tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-695456086745537562024-03-05T00:37:56.067-08:00Putting the Eh? in AsiaLChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16521257848545218855noreply@blogger.comBlogger21125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69545608674553756.post-49997931833237696682012-04-30T18:39:00.001-07:002012-05-01T08:50:16.454-07:00Singapore, Lion cityAfter leaving Bali at 3am we have arrived in Singapore, aka transit city. Singapore is best known as a connection place. Most people spend a day or two. However, we decided that we could spend 7 days and not spend too much cash money. Prices here are similar to home in some things and much more in others. This was a bit of a shock to us when we found out about this before coming, but we realized that the Canadian dollar is worth a third more than the Singapore dollar. Woot woot! <br />
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When we arrived we decided to take the train into town but a very rude MRT worker said I couldn't take my surf board on the train. So we took the bus and a very nice bus driver let me and my board on and helped us get to where we were staying. Once we checked in we headed to the MRT station and picked up a transit pass- EZ Pass. The transit here is amazing and the trains and buses are all used by way of the pass card. This may all sound trivial to all of you but after relying on others to get you where you need to go and not being sure if you will actually get there, this is really nice.<br />
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We then explored Orchard Road, singapore appears as a giant shopping mall. You basically could avoid going outside at all if you really wanted to, due to all the connecting underpasses for crossing the streets. however when you do cross the street cars actually stop for you!! THEY STOP!!!!!! amazing. There are three key elements to people's lifes in singapore; They LOVE to go to MOVIES, SHOP and EAT. If they can do all three at once, they will. We saw two movies while we where in singapore; Iron Lady and Hunger Games. Oh and for our movie snack we had a chocolate mousse cake.<br />
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Since we were trying to do singapore on a budget, apparently there are lots of free activities, such as going to a museum after 6pm is normally free. To limit food costs we purchased fresh bagels from these wonderful corner stores called Bread Society and Bread Talk and got some dried fruit and peanut butter that lasted us the week. </div>
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A big perk about Singapore is you can where normal clothes, not your grungy travellers clothes- oh wait thats all I brought? So now people look strangely at us because we wear shorts and tanks tops/ singlets which normally wouldn't be a big deal but there is a Louis Vuitton on every corner of Orchard Road.</div>
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Singapore also has any kind of food you ever wanted, so we had some vietnamese pho bo why we were there, and sushi, lots of sushi and had a wonderful time sampling different countries dishes. Ryland also found a delicious German beer he wanted to try.</div>
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We headed to the Botanical Gardens for the day, the whole area is this massive green space that ranges from lavish ponds (more like lakes) and rainforest, to healing gardens. </div>
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After spending four hours wandering and sight seeing throughout the park we headed for some dinner. I ordered a traditional dish called chicken congee. On the menu it looked like a chicken soup, and a friend had recommended it to me. This rice porridge shows up, its more like watered down mush, something that you feed to someone who has no teeth. I could see how perhaps this would be a great breakfast, but for dinner it wasn't really what I was looking for but I ate it none the less. I also offered Ryland some and he laughed and wolfed down his lovely delicious looking meal "I've had that before, it's not very good" where the words out of his mouth- ahahha thanks for the heads up!!!! I couldn't help but sit there slurping my mush and laugh at myself. It really does taste like absolutely nothing. I have a feeling that it is like Indonesia- or anywhere really if you get a meal and don't like it, don't dis it try it somewhere else before you decided you don't like it because everyone makes things differently.</div>
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The Next Day April 13th,</div>
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We went to the ZOO!!!! We got up early and caught the MRT to the Bus and then arrived at the zoo, seriously though Toronto needs to take some lessons from Singapore's public transit. I cannot praise it enough. Its so wonderful, functional, on time, I need to stop. The zoo was great, I wouldn't say it has the diversity of say the San Diego zoo but it has a good variety of animals that you would find throughout Asia. The really cool thing was that many of the monkeys had free range of the trees and literally above your head as you walk throughout the zoo. Some exhibits you could walk through such as the kangaroo's pen and a rainforest one that had bats, and a two toed sloth. There was also a cousin of the Komodo Dragon that was pretty big just walking around the zoo. We watched the cheetahs, white tigers and lions get fed. Male cats, I am sorry still can't catch their own food in captivity. It was actually sad to watch, and funny at the same time. </div>
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After spending several hours checking out the zoo, I still think my favourite zoo is in Chiang Mai because you literally can walk through so many of the animals exhibits and it was just a massive area but it was very exhausting so we rewarded ourselves with sushi. You haven't had a real sushi experience until you have to order on an ipad and your meal shows up either in a rocket ship, or a race car. This was a high tec sushi bar which we found highly entertaining.</div>
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April 14th- China Town/ Little India</div>
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China town had all the stuff you never wanted!! Just kidding, this is the only place we found to buy reasonable priced souvenirs so we bought some tea and a few other nick-nacks. The strange thing I found about china town was that unlike toronto's china town thats pretty packed with people and stuff everywhere, in China Town Singapore there was so much space! Also the food was cheap and delicious. We had wonton soup and steamed pork dumpling for breakfast from a street stall, just the way we like it! Also the pork dumpling was massive bigger then my fist. We also went to the chinese food market, Ryland was on a mission to find some spices for making tom yom soup!! After spending some time in China town we headed to Little India, we arrived only to have the skies open upon us, but the rain didn't bother us because well it was still really humid and hot. We walked around for a while and found a spot that we decided we would have dinner at, it was delicious. The women that was running the restaurant, told us that we had to order a hot drink so we wouldn't catch a cold. I had a really delicious Indian tea that had 12 different spices in it, and Ry had a traditional Indian coffee. We shared samosa's, Poppadum, butter chicken, vegetable jalfrezi and of course garlic nan bread. </div>
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April 15th- Marina Bay Sands</div>
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Marina Bay area is beautiful tall buildings, and is very expensive. Good thing we didn't do much. We went shopping in the mall, it had a river that you could row in and an ice skating rink (the ice was plastic). A casino and a proper Theatre for musicals. Ryland bought some dress clothes for some upcoming weddings, I never knew he could look so grown up? Well he cleans up really nice to say the least! It was good to know that after being travelling for three months at the end of it all we can still pull ourselves together to look respectable. Then we went to the Art and Science Museum, it was packed, the line to get tickets was 40 minutes long, but some nice women told us we could also get tickets inside the mall, that line was only 10 minutes long. The museum had two exhibits on, Andy Warhol which is always interesting and the Titanic exhibit. Little did we know that we were going to the Titanic exhibit on the 100th anniversary of the sinkage (that explains the crowd). We could barley move throughout the exhibit but it was kinda cool. It had a bunch of artefacts from the wreck, and as you entered you were handed a card with a description of a passenger, who was with them, what class they were etc. and at the end of the exhibit you could look up if they survived or not. I was a first class women travelling with her son and husband, who survived with her son but her husband was lost to sea. If you have ever seen the movie, and remember the scene right before they sink and their is a priest on board going down with the ship, thats who Ryland was. There was also a giant piece of ice in the exhibit that everyone was going nuts over. We didn't make it to raffles, which is unfortunate but there is always next time!!!</div>
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April 16th- Sentosa Island </div>
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We took three different MRT lines to get down to the island and we could actually pay to get on the island with our EZ pass. We went to universal studios, it was pretty busy for a week day. It seems that people are never at work, unless it was a holiday and I had no idea. The line for the kiddy rides was 40 minutes but everything else was five minutes. Also we had to sit at the very front of every roller coaster because Ryland is so tall, and it was a safety issue. I think we almost did every ride they had and say the Water World show. It was a good last day in singapore.</div>
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Its the end of the road. April 17th, we have 30 hours of air time ahead of us, and 72 hours until Canada. Time to go home.</div>
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<br />LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16521257848545218855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69545608674553756.post-13988572108955388682012-04-14T07:44:00.002-07:002012-04-14T21:51:26.613-07:00Bali!<div class="separator" style="clear:both; text-align:left;">Hello all! Sorry we haven't posted in a while, we have been quite busy and the Internet has been quite poor on the island. There also haven't been computers for us to use to upload photos. </div><div class="separator" style="clear:both; text-align:left;">The first few days we were in Bali it was the Balinese new years Nyepi! This was our third new years of 2012! So fun! This new years was quite different though because on "new years eve" they make really scary floats of evil spirits and have a big parade and make lots of noise and play music really loud. And on new years day everyone stays inside and doesn't make any noise or use electricity to make the evil spirits believe that no one is around so that they will leave. It was a pretty interesting experience except that where we were several large Australian families tried there hardest not to observe Nyepi and made as much noise as they could. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-AIyhh4q7YcY/T4mCrHWg42I/AAAAAAAAACg/NNLjMLVtAT4/s500/Photo%2525202012-03-23%2525201%25253A46%252520AM.jpg" target="_blank" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-AIyhh4q7YcY/T4mCrHWg42I/AAAAAAAAACg/NNLjMLVtAT4/s500/Photo%2525202012-03-23%2525201%25253A46%252520AM.jpg" id="blogsy-1334463595805.4973" class="aligncenter" alt="" width="500" height="334"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear:both; text-align:left;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear:both; text-align:left;">We spent a few days in Nusa Dua which is on the south east side of Bali. We hung out at the hotel cause it had a really nice pool but we also went zip lining which was fun. We went with a Canadian couple whom we met in Saigon, Bobby and Kate.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-ooMbHNsg8Mc/T4mCwD-cQkI/AAAAAAAAACo/pkv0y0WVr4g/s500/Photo%2525202012-03-23%2525206%25253A46%252520AM.jpg" target="_blank" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" title=""><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-ooMbHNsg8Mc/T4mCwD-cQkI/AAAAAAAAACo/pkv0y0WVr4g/s500/Photo%2525202012-03-23%2525206%25253A46%252520AM.jpg" id="blogsy-1334463595777.3457" class="aligncenter" alt="" width="500" height="334"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: right;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-02XpfB16cWA/T4mC6vvkwUI/AAAAAAAAAC4/aYuxgTsh1ro/s500/Photo%2525202012-03-26%2525206%25253A36%252520AM.jpg" target="_blank" style="margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-02XpfB16cWA/T4mC6vvkwUI/AAAAAAAAAC4/aYuxgTsh1ro/s500/Photo%2525202012-03-26%2525206%25253A36%252520AM.jpg" id="blogsy-1334463595835.9248" class="" alt="" width="342" height="512"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-mSSSQ37ha_Y/T4mC0gSRfII/AAAAAAAAACw/MQeMlsnZ45w/s500/Photo%2525202012-03-23%2525207%25253A28%252520AM.jpg" target="_blank" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-mSSSQ37ha_Y/T4mC0gSRfII/AAAAAAAAACw/MQeMlsnZ45w/s500/Photo%2525202012-03-23%2525207%25253A28%252520AM.jpg" id="blogsy-1334463595801.9553" class="aligncenter" alt="" width="500" height="281"></a></div><object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/0qFxuRcak3U?fs=1&hl=en_US&border=0&rel=0"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/0qFxuRcak3U?fs=1&hl=en_US&border=0&rel=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></object><div class="separator" style="clear:both; text-align:left;"><br />
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</div><div class="separator" style="clear:both; text-align:left;">We moved to the Kuta area (the beach) and Laura took some surf lessons with the Quicksilver team and I bought a board. </div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/--n5ExTQeqpY/T4mDUu1U4BI/AAAAAAAAADo/TSfxi51KuCA/s500/Photo%2525202012-03-30%2525206%25253A37%252520AM.jpg" target="_blank" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/--n5ExTQeqpY/T4mDUu1U4BI/AAAAAAAAADo/TSfxi51KuCA/s500/Photo%2525202012-03-30%2525206%25253A37%252520AM.jpg" id="blogsy-1334463595795.8484" class="aligncenter" alt="" width="500" height="334"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear:both; text-align:left;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Laura unfortunately got pretty bad board rash from the foam boards. As you can see her hands looked pretty bad.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Legian beach, storm surf</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-CvqcsqNl0cw/T4mDQku9qfI/AAAAAAAAADg/u7-42kugv3s/s500/Photo%2525202012-03-30%2525206%25253A25%252520AM.jpg" target="_blank" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" title=""><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-CvqcsqNl0cw/T4mDQku9qfI/AAAAAAAAADg/u7-42kugv3s/s500/Photo%2525202012-03-30%2525206%25253A25%252520AM.jpg" id="blogsy-1334463595837.0266" class="aligncenter" alt="" width="500" height="334"></a></div><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-sdlp-UFa160/T4mDMmL-J0I/AAAAAAAAADY/wtrZdNxZWOg/s500/Photo%2525202012-03-29%2525203%25253A10%252520AM.jpg" target="_blank" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-sdlp-UFa160/T4mDMmL-J0I/AAAAAAAAADY/wtrZdNxZWOg/s500/Photo%2525202012-03-29%2525203%25253A10%252520AM.jpg" id="blogsy-1334463595844.5757" class="aligncenter" alt="" width="500" height="334"></a></div><p>We also went over to the Gili islands and went diving there, it was awesome! </p><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">This place was a great surf spot. Except that it was about 3 feet deep and the coral was quite sharp.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-wOHstgFhyN8/T4mDrHH5D0I/AAAAAAAAAD4/8f2uTIJEjTE/s500/Photo%2525202012-04-03%2525202%25253A14%252520AM.jpg" target="_blank" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-wOHstgFhyN8/T4mDrHH5D0I/AAAAAAAAAD4/8f2uTIJEjTE/s500/Photo%2525202012-04-03%2525202%25253A14%252520AM.jpg" id="blogsy-1334463595832.48" class="aligncenter" alt="" width="500" height="334"></a></div><p>Beach poses!</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-zxiSuSrZ_yQ/T4mDzGtmENI/AAAAAAAAAEI/c4XWDE-0tWg/s500/Photo%2525202012-04-03%2525203%25253A50%252520AM.jpg" target="_blank" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-zxiSuSrZ_yQ/T4mDzGtmENI/AAAAAAAAAEI/c4XWDE-0tWg/s500/Photo%2525202012-04-03%2525203%25253A50%252520AM.jpg" id="blogsy-1334463595773.9883" class="aligncenter" alt="" width="500" height="334"></a></div><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-wAjZeU2QAgo/T4mDu_a1TJI/AAAAAAAAAEA/ZpiiG5GV2Ic/s500/Photo%2525202012-04-03%2525203%25253A46%252520AM.jpg" target="_blank" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-wAjZeU2QAgo/T4mDu_a1TJI/AAAAAAAAAEA/ZpiiG5GV2Ic/s500/Photo%2525202012-04-03%2525203%25253A46%252520AM.jpg" id="blogsy-1334463595799.3882" class="aligncenter" alt="" width="500" height="334"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Stray cats!</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-azavYYtTY_w/T4mD68B8klI/AAAAAAAAAEY/XNbvLkLhrFg/s500/Photo%2525202012-04-04%2525204%25253A59%252520AM.jpg" target="_blank" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-azavYYtTY_w/T4mD68B8klI/AAAAAAAAAEY/XNbvLkLhrFg/s500/Photo%2525202012-04-04%2525204%25253A59%252520AM.jpg" id="blogsy-1334463595812.205" class="aligncenter" alt="" width="500" height="334"></a></div><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Scuba lessons for Bobby and Kate</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-RJbbSItAcFw/T4mD_2pO13I/AAAAAAAAAEg/5-PfPMq44pw/s500/Photo%2525202012-04-04%2525208%25253A05%252520AM.jpg" target="_blank" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-RJbbSItAcFw/T4mD_2pO13I/AAAAAAAAAEg/5-PfPMq44pw/s500/Photo%2525202012-04-04%2525208%25253A05%252520AM.jpg" id="blogsy-1334463595795.1592" class="aligncenter" alt="" width="500" height="334"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Après dive. Saw so many turtles. So warm and clear with lots of marine life.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/--uJLk9MCPWI/T4mK8iZCXYI/AAAAAAAAAFk/S_ZYYb_Wycg/s500/Photo%2525202012-03-05%2525203%25253A08%252520PM.jpg" target="_blank" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" title=""><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/--uJLk9MCPWI/T4mK8iZCXYI/AAAAAAAAAFk/S_ZYYb_Wycg/s500/Photo%2525202012-03-05%2525203%25253A08%252520PM.jpg" id="blogsy-1334463595779.2322" class="aligncenter" alt="" width="500" height="375"></a></div><p>This is one of the dive guides Alex. Super relaxed and helped to create a great experience.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-fUfMbt7i6uY/T4mK_49v6eI/AAAAAAAAAFs/xwK9L3ERKRQ/s500/Photo%2525202012-04-14%25252010%25253A33%252520PM.jpg" target="_blank" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-fUfMbt7i6uY/T4mK_49v6eI/AAAAAAAAAFs/xwK9L3ERKRQ/s500/Photo%2525202012-04-14%25252010%25253A33%252520PM.jpg" id="blogsy-1334463595768.4292" class="aligncenter" alt="" width="384" height="512"></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Twilight on Gile Air</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-jlQ9yKExULQ/T4mELp03r9I/AAAAAAAAAEw/QeBTpccn3Ws/s500/Photo%2525202012-04-06%2525208%25253A39%252520AM.jpg" target="_blank" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-jlQ9yKExULQ/T4mELp03r9I/AAAAAAAAAEw/QeBTpccn3Ws/s500/Photo%2525202012-04-06%2525208%25253A39%252520AM.jpg" id="blogsy-1334463595816.9084" class="aligncenter" alt="" width="500" height="334"></a></div><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Local transportation on the Giles</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-mAMEgUxbLss/T4mEoBUR51I/AAAAAAAAAFY/DtVKFVU_hwk/s500/Photo%2525202012-04-03%2525204%25253A29%252520AM.jpg" target="_blank" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-mAMEgUxbLss/T4mEoBUR51I/AAAAAAAAAFY/DtVKFVU_hwk/s500/Photo%2525202012-04-03%2525204%25253A29%252520AM.jpg" id="blogsy-1334463595862.0422" class="aligncenter" alt="" width="500" height="334"></a></div><p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">Look closely. Yup, that is a scorpion which Laura found in her towel. She quickly dealt with it. It did leave a beautiful corpse though, as you can see.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-bk52a5BkvzU/T4mEEC6JvkI/AAAAAAAAAEo/k7P_4tbGK6c/s500/Photo%2525202012-04-04%25252012%25253A05%252520AM.jpg" target="_blank" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;" title=""><img src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-bk52a5BkvzU/T4mEEC6JvkI/AAAAAAAAAEo/k7P_4tbGK6c/s500/Photo%2525202012-04-04%25252012%25253A05%252520AM.jpg" id="blogsy-1334463595805.8157" class="aligncenter" alt="" width="500" height="334"></a></div><p> </p><p> </p>LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16521257848545218855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69545608674553756.post-73120368966067774312012-03-22T03:01:00.001-07:002012-03-25T08:15:41.590-07:00VietnamWe have fallen really far behind on our blogging but have been busy enjoying vietnam, can you blame us ? To catch up I'll try to provide a brief summary of what we have gotten up to.<br />
