tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57426310995440451052024-03-13T19:33:03.716-07:00Vincent's RamblingsStory of a Wannabe Athlete in MontrealVincenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555327744386677155noreply@blogger.comBlogger250125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5742631099544045105.post-23992632201752706782014-07-31T11:22:00.001-07:002014-07-31T11:23:57.933-07:00Goa!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I’ve had the privilege of traveling a bit while here in India. Not as much as I would have liked but more than my coworkers so I can’t complain. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">India has a reputation of being difficult to travel in, as a tentative traveler I decided I wanted an easy destination to practice with. With this in mind, I decided the beach state of Goa was going to be my first trip. The fact that every single Indian I met recommended it for me as white traveler, this also played a role in my decision.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;">The sunset lived up to its reputation</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Goa is on the west coast of India on the Arabian Sea, roughly 600km south of Mumbai. To get there I flew Spice Jet bright and early. I arrived in Goa at around 9 am and then was faced with my least favourite task. Negotiating a drive for the 1 hour trip to Baga Beach (where people recommended I go). I managed to negotiate 900 rupee (about 16-17$) which wasn’t great, but also not terrible. The drive was nice and when we got to Baga I was obviously dragged to all the drivers friends guest houses at exorbitant prices despite the fact that I told him I was meeting people who were already at a hotel. Finally I was able to convince him that I would find my own. Then as I paid him, he “didn’t have change” which is very typical and then when I dug in my pockets and got the exact change, he inquired if I would give him a little extra for trying to help me find a place. The irony was that we had negotiated 900 but was going to give him some extra as tip, but when he tried playing tricks on me, there went his tip and he probably got less money out of the deal than if he had said nothing at all. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Take note Indian cab drivers, I tip well, but if you try and short change me, I don’t tip at all!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Since I was up at 3:30 to get to the airport I was tired. I found a nice Guest House, Francisco’s Guesthouse where I dropped my bags, got some food and then had a quick nap. One frustrating thing I’ve noticed in these rural area’s of India is that there are very frequent power shutoffs. So although I payed for an AC room, the power was off all day with the fan running off generator. The AC ended up coming back on at 8PM, but was apparently going to have another scheduled shutoff the next few days from 8-8 for tree trimming along the lines in preparation for monsoon. Waking up at 11 a sweaty mess I decided I had waited long enough before going to the beach. The beach was about 200m from the house so off I went. Being a Friday morning, the beach was fairly empty. I was told this was normal though because vacation season was over. Come next week all the restaurants would be closed since no one was around. The empty beach though was a sight that I would not see repeated. The water had a medium sized surf. Probably too small to surf on, but large enough that all along the beach there were warnings of dangerous riptides. One thing I’ve noticed at ISB and reinforced at the beach, your typical Indian does not swim too well. I think this played into all the warnings, because as an experienced swimmer, I never found the currents strong. Nevertheless I was never allowed to go out further than 50 feet and really enjoy the water because the lifeguards would constantly blow their whistle at me until I returned to waist/knee deep water. Lame. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;">Lifeguard Truck, there was no need for it to be driving in the water, </span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;">there weren't that many people around.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">After spending the mid-afternoon at the beach, as would be expected, I was nicely roasted. Turns out my pasty white skin wasn’t prepared for the sun. I would have thought my Welsh vacation leading up to India would have prepared me. Turns out I’m wrong. This put a bit of a damper on my plans since being so sunburnt after my first few hours at the beach, I was then relegated to being one of those awesome guys wearing a t-shirt at the beach all weekend!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Other than being a nice beach, Goa is also known as being a party town. There are bars and clubs all the length of the beach. I however, did not take part. Because I am a party pooper you say? Nope, because all the bars and clubs had signs outside that said NO STAGS. Unless I went to the club with a girl, I couldn’t get in. I met 4 gay guys at the beach who I joked about my issues with, they were experiencing the same problems. They told the bouncers that they were not stags but in fact 2 gay couples. Despite this being the truth, the bouncer I guess hears this often and wouldn’t let them in. They persevered though and went down the road a few km to a gay club and had a good time. I on the other hand went to a restaurant and had a nice long dinner instead. What was fun about this dinner though was that there was a cricket playoffs on the TV. Since there are not a lot of open televisions along the road, a lot of passerbyers stopped in to watch as well. Before I knew it, there were 10-15 guys around me trying to explain every play, and predicting what would happen next. It was entertaining, and wrapped up by 10pm. Perfect time for me to go to sleep. Like I said. Party ANIMAL!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;">Something about the sign Cocktails & Dreams made me sad.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The next morning, waking up with a nice crisp to my back I decided the best solution was to hit up the beach once more. This time earlier in the morning when the sun isn’t as strong. Well, the lack of crowd I experienced yesterday was replaced by large crowds of Indian’s at the beach. I was somewhat surprised by the lack of foreigners. I was under the impression that Goa would be crowded with foreigners but I only saw 2-3 groups of 2-3. But have no fear, the lack of foreigners were not missed. There were still lots of opportunity for people watching. There were a few things that I just couldn’t get my head around. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;">People for Days</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The first, no one seemed to mind being sandy. Everyone who went into the water when they came out, plopped on the beach and sat/rolled in the sand. Or they would sit at the edge of the water and have the waves crash over them. Now I sat there for a moment as well and realized that this is a sure fire way of getting sand down your shorts. Anyways, I was the only one who seemed to notice so I kept my mouth shut. Until now that is. Along the same lines with the sand, growing up at Amherst Shore you learn that in order of increasing severity the worst things you can do are:</span></div>
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<li style="font-family: Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">let little kids swim alone</span></li>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">and about 15 items down at the bottom of the list the most heinous act would be:</span></div>
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<li style="font-family: Helvetica; margin: 0px;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">throw/kick sand at people</span></li>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">This also is not a rule in India. I can honestly say I was in shock when I saw the sand fights people were having. It felt like a bad dream where I was anxious and stressed but no one else seemed to be worried. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">After a morning at the beach, I had heard that there was a bookstore in Baga. After an unsuccessful search for bookstores in Hyderabad, I decided this would be a good task. I asked at a shop on the main road and was pointed down the way and was told about 10-15 minute walk. A few minutes later, doubting the directions I asked a new vendor and was told the same, 5-10 minutes down the road. After 2 songs on my iPod and not seeing any bookstore I asked again at the main intersection of town. I was still pointed down the road, but this time told about 10-20 minutes. You can see the pattern forming here. I asked about 10 different people during the 2 hour walk and zigzagged my way back and forth across this small town. Never finding a bookstore until!</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #9fc5e8;">The Majestic Book Palace!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Nope, turns out it is an old closed bus booking station. No books in Goa. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I decided to walk back along the beach and realized the end where my guesthouse is is the quiet part. This section about 2km down was where all the action was happening, loads of people, boats, sandcastle of Shrek! I slowly walked back, while having my picture taken by loads of locals.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;">SHREK!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;">Busy Beach</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Bathing suits don’t seem to be a big thing in India, the men just strip down to their tighty whities, and the women go in the water fully clothed. After having my photo taken for the 100th time I thought to myself how beach vacations in India must lead to some pretty awkward family photos. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;">Fully Clothed in the ocean. 50/50 chance she would end up swimming like this</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I capped off my day sitting on the beach under a parasol enjoying food and drink chatting with tourist as they stopped by. I also read a lot, finishing an entire book start to finish on this trip. Albeit a short book. And finished by enjoying another sunset. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;">People Watching</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">One aspect I really liked about Baga Beach was that being on the west coast, it provided some spectacular sunsets. I made sure to be out on the beach both nights to capture the sight. All in all it was an enjoyable trip. But the atmosphere was a crowded for me. Also there wasn’t much in the way of entertainment outside of drinking. I would compare this part of India to Kuta Bali, I’m glad I went, but at the same time would have preferred a quieter beach which I later learned were in the south of Goa rather than the happening part I went to. I’ve mentioned this before, but everyone here assumes that Americans and by proximity Canadians only have one </span>pastime<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> and that is their love to party which is why Goa came with such high recommendations. People also assume I am a drug addict because when they recommend places they suggest Manali in the north as well since I could get great drugs there. I don’t quite understand why I give off this impression to people. Those at the guesthouse who haven’t seen me party or drink once, and those at the gym who only see me workout assume this is the type of adventure I want…</span></span><br />
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Anyways, after a quick weekend at the beach, I was back to Hyderabad where it was a lovely 45*C to welcome me home!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Next up, Mumbai.</span></div>
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"https://images-blogger-opensocial.googleusercontent.com/gadgets/proxy?url=http%3A%2F%2F4.bp.blogspot.com%2F-hBs-9_EyQLo%2FU9qDTVMgcRI%2FAAAAAAAADo4%2FQlF2cJ1cREo%2Fs1600%2FIMG_5597.JPG&container=blogger&gadget=a&rewriteMime=image%2F*" with "https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hBs-9_EyQLo/U9qDTVMgcRI/AAAAAAAADo4/QlF2cJ1cREo/s1600/IMG_5597.JPG" -->Vincenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555327744386677155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5742631099544045105.post-34436810329386293952014-06-12T11:19:00.004-07:002014-06-12T11:35:47.790-07:00Hot Hot Heat! India First Impressions<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">One month! Time to go back in time and describe all the adventures I’ve had since arriving in Hyderabad on April 29th!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">After leaving Suz in London I had the long red-eye flight direct to Hyderabad. I’m bad on planes, I can’t sleep. Watching movies is too tempting. As a result I arrived at 5AM without having slept more than a few minutes every few hours. Just a note. I sat next to a 75 year old Indian woman, who didn’t get up for the duration of the 10.5 hour flight. Machine! And she was capable. She just didn't want to. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">My first reaction to India was not surprising, the heat. Even getting off the plane in the dark at 5:30 AM it hit you like a wall. Heat and humidity. Even at that time of day it was already 30*C which coming from Montreal and Wales was dreadfully hot. I was in for a surprise. Hyderabad for the entire month of May saw temperatures in the 30’s maybe once or twice. Every day was 40-46*C. That is a new kind of hot for me. Needless to say, I was a little slow that first day. I got settled in at the guest house where I quickly learned how loud on in India should watch their TV, had a quick nap, then went in to the Indian School of Business where my office is located. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;">ISB at Sunset</span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;">ISB at sunset</span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;">Company on my walk to work</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Getting to the school, I have to walk down my lane which is about 4-500 meters to the main road. The street is a bunch of guesthouses (long term hotels) mixed with slum tents (I’m sure this isn’t what you are supposed to call them). As a result you have cars, bikes, motorbikes, buses, autorickshaws, many people, stray dogs, cats, cows and goats along the street at any given time. Makes for an interesting walk. But it does smell bad. The guesthouse is fine, but in the heat, the first couple days my gut was not used to the smell of the open sewers in the road. Crazy enough now a month in, I barely notice. A note on the animals. One of the dogs and also a cat has had a litter recently. So there are tiny puppies and kittens everywhere which is cute. I don’t let them near me since they spend 80% of their day itchng fleas and the other 20% sitting in garbage, but they are still cute to look at. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;">Daily walk home</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">With holidays, and the National election, the office was pretty quiet. But I got to meet the staff that was around that day and after a few short hours of yawning I called it a day and went home. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">My second day in India was the election. For those of you who don’t know. India had a new parliamentary election in April-May which had 815 million eligible voters. This was a very big deal here in India, and you couldn’t have a single conversation without someone bringing up predictions or opinions. It was an exciting time to be around. I’m glad I got to experience it. Coming a little earlier would have been nice since I could have experienced a little bit of the build up. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">My first weekend here was a guys birthday at my guesthouse. Dinner is provided for us at the guesthouse so I often eat dinner with the same guys. Since it was Priyank’s birthday we decided to go out to dinner. Those of you who know me well, know I’m not the most adventuresome eater. That, mixed with all the fears of ingesting some Indian food that will make me sick (I was new here and still paranoid) had me a little tentative. Fortunately/unfortunately that isn't an option here. The restaurant was all you can eat buffet and the guys wanted to introduce me to all of the foods of India at once. There is a very popular snack which is like a fried puff pastry filled with a salty lime salsa type juice and I was quickly fed 3 or 4 of these (they are like golfball size so this wasn’t insignificant). After an hour of consuming all the foods my stomach obviously wasn’t happy with me. I wasn’t so much sick as just really uncomfortable. This made for a night where my stomach grumbled all night and I woke up feeling a little worse for wear but otherwise fine. I went in to the office only to discover that there were a few of the staff members leaving so we were going to an ALL YOU CAN EAT BUFFET! I hope my enthusiasm for this outing wasn’t too apparent. But the food was good and it was nice to see the team outside of the office. I’ll mention that everyone has been really nice, often eating lunch together and socializing. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;">Guys from the guesthouse and their friends at a birthday dinner</span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;">Friends along the lane</span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;">View from roof of guesthouse down lane</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Dinner at the guest house has been good. The food is repetitive though. Every day of the week is the same. Monday has a Monday meal, Tuesday a Tuesday. Wednesdays we get a hard boiled egg! I am pleased to announce I can eat a little bit of spice now. The first week everything was FIRE! But now the dinner isn’t bland exactly, but some meals definitely could use a little more punch. Also, eating out has spoiled me since the meals are so much more flavourful than what we get on a nightly basis. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;">Typical Dinner at the guesthouse</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">My first weeks I was at a little bit of a loss as to how to fill my time. At 45*C it is too hot to go outside even for walks (I tried and learned the hard way). The first week, to fill time I went to the mall which has AC. I wasn’t the first to have this idea. On a random Saturday the mall was PACKED. And I mean December 22nd -23rd busy in Canada. Coming back to the guesthouse I mentioned this and people said I should see it on a Sunday or Holiday. I can only imagine. I've since discovered the gym at ISB and have been filling up a lot of my evening time pumping iron. Getting huge. There is also a pool so I've been doing the varsity warmup workout before calling it quits each day. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;">Beautiful ISB Pool. It isn't closed. I am just the only one who goes</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">That first weekend at the mall, seeing as I knew nobody and it was too hot to do anything, I decided to go see Spiderman alone. People definitely looked at me funny. There is a funny stigma in India about westerners. I think it is because life is very conservative here, they assume that I live like a rockstar in Canada with my liberal promiscuous ways. Everyone asks me if I am married and when I say no, they then as where my girlfriend is. One individual was so taken aback that I was single that they offered to pray for me. Back to Spiderman, movies are funny in India. And I don't meant the dancing stereotype that you see, I mean going to a movie, the experience of it. First: National Anthem was played and everyone stands up. Second, they offered pillows for short people in case the person ahead of you is too tall. And third, there is intermission. I was watching, it was in the middle of a fight scene and the theatre goes dark. After experiencing a power outage or two already I got quite frustrated but then realized it was just a planned 15-20 minute intermission.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Getting to the mall involved one of my least favourite pass times. Haggling over cost of an “auto”. I’ve travelled around this city enough to know how much cabs and auto’s should cost. However, anytime I try and go anywhere, they see a white person and assume I’m foreign and fresh. Even for drives I do almost daily, unless it is my normal driver (there is a group that hang out at the corner) I will always have to argue. I’ve learned now that if I am pretty certain about the amount. I don’t negotiate when I get in, I just give them the amount as I get out and walk away. So far I haven’t had any trouble. My trip isn’t over at this point though, auto drivers don’t drive you all the way to your destination since you are usually sharing one with people. They drop you off on the road en route. This means that daily I need to cross a 6 lane road at rush hour. Crossing the road here isn’t like Vietnam where you slowly walk and the traffic moves like a wave around you. Here, cars and bikes and buses don’t move, they will simply blare their horn and not touch the brakes or turn one bit. So you play this fun human frogger game.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;">Daily Struggle of crossing the street</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Despite the fight to get into one, I actually enjoy riding in the Autos. They are painfully slow going uphill, but then turn into the most hilarious little cart races anytime you are going downhill. I swear the drivers try and beat each other to every corner. Don’t worry mom, they only go like 30kph so it’s not THAT dangerous.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;">Blurry Photo of how 7 people plus driver fit in an Auto</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Since it is so hot here on weekends I haven’t really done much sightseeing. That and Hyderabad isn’t really know for being a cultural hub of India. I did go and see a few mosques (Hyderabad has the largest muslim population in India since Pakistan and Bangladesh are no longer part and Hyderabad used to be ruled by a muslim King) and a museum/palace. They were interesting. India, like Europe is so different than North America. Fairly "modern" historical buildings may be 500 years old. Old buildings are 2500 or more. The scale of everything is just so much grandeur than what I am used to</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;">Charminar from Street level</span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;">Mecca Masjid Mosque, one of the largest in India</span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;">Chandeliers: <span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; letter-spacing: 0px; text-align: left;">Chowmahalla</span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; letter-spacing: 0px; text-align: left;"> Palace Asif Jahi Dynasty</span></span></div>
