ECRadventure
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Fort Mac, been there done that, got the T shirt & More
Fort McMurray, Canada
SO, it's official, we've moved out and are off on our travels around the world. I think that there were a few moments with tears welling in our eyes as we closed the door on our home one last time and turned the lock. A home that has been a focal point for our relationship growth, for many great friendships and for rearing our little son. (our cat for those who don't know)
Thank-you to all of our friends who made it out to Paddy's for the last night of celebrations! Tony, no more girly shooters, vodka or whisky only!
To make the trip final, we ran into matress man as we were leaving the city! No incidents, but, scary enough to see him rear his head!
written by  ECRadventure on May 1, 2009 from Fort McMurray, Canada
from the travel blog: ECRadventure's Travel Blog

Edmonton going away shin dig
Edmonton, Canada
Thanks to everyone for coming out to the BBQ!
We had a great time! Thanks Aggs for hosting the evening gala as well!
written by  ECRadventure on May 2, 2009 from Edmonton, Canada
from the travel blog: ECRadventure's Travel Blog

Cgy going away
Calgary, Canada
One last night out in Cgy with friends!
Awesome to see you all, thanks for letting us throw one last party!
Thanks to the crew who stuck it out to the bitter end. Ewa and I were nicely hung-over for our first flight outta Canada!
Ouzo, going away party!
written by  ECRadventure on May 5, 2009 from Calgary, Canada
from the travel blog: ECRadventure's Travel Blog

NEW YORK BABY!!
New York, United States
Times Square
What a whirlwind the last 5 days have been! We managed to see a lot of what we wanted to:
The Met museum
The Met
Guggenheim, Central Park, Times Square, plenty of subway rides, World Trade Centre site, Museum of Natural History
a New York Mets game
NY Mets baseball game
Little Italy, Greenwich, Chinatown, Soho and the Top of Rockafeller!
Top of the rock
It is such a huge city with so many things to do it becomes really hard to decide what you want to see. New York is like a 5 year old kid on 20 red bulls. So much noise, traffic, people everywhere. But it's not over whelming at all, very safe and a lot of fun. The city isn't nearly as crowded as we expected and we only saw one little baby rat!
The people are friendly and very helpful, which also wasn't expected. The hostel that we stayed at is called the Big Apple hostel. Not a bad little place, a little grungy, and the price was more than what we booked for. Had fun, but would probably check out another place next time.
We found a nice pub off Amsterdam and ~75th street, .. called "The Amsterdam". Go figure. We had a number of good pints and found out that we really don't like our Martini's dirty, lesson learned for sure!
Strolled through Central park, it is amazing to see the Oasis in the middle of the busy hectic crazy city. We imagined how nice it would be to stroll through and to walk the dog (if we had one).
central park!
Comedy night was a good time and we met some new friends from the real Amsterdam! Elke & Jeroen we're coming to visit in a couple of months!
Sydney sorry we didn't make it out for the Korean wings! We just ran out of time to get over to Brooklyn, but we promise to make time for it on our next trip to NYC!
Brad / Cheryl, and any other hunters... (I'm not but I was thinking of you all) check out the rack!
Quite the rack! some sort of extinct deer at the Museum of natural history
Dinner, just off of Broadway, Thanks Bryan and Kate! XOXOX
dinner just off of broadway!
written by  ECRadventure on May 9, 2009 from New York, United States

Adventures in Dublin!
Dublin, Ireland
We arrived in Dublin at 9 in the morning after a red eye from New York, a nice semi short 6 hour flight. We stayed at the Bunkhouse Hostel which was star or two above the New York Big Apple...the blankets didn´t stink! Hurray for bleach and comfortable firm mattresses. We spent the first day just walking around and getting a feel for the city. We walked along the river, and through the North end of town. After being in New York, Dublin seemed almost like a small town. I have decided that Dublin should be called "Little Poland",
Train station in Howth
I don´t think I have ever experienced so many Polish stores in any city other than Warsaw. Our first meal in Dublin was things we bought at the third Polish store we saw: Bigos, Bread, and of course sausage.
Our first european purchases... a polish store!
On the second day we got up early and took a bus to the Guiness ´storehouse´which is the original brewery for guiness. We both actually rather enjoyed the tour, which depending on how long you take to go through it could last for a few hours. Turns out they have a lease on the place for 9000 years. Its actually embedded into the floor!
9000 year lease on the property! Guiness brewery...
Ending of course with a few pints of beer, at the top, in the ´gravity lounge´. For those who have not tried it before, the beer that we get in N.America is called Draught. It´s the lightest of their beers. Try the Extra stout, or for those more adventerous the Foreign extra stout, which apparently is only sold in Africa and the carribean. Thanks for the tour Mr. Holowachuk!
guiness store
guiness! It is good for you!!
After the guiness storehouse, it was off to tour through the south side of the town. We stopped by the Trinity College (apparently the oldest still used university in Europe).
Guiness gravity bar, top of the guiness store
Here we saw the book of kells (a bible, and other ancient texts written from around 800AD) and the long library, which is a collection of old manuscripts. The tour is informative, but short. Its interesting to see how the texts were made and to actually see some of them up close. The attention to detail on the illustrations is rather amazing! We wandered then around St. Stephens greens, which is a quaint park with the typical group of people relaxing and feeding birds and such. We were off for another jaunt through the Temple Bar area, which is one of the most touristy areas of the city. We only managed to meander through the streets for about an hour before we moved along to other areas of the city.
I´m not sure what we expected from Ireland, but we didn´t get to see and or exprience the Irish culture very much. Dublin is a very touristy city, so we mainly got to experience other Tourists, Polish, Russian, French, German...everything but Irish. On our third day in Dublin we got a tip to go see a coastal town called Howth, which was only a half an hour train ride from Dublin. We´re so glad we went to see it because it gave us a better view of a town that wasn´t full of tourists and double decker tour busses. We hiked for half a day, enjoyed the coast and watched for sea lions that were supposed to be all over the beaches - we didn´t see any though.
A rest along the hike to howth, munchin on apples and carrots!
We lucked out an only got a little bit of rain. Almost all of our time in Ireland was spent either half soaked from the rain, waiting for the rain and wind to stop or trying to get dry. On the last night we (more so Chad) was feeling well enough to take in a traditional Irish pub. We stopped in for a few pints at ´The celt¨and were treated to some live music and a scene or two from the locals. It is rather interesting to see the pub filled with people, of all ages, all of whom are beyond friendly with one another. From Dublin it was on to Belfast! Thank-you Shane and Desirae for helping to sponsoring Ireland!!
a view looking back on Howth, at the beginning of the hike
Knicker box.... no explaination!
written by  ECRadventure on May 13, 2009 from Dublin, Ireland

Belfast, Dublins smaller, Irish brother
Belfast, United Kingdom
We only spent two days in Belfast. We took an mid morning train from Dublin and a short 2 hours later we were there. It was such a difference being away from all the tourism. The violence in Belfast has drastically gone down in the last few years and tourists are just starting to see it as a relatively safe place to come to. Therefore, there is much less infrastructure for tourists but much better for those who want to come and see a more real experience of Ireland. We stayed at the HI hostel, which was nice, but seems to be a bit more quiet and family oriented than we would normally visit. It also rained here for almost the whole two days that we were here, but it seemed to be more bareable for some reason, not as windy either. From what was left of the day we decided to check out some of the murals that were done by both sides of the conflict, the Republicans and Loyalists (Catholics and Protestants).
All flags... wouldn,t it be nice? One day....
The murals are located in each respective community and are an expression of the anxiety and challenges each community faces. Over the years both communities have decided to make murals that are more of a celebration of both communities rather than a depiction of violence or offence. Some of the murals we saw also are a commentary on the violence that is going on in other parts of the world, mentioning Che Guevera, Bush and the loss of innocent civilian life. It was somber and at the same time beautiful to see communties take a stand and express their anger, views and a need for change if even only on a wall for those to see who walk by.
Freedom of speach!
Some of the murals were painted on the "Peace Wall" which is a barbwire brick wall which divides the Nationalist Falls Road of West Belfast and the Protestant area of Shankhill and depicts those who have died fighting for their causes. All in all we walked around for close to 4 hours just to see everything and get a feel for the city. For dinner we found a great pub called "Auntie Mays" near the University and had some pints of Harps and Chad unsuccessfully tried to explain to the bartenders how to make a Crown Float. Several failed attempts later we gave up...if anyone knows how to pour one and what goes first, let us know!
A view of the hike out to the ampitheater on the causeway...
Day two was spent at the Giants Causeway, we took a tour that lasted all day and took us through some of the coastal side of Ireland, to the Giants causeway, lunch at a quaint hotel, the Carrawick Rope Bridge and a 1400 century castle. The Causeway stones are known as the eight wonder of the world and there are over 40,000 of them.
Standing looking out at the ocean on the Giants Causeway
The causeway was formed during the early Tertiary period some 62 - 65 million years ago over a long period of igneous activity. Three lava outflows occurred known as the Lower, Middle and Upper Basaltic. Lulls occurred between the outflows as is evident in the deep inter-basaltic layer of reddish brown 'lithomarge' which is rich in clay, iron and aluminium oxides from weathering of the underlying basalt.
The hike out to "the ampitheater" at the giants causway
The hexagonal columns of the causeway occur in the middle basalt layer.
The pattern of the causeway stones formed as a result of rock crystallization under conditions of accelerated cooling, this usually occurs when molten lava comes into immediate contact with water, the resulting fast accelerated cooling process causes cracking and results in the hexagonal columns. Pretty awesome stuff!
We had an amazing lunch at the hotel, Guiness Steak Pie and traditional Irish stew, so good! It definately warmed us up.
By the time we got back to the hotel we were pretty exhausted from the long but really great day, our flight to Barcelona was early in the morning so early bed time!
Good question. We are going to try to find out.
written by  ECRadventure on May 15, 2009 from Belfast, United Kingdom

Barcelona, more calm when you are sick...
Barcelona, Spain
We arrived into Barcelona after a quick flight from Belfast. We pulled into the city, right in the middle of the day, and quickly got our feet under us as we bypassed the metro to walk to the hostel. A good hour and a half later, the original decision to walk didnt seem like the best idea in the world. Checked into the hostel HELLO BCN, which is a great hostel just off of Parra-lel, a 5 min walk to Las Ramblas. Good atmosphere at the hostel, cheap drinks at night, COMFY beds, clean and free coffee all day! The rest of the day was just wandering around. This is the Place Real, where the Kabul (another great hostel) is located.
Place Real, The square with the Kabul Hostel
One of gaudis buildings in Barcelona
The first day we just wandered around the hostel, and got a feel for the area. We spent close to an hour and a half deciding where to eat. Barcelona has a huge amount of small tapa restaurants and bars that serve the most deliscious tapas. We settled on one and the food was amazing, we had smoked meat (Cappriccio) and bread with garlic and tomatoes, and a traditional Spanish potato omlette - yum!
The second day we were up early and headed out to see Gaudis casa Mila, Sagrada Familia, the Barceloneto beaches, and all around the Barri gothic area, el raval, and el ribera areas of the old town.
Gaudis famila
We did a bit of shopping to rearrange the wardrobe a little. That night, we booked ourselves in for a Flammenco show. First we were off to dinner at the ATTIC, a upscale(ish) restaurant off of Las Ramblas (Thank-you Kelly and Inga for the night out!) followed by our show! The Flammenco show was a little short (half hour), but quite amazing to see! The live band and the dancing were amazing! After the show, it was another quiet night for Chad trying to still recover, but Ewa managed to put together a decent outting, even if it was limited to the hostel! The vino was great.
The third day we were up early to tour the Castle de Montjuic and the parks of the area, which were all under construction and difficult to navigate. It actually took us a lot longer than it normally should have. The views from the top of the castle were great. The city is relatively flat, so on a clear day you get to see most of the town.
That night after a bit of a home cooked meal, we found fish that looked familiar although we cant really say what type of fish it was..it tasted good :) .
we were off to try to see the magic fountain, as it had been closed off for the past couple of days due to a car show. We were not dissappointed, as it there was a back door that was opened up on Sunday night. Ewa was very impressed with the light\music and water show. We liked it so much to have sat through two shows! As a reoccuring theme, we called it a relatively early night, as now Ewa is coming down with a bit of a cold too!
Magic Fountain
On the last day in Barcelona, we had a whole day to see things while we waited for our overnight train to Madrid. We spent the morning seeing the Park Guell. A great lunch at the Bombay Spicy (great Indian food just off of Las Ramblas on Sant Pau). We made a second stop into the market to pick up supplies for the train ride.
The market in Barcelona off of Las Ramblas
The market in Barcelona is rather amazing. They have food of all sorts: Fresh fruit, vegetables, cheeses, breads, olives, meat of all kinds, nuts, spices, ... just about anything you need for a meal.
marketplace, off of las ramblas
Fresh fishies! Las Ramblas
Some of them will also push a typical N american attitude of what is and what is not food! Then the rest of the afternoon chilling updating things on the internet, reading and surfing the net. Next... off for our first overnight train ride!
La playa
written by  ECRadventure on May 18, 2009 from Barcelona, Spain

Madrid. Tapas and beer.
Madrid, Spain
How about a leg of pork! They are everywhere in spain!
Madrid is the Belfast of Spain! Where we found BCN to be very touristy and busy, Madrid has showed us a more slow and typical version of Spain. On the first day, we managed to see a lot. A lot of tapas bars that is. We spent the day hopping around the city from tapas bar to tapas bar. I think 6 in total! The usual policy in Spain is that when you sit and order a drink, they will come and bring you small plates of food, complimentary. You can then sit all night and drink and munch on the appies. Usually things like olives, nuts, shrimp, little sausages etc. Almost all of the small tapas bars have a smoked cow leg on the bar that they cut the Jambon (Ham) directly from the leg and onto the plate for appies. The jambon is very dry, salty and smoked...and to die for!
Tapas Bar
The tapas bars are almost all decorated with wine bottles and beautiful art. It was so amazing to sit and watch and enjoy.
Tapas Photo
After our walking around that day, we settled at a roof top terrace for... more tapas! They had the most amazing olives, the best we´ve tried so far, they tasted like a combination between avacado, butter and olives, amazing! Our night ended with a long walk around the city to see some of the sights. We stumbled into a mexican restauraunt for one final night cap.
Night walk
This last stop had a crazy decoration set up and seemed a little out of the ordinary, but it was a great time with our new friends Shel and Shane, from LA.
Friends
The second day in Madrid, we walked around the city some more and visited Place real, the home of the Spanish royalty.
Royal Palace
There were a number of things on display, from some of the typical rooms, preserved from original use, to a sample of the royal armoury. Of course photos weren´t allowed, but as they didn´t take my camera, we managed to sneak a few in.
That night, it was a relaxing night on the roof top terrace of our hostel (Mad hostel) with some bottles of wine and conversation with Shel & Shane. THe conversation was great, and when we were kicked off the terrace at 11:00, we moved on to the Cat hostel bar to continue... and continue we did, until they kicked us out at 03:00 in the morning. It was an amazing night and the first of many deep conversations with amazing people! However, if you think we had a late night, we were early to bed compared to most party-goers. Pub crawls here in Madrid start at 12:30 in the morning and run till the wee hours! This is what the siesta was invented for. The average Spaniard gets up at a normal hour, between 7-8, and then is home just after ´lunch´ at around 14:00. Stores and restaraunts don´t open until around 20:30. Often supper or the last meal of the day isn´t eaten until around 22:30!
For those who want to stay in Madrid, the Mad hostel and the Cat hostel are owned by the same owners. The Mad is more quite and calm. They don´t have a bar. The Cat hostel is the rowdy of the two, and it is a little larger. Both are in a great location and are super clean! There are a string of hostels that seem to all be affiliated, or very similar in organization, cost and level of services. We´ve been sticking to these and have found them to be top notch. Hello BCN comes highly reccommended as well. Our next two stops are the Melting pot in Malaga and the melting pot in Tarifa. They look amazing!
The next morning, off on the train from Madrid to Malaga!
written by  ECRadventure on May 22, 2009 from Madrid, Spain

Malaga, pennies and shooters!
Malaga, Spain
We arrived in Malaga on the high speed train from Madrid. Booking right on line with renfe.es is the way to go. We followed instructions from the website www.seat61.com and they have awesome tips. Go through the reservation process in spanish, and then only at the end switch to english, you´ll get 50% cheaper seats! We ended up booking a seat in first class that was cheaper than the tourist class on the english version of the site!
Anyways, the trip was super quick, as the train reached speeds of 300km\hr, which we found to be rather amazing, considering train service is so extremely limited in Canada. On board it, food and all beverages were included. It was like a short flight. The lunch was awesome, whole wheat rolls with a serving of salad, jambon, and blue cheese and mozzarella drizzled with almond slices! To top it off you got a small bottle of olive oil to drizzle it all with. The seats were super roomy and comfortable. It was a treat!
Train Ride to Malaga
We arrived in Malaga and found our way to the hostel. Malaga is similar to Dublin in that there is no metro system, but as there are 550,000 people here, they have an excellent bus system. The hostel is quite nice, but a little cramped. The Hostel is moving at the end of the month into a completly new building, even closer to the beach! I would reccommend this one, I can´t imagine how nice the next one will be! When we arrived we were greeted by George to owner who showed us around, gave us some water and then proceeded to give us a lot of suggestions on where to go...all in French. He treated us to an apparatif while he was making a yummy chicken and potatoe roast while drinking red wine. Not a bad life...
Moorish Castle
The first day we walked around the city, for many hours taking in the sites. We spent a lot of time walking around the old Muslim castle, known as the Gibralfaro, which sits on a ridge that overlooks the city of Malaga. At the bottom of this ridge is the Alcazaba, the younger Muslim palace-fortress. A long rampart connecting the two castles. The Alcazaba was constructed in 1057. The buildings are actually in excellent condition and have been maintained very well. We were some of the few people who were there on the day, so it seemed as though we had the entire fortress to ourselves! The Alcazba was lined with orange trees, Chad tried to get us one but when he reached it it turned to goopy mush in his hands.
The city also has many colorful flowers and trees throughout. It is so relaxing to walk along palm tree lined streets that are filled with purple, white, lavandar and red flowers.
On the walk up to the old moorish ruins/ castle
At night we ended up cruising a few tapas bars while we waited anxiously for it to be late enough to actually eat at a restaurant. We had heard about a great place to go, which in the end was actually only a small hole-in-the wall, with few limited choices of over priced food. Of course, you really don´t know that the food isn´t good until you´re done and have finished paying for it before you fully feel ripped off. Oh well! The end of the night we tried to do some more night touring. We managed to get in a few sights before we had to turn back as we were still wearing our beach clothes. Who would have thought that now 20deg C would seem cold to us!??!
Night walk
Back at the hostel George, the owner, taught us how to play a penny drinking game, where the looser ends up buying a round of shots for all the others who are playing the game. Sometimes you ´loose´, but when you´re playing a game like this, you´re always winning as the shots keep coming!
George making shots after the penny drinking game
Our last day in Malaga, we toured around the Picaso Museum, where this time they were sneaky enough to actually take our camera from us at the coat check and X-rayed Ewa´s bag. I think our stuff will be fully radioactive by the end of the trip the number of times we´re getting nuked. Even travelling by train you have to go through security and a metal detector, we think due to the bombings that happened a few years ago. By the way, in my opinion (Chad), Picaso creates ´art´ that appears to be completed by a five year old, with epilepsy. I am sure there are those who appreciate it, and I can understand he issued in a new era of art, but seriously.
A side street in Malaga
The end of the day was spent blogging, uploading photos on another super slow computer and then back to the hostel. The plan was to read, relax and cook our own supper. However, we ended up meeting some new friends and spent the night socializing and debating many life topics. The night continued into the wee hours of the morning, and we hopped from one bar to the next as they shutdown and kicked us out. The end of the night saw Chad forget his jacket, pockets filled with goodies (camera, our wine opener various other things) at the bar. The next day, although we tried to find it, the shop was closed and we had no luck getting our stuff. Off to catch our bus for Tarifa & our scuba diving adventure!
written by  ECRadventure on May 24, 2009 from Malaga, Spain

Tarifa, bubbles, octopus and home made love meals.
Tarifa, Spain
The view from the street where our hostel is at (Melting pot) to the port
Our orignal trip to Tarifa was only supposed to be three days long. However, because Chad lost his jacket and camera and other things in Malaga, we decided to stay a bit longer on the hopes of somone in Malaga finding it. As luck would have it Don Flash, our new friend from S. Africa\Aus. was able to find it!!! Don made the trip down to Tarifa in a few days so we decided to stay longer. Coming into Tarifa by bus was amazing, it is the southernmost point in Europe and you can see Africa from the beach, it is only 13 Miles away. There are ferries that go to Africa/Tangier every couple of hours and it only takes 35min. As you drive into Tarifa you can see hundreds of wind mills lining the hills surrounding the city.
Yellow Submarine diving school
Our whole time here was spent diving, we really didn´t do much else, it´s been nice after sight seeing so much over the last 3 weeks to really slow down and just go with the flow.
Chad, Sven and Ewa.
We did our diving lessons at the Yellow Submarine. Thanks Dave, Laura, Mike, Stacy, Samir, Sarah and Ananth for the diving!! Diving was great! Our instructor Sven was amazing! Knowledgeable, super nice, calm and very patient! He helped us to be comfortable diving in a pretty but difficult area, with cold temperatures and rough currents. The temp of the water was around 15C so we wore the works:
a 2.5mm vest, full wet suit, gloves, boots, hood and an ice vest! Also...peeing in your suit helps quite a bit :)
The last night, we just walked around the city some more, relaxed, and watched the Barcelona / Manchester U game at the hostel, early morning tomorrow as we´re are heading to Portugal! We would like to thank Spain for providing us with some fantastic experiences over the last few weeks! And the letter S and the number 11
written by  ECRadventure on May 27, 2009 from Tarifa, Spain

Lagos, private rooms and a small taste of life away from a dorm room
Lagos, Portugal
Bus ride to Portugal
Porto in Lagos
Welcome to Portugal, home of port and fried fish! We stumbled upon a really great find in Casa Amarela, which is a small house that rents out appartments for a rate supper close to a hostel dorm. We had our own private appartment, furnished with everything you would ask for! It was a great break for us to get away from the dorms and to have some time away from all of the strangers we normally sleep with! The owners actually offered to take us up to a small village in the mountains outside of Lisbon, which we sadly had to decline as we had made a few plans ahead of time. For the future we are going to try to live more day by day so that when opportunities like this come up, we are free to follow through!
Inside of the Appartment
Casa Amarela, the house where we had a little appartment
We didn't get up to too much in Lagos, just relaxed and walked around the city. We made one walk out of the city to the famous rock formations out along the coast of the city. They have a few that are close to the city, just out side of the marina and some that are a 4-5 km walk out of the city. The walk is worth the sights, as the formations are much more extensive outside of the city.
Cliffs in Lagos
Waiting for the bus
Lagos is a quaint little tourist town that is small and homey. There are a few little shops to get local produce and fresh baked goods, all within a few streets of each other. Then, if you are so inclined the nightlife goes until the wee hours of the morning. After a little stumbling block with the bus schedule, we are off to Lisbon!
Fried Mackarel
written by  ECRadventure on May 29, 2009 from Lagos, Portugal

Lisbon... were we really even here?
Lisbon, Portugal
Praça do Comercio
Folk Dancing Festival
Well, Lisbon, we really didn't get up to a whole lot here. The first day we weren't able to get into the city until 21:00 because we missed the bus in Lagos, which really slowed down our day. The first night we wandered around the city to find a place to eat and settled on a fantastic little chinese food place just down the street from our hostel. After that we wandered some more to find the city alive with several cultural festivals. The first one was a fish fry and dqncers/singers. The second one a few blocks away, filled the city square and featured 'the houses of Lisbon'. There were many stalls set up and each house featured their specialties from wine, to cheese, sausage, and many other things. After watching a few shows it was off to bed!
Ewa in Lisbon
Random Street
The second day was simply spent wandering around the city, seeing the sites, and trying to get our bearings. We didn't manage to see anything but the outside of the buildings' and seemed to spend most of the day searching for a cheap place to eat and for a bathroom. At night there were not a lot of things open or much going on in the city, so we relaxed at the hostel, watched a movie with some new friends and were off to sleep!
Tires from the eFOG
eFOG suspicious activity!
The next day as we were leaving, just down the street from our hostel we stumbled upon an eFOG cell!! We noticed that they were stock piling tires on the top floor of this building for future attacks against the FOG. The incident was handled with extreme caution and the threat was neutralized!
Off on the train to Porto to see and do hopefully a lot more than we did in Lisbon!
written by  ECRadventure on June 1, 2009 from Lisbon, Portugal

Porto! Vintage, LBV, Tawny, white, chip dry!!!
Porto, Portugal
PORT houses!
The city streets at night in Porto
Porto, the city of Port! It was great to finally see the place that makes such a fantastic drink possible! The first day, as always was spent getting used to the city. This started off unusual for us, as we got a little lost, the first time on our trip. Well, we were not lost, but rather simply could not find the hostel. We walked in circles for at least an hour and a half. Finally we were able to find the unmarked door that lead us upstairs. It turns out that this hostel is not yet registered with the city and they are not allowed yet to put up any signage! The Cinema hostel is quite nice though and in a great location in the heart of the city and a great rooftop patio. The owners are a group of middle 20's couples.
2 liters of 'wine' or port wine a day....
Ewa and Chad looking down on Porto from Taylor Fladgates
The second day of our visit to Porto was spent wandering the city, and crossing the river to Vila Nova de Gaia, where Port actually comes from to see all of the houses that make Port. Instead of trying to see as many Port houses as we could, we settled on spending some quality time at Taylor Fladgate. We did a Port tasting, and went on a tour of the Port house. We learned a lot more about Port, almost enough to be a connoisseur I would say! The Fladgate house is a really great stop, although not where you would expect it, it's high up on the hill. A great quote we heard was that 'In Porto, if you are going downhill you are going the wrong way!' I would like to give you all a summary of Port, but really, I think that there are only a few who would appreciate this, so I will spare the majority the pain.
The kitchen in the hostel was quite nice so we were finally able to stay put and make our own meals each day. It was so nice to have some veggies, fruit and of course German hot dogs from a jar! Porto is a city known for a relatively quiet night life. SO, as we were staying in the cinema hostel, we stayed in with some other guests debated, drank Port, and ended the night with popcorn and a movie. The last day in Porto we wandered the city a little more in search of a nice Port shop, and for those who visit the city, head to the river, as the other shops are not nearly as nice!
The river front in Porto
written by  ECRadventure on June 4, 2009 from Porto, Portugal

Fantastic Time with Family!
Lyon, France
View of Lyon from Bascilia
Lyon... what an amazing city, and even better company! Although we were here for a short time it will be remembered for a very long time. We stayed at my (Ewa) families house right off the Rhone, it was amazing to see them as I had not seen them since my communion in Germany 20 years ago, and hadnt met the new additions to the family yet.
Ariane, Chad, Michal and Mathilda
Ewa, Cecilia, Michal, Ariane, and Mathilda were amazing and made us feel like we had been in each others lives all this time. We hope to keep in touch and see all of you soon! And to finally see you Jacek!
We spent our time in Lyon visiting and discovering the city; we were treated to a behind the scenes tour of the gorgeous Lyon Opera house where Jacek plays in the Opera orchestra and Michael sings, it was absolutely stunning. The Opera house used to be a theater, re-designed by a famous architect Jean Nouvel. It is a combination of old and new and it is awesome, Michael took us all around the opera house showing us all the different rehearsal spaces, the ballet rehearsal hall, the orchestra rehearsal space and explained all the technical aspects of the sound and insulation, redesign... basically everything! Thank you Michal!!!
The Opera House, in Lyon France.
We also saw the Basilique Notre-Dame de Fourvière that sits high atop the Fourvière. It was built between 1872 and 1876 in the typical Baroque style of the period and offers a magnificent view over the city.
Bascilica in Lyon.
We spent an afternoon strolling the old town portion of Lyon and enjoying a bike ride through the park of the golden head, eating fantastic food and spending time with the family. Throughout our stay we were treated to amazing meals, typical of French cuisine. Two deliscious quiche dishes, fresh croissants and chocolate bread, crepes, and a number of other unique creations!! The entire visit the Piwkowski's went out of their way to make us feel comfortable and at home and by the end we certainly did, to the point of not wanting to leave. But, there are many other stops to see... now off to Dijon!
After dinner cheese, Lyon with Family...
Creative cooking, Lyon France.
We can not say enough about how much we enjoyed our visit it was unforgetable.
written by  ECRadventure on June 7, 2009 from Lyon, France

Dijon... rained out!
Dijon, France
Well, we headed into Dijon with high hopes of visiting some vinyards and doing a few bicycle trips with wine and french baugettes. However, when we arrived and almost for the entire stay, it rained. Needless to say, we did not really get to see a lot of the country side. The hostel where we were staying at was a fair distance from the town and there were no shops, stores or restaurants near by. We even ended up having to eat breakfast at Ikea one morning as everything else within walking distance was closed! One night we managed to make it into town for a kebab supper and a few pints at an Irish bar (again the only things open in the downtown area). The other night, we stayed in, ordered Pizza and had some wine in our room. There were no other real highlights to mention... the pizza was good though!
Dinner in Dijon.
written by  ECRadventure on June 10, 2009 from Dijon, France

Paris and then Caen. Paris blog is not working! Caen... war memorials and lost sunnies...
Caen, France
SO, for some reason the Paris blog is not working, so we will toss in the information on Paris into the Caen blog.
Panorama of the Louvre.
Paris boat tour.
Paris the city of lights, love, art and bread! The city is a little on the expensive side, for accommodations, and for nightlife. Not that there is a lack of it in the city, it just may not be as cheap as you would like it to be. The people are welcoming and friendly. With things being so expensive, it is easy to try to sustain yourself on a diet of bread! IT's also not that tough, as the bread in France, the croissants and pain du chocolate are all amazing! We spent 5 very busy days in Paris, we wanted to see a lot! We got in a bit late from Dijon but managed to fit in the Louvre, the biggest museum in Paris.
The Mona Lisa at the Louvre
French ART. Louvre Museum.
The Louvre is so big that it is impossible to see all works of art in one day let alone a few hours but we strolled around and saw the Mona Lisa and got lost trying to find Venus De Milo. We managed to see a lot of the museum over the four hours that we were there. Day two we did a walking tour and got to know some history of the city and the major sights. Paris, as all of Europe, has such a rich history that it's hard to sum it up into a few hours, but to get the jist is usually better than nothing. Since we obviously hadn't walked enough on the 5 hour walking tour we thought it would be a great idea to do a few more hours of exploring on our own, and then hit up the next best museum in Paris: Musee D'Orsay. Displayed were works by Monet, Manet, Cezanne, Degas, Renoir and many many more. The first two days we spent up at the Hostel Montclair in Monmarte. A great area of the city, which we happened not to visit until later in the trip. The hostel is in a great location and the Metro is Paris runs EVERYWhere and the stops are very frequent. Although it can easily take 45 minutes to get from one end of the city to the other. The lines are easy to get around and take you everywhere you want to be.
I love boats! Versailles Palace.
Day three we spent at Versailles. All day we visited the grounds which were built by Louis the fourteeth to the grand palace and grounds that they are today at around 800 hectares. The palace grounds also include seperate residances that Marie Antoinette lived and entertained in. One of her residances is pink on the outside and one of the bedrooms furtniture is entirely in hot fusia. It was such a nice hot day that we decided to take a small row boat onto the canals in the park...Chad did all the rowing ha :)
Street performer, at the Sacre Coure in Paris.
The following day we visited Sacre Coeur, a bascillica in a great location; in one of the nicest quarters (Monmarte) in France, on top of a hill and overlooking all of Paris. Since it was a Saturday a lot of people were out and about, vendors, tourists and street performers. In the evening we went on a boat tour of Paris on the Seine river and saw the city's most stunning monuments, historical buildings, and ornate bridges, including from a bit of a different angle: Notre Dame Cathedral, Eiffel Tower, Musee du Louvre, Musee d'Orsay, Pont Neuf (Paris' oldest bridge, dating to the 16th century), Pont Alexandre III (Art Nouveau bridge dating to 1896), Grand Palais (Belle Epoque building housing National Galleries) and The Bridge in the The Sex in the City episode where Big finds Carrie in France tee hee, as well as the building where a scene from Bourne identity was filmed.
The Eiffel Tower at night.
Eiffel Tower.
The next day we visited the inside of Notre Dame and St. Chappelle both very beautiful churches. Afterwards we strolled over to the Eiffel Tower sat under it drinking a few cold ones and enjoying the view. The last three days were spent in a two star hotel just on the edge of the city center. It is a fair commute on the metro from these areas, but it is a great place to get a private hotel room for fairly cheap.
Ewa and I are finding that the private hotels on the edge of the city are the way to go, as long as they are connected to the metro system. We have not been the party-goers of our youth, but have been spending a lot of the nights more quiet, talking with people in the hostels, or chatting between ourselves. The clubbing days of the past, seem to be just that... more of the past. That's not to say that we don't still party once in a while, but now, it seems we have other higher priorities. The next day we are off to Caen to see the DDay beaches!
We are French... we are laughing.
As a side note, touring around France is very easy by Train. There are very many slower trains that make multiple trips between all of the cities. For visits between any of the major cities there are also high speed trains that take less time, but are a little more expensive to travel on. We found trains to be the easiest to travel in France and Spain. However, in Portugal, busses are still the way to go!
The road of ifs...we got lost.
Caen started out with a trip to lostville. Entering the city, we had no map, which is very disconcerting to Chad in any situation. We managed to wander around the city for a little while, to discover that the directions that the hostel provided were inaccurate. Even better was that we were lost, on the Route d'ifs. Street of if's! After finding the hostel, we were informed that we were not allowed to check in and that there were a number other restrictions to the hostel. French youth hostels run by the youth orgainization are really for young workers or families looking for a place to stay, not so much for travellers. The first day was essentially wandering around the city, waiting for access to the hostel, and then settling down to an awesome home made curry!
Juno Beach memorial, Caen France.
Day two, we had to switch hostels to a hotel in the city. The hotel leSavoy was a nice hotel, and in the end, cost the same price as the hostel did the night before! This day, we were off to see the WWII memorials at Juno Beach just outside of Caen. This is the beach where 14,000 Canadians landed during WWII on D-Day. There is a newly created memorial that is located right on the beach head. The memorial is actually rather large, and it was nice to see that there are a number of people who are visiting it. It really is something that would take the better part of a day to walk through and see it all. We thought that it was fitting to go and see some of the WWII sights, which shaped so much of our current lives. Especially to see some that are more relevant to us as Canadians. There is still one of the old Germand bunkers built on the beach that is preserved for the museum.
Memorial to fallen Canadian Soldiers in Caen.
The second night and the third day were spent wandering around the city of Caen. The downtown is a small, fresh city. There are blooming flowers all over the city, and for once, the city smells far more of fresh flowers than urine! Although we did see a number of people peeing on the street and one poor woman, whose bag suffered a direct hit of a run-off urine stream from one of the random men peeing in the street. Most of the city was destroyed during WWII, but it was rebuilt in the similar fashion to the original city and is easily walkable from one end to the other.
The one sad note, is that Chad lost his second pair of glasses while spending some time in the internet cafe uploading pictures. At least this pair was only worht 5€! Off on the overnight ferry to Portsmouth England!!
written by  ECRadventure on June 17, 2009 from Caen, France

Portsmouth, recovery from overnight ferrys, reading and sleeping.
Portsmouth, United Kingdom
Sunrise on the Ferry
We arrived in Portsmouth and took our first taxi to the hostel, as the folks at the ferry terminal informed us it would be about a pound more expensive for the taxi as the bus and we would have to walk 20 min in the opposite direction to even get to a bus stop. Well, they lied, or maybe didn't know what they were talking about. No more taxis! Busses and feet are all that's required ;) (Says Chad lol)
We settled into the hostel after wandering around the city for 5 hours until we could check in. The morning was great weather for costal England, however we couldn't wait to head back to the hostel for some sleep as the overnight ferry from Caen was a wreck. Stormy waters, cold rooms and uncomfortable chairs meant very little (Chad) and no
Trying to sleep on the Ferry to England
sleep (Ewa). The first day, after checking out a little of the town and sleeping, there wasn't much left to do!
The second day, after sleeping in a little, we simply toured around the town, checking out the boardwalk, some memorials, the carnival on the pier, minigolf,
Mini golf
and then just toured around the town more. The hostel here is the southside backpackers, and it's an alright place, but they have a strict curfew on the common area of 11:30, which although it limits your night, is a good way to enforce catching up on sleep I suppose. We met a really interesting guy by the name of Michael, who is from Ireland, and is in a similar situation as us, he is selling his property, and getting away from the day to day grind to travel the world. Hopefully somewhere along the way we'll be able to catch up with him again as the conversations were interesting!
Tomorrow off early in the morning to meet up with Luigi and Delaine in London!!
written by  ECRadventure on June 19, 2009 from Portsmouth, United Kingdom

London! Luigi brought the party back!
London, United Kingdom
We are friends, we are laughing
London Baby!
Before heading out on the town in London with Luigi and Delaine
We pulled into London, out of the Bayswater metro stop, and within 40 steps we managed to bump into Luigi and Delaine as they were picking up some coffee and snacks in a little side shop. Perfect timing. We jumped off to the apparment we rented, just a few steps down the road, dropped off our bags and headed to Hyde park for a couple of hours of walking around to kill time before we could check in and get some much needed sleep for Luigi and Delaine. Turned out that we needed some sleep too, because 3 hours later, we all woke up, and started to get ready for the night out. We made plans to meet up with one of our friend Roberta's friends who lives here in London. So, after a great meal at a pub down the street from the hotel, we were off in search of Maria, whom we had never met before.
We ended up at a big club, just outside of a metro stop. The night was a long party, getting to know Maria, dancing away and catching up with Lu and Delaine. The night ended in the wee hours of the morning and was a great excuse to sleep in... late.
Party
We were up in the afternoon, and cooked a light breakfast in the room and were off to see the Buckingham Palace, Trafalgar square, Picadilly Circus, Westminster Abbey, Big Ben, the Eye of London and all of the other sights in the Westminster area of town. By the time that we were done walking around that day, it was 8pm and time to head back to the hotel and out for dinner.
River Thames
The Queensway avenue right off the hotel is a great place for shops and restaurants. We ducked into a small but busy Indian place. The food was really great, and we ordered many great curries. However, the waiters were awful! You would almost say that they were trying to be rude to you. Maybe it was just a bad day. That night, we decided to hang out at the hotel, and play cards, and have drinks in, to cut down on the millions of dollars that were spent at the nightclub the night before. It was a great night, lots of laughs and tense moments during the card games! Luigi and Chad managed to have the stamina to stay up until dawn! Needless to say, with such a long night, it managed to be another really long sleep in on the second night.
The third day, after sleeping in and another home made breakfast, we were off to the Tower of London, the Tower Bridge and London Bridge. We walked in the Southbank area along the Queensway walk. We saw the Tate Museum, the Globe theater, a few funky districts and a market that was supposed to be really great, if it wasn't that we had arrived hours after it already had closed! We went for dinner at an amazing Thai place and had a quiet night in. It was so great to reconnect with friends, and made us super happy and at the same time sad when we had to part ways with Lu and Delaine. Thanks guys we had a blast!
written by  ECRadventure on June 23, 2009 from London, United Kingdom

Salisbury... Stonehenge and Sarum hill
Salisbury, United Kingdom
Stonehenge
Salisbury, a quick train ride from London is a charming little city. Easy to get around and very friendly. We checked into our hotel The Citilodge just outside of the old town square. The two days we spent here we had great weather and were able to get some relaxing time in, after our hectic days with Lu and Delaine!
The first day, after the train from London we spent just getting used to the town, and wandering around. The town has a really great mix of accessible stores and old narrow streets, all blended with friendly people and fresh flowers everywhere.
The second day we were up early for our Stonehenge and Sarum hill tour. We hopped on a tour bus, that provided direct transportation from Salisbury to Amesbury site of the huge Avebury ruins, where we decided not to get off. From Amesbury, we headed down the hiway, past Sarum, to Stonehenge. The ruins are really amazing, imagining all of the thousands of years of civilization who added to the site and wondering at the uses. Stonehenge is a novel in itself, I encourage everyone to look it up, the mystery around this site is really out of this world. We stopped to have a picnic around the burial mounds north of Stonehenge.
After that we went to see Sarum hill, which is another amazing site. A mound of dirt, piled up over centuries, or at the very least the HUGE ditches that surround the castle in concentric circles (a model of the real site that can be found in the Salisbury Cathedral in the town center at the bottom of this entry). The fortress would have been nearly impregnable in the midevil era.
The next day was a day of panic, as we tried in vain to find internet in this small town, and phone services to complete the mortgage for the sale of our house. We ran into so many issues with the mortgage company and the lawfirm. A day and a half of panic later everything was sorted out. We up early the next day to visit the Salisbury Cathedral. This Cathedral was built as the one on top of old Sarum hill was torn down. It survived the WWII bombing because the bombers used it as a landmark on their run into London. It is medevil Europe's tallest spire.
Model of medival Salisbury
written by  ECRadventure on June 25, 2009 from Salisbury, United Kingdom

Glastonbury! ... we came for the aliens, missed them and the show too!
Glastonbury, United Kingdom
Vegan meal at Hundred Monkeys
Glastonbury! Home of one of the worlds largest outdoor concert. We missed the concert in our planning, because the tickets were sold out already by October 2008. For those who have attended stage 13 in Alberta, this is like stage 13 on drugs, a lot of them. There are 177,000 festival go-ers who paid for thier tickets, about another 10,000 who sneak in, and then the 25,000 people who run the show. SO, imagine a barren farm, that in the matter of two days, turns into a city of over 200,000 people. Needless to say, as we were arriving into Glastonbury on the 1st day of the festival, traffic was horrible. It took us about 5 hours to get from London to Glastonbury, train and 2 busses.
After that little set back, we were in for smooth sailing. Almost. We spent the time in Glastonbury getting to know the locals and seeing the few sights. This is the legendary home of King Arthur, the mystical Thorn bush of Joseph of Arimathia (Jesus's Uncle), and the Chalice well.
It is also a very spiritual place, the town centre is filled with alternative healing clinics, alternative book stores that sell books on healing, usual powers, magic and paganism (I picked one up myself! To add to our traveling library), as well as people who doTarot readings and psychics.
It has a very comforting feel to it. There have been a lot of crop circles that have appeared in the area since the 1950s and Ewa was really excited to find a tour that took you around to all the different recent ones. But we found out later that not many tours were offered and private ones were way out of our budget, would have been so amazing to be able to see one in real life!
The first night after our grueling time in traffic, and the thundershowers we went out for a bite to eat in a traditional pub in the lower level of a B&B. The pub was decked out just the way you would imagine an old-school British pub would be. Cozy, low lighting a lot of locals pulled up to the bar and a great pub menu! Fish and chips and a steak sandwhich! This was our first real taste of English fish & chips and the obligatory warm beer! We headed back to the B&B that we booked (No.1 Park Terrace) and called it quits.
The next morning the traditional English breakfast that the owners cooked up was amazing! The food was delicious and hot right from the grill! Eggs, bacon, sausage, grilled mushrooms and tomatoes and toast. Fresh fruit, coffee, teas, cereal... a real cookup! The rain continued and so we walked around the town, dodged the rain spent a few hours in the local shops and bookstores. When the rain let up in the day, and we spent the night outside of a local pub, meeting a few of the local Glastonbury townsfolk. Two of the people that we met were cooks at the local 100 Monkey Cafe. Some were amazing new age hippies with a great out look on life. They had convinced us (Chad) to hike up the Tor that night and see the sunrise from the top. To fuel up for the journey we headed to a kebab shop for a bite to eat. Yes, Kebabs, the worst idea since Donairs after the pub. The place was packed, full of young kids, drunks and random hungry people like us :) Then things got a bit ugly when a drunk guy (probably in his early 50s) and all of his drunk buddies started yelling at the clerk behind the counter that they made his pizza wrong - I wanted grilled tomatos not tomato sauce! So Chad being the nice guy that he is tried to calm them down (bad idea) and said something along the lines of Come on man, tomato tomato, give the guy a break. Yes that was a fantastic idea... the guy then proceded to call Chad a Fukn idiot and to keep his mouth shut..eeep. More yelling swearing, and spitting as he was yelling, his buddies joined in and we were threatened for a good five ten minutes while I stood between Chad and the drunk guy telling him sorry, no problem.. getting spat at, pleasant. Bloody marvelous! ha. A random stranger tried to help us out and stepped inbetween us and got attacked by them. When they finally left we were a bit shaken up. Luckily they were not waiting outside for us as promised and we just went back to our B & B. We didn't feel like heading out to the Tor to watch the sunrise anymore :( we just went to bed feeling very lucky to have escaped the drunks.
The next day, we awoke to beautiful sunshine and another great breakfast. After meandering around a little while we decided to hike up the Tor, an old hill that used to be an island when the area used to be flooded. In the midevil ages, dams and dykes were built to divert the waters, creating the praries around Tor today. There are remains of a castle tower on the top of Tor and there have been archeological digs that date back to the 6th century when King Arthur was supposed to have lived in the area.
The Tor
After hiking down from the Tor we stopped at the Glastonbury Abbey, where the remains of King Arthur were supposed to have been fond in late 1186. The Abbey was a focal point of the Christian religion in England for four hundred years. In the early 1500's it was abandoned as were hundreds of other monasteries throughout England.
That night we were off to visit our friends from the 100 Monkey Cafe. This little cafe is a great; organic, locally produced and grown,a shop that has amazing food at really good prices! The top picture is what Chad had to eat that night.
Glastonbury Abbey
written by  ECRadventure on June 27, 2009 from Glastonbury, United Kingdom

Glasgow,Lesmahagow, Rhu & Fort William
Rhu, United Kingdom
The Highlands!
Welcome to Scotland! Land of Rain, Sun, and Midgies. This place is a bit like Alberta in the fact that the wheather can't really decide what it wants. It's fluctuates between cold and rainy to hot and humid within minutes. Thats why we now have two umbrellas, apparently we can't share. No that's not true, we can, but the hight difference makes it difficult.
We got into Glasgow in the early evening and arrived at the worst hostle probably in Scotland. The Globetrotters Hostel should be burned and then rebuilt, or maybe just burned. Generally we are not picky regarding where we sleep, but I think we now know that a bed is simply not enough. I will spare everyone the gory details lets just say we could not wait to get out of there. Our entire time in Glasgow was spent away from the hostle because that's just how aweful it was.
Our rental car for our highland adventure!
After our two days in Glasgow we rented a car and were off for a road trip around Scotland. It was such a nice change to have your own car and to be able to go where you wanted when you wanted and not worry about how to get there. Our first stop was just outside of Glasgow, the small city of Lesmahagow, where Chads grandmother Catherine was born 1920. We drove around for a while and then visited the cemetary where her two siblings James and Margaret were burried. We were told that because they were so young they did not have tombstones but instead there was a purple bush where they were burried, we tried to find it and we think it is the one pictured. The house that had the billing address for the burrial was 31 Crescent and there is a house still there. We snapped a photo of it, with the people living there looking very puzzled why a car stopped in the middle of the road and started taking pictures. Whether or not this is the same house that Chad's great-grandparents once lived in is up for debate.
James and Margaret's graves in Lesmahagow
Having supper at Aros Cottage in Rhu
The next stop was Rhu, a small town on the coast of Scotland. Because of the 'wonderful' accomodations in Glasgow we decided to seriously splurge and sleep somewhere clean and beautiful. We tried to book at the Lynton house which was a 5 star B&B but they did not have a room available for us, instead they put us up in our own 5 star appartment suite for the night for the same price! Needless to say we had an amazing stay, everything was clean and amazing, amazing, amazing. There was no one staying in the Aros Guest house next door and we spent the rest of the day relaxing, cooking dinner and enjoying the peace and quiet. Here is where we first encountered this beautiful creature they call the Midgie. Mosquitoes are pretty bad in Alberta in the summer but these things...oh man! They are probably a third of the size of a mosquito and their bite is brutal. Some of the bites don't show up until 24 hours later when you feel like you have the chickenpox covered in red bumps that itch very very badly. But even the midgies couldn't ruin this place. Thank you Jackie & Travis for your wedding present - we used it to treat ourselves to this amazing little piece of heaven, like you said to us "Waste it, don't save it" ...done and done!
Aros Cottage!
From Rhu we travelled to Fort William driving along Loch Lommond, which is quite the big Loch. We are still not sure but we think a Loch in Scotish is a Lake, makes sense to us. We stopped for a short while in Oban and went to the Oban Whiskey distillery and bought a small bottle of scotch. We arrived in Fort William in the late evening where we stayed at Farr Cottage for the night, to again find ourselves the only guests. The next day we went on a hike of Ben Nevis. One of the highest mountains in Scotland, Ben Nevis was a great hike. The entire area is emerald green and really made us feel like we were somewhere in Canada, a little piece of home away from home. Just as we started our hike it started raining, but we just kept on going, most the beginning of our hike we were covered by a canopy of trees. We hiked up and up the mountain walking alongside waterfalls. We got to a clearing seeing a huge waterfall in the distance and decided to walk towards it. After walking for a bit you could feel the Midgies biting..or was it something else. After 5 min we were attacked! Attacked by black flies, midgies and God knows what else. So of course Ewa, is flailing her arms and trying to outrun insects that apparently have not eaten for a while, some huge some little; all awful! We lasted in the clearing for maybe 10 minutes before literally running back to the protective forest and the hike back to the car...scenery was worth it! Now, each of us covered in bites all over our legs, arms and torso were on to the Isle of Sky!
written by  ECRadventure on July 1, 2009 from Rhu, United Kingdom

Isle of Skye, Inverness, Perth and Edinburgh!!
Edinburgh, United Kingdom
The Isle of Skye
From the hike at Ben Nevis, we were off up the highlands to the Isle of Skye. The road was treacherous, but the scenary was amazing! Rain off and on, and narrow, curvy roads made the trip interesting! We pulled in across the Skye bridge onto the island a little later in the evening. We were staying at the Saucy Mary's guesthouse, which was a decent place to stay.
The island is quite large and we didn't get much time to explore it. However the views and the walk along the beach we had in the evening made it worth the trip! Due to the hot day, the Fog rolled in off the ocean and provided an amazing view. We were mostly alone along the walk, which was a nice quiet time to enjoy our scotch! That night, we got treated to disco music until 3 am, and then drunk conversations to lull us to sleep until 3:45 right outside out window. Ahhhh
Ewa and Chad on the Loch Ness Cruise
The next morning we were off again on our trip to Inverness. We stopped along the way for a boat cruise on the Loch Ness to search for the Loch Ness monster, but we didn't see it :( She must have been sleeping. The boat even had a sonar you could watch and maybe spot her. The cruise was also a great chance to see the Urquhart castle from the Loch.
After the cruise we continued up the road to Inverness. We were told that there was supposed to be a Scottish bagpipe and highland dancing parade through the town, but it was on the night before we got into the city - Missed it by one day! We ate supper at a fantastic restaurant and waited for 45 minutes to get into a local pub that was playing traditional Scottish music. After waiting, we found out that there was a £8 cover, and decided that we were too tired to last long enough to make it worth while. (With the exchange, that's about $14 each, just to get in). We headed back to the room, and relaxed there.
The next day, we were up early again for the long drive back down from the highlands to Perth. We stopped for the afternoon at the Palace of Scone, once home to the Stone of Destiny, where old Scottish Kings were crowned. We spent the day touring the palace and the gardens outside. There was also a Scottish game fair going on right outside the Palace, where traditional hunting methods (archery, clay pigeon shooting etc) was going on. We didn't have time to visit, but we could watch from a distance. Perth is a beautiful little city-center baised town that makes walking very easy! We spent the evening walking around the city, before settling down for a bite to eat at Paco's! Hahahaa.... first Mexican food on the trip! That evening, we took the owners of the B&B Kinnard house up on their offer to use the library. It also, I might add, have featured a complimentary decanter of Port and one of Scotch. It was a good night in reading and sipping on the digestives.
The next morning we were off to Edinburgh! Before we hit up Edinburgh, we stopped in at the Rossyln chappel. A highlight of the trip so far for Chad, because this chappel is steeped in mystery and symbology linking the Holy Grail, Knights Templar, Paganism, Christianity and so many other conspiracies throughout history. The chappel is under renovation, but it is open to the public. The carvings and intricate work done are breathtaking to see. It is hard to imagine the amount of work that was completed to build this chappel. We weren't allowed to take any pictures, but I would recommend googling it, the interior is amazing. There are so many depictions of Pagan characters along side of Christian symbols which is very rare in christian churches.
Rossyln Chappel
We'd like to thank Damian, Tricia, Jim & Gina for sponsoring us for the rental car! It really was great to be free to go where you want and we appreciate the wedding present!! After Rossyln we checked in, dropped the car off at the airport, got groceries and the night was almost over, or so we thought. After dinner and meeting some of the people at the hostel, we settled into the chill-out room for a quiet night and to watch a movie. After getting to know Patrick and Noelle from Germany a little, we decided to head off to the pub for a few drinks... which turned into quite a long night! We had a lot of fun getting to know them and hanging out in the pub! The oddest thing is that Patrick is almost a twin to Chad's good friend Bryan Colvin back in Calgary. Some of the pictures on our flickr account capture this, and others don't capture it as well, but in real life, after a beer or two, it's hard to tell the difference, especially because so many of their mannerisms are the same too!
Patrick and Noelle from Germany
Day two in Edinburgh saw us wandering the city, checking out the Camera Obscura and optical illusion museum and having a quiet night in. The third day we spent updating pictures, e-mailing and the blog. We ended our last night in the UK with a Ghost hunt on the 'Terror tour' going through the underground city of Edinburgh. The tour took us into the underground vaults which support the South Bridge and were constructed in 1785. By 1830 they were abandoned and remained empty. This eerie setting is home to dark, mysterious and often tragic apparitions whose ghostly presence leaves a lingering sense of immense sorrow and deprivation. Visitors have stumbled backwards in response to a malevolent lunge. Witnesses testify to the presence of the cobbler who labours industriously. A little boy, laughing playfully, has held visitors’ hands in his cold grasp as a brown dog with long, wiry hair runs between their legs. It was creepy going down under the city with a group of 8 of us and one guide who told us all about the history of the vaults and the various strang things that have happened on previous tours. When entering the Vault Ewa got a bit nauseous and generally just freaked out by the whole thing. But in the end we did not experience any strange phenomena, but it was definatley worth going.
written by  ECRadventure on July 8, 2009 from Edinburgh, United Kingdom

Amsterdam! Sex drugs and rock and roll!
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Hang on tight!
Amsterdam! Back on the mainland! Amsterdam is amazing and fun and out of this world. The red light district, drugs of all kinds and friendly people. We were only here for 3 days but it was very memorable. Our hostel was a few blocks away from the red light district, which always made for a very interesting walk home at night! It is a little strange sight to see if youre not used to it, a lot of doors with ladies standing behind them and then watching the propositions and acceptance/decline of the offer.
Drinks with Nadine
We met up with an old friend of Ewa's from elementary and junior high Nadine and spent a few nights with her. The first night we went to a bar called Winstons where her friend was playing in a band. Unfortunatley that night Nadines bike got stolen. In Amsterdam people ride their bikes everywhere, the city is very easy to get around in, so a bike is usually your only mode of transportation since its faster than taking public transport. Boo to the thief who stole her bike! That night to cheer ourselves up we ate a lot of french fries that come in a paper cone, with the must haves of mayo and curry ketchup...yum! Traditional food in Amsterdam!
Amsterdam street
Day two we didnt get up to much. We walked around the canals, and ended up at Vondelpark, just relaxing and taking in the sites. That night we met up with some friends we had met in Spain. Oli, Robert and Matt. We met up at their local hang out and caught up on all of our adventures over the past few weeks.
Testing out the new bike
Our last full day we were supposed to head out on the ocean in Matt's girlfriend's father's boat. But the rain and wind quickly made that an unfriendly proposition. So, we simply explored the city under the cover of umbrellas. In the evening we went out for a thai dinner with Nadine. Afterwards we were off to see another friend of Nadines who sings in a Latin band. The ride home, Ewa and I made sure to take in the local transportation on Nadine's new wheels!
Clogs Clogs Clogs
written by  ECRadventure on July 10, 2009 from Amsterdam, Netherlands

Koln! Childhood Memories....
Koln, Germany
Infront of The Cologne Dome
I spent 5 years living in Koln, from when I was 5 until I was 10 when I came to Canada. Going back was a little strange, I havent been back since I left almost 19 years ago. I was excited if it actually was how I remembered it to be.
Fireworks Festival
German Heart Cookies! They are huge.
We stayed right by the Cologne Dome which is a huge cathedral and which took 600 years to build, unfortunatley it was destroyed in World War II but not pulverized, so they began to rebuild it once again. It is huge, if you stand directly under it it looks as if it is falling down on you. Inside the Dome it is said that the bones of the three wise men are kept beneath the altar. Coincidenatly the night we got in there was a festival that night called Die Kolner Lichter, which translates to the Cologne lights. It is a fireworks festival right on the river Rhein. We partied with about 500 000 people! The fireworks were all done to music and were amazing, they put about 7 tonnes of fireworks on one boat and then anchored the boat in the middle of the Rhein and set them off at 11:30 pm, for a half an hour show. We ate pretzels,drank beer and enjoyed the show.
The Mouse from Die Sendung mit der Maus
The next day we took the tram to Weiden, which is a suburb of where I grew up. I realized that when I was little I didnt really venture out of this area, the rest of Cologne didnt look familiar at all.
Ewas old appartment building, on the left third floor
Ewas elementary school
We visited the church where Mike and I had our communions, our old appartment, kindergarten and school. It was pretty nice to walk around in a place where you havent been for so long and so little had changed. It was Sunday and the neighborhood seemed very quiet perfect for exploring. It was awesome to show Chad where I grew up and relive that time with him.
Ewas kindergarten play area
At the neighbor hood pub in Weiden
written by  ECRadventure on July 12, 2009 from Koln, Germany

Munich! Beer halls and friendship!
Munich, Germany
Old city Square in Munich
From Koln, we headed South to Bravaria and Munich! We arranged to meet up with our good friend Frances in Munich. We stayed at the Nymphenburg hotel, which by the way has the very best breakfast that we have had so far! Everything that you can imagine and more! Fresh and canned fruit, deli meats, olives, many fresh juices, museil, seeds and nuts, scrambled and hard boiled eggs, many kinds of bread, 6 kinds of jam, pate, nutella, gummie bears on and on!! Yes, gummi bears!
Ewa and Francis at the beerhall
The first day we mostly just relaxed and waited for France to arrive, before we headed out to a huge beer garden and enjoyed a full on Bravarian meat and beer feast!
The next day we explored the city on foot, taking in the sights and people. We decided for a couple hour break to explore the city on our own (shopping trip) and at this point we had a few issues with our banking. After a couple of tense hours, it was all sorted out with no real issues!
Chatting at the Munich beer hall!
Due to the banking problems and our hours wandering the city (with the obligatory stop at the beer hall!), where we lost track of time, we were not able to attend the outdoor classical music concert that we had planned to attend.
Munich Beer hall!
That night, Frances took us to a small fresh organic fast food place which was amazing curries and salads for cheap! We headed off to a local pub for a few bevies and good conversation.
Ewa and Frances on the metro in Munich
The next morning we were up early to take the train to Schongao to meet Frances at his home town!
written by  ECRadventure on July 14, 2009 from Munich, Germany

Schongau! Current home of Frances, and great location for a commune!
Schongau, Germany
Frances
Schongau and the train ride from Munich to Schongau are the stuff that German fairytails are made of! It is a mountainous area covered in lush green vegitation and rivers. The communities along the way all have communal gardens, solar panels and seem to have limited vehicles on the roads. It is really peaceful!
Frances and Chad on the way to the Schongau park
When we arrived, Frances took us for a small tour of the country side, around the town and then to pick up groceries. He treated us to a feast of a delicious 'secret' recipe of some sort of tomato juice (like a caesar, but not at all) soup, other veggies, bread and on and on.
Frances prepaired feast!
After the feast, the rain cleared up and we were off to a small pond just outside of town. A perfect get away! There is an amazing beach volleyball court, a water slide into the pond, surf boards (strange for a small pond, but actually quite fun!), changerooms and a covered area BBQ pits. Essentially the perfect park! There we relaxed for the day, played some volleyball and went swimming (well Frances did anyways).
Schongau park and pond
The community is acutally one that is world wide recognized for it's sustainable living, and we found it an incredible place that would be amazing to live at!
That night, we took in some of the local culture and cuisine with Frances!
The next morning off to Itlay!
written by  ECRadventure on July 15, 2009 from Schongau, Germany

Venice! Canals and Gondolas
Venice, Italy
Venice map
Coming into Venice is something like stepping into a different world. We got out of the train station and looked outside and bang! Water! No joke! A huge canal as soon as you get out. To get to our B & B we had to take a water bus...a WATER BUS! So awesome! We didnt get too lost as Map Man (Chad) has already been in Venice and knew his way around. The streets are so narrow and windy. There were only a couple of times that we ended at a dead end. The city is small, but overflowing with tourists, haha, as is most of the world we are finding out!
Venice canal!
We basically spent two days exploring the city, walking along the canals and watching people get gondola rides. We wanted to take a ride but as with everything in Europe it was waaay to expensive about 80 Euros for a 45 min ride..ouch. So we just watched and enjoyed them that way. We also spent a bit of time looking at all of the masks that were for sale but we couldnt take a picture as none of the vendors or stores allowed pictures to be taken. Top it all off with nearly 100% humidity and 36 degrees C. Talk about hot and sweaty! Off to Riomagiorre!!!
Venice canal and fruit seller!
written by  ECRadventure on July 17, 2009 from Venice, Italy

Riomagiorre and Cinque Terre what a beautiful place!
La Spezia, Italy
Riomaggorie at sunset
Cinque Terre' means 'five lands', and Italy's famous Cinque Terre are five villages laid out on steep, inhospitable cliff faces and their surrounding vineyards which scale the steep mountainsides in hard-won terraces.
The Cinque Terre stretch of coastline is a National Park, and a Protected Marine Area, included on UNESCO's World Heritage List. After being placed on a list of sites at risk, the Park Authority began a longterm project to revitalise the farming practices behind the characteristic hillside terraces, many of which were falling into abandonment. It also aims at a sustainable level of tourism, maintaining the character and beauty of the region. We stayed in the village of Riomagiorre which is the last of the five villages.
Riomaggorie!
Vernazza ... along the cinque terre hike
One of the main reasons people come to Cinque Terre is to relax but also to do the hike (9km) from one end of the five villages through the vinyards, lemon and olive orchards to the end. The hike takes anywhere from 3.2hours (which apparently is the record) to however long you want it to take. It is a beautiful area and we stopped in the second town to take a dip in the ocean to cool off and have a light snack. The hike is very picturesque, hills, valleys, the ocean, it is amazing. It took us around 4.5 hours to complete with the stop over that we made, so there is a good chance that without the stop we would have broken the record! (hahaha... just kidding, but we would have been pretty close, we were cruising past people along the way!)
Swimming at Vernazza
Pasta dinner in Riomaggorie
We spent one day getting into the town relaxing and wandering around, one day doing the hike and the last recovering at the beach, the perfect combination. At night we relaxed and had some great food and the best seafood pasta Ewa has ever had. It was beyond amazing. Seriously, no joke. The other nights we had take-out and brought it down to the edge of the water for our own little picnic! Too bad our stop over was so short, only a few days, it seems that the places you enjoy the most go by so quickly and the places you cant wait to get out of seem to drag on for all eternity ahha, glad that hasnt happpened yet! We are now off to Rome to do some serious sightseeing.
Ewa and our picnic in Riomaggorie
Beer in Riomaggorie
written by  ECRadventure on July 21, 2009 from La Spezia, Italy

Rome! Gellato and walking tours
Rome, Italy
Looking out from the top of the Vatican
The Colossium
Rome! The eternal city! As this is Chad's third time in Rome, he took on a bit of a tour guide role for the 5 days in Rome. Our time in Rome was Split between seeing all of the sites, and trying to plan for the next couple of weeks of our trip and catching up with the computer stuff we constantly add to the daily life of our travels. Ewa thinks its time to buy a small laptop so that this can be done from the Comfort of where-ever.
Trevi Fountain
Palatine hill -
We saw all the major sights, the Colloseum, Palatine Hill, Imperial Forum, Spanish Steps, Pantheon, Piazza Navone, Trevi fountain, St. Peter's Basilica and the Vatican... so many things to see. What we didnt see was the Pope, he might be at his summer residence, but he normally gives mass every Wednesday and Sunday, so one can go to the Vatican along with thousands of pilgrims to hear him speak. Along with many other fountains, piazza's (town squares) churches, and Roman ruins. The city has thousands of years of history, and we would do a pretty poor job to describe the history or the meaning of all of the things we saw. Rome is definitly a city that a person needs to see in their lifetime if they get the chance. Be warned it's hot and super crowded in the summer. +39 deg C here today!
The Spanish Steps
The Italian people have taken a bit of getting used to, as many of them can be a tad on the rude side, but I imagine that I would maybe be as well if millions of aimless tourists were always all over my homeland. However, all of the people that we have met in the smaller areas are quite nice.
The Pantheon in Rome!
One of Bernini's sculptures in a church off of the Spanish steps.
The food is good, most of the time, but there are a lot of shops that are over priced and poor quality. Also, most places have the exact same menu, or at least the ones we went to did. BUT, we have stuck out the traditional Italian food, and didn't try too hard to search out our more eastern inspired tastebuds (except one night we went for Chinese!). We've nearly had our fill of pasta, and we are off to our self imposed exile to the Isla D'Elba where Napoleon was sent as a punishment (sucks to be him) for a week of sun, rest and relaxation! Travelling is hard you know!
written by  ECRadventure on July 26, 2009 from Rome, Italy

Isla D'Elba! Sun sand and scars
Capoliveri, Italy
The view from up the hill looking back at our beach on Isla D'Elba
Isla D' Elba! A beautiful little island off of the coast of Italy, near Tuscany. We decided that we needed a vacation from all of the touring of cities that we have been doing, so we rented an appartment on the island, near the city of Capoliveri, right off of the beach of Marcone.
The view from our bed, watching the breeze blow the window during our daily siesta!!
We spent the entire week relaxing in the appartment, cooking our own dinners, reading, chatting, sleeping, and of course time on the beach in the sun and sand. Thank-you Betty and Ken for the appartment it was a fully enjoyed vacation for us!!!
Scooter fun on Isla D'Elba
We also rented a scooter for a day just to get out and see a bit more of the town. At the end of the first day, when Chad was pulling into the gravel parking lot, which was on a fairly steep hill as most of the island is, he found out rather quickly the effects of having a heavy two wheeled vehicle on loose gravel and ended up underneath of the scooter. It was a good thing that he was on it by himself, to save Ewa from suffering the same road-rash that Chad got on his feet, shin, knee and hand! Tony & Kari thank-you for the scooter rental!! There's something to be said for zipping around an island on a scooter, with only helmets as protection. We were the slowest ones on the road haha because Ewa was scared. Up and down hills, sharp turns and Italians to watch out for, of course they are all riding their scooters sans shirt because that's how its done. It was above 33 for the entire week we were in Elba, great weather for mornings on the beach and afternoon siestas.
Ewa ready to scuba dive on Isla D'Elba
We went scuba diving one day. The water was super clear and very warm 26C compared to the 15C we were diving in Tarifa. The aquatic life in this region was not as abundant as in Tarifa, and the fish were a fair bit smaller (schools of Tetra fish!) but it was so nice for a change to dive in warm water! The beauty under the sea is always amazing and the experience of scuba diving is still new to us, so every dive is amazing!
Ewa on the beach on Isla D'Elba
From our little paradise, we are off for a day of travelling - taxi, ferry, bus, train, and walking to our overnight in Bergamo, before we head to the Motherland... Krakow Poland!!
written by  ECRadventure on August 2, 2009 from Capoliveri, Italy

Krakow...back to the motherland!
Krakow, Poland
Old town square in Krakow
It’s great to be back in Poland! We arrived in Krakow after a short night stop over in Bergamo Italy and flew into the motherland at noon. We settled into our hostel and explored the city a little bit. Our hostel was right off the old town, a perfect location. Right away we saw the sukkienica which is in the middle of the old town square and a 14th century cloth house which was built by one of the former kings of Poland who loved Italian fashion, quality of cloth and of course who was also married to an Italian princess. In the evening Chad finally got to experience a Milk Bar that Ewa had been telling him about. Milk Bars are not the typical bar, they don’t serve any alcohol, you can only get tea, coffee, kompot (a Polish fruit punch) and warm milk. Back in the Communist days, these restaurants were subsidized by the government to help keep the prices low. What they specialize in is cheap traditional Polish food, yummy yummy Polish food. After Italy we were ready for some home cooking! The first night we ordered Bigos (Hunters stew with cabbage and sausage), Pierogi, Zurek ( a soup made of yeast), Krokietki (chicken rolls), and potato pancakes. Stuffed? Just a bit! However after walking around the town a little, the empty hole in Chad’s leg opened up and made room for some ice cream. Earlier in the day he had seen someone with a chocolate dipped cone and we searched the streets for over an hour and a half to find a Lody shop that sold the right kind. In the end, we had to make due with a ‘ice’ cream ice cream cone. It’s hard to explain the texture, but it is certainly not overly creamy, but it is what you could imagine frozen sugary milk that is ground up into tiny ice crystals might taste like. Still quite good!
Yummy Polish food from the Milk bar!!
The next day we were off to the Wieliczka Salt Mine which is about an hour outside of Krakow. The Wieliczka salt mine reaches a depth of 327 meters and is over 300 km long. It features a 3.5-km touring route for visitors (less than 1% of the length of the mine's passages) that includes historic statues and mythical figures. The oldest sculptures were carved out of rock salt by miners; more recent figures have been fashioned by contemporary artists. Even the crystals of the chandeliers are made from rock salt that has been dissolved and reconstituted to achieve a clear, glass-like appearance. This mine is now closed as there is no major salt deposits left, but they had been mining salt here since the 14th century! What the miners left behind is pretty amazing, they carved many statues out of the salt and surrounding earth. They also created one of the most beautiful spiritual places underground, a big church or place of worship. We didn’t get to see all of the rooms but the ones we saw were pretty amazing. It was quite interesting to think of what life would have been like to work long hours underground with only torch light to guide your way. They even had livestock underground to help with the work. Essentially an entire town was underground and now you can have a wedding underground, with all the trimmings as there is a ballroom, a restaurant and all the facilities you would need.
For Dinner, again we went to eat at one of the other Milk bars, where we had more amazing Polish food, more potato pancakes, golombki (cabbage rolls) and pierogies!! At night we wandered around the town and stopped in on our own little pub crawl of some of the local bars. They were all practically empty and we only stopped in for a drink at each bar. However, they are all totally different from each other, and with a flair that is not present in Canada or many of the other European towns that we have visited. It was nice to see that the vodka was always kept in the freezer so that it is ice cold for serving. At the first bar, it actually had small ice particles in the vodka, so you can imagine how cold it was! However, at the last bar right beside the hostel, Ewa and I got turned away by the bouncer. He told Ewa that we couldn’t come in, and that “It’s not going to happen”. Face patrol didn’t like our tourist flip-flops and wrinkly shirts!
The next day was a bit sombre as we went to Auschwitz, which is called Oswiecim in Polish. There are two different camps on this site that were then given German names, Auschwitz and Birkenau covered around 425 acres. The camp commandant, Rudolf Höss, testified at the Nuremberg Trials that up to 3 million people had died at Auschwitz. The Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum has revised this figure to 1.1 million about 90% of whom were Jews from almost every country in Europe. Most victims were killed in Auschwitz II's gas chambers using Zyklon B; other deaths were caused by systematic starvation, forced labor, lack of disease control, individual executions, and purported "medical experiments"
outside of the gates to Auschwitz..."Work will set you free"
We only visited the first camp and the guided tour was about 3 hours. There is then a bus will take you to do another few hours to visit Birkenau. However after the first 3 hours we didn’t feel up for the second half. You are only allowed to take photos from outside the buildings and we didn’t take many pictures. It’s very hard to describe the impressions of such a place, it is horrible what happened. The way that so many innocent people were treated based upon their race or religion is difficult to process. At the same time we think it is something that should be seen in order to remember what happened and pay homage to those that lost their lives. As a note to anyone going to visit, the site is free, however in the hours from 9:30-3:30 a guided tour is mandatory as it is so busy. You have to pay for the tour. The site is really not equipped to handle the hoards of people trying to visit the site, so it creates a busy, cramped stressful atmosphere when you go to buy your tickets. As the tours are a great way to get some of the background information, we would suggest to get up very early in the morning and try to get on one of the early tours.
That night we again hit up another milk-bar style restaurant, and had a filling of wild mushroom soup, nalesniki (crepes with various fillings), pierogies and for dessert, we had more pierogi with blueberries! We walked around the town again at night found that the town square was filled with a stage and a concert of Polish singers, rather than the usual night performers (fire dancers and drum players). They were all dressed in old fashioned uniforms from WWI and previous wars. They sang old Polish folk songs and ‘soldier ballads’. It was an amazing experience to stand in the crowd, as everyone was singing along with the artists; they even had lyric sheets handed out to everyone. Chad felt that it was his first real emersion into Polish culture while in Poland. The artists were very talented!
When we got back to our hostel they were having a Polish shot night, the specialty of the night was Wsciekly Pies, which translates to mad dog, after some hesitation Chad tried one of these typical Polish treats J They are made of raspberry syrup, Tabasco and Wodka…sweet, spicy and strong.
For those who have been following the blog, you will notice that the story is much longer than normal... this is the product of having our computer to type away on while we are on trains. SO, hopefully this will be a good addition to the blog, and if it's getting too long, let us know we can go back to the old quick and sweet format! :)
written by  ECRadventure on August 5, 2009 from Krakow, Poland

Warsaw...this time for business!
Warsaw, Poland
Outside of Teresa's house in Warsaw..
Warszawa, our first stop into Warsaw was supposed to be strictly business. We had to arrange for our Chinese visa to enter China later in September. SO, the first day after checking into the hostel, we simply walked around the town for a quick overview of Ewa’s favourite streets and hangouts from when she lived in Warsaw back in 2001-2002. We also stopped in to visit with Teresa, Wlodek, and Asia Ewa’s Aunt, uncle and cousin. They treated us to a wonderful night with a great table-top BBQ, some picture shows and great conversation. We had to cut short the evening as we had a busy day the next day, and with us returning to Warsaw later, we knew we had more time to catch up later. The evening ended at 2am ha!
That night in preparation for the busy day trying to get our visa we bought our train tickets from Moscow to Beijing. While surfing the website for the train tickets, we found that the train ticket agency would be able to provide visa service over night for China once you get into Moscow. With this new knowledge we went to bed and decided to sleep in a little, thinking the stress of the visa was quickly over.
After a lazy morning, we checked our E-mails to find out that the visa service in Moscow is only for Russians and UK citizens, not Canadians. Now the Panic was on! We spent the next 5 hours frantically trying to sort out what we would do and trying to find a FedEx office. In the end we sealed our documents, applications and visa forms to a visa service company in Vancouver. 16:30 in the afternoon, passport-less, we both needed some time to recover emotionally and physically, a little space, so Ewa went for a haircut (Funny enough they cut my bangs with a electric shaver!) and some shopping to find an outfit for the wedding coming up in Znin, and Chad headed for an ice cream and some time on the internet to sort out more plans. At the end of the night we were exhausted from the stress and hectic pace of the day and we just stayed in and hung out in the hostel. It was interesting that night as we had left some laundry to be done at the front desk of the hostel. In the morning as we were leaving they returned our clothes and our money. Somehow, they managed to ‘dry’ our clothes, but had forgotten to wash them. I have no idea how one does this, but they did, because the clothes were much more wrinkly and tight!
Outside of the entrance to the university in Warsaw
written by  ECRadventure on August 7, 2009 from Warsaw, Poland

