Cambodia - with no pics of Angkor Wat!

1) Meet local children. They're funny and just want to wave at the crazy white people.
2) Feed Crocodiles ($3)
3) Drink rice wine with a local (1 liter costs 50 cents...and it's 50% alcohol!)
4) Go to a fish spa ($1-3 depending on whether or not it includes beer)
5) Quad bike around the countryside ($17 each)...But it was a 330cc quad!
6) Get absolutely, ridiculously drunk ($10)

Bye Bye Saigon, Hello Cambodia

The last leg of the tour...Our last month! 30 days to go! We're in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Vietnam was great, and Saigon was the usual busy, dirty, but wonderful Asian city. Phnom Penh is it's own thing...A bit different from other capitals. It's cheap, and despite rumors, very friendly! We've staying 5 nights as there are many things to see. We'll be back in a few weeks and will stay another 2 nights. Despite the friendly people, PP has a horrible history of genocide. Here are some happy pictures from the killing fields, and, for no particular reason, me firing an AK47, Char firing an M-16, and the city of Saigon as seen from the 23rd floor of the Sheraton (no we didn't stay there, but they do make the absolute worst cocktails for $10 a pop!)
The picture of the building/monument houses thousands of skulls and other bones of the genocide victims. It's a bit creepy as you can go right up to them (and even touch them if you dare...the glass is open).

Useful or Useless – What to bring on a backpacking trip!

After 5 months I think I’ve got this backpacking thing figured out a bit…Just a bit. There’s far too much misinformation out there about things you should and shouldn’t bring along. So maybe someone who reads this (maybe one of all 6 of you) will one day go backpacking and can avoid a costly but useless trip to a trekking store. First the useless things:
Useless:
1. A rain jacket. You just don’t need one. A decent one from Canada costs at least $100, they’re heavy, and you’ll hate dragging it around. Even if you go somewhere in the rainy season, unless you’re planning on doing multi-day hikes, just buy a plastic poncho for $1. That’s what the locals wear, and these things work very well and are lightweight and/or disposable. Worried about finding a plastic poncho? Don’t be. As soon as it rains locals will stand outside bars selling them.

2. Trekking shoes. I thought shoes would be useful in Asia. I don’t even have socks anymore…that’s how useful shoes are. I’ve even done two hour hikes straight up the side of a waterfall in bare feet (saw skinks but no snakes), gone spelunking in flip-flops, etc. Not once have I had the foresight to bring the trekking shoes along with me, and have always managed to leave them at the hotel. Besides, the locals do all these things in flip-flops as none of them could afford fancy shoes anyway.

3. Jeans – it’s just too god damn humid. A friend of our tried to dress up in jeans and a nice shirt one night in Bangkok, and he looked like a swamp creature within 15 minutes.

4. A lonely planet book. Well…now these are not completely useless, but as most people will buy them at home, the first sentence should read: “Congratulations! You’ve already managed to get completely ripped-off without leaving home!” Every country is teeming with lonely planet books that people have discarded on their way to the next country. At home these books are $30. In Asia you can get them for $3.

5. Hotels listed in Lonely Planet. Imagine a world where every tourist buys the same book and that book lists 10 hotels in a town with 250. Now you tell me which ones are going to be full and overpriced? Drop your bags in a bar. One person drinks and watches the bags while the other roams the streets and checks half a dozen or more hotels. Then make your decision.

6. Any kind of medication. You can get anything here, it’s 1/10th of the price, and you don’t need a prescription unless you are in Bangkok (where oddly you do for some of the more entertaining things…)

7. Immodium - It just DOES NOT work. You just have to put up with the ‘effects’ of a new set of bacteria for a while. In all honesty, a good dose of straight liquor is more helpful and seems to settle your stomach.

8. A sleeping bag. Completely useless. All hotels have nice beds and linens. If not, then you are paying around $3 a night…So then you are 19 and don’t care what I’m writing (oddly enough the 19-year old typical traveling twats also seem to appear in abundance in the most expensive of expensive resorts). We gave our sleeping bags to a guy in Laos who needed them more than we did (he slept in the hotel lobby). The stupid bags cost us almost double what our Laotian friend made in a month.


