2.24.2012
7.01.2010
Cambodia and Vietnam prep time
Usually our trips are relatively last-minute, where we buy out plane tickets a couple of weeks before we leave, and we start packing the night before we leave.
This time around it's different, and strange. And i can't decide whether it's good or bad. Well, there are definite perks: we have enough time to figure out our visas, and time to buy specific things (like mosquito nets). And we can browse our travel guide before, well, before the plane ride there. The biggest upside so far is that we were able to coordinate with Sean's best friend, so the three of us our going together :)
But living through two months while having a potentially amazing trip in the near future... well it's just a really big tease. Most of my working day is spent daydreaming about what it might be like to be traveling right now. I'm not too keen on doing too much travel-guide reading, or too much thinking about the trip at all, because it's way too easy to ruining the whole thing with too-high expectations.
Well, it'll be a few weeks before I can legitimately start looking forward to leaving. So until then, I'll daydream of the pictures I've seen, and hope with all my heart that it doesn't rain the whole time.
1.20.2010
how is it still the 19th?!?!
thirty some hours later, and i'm still living in the 19th of january...
well, i made it to victoria safely. and i only have one, well two, things to say. first off: there are so many white people in this country. it's way more distracting than i ever thought it would be.
AND really long flights eastbound across the date line SERIOUSLY SUCK. i don't even know what time my body thinks it is... all iknow is that it's tired, very very tired.
i found out recently that my dad is taking the next few days off so we can hang out!!!!! :D
well, i made it to victoria safely. and i only have one, well two, things to say. first off: there are so many white people in this country. it's way more distracting than i ever thought it would be.
AND really long flights eastbound across the date line SERIOUSLY SUCK. i don't even know what time my body thinks it is... all iknow is that it's tired, very very tired.
i found out recently that my dad is taking the next few days off so we can hang out!!!!! :D
1.19.2010
to canada!
heh, i think it's funny that i can write a travel blog for a trip to canada... ha!
well, in a couple of hours i'll be going to sean's school to pick him up along with my contract, and we'll head to the bus station. that's when we'll part ways, and say goodbye for a month or so. skype relationship times begin once again!
three hours later i arrive at the airport and kick around until my flight leaves at 6. and then 19 hours later i arrive in victoria at 1pm the same day - five hours earlier! i gain a day! which sounds all fine and dandy until i realize that i lose a day on the way home. poops.
five days in victoria, and i get to ottawa and start the paperwork. i get in on sunday, and get the ball rolling the next day. i'm hoping to have my schedul filled with time with friends, and i'm hoping for beautiful weather.. everyone's going on about the unusually warm weather, maybe i'll last another month! uhhhh, it won't...
well, i'm gonna run around the house like a madman for a little while to make sure i'm not forgetting anything.
1.10.2010
leaving thailand
well, i've got to say that overall this has been a pretty damn awesome trip. my only complaint is that it's just too short.
chiang mai is a great city, what with the moat and the city walls, the sheer number of temples kicking around hidden down short alleyways or open on main streets. and the alleyways, oh the alleyways. one of my top favourite things about travelling is finding networks of meandering and beautifully decrepid alleyways.
and koh chang. i'm looking forward to returning to thailand just for the sake of seeing other islands, to see if they're all this amazing, or if perhaps sean and i hit jackpot. the luck we had getting there, and finding a guesthouse with a free room.. and an amazing guesthouse at that.
see, on the island there's only one road that does the circumference, and the entire middle of the island is protected jungle. the island itself is longer than it is wide, the ferries bringing you to the far north. along the long west side is where everything is, and along the east there's pretty much nothing except some waterfalls and a mangrove forest at the very far south. the nice thing about our location was that it's at the far south of the west side - and there's this one stubborn man who owns a chunk of land at the south tip, and he absolutely refuses to have it developped. so, as is, the road around the island ends at either end of his land, and nothing, not even paths, connect the two ends of the road. so our location was relatively secluded - end of the road kind of deal.
and of course there were the beaches, the cozy restaurants, the sandy tourist towns...
but one of the most stricking things about thailand is the way people embrace, and don't feel contempt for, the number of tourists who flow through the country. it's seems to be across the entire country, too, that once you've spoken a few sentences with anybody, they're you're friend and you can talk for hours. Annie, the wife of Danny who tattooed us, and their two young girls spent an entire afternoon with us just hanging out not doing much.
i think that it's almost always the people who make trips so fantastic, and in this case it's phenomenally fantastic. the instant friend is something i truly enjoyed about travelling around in east and southern africa, and it was awesome to have the same welcome in thailand. well, not as energetic and spontaneous... people didn't rush to us while we got off buses, wanting to show us around and take care of us.
anyways, i'm rambling yet again.. and i know how boring really long blogs are...
well, i think that's it for thailand, unless i think of something else to write...
oh yeah, we made it back to wonju safely. after a 6am wake up, and hour bus, six hours flying interrupted by a layover in hong kong, and another two hour bus... we're here! and today we reorganized to house in order to make room for all this stuff we got :)
miss all of you!
chiang mai is a great city, what with the moat and the city walls, the sheer number of temples kicking around hidden down short alleyways or open on main streets. and the alleyways, oh the alleyways. one of my top favourite things about travelling is finding networks of meandering and beautifully decrepid alleyways.
and koh chang. i'm looking forward to returning to thailand just for the sake of seeing other islands, to see if they're all this amazing, or if perhaps sean and i hit jackpot. the luck we had getting there, and finding a guesthouse with a free room.. and an amazing guesthouse at that.
see, on the island there's only one road that does the circumference, and the entire middle of the island is protected jungle. the island itself is longer than it is wide, the ferries bringing you to the far north. along the long west side is where everything is, and along the east there's pretty much nothing except some waterfalls and a mangrove forest at the very far south. the nice thing about our location was that it's at the far south of the west side - and there's this one stubborn man who owns a chunk of land at the south tip, and he absolutely refuses to have it developped. so, as is, the road around the island ends at either end of his land, and nothing, not even paths, connect the two ends of the road. so our location was relatively secluded - end of the road kind of deal.
and of course there were the beaches, the cozy restaurants, the sandy tourist towns...
but one of the most stricking things about thailand is the way people embrace, and don't feel contempt for, the number of tourists who flow through the country. it's seems to be across the entire country, too, that once you've spoken a few sentences with anybody, they're you're friend and you can talk for hours. Annie, the wife of Danny who tattooed us, and their two young girls spent an entire afternoon with us just hanging out not doing much.
i think that it's almost always the people who make trips so fantastic, and in this case it's phenomenally fantastic. the instant friend is something i truly enjoyed about travelling around in east and southern africa, and it was awesome to have the same welcome in thailand. well, not as energetic and spontaneous... people didn't rush to us while we got off buses, wanting to show us around and take care of us.
anyways, i'm rambling yet again.. and i know how boring really long blogs are...
well, i think that's it for thailand, unless i think of something else to write...
oh yeah, we made it back to wonju safely. after a 6am wake up, and hour bus, six hours flying interrupted by a layover in hong kong, and another two hour bus... we're here! and today we reorganized to house in order to make room for all this stuff we got :)
miss all of you!
1.08.2010
Bangkok, less briefly
alright!
it's mid afternoon now, the sun is shinning brightly through the leaves of the trees, and sean and i have decided to have a sit down before we head out to explore again.
i mentioned before that this city isn't so bad after all... the more time i spend in it, the more i enjoy it. the winding and confusing sois (alleyways) are criss-crossed with tiny and huge canals; a massive meandering river cuts through the city, creating the only mode of transportation that doesn't involve traffic jam. large boats power up and down the river, picking people up at frequent wobbly and scary docks. a man on each boat courageously lunges off the boat at each stop to tie it down quickly while whistling orders to the driver. two short whistles - back up; funy whistle, pull in towards the dock; one quick whistle, okay let's go!
and once you're on the large boat packed with all sorts of people, the river that looked so chaotic from the shore suddenly opens up infront of you, much more expansive and open than it ever could appear from land. and there you have it, a cheap (13 baht; 40 cents to go anywhere) ride that locals and tourists alike use to get around.
and then the fancy stuff. well, this is the kind of stuff that's easier to describe with pictures. we'll post those on face-crack when we get back into Wonju, but but simply the expansive temple grounds are a massive slap in the face with sparkling gold, turquoise and red, tall and fat buildings that all somehow seem very light, a good number of tourists but not chockingly so, and a very good number of people who work constantly to keep the place looking meticulously cultivated and clean enough to lick any surface safely.
