A Blogging Hiatus...

Hi everyone!

Well, we are back on Canadian soil and have been since the end of June. We spent the better part of the summer in PEI and have recently arrived back in Edmonton to settle back into reality. A lot of people have been asking me what happened to our blog and to be honest, I dropped the ball!

I had three blog posts written which included details on our remaining time in Vietnam and Hong Kong. These were saved to our desktop which had to be wiped when the computer went nutty. You would think I would learn to back things up (which I do 95% of the time) after having the same thing happen to part of my thesis a few years ago!

Either way, I will try my best to capture some details of the last few weeks of our trip and beyond. I have thoroughly enjoyed blogging over the past year and will continue to do so every now and again. It may not include details of scooting around the mountains in Thailand, chillin' with Cambodian children, or running around a hostel in the nude because of monstrous spiders hanging in the shower, but there are always fun things to write about in the lives of Clement and Julia. Thank you all for following the blog on our travels. We loved sharing our stories with everyone and I'm still amazed at the detail that some of you remember! Stay tuned for another post in the near future...

"You and you make me, me, me, me, and me VERY HAPPY!!!"

Dalat is a city in the mountains known for its production of fruit, vegetables, rice, silk, flowers and coffee. We hopped on a bus for an 8 hour ride leaving behind the hustle and bustle of Ho Chi Minh City. When we arrived, it didn’t take us long to realize how nice the climate was; quite cool compared to any other place we’ve visited in SE Asia. This climate is ideal for growing and harvesting anything you can imagine. We learned that this area of Vietnam is one of the richest. The local farmers ship over 400 tonnes of fruit and vegetables to HCMC every morning, ship flowers all over SE Asia, and coffee all over the world. In fact, Vietnam is the second largest coffee exporter in the world behind Brazil and ahead of Columbia. We were both surprised by this and were told that 1 Kg of Dalat’s best coffee beans is worth $3000 US in the global coffee market.

We stayed in Dalat for three days and two nights. On one of the days, Julia and I jumped on the back of motorcycles and cruised around with the “Easy Riders”. The “Easy Riders” are a group of 82 men who take tourists around the countryside on the back of their motorcycles stopping along the way to teach about the local culture and farming. On this day, we visited yet another amazing waterfall, a silk factory, coffee plantations, a rice wine brewing station, local farms, a crazy house (which is compared to Alice in Wonderland) and had a great lunch with our guides (after they teased us about ordering monkey, snake and dog for us to try). It was a great way to see the area and learn about Dalat’s richness in a country that for the most part remains quite poor.

Another event that will remind us of Dalat forever is a family that we met one evening. As we made our way back to our hotel after a delicious Italian meal, we were approached by four young men. Hesitating at first, we engaged in a conversation once we discovered they weren’t trying to sell us something or rob us. Out of the 4 of them, only one spoke a little bit of English and he invited us to join them for a coffee. So away we went following them down little alleyways to their favorite local café. We had some good drinks, a few laughs, practiced our miming skills (it’s amazing what you can communicate with your hands!) and learned that our presence was making these guys “very happy”. Em, who spoke very little English kept saying you and you (Julia and I) make me, me, me and me (he and his friends) HAPPY!!! It was quite nice to see the smiles on their faces and in return, they made us happy as well. We tried to cover the bill once we finished our drinks and the owner of the café quickly told us to put our money away. In Vietnam, it is customary to treat those who you invite and as guests, we were expected to simply enjoy. It was quite a treat knowing how little these four young guys have and learning about how hard they work each day to help support their families. After our coffee, we were then invited to go to Em’s house for a cup of green tea…this is when the evening got really interesting. Within 30 seconds of us entering their home, at least 15 of his family and friends appeared to greet us. His mother was a precious woman with four kids aged 26 to 34; she was 65. We were made to sit down and sip away on some fresh green tea as they took many pictures of us, petted my arm and facial hair, and admired Julia’s white skin. It was hard to communicate with them but their smiles and laughter told us all we needed to know. They were so happy to have us in and show us how they live. For Julia and I, this experience was extremely eye-opening in seeing how these people live and how happy they are with so little; just a big happy family thankful for having each other, a house, some clothes, and enough to eat each day. They have already emailed us twice and have given us their address. We are going to put together a care package when we get home with some Canadian memorabilia to send to them.

Next we are off to Nha Trang; a beach town that has become one of Vietnam’s largest cities. We are looking forward to chillin’ on the beach. More to come…

Good Morning, Vietnam!

Just when you think it can’t get any better, it does! We arrived very tired in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) after a 16 hour bus trip from Siem Reap. There is nothing better to wake you up than this city! With a population of 7 million (9 million people in the city at any given time with business people and tourists) and 4 million scooters on the road, this city is the epitome of chaos! We had been given a good hotel recommendation while in Thailand, so we booked in for four nights at the Duc Vuong Hotel. We have never stayed at a friendlier place and we got free breakfast and “family dinners” each day. Also, every Sunday they have a “Family Party” for all guests. We luckily were there on a Sunday so we were able to attend the party. It was by far the funniest thing we have ever seen! There was a lot of bad karaoke and dancing which made for an eventful night. It’s as if the Asian people get high as soon as the karaoke machine gets fired up. They turn into superstars who clearly watch waaaayyyy too much MTV. They were pulling out provocative Britney Spears-type dance moves and loved being in the spotlight. It was as if they were performing to a crowd of 100,000 in a huge stadium. As per usual, the volume of the karaoke was also at that level. This night was one of our highlights so far and we have videos to watch if we ever feel like we need to smile or have a good laugh.

We spent one day at the Cu Chi Tunnels where we learned all about the war and much of Vietnam’s history. There remain over 200km of underground tunnels that were built during the war to protect the Vietnamese people from the invading Americans. It became evident how clever these people were/are, as they made various traps out of bamboo and other homemade weapons. Their best defense in our opinions, were the tunnels themselves as they were made to only fit the Vietnamese. Believe us, there is no way an American could ever fit inside these things! One tunnel has been widened for Western tourists to experience, but even that was claustrophobically small.

We spent the other days touring around the city and although Saigon is easily seen on foot, the heat was too much for us. Even with the bit of walking we did, we were dripping with sweat within the first 2 minutes and had little energy to go any further. We decided then, we needed to find another way to see the city. Vietnam is the only place in the world that still uses cyclos as a type of transport. A cyclo is essentially a rickshaw, but instead of being pulled behind the bicycle you sit in the front. We were approached by an older man and although we declined at first, his charm got the best of us and before we knew it, we were cruising amongst the 4 million scooters on a cyclo. Mr. Hieu was a sweet man from Mekong Delta. He moved to the city to drive a cyclo and we later found out that this was also his home. He whisked us around all day in the sweltering heat and spoke descent English. We had a great day seeing the sights, although had a few scary moments when we found ourselves on the highway! We visited many markets and temples, but the best part of the day was when we took Mr. Hieu out for a couple of beer. We chatted more and learned about his family, his village and his life in the Mekong Delta. We have come to realize that it’s the experiences like this that we cherish the most on our travels. Before parting ways with Mr. Hieu, he wanted us to write a note in his “book of friends”. He was so grateful, as were we to meet him and spend the day with him. The next morning we were walking down the street and all we could see what this orange baseball hat running towards us and waving. It was Mr. Hieu! He was so excited to see us, as we were him. We went for a couple of more drinks and he took us to one of his friends “bars”, where we shared some Saigon beer with 4 old Vietnamese men! Mr. Hieu’s friend was a shoemaker by day and a barman by night. As he says “Mr. Shoeman in the day, sell beer in the night”. We had a lot of laughs and stumbled home talking about the funny things that had happened.

One other highlight of our time in Saigon was our quest to find the most impressive motorbike. For those of you who have been to the city or have seen pictures; you know this is no easy feat! They carry everything on their scooters, but we wanted to spot “the best”. While we still don’t think we’ve seen the best yet, I’ll summarize just a few items that have made our shortlist:
• A fridge. The driver had the fridge strapped to his body and to the scooter. If it went down, he was going with it!
• A kitchen table and chairs
• A variety of animals- ducks, dogs, pigs, rats, etc.
• A bamboo ladder. If you picture a typical extension ladder that one would have in their shed, multiply its length by two and you would get this ladder. The best part of it was that he wasn’t carrying it length-wise, but width-wise. It took up at least 2 lanes of traffic.
• Tractor tires. Wrapped around their bodies while driving, obviously.
• Flat screen TV
• Toilet paper. We still haven’t quite figured this one out because they don’t really use toilet paper here, but we saw many scooters with a block (2 metres high by 1 metre wide) of toilet paper.

We haven’t even mentioned the number of people they fit on a scooter yet. We thought for the first couple of days that the record was five…we were wrong. We saw six! We got way too excited when we saw them fly by, but we knew then that we had a new record. I’ll try to explain how it worked. There were two adults (assuming they were the Mom and Dad) and four kids. One kid stood in the front and held onto the speedometer area. The Dad drove, two other children sat between Dad and Mom (who was on the back) and Mom held a newborn baby in front of her (essentially sitting on the other children’s laps)! It is hard to explain, but hopefully you can get the picture. The kids were all suited up with their shades and their face masks on and cruised by as if it was a normal occurrence…which is obviously is. Who needs a minivan when you can all fit on a scooter? We tried to snap a few shots but they were always driving too fast. We also got a scare when we saw a few tourists get their cameras snatched right out of their hands or off their bodies, so we kept our camera hidden for a lot of the time.

All in all, we loved Ho Chi Minh City. It is definitely at the top of our list in terms of cities we have visited around the world. The chaos and the people seem to work so well together which makes for a very exciting couple of days! We are now off to the highlands where we will check out the mountains and countryside in Dalat for a couple of days. We then plan to head back out to the coast to veg on the beach for a break from sightseeing and touring around.

More to come...

We have continued blogging but haven't been able to upload them. We will have them up in the next few days. We are enjoying our last two days in northern Vietnam before heading to Hong Kong for 4 days and then to PEI! Can't wait to see everyone so soon!

Captivating Cambodia

We apologize for the negativity of our last blog, but we had to tell it like it was! We consider ourselves to be quite laidback travelers and usually let things slide, but we just couldn’t do it considering our misfortunes in Laos. Needless to say, we were VERY happy once the Laos customs officers finally let us out of their country.

It sounds crazy, but my feelings instantly changed when we walked across the border from Laos and into Cambodia. My instinct amazes me sometimes and I knew then, that things would take a turn for the better. We had heard mixed reviews about the country, but we couldn’t have had a better experience. The people, the food, the landscape, the history, it was all amazing. As we entered the country from Laos, we had the opportunity to see a fair bit of northeastern Cambodia. We drove for about twelve hours through small villages and beautiful countryside. The poverty was clearly evident and seeing the many poor people was something very different from our experiences in the other Southeast Asian countries. We drove by large families living in small shacks along the side of the road. By a shack, I mean a small room with three walls and a flimsy roof made out of bamboo. There was no floor and no electricity so when night fell you could see the families eating on the ground by candlelight. Because there are very few developed roads in Cambodia, the drive wasn’t as straightforward as it appeared to be on the map. Also, it is the start of rainy season here, so many of the roads were covered in mud which made for slower travel. After a long travel day which also included many bumps and swerves to avoid hitting the odd cow, chicken, pig, goat, or child we arrived at 1am in Siem Reap. We had been given a brochure of a nice guesthouse to stay in so we got tuk tuks from the bus station (what looked like an open junk yard) to Ancient Angkor Guesthouse and crashed hard! The guesthouse was located just a few minutes walk from the Old Night Market and a busy “strip” of restaurants, bars, and shops.

We were still travelling with Nick and Lizette, our Dutch friends who we have been with since Chiang Mai, Thailand and after a rough few days getting through Laos and into Cambodia we chose to spend our first day relaxing and laying by the pool- yes, our guesthouse had a pool!! It was so, so hot that it felt more like a hot tub but was still very relaxing! So relaxing in fact, that we spent the better part of our second day in Siem Reap doing the same thing. It was an early morning the next day, as we got up at 4:30 am to be picked up by our tuk tuk drivers to take us to Angkor Wat for the sunrise. We had gone the evening before to see the sunset from a temple located on the top of a small mountain (about a 20 minute walk to the top), which was beautiful. We unfortunately, didn’t get to see a sunrise as they were too many clouds but the sight of Angkor Wat alone was breathtaking! The Temples of Angkor are spread out for kilometers and were all built between the 9th and 13th centuries. The sheer size, scale and detail of these ancient temples are enough to stop you in your tracks. We spent the day touring around the most popular temples which included Angkor Wat (the largest religious building in the world), Bayon Temple, and Ta Prohm, where the movie Tomb Raider was filmed. We thoroughly enjoyed our time at the temples and it is something that cannot be missed when in Cambodia.

The most fascinating (and very sad) part of Cambodia is its history. Cambodia is still in the early stages of recovering from The Khmer Rouge regime. The Khmer Rouge, under the leadership of Pol Pot, was a communist political party that took over power only to initiate one of the most horrific revolutions the world has ever seen. Within four year (1975-1979), 2.5 million Cambodians were killed. Cambodians who were even the slightest bit educated (i.e. spoke a foreign language or even just wore glasses) were forced out of the cities and into the countryside to be tortured and executed. We were told that bullets cost too much, so instead of shooting them they would mistreat and neglect them leaving them to die from malnutrition and disease. Many locals that we spoke to were eager to share their stories of this “genocide” as it is now labeled, but there were also many who try to forget it ever happened and will not speak of it. I won’t elaborate on how this all ended in 1979 (involves Vietnam and other countries), but it was only in 1998 that Pol Pot himself died…yes, he lived for another 20 years! Interestingly enough, while we were in our room one evening the local news came on in English and the top story was that the trial for four of Pol Pot’s closest colleagues, who admitted their involvement in the genocide, was beginning the next day in Phnom Penh (capital of Cambodia). This was a clear indication to us of just how recent this “history” is.

We only spent a total of seven days in Cambodia and were only in Phnom Penh for one day while we waited to transfer buses. Had we had more time, we would have stayed in PP for a couple of days to visit the killing fields and S21, a school that was transformed into a prison during the Khmer Rouge regime. This is an experience that from other travelers, we have heard is very distressing.

We had a short but eye-opening experience in Cambodia and I know that I will return in the near future. There is a lot of opportunity to volunteer with the country’s children and elderly (of which there aren’t many) and I would love to put my nursing skills to use in a place with such beautiful people and stories.

Onto the ‘nam!

Let's get the hell out of Laos!!

Well, my guess is that most readers of our blog are likely wondering when I, Clement, would contribute to our stories. As Chief Editor (which has been an easy job as you can imagine), it’s time for me to begin typing. There’s no better time than now after our experiences in Laos. Julia strongly disliked the country…I will do my best to describe our experiences with as much of a positive twist as possible.
We reluctantly left Chiang Mai to head to the Thai border town of Chiang Khong. We truly had an amazing experience in Thailand and we aren’t sure any other country can beat it (although we’ve heard the best is yet to come!). We knew that we had three travel days ahead of us to get to Luang Prabang, our first stop in Laos, but had no idea it would be as painful as it was. After a six hour drive we landed in Chiang Khong where we stayed the night at a sketchy guesthouse. We could see through the wooden planks in the cracking weak floor. The creatures were literally crawling out of the woodwork so our mosquito net was our saving grace. An early morning followed as we hopped on a small boat to take us from Thailand to the Laos border where we picked up our passports with Laos visas and were on our way. You have three options to get from Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang; either by bus, speedboat or slow boat. We heard that the bus was brutally long and uncomfortable and people die on a monthly basis on the speedboat so we opted for the third choice, the 2 day slow boat ride down the Mekong River. Floating down the Mekong River for a couple of chilled out days sounds pretty cool right? WRONG!
A slow boat it was. Let me first set the scene. There are no safety regulations on anything in Laos. In fact, Laos Airlines doesn’t even release their safety reports. The boat was way over capacity with at least 80 people crammed into a boat that has a capacity of about 50, and let’s not forget everyone’s luggage. We had to sit on wooden benches that were constructed at less than a 90 degree angle, meaning that we were essentially leaning forward for a total of 17 hours!! These wooden benches made church pews look and feel luxurious! The first day was an 8 hour ride. Thankfully, there was a bit of a breeze which helped to maintain our sanity. On the second day (9 hours) we weren’t so lucky….it was at least 45 degrees and there was no breeze whatsoever. Our bodies cooking under the tin roof of the boat, the little shade we had was not near enough to keep us cool. We have never had our patience and our sanity tested to that extreme before. We are really surprised that nobody went mental and jumped overboard…the stinky dead water buffalo floating down the murky brown river may have deterred them. Having said all this, we met some great people onboard and enjoyed a few warm BeerLao with them to make the time pass.
We were more than happy to have arrived in Luang Prabang and spent a relaxing three days there enjoying some beautiful waterfalls, markets and even the curfew. Lao people are so laidback (some would label them as lazy) that they have a law in LP stating that everything must be closed by 11:30pm. Even before that, the streets empty out and there is no one around except for the odd traveler wondering what the heck is going on. We left LP to head for Vang Vieng, which is famous for tubing down the river. We knew that we couldn’t go to Laos and not make a quick stop here, so we continued on with the group of people from the slow boat (about 10 of us) and spent a couple of nights there. Our group was comprised of 2 Dutchies, 2 Scotts, 3 Germans, 1 Canadian and us. We all became quite close and will continue our travels with some and others we will keep in touch with I’m sure. We all spent one day tubing which was really fun. At the same time it was also sad to see, as many young travelers party hard with no regard or respect for the Laos people, their culture or their land. Although drugs are illegal in Laos, they are available everywhere. You can order a “Happy Pizza” in most restaurants and instead of getting normal mushrooms on it they use magic mushrooms. Needless to say everywhere we went there were numerous travelers tripping out on mushrooms and/or opium. Not really our idea of travelling in SE Asia but we put up with it for a day and managed to have our own fun. Each bar you go to as you make your way down the river has a swing, a waterslide, or a zip-line and in some cases all three. I can’t imagine some of the injuries that occur along this part of the river as people stretch their limits of consumption making them feel invisible.

