The last few pics

Pic 1, Banteay Srei, part of Cambodia's Angkor Wat temples, about 30 minutes from the main temple site. The sandstone used is much more red (like Cambodia's soil) and has amazing carvings. By far one of my favourite sites.

Also from Angkor, but from the Bayon temple. Reminded me of a SE Asian take on the Venus de Milo.

Also from the Bayon site. Such a cool contrast of colours.

Scooter gang!

And finally, what would a coffee order be without the offer of a snake, pickled in Laolao, the local homemade whiskey of Laos? Delicious? Hmmmm... No.

A few more holiday pics

I'll probably post a few more either today or tomorrow, but here are a few for now... The first one is from a somewhat sad visit to an elephant riding place after spending the day kayaking on the Mekong outside of Luang Prabang, Laos (they weren't being treated well and I didn't realize we were stopping, so just like last year I bought all the bananas they had for sale and fed this cute dude). Next pic is from rock climbing in Vang Vieng, Laos. 8 hours, just me and a guide all to myself, 7 routes up the rock and lunch included... $25. Amazing. Pic #3 is from the Pak Ou Caves or "Buddha Caves" outside of Luang Prabang which I kayaked to... I loved this decaying Buddha statue in the darkened cave. Pulitzer worthy?? I'm expecting a call soon. Finally, the fourth pic is from my 5:30am wakeup in Luang Prabang when we watch the daily alms collecting of the local monks, and the last picture is a stunning tree on the Mekong as my slow boat from Pak Beng meandered it way down to the river toward Luang Prabang. Enjoy.

A few pics from the holiday...

A few pictures from the trip. More to come in a few days. They are from: The Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, the Thaipusam Festival (Indian festival previously mentioned) in Little India in Singapore, the highest alfresco bar in the world (Altitude Bar) in Singapore (63 stories in the air), and the Wat Rong Khun Temple in Chiang Rai, a totally unique temple in northern Thailand which has been recently built and was designed by a well-known Thai artist... inside, there are frescoes featuring Buddha, Mickey Mouse and the characters from Avatar. I'm not joking. Enjoy!

T

From the beach

Sunshine, banana trees, Australian Hornbills visiting the restaurant, crystal clear aquamarine waters, salty waves, yoga in a teak studio overlooking the South China Sea, delicious curries on the patio of local restaurants, sweating on the white sand, and side-stepping toads and geckos on the way to my bungalow perched at the top of a stone staircase on the hill overlooking the Haad Yuan bay.

This is my current life. It is terrible.

I arrived in Koh Phnang (a stunning Thai island off the east coast, in the South China Sea) and headed over to the Haad Yuan beach on Monday morning after departing from Siem Reap and all the amazing scenery of Angkor Wat and the surrounding temple structures. I've seen a lot of temples, churches and cathedrals around the world, but Angkor was still absolutely mind-blowing. The Bowlon Temple and Ta Phrom, along with Batey Srei (about 30 minutes by TukTuk away from the main Angkor site) was equally amazing. I want to go back. No... I need to go back. It's just too amazing for words. I met up with D&M and the Hockeys (it's the right pronunciation, but the real spelling is different) on Monday morning and am getting ready to depart tomorrow morning. My China comrades have already departed back to Bangkok for a few days, but I booked myself here until tomorrow so I could recharge my batteries before heading back to work on Monday.

So, alas, I'm on the tail-end of my nearly 5 weeks of winter vacation, and only one more night remains. Tomorrow, I'm hopping on the longtail boat, the bus, a ferry, another bus and two flights to go from here to Shenzhen in southern China, on the mainland just across from the glorious Hong Kong. Unfortunately I won't be able to make it over to HK, since I have to be back to work on Monday. A long but necessary trip back to the country I've been calling home for nearly a year and a half.

Disgusting. Work is only 3 days away.

I've met some amazing people, seen some amazing things, made classic traveling errors (no, I won't elaborate), and had an unbelievably fun time around this part of the Asian continent for the second year in a row, and it makes me want to see and re-see so many things. And unlike last year, I didn't rush too much and was smart enough to take some time to relax in the midst of the urgent need to see everything and do everything. From kayaking to rock climbing to feeding elephants to watching monkeys to doing yoga to reading a tonne and writing a lot and going running in the rural streets of Laos or meeting random globe-trotters, I've been able to experience things (yet again) that years ago I only dreamed of. It's hard to believe how close our dreams and ambitions are to our fingertips once we put ourselves in a position to make them real.

So, this will be my last entry before I return to the northern lands of DongBei. But I'm thinking about ya'll at home and abroad who may actually read these boring diatribes from time to time. I've been thinking about you all in your various locations around the globe. And I'm gonna send one personal shout-out... to my good friend and Europe sidekick, JLG, congrats to you and DM on your engagement and upcoming wedding! I can't wait to see you guys in the summer! And to SW and NT, two of my absolute favourite Victoria peeps, I can't wait to be at your wedding in July as well! Ya'll are amazing friends and can't wait to see ya'll.

As always and continually, much love from Southeast Asia (and again, soon, from China)...

T

Only when traveling, part 2

I flew into Siem Reap, Cambodia this morning after spending a few nights in the Laos capital of Vientiane. Laos was beautiful, if a little on the dusty end of things. But I arrived in the home of Angkor Wat this morning, even though Laos Airlines isn't exactly known for publicly sharing it's flight record.

After arriving, I was sitting and waiting for MK to get ready to head out for lunch and I picked up a binder in the common area of the hostel we're in. As I flipped through the hodgepodge of information, I came to the back sheet which had the title, "The Best Food I've eaten in Siem Reap!"

Well, I don't need much encouragement to test out a fantastic new restaurant. Actually, just the other day in Vientiane, I'd googled a place called the KongKhao which was supposed to have amazing food in Vientiane, and I wasn't disappointed. The restauranteur was an Italian guy and (I'm gonna assume a lot here) his likewise Italian girlfriend who ran the place with a Lao business partner. Earlier in the day, I stopped by to check out the menu and got talking to him and had a good chat about the food in Vientiane and where I'd heard about his place, which only opened in December. I took a card and planned to bring my travel mates back here and definitely wasn't disappointed. The food was fresh, delicious, and followed many traditional Laos recipes, minus the MSG normally found in restaurant cooking in much of Asia. It was fantastic.

Anywho, that was a big digression.

After reading about this awesome place, I'd noticed that there was a little blurb about it being connected to the Green Gecko Project, a non-profit which works to get Siem Reap kids off the street and involved positively in the hospitality industry. I'd read about Green Gecko and was planning to check it out to already, so I thought it'd be an awesome opportunity to see what the food was like. And I was starving. Enough said.

Well, MK and I wandered the 4 minutes from our hostel and grabbed a seat on the unassuming patio down a small, graveled street. We sat down and perused the menu. I settled on stir fried veggies and the fried frog. Ya. Frog. "Delicious!" I thought. And again, I wasn't disappointed. The food was awesome and the drinks were icy cold, perfect for the crazy heat here in SR.

As we were eating, we started chatting with a girl from Oz who'd just spent 6 months volunteering in Jakarta, Indonesia with, I think, the national science education centre (something akin to Science World back home in Canada). We had a really interesting conversation about life overseas, her journalist prospects back home (she'd quit her job as a science and technology writer in Australia before she left) and what Indonesia was like while I indulged in my amazing frogs legs.

Just as we were getting ready to take off, another Aussie gent pulled up on his motorbike and had a quick chat with the three of us. It turned out that he was one of the guys involved with the restaurant and with the Green Gecko Project, so we spent the next 20 minutes talking about the project, about traveling and about his daughters adventures. Sooo much fun.

It's seems like it's only when you're traveling and keeping your eyes open to life that these sorts of experiences happen. Can't wait for the next one.

T

Only when traveling, part 1...

