Yet another Trip

Crete!

2009-06-06T05:52:00.000-07:00

Its a cross between being lazy and a lack of Internet access that has prevented me from writing about my trip for the last couple days. The hot hot Greece sun takes a lot of of me.

After a lazy day on the beach, we explored the National Archeology Museum in Athens. I pouted about not getting a guide for the museum. James and mom didn't really want one, but as it turned out there weren't any guides available when we arrived at 9:30am. So either groups got there early at 9 when it opened and stole all the guides or the guides all slept in. It was a Friday after all.

A short 3 hour bus took us to the small town of Delphi (pop. less than 3000). Man, we worry about everything all the time. We worry about being late for transport, about where to get off public buses, where to catch a bus, missing ferries or ... Its difficult not to worry and if one person starts we all start and that dominates the conversation. I hate being stressed out but it seems to happen more often that normal.

The adventure in Delphi was to hike from a cave about a 25min taxi away then hike back to the town. Delphi is a town located on the side of a cliff that over looks the olive groves and the Sea. Its is 600m above sea level and is surrounded by taller mountains. We hiked from 4.5hours home along a "so called well marked path"... It became a game looking for the metal red squares that marked the trail. The problem is that the path faded into the nature with no signs in view. We stressfully made our guesses.. one wrong turn took us through a farmer's field near a scary looking sheep herding dog and past used shot gun shells. Lucky after wandering for 20mins... we hit a semi major country vehicle path and magically a red square appeared. Being scared of being lost in the back country of Greece we decided to stay walking on the road, however a car full of European tourist insisted that path in the field was much more scenic and picturesque. We hadn't even noticed the path diverge from the road. Coincidences are important in the journey of traveling! This image is one of many amazing views from the hike that most tourist don't see. The effort and the soreness I feel still was so worth the experience.

Delphi is famous because it was the center of the ancient Greek world. A temple dedicated to Apollo was constructed in ancient times and a famous oracle told the future from inside the temple. This is what still stands about 500meters from our hostel.

Sanctuary of Athena. We never saw this structure from close up, only from the view points along the hike. If you use your imagination you can picture the beauty of this ancient building!!! Plus if u sit on the steps you can see the sea with a backdrop of mountains. I couldn't imagine a more beautiful place.
The map of Crete. A 5hr ferry ride on a ship fit for the Queen sailed us to the largest island in Greece and the most southern area of the country. We arrived in Iraklio which is the capital city and business center.

The Ferry pulled into the port just after 8. The city of Iraklio isn't as beautiful as some of the cities we will see but it is so different from Canadian cities.

This morning we travelled 20mins to the ancient palace of Knossos which was built twice thousands of years ago. It covers an area greater that 20, 000 squared meters with over 1200 rooms to house the royal family, upper society, and guards. The civilization was around a hundred thousand people. It was rebuilt twice and partially reconstructed in 20th century.

This is an image found in the palace which demonstrates a dangerous activity of bull jumping. People would wait for a bull to charge them in the court yard... grab its horns at the right moment and somersault over the bull. If the person miss judges the time then they often died. Apparently women and men preformed this activity.

This is where men would discuss their problems with the King. This room has completely been reconstructed by a British Archaeologist.

Riot Police out in full force

2009-06-02T11:51:00.000-07:00

So the hostel we are staying at is in a district called Omonia and in the central square of the area is where they are holding workers party rally. A couple of days ago there was a communist party rally too. June 7th is the european union elections so there is a lot of things going on. But the problem is that there are lots of police around. Which half makes me feel safe and half scares me. I had to walk by 20 riot police tonight to get to the hostel. Greek ppl J-walk all the time but as a respectful canadian I just couldn't do it in front of the police men, so i waited a ridiculous amount of time for the light to change with no cars in site.

So Funny story: I borrowed Bobby's water bottle because I couldn't find mine... The bottle made it to the Frankfurt airport before I thought I lost it. I swear it was in my hand when I went into the duty free stores to put make up on, and perfume... then when i was up stairs at the customs office I realized that I didn't have it anymore. I almost went back to look but I didn't want to risk losing mom and james or anything. So I just accepted that I am awesome at losing things and continued on (bobby I will bring u bad a greek bottle). So we had to go through a security check and my bag got targeted as a "problem bag". Not again. I had my scissors taken away in calgary by security. So I was like WHAT NOW. But the lady pulled on the lost water bottle and dumped it out... So the magic disappearing bottle was returned to me. I still haven't managed to lose anything yet. I have my passport and money and everything else.
I am so proud!!!

Today was a beach day. Took the metro to the center of the city, then the tram for an hour to a free beach on the coast. It wasn't bad... small pebble beach with cheap eats... chill for a couple hours then headed to a beach you have to pay for to enter at the end of the tram line (another 30mins away)... we paid 16.5 euro for 3 ppl to enter a beach at 4pm. Which is ridiculus... and we had to pay for chairs to sit in anothereuro each. Which seems high considering it cost 12 Euro to see all of athens ancient temples and structures. So thing isn't right there.

But we did have dinner for like nothing. Only 17 Euro for three ppl for dinner, wine and appys. The cheapest meal yet!!!! My mom orders sea bas last night which was more than
tonights dinner.

On the topic of money.. our budgets was too high. We haven't spent 100 euro a person per day yet so we lowered it to 75 euro a day.

I am not burnt and james is!!! so tanning before going was a good idea plus using sunscreen its a girlie thing it is smart... heheh James's neck looks like the canadian flag. Water was fairly clear and about 20 degrees. No bath tub warmth but ok for a large body of water.

Other than that.. it was a wicked relaxing day. pictures to come

2009-06-02T00:50:00.000-07:00

So James got himself in trouble! James has a thing for hats, so he bought a green hat with the logo of a northern greece soccer team and apparently to today there was an important game between the athens team (yellow) and the northern greek team (green). The green team smashed the athens team 2-0 and the travel agent that we were trying to book our ferry with told james he might get himself stabbed if he was caught with the cap on... so he had to buy a yellow one to support the area! The travel agent guy didn't tell james why he couldn't wear the hat but he figured it out on the train home from the port city... The only english words were THE END and a picture of the yellow team sad and the green team victories! Opps who knew that was going to happen.

Man last night was randomly awesome. We went to bed for a nap at 7pm til 10.. started the evening with a drink at the hostel (2euro for a beer and 1 for an ozoo shot), heading to a tourist area for dinner... i had mousaka (fab).. n when we were finished our meal we wanted the bill and they kept bring us free things like a fruit platter then ozoo on the rock etc... but they finally let us go. So at 1am I insisted having a piece of dessert. we found a restuarant in a different tourist area that had a view of the Acropolis unfortunitely my camera couldn't capture the beauty.

Thats all from me today... We were suppost to go to the beach today but James is still a sleep and its 11am... so its jumping on him time now!!!!

Greece!!!!

2009-06-01T11:30:00.000-07:00

Hi from Greece.

I am bad at giving an interesting story so I am sorry now. I made it to Greece with no problems. i have all my bags, made all my connection and there was food on each lag of the journey. We even arrived early to the airport to ensure that we were getting on the plane. No sleep thou on thge journey. I pulled an all nighter on the friday before I left so I would sleep on the plane but no luck. The result was a very very very tired alish when we arrived.

My fav thing: Tzahiki and bread soooo yummy I love it
The weather is warm... not of this snow and cold winds from the rockys
Tried to go to the acropolis early in the day to avoid the strongest rays of the sun but somehow we didn't arrive at the entrance til noon... so not my fault, there is just ppl, stories and metro stations to look at!

We went hard today - lots of walking and lots of sights... at 4 we decided to get a beer and man i was sort of drunk after. The combination of sun, not alot of food and a large beer = tired and unsteady alisha. Pictures to come.

I found the most interesting pottery aty the Ancient Angore... it was a child's training potty. I have seen alot of pottery in many countries but I have never seen a potty made of clay before.

Ps. They serve their feta in a greek salad as a large chunk instead of crumbled in the salad. I love food did I mention that yet!

Ps. Amy there is only one place to meet. I will be with the crowd of taxi drivers holding names!

Ps. I got nothing

Melbourne life is keeping me busy

2007-03-11T18:38:00.000-07:00

I have been spending alot of time with this Australia chick that lived in Singapor for 4 years. We meet the first week of o-week on a bus on the way to a pub crawl, but last week she took me to my first inner city club on thursday... didn't drink but danced lots. Friday night went to a place called 3-D. I thought i could dance, but wow the guys in Melbourne have the moves. There is a dance unique to the city of Melbourne. The melbourne shoveful? I am going to try to learn it. :P
My friend works as a manage of a posh movie theatre in the western surburbs of Mel.. so i tagged along for a few hours. Got to see 2 movies and a half, free popcorn, drinks, a beer and an icecream. It was the best work shift I have ever been too. :P
I dont have class wed-sun... so I have to keep my self busy u know. I am keeping up in classes, doing the readings too.
On sunday I went to a electronic music festival in the city. 30 000 thousand ppl 6 stages and lots of good times. There is always going on.
I am going to take it easy this b-day week, sort of. I am going out of the city with the out door club to do some rock climbing, bush walking and kayaking hopefully.
I am NOT drinking green beer on St' Patties day,but I am going to make up for it on wed and thurs. College drinking nights :P
I am staying out of trouble most of the times.

Future music acts

Carl Cox, Ferry corsten, DJ falcon, the egg, Infusion, Princess Superstar, TV rock, sebastien Leger, chris lake, and others more

I dont know what to write

2007-02-21T20:59:00.000-08:00

I am enjoying the res lifestyle so far.

Pub crawls, hall partys, games, drinking, sociallizing, registering for classes, getting student cards, concession tickets.

I was thinking about writing lots... but i am a little lazy. Email me and I will get back to u

Alisha.

Uni - taking english, economics, law, womens study.

Alive in Oz

2007-02-18T17:46:00.001-08:00

I made it to Uni in Melbourne.

Danced in the rain last night under the star with lots of other drunk ppl.

Good times and they are just starting

Me in australia with mom and Gordon

2007-02-09T14:44:00.000-08:00

We are starting this backwards, about the 5 day in to my trip in Australia and working the way to the first day.

I have discover hanging out with my parent has made me more of a kid b/c I have to entertain myself more. They are very lay back and enjoy reading and walking. I need a little more to keep me satisfied. So i have taken up swinging in jungle tree and teaching myself the basics to fire twirling. I turned a part of socks, balloon and a little sand in to practice fire twirling thingies. I am getting good, now I just need to find the really things and a party to play with them at.

In Australia the nearest and most touristy mountains are the blue mountains which are known for the eucalyptus forests that radiate a blue haze. I am trying to jump of the side, but my mom thinks its unsafe. I wouldn't actually jump, but its fun to bug her.

See theses flip flops. I can go anywhere in them. I have been wearing them everyday for the last 3 months. I am going to be heart broken when they break.

My forest walk. Gordon is looking at birds... I am practicing my fire twirling while walking. Its more difficult than it looks dude. Really it is.

I am enjoyed the sites of nature, the birds, and I have even seen a couple Kangaroos. People are friendly and helpful. I am learning about DROP BEARS, and the Kangaroos express land on the Sydney harbour bridge.

Can you believe that this area in the pic had been part of a massive forest fire during Christmas time

This hat bring me good luck. I got a random women in the central park coming up and asking if i was from Toronto while I was writing in my journal in the rose garden. I almost forgot what the hat said. :P

I wore the wrong skirt to climb the harbour bridge. It was a little windy and my skirt wouldn't stay down.

A not of the view.. wow it was amazing. Sydney is a city of over 4 million people and numerous harbour areas. Building and beaches everywhere.

Strange signs they have in Australia. They legs are allowed to continues, but what about ur body. I can't figure it out?

At the Australian museum... I learnt about Australian cultural and history. I met a guy really funny guy that didn't talk much, but he was kind enough to join me for a photo. his name was George, a skinny fella.

It was a well done museum with bird, interactive areas for the "kids", skeletons of Australian animals, pretty gems and stones, and a section of natives.

Water fountains, they are everywhere. some times warm, sometimes freezing... I love it.

Look look I am more tanned then my mom. I wonder why really I do

Sydney Opera house... I have now seen it... I didn't go inside thou... to fancy for a backpacker and family. Sydney is beautiful. I want to move to Australia. Everything I seen and experience has been positive.

I am giving directions to Gordon in Sydney's Harbour. I wanted to go the carnival park across the water.... but no :(.

I am just a big little kids I swear.

I am staying out of trouble with my parents here in Australia. We have seen the coast Kiama, Sydney, the blue mountains and we are now currently in Canberra for distant relatives.

I will updates u with stories when I have more times.

G'day mate

Long time with good reason

2007-02-05T00:50:00.001-08:00

Ok Ok it has been a whole week or so since my last entry, but with good reason. I have been too busy with life and there has been a lack of computers.

After I left the internet cafe (last entry) I walked to the night market for dinner and ended out meeting an English chick, Olivia and a Aussie, Tommy on a street corner. I am thankful for Olivia asking me a stupid question. A little dinner, then a cocktail bar with 40baht (1.20$) cocktails. That has to be the cheapest I have seen cocktails. No much alcohol in them but I tryed a whole array of weird named drinks, while getting to know my new friends. Frozen green spider, Fun furry summer, etc. It was that night I decided to head to Ko Phayam (on the west coast just south of Rangon, thailand and Burma. I even convinced Liv and tommy to join me.

It was crazy crazy the last hour before the ferry left. I almost forgot that I needed more cash because Ko Phayam in a relatively undeveloped island. No ATM and no 7-11's. YAYAYa. A crazy weird Thai guy on a moto drove me madly around town finishing all my random tasks. But I did make it to the ferry on time.

More Canadian... they are everywhere. This time they were 3 chicks from Toronto area, Jesse, Erin, and Sarah. The were awesome. The 6 of us all just wanted to have a little fun and party it up. My last 4 days on on the beach were filled with a little of this and a little of that. I ran into the best people possible.

The beach was beautiful, good waves ( Tommy taught me to body surf), played poker, shithead and lots of backgammom. Aleaf a thai guy that worked at the resort was super funny and joined us to party.

It was a blast, I don't know how else to describe it.

I was having too much fun.. I accidently stayed for an each day. :P

I didn't leave much time for Bangkok... again I ran around like a crazy person... doing last minutes shopping and of course meeting new friends.

A German chick was heading home the say day as me but taking different buses from Rayong to Bangkok... but we met up to shop together.

On my cheap local bus I meet a hippie guy that was just leaving the Rainbow gathering (hippie natural thing) and an english bloke that ended up annoyed the hell out of me. But we were the only westerns on the bus so of course we became friends.

The bus friends joined to wait from the German chick. We quitely began a group of 5, because an american girl was lost and we still had time to kill so we helped he out. I wasn't alone at all the day. My last day was again random...

We all got lost in china town, juggled in a park with hippies, then a trip to the bar ended in a street dance party followed by a pub crawl.

Really I was planning on going to bed early... really I was.

There is more...

I managed to make it to my flight and GET on it. No being stuck in a forgien country this time, althought I am still in a forgien country, just a different one.

Aussie Aussie Aussie.

I will write about that later.

G'day Mate

Long time with good reason

2007-02-05T00:50:00.000-08:00

Thailand one minute Burma the next

2007-01-25T04:18:00.000-08:00

I arrive I left and now I am back.

I managed to figure out the bus system here in Ranong, Thailand, only thanks to a moto driver. They are smart men that speak English. I was trying to get from my guest house to the central market but I was on the wrong side of the road :P Then found a bus to the pier...I was a little scared I got on the wrong one... guess what I did. I wanted to go the private pier.. instead i was going to the public one. I arrived to immigration 5 mins before the departure side closed... I was thrown on a motorcycle taken to the pier and was on a bus to Burma before I could say a word. It happens to fast. Ok I made it to Burma thanks to the little Thai boy that stopped me from falling in the water... he even held my hand to the Burma immigration. Burma from the pier look the say as Thailand. Next time i while have to had a longer look.

Looks like I maybe heading to an island near here Ko Phanyam for the last couple days. Its another quiet island with only a few tourist... its close and I just need to catch a few sun rays before being thrown into the massive city of Bangkok.

Bye Bye

Alisha

Its 4 days later and my visa has RUN out

2007-01-25T03:49:00.000-08:00

Truthfully it doesn't actually run out until tomorrow but I definitely wanted to renew it the day before just encase something didn't go as planned... things rarely do when I am involved.

The city center park in Nakhom Si Tammarath

I had enough of tours and tourist so when I ended up in Nakhom Si Tammarath I was happy,but surprised to find myself in a town with no white faces. There were no tourist information offices selling tours... nothing... and I found the town amazing. After I left the Internet gaming place filled with little Thia ppl trying to read my email and looking for my shoulder.. They thought I was the most amazing thing, I feel so out of place. But its a good weird thing. People all smile and say hi. I know i have said that before but there are.

I past the famous Wat (temple) in the area and I am not sure what was going on exactly but there were 5 contains on fire people sitting on benches on 2 sides, there was singing, lots of monks and nuns. Everything was in Thai... some ceremony. I will have to try and look it up online. It was a cool sight.

I feel rude entering Wats where Thai monks live... i never know if its ok for a women to be there or how close I can get to the their buildings. I didn't get any overly strange looks so i think i was ok exploring.

Dinner... that evening was treat and random. I know I know I need a new word. I decided to check out the recommend restaurants in lonely planet because I thought it would be the best place to run in to some western travels. I needed a real conversation.

I found a lone other white guy that looked to have just finished a meal. I broken the silent first moment, asking how the food was.. then got invited to join him. He was definitely no the most interesting person I have met, but he was full of information about trains and buses. He was a quite one teaching English here of all places... it wasn't until he left to use the toilet... (they don't say bathroom here... only toilet) that the night became interesting and random. Another other white guy in his 50's say down alone behind us. I dropped the line... hows the book. I can't help talking to everyone. Paul ended up joining my table... Greg got back... Paul made an off based comment bout how Ko Samui was a peacefully island before the Tsunami... Greg argued... and shortly leave due to "early classes".

I was glad thou... Paul gave me a "free" psych session after confusing the hell out of me with topics ranging from life after death to the bodies lack of ability to improve after a certain level of achievement. He asked a free questions that i could answer about myself... and gave me lots to think about. It was an enlightening travel experience that I needed.

Ok... I am not the smartest person in the world sometimes... when travelling there are so many decisions to make, you can't help but make so bad ones. I took the train the next day to Suratthani... should have taken the bus would have saved me a 100baht moto ride, 1hour of my life, but it did save me from deciding to go stay at the whore hotel in the area. Lonely planet recommender the hotel 3 years ago... but taxi guy first wouldn't take me... then said i could look and if i didn't like he would take me to a different one. He was right... sometimes the motos are looking out for me.
The Budha on the small hill top forested Wat near Chaiya
Surat thani is a city like any other.. a few tourist stopping shortly before going to the island... lots of shopping and people are friendly to tourist because they don't see to many of us. I was only staying there is too a near by town called Chaiya.. has a couple Wats and local areas of interest. GUESS WHAT... after a 2 hour adventure to get there.... and a little walk in the forest... I ENDED UP PAINTING IN A FOREST MONESTARY WITH A COUPLE Monks . I can't i do that every day... paint with monks in Thailand. Apparently is normally for kids but he made an exception :P It made my day.

Nathom Si Thammarat

2007-01-22T01:36:00.000-08:00

Ok... so i stayed in Krabi for 10 days.. the longest time I have stayed anywhere since Canada. This morning I have officially decided I was leaving :(. I needed to see a little more Thailand. The problem was I couldn't decide where to go. I didn't want to see another beach... I wanted a little more culture.

To make things simple, enjoyed the last of my morning in Krabi town then took the local bus to the bus station 4km outside of town. The local bus tuktuk guy try to charge me double... i am smarter than that, but its funny for the Korean women that were in the bus with me did pay the asked price. My lady at the guesthouse advised me on the REAL price. I miss that women already.

Being random as I am... I decided to not make a decision and just take the bus leaving the bus station first. So here I am in Nathom Si Thammarat. Its a east coast city, where not many people speak English, but they are AMAZINGLY friendly. I tried to go to the National Museum but that is closed Monday and Tuesday and apparently today is Monday. But when I tried to walk around the build a sweet Thai lady stopped me and invited me into her office. I now have more tourist info that I need. :P She did speak excellent English and was so cute. I now had a little time to waste so i am in the process of walking back to the center of town. On the way... I passed a school where I copied 3 young girl in getting bubble tea for 5 baht. They were sooo amused by the crazy white women. And about 5 mins later 2 different school aged girls separately grabbed my hand and shook it. One kissed my hand too. It put the biggest smile on my face. Wow. And everyone I see smiles... some say hi or Sawidee(ka/Krap). It could be the fact that I haven't yet seen a western person. They are all the smart ppl at the beach... I just have to be the crazy one that is trying to be different. So I am going to chill tonight and tomorrow then I have to head north. My visa runs out in 4 days.

Later

2007-01-18T22:46:00.000-08:00

The day before I started my rockclimbing course.. I was set on another day of beaches. The nearest beach is called Ao Nang. Its a tourist resort area...thats why I am not staying there, but it is fun touring the area. Look What I found. Its the middle of Jan and christmas trees are everywhere. I guess they didn't get the notice that christmas decoration come down after new years... or its because we are on Thailand time.

The first day was a day of relearning belaying techniques and working my way up the mountain. I made it up all that I tried. Ya ya we were doing the easiest routes but thats besides the point. I love rockclimbing. Thats all I have to say I am going to say it again and again. I forgot about climbing... uni took up too much time.

My fast asleep climbing partner. This 28 year old doc could keep up with my 20 year old energy. :) So times I don't mind being the babe traveller. He did try to keep up.

As strange as it looks, I was climbing up without the rock. It was tough, I don't have a lot of upper body strength. Basically there is a special knot on the rope and a strap is attached to it. I stand on the strap and use one arm to help and with the other hand i pull the red rope. So i slowly move up. Then I move the knot up the rope and try again and again. It definitly worked me up into a sweat.

After a while, you need a brake. I was having fun hanging around. :P
The area I was playing in, is right on East Railey beach and there were about 20 other ppl climbing around me... I was the crazy one chilling, hanging out literally. I was putting on a little show for everyone waiting their turn to climb. I am don't have great climbing technic, but I will work on that.

This is Tick, my thai guide. I met his western girlfriend on my second day of climbing. As it turns out most of the thai guys teaching here have foreign girl friends. Railey is an area that climbers come and stay for months on end. I now see why. One day I will come back... after I practice my skills.

Along this lead climbing, top rope climbing, I have tried my hand in repelling. So when I go back to UofC I can repell from the top to the bottom instead ofclimbing the the ladder.

It was alittle scarying repelling for my first time, but i made it down with everything still attached.

Today is the rest day.. and my body needs it. Every muscle is soar. Even typing hurts.

I have found a sport I definitly love with a passion.

Thoughts I have been having

2007-01-17T05:25:00.000-08:00

American make me think. I was a little naive about their culture(s). I lumped all Americans into one category and that is like trying to stay all Canadians are the same. A couple of nights again, I was eat at Krabi's nightly outdoor food market (cheap yummies) alone and I ended up talking to an American married couple in their late twenties. I have gotten in the habit of asking Americans why, when asked where they are from do they always say the state they are from, not the country. No one, from any other country does that. That question started the debate on Americans stereotypes. Most American hate Americans (I am speaking about travelling American, they are the unique ones, 300million Americans and I have only met a hand full) and don't agree with the Bush War or the think that the States is the center of the world. People get the wrong impression about countries because ppl only remember the loud and annoying people and that clouds overall impression of the countries ppl haven't visited. I am trying to see the world for what it is... full of unique amazing people that could teach me something if given the time.

I have lots of theories. I am currently trying to figure out why I meet mostly guys, and guys mostly meet women. I don't think it comes down to "opposites attract". I really should write down everyone's response to the question, because each and every person has something different to say. My theory is that I find girls to be more judgement initially, where guys immediately accept you and couples... their another story all together. A couple guys I met in the bar ( the ones I played connect 4 with) said that they meet more chicks because of the macho thing. The topic could be an interesting research topic in the future.... for the research I would have to continue traveling the world.

To contract that previous rant. I did end up having dinner with brother and sister and bro's gf at the night market last night. It was the 29 year old raving nurse, Dawn from London that asked to join me. Everything that happens traveling is random. Its the best word for it. James if you are reading this... I can't wait t travel a little with you...

My thoughts are all over the place. I have been in Krabi for what almost a week now... and I don't want to leave because of the women that runs the guesthouse, JollyJumper... she is becoming my second mom, or my mom away from home. She has helped me find my way around the town, told me the place and cheapest places to munch. She doesn't charge me half of what she should for the Internet and got me a discount on my rock climbing course (saving me 35$ or 1000baht). I see her many times a day and she always has a smile for me. Don't worry mom... still missing you and look forward to Aussie soon.

Now what have I been up to other than making theories. Yesterday, I was planning on starting my 3 day rock climbing course, but because I stayed out too late with the Americans having a few cheap beers... I had a lazy day... took the local bus the 24km to the beach town Ao Nang (its one big tourist area... like banff in many ways) Napped, swam, hiked over the little mountain to the isolated resort on the next beach... I even wandered around the town. I may have accidentally ended up at McDonalds for an ice cream cone. Its not my fault... it was the dude's fault, I saw him walking down the street with on. A day is the over tourist town made me glad I followed Jazz's suggestion to say in Krabi town. It has cheaper guesthouses, excellent cheap food and I still can see Thai culture. The lazy day was supposed to ended with an innocent trip to the night market for dinner but I met a cool group of English ppl and I had a couple of beers with them. I even meet up with the 2 English blokes, Simon and Luke and the Aussie, Greg for the second time.

TODAY.... I am SO giddy about. I started my rock climbing course.... I forgot that I loved climbing this much. I still have this funny little smile on my face. My partner was a Finish Doctor and our guide Tick was an entertaining Thai guy that made life interesting. I am officially soar and looking forward to doing it again tomorrow, but without the doctor. My guide has offered to take me climbing again after the course if stay in Krabi a couple more days. We will see.

I will post a couple pics tomorrow.
Cheers...
leave a comment

The last couple days

2007-01-15T18:16:00.000-08:00

As I said before I ended up actaully going to the bar by myself... but I ended up playing a few, more like lots and lots of connect four. It was a serious game... very intense don't you know

Because I stayed out until 3am at the bar, I love not being kicked out at midnight like in Vietnam. Here the bar stays open until we leave. Any ways I was planning on hiking the 1237 step to the top of a near by mountain in the morning.. instead i slept until 1pm... I had to wait until late afternoon, 3ish to actaully go. I was proud, I took the local bus all the way there. It funny because normally the bus doesn't go there but the driver didn't want me, a single 20 year waiting at the main road so he drove me all the way there. I hiked the footpath to enlightenment wih 2 thai childern. They were a little crazy, but then again aren't we all? The steps were somewhat easier than the ones to Machu Picchu and about 500 less. The view was stunning. Mountains to the west, farmers to the north, a river to the east and a little bit of everything to the south.

The view of the mountains to the west. If it had been a clear day, you can see all the way to Ko Phi Phi, the place where they filmed the beach.

Yesterday I saw the sea once again. I took a 4 island hopping tour. Tup Island sand banks ( did a little snorkeling and sun tanning), Chicken island (just took a pic of it), an unnamed island near chicken island for AMAZING snorkeling. There was easily 10-15meters of visiblity. I saw my first sea snake, thousands of fish and different types of coral. I should have bought an underwater camera. And the third island was Poda Island for a luittle lunch and sun burning time. There was beautiful sand there. But the last stop at PhraNang Cave, I ran into the guys i first snorkeled with on the first island and jumped ships to chill with them. We were all going to go for a beer after.. but we all lived in different directions. Back to the sand on the last place, it was best. It felt like standing on cool wip.

I saw a pirate ship :P

It isn't always cloudy here. It was the perfect day on the perfect beach.

I am going rockclimbing tomorrow :P

Randomness

2007-01-13T20:04:00.000-08:00

I had lots of random facts about life in Thailand, but as soon as I sat down, I forgot them.

The people I remember travelling are the people that are more that the hi, where are you from, and where had you been people. And last night I met a person I will never forget. I went the bar for a beer by myself for the first time in 3 months. After about 5 mins of football (soccer for those at home) I started writing post cards. And his Aussia, Greg came up asking if I needed help with some idea about what to write. On my fourth card a ran out of ideas. I just I looked confused. But that started the most random night and beer, bad games of pool, connect 4 and many many random conversations. I chilled with 2 germans, 2 english and an aussia. I am happy to say I enjoy the random evening.

On that note... It is only after I cam traveling that I realized that I don't like being by myself, I am too much of a social person. I have a hard time taking risks when I am alone, It took me 3months to start to enjoy my own company. Its not hard to make friends is just I am tired of saying good bye to everyone I meet. I have stopped asking names because they dont seen relivent.. althou I still do occationally because is socially normal.

Thai ppl are crazy. They are the most amazing people with memories that are perfect. People get on the bus, and off and they ticket guy always knows where everyone is. Waitress know wat you order without writing it down, and when they bring the bill its always right. I can change seats and they still get it right. I love it.

When I remember some more facts I will let you know

Krabi

2007-01-13T03:21:00.000-08:00

I just finished a kayaking river tour of the near by caves. My god the mountains are amazing here... very similar to the ones in Vang Vieng, Laos, and Halong Bay, Vietnam. It is strange how the same forms are appearing in completely different areas of SE Asia. I needed to do some physical activities. I was getting a little lazy. I was in a smaller group of 6, but the other 5 were older. It was a more serious tour, but very the less still amazing. I don't understand, but the tours here are double the price there were in Laos. Caves were coolers thou.

Me and Remy chillin in the cave... Remy and his dad are traveling Thailand for 2 weeks. He was from Winnipeg. Is there anyone left from Canada?

I am travelling alone.. so I have a little extra time one my hands... so you are getting pics. For all you that worry about me... no drinking... I am not an Alcoholic as you all may think. Really I am not.

For the second cave... we had to climb a little.. in to a cave called skull Cave and this is the view from the upper opening. There were cave drawing from 3000 years ago. Really I just think that they tell the tourist that and in the evening they add new ones.

I am entering Paradise Lagoon... its not really a Paradise... but it will do for today. If you dug up the mud and made the lagoon deeper and added sand to the muddy beaches... it would have potential.

I love the caves... anyone interesting in turning a cave into a home... just think you could live with bats and spiders and monkeys

It was kids day today, like mothers day or fathers day... but for the kids. So the quite river area was actually an area full of noise of laughing kids. It was a sight. It wasn't over hot so I didn't join the kids... I did a little nature walk.. and by little I meet like... only 700m.

They were some crazy thai teens... tell me that thailand is number 1.

2007-01-11T22:36:00.000-08:00

Beach Party at the Lotus Bar

Sariee Beach on Ko Tao

Snorkeling on a rainy day

The best sunset in the week that I was there

The view of the only 3 island connected by coral reefs in the National Park near Ko Tao

I was planning on leaving the Island after only 2 days of chillin here. The first day I couldn't find a room, the second day rained and rained and on the third day, the night I was going to catch the ferry back to the main land... a room opened up at a sweet guesthouse in town, a meet a new kiwi chic, and we party with some american we ended up meeting at the bar. Its afunny story. Me and Fern (kiwi chic) had a good western meal at Choppers, the Aussie bar on the island... we decided it was going to b an early night because of the rain. So we paid our bill and were planning on leaving, but in the time between we asked for the bill and actually left... it started raining buckets again. We were staying at the bar. We 2 american joined our table. From that moment on it was a bar hopping evening (when it wasn't raining) a little game.

I am in Krabi town... going to look for a post office and lunch

Later all

2007-01-10T19:41:00.000-08:00

FULLMOON PARTY on Koh Phangan Jan 2007. It was a shit show. I was still sick from New Year's party... so it was a night of drinking lots of water and dancing my ass off. I headed to the party of 20000 ppl with 14 friends and we managed to stick together until 3am. After that ppl starting heading home or hitting up their favourite music at the various bars along the beach. I found some good junlg beat and danced with 3 of the original 14 and a couple randoms that ended up on their own. Travelling about making friends.
Ok tonight I am taking the night ferry off this Island. I can't take any more sun tanning. I am actually missing home and all my friends. Its weird... if I am not busy, it seems that I wait to head home. I don't have a problem meeting people, thats the easy part.... but I only spend a couple days to a couple days with them. Its getting hard... but then again travelling isn't supposed to be all fun and games. Its an adventure to become a bigger and better person I guess.