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eZdKLeVqUO4/U5noChE5pmI/AAAAAAAADkk/Nr73bfSBb9c/s1600/IMG_5507.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eZdKLeVqUO4/U5noChE5pmI/AAAAAAAADkk/Nr73bfSBb9c/s1600/IMG_5507.JPG" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;">They love chandeliers: <span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; letter-spacing: 0px; text-align: left;">Chowmahalla</span><span style="font-family: Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; letter-spacing: 0px; text-align: left;"> Palace Asif Jahi Dynasty</span></span> </div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8; font-family: Times, Times New Roman, serif;">The most complete Swiss Army Knife there ever was, <span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-align: left;">Chowmahalla</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px; text-align: left;"> Palace Asif Jahi Dynasty</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">One thing I noticed while sightseeing is I am amazed at how few foreigners I have seen. I wouldn’t be exaggerating to say that including all my trips and flights and museums etc, I may have seen 30-40 white people since arriving in India. And that includes tourist sites in Mumbai. As a result I find that a lot of the street merchants don’t really know how to deal with me. I get a lot of funny looks, either that or am just ignored completely.</span><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> </span></div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;">View from the top of Charminar, This is extremely light traffic</span></div>
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Other than that, not too much. I have gotten myself into a fairly good routine with work, the gym and entertaining myself through trying to learn more about India. I spent a lot of time the first couple weeks trying to figure out where to buy books in India. The mall had little to offer and bookstores are non existent. Fortunately I discovered Amazon.in is SUPER cheap for some items. Pretty much if the book is published in India it will be a few dollars, if it is published in Europe or North America the book will be astronomically expensive. So find a book that is published here, and loads are and you can order them and get free 2 day shipping. I was amazed. I'm currently reading an interesting and very well written book on the history of India's democracy. It is fairly long though so I will be reading it for a while. </div>
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<span style="color: #9fc5e8;">Some light reading on India, my other 4 books for scale</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">As I’ve alluded to, I have done some travel, I’ve been to Goa and Mumbai, but I will leave those for another post since I feel this one is getting a little long. In my next post I will go into more detail about my specific </span>adventures. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #cfe2f3;">Questionable sandwich place near my guesthouse</span></div>
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Vincenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555327744386677155noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5742631099544045105.post-26058998538899324292014-05-08T11:38:00.001-07:002014-05-08T11:39:00.876-07:00Whirlwind Trip Through Wales<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Greetings! For those of you who don’t know, I am spending the Summer in India! As part of my curriculum at McGill, I do a 14 week practicum in the public health field. I was lucky, through some networking to get hooked up with Access Health International who are based in Hyderabad, working at offices at the Indian School of Business. I’ll get to that in more detail in a following post. But first I will describe my trip prior to my arrival in India. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Since almost all connecting flights to India travel through London, this offered the opportunity for an extended layover. I’ve never been to the UK and the fact that one of my oldest and best friends Suz was living in London, and coincidentally had the same week off work meant that our travel plans were fate!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I arrived in London the morning of the 22nd of April with a 6 night layover at Heathrow. Suz and I were going to leave the next morning to do a whirlwind tour of Wales! She has lived in Edinburgh and London and wanted to experience something new. Having never been anywhere on that island, Wales was exciting and small enough to tackle in a week for me!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;">Doesn't this apply to all windows?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The only issue is that I had never been to London before, and this only left me with a few hours to take it in. Suz told me that I couldn’t see London in a day. Unfortunately I wasn’t feeling too well as a result of the red-eye flight so I took a nap. Now I had a third of a day to take in London. Plenty of time!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;">I asked Suz what she wanted from Canada. All she replied was KD.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">So out I went with a map and a comfy pair of sneakers. I walked down through Piccadilly Circus, to Hyde Park, pulled a 180 and headed back to Buckingham Palace. Made my way to the Parliament Buildings then crossed the bridge and walked the river Thames! Saw the London Eye and a few other sights along the way including the London Bridge and the Tower of London. I’ll mention I was walking somewhat fast and this wasn’t a short walk by any stretch. Finally I made it back to Suz’ place and we went out for dinner to a classic UK meal of Fish and Chips. After dinner there was a little repacking of my stuff then to bed because in the morning, Suz and I were catching the bus and off to Cardiff!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;">Requisite shot of Big Ben</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;">What does the Dean have against Bikes?</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">The bus ride to Cardiff was uneventful with the exception of the cleanest, most spacious, yet most disgusting bus bathroom I’ve ever been in. Someone decided it was a good idea to put the toilet over the engine. Engines = hot, which meant that hot steam was coming out of the toilet and filling the room with a lovely heavy humid environment. Needless to say I passed. Arriving in Cardiff, Suz and I unloaded our bags at the hotel and then took a tour of the city. Cardiff has a nice little university with lovely gardens. In addition to an old Castle. We opted not to go into the castle (it was like $30) and instead walked around and through the gardens the city had to offer. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Probably the best named Beer ever</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Cardiff is a nice little place! I wouldn’t give it a full 24 hours next time I visit though. Especially not if I only have 120 hours for the entire country!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;">Filling up on some Brains!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">That evening we went to the Harbour front, or Cardiff Bay if you will, and had a great dinner. Prices were shockingly reasonable considering the UK and all, and the place had a pretty sweet view, Imagine Pint and Barrel for those of you in Vancouver. In Montreal… Sorry I have no restaurant comparison.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Suz and I were pretty tired, I from jetlag, Suz from partying too hard in Copenhagen (such a world traveler that one!) So we slept early and were up early to start the roadtrip!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We rented a car, and since everyone drives standard across the pond, we reserved the only compact automatic in Cardiff. As you would expect, they double booked it and it wasn’t available. Now sitting there with the prospect of learning to drive standard while driving unknown narrow roads on the wrong side of the street with my left hand on the shifter I was pleased to be informed we were getting a free upgrade! We were given a Vauxhall Insignia. Since we were in Wales, we decided to name it. Since Suz and I didn’t know any Welsh names and had no internet, we decided to go with one from the same island and decided this car would be named Elspeth Vauxhall. Elsie V (LCV) for short. This car was amazing by the way. After a week of test driving, I have no idea how much it cost, but if reasonable, I would buy it.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Me Standing with LCV</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Once the few hiccups at the rental place were sorted out we were on our way. First stop, Rhossili Beach by way of Swansea and Suz’ favourite town name “The Mumbles”. Getting to Rhossili was a very stressful drive because it was (what we thought at the time) very narrow roads (A2 and B1 for future reference). But we made it and the weather and view were perfect. We also saw our first Sheep which Suz was really excited about. I won’t go into detail, instead I’ll just post photos, but it was beautiful. </span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;"> Blocking the view with my melon</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;"> Despite Suz' Pointing that way, We did not go there</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;"> Wales is DANGEROUS!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;">Rhossili Beach</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We continued driving after lunch, got a little lost along the way to Pembrokeshire and finally made our way through Haverfordwest, taking the scenic route towards Broad Haven and followed the shore to St. David’s Whitesands Bay were we caught the sunset. Again, repeating myself, but the views were amazing. Who knew Wales was so scenic! We had to skip the entire southern Pembrokeshire coast which I hear is spectacular, but c’est la vie.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span>Thinking of how much I love driving LCV</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;"> On the shore towards St Davids</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;"> Like I said, Wales is Super Dangerous</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;">Suz acting all Photographer like</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;"> Cool Rocks at Whitesands Beach.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;"> Sunset, Whitesands Beach. St. David's</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We decided to make headway after sunset so we could make the most out of day 3 in Wales and headed to Aberystwith, on the way passing through Fishguard. One note for anyone traveling to Wales, outside of Cardiff, everything closes at 8PM. So for dinner we actually had a delicious meal of Indian food at the originally named Taj Mahal. Indian food, sure was a treat, I’m sure I won’t regret using one of my last meals before Hyderabad on Indian food… But jokes aside, if you are looking for food and find yourself in Fishguard, go to this restaurant, Suz and I both agreed it was great!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Unfortunately we had a big day of hiking Snowdonia mountain on day three so we quickly slept and left Aberystwyth which in hindsight was a mistake. As we were driving (at this point we were getting better with directions so could spend more leisure time reading up on where we were going) we kept coming across beautiful sights and picturesque cities. Each time we sadly discovered they were Aberystwyth. I heard that they had a lot of damage over the winter due to storms and selfishly am telling myself that the damage was still there so we didn’t miss anything, although this was unlikely. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Getting to Snowdonia was almost as much fun as the hike itself. By this point I was an expert at driving narrow streets. For reference, Wales uses A1-2 B1-2 C road system for rating size. Highway A1, 2 clearly marked separate lanes A2 (think beaconsfield blvd or SW marine without the bike lanes and with a brick wall to your side but the speed limit still 100kph. Then there were narrow lanes that require you to slow down (unless you are a local) B1 (80kph), and 1 lane shared by both directions and even then very narrow half paved half dirt B2 (80kph). I don’t know what the C roads would be, thankfully Suz and I never came across any. The drive to Snowdonia was mostly B1 but Suz and I decided to take the even more scenic route which had us racing through B2 roads! Much Fun!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;"><span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"></span>Typical Roadside View</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">I’ve never been to the Scottish Highlands, but I wanted to see some barren majestic mountains. Snowdonia served this right up! And to Suz’ pleasure more sheep! Unfortunately it rained the whole time we climbed up, but that just added to the Welsh experience. Suz was very concerned because even though we left early, we didn’t reach the mountain before 2pm (thanks to aforementioned B2 road. But I assured her that sunset was at 8:30pm, this was a 6 hour hike (for wimps) and that we had plenty of time. Seeing all the old retirees and families with small children walking back down gave Suz a bit of reassurance, but also stressed her out because everyone we came across was going the wrong way. Surely we wouldn’t make it. Fortunately for my story telling, we did, and have the pictures to prove it!</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"> Snowdonia!</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; text-align: left;"> Snowdonia!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; text-align: left;"> Snowdonia!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; text-align: left;"> Snowdonia!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We didn’t sit and reflect too long, then headed down the mountain and distanced ourselves quickly on route to Holyhead were we watched the sunset at Trearddur Bay (this sure seems like quite the romantic trip with all these seashore sunsets, fortunately I had my paparazzi to photograph these memories of me looking thoughtful in front of the ocean to show off to girls when I get home).</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Just thinking deep thoughts</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">After sunset at 8:45 we hunted for dinner, and you guessed it. Everything was closed. But there was a good Sri Lankan restaurant. We got there and LIES! It was another Indian restaurant that served some Sri Lankan. About to spend 4 month in India, clearly I should make my last 2 meals in Europe Indian food! This Indian was too spicy for my delicate taste buds though. I am curious to see what my thoughts would be now, after spending 10 days burning my mouth on Indian food day in and day out.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">Holyhead Island has a very photo friendly lighthouse at the very western tip. South Stack is a birdwatchers dream, Suz and I took a bunch of photos, but didn’t see the fuss in the 1000’s of seagulls shitting on everything. Leaving there we took another coastal road through Anglessey Island to the first of our history lessons for the day. We went to Plas Newydd, an old giant fancy house. It was cool, but for the money I would skip and and see the bigger castles in Beaumaris or Conwy. But bravo on Plas Newydd marketing team, we felt as though this was a place we couldn’t afford to miss.</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;"> South Stack</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">We get it Wales, you are dangerous</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">For lunch we went to nearby Red Wharf Bay which has a huge tide. The tide went out kilometers straight to sea.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Neverending Sandbar</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;"> Suz Way off in the distance</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"> We followed lunch with Beaumaris Castle making it there right before it closed and then were able to circle around Conwy Castle at sunset. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Beaumaris Castle</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">Conwy Castle</span></span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">After driving to Colwyn Bay and knowing that we skipped a bit on the south, n</span>ot to complain about the northeast of Wales, but there isn’t much to see. W<span style="letter-spacing: 0px;">e needed the car returned the next day we decided to drive through dinner and grab a quick snack instead and head to Hay on Wye. The book capital of the world! I’m not going to lie, I love bookstores and reading, but this place sounded pretty lame. Unlike Plas Newydd! From the descriptions I read online it sounded like the type of place you would meet </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miss_Havisham" style="letter-spacing: 0px;">Miss Havisham</a><span style="letter-spacing: 0px;"> from Great Expectations (giving myself a little pat on the back for remembering that name correctly!) The fact that our hotel was 900 years old (actually) and cost us $170 didn’t enamour me with the town any more. Fortunately the next morning I was pleasantly surprised. Sure the first bookstore we saw was super cluttered and my worst nightmare, but the second was nice, clean, spacious and organized! I didn’t buy any books on account of my traveling light, but if I had more time, I see how that town could grow on me. </span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;">What $170 gets you</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6; font-family: Helvetica;">Bookstore in Hay on Wye</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">We left Hay on Wye and took the scenic route once more on a B2 road through the Black Mountains! For those who don’t know, they pass through the Powys and Monmouthshire. Probably my favourite road was one that opened at the top of the mountain and it was this really narrow bike path type thing with sheep grazing on fields on either side. No fence, no barrier just sheep and grass. After this we stopped in at an ancient bar from the 12th century they say, and then headed to the Vale of Glanmorgan to see Llantwit Majors shore! This was the missing piece. I knew that the UK had awesome shorelines, but I wanted to see the rock cliffs that geologist always speak of. Llantwit Major is just that, you can see all the geologic lines (clearly I don’t know enough to describe them). </span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;">Typical B2 Road</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;">SHEEP!</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"> REALLY OLD BAR</span></span></div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: #3d85c6;"> REALLY OLD BAR</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;">Llantwit Major</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">After this last bit of sightseeing we just had to drive back to Cardiff and return the car. This was much more relaxing after having driven for a few days than the first day driving out of the city. We then easily caught our bus back to London.</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">All in all I am fairly satisfied with the trip. We accomplished in days what the guide book recommended in 18!</span></div>
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<span style="letter-spacing: 0.0px;">After repacking my bag and having a good night sleep, the next morning I said my goodbyes and was off to India! More on that to come!</span></div>
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<span style="color: #3d85c6;">Contemplating Life</span></div>
