to see Meshell Ndegeocello, one of the shows in the NightJazz festival taking place right now in Bergen.
It was very easy to get tickets. Reserved them over the web, and then went to the post office to pick them up. Yep, the post office. The post office here has reinvented themselves as, amongst other things, the last-mile provider. The last-mile is a common problem of purchasing over the web, how to get the product to the consumer. Well here you go to the post office to pick up your stuff. Which makes sense, the post office has the infrastructure for distribution and physical sites in central locations. Very easy.
Touristed some more around town this afternoon, I am surprised how much there is to see here.
Oh yah, last night I got ID'd when Tanya and I were out bar hopping. The drinking age is 18, which meant they thought I was 17?!? Anyways I don't normally carry photo ID when I'm travelling, but Tanya showed her passport and the guy was surprised at our age and let us in. The show we're seeing tonight is 18+ (I guess because they'll be serving alocohol) so I think I will take my passport just in case.
Went out to an italian restaurant to celebrate Tanya's birthday and also the last night before she took off back for home. Funny thing is, the prices for dinner seem to always be the same whether we eat at a nice restaurant or a cheap one or McDonald's (though we haven't eaten dinner there). Had a few drinks at fusion kaffe&bar, which had a DJ playing old-school New York lounge music.
This morning Tanya took off for the "Norway-in-a-nutshell" tour back to Oslo. I've met up with a couple of people from the Washington Post (Stacey and Michael), and I'm hanging out with them until I leave. Tonight we're going to see Meshell Ndegeocello, one of the shows in the NightJazz festival taking place right now in Bergen.
It was very easy to get tickets. Reserved them over the web, and then went to the post office to pick them up. Yep, the post office. The post office here has reinvented themselves as, amongst other things, the last-mile provider. The last-mile is a common problem of purchasing over the web, how to get the product to the consumer. Well here you go to the post office to pick up your stuff. Which makes sense, the post office has the infrastructure for distribution and physical sites in central locations. Very easy.
Touristed some more around town this afternoon, I am surprised how much there is to see here.
Oh yah, last night I got ID'd when Tanya and I were out bar hopping. The drinking age is 18, which meant they thought I was 17?!? Anyways I don't normally carry photo ID when I'm travelling, but Tanya showed her passport and the guy was surprised at our age and let us in. The show we're seeing tonight is 18+ (I guess because they'll be serving alocohol) so I think I will take my passport just in case.
Friday, May 27, 2005
Bergen, Norway
Took the train from Oslo and now I'm in Bergen. The seven hour train ride passes through the mountains (about 1200 metres) and it's still completely snowed under there. There's a million tunnels here, on the buses and trains it seems like you're in a tunnel half the time. My train had problems, and for the first time in Norway I experienced a train/boat/bus that didn't leave or arrive exactly on schedule. The restaurant car had problems with its brakes, and so it was disconnected from the middle of the train and then we carried on, two hours late.
There were some great views from the train but they wouldn't come out in pictures, partly because the view is so big, and also because the train window was all spotty from the rain and snow.
Bergen's a nice little city. There are a lot of tourists, (it's part of the "Norway in a nutshell" tour that you can do in a weekend), and a lot of people from the CCI Users Conference are doing it. Already ran into a couple people from the conference.
I've adjusted to the high prices here. I just had fresh shrimp at the harbour market, and bought a fresh bun at the bakery for *only* NOK 9, and a coke for *only* 23. That works out to $2 for the bun and almost $5 for the coke, but any time you spend less than NOK 50 for something, it feels like a deal. (There's cheap internet here, only NOK 15 for 15 minutes!)
There were some great views from the train but they wouldn't come out in pictures, partly because the view is so big, and also because the train window was all spotty from the rain and snow.
Bergen's a nice little city. There are a lot of tourists, (it's part of the "Norway in a nutshell" tour that you can do in a weekend), and a lot of people from the CCI Users Conference are doing it. Already ran into a couple people from the conference.
I've adjusted to the high prices here. I just had fresh shrimp at the harbour market, and bought a fresh bun at the bakery for *only* NOK 9, and a coke for *only* 23. That works out to $2 for the bun and almost $5 for the coke, but any time you spend less than NOK 50 for something, it feels like a deal. (There's cheap internet here, only NOK 15 for 15 minutes!)
Wednesday, May 25, 2005
Liverpool, Liverpool, Liverpool
"You'll never walk alone" ...and so rang the chants of Liverpool football fans, in just about every bar in downtown Oslo this evening. It was the UEFA Champions League final, with Liverpool FC winning against AC Milan. The entire city was cheering for Liverpool, partly because they're the traditional favourite (aka the Leafs or Canadiens in that league I don't watch anymore), and also because there's a Norwegian playing on Liverpool.
I walked out of a restaurant after dinner this evening, and AC Milan was up 3-0. That's like a team being up 49-0 in the NFL or 1-0 in the (clutch-and-grab) NHL. But as we were walking back to the hotel, we passed by open-air bars packed with fans in Liverpool red and saw/heard the score go from 3-0 to 3-1 then to 3-2 so I figured I would join some other conference people at the sports bar across from the hotel.
Just after I got there, Liverpool scored to tie, and then it remained that way through the 90 minutes and the extra 30 minutes. There was a small group of AC Milan fans in the bar, and it was fun watching the two groups go back and forth (friendly-like). It went to spot kicks (aka penalty kicks, leave me in europe for a week and I'll figure out the lingo), and Liverpool won.
...
So the conference has been pretty good so far. Had my presentation today, and that went over okay. A number of people asked questions (which is what I was hoping for, keeping the discussion going for the full hour that I had).
I was expecting to have wireless access at the conference, but there wasn't, so I've been having to buy access through my hotel to check my work emails, which is pretty expensive.
Hobnobbed around, made a lot of good contacts, found out the answers to most of the questions I had going into the conference, so well worth the time to come here.
...
Tanya ended up going to Stockholm over the last couple days, while the conference was going on. She's meeting me in Bergen. I just booked the hotel in Bergen for the weekend; it's pretty busy there because there's a jazz festival and some other festival going on, and the city is mostly booked up.
...
Last night CCI took us out for their traditional dinner, which is always one of the highlights of the conference. It was at the Norwegian Maritime Museum, and they had a sommelier announce the four-course dinner and the various wines he had chosen for each course and why they matched. It was an excellent meal as usual. My favourite course was the seafood:
The guy did a really good job of matching wines, it was a vicious circle of eating a mouthful, drinking some wine, eating another bite...
Anyways I'm off to bed.
I walked out of a restaurant after dinner this evening, and AC Milan was up 3-0. That's like a team being up 49-0 in the NFL or 1-0 in the (clutch-and-grab) NHL. But as we were walking back to the hotel, we passed by open-air bars packed with fans in Liverpool red and saw/heard the score go from 3-0 to 3-1 then to 3-2 so I figured I would join some other conference people at the sports bar across from the hotel.
Just after I got there, Liverpool scored to tie, and then it remained that way through the 90 minutes and the extra 30 minutes. There was a small group of AC Milan fans in the bar, and it was fun watching the two groups go back and forth (friendly-like). It went to spot kicks (aka penalty kicks, leave me in europe for a week and I'll figure out the lingo), and Liverpool won.
...
So the conference has been pretty good so far. Had my presentation today, and that went over okay. A number of people asked questions (which is what I was hoping for, keeping the discussion going for the full hour that I had).
I was expecting to have wireless access at the conference, but there wasn't, so I've been having to buy access through my hotel to check my work emails, which is pretty expensive.
Hobnobbed around, made a lot of good contacts, found out the answers to most of the questions I had going into the conference, so well worth the time to come here.
...
Tanya ended up going to Stockholm over the last couple days, while the conference was going on. She's meeting me in Bergen. I just booked the hotel in Bergen for the weekend; it's pretty busy there because there's a jazz festival and some other festival going on, and the city is mostly booked up.
...
Last night CCI took us out for their traditional dinner, which is always one of the highlights of the conference. It was at the Norwegian Maritime Museum, and they had a sommelier announce the four-course dinner and the various wines he had chosen for each course and why they matched. It was an excellent meal as usual. My favourite course was the seafood:
The guy did a really good job of matching wines, it was a vicious circle of eating a mouthful, drinking some wine, eating another bite...
Anyways I'm off to bed.
Monday, May 23, 2005
Oslo, Norway
I had six days above the Arctic Circle, six chances to see the midnight sun, and finally on the last day in Tromso, we got a cloudless night and the sun! We thought we weren't going to see it because the forecast had called for rain the entire weekend, but we got a beautiful day on Saturday, and the clouds held off until 3am or so, long enough for us to see that the sun indeed did not set.
Saturday afternoon we took the cable car up Storsteimen, a hill overlooking Tromso. The views were amazing, and there were paragliders launching from the hill that conveniently positioned themselves as subjects in our photos. We stayed up top for a couple hours, the first view of the sun we had had in a while.
Tanya went back up the cable car for the midnight sun, (the city of Tromso is on the south side of a hill, so there's no direct sunlight at midnight); I stayed in town because I wanted different pictures. We met back up around 1:30ish, and had the odd feeling of going out in broad daylight for the start of a *night* out. Bar hopped again. The Lonely Planet says that at any given moment, 50% of the population of Tromso is out having a drink, and from what we saw, that's probably true. We've adjusted to the sticker shock, and NOK 150 seemed normal for a round (pint of Mack beer and a vodka cooler). (But if you do the math, that's $30 CDN).
Sunday we had the day to kill waiting for our flight back to Oslo at 9pm. It was a crappy weather day again (we've only had about 10 hours of sunlight on this trip, but we've got all the pictures we wanted, so it's no so bad. But anyone looking at the pics will assume we had great weather the whole time!) So we went to a couple museums, the Polar Museum and Polaria. We hadn't planned to go the Polar Museum, but Tanya got confused with the names and so we saw the Polar Museum before realizing it wasn't Polaria. The Polar Museum was all about Roald Amundsen, the first person to reach the south pole (also happened to be Norwegian). However most of the descriptions were non-English (there was more in Norwegian, German, and French).
Polaria was pretty cool, they have a lot of marine life and feeding time for the seals is especially popular with tourists.
Had dinner at Steakers (a steak house), and then caught the flight back to Oslo. The airports are frighteningly efficient here. From hotel door to boarding gate took us 35 minutes, and we even took a public bus to get to the airport. The e-ticket is extended all the way to the boarding gate; you self-check in and get luggage tags, give your bags over, and then at the gate, run your choice of id through a card reader (I used my Visa card) and up pops up a boarding pass, just before you board. So there's no chance to lose the ticket! Very cool.
It's just as well we haven't had great weather the whole time, because I nearly used up my 256 MB memory card on my camera. Only had room for nine more pictures! I've downloaded them to my Powerbook (which I had left at the hotel) so I have room again.
Over the next few days, Tanya's heading off either to the south, or to Stockholm to visit a friend, while I schmooze at the conference here in Oslo.
Saturday afternoon we took the cable car up Storsteimen, a hill overlooking Tromso. The views were amazing, and there were paragliders launching from the hill that conveniently positioned themselves as subjects in our photos. We stayed up top for a couple hours, the first view of the sun we had had in a while.
Tanya went back up the cable car for the midnight sun, (the city of Tromso is on the south side of a hill, so there's no direct sunlight at midnight); I stayed in town because I wanted different pictures. We met back up around 1:30ish, and had the odd feeling of going out in broad daylight for the start of a *night* out. Bar hopped again. The Lonely Planet says that at any given moment, 50% of the population of Tromso is out having a drink, and from what we saw, that's probably true. We've adjusted to the sticker shock, and NOK 150 seemed normal for a round (pint of Mack beer and a vodka cooler). (But if you do the math, that's $30 CDN).
Sunday we had the day to kill waiting for our flight back to Oslo at 9pm. It was a crappy weather day again (we've only had about 10 hours of sunlight on this trip, but we've got all the pictures we wanted, so it's no so bad. But anyone looking at the pics will assume we had great weather the whole time!) So we went to a couple museums, the Polar Museum and Polaria. We hadn't planned to go the Polar Museum, but Tanya got confused with the names and so we saw the Polar Museum before realizing it wasn't Polaria. The Polar Museum was all about Roald Amundsen, the first person to reach the south pole (also happened to be Norwegian). However most of the descriptions were non-English (there was more in Norwegian, German, and French).
Polaria was pretty cool, they have a lot of marine life and feeding time for the seals is especially popular with tourists.
Had dinner at Steakers (a steak house), and then caught the flight back to Oslo. The airports are frighteningly efficient here. From hotel door to boarding gate took us 35 minutes, and we even took a public bus to get to the airport. The e-ticket is extended all the way to the boarding gate; you self-check in and get luggage tags, give your bags over, and then at the gate, run your choice of id through a card reader (I used my Visa card) and up pops up a boarding pass, just before you board. So there's no chance to lose the ticket! Very cool.
It's just as well we haven't had great weather the whole time, because I nearly used up my 256 MB memory card on my camera. Only had room for nine more pictures! I've downloaded them to my Powerbook (which I had left at the hotel) so I have room again.
Over the next few days, Tanya's heading off either to the south, or to Stockholm to visit a friend, while I schmooze at the conference here in Oslo.
Sunday, May 22, 2005
Oslo, Norway
Pictures are up at Kodakgallery.com.
The kodak website asks you to sign in -- but you don't need to, just click on the first picture (of my Boarding Pass) to see the album.
The kodak website asks you to sign in -- but you don't need to, just click on the first picture (of my Boarding Pass) to see the album.
Friday, May 20, 2005
Tromsø, Norway
We came by land back down to Tromsø, and the bad weather has followed us around. It's been raining on-and-off for at least the last two days, and cold (5C) for this time of year.
The bus ride from Alta to here was pretty cool, the bus went on two ferries along the six hour trip. For me the journey is just as fun as being in places. I was sitting up on deck on the ferry, looking at the sides of the fjords and the low-hanging clouds, with the red-painted houses on the shore, and for some reason, it didn't feel like Norway. For example, when I was on a boat going down the Mekong, it felt like I was on a boat going down the Mekong. But here I had to think about where I actually was. Maybe it's because I didn't have a stereotypical image of Norway? Anyways it was a weird feeling.
We stopped in Tromsø on the coastal steamer ride on our way up, and so we were already familiar with the town. There's quite a bit to do here, hopefully the weather will co-operate!