Useful:

1. A knife – too many uses to list…Just make sure it’s not a “flick” knife as you can get in trouble even having it in your checked luggage in some countries (e.g. Singapore…). A machete is OK. I brought one through…honestly. Just make sure it doesn’t “flick”…

2. Valium. There are just too many things happening, too many things you don’t understand, and too many people that just want your money. If you are at all impatient, then a little valium goes a long way. It’s easy to get, helps you sleep, and stops you from completely losing your shit on the dude that keeps insisting you get on his motorbike at 2am.

3. Zip lock bags. I have 6 large ziplock bags that contain everything I have with me. Nothing gets wet, you can separate dirty clothes, keep smells in/out. Perfect, cheap, easy.

4. A “day” backpack. Just a small pack you can wear on your chest when you have your large pack on. Having this pack allows you to bring valuables with you if you don’t want them in the hotel, keep a book handy, and carry other useless crap you’ll pick up along the way.

5. A $10 US bill. Just always have one stashed somewhere and you’ll never be stuck. With $10 USD you can almost always get anything you need to get you back in business again (a hotel room, a taxi ride for half an hour, a bus for 10 hours, etc).

6. Credit cards. Both VISA and MasterCard. Bank cards often don’t work, and if you lose your credit card the company will get a new one to you if you can remain in one hotel for 5 business days – even on an island in Thailand (this actually happened to Char).

7. Locks/steel wire. We have a small steel wire with a loop on each end. Useful for locking cabinets/doors if necessary. We also brought a portable safe – the Pacsafe. And a lock for the computer.

8. Some kind of spray with a lethal amount of DEET. Many sprays will say 30%, or 50%, or even 95%, but few of them in Asia actually have any… Jungle spray from England actually has 50% DEET (the highest legal amount in the UK), will kill anything but a roach on contact, and leaves you bite free all night. You can also spray it around door frames at night to discourage anything crawling through (ants avoid it like it is liquid death, but roaches couldn’t give two shits).

9. Spray deodorant. Much more useful than roll-on as you can also use it to:
a. Kill ants. If you leave anything edible (even a dead fly) in your room, a trail of ants may appear (even in the swankier hotels). Deodorant spray will wipe them out in one go. This also works for hornets or other scary things that you find in your bathroom from time to time. Spray deodorant from European countries doesn’t kill roaches. Oddly enough, spray deodorant from Asia does…
b. ‘Freshen’ clothes and underwear. Laundry is not always your top priority and although you can get all your clothes washed for about $2, you have to remain in one spot for usually 24 hours for this to happen. Often you’ll remember you need to do laundry the night before you leave on the 7am bus…
c. Smell nice! For freshy!

10. A net book. Ok, so this list is not in any particular order. A net book is probably more useful than spray deodorant. Just be mindful that bringing one means you risk losing it to any number of things including theft, water, and forgetfulness. Still, having your own pc for communication and banking is much better than using a public computer.

11. A dry bag. You can get these bags at places that sell kayaks or outdoor equipment. I only paid a few dollars for mine. I took it tubing, have been swimming with it, and it has protected my camera and money every time. I keep it in my bag with the laptop inside it during rainy times.

12. An umbrella! Holy shit does it ever rain during rainy season. Don’t buy one from home…buy one on your travels as it will be one tenth of the price

13. A large, well seasoned liver. It turns out that going to temples gets really boring fast, and many of them look more like a Disney land ride than a temple (some I think are just built for tourists). So you’ll definitely end up drinking on a daily basis unless you have some kind of useful hobby like scuba diving (which mostly prohibits getting wasted all the time as any divers will know…although oddly most dive schools double as bars)

14. Hand sanitizer. You’ll just look at some of the bathrooms and say “no way.”

15. Wet wipes. See above.

16. An international driving license. Renting a motorbike or moped is cheap…often only $5. Two of you can get a whole day’s worth of attractions done in a few hours if you have your own wheels.

Still in Vietnam

We've moved south now to Nha Trang. It's a cool beach town that's both old and new. Huge hotels and small mini-hotels. $12 bags you a pretty nice room near the beach!
We've applied for a visa extension as 1 month is just not enough time to be in Vietnam. Before Nha Trang we were in Quy Nhon - a holiday town but mostly just for Vietnamese people. It wasn't the most friendly place for a couple of whiteys but it was interesting. Dozens of massive hotels, acres of parkland, decorative roadways (and huge wide roads too) but no one was visiting and seemingly no one lived there. It was like waking up the day after the world ended. We went to a cafe where one of these panorama pics was taken and the waitress was shocked as if she hadn't seen anyone in months.

