Scuba Thailand (Koh Tao)

We've been here nearly a week now and I've completed my Advanced Open Water Diver's license and Patti has completed her Open Water Diver (with deep certificate) and we can now dive together. We have a big full day trip planned to "Sail Rock" on the 31st, this is considered the best dive spot in the gulf of Thailand. We had a great dive today near the island and saw bull sharks, schools of barracuda, grouper, stingrays and so much more. If Sail rock lives up to the diving hype it has been getting then this island paradise should only get better. I will have racked up 11 dives here and Patti 7 when we finally leave if we ever do.

Love you all

Colin and Patti

Merry Christmas to All!

We know it's two days late but Merry Christmas to everyone. It is especially hard right now to be away from home and we miss friends and family terribly. We've made the best of Christmas by buying a small (about 10cm) Christmas tree, wreath and fake presents (similar scale to the tree) to "season" up our present home in Thailand. Photos will be posted shortly on the photo site.
In front of our beach bungalow, Christmas eve.
Pint sized tree and similar sized presents.

Spoiled in Bangkok

After 1 month of 200 rupee a night rooms in India (on average), we were spoiled by a 5 star hotel in Bangkok. We have Micheal to thank for this little gift and it did not disappoint; king sized bed, swimming pool, incredible buffet breakfast, shower the size of our rooms in India, great views and air conditioning. I 'm not sure how we can return to our budget accommodations.
Thanks Mike

Goodbye to good friends

We've left India and arrived in Thailand and what a relief to arrive in a relaxed clean country. I'm not sure many people would call Bangkok relaxed but compared to Indian it feels asleep. There is so much to reflect on from a great country, but more importantly we want to say thanks the great travel partners we had.

We met Celia and Dave on the night train from Gorakphur to Varanasi and spent three nights in Varanasi with them and then met up again in Udaipur, camel trekked in Jaisalmer and drank in Delhi. We are so glad to have met these Vancouverites and had the pleasure of also enjoying the greatest birds of paradise display ever seen in India.
Dave and Celia in the desert and yes that is Dave's plumbers crack.

Jenny Gardner....Ladies and Gentlemen (applause). We met Jenny in Tanzania and travelled with her (whining and snorting) all the to Cape Town and then on to India. It was our great pleasure to have her along as she provided endless entertainment. Jenny also provided a break from ourselves and prevented a potential slip into marital insanity.
Jenny after her rabies vaccine in the Pushkar Government Hospital

Last night out in Connaught place.

Thanks and we can't wait to see you all again.

Air India: Whisky, Bollywood and non-stop Celine Dion. Good thing there were barf bags.

We had the distinct pleasure of flying Indian Airways, well actually Air India. We still aren't sure which airline we were supposed to be on since our tickets said Indian Airways but we ended up on an Air India flight. Whatever airline we were or weren't supposed to fly with, it sure didn't disappoint. The food (Indian curries) was some of the best airline food I've ever had and also pretty good compared to the dishes we've had while travelling in India. It didn't stop there. The unlimited single malt on the drink cart which showed up regularly, not like Air Canada's one drink service, probably made the in flight entertainment even better. Entertainment, which was provided by very high tech seat back T.V featured lots of Bollywood including a great hindy comedy with cameos from Denise Richards and Sylvester Stallone. This included some great footage of him kicking some Indian ass and it was all set in The United States. However great the Stallone and Richards movie was, it had nothing on the all Celine Dion music video channel. Considering it appears that Celine only had about 10-12 music videos they all played at least 7-8 times. The worst part was that a large amount of people on the plane were definitely watching non-stop repeat Celine....Barf.I hope everyone gets the chance to ride the Indian airways.

WE HAVE PASSPORTS!!

Good news everyone!! We have Canadian Passports again! After a stressful 3 weeks or so, we obtained our new Canadian passports. For those who don't know, we filled up our old passports and didn't have room for any new visas. So we applied for new ones.
It has been quite a trial going through this in India. When we first went into the Canadian Embassy here in Delhi, we were told 'no worries about getting your new passport before you leave...sure it says on this sign here that it takes 15 days to process but we are 99.9% sure you'll have them back in 10 working days'. Well, 10 working days later we arrived at the embassy to hear 'oh, your passports are in the air flying from Paris to Delhi...we are 99.9% sure they will PROBABLY be here on Friday...but maybe you should look into changing your flight on Sunday'. I didn't want to remind the lady that she was 99.9% sure we'd get them on Wednesday. Pissing this lady off didn't seem like a good idea since she controlled whether or not we could leave the country this weekend. This morning, Friday the 18th (12 working days later), we got our new passports!! Thank goodness!
While we didn't have a passport we almost got kicked out of several guesthouses. The Indians are very firm about seeing your passports on arrival to the hotel. Even with all of our photocopies it was hard to convince them we weren't some sort of con-artist or terrorist. For the last hotel, we had to have the Canadian Embassy call the guesthouse man.