We were pretty bored in Alta, mostly because of the weather, and we were only there for 24 hours. We saw the rock paintings (the main highlight of Alta), but that only took a couple hours. We meant to climb a hill for a cool view of the town, but the hilltop was hidden in a cloud so we wouldn't have seen anything. Then it started raining which turned to snow, and so we just stayed indoors. Unfortunately there's no indoor stuff to do in Alta. So we spent most of the time watching HBO and CNN.
According to the Lonely Planet, Tromsø is a party town, with the highest per-capita of pubs in Norway. We're going to check it out later on, people don't start going out until midnight.
The bus ride from Alta to here was pretty cool, the bus went on two ferries along the six hour trip. For me the journey is just as fun as being in places. I was sitting up on deck on the ferry, looking at the sides of the fjords and the low-hanging clouds, with the red-painted houses on the shore, and for some reason, it didn't feel like Norway. For example, when I was on a boat going down the Mekong, it felt like I was on a boat going down the Mekong. But here I had to think about where I actually was. Maybe it's because I didn't have a stereotypical image of Norway? Anyways it was a weird feeling.
We stopped in Tromsø on the coastal steamer ride on our way up, and so we were already familiar with the town. There's quite a bit to do here, hopefully the weather will co-operate!
We were pretty bored in Alta, mostly because of the weather, and we were only there for 24 hours. We saw the rock paintings (the main highlight of Alta), but that only took a couple hours. We meant to climb a hill for a cool view of the town, but the hilltop was hidden in a cloud so we wouldn't have seen anything. Then it started raining which turned to snow, and so we just stayed indoors. Unfortunately there's no indoor stuff to do in Alta. So we spent most of the time watching HBO and CNN.
According to the Lonely Planet, Tromsø is a party town, with the highest per-capita of pubs in Norway. We're going to check it out later on, people don't start going out until midnight.
Thursday, May 19, 2005
Alta, Norway
I left my camera/PC cable with my "work" luggage stored in Oslo -- so here's a couple pics from Tanya:
The Richard With
We spent 48 hours on the Richard With, one of eleven coastal steamers of the Hurtigruten fleet. Captain Richard With was one of the first to prove that the route was economically feasible, in 1891.
Rock paintings in Alta
The paintings have been highlighted with ochre. It's a UNESCO World Heritage site.
When I get to Oslo I'll put up an album on ofoto.com.
The Richard With
We spent 48 hours on the Richard With, one of eleven coastal steamers of the Hurtigruten fleet. Captain Richard With was one of the first to prove that the route was economically feasible, in 1891.
Rock paintings in Alta
The paintings have been highlighted with ochre. It's a UNESCO World Heritage site.
When I get to Oslo I'll put up an album on ofoto.com.
Alta, Norway
This has been an atypical backpacking trip, especially in regards to accommodation. The main tourist season doesn't start up until mid-June, and many of the hostels and bed&breakfasts aren't open yet. So we've been staying in hotels, at around NOK 1000 a night. Fortunately that's split between the two of us.
At the Park Hotell (in Alta where we're staying), the price includes breakfast, a light dinner, and best of all, FREE internet!! So this will be the first non-rushed entry for this trip :)
Last night we splurged on dinner and had reindeer. It was really good, served medium rare with slices of orange and a cranberry sauce. It did not taste like chicken. More like beef.
We also went to the northern-most brewery in the world (hopefully as we get further south we'll see less of the claim of being the northern-most whatever). Had a couple pints at the Bryggen.
The weather here is Alta is surprisingly warm -- it's about 14C and mostly sunny. I just checked the forecast for Tromso and Oslo, and this may be the nicest day we get for while. We've been hoping to see the midnight sun, but so far it's been cloudy every day. (When we had the clear night on the Hurtigruten, the tall hills on the sides of the fjords blocked us from actually seeing the sun on the horizon). There is a lookout point near the centre of Alta that we are planning to climb tonight to hopefully see the sun.
Alta is also known for rock paintings circa 4500 years old, which we're off to see just now. There's also a USB port accessible on this computer so we may try to upload some pics later on too.
At the Park Hotell (in Alta where we're staying), the price includes breakfast, a light dinner, and best of all, FREE internet!! So this will be the first non-rushed entry for this trip :)
Last night we splurged on dinner and had reindeer. It was really good, served medium rare with slices of orange and a cranberry sauce. It did not taste like chicken. More like beef.
We also went to the northern-most brewery in the world (hopefully as we get further south we'll see less of the claim of being the northern-most whatever). Had a couple pints at the Bryggen.
The weather here is Alta is surprisingly warm -- it's about 14C and mostly sunny. I just checked the forecast for Tromso and Oslo, and this may be the nicest day we get for while. We've been hoping to see the midnight sun, but so far it's been cloudy every day. (When we had the clear night on the Hurtigruten, the tall hills on the sides of the fjords blocked us from actually seeing the sun on the horizon). There is a lookout point near the centre of Alta that we are planning to climb tonight to hopefully see the sun.
Alta is also known for rock paintings circa 4500 years old, which we're off to see just now. There's also a USB port accessible on this computer so we may try to upload some pics later on too.
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Honningsvåg, Norway
So I've now been to the *official* northernmost point in Europe. We took a tour bus to Nordkapp, at 71*10'21" N. There's another peninsula that juts out about 1.7 km further north; but as the tour guide explained, Nordkapp is more convenient because of the roads, and the ticket booth. Ah yes, the convenient ticket booth. Just as convenient as the turnstiles and souvenir booth. It cost NOK190 to enter, about $40 CAD. It's not even the northern-most part of mainland Europe (we're on an island right now), and Svalbard is even further north, so how this is called the official northern-most point in Europe I don't know.
The first night on the coastal steamer that Tanya and I stayed up for, turned out to be the best weather so far. Yesterday it was rainy and overcast the whole day. But I already had my pictures so I didn't mind.
It seems like Norway has been closed since we got here. Monday was the religious holiday Pinsa; (Sunday was Pinsa Eve); Tuesday was the national holiday... at least today stores and information booths are open!
Internet is still expensive (NOK 1 per minute). Tomorrow we head back south to Alta.
The first night on the coastal steamer that Tanya and I stayed up for, turned out to be the best weather so far. Yesterday it was rainy and overcast the whole day. But I already had my pictures so I didn't mind.
It seems like Norway has been closed since we got here. Monday was the religious holiday Pinsa; (Sunday was Pinsa Eve); Tuesday was the national holiday... at least today stores and information booths are open!
Internet is still expensive (NOK 1 per minute). Tomorrow we head back south to Alta.
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
Tromsø, Norway
Well we're on a shore leave from the Hurtigruten, four hours in Tromsø. It's the national holiday today (May 17) and almost the entire town of 26,000 people is in the streets in traditional clothing, for a parade. It's difficult to tell who's in the parade and who's watching it!
Last night Tanya and I stayed up till 5am, and saw the best parts of the boat trip so far. The clouds cleared around 1am, and there was amazing scenery of snow-capped peaks and fjords. The sun didn't actually make an appearance until 3ish, because it was hidden behind the hills. (The four-finger rule doesn't apply at this latitude!) The water was amazingly still as well, with almost perfect reflections of the scenery.
We ended up sleeping from 6am to noon, which by my calculations is the same as my sleep schedule in EST. So much for trying to adjust from jet lag! I'll be just as tired at the conference as if I flew in the same day :)
I have been mispronouncing the name of the steamer (Hurtigruten) as Hurtee-grooten which Tanya then knowlingly mispronounced as Hurtee-gurtee like she was the Swedish Chef; the correct pronounciation is Hurtee-ruta.
We've been mistaken for Norwegians twice, and have been asked if we wanted the student rate a number of times as well! We haven't told anyone about the pictures we keep in our attic.
We're looking at maybe going to Svalbard, which is REALLY north, just short of 80 degrees. The Lonely Planet claims we can get flights for about $340 CAD but a quick search on the net didn't turn up anything. So we may settle for going to Nordkapp as our northernmost point (which is further north than my previous best, Murmansk, Russia).
Last night Tanya and I stayed up till 5am, and saw the best parts of the boat trip so far. The clouds cleared around 1am, and there was amazing scenery of snow-capped peaks and fjords. The sun didn't actually make an appearance until 3ish, because it was hidden behind the hills. (The four-finger rule doesn't apply at this latitude!) The water was amazingly still as well, with almost perfect reflections of the scenery.
We ended up sleeping from 6am to noon, which by my calculations is the same as my sleep schedule in EST. So much for trying to adjust from jet lag! I'll be just as tired at the conference as if I flew in the same day :)
I have been mispronouncing the name of the steamer (Hurtigruten) as Hurtee-grooten which Tanya then knowlingly mispronounced as Hurtee-gurtee like she was the Swedish Chef; the correct pronounciation is Hurtee-ruta.
We've been mistaken for Norwegians twice, and have been asked if we wanted the student rate a number of times as well! We haven't told anyone about the pictures we keep in our attic.
We're looking at maybe going to Svalbard, which is REALLY north, just short of 80 degrees. The Lonely Planet claims we can get flights for about $340 CAD but a quick search on the net didn't turn up anything. So we may settle for going to Nordkapp as our northernmost point (which is further north than my previous best, Murmansk, Russia).
Monday, May 16, 2005
Bodø, Norway
We're in Bodø. Paying 60 cents a minute. Typed in my nice blog and then logged in to post it; but that wiped out the notepad document that I had it typed into.
So quick update.
We're just going to get on the boat to go through the fjords.
The weather in Bodø has been not-so-nice; rain / hail / snow. But not too cold - above zero.
Hopefully we'll find cheaper access later on and I'll type more.
So quick update.
We're just going to get on the boat to go through the fjords.
The weather in Bodø has been not-so-nice; rain / hail / snow. But not too cold - above zero.
Hopefully we'll find cheaper access later on and I'll type more.
Saturday, May 14, 2005
Oslo, Norway
Tanya and I had a pretty full day for our first day in Oslo. We arrived around noon, got an express train from the airport to the city, found a hotel, took my work suitcase to the *expensive* hotel that I'm staying at for the conference duration; and then checked out Oslo.
Walked around the downtown core; like most other cities (except Toronto) there are major pedestrian-only areas which are very busy and nice to walk through. Got a europe-backpacker lunch of bread, cheese and cold cuts from a grocery store; except here it cost the equivalent of 16 dollars (I can't find the dollar sign on this keyboard) for the two of us.
Went to the National Gallery and saw (amongst other paintings) The Scream; there was also an untitled large painting of a brown rectangle. I could have painted that with some a short visit to Home Depot. And I could have given it a title.
Walked around and took many pictures (the lighting is optimal here most of the time, with the sun low in the horizon). Had a two-hour nap; then headed out to see Oslo at night (although still lit by the sun).
Stumbled across a bar that was filled with Swedish expats watching the Swedish-Czech hockey game. At first we thought all of Norway was cheering for Sweden, but after talking to a few people realized that it was Swedes cheering. Unfortunately Sweden lost in OT; otherwise they would have faced Canada in the final and that would have been interesting to see here.
After went to another bar in the university area. They were playing cool music, although I mistook Black Sabbath for ACDC (it's all the same to me). Around 1:00ish the bar got really busy. We are catching a plane to Bødo tomorrow so took it easy and went home earlyish.
Walked around the downtown core; like most other cities (except Toronto) there are major pedestrian-only areas which are very busy and nice to walk through. Got a europe-backpacker lunch of bread, cheese and cold cuts from a grocery store; except here it cost the equivalent of 16 dollars (I can't find the dollar sign on this keyboard) for the two of us.
Went to the National Gallery and saw (amongst other paintings) The Scream; there was also an untitled large painting of a brown rectangle. I could have painted that with some a short visit to Home Depot. And I could have given it a title.
Walked around and took many pictures (the lighting is optimal here most of the time, with the sun low in the horizon). Had a two-hour nap; then headed out to see Oslo at night (although still lit by the sun).
Stumbled across a bar that was filled with Swedish expats watching the Swedish-Czech hockey game. At first we thought all of Norway was cheering for Sweden, but after talking to a few people realized that it was Swedes cheering. Unfortunately Sweden lost in OT; otherwise they would have faced Canada in the final and that would have been interesting to see here.
After went to another bar in the university area. They were playing cool music, although I mistook Black Sabbath for ACDC (it's all the same to me). Around 1:00ish the bar got really busy. We are catching a plane to Bødo tomorrow so took it easy and went home earlyish.
Oslo, Norway
Quick update just to say Tanya and I arrived safely in Oslo. We´re both more awake than we should be. The weather here is perfect, about 17C and sunny. We're going to head to the National Gallery to see Munch's The Scream and then sightsee around the town.
Friday, May 13, 2005
Toronto, Canada
I'm packing for Norway and I just found 30,000 of some currency from my last trip in my backpack. All the writing on the bills is in a non-roman script. Thought it might be Thai baht cause that was the last country I was in; but xe.com says that's worth almost $1,000 CAD. So it must be Lao kip; worth $3.47 CAD.
It's like I'm packing for two trips; first I'll be backpacking around Norway for a week on the cheap; then I'll be at the CCI Users' Conference in Oslo the following week, which is casual business.
Gotta go finish packing.
It's like I'm packing for two trips; first I'll be backpacking around Norway for a week on the cheap; then I'll be at the CCI Users' Conference in Oslo the following week, which is casual business.
Gotta go finish packing.
Saturday, December 04, 2004
Sunday, November 28, 2004
Bangkok, Thailand
Well I'm at the airport using up the remaining minutes on my Internet card. Was up at 3:15 am! may have well as not have even gone to sleep.
Read in the Bangkok Times that the Argos won the Grey Cup! Yes, the CFL is considered newsworthy here in Thailand. Wonder if it even made the front page of the Star?
So I liked the idea of keeping a blog instead of a diary, although there were occasions where it would have been nice to have a diary, like on the slow boat up the Mekong. I met some people who kept notes and then typed them in when they had web access. Seemed like too much work though.
I found the digital camera way more convenient than film; I took 2 or 3 times as many pictures, and it was very easy to download or get CDs cut.
Thanks to everyone who made comments!
Learnt a bit on this trip, although it's easy to learn when you're forced into the situation. As my friend Kirk said, the trick is to keep on learning when you're back at home and not forced into it.
Anyways, see all the Toronto folk soon!
Read in the Bangkok Times that the Argos won the Grey Cup! Yes, the CFL is considered newsworthy here in Thailand. Wonder if it even made the front page of the Star?
So I liked the idea of keeping a blog instead of a diary, although there were occasions where it would have been nice to have a diary, like on the slow boat up the Mekong. I met some people who kept notes and then typed them in when they had web access. Seemed like too much work though.