Ban Tai Beach is where I stayed while I was living on the Island, at Mac's Bay Resort. It was an awesome place with amazing ppl and great staff. I would totally recomment it to anyone. And it was only 20mins from the main party area. I felt like I was in the middle of no where, but still apart of it all.

Jan 2. I needed to get off the beach. I am not used to all this laying around and chillin. So I met up with some sydney chics and they were going hiking...so I joined in. We hike what was called the green dot trail. It was literally just a barely minimal trail that we almost lost a couple times. But The end point was worth the sweat of hiking over the mountain, while little hill. It was the start of my detoxing days.

The picture lies a little. There were lots of ppl of the beach.

Ko Tao

2007-01-08T21:31:00.000-08:00

I am living the easy island lifestyle in the rain. Its not much fun when all there is too do it swim, snorkle, diving, and sun tanning. Yesterday was nice and sunny so its time to move on to something more cultural. Museums, art shows, and I starting the traveling life again. The vacation mode made me lazy.

The internet is too slow to add pics.

New Years, the full moon party and the days in between were a blast because there was a good group of group around and lots of randomness.

I drank a little beer, lots of water, went hiking, swimming, on a jeep trip.

There isn't much thai culture here... just a lot of falang ppl over taking hte natural beauty.

Sapa pics

2007-01-02T18:17:00.000-08:00

Sapa. Me and the rice fields in Northern Vietnam

Me, Danisa (Swed) and a chick from South Korean all wearing cool natural crowns that our guide made us while walking in Sapa.

I spent a lot of time with Denisa in Sapa. We even had a tour from this wonerfully Local women. We bought a bag from here and a city tour came with it.

Christmas Eve... first cocktail in a long time, a nice change from beer. They both weren't mine... I swear. I was still chillin with Denisa.

People... traveling is about the ppl you met

2006-12-31T01:19:00.000-08:00

I am chilling with a kick ass group of ppl from Kelowna, Canada and a rowdy group from Sydney, Australia here in Koh Phangan. Everyone I have been meeting is staying around on the island for the next week... its prefect I may not leave. We will see.

It feels like Vietnam was such a long time ago and really it was only 4 days ago. Maybe it has something to do with ditching the watch and spending my time eating when I am hungery, swimming when I am hot and napping in the sun.

Its new years eve tonight... Seafood buffet starting at 7:30, then we'll grab a truck to the party city thats 20 mins away and I am going to dance all night long.

Last night was the first time I left our little beach area, we headed into town to check out the beach partys... And it is the place to party, but the city is just another city with a dirty beach. I am soo happy we are staying out of the over touristy area. There is the beach, and 7-11 is only a 5 min walk. I am loading up on the junk food.

Cheers.

Happy New years

Hanoi and Sapa

2006-12-25T02:02:00.000-08:00

Its Christmas Day and I am going for a large buffet at a hotel like the Hilton. It is going to be a little expensive but Christmas only comes once a year and I have a craving for turkey. And its my first Christmas away from home.

To add on to the last entry. I decided to go to Sapa first, spend Christmas in Hanoi, then to Halong Bay after Christmas.

At the early hour of 6:30 my night bus arrived to the outskirts of the massive city, Hanoi. The only way to get to the backpackers/tourist area was agree to see the hotel that the bus company wanted to bring us too. It was a hotel that was above my budget... but I decided to just say I wanted to stay and then when we arrived I just walked the other way. I only wanted a cheap dorm bed so I could sleep for a few more hours, I was leaving that evening on a night train to Sapa. For 3$ I got to sleep until 1pm and have a hot hot shower. It wasn't too bad. In the afternoon when I was checking my email, Jazz (my Canadian travel chick from Home) was online and happened to be in the same city, just down the street. I dropped by and had dinner with 2 familiar faces and finished the evening off with 15cent beers. Draft beer on the street is only 2000Dong.

The night train to Sapa wasn't the nicest train I have seen but I did get a hell of a lot more sleep than I did on the night bus on the previous evening. I was a happier person. Its funny I really thought the train went all the way to the mountainous town of Sapa, but in reality it only took us to the base of the mountains, so at 5:30am me and 12 other sleepy travellers were shovelled on to a tiny tiny mini bus for another hour.

Sapa was cold, but dude it was beautiful. It was unreal. They were mountain slopes with ruice fields, local tradition people selluing ur goods and really I just can't describe it.

Maybe later

Too lazy. I just spend ovwer 24 vhours getting to Koh Phangan

I am ready to relax

2006-12-25T02:01:00.000-08:00

Hey hey.Its Christmas.
Just for a recap... starting from the beginning of vietnam.
I was in Ho Chi min city for 4 days and did the tourist thing... saw museums, the cuchi tunnels, a temple ceremony and ate lots of sushi and bonded with my new American Friends, Matt and John. I ended up traveling with them for 2.5 weeks.

Mui Ne was a beach town. Partied and sand sledded, swam, saw sand dunes, a red canyon. The boys tried to surf but it wasn't the water for surfing. It was very funny trying to carry a surf board on a motorbike for 20mins. Scary in a way too. I just enjoyed seeing the ocean. I love water.

Dalat was a mountainous town, colder. I had to wear a jacket. Me and the 2 american rented motorbikes and toured the area. Saw 2 waterfalls, a chicken village, lots of villager ppl, walking down a hiking path. We ate good, excellent western food. Had a grandmother special, mash potatoes, gravy, pork roast and veggies. We even stayed in a guesthouse with a tv, hot water, good beds for 9$ total. I started my tea kick again in Dalat. I drank lots and lots of tea. Mango tea, vietnamese tea, lipton tea... all kinds and I can't stop, tea is just sooo good.

Next Nha Trang. Beach town. We arrived at 2 in the afternoon to a cloudy sky. I really wanted a beach day :(. Instead we walked down the beach and ran in to friends from Mui Ne. Spent the afternoon drinking tea at a beach resort. Amazing dinner with 2 of the english chicks... bbq vietnamese food. Nha Trang is a town with a nightlife, when we met some NZ and aussia guys. I was really glad to hangout with some new ppl. I was getting tired with the american boys. The more I play pool the worst I get it seams. At this bar call Zippo... the english man that owned the bar, Crazy Rich, sang... and beer was on happy hour prices. A good night... which was followed by a excellent boat tour the next day. It is more of a party boat ride rather than the typically sightseeing tour. I met an awesome vancouver boy, who was on exchange in bangkok from sept to dec. I may see him again down south. There was a little drinking (i don't drink every night, just everyother town), a little swimming, snorkling, beach volleyball, a little more drinking, singing and dancing. We ran in to the NZ boys again. After a good sushi dinner we headed for an over night bus to Hoi An. I was stuck beside John who was drunk beyond drunk and drugged up on Valium and man does he snore.

Hoi An is a shoppiong town. There are tailors, and art stores and shops every where in old town. I had some clothes tailor made. A nice jacket (which I need in northern vietnams winter weather), 2 skirts, 2 tanks, one dress all for 50$. I need to email grandma knox/seller and tell them what I bought for me with their money. Every time I do laundry I only get half of what I sent in so I did actually need some clothing. I have lost 2 pairs of socks, 3 tanks, 5 undies. I didn't see much of Hoi An other that the french architecture of old town because it rained and rained and rained. I feel like I am back on the island in spring time.

Played lots of pool at night, saw my swedish girls from Cambodia, watched some news and a movie (rained alot). But me and Matt did the walking tour of town in the rain while John shopped too much.

I left Matt and John, my american buddies on the third day there. I needed to move on because my flight was only in 12 days away and I still had too much to see. I took an afternoon bus to Hue, but it wasn't until halfway there that I realized that I left my passport at the hotel in Hoi An. I just paid matt the money for the room b/c they were staying another night. I called the hotel and they promised to sent my passport to hue to their travel agent on the first bus of the morning. So I wasn't too worried, yet.

It was a good evening in the city. I found my way from my hotel to the backpackers area, only about a 20minutes walk with out a map. The moto drivers were annoying and always asked me if i needed a ride, but they did direct me in the right direction. I normally always bring my vietnam book, but not this time. I was planning on having a good meal and a single beer and calling it an early night, but I ran into 2 french guys I'd met in Hoi An. I need to learn french again. Played more pool with 2 irish guys because the french ppl were having a french discussion. I was home by 10:30.

Guess what. I walked the 15mins home from the bar in the dark by myself. I was a little scared because the city is full of rats and mice. I nearly decided to take a moto after one ran over my foot. But it wasn't too far.

I did a city tour in Hue. Saw some cultural things, 3 tombs of past kings. I learnt that there were 13 kings that ruled over vietnam. The monarchy fell in 1945. I saw incence made and the cone hats the vietnamese ppl wear. Ate a good meal... then set off for the citadel. It rained all day, and was so cold. I wore my fleece and my jacket, but I had wore capris. It wasn't a good day... feeling like winter more and more.We arrived back to the main city at 4:30, which left me 1 hour to pick up my passport, get my back and make it to the place to catch my bus. Which would have worked if... my passport had arrived. I had to call the hotel, they told me that my passport wasn't there in Hoi An and that it should have arrived in Hue already. There was another bus coming at 5... so maybe it was on that bus. I was hoping. That bus came and went too. The lady was so helpful and patient with me. She helped me change my bus ticket to the next day leaving me time to find my passport.

My next hope was that the american boys picked up my passport when they left the hotel. I was crossing my fingers b/c if that wasn't the cases... I would have been screwed. With the open bus tours you buy... the companies take you to set hotels. I was hoping to find them at that hotel, because we were usually lazy... and the hotels are very nice and prices reasonably, except in this city. I was directed to 3 different hotels with not luck. It was 6:30-7ish now... I decided to find a guesthouse to stay at that was cheap and close to backpacker land and the bars... I was going to get drunk ( i was in a very mad mood, I felt soo stupid). My book has cheap one listed, 3$ a night and it wasn't full. I emailed the boys and told them what bar I was going to... and I was hoping I would run in to them. And I tryed myspace.com too. No luck. Bar time.

This is were the story turns around. I am lucky. I was heading for a bar called "Why not Bar". It was 3 blocks from my hotel. On the way I was checking restuarants for my friends. I walked by the first one on the last block and saw blond hair and kept walking. But then I did the double take and looking in the bar again. Guess who i found. Matt was standing just inside, barely in view from the door. I was sooo happpyy. I hugged and kissed him and john both on the cheeks because they had my passport. I didn't drink that night. Had some awesome food and played a bad game of pool.

I even convinced john and matt to sign up for a Demilitarized zone tour, which in the end turned out as a bad investment. But I get get to see a museum, tunnels, the ocean and lots of scenary, but lots of bad food. It was a 10hour tour which was spend mainly sitting on a bus, which i am going to do to night for 12 more hours. I heading to Hanoi actually this time.

Which bring me to now. I am sitting with a girl from sydeny an a little internet cafe waiting for the bus at 7pm.I am not sure who I am going to be with for christmas. Hopefully my 2 american, 2 swedish for cambodia, and jazz and dave... if everything works out as planned, but that is rare.As for my flight.. I am going to try to change in now... but just by one or 2 day if it is free.

I am going to either Sapa or halon bay tomorrow night. It depends on the 2 americans. If they get the bus tonight too... I am going to go to halon bay, if not I am going to go treking in sapa.

2006-12-19T04:55:00.000-08:00

My blog isn't working is it.

Pics

2006-12-12T01:34:00.000-08:00

kiI paid 2.5$ USD for this room, that was then split 3 ways. There was no sink in the bathroom. I am sharing the room with Tuve and Lisa my swedish chicks. Good times

tuva

I am on my way to the Killing fields in Cambodia and my motor drive stopped to buy mask due to the extremely dusty road. Everyone wears them here.

In Phnom Penn, at the same same but different guesthouse on the lake, I saw this wonderful sunset while drinking ice cold Angkor beer. Its funny how few sunsets I actually see here. This has been the best one

Lisa - swedish chick. the view from the 2.5$ room. Phnom Penn was a awesome city, but I spent too many days there waiting for my vietnam visa.

Made it to Vietnam. This a a pic from the red canyon just outside of the small beach resport town of Mui Ne. Me, matt, john and amanda (english chick) shared 2 motorbikes are tours the surrounding area of the beach town. So much fun... we went sand sledding, swimming at 3 diff beaches, the guys tryed to surf, the girls sun tanned, had lunch with crazy vietnam military guys that were really drunk. Always good times

The view from our beach front bungaloo in Mui Ne. I didn't try kite surfing, but i did enjoy watching the pros. I had some of the best seafood here in Mui ne. Fresh red snapper one night and crab the next. Yummy. Food is the best part of travelling

After one day in Mui ne, me and the american guys, Matt and john... travelled 6 long hours to Dalat, a french style city in the hills. We rented motorbike and toured the nearby waterfalls and small trails. I haven't actually drove a motorcycle... i love riding on the back. I love the flexible you get when you rent bikes as opposed to taking a tour. You may get lost and see fewer things but its always an adventure... especially with these 2 crazy americans.

Finally some pictures.

Getting lazy

2006-12-11T03:26:00.000-08:00

This pic is from a couple weeks ago, not the best pic. Me, 2 sweds, a brazilian are chillin out on a desert island just off the coast of Cambodia drinking beers and starting a tan.

I am getting lazy with this blog thing, there is soooo much to write about, but I just don't have the patience.

I am still travelling with the 2 american I met on the bus from cambodia to vietnam. They are awesome travelling buddies because they hate tour groups, hate doing the normal thing and are just fun to party with.

The only bus that runs to Mui Ne, a small beach resort town 4 hours from Saigon, leaves at 8am.... so i actually had to get up early (its a first in like a week). The ride was flat, straight, but too long. It just wanted to see the ocean again.

I am not sure what I expected from Mui Ne, but it wasn't what I thought it would be. The bus first pulled up in front of a beach resort... something a backpacked couldn't afford, I was a little scared that we wouldn't be able to afford to stay in the town... but just a block down we found a beautiful place with bungloos, pool table, lots of sand... and it was right on the beach. It was little on the expensive side, 15$ for 3 beds.

This town is a town of vacationer... all kite boarding, and wind surfing. It is a sight to see. There are hundreds of kites in the sky, people getting meters of air... looked like fun.

I wanted to try my hand at kite boarding, but time and money wouldn't allow it. I think it is the first time I haven't been able to do what I have wanted to do because of money this trip. Oh well...instead... me, 2 american, and a british chick rented motorbikes for the day and went sand sledding, for a walk through sand dunes, a red canyon, went swimming/played in the waves. I even tryed driving a motobike for hte first time. It was an awesome day that ended with a plate of fresh crab. I am loving the food at the beach. Fresh fish the first evening and crab the second.

I am now in a town called Dalat. I feel like I am in a European country. There are parks everywhere, french style building, even swan boats on the lake. Pics to follow soon.

Not the best food here, but i have only eaten one meal here.

Dude... the guesthouse we are staying in in amazing... no beach front bungaloo but it does have hot water, a tv, good beds and free water.

I shouldn't complain but it is cool here... 10 degrees or so and no humidity. I may use my fleece tonight.

Tomorrow, the plan is to rent motorbikes, see waterfalls, and the natural sights the area has to offer.

bye bye

Vietnam - loving it

2006-12-08T06:49:00.000-08:00

Hey, its been a couple days... I have been busy busy sightseeing.

I don't know what to write... I am so happy I ran in to my sweet swedish friends that i left 4 days ago in Phmon Penn. We didn't exchange email last time but now we can find each other for christmas.

On the bus from Phnom Penn to the Vietnam border, I met 2 americans traveling together, but I was on a different bus from the border to Saigon...I thought I wouldn't see them again. :(

But when I was on my way for dinner (I found a sushi restuarant here in Saigon) I ran into one of the americans on the side of the street, they joined me for dinner that night and the next. We had become a little travelling group . Tomorrow the 3 of us are travelling to the coast to see what is left of the beach towns after the storm.

So what have I done? I saw the tunnel here, a random church service and lots of local museums (including the American war crime museum). I have been shopping, and I took a mekong river tour. The mekong river tour was so cool... a bus trip, a boat trip, a honey farm, a canal row boat trip, snake farm, a coconut candy factory, more boat trips, tried local fruit, heard local singing... it was a bit of everything. I even met an chick from Sydney australia that I am going to meet up with in Feb. We have a "date", we are going to go for sushi there.