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Vincenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555327744386677155noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5742631099544045105.post-38758086426499649792012-04-19T00:29:00.004-07:002012-04-19T00:46:48.381-07:00News Updates<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Over the past few month, there hasn't been a whole lot new on the training front since Orca's 50k. <div><br /></div><div>My knee's were in pretty bad shape following the 50 so I had to take a few weeks off running. They still feel tight today if I don't stretch them out, as a result my running has been at a minimum. My next event was a month later with the UBC Triathlon. </div><div><br /></div><div>We lucked out and weather was incredible. I had a dismal swim where I fought with my goggles the whole time, a medium bike (energy was good, but power was lacking) and then I got to the run. I wasn't sure what my run would be like. I hadn't run since Orca a month earlier and I had been telling people that I wasn't even going to finish the run. I started it off and felt alright so decided to keep it steady and keep pushing. I somehow managed to pull off a 40:23 - 10k split. My fastest off the bike 10k ever. I was a little confused. I have been biking to and from work every day but at no point was I doing any run training.</div><div><br /></div><div>Fast forward a few more weeks. I did a handful (read 3-4 runs) including a 5k tempo TT on 19:00 and the mile race where I managed a 5:12. Neither of which were exactly stellar performances. Then on Saturday we had our tri club year end banquet where I may have had a little to drink and was becoming boastful. You may have <a href="http://ubctriathlon.blogspot.ca/2012/03/beer-mile-version-80.html">heard</a>, I plan on winning the Grand Columbian Triathlon in September!</div><div><br /></div><div>As a result I declared that I would be getting a PB on Sunday at the sun run a mere 8 hours later. </div><div><br /></div><div>Well I woke up feeling a little worse for wear, however, got myself to the starting line and when the gun went off I felt fine. A little stiff but otherwise legs were turning over and lungs felt good. I felt like I was gliding, especially in my new shoes! Coming in at roughly 5 ounces, these babies are light!</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-CBax9ZyR--M/T4_Cx8qkCyI/AAAAAAAADH4/a7ZUCdnGpZg/s400/IMG_3041.JPG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5733015014019959586" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 299px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div><div><br /></div><div>The sun run is a funny race, Since it is downhill at the start, you always go way too fast. I passed the 1 mile in 5:26 which had me on pace for a 34 minute 10k. A little quick. In addition, the km markers are quite off. For example, here were my splits</div><div><br /></div><div>1mile 5:26</div><div>2k 6:58</div><div>3k 3:18 (10:16)</div><div>4k 4:15 (14:32)</div><div>6k 7:48 (22:21)</div><div>7k 3:51 (26:12)</div><div>9k 7:32 (33:44)</div><div>10k 3:28 (37:12)</div><div><br /></div><div>My official time was 37:10 so not sure if I started watch early or stopped late. Anyways. The point being this was my 10k pb by 15 seconds!</div><div><br /></div><div>I was pumped. </div><div><br /></div><div>Following my race I had a talk with one of my friends. The topic of serious training and potential came up. It's something I have discussed with people a few times but often shy away from. I think that this summer. Once I get into a good routine. I am going to try and push my limits. Get those morning workouts in before work. And since time is shorter this year than summers past. Try and get in quality workouts rather than junk hours. More high intensity interval stuff rather than the 2-3 per week long rides. </div><div><br /></div><div>We will see how this goes. For now I am just pumped that my running is pain free. </div><div><br /></div><div>I will try and get a race schedule planned. There should be some 10k's in there as well. I want to try and get into the 35's. I know this skips over 36 entirely but with a little focused effort I think it's possible.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Vincenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555327744386677155noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5742631099544045105.post-70382117810768723412012-02-19T22:12:00.001-08:002012-02-19T22:26:32.536-08:00Orca's 50k<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Alright, I'm going to try and get back into the habit of writing this thing. Instead of trying to summarize everything I've left out, I'll just pick up as though I never left.<div><br /></div><div>Two weeks ago I completed my first ultra marathon! I "wimped out" as much as you can when it comes to Ultra's in the sense that I completed the shortest possible race to be considered an Ultra, 50k. That being said, I chose one of the more challenging routes in North America. </div><div><br /></div><div>The Orca's 50 takes place on Orca's Island in Washington State. This is a gulf island between Seattle and Victoria. It was beautiful there. </div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-E8RFBuhsrPI/T0HnN8z-0kI/AAAAAAAAC6I/Wl3AOGversc/s400/IMG_0252%2BStitch.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5711100029330969154" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 139px; " /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; ">Stolen from Winston's blog</span></div><div><br /></div><div>A group of 5 of us went down for the race. Jon, Johnson and Winston from the triathlon club, as well as my roommate Sean. </div><div><br /></div><div>Jon has participated in Ultra's before, however, for the rest of us this was our first attempt. We arrived late Friday night, had some food, chatted with the race organizers and went to bed in prep for the big day. </div><div><br /></div><div>Race morning came around, we were up early, but the atmosphere was pretty relaxed. The only shock to the day was when I realized that there were only 3 aid stations for the entire 50k (I thought there were at least 5-6). In addition to that, aid station 2 only had water...</div><div><br /></div><div>The course was beautiful but challenging with over 8800 feet elevation change. I was a little worried about how my body would hold out. I ran a half marathon in November and injured my knee's and hadn't really done a long run since and only really got in any running in the one month leading up to the race. Going into a 50k run when your longest run was 49 minutes and 11k isn't exactly confidence boosting.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-O829cnkaoRY/T0HnNvUT5FI/AAAAAAAAC54/hhDpXr4vw20/s400/Pic1.PNG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5711100025708471378" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 204px; " /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; ">Hilly</span></div><div><br /></div><div>There was a little scare at 19k. I rolled my ankle quite badly, the same one I sprained at Christmas. It was bad enough that I stopped for 5 minutes and even started walking back, however, after a few minutes the pain went away and I decided to at least try and make it to the next aid station (30k) rather than quitting, and it was a major relief to find out my ankle no longer hurt. </div><div><br /></div><div>I managed to make it 35k before my knee's started to give out, then it was just a long 15k in to the finish (especially since the last 8k were straight downhill). During the last 15k I dropped from top 10 down to 30th, my final finishing place (out of 300). That being said I made it to the finish and was rewarded with a lovely local beverage from a keg! </div><div><br /></div><div>We partied it up with the other runners, there was food and music late into the night, then the next morning we piled into the truck and made our way back to Vancouver!</div><div><br /></div><div>All in all it was a great weekend. Two weeks out, my knees are still a little sore. I haven't tried running, but I have biked and I hope to start running light again by the end of this week. Gotta get prepped for the BMO in a few month!</div>Vincenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555327744386677155noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5742631099544045105.post-56578143556236259722012-01-24T23:22:00.000-08:002012-01-25T00:17:46.595-08:00Day 114<div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" >So I thought I was going to have to re-write my Myanmar blog post, I searched and searched my e-mail never finding the most recent update. Turns out I'm just an idiot and had deleted it. Fortunately I managed to hunt it down and found this e-mail which overlapped with my previous one of Thailand and Myanmar. </span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" ><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></div>That was a little longer than I had wanted to go without<br />e-mailing... To make an excuse I haven't been somewhere with either<br />crappy enough wifi to require me to hit up an internet cafe. Or the<br />internet cafe's have been too expensive or non existent. Who would<br />have thought Myanmar would be the solution for me.<br /><br />I left off a month ago in Sihannoukville Cambodia. I was sitting on a<br />beach, getting a tan, swimming, getting sick. All good times. After 5<br />days in Sihannoukville (my longest stay to date anywhere I took an all<br />day bus (3 buses actually) to Bangkok with hopes of catching the<br />overnight train to Chaing Mai. Unfortunately when we got to the border<br />and switched buses, the driver wouldn't leave until the minivan was<br />full. Having <span class="il" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 204); ">1</span>0 people we waited around another 2-3 hours for the <span class="il" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 204); ">1</span><span class="il" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 204); ">1</span>th<br />to show up and take off. We debated offering to pay for the <span class="il" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 204); ">1</span><span class="il" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 204); ">1</span>th<br />person so we could just leave however we all agreed that the driver<br />wouldn't really understand this gift of money and would wait for<br />someone to arrive pocketing money for <span class="il" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 204); ">1</span>2 people instead of <span class="il" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 204); ">1</span><span class="il" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 204); ">1</span>. BONUS!<br /><br />We arrived at Kao San Rd at <span class="il" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 204); ">1</span>0PM instead of the supposed 7 meaning I<br />was now too late to catch the <span class="il" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 204); ">1</span>0PM train. RATS!<br /><br />It was alright, this would give me the day in Bangkok to try and get<br />my Myanmar visa sorted out. The next morning I discussed to great<br />detail the bus system in Bangkok. Mr iPhone said I should take the #<span class="il" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 204); ">1</span>5<br />west even though the embassy was east... And the hotel staff all<br />suggested other buses going east. I decided the iPhone didn't know<br />what it was talking about (my first mistake) and followed the hotel<br />staff's instructions.<br /><br />After 3 buses and no bus fare later (no driver charged me because I<br />was only ever on for 3-4 stops while he explained I was going the<br />wrong way) I was blocks from the embassy. Getting there at <span class="il" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 204); ">1</span><span class="il" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 204); ">1</span>AM<br />figured I was early enough to beat the rush. Turns out I was really<br />early. The embassy was closed. Uncertain as to why I asked if it was a<br />Thai holiday. He said no but that today it was closed. The<br />conversation went like this:<br /><br />Vince: The embassy is not open today?<br /><br />Guard: No (Smiling and nodding in a yes motion)<br /><br />Vince: When is it open?<br /><br />Guard: Monday to Friday<br /><br />Vince: Today is tuesday...<br /><br />Guard: YES! Still nodding and smiling.<br /><br />At this point I am leaving for Chiang Mai tonight so will have to deal<br />with this when I get back. Unfortunately that falls on another<br />tuesday. After a few more conversations like the one above. I am<br />ensured the embassy will be open next tuesday so I take off.<br /><br />The train north was uneventful. I got picked up at the other end by a<br />guest house who promised to take me to town just to show me their<br />place, no pressure. I got there, the wifi worked well, the place was<br />clean, they had the tour de france on TV for the last 2 mountain<br />stages and the time trial. I was set. This also turned out to be the<br />friendliest hotel staff I have had to date. They were amazing. Anyone<br />going to Chiang Mai I suggest staying at Junior Guest house in the old<br />city.<br /><br />The first day I just roamed the city. checked out the temples and went<br />to a neat thing called Monk Chat where you can converse with the monks<br />and they get to learn about your life and practice their english all<br />the while you don't feel like a jerk for asking all the questions<br />you've been ignorantly hiding for the past 3 month seeing monks in<br />Asia.<br /><br />My second day I took a traditional Thai cooking class and now know how<br />to make Thai meals! Only 5 of them I liked though.<br /><br />Third day, Motorbike rental toured the area. As a cyclist this was<br />probably some of the most amazing roads I've seen traveling so far. So<br />many turns and hills. Would have been so nice to ride on. And smooth<br />pavement too.<br /><br />Day four, massage course. I didn't learn much new, however now I have<br />a 90 minute massage routine. I was pleasantly surprised when in<br />Bangkok two weeks later and Corinne and I got massages that the<br />masseuse used the same routine that I now knew. So I'm pretty much a<br />pro now.<br /><br />Day five. Go to tiger kingdom and then train back to Bangkok<br />overnight. I got some sweet photos of me with Tigers.</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" ><br />Back in Bangkok I returned a day earlier than originally planned which<br />saved me two hassles. Having to rush south to meet up with Erich and<br />Corinne, and the mysterious closed Tuesday embassy. Sure enough on<br />Mondays the embassy was open and I got my visa application in. Just<br />needed to pick it up 3 days later. On to the night train again I made<br />it to Krabi and met up with Corinne and Erich the next morning just<br />before noon. It was pretty lucky. I had no idea what hotel Corinne was<br />at so I made a wild guess (of the hundreds) and got a late breakfast<br />while using the restaurant internet. After eliminating the 39 junk<br />mails I found out Corinne was staying at a hotel literally <span class="il" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 204); ">1</span>0 feet<br />from where I was sitting. Sure enough there she was in the lobby!<br /><br />The three of us took the boat to Railay and begun out epic adventure<br />of rock climbing and living the beach life.<br /><br />Railay is the rock climbing capital of SE Asia. It was amazing (except<br />for the shoes). After a long day and night, we went to bed at <span class="il" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 204); ">1</span>0pm<br />ready for our next morning. Having had a long day with a lot on my<br />mind I wasn't able to sleep so decided to go for a walk down the<br />beach. I sat there for a while admiring the area and met a few other<br />foreigners who were headed swimming. Since I figured I wasn't sleeping<br />anytime soon, I might as well go with them. They neglected to mention<br />that there was bio luminescence in the water! I have never seen this<br />before but when you wave your fingers little lightnight bolts of blue<br />shoot from them. It was quite the experience. So much so that I went<br />back three nights in a row.<br /><br />After 3 days Erich had to leave us so it was just Corinne and I left.<br />We loved Railay so decided to stay there instead of venturing to the<br />other islands nearby (Railay isn't actually an island but since there<br />are no roads to it and only accessible by boat it acts that way).<br /><br />Corinne and I lounged and rock climbed until it was time to head back<br />to Bangkok for her departing flight and my trip to Myanmar. The trip<br />was fairly easy and uneventful except someone felt my bag was too<br />heavy and stole 400$ from me in my sleep. That was awesome. Budgets<br />from the previous 3 month kept flashing through my mind as I<br />calculated how many fruit drinks that would equate to in Laos. How<br />many sugar cane juice that was in Vietnam and how many more massages I<br />could have had in Thailand or how many km I could have motobiked<br />instead of walked in Cambodia. As a fellow traveler stated. I can't<br />think of that and just be glad the money was stolen peacefully and not<br />at knife or gunpoint. That would have sucked.<br /><br />We celebrated Corinne's birthday in style. Although she begged me to<br />go to a ping pong show I told her that now that she was 25 she needed<br />to act like a grown up. Instead we went for 2 dinners and a massage<br />where I am sure the Thai masseurs were making fun of us the whole<br />time.<br /><br />The next morning came too soon. Corinne flew back to Canada and I flew<br />to Yangon, the largest city in Myanmar. At the airport I do like all<br />other foreigners do in a new place. I looked for the only other white<br />person and started chatting with him. His name was Paul but went by<br />Paddy. He is in the special forces in the UK and we split a cab to the<br />city center and since we got along decided to stick together for the<br />next few days and make life cheaper. He was a really interesting guy.<br />He had recently (February) gotten divorced and I got the impression<br />wasn't able to share feelings too much with his alpha male special<br />forces friends because although he kept saying he barely talks or<br />thinks about his ex, she was the topic of most of our conversations.<br />That sounds really negative and boring, but really it was kinda nice<br />and allowed us to get to know each other much more than the other<br />travelers I've gone with. I think a big part of that is the laid back<br />nature of Myanmar.<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br />The first two days I didn't see another white person. Very few people<br />harass you for anything and everyone is really friendly and grateful<br />for your service. There is a large temple in Yangon, Shwedagon Pagoda, it was probably one of the most impressive single structures I have seen. It was beautiful and gold. Making the temple on the top<br />of the mountain in Chiang Mai look like garbage. This building was 92<br />meters tall, and covered in gold. And I mean LOTS OF GOLD. 60 tons of<br />it. I must admit, often I am a little tired of temples but this one<br />really impressed me. We capped off that night by going to a restaurant. I'm not too sure what it was exactly. It may have doubled as a brothel. We were never approached by anyone, but there were these weird dances followed by the girls sitting at the tables with old men. But this restaurant was right off the street and open concept. Not some shady back room. We were a little on edge to say the least so left fairly quickly following our meal.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gchL_-B3blM/Tx-1sRpNXPI/AAAAAAAAC3s/4VmIHKga-W4/s1600/DSC03980.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gchL_-B3blM/Tx-1sRpNXPI/AAAAAAAAC3s/4VmIHKga-W4/s400/DSC03980.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5701475425529453810" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px; " /></a></span><br />We took an overnight bus to Bagan which got a flat so in the pitch<br />black they pulled over and a team of 5 guys started fixing and<br />changing it while I watched. Someone announced that because of this<br />delay there would be no rest break in an hour so if we had to pee,<br />women to the left of the field, men in the right. Made me laugh, but<br />it worked and no one wanted to stop again in an hour anyways.<br /><br />Bagan was just what I had hoped. Peaceful, quite and incredibly<br />impressive with its temples. A little background. There are roughly<br />4000 temples over a 20km area most of which can be seen from a few<br />viewpoints. It was spectacular. We visited them by horse carriage. We<br />debated bikes however they would have been too hard to keep oriented<br />since no roads are straight and a lot of the temples look similar.<br />Getting lost was for sure a great possibility. Also, you can't feel bad hiring a horse carriage. This simple luxury was a huge help to the locals. Our guide, who waited for tourist every morning at the bus stop at 4AM was thrilled because we were his first customers in 10 days and that having us hire him meant his family could have chicken with dinner. I have really enjoyed Myanmar because it's really off the beaten path. Even at<br />the most tourist site, Sunset in Bagan, there were only 40 ish people<br />in comparison to the thousands at Ankor Wat.<br /><br /><br />We took an early night because we got up at 4 to catch sunrise from a<br />temple. Unfortunately the sun rose a little earlier than our driver<br />anticipated, but we managed to get some good views and photos<br />nonetheless. Unfortunately photos really don't do these temples<br />justice. Its the panoramic views that really made Bagan special.<br />Hopefully Paddy got some better pictures than I did. He was an amateur<br />photographer with a 2500$ camera and some of his were spectacular.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><div style="text-align: left; "><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-j2dBAYUa9yU/Tx-3SM6ZzwI/AAAAAAAAC4M/gGbQotux1oM/s1600/DSC04376.jpg" style="border-collapse: collapse;" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><br /></a></div><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TSPw6kep2V0/Tx-1r2PokII/AAAAAAAAC3c/t_uLxAc0J9M/s1600/DSC04026.jpg" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Georgia, serif; " onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TSPw6kep2V0/Tx-1r2PokII/AAAAAAAAC3c/t_uLxAc0J9M/s400/DSC04026.