that's pretty much all we've done today so far. a relatively uninspiring trip to the grocery store is probably going to be sean's most memorable part of the day. we spent a while looking for all the right sauces and stuffs to be able to recreate thai food when we're back home. i was excited about the plum sauce, and sean went ape-shit for the sweet soy sauce, mushroom sauce, sweet chilli sauce, palm oil, tamirand juice... a box full of goopy delicious stuff, all for the price of 206baht - 8 bucks!!
oh, and yesterday we hit jackpot and found some sort of earring paradise. the prettiest jade, metal, sparkling.. tunnels and flares and plugs.. you name it they had it. i'm thinking of popping back in there today, for the sake of getting cheap earrings, especially considering the fact that a "discount" in canada means you'll pay 'only' 40 or 50 bucks for one single earring. bs. anyways, i'm getting ants in my pants and my belly is starting to grumble. time to see what other cool things we can NOT spend our money on in this city full of colourful and shinny things. we're gonna have to take pictures of all the cool things we've found here once our house is decorated with them. damn good thing we're moving into house bigger than a shoebox!
my love to all of you. hugs!
it's mid afternoon now, the sun is shinning brightly through the leaves of the trees, and sean and i have decided to have a sit down before we head out to explore again.
i mentioned before that this city isn't so bad after all... the more time i spend in it, the more i enjoy it. the winding and confusing sois (alleyways) are criss-crossed with tiny and huge canals; a massive meandering river cuts through the city, creating the only mode of transportation that doesn't involve traffic jam. large boats power up and down the river, picking people up at frequent wobbly and scary docks. a man on each boat courageously lunges off the boat at each stop to tie it down quickly while whistling orders to the driver. two short whistles - back up; funy whistle, pull in towards the dock; one quick whistle, okay let's go!
and once you're on the large boat packed with all sorts of people, the river that looked so chaotic from the shore suddenly opens up infront of you, much more expansive and open than it ever could appear from land. and there you have it, a cheap (13 baht; 40 cents to go anywhere) ride that locals and tourists alike use to get around.
and then the fancy stuff. well, this is the kind of stuff that's easier to describe with pictures. we'll post those on face-crack when we get back into Wonju, but but simply the expansive temple grounds are a massive slap in the face with sparkling gold, turquoise and red, tall and fat buildings that all somehow seem very light, a good number of tourists but not chockingly so, and a very good number of people who work constantly to keep the place looking meticulously cultivated and clean enough to lick any surface safely.
that's pretty much all we've done today so far. a relatively uninspiring trip to the grocery store is probably going to be sean's most memorable part of the day. we spent a while looking for all the right sauces and stuffs to be able to recreate thai food when we're back home. i was excited about the plum sauce, and sean went ape-shit for the sweet soy sauce, mushroom sauce, sweet chilli sauce, palm oil, tamirand juice... a box full of goopy delicious stuff, all for the price of 206baht - 8 bucks!!
oh, and yesterday we hit jackpot and found some sort of earring paradise. the prettiest jade, metal, sparkling.. tunnels and flares and plugs.. you name it they had it. i'm thinking of popping back in there today, for the sake of getting cheap earrings, especially considering the fact that a "discount" in canada means you'll pay 'only' 40 or 50 bucks for one single earring. bs. anyways, i'm getting ants in my pants and my belly is starting to grumble. time to see what other cool things we can NOT spend our money on in this city full of colourful and shinny things. we're gonna have to take pictures of all the cool things we've found here once our house is decorated with them. damn good thing we're moving into house bigger than a shoebox!
my love to all of you. hugs!
Back to Bangkok
I'll keep this short because we're running out the door to check out the boat-taxi...
but just for a quick update, we left Koh Chang yesterday... feeling quite sad that our time on this beautiful island was soon to be behind us... and arrived in Bangkok in the late afternoon.
after unloading our bags at a beautiful guesthouse that sean had booked for us a week ago (so glad he did!!) we spent the evening on the famous Khao San Road and found more neat things for us and the family. Donna, you're going to LOVE what we found for you!!!
next time i update, i'll tell you all about the sensory overload that is Khao San Road, from the multitudes of people to the colourful and noisy shops, from the delicious and cheap street-foods to the bright lights of dozens of tattoo shops on second storeys... a fantastically well designed tourist attraction and trap.
well, sean is done studying the map and finding neat things for us to see today: boat taxi to the Imperial palace, a chinatown and a market where we hope to find spices to add to our collection.
i hope everyone back home in canada and korea and uganda is doing well, i miss you all!! hugs and kisses :)
but just for a quick update, we left Koh Chang yesterday... feeling quite sad that our time on this beautiful island was soon to be behind us... and arrived in Bangkok in the late afternoon.
after unloading our bags at a beautiful guesthouse that sean had booked for us a week ago (so glad he did!!) we spent the evening on the famous Khao San Road and found more neat things for us and the family. Donna, you're going to LOVE what we found for you!!!
next time i update, i'll tell you all about the sensory overload that is Khao San Road, from the multitudes of people to the colourful and noisy shops, from the delicious and cheap street-foods to the bright lights of dozens of tattoo shops on second storeys... a fantastically well designed tourist attraction and trap.
well, sean is done studying the map and finding neat things for us to see today: boat taxi to the Imperial palace, a chinatown and a market where we hope to find spices to add to our collection.
i hope everyone back home in canada and korea and uganda is doing well, i miss you all!! hugs and kisses :)
1.03.2010
still on the island
nothing too epic has happened since the last time i've posted.
we've made a habit of starting our day on a lazy beach. well, perhaps this beach itself is pretty epic - it's one of the rare places in this entire country that isn't covered, infested even, with tourists. every single hostel, guesthouse, treehouse, hotel, resort, and cottage on the island is fully booked, yet we managed to stumble upon this one deserted beach...
scooting around the island, i spotted a long winding staircase from the road which led to a nice looking beach... after sean pulled a u-turn we checked it out to find a misteriously empty, yet meticulously landscaped beach. surrounded by a 2-foot tall wall of stone and concrete, with bandas and an amazing deck with lounging chairs... the place looks like your standard picture from a spoilt-rich person's beach vacation. and is much more lonely than Lonely Beach just a few clicks north.
after chilling (of burning, more like) at this deserted spot, we decided to checkout a waterfall - eight dollars admission, no fun - and it turned out to be worth every penny. not the waterfall itself, really, but the fact that every fun person on the island seemed to be congregated at this one point. and that there was a very deep, very cold, rocky basin at the foot of the falls, where everyone jumped in and swam around. and the fact that there was a 500m walk through the jungle to get htere. granted, it was a proper path that had been trampeled by many tourists, but it was still very much worth it, as there are few other places to trek through jungles.
we also found an amazing restaurant, that is impossible to describe other than through pictures. oh, by the way, sean posted pictures of our trip so far (not this exact restaurant, though, we're working on that).
nadine and byron - and anyone else really- feel free to add sean (capstick) on facebook so that you can see the pictures :)... if you're not his 'friend' already, even though truly you are
we're running away to get some food in our bellies,
miss you all,
and thanks for the responses, it's great to hear from all of you!
i hope from the depths of my hearth that i get a chance to travel with all of you
we've made a habit of starting our day on a lazy beach. well, perhaps this beach itself is pretty epic - it's one of the rare places in this entire country that isn't covered, infested even, with tourists. every single hostel, guesthouse, treehouse, hotel, resort, and cottage on the island is fully booked, yet we managed to stumble upon this one deserted beach...
scooting around the island, i spotted a long winding staircase from the road which led to a nice looking beach... after sean pulled a u-turn we checked it out to find a misteriously empty, yet meticulously landscaped beach. surrounded by a 2-foot tall wall of stone and concrete, with bandas and an amazing deck with lounging chairs... the place looks like your standard picture from a spoilt-rich person's beach vacation. and is much more lonely than Lonely Beach just a few clicks north.
after chilling (of burning, more like) at this deserted spot, we decided to checkout a waterfall - eight dollars admission, no fun - and it turned out to be worth every penny. not the waterfall itself, really, but the fact that every fun person on the island seemed to be congregated at this one point. and that there was a very deep, very cold, rocky basin at the foot of the falls, where everyone jumped in and swam around. and the fact that there was a 500m walk through the jungle to get htere. granted, it was a proper path that had been trampeled by many tourists, but it was still very much worth it, as there are few other places to trek through jungles.
we also found an amazing restaurant, that is impossible to describe other than through pictures. oh, by the way, sean posted pictures of our trip so far (not this exact restaurant, though, we're working on that).
nadine and byron - and anyone else really- feel free to add sean (capstick) on facebook so that you can see the pictures :)... if you're not his 'friend' already, even though truly you are
we're running away to get some food in our bellies,
miss you all,
and thanks for the responses, it's great to hear from all of you!