I have been a bad person... I have been in vietnam for 4 days and I have only eaten vietnamese food 2 times. I feel in love with the sushi here, it is so yummy so i have eaten there 3 times in the last 4 days. The american, who had only tried it onces before, enjoyed the food too, one guy has been there 4 times. SUSHI..... YUMMMY

I ranted about traffic in cambodia, but traffic is worst here. You almost have to just close your eyes and walk across. The traffic never stops, so u just walk slowly across and the motorbikes go around u. It is very scary at first. I had to help one of the chicks I met today cross the street.

The internet place is closing... night night

2006-12-04T03:27:00.000-08:00

Traffic here in Cambodia is crazy. I need to express my concern and amazement that I am still alive. There is a yellow line painted in the center and white lines dividing each side of the street, but Khmer people ignore the lines completely. There is a magically middle third lane that both directions of traffic can use at any time. The rule of the road is smaller vechiles give way to larger things which is fine when everyone is going straight, but if you are turning.... anything goes. My motorcycle driver needed to cross a major roadway so he just slowly inches forward ( infront of cars, bikes, trucks). The other vechiles that have the right of way sort of go around or stop (usually). And when making a left hand turn, often motorcycles drive on the wrong side of the road until there is less traffic coming on the onward direction. I don't know if this makes any sense.... I am going to try to film some of it because dude.... all I can do is hold on for dear life and hope the driver knows what he is doing.

I have another rant too. I would like to think I am a tough brave solo traveller, but when it is dark... and I am by myself I am a chicken. Yesterday I changed guesthouse from lakeside to riverside (only a 10mins moto ride, 30-40min walk) and I had to return to the lakeside to get my passport with my vietnam visa so i walked over there from memory ( i didn't open my map once, i was so proud because I had only taken a moto once between the places), but by 6pm when I got my visa the sun had set. I started walking but by the time I got to the first busy road it was completely dark... I gave up and took a moto... its funny I could have just taken a moto from the travel agent place for the same price... but no I wanted to walk.

Ok I am done.

Off to vietnam maybe I will be able to see Jazz and dave again.

2006-12-02T23:11:00.000-08:00

I am not very good at describing my experience, compared to Jazzanddave. Check out what they had to say about Phnom Penn... it is very true to what I felt and experienced

http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/Phnom-Penh/blog-106686.html

they have pictures on there's too

miss ya

Bored of Cambodia, but I am waiting on my visa to enter vietnam

James just for u

2006-12-01T09:29:00.000-08:00

I made a list a couple of days ago of the ppl I have met and hung out with for over 2hours (more than a bus trip or one meal) are u ready... this is in order from start to down

Entering Laos
Crazy british guy
one french women Gwen
one english chick
one brazilian doctor, Marus
5 monks I talked to for 2 and a bit hours
4 english guys in Vang Vieng
2 swedish chicks in Vang Vieng
1 Irish guys in Vang Vieng
5 kiwis on the boat trip
2 english on the boat trip
Chiang Mai - 2 english, 2 thai, 2 texas guys
Pai - 1 swedish, 1 english, 5 french, 1 israeli
Sukothai - 2 germans, 2 french, 1 Aussia, 1 diff french, one dutch
Loburi - 2 french and 1 american
Kanchanaburi - 1 american, 3 french, 2 spanish, 3 sibling from Melbourne
Siem Reap - 3 Czec guys
Sihanoukvile - 1 english, 2 sweds
The island - 4 sweds, 1 israeli
Kampot - 2 sweds
Phnom Penn - 3 sweds, 2 dutch, 2 Khmers (cambodia ppl)
Phnom Penn - 2 english chicks, 1 dutch, (ran in to a swed from Pai again)
Vietnam - 2 americans John and Matt
Mekong Delta - 29 yearold psy ph student from australia

Not too bad... I am hoping it will continue to increase with every new location and day.

I made it too Phnom Penn and I didn't get dragged off by a tuk tuk driver this time, (last time a drive grabbed my arm and only took me a couple steps). Me and the swedishs girls decided to stay on the lake... we are sharing a room for 2.5$ a night. That is less than a dollar a day. WOW

I have been hanging out with 2 local khmer guys, one is a boyfriend of the new swedish girl I meet. I found out that Cambodia ppl rarely get passports because it costs them 125$, and when they are only making less than 25$ a day it is hard to save up enough. Scarey

I made it too the waterpark here... its not quite what I was expecting but I am in Cambodia... I will upload pics when I get to vietnam (can't upload here). It was fun though... some slides, a river, a swimming pool, a little kid area ( ya I played there too) and a wave pool that wasn't one. We were having soo much fun the guards had to kick us out. Anything goes at the water park... trains down the slide, forward, backwards, head first... etc. I loved it.

I have a double vodka and red bull for 0.75$ and nachos for a snack after the pool. What a day. The evening wasn't as much fun... dinner took forever and the bar was lame, but I had good company, plus Sky and I won the pool game.

I am not very good at spending a lot of time with the same ppl so this morning I hit the killing fields, the prison and the national museum. I have had so many days with out runes and museums I was almost starting to miss them... j/k :P

It was a scary day, very depressing, but the reality of the Khmer Rouge has finally hit me and there were almost tears on my face. There were thousands of faces on the boards and the same amount of skulls to match. Wow thats all I can say.

There are lizards everywhere here... ya ya I know I changed the subject... but there are 3 on the wall in front out me.

I am annoyed... tomorrow is sunday so I can't get my visa for vietnam until monday night... so I am going to be chillin here for another couple days. I am going to need to make some different friends soon I have been hanging out with the sweds for a week now... its a long time record.

I am out of here. I love the comments everyone thanks

Real Cambodia and the touristly sites

2006-11-30T00:39:00.000-08:00

Hey...

So after the rain finished... me and a friend ventured back to the beach for a nibble and guess who walked by... DAVE AND JAZZ. It hadn't seen my Canadian friends in 2 weeks and I find them strolling past me on the beach. We had a good visit. As it turns out, the English Aussia guy had already met Jazz and Dave a couple of days before at a cooking course. It is a small world. Anyhow... the swedish girls I met on the bus to Sihanoukville joined us on the beach too and convinced me and the english Aussia guy to go with them to bambo island. It was awesome

I was stuck on a desert island for 2.5 days, no interent no electricity, no cambodia people selling me things, just sand, ocean, 10 bungaloos, one restuarant and a hand full of cool swedish people. I officially have started working on my tan. My butt is like the Canadian flag at the momnet... red and white. :)

The island was taken over by swedish people, sort of... they were seven sweds, me, and israeli chick and a couple other too. We chilled, suntanned, read, played lots of backgammon, lots of cards, some drinking games...I even made the journey to the otherside of the island to see a different beach. It was a long 10min walk through the forest, very difficult.

Ok there was a down side to the island... a couple people got very sick, maybe food poisoning. I didn't but I didn't eat any meat.

I was only planning on saying one day on the island... but when the boat came... i didn't want to leave...

It was hard leaving yesterday.. but I do actually want to see an bit of the real cambodia... so me and Tuva and Lisa (sweds girls) headed to Kampot... its a little cambodia town on a little river with little for tourist but it does have shops, and cute buildings and very few tourist. It is a change... I am not sure if it is a good or bad one yet.

Tomorrow I am thinking i am going to stick with the swedish girls and go to Phnom Penn. They are going to meet one of their sis, a swed and some local ppls. Plus there is a cool water park and the very sad killing fields.

After that.... I am going to Vietnam.

I know there is a lot of cambodia I didn't see but there just isn't enough time for everything.

Missing everyone... December starts tomorrow. Christmas is coming and i am going to miss it.

2006-11-26T02:21:00.000-08:00

My week has been a crazy one.. I last really wrote an entry while I was in Nakhom Pathon. The last 2 hours before my train were a long 2 hours. I sat at the train station for a bit but there were a couple of homeless guys sleeping on the bench, a group of 6 thai guys and one random guy sweeping... so after about 15mins of sitting there, I was a little scared for the looks I was getting so i walked off to 7-11... I love the place it is always open and they have my new favourite cookies. The city was awake at 2am.. there were women with veggies, ppl cutting meat on table, fisherman with truck fulls of fish... I felt a little safer walking around the market area...until 2 thai guys started following me... it was all good I still have all my money and passport :).
The train ride was a long 8.5 hours then an hour at the border with children begging for money, men with no legs for land mines, and the border officials tryied to tell me that I needed to pay 1000baht = 26USD instead of 20USD which is the posted amount for the visa. He was mad when I refused to pay him anything extra. Next, it look 3.5 hours in taxi to get from the border town to Siem Reap but it is only maybe 150km. The road isn't paved in places... bridges were missing... traffic drives on both sides, and they love their horns. It was a long long day that didn't end when I got to Siem reap because I meet some crzy czech guys on the train and we went drinking. I had lots of yummy angkor beer then stumbled home at 2am... I beleive the others didn't get in until 8am. GUESS WHAt.... I payed 2$ a night and the bed was amazing... the best yet... so compy I slept until 2pm the next day.
Angkor Wat was amazing, I saw one sunset, one sunrise, and too many runes over 2 days so on the 4th day in siem reap i decided to jump on a bus to Sihanoukville ( on the coast of cambodia) which was 12hrs long. It was worth the 12hrs on the little bus (the roads were paved now, but the driving was still random, the bus driver pulled a u-turn because he missed the turn off). I have seen the ocean again. I went skinny dipping in the ocean last night until the cover of darkness.
It rained this afternoon.... i was very sad because I wanted to start to get rid of my farmer tan lines. no such luck.

VERY Very VEEEEEEEEEEEEerrry slow internet

2006-11-22T06:11:00.000-08:00

Hey.

I made it too Cambodia officially. The internet here is extremely slow and blogspot is the only web page that will open.

The journey here was so random and full of every type of trainsportation. I left Nakhom Pathom at 3:15am by train and finally arrived at 4:30pm in Siem Reap by shared taxi.

I am here

VERY Very VEEEEEEEEEEEEerrry slow internet

2006-11-22T05:59:00.000-08:00

An update

2006-11-20T09:02:00.000-08:00

A photo from Ayutthaya. I was there the day before I saw monkeys

I added some pics to previous posts... so have a look. Question, what ype of pics do you guys want to see, pics of the site, of me, the ppl I am with?

I am currently sitting in an internet cafe in Nakhon Pathom waiting for a 3am train to take me to bangkok... then I will take a train at 6am all the way east to Arayan station. Hopefully I will cross the border to Cambodia and by this time tomorrow I will be in Siem Reap.

It has been a few days... Jazz and Dave left for Pattaya and Ko Samet, while I retreated to Kanchanaburi to learn somethings about WWII and see more waterfalls.

I arrived to the city via minibus (I went to the wrong train station so no train) with 3 french chics and went to a guesthouse recommended to be by numerous traveller. They were right about Apple Guesthouse... it was beautiful, relaxed atmosphere wth a restuarant that served excellent food. I meet an american women without the typically american attitude and I dined in excellent company that night. It was peaceful here even with the horrible past. The evening was spent shopping, eating chocolate cake and pineapple with a short trip to a little bar (no drinking thou)
One of my favourite spots. I was hiding under the waterfall too, but I could take the pic and be in too. Look at the color of the water. PRETTY.
I almost decided to take the package tour because it would have been easier... but what is the fun in that. Instead, I did it local style. I ran into the french chics and 2 spanishs guys, we were all doing it via local bus. It was an awesome day, very chilled. I meet some local thai guys, and lots of travellers too. It wasn't the thai southern beaches but it was a beautiful area with perfect swimming holes.

The cementries for the men killed during WWII was beautifully cared for.
Today... I meet a german man at breakfast and together we visited with war museum and the cementaries. The man had previously worked with a railway company and he had great stories that added to the history. Prisioners of War, Japanese and local Asians worked 12-16 hours a day with minimal food to constructed a railway from thailand to Burma. Thousand and thousand died during the 2 years of its construction. I took a bus to see a portion of the railway where the men carved out over 4meters of rock for the tracks with nothing but hand tools and dynamite. The photo to the left shows the path for the tracks through the rock. Look closely at the chic in the pic and compare her size to the size of the man made valley. It was truely amazing and sad at the same time.

One good thing was that I met 3 aussies from Melbourne. I have people to show me the town when I get there.

I am off to Cambodia now.
nd

Blaaaa

2006-11-16T07:20:00.000-08:00

YES I do have a stick in my hand to "try" to keep the monkeys from attacking me, they just think it is a game to run after the stick.. its a little scary

I went to the city of monkeys......

And when I say city of monkeys, I mean a modern city that haves cages on the balconeys and window to keep out the hundreds of wild monkeys that roam the streets of Lopburi. It was scary and exciting all at the same time.

When we (a french chic, an american women, and a another older french women) paided to get into the runes with monkeys, I was expected a few animals, not a couple hundred. Plus the gate ppl gave us sticks t beat the monkeys off with. A little boy, the son of the women working the gate showed us his monkey bits and showed us around the area. This country gives a new meaning to bring your kids to work.

Like I have said before... I am not very good about staying by myself. I meet people where ever I go and today was go exception. I was up early to catch the 9:30 train to Loburi, but it was an expensive train over 300baht, so i waited an extra 1.5 hours to catch the 13baht train instead. In that time I meet a french chic on holidays for 3 weeks, then an american women. It was a good day filled with musuems, monkeys, runes and good company too.

I will post pics as soon as I fix my camera...sorry

Guess where I am....

2006-11-14T07:44:00.000-08:00

A Beautiful lake in the middle of the Sukhothai runes.

Check out http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Mae-Hong-Son/blog-102046.html this is Dave's blog entry from their little trip to Mae Hong son (I am glad I missed out on their adventure)

I make it to Ayutthaya all by myself. Dave and Jazz leave really early this morning and I was planning on going with them, but I stayed out too late bar hopping with 2 Germans, 1 Dutch, 1 Australia, and 1 French, and jazz and Dave too.

For those who worry, don't. I ran into Jazz and Dave within 30mins of being in Ayutthaya which isn't bad considering its a city of over 80 thousand people.

Janice... We will habit share stories when I get home. I did sleep in a Karen Village 50km from Pai in a stilt house, 11 of us plus guides shared a large room, sleeping on a bamboo flooring 2.5 meters in the air with 2 waterbuffalo, lots of chickens, and pigs too.

I guess I should actually start from where I left off.

The trek was well worth the money was spent. Jazz, Dave and me joined up with 5 French ppl, one Swedish guy, one English women, Israeli women and we all squished in to a pickup truck. I have decided that I hate pickup trucks here, because I get car sick from sitting sideways. Normally I can read on the windy roads of the northern Thailand in buses, tuk-tuks, etc, but just sitting in sideways in a truck... Not good. Lucky the truck ride was only 1.5hrs to the beginning point of the trek (50km from Pai.) Sorry mom, I can't tell u exactly where I was.

The trek was an easy trek in terms of distance. We walked up hill for 30 mink - had a 10min break, walked 30-40mins more uphill - 45min lunch that consisted of a little fish, chicken, curry and lots of fried rice. I was one of the adventurous ppl... I tried all the food that the guides were offering us. Next we walked on flat ground for maybe an hour to a small waterfall, where the guides made us bamboo cups and hot tea. It wasnt\t the sunniest day so no swimming for me. The last leg of the journey was another hour of so of a little up, a little down and lots of flat to a small hill tribe (Karen) village. We had lots of time to look around, take pics and buy goods, a little too much time. It was at this village that we stayed in a house on bamboo stilts with animals in the barn below us. There was no electricity in the village so after dinner the children of the village sang us songs then demanded we sing them sounds. None of us could think of any songs so we sang "row row row your boat", "a French song" and "twinkle twinkle little star". It was very very funny.

The village makes local rice whiskey so we had to sample it. We started drinking the whiskey at 4... And by 11 it was all gone. I wouldn't tell u how many bottle got drunk because they just kept showing up. By the time the singing was finished, we were all happy. A couple of us played cards... Memory is a very hard game.

There was a line up for the bathroom at 3am. The rooster had a competition at 3am to see who could be the loudest... So everyone was wake... Me and the Swedish guy had a 3am snacktime too.

Day 2 everyone but 4 of us went rafting. Our day started walking at 10ish - walked until 11:30ish. We had a 1 and a bit lunch break where the guide made bamboo cups, bowls, chopstick etc. Walked a little more iup and down through amazing forests and diverse landscapes. Everything was green, but there was so wildlife to be seen, except for a couple spiders, and one frog. At 3pm we arrived at the first campsite but the water level in the river was too low so we had to hike 30mins more to find a larger creek. I saw sad - to shallow for swimming.

it took the guides about 1h to find, chop and construct a shelter for us and start a fire. I am amazed at the food that can be made over a fire. As soon an darkest fell and the food disappeared the animals started to come out. It was scary....

