Victoria & Robert

The Art of Doing Nothing- Kiwi style

Victoria & Robert — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 00:00:00 GMT

We have actually already posted an entry with the same title: "The art of doing nothing". That was about two months ago in Thailand. This time we are in New Zealand and for the first time since Phuket we are staying in the same place for more than a couple of days with the intention of 'doing nothing'. So because we haven't done much in the last few days, there isn't a whole lot to write about except for 'sleeping, eating, resting, eating, sleeping....'

After completing the loop around the South Island we were back in Christchurch and spent some time driving around in the area of Christchurch; Geraldine, Ashburton, Oxford, Sheffield, Rangiora etc. Robert sampled through the home made pies such as the ones we found in the Sheffield Pie Shop. From the local town names, it is evident, Robert isn't the first Englishman to have set his foot on this island :)

Another famous pie shop from...... 2002!

We spent a few nights in Christchurch itself and took the opportunity to enjoy the modernities of a large city by going to the cinema, shopping mall and catching a rugby match. Victoria's first rugby match ever! She got a crash course in rules, regulations and the point of the whole game about 30 minutes before it started. Not ever being a big fan of American football it first looked to her as this would be a very similar experience to those dreadful hours endured during university in the U.S when she was 'forced' to attend football games (with no clue of what was going on). Well, perhaps she has 'matured' or perhaps it was because the game is actually different, but she has to say that it was quite enjoyable and exciting! Good experience in all!

Rugby at the stadium in Christchurch

Rugby match!

After Christchurch we decided to go back to Akaroa on the Banks Penninsula about an hour an a half's drive from Christchurch. Our plan was to rent a holiday home for at least a week and get a feel for the small holiday town.

We found a beautiful house that is located on the hillside of town with magnificant views of the bay, mountains and the sea. It's a large house with a total of six beds, so we could have a party here, but it also has a nice fire place, a barbecue and a large sun deck that overlooks the surroundings. From the master bedroom, the French doors open up to the sun deck and it feels like luxury to wake up and having such a wonderful view!

View from the bedroom

Sitting room

kitchen

living room

We have also been very lucky with the weather and it is around 20+C in town and on the sun deck it must reach at least 25+C during the day. So Robert decided to pull out the sun chairs. It took him about 10 minutes to figure out how to assemble them and after Victoria was laughing herself silly observing it all, they finally came together. Well, of course Victoria was left on her own to put her chair together after having laughed so hard, so Robert got a bit of the fun as well, watching her go through the same ordeal.... FINALLY, both the chairs were up though!

Robert about to start the assembly of the chair

Hmmmmm.....

Victoria's turn to struggle with something that seems VERY simple

Robert finally enjoying his chair

Akaroa is a beautiful spot and it's been very nice to be able to cook our own meals instead of eating out. Victoria got elaborate and have tried all sorts of things in the kitchen. A few nights ago it was time for lasagna. We had all the ingredients except for canned tomatoes and the lasagna noodles (two very essential ingredients for lasagna...). So we popped down to the store to get that and discovered that it closed at 6:30pm.... Home made cooking from scratch got even more down to the fundamentals when Victoria had to make her own tomato sauce from fresh ones (they had that at the only cornerstore that was open) mixed with ketchup and make the lasagna with regularly shaped pasta instead of the large noodles. It all turned out to be some kind of.... lasagna casserole....

Robert's hobby here in the house is to feed the little hedgehog who lives under the deck. We saw him the first night shuffling across the yard, so Robert promptly went inside to see if we had any food we could give him. We had some left over egg salad sandwiches from lunch and decided to see if Mr. Hedgehog would like that. Well, the next morning we discovered that hedgehogs really like bread, but not egg salad as he had pushed it off the sandwich and then proceeded to eat the bread. The next evening Robert gave him milk with bread in it and later that night the hedgehog came out and stuffed himself silly on which apparently was more of his cup of tea. We observed him quietly from the kitchen window.

As you can see, not much is going on in our lives if the most exciting event of the day is to make tomato sauce out of fresh tomatoes and feeding hedgehogs..... well, it is probably not harmful for us to take it easy. Victoria has taken up a new hobby of knitting and has gotten quite into it. So far the results include a hat and one sock. Hopefully the enthusiasm won't wear off before she has completed the second sock....

Sand flies, sea lions, penguins, motorbikes and more!

Victoria & Robert — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Yes, we are back in Christchurch after having completed a whole loop around the south island! The last week and a half is a blur of motels, hotels, small towns and lots of time in the car. We've seen many beautiful places, quite a lot of wildlife and met nice people.

After leaving Queenstown, we've driven through and/or stayed in the following towns: Te Anau, Manapouri, Riverton, Invercargill, the Catlins, Balclutha, Dunedin, Palmerston, Oamaru, Waitmate, Fairlie, Geraldine, Ashburton (twice... will explain later), Methven, Akaroa and back to Christchurch.

Rather then listing what we did everyday in chronological order which probably would be quite boring and repetitive, we'll let the pictures speak for themselves with some commentaries.....

From Queenstown we drove to Te Anau and from there to Manapouri where we did a day trip tour out to the Manapouri Power station. We had originally wanted to take an overnight cruise to Doubtful sound but since it was Easter weekend and we wanted to leave the next day, all cruises were booked and therefore we opted for the trip out on Manapouri lake to see the powerstation instead.

Power station at Manapouri lake

The landscape and the lake was beautiful and everything would have been perfect if it wasn't for the little d*@#n sandflies that seemed to be everywhere. The sandflies are really more like a small mosquito ('knott' in Swedish) and both of us got our fair share of bites that are REALLY itchy! Victoria managed to get one sandfly under her shirt and the sandfly went on to have a real feast by biting her seven times on her belly!!!!

Close up of some moss

It's easy to understand why the flies like it here though as it is very moist and rainy and the vegetation is green, lush with lots of ferns, moss and bushes.

Our trip then went south towards Invercargill and we drove through some beautiful parts of the country before we hit the coastline again.

We stopped at a rest stop along the coast and watched the afternoon sun over the ocean.

Once we hit Riverton we stopped for dinner and then drove into Invercargill where we spent two nights. The coastline was spectacular.

Unfortuntately, we had two very cold and rainy days in Invercargill but that was ok because we went to the store and bought Easter chocolates and spent some time eating them in bed in the hotel room!

We also went to E Hayes & Sons Hardware store in Invercargill which is the home to the motorbikes of Burt Munro whose life is portrayed in the movie 'The world's fastest Indian'. We had watched the movie (featuring Anthony Hopkins) in a hotel room just a couple of days before coming to Invercargill so it was very interesting to see the actual bikes. A movie strongly recommended and if you go to Invercargill you should go and see the motorbikes too!

The real bike!

Robert taking a close look at the World's Fastest Indian

After leaving Invercargill we drove along the coast which is called the Catlins. It's a scenic and very beautiful drive and we hoped to have an opportunity to see some wildlife as the south coast is home to penguins of different kinds, sealions, seals and other creatures.

We stopped at a small beach in hopes to see something and even if we hadn't seen anything, the beach was just beautiful.

But wait! What was that over there???! It first looked like smooth rocks on the beach but we discovered it was two groups of sealions sunbathing. We approached them but kept our distance as there was at least on large male with two females and when he sat up he was of a substantial size that instilled respect!

Victoria with sealions in the background

Mr. Sealion with his two girlfriends

Robert staying at a few arms lengths distance

Life is good as a sealion!

As continued driving we approached Dunedin where we spent a night before pushing on towards Oamaru. Oamaru was an interesting little town where part of town is kept the way it looked like many years ago. There are beautiful old buildings and little shops.

Old buildings

Right outside Oamaru, there is a small colony of Blue Penguins which is the world's smallest penguin and we had high hopes to see some and went to the 'Penguin centre'. It turned out they wanted quite a lot of money for us to go and see the little buggers, so we opted to go for a stroll along the beach ourselves.

Beautiful coastal walk

Robert trying to look like a penguin

Victoria imitating a penguin

The coast was gorgeous and would have been well worth the walk without seeing any penguins, but we were lucky and saw a little one huddling in his cave (which they spend evenings and nights in). The penguins are usually out at sea during the day and come back right before dusk, but this little guy had apparently decided to stay in for the day.

Nice view!

Just in case we wouldn't have seen any penguins, Victoria took a picture of the ones in the souvenir shop....

Not real penguins

She also took some 'artsy' photos along the beach:

Our trip now continued into the Cantebury region and we saw some animals; mostly sheep but also some chickens, a hedgehog and deer.

Hedge hog on the road!!!

Robert is saving the hedge hog!

Big elk stag

We spent one night in Geraldine, and one night in Methven before heading towards the Christchurch area. We had breakfast in Asburton outside Methven and Victoria left her purse with EVERYTHING (passports, wallet, credit card, cell phone, address book etc.etc.) at the coffee shop and we didn't realize it was missing until we had driven all the way to Akaroa about 5 hours later....

After a short moment of panic, we called the cafe and thank goodness, they still had the purse! So we only spent one night in Akaroa before heading back to Ashburton again....

Akaroa is worth a mention though as it is one of the places we've visited that we like the most. It's only an hour and a half from Christchurch but still very remote. It is a bit touristy but it is easy to understand why as it is located in the bay of an old volcano and the area is just beautiful!!!!

View from our cottage we stayed at

Robert is enjoying an apple turnover with LOTS of whipped cream...

Fantastic views

From the top of the scenic drive around Akaroa

View over beautiful harbour in Akaroa

So back in Christchurch, we are spending the weekend to relax before deciding what to do next. Victoria found a nice big swimming pool and a shopping mall so she is happy. Robert found a hunting store and is happy too, so we'll see what we come up with by the end of this weekend!!

Touring the South Island

Victoria & Robert — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Time flies! It's amazing how the days go by when you are travelling and not on a set schedule. It's actually almost a little embarrassing, but quite often we find ourselves having to check which date it is and / or the day of the week.

Since we returned to the South Island, we've had over a week driving south and we are right now in Queenstown.

To take a step back, we started driving slighly west from Picton (The ferry terminal) with the aim to reach Nelson which we have heard many good things about. After missing the turn off to the most direct way there, we spent an extra hour touring the countryside around Picton and Nelson which actually was ok as we drove through the beautiful wine country.

Lotsa sheep!

We eventually found our way to Nelson and stayed two nights at a nice place called the Warwick house just outside the very centre of town.