i hope from the depths of my hearth that i get a chance to travel with all of you
1.01.2010
good news!
looks like i haven't updated since before we went to the farm.
well, the cooking classes were fantastic, fun, and absolutely scenic. they inspired sean and i to consider doing something similar in uganda. but, considering how bland the local foods are, we thought we could gather cooking knowledge from around the world, and do a sort of international cooking class. all veggies and herbs grown organic on the property.
neat thing, these guys used tobacco plants as pesticide... dried the leaves, soaked them for an hour, and sprayed the water on all the plants. the bugs don't like the bitter taste, and they leave the stuff alone. cool, huhn?
anyways, we got back into town at around 4:30 and checked into our hotel - lucy had two other guests coming and taking the spare room.
then: the night bazaar. we found shittons of ridiculously cool stuff. daytime markets and nighttime tourist market alike, this country has amazingly beautiful stuff kicking around. from furniture to spices, doodads to jewelery, stuffed animals to weapons... anything you could possibly need. so we found stuff to decorate our house with - really fucking neat stuff at that! and a few things for the fam. sean and i have been trying to find beads for aunti-jo for a LONG time, and didn't find anything interesting until now. and we didn't just find something, we found tons of beautiful beads. i know she's probably not reading this, but i'm really enjoying the keychain bead thing she gave me for christmas.
okay, i'm rambling,,,
long story short, sean and i are now on Koh Chang, a sprawling island in the Gulf of Thailand, after having spent twenty hours in some form of transport - bus to another bus, then shared taxi, ferry, then another shared taxi, and then 15 minutes of walking. well, we're on the island now, we scored the last room in one of the few places around that aren't entirely booked - it's high HIGH tourist season right now, and the place is scenic beyond description.
all i can say is wooden cottages and shared area, open to the sun and moon, on stilts on the shore.
we just got back from checking out the market, and walked quickly to get back here for sunset. we caught it, just in the nik of time.
and this is the time that sean chose, perfectly at that, to propose. sweetheart that he is :)
there couldn't have been a more ideal time. and that makes me the happiest.
january first, 2010, sean and i have simple stainless steel bands on our fingers, we've just watched the sun set over a beach, and we've got a few days of lounging around in this tropical paradise ahead of us. i don't think either of us could be happier
well, the cooking classes were fantastic, fun, and absolutely scenic. they inspired sean and i to consider doing something similar in uganda. but, considering how bland the local foods are, we thought we could gather cooking knowledge from around the world, and do a sort of international cooking class. all veggies and herbs grown organic on the property.
neat thing, these guys used tobacco plants as pesticide... dried the leaves, soaked them for an hour, and sprayed the water on all the plants. the bugs don't like the bitter taste, and they leave the stuff alone. cool, huhn?
anyways, we got back into town at around 4:30 and checked into our hotel - lucy had two other guests coming and taking the spare room.
then: the night bazaar. we found shittons of ridiculously cool stuff. daytime markets and nighttime tourist market alike, this country has amazingly beautiful stuff kicking around. from furniture to spices, doodads to jewelery, stuffed animals to weapons... anything you could possibly need. so we found stuff to decorate our house with - really fucking neat stuff at that! and a few things for the fam. sean and i have been trying to find beads for aunti-jo for a LONG time, and didn't find anything interesting until now. and we didn't just find something, we found tons of beautiful beads. i know she's probably not reading this, but i'm really enjoying the keychain bead thing she gave me for christmas.
okay, i'm rambling,,,
long story short, sean and i are now on Koh Chang, a sprawling island in the Gulf of Thailand, after having spent twenty hours in some form of transport - bus to another bus, then shared taxi, ferry, then another shared taxi, and then 15 minutes of walking. well, we're on the island now, we scored the last room in one of the few places around that aren't entirely booked - it's high HIGH tourist season right now, and the place is scenic beyond description.
all i can say is wooden cottages and shared area, open to the sun and moon, on stilts on the shore.
we just got back from checking out the market, and walked quickly to get back here for sunset. we caught it, just in the nik of time.
and this is the time that sean chose, perfectly at that, to propose. sweetheart that he is :)
there couldn't have been a more ideal time. and that makes me the happiest.
january first, 2010, sean and i have simple stainless steel bands on our fingers, we've just watched the sun set over a beach, and we've got a few days of lounging around in this tropical paradise ahead of us. i don't think either of us could be happier
12.29.2009
favorite travelling thing:
wandering around aimlessly. by far, the best thing to do.
except for a couple of other things. sean and i have something of a plan for the next few days:
tomorrow we're set up to be at an organic farm from 9am to 4pm, learning how to cook and taking a trip to the market. six meals in seven hours? we can deal with that! i think sean is the happiest person who's ever lived. he's been talking about these cooking classes in chiang mai for a while now. here's hoping it's as awesome as it sounds!!
when we get back into town, unless we're dead, we're gonna check out this place just west of the city walls (btw: chiang mai has a fucking moat. and city walls.) called the Night Bazaar. which i'm expecting to be absoulutely insane, considering how ridiculous the area was in the daytime today.
the day after that is the 31st for which we have no plans yet, except jumping on a bus at 7pm and spending new years on the bus to some city on the way to Ko Chang. all other ways to get there are booked until jan4th, which is four days before we fly out of bangkok. so we figured, fuck that, i want to spend more than a couple of days on the island, so we sucked it up and decided to have a bussy new years, and maybe celebrate on solid ground on jan1st. ahhh, such is life :S
alright, we're off to find something to eat, and i'm gonna see if htere are couch surfers in... rayon! that's the city! right, the CS search.
btw, our host in chiang mai is AWESOME.
except for a couple of other things. sean and i have something of a plan for the next few days:
tomorrow we're set up to be at an organic farm from 9am to 4pm, learning how to cook and taking a trip to the market. six meals in seven hours? we can deal with that! i think sean is the happiest person who's ever lived. he's been talking about these cooking classes in chiang mai for a while now. here's hoping it's as awesome as it sounds!!
when we get back into town, unless we're dead, we're gonna check out this place just west of the city walls (btw: chiang mai has a fucking moat. and city walls.) called the Night Bazaar. which i'm expecting to be absoulutely insane, considering how ridiculous the area was in the daytime today.
the day after that is the 31st for which we have no plans yet, except jumping on a bus at 7pm and spending new years on the bus to some city on the way to Ko Chang. all other ways to get there are booked until jan4th, which is four days before we fly out of bangkok. so we figured, fuck that, i want to spend more than a couple of days on the island, so we sucked it up and decided to have a bussy new years, and maybe celebrate on solid ground on jan1st. ahhh, such is life :S
alright, we're off to find something to eat, and i'm gonna see if htere are couch surfers in... rayon! that's the city! right, the CS search.
btw, our host in chiang mai is AWESOME.
12.28.2009
Chiang Mai
after having spent all of twelve hours in Bangkok (three of which actually sleeping - note to other travellers: it's probably a bad idea to stay at a hostel if it's on the floor directly above a bar that's open until 5am every night)... we decided to take a 12-hour overnight sleeper train north to Chiang Mai.
City known for the culture, the one thing i noticed most was the sheer number of vegetarian restaurants. and temples.
after a good 6 hours of walking around the city today, and seeing all sorts of great things - the people, the streets, the traffic on the streets (so many motorcycles!!!), the architecture...
it's pretty neat, this city entirely makes me think of south-east asia as the most amazing way in which asia and africa could have possibly been combined. everything is colourful, the people are beautiful, the street food is plentiful and smells fantastic, and everything seems to be running smoothly.
this is truly the place to be overwhelmed with eye candy withing three minutes of stepping out the front door.
heh, and sean and i have realized that, although we are almost always standing directly beside each other, we're always perceiving two entirely different places. he keeps pointing out everyone's tattoos, and random little bits of eyc candy all over the place, and i point out other things entirely... neither of us ever taking note of the same thing. i feel like sean's version of the world includes far more people than mine, and my version perhaps more neat trees and old buildings. yet somehow we agree on what places are the most picture-perfect.
also, this place makes me think that i'd love to come here with either ainslie or nadine, there's a certain laid-back air to the streets. i also get the feeling that jjess would enjoy all the pretty colours and body-mods. :D
we're having tons of fun over here, but we miss everyone - and the bunnies
hope everyone is enjoying their winter breaks!!! unless you're in korea and working through it, in which case i hope your break in february is ridiculously amazing :)
City known for the culture, the one thing i noticed most was the sheer number of vegetarian restaurants. and temples.