I had the worst sleep the first night of the trek because of all the animals and the next night I didnt\t sleep much because we were in the jungle under a little bamboo shelter with only one wall. By the time we returned to Pai after the elephant rides, bamboo rafting and caving ... I was sooo over tired. That is how I ended up staying there for an extra 3 days.

Me and John decided to party the night away (after a short nap of course) because we ran in to the other ppl from the first day of the trek. We arrived at a bar called Bebop at 1"30pm and it was DEAD DEAD dead... Then guess who walks in... It was the English ppl I meet 2 week's ago in Vang Vieng while tubing. It is a small world. By 11"30 the bar was full full full. I danced, drank and had fun.

I was home in bed by 2am... Only because the bar closed at 1am

The next day was a joke. Jazz and Dave left. Me and john slept in until 10 - had breakfast - went back to sleep until 1"30 - had lunch - walked around - finally rented a motorbike (he drove, they scare me) - but 4:30 we were heading to a hot spring - we made it to the sign what says hotspring 600m and the bike dies. This army dude shows up, we trade him bikes and ride to the gate to the national park. The guard, the army dude and some other guy spend 30mins trying to fix the bike but can't get it to stay running so we called the rental place and they came to pick us up. We sat at the gate for over and hour doing nothing. No hot springs nothing. Instead we went for dinner and massages. We were going to rent a movie too, but nay... We went back to bed.

the next days much better. - john booked a bus ticket to Lao that left this night - so we both packed up - I changed rooms ( I didn't need 2 large beds for myself) - we had breakfast - bought snacks from 7-11 - took the motorbike *new one) to find a waterfall. We got soo lost, we took 3 wrong roads before we got the right one... We saw a canyon (had a nap at the canyon) ... Went for lunch and watched a movie - we shopped - chilled - and ate again. He left at 10 and I went to bed. I got more sleep and ate more food that I had in the last 3 days.

I was supposed to meet jazz and Dave in Chiang mai, but if u read they blog u will understand why they went straight to sukhothai. I caught bus at 8:30 in Pai was in Chiang mai by 12:30... Went into town and found out that my friends weren't in town, went back to the bus station at boarded a bus for sukhothai at 3pm. It was a long bus ride, about 6 hrs, but I did meet a German chick.. She was cool.. We shared a tuk tuk thing into sukhothai and ended up sharing a bungalow too.

Did dinner at a street place, where we met another German guy ( I didn't eat at a single restaurant that day), with pancakes for dessert, found jazz and Dave then headed for the bar. We only had one beer each, but we were there so long we had to kick us out.

I found jazz and Dave and had a breakfast is the nicest restaurant... Yummy fresh French bread.

The germna chic, Jazz and dave filming in the background. This is the first rune of the day at Sukhothai
Then the German chick joined out and we had a long day biking around the old runes of the city. I will post pics. Next time I see runes... I am going early, mid day is too hot for me.

Jazz\s guesthouse had a pools so after a long hot sweaty day we all broke out the swim wear and lounged at a pool.

It was a good day until dinner. I had never had bad food on this trip until last night. Had noodle with a gravy sauce but there was more sauce then noodles and it had NO favor.... Bad bad food... Street stall food was 10x better.

The night ended with a visit to 2 different little bars, which brings us back to the beginning. I stayed out too late and slept in missing jazz and Dave and the bus to ayutthaya.

I am where I was supposed to be now so it is alll OK

good night... I have to get up early to actually meet up with my friends.

bye bye

I miss everyone and home very much.

Guess what... I am wearing the hat... see Karol

Running off to Sukhothai

2006-11-11T22:40:00.000-08:00

The couple of extra days I spent in Pai, while Jazz and Dave travelled on were amazing. I will tell you all about them after I trek Jazz and Dave down in Sukhothai. I am in Chiang Mai... and Now I am off to the bus station again to see about a bus south.

Later

Trekking

2006-11-09T03:19:00.000-08:00

I found a shesha (east Indian tobacco) bar in the hippy town of Pai. It was Jazz and Dave's first time.

First day of the trek, drinking tea from a bamboo cup one of the guides made us(check it out). And the water from the tea was boiled in a larger bamboo cup thing.
Sorry... too many pics to organize

Second night, 4 of the originally 11 ppl continued on trekking. We camped out in the jungle under this structure. It wasn't bad, but it was a little scary because all the jungle animals and bugs only started coming out after it was dark (mouse, rat, water buffalo, spiders, lots of ants, a praying mantis) .

The guides made everything from bamboo... bowls, cups, chop sticks, tent from bamboo. It was sweet.

Jazz and Dave on a 4 year old female elephant whos name I forget now. John and me rode on a 3 year old male elephant names Pee yang. On the third day of the trek, we visited a village, rode on elephant, went bamboo rafting, and toured through a cave. What more can u wish to do in a day, really.

Oh ya.. I am going to go for a sauna and a massage in a bit.

I am beginning to think that I ever want to come back to Canada. I can live here for less than 25 dollars a day and do almost anything I want

Its raining its pouring...

2006-11-06T02:59:00.000-08:00

and I don't think its going to stop.

A pic from the parade. So many pretty women, and dazzling costumes.

I am not in Pai... Promised more like Pie, then bye. Just so u know. Its a little hippy town, the main income of the town is tourism... So there are a lot of white ppl here, too. I try to do something different, and I end up doing the same things as everyone else. jeeze.

Oh well, Last night I stole myself a seat on the curb and actually watched most of the parade for the Loy Krathong. It was a very religious parade with beautiful dollied up Thai ppl on lit up floats, ppl with lanterns. Very cool. It was a little dangerous watching the parade... Because people all over the city were lighting mini hot airballoons that symbolize bad luck leaving u, and encouraging good luck for the winter season (still 30 degrees here thou). It was dangerous because they are made of paper and occationally the lanterns would catch on fire, or they would break sending flames/fire to land on ppl's heads. I only had ashes land on me. :P
The pic on the right - millions of flower things like these were placed in the city moats and river in memory of loved ones and to bring good luck from the year to come. (I wonder who has the job of cleaning up all the flowers/candles)

Dude... you lets 5 year old children play with firecrackers, and fireworks. There was a continuous supply of firecracker, fireworks and other noise making things going off until the wee hours of the morning. Me and this Thai chick walked into some kind of firework... I lost my hearing for a couple of minutes.

People were everywhere, dancing, singing, etc. It was awesome and I spend the evening with my friend from the previous night. I was surprised to run into Dave and Jazz on a random street while trying to find the river.

Overall an awesome night. This morning was a different story. I slept in because my alarm didn't go off at 6:30... I rushed around packing my shit, and I had little time for breakfast because we thought the bus left at 8 am to get to Pai. It didn't leave until 9... I could have slept an extra hour. The bus we sat on for 4 hours was the smallest tinies bus in the whole station and the road to Pai were very very very windy.

My head still hurts from all the noisy of last night, and I might be a little hungover. I am going to bed early tonight b/c tomorrow is trekking time. I will be off away from the internet for 3 or 4 days.

Later

I edited

2006-11-05T01:15:00.000-08:00

After a game of pool, I ended up chillin with A Thai (Kin), and English (Heather), me, an English (?) and a Texas guy (Adam)was a random night of drinking games, pool and live music.

Nov 4 was the official start of the Festival here, there was a parade, lots of fireworks a lot with a beauty contest and hot air balloons.

I completed my first cooking course today. It was awesome, but leave me feeling way too full. When I first arrived, they served us freast bananas, pineapple and papaya, next a trip to the market where I learnt about the spices, chilies, and other ingredients of Thai cooking. But 10 am the cooking began. First I made spring rolls, then green curry, basil chicken ( I choose to not make it very spicy.. Some people put too many in and wow was it funny to watchh them eat it). We had a 30min lunch break. Jazz, Dave and I walked around the neighorhood in hopes to feel less full. After the break, we made papaya salad(In the pic on the right), Pattia ( I can't spell, its a noodle thing), fried banana and we munched on fresh fruit.

OVERALL, I have decided to never eat again. Just kidding, but I am very very full.

A day exploring Chiang Mai

2006-11-04T03:56:00.000-08:00

Sorry, I did try to rotate. Me and jazz dressed up

Today was a wonderfully day that started later than most because I was out last night, clubbing for the first time in a really long time. I danced, I drank, I partied.

This morning, we finally decided on a cooking course (we are doing it tomorrow) called the Thai Chocolate school. We aren't making anything with Chocolate thou. damn.

Jazz, Dave and I charted a taxi for the day to take us to a small village, where we dressed up in traditional clothing. It was funny because other ppl in the village took photos with us. I didn't feel completely like a tourist, but a local for a few minutes. I almost bought new clothes at the market, but i remember that I had already owned too many clothes.

Next, the royal familys winter palace (I am posing in front of one of the may flower gardens), too bad it wasn't the season for Roses, the pics would hav been 10 times better. It was still awesome thou.

Last was the most famous Wat (temple) in the area with a look out over Chiang Mai. The gold stumpa was something to see.

Sorry, the computer is too slow, I did add a couple pics to the previous entry.

Love you all
See.. I have been seeing lots of water buffalo... they seem happiest in the mud. I don't get it

Back in Thailand...again

2006-11-01T20:00:00.000-08:00

The Photo is me and the French women Gwen, and we are one the little wooden boat that I spend 2 days on traveling done the Mekong river. (it was alittle windy)

Next time I am flying. I have been on a boat for 2 days, with a night in a little village, and now a 6h bus to Chiang Mai. I am looking forward to chillin out there for a couple days.

Moving every morning to tough, and sitting all day makes my ass soar, however I have been catching up on reading. I am reading "A million little pieces" by James Frey. It is an amazing and graphic book. Wow

Meet my first group of Kiwi's and more english on the boat. I swear the english are taking over the world again .

I miss laos already. Only 2 days ago i was jumping off waterfalls and swiming in beauty rivers...

The pic on me jumping off the waterfall didn't work, so u see Marus jumping instead. I was so scared at first, but by the 3rd or 4th time... it was easy as pie.

i am off later

Last couple days in Laos

2006-10-30T05:03:00.000-08:00

WOW...

I saw an elephant, black bears, a tigers, a little lizard... ad lots of bugs while we were hiking to the most beautiful 60m waterfall. The water was a pale baby blue and fairly cold. There were multiply pools, I swam in a few... and I even jump off a 2m waterfall into the water. I was almost too scared to do it, but my brazilian friend offered to buy me a beer it i jumped.. so i did :P

Did the museum thing this morning, and the ballet in the evening.

I am doing it all on less then 20$ a day.

It will be a couple days before i write again because i am taking a 2 day boat ride back to thailand then a bus to Chiang Mai.

In a couple days I will have more photos for u.... including me in the pics

Cheers

I have found Paradise in Laos

2006-10-28T06:06:00.000-07:00

Sorry to lazy to edit.. have fun reading it

Laos is a different world, especially compared to the craziness of Bangkok. From the moment I stepped onto the train to Nagn Ki (spelling?) (12hrs north of Bangkok) I have felt like i am really somewhere else.

Crazy drunk English man in his 60s slept on the bunk above mine, he talked and talking and even spilt beer on me. The only way to get him to shut up was to put in ear plugs...hehhe

As we were getting off the train we met up with a Brazilian guy that shared a tuk tuk to the thai border... then a jam packed bus to the Laos side. None of us have visa, so it was a 1-2 hour process to cross the border. There were 8 travellers in line and they are all awesome people that had no idea what was going on either. A french teacher, the brazilian doc, 2 ppl from Japan, an american, the crazy british, and a very outgoing english women. We all ended up staying together for a couple days. We all bonded over a trip to get massages near a monk school. I met lots of monks my age that spoke suprisingly good english. They were amazed my my piercing and tatto, just as i was amazed by their lifestyle. It was a rewarding experience, i can't describe it. I learn about laos culture, their religion and ur lives. They are same same, but difference. ( the sauna was good... i didn't get the massage b/c i spent too much time talking to monks)

Vientienne was a quite town, with no nighlife which suited me just fine. I have been awake every morning by 6:30-7. The light wakes me up. I definitly don't waste the day any.

Dude the first hotel we stayed at in the capital was a 3 star hotel with an elevator, compy beds, and a real bathroom for 23$ (split between 3). Its funny b/c we downsized to a guesthouse for $5 (split between 3) and spend most of the days budget on fancy meals.

The sites were simple, but still very cool. A monk in one of the places practiced his english by depicting the Buddist stories. I helped him with his english hw too. :P

Things are simple here, and not busy busy. I am loving it.

Vang Vieng was a backpacker town 3 hours north on very very windy roads. We took an overpacked local bus (dave had a guy sitting on his lap for a while. I just had a guy sitting on my pack in the center) A monk had to tell us to get off, or we would have ended up somewhere else. Did I mention that monks are very friendly and speak good english. I feel safe with monks around.

The town didn't look like much b/c all u see at first in a couple houses and a large cement "airstripe". An army looking guy saw us looking very confused so he further directed us. Laos ppl are friendly and open ppl.

Vang Vieng's economy is sticky rice and tourism. Every house is a business, there are more restuarants then tourists it seems. Most of the restuarants are raised booths with lots of pillows and a television playing american movies or FRIENDS. It was a strange site to see 20-30 ppl all starring at a tv watching friends.

Beautiful country side, and mountains like I have never seen. Here we tubed down Nam Song (song river) and drank BEERLAO and jumped off rope swings. Totally amazing... meet a bunch of ppl from england.

One day we rented bikes and explored this one cave with 2 little kids as our guides. The cave paths kept getting smaller and smaller the further we went, at one point we had to lay flat and wiggle through. I was a litte scared that we would never make it out alive. After nearly getting stuck in the caves with BIG spiders we biked through 2 more villages and end up at a Bright BLUE lagoon. It was like nothing i have ever seen before, the color was amazing. Plus there was another cave, but biggers. I climbed in the cave for over an hour.

Biking allowed us too see the people of Laos, not just the tourists. There were animals, naked childerns running around, ppl farming.

The last day there... we took a tour of 2 more caves ( including cave tubing), swam, kayaked 17 km, jumped off more rope swings. FUN, but my arms are very soar. Meet 2 swedish girls on the tour and ended up having dinner with them afterwards. It was a random night that end with Jazz and Dave and an irish guy drinking SPECIAL tea (opium tea). Restuarants here have special menu... u can have mushroom or wee fruit shakes, or opium tea. Don't worry... no special food for me. I just drink lots of BEERLAO

Good times.

Today was a LONG day. Jazz and dave locked there key in their room about 15mins before we were supposed to get on the bus to Luang Prabang and the guesthouse didn't have another key. One of the worker ppl jumped out my rooms window on to the very slippery metal roof and gimmied the window open.

Lucky the bus left late. :P Laos is a slow paced place.

8hours lated I arrived in Luang Prabang

That was a long one.... I was too busy to find an internat cafe. sorry my bad

I miss everyone lots

Bangkok....

2006-10-22T01:27:00.000-07:00

Guess what... i managed to find my way from the airport to Kho San Raoad... sat with a random aussie guy that has been living in southern thailand for the last 1 year or so... he gave some travel tips.

WOW is it hot here... u can't believe it.

I have been on alot of random transportation methods in the last 24 hrs. Airplane - bus - local bus - tuk tuk- taxi - river boat taxi - foot - i am going to take a trip on the sky train today later maybe...

We took the china town walking tour that was described in the tour book... we should haver read the describtion first, because wow.... picture a normal road... then half that, and half it one more time. maybe mabye 2m wide filled with people walking both directions, cart, and the occational motorbike with stores on there side selling anything possible. Toys, jewelary, raw fish, shoes.

Today, we visited the Grand Palace and it means Grand Fortress land.... there was 60 buildings or so with gold plated roof, small gardens, and lots or tourists. I actually had a conversion with Thai person... very exicted

Met a person from Calgary while munching on so patiya (spelling?) noodles food... it is a small world.

I have a ticket for a train to loas... we went all out with aircon and beds... the 3rd class train looks very scarey. :)

Cheers.

Singapore

2006-10-20T15:29:00.000-07:00

DUDE.... I made it all the way to SINGAPORE so far.

I am only hre for a totaly of 8 hrs, but I am making the most of it. I met up with my Montreal friend for awesome amazing coffee at this outdoor food court thingie....he was off to go clubbing that night, but I decided to tag along. Boy and I glad. It was 4 hours of dancing to music by dj Damian Saint from in England.

I have only sleep for a totally of 4 hrsand it is now saturday morning 6am.

I am off to find a couch and have a little nap before my flight to bangkok... hopefully I don't sleep through my flight

Cheers.

I miss everyone

:P

Run for the Cure

2006-09-27T18:16:00.000-07:00

I never run... never, well I started 2 weeks ago because my mom signed me up for the "RUN FOR THE CURE" breast cancer fund raiser.

I will let you know if i complete the race, wish me luck

Alisha

My week in Calgary

2006-09-27T18:06:00.000-07:00

Wow it has been a long time since my last entry.

I have just been to busy or too lazy, I am not sure which is more correct. :P

I was working 2 jobs in Abbotsford for 3 months, but on Aug 28 I worked my last shift at the gas station, on Aug 29 I worked my last day at the Lab, but I also packed up all my stuff/cleaned and caught the 5:45 ferrie to Victoria.

I was so excited to get to Duncan. I hadn't seen my mom, Gorden, Olive, Katie in months. I was only in Duncan for a whole 3 days.

I left to Calgary shortly after arriving on the island. I missed Calgary so much.

Calgary was a blast, I partied every night I was there.

First with visited with family, football games with bro, his gf and friend... plus tailgate party with the uncle. Wings at my fav pub and then drinking games to end the night off. :P

There were meetings with my boss, time with friends, a visit to the zoo, the den, and the mall. All in only 5 days. As of friday... i ran off to edmonton to see colin. Dude that was a random weekend. I was in edmonton twice that sunday (my flight home had a stop over there).

Good times. Calgary to my favourite place because of the ppl there. I will be looking forward to repeating my adventures when I am back there in a years time. :P

Cheers.

Again, it has come and gone

2006-08-17T23:53:00.000-07:00

The van wasn't the little engine that could... so 10 guys or some from the cars
all around us, got out to help push it up the little hill.

I just wrote an nice long e-journal about Shambhala....and I deleted it oops

I had a blast at Shambhala this week... it was so much better than last year... last year openned up my eyes to the possiblitily of what could be. Shambhala is what u make of it. This year I knew a lot of different groups of people. Hight school ppl, old raving friends, Uni friends, and plus all the new ones i made.

If you haven't been to a hippie-fest. then you probably wont understand... but I felt free. (CHECK ON THE NAKED BUM, ps the guy with the beige shirt and blue pant over his shoulder is half naked too) Anything goes at Shambhala. Nakedness, body paint, hippies, stoned, candy ravers, punk, gothic, preppy, skator... anything. People don't judge here and you are allowed to be what u want to be.

People share what they have and u give what u can to ppl in need. The airmatress I borrowed from a friend was destroyed in my truck on the drive up to Nelson, so while we were in line for 6 hours, I got ppl that had duct tape, packing tape and then a patch kit. While we were in line, I was given a handful of chocolate chip cookie cereal, a ice cold beer, a ride on a ATV to my friends that were 2 km behind us and back with some girls needed to turn around. I shared my massive rice crispie square with random ppl. It was a good time. After finally getting into the festival, we were looking for a good spot to camp, and I drove over a big rock. (Mom don't worry no marks or damage because some strong boys saved us. As well, after setting up camp, I was looking to borrow some duct tape (I found more holes in the air matress). I met a high school teacher that was awesome and very funny for a chem/physic/math teacher. All the ppl were very interesting... all in there own way.

Aren't I hot, blue and all. I have completed painted blue... except my neck and face. As soon as the sun goes down... it gets very very cold... so i had to cover up :(

I can't wait to go again next year...

Did I mention that i gave a ride to a guy from india living in New york city working for GOOGLE, and a nelson guy that was living in Nepal for the last 10 months. It was a random drive.

SHAMBHALA is coming

2006-07-27T13:50:00.000-07:00

Wow, a month has past and I have nothing new to say.

I am working hard at 2 different jobs, the lab job and shell gas station. I enjoy both for different reasons. The house is awesome, we just got a new roommate, Sarah that used to work on a cruis ship. The way she talks about the ship, it makes me want to go work on one too. Maybe one day. Jaylene is still ranting about being on strike and not making any money. Carely is less stressed because she dropped on of this sumer classes. Cat is looking for a new job and is never home. The house is clean most of the time, 10X better then the calgary house, no offense.

I have been to the Richmon night market, mission, mill lake, Cultis Lake, walked up Sumas mountain, been shopping, eaten sushi and watch the entire 5 sessions of Charmed.

Chris was down for a visit and at the same time i got to say goodbye to David (hes in Japan/ Signapore)

Smiles

I have too much time to think

2006-06-18T12:02:00.000-07:00

I have all this time on my hands. I have been trying to get another job and I am meeting people, but I think I am starting to appreciate Abbotsford and it's influence its having on me. Moving away from my friends, my family, and my house... I am realizing that having a true place to belong is important. All I wanted to do was leave it all behind and live some adventurous lifestyle filled with drama and mystery. I am going to need to find away to satisfy both wants... because jumping on or out of a bus/plane/car is not always going to keep me entertained.

For now I am loving the lifestyle and enjoying it... but when I get back in to Calgary next September. I am going to settle down and stay put for a while. Finishing my degree is important... but after that.... i am still unsure... I don't want a master/PhD because that is more research in labs behind closed doors. I want to work with people... so maybe doctor (need higher marks), maybe a nurse, maybe drug company.... I haven't figured it out... but I am trying.

Loving life...

In 4 months....

2006-06-16T12:58:00.000-07:00

(this is me exploring the unknown)
... I am off to explore a little more of the world. 4 months is not a lot of time to save up, plan and get organized. But thanks to Jazzmine and Dave, a lot of the planning has been done. The route is set.

For now I am worrying about saving all the money I can, while still having a little fun.

Guess what... I have a house party to attend this weekend... its going to be a blast.

Until next time...

Me

2006-06-15T19:59:00.000-07:00

Abbotsford... a new city yet again

2006-06-10T22:27:00.000-07:00

( indoor mini golfing with my new roommate)
Hey,

I have been in the city of Abbotsford for a week now, but I am still unsure of what I think of the city. I haven't had much energy to explore because I have started my new research job and I am busy watching all the sessions of CHARMED. I finished the first session in less then a week.

I am loving work. Really I am. I have an half an hour walk to the barn building and about the same home, excpet I recieve 3 rides home this week. I like the lab because the people are awesome, a few students my age I can really talk too, flexible work times, and its laid back. ITs a better atmosphere then last year, which i hated. I am also doing actual lab work this year.

I am testing Caribou blood samples for a set of diseases and then retesting the blood found on paper samples to compare the results of the test. And from there we will be able to conclude that using filter paper collection will work for caribou samples. It is a lot easier to collect filter paper samples then it is to collected serum samples because of the extreme weather.

I am happy here... missing friends, but I am happy.

I have realized that I want to settle down when i get back after my year abroad.

Later

3 days 5 cities

2006-06-02T20:15:00.000-07:00

Safe at last in Canada.

I made the journey back to the Western lifestyle with both Dave and Trevor in one piece with almost all my belongs and more. Once in Toronto, trev and I were apparently placed on drug suspision, but lucky i left all my drugs in Lima... heheh just kidding. Although I really wanted to bring cocoa leaves back. They made amazing tea, but its unfortunitely illegal in Canada.

The airport, even in Lima, brought me back into the western world of structure and order. Wine was no longer 3$, it was 20-100$. The expense of the western developed world is high because luxury is a nessesity.

I long for the unfamilar... so that is why i am moving to abbotsford for the summer to work.

In the last couple days I have gone from Lima, Peru to Toronto to Calgary to Abbotsford to Vancouver. I spent only 7 hours in Calgary visiting with my Calgary friends. It is funny after being away for a month then coming home, u can tel who ur friends are. Some we willing to down their plans to see me briefly and others were like sorry i cant no time. It makes u wonder. Dani, Joel, Leah and James are close amazing people that I will consider my true friends regardless of what happens.

I slept at my grandparent house and got a chance to visit with my Cousin who is pregant with a little baby boy. I havent truely visited with my cousin in a long time. It was good. My grandparents volunteered to transport my shit and me to abbotsford, without them I dont know what i would have done. They were patient with all my travel plan changes.

We safely arrived to abbotsford on June 1st in time to move into my new house. It is beautiful and clean. The restaurant we ate at was located just around the corner from my new house next door to a sushi restaurant.

I unpacked and met the new roomies.

I just couldnt wait to get to vancouver to visit Jasmine and Dave, they are the my traveling buddies for asia. I havent seen Jazz in 6 months. And the greyhound ticket roundtrip to vancouver is only 16$ so i can visit her lots and Amy too.

So in 3 days i was in

Lima --> Toronto --> Calgary --> Abbotsford --> Vancouver

who knows maybe seattle tomorrow

Lima is an awesome city regardless of the rep

2006-05-29T15:19:00.000-07:00

weI just got home from learning to surf on the coast of lima. The hostel we are stay at is a block away from the ocean. I am just giddy. I dont know what it is about the ocean but it makes be strangely happy. Me and trev took al short walk on the beach yesterday morning... i went wading and i was surprised by the warmth of the water. It wasnt too bad.

It was a lazy day yesterday. We were all in a little better moods after we realized that there was no reason to be upset by the transportation mix up. I was the first one up which gave me time to read my new book ( THE BEACH, awesome book) plus I caught up on watching english TV. The last couple movies I have seen we all in spanish so i have very little idea what was going on. I consumed an awesome standard breakfast and just relaxed. After everyone was dressed and showered and interneted out... we headed out to explore the area around up. With no guide book in hand we set out to the main streets. There was a small festival in the center square with handicrafts and interesting foods. We were set on munching down on a Peruvian style hamburger... not america... the burgers came with french fry like foods on the patties, as well i got guatamole, colasol, tomatoes as fixings.. so it wasnt that western. Plus the drink that came with the meal was a juice made from corn. I didnt like the juice it had a very distinct and bad after taste. After lunch we admired the homes and building in the neighboring street. We are know staying in one of the richer neighbors of Lima. I feel safer here, more so then in central lima. The girls that directed us to this part of the city we smart ones.

We all have been craving a homecooked meal for the past couple days, so we decided to make pasta at the hostel instead of eating out again. It took 3 trips two 2 different stores to get all the necessary goods to cook with. We bought noodles, tomatoe sauces, bacon, garlic, red peppers, onions, eggs (for breakfast), a bottle of wine, bottle of rum, and 4 liters of coke. once at home, the hostel we settled in to a very serious game of asshole followed by a game of backgammon. I royal kicked trevors ass... but then he kicked mine at chess. I have never before played that game before so i didnt want to play the game in the first place. Trev is too serious of a chess player to bother explaining why we does the moves that he does... so i didnt learn the game, i just got my ass kicked. I think i will stick to games we both know.. then the games are more fun.

Trev and Dave love playing video poker at the casinos here... because it only costs 10 centesome to play and u dont loss to much money at one time. So far we have been lucky because we all leave the casino up. I suggested playing real poker in our room because we had a litre of rum to get through. It was a good night because i won 2 out of the three poker games we played. DAVE lost them all.... it has to be said because he has been bragging that he an awesome player, but the drunk girl won instead.

Another today was a lazy day as we recovered for the alcohol from the night before. We all slept in, had an awesomre breakfast, then headed to the air canada office to sort this airplane issues out. As it turns out, there is nothing he can do to really help us. The flight for tuesday is closed meaning that we cant buy tickets, but there may be some tomrrow (tues) so we have to go back at 9am. But we have tickets booked for the flight home on june first, but that is too late for me.. so i am still holding out hope for tickets for tomorrow. I will write move later. I need to get the salt water out of my hair.

night.

Not coming home

2006-05-28T08:29:00.000-07:00

... Figurtive or literally....

I am going to literally. We missed our plane in Lima last night because we enjoyed an excellent Peruvian meal, then finished up shopping, the taxi couldnt find our hostel that was storing our bags, and it was a longer drive to the airport then expected. Overall we arrived at the airport at 8:15pm, but we stopped to repack our bags after we told a lady we were on the aircanada flight. It wouldh ave been nice if she informed us that if we didnt go now that we would not be going at all. But wouldnt that be too easy.

So here i am at another hostel with no money in my pocket as a cute little surfer hostel. It is 11am and the boys are stll sleeping and attempting too. We all upset at what happened. Both Trev and Dave have girlfriends to get home to and well i miss my friends. The next plane that flies to Canada isnt not until tuesday. That means not time to visit friends and family before the move to abbotsford.

I am a little annoyed but there is nothing we can do at the moment.

Bolivia.. what a party

2006-05-24T18:16:00.000-07:00

OK... I am still alive after the little side trip to Copacabana, Bolivia and I am currently in Arequipa. Plans have changed again... we are going to take a night bus to lima on friday night and arrive there on saturday morning, which then leaves us a day to sight see in the city. I really didnt want to head back to Cusco because we have spend a large portion of our time there already... so i convinced Trev and Dave to come with me to lima. The bus rides are about the same lenght so it makes no sense to revisit cusco... although now we cant get another inca massage, but I did find a massage place down the street from our new hostel so maybe get one there instead.

Any how... Bolivia was a blast....

We were paniking on the morning we were heading to Copacabana because we only had our record of payment but no bus tickets. The bus was set to leave at 730am and it was 710 before we found the lady that sold us the tickets. As it turned out, the record of payment was all we needed. The tour lady was awesome and payed for our taxi ride to the inner city bus pick up location. it was sweet because by not going to the bus stationing directly we don´t have to pay the traveling tax... ya saving money.

The ride to the border was uneventful... although i did meet an older guy biking around peru (he also buses occationally)... his trip sounded like fun.

I can say that I have walked to and from Bolivia because we have to all get off the bus... exit peru, walk across the border line and then do the custom thing in bolivia. Copacabana is only 20 mins from the border and it is a very touristy town... i liked it.

The day we arrived, we booked at tour to the Island of the sun and a bus back to puno. After shopping (yes, I have bought a couple presents) for a couple hours... we all needed a little dessert. we found this cute little restuarant on the tourist street where we munched on chocolate cake and coke while playing Spanish Clue. Trev kicked ass... he cheated thou. This was a relaxing day. In was sunday so we decided that we needed to attend church (it was trevs idea). The central church was impressive and grand, the only downfall was that the church service was in spanish so it was a litte hard to follow, but even so I enjoyed the experience. It was the first time I have been to a service in 13 years. Dave had never been to church before and trev... well he is an alter boy back home.

We have started buying breakfast foods for the days that we are on tours because we keep picking hostels that dont serve us breakfast. In Copacabana, the town has to majo0r streets, one is very touristy and the other is a local street. The local street has a massive supermarket thing that is made up of various little stalls not one big store. It is like the one in Puno. We have left over cheese.. but we bought sliced meat and more bread. We have officially given up on jam and butter... it is too messy. So we have made breakfast on a train, 2 buses and a boat.

Just for Gordon we had good old fashion traditional food for dinner... yummy....

Any how we went to bed pretty early because we had to be at the dock at 8 to get to the Island of the sun. It was an amazing trip, because the Bolivia side of lake titicaca is not over polluted. The water is crystal clear and very very blue. It the water wasnt about -15 degree i would have gone swimming. I loved the day trip and I have about 40 pictures of the lake... man... oh man... i missed water... i am glad i am moving to bc for the summer. On the Island of the Sun we got a guided tour.. but he only spoken spanish so I didnt really take much out of it. I enjoyed the view instead. After visiting a museum, and 2 sets of runes, we set out on the 8km hike to the south end of the island. It was alot of uphill... even thou i just completed an 8 day trekk with lots of up... i still find myself out of breathe.

The little hike was suppost to take up 2.5 -3 hours... we did it in under 2hours. That left us time to go restuarant hunting. And I mean huntting. We arrived in the south side of the island at 2pm, which coinsides with nap time... we tryed 2 restuarant that turned out to be a good 5 min walk down a grassy path... it took us about 30 mins to find an open restuarant willing to serve us hungry tourists. And the only place we could find... only had sandwiches. I was disappointed... i wanted pizza. But then the ppl beside up recieved pasta... ohhhh ... so we convinced the 13 year old waitress that we really wanted pasta... it took a lot of convincing to get her to change our order.... and we shared 2 liters of coke. I think i have had more coke in the last 2 days then I have in the last year. The view from the restuarant was awesome as well because there was a well kept church and then more sparkling water below. Its funny we have all become additicted to playing cards. Before and after lunch we played war and asshole, on the boat ride we played as well. I love it.