Znin...weddings and family time!
Znin, Poland
Matcin and Marta at their wedding!
We left Warsaw for Znin for the wedding of Marcin and Marta, Ewa’s cousins. After some phone calls to my Aunt Lula (mother of the groom and also a wonderfully sweet woman) we found out that the bride had a few people coming in from Norway and that she organized for a bus to pick them up from the nearby city of Bydgoszcz so we got to catch a ride rather than having to try to mess around with the Polish bus system! After getting off the train from Warsaw we went out front and looked for the group and quickly found them, Norwegians are tall J As we stood behind the group waiting to ask if they were going to Znin, one of the ladies in the group asked us if we were the Canadians they were waiting for, yup that’s us. The Piwkowski’s we stayed with in Lyon were already there! Reunion! Lula and Kazimierz are the parents of Jacek (whose family we stayed with in Lyon), and Marcin, who is the groom.
The Piwkowski's
As we arrived in Znin at my aunt Lula’s and my uncle Kazimierz’s house we were so wonderfully welcomed, we had a huge lunch because my aunt thought we would be hungry after the long journey, which we very much appreciated…only to find out that there was a family dinner already planned for an hour later. The night lasted well into the wee hours of the morning as Ewa was catching up with family. The following three days consisted of eating way too much, talking and enjoying a few bottles of wine. Somehow at each dinner we underestimated the number of courses as there is always more than one! There were so many people to introduce Chad to. To give a bit of a background: Lula is my dads cousin and her husband is Kazimierz, they have two children Jacek and Marcin. The bride’s name is Marta and she is Polish and has lived in Norway for a long time and now lives in Germany with Marcin. Jacek and his family live in Lyon, France. All of the whole family is very musically talented. My aunt and uncle are very interested in instruments from the renaissance period and had a band that is known all over Poland, their children were also in this band. All of the family members and a great many of their children are in the orchestra and are very talented. Marta, the bride, is also in the orchestra and plays the piano.
Ewa, Hanna, Wanda, Renata
The day of the wedding there was a lot going on, so we mostly just tried to help or stay clear to give everyone enough space to do what they needed to. The ceremony and the reception was being held at a castle outside of the city, there was a little bus that transported people from Znin to the castle which was about half an hour away. It was a beautiful ceremony and the young couple looked very very happy. After the ceremony all the guest were invited to a concert in the main hall of the castle where family members and talented musicians and singers preformed. In this main hall my uncle and his son hung flags of each country that was attending! There was a flag for Poland, France, Germany, Canada, Italy, Norway, the US, Australia and the EU! It was an international wedding! My uncle Kazimierz played the piano to accompany his brother Leon on the trombone, then his son Jacek on the oboe, then an opera singer from Germany sang a song, and another singer from the opera in Germany sang another song, to top it off Leons son who is a wonderful cello player and his wife played a few pieces on the cello, can you say more?
It was amazing. After the concerts it was time for a few appetizers and refreshments (other than champagne which had been flowing from right after the papers were signed!) We were sitting at the ‘kids’ table which was great because our cousins from Lyon were there along with a few younger guests. And here is another example of being not aware that there will be more than once course… the appies were great, everyone was full, then came out the wild mushroom soup, oh dear so delicious, then came out the main course…this does not end…then came the amazing desert….then we were outside and noticed that someone was roasting an entire pig…that also came out after the desert with many salads….it was a lesson in pacing yourself. There were so many family members there from Poland that it was like going back in time for Ewa. Chad was introduced to all of our family here, my aunts Wanda, Hannia, their now extended family, their children and their children’s children! It was a wonderful wedding.
Lyon, Ewa, Wanda and Hanna..
The next day in the early afternoon, we took a little narrow track train for an hour to visit Biskupin. We were joined by our cousins from Lyon on this trip to Biskupin which is a little national park that shows how polish people lived in that area from 5 BC. They have tried to recreate the large wooden fort that was erected on the marshlands and dominated the plains for hundreds of centuries, pretty fun stuff! That night there was one more wedding reception dinner hosted by Lula and Karzimierz where the all of the international guests and the family attended for a night of toasts, more music and sharing stories. Our three days in Znin we were treated amazingly, welcomed with broad open arms from all of the family it was a really great experience! The next morning, after many good-byes, we were off again to Kolo!
Biskupin
written by  ECRadventure on August 11, 2009 from Znin, Poland

Koło
Kolo, Poland, Poland
Robert, Maryla, and Wanda
Kolo and more amazing times with family!
Ewa spent most of her childhood vacations in the summer and for Christmas in Kolo. This is where her grandparents settled, and now the family that is there is her Aunt Maryla and her daughter Ela who also came to Canada about ten years ago to visit. Maryla who’s son is Robert, was also in Kolo at that the same time along with his wife Ela and their two amazingly adorable kids Matilda and Ignacy.
Ewa's grandpa's house..
Ewa’s Aunt (Wanda) drove us to Kolo as she was also going to spend 2 weeks vacation there with Maryla, so it worked out perfectly. Along the way, as per request by Ewa’s dad, Wanda took us to a few stops before arrived in Kolo. We got to see the family house where Ewa’s grandfather lived and worked before they moved to Kolo. The lady who lived there told us all about her family and also gave us a parting gift of a pint of raspberries and blackberries. We also visited the graveyard where her great grandparents were buried, and a memorial to Ewa’s great uncles who died in WWII; one was a pilot and was shot down over Germany on the way home and the other was a Partisan. Ewa’s grandfather was also a Partisan during WWII but luckily he got through it alive.
After driving for a few hours we got to Kolo and met up with Ewa’s aunt and cousins who she hasn’t seen since she lived in Warsaw in 2002. We went to her cousins Roberts house and had a fire and a grill while we just relaxed and chatted. Robert and Ela speak English so it was nice for Chad to have more people to converse with. Sometimes its hard to translate everything and it can get frustrating for both of us, but we’re managing well especially because all of the family understands and the smiles and laughter keep flowing.
Ela and Igus and Lody (icecream!)
The second day in Kolo Ewa’s cousin Ela took us on a little tour of the town. Little Ignacy came along for the ride. We went to the 14th century castle that is on the outskirts of town as well as the old town square built by the Teutonic Knights, two churches and of course Ice Cream! In the evening we went to the cemetery in Kolo to visit Ewa’s Grandmother, Grandfather and Uncle’s grave. We drove back and had supper and chatted until it was time to go to bed, we have a train to Wladyslawowo tomorrow to meet up with Mike, Justyna and Lily!
written by  ECRadventure on August 13, 2009 from Kolo, Poland, Poland

Władysławowo..cool weather and amazing beaches!
Wladyslawowo, Poland
The beach fortress!
The train ride from Kolo to Wladyslawowo was an endurance test for sure. The train from Kolo was a good 20 minutes late and it was a rush in exchange in Kutno to find a seat on the train. An hour into the train ride, we were informed that the train would be breaking apart in Bydgoszcz and we were in the wrong train. We needed to switch compartments and found ourselves shuffling between compartments packed like sardines with all of the other confused travellers. After a few short tense moments with Chad worrying about the smokers in the compartment, we found our way to a few seats that would carry us the rest of the way to Gdynia, where we would again have to change trains for another hour and a half trip, making the total journey a cool 9 hours (for 320 km)! The first night we found the rented apartment and stopped in at the local sklep (store) and stocked up for the night and morning with the necessary supplies (beer, vodka, eggs bread and yogurt!!). That night, Mike came up for a visit, but Justyna was exhausted from a long day with Lily. We managed to keep Mike hostage for most of the night, retiring all of the liquor we had stocked up on and necessitating another trip to Mike’s house to tap into their reserves to ensure we had enough lubrication for the conversation of the evening. It was a great night catching up with Mike and an even better night full of English for Mike, as being a non Polish speaking Canadian on vacation for 6 weeks in Poland with a Polish family, it can get a bit tough to carry on always trying to understand and not having the opportunity to actually speak your mind.
Mike Jakeman and Lily!
The next day, we were off to the beach between Hel and Wladyslawowo. We wished we could have gone to Hel but, we didn’t ..we made it half way! The beach is rather amazing on this strip of the Baltic sea. On the Ocean side of the port, there are large waves, and amazing sand. Across the short peninsula, which is lined by a 200 meter deep forest lies the bay of Hel, which is a shallow water port that is famous for wind and kite surfing. We spent the entire day lying on the beach, in cool 20-25 degree temperatures, enjoying the amazing sand and friendly company! We had a great lunch at a place right across from the beach we were hanging out at…we got a Hamburger (with apparently the polish trimmings of cabbage, peas, radishes and sauce) pretty funny. We were told later that this was not a traditional hamburger. That night, we went on a walk with Mike through the town down to the Ocean and the port. It was an amazingly beautiful night, as the sky was completely cloudless and clear. There was supposed to be a comet shower, but there were only a few comets that we saw. It was still amazing to see the meteors crashing down to the Earth. We each saw a few shooting across the heavens, and many wishes were made for the future. The beach at night was thankfully more desolate than it was during the day. Polish beaches are something from a comic magazine, in that they are so absurd to our traditional North American sense of how things function. Each family comes to the beach equipped with their ‘snow fences’ (actually wind and sand fences) and the set up a barrier around their turf in the sand composed of sticks planted in the ground wrapped in cloth about 3-4 feet tall, that surround or nearly surround their area. It is very well accustomed that no one enters the fortress of another family without invitation! It’s pretty cool because everyone has their space like a little home on the beach. The main beaches in Wladyslawowo are so packed that it is hard to move. But, as you travel out on the peninsula there are far fewer people and the beach is almost desolate. You are spaced hundreds of meters from the next encampment fortress of the next family that it almost makes you feel like you are the only ones on the beach.
Chad, Mike and Marcin!
The second day we simply walked around the town and met up with Mike and his brother in-law for a small tour of the town of Wladyslawowo. We spent the day simply talking and walking around the town. We made a stop for Kebabs, a little street shopping and to the Zywiec tent (Zywiec is a Polish beer) The town is filled to the maximum of tourists, almost all, probably 97.5% of them all Polish. Traffic jams clogging the one lane roads, and people filling the streets at nearly all hours of the day. We learned that the town, typically with 10,000 residents swells to around 100,000 to 120,000 people in the summer. That night, we had a home made fish fry, and had a quiet night in. We kept ourselves occupied in our barren (ie no TV) apartment wtih a few card games before heading to bed.
Day three was pretty relaxed, we said our goodbyes to Mike, Justyna and Lily and went to get our train tickets and buy some salmon sausage. Mike introduced us to this little delicacy the day before. It is literally sausage filled with smoked salmon. It is a real treat! In the evening we headed into town to get a delicious meal of fish and potatoes on the coast. The fish here is amazing, all caught fresh and everything you can imagine is available for cheap. We had Halibut and Salmon with potatoes and salad and it was only 46 zlotes, a little less than 20 dollars. After our meal, we walked around again to take in the sights of Wladyslawowo. This town is Poland’s version of a small vacation town, with all of the carnival trimmings. There are shops set up on all the streets, people driving around in go-carts everywhere, theme parks, carnival rides and so much more! Poland is well known for amber and this area is the capital production area of amber. The Amber is either mined, or can be found washing up on the beach after a storm. It is made of sap from trees millions of years old and is a polish jem. Ewa managed to find a nice piece of amber for a necklace and now has a Polish amulet J. That night, it was more of the same as the night before, some relaxing, a few card games, packing and getting ready for the next day, back to Warsaw!
Ewa and Fish dinner in Wladyslawowo
written by  ECRadventure on August 16, 2009 from Wladyslawowo, Poland

Warsaw – Episode two
Warsaw, Poland
The ugly mole on Warsaw (AKA Palace of Culture)
We decided to stay a bit longer in Warsaw to make sure we had enough time to relax a little bit, see the sights and see the family and friends we wanted to visit with. We stayed for a week and even then it wasn’t enough time to see and visit with everyone.
We spent a lot of time walking around the streets of Warsaw trying to breathe in the city. We stayed at the same hostel as we did the last time, which is a pretty central location right near the Copernicus monument on Nowy Swiat. Yes Copernicus was Polish! It was only a short 10 minute walk to the centre of Warsaw along some of the nicer(est) streets in Warsaw.
During our walks around the city, Ewa decided that it would be fun to take Chad to some of the places she liked to hang out in when she lived here. One among them is a little café called Miedzy Nami which translates to ‘between us.’ We had a really nice lunch and even saw a Polish celebrity! He was on the Polish version of dancing with the stars (the only way Ewa new this is because she saw him in a trashy celebrity magazine that she bought for the train ride to Warsaw).
We visited the palace of Culture and Science which is called a gift from Stalin to Poland. There are eight of these palaces all over Moscow and they have been nicknamed the eight daughters of Stalin. The one in Warsaw is similar to the ones built in Moscow. We took the elevator to the 32nd floor and there is a 360 degree view of Warsaw. There was also a little exhibit of the human body that was going on. There were a number of interactive exhibits. One of them was a stepping machine, well, rather a counter that timed how long you could step up and down a single stair. The trick is you have to keep time with the computer and it speeds up! After 4 months of no exercise it was quite the little workout!
The Family!! (most of them)
We also visited the huge Royal Lazieki Park a couple of times. The park is in the middle of the city and was the summer residence of the last King of Poland. During WWII it was used by the Nazis and therefore was not destroyed. There are vast underground tunnels that led out and into the Royal Palace which before the wars was used for the servants to bring goods into the palace grounds as well as so that they were not seen. On each Sunday in the summer there is a Chopin concert by the Chopin memorial for free, so of course we went with Teresa, Asia, Ela, Matilda and Igus on our last Sunday in Warsaw to chill for a bit listening to yet another famous polish intillectual…you guessed it – Chopin! We love Chopin.
Poster from the Warsaw uprising museum
We walked around the old town and also made a visit to the Warsaw uprising museum. This museum is dedicated to telling the story of how the Warsaw inhabitants stood up and started fighting against the Nazis at the end of WWII. They had no guns, very little provisions and basically made their own weapons and decided to fight. Many germans were taken prisoner and through the fight the Poles took their weapons and also made the prisoners work for them; engineers made guns, soldiers were forced to start cleaning up the rubble that their bombs had caused etc. It was a very modern museum with many installations that were very interesting. There was a huge steel wall right in the middle when you walked in which had bullet holes in it, you could put your ear up to each bullet hole and you would hear different sounds of the war, bullet sounds or Polish people singing war songs. On top of that from the wall came the sound of a beating heart, to never forget the lives that were lost during the uprising.
After visiting the Warsaw museum we headed back to the Berlitz center where Ewa worked when she lived in Poland in 2001-2002. Although we didn’t run into any of her old coworkers while we were there, it was a nice trip down memory lane for us both. Afterwards, we treated ourselves to sushi for the first time since starting the trip, it was soooo good!
Chad, Matilda and Igus
We spent a day with Ewa’s cousin Ela, and her children Matilda and Igus. In the morning she took us to Radzikow, the town where Ewa grew up. We saw the old appartment block, checked out Andrzejs and Marinas work at the insitute of IHAR. In the afternoon we went to the forest to pick mushrooms outside of Warsaw where Ela and her kids live. We were very lucky because Igus is a master at finding mushrooms, he even drew us a map before we left the house where we would find these mushrooms! He’s pretty smart for a 6 year old. Ela treated us to several meals including the freshly picked mushrooms! In the evening we went to Teresas and Wlodeks spent the evening relaxing catching up and sharing some delicious food and drinks!
Teresa, Wlodek, Asia
We also got a chance to meet up with Maggie and Adrian who just had their first adorable baby Alexander. Ewa used to teach English at Berlitz with Maggie and Adrian. We spent the afternoon catching up and walking around their neighborhood. Later in the week, Jusyna and Mike came down to Warsaw before heading back to Canada. We were able to meet up for dinner and a few drinks, to also be joined by Maggie, Adrian and Connall yet another former teacher at Berlitz. That night we partied together until 4am, our first night out in bar in months. It was so nice to catch up with everyone!
Warsaw old town square
written by  ECRadventure on August 23, 2009 from Warsaw, Poland

Berlin.. strike two, you only get one more chance!
Berlin, Germany
The Brandenburg Tor
Ich bin ein Berliner! This is what everyone would say if they have ever visited this amazing city. We planned to stay for 4 nights but then we found out that Ms. Natalia Nieradka would be in Bydgoszcz visiting her mom so we decided to cancel the last night and meet up with her instead. It is too bad that we didn’t have more time because we really enjoyed the city.
The Berlin man! Famous street sign man who tells you when to cross the street!
We went on a walking tour to learn about the history of Berlin, the war, the wall and the comunist times. As most of the city was destroyed in WWII, the majority of the sights that you can see are either reconstructions of buildings from before the war, or buildings built after the war. 2009 is the twentieth anniversery of when the wall came down and there are only a few sections of the 156km of wall that existed.
Berlin is not a kind city for Chad. The first time that he was in the city in 2003, he ended up in the hospital for 4 days. This time around, again suffering from some minor illness issues, some of the activities that were planned had to be called off, and we spent at least one day just lounging around and taking it easy. However, we've decided that we will give Berlin one more chance before we give up on it for good!
The Liquidrome! No pics allowed inside (German FKK rules apply... ie no swimsuits neccessary)
On our last night, we went to the Liquidrome which is a sauna swimming spa for ‘urbanites’. see http://www.liquidrom-berlin.de/ This place was beyond cool, everything is designed super sleek and sophistimacated. There are 4 different saunas, one is a himilayan salt dry sauna, there is a humid sauna, a regular dry sauna and the crazy one where you enter for about 3 min and the temperature reaches 85 degrees Celsius! You go inside with a sauna expert and he increases the heat every thirty seconds by pouring more and more infused water onto the hot coals and then fans the air on you during each stage, oh man oh man it felt like we were burning alive, never have we felt such heat smacking you in your face and on your body…to top it off you have to be naked and certain parts seriously need to be covered because they are a bit to sensitive. The most amazing part of this spa is the large swimming poolThe large salt water pool is dimly lit and the roof is shaped like a dome, on the roof there is a light show and they play chill out music, the kicker is this, when you are in the pool you have spongy things you can put behind your neck and legs and float in the water making sure to submerge your ears into the water because there are speakers under the water and the music is so clear that it sounds like the music is playing in your head…what and experience! There was another smaller pool/hot tub outside which was an oriental theme with bamboo plants lining it. There was a super salt saturated secluded pool that was at the end of the hallway and seemed a little like something out of an adult movie. The last pool was only big enough for one person and it was filled with ice water for dipping into after the sauna. It was about 3 feet x 3 feet and about 4 feet deep, with a ladder to get into and out of it. Chad actually lasted longer in the ice water than Ewa did! All of the pools are salt water not chlorine so even more healthy! After Berlin off to Bydgoszcz!
Ewa, Nattie and Grace! (and a small child)
Bydgoszcz!
We left Berlin Early to meet up with Natalia and her Mom Grace in Grace’s home town. We were welcomed with open arms and it was amazing to see good friends from home. The stop-over was to be short but a lot of fun! We spent just a couple of hours at Grace’s home in Bydgoszcz, before we met up with some of Natalia’s childhood friends and were off in the car for a visit to the county side for a BBQ, a night of good conversation and many drinks! The farm that they live on was a nice break from all the cities that we have seen. We got chance to play with a few puppies and some kittens too! In the morning, nursing our heads, we found it all too quick that we had to get on the train again, but looking forward to Kolo, and meeting up with family again! See you in Vietnam Nattie!
Nattie and Grace!
written by  ECRadventure on August 27, 2009 from Berlin, Germany

Stockholm... friends, muppets and lessons learned.
Stockholm, Sweden
Swedish flag..
We arrived in Stockholm after a short one and a half hour trip with Ryan air from Krakow. We got a steal of a deal too! 260 Zlotes for the both of us and our bags, that’s about 100 dollars Canadian. There was a small mix up when we dropped off our baggage; Ewa got the luggage tracking tag for someone else’s bag as the ticket agents were using the same printer for both a flight to Bergamo as well as Stockholm. We noticed about 2 minutes after getting the tags (because duh you should look at them!) and went back to the ticket agent where he very politely reassured us that yes they noticed as well and already changed the ticket on the bag and are now reprinting the portion that the passenger gets…yes of course it will get there, no worries, all is good in the Ryan Air world, we never loose luggage ever compared to other airlines. As we were on the flight Ewa read the statistics ( she never liked statistics class..) and Ryan Air (according to them) only have a 0.36% of lost baggage…well good for you Ryan Air. Not bitter, not bitter. You all can guess as to what happened when we got off the flight, Ewa did not get her bag. The big metal gates to the squeaky baggage belt came crashing down ending all hope that maybe just maybe it would appear. What did appear though was a nice Italian suitcase, with Ewa’s name on the luggage tag, go figure. Maybe it’s because we have been talking badly about Italy that this happened; noted, don’t piss off the Italians. Karma decided that if we didn’t like Italy so much then maybe Ewa’s bag should go there and when it returns we will have acquired maybe not a love for Italy but at least an appreciation, who knows, the world works in mysterious ways. After spending an hour trying to fill out the lost baggage report, we finally left the airport to meet up with Chad’s friend Chris back from the U of Calgary Engineering days.
Chris and Camilla and us in Stockholm
On the hour and a half it takes to Stockholm center from the Ikea Airport (as Ewa likes to call it- it really does look like Ikea decorated, or Skvasta for everyone else) it slowly started dawning on Ewa that she had nothing to her name except for a little make up and a roll of toilet paper she always has in her backpack (just in case). No toothbrush, no underwear, no warm shoes…we are in Stockholm and it’s September; fall has definitely set up camp.
We spent the next few days basically trying to buy the essentials without buying too much in case (oh lord please) we got the bag back, looking for stores to buy replacements for everything in case the bag didn’t come, and we also spent it on skype (oh thank the lord for Chris’s skype) to call the Bergamo airport, the Krakow Airport and of course the Stockholm airport to find out where the hell the bag was! It could not have disappeared into thin air, it weighs 15 kg!
But we learned some valuable lessons from this experience. 1. Put a TAG on your bag with your name on it and while you’re at it, a phone number would be good too 2. If you will be travelling for a long time maybe it would be a good idea to document the things you have in your bag, in case you need to make a claim with your travel insurance people 3. You should also take pictures of the things you have in your pack because how are you going to prove to your insurance people that you actually owned this stuff if you don’t have receipts for all of these things? Huh? How? 4. The insurance policy you have probably has a lot of ‘small print’ that makes making a claim or getting any sort of reimbursements next to impossible, kind of like trying to talk to someone real from Ryan Air about where the hell your bag is.
Thankfully one day before we were to leave for St. Petersburg the Stockholm airport called at 8am and informed us that they found the bag! Yipeee! When Chris asked what happened to it, they of course didn’t know. Where was it? Not sure. Apparently it showed up in the middle of the night. Yippee!!
Of course we did not spend the whole time on the phone or shopping, we had a very nice weekend with Chris and Camilla, the newly engaged couple!
More of the view from just down the street from Chris's house
We expected to see and experience a lot of conversations from people in Sweden who sounded like the Swedish Chef from the Muppets… however, as it turned out, Stockholm didn’t seem as strange as we first thought. It seems that the country, with it’s great social programs, ensures that everyone has a second language. English it seems is maybe the #1 second language, and everyone seems to speak excellent English! However, some people definitely had the melodious Chef-esque accent. Even Chris has acquired a Swedish accent. On our stop in to a Dr.’s office to get a new prescription for Malarone (all of Ewa’s pills for the anti-malaria drug were in her bag) we entered into Dr. Honeydew’s office (you know who it is…seriously google it). Yes, imagine Dr. Honeydew from the Muppets sitting behind a desk talking to you about prophylaxis, now you’re sitting with us in Sweden listening to this Dr. tell us how he has no idea how we got so much Malarone and how it was unnecessary. Ewa almost laughed out loud with the situation. He apparently doesn’t know that Canadians are pretty relaxed about almost all things.
A few other things to note about Stockholm, the metro has excellent electric trains that are smooth and quiet. The engineer in Chad was pleasantly surprised and ranks these trains in the top 2 his ever ridden on. Not all Swedish are blond and tall (apparently those are the Finns that have migrated). However a great many of them are. The Swedish love their food in tubes or tube like encasements. Salmon paste, rice porridge, chili, sausage, many more things than you would expect can be found in a tube in Sweden. Ewa’s momma loves the kaviar tube you can get from Ikea ;)
The first night we were treated to a Swedish dinner by Chris and Camilla, and we wet to bed relatively early after the long emotional day. Thursday night, after a day wandering around the city we were off to a night out at the movies and for dinner on the town. On Friday we were able to meet up with Chad’s friend Hanna, who had spent a year in Canada in Innisfail on a high school exchange. That same day we met up with Ewa’s friend Agata, from Warsaw, now living in Stockholm. Although it was a short visit on both accounts, it was great to catch up and spend a few moments with each other. That night we ordered some take-out and just stayed in and chatted. We also found out that one of the movies Chad and Chris and some other engineer friends made is actually on the internet, Ewa thinks everyone should check it out! Pretty impressive! Just google UofC Mech engg 2003 video on Google video..tee hee.
The Vasa
On Saturday Chris and Camilla showed us around Stockholm, we went on a bit of a walking tour and then went to see the Vasa Museum which houses one of the oldest and biggest sail ships of the Swedish navy. It was impressively large and beautiful, what is more impressive is that it was supposed to be the pride of the Swedish King who at the time was at war with Poland over control of the Baltic Sea….that’s not the impressive part. The impressively sad part is that after all that work and labour that was put into it, it sank after only sailing about 150 meters. FAIL! After about 300 years of being underwater someone did some research about it and decided that hey it might still be down there! The low salt level of the Baltic Sea which doesn’t allow for some wood eating worms to get at the ship, allowed the boat to be preserved in almost perfect condition. It was pulled out of the ocean in the 70’s after extensive diving work and expertise. The evening was spent celebrating Chris’ and Camilla’s’ friends housewarming at a restaurant. The restaurant was right on the river and had a great multi-level patio that overlooks the water. We shared a beer outside before heading in for a great meal. Afterwards it was a long evening full of good conversation, whisky and beer!
On Sunday Chris prepared a feast of a Canadian breakfast for us, the biggest pancakes ever, with yummy bacon and scrambled eggs, just like home. Sunday was a night of introducing our Swedish hosts to our attempts at Polish cuisine and Russell Peters (great Canadian Comic) however, one of the highlights, Sunday was also the day of getting the bag back!
Stockholm coast line
Monday, we were up early and off to see some of the city before we had our evening flight to Helsinki. We decided it would be great to head down to the museum island for a visit to the aquarium (they also have an assortment of small monkeys!! How can you go wrong with cool underwater creatures AND monkeys in one place! However, we didn’t pay any attention to the opening hours and as it turns out, as with many museums around the world, this one was closed on Mondays. SO, we spent the day seeing more of the sights, we took several forms of public transportation around the city (boat, subway, busses, water ferrys) Then we had to be off to the airport for our flight, a short 40min flight to Helsinki. When we got to the airport, the ticket agent nicely asked to confirm that the bags were going to the final destination (St.Petersburg). NOOO…Helsinki please & thank you! As although we followed our 4 rules listed above, we hadn’t placed a lot of emphasis onto our new rule #5 - ensure that you have at least provisions enough in your bag to get you through 2 days of living.
written by  ECRadventure on September 7, 2009 from Stockholm, Sweden

St. Petersburg... Russian 101
Saint Petersburg, Russia
The winter palace in St. Petersburg.
We have arrived in Russia! Chad’s first time and Ewa’s second time. We were expecting to step off the plane to AK-47 armed police and a stiff set of questions at the customs office. However, there were only a few lazy looking officials on the tarmac, and we cruised through customs with hardly a flinch. We even managed to get a bargain on our bus ride from the airport, having only paid 50% of the cost we were supposed to. From the get-go we were fitting in fine! It took us a long time to find the hostel, and we even had the help of a kind Russian gentleman who tried to help us find the hostel. We gave him the address and showed him our map and he proceeded to walk with us for about 5 min and then point is in the direction of the hostel. After he left, we thought a little more and figured out he was pointing us in the wrong direction, but nonetheless he was very helpful. The hostel was practically empty the entire time that we were there, so we had a room to ourselves and the kitchen was always free. The hostel even had one of those new fancy spa showers with a ‘rain’ showerhead from on the top of the shower at a height of over 7 feet! Top this off with somehow only having to pay about 60% of our original quoted price for the rooms, even after a surcharge was added to the price for a fee to register us in the city.
The first night we spent walking around, trying to figure out the little area of the city that we were staying. The hostel was just off of the main street of St. Petersburg, Nevsky Prospect. This street connects all the main sights in the city and can be walked from one end to the other wandering in and out of the side streets in a few hours. That night we had our first look of the Saviour on spilled blood cathedral, which is an amazing sight to see. The church is built upon the location of the assassination of Emperor Alexander II, who ended serfdom in Russia. The church was built between 1883 and 1907 and contains marvellous mosaic frescos covering all the walls, and roof. During the Bolshevik revolution many of the churches and religious monuments were destroyed. Those that were not destroyed were converted into museums for the people. The most prestigious ‘museums’ have only recently been renovated/restored, within the last few decades.
The Saviour on Spilled blood by night.
Almost all of the sites that we visited can be seen with a short description on a website we found after leaving St. Petersburg. It is www.saint-petersburg.com/virtual-tour I would highly recommend sifting through the website, it’s a short glimpse at this wonderful city.
The second day in the city we were up and off to the Hermitage museum. This museum is housed in the former residential house of the Tsar’s. Now the palace has a huge collection of artefacts, sculptures, paintings and many other items. We spent nearly 5 hours wandering the halls of the Hermitage. The museum is certainly impressive. Compared to other major museums that we have visited, the Hermitage was practically empty. It could be the time of the year, or that perhaps Russia does not receive as many visitors as some of the other European cities. You are also allowed to take pictures all over the museum. Well, not so much allowed as the people who are in the rooms guarding the items really don’t care. You are supposed to pay to take pictures, but we soon found the gaps in the system and were snapping away. Also, the museum houses two treasure rooms, which you have to pay extra to visit. We were careful to never carry much money with us on the street, and to not carry excess credit cards when we weren’t planning on spending much money. SO, we didn’t have enough money to pay for the visit and as it turns out we didn’t have enough time or energy to see them on this day anyways. We did return on our last day in St. Petersburg to see the treasure rooms, but you are required to pay the full admission price and the price for the treasure rooms. So, rather than forking out again for the full tour, and the treasure rooms, we decided to wander more in the city. That night we tried to buy our tickets to Moscow. However, we learned our first lesson in ensuring to carry more money, or an ATM card as the ticket counters did not accept credit cards. There was an ATM there, but of course we didn’t have our card and we were only 600 rubles short (~22 dollars Cdn!) So after a few frustrating hours of trying to communicate and to buy tickets, we went home discouraged but with a plan for the morning.
The Peter and Paul fortress in St. Petersburg.
We were up early, well early for two people who haven’t had to get up for work in over 4 months, and were off to the train station to buy our tickets before our plan to meet up with a walking tour of the city. Of course, our plan worked alright, until the documents that we used for getting our train tickets turned out to be out of date. Chad’s photocopy of his passport was from his old passport. Train tickets in Russia are printed for a specific person, and are required to have your passport number on them, even for Russian citizens. After a bit of tense moments trying to get the tickets reprinted, and being told that we would have to pay full price for a new ticket, we walked out not having to pay a dime more. So, this was the third time that we were able to get the best of the system, or pay much less than we were supposed to.
The hassle at the ticket office slowed us down just enough so that we ended up being late for our walking tour. We thought that maybe if we hurry we could catch the tour wandering away from the meeting place. We found a group of young people and tried to catch up to them, for a few blocks we were on their tail and then when we got to them we realized that a) they are all speaking Russian and b) they were hammered and so not our walking tour at all. With the prospect of a guided walking tour of the city out of the picture, Chad pulled out the map, scoured for the sights and planned a walking tour of his own. For the next 5 hours, we walked around the city, trying to catch the major sights. We zigzagged North-South across Nevsky Prospect, moving from the far East side of downtown (at the Shestakovo cathedral) until we hit the Neva river on the West side of the town. We managed to take in almost all of the significant buildings within walking distance and we didn’t let the rain bother us one bit. We stumbled along the way into an amazing market that was selling fresh goods of all kinds imaginable. Fruits, vegetables, meat, seafood, honey and so much more. The market was one of the cleanest and freshest we have seen in any city around the world so far. It was also the first place Chad has had to experience “The Handshake”. While looking longingly at one of the food stalls, a vendor approached Chad and said “My friend” grabbed his hand and guided him closer. The trick is, he wouldn’t let go. Chad almost had to wrestle him to the ground in order to get away. The one encounter has been enough to remind us of the warnings that Chad’s best friend Dave gave us about ‘friendly’ vendors and the never ending handshake!
The next day was our last day in the city, but we had until 16:00 to spend seeing the city, so we embarked on day two of Chad’s walking tours. We headed across the Neva river to the Peter and Paul fortress and along the river bank South, finally coming to the Hermitage one last time. The walk was another nearly 5 hours of seeing the city and had us fully exhausted for our 6 hour train ride to Moscow.
Our first impression of Russia is that the country is not as different from many other places we have visited. Many of the stereotypes portrayed by American movies either did not exist or are at least, not true of St. Petersburg in the modern era. There is a unique culture and unique customs, but the people live and behave in very similar ways to many other Eastern European people. Also, Russian accents, or the ones we have heard do not sound like how North America stereotypes them at all. Many people speak at least a little English, the people are generally nice and helpful, but not all. One interesting thing is that there are two sets of prices. There is a Russian price and a tourist price for entrance to all museums and for tickets to concerts / plays. This is a carry-over from the Communist Era, where it was a belief that the government helps to provide for the people of the country. The “true cost” is to be paid by foreigners, but the cost to be paid by citizens of the country is subsidized by the government. Although most things in St. Petersburg cost on-par with Europe, there are several things that are still unreasonably cheap. Metro tickets, vodka and cigarettes are all very cheap by comparison. A half litre of vodka is only $3 Canadian, a trip on the metro is less around $0.8 and a pack of cigarettes is only about $1.5 (all in Cdn dollars).
Inside the Saviour on Spilled blood
After our last walking trip we were off on the train to go and meet up with Ewa’s family Natalia and Kola in Moscow!
written by  ECRadventure on September 11, 2009 from Saint Petersburg, Russia

Moscow ... from Russia with love
Moscow, Russia
The family!
Our train ride from St. Petersburg to Moscow was quite nice and well deserved after the troubles we had getting the tickets, we even got two little packages with food for the ride, like an airplane meal. We arrived at 10 pm and were greeted by Ewa’s cousin Natalia and her father Kola (Ewa’s uncle). They were waiting on the platform with big smiles and flowers when the train got in and took us to one of Natalia’s apartments where we would be staying for the week. It was very close from the train station and smack in the middle of Moscow which is a good thing because the traffic even at night can get pretty bad. They took us to the apartment and there on the table was a welcoming present for Chad - his shoes had arrived from Kolo! Thank you again to everyone involved in the recovery! We really appreciate all the help.
Inside the Kremlin
Natalia showed us how everything worked, security system, computer etc. and, after a welcoming glass of vodka, they went home as they live about a half an hour away. Natalia was really nice and stocked the fridge with everything she thought we would enjoy, so we didn’t even have to worry about food. The next morning we waited for Natalia and her boyfriend Kostya to come over and get us registered in Moscow. While Natalia went to the post office to get everything settled, we strolled the streets around the neighbourhood with Kostya. Chad had a lot of interesting questions for Ewa to translate to Kostya about the black markets in Moscow. Apparently it is very easy buy anything you would like including a university diploma. He also took us to a book store so we could get a Moscow map which is obviously needed since Map Man (Chad) didn’t have one and felt a little off. The one we got also had the Moscow metro map on it, the Metro in Moscow is huge! The rest of the day we drove around the city with Natalia and Kostya and they showed us around. Unlike St. Petersburg, Moscow is not easily navigated on foot. It is too big and a lot of the sights are scattered around the city. There are about 11million people living in Moscow legally and probably a few more million illegally, so it’s a pretty big city. We saw an old palace made of wood that used to belong to a rich duke, the tv tower, a field where old war planes were displayed. By old we mean cold war old not 19 century. For dinner Natalia took us to a pretty cool fish restaurant. There is fresh fish laid out on ice and you can just point to the fish you want and they will cook it up for you in the style you want; steamed, fried, baked in salt, boiled…however you want! Of course none of us could decide on what we wanted, because we all wanted them all so we decided to get two whole fish. One was wild sea bass which we had baked in salt and the other was Natalia’s favourite Turbot which looks a little like a sting ray. When our fish was ready the waiter added a table to ours and laid out all of his tools and brought the fish to the table. The sea bass was covered in salt that had formed into a thick crust. He poured vodka on the fish and then lit it on fire! Petty cool. Then he let the fire die and tapped the crust with a spoon to separate it from the fish. He fillet both the fish and dived up the catch. We stayed for a little while after dinner and then went home for another wonderful sleep in our super comfy bed.
Some nice stiff branches to whip yourself pure again!
We spent the next few days at the dacha, the family summer house, which is about an hour and a half outside of Moscow. Uncle Kola drove us there and stayed with us. He prepared the banya, a Russian sauna for us. It was about 98 degrees C in there! We also got to use soaked birch twigs to hit ourselves with and mint water to pour over the hot coals. First we used the sauna dry and then poured the mint water on it to make it a wet sauna humid and insanely hot. We didn’t manage to stay in there too long and Ewa was on the floor (the coolest place in the sauna) the whole time. In the evening it was time to have some shish kabobs and drink some vodka with Kola. The next day was spent recuperating from the previous night. We left the dacha at two and headed back to Moscow where we vegged all day long and did absolutely nothing.
Kola at the Banya
On Wednesday we were in for a treat; Natalia organized a Kremlin tour for us through her work. We arrived just in time because we got lost a little bit. When we got to the right entrance of the Kremlin we didn’t have tickets because they were waiting for us a the ticket office but since the Kremlin is where the Russian governments headquarters are you have to go through security and Chad had a backpack which obviously is not allowed inside. Find the coat check - hmm ok. So we are now running around outside of the Kremlin trying to find a coat check. There are no signs, there is nothing that looks remotely like a coat check. We see a woman running towards us. She asks if we are the people for the Kremlin tour from the bank (Natalia booked it through her work), yes we say totally out of breath. We explained what had happened and she took us to the coat check and whisked us back to the Kremlin, past the big line that had now formed and motioned us to go through. The guards asked her who we were and why we are jumping the line and she said : “they are guests of the museum!” Then she got us past all of the lines inside and provided us with an English speaking guide and disappeared.
The Saviour on spilled blood
The tour itself was great, we saw the armoury as well as three of the Russian churches on the grounds, it was about 4 hours long. In the evening we went to Kola and Tatyana’s house for dinner, where we spent the evening visiting and enjoying their company. The following day we went to see the red square and Vladimir Lenin’s Mausoleum. We weren’t quite sure how to find the ticket office so we asked a police officer who then proceeded to ask us if were in a hurry and if we were…it would only cost us 300 Rubles for him to get us in very quickly. No thank you officer. In the Mausoleum lies Lenin, embalmed. It is a pretty strange sight to see a dead body that looks somewhat as if the person is just sleeping, they have eerie lighting in there as well and you are not allowed to stop. Russian solders stand all over the place inside making sure that people move quite quickly through the building, we were in and out in less than 2 minutes, but it‘s for free, so we didn‘t have any complaints about the duration. They are very strict on keeping you moving, even on the outside, where many other Russian communist leaders are buried.
One of Ewa's Grandpa's medals.
Later that day, we had one last evening with Kola and Tatyana. Kola showed us my grandfathers medals that he had received when he served in the Russian Army, he was an engineer. It was a very nice evening but also a bit sad because it’ll be a while before we see them again. We spent our last day in Moscow exploring the vast Metro stations. This may sound strange but Moscow has the most beautiful stations all decorated differently, in different themes and using different media. The new stations are not very exciting, but the ones that were built first are impressive. They have marble walls, mosaics, statues, and huge chandeliers.
Moscow metro
Natalia and Kostia on our last night in Moscow
Our train to Beijing left at 23:55 so we still had time for dinner with Natalia and Kostya. This time we went to a Russian restaurant. They drove us to the train station and helped us get settled in, translating for us to the attendants. Natalia even got them to make sure to take us to a bank once we hit China since we did not have any Chinese money. And we are off on our 7 day journey on the trans Manchurian!
written by  ECRadventure on September 18, 2009 from Moscow, Russia