On our 3rd day there we saw another white person and I actually said "wow you're the first white person I've seen in 3 days"

The first panorama pic is the view from our hotel balcony; the second is from the cafe

Good Morning Vietnam!

OK, excuse the cheesy title...It had to be done.
Vietnam is beautiful, rainy, has the cheapest beer and the pushiest people. That's it. Here are some pics from around HaNoi, which include the water-puppet theater (just plain weird), the town itself (who plans this?), me drinking 30 cent beer, HaLong Bay, some old ladies rowing us around a river, and a whole lot of motorcycles (OK, so I admit that I'm being kind of lazy on this blog as I'm late meeting up with Char...Some pics are repeats from emails sent to family, but some pics are new)

Elephant riding and waterfalls in Luang Prabang

It's hard to remember that it's October when you spend the day riding an elephant and then swimming in a jungle waterfall! It's harder than it looks to sit on the neck of that elephant. The water at the falls is actually refreshingly cold, but I'm still never too sure what's swimming around in it with me...

Two more days and then we fly to Hanoi, Vietnam.

Luang Prabang, and a bit of Vang Vieng

Yeah, sure I could post pics of the brown Mekong that looks just like the Fraser (except with catfish and frogs), but I'd rather try to post some pics of what really goes on in Laos. So I regularly pass out at 4pm if I start drinking beer at noon ($1 gets a 640ml beer) and valium is legal (no...I don't take it every day....).
Oh, and also we went to cooking school.
Basically, I think Laos is awesome - You just relax, drink beer, and enjoy sleeping. The bars shut early but the fridge is easily stocked. I haven't even been to the turquoise waterfalls surrounding Luang Prabang (although I intend to go). So far it's just been temples, caves, scenery, and bars. And yeah, Laos is awesome. People say Thailand is overdone, and I agree. Vietnam has a bit of bad rep, and that's what I've heard from others. Laos is best described as forgotten. It's just cheap, beautiful, and, well, everyone should visit at least once.

As for Vang Vieng...Well, that place is just insane. The most expensive hotel is $14 a night, and most bars give you free whiskey. It's insane, you're always drunk, and there are far too many aussies (in my opinion a bad thing). I dislocated my shoulder on a rope swing, but I don't regret it at all. Everyone has to do a ridiculously high rope swing in a country without proper hospitals...

Vientiane, Laos

Vientiane. The capital of Laos. Everything is closed by midnight. The city is beautiful, the people are friendly and relaxed, and the beer is wonderful (and costs $1 or less).

Two more days in this city then we're heading north to Van Vieng for some drunken river tubing

Koh Samui...

Beaches, bars, food, mopeds. That's Asia I suppose. But Thailand is just a little bit different...
I'm only posting this pic because I think it's absolutely hilarious. And before you even think it, the only thing I bought was a photo (30 cents)

And....Then this landed on our table one evening

What a shot, huh?

Back in time posting...

Ok ok so I didn't do a lot of updates in Indonesia. We're in Thailand now, so this post is a little bit chronologically askew. It's not that I didn't want to post blog updates, it's just that in Indonesia the word "internet" is slang for "please just print your pics/letters, put them in a bottle, throw them into the ocean and hope they arrive. It will be faster."

I just wanted to post a quick pic (for the sake of making others jealous) of the beach in Gili Meno, Lombok. The island is essentially deserted besides for a few locals and some really rustic beach huts. The beaches are simply stunning. The only way to get there is via old, rickety half-sunken boat.

Please disregard the fool with the tanned beer gut.