As we left Vang Vieng headed for Vientiane, we jumped on yet another bus for the 6 hour trip. It was quite uneventful for a change until we arrived in the capital city. We struggled to find accommodation and the heat was getting to us on that scorching afternoon. We finally settled in a hotel that we later found out charged us too much. Yet again, we were looking forward to getting out of there. We didn’t take in many sites in Vientiane as we were getting tired of the bad vibes passed on by the locals. We arranged for our Cambodian Visas and booked our “VIP sleeper bus” tickets to Pakse in Southern Laos…a ten hour trip overnight. We arrived to the bus station to have our tickets switched before we even knew what was happening and ended up on a shitty bus. This bus certainly didn’t look like the pictures we were showed during our booking. We had paid a premium for this “VIP sleeper bus”, another event adding to our frustrations. We woke up at 6 in the morning in Pakse to tuk tuk drivers shaking our feet on the bus to get our attention. At this stop, only the white people were made to get off as the locals watched us with grins on their faces. Our luggage had been put in a separate compartment and was out of the bus before we could wipe the sleep out of our eyes. At this point, we were forced to make a quick decision to go to either Tad Lo or 4000 Islands. We chose 4000 Islands, which proved to be a bad move. I could see how 3-5 years ago this place would have been lovely, but frankly, the locals have let it go to shit!! We were dropped off by the mini bus close to the Mekong River as the Islands are located near the south of Laos. This is where we caught the small boats to take us to the Islands and this little town literally looked like a DUMP…we’ve never seen so much garbage and the foul smells were enough to make your stomach turn. I must mention that by now, Julia had been violently ill for 4 days and her patience was short to say the least. I felt her pain as she struggled to find a toilet as the locals laughed at her. It must have been a nightmare for Jules and I’m so glad that she’s now back to normal.
I hope that I am not sounding too negative throughout this Laos blog. I suppose that we can sum it up to an overall bad experience in a place for which we had very high hopes. It is my belief that if the Laos people do not get their act together soon, they will lose one of their largest industries; tourism. In talking to other travelers, we certainly weren’t the only people who struggled to find the positives within our Laos visit. The Laos people have no concept of the long-term opportunities that tourism presents to its younger generations. Instead, we found the people to be very short sighted and out for personal gain. To top it all off, they almost didn’t let us out of their country because we didn’t have enough kip left to pay off the customs officers (they tried to tell us we owed them more money because it was Saturday and they were working “overtime”). After much arguing and trying to give them whatever we could (we would have given the shirts off our back at this point), they let us through and into Cambodia where we are thoroughly enjoying ourselves! Our blog from Cambodia will follow shortly!

Northern Thailand

We are really pleased with our decision to fly from Phuket to Chiang Mai considering what is currently going on in Bangkok. Chiang Mai is a beautiful city in the north central part of Thailand. We spent six days there, but could have easily spent a couple of weeks. With small alleyways and no tall buildings, it certainly didn’t feel like a big city. We stayed at a beautiful guesthouse (Baan Thai Resort and Spa) that had a pool and really nice gardens. We once again, rented motorbikes for our stay in Chiang Mai. When we arrived in the city I thought to myself that there would be no way we could ever rent motorbikes there, but 24 hours later and we were on the road! It was organized chaos, but it worked! We are always amazed at how it works and how you very rarely hear horns beeping or see accidents. We were able to tour around where and when we wanted, so we spent two days outside of Chiang Mai in the mountains and stumbled across some beautiful hilltribe villages. We also went to an elephant camp that housed 77 elephants who put on a show for us that included them playing soccer, playing the harmonica and painting amazing paintings. We went to the “Night Bazaar” each night for dinner and sampled some great northern Thai food. Speaking of food, Clement took a one-day Thai cooking course where he learned how to make six Thai dishes that we are excited to share with everyone at home. He even got to make my favorite dish, Chicken with cashew nuts, so I can’t wait for him to cook me up this delicious dish. While Clem was at the cooking school for the day, I chose to go for a massage and went to a great spa that was opened in 2001 for female inmates from the women’s prison. Knowing that it is often difficult for criminals to get back into the workforce, one lady opened this spa to help them out and to prevent them from re-entering the circle of crime. This place had a really cool atmosphere and knowing the history of some of the girls made it that much better. I had a one hour foot massage, which was amazing! During my massage it started to rain and when it rains here, it rains! I had the scooter with me, so I knew I would have to wait around for the rain to stop. After I paid for my massage ($5 to be exact!), the ladies whisked me into this café that they ran that was attached to the spa. They sat me down and gave me a handful of English magazines and served me an ice tea. After about 40 minutes the rain stopped and before I could even stand up, they had pulled my scooter out front for me and wiped off the seat! This is just one more example of how lovely the Thai people are. I enjoyed it so much that Clement and I both went back the next day for Thai massages. Short of screaming at the lady for being so strong, it was my best massage yet. I was in the air on top of this little (but mighty) Thai girl, bent in positions that I didn’t know existed and rubbed down with Tiger Balm. After experiencing these Thai massages, it’s going to be hard to go back to the $80 massages that you get at home!

Seeing as everyone seems to get such a kick out of my fear for creatures, I will explain how it’s been going for the last little while. When we first got to Asia, I told Clem that I was no longer going to be afraid of creepy crawly things….I was going to “become one with them” (haha). So, I went on a mission to not worry about what could be crawling under my feet or stuck in my hair or running across the street in front of us. It worked for about 48 hours, but since then I have been attacked (yes, attacked) by more creatures than before I made this statement! Clement thinks that they can sense that I’m deathly afraid of them and that’s why they are attracted to me because nothing, and I mean NOTHING has happened to him. He hasn’t even seen so much as an ant crawling on him. To give you some details, we were in the water at the beach in Karon Beach (Phuket) and out of nowhere this fish (looked like a marlin with a long snout but about ten inches long) flew in my face and got caught in my hair elastic that was around my wrist. It flopped around frantically trying to untangle itself as I panicked and screamed like a little kid while trying to get out of the water as fast as I could. Finally, we both got free…he was safe in the ocean and I was safe on land. I was so embarrassed because everyone was looking at me, and Clement just laid in the water laughing at me. I still am trying to figure out how of all the ocean water that little bugger had why he would choose to jump OUT of the water and into MY face?! Then, when we were at the elephant camp in Chiang Mai, we were feeding them and got to sit on their leg while they wrapped their trunk around you. Clement did it first and the elephants were so cute. I then fed them and sat down only to be sneezed on!! This massive mammal blew snots all over my chest….just imagine how much snot that is! I was not a happy camper. Then, later that night we were walking up to our room at our guesthouse and had taken off our shoes (it’s customary here to do so). All of a sudden, I screamed in pain because something was burning the bottom of my foot…there was a bee stuck in my foot that had stung me. Who steps on a bee? Me, I guess. So then I really started to panic knowing that the only thing I DON’T have in my first aid kit is an Epi-Pen. I had never been stung by a bee before (that I knew of) so me being the worry wart I am, started to think that I was going to go into anaphylactic shock. Thankfully that didn’t happen and I have once again, lived to tell the story. So, those are just a few examples of my encounters with creatures. (I’ve kindly left out the many monstrous rats that have run across the street in front of me, the dead snake that I stepped on, the cockroach infested rooms that we call home, and who could forget the bed bugs that we are BOTH covered in….the only thing that has come close to Clem).

Thai Culture

This is the part that is most frustrating…trying to describe the Thai people and their culture. The locals are so friendly and humble that we are just shocked each time we have an encounter with them. They are such happy people that are always willing to help and make your visit to Thailand as great as it can possibly be. They don’t call it the “Land of Smiles” for nothing. From the village children roaming in the streets making their own fun for hours on end, to the young ladyboys who REALLY like Clem (ha ha), the Thai people are one of a kind. They bow to you with such sincerity that it makes you feel as if you are the only person on the planet. We were at a beach bar in Koh Phi Phi and the young guys that worked at the bar put on a fire show each night (an amazing one at that). One of the staff was a ladyboy…and not a good one. She/he was clearly in transition wearing a pink satin strapless dress, glittery eye makeup, and high heels, but still had a moustache! The other staff (who were athletic men) worked alongside this ladyboy as if it was nothing. We remarked about how this would not be the case at home, as we all know what that poor person would be subjected to. It is fascinating how they all take care of each other and you by catering to you as if you were the king. We also met some amazing girls at a bar in Phuket. They work in the sex trade (i.e. they can be “bought” for a night or two) and were the nicest, most genuine women one could ever meet. Matt got really sick with food poisoning while we were sitting at the bar and we had to leave to go back to our hotel. The girls were so sincerely concerned. They packed a bag full of water bottles and cold towels for us to take on the ride home and then proceeded to tell us that they would go to the pharmacy for us and to drink lots of hot tea. In my opinion, you would be hard pressed to find this kind of treatment back home. These are just a couple of our many positive encounters with the Thai people. As I mentioned, is it impossible to capture all of these moments in writing. In a couple of days, we will head up to northern Thailand (Chiang Mai) which is deemed to be the cultural capital of Thailand. We cannot wait to experience more of their culture and to spend more time with the locals.