We almost missed the boat ride home and I had a hard time finding the ticket for the ride back... I am not allowed to hold on to anything important anymore... hehhe ... So i have lost my passport once and almost lost lots of other belongings. The boat ride home was good... we met a women from scotland, a women from england and a younger guy from Switzerland. The Younger guy was fun to talk to... this trip for him has been an excuse to party and drinking so the stories we shared with me were very entertaining to say the least. He was been traveling on his own from 3 months and has 2 more to go and I recieved a few good tips from him when travelling alone.

Once back to town, we proceeded to climb up the hill adjacent to the main plaza. the climb was disturbing because there was garbag and writing everywhere. It was grost... but we wanted to see the sunset from the top so i climbed on. Dave and trev walk way to fast uphills but that was ok because allowed be to walk slowly by myself and to take lots of photos with out slowing them down. I have pretty pics to add later.

For dinner we all tryed a street vendor... it turned out to be one of the best and cheapest meals of the trip. I am going to have to try a first more vendors while traveling in the future. When we were walking throu town earlier we found this bar with a sign that said Drink Beer, save water. I had to go in there... so we had pina coladas in copacabana. This pub was a sketchy bar... we were the only ones in there and the walls were covered in graffiti. It was a bar that probably would allow drug to be smoked in it... but we had a good time just drinking there. After 3 drinks there we left to find so where more populated.

At the next bar... we played pool... i met an english guy, a guy from calgary and a guy from so where else. It was a good night until me and dave started doing double shots of tequila... it all gets hazy after that. But the boys made sure that i got home safely.

I was definity a little hungover the next morning. I slept in while.. the boys went shopping and the cold shower helped sober me up. I was sort of still drunk when i woke up. Lunch/brekfast was a traditional el menu (set meal). Soup, then trout with rice and fries followed by coffee. Lunch lasted too long, meals here always do thou. We were supposed to be at the bus at 1... and we were still at lunch then... but as it turns out the bus didnt actually leave until 130 so that left more shopping time. I have finished my shopping for family and friends so it was time to shop for me... i bought the coolest ring and necklace from street vendors... i cant wait to show them off.

Things seem to work out for us because the minute we arrived back in Puno we were able to get on a bus to Arequipa. Although we havent prefected paying for things... at the bus station u have to pay a departure tax and I only paid for 2 taxes and there was three of us traveling.. the offical checking tickets wanted us to go back and get another one... instead trev bribe the guy by paying him the sol... instead of going back inside... we bribed our first offical. After ways we got on the 330 bus to arequipa and arrived in the city at 930ish.

Stupid taxi drivers... our driver tryed to tell us that the hostel we wanted was fully... i am glad that dave speaks fluent spanish because we assure the driver that we would find our own hostel. The one we wanted did have 3 beds open. It was a sweet ass room.. the nicest yet. It had its one bathroom and tv, plus i got the top bunk bed. We were all in bad moods were we arrived because we didnt have time to buy food in puno... no one had eaten in 9 hours, but after a yummy meal of pasta with pesto and other various foods all was well. We returned to the hostel at 12am and proceed to watch 2 movies. We havent watched any tv in 3 weeks so it was a treat to watch something, anything. It fell asleep during Blade 1....

The next day, the only day we were spending in Arequipe wasnt spent the way I wanted to spend it because we didnt get up until 9ish... i made the mistake of turning the tv on... Ever after was on and it is my favourite movie so i made the boys watch it with me...hehhe that was mean of me... We didnt end up leaving the hostel until 11ish... breakfast at the central plaza took forever... dave and trev wanted to shop.. and I just wanted to do the tourist things... and they didnt want be to do the tourist thing by melf... which i understand... but i was still annoyed. When we finally started the tourist thing we got lost... it was fustrating.

We ended up finded the largest monestry in the area. It was expensive to get in but it took us over 2.5 hours to look through everything. There we couryards, nun and priest houses... 6 street full of houses, a restuarant... and lots of random corners. It wasnt like any other place we had been too. I liked it.

After that we headed back to the hostel to set up our trip to the canyon and book our tickets for the bus to lima. That could a long long time.

The musuem that I want to really hit contained a mummy that was discovered at the top of one of the located volcanos near arequipa. The museum was amazing. It started with a 20min video and finished with a 40m,in guided tour of the artifacts that we found with the mummy and the mummy its self. SOOOO cool.

We were planning on trying cuy (guinne pig) tonight for dinner... but the resturant recommended by the guide of the museum was closed for the day ... so we went across the street and had chinese food. Odd chinese food in Peru... but it was good... we chased the food down with Peruvian beer. That makes it all better eh.

I am going to say good night... and head to the casino to join dave and trev there. It was Trevors idea...

Later

Pics are coming...

2006-05-20T18:52:00.000-07:00

d

Hey, we all hve made CDs of all the pics from the trek, but I couldnt get the blog to load them... it was taking to long so no photos yet, but trust me they are worth the wait.

We, Trev, Dave, and Val... spent the last two days on 3 of the islands on Lake Titicaca. The first island was the floating islands. The islands are made of lake reeds about 1 meter thick. Almost everything that they own is constructed from the reeds as well (like there houses, boats, crafts, and they also eat some of the plant). I tried eating the reed... it doesnt taste basd but i dont think i could live on it. The culture at the floating islands has be destroy sa bit by the large amount of tourists that visit them, so there is an increase of begging and poverty, but they still seems to be a functioning society. Apparently there are more islands hidden farther from puno down channels between the reeds and these islands can only be visited by private boats. This is were where the culture has not been changed to need tourism. I wish we could have visit that area, but i am glad that some places are still hidden from the rest of world.

At the second island, we were shoed off our boat on to a dock full with locals. We were first tolded to grab a family to stay with, and we all stood there looking very confused, but apparently we were waiting for our guide to call our names and the names of the family we were going to stay with. So a women named Flora, a cute little peruvian women lead us up the rocky path to her home. This island was very different from the big citys because there wasnt any visible poverty. Everyone had land, houses and animals. A funny thing was that the gates had hings made from old soles of shoes. It is a smart idea, but it looked strange to me. We had about 30mins of free time before the family served us lunch so we went exploring... apparently we arent very good at finding paths... we ended up climbing over most rock fences... trev almost knocked one over... finally we found a path but by then it was time to turn back. the way back to the house only took 5 mins so dave and val started a game of soccer with children from the neighboring homes. It was very cute.. they got they asses kicked. I napped in the warm afternoon sun and trev wrote in his journal. After the soccer game all the little kids introduced themselves and they even signed Trev journal. It was all an exciting experience. I found that even thou they cant speak our language we could will communicate.

The families provided us with a delishes meal consisting of soup, potatoes and rice and tea. After which we were taken to the main square where we ran in to Dympna (aussie), John and Lindsay. Lindsay has ditced up for john. The three of them wanted to do the trip on their our because then the locals get more of the money. We all hiked up the hill on the island, recieved a introduction to the runes we were going to see. Everyone in our group of friends went up to the less touristy runes (mother earth), but me and trev went to both. We made it up to the Father sky runes first... then we ran down the patheway and up the other one. We made it up just in time for the sunset.

Once the sunsets, there is only about 20-30 more minutes of light so we had to quickly walk down the path. I am by far the slowest one in the group and trev is always making sure that i dont get left behind. When we were walking out the hill, i felt so tired and out of breathe... it was retarded. It felt like i hadnt been treking at all, but we were at an elevation over 4000m so that made the climb significately harder. But the amazing view was worth it because we could see the lake and in the far distance we could see the shadows of the bolivian snow capped mountains.

After we returned to the central square.. different girl led us home in the dark. We were all starving and looking forward to another home cooked meal. It is totally different to get homecooked food vs restuarant food. GUESS WHAT...
When we get to Bolivia tomorrow... we are going to look for a hostel with a kitchen because I am going to make me and trev and dave a homecooked meal... I miss cooking and the boys are looking forward to making fun of my cooking.

The night was cold and I was very tired so I stayed home after dinner. They was a little dancing thing at the central square and Dave, Trev and Val went. It was a good time and they got to dress up in tradtional clothing.

The next morning we almost missed the boat to the last island because we were waiting for breakfast. The wait was worth it. Have I mentioned that food is the best part of travelling. We got tea and pancakes at 730am. We were again lead to the boat dock by our host family. it was sad to say good bye. Once we were on the boat the cards came out... it is funny were are spending alot of time playing a variety of games at every chance we get. The other members of our tour think we are strange.

I forgot to tell you about the other members of our tour... there was a couple from Ottawa, a couple from New York, an Israli guy, 3 ppl from Quebec and another couple froim some where in the states. It was interesting to talk with the ppl from new york because they had just finished volunteering in northern Peru. I am going to look into volunteering in thalian when i go.

The last island was alot mor touristy and fully of restuarants... basically we were there to have lunch and enjoy the scenery. We played cards, but i did try the lake trout.

Once back in Puno, we tried to find somewehre to get laundry done.. but instead we had snacktime in a little cafe on the main street. Apple pie, cheesecake, and moka cake plus coffee with Baileys. I am starting to get used to snake time at 5ish and dinner at 8pm. The cake and coffee was excellent and it woke me up after my afternoon nap on the boat.

At 6 all nine of us traveling more or less together managed to all be in the stay place at the same time so we went to dinner as a fully group. That was a funny event. Becasue we had no idea where we wanted to eat and on Lima street (the central tourist street) there are ppl selling things, pple wanting to clen shoes and ppl trying to get u in their restuarant so when we stopped we were getting surrounded. Finally we ended up a at a restuarant that offered us a tradition tourist menu and free drinks. It is weird because the set meal of a soup, many course, juice and dessert is the same price as the main course. So only stupid tourist pay high prices for meals. heheh

It was alittle sad because we are spiltting up tomorrow. Me and tre and dave at going to Bolivia. Dympa is following Val to the jungle to an aminal rehab thingy. Lindsay and john are going back to Trubusos farm (horse handled from our trek) farm to look after some children and fully experience the culture. They first wanted to teach english, but it is potatoe harvesting time so the adults are all busy working in the fields so with john and lindsay there, they will be able to look after the kids and teach a little english.. Keith and Nat may come to bolivia with us but there plans are in the air.

I am going to continue to do the tourist thing and when i am in south east asia I will hopeful find something a interesting to do too.. but for now i dont have time.

So i will updata everyone on the events of day 8 of the trek... the day of traveling to puno and the 2 uneventful days in Puno.

Wish me luck ... to more we are going to bolivia who knows that is going to happen.

Luv ya

2006-05-18T18:59:00.000-07:00

Its thursday night, we (Nat, John, Dave, Trev and me) ate pizza again at this wonderful pizza place... pizza in peru is heaven because it is made in a clay oven... only in Peru would u find a bar with a clay oven.

Anyhow everyone is down in th casino so i am here at the internet cafe.

Day 3 of the trek

For me this was the hardest day. We got up at 6 am and had breakfast, plus we packed up. By 8am we were hiking the Inca stairs to the first set of runes. They were amazing because the cloud forest we were in had not dissappear, so everything look almost like a dream. The incas stone work and building techniques were very advanced. The hike up to the Runes took us past jungle up and then to stair build my the inkas. John was fed up with climbing and said that the runes were going to be behind the next corner... THEY WERE...

The first set of runes were the place were common ppl would have slept during festivals, the few builds would become room to hundreds, but as we climb more stairs and pathways, we found ourselves upon buildings and homes of royal class. From this point we come see for miles around, we could see rivers, high mountain towns and farming fields opn the slopes of the Andes, plus blue blue sky that stretched for miles. If is it wasn{t so cold I wouldnt leave the little town. We hiked/climbed through almost non distinct pathway through a dense jungle like surrounding. it was an interesting hour and a bit because everything was constantly changing and i was in an interesting discussion with the Aussies. The four hours after we summitted the mountain started out ok, but the day grew very hot and the scenery remained constant/boring. The last hour of hike went by slowly... all we could wait for was the river lerking below. The river never appeared to get closers and the path turned to lightly packed sandy. The path was scary because we all kept slipping and there was a cliff to our right. Trev, Dave and I were in the back... and the pace was slow....

But finally after what felt like forever, we reached the ice cold blue river. As soon as the river appeared our backpacks were dropped and the cooling began. Freddy our guide yelled at us because we still had another 1km to walk. so we got dressed and walked along the river for another 30mins. As soon as we were at our lunch resting place the Aussie jumped in the river... me and dave were second. Trev and lindsay were chickens and tooktheir sweet time. john jump in after me and dave. Freddy took the opportunity to bathe.

Guess what... sarah u are going to laugh... maybe hit me later.

I went swimming with my camera in my pocket... trev nicely reminded me that it was still in the pocket of my shorts. I didnt take anuy pics for a while. (it is working now thou)

Swimming was ended very shortly after were arrived because lunch was ready... It wad another good meal. I wished that lunch would never end because we had another 3 hour climb ahead of us. And it wasn{t going to be an easy 3 hours, it was almost straight up with a first zig zags. I would not have made it with out Trevors help because he stayed behind me the whole way up, stopping to rest with me and then reminding me that we had to continue or wed be stuck on the side of a mountain to freeze. He was amazing because if he wasnt there I wouldnt have made it up the mountain. I just wanted to sit dow2n on the hill and not move because my legs were soar and I was out of energy. I wanted to quit but Trevor refused to pass me. Dave was traveling at the back of the pack too, he made me a new walking stick when I broke my bambo one. A walk stick does help.

At about 530pm, the sun had set and light was quitely dissapear we arrived at a split in the road.. there was a camping site to the left and hill to the right... lucky for us we had to head up the path to the right... yayya... but i stopped to finish my oreo cookies and the energy from that aided the final assent to the campsite. Freddy had promised us a fire on this night because we were finally out of protected land and we allowed to make one. But we arent very good outdoors men. We couldnt make a fire, even with the help of a full bottle of first aid alcohol. Yep freddt used our first aid equipement on a fire. I vwas a little annoyed that we couldnt get a fire started so i went for a nap in my (JJs) very warm sleeping bag... an hour later whenI emerged from the tent there was a roaring fire... One ofthe horse handled (ANDES mountain gods) made a massive bond fire. If it wasnt for them we wouldnt have not a sweet ass roaring fire between snack time and dinner time.

Again it was an early night...

Day 4.

This was th last HARD day of the trek. We were climbing to an elevation of 4200 meters. The hike was apparently easy for 2 hours and then hard uphill for 2 more hours. Freddy is starting to lie a lot... so in reality it was insane up hill for the entire 4 hours. But it wasnt as bad as the third day because it wasnt as hot and the up hill was in the morning. The elevation made the weather cold plus we were always in clouds. My body was over heating while climbing the rocks but as soon as we stopped I was freezing. We made it to a point where the hard climbing became a little easier and this is where i was almost pushed off the cliff by a dog. Dave was like there is a dog, i said where, but as I spoke the dog came up behind me. it startled me and I just about stepped off the mountain.

Lunch on the fourth day took place on the top of our second mountain. At first the view was blocked by clouds... but after yet another excellent lunch the clouds lessen and we were amazed by the hight of the mountain.

After lunch, it was only 3.5 hours all downhill to the our househandles farm yard where we were staying. We hiked through barren mountain slopes, green meadow, dense jungle and farm land. The surrounds changed almost as fast as the weather changes in calgary. I just couldnt wait to be at our campsite.

Isedro offered us an amazing meal. He slaughtered a lamb for us, john helped. We all helped make an igloo out his field rocks and from that he made a hot fire inside. The rocks were left for 2 hours to heat up. While we were waiting we had tea and snack and played asshole. I lost horribly. but we were playing with 8 ppl.

We were called out of our dinner tent to watch Isedro and his sons remove the fire and then they flated out the red hot rocks. The lamb pieces were piled on the rocks then a layed of hot rocks were placed on top (the men moved the rocks with sticks and their bare hands). Potatoes, beans and more lamb were added in layers. Then a finally layer of rocks were added on to the food. A layer of stray/hay then a tarp was played on top. After a finaly layer of dirt was compacted to keep the heat inside to cold the varies foods.

WOW... after 45 mins.... the most awesome meal was served to us. I recieved 2 massive hunks of lamb, a few beans, 3 potatoes and 1 sweet yam. It is a traditional way to cook food. The ceremorie occurs on birthdays and special occations. This was a special occation for Isedro and his family. It is the first time they have had tourist stay at ur farm.

I forgot to mention that, we we arrived I asked where the bathroom was, and I was told that he had to make one for us. And I asked about a shower/bath. I was feelingf very dirty after now showering for 3 days. Isedro offer to construct a shower for me... i had to argue very hard to stop him from doing that. I did not want to put to extra trouble.

I was in bed and asleep by 9pm... it was a late night

Day 5

We hike out of the Isedros little town. The farm land and village reminded ,me of the surrounds described in the book Eragon. It was beautiful, remote and untouched by tourist/the western world. It is a 2 day hike to get to, no matter which was to enter the town from. The kids were encountered were stronger that us, could run up and down the hills incircles around us... they are true amazing.

The hike consisted of FLAT ya and a little up hill. During the walk I dound out that lindsay had quite a musically talent. She entertained us by singing song after song as we walked through feilds and across rivers. The are very few bridges on this hike... mostly we just hop from rock to rock. The hike was fairly easy.. just long.

Emma had been graving chocolate for the last few days... so as soon as we arrived in the next town (our campsite) she proceeded to buy the stores entired chocolate supply (25 chocolate bars). We all bought a few from her, but she still finished off most of them.

We played poker after snack time. and then yummy food and sleep

Day 6

we got up pretty early because we had 6 hours of hiking in the morning. We needed to be in a town called Playa to catch bus to Saint Thesea. We came across coffee plantation and banana farms while walking. It wasn{t a difficult day but it was long. Six hours of hiking at one time was longer than any other day. But in a way it was worth it because went we arrived in Playa we got time to chill out. There was running water to spray on our sweated heads and to cool my sunburnt face and hands ( i have been wearing 50spf sunscreen, but that doesn{t help). We played hack with some little peruvian children while they waited for the same bus we were wqaiting for. The bus was supposed to leave at 1pm, but it was waiting for us and another group of america tourist. We got mac and cheese peruvian style for lunch. yummy. I dont want to come home to my own cooking.

Stupid americas didn{t book the bus soo there was too many ppl.. but that didn{t matter... we all piled on. me and dave shared a seat, john and emma and trev/lindsay did too. It was only a 40min drive but i am sure that i squeshed this legs.

That night were stayed in a hostel... first shower (cold ) in 4 days. It was awesome. After we all unpacked a bit and changed into bathing suit, we headed straight down to the hot springs via a bus... we werent walking anywhere.

The americas from the bus were walking down to the hot springs.. we passed them and covered them in dust. The hot springs were nice... it relaxed our very soar muscles and allowed much needed relazing time. I was able to soap down in a little canal at the hot springs that was located between the 2 hot pools... it was an area with a small amount of running water design for ppl to wash their hair and bodies. It felt so good, i had to buy a beer for the walk back to the minibus thing.

After dinner.. me dave trevand freddy played drinking games. The others joined us for a little bit, but they were too tired. We played until 12pm. It left and went to bed because freddy our guide was hitting on me and i was getting creeped out. But we played all the different drinking games we could think of. It was fun for a whilee.

YAYAY.... we slept in until 8am..... happy

Day 7

We slept in.. pack our large packs... today we jhad to carry our own shitty for 40 mins through town to the river. At the river we had to cross over the quickly flowing massive river in a cable cart. They goverment will not allow a bridge to be built because it would encourage tourist and tourist companyies to take this route over taking the railway to MaccuPacchu

I have to run bed time.... i will finish the story when i get back from the floating islands on saturday before we head to bolivia

Finally an update on the 8 trek

2006-05-17T11:30:00.000-07:00

Pic... me and the aussies

On last monday, the first day of the trek was a very early morning, the first of many, we were picked up at 4Am from our hostal. We were all a very tired and stood have a sleep waiting for the minibus to pick us up. It was about 30mins late.... we could have slept in. I feel asleep at 11pm and was awake at 3am... ya 4 hours.

Anyways... I was excited but kind of scared to go because I havent been hike in^a while, but many adventures a wait. I havent completed an over night hike before so this is all new to me. I am expecting this journey to be as much of a mental battle as a physical challenage.

There was a 4 hours drive to the starting location of the trek, and I was hoping to catch up on sleep but the bus was freezing (note to self... bring sleeping bag on to buses) and trevors shoulder wasnt overly compfy.

The most exciting point of the drive was when we briefly stopped, I introduced myself to the aussie girls that were on our Trek. And guess what.... They are from Melbourne, and I am going to have friends to visit there already.

I have been trying to keep a journal but i rarely find the time or put in there time to write becasue i find that there are always better things to do. It reminds me of when i was in school because i would rather clean house than do my homework.

So the start of day one

When we arrived at this small little farm house and yard we unloaded the minibus and Isedro (the peruvian cook) ran happily and started making us breakfast while the 7 our us began to get to know each other and put sunscreen on. I swear, throughout the days I wore 45 or 50 spf sunscreen and u should see my nose (its a little scary). Any who... breakfast consisted of french toast buns, buns and jam/butter and COCA TEA (we have had it with most meals). I ate until I was somewhat fully, I regretted not over eat that morning becasue bu 11am I was hungry again and lunch wasnt until 2pm. Lucky we bought chocolate and cookies the night before.

The day of hiking wasnt to bad thinking back now, but at the time it was challenaging with barran surrounding that allowed the hot peruvian sun heat us all up increasing the difficulty of the hike.

To start me and John ( the calgarian we met 2 days before the hike) headed up the pack where we talked about shcool, summer jobs,and life in general. He was a very carsmatic person. He seems to be the perfect traveller because he knows tge right questions to ask to get to know ppl and he wanted to make sure that he knew everyone. Throughout the day the pack order changed allowing everyone to interact on a one on one basis, which was awesome. The more I learnt about the aussie the more I am excited to visit them in feb 2007. Dympna and Emma (the aussies) acted like sisters, they are very much one person, its funny.

On the hike, the funniest site was cows munching grass in the middle of a very very step slope. (Mom its a good thing you weren{t on the hike, the slopes were cliff like and the paths very small). We stopped at 1pm to wait for the horses to catch up and for Isedro (the peruvian cook) to make up a lunch. We started with soup, and I was disappointed because I thought that would be the only thing we were eating, but to my surprise be also got spagetti and more coca tea. It seems that we are going to be getting lots of 3 course meals made over a 2 burner camp stove. Isedro{s cooke is amazing... i want to pack him up and bring with home with me.

We arrived at camp about 1hours after lunch.. and there was going to be a shower, we were all excited... that was until i saw it. It was made of bambo that wasnt tightly woven so it was pretty much see through and there was also a groupe of peruvian aged school boys camping with us... so i didnt want to shower but it was going to be the last one before Machi Piccu. So I showered in my shorts and tank, but that didnt stop the stares because the door of the shower consisted of a half ripped tarp that was only about 2 feet in lenght. Dave and john brave the shower naked. The water wasnt even ice cold... it was only luke cold. The bano ( bathroom) was even more questionable because it didnt even have walls and it was a level below the boys camp site. The bathroom consisted of a hole in the ground that have a few logs to stop you from falling into the hole and there were a couple logs making a tipi structure around the hole... but it scared me... I waited until it was very dark.

We played are first game of asshole with Freddy ( our guide), john, trev and dave. Freddy was asshole both times with Johns help. Then as the sun was gone (around 6pm) it was tea time with popcorn (yummy) and crackers with carmel sauce. No coca tea this time... i had hot chocolate.

After my shower Dympna french braided my hair... she was one of the first girls i have meet that can actually french braid.

During and after snack time John led a discussion on movies, books, but i was so tired that i half passed out chillen at the table. Dinner was serve just before 8pm. The cook put together a meal starting with yummy soup and of fryed fish, rice veggie and some thing else but i cant remember. As soon as food was served we all silently consumed the amazing food and shortly after we all retired to our tents for an early night after the first of many long days.

Day 2

It was another early morning because the canyon we are hiking up is difficult and if we leave early we will avoid the sun. So up at 5am we were woken up with tea...we all though that tea was waiting for us at the table.. but it was actually brough to up. We were served tea in the tent. And shortly after that we had huge breakfast with fruit, yogurt, oatmeal, maybe a pancake too.

The hike down to the river was tough on the knee but it was only an hour down. The river was extremely fast and bright blue... I wish we could have swan in it, but instead we crossed it in the only real constructed bridged of the trip. After that it was a growling 2 or 3 hours zig zaging up to the first farm where we found a small waterfall that we all soaked our heads in. It was extremely hot even with out the sun. IT was at this break that we met 4 ppl, 2 from south afria and 2 from the states, they were only completing the 2 day hike to the rune and then hiking back the same way. I couldnt do that because that would meet retracing steps and the hiking was hard the first time, I couldnt do it... i like not knowing what is coming.

We hiked for anoth 2 hours or so until zig zaging up hill. I was tired and bored out the same surrounds so the time dragged on. We couldn{t talk or sing becasue we were all out of breathe. It was a challenge not to just sit down and stay there. At one point, me dympna, emma, me and dave as sat down and were content staying there, but some different ppl from the states walk down informed us that we only had 15 more minutes to go.. so that encouraged us to continue. the last little bit took the longest amount of time because we had been hike for 4 or 5 hours already and we were exhausted. Me , trev or dave were the end of the pack taking it one step at a time (very slowly), but even if we made it to the top were quickly, we would still have to wait for the horse to get lunch... so i didn{t see the point or being fast.

The view from the lunch break point was amazing (i have pics) and the grass was bright green and very compfy.. i had a little nap with the aussie, dave read and trev wrote in his book. I think lindsay and john were off talking to the other trekers and little kids on the farm. Lindsay and john are getting allong very well, they have everythuing in common.

Lunch was good, soup and then a second course finishing with more tea, but it was celery tea... it was actually very good, but it had lots of sugar in it.

We hike for bout an hour or so, but the path was always changing, up, down, FLAT and we could see towns, and farm land on the slopes across from us, as well as the runes and our camp site.

We all helped set up the tents and put our stuff in the tent. We all felt bad that the horse handlers and the cook did some much work. I opted out of hiking for another30 down and 1 hour up to see runes. I was too tired, dave opted out too. Instead i had a shower, but that was a mistake because the water was ice cold and the sun was got so it couldn{t warm me. I layed in my sleeping bag for over an hour, but i was still cold when me and dave played crazy eights... I kicked his ass twice.

Snack time was popcorn and cracker again with tea. That night i had brought my truth and dare poker card in hopes of playing asshole, but instead we played truth and dare... just truth thou because it was fairly cold and noone wanted to move. It were learn alot about each other there. After another amazing meal i headed straight to bed because it was going to be another diffucult day.

Also dymna was turning 20 the next day... a birthday in the anden mounain that doesnt happen everyday

Trevor is bored and dave is done so i have to sign off for now, but we are spending the day relaxing in Puno and waiting for john, lindsay, nat, keith and Val our new friends.

until later

Adios amegos

Still alive after 8 days of trekking 120km in 7 days

2006-05-16T07:54:00.000-07:00

Hola amigos

I am alive and I have meet some aussie girl from Melbourne to visit while i am study there next year. This is going to be another short entry because me and dave and trevor are going to try to get to Puno by tonight. Lindsay, Dipna and john are head down there tomorrow. Dipna and john afe new friends from the trek.

When I am safe in Puno to night expect a very long entry.

Adios

Up at 4am Tomorrow

2006-05-07T20:03:00.000-07:00

It is going to be a short entry because it is 10pm and I have to be up at 4am for the start of the trek.

Today was amazing because we joined a tour group to explore 2 markets and 3 rune site. The lack of oxygen makes it hard to climb up hills, but down is ok.

When i am back from the trek I will have lots to say.

Pic (us at 4 am)

All is good in peru

2006-05-05T18:48:00.000-07:00

internet cafes, money exchanges, restaurants and tour guides crowd the busy busy street. I am really enjoying things in Peru. I have never had better pizza, it rivals the pizza i had in Edmonton at JJ´s dads favourite bar.

JJ this is for u, but we found a hookah bar on our first night in Cuzco, my traveling buds didnt like the idea of smoking... so we just listened to live music and played asshole. Met some british travellers there.

This morning was filled with a freezing shower, the hostel promised hot water but they lied. Oh well... the best news is that the airport had our bags. The taxi to the airport was only 5 Sol, 1.2 US$, but the hostel van that took us home was 10 sol. I don´t think that was a good idea. But it is a good idea to find GOOD drivers in Cusco because there appears to be no road rules. They drive fast down tiny tiny one way streets with ppl dodging in and out. There are NO lanes, few lights and ppl park in the middle of the street not the sides. I have pics but i haven´t figured out how to post them. I am working on that.

We book a tour for sunday to a massive market in a small town just out side of Cuzco... i am a little scared of getting there... drivers are crazy. we all so started the tourist thing today. We purchased a toursit ticket, which is a ticket that gets up into 16 museums, dance performances, and such things.

It is amazing here, but things don´t happen instanous... things happen manana (tomorrow) which isn´t the attitude i am used to. I am trying thou.

Luv ya

Later.

I have my bags yayyaya. I was so happy for CLEAN SOCKS.

19 Hours of travel

2006-05-04T18:01:00.000-07:00

Travel what a mess. We arrived in Toronto in time to see only the first period of the Flames game and to have a 7.50$ pint of canadian. I am so sad to here were lost the game, did anyone tape it.....please say yes....

Anyways the flight from tornto and lima was long cold and uneventful, however the lima airport was an interesting place because first we were bomb barred with taxi drives offering rides and tours, plus there were women in bright bright yellow jump suits.

Did i mention that the air canada check in person told us that our bags would arrive in cusco without having to transfer them in the lima airport, where our travel cuts person instructed us to pick them up. Being smart tourist we all listened to the aircanada person.

Guess what

I said guess....

No baggage in cusco.... its still in lima Ya. That means I am still wearing the same dirty cloths i have been in fore the last 2 days. They say they can´t get our baggage into cusco until friday. But on a better note the guy from the hostel was on time and very friendly. Our hostel in plain but nice and the beds are somewhat comfy.

This afternoon we drank coca tea, leaves from the coca plant... yummmy... so far no altuted sickness. We found a cute little restaurant near the hostel and had a 3 course meal and a drink from 10 sol, 3$ us. We were exausted from the lack of sleep so a nap was inorder, plus it was a good way to stay out of the heat. It was 18 degrees.

The scarest part so far is the way ppl drive. There are no stop sign, or lines, just insections where ppl randomly go, as well there is no crosswalks. People dodge traffick and cross where semi safe. I will post photos later. To get to the hostel we are staying out, you have to walk down a small, tiny, one person wide sidewalk beside a one lane road. People are the ones that take turn passing each other when there is minimal traffick. I have to remember that people don´t have the right of way in Peru.

Dinner tonight was awesome. The place was called Cafe Jacks, it was fairly western. The food was excellent, but the best part was the bathroom. It had toilet paper, soap and paper towel. I would go back just for that reason.

And after we are heading to a jazz place.

Good night, and I hope my bag shows up tomorrow.

Packed and ready to go to Peru

2006-05-02T21:04:00.000-07:00

I am leaving in about 16 hours, not that i am counting. I am so excited but nervous at the same time. I am going to miss all my Calgary friends and my roommates, but i am looking forward to the adventure and all the trouble I AM NOT GOING TO GET IN TO. heheh :P

So for now until my next blog

Byebye and wish me luck on my 19hrs of traveling

Where.. what... isn't not mine

2006-05-02T20:48:00.000-07:00

Take a look... my once beautiful blue room is no longer mine, or blue.... Who paints a room YELLOW... I ask you that. Its funny I move out of my room 5 days ago, guess where i am living.....

You'll never guess...

The living room, i guess I love this house that much. I am so sad to be leaving it and my roomies.

Last day at work April 29

2006-05-02T20:31:00.000-07:00

Cam Mazur, an optomerist, I was working for in Northhill is an amazing women. I had only working there for a total of four months, but she gave me a huge bouquet of flowers and certificate for the mall. I have never been felt more valued. Just look at the flowers.

Off to Peru

2006-04-21T19:06:00.000-07:00

Off to Peru May 3rd... The adventure will begin