B&B in Nelson

Nelson is a very nice town that is big enough to 'have everything' but that still has a small town feel to it. It's known to be a hotspot for artists, galleries, sculptors, and other people interested in handicrafts and artsy stuff. We decided to take a good look at Nelson but also the overall region.

Right outside Nelson there is a place called Stoke which of course made Robert laugh as it was a small pleasant village with a nice community feel with a fire station, rugby, netball and cricket clubs! So, you wonder if the person who came from Stoke in England named it for a joke or decided (new Stoke) would be a totally different place than the one we know and avoid visiting in the UK!

Stoke fire station

Stoke, New Zealand!!!

We explored Nelson a bit and went to the Founders Heritage Park which is an area where a lot of old houses and workshops have been saved and moved to create the look and feel of an old town. Some of the buildings are displays of what it used to look like, but some are occupied by operating businesses such as the brewery (making handcrafted organic beers), a bakery and some others which host local artists.

We also took a look at Nelson's farmers market which takes place every Saturday. Lots of local merchants show up to sell everything from locally grown veggies, fruit, home made breads, jams, honey etc. etc., as well as things such as ceramics, pottery and arts. We bought some organic fruits, veggies and meat as we stayed in a self contained cabin for the last two nights and had access to a kitchen.

View from our bed in our cabin- with a horse right outside

So after two nights in Nelson itself, we drove around in the countryside about 20km along the coast which is where we found this awesome place that rented out cabins. It was located on a hill overlooking mountains and the local fruit growing valley and there were horses, sheep and chickens right outside our cabin. We even saw some New Zealand kiwi fruits! It was nice to be able to cook our own food especially since we had picked up such goodies from the farmers market.

Kiwi trees!

New Zealand kiwi fruits

We also took a look at Rabbit Island which is an island located just off the coast and a popular recreational destination which a beautiful beach a lots of opportunities for picnics and just hanging out. We strolled down the beach and collected some beautiful shells that were washed up on shore. Not a rabbit in sight though!

Victoria on the beach of Rabbit Island

Rabbit Island

The Abel Tasman National Park is just north of the Nelson region and we had first planned on doing a boat tour along the coast. Unfortunately the rain was pouring the day we wanted to go so we decided to just drive through it on the outskirts.

Abel Tasman National Park

Abel Tasman National PArk

Abel Tasman National Park

After four days, we decided to head off and drove down the West coast to Greymouth where we only stayed one night. On the way we made short stops to look at some 'wildlife' such as cows, sheep, goats and chickens! (ok, not so much 'wild' life, but very entertaining. Robert decided to feed the chickens with pretzels which they loved!).

Belted Galloway cow

Robert is feeding the chickens pretzels.....

Easter chickens....

We drove through Franz Josef and took a look at the big Franz Josef glacier which very much reminded us about the glaciers in Canada. So much for Global warming, Franz Josef is actually advancing! Then we continued on south to Fox Glacier where we stayed the night. It was rainy and damp but very beautiful. As we are now approaching areas where the Lord of the Rings movies were filmed, it is easy to recognize the landscape.

Waterfalls

Franz Josef Glacier

Once we reached Queenstown, we decided to stay a couple of nights since driving can be quite tiring (which is why Victoria has a short nap on every journey). The roads in New Zealand are at times VERY windy so an observation is to not recommend a longer road trip for anybody who has any tendency to get car sick....

Queenstown is a small town where the number of tourists outnumbers the local residents. As the town is catering to the tourists, there are plenty of good shopping and eating options and we a really nice dinner in a French (!) resturant. It has a bit of 'Whistler' feel to it with lots of activities such as skiing, paragliding, bungee jumping, whitewater rafting and anything else that the adrenaline seeking person could ever wish for. Robert was contemplating a bungee jump but after seeing the prices decided against it. Victoria found a swimming pool which to her seemed to be a much more relaxed and inexpensive option to get those endorphines going...

We are off south today but as this is being written we haven't decided exactly where to go. As usual, that decision will be made once we hit the road and perhaps not until we reach an intersection which will force us to turn left or right!

Kiwi goat

Not sure who is more afraid of who....the goat or Victoria....

Victoria feeding the goat.

Hawke's Bay

Victoria & Robert — Tue, 23 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMT

As the readers of our blog probably have picked up on, both of us are very much ‘last minute planners’ so decisions about where to go, where to stay and where to eat are usually made about 30 minutes before it will happen.

We have some free maps in the car that we had picked up at tourist information offices and various hotels, but no real extensive road map over the north island. The best map we had did indeed show the entire north island but in very rough terms with only the biggest roads mapped. So when we set off to Hawke’s bay we saw that there was a ‘scenic shortcut’ through the Te Urewera National park.

From the looks of our map, there was only one main road through the park so we thought it would be a fairly straight forward ‘drive in the park’. We also have a compass in the car, so we felt well equipped!

It turned out that the signposting isn’t the best once you are in the park and that there in fact are many little roads crisscrossing the park. It also didn’t help that the compass seemed as confused as we were and we are now pretty sure that it was turned around and showed ‘south’ when we in fact were heading ‘north’ and vice versa. While we were never really lost, the 20km drive took us four hours!!! When we eventually reached ‘civilization’ and the main road, the car was covered in dust from traveling on the gravel roads.

The park is really beautiful though with a large lake; Lake Waikaremoana and lots of opportunities for hiking, camping and enjoying the lake. It would be a nice spot to spend a few days and exploring more!

On our journey we have seen many sheep and Victoria wanted to cuddle one. However, she didn't get her chance until we reached a souvenir shop...

A 'real' sheep

A sheep to cuddle....

Many cuddly sheep

Cuddle sheep

Once we reached Hawke’s Bay we headed to Napier, a little seaside town that is known for suffering a large earthquake in 1931 and afterwards rebuilding the town completely in art deco style. Almost all the buildings are preserved the way they were built in art deco which gives the town a distinct feeling like you are stepping back in time. The town is a nice beach resort town and we found an outdoor pool which made Victoria very happy. In fact, both of us when for a morning swim both mornings we were there!

Napier is also a good starting point for exploring the wine region and we went to visit two of the bigger vineyards just outside town; Church Road and Mission Estate. Mission Estate is located in a beautiful building and spot overlooking the valley but the wine was actually pretty mediocre. However, we had lunch in their outdoor garden restaurant and it was excellent! So we would definitely recommend it for the view and food, but not perhaps for the wine…!! Church Road on the other hand had some good wine and Robert bought a bottle of their syrah.

Victoria in the wine cellar

On the way out of Napier heading south back to Wellington, we drove through Hastings and North Havelock which also were lovely little towns with that ‘local’ small town feeling to them. In North Havelock we stopped at the Strawberry Patch where you can pick your own strawberries! We picked and then over-indulged in freshly picked berries! In fact, Victoria ate so many she feels she could probably survive a few days without seeing another strawberry….

Strawberry fields

Robert and a sign telling him what not to do...

Strawberry tasting...

Mmmmm... strawberry icecream

They also sold local produce and fruits and it is a feast for the eye to see all the fresh vegetables piled high! The only thing we had a ‘problem’ with, is that while we have met many very nice New Zealander or ‘Kiwis’, and seen a real Kiwi bird, it seems as if all kiwi fruits are imported from Italy!!!! Why on earth would somebody transport Italian kiwi fruits to New Zealand?? Well, it turns out the reason is the same as why you can find apples and other fruits from New Zealand in Europe during spring….. the kiwi fruits aren’t in season yet!

Our tour of the north island came to an end when we reached Wellington again and this blog post has been written from the ferry crossing the Cook Straight back to Picton. While the waves aren’t as bad as the crossing last week, there are still some swells that make your stomach go on a rollercoaster ride and there is an unmistakable scent in the air of toilet disinfectants…. However, overall, our week long tour of the north island has been really fantastic with many great experiences and an increased appetite to one day come back for more!!!

Exploring the North Island

Victoria & Robert — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Both of us with Mount Taranaki in the background

We’ve spent the last week exploring the northern island of New Zealand and arrived in Wellington late in the evening after a very rough ferry ride between Picton on the south island and Wellington on the north island. Luckily, we had pre-booked a hotel (not that common for us) and went straight to bed as the ferry ride was very exhausting.

Victoria used to sometimes complain a bit about BC Ferries in Canada, but after this experience, BC Ferries feels like a luxury cruiser. In fact, a suggestion to the operators of the Kiwi ferries would be to go a course in how to load and unload a ferry…. ;) When we went to bed it felt like the bed was still moving and we could still smell the odor of toilet disinfectant that had seemed to linger around the entire ship.

We didn’t spend much time in Wellington and only went for breakfast and a quick drive up to the Victoria lookout before heading off north. Again without much of a plan, but we decided to drive up the West coast.

View over Wellington from Victoria lookout

The scenery was beautiful and we passed several smaller towns and villages that have managed to keep their small town charm without McDonalds or Walmart planted in the middle. It seems as if most of the commerce is still run by ‘mom and pop’ shops with a local butcher, bakery and small stores.

As for fast food, fish & chips and homemade pies is clearly the main staple and it is evident that people take great pride in baking pies as many of the little shops claimed that their pies were ‘the best pies available’. So we decided to stop and try some and picked a small ‘shack’ beside the road in Wanganui. As we weren’t starving we opted for only one piece of fish and a serving of chips each. When our food was ready it was turned out it could have fed a smaller army! Two huge packages wrapped in newspaper filled with fish and chips! All to a cost of $6 each!!! We could easily have shared and gotten full on one of the servings and felt a little bad that we would have to leave quite a lot behind.

Mmmmm.... yummy fish & chips

Robert ate his food in the parking lot of a park and suddenly he was surrounded by curious and hungry ducks waiting for any accidental spillage. It turns out ducks LOVE chips!!! Who knew? Perhaps not the best diet for the birds, but at least we didn’t feel so bad that we couldn’t finish all our food when we got some help to finish it.

The ducks are getting interested in fish & chips...

Robert is getting harrassed by the ducks

We drove a little further up the coast and made a stop for the night in Hawera. We found a wonderful Bed & Breakfast that was hosted in an old renovated house. The standard of B&Bs is very high and often more luxurious (and expensive) than a hotel. The next morning we enjoyed a scrumptious breakfast served by the very nice hostess who told us a bit about the history of the house and how she and her husband had spent four years to renovate it.

Green lush landscape

Our next destination was to go and have a look at the old extinct volcano Mount Taranaki in Egmont National Park. Once we got there a windy road (which by the way, there are plenty of in New Zealand), took us about half the way up the volcano to a viewing area. The weather was nice and the view was absolutely magnificent! We took lots of pictures!