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5701475418174427266" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a><br /><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-485LHkwRIIk/Tx-1rXZskCI/AAAAAAAAC3Q/xy2kvFBFRp8/s1600/DSC04063.jpg" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family: Georgia, serif; " onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-485LHkwRIIk/Tx-1rXZskCI/AAAAAAAAC3Q/xy2kvFBFRp8/s400/DSC04063.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5701475409895133218" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a><br /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aKVZWxxpkVw/Tx-1q31xTUI/AAAAAAAAC3E/1eHY_hFYSvQ/s1600/DSC04191.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-aKVZWxxpkVw/Tx-1q31xTUI/AAAAAAAAC3E/1eHY_hFYSvQ/s400/DSC04191.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5701475401422949698" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a></span>Leaving Bagan, I took a quazi overnight bus. For some reason it left<br />at 4AM... its an <span class="il" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 204); ">1</span>0 hour bus ride. Why it didn't leave at <span class="il" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 204); ">1</span><span class="il" style="background-image: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 204); ">1</span>pm or even<br />8pm and get us in early morning I will never know. That being said it<br />was the least comfortable bus I have been on yet. People were sitting<br />5 deep on the roof. I managed to get a broken bench chair in the<br />middle of the bus.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" ><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; border-collapse: separate; font-family:Georgia, serif;"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xqLI-xN4LoQ/Tx-1qpSIKyI/AAAAAAAAC24/bT7x-hXUnD0/s400/DSC04230.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5701475397515356962" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></span><br />Arriving in Kalaw I now have one good nights sleep ahead of me before<br />taking off on a 3 day trek which passes through countless villages and<br />we spend a night at a monastery which I've heard is amazing!<br /><br />So thats it. That summarizes my last month of travel. I hope I didn't<br />leave too much out and I'm sorry for the lack of photos. I will make<br />sure to put them all up when I get home and send out a special edition<br />email with just that.<br /><br />Despite having a great time traveling, I must admit that I am feeling<br />burnt out. I find I am going to temples and thinking they are just<br />another temple. The activity based traveling I am getting more out of<br />now as the culture shock is wearing off. So hopefully the trek does me<br />some good.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;"><br /></span></u></div><div style="text-align: center;"><u><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;"><br /></span></u></div><div></div><div></div><div style="text-align: left;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; border-collapse: collapse;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;"><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" >Editors Note, That was all written August 10th. I will now finish the rest of the trip. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" >The hike was amazing. This was the 4th long hike I have done. And the first three were fairly challenging, Ascending and descending quite a bit. Hard on the legs. Sure this one was long (55k in 3 days) but it wasn't difficult. This allowed you to really enjoy the scenery and the day. I traveled with a couple who were really friendly and we got along great. I inquired before leaving and was told that the villages along the way in addition to needing school supplies also needed hygiene products. I was advised to bring toothpaste, soap and toothbrushes if I could, because families would buy food but not waste money on these products. With my bag loaded up with gifts I started the hike. Stopping at a village for lunch we got a fantastic home cooked meal. The meals on this tour were amazing. Lots of food and lots of variety as well. We stayed that night in a one bedroom house. I decided to be adventuresome and hang out with the locals rather than the other tourist. This proved highly entertaining. I smoked a cigar with them and drank some terrible whiskey like drink. Every time I put it down the host tried to refill it. I must have drank 4-5 ounces of the stuff before straight up refusing anymore. Needless to say I slept very well that night. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" ><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AEkv6SsZD80/Tx-3TrPkuGI/AAAAAAAAC4k/ITcWmNvL7TQ/s1600/DSC04304.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-AEkv6SsZD80/Tx-3TrPkuGI/AAAAAAAAC4k/ITcWmNvL7TQ/s400/DSC04304.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5701477201927780450" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px; " /></a><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-a5HEg42nec0/Tx-3TLtfGXI/AAAAAAAAC4Y/huJHDbVnJu0/s1600/DSC04344.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-a5HEg42nec0/Tx-3TLtfGXI/AAAAAAAAC4Y/huJHDbVnJu0/s400/DSC04344.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5701477193463306610" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 88px; " /></a></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" >The next day was another long day of crossing rice fields and awesome mountain scenery. Nothing overly eventful other than some rain. Fortunately being Asia it was 30*C so that didn't really slow us down much. We stayed that night in a monastery. It was cool, but a little overdone. You could tell this was somewhat like a hotel. But the kids were cute. The last day involved hiking out of the mountains and down to the lake. It was advertised that we would have an hour long boat ride. I wasn't overly thrilled with this idea, I get bored on boats, however, this turned out to be a great experience. Seeing Inle Lake from the water, the fisherman, the huts, was really amazing. We were dropped off in town and I walked to the hotel where our bags were stored, and I ran into Paddy again! He had gone to Mandalay but then skipped the trek and went straight to Inle Lake. We got to hang out for another day, share stories before I took off the next morning for Yangon. While in Inle Lake though, I continued my theme of giving. After having dropped off all the books and supplies to schools and host houses along the way, I arrived in Inle Lake and learned that there was a large school there as well in need. Myanmar is super poor, significantly more so than the other Asian countries. So that 10$ spent on books for kids goes a long way. I managed to buy a book, pen, pencil eraser for every kid at a school (66) as well as some general supplies like a dictionary and calculator. It was a little awkward giving these to the teachers but they seemed very appreciative and the kids all said thank you as I left. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; border-collapse: separate; font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" ><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-L5AGPVfAgsI/Tx-4XF93g4I/AAAAAAAAC5g/voYDN0AWsEY/s400/DSC04439.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5701478360152507266" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; border-collapse: separate; font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" ><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-j2dBAYUa9yU/Tx-3SM6ZzwI/AAAAAAAAC4M/gGbQotux1oM/s1600/DSC04376.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-j2dBAYUa9yU/Tx-3SM6ZzwI/AAAAAAAAC4M/gGbQotux1oM/s400/DSC04376.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5701477176606052098" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8NKx-mJNPaY/Tx-3RtfwEqI/AAAAAAAAC4A/_BuGMiwVEKk/s1600/DSC04379.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-8NKx-mJNPaY/Tx-3RtfwEqI/AAAAAAAAC4A/_BuGMiwVEKk/s400/DSC04379.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5701477168172765858" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a><br /><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aJOHWTM4Lxo/Tx-3RVXlZnI/AAAAAAAAC30/edcmywn1xVw/s1600/DSC04403.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aJOHWTM4Lxo/Tx-3RVXlZnI/AAAAAAAAC30/edcmywn1xVw/s400/DSC04403.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5701477161696061042" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" ><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-1TUsAMKQhuo/Tx-4Wp0X7cI/AAAAAAAAC5U/pu8dR7TkyoY/s400/DSC04464.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5701478352596495810" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; border-collapse: separate; font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" ><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" >The trip to Yangon was fairly uneventful. I am now a pro at sleeping on buses. Getting to Yangon I travelled through the market and just killed my last day taking photos and walking around and found a good internet cafe. I flew out the next day to Bangkok after mailing some letters (3 cents per letter). The letters all arrived in Canada, however some took as long as late november to arrive. </span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" >From Bangkok I went straight south to Koh Tao, however my last week and trip home is going to be saved for another day. </span></div>Vincenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555327744386677155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5742631099544045105.post-86165508608871447352011-11-29T14:37:00.000-08:002011-11-29T15:49:51.248-08:00Day 98 Railay/Tonsai<div style="text-align: left;">I left of heading south on the train from Chaing Mai on my way to Bangkok. This overnight train got me in to BKK with plenty of time to spare before the next train to Surat Thani in the south of Thailand on my way to Railay/Tonsai.</div><div><br /></div><div>During my 12 hour layover in BKK I managed finally to get my Visa application in for Myanmar and then walked around heading to the Palace and walked through the grounds. I was somewhat templed out and didn't really feel like spending 15$ to walk around and take more photos. Instead I walked back towards the train station and stopped in a park to read and watch old men do exercises. No one stepped on the grass the entire hour I was there. They simply jogged around the sidewalk over and over again or did squats and stuff in the wider parts of the walkway. Kinda funny.</div><div><br /></div><div>Onto the train, and off to the south! Arriving in Krabi (jumping point to Railay/Tonsai) I wasn't sure where I was supposed to meet Corinne and Erich. Erich was flying in that day and Corinne had been there since the night before but unfortunately we hadn't managed to communicate where we were meeting. I arrived at a restaurant, ordered lunch and got the wifi password and learned where Corinne was hiding, some hostel which google maps showed being far and on the opposite end of town. I wasn't pumped about this. So I sat, ate my lunch and asked the server what the best way to get to this hostel was. She was confused by me question, because it turns out that the hostel was literally next door. The entire time I was eating, I wasn't more than 20 feet away from Corinne. </div><div><br /></div><div>I walk the quick steps and we hang out and 15 minutes later Erich shows up. Success! Erich is super pumped: </div><div><br /></div><div>First because of how awesome my beard has become; and</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HMz0XQGsAPk/TtVgbX5-x1I/AAAAAAAACzY/-VYA1mGApGg/s1600/DSC03829.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-HMz0XQGsAPk/TtVgbX5-x1I/AAAAAAAACzY/-VYA1mGApGg/s400/DSC03829.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5680552528387688274" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a></div><div> second because we are rocking out in Thailand!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5Xsd_HQyAmQ/TtViskjM0cI/AAAAAAAAC1E/L_zO-p1iBg0/s1600/SEA%2Bpart%2BII%2B1386.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-5Xsd_HQyAmQ/TtViskjM0cI/AAAAAAAAC1E/L_zO-p1iBg0/s400/SEA%2Bpart%2BII%2B1386.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5680555022862832066" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a></div><div><br /></div><div>We arrived in Railay which is more expensive than the further more remote beach of Tonsai, so packs and all we walk the beach and climb through the mini jungle to the second beach and find some pretty cheap digs for 6$ a night, No power during the day, padlocks on doors for locks. Pretty basic. Corinne and Erich bunk up and I grab my spot and we feast on a massive dinner! For anyone going, Tonsai has significantly better and cheaper food than Railay. </div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gaJKUOsIdUs/TtVhRWnGfHI/AAAAAAAAC0c/UAKzrgNmmXM/s1600/IMG_1964.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-gaJKUOsIdUs/TtVhRWnGfHI/AAAAAAAAC0c/UAKzrgNmmXM/s400/IMG_1964.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5680553455753002098" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 299px; " /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366ff;">Railay beach is the right, Tonsai is the far left, and that green bit is the treacherous path we needed to hike through far too often everyday.</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>That night Erich and Corinne called it a night early, and I went back to my room to read. Not being in the mood to read and not able to sleep I decided to go for a walk. Through the treacherous path (in the dark using iPhone light) and across back to Railay where I could get wifi. While awkwardly lurking around one of the fancier hotels a group roughly my age (which I realize after writing that means 20-38 when I reflect on who was there) came through and were headed swimming! Seeing as how it was now midnight and I was wide awake, I could see nothing better to do with my time. Well, am I ever pleased I did. There was bioluminescence in the water! As you moved your arms and legs it looked like you were swimming on a cloud! Definitely an experience I did not expect to have that night. On my walk back towards Tonsai I noticed a lot of people on skype so I shared my experience with them and finally made it back to my room sometime between 4 and 5 AM. </div><div><br /></div><div>Needless to say the 8AM meeting with Erich and Corinne came super early. Quick breakfast and we were off! What do you do in this area of Thailand you may ask? ROCK CLIMB!</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ftpmxR-U9tg/TtVgc8dDcVI/AAAAAAAACzw/4ZhvOplQuGo/s1600/DSC03864.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ftpmxR-U9tg/TtVgc8dDcVI/AAAAAAAACzw/4ZhvOplQuGo/s400/DSC03864.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5680552555378340178" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366ff;">Corinne had never really rock climbed before, she started out having trouble keeping up with the routes Erich and I were doing, but by the end of the week she was rocking them out no problem!</span></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1q28pdNBW6U/TtVitYCtmwI/AAAAAAAAC1c/LQ5xngXw59c/s1600/SEA%2Bpart%2BII%2B1512.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-1q28pdNBW6U/TtVitYCtmwI/AAAAAAAAC1c/LQ5xngXw59c/s400/SEA%2Bpart%2BII%2B1512.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5680555036685212418" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366ff;">Shaving my beard. One of lifes big regrets</span></div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CIzcsurv66Q/TtVis-6f8HI/AAAAAAAAC1Q/Tj8ssf2Iqig/s1600/SEA%2Bpart%2BII%2B1498.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-CIzcsurv66Q/TtVis-6f8HI/AAAAAAAAC1Q/Tj8ssf2Iqig/s400/SEA%2Bpart%2BII%2B1498.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5680555029939875954" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px; " /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366ff;">Some of the routes were HUGE! 30+ meters (which is tricky on a 30M rope)</span></div><div style="text-align: center; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000ee;"><u><br /></u></span></div><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uyD81t1uliw/TtVhSTEkkCI/AAAAAAAAC08/1N9b8jAI9fU/s1600/Screen%2Bshot%2B2011-11-28%2Bat%2B10.51.57%2BPM.png" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uyD81t1uliw/TtVhSTEkkCI/AAAAAAAAC08/1N9b8jAI9fU/s400/Screen%2Bshot%2B2011-11-28%2Bat%2B10.51.57%2BPM.png" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5680553471982735394" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 292px; " /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366ff;">No Bigs</span></div><div><br /></div><div>Erich unfortunately had to leave us after only a few days. We mixed up our days by either rock climbing, or hanging out on the beach. It doesn't look too sunny, but believe me when I said it was HOT! Super humid. We went and discovered caves, Erich avoided monkeys so that they didn't steal his food again like they did in KL, and ate. Yes we ate A LOT!</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vIQZk4ytae8/TtVgcCbbldI/AAAAAAAACzo/DJ926U-BKW8/s1600/DSC03843.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vIQZk4ytae8/TtVgcCbbldI/AAAAAAAACzo/DJ926U-BKW8/s400/DSC03843.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5680552539802277330" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366ff;">Erich and Corinne cruising the beach</span></div><div>On Erich's last night we decided to go big. For years I've been heading Erich and Pat talk about Thai Buckets, booze concoctions so great that they don't even remember what they did those nights. </div><div><br /></div><div>Needless to say, Erichs last night we purchased a few and people went missing. Sure there weren't the goodbyes everyone would have hoped for in the morning, but I think the story makes up for the missing people. I'll leave it at that. Another good night with buckets!</div><div><br /></div><div>Now it was back to just Corinne and I. Corinne decided that my beard needed a trimming and unfortunately she did a terrible job! No just kidding, I was getting tired of it because it was getting really hot and itchy with all the moisture so I decided to shave. BIG MISTAKE! Surprisingly there weren't any dorky tan lines or anything of the such. But I was instantly cold! Corinne and I had big plans to visit other beaches on neighbouring islands, however, this place was so relaxing that we decided we really didn't need new adventures. This was Corinnes last week of travel and I was about to depart to Myanmar so relaxing was definitely a great plan. Our 3 days at this beach turned into 8 with nothing other than climbing, eating, drinking and swimming to report. It was fantastic! And this attitude wasn't just the two of us. Nearly everyone we met and hung out with while there also extended their trip from a few days to weeks. We met some fantastic people from all over. Some Montreal, Vancouver, California, All over Europe! Was great!</div><div><br /></div><div>Corinne and I finally had to leave this beach paradise, and head back to Bangkok. This is where the first unfortunately event took place. Everyone always warns you of theft etc while traveling and I had encountered none. You are also told never to leave your money in the same spot in case of robbery. So I had a bunch of cash on me, and a bunch in the depth of my travel bag, and while on the bus someone must have been camping out in the storage compartment because I had roughly 400-500$ stolen from my bag, exact amount not exactly certain. As rotten as this was, I reassured myself by saying that at least it was stolen in a non violent way. I've heard of people being mugged, kidnapped and beat up for significantly less money while traveling, so a simple loss like this I could deal with. Not wanting to let this be a damper on my travels and Corinnes last night (which also happened to be her birthday), we went for massages and to a fancy dinner of mussels and chicken and then other items from the menu as we got hungry. Unsatisfied with dinner, while walking on Koh San Road Corinne found a food item she just couldn't say no to. </div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-urHxgsPfw0Q/TtVhQ3tdYMI/AAAAAAAAC0U/pgzfg-NmW8Q/s1600/DSC03940.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-urHxgsPfw0Q/TtVhQ3tdYMI/AAAAAAAAC0U/pgzfg-NmW8Q/s400/DSC03940.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5680553447458169026" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366ff;">Roasted Grasshoppers or something like that. Tasted mostly just like roasted nuts but with a different crunch</span></div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hV6rIZRgD4Y/TtVhQmwNaZI/AAAAAAAAC0I/FKvdm9FAx8Y/s1600/DSC03939.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-hV6rIZRgD4Y/TtVhQmwNaZI/AAAAAAAAC0I/FKvdm9FAx8Y/s400/DSC03939.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5680553442906302866" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px; " /></a></div><div>For about a quarter we got like 20 of them, so Corinne and I had plenty of photo opportunities. We also tried to offer them to strangers as they walked by. Not many takers...</div><div><br /></div><div>Thai money was really funny. my favourite was the 1000 Bhat which has the king of Thailand on it, he is acting photographer!</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-vs5gPuB5ZDI/TtVgdBGn_ZI/AAAAAAAACz8/DeeyjiWUbac/s400/DSC03937.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5680552556626443666" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366ff;">Corinne imitating the King</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366ff;"><br /></span></div><div>And here we parted ways. Corinnes last night in Bangkok and the next morning we went real early to the airport where she caught a flight home and I went off to Myanmar! But more on that later!