after a good 6 hours of walking around the city today, and seeing all sorts of great things - the people, the streets, the traffic on the streets (so many motorcycles!!!), the architecture...
it's pretty neat, this city entirely makes me think of south-east asia as the most amazing way in which asia and africa could have possibly been combined. everything is colourful, the people are beautiful, the street food is plentiful and smells fantastic, and everything seems to be running smoothly.
this is truly the place to be overwhelmed with eye candy withing three minutes of stepping out the front door.
heh, and sean and i have realized that, although we are almost always standing directly beside each other, we're always perceiving two entirely different places. he keeps pointing out everyone's tattoos, and random little bits of eyc candy all over the place, and i point out other things entirely... neither of us ever taking note of the same thing. i feel like sean's version of the world includes far more people than mine, and my version perhaps more neat trees and old buildings. yet somehow we agree on what places are the most picture-perfect.
also, this place makes me think that i'd love to come here with either ainslie or nadine, there's a certain laid-back air to the streets. i also get the feeling that jjess would enjoy all the pretty colours and body-mods. :D
we're having tons of fun over here, but we miss everyone - and the bunnies
hope everyone is enjoying their winter breaks!!! unless you're in korea and working through it, in which case i hope your break in february is ridiculously amazing :)
12.26.2009
two weeks in Thailand
sitting int he airport... thinking of how fun this is going to be.
we haven't planned our trip too much, which i figure means that it's bound to end up being a hell of a good time :)
i'll try to keep this trip updated.. i'm pretty bad at these things, though
i wonder if we'll bump into any of the other gazillion wonju-ites who are in thailand at the exact same time as us. sounds like most of them are spending most of their time in the far south. who knows, though, erin+nick might find us!
signing off!
we haven't planned our trip too much, which i figure means that it's bound to end up being a hell of a good time :)
i'll try to keep this trip updated.. i'm pretty bad at these things, though
i wonder if we'll bump into any of the other gazillion wonju-ites who are in thailand at the exact same time as us. sounds like most of them are spending most of their time in the far south. who knows, though, erin+nick might find us!
signing off!
7.10.2009
tokyo? TOKYO!!!!!!
our trip is nice and fresh, so i might actually blog regularly for a few days.
our flight made it in, which is always a surprise to me. stupid airplanes. the trip was just as exhausting as i thought it would be, until we got into the subway system. the thing requires so damn much attention the first time around that you just kinda have to wake up. so four hours of bopping around looking lost in subway stations, and we somehow made it to rich+joan's place. four hours, btw, of having our first glance of japan. the trains we took happened to all be JR trains - all above ground. so i soaked in all the eye candy, from tokyo's far west to far east, past downtown, past all the solar panel-covered rooftops in the suburbs, intersperced with rice paddies and busy streets. past the jam-packed beast that is downtown tokyo, past the bright lights and all the things that draw everyone to big cities.
anyways! it was love at first sight. i wanted to take billions of pictures, but decided instead to just stare (it wasn't really a decision; i couldn't take my eyes off the city, i didn't have a chance to take the camera out).
today was good times. we had six hours of walking around and checking out shinjuku and shibuyu. saw a shrine. neat stuff. i was too bright-eyed and star-struck to be able to come up with any sort of plan for the day, so i stared and was awed for six hours straight. beautiful! mum and are are slowly figuring out how to travel together, maybe by the time we part ways, we'll have it all under control. *fingers crossed*
oh! and our hosts are absolutely choice! beautiful, fantastic couple, i don't even know how to begin describing how thankful i am to have met such amazing people here. what are the chances!?
it's only 8pm now, and i'm heading to bed - we're totally whiped.
maybe you'll hear from me tomorrow!!
7.08.2009
the day before
tomorrow, mum and i leave for japan. 730am wake-up to shove food in our faces and bust our asses to the ferry. our last few hours in canada are going to be a mad dash to the airport from the ferry terminal in vancouver, then the typical getting to the airport early enough to sit around and catch our breath.
a twelve hour flight, then touchdown in Narita international airport, an hour east of Tokyo. if i'm expecting the dash to the airport in vancouver to be stressful, which i am, i'm thinking we have something entirely different in store for the train/subway ride to our couchsurfer's house. he's 45mins west of Tokyo.
i'm expecting to get slapped in the face with the realization that HOLY SHIT WE'RE IN JAPAN, and then another huge slap in the face while we try to figure out how on earth to get train tickets to get anywhere. everyone's been pshyching me up for the impossibility in finding someone who's willing to speak english, so we'll be on the search for a such person and any english signage to make our way to Ueno station - stop one along the way.
the most exciting thing about day one in japan: we'll be riding the subway during rush hour, with suitcases. there was no chance of packing a light bag for me, since this is my big move to korea... so i've got all of my worldly possessions in a big fat suitcase. hot damn.
and i'm sure everyone has seen those utube videos of those guys who work in the japanese subway... the guys whose job it is to shove hundreds of people onto the trains. i'm definitely expecting that!!! fuck yeah!!
anyways, i'm finishing up my work with Louisa (last minute, as anticipated), spending my last day with dad isolated in my bedroom. as is life.
i'll try to find the internet as often as possible to keep you and myself updated on what i'm up to during this trip, and trips to come.
the plan so far is:
touchdown in Japan on July9th. check that awfully gigantic city out before heading to shinosaka on the 12th to hang out with Jamie during the festival for the dead (the one where a gazillion lanterns are put into rivers, streams, and the ocean). then we've got a little while in Kyoto, which is the place i'm looking forward to the most, before i embark on the adventure to Fukuoka to catch my Beetle-ferry to Korea and be reunited at last with beautiful ssebs. FINALLY!!! sixteen days from now, we'll be together again, minus a day because we're crossing the date-line. awwwwwww yeahhhhhhhhh.
EXCITED!!!!!!!!
i'm gonna have to figure out how to put pictures on this blog. otherwise, facecrack will do the trick. i suppose that's it's only function: pictures.
a twelve hour flight, then touchdown in Narita international airport, an hour east of Tokyo. if i'm expecting the dash to the airport in vancouver to be stressful, which i am, i'm thinking we have something entirely different in store for the train/subway ride to our couchsurfer's house. he's 45mins west of Tokyo.
i'm expecting to get slapped in the face with the realization that HOLY SHIT WE'RE IN JAPAN, and then another huge slap in the face while we try to figure out how on earth to get train tickets to get anywhere. everyone's been pshyching me up for the impossibility in finding someone who's willing to speak english, so we'll be on the search for a such person and any english signage to make our way to Ueno station - stop one along the way.
the most exciting thing about day one in japan: we'll be riding the subway during rush hour, with suitcases. there was no chance of packing a light bag for me, since this is my big move to korea... so i've got all of my worldly possessions in a big fat suitcase. hot damn.
and i'm sure everyone has seen those utube videos of those guys who work in the japanese subway... the guys whose job it is to shove hundreds of people onto the trains. i'm definitely expecting that!!! fuck yeah!!
anyways, i'm finishing up my work with Louisa (last minute, as anticipated), spending my last day with dad isolated in my bedroom. as is life.
i'll try to find the internet as often as possible to keep you and myself updated on what i'm up to during this trip, and trips to come.
the plan so far is:
touchdown in Japan on July9th. check that awfully gigantic city out before heading to shinosaka on the 12th to hang out with Jamie during the festival for the dead (the one where a gazillion lanterns are put into rivers, streams, and the ocean). then we've got a little while in Kyoto, which is the place i'm looking forward to the most, before i embark on the adventure to Fukuoka to catch my Beetle-ferry to Korea and be reunited at last with beautiful ssebs. FINALLY!!! sixteen days from now, we'll be together again, minus a day because we're crossing the date-line. awwwwwww yeahhhhhhhhh.
EXCITED!!!!!!!!
i'm gonna have to figure out how to put pictures on this blog. otherwise, facecrack will do the trick. i suppose that's it's only function: pictures.
1.04.2009
ZIMBABWE :(
hahaha, we found out that the BBC called it a "non country" while we were gone.
if you can imagine what it would be like to travel to a country that is in entire economic collapse, you probably don't need to read this. but it's really something. some travelers go to places like this for the thrill of it; we were there because we planned to go through it and Mozambique to get to Malawi. after a few days of learning through and through that we cannot afford to eat if a loaf of bread is $2 and a little bottle of water goes for about the same. and we'd probably end up stuck in each town for a few days before we acquire the social networks necessary to find out when the next bus comes to the next town. and that it's impossible to walk five minutes without being hassled to purchase anything for anything. and it's not just the difficulty of traveling that would have been a pain in the ass, but finding food and accommodation, and a proper bank.
funny story
the actual exchange rate for the USD to the ZimDollar is about 1:100billion, and the rate increases exponencially. they dropped 14 zeroes before we got there, and 19 zeroes a few months before that.
the deal, though, is that all ATM's have a fixed rate of $Zim40,000 to the USD.