Transmanchurian... 7 days on the train!
Novosibirsk, Russia
Novosibirsk train station
As the train leaves Moscow, we wave goodbye to Natalia and Kostya and set up our cozy 2 person cabin. We quickly made a friend, Clement from France. We have a couple beers and had a great first night sleep. The thought of spending 7 days on the train seems scary at first, what are we going to do the whole time? We had a TV in our cabin…which did not work. Luckily we brought a lot of books to keep our time occupied. We also had to change our sleep schedule to try to get shift ourselves the 5 hours ahead, which wasn't the easiest thing to do, but we managed. On the first leg of the train ride, we had most of the wagon to our selves. It was only at Irkutsk, where a large group of other people had booked on for the second half of the train ride, that the train filled up. Despite this the train stayed quite clean and the toilet was never dirty, nor did we have to wait very long for it to be free (that is other than the 15 minutes on either side of each stop, where the train attendants lock the bathroom doors).
Our compartment and our home for the next 7 days
The cabin was quiet nice. It had two benches, one on either side, that had a bed on each that would fold down to sleep on. The benches are just wide enough to sleep on and not a lot of room to roll around. They are quite comfortable though. Under the benches and above the hallway, there was a lot of storage space, more than we could possibly fill, even with our huge food store!
We had so much food with us, that it seemed like we over did it a bit, but we prepared well just in case. We even boiled enough eggs for 2 breakfasts so that was taken care of. The train has a hot water boiler in each wagon, so that you can have coffee and tea whenever you want. We also brought a lot of cup of soup and instant mash potatoes so we wouldn’t go hungry. Dinners were a fancy affair in the restaurant car. We were hoping that the restaurant car would be an old school car, decorated in traditional Russian themes, however, the car must have been modernized in the past few years, as there were only a few touches of typical Russian decoration remaining. The restaurant car switched to a Chinese car at the boarder, but it, like the Russian car was only minimally decorated in Chinese styles. The food was a little expensive on the train (about $15-$20 Cdn per meal), and it was a bit cheaper on the Chinese side.
Ewa having some supper on the train!
There were quite a few stops that were long enough for us to get out, stretch our legs and buy some goodies from the Russian babushkas that wait at the train station to sell you food. They have everything, pierogies, bread filled with meat, beer, juice almost anything you want. We didn't realize that along the way, pretty much anything that we stocked up on before leaving Moscow would be available, either through the Babushkas, or through the vendors at the train stations. All the soups, odd veggies, water, pop, beer etc. (surprisingly we couldn't find any vodka at any of the stops). Had we known this before hand we wouldn't have bought nearly as many things as we did.
More of Siberia... and SNOW
The days passed quickly. Reading, staring out the window for hours at a time passed our time. The scenery didn't change all that much and it wasn't too different for us. It did remind us a lot of the areas we've lived in Canada, with plains, rolling hills, small mountains, wisps of snow at the higher elevations and the odd stream and river. What did look different were all the cities and small villages along the way. On the Russian side, the towns looked cozy, built of wood and a little on the outdated or run-down side. The gardens in all of these towns were very well cared for and it was interesting to get a small view of daily life.
Lake Baikal
Random scenery somewhere in Siberia
It was quite interesting to see the change in architecture and development at the boarder between Russia and China. We had a few hours on each side of the boarder while the documentation was checked and the train carriage was changed. On the Russian side, we saw, right up to the boarder, older buildings, mostly from wood in the villages and old square concrete apartment buildings. Immediately on the Chinese side of the boarder, we run smack into a new development designed probably to rival Las Vegas. The town is brand new, shining bright with new buildings, lots of neon lights, theme parks and hotels. From there on, a lot of the cities seem to be newer, and the smaller towns constructed from brick. The change in air quality wasn't immediate but after the first 12 hours or so, the air had taken on a smell, and the hazy smog was apparent... and we arrived in Beijing at 05:30 in the morning local time fully satisfied from our Trans Manchurian experience, hoping that the pollution was more a matter of fog and mist than real air pollution..
The train, clean and shiny and new... well clean and shiny on the outside.
written by  ECRadventure on September 22, 2009 from Novosibirsk, Russia

Beijing..the longest blog yet!
Beijing, China
The Gate of Heavenly Peace at Tiananmen Square
Finally we're in Asia! It's so refreshing to be out of Europe and into the land of unknown. We got into Beijing at 5:30am, welcomed by a nice fog...I mean smog. You couldn't even see 30 feet in front of you. We caught a cab to our hostel after bargaining with the cab driver for a few minutes, at first he said 200 to get to our hostels and we said 100, he said no. Ok, we walked on...he ran after us and said ok ok. This is the funny thing about China, you have to be comfortable with the fact that you will get ripped off. When we got to the hostel the owner Joe said that really we should have paid 20 ha! Oh well, there were three of us, (we brought along Clement to our hostel), so it's not that bad.
Kitties! Lots of kitties at the Chinese box in Beijing
The Chinese box hostel is where we stayed and it is a pretty quaint place with about 5 cats. They nap all over the place and love the attention from all the guests. We decided despite the time changes and the early morning getting off the train, not to nap when we arrived. We thought this would help us deal with the jet lag quicker (no we didn't fly but the time change from Moscow is about 5 hours). To jumpstart the morning, we had a delicious traditional Chinese breakfast, a tomato noodle soup with scrambled eggs, sooo good! After our breakfast, we joined some other travelers who were going to see the Summer palace and the Beijing Zoo. The kicker was that instead of using buses or the metro, we got a sweet boat ride to the zoo! The zoo houses so many animals, Pandas, Lions, Tigers, Lions, Elephants...you know standard zoo. The only reason we actually went there was to see the giant Pandas, but then we got sidetracked and stopped in at a number of other exhibits. To be honest it was very sad and depressing. Ewa lost it a little bit when we entered the Big Cats Exhibition. The beautiful animals were put in small concrete cages that were barren, nothing for them to do but sleep or walk around in a circle distressed. There were so many beautiful cats, leopards, lions, panthers, tigers...some clearly not taking well to being locked up in such a small space. There were baby white tigers who were just laying there doing what cats do, sleeping. Some tigers were scratching at the metal door at the back of their cage furiously trying to get out, others like the black panther were walking around in circles panting. It was a sad sight and a reminder that modern zoos are keeping animals caged only for display for our selfish reasons, and that the animals would be better served by us making a reasonable attempt at real animal conservation, by providing as close to a natural habitat as possible. The images that we remember looking back at the zoo, remind us of our desire to work on or at least visit a real animal sanctuary / rehabilitation project during our year vacation.
At the summer palace, on a wonderfully clear day
From the Zoo, we took another boat ride to the Summer palace. The area of the summer palace has been used by emperors from around 1111 AD, and continued additions over the years added to the beauty and size of the Palace. The Palace was largely destroyed in the war of 1860 and restored on its original foundations in 1886, only to be destroyed at the beginning of the 20th century again – it is a masterpiece of Chinese landscape garden design. The natural landscape of hills and open water is combined with artificial features such as pavilions, halls, palaces, temples and bridges, and about 294 hectares in size. At this point we were all a little bit delirious and out of it from the lack of sleep and the long day. There is so much to see and then it all starts blending together, at one point we got lost, but managed to find an exit and flag down a cab. But, as we find out, getting into a cab in Beijing doesn't mean the cab will take you anywhere. You show them the address where you want to go, and if they don't know where that is they tell you to get out! Haha. So this is what the cab driver did, after trying for a while longer we finally got one. Trying to take a bus in Beijing can be daunting, the city is enormous and unless you want to spend your whole day in traffic then taking a cab is the better option (although if you are in rush hour traffic it's often faster walking).
Eating the river!
Before heading to the hostel, we were famished and needed to grab a bite to eat. We wandered around the streets for a while, before settling into a small restaurant that had a hole in the middle of the table. We figured that we would get to stir fry our own meal. Sounded great. We ordered some veggies, beef, chicken and noodles and waited in anticipation of our meal. The servers came out, and placed a big bowl of cloudy mystery water on the induction heater. We stared a little bleary eyed trying to figure out for sure what we were supposed to do. The lady told us to put the vegetables into the “river” for 4 minutes. Hmmm… OK, sounds great! So, after a few quick comments between us and Clement, into the river went all our veggies. An hour later, and a few orders for seconds, we were very pleased about our dining experience in the river! We would be back! That night, we had no energy left to join the big rambunctious group of people heading out for the night markets. We were off to bed for our big day 2 in Beijing!
We were up a little late, after a much needed sleep-in and after another great tomato-egg-noodle breakfast, we were off on bus 22 to Tiananmen square! The gate of Heavenly Peace, which separates Tiananmen square from the forbidden city, was constructed in 1417, and to this day is the worlds largest city square with 440,000 m2. The square didn’t seem to us to be anything too spectacular, however keeping the significance of the square in mind regarding the protest which saw hundreds of Chinese die in pro-democracy demonstrations in 1989 does alter your view of the area. The whole square was under renovations to prepare it for the huge National Day celebrations that were planned for Oct 1st.
We continued on through the square into the Forbidden City. The complex is truly amazing to see. It’s like the Louvre in so far as there are too many things to see inside within the space of one or two days. We spent over three hours walking around trying to take it all in. The three hours was just long enough to walk through, and make a few detours into the side buildings off of the main temples. The Forbidden City began construction in 1406, and it was estimated that over 1 million Chinese were working on it during the 14 years it took to complete. There are many rooms and display cases filled with artefacts and various relics.
After our wandering around the city we headed back to the hostel to freshen up before our night out on the town to see the kung-fu show! As it turned out the show was amazing, filled with crazy stunts and great acrobatics. There were even a set of three kids (probably around 6 years old) who did a half back flip, landing on their head, swinging their feet to continue the motion, and completing another half flip again to land on their feet. They would do several of these in a row. It almost didn’t seem real some of the things that they were able to do. However, despite the show being great, it was overcast the people who organized our night out. We paid the hostel 280 Yuan each for the show, which included the transportation and the VIP tickets. We were picked up by the mini-van and the lady who arranged the tickets. We stopped once to pick up more guests. Once we arrived at the show, Ewa asked her for a suggestion for a place to eat after the show. WELL, they would take us to some place. They tried a lobster fancy looking place, but we said we just wanted typical Chinese. So, we went across the street and had a pretty decent meal. But, we didn’t eat alone. We were joined by the lady and another Chinese man, who was picked up at the second stop. After the meal, when the bill came, they told us it was 55 Yuan, and after we paid, and everyone walked out, we realized that we paid for them to have supper. Strange, but as it was only about $9 Can, we didn’t object too much. When we arrived at the show, Ewa was taken by the Chinese man and they went into the theatre. I was held back by the lady for about 5 minutes, which at the time we didn’t know why. Then, we played musical chairs, as directed by our two Chinese hosts, moving between 4 sets of seats. First in the “VIP” area, only to be kicked out, and subsequently kicked out of other areas, before settling in our assigned seats in the back right corner of the theatre. Definitely not VIP seating. The best part is that there were only 3 tickets, but there were 4 of us. SO, the Chinese lady ended up on the lap of the Chinese guy. After it was all said and done, (and we managed to observe a few things, them cuddling a little more than strangers would, people talking about ticket prices) we came to the realization that we over charged about 800% for the tickets, and we paid for these two to have a double date out on the town for free. We weren’t even mad, just amazed! After our little run-around we were off to the hostel again for an early night as we had to be on the bus at 05:50 the next morning for our long drive out to the great wall!!
Hiking the great wall from Jinshanling
We signed up for the long hike of the great wall-10 km of the wall and 2 km of mountain to get to the wall. The start point was at the furthest of three sections of the wall near Beijing,140 km outside of the city. It took about 4 hours to get to the destination and luckily we both managed to sleep most of the way there. Once we got to the wall the tour guide told us which way to go and said it should take about 4.5 hours to hike the 10km. The wall was awesome, since this part was the least touristy you really had the chance to enjoy your surroundings and the hike. There were no crowds, only a few vendors selling “water, beer, coke” at the towers. It was really worth it to take the bus that far out and have some isolation instead of going close by and being hounded by vendors and feeling claustrophobic because of all the other tourists. It took us only 3 hours to finish the hike but we were going at a good steady pace, up and down the steps. Because this part of the great wall is not visited as often it is also in a nearly original (read crumbling and difficult) state at some parts, which only adds to it’s charm. Some parts didn’t even have steps left, or the stone was falling out from under your feet. After the hike we took a zip line down to a little boat which took us the rest of the way to where we were meeting our guide. We all had a buffet lunch and were heading back to the city.
The creepy crawlers at the Wangfujing night market
After relaxing for a bit after getting back we went out to see one of the night markets with Clement and Benji. The night market has very many different Chinese snacks: scorpions on stick (still alive), starfish, crickets on a stick, sheep’s penis, dog, cat, silkworms, as well as ‘regular’ more western style food. We both had noodles haha. One of the strangest things was the drastic change in the smell, one second it smells so good and then the wind changes direction and you have to stop chewing because the smell is awful, we are still not sure what that particular smell is, some type of food being grilled. We didn’t even bother trying to talk each other into eating anything that we weren’t comfortable with…there was no way that was going to happen. After the night market we were all a bit hungry since we hadn’t eaten much and we went out for dinner at a small restaurant near the hostel. We were the only white people in there and got a few stares but the owners were very nice and hospitable, even handing out cigarettes to Benji who didn’t have any left. We were joking that they would end up on the bill, but it didn’t really matter, it is very cheap to eat in Beijing if you stick to the local restaurants. We had 5 different dishes and a round of beers and it cost us only 60 which is about 10 dollars Canadian…for 5 people!
The next day we decided to check out a different type of market - the silk market. The silk market is a building 6 stories high filled with vendors selling anything you can imagine, clothing, bags, watches, jewellery, sunglasses, electronics, souvenirs etc. The vendors are incredibly pushy, we have never experienced anything like this. They are constantly yelling at you “Hey Mista”, “Lady you want bag…good bag” but all at once, 10 different people are accosting you as you are walking down a narrow row of vendors. Luckily we were there only for fun and really weren’t looking to buy anything so it was funny. They grab your hand and wont let go, leading you to their stall, they joke, they yell, some of them will even steal the hat off your head to try to get you to come to their stall. If you want to buy anything here, you have to be prepared to barter, and barter hard. You ask them how much they will give you a hugely inflated price, so you counter with about 10% of what they want, because they are ripping you off. Sometimes just walking away from the stall after you touch or look at something is enough for the vendor to drop their price by 80%. We bought a couple of things and were out of there, walking out onto a quiet back alley we walked in silence enjoying that no one was yelling at us anymore.
We started feeling sore from yesterdays great wall extravaganza and decided to go for a massage. Clement was going anyway so we went along with him to the Dragon Fly. The place was very nice, candles, aroma therapy and not too expensive. We enjoyed our well deserved treat, an hour oil massage. After the massage we spent the night at the hostel having a few drinks and enjoying our little peaceful space in Beijing. The atmosphere at the hostel was always great. A good mix of people, and well arranged to allow for people to hang out, have some beers, relax watching TV or on the free internet. That night with the crowd, Chad was finally feeling talkative and settled into a few hours of debate with the other backpackers and found himself crawling into bed in the wee hours of the morning. Our last day in Beijing was pretty lax, we relaxed in the morning and went for another massage at the dragonfly, this time a two hour massage. The first hour was a Chinese massage and then another hour of head and shoulder massage. Chad really enjoyed his massage, Ewa on the other hand has a less than perfect one: the masseuse was way to hard and then the funniest part was during the head massage he actually fell asleep haha not once but about 4 times at different parts of the massage, oh well. We went back to the hostel, had some dinner and went catch our train which was leaving at 9:20 pm to Shanghai. It was a bit sad to leave the Chinese Box and everyone we met there, it was an awesome place. The owner Joe even gave us Chinese charms we could put on our backpacks, so sweet. We were really wondering what the trains would be like in China. We booked a soft sleeper, 4 berth cabin and when we got there we were pleasantly surprised at how great it was. They even had a western style toilet and on the other side of the train the normal squatter, which was awesome because Ewa was really wondering how you would successfully pee on a moving train using a squatter. Shouldn’t have worried! The train was pretty new, it didn’t smell, the bathrooms were clean and nice, the cabins and beds were comfortable. Each bed even had a flat screen TV. The train we took wasn’t even the fast luxury ‘Z’ class trains, but it was by far the best train we’ve been on yet! Chinese trains are a very pleasant surprise indeed!
Random shot of the pollution in Beijing
We found Beijing to be a friendly and unrushed city. There are over 17 million people living here and as long as you put your trust in the cabs (none of which have seatbelts for the passengers) and watch carefully for cars, busses, motorbikes you don’t really feel rushed or in danger at any time. Pedestrians do not have the right of way, and cars sometimes don’t even stop at red lights. The traffic is bad and the pollution makes it hard to breathe, but the city has flair. The Chinese people, especially the men, like to clear their throats and spit, a lot, but less than we thought. Perhaps it is a dying tradition. Another strange observation for Beijing is the babies and toddlers wear pants that have a hole in the ass. These baby outfits are actually manufactured with a hole so that the child can relive itself at any point, and not mess their clothes. Apparently, babies should not have to “hold it”, because it’s not healthy. That however doesn’t mean that the stroller, or the parent’s arms, or the floor of the city bus are spared. We watched once as a small boy proceeded to drop off a surprise diarrhea into his stroller and the efforts of his mom to try to clean up the mess. Maybe it’s better than the billions of added diapers into the environment?? Another thing we’ve noticed is that some Chinese people have no problems simply staring at you (the white people) in a confused curious manner. They are not shy about it either and even when you stare back they only continue to stare back. It can be a little unnerving. It’s a bit strange walking down the street and people staring at you, some even stop you and want to take a picture with you.
Only 11 hours on our mid-range Chinese train and we would be in Shanghai!!
Us with Clement in Beijing
written by  ECRadventure on September 28, 2009 from Beijing, China

Shanghai... so good we did it twice!
Shanghai, China
The Grand Hyatt and the Jin Mao Tower
Getting ready for our big night on the town with Clement!
The train ride to Shanghai was a breeze, the train itself was awesome and we slept most of the way there, getting in at around 7 am. Since China has no time zones...yes really it's all one huge time zone, there wasn't too much adjusting to do. We were greeted by rain, got a little bit lost trying to find the hostel in the mean time getting soaked, but we managed to find it and luckily they let us have our room right away. This hostel was more like a hotel with a capacity of probably 300 or more guests staying here, however it seems like the hostel is mostly empty. Once we settled in we started searching for a Chiropractor. After Chad got his nice massage the day before, he did some stretching and pulled something in his neck. It was bad to the point where he couldn't turn his head very well, so off we go in search of a Chiropractor. Trying to get anything done during the time of the Chinese holiday is nearly impossible, the few chiropractors that were available were on holidays until the 13th of October. We made an appointment at an Osteopath, the next best thing. Chad had a very interesting appointment and treatment which included an x-ray, as well as acupuncture and cupping! When in Rome. The cupping was a little painful, what the doctor did is use a round suction instrument to suck out impurities from the affected area, and thereby leaving huge hickies on Chad’s neck in three areas. After that interesting experience we went back to the hostel and relaxed.
The next day was relaxed, trying to recuperate from the neck pain and getting to know the area around our hostel. It was still pouring rain outside, so we didn’t venture too far. We managed to find a grocery store and a little black market. We loaded up on a few DVD’s from the black market (they were only 1.25$) and some fresh fruit and veggies from the grocery store. The store was a Carrefour, which is a large French multinational. It had two levels and was very much like a Real Canadian superstore back home, or one of those Wal-Mart super centers. We shouldn’t have been surprised as Shanghai is a very modern city. In some ways it is more modern and advanced than cities in N. America, but there is still a sharp contrast between the rich and the poor, even more than you would see in a city of N. America. Anyways, this store gave us a chance to stock up on some of the toiletries that had dwindled over the past months and to get more of our pre-trip diet back into us. Raw food is a great change from all the prepared food from restaurants we had been eating at for the past weeks. It seems that most of Asia will not have kitchens in the hostels like they do in Europe. I suppose with food and going out to eat being so cheap, many people wouldn’t see the necessity for kitchens in a hostel.
People! People everywhere, downtown Shanghai
The next day the weather cleared up and we were off! We decided to take one of the river boat cruises that go down the Huangpu river. We took the metro close, and then walked for 2 hours through the French concession and the bund, slowly making our way to the river. When we had first walked out of the metro, we were overwhelmed with the people. It was one of the first ‘Chinese’ experiences. Thousands of people had filled the square and the streets. There were so many people on the sidewalks that they spilled into the streets, and the 4 lane street became only one lane of traffic. We had just said to each other that we hadn’t felt out of place at all in China yet and then we walked out of the metro. The walk around the bund and French concession was a nice little walk, but a little disappointing because the whole area is under a lot of construction in preparation for the upcoming world exposition that is taking place in Shanghai in 2010. It not only mars the view but also makes it quite difficult to get around, but I imagine if the rest of the city is any proof, it will be fantastic once they have the construction completed. We finally found the dock area and had a bit of trouble finding the boat. We ended up in a huge line up for tickets, and only after we had paid 0.5 yuan for a ticket ($0.07 Cdn) we realized that this might not be the boat tour we were thinking of. We figured out after a short moment that it was for a ferry ride across the river. We were approached by a salesman who then led us off in the right direction for the tourist boat rides. We paid 100 yuan each for our hour long boat ride on the river. It was great!
Singapore skyline
The skyline was a little obscured in pollution, but it was amazing to see the skyscrapers that dominated the view. Shanghai is full of buildings stretching for the heavens and at night, until 11pm, most of them are lit up in a dazzling show of lights and colors. There isn’t anything quite like it that we have seen yet!
One of the Shanghai markets...with the huge skyscraper in the background.
After the boat tour we decided to wander around the city for a little while longer. We took a few random, narrow dark alleys and wound up in the middle of an authentic Chinese market. This market put the tourist market of Wanfujing in Beijing to shame. This was the real side of China, with all the sights, sounds and smells you can imagine. There were moments that despite the very strong stomach that we both have, where we weren’t sure we would be able to hold it together. It truly had just about everything you could think of to eat. The conditions weren’t very hygienic, but it was all there for sale. All varieties of seafood, fowl, meat, veggies, fruit, noodles and so much more. We were the only white people for hundreds of meters at the least. There were no tourists in sight, but despite that there were no gawking faces looking back at us. This was the second truly authentic Chinese experience for us! On the far end of the market, after a few twists and turns down residential streets, we happened to pop out on one of the tourist streets and followed that down to a different market. This one was very similar to the ones we had visited in Beijing and we just cruised on through, without stopping too many times. We continued to wander through the streets for a while longer, making our way back to the city center, where we knew that we would be able to find a metro stop.
Spicy, spicy Szechewan food
Along the way we came across a Szechwan restaurant and we figured we would give it a go. We got in, ordered Szechwan beef, a stir fried green bean dish and a bok choy dish. Wow! One of the best meals we’ve had. The green beans were similar to one dish we had before, spicy, salty and great! The bok choy had a spicy smoky flavour that was to die for. The beef, well, the heat was off the scale. We both have a very high tolerance for spicy foods, but this one pushed it to the limits. It was comparable to the ‘bull vs. the volcano’ chicken wings that we have back in Calgary, only we ate an entire platter of it! After our wonderful meal, we were off down the metro back to the hostel. It was now quite late and we knew we had a big day the next day!
The next day we decided to check out the Shanghai museum. We got up a bit late, as we’ve been doing lately, maybe a combination of being worn out, a bit under the weather and just revelling in being able to sleep in, by the time we got to the museum it was close to 1 pm. The line was a bit long and it was super humid and hot, many of the Chinese people were shielding themselves from the sun with umbrellas, hats, sunglasses and sometimes all of the above. We’ve noticed that Chinese women really strive to have pale white skin, we figure that that is why they shield themselves from the sun so much. The amount of commercials that are on TV and in magazines about skin whitening creams and procedures is insane.
Chinese scroll from the national museum
Back to the museum, which is a museum of ancient Chinese art and possesses a collection of 120,000 precious works of art. It has rich and high-quality collection of ancient Chinese bronze, ceramics, painting and calligraphy. Some of the displays are really great. The museum is a little on the small side compared to some of the other great museums we’ve seen (the Louvre, Hermitage etc). We probably spent about 2 hours taking in the art and the Chinese people some of which, as soon as they got in proceeded to sit down right away and take a nap. It’s not a joke, Chinese people sleep whenever they can get a spare minute. At some of the markets we visited the vendors are sleeping at their stall, out cold, I’m sure if you wanted to you could just walk in and out without paying. On the bright side if you are tired of being harassed to buy this or that; ‘I give you good price lady‘, you can seek out those stalls with sleeping vendors and shop in peace.
Going down? From the restaurant on the Grand Hyatt
In the evening we decided to go out with Clement who was now also in Shanghai and have a night out. Our first stop was one of the tallest high-rises in Shanghai - the Jin Mao Tower. It has 93 floors, we went to the 87th floor - the Hyatt Bar and had a very very expensive beer (90 Yuan ~ $15 Cdn) to start our night off. We then were off to three expat bars in Shanghai, it was a great night. Funny thing was that once we were around a lot of westerns it was a bit weird almost uncomfortable. Its funny how easy it is to create your own bubble when the majority of the culture and people around you is so different. The night ended at around 5 am and we had a nice hour cab ride because the driver couldn’t find our hostel. We went to sleep after some convenience store noodle fix and slept until 2pm the next day.
Since the day was half gone when we woke up we did nothing but go and get more cheap dvds and stayed in bed all day long watching movies, it was great. Since we were off to Vietnam soon we decided that the next day, our last day would be spent stocking up on some English books. We managed to find the bookstore with the biggest English book selection (which wasn’t that big but at least had some variety). We walked around more just checking out the city and then headed to the airport to catch our flight which was departing at 10.20pm. The Pudong airport is an hour away from Shanghai and we got a shuttle from our hostel. We were at the airport about 3 hours before the flight and just sat around waiting so that we could check in. The airport is huge! Biggest airport we’ve been in yet, and all bright shiny and new! As we were about to check into our flight (we're already at the airport at this time) and Ewa asks, ‘what is today?’ Well, it's the 6th. Hmmm, well our visa for Vietnam doesn't allow entry into the country until the 8th. Oh cr@p! So, a frantic hour of trying to call embassies, airlines, hotels, and other such places, we managed to change our flight, book a place to stay for the night, for the next two nights in Shanghai, change our hotel arrangements in Hanoi. We now had a flight booked for the 9th and a couple more days to relax in Shanghai.
Some things we noticed in Shanghai but also in China in general is that going to out to eat seems a bit different than back home. People go out to eat as a necessity, they don’t have time and it’s easier. They rarely talk when eating dinner, it’s more like a fast sit down, eat as much as you can, talk as little as possible and get out. The restaurant only gives you one menu per table vs. for each person. We’re not sure why this is, but it takes much longer for us to order because Ewa can never decide what to have and then Chad is just sitting there waiting for the menu, two menus is always much quicker. Another thing is the variety of potato chip flavours, if anyone has ever been to German for example they have beer flavoured chips. Here in China the flavours were: Shrimp, Cucumber, Kiwi, shish kabob, BBQ Chicken, BBQ Beef, and dumpling just to name a few. Ewa’s favourite snack here was Japanese crispy spicy seaweed squares, they were delicious!
The next couple of days we managed to waste away in fine fashion. A trip to a few markets, an attempt to work out a little, eat healthy and get some sleep. Nothing spectacular occurred, but Ewa did manage to get her feet wet with attempting to bargain and to get over the impulse to run when the store owners come hassling. This will probably prove to be more helpful than we realize as we tread deeper into S.E. Asia!
Buddha statue in the Chinese national museum
written by  ECRadventure on October 9, 2009 from Shanghai, China

HaNoi .. where are you going? You want moto?
Hanoi, Vietnam
Us getting suckered in the first few hours in Hanoi. We really really overpaid for those bananas!
Hanoi! S.E. Asia, we’ve arrived! We landed at the airport, made it through customs without any hassles and even passed the medical thermo-imaging camera. Turns out neither of us has a fever, although there is a chance we’re simply immune to it all and we’re passively spreading it around the world with us. As we came out of the security gates, we looked face to face with our first welcoming party of the trip. He didn’t have a fresh fruit basket, but there was a new car with good AC waiting for us. Once we had finally gotten money from the ATM (the fourth ATM we found would finally give us some money) we were on our way. As it was 03:30 in the morning when we arrived in Hanoi, we were off straight to bed and didn’t wake up until late in the morning. However, before we could go to sleep we suffered our first of many times that we were ripped off in Hanoi. Through a series of miscommunications with the night clerk and the taxi driver, and errors on our part (we blame the lack of sleep) we ended up leaving the check in desk of our hotel with much less money in our pockets than we should have.
After waking up and sorting out the previous nights’ debacle with the hotel’s night clerk (we got back all the money owed to us), we were on our way! Our first interaction with the street vendors was to be suckered into getting our pictures taken holding a traditional basket(s) and wearing a hat. Afterwards we ‘bought’ some bananas that we didn’t want for a supremely over inflated price. We took a few minutes inside a café to reorient ourselves and get our game plan together to ensure we weren’t taken advantage of so easily again. The rest of the first day in Hanoi was spent getting a feel for Vietnam and the city. We walked around the lake in the old quarter, around the many small side streets, all of which are flooded with motorcycles, bicycles and cars, not to mention the thousands of people. The people in Vietnam drive like maniacs, far more crazy than anywhere we have seen yet. Mysteriously they manage while being crazy to avoid actually hitting each other (usually anyways). We managed to stop into many of the travel agencies to ask about the tours they offered and tried to get a feel for the best prices and best options. In Hanoi, and apparently throughout S.E. Asia, there are literally backpacker districts that are filled with hotels, hostels, travel agencies and other tourist services. Almost every shop operates as a travel agency, even if their main business is as a restaurant. Although there are so many of them, you think the prices would be quite cheap, but it seems that they also work in unison to keep the prices as high as possible. The prices in these areas, while cheap compared to Canadian or European prices are still extremely high compared to the price a local would pay outside of the tourist area. That night, we managed to find ourselves in the middle of the National day celebrations. It was the 55th anniversary of the communist party in Vietnam. With Hanoi being the capital, there were many celebrations that were going on and the streets were even more crowded than on a normal day. We watched some of the festivities, but as it was in China, no foreigners were allowed in the main square so we watched from a big screen TV a few blocks away. While we were standing waiting for the ceremony to start we were approached by a man who claimed to be with the media. He took our picture, asked our names and asked us to write a statement about our feelings for the ceremony and Vietnam in general. It was our first time to be interviewed on our trip! We tried to take a picture of his credentials, but he wouldn’t let us take any photos of him. But, as he walked away, we made sure to snap a few pictures anyways.
The next day we went to one of the most famous sights in Hanoi, the Temple of Literature which trained the most brilliant minds for the last thousand years. The temple was dedicated to educating people not only in scholastic endeavours but also to make them better people, emphasizing morality and ethics. All that remains now are some courtyards as well as ceremonious buildings and statues. Many of these buildings have only been rebuilt in 2000. There are large monuments, carried on the backs of turtle statues that have the names of all of the students to the ‘university’ engraved on them. It was really relaxing to get away from all the noise of the city and to walk through a garden, trees and only have a few people around us. Later in the day we booked our three tours from three different companies. We had to shuffle things around since one of the tours wasn’t available when we were hoping to go, so instead of having one more day to spend in Hanoi we were off to Halong Bay.
Halong bay!
We had to wake up early the next day to get to the tour office at 8 and soon boarded the bus for a 3 hour ride to Halong Bay, to get on our boat. We took a water taxi to the Junk (that is what they call the houseboat). The junk was pretty nice. We got our own bedroom with a toilet and shower. Although like the other shower’s we’ve seen in Vietnam, it is only a showerhead in the same room as the sink and toilet with a common drain in the floor. We were starving and only had a bit of time to enjoy the scenery of the bay before lunch was served. We were expecting regular Vietnamese food but instead we got a feast! Lunch was steamed sand crab with a delicious salt and lime dip, grilled shrimp, rice, chicken and vegetables and fruit for desert. After lunch we went kayaking exploring nearby bat caves and the hills. It was so nice to be away from crowds again, listening to the water and birds. It was also a bit sad to see the state of the water; there was styrofoam, plastic bottles, bags and various other garbage floating around. As Halong Bay is a protected UNESCO world heritage site, and in the open ocean it gives you an idea just how much garbage is floating around in our oceans. After kayaking we had the chance to swim in ocean around the boat. It has been a long time since we had a chance to swim in the ocean, so we took every advantage. We spent the evening enjoying another feast, with an amazing spread just the same as lunch. Our boat sadly lacked any charisma or activities in the evening, so all of us passengers organized a game of poker with chips we made out of paper, beer can tabs and toothpicks. We were warned that night that there would be a storm coming in, more the remnants of a typhoon that had just hit the Philippines. All of the boats in Halong bay had to seek shelter in an isolated cove to avoid the high winds.
Kayaking on Halong bay
Our beach bungalo in Halong bay
The next day we were off to the deserted island to spend a night in a beach bungalow and explore an amazing cave in the area. But as we departed the tour guide told us that the typhoon that hit the Philippines was going to make it dangerous to be out on the water in Halong Bay, so we would have to stay put. Sure enough it was windy and raining and the refurbished fishing boat that was taking us to the island had to fight some pretty big swells. We arrived wet and cold and realized that we really didn’t pack well for this, we only brought beach weather clothes and t-shirts thinking we would be hot. Oops. Luckily the bungalows had sarongs for guests so we used those to wrap our shoulders and the staff brought out extra towels so you could cover yourself with them as well. In the evening we had a very nice dinner, shrimp the size of your hand and more wonderful seafood dishes. We played poker after supper again, and the place even had some type of plastic chips we could use to bet with! The storm just kept going and going. The staff had a large steel wok that they filled with coals and used as a fireplace to keep us warm, it was very nice, almost like a campfire. We slept peacefully with the rain beating down on the roof and the ocean waves right outside our door, it was a very nice way to fall asleep and to wake up to. The next morning we were hoping that things had cleared up as we were supposed to leave at noon. The rain was pounding down and the winds were still howling and at breakfast time our guide told us that we would not be able to leave the island because none of the transport boats were running, all boat activity was suspended by the government because of the storm. So another day on the island, it would have been nice if it was sunny and warm! Instead we had a day of napping, reading by the ‘fire’ and another card game in the evening before heading to bed. The next day we were finally able to leave. Our guide called our hotel and rescheduled our trip to Sapa in the north of Vietnam for us. As we had to spend the extra night on the island, we would have missed our night train and the tour. A few boat rides and a bus ride later we were back at our hotel with enough time to shower grab some dinner and head for the train station for our night train to Sapa.
The northern mountains and rice paddies around Sapa
We got into to Lao Cai at 05:30 in the morning and then took a bus up and up the foggy, winding roads to Sapa an area high in the mountains where one can still observe remote village people and their way of life. As soon as we got to the hotel our bus was attacked by at least 10 village girls wearing traditional dresses wanting to sell us things that they made. It wasn’t like a vendors’ stall, but more like an aggressive mob trying to rob you! We went into the hotel quickly and checked in and got a voucher for breakfast. We only had an hour before our tour left on our first half day of trekking. While we were waiting for the trek to start, we watched as these young girls who were dressed in their traditional outfits happily texting away or calling friends. You could see that under their ‘costumes’ they had more normal western-style clothes on. As it turned out one of the local village women would be our tour guide for the next two days. Our first day of hiking was to a village called Cat Cat. This village was only a short hike ( 3 km) from the hotel and was close enough to the town of Sapa that the way that the people lived was not so different than those in Sapa. They had a good display of the way that the people of the area used to live, showing how they made clothes, statues, different local drinks and how they milled corn and rice. However we had the feeling that a lot of the town was there more for show than actually observing their way of life. Many of the towns in the area and in many other areas of Vietnam offer a chance for a ’homestay’ where you go to the village and live in a home with the local people. You are only expected to pay a very nominal fee, and they in turn give you a chance to see the way that they really live their lives. Normally these types of treks involve a longer stay in the area as you have to hike to villages that are farther away from the main centers of transportation. After a cool and extremely humid night at the hotel (we were literally right in the clouds) we were off again early in the morning for a 6 km hike to the more distant village of Ta Phin. This hike took us out of the city into a much more remote area where there were many rice paddies and smaller villages. In all of the small villages, the newest and largest buildings seem to be the school(s) and to a lesser degree the hospital(s). The government ensures that elementary school (to age 13) is provided, even for the villages for all the children for free. In the villages that we visited, all of the children seemed to speak relatively good English, which they attributed to both the schools and to the tourists who visit the area. Both of the treks that we went on were guided by a local woman. Along the way, we were accompanied by a hoard of other local women. For the first ¾ of the trip, they were there chat and to help us out if we needed a hand down the slopes or anything else. Then as the trek was coming to an end, the sales pitches would start, and they ask you to buy something from them. On each of the days, we bought a few small items from one or two of the ladies who had travelled all day with us. We had been warned about children who come along on tours and ask for money for things like this and the dangers of buying from them because it often keeps them out of school, where they would get a better chance to escape from this kind of a life. All of the girls on the trek were older and had completed their school, but couldn’t afford to attend high school or college. On the second day, the lady who was most by our side throughout was actually 50 years old and helped Ewa for a good portion of the very slippery steep hillsides.
Local women from around Sapa, northern vietnam
After our hiking on the second day we had a quick cold shower at the hotel in their guest facilities (small rooms in the back for people leaving on the night trains) and we were off back on the bus down the mountain to Lao Cai. We mentioned earlier that the people in Vietnam drive like maniacs, and it was no where more evident as we barrelled down the mountain, through fog in the dark, on the one-lane road while cars and motorbikes dodged around each other in a frantic hurry to get to their destinations. We arrived safe and sound in Lao Cai, with the 4 other travellers we had met on our treks. We settled down for few beers to wait out the 2 hours until our train ride back to HaNoi. After the long and bumpy night we headed back at 05:20 in the morning to the hotel to grab our main packs and check back into our room. The train to Lao Cai is nice, clean and decently priced., but it isn’t very smooth at all. During the past two excursions we left our backpacks locked together in the lobby of the hotel. The hotel isn’t really a hotel, but more like a very basic hostel, with only private rooms. We weren’t sure that our stuff would still be there when we got back, but it was. A quick shower, breakfast and coffee later and we were off to meet up with another guide for our next trekking adventure.
This time we were off to Cuc Phoung national park, which is the oldest national park in Vietnam. We thought that we would be on a group tour, but it turned out that this time we were on a tour with only the two of us, and a personal driver and a guide. Pulling out of the city we couldn’t help but feel a little out of place having our own private tour. Even though our money goes a long way in S.E. Asia, it still doesn’t seem right to have as much buying power from our money as we do. The national park is a little over two hours by car outside the city so we were able to catch up on our sleep on the way. On the road through the national park, to the location where we would hike it was only a small narrow one-lane road and the driver seemed to be travelling little fast for the hills and curves, but we assumed that he knew exactly what he was doing. Chad was about to ask if it was only a one-way road, when out from around one of the corners came a very large pink tourist bus. We both skidded so a halt on the edges of the road, only a little more than a foot away from the bus. From that moment on, the driver was a lot more careful. Our trek through the national park was another great hike. It was ~8km of old growth forest with some great climbs and beautiful scenery. We saw a lot of butterflies, spiders and some interesting insects. We were only able to see a couple of small birds and no other animals of any kind. The guide told us that to see them you would have to do the two day trek and stay the night in the national park as most of the animals do not come out until after dark. For a lot of the trek we had to keep a slower pace, or stop frequently to let the guide catch up. He was suffering from a bit of a cold and had a harder time than we did on the hike and he kept apologizing to us for being slow. After the hike we went to the endangered primate rescue center. Normally the center does not allow tourist groups to enter, but as we were a small group, our guide had arranged for us to have a quick visit. The center was the main reason why we went on this tour, and we were a little disappointed that it was so short. However, our disappointment was due to our expectations of the center and not for the work that they are trying to accomplish. They are breeding primates (~ 25 species of monkeys, gibbons and other primates) and then reintroducing them into semi-wild habitats, and eventually release them back into the forests of Vietnam and other surrounding countries. It is a long process for them to breed groups of primates large enough to reintroduce them into the wild with any chance of surviving. We left from the primate center and began the long drive back to Hanoi and along the way we ran into a large, insanely hectic traffic jam as many people were returning to the city for the new work week.
Our jungle walk through Cuc Phuong national park
Our last night and last day in Hanoi we spent trying to catch up on sleep, uploading our pictures to the internet and relaxing. It had been a busy 6 days of busses, boats, trains and trekking and we tired ourselves out. On our last day in Hanoi we had a few moments of culture shock and a few even more brief moments of being overwhelmed by our situation. We chatted together about the past 5.5 months of travelling and we both agreed that we were missing family, friends, and all the beautiful things that go along with a permanent home (like your own bed, bathroom and kitchen!). We are still enjoying ourselves and we want to keep on travelling; there are many more experiences that we are looking forward to. With those thoughts we packed up our bags and headed off in the taxi for another overnight train ride to the city of Hue.
A few thoughts on Vietnam so far:
-It seems strange, but when any restaurant or hotel does good, there are a bunch of others that spring up within a few hundred meters, who also copy the name and the general description of the original. We experienced this, where we were told to go to the Hanoi 1 restaurant. We tried two of them, and then found out that the original, that was supposed to be the best, simply shut the doors because of the impostors. The two we tried were alright, but not great, that’s for sure!
- Just about everyone is out to get money from you. They are more than willing to get you to partake in their scams, or simply try their best to charge you more than you ’should’ pay. This goes for the hotels, taxis, shop keepers, everyone. Generally we have decided that we’re going to pay more than we should, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing, as these people have it much worse off than we do, we’re just going to try to limit the extravagance of being ripped off.
- For some reason everyone keeps their doors open, all the time. Many people can be seen setting up their beds in the common area of their store, with a half dozen kids jumping on the mattress.
-Despite everyone who is trying to rip you off, they are always smiling at you and are so very friendly.
- It seems that everyone with a motor bike assumes you want a ride somewhere. They are often the people who try the hardest to get you to ‘buy’ their services for a trip.
written by  ECRadventure on October 18, 2009 from Hanoi, Vietnam