A few days ago in Vientiane (the Laos capital), I was feeling pretty frustrated. I don't know if it was because I was constantly changing cities, continually packing and repacking my bags, or attempting to be social and make plans with large groups, only to be frustrated by delays or changes or cancellations. Desiring a change from this miserable perspective, I started to think about what made me calm down and recenter: quiet time, coffee, and running.

I spent the morning just relaxing, taking some time to talk to my family back home, return a couple of emails and just generally settle my mind again. I read my book, drank some coffee, and kept reassuring myself that it'd be fine... I just needed to relax and enjoy the new experiences with the strangers I was traveling with, and if things weren't going to work out, that I just needed to walk away and venture out on my own.

As a way to find that sort of centre again, I started flipping though my LP travel book and browsing the internet, looking for running routes I could maybe do along the Mekong to help relax. After a few minutes, I came across a Vientiane running group named the Vientiane Bush Hash Harriers. I didn't know much about the group, but it said they had a Monday night open run and after checking the website for details, I got an address, found a tuk-tuk, and was on my way to the middle of the southern part of the city, VERY far from my guesthouse.

I arrived, checked in, paid the drop-in fee of about $7 and started milling around. People were still arriving here and there, so I just kinda kept to myself. One of the organizers chirped up a few minutes later, asking where my "Home Hash" was, and how long I'd been "hashing" for. Well, I just assumed this was a funky word for "running", so I said I ran at home with the PI Harriers in Victoria when there and that there wasn't much recreational running in DongBei, where I'm currently. She kinda pushed a little further, asking me if I'd "hashed" before. Again, thinking I knew what I was talking about, I said "only a little". It didn't take me long to figure out how wrong I was.

We had a little circle beforehand where they introduced each other, talked about the route and what to look for (look for??? huh???) and then we were off. But as we left the house's parking lot, no one knew where to go. Then someone spotted the "hash" (the marking made by the route creator) and so we started heading that way.

Well, it turns out that a "Hash" is not your regular running club. Hashes involve a member (oh... all members have their own personalized nickname... "Where's the beef?" was joining from Tokyo and "Mother Trucker" was the route maker) who sets a course using specific markers and symbols, and the other hashers have to problem solve and kinda seek out the route as the go. It's part treasure hunt, part run, and all fun. I was also the youngest person running by about 7 years, but that's not so important. We spent the next 75 minutes running and backtracking and searching for markers through the quiet streets of rural Vientiane, going through temples, back alleys, being chased by dogs and being waved to by kids and local adults alike.

After finishing up the run, we cooled off with some water and snacks before the "Circle In" was called. The "Circle In" consists of everyone introducing themselves (if they're not local members), evaluating the route, making fun of eachother, hassling each other, and then after every series of witty remarks, the people under the spotlight are treated to a song and the expectation that they chug a half glass of beer. This is after running 10k. Not what I expected. But most of you know me well... "When in Rome..." :)

We spent almost an hour going round and around the circle, making jokes, telling stories, and hassling each other. Afterwards, we were treated to more drinks and a homemade spaghetti and salad made by that week's running hosts. So amazing. I met some great people, one of which was a PYP teacher at the Vientiane International School who told me all about living and teaching in Laos and being married to a local guy. Pretty amazing.

Once the food and drink and sweating was done, I realized that I was supposed to meet MK, an English bloke who's been traveling with me for the past 10 or so days, and the Dutch girls we'd met on the slow boat from Thailand to Luang Prabang, Laos. So I thanked everyone for the fantastic time, bought a club t-shirt, unwittingly agreed to return in April for a crazy bike race, and took off.

It was such a fantastic way to recharge, and I couldn't wipe the grin off my face after I met up with my traveling crew. You can be sure I'll be seeking out Hasher families in the future to tag along with. The only drawback was the nearly 2 hour walk I needed to make back to the centre of the city because no taxis or tuk-tuks existed in that area of town. If I wasn't sweating so much here, I'd be wearing my new souvenir shirt for the rest of vacation.

T

Again to more northern lands

The clouds rolled in to northern Laos this morning after a beautifully warm day yesterday. Although it's more or less turned the central part of the city into a tourist mecca, Luang Prabang and the hills of northern Laos are stunning, as karst mountains just out of the forest and the mekong river delta.