View of the volcano

Victoria and Mount Taranaki

Robert looking cool

Mighty Mountain

Mount Taranaki

That afternoon we continued driving east inland towards Rotorua which is the main town in an area famous for its volcanic activity leading to hot springs, geysers and mud pools. We certainly knew we had arrived when a really pungent smell of sulphur hit us! After visiting some hot springs in Canada we were familiar with the sulphurous smell that usually comes with the springs, but this smell was about five times as strong! We took a look at some of the motels and hotels in the outskirts of town but the smell actually really put us off and one hotel employee told us the smell was particularly bad in this part of town so we decided to drive a little further. We eventually found a very nice little hotel to a reasonable price and where the smell wasn’t too bad.

The next day we set out to explore the volcanic activities and the mud pools that can be seen around town. In the middle of town there is a big park and parts of it is fenced off because of the mud pools which literally are bubbling pools of hot (and smelly) mud! There is also a large aquatic centre which has hot pools (without the mud) and an Olympic sized swimming pool, all heated by the thermal activity. Of course Victoria had to try it out for a swim!

Bubbly hot mud pools...

Victoria and Robert with green lime coloured smelly hot spring

We also went out to Rainbowsprings Wildlife Park in search of some kiwi birds. It’s a small zoo displaying plants and animals of New Zealand and that breeds the rare kiwi bird. Most mammals are introduced to New Zealand and not native and the same is true for a lot of plants and trees. There are, for example, large redwood trees like in Canada, but they have been planted here. Apparently the redwood trees thrive in this climate and make them grow extra fast, but to a cost of poorer quality wood if it were to be harvested. We also saw fish, plants, small mammals and yes, at last, a real kiwi bird! (Not just on a poster...)

Look! It is a...... boy?...girl?...no.....a KIWI!!!!

Kiwi bird on a poster!

Bird bathing

The next day we were up early as we had bought tickets to the Lady Knox geyser which erupts at 10:15am every day. It is located about 30 minutes outside of Rotorua, so we were off to a relatively (for us!!!) early morning. During our drive there we were talking about how amazing it is that they geyser goes off at exactly the same time every day! Strange!

We were very excited to see a geyser as we had hoped to see one in Iceland but didn’t have a chance to. It’s funny that when we were travelling in Canada we had hoped to see the Northern lights but eventually saw them in Iceland, and the geyser we wanted to see in Iceland, we finally would get to see in New Zealand!!

When we got to the viewing area for the geyser, the geyser itself was puffing steam but with no action yet. People were gathering all waiting for it to go off with cameras ready not to miss the big show. At 10:15 everybody was ready but nothing happened…. Then a man that worked in the park came out and starting talking about the history of the geyser and the area we were in. It turned out that there used to be a prison camp not far from there and the prisoners used to come to the hot spring and do their laundry. One day when they had soaked their clothes in water and soap, the geyser erupted and took everybody with a big surprise. It turned out that the soap made the geyser spurt, and from that discovery, they were able to control when the geyser would go off by putting a little soap down the opening of the geyser. Hahaha! So much for the geyser erupting exactly at the same time every day!!!! Of course the park employee had a piece of soap with him, so when his presentation was over, he dropped it into the hole of the geyser, and voila! – the geyser started to bubble, steam and suddenly squirted a high beam of water!!! It was very spectacular and interesting and we took pictures. We only felt a little silly for thinking that nature would have had an internal 24 hour clock so precise that it would go off at exactly the same time every day….not sure if everybody else knew, so we kept it to ourselves in case we were the only fools….

Only some steam coming out so far...

The geyser needed a bit of a helping hand...

It's starting to bubble....

The geyser is going strong!

With the ticket to the geyser we also got access to a large thermal park with hots prings, mud pools and caves formed by volcanic activity. It was an hour walk and quite interesting but in the end it felt like every smelly hot spring looked the same and that the next one was stinkier than the previous…

Bubbly hot spring

Robert checking out if the 'hot' spring is hot. (It was boiling...)

Beautiful colours but very stinky

Soon, we were in the car again and continuing our journey east. Our next destination was Hawke’s Bay which is well known wine region famous especially for their red wines.

First few days in 'Kiwi land'

Victoria & Robert — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMT

After a relatively short flight to New Zealand from Sydney, we arrived in a cold rainy Christchurch. It felt very much like England, or perhaps a typical Swedish summer day… The rain poured down as we took a shuttle into the city centre and our hotel.

As we now had reached our ‘end destination’ on our trip, we decided to treat our visit in Christchurch as an administrative stop rather than a sightseeing destination to get our bearings right, sort out or plans for the next seven weeks and attempt at getting a little ‘ORGANIZED’.

In the southern hemisphere it’s now the end of summer, so somewhere equivalent to late August (Sweden or England) or early September in Canada (Vancouver). Around Christchurch the grass on the hills was a little yellowish from a long summer but after the initial rainy welcome, the next day it was very warm and around 25C.

We had talked about renting a small camper van, a bigger camper van with a toilet and shower, or a car, but after careful consideration, we decided to buy a car and drive around for a few weeks stopping at B&Bs and motels before renting a small place and stay in one destination for the remaining time. Robert researched the options and we headed to the local car auction to see what they had to offer.

We walked to the southern part of Christchurch which is a more industrial part where all the car dealerships and the auction are located. There would be an auction for ‘commercial and 4x4s’ the following day so today was the day to check out what would be auctioned out. A lot of backpackers and travelers do what we plan on doing; buy a car or a van for the time they are in New Zealand and then sell it before they leave. As it is approaching the end of summer, we hoped that we would be able to find something at a reasonable price.

After some looking and kicking of the tires, we (Robert), had a pretty good idea of what was on offer and we headed back to the hotel. Unfortunately, we still hadn’t seen too much of Christchurch yet due to the nature of our stay (sorting stuff out rather than sightseeing), but Victoria was happy to see that there were many sushi restaurants as she has been craving sushi since she left Vancouver. This time around she had to be satisfied with California rolls and veggie sushi but was happy as a clam! Robert, not being a fan of sushi and raw fish was very accommodating in satisfying Victoria’s sushi craving and stoically ate a large number of teriyaki beef dishes during our days in Christchurch. In fact, the city centre of Christchurch seems to be the home to an abundance of Japanese and Korean restaurants and shops and a lot of young Japanese and Koreans that look like language students.

(interesting statue in the park in Christchurch. Victoria is not sure what's going on here...)

The next day Robert headed to the car auction while Victoria pottered around on her own. About two hours later, Robert came back with a car!!!! He had bought a 4x4 Mitsubishi Pajero to a decent price which meant that we now had wheels!!!! The car had to go through an inspection and the only thing that was ‘wrong’ with it was that one of the seatbelts in the back seat needed replacement. Other than that, we were pretty much ready to go!

We set off the next day and our only definitive plan was to ‘go north’. We bought some map books and started driving. The landscape was beautiful and as soon as we left Christchurch we started seeing some of the millions of sheep that inhabit New Zealand. They are everywhere but are mixed with other animals like farmed deer, cows, horses and the occasional goat and lama. It is clear that farming and raising sheep and cattle is big business in New Zealand!

We more or less drove along the coast and the landscape is quite varied. Some parts look drier and hotter and not much unlike the Okanagan in Canada. Not surprisingly though as we were heading to the Marlborough district where the Kiwis grow their famous wine. Other parts along the coast are very rugged with large waves and rocky beaches.

The first night we stopped in Kaikoura, a little beach resort town on the north eastern side of the South Island. We arrived late and accepted the first hotel that had a room available. We had dinner at a nice restaurant and the seafood chowder was almost to die for! So good! The size of the mussels in the chowder were about twice the size of any other mussel either of us had ever seen. But as the waitress said ‘everything is bigger in New Zealand’… hahaha!!!

The next day we drove from Kaikoura to Picton which is the home of the ferry terminal for crossing over from the south to the north island. We drove through the Marlborough district with vineyards and more sheep and decided to stop on the way back south again as we wanted to have more time to visit and sampling some Kiwi wine.

At some point when we were driving along the sea there was suddenly a sign warning for seals on the road. Hmmm…. After traveling through Canada we have seen warnings for moose, deer, bears and the occasional horse, but never a ‘seal on the road’ warning…
Well, it turned out that there is a large seal colony on the rocks just off the highway and during really rough weather, there is a possibility that the waves sweep the seals off the shore and all the way up to the road!!! Luckily today was a less windy day so we just enjoyed the seals on the beach instead. They were an entertainment to watch! The parent seals were lazy and sleeping on the beach but the baby seals where playing. They were chasing each other up and down the rocks and playing in a natural rock pool that had formed; swimming, diving, splashing and being… youngsters.

We reached the ferry terminal in Picton well on time to find that our ferry was about an hour and a half delayed due to very rough weather…….

The loading of the ferry took forever and was something of a very inefficient procedure. Later on we realized it was slow because they had to carefully secure all the bigger trucks in preparation for a bumpy ride. Still, the organization of the loading was somewhat of a comedy!

The trip over to Wellington that should have taken about 3 hours took close to 4 hours and yes, the sea was rough! More than one person grabbed a designated seasickness paper bag ‘just in case’, and more than one passenger used them! The rolling of the ferry was particularly bad in the front and the back so most people congregated in the middle of the ship.

We were quite happy and relieved when we finally reached Wellington, and on a little bit of shaky legs we drove off the ferry and in to Wellington, the capital of New Zealand!

Sunny Sydney

Victoria & Robert — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMT

A nine hour flight from Hong-Kong to Australia landed us in the early morning in Sydney. The flight was quite long but the time difference from Hong-Kong ‘only’ three hours. However, since we left Hong-Kong late in the evening and flew over night without much sleep, it really felt like we were severely jetlagged when we finally had cleared customs and immigration and staggered out in the sunshine.

Sydney greeted us with nice weather and the contrast was very pleasant as the air was less humid. The hotel let us check in early so at 10am we went to bed for a few hours sleep.

In fact, the first day was spent pretty much recovering and it wasn’t until later in the afternoon/early evening that we found the energy to venture out to and get something to eat. We walked through the Botanical Gardens and stared at the thousands of fruit bats that were hanging in the trees. They are quite large and they looked scary even though they are harmless…. We also saw the biggest spider web with a VERY LARGE spider on guard in the middle…..

We also walked past the famous Opera house and down to Circular Quay from which we took a taxi back to the hotel.