Hue ... Rain, more rain and more Moto's!
Hue, Vietnam
The famous Thien Mu pagoda in Hue
We arrived in Hue early in the morning, the train ride took almost 12 hours. This train, the SE-1 that leaves every day from HaNoi, to Saigon is a little older and not quite as nice as the train to Sapa. Around 10 at night, just before turning out the lights to go to sleep we spotted a few cockroaches crawling on the wall beside the bed. We knew that we’d run into bugs and a lot of them in Asia, but I don’t think that we were ready for it. We ended up sleeping with the reading lights on to try to keep them at bay. When we arrived, it was still raining and we again got hosed and paid four times the price to get a cab to our hotel, we really have to learn to bargain harder. We stayed at the Sports hotel, it was on a street with a lot of Vietnamese-Western restaurants and shops to buy silk clothes and ties. After breakfast and checking in we decided to take a walk around the area. The hotel, like many of the tourist hotels makes a lot of money from selling tours and because of this, they often try a little too hard to sell you tours, train tickets, or try to arrange hotels for you in the next city. We have learned that they often over-charge by significant amounts and their smiling pushy attitude is a bit tough to take. As soon as we left the Hotel we noticed an immediate difference between Ha Noi and Hue, it was almost quiet here! The amount of traffic was pretty low, it was nice not to hear honking every 1.5 seconds when walking on the street. You mostly have to walk on the street since there are only sidewalks on certain streets, and if there are sidewalks they are usually used to park motorcycles. It’s easier just to walk on the street. We were enjoying the quiet walk until the joy of walking was extinguished by rickshaw driver after rickshaw driver asking us: Where you going? One hour, one hour”. Meaning they would drive us around the city for one hour. But we wanted to walk and had to fend them off again and again. We figured out that it was easier to walk in the opposite direction of traffic flow, because if you were walking in the same direction they would just follow you. We think they might be under the impression that if they ask you enough or pester you enough you will just give in. We didn’t. Less traffic, more harassment…if that was possible.
more from the Citadel
We decided that we would check out the Citadel which was quite close to the hostel, it was the residence of the Kings of Vietnam as Hue used to be the capital of Vietnam. When we entered the fortress we quickly realised that it was way to big to walk around in and decided we would get on a tour later in our stay that would take us there. Hue isn’t as modern as Ha Noi was so we had quite a hard time finding a place to eat that we were comfortable with (yes, yes, snobs that we are) We eventually had lunch three hours after we decided we were hungry and the best part about that is, is that it was less than 30 meters from our Hotel. For the first time in a long time we had fresh vegetables and boiled chicken breast. Chad is in heaven with all of the rice and noodles in Vietnam. One staple of our diet since we got here has been Pho soup which is usually eaten for breakfast. We have it for breakfast, lunch and sometimes dinner. It has Ichiban type noodles and usually meat and vegetables, topped with bean sprouts and fresh chilly peppers cut up along with a lime to squeeze into your soup, it’s delicious! As we were going for dinner yet another rickshaw driver asked us if we wanted a ride, we said no we’re just walking to the restaurant he asked us the usual things: Where you from? How long in city? Then he told us he wanted to be a DJ and said he would take us to a dance club. Now here is the problem with this, being us, Canadian (we think this might be a Canadian disease) we didn’t say NO Thank you, we said (and keep saying) : Maybe. This is a huge mistake. But for some reason it just falls out of our mouths before we can catch ourselves. Ewa has resorted to saying no and shaking her head and does not stop, just keeps walking, this works…sometimes. If you say “Maybe” they think that there is a possibility of you going for a ride with them, maybe, maybe tomorrow, maybe in an hour, there is hope! So Chad said Maybe to our DJ rickshaw driver and we were sure to see him again, and again.
Cuddlin in bed. Not every day is about seeing temples!
The next day we woke up to more rain, it has been raining since we got here, pretty much non stop. We went to grab some breakfast but as soon as we walked into the hallway we stepped into a few inches of water, the hallway had flooded from all of the rain. Sweet. We didn’t do much because of the rain, it just felt like a lazy day. We booked a half day tour for the next day and Ewa tried to find some long thin pants at the shops near our Hotel for the heat and mosquitoes. She didn’t find any but while browsing at one of the stores she was flipping through the racks and stopped at a beige pair of pants that looked like it had some sort of broach on it or decoration only to realize that it was a big beige spider the size of her hand! The sales lady just laughed, took the pants and shook them out onto the street, she said: “ Normal in Vietnam, not like in movies, they no bite”…ehm sure ok, but it’s still the size of an orange!
We had dinner and a good night of conversation and bad pool (none of us are any good at playing) with some friends we met in HaNoi. The whole evening our DJ rickshaw driver was sitting in the rain outside of the restaurant we were in. We couldn’t figure out if this was just his route or if he was seriously waiting for us. Sure enough when we were leaving, he runs up to us and we had to say no no…and he looked sad (that may have been a ploy since he was seriously making a puppy face). On a side note, it’s not only verbal agreements that seem to be taken way too seriously, its also gestures like the good ol’ thumbs up. We were at another restaurant and this rickshaw driver kept giving us a thumbs up from outside, we thought he was being friendly…turns out that that means that we want a ride, we quickly had to say no when we were leaving. It’s a crazy world here in Vietnam.
The Citadel and the rain..
The tour started at 9 am so we got up semi early. Still raining and raining. The tour guide picked us up at our Hotel and we were off to see the oldest Pagoda in Vietnam as well as the Citadel . The Thien Mu Pagoda is a Buddhist place of worship. This particular Pagoda was home to the monk Thich Quang Duc, who burned himself alive in protest of the Vietnamese government disallowing Buddhist worship during communism. He drove himself from Hue to Saigon, got out of the car, sat in the lotus position and had a fellow monk to pour gasoline & diesel all over his body. This was done in front of a large crowd and many other monks who knew what his intentions were. He then calmly lit a match and went up in flames, not moving, screaming or making any type of noise and burned alive. It is a legend that his heart wouldn’t burn, even after he was re-cremated after his death. A number of other monks also burned themselves alive for this cause and the government was forced to allow for Buddhist worship to continue. The Pagoda has a nice garden area, a temple where Buddhists go to pray and the tomb of this famous monk who stood up for his beliefs. On the grounds are also living quarters for young boys who are sent there by their families who are usually poor so that they can receive an education. When they are older they can choose if they want to become monks or return to their former way of life. Many children are also simply inspired by Buddhism and join the monastery of their own accord. It was very serene being at the pagoda even with the other tourists. At the time we visited there were also many people praying and every time someone finished a prayer a young boy would ring a large gong that echoed though the area. We continued on to the Citadel which is really an impressive structure. It was constructed to mimic the forbidden city in Beijing and construction started in 1802, for the royalty of Vietnam. It is about 525 hectares in size. It once was the residence of the King, his royal entourage, concubines and the high military officials. It was very badly damaged in the French war as well as the American war ( the Vietnam war in Vietnam is called the American war). The Citadel is now a Unesco Heritage site and the government is rebuilding it with the funds they receive from the Unesco organization but it is a slow process. We were a little disappointed because the tour was supposed to be a half day tour, but in reality it was over in 2 hours, maybe due to the rain. By the time we got back to the hotel we were drenched. We spent the rest of the day lounging around again, listening to the never ending beating of the rain against our window. The next day we had an 8 am train to Nha Trang which is further south, the trip will take us another 12 hours, but this time we booked seats and it’ll be all day, hopefully the time will go by quick.
Our horrible train on the ride to Nha Trang
The train ride to Nha Trang was definitely an experience! We were sitting in a car with 62 other people. We got seats instead of the sleeper car because are travelling by day and they are cheaper. In most of Asia you can get a whole range of tickets depending on what you want. There are the hard seats which are cheap and uncomfortable, the soft seats with AC which is what we got- a softer chair that reclines. Then there are the hard sleepers which have 6 beds in a berth and the soft sleepers which are 4 beds in a berth. There is also a “tourist” car which is a bit better than the soft sleepers and more expensive. Right from the get go we in for a new experience. Getting on the train everyone was pushing and shoving, we are wearing our huge backpacks and people are trying to get passed us in the tiny hallway. As soon as the train started there was a cart that came along selling some sort of dish we saw later it was rice out of a not so clean bucket, that they topped off with a hard boiled egg. Then came the soup cart, where soup was ladled out of a huge metal canister into plastic cups, also unidentifiable. They also come around with to go meals, meat and rice, vegetables and a chicken leg for 20 000 dong, not so bad, that’s 1.30$. The people get right comfortable on the train, they take their flip flops off and put their feet up, literally wherever there is space, be it on a table in front of them, the window, the next seat in front of them…wherever. At least the spitting isn’t as bad in Vietnam as it was in China but now we’ve discovered that vomiting is really not a faux pas. At one of the stops people got off the train to buy snacks. Chad got off in search of some bananas and Ewa stayed behind to watch the bags. Looking out the window she saw two people (not at the same time) just bending over and vomiting on the tracks. Apparently if you gotta hurl there’s no reason to do it behind a building or something or in the bathroom, nope right in front of the train. At least they used bottled water to wash it off the cement. We realize that sometimes you can’t help but vomit, it’s not a thing you can control, it was more about the fact that it seems that that was the place to do it. The people weren’t really shy about. First the kids with a hole in the pants, now this! It’s a bit strange for us.
We wanted to ask everyone for some feedback regarding the blog. We are writing about our experiences because it’s a nice way for everyone to experience it with us in a way and it is also a good way for us to record our experiences. We want to know if there is something you would like to hear more about I.e. cultural differences, our observations about the country and people. Sometimes we tend to write much about what we did and little reflection on how we feel about it. Send us an email if you want to hear more about something, or maybe less about other things, we don’t have jobs so it’s nice to have some things to do. We hope everyone is enjoying the blog!
written by  ECRadventure on October 22, 2009 from Hue, Vietnam

Nha Trang, ... scuba diving and animal horror shows
Nha Trang, Vietnam
The beach in Nha Trang. Abandoned because it's low season
We arrived in Nha Trang late in the evening and headed right for our hostel, checked into our little room and headed out for a bite to eat after our long, frustrating train ride. We walked around the backpacker area of town, where our hostel was and we knew that we had arrived somewhere we would enjoy. We ended up at a little restaurant, with the same name as the one we went to in Hue, the Why not bar. Except that this bar was four times the size and filled with foreigners. Up and down the street were little shops restaurants and hostels that were geared for backpackers. We haven’t been in Asia that long, (about a month) but it was nice to be surrounded with familiar things.
The next day we woke up to a wonderful, sunny blue sky day. We walked around the city some more, checked out the beach, and planned for our next couple of days in the city. The town is small enough to walk around a lot of the main areas by foot, and the moto’s or taxi’s are cheap enough to get you where ever else you would want to go. The beach was clean with fine beige sand. However, the water was very turbid and muddy from the river that dumps into the ocean a few hundred meters from the main city beach.
After a great day on the beach and around the city, we settled in for a night of festive bevies at the Why Not Bar. We were only going to stop in for one or two, but the atmosphere was mesmerising. A coconut bucket and some double vodka soda’s (for $.60 Cdn) later, we were ready for a bit of a longer night. We met a few friends who were drinking ‘the fish tank’ literally a NHL sized Gatorade barrel filled with 4.5 bottles of liquor and mix. We sat and chatted for a few hours while it was pouring rain, monsoon style outside. We weren’t smart enough to have rain gear with us and it was quite a walk home, so, of course we had to wait for the rain to pass. When it did, the streets were flooded. In some parts it was knee deep. We talked to other backpackers who said on the way to their hostel, they actually had to swim for a section because it was too deep to wade through!
Mr. Ba, and the swim up bar!
The next day, cloudy and overcast we were off on our boat cruise. A little tired and depressed from the weather, we still tried to have a good time. The first stop on the boat trip was the aquarium. It was a decent sized aquarium that seemed to take care of the sea-creatures fairly well, and the tanks were large enough that they could actually swim around in. The second stop was for snorkelling. However, because of the heavy rains, the water was turbid and not very clear. We also found the water partially infested with jelly fish, so we didn’t stay long. Ewa even got stung, but it was not the kind that is deadly, or even that you have to pee on, so we were thankful for that! We were treated to a great spread of food, and a live band on the boat! They were actually pretty decent, although it was funny to listen to English being sung in a Vietnamese accent. Our last event for the day was the ‘swim up bar’ where the captain of the boat floated on his volleyball raft and handed out free drinks to anyone who would go swimming. Good times, but it would have been a lot better if it wasn’t raining and cold!
The next day we were off to scuba diving. The Octopus diving club has a pretty nice boat and some good crew working for them. We were about an hour off the coast, around some islands. The dive was great! Warm water, our first exposure to coral. We also saw a sea snake, moray eels, many tropical fish, blue star fish and Ewa even saw a “lipstick fish”. After our two dives, we were back to the city for our trip to the ‘mud baths’. This is a spa a few km outside of the city center. When you get there, you shower, and head into a bud Jacuzzi filled with mud. The mud has the consistency of Yop and has a faint sulphur / tarsands smell to it. Then you go through a series of jet showers, and end up in a mineral bath. It was quite the experience! We met a few Canadians on the way who told us about the hectic water festival in Phnom Penh that was happening in a few days.
Sure they look cute... but they are dangerous little buggers!
Our last day in Nha Trang, we had signed up for going on a hike, cliff diving from waterfalls, seeing ‘Monkey Island’ where the monkeys are in their natural habitat and then a trip to the salt fields outside of Nha Trang. What we got instead was the animal cruelty tour. The first stop was to a ostrich and deer zoo. These animals are trapped in cages and you get the chance to feed them. We’re pretty sure it was just a feed lot that they brought tourists to. The next stop was a great little island, where we were supposed to do the cliff diving from lakes, down a water fall into another clear lake. What we got was a tiny polluted stream with pvc piping running along and across it. The water fall was a bust but the beach was great! The final kicker was the last island. We got there and the first thing was the ‘animal show’ which was a pack of dogs, pretending to be in school and doing tricks for the teachers. This was followed up by a large group of monkeys performing various acts, similar to a circus. All of the animals were obviously terrified of the owners and flinched at any hand movement. It was not enjoyable to watch at all. Ewa stayed for the dog part and then left. After the show, we were off to see the monkeys. This consisted of walking 100m away from the amphitheatre where the show was to a small grove of trees, where we were attacked by monkeys. They are conditioned to being fed by the tourists and it’s obvious that their population can’t support themselves without the food. They become easily agitated and aggressive. The tour guide outlined the rules which were: keep the food hidden, otherwise the monkeys will go in your pocket or tear it away from your hand, only keep a little in your hand at a time. Do not show your teeth, I.e. smile at them, they see this as an act of agression. Third if you have no food show the monkey your flat empty hand and it will go away. Sure the rules sound great, although you can pretty much throw them out the window. The monkeys come running as soon as they see the group of tourist, are jumping on trees, around your legs, and are grabbing at your pants or whatever you are wearing. There were a few families with small children and it was a bit frightening. Ewa was attacked when she tried to feed one of the monkeys, he lunged at her and smacked her on the head while barring his teeth. Another lady, who as lucky was bitten on the stomach, was bleeding and you could make out the teethmarks . After our horror show we were back to the mainland. Once back at the hotel, when we complained about the tour, turns out that they sent us on the wrong tour, or that somewhere there was a miscommunication and we were put on the wrong tour. Boo!
Our last night was made a little better by stumbling into the lemon grass café, that had the absolute best food we’ve had in Asia so far, and it was actually one of the least expensive as well! After dinner we were off to get on the overnight bus to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City). We thought that after the awesome train ride from Hue, that we’d change it up. The bus was relatively clean, but with tiny tiny beds, and their advertising about ‘state-of-the-art’ suspension system on the bus, we had a bumpy long night.
Thoughts on Nha Trang, the only thing that we found different here, or out of the normal for other Vietnamese towns was the over the top efforts to sell books, or postcards, DVD’s, cigarettes, gum, paintings or other tourist ware while you are sitting inside of a restaurant eating or drinking. Nha Trang seems to be the starting point of some hard moments of having to say no. China and Northern Vietnam also seemed to have very few beggars. There are more and more as we head South.
Hanging out on a random island just off of Nha Trang, Vietnam
written by  ECRadventure on October 26, 2009 from Nha Trang, Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh .. Saigon, tunnels, the American war and Mr. Bean.
Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Three little piggies! Bakery in Saigon
We arrived in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh to people who live outside of the city) after our long, bumpy crowded bus trip from Nha Trang. It was 5:30 in the morning when we arrived and we started off on foot, turning away all the moto drivers towards where we thought the hostel was. Turns out google maps isn’t the most trust worthy of sources when trying to locate a small house in a back alley , and it’s not the first time we’ve been led astray. After a short time of getting our bearings we were down the little alley off of the main strip and ringing the bell to wake up the house to let us into the hostel. This hostel is a building owned and operated by a family, and the common room is shared between the guests and the family.
The first day we spent walking around the city and avoiding a nap. We didn’t want to go to nap and risk ‘napping’ for hours on end and then not be able to sleep in the night. Saigon has a large backpackers section, just like all the other cities in Asia that we have been to so far. The restaurants and shops seem to be a little more local that in many of the cities. They are all very similar and not many of them seemed to stand out or have a flair that would draw you in. Every meal we ended up walking around for a good half hour, or more, sometimes much more trying to decide on somewhere to eat. The first day was the worst, as we were checking out the city, and walking on our way to the war remnants museum. We walked for over an hour and a half even trying to find a restaurant. We did find a Yogen Fruz, which was a rare treat that Chad couldn’t pass up!
A tank destroyed by the Cu Chi during the "American War"
In the war remnants museum, there are a number of salvaged military aircraft, tanks, planes and bombs stored in front of the building. Inside there are many articles, pictures and figures regarding the decades of war in Vietnam from the mid 1940’s through to the end of conflict at the beginning of the 1980’s. It is very interesting to see the Vietnamese side of the war, and to see up close the devastation. It is truly heart wrenching to see the disfigured people, some mangled by conventional weapons of war (bullets, bombs, landmines) and the many others who are disfigured from the chemical weapons used (agent orange, napalm etc.). Also the huge environmental impacts become obvious when you see the aerial pictures of the countryside. On the way back from the museum we took a quick stroll through the main indoor market in the city center. We’re not sure if it may have been a combination of being hungry, with upset stomachs from the light lunch we had and the fatigue, or what else it may have been, but this market beyond any others was hard to stomach. The smells and sights of the market were too much for us and we had to hurry through to the other side, to fresh air and free space. That night we laid low and were to bed relatively early for our trip to the Cu Chi tunnels the next morning.
We were greeted by our tour guide in the morning for our half day trip to the Cu Chi tunnels by ‘Mr. Bean’ our Vietnamese veteran tour guide. Throughout the day, he had told us that he was born in the Philippines, lived in America and moved to Vietnam after the end of conflict with the Americans. He had served under John Kerry among other famous American veterans, then he served 4 years in a Vietnamese prison after the war due to his involvement with the Americans. He wrote a book that was published in the 90’s about his experiences. Seemed like a tall story, but considering the insight and other stories that he told during the trip, they all seemed to mesh well together. However, we still haven’t been able to track him down yet through his book. He said it was called ‘Three moons in Vietnam’ or something similar, but the book we looked up under that name is written by a British woman. Go figure. Same same…but different.
Just like the sign says.. handicrafts and jobs to support those who have it tough
On the way out to the Cu Chi tunnels we stopped at the ‘Handicapped Handicraft’ factory. There are a few of these factories around Vietnam, where people who are disabled, usually by the war, have a chance to work and earn a decent wage. The factory that we visited made enamel glazed paintings, wall hangings, “accordion doors / folding oriental room dividers... (what are these actually called?!?!)” decorative dinnerware, tables, chairs huge vases etc. They are all hand made and incredibly intricate and beautiful. We ended up buying a few small wall pictures for our new house (where ever that will be once we are settled).
Then we were off to the Cu Chi tunnels, which is an area just outside of Saigon deep in American occupied territory that never succumbed during the war. They said that over 12,000 Vietnamese people died, compared to 188 Americans (just in this region, not the whole war). The people were so resilient due to the soil formations in the area. The soil is over 90% clay. This enabled them to build very strong tunnels very rapidly. American attempts to flood or burn the people out of the tunnels only served to eventually make the tunnels stronger. The tunnels are also extremely tight in some sections that only the smallest westerner would have been able to squeeze through. We were given a chance to crawl 130 meters through the tunnels at the end of the visit, and it was an incredible insight into the life of the people who lived underground for years. During the war, the Cu Chi people lived underground during the daylight hours. At night they came to the surface, tended to their farms, removed soil from the tunnels (which they threw into bomb crafters or the river to hide the evidence) and then they went back underground before the sun would rise. As the Americans were unwilling to advance or undertake combat during the night time, the Cu Chi were relatively safe to move about at night. We also saw many booby-traps and how they were designed to incapacitate an enemy. The tenacity of the people demonstrates the degree to which anyone is capable of going to protect their homeland. To the Cu Chi people, the Americans were nothing more than foreign invaders, attempting to take away their freedom.
Chad trying to fit into one of the Cu Chi tunnels outside of Saigon
The last stop before leaving the Cu Chi tunnels was a shooting range. For ~$15 Cdn you could fire off 0 bullets from an AK-47. They had many other types of guns as well. The noise was so deafening and the earmuffs that they provided were nothing more than stereo headphones and did nothing to dampen the sound. Due to the extremely loud noise of several assault rifles firing all the time, Ewa decided to just video Chad firing off a few shots. We didn’t get to keep the target, but it looked like Chad had pretty good aim!
That night we performed our Saigon dance around the city trying to find a spot to eat. After dinner we went out for a few drinks to some local places before stopping at the ‘crazy buffalo’ for a couple of drinks and to take in some quality people watching. It was strange though, as in the local restaurants/pubs we could get a 3 oz glass of vodka & soda for ~$0.8, but when we went to the large club, it cost $5 and had practically no booze in it. It was a high price to pay to people watch and we were soon on our way back to the hotel.
Our last day in Saigon was spent doing a little shopping, trying to find some clothes that would be more suitable for the warmer weather climates. We found a few nice things, and a few things for us to send home with our wall paintings. We were even brave enough to try to visit the city market again. This time, we stayed away from the food section and only visited the clothing/watch/jewellery area. This is the first experience we’ve had at being physically accosted. As we walked down the hallways, the people would literally reach out, grab your hand, your forearm, elbow or just about anything and try to drag you into their shop. At first it was slightly annoying, but it quickly grew to over-the-top aggravating. At the end Chad was even slapping the hands of anyone who would grab him, and pushing them away. While we were on our way to the post office, it would dribble a few drops of rain and stop. A few more drops and then nothing. This would have been a good warning to anyone who had been through a tropical shower before, but we were oblivious. A few more minutes and we were caught in a full-on downpour. It was a flash-flood style rain that didn’t seem to let up, so we hopped into a taxi and drove the rest of the way to the post-office as we didn’t have any umbrellas or rain gear with us. After we left the post office, maybe 50 minutes after the rain started, it was all over and the streets were already starting to dry up.
That night was the beginning of the 3rd annual indoor Asian games. Saigon was the host city and some of the guests at the hotel were visiting the city to take in the games. It would have been nice to see them, but we had already made up our mind to head out to the water festival in Phnom Penh. We were able to see some of the festivities though, because some of the stages and vendor stalls were right across the street from our hotel. The next morning, we were off on the bus for Cambodia!
written by  ECRadventure on October 30, 2009 from Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Phnom Penh.. nataional holidays three for three
Phnom Penh, Cambodia
Shooting guns in Phnom Pehn
We were off on our bus from Saigon to Phnom Penh and we were expecting a fairly rigorous boarder crossing; some of the people we talked to, and the reviews on the internet hinted at corrupt boarder guards and long wait times. Our experience however, was totally painless. A little confusing at times because the ‘guide’ didn’t explain anything, but other than that smooth as can be. We even picked up a bottle of Canadian Club at the duty free shop for $6 US. We were on our way in style! We stopped at a truck-stop style restaurant just inside the Cambodian boarder that is frequented by all the busses coming / going into Vietnam. Let’s just say that we weren’t comfortable eating there at all. When we arrived, we were supposed to be picked up by the hotel but they weren’t there to meet us. We ended up getting a motorized tuk-tuk (little carriage pulled by either a motorcycle or a bicycle) by a man named Camera. He seemed like a friendly honest guy so we made arrangements for him to pick us up the next day for a tour at 08:00. On the first day while we were getting our bearings of the city, we noticed all of the preparations for the upcoming festival. The city was bursting at the seams with people and traffic, we couldn’t imagine how a few more hundred thousand people would fit in.
The closed palace... national holidays aren't that great
Bright and early we stumbled down from the room, to see our driver lounging outside in his tuk-tuk waiting for us. After a bite to eat, we were off! This was the second tuk-tuk ride we’ve had (the first was just yesterday) and we were initially quite excited for the trip. Normally we walk everywhere we go or take public transport, and have only on a few occasions used taxi’s. Dave, don’t worry I promise we’ll get on some moto’s soon! After the first half hour on the tuk-tuk, our thrill and excitement had passed. The pot-hole filled roads and the poor suspension in the tuk-tuk, work together to give your body quite the beating. We stopped at the shooting range (were told that it is much better than the one that we tried at the Cu Chi tunnels) and it would give Ewa a second chance to fire off an assault rifle, or rocket launcher or throw a grenade if she wanted. When we arrived, we were shocked at the prices. It would be $40 US for a 25 shot round with the AK-47 and prices for the other guns were similar. $50 for the grenade, and $300 for the rocket launcher. We were hoping that it would have been much, much less so we settled on the one clip on the AK-47. This time, we had proper earmuffs and ear-plugs of our own. After the first two shots Ewa had enough. Chad fired off the last of the bullets and even tried a few on Automatic!
Killing fields
After getting a feeling for what it’s like to shoot a weapon designed to kill people, we visited Choeung Ek - the killing fields, where we witnessed first hand the effects of the weapon we had just used. There is not a lot to see in the killing fields, but the gravity of the events that took place are hard to miss. When you first walk in, there is a 7 story monument to those who were killed, and each floor has glass sides that reveal the 7 stories of stacked human skulls from the victims uncovered in some of the mass graves. The rest of the site is a walk through the sites of the mass graves, a small museum and a movie room. It was really sad to see that years after WWI, WWII and countless of other wars, humanity seems to continuously repeat the same mistakes. There is no compassion for your fellow man, but instead a need for power and greed. After the killing fields we also visited the S-21 prison and museum. The prison was used as a holding spot for people ( men, women and children) who were suspected of being an enemy to the Khmer revolution. They were made to work, tortured and then when they confessed to their crimes or pleaded innocent they were brutally killed. When the prison was liberated there were few survivors and 7 corpses were found on the grounds that the revolutionists did not have time to dispose of. We were exhausted when we came back to our hotel and in the evening walked the streets that were mayhem because of the water festival. We went for dinner on one of the main streets where about 500 people were walking past us every 4 minutes, just a stream of constant people, it looked like a mass migration. The city is quite poor and there are many people here who were maimed during the revolution. Just through dinner at least 10 people came up to us trying to sell books, dvds or postcards, most were handicapped. There was one man we saw who was wheeling himself on his stomach on a board with wheels, he had no legs or arms to his elbows and was pushing himself by his elbows. It was refreshing and nice to see that very many local people and tourists gave money to him. Many people who have deformities or are handicapped can’t get work, no one will hire them. There are no government rules for fair standards, no welfare, nothing, they are forced to beg or sell goods so that they can support themselves and their families.
The foreigners zone at the Phnom Pehn water festival
The next day we were quite tired from the heat and we just walked around, to discover that most of the sights were closed because of the holiday so we just looked through the gates of some of the palaces. Seems to be the trend as this is the third capital city we’ve visited on a national holiday, and again the main sights are closed off. With all of the people, the city was packed with more vendors, random people and garbage than we have seen anywhere yet. As we were walking back to our hotel we walked along the main street which is right next to the Mekong River where the boat races were. A lady tried to sell us water but we didn’t want any and were quite tired of people coming up to us and asking if we wanted water, frog, meat, coca cola, and so on and so on. She then said ok why you not go see races? We looked at the huge crowds gathered along the river and it seemed frightening being stuck in 500 people deep shoulder to shoulder. We said there’s no room. And she pointed us to a very empty section, right near the banks of the river, with comfy chairs and a covered seat section, we automatically thought we had to pay for it and we weren’t about to do that. So we said no thanks, and she said : Free Free. We hesitated, looked at all the guards, the metal detector and wondered…really? So we walked through and it turns out it was a section especially for Tourist. ??? It was weird, just 15 meters from us were locals packed like sardines in a can trying to see the races and here is a free section for tourists all sectioned off, it was almost like segregation, we felt guilty for being there. Apparently the government likes to have a lot of foreigners displayed on TV during big national events, so they work as hard as they can to make it easy for foreigners. Our last day in the city was a monsoon day. It was raining torrentially, non-stop through the day, so we took the day to relax, and to plan ahead for some of the rest of our trip. The next morning we were off to Siem Reap on the bus.
boat races at the water festival
written by  ECRadventure on November 2, 2009 from Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Siem Reap...Angkor Wat, the 8th wonder of the world!
Siem Reap, Cambodia
Angkor Wat sunrise
More ruins!
After our 7 hour bus ride, we arrived in a muddy dirt parking lot in Siem Reap. We were supposed to be picked up, with a tuk-tuk driver waiting for us, but again we fought through hoards of tuk-tuk drivers trying to overcharge us and to take us to a good hostel! As a side note, Phnom Penh and the rest of Cambodia officially have riel as their currency, however with inflation and an unstable country everything is sold on American dollars. We settled into a hotel, that surprisingly had a pool! It was quite nice and rather cheap as it was across the river about 5 minutes from the city center.
Tropical paradise at the Angkor ruins
We went for a walk, and instantly appreciated the slow, easy life of Siem Reap (well, compared to Phnom Penh anyways). The town is a tourist haven and caters to the tourists. There are many, many streets filled with massage parlours, western-quality restaurants an just about anything you may need. We always love to run into a town like this every now and again.
The next morning we were up at 4:30 in the morning to meet our driver to complete the “small loop” of Angkor Wat. We arrived for sunrise and were instantly greeted by the vendors trying to sell us guide books, water, bracelets and many other trinkets. Chad talked to the first guy trying to sell a guide book to the ruins for a few minutes, and he offered the book to us for $15 US, sticker price on the book was just over $22. We said no, and went into Angkor Wat. As we were leaving a couple of hours later, he remembered us, although now Chad was “Jim” and said “I remember you! Canada! You buy now!” Chad said no and we got into our Tuk-Tuk. Suddenly the price was dropped. A lot. Now he was offering the book for only $1 and so the hassling began and continued throughout our tour of the ruins. Everyone wants you buy something, even the ‘monks’, who sit inside the temples and get you to make incense offerings to Buddha. Of course the incense sticks are practically free they are so cheap, but the monks expect $1 or $0.5 at least for one. After the first couple of offerings we caught on that we would have to spend a fortune to make offerings at all the shrines. We even noticed once that one of the incense vendors re-sold our offering to another group once we had left!
The hardest part is the children who are trying to sell small items, or are begging. They often speak decent English and have learned key facts about your country. So, when you tell them that you are from Canada, they’ll say “Canada, speaks English and French, Capital Ottawa, major cities Toronto, Montreal, Vancouver Calgary, population 33 million.” There are so many children and they often come in groups. However, despite what it may seem, we’ve been told the best thing to do is not buy anything from the children. If they can earn money selling things then it will keep them out of school. It is better to always if you are going to buy or to give to do so with Adults only.
Our two days touring the ruins were amazing. There are so many and they are all unique and wonderful. It is easy to see how this ancient site ranks as one of the wonders of the world. We could spend ages talking about all the interesting details of the ruins, but rather than try to do them justice we suggest going yourself! Or, if that’s not possible, at least check out our pics, or others online! Our last night touring the ruins we went to Phnom Bakheng to watch the sunset. Apparently this is the thing to do at night and the mountaintop ruin was filled with people. The view was amazing, even despite the huge crowds.
Angkor Wat, well one of the ruins there anyways...see our flickr account for the real location :)
Our last day in Siem Reap we slept in a little, and spent the day around the town, swimming in the hotel pool and relaxing. At night we ended up at “The Temple” restaurant which had a 2 hour traditional Khmer dance show. The show was really interesting and great entertainment. In traditional style the dancers attempt to show no emotion on their faces. Half of the dances were slow and ceremonious and the other half were fast paced and almost tribal. Siem Reap was also the first place where we were able to easily spot the sex-industry. Many call girls were walking the streets, blatantly trying to pick up men and we even watched a few who were successful, sneak away to a Tuk-Tuk and disappear down the street. Another first for us was the fish massage where you put your feet into knee deep water filled with small fish. The fish then nibble away at your feet and ‘eat the dead skin’ from your feet. We didn’t try it this time, but apparently it is a huge thing in Thailand as well, so we’ll be looking out for it there! The next day we were off on our early morning flight to Bangkok!
Sunset at One of the Angkor Wat ruins
written by  ECRadventure on November 5, 2009 from Siem Reap, Cambodia

