HOME AT LAST!!!

35 hours of travelling later hitting 6 different airports on 6-6-6 starting at 6 am on Singapore flight NW6...I should have known it was going to be a long day!
In a nutshell, Singapore-Tokyo-Detroit-Newark-Toronto-Montreal.

June 1st - 3rd, 2006 - Halong Bay

After the arrival of our night train at 5:30 am we waited until 7:00am at a nearby coffee shop for the Ocean Tours office to open. The office cat terrorized us for another hour before we left on a bus to Halong Bay. After a 3.5 hour ride we arrived to the most chaotic pier I have ever seen. Hundreds of large wooden boats (Junks) were crammed into a tiny space, pushing other boats out of the way so that they could get close enough to load. Some boats being different heights than others, we saw some get pretty damaged in the short time we were picked up and dropped off. The boat was immaculate! Nice wooden finishings inside the cabin and deluxe rooms complete with private bathrooms. Laure and I lucked out by getting a berth on the second floor and by far the nicest room on the boat with nice big windows looking out over the bay. Lunch was served on the boat in a small bay and with 6 local dishes and of course more rice, we were pretty stuffed. Next was off to a giant cave, part of the World Heritage trail, that gave a tunning look back accross the bay and then a steep staircase ascent to the top of another mountain for a different perspective of the 1967 islands that constitute Halong Bay. All of the islands were rock cliffs and very inaccessible by land, so it was interesting to see that any locals that fished in the area, lived on small house barges in the calm bays. Several houses would link together and form a mini waterworld complete with live fishnets and dogs and believe it or not covered pool tables!
We slept great and then it an early start off to a kayaking spot after another filling meal. The kayaking was pretty cool, but being on the water brought to light the fact that Halong Bay is polluted. Small bits of trash and sometimes a very faint odor, but nothing that took away from the breathtaking scenery. We went through a large cave after navigating through the coral and into a secluded lake only accessible by the cave. After a quick dip, we headed back through another cave and to our boat. Laure and I were the only two that had opted for an extra day in Halong Bay and we were whisked away quickly in a small Junk all to ourselves. Lunch for two was served on a small beach and the food was cooked on a wood flame barbeque brought to the island by the small crew. There wasone other tour boat on the island but it didn't deter from the uniqueness of the scenary and the delicious food. Next it was off to Monkey island, which we grabbed a quick peek of the Monkeys before cutting the beach off early and going into Catba town to settle into our hotel. Our room was equally splendid on the top floor of a very popular hotel. There was a festival going on and too tired to really explore we treated our sunburns and relaxed until it was time for dinner. Our tour guide treated us to a sugar cane drink on the harbor front and then we watched some of a local theater company that was perfomring for the festival.
The next day it was back onto our private small boat and then onto the big boat at the kayaking spot. Four new people were there but they had all opted for the 3 day tour and so Laure and I found ourselves once again alone but this time on the luxurious big boat. An equally splendid seafood meal to the others we'd experienced so far and then it was back on the bus and to Hanoi.