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HANOI: <br />
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The weather was unexpectedly cold but we had an incredible home, that was of French colonial design, with 12 foot high ceilings and collumns in the room. We had a few lazy days of wandering the city and enjoyed a lot of pho. There is a fast food joint called pho24 and it is delicious some of the best soup I have ever tasted. Pho Bo is Addicting. Meg, Ryland and I went to a local joint where a lovely couple a dutch baker and his Vietnamese wife gave us the low down on what's what and what to order so we ended up sharing some tasty dishes. We went to the war museum where they glorified war Heros. <br />
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Cat Ba:<br />
We booked a boat to Catba island in Ha Long Bay. We planned on staying two nights. We expected the boat to be direct but it ahahhaha we ended up on a tour boat but we weren't allowed to sit inside because people that where on the boat where staying overnight so they sat inside and we sat up stairs on the deck in the freezing cold. The scenery was beautiful, we stopped to go in a cave that was really impressive! Ryland had a major cold/ fever so stayed in bed. We stayed in a little harbor town and it was really rainy like prince rupert. I explored the town it was really tiny but nice to walk around in but there wasn't much to do because the weather was so bad. <br />
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Ninh binh:<br />
We arrived around 10pm on this dreary looking street everything was closed up, it was raining and there was no taxis anywhere. The only thing open was a sketchy hotel but we had already booked a guest house that was outside of town so we had an interesting time trying to explain to the receptionist that we needed a mode of transportation. Ninh binh was excellent for a real cultural experience. We went trekking at phuong national park. It was really wet and slippery so it was more challenging but a lot of fun. We then went to a primate rescue center that was attached to the park; there was a 140 primates that the centre rescues. We walked into town and there was a huge soccer stadium that was falling apart. The town was empty you barley saw people when you where out, it was if we where walking through constantinople. We came across a restaurant that was busy and stopped in for some soup. Immediately everyone put down what they were eating and just stared at us. This one lady yelled at us for coming in, and everyone watched us eat, foreigners were not welcome.<br />
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<br />
Hue <br />
We took a sleeper bus from Ninh binh and I had to sleep beside a Russian family and the man kept rolling over and sleeping on me. There was no<br />
Bathroom on this bus ( this is typical no<br />
Bathroom for 12 hours) our driver had no intention of stopping but we got a<br />
Flat tire around 2am thank you!!! We all got to relieve ourselves on the side of the road ( I am not above popping a squat in public; when you have to go, you have to go. I spent the rest of the night trying to keep the Russians out of Canadian territory. We had a short stay in hue just one night. We celebrated the half way mark with food sampling around the world. We met a group of men in there sixties from south Africa that were on an 18 day cycling trip, they had a lot of advice for travelling and a bundle of laughs. <br />
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Hoi An:<br />
We needed to be spoiled a bit, so we stayed in slightly nicer accommodations. Our first night we went to the mermaid for dinner, it is the first restaurant to open in hoi an in 1991. The woman who opened the restaurant needed a way to support her family, she now owns 4 restaurants in total. All of which are very tasty. Ryland tried his first hot pot soup. We went to cargo for desert and shared a chocolate mouse cake- was AMAZING, a taste sensation if you will. It cost 2$. The next day we went to the spa and both had massages and pedicures for 40$ grand total. It was well worth it. In the afternoon we rented bikes and stopped at a deli, picked up some meat and a baguette and headed to the beach for the afternoon. Before you get to the beach there is a parking lot for your bicycle and it costs 50 cents. It's actually brilliant, you get a ticket and then you do not have to worry about someone stealing your bike. We spent the next three days riding bikes to the beach and eating. Hoi an is a quant town that has all colonial buildings with cobble streets. It's beautiful with a large river running through it and the street lights are all lanterns. <br />
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<br />
Mue Ni:<br />
We took an over night bus to Na Trang, we got on the bus at 530. Spent the first hour heading north to danang we stopped to pick up cargo and locals so all our bags were moved into the bus to make room for this cargo. The bus driver locked bags in the bathroom and the rest laid in the aisles. Some people were unable to get out of there seats because they were covered in luggage. We both had top bunks which was great because the locals had to sit in the aisles and were sleeping over top of all the other bags. It looked uncomfortable for everyone. We arrived in Na Trang around 630am and caught a bus to MuE Ni at 7am arriving around 2pm. The first two nights we stayed out of town away from the main strip the beach wasn't as nice and there was a strange awkward silence, everyone kept asking us if we were staying at the guesthouse when we clearly where. At this point in the trip we realized that maybe the writers of lonely planet haven't actually been to any of these places and they just googled it. We went into town for dinner and had some amazing Indian food, Ganesh which is a chain. I ordered us lamb samosas, butter chicken, vegetable jalrazzi and some garlic nan bread. It was delicious! We went back two more times!! We walked back to our guesthouse it was 7 km and actually took a lot longer than expected so we had to stop to quench our thirst at POGO; I had the best gin and tonic. Next day we bikes 14 km to find ourselves a new place to stay that was in town. We ended up at a place called the small garden, we got a bungalow that was five steps away from the beach. The beach in town was beautiful fine sand and the water was packed with hundreds of<br />
Kite surfers. We spent the next four days in the waves and reading our books. The waves were over rylands head and basically would spit you out. It was our favorite place in vietnam.<br />
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<br />
Saigon :<br />
<br />
We ended up arriving in Saigon around 730 on march 15 and ran into meg and Aron with a huge group of people and all stayed in the same room; there was 9 of us. The first morning we went to Chi's cafe and found the most tasteful BLT with avocado. It was note worthy that's why I mention it. We went to the military market; this massive indoor market with so many rats( the size of cats). That afternoon we went to the war museum, it was "heavy" to say the least. Three floors containing galleries of photos of the ill treatement of soldiers and civilians. One gallery was dedicated to demonstrating the effects of agent orange it made my stomach turn. There was a mock prison that was rather disturbing and a list of torture techniques; such as the tiger cage which was a barb wire cage that was half the size of a deep freezer and held 5-7 men at a time. St Patrick's day we went to the cu chi tunnels. We order a 16 person bus for 8 of us and had a private tour guide. He taught us a ridiculous amount about Vietnam such as when you buy a car here you pay 200% tax. At the tunnels we all got to try fitting into<br />
An opening the pictures of Ryland in the small space is hilarious (we can't post photos at the moment ) . We had the opportunity to crawl 100m within the tunnels but as our guide, frank the tank said they have been enlarged for KFC bodies. It was so hot and sweaty my legs were throbbing days afterwards. Rylands hips almost got stuck in the tunnels. The original tunnels have been closed for 40 years. I couldn't imagine living in one for 20 years let alone having a baby in one. I spent 8mins in one and that was enough for<br />
Me. We were able to get into the spirt of st pattys day by watching a rugby match Ireland vs England . We also went to the reunification palace it was nothing to write home about it looks like the 70s inside and out. And that pretty much wraps up our trip to<br />