Bangkok ... Suits and more Suits!
Bangkok, Thailand
Look Ma new haircuts!
The Bangkok airlines flight to from Siem Reap was surprisingly fast and awesome (for Ewa who still doesn’t like flying). It took about 35min and they served breakfast for free! What a nice change after Europe where you have to buy everything on the flight. We got a taxi and checked into our hotel. The first thing on our list was to see Mr. Sam, a tailor that Dave recommended. Since we were only going to be in Bangkok for 5 days we figured it gave us just enough time to decide on some grown up clothes and have them ready to ship the day before we left. We were staying right off Koh San Road on Rambuttri and his shop was close by so that made it easier to get around.
The finished suits
The first thing we noticed is that the city is busy, crazy, loud and fun if you don’t get annoyed by the tourist scene. Anything you need is just around the corner for a price of course. For some reason Bangkok has also been invaded by 7-11’s, there is one every few hundred meters, which is good in case you get thirsty and you don’t want a juice in a plastic bag with a straw, although it does look fun. We spent close to 4 hours at Mr. Sams picking out styles and fabrics and getting fitted, that left enough time to check out more of our area of town and have dinner. On the second day we went to Mr. Sams again to get fitted (this became an every day ritual) and hit Kho San Road to check out the scene, it gets pretty rowdy at night. The road is filled with touristy shops, restaurants and street vendors. Oh, and thousands of dumb-struck tourists. We also decided that it was high time for us to get a haircut. This was Ewa’s first haircut since starting the trip, six months ago. It gets hotter every time we go further south and the long hair is becoming frustrating, but not to worry only about 2-3 inches got cut, she is not sporting a bald head…yet. That night we had a great dinner on one of the street restaurants that open up at night. This one was a BBQ one and they cook your fish or meat on a makeshift BBQ. While waiting for our dinner the usual vendors came around selling anything and everything. One really cute little girl had a bunch of roses to sell. She was maybe 5 or 6 years old and as soon as she came up to the table she said: You buy! And we said No thanks. She then preceded to sit down on Chads chair right beside him took one of our pens and started doodling in our planning book. She sat and talked to us for at least ten minutes totally content with the doodling, she drew us and said : You poppa and you mamma. Too cute! How were we not going to buy a flower from her? We even haggled with her for fun and got a 5 baht discount (0.17 on 1.33).
Food vendor dishin up some great Pad Thai
The following day was a mad rush. We wanted to buy underwater housing for our digital camera so that we could take pictures when we go diving. Our camera is only good for 10m depth and we’re never at ten meters for a whole dive. We took a taxi to downtown Bangkok where there are huge shopping malls. We pretty much ran around for about 8 hours from one place to the next trying to find this housing and a few other items and had no luck. Exhausted and hurried to make it to Mr. Sams for another fitting we jumped in a cab. We told the cab driver where we wanted to go and he said we must be crazy because it was peak traffic and it would take at least an hour to get there. Why not hang around here for an hour and a half and have some dinner and I will pick you up later and take you then. He even said he would call our tailor to let him know we would be late. Red Flags we‘ve now learned: 1. If someone is trying to change your destination, this is probably not a good thing 2. People go out of their way to ‘Help’ you are not trying to help you most of the time, they are trying to screw you 3. We have to learn to say No and not feel bad about it, we seem to have a problem with doing this 4. If something seems fishy it is perfectly ok to bail from anywhere at anytime. So we succumbed to the trap and had our supper at a very shady restaurant that looked like it was falling apart, all of the food was ghastly overpriced and to add to it, it wasn’t even good. We ordered a curry crab, but dumb of us we didn’t watch them weigh it. They charged us an insane amount of money for dinner, about 10 times the amount we should have paid. We learned our lesson, oh did we ever. We didn’t bother to stick around for the taxi driver who most likely wouldn’t come back anyway since he made his commission from the restaurant to bring us there and caught a cab to Mr. Sams, now almost 2 hours late. We were there getting fitted until 10:30 and were exhausted by the end of the night.
Chad posing with the warriors
The next day it was raining all day so we spent the day relaxing, Chad got a Thai massage and Ewa got her nails done, it was a nice treat. Since we hadn’t yet seen anything cultural we decided to check out The Grand Palace and Wat Po. We left quite early in the morning and were almost derailed at our first stop Wat Po because we were just about to go in when a random “helpful” person came up running to us to tell us that we can’t go in to the Wat because we weren’t dressed properly, as we learned our lesson just a few days before we said thanks and walked in anyway. When we got there we had no problem, Ewa was given a scarf to put around her shoulders and that was it. Wat Po is a beautiful temple that has a giant gold lying Buddha inside. It is probably close to 15m long and 4 meters high. It is beautiful. You can explore the Wat which is huge at your own pace, we walked around for close to an hour looking at all of the different statues and temples. Everything is decorated with jewels and gold, amazing. It was starting to get extremely hot and it wasn’t even 10:30 in the morning yet. We left the Wat with only one more destination the Grand Palace. The palace is the official residence of the Kings of Thailand since the 18th century. We arrived and noticed that you needed to be appropriately dressed, but this was a bit more extreme. They had a building right next to the entrance that you had to borrow clothes from, traditional thai clothes. Like it wasn’t hot enough, we were now wearing long clothes, Ewa was in a skirt down to the floor and a purple stuffy shirt and Chad had to wear long pants, over his shorts. Ewa almost had heat stroke that day, it was so hot and you couldn’t drink enough water. The Grand Palace is really amazing to see. Jewels, gold leaf, and intricate decorations everywhere. This is really the first ‘modern’ Asian palace we have visited and we were overwhelmed with the architecture and decoration. There were quite a few tourists and the heat wasn’t helping so as much as we appreciated the palace we were only there for a few hours before we made it back to our hotel to rest. We checked out the pool on the roof for a while but even in the pool the heat was too much.
Giant reclining Buddha
On our last day, we boxed up all of our goodies, entrusted them with the Thai mail system and sent them on their way to Canada. With our goods in the mail, we were off to the airport the next morning for our flight to Ko Tao - Turtle island! Some of the other tourist traps that are used really play on a typical Western idea of people actually trying to help you out. You will be approached with people looking to ‘genuinely’ give you some advice about how to get around and what to see and do. Of course they will probably tell you some place to go that you hadn’t planned, but sounds nice. What follows is always a series of detours, overpriced transportation, food, entry fees, or other red tape that costs a lot of money. As horrible as it sounds, unless you really get to know one of the locals, don’t listen to their ‘advice’ at all. Listen to the tips from other tourists, and your own instincts. You’ll fare much better. Oh, and there is NO Buddha day in Bangkok or elsewhere in Thailand. However, despite the tourist traps, the vendors in Bangkok seem to be a lot more relaxed that those that we have run into in Cambodia, Vietnam and China. We saw a lot of vendors selling wooden ‘frogs’ that make a real-life frog like sound when you rub a stick across their back, we saw vendors even selling tasers, switch blades, throwing stars and knifes right on the side of the road. Oh, and in Khoa San road, you can buy just about any license or diploma that you can imagine. Wanna have a pilot’s certification? 1500 baht, no problem.
Flight with Bangkok airways! They rock!
written by  ECRadventure on November 10, 2009 from Bangkok, Thailand

Ko Tao... the island of Luis and Baz
Ko Tao, Thailand
Our view for six days
Ko Tao (turtle island) is a beautiful small island a short 35min flight and 3 hour ferry from Bangkok. We thought, we can’t be in Thailand and not see the islands. The unfortunate or fortunate depending on how you look at it, is that there are so many islands and not enough time for us to see them all. So instead of moving all over the place, we decided to spend six days on this little island (21 sq km). The ferry was a bit late, but as promised the place we were staying at was actually there to pick us up! Initially we thought that it wasn’t too far and we could walk but we were so wrong! All the taxis on the island are trucks and there’s a reason for that. Only the main town has paved roads, the rest is dirt roads and you need 4 wheel drive to get anywhere, especially because of the super-steep roads, which are all partially washed away from the yearly monsoon.
It’s funny because as soon as we arrived at the ‘resort’ we were staying at we felt a bit like we wanted to leave and find a place in town. There was literally no one around. We had a private beach, no one on it. There are palm trees, hammocks and clear clean water. There is no actual hotel building but many small bungalows at different price ranges, no hot water, no AC, but there is a fan which we really appreciated. Our bungalow even had screens on the windows so we didn’t need a mosquito net. There was a restaurant and a café a bit down the beach. The next 6 days can be summarised by a few words: relaxing, eating, sleeping and hanging out.
Snorkle snorkle
The treasure we found while snorkeling
We snorkeled, went on a couple of dives with the dive shop that was part of the resort and went into town twice. As it turns out, we only had one night of solitude, before a series of other people started to show up at the hotel (the Coral View). We met fantastic people at our resort, Luis & Baz, Mel and Hanna, Douglas and Kirsten. They really made our stay on Ko Tao wonderful.
Fire Poi dancers entertaining the crowd
Ordering dinner in town
We especially had a great time with Baz and Luis. They were such light hearted funny guys and we’re so very looking forward to potentially meeting up with them again later in our trip (Red Sea Diving!!)
Baz and Luis enjoying their last sip of the bucket
After almost a week there it was hard to leave, we're off to Phuket in the south of Thailand our springboard to our diving trip.
written by  ECRadventure on November 16, 2009 from Ko Tao, Thailand

Similan Islands... 15 dives in 3 days!!
Similan Islands, Thailand
Ewa and Chad, about 20m below the suface!
Just 84 km northwest of Phuket's Patong Beach lies a gateway to another world. Koh Similan is one of the best-known island groups in the Andaman Sea, largely because of the wonders that wait beneath the clear blue waters that surround it. Generally counted among the 10 most interesting dive areas in the world, this little archipelago has also become a favourite destination for yachts, tours and divers. "Similan" is derived from the Malay sembilan, and means "nine". Each of the Similan Islands has a number as well as a name.
The conditions for coral growth are ideal, with a minimum sea temperature of about 28oC and exceptionally clear waters. More than 200 species of hard coral alone have so far been identified in this area and these islands have the greatest concentration of reef fish in Thai waters. We’ve read that there's more variety in the Similans in terms of sea life and bottom topography than you'll find in most other dive destinations around the world. The Similans have almost everything - coral walls, big rocks, huge sea fans and barrel sponges, caves, and swim-throughs (we did some, it was amazing - and scary!). We did our live aboard with West Coast Divers in Patong because Dave recommended it and we trust his judgement (most of the time). There are so many dive shops to choose from it becomes a huge hassle just to make a choice since you never know what you’re going to get and it takes a while to go to each dive shop and talk to the people there.
More tropical fish from the Similans!
The trip started on November 20th, Ewa’s Birthday. We left the dive shop at 5pm and arrived at the boat at 8pm and did a debriefing as to how the diving would be organised. We were doing our Advanced Open Water Certification so we had to complete a number of dives including a Deep Dive (down to 30meters), a Navigation Dive and a Night Dive. Ewa was a bit freaked out about the deep dive because she didn’t feel comfortable diving deep but she thought what the hell, one dive is doable. That was until Andy the dive instructor told everyone who was on the boat (there were only 6 of us) that whoever was doing the Advanced Open Water Certification would have to do the deep dive first thing in the morning! Now she was freaked out. Andy gave us our text books and that was that. Everyone started mingling and chatting and dinner was served. We bought a bottle of wine on Koh Tao and saved it for Ewas birthday. Wine in Asia is pretty expensive since it is heavily taxed and imported. You would think that since Thailand is close to Australia…one of the biggest wine makers in the WORLD…that it would be reasonably priced…but you would be wrong! During dinner Chad made an announcement that it was Ewa’s birthday…and everyone wished her a happy birthday, it was nice. Not even 10 minutes later the chef came up from the kitchen area below and had a small brownie birthday cake for Ewa with candles on it and everything! The lights went out and everyone sang her Happy Birthday, she really appreciated it. We found out later that once they heard it was her birthday, they ran to the store and bought the cake and candles since we were still docked, it was very sweet of them!
NEMO!
The next 3 days were filled with diving and sleeping. We did 5 dives the first day! The deep dive was great - the water was so clear that you couldn’t even tell the difference between being at 12 meters or 30! We sat on the sandy bottom at 30 meters and watched as Andy showed us a coca cola can that now looked brown at this depth rather than red. When you go deeper under water different colors from the natural light are absorbed the deeper you go and colors like red are the first to disappear. We didn’t stay at 30 meters for long, since the deeper you are the more oxygen you use up. There was a slight pressure Ewa felt in her chest which is also normal when you go to this depth but other than that it was just like diving at any other depth we have been to before. We slowly worked our way up to a more comfortable depth and just did a fun dive for the remainder. Diving in this area has been the best diving we have done so far. The water is so clear, there are hundreds of types of fish around, its just simply amazing. No matter where you turn you see schools of fish, an abundance of coral and we were fortunate because most of the time we had the dive site to ourselves. The rest of the dives for this day were just fun dives. We had to complete a night dive and a navigation dive in order to get our certification. While we were on the boat we decided to a few specialties as well: AWARE Fish Id and the Boat Dive.
Leopard Shark
On the second day we completed the Navigation part of the certification which was a lot of fun for us. When you dive more frequently you realize quite quickly that there is a real problem with communication under water. Things that you want to share with your diving buddy (Chad and Ewa are diving buddies - you never dive alone) can become a frustrating guessing game underwater. The regular symbols underwater are very basic things like: go up, go down, I’m out of air(pretty important one) are helpful but not enough. So during the Navigation dive we were given two underwater compasses and had to navigate underwater a straight line, a square for a given distance and a route using only landmarks underwater. The fun part about this was that one person was paying attention to the compass (obviously Chad!) and the other person (Ewa) was counting fin strokes because that is how you judge distance underwater. For the square route we had to end up within 5 meters of our instructor when we got back to him, we passed! It was fun doing it together even though Chad really needed to trust Ewa a little more when it came to being accurate with the distance haha.
Turtles!
The next obstacle in our certification was done that same evening, our first night dive! Night diving is truly an totally different experience. You get a torch (flashlight) to use while you are under water and diving in the complete darkness. It is a strange sensation to say the least. In the dark, the underwater environment seems even more so as a very different unexplored territory. Different creatures come out of their holes at night, different plant life blooms and it feels like you are truly on the moon. Since there is no sunlight to brighten up the environment you see a lot more grey in the sand and on the bottom, but because you have a torch the colors once you shine your light on something are so much more vivid and bright. Part of the night dive was also night navigation. Freaky! Separating from the instructor in the dark, honestly at times you feel like you’re five years old again and someone turned off your night light and you’re freaking out! We completed our underwater navigation without a glitch and even experienced bioluminescence underwater…pretty damn cool.
Studying for our advanced open water certification
Being on the boat for 4 days straight we were quite surprised how quickly time went and at the same time how much diving we did. It was hectic at times and very tiring. Ewa was also pre-fasting during the trip so she wasn’t eating any meat and “trying” to eat as best she could, it wasn’t easy. Once we got off the boat and came back to Patong we were exhausted. It has been a long time that we have been so physically drained. Sleeping on the boat was a bit frustrating at times since we are not used to the rocking, the noises and diving so often, so we were quite sleep deprived as well. For the next few days we were intoxicated….with nitrogen ahha. Nothing made sense, sheer exhaustion, no energy, it was interesting. We got back to Patong on the 24th and Ewa was leaving on her detox retreat on the morning of November 28th for a week long fast. Chad has one more day and night before he leaves to go to his Buddhist Silent Retreat for 10 days. We have not been apart this entire trip. The last seven months has been spent in true Honeymoon fashion- together 24/7! This is going to be a very interesting time for both of us. We have the opportunity to take time and reflect on all that has happened and really sit and think on our own what it is that we want from each other but especially from ourselves.
written by  ECRadventure on November 24, 2009 from Similan Islands, Thailand

Phuket... retreats and time apart
Phuket, Thailand
Last moment together before Ewa left for her detox, we would be appart for two weeks
We left our friends in Ko Tao and headed back on the ferry to Ko Samui for our flight to Phuket. Little did we know, but the rain that we had over the last few days at the coral view was the tail end of another hurricane in the Philippines. We got to enjoy 3-4 meter swells on the catamaran that we took between Ko Tao and Ko Samui - it was quite the ride! We arrived in Phuket after our short flight to find out that Phuket is run by a Taxi / Tuk-Tuk mafia – there’s no way to get a fair deal for a ride on Phuket island. They over charged significantly, (compared to what it should cost in Thailand) so it’s best to take the public bus, which runs only until 17:30. Just be careful, it may not run from or to where you would like to go.
We settled into our little guest house, where we paid 1000 Baht ($33 cdn) for the night. Turns out we paid this for a little tiny room that was literally only the width of our bed and had ~3.5 feet of clearance at the end of the bed before it ended in the stall sized bathroom, where you get to shower over the toilet (the norm in Asia). Awesome. Later we checked out the city went to the diving shop and wandered about the city. The Patong area is really just a beach, two main streets filled with touristy shops selling all the same same, restaurants, dive shops and old white guys toting Thai women on their arms. We had no time before the live a board to enjoy the city and really only had a few days after the diving before we were leaving for our retreats, so we may have missed some of the finer points of the area. We needed a place to use as a home base for coming back to before/after our diving and our retreats, and with Patong so central to it all, it just made sense to spend the extra time here.
Lounging at the Pool at Atsumi
One thing we learned finally is why the Asian men walk around with their shirts pulled exposing their stomachs. Even though this looks incredibly stupid, it has practical real-world applications. In hot humid countries you sweat. Turns out the longer you are here, the more you sweat from strange places. By the time we reached Thailand, Chad had discovered that he can sweat A LOT from his stomach. Strange fact – you would have never learned this living in Canada. But… not once did Chad partake in the Asian custom of pulling his shirt up over his stomach, to a point just below the nipples, simply to cool down.
Our hotel room at the Fairmont
Before we left for our diving live a board, we managed to get a great walk-in deal on the hotel Aspery, where we paid 1000 Baht a night for a proper hotel, with a decent bed, a semi-normal bathroom and access to the roof-top swimming pool. A much better upgrade than the guesthouse we just left. The rest of the time we wandered the streets, tasting local dishes from the street vendors (Pad Thai, mango sticky rice, fried chicken, tom yum soup, spicy papaya salad, fresh fruit / veggie juices, more coconut coated peanuts) going to the movies, working out and just wasting away the days. After all of our back and forth from Patong we were off to Singapore to relax in major comfort at the Fairmont and to see Mark and Sara (Chad’s friends) from Innisfail!
OUR RETREATS!
The Detox Center
Ewa -
I left for my detox retreat on November 28th and was coming back to Phuket on Dec 5th, a full week before Chad was due back. A car picked me up at the hotel and it was a scenic half an hour drive to where the retreat was. The detox was fasting for one week with half a week or more as a pre-fast that I did on our live a board, as much as I could. No meat, eating as raw food as possible, no coffee, no alcohol and no sugar. The morning I got there they took an alkaline test on my saliva to determine how acidic my system was. I couldn’t drink or eat anything before that. I was really looking forward to this retreat, to relax, get away from the stress of travelling- haha just kidding. It was time to do something nice for my body and my mind. I didn’t eat any solid food for a week. I had 4 fibre shakes, 4 sets of vitamins, 2 coconut waters every day and a vegetable broth at night. For the first few days it was a bit difficult but also interesting because of the fibre shakes I wasn’t very hungry. The staff planned activities every morning evening you could do, but if you didn’t feel like it you could just nap or do your own thing. I chose to do as many as I could, there were a few that I struggled through because I didn’t have the energy but I did them anyway. We did beach walks, mountain walks and yoga in the mornings. The evening activities were all over the place from guided meditation, tai chi, yoga, Muay Tai boxing and talks on nutrition. I enjoyed it so much. After seven days though, I was ready to get back to reality and to the eating world. After seven days of nothing, you start dreaming of all of the things you want. Simple things like solids! A salad, some chilli peppers, a tom yum soup! The only thing I could have for three days after the fast was pure raw food so most of my cravings were off limits, including coffee  . That is one thing I missed a lot! An Americano….mmmm. I waited the three days to have it, and it was delicious.
Tiny little Buddhas meditating in the grass at Atsumi
Chad -
I have thought of doing a silent retreat for a very long time, and Ewa surprised me with arranging our trip to make sure we would be in Thailand in time for me to go to one of the more renowned retreats. I was up early in the morning to catch my minivan to head back East across Thailand to Chaya, which is 2/3 of the way back to Ko Tao. The minivan was an excellent experience, getting to spend 4 hours in an over-stuffed mini-van next to a vomiting woman - a great introduction to extreme patience. The first night I changed my plans and stayed at the main monastery in Suan Mok, rather than in a hotel in Surat Thani. This first night, I slept in a large communal room, on a concrete slab as my bed and with a wooden pillow. We were allowed a small bamboo mat to sleep on, and we all were given a blanket. The next day, early in the morning, the retreat started at the International Hermitage, just 1.5 km from the main monastery. There were about 90 other participants who were doing the silent retreat as well. The accommodation was the same as at the monastery, but at the hermitage, we each got our own room. There were no showers, only a large cistern filled with water, from which you took a ladle and poured the water onto yourself. The daily routine started with a 4am wake-up bell followed by a rotation of sitting meditations, walking meditations and Dhamma talks (Buddhist lessons). Breakfast at 8am and lunch at noon were thrown into the mix, along with one morning yoga session, all for 10 days straight. There was no conversation what so ever. Toss in the introduction day and the day after the retreat and you have practically 12 days of silent meditation time for yourself. The retreat was an amazing experience. I was able to learn a lot about my physical and mental limits. More importantly, I was able to explore some deep thoughts…. by Jack Handy (… hahaha, Mom and Dad that’s a Saturday Night Live reference for you) and it allowed me time to re-evaluate the path my life had been leading me down. By the end of the retreat, I was more than ready to head back to Phuket to scoop my bride back into my arms. We’ve been living inseparable for the past 9 months and the 2 weeks apart were beginning to be a little too much, especially not having any contact with each other in a different country.
written by  ECRadventure on November 28, 2009 from Phuket, Thailand

Singapore...5 stars all the way!
Singapore, Singapore
Christmas in Singapore, evening walk on Orchard Road
We arrived in Singapore, greeted by helpful English speaking airport staff that helped us buy our metro cards. We got on the cheap metro and went straight to the Fairmont hotel. Thank-you Natalia, Dave, Ela, Miro, Tanya, Marty, Agnes, Ewa, Andrew, Mags, Grace, Rudy & Rose!! We were counting down the days to take advantage of the wonderful wedding present from our friends. The Fairmont in Singapore is a 5-star, amazing hotel. This was our goodbye to Asia and ironically we sent it western style instead of eastern, but we can’t complain. We pretty much stayed in the hotel our entire time in Singapore, lapping in the luxury.
View from the Fairmont Singapore - 16th floor
We did manage to get out a little to meet up with Chad’s friends from Innisfail for a couple of visits. Great to see you Mark and Sara!! We got to hear about some of their travels, which gave us more ideas of where to go; so many places to see and so little time! We also visited little India and did some small Christmas shopping. Strange Singapore fact: Singapore doesn’t have weathermen or forecasts because it’s practically +29-33 every day with a 40% chance of rain. It rained nearly every day we were there and especially when we actually tried to go out and see or do something. Which, in turn made us head back into the hotel to take advantage our 5 star luxury (not trying to brag, but yea, it was that good ). We may be back to Singapore in the next few weeks/months since it’s a great hub for transportation around the region, which will give us another chance to better see the city. For now, we finally decided on our travel plans for the next weeks. Plane ticket in hand, we’re off for Perth, Australia to pick up a caravan and drive across Oz!
Dinner at Indochine with Mark and Sara
written by  ECRadventure on December 14, 2009 from Singapore, Singapore

Perth..viruses, theft and lost time
Perth, Australia
Australian Flag
Australia! A continent that has its own way of doing everything: The animals, plants and customs are different here than anywhere in the world. They have marsupials, the outback aaannd they put Vegemite on toast. Now if anyone has ever tasted Vegemite, you might agree that putting it anywhere near your mouth and enjoying it is pretty unique. We were excited to visit a place neither one of us has been to yet and to experience all the amazing things it has to offer. Beaches, vineyards, seafood, diving the barrier reef and a road trip from Perth to Sydney.
We flew from Singapore via Kuala Lampur in Malaysia to Perth. The first leg of the trip was easy and we landed in Kuala Lampur and had several hours to kill until our next flight left for Oz. Unfortunately for us the airport in KL is a barren waste land. We were in a security area and couldn’t leave because we didn’t want to pay for the visa upon arrival, for only a few hours to leave the airport. So we settled into a restaurant where we had bad overpriced coffees and food. It was so cold in the airport and we couldn’t escape the cold and we didn’t have any of our warmer clothes with us. We were trying to kill as much time as possible by walking around, checking out the shops, the duty free, but there really wasn’t much in this airport. We got so busy trying to find something to do that we almost missed our flight – and we didn’t realize there was a time change between Phuket and Kuala Lampur…the flight was only an hour so we assumed there would be no time change…oops. We just heard “Tiger Airways is calling Passengers Miss Ewwwwa Stolarz and Mr. Shad Radka. Please report to gate A3A for immediate departure”. We ran to the gate and were the last passengers to get on, first time that that’s happened! But we were on and on our way to Perth. It was a five hour flight with no on board entertainment, drinks or food unless you paid. It was official we were leaving Asia where the free airline food and drinks and friendliness were so nice!
WTF? Christmas snowman made out of dirt. AKA the Christmas poo.
We arrived in Perth at night and were surprised that you could buy duty free once you got off the plane, score. Australia is very serious about protecting themselves against all foreign pests and animals that could contaminate their very fragile eco system. Upon arriving we were asked to declare anything that may cause harm to their environment, including items such as wood and straw. Why would anyone bring in wood? We would normally ask that question but before leaving Phuket Ewa bought a wood hair pin…if there were any worms in it could cause huge problems for them. The same goes for food, you cannot bring any food into Australia; none, not even the food you had left over on the airplane which most countries allow. Everyone is interrogated and bags are x-rayed and you have to declare everything, even medication. Since Ewa had a straw hat and an item made of wood security checked her bags. We didn’t think that normally people would bring in food. There was one passenger that we saw who tried to bring in an entire suitcase of food. We heard the authorities tell her she would be fined, heavily, and everything would be confiscated. Turns out we over paid on our visas because the website told us we needed to get a certain type but that information was incorrect and we paid about ten times more. But hey...now if we want to, we can enter Australia multiple times for up to three months for the next 12 months. Our tradition after leaving a city is to take the map from the previous city and tear it when we arrive in the new city. It is a symbolic end of the past and a fresh beginning. After all of our fight and visa troubles, we didn’t even have a Singapore map to rip up when we landed in Perth, so we tried unsuccessfully to rip up a baggage tag. Little did we know that this would be a bad omen for future troubles.
Chad at Lake Thetis
We arrived at our hostel in Perth and went for a bite to eat in the area. The first thing we noticed was that everyone was completely drunk in the streets. It was like a busy weekend night in a bar area on a Thursday night and it wasn’t even 11pm. Then we realized it was Christmas Holidays and we were in a “bar area” of town. Since all the restaurants were closed because it was so “late” (a shock coming from Asia where everything is open all the time!) All we could find to eat was a kebab. It was good ;)
That is one thing that is very strange for us, the fact that Australians like to either go to sleep very early or they don’t like to work very late. Restaurants, internet cafés, shopping centers, grocery stores all close before nine. People disappear from the streets and only the shadies stay out. We think that everyone is either really lamo and has a self-imposed curfew or they’re at the bar because all the Pubs and Bars are usually full.
We were feeling tired the next day so we didn’t do much except go to the grocery store. This was our first “day” in Australia and we realized pretty quickly what people were talking about when they warned us about the Australian Sun. It was 10am and we were cooking! No kidding ozone hole! SPF 45 seems not enough here. We decided that it would be impossible to do anything between 11 am and 4 pm. On the plus side once we reached the grocery store we were so excited to have such a large selection of fresh fruit and veg! Organic food! Local food! Whatever we were craving we could get here. The hostel owner put on a Barbie (BBQ) that night, it was all you can eat and it was delicious, there were steaks, lamb sausages, and Greek salad.
Ewa at Hangover Bay
The following day we finally caught up on some much needed banking and found some really funny charges on our credit card from Winnipeg…don’t remember going to or buying anything in Winnipeg – crap someone stole our credit card number! This is the first time on the trip that we have had this happen to us, we are pretty lucky considering all the countries we’ve been to! We called Visa and went through all of the charges that weren’t ours and they are investigating it. Too bad for us we now don’t have our travel credit card, luckily our debit cards work at the ATM’s and Chad has a backup credit card. What a pain! We also didn’t know where we would have the new credit cards sent to; we don’t really have a permanent address. Next problem we ran into is our computer. We got a bad virus and it crashed our system. After countless hours trying to fix it on our own, we called in a ‘pro’. The pro wasted two of our days (confusion with when he was supposed to show up) and in the end simply wiped the hard drive. Great, there goes all our data! The following day Chad went down to the place where we were renting our road trip van from, a company called Wicked Vans. Basically this van has everything you need for a long term road trip in it; a bed, camping chairs and table, dishes, a sink and we splurged to make sure we had AC. When he got there they needed the credit card he used to make the booking to pay for it…oops yeah we don’t have that because the number was stolen. No worries Mate we take cash, debit or another credit card. Great, do you take American Express? No. Oh ok, I’ll pay debit. Sorry it was declined. That’s impossible, try it again (they tried 4 times until realizing that Australia debit works on Visa debit which is not the same as interact used back home in Canada) All we have left now is cash. Our bank won’t let us take enough money out in one day. So we had to go to the bank a few days in a row and call them to up our limit just so that we could take this van! We were ready to get out of Perth and get on the road. It’s a bit sad but with all the troubles we had, that we didn’t get to actually see much of the city and spent the time instead sorting out issues. Soon enough we were off like turtles, with our shell on our back… across Australia!
Ewa, Chad and 'Root Toot' our home for the next 3 weeks
Finally on December 22nd we were leaving Perth and on a whim went to the Indian Visa office realizing that if we wanted to see India we should maybe send our passports away now before Christmas and New Years. We struggled if we wanted to go out of our way and find the office without all the right information, or just wait and send our applications by mail into Sydney later. We had the applications mostly filled out but were stuck on a few questions we didn’t know how to answer. So even though we were running late leaving the city (as always) we went to the office and it was the fastest most amazing Visa office we have ever been to! We were helped right away, no line and the visa officer helped us answer our questions, essentially telling us to ignore everything we couldn’t fill out! He was so fast! “Write this here, here and here, sign here. Glue your picture here. No you don’t need that. Yes sign here. That’ll be 220 dollars. Thank you and Happy Christmas”. Literally that is how fast we were in and out, and yes here in Australia, or at least Perth they say “Happy Christmas” not “Merry Christmas”. Chad joked he felt violated… that’s just how fast the process was! And we were on our way across Australia! We will be driving over 4000km from Perth all the way to Sydney, it’s sad that we haven’t done this in Canada. We’ve seen more of Australia than we have of our own country and when we get back we really want to see more of our side of the world.
Ewa at the Pinnacles
We travelled north from Perth to check out the amazing pinnacles Ewa had heard about. Imagine Drumheller, but in Australia and in the middle of the desert. A national park in the middle of nowhere, we drove 300 km North to check out this natural beauty. We left from Perth, and travelled as far north as we could in one day, and stopped at the first caravan park we could find after sunset. Apparently it is quite unsafe to travel at night in Aus, with most of the wildlife being nocturnal. On the long drive up we were treated to an amazing sunset and beautiful skylines. The pinnacles and the area was amazing, being surrounded by the dessert, whipping wind and the limestone pillars. The wind was so strong at times that it almost was enough to blow you off of your feet. After leaving the pinnacles we stopped at a little beach called Hangover bay. This bay was amazing. Brilliant blue waters, really soft sand, but super cold water. We didn’t stop much longer than to take a stroll on the beach and snap a few photos but it is certainly worth the side trip from the pinnacles. If only we didn’t have such a strong dislike for cold water, it would have been much better! We also stopped at a ‘primordial’ lake (Lake Thetis), where there is cyanobacteria that is supposed to have been the initial building blocks of life on Earth. It was a lot less interesting than we thought, but hey, that’s what roadtrips are about, just stopping to see things that may be interesting! The after our trip to the pinnacles, we managed to make it all the way back down to Perth for the night, to stay at a caravan park outside of the city before continuing south.
Sunset along the drive from Perth to the pinnacles
written by  ECRadventure on December 19, 2009 from Perth, Australia

Bussleton, Margaret River, Augusta... Christmas in Australia
Augusta, Australia
Wishing all our friends and family a merry christmas from Aus
On Christmas Eve, we headed south down the hi-way to Bussleton, where we settled down for two nights of doing not much but relaxing and swatting flies. We tried our best to blend the Australian tradition of BBQ’s on the beach at Christmas with our family traditions at home and we succeeded with moderate success! We hit a few beaches and some of the coast line around Geographie bay. The area has spectacular beaches and great winding roads for taking day trips. The one really disappointing aspect of the area was the amount of flies. Now, if you’re from Canada and have never seen ‘desert face flies’, I am 100% sure that you wouldn’t appreciate them. They swarm for your body cavities. Your nose, mouth, ears, eyes, anywhere that there may be a spec of moisture, they dive for it. They are also far more persistent than you can imagine. It ruined a lot of our experiences on the West coast because we couldn’t spend a minute outside. .
Breaking the Oplatek ... Polish tradition at Christmas
Christmas Eve was spent getting settled into the camp, cooking salmon and prawns on the Barbie and wrapping our presents. We spent the night in the van to avoid the bugs, but we had a great night together thinking of our families back home and enjoying our festive cheer. Christmas day we relaxed on the beach and chatted with family on the phone. At night, we indulged in a grand feast of roasted turkey breast with fried yams and potatoes. It was as close to Canadian as we could get, without actually cooking an entire turkey. As per Polish tradition we had “oplatek” ( blessed wafer, aka bread) before the meal and wished each other wonderful and positive things for the upcoming year. Ewa also made the closest version of Polish potato salad, it wasn’t Grandmas recipe but again, the closest we could get. We ended the meal indulging in an Aussie Chocolate pudding, it was pretty delish, a warm cake with chocolate sauce on top, you can actually buy them ready and heat them in the microwave
Celebrating Christmas with our christmas crowns... tradition started by Cheryl!
Christmas presents in the van!
On Boxing day we headed out around the coast to the Margaret river region. It is surrounded by beautiful coast lines and river valleys that boast amazing vineyards, orchards and various farms. We spent the next two days wandering around. We visited an olive grove and tasted many strange and wonderful olive oils, tapenades, pestos, and olives. The combinations of olive oils were totally new and so delicious! They had mandarin, chilli, lemon etcetera see www.oliobello.com . We visited the Voyager vineyard, a chocolatier, a cereal / nut farm, and a delicatessen with gourmet cheeses. The two days in the region was an indulgence and we loved it!
Olio Bello! These suckers are great, buy online (really expensive though)
White wine at the Voyager estate
After leaving Margaret river, we headed south to Augusta and then East to Pemberton and onward to Esperance. This area is famous for the rugged coast and giant forests. In Augusta we took the long drive out to the lighthouse and can claim to have stood on the most South-West part of Australia. Heading East we stopped at the Bicentennial tree, where you can climb 68 meters to an aerial platform above the surrounding trees. The climb is scary because there are no safety nets or guards. The ladder is made from iron poles drilled into the tree and they are very slippery. The higher you climb the more you lose focus because the height makes you dizzy. It was quite a rush to climb the tree; Ewa even had to climb on the outer edge of the ladder to pass another climber who was coming down the tree! After climbing the Bicentennial tree, we headed further East to the valley of the giants and walked the tree-top walk. It’s a 600 meter walk through the forest canopy at heights of 60 meters. The forest is mainly eucalyptus trees, which is a hard-wood species native to Australia. The wood is naturally fire-resistant and can withstand forest fire. The core of the tree will burn away, but the exterior remains intact. Some species can grow to over 100 meters and live for centuries.
Volcanic sand at Augusta lighthouse (most S.W. point in Aus)
written by  ECRadventure on December 27, 2009 from Augusta, Australia

Esperance..NYE and champagne!
Esperance, Australia
The warning for the Bicentennial tree outside of Pemberton
On the 'walk of the giants'
Overlooking Yallingup beach. Too expensive for our backpackers taste
We continued along the winding rolling highway through ever changing scenery of forests. The trees seemed to change every 50-100 km with a whole new ecosystem. It kept the drive interesting, reminding us a lot of a drive through the Okanagan valley at times and through the Rockies at others. On the 30th, of December we stopped into Esperance to set-up camp for two nights. We figured with NYE the next day any place that we tried to stop in would likely be full. Esperance is quite small and it feels like a small town, with local butchers and one main street. With all of the tourists coming to see the beaches there are a lot more services than you’d expect! The beaches are truly amazing here. The water is crystal clear and beaches have white-silica sand that is as soft as can be. The only downside is the water is very very cold! On a nice warm day this wouldn’t be a problem, but both days that we were here, the temperature didn’t get above 21 degrees and there was a strong breeze so we just enjoyed the view.
Overlooking Twilight beach outside of Esperance
Our NYE kisss in the van... awwww how romantic!
On NYE, we picked up a bottle of sparkling wine and a few beers and settled into our van – again- for a night of talking and reading. The caravan park was too far out of the city to head to a bar, but we celebrated in style together! We tried to keep the tradition alive with the ‘round the world NYE” where you celebrate NYE with as many time zones as you can. However, with Sydney really being the first place in the world to celebrate NYE, we had a much later start than we normally would in Calgary! The next day, we were off for a drive to the Fort McMurray of Australia!
written by  ECRadventure on December 31, 2009 from Esperance, Australia