Anyway, long story short....we have our passports and we can leave peacefully to Thailand!!

Attari Border Crossing

Hey all! Just like the blog below says, Amritsar was amazing! Nothing dissapointed there. One highlight, on top of the Golden Temple, was the Attari Border Closing Ceremony.

Every day at the border crossing between Pakistan and India closes at around 5ish. Each day THOUSANDS of people go to the border at this time to watch the hilarious closing of the border. Upon arrival at the border crossing, I felt like I was entering a sporting event. People were singing, cheering, waving flags and acting very patriotically. After a quick frisk and a dodgy metal detector, we entered the grandstand seating to watch the spectacle. Before it began, women were dancing in the streets to the Indian techno playing over the loud speakers. When the music stopped, a man at a microphone began to crank up the crowd. He started some wild chanting of HINDUSTAN!! And some more Hindi cheers. I waved my 5rupee plastic Indian flag with all my energy. On the Pakistani side, they also had grandstands (women seated separately from the men) and a head cheerleading male to get them all excited.
Finally it was time for the border guards to do their thing. There was a quick screaming match between the Indian and the Pakistan side. This involved an Indian guard yelling into a microphone while a Pakistani guard yelled into his microphone and they competed to see who could scream for the longest time. No matter who won both sides cheered. Then guards marched towards the gate in a way I can only describe by saying they looked like they belonged to the Ministry of Silly Walks. We were in stitches. It was one of the funniest/strangest things I have ever seen. About 5 guards took their turns walking in their 'silly walk' fashion towards the gate, directly at a silly walking Pakistani. Then they posed at the gate and started at their opposition. This part of the ceremony reminded me of when 2 male animals or birds are competing for a mating partner....who has the puffiest feathers or the most extreme dance moves.

All in all, this was one of the strangest experiences of my life. My description does this event no justice for how odd it really is. The combination of the patriotic crowd acting like they are at the Superbowl and the Silly Walking guards (the most silly walks get the biggest cheers from the crowd) made this afternoon quite amazing. I apologize for the video quality...I was trying to scream along with the crowd and also trying to watch.

Honoured Guests at the Goldern Temple

After a 6 hr bus ride, then a 10hr night train and another 2 hr train (all lower class) we arrived in the Punjabi town of Amritsar. Amritsar is famous for the Golden Temple, which is the holiest shrine of the Sikh religion. The is by far the greatest religious sight I've ever visited. It's estimated that there are tens of thousands of pilgrims that visit daily. The most amazing part is that every visitor (Sikh or not) is welcome to stay for free in the guest house and eat for free. We were fortunate to dine several times with at least a couple of thousand pilgrims. It is truly amazing feeling to be so warmly welcomed and then handed fresh curry and chapati while sitting on the floor with thousands of other people. Of the three days we spent in Amritsar we visited the Golden Temple 3 times each day.

The Golden Temple is located inside the Temple complex in the middle of the holy tank. The temple is covered in 750kg of gold and holy men are reading prayers all day from inside, which is broadcast to the entire complex. There are more photos on our picasa page follow the link in the upper right.
This picture was taken during one of our meals with Hindu, Sikh and anyone else wishing to have a meal. The meal room emptied and filled every 10min with a new group 24/7. Outside the temple volunteers cut vegetables and cleaned plates endlessly.

Turning up the heat in Udaipur

After leaving Delhi we've since been to Pushkar and now just spent 4 great days in Udaipur in central Rajasthan. We signed up last night for a cooking class with Shashi at her home below the Sunrise restaurant. It ran from 6 to 11pm and we cooked curries, pakora, naan, chapati and parantha plus got info on all kinds of other aspects of Indian cooking and life. This has been by far another highlight in India. Hopefully we can reproduce these dishes at home, as long as we can find the ingredients in Sudbury.