Vietnam.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHGBrMzVZ0uL8ssVqE0-F7LMuUYk4wep_g6WWK1sx41HRukcTYUd6GGldiRWkk6GvAJKdCl8ycBeAeLx8-vHRqt9QT7RI9VFtDZsfEKLqc6dNwQCh-MreEr5XxCGZjmZsWIFbwvdfaqQ/s1600/IMG_0801.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgHGBrMzVZ0uL8ssVqE0-F7LMuUYk4wep_g6WWK1sx41HRukcTYUd6GGldiRWkk6GvAJKdCl8ycBeAeLx8-vHRqt9QT7RI9VFtDZsfEKLqc6dNwQCh-MreEr5XxCGZjmZsWIFbwvdfaqQ/s1600/IMG_0801.JPG" /></a></div>LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16521257848545218855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69545608674553756.post-84594546326960800772012-03-03T22:28:00.001-08:002012-03-25T07:19:08.409-07:0028 hours later: back in the USSRFebuary 25-26 was spent travelling. Our flight to Hanoi was from bangkok. So we look a bus up that boarder, spent 3 hours in 45 degrees waiting To go through customs. Sat in the back of a pick up truck, took a mini bus, took a taxi and finally 12 hours later we were at the bangkok airport! Then the waiting game begins, I had a<br />
Lovely nap on a bench in the airport and I am being sincere it was great I slept from 2am until 430 woke up and went through customs, security etc had breakfast around 530am loaded the plane at 630am and had an extra seat to myself. Arrived in Hanoi at 830am. While we where boarding the plane I noticed everyone was wearing winter jackets- are you kidding me it's southeast Asia, i checked the weather is 20 that's warm. Kid you not its freezing. Never go from 45c to 14c it is not fun I felt like I was in Canada even in my pants, sweater and jacket I was freezing!! While waiting around for our baggage, you may notice Karl Marx and Lenin skipping around holding hands. I'm pretty sure I've seen them skipping down the streets of Hanoi. No word of a lie communism is alive and well in Vietnam and we totally forgot.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUE1nl6RZKE2VK1LXqxE9zujQw-iOExkeF5ZgBuuajAreBoL2dYY-Js1EQj15QSxGVyVErXZPwAJIYgx0NB2k7xlDs5_L4BmYR2MAIf2wv2f5XxZEGSBC0NHjOc749VEUKqyCPpTvNLQ/s1600/IMG_0100.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUE1nl6RZKE2VK1LXqxE9zujQw-iOExkeF5ZgBuuajAreBoL2dYY-Js1EQj15QSxGVyVErXZPwAJIYgx0NB2k7xlDs5_L4BmYR2MAIf2wv2f5XxZEGSBC0NHjOc749VEUKqyCPpTvNLQ/s1600/IMG_0100.JPG" /></a></div>LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16521257848545218855noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69545608674553756.post-69349617725171824122012-03-03T22:16:00.000-08:002012-03-03T22:16:16.024-08:00Siem reap continuedWe spent one more day "templing"! We hiked to Kbal Spean waterfalls, it was Suppose to take 45 min, we did it in 20. The waterfall was nice but since it was dry season there wasn't much of a flow but you could see under the water various carvings in the rocks. After the waterfall we went to banteay sery temple, it was suppose to be the best preserved temple it was very tiny and packed with tourists. An in and out kind of temple. Next was the landmine museum, I believe it was featured in the January addition of national geographic- that's how I knew about it. The owner of the museum at the age of five was forced to defuse landmines of the enemy (the USA ). Now he works for the UN and still is working to make Cambodia land mine free. This museum supports children, it an orphanage lash school for children that have been affected by landmines. My description doesn't do it any justice but it was fascinating and supports a good cause. We then completed the gran circuit. <div><br />
</div><div>The next thing on the list was to head to the artisan d'angkor where we had a free tour of a silk farm. Which was awesome! The worms in Cambodia are yellow unlike the Chinese silk worms that are white. The worm only eats malberry leaves. They feed in leaves for24 days and then get yellow and fat. Once they are yellow like make a cacoon which only takes 5 days. The workers kill 80% of the cacoons leaving the 20% for breeding. I could go on and on about the process but I'll skip ahead. The silk spinners are trained for six months and then pick a pattern that they will make for the rest of their career. It takes four days to make a two meter scarf.<br />
<br />
Our last day we hit the museums. First was the war museum we arrived and an ex-soldier was our tour guide. He lost his family when he was 12 to landmines; his father collected the mines for their metal and basically one exploded killing his parents and two sisters. At 14 he enrolled in the Vietnam army in order to feed himself. When he was 17 a claymore landmine blew his arm off. All the good doctors had been killed so they had to saw the limb off without pain killers or anticeptic however they did use some coconut water- I'm not sure how beneficial the use of coconut water is. Every four years when the bone grew he would have to have it sawed off again. Kuan is now 34 and he is very happy his bone has stopped growing. I am telling you this story not only to illustrate the horrors of war but to demonstrate how powerful the impact of this museums story is. Around the museum there are shelves of guns that where used, originally left over from the Russians. You were able to pick them up and to imagine a child holding these heavy guns is disturbing to say the least. Kuan explained the beginning of Vietnam war and Cambodian civil war light hearted with a simple smile and a laugh; for a refresher to your memory this is what he told us; president Nixon wanted to make a base in Cambodia the king said no because he's friends with the viet kong but the PM said yes thus began civil war. President Nixon wanted to find the king but he went into hiding so Nixon bombed the ho chi mon trail but still he could not find the king. The king was hiding under ground with the kong. So Nixon grew very angry and used napel spray the red killing spray but still no<br />
Luck. Humourous- I think not. Also at the museum there had been a mass grave with over 30 bodies, and so no one goes to the museum at night because of the ghosts. Also in some of the tanks the Khmer rouge would lock tank crews and generals in so they wouldn't escape and in one case they founda tank with human remains. We walked through a land mine field, it's a lot more tricky than it looks, we both go<br />
To try stepping on land mines. We made a donation, the donation goes to supporting fifty families. We left shocked and overwhelmed. Then headed to the national museum which is more of a money grab, very repetitive and not worth it. You can easily learn anything from that museum in an Angkor wat information book sold at the temples for 1$. <br />
<br />
Our last night there we ended uP playing trivia with an older gentlemen from Hawaii, a pro tennis player and a couple from somewhere. That was our team and we tied for first against six other teams. All proceeds went to a local charity. Ryland got a hair cut for 2$ and said it was the best haircut he has ever had. We had some amazing Indian food- we ha to sit outside with a bus driver and a tour guide because the restaurant was packed with about 50 people travelling from India so you know the food was good!!! We tried to post photos but have had some technical difficultly as the card reader we purchased reformatted our memory card and made it useless. I am not having the best of luck with technology this trip. <br />
LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16521257848545218855noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69545608674553756.post-54424042522347037542012-02-26T21:56:00.001-08:002012-02-26T22:44:20.809-08:00Vibol: Wat gate keeper- aka best Tuk Tuk driver ever!We arrived at Siem Reap Rooms and were immediately impressed. It was all wood interior and ceramic tile floor and the rooms were big, nice, clean and bug free. There was also a rooftop patio/lounge that had a dip pool. It's run by a Canadian couple, who gave us the run down on things to see and do, expected prices etc, very helpful. Our first day we did nothing except walk around town and do a little shopping. We bought some paintings, some leather things that are very intricate and neat but I can't really explain what they are to you all right now. I got a book for four dollars because I traded one in and I bought another book from an amputee. We had some delicious Mexican food and great Khmer food at a place called the Khmer kitchen. The next day we would start our Wat tour.<br />
<div><br />
</div><div>Feb. 19th- Templing</div><div>We had an early start, 430am- to be at angkor wat for sunrise. Vibol picked us up from our guest house. It was a short but brisk tuk-tuk drive to the main entry gates, we bought a 3 day temple pass for 40$. They snap a photo of you at 5am in the morning looking our best (greasy bed head) and print off a paper pass. Then headed to Angkor Wat, the biggest temple, with a moat that is 1.3 km by 1.5km. There is a long walk to where the temple actually is through some large beautifully designed gates. Then sat around a large pond waiting for the sun, sunrise actually doesn't happen until 630am. So we sat in the dark for a while with a large crowd who immediately left after the sun was up. Angkor Wat was basically ours, maybe 10 other people were roaming around it. When we exited Angkor Wat there where monkeys everywhere!!! Then had to locate Vibol so we could start the 'Mini-circuit'. </div><div><br />
</div><div>Our next temple was Angkor Thom, which was actually a city. It was created between 1113-1150. The city had a population of a million people, at this time London only had 50,000 people. The city included 7 temples in all. The first one that we visited was Bayon. Bayon is a temple with all the faces on it, as well as two libraries. Then to Baphuon which is fairly large. Ryland did some climbing, always climbing staircases that aren't open to the public or functional. The other temples were called Ta Phron, Banteay, Kdei and Prasat. . We spent 5 hours exploring the mini-circuit and headed for a lunch break before going back for the sunset.</div><div>We checked into the Dancing Gecko, since Siem Reap Rooms was full. It was a standard guest house.We headed back out to the temples around 4PM to go to Pre Rup Temple which is the less busy temple for sunset. My camera decided to break right before the sun began to set, bummer but the sunset wasn't that amazing anyway. Meg made friends with a bunch of ladies from a Japanese tour group and together they attempted to blow away the clouds. After a long 12 hour day of templing, we headed back for some grub. We went to Khmer House Restaurant and I had the most amazing mango salad. </div><div><br />
