Alana's Awesome Adventure

New Blog Address

2006-12-04T04:40:00.000-08:00

I have too many photos on my blog, which is why I have not been able to post recently, so I had to creat a new blog...from now oncheck out www.estoyexplorando2.blogspot.com.

Varoius Videos

2006-10-23T07:37:00.000-07:00

So I have uploaded the videos from Berlin to now...check them out if you feel the need...

Berlin

Holocaust Memorial

Communist Mural

Berlin

Reichstag

Sachenhausen Concentration Camp

Hungary

Hero´s Square Budapest

Estergom

Spain

Beach in Torrox

Beach in Torrox 2

La Alhambra , Granada

Palacios Nazaries, La Alhambra , Granada

A new adventure begins...or so it seems

2006-10-23T06:55:00.000-07:00

So on Sunday night, I met up with Darrin as we were saying goodbye to Abi at the airport. Darrin is this guy who I met on the Lonley planet website, he was looking for someone to share the costs of a trip to Northern Africa in his Land Rover with him...and I thought that sounded good. So we left Geneva early on Moday morning and drove all day through France...we were hoping to spend the night in Andorra, but only ended up making it to a small town in the pyrenees called Vinca...where I got to spend my first night in the rooftop tent!!!!! The next day we took a lengthy and mountianous detour through Andorra, which was not too exciting a country...basically if Whistler were considered a country it would be very similar to Andorra. That night we were unable to find a campsite so we ended up sleeping at a gas station, somewehre in Spain, near this place called villagordo (fat town) I thought it was a funny name. The next day we drove for a full day again to the coast, and after driving around Malaga for four hours, we ended up finding a nice campsite in a town called Torrox. It is nice to be able to use my spanish, and I understand surprisingly well, although only being able to speak in present tense I seem to be having problems passing as a local:-P The original plan was to spend a couple of days getting to know eachother and sorting out the landy, but it turned out that Darrin had some issues to sort out first. So I spent a couple of days camping and walking along the beach in Torrox, but it truns out that we are delayed for at least a week so I decided to set off to check out some of Sapin. Darrin dropped me in Granada yesterday, adn I love it here, it is a beautiful city. Yesterday was Sunday so most everyhting was closed, but today i headed up to the Alhambra, an old city-palace-fortress that was AMAZINGLY beautiful...I even splurged and go the audio-guide, which was well worth it, although I cannot seem to retain any of the historical information, but it was interesting while it lasted. So I´ll spend tomorrow in Granada, then I am heading wherever the couchsurfing world takes me since I cannot really justify spending 25 Euros a night on accommodaion on an unplanned detour like this, and i want to meet some cool new people. So we will see what the next week brings...hopefully Africa soon though!

Photos will have to wait, they don´t seem to be working at the moment, apparently there are cookie problems with the computer...mmmm cookies!!!!

My fave email so far

2006-10-21T07:24:00.000-07:00

You are a lucky little brat!
have fun,
love Randy

Yeah Dad!!!!!

2006-10-14T23:36:00.000-07:00

So my Dad has left me after two months and I just wanted to say congratulations for keepng up with me and putting up with me!!!!!Good job :-p

Back in Geneva

2006-10-14T14:26:00.000-07:00

Last summer I worked as an au pair in Geneva for this really cool family and so I came back for a bit of a visit. I was so nice to see them again and they got to meet my parents. It kinda felt like coming home, which was nice, but i had save tons of things to do here , but they are almost complete. I took my parents to the red cross museum, which is an amazing museum. We hung out and played with the kids. On Friday night I met up with Heike (who I met in Mongolia, but she lives in Geneva) and we picked up Abi from the airport (also from Mongolia, but she lives in London). We went for some super yummy cheese founue and a tip for when you eat cheese fondue, drink tea or wine and dont drink anything cold for three hrs after, so that all that melted cheese does not harden in your stomach and make you sick. Today we went on a walk and made some yummy Thai Green Curry for dinner...good times in Geneva. Oh yeah and my parents left for Miland this morning, so bye to them adn good luck on the rest of thier trip.

Hungary

2006-10-14T14:20:00.000-07:00

Well last summer I fell in love with Budapest and my feelings have not changed, it is a beautiful ciy. Our first hotel was super fancy and too expensive so we ended up moving to an old and fancy apartment that was amazing. My Mom's fmaily is Hungarian and so we spent alot of the time visiting with family both in Budapest and Estergom. my Mom had not seen her cousins in nearly thirty years. I went caving underneath Budapest on Monday, which was super cool, it was my first time and it was WOW, if you ge the chance to try it I would reccommend it. You get crazy dirty and you squish your body through unthinkable cracks and holes, its a great worout and so much fun.

Berlin

2006-10-14T14:19:00.000-07:00

We met my Mom in Berlin after leaving Riga. The most bestest thing about Berlin was that our hotel had a gym, ahhhh so great, eckkkk I am out of shape ;-( Anyways, I had been there last summer, but I still really liked it. WE did the free walking tour and the reichstag and we also went to Sachenhausen concentration camp, which was depressing, but surprising not as upsetting as Cambodia for some reason. the really great thing was that before my Mom left we got a homestay from Berlin and so we met up with her parents and theyy were really nice. Her dad even took me to the hspotal and I got my yellow fever shot and malaria pills, so I am ready for Africa. One day we did some shopping too.

We made it out of Russia!!!!!!

2006-10-14T13:53:00.000-07:00

After a long delay a tthe airport in St. Petersburg we finally made it out of Russia. We arrived in Riga Latvia a beautiful little town. Too bad that we only had a day there...it was spent in the old town wandering and looking at a bunch of cool, cute buildings, it was reallxy reaxing and the food was delicious. the hostel was easy t find and the poeple were helpful and smiling, it was a nice change. I hope to head back to that area one day, chack it out better.

St. Petersburg

2006-10-14T13:42:00.000-07:00

Well itàs been a while, but StPetersburg was a really nice city. We wandered alot and got lost for the first time on my trip. We went to the Hermitage, and that was kinda cool, otherwise I cant completley remember too much since soo much has happned since then, but I just wanted an excuse to post some photos and let ma Geandma know that the boulevards are large enough to sleep on, but I didn't, except for the photo.

Done!!!!

2006-09-29T08:42:00.000-07:00

I have finally managed to post some photos, so my blog is extremely up to date, yeah me!!!

Lack of photos

2006-09-27T08:38:00.000-07:00

I am really sad that I can't seem to upload photos to my blogs...it's looking too boring, more like a novel than a picture book ;-p Anyways maybe in Gremany I'll be able to put up some choice Mongolia nad Russia photos.

Russia Videos

2006-09-27T08:36:00.000-07:00

Check them out (if you are not sick of videos after looking at China and Mongolia):

On the Trans-Siberian

Red Square and St. Basil's

Moscow Market

Moscow market

Kremlin

Tackiness

Some good Books

2006-09-27T08:32:00.000-07:00

I have read a couple of good books latley, one is called A Short History of Nearly Everyhting by Bill Bryson and the other was called Desert Flower by Waris Dirie. Both we excellent (and bought photocopied in Vietnam ????). If you have a chance check them out!

A week in Moscow

2006-09-27T08:10:00.000-07:00

So after our ordeal with the stamps and all, Moscow has been good...at the very least interesting. Our hotlel is near this crazy market where you could literally walk for hours and not not pass the same stall twice!!!! We have found soome good middle eastern food there as well a Pho...hmmm, not what I was expecting to eat in Moscow. We have seen all the sights, inclusing dead Lenin, which was an od experience. You wait in line and then walk through the square and go in the masoleum (sp???) and it's really dark and your eyes don't have time to adjust to the light and you ahve to go fast. The you walk past dead Lenin in a glass case like he's an exhibit at a museum and then it's done. Strange...Anyways the cathedrals here are cool looking, witht eh domes, and there's this one called St. Basil's that is multi coloured and spikey and very interesting looking. We have gotten to know the metro and formed our own pronuncations for cyrillic letters and words. Oh yeah and yesterday we went to this place that was built to show the world what communist Russia could do (according to the lonley planet) and it was the tackiest thing ever...you know how some things are so tacky they are cool...well this was tackier than that even, it was NOT COOL AT ALL! It was this massive 2 km boulevard type thing with fountians, golden statures and white arches/gates and more massive statues. Then there are locals everywhere praticing some sort of figure skating on rollerblades...all in all it was really strange. We also went to the Kremlin, which if you ask me was really quite boring and nothing that special, but I guess it had to be done. Today we take the night train to St. Petersburg and I we a killing time at an internet cafe since we had to check out of our hotel at noon and we don't leave until midnight.

K so the photos are (top to bottom): A babuska peering into the church window, An old lady praying in the convent, St. Basil's Cathedral at night, St. Basil's in the day (x2), tthe super tacky place, the bell tower at the convent, a church in the convent, a cannon in the Kremlin, the bell tower at the convent, the Kremlin, red square at night, a church in the Kremlin and the view from our hotel in Moscow

Get out the Popcorn...

2006-09-25T08:13:00.000-07:00

China and Mongolia make thier video debut on my blog!

China:

Tienamen Square

The great wall

The great wall again

A park that I can't remember the name in Beijing

Mongolia:

You have to listen to this one, Mongolian Throat Singing

Driving in the Passion Wagon, near the begining of our trip.

A place where we stopped for lunch on day 1

Mongolia-More driving shots

I wanna climb!!!

Alice the camel had two humps...

View

Will they make it????

Mongolia Another scenery shot

Mongolia More scenery

Sand Dunes!!!!!

Lunch in a ger

Something to do with dinos

Van Dancing

Van dancing 2

Some place in Mongolia K, so no one ever said I was good with details

Kenton's Hike

Watermelon seed spitting

Mongolia Hmmm, if you want more specifics, figure it out yourself :-P

Van Dancing 3

Mongolia They are relly worth checking out...

Waking up to SNOW!!!!

Last night dinner in UB

This Country is INSANE!!!!!!

2006-09-25T07:10:00.000-07:00

Hello form the insanity that is Russia! I'm loving it, but I am definatley ready to move on, this place is nuts, but not in a totally bad way...all the time. So last update I had just arrived in Irkusk, Siberia from Mongolia. Well Irkusk was nice, a surprise since it was quite a large and "fashionable" (lepoard print and leather, fur and all, full out ensembles). We went to Lake Baikal for a day, it was nice, just another lake though if you want my real opinion. Then we spent a couple more days on the train to a city called Novosibirsk, where we were in an apartment so basically my Dad cooked and then we at and then we went to the market for more food and then he cooked and we ate, it was nice to have home cooking. Things started to get interesting after Novosibirsk, I had my first BAD DAY, and I was really grumpy, my poor father. S0 it all started with the fact that it was really nice in Novosibirsk the day that we left for Yekaterineburg. I was in my sandals, capris and a tank top. I had a windbreaker out in case it got cold. WEll we happened to get in the only compartment with a broken window, maning that it would not shut properly...okay so no problem, until I go to "sleep" in my sleeping bag, and 3 wool blankets on the bunk where the windchill facter is the worst in the car at something like -75 degrees C. The car literally felt like we were in a fridge and then it was windy (because it happend to SNOW during the night). I have never been so cold in my life, NEVER. So I was cold, tired and miserable when we arrived in Yekaterineburg. To top it off our pick up never arrived and it was cold enough to snow, which it dad later in the day, and I was still dressed in sandals and capris. So we took a taxi, but since Russia does not lable thier building or do anyhting helpful that might make life a bit easier (and the taxi drivers don't seem to know how to get anywhere), the taxi drive just let us out on a random corner. It turned out that our hotel, called the Academy of Geology hotel, was part of a large apartment block and there was not even an address on the building, let alone a sign or antyhting. It was in a spot that, when my Dad and I were wandering around looking for the hotel, I was like, I need to go pee really bad, so my Dad had said, just go over there, behind that bush, and I was like, I can't pee infront of someone's apartment...well it turned out that apartment happend to be our hotel. So anyways after looking for the hotel for too long we went into this Russian travel agent and luckly there was this super friendly lady who spoke English. She let us use the phone to call the travel company and they thought we were coming on a different train. They arranged to meet us at the travel agent and take us to the hotel. The travel agent was so nice, she let em sit inside and made me tea and cookies and let me use her bathroom, it made me feel less grumpy. But then there was no one to let us in our hotel and we had to leave out bags with the security at a geology museum and hang out in the snow until there might be someone there. Craziness, I got a good sleep that night though and Yekaterinburg was a really nice city. It's the place where Boris Yeltsin (I shook his hand so Yekaterineburg adn I go way back :-P) was born. It's also where the Romanov's were killed. We checked out all the main sights, along with a really cool/artsy/oddish museum called the museum of the youth and a photography museum. Then I finally entered Europe after 5 months in Asia crossing the Urals on a train where the window actually closed. We arrived in Moscow to find out that the hotles in the last two cities were meant to have stamped out passports, but they had not so our hotel would not check us in. WE were given directions to report to the nearest police station, which was just our the back door and then it was obvious (hmmm...the Russian translation for obvious must be very different than the English word, since it was actually out the back door to the right, past a bank, across two streets, through a parking lot and then it was justa random door that we would have missed had a police man not come out for a smoke break at that moment). So there we went and ended up paying a $200 USD fine, signing our name about 15 times under a bunch of cyrillic that we could not read, adn getting the correct stamp. PHIEWPH!!!!! But now that we have been in Moscow for a couple of days, I'm really enjoying it. It's a beautiful city, although everyhting is made 10 times more difficult than it needs to be and we tend to walk in circle trying to find things. We'll I'll make a seperate post for Moscow once I've left and I can do it properly. Photos to follow later, I can't seem to upload photos to my blog anywhere in this country, not too sure why, but I've learnt not to ask!

Update: Now there are photos, hopefully that did not need to be pointed out though ;-p They are of (from top to bottom): Lake Baikal, Dad on the train, Lake Baikal, The Romanov's death place, out hotl in Yekaterineburg (yep, the grafitti one), near Lake Baikal, and a sunset from the train.

GOOD MORNING UNCLE RON!

2006-09-11T20:40:00.000-07:00

Good morning and have a grat day!

From Ya Ya nd Dougie

Mongolia Videos

2006-09-11T20:38:00.000-07:00

Oh yeah! I'll post the 30 or so videos, plus the ones that I took in China later, you have to pay everythime you see a photo or something like that so I have to wait till I find a better internet, it might be in Europe...

Onwards to Siberia

2006-09-11T20:21:00.000-07:00

So we left Mongolia a couple days ago and spent two days on the train to Irkusk, Russia. the trian ride was good, I ate a ton since there was not too much else to do, I'll have to be careful, Russia is a big country, it's gonna take us three weeks to cross it, can't eat too much and sit around and do nothing! We spent two nights on the train and the border crossing into Russia took about 6-8 hours, the checked everywhere for smuggled goods. I was really surprised when we got to Irkusk, it's a much bigger city that I had imagined. The people here dress really fancy, and they all stare and laugh at me in my shorts, sandals and raincoat (I did all my other laundry by had and it's drying in the hotel, I guess I could look a bit like a flasher :-P). Leather, Lepoard print, courdory and jean, Full out head to toe outfits seem to be the thing here. Yesterday I went to the bathroom in this Italian restaurant and it was odd. There were black lights so the toilet paper was glowing and there were mirrors all over the place, really random. We tried to go to lake Baikal today, but missed the bus so we'll head there tomorrow. Lake Baikal is going to be the worlds fifth ocean apparently, so when I'm old, I'll tell my great grandchildren that I saw the Baikal Ocean (I am assuming that that's going to be it's name), when it was just a little lake! Lucky them :-P

Three Weeks Camping in Mongolia!

2006-09-11T01:00:00.000-07:00

Well Dad and i just arrived in Irkusk (Siberia) after spending three weeks camping and driving through Mongolia. There is not too much to say other than it was Amazing! We hiked up sand dunes in the Gobi, it was crazy tiring, but going down was really fun. We tried to put up our tents in a sand storm, but it did not work too well. Mostly our days were spent driving from place to place and camping. We drover crazy bumpy roads most days for at least 8 hours. Then we would set up camp and eat dinner and get up the next day and do the same. it was basically a camping/driving trip so it will not be too interesting to read about, but it was a great experience! The people who were on the trip with us (we were a group of over 20) were amazing and I even got two new older sisters! When we had some spare time it was spent trying to was our hair, going hiking or throwing stones into the lake. Mongolia is a relativley untouristy country, which was a nice change from South East Asia. We got to spend a couple of nights in Ger's when the contitions were not good for camping. Near the end of the trip it started to get really cold and then one morning we woke up to about half a foot of snow, it was cool, but cold! Anyone who has a chance to get to Mongolia in the next couple of years should head there before it becomes full of tourists. Anywas read my Mongolia top 10 to get a better idea of the trip, there is only so much that can be said about camping trip without boring you with details like, today I washed may hair, then cut some cabbasge, then ate lunch, then did the dishes etc.

I will post some photos later, i can't read Cryllic and I can't download them from Kodakgalley right now.

Mongolia Top 10...or 57!!!!

2006-09-11T00:04:00.000-07:00

Well it started aut as a top 10, but the list grew and grew! By the way there is no real order.

1. Karen can you just move out of the way we are taking a photo. _Can you see KAren's hand in the photo I posted?)

2. "Well Hello there little girl" - Kenton

3. "If we lose my Dad I'm screwed" -Yours Truly

4. My Baker, Hands up and One way ticket to the Moon...Rocking tunes ALL DAY from the passion Wagon????

5. The failed and successful attempts to hijack the passion Wagon.

6. What's for breakfast? Dry bread and choco spread
What's for lunch? Tomatoes, Cheese, and dry bread
What's for dinner? potatoes, carrots, cabbage...
Dessert? Choco Pies!

7. Skipping stones, thorwing stones, knocking stones, it does not take much to amuse us

8. Smells like mutton...feels like mutton grease!

9. Campfire roasted Choco Pies

10. Dad's drunken hokey pokey disaster

11. Abi and Heike's Van dancing...who was Franz Ferdinand?

12. Going up and down the sand dunes

13. Setting up tents in a sand storm, when we were goign to be staying in Gers anyway

14. Watermelon seed spitting with the drivers

15. "Anying to cool a beer" -Dad while floating down an ice cold river

16. Waking up to about a half a foot of snow (see photo)

17. Dad's cooking...yeah sinkers!

18. Attempting to wash the sand and dirt out of our hair with cold, dirty, sandy water...and biodegradible shampoo.

19. The big bumps in the van that made me almost hit my head on the ceiling!

20. mmmm...water with a catch, what will it be today, floaties or desiel?

21. The Blure Pearl 5 star ger resort with hot water drips they called showers and an excelelnt selection of cakes and busicts?!?!?!

22. Coffee at the Monastary

23. Constant disussions about the state of everyones bowels.

24. Charcol and Potato Face masks.

25. I spy wih my little eye something beging with an H...Heike, Hook, Handle, Hoartio!

26. Horatio Drunk

27. Random Mongolians popping up as soon as the mutton was done.

28. The "friendleness" of Moron (yes that's a town in Mongolia!)

29. Dad, vodka from the bottle and book and a bouncy van.

30. Cherry Queen's, we bought them for you, really :-P

31. Camel Felt.

32. Where's the loo?

33.Branding Mongolian Children with maple leaf Tatoos

34. Playing Shithead witht he drivers

35. ELIZABETH!?!?!

36. "Just one more hill" - Heike

37. Following Kenton...he's a park ranger...

38. Shuffeling Norwegians

39. the French egg and Kenton the cucumber

40. Another flat???? (see photo)

41. Where's the dud van?

42. "Have another tomato" -Mr. Pol

43. Buying a jar of BBQ pickles and finishing the whole jar and returing it empty to the stunned shopkeeper about 2 mins after buying it.

44. The blankets

45. Mongolian folktales about suicidal hares and drunken hedgehogs.

46. Blueberry mouths

47. It's going to get warmer form now on" -B2

48. Blimey Riley!

49. Fortunatley and unfortunatley...I wanted the stairs to fall down!

50. The lesser spotted Canadain Mating Dance (that would be Glenda dn Kenton, not my Fater and I)

51. Being surrounded by sheep and goats while trying to wash downstream from them.

52. Karen in her del

53. High speed Tai chi

54. Creepy Reindeer people

55. Getting two older sisters!

56. School girls in French Maid Uniforms

57. Dogs in the Missionary Position

Beijing

2006-08-18T18:25:00.000-07:00

I met up with my Dad in Beijing the other day...our flights arrived within about 5 minutes of eachother so that worked out really well! We wanted to do a bunch of walking so on our first day (after being a bit dissapointed about our favourite Bejing restaurant from the last time we were here) we set out for the two hour walk to Tienamen square. I really like it at night, but other than the size of it, it's not so great during the day. Oh yeah and I could not believe that I had gotten through almost 4 months in Southeast Asia without even a stomach ache, so I went to the hospital here for some blood tests and sure enough...healthy me! I was amazing within 45 minutes and about $40 we were in and out with the test results...in Canada it would have taken like three weeks. the next day we were planning on heading to the wall but we were both a bit tired so we had a wandering day where we found this amazing little street food stall and it was great, we now have a new favourite Beijing restaurant (and for about $2 we can get a plate of noodles, a plate of veggies, a beer and some fried bred type stuff). MMMMMMM! That evening we went out to dinner with Hitomi and Mr. Ikeda and then headed back to thier place for a while. Yesterday we went to the wall, which was a bit dissapointing since we had wanted to go to a non-touristy part and ended up at a really touristy place, but it was still the wall and still amazing. I was too hot to do too much walking though. Yesterday evening Bob came from Hong Kong and today we are going to hang out with him. Tomorrow we leave for Mongolia, I can't believe it!!!!!

Lazy Days in HCMC

2006-08-18T18:10:00.000-07:00

Well I was completley burnt out by the time that I got to Ho Chi Minh City! My body was shutting downa dn I needed a rest. I spent my days eating and watching movies and avoiding creepy guys with Alice, a friend who i met on the Cambodia tour. we found this really great little movie theatre on the thrid floor of this cafe and we watched movies (see photo). On my last night I decided to head to the airport insted of getting a room for the night since I had to be there at 4 am anyways. Little did I know that the airport actually closes from 12:30-3:30 and I ended up having to wait outside...crappy. Anywas that was HCMC in a nutshell...time well spent, even if I did not experience too much of the city. The photos are of Alice and I watching a movie and eating sushi and of the beautiful painting that I bought, it's a reproduction of some guy called Kirst or something like that.

Cheers Mate!

2006-08-13T22:08:00.000-07:00

I can speak British! It's a work in progress, but my British is improving daily...here is my attempt to use some British words properly in sentences...let em know how I did!

1. Woe betide the Wally's who shop at Woul Marrrt.

2. The bloke in Shainoukville had to chunder loudly at half six every morning.

3. I reckon it's been yonks (or Donkey's years) since he's wanked!

4. That bird is proper lush.

5. So it's sorted, we'll meet at half seven?
Defo!

6. Bollocks!

Cambodge top 10...give or take a couple!

2006-08-13T22:01:00.000-07:00

Here are my top ten (or so) memories of Cambodia...they are not in any paticular order:

* Learning British was proper lush!

*Anna rediscovering her Master Card and some extra cash at the Vietnam border.

*Where's Alice...AGAIN!

*Playing in the waves in Shiuanoukville, and leaving Barry on the beach to get played by the "2 hr Cambodian Barry bracelet scam" :-P

*Alternate modes of transportation...top of a van, back of a pick up truck.

*Eating, especially at Friends restaurant in Phnom Phen.

*Trying to figure out how Sok's liver is still existant.

*Biking in that island and the random bike boats.

*Same Same, but different.

*Almost everyhting that came out of Barry's mouth, especially his saliva question.

*You come from Canada? Capital city Ottawa! Buy my Braclets!!!!

The other half

2006-08-13T02:54:00.000-07:00

Here are the rest of the videos from Cambodia, I'm not sure wehre they went in the other post:

Bike Ferry

Island Biking

Island Biking 2

When the land is flooded

Pencils!!!

How much can we fit?

Try to find the Irrawaddy dolphins!

MMMMM, Spiders!

Depressing, some photos at the genocide museum

Ho Chi Minh City

2006-08-13T02:00:00.000-07:00

I arrived at the final stop of my tour in Ho Chi Min city two days ago. I was completley wiped out from all of the travelling and I only saw one touris attraction, the Cuh chi tunnels, or something like that. There were wehre the gureillas fought off the Americans during the Vietnam War. We got to squeeze through a tunnel adn it was awful, the were really tight spaces and pitch black! It was interesting to see all of the things that they did to fight off the American's, also very disturbing. After saying good bye to all the wonderful people I met on my tour, it is just me and Alice left in Ho Chi Minh city. We are just hanging out in the backpackers area eating and watching movies...I need a break. Early Tuesday morning I will fly to Beijing to meet my Dad! Check out this really funny video of Barry trying to go down the hole to the tunnels... The photos were taking at the tunnels. there are not too many photos because I need a break, but there will be more from China and onwards!

Cambodia Videos...take your time!

2006-08-13T01:44:00.000-07:00

K, so recently I've become a bit video obsessed, eventhough my camera takes crap videos...they are woth it though, it gives you a good idea of things. Just click on the link to see them:

The road to Siem Reap

The road to Siem REap 2

Angkor Wat Complex

Children in fromt of the landmine education centre

Children in front of the landmine education centre 2

Children infront of the landmine education centre 3

The road to the floating village

The floating village

The floating village 2

Thank You!

2006-08-13T01:42:00.000-07:00

Our tour guide for the Cambodia tour was Sok and he was excellent....I had such a great time! Thank you SOK!!!!!

The rest of Cambodia

2006-08-13T01:16:00.000-07:00

For the rest of the tour we mainly travelled in a van, I got to ride ontop most of the time, which was AWESOME, except for the fact that the rain really hurts when you are going that fast! We went to Kratie to check out the Irrawaddy Dolphins, which seem to be more like belugas. I did not really get any good photos, but the boat trip was really nice and it was cool to see the dolphins! From Kratie we spent a verry depressing day in the capital, Phnom Phen, learning about the horrors that were committed during the genocide in the late 1970's. If you are interested in knowing more about it, there is a movie called the killing fields (I have not seen it) and an excellent book called First they Killed My Father. I would suggest that you take some time to learn about what happend if you can, but it's really upsetting. In Phnom Phen we went to the Killing fields, where thousand of people were killed, mainly using hammers and axes, some being buried alive. There were still human bones everywhere, even embedded the the paths where we walked. Our guide had lost his whole family and was very passionate about the horrors that were committed. Afterwards we went to the Genocide museum, which was really an old school that was used as a prison during the war. It was terrible. That night we headed out to our homestay in a place called Takeo, it was nice and the family cooked a delicious dinner. I got eaten alive by the ants and I'm still itchy! From Takeo we headed for the beach at Shianoukville. There we played in the MASSIVE waves and it was great. I got my legs threaded on the beach, it took forever, as you can imagine. After we headed back to Phnom Phen, to eat at our new favourite restaurunt, Friends. We also checked out the Grand Palace, the National Museum and the Russian Market. The next day we headed to Ho Chi Minh City, in Vietnam. The border took forever since everyone kept pusing in front of us, but we finally made it. Oh yeah and at a truck stop, some of the people ate Spiders...mmmmm! Too bad I'm vegetarian :-( The photos are of us at the homestay in Takeo, a girl selling spider's, me riding on top of the van, the Mekong river where we went to check out the dolphins, and the killing fields, you can see where the skulls were cracked with a hammer...they were dug up fromt he mass graves to create a monumnet and the killing tree.

In loving memory of my MP3 player

2006-08-12T22:53:00.000-07:00

As I was waiting for my new MP3 player to arriver in Bejing with my Dad on Aug 15th, I bought a cheap one in Thailand...I guess it was not too happy since it jumped off the top of a moving van, damaging itself beyond repair. It will be missed until I get my new one and is resing in peace in a grabage can in Shainoukville, Cambodia.

I want to ride my bicycle...

2006-08-08T23:06:00.000-07:00

After leaving Siem Reap we travelled, riding on the top of a van (some of us...me!!!)to Kampong Cham (SP?). There we took this barge to an isalnd int he middle of the rive to go on a bike ride through the small towns. The barge was packed full of people on bikes, motorbikes and even a horse, once getting to the other side we road along a dirt road through some little villages...it was really nice to be on a bike again. It was amazing, I felt famous. As we were riding along the road all of the chidren world drop what the were doing and come traing out of thier houses to say hi to us. Most of them liked to stand by the side of the road to give us a high five as we passed. Since it was the rainy season the road was cut off at one point by a river, so we had to get this guy to load all of our bikes (and us) ontp a small canoe type boat and ferry us accross the river...he chargerd us about 12 cents each. Then we road for a bit more, brfore having to do the same thing again...this time my bag fell in the water, luckly my camera was around my neck! We took the barge back in the dark, and it was beautiful! What an amazing experience. the next day we went to Karatie. On the wya there, my MP3 player that I bought for really cheap decided to jump off the top of thevan and commit suicide...see post in it's memory...

Siem Reap

2006-08-08T22:35:00.000-07:00

I joined up with an Intrepid tour to go through Cambodia and into Vietnam. I am really happy that I decided to go on the tour, Cambodia is an amazing country and I would not be experiencing it in the same way had I been on my own. There are me and 11 others in the group, all the others are European. We have a wonderful tour guide, who's name is Sok, and he is Cambodian...quite the partier too! Anyways, I really like everyone in the group, which is a realief because I had heard some horror stories about group dynamics on thses tours, but we got lucky. On the first day we left Bangkok really early int he morning for the long journey overland to Siem Reap, the city in Cambodia where you can see Angkor Wat. We took this Pimp Van (it had a leather interior with fake gold and morrors and stuff everywhere) to the border where we crossed over into Cambodia. Once in Cambodia we piled into the back of a pickup truck for the endless and bumby journey to Siem Reap. Although the distance was not too far, the road conditions made it so that we forever...maybe 6 hrs, but I'm not sure...to get to Siem Reap. I got soaking wet (from the rain) and covered in mud...IT WAS AWESOME! The whole time that we were driving I felt like I was in a living National Geographic Magazine. We were surrounded by houses on stilts, rice fields, waving Cambodians, and water buffalos. The next day, after a leisurely morning, we went to ANgkor Wat. We hired a tuk tuk to take us around for the day.It was amazing, I cannot really describe it, hopefully you can check out the photos and get an idea for yourself. The size of the ruins and the detail, it's just overwhelming. The next day we headed off for a tour of the landmine museum and the floating village. The landmine museum was really depressing, there are still active landminse all over Cambodia after the civil war. You see people walking the streets who have been affected by them. After the landmine museum we headed off to the floating village. It was amazing to watch how these people lived...once again, check out the photos and videos, better than me trying to describe it. We did some 4x4ing in the tuk tuk on the way there...Cambodia is a bumpy country! Siem reap is a beautiful little town with a very strong French infuence. There are countless cafes and restaurants. I really liked it and the atmosphere.

Videos...

2006-07-29T23:15:00.000-07:00

I finally uploaded my video's to you tube so check out the ones that interest you:

Malaysian Borneo:

Monkeys checking for fleas

Probiscus Monkeys

Wild Orangutans

Longtail boat at Mulu

Bats at mulu...the little black dots are bats

More Bats at Mulu

Krabi

Kayaking in the sea Caves

More Kayaking in the sea caves

Kayaking in the sea caves again

last one of kayaking in the sea caves

Kayaking in the Mangroves

Koh Phi Phi

The beach on Koh Phi Phi Don

Bangkok...the Caberet show

The Caberet Show

The Caberet Show again

The Caberet Show and again

The Caberet Show yet again

another Caberet Show

yet another Caberet Show

the last one of the caberet show

Back in Bangkok

2006-07-29T22:54:00.000-07:00

So I headed back to Bangkok early, partly because of the monsoons and partly because I wanted to try and get in touch with a friend who I met last time I was in Thailand. He was our trekking guide in Chiang Mai, butb he is now doing tours og Bangkok. He took me to a caberet show (a lady-boy show, they are very popular in Bangkok). It was insane...they did these crazed preformances from around the world and they were all done at hyper speed...flamenco dancing, hula dancing...well cherck out the videos to see for yourself...and remember, all of theses people are, or were at some point, male. At one point the announcer was like...and ladies and gentlemen, Marilyn Munroe, and then three Marilyn Munroe's came out. The in the middle of their dance, she was like....and ladies and gentlemen, Michael Jackson, and then three Michael Jackson's came out and started dancing with the Marilyn's...then she was like...and ladies and gentlemen, Tina Turner, and then three Tina Turner's came out and started dancing with the Marilyn's and the Michaels and the random pole dancers who I forgot about till just now. It was wacked out. At one point it all went day and these ladyboys randomly came out in bras and underwear and they were dancing with thier trumperts...then some people dressed like ostriches. Bizarre, but soo cool and so Bangkok, it was very different from the one that Bob took us to last time...I think the producers of this show must have been doing some harder durgs.Anyways, after the show we went to this carnival type place and ate dinner while watching people lip sync to brittany spears and n'sync and we went on the large ferris wheel...That's where i took the photo, but you can't really see Bangkok like I had hoped. Tonight we are goign to go to the night market and then tomorrow I meet up with my Combodia tour group!

Koh Phi Phi..."The Beach"

2006-07-29T22:37:00.000-07:00

I decided to spend a couple of days relaxing on Koh Phi Phi, the island where they filmed the movie "the Beach"...which I happend to see before I left so it was kinda cool. Anyways, I don't relax too well, especially without Linda around to paly endless games of scrabble. Well the views and all were unbelievable, but the tourist crowd was not te desiarable...a bunch of girls in string bikinis and guys showing off in other ways. It seemd that the enitre island was there fpr tourism. I didn't see any locals employed in anyhitng non-touristy, I cannot imagine how they suffered after the tsunami. Most of the town in rebuilt, but they're mainly temporary shacks other than the big hotels. There were quite a few huge posters/monument thingys of smiling happy Thai children, I could only guess that they did not survive. Anyways, they have done an amazing job of rebuilding and the town is in good spirits.
I also did some snorkeling, saw some amazing fish, but it was really wavy and it was difficult to swim. I found a som tam stall and ate there most of the time, the rest of the island was crazy overprced, but this place sold good som tam for 20 bhat! Oh and I bought a bag, and I really like it so I guss that's good. I was monsooning the other day, so I left early for Bangkok, where I am now.

Krabi

2006-07-29T22:16:00.000-07:00

I had an amazing couple of days in Krabi in the South of Thailand. Although the city is geared towards tourisit...I guess that's what I am though, there were so many cool things to do. I went climbing one day...that was great, but still nothing special, I've climbed better rock in Vancouver. I guess it was just the setting that made it extra special...white sand beaches, clear blue water and palm trees. I'm pretty out of shape by now and I was exhausted after about 5 climbs and they were only (my guess) three 5.8's and 2 5.9's....apparently most people balme it on the heat...but I'm out of shape. I spent another day kayaking through the mangroves and the sea caves, it was one of the most amazing things that I have ever done. The scenery was amazing and I cannot describe how cool it felt to go kayaking through a sea cave. Afterwards we went to this beautiful national park where we went swimming, it was really refreshing. I guess that's Krabi. Highly reccommended for organized semi-adventurous sports fans. The photos are of the sea caves, me climbing on Railey beach, the ancient cave painting in the cave, skull cave and the place we went swimming.

Hope you survived...

2006-07-21T22:31:00.000-07:00

Aye, you jump off a cliff in Greece and you're sill dealing with it a year later...Tess, I hope that your surgery went well and that there are enough pins for my necklace. Recover fast and painlessley...

All my love,
Poodle

All about Kuching, Malaysian Borneo

2006-07-21T22:10:00.000-07:00

Well actually it may not be that much information, becasue I've been oline too long and I want to get some lunch, but it's a quick overview. I spent most of my time in Malaysian Borneo in Sarawak's capital city, Kuching. I stayed in a hastel there called the Borneo Seashare and it was the most amazing hostel I've ever been to. This was mainly because of the owners Wesley and Theresa. They Went out of their way to show me around, help me make travel plans and jsut spend time with me. quite a few times they took me out for dinner or coffee. They hooked me up with some of thier friends and that was how I had that amazing snorkeling experience. One day, they had a whole day of hiking and waterfally swimming planned for me, but then after our first short hike to a hindu temple, their car was broken into and they had to sepnd the day dealing with that indtead. People in Kunching speank lots of English, which gave me a bit of a break for the language barrier. I loved Malaysiuan Borneo and there is so much more of it to discover. But I left last night since I had a flight to Penang. And today I am pissed of at Malaysia and I and taking the bus to Thailand tomorrow. Noting really rational, I just decided that it was too expensive here, last night my flight from KL to Penang was delayed 4.5 hrs and so I arrived at the taxi booth in Penang at 12:02am. Taxis cost double the price after midnight and there were no busses running...it cost me about $25 CDN for the 10 min taxi to my hostel. That's all so I'm pissed off at Malaysia and I'm going to go sit on a beach in Thailland for a couple of days, reald and listen to music, sleep and swim, drink fruit juice and eat Som Tam...Thailand...
Oh yea, the photos are of the Hindu temple, a view of Kuching from the hike and the Kuching Waterfront.

Mulu Caves

2006-07-21T21:50:00.000-07:00

From Kuching, I flew to Mulu National Park fro a couple of day to check out the caves. I had images in my head of steep jungle treks and hoprfully my first ever adventure caving experience. Although it was nothing like I had imagined, it was still great, just more touristy and comfortable that I was thinking. There are boradwalks throughout all of the jungle trails, and the show caves as well. My timing did work out too well and I was not able to organize a trek and the adventure caving guides were busy with the British Army from Brunei. Anyways, I still saw some amazing natural stuff, the highlight being the 4 show caves. They were amazing! I also went on a longboat ride and the canopy walk. Oh yeah and a night walk too, where we saw some lantern bugs and a trantula like poisonus spider. I watched the millions of bats pouring out of the caves in the evening, which was amazing...that's what those black dots are in the photos above. There were these plants called pitcher plants that were really cool, I have put a bunch of photos of them here. There was a little bat who slept in one of them...can you see him in the photo? He was so cute, I went to visit him every day! I met a bunch of cool people at Mulu and some Western Canadaians which was really nice!

Snorkeling in Borneo

2006-07-21T21:26:00.000-07:00

The people who run the hostel where I was staying in Kunching, apart form being amazing hosts (more on them later), hooked my up with a bunch of their diving frineds so that I could spend the day snorkeling. We drove to a small fishing town outside of Kuching, where they had chartered a fishing boat for the day. It took us about 45 mins to get to the first snrokeling place, where I saw some amazing coral, fish and sea urchins...Seth if you are reading this, apparently they know a place wehre you can see whale sharks, I'll hook you up!... Then we went ot the beach at the turtle isalnd. There are many sea turtles there at night and they lay there eggs there...sadly no eggs had hatched the night before, or I would hae been able to release a baby sea turtle into the wild. Then for some more snorleling, I learned that I have an odd shaped head and the water kept leaking into my mask. N-E-ways...I decided to climb the boat, unsuccessfully. Then I spent about 45 mind tryiong to climb the anchor rope, I thought that might be a better way of getting up, and I was more determined when Earnest told me that if I did it, he would buy me dinner...no luck though...I got high enough to touch the boat, but could not get myself up...oh well, it kept me amused for a while. I was a superduper day!

Did you know that Orangutans only live in Borneo?

2006-07-21T21:11:00.000-07:00

I just learned that, somehow I though they were African...well I never claimed to be paticularly bright. Anyways I went to see the orangutans that had been released back into the wild after being held in capitivity by locals. There are 22 of them in all and they are doing quite well, although most of them still come back to the park headquartes to get fed once or twice a day. This is good for the tourists, because then we get to see them, and it is done really well, so I was not worried about disturbing the amilmas. The only problem was that, me, along with a Greman couple who I met on the bus, had not realized that the only time you were allowed into the forest was at feeding time. We;ll we got there about five hous early, and had to wait around. It was woth it though and the wait whent fast then expected. We got to see quite a few orangutans and even a baby one!

Not enough time in Bako National Park

2006-07-21T20:59:00.000-07:00

My first day trip from Kuching was to go to Bako National Park to see the Probiscus Monkeys.
I was planning on spending the night, so I took my time getting there in the morning. On the bus I met some guys from Ireland, and they kept me company for the day and shared to cost of the boat into the park, which was a bonus! Upon getting to Bako I found out that there was no space in the hostel, so I only had a couple of hours to explore. Luckly we saw a whole family of probiscus monkeys while we were hiking, something that does not happen everyday, I was later informed. They are really strange looking animals with huge noses. We also saw a bunh of regular monkeys in the magroves. It was a good, although short time...there are so many trails at Bako, I'll have to head back some day!

A day in KL

2006-07-21T20:45:00.000-07:00

After leaving Thailand, I flew to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia. I had been there about 15 years ago, and although I don't reember too much, I believe that the city has changed greatly. There are tons of skyscrapes, inclusing the Petronas Towers among some of the tallest buildings in the world. The first night I wnadered around chinatown, nothing too excitng to report. At my hostel I met up with a couple of people from the UK and we spent the day doing the city thing. We waited in line for over an hour to get the free tickets to go up the petronas towers. The we had to come back in the afternoon, so I went to check out the KL tower, where I could look down over the city. When we headed back o the Petronas Towers for our tour, it was too bad 'cause we could only go to the sky bridge, which is obly about half way up, but oh well. There we met this Canadian guy who was saying in a 4 star hotel and he invited us to come and sit by his pool. Shona and I headed over there that evening, after wandering around in the shopping malls that had air con! We splurged on the hotel buffet and ate and ate and ate. Then we went out for drinks at and outdoor bar where we were very interested to obsesrve all the muslim families and their interactions with eachother. Malaysia is a very interesting country, is is considered a muslim country, but it is very liberal for a muslim country. There are also the Chinese, Indians (mainly Hindu), and Malay's. All of the races and religions seem to get along relativley well and thing seem to generally work out, which is reassuring to see in a mixed country. Anyways, the next morning I headed over to Kuching, in the Malaysian province of Sarawak, on the Island of Borneo, those stories are coming...

Check out these videos!

2006-07-09T07:20:00.000-07:00

I jsut uploaded some video of Wiang Haeng...if you ahev time check them all out, but if not, at least watch this one of a cute boy Wai-ing to me by clicking on the link. If you want to see some others, here they are (school kids is really cute and I look really funny in riding in the truck):

To Burma on a Motorbike

School Kids

High School Students in Parade (if you want to see the kids I taught, youll see most of them here)

Parade 1

Parade 2

Parade 3

Parade 4

Buddhist Exams

Riding in the Truck

Wiang Haeng...Where do I begin????

2006-07-09T06:47:00.000-07:00

Well I just finished my placement in Wiang Haeng...I had such an amazing time and I want to explain everything in detail so that I will remember it all forever. But there is so much that I don't even know where to begin. I guess I'll just do like I did with Nepal , and se where it takes me.

I was staying with a family that lived in a large house near the school. The Mom's name was Haruthai, the dad is Deng and their daughter who is 14 is Ilada (her nickname is Oil pronounced oi, like a Yiddish lady). They were very nice, and we had lots of fun trying to communicate since their English was only just a bit better than my Thai...Which I was just beginning to pick up. The house that I lived in has a store in front where they sold random furniture, cell phones and accessories, gas bottles for stoves, some random school supplies and made photocopies. The mom worked at the nursery and the dad worked at the store. Ilada was out with her friends a lot, so I did not see her too much, except when she decided to pop in on the motorbike, and sometimes at meals. They also had another daughter, Ice, who is 19 and was away at university in Chiang Mai. Back to the house....my room was large and clean, but the occasional massive spider or other annoying bugs would find their way in to annoy me. The bathroom was basic, the "shower" consisted of a garbage pail filled with water with a small bucket that you used to dump cold water over yourself...Most nights it was really refreshing, but on the cooler nights, the first pour took a bit of courage. The kitchen consisted of a larger propane tank where you could place a wok, or a pot. There was also a sink and a fridge. The rest of the house was just open space. For diner we ate at straw mat speread on the floor. We ate sticky rice that you squished between your fingers and then used it to pick up the veggies and meat from the main dishes (although I only used it for veggies). I spent most of my time sitting at a table out front reading, "talking" to my host mother or just watching the town go by (the house was on the main road...the only paved road).

I taught 15 class a week at Wiang Haeng High School. I was teaching students ranging form 12-18 years old. The students were amazing. They we so respectful and cute...I loved them and I had fun teaching them. The school grounds were beautiful, with little ponds and everything. I had fun teaching and getting to know the students, although I had about 350 of them so I did not get to know them too well. The other two English teachers Mong and Pong were very kind and they took me to Wiang Haeng for lunch everyday.

I became really good friends with theis girl, Phueng. She can speak English and we got along really well. She helps to run the store at her parents house. I went there almost every day. Some days we just hung out and cooked or worked on her website and others we had adventures, like when we decided to take the motorbike to see the Burmese border. It was so fun. The border was not too exciting, but riding through the small villages was. Then we go misplaced and ended up going up this hill where I had to get off and push the motorbike because it was too steep and very much like off-roading.

Last Wednesday was the last day of school before a 6 day long weekend for Buddhist lent. On Thursday morning the students at the High School and the elementary school dressed in their traditional clothes to their school uniform. Then they carved these huge candles. Then they made a parade to the temple to bring the candles to the monks for the beginning of Buddhist lent. Offering the candles to the monks is symbolic of offering them light and puts them in buddy's good books. Buddhist lent is when the monks stay in the monastery for three months over the rainy season. I think the sacrifice something additional too, but I don't remember. The next day, all of the students gather at the high school where there is traditional Thai dancing, music and singing performed by the students. Then the students must participate in various types of Buddhist exams, including essays and chanting prayers. It was amazing and I was super lucky to be in Wiang Haeng for the ceremonies.

On Saturday, phueng, Ilada and I went to chiang Dao (about 3 hrs away) to go to the national park. We had to deliver mangoes to a couple of places on the way. The waterfall was beautiful and we also checked out some hot springs, but I though they were too hot to swim in. On the way back we picked up Phueng's sister, Nim and some of her friends where were returning foir University for the long weekend. For about two hours Phueng, Ilada and I got to ride in the back of the pick up. We were going up and down crazy hills and around steep corners, it was awesome! The Ilada and Phueng managed to fall asleep, don't ask me how?!?!?!

Anyways, Wiang Haeng was great, hopefully I'll return someday :-)

Phueng and Alana's Cooking School Part 3

2006-07-09T06:08:00.000-07:00

How to make Lat Nah

Well, I think it's more like rat nah, but that just does not sound good...no rats included!

Ingredients:
1.5L of Water
1/3 cup of corn startch
Soy Sauce
Soy Bean Paste
3 Eggs
Veggies
Meat or seafood
Noodles
Oil

Procedure:
1. Fry the noodles in oil (the best noodles are the think, flat, fresh rice noodles), put aside for later.
2. Boil the veggies, drain and put aside for later.
3. In a bowl mix the eggs, some soya sauce and the meat or seafood.
4. In a pot bring the water to a boil, add the meat and egg mixture, some soya bean paste and the corn starch. Cook until meat is done.
5. Put some veggies and noodles in a bowl and spoon the soup mixture over top.

MMMMM...Yum!

Phueng and Alana's Nutrious and Delicious and Yummy in your Tummy Cooking School...again!

2006-07-05T23:23:00.000-07:00

Khao Niao Guay (Banana Sticky rice in Banana Leaves)

Ingredients:

2 bananas
Sweet coconut sticky rice
coconut milk
banana leaves
toothpicks

1. Find a banana leaf...we just went next door and chopped one off the tree...so good luck:-P
2. Place about 1/4 cup of Sweet coconut sticky rice on the banana leaf, then put a couple of slices of banana on top of that, pour a couple of tablespoons of coconut milk on top.
3. Wrap in banana leaf, re-wrap in a secons banana leaf, so there are two layers. Use toothpicks to hold it together (see photos).
4. Place over the charcoal grill that I'm sure you happen to have outside of your house (I'm sure a BBQ will do, or even a frying pan).
5.Unwrap and enjoy!
P.S. We used these mini lychee type things instead of bananas, butI don't think that they are very accessable in Canada and bananas are really yummy too!

PPS. Seana, the title is dedicated to you...remember when we made that video, I cant remember what we were making, but I know it had peanut butter in it and it was nutrious and delicious and yummy in your tummy:-)

Phueng and Alana's Nutrious and Delicious and Yummy in your Tummy Cooking School!

2006-07-05T23:10:00.000-07:00

How to make Khao Niao Mamoung (Mango Sticky Rice)

Ingredients:
1/4 cup of sugar
1 1/2 cups of water
2 cups of precooked sticy rice (the type you use to make sushi rice will do)
1 small can of coconut milk
1 mango

1. In a pot heat the water and sugar. Bring to a boil and dissolve all of the sugar. Add about 5 tbsp of coconut milk. Add the rice and mix until the rice is coated and the liquid is gone.

2. In a seperate pot heat the rest of the coconut milk until it is ready (apparently when it smells good...so your guess is a good as mine).

3. Peel and cut the mango.

4. Put rice onto a plate or bowl, spoon some coconut milk over it and then put some mango on top.

5. Enjoy!

Check it out!!!!

2006-07-03T03:07:00.000-07:00

I am at Phueng's house. We are making her a blog because she wants to export Thai handicrafts. Check it out at www.pp-home.blogspot.com.

Better late than never!

2006-07-02T19:44:00.000-07:00

The Golden Traingle

2006-07-01T21:16:00.000-07:00

Friday I headed into Chiang Mai for the weekend. My Thai visa was going to expire and I had to do a visa run to Myanmar/Burma. Last time I was in Chiang Mai, I had booked a van that did this, thinking it was just a straight visa run, but it turned out to be a tour that included many stops at many tourist traps. Although usually these places suck, I made the best of it had had a pretty good day. There were some really nice people on the tour...from Malaysia, Japan and a family from Oman who had three little boys who had the most beautiful eyes. Anyways we went to a temple and a hot springs. Then went to the Goldent Triangle which is where Thailand, Maynmar and Laos all meey at the river. There we took a fast boat (it does not look too fast but the were crazy!) to Laos for 1/2 an hr. That part of Laos pissed me off becasue it was just a couple of shops in the jungle with souviners that said Laos on them...I would bet that the people running the shops lived in Thailand as I did not see an accomodation or homes where we were. . ANyways the boat ride was fun. Then I ahd to go to Myanmar to renew my visa...all this involved in crossing into Maynmar on foot then crossing back into Thailand. It takes about one hour. The border was full of foreginers doing the same thing as I was, some people have done this for 20 years, crossing the border every month in order to renew thier "tourist" visa. There were also tons of Burmese refugees jsut waiting at the border, I'm not sure for what. It was quite sad to see. Anyways, mission accomplished...visa obtained! The photos are of Laos, The fast boat on the river, a Buddha of the river and The Golden Triangle Monument sign thingy.

The Waterfall

2006-07-01T21:06:00.000-07:00

Last weekend Susan (the peace corps Volunteer), Phueng (an English speaking Wiang Haeng-er), Jane (a teacher at the elementary school) and Nim (Pheung's sister) went to MAe Hat the Waterfall. We rode in the back of the pickup truck over really bumpy roads, which was awesome! It was really nice to go swimming, get out of the heat. It was difficult to swim near the waterfall though because the pressure of the water was really strong. A very excting day. The photos are of The waterfall, me, susan,phueng and nim, me riding in the back of the pickup truck and susan and i. oh yeah...Jane is a man's name!