Our friend Mark used to run overland trucks from Nairobi to Capetown. standard trip, but back then they went through Zimbabwe - now they avoid it because it's too much of a hassle.
anyways, one of his buddies with the same job had a couple on one of his trips who wanted to check out zimbabwe. so the guy told them explicitly, "don't do anything while you're there. walk in, look around, and get out."
so these idiots go in, look around, and spot an ATM. now the max zim$ you can get out is 400,000. so they dropped USD1000 and got their pretty zim dollars.
and went to a restaurant. where they found out that their zim dollars weren't even worth one coca cola.
imagine how much their hearts sank. and there's nothing they could do about it. and there are tons of stories of idiot tourists who've done this. 1000pounds, couple hundred dollars.
if only someone would have told them that zimbabwe doesn't use zim dollars anymore --- they use USdollars.
idiots
if you can imagine what it would be like to travel to a country that is in entire economic collapse, you probably don't need to read this. but it's really something. some travelers go to places like this for the thrill of it; we were there because we planned to go through it and Mozambique to get to Malawi. after a few days of learning through and through that we cannot afford to eat if a loaf of bread is $2 and a little bottle of water goes for about the same. and we'd probably end up stuck in each town for a few days before we acquire the social networks necessary to find out when the next bus comes to the next town. and that it's impossible to walk five minutes without being hassled to purchase anything for anything. and it's not just the difficulty of traveling that would have been a pain in the ass, but finding food and accommodation, and a proper bank.
funny story
the actual exchange rate for the USD to the ZimDollar is about 1:100billion, and the rate increases exponencially. they dropped 14 zeroes before we got there, and 19 zeroes a few months before that.
the deal, though, is that all ATM's have a fixed rate of $Zim40,000 to the USD.
Our friend Mark used to run overland trucks from Nairobi to Capetown. standard trip, but back then they went through Zimbabwe - now they avoid it because it's too much of a hassle.
anyways, one of his buddies with the same job had a couple on one of his trips who wanted to check out zimbabwe. so the guy told them explicitly, "don't do anything while you're there. walk in, look around, and get out."
so these idiots go in, look around, and spot an ATM. now the max zim$ you can get out is 400,000. so they dropped USD1000 and got their pretty zim dollars.
and went to a restaurant. where they found out that their zim dollars weren't even worth one coca cola.
imagine how much their hearts sank. and there's nothing they could do about it. and there are tons of stories of idiot tourists who've done this. 1000pounds, couple hundred dollars.
if only someone would have told them that zimbabwe doesn't use zim dollars anymore --- they use USdollars.
idiots
1.02.2009
ps
these posts are quite long, and i'm sure that by now nobody gives a shit, and gave up on consulting a map to figure out where the fuck tanginyika, mpulungu and ... where all these goddamn countries are.
but, i've got to keep my memories down. because they'll be gone soon enough. :S
so before we move onto zimbabwe, i forgot about the whole reason we went to livingston. victoria falls. wikipedia it, it's -damn- cool. the zambezi is a hella long river that at victoria falls drops into a 120m deep meandering valley. we were there in the dry season, so the falls themselves were practically absent, but the crater was damn cool. on the zambian side there's a stretch of 1.7km where the river above stretches wide and drops into this monstrous hole in the world. along the top of the zambian side, there are few (if no) rules, and b,g,s+i all walked around up there, dangling our feet off the top of this 120m drop (this was before we did the bungee, btw, and probably why we were inspired to do it). the four of us wandered up there for hours, on this moon-like landscape of very eroded rocks and rivulets and ponds and puddles, testing our agility by jumping around at the edge of the crater.
this was probably the highlight of our trip. even though the froot loop tea in nyakanazi was good, and the ferry was scenic, vic falls (even in the dry season) is absolutely breathtaking. and our free range up there is choice. capital. ;)
but alas, it's the kind of thing that's difficult to put into words, so i'll assume that my brain can remember how cool it was up there.
btw, we did vic falls in the morning, the bungee jump at 3pm ish, and went to the "boiling pot" in the late afternoon. little winding rivulets at the bottom of the crater where you can swim, and where the rafting co's start their trips.
but, i've got to keep my memories down. because they'll be gone soon enough. :S
so before we move onto zimbabwe, i forgot about the whole reason we went to livingston. victoria falls. wikipedia it, it's -damn- cool. the zambezi is a hella long river that at victoria falls drops into a 120m deep meandering valley. we were there in the dry season, so the falls themselves were practically absent, but the crater was damn cool. on the zambian side there's a stretch of 1.7km where the river above stretches wide and drops into this monstrous hole in the world. along the top of the zambian side, there are few (if no) rules, and b,g,s+i all walked around up there, dangling our feet off the top of this 120m drop (this was before we did the bungee, btw, and probably why we were inspired to do it). the four of us wandered up there for hours, on this moon-like landscape of very eroded rocks and rivulets and ponds and puddles, testing our agility by jumping around at the edge of the crater.
this was probably the highlight of our trip. even though the froot loop tea in nyakanazi was good, and the ferry was scenic, vic falls (even in the dry season) is absolutely breathtaking. and our free range up there is choice. capital. ;)
but alas, it's the kind of thing that's difficult to put into words, so i'll assume that my brain can remember how cool it was up there.
btw, we did vic falls in the morning, the bungee jump at 3pm ish, and went to the "boiling pot" in the late afternoon. little winding rivulets at the bottom of the crater where you can swim, and where the rafting co's start their trips.
12.31.2008
ZAMBIA!!!
HOW COULD I HAVE FORGOTTEN!!!!
the craziest thing about that ferry:
instead of docking at every stop (of which there were a few every day and night), the ferry just stopped about 1km away from shore, and about a dozen rickety little and slightly bigger boats rushed up to the side of the ferry. instant chaos. the people either paddling or driving the boats, and every ferry passenger who needs to get off at this stop, and everyone who needs to make a purchase to the boat, is yelling at the top of their lungs. i'm assuming they were yelling things like, "catch this rope!!!!" "take my baby!!!" "come on this boat!!!" "i need three dozen pineapples!!!"
and suddenly there are people on the second deck holding the little boats to the ferry with ropes, people are scrambling out of the first-deck windows onto the boats, throwing their suitcases and bags, passing their babies to strangers, breastfeeding while clambering down.....
the funny thing is that it simply did not get old. a few times a day, and it was the highlight of every few hours. :D
also, at one stop Gil decided to jump off the ferry. from the third deck, so a good three or four stories from water level. and he swam around for a bit before joining the boat-loading chaos. hahaha, one of the boatmen tried to make him pay for climbing onto his boat, so gil just looked at him like, "does it look like i have money on me?!" .... nope.
and two stops later sean decides to do the same. crazy folk. and the people on the boats seemed to be used to this kind of insane muzungu behavious... they must have seen it before, i guess. :D
they didn't even glance twice at sean when he was in the water, and when he got onto a boat, they were 100% business... handing him bags to pass to other boats...
ok, now -actually- on to zambia:
after having travelled half of TZ's north-south distance on the ferry, we touched down at yet another dusty lake-side town called Mpulungu.