Koh Samui, Thailand

I'm so glad to be out of Indonesia. Don't get me wrong, it was awesome, but I was getting a little depressed by all the garbage and the expensive hotel rooms (plus the locals are ruthless). We left Bali on August 23rd, spent one night in Singapore (I love Singapore), then took a train to Kuala Lumpur (also an amazing city!). From Kuala Lumpur we took an overnight sleeper train ($40 each for a private cabin with A/C, 2 beds, a sink, and snacks) to Hat Yai, Thailand. From there we took a bus and ferry to Koh Samui. The total journey was almost 1400km and took 2 days, but was worth it. Koh Samui, in my opinion, is just plain awesome. Our hotel is incredible even by western standards (and a steal at $10.50 each per night). We're 100m from the beach, which is pretty spectacular in itself (although the water is a bit cloudy this time of year).
Today we're just exploring, tomorrow we'll catch a muay thai boxing match, the day after is elephant riding day, and then we'll be hopping over to the island of Koh Phangan. Expect more blog posts now that the internet isn't slow-as-shit-indonesian-dial-up.

our daily snorkeling/beer drinking/pineapple eating spot

This is Senggigi Beach in Lombok, Indonesia. It's high season, so there might be 12 people there hahaha! The water in the background is a sheltered lagoon. The waves break about 200 feet off shore, leaving a protected reef that's fairly shallow and full of fish.

Shit ants and stray dogs

We’re now in Lombok, Indonesia – a five hour ferry ride from Bali. After 2 weeks in Southeast Asia (admittedly not a very long time), here’s what’s going on, good and bad:

-if you don’t want to walk, just stand still; it will only be 30 seconds before someone asks if you want a taxi. If you keep walking, it will only be 10 seconds…

-If you don’t have sunglasses, you’ll be hassled to buy some. If you do have sunglasses, you’ll be hassled to buy more. Everyone sells sunglasses. A normal pair is around $2. RayBans or Oakleys are $3-5. Ooooh, can you say “genuine?”

-Do you like geckos? (I do.) Every bar has 50+ and every bathroom a few…If you hate geckos, don’t touch the paintings and mirrors in your room. Also, don’t look up.

-If you have $5, you can pretty much buy anything (or at least rent it for a while…Really, anything)

-Ants, ants and more ants. They’re often all over the toilet (in dirtier places). The really tiny ones I call shit ants. Sometimes they’re in my toast.

-Air con is rarely necessary, although hard to avoid (thus far) if you want a clean place. You’re really paying for the nicely sealed room that accompanies the air conditioner. There will still be geckos.

-1, 2, 3 sweat!

-Malaria is a significant problem in Lombok. The only tablets the “drug stores” sell are Chloroquinine tabs. Chloroquinine tabs are largely ineffective in Southeast Asia, and have been for the past decade or more according to the World Health Organization. You can’t ask for specific medicines…they don’t know. You just say what’s wrong and then the kid who was selling sunglasses during the day “prescribes” you the correct antibiotics. I’m not even joking a little.

-No such thing as “last call” or closing time. If you’re buying drinks, then someone will be there to serve them. Most Indonesian bars have this written somewhere: “I drink, I get drunk, I fall down, no problem.”

-Snorkeling is amazing. Even if you are only 3 feet deep the ocean comes alive with colorful fish. 10 feet and it’s even better. Don’t worry, apparently there are no sharks.

-The locals always say “No sharks here!” So why do I always see boats bringing in dead sharks? That rickety canoe with the lawnmower engine attached to the back must have dragged them all the way from Australia.

-All grocery stores or quickie marts ask “open?” when you buy a beer. Awesome!

-Singapore is like Vancouver, but very sticky, and with slightly less Asians and better transportation.

-On the streets, every price you hear is actually double. Even at half that you’re still paying too much.

-upwards of 50 people each day will ask you if you would like to go to the Gili Islands. None of the islands have ANY rooms available at any price in August. Where are all these people sleeping? It’s $25 USD to sleep on a raised piece of plywood on the beach at this time (no joke…)

-Finally, everyone in Indonesia ‘owns’ a dog. Unfortunately, ‘owns’ means they don’t feed it or house it or look after it, but just let it roam the streets. Fortunately, the entrance to every town has a massive sign from the Indonesian surgeon general that says “Warning! Rabies!”, followed by advice (written in Indonesian, of course), on how to avoid it. So immediately you are filled with comfort and joy while staggering from bar to bar and hop-scotch-ing over countless stray dogs sleeping on the sidewalks and roads (hahaha as if there were really a sidewalk!).

Hopefully someone still checks this blog! I'll try to update more often. Sorry no pics, the internet is too slow here!

Ready to leave Belgium for Singapore

After 2 weeks in Belgium I'm ready to leave. The beer is wonderful, and the whole city parties every night, but I can't really join in as everyone speaks French and I just don't. Two weeks is not long enough to refresh and improve the awful french classes I had in high school. Still, I suppose I can manage to order a few beers here and there...The best part of Belgium so far is the festivals. Beer gardens and outdoor concerts everywhere! And no one gets in a fight, the beer is reasonable (2 euro) and there's almost no garbage generated. I'm not sure how they do it... It wouldn't work in Vancouver.

Compared to England, Belgium is cheap cheap cheap. We're planning on spending the last few nights in Bruges and Brussels just so we can say we've been right across Belgium (we're in Liege now).

Wednesday we fly to Singapore. A quick flight to London and then 4 hours until our flight to Singapore. It's a 13 hour flight! I hope it's not full...The flight to England was bad enough at almost 10 hours. We've booked into a shit hotel in Singapore (...it's an expensive city), but we're only staying 3 nights until we fly to Indonesia for a month of island hopping, sun tanning and Komodo dragon watching! Hopefully these blogs will get a bit more interesting from Asia.

From Egypt to Belgium with London in the middle

I'm very pleased to be out of Egypt and back in a European country. Many interesting sights in Egypt, but they're all spoiled by constantly being harassed by merchants and beggars. Mostly by merchants. You can't walk anywhere without having junk forced on you, and you can't actually buy the junk without a 20 minute argument. At the end of the "negotiation" you'd better have exact change too because there's no way you'll get change from anyone. If you're wallet is still in your pocket, then that's a bonus. Most of the temple guides are armed with machine guns and harass you for tips. It's awesome. Even the cruise ships are constantly harassed by vendors if they slow down. These guys pitch shirts in bags up 5 stories right into your arms before demanding a ridiculous price (e.g. 10 english pounds).

Despite the people, Egypt can be a beautiful place. And the ancient tombs and temples are really more amazing than you could imagine via photos.But I didn't mention that the temperature ranged from 47-51C during the day. Ridiculous. That's 136F.!!!

Headed for Egypt...

We're in the Best Western by Gatwick, and headed for Egypt tomorrow to cruise the Nile. The hotel's internet is too slow to upload photos. Last blog for at least a week as we won't have any internet in Egypt...

37 in the shade...

Crete has been awesome. We've crammed so many activities into 2 weeks. But now it's time to say goodbye to sweating while sleeping and feeding the mosquitoes of the Mediterranean.
In Crete a cocktail looks like a birthday cake, and no one really seems to care what you do. I've seen enough elderly topless women to last a life time, and the nudist colony down the beach doesn't have a member under 75. We've traveled to lakes fed from underground springs, ancient forts built by the Venetians (apparently they make more than window blinds), monasteries, old cities, new cities, mountain panoramas, leper colonies, and caves. We've walked for miles along beaches, traveled to cities via coach, hopped on a fake train (it was just a tractor pulling carts on wheels) to touristy areas, and finally rented a quad for a 145km journey through a large city, along a highway, and through a dozen little mountain villages. Back home you get a ticket for not wearing a seatbelt, but in Crete it's apparently just fine for two people to ride a quad down the shoulder of 40km of highway and then bomb around a mega city (where 4 or 5 vehicles somehow always manage to cram across a one lane road).

We bus back to the airport at 6:00 GMT (Greek-maybe-time) tomorrow

Sea turtles and sunsets

This guy came ashore around 7pm but I didn't get a photo until 9pm. He was alive when he crawled onto the beach but gave up soon after. The locals covered him partially with some kind of black cloth (I don't know why). But it was pretty neat to see a wild sea turtle (they can live up to 80 years...and this one looked realllly old).
At least he died on a pretty amazing evening as the ocean was calm and the sky clear.

Sunrise over the Cretan Sea

Trouble sleeping this morning so I went to the beach to watch the sunrise. It was worth it.

Crete

Crete is pretty nice. Here's what I know:
The ocean is like bathwater.
It's hot even when it rains.
Greek bartenders are the laziest people on the planet.
Sand gets everywhere.
Mythos beer is crap but cheap.
You can drink anywhere.
All inclusive is greek for partially inclusive hehehe.