Wiang Haeng

2006-06-25T00:13:00.000-07:00

My weekdays in Wiang Haeng have already developed into a routine. I get up around 6:30, although the rest of the town seems to be up and going strong by 5:00am, the government won't think twice about brodcasting somthing that I can only assume is urgent news over the town loudspeaker at 5:30 in the morning. The first ime that it happened, I thought that my watch must have been broken and that I must have overslpet and was going to be late for school. But no, I guess that's just when things hapen here. I go to school and eat breakfast as the school canteen. Then I teach most of the day, do some lesson planning and spend some time on the internet and listen to my MP3 player when I'm not teaching. At lucnh I go with Mong or Pong (depending on who's week it is to be responsible for my eating) into Wiang Haeng. After school I head home and listen to my music while I watch the students come home from school. After eating dinner I read. Sometimes I'll hang out with some on the people in the village, or with my host family, but they don't speak English and watch tv most evenings. Last weekend I decided to stay in Wiang Haeng. There is not much to do here. It's funny how quickly you fall into the lifestyle patterns of where you are living. People just tend to sit around and watch. Nobody walks here, sometimes they even take the motorcycle to cross the street, it's quite funny really. I am staying about 1 1/2 city bllocks from the school where I am teaching. They always try to take me there or drive me home. The other day I was walking to school and I was about 1/2 block away and a students pulled over on her motorbike and insisted that I be driven the rest of the way to school. Sometimes I'll be walking home from somewhere in the village and a random person will pull over and insist on driviing me somewhere. Last weekend we went up the hill to a statue of a Buddha (actually there were 4 buddha's facing nort south east and west). They were having this festival where they send rockets into the sky to ask for rain. I had to light a candle at each of the four Buddha's. On the way home we saw a parade of people carrying these long bamboo poles, about 15 metres, and beating drums. I guess they were heading up to the Buddha. Last Tuesday I was hanging out with Phueng and we went into Wiang Haeng for dinner. On the way into town we ran into the mayor, who was getting drunk with a bunch of his collegues. He insisted that we stop so that he could talk to the falang, and proceeded to pretend to pull coins out of my ear for about half an hour...it was quite funny. So that's my life in Wiang Haeng! The photos are of Wiang Haeng and the Buddha on the hill.

Read it!

2006-06-18T19:18:00.000-07:00

I just finished a wonderful book yesterday, it's called The Kite Runner and I can't remember the authors name but it starts with a K. I think it's pretty popular so it should not be too hard to find. It's about a boy growing up in Afghanistan. If you get the chance read it, I recommend it!

The teaching begins...

2006-06-17T19:37:00.000-07:00

After training in Korat I took the Vip night bus to Chiang Mai, the biggest city near my placement school. The school where I am teaching is a high school in a samll town call Wiang Haeng. Wiang Haeng is 20kms from the Burmese border. It's about 3-4 hrs driving from Chiang Mai, a very hilly, curvy and beautiful drive. The school where I am teaching serves students from five different hill tribes (I can't remember thier names). The students are WONDERFUL! They are really cure and polite, nothing at all like 13-18 year olds in Canada. They are so respectful. Thai teachers are very well respcted. In the morning, the first time that a student sees you they have to wai (bow thier heads and place thier hands in a prayer position infront of their noses). Afterwards if you pass them in the hallway they have to sop moving and stand to the side. if they walk in front of you they stoop to show respect. They are also very fun and love to laugh and joke. They try really hard to understand what I am trying to tell them, which is difficult at times since I don't sepk much Thai and they don't speak much English. There are two other people at the school who speak English, the two English teachers, Pong and Mong. In thailand people are given nicknames and almost never use thier real names...I was given the nickname of Chaban (or something like that) which is a white flower. Most people get around on motorcycles and I now won't think twice before hopping on the back of a motorcycle driven by 12 year old, or sitting with both feet to one side because I ahve to wear a skirt...holding on is rare and helmets are out of the question, but it's really not as bad or unsafe as it sounds...and it's lots of fun! Every day for lunch I go into the city on the back of the motorbike of one of the English teachers. My host family lives near the school, so I can walk there. I have my own room. There is Ilada, the 12 year old daughter, who is really cute and the Mom, and I have not yet really met the Dad. They sell furniture in thier storefront and some other random things and the Mom babysits during the day. They are super friendly, but they don't speak any English, so we spend time with the Thai-English phrase book and smiling and laughing. The photos that I haev posted are of a short bike ride the Ilada, her friend and I did into the hills. The school gave me a bike to use while I am in Wiang Haeng. Super!

This weekend I am Chiang Mai. I came on Friday to meet up with Jo, an Australian girl that I met in Nepal. We basically spent the last two days eating and buying MP3 players. I was really great, eventhough it may not seem too exciting. My MP3 player broke and I had to send it home to get fixed and I was really missing it. We ended up buying a 256 mb MP3 player and 60 piareted MP3's for just under $30 CDN, well worth it and a fun day picking out music. jo left for Koh Samui this morning and now I'm just doing internt errands before heading back to Wiang Haeng. I can't wait to get back, see what I learn this week!

Korat

2006-06-12T04:52:00.000-07:00

Korat is a city in the Northeast of Thailand, possibly the second largest city. This is where Thai Dragonfly is based out of, so we headed up there for our training. We are staying at the house where the Dragonfly people, which is full of froginers, mainly from England. Most of the people are living in Thailand and working for Dragonfly. Last Friday we had a day off so we went ot Phimai, a city with Angor Wat style ruins. It was great and a perfect day. Abby, Sam and I (Abby and Sam are the other volunteers), took the bus to Phimai and then ate some really good fried bananas. After wandering around the ruins we were walking to see the banyen tree, some guy offered us a ride in the back of his pickup which was nice and a bit of an adventure. The banyen tree is huge, it covers 35, 000 feet and you can wander around under the canopy...Crazyness! After we went for another Thai massage at a place on the roadside, it was gentler than the on in Bangkok. The nxt day w went to the zoo which was an experience. We have also spent some time swimming at the pool in the mall which is nice in the heat. I had to go shopping for some tacher clothes again...Blah! I hve some frilly skirts and these little white shoes, you'd think I was a girl or something :-P We have done a day of Thai culture and language training and today we just finishd our second day of teacher trainig, which was a bit repetative for me, but good too. We are teaching a class tomorrow, where we will be observed. Then I will head up to my placement near Chaing Mai, I can't wait. I will be teaching 15-18 year olds, but it's nothing like Canada, the kids are innocent and sweet, it's going to be tons of fun! We just had some Pad Thai for dinner and on the way back we ran inot Martin and his girlfrind. Thye were eating durian so I gave some a try...not too tasty, blah! the photos are of Sam, Abby and I eating Chim Chom on the street (like hot pot), me feeding a lephant at the Korat zoo, part of the banyen tre in Phimai (alll one tree) and the ruins at phimai.

A Couple of Days in Bangkok

2006-06-12T04:31:00.002-07:00

I arrived in Bangkok and was met at the airport by Ria from Thai Dragonfly, the organization that I am volunteering with. We met up with Abby and Roxy (some other Dragonfly people) at a bar near our hotel. The bar is a gas station during the day and at night they put out table between the pumps and there is a bar. It quite funky and they serve some really tasty fruit smoothies. The next day we just sort of wandered around, most everyhting was closed bcause the king was coming to Bangkok for his 60th-something. Abby and I wet for an hour long Thai massage...it was painful and they forced my body into some pretty crazy positions, but afterwards I felt great. Thai food is so yummy and the fruit is AMAZING! The next day we went on a river boat and to the grand palace....it was beautiful! Then we headed up to Korat, in the North-East where I am right now doing training. I was really not into going to Bangkok, but it was really great and I hope to go back in the near future for a few more days. The photos are of Abby, Roxy and I in a Tuk Tuk, The Grand Palace from a river boat and the Grand Palace.

Some Photos of the trek in Nepal

2006-06-08T04:16:00.000-07:00

How could I forget...

2006-06-06T08:30:00.001-07:00

The Maoists! How could I forget them. Coming to Nepal, booking my trip the political situation was not looking too safe. I was told horror stories of the dreaded Maoisit, a rebel army that charges a touris tax on the trek. Well the situation cleared up just before I got to Nepal and the Maoisits were ordered not to charge a tourist tax. We saw them twice, once coming back form a big meeting in a village called Chame. They were walking in a line and they all greeted me with a Namaste and a smile. On our last day we ran into a Maoist checkpoint where are guides spend a half an hour arguing the price down from 1000 rupees to 500. They were the most unscary people ever and we even asked to take a photo with them. It was quite funny. I found that Nepali people are very honest and I felt extremely safe at all times in Nepal...all that worrying for nothing.

Kathmandu

2006-06-06T08:30:00.000-07:00

We returned from the trek a day early so that I could see Kathmandu. My trekking guide, Babu, said that he would show me and Noora, a firend who I met on the trek, around. We hired a taxi for the morning and went to some tourist spots. First we went to a Hindu temple, where we saw them burning the dead bodies. It looked exactly like the begining scence form the movie Water, with the fires right by the river. There were lots of monkeys everywhere. Then we went to this giant Buddhist Stupa and a buddhist temple, called the Monkeyt Temple. In the afternoon we went to Durbar Square, where all the old buildings and stuff are. I wish that I had more time in KAthmandu, it is an amazing city with lots to see and do. The traffic is insane though, makes Shanghai look safe and organized....I don't htink that they have heard of lanes, or right sides of the road to drive on, and sidewalks seem to be a rare treat! In the evening Noora, Babu and I went to Arjun's (the man who owns the trekking company) house for dinner. It was delicious, his wife made Naan...MMMMMM. You will not get to see photos of Kathmandu since my camera was being fixed...next time :-P

Hello Down There

2006-06-05T19:45:00.000-07:00

I don't even know where to begin! I have just arrive in Bangkok after 24 days in Nepal, most of which was spent trekking the Annapurna circuit....It was one of the coolest, most amazing things I have ever done....This is going to be a long post, so make some popcorn, get a glass of water and make sure that you are comfortable in your chair :-)

So I arrived in Kathmandu and was met at the airport by my trekking guide Babu. He was a super wonderful guide...You can see more about him if you click on his name and go to his website...I'm so computer smart...The next morning we left on the bus to go to Besi Sahar, where we were going to start the trek the next day. Bus riding in Nepal is crazy, I'm not sure that there are any road rules, the important thing is that if you are egoing to do something that is potentially unsafe, lean on your horn while your doing it...so basically the rule must be that all drives have one hand on the horn and the other on the steering wheel...it noisy but whatever they are doing generally works. On the buses there are these guys who hang out the door and help the drivers to stay accident free...They are crazy, I wonder what their survival rate is?