OH YEAH!!!!
interjection! when we got onto the ferry, our plan was to get off the ferry at the last stop in TZ, and take buses from there to Malawi. the plans changed when Gil and Ben convinced us that we -had- to go to zambia because livingston was the shit and we -had- to go to zimbabwe to see the great zimbabwean ruins and and and and....
so we just kind of... stayed on the MV Liemba for another stop until we were in zambia.
okay, so now in mpulungu, zambia. our plan is to take the next bus to Lusaka, if one exists, or take it in stages depending on how far a bus will take us, or take a bus to the train station and see what happens from there. so we check in to zambia (which involves an extensive search of our bags for drugs..) and leave the ferry terminal, and this guy walks up to us and asks us if we're going to Lusaka. HOW DID HE KNOW?!?! maybe everyone getting off that ferry is going straight there.... who knows. so he set us up with a conductor (buses have both a driver and conductor, who takes care of selling tickets and loading bags onto the bus and dealing with everyone's shyte).
the bus doesn't leave for another nine hours, so we go on yet another epic search for a place that serves beans. two hours after walking down -every- street in the town, we find a little spot with picnic tables selling the best meal EVEr! chipsy maya. basically an omelet with fries in it (as if the fries are onions or tomatoes or something).
by the way, i have a bum now. and hips. i'm proud of my africa-pounds, esp since they'll double as a winter jacket pretty soon.
at a bar in mpulungu later, we end up playing cards to kill time, and get joined by six local folk, three of whom i'm fairly sure were.... ehum... ladies of the night. it was good times, because they taught us this absolutely ridiculous game that involves no strategy whatsoever, and as soon as anyone does anything, everyone yells "YOU ARE THE WINNER!!!!!" and everyone gets high-fives. it sort of became the joke of the trip with Ben and Gil and Sean and I. if any of us did something a little stupid, we'd yell "you are the winner" and have a round of high fives. :S
i've got to say, zambia was probably the most hillarious place we went. the only downside to the country is that transportation is hella expensive. and it's a huge ass country. so from mpulungu we went to lusaka, the capital, and were horribly depressed at how western the city was, but took advantage of the movie theatre to watch the latest james bond movie... is it james bond? that guy who has gadgets and fucks every woman who has a role in the movie, except his boss? in this flick, though, he barely had any gadgets, to sean's utter dissapointment. but it was pretty chill nevertheless. in every country we sort of have an obligatory all-business day when we check out the internet, a bank, a forex, and stock up on food.
the train
after a few days in lusaka, we jumped onto a train to livingston, which was the ultimate destination of the trip. so within a week we made it from the far north of zambia to the far south.
the train was a... supposed to be twelve but turned into 16 hours... trip to remember. it had no classes - everyone just slept on benches, which were surprisingly comfortable. and i think we made the better choice by taking this train, even though the bus was only 6hrs. the bus is 30,000Zambian Kwatcha and the train is 12,000. so $30 vs $12.
and mum you'll hate to hear this, but we found a spot ont he train where we could smoke. as soon as we were on the train, the staff brought us back to the staff car ("the train is unsafe, people will steal while you sleep"), where people who didn't have tickets were stored until the next stop to be dealth with by the local authorities (probably put in jail for a bit, or bribe their way out). and the staff car just happened to be at the very back of the train, so we could sneak to a little back spot, open the doors, and smoke with our feet dangling over the tracks.
livingston
in short, i think everyone should stay a jollyboys, beautiful lodge, awesome croud, fab.
111m bungee, 120m crater above the zambezi
the bridge you jump from is in no-man's land between zambia and zimbabwe. luckily, you don't have to pay to get back into zambia, you just get a piece of paper and walk out.
it's hillarious, because they set it up so that there's absolutely no way that you can back out of the jump. because before you see the bridge, you go to this little covered desk where you pay and sign a paper that basically says, "this is non-refundable," and then go for the jump. so as we're paying, i'm realizing that... if i don't jump, i've wasted a good chunck of money.
hahahaha, so you get to the middle of the bridge, and by this point your heart is racing, you're freaking out, and the staff there is welcoming you, explaining that this is safe, there's a 100% success rate, and they start strapping you in. they look at the numbers on your wrist (the people at the desk weigh you and write it on you) and get the appropriate bungee cord. while they're putting your harnesses and ropes on, they're telling you that this one can hold 5tons, this one can hold 6. then they start strapping sean and i to each other (we decided to go in tandum). don't worry, you're attached at three points, the bungee cord ataches at your feet and if that breaks then it will swing you right side up and you'll be attached at the chest, and two to of you are attached to each other at five points. blah blah blah. and they sit you down and start getting your feet prepped. two folded towels wrapped around each ankle, and a thing that looks like a dog leash (this can hold 5tons) wrapped around your ankles, and this is what they atach the bungee cord to.
the whole time sean and i are absolutely petrified. looking at the towels and the dog leash and the eetsy ropes, and the way the bungee cord is atached to the bridge by a little rope....
they explain to you that they will be counting "FIVE FOUR THREE TWO ONE BUNGEEEEEE4"
and on one you bend your legs, and on bungee you jump. and suddenly we're at the edge, i'm freaking out, sean's looking pale, they're trying to make us hold on to each other, which we're glad to do do in this situation. every time one of us looks down they tell us to look to the horizon. and they're still explaining the ropes and you're safe and five tons this and six tons that and keep your arms out and FIVE FOUR THREE TWO ONE
and suddenly you realize that, shit they pushed us, and SHIT THE TREES ARE RUSHING BY AND WE HAVE 100M TO FALL AND
your mind goes blank. sean said later that the whole fall i was making a suppressed "nnnnnnngggggggggg" kind of sound. and we kept looking at each other like, "what the hell are we doing, this is not the variety of thing that by brain is comfortable with." and your brain really does fully shut off. it's like, "i don't know how to deal with this, so you're going to start thinking that these trees rushing by are quite pretty, and the water rushing towards your face is quite interesting, and this person next to you seems to be screaming.... and so are you"
and that moment you realize that you're screaming is the moment you begin to think that this is just fucking dandy, and you start to laugh your ass off. probably purely in hysterics.
and of course all of this happens within 10 seconds (9.8m/s/s???), and by the end of it you start to feel the rope tightenning on your ankles and you're fully upside down and your eyeballs kind of hurt. and once again sean and i look at each other and laugh like there's something seriously hillarious about this situation, being thrust off a bridge and then right back up at it and bouncing around upside down holding onto each other, feeling the rope tugging at your ankles and getting tighter and tighter, and our faces are turning bright red, tears being forced out of our eyes,
if i had the choice, i would do it again.
the craziest thing about that ferry:
instead of docking at every stop (of which there were a few every day and night), the ferry just stopped about 1km away from shore, and about a dozen rickety little and slightly bigger boats rushed up to the side of the ferry. instant chaos. the people either paddling or driving the boats, and every ferry passenger who needs to get off at this stop, and everyone who needs to make a purchase to the boat, is yelling at the top of their lungs. i'm assuming they were yelling things like, "catch this rope!!!!" "take my baby!!!" "come on this boat!!!" "i need three dozen pineapples!!!"
and suddenly there are people on the second deck holding the little boats to the ferry with ropes, people are scrambling out of the first-deck windows onto the boats, throwing their suitcases and bags, passing their babies to strangers, breastfeeding while clambering down.....
the funny thing is that it simply did not get old. a few times a day, and it was the highlight of every few hours. :D
also, at one stop Gil decided to jump off the ferry. from the third deck, so a good three or four stories from water level. and he swam around for a bit before joining the boat-loading chaos. hahaha, one of the boatmen tried to make him pay for climbing onto his boat, so gil just looked at him like, "does it look like i have money on me?!" .... nope.
and two stops later sean decides to do the same. crazy folk. and the people on the boats seemed to be used to this kind of insane muzungu behavious... they must have seen it before, i guess. :D
they didn't even glance twice at sean when he was in the water, and when he got onto a boat, they were 100% business... handing him bags to pass to other boats...
ok, now -actually- on to zambia:
after having travelled half of TZ's north-south distance on the ferry, we touched down at yet another dusty lake-side town called Mpulungu.
OH YEAH!!!!
interjection! when we got onto the ferry, our plan was to get off the ferry at the last stop in TZ, and take buses from there to Malawi. the plans changed when Gil and Ben convinced us that we -had- to go to zambia because livingston was the shit and we -had- to go to zimbabwe to see the great zimbabwean ruins and and and and....
so we just kind of... stayed on the MV Liemba for another stop until we were in zambia.
okay, so now in mpulungu, zambia. our plan is to take the next bus to Lusaka, if one exists, or take it in stages depending on how far a bus will take us, or take a bus to the train station and see what happens from there. so we check in to zambia (which involves an extensive search of our bags for drugs..) and leave the ferry terminal, and this guy walks up to us and asks us if we're going to Lusaka. HOW DID HE KNOW?!?! maybe everyone getting off that ferry is going straight there.... who knows. so he set us up with a conductor (buses have both a driver and conductor, who takes care of selling tickets and loading bags onto the bus and dealing with everyone's shyte).
the bus doesn't leave for another nine hours, so we go on yet another epic search for a place that serves beans. two hours after walking down -every- street in the town, we find a little spot with picnic tables selling the best meal EVEr! chipsy maya. basically an omelet with fries in it (as if the fries are onions or tomatoes or something).
by the way, i have a bum now. and hips. i'm proud of my africa-pounds, esp since they'll double as a winter jacket pretty soon.