Potato, onion and veg pakora (with chillies) and fresh dips.

After we couldn't eat another bite we tried our hardest to get the family to eat the left overs but they only laughted and said it wasn't spicy enough so wasn't worth eating.

Colin, Shashi, Patti and Jenny post eating about 11 pm.

Agra and The Taj Mahal

We visited Agra to see the Taj Mahal before going to Delhi to get new passports so this is out of order however Agra deserves some comment.

We met lots of travellers who downplayed Agra and the Taj Mahal citing too many people and over priced entry. It did cost 700 rupees ($16) per person, which is outrageous compared to virtually any other sight in India and there were lots of tourists. That being said there is something almost fairy tale about this building, it is much larger and more beautifull than any photo I've ever seen and the crowds were swallowed up by the imense size of theTaj grounds.


Truly beautiful

Passport-less in India

Under-estimating the amount of space the greedy African border officials needed for visas and stamps we no longer have enough space for Visas in the up-coming countries we hope to visit. The result was a quick jaunt aboard the lowest class rail available to the Canadian Embassy in New Delhi (due to the short notice) .

Why sit in the seats when the luggae rack will do (really getting to know India now)

As hard as I try I can't quite blend in with the locals, next step is an orange hat.

If all goes well we should have new passports in 2.5 weeks when we pass back through Delhi on the way to Thailand. A great thanks to the extra freindly staff at the Canadian Embassy.

Cheers

Kama Sutra in Khajuraho

Kharjuraho is a welcome break from busy Varanasi. This small town has an incredible number of hindu temples that are covered in the most ornate and intricate stone carvings. These carvings depict largely gods and various religious scenes, but there is also a large amount of Kama Sutra positions. Some are very simple others are acrobatic feats involving multiple people and sometimes horses or mythical creatures. One of the most famous as shown in the picture below involves a head stand and four people.
Us imitating the same positions and almost getting caught by the guards.

Amazing place, off to Agra to see the Taj Mahal today.

Colin and Patti

Arriving in India!!!!

We'll we've only been in India for 4 days now and lots has happened: I've had delhi belly; Colin has it in reverse; we've seen several street animals including, rats (1 ran right under our table while eating dinner), goats (a few are in human clothes), cows, chickens, buffaloes, and dogs; we've had cockroaches in our bedrooms and the list goes on and on.

Right now we are in Varansi. This is a very important pilgrimage city for the Hindu people and they all wish to be cremated on the ghats running alongside the holy river, Ganges. In two spots along the river, they cremate bodies 24 hours a day. It is a powerful sight. All around the holy sites there are touts trying to sell us all kinds of things. Some are just children. Tomorrow we head off to Khajuraho. This city is renowned for its kama sutra temple carvings. Can't wait! Some are life size!

The food has been great so far. We've tried lots of Indian dishes, our favourites include lots of paneer (unfermented cheese). When we are tired of the Indian, there are no shortage of Western options for all the tourists. We've also tried some Indian sweets. They are all sticky with lots of sugar but they are soooo good! Perhaps we will gain weight with all this food but we might not. Since Varansi is so holy, no menus have beers on them. A restaurant owner bought us some from a shop the other night and delivered them in a paper bag!! We've heard it may not be such a hassle in other towns. We hope not because Kingkisher is pretty tasty!!

Miss you all!!!

Patti & Colin

Big Mountains!

We just finished an 18 day trek around the Anipurna Range in the central Nepali Himalayas and it was incredible. The mountains are bigger than we could imagine. It's something when you are standing at 5400m and the mountains are still towering over you! Here are a couple of photos, we will create some albums on the Picasa page soon.

The view from our teahouse in Manang Village at night.

After a 5:00am departure from high camp we headed for Thorung La pass through the snow.

After 3 hrs hiking we reached the world's "Largest Mountain Pass" still not sure what that means but it was beautiful. In the photo is Colin, Patti, Nim (guide) and Rham (porter) we couldn't have made without either of those two.
Day 16 or so, another early morning walk to the top of Poon Hill to see the sunrise over the mountain range.

Indian Visa Granted

It took three different trips over 5 days to the embassy but the Indians will allow us to enter their country! I hope this isn't foreshadowing any problems getting Chinese, Mongolian or Russian visas. Fingers crossed.

Talk to you all in 18 days or so.