 

I spent yesterday with a sort of UN collective that I met on the bus and at my guesthouse in Chiang Khong, the small Thai border town that I crossed to come into Laos. It was a 3 day trip to get out here from Chiang Mai, but it was worth the intake in scenery as we rolled through nothern Thailand, made it to the border, then hopped on the "Slow Boat to Laos" up the, I think, Nam Tha River that ultimately hooks up with the mighty, slow-moving (and famous) river connecting Laos, Thailand and Cambodia, the Mekong. It's slow moving at this time of year, anyway. The slow boat is more or less two full days on the river, watching the jungled forests pass by. It was a good few days to relax, read a tonne (on book number four of the trip so far) and take a break from being continuously social. I know it's hard for most of you to believe, but I actually like my quiet time!

 

Yesterday we got a group of about 14 people and got in kayaks and spent the day paddling down one of the connecting rivers to the Mekong, went to a sort of temple inside a cave in one of the big granite cliffs on the banks of the river which was filled with thousands of Buddha statues, ate lunch at the site, then took the kayaks to a small village for a local rice wine and whisky tasting. As in a few places, you could pick yourself up a bottle of locally made whisky that has a delightful taste of snake or scorpion, as the bottles all have one inside. I decided that I'd stick to more tame spirits.

 

I guess I should backtrack a bit...

 

Singapore was pretty amazing after KL. Time by the pool, wandering through Little India and Chinatown, and hanging out at Altitude Bar, the highest Alfresco bar in the world, 63 stories about the Singapore skyline. Not a bad life down there! And what does "alfresco" mean, you ask? It just means "open air"... a.k.a. a patio/outdoor restaurant. The view from the top was pretty amazing and we had a blast, dancing until about 3am. Dax and I also took in the Thaipusam Festival, which is an Indian celebration where devotees make pilgramages across a city or to a specific temple, all the while showing their devotion by piercing metal rods or hooks through various parts of the body and carrying heavy weights with these hooks and rods. Hooks through the back often carry individual limes (we're talking 50 or 60... not 2 or 3). Others pull carts with the bigger hooks in their backs, while still others carry jars on their heads full of oil or milk and cannot take a rest. The most intense, though, are the men with rods piercing through each cheek, then having another rod pierce through both lips and their tongues, thereby preventing them from talking. They do this in conjunction with what seems like hundreds of rods going into their backs/abdomens as they carry something almost akin to a halo cage, so much of the weight is carried by the piercings. Sooo crazy. Some even manage to dance and spin and twirl. It's amazing what lengths people still go to in order to show their faith.

 

I also got to visit JH's school, where I hung with her kids, met her colleagues, etc. What an amazing school! These kids worked hard, were totally into what they were studying and were definitely involved in all their learning. And they were in grade six, doing activities that I couldn't get my grade 11s to do in Kelowna ( and I SURE can't get my boys in Dalian to do).

 

After Singapore, we made it back to KL for one more night, hung out with CG and her friend J (they were enroute to the Philippines) and then Dax and I were off to Chiang Mai, still one of my favourite places in the world. We met up with C&D, some fellow teachers from Dalian, and hung out for a few days before they trucked off to Pai. We then adopted a few new friends for the week, from Texas, Scotland, England and Slovenia. Pretty awesome. We went rock climbing, took a Thai cooking course, went to a yoga class being taught by my good friend KG, ate about 6 meals a day and had a really good time. Dax then took off for Bangkok, I met up with AG (yet another MLer) and her mom for one brief dinner, then I was on the bus and two days of boating to Laos. And so here I am.

 

For now, though, since the internet is as slow as molasses and I've been typing for what seems like decades, I'm gonna dash. The next stop is Vang Vieng with MT, a new friend from England, so we can meet up with the Dutchies that we met this week. Then JH and some of her Singapore crew are going to meet me Friday, and I should be in Vientiane on Sunday. Can't wait!

 

Until again, my friends... send me an email to let me know how everyone is! Much Asia love...

 

T