The next morning was also off to a slow start, but eventually we dragged ourselves out of bed and went for a swim in the pool in the Botanical Gardens. Unfortunately, today was much greyer and quite cold with a slight drizzle. The swim was nice though and we also had some breakfast at the pool café overlooking the pool area and part of the harbor.

The last full day in Sydney, we met up with Victoria’s friend Malin who has lived in Sydney for four years. She took us on a nice tour with started with a ferry ride to Watson’s Bay and a delicious serving of fish and chips before going for a walk along the coastline. The views were spectacular but when we passed the Lady Bay beach where ‘clothing is optional’ we involuntarily saw some less spectacular naked men strolling down the beach….

The trip continued with a bus ride to Bondi Beach; another walk and a stop for a coffee at a little side café before we decided to head back to the hotel for an hour rest. The plan was to meet up with Malin and her boyfriend Marc for dinner later on, so we took the opportunity to rest our feet and eyes before heading out again for really yummy Indian meal in Rose Bay.

In all we had a very nice day and thanks Malin for being our guide. The only thing was that both of us forgot sunscreen so even just a walk left both of us red like two tomatoes in our faces!!! Ouch!!!!

The following morning we were once again packing our bags and heading to the airport to catch our flight to Kiwi country, aka New Zealand. Since we will be spending about seven weeks there with only vague plans so far, we had only bought the ticket there, not a return. Well, that proved to cause some issues as we weren’t allowed to check to our flight unless we could show a return ticket out of New Zealand. Apparently, they were afraid we were going to stay forever….. So with an hour to spare before check-in closed, we bought return tickets so that we could show that we intended to leave the country. A little stressful at first, but we made it with more than half an hour to spare before the desk would close!
Finally we boarded our flight that would take us to New Zealand and Christchurch!

Hanoi

Victoria & Robert — Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMT

We are on the move again and have left Hoi An. Our next stop was Hanoi in the northern part of Vietnam.

A short flight landed us in the smoggy, hot capital and after a nighmarish taxi ride from the airport, we got to the hotel. The traffic is kind of crazy also here, but at the same time different from Ho Chi Minh city. There are more cars, but still a zillion of mopeds. The traffic moved quite slowly and not even the air conditioned car could block out the exhaust fumes from all the vechicles.

As we only had one full day in Hanoi we had to make a decision on how to best spend the time. We picked between staying in the city and explore the Hanoi landmarks, or to take a day trip to Halong Bay. Since the traffic was so bad, and the pollution levels obviously quite high, we opted for the trip out of the city.

We could have taken an organized trip to Halong Bay but decided to do it 'our way' again. We hired a car and a driver and set out towards the coast on the east. The drive was three hours and not for the weak of heart. If traffic in the cities is crazy, at least it's slow moving. On the highways and country side roads some kind of rules that are foreign to Western travellers must apply which can make even the calmest person a neurotic back seat driver.... It took a while to figure out what it was the felt so unnerving and after a while we figured it out: the fact that there is a white dotted line in the middle road, separating traffic going in different directions simply doesn't mean a darn in Vietnam!!!

'Right hand side driving' only applies in the most rudimentary terms and most of the driving is done straddling the middle line and might involve slighly keeping to the right if there is oncoming traffic. Cars are trying to pass other cars or mopeds but the vechicles being passed just obliviously stay in the middle of the road, forcing the passing car to drive long stretches on the left hand side of the road.

Luckily we made it 'safely' to Halong Bay and jumped on the first tourist boat that was still going out that day. We had done some homework on the types of trips, but since we arrived quite late in the day, we didn't have much choice and ended up on a 'one star' boat (the two star boats are of better standard) with a group of Vietnamese tourists.

We went on a three hour cruise of Halong Bay

Victoria and the grapefruit

Robert on the boat

The tour would last three hours and take us to the UNESCO protected caves and a tour through the islands in the bay. At first we were a little worried we had been ripped off but the tour turned out to be pretty good. The first stop was to visit the caves, and the scenery was really amazing. The islands looked like 'jurassic park' island with tall rugged cliffs and lush vegetation. You almost expected a dinosaur to peek out through the trees!

Inside the caves, lighting made them look really spectacular and it was very nicely done.

Beautiful UNESCO protected caves

The journey then continued in through the islands where little fishing markets were floating between the islands. We stopped at one of them and got to look at the different ponds in which different kinds of fish, shellfish and strange creatures were kept. The Vietnamese tour group on our boat picked up a giant snail and a big fish that they bought for dinner.

Beautiful inlet

Floating 'convenience store'

Floating fish market

Some kind of fish

A big juicy snail

A little lady in a boat docked at the fish farm sold the spices and supplies needed to cook the fish.

A boat selling snacks and food

We were lucky to see the sunset which was amazing! The sky turned orange and the sun became a big glowing globe. The temperature was comfortable and probably around 22-25C which was a nice break from the last weeks in 30-35C.

The scenery was beautiful when the sun set.

After three hours the boat turned towards the mainland again. The boat crew prepared the fish and the snail that the Vietnamese tour group had bought and we were even invited to have dinner with them. Unfortunately we had to decline since we were heading back to Hanoi but, we were very happy that we got a chance to see a little bit of Halong Bay even though with more time it would have been great to go on a longer overnight trip as there are cruiseships where you can spend one or more nights.

Robert is stearing the boat!

Sunset over Halong Bay

Our driver was waiting for us and another three hour heart stopping trip waited before we finally were back at the hotel in Hanoi. If the trip to Halong Bay had been scary in daylight, that was nothing compared to doing it when it was pitch dark....

So in summary, our short stay in Hanoi provided us with a very nice experience even though it would have been nice to have another day to actually see Hanoi. We were now off to Hong-Kong again, but Vietnam is definitely a place that both of us really enjoyed and would like to explore more!

Hoi An

Victoria & Robert — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Old beautiful houses in Hoi An

A short flight from Ho Chi Minh City to Danang and a 45 minutes taxi ride brought us to Hoi An which is an old trading port of Vietnam. The city is since 1999 protected by UNESCO so the buildings in the old part of town are preserved and apparently look very much like they did hundred of years ago. Today, most people on the streets are Western tourists who browse the hundred of tailor shops that line the streets. It is easy to understand that without the tourists the town would perhaps not be as prosperous as it is. However, there could be a fine balance between preserving the atmosphere of the town and the danger of making into a tacky tourist attraction.

Old houses in Hoi An

We both really liked Hoi An as it did still have a really good atmosphere and spirit. The majority of buisnesses are tailor shops and shoe makers who can tailor a dress, suit or any other kind of clothing very inexpensively and affordably. You can also get shoes made in any colour and size pretty much overnight once you have decided on a model.

People are very friendly and you don't feel pushed and forced to buy or look at things in the shops like you sometimes do at markets in Thailand and other countries. Yes, the store staff want to sell you things, but we never really feel hassled.

Everybody hard at work

The hotel we stayed at was located about 10 minutes outside Hoi An next to the river. We got a really nice room overlooking the river with palm trees swaying in the wind. One morning when we came out on the balcony the palm tree was swaying not only from the wind but also because a little man working for the hotel had climbed up the tree and was cutting down the coconuts. It wasn't clear if it was done to prevent the coconuts from falling on the heads of the hotel guests or if it was just 'pruning time', but it was entertaining to watch!

A little guy climbed the palm tree to cut down the coconuts

Coconut picking outside our hotel room

We made our way into the old part of Hoi An in the evenings and found an excellent restaurant that served delicious food to a very good price. Three appertizers, two main courses, a couple of glasses of wine (for Robert), rice, mineral water and dessert was only about $25 in total. The best part was probably the 'money bags' which were deep fried 'bags' of rice paper filled with veggies, spices and prawns. So yummy!

Money bags! Delicious!

Dinner at a really good restaurant

View in the ancient town of Hoi An

Lanterns

The inexpensive meal was balanced out by a very expensive taxi ride back to the hotel. No, we didn't get scammed by the taxi driver (which happened once in Ho Chi Minh city); the fault was only ours.... The vietnamese dong is basically worth nothing, so the notes come in very high denominations like 10,000, 100,000, 5,000, 50,000 etc. One USD is around 18,000 dong so good skills in quick math is useful when figuring out how much things cost. A good eye for the right colour and number of zeros on the notes help to... Our taxi ride back to the hotel cost 52,000 VND and in the dark, Robert accidentally gave the taxi driver a 500,000 note instead of 50,000!!! We didn't notice the mistake until the next day but would explain why the taxi driver looked so confused. He must have thought Robert was either a very rich or very stupid Englishman....

The second day, we slept in a bit but wanted to go for some kind of tour or sightseeing in the countryside around Hoi An. Since we had already missed the organized day trips, we decided to go on our own. We rented bicycles to the price of 20,000 dong per day (a little more than a dollar) and set off. Thankfully traffic is less crazy than in Ho Chi Minh and it is actually possible to cycle without fearing for your life!

Victoria is biking...

We cycled out on the rural roads that led us through rice paddies and vegetable fields. We made a stop for lunch at a restaurant built on the river before continuing our tour. We also made a few stops to see what the farmers were up to and Robert even offered to help with the work! The farmer however, probably thought we were completely crazy. He kept talking to Victoria in Vietnamese probably thinking that she would understand so that she could tell her crazy boyfriend to stay out of his fields, but in the end he was smiling!

View from our lunch stop by the river

Robert enjoying a good meal

Pineapple beef with rice and beer

Soup!

A farmer burning husks from the field

Robert offered to help with the farming

An old woman was walking in the ditch of the rice fields looking for something which she put in a plastic bag. It turned out that the bag contained big, fat, yummy snails!

Old lady who was looking for snails in the ditch

Yummy! Bag full of snails!

We also saw some buffalos grazing between the tombstones in a grave yard and several chickens, a few cows and lots of dogs. The funniest thing was when we met a guy with several cages on the trailer to his moped. Suddenly one cage fell off the trailer and out of the cage came a pig!!!! The guy had to stop and run after the pig which was not very keen on getting back into the cage. After some wrestling the pig lost and was put back in his prison.

Buffalos by the river

a cart full of.... what???

Yes, there were pigs in those cages...!!!

Our last stop on our bicycle tour was at a little house that offered cold drinks. We stopped for a Coke and we were served by a woman and her 78 year old grandma. They spoke very little English but tried to teach Robert some Vietnamese. When we biked away from their house Robert practiced his new skills on every person we met on the road. Some of them seemed to think he was nuts, which could have something to do with his pronounciation which probably butchered the Vietnamese language!

