We also dropped into the park's visitor centre, complete with stuffed bears, creepy talking mannikins and a board for reporting animal sightings - according to it, a bear had been spotted in our campsite that morning. We suspected this may not have been a serious report, though, because the same person had also reported a "mosquito...on my arm".

Some of us finished the day with a 7km trek along the trail of an old railway line, followed by a BBQ and beer.

written by  lucy3119 on August 2, 2012 from Algonquin Park, Canada
from the travel blog: Canada and a little USA 2012
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In an unexpected turn of events we were invited into the centre and introduced to some of the reptiles: we got to hold various snakes, lizards and tortoises, while a knowledgeable volunteer guide told us everything she knew about the creatures. We mentioned the tortoise floating in the bowl outside. She looked concerned and said she'd check it out.

We eventually made it to Algonquin and within minutes of arriving we spotted a crowd by the side of the road, pulled over and experienced our first Canadian animal encounter - a moose! We joined the other tourists crowding around the unconcerned animal, and were impressed by the size of it, expecially it's long, long legs! After this, we thought it would be funny, considering the size of our group, to form a crowd by the side of the road for no reason and see how many people stopped to see what all the fuss was about.

Moose!

Moose!

After setting up camp in a great forested campsite we took a short but absolutely beautiful hike to Beaver Lake, which only exists thanks to a dam created by a couple of beavers once upon a time.

Beaver Lake

Beavers at Beaver Lake

We had to bear-proof our camp before bed, which meant locking away any traces of food or toiletries in the trailer of our van. Most of our group were too afraid of bears to go to the bathroom during the night. I, on the other hand, forgot about the threat of bears and strolled casually to the outhouses without a care in the world.

written by  lucy3119 on August 1, 2012 from Algonquin Park, Canada
from the travel blog: Canada and a little USA 2012
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We then headed for the CN Tower, a stark contrast considering it was packed with tourists and hour-long queues (although we did get to watch coverage of the Olympics - it was the gymnastics - while we waited). We were conned into buying more expensive tickets that included a trip to the very top level of the Tower, the Skydome, only to discover that you had to queue for a further two hours after the initial queues to get up there. We declined.

We took the standard glass floor photos and ventured outside onto the platform for aerial views of the city. We watched a storm approach ominously and experienced a strange effect in the elevator: it began to rain as we descended, but the rain looked just like snow floating gently in the air because it was keeping pace with us on its way down.

A thunderstorm hit and, not being prepared for torrential rain, we hung around the CN Tower for lunch. Eventually, we had to make a break for it and a small group of us ended up waterlogged and disillusioned in a nautical-themed pub by the harbour called Wallymagoo's, sipping delicious key-lime pie flavoured smoothies.

In the evening, once we'd dried off, we were taken to a hotel for dinner. It was nothing spectacular...until, that is, the evening's quiz was announced. Turned out we'd stumbled upon a Futurama convention involving a quiz dedicated to the cartoon and a viewing of three episodes. Four members of our group volunteered to represent us in the quiz (they scored 0.5 out of 30, in the end) while the rest of us escaped to a Mexican 'dive bar'. Most of the people there were probably on drugs, so of course we ordered milkshakes.

written by  lucy3119 on July 31, 2012 from Toronto, Canada
from the travel blog: Canada and a little USA 2012
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First stop in Canada? It HAD to be Niagara Falls! We took a stroll along the boardwalk, snacking on kosher hot dogs (tastes just like the normal kind.....) and trying to figure out why our hair kept going static, sticking straight up in their air every so often for no apparent reason. Of course, we then took a Maid of the Mist boat ride into the Falls, which was spectacular. One of our group had been given a tip-off that the lower deck was better than the upper deck as it gave you a more dramatic perspective of the size of the falls: most tourists headed straight for the top and ended up packed in like sardines, so down below we luxuriated in our freedom to stroll around and see the falls from different parts of the boat. The bottom deck was much, much dryer, too!

Kosher hotdog!