</div><div>Feb 20th. Vibol picked us up at 830am as we where heading to Beng Mealea. This temple has been left to the elements, it is covered in vines, trees and cob webs. It was a two hour tuk-tuk drive, Vibol bought us masks to wear because it was so dusty along these very long dirt country roads. As we were driving, kids everywhere were yelling Hello and chasing the tuk-tuk. We passed many water buffalo that look like a rino-cow. We didn't see many other tuk-tuks until one came out of no where to pass us, only to turn the corner so sharply that they went right into the ditch. Vibol stopped and said that's why he drives slow and that the driver probably had never driven on this road before but the tuk-tuk was destroyed. Everyone was okay, thank goodness. Beng Mealea is an extra 5$ but is definitely worth the price. It is a glorified playground for those who love climbing and adventuring. We spent roughly two hours exploring, and could have spent 2 more, until we needed to venture back. Meg and Aron needed to catch a bus, they were heading down south to the beaches. Ryland and I weren't done 'templing' and visiting some amazing museums though.<br />
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</div>LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16521257848545218855noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69545608674553756.post-3708829949972273982012-02-26T21:18:00.000-08:002012-02-26T21:18:43.194-08:00Tall and short and short and tall and innnnn between and IN BETWEEN!So we left Krabi on the fifteenth of February to head up to Bangkok and on to Cambodia. The trip started off in a crowded mini bus (large van) that had some stinky French men on board. They desperately needed a shower. We were a little frustrated with the van because we really just wanted to take a regular bus but it wasn't to be. We got to Suraythani where we were to transfer to a larger bus, but ended up sitting there for an hour because they didn't realize how many people were travelling with them this day and had to arrange for another bus. This bus showed up and we all piled on. From the get go we did not like this bus. It didn't smell too horrible but all the blankets on the seats were kids blankets (Sponge Bob, Drangon ball Z, Looney Toons etc) but the foot rests were at an extremely uncomfortable height so it put your legs up too high and if the person in front of you put their seat back it would basically rest on your knees. This all seems trivial but after having spent almost a month in Thailand experiencing the good and the bad, we thought we had finally figured out the right questions to ask to get what we wanted: how wrong we were. The bus was uncomfortable, no one could sleep, smelly French men everywhere, some Chilean girls laughing constantly because they were watching 'How I met your Mother' ( I only mention this because I was jealous of them because I really like that show and wanted to watch it as well), and on top of all of this some very disturbing and disgusting smells were bombarding our olfactory senses and the bus driver was crazy. The smells emanating from below decks were ranging from stinky fish, to pee, poop, wet dog, and pad thai. Strange, I know. The ride was supposed to take about 6 hours or so and we were all just trying to persevere and get through this ordeal when all of a sudden the front left tire on the bus popped with a loud bang! Laura was sitting beside me and grabbed my arm so hard I thought she was going to crush it. The driver luckily was good and had the bus under control and drove over to the side of the road. But, they didn't let us out right away and the bus started to fill up with putrid burnt rubber smell and smoke, so some passengers got off and opened the side door for us all to get off ( the Chilean girls were quite thankful because they were really starting to panic and bang on the glass and talk really really fast spanish). Luckily though, buses pulled over and allowed all of us passengers to get on for the rest of the trip to Bangkok, which turned out to be on 45 minutes away. So, we arrived in Bangkok in one piece and very disappointed in the Thai buses and made our next move to Cambodia.<br />
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We booked another mini bus (van, urgh!) to take us to the border and then arranged for a taxi to take us from the border to Siem Reap. The drive to the border was uneventful other than good cup of soup and Meg making a friend with a German from frankfurt. We arrived at a place a few kilometres from the border and filled out our visa information and gave up our passports to "Mr. Border" (seriously, that was the name he gave me, and I asked him twice what his name was) which we didn't really like and waited a few minutes. Then we got back on the mini bus and headed to the Cambodian consulate where the visas were processed and then on to the border. The border town on the Thai side was full of markets, I imagined that it looks quite similar to Tijuana. We walked through the Thai departure check and then onto the Cambodian immigration arrivals while passing through 'No Man's Land' that was filled with Casinos and Cigarette and Liquor stands (it was like Niagra Falls meets Asia minus any stunning scenery). Cambodian immigration was a breeze and we gathered our group together and got on another bus that would take us all to our taxi. We arrived at another bus station and got our taxi that was a 93 Toyota Camry LE. I know it was a 93 cause Mom has the 92 LE CE ( that means 6 cylinder, no big deal). Also another funny note about this, our taxi driver was the Cambodian twin of Brian Shelley, no joke! He was the same height, had the same shape, same haircut, laugh, body language and smile. It was crazy. I almost called him Brian a couple times (for those who don't know who Brian Shelley is he is the GM of camping for the YMCA of Simcoe/Muskoka and has been involved with Kitchi for a long time); he called me big hairy English man and pulled my arm hair and laughed hysterically. The country side on the way to Siem Reap was pretty much flat farm land for as far as you could see and very bright red dirt everywhere. The trip took 2 hours to Siem Reap and we were very relieved to arrive at our highly recommended guest house Siem Reap Rooms. SUCCESS!LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16521257848545218855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69545608674553756.post-32990226148055919032012-02-24T01:18:00.000-08:002012-02-24T01:18:56.860-08:00KrabiFebruary 9th. We left Koh Tao and headed to the docks at Chumpon and onward to a bus to the town of Krabi. It was a fairly uneventful journey but we did see an elephant on the side of the road and we took a large van and not a bus. Other than that though, smooth sailing and we found a HOTEL room in Krabi (The Grand Tower!) for only 350 Baat, a steal of a deal. The room boasted a great view of the karst topography along the river and a golden temple perched on a hill in the distance. Krabi is a nice little town that has some very good eats and some interesting things to check out, but it is mainly a gate way to Rai Lai beach and Koh Phi Phi. On a side note, in Thai the way you pronounce Koh Phi Phi is Go Pee Pee. HA! We had a meal at the night food market which was decent the first night, except Laura's meal never materialized and Aron found some delicious Chinese doughnuts. We decided to spend one more day in Krabi to do a four Island tour and then head to Go Pee Pee. The four island tour was nice but it was one of those things where you go to a place get off take a picture get back on go somewhere else and repeat. This was a little disappointing considering the idyllic surroundings. The first Island we visited was Koh Tup and then Chicken Island. These island are actually sort of attached by a sand bar which we waded across and then got kind of stuck because the tide had come up so we had to partially swim back. Oops. Well, I had to swim half way, and the girls swam the whole way. Ha, take that shorties. I also felt like a champ because I had a fully waterproof bag and people were struggling with holding their bags over their heads. We did some snorkeling around Chicken Island and then headed to another island that had some monkey on it. Unfortunately people were throwing stuff at the monkeys for them to catch and it was kinda sad. The last place we stopped was a mainland beach with a Buddha shrine in a cave. By the end we were all pretty tired of the tour as well as slightly crispy from sun exposure. We retreated to the hotel for some naps and aloe vera. We had dinner at a local spot (local because we were the only pale faced round eyes), Dee Dom, which was very tasty and we bought enough beers, 4, to get a free bag and our picture taken! Hooray! On our way home we watched the tail end of the Man U vs Liverpool futbol match on a big screen that was just on the street and all the locals were watching it, which was fun. We then meandered to a place called Bolero cafe where a band was playing and they were pretty darn good. They played some great oldies rock and the guitar player was a monster and the bass player was not bad either. Laura and Meg assisted the lead singer in a rousing rendition of pretty woman. After all this activity we still managed to make it to bed by 11pm and get ready to head to Koh Phi Phi the following day.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg565vdCH12yVKe7-hIwhjhtdKE8O35aBr9CXYnqGaeELNCbpPMEwdNE_bJsTfEJ5H-XOC92jdF_tOg3nU4BB7tSUL06wVFeFaNPK7gy3dALurcgQEehraIr8RxyFQN2vqRqTLgbx1aDA/s1600/DSC03616.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg565vdCH12yVKe7-hIwhjhtdKE8O35aBr9CXYnqGaeELNCbpPMEwdNE_bJsTfEJ5H-XOC92jdF_tOg3nU4BB7tSUL06wVFeFaNPK7gy3dALurcgQEehraIr8RxyFQN2vqRqTLgbx1aDA/s1600/DSC03616.JPG" /></a></div>LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16521257848545218855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69545608674553756.post-57531127128860034792012-02-21T07:02:00.002-08:002012-02-26T22:27:09.589-08:00Koh phi phiSo we are having trouble finding a computer that will upload our photos and well Internet in general. Right now we are in Cambodia and having been busy enjoying all the sites... We try to to catch up with our blogging... <br />