Victoria and Vietnamese grandma

In the evening, we headed back to old Hoi An and went to the same restaurant as the previous night. Since we enjoyed the food so much we didn't see why we shouldn't go back where we knew it was going to be good. It didn't disappoint! The food was again excellent and stuffed on money bags and other delicacies, we headed back to the hotel for one more night's sleep before we are off to Hanoi for two days.

In summary, Hoi An is very well worth a visit and one of our favourite destinations so far. And if you do go, don't miss dinner at the White Marble Restaurant & Wine Bar!!!

Exploring Vietnam

Victoria & Robert — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Girl in traditional Vietnamese dress on a moped

Yes! We are in Vietnam! After 24 hours of serious frustration and tests of patience we eventually made it here.

The day after we had first tried to go to Ho Chi Minh city and didn't go because Robert needed a visa for Vietnam, we woke up early to try sorting out what we would do instead. We checked flights to China, Australia and Malaysia, but nothing really worked out and made sense in terms of timing and cost. Quite frustrated we started looking into how long it would take to get the tourist visa for Vietnam. Several websites claimed that you could apply for a visa through them, but we were a bit hesitant since we felt that there was little guarantee that the promises were real. Who could issue a visa on a Sunday just because you paid them? What if it was just a big scam?

We found once site that 'looked' reliable, but still; perhaps having a fancy website is the way to make money from innocent tourists? But we emailed the company and they did get back to us right away and claimed they could issue the visa within an hour once we paid $125. It sounded suspicious and very expensive since the visa normally shouldn't cost more than $20, but after some discussions we decided to take the chance. After some problems making the payment go through and lo and behold; five minutes later we got the emailed letter that pre-approved the visa!

We now tried to re-book the same flight to Vietnam leaving in about three hours but since it was too close to departure we couldn't do it online and decided to head to the airport again. Back at the airport the same girl at the Air France desk who had cancelled our tickets yesterday was able to rebook us on the flight for today without a penalty!!! Robert got so happy he went to buy a box of chocolates for the girl who looked like it was the first time a customer actually did something nice for her.

Happily we boarded the flight towards Ho Chi Minh city! It is a short flight that only takes about an hour, so it provided a little bit of rest after a stressful morning. Upon landing in Ho Chi Minh City, we headed for the passport control and the desk where Robert was to pick up his visa with the pre-approved letter. We got a good taste of Vietnamese government organisation.... About 30 people were gathered around the desk and the confusion and frustration was very obvious. It turned out that the 'pre-approved letter' that Air France demanded from us wasn't actually necessary.... Robert could just have applied for the visa right then and there. Nevertheless, the processing of the visa took about two hours and was highly inefficient and unorganized so it became a very long impatient wait. Finally, we got it and could proceed to passport control!!!

We took a taxi in to our hotel and stared in amazement at the traffic. There is no good way of describing it besides 'complete, and utter chaos'. Buses, cars and a million mopeds are sharing the roads and at the first glance it looks like mayhem. However, there is still flow in traffic; it never comes to complete gridlock, and despite thinking every minute will be the last of your life, you very rarely see an accident. It is something that must be experienced though as no description can really make justice to it!

Rush hour in Saigon

A family of three on one moped

Traffic in a roundabout.

There are apparently four million mopeds in the city and the major means of transportation. You see whole families of four on one little moped and usually with a day's shopping, or perhaps a desk or a fridge as well! We saw one guy driving with at least six dozens of eggs skillfully balanced on the back of his moped, and another one transporting a car windshield!!!!

The little moped is used to transport anything you can think of...

Our hotel was located in District 5, which is part of Chinatown. It was very large, quite modern and comfortable. The first night, we went to the hotel restaurant for some food and Victoria had traditional 'pho'; noodle soup. We both shared some traditional fried spring rolls as well as the ones in fresh rice paper stuffed with herbs, noodles and meat. Food in Vietnam is generally less spicy than Thai food, but is still similar to both Thai and Chinese.

Since we only had one full day in HCMC, we decided to go on a sightseeing tour the next day and booked a half day city tour. We ended up getting a guide for just the two of us and were driven around in a nice air conditioned car. The tour went to a Chinese temple, the War Remnants museum, the Reunification Palace, the Notre Dame cathedral, the Post Office and a factory that made traditional arts and crafts.

In the Chinese temple, the haze from the incense was thick as you could buy incense that was lit up and burned for up to a week. In the ceiling, large bee hive looking coils of incense were slowly burning with notes attached to them which had the wish of the person buying and lighting the incense written down.

Girl lighting a coil of incense

Inside the Chinese temple

The War Remnants museum is the most popular museum for Western tourists and a horrific reminder of the atrocities committed during the Vietnam war. As Victoria had already visited the museum last time she was in HCMC (and at that time unable to finish the museum tour), she opted for waiting outside. The museum is very 'one sided' but does not in any way take away from the reality of the terrible things that happened during the war; sadly often to innocent civilians and children.

The Reunification Palace is large and took most of our tour. We saw the banquet halls, reception halls, bunkers, helicopter pads and other 'necessities' of former presidents and authorities of a country with a long and troubled past.

Reunification building

Helicopter pad on top of the Reunification building

Posing in front of the indoor garden in the Reunification building

Lastly, our tour included a stop in a factory for disabled Vietnamese that produces handicrafts decorated with crushed egg shells and mother of pearl. We were shown each step in the production process and of course ended up in the shop at the end.

Visiting a factory that made beautiful pictures of mother of pearl and egg shells

In all, the tour was very good and probably the best way to see some of the key landmarks in a short period of time. Our guide was a young man who was very nice and knowledgeable.

The Notre Dame

The post office

That evening we took a taxi to District one which is where most large hotels and restaurants are located. We took a quick look at the market and bought some guidebooks off a street vendor. Very good copies of popular books can be bought to a fraction of the price the original would cost back in Europe or North Americas. The quality is quite good too! We bought Lonley Planets guide books for Vietnam, Australia and New Zealand in an attempt to be a little bit more prepared for our destinations to come!

After dinner which we ate in the roof top garden of Hotel Rex, we headed back to our hotel for one more night's sleep before we are off in the morning to go to Danang. Danang is located on the coast in about the middle of the long narrow country and is the closest airport to Hoi An, which is a UNESCO protected heritage site that we have been recommended to visit.

Learning the hard way....

Victoria & Robert — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

We have moved on and are right now in Bangkok after a short flight from Phuket. Well... we've already been in Bangkok for three days and if everything had gone to plan, we would be in Vietnam right now. However, due to a smaller mishap we are still in Thailand...

Not that Bangkok is a bad place to be; especially not when we have the luxury of staying at one of Robert's friend's house which is not a small little house but more like a mini palace. Large pool (Victoria was even tempted trying to do some more serious swimming in it, it must be at least 15 meters), fountain, nice garden and very spacious.

The pool

Robert practising his synchronised swimming routine

Both of us with the house in the background

During the three days we've been here we have done a little bit of sightseeing including a tuk tuk ride on the streets of Bangkok. Only for the brave!!!!! No shock absorbers and going down the streets in at least 60-70 km/h!!!! The tour also included the 'mandatory' stops at the silk tailors and being strong and firm about not buying anything we didn't want from the merchants that the tuk tuk driver got paid to stop at.

We visited a couple of night markets too but didn't really buy anything. We also went to the more exclusive shopping centre and explored a little.

Exclusive shopping is possible anywhere in the world!

Robert found a bench in the middle of a fountain

Victoria opted for the bench outside the fountain

Food of all kinds at the food court

A dinner cruise on the river was one of the highlights. It was arranged by the hotel Shangri-la, so it was very fancy but an excellent way to see some of the city at night when it was cooler.

Dinner cruise down the river

Happy Robert with two less lucky prawns...

Unfortunately, we didn't really see everything we wanted as it is too hot to walk around and the taxi and tuk tuk drivers are really trying to scam the tourists, so after trying to find a taxi to take us around (at a price that was about 10 higher than it should have been), we decided to cut the seightseeing a little short. Perhaps that was wise anyways, as many of the major buildings and government sites were heavily guarded with armed police and riot squads in anticipation of unrest once the court ruling against the former prime minister was going to be announced. Not the most relaxed atmosphere to linger around in....

So after almost ten days in Thailand we decided that it was time to see something else. Victoria has been to Vietnam a few years ago and really liked it so we decided to go to Ho Chi Minh City. We got cheap tickets with Air France and prepared for departure today Saturday.

Everything went well until we came to the check-in desk at the airport. It turned out that British nationals need to obtain a tourist visa before going to Vietnam and Air France therefore denied Robert boarding unless he could show a letter that he was pre-approved for a visa on arrival. It didn't occur to us to check that as Victoria knew that as a Swedish citizen she didn't need a visa and we couldn't imagine that it would be different for other Western EU countries..... After some arguing with the staff at the desk, there was nothing else to do but to cancel the flight and head back to Bangkok.

As it was Saturday, the visa would take at least a few days to get so after a bit of flapping around, we decided to cancel our trip to Ho Chi Minh city for now. Yes, we did lose a little bit of money by cancelling the flight tickets and the hotel, but unfortunately we didn't have much of a choice. Victoria could have gone by herself to Vietnam, but that wasn't a very appealing option either....

We went back at Robert's friend's house, trying to recuperate and re-assess what to do next. Since we do have those tourist visas for China that we worked so hard for (see blog entry for Hong-Kong about that story) we were thinking going to China instead. To think our situation over we decided to go for some food first. As if a bad day couldn't get any worse, we are terribly ashamed to admit that we ended up at Pizza Hut and McDonald's. In the state of mind we were we just wanted something quick to eat and thought pizza would be ok. Unfortunately, we regretted our choice as soon as the food came. You would think Pizza Hut tastes the same anywhere in the world...well... WRONG! Somehow even the pizza has a distinct 'Thai flavour' to it. While thai food in itself is delicious, Meat Lover's pizza with a thai flare to it is not! To top it all off, the waitress tipped a whole milkshake over Robert's trousers. Accidentally of course, but still.....

So after a bad day that turned even worse, the best thing we could do was to go to bed and sleep it off. Hopefully some rest and a fresh start on the next day would give us a new prospective. Story to be continued...

The art of doing nothing...

Victoria & Robert — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

View over the beach

Record levels of snow in Sweden and crummy weather in England feel VERY distant as we are writing this blog entry from our private villa in Thailand with palm trees and sunshine. Not that we are trying to make our friends and family in colder climate jealous.... it's just so difficult to imagine right now.....