I found the digital camera way more convenient than film; I took 2 or 3 times as many pictures, and it was very easy to download or get CDs cut.
Thanks to everyone who made comments!
Learnt a bit on this trip, although it's easy to learn when you're forced into the situation. As my friend Kirk said, the trick is to keep on learning when you're back at home and not forced into it.
Anyways, see all the Toronto folk soon!
Bangkok, Thailand
So I've still got a bit of a cold. So sucks. Took the train from Chiang Mai to Bangkok yesterday, and I don't think the guy beside me was too impressed that I was coughing and sniffling the whole way down for 12 hours.
Splurged on a nice hotel for the last two nights. Actually, I was kinda forced into it because I couldn't find a guest house that had a room available. It's now the really busy season for tourism in Thailand, so I was trying to book a room while I was still in Chiang Mai. After about 7 or 8 phone calls, I gave up and went to a travel agent, who booked me into this hotel.
I'm on the 18th floor of the Suriwongse Tower Inn, and for $30 I get a 3-star equivalent hotel room. Not your average backpacker place -- there's hot water in the sink (normally there's only been hot water in the shower), a kitchen & fridge, an american breakfast included, clean sheets and towels every day...
The last night in Chiang Mai I was too sick to see the end of the festival. It continued to rain all evening, which put a bit of a damper on things. It was fun hanging out with the Dutch guy and Finnish girl though -- the night before me and the Dutch guy won Chang Beer tshirts, you had to score more than 80 in 3 darts. We just had fun counting in Thai. (Counting is pretty easy, once you know 1 to 10, then e.g. 11 is just ten-one, 34 is three-ten-four.) And for some reason we switched to speaking in spanish for the rest of the night. Which was very odd to me (although I'm sure the alcohol had something to do with it).
Took the BTS Skytrain from my hotel to the very large Chatuchak weekend market this morning. The Skytrain is pretty efficient, and there's plenty of english signage. Also at the interchange, they actually swap the lines for changing. So for example the eastbound and northbound are on the same platform, and the westbound and southbound are another platform. Which makes more sense then what we have in Toronto, where the east- and westbound are on the same platform -- how often do you switch from east to west? At least this way 50% of the time you don't need to switch platforms. It was also really clean, and only 40 baht for the ride from my hotel to the market (it's zoned pricing).
The Lonely Planet claims the Chatuchak market has over 15,000 stalls. I spent about 3 hours wandering around, and saw maybe 20% of it. It was jam packed with people. The prices were pretty good -- not as cheap as the festival market in Chiang Mai, but close enough. Now I just have to figure out how to get all this stuff home. Dang these large souvenirs.
Hope to get in one last massage this evening, and then it's a long 19 hour flight to Chicago tomorrow...
Splurged on a nice hotel for the last two nights. Actually, I was kinda forced into it because I couldn't find a guest house that had a room available. It's now the really busy season for tourism in Thailand, so I was trying to book a room while I was still in Chiang Mai. After about 7 or 8 phone calls, I gave up and went to a travel agent, who booked me into this hotel.
I'm on the 18th floor of the Suriwongse Tower Inn, and for $30 I get a 3-star equivalent hotel room. Not your average backpacker place -- there's hot water in the sink (normally there's only been hot water in the shower), a kitchen & fridge, an american breakfast included, clean sheets and towels every day...
The last night in Chiang Mai I was too sick to see the end of the festival. It continued to rain all evening, which put a bit of a damper on things. It was fun hanging out with the Dutch guy and Finnish girl though -- the night before me and the Dutch guy won Chang Beer tshirts, you had to score more than 80 in 3 darts. We just had fun counting in Thai. (Counting is pretty easy, once you know 1 to 10, then e.g. 11 is just ten-one, 34 is three-ten-four.) And for some reason we switched to speaking in spanish for the rest of the night. Which was very odd to me (although I'm sure the alcohol had something to do with it).
Took the BTS Skytrain from my hotel to the very large Chatuchak weekend market this morning. The Skytrain is pretty efficient, and there's plenty of english signage. Also at the interchange, they actually swap the lines for changing. So for example the eastbound and northbound are on the same platform, and the westbound and southbound are another platform. Which makes more sense then what we have in Toronto, where the east- and westbound are on the same platform -- how often do you switch from east to west? At least this way 50% of the time you don't need to switch platforms. It was also really clean, and only 40 baht for the ride from my hotel to the market (it's zoned pricing).
The Lonely Planet claims the Chatuchak market has over 15,000 stalls. I spent about 3 hours wandering around, and saw maybe 20% of it. It was jam packed with people. The prices were pretty good -- not as cheap as the festival market in Chiang Mai, but close enough. Now I just have to figure out how to get all this stuff home. Dang these large souvenirs.
Hope to get in one last massage this evening, and then it's a long 19 hour flight to Chicago tomorrow...
Friday, November 26, 2004
Chiang Mai, Thailand
It's been raining most of today, the first time that's it's rained on me this trip. Which was okay cause I have a bit of a cold and probably would have stayed in anyways.
Yesterday took a Thai cooking class. It was really good; there were 9 of us in the class, and we started by picking the 5 dishes each that we wanted to make. Next was a trip to the market to buy ingredients. One of the things I liked about this cooking school is that they give you various names for the ingredients, and suggest alternatives if you can't find something in your home country.
Coconut cream was part of everything we cooked -- and we bought it fresh here. You pick out the coconuts in the market, and then the flesh is scraped out, a bit of water is added, and then the cream is squeezed out. It looks a bit milky.
We all had our own woks to cook from. The teacher talked in a rather monotone voice, but he was really enthusiastic about us learning a bit of Thai culture.
Then as the teacher said, we cook, we eat, we cook, we eat, five times. I never thought about that part -- we ate 5 full meals in 8 hours. I was stuffed.
After went out drinking with some of the other people in the class, a Dutch guy and a Finnish girl. Some other people that they had met on treks joined us. We drank Archa beer, and watched the many hot air lanterns rise to the skies. There were many more last night -- at least ten in the sky at any one moment.
Hopefully the rain will stop for the end of the festival tonight. Tomorrow I'm on a train to Bangkok, and then I fly home on Monday.
Here's some of the dishes I cooked yesterday:
Shrimp soup
Green curry
Pad thai
Spring rolls -- check out the presentation!
Yesterday took a Thai cooking class. It was really good; there were 9 of us in the class, and we started by picking the 5 dishes each that we wanted to make. Next was a trip to the market to buy ingredients. One of the things I liked about this cooking school is that they give you various names for the ingredients, and suggest alternatives if you can't find something in your home country.
Coconut cream was part of everything we cooked -- and we bought it fresh here. You pick out the coconuts in the market, and then the flesh is scraped out, a bit of water is added, and then the cream is squeezed out. It looks a bit milky.
We all had our own woks to cook from. The teacher talked in a rather monotone voice, but he was really enthusiastic about us learning a bit of Thai culture.
Then as the teacher said, we cook, we eat, we cook, we eat, five times. I never thought about that part -- we ate 5 full meals in 8 hours. I was stuffed.
After went out drinking with some of the other people in the class, a Dutch guy and a Finnish girl. Some other people that they had met on treks joined us. We drank Archa beer, and watched the many hot air lanterns rise to the skies. There were many more last night -- at least ten in the sky at any one moment.
Hopefully the rain will stop for the end of the festival tonight. Tomorrow I'm on a train to Bangkok, and then I fly home on Monday.
Here's some of the dishes I cooked yesterday:
Shrimp soup
Green curry
Pad thai
Spring rolls -- check out the presentation!
Thursday, November 25, 2004
Chiang Mai, Thailand
I lucked out that there's a festival in Chiang Mai, (an annual festival, based on the lunar calendar). As part of it, there's a huge street market for 3 days and it's by far the best market I've seen ever. The quality is amazing, and it stretches for kilometres. And unlike other markets, most of the stuff is unique and non-repetitive, and there's not much mass-produced junk. Most of the people shopping at the market are Thai -- there's not too many foreigners.
Last night Darren and I ended up at a bar where they had an open mike night -- but also if you just played an instrument, you could play with the band. So after a couple beers I went up and played a few songs. That was pretty cool (for me, I don't know if the rest of the bar appreciated it, although they did clap)
Tonight we went to the local night market (a different location than the festival market), for which Chiang Mai is known for. However, it turned out to be a fairly large tourist trap -- prices were ten times (ten times!) the prices at the festival market -- and when I tried to bargain saying that the price was cheaper at the other market, they grabbed the merchandise back and told me to go to the other market! So I did.
As part of the festival, there's these mini- hot air balloons that are launched. They're a cylinder made from tissue paper, about 2 feet in diameter, and 4 feet tall, and there's a wick mounted at the bottom. At any given moment there's one or two in the air. There's something uplifting about watching these rise to the heavens. The festival ends on Friday night, and we're hoping that there'll be a lot of balloons launched that night.
Tomorrow I've signed up for an all-day cooking class. We each get to choose five dishes to make, and start at the market buying ingredients. All day eating. Mmmm.
Some more pics:
AFW. (Another wat)
Just in case anyone doubted the ubiquitousness of western culture on the rest of the world...
Me with the band. Notice that they were careful not to place any mikes near me
Last night Darren and I ended up at a bar where they had an open mike night -- but also if you just played an instrument, you could play with the band. So after a couple beers I went up and played a few songs. That was pretty cool (for me, I don't know if the rest of the bar appreciated it, although they did clap)
Tonight we went to the local night market (a different location than the festival market), for which Chiang Mai is known for. However, it turned out to be a fairly large tourist trap -- prices were ten times (ten times!) the prices at the festival market -- and when I tried to bargain saying that the price was cheaper at the other market, they grabbed the merchandise back and told me to go to the other market! So I did.
As part of the festival, there's these mini- hot air balloons that are launched. They're a cylinder made from tissue paper, about 2 feet in diameter, and 4 feet tall, and there's a wick mounted at the bottom. At any given moment there's one or two in the air. There's something uplifting about watching these rise to the heavens. The festival ends on Friday night, and we're hoping that there'll be a lot of balloons launched that night.
Tomorrow I've signed up for an all-day cooking class. We each get to choose five dishes to make, and start at the market buying ingredients. All day eating. Mmmm.
Some more pics:
AFW. (Another wat)
Just in case anyone doubted the ubiquitousness of western culture on the rest of the world...
Me with the band. Notice that they were careful not to place any mikes near me
Tuesday, November 23, 2004
Chiang Mai, Thailand
I've just survived 3 days without Internet access! Yes, the world is not yet fully on the web.
On Friday, Raoul, Mary, and I went on a day trip to Kuang Si Falls, about an hour outside of Luang Prabang. We picked up another Canadian along the way. The falls looked really beautiful, they're not the biggest or anything, but it was a nice setting. We had a swim in the bottom pool, which was really refreshing. The water was so clear, and it was a nice change from the salty sea water I was swimming in earlier on the trip.
I spent the next two days going upstream on the Mekong, on my way to the border of Thailand. There's two options, a fast boat, and a slow boat. The fast boat does the entire journey in about 8 hours; the slow boat takes two days and stops overnight in Pakbeng.
The slow boat was really nice, the Mekong is actually quite narrow (about 500m?) at points, so it has a really nice atmosphere. I've been on other rivers where you can barely see the other side, and it's just not the same feel.
There were about 30 people on the boat, an equal split of locals and backpackers. Almost all the backpackers were reading; it's a great place to read a book (or two or three). Opposite me was the Dan Brown reading club -- by coincidence, two people were reading The DaVinci Code, and another Digital Fortress. I had my eye on Digital Fortress for trading, and fortunately the girl finished it and traded with me :) It was good, although I liked TDVC better.
Pakbeng is a little riverside town in the middle of nowhere. And it has no Internet access.
I was debating taking the fast boat the next day, but then talked to some other backpackers who had been in accidents in the fast boats (hitting submerged logs or rocks). So decided on the slow boat.
Unfortunately the slow boat got into Huay Xai (the border town on the Lao side) just after the border closed, so we spent the night there.
Huay Xai is a little riverside town in the middle of nowhere. And it has no Internet access.
Met some interesting people on the boat. First there was a Japanese character. He was 63, and spoke just about every language in the region. He flitted about from group to group talking whatever language they were. He was sitting down for dinner with us, and uttered a line I definitely won't hear again sorry, I have to excuse myself, there's a group of Burmese hill tribe people at the next table, and I haven't spoken their dialect in 20 years. Yep.
There was also a group of 3 Texans. I repeat, a group of 3 Texans. I normally try to avoid stereotyping people, but it was very odd to see 3 Texans backpacking around Lao. Good for them.
You may have noticed I've been calling the country Lao. The proper name is Lao PDR, and somehow it got mixed up to Laos (the Lonely Planet blames the French) and that's what the rest of the world calls it now.
The next morning, traveling with Darren (an American who'd been on the slow boat with me), we crossed the border in Thailand, and spent a good part of the day on buses, eventually getting to Mae Sai, a town on the border with Myanmar. It's possible to enter Myanmar for the day without a visa (you just pay $5 USD, and leave your passport at the border). So we plunked down our $5 and spent 3 hours in Myanmar. Bought some souvenirs, a rather heavy (2.5 kg! My entire pack weighs less than 10 kg) gong, and a guitar case (for $4!!).
A five hour bus ride this morning brought me to Chiang Mai, where I'll relax before returning to Bangkok to fly home. I'm hoping to take some cooking classes here.
Some more pics:
On the Mekong. The boat in the foreground is similar to the boat we were on
Man fishing in the Mekong
Night out in Luang Prabang. Check out the cool bamboo straw. Mary's the hand model
Kuang Si Falls
On Friday, Raoul, Mary, and I went on a day trip to Kuang Si Falls, about an hour outside of Luang Prabang. We picked up another Canadian along the way. The falls looked really beautiful, they're not the biggest or anything, but it was a nice setting. We had a swim in the bottom pool, which was really refreshing. The water was so clear, and it was a nice change from the salty sea water I was swimming in earlier on the trip.
I spent the next two days going upstream on the Mekong, on my way to the border of Thailand. There's two options, a fast boat, and a slow boat. The fast boat does the entire journey in about 8 hours; the slow boat takes two days and stops overnight in Pakbeng.
The slow boat was really nice, the Mekong is actually quite narrow (about 500m?) at points, so it has a really nice atmosphere. I've been on other rivers where you can barely see the other side, and it's just not the same feel.