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We caught the early ferry to koh phi phi on feb 12 then took a long tail boat to the long beach it had beautiful places to stay... We stayed where an America couple told aron and meg to stay it was a gloried tin can Ahaha but in our price range- hmm sorta. I felt like I was at camp again. The rest of the day we hung out at the beach. We saw some heat lightening at night which was cool. The next day we did an island tour. We shared a long tailed boat with a family from the Czech republic they were hilarious. The first stop we went wad bamboo island for some snorkeling- I was sunburnt from krabi so ryland lent me his rash guard thank goodness because there was jelly fish everywhere. The snorkeling was unreal but ryland got stung twice on his arm and meg six times. I apparently kicked one but never got stung. We went into some rock coves and then to monkey island for lunch and had some really good pad thai on the beach there was thousands of tiny jelly fish so we couldn't go swimming. Our tour took us to maya bay, Vikings cave and other places that the "beach" was filmed. After we returned from our tour I took a shower... It wasn't until after I finished I realized I had just showered with a friend- the biggest cockroach I had ever seen. There was a group of monkeys outside our<br />
Room and we tried to feed them the cockroach but apparently even monkeys have standards. So we headed to dinner I apparently ate some bad mushrooms. Litterally cause I was up puking the whole night from the mushroom cashew nut stir fry. I was unbelievably sick- I felt so messed up , it took a few days before I started feeling normal again.<br />
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The next day which we all forgot about was valentines day- the island was fully booked so we took a ferry back to krabi and I slept off my sickness and wrote post cards but I had some amazing food. But I am off mushrooms for a while, which is too bad because they are really good in stir fry.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGF2KLYUyfOac2_naW3hVXTQC6m7qM-0EPa3RdcMWjaxVaSs1gcEB47vkBbLS6hHHJ14kzzOzeG8s-qkxCNSjP5lFAQdQbz4XvHypkXPdjLd2sAlH1sV89-URV1m0fGZKWrwAxc-Dprw/s1600/DSC03756.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGF2KLYUyfOac2_naW3hVXTQC6m7qM-0EPa3RdcMWjaxVaSs1gcEB47vkBbLS6hHHJ14kzzOzeG8s-qkxCNSjP5lFAQdQbz4XvHypkXPdjLd2sAlH1sV89-URV1m0fGZKWrwAxc-Dprw/s320/DSC03756.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16521257848545218855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69545608674553756.post-39845601776916049412012-02-16T04:14:00.001-08:002012-02-16T04:14:53.179-08:00KrabiFebruary 9th. We left Koh Tao and headed to the docks at Chumpon and onward to a bus to the town of Krabi. It was a fairly uneventful journey but we did see an elephant on the side of the road and we took a large van and not a bus. Other than that though, smooth sailing and we found a HOTEL room in Krabi (The Grand Tower!) for only 350 Baat, a steal of a deal. The room boasted a great view of the karst topography along the river and a golden temple perched on a hill in the distance. Krabi is a nice little town that has some very good eats and some interesting things to check out, but it is mainly a gate way to Rai Lai beach and Koh Phi Phi. On a side note, in Thai the way you pronounce Koh Phi Phi is Go Pee Pee. HA! We had a meal at the night food market which was decent the first night, except Laura's meal never materialized and Aron found some delicious Chinese doughnuts. We decided to spend one more day in Krabi to do a four Island tour and then head to Go Pee Pee. The four island tour was nice but it was one of those things where you go to a place get off take a picture get back on go somewhere else and repeat. This was a little disappointing considering the idyllic surroundings. The first Island we visited was Koh Tup and then Chicken Island. These island are actually sort of attached by a sand bar which we waded across and then got kind of stuck because the tide had come up so we had to partially swim back. Oops. Well, I had to swim half way, and the girls swam the whole way. Ha, take that shorties. I also felt like a champ because I had a fully waterproof bag and people were struggling with holding their bags over their heads. We did some snorkeling around Chicken Island and then headed to another island that had some monkey on it. Unfortunately people were throwing stuff at the monkeys for them to catch and it was kinda sad. The last place we stopped was a mainland beach with a Buddha shrine in a cave. By the end we were all pretty tired of the tour as well as slightly crispy from sun exposure. We retreated to the hotel for some naps and aloe vera. We had dinner at a local spot (local because we were the only pale faced round eyes), Dee Dom, which was very tasty and we bought enough beers, 4, to get a free bag and our picture taken! Hooray! On our way home we watched the tail end of the Man U vs Liverpool futbol match on a big screen that was just on the street and all the locals were watching it, which was fun. We then meandered to a place called Bolero cafe where a band was playing and they were pretty darn good. They played some great oldies rock and the guitar player was a monster and the bass player was not bad either. Laura and Meg assisted the lead singer in a rousing rendition of pretty woman. After all this activity we still managed to make it to bed by 11pm and get ready to head to Koh Phi Phi the following day.LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16521257848545218855noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69545608674553756.post-60947472009016236152012-02-16T03:47:00.001-08:002012-02-24T01:10:51.480-08:00Full Moon PartyFeb. 7th, We had just finished up our scuba course and to celebrate what better way than a once in a life time party experience; we decided to head to Koh Phangang for the full moon party. So we started as a group of 8; the majority of our scuba group came with us. We arrived at the island just in time for the beginning of party mode with neon shorts- tee shirts I felt like I was at a predrink for a tight and bright party. We all laughed at everyone in these bright colourful outfits saying we would never submit to buying one... Little did we know that within two hours of having dinner we were all decked out in bright tee shirts. Ry bought these bright pink short shorts that matched the ones meg was rocking. Soon enough we found that we were painting ourselves in glow in the dark paint as well. It was time to knock back a few buckets to get grooving. What left to do but hit the beach. <br />
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"The Split" It was early in the night and as a group of 8 we met up with our friends friends... our group of 8 became a group of 15. It is not easy for a group of 15 people to stick together in a small area of potentially 30,000 people. We made a plan, you had a buddy, if you got separated you were to meet at the ferry for 830am, and we were to stay in front of cactus bar for the whole night. By 10pm we were down to 7, by midnight we were a lonely wolf-pack of 4. Meg and I went to the bathroom and to buy a drink and when we came back Aron had disappeared, she gone off to help some random guy but was with Pien ( our friend from the Netherlands). Ryland refused to let meg and I out of his sight for the rest of the night. Basically it was a wild party of pumping music, and I wasn't sure if I was over the scene or what but by 3am "I felt like the party had crapped on my soul"- Ry. Ryland was very disgusted at the garbage that littered the beach and was washing into the ocean... no one seemed to care- this is not your bed room, learn to pick up after yourself. We had enough and by 4am we took a taxi back to the ferry and slept between what looked like a monk (turned out to be a tourist) and some locals underneath a beach side veranda. We woke up at 6am with maybe two minutes of sleep and wandered to find food. We ran into stefan (one of the guys we were with at the beginning of the night) and he filled us in on the where abouts of Aron.- Apparently Pien had a bunch of seizures and was in the hospital in Koh Samui. So we returned to Koh Tao with 5 out of 8- apparently that is pretty great odds to come back with for a full moon party says the scuba instructors. We got in contacted with Aron, she was able to come back the next day and we planned to go to Krabi and Koh Phi Phi for the last bit of our Thailand visit.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSyZEkaCFZCMBDzH8Xy9zufWa9Y_6-rIB3QzBM75bYxFP9XsBeMynEru5ZqQMEon9ifYvq6kt_ETpB10U4dOUoAyuBtfSst_ih5-XJK7-wRkQmTMt8jx7GETFrgaJD8hRN4KBLHznNqg/s1600/DSC03591.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSyZEkaCFZCMBDzH8Xy9zufWa9Y_6-rIB3QzBM75bYxFP9XsBeMynEru5ZqQMEon9ifYvq6kt_ETpB10U4dOUoAyuBtfSst_ih5-XJK7-wRkQmTMt8jx7GETFrgaJD8hRN4KBLHznNqg/s320/DSC03591.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16521257848545218855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69545608674553756.post-73106466285406653042012-02-11T17:06:00.000-08:002012-02-11T17:06:37.633-08:00Just an update... We have tried to post a few times but the Internet/ computers in krabi are pretty much useless. Sorry about the delay but we will have some blogs posted once we leave here. We are heading off to koh phi phi today and then we plan to make the long trek via bus to Cambodia.LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16521257848545218855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69545608674553756.post-182767725374969802012-02-06T20:43:00.000-08:002012-02-06T20:43:44.580-08:00Koh Tao and hidden gems<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4UTBRJK2K-0f8E6ZMdz8kxtzIjC9JLvsfZAtqq4eY0Uv8MEzovw6l11B2r-J1Q4vo1BlGaw8WbwYnBc4jzrzyqK7Bjn5yiZfgucR1OV6cvokkbAZs_UUn-uotG4z0vy7wkuJqctWu-w/s1600/DSC03490.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4UTBRJK2K-0f8E6ZMdz8kxtzIjC9JLvsfZAtqq4eY0Uv8MEzovw6l11B2r-J1Q4vo1BlGaw8WbwYnBc4jzrzyqK7Bjn5yiZfgucR1OV6cvokkbAZs_UUn-uotG4z0vy7wkuJqctWu-w/s320/DSC03490.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5Ur5HmL4v88yxhJMBuWbOJcjBHFFZK-L95jh5GExh62kntlQ8-XqwnUw2o3jV25egZ7dB8UtWhGRUxMDneBKl-gOnt_i9PRj_J1wVRT1axNTA3SPo9ozHU3IdCid9YZDce4T14CFFOA/s1600/DSC03512.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg5Ur5HmL4v88yxhJMBuWbOJcjBHFFZK-L95jh5GExh62kntlQ8-XqwnUw2o3jV25egZ7dB8UtWhGRUxMDneBKl-gOnt_i9PRj_J1wVRT1axNTA3SPo9ozHU3IdCid9YZDce4T14CFFOA/s320/DSC03512.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>So as of today, February 7 2012 Laura, Meg and Aron are Open Water Divers and I am an Advanced diver. We have had 3 days of diving in the warm gorgeous water around Koh Tao. Although I am slightly jealous of the girls because it seems like they had better visibility on their dives then on mine and Im feeling a little lighter in the wallet after some extra hidden costs on my course. All in all it was good though. I did a night dive and a deep dive which were pretty good.<br />
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The Open Water Course had some skills the first day and we learnt a lot did a 9m dive. The next day we went to Twins and Japanese Gardens Dive spots for two 12m dives for 45 min each. Saw some amazing fish, coral grouper, blue-spotted sting ray, white eyed moray eel etc. The third day was the best with a 630am start we headed to Chumpon, my tank was outta air but I caught that as I was getting my equipment ready, we dove to 18m, although the depth of the site goes to 40m. Me and Meg felt a bit sea sick after the first dive as the boat was really rocking. We then went to White Rock. During our Surface Interval Time we had some tea and played ninja and jumped off the top of the boat for fun. Then dove to 14 m and did some fun skills that are all caught on video. The rest of the afternoon we spent on the beach reading, then we celebrated our course with some beers and watching our video... now off heading to a full moon party!!!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7U-EP0XiiFel4ydWJ_-aCA-pqoneDlm_4lIKuz-Cems5hPCucSdBwaGAQemyJAo2TSW5mKvIVZjElUFvlbn7e7iEbEst3EBB_iu4y0LILSY_kETe1NnwtRYAXO8XQ2ujlYZHTyj-0Vg/s1600/IMGP0177.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7U-EP0XiiFel4ydWJ_-aCA-pqoneDlm_4lIKuz-Cems5hPCucSdBwaGAQemyJAo2TSW5mKvIVZjElUFvlbn7e7iEbEst3EBB_iu4y0LILSY_kETe1NnwtRYAXO8XQ2ujlYZHTyj-0Vg/s320/IMGP0177.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16521257848545218855noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69545608674553756.post-21583862341932790392012-02-06T20:29:00.000-08:002012-02-06T20:29:20.727-08:00Big Budda Big Budda Big Budda, OH BIG BUDDAWhere do we start, so much has happened after our last blog post! We stay a few more days in Chiang Mai. Then left via BUS, trying to mix it up a bit. The bus ride was much better than the train despite some smokiness and seat mate squabbles. We knew we were back in Bangkok when at 6am you are already being harrassed into taxi and tuk-tuks. We then went to drop off our bags at the hostel and start our adventure to the vietnam embassy for the second time. The first taxi driver had no clue where we were going, after asking for directions he pulled over to use the bathroom and then kicked us out and we walked 3km to the embassy. the visa application went smoothly and we jumped back into a cab with a sweet old lady that was driving her sons cab? She tried to charge us 200B for a 90B ride. This wasn't our first time in bangkok, we had our wits about us. She also pulled over to us the bathroom, what is with taxi's weak bladders today??? Then asked for a tip, Ry said he was too cheap and took his 10B. We relaxed and met up with Meg and Aron the next day!<br />
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When the Price is too good it probably is too good. We got on a bus at 8 in the morning after booking a bus ticket to Koh Tao. We asked the lady this goes to Koh Tao, no it goes to Koh Chang then you take a boat to Koh Tao. Well that doesn't make much sense so maybe they make a stop at chumpion before Koh Chang. Well we got on the bus, had our first stop, Ry felt like we were going the wrong way, well we were stuck in the middle of no where at a sketchy gas station so the only thing to do is ride the bus till it stops. Well we ended up in the BIG Koh Chang, not the little Koh Chang. We were across the gulf of thailand. We couldn't get a cab to take us into town so we hailed a truck/taxi at the remote port to take us to the airport. Before handing over our ferry tickets in true canadian style to another canadian who was without a ferry ticket.<br />
We arrived at the airport, which was most possibly the nicest airport in the world, hoping to sort out an inexpensive/quick way to get our trip back on track. We ended up getting a flight to Bangkok then on to Koh Samui which is the largest island in the chain of islands that Koh Tao is in. Hooray! We fixed the problem and had two amazing flights in the process. For future reference, Bangkok Airways is the best airline ever. They gave us a full dinner meal on a one hour flight. Do you hear that Air Canada?<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizv_DSTURe7ksmNlCk3HUkZhwfFknz51qgHMPZKLBxsd4ej9BoZp3_Nfd0nLAss8K0W1L-816CnAbEnmQVHtOql4nfh6RlVwfvtXODwoyKpEJ9YprX8z164oT3FmDCCVigDiMQ8OSKbg/s1600/DSC03482.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizv_DSTURe7ksmNlCk3HUkZhwfFknz51qgHMPZKLBxsd4ej9BoZp3_Nfd0nLAss8K0W1L-816CnAbEnmQVHtOql4nfh6RlVwfvtXODwoyKpEJ9YprX8z164oT3FmDCCVigDiMQ8OSKbg/s320/DSC03482.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii0VK2ktHH0erS6b3ykgcD6-hRZGZyXxuFr4ZPP1cpPjIs9PT933Rtxr1x52D1YMpz3FeWgwvxdQJk_deF4LaWFnKUndq8chYTojIYVJ-8wDvV1JbX8UmZKsf1MeeYtIE0gtGfFrUxew/s1600/DSC03470.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii0VK2ktHH0erS6b3ykgcD6-hRZGZyXxuFr4ZPP1cpPjIs9PT933Rtxr1x52D1YMpz3FeWgwvxdQJk_deF4LaWFnKUndq8chYTojIYVJ-8wDvV1JbX8UmZKsf1MeeYtIE0gtGfFrUxew/s320/DSC03470.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>The boat ride to Koh Tao was very pleasant, except for the girls being called Amercians by some trashy Limeys. We arrived in Koh Tao and immediately headed to the Big Blue resort. When we got there the girls found out that their Open Water Diver course started pretty much right away. I had time to check out the "town" and do some shopping.LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16521257848545218855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69545608674553756.post-9915048344196743852012-01-27T21:32:00.000-08:002012-01-27T21:32:05.388-08:00Doi Suthep and the King's Winter Palace (I got one of those)On the 27th we went up a nearby mountain to Doi Suthep, a very high and very famous Thai Wat. The road up was very twisty and that coupled with the exhaust from the truck we rode up in we were feeling a little ill by the time we got to the top. We arrived at the base of the temple and had to climb a long stair case to reach the Wat.<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitpARpNAe52mNpV3x26qPwENP5pDKWsG-KdVLreEky5UDtay_yrI79HJgcAfPGyVyu5RWeCwfGFS083YXb0RCBFJ_qoB31FRLvM8csUyxiH2I3fjh7Cyp_8e8uR-9RnYgFqKmt_sO4jA/s1600/IMGP0122.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitpARpNAe52mNpV3x26qPwENP5pDKWsG-KdVLreEky5UDtay_yrI79HJgcAfPGyVyu5RWeCwfGFS083YXb0RCBFJ_qoB31FRLvM8csUyxiH2I3fjh7Cyp_8e8uR-9RnYgFqKmt_sO4jA/s320/IMGP0122.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>Once we climbed the steps we were greeted with a seething throng of people foreign and local. Some have come to worship,all have come to take pictures. It is a very visually stunning place, with the intricate mosaics and all the Buddha statues. There is also a really nice view of Chiang Mai and the surrounding country side.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfFdPre5mkCf9h-8a3IyXbOmh9ugz0v_u7UxK4j5lYgdArgGblbu09fcsrvyya71uaDX0vXcOVk0fZME7j2MJgX7djt0YTGh5nQeZNop8-kUcSJ0nN6Vh1R8C3MPNA1X65Z8nKN1lBMg/s1600/IMGP0111.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfFdPre5mkCf9h-8a3IyXbOmh9ugz0v_u7UxK4j5lYgdArgGblbu09fcsrvyya71uaDX0vXcOVk0fZME7j2MJgX7djt0YTGh5nQeZNop8-kUcSJ0nN6Vh1R8C3MPNA1X65Z8nKN1lBMg/s320/IMGP0111.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTB3rPXnP0jKw0X5f6R1UamZJDlu-mE1QhyphenhyphenzqpGv9g3LwGKX64tKhHe9UP_WfU2n1N6L5uWtslKQtQ2t1qw3162zQQIntrilzqmvnuT1Z_6ooKk9MDqNPDUtAMhkfR_IbyphTNIRcMEw/s1600/IMGP0115.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="74" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTB3rPXnP0jKw0X5f6R1UamZJDlu-mE1QhyphenhyphenzqpGv9g3LwGKX64tKhHe9UP_WfU2n1N6L5uWtslKQtQ2t1qw3162zQQIntrilzqmvnuT1Z_6ooKk9MDqNPDUtAMhkfR_IbyphTNIRcMEw/s320/IMGP0115.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>After the Wat we went farther uphill to the Kings Winter Palace. A very modest and humble dwelling, not! It sat on the highest point of the hill, higher than Wat and consisted of many large and medium sized buildings and a very large and fancy garden that was tended by an army or military gardeners. No joke! They were all wearing army fatigues and carrying watering jugs. The place was guarded better than Fort Knox. Here are a couple of pics.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl2PBQXPl8onTr-Zh9-yCXFyPH7nfDTXsWHk8SD2GnTP4XQBGnzqmS2qOU5lw74wtSj_33__Kdpd9-PuBarlhl4tU-FNMUTzO7RRT-ABsXLk2JvRB4hFKO-X5oc9Dpk301FwiMO7rCOQ/s1600/DSC03279.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjl2PBQXPl8onTr-Zh9-yCXFyPH7nfDTXsWHk8SD2GnTP4XQBGnzqmS2qOU5lw74wtSj_33__Kdpd9-PuBarlhl4tU-FNMUTzO7RRT-ABsXLk2JvRB4hFKO-X5oc9Dpk301FwiMO7rCOQ/s320/DSC03279.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>We arrived in Chiang Mai just in time for the last night of Chinese New Years, Ryland got in the spirit of things and received noise makers which he used to their full potential to say the least. We watched the crowning of Miss Chiang Mai. The celebration wasn't as crazy as in Bangkok; three people died after fire works fell over and shot a near by buildings causing a large firer. We were exhausted from our 12 hour train ride and didn't last long!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA064x-VUF_QDU6K1n6Jw7kMpCTzZdaGp43qX8XSHs4lC0711KRoZR0unS-WiumGsJyeJC6niNBs00umkChaADpo1gp9jnk76RFQvA1atrJ3WjiwDnY3oXx37rZLOtjXx6ooY70KpkUw/s1600/DSC03368.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjA064x-VUF_QDU6K1n6Jw7kMpCTzZdaGp43qX8XSHs4lC0711KRoZR0unS-WiumGsJyeJC6niNBs00umkChaADpo1gp9jnk76RFQvA1atrJ3WjiwDnY3oXx37rZLOtjXx6ooY70KpkUw/s320/DSC03368.JPG" width="240" /></a></div>The next day we signed up for the Thai Farm Cooking School which was on an organic farm. Our guide/teacher Saawat was very well versed in the principles of organic farming practices which was very nice to hear. We started out at a market where they showed us what to buy and the differences between rice and curries. Then we went out to the farm and got a tour of the different plants and vegetables that they grow. Very interesting. Lemon grass, kaffir lime, thai egg plant, tumeric, several kinds of basil, long beans (pretty much a green bean just really long, like 2 feet), coriander and thai parsley that was prickly, ouch! Then we got to cooking. First we made curry paste in a mortar. It was so easy, I never knew. Then we made Tom Yum soup with shrimp, which was also ridiculously easy. The secret is the tamarind paste. The was both our favourite. Then we made chicken curry with our curry paste followed by sweet and sour chicken stir fry and finished up with mango with cocounut milk and sticky rice and spring rolls. The spring rolls were also easy to make except you need to remember to roll them super tight or they turn into an oil sponge. We finished the day stuffed from all the delicious food and returned to Chiang Mai without a thought about eating again. All this cost only 1000b which is roughly $32. Amazing!<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3WdvO6BbEsjizAV_I8uRBsH1dE20FQPv_OFMspHlAVTX37zT2fVKAs0UgTOIT4z0J5xwB2NE95g9YHWKkHmGEP_20gktJv6QHCyP6BBiigm6rqcbnieelitV0X0_gx5E4xRbgpIqPNA/s1600/DSC03378.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3WdvO6BbEsjizAV_I8uRBsH1dE20FQPv_OFMspHlAVTX37zT2fVKAs0UgTOIT4z0J5xwB2NE95g9YHWKkHmGEP_20gktJv6QHCyP6BBiigm6rqcbnieelitV0X0_gx5E4xRbgpIqPNA/s320/DSC03378.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj40vNhgHA8DZqGFBiXz-DVmu1YTf9QI47FNtjIC5ynO7zzbdaroDvK2a_iNUYkPdLTn5lUSmNhgWsfWDsPB0kdHOkE2fmPxy-NNv5NkGCanrWFP07emAF6zUoAZpEURQBYicKFwsylJQ/s1600/DSC03362.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj40vNhgHA8DZqGFBiXz-DVmu1YTf9QI47FNtjIC5ynO7zzbdaroDvK2a_iNUYkPdLTn5lUSmNhgWsfWDsPB0kdHOkE2fmPxy-NNv5NkGCanrWFP07emAF6zUoAZpEURQBYicKFwsylJQ/s320/DSC03362.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16521257848545218855noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69545608674553756.post-88269093584125687482012-01-21T19:29:00.000-08:002012-01-21T19:29:17.422-08:00Celine Dion! Numba 1!So, yesterday Laura and I decided to go for a nice leisurely walk around the immediate area of our hotel. We walked down Rambuttri road past all the annoying tuk-tuk drivers, past the delicious food carts, and down to the river. I'm not sure the exact name of the river but its the big one that runs through Bangkok and out into the Gulf of Thailand. The river doesn't contain the prettiest water but its not like we were swimming in it! It was very nice down there though and there were lots of long tail boats going up and down and we were almost able to forget that we were in a city of about 10 million. We walked up and down, stopping at a nice park and an old fort that was build in the years of King Rama 1. While checking out the fort we saw a commercial being shot for an upcoming marathon in bangkok. It held up traffic pretty bad and the motorists were going bananas. We walked back to Rambuttri and had a delicious lunch down the road from our hotel. Laura had soup this time and I was really jealous. We strolled around after lunch and made our way to Khoa San road. Big mistake. Its like Times Square meets a dumpster. Barf. So many people saying Tuk-Tuk and you buy suit, very sharp. No I don't want a ride to who knows where, and no I don't need a damn suit. Last time we go to Khoa San, that's for sure. At night we met up with the group from Dublin and talked about heading up to Chiang Mai. We bought our tickets today for the train to go up there and leave tomorrow. Now we must go because the pool is calling. Cheers!<br />
RyLChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16521257848545218855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69545608674553756.post-91010056703609862012-01-20T17:45:00.000-08:002012-01-20T17:45:13.343-08:00MissioningSo we our now on our second day in Bangkok. The city is very confusing as we try to gather our bearings. It is infused with traits that remind me of Havana. We wandered around in the morning looking for the Vietnam Embassy because our map told us it was 15 minutes away. However, after an hour of wandering and almost constant harassment from tuk-tuk drivers which we expected we got in a taxi and traveled 40 min due to heavy traffic to arrive a minute after the Embassy closed until the 31st. Bummer! So we needed some food asap! we went down the road for some Soup (for Ryland, who is on a Soup Diet) and Pad Thai and some amazing spring rolls and sipped a large Chang beer. We decided to relax for the rest of the day, pool side via roof top and read. Then since Ryland needed some sleep, we went for nap, which ended up being 5 hours long. 10pm wake up, for dinner time. We went to place down the road from the hotel that was awesome. Our server was really nice and thought that it was funny that Ry knew the thai word for chicken- gai! Then we went 1 stop over for another beer and some amazing blues music; where we met a group from Dublin who we are meeting tonight to chat about traveling to Chiang Mai. No photos yet, soon to come. Just off for some breakfast.LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16521257848545218855noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69545608674553756.post-83416011047589108152012-01-19T18:10:00.000-08:002012-01-27T21:35:49.684-08:00BangKOK<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq4eArz-XzIssJA0gdD0HxqZ1CKg4RSfjMUK45E2SoFKYY0KU2zYQDjpmuh69iCbW1IvEQYxIrDX07ZH1pgSnquN7GOT2pEwTcwBZIr_IWgMVy2obsJ4wkftoAxBF0rg9y2_uf8Xj1Gg/s1600/IMGP0090.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq4eArz-XzIssJA0gdD0HxqZ1CKg4RSfjMUK45E2SoFKYY0KU2zYQDjpmuh69iCbW1IvEQYxIrDX07ZH1pgSnquN7GOT2pEwTcwBZIr_IWgMVy2obsJ4wkftoAxBF0rg9y2_uf8Xj1Gg/s320/IMGP0090.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFnaXGJMd83rxePmcZ3tGVIY0IoFRAfXG1BxUCw2eNY0pV705asrF8iOe6x8fGxGSFbij9Hyne1tcp-UBi5WjJiqKSArhDwVKzOBrIZ9AgunJeEWbUqKFS48VOFGRkrbq8mLtJwPvCjg/s1600/IMGP0106.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiFnaXGJMd83rxePmcZ3tGVIY0IoFRAfXG1BxUCw2eNY0pV705asrF8iOe6x8fGxGSFbij9Hyne1tcp-UBi5WjJiqKSArhDwVKzOBrIZ9AgunJeEWbUqKFS48VOFGRkrbq8mLtJwPvCjg/s320/IMGP0106.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>SO we arrived safely. We had a lovely 13 hour flight from toronto to tokyo where me and ryland lucked out and had 3 seats to the two of us. we were able to stretch out, or I was at least. We had a ton of food on the plane, which felt a bit gross after doing nothing but sitting around. Then we arrived in Tokyo in an airport that looked like it came out of an old james bond movie, as we walked down some tunnel I felt like we were about to stumble upon some awesome weapons to get to our gate. The airport sadly did not have SUSHI, anywhere. Thats okay cause we settled for rice crackers soaked in spicy soy sauce. Then our flight from Tokyo was 7 hours to Bangkok. It was not as fun as the first flight, though we did have extra leg room- yay for ryland! Our dinner was an array of various things, half of which we didn't recognize. Then we got through customs, and shared a cab with a couple from Venice to Khoa san Road. Wandered around until we found our hotel and crashed, well I crashed hard. While Ryland was up listening to the "goings-on" down the hall. Now we are off to explore Bangkok and hopefully apply for our Vietnam Visa's.LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16521257848545218855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69545608674553756.post-55211567632607599612012-01-17T18:37:00.000-08:002012-01-17T18:42:40.458-08:00The night before<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAvgiu8heXbWRohLLy3iP5_IZJskzegdjQJzqmSkY4AiySZSLvUEbX3lXOrKIF41ogzF1ilKpHTtNIdnNgxC9YVnvT0-V8QIWf5U5FiYthatFzbahDDypHVkZTBu4FcdjDaG_k5P4wlQ/s1600/PC240190.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="233" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAvgiu8heXbWRohLLy3iP5_IZJskzegdjQJzqmSkY4AiySZSLvUEbX3lXOrKIF41ogzF1ilKpHTtNIdnNgxC9YVnvT0-V8QIWf5U5FiYthatFzbahDDypHVkZTBu4FcdjDaG_k5P4wlQ/s320/PC240190.JPG" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br />
</div>Twas' the night before Bangkok and all through the house, the luggage was spilling all over the couch. T- minus 14 hours until we take off from Toronto. Its a little chilly and a little snowy here in Barrie and I'm thinking about the warmth awaiting me in Thailand. Although, the weather network said it is supposed to feel like 40 degrees in Bangkok with a humidex through the roof and thunder storms to boot. Oh well, its not minus 20. Regardless, excitement abounds and we are ready as we will ever be for an Asian adventure. Booya!<br />
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LC and RJB<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPe-QMy6Mlwf8sNDAybHvdBQ2MzFbem3AD21BQHF9QMXnGcFkzMuyijB_va2etm-eun5YwhquF6sL3wLW9Atsdmm3COAK6d1cGCk5kiw5GLi8EWdmPYQoAyUlfKsTdl0nSAx3_9eH-NA/s1600/Photo+on+2012-01-17+at+21.38.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPe-QMy6Mlwf8sNDAybHvdBQ2MzFbem3AD21BQHF9QMXnGcFkzMuyijB_va2etm-eun5YwhquF6sL3wLW9Atsdmm3COAK6d1cGCk5kiw5GLi8EWdmPYQoAyUlfKsTdl0nSAx3_9eH-NA/s320/Photo+on+2012-01-17+at+21.38.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16521257848545218855noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-69545608674553756.post-35318944312433733042012-01-02T18:54:00.000-08:002012-01-02T18:54:21.444-08:00Here Comes the SunAs the winter squalls finally begin to arrive for a traditional Canadian winter, I will be off in only a matter of days...16 to be exact. Lots to do and so little time.<br />
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The game plan: Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Bali and Singapore. Our eyes may be bigger than our stomachs but we shall see how it all unfolds.<br />
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Updates coming soon...LChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16521257848545218855noreply@blogger.com2ON, Canada44.3780902 -79.70161589999997944.3250157 -79.772435899999977 44.431164700000004 -79.630795899999981