Back to Canada

After our extra week in Europe, we finally made it!!! Canada is looking lovely and green and we couldn't be happier to be home.
Thanks to Mike P for picking us up at the airport and thanks to him and Janny for a wonderful first Canadian BBQ dinner and yummy cheesecake!
After TO, we drove down to St. Catharines and met our new nephew, Rowan. He is adorable. We also got to play with our little neice, Audrey. She is also a complete doll.

We are so happy to be home and can't wait to see everyone!!!

Thanks for following along, it has been quite a ride!

P & C

Round Two

Well the skies look good for tomorrows flight and as long as they stay that way we should be landing in Toronto at 12:15 local time.

We've had a good couple of days between Berlin and Frankfurt and we can see countless airplanes flying overhead so hopes are high.

Looking forward to seeing every one!!!

Colin and Patti

Arrived in Riga

Caught the train to Riga last night and now have a bus to Berlin tomorrow night for 24hrs. We are happy to be making progress across Europe considering the buses and trains are jammed to the wall.

That being said Riga is definitely a city we will be coming back to in the near future. Friendly people and an incredibly beautiful pedestrian friendly old city where ever thing is within walking distance. The Museum of Latvian Occupation was moving and it was nice to be in a museum that was easy to follow the flow of information, it has been awhile.

In short visit Latvia and Riga.

Bring on Germany

Stuck in Europe

Well, we were ready to catch the first of three flights from St Petersburg to Toronto via Frankfurt when the plume of volcanic ash started reeking havoc. Our flight from St Petersburg was cancelled the day before it was scheduled and now all flights in the continent are down and rail or bus are the only way.

We've been able to re-book our flight back to Canada to April 26 now we will start moving overland to Frankfurt. The word is that trains and buses are filling fast so this is likely not going to be as easy as train/bus travel typically is in Europe. We have an overnight train to Latvia tonight and then we will work the rest out day to day.

Just a little more adventure to come.

See you in a week, we hope.

Colin and Patti

Leningrad

We splashed out and took a first class compartment on the train from Moscow to St Petersburg and enjoyed every minute. We've been here two days now and have been blown away by the inner city's beauty. The architecture is incredible and literally every building in the city is eye-catching.
The old Singer sewing machine company's headquarters is one of the most impressive non-religious or government buildings in the city.
A look at the "Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood" from the canal. The most lavish example of Russian Orthodox churches in the country. The interior mosaics are on level with anything in Italy.

The Hermitage Museum which is likely Russia's most important art museum is beautiful on the outside but the interior is palatial. It did once house the Tsar families and was decorated to a standard that is fit for any king or queen.

We've spent a lot of time walking the streets, alleys and along the canals just looking and enjoying. This city is a walkers paradise which is easy on the wallet.

Only two nights to go in Russia then we fly home!

See you all soon.

Made it to Moscow

Despite only being able to take a shower with deodorant for 4 days and being cooped up in a small area with 40 to 50 other people who also can't clean themselves, the trans-siberian was a great experience.We have since settled into our hostel in Moscow and have begun exploring what the city has to offer. It is weird being back in western culture and paying western prices.

Count down is on to our return, 9 days.

Trans-Siberian Leg 3: Irkutsk to Moscow

Russian and ready!

Trans Mongolian leg two: Ulaan Baatar to Irkutsk

We boarded Mongolian train 263 (rule of thumb: the lower the number, the better the train) at 9 pm on March 31 bound for Irkutsk, Russia. Unlike the train from Beijing, this one was packed with no beds to spare. We shared our compartment with a Mongolian kid who studies in Irkutsk and a retired surgical professor who was on his way to visit a former pupil in Ulan Ude. We really lucked out with our cabin mates because they were quiet and tried to share whatever they had with us. We tried to share our instant noodles but they were much happier with their cucumber, mutton and steamed bread. They finally approved of some train station pastries Patti picked up at the border.

Our neighbours to the right were much different than our cabin mates. These lovely drunkards were Mongolia's only death metal band, "Fair Wind", on their way to a death metal festival in Ulan Ude. Apparently Russia has a huge death metal culture unlike Mongolia. It is fair to say they began the festivities the minute they got on the train and the Vodka was flowing at a incredible pace. I was fortunate enough to be invited in for some vodka rounds, so much that I have black spots in my memory from that evening. Despite the memory loss, I did get a copy of their debut CD, "Coffin Town Under the Moon". Can't wait to give it a listen at home. For any curious potential fans, they are definitely Death Metal and NOT heavy metal. I was corrected several times.

The ride was pleasant except for the border which involved sitting in both the Mongolia and Russian stations for 6 and 5 hours, respectively. None of the immigrations or customs officials paid much attention to us but worked over any Mongol or Russian person with several bags. I'm not surprised, given a couple of hours before the border the Mongolian traders were paying other passengers to bring their goods across the border for them. Very amusing situation given most the goods were fake polo shirts. Our cabin was given 2 large blankets, a bag of shirts and a pair of boots. All of them were reclaimed approximately 5 kilometers past the customs.

Great time all together.

Looking forward to the third leg: Irkutsk to Moscow.

Colin and Patti

Mutton, meat, more meats and starch

After two days of exploring UB, we boarded a public bus out of the city to spend 5 days with nomadic Mongolian families.

We were greeted my Mr. Bold (pronounced Bolt) at the bus stop who then "ox-carted" