On The Road With Jody

Recent Travels

2010-01-17T05:41:00.013-05:00

Despite the best of intentions, this travel blog still isn't being updated on a regular basis. It certainly isn't for a lack of travel. I will have to try harder!

I enjoyed a wonderful trip to Italy in August. Included visits to some of the top galleries in Florence (Bargello, Uffizi and Accademmia), seeing the major sights of ancient and baroque Rome, visiting the Vatican, and touring the Sorrento and Amalfi Coasts with stops at Herculeneum, Pompeii, Vesuvius and Naples. I was fortunate to have a wonderful travelling companion in Alix for the Rome and Florence portions of the trip. Many photos from the Italy trip are posted on Flickr.

I also embarked on my first trip to Africa in December, spending most of the trip on safari and hiking around Tanzania. This included visits to some very special places, including seeing four of "the Big Five" in Ngorongoro Crater and the Serengeti, and visiting Olduvai Gorge, "the Cradle of Civilization". The list of animals we saw is very long (I know we hit over 40 when we tried to make a list at the lodge) and included giraffes, zebras, hippos, elephants, lions, cheetahs, ostriches, buffaloes, flamingos, camels, baboons, monkeys, black rhinos, antelopes, impalas, buffaloes and hyrax. We were also fortunate to catch the wildebeest migration through the Serengeti.

The safaris were a small but incredible part of our trip. The main focus of our trip was hiking, and we hiked both Mt. Meru (5th highest peak in Africa) and Mt. Kilimanjaro (highest peak in Africa; world's tallest free-standing mountain). We unfortunately hit the tail end of the rainy season, so it was soggy slogging for pretty much the entire time on Mt. Meru. Kili was a bit of a mixed bag -- some rain, some hail, some snow -- but at least we enjoyed beautiful weather when it counted! We hiked Mt. Kilimanjaro via the Rongai route, which provided vistas of Kenya on the way up, and Tanzania on the way down. The hike up Kili went very well, and we reached the true summit (Uhuru Peak - 5895m) on the morning of December 31st. A great way to end the year. As usual, tonnes of photos from this trip re posted on Flickr.

So, now I find myself back at home. Apart from a work trip to Geneva, Switzerland later this spring, no official travel plans are set. But certainly lots of places I would like to visit, and I'm sure it won't be long until the next trip details are being worked out!

Next Adventures Planned

2009-08-12T08:22:00.005-04:00

Seven months have passed since we returned from our Saudi Arabia trip. I never quite got around to chronicling our adventures in "the Magic Kingdom", but did manage to put together a pretty decent photo record. While I might be the one with the journalism degree, my spouse ActiveSteve.com is a diligent blogger and managed to record many tales of our trip.

So, it's August now and the big question is "where to next?" I'm pleased to report that there are TWO trips booked -- one in August and one in December :-)

In one week I will be flying from Ottawa to Naples for a 12-day trip to Italy. This will technically be my second time in Italy, but the first time barely counts as I spent only a brief time along the border with Switzerland -- Tirano, Domodossala, Lago Maggiore, etc. -- and didn't see any of the major sites.

I'll be on my own for the first part of the trip and will be spending about 4 days in the area along the Sorrento and Amalfi coasts. Many hours will be logged at Pompeii, Herculeneum and on Mt. Vesuvius. I'll then spend about 1.5 days in and around Rome before meeting up with my friend Alix to tour Florence and Tuscany. We have already made reservations to visit the David and some of the top galleries in Florence. We'll then spend about 4 days in Rome where we will see many of the famous historical sites. We will also be visiting Vatican City for half a day, which is actually the smallest independent country in the world!

There are never any guarantees, but I will do my best to put up some blog posts from the Italy trip. As always, you can expect to see far too many photos of our adventures!

At the start of this post, I mentioned that a second trip has been booked for December. Steve and I will be travelling together, and it will be a trip of a lifetime to Eastern Africa :-) More on that later. For now, I'm going to focus on the Italy trip as there's less than one week to go!

London Calling

2008-12-26T00:24:00.006-05:00

December 21, 2008

Steve and I are never sure if we are supposed to go through customs together when we travel because every country has different requirements. Usually we guess wrong, as was the case in London. Steve had wanted to go through separately so he could "joke around with the customs agent", but he was required to join me at the counter. When the woman asked what we were planning to do while in England, Steve provided a short list of items, beginning with Big Ben and ending with "paying a visit to the Queen Mum". The agent asked for him to repeat that last part, and then pointed out that the Queen Mum had in fact passed on quite some time ago. First case of foot-in-mouth for us on this trip, but she was a good sport about it and let us through. Afterwards, Steve explained that he thought Queen Elizabeth II was the Queen Mum because she had kids (but anyone who knows a thing or two about the Royal Family knows that the Queen is just the Queen). Quite an amusing way to begin the London portion of our trip!

Steve and I really enjoyed our 24-hour stopover in London. This was my first stay in London and was happy to have Steve there to take care of our itinerary as he's been there before. We were staying right at Green Park on the Piccadilly line, which is convenient to everything. We packed a lot into one afternoon... Royal Palace, Canada Gate, Big Ben, London Eye, Tower Bridge, London Bridge, Millenium Bridge, London Tower, Trafalgar Square, Shopping in Piccadilly Circus, etc. Also enjoyed my first pint in a British Pub (the seasonal "Sleighbell Ale") along with some fish and chips. Delicious! We were quite exhausted as we had flown in on the red eye and packed in a lot of activities, and managed to get in about 9 hours sleep. The next morning was quite relaxed as our flight from London to Riyadh did not depart until 11:30am.

As you have no doubt noticed, I am already quite behind on my blog posts and don't think I'll be providing summaries of each day's activities. Instead, I'll stick to some impressions and interesting events. Steve has been quite diligent about recording our travel; however, and you can check out his reports over at activesteve.com

Adventures to Start One Day Early

2008-12-20T04:58:00.006-05:00

For those of you who have been following the weather forecasts, you'll know that Ottawa is anticipating a big dump of snow on Sunday, December 21st -- which was of course the date we were originally scheduled to depart for Saudi Arabia. Our original plans also only gave us a little over 1.5 hours in London's Heathrow Airport to change terminals and make our connections, meaning even the most minor of delays would cause us to miss our flight to Riyadh.

I have to say that Air Canada did something very decent this year that I cannot recall them doing in the past. Due to the high volume of holiday travellers and the heavy snow experienced or anticipated in Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal (and Vancouver a bit earlier on), the airline was allowing passengers to move up or postpone flights that were scheduled to depart or land in these cities on or before December 22nd without penalty -- provided there was actually room on other flights.

I heard this reported on the news, but it took me awhile to realize that there might be other options for us to explore. At first, Steve did not want to change flights but it didn't take him too long to be convinced that this was our best bet. The question was whether Air Canada would actually change the flights as we were booked to fly with bmi (a Star Alliance member), even though the flight was operated by Air Canada.

After spending 1.5 hours on hold, we spoke with a very helpful agent named Patricia. When I first called, the website was showing 34 empty seats on the Saturday flight we were hoping to book. Patricia worked her magic and managed to secure us two of the last seats on the flight. A big THANK YOU to Patricia and Air Canada for making this happen.

So, what now? We are scrambling to get ourselves organized to leave 24 hours earlier than originally anticipated. The kennel was able to take Jonah a day early, and we are slowly working our way through an enormous pile of laundry. I think we'll be ready to go (we don't really have a choice!) but it may be a challenging to get to that point.

I've never actually been to London before, and am looking forward to a whirlwind tour of a few sights and enjoying my first pint in a British pub. Steve found a great hotel deal through Priceline.com in a central London location, which should make this pretty easy. The weather forecast for London is cloudy and +13C, which is pretty decent for us tacky tourists!

Countdown on For Next Trip!

2008-12-02T18:09:00.008-05:00

In just 19 days I depart for my first trip to the Middle East. Steve and I will be visiting his sister Andrea, her husband Patrick and our niece Helena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia over the holidays. This is the country's flag (in case you haven't seen it before).

The visa process was quite complex and drawn out, but Andrea and some other helpers made everything go as smoothly as is possible with the bureaucracy in the "Magic Kingdom". I have to admit I was a bit nervous throughout the process despite assurances, having shelled out for a non-refundable ticket to keep costs down! Everything should be smooth sailing from here on in... provided we don't experience bad winter weather in Ottawa or London (we're transferring planes at Heathrow) on our travel dates!

Now that the visa process is complete, it's beginning to sink in that we are actually going and the departure date has been sneaking up on us quickly. I've been slowly tackling "The Arab World Handbook", which is a pretty decent cultural primer for any traveller to the Arabian Peninsula. We'll always be in public with our hosts -- who know the local ways and can communicate in Arabic -- so I'm sure they'll help to keep us out of trouble. We are fortunate that our hosts have been developing a very fun group itinerary and will be taking care of sorting out the details, which is no small feat.

I'll post our general itinerary and any interesting preparation notes before we leave. Stay tuned!

What I've Been Up To

2008-10-21T05:25:00.020-04:00

More than a year has past since my last post. That's the trouble with a travel blog -- you have to actually go somewhere to have something to write about. To be fair, I have done some really fun trips within Canada over the past year but have really just have been lazy about recording my tales.

I started a new job back in November 2007 doing Federal Government Relations with the Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association, and new jobs are rarely conducive to travel. I work in a "virtual office" environment in Ottawa, and so I have managed to rack up quite a few Aeroplan points over the past year with regular trips to our Toronto office for meetings. I've been warned that the frequency of these trips will be increasing over the next year. I have managed to combine some of my work day trips to the T-Dot with shopping side-trips and visits with some friends from university, but this is something I will have to be more organized about in the future.

Another factor limiting my travel options was that Steve was cycling New Zealand from December 2007 to the end of March 2008, leaving me to shovel near-record mountains of snow and serve as a "single dog parent" to Jonah. Steve and I have found ourselves doing some separate travel adventures over the past couple of years, due in large part to the NZ trip.

We'll be taking our next big trip together though -- it will be a 2-week trip to Saudi Arabia in December 2008! Definitely not your run-of-the-mill travel destination. The main purpose of trip is to spend the holidays with Steve's sister Andrea, her husband Patrick and our niece Helena. In addition to visiting Riyadh and surrounding areas, we are also hoping to visit Jeddah on the Red Sea and Meda'in Saleh, an archaeological site that was named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 2007 and is of a similar scale to the well-known site in Petra, Jordan.

But more on that trip when we get there. Here's a quick overview of trips taken closer to home over the past year...

Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario
In April, 17 ladies descended on Niagara, Ontario for Alix's bachelorette weekend. We rented two fantastic cottages just steps from Lake Ontario in Niagara-on-the-Lake. and 1.5 blocks from downtown. A few of us went down a day early and visited two wineries in the Niagara Bench area -- Featherstone and Ridgepoint (both delicious!) and hit the outlet mall in Niagara. There were lots of highlights from this weekend, including a day-long wine tour with Crush on Niagara where we visited Hillebrand, Strewn, Lailey and Caroline Cellars (Strewn and Lailey were my favorites). We also spent a night out to the Dragonfly nightclub in Niagara with transportation via Excursion stretch limousine. You know it's been a good party when the bride-to-be ends up taking a swim in a fountain!

Vankleek Hill, Ontario
Like back in the good old days, Steve and I went on a spontaneous Beau's Brewery Adventure with Rob, Anna, Matt and Alix in June. The real reason for the trip was to pick up wedding favors for Al and Matt's wedding. The brewery is located halfway between Ottawa and Montreal in Vankleek Hill and we took the time to explore the surrounding areas, including a delicious ice cream stop with a bunch of bikers in Hawksbury.

Ottawa Bluesfest
Okay -- so this probably doesn't count -- but it's nice to enjoy such a great event without having the hassle or expense of travel! We enjoyed many great acts again this year, and I enjoyed experimenting with my digital SLR. Check out the photos over on Flickr

Montreal
Steve had a conference in Montreal in July, and I took advantage of the strategically located hotel to take a few days off, be a tacky tourist and do some shopping. The Montreal Jazz Festival was also on, and we managed to take in a few shows.

Syracuse
With the Canadian dollar basically on par with the US dollar, Lydia and I had a 48-hour whirlwind shopping trip to the outlet stores and Carousel Mall. There were many great finds and we both managed to stay within our $400 limits... barely :-) This was my first trip to these shopping meccas (located ~3 hours from Ottawa) -- but it certainly won't be my last!!!

Prince Edward County
We enjoyed a weekend trip to Prince Edward County in early August, which was the only opportunity we would have to visit Steve's sister and her family during their visit to Canada. We went a day early to travel the "taste trail". Stops included The County Cider Company, Black River Cheese, Slickers Ice Cream and the Barley Days Brewery. We stayed at the Cornelius White House B&B, which we highly recommend. We also went on a self-guided cycling tour of five wineries from the B&B -- we would have visited additional wineries, but our backpacks were already full of vino (and we probably would have had difficulty riding back if we'd enjoyed more samples). The wineries we visited were By Chadseys Cairns, Sandbanks Winery, Rosehall Run, Carmela Estates and Norman Hardie. My favorites of the five were By Chadseys Cairns and Norman Hardie -- though with the price point, the Norman Hardie wines should be saved for special occasions!