Yes, we are in Thai paradise at a very nice resort just outside the airport in Phuket. We had originally planned on staying for three nights just to catch some sun and beach life, but after seeing how nice our hotel is and that the resort is located in one of the less busy and touristy areas of Phuket, we decided to stay another three nights.

beautiful beach

Knowing that this is the peak season for sun thirsty Northern Europeans and that some areas will feel just like home with white pasty Swedes and Brits fighting for space on the beach, we were positively surprised that the resort is quiet and the beach is quite empty. No need to get up at 6am to sprint down to the beach and marking your territory by occupying a sun chair!

Crazy Germans posing for pics

The nice thing is also that the hotel gave us a better room than we had booked. We got a private 'villa' with its own plunge pool and outdoor bathroom. It feels very nice to be able to walk straight out of bed and go for a quick dip in the morning. The food at the hotel is also excellent and even though we've been eating most of our meals at the local food merchants and restaurant, the breakfast is really good.

The outdoor bathroom with shower and pool

Our own private plunge pool!

We did attend a BBQ buffet that the hotel organized one evening. It was very nice with lots of good food; shellfish and fish grilled to order and lots of different kinds of meats. The posters for this BBQ night had promised 'live violin and guitar music'. Not to disappoint, a little Thai man showed up with his violin. Unfortunately, it sounded suspiciously similar to a tortured cat so when he finished all the guests sighed out of relief and applauded him but were quite happy to see him leave. But surprise! Five minutes later he was back, this time with a guitar in his hand. A man of many talents! To his defense, the guitar playing was much better than his violin skills, but then he started singing. Not too bad, but it was quite cute to hear him sing 'Mrs Lobinson' on top of his lungs instead of 'Mrs Robinson'.

BBQ dinner at the hotel

The chef at the BBQ

We both wanted to relax for a few days and try to do the 'beach thing'. Which essentially means 'to do nothing'. While the whole trip is vacation, we are often on the move and at most destinations it feels like we should go and see and do things. So here in Thailand we decided that complete laziness is ok. Which is easier said than done! None of us is really a big fan of sun bathing. Robert is of the whiter skin type and has to be careful in the sun. Victoria's skin can tolerate sun a bit better but still gets impatient and antsy from just laying flat on her back for more than an hour.

Looking cool on the beach

Victoria and the sunset

Robert playing

We tried several times to just lay in the sun and we did quite well! However, the sun is very strong so we stay in the shade of the parasols as much as possible. The sun still gets you in the shade though, which is something Robert learned the painful way! After a couple of hours on the beach with max five minutes exposure in the actual sun, he developed a very characteristic British pink hue all over his body. Ouch!!!!

We also wanted to try some Thai massages, so we found a nice, clean place in the little town next to the beach. Victoria went for the 'neck-back' option and was after 30 minutes more sore than from the 8,000 meter of swimming she's been doing over the past three days!!! Amazing how much power is in a little Thai lady! Robert went for the royal massage which included hot steaming cloths full of aromatic spices dabbed all over the body. When the massage was finished and we stepped out of the spa into the bright sunlight we discovered that Robert was...bright orange/yellow! So he was like a chameleon; going from white, to pink, to yellow. All in one day!

Robert went from white pasty to bright yellow!!

Robert's yellow leg after a Royal Thai massage.

Tomorrow morning we are off to the airport to catch a flight to Bangkok where we will spend a few days. It was been a really nice six days here in Phuket and we think we are getting quite good at 'doing nothing'.

A little coffee place on the beach

Singapore

Victoria & Robert — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

Large modern buildings

Our next stop in the Far East is Singapore. After all that stress with getting our Chinese visas we still decided to hold off on the China part of our travels. We had talked about possibly taking a train from Hong-Kong through southern China and then down in Vietnam, but after careful consideration and advice from better knowing people who told us the trains and hygiene standards in southern China and rural Vietnam are a little bit different from the western world, we decided to take the less adventurous and more comfortable route of travelling. We booked a flight to Singapore with Tiger Airways; south east Asia's version of Ryanair to a very reasonable price. We might still fly to Beijing on our way back to Europe when the weather is better, so hopefully we'll still get to use our visas and see a little bit of the big country.

The flight from Hong-Kong to Singapore was about three and a half hours and went smoothly. Once we landed we were greeting by hot and humid weather and about 33C. A taxi ride in to the center took us to the Fairmont hotel where we would spend the next three nights.

LARGE hotels

Singapore is very clean, well organized and there seems to be lots of enforcement in place in terms of regulations, laws and police. Taxis are strictly forbidden to stop on the main roads or they might have to pay a fairly heavy fine, and illegally parked vechicles are quickly fined and towed away. Victoria accidentally dropped her ice cream on the road one evening and feared she would be caught by the 'ice-cream police'.... :)

The first day we explored the city centre by foot and walked down to Chinatown. Large modern building are mixed with older, colonial ones and along the river a portion of the older houses have been kept. Along the river was a sculpture of a bird (?) which Robert promptly wanted to climb up on top of. Unfortunately, the bird was to big...

Robert trying to climb the bird.

Older buildings mixed with newer

Old colonial style

We explored the market in Chinatown and eventually got hungry and found the food stalls where you can get a delicious meal for almost nothing! $10-12 Singapore dollars (approx. 5-6 pounds or 50-60 SEK) would for sure leave you full and satisfied. At first the thought of eating food off these little stalls on the road felt a little uncertain but after seeing that they all seemed to properly prepare the food and they all had business licenses we decided to dig in. The food was great and if it wasn't for the size of our tummies we would still be there sampling the different kinds of dishes! We had noodle soup and satay skewers followed by beef stirfry, veggies and rice. Mmmmmmm!

Chinatown in Singapore

Lots of yummy food

Food preparations at the market

Robert enjoying a good meal!

With our happy full tummies we decided that walking would be too much work, so we went down to the Fullerton Hotel right by the harbour from which we took a little river cruise. It was quite nice to see the city from the river at night time with lots of lights.

The following day, we went on a day trip out to the zoo. Well worth a visit. It was hot and humid so we had to keep drinking lots and lots of water. Robert even found another plastic cow to climb!

Robert is riding a plastic cow.

The zoo is the home to a large range of animals; everything from exotic species such as monkeys (our favourite!) lions, tigers, zebras and elephants to animals a little less expected in such warm climate: penguins and polar bears! The polar bears looked a little hot even though they had a cool pool to swim in, and an enclosure with misty cooling steam, and you can't blame them!

Monkeys roaming around

Must be bad if he gets a sore throat....

We saw a polar bear... but not in Canada... in Singapore!

Rhinos in the zoo

That evening we stayed close to our hotel for dinner which unfortunately was over priced for what we got, and both of us missed the delicious inexpensive food we had eaten the night before. Sometimes it really is worth going out of the most touristy areas to eat more local and often better food.

Victoria reading the map.... not one of her strengths....

As we were leaving Singapore the next day, but our flight didn't leave until early evening, we got a late check out and explored a little more around the hotel. There was a shopping centre right next to the Fairmont, and like Hong-Kong, there is no lack of shopping opportunities. On our map, the list of shopping areas was longer than the list of 'attractions to see', which confirms that! As our luggage allowance is somewhat restricted (by the airline cut offs AND Robert's dislike for shopping...), we (Victoria) didn't buy anything.

In the afternoon we were off to the airport for another Tiger Airways flight that would take us to Phuket, Thailand. We think we 'deserve' a beachy holiday.... Oh, the stress of travelling....... Life is hard! :)

Blog revived! Hong Kong here we come

Victoria & Robert — Sat, 13 Feb 2010 00:00:00 GMT

View over Hong Kong from the Peak

Yes, we are still alive after an almost two months break in blogging!

Lots of stuff have happened since we wrote last time which was right before we left Canada to go to Europe. This will give you a short synopsis of where we went after we departured Halifax:

Our first flight went to Iceland and Reykjavik. We stayed a week there and had a great time that included seeing the elusive northern lights, ride on Icelandic horses and getting slightly lost in the wilderness. We hope to be able to write a little more about our experiences on Iceland, so please check back soon as the entry will be added to the blog.

We left Iceland and flew straight to Sweden and Stockholm. Real winter weather greeted us and the two weeks we spent visiting Victoria's friends and relatives were quite cold and snowy. Christmas eve was celebrated Swedish style (complete with pickled herring, meatballs and Christmas ham) at Victoria's parents and the next morning we left for England just in time to make it to Christmas dinner at Robert's parents' house.

England was also quite chilly with some snow, so after a few weeks of travelling around the country to visit some of Robert's friends, we decided to spend a week in a warmer place. A week in Portugal in the Algarve region was warmer but a little rainy.

Back in England we soon left for another couple of weeks in Sweden before finalizing our travel plans for the Far East and Oceania. On Wednesday last week we left cold Europe for Asia as we boarded the plane destined for Asia. That takes us up to current time so here we go; blog is revived and we are in Hong Kong!

The thought of a 12 hour flight from London Heathrow is not really that exciting but we were off to a great start as we checked in and were told that Economy Plus, the class we had booked was full so they had to put us in Upper Class. Nice! White table cloths, three course dinner, and the best of all: comfy chairs that converted into flat beds! It is easy to understand why it's so hard to go back to economy after such a nice experience.

We landed in Hong Kong early evening and it was warm and humid. Around 25C which was a stark contrast to the -18C in Sweden. We made it safely to our hotel in Kowloon which is very nice. The whole city is decorated for Chinese New Year so lots of red lantens, flowers and red envelopes everywhere. Very pretty!

After a first sleepless night thanks to severe jetlag, we staggered out to explore the surroundings. There is a large flower market right outside the hotel and everybody is buying flowers for the New Year celebrations. It was a little of a clastrophobic experience to try to get through on the street. Robert was afraid he would lose Victoria in the sea of people. "Has anybody seen an Asian girl?" "She has black hair, brown eyes?" "No?"

Flower market. A little nuts!

Victoria checking out the local market. Feather bra anyone????

We spent the day somewhat aimlessly wandering around. We had this idea of getting tourist visas for China since we thought we might want to pop over to the mainland. With New Year coming up the visa office would be close for almost a week so today was the only day we could get them in order to pick them up before the weekend. After realizing that getting the visas through a travel agency is a complete rip off, we headed to the actual visa office itself. We made it there with five minutes to spare and were told that the visas could be picked up the next day. Instead of paying over $4000 HKD at the travel agency, going straight to the source 'only' cost us $1100.