C and P

ANNAPURNA CIRCUIT! Talk to you all in 18 days...or more.

Colin and I are off on an 18 day trek around the stunning Annapurna Mountain Range.
I doubt there will be any internet in the mountain villages so this will be it for a while.
Kathmandu has been great. The air has been dirty and the streets are chaotic but the city has a charm. The people here are very friendly and the Nepalese living in the mountains are supposed to be some of the nicest people in the world. We can't wait.
We've added a few photos to our photo website. Check them out.
Keep in touch, even though we can't.
Wish us luck and no altitude sickness!

Kathmandu

We've arrived unscathed into Kathmandu, Nepal. This city is so much different than everywhere we have been so far. There are people EVERYWHERE. It is so densely populated and it seems everyone is out in the streets non-stop. The taxis, motorcycles and minibuses honk their horns 24/7. I guess it is a good glimpse of what is to come for the next several months. India will probably blow this place away, in terms of chaos.

We went on an Everest Fly-by flight and it was stunning. Saturday we leave for our big 18 day trek through the Annapurna Circuit. Wish us luck!! I'll be stocking up on tiger balm from the street vendors before we head out!!

Miss you all, keep in touch,

P & C

Leaving SA and into Swaziland and Mozambique

Hey all, Colin and I finally got some good internet time in. Surprisingly, we found the good internet in Swaziland. Right now we are staying in the lovely Ezulwini Valley for a few days. We've seen some traditional dancing and plan to purchase some of the lovely crafts but really we are using a lot of time now to get ready for the big move to Nepal/India. We only have 1.5 weeks in Africa left and it is getting sad. We've had a great time.
BUT, we still have those 1.5 weeks left to have a great time. A few more nights in Swaziland and then on to the Mozambique beaches, then 4x4ing into Kruger National Park and the Blyde River Canyon...then fly to Kathmandu!! LOOK OUT!

Keep in touch all and we've posted a ton of new pictures. Basically, we haven't put any albums up from Africa and now there are a whole bunch. ENJOY!!! We've enjoyed going back through them all.

Bunny Chow = Best South African Invention EVER!!!

What is Bunny Chow? It is a delightful dish made by taking half a loaf of white bread and scooping out the insides to make a deep bowl/cup. Then you fill in the hole with your favourite curry filling, then you put the bread insides back on top and if you like, you can have more curry poured on top of the bready/curry-y concoction. Then you eat it with your hands.

This was available in Cape Town but we waited until Durban to get some at the place they originated: Patel's Vegetarian Refreshment Stand. Around town they are commonly referred to as 'bunnies' and seem to be available at EVERY fast food/kebap stand.

Check it out!!

They were available in S, M, L and half loaf. Since we assumed it was usually served as a half loaf, based on descriptions of what it was, Colin ordered 'half loaf'. All of the locals in the place stop and looked up at us at the same time. A friendly Indian couple behind us then told us they each ordered smalls. At this point, Colin and I decided to share the half loaf. We were sooooo full!!!

Wonderful Lesotho

We ventured into the lovely Lesotho last week. For a country completely surrounded by South Africa, it couldn't be more unique. We expected it to be quick similar to SA but the customs, appearance and personalities of the people were so different. Also, the landscape was amazing. We drove into the Drakensburg Mountains from the Lesotho side on some pretty hairy roads. We chose to take the '4x4 only' roads across the country and weren't quite sure if we were going to make it.

We spent some time pony trekking in the west and then drove through the mountains in the east. Our pony trekking guide was supposed to tell us about life in the hills and the Lesotho culture but he spent most of his time asking us how to become a Canadian citizen and if we could get him work there.


Our last night in Lesotho was spent at the top of the legendary Sani Pass. The guesthouse at the top has the self-proclaimed highest pub in Africa. It was sure nice having a pint or two after the crazy roads in this country. For example, it took us 7 hours to get to this pub and we only drove 200kms!!!


Check out our traditional Lesotho Hats!

SURFING SUPERSTARS!!!

Hi all, check it out! Colin and I are professional surfers now. No more mining for us. I know the photo only shows us posing with the boards but you'll have to take our word for it that we were AWESOME!!

We were in the lovely Chintsa West on the wild coast for our surfing lessons. It was beautiful there. In reality, Colin and I were happy if we even got slightly standing up on the board. By the end I was so tired, I just used my surf board as a boogie board and enjoyed riding the waves in on my belly.