There were about 30 people on the boat, an equal split of locals and backpackers. Almost all the backpackers were reading; it's a great place to read a book (or two or three). Opposite me was the Dan Brown reading club -- by coincidence, two people were reading The DaVinci Code, and another Digital Fortress. I had my eye on Digital Fortress for trading, and fortunately the girl finished it and traded with me :) It was good, although I liked TDVC better.
Pakbeng is a little riverside town in the middle of nowhere. And it has no Internet access.
I was debating taking the fast boat the next day, but then talked to some other backpackers who had been in accidents in the fast boats (hitting submerged logs or rocks). So decided on the slow boat.
Unfortunately the slow boat got into Huay Xai (the border town on the Lao side) just after the border closed, so we spent the night there.
Huay Xai is a little riverside town in the middle of nowhere. And it has no Internet access.
Met some interesting people on the boat. First there was a Japanese character. He was 63, and spoke just about every language in the region. He flitted about from group to group talking whatever language they were. He was sitting down for dinner with us, and uttered a line I definitely won't hear again sorry, I have to excuse myself, there's a group of Burmese hill tribe people at the next table, and I haven't spoken their dialect in 20 years. Yep.
There was also a group of 3 Texans. I repeat, a group of 3 Texans. I normally try to avoid stereotyping people, but it was very odd to see 3 Texans backpacking around Lao. Good for them.
You may have noticed I've been calling the country Lao. The proper name is Lao PDR, and somehow it got mixed up to Laos (the Lonely Planet blames the French) and that's what the rest of the world calls it now.
The next morning, traveling with Darren (an American who'd been on the slow boat with me), we crossed the border in Thailand, and spent a good part of the day on buses, eventually getting to Mae Sai, a town on the border with Myanmar. It's possible to enter Myanmar for the day without a visa (you just pay $5 USD, and leave your passport at the border). So we plunked down our $5 and spent 3 hours in Myanmar. Bought some souvenirs, a rather heavy (2.5 kg! My entire pack weighs less than 10 kg) gong, and a guitar case (for $4!!).
A five hour bus ride this morning brought me to Chiang Mai, where I'll relax before returning to Bangkok to fly home. I'm hoping to take some cooking classes here.
Some more pics:
On the Mekong. The boat in the foreground is similar to the boat we were on
Man fishing in the Mekong
Night out in Luang Prabang. Check out the cool bamboo straw. Mary's the hand model
Kuang Si Falls
Friday, November 19, 2004
Luang Prabang, Laos
Still in Luang Prabang. This is one of my favourite places that I've been to. Here's some more pics:
Men playing petanque
Wat in Luang Prabang
Monks walking by the Royal Palace
Flower fallen on the steps
Men playing petanque
Wat in Luang Prabang
Monks walking by the Royal Palace
Flower fallen on the steps
Thursday, November 18, 2004
Luang Prabang, Laos
After all the oppressive heat that I've experienced here, I nearly froze to death on the bus ride from Vang Vieng to Luang Prabang. The bus goes up through the hillls/mountains (about 2000m I would guess) and it was a rainy day, but all the tourists and I were dressed for 35C and sun. After an hour of shivering, we all dug into our backpacks under the bus at the first pit stop for warmer clothes.
The drive was pretty windy (as you would expect in the hills), but it was paved the entire way. It's been a while since I've taken a long distance bus ride over dirt roads...
Left Dee behind in Vang Vieng, she has a bit more time than me and wanted to explore around a bit more. Met up with 3 other single travelers on the bus: Tommy (from Newfoundland), Raoul (a Dutch guy) and Mary (from Tasmania).
Mary is the first person I've met who's been to more countries than Gerry and I. Gerry is my friend that I traveled through Russia, Mongolia and China with about 7 years ago. In Russia, we met an english guy whose goal was to visit 100 countries in his lifetime. Gerry and I adopted his goal; but Gerry's always been ahead of me. Gerry is at 57 right now; Laos is number 55 for me. Mary's been to 59! and she's younger than me! For Gerry and me, it's a competition, Mary seemed somewhat disinterested in the number...
Got into Luang Prabang at dusk, so just had time to get guest houses and then meet for dinner. We ended up at different guest houses because the town's pretty full. Met for dinner and then drank the night away.
Finished the book I got from Dee, Adam and Eve and Pinch Me by Ruth Rendell. If anyone has read this book, can you please tell me how it ends? The copy I have (as warned by Dee) has the last two pages ripped out. I've just read that (and skip to the next paragraph if you don't want me to ruin it) Minty has knifed another person in her house, and then realized it wasn't a ghost.
Touristed around Luang Prabang today -- it's a beautiful little town, with a very European feel to it. It's a UNESCO protected site or whatever they do.
Anyways meeting up with the Tommy, Raoul and Mary in a few minutes for dinner, tomorrow we're going to rent motorbikes and see some of the sights around Luang Prabang. We've heard rumours that foreigners on bikes outside of town are stopped by police and fined (for riding bkies out of town), so we may end up just getting a tuktuk.
The drive was pretty windy (as you would expect in the hills), but it was paved the entire way. It's been a while since I've taken a long distance bus ride over dirt roads...
Left Dee behind in Vang Vieng, she has a bit more time than me and wanted to explore around a bit more. Met up with 3 other single travelers on the bus: Tommy (from Newfoundland), Raoul (a Dutch guy) and Mary (from Tasmania).
Mary is the first person I've met who's been to more countries than Gerry and I. Gerry is my friend that I traveled through Russia, Mongolia and China with about 7 years ago. In Russia, we met an english guy whose goal was to visit 100 countries in his lifetime. Gerry and I adopted his goal; but Gerry's always been ahead of me. Gerry is at 57 right now; Laos is number 55 for me. Mary's been to 59! and she's younger than me! For Gerry and me, it's a competition, Mary seemed somewhat disinterested in the number...
Got into Luang Prabang at dusk, so just had time to get guest houses and then meet for dinner. We ended up at different guest houses because the town's pretty full. Met for dinner and then drank the night away.
Finished the book I got from Dee, Adam and Eve and Pinch Me by Ruth Rendell. If anyone has read this book, can you please tell me how it ends? The copy I have (as warned by Dee) has the last two pages ripped out. I've just read that (and skip to the next paragraph if you don't want me to ruin it) Minty has knifed another person in her house, and then realized it wasn't a ghost.
Touristed around Luang Prabang today -- it's a beautiful little town, with a very European feel to it. It's a UNESCO protected site or whatever they do.
Anyways meeting up with the Tommy, Raoul and Mary in a few minutes for dinner, tomorrow we're going to rent motorbikes and see some of the sights around Luang Prabang. We've heard rumours that foreigners on bikes outside of town are stopped by police and fined (for riding bkies out of town), so we may end up just getting a tuktuk.
Wednesday, November 17, 2004
Vang Vieng, Laos
Took the bus this morning to Vang Viang, about 3 hours north of Vientiane. This place exists solely because of backpackers. On the menu for dinner, it listed a bunch of western food, and then under ethnic foods it listed LAO FOOD! Can you believe it?
Anyways only stopped here because I couldn't get a direct bus to Luang Prabang. Touristed around, saw the caves in the karst (the geographical name of the rock formations). The walk to the caves was pretty cool -- first it was about a 1km walk through rice paddies, then over a dried-up river bed, then through a forest, finally to the caves. The path's well-trodden (or is that well-trod?) so it's easy to follow.
Here's some pics:
That Luang, a temple in Vientiane (taken at sunset)
Karst surrounding Vang Vieng
Anyways only stopped here because I couldn't get a direct bus to Luang Prabang. Touristed around, saw the caves in the karst (the geographical name of the rock formations). The walk to the caves was pretty cool -- first it was about a 1km walk through rice paddies, then over a dried-up river bed, then through a forest, finally to the caves. The path's well-trodden (or is that well-trod?) so it's easy to follow.
Here's some pics:
That Luang, a temple in Vientiane (taken at sunset)
Karst surrounding Vang Vieng
Monday, November 15, 2004
Vientiane, Laos
I'm now in Vientiane, the sleepy capital of Laos. The city is preparing itself for the ASEAN Summit being held here at the end of the month, so it looks pretty spiffy. There are pretty severe travel restrictions starting next week (I think they want all the backpackers out of town, so there's room for all the summit people), so I'm lucky that I'm here now.
On Saturday, Dee (the Irish girl) and I rented motorbikes and toured around outside of Pakse. It's almost too easy to rent motorbikes -- all you need is $6 and a passport for a deposit (I used my expired Mastercard as the deposit -- at least I'm getting some use out of carrying it :) ).
Dee had only ridden a bike twice before, so she was the experienced rider between the two of us. Somehow we made it out of Pakse without running over anyone, and we headed along route 13 towards Tad Lo, a waterfall about 90 km north. The traffic doesn't go very fast here -- we rarely exceeded the speed limit of 40 km/h.
There were beautiful views of rural Laos along the way. We stopped at a couple roadside huts for refreshments -- said our Sabadee (Hello) then smiled a lot, out of vocabulary. The people are really friendly.
After two hours and only 50 km out of Pakse, we realized that we wouldn't reach the waterfall with any hope of getting back before dark. Decided that just touring around on bikes was cool enough, and so headed back to Pakse.
Met up with an english guy, Duncan, who was also staying at our guest house, and we headed out for dinner. I still can't believe how cheap everything is here -- I had a Lao noodle soup for dinner, a Pepsi (can't seem to find Coke here), and a large Lao beer -- for $1.80. Dee and I were beat after spending all day biking in the hot sun, so we took it easy on the drinking.
Yesterday caught the flight from Pakse to Vientiane, hopefully my last time leaving the ground on this trip. This is the most I've flown internally -- normally I prefer ground travel because you see more of the country, and meet more locals.
We checked into a really nice guesthouse -- there's a lounge on the 2nd floor overlooking the street, and it's a great place to meet other backpackers.
Had dinner along the banks of the Mekong. There's a whole string of vendors along the riverbank, serving dinner on tables lit by candlelight. It's a very cool setting.
There's a curfew of 10:30 here (which seems to come and go in Laos), so we didn't have much time to bar hop. All the bars kick you out promptly at 10:30 sorry, police come soon.
It's stinking hot here (high of 33C today), so most activity is in the morning and evening, with the mid-day hours reserved for napping and reading (and of course, surfing the web).
Here's some more pics (click on them for a larger image). Unfortunately I cut a CD with all my Angkor Wat pictures which Marissa took home with her, so the Angkor Wat pics will have to wait until I get back:
One of the wats in Vientiane
Inside the wat
A roadside "gas station" along route 13 outside Pakse
Roadside break from biking -- that's Dee with her back to the camera buying a snack
On Saturday, Dee (the Irish girl) and I rented motorbikes and toured around outside of Pakse. It's almost too easy to rent motorbikes -- all you need is $6 and a passport for a deposit (I used my expired Mastercard as the deposit -- at least I'm getting some use out of carrying it :) ).
Dee had only ridden a bike twice before, so she was the experienced rider between the two of us. Somehow we made it out of Pakse without running over anyone, and we headed along route 13 towards Tad Lo, a waterfall about 90 km north. The traffic doesn't go very fast here -- we rarely exceeded the speed limit of 40 km/h.
There were beautiful views of rural Laos along the way. We stopped at a couple roadside huts for refreshments -- said our Sabadee (Hello) then smiled a lot, out of vocabulary. The people are really friendly.
After two hours and only 50 km out of Pakse, we realized that we wouldn't reach the waterfall with any hope of getting back before dark. Decided that just touring around on bikes was cool enough, and so headed back to Pakse.
Met up with an english guy, Duncan, who was also staying at our guest house, and we headed out for dinner. I still can't believe how cheap everything is here -- I had a Lao noodle soup for dinner, a Pepsi (can't seem to find Coke here), and a large Lao beer -- for $1.80. Dee and I were beat after spending all day biking in the hot sun, so we took it easy on the drinking.
Yesterday caught the flight from Pakse to Vientiane, hopefully my last time leaving the ground on this trip. This is the most I've flown internally -- normally I prefer ground travel because you see more of the country, and meet more locals.
We checked into a really nice guesthouse -- there's a lounge on the 2nd floor overlooking the street, and it's a great place to meet other backpackers.
Had dinner along the banks of the Mekong. There's a whole string of vendors along the riverbank, serving dinner on tables lit by candlelight. It's a very cool setting.
There's a curfew of 10:30 here (which seems to come and go in Laos), so we didn't have much time to bar hop. All the bars kick you out promptly at 10:30 sorry, police come soon.
It's stinking hot here (high of 33C today), so most activity is in the morning and evening, with the mid-day hours reserved for napping and reading (and of course, surfing the web).
Here's some more pics (click on them for a larger image). Unfortunately I cut a CD with all my Angkor Wat pictures which Marissa took home with her, so the Angkor Wat pics will have to wait until I get back:
One of the wats in Vientiane
Inside the wat
A roadside "gas station" along route 13 outside Pakse
Roadside break from biking -- that's Dee with her back to the camera buying a snack
Friday, November 12, 2004
Pakse, Laos
Marissa left for Bangkok this morning, and I carried on to Pakse, in southeastern Laos.
The only reason I came here is because I couldn't get a plane ticket direct to Vientienne. However, this turned out to be a good thing, because not many backpackers stopover here, and it's quite a nice little town.
Met up with a girl from Ireland at the airport (getting the Laotian visa was no problem because I flew in) (although it's not as nice looking as the Cambodian visa) and tomorrow we're going to rent motorbikes and head to some of the nearby sites. There's a couple waterfalls that are supposed to be pretty cool.
Pakse itself is a small little town, about 60,000 people. The local people don't seem to mind tourists, in fact we're almost ignored which is quite a novelty.
We wandered around town in the heat today, and I ended up buying a guitar! for only $15! So now I have a guitar to lug around, but it's kinda cool in the guest houses, because it seems like almost everyone plays guitar.
Anyways it's quite expensive here for the internet so I'm off to drink. Apparently the local beer (Beer Lao) is the best in the world, and it's darned cheap. We just paid 4000 kip (about 50 cents) for a 668ml 5% beer! I think it tastes pretty good, but I'd like to have a side-by-side taste with a Keiths. (I like Keiths a lot).
The only reason I came here is because I couldn't get a plane ticket direct to Vientienne. However, this turned out to be a good thing, because not many backpackers stopover here, and it's quite a nice little town.
Met up with a girl from Ireland at the airport (getting the Laotian visa was no problem because I flew in) (although it's not as nice looking as the Cambodian visa) and tomorrow we're going to rent motorbikes and head to some of the nearby sites. There's a couple waterfalls that are supposed to be pretty cool.