at a bar in mpulungu later, we end up playing cards to kill time, and get joined by six local folk, three of whom i'm fairly sure were.... ehum... ladies of the night. it was good times, because they taught us this absolutely ridiculous game that involves no strategy whatsoever, and as soon as anyone does anything, everyone yells "YOU ARE THE WINNER!!!!!" and everyone gets high-fives. it sort of became the joke of the trip with Ben and Gil and Sean and I. if any of us did something a little stupid, we'd yell "you are the winner" and have a round of high fives. :S
i've got to say, zambia was probably the most hillarious place we went. the only downside to the country is that transportation is hella expensive. and it's a huge ass country. so from mpulungu we went to lusaka, the capital, and were horribly depressed at how western the city was, but took advantage of the movie theatre to watch the latest james bond movie... is it james bond? that guy who has gadgets and fucks every woman who has a role in the movie, except his boss? in this flick, though, he barely had any gadgets, to sean's utter dissapointment. but it was pretty chill nevertheless. in every country we sort of have an obligatory all-business day when we check out the internet, a bank, a forex, and stock up on food.
the train
after a few days in lusaka, we jumped onto a train to livingston, which was the ultimate destination of the trip. so within a week we made it from the far north of zambia to the far south.
the train was a... supposed to be twelve but turned into 16 hours... trip to remember. it had no classes - everyone just slept on benches, which were surprisingly comfortable. and i think we made the better choice by taking this train, even though the bus was only 6hrs. the bus is 30,000Zambian Kwatcha and the train is 12,000. so $30 vs $12.
and mum you'll hate to hear this, but we found a spot ont he train where we could smoke. as soon as we were on the train, the staff brought us back to the staff car ("the train is unsafe, people will steal while you sleep"), where people who didn't have tickets were stored until the next stop to be dealth with by the local authorities (probably put in jail for a bit, or bribe their way out). and the staff car just happened to be at the very back of the train, so we could sneak to a little back spot, open the doors, and smoke with our feet dangling over the tracks.
livingston
in short, i think everyone should stay a jollyboys, beautiful lodge, awesome croud, fab.
111m bungee, 120m crater above the zambezi
the bridge you jump from is in no-man's land between zambia and zimbabwe. luckily, you don't have to pay to get back into zambia, you just get a piece of paper and walk out.
it's hillarious, because they set it up so that there's absolutely no way that you can back out of the jump. because before you see the bridge, you go to this little covered desk where you pay and sign a paper that basically says, "this is non-refundable," and then go for the jump. so as we're paying, i'm realizing that... if i don't jump, i've wasted a good chunck of money.
hahahaha, so you get to the middle of the bridge, and by this point your heart is racing, you're freaking out, and the staff there is welcoming you, explaining that this is safe, there's a 100% success rate, and they start strapping you in. they look at the numbers on your wrist (the people at the desk weigh you and write it on you) and get the appropriate bungee cord. while they're putting your harnesses and ropes on, they're telling you that this one can hold 5tons, this one can hold 6. then they start strapping sean and i to each other (we decided to go in tandum). don't worry, you're attached at three points, the bungee cord ataches at your feet and if that breaks then it will swing you right side up and you'll be attached at the chest, and two to of you are attached to each other at five points. blah blah blah. and they sit you down and start getting your feet prepped. two folded towels wrapped around each ankle, and a thing that looks like a dog leash (this can hold 5tons) wrapped around your ankles, and this is what they atach the bungee cord to.
the whole time sean and i are absolutely petrified. looking at the towels and the dog leash and the eetsy ropes, and the way the bungee cord is atached to the bridge by a little rope....
they explain to you that they will be counting "FIVE FOUR THREE TWO ONE BUNGEEEEEE4"
and on one you bend your legs, and on bungee you jump. and suddenly we're at the edge, i'm freaking out, sean's looking pale, they're trying to make us hold on to each other, which we're glad to do do in this situation. every time one of us looks down they tell us to look to the horizon. and they're still explaining the ropes and you're safe and five tons this and six tons that and keep your arms out and FIVE FOUR THREE TWO ONE
and suddenly you realize that, shit they pushed us, and SHIT THE TREES ARE RUSHING BY AND WE HAVE 100M TO FALL AND
your mind goes blank. sean said later that the whole fall i was making a suppressed "nnnnnnngggggggggg" kind of sound. and we kept looking at each other like, "what the hell are we doing, this is not the variety of thing that by brain is comfortable with." and your brain really does fully shut off. it's like, "i don't know how to deal with this, so you're going to start thinking that these trees rushing by are quite pretty, and the water rushing towards your face is quite interesting, and this person next to you seems to be screaming.... and so are you"
and that moment you realize that you're screaming is the moment you begin to think that this is just fucking dandy, and you start to laugh your ass off. probably purely in hysterics.
and of course all of this happens within 10 seconds (9.8m/s/s???), and by the end of it you start to feel the rope tightenning on your ankles and you're fully upside down and your eyeballs kind of hurt. and once again sean and i look at each other and laugh like there's something seriously hillarious about this situation, being thrust off a bridge and then right back up at it and bouncing around upside down holding onto each other, feeling the rope tugging at your ankles and getting tighter and tighter, and our faces are turning bright red, tears being forced out of our eyes,
if i had the choice, i would do it again.
12.30.2008
TZ
we moved on from there to Tanzania. we basically went down the west of tanzania, half on shyte roads, and half on a ferry. Nyakanazi was a piece of shit town that surprisingly had great beans, tea that tasted JUST like froot loops, and really pleasant hotels (which tanzanians call "guestis"). this was my second ever basin wash, which is surprisingly not that difficult to get used to. Heh, the best thing about this town though is that it illustrated to me the extent to which everyone knows everything that's happening in the town. we told one person that we wished to travel on to kigoma the following day, and the next day when we came out of our guesti, the first person who saw us said, "you are travelling to kigoma, i will take you to the stage." (people call bus stops "stages")
On to Kigoma. a town on the shore of Lake Tangyinika, second largest lake in africa (after lake victoria). it's a long very thin lake that stretches north-south, bordering the DRC to the west, TZ to the east, and barely touches Burundi at the north and Zambia at the south.
So we took advantage of the fact that we could get to zambia via the lake.
but before i get to the ferry, i have two short notes about Kigoma. first off, it's a dusty, boring, yet pleasant town. sean and i were there for... i think four days. so it's the first place we lingered. and not because the place kicked ass, but because the ferry that usually runs on wednesdays now runs on saturdays, and every second week is taken by the UN to repatriate DRC refugees. so we wandered Kigoma until we found the one spot along the shore where we could swim. we had lots of fun at this place, because they served fanta (my fave) and coke (sean's), and it was almost always populated with a bunch of kids who wanted to have water-fights with us. sean and i figured out how he could swim under me and put me on his shoulders, and suddenly everyone around was attempting to jump UP onto each others' shounders.... unsuccessfully mostly. a blast. we had ourselves a good 45 minute walk in the POURING rain one day, and made absolute mzungu fools of ourselves, jumping in puddles and trying to make the best of the fact that we were indeed frickin freezing and both had to pee REAL bad.
the ferry.
that's a story in itself. we boarded on saturday after sunset, and arrived on monday morning. so two nights and only one full day on the ferry. there are a few very notable things that happened on our few days there. but the best things were meeting fellow travelers. first class (the only real option --- third class is the hull, crammed with hundreds of people with nowhere to lie down) is on the top level of the boat, and populated by both rich ass mzungus and rich ass locals. most people use the boat to bring pineapples and mekene (little eety beetsy fishes) to zambia and down the coast of TZ. so we met a few guys:
Carel: South African guy, real cool, well travelled, packed full to the brim with good stories.
Gil: Israeli, very cool aswell (who am i kidding, they were all incredibly cool), who'd been travelling the dark continent for six months at this point.
Ben: Australian guy, very layed back, who'd been in africa for four months, i think.
both gil and ben joined is for a good chunck of time after the ferry, all the way to livingston for gil, and zimbabwe for ben. they were both reaching the end of their travels, which made their paces and sean+i's very compatible (we all wanted to see as much as possible in the shortes period of time possible).
so the bunch of us discovered this spot at the back of the ferry that wasn't fenced in, about three stories above water level (sorry mom, sometimes you have to put yourself in harm's way to avoid serious clausterphobia). so we sat there most of the days and enjoyed each others' company.
overall, the experience in TZ was pretty damn good, but it was hella difficult to find places who served beans (the only local dish that vegans can eat). English is very common in most of the palces we went, but in western tanzania, it was difficult.... OHMANIIHAVETOIPEEEE......
BRB111111
On to Kigoma. a town on the shore of Lake Tangyinika, second largest lake in africa (after lake victoria). it's a long very thin lake that stretches north-south, bordering the DRC to the west, TZ to the east, and barely touches Burundi at the north and Zambia at the south.