British Columbia
Steve and I spent a week out in BC in August. The good excuse for the trip came in the form of my cousin Renee's wedding where I served as wedding photographer. We spent a couple of days in Vancouver, but the bulk of our trip was spent with my family on Gabriola Island. We also hiked Mount Benson in Nanaimo, and kayaked around Protection and Newcastle Islands in Nanaimo harbor.

Day 9 - Versailles and Chartres

2007-09-23T14:46:00.008-04:00

Began the day with a 35 minute train ride to Versailles. This is the home of Chateau du Versailles -- the grandest and most famous palace in France. It served as the political capital and the seat of the royal court for more than a century (1682 to 1789). This is also where the revolutionary mobs came to drag Louis XIV and Marie Antoinette to Paris in order to have their heads lopped off.

I spent about 1.5 hours strolling through the Grand Appartements and other parts of the main complex. The royal bedrooms, a ballroom filled with mirrors and lots of richly decorated rooms. I took a quick look at the formal gardens -- they were quite impressive -- and then spent some time wandering around Versailles. The centre is very lovely, but there is not a whole lot to see. At least the tourists were back at the chateau -- it was crazy when I arrived at 9am and they just kept coming! I did find a cute little market that was right in front of Cathedrale St-Louis. Only had time for a quick peak inside because they were getting ready for some sort of family event.

Back to the train station at about 11:30am -- just in time to catch the train the Chartres (they only run about once an hour on Saturdays). The 13th century cathedral of Chartres is quite famous, and was really an amazing sight to see. The 172 stained glass windows -- almost all of which are original -- comprise one of the most important collections of medieval stained glass in all of Europe. The cathedral is also home to the Sainte Voile (holy veil). It attracted many pilgrims during the Middle Ages as it is said to have been woren by Mary during the birth of Jesus. The cathedral was very dark inside to give greater prominence to the beautiful windows. Someone also happened to be playing the organ during my visit, which definitely added to the atmosphere.

After I finished touring the cathedral, I went into the preserved medieval town centre, and then checked out the very large pedestrian mall. I got very turned around while on the mall and somehow managed to make my way to the side of town that is opposite the way to the train station. I got to the station about 8 minutes before the train was going to leave, which under normal circumstances would be plenty of time. Unfortunately, all the ticket agents were helping people who had problems with their tickets. As I was not keen to hang around town for another hour, I was pretty keen to make that train. I did -- with about 20 seconds to spare. Phew!

The train back took about an hour -- just enough time for a wee nap. I had some metro tickets to burn so I decided to head back to the Eiffel Tower one last time, and then back to the Louvre to pick up a book I had been eyeing earlier.

It was definitely another full day. I think I will take it a bit easier tomorrow. I am planning to return to Belgium... I haven't decided if I will stay in Antwerp for Sunday/Monday, or just do a daytrip there on Monday while using Brussels as a home base. Guess I have some planning to do!

Museums, Shopping and Metro Incident

2007-09-21T13:28:00.001-04:00

Day 8 - Paris

Today is my 31st birthday and I was very fortunate to be able to spend the day in Paris.

My first stop of the day was (surprise) the Louvre! I had the honour of being the first visitor of the day to say hello to the Mona Lisa, and then spent about 45 minutes visiting the the Italian masters aith virtually no company. That first hour in the morning at the Louvre is always the best... at 10am it can be a bit disappointing to realize that you are going to have to share the museum with everyone else!

I also went to some of the other wings I had missed on earlier visits, including the northern schools (15th to 17th century paintings from Holland, Flanders, Germany, etc.) The most amazing discovery today was the Renoir Room -- a must-see if you ever make it to the Louvre!

I then caught the metro to the Arc de Triomphe. I climbed to the top to check out the views (included with my museum pass). The views were great, even though it was a bit on the hazy side.

Then I was back on the Champs-Elysees again to do some shopping. Fortunately, I was headed DOWN the 2km hill this time! After that, I stopped in at the musée l'Orangerie to see more impressionist works (included in pass). This was not the greatest museum, but there were some interesting works by Cezanne. It also features 8 of Monet's large water-lily paintings, which are displayed in tzo large oval-shaped rooms.

I continued to shop throughout the afternoon as I slowly made my way to the Modern Art gallery. By the time I finally got there, I wasn't feeling up for another museum, and decided to make my way back to the hostel. Yup, I am still roughing it. Last night was q pretty quiet night at the hostel. I do not have high hopes for tonight -- the England-Ireland rugby match is tonight, and our hostel is in a convenient location to the stadium. Oh well, at least I have earplugs.

One interesting note about the metro trip to the hostel. I am still not entirely sure what happened, but at one of the stops the doors remained open as the train pulled away from the station. Then we sped up and jerked to a halt. A man landed in my lap (not a big deal) but I am fairly certain that someone fell out of the train and hit their head. It was sort of confusing -- lots going on and we were stopped for awhile. The metro driver looked very upset. At least the train wasn't packed -- then I might be telling a different story.

At this point, I am planning to spend Saturday in Paris. Not sure about Sunday -- I will either remain in Paris for one last night, or I will move onto Antwerp. I a planning to be in Antwerp on Monday, Brussels on Tuesday, and then I fly home on Wednesday.

Museums, Crypts and Scenic Vistas

2007-09-21T13:23:00.001-04:00

Day 7 - Paris

Sorry this post is a day late -- I was too tired to make it online yesterday because it was a very full day.

Started the morning at the Louvre and was treated to the French sculptures (5th to 17th century) without any other tourists. The sheer number of works in that museum amazes me. Spent about 3.5 hours there in total. Saw lots of exhibits, including the Napoleon apartments, French paintings, and more egyptian exhibits (including tombs). The most interesting parts for me were the Mesopotamia, Antique iran and Levant exhibits. The Code of Hammurabi was very interesting to see, as was the Venus de Milo (which is the only work in the entire museum to have its own room!)

I headed across the bridge and stopped in at the museum of money. I have visited the museum in Ottawa and I had low expectations for this one (but hey, it was included with the pass). It actually turned out to be pretty interesting -- really old coins dating back to 3rd century B.C., Roman coins, and coins from all over Europe dating back almost 1000 years. They also had lots of different minting equipment on display.

I then made my way around the corner to Notre Dame to check out the crypt beneath it (it was built on the Roman ruins of an old sea port). I also went up to the top of Notre Dame, which provided some very interesting views of the city.

I walked around the Sorbonne area for a bit before heading to the Panthéon. This was really an amazing site to see, and a place i probably would not have visited if it wasn't included in the pass. The crypt below serves as the final resting place for many famous French nationals, including the Curies, Dumas, Zola, Hugo and Voltaire.

I accidentally stumbled across Jardin Luxembourg -- a beautiful (and massive) garden at the site of Luxembourg Palace. Many locals were there just enjoying the day. Then I visited the Middle Ages museum, which is located in a Gothic church. It was "okay" overall, but it did have some magnificent tapestries. This includes one of the best known work from the Middle Ages -- the Lady and the Unicorn.

Louvre, Orsay and More Shopping

2007-09-19T13:24:00.001-04:00

Day 6 – Paris

Purchased a 4 day museum pass this morning for 45 euros. It gives unlimited access to the major museums and sites around town (including the Louvre), and other sites outside of the city (including Versailles, which is on my “might do” list.

I arrived at the Louvre at 9am – just as it was opening. The building was originally a fortress in the early 13th century, and converted into a royal residence in the mid-16th century. It became a national museum in 1793. The museum mainly covers the Middle Ages through to 1848 (then Musée d’Orsay takes over).

My first stop was the Mona Lisa so I could beat the crowds. It is amazing how small that painting is! At least the setup is good so many tourists can view it at the same time. I spent about 3.5 hours wandering through the Louvre this morning – basically until it overflowed with tourists. The morning at the museum was nice though.

I covered a lot of territory this morning but there are still more than half of the exhibits left to go (and some I would like to return to). Good thing I opted for the 4-day pass! I was very impressed by the Etruscan, Roman and Greek antiquities, and the Pharonic Egypt exhibits. I also went through the French paintings (of which there are floors – it being France and all), and the Spanish and Italian works. I saw way more works than I can list here, but some of the highlights included the Seated Scribe, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, coutless works by Botticelli, Michaelangelo and Raphael, and the Venus de Milo (which is the only work in the gallery to have its very own room).

I decided to visit Musée d’Orsay next. It is in an old train station and the museum is only 21 years old. The sculptures were really neat (including works by Rodin and interesting works from Africa), and the collection of impressionist works by Monet, Renoir, and Cezanne was impressive.

I then thought about moving on to the Modern Art museum, but I was again lured into the shops. This time Sephora was to blame. I never did make it to that gallery, but did make my way into a fair number of shops!

I’m also in a hostel tonight for the first night of this trip. It is a Hostelling International hostel, and I am in a three-person (female) dorm room. We will see how it goes. It sure is a lot cheaper than the hotels here, so I’m willing to rough it a bit!

More of the same is in the works for tomorrow. I’m planning to spend the morning at the Louvre and then move on to some other museums (or shopping if I get sidetracked again).

Sacré-Couer, Moulin Rouge and Notre Dame

2007-09-18T15:33:00.001-04:00

Day 5 - Paris

The weather was surprisingly good today, and so I decided to skip Musée Rodin unless I ran out of things to do. That did not happen -- there are things to see on every street and every corner. I ended up spending 9.5 hours exploring the Right Bank of Paris on foot.

I first made my way to Basilique du Sacré-Coeur in the Montemartre district. This area attracted a number of important artists and writers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The name co,es fro, the French word for hill (mont) and martyr. Both Amélie and Moulin Rouge are set in this area.

Sacré-Coeur resides on the top of the hill. Construction began in 1873 and was completed in 1919. The view fro, the top of the hill is one of the best in Paris -- you apparently see for 30km on a clear day. Sacré-Coeur is impressive both inside and out -- sadly no photos are allowed inside but I haave lots of exterior photo. I continued to Pigalle, which is the raunchier cousin of Montemartre and the home of Moulin Rouge, and numerous sex shops and peep shows. For the rest of the anglos out there, Moulin Rouge is named for the red windmill that sits on its roof (moulin is windmill in French).

From there I headed down towards the Seine River and the major sights.

I stopped into a couple of old churches, including the impressive Eglise Trinité. Not on the tourist trail but definitely worth checking out if you find yourself in Paris.

I checked out the Opera House and got sidetracked by Zara and some other boutiques for a bit. I then decided to take a break and have something to eat at the pyramids (the Louvre). The museum was closed today, but there were still lots of people just hanging around and enjoying the day.

Before continuing on to the Islands and the Cathedrale de Notre Dame de Paris, I stopped in at Eglise St-German L'Auxerrois. This church sits across from the Louvre and has some amazing artwork under dim lighting. It is also not on the tourist radar screen. Unfortunately, it is on the pervert radar. They are such sharing people. Ewww.

Moving right along.... off to explore the Islands and Notre Dame. Notre Dame is enormous (they have flat screens so people can see what is going on during mass) and is quite stunning. But it was also completely overrun with tourists. When I was done touring the Islands, I decided to head back to my hotel via the Marais and Bastille districts, and then along the canal that passes by my hotel.

Two days in Paris now and I have not technically stepped foot into a museum. That will change tomorrow. I promise!

The Tower, the Champs and the Arc

2007-09-17T15:47:00.002-04:00

Day 4 - Paris

*These French keyboards are a bit difficult to navigate, so my blog posts might be getting shorter if I dont figure them out soon!*

Slept in a bit and caught the 10:13am train from Brussels to Paris The ride took just one hour and 25 minutes and it was nice to see a bit of the countryside. I made my way over to the info kiosk to make hotel arrangements. I had decided to take world cup of rugby is in France this year. I wouldnt say it was a disaster, but I probably would have had a better rate and location if I had booked online a few days ago. I am spending 2 nights at the Libertel Saint Martin Canal and a, tentatively booked into a hostel for two additional nights (the next big rugby match is on Wednesday and I wanted to avoid sleeping on a park bench!)

Checked in and discovered my room had not been made up -- I will spare you the details. I made a bit of a stink about this before heading off to explore the city. I would make an even bigger stink when I returned at 7:30pm and found the room was in exactly the same state. I ended up with a new room.

My current lodgings are right next to a metro station, which means I can get to any part of the city without too much effort (which must be particularly important for those who wear stylish - and impractical - shoes!) In about 20 minutes I emerged right in front of the Louvre. I did not go in though - I am saving this for another day.

I wasn't really sure what to do on my first day. In the end, I decided to just wander around and get my bearings. I ended up seeing most of my "must see" sites during my walking tour -- most notably the Eiffel Tower, Champs-Elysées and the Arc de Triomphe.

Eiffel Tower
Took about 100 photos from all different vantage points. Many self-portraits of varying degrees of success. It is definitely an impressive site to see in person.The Tour was built for the 1889 World Fair and is na,ed for its designer, Gustave Eiffel. It is 325 metres high and is constructed from 10,000 tonnes of iron.

Champs-Elysées
Thanks to Steve, I have logged many hours in front of the boob tube watching the Tour de France. This is the final leg of the final day of the race. It is also 2kms up a hill, which means I got my exercise for the day! This street has been a symbol of the style of Paris since the 19th Century, but is more of a touristy area today.

Arc de Triomphe
This is the reward for travelling up the Champs-Elysées! It is a stunning site. It was commissioned by Napoleon in 1806 to commemorate his imperial victories but re,ained unfinished when he started losing (it was finally completed in 1830).

While this may not seem like a lot, it represents 5.5 solid hours of walking around central Paris!

The weather has been great so far this trip (65F-70F and clear) but the rain started a few hours ago. Tomorrow may be a wet one, and unfortunately most of the major museums are closed on Tuesdays. I do plan to visit the Rodin (sculpture) museum, and might be forced to do some shopping (I have been good so far so I am due for a bit of a spree!) The weather is then supposed to be great for the rest of the trip. Keep your fingers crossed for me!

Paintings, Statues and Festival

2007-09-16T13:00:00.002-04:00

Day Three - Brussels

My first stop this morning was the Place de Grand Sablon antiques market, which was exactly 10 steps from my hotel! Then I headed to La Place du Petite Sablon, which is a lovely formal garden planted in 1890 and fenced in by 48 bronze statues that each represent a different medieval guild.

I decided to visit Musée Royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique (fine arts museum) in the morning because it was also a block away from my hotel and I figured it could get busy in the afternoon if there wasn't much going on. I spent about 1.5 hours going through paintings from the 1700s to present day. Most of the works were Belgian, with a few international pieces (notably Dali, Picasso and Burne-Jones) thrown in for good measures. Apart from Rubens, I can't say that I'm all that familiar with Belgian artists. There were two works I found very striking by Gustaf Wappers -- Boccaccio lees koningein Johanna Van Napels de Decancerone Voor (1849) and Episode de journées de septembre 1830 (1835). Other interesting Belgian artists included Bruegel the Elder, Bruegel the Younger, Antoon Van Dyck (who actually worked for Rubens), Van Rysselberghe and Claus.

As it was getting to be lunch time, I decided to save the older works and the special Rubens exhibit (which conveniently opened the day I arrived) for the afternoon. I started off in the direction of the Sacre Ilot to find some decent coffee and something to eat, but decided to make a detour to see Manneken Pis because he was on the way and I hadn't paid him a visit yet. This is a 30 cm-high statuette of a naked boy pissing in the street. I arrived just in time to take a picture of his naked self -- his keepers were preparing to put some clothes on the handsome devil. Instead of waiting to see which outfit would be selected, I went off in search of Zinneke Pis. This is the canine companion to Mannekin Pis -- a statue of a dog watering a post.

I figured I'd get some food before heading back to Manneken Pis, but was again sidetracked -- this time by a biergarten. Mmmm... beer! This weekend is the Folklore festival in Brussels, with musical and dance performances from different countries, and a variety of BEvERage tents. So I guess I had beer for breakfast -- at least it was apple beer. Yummy! Enjoyed some of the musical performances. Grabbed a stuffed baguette and consumed it en route to the fine arts museum (with a quick stop to check out the Manneken's new duds).

I enjoyed a leisurely stroll through the older Belgian paintings (dating from about 1400-1700). Then I tackled the Rubens exhibit, which was very well done. Art historians conducted four years of re-analysis of his paintings in preparation for the exhibit. The exhibit served as a strong reminder that many of the famous painters (talented as they may have been) were also extremely successful entrepreneurs. In fact, many paintings left Rubens' shop with only a stroke or two of his brush (if any). He had several assistants working for him (as I mentioned above, Van Dyck was one of these) and he even outsourced many projects over the years. The exhibit also included several forgeries. He had many of his works "duplicated" in his own shop, but there were (of course) others who tried to pass of their paintings as the real deal.

Headed back to the festival and had a beer called "Delerium" while enjoying a marching band. Had my first Beligian waffle of the trip, which are served on the street and topped high with whipped cream, chocolate, strawberries, bananas... whatever your poison happens to be. My brother Jason is fond of Beligian waffles, so I had to have one in his honor. My travels took me past Manneken Pis again, and he was wearing some kind of crazy Mardi Gras outfit this time.

That was a pretty full day. I'm just taking a quick break now to type up this blog entry and give my feet a rest. Walking on cobblestones all day is tough work, and my feet are suffering a bit. I may have to break down and do some sort of bus tour of Paris tomorrow!

Latest Travel Plans
I'm still planning to travel from Brussels to Paris tomorrow (Monday). The journey takes just under 1.5 hours and there are about 25 trains throughout the day. I haven't booked any accommodations yet, but I'm hoping to luck out like I did in Brussels. I expect to be in Paris from Monday until at least Saturday morning (and maybe until the morning of the 25th). I'm still playing things by ear -- if I decide I need to move around a bit, I may head up to Amsterdam and/or Antwerp for a day or two. Internet access is supposed to be easy to find in Paris, but seems to be a bit pricey. I'll still try to keep this blog as up-to-date as possible.

Castle, Canals and Cobblestones

2007-09-15T14:54:00.002-04:00

Day Two - Bruges and Ghent

Started the morning with a broken shower door (guess that's what you get for the 4 stars - the concierge was very apologetic and addressed the problem quickly). Not a big deal, but I did wonder if it would be a sign of things to come!

To make up for the broken door, I received a great surprise at the train station. The ticket agent advised that it was some sort of special fare day in Belgium. All the trains, trams and buses you can ride in the country in a single day for just 11 euros! (This was the amount I expected to pay for a one-way fare to Bruges.) It was an added bonus because I was planning to attempt to see both Bruges and Ghent in a single day. My concierge friend at the hotel thought I was being quite ambitious, but I figured I'd give it a try.

Both Bruges (Brugge) and Ghent (Gent, Gand) are known for their well-preserved medieval centres. While Bruges is Beglium's most popular destination (overrun with more than 2 million visitors each year), Ghent remains a relatively undiscovered gem.

The train for Bruges left at 8:25am and it took about one hour to reach the town. I strolled around the town for about an hour. At first, it was relatively quiet. By 10:30 it was tourist-central and I decided it was time to stoll along the lovely canals and poke around a few shops. Eventually, I made my way to the major tourist attraction -- the Markt, which contains the Belfort (Belfray) that was named a UNESCO world heritage site in 2000. The Markt would have been a nice place to spend some time -- if there were about half as many tourists! I walked through the main shopping district for a bit before heading back to the train station. Grabbed a coffee and a quick bite before hopping on the 1pm train bound for Ghent. It was just a 25 minute ride (barely enough time to write a couple of postcards).

So, it should be pretty obvious that I found touristy Bruges to be a bit disappointing. Ghent, on the other hand, far exceeded my expectations. As an added bonus, Ghent was having some kind of music festival and I enjoyed several performances (jazz, tango, and a marching band). I found the medieval centre of Ghent to be more impressive than the one in Bruges -- but it may just be that I was able to enjoy these areas without hoards of tourists.

I enjoyed everything about Ghent -- the sites, the sounds, the atmosphere. The highlight of my time in Ghent was my visit to Gravensteen Castle -- the 12th Century Castle of the Counts. The vistas overlooking the town were really impressive, and the grisly torture and weapons museums were... well, grisly! Mom - you would have loved to see all that armour!

I was back in Brussels around 6pm and wandered around until I *finally* found an Internet café. The shops are closed tomorrow, so I am planning to take in some of the cities many museums. I am currently planning to head to Paris mid-day on Monday.

That's all for now. I'm hoping the Internet cafes will be a bit easier to locate for the remainder of my trip. Now off to find some of that delicious bier...

Welcome to the Land of Beer and Chocolate

2007-09-15T14:24:00.003-04:00

Day One - Brussels

Sorry for the delay in getting my first post up. The guidebook warned that Internet cafes are in short supply in Belgium and they weren't kidding. And the one LP suggested doesn't exist! (Yes, Lying Planet strikes again!)

I took Greyhound from Ottawa to Dorval. It got me there about 5 hours before my flight, but the next bus would have left the connection too tight for a charter.

I was able to check-in my luggage with Air Transat right away, which was nice. The wait didn't drag on, and the bonus is that I ended up with a great window seat right at the front of the plane (so relatively quiet and about as far away from the bathrooms as you can get!!!) I slept for a solid 4.5 hours on the 6 hour flight, which was part of my master plan because we landed in Brussels National Airport at about 8:30am.

Breezed through customs and changed into some city clothes before catching the train to Central Station in Brussels. The ride took just 20 minutes. I hadn't booked a hotel/hostel in advance, so I locked up my luggage and set out to explore the Grand Place (the heart of the medieval town centre). I managed to book a 4-star hotel in a great central location (single with my own bathroom) for just 60 euros.

I have to admit that I didn't have the most productive day. I sort of wandered around the old town like a zombie. The streets are very confusing, and I spent a lot of time getting lost and finding my way again. The old sites are very interesting, and the free chocolate samples were delicious! The beer is also a treat -- the country has about 600 domestic brews on offer, and I'm a big fan of the fruity Belgian beers to begin with. I tried Morte Subite's Kriek Extreme yesterday and that's one of the brews I'm planning to bring some home with me. Now I just have to figure out how to take lots of beer back with me... any suggestions?

I did manage to squeeze in a few sites on my first day in Brussels, including:

Grand Place
Once the economic and political heart of Brussels. Baroque and gothic architecture -- the old guild halls and the town hall (15th C) were really nice to see. The first cobblestones were apparently laid in the square in the 12th Century.

Cathédrale des Sts Michel & Gudule
This was constructed over three centuries, beginning in 1226. Brabant Gothic architecture. Among the highlights were the elaborate oak confessionals, and the gargoyles on the exterior of the cathedral.

St-Catherine & St-Géry
Two of the oldest quarters, but are now the most contemporary parts of town. Brussels was actually founded on the site of Place St-Géry.

I'll post Day Two -- Bruges and Ghent -- in a separate blog post. Stay tuned!

Europe Bound

2007-09-13T05:19:00.000-04:00

As many of you know, my last day at CREA was September 7th. I now find myself a bit of time in-between jobs (expect a new gig to start in mid-October), which has left me with some time to dream about taking another vacation.

Yes -- yet another vacation! I've been fairly fortunate to do about 8 or 9 weeks of travel over the past 11 months -- a 3-week trip to northern Argentina with Steve (October 2006), a week-long trip to visit my family in BC (December 2006), a week in Mexico's Mayan Riviera to celebrate Mel and Dave's wedding (February 2007), 3 weeks in Vietnam with my friend Tianne (May 2007), and an extra-long weekend trip to celebrate Robert and Nicole's wedding in Nova Scotia (June/July 2007). While it seems like a lot, I can assure you that all of the time taken represents well-earned overtime hours.

So, where to this time? This is actually going to be my first solo international trip, so I've decided to play it safe and head to Europe. I also wanted to ensure that I wasn't travelling to countries that Steve really wanted to see.

I'll be visiting two countries on this 12-day trip -- France and Belgium. I'm planning to spend about one week in Paris, and use Brussels as a home-base in Belgium (okay - so it may have a little something to do with all of that delicious Belgian beer and chocolate ;-)

I expect to spend 2-4 nights in Brussels on the front end of the trip, and then spend ~7 nights in Paris. I will be spending my birthday in Paris, which I am very excited about. I'll then return to Brussels. In Belgium, I hope to visit Leuven, Bruges and Ghent. I may also make it to Antwerp and Ypres if time (and train schedules) permit.

As I mentioned earlier, Paris will be the focus of my time in France. I'm sure I'll only be scratching the surface in a week, but hope to hit the highlights... The Louvre, Champs-Elysees, Eiffel Tower, etc... while also soaking in the atmosphere and doing some shopping. And drinking a lot of coffee! I have wanted visit Paris since I traded in my Teen Beat magazines for Seventeen magazine (so since I was around 8 years old). I'm also hoping to visit Versailles, Chartres and Rouen from Paris (and would like to get to Bayeux and the D-Day Beaches if my itinerary allows).

My plane ticket is booked - I'm flying to Brussels later this evening. I found packing to be quite a challenge. Usually I travel to countries where I can get away with comfort first -- shorts, cargo pants and hiking boots. I'll be spending most of my time in cities and towns on this trip, and I'm sure it would be pretty funny to shop in Paris dressed for a trek! And it's the fall and will be a bit cool, which also had to be factored in. I think I've packed clothing that works... if not, I may just have to put my credit cards to good use. My French is also very limited and rusty, and I'm hoping it will magically "kick in" after a day or two. As for Flemish... well, I am hoping people also speak English or French!

Off to do the last of my running around now. I hope to keep this blog up to date during my travels (assuming cheap Internet is available).

Cheers!
Jody

Summer 2007

2007-09-11T09:14:00.000-04:00

My travel blog is officially back from summer hiatus. I took only one trip of note from this summer -- an extra-long Canada Day weekend to celebrate the wedding of Steve's father in Pictou County, Nova Scotia.

This was a very relaxing trip, and it was great to be there to celebrate Robert and Nicole's wedding. It was also nice to spend time with the entire Meyer-Roy clan. This is something that doesn't happen very often, and is unlikely to happen again soon with Andrea's 2-3 year posting to the Middle East.

We traveled with Porter Airlines the first day it flew from Ottawa to Halifax. This is a great airline that also flies in to Toronto Island (providing convenient access to downtown Toronto). If you get the chance to travel with Porter, be sure to take advantage of it. It is a regional airline for now, but they are planning to expand to other destinations in the near future. The rates are very good -- especially if you can book one week or more in advance.

If you should ever find yourself in Pictou County, here are a few places to check out:

Pictou Lodge - The food and hospitality in the restaurant are fantastic, and the prices are very reasonable. We also went sea kayaking from the lodge. I found the kayaking rates a bit pricey. We went on a crystal-clear day and had several close encounters with the sea lions. Accommodations are also available at the lodge and in cottages on the property.

Grohmann Knives has been making hand-crafted kitchen and hunting knives since 1961. Grohmann Knives are internationally-known, and have won several honors over the years. They employ about 25 people in their downtown Pictou factory. Free factory tours are available, but you should book ahead to avoid disappointment (same day bookings are fine).

Lobster Hatchery - This is a very interesting initiative that's working to increase the number of lobsters in the area while also providing a venue to educate the public. Further nformation can be found on the Northumberland Fisheries Museum web site.

Pictou County Cycle - An excellent bike shop in New Glasgow. Friendly and knowledgeable staff, and great bikes and gear.

Vietnam Photos Are Posted

2007-05-25T17:54:00.000-04:00

Photos from our trip to Vietnam have been uploaded to Flickr.

To view the nine photo sets, visit:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/steve_and_jody/sets/

Phu Quoc Island

2007-05-19T04:39:00.000-04:00

Our journey to Phu Quoc Island in the Indian Ocean had a somewhat rushed start because we had misjudged the amount of time it takes to get to the airport in the early afternoon. Saigon has a third rush hour each day -- the moped brigade hits the streets for lunch. Traffic in Vietnam is completely insane, but Saigon is the winner by a wide margin.

We walked up to the check-in counter just 32 minutes before the flight was scheduled to depart. This was lucky for us because they stop checking people in 30 minutes before departure. Then we hit a bit of a snag with Tianne's passport. All hotesl in Vietnam that we stayed at required you to turn over your passport until check-out. This was of concern at the start of our trip, as your passport is your most important travel document. But it didn't take too long for us to get used to the routine, and at least you didn't have to worry about your passport getting stolen or lost (provided you remembered to ask for it at check-out, of course).

Anyway, back to Tianne. When we booked our Vietnam Airlines tickets, we obviously didn't have them with us. The name on the ticket has to match your passport. This wasn't an issue for me -- Jody Yvonne Cox is pretty straightforward and appears on all of my official documents. Tianne had assumed her middle name was on her passport, but it wasn't. The agent at the airport made her go to get her ticket reissued -- at a cost of 50,000 dong (about CDN$3.50).

To complicate matters a bit, there was a standby group of about seven people that just needed one more seat on the plane. I learned later that our agent kept saying that the seat was checked in but the name was going to change, while the other agent kept saying that she wanted the seat. As we've said many times on this trip, sometimes it is useful that Tianne can understand Vietnamese, and sometimes we are better off not knowing. At least the agent checked the luggage right away so it made it on the plane! When everything was finally sorted out (about 15 minutes later) we had to run through security to catch the bus out onto the tarmack.

The plane ride itself -- which took about 45 minutes -- was uneventful. We landed, got our luggage and boarded a minibus for the Mai House Resort with a couple from London, England. It was quite hot (around 90F) and the van had no air conditioning. Even so, we were enjoying the scenery of this cute little island. Then the van made some choking noises and died a few kilometers from the airport. The driver couldn't get it started and we ended up sitting for about 30 minutes. We thought that someone had driven away on a moped to pick up a part for the van. Instead, it returned with a large plastic jug of gas. Definitely a different world on Phu Quoc!

When we continued, the paved road quickly turned into a red and bumpy dirt road. Then we turned down a narow and even bumpier driveway, which led down to the resort. The resort was actually about a dozen bungalows set back slightly from the ocean. Our bungalow (#8) had a very nice view of the ocean. The cottage was quite rustic in design but did have running water, electricity and a super-duper mosquito net.

The weather was quite bizarre that day -- hot and sunny one minute and rain and thunderstorms the nedt minute. It was quite wild. We didn't really do too much that day. We went for a walk on the beach, lazed around, and had a snack and some beer and wine at the resort restaurant. We watched the sunset and ordered some barbequed red snapper, noodles and rice. We didn't realize that we were ordering the entire fish though! Let's just say that it was far from our cheapest meal in Vietnam, but still less that we'd pay at home. It was delicious. We were in bed by 9am and I had my best sleep of the entire trip.

It was wonderful to wake up to the sounds of the surf. I went for an early morning swim in the Gulf of Thailand before breakfast. The water was extremely warm and very salty. We enjoyed a really nice (and long) breakfast at the resort and took another walk on Long Beach. The weather had been super all morning, but we still managed to get caught in the only downpour of the day when we were about 2kms away from our resort. We had a lazy afternoon of swimming, reading books, and lazing under our beach hut.

We had a nice dinner at the resort (carmelized tuna -- but not the entire fish this time) and ventured down to the swankiest restaurant on the strip, The Veranda, for dessert. It was a nice place, and the second floor balcony had a great view of the stars and the fishing boats. The dessert was fancy and tasted okay, but it cost more han our entire dinner at the resort. To compensate for the over-priced desserts, we stole some Internet time on the first floor.

The next day we had an earlier breakfast and decided to split a cab to the Duong Dong market with the British couple (Darrell and Jane). We could have walked the five kilometers but it was scorching hot, and... well... we were lazy! The market was quite typical with fruits, veggies, and seafood. It was interesting to see the houses and the wharf though. We managed to kill about an hour, and then we tried to find a taxi to take us back to the resort. Not a single one to be found but probably a hundred motorbike taxis. We ended up geting one of the "moto taxi" drivers to call a friend with a car on his cellphone.

We enjoyed another great afternoon on the beach and it was a beautiful day -- barely a cloud in the sky. It sprinkled for a few minutes while we were having a few drinks at the restaurant (so it didn't bother us at all). When the skies cleared we set off along the beach in search of some ice cream. This was not as easy as it may sound. It is the off season right now, so most places have unplugged their freezers to save money.

The only place we could find some ice cream was a German biergarten (yes, in Vietnam) at the end or resort row. It was all-natural ice cream from New Zealand and it was delicious. We stuck around for some fries and pineapple schnapps.

It's funny how small the world can be sometimes, and I had another one of these experiences at the German place. The owner was talking to a couple who mentioned they hadn't run into many other Canadians on their trip. Afterwards, we introduced ourselves as Canadians, and discovered that the couple was from Nanaimo, B.C., which is where I went to highschool. We started throwing around a few names and discovered that the guy (Shawn) used to be roommates with my cousin Ryan! Definitely a small world! The invited us out for dinner after supper, but we were running quite late and needed to pack so we didn't make it out. Hope Shawn and Jen had a few pints for us though!

Morning came far too early as we had to catch an 8:20am flight back to Saigon. We arrived at the airport way too early (thanks to our hotel) but there were no new incidents to report. In fact, it was kind of boring.

We are now back at the Elios Hotel in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City). We're hoping to finish up all of our shopping today so we can have a relaxing final day in Vietnam tomorrow. I consider shopping to be fun, so I may be back in the markets again tomorrow anyway. We are heading home very early on Monday morning. Our first flight (from Saigon to Hong Kong) leaves at 6:10am. The return journey will take us around 24 hours, but twith the time change we will be arriving in Ottawa on Monday night at around 7:30pm ET. Hopefully we'll get more sleep on the return journey than we managed on the way here :-)

MeKong Delta

2007-05-15T12:09:00.000-04:00

Vietnam Trip - Days Fifteen and Sixteen

Tianne and I have just returned from our trip to the MeKong Delta, and really enjoyed it. Two days on an air-conditioned bus, English-speaking tour guide, two meals and accomodation for US$18 each. Sweet!

We met our tour group (about 16 people) at TNK travel at 7:45am. Our first stop was My Tho City -- about 1.5 hours away from Saigon. The first thing to mention about the MeKong Delta is that a lot of people live there, and some of the cities are quite large. We spent the night in Can Tho, which is the MeKong capital city. It is the fifth largest city in Vietnam with a population of more than 330,000 people. The second thing that really stands out for me is the people. Everyone we encountered was extremely friendly in this part of the country. Like most other parts of Vietnam we have experienced, it is beautiful but has a lot of pollution.

From My Tho we took a motorboat cruise through thet Bao Dinh canal. Then we took a ride down the Tien River where we saw fishing ports, stilt houses, boat building dry docks, and several islands. It was very interesting to have a glimpse at life in the delta.

In the afternoon we saw a demonstration of coconut candy making. It tasted like coconut toffee -- pretty delicious. We were also treated (read: subjected) to a Southern Vietnamese folk music performance by some islanders. Let's just say it's taking us a long time to warm up to the Vietnamese culture, and there was no way to escape. Quite a painful experience. We were also given some honey tea, which we enjoyed about as much as the performance.

We finally boarded some row boats, which we took through the Tan Thach canal to My Tho. This was quite an enjoyable trip, and the canal was fully covered with water coconuts. This type of coconut is apparently very hard to collect, but some city folks consider it a delicacy and are willing to pay a steep price for them.

We met our minibus and continued on to Can Tho, which was another two hour drive away. Well, the drive was two hours but then it took us another hour to wait for a ferry and complete the crossing. Bridge construction is in progress, but it wasn't soon enough for us!

Some people did homestays, but we opted to stay in a guesthouse. I'm pleased to report that while the accomodation was basic, it was much better than our Family Hotel experience in Kon Tum. We enjoyed a nice dinner on Can Tho's waterfront with a German couple (Ingrid and Andy).

The next morning began early -- breakfast at 6:30am and on the minibus for 7am. It actually began a bit earlier for us because I thought we had to leave at 6:30am. Sorry sleepy T! After a short drive to the warf, and a quick visit to Can Tho Market, we boarded a motorboat to explore the Bassac River.

After about 10 minutes we arrived at Cai Rang, the busiest floating market in the MeKong Delta. There were boats loaded with every kind of fruit and vegetable you can imagine -- and a few that you have probably never heard of before. Most boats had a tall stick where they hung the products they had for sale (for example, a pineapple on a stick for a pineapple boat). You just needed to motor up to the boat you wanted to buy from. There were also boats that served noodles, coffees and sodas for anyone who wanted some breakfast. They would come along side your boat and ask you what you wanted.

We continued down the river to the Phong Dien floating market, which is about an hour ride from Can Tho. This is the market where shops make larger purchases. The other market was geared towards smaller, individual purchases. We had a touristy stop to see how rice paper sheets are made (the ones used for fresh rolls/spring rolls). We returned to the Can Tho Market where T and I purchased some mangos, lychees and other fruits. The bus took us back to Can Tho for about an hour where everyone had lunch.

Then we began the 4.5 hour journey back to Saigon. Tianne and I did not make any friends on the return journey. First, we lucked out again and had our own window seats. The wait for the ferry ended up being about an hour, so the guide thought it would be fun to take everyone outside to walk on the boat. We were a bit slow to get our stuff together, and were the only ones who opted to stay on the bus for a nice air-conditioned nap. When everyone else came back on a bus an hour later, they were completely soaked -- it was probably around 35C today.

The bus arrived back in Saigon at around 5:30pm and we headed for Vietnam Airlines to book our tickets for Phu Quoc Island in the Indian Ocean. The Island is claimed by both Vietnam and Cambodia, although I believe the infrastructure (and military bases) are all Vietnamese. It is supposed to be quite a nice place. It is the start of the rainy season, so our fingers are crossed that we end up with some decent weather. We will be on the Island from May 16th to 19th (although we may return to Saigon a day early if the weather is poor).

Cu Chi Tunnels

2007-05-13T20:18:00.000-04:00

Vietnam Trip - Day Fourteen

For the first time in the trip Tianne and I are both exhausted. Back in our Vietnam home base of Saigon and the Elios Hotel, we opted to have a lazy day. We slept in and spent some time catching up on blog posts and email.

After breakfast we visited a few travel agents to figure out our options for the MeKong Delta. We also made arrangements for a driver to pick us up at 12:30pm to take us to the Cu Chi Tunnels outside the city.

The tunnel network of Cu Chi became legendary during the 1960s for its role in facilitating the Viet Cong control of a large rural area only 30km from Saigon. At its height the tunnel system stretched from the South Vietnamese capital to the Cambodian border. In the district of Cu Chi alone there were more than 250 km of tunnels. The network included trap doors, living areas, storage facilities, weapon factories, field hospitals, command centres and kitchens.

The tunnels were built over a period of 25 years that began sometime in the late 1940s. They were the improvised response of a poorly equipped peasant army to its enemy's high-tech offensive.

The site we visited was largely a recreation of the tunnel systems to show how everything was setup, but it was still very interesting and informative.

We also scored very well in the tour guide department for a change. Our driver was a very nice man who comes from Tianne's hometown of Bien Hoa. Our Cu Chi guide, Truong, was hilarious and cracked jokes the entire time. For example, he showed us the booby traps and the tourist traps (spots where you can hit your head). If you ever have the opportunity to visit the site, be sure to ask for Guide #106.

We had dinner at a Gourmet Vietnamese restaurant in Saigon last night called Lemongrass. It was definitely more expensive, but we have found the food at the standard Vietnamese restaurants to be just as delicious.

One More Thing About Cu Chi Tunnels

I forgot to mention in my last post that Tianne and I also tried our hand at firing an AK-47 when we were at the Cu Chi Tunnels. We both sucked and missed the target by a wide margin.

Where in the World are Jody and Tianne?
We are heading into the MeKong Delta for two days (Monday and Tuesday) and We'll be back in Saigon sometime on Tuesday evening.

Halong Bay

2007-05-13T19:46:00.000-04:00

Vietnam Trip - Day Thirteen

Tianne and I grabbed a quick breakfast at a nearby restaurant and was picked up by our driver at around 7am. The drive to Halong City took three hours -- faster than the four hours it would have taken on a minibus or tour bus.

We arrive at the docks just after 10am and boarded the Hong Minh -- a boat that could have held 20 passengers but was just for us. What can I say -- paying a couple extra bucks was definitely worth it for this once-in-a-lifetime experience.

Halong Bay is exactly as magnificent as you might think it is. More than 3,000 limsetone islands rising from the Gulf of Tonkin - absolutely breathtaking. While the islands are made of rock, trees do manage to grow on the grottoes and is what gives the islands a green appearance.

We had the opportunity to visit a couple of caves at the Hang Dau Go site. They were huge and amazing! Don't worry -- we took lots of photos. I think these are the best caves I've visited to date. We could have seen different cave sites, but we really just enjoyed sitting on the top deck and soaking in the scenery.

We also visited a floating fish village where people can buy live seafood -- crabs, fish, snails, clams, eels, and several other creatures we couldn't identify. They were all in separate nets and baskets in the water. We opted to stick with the meal our cook was preparing on the boat. I should mention that this is also where some fishing families live.

Our lunch was amazing -- fish, squid, calamari, spring rolls, greens, rice and mangoes. I think I'm leaving something out. At any rate, the food was all fresh and the seafood was all caught in the bay.

The route we took went to the western parts of the bay -- around Cat Ba Island and through many of other islands of all sizes. The weather was far from perfect, and even rained a bit at lunchtime. But this didn't dampen our spirits. It was just amazing to be there.

The winds came up as we were heading back to shore, which made for a bumpier ride. We hopped back in our car and headed for the airport (3 hours away), hoping to get back to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) on the last flight of the day.

When we arrived we discovered that the last flight on Vietnam Airlines was cancelled and that the earlier flight was cancelled. We headed over the the Pacific Airlines counter and they were full too. We decided to book our morning flight. I went to book with Vietnam Airlines. After we purchased the tickets, the woman said to hang around for a few minutes if we really wanted to get on the flight. There were 13 names on the list, so we didn't hold our breath but shuffled our luggage around anyway. We were very surprised to get on the flight.

We have been noticing a bit of a trend, and will be trying to work it to our advantage. Tianne has had more success in getting information out of people (in English and Vietnamese) -- probably because she was born in Vietnam. I have had a better success rate when we need help or a favor -- I guess everyone feels sorry for the poor foreign girl. At any rate, this was our "Amazing Race" airport experience and we were very fortunate that it worked out.

Water Puppet Show in Hanoi

2007-05-12T23:25:00.000-04:00

Vietnam Trip - Day Twelve

On May 11th we flew north to Hanoi via Danang. Hanoi is the capital city of Vietnam, and it has beautiful French colonial architecture. We stayed in the Old Quarter, which is apparently the most lively part of the city (and has been for the past 800 years).

Earlier in our trip, other travellers and Vietnamese people alike had warned us that the people who live in the north are not as friendly as those who live in the central and southern regions. Unfortunately, we are now in complete agreement. With a few exceptions, the people we encountered were quite rude, aggressive and self-absorbed.

We stayed in Prince 79 Hotel in the Old Quarter. It's a backpacker place ($6 each per night) but the rooms were very clean and the location was exactly where we wanted to be. We set out to figure out the best way to see Halong Bay. The tours are fairly expensive by Vietnam standards and have a reputation for jamming around 40 people on one boat. Based on our research, we knew that it would not be much more expensive to hire a private car to take us to Halong City and a private boat to take us out on the water.

After having some appetizers (fresh rolls) at an overpriced Vegetarian restaurant (Tamarind Café) we finalized our Halong Bay reservations. We walked a few blocks to Hoan Kiem Lake, where the water puppet show is located. We thought the show started at 8pm and were really late. It turned out that the 8pm show was a private performance but there was a 9:15pm show we managed to get "second class" tickets (20,000 dong or $1.25). We wanted first class tickets (40,000 dong or $2.50) but they were sold out.

The water puppets were really neat to see. It's a permanent theatre with 26 rows of seats. The stage had a backdrop and a bamboo screen at the bottom where the puppeteers work their magic from. There is water about two feet deep in front of the stage. Using sticks behind the screen, the puppeteers put on the show in the water.

The ancient art of water puppetry (roi nuoc) is at least 1000 years old and was practiced only in northern Vietnam until the 1960s. It used to be practice in rice paddy fileds, ponds and lakes. Today, the wooden puppets can be up to 50cm long and weigh as much as 15kg. Some puppets are simply attached to a long pole, while others are set on a floating base. Music is provided by a live band and the story is told by singers in the band.

The performance was a lot of fun, and had a mythical pastoral theme. There were also fire-breathing dragons, which shows just how advanced these puppeteering techniques really are. There are some "contraband" photos of the performance, which will appear on Flickr in late May.

Halong Bay
Halong Bay was fantastic, and deserves a separate blog post.

Now in Saigon
It's now May 14th and we are back in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City) to make our arrangements for the MeKong Delta and Phu Quoc Islands. We're also planning to see the Cu Chi tunnels today.

Elephant Ride Photos
The woman we stayed with in Lak Lake was kind enough to send us a few photos from our elephant ride, which are now posted on my Flickr site.

Shopping Spree in Hoi An

2007-05-10T08:06:00.000-04:00

Vietnam Trip - Days Nine, Ten and Eleven

Sorry for not keeping this travel blog up to date over the past few days. It's not that it's been difficult to find an Internet connection or anything... We've just been too busy shopping. Seriously. In fact, I think it's safe to say that We have no idea what Hoi An actually looks like. I accidently stumbled into the Old City today, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site and the old buildings were quite beautiful. What can I say: T and I take our shopping *very* seriously.

The past three days have been a whirlwind of stores, catalogues, measurements, looking at fabrics, fittings, more fittings and whipping out our credit cards. And we're not talking just a few hours a day either, but eight to ten hours per day. Who knew that getting your clothes tailored was a full-time job! It has been an overwhelming and exhausting experience, but I am pleased to report that I ended up with several very nice and unique pieces.

Most of my clothes were made at Yaly Couture, which has a reputation for being the best tailor shop in Hoi An (The Land of Tailors"). Yaly tailored me three pairs of thai silk pants (red, white and brown), a blue thai silk jacket, a black and red chinese brocade dress jacket, a long black thai silk dress jacket (with red buttons to match a pair of the pants), a burgundy chinese brocade kimono, and a fushia/yellow Vietnames top (called "au-zai" but I don't know how to spell it).

There are two different Yaly Couture locations in town and we had articles made at both. At the original Yaly (we refer to it as the busy Yaly) I was helped by a very sweet woman named Lotus. She made the experience of having clothes made a lot of fun and did a really great job of helping me get the right fit. At the other Yaly (we call it the second or quiet Yaly) I was helped by a woman named Sylvia. She was a bit less fun, but she did a fantastic job -- some of my items were perfect on the first try and it usually takes at least 2-3 fittings to get things just right! I love everything I had made at Yaly. I also had a red/black/gold "au-zai" top made at a random tailor (which turned out okay and were really cheap), and a pair of black satin pajama bottoms and purple/blue silk capri pants made at the Hoi An Cloth Market (also turned out okay and were really cheap).

Yes -- we are totally spoiling ourselves and we know it. In fact, we might even be proud of it. But what if I told you that all of those items -- which you can't buy off the rack in Canada -- cost under $380? And hey -- it's not every day that you get to have clothes made for you.

I should mention that Tianne has also been getting lots of clothing made, but the "Tailor Gods" have not always been on her side. She is out right now for (fingers crossed) the last round of alterations on a few pieces that are still at Yaly. Everyone has a different helper when you go into a tailor shop, and there are an army of helpers standing by. Tianne has unfortunately not drawn the cream of the crop. I'm pretty sure that everything will look great when the alterations are done though.

It has been very interesting to travel and shop with Tianne, and we're definitely getting to know each other a lot better. I was surprised to learn that she's not overly adventurous with colors, and she was surprised to learn that I am. I have been completely amazed at her creative ideas and design sense, and her determination to have her own designs made (which has been very successful). Tianne has discovered that I have a pretty good eye for finding unique fabrics and colors.

We are also very good at convincing each other to buy things when we probably shouldn't -- particularly in bulk. One additional suitcase has been purchased, and it's likely that we'll have one more as there are still ten more days to go!

It is May 10th today and this will be our final night in Hoi An. We've enjoyed spending time with Lindsay from Toronto who has been sharing a room with. She's reconnected with her travelmates and we'll be parting ways tomorrow. Lindsay is a couple months into a trip through Southeast Asia and China. Tianne and I were unfortunately a very bad influence on Lindsay, who also had several things tailored over the past three days. We wonder how much Lindsay is going to have to cut back her trip based on our shopping spree :-)

We've already stayed one night longer than originally planned, and it's time for us to move on. We're now at the halfway point in the trip. We're going to hire a car to drive us to Danang at around noon tomorrow (one hour north) and then we'll catch a 2:20pm plane from Danang to Hanoi (which takes about an hour).

Based on what we've read and heard from other travellers, we don't think there is much to see in Hanoi. The current plan is to spend just one night there. We're using Hanoi as a launching point to reach Halong Bay as we can't get any closer from here. Oh well, Hanoi is only about two hours from Halong Bay. We'll probably be in Halong Bay for a couple of days, but we'll make our final arrangements tomorrow night.

We are thinking about flying from Hai Phong (near Halong Bay) to Saigon (HCMC), and then continuing from Saigon to Phu Quoc Island in the Indian Ocean (look below Laos on the map - it's still in Vietnam though). The main reason for going is to put in some more beach time -- it has been more than a week since we've been at the beach after all!!! It is also supposed to be a really beautiful area. When we've we'll return to Saigon through the Mekong Delta... It takes 2.5 hours by hydrophoyle to travel from Phu Quoc to Rach Gia in the delta. We'll post more trip details when we figure them out.

"Hunged Out" in the Central Highlands

2007-05-08T21:22:00.001-04:00

Vietnam Trip - Days Six, Seven and Eight

Before embarking on our tour of Vietnam's Central Highlands, Tianne and I went back to the Veranda restaurant for breakfast. T had the Pho and I had three crepes wrapped around bananas and smothered in chocolate sauce. Delicious. On the way there was some sort of military road race. We're not sure what the distance was but the runners looked very tired at the finish line. While it was interesting to see, it sure made getting through traffic to the restaurant a challenge. We piked up an 8-litre bottle of water and headed back to the hotel to finish packing.

The van and driver picked us up at 8:30am. It was a bit disappointing to see that the guide had changed from the night before. It was supposed to be the nephew of the tour operator -- someone we had met the day before. He apparently had some family issues, so our new guide was a man named Hung. We loaded up the van and began our journey from the beach town of Nha Trang on the Pacific Ocean and into the Central Highlands towards Laos.

I knew we were in for an interesting journey when Hung showed me a video clip on his cellphone of a waterfall we would see on our trip. The falls were nice enough, and the video then panned to a female tourist in a bikini lounging by the falls. Okay... tourist enjoying the falls, I thought I got the message. Then the video zoomed in on her cleavage, where it remained for the rest of the clip. Definitely an interesting message there! I think Hung had forgotten what was on the full clip, and who he was showing it to!

On Day One of our central highlands tour we travelled from Nha Trang to Yok Don National Prk. It was a very long drive, but the scenery was amazing. It gave us an excellent opportunity to see rural life in Vietnam.

We saw many shrimp farms as we were driving (dug into the fields) and stopped for some photos. Well, really it was just a smoke break for the guide and driver, but at least this was better than having them smoke in the van! We saw salt farms where farmers flooded the fields with water from the ocean and collected the salt after it had dried. We also stopped at a brick factory to see how they were made. I won't try to explain the process here, but there will be many photos posted on Flickr at the end of the month.

On of our stops in the mountains showed the site that was a forest 25 years ago -- before it was bombed with Agent Orange. The effects on the landscape were devastating -- only some scrub grows in this area today.

We saw lots of different kinds of agricultural production, including pepper (the spice) trees, mango trees, sugar cane, cashew trees, coffee plantations, corn fields and rice paddies. There were also many animals like chickens, ducks, cows and water-buffalos -- many of which enjoyed hanging out on the roads.

Hung was a very crappy tour guide. He stopped doing any kind of guiding by about 10:30am the first day. It was also annoying that he didn't seem to care that I was vegetarian. There are less options for me in the highlands, but I can always find something in a market -- and every small town has one. I explained this, but he had a listening problem (and was quite chauvenistic). At least I managed to get my hands on a plain bun for lunch on the fist day.

At about 3:30pm we arrived at Lak Lake, where we spent our first night. We went to a small palace built by Emperor Bao Dai. It was quite small and very run-down, but the views of the surrounding villages were quite nice

Our itinerary said we would stay in a "minority village", which is how the Vietnamese refer to the hill tribe communities. While we did stay in a wooden "Rong House", it was located in a resort with cottages and camping. We had a foam mattress on the floor with a blanket and a mosquito net. For those who are wondering, Tianne was up for the adventure and was willing to rough it :-) We shared the Rong House with Celine, a woman from France who was doing some touring after teaching French in Nha Trang for five months.

We relaxed and explored for about an hour before taking a short drive to the beautiful lakeside village of Jun, where an Ede minority group lives. It was quite interesting to walk through the village, and there were a few stalls selling hill tribe handicrafts.

Hung wanted us to eat a crappy nboodle dinner at the village (which, of course, contained meat) and we insisted on going back to the Floating Restaurant at the resort. On the way back to the resort we discovered that there would be a folklore show by local hill tribe that evening, which sounded like something we wanted to see. Then we learned that a tour group of about 20 people were going to watch the show in OUR Rong House. As you can imagine, we were surprised and not very impressed. We insisted on having our bags locked in the van, and it was like pulling teeth to get Hung to do it. We had an "okay" dinner at the resort, and enjoyed the company of Celine for the meal.

When I asked Hung about when we would do our elephant ride, he said they had to be booked days in advance and we couldn't go. This was, of course, not true and Celine informed him that she had booked early that day. She also offered to share her elephant with us, which was very kind. Hung retured five minutes later and (surprise) we were able to book an elephant ride. It was clear that he wanted to keep to his own schedule without any consideration for what his paying customers wanted to do.

We caught part of the hill tribe performance, which was very nice, and went to sleep. Staying in a Rong House is a lot like camping, even through it is on stilts above the ground. Unfortunately, we didn't think to hang the bag of bread we had bought earlier in the day. Some animal (I'm assuming a rodent) chewed trough two layers of my new Saloman backpack to get at it, which was very annoying. What is also a little bit disturbing was that the bag was located in between our beds by our heads. Gross.

The next morning we had a very quick breakfast and hopped onto our elephant. It was just the two elephants -- ours and Celine's. The ride lasted for an hour. We took the road along the water, went though fields of cows, carried on through the Jun village, and even went into the water. This ride will definitely be a highlight of our trip. T pointed out that riding an elephant is sort of like being on a teeter-totter. As always, I took way too many photos. Hopefully a few of them will turn out with all of that rocking!

We spent a few more minutes wandering the village and went back in the van for another heavy day of driving. Celine had ridden to the Lake on the back of a motorbike, and we gave her a lift to Buon Ma Thuot (on our route - about 60km away) where she could catch the train. It was nice to have some company other than our idiot guide.

It was a very long day of driving and, much like the day before, there was a lot of pollution. Tianne swears we had first degree carbon monoxide poisoning, and she just might be right! Again our guide didn't do any guiding, and didn't give any consideration to my dietary requirements. In this case, however, there was a market near the lunch stop. While the others had some Pho, I checked out the market. It was a very small town (I think it was called Earding) that does not see very any tourists. I quickly became the centre of attention as I bartered by 20 bananas (couldn't buy just four) down to 5,000 dong (33 cents) from 10,000 dong. I really have enjoyed these opportunities to meet the locals despite the language barriers.

We pulled into Kon Tum, the northernmost region in the highlands, at about 3:30pm. We stopped at a wooden church and spent some time at the Vinh Son 1 Orphanage. The multi-ethnic children were adorable. Our guide wanted to rush us through for a quick photo op, but we instead met two very friendly female collenge students who were waiting for the rain to stop before heading home. Bahn is of the Bhanar minority group and Y-E is of the Jarai minority group. They agreed to be our tour guide and took us through the church and the orphanage. It was heartbreaking, but the kids all seemed to be happy and healthy. Tianne and I played with the toddlers for about 45 minutes and made a donation to the very elderly sister who runs the orphanage.

We spent the night at a one-star-at-best hotel called the Family Hotel in Kon Tum. There we met Lindsay from Toronto who finished her Master's degree last year and is a few months into a year-long tour through Asia. We had soup at a vegetarian place and then went for mango shakes at a very cool cafe (that took forever to get to) called Eva Cafe. Tianne and I had already decided to cut one night from our tour to minimize our time with Hung, and planned to drive straight to Hoi An the next day. We invited Linday to come with us.

The next morning we bought breakfast in the Kon Tum market where four pasteries cost 8,000 dong (about 50 cents total). Tianne told Hung that we weren't feeling well, and that we wanted to cut the trip short. We visited another village in the morning, and then headed for the Ho Chi Minh trail. The scenery was very different along this route -- very lush with lots of trees -- and the road was much more curvy. The different styles of houses along the way were also very interesting to see. I caught Hung taking photos of us with his camera during a brief road side stop and insisted he delete them. He deleted some of them but I'm sure he still has many. Guess he's an ass man in addition to being a boob man.

One thing that I didn't mention was how crazy it was to drive through the highlands. Skinny roads with lots of big trucks and mopeds and animals everywhere. Our driver was quite skilled, but on day three he became more aggressive. Both he and Hung were yelling what I can only at everyone -- including children on their bikes. We had thought about giving the driver a tip but scrapped that idea. We were very unimpressed.

I know I am leaving out some good stories that are escaping me right now. There are many many Hung stories to be sure. We arrived in Hoi An at about 4:30pm and Hung tried to dump us off at a hotel we didn't want to stay at. We made them drive us into the old town where they literally through our stuff out of the van and took off. At least we managed to get $10 out of him towards a hotel.

It's clear from talking to other people that the quality of tours in Vietnam is quite poor. Even though we payed a pretty low price for our tour compared to the other prices quoted, we don't think it would have been any better if we had paid more. There is definitely a niche that someone could fill.

Temporary Setback for the Paparazzi

2007-05-04T12:50:00.000-04:00

Vietnam Trip - Day Five

Tianne and I got off to another early start this morning. We had breakfast at a Lonely Planet recommended but overly unimpressive restaurant close to our hotel. The highlight of this meal was my first true Vietnamese coffee experience. The coffee is dripped through a small aluminum filter on the table. It was very good, though quite sweet.

It's been very warm for the past four days (~30-35C) and was already quite hot at breakfast, so we decided to do some sightseeing in the morning. We hired a cab to drive us to the Po Nagar Cham Towers, which were built between 700AD and 1200AD. It was interesting to see our first ruins in Vietnam, but the site took us about 15 minutes to breeze through. The hill provided us with a great view of the local docks. There were a number of vendors, and we took a quick stroll through the row of stalls. It is very common for people in Vietnam to approach you on the street to sell goods (postcards). Today was no exception, and the postcard vendors were particularly aggressive.

We hopped back into our cab and headed for the Long Son Pagoda. When we arrived, we were met by three girls in their late teens claiming to be orphans who lived at the Pagoda, who tried to convince us to buy postcards to support their schooling. Something seemed pretty fishy -- the girls all spoke perfect English, which is very surprising in a country where many children cannot afford to go to school. I had also read that there was a donation box in the pagoda (entrance is free). We left the girls and headed into the pagoda.

About two minutes later we had not one but two major (and simultaneous)camera disasters. Tianne couldn't find her camera, and began searching her bag frantically. At almost exactly the same moment, my digital camera (the basic point-and-shoot Canon...did not my "good" camera on this trip) died in the lens-open position.

For me, this is a huge inconvenience because I love to take photos. But it is not the end of the world The camera had been acting up since I got here, and is still under warranty. It will be going back to Henry's when we get back, but at least I still have my camera and the memory card with photos from earliery in our trip.

In Tianne's case, everything is gone for good... her new camera, and a 4G memory card containing photos from the first few days of our trip. At least we were taking a lot of doubles, so most of the memories will be preserved on my card. We're still not entirely sure whether T's camera disappeared at the Towers or the Pagoda, but my money's on the Pagoda. T's annoyed but is handling things very well (and much better than I would if the situation was reversed).

So, we went from two cameras to zero cameras in no time flat, and had plans to head to the Central Highlands of Vietnam the next morning. We assumed that consumer goods like cameras would be harder to come by in the Highlands where many Hill Tribes live, so we hopped back in the cab and headed for a camera store. This trip is costing us a lot less than we had anticipated, so I bit the bullet and purchased a new digital camera (another basic Canon - price was the same as in Canada...maybe a bit better after my skilled price negotiations). Not quite sure what I'll do with yet another camera, but figured this is more economical and convenient than trying to purchase disposable cameras. Our journey ended back near the hotel, and with an overcharged cab ride. We were too tired to argue too much, especially over a dollar. But it was a fitting end to an eventful adventure.

We decided a little retail therapy was in order, and we found a really neat clothing store called Bambou. Vietnam is known for its knock-offs and tailors, but this store is different because it has all original designs. I picked up a new top, and we both came up with lots of ideas for what we could have made in Hoi An. Bambou conveniently has a store in Hoi An, so we will likely be making a repeat appearance.

Then we headed down to the water for some lunch and well-earned drinks at The Sailing Club, which is a nice beachfront restaurant and bar. This was our first non-Vietnamese meal in days -- we had pizza with fresh cooked tuna on it, and it was delicious. We spent several hours soaking in the beach front.

Eventually we tore ourselves away and went for a quick dip in the pool. Then we hit the shops again, coming up with more ideas for our Hoi An clothing wish-list. We also hit some of the artisan shops, including a collective that embroiders many amazing designs in silk.

T and I had dinner at a great place across from the beach called The Veranda. Inexpensive prices and amazing food. I ordered the vegetable curry and it was delicious. I had forgotten how much I love Asian curries.

We are heading for the Central Highlands of Vietnam in the morning. If you grab a map, we'll be spending most of our time in the areas around Buon Ma Thuot and Kon Tum (find Nha Trang on the coast and move in-land towards Laos).

We aren't sure yet what route we'll take to Hoi An from the Highlands. One option is to take the Ho Chi Minh Trail by car through the mountains. The other option is to go through the jungle to Quang Ngai, which will give us the opportunity to visit My Lai (site of the infamous My Lai massacre during the Vietnam War. T and I are the only two people on our tour, so we get to make it up as we go along.

We should be in Hoi An and back on the Internet sometime on May 8th.

The Bartering Begins

2007-05-03T12:04:00.000-04:00

Vietnam Trip - Day 4

We got up at around 5:30am (yes, Tianne too!) and took a nice stroll along Mue Ne Beach this morning. It was very interesting to watch some of the local fishers come in with their catch. The boats are like nothing I've seen before. They are round and hand woven from (I think) palm fibres. I recall reading that it takes about one month to build one. It is not unusual to see 10 or more of these round boats attached to what we would consider a small wooden fishing boat. They are hauled out into the ocean and row/float back into shore. There are two shifts every day -- one returning at sunrise and one returning at sunset.

After our beach walk we rented some mopeds (which appears to be the main mode of transportation in Vietnam) and rode into a nearby fishing village to watch the fishers return en masse. It was really something to see. The local fishers live day-to-day. It's a tough life. They can't afford to send their kids to school so they also begin fishing at a very young age. Mue Ne has really been built over the past 15 years, and I'm sure that many homes have been replaced by the small resorts. There are still some homes beside the resorts, but I would not be surprised if they are not there in another five years. It was also interesting to watch the small round fishing boats intermingling with kitesurfers taking advantage of the high winds. It really made me wonder what the fishers think about all these changes.

Tianne and I returned the mopeds after about an hour, and enjoyed another nice breakfast at the resort. We then hit the beach. The beach in front of our resort was well manicured. Most of the beach is quite coarse, but our resort had clearly put a lot of effort into prettying up the beachfront. The water was surprisingly warm. Unfortunately, I'm pretty sure I brushed up against a jellyfish at some point and my side is still a bit sore. The jellyfish in this area are apparently classified as "irritating" -- not dangerous.

We checked out at noon and headed to the Backpacker Restaurant for our final meal -- and one last mango shake. I am really going to miss those things! The bus to Nha Trang left at 1:30pm. It was only about a third full so everyone had a seat to themselves. It was very interesting to see the landscape change as we moved farther north. The area along the coast between Mue Ne and Nha Trang is focused on agriculture... everything from coffee plantations, to cows, to fish farms, to veggies. It took us under 5 hours to make the trip, but it was a bit rough. There were a lot of sharp corners and a lot of construction along the way.

When we arrived in Nha Trang we were bombarded by people trying to convince us to stay at our hotel. They were very persistent, following us around on their mopeds. We checked out a few different places, finalling ending up at a fairly new place by the beach called the Phu Quy 2 Hotel. The rooms are very nice, but We don't have a beach view. For US$11 each per night, we're willing to head up to the rooftop swimming pool for the scenic vistas.

In fact, the original price was $14 each, but we bartered the price down. Ah, yes. This is the part where the title for this blog entry makes sense. Tianne has been very keen to get caught up in the bartering that goes on all the time in Vietnam. She's just dabbled in the bartering game up until today, with some super deals. Not everyone is comfortable bartering for things, but bartering is a central part of the culture in Vietnam. To some, it is considered an insult if you don't try to get a better price (or they think you are just plain dumb). I'm always game to try to get a good deal. We were total pros in our negotiations today. Tianne is trying not to speak Vietnamese during our various negotiations, so she can pick up on the "private" conversations the shop keepers, etc. are having. For my part, I play a pretty decent "straight man". I wonder what kinds of deals we'll be able to wrangle tomorrow!

We dropped off our packs and visited some of the tour operators to see what our options are. We have no set plans for tomorrow (Friday May 4th). We will likely visit the Cham Tower ruins that are close by, and we may take a cable car over to Bamboo Island. I'm sure there will be shopping, the pool and the beach involved at some point during the day, and we've already scoped out a few restaurants.