The next day was also a bit of a daze since we still had severe jetlag and woke up at 3am unable to sleep any longer. We went back to the visa office to pick up our visas and that was an adventure in itself. We had to be there by 5pm in order to get them before the office closed for the long weekend. If we didn't make it we would be without passports until Wednesday next week so it was crucial to get there in time. Of course everything that could go wrong went wrong..... We took the train and thought we had set off with plenty of time to spare but when we arrived at the right station we only had 25 minutes left. Fifteen minutes to five we got to the visa office where they told us that we could only pay for the visas with cash. So off in a hurry to an ATM only to realize that Robert's credit card had been blocked since we have travelled in so many different countries. We used Victoria's cell phone (cost a fortune) to phone Robert's bank in the U.K who didn't really see the seriousness in our demand to have the block lifted right away. After almost having a heart attack we were able to get the cash and sprinted back to the visa office. Two minutes to five we got there to find that the staff had started to lock up the place. Thank goodness they were kind enough to let us in. But we were told that if we had been one minute later we would have had to come back next week! Phew!!!!!!

In the evening we met up with a friend of Robert who was very kind and took us to a really nice dinner. A few hours later and completely stuffed on delicious duck, fish, shrimp and dumplings, we headed to the Peak to have a nice panoramic look of Hong Kong. The weather had overnight changed from a warm and balmy 25C to about 13C so it was felt freezing when the night was falling.

Robert and our evening host David!

Both of us!

We spent the next day doing some more wandering around, visiting the zoo and a park in central Hong-Kong. The weather was still a bit chilly with a light misty rain.

Robert in the park

Our last full day in Hong-Kong we slept in and then went to see all the fancy hotels such as the Peninsula, the Conrad, Sheraton etc. Hong-Kong is definitely a place for anybody with lots of money!!!! We splurged with afternoon tea at the Conrad and Victoria went for a record in eating the most. Two plates of food, one bowl of congee, two plates of dessert later and in complete food coma, we took a cab back to the hotel for a nap and digestion.

Since it was Chinese New Year we definitely didn't want to miss the New Year parade so we headed out later in the evening. The parade was spectacular. Very well organized and lots of fun! We took lots of pictures and since they haven't been downloaded from the camera yet, please check back later as they will be added.

Red lanterns

We are now at the airport and waiting for our flight to Singapore where we will spend three days before heading to Thailand. More adventures await!

Last days in Canada

Victoria & Robert — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:00:00 GMT

We have reached our final destination in Canada!

Victoria and the fisherman

As this entry is being written, we are sitting in an ocean front beach cottage overlooking the Atlantic sea. We have now reached Halifax and for the past week, we have been renting this little place close to Peggy's Cove outside Halifax. It is absolutely beautiful, even during winter storms in November/December (!) and a perfect way to end our journey across this continent. Three months ago we were looking out over the Pacific ocean, and now we are looking at the Atlantic sea.

Waves!

When we arrived in Halifax we stayed a couple of nights downtown to get ourselves sorted out. Since we will be leaving for Europe from here, there are a few things we needed to arrange before we get on that plane. The most important thing was the car. The 18 year old Toyota Landcruiser has been our home and our transportation for the past three months. It has taken us up north and across the country so we both had a special attachment to this veichle. We had discussed different options which included storing it in Halifax, shipping it back to Vancouver, shipping it to Europe etc. etc. In the end, and after all, we did decide to sell it to spare ourselves the headache of arranging for shipping and/or storage so we spent a few days advertising it online and in the news paper. It turned out to be a very popular car and we ended up selling it to the first guy who came to take a look. A huge relief but it was with certain sadness we saw the Landcruiser go...

The next administrative task on hand was to decide what to do with everything we had brought with us but couldn't take with us across to Europe. We had brought our camping gear also on this part of the trip but ended up not camping a single night, so somehow we needed to ship that gear back to Vancouver. A friend in Vancouver was kind enough to agree to recieving and storing our stuff until we come back, so a trip to the post office and three boxes later we are now down to the things that we will be bringing with us on the plane tomorrow!

The oceanside cottage we found is perfect for the last few days here. We have our own kitchen and the windows overlook St. Margret's Bay and famous Peggy's cove is only 3 kilometers up the road. We found the local fish market and have been feasting on lobster a couple of times! We've also bought some smoked mackerel which was delicious!

The little house we rented outside Peggy's Cove

Lighthouse in Peggy's Cove

Harbour in Peggy's Cove

A couple of day trips have taken us back into Halifax where we visited the Citadel and the Historic Properties. The day we went to the Citadel was the Christmas market with child friendly activities so we ended up in a crowd of families with kids and even saw Santa!!! Robert got told off by an employee for leaning too far over the side of the citadel. We thought that was quite funny; 44 year old gets yelled like a kid doing something bad!

One day we drove out to Mahone Bay and Lunenburg which are cute old communities along the south shore. Mahone Bay also had their annual Christmas market so we got into the holiday spirits by jingle bells and holiday decorations.

Colourful houses in Lunenburg

Robert and the green house

Tomorrow we are off to Iceland for a week and then on to Sweden. Iceland sounds very 'cool' and we are quite excited about the next part of our trip. It feels a little strange that this part of the trip is over but we have lots more to look forward to!

Quebec city, the Gaspesie penninsula and into the Maritimes

Victoria & Robert — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

From Kingston, we continued northeast to Quebec city. We stopped overnight in Trois Rivieres and arrived in Quebec city the following day. We decided to spend three nights to explore the atmosphere,food and some sights. The hotel we found on Expedia was located close to the old port in an 300 old building that was shared with a Subway restaurant! The mix of old and new in the city is striking but the balance between modernities and preserving the old is done quite nicely.

View over the harbour in Quebec city

Le chateau Frontenac

In Quebec city we explored good food and took a look at the main attractions such as the Citadel, the Market at the port. the Chateau Frontenac and we strolled down the cobblestoned streets. As Christmas is only about a month away, the streets and stores are starting to become decorated with lights, christmas trees and festive decorations and it all added to the feeling of winter and holiday.

The old part of Quebec

The citadel in Quebec city

Robert playing at the Citadel

It soon became evident that our focus after all wasn't perhaps the old buildings and the beautiful scenery but on FOOD! We planned our days around where to eat next and we experienced some wonderful french food from onion soup to rabbit! After being on the road for so long, and after having stopped at most Tim Hortons restaurants along the way between Vancouver and Quebec, REAL french onion soup (not Timmy's version!) tasted soooo good!!!

Our plan leaving Quebec city was to drive around the Gaspesie penninsula which follows the south side of the St Lawrence river and wraps around the river mouth down to the Maritime province of New Brunswick. The region was rated on of the 50 places to see in a lifetime by National Geographic, so we jumped on the opportunity to take a look!

Victoria and the sea

As we already had learned, but which became even more evident during this part of the trip is that we are not travelling during tourist season which has its advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that there is never any problem to find a hotel or motel that has room available and we rarely book ahead unless we are going to a bigger city. The other side of the coin is that while the hotels might have space, it is dependent on if they are OPEN! In the Gaspesie, we experienced, more than anywhere else, that while there were really nice places to stay, cute roadside cafes and restaurants and interesting shops, they are often closed for the season! More than once did we plan on having lunch at a nice little fish restaurant and ended up yet again at... Tim Hortons because everything was closed. Thank goodness for Tim Hortons!!!

On of our stops in the Gaspesie was Gaspe which is a small but year round open (!!!) town right on the Atlantic sea. The town celebrated its 475th anniversary in 2009 since it was 475 years ago that French explorer Jacques Cartier came ashore and 'claimed' the land by putting a big white cross in the ground.

Victoria and a fishing boat

The journey continued from Gaspesie and soon enough we entered into New Brunswick. Perhaps it was the weather, perhaps the time of the year. New Brunnswick might be a lovely place in the summer, but in mid November with pouring rain, it is not! We only spent one night in the small, industrial town of Dalhousie (reminded Victoria about the industrial area of Eskilstuna) before heading off towards Moncton and the Confederation bridge which connects Prince Edward Island with New Brunswick.

We reached the bridge when it was already dark so unfortunately we didn't see much of it. It is 13 kilometer long and is apparently the "world's longest bridge over icy water".
Once on the island we drove to Charlottetown which is the capital and the major city in this island province.

We found a very nice inn and decided to stay a few nights. P.I island is know for its seafood and especially mussels and clams so we planned on getting a taste of that. The town also (to Robert's delight) has a number of pubs and microbreweries. We also realized most of the downtown area has one way streets. We discovered that by driving down the street and Robert was complaining that everytime he came to an intersection he wasn't sure if he had to stop because he couldn't see any stop signs. It turned out that it would be unnecessary to put the stop signs facing the opposite direction on a one way street. It was quite surprising that 1. we didn't get into an accident. 2. nobody (not even the cars we met on the street) honked or yelled at us for being silly west coast drivers driving against traffic on one way streets! Well, lesson learned and nobody was harmed!

The plan is to go for a small drive around the island today before heading off P.E.I and into Nova Scotia. There is a 190 km loop around the island that is recommended in our tour book that goes through the area where the author of famous books about Anne from Green Gables lived. It could be worth a visit!

P.S Photos will come shortly!!!!! Please check back soon.

An Ontario favourite

Victoria & Robert — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

The trip is continuing and from Ottawa our next destination was Kingston. (the reason why this entry is tagged as 'ottawa' is that for some strange reason, 'Kingston' does not come up as a recognized city on Blogabond so it can't pin point the location)

Kingston is located slightly southwest of Ottawa just on the border to the U.S. Robert had been here a few years ago and had good memories of the city but for Victoria it was the first time. Kingston did not disappoint as we found the city wonderfully cute, old, historic and beautiful. As Kingston actually used to be the capital of Canada before the capital was moved to alternate betwen Montreal and Toronto and finally queen Victoria decided that the permanent location would be Ottawa, the town has lots of old historic buildings and landmarks. We walked past the house that used to be the residence of Canada's first prime minister sir John A MacDonald and saw many other beautiful buildings, houses and churches. The weather was beautiful which made the town even more appealing!

We stayed two nights at an inn in a really nice old building, walking distance from the city centre. Our first evening, we explored Kingston's pub life and found a great pub which according to Robert served the best beer he has had so far in Canada. That's no insignificant compliment coming from a guy who loves his beer!

The brewery even had their own car in front.