</div>Vincenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555327744386677155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5742631099544045105.post-56599399218052208732011-11-28T20:20:00.000-08:002011-11-28T21:23:44.022-08:00Day 85<div style="text-align: left;">So I'm guessing by now its pretty obvious that my updates lost a little bit of steam while I was traveling. My last update took place in the south of Cambodia with just over a month left in my trip. I was holed up in Sihanoukville after having just been sick, but was recovered and on my way to Thailand!</div><div><br /></div><div>I wasn't too sure what to expect from Thailand. It has a reputation that precedes it so I had high hopes. The adventure started immediately, we got dropped off at the border and had to switch from bus to van. Well, since there were 10 of us in a 11 person van headed to Bangkok we decided to wait 3 hours for the next bus to come through so that we could load in all the extra people and head to Bangkok. The unfortunate effect of this was that instead of getting to Bangkok at 8pm which I could hope to catch the last train to Chaing Mai, I only arrived at 11PM and had to stay the extra day in Bangkok. Although Bangkok has Kow San Road and a few other exciting parts, I just really wasn't in the mood for the big city. I spent the next day going to the Myanmar embassy, trying to get my visa (it was closed for a holiday but the guard couldn't explain this to me) and then just walked through China town before heading north.</div><div><br /></div><div><div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-A1Cf_Sck7aQ/TtRkBzsUw-I/AAAAAAAACxU/vdXO4p3X2Bw/s1600/IMG_1886.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-A1Cf_Sck7aQ/TtRkBzsUw-I/AAAAAAAACxU/vdXO4p3X2Bw/s400/IMG_1886.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5680275012239803362" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 299px; " /></a></div></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366ff;">Not a truck you want to get a delivery from, seen in Bangkok</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366ff;"><br /></span></div><div>Chaing Mai was a great change from Bangkok. Its a big small town. Everything is activity based. Either you go on hikes, check out temples, take a cooking class or massage. I decided my first day to renting a motorbike and cruising the mountains north of the city. It was AMAZING! If I had more time I easily would have spent a few more days cruising on a motorbike (or better yet my bicycle). These roads were incredible, hilly, and always winding. </div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-y70mV608AlY/TtRl6wMzYBI/AAAAAAAACyQ/KqqULGn3Yu4/s1600/IMG_1907.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-y70mV608AlY/TtRl6wMzYBI/AAAAAAAACyQ/KqqULGn3Yu4/s400/IMG_1907.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5680277090066456594" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 299px; height: 400px; " /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366ff;">Sweet Road leading to small hill villages</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366ff;"><br /></span></div><div>At the top of the mountain there was a temple. Big and gold, nothing extraordinary, however, there was a funny statue, Not sure what it was for, but it reminded me of you mom!</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MM9sivV4Lrk/TtRn-4LO-vI/AAAAAAAACy0/Mwvt4R4rAhg/s1600/DSC03733.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MM9sivV4Lrk/TtRn-4LO-vI/AAAAAAAACy0/Mwvt4R4rAhg/s400/DSC03733.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5680279359950093042" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px; " /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366ff;">Just for you mom!</span></div><div><br /></div><div>Day 2 in Chaing Mai: COOKING COURSE!</div><div><br /></div><div>This was a highlight of Chaing Mai, I took a Thai cooking course where you could learn to make 7 different meals. There were groups of us so 21 different meals were made in total so if you were friendly to your neighbour you got to try a whole assortment of foods! I was apparently the only person who wasn't full by the end of the day. My favourites were Cashew Chicken and Pad Thai. Pad Thai has become a staple at my household now in Vancouver. Want to try it? Come on over for dinner!</div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HIKOpDJB4BQ/TtRn90EWswI/AAAAAAAACyc/lol53DTt5KI/s400/DSC03691.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5680279341667627778" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366ff;">My hilarious cooking instructor. He felt particularly sympathetic towards me because I was the only one not part of a couple taking the course. Either that or he just liked me</span></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-B6qiZGpv534/TtRn-HU8WdI/AAAAAAAACyo/Sy5OIftjl1g/s400/DSC03702.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5680279346837477842" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZtsXNWlV2lQ/TtRl5LK9AnI/AAAAAAAACxg/pDmNz1uDupE/s400/DSC03705.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5680277062946718322" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 400px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#0000ee;"><br /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366ff;">I realize neither of these photos are of Pad Thai or Cashew Chicken, but the spring rolls are the only photos I have of myself cooking</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><div>Day Three in Chaing Mai was spent taking a Massage class. Sure there were a lot of fun hikes I could take, but really, I figured this was a life skill someone from home would greatly appreciate. I can't remember the name of the course, it was Mrs. Tina's or something like that. I called from the hotel, spoke to a girl on the phone booked my class. There was supposed to be a full class in the afternoon, but the morning class still had space. I wasn't too sure what to expect (going alone without a partner). Well turns out the afternoon class being full meant there was already 1 person in it. These were 1:1 classes. Also, it was Mrs Tina giving the class. It was her brother. Nothing like a 4 hour massage course with a tiny Thai Dude. But in all honesty this was probably much less awkward than if it had been a 1:1 course with Mrs Tina due to the nature of the course, being topless was somewhat of a requisite and not sure how that would have fared otherwise. </div><div><br /></div><div>Massage course finished I had one more day left in Chaing Mai before catching the afternoon train back to Bangkok. I spent a lot of time in Chaing Mai relaxing in my room in the evenings. We had cable TV and it just so happened to be the end of the most epic Tour De France in modern history! So between relaxing and doing pushups (because I stepped on a scale for the first time in month and realized I had lost 10 pounds) I just sat up and enjoyed the race and reflected on my trip so far. </div><div><br /></div><div>Last day in the North was spent seeing TIGERS! Seeing the tigers wasn't actually all that exceptional, however some of the photos that came from it were easily worth the 25$ for the entrance. </div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-u9ZDRB4RmVU/TtRl5dIb79I/AAAAAAAACxs/HLT1sR2JKig/s400/IMG_1946.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5680277067768000466" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 299px; " /></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366ff;">Damn! Sweet Beard!</span></div><div><br /></div><div>I got to see and snuggle up to an 18 month old (above) and a 2 month old tiger. Their fur is much more coarse than I would have ever imagined. </div><div><br /></div><div>I got picked up from Tiger Kingdom and brought to a shopping centre to buy snacks, it was like Walmart, but the entire staff moved around on rollerblades. </div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4Q013syIL_0/TtRn_MK1OHI/AAAAAAAACzE/8ZXBja4IS-0/s1600/IMG_1950.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4Q013syIL_0/TtRn_MK1OHI/AAAAAAAACzE/8ZXBja4IS-0/s400/IMG_1950.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5680279365317113970" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 299px; height: 400px; " /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366ff;">I covertly snapped this shot!</span></div><div><br /></div><div>Then it was on the train where I hoped I may meet Harry Potter on my way back to Bangkok while transferring to another train south to Krabi to meet up with Erich and Corinne!</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gI4GAkm9SQ4/TtRl6Aj-afI/AAAAAAAACyI/wGACJf63CxI/s1600/IMG_1894.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-gI4GAkm9SQ4/TtRl6Aj-afI/AAAAAAAACyI/wGACJf63CxI/s400/IMG_1894.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5680277077278747122" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 299px; height: 400px; " /></a><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366ff;">Looking for Harry, must be on the wrong train</span></div><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-drwvqwpKFK0/TtRl5hEacGI/AAAAAAAACx4/r0CvS0InqtE/s1600/DSC03809.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-drwvqwpKFK0/TtRl5hEacGI/AAAAAAAACx4/r0CvS0InqtE/s400/DSC03809.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5680277068824866914" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px; " /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366ff;">Long trip South</span></div><div><br /></div>Vincenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555327744386677155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5742631099544045105.post-2630650674405979642011-11-07T09:43:00.000-08:002011-11-07T09:56:37.413-08:00Day 76<div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;"><br /></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-722UXEwSS-s/TrgaHM3nztI/AAAAAAAACv8/GzYmmLQdMIM/s1600/image.jpeg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"></a><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tnv58fqChsY/TrgZ90t4IuI/AAAAAAAACvA/1guHq469_d4/s1600/image_1.jpeg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 299px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-tnv58fqChsY/TrgZ90t4IuI/AAAAAAAACvA/1guHq469_d4/s400/image_1.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5672312280586920674" /></a></span><div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" >Always convenient, lesser known 6-Eleven</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" >I left off in Pakse (Laos) heading to 4000 islands the next morning. One thing I have found really interesting traveling is how you run into the same people everywhere you go. The group I had been with in Luang Prabang and Veng Viang I thought I had left for good when I skipped a few days and headed down to Pakse.<br /><br />Well the minibus to 4000 islands (Don Det) arrived and there wasn't a person in it that I didn't already know and getting to the islands ran into another few people.<br /><br />For all the excitement i had heard about 4000 islands I must say I was a little disappointed. They were nice and all but being small islands on the Mighty Mekong there wasn't much to do. They didn't stack up to beaches since you couldn't really swim (for fear of floating away) and it was literally just a strip of guest houses and a couple bars. I understand it could be really relaxing but I think Corinne agrees with me that after 2 days there we had seen enough. Onwards to Siem Reap and the temples of Angkor!<br /><br />After a lengthy 14 hour bus trip including a boarder crossing into Cambodia (which included some lovely corruption; 2$ stamp fee, 2$ staple fee, 1$ photo attachment fee) we arrived in Siem Reap at fun guest house.<br /><br />The first thing we did the next morning was rent 1$ bikes and head off to see Angkor Wat and the other more popular temples of Bayon and Ta Prohm. All in all it was about 30km of biking over the day, but on these terrible bikes I had had enough. Every pedal stroke between 3 and 5 the freewheel would slip. Lovely.<br /><br />The temples themselves were amazing. despite this being a very tiring day I really enjoyed it. We got back fairly late and prepared for the next day which we would be waking up at 4AM in order to leave and catch the sunrise over Angkor Wat (the most famous and largest religious temple in the world). The sunrise was funny. Although we were instructed to enter and go left (North) for the best view, Corinne and I decided to go south and there were only a small grouping of maybe 10-15 people on the South side as opposed to the hundreds on the North. I dare say our view was significantly better because the sun rose over the temples rather than beside it.<br /><br />Next up we went to further temples via Tuk Tuk (taxi). The rest of them were interesting as well however my highlight was the landmine museum which we passed on the way. This museum was created by a Cambodia who had been a child soldier for the Khmer Rouge, then forced to switch sides and fight for the Vietnamese at the age of 12. Following the end of the war he had extensive experience with Landmines (Cambodia has more landmines than any other country in the world) and the museum owner has single handedly diffused 60 000 landmines. Sometimes as many as 300 a day. That being said there are still an estimated 6 million left (mostly on the border with Thailand).</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" ><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-722UXEwSS-s/TrgaHM3nztI/AAAAAAAACv8/GzYmmLQdMIM/s400/image.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5672312441689067218" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 299px; height: 400px; " /></span></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" >Sunrise at Ankor Wat</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" ><br />The museum was very informative but in addition, since many people in Cambodia are poor, the museum also functions as an orphanage for children injured by landmines whose parents don't have the resources or knowledge to help them. Currently there are 50 kids there and over time as the museum makes more money and grows the money goes to expanding the orphanage.<br /><br />Other than the temple and sights, I really enjoyed Siem Reap. It was a nice city with cheap food and amongst the best fruit shakes I've had. We bought a lot! I also tried Black Panther Beer (8%). I don't recommend this to anyone. And Corinne bought a child dinner only to be told she was a bad person by the other children. It was a good deed that definitely wasn't appreciated.<br /><br />Next up, Corinne and I headed to the capital Phnom Penh. Corinne wasn't planning on coming to Cambodia at all and here I had persuaded her to see two cities now. In PP we went to see the prison S-21 where the genocide started followed by a very rainy motorbike ride out to the killing fields. They were depressing learning of all the horrors that took place, however it wasn't physically jarring that I've heard people describe. Maybe because I had read up on it before hand so there wasn't as much shock factor. One aspect that did surprise me was the photos of the head bad guy for the Khmer Rouge at the prison (not Pol Pot but his second in command or something). A guy who went by the name Duch. What surprised me was seeing photos of him, he is a tiny little man and the least intimidating figure you could ever imagine. Maybe 5'3-4 and 100 pounds its crazy to think this guy is referred to as more evil than Hitler.</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-aDRI_I4u5o8/TrgZ98CeseI/AAAAAAAACvQ/E6rNt5NL9wI/s400/image_2.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5672312282552381922" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 299px; " /></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" >Sunset from Guesthouse</span></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" >Corinne left that night for Bangkok and I stayed in PP for another day. I went to the Royal Palace and walked around the city. Phnom Penh is actually a really pretty place.<br /><br />Following PP I went to Kampot. Its supposed to be a really nice town, but to be honest. I just didn't see it. I stayed for 1 day. Did an interesting but significantly overprice tour and got out. The tour was to the Bokor Hill station. A 1920 casino/hotel built as a french retreat from the heat (since it is up in the mountains) but since it had a nice view it was heavily fought for during the wars. As a result the hotel is shot up as are many of the sites around it. In addition there is famous fog here which rolls in and makes everythign white. I took photos of the road and the hotel and you can get a picture. I would never want to fight a war there. The enemy could be 20 feet away and you wouldn't see him. THe only warning of their approach would be the detonation of a landmine.</span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" ><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-HjtrPg4Xltk/TrgZ-hfxfFI/AAAAAAAACvY/Oo218wUKbv4/s400/image_3.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5672312292607360082" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 299px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" ><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" ><img src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EzpKq-NalsM/TrgZ-uq0osI/AAAAAAAACvo/BtLnSBQlNj4/s400/image_4.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5672312296143364802" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 299px; height: 400px; " /></span></span></div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" >Casino in the Fog, Bokor Hill Station (Kampot)</span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" ><br />I left Kampot and went to the beach resort of Sihannoukville. I heard bad things about this place. Busy, touristy and dangerous. But to be honest I really like it. THere is a good atmosphere. I doesn't seem dangerous. and the beach is really nice. The only downside is that it has rained and I got sick making it so taht I don't dare be further than 20 feet from a bathroom (FUN!).<br /><br /></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; border-collapse: separate; font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" ><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-o0B3viFmKjw/TrgZ_HeoQrI/AAAAAAAACvw/wMO-mEOOCAM/s400/image_5.jpeg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5672312302803108530" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 299px; " /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: center; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" >Storm Clouds coming in to Sihanookville</span></span></div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" ><br />And that brings me to today! I will probably stay in Sihanoukville another day or two relaxing and getting better. I really want to go for a swim and get some exercise and then head to Thailand.<br /><br />Thats all for now. A little rushed but has the details necessary.<br /></span><div><div><div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; border-collapse: separate; font-family:Georgia, serif;font-size:100%;color:#c0c0c0;" ><br /></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; color: rgb(34, 34, 34); font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;"><br /></span></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>Vincenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555327744386677155noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5742631099544045105.post-74351012311446620972011-11-06T22:49:00.000-08:002011-11-06T22:51:32.547-08:00Day 69<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family:arial, sans-serif;font-size:13px;color:#cccccc;" ><div>No real message today. Corinne and I were up at 4 to catch this moment over Ankor Wat. Pretty great day but now after our second 12 hour tomb raiding day I am tired. </div><div><br /></div><div>Corinne may even be swayed to stay in Cambodia a few more days. But I won't say that too loud lest she hears me. </div><div><br /></div><div><img src="https://mail.google.com/mail/?ui=2&ik=7ccccc8fcd&view=att&th=13108e19584aff5a&attid=0.1.1&disp=emb&zw" alt="image.jpeg" width="300" /></div><div><br /></div><div>Vince</div></span>Vincenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555327744386677155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5742631099544045105.post-82392252792120240322011-07-03T07:57:00.001-07:002011-07-03T08:05:39.290-07:00Day 62!<div align="center"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GUclOr06f2w/ThCEPiDfKYI/AAAAAAAACuM/6a4FEDu_pBs/s1600/6"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 299px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5625141336960084354" border="0" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GUclOr06f2w/ThCEPiDfKYI/AAAAAAAACuM/6a4FEDu_pBs/s400/6" /></a><span style="color:#3366ff;">Flooding in VV, on the day I arrived it went to the 4th green steps.</span> </div><br /><br /><br /><br /><div align="center"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DHTk0FPYQbg/ThCEFC9yVjI/AAAAAAAACuE/AWl67Gd3Imw/s1600/5"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 299px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5625141156815984178" border="0" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-DHTk0FPYQbg/ThCEFC9yVjI/AAAAAAAACuE/AWl67Gd3Imw/s400/5" /></a> <span style="color:#3366ff;">1.21$ all you can stuff on a plate mean</span><br /><br /><br /><br /><div align="center"><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HJLCDEw_T7c/ThCEEzBKEnI/AAAAAAAACt8/DuD_C-gLUm0/s1600/4"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 299px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5625141152535155314" border="0" alt="" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-HJLCDEw_T7c/ThCEEzBKEnI/AAAAAAAACt8/DuD_C-gLUm0/s400/4" /></a><span style="color:#3366ff;"> Rock climbing wall, about 100 meters above the ground<br /></span><br /><br /><br /><div align="center"><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GQPTPpvhVxQ/ThCEDzaEGWI/AAAAAAAACt0/fAAVXg7Xyd0/s1600/3"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 299px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5625141135459752290" border="0" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-GQPTPpvhVxQ/ThCEDzaEGWI/AAAAAAAACt0/fAAVXg7Xyd0/s400/3" /></a> <span style="color:#3366ff;">First climb of the day, having to shift from one hanging object to another 120m above solid land. Sweet!