The introduction to Thailand in “The Lonely Planet” puts it nicely so I will share it with all of you:

“Thailand. Close your eyes, let the world roll over your tongue, and almost instantly the pictures begin to form in your mind. Maybe you’re seeing a stark white beach, with piles of softly pillowing sand stretching on forever. There isn’t another person in sight, and a mammoth coconut tree with a curved trunk stretches out over the startlingly blue ocean. Or maybe Thailand to you is the chaos and confusion of big-city Bangkok, with bodies moving in every direction at once, and stinging neon lights beckoning you to drink liquor with bikini-clad bargirls.
Perhaps your Thailand is an open field and an ancient stone Buddha so large its feet are longer than your body. Tourists have captured his image on film thousands of times, but he continues to sit still, eyes closed and peaceful, seemingly keeping a secret.
And that’s the thing about Thailand: it is fast and stressful and frightening, and it’s quiet and meditative and kind. And yes, it holds secrets, but very few of them will come to you easily.
There’s a perfectly good reason why this country is one of the most popular destinations in all of Asia. When you see something here you’ve never seen before- the wrinkled face of a hill tribe villager, or the come-hither glance of a ladyboy- you start to think hard about what else you don’t know, and where else you’ve not been. Thailand is like that. If you’re lucky, it will seep into your pores and settle heavily on your soul…surrender yourself deeply enough to this Land of Smiles, and to its people, and you may find that the person you once were has changed forever. Is that a good thing? The decision, of course, is all yours. Why not just close your eyes and let the pictures begin to form in your mind?”

For me, Thailand quickly sunk into my pores and I wake up every day not believing where I am and the people I am surrounded by. It’s amazing (and corny), but it is clear now that the person I once was has changed forever….I just keep pinching myself and looking forward to our remaining time in this beautiful country.

The Wild Adventures in Thailand Continue…

After spending three nights in Koh Lanta, we took a three and half hour ferry ride to Phuket. We were told when we booked our boat tickets that we would be changing ferries in the water….we didn’t think we understood correctly because of the language barrier, but we did hear right! Half way through our ferry ride, another ferry pulled up beside us and we had to jump over in the middle of the ocean! We had a good laugh about that and arrived in Phuket shortly after. Ryan and Ashley were flying out of Phuket to head back to Canada so we spent our last two days with them in Patong Beach and went out with a bang. We went out to Soi Bang La, which is a busy strip of bars, clubs, pubs and little holes in the wall where you can take in a local “Ping Pong and Resbian Show”. As soon as we stepped onto this street we were bombarded by people trying to sell us “tickets” to these shows. We ignored the first twenty of them and then actually began talking to one guy who told Ashley and I it was free, but 500 baht per beer (about $15) for the guys. We ended up talking him down to 200 baht ($6) each and he took us to his bar. We were a little bit weirded out as we weren’t sure what we had gotten ourselves into and followed him down this alley and into this curtained door which opened up into a small room (the bar) the size of a regular bedroom! He sat us in these stools that lined the bar (also known to some as “perv row”)…little did we know what would happen next. The things we saw, we will never see again in our lives. There were naked girls, ping pong balls, bananas, little birds, and darts involved….you can use your imagination for the rest because it is not bloggable material! Needless to say, we sat there for a short time in amazement before heading back through the curtain only to be bombarded again. Oh, did I mention that Phuket is one of the sex trade capitals of Thailand?

We spent the next day cruising the markets where Clem and Ryan ordered their custom made suits. Clement paid $300 Canadian for two cashmere suits (gray and light brown) and four shirts, which also included the shipping back to Canada. They turned out amazingly!

We said a sad good bye to Ashley and Ryan and sent them on their way to the airport, only to meet up with Matt and Camelia (from KL)!! They had emailed us a week ago telling us that they would meet us in Phuket for the weekend. We were so excited to see them again and spent an amazing weekend with them in Karon Beach (just down the road from Patong Beach). Matt has been to Phuket on numerous occasions and knew the ins and outs of the city. We partied pretty darn hard the first night we met them and took in some even crazier stuff than what we had seen a few nights earlier. This time it involved yet again, ping pong balls and rubber whips! We started the night off at a small beachside bar called “Ocean View Bar”. Matt led the way to this bar and when we approached it, we realized that we had stopped at that exact bar the night before with Ryan and Ashley. The girls remembered Clem and I and ran up giving us hugs and welcoming us again! We spent a few hours there hanging out with Jaja, Mina, Moi, and Roong, who quickly became our good friends. We played many games with them and had a great time laughing at them as they became more and more drunk. Jaja tried to tell me that she never gets a hangover, but when we returned to see her two nights later, she explained that she couldn’t open her eyes and was only able to drink water and “one tequila”. Haha. We have some great videos of our time spent with the Ocean View Bar girls and will upload them when we have a better internet connection. You will all get a great laugh out of them!

We had rented motorbikes for our time spent in Karon Beach for 200 baht per day ($6!). It was great, as we could go wherever we wanted without having to take a taxi or tuk tuk. I have to admit that I was a little scared because motorbiking around Phuket was way crazier than our previous day trip on Koh Lanta where we had the roads to ourselves. We quickly got used to it and had a great time taking in the sights around Phuket. We did hire a taxi for one afternoon to take us to some of the local attractions. Matt and Camelia had planned on bungy jumping in Phuket and while Clem had had his fill of adrenalin in NZ, he decided to join in. Matt, Clem and Camelia all took the plunge and had a great time! We have great videos and their certificates to prove it! We also went to a shooting range where Matt got to shoot a machine gun and a shotgun. We had a great afternoon cruising around on what has been dubbed “Adventure Day”.

We spent a great four days with Matt and Camelia in Phuket before they returned to Kuala Lumpur and we made some plans as to where we were heading next. We had originally planned for between 3-4 weeks in Thailand and were intending to head over to the east coast to spend some time on the islands there (Koh Tao and Koh Phanang). Unfortunately, the violence has been escalating in Bangkok and our only way to travel after those islands would be through Bangkok. We could have come back to Phuket, but it seemed to be an unnecessary cost and at least a couple of days of wasted travel, so we have just booked flights from Phuket to fly up to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. We have a couple of more days in Phuket and will spend them on the beach before heading up to the cultural capital of Thailand. We plan to spend 3-4days in Chiang Mai where we may take in some elephant trekking and a Thai cooking course.

Taxi? Tuk Tuk? Suit? Masaaaaage?

We arrived in Thailand safely, although we had some scary experiences. The Canadian government had issued a travel advisory for the border we were to cross (“Avoid All Travel”), so we thought we may have to change our plans which would have added on another couple of travel days. Because the south of Thailand is Muslim and the rest of Thailand (90%) is Buddhist, there are religious clashes that are very unpredictable and have been escalating in recent weeks with bombings and shootings. After speaking with other travelers, we were reassured that it was safe (albeit a huge risk) to use this border crossing. We took a taxi to the border and walked across the bridge from Malaysia into Thailand (we were told that 30 years ago you would see foreigners who had been hanged on the bridge for attempting to take drugs into the countries) and then hopped on motorbike taxis (I totally crossed some cultural lines by grabbing onto the driver for dear life) to the minibus station. We had a three hour drive in a minibus (like a 15 passenger van) to the transit and commercial hub city of Hat Yai. We were stopped at least 8-10 times by police and army road blocks and within seconds our vehicle would be surrounded by men carrying huge rifles. They would glare through the van windows at us with “we’re not %^&# around” faces. We were two of three white people in the van (one other French guy who was heading to Ko Samui where he has lived and worked for the last year). At one point, the police stopped our van, made the driver get out and opened the side door because he saw us “white people” in the back seat. He spoke in Thai for a few minutes as we sat there in silence hoping he would let us through. The French guy we were with understands some Thai and explained to us that he was talking about us and saying that we were a good “opportunity” for them, as they could search us and demand money. My heart rate was extremely high at that point, but we remained calm and he suddenly closed the door and waved us on. It was a really scary experience and something that I probably wouldn’t risk again, but everything worked out in the end and we completed our 12 hour travel day when we arrived in Krabi where we would catch a ferry to Ko Phi Phi the next morning.

Ashley and Ryan (our friends from Edmonton) were meeting us in Koh Phi Phi and we spent an amazing four days with them on the island. It was unbearably hot (45 degrees without the humidity), so it was a sweaty, but fun few days. We all shared an air conditioned room (to cut on costs because prices are double for rooms with AC) at a small resort that was still under construction from the devastating tsumani that hit Koh Phi Phi on Boxing Day in 2004. The locals don’t like to talk about that day, but it was evident that the island had to be completely rebuilt. We hired a longtail boat to take us out for 4 hours to the many little islands that surround Koh Phi Phi and spent the day snorkeling in crystal clear water with amazing reef and fish. Having recently snorkeled the Great Barrier Reef in Australia, we thought we couldn’t top what we saw, but it certainly gave it a run for its money. (We payed $150 each to see the Great Barrier Reef and $10 each to do the same in Thailand!). Our driver took us to some great spots and waited for us for as long as we wanted while he lay in his hammock on the boat. He stopped at Monkey Beach, where there were tons of monkeys hanging out. We fed them and watched in amazement as they cruised around the beach with their babies. The other days on Phi Phi were spent on the beach, in the sweltering hot water and of course getting Thai massages. I could write an entire blog on Thai massages…they are quite the experience and no, Clem didn’t go for the “happy finish”. These Thai women are so strong and they don’t spare any body parts while massaging! They aren’t very aware of the curtains either so I was there for the world to see on a few occasions.

We left Koh Phi Phi and took a ferry to another smaller, more chilled out island called Koh Lanta. Koh Lanta doesn’t see as many tourists and isn’t even in our bible “The Lonely Planet” so we are off the beaten path a little bit but loving every minute of it. We spent three nights at a small beachfront resort and feel like we are the only people in the world! It was so relaxing and beautiful that you could spend weeks here and never want to leave. We rented motorbikes and drove around the island for the day, where were saw elephants, snakes, and monkeys in the wild. The island is 32 km long and 8 km wide at it’s widest so it is easily seen in one day. We stopped at a beach and went for swim, drove through the jungle and some small villages to visit with the locals, which is an experience I can’t even blog about. I find it frustrating as I write this because we have so many stories that we would love to share, but writing just doesn’t do it justice. It is an overwhelming feeling that we can only describe as “too much goodness at once”.

Terima Kasih Malaysia and Sawatdee Kaa Thailand!

We spent an extra night in KL so we could go out for dinner with Matt and Camelia one last time. We went to an amazing Chinese restaurant on a bustling street and then went for a couple of drinks at an Irish pub. The boys were happy because they were replaying a recent NHL game! We left the following day to head to the bus station to catch our night bus to a small fishing village (Kuala Besut), where we would catch our small boat to the Perhentian Islands, 21 km off the northeast coast of Malaysia. All went smoothly (even with the bus driver passing around corners and stopping at a sketchy rest stop at 2am) and we arrived in Kuala Besut at 5 am to the sound of roosters and the call to prayer. It was Clement’s birthday and I completely forgot until I saw our boat ticket! We had been up all night and it just didn’t click. I felt really awful, but it was only 7 am when I remembered so I’m still in the good books! We were walking through the deserted streets and had no idea what we were supposed to do or where we were supposed to go. It was very dark, but once the sun rose we were on our boat and heading to paradise! We spent four amazing days on Pulau Perhentian Kecil, which is the smaller of the two islands. There was nothing to do besides sit on the beach and relax or go snorkeling. We stayed in a small hut high in the jungle (walking up the old wobbly stairs was an experience in and of itself) and thoroughly enjoyed our time there. The beach water was crystal clear and the coral was just 2 feet away from the shore. There were fish everywhere so we spent many hours floating in the water under the sun! It wasn’t only the beautiful beach that we loved about it, but there was something really neat about being on a small island 21 km away from the mainland. The island’s power is created by generators which are only turned on overnight. The food was amazing and the people were great but there was one downfall….Malaysia is a Muslim country and the Perhentians belong to a conservative state so we weren’t able to enjoy a cold beer while soaking up the rays. Some people found this too hard to handle and it seemed to ruin their time in Malaysia but when you see what you are surrounded by, the last thing you are thinking of is drinking! If any of you ever have the chance to go to Malaysia, you must not miss the Perhentians!

We left the Perhentians to head north to the Thai border because our friends from Edmonton were going to be in Thailand and we didn’t want to miss the opportunity to travel with them for a week or two. It wasn’t without some interesting experiences though…We arrived at the pier back in Kuala Besut and planned to catch a bus to a border town where there is a Thai Embassy (so we could get a Visa longer than 15 days). The taxi drivers were swarming us for business but a bus was far cheaper and went on an hourly basis. The taxi drivers kept saying “No bus come, you come with me”, “No bus here”, “Don’t go bus”. We ignored them thinking that they were just trying to get our business, but after waiting in the bus station for over an hour and half we realized the bus wasn’t going to show up. Nobody seemed to know why, but apparently it is a regular occurrence. I guess maybe we should have trusted the taxi drivers this time! So, after wandering around trying to figure out how we could get to the next town (the taxi drivers had all left because the last boat had arrived and it was “night” even though it was only 6pm), we came across a young guy that said his friend would take us. He called him and took off on his scooter. We thought it was a little bit sketchy, but there was an Italian girl with us so we stuck together and went with it. Two minutes later, this young guy is chased down the street by four or five men who were trying to fight him! We got a little scared, but nothing major happened and his friend showed up in a pimped out car (for small town Malaysia). He and his girlfriend drove us the 1.5 hours to Kota Bharu and dropped us off right at our guesthouse. He blared Indonesian love songs the whole time and sang at the top of his lungs so we had a nice quiet laugh to ourselves. It got even funnier when we told him we were from Canada and he blared (like car-shaking blared) Celine Dion’s “My Heart Will Go On”!! He knew every word and proudly sang along. It was an eventful ride as we almost rolled the car while dodging a sprinting cow and a truck full of monkeys, but we got there safely!
We spent two days in Kota Bharu, a town that doesn’t see many foreigners. All of the locals stared at us everywhere we went and would ask us our names. They were so friendly, yelling “Welcome to Malaysia” out of their car windows, but it was very obvious that they weren’t used to us white people in their town…especially me with extremely white skin and blond hair. We had heard a story about one Swedish couple who stopped there for the same reason (Thai Visa) and the local women would spit on the girl. She learned the hard way that she must dress more conservatively, so I took that as a hint and wore pants and a long scarf over by body to be sure that I covered up what I could without dying of heat. We spent a really interesting two days there and got to see the “real Malaysia”. Everyone was very welcoming and made us feel right at home (as long as we were dressed appropriately). We got our Thai Visas with no problems and were on our way over the Thai border…..

Singapore and Kuala Lumpur

We arrived in a very humid Singapore from Brisbane on April 8, 2010 and were so excited to get out first taste of Asia. We arrived at 11pm, so it was quite the site when the two of us were walking through the streets of Singapore with our map and backpacks at 1130 pm trying to found our hostel! People were greeting us on the streets and welcoming us to their country. We were really taken aback by the friendliness of everyone, especially hearing that Singaporeans aren’t even friendly on the “friendly-scale” compared to the other SE Asian countries. We arrived safely at our hostel and crashed hard after travelling all day….crashed hard until 5 am when the call to prayer rang through our window! Because it was dark when we arrived, we didn’t realize that our hostel was located right next to the largest Mosque in Singapore (Sultan Mosque)! Clem jumped out of bed and yelled “What the hell is that?” I, having booked and researched the hostel, knew that we were staying in the Muslim Quarter and not far from Little India so although it startled me, after a second I realized what it was. It was so loud though, it was as if a man was sitting on the end of our bed praying! After a giggle, we got back to sleep…until 8:30 am, when it started again.

We only had one full day in Singapore, so we spent the morning walking around Little India which was a site in and of itself. They say that Little India is a world away from the rest of Singapore and that it is! It was fascinating to watch how these people live and run their businesses. The attention from the Indian men got to be a little much (and I was conservatively dressed), so we made our way to Orchard Road, which is Singapore’s main shopping district. They say that the two main activities in Singapore are eating and shopping and it is clearly evident. We strolled through a couple of malls (ok, we were really just loitering because we were drenched in sweat from the humidity) and they were so elaborate and completely spotless. Women (and some men) were impeccably dressed in the latest designer fashions so we had a great afternoon people watching. After walking around the city for the day (with multiple stops in air conditioned businesses, including McDonald’s where we bought ice creams just to make it look like we were there to have a snack and not to loiter in the AC) we were completely beat. We went out for a Turkish meal at a restaurant that was close to our hostel and hit the sack as we had to be up early to fly to KL. Although our time was short-lived in Singapore, we really enjoyed what we saw of the city. We were so impressed with its cleanliness, efficiency, and friendliness that we would definitely stop through again if the opportunity ever arose.

While we were in Singapore, we booked a hostel in Kuala Lumpur (the one that one suggested as a favorite by The Lonely Planet). Just before we were leaving, I checked Trip Advisor, which was flooded with comments from the past two weeks stating that the place was infested with bed bugs! We quickly decided not to stay there and took our friend up on his offer to stay at his place. Matt, who is my cousin’s cousin (how’s that for an Island connection?) lives in KL and we had been in contact with him and hoping to meet up for a drink when we were in town. We aren’t related but spent many summers on Brackley Beach together and hadn’t seen each other in about 18 years. We arrived to the KL airport to find a man standing with our names on a sign to pick us up! This was such a nice surprise, considering we had heard horror stories about being ripped off by the taxis here in Malaysia. We waited outside for him to pull his car up and Clem jokingly said “Oh, here he comes” as a beautiful Mercedes pulled up….it was our drive!! Matt had arranged to have his driver pick us up and take us into the city to his condo, which is located right in the city centre next to the Petronas Twin Towers. When we arrived, there was a key waiting for us! We were so excited and could hardly believe it. We had our own bathroom and bedroom complete with a king sized bed! After reminiscing over a couple of drinks, Matt and Camelia (Matt’s girlfriend), Clem and I headed out for some Saturday night fun in KL. We went to a rooftop bar called “Luna Bar”, which is on the 33rd floor of a hotel with 360 degree views of the city. It was amazing! We then met up with a couple of more Maritimers and the “Lord Tunderin” and “By Jesus” were flowing…along with the “cold pops”. We went to another bar called “The Beach Club”, which is full of prostitutes. Camelia and I watched in amazement as they worked their magic, while the boys had to literally fight the women off of them. Matt had warned Clem and told him to “follow through with the punches”, which he had to do on a few occasions as the women were relentless. It was quite the sight! To top it all off, our cab ride home was interesting. Besides the lack of lanes, crazy scooters and speeding lunatics, Clem had his head out the window yelling “Terima Kasih”, which is the only Malay term he knew (meaning thank you). Matt told him to say “Terima Kasih ______ (another word that I can’t remember) and so Clem obliged and said this to a group of men standing at a stop light…only to find out it means “Thank You Honey”. We had a good laugh over that and ended the night at 5am with a massive order at McDonalds…half of which is still sitting in the fridge.

Camelia, who is a Chinese Malay was born and raised in KL. Her and I hit it off right away (and let the boys do their thing) and she has been so excited and eager to share her culture and country with us. She taught me more in the last 24 hours about Malaysia than I could ever learn from any book or tourist experience. We had such a great weekend together and hope to see her again before we leave KL. Either way, she is a beautiful person that I will never forget. I feel like we have known each other for years. We are so grateful for her and Matt's generosity that we don't know how we can ever return the favour.



We spent today in Chinatown at the markets and enjoyed some of the many culinary options in KL. We then spent some time at the gym and in the pool at the condo and will go out for dinner tonight. We have one more day in the city, when we will hopefully head up the Petronas Twin Towers and catch a few more sights before boarding a night bus to the Perhentian Islands, off the east coast of Malaysia. There are no cars and just beautiful beaches on the island, which is completely powered by a generator, so we are going to chill out there for five days before deciding whether or not we can go to Thailand. There have been major protests in Thailand (specifically Bangkok), and they have escalated in the past couple of days to the point where many people have been injured and killed. All Malays have been advised to return home if it is safe so we aren’t sure if we can safely cross the border. We really hope we can experience Thailand, but if we can’t then we’ll head to Cambodia directly from here.

Change in Plans

We had originally only planned for one month in SE Asia, but we have come to find out that it is not nearly enough time to see what we want to see. Having said that, we have decided to postpone our visit to Europe and to spend more time in Asia. We figure that we can do Europe any time very easily as it is relatively cheap to get there from Canada. We instead, are going to spend about 2.5 months in SE Asia and then if we have time and the funds, we are going to visit Nepal for a couple of weeks. Everyone we have met that has been to Nepal says that it is one country you cannot miss. If we can swing it, we definitely will so we’ll keep you posted on that. I guess you can say this is more of an Australasian tour rather than a trip around the world!

We leave for Asia in the morning and will be staying in Singapore for two nights and then flying out early Saturday morning to Kuala Lumpur. Our plans are to spend about 2 weeks in Malaysia, 3 weeks in Thailand, 2 weeks in Cambodia, 2 weeks in Vietnam, 10 days in Laos and then we’ll probably make a stop in Bangkok before taking off to either PEI or Nepal! Either way, we’ll be back in PEI around the beginning of July to attend all of our family and friends’ weddings and then have our tickets booked back to Edmonton on August 2nd!

Farewell to Tim Tams, VB, and white porcelain toilets….

We thought we would blog one more time before we head to Asia tomorrow. We’ve had a great time in Australia. The beaches are beautiful and we certainly spent our fair share of time on them. We spent a great couple of days in Byron Bay and got around paying the $85 they were asking for a campsite. We ended up spending the nights on a roadside rest stop. It was quite funny because when we went to sleep (which was usually around 9pm in the campervan because it gets dark at 6pm), there were a few vans parked there. When we woke up, the vans were lined up bumper to bumper, four lanes thick! You could barely get in to the rest stop because of everyone that was sleeping there. It didn’t matter to us, because we had avoided paying the ridiculous prices they were asking to camp.

We made two big mistakes in Byron….I mentioned in our last blog that the Blues Fest was going on when we were there. Well, the tickets were really expensive (minimum $150 per day and it went for 5 days), and because of that we didn’t even look into going because we figured we wouldn’t know any of the bands playing. We were really wrong. We found out last night that Jack Johnson and The Fray were both playing!!! Had we known that, we totally would have splurged and gone for at least one day. It’s our own fault for assuming wrong! Our other mistake was not taking a surf lesson in Byron. We had planned on taking lessons somewhere along the coast and we decided that Byron would be the best place to do it. Once again, when we got there the town was a gong show because of all the people for the festival. We decided that we might as well wait and take lessons in Surfers Paradise, where we would be spending a couple of night before returning the van in Brisbane. We arrived in Surfers only to find that the surf was dangerously wild! The beach was lined with surfers admiring the four of five of their mates who were risking their lives in the crazy waves and currents. These waves were just like you see in the movies. It was great to watch, but we knew we couldn’t attempt it as there were no “learn to surf” groups to be seen. We spent some time in the water but even that got scary and would only last five minutes. We ended up staying in Surfers for an extra night because our friends Ashley and Ryan (from Edmonton) were coming into town. We thought we may get a better day and try surfing then, but it only got worse. One surfer who was braving the elements wasn’t so lucky and was rescued from the ocean with a broken neck. We knew then, that we wouldn’t be trying surfing in Australia. We are a little disappointed that we didn’t get to do it, but it was our own fault once again, for not trying it in Byron even if it was crazy busy. Either way, we had a fun time in Surfers. We hung around “Main Beach”, which was a couple of km from the Surfers Paradise “city centre”. We spent most of our time around the beach, walking and running along the path that follows the coast, and we met up with Ashley and Ryan the night before we left which was awesome to see them again.

We have returned our beloved Chowder to her home in Brisbane. It was sad to see her go, but we are happy to continue onto a new adventure. We are here for two nights before taking off to Singapore tomorrow morning. We are really looking forward to seeing all the SE Asia has to offer and have only heard great things!

Chowder

We’re not talking about clam chowder here, but “Chowder” a famous Australian cartoon and the name of our second Wicked campervan. We rented this beauty from Cairns and have 16 glorious days to spend in her. She is so unique that she deserves a blog all to herself. She’s a bit of a mutt with a Ford front end and a Mazda steering wheel and owners’ manual. Oh yeah, and also Econoline on one of her doors (which we believe is a Ford brand). She has rusty rims, squeaky doors, a stiff clutch and grinding gears. She has had more than a few paint jobs, with the odd one showing through her many dents and scratches. They happened to give us a three person van (because ours wasn’t ready 4 hours after we were supposed to pick it up), but we are firm believers in fate and we were meant to meet her and spend this quality time together.

The journey started out just as we had anticipated, with her 350,000 km we were puttin’ down the streets of Cairns. We were on our way….but only at 80 km/hr. She starts to shake uncontrollably at that speed and her engine can overheat if we work her any harder. It’s been a slow 2000 km so far, but just the way we like it. We cruise down the highway listening to “staticky” radio with our seat heaters on full blast. Did we mention that she comes with luxury? She has her very own seat warming system that is the engine underneath our bums. This is just what we were looking for in +35 degree heat and humidity! We have to give her a good rest before we pack it in for the night because it becomes hotter inside than out if we don’t.

So by now, you know that she is unique. She even comes with her own distinct scent. We couldn’t figure out where the powerful smell of a grown man’s body odour was coming from until we put two and two together and realized it was occurring every time we turned on the AC. The scent is so strong it’s enough to knock someone out. Needless to say, we prefer to use her manual ventilation system (i.e. windows down).

She’s not only a beaut on the outside but is a warm and inviting soul on the inside. She is so inviting in fact, that she welcomes large rodents in through her engine where they have free roam of our seats and have no problem leaving large turds all over the floor and around the gear shift. With her pink and red painted ceiling, graffitied walls by past renters, and her tin can feel she is every budget traveler’s dream. Her tailgate even wears the slogan “I make more money than you can spend”.

Speaking of her tailgate…she’s got quite the upper cut, making us duck and dodge every time we open her….until one day when she became stubborn and didn’t close at all anymore. After spending a couple hours in the parking lot at Rainbow Beach trying to fix her ourselves with none other than WD40 and a butter knife, Clem tied her shut and was off to the mechanic. A short hour later he was back with her and her rear end in mint condition. He had found a mechanic late on a Saturday afternoon in this small town’s industrial area and of course, nobody would turn her away.

So here we are enjoying our last four days with Chowder. She has been an absolute pleasure. We only hope that future travelers take good care of her. We’re leaving her in Brisbane on Thursday, April 6 but she’ll no doubt be with us for the rest of our journey.

(Pics to come, but we are out of internet time!)

Crikey! Look at the size of that bloke!

It’s been a couple of weeks since we blogged, so we’ll try to fill you in on our East Coast Aussie adventures. We had a nice couple of days in Cairns where we took a tour to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef. It was amazing and like nothing else we’ll ever see. You couldn’t have painted the colours of the reef they were so vibrant. We saw thousands of fish, small and big but luckily no sharks. They said we would be really lucky to see a shark as they have been overhunted and are dwindling in numbers. They have a “Save the Sharks” program that they are all very passionate about….if it was up to me, I wouldn’t be saving any. We had a beautiful day on the water and were really lucky because the skipper told us that for the previous two weeks it had been cloudy and rainy with huge waves that overtook the boat so nobody could sit outside.
We hit the road after three days in Cairns in our campervan “Chowder”, who you can all read about in her own blog. We have been staying in roadside rest areas for free and showering in places where six months ago wouldn’t have even attempted it. With frogs, toads, lizards and of course spiders hanging out, we quickly wash off in the cold water. We have even used the showers at some gas stations. If feels pretty weird to go fill up and then grab your towel, shampoo and soap and head in for a shower! We’ve stayed at some really nice places too with clean facilities and beautiful scenery.
Our first destination out of Cairns was to Mission Beach, but it was pouring down rain so we didn’t get to enjoy it in the sun. It looked like it would be beautiful on a sunny day with coconut trees lining the white sand beaches. One thing that bothered us about the north was that you can’t swim in the ocean because of the deadly box jellyfish. Some beaches have “stinger nets” where a section of the beach is roped off with nets protecting you from the jellies but for the most part you can’t swim at all. These jellyfish can kill you within a matter of minutes as they release a neurotoxin that attacks you in no time. It’s unfortunate that in the hottest places in Australia, you can’t enjoy the ocean but there isn’t much you can do and it’s certainly not worth risking it. Most towns and cities along the way have swimming pools right by the ocean so that is what most of the locals use to cool off.
We continued on to Airlie Beach, which is the gateway to the Whitsunday Islands. It was a small coastal town filled with backpackers eager to see the islands. We unfortunately, couldn’t do a Whitsundays tour because of a huge cyclone that hit a couple of days earlier. There were trees down, flooding and a lot of other damage that they have estimated will cost in the hundreds of millions to repair. Many of the tour boats were also destroyed in it, so the tour companies were struggling to get back up and running as soon as they could. We were really happy that we decided to see the reef in Cairns and not there.
We put in a couple of long driving days to get through the heavy rains. There wasn’t much to see for quite a few miles, except for banana plantations and sugar cane. We stopped at a couple of rest stops for the night along the way until we arrived in Rainbow Beach. We have tried to make it somewhat of our mission to avoid the tourist traps. It seems that everyone is on the same route and schedule but we are tired of tours and other money grabbing tricks so we have stayed in some really unique places with very few people around. We skipped Hervey Bay (the gateway to Fraser Island) and went to Rainbow Beach instead. Some people think we are crazy for coming to Australia and not going to the Whitsundays or Fraser Island, but we are completely content with what we’ve been doing and seeing. We met some amazing people there (one Flemish guy, one Greek girl, and an Italian guy). We spent the day and night with them camping on the beach and had a great time barbequing up a storm and drinking too much “goon” (4L $10 boxed wine). We hung out for most of the second day as well before continuing on to Noosa (where the surfing gets good). Alex and Alex (the couple from Greece and Italy) were also heading in that direction so we made plans to meet up with them and camped with them for a second night in Sunshine Beach, just outside of Noosa.
Since entering the areas where you can safely swim in the ocean we have been spending a lot of our time at the beach and in the water. The waves are huge and the rip currents strong, but it’s a lot of fun. The water is like bath water so you can stay in for hours and not get cold. After Noosa, we said goodbye to Alex and Alex as they had to be back to return their van in Sydney and we drove to a small town called Caloundra where we camped at a rest stop and visited the home of Steve Irwin- the Australia Zoo! It was a really cool day and we took in a crocodile show.
After the zoo it was off to Nimbin. For those of you who haven’t been or don’t know, Nimbin is a small village that is stuck in the sixties and full of hippies. It’s only one small street lined with Hemp stores, “Herbal High” stores and of course your fair share of pot dealers on the street. It really feels as though you’ve entered a time warp…everybody had dreads and nobody wears shoes. We spoke with one lady who said the cops have been cracking down lately, but as an outsider you would never know it as we were asked at least 6 times if we wanted to buy any weed. We spent the night at a small campground there and left the next morning for Byron Bay.
When you are travelling you seem to lose track of a dates and times…that we did. We completely forgot that it was Easter weekend and were unaware that Byron Bay hosts their annual Blues Fest on this weekend. It took us 20 minutes to get into the town and when we got there it was jammed. It’s a great thing to lose track of time like that, but on the other hand we got caught as there was no place to camp for free and the campgrounds were charging a minimum of $85 for an unpowered site. Yes, you read that correctly! We couldn’t believe it. To us, that is essentially $85 for two showers and you would have to be crazy to pay that. We stayed just outside of Byron and are contemplating now whether we will head back in today. Like I said, we are trying to avoid the touristy places to a certain degree and with 85,000 people expected to be in small little Byron Bay that’s probably not where we want to be!
We return our van on Tuesday in Brisbane so we have a couple of more days to spend on the coast and then two days in Brisbane before flying to Singapore on April 8. We haven’t planned any further than that, but we will only spend a night in Singapore before flying to….maybe Kuala Lumpur? We are going to put it a solid planning shift here tonight over some more goon so we’ll keep you posted on our destination!

Sydney

We flew to Sydney from Melbourne on the afternoon of March 16, 2010 and stayed at the YHA Sydney Harbour for 4 nights. This hostel was brand new and was right on the water with amazing views of the Opera House and Harbour Bridge from the rooftop. We had a great three days in Sydney and quickly fell in love with the city. We are happy that we chose to stop there, because originally we were going to bypass it and fly directly up to Cairns. We thought of Sydney as possibly just “another big city”, but we were wrong!
We spent our first day walking around The Rocks (the area we were staying and one of the oldest parts of the city), went to the Sydney Aquarium, and strolled along Darling Harbour. That night we went for a run along the Harbour Bridge and took in the sights. The next day we took the bus to the famous Bondi Beach. While in NZ, we also watched “Bondi Rescue” on a regular basis so it was exciting to get there and see it in person. It was a beautiful day and the waves were great. The water was perfectly clear (this wasn’t the case the day before as many people had been stung by a certain kind of jelly fish), so we took advantage and played in the waves a couple of times. They were filming “Bondi Rescue” that day, so we were eagerly (not really) waiting to see a rescue….the only thing they rescued was a stray dog who was wondering around the beach. At any one time, there can be 40,000 people on this 1km stretch of beach…that’s the whole population of Charlottetown! The lifeguards perform 2500 rescues per year and nine times out of ten it’s the dumb tourists who don’t understand the dangers of Aussie waters! That evening, we were pretty tuckered out from being in the sun all day, so we went down to the Opera House and had a drink at the Opera Bar which was huge and runs along the lower level of the Opera House right on the water. It was amazing to sit there and take in the view of the city skyline and Harbour Bridge at night. Our last day in Sydney, we spent walking…lots and lots of walking. We visited Chinatown, Paddy’s Market, Hyde Park and the ever popular Kings’ Cross which is somewhat of a red light district. We were there at 4pm so there wasn’t much going on, but there was the odd girl standing in the doorway of a strip club trying to entice people in for a Friday afternoon drink. All in all, we had a great few days in Sydney and are so glad we made the stopover. We would have liked to have taken the ferry over to Manly, but we just didn’t have enough time. If there is anything we have learned, it’s that you can’t do it all!
Almost forgot…when we were at Bondi I had had enough of the waves and made my way back to our towels while Clement stayed in the water. On my walk back I stopped to wring out my hair and at my feet was...you guessed it, another crisp $50 bill!! I couldn’t believe it. I almost ran back into the water to get Clem but waited patiently until I saw him walking up the beach. This time, we did a really enthusiastic high-five in celebration. Aussie is treating us well so far as we are $103.00 richer without lifting a finger!
We have just arrived in Cairns as we flew in from Sydney this morning. We have been up since 3:30am and just waiting to check into our hostel. We are going to book a snorkeling tour of the Great Barrier Reef for tomorrow and then pick up our campervan on Monday morning, which we are so excited about!

Back in Melbourne

Since we last blogged, we ended up spending another three nights in Apollo Bay. We met two people from France (Celine and Romain) who both worked at the hostel and convinced us to stay another night. We hung out with them for the three days and had a blast. Clement and Romain hit it off and went mountain biking every morning up to the top of a small mountain overlooking the town. It took them 50 minutes to climb to the top and ten minutes to get down. We spent the days chilling on the beach, which was a 2 minute walk from the hostel and played many hours of frisbee. The boys were equally as excited to find out that they “finally had a good frisbee partner”…as Romain put it, “Frisbee Sportif”. In the evenings, we hung out on the balcony at the hostel while Celine cooked up a storm. She loves to cook and spoiled us with warm homemade chocolate cupcakes, fresh bread made from scratch, pizza, sushi, vegetable rolls, scones, etc! We were sad to leave Apollo Bay and wish we could have stayed longer.

After leaving Apollo Bay we had one more night before we had to return the rental car in Melbourne. We stayed in small town called Lorne on the Great Ocean Road. We didn’t spend much time here as we had to leave early the next morning to get back to Melbourne. We did have some excitement when a Huntsman spider came for a visit. Clement went to hang his towel on the line and saw him chilling on the wall. He was the size of Clement’s palm. I didn’t go to see it, but the picture he took was all I needed to know that I was not going to get any sleep that night. After doing some googling about this type of spider (I don’t know why I do these things), I found out that they can travel at high speeds and jump around. We always find it funny when the locals talk about all of their deadly creatures. Some of the best we’ve heard include “Everything we have here will kill you” and “Don’t worry about anything but the crocs”. My personal favorite is when they refer to something as “harmless”. For example, the Huntsman spider they refer to as “harmless”. To them, this simply means they won’t kill you. They still have fangs, eat small lizards and are the size of a grown man’s hand, but they are “harmless”?
We made it back to Melbourne and were able to see a lot more of the city. We took the free bus around the whole city, which allowed us to see the important things, as we only had one full day. We enjoyed the city and its many small lanes of cafes, pubs and restaurants. We quickly realized that Melbourne has a lot to offer and can easily see how they have been undergoing a population boom for the past little while. While we were in Apollo Bay, we met a couple about our parent’s age who live in Melbourne. They were very interesting people and ran a law practice out of their home. She also used to be a nurse for many years before going into law. When we told here where we were from in Canada, she knew all about PEI! She loves Anne of GG and hopes to get to the east coast of Canada some day in the near future. They do a lot of travelling, so we hope they do make it to PEI. They were very kind and invited us over for dinner when we arrived back in Melbourne. We took them up on their offer and took the train to their house which was in Williamstown (a small historic suburb of Melbourne). They served us a four course meal and then took us out for gelato and on a driving tour of the city! It was so nice to go into someone’s home and hear about the real Aussie way of life. We will keep in touch with them and hope to see them in Canada.

When we were walking around the city on our way to the train station, we were stopped at a crosswalk. The red man was flashing and usually we bolt across, but we stopped because we were hot as it was really muggy. It’s a good thing we stopped, because sitting at Clem’s feet was a crisp $50 bill!! He quickly picked it up and we high-fived. This was the third time he had found money in Melbourne, as he had previously found a loonie and a toonie in the bathroom at the hostel. Needless to say, we were stoked!

The Great Ocean Road

After our experience with the flooding in Melbourne, we have come to find out that it was a cyclone and a “once in a lifetime storm for Melbourne”. We were able to get out and walk around the next day for an hour or so before the rain started again. Many businesses remained closed due to flooding and we saw a few cars completely submerged in underground parkades. The city reeked of sewage and the damage was more apparent. We weren’t too disappointed that we were getting up the next morning to drive the Great Ocean Road.

While we were at the hostel in Melbourne we had come across a much cheaper deal for the rental car and on top of that would get 10% off because we are YHA members. We thought about cancelling our other reservation, but decided that it wouldn’t be worth it with cancellation fees, etc. So, we checked our rental car agreement that I booked in January which told us to take Tram #59 to the “Airport West” stop and then call them and they would pick us up. When we arrived at that stop, we felt as though we were in the middle of nowhere and of course there was no phone. I had mentioned to Clement on the tram that I had a funny feeling about this car rental. After walking around for a bit we finally found a payphone and called them to get us…only for them to tell us that we didn’t have a reservation! (We had the confirmation in our hands). Even though they couldn’t find it, they said they would be there to pick us up in 10 minutes. Forty-five minutes later this man pulls up in a minivan and asked if we had a rental car reserved and of course we said we did and hopped in. Well, this man wasn’t from the company we had booked with but had received a phone call from them telling him to pick us up and to basically rent us a car. This was fine with us, although it was a bit of a gong show. We ended up having to pay more than our original quote and had to wait almost another hour before this one man show got his shit together. We were slightly frustrated, especially seeing as we had found the better deal and were worried about cancelling! It wasn’t worth our while to get back into the city and arrange for it, so we stuck it out and three hours later were on the road to the Great Ocean Road in “Blue Bell”.

We have renamed the “Great Ocean Road” to the “Great Dried Up Farm Road”. We’re not sure if we had overly high expectations, but this certainly wasn’t what we were hoping for. We don’t mean to sound so negative, but it just wasn’t what we thought it was going to be. After spending 4 months driving through the beautiful NZ countryside and coastline, the Great Ocean Road didn’t appear so “great”. Besides, only about 1/3 of the road is actually along the ocean with the majority of it being through dried up farmland! Once again, the weather didn’t help as it continued to poor rain.

Ok, so it wasn’t all bad…we were cruising along and saw a koala sitting in a tree! He was so cute and looked so cuddly. After this random sighting, we were once again happy as things were looking up. We continued along to a place called Apollo Bay, which is about the halfway mark of the Great Ocean Road. We wanted to stay here because the YHA was right on the beach and was built entirely as an eco-friendly hostel. When we checked in the host Gilbert, kindly took the liberty of putting us in a room by ourselves with a double bed!! We were so excited to have our own room, let alone a double bed! This hostel is like no other and I could write a book about it…it’s that good (best one I’ve seen in Europe, NZ, and Oz). It felt as though we were at someone’s luxury home, but without the uncomfortable feeling of being in someone else’s home. It opened in 2005 and is designed completely with the environment in mind. I’ll outline some of its features, which will hardly do it justice:

• Windows are all facing the north to take advantage of the sunlight
• Solar panels on the roof to heat the water system
• Rain water reserves
• Worm farm to help with the compost
• Herb garden for everyone’s usage
• Low wattage lights
• Waterless urinals

These are just a few of the many features. It is such an amazing hostel, with lots of areas to chill including a big, beautiful sitting area with a fireplace. We only stayed on night, because we wanted to get out and see more of the Great Ocean Road, specifically the “Twelve Apostles”. We continued on with our next destination being Port Fairy, a small town about 170 km from Apollo Bay. We got to see the Twelve Apostles which were cool and also stopped at other viewpoints. We couldn’t get over the size of the waves. Because there is nothing to break the wind between Antarctica and the south coast of Australia, this area is known for its swell. We passed a small town called Torquay along the way, which is Australia’s surf capital. The Rip Curl World Championships are being held there in two weeks. They say that at times, the waves can be 30 meters high!

After driving through more farmland we arrived in Port Fairy, which was a really small town with not much to see or do. We check into the hostel which was an old farmhouse, to find out that our room was in the hayloft. In the hayloft, it was! We were crammed into the roof of this old barn and of course my biggest fear was spiders. We quickly discovered that this shouldn’t have been my biggest fear, as the other guests were the weirdest, creepiest, dirtiest people we had seen in a while. There was one old man (in his 70’s) with one eyeball who talked and laughed to himself and did everything as if he was in a rush. He and this old woman (who didn’t know each other) fought over what to watch on the communal TV, while everyone else sat back and listened to them bicker. We could go on about this short-lived experience as all we did was sleep and get the hell out of there as soon as we could the next morning. It wasn’t without seeing a spider though. As I was preparing for my shower, I set my towel down and closed the door to find a big black spider staring at me in the eyes. It was a good job I hadn’t yet undressed, because there would have been a screaming, naked girl running around the farm! After making Clement come in the women’s bathroom to see it, I went to another shower. This time I felt like I was in a comedy movie, only I wasn’t acting. As I was bending down to shampoo my hair (the shower head only reached halfway up my chest), I noticed a HUGE black, furry spider hanging in the ceiling above me. I tried to quickly get the soap out of my hair, knocked everything in sight over, almost slipped on the “slip proof” bath mat and finally made it to safety dripping wet in my towel that was barely covering what it should have been. I’m sure someone thought I was beating myself up in there, but I survived and lived to tell.

We did have a great evening in Port Fairy when we visited this park, which is an old volcano that last erupted 7000 years ago about 14km away. We were told that you could see different wildlife in there in the evenings. We only met one other person in the park and saw tons of kangaroos (mamas and their babies), wallabies, and emu. We really enjoyed this and even watched one wallaby eat an apple from 2 feet away. We liked it so much that we went back the next morning to see if we could see anything else. We saw a couple of more kangas, but it was pretty quiet. So, having been out of the city in Australia for 24 hours, we had already seen koalas, kangaroos, wallabies, emu and the dreadful spiders! We were really happy with this and could spend hours just watching the animals in their natural habitat.
With not much to see further west of Port Fairy, we decided that we had a lot of time to kill before returning the car in Melbourne on Sunday (the Great Ocean Road is only 263 km long). We returned to Apollo Bay and opted to stay at the beautiful hostel for two nights. We stopped at a grocery store on our way and picked up all we needed for a hearty home-cooked meal (not the usual oatmeal, soup, and our own famous sandwich rotation). We checked into the hostel to find that Gilbert had once again given us a room to ourselves with a double bed for the price of a 4 person dorm! We sit here now, reading and blogging in the lounge in front of the woodstove full from the chicken souvlaki we made for supper! We are so happy that we decided to come back here and have made this our home away from home. It feels like a resort, so we are looking forward to chilling here for the next couple of days. Also, the weather is forecasting sun so things are REALLY looking up! We may even head to the beach and make it look like we’ve been in Australasia for 4.5 months…but not before enjoying our cozy sleep in our double bed, with maybe even a sleep-in 