May 30th - June 1st, 2006 - Sapa Tribal Villages

We arrived in Hanoi early in the afternoon and made it succesfully to our tour guide office after a very dodgy cab ride from the airport. Although I didn't believe it was possible, traffic in Vietnam is the most chaotic so far - here, it is survival of the biggest! cars yield to buses, bikes yield to cars and people yield to bikes. Traffic lights rarely exist and if they do the bikes don't bother stopping anyways! We spent an afternoon eating and waiting around the city until our night train to Sapa. As we walked down the length of the train, we came accross some wooden slabs and were fearful that it was going to be a very long night but our tour guide kept walking and eventually they're were cheap looking airline seats...phew, but we kept walking and eventually we made it to the couchettes with 4 bunk beds that were absolutely stunning. We met sopme cool people and had a surprisingly refreshing night sleep.
The next day we checked into an equally spanky hotel in Sapa and then went off on a 3 hour day trek down from the clouds in Sapa into the valley of a tribal village. The tribes all wear different clothes to distinguish themselves. We arrived at Cat cat and were blown away by the rural authenticity. If you were to envision vietnam, Sapa is it - rolling hills with rice fields cut progressively down the valley, water flowing from level to level, locals wearing conical hats to protect from the sun, collecting the rice plants in a line and strapping them to sticks accross their shoulders and even local men leading water buffalo through the mud plowing new trenches for the rice. It was all pretty stunning and the pictures and video footage are the only way to do it some justice. After heaps of Vietnamese cuisine and delicacies, wandering through the local market complete with live crabs and frogs and relaxing in the hotel we fell asleep looking out our balcony into the clouds.
The next day was more of the same, a different village but equally stunning. The trails were very muddy and we spent most of our time tip toeing through. Local children would pass by and try and sell handicrafts, while others just enjoyed watching the white people struggle down the mountain side in the slippery mud. We stopped for lunch at a local hut where they conduct home stays. At first I was very sceptical because some of the sales people litterally stood outside the door trying to sell us stuff for at least 20 minutes. After we settled down and realized most of the food was from the hotel pre-prepared we relaxed slightly and after a few too many glasses of home made rice wine made by our hostess we came to really enjoy the experience. The house was pretty modest with the whole second floor devoted to home stays, which is a shame, since the huge family could have benefitted from the extra room. Back to town and then into Lao Cai on the border of China to catch the night train back into Hanoi. Overall, a very exciting 2 days made even more entertaining by a young Vietnamese girl who was in our tour group who didn't stop smiling the two days of the trip!

May 29th, 2006 - Vietnam

We fly out to Vietnam tomorrow morning and we've booked two tours back to back to finish off our travelling year in style- a 2 day mountain trek to Sapa, north of Hanoi, and a 3 day cruise and kayak trip on Halong bay's waters.

May 28th, 2006 - Shopping Spree!

Saturday morning we picked up my spanky - albeit overpriced, suit and then headed off to the Chatuchuk market. The market is HUGE, I think the lonely planet says there's 1700 stalls of which it seems like we browsed them all. They had everything from knock-offs to retail products to used goods, from homeware to handicrafts, this market catered to all tastes. Although we got off to a slow start because of the overwhelming size, eventually between Laure and I we did some serious damage. When we finally returned home, it gave new meaning to the term shop till you drop! We were so pooped we stayed at our guesthouse to eat and watch a movie before crashing.

The next day, there were still some small things to be taken care of before we left Thailand - Laundry, Pharmacy, and yep, more shopping! But first we decided to finish the touristy things to do in BKK, with the Grand Palace. After almost getting scammed to pay someone for feeding some birds, we finally got past the crazy traffic to the entrance and although we were dressed appropriately we decided just to wander around the outside - at this point in our trip, it's just another glorified big temple. Slightly more attentive in the touristy area about the Grand Palace I noticed a few too many sincere locals helping out tourists, conveniently with a pen in hand...Dough!! Then we wandered the streets in our little touristy area in Banglampu and finally, come 5 pm we were both shopped out. It was to the point where we ran out of money pleading with the last purchase to penny's and got our key deposit back early from our guest house so that we could get dinner and snacks for the trip to Vietnam, not to mention the 6 hour midnight layover on our way back through BKK before arriving in Singapore. Anyone who didn't know us would think we were shopaholics! All in all, Bangkok treated us pretty well considering the whole suit fiasco.

May 26th, 2006 - Floating Market

We took a tour to the Floating Market in Damean Sadouak about an hour and a half outside of the city. Although it was pretty unique, it wasn't quite everyone's picture purfect floating boats with fresh fruit and veggies circulating through the canals or in an open lagoon, most of it was in a warehouse on the edge of the canal and the authentic stalls only accesable by water were few and far between, not to mention tourist oriented. Since we'd been holding out our shopping until we reached BKK we finally let it go and bought tons of souvenirs and treasures for ourselves and maybe our families if we decide not to keep everything for ourselves! There's so much fun stuff and although we know we're paying the tourist rate and bargaining can be slightly draining and time consuming - time is the one thing that we have loads of because we needed a few days to process our visa applications into Vietnam. Tomorrow, we hit the biggest market of them all on the outskirts of the city to finish off whatever we missed today! Since I'm a stingy bastard I think I did pretty well my first 'real' bargaining experience, if only I had a better concept of what things were worth over here! We spent the evening at Patong night market and the red light district of BKK - although it had the potential to be very outrageous and XXX complete with Banana and Ping Pong shows, we both shyed away and ventured into a Gentlemans club for a drink, which doesn't even constitute a strip club, but was neat to people watch and try and decide if there was a 'Back' room...

May 25th, 2006 - Spanky Suit!

After the hiccup the day before, I was starting to really dislike Bangkok with its busy streets and pushy drivers. But we spent most of the day relaxing in a park in China town and wandering the streets in search of some good markets. Just when we finally found them we were forced to head back accross town to the Tailor to get refitted for the suit. Bangkok is not a very easy city to navigate, as SE asia's Venice - with waterways strewn about the city, it forces random street patterns that are anything but simple. Not to mention the fact that the street names are too difficult to pronounce, let alone spell! We finally, made it back to the Thai factory and while I was trying on my work in progress suit, Laure clarified a couple of our concerns and witnessed some guests that tried to bargain and were refused, reassuring me for my feable attempt the day before - Top Ten is just not that kind of place. I further scrutinized the threads of my suit for any blemishes, errors, problems, inconsistencies and determined that aside from the high quality materials and linings for my suit and pants, this was indeed a top end suit! Very relieved that I hadn't gotten scammed, just steered towards probably the most exclusive tailor in Bangkok, I left very contented and I can't wait to see the final product tomorrow morning!

May 24th, 2006 - Scam or Not a Scam that is the question?

We arrived in Bangkok at the ripe time of 5:00 am a block from the popular backpacker district of Kho San Rd. Taxis and Tuk Tuks were lined up pestering travellers for lifts while all of us stumbled out of the bus trying to get our bearings. Fortunately this is one scam that Laure and I caught onto and we managed to find Kho San and our accomodation less than ten minutes away. Bangkok is a city that is open all night and Kho San is no exception, with neon signs and bars it's always full of life. Earlier in the evenings the street is restricted to one way traffic and the street stalls (night market) come out in flocks! We lounged in the lobby of our spanky guest house and waited until 9 am before grabing a bite to eat for breakfast and then walking towards the grand palace a couple of blocks away. Before getting to the Palace we were forwarned by two consecutive passers by that Laure in her scandalous outfit was not appropriate to enter and the second gentleman was nice enough to help us sort out a better option for a day of touring. After spending some time in SE asia, we've been made aware of a number of scam artisits and it was hard to trust this one, but he was genuine enough and wasn't pushing for anything for himself. He mentioned that it was a government holiday and that the government tuk tuks (with white licence plates) get their gasoline payed for to promote Thai awareness. We were very sceptical, but after teaching us some basic Thai and telling us not to settle for anything more than 2o Baht, he helped us flag down the next driver and we were on our way to four different tourist places for less than 1AUD. Each stop the driver would wait ten minutes for us to finish. At one of the Budhist temples another gentleman spoke to us and explained the history and pride of the Thai people. When he saw our outlined itinerary, he too explained how wonderful the Thai factory is for the pride of his nation the real workers behind Armani, Boss, etc but the Thai equivalent being Top Ten Collections. Sure enough, the Thai factory proved to be a very nice Tailor much more professional than any other although rushed and unsure, I was getting a good vibe and bought a hand made tailored suit for less than half of what I would have paid in Canada, but what later seemed to be twice as much as any of the zillions along Kho San rd. Anyhow, off to the next temple and then our tuk tuk driver through in a common scam. They take passengers unwillingly to a jewelery place and if we stay inside for 15 mins he gets free gas. Although, not pleased, we agreed and lasted 10 minutes before we were asked to leave abruptly by the sales people - thats when we figured out the exact details of the scam. Needless to say we jumped out at the last stop and when he tried to take us for more money than we initially agreed, we firmly forced him down to just above the agreed price - to put it in context, we gave him 1.50AUD, I would have given him a slight bit more had it not been for the scam! After this negative time waster, we started speculating everything that had happened in the day, including my suit purchase! If the whole thing was a scam, it was the most elaborate scam you could dream of, with three different players in two different locations, but with cell phones, I guess anything is possible...I sulked the night away and kept reminding myself that even though I may have spent more than I should have in Thailand, it's still much less than in Canada!

South East Asia

Sorry about lack of Pictures, here' one to put our trip in context.

May 23rd, 2006 - Ko Tao

Ko Tao is a small island further into the ocean that Ko Samui and neighboring Ko Phagnan (which we passed by). As with all of the islands in Southern Thailand, Ko Tao is plush with greenery and mountains with beautfiul rock formations and beaches scattered about. We walked from the ferry to SaiRee beach where all of the dive shops congregate. After settling into a place affiliated with a diving company, they changed they're dive time to 10:00 am and with our plans to leave on a night boat/bus to Bangkok we couldn't even go with them. Instead we were left last minute finding another dive operator who was going out at the initial time of 7:45 am. Since they're are probably more dive companies than dive sites, we didn't have a problem and started getting excited about our first dive as certified open water divers.
The next morning we took a pick up truck taxi - literally two benches facing each other in the back of a pick up truck, up and over a mountain to a bay on the calm side of the island; Hin Wong Bay. From there it was less than fifteen minutes until Shark Island and another 30 minutes back to the harbor where we dove for the second dive. This compared to our 2.5 hour boat times to Ko Phi Phi from Ao Nang was quite a rushed adventure, but the diving was equally stunning, complete with Moray eel and a whole bunch of Christmas tree worms (little colorful fan worms that collapse when they detect danger. All in all, a great morning and good weather! We grabbed a quick bite to eat and then it was straight to the ferry for a ride to Chumphon where we immediately catch a night bus to Bangkok for arrival tomorrow morning!

May 22nd, 2006 - Ko Samui

We finally arrived in Ko Samui and our accomodation was a little less than desirable however, Lanai beach left nothing to be desired - miles of golden sand, tons of bars, restaurants, shops and even a Thai boxing ring! What was special about Lanai is that although tourism in Thailand is booming, Lanai has its spoiled bling, bling tourist section but there are remnants of the relaxed beach culture off the beaten track. The next two nights we found a bungalow on the beach with a direct view of the Ocean. yeah, so it had a fan rather than A/C and was in desperate need of a paint job, I could have stayed alot longer in our humble abode. The weather wasn't overly cooperative, but with our little bungalow beach side we could sit out and watch the storms roll in and out. The evenings we spent mainly walking down the beach and into town, grabbing a bite at the street vendors and browsing the shops a little. Saturday night we decided to go out and hit the bar scene, after happy hour on some rock outcroppings outside of our accomodation, we headed into town and joined the ladies at the King Kong bar. It seems we chose a good night for two reasons - 1. It was Thai Box night and there was a free Thai boxing tournament on between the several outdoor bars set up around the square and 2 - halfway through the night, we discovered that our tax return had come through as anticipated and couldn't have arrived at a better time. We were pretty early and to kill the time while we waited for fight time, we played connect four and jenga - our bar tender was amazing (you can tell she's used to entertaining clinets this way!). After some well desreved beach days and not venturing to explore any more of Ko Samui then the lovely beach that we settled on, we caught a ferry to Ko Toa - a famous diving Mecca.

May 19th, 2006 - Minibuses suck!

After being an hour late picking us up and charging us an additional fe to pick us up in Kamala beach and not petong, the minibus was a pile of junk. One of the seats was busted and Laure and I were forced to squeeze into the front two seats, where Laure was the gimp with her legs right next to the shifter as described in a previous blog entry. We finally got on the road and with the beginning of rain we find out the wipers don't work. Do you know those games where you try and make your passengers nervous by not clearing the windshield for extended periods of time. This guy brought that game to a whole new level. He also had a strange diet of nuts and leaves? After nearly missing a truck that was reversing onto the highway, I was relieved to move to the back at our next stop. The minibus stopped another 3 times for travel agents to take our money and throw in with a VIP bus that was out of gas and a ferry ride and we finally got to the island at 6pm! Talk about a long day of travelling, considering the two places can't be more than 300km apart!

May 19th, 2006 - Motorcycle drama's

We arrived in Kamala Beach in Phuket, at noon on Tuesday and headed straight out on the beach after finding a place to crash. The beach is still in shambles from the Tsunami and efforts are being made to rebuild the waterfront. A memorial construction project was taking up most of the beach front, while the pomtrees were all being supported by stilts after having been replanted very recently. Overall, our first impressions were poor but we stuck it out and made the most of our three days. Phuket is probably only 2 hours from Ao Nang and yet although Ao Nang threatened of rain, thankfully, it never really hit us...In Phuket, it was a different story, lots of rain! The next day we rented a small motorbike and headed around the island. You could pick out the tourists, because they're the only ones wearing helmets and there is maximum 2 people per bike! The locals sometimes squeeze 4 with luggage! No child seats either... We had a lovely morning, passing through the neighboring town of Patong beach and then continuing on into Karon and Kata before rounding the southern tip of the island and coming up to the Promthep point. We stopped and rode an elephant for an hour up a hill above the ocean and a really nice club med resort. I had no idea that their hair was quite so spiky and coarse, nor that they have foreheads big enough for our guide to sit on? The walking was pretty sickening but we should have realized the downhill gets worse, since the guide walked with the elephant on the way back down and had Laure and I take turns sitting directly on the elephants neck...talk about a wedgy! The whole coast was stunning and the rain only caught us once at Promthep, where we grabbed a drink in a restaurant on the ocean front. Ironically, the first time we have Western food it makes us sick and both of us had are first (and hopefully last case) of travellers diahrrea. Technically, I won our bet as to who had the weaker stomach, but hey, whos counting! Next it was around towards Phuket town...what a nightmare, school was letting out and traffic was everywhere. Locals honk to signify passing and since I was the slowest driver on the road, the horns weren't stopping...talk about stressful! We decided to skirt the town and not risk any problems by going into the busy city center, then it was back off to the becaches on the other coast starting with Patong. Unfortunately, after a long ride I burnt Laures leg on the hot muffler when we were parking the bike. We quickly got her sorted at the pharmacy with soothing cream, antibacterial cream and compresses and then pampered her(us) with a Thai massage and a pedicure. With some reserve I managed to get her back on the nike abnd we made the short trip back to Kamala. The next day we we lounged in our room for most of the rainy day after a failed attempt to move on to our next destination, Phuket. Some friend of ours invited us into Patong, so we decided to rent the bike a second day since it's cheaper than getting a taxi 2 ways. I took the bike out for a joy ride to see the Northern beaches while Laure relaxed. On my adventure I drove to the end of a paved road where a herd of cows? At least they resembled cows, except for their horns...kinda like a Thai Zebu for those that have been following Laures blog in Madagascar. Anyways, not quite nowing what to make of them, I decided to do the responsible thing...honk my horn and floor it! No seriously, I pulled over and took pictures, in a very vulnerable position to be charged. Then I off roaded a little to get to a secluded beach before heading back to Kamala. That night we drove into Patong, the bling bling city of huket and regratably missed our friends that we were there to meat in the first place. Instead we had a drink on a rooftop terrace, then dinner in a food court before calling it quits and heading home to Kamala. As a very scenic island, there are mountains everywhere and one just happened to separate Petong from Kamala. It sounds straight out of a movie, but would you believe we ran out of gas near the top of the windy road between the two. At the time I definetly could NOT se the humor, but in hindsight, it was pretty funny. Particularly, when I'm pushing the bike up the remainder of the hill, hell it was a full on mountain, past the small police station post and trying to explain being out of gas for pushing a bike in the dark late at night. We finally got to level ground and the bike finally started. I popped it into neutral and we coasted down the mountain and into town, between my desperation at trying to find a gas station not having to push any more and Laure's whimpering about a bit of excess speed with fear of not having any power we sputtered into a gas station. Gas station is a bit strong of a word. Literally, 2 4 liter clear cylinders resembling syringes and a small pipe with no nozzle, kind of like a titration kit from organic chemistry. He also took the liberty of hamering the footpeg back into place using the back of his shovel as it had got bent from excessive attempts to kick start it, before he was kind enought to get it started for us again...We returned the bike and caught an early morning mini bus across Thailand to the island of Ko Samui

May 15th, 2006 - Ao Nang Memories

Diving in the oopen waters around the island of Phi Phi was stunning. Both Laure and I agreed that the great barrier reef was more impressive, but we had some realy nice dives while we learned all of the necessary steps to dive. Our instructor was astonished at how well the two of us controlled our breathing and conserved our air! He actually boasted to other instructors the fact that all four of our dives were over an hour long. Needless to say the third day of our course was back in the pool and was pretty slack and boring after having been in the ocean. Day 4 brought some pleasant surprises, we saw two sea turtles, a morey eel and an absolutely surreal swim through. The swim through is a small cave like entrance just big enough to 'swim through' formed by different types of coral (fan and boulder mainly) and you pass into an open space with the sun shining through...very cool. We wrote our final exams on the boat and both excelled without any drama or studying. That afternoon, I enrolled in a day of rock climbing on the world renouned peninsula of Rai lai and ton sai, while Laure invested her time into a Thai cooking course for the afternoon. All the while we continued to enjoy getting our food from street vendors and sitting peacefully on our balcony looking out towards the ocean and limestone cliffs of Ton Sai...I miss Ao Nang!
The climbing trip was everything I imagined. Since it's low season I had a personal guide Moe, who although not overly talkative, was an outstanding climber and excellent instructor. After catching a long boat to Railai (the limestone cliffs block all street access.), we headed straight accroos the narrow peninsula to Rai Lai east where there are an abundance of top roping cliffs on the edge of the bay. We started climbing straight away to beat the tides. Moe would climb to the top setting up leads on the permanent hooks anchored in the walls while I belayed, then I would follow suit and unclip all of the leads and attach them to my harness before continuing to the top. The climbs were all chosen based on the faint memory of my abilities from Montreal at a level of 5'9 (5+ Thai system equivalent), but by mid day we adjusted to 5'10c (6+). The climbs all had a stunning backdrop of the peninsula and some went as high as 30 m! As the tides crept in, we had to catch the rope from falling in the water as the amount of usable sand diminished to nothing. We grabbed a bite to eat and then headed back to the popular east side for a couple hours break while the tides came in. Next it was off to Phranang bay (stunning) where we entered a narrow crevice and climbed a wall that had very small hand holds at the bottom, from the top the view back on Phr nang was equally stunning to Rai Lai east. Next it was a stroll down the beach to a cave, where contrary to my expectations, we started rising higher and higher as we pregressed deeper into the cave. Next thing you know, I had a flashlight and was hiking in the dark up smal bamboo ladders and along guide ropes until we finally made it to the otherside, albeit 20m higher looking out accross Rai Lai West. We abseilled down, ie repelled and then walked down the beach to get a long boat back to Ao Nang. Overall, an awesome day trip with AoNang Climber...Thanks Moe!