So we got to Besi Sahar safe and sound and spent a fairly uneventful night there. The next day we left early for Bahundanda. The trek that I was going on is called a teahouse trek, so there is no camping you sleep and eat in the guesthouses that the have in the villages along the way. It was all organized by Himalayan Humanity so on the trek, all I had to do was walk and enjoy myself. k, I was going to go day by day, but that is going to get boring, so I am just going to write and see what happens.

I have no idea what the distance that we walked was, I heard everything from 200-400 kms, but that's not too important. We walked, on average 7 hrs a day, some days were only about 3 hrs though and the longest was about 10 hrs.The elevation at Besi Sahar was 760 m and then at the pass (the highest point, in the middle of the trek) we were at 5614m, then we went down to 1190 m and then back up to just over 3100 m before heading back down again at the end of the trek. Some days were up, up, up, others (the crappy ones) were down, down, down. Sometimes we went up, down, up, down, up, down and rarely it was flat. We paseed through tons of different landscapes, some that looked like a tropical forest, some that were just rocky cliffs, some with snow at higher elevations, some that looked like the second growth forests around Vancouver and some where pot grew wild everywhere...at the side of the road, in big fields by the road...everywhere. We also seemed to go through every season as we went up and then back through them as we came down.

Everyday we were walking on a different terrain, usually it was really rocky though. There were some days where the path seemed to be more like a landslide than a path, but it was not. The thril that we were using is well kept up and used daily by the local villagers, trekkers and traders who load caravans of donkeys up with everything imaginable and move them along the trails to the different villages. There are also people who carry loads that are larger than themsleves (they use a rope that is placed on thier forehead and then carry the stuff on thier back). At the lower elevations there are many villages and you pass through one almost every half hour...higher up the villages are further apart. There were many animals, along the way. Every day we shared the trail with donkeys and there were also cows, sheep, goats, yaks, chickens, roosters etc.

Every day we would stop at a tea house. These are small hotel-type things that have been set up mainly for tourists trekking the circut, or part of it. They are fairly simple, but really clean and comfortable, nicer than most hostels that I've been to. They are family run and quite cozy. They all have a restaurant, and in the ones at the higher elevations, where it's colder, have thses tables that are covered with blanket/carpet type things that fall to the floor. Undernheath the table they place a metal bucket of hot coals and it's oh so warm and toasty that you don't want to go to your bed at night. The food is delicious. Usually for breakfast I had either Tibetan bread, which is like Bannok or fry bread or corn bread, which is fried as well. Everything is made from scratch when you order it, they grind up the corn when you ask for corn bread, it's that fresh! Other things that are yummy are Dal Bat (the guides live off of this), which is rice and a runny dal (lentil sauce), veggie curry and pickles, Momo's (veggie dumplings), Sprilng rolls (more like a Jamacian Patty), and veggie curry. They also have surprizingly good Enchaldas, Lasagne and Moussaka....I was well fed. There is not too much fruit so I reveerted to adding some High Nutrition Tang, Grape Flavour, enriched with Vitamins A and C and Iron to my swimming pool water (the water tased like a swimming pool because the stuff that I used to make it safe was mainly clorine).

Since we were going to a high altitude (5416m) we had to take it slow after about 3000m so that we did not get sick. We had an aclimatization day in Manang, to get used to the altitude. On day nine (I think) we stayed at the high camp at approx 4900m. I was feeling pertty good, except for some slight breathing issues when I was walking...but that is to be expected with my lungs. That night my heart was beating so fast, it was crazy...it felt like I had just finished a race or something, but I was not breathing heavy or anything, my heart was just beating like crazy. Then I got a bit of a headache, but I drank some water and was fine. From the high camp we left at 5 am to do the Pass. Thorong-La Pass is the higest point of the trek at 5614 m's. It too me about 4 hours to reach the pass from the high camp, most people take around three, but I was having lots of breating problems, sometimes I could only take a couple of steps before I had to stop and catch my breath. i think I did some temporary damage to my lungs because after the pass, whenever we had to go up I would have an asthma attack. But the views and everyhting going up to the pass were AMAZING! Since we were trekking in the off season, It was really couldy and we did not get to see to many good views of the Annapurna's. The day that we did the pass was really clear and great views! There were some snawy bits leading up to the pass and coming down as well. After the pass it was about three hours downhill....it was terrible and I still could not breathe. My legs were sore from the downhill for the next couple of days. Thank god fro trekking poles, there were many times when I thought that I was just going to fall off the side with the rocks that slipped from under my feet. Anyways, an amazing and challenging day in all aspects!

So I had just typed for about 45mins and somehow I managed to lose it all, so I am a bit frustrated!!!! GRRRRR! Hmmm, I am not goign to retype it all, but basically I talked about all the cool people that I met, the fact that Flanders Field is an actual place in Belgium (and how I can belive that it took me till I was 25 to realize that), the early bed times...between 8 and 9:30 most nights, the atmosphere, the fact that MP3 player break at high altitudes, finishing the trek one day early to avoid leeches and so that I could see Kathmandu, riding on the top of the bus to Pokara, Nepali cultural dancing and Hindu temples in the middle of the lake in Pokara, and the uneventful bus ride back to Kathmandu.

Hmmmm...I was just arriving in Kathmandu when I lost all of my typing, so I guess that is the end of this post....I will post soem photos in a couple of days.

Hold Your Horses!

2006-06-04T03:48:00.000-07:00

I will post soon for all of you who have been sending me emails asking why I have not updated my blog. Computers here are too slow and I have been in pretty remote areas...and my camera is broken :-( At least it broke after the trek...but no photos of Kathmandu or Pokara. I leave for Bangkok tomorrow and I will be replying to emails and updating my blog soon....there's alot to say. Take care,

Alana

Hong Kong: The People

2006-05-12T09:45:00.000-07:00

There we three people who made my stay in Hong Kong: Bob, Horia and Abi. In the photo Horia is on the left, Abi is in the middle and Bob is on the right.

Bob is my Dad's friend from university. I have known him forever, he is one of those people who is like an Uncle, only not related. When I was 11 we visited him while he was living in Singapore and in 2003 we visited him in Hong Kong. We also see him when he comes to Vancouver. We had lots of fun, just hanging out and relaxing, eating good food and people watching.

Horia is a friend who I have known for about 7 years. We met while volunteering at the Students Commission. Last October I dropped Horia off at the Vancouver bus depot, where he bussed to Seattle and then prceeded to hitchike basically from Seattle to the Phillipines. Later he ended up in Taipei and met Abi and is now living with Abi in Hong Kong. As you can see from the photos, the two of us have a good time, eventhough we can be just a bit silly :-P
Abi is Horia's girlfriend, and this was the first time that I met her. She was at work alot, but I really enjoyed getting to know her and hopefully we will have the chance to meet up again sometime soon.

Thanks everyone...Have fun!

Concert at the Abbotoire

2006-05-12T09:36:00.000-07:00

Tonight we (Bob, Horia, Abi and I) went for sushi (funny, I never went for sushi in Japan, but I did in Hong Kong) and the out to this Abbotoire...is that the right spelling, it's an old cattle slaughterhouse...that has been converted into an artist studio/gathering place to listen to an Thai DJ who plays electronic music. The setting was really cool, as you can hopefully see from the photos, and the music was ok. We wandered around and saw one of the artist studios, there was a really cute kitten there. There was free beer...but I am just pretending in the photo...we thought it would be funny to freak everyone out, but sadly I have not started drinking. I am now at Bob's house and I am leaving for Nepal tomorrow afternoon...I am so excited.

Making Out with Buddha

2006-05-12T02:04:00.000-07:00

This morning, after almost recovering from our hike (scratches from biting bushes and itchy bites from biting insects are abundant though), Horia and I went to check out the 10,000 Buddhas Monastary. On the way up you go up this really steep hill lined on either side with a bunch of differnt Buddha's. It was a long walk and we were having fun with the statues, as you can see in the photos...the one where I am kissing Buddha, we figured that was the fastest way to enlightenment...in the photo of Horia making the face, that is the Buddha he thought looked like constipated Buddha and so that's the story behind that photo...maybe at times we are not the most culturally sensitive people, but we were having a great time and all the Monks were smiling at us...I am thinking that was a good sign :-) We saw a monmkey...but it was chased out too fast for us to get any photos or get a really good look. Afterwards we went to Staunton's to get me this really yummy drink...a gingermint fizz. It's got fresh ginger, mint leaves, lemon and lime blended with ice, sugar suryp and soda water. MMMM so good especially in this heat and humidity. Tonight we are going out for sushi with Abi and Bob and then we are going to an old cattle barn to see some eletronic DJ from Thailand...should be cool. Anyways, till later...

We're not lost...yet????

2006-05-11T08:57:00.000-07:00

Today Horia and I decided to go on a hike. He had some hiking books and so we chose a hike in Lantau near Bob's place since we were meeting him for lunch first. The hike seemed pretty simple and we set off after lunch at about 2:30. We told Bob that we should be at the Big Buddha, 10 kms from the start, by 5:30 at the very latest. Well...hmm, when the book said that the trails might be overgrown in some places, overgrown was an understatement. Plus hiking up to 700 metres is not too bad, except for most of the hike was flat and then it rose just under 600 metres in about one kilometre. And it was mainly scrambling up random mouniain sides and creekbeds. AWESOME!!!!. At about 6pm we started to get worried about reaching some sort of destination before dark, but we still had time to stop and take some fun I'm lost photos that you see above (notice the confused looks on our faces). Instead of doing the last bit of the hike we followed the trail underneath the cable cars, we wanted to get back before it got dark. I think that it was about the same distance, it was just really clearly marked and there was less chance of us getting lost again...well we never really got lost, just confused. As we got to the Big Buddha, we were wondering if the buses were still running. We ended up catching the very last bus back into the city...had we been much later we would have had to either spend a fortune on a Taxi, hitch a ride, or sleep at the monostary (or the bus stop). Anyways we made it and it was amazing...although I am sure that the people who had to sit next to us on the MTR were not too happy. Or yeah and the trail that Horia is on in the photo...well the trails rarely lookd that good and clrear...don't be fooled :-P

The Light Show

2006-05-11T08:12:00.000-07:00

Last night Horia and I went to see the light show. It's really cool all of the buildings of the Hong Kong skyline have synchronized lights that light up to music for about 15 minutes, kinda the same idea as the symphony of fire. The Hong Kong skyline is amazing and the lights at night are pretty cool. We were trying to get some better photos, but we did not have a tripod and it was too dark. Afterwards we met up with Abi and her friends from work for dinner. Yum...that's what Hong Kong is all about, eating.