After heading to Toronto, we set up camp at the Indian Line campsite, my team cooked pasta for the rest of the group and we settled in for a night of s'mores (our guide Kyle taught us the "proper" way to make them), and beer/wine/other. On a trip to the washrooms, we encountered an old man with a guitar who, on discovering that we were English, serenaded us with his special rendition of the Spice Girls.

We got a little worried later on when two members of campsite staff, Phil and Caroline, approached us...we thought we were making too much noise. Turned out, their truck had broken down and they needed our help to push it to the main road. We invited them to join us and they promised to return once their truck had been rescued. True to their word, they returned a couple of hours later in time to teach us the game '21'. Aren't Canadians nice, eh?

written by  lucy3119 on July 30, 2012 from Niagara Falls, Canada
from the travel blog: Canada and a little USA 2012
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The thirteen members of our group met up with our guide Kyle pretty early on the 29th and set out in our minivan for Finger Lakes. We took what Kyle advertised as a 'hike' (actually about a 2km walk) to a "Waterfall" (actually a trickle - usually it's a lot more dramatic) called Taughannock. Later on, we swam in one of the Finger Lakes until we found ourselves being ever so slightly tangled up in huge amounts of seaweed.

We finished up at a winery, tasting 8 wines for $3, eating lovely fudge and listening to live country music.

We put up our tents for the first time at our campsite for the night and cooked chilli, the first of many (very successful...) campfire dinners.

Had a delicious curry at a really nice restaurant that puts on free apsara dancing shows - it's all about the double-jointed fingers!

Fish massage

Amazing Cambodian curry

Apsara dancing

Apsara dancing

This is quite a short entry so might as well mention that the next day, Friday, we got the bus back to Phnom Penh ready to catch our flight on the Saturday. Alannah and I got the early bus back so we could go out for dinner with the other volunteers still staying in Phnom Penh. Arriving back at the Narin 2 and seeing all the familiar faces actually felt a bit like coming home. We had a goodbye BBQ at one of the local restaurants and ended the night by trying to fit as many people on one moto as possible in true Cambodian style.

Riding a moto Cambodian style!

written by  lucy3119 on August 18, 2011 from Siem Reap, Cambodia
from the travel blog: Cambodia 2011
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Floating school

Crocs for the tourists

After this, we were literally coerced into eating at Kimlay and Lily's restaurant again - our tour guide was operating under strict instructions to bring us there despite our claims that we'd 'rather try somewhere new'. However, it did give me a chance to go a bit crazy in the market, finally caving in and buying a few quirky ceramic opium pots. In the afternoon Lily joined us on another money-spinner: tours around a silk-making workshop and a craft project run by Artisans of Angkor, finishing with obligatory visits to the gift shops. The silk products were gorgeous, but ridiculously expensive. Clearly, a bunch of debt-ridden students wasn't quite the market they were looking for, but we knew from previous experience that Cambodians tend to assume that tourists = rolling in money.

The creation of silk!

Silk weaving

In the evening we decided to check out the night market - Alannah and I, all marketed out and ready for a Singapore Sling - our Cambodian beverage of choice - came across a bar in the middle of the market and relaxed for a while. We were the only people there. At least it meant we got to hog the hammocks. Later, we headed to a bar on Bar Street (which could be anywhere in the world, it's so westernised) to meet some of Melissa's friends who happened to be in town at the same time as us.

written by  lucy3119 on August 17, 2011 from Siem Reap, Cambodia
from the travel blog: Cambodia 2011
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Kbal Spean

Kbal Spean

Expensive wood

Afterwards, we checked out Banteay Srei, the pink temple, which was really interesting - it wouldn't have looked out of place in India, and it's actually covered in ridiculously intricate carvings of Hindu Gods. The grounds were also really pretty,even the bridge to the toilets passed over a gorgeous lily pond (I guess that makes it a sight witnessed only by people with weak bladders!) although two children running around blowing whistles and shooting toy guns ruined the atmosphere a little...