So we took advantage of the fact that we could get to zambia via the lake.
but before i get to the ferry, i have two short notes about Kigoma. first off, it's a dusty, boring, yet pleasant town. sean and i were there for... i think four days. so it's the first place we lingered. and not because the place kicked ass, but because the ferry that usually runs on wednesdays now runs on saturdays, and every second week is taken by the UN to repatriate DRC refugees. so we wandered Kigoma until we found the one spot along the shore where we could swim. we had lots of fun at this place, because they served fanta (my fave) and coke (sean's), and it was almost always populated with a bunch of kids who wanted to have water-fights with us. sean and i figured out how he could swim under me and put me on his shoulders, and suddenly everyone around was attempting to jump UP onto each others' shounders.... unsuccessfully mostly. a blast. we had ourselves a good 45 minute walk in the POURING rain one day, and made absolute mzungu fools of ourselves, jumping in puddles and trying to make the best of the fact that we were indeed frickin freezing and both had to pee REAL bad.
the ferry.
that's a story in itself. we boarded on saturday after sunset, and arrived on monday morning. so two nights and only one full day on the ferry. there are a few very notable things that happened on our few days there. but the best things were meeting fellow travelers. first class (the only real option --- third class is the hull, crammed with hundreds of people with nowhere to lie down) is on the top level of the boat, and populated by both rich ass mzungus and rich ass locals. most people use the boat to bring pineapples and mekene (little eety beetsy fishes) to zambia and down the coast of TZ. so we met a few guys:
Carel: South African guy, real cool, well travelled, packed full to the brim with good stories.
Gil: Israeli, very cool aswell (who am i kidding, they were all incredibly cool), who'd been travelling the dark continent for six months at this point.
Ben: Australian guy, very layed back, who'd been in africa for four months, i think.
both gil and ben joined is for a good chunck of time after the ferry, all the way to livingston for gil, and zimbabwe for ben. they were both reaching the end of their travels, which made their paces and sean+i's very compatible (we all wanted to see as much as possible in the shortes period of time possible).
so the bunch of us discovered this spot at the back of the ferry that wasn't fenced in, about three stories above water level (sorry mom, sometimes you have to put yourself in harm's way to avoid serious clausterphobia). so we sat there most of the days and enjoyed each others' company.
overall, the experience in TZ was pretty damn good, but it was hella difficult to find places who served beans (the only local dish that vegans can eat). English is very common in most of the palces we went, but in western tanzania, it was difficult.... OHMANIIHAVETOIPEEEE......
BRB111111
winter, here i come!!!
i have got to start posting stories about our adventures.
in short, there are a few epic things that simply cannot go unsaid. the ferry on lake tanginyika, the 110m bunjee jump into a gorge in no-man's land bt zambia and zimbabwe, some chiller towns like Nkhata Bay, Kigoma, and Nyakanazi. stories are coming, guys!!! esp now that sean is spending hours in internet caffees to apply for jobs in Korea, i'll have tons of internet time to bore everyone with africa!!!!!!! :D:D:D:D:d ...... :P
man, we started off with the hills of Rwanda, which are undoubtedly a little bit more than "hills", they're fucking huge ass ridiculous mountains with winding roads and beautiful houses (in african standards... they have walls that aren't made of crumbling mud), terraced agriculture.....
we only spent one day in Rwanda, which was enough to figure out that neither english nor my french were understandable to anyone. when it came to mimming picking up food from a plate (my hand), and putting it towards my mouth.... simply to find a place to eat... have food... manger... j'ai faim... we want to purchase food..........
the language barrier was a bit much. but hey, to all my friends who learned french in english schools, you'll do just dandy in this country. everyone understood sean's broken school-french better than my attempt at not sounding quebecois. :S
in short, there are a few epic things that simply cannot go unsaid. the ferry on lake tanginyika, the 110m bunjee jump into a gorge in no-man's land bt zambia and zimbabwe, some chiller towns like Nkhata Bay, Kigoma, and Nyakanazi. stories are coming, guys!!! esp now that sean is spending hours in internet caffees to apply for jobs in Korea, i'll have tons of internet time to bore everyone with africa!!!!!!! :D:D:D:D:d ...... :P
man, we started off with the hills of Rwanda, which are undoubtedly a little bit more than "hills", they're fucking huge ass ridiculous mountains with winding roads and beautiful houses (in african standards... they have walls that aren't made of crumbling mud), terraced agriculture.....
we only spent one day in Rwanda, which was enough to figure out that neither english nor my french were understandable to anyone. when it came to mimming picking up food from a plate (my hand), and putting it towards my mouth.... simply to find a place to eat... have food... manger... j'ai faim... we want to purchase food..........
the language barrier was a bit much. but hey, to all my friends who learned french in english schools, you'll do just dandy in this country. everyone understood sean's broken school-french better than my attempt at not sounding quebecois. :S
11.07.2008
restaurant-bar
briefly, two new things:
sean and i just organized a fund-raising event, held on Oct25th,. it was a fashion show..
don't worry, the nature of the event was out of our control. it's ridiculous that it was a fashion show, but either way, the event was held at Ginger on the Nile. and managed to raise UGX700,000. which is ~$500 for Students Partnership Worldwide. look it up, it's a neat NGO.
now we work for the Restaurant where it was held, because the manager of both the event and the restaurant left. so the two owners grabbed sean and i and we're stuck.
not to say that we're truly stuck. i was starting to feel very stuck at the place, and we're going to reassess our employment soon. well, as soon as we get back from a trip. we're going to check out Kigali, Rwanda. and spend most of our time around Tanzania. starting in Kigoma, a small town along the shores of Lake Tanginyika, and taking a train ride accoss the country to Dar Es Salaam, then a fairy to the island of Zanzibar. the final destination is the island, which has "stown town" at its capital, and beaches all over the place. then, back home via kenya. sean has friends in both kampala and kigali. mum hooked us up with a family friend in Dar. we have a couch surfer in kenya, and wil hopefuly find more in kigoma. i doubt we'll have much luck in zanzibar, because it's mostly a tourist destination. but here's hoping.
i'm secretly hoping that we'll be able to change our hours at ginger when we get back. because as is, we're working from 10am to 11pm six days a week. so we figure that when one of the owners gets back from the UK, we'll be able to do a standard 8hr shift, five days a week. for the sake of remaining sane, and enjoying our time here.
i think that's all for today. uganda is beautiful as ever. i'm dreading winter more and more as canada gets colder and dips below zero. it stil rains every night here, which is the most pleasant way to enjoy a rainy season. i had no idea it would be this way.
ps, this keyboard for some reason can't type double-letters. so putting those two t's in the word "letter", wasn't as easy as it should have been. i can't even back-space twice. or make two periods or spaces in a row.
i'm off!
sean and i just organized a fund-raising event, held on Oct25th,. it was a fashion show..
don't worry, the nature of the event was out of our control. it's ridiculous that it was a fashion show, but either way, the event was held at Ginger on the Nile. and managed to raise UGX700,000. which is ~$500 for Students Partnership Worldwide. look it up, it's a neat NGO.
now we work for the Restaurant where it was held, because the manager of both the event and the restaurant left. so the two owners grabbed sean and i and we're stuck.
not to say that we're truly stuck. i was starting to feel very stuck at the place, and we're going to reassess our employment soon. well, as soon as we get back from a trip. we're going to check out Kigali, Rwanda. and spend most of our time around Tanzania. starting in Kigoma, a small town along the shores of Lake Tanginyika, and taking a train ride accoss the country to Dar Es Salaam, then a fairy to the island of Zanzibar. the final destination is the island, which has "stown town" at its capital, and beaches all over the place. then, back home via kenya. sean has friends in both kampala and kigali. mum hooked us up with a family friend in Dar. we have a couch surfer in kenya, and wil hopefuly find more in kigoma. i doubt we'll have much luck in zanzibar, because it's mostly a tourist destination. but here's hoping.
i'm secretly hoping that we'll be able to change our hours at ginger when we get back. because as is, we're working from 10am to 11pm six days a week. so we figure that when one of the owners gets back from the UK, we'll be able to do a standard 8hr shift, five days a week. for the sake of remaining sane, and enjoying our time here.
i think that's all for today. uganda is beautiful as ever. i'm dreading winter more and more as canada gets colder and dips below zero. it stil rains every night here, which is the most pleasant way to enjoy a rainy season. i had no idea it would be this way.
ps, this keyboard for some reason can't type double-letters. so putting those two t's in the word "letter", wasn't as easy as it should have been. i can't even back-space twice. or make two periods or spaces in a row.
i'm off!
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