Nap time on the beach!

Quiz Night...Again

Pubs here have something called "quiz night." Basically you create a team (anywhere from 1 to 10 people...Just me 'n' Char in our case), and then as the host calls our questions (or plays music clips) you write your answers. At the end of the round you switch with other teams for marking. You then have to holler your score at the host... Char and I always name our team "The Canadians" so everyone knows why we lose (Most of the questions are UK-based questions). But today we didn't lose! Our goal was always to just beat one team and we did! We were actually tied for last place, but the host took pity on us and gave a toss up question. "Who is the prime minister of Canada?" hahhaa. So I blanked for a second out of nerves but we got it obviously. And so we won a bag of crisps and hobnob biscuits! Yayyyy! And not last place!

3-2-1-Greece!

We're headed for the Greek island of Crete on Thursday for 2 weeks. Backpacking (flight + hostel) was ultimately the most expensive as an all-inclusive + flight is only 29 British pounds per night...So it's time to fatten up on unlimited food, drink, and sunshine.

Pubs done right

Besides the beer - which is wonderful - pubs in England are just run much better. Even after a week I'm completely adjusted and am starting to appreciate the differences. Here's a quick overview of what I've noticed:
1) NO WAITRESSES. At first it seems strange. After a few days it just makes sense. You want a drink, go to the bar. If you want food, go to the bar and tell them what you want + your table number (all tables have numbers in pubs here). All the other stuff like sauces or napkins is either self serve or comes with your food. It's a much better system overall. You don't have to wait for some whiny waitresses to bring you things and you don't have to tip her either. In the end it's more convenient and proves what I've always suspected: pub waitresses are completely unnecessary.
2) Very few TVs. If a pub does have TVs, they are only on during important matches (cricket, football, etc). They are not constantly running crap and instead sit dark and silent awaiting the next match.
3) Working as a bartender is a starter job for college kids or kids just turned 18. And when I say kids, I mean kids. They look about 12 years old. It's not a job that makes you ridiculous money (as there are no tips) so it seems virtually no one really wants the job except for kids starting out or semi-retired old ladies. Again, this seems a better system as you just get your drink from a real person and not some ed hardy nightmare who thinks he's the coolest dude ever just because he can pour a beer.
4) Most washrooms (toilets) have 2 doors to enter. For some reason most of them have one door and then another right away at a right angle. I'm not sure why, but it just seems the norm here. Also, the washrooms are not usually very clean
5) No "pint premiums". If you were to go to a bar overlooking a harbour or even a bar on the beach in Canada you would expect to pay a premium for your beer. However, that's not the case at all here and some of the more expensive places have been the ones lacking views or amenities while pubs actually on the beach have been slightly cheaper than average. It all seems backwards to me. Overall pint prices don't fluctuate more than 30p unless you're in Wetherspoons (where they're always $1 or $2 cheaper)

Phew....longest entry yet, but hey it's me and it's about pubs.

Oh right...also, there was a fox.

It's all on CCTV

So. Winchester Cathedral today. Yes, it's nice. Amazing amounts of detail. There it is. Not much to say. If you've been to one I'm sure you've been to them all. Still, totally worth the trip. And, despite popular misconceptions, I didn't burst into flames as I passed through the entrance.
Winchester is also a really cool little village with a bustling market. The military museum, however, is quite empty. We weren't sure if you were supposed to dress up and pose with the exhibits, but it was just too tempting. Similarly, you're likely not supposed to lay down on tombs to have your picture taken, but we just couldn't resist. Thankfully it was a Wednesday so there weren't too many tourists around the Cathedral.
In other news...Pubs: Awesome. Thanks to Bren for suggesting Wetherspoon pubs. It's tough to stay sober now! If you are drinking at a Wetherspoon pub, it's pretty much the same in Canadian dollars as drinking inside a Canadian liquor store...Except you can drink pretty decent English beer. I counted the beer taps today and there were 27! (Char is drinking a 550ml Newcastle Brown...2GBP or about $3.15 CDN). And of course, the entire excursion was captured on over 140 CCTV cameras as Britain is CCTV crazy.