NOTE: CHANGE TO ITINERARY
It looks like we will be taking a scenic 4-day detour through the Central Highlands of Vietnam en route to Hoi An. We expect to leave Nha Trang on Saturday morning, arriving in Hoi An sometime on Tuesday afternoon or evening. We found a really great rate for a private car (driver and guide) from one of the well-known tour operators in Vietnam. I think it's US$140 for the package (includes accomodation, driver, guide). Considering we were looking into US$50 flights to Hoi An, this is really a good price. Other tour companies quoted rates 2-3 times as high. During the trip we will be visiting some tribal villages in the mountains, visit a coffee plantation, and will go for an elephant ride. There are lots of other things included -- I just don't have the brochure in front of me right now. We will not have Internet access during this leg of our journey. Hoi An should be well-connected, so we'll be back online Tuesday night.

Beach Bums in Mue Ne

2007-05-02T13:29:00.000-04:00

Vietnam Trip - Day Three

After two very long and packed days in Vietnam, we finally managed to have our first real night's sleep yesterday. There's something very relaxing about listening to the waves when you're lying in bed.

Day 2 in Mue Ne (Day 3 in Vietnam) began very early -- before 6am, in fact! Those who know Tianne well might not believe it, but it really did happen. Seriously! In fact, we tried to have breakfast at the restaurant at 6am, but it was still closed. We are in the south of Vietnam, somewhere between the Tropic of Cancer and the Equator. The entire country is located below 23N Latitude. This means the sun rises very early - it's light out at about 5am and gets dark by about 7pm.

Left with an hour to fill before breakfast, we decided to head back to the room to get organized. We also sliced open the dragon fruit that a waiter had given us the night before. It was very interesting... similar texture to a kiwi but was not very sweet. It's called a dragon fruit because the outside is pink and green, and looks like a (surprise!) drago. So we sat around on the deck for awhile, enjoying dragon fruit and tea on our balcony until the restaurant was open. Tianne advises that artichoke tea tastes about as good as it sounds.

One of the benefits of staying at a better resort is no continental breakfast. They had a full buffet that included many Vietnamese dishes, a number of fruits, juices and the usual breakfast fare. If we were walking in off the street, it would cost about CDN $6 per person, which is the amount we've been paying for two people.

Those of you who know me well recognize how important a good cup of coffee is to me in the morning. Today marked the first day in which I had the opportunity to enjoy the coffee here, which has the reputation for being very good. It did not disappoint. I think these beans had been roasted in butter, but I'm not sure. I also enjoyed some pineapple jam (I'm going to buy a couple of jars) and watermelon juice (which I think I'm going to try to make at home).

Tianne and I decided to work off some of our breakfast with a long walk on the beach. Mue Ne has a beautiful beach, and the dry sand is very clean. Unfortunately, the sand in the ocean has very course shells. The waves are quite choppy, which makes it popular for a variety of water sports (such as wind and kite surfing) and flying kites. We saw a lot of different things, including sea slugs, crabs, jellyfish, and fish eggs. It also looks like Tianne is starting a new shell collection, and put together a very fashionable coconut carrying case for all of her treasures. For my part, I found a complete conch shell that's in excellent good condition.

We spent the rest of the morning out at the pool, which was pretty empty. It turns out that yesterday was incredibly busy in Mue Ne because it was a holiday weekend in Vietnam -- April 30th was Reunification Day and May 1st was International Workers Day. We met a Swiss expat who had arrived with his family on the Saturday of the long weekend and finally managed to get into a very basic (read: crappy) room in the late afternoon.

After another great (and cheap) lunch at the backpacker restaurant across the street, we took a stroll along the strip to do some shopping and honed our bartering skills. One of the interesting sights was watching some locals build a resort by hand, and hauling the bricks up to a higher floor with just a string and a basket.

Then it was off to the pool and beach again until another backpacker dinner (this time it was about CDN$6 for two). We booked our bus to Nha Trang (we head out tomorrow at ~1pm) and had a very interesting conversation with the owner and staff about politics. It turns out that the national elections are this week in Vietnam, and apparently they don't let foreigners into the country this week (April 30th to May 5th) in case there are any problems. We made it by a day, and I guess that explains why the Embassy of Vietnam pre-dated our visas by about a week! Generally there are not any problems during election time, save for the odd demonstrations. We are not concerned by anything we've seen. I am again feeling very grateful for traveling with Tianne who can converse with the locals to get the real scoop about what's going on.

We are planning to have a very busy morning because we're on a bus from ~1pm until 6:30pm and want to fit in as much as we can. The tentative plan is to go for a beach walk at 6am, drive mopeds at 7am to see a nearby fish market and village to watch the return of the fishers (they fish at night because it is cooler) and then enjoy another super breakfast across the street. We don't have to check out until noon so we'll spend the rest of the time on the pool or at the beach. While we don't have a real travel plan, It looks like we're going to be in Nha Trang on Thursday and Friday night.

Summer Sand-sledding in Mue Ne

2007-05-01T10:19:00.000-04:00

Vietnam Trip - Day Two

Tianne and I caught the 6:50am train to Phan Thiet this morning. As promised, the train moved at a snail's pace, and took over five hours to complete a four hour journey.

The train was an interesting way to travel. For starters, we were the only backpackers in a car filled with people from Ho Chi Minh City who were heading to the beach with their kids. It also provided a unique opportunity to see the countryside and how people live in a few different provinces (from the city to forests to farms). And, as always, a train trip means more photos for our resident train-fanatic, Patrick. Sorry -- didn't bring the cables with me so you'll have to wait until the end of May to see the pictures! The experience has also helped us decide that it might just be our last train trip in the country (unless we go the sleeper train route at some point later on). Definitely no more of these "milk run" trips!

So, we arrived in Phan Thiet about 12:30pm and grabbed a cab to Mue Ne, which is a beautiful and relatively new beach resort area located 22km east of Phan Thiet. We got the cabbie to drop us off at a travel agency because we hadn't figured out how we were going to leave Mue Ne and the train was going to take a very long time (including backtracking over some ground we'd already covered). I'm happy to report that we'll be able to make the 5.5 hour trip to Nha Trang (the next beach resort town we're staying at) by bus for just US$5. Sweet!

Then we had to figure out where to stay. Tianne's unofficial strategy has been to find the newest hotel in town, which offer rooms at a discounted rate until they become known. And it worked for the second time in a row. We're staying right in the centre of the strip in Mue Ne at the Tien Dat Resort, which is about a year old. We have a beautiful second floor room with a balcony overlooking the pool and the ocean. All of this for under US$24 each per night. We had considered staying at a cheaper place, but figured this would be a good time to splurge as the same room in Nha Trang would cost at least three times as much! We expect to stay in lesser accomodations in Nha Trang, probably a five minute walk to the beach... unless, of course, Tianne works her magic finds us another brand new hotel with discounted rates!

We had a delicious (and dirt cheap) lunch at the backpacker restaurant across the street. Then we headed out on a 3.5 hour tour (the two of us with a jeep and driver) to see some of the major sites in the area. We started off at the Fairy Spring (Suoi Tien), which is really a patch of dunes with interesting sand and rock formations. We had some self-appointed tour guides for this journey (a couple of local boys) but they made the barefoot walk through the stream very entertaining.

We made a very brief stop (read: photo op) at a nearby fishing village, and then headed out the enormous sand dunes to the north. There was a fair bit of off-roading involved in getting us to the white sand dunes and oasis. It was a bit strange to see... it felt like we were standing in the Sahara desert instead of Vietnam! We didn't realize that we were supposed to pick up our sand sleds (crazy carpets) before stumbling up the dunes. Fortunately, we met up with a couple of travellers who were happy to lend us their sled for the mere entertainment of watching us give it a try. For some reason, I figured the sand would move quickly. It didn't. Lots of time to take funny photos on the way down.

After a couple more stops at other sand dunes, we headed back to the hotel. We were both pretty wiped, but decided to head out for dinner. Back to the backpacker restaurant across the street for some mango shakes, crab soup, seafood soup, and red snapper with lemon grass and chili. This, along with a big bottle of water and Tianne's dessert, came out to about CDN$7.

We have decided to stay on in Mue Ne for an extra night so we can really get a chance to kick back and enjoy the resort a bit. The current plan is to leave Mue Ne at around noon on Thursday (local time) to head to Nha Trang. We'll spend 1-2 days in Nha Trang before moving on to Hoi An.

Living the Good Life in Ho Chi Minh City

2007-04-30T11:38:00.000-04:00

Vietnam Trip - Day One

Tianne and I survived our first full day in Vietnam (April 30th). We actually got an early start to the day, which was surprising given the long hours spent travelling the day before. We enjoyed a nice breakfast at our hotel before venturing out into the wild streets of Ho Chi Minh City.

I say wild streets because the traffic looks incredibly uncoordinated and dangerous, but actually seems to work well once you get your head around it. Still, walking out in front of hundreds of speeding vehicles -- bikes, mopeds, taxis, buses -- can be quite nerve racking.

We left Pham Ngu Lao (the Backpacker District) at about 8:30am, loosely following the walking tour outlined in the Lonely Planet Guide to Vietnam. We started down through a park in the middle of the street to a statue of Tran Nguyen Hai on horseback. This is in the middle of an incredibly busy traffic circle (which also contains a bus station and a popular market area!) We took a stroll through a colorful outdoor market, and made a brief visit to the Saigon River waterfront. This could have been such a beautiful area, but instead reaks of raw sewage. We decided to pass on the boat tour.

We instead strolled through Long Khoi, the area with the higher-end hotels. There are some really stunning gardens and statues in this area. We also passed the Hotel De Ville, a former hotel that is now the local People's Committee building.

Our first real stop of the day was the War Remnants Museum. This was once known as the Museum of Chinese and American War Crimes, but the name was changed so it wouldn't offend Chinese and Western tourists. I can't put it any better than Lonely Planet: "There are few museums in the world that drive homne so well the point that war is horribly brutal and that many of its victims are civilians." The photos were truly horrific, and there were also military craft, deformed babies (chemical weapons), scenes of torture, and examples of the experimental weapons used in the war. It was very interesting to learn about these U.S. military actions through the eyes of their victims. We took some photos because it is really hard to describe all of the horrific things we saw. But I have to say that we were both really uncomfortable taking some of them, and still haven't made a final decision about whether we'll share them with others.

The Reunification Palace was closed until 1pm, so we decided to grab ourselves some lunch. Tianne selected a very nice restaurant called Tib (pronounced "jib"), which was *very* difficult to find. Just when we gave up and decided to check out a spa to visit for our return trip to HCMC, we discovered the restaurant was down the same alley! The food was delicious (I had the bean curd with lemon grass and chilis). That said, I learned the hard way that I am going to have to find a way to express vegetarianism in Vietnamese... although, in fairness, who would have thought a "jackfruit salad" would have no fruit in it? At least Tianne enjoyed it. We are still trying to figure out which of the meats is a "jackfruit".

Reunification Palace, when we finally arrived there, was very interesting. April 30th (today) is actually Reunification Day in Vietnam. That is the day when the first communist tanks arrived in Saigon in 1975 and took over power from General Minh. The building had many beautiful and impressive rooms, but the basement was perhaps the most interesting aspect. It contained a military station that reminded me a lot of the Cold War Bunker near Ottawa (Diefenbunker).

We headed back to our hotel and stopped at Ben Thanh Market, which is one of the major market areas (and on that scary traffic circle I referred to earlier). Tianne had the great idea of getting an idea of what we wanted to buy and what the prices are in HCMC so we can be on the look out for better deals during our travels. Tianne also broke down with her first material purchase of the trip. I think she broke the bank at CDN $2.

We went back to the hotel for a bit, and then went to the Train Station to book our tickets to get to Mue Ne (we're going to Phan Thiet and will take a cab to Mue Ne beach). We're still not entirely sure about how we're going to get out of Mue Ne after we get there, but I'm sure it will work out. After returning by cab to the backpacker zone we treated ourselves to a 50 minute foot massage (about CDN$4) and went to a nearby restaurant called Allez Boo for dinner. The shrimps, green peppers and onions in coconut sauce was delicious, as was the Saigon beer. The vegetarian spring rolls were not.

The price of everything here still continues to surprise us. I'm carrying a calculator with me, which has been very helpful. 60,000 dong sure sounds like a lot of money... until you realize it is less than CDN $4!

We're not sure what the Internet situation will be like in the beach towns that we are about to head to (Mue Ne and Nha Trang). We expect to be in Hoi An by Friday. Hoi An is a UNESCO world heritage site that also happens to be very well known for its tailors. We are planning to get some clothes made (okay, probably many articles of clothing made) and do some major shopping while we're there. The current plan is to spend three nights in Hoi An after we leave Nha Trang.

Tomorrow will come very early for us (we have to be at the train station by 6am) so I'm signing off for now.

The Journey to Ho Chi Minh City

2007-04-29T13:21:00.000-04:00

Vietnam Trip - Arrival Day

After a 26-hour journey, Tianne and I arrived safely in Ho Chi Minh City at about 9:30pm local time on Sunday, April 29th (or about 8:30am ET on April 29th). The three flights went fairly smoothly, but the journey from Chicago to Hong Kong was a very long haul (about 16 hours). To help us cope with the long journey, we had the foresight to buy some cheesecake in Chicago. Delicious! What I found interesting about the flight is that we flew directly north from Chicago, then up over the Queen Elizabeth Islands and Siberia, and then down to Hong Kong over Russia. It didn't seem to be a very direct route, but I'm sure there is a good reason for it.