The following day the sun was shining and we went on to see more of Kingston. We strolled down to the harbour where we found an old locomotive in front of which Robert had to pose:

The view of the docks and the water was amazing:

We went inside the big cathedral which had a nice ceiling:

Most museums were closed for the season, but since Robert has a certain interest for the military and Kingston is the home to the Royal Military College of Canada, we drove out to take a look. Completely open to the public, we were able to walk around on the area and the old buildings which were beautiful. We kind of expected somebody to tell us to keep out, but it seemed to be a regular tourist attraction and nobody said a word about the two strangers strolling around. A guy even asked us for directions as if we looked like we knew what we were doing!!!

Robert was happy to find a tank that he could climb up on (yes, there was a sign saying 'no climbing' but that just made it so much more exciting!)

Yes, Kingston definitely made a good impression on us and we both agree that it's probably the nicest city in Ontario we've seen! We will now head towards Quebec city for more historic sightseeing and hopefully some good food!

Ottawa part II

Victoria & Robert — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

So after over a week's silence, the next blog entry is written from.... Ottawa!!!!
Readers of our blog probably wonder where we went and if we have been hibernating in Ottawa for the past ten days. Well, that is almost true, but with a twist.

After we left Ottawa we headed to Montreal for three days. Montreal is only about two hours drive from Ottawa. Much closer than we had realized. Both of us have been to Montreal before, so we knew that we wanted to stay in the old part of town where you can walk down the cobblestone streets and feel like you take a step back in time. We decided to 'splurge' a little and stayed at a very nice hotel right by Place d'Armes. In fact, the hotel was even called 'Place d'Armes'.

The second day was grey and rainy so we decided to go to a museum or do some kind of indoor activity. We went to the 'Biodome' which is an exhibition about eco systems of the world. It was pretty interesting and well done with sections on the tropics (complete with monkeys, exotic birds, anacondas and crocodiles), the arctic (penguins and other funny looking birds), the Ontario nature (otters, ducks and other Canadian animals) and Madagascar (LEMURS!!!).

That evening we went for dinner in the Latin Quarters and unfortunately picked a not so great restaurant among hundreds of excellent ones! Oh well, at least the atmosphere was nice and festive. It was October 31 which means Halloween in North America. Various creative and funny costumes were on display on the sidewalk as people were on their way to different Halloween parties.

Unfortunately, our visit to Montreal became very somber when Robert found out that a friend of his had died in an accident in Africa. Even though the following day was beautiful, and we went for a nice walk, we decided to head back to Ottawa the following day as Robert had decided to travel to Tanzania for the funeral and his flight was leaving from Toronto which is closer to Ottawa than to Montreal. We decided that Victoria would stay with her friend Tony who had offered us to come and stay with him next time we visited Ottawa. He probably didn't think we would be back so soon....

Robert flew to Tanzania that Wednesday and Victoria settled back in Ottawa. Robert will write a bit about his trip in a separate entry to the blog. Victoria spent her time reading, exploring more of Ottawa; swimming, running and going for a hike in Gatineau Park.

After Robert's five day trip (3 days of travel, two days of actually being in Tanzania), he returned last night completely dazed and confused, jetlagged and exhausted and we are using today to rest before we will continue our travels tomorrow. The plan is to go to Kingston which is located slightly south of Ottawa and then continue back into Quebec and towards the Maritimes.

In Canada's capital

Victoria & Robert — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

We are now in the capital of Canada: Ottawa!

We arrived three days ago and our plan was to stay two nights, but we liked it so much we decided to stay an extra night!

Night at Parliament Hill

The experience of Ottawa has far exceeded both our expectations. Perhaps that's because we actually didn't think much about what the city could be like before we arrived here. Yes, it is the capital and yes, we knew that there would be Parliament Hill, government buildings and museums, but beyond that, we simply didn't know much about the city.

To our surprise we find the city very nice. Perhaps it's because it has a very distinct European feel to it and maybe that stirs emotions of familiarity in both of us? Or perhaps it is the blend of old buildings, nice restuarants, the mix of French and English and a very welcoming atmosphere? Or perhaps, and probably most likely, it is a combination of all those things!

We have walked around; visited Parliament Hill, been on a tour, eaten in very nice restuarants, been to the War Museum, met up with a friend to Victoria and much more.

When we arrived at our hotel and checked in, Robert left the car at the curb. While we were standing at reception we saw a parking attendant approach our car. Robert leaped out to avoid getting a ticket, but ready to fight if she had already given him one. There is something about Robert and parking tickets that just do not go together. Sure, nobody likes to get a ticket, but Robert for some reason has stronger than usual negative feelings against parking attendants (and law enforcement in general).

The poor parking attendent was a lady and she handed him a ticket when he approached her. Victoria, from observing from the hotel reception could see the smoke coming out of Robert's ears and thought that 'this is definitely not a good start on our stay in Ottawa...' However, something strange happened after that. Robert's body language displayed that he was upset... but suddenly he reached out and gave the lady a hug!!!! Victoria thought that this might be it.. he has gone completely mad over the rage of a ticket... or he is trying to strangle the poor lady.... It turned out that the parking lady had seen him coming out of the hotel but since she had started to issue the ticket she just finished it by entering $0 where the amount of the fine is usually displayed! Thank goodness!!!

After the little 'incident' that ended well, everything else has been very pleasant. Even though it is almost November and rainy and grey, the city has still managed to make a good impression on us. We have wandered down to Byward Market with excellent resturants and enjoyed good food, wine and desserts! Our visit to Parliament Hill was interesting and informative. Victoria got to see the centre of power in the capital for the first time as a fairly recent Canadian citizen and we went on a good and informative tour of the government building. Unfortunately we didn't get to see the House of Commons and watch the question period with the Prime Minister as they were full for the day. Apparently you can get in by writing to your MP, but we didn't know that beforehand, and Victoria was very embarrassed admitting she isn't even sure who her MP is.....

Parliament buildings

The second day we went to the War museum which was excellent and LARGE. After four hours we started to skip sections to finish. It was very well done and the exhibitions were excellent. It was also very empty. Not many tourists at all which we later understood was due to the fact that part of the museum staff was on strike and encouraged the public not to visit the museum and to not to cross the picket line. Somehow we missed that so we'll just claim ignorance...

Victoria got her swimming itch satisfied by being invited by an old swimming friend of hers from British Columbia who now lives (and swims) in Ottawa. An early 6:30am start and 3,000 meters of really hard swimming has satisfied the swimming need for the next few days!

Victoria and the Rideau Canal

In all, it's been four very good days and we are now off to Montreal!

Five provinces, three time zones and lots of highway

Victoria & Robert — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Canada is a LARGE country!!!! We have now been driving for a week since we left Vancouver last Friday and we are about mid way from the Pacific Ocean to the east coast and the Atlantic Sea.
Mind you, while we have been driving (actually, Robert has been doing all the driving) for a solid six hours per day, we are not in a super rush to make it to the other end as fast as possible. We do try to stop in places we pass through; at least for a coffee or a stroll down the main street. The plan, however, is to get through 'the middle bit' in a good steady pace and then spend more time exploring the eastern part of Ontario, Quebec and the Atlantic Canada (Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick and Newfoundland & Labrador). In the provinces of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba, it is as mentioned before, very FLAT. Here is a picture to illustrate just about how flat......

FLAT prarie landscape

So in seven days we have passed through five provinces (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and entered into Ontario) and adjusted our clocks from Pacific Standard Time to Mountain Time to Central Time and now in Ontario we will shortly change them again to Eastern Standard Time. Since our last blog entry we have been through Moose Jaw (Victoria had to stop since she has a couple of friends from there), Regina, Winnipeg(will tell you more about this experience in a minute), Kenora and finally Dryden from where this entry is being written.

Regina is the capital of Saskatchewan and I'm sure there are interesting things to look at. However, we drove in to town late at night and as we have learned by now; the road that leads into a city in Canada looks pretty much the same anywhere with fast food resturants, gas stations and standard hotel chains such as the Travelodge, Super 8, Comfort Inn etc. After some driving around we ended up at the Howard-Johnston.

It is probably worth a paragraph or two in this blog to talk about accomodations. After almost two month on the road, we have seen a variety of motels, hotels, inns and B&Bs. The standard, quality and expectations are usually (but not always) correlated to the price you pay and while we are not on a backpackers' budget, we've been trying to be a little thrify if the place is just somewhere to rest our heads before continuing driving the next day. On occasion we have 'splurged' a little when we find a cute town or place but for this driving portion of the trip, our motto is 'clean and cheap'.

The Howard-Johnston in Regina was 'clean and cheap', but also completely and utterly disorganized. The hotel was under renovations which made part of it look like a construction site and the drilling into walls (it felt like our heads) started somewhere around 7am in the morning. But the alarming part was the staff of the hotel. There were two girls working the front desk and Victoria is usually a very patient customer who rarely complains, but after the check-in procedure took almost half an hour and when we asked for directions and the girls couldn't even point out on a city map where the hotel was located, even Victoria had problems hiding her frustration. That incident, plus some smaller ones, made us not feeling too sad to leave Regina. Sadly so, as the city probably has so much more to offer than the experience of incompetent hotel staff.

Next stop for the evening was Winnipeg, Manitoba. The city is large and we ended up in the middle of downtown. Again, trying to be.. hmm... 'frugal', we found a hotel that looked fantastic on the outside, located in a beautiful building from 1914; the Marlbourough. The rate of a hotel room (about half of the Radisson across the street), should have given us a hint though..... The hotel had a pool, gym, restaurant and breakfast was included in the price which sounded great. Still.... the price should have been the clue....
We were woken up several times during the middle of the night by people in the hallway who after getting completely drunk had forgotten which hotel room they belonged to and decided to let the entire hotel know that they were lost. Strange characters were snooping around the hotel property and Victoria felt so uncomfortable she turned around and went back to the room after an attempt to go to the convenience store. The security guy at the hotel wore a bullet proof west and the place was just seedy.

The next morning we decided to skip the free breakfast in fear of what the restaurant would look like. We decided to give Winnipeg another chance by driving to the Forks which we had heard was a nice part of town. The Forks looks a little bit like Granville island in Vancouver with an open market housed in an old warehouse. It was quite charming and nice and we had breakfast there before going for a walk along the river and crossing over to the French part via Provencher Bridge which is an interesting masterpiece of architecture and engineering.

Robert and the bridge

Provencher Bridge

Leaving Winnipeg behind us, we soon entered into Ontario and drove through the town of Kenora which was a nice little place on a lake. Not being able to find Robert a proper pub, we continued to Dryden where we spent the night before heading towards Thunder Bay.