Kalgoolrie... why is the brothel closed???
Kalgoorlie, Australia
The wide streets of Kalgoolrie
We decided to side-track right from the get go and instead of heading east to the Nullarbor we went North to a mining town called Kalgoorlie, the equivalent of Fort Mac. If you sound it out it kind of sounds like : C a l g a r y. Why in the world did we want to go there? For one we missed the Mac a lot….haha, No. The town has many pubs, filled with miners who come in after their shift, still in their coveralls, for a few hours of drinking and socializing. They even have an electronic display showing the current stock market price for the various ores that they mine. The roads are some of the widest in the world, to accommodate all of the 'roadtrains' that used to make U-turns right in the middle of the street. Top this all off with each bar being served by ‘skimpies’ or women in lingerie, and that the town has a long tradition of legalized prostitution. It has tattoo parlours, brothels, churches and gambling. We said to ourselves, ‘how can we go wrong with this!?!?’ So we headed North, with the 200km side trip to have a taste of a working town. Right away when we pulled in you could tell that this was a rough and ready kind of place; a little worn around the edges with seedy characters almost everywhere.
The sign advertising the ladies of the night available at one of the brothels
We settled into our caravan park on the outskirts of town, where they told us “not to walk around at night, but to make sure to take a taxi after dark, because of the blacks (the aboriginals)”. The owners of the caravan park said that usually they don’t cause any problems but at night they travel in groups, so it’s better just in case to take a taxi. They reassured us that they’ve been living here for a long time and there’s no reason to worry and it’s safe…but take a taxi anyway. We found the story just a little disturbing but more because of the apparently racist opinion than for the apparent danger. After coming home after dark, we didn’t doubt them as much as the streets were filled with like people shuffling drunkenly around the streets in mobs.
Sitting in one of the pubs, just like a shot out of an old western movie
We headed into downtown and saw that the place was nearly deserted. We forgot to take into account that this is January 1, 2010; a national holiday in just about every country around the planet. With it being a work town on top of that, nearly the entire city was somewhere else. Hahaa… whoops. We managed to stop in a couple of bars, chat with a few of the locals and see some of the skimpies before we headed down to the brothel for the famous tour!
Now, again the holiday managed to spoil our plans. The tour was supposed to be at 18:00 according to the guide book and to our caravan park owners, but with the holidays the Madame of the brothel decided to have the tour at 17:00 instead. All of the ladies of the establishment were away on vacation and the only reason for the brothel to be open was for the tour. As we pulled up at 17:50, a group of people leaving the building told us we were too late. Even pleading with puppy dog eyes through the door wouldn’t bring the Madame over to say hello and let us in. A few more stops around the town and we were back at our campsite with take-away Thai. The great thing about Kalgoolrie, is there are no flies and it’s actually warm at night! For the first time in many many days we were able to finally sit on our camping chairs outside of the van and enjoy the evening air! The next day we were set and ready to head back down south and then East across the great Nullabor!
written by  ECRadventure on January 1, 2010 from Kalgoorlie, Australia

Caiguna...desert and the long road ahead
Caiguna, Australia
Wakling on the sand dunes outside of Eucla
Well, the day finally came to head out across the Nullabor and brave the desert. We managed to make great time on the road after a bit of a later start to the day, we ended up in Caiguna, ~420km from Kalgoolire. The roadhouse in Caiguna actually has a small desert museum that makes the stop at least slightly more entertaining than just being a gas station. The road is barren and desolate but surprisingly there are areas of vegetation and sparse forests. We didn’t have a lot to occupy our time along the way other than the sights of the desert, hunting to see if we could spot any animals and our conversation. We managed to see a number of eagles and a couple of emu’s but that is it. The tradition lives on, across the entire desert we didn’t see a single live kangaroo!
Look out all of these dangerous animals!
The next day we stopped for a tour of the Eucla telegraph house and the sand dunes, where we were again attacked by fearsome flying insects intent to lay eggs somewhere in us. It was a great little walk through the desert dunes until the flying insects started biting, about 20 minutes into the walk. We made a few stops along the way at cliffs overlooking the Southern Ocean. Standing on the cliffs you feel like you are at the end of the world, which is partly true! The only landmass south of us at that point is Antarctica. There was no one around to top it all off, it felt like a true deserted tropical island, it was stunning.
Looking out at the end of the world! Nothing but Antarcita past the horizon
That night we stopped at the Nullabor roadhouse on the South Australian side of the state border. This roadhouse is about as barren as you can get. No cooking facilities, just a patch of dirt on the limestone plateau with some basic shower facilities. We got to take advantage of our little propane cooker that came with our campervan. While cooking and eating we literally had to chase away birds from our plates. Chad picked up the camping chair swinging it trying to chase the hopping birds away but they only ran far enough not to get hit and then would start hopping back towards us and our food. Apparently when you are that hungry, you don’t mind the odd chair in the face!
Ewa bundled up against the cold and the voracious animals!
written by  ECRadventure on January 3, 2010 from Caiguna, Australia

Port Augusta... prawn cocktail WTF?
Port Augusta, Australia
The middle of no-where. Eucla on the boarder of W.A and S.A.
The next morning we were very excited to get on the road and get out of the Nullabor roadhouse and the desert in general. Although we did note that at every gas station you could at least get your Long Black or a Cappuccino, no matter how removed you were from the rest of the world. We were up with the sun and drove all day long. We managed to make a few stops along the way, mostly searching for bathrooms and to top up on caffeine. The finger puppet made reappearance in the morning, to spread good cheer to all of the other drivers on the road. We started the tradition of the finger puppet early on in the trip to say hello to all the other drivers on the Nullabor. As you pull onto the highway in Norseman every driver goes out of their way to wave to you, although the wave is often only a one-finger raise off of the steering wheel. SO, to add a little more glam to our waving we decided to spice up the one finger wave and create a character to say hello to the folks. The farther along the highway the less and less people wave, but we tried to keep the tradition alive each morning with a new character!
Eddie the finger man!
That night, being right on the ocean we spent a good hour looking for a quality seafood restaurant. Now, by quality we mean Red lobster or better. We struck out and ended up at a fast food seafood joint where we got a small ‘secret sauce’ covered Prawn cocktail. The little snack was alright, just totally not what we had our sights set on. Settling into Port Augusta, we were officially off of the Nullabor and on our way down to Adelaide and South Australia!
The barren desert. Not a lot to shelter yourself from the heat
written by  ECRadventure on January 4, 2010 from Port Augusta, Australia

Mildura, Wagga Wagga and a total 180
Wagga Wagga, Australia
More of the river in Mildura, a little spot of heaven
Mildura!
Pulling out of our Big 4 campground (seriously if you are in Aus, stay at these places, they are great campgrounds with all the amenities you may need and are usually super clean!) we stopped at a phone booth to make a call to Wicked Campers to extend the rental period on our van. When we left Perth, they told us just to make sure to call a few days before and it shouldn’t be a problem to add as many days as you would like onto the contract. We call and as it turns out we aren’t allowed to add any days to the contract. They say that we must have the van back in Sydney for the morning of the 8th. Hmmm, well, that sure doesn’t leave a lot of time for us to drive the 1300km, let alone head south to Adelaide and Melbourne. We went through all the options with them and then a few out of the box ideas with ourselves, like just bringing the van back whenever we wanted. With our credit card being stolen, they didn’t have any credit card info on us and couldn’t charge us. We figured our $1000 bond would just about cover the actual costs for renting the van for the next 10 days. However, there is the chance that they would consider this as ‘stealing’ the van, and our decision was to end the S.A. / Victoria part of our trip and make the drive straight to Sydney. Boo.
Relaxing on the banks of the river in Mildura
We stopped in at a tourist information booth and got ‘the quickest’ route to Sydney. Turns out they gave us the Bryan Colvin special. The roads were the backroads that may sure seem like they are going to take the least amount of time, but involve a lot of turns, stop signs and slower average speeds. Great navigating by Ewa kept us on the right track and we ended the day a little early in the small river side town Mildura. Our stop in Mildura proved to be a great break for us. The lady behind the counter at the campsite was about 6-8 beers into the night and gave us one of the best sites for a steal of a price. We pulled in and camped right beside a dock on the river. We spent a few hours relaxing with our feet in the river, drinking local wine and decompressing from the stress of the complete 180 change in our plans.
Ewa and some wine on the dock in Mildura.
Wagga Wagga 6th
On our fast track to Sydney, Wagga Wagga was a town we stopped at in the evening just for the night. We stopped at the information center right on our way into town to see where we could stay. We stepped out of the van and were hit with seriously cold wind. It was cold! And here we were driving 7 hours with the AC on because it was hot in the van, we should have just opened a window. We got the directions to our caravan park (2 streets away) and drove down Church street, which was incidentally lined with 5 churches, one after another. To top it off they all looked like they were built two hundred years ago. We set up camp at our site and were excited because there was a restaurant we read about in our guide book here that sounded awesome. Surrounded by olive groves and vineyards the Magpie restaurant was going to be a treat for us. We drove around country roads trying to find it for a while but when we did…Christmas break and Aussie Summer holidays got us again! They were closed until February. So on we went back into town and ate at whatever was there… we ended up at a place called “Hogs breath” sounds delicious doesn’t it? It’s like Red Robins, an American style restaurant with license plates on the wall and everything.
A little rat, ... actually a possum. They'd let you eat right from their hands and pet them!!
After dinner we went back to our van and once again had warm enough weather in the evening to sit outside and enjoy the evening. There was a river nearby and many families that were enjoying the evening playing cricket and floating in the river. There were many cockatoos flying around, there were the usual pink small ones we have seen many times, but this time they were joined by a yellow variety that were twice their size and instead of a lovely coo they screamed like crows, but louder and more annoying, if that was possible. There were flocks of them, we have never seen exotic birds like this in the wild, it was beautiful to see them be free. We settled down by our beloved van and blogged a bit until Ewa jumped up from her seat because something small, furry and fast was running towards her. She freaked right out and Chad quickly turned on his flashlight at the animal…turns out it was a harmless possum, and he had friends! Possums freeze when you shine a light on them, pretty much like deer in the headlights. They turned out to be the entertainment for the night, by the end of it we were feeding them and petting them like cats, it was pretty cool. The next morning we were off again…fast track to the east coast.
Goulburn 7th
All day driving takes a lot out of you, especially when you’re passing so much fun stuff that you can’t do because you have to get your not so wicked van back to Sydney! We drove all day again and finally stopped in Goulburn. We stopped at the first caravan park we saw, it was getting dark and we were tired. The place seemed decent, we checked it and even bought a meat pie (our first one! They are one of Australia’s dishes- Like England!) We didn’t unpack much just grabbed our food and went to check out the camp kitchen. This one was super nice with stoves, fridge, tv in the room and everything was so clean…ahh the things you take for granted. We got distracted by the tv because we hadn’t seen any in quite some time and the lady who checked in came into the kitchen and told us to stop watching television and go outside quickly and move our van as we were causing a traffic jam! We quickly went outside to move the van ( we don’t want to cause no trouble mam) There was no one around…some tumble weeds and silence….howling wind. Hmm. We didn’t say anything and moved our van and laughed. We set aside the meat pie to have as an appetizer. The instructions said you could cook it in the oven or the microwave, as someone else was using the oven Ewa put it in the mic. It smelled so good..then in a hurry it smelled like it was burned…Ewa burned the only meat pie we ever had the pleasure of attempting to try! It wasn’t just burned, it was passed burned, the inside was charcoal. Oh well, next time meat pie! We had a great night cooking, watching tv and talking. We were in bed quite early and luckily Chad had to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night. As he opened our van door…what does he see? Two Kangaroos feeding in the moonlight right in front of our van! He quickly woke me up and I couldn’t see anything…damn sandman and his sand! But after adjusting we both watched quietly as two big beautiful Kangaroos fed in the moonlight, with another one we found around the other side of the van. We got up in the morning and had a quick breakfast, we only needed to drive a few more hours and we would be in Sydney…just in time to have the van back!
written by  ECRadventure on January 6, 2010 from Wagga Wagga, Australia

Sydney... festivals and a longing for the city life
Sydney, Australia
Taronga Zoo
We arrived into Sydney following the freeway up from Goulburn. Along the freeway we learned that the Sydney metropolitan area is very fond of electronic road tolls. After a few detours we were able to steer our way to the few cash tolls. We were running late to get the van back in time but due to the significant amount of coffee and water that we had in the morning, we had to stop before we arrived in Sydney. However, as it turns out that a few of the turn-offs on the freeway that allow access back onto the freeway in one direction. We ended up having to back track 5 km just to get to a road that would let us turn around! We then pulled into the hostel, off loaded our bags and the 2 weeks of goods that we had accumulated because we got used to having a temporary home, which surprisingly enough can be a lot of things. Good for us most of it was food!
Dropping off the van was easy, only a quick clean of the van and we were off. However, another experience in the poor service of Wicked vans was the many hassles trying to get our deposit back. Overall our van was good, it caused us no problems. After talking with many other people who rented with wicked and the general service that we had with them, we would recommend that anyone who is planning on doing the same thing go with one of the other companies, like Juicy, XXX, They may cost 10-30 a day, but we’d say they are probably worth it.
We stayed at the Big hostel just off of Elizabeth street and Hay street. It’s on the South side of Downtown Sydney and East of China town. Great location; right on the free bus line and within walking distance to all of the major sights in downtown Sydney. Nothing in Sydney is cheap, including our accommodation, but we were able to get a private room with a bathroom for $89 a night. For example of some of the other costs, a 2L of coke will set you back ~$4-5, a can of coke can cost up to $3 in some places, coffee is about $4 even at McDonalds, a six pack of beer is $20. All in all we tried to keep our costs down but it wasn’t easy. After getting rid of our van we spent the night just checking out our new neighbourhood and hostel.
Sydney Festival
On day two we went on a four hour walking tour of Sydney, it was a very good way to quickly see most of the sights; Sydney harbour, the opera house, the rocks, century old churches and pubs. Lets just say that walking for 4 hours in the humid summer heat is exhausting – so of course we had to indulge in a restaurant we found right by the hostel called Spice I am. This little gem of a restaurant is a Thai lovers paradise. The food was so amazing. Stuffed, we went back to the hostel for a nap and in the evening went out to see the much hyped Sydney Festival. The festival runs close to 2 weeks and it’s a mix of new theater performances, comedy shows and music concerts. The first night of the festival was free too and we decided to check it out, we were not disappointed. There were 5 stages all over the city that were showing free performances. As soon as we showed up we knew half the city was there as well. The first stage we saw was a variety of acrobatic shows, the second was a huge outdoor music concert and the third which we almost missed was the amazing Indian music box. The last performance was so amazing we both stood in awe, enjoying every moment of the Mangiyar Seduction. You can catch a glimpse of their show on this web link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YvKsrqCwyGQ
Walking home after the show, we were thinking that this festival is a lot like the Calgary Stampede in many ways. It draws hundreds of thousands of people in to the events and it is a great excuse for people to let off some steam. As per the Australian norm, things were winding down and people heading home just after 11.
The next day we set aside time to go and visit the travel agents office. We wanted to do some sailing around the Whitsunday islands and also dive on the Great Barrier Reef. Looking at all the information in our Lonely Planet book, we were still a little lost on how we were going to do both of these on our limited time frame and limited budget. However, as we were staying downtown almost everything in the city center was closed as it was Sunday. SO, we continued on our way with a fresh cup of coffee in hand to the Contemporary Arts Museum. The museum is free too, which is always a great plus! You aren’t allowed to bring in any cameras into the museum. There were some interesting pieces on the first two floors, but one of the main exhibits that we both really enjoyed was by an aboriginal woman. She worked in a variety of mediums to show the plight of the Aborigines and she is not afraid to show the darker side of history. One really interesting room was filled with ~4” of corn kernels on the floor. On the walls were a number of photographs of traditional ways of living. To see any of the pictures, you had to take your shoes/flip flops off and walk through the more than ankle deep corn kernels. What she was really trying to say is up to you, but it was very different than any exhibit we have seen yet. That night and like many nights and afternoons for the next few weeks we spent time on the internet doing research for our upcoming trips to India and the Middle East (Jordan/Israel).
Sydney Opera House
One good thing about our hostel is that it has a great kitchen. It’s usually very crowded, but they have a good set-up, several fridges and it’s clean. We managed to take advantage of this and cook a lot of our own meals. We really enjoyed being able to eat veggies and meals how we like. For two people who normally sustain themselves on a diet of 60%+ raw and cooked veggies with no sauces, our world trip has been a constant battle for foods we prefer. After our breakfast we were out the door to the travel agent to get some ideas on how to organize the next stages of our trip. An hour and a half later we came out of the travel office with more information but no more of a clear direction on what to do. We each headed off to get our hair cut and to get our passports from the post office. We sent them off in Perth to the Indian Consulate for a tourist Visa. We picked them up with no hassles and ended up eating lunch in a food-court at the bottom of the post office. The food court was a sight to see. People running frantically to get meals, wolf them down and run away back to work. The tables and anything with a square inch of surface area was filled with garbage and half eaten food. It all seemed much more a scene out of Asia than downtown Sydney. After our late lunch we split up and wandered the city, window shopping and exploring.
Sydney bridge!
We were in bed early that night, so that we would be well rested for our day trip to the zoo! We got up early to catch the first ferry out to Taronga Zoo. It’s definitely one of the best zoos that we’ve seen; after our experiences in Asia with the cruel treatment of animals, we had nearly sworn ourselves off of visiting any other zoos. However, we heard that this zoo is renowned for having lots of open spaces and that it’s on the forefront of nature conservation. Most of the animals have large enclosures with natural vegetation and areas where they can go to get away from the hordes of people. Only the giraffe and gorilla cages were too small and barren. All in all we had a great afternoon. One of the highlights for us was the walk-thru enclosure for the kangaroos. This enclosure has a double set of doors that you walk through and then are hit face-to-face with two dozen or so kangaroos of differing varieties. You could literally reach over and touch them, they are so close. The whole trip across Australia and we had to wait until this zoo to actually get a good glimpse of a kangaroo in the daytime!
After the zoo and for the entire next day we lounged around the city, surfed the internet and booked a trip from Airlie beach to sail the Whitsunday islands. In the evening we were off for a cinematic adventure! We made reservations at the GoVinda’s Restaurant and cinema. There was a vegetarian buffet (why does vegetarian often translate to ‘covered in butter/oil or cream sauce”?) followed by a movie. The movie is shown in a theater upstairs from the restaurant. The seats are big comfy beds. We watched a funny movie called “The invention of lying”. It’s definitely worth watching.
Sydney Fish Market
We spent the next day exploring the darling harbour and the Sydney fish market. We wanted to see this iconic Sydney market as it is world renowned for the quantity of seafood that is sold here each year. It is a customary Sydney-sider tradition at Christmas to come down to the market and stock up on all of the fruits of the sea. We wandered from store to store, amazed at the variety and size of some of the creatures. There was even seafood we had never heard of or seen called sea bugs, looks pretty much the same as it sounds, strange. We then settled down to some freshly cooked seafood, a bottle of white wine and some vine Bernard Calibeaut chocolate all for a steal of a price from the local markets. After our feast we were off for our night out at the Opera house. We booked an insider’s tour of the Opera house, followed by a comedy show. It was great to see the inside of such an iconic building (except the carpet which for some reason is purplec .eek… the tour guide said that when Pavarotti came to sing and saw that the reception went through the area with the purple rug he made them change the venue, he stated it was because purple was a bad luck color for Italians…we think it’s because it’s hideous). Right after the tour we got tickets to see an Australian comedian, we didn’t get half the jokes because of the slang or the references to news headlines but even so it was a great night.
We also got tickets the next day for a show called “6 impossible things before dinner” which was a one man illusion show. He challenges what you believe in, whether people can read minds or not and what the rational mind does in the face of an irrefutable demonstration of six very impossible events. Chad even got to be on stage! Each act required audience participation. Random people were chosen to go up on stage, and they were chosen by a foam football that flew around the room. If you caught the ball you got to go up. Three people were chosen, and everyone got to pick their seat and change their seat if they wanted to. Chad sat in seat number 2.Then you had to pick one of three different tests. The illusionist did these tests that the Russians performed during the cold war to see if some people they could recruit were psychic. Chads part in the show was to pick a card, at random. In the end, the performer not only guessed the right card, but also had a piece of paper on the back of the chair that had his guess written on it prior to the show. The guess showed which person would sit in which chair, which of the three tests that person would pick and the results of the test. The last test of the three was to guess a word out of the dictionary, chosen at random! Quite a show! It was an amazing show, the best secrets will stay secrets because if you ever see the show, you should be as amazed and thrilled as we were. We were sad to leave Sydney; it is such an amazing city with so much to offer but on the 17th we flew up up and away to Proserpine to sail and dive in the Whitsundays!
written by  ECRadventure on January 16, 2010 from Sydney, Australia

Airlie ... WTF, why didn't anyone say that you can't swim in the ocean here?!?
Airlie Beach, Austria
Welcome to the Whitsundays. Land of beautiful white sandy beaches and turquoise waters… which you can’t swim in. The waters here are filled with jellyfish, including Irukandji and box both of whose stings can be fatal. So, in order to go swimming in the ocean, you need to wear a ‘stinger suit’. They are usually a 3mm wet suit, or sometimes a thinner lycra version. They are supposed to limit the surface area exposed to potential stings. However, your feet, hands and neck/head are still exposed. We didn’t rent a suit so we couldn’t even swim in the ocean. The great thing about the city is that they built a huge lagoon a few feet from the ocean to serve as the local swimming hole. The lagoon is nearly the ideal swimming pool, it’s surrounded by palm trees, green space with sand and there is a separate kid’s pool too! There are showers, toilets, water fountains and plenty of little shops to eat at; everything that you need to stay for the whole afternoon. The only downside is that the pool is only about 5’10” deep at the maximum and with the high temperatures and strong sunlight it gets to body temperature or even warmer. It’s not really a great place for cooling off.
We couldn’t get onto our sail ship for a few days because the first sailings were booked. Instead of spending the extra days around Sydney, we thought that we could spend them diving on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) and swimming in the ocean. As it turns out, there are no day trips from Airlie to the GBR. The town is set up great for sailing but not diving. To do a diving here you have to do a live a board. We were disappointed the travel agent didn’t tell us these things before we came, and if we knew, we would have made other plans. We checked into our hostel, the ‘Backpackers by the bay’ which is a dirty little mini-motel. The staff was fun and hosted trivia night and they showed movies at night until the screen broke (like many of the things at the hostel).
We spent the next 5-6 days wandering around town, hanging out at the lagoon and using the internet to plan the next parts of our trip and our return home. Ewa managed to get thrown out of a coffee shop for spending nearly 1.5 hours there and having only purchased two coffees while using their ‘free wifi’. The barista was very rude and insisted that she buy a meal in order to stay in the café and at $14+ for even a sandwich that wasn’t going to happen. Other than that, nothing remotely exciting happened.
The day before we sailed, we changed hotels because the tour operator provided accommodation the night before and after the sailing. The ‘Wander’s Resort’ wasn’t any better than the Backpackers we had just left behind. At night we even had to defend ourselves against several small spiders (potentially life threateningly poisonous in Chad’s paranoid mind) and one huge, nearly fist sized spider. We spent 10 minutes trying to kill the large spider with the toilet scrub brush, but the spider was too quick and we were too scared to get too close. We eventually managed to kill it by throwing a towel over the spider to trap it and then smashing all over the towel just to make sure we got it!
The Sollaway Las
The next evening we boarded the Solway Lass, a 109 year old tall ship. Neither of us had ever been on a tall ship before and we were excited. There were about 25 guests and 6 crew members on the 2 day/2 night trip. We departed for the Whitsundays area that evening. The weather wasn’t very good and the forecast for the remainder of the trip wasn’t any good either which seems to be a trend with our “water excursions” (Hurricanes in Vietnam/ Storms in Thailand). Apparently a cyclone was headed towards us and we were expecting 30 knot winds. So that evening since we were rained out from the deck we went to bed early hoping for at least some sunshine the next day. A lot of people were sea sick the night before and most of the first day on the open sea. We had a few nauseating moments but for the most part we were ok, staying on the deck where there was fresh air and a horizon.
We visited Whitehaven beach which was the whitest and most beautiful beach we have ever seen. The sand is extremely fine and soft and sticks to your skin like it’s holding on for dear life. We got to take some amazing pictures from a view point area above the beach of the moving sands against the turquoise water, it was amazing. The guides told us that they frequently see huge Manta rays gliding through the shallow waters! Chad didn’t feel like swimming but Ewa got on her suit and spent a good half an hour jumping waves and enjoying the water. After the swim we made our way back to the group to relax under the shade of a tree until it was time to head back to the boat. Not many people accounted for the harshness of the sun’s rays, combined with the reflection off the water and the white sand – there were a lot of sunburned body parts. We got sunburned but were quite lucky that it wasn’t as bad as some other people, one guy from Sweden burned his face so bad that his forehead was blistering and oozing puss the next day! Yikes. Australia definitely has the harshest sun in the world. The rest of the day we relaxed had great food that the on board chef prepared fresh and enjoyed a few beers provided by the ships wench. Yup, they actually called her a wench, all in good fun! In the evening the boys put on their stinger suits and jumped from the ships swing rope to cool off, Chad even climbed the rope to jump off and jumped off the front of the ship. The weather seemed to be getting better and we spent the evening on the deck talking to the other guests. Our last day and night on the ship was going to be fun, it was Chads birthday! When we were still in Airlie, Ewa went to the company to make sure that Chad would have a cake on his birthday; it’s not every day that you turn 30! During the day we went to explore one of the reefs along the islands that were in the area.
Whithaven beach
We went snorkelling and also went for one dive. We were looking forward to diving the Great Barrier Reef for a long time and since we couldn’t get too far out, this was going to have to do. We were still on the reef and happy that we could do even one dive. The snorkelling was great too, it was very amazing to see the amount and variation of fish life and the coral was beautiful. Our dive went smoothly, it was a bit murky because of the weather. We even took our camera diving since the max depth we would be going to would be 14m. We took lots of pictures and even two videos. After we had dinner, the captain announced that someone would get whipped! On our first day, he had explained that if anyone disobeyed the marine park rules that they would get flogged, some of the offences are no big deal like for example bringing sand onto the boat, that can get cleaned up – some big offences are taking shells or coral from the beaches (along with flogging it is a $3000.00 Aus dollar park fine).
Diving the Great Barrier Reef
Ewa wasn’t sure if Chad had yet caught on that it was him, but only because it was his birthday! The crew gave him some beats and even gave Ewa the whip to hit Chad too (unfortunately she actually hit him on his burn) and then the chef came out with a cake for Chad lit with candles and everything! The entire boat sang Happy Birthday to him! And to top it off, they served the cake with ice cream. We stayed up that night chatting with other guests and getting travel advice on India from other backpackers. On the last day of the sailing trip we slept in until 8:30 and spent the morning on an island jungle trek and hung out on a beach. It was sad to know we had to get off the boat that day and would be leaving Australia soon. We spent our last night in Airlie beach at the spider resort again and the next day flew back to Sydney. We got in pretty late and headed straight to our fav restaurant Spice I am for a quick bite before heading off to bed, Ewa was surprised Chad could even sleep because the next day the only thing on the itinerary was to see Avatar on the largest IMAX screen in the world! We spent the morning enjoying coffee and walking to the IMAX picking up last minute supplies for India along the way. We had a nice picnic on the harbour before the movie and then spent 3 hours in front of an 8 storey screen watching Avatar in 3D. What an awesome flick. We headed back to the hotel and caught the train to the airport where we were catching our first Emirate airlines flight to Bangkok on our way to India.
written by  ECRadventure on January 26, 2010 from Airlie Beach, Austria

Delhi ... India another world that has to be seen to believe
Delhi, India
From the Sydney airport we flew with Emirates airlines to Bangkok for an overnight stay before making the final leg of the journey to Delhi. We’ve decided that Emirates is our new favourite airline. The service is great, there is tons of leg room and the entertainment is amazing. Very many movies, tv shows, music and games to choose from. The 9 hour flight melted away and we were in Bangkok before we knew it.
Our quick layover in Bangkok was just long enough to remind us of how much we enjoyed Thailand. The people and the culture is so warm and welcoming. The air has a particular scent and the food is great! We both agreed that Thailand is a country that we will definitely visit in the future. The one thing we forgot about was the departure tax of $25 US per person, which must be paid in cash. It’s really one more chance to rip off foreigners one last time before the lave the country, especially if you only have a lay-over and don’t have any Thai Baht handy. We started the trip to India with a quick introduction to Indian culture. We went to the gate to check in for our flight and were bombarded with a rush of 20+ Indian men raging to check in and get their goods on the plane. All of the passengers were men and they apparently came to Bangkok to buy big screen TV’s, remote controlled helicopters and other similar toys. As we tried to stay in line, we were elbowed and bowled over by trolleys. It took us about 5 seconds to figure out that there really was no line at all. All of the men were checking-in in groups, so if one person was ahead of us in line, it turned out to be really 8 people, it was extremely frustrating. Luckily the Bangkok ground agent saw Ewas frustration and ushered her to a separate check in counter. The flight had the most demanding passengers we have ever seen. The sound of the attendant call button being pushed was non stop. Everyone on the plane wanted something and they wanted it NOW. For example, there was a man already seated and he simply took off his jacket and held it into the aisle. When the attendant came close he looked at her, said thank-you and forced the jacket into her hands, expecting without question, please or thank-you to deal with the jacket.
When we landed in Delhi we were greeted by our Compass (our tour company) representative who was waiting for us along with our driver. He told us that Delhi had their Independence Day on January 26th; we were 3 days late to make it 6/6 with all of the other national holidays we’ve hit in other countries (China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Australia). It was already after 10pm and we went straight to the hotel making a stop at an ATM. We are normally cautious and careful at ATM’s, but this time we were more nervous than usual. Our guide and driver both escorted us to the ATM, which was also guarded by two security officers with guns. We’ve since learned that this is not normal for other ATM’s, but it was an intimidating beginning to the trip. The hotel we checked into was decked out in marble and had one of the most comfortable beds we have stayed in since Singapore. Going to sleep that night we were thinking that this leg of the trip was going to be a strange blend of poverty outside our hotel doors and the comfort we would enjoy each evening.
The next morning we were up early for the buffet breakfast, which was an amazing spread of American and Indian food and drinks before meeting our guide for the day. We started in New Delhi, which reflects the legacy the British left behind and marks a division between New and Old Delhi, between the capitals of the British and the Mughals. We first visited the Qutub Minar, the tallest stone tower in India. Construction commenced in 1193 under the orders of India's first Muslim ruler Qutb-ud-din Aibak. The topmost story of the minaret was completed in 1386 by Firuz Shah Tughluq. The Qutb Minar is notable for being one of the earliest and most prominent examples of Indo-Islamic architecture. It is surrounded by several other ancient and medieval structures and ruins, collectively known as Qutb complex.
Next, we drove past the imposing India Gate, the Parliament building and the Rastrapathi Bhawan, the President’s residence. The parliament buildings are a monumental structure built by the British and now occupied by the Indian government. Security is tight and we were not allowed to enter. The India gate is the Indian version of the Arc d’triumph in France. Only, just like the parliament buildings, the gate was built by the British. It is inscribed with the names of 90,000 soldiers who died in the war of the British Indian Army and lost their lives fighting for the British Indian Empire, or more correctly the British Empire in India British Raj in World War I and the Afghan Wars.
Our guide then strayed from our planned itinerary and took us to a Hindu temple the Birla temple. The temple was our first Hindu temple and we saw that it shares many of the same traditions and beliefs with the Buddhist temples we visited in Asia. The Hindu’s actually say that the Buddha was the 9th incarnation of Lord Vishnu. In all Mosques and Hindu temples your shoes must be removed and often your socks as well, to show respect. We weren’t allowed to photograph inside the temple, and we will have to rely on our memories for all of the intricate temples, ornamentation and carvings.
We stopped for lunch at what was to be our first of many ‘tourist’ Indian restaurants. The front door is armed by guards and inside there were many servers and no locals. The meal was great, but at the end, our waiter tried to enforce an ‘extra service charge’. Ewa, using her now fully matured and keen backpacker senses saw through the scam and told the waiter that if it is a required charge as he was implying, to put the charge on our bill. After a minute or so of arguing, our guide came to check on us. A few curt exchanges between our guide and the server in Hindi, and we were on our way without paying the added charge.
We visited the Raj Ghat, where Muhammed Ghandi was cremated and then we drove into old Delhi for a rickshaw ride through the small streets of the market. Our guide told us that we would have to tip the rickshaw driver at the end of the ride. Chad gave him 100 rupees, but the driver was forceful enough to demand that this was not enough, and unwittingly Chad gave in and tipped 100 more, which was probably in the end about 150 rupees too much as the driver had already been paid for the trip by our guide. At the end of the Rickshaw ride we stopped at the Jama Masjid, one of India’s largest Mosques. Normally tourists, or any non-Muslims are not allowed to enter, however we arrived a few minutes after one of the prayer sessions and were allowed to go in, for a small charge of course. Our first visit to a mosque was surreal. Although the large dome and courtyard were nearly empty when we visited, the idea of thousands of devotees praying in the square was inspiring. The Mosque has been in constant use since its construction in the early 1600’s. Outside the mosque is a huge ‘soup kitchen’. The mosque provides meals for free to thousands of people every day. They have a space ~80’ x 80’ which they fill with people, sitting cross legged on the floor. Each person is provided a meal of soup, or lentils with naan bread. Once the meal is done, they clear the space, clean it and prepare another meal to be immediately served again. When we were there, hundreds of people of all religions were waiting to get their free meal. That night we relaxed in the hotel chatting about our Indian experience over a bottle of Australian Duty-free wine and headed to bed. On our way to breakfast, we could see from our 5th story window the locals just outside of the gate of our hotel, sitting around a small fire cooking their breakfast. It certainly puts perspective into your life as you are eating your gourmet buffet, knowing how people are living only 100 meters away. After breakfast we were off early on our flight to Varanasi, one of the oldest and most spiritual cities in India.
Taking off cover that Ewa had to wear to be in the Mosque
written by  ECRadventure on January 29, 2010 from Delhi, India

Varanasi ... ancient city, trapped in time
Varanasi, India
Our company provided the following summary of Varanasi, which we want to pass on to you all:
“Picturesquely situated on the crescent shaped left bank of the holy River Ganges, Varanasi, is one of the ancient seats of learning in India. It is said to be a compound of the names of two streams, the Varuna and the Assi, which still flow into the Ganges from the north and south of the city respectively. Varanasi is probably one of the most ancient living cities in India. From time immemorial it has been a great religious center for Hindus and one of their most sacred places of pilgrimage, being visited by millions of people every year. To every visitor Varanasi offers a breathtaking experience. The rays of the dawn shimmering across the Ganges; the high-banks; the temples and shrines along the banks bathed in a golden hue …soul stirring hymns and mantras along with the fragrance of incense (and smoke) filling the air…and the refreshing dip in the holy waters gently splashing at the Ghats. Baths in the Ganges are suggested for locals only! Varanasi abounds in the art of silk weaving, an exotic work of art which manifests itself in silk saris and silk brocades which are cherished as collector’s items across the world today. “ To sum it up…an amazing place to experience.
Priests performance at the Ghats
The security at the airport in Delhi (in India generally) is much more strict. You are checked before you even enter the airport and multiple times on the way to the plane. There is a final check just before boarding of your carry on baggage. Our flight to Varanasi was filled with tourists. There were probably only 10 or so Indian people onboard. Arriving in Varanasi, we got a taste of what an ‘authentic’ Indian transportation hub might be like. There was very little security and the terminal is common for departures and arrivals, with nothing more than one counter, a few bathrooms and a luggage belt that is only 20’ long. It was frustrating and funny to watch people scramble to get their luggage from the belt before it landed on the floor in the mountain of luggage piling up at the end of the short belt. It really seemed like all the tourists were scared someone was going to run away with their luggage.
After being met by our guide and driver we dropped off our luggage at the Hotel Hindustan International. The hotel was dated to say the least. We were a little surprised by the dirty sheets and blood stained wall (from squished mosquitoes it looked like). We were alright with the hotel, it was the one recommended by all of the Indian travel companies that we received quotes from. Varanasi is one of the most unique and amazing places we have seen, and you have to take the good along with the bad. A few minutes later we were on our way.
Lighting our prayers and letting them float on the great Ganje
Our first stop was the Bharat Mata Temple (Mother India), built in the early 1900’s. The temple features a big relief map of India and surrounding countries engraved in marble. The map is to scale and is nearly 100% accurate to the best maps of that day. Our next stop was the 18th century Durga Temple, commonly known as the Monkey Temple due to the huge population of the monkeys. In recent years the monkeys have been pushed out of the area by the local people. The monkeys have found a much better life in the rooftops of the town rather than in the temple. Now instead of scavenging for scraps, they sneak into people’s homes and steal food straight out of their cupboards and refrigerators. The Durga temple was previously closed to non-Hindu’s however the priests of the temple have opened it up for foreigners, as long as a donation is made. This was our first chance to get a Tikka, or a Hindu good luck blessing (red or colored dot on the forehead between your eyes). However, as Non-Hindu’s we abstained from this blessing because we felt doing it wouldn’t be right. It’s a bit weird to see tourists walking around with Tikkas on their foreheads and at some attractions even with turbans on; we don’t quite get it and therefore don’t partake.
We drove through the BHU University campus, which is considered the biggest residential university in Asia. There are over 36,000 students living on the university grounds. The grounds are huge and also extremely clean compared to the real world outside of the University gates. Inside of the university we visited the Mosque of Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb, where we were again unable to take photographs.
The end of our night was a trip down to Daswamedh Ghat. This is one of the main religious areas on the Ganges, where people make pilgrimages and are blessed by the local priests who sit along the banks of the river. In the evening, a special show is performed (admittedly for tourists our guide said). The show consists of ceremonious chants, rhythmic movements with fire and incense. The normal religious ceremony that this show mimics is supposed to be very plain.
The next morning we were up early to head back to the Daswamedh Ghat for a morning river cruise of the Ganges. We were glad that we bought new sweaters and jackets for this leg of our trip. The temperature at 06:00 when we left the hotel was only 13-15 degrees and there was a strong breeze blowing over the water. The sight is simply majestic. You are truly in another world here. We saw the cremation Ghats and witnessed the living traditions of one of the world's oldest religions. Thousands of faithful come daily to the banks to bathe and pray while in the background, temples and palaces rise in tiers from the water's edge. After the boat ride we walked through tiny winding cobblestone streets along the banks of The Ganges. The shops were just opening, and the place now turned into a beehive of activity as the faithful are coming and going. A few hundred meters from the Ganges is the Kashi Vishwanath Temple. This site is disputed between the Hindus and Muslims as there is a Hindu temple and a mosque built upon the ruins of an ancient Hindu temple. This site is one of the 3 most holy sites in India that is disputed between Hindus and Muslims. Due to terrorist activities at one of these sites the security for a large area around this site is strongly protected with many guards. We entered the restricted area and had to give up all potentially dangerous goods (anything electronic, all bags, any liquids, even pens). Then we had to go through metal detectors (which are common everywhere) and a physical search (males get searched by males and females only by females). Once inside there were guards stationed every 15-20 meters. The experience was topped off with not even being able to go into the temple or the mosque. However, our guide knew someone inside who sold essential oils, funny how that works. We bought some oils because the prices were much lower than what we would have paid in Canada. We still think we were ripped off, hahaa.
After our morning Ganges visit we were back at the hotel for breakfast before heading outside of the city to Sarnath, home of the first preaching of the Buddha. Later, Ashoka, the great Mauryan Emperor erected magnificent stupas and other buildings along with his mighty stone pillar, Dharmarajika Stupa. The 110 ft. tall Damekh Stupa marks the place where Buddha preached first sermon. The stupa was never destroyed as it was built over successive generations from solid brick and was too difficult to tear down. Despite the beginnings of Buddhism in India, there only remains ~1% of the population who practices. The Mughal Empire and Hindu aristocracy feared the non-hierarchical structure that Buddhism taught. This eventually stripped away the rights and privileges that this class structure provided them and the religion was forced out of the country. After our visit to Sarnath, we were back to the hotel for a night of relaxing. We walked around a bit after getting dropped off and noticed how much the Indian people were staring at us, we’re not the typical couple around these parts. Chad is way to tall and Ewa is way too white, a match made in heaven. For Indians it is something out of the movies, they don’t fathom that people like us exist, only in the movies maybe, and so when they see us they stare…big time
Inidan train sleep compartment
We were off to the railway station to for our train to Agra. We were told that we were lucky, the train was only 1.25 hours late, the same train had been consistently 10-14 hours late in the past weeks!
written by  ECRadventure on January 31, 2010 from Varanasi, India

Jaipur ... the sound and light show is worth the drive!
Jaipur, India
Amber Fort all lit up
After an early breakfast we were on the road for a long day of driving and sight-seeing. We first drove to Fatehpur Sikri, which is 37 km west of Agra. Jalal-ud-din-Muhammad Akbar, ‘Akbar’ was made the king at 14 and shortly after met the founder of the Chisti order of SUFIS. Akbar was blessed by the saint and in gratitude he ordered the great mosque of Fatehpur Sikrin to be built. Akbar transferred his capital here to Jaipur and built Jodhabai palace and many other buildings. He was a very forward thinking person and was tolerant of all religions. He had a Portuguese Christian wife, a Hindu wife and a Muslim wife. He encouraged an era of prosperity in the arts, learning and tolerance. While we were touring Jodhabai’s palace we were again pleasantly surprised by the lack of other tourists.
From Fatepur Sikri we drove to Abhaneri. We were on the highway for almost 4 hours and it was a driving experience. Our driver was very good and dodged everything in his path, cows, goats, and trucks coming at us head on…on a one way highway. Everyone drives like they are the only car on the road and also in the middle of the highway; there is no point of even having lines painted on the road because no one uses them. The scenery was constantly changing from mountains to sugar cane fields, to desert. The state of Rajasthan is beautiful. We stopped for lunch at a little resort that was just being built in Abhaneri. On the inside the restaurant looked like a little palace decorated in marble. We were given 5 large silver bowls full of the local cuisine; stuffed small eggplants, potatoes sautéed with cumin seeds, chicken curry, vegetable curry, curds in sauce, naan bread and rice…what a feast!
After lunch we went to see the Chand Baori, which is a 100 foot deep open well with flights of steps on three sides. This Baori is a marvel of architecture. There are two bathing areas with two royal toilets and carved windows, which were used by the then Kings & Queens. There are three tunnels which open about 20 Kms away from Chand Baori, which were used by the rulers as escape routes in case they were surrounded with their pants down (hahaa…). As we were walking around with the guide local kids were following us around just looking at us, we don’t think that there are many tourists that come out this way.
After a quick visit of the Baori, we went 20 steps south to the Harshat Mata Temple. This temple dates back to the tenth century AD. All of the walls & surroundings around the Temple were of carved stone depicting the abodes of Gods & Goddesses Aradhnarishwar, Nag-Nagin, Prem Mudrakan, Natraj, Lord Vishnu & Budhas. It also shows a few scenes of kama sutra. This Temple which was looted and destroyed by the Mughals is in ruins and pieces of sculpture are scattered all around. The Archaeological Survey of India is trying to restore the Temple. Of course we weren’t able to visit these two sites on our own. We were greeted immediately by an ‘official tourist guide’ for the area who repeatedly told us that he was the local expert. We weren’t charged anything for the visit, but there was the outstretched hand and rubbing fingers together ‘give me a tip’ gesture. Now, we don’t mind tipping but we really dislike the forced tour and services that all have the expectation of tips afterwards. Coming from a background of doing everything yourself, it is hard to adjust to having someone do everything for you, from opening doors, carrying your bags, dishing up your food, practically washing your hands for you, on and on it goes. We can understand that it helps to provide jobs for everyone and helps to give them a living wage, some situations just take some getting used to and some, stern brushing off in others. Jaipur is the capital of Rajasthan which was occupied by the Kshatriya warrior caste before they made alliances with the Mughal emperors and the later British invaders to enjoy a privileged position under their powers. Jaipur is also called “The Pink City” because the city was washed with pink paint in honor of a state visit by the British Prince Albert. Our hotel was located just outside of the old part of the city. A quick turn off of one of the small cluttered local roads lead to a courtyard with a beautiful heritage hotel. We loved the little hotel, and the food at the restaurant. We did run into some problems with our internet (boo hoo us) and no hot water. The real problem with the internet wasn’t accessibility it was the horrible service from the reception.
The next day was packed with sightseeing. We visited the Amber Fort Palace, the City Palace, Hawa Mahal and Janta Matar. Our guide picked us up at the hotel and we quickly visited the Hawa Mahal. The ornamental facade of this "Palace of Winds" is a prominent landmark in Jaipur. It’s a five story structure of pink sandstone encrusted with fine trelliswork and elaborate balconies. The palace has 953 niches and windows. Built in 1799 by Pratap Singh, the Mahal was a royal grandstand for the palace women. All of the windows have screens on them as most of the buildings in these areas which are there so that the women can see out of the buildings but no one can see the women inside. Women were kept away from any males, they were only allowed to be seen by their husbands and sons and even their sons were sent to live with their fathers once they reached close to puberty age. The royal women were guarded by Eunuchs who posed no threat (they were castrated at puberty), no male guards were allowed near them.
We continued on our way to the Amber Fort Palace which is the main attraction of Jaipur. Amber is the classic romantic Rajasthani fort palace. Its construction was started by Man Singh I in 1592, and completed by his descendent Jai Singh I. We got in line with all the other tourists to take an Elephant ride all the way up the fort. It was a 20 min wait to get our Elephant and we spent it ignoring vendors trying to sell us Turbans (which was a little odd) and cheap pens, the best part was that for a turban they wanted 20 US dollars and 10 dollars for the pens, both of which probably took less than one dollar to make. No, sorry, THE best part was that some tourists were actually buying them!
Elephant ride on the way to Amber Fort
As we got closer to the elephants we saw that all of them were elaborately painted in bright colors, but they all looked sad. It looked like hard work walking up and down the fort carrying tourists on their backs. We noticed as well that almost all of the elephant masters who were steering the elephants while sitting on their necks were also hitting them with either a short wooden club or a metal hook like tool, it was not pleasant. The sort of tourist attractions always seem like a good idea but in the end always make us wish we would have not participated. The only reason those elephants are there is that dumb people like us agree to take a ride on them for money. At the end of the 15 min ride up the fort the elephant driver asked us in bad English for a tip, give tip, give tip. There were signs all over the place saying not to tip the elephant drivers. So we said no…he then asked us what country we were from and we told him to which he said many many times: Canada not good country. He then made us wait as several other elephants passed us, cued and had their riders get off. He told us ‘this is your tip’, at which we laughed and told him we don’t mind waiting all day. Oh well, can’t win em all. The Amber palace is huge and inside you can see that it is a beautiful fusion of Mughal and Hindu styles in architecture.
Next we went to the City Palace which is a delightful blend of Mughal and traditional Rajasthani architecture, it sprawls over one-seventh of the area in the walled city. It houses the Chandra Mahal, Shri Govind Dev Temple and the City Palace Museum. In the City Palace museum we saw many of the dresses and preserved textiles, they were all very detailed and some even woven with gold and silver. One of the rulers was 7 feet tall and 510 lbs! One of his outfits literally is as big as a small tent! Our last stop was the most interesting called Jantar Mantar, it is the largest and best preserved of five astral observatories built by Jai Singh II. It consists of huge astronomical instruments that are still in use. There were giant sun dials and other instruments with which you could calculate solstices the sunrise/set and the movement of constellations.
That night we traveled back to the Amber fort for a ‘sound and light’ show. We weren’t sure what to expect but we were ‘mind-blasted’ (thanks Russell Peters) by the show. There were only about 40 other tourists watching as the entire palace was lit up in a multicolored array timed to music and narration of the history of Jaipur. The sound quality was surprisingly excellent and in stereo, which along with the intricate lighting made all of the stories in the narration come to life.
written by  ECRadventure on February 4, 2010 from Jaipur, India

Agra ...
Agra, India
Hanging out infront of the Taj Mahal
We were both a little worried about our 2nd class train journey on the Indian train, but we shouldn’t have been! Not after travelling on the train all throughout Europe, Russia and China….nothing will beat the 13 hour Vietnamese train from hell. This was not bad, even the bathrooms were bearable, which is hard to say about other trains around the world. The second class wagon has AC and is quite comfortable as far as sleeping wagons go, we even had some sleep that night! The train was only an hour and a half late so we got to sleep in the next morning until 05:45! We were lucky because right across from us were a couple of Japanese girls with their tour guide who spoke English who let us know when to get off the train since there are no announcements where the train was stopping so either you know or you don’t. We also met a random Indian man who like all the other Indian men in India have an opinion about everything and are also always correct (even though this one got Canada mixed up with Australia and thought that 80 yen would pay for a tour of India). We also met a few urologists who were travelling to a conference. We got into Agra at 7 in the morning and we waited by our wagon for our guide to pick us up…they specifically said “DO NOT LEAVE THE TRAIN STATION”, we can just imagine past travellers leaving the station wandering the streets of Agra looking for their guide. He was there right away and took us to the Trident Hotel which was a beautiful new hotel. We were also greeted by the same friendly driver we had in Delhi, Mr. Kandu. We had just enough time to freshen up and have a gourmet breakfast with the most amazing coffee we’ve had so far in India, and then we were off to THE sight…if the only sight to see in India…the TAJ MAHAL. Our guide and driver picked us up from the hotel and drove us most of the way and then we took a Tonga ride which is a small carriage pulled by a horse up to the gates of the Taj. One of the reasons we took the Tonga ride is that no cars are allowed within a kilometer of the Taj Mahal. The Indian government even closed all of the factories within the city and surroundings so that this very popular tourist site would not be covered in smog and pollution. All the people in this area now rely on tourism and cottage factory manufacturing instead of industry to feed their families.
Taj Mahal
Little needs to be said about the Taj Mahal: this architectural wonder which is always the sole reason for every tourist's visit to Agra. Built by Shah Jahan, the Taj is a white marble memorial to his beautiful wife Mumtaz Mahal. It took 22 years to be completed and was designed and planned by Persian architect Ustad Isa. Apart from its stunning design balance and perfect symmetry, the Taj is also noted particularly for its elegant domes, intricately carved screens and some of the best inlay work ever seen. It is said that Shah Jahan had plans to complete a symmetrical building in black marble on the other side of the river as a mausoleum for himself. He was overthrown by his son and held prisoner in the Agra fort for the last years of his life. The existing Taj is amazing and it is truly inspiring to imagine what it would have looked like with its mirror image in black across the river.
It is so peaceful to walk around the Taj Mahal, we were lucky that there weren’t so many visitors at the time we were there, it was quiet and really let us take it all in. Of course we had a ‘local guide’ take our camera from us to help us take the ‘obligatory’ tourist photos.
After the Taj Mahal, we headed across the river to the ‘Baby Taj’ built by the father of Shah Jahan. This monument is further away from the touristy areas and is difficult to reach without your own car. When we arrived there was only one other tourist couple visiting and several local couples lounging on the grassy area around the mausoleum. The baby Taj has beautiful inlay work in the marble, much more detailed colorful and intricate than in the Taj Mahal. The grounds are a peaceful break from the other tourists and hawkers and we spent a short while relaxing on one of the benches in the compound.
After a quick lunch we were off to the Agra Fort, which was built by the famed Mughal emperor Akbar in 1565 AD, the fort is predominantly made of red sandstone. Ensconced within is the picture perfect Pearl Mosque, which is apparently a major tourist attraction. However our guide told us that as non-Muslims we wouldn’t be able to enter. We think that he simply wanted the day to be over quicker and told us this to cut the tour short. The fort lies on the bend of the river Yamuna, almost in the heart of the town and overlooks the Taj Mahal. It was in this fort that Shah Jahan was imprisoned to look across the river at the Taj Mahal until his death. The fort is still in use by the Indian Army and nearly 70% of the area has restricted access.
When we came back to the hotel after our day of sightseeing we were surprised to find our room to be very chilly. Apparently we left the AC on when we left and now, as the temperature was dropping with nightfall, our room was only 19 degrees. We tried to use the thermostat on the wall, but found out that it is only for AC, not heat. Looking through the amenities guide for the hotel, we found that you can call room service for a space heater! We were all over that and within a short time we had a toasty little oven in our room to keep us warm through the night. Who would have ever thought you’d need a heater like that in India!
written by  ECRadventure on February 2, 2010 from Agra, India

Udaipur... pretty white building in a lake, but great hunting lodge!
Udaipur, India
LIfe is good at the Maharajas Hunting Lodge
The next morning we were up and on our way for the long 7 hour drive to Udaipur with the now common road-side stop for lunch. This place was the best of very few. Not many tourists drive from Jaipur to Udaipur as it is much easier to fly. The food was strange and not that good, but when you are hungry just about anything will do and we didn’t get sick at all! We fed some of the stray puppies with our left overs, some of them are so adorable you want to play with them, but this is not such a good idea here. We made it into the city an hour and a half before sunset and pulled into our hotel at the Maharaja’s old hunting palace. This heritage hotel (Shikarbadi) was beautiful and tranquil. It is surrounded by the Maharaja’s horse stables, complete with many of his prized horses, his own private airport, a deer park, peacocks and lots of monkeys in the trees. After supper, while trying to feed one of the horses, we apparently disturbed a monkey who was sleeping in the tree above us. In retribution, he tried to pee on us from the top of the tree, but got out of the way before getting hit because we heard the rustling in the tree.
The city of dawn, Udaipur, is surrounded by what were once azure lakes (Lake Pichola), hemmed in by the lush hills. Udaipur has a long history of being the inspiration for poets, painters and writers. It is also known as the jewel of MEWAR – a kingdom ruled by the Sisodia dynasty for 1200 Years who never succumbed to the Mughal or British rule. The modern Udaipur is a small (by Indian standards) city that has surprisingly clean, tiny winding streets in the city center.
Early the next morning we visited the Jagdish Temple dedicated to the god Vishnu. The temple is situated in the middle of the city and was completed in 1651. It is a tribute alike to the tenacity of its builders and the resilience of the art tradition it represents. It attaches a two story hall to a double storied sanctum. The walls of the temple are covered with intricate carvings depicting the story of Vishnu and many parts of the Hindu Gita.
After the temple, we went to the City Palace. Standing on the east bank of lake Pichola, is a massive series of palaces built at different times from 1559 A.D. The balconies of the palace provide panoramic views of "Jag Niwas" (the worldwide famous Lake Pichola palace hotel), Jag Mandir on one side and on the other the city of Udaipur. The palace is like many in Northern India, filled with many arches, series of courtyards, terraces, corridors and gardens. The Krishna vilas is a palace within the City Palace that was constructed in memory of a princess of striking beauty who poisoned herself to avert a bloody battle for her hand in marriage by two rival princes. The palace now contains many antique articles, paintings, decorative furniture and utensils. The Mewar rulers have been known throughout history for their contributions to charity and the downtrodden. At certain ceremonies the king would weigh himself on a giant scale and give away his weight in gold coins to the masses. Presently the Palace is still occupied by the royal family and much of it is cordoned off to the public, but they allow many artisans to take residence in the courtyards to sell their goods.
Many tourists probably appreciate the convenient opportunity to shop, but we found it another overzealous attempt to get us to buy goods that we don’t need or want with a dose of guilt because you are kind of forced into sitting with the artist while they explain their trade with ’no obligation to buy’. However after the 5-10 minute demonstration and the sad puppy dog eyes, it is always with trepidation that we have to walk away without buying anything.
We headed to the Saheliyon ki Bari, or 'garden of the maidens', which was built for the Queen and all of the kings concubines to entertain themselves, because they were always confined to smaller courtyards and kept hidden from any other males except the king. There are four pools and all around are flowerbeds, lawns, pools and fountains protected by a series of walls and shady trees. The garden has a lotus pool, a sitting room decorated with paintings and glass mosaics. However, the gardens now are a sad unmaintained version of some of the magnificent gardens of Asia and Europe.
After a great lunch at on an outdoor patio we were rushed off to catch a cruise on Lake Pichola. The boat ride showed us a unique view of the lake city; hotel Jag Niwas, Oberoi Udaivilas (voted the #1 hotel in the world several times) and the Jag Mandir Palace a second island palace in the middle of the lake. We got off the boat and wandered around the island which was being set up for a glamorous wedding that night. After the boat ride we went back to our hunting lodge retreat for a relaxing night, enjoying the tranquility. The next morning the staff even brought us breakfast to our room at 5:30 in the morning so that we could eat before heading to the airport.
written by  ECRadventure on February 6, 2010 from Udaipur, India

Mumbai... relaxing and a quick visit to the city of contrast
Mumbai, India
Gate to India
Our flight into Mumbai showed us the contrast of city life that you can only see from the air. The outskirts of the city were extremely packed with tin-roof shacks. They are small, right next to each other, and sometimes a few stories tall. They stretch on for kilometers. Then almost as if by magic, the landscape transforms into high-rises and modern buildings, paved streets and green spaces. Mumbai is the country's financial and commercial hub and has a principal port on the Arabian Sea. There are many perceived opportunities for work so hundreds of thousands of people flock to the city in an attempt to improve their lives, often only to end up in the slums, which have earned Mumbai the title of the most densely populated city in the world. There are 18 million people living in Mumbai, and that is the official number, realistically it could be closer to 25 million.
We spent our first day waiting for 2 hours in the lobby to check into our room at the hotel (we’ll spare you all the mind numbing details). We eventually gave up and wandered the city, doing a little grocery shopping and grabbing some lunch. We returned to the hotel and decided to spend the night in, purchasing the extremely expensive internet to upload our 1000+ photos and to unwind from the previous 10 days of travel in northern India.
The next day we were picked up by our first female guide. We had a very good time with her, she was a no-nonsense type of person. She figured out pretty quickly that we didn’t want the typical tourist run-around. She customized the day and chopped it down into a half day excursion. We started with the Hanging Gardens, also known as Pherozeshah Mehta Gardens. The gardens were built in 1880 over three reservoirs, which store 30 million gallons of water pumped here for cleaning before being supplied to the town. The reason the reservoirs had to be covered is that there was a Zoroastrian temple adjacent to the reservoir. This religion leaves their dead on the top of peaks, to be devoured by vultures and other birds, in order to allow them to be recycled back to nature. However, the potential of dropping rotting diseased flesh into the town water supply necessitated a solution and relocating the temple was not an option, so the reservoirs had to be covered.
Gandhi
Next we went to a museum dedicated to Gandhi. It used to be his primary residence when he stayed in Mumbai, belonging to one of his dearest friends. It now houses an entire library dedicated to Mahatma Gandhi and similar thinkers on the first floor, portraits on the second floor and his old quarters and his life story on the third floor. We continued by car and saw the Gateway of India which is Mumbai's principal landmark. The Gateway of India is a huge archway on the water's edge at Apollo Bunder. It was built to commemorate the visit of the first ever British Monarch, King George V and Queen Mary in 1911.
We continued on to the Rajabai Clock Tower at the Bombay University. Consisting of five elaborately decorated storeys, the tower is 280 feet in height. The top of the cupola is ornamented with sixteen statues depicting various Indian castes. We also drove by Chowpatty beach which is at the end of Marine Drive right by our hotel. It is the only beach in the central part of Mumbai. One can witnesses many Hindu religious ceremonies taking place at Chowpatty, like the Annual Thread-Tying Ceremony initiating young boys into the Brahmin caste, 'Nariel Purnima' towards the end of the monsoons and 'Ganesh Chaturthi' immersions. The one thing you can not do here is swim, the water is extremely polluted. But since Indian families don’t bathe in public they still spend plenty of days lounging on the beach just enjoying a picnic and playing games.
Clock Tower at Mumbai University
Our last stop was the Victoria Terminus/Western Railway Station - one of Mumbai's most prominent buildings and architecturally one of the finest stations in the world. It is built in a style that combines Gothic and Indian influences. It was completed in 1885 and designed by F.W. Stevens. This Italian gothic Building has a frontage of over 15,000 feet. The administrative offices form three sides of a rectangle enclosing an ornamental garden, the entrance gate guarded by a massive stone Lion and Tiger. The most prominent feature of this building is the high 160 feet dome crowning the center. On top of the giant dome is a figure of a women with a torch held aloft to symbolize progress. Then we cruised around the downtown area of the city, visiting the univeristy, the clock tower, the gate of India, the hotels where the Mumbai terrorist attacks occured a few years back and a few other quaint spots within walking distance.
Marine Drive Mumbai
We finished off our tour with lunch at Leopolds a well-known restaurant in the city, which is very close to the where the Mumbai terrorist attack happened in 2006. We got frisked and had to go through security to get into the restaurant. The food was good and we ate talking about how we, coming from a country that is so safe we have no comprehension of how much danger could be just around the corner in many countries all over the world. Travelling through India really shows you that safety should not to be taken too lightly. They check your bags coming into any hotel and you have to go through a metal detector. The police and army are clearly visible on the streets, which should give a sense of safety but in reality it does the opposite, it makes you realize that there is a reason there is so much security and such a police presence. In the time that we have been here we’ve heard about at least 6 terrorist attacks or foiled attacks, and that is in less than 2 weeks.
Mumbai Flower
written by  ECRadventure on February 9, 2010 from Mumbai, India

Kochi ... fishing nets, spices and backwaters
Kochi, India, India
Cochin Chinese Fish Nets
We stepped off the plane in Cochin into the humid tropical heat. The 10 days of relative cold in northern India somehow made us forget the past 4 months of 90-100% humidity and +30 degree temperatures we got used to. Cochin is a diverse port city, spreading over 5 islands and peninsulas. The main town, Ernakulam, is on the mainland. All the islands are connected by a ferryboat network and a few small bridges. Around the headland of Fort Cochin, a group of cantilevered Chinese fishing nets dip into the sea at high tide to bring up fish.
Cochin Fish Market
After checking into our hotel, the Casino (sadly there were no betting tables, seems a bit like false advertising) we headed out for an evening harbor cruise. It was a typical tourist boat with old plastic chairs and a fresh coat of paint. For some reason we had the boat to ourselves, it could probably have seated 20. The harbor is quite industrial and not overly scenic, but the sight of the fishing nets at sunset from the water was really amazing. The Chinese fishing nets were erected between AD 1350 and 1450 by Chinese merchants. The nets are made of teak wood and bamboo poles and work on the principle of balance; they are lowered to the bottom of the river/estuary and after some time lifted out, trapping the fish in the nets. The fishermen weren’t lucky when we were there and only caught a few small fish. We on the other hand were quite lucky and got to see 4 dolphins swimming a few meters from the boat!
The next morning we were off on a tour of the old Cochin area. Our first stop was St. Francis Church, which has been in the hands of every nation that landed in Kerala. Originally there was a Syrian church here since the founding of Christianity when St. Thomas arrived in this region in 52 AD. It is also said by some of the conspiracy theorists that Jesus was not killed by crucifixion and instead that he settled in this area. The Portuguese came next and were surprised to see Christianity already having a strong hold on the local residents; they only had to try to convert them to Catholicism. Next came the Dutch, followed by the British who all renovated and added their touches to this Church.
After the Church, we strolled around the old town and eventually came to visit Mattancherry Palace, which was a donation to the local king by the British after their troops had plundered a local Hindu temple. The ruling family is no longer in power and the palace and a few other artifacts are all that remain of the dynasty.
Just a few steps from the palace is one of the oldest Jewish communities in the world, which traces its history to nearly 2000 years ago. In 1948 the community numbered 2500 and today there are fewer than 30 people. The one Jewish family that remains is still centered round the original community and its crown Jewel, the Paradesi Synagogue. Built in 1568 and reconstructed after a Portuguese bombardment in 1662, the synagogue is distinguished by its tile roof and bell tower. The small synagogue is also known for its hand-painted, willow-patterned, blue and white Chinese floor tiles, and the many brass and crystal lamps that hang from the ceiling donated from all around the world.
Traditional performers in Cochin
At night we headed back into town to watch a Kathakali dance presentation. This style of dance involves years of rigorous training to develop facial muscles and hand gestures that convey the various stories. The dancers have an uncanny ability to contort their faces into very many positions. The show started with an explanation of the dance culture and a demonstration of the expressions used. Then we were treated to an excerpt from a Hindu story about a Prince in heaven and an evil lady demon from hell who tries to seduce him (because of course it’s always the women who are bad pfft). During some festivals these dance presentations can last from 8 in the evening until 8 the next morning. It was truly amazing to watch this type of performance, we’ve never seen anything like it.
written by  ECRadventure on February 11, 2010 from Kochi, India, India

Thekkadi ... jungle trecking and backwater crusing
Thekkadi, India
Spice Shop in Cochin
The next day we were excited to get to Thekkady, even despite the six hour drive to get there! The landscape changed from estuaries and rice paddies to rolling hills, coffee, tea, and spice plantations. This region is known for growing just about any spice you can imagine and these spices are a defining element of human history. Europeans waged wars and traveled the world in search of routes with better access to these earthly riches. The area grows cardamom, cinnamon, pepper, coffee, tea, vanilla, star anise, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, chilies sandalwood even frankincense and mirh! Along with this you can find many kinds of nuts including almonds, cashews, hazelnuts and many types of fruit including pineapple, mangoes, oranges, bananas melons, and the list goes on! This was the first time we’ve seen the plants that produce a lot of these spices and nuts. For foodies like us this was a real treat.
The road to Thekkady was lined with plantations and surprisingly …. mansions. The plantation owners are well off and built themselves near palace like homes, and why not? They are all brightly colored and gated. Along the way there were many stupas or small 3 story shrines to central figures of Christianity (Mary, Jesus, and various saints). These sights were amazing enough to take our minds off the ever present threat of a head on collision on the tiny narrow road (with no guard rails) that switch-backed up the mountain side with cars constantly dodging oncoming buses and rickshaws.
Indian martial arts
On our first night we attended a local martial arts performance. The local guide told us that this style of martial arts is the foundation of all the martial arts from around the world, and that it was spread by the early Hindu and Buddhist monks who traveled to Asia. The individuals who practice this art are extremely disciplined, often devoting their life to the practice. It involves yoga like movements, training with a variety of weapons and then at the most advanced stages, training in hand-to-hand combat. Watching the performance reminded Chad of his years in Tai-kwon-do as a child (minus the swords and fire jumping).
Jeep Rollercoaster
The next morning we slept through our 4:50 am wake-up call and were late for our pick up to head out to the Periyar wildlife sanctuary. This is one of the biggest wildlife reserves in India. It is home to Indian elephants, wild boars, lion-tailed monkeys, ibex, tigers, leopards and sloth bears. The sanctuary is also rich in bird life there are great hornbills, kites, darters, herons, egrets, owls and kingfishers. At least this is what all of the brochures say. Despite the long drive to get there in near freezing temperatures (seriously it wasn’t much warmer than 5 degrees and we were in shorts) at the break of dawn, we managed to see a total of two giant squirrels, two bison from a distance of over 500m and three packs of monkeys. Our guide told us that the reserve has around 1000 elephants and 44 tigers. However, they only see elephants 3-4 times a week and in 5 years he has only seen a tiger from a distance 5 times. We are not surprised after all it’s not a Zoo to watch animals but rather a place for them to live a decent life not hounded by humans. Surrounding the reserve are many small spice plantations and we spent an absorbing afternoon searching for pepper, cardamom, turmeric, cloves, nutmeg, ginger, cinnamon and betel. The day wasn’t a waste, the 9km hike through the jungle was a great reminder of how much we both really appreciate nature and exercise, both of which we’ve been lacking lately. After the reserve we went back to the hotel to relax and attempt to coax the kittens from their hole. There were two kittens and their momma who were living beside our door. After the two days of troubling the kittens they got us back! They woke us in the middle of the night playing with Chad’s socks that were hanging on a chair drying; but they were too cute to be mad at!
Relaxing on the houseboat
We were set for our last adventure in India, a houseboat trip down the Periyar river from Kumarokom to Alleppy. What we didn't read in the details of the trip itinerary was that we would have to drive almost 5 hours from Thekkady in order to reach the boat. Coming down the mountain through the switchbacks was an adventure in not trying to throw up in the car.
Sunset on Thekkaddy houseboat
When we finally pulled up to the dock to see a 40 foot boat waiting for us we knew we would have a great night. Turns out we’d be cruising in style …we had the whole boat to ourselves, including a staff of three. On the cruise down the backwaters we caught a glimpse of the rural life, farmers working in rice paddies and people taking their evening bath in the river in front of their house. The cook on the boat made us a traditional Kerela dinner, there was so much food! We enjoyed Valentine’s Day with a beautiful sunset and nothing but the sound of nature. This was our last night in India and it ended very sweetly. The next morning we were leaving India and starting our tour of Jordan.
Goodbye from India
written by  ECRadventure on February 13, 2010 from Thekkadi, India

Amman ...
Amman, Jordan
On our last morning in India we were up early and had a great breakfast from room service and were off to the airport for our flight to Jordan. We arrived early especially since it was an international flight and because of all of the tight security at Indian airports. There were many last minute check-ins from the locals who never think they need to arrive early and therefore are always late. We arrived early only to find that we had arrived too early with nothing to do. The Cochin airport security was not as strict and there was nothing to occupy our time. Our flight had a lay-over in Dubai that was supposed to be only 2 hours, but we had a 2.5 hour delay in our flight. We tried to get into the airport lounge (fail) and so spent some time browsing all of the duty free shops instead. We arrived in Amman and were greeted by our driver Hamza and a company rep. From the start, we knew that the tour in Jordan was going to be more relaxed than the tour in India. For starters our vehicle was not a brand new SUV driven by a man in a formal uniform. Hamza was driving an early 2000’s Chevy sedan that smelled of smoke and Hamza was in jeans and a T-shirt. We checked into the hotel and were excited to continue the last leg of our trip in 5 star luxury.
The next morning we toured Amman & the countryside. Our first stop was Ajloun, an Islamic military castle that was used by the Islamic armies of Saladin to protect the region against the crusaders. Six meters of the upper level of the castle was destroyed by an Earthquake in the middle of the 700’s AD. The castle is on a peak of a mountain range overlooking the entire region. We didn’t have a guide at Ajloun, so we had to make up stories to tell each other about the purpose of each room; it sure was an interesting castle!!
Next, we went to Jerash, Pompeii of the East. We had an excellent and very distinguished guide here. We entered the ancient city through the monumental South Gate and spent nearly 2 hours wandering around this ancient Roman city. We started in the Oval Plaza, which is still surrounded by colonnades and then strolled along Jerash' main road the Cardo and passed by the remains of the Nymphaeum (an old water fountain fed by gravity). We also saw both of the two Roman theatres within the city walls. The acoustics in the main theater were amazing! Standing in the middle of the theater you can hear your voice amplified, even scuffling your feet can be heard throughout the theater.
After Jerash, Hamza took us for a traditional Jordanian feast. We had tabbula salad made of parsley and tomatoes, vegetable salad, GIANT freshly baked pita bread, lamb/chicken and beef scewers and lots of yogurt with garlic and dill. On the city tour we visited the Citadel, which are the ruins of another Roman city, and another larger 6000 seat Roman Theatre. Hamza had intended to show us a few more sites but we had already spent 9 hours visiting sites and were tired. Before we headed back to the hotel we stopped briefly at the King Hussein mosque, just to snap a few pictures from the car. About 3 minutes after we left the mosque, Hamza was pulled over by the secret police. Someone at the mosque had reported our activity as suspicious and the police were hot on our trail. After a quick interrogation with Hamza and a cursory inspection of our camera we were set free. It was a little unnerving to see how quickly the secret police responded to the call. The hotel had a gym so we enjoyed a quick work out and took full advantage of their wonderful mint-infused steam sauna.
The next day we were waiting for Hamza….again (he was late practically every day to pick us up) for our drive to Petra. Along the way we stopped at the small town of Madaba, famous for a unique mosaic map of the Holy Land, which is in Saint Geroge’s church floor. Then we visited Mount Nebo, which is supposedly where Moses looked over the Holy Land and the Dead Sea. This is (supposedly) where Moses was seen for the last time, and is considered to be his burial place. From the top of the mountain on a clear day, you can see Jerusalem, Jericho, Bethlehem and the Dead Sea. There was a slight wind and blowing sand, which partially obscured our views. From Mount Nebo, we drove to the Dead Sea! The Dead Sea lies on the western border of Jordan (Israel is on the other side) and it is the lowest spot on earth at 400 meters below sea level. The water is super-saturated with salt and other minerals. There is so much salt in the water, that the ‘sand’ along the shore is actually mostly salt crystals. When you get in the water, the change in temperature from your skin causes a thermal gradient and change of concentration in the salt. This creates a magical looking swirling of the water, just like heat waves on the highway. Due to the high salt content you become extraordinarily buoyant when you are in the water. You have to struggle to keep yourself under the water. You can float with ease on your stomach and on your back and it’s something that’s hard to describe in words. After our cold dip in the sea we were back on the road to our hotel in Hamza’s hometown of Petra, but not before another Bryan Colvin special. Hamza decided that he would take a shortcut through the back-roads. This shortcut took us through the mountains instead of along the very new and comfortable highway around the mountains. His shortcut was a one-lane road with sheer cliffs over 800 meters high… without any guardrails. The twists and the rolling road made it hard to see which way the road was turning and if there was any oncoming traffic or if the road continued at all. We survived the two hour ‘shortcut’ and live to tell about it.
written by  ECRadventure on February 17, 2010 from Amman, Jordan

Memorial to fallen Canadian Soldiers in Caen.

Juno Beach memorial, Caen France.

Creative cooking, Lyon France.

After dinner cheese, Lyon with Family...

Ariane, Chad, Michal and Mathilda

View of Lyon from Bascilia

The river front in Porto

Ewa and Ewa in Tete D'Or

The Cemetary in Lyon

Ewa and Chad looking down on Porto from Taylor Fladgates

PORT houses!

Praça do Comercio

Random Street

Folk Dancing Festival

Waiting for the bus

View from our amazing little appartment in Lagos

Fried Mackarel

Casa Amarela, the house where we had a little appartment

Inside of the Appartment

Cliffs in Lagos

Porto in Lagos

The view from the street where our hostel is at (Melting pot) to the port

Chad, Sven and Ewa.

Yellow Submarine diving school

A side street in Malaga

Night walk

Moorish Castle

On the walk up to the old moorish ruins/ castle

George making shots after the penny drinking game

Royal Palace

Train Ride to Malaga

Friends

Tapas Bar

Tapas Photo

Magic Fountain

One of gaudis buildings in Barcelona

City panoramic on the trails up to the castle

Back of a smoothie container..like Arthurs back in Canada

a view looking back on Howth, at the beginning of the hike

The market in Barcelona off of Las Ramblas

Standing looking out at the ocean on the Giants Causeway

The hike out to "the ampitheater" at the giants causway

Fresh fishies! Las Ramblas

marketplace, off of las ramblas

Gaudis famila

La playa

Good question. We are going to try to find out.

A view of the hike out to the ampitheater on the causeway...

All flags... wouldn,t it be nice? One day....

Freedom of speach!

Knicker box.... no explaination!

A rest along the hike to howth, munchin on apples and carrots!

Guiness gravity bar, top of the guiness store

guiness! It is good for you!!

nice view of an irish street

hike around howth

guiness store

The long library, Trinity college,

9000 year lease on the property! Guiness brewery...

Our first european purchases... a polish store!

central park!

Top of the rock

Times Square

NY Mets baseball game

Quite the rack! some sort of extinct deer at the Museum of natural history

Ouzo, going away party!

Wedding day!

Ewa as an Eskimo

Moving day!

Possessionless... sold the house and all our stuff (well, most of it