Pakse itself is a small little town, about 60,000 people. The local people don't seem to mind tourists, in fact we're almost ignored which is quite a novelty.
We wandered around town in the heat today, and I ended up buying a guitar! for only $15! So now I have a guitar to lug around, but it's kinda cool in the guest houses, because it seems like almost everyone plays guitar.
Anyways it's quite expensive here for the internet so I'm off to drink. Apparently the local beer (Beer Lao) is the best in the world, and it's darned cheap. We just paid 4000 kip (about 50 cents) for a 668ml 5% beer! I think it tastes pretty good, but I'd like to have a side-by-side taste with a Keiths. (I like Keiths a lot).
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
Siem Reap, Cambodia
I've wanted to see Angkor Wat for a while, but I didn't realize until I got here that Angkor Wat is just one of the temples in a huge complex. The area is so large, you can buy a 7-day pass!
We arrived Monday night in Siem Reap, the town that neighbours the temples of Angkor Wat. We were fortunate that we were at the back of the prop plane from Bangkok, because we were first off the plane, and first in line at customs. We were duly processed, and then my bag was the first off the conveyor! The last passenger we think must have waited over an hour to get through immigration and customs, because they are rather methodical. But the visa is the nicest looking visa I've ever got, better even than the transit visa for Latvia or the full-page stamp from Mongolia.
Siem Reap is a bustling town, barely able to keep up with all the increasing number of tourists. In a few years I worry it will be like Koh Phi Phi :(
We booked a tuktuk driver through the hotel, and started out to see the temples. A tuktuk is a motorcycle with a 2-person cart attached to the back. For $10 a day, we had our own personal escort.
First we stopped off to buy a 3-day pass. It's a really nice looking pass (Cambodia seems to be good for official souvenirs).
The first temple was Bayon, which is quite overwhelming in size and detail. It's one of the top 3 temples, and was overrun by tourists. However, it was still my personal favourite.
Next we saw (I'm mostly listing these for my reference) Phimeanakas, Baphuon, Terrace of the Leper King, Terrace of the Elephants, and Prasats Suor Prat. It was stinking hot, and we were struggling just to move in the sun. We stopped for lunch at one of the stalls that are outside most of the ruins, we both had the chicken and ginger with rice which was excellent.
After lunch we saw the Victory Gate, Thommanom (Marissa's favourite), Chau Say Thevoda, Ta Keo, Ta Prohm, and finished at Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat is huge, and the amount of detail is amazing. There's thousands of metres of bas relief images, they just go on forever.
We stayed there for the sunset, Angkor Wat looks really good in the dusk lighting. I was also lucky that two monks in bright orange robes decided to walk across the front in a perfect pose for my picture :)
Nine hours after starting, we returned back to the hotel, exhausted and in need of air conditioning.
The next day we planned out a bit better. The first day was rather slow; we covered the suggested 2nd and 3rd day itineraries into one day, which meant more frequent rides in the tuktuk which provided a breeze to cool us down. (The temples are about 3km apart).
We saw Preah Khan, Neak Pean, Ta Som, East Mebon, Pre Rup, Sras Srang, Banteay Kdei, Prasat Kravan and saw the sunset from Phnom Bakheng.
Even though we covered the highlights on Day 1, the temples on Day 2 were still amazing. Every one had something different that made it interesting.
We ran into the French guy that we met in Hat Ton Sai at Ta Som! So we met up for dinner last night. He's really interesting, and we drank away the night, getting home around 3ish.
Today is an admin day -- buying souvenirs, sending emails, getting massages... and then tomorrow Marissa returns to Bangkok and I'm off to southern Laos.
I've kinda messed up my access to money. There are no ATMs in Cambodia or Laos, so you have to go into a bank to get a cash advance. Normally that's not a problem, except my Visa is so worn out, the signature panel says Void Void Void -- which ATMs don't care about, but officious bank people do. So I went to use my backup, my Mastercard. Except I haven't used that in years, and didn't realize it expired last year. So Marissa got some money out for me; and it has to last me until I get back to Thailand. It shouldn't be a problem though.
The internet connection speeds here are really slow so I'm not going to try to upload any pictures. I've taken a couple hundred though -- with digital I'm taking way more pictures.
That's it for now!
We arrived Monday night in Siem Reap, the town that neighbours the temples of Angkor Wat. We were fortunate that we were at the back of the prop plane from Bangkok, because we were first off the plane, and first in line at customs. We were duly processed, and then my bag was the first off the conveyor! The last passenger we think must have waited over an hour to get through immigration and customs, because they are rather methodical. But the visa is the nicest looking visa I've ever got, better even than the transit visa for Latvia or the full-page stamp from Mongolia.
Siem Reap is a bustling town, barely able to keep up with all the increasing number of tourists. In a few years I worry it will be like Koh Phi Phi :(
We booked a tuktuk driver through the hotel, and started out to see the temples. A tuktuk is a motorcycle with a 2-person cart attached to the back. For $10 a day, we had our own personal escort.
First we stopped off to buy a 3-day pass. It's a really nice looking pass (Cambodia seems to be good for official souvenirs).
The first temple was Bayon, which is quite overwhelming in size and detail. It's one of the top 3 temples, and was overrun by tourists. However, it was still my personal favourite.
Next we saw (I'm mostly listing these for my reference) Phimeanakas, Baphuon, Terrace of the Leper King, Terrace of the Elephants, and Prasats Suor Prat. It was stinking hot, and we were struggling just to move in the sun. We stopped for lunch at one of the stalls that are outside most of the ruins, we both had the chicken and ginger with rice which was excellent.
After lunch we saw the Victory Gate, Thommanom (Marissa's favourite), Chau Say Thevoda, Ta Keo, Ta Prohm, and finished at Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat is huge, and the amount of detail is amazing. There's thousands of metres of bas relief images, they just go on forever.
We stayed there for the sunset, Angkor Wat looks really good in the dusk lighting. I was also lucky that two monks in bright orange robes decided to walk across the front in a perfect pose for my picture :)
Nine hours after starting, we returned back to the hotel, exhausted and in need of air conditioning.
The next day we planned out a bit better. The first day was rather slow; we covered the suggested 2nd and 3rd day itineraries into one day, which meant more frequent rides in the tuktuk which provided a breeze to cool us down. (The temples are about 3km apart).
We saw Preah Khan, Neak Pean, Ta Som, East Mebon, Pre Rup, Sras Srang, Banteay Kdei, Prasat Kravan and saw the sunset from Phnom Bakheng.
Even though we covered the highlights on Day 1, the temples on Day 2 were still amazing. Every one had something different that made it interesting.
We ran into the French guy that we met in Hat Ton Sai at Ta Som! So we met up for dinner last night. He's really interesting, and we drank away the night, getting home around 3ish.
Today is an admin day -- buying souvenirs, sending emails, getting massages... and then tomorrow Marissa returns to Bangkok and I'm off to southern Laos.
I've kinda messed up my access to money. There are no ATMs in Cambodia or Laos, so you have to go into a bank to get a cash advance. Normally that's not a problem, except my Visa is so worn out, the signature panel says Void Void Void -- which ATMs don't care about, but officious bank people do. So I went to use my backup, my Mastercard. Except I haven't used that in years, and didn't realize it expired last year. So Marissa got some money out for me; and it has to last me until I get back to Thailand. It shouldn't be a problem though.
The internet connection speeds here are really slow so I'm not going to try to upload any pictures. I've taken a couple hundred though -- with digital I'm taking way more pictures.
That's it for now!
Sunday, November 07, 2004
Phuket, Thailand
Phuket is pretty much just a jumping-off spot to get to Koh Phi Phi. Tomorrow we fly to Bangkok and then to Siem Reap in Cambodia, where Angkor Wat is. So we had a day to kill today, and went to the beach, our last chance to be in the ocean; the rest of the trip is inland.
We took a local bus, supposedly called a songthaew (don't ask me how to pronounce that, everyone here has called it "local bus"), to Nai Harn Beach, about 10 km outside of town. A songthaew is just a pickup truck, with two benches and a covering. It only cost us 30B each (about 75 cents).
Nai Harn Beach is a nice long beach, the sand isn't as fine as on Koh Phi Phi, but the water is amazingly clear and warm (about 30C). Had lunch (noodle soup, with chicken to which the locals add chilis, sugar, ground peanuts, and chili flakes. Marissa thought it was weird to add sugar to chicken noodle soup, I think she's too provincial. I had it with everything, including the sugar, it tasted really good).
Beach bummed for the day, and then caught another local bus back to town. The driver tried to con us into paying only 300B! fast! phhht! and showed us a "bus schedule" where the next songthaew wasn't for an hour. In reality, there are no schedules, the songthaews leave whenever there's enough passengers. So we waited only a couple minutes, and some other locals jumped on and so we were off, for 30B.
Yesterday went for dinner to an italian restaurant. I'm always leery of other types of food, because you never know what a Thai's impression of italian food is, but the owner was an italian expat, so I tried the pasta with clams in a white wine sauce, which was excellent. He even had an expresso machine, so I had one, just for the novelty of having an expresso in some small town in Thailand.
I found a solution to the problem of having all my pictures on my camera. (Cause if my camera gets stolen, so do all my pics). There's a lot of places that have card readers (e.g. my camera has an SD-RAM card), and they will cut a CD for you! So for 150B I now have my first week's worth of pictures on a CD.
It takes a while for me to upload pics cause the connection speed in internet places isn't that great, but here's a sampling. You should be able to click on the pics for a larger size if I did this right:
One of the islands we saw on the tour around Koh Phi Phi
West Railay Beach
The cabin we stayed in at Hat Ton Sai
Well Marissa's massage is about done so I have to go meet her for dinner. Later!
We took a local bus, supposedly called a songthaew (don't ask me how to pronounce that, everyone here has called it "local bus"), to Nai Harn Beach, about 10 km outside of town. A songthaew is just a pickup truck, with two benches and a covering. It only cost us 30B each (about 75 cents).
Nai Harn Beach is a nice long beach, the sand isn't as fine as on Koh Phi Phi, but the water is amazingly clear and warm (about 30C). Had lunch (noodle soup, with chicken to which the locals add chilis, sugar, ground peanuts, and chili flakes. Marissa thought it was weird to add sugar to chicken noodle soup, I think she's too provincial. I had it with everything, including the sugar, it tasted really good).
Beach bummed for the day, and then caught another local bus back to town. The driver tried to con us into paying only 300B! fast! phhht! and showed us a "bus schedule" where the next songthaew wasn't for an hour. In reality, there are no schedules, the songthaews leave whenever there's enough passengers. So we waited only a couple minutes, and some other locals jumped on and so we were off, for 30B.
Yesterday went for dinner to an italian restaurant. I'm always leery of other types of food, because you never know what a Thai's impression of italian food is, but the owner was an italian expat, so I tried the pasta with clams in a white wine sauce, which was excellent. He even had an expresso machine, so I had one, just for the novelty of having an expresso in some small town in Thailand.
I found a solution to the problem of having all my pictures on my camera. (Cause if my camera gets stolen, so do all my pics). There's a lot of places that have card readers (e.g. my camera has an SD-RAM card), and they will cut a CD for you! So for 150B I now have my first week's worth of pictures on a CD.
It takes a while for me to upload pics cause the connection speed in internet places isn't that great, but here's a sampling. You should be able to click on the pics for a larger size if I did this right:
One of the islands we saw on the tour around Koh Phi Phi
West Railay Beach
The cabin we stayed in at Hat Ton Sai
Well Marissa's massage is about done so I have to go meet her for dinner. Later!
Saturday, November 06, 2004
Koh Phi Phi, Thailand
Marissa and I arrived in Koh Phi Phi on Thursday and experienced culture shock. We went from the idyllic beaches of Hat Ton Sai, to here, which is something like Daytona Beach at Spring Break. This place is so overrun with tourists, I was tempted to jump on the next ferry out. However we stayed for a couple nights, and the island did redeem itself.
Yesterday we went on a day-long boat tour of the area. Koh Phi Phi is actually two islands, Phi Phi Don, where everyone stays, and Phi Phi Lei, which is a nature reserve and not populated. There's also a sprinkling of smaller islands all around.
The views of the beaches and coral and limestone cliffs are amazing. The boat tour stopped at about 7 sites, and we snorkelled at most of them. One of the stops was at Maya Bay, which is the beach setting for the movie The Beach. It was the only crowded stop, otherwise it felt like we were the only tourists. At one snorkeling site, Marissa and I saw a whale shark about 7 feet long!! That was pretty lucky of us (it was Marissa that saw it first). ...I took a million pictures, half of them of the limestone cliffs and emerald waters in the background with a long-tailed boat as the subject. We were lucky with the weather -- it was sunny with blue skies the whole day, and only rained in the evening. Every other day we've been here, there's been passing storms.
After the tour, we went for a Thai massage. Ate dinner at a more local spot, and then went to a bar that had a cover band. They were amazing, and had a pretty big repetoire, they even played Chop Suey by System of a Down! When I'm playing guitar, I usually only have 4-5 songs memorized at any time; when I learn a new one, the oldest one drops out of memory.
I'm going to try to take a cooking class while I'm here. I've seen them offered at a couple places -- they start by taking you to the market to show you what the ingredients look like!
Right now we're waiting for the ferry to take us back to the mainland, but to Phuket. We'll have a day there, and then fly to Siem Reap on Monday to see Angkor Wat.
ps. I've changed the settings on my blog to allow anonymous comments -- so you don't need to sign up for an account to leave a comment.
Yesterday we went on a day-long boat tour of the area. Koh Phi Phi is actually two islands, Phi Phi Don, where everyone stays, and Phi Phi Lei, which is a nature reserve and not populated. There's also a sprinkling of smaller islands all around.
The views of the beaches and coral and limestone cliffs are amazing. The boat tour stopped at about 7 sites, and we snorkelled at most of them. One of the stops was at Maya Bay, which is the beach setting for the movie The Beach. It was the only crowded stop, otherwise it felt like we were the only tourists. At one snorkeling site, Marissa and I saw a whale shark about 7 feet long!! That was pretty lucky of us (it was Marissa that saw it first). ...I took a million pictures, half of them of the limestone cliffs and emerald waters in the background with a long-tailed boat as the subject. We were lucky with the weather -- it was sunny with blue skies the whole day, and only rained in the evening. Every other day we've been here, there's been passing storms.