<br /></span><br /><br /><br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_MLxLZB-z_A/ThCED3oHmQI/AAAAAAAACts/9Qr7iQnPAz4/s1600/2"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 299px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5625141136592443650" border="0" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_MLxLZB-z_A/ThCED3oHmQI/AAAAAAAACts/9Qr7iQnPAz4/s400/2" /></a><span style="color:#3366ff;"> Left side is route of 5'11 climb all the way to the shadows<br /><br /></span><br /><br /><div align="left"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FB8tbK-pyL8/ThCEDvpWR3I/AAAAAAAACtk/to9pmU9JvOg/s1600/1"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 299px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5625141134450116466" border="0" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FB8tbK-pyL8/ThCEDvpWR3I/AAAAAAAACtk/to9pmU9JvOg/s400/1" /></a><span style="color:#3366ff;"> Puffy hand from wasp sting (48 hours later)<br /></span><br /><br /><div>Alright! I left off in Hanoi hung over and about to head to Laos. My trip over to Luang Prabang was failry uneventful. I met a canadian living in Hanoi who gave me a few helpful hints for Laos and was off. Fortuantely he was still around when we got to the airport because the ATM wouldn't accept any of my cards and I had to pay him in Dong (Vietnamese currency) and he paid for the tuk tuk into town. Getting to Luang Prabang, I found a relatively costly however very nice guest house. Being late decided to go with it. Luckily this was a good move. It was right next to the night market and also the food stalls. These were great! For 10 000kip (1.21$ CAN) you could fill a plate with as much food as possible. For another 10 000 you got a tall beer. I was set. Getting my fix of vegetables FINALLY after a 3 weeks in Vietnam I was set. Who knew I would be craving vegetables so badly. Eating in Vietnam wasn't great and my stomach agreed. However getting to Laos not 12 hours later my stomach was rock solid and thankfully has been ever since! </div><br /><div></div><br /><div><br /><br />I was sitting at the food stalls and noticed a full table next to me roughly my age. They were all speaking with different accents so I decided to try my luck and introduce myself. Sure enough they were a group that had somewhat formed on the road (Laos really only has two routes people travel (North to South and South to North). I hit it off with this group (2 Austrian, 1 German, 1 American, 1 Dutch, 1 Italian) and these were the people I hung out with for the next few days.<br /><br />Unfortunately that night it started to rain. A common theme for the next week. In Laos when it rains, it rains hard! A 20 meter walk and you are soaked. The idea was to go see waterfalls the next morning however when the rain continued this proved impossible. Tuk tuks wouldn't drive and there really wasn't any other way. This was a good relaxing day though. In the rain the group went to little cafes and somewhat just killed the day. A good way to offset the crazy pace that was Vietnam.<br /><br />The rain continued and unfortunately once again the next day waterfalls were not possible. Speaking to some people who rented their own motorbikes and braved the elements to see them, they told us that there was a 20 minute walk through leech infested waters and the waterfall was brown from all the mud so you couldn't swim in the lagoon (which was this waterfalls major draw). Feeling defeated many of us decided to leave Luang Prabang and head south to the party city that is Vang Vieng (VV) where the legendary tubing takes place.<br /><br />The trip down should be a 5-6 hour minibus ride. Easy. 4 of us from our international group departed in heavy rains. Rumors were ominously suggesting landslides. My roommate from Vancouver Corinne was strategically (or through poor planning) 3 days ahead of me in her travels through Laos and reported that heading south from VV was blocked by landslides but north was still clear.<br /><br />After passing a half dozen landslides which covered 50-75% of the road and squeaking by after 4 hours of driving we had only gone 100km (of the 229). It was painful. I could bike faster than this. Then came the road block. At 2:30pm we ran into a large set of cars all waiting for a landslide to be cleared. The wait wasn't too bad. Locals sold food and beer walking along the cars and horns cheered as the excavator drove up the street. At 5:30 the road was clear and we piled back in the car. Sure we were 3 hours delayed (on an already slow day) but that part of the alure of travelling in Laos. Infamously slow buses. We get back into the car. Make it to km 102 and stop again. This time we can see the row of cars (not the 15 that had been previously waiting but 1-2km of them. A 30 meter landslide had been blocking the road since 9AM. To make the story short. We had a street party. Locals brought more beer and food and we played music until 10:30PM when the landslide was cleared. Unfortunately when you have 12+ hours of blocked road. There are a lot of cars. It was not until 12:30 that we moved and then there was a dense fog requiring us to drive 15-30km/h the rest of the way. I was thankful for this though becasue the roads were terrible. In some section sthere were large cliffs and the road had sunken 5 feet.<br /><br />Arriving in the rain in VV at 5AM myself and a fellow bus rider found the first available guest house and went promptly to sleep.<br /><br />VV was fun. The next day had no rain and we went tubing. Its exactly what its made out to be. Chaotic, a lot of fun, filled with lots of irresponsible behavior, loaded with drugs and a big headache the next morning. One day of heavy drinking was enough for me however some of the friends I had made decided to go a second and even third day. No way! Tubing was interesting though because of massive rainfal the city had the most flooding in decades. Great timing for Laos Vince.<br /><br />My second day I went to visit some caves. They required a bike ride along VERY rural streets. I had to dodge cows along the way. THe caves were really cool however I described them as though I had had a cave on my land and charged admission. There was no public tourism. Once in the gave there was no guidance and getting lost without anyone knowing were you were was very possible. As a result myself and my american friend decided not to go too far in because we didn't really want to die.<br /><br />The third day was by far my favorite. I have been rock climbing in montreal and vancouver for the past 10 years however had never been outdoor climbing. I signed up for a guided climbing day. The rock cliffs were apparently very similar to the famous areas in Krabi (thailand) however significantly less known. Climbing was hard. I managed to get stung by a wasp while tubing and also sliced my foot.This made climbing hard since my foot hurt in the shoe and I couldn't apply any pressure to my hand which had swelled to nearly twice its size. I've attached a photo but unfortunately it was once the swelling subsided and it really doesn't give a good image of the swelling, it just looks puffy.<br /><br />I still managed a 5'10-5'11 climb for those of you who know what that means (it was actually a 6B+ using the french system so wikipedia was used to translate). What made this route hard wasn't the difficulty of the holds (which were hard) but the fact that the route was over 30 meters long. To do the route clean took nearly 5 minutes which in climbing terms (for me at least) is a marathon.<br /><br />Deciding I had enough of VV after three great days I headed south again. Corinne (my roommate) was somehwere south of me and I thought that if I skipped through some caves and minority villages I could catch up. I took the bus to Vientiane (capital of Laos) spent the day sightseeing and got on a nightbus sleeper to Pakse in the South. The sleeper buses are funny. Although you do get to lay down, you have to share a 3X6foot spot with someone. Thats right, they aren't individual. At supper I met a family from Ireland also taking the sleeper bus. We had seen each other in VV and chatted quite a bit. They had two daughters traveling similar routes to me who I would assume were both doing their undergrads (or that age about).<br /><br />Getting to the bus station, my ticket didn't have a seat assigned. They quickly assinged me #48. The irish family had seats 45-48... Uncertain where to go I just kinda hung out for a while until a bus official told me I was to share with them. Cosy! There were 5 (small) spots in the back row (44-48, 2-1-2). The two daughters were in the first two spots and to make life not super awkard I didn't share the other spot with the mom. So I got to spend the night on the sleeper bus between two 20 something girls and their parents. It was actually a really funny situation and I think they were pleased that it was me there since we had met on a few occasions and I can definitely say I am pleased I wasn't stuck between a bunch of Laos who didn't speak english.<br /><br />Getting to Pakse I toured the city and tried to hunt down Corinne. With no luck. I had no idea if she was ahead or behind me on the road until 10PM when I got an email from her surprised to hear I was in the same town. Today we went on a tour of the Bolivan Plateau which has lots of coffee and waterfalls. Apparently the coffee is amongst the best in the world. Our guide was a french guy who has been living in Laos and married to a local(kinda, you aren't allowed to marry a local if you are a foreigner, its illegal). He is completely integrated but still has to western perspective.<br /><br />All in all I really enjoyed it. Now tomorrow Corinne and I head to 4000 islands and then off to Cambodia!<br /><br />Wow, I thought that by doing shorter interval between post that it would be shorter. Instead I just remember more details.<br /><br />Also funny side note. The guy sitting at the kiosk next to me is watching porn and has been for the past 45 minutes with no shame. Asia is funny. </div></div><br /></div></div></div>Vincenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555327744386677155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5742631099544045105.post-79304107361320677962011-06-23T23:03:00.001-07:002011-06-23T23:06:28.546-07:00Day 52!<div align="center"><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xq96e8sAQMY/TgQpDP_CckI/AAAAAAAACtc/FWdd16TTQoI/s1600/photo.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 299px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5621663370672501314" border="0" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xq96e8sAQMY/TgQpDP_CckI/AAAAAAAACtc/FWdd16TTQoI/s400/photo.JPG" /></a> My suit!<br /><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xosQ8UM5oMo/TgQpCuNEgaI/AAAAAAAACtU/1q5R1-DV4QI/s1600/4.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 299px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5621663361604551074" border="0" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xosQ8UM5oMo/TgQpCuNEgaI/AAAAAAAACtU/1q5R1-DV4QI/s400/4.JPG" /></a><br />Halong Bay<br /><br /><br /><div><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7FguydgjhgI/TgQpCdSFh0I/AAAAAAAACtM/atasak06U-M/s1600/3.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 299px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5621663357062186818" border="0" alt="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7FguydgjhgI/TgQpCdSFh0I/AAAAAAAACtM/atasak06U-M/s400/3.JPG" /></a> Fishing Boats we had breakfast on<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6cu52LsBDI0/TgQpCa7-IqI/AAAAAAAACtE/4daIBU46PZg/s1600/2.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 400px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 299px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5621663356432556706" border="0" alt="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6cu52LsBDI0/TgQpCa7-IqI/AAAAAAAACtE/4daIBU46PZg/s400/2.JPG" /></a> View from room in Sapa<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div align="left"><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KnUWm7NuGkk/TgQpCGpoV-I/AAAAAAAACs8/LtOjymuBFfU/s1600/1.JPG"><img style="TEXT-ALIGN: center; MARGIN: 0px auto 10px; WIDTH: 299px; DISPLAY: block; HEIGHT: 400px; CURSOR: hand" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5621663350986921954" border="0" alt="" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-KnUWm7NuGkk/TgQpCGpoV-I/AAAAAAAACs8/LtOjymuBFfU/s400/1.JPG" /></a> Bags loaded on bus to Halong Bay<br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><br /><div>Alright team! I've let another 2 weeks slip by since my last email. I blame shotty internet and an unwillingness to write e-mails on my phone.<br /><br />I left off the last e-mail having just finished up my motorbike trip in Hoi An where I bought a lovely new suit! Photo attached.We left Hoi An and headed to Hue which is the old imperial capital of Vietnam. Hue was pretty interesting. We opted not to do a hotel tour because at 16$ they seemed expensive however his was probably a mistake because between paying for transport and site entrence fee's we probably payed almost that much and didn't get to see as much. In Hue it was really hot in the morning and we went to see the Citadel at the center of the city. It was nice, I thought it was funny that there was a modern tennis court in the center. Apparently one of the emperors enjoyed sports and played tennis. I would have preffered if they had left the old tennis court rather than this new 2008 version. Unfortunately a lot of the citadel was ruined from Bombing during the war (not too sure which one...). We left there and went to see a temple where the emporors are burried. Looking through the book it didn't tell us where they were so we chose the most appealing one based on description. Well turns out it was also the furthest (At 15km temples ranged from 2-15km).<br /><br />Having completed all that we wanted in Hue we decided to leave a day early in order to get to Hanoi earlier so that we could get a good trip to Halong Bay before Colin left. We opted not to do the Demilitarized zone since we saw bomb craters, beat up bridges and tanks agent orange debris while on the bike trip. If there was anything else we would see in the DMZ I don't want to know.<br /><br />Unfortunately being a national holiday there were no busses or trains to Hanoi so we ended up flying. It was only about 20$ more expensive than the train but much more comfortable. In Hanoi we went to the Hao Lo prison which was a french colonial prison used against vietnamese revolutionaries. Having just read the book Papillion which is about a frenchmen imprisoned at a colonial prison in south america it was interested to see the similarities between the two. Again it was another example of how the vietnamese have been abused by foreigners. We followed that up by going to see the Ho Chi Minh Museum which was less inspiring. Unfortunately we didn't know that you had to go see the man himself Uncle Ho (Ho Chi Minh) early in the morning because its closed the rest of the day. The next morning we departed for Halong Bay.<br /><br />We weren't really sure what we were getting into. Again the tours were expensive. 100$ for two nights so we opted to do it on our own. We made sure to book a bus that would get us the whole way there without knowing that it was a tour bus. So we managed to do the touristy route through the bay at a fraction of the price. SCORE! Halong Bay was beautiful. We saw some pretty impressive caves and then were dropped off on Cat Ba island. I've attached a photo of the islands in the bay. Out of this world! The once on Cat Ba one of Colin and I's funniest experiences happened. We went out drinking (Halong Bay also had 5000 Dong beers, or 25 cents) so we were a few drinks in and the table next to us had about 10-12 Vietnamese getting loaded.They kept coming over to Cheers us and eventually even refilled our glasses. At this point Colin and I were 5 beers in each and decided to join their table for a bit. Well they payed for all the beer but over the next hour was fighting not to throw up. I estimate we had in the range of 15-20 beers (they are smaller glasses, probably 250-300ml rather than the usual 355 to a can). Somewhere during that hour we were convinced to go fishing with them the next morning. Our understanding was that they were visiting the island on a fishing trip. So at 6:55 AM the next morning one of the guys Mr Nam knocks on our hotel room door. I wasn't feeling too great to say the least. I tried to explain to him that I was too hung over to go fishing so I kept saying "No Fishing" which he would then reply with a smile "No fishing!" Colin then infered that we were being invited to breakfast instead of fishing so we followed him and he leads us to the dock. I wisper to Colin that we are in fact headed towards a boat, so I repeat to Mr Nam for the 50th time "No Fishing" and he agreed no fishing but we get on the boat nonetheless. This is where the miscomunication took place. They were not on a fishing trip, they were fisherman inviting us to their boat for breakfast. So we went into the bay and had rice and fish with them. It was pretty good despite the hangover. We stayed on the boat for 3 hours while it poured rain outside so all in all it was a great way to kill the morning. The funny part was they were be chatting away in Vietnamese and then all of a sudden yell out NO FISHING! and all start laughing at me. I've included a photo of the boats. They did not live up to your typical reputation of fisherman. They were all very nice and polite and not crude at all (with the exception of an old man who showed Colin Vietnamese porn on his cell phone. We don't really know why he did that).<br /><br />The sun came out and we spent the afternoon nursing out hangover on the beach. There was distinctly a white person section which was kinda funny.<br /><br />The next day we did a kayak trip which was interesting. They took us out a km and just left us there. We had no idea where to go or when to get there. I yelled to them as they were leaving and they pointed at their watch and put up 2 fingers and pointed at an island. I assumed that meant we had to get to the island in 2 hours... hopefully. We left Cat Ba island for Hanoi that afternoon and the next morning finally managed to see Ho Chi Minh! The line was HUGE! well over a km. I'm guessing this was because of the holiday. We were fairly far back in the line which got cut off behind us probably 200 people back. Well funny thing happened. In Vietnam to move forward in a line you need to pass people. So before we knew it we were at the back of the line with 50 other white people. The spectacle of seeing Ho Chi Minh was more entertaining than the actual site itself since you only walk through the Mausoleum for 30 seconds while you see him through glass from 20 feel away.<br /><br />Colin left that afternoon and I for the first time was on my own. I had a train booked to Sapa and having had success with Colin without the Tour decided to do Sapa on my own as well. You take a train overnight and are picked up and driven the hour to Sapa. The drive was spectacular. You see photos of the rice fields climbing up the mountain but you really can't appreciate it without seeing them. They are huge! The first day I rented a motorbike from the hotel (I've attached the view from my hotel room, it was steep at 6$) and spent 3 hours just cruising down the roads and taking photos. If anyone is going, I would suggest the south road. Northwest didn't have much to see and East is the way you come. I didn't know this road exhisted until later in my trip which was too bad but it was the most spectacular. All of the hotels offered the same tour for 15$ and I met a local who was willing to give me the same tour 1 on 1 for 7. I was pleased with my barganing skills so the next morning I embarked on a day treck. I immediately felt guilty for being so cheap. She spent 3$ on food for lunch and was only making 4 dollars on the whole day.<br /><br />The trek was great. we passed through the mountains and she explaned to me the farming as well as how they make clothes out of hemp brining me to a huge marajuana field and she strips off the leaves, hands them to me and shows me who they make string out of the stalk of the plant. We got to her house were she made me a big lunch. More than I could eat. While she was cooking since there wasn't much for me to do I got a little bored. She noticed this and suggested I take a nap. I wasn't really tired but figured this was less awkward than sitting in the room watching her cook. I lay down and sure enough 5 minutes later was out cold. I woke up an hour later because her kids were throwing sticks and stuff at my beard. My beard is a hit in Vietnam. I can only imagine it will get better since its only halfway now. That being said. My beard hasn't been a hit all over. It did make a small child cry when I waved at her, but this did make her dad laugh a lot.<br /><br />After lunch my guide (Ma) brought me to the road and said I could walk or motorbike. Since I hate taking rides off the lazy motorbike drivers I opted to walk. She said it was a 2.5 hour walk along the beautiful valley and relatively flat. Off I went. every 5 minutes a guy would drive by saying. Hello... Motobike? and I just kept walking. Turns out it wasn't flat. The signs on the way said 10% uphill. For 9km. it was like walking up to the top of Seymore. I was tired. Got back to the hotel in desparate need of a shower and food. The last day in sapa I just relaxed and saw the town and took the train back to Hanoi overnight.