Cape Town & The Wine Route!!!

Colin & I have been off the overland truck for a week now and we've continued having a blast.

After spending 5 days in Cape Town, we are freshly re-energized. Cape Town is an amazing place. The downtown is trendy and fun with all the usually big city stuff and the waterfront is picturesque and perfect. When walking around the city, you would never know there are crime problems. However, upon closer inspection, you notice the private security firms on every block, the security in every store, the gates which must be opened just to go into a clothing shop and the police on every other corner. To have this much security, they must have some problems. Rumour has it that they are trying to clean up their act before the world cup next year. The new stadium looks fantastic.
Colin and I made it out to a rugby game on Saturday also. We saw Western Province kick the Quingras butts. It was pouring rain and a lot of fun. I still don't understand all the rules but I was cheering loudly in the crowd.
Next we were off to wine country. In 1.5 days, Colin and I acquired 25 bottles of wine and we sampled 4x that many. It was soooo beautiful. We loved it and recommend Stellenbosch and the surrounding towns to everyone.

Now we are spending a night in Wilderness in the Wilderness. We've rented a 4x4 truck with a rooftop tent. Photos to come!
Alright, keep in touch all!! Miss you,
P

Cheetah Colin

We still love seeing all the wildlife in Africa but we are tired of photographing them. Now we act like the animals when we see them. It has brought a whole new level to our safari drives.

More Namibia

Only 8 days to go until the overland trip is done. Here are a couple of photos from Namibia:

Colin & Patti at Cape Cross, also known as the stinkiest place in all of Namibia. We saw thousands of cape fur seals. You can make them out in the background.

SPITZKOPPE! This was the beginning of the amazing Namibian scenery.

Colin's award winning photo of the starry sky in Spitzkoppe. GORGEOUS!Our anniversary! We spent it watching Cheetahs tear apart donkey meat. We also got to pet the cheetahs and their little cubby.

The Gods Must be Crazy!!

For those that haven't seen the movie we just lived it! A guided full cheek tour with the San bushmen in northern Namibia.

CHECK OUT THIS ASS!!

Okavango Delta

2 days poling in the Okavango Delta by traditional dugout canoe. Actually being poled around in a traditional dugout canoe.

I like this photo but please don't encourage Colin to keep this facial hair!

Photo Appologies

Internet has been, how do we say....dodgy in Africa. This has limited our abilities to upload photos. We also filled up the Picasa web page, we do plan on starting a new one once we have better internet. When we arrive in Cape Town (two weeks from now) we will spend a whole day working on photos.

Sorry again.

Livinstone Adrenaline

We made it to Bostwana yesterday after an adrenaline packed 3 days in Livingstone, Zambia. Day 1: swimming at the edge of of Victoria Falls, Day 2: Body Boarding the Zambezi instead of Rafting! and Day 3: 330ft Bungee off
Victoria Falls Bridge.

Here are some Rafting pics:

Us and our Guide enterring the first Class V rapid of the day known as the "Muncher"on the body boards. It was followed closely by "Gnashings Jaws of Death" another class V rapid.

Patti and our Guide in the "Muncher"

Colin enterring the muncher.

In the afternoon we got in the rafts which didn't provide any more protection. That's Colin hitting the water while Patti is somewhere below after we dumped in a rapid called "Mother".

Fun Fun Fun

ZANZIBAR!! And MALAWIAN PIG ROAST!!

We are a little behind with the blog due to some bad satellite internet in southern Tanzania and Malawi but here is a little update.
We ended the last portion of our overland trip with 3 days in Zanzibar. The water was the most beautiful turquoise colour and the beaches were endless. We rented the fancy motorcycle shown in the picture below and toured all around the island. We only got lost once!! To get back on track some local villagers showed us the way.

Our trusty Honda 250 dirt bike!!

Patti trying on some lipstick at the spice plantation. We can't remember the name of the spice but the local ladies wear it as lipstick.


The inside of a nutmeg nut!! Wild eh!?

MALAWI!!! Since we were devastated by missing the annual Clearwater Lake Pig Roast, we convinced our tour leader to roast us a pig on the shores of Lake Malawi. It was an amazing place and a tasty pig!!! Miss you guys and hope the pigger went off without a hitch.

THE PIG!!! NO WHERE NEAR AS BIG AS A CLEARWATER LAKE PIG!!!