After the tour, we went for a Thai massage. Ate dinner at a more local spot, and then went to a bar that had a cover band. They were amazing, and had a pretty big repetoire, they even played Chop Suey by System of a Down! When I'm playing guitar, I usually only have 4-5 songs memorized at any time; when I learn a new one, the oldest one drops out of memory.
I'm going to try to take a cooking class while I'm here. I've seen them offered at a couple places -- they start by taking you to the market to show you what the ingredients look like!
Right now we're waiting for the ferry to take us back to the mainland, but to Phuket. We'll have a day there, and then fly to Siem Reap on Monday to see Angkor Wat.
ps. I've changed the settings on my blog to allow anonymous comments -- so you don't need to sign up for an account to leave a comment.
Thursday, November 04, 2004
Krabi Town, Thailand
Yesterday went on a 3-dive trip in the area. It was my first time diving outside the Caribbean, so there was all kinds of new coral and fishies to see.
I caught a long-tailed boat pretty early (around 7:30ish), which met up with the larger diving boat. Then it was a 2-hour ride out near Koh Phi Phi, where we dove.
The first dive was a wreck dive, a 120-ft car ferry that sank on a trip between Krabi and Phuket. Gossip has it that it was an insurance job, because there were no cars on it when it sank. In any case, it makes a good diving wreck because it's made of steel, so it's lasting longer than the sunken wooden fishing boats.
It was pretty cool, except for the fact that it's a pretty popular dive location, and I spent half the time trying to avoid other divers. (And we're not even in the busy season yet!). The dive master said that on some days in the busy season, there's up to 200 divers in the water at the same time. Yikes!
The 2nd dive was even worse for divers, I could barely see because of all the bubbles.
After the 2nd dive we had fish with vegetables and rice, and it tasted amazing. Although diving always works up a hunger for me, and anything I've eaten after diving has always tasted great (like the crab cakes and baleadas in Honduras where I learned to dive, mmm).
On this dive trip were a French and El Salvadorian couple, who were dive instructors on vacation, an older German guy, and 3 German students on vacation.
The last dive was the best one, it was at the rock peak that the wreck had hit, and there were hardly any other divers there. There were beautiful blue coral that I don't know the name of, and we saw a whale shark, and a ray (again I don't know which type).
We got back to the resort around 5:00ish, and I met up with Marissa (who isn't certified, and so had spent the day on an elephant ride tour on the mainland). We went for dinner and then met up with the F/ES couple, had a few beers on a bar on the beach, and then crashed for the night.
Today we're making our way to Koh Phi Phi, we're just waiting for the ferry at 3:00pm. (Koh Phi Phi is the setting for the movie The Beach.)
I caught a long-tailed boat pretty early (around 7:30ish), which met up with the larger diving boat. Then it was a 2-hour ride out near Koh Phi Phi, where we dove.
The first dive was a wreck dive, a 120-ft car ferry that sank on a trip between Krabi and Phuket. Gossip has it that it was an insurance job, because there were no cars on it when it sank. In any case, it makes a good diving wreck because it's made of steel, so it's lasting longer than the sunken wooden fishing boats.
It was pretty cool, except for the fact that it's a pretty popular dive location, and I spent half the time trying to avoid other divers. (And we're not even in the busy season yet!). The dive master said that on some days in the busy season, there's up to 200 divers in the water at the same time. Yikes!
The 2nd dive was even worse for divers, I could barely see because of all the bubbles.
After the 2nd dive we had fish with vegetables and rice, and it tasted amazing. Although diving always works up a hunger for me, and anything I've eaten after diving has always tasted great (like the crab cakes and baleadas in Honduras where I learned to dive, mmm).
On this dive trip were a French and El Salvadorian couple, who were dive instructors on vacation, an older German guy, and 3 German students on vacation.
The last dive was the best one, it was at the rock peak that the wreck had hit, and there were hardly any other divers there. There were beautiful blue coral that I don't know the name of, and we saw a whale shark, and a ray (again I don't know which type).
We got back to the resort around 5:00ish, and I met up with Marissa (who isn't certified, and so had spent the day on an elephant ride tour on the mainland). We went for dinner and then met up with the F/ES couple, had a few beers on a bar on the beach, and then crashed for the night.
Today we're making our way to Koh Phi Phi, we're just waiting for the ferry at 3:00pm. (Koh Phi Phi is the setting for the movie The Beach.)
Tuesday, November 02, 2004
Hat Ton Sai, Thailand
I'm in just about the most remote place you can get, and of course there's an internet cafe. I guess "remote" doesn't have the same meaning as it used to (cue up the Grumpy Old Man voice).
Marissa and I flew from Bangkok to Krabi, on the west coast of Thailand, for the princely sum of $40 US. (I found the cheap flight on the net, go figure). From the airport, we took a taxi to Krabi, and then a long-tailed boat to Hat Ton Sai.
Hat Ton Sai is a beach and a forest surrounded by 200m high limestone cliffs, which make it accessible only by water. We're staying in a pretty nice place, we have our own air conditioned cabin, for $14, including a huge breakfast. The place is carved right out of the trees, there's huge trees and all kinds of tropical plants all around. Plus the chef at the place is amazing, I had for lunch the best pad thai I've ever had. Yesterday I had a rice dish served in a half-pineapple. It's just before busy season, so we have the place pretty much to ourselves. The chef is really attentive, the first day Marissa asked for whole wheat bread, and ever since he's always made sure that her bread was whole wheat.
Just had a massage for 250B (about $6), and don't want to move because I'm all relaxed. I think we're going to come down here every day for a massage.
Because of the limestone cliffs, this place is a hangout for rock climbers. The diving around the area is supposedly one of the top 10 places in the world, and it's only about $15 US a tank! (Elsewhere the going rate is about $50). That's for tomorrow though.
I think we've gotten over our jetlag finally, although with all the opportunities to nap on an island resort, it's hard to tell.
Well, I'm off to plan my diving for tomorrow. I wonder if the US will have decided on who won the election by the time I check tomorrow?
Marissa and I flew from Bangkok to Krabi, on the west coast of Thailand, for the princely sum of $40 US. (I found the cheap flight on the net, go figure). From the airport, we took a taxi to Krabi, and then a long-tailed boat to Hat Ton Sai.
Hat Ton Sai is a beach and a forest surrounded by 200m high limestone cliffs, which make it accessible only by water. We're staying in a pretty nice place, we have our own air conditioned cabin, for $14, including a huge breakfast. The place is carved right out of the trees, there's huge trees and all kinds of tropical plants all around. Plus the chef at the place is amazing, I had for lunch the best pad thai I've ever had. Yesterday I had a rice dish served in a half-pineapple. It's just before busy season, so we have the place pretty much to ourselves. The chef is really attentive, the first day Marissa asked for whole wheat bread, and ever since he's always made sure that her bread was whole wheat.
Just had a massage for 250B (about $6), and don't want to move because I'm all relaxed. I think we're going to come down here every day for a massage.
Because of the limestone cliffs, this place is a hangout for rock climbers. The diving around the area is supposedly one of the top 10 places in the world, and it's only about $15 US a tank! (Elsewhere the going rate is about $50). That's for tomorrow though.
I think we've gotten over our jetlag finally, although with all the opportunities to nap on an island resort, it's hard to tell.
Well, I'm off to plan my diving for tomorrow. I wonder if the US will have decided on who won the election by the time I check tomorrow?
Saturday, October 30, 2004
Bangkok, Thailand
I'm in Thailand! After an uneventful, if rather long, journey from Toronto to Bangkok, Marissa and I arrived here just before midnight on Saturday night.
We left Toronto around 10am on Friday, a short flight to Chicago, then a l-o-n-g 13 hour flight to Tokyo, and a "medium" 7 hour flight to Bangkok. We were fortunate to get bumped up to Business Class on the long flight, and lived in the lap of luxury for the 13 hours. I swear there were more flight attendants than passengers, the food was excellent, in between meals there was a buffet table of fresh fruit and snacks. I was almost expecting a masseuse to be wandering around. But they did have stretching exercises on the video, to ward off the dreaded deep vein thrombosis.
The medium flight seemed longer cause I was stuck beside a rather large guy who half squished into my seat.
I was pretty impressed by the efficiency of the Bangkok airport. We were through immigration in about 5 minutes with a no-charge 30-day tourist visa, and shortly after the conveyor belt started spilling out luggage from our flight. Even the exit from the airport through the inevitable Taxi? throng was pretty tame.
We're staying at the Taewez Guest House, just outside the backpacker-crowd area, 400 baht for a double with airconditioning. It's pretty comfortable here, maybe 30C and a "dry" humidity (it feels humid but not stickly-so).
Today the plan is to relax and see if we're jetlagged. With all the haphazard sleep on the flights, my body has no idea what time it's supposed to be. Tomorrow we take off for the south, to Phuket (ph is a p sound), from there we'll explore some of the islands, dive, try rock climbing, and whatever else suits our fancy...
We left Toronto around 10am on Friday, a short flight to Chicago, then a l-o-n-g 13 hour flight to Tokyo, and a "medium" 7 hour flight to Bangkok. We were fortunate to get bumped up to Business Class on the long flight, and lived in the lap of luxury for the 13 hours. I swear there were more flight attendants than passengers, the food was excellent, in between meals there was a buffet table of fresh fruit and snacks. I was almost expecting a masseuse to be wandering around. But they did have stretching exercises on the video, to ward off the dreaded deep vein thrombosis.
The medium flight seemed longer cause I was stuck beside a rather large guy who half squished into my seat.
I was pretty impressed by the efficiency of the Bangkok airport. We were through immigration in about 5 minutes with a no-charge 30-day tourist visa, and shortly after the conveyor belt started spilling out luggage from our flight. Even the exit from the airport through the inevitable Taxi? throng was pretty tame.
We're staying at the Taewez Guest House, just outside the backpacker-crowd area, 400 baht for a double with airconditioning. It's pretty comfortable here, maybe 30C and a "dry" humidity (it feels humid but not stickly-so).
Today the plan is to relax and see if we're jetlagged. With all the haphazard sleep on the flights, my body has no idea what time it's supposed to be. Tomorrow we take off for the south, to Phuket (ph is a p sound), from there we'll explore some of the islands, dive, try rock climbing, and whatever else suits our fancy...
Sunday, October 24, 2004
Toronto, Canada
On all my previous backpacking trips, my two most valuable possessions were my diary, and my exposed film.
This trip, I'll have neither of them.
This blog will replace my diary, and I'll have a digital camera. It'll be a bit strange. I can just see me in the hostels, talking with the kids in my best SNL's Grumpy Old Man voice, back when I was your age, we had diaries! we used pens and paper, and we liked it! ...they probably won't even know who Grumpy Old Man is *sigh*
I leave this Friday, flying in and out of Bangkok, returning on Nov 29. I'm traveling with a friend, Marissa, not to be confused with Marisa, my ex-girlfriend. Marissa & I will be traveling for 2 weeks, and then I'll be on my own for another 2 weeks after that.
The only plans are to see Angkor Wat in Cambodia (I have a ruin-thing, and this is one of the top ruins in the world to see), and Marissa wants to get to a beach in southern Thailand. Other than that there are no plans.
I've posted my email updates from previous trips on this blog, just to make it look like there's content on my blog.
You can reach me by leaving a comment on the blog (just click on the Comments link); or send me an email at eric_dsouza@hotmail.com. I have my Junk Mail filter set on exclusive, so I won't get your email unless you're in my Hotmail Address book.
This trip, I'll have neither of them.
This blog will replace my diary, and I'll have a digital camera. It'll be a bit strange. I can just see me in the hostels, talking with the kids in my best SNL's Grumpy Old Man voice, back when I was your age, we had diaries! we used pens and paper, and we liked it! ...they probably won't even know who Grumpy Old Man is *sigh*
I leave this Friday, flying in and out of Bangkok, returning on Nov 29. I'm traveling with a friend, Marissa, not to be confused with Marisa, my ex-girlfriend. Marissa & I will be traveling for 2 weeks, and then I'll be on my own for another 2 weeks after that.
The only plans are to see Angkor Wat in Cambodia (I have a ruin-thing, and this is one of the top ruins in the world to see), and Marissa wants to get to a beach in southern Thailand. Other than that there are no plans.
I've posted my email updates from previous trips on this blog, just to make it look like there's content on my blog.
You can reach me by leaving a comment on the blog (just click on the Comments link); or send me an email at eric_dsouza@hotmail.com. I have my Junk Mail filter set on exclusive, so I won't get your email unless you're in my Hotmail Address book.
Thursday, March 20, 2003
Cuenca, Ecuador
So Marisa and I are now in Cuenca. This is a beautiful colonial town in the middle of the Andes at 2450m, with really nice architecture and a bit of culture. There´s a lot of restaurants and bars and people go out which is a nice change from some other towns we´ve been to.
Today we walked about the town and took a lot of pictures. It was a nice day (32C) but much less humid than the Galapagos so it felt very comfortable. The hostal we are staying in is one of the best ones I have ever seen, it´s in an old colonial house, which has about 12 or 16 rooms, hardwood floors throughout, completely re-done bathrooms, and our room has a little nook on a 2nd floor overlooking the rest of the room! All for $24 US, including a breakfast in the courtyard. We get a free half hour of internet access and here I am. Oh yeah, it also has cable tv, so yesterday watched CNN. There was a protest march here today which Marisa and I avoided just because I believe it´s generally not safe to be near protests. There were no problems but I prefer to be safe.
Before Cuenca we went to a small town near Riobamba called Quisapincha which I doubt gets many tourists. It´s known for its leather crafts. Marisa shopped while I watched this lady make the biggest pot of soup/stew ever. The pot was about 1m in diameter, and sat on an open fire just outside the restaurant on the sidewalk. She started with meat, water, and a bag of salt, and then later I watched her add green onions, the bunch was bigger than I could put my hands around! There was other stuff added as well. She stirred it with this big ladle that could have been a paddle. Unfortunately we left before it was ready to eat.
Tomorrow we head back up north, first stopping at the best Inca ruins in Ecuador, called Ingapirca. It´s not as spectacular as say Macchu Pichu but it still looks pretty good from the pictures I have seen.
Today we walked about the town and took a lot of pictures. It was a nice day (32C) but much less humid than the Galapagos so it felt very comfortable. The hostal we are staying in is one of the best ones I have ever seen, it´s in an old colonial house, which has about 12 or 16 rooms, hardwood floors throughout, completely re-done bathrooms, and our room has a little nook on a 2nd floor overlooking the rest of the room! All for $24 US, including a breakfast in the courtyard. We get a free half hour of internet access and here I am. Oh yeah, it also has cable tv, so yesterday watched CNN. There was a protest march here today which Marisa and I avoided just because I believe it´s generally not safe to be near protests. There were no problems but I prefer to be safe.