I'm pleased to report that our luggage arrived with us in HCMC, which helped us start out on the right track. We hired a taxi to drive us into the city (about US$5). Being on the streets of HCMC -- in a vehicle or on foot -- is not for the faint of heart. And the streets are filled with people on scooters weaving in and out of traffic. I'm sure there will be more to write on this later.

We walked around the main backpacker area to find a decent hotel for a reasonable price. We ended up in a really nice hotel called Elios Hotel, which is less than two months old. And the cost? Less than US$17 each per night! Comperable rooms on the same strip are going for twice as much. It even has a bathroom, bathtub, free Internet and complimentary breakfast -- all of which are not guaranteed in this country. It is clear that Tianne's shrewd negotiating skills in Vietnamese are going to be very useful during this trip!

We just took a stroll through the backpacker district (District 1), and are about to turn in for the night as it's now after midnight local time. Tomorrow (Monday, April 30th) we are planning to take a walking tour of the City. One of the stops we will make is the War Remnants Museum, which has received critical acclaim and should be very interesting.

On Tuesday, we're planning to start our north journey up the coast to hit the beaches for a few days. Then it's on to Hoi An to do some major shopping... and likely some major damage to our credit cards!

Off to Viet-Nam in One Week

2007-04-21T22:31:00.000-04:00

It's hard to believe that Tianne and I leave for Viet-Nam next Saturday morning. This is my second trip to Asia. The first was an exchange trip to Japan during the summer between grade 9 and 10, which was... well... just about 17 years ago. Wow. I've been having a lot of those "feeling old" moments lately.

Work has been crazier than usual for the past three months, and I haven't done very much to get myself ready. I have taken care of the most important things at least. The flight is booked. My shots are up-to-date. I have a Visa to enter the country. I forked over some cash for a Lonely Planet guide and a Southeast Asia phrasebook. I even learned about a dozen phrases in Vietnamese at one point, but they are long forgotten.

I also managed to get my hands on two hundred thousand Dong (worth $15CDN), which is not generally carried by Accu-rate. Yes, the Dong is the currency of Viet-Nam. I have been telling Dong jokes for the past two months, and I figure Tianne will be completely sick of the jokes within the first three days. Fortunately, she has her own arsenal of Dong jokes (Dongit!) and it looks like I will be travelling in very good company.

Our flight leaves Ottawa at 8:51am on a Saturday morning and we land in Ho Chi Minh City on Sunday at around 9pm thanks to the time difference. It will take us about 24 hours to travel from Ottawa to Chicago, from Chicago to Hong Kong and from Hong Kong to Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC).

We are taking our backpacks and travelling with a plan to plan as we go. I'm guessing that we will find time to do some general trip planning en route. After all -- how else are we going to kill 24 hours? We know the general route we want to take. We'll be starting out in Ho Chi Minh City and then working our way up north along the coast. At some point we will fly from Hanoi back to HCMC -- likely just in time for Ho Chi Minh's birthday on May 19th. May 21st will be the day that never ends. We'll be taking the 24-hour journey in reverse, leaving HCMC at around 6am and arriving in Ottawa about 9:30pm that same day.

We will be in Viet-Nam for a full 21 days. It sounds like a long time, but we'll be covering quite a bit of ground and we've read that transportation can be slow going (especially the train). We plan to hit many of the main sites -- Hoi An, Hanoi, MeKong Delta, Halong Bay, etc. -- while also making sure we have lots of time at the beach.

I'm starting to get really excited about the trip. This is going to be another crazy week at work, so the challenge will be finding time to pack and pick up the last minute things I'm going to decide I need. Fortunately, we're planning to do a lot of shopping while we are there so I'm planning to travel with a half-empty pack. One thing is for sure -- I will be learning an important packing lesson from my Argentina trip. I will be bringing all essential items (contact lenses, some clothes, etc.) in my carry on luggage. There is nothing worse than having to shop for underwear on the first day of your trip and be stuck wearing glasses when you're not use to it!

Whirlwind Tour of Washington, D.C.

2007-04-20T20:20:00.000-04:00

I just got back from my first trip to Washington, D.C. and I have to say it is a beautiful city. I have wanted to visit Washington for years. I was down for some meetings as CREA representative to the International Housing Coalition -- a group co-founded by CREA, NAR and Habitat for Humanity International to promote the goal of “HOUSING FOR ALL” as an essential element to ending poverty worldwide. I have been asked to become more involved in the coalition, and it should be a very interesting experience.

I had a nice city tour in a cab during rush hour -- a 45 minute ride from Dulles Airport. When I arrived at the hotel, I met up with my Director and CEO to check out a really great jazz band (unfortunately I can't recall the name). Then we went to check out the cherry blossoms by the water en route to the restaurant. The only problem was that we were a week or two too late, and the trees were bare! We headed into Georgetown for dinner at Sequoia, which is situated on Washington Harbour (the Potomac River). The restaurant was fantastic. I enjoyed the Tilapia -- the sea bass is also highly recommended. And the view was absolutely stunning.

After dinner we took a stroll through Georgetown, and I really enjoyed this area. This is a major shopping district and I could have done some major damage on my credit card. It was a good thing I was with two gents who were more interested in finding out the score in the Ottawa Senators/Pittsburgh Penguins NHL playoff game than shopping!

The next morning I made the time for a short walking tour of the capital before breakfast, meetings, and a cab ride back to the airport.

I would have loved to have stayed in Washington over the weekend, and probably would have had I not been leaving for Vietnam in one week (YES -- ONE WEEK!!!) I used to think I wanted to go to Washington.... now I know I want to go back! My text trip there is tentatively set for late June, and hopefully I can extend the visit by a few days.

Planning through the people you know

2007-03-17T08:46:00.000-04:00

It always amazes me how so many of my friends (and friends of friends) have been traveling the world in recent years. I often find myself completely engrossed in the tales of someone’s recent journeys at social events. With the proliferation of photo-sharing web sites and personal blogs, the ability to enjoy a virtual vacation by living vicariously through someone else can be a welcomed escape from the daily grind.

It turns out that there are many of us in our 20s and 30s who are slowly covering the globe three weeks at a time. Take Chris and Agnes, for example. In the past two years they have traveled to China, Thailand and Cambodia. Last I heard a trip to Peru may be in the works for the summer. Then there’s Brigitte and Kyle, who have visited more countries over the years than I can count. They are off to Costa Rica in a couple of weeks. It’s nice to know that Steve and I are not the only couple with lofty travel ambitions.

Then there are other breeds of adventure traveler – those who manage to tackle longer and more ambitious trips, and those who make the decision to live and work abroad. I hope to join their ranks someday.

Steve and I met Laura when we were in Northern Argentina last October. The Scottish lass began her world tour in June 2006 in Canada and Japan. When we met her in Buenos Aires, she had just finished a six-week jaunt through Central America. I just visited her blog and she is in New Zealand today. And she still has several months of travels to go in the South Pacific and Southeast Asia. Yes, I’ll admit it. I’m a wee bit jealous. Okay, I'm very jealous. You can check out Laura’s blog for her latest adventures.

Meghan is another adventurer I admire. A water engineer who headed to Cameroon for a couple of months to work on a sanitation project after graduation, she managed to stay in Ottawa for about a year and a half before jumping on the next big international opportunity. In January, she packed her bags for Bolivia where she is based in La Paz and working on various projects for UNICEF. Her skills have already been put to very good use when there was extensive flooding in Santa Cruz earlier this year. Read more on Meghan’s adventures.

I would be remiss if I did not to mention my sister-in-law Andrea at this time. Like most Meyers, Andrea has an adventurous spirit and strong determination. Not long after I met Andrea, she was off to Bangladesh to work on a development project in Dhaka for nine months. There were many other ambitious travels before this, and have been many since. Motherhood has not slowed Andrea down. Our niece Helena is not even one year old yet and already has several stamps in her passport. Andrea works for Canada’s Foreign Service, and she and her family will be posted in Saudi Arabia at the end of the summer. That will surely be an adventure!

The travel advice you pick up through your network of friends and colleagues can be extremely helpful – and sometimes more useful than what you find in a guidebook. Don’t get me wrong – I rarely head out on a trip without taking along a Lonely Planet guide (affectionately referred to as “LP” in our house and occasionally known as “Lying Planet”).

Tour companies, hotels and transportation are always good areas to seek advice from your network.

When we went to Peru, Steve and I opted to have a travel company to make our arrangements because we were both busy and didn’t have very much time to plan our own itinerary. We opted to use Q’ente, a Peru-based company that one of Steve’s coworkers had used when he hiked the Inca Trail a few years earlier. We were certainly more comfortable wiring the company money with the knowledge that they were legit (and also had high ratings in Lonely Planet). Using a local company meant that we saved more than 30% (and closer to 40%) off the price of using Canadian-based GAP Adventures. We went on Q'ente's Condor Package, which is similar to many of GAP's offerings in the country. As an added bonus, we were the only two people with our itinerary, which had many surprise inclusions (dinner shows, meals, tours, etc.)

I was recently advised by Bonnie, a friend who lived in Vietnam for a year, that Hue is a stop worth missing despite what the guide books may say. Tianne and I will probably go there, but we may opt to “just pass through” in favor of some extra shopping time in Hoi An, or an extra day at the beach. We’ve also been warned by several people about the snail’s pace the trains move at in that country. We’ll have to look seriously at where taking sleeper trains make the most sense, and where a short plane ride is a wise investment.

Before I go, I should also mention that it can also be fun to be able to incorporate special memories of others into your itinerary. Kieran’s recommendation of Heladeria Miranda in Cafayate, Argentina is one such example. I’m happy to report that the Torrontes (white wine) ice cream was delicious. Being allergic to red wine, I can tell you that the Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon ice creams also received high billing from the people on our tour who I dragged along for the experience.

A Writer's First Blog Post

2007-03-03T19:19:00.000-05:00

I've been talking about starting up a blog for a couple of years now, but it's been all talk, no action. My more adventurous half Steve started up a blog for us to share in advance of our trip to Peru in September 2005. Steve was quite diligent in keeping the site up-to-date with our various adventures, and it turns out that he has a very natural blog-writing style.

As someone who has a university degree in journalism and is a professional writer and editor, I am embarrassed to admit that I did not contribute a single word to the site. Instead, I was more focused on the fun stuff -- taking "the perfect shot" to go with the blog posts, and maintaining our photo site on Flickr (which, by the way, is now up to 7,200 photos and counting).

I officially got the boot from our "shared" blog site about a year ago. I was told that I didn't deserve any of the credit because I wasn't doing any of the work. Fair enough. Steve was also wanting to change the focus of the blog because he was concocting some more ambitious racing plans -- including some at the international level.

So, I've finally started a blog of my own. Why now? For starters, I have half-joked for quite some time that my next career will be as a travel writer and photographer. I figure there is no time like the present to start giving it a try. I've been rapidly adding new countries under my travel belt in recent years, and it looks like this trend will continue in 2007. In addition, I can't rely on Steve to chronicle all of my travel adventures online because we aren't always travelling together. Those who follow Steve's blog know that he is planning quite an ambitious trip to New Zealand later this year. This trip is not a recent concept -- in fact, on our first date in 1999 he warned me that he would be taking this trip. I'm happy that he's finally headed for New Zealand, even if it did take him eight years!

I would have loved to have grabbed a backpack after university and headed to Europe for a summer. But I started my first full-time job while I was finishing up my degree, and I quickly became wrapped up in the demands of work. It was 2.5 years after graduation when I embarked on my first journey outside of North America (with the exception of a high school summer exchange trip to Japan in 1991). It was a last-minute one-week trip to Margarita Island and Canaima National Park (Angel Falls) in Venezuela with Steve. I don't think I even owned a backpack at the time. Since then, we've been fortunate enough to visit a number of countries together -- Switzerland (2003), Peru (2005), Cuba (2006), and Argentina (2006). We've also logged a number of trips in North America to visit family and friends, and also to play tacky tourist (something we have become quite good at in recent years!)

Unfortunately, Steve is unable to take any vacation time in the lead up to his New Zealand trip, and he has been my only international travelling companion in recent years. I suppose I could sit back and wait until Steve is ready to travel with me again. Instead, I've developed a major case of the travel bug and am itching to see the world.

We did our first separate international vacations this February -- completely unintentionally. I was off to the Mayan Riviera in Mexico to celebrate Mel and Dave's wedding. Steve would have loved to come, but couldn't swing the time with work. Then he accepted a new job and the perfect window to take some vacation emerged. Guess when! It was, of course, the week we were going to Mexico. The problem was that he couldn't find a seat on any flights to Cancun from either Ottawa or Montreal. He briefly thought about staying in Ottawa, but then opted to take advantage of a last-minute deal to Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic to do some biking.

My next trip -- coming up at the end of April -- began as one of those "wouldn't it be fun to" conversations with a friend late last year, and then a spur-of-the-moment "what are we waiting for -- let's do it" decision in mid-February. I was keen to see parts of the world that are lower on Steve's travel wish list, and my friend Tianne was looking to take her dream trip to Vietnam but was missing a travel buddy. There have been several signs since that this trip was meant to be, including some very cheap airfare through JCB Travel in Ottawa (thanks to Chris Foo for recommending both the company and Yalin, the travel agent). Tianne and I are considering this our 30th birthday trip. Happy birthday, T!

More on this trip in a separate blog post. Stay tuned.