<br /><br />Which brings me to yesterday. Chris Newlove (friend from montreal) is also in Hanoi coming from Laos and we went out last night. Much to my surprise there were also 4 other McGill friends all in different stages of leaving Hanoi, some for Canada, others heading South. Unfortnuately none headed to Laos. We went out, had another big night of drinking and that brings me to today. Sitting in the rain waiting for my flight to Laos!<br /><br />Anyways. Congrats if you made it this long. Sorry for the length. </div></div></div></div><br /></div>Vincenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555327744386677155noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5742631099544045105.post-84471412455786478012011-06-22T22:30:00.000-07:002011-06-22T22:32:28.579-07:00Day 40!I just realized I hadn't posted this one. Sorry team. I'll try and get a post of my last 2 weeks up tonight as I have good internet again in Hanoi.<br /><br />I arrived in Vietnam on the 2nd of June and met up with Colin at the airport. By noon we were in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh) and found a hotel to stay in. The rest of the day was spent walking. A lot, we went to the Ho Chi Minh city museum which was a little disapointing however the was War Remnants Museum was really interesting. They had a whole section about the bombings, agent orange and simpy the historical timeline of the war. Seeing as how I did very little research prior to coming, most of my knowledge of Vietnam came from watching Forrest Gump. It was a little embarrasing the amount I didn't know about. We followed this up by trying to find a theatre playing the new X men only to discover that it isn't showing yet in Vietnam (it was everywhere in KL and Singapore). This was probably a good thing as we settled in early and were up by 6:30 to head to see the Cu Chi tunnels.<br /><br /><br />The Cu Chi tunnels were again really interesting. There were over 200km of tunnels dug out using spoons and bomb shrapnel in order to prevent the advancement of the americans. This was probably one of my favorite days so far. Here we learned that Colin is in fact bigger than your average vietnamese since he didn't fit in one of the hideout holes. His shoulders wouldn't fit.<br /><br /><br />Back to Saigon in the evening we prepared once more to travel the next day to the Mekong River delta. One frustating thing about Vietnam is that even on highways you can't average more than 45-50km/k. So getting out to the Delta took all day. I will be brief with my description of the Mekong delta. I didn't really enjoy it. It was somewhat of a let down. Sure the floating market was pretty neat but going to fruit plantations and bee hives wasn't exactly the highlight of my trip. I tried to think of a different way to tour the area but since it covers such a large geographical area I couldn't really see a better way without having an extensive knowledge of it first.<br /><br /><br />We got back to Saigon at around 4:30 and were catching a night bus at midnight to Dalat so had some time to kill. We found a restaurant that showed movies and had cheap enough beer so we hung out there for a bit. At 10 we had to be at the tourist agent to be brought to the bus station. Getting to the bus station at 10:30 we found out that there wasn't a midnight bus and instead had to take the 10:30PM bus. Not a big probelm except I had just had food, water and beer and was somewhat counting on that 90 minutes to let my stomach settle.<br /><br /><br />The bus ride was an adventure. We thought we were being smar by taking a sleeper bus overnight. It cost an extra 3 dollars each but to be able to sleep through the night. Turns out the bus is more of a roller coaster. Constantly slamming on its breaks and swerving left and right. Being in the sleeper you really couldn't sleep. The fact that I didn't really fit in the bed didn't help either. Colin really didn't fit. Once again, turns out he is larger than a Vietnamese. The ride was capped off by the lovely sounds of a woman in the back vomitting the entire ride. All 7 hours of it.<br /><br /><br />Dalat was a really nice town. Its small and in the mountains so wasn't as hot as the rest of Vietnam. Unfortunately it rained all day but we managed to make the most of it walking around. A really pretty place. One thing that is funny about Dalat is there are motorcycle tours called Easy Riders. And the second you walk into the city they find out. We were originally going to head to the beaches following Dalat, but then got convinced to do a 5 day motorbike trip up to Hoi An and experience "the real Vietnam" with a local. The scenery was beautiful and the ride a lot of fun. Passing through the central highlands we saw so many nice rice fields, mountains and rivers and jungles. One thing that is incredible here is that there is no wasted land. Farms climb up steep mountains and down the other side. Terrain that would never be farmed in Canada.<br /><br /><br />Driving the bike really wasn't very hard and wasn't as dangerous as you would think. The only pain was the busses. In Vietnam there are different traffic speed limits for different sized cars. Tractors can go 30, bikes 40-50 (depending on the road), cars 60 and busses 70. The rest is that busses are constantly making the sketchiest passes. Blind corner going downhill, no problem, Doesn't even tough the brakes. Fortunately everyone in Vietnam honks roughly every 8 seconds so you always knew when a bus was coming to move over onto the shoulder.<br /><br /><br />We finally arrived in Hoi An in one piece with a lot of dirty clothes. This required the necessity for laundry and also a new wardrobe. Hoi An is where you can get really cheap clothing made. I got a suit and jacket made, Colin two pairs of pants. I just picked them up today and am really pleased with the outcome.<br /><br /><br />We spent the day waiting for the suit at the beach getting roasted. Vietnam is by far the hottest of the countries I've been in so far. I guess thats why I get heading towards the 20* of latitude in the middle of June.<br /><br /><br />Thats it for now. We are heading to Hue in 20 minutes and will check out the Citadel, some Tombs and hopefully the Demilitarized zone.<br /><br /><br />Hope everyone is doing well. Let me know what you are up to. All I've gotten as replies is "keep up the updates"<br /><br /><br />Miss you all<br />VinceVincenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555327744386677155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5742631099544045105.post-52966370354479868572011-06-06T06:12:00.000-07:002011-06-06T06:17:59.031-07:00Day 33<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xNwU6wXfiic/TezSfXxUdaI/AAAAAAAACs0/nTonFnXN-iA/s1600/SU%2B056.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 60px;" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xNwU6wXfiic/TezSfXxUdaI/AAAAAAAACs0/nTonFnXN-iA/s400/SU%2B056.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5615094271822820770" border="0" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-s06ZGfNi3fQ/TezSfbbGlHI/AAAAAAAACss/uWj5HKGS1KI/s1600/SU%2B062.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-s06ZGfNi3fQ/TezSfbbGlHI/AAAAAAAACss/uWj5HKGS1KI/s400/SU%2B062.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5615094272803378290" border="0" /></a><br />Wow so much to say, so little time to say it. So I will just do a super fast description of the past two weeks with the highlight of each few days.<br /><br />Last time I left you I was in Kuta Lombok on the 17th fending off spiders for Steph. We left Kuta and headed to Sengigi for a day. It was supposed to be the beach of all beaches, claimed you could search for years and never come across a beach like this. To say the least Steph and I were unimpressed. We had just left Lombok where we had found paradise.<br /><br /><br />We only stayed in Sengigi a day going to the market at night and the next morning took off for Ubud in order to be closer to the airport in Denpasar (Bali). After a 4.5 hour ferry ride which took us 10.5 hours in total we made it to Ubud (the cultural center of Bali). We had quick dinner (I found a plethora of ants in mine, delightful) and then we walked around and went to bed after a LONG day.<br /><br />The next day was in Ubud, a full day. We went north and saw some bhuddist temples and then came back and discovered a gem of South East Asia, ABC Special. Its a drink with shaved ice and sugar more or less with fruits. Delicious! After lunch we went to the monkey sanctuary. Should have been a blast, and at first the novelty of the monkeys was great. Until we realized monkeys are very nice. Steph was handing a monkey a banana and it ate it, then proceeded to search her bag. When she tried to stop it, it grabbed her arm and bit her. I once again came to the rescue, throwing a banana a few feet away so the monkey would leave her. Unfortunately I hadn't thought of this sooner. From that point we were a little tentative around monkeys and shortened our stay at the sanctuary. We found a cool market as well and finally tried Durian fruit (they stink and aren't very tasty).<br /><br />The 20th was fairly boring. Just early flight to Kuala Lumpur and then I had Visa stuff for Vietnam to take care off. Steph wandered around the Indian quarter and we regrouped with Erich and Corinne at the hostel. Getting my visa was a fiasco, I forgot my passport photo in my larger bag so I had to rush off and get new ones taken at a mall, A cab driver took me and drove me around for the hour getting me back to the consulate with 10 minutes to spare and get my Visa.<br /><br />Our only day in Kuala Lumpur was spent going to the Batu Caves. These are a really interesting rock formation forming caves in the middle of plains. At the caves are a few very rare species which only exist in those specific caves (such as a type of spider of which they estimated there are only a dozen exist). The night before I had been feeling really lightheaded and sick. And following the caves I started feeling the same way. I went back to the hostel while the group headed to China town and I slept from 5:30PM until 9AM the next morning and felt significantly better. The one highlight of the day however was Erich having his snacks stolen by a monkey. He was going to give them to the monkey however didn't have the chance.<br />The following day once again was a transfer day, we traveled to Kota Kinabalu in Borneo. Not much to report. We spent the next day on the island of Sapi, I don't really recommend it. It was nice, however after the beaches of Indonesia it really didn't compare. However following the island we were dropped of in KK again and found the most incredible food market which we used to stock up on snacks for the climb of Mt Kinabalu (the tallest mountain in South East Asia at 4097M) which we were to start the next day.<br /><br />The climb was entertaining and not nearly as hard as Mt Rinjani however it also didn't offer as many views. It was more like climbing the Grouse Grind for those who have done it. But with the four of us (Vince, Steph, Erich, Corinne), we made a fun climb out of it continuously passing groups who did not appear to be having as much fun as us. We arrived at camp around 3. Ate food and settled in to sleep around 6. Surprisingly no one had trouble dozing off after the long day. I had a lot of trouble staying asleep. Being my first time sleeping at 3300M the air was very thin and I kept waking up short of breath. Steph commented that I seemed to be having more trouble than most with this, I wondered if it was because of the sports I've done. I've heard triathletes don't make the best mountain climbers due to the oxygen dept. We woke up at 2:30 AM and attacked the summit.<br /><br />Steph and I were smarter this time, taking our time so as to not get there too early and freeze at the top. It was not as windy as Rinjani however the temperature I would say was colder. We got to the top after managing the rope climbs and were rewarded by some truly spectacular views of the mountain. Unfortunately it wasn't the best sunrise, but the mountain-scape made up for it. The weather was unpredictable, we had a view one moment and then 30 seconds later everything was whiteout with clouds.<br /><br />We descended the mountain telling jokes and mainly making fun of Corinnes dance moves then caught the bus to Sandikan on which they pumped some sweet Maria Carey and Celine!<br /><br />Now for the highlight of my trip so far. On the 26th around Sandikan we went to two more monkey sanctuaries. The first, an Orangutan sanctuary. They are pretty cool beast, however not nearly as impressive as the proboscis monkeys. Borneo is the only place these monkeys exist. If ever you are in the area it is a must see. Skip the Orangutans if necessary. They were very timid monkeys and you could get right up close to them and they didn't bite (unlike those foul grey tailed monkeys). We followed up that fantastic day with some Karaoke and a few too many drinks.<br /><br />We started the next a little late and prepared to head to Semporna the stepping stone to Mabul island for 2 days of scuba! The scuba diving was a lot of fun and I tried a night dive which was a new experience. You can't really describe scuba diving in an e-mail and give it justice. Just know that Mabul/Sipadan are supposed to be world class dive sites. We didn't manage to make it to Sipadan however Mabul made up for it with the assortment of fish and turtles. We also dove in Kapalai which is a resort build on stilts above the coral. Very cool.<br /><br />Unfortunately on the 30th our trip with Erich and Corinne had to come to an end. Steph and I headed back to the mainland and Kuala Lumpur so I could pick up my visa. The next day we spent the morning doing some Christmas shopping and checking out the central market before heading to Singapore where Steph flew out the next day. On a sad note, we lost Steph's camera. And despite my best efforts have been unable to recover it. Hopefully it will turn out but maybe those photo memories are lost. Fortunately most of the photos we took have been on my camera.<br /><br />Our last day together was jam packed. After sleeping in a little too late we had the arduous task of working out the expenses for past month then head to botanical gardens. We then walked along Orchard road and headed to china town. It was not the best china town but was once again unique to the others we had seen. We spent the end of our day repeating some of the things we did on our first day. Checking out Bugis market and a must, going to little India for some Indian and delicious mango lassies. We talked about those Mango lassies the entire trip and were very satisfied when they lived up to the hype we had given them. So good in fact that we bought seconds. We headed back to the room, packed and headed to the airport. Steph flew out at 1am for Calgary and I at 7AM for Saigon. We split at the airport, I was sad to see her leave after an unforgettable month.<br /><br />I slept in the terminal and the next morning met up with Colin in VIETNAM!<br /><br />I'll leave it there. This concluded the first quarter of my trip. Sorry for the length. I'll try and be more consistent in the future!<br /><br />I have attached two photos, one of the beach in Kuta, and the second of a grey monkey before we realized they were the enemy.Vincenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555327744386677155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5742631099544045105.post-2382198498861023532011-05-16T19:55:00.000-07:002011-05-16T19:56:56.479-07:00Day 15 Kuta LombokHi everyone, the last couple of days have been really relaxing. Kuta<br />Lombok is nothing like Kuta Bali, very quiet and a lot more surfers<br />but significantly less tourist.<br /><br />Following my email when we first arrived, Steph and I settled into our<br />room, only to discover GIANT spiders! Very very fast as well. The<br />first one I discovered while Steph was in the shower and I debated<br />telling her about it. The spider was probably 4 inches across but with<br />a body. Not like daddy long legs either, more like dock spiders, big<br />hairy ones. The first I killed with a skilled flip flop throw. Steph<br />heard this so I had to divulge the cause the commotion. Upon seeing<br />the carcass of the deceased spider Steph proclaimed, "Your my hero!"<br />and proceeded to search the room for more of which we found 3. After a<br />little extermination effort on my part involving a few flip flops, a<br />broom and a head lamp I had killed the remaining spiders. One was<br />difficult. It was large enough that when it ran, it knocked over an<br />empty pop can. I was shocked to say the least. These heroic efforts<br />delivered me much praise by Steph. Similar to when I defended her from<br />monkeys, she was speechless by my actions. She is even speechless each<br />time I re-tell the tale.<br /><br />We settled in to sleep a little tentative about our cheap lodging.<br />Tossing and turning with the feeling that bugs were crawling all over<br />us during the night I woke up at 3AM from my light sleep to something<br />brushing against my ear. I sit up trying not to wake Steph however my<br />stealth is not up to par after a restless sleep at 3AM. We take a<br />headlamp and investigate only to find a cockroach the size of my thumb<br />crawling around my pillow and then scurry off the bed. I took<br />confidence in the fact that the spiders and cockroaches seemed more<br />afraid of me than I of them, however I still didn't like them near me.<br /><br />We woke at 7, and departed from this dangerous hotel and splurged an<br />extra 3 dollars for a ritzy hotel with no bugs. For my heroic efforts<br />I tried to get a back massage from Steph to easy my tense muscles from<br />the hike and a tirerless night, however she refused. My cunning was<br />able to get around this however by asking her to apply sunscreen to my<br />tomato red shoulders. A trick I have employed numerous times.<br /><br />Things settled down after this first night. We rented scooters and<br />took off down the beach and discovered the most amazing little cove.<br />Across the 500m sandy perfect white beach there was only one other<br />couple and a few vendors. One of the vendors (his name was Andi)<br />selling sarongs approached us and was very nice. Instead of hassling<br />us, he simply started up a conversation. Eventually he persuaded us to<br />look at Sarongs which we bought a few (they serve as great beach<br />mats). Not having enough money on hand he offered to follow us into<br />town as we retrieved more. While Steph got money from the hotel I<br />chatted with him in the parking lot at which point he offered to bring<br />us snorking and spearfishing and invited us numerous times to his<br />house for coffee.<br /><br />The next morning we debated his offers, was this a scam? We decided to<br />return to the beach either way and on our way he passed us as he was<br />dropping his son off at his mothers for the week at school. This made<br />it very difficult to say no to his offer for coffee. We followed him<br />500m past the beach and got to meet his entire family where his<br />brother climbed a tree and got us fresh coconuts to drink and eat.<br />Fortunately Steph and I had bought snacks for the beach we were able<br />to share. I think that the store bought wafers were a treat to them.<br />Andi the suggested we go back to the beach and go snorkling and<br />spearfishing. We were already headed to the beach so we agreed<br />thanking his wife for the hospitality.<br /><br />Spearfishing was fun, however I was no good. Accidentially following a<br />fish to deep water and trying to get it, I shot the spear much deeper<br />than the water appeared then spent the next 5 minutes trying to swim<br />15 meters down to retrieve it. Andi had more success catching 5 fish<br />which he said we should come eat at his house. We tried to say that it<br />wasn't necessary and he took off. Only to return 30 minutes later<br />saying that they were ready. There was no real way out of it. Not that<br />we didn't want to try the food, we just didn't want to take food away<br />from him and his family. We arrived to fish, rice, beans, coconut all<br />set out and ready. We stayed there for an hour bought a few bracelets<br />from his friend made of seaweed and took off. It was a really amazing<br />afternoon. I couldn't believe how friendly he was. And he wasn't doing<br />all this to persuade us to buy bracelets, that was our decision since<br />we felt guilty eating all their food.<br /><br />Yesterday was less eventful. We woke up and went surfing. The waves<br />were very big but it was a sandy bottom so no concern for coral<br />cutting us. I got tossed a few times and up a few times. I still have<br />a lot of work left.<br /><br />Thats about it. We are headed to Sengigi today and will probably tour<br />around the capital of Lombok Mataram before heading back to Bali to<br />catch a flight to Kuala Lumpur on Friday.<br /><br />Sorry I haven't been able to be on skype yet. There is internet<br />however no headsets.<br /><br />Take Care everyone. Hopefully I will be able to come up with photos<br />one time soon.Vincenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555327744386677155noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5742631099544045105.post-89128339049210154042011-05-13T17:27:00.000-07:002011-05-13T17:30:04.369-07:00Indonesia Travels Day 11Team! Steph and I have survived climbing Mount Rinjani! It was AMAZING! However it was also really really hard. The first day was about 8 hours of climbing up to camp 1 at 2666 meters. That wasn't too bad but was nice and hot. The second day however was a doozie.<br /><br />We went to sleep day 1 at 8pm on the mountain and woke up at 2 AM to ascent to the summit in time for sunrise. Climbing by headlamp for 2.5 hours we arrived at the top at 5:15 a little early to say the least. Facing 2-4*C temperature Steph and I sat waiting for the sun to come up. Claiming to be cold and faking shivers Steph snuggled up to me. I however wasn't cold so I can only assume this was a plot to get closer. Clever girl.