Before Cuenca we went to a small town near Riobamba called Quisapincha which I doubt gets many tourists. It´s known for its leather crafts. Marisa shopped while I watched this lady make the biggest pot of soup/stew ever. The pot was about 1m in diameter, and sat on an open fire just outside the restaurant on the sidewalk. She started with meat, water, and a bag of salt, and then later I watched her add green onions, the bunch was bigger than I could put my hands around! There was other stuff added as well. She stirred it with this big ladle that could have been a paddle. Unfortunately we left before it was ready to eat.
Tomorrow we head back up north, first stopping at the best Inca ruins in Ecuador, called Ingapirca. It´s not as spectacular as say Macchu Pichu but it still looks pretty good from the pictures I have seen.
Tuesday, March 18, 2003
Quito, Ecuador
So we made it through the Galapagos in one piece and are now back on the mainland, a couple days later.
The Galapagos trip was amazing. About half way through the 8 days, we finally got over whatever ailments we had and were able to enjoy the sights fully. Every day had a similar schedule but the sights were always different and I was amazed that it could be. I figured after the first few days, why would I want to get up early at 5:30 and leave an air conditioned room to go for a 2 hour walk before breakfast to see something I've already seen? But it was always worth it to get up, always something new. (Although one day it was to see the great frigate bird (as opposed to magnificent frigate bird which we saw quite frequently), but after a few days in Galapagos this somehow becomes important)
A typical day was a landing on an island from 6 - 8, back on board for a big breakfast (fresh fruit, eggs or french toast or banana pancakes, freshly squeezed juice, tea), then another landing at another location from 9:30 - 11:30, some snorkeling, back on board for lunch and a siesta, then another landing from 3 - 5 and some more snorkeling. Back on board for dinner, and usually we were so tired no-one could stay up past 8:30.
The species all had cool-sounding names, like the blue-footed booby, Galapagos land tortoise, great blue heron, magnificent frigate bird, and others. There was one island where I took a picture of 7 species of birds in one shot! I became quite the ornithologist (thank you very much), able to distinguish between several species of Darwin's finches, and identify the song of the yellow warbler. Maybe it will come in useful in a game of trivia some day... My favourite was the giant land tortoise which we saw in the wild (there are a whole bunch in the Charles Darwin Research Centre), some of them weighing 250 kg!
It was amazing how much was packed into the 8 days. The weather was also perfect, it only rained once (at night for an hour) and other than that it was sunny and hot (34C).
So now we are back on the mainland in much cooler temperatures (18C). We flew back to Quito and then left south for Riobamba where we are now. Tomorrow we are headed for Cuenca, which is a nice old colonial city. The odd part about being back on land is that both Marisa and I still feel like we're on a boat, and especially when we are tired we get dizzy like the land is swaying (and no we haven't been drinking).
Well I hope everthing is going well back home. We are so out of touch with the news, I don't even know what's going on with the Leafs (or Iraq for that matter).
The Galapagos trip was amazing. About half way through the 8 days, we finally got over whatever ailments we had and were able to enjoy the sights fully. Every day had a similar schedule but the sights were always different and I was amazed that it could be. I figured after the first few days, why would I want to get up early at 5:30 and leave an air conditioned room to go for a 2 hour walk before breakfast to see something I've already seen? But it was always worth it to get up, always something new. (Although one day it was to see the great frigate bird (as opposed to magnificent frigate bird which we saw quite frequently), but after a few days in Galapagos this somehow becomes important)
A typical day was a landing on an island from 6 - 8, back on board for a big breakfast (fresh fruit, eggs or french toast or banana pancakes, freshly squeezed juice, tea), then another landing at another location from 9:30 - 11:30, some snorkeling, back on board for lunch and a siesta, then another landing from 3 - 5 and some more snorkeling. Back on board for dinner, and usually we were so tired no-one could stay up past 8:30.
The species all had cool-sounding names, like the blue-footed booby, Galapagos land tortoise, great blue heron, magnificent frigate bird, and others. There was one island where I took a picture of 7 species of birds in one shot! I became quite the ornithologist (thank you very much), able to distinguish between several species of Darwin's finches, and identify the song of the yellow warbler. Maybe it will come in useful in a game of trivia some day... My favourite was the giant land tortoise which we saw in the wild (there are a whole bunch in the Charles Darwin Research Centre), some of them weighing 250 kg!
It was amazing how much was packed into the 8 days. The weather was also perfect, it only rained once (at night for an hour) and other than that it was sunny and hot (34C).
So now we are back on the mainland in much cooler temperatures (18C). We flew back to Quito and then left south for Riobamba where we are now. Tomorrow we are headed for Cuenca, which is a nice old colonial city. The odd part about being back on land is that both Marisa and I still feel like we're on a boat, and especially when we are tired we get dizzy like the land is swaying (and no we haven't been drinking).
Well I hope everthing is going well back home. We are so out of touch with the news, I don't even know what's going on with the Leafs (or Iraq for that matter).
Thursday, March 13, 2003
Galapagos Islands, Ecuador
So Marisa and I are half way through the Galapagos trip and it's turned more into a survival trip than anything else. Between the heat and the sun and the boat motion and the cold I started with and passed to Marisa we have spent a lot of time just trying to keep ourselves in one piece!
Despite that we are having a great time. We are both feeling pretty good today. We have seen some of the islands in the south east and now looped back to the main island, some passengers got off and we get new ones today for the 2nd half of the trip. So we have an hour on the main island to kill and are spending it at a computer (!)
The weather has been fantastic. Sunny, hot, about 30C is my guess, and the water temperature is about 24C. A typical day is getting up at 5:30, having the first trek to an island around 7 - 9, then we go somewhere else, have lunch, snorkel a bit later on, then in the evening we have another landing on an island to see more wildlife. They plan it like that so we're not out trekking under the midday sun. The amount of wildlife is incredible. You have to be careful not to step on iguanas and the sea lions (or seals, I forget) are all over the beaches. The Lonely Planet has a nice little checklist and so I've been keeping track. So far we have seen about 40 species out of the 100 or so listed. My favourite so far is the blue-footed booby, a type of bird. (they sell tshirts here with 'I love boobies' on the front). Unfortunately the albatross are not here right now, and I hope to see a hammerhead shark during the snorkeling. Many many pictures.
The food has also been amazing. The crew on our boat (16 passengers, 7 crew + guide) are quite good. The cook is quite funny and has taken a liking to Marisa and he was quite disappointed that Marisa was sick earlier and not finishing all of his wonderful cooking! But yesterday she was better and now the cook is happy again. Yesterday he even baked and iced a cake!
It was very odd to come back to civilization last night. As well, we finally have sea legs so now we are getting dizzy on land!
Anyways I will write more later on but I have to catch a boat :)
Despite that we are having a great time. We are both feeling pretty good today. We have seen some of the islands in the south east and now looped back to the main island, some passengers got off and we get new ones today for the 2nd half of the trip. So we have an hour on the main island to kill and are spending it at a computer (!)
The weather has been fantastic. Sunny, hot, about 30C is my guess, and the water temperature is about 24C. A typical day is getting up at 5:30, having the first trek to an island around 7 - 9, then we go somewhere else, have lunch, snorkel a bit later on, then in the evening we have another landing on an island to see more wildlife. They plan it like that so we're not out trekking under the midday sun. The amount of wildlife is incredible. You have to be careful not to step on iguanas and the sea lions (or seals, I forget) are all over the beaches. The Lonely Planet has a nice little checklist and so I've been keeping track. So far we have seen about 40 species out of the 100 or so listed. My favourite so far is the blue-footed booby, a type of bird. (they sell tshirts here with 'I love boobies' on the front). Unfortunately the albatross are not here right now, and I hope to see a hammerhead shark during the snorkeling. Many many pictures.
The food has also been amazing. The crew on our boat (16 passengers, 7 crew + guide) are quite good. The cook is quite funny and has taken a liking to Marisa and he was quite disappointed that Marisa was sick earlier and not finishing all of his wonderful cooking! But yesterday she was better and now the cook is happy again. Yesterday he even baked and iced a cake!
It was very odd to come back to civilization last night. As well, we finally have sea legs so now we are getting dizzy on land!
Anyways I will write more later on but I have to catch a boat :)
Saturday, March 08, 2003
Quito, Ecuador
Well Marisa and I made it no problems to Ecuador yesterday on the start of our trip to see the Galapagos Islands. Despite all the media announcements about 3 hour waits at the airport that made me worried about missing our flight out of Toronto (being the start of March break and the busiest travel day of the year) it took us about 20 minutes to get through everything.
The flights were okay and we got to Quito about 11:00 pm last night. I had called ahead to reserve a hostel and they also arranged for a taxi. So when we got out of the airport there was a nice lady holding a sign for 'Erick Dsousa' and we were whisked off to a nice old colonlial house in the centro. The weather is really nice, it's supposed to be the rainy season but it was clear and about 13C. Marisa and I were both pretty tired so we just went to bed.
This morning we got up to another nice day (sunny and about 18C), had breakfast on this cool little terrace inside the hotel. Today we just have some paper work to do to pay for the Galapagos trip, and then tomorrow morning we're off pretty early to fly there to begin a 8 day 7 night boat trip around the islands. Although I have been surprised at where internet cafes can now be found I doubt that they will have access on the boat. So the next time I email will be after the Galapagos trip.
ps to prevent my hotmail from filling up with spam I have turned on the maximum filter so I only get email from people in my Address Book. So on the off chance that you do reply from a different email address than what I've sent I won't get it.
The flights were okay and we got to Quito about 11:00 pm last night. I had called ahead to reserve a hostel and they also arranged for a taxi. So when we got out of the airport there was a nice lady holding a sign for 'Erick Dsousa' and we were whisked off to a nice old colonlial house in the centro. The weather is really nice, it's supposed to be the rainy season but it was clear and about 13C. Marisa and I were both pretty tired so we just went to bed.
This morning we got up to another nice day (sunny and about 18C), had breakfast on this cool little terrace inside the hotel. Today we just have some paper work to do to pay for the Galapagos trip, and then tomorrow morning we're off pretty early to fly there to begin a 8 day 7 night boat trip around the islands. Although I have been surprised at where internet cafes can now be found I doubt that they will have access on the boat. So the next time I email will be after the Galapagos trip.
ps to prevent my hotmail from filling up with spam I have turned on the maximum filter so I only get email from people in my Address Book. So on the off chance that you do reply from a different email address than what I've sent I won't get it.
Thursday, June 13, 2002
Arica, Chile
So I made it out of Bolivia okay without being affected by the road strikes. Although I met some other travellers that did get stuck in cities for a few days by them so I guess I got lucky.
The first view of La Paz is one of the more amazing cities to see. You´re driving along the altiplano at about 3600m, and suddenly there´s a huge chasm in the earth and inside is a city of 1.5 million people, filling the entire thing. The main street runs right down the middle, so it´s impossible to get lost because if you head down you´ll always find the main street. But when you´re in it it´s like how the futuristic cities in space must be like, it looks like people are literally living all around. The city itself is pretty lively, there´s always people about.
So I spent 3 days relaxing and souvenir shopping (La Paz is also one of the best places in South America to buy souvenirs). Then this morning I took a bus from La Paz to Arica (Chile). I was surprised because the road was paved the entire way. The border crossing is a pass at 4660m, and then in the next 3 hours we dropped all the way to Arica at sea level. Wasn´t as impressive as the Friendship highway between Tibet and Nepal but the scenery still was pretty good.
See most of you soon!
The first view of La Paz is one of the more amazing cities to see. You´re driving along the altiplano at about 3600m, and suddenly there´s a huge chasm in the earth and inside is a city of 1.5 million people, filling the entire thing. The main street runs right down the middle, so it´s impossible to get lost because if you head down you´ll always find the main street. But when you´re in it it´s like how the futuristic cities in space must be like, it looks like people are literally living all around. The city itself is pretty lively, there´s always people about.
So I spent 3 days relaxing and souvenir shopping (La Paz is also one of the best places in South America to buy souvenirs). Then this morning I took a bus from La Paz to Arica (Chile). I was surprised because the road was paved the entire way. The border crossing is a pass at 4660m, and then in the next 3 hours we dropped all the way to Arica at sea level. Wasn´t as impressive as the Friendship highway between Tibet and Nepal but the scenery still was pretty good.
See most of you soon!
Sunday, June 09, 2002
Potosi, Bolivia
Well I have returned from a 4 day trip around Uyuni. I took the train from Tupiza to Uyuni, which was quite nice in Ejectivo class. It was even heated, which is a novelty in transportation here. I got to Uyuni around midnight. Uyuni is at 3600m and it's pretty cold at night. Unfortunately most hostels don't have heating, but they do have a million blankets. So I was quite warm at night but my nose froze.
The next morning I woke up without a headache so I figured I was acclimatized enough (given the altitude) to sign up for the trip. There was a driver, a cook, and 6 of us (4 Danes, another Canadian and me), in a Toyota Land Cruiser. This is the slow season in this part of the world, and there were about 6 or 7 other groups that left the same day. I'm glad I'm not here in the busy season.
The first day we saw Salar de Uyuni. This is a huge dried up salt lake at 3600 m. It is a big huge flat surface, white as far as you can see. It was so flat that I could have raced my Civic across it. This is one of the top 10 things to see in South America in my opinion.
The next day we reached Laguna Colorado, which is a lake that is a type of red colour (I guess Colorado red). It was quite beautiful. Unfortunately I decided to climb up a little hill (about 100m up) to get a better view but the exertion triggered a headache from the altitude (we were now at 4200m).
On the third day we got up very early (at 5:00) to see geysers. This was at 4950m, and the combination of altitude, early morning and season meant that it was -30 C outside. I didn't take many pictures. Then we got to some hot springs at 4600m, and it was quite refreshing just to stick my feet in (I think the water was at 35C, and the air temperature had warmed up to about 5C). Unlike other hot springs that I have been too, this one had absolutely no infrastructure around it. Just the water coming out of the ground. Some other tourists from the other groups actually went fully in, with bathing suits, but I think it would have been too cold after.