For some reason, we were then taken to an orphanage where we were given a slightly too-warm welcome - the kids put on a music performance for us, taught us how to dance like Cambodians and then put flowers in our hair and took us on a tour of the orphanage. The whole thing seemed a bit too well rehearsed, but we understood this is how they get the sponsors they need to keep the place running - pretty much every building had a plaque revealing which business had sponsored it. Although this was all a bit strange, the kids' personalities came through later on when we joined in with their games, and I was asked to help carry firewood into the kitchens and heard some of the kids' stories. It was pretty funny when we had to leave, and all the kids tried to get hold of our email addresses so that they could add us on facebook.

My guides at the orphanage

Games at the orphanage

written by  lucy3119 on August 16, 2011 from Siem Reap, Cambodia
from the travel blog: Cambodia 2011
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First stop - Bayon in the Angkor Thom complex. Not being the biggest fan of tour guides as you can't really soak up the atmosphere of an incredible place like Bayon when you're listening to endless temple trivia (sorry!), Alannah and I were forced to get 'lost' in the endless labyrinths of the temple, stumbling upon all sorts of places the tour guides don't take you - at one point, we ended up in a pitch-black chamber with two more tourists with a torch, bat-spotting...until one of them almost collided with Alannah's face (a bat, not a tourist). We finally made it up to the top of the temple, where we came face-to-face with...er...faces. Huge ones. Made of stone. Had to join the queue for the obligatory nose-to-nose tourist shot.

Next stop - Ta Phrom. I was most excited about this one - the trees growing out of the rock just blow my mind. It was wonderfully atmospheric and not as crowded as Bayon (our guide informed us that this was because "all the Japanese tourists have gone for lunch"!), but for some reason viewing platforms had been built in front of the most picturesque parts of the temple, which slightly ruined the effect!

Ta Phrom

And finally - Angkor Wat - not as amazing as the others, particularly because the incredible, iconic front of the temple was covered in scaffolding!! Oh the irony of scaffolding - ruins famous landmarks but at the same time stops famous landmarks from becoming ruins! Things really got exciting when it started raining - taking another little breather from our guide (who was at this point complaining about Korean tourists!) Alannah and I were gazing out at the scenery when we started to hear the sound of torrential rain...the thing was, we couldn't SEE the rain. We waited, completely baffled, until eventually about 100 metres away we saw torrential rain. It took another five minutes for the rain to actually reach us - it was the most bizarre weather-related thing I'd ever seen. Weather in England tends to be slightly more predictable. Climbed to the top of Angkor Wat, which had some great views of the temple and surrounding landscape, and watched monkeys walking along the roof. Had 5 minutes of panic when I couldn't find the way out thanks to the symmetrical nature of the place, and suspected I would be stuck there for ever.

Angkor Wat corridor

written by  lucy3119 on August 15, 2011 from Siem Reap, Cambodia
from the travel blog: Cambodia 2011
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We couldn't believe just how bad the main road through Cambodia was - if it had been a proper surfaced road, it would have taken less than half the time to make the journey to Siem Reap. It was a reminder of how much Cambodia still has to recover from its all too recent struggles.
We kept ourselves entertained on the bus journey by watching Cambodian music videos, which divide into two categories:
a) miserable videos, in which the heroine ultimately dies in the arms of her lover (dying of shock was our favourite)
b) covers of English-speaking songs with hilarious subtitles (my favourite being a toss up between "...lying a roll on..." and "ho ho ho, where do I go?")

During our lunch stop Alannah and I hunted down and bought tasty tarantula snacks, but considering I couldn't even touch the thing without feeling nauseous and Alannah wasn't a fan of the hairy legs, we never actually made it to the sampling stage.

The main road to Siem Reap

Spiders for lunch

We arrived at our incredible, luxurious, AIR CONDITIONED hotel WITH POOL, the Angkor Spirit Palace and met Lily, Kimlay's sister and our Siem Reap coordinator. We went for dinner at Lily and Kimlay's father's restaurant (keeping it in the family, clearly!), next to the Central Market which has been all but abandoned by tourists in favour of the night market next to Bar Street. As a result it was cheaper and we bought most of our souvenirs there.