<br /><br />Finally when the sun came up it was spectacular. I have lots of photos and may try and get them updated soon. However without wifi I can't get them off my phone (and there is nowhere to plug in my camera).<br /><br />Following the summit we made it back to camp only to find a family of grey monkeys hanging out at our tents hunting for food. In total I counted 28 of them. At this point I discovered Steph has a fear of monkeys so once again I came to the rescue and defended her from these 15 pound enemies. I really am a hero. At one point I even carried the communal water (which I only dropped once when I fell).<br /><br />Day two was long, waking up at 2AM we hiked more or less non stop until 4pm having gone from camp 1 (2666M) -> Summit 3700M -> Crater lake 2000M -> Crater Rim camp 2 2600M. Big day.<br /><br />We hunkered down and slept, asleep at 7pm as soon as the sun went down. We got up at 6AM and hiked the remaining 9km to Senaru and collapsed. The last hour it rained which was actually quite refreshing.<br /><br />The whole experience was incredible. The most spectacular of all was the two porters carrying 30kg each tethered to a shoot of bamboo and our guide who couldn't have been more than 100 pounds carrying all 20 (1.5L) water bottles. They had our tent, food, snacks, pots and pans. And not only that, they did the entire hike in flip flops. I couldn't imagine how much you would have to pay someone to do that in canada, but apparently they made "good money" (we assume around 100 000 Rb which would work out to 11$CAD a day) as opposed to being in the rice field which make roughly 20-30 000 Rb. Steph and I wondered where the water was coming from until our porter, a 29 year old veteran of 12 years on the mountain pulled out the first of many water bottles for us. We felt guilty and continually tried to double up but they refused to make us do any more than the minimum amount of work.<br /><br />Additionally I don't know how to work this into my story, but the food, we ate beyond comfort every single meal, 3 times a day. Today Steph and I pleaded not to have lunch because we were still full from breakfast (And the previous dinner).<br /><br />The tour group (John's Adventures) was one of the more expensive at roughly 200CAD a person, however in seeing the service we were given over the other groups on the mountain, it was worth every penny (we had an air mattress in our tent which they had set up for us before we got to camp each night).<br /><br />Following the trek, we were driven 4 hours to Kuta Lombok. We got in late so I haven't seen much of the terrain yet, but it is supposed to be the quiet sibling of Bali. Similar beach and surf but no crowds which so far seems about right.<br /><br />We don't know how long we will be staying here, we need to meet Corinne and Erich in Kuala Lumpur on the 20th, so time will tell.<br /><br />Tomorrow, we surf and do laundry which desperately needs done following that hike. I will be tipping the night off with a large Bintang, the only beer I can find in Indonesia.<br /><br />Take Care everyone!Vincenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555327744386677155noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5742631099544045105.post-17947562755811991232011-05-09T18:46:00.000-07:002011-05-09T18:49:50.027-07:00Indonesia TravelsSo this may be a surprise to many of you, but I am actually no longer in Canada. I am traveling for the summer in South East Asia and left last week. Internet is slow and not accessible everywhere, however, whenever I have it I'll post something quick about where I am on the blog.<br /><br />Unfortunately there will be no photos since I don't have a way of getting them off my computer and onto these cheap ones.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" >Day 4</span><br />Steph and I have made it to Bali following Singapore. We were going to travel up towards Malaysia prior to meeting Erich in Kuala Lumpur however following reading the Indonesia section of the Lonely planet book, Steph really wanted to visit Lombok (next to Bali). <div> </div> <div>So our plan at this point is to stay in Bali today and maybe part of tomorrow then spend the week in Lombok. There are apparently some of the greatest beaches in SE Asia in Senggigi and then we are going to do a volcano mountain summit (3726m) (<a href="http://www.lombok-rinjanitrek.com/rinjanipackages.htm" target="_blank">http://www.lombok-<wbr>rinjanitrek.com/<wbr>rinjanipackages.htm</a>) over a 4 day span before heading up to Sumatra and then meeting up with my friends in Kuala Lumpur.</div> <div> </div> <div>Singapore was really pretty however I honestly feel that 2 days was more than enough even with the second day just running around and getting to the airport. </div> <div> </div> <div>The airport was chaotic. We arrived hoping to book flights to Bali and were sent to all 4 terminals before being directed to the proper kiosk. Each person telling us a different place to go. This included 2 bus rides and 3 express trains between terminals. We managed to get onto a flight at 4PM (it was 3:20 at this point) and fly through security etc. Then into Jakarta which was a stark contrast from Singapore. After 45 minutes of waiting in line for a visa we had to run for our connecting flight to Bali, We got the visa at 6:20 (bording time for flight was 6:15 and in another airport terminal) We go out after frantically running around and find a shuttle filled with people and we need to shout at the drive what terminal (1-3) we want to go to and prove that our priority is higher than those going to other terminals. Finally we got on the flight at 7 after cutting a few lines and skipping security by waving frantic arms. Getting last on the plane and running through the terminal was fun.</div> <div> </div> We arrived in Bali haggled a taxi from 5$ to 4$ for a 15 minute drive then settled into a really nice room for a drastic 25$. Tonight we hope to be much more reasonable with a 12-15$ room. None of this life of luxury.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Day 8</span></span><br />Hey Team, we are leaving Gili Trawangan around lunch time today. Before then I will try and get a little surfing in for the first time over here. The waves don't look very big but they are uniform. Hopefully it goes well.<br /><br />Steph and I went scuba diving yesterday and the day before. The diving was really good however I dare say it was trumped by the snorking. While snorking we saw all the same fish at a fraction the price. Turtles, Moray Eels, Manta Ray, lots of clownfish, angelfish, lionfish, scorpionfish, sweetlips, butterfly fish, surgeonfish, trumpet fish, and a bunch of rocks.<br /><br />We also went for a run yesterday, 6km in 55 minutes, it was a pretty blistering pace. But in our defense it was 35*C and sunny.<br /><br />We leave today for the island of Lombok where we will be climbing Mount Rinjani. Roughly 1/2 the height of Everest (I am reading "into thin air" so everything is gauged to Everest these days. As a result I don't know if I will have internet until the 13th. We may have it tonight but that would be it.<br /><br />Hope everyone is good. Skype isn't working on my computer right now unfortunately. We may try and go to a different internet station and see if it does any better.Vincenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555327744386677155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5742631099544045105.post-37733152149573578832011-03-01T22:09:00.001-08:002011-03-01T22:25:16.616-08:00SCIENCE!<div style="text-align: left;">Science has taken over my life and I've been reminded that there should be more to it. So far at this point I have finished writing my thesis and have a date set for my defence. March 18th at 1:15PM! I booked it for later in the afternoon to insure that I can get over my hangover from St Patricks Day.</div><div><br /></div><div>In all seriousness, I've finished my thesis, all 100 pages of glory, have already made my powerpoint for the defence presentation. And now all I have left to do is write a manuscript for my project and get it published before leaving UBC Masters program behind me. </div><div><br /></div><div>In other news of life. Triathlon is going well. I have my first race this coming weekend. The UBC Triathlon promises to be a nice cold endeavour. I will be doing the double. Working for powerbar at the event as well as racing. My heat is at 12:40 though which is nice because I can be up early and setting up for powerbar and once things get settled down get ready for my race. </div><div><br /></div><div>In recent news. The UBC Triathlon Club spring race series is underway, and knock on wood, for the first semester, I don't have an excuse (marathon, sprained ankle, concussion). So lets hope I can keep this up and it could be a good one! We have already raced the 5k and I achieved a new PB, 17:41!</div><div><br /></div><div>And finally, I tried a new sport last week. Maybe this will be my true calling in sport. Does it meet the criteria? </div><div><br /></div><div><ol><li>Spandex - √</li><li>Endurance - √</li><li>Has in some part the word Athlon in it - √</li><li>...</li></ol><div>Thats about it. I tried the sport of Biathlon and had a blast. My friend Ceilidh coaches the cadets and offered to bring me up to give it a try. As a result I may do my first race at the end of the month! </div></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-n9BlmgFkjR0/TW3hxW-JOaI/AAAAAAAACrg/wOoACcgJLH0/s1600/184632_844949312777_13605879_46414319_193270_n.jpg"><img src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-n9BlmgFkjR0/TW3hxW-JOaI/AAAAAAAACrg/wOoACcgJLH0/s400/184632_844949312777_13605879_46414319_193270_n.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5579363751477983650" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 299px; height: 400px; " /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3333FF;">Kelly Said I look fat... I thought black was slimming? Does anyone have any vertical stripes?</span></div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-rRK62oaAGr8/TW3hxsG5QAI/AAAAAAAACro/Lq-vdKqqClQ/s400/185674_844949607187_13605879_46414329_6516562_n.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5579363757151830018" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 299px; height: 400px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qEG0NO0ba0M/TW3hxicGHuI/AAAAAAAACrw/T7-ERW9ylWs/s1600/182886_844950714967_13605879_46414387_1238536_n.jpg"><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-qEG0NO0ba0M/TW3hxicGHuI/AAAAAAAACrw/T7-ERW9ylWs/s400/182886_844950714967_13605879_46414387_1238536_n.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5579363754556399330" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 299px; height: 400px; " /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#3366FF;">4/5 Not too bad!</span></div>Vincenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555327744386677155noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5742631099544045105.post-35083173505182480862010-12-02T17:33:00.000-08:002010-12-02T17:35:30.077-08:00Growing Up<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_-izToGNfoTc/TPhI9MDwgPI/AAAAAAAACqk/Ym4LBepJ7_0/s1600/tumblr_lctka02iIa1qz8gvqo1_500.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 353px;" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_-izToGNfoTc/TPhI9MDwgPI/AAAAAAAACqk/Ym4LBepJ7_0/s400/tumblr_lctka02iIa1qz8gvqo1_500.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5546263157152973042" /></a>I saw this photo today, and must say I agree. Question now, with graduation coming soon and a wide open future, now what? Guess I've got something to think about over ChristmasVincenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555327744386677155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5742631099544045105.post-34604235446013207182010-11-17T10:12:00.000-08:002010-11-17T10:14:40.551-08:00New Danny Macaskill VideoThere is a new Danny Macaskill video out!<div><br /></div><div>Haven't had a chance to watch more than the first minute, but it looks good!</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><br /><object width="400" height="240"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/Cj6ho1-G6tw?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/Cj6ho1-G6tw?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="400" height="240"></embed></object>Vincenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555327744386677155noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5742631099544045105.post-45552248212512890412010-11-11T23:41:00.000-08:002010-11-11T23:49:16.323-08:005K Run TTJust a really quick update, the tri club had our final event last night in the Fall Classic Race Series. The 5k Run TT. The event was a huge success, with weather holding out for us we had a semi dry course to run on. We had our largest showing with 35 people out and most made it out to the social afterwards as well.<div><br /></div><div>I've felt pretty terrible running lately, however, on Monday I ran a mile which Matt helped pace me and I managed to pull out a 5:15. Nothing exceptional but at least I know that I haven't completely lost my fitness post marathon which is how it feels.</div><div><br /></div><div>Starting the 5k, we took it out way too fast running a 3:10 first km so I slowed it down to around around 3:35-40 for the remaining 4k. </div><div><br /></div><div>In the end managed to hold it together for a finish time of 17:55! My first sub 18 minute 5k since starting triathlon and a new PB that has lasted since 2006. Considering how I've felt lately, there is no doubt that once I get my running legs back that this time will drop even more. I guess the hunt is for 17 now, lets hope it doesn't take another 4 years.</div><div><br /></div><div>And I wasn't the only one. I think about 2/3 of the runners who had previous 5k times managed to PB. I guess I'm doing something right as coach... </div><div><br /></div><div>Not much else to report. Hopefully I'll have something more exciting in the weeks to come!</div>Vincenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555327744386677155noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5742631099544045105.post-53376388041875134262010-11-08T15:04:00.001-08:002010-11-08T15:17:34.937-08:00MOUSTACHE Updates<div style="text-align: left;">Two important updates.</div><div><br /></div><div>First, it is the month of Movember. A month where sporting a moustache is not only a thing of pride, but also trendy to do since it shows your support for prostate cancer!</div><div><br /></div><div>I didn't really feel like starting up my own Movember page, and feel the pressure to compete with my friends, so instead you can donate to my friends page<a href="http://ca.movember.com/mospace/928412"> Tyler Porteous</a> and mention in your comment that you think my moustache is better. </div><div><br /></div><div>Secondly! In honour of Movember, my roommates and I are doing a push up challenge! I encourage all of you to take part as well. I have created a google spreadsheet <a href="https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AsmaMEzpUtWedC02cXBBc1J4NmhpbWNvanJkTmlKRGc&hl=en#gid=0">here</a> where you can update your numbers.</div><div><br /></div><div>The rules, you need to do a minimum of 10 pushups in a row. Additionally they need to be quality pushups. We have a statistician on the team who is going to identify who was most consistent over the month as well!</div><div><br /></div><div>To sign up you will need to ask permission for access to the spreadsheet. I will gladly grant that!</div><div><br /></div><div>There are 3 great prizes for the winners! First prize is an autographed photo of me potentially with a personalized message at the end of Movember with all my moustache glory. </div><div><br /></div><div>Second prize is the same, but a photo of Matt Reeve! And third, although her moustache is quite unimpressive, will be a signed photo of Kaley, our third roommate. But I don't think she's disappointed with the fact that she can't grow a moustache...</div><div><br /></div><div>So there you have it. Keep yourself fit by doing pushups and adding them to the spreadsheet each night! Contest ends Nov 30th at midnight!</div><div><br /></div><div>Day 6!</div><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><img src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_-izToGNfoTc/TNiEiU6wLbI/AAAAAAAACqI/8V6jRaA7yHk/s400/photo.PNG" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5537321467117579698" style="display: block; margin-top: 0px; margin-right: auto; margin-bottom: 10px; margin-left: auto; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 266px; height: 400px; " /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 238); -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><br /></span></div><div><br /></div>Vincenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555327744386677155noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5742631099544045105.post-92006689860844667692010-11-01T23:51:00.000-07:002010-11-02T01:14:45.536-07:00Reality CheckI've had a pretty miserable week, with my thesis looming over my head, my inability to run thanks to my foot still hurting since the marathon, and some other issues I won't go into, it has been pretty easy for me to complain a lot lately. <div><br /></div><div>Then this afternoon I got a reality check. This past weekend was Halloween, a weekend of fun, or at least what should have been. In Gastown (area of Vancouver) early Sunday morning there was a shooting where a crowd of people were shot at for no reason. 4 completely innocent individuals who were just enjoying their night out. One of these individuals is a friend of mine. Before I get to dramatic, I want to state that thankfully she was alright. I don't know the extent of the injury but it wasn't life threatening, but that doesn't diminish the fact that she was hit with a bullet and hospitalized. </div><div><br /></div><div>This is someone who on Friday when being in lab was too stressful for me and I needed a break took two hours out of her afternoon to talk and then came over and enjoyed dinner with my roommates and I. Not 24 hours later, the shooting occurred. </div><div><br /></div><div>I called her today asking if she wanted to come out with friends from school Tuesday night when she explained what had happened and that she wouldn't be able to make it. And then she asked how I was doing. I couldn't believe it. After everything that had happened in the previous 24 hours, she was still concerned for me and I realized that despite everything going on in my life right now, I'm really a very lucky person, for my family, my friends and for my health.</div><div><br /></div><div>When she asked how I was, all considering, I had to admit things were going very well. </div><div><br /></div><div>I finished today by doing my first run since the marathon. It hurt from being out of shape not running for three weeks, but my foot was better. And I couldn't say I've ever felt luckier to be running.</div>Vincenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555327744386677155noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5742631099544045105.post-85163595394536617762010-10-12T11:49:00.000-07:002010-10-12T11:51:13.023-07:00BOOM!Victoria Marathon Complete<div><br /></div><div>2:58:14!</div><div><br /></div><div>Race report to come, but fortunately someone got a good video of me finishing. </div><div><br /></div><div>Funny... I don't remember being so skinny.</div><div><br /></div><br /><embed src="http://videoplayer.flocasts.org/player.swf" wmode="transparent" width="480" height="360" bgcolor="#" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" flashvars="image=http://videoimages.flocasts.org/19269_chicagomenfinish_1286722487757_l.jpg&logo=http://c1184532.cdn.cloudfiles.rackspacecloud.com/flotrack.png&file=http://videofiles.flocasts.org/19269_chicagomenfinish_1286722487757.mp4&frontcolor=000000&lightcolor=cc9900&controlbar=over&stretching=fill&theme=#FB0000&border=0"></embed><p><a href="http://www.flotrack.org/">Track and Field Videos on Flotrack</a></p>Vincenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555327744386677155noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5742631099544045105.post-62491273496950335212010-08-26T18:56:00.000-07:002010-08-26T19:02:08.143-07:00Learning to RunI just read this on Brad Cunningham's blog. An elite runner from the Vancouver area. He is coming back after a year or so off of running.<div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 20px; font-family:Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;font-size:15px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;">The road back to feeling like a runner is 50 hours long.<br /><br />The road back to feeling like a runner is 600km long.<br /><br />The road back to feeling like a runner costs 46,000 calories.<br /><br />It is not a long road, but it is one that requires patience, perseverance, and consistency.<br /><br />And the road back to feeling like a runner just gets you to the start of the longer road to becoming a runner.<br /><br />Next step.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;font-size:130%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 20px;font-size:15px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;font-size:130%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 20px;font-size:15px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;">I like this because I feel this is where I am at right now after the concussion and the ankle injury. I am finally able to run again and work on improving. I don't think I am running at the same level as Brad, therefore it won't quite take me that long. Yay for shortcuts!</span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;font-size:130%;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 20px;font-size:15px;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#C0C0C0;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif;font-size:130%;color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 20px;font-size:15px;"><br /></span></span></div>Vincenthttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10555327744386677155noreply@blogger.com1