Then we went to Laguna Verde, which is a green lake. (They are very boring with the naming of the lakes here. We also saw a Laguna Blanca and Laguna Negro. There's an area we drove through that's called Valley of Dali. Not the original name I'm sure.) Laguna Verde is at 5000m, and the peak of Volcan Licancabur at 5950m is in the background. This also makes my top 10 for South America. The whole area that we traveled through over the 4 days is very beautiful, one of the most amazing natural areas that I have seen.
The last day was a long drive home. The whole trip cost only $70 US, including transportation, accommodation and food (although not the Hilton, but still pretty good). I think Toyota should be doing commercials here. Almost all the vehicles were Toyota Land Cruisers, and over the 4 days we drove over salt lakes, through dusty sandy areas, temperature ranging from 10C to -30C, fjording rivers up to 3 feet deep, without problems.
That night I caught a bus to Potosi, which in the 1600s and 1700s was a very important city because of its wealth from the silver mines. Potosi sits at 4050m, and according to the LP is the highest city in the world. Although I'm sure there's a bunch of cities that claim this title. In any case, this morning went on a tour of the mine. They still mine in much the same way as they did years ago. The conditions are terrible, most miners die after working there 20 years. We bought cigarettes, coca leaves and dynamite (!) for gifts for the miners so we could take pictures. Yep, you can buy dynamite from street stalls here. And there I was, dynamite and fuse in a plastic bag clambouring about in narrow tunnels in the mine hoping it wouldn't go off before I gave it to a miner.
Potosi itself is a beautiful little town, with cobblestone streets and colonial architecture. (Even with my jaded view of colonial architecture I still think the town is beautiful.)
So now I sit in an internet cafe, drinking a CocaCola, eating a llama burger, catching up on my news and sending emails. It's still very odd for me that in the middle of nowhere I can do this. Next I am going to La Paz to buy a whole bunch of souvenirs, and then somehow get back to Santiago for my flight. I have heard that the road from here to La Paz is being blocked occasionally by strikers, but that on Sundays I should be okay. Well I have a week to get to Santiago in any case. (The llama burger tastes like a burger).
Hope everything is going well at home!
The next morning I woke up without a headache so I figured I was acclimatized enough (given the altitude) to sign up for the trip. There was a driver, a cook, and 6 of us (4 Danes, another Canadian and me), in a Toyota Land Cruiser. This is the slow season in this part of the world, and there were about 6 or 7 other groups that left the same day. I'm glad I'm not here in the busy season.
The first day we saw Salar de Uyuni. This is a huge dried up salt lake at 3600 m. It is a big huge flat surface, white as far as you can see. It was so flat that I could have raced my Civic across it. This is one of the top 10 things to see in South America in my opinion.
The next day we reached Laguna Colorado, which is a lake that is a type of red colour (I guess Colorado red). It was quite beautiful. Unfortunately I decided to climb up a little hill (about 100m up) to get a better view but the exertion triggered a headache from the altitude (we were now at 4200m).
On the third day we got up very early (at 5:00) to see geysers. This was at 4950m, and the combination of altitude, early morning and season meant that it was -30 C outside. I didn't take many pictures. Then we got to some hot springs at 4600m, and it was quite refreshing just to stick my feet in (I think the water was at 35C, and the air temperature had warmed up to about 5C). Unlike other hot springs that I have been too, this one had absolutely no infrastructure around it. Just the water coming out of the ground. Some other tourists from the other groups actually went fully in, with bathing suits, but I think it would have been too cold after.
Then we went to Laguna Verde, which is a green lake. (They are very boring with the naming of the lakes here. We also saw a Laguna Blanca and Laguna Negro. There's an area we drove through that's called Valley of Dali. Not the original name I'm sure.) Laguna Verde is at 5000m, and the peak of Volcan Licancabur at 5950m is in the background. This also makes my top 10 for South America. The whole area that we traveled through over the 4 days is very beautiful, one of the most amazing natural areas that I have seen.
The last day was a long drive home. The whole trip cost only $70 US, including transportation, accommodation and food (although not the Hilton, but still pretty good). I think Toyota should be doing commercials here. Almost all the vehicles were Toyota Land Cruisers, and over the 4 days we drove over salt lakes, through dusty sandy areas, temperature ranging from 10C to -30C, fjording rivers up to 3 feet deep, without problems.
That night I caught a bus to Potosi, which in the 1600s and 1700s was a very important city because of its wealth from the silver mines. Potosi sits at 4050m, and according to the LP is the highest city in the world. Although I'm sure there's a bunch of cities that claim this title. In any case, this morning went on a tour of the mine. They still mine in much the same way as they did years ago. The conditions are terrible, most miners die after working there 20 years. We bought cigarettes, coca leaves and dynamite (!) for gifts for the miners so we could take pictures. Yep, you can buy dynamite from street stalls here. And there I was, dynamite and fuse in a plastic bag clambouring about in narrow tunnels in the mine hoping it wouldn't go off before I gave it to a miner.
Potosi itself is a beautiful little town, with cobblestone streets and colonial architecture. (Even with my jaded view of colonial architecture I still think the town is beautiful.)
So now I sit in an internet cafe, drinking a CocaCola, eating a llama burger, catching up on my news and sending emails. It's still very odd for me that in the middle of nowhere I can do this. Next I am going to La Paz to buy a whole bunch of souvenirs, and then somehow get back to Santiago for my flight. I have heard that the road from here to La Paz is being blocked occasionally by strikers, but that on Sundays I should be okay. Well I have a week to get to Santiago in any case. (The llama burger tastes like a burger).
Hope everything is going well at home!
Tuesday, June 04, 2002
Tupiza, Bolivia
Well I´m now in Bolivia.
I spent the last few days making it through Argentina. Mendoza was nice, it reminded me of Guadalajara (Mexico), both of them are big cities that are very nice to walk around in. I went to a restaurant for a big barbecue dinner. In Argentina they are called `Parillas` and this one was an all-you-can-eat, which here is a tenedor libre, literally translated as free fork. It was very good. I had a steak, then some pork chops, and then some beef ribs. Had a 3/8 bottle of local wine, and dessert. All for $5.
The next day I got on a bus for Salta, which is in the north west of Argentina. Unfortunately this meant I missed the Argentina-Nigeria game, which the bus driver and bus attendants were very disappointed about. The long distance buses in Argentina are very good, I was in a semi-cama which means it`s almost level to sleep. Plus they serve you dinner, snacks and breakfast, show movies, and play bingo. (Fortunately I didn´t win because two people tied and because they only had one prize the two people had to tell a joke to decide the winner, and my spanish isn´t that good yet.) We were stopped at a gas station when Argentina scored their only goal so that was good because we got to see it on TV.
Salta is a nice colonial town, unfortunately I have seen too many nice colonial towns to care. At night, watched game 7 of the Lakers-Kings game. Travel really has changed since I went on my big trip 5 years ago. It´s so easy now to keep in touch with email, read the Toronto news on the net, most places have satellite TV with all the US stations, there are ATMs everywhere. A lot of travellers now travel with digital cameras and download their pictures in internet cafes to wherever they have disk space.
Argentina really went crazy after their win. It was the same as when the Leafs won the second series. They haven´t really won anything yet but everyone was partying in the main plaza until daylight. It would be pretty crazy if they actually win the whole thing. Although this country does need something to cheer about I guess.
So from Salta I crossed the border at La Quiaca, and then made it up to Tupiza where I am now. Last night I was a bit affected by the altitude but I´m okay now. Tonight I am taking a train to Uyuni, I upgraded from the regular class to first class for a whopping $2. In Uyuni I´m hoping to take a jeep trek around the southwest corner of Bolivia for 4 days, there are some really cool natural sights to see.
I spent the last few days making it through Argentina. Mendoza was nice, it reminded me of Guadalajara (Mexico), both of them are big cities that are very nice to walk around in. I went to a restaurant for a big barbecue dinner. In Argentina they are called `Parillas` and this one was an all-you-can-eat, which here is a tenedor libre, literally translated as free fork. It was very good. I had a steak, then some pork chops, and then some beef ribs. Had a 3/8 bottle of local wine, and dessert. All for $5.
The next day I got on a bus for Salta, which is in the north west of Argentina. Unfortunately this meant I missed the Argentina-Nigeria game, which the bus driver and bus attendants were very disappointed about. The long distance buses in Argentina are very good, I was in a semi-cama which means it`s almost level to sleep. Plus they serve you dinner, snacks and breakfast, show movies, and play bingo. (Fortunately I didn´t win because two people tied and because they only had one prize the two people had to tell a joke to decide the winner, and my spanish isn´t that good yet.) We were stopped at a gas station when Argentina scored their only goal so that was good because we got to see it on TV.
Salta is a nice colonial town, unfortunately I have seen too many nice colonial towns to care. At night, watched game 7 of the Lakers-Kings game. Travel really has changed since I went on my big trip 5 years ago. It´s so easy now to keep in touch with email, read the Toronto news on the net, most places have satellite TV with all the US stations, there are ATMs everywhere. A lot of travellers now travel with digital cameras and download their pictures in internet cafes to wherever they have disk space.
Argentina really went crazy after their win. It was the same as when the Leafs won the second series. They haven´t really won anything yet but everyone was partying in the main plaza until daylight. It would be pretty crazy if they actually win the whole thing. Although this country does need something to cheer about I guess.
So from Salta I crossed the border at La Quiaca, and then made it up to Tupiza where I am now. Last night I was a bit affected by the altitude but I´m okay now. Tonight I am taking a train to Uyuni, I upgraded from the regular class to first class for a whopping $2. In Uyuni I´m hoping to take a jeep trek around the southwest corner of Bolivia for 4 days, there are some really cool natural sights to see.
Thursday, May 30, 2002
Santiago, Chile
Well I made it to Easter Island and back. It was amazing on Easter Island. The weather was perfect, it was sunny the whole time and about mid 20´s. The first view I had of the island was from the plane, it got in at 8:30 at night. The sky was clear and there was a full moon.
I met up with a guy from France and a guy from England. That night we went to see our first moai which are right in town, taking pictures by moonlight.
The first full day we climbed up the highest point on the island, 511 m. It was an amazing view of the whole island, which is only about 35 km in circumference. We could see the Pacific Ocean in every direction. Then we walked home and got lost a couple times trying to take short cuts. We spent about 7 hours walking the first day.
The second day we did a tour which takes you to the major sites. The most amazing part was the quarry, which is where the typical pictures of Easter Island are from. I didn´t find the 'At least you have a nose' moai but there were lots of others. Ate lunch amongst the heads. Then later in the evening took some pictures of the sunset and some more moai.
The last day the french guy and I climbed up the south volcano (about 300m) but this was also amazing. The inside is a lake, about 1.5 km in diameter, and had marsh growing in this cool pattern. The french guy thought it was the most amazing thing he had seen (and he was pretty well-traveled), I thought it was amazing but not that great, not the top 10 anyways. But it was still cool. Plus you could see the whole island again, but from a different view than the first day.
It is the off season on Easter Island (apparently it´s the rainiest month) and so there were hardly any other tourists. In fact there was nothing to do at night so we just had dinner and a beer and then went home. The residencial where we stayed, the family had a big tv, (about 32" at least, I didn´t actually measure it) and their friend came over with his laptop and we watched DVDs most nights. Actually the busiest place at night on the island was the video store, made to look like the Blockbuster logo.
I read in the paper while on the island that it had rained the whole time in Santiago, and that there was flooding. None of the internet places on the island could get a good connection, which they blamed on the weather. However today when we landed it was nice and clear. But the pass to Mendoza (Argentina) has been closed on and off because of the snow -- and apparently tomorrow it´s going to be closed again. So thanks to the internet, I just bought a plane ticket to Mendoza and I´ll be flying there tomorrow. The french guy has just come from Argentina, and everything is very cheap there now because of the devaluation of the currency. He was having big steak dinners with a bottle of wine for $3 US. Sounds good to me.
So I haven´t checked any sports sites yet and last I heard the Leafs had won 1-0 in game 5. I´ll check next.
I met up with a guy from France and a guy from England. That night we went to see our first moai which are right in town, taking pictures by moonlight.
The first full day we climbed up the highest point on the island, 511 m. It was an amazing view of the whole island, which is only about 35 km in circumference. We could see the Pacific Ocean in every direction. Then we walked home and got lost a couple times trying to take short cuts. We spent about 7 hours walking the first day.
The second day we did a tour which takes you to the major sites. The most amazing part was the quarry, which is where the typical pictures of Easter Island are from. I didn´t find the 'At least you have a nose' moai but there were lots of others. Ate lunch amongst the heads. Then later in the evening took some pictures of the sunset and some more moai.
The last day the french guy and I climbed up the south volcano (about 300m) but this was also amazing. The inside is a lake, about 1.5 km in diameter, and had marsh growing in this cool pattern. The french guy thought it was the most amazing thing he had seen (and he was pretty well-traveled), I thought it was amazing but not that great, not the top 10 anyways. But it was still cool. Plus you could see the whole island again, but from a different view than the first day.
It is the off season on Easter Island (apparently it´s the rainiest month) and so there were hardly any other tourists. In fact there was nothing to do at night so we just had dinner and a beer and then went home. The residencial where we stayed, the family had a big tv, (about 32" at least, I didn´t actually measure it) and their friend came over with his laptop and we watched DVDs most nights. Actually the busiest place at night on the island was the video store, made to look like the Blockbuster logo.
I read in the paper while on the island that it had rained the whole time in Santiago, and that there was flooding. None of the internet places on the island could get a good connection, which they blamed on the weather. However today when we landed it was nice and clear. But the pass to Mendoza (Argentina) has been closed on and off because of the snow -- and apparently tomorrow it´s going to be closed again. So thanks to the internet, I just bought a plane ticket to Mendoza and I´ll be flying there tomorrow. The french guy has just come from Argentina, and everything is very cheap there now because of the devaluation of the currency. He was having big steak dinners with a bottle of wine for $3 US. Sounds good to me.
So I haven´t checked any sports sites yet and last I heard the Leafs had won 1-0 in game 5. I´ll check next.
Saturday, May 25, 2002
Santiago, Chile
Well I made it to Santiago no problem over night. Tomorrow I take off for Easter Island so I haven´t done much here. It´s rained non-stop since I arrived. Supposedly this is just a `largo lluvioso` (big rain) and it´s not always like this. In any case it´s different weather on Easter Island and then again on the other side of the Andes for the rest of my trip. Well I´m off to go eat dinner (I had to check my email because I forgot when my flight was tomorrow). This place is a bit different from when I was here about 5 years ago -- everyone has a cell phone and internet cafes are everywhere.
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