Lamma Island

2006-05-10T04:07:00.000-07:00

Today Horia and I relaxed and discussed how difficult our life was (sarcasam) over a breakfast of Watermelon, Mango and Rambutan. Then we to Lamma Island and ate lunch at this veggi place. Then we walked to the beach and went swimming...the water was soo crazy warm...oh and we did not have bathing suits so eventhough I went in my underwear, I did not have time to dry off and my pants were gross and sticky the whole way home. But if that's my biggest complaint all is good. Oh yea and it is like 30 something degrees celcius and 458% humidity in this city. YUCK! We are just going to go see the light show on the water before meeting up with Abi for dinner....life is tough I tell you!
The photos are of brekfast and the beach.

Hanging with Horia and Bob

2006-05-10T03:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I arrived in Hong Kong and both Horia and Bob were at the airport to meet me (Horia is a friend of mine from Vancouver who was hitchhiking around the world, met Abi in Taipei and now is living with her in Hong kong and Bob is a friend of my Dad's from school who we see quite often and he is really cool and fun to hang out with). We went to Horia and Abi's place to drop my bags off. It's insane. Crasieness! Their apartment takes up half a floor, it's huge for Vancouver, a mansion in Hong Kong. Afterwards Horia, Bob and I went up the escalator (Hong kong has a really long escalator, something like 60 blocks) and had drinks, people watching and dinner in Soho. Bob went home and then Horia and I wandered around the markets before meeting up with Abi and wandering some more.

WOW!!!!

2006-05-10T03:42:00.000-07:00

So I left Narita at 9:45 am for Hong kong yesterday morning. I was watching brokeback mountain and just happened to glance out my window just was we were going above Mt Fuji. I got some amazing photos! Horia fixed them up on photoshop, so the better looking, darker ones are the ones that he fixed up. SOOOO LUCKY!

Japan: The People

2006-05-10T03:17:00.000-07:00

It's really the people that make travelling so great. I met so many wonderful people in Japan so I will introdure you to them here:

Bao ai was our homestay for many years and we have visited her and her family before in Japan. they have also been to visit us in Vancouver. They are more like family and it's always nice to see them. The three boys in the photo above are Tama Chan's children (Bao Ai's nephews) Ryoji, Shuji and Kenji. Last time I was in Japan Kenji was 2 months old and now he is three! I stay mainly with Bao Ai, her sister Pon Chan and her Mom, Mioko. It's so nice to see them.

Sung Oh was another one of our homestay who became a close friend. He stayed with us for a month one summer. He is from Korea, but living in Japan. He is having an interview for a new job in one of the big towers in the yokohama photos...Good Luck! He is in the photo with me and his friend Maiko on the couch with the cartoon character. Maiko hung out iwth us for a day in Tokyo and we had a great time and go along really well. She has spent many years living in Canada nad the US.

Numata san and her family are in the photo sitting at the kitchen table. I stayed with them and went to Numata San's Grade five class. In the photo is the Grandma, who taught me the Japanese phrase Dai jo bu...it's all good...and Numata San's nieces Sayuri and Nao. Numata San's daughter is Anri, the girl playing the drums. Her other daughter, Ayumi, is going to school in Korea, so i did not get to see her, but I met her in Vancouver a couple of years ago.

In the photo behind the flowers is Sakai San and Tachi. They are Sung Oh's friends from Toastmasters and I spent a lot of time with them. They were very kind and lots of fun. I spent the night at Sakai San's husband's office one night and met her family. I had some very interesting conversationa with her husband, but I don't have any photos of him. He is also and excellent guitar player and singer and he gave me a private concert. I met two of Sakai San's children, who were super nice nad cute (even though they were teenagers).

In the photo with five people, Kimuara San and his wife and son are on the left. They spent a day showing me around Tokyo and were excellent guides.

Thanks to everyone it japan it was awesome!

Yokohama

2006-05-10T03:08:00.000-07:00

I spent a couple of days exploring Yokohama on foot. Checking on Chinatown, the bay area, Sakuragicho and the parks. It's a beautiful city that is similar to Vancouver. The photos are of the area around the bay in Yokohama, just you you know what it looks like. I love the Ferris Wheel!

Tofu

2006-05-10T03:01:00.000-07:00

The Sakai Family treated Sung Oh and I to the most amazing tofu restaurant. I was set up to look like Kyoto and there were smaller rooms overlooking a beautiful Japanese garden as well as a main restaurant. It was about eight courses of different types of the most delocious tofu that I have ever tasted, prepared in many differnet ways. The presentation was amazing too...beautiful orchids on almost evey dish. It was so much fun and so much yummy. Thanks Sakai Family! the photos are the veiw of the garden from where we were eating and the Sake that came in a piece of fresh bamboo.

Tokyo

2006-05-10T02:51:00.000-07:00

Photos: (Top Left) Sake offered to the gods at Mejijingu (Top Right) Kabukicho, Tokyo red light district...complete with pet store??? (bottom Left) Fuji TV building in Odaiba (Bottom Right) A monk beating the drum at Mejijingu.

I spent three amazing days exploring Tokyo with Sung Oh and his friends...now my friends too I guess :-) On the first day we met with Sakai San and Tachi and we went to a temple called Katsushikashibamatataishakuten...apparently it's all one word, but I'm not so sure. Then we went on a boat criuise of the bay and saw alot of Tokyo from the water. We also took the Momorail and checked out the Odaiba area. The next day Sakai San and I met up with Sung Oh (I stayed the night at Sakai San's husband's office) and then we met up with some more of thier firends (Kimura San and his family). We saw a shrine (Mejijingu), NHK (one if the tv companies headquarters), went to the viewpoint at the top on Tokyo Tocho (the government buildings), saw the Emperors Palace and the Tokyo Tower...it was a busy day. A couple of days later Sung Oh and I returned to Tokyo with his friend Maiko where we went to the Fuji TV building, walked around Odaiba (and area with shopping malls and cool architecture), and wandered aroung some areas of Tokyo: Harajuku, Shibuya, Shinjuku and Kabukicho (the red light district). In Harajuku I saw some real Harajuku girls...cool, but I did not get a photo. I would really like to explore Tokyo some more, but next time I guess.

Izu Peninsula

2006-05-10T02:23:00.000-07:00

Late on Tuesday Bao ai and I met some of her friends for the an overnight trip to the Izu Peninsula (I have no idea where that is, but it was really nice). We arrived at about three in the morning to her friends cabin and slept till late the next morning. In the morning Bao ai we and picked some sweet peas and oranges at her frined's garden. He keeps bees so we saw them too. Then we spent most of the day at this amazing beach. We were the only people there, maybe because of the fact that we had to bushwack down a really steep slope to get there but it was woth it...and bushwacking is really fun anyways :-p The rock there was amazing I really wanted to climb, but I want to come home in one piece and climbing in middle of nowhere Japan could have caused some slight problems without the proper gear...so I was happy just to scramble over the rocks and listen to some music. We built a fire and had some hot chocolate. The guys went fishing (with a spear????) for some clams and sea cucumber for dinner...not eated by me the veggie though, although we collected some seaweed from the ocean that tasted really good in the miso soup at dinner. After dinner we drove back to Yokohama. It was short but super!
The photos are of Bao ai and I and the beach at Izu where we went.

Kamakura

2006-05-01T06:49:00.000-07:00

On Sunday I went to Kamakura with Sung Oh and two of his friends from Toastmasters. We visited many temples and went for a long, but easy hike (Dad did you know that there are hiking trails all around Kamakura that take you to all the attractions, for next time you go to Japan). There was this one place where you could wash your money and it is meant to make you rich...so we will see, I only washed 1000 yen ($10) so who knows. That is what I am doing in the photo. We also went to see the giant Budda. It was really cool, it is made out of copper and you can go inside, but the line was too long and I dont think it would have been too interesting. For dinner we went to this place with grills in the tables and had this type of Japanese pizza, but not really pizza at all. It was interesting...and surprisingly good. After leaving Sung Oh I, took the train out to Yokosuka, where I am now with the Numata family. There were these really drunk and loud Americans (soldiers) on the train who kept trying to talk to me and brag about thier tatoos so that train ride sucked, but if that is my only complaint all is good.

Around Yokohama

2006-05-01T06:30:00.000-07:00

On Saturday Bao ai and I walked around Yokohama. We started at her place and walked through some parks until we ended up in the really rich area where the international school is. They happened to be having a festival so we checked it out..they were selling kangaroo meat on a stick...too bad I am a veggie???? Then we went to the foregin cemetry, where I took the photo on the right of the Yokohama skyline. After we headed for Chinatown where we checked out the two temples, there is a new one since I was in Yokohama last time. The shrine in the photo on the left is from the newer temple. In China town we visited A Chan and Au Chan in their shop and I ended up with a few presents that I am going to try and squeeze in my bag...then we went to Bao ai`s clinic. Later that evening I met up with Sung Oh and we went to his friends daughters musical. I was really well done and I could understand it fairly well. That night I found my way back to Bao Ais house all by myself without any problems...YEY me.

Going To School in Yokosuka

2006-04-30T06:13:00.000-07:00

My first post!!!! YEY! So I arrived in Yokohama after eight hours of solatire on the airplane...I decided to play until I beat the computer and that was how long it took me...crazy, either I suck or the computer is too good...but it passed the time. I went striaght to visit the Numata family in Yokosuka. Mrs. Numata is a teacher in a public school and I got to vist her grade five class (that is them in the photo). On my first day in grade five, the students made me do all the work with them. I got a really good feeling about how difficult it must be to be an ESL student, but
I had lots of fun copying Japanese characters for the bean growing science experiment worksheet. The students were super friendly and so were the teachers. After school a group of girls came back to play cards with me. Then on Friday the whole school went on a field trip to the beach and then to a park. At the beach the students built some really great sand sculptures. At the park I ran around in a dense bamboo forset with a bunch of six year olds, which was quite the experience. I am back in Yokosuka for two more days after spending the weekend at Bao Ai`s place in Yokohama. Tomorrow and Tuesday I will go to school again, I am going to teache the grade one`s some songs.

2005-09-18T10:58:00.000-07:00

You must not be afraid to travel where there are no roads.
You must not give in to the darkness when there is no sign of light.
You must not be afraid to grow wings when you are tired of the ground.
You must not be afraid to swim when you are nothing but a stone.
If experience is the child born of risk, then acceptance is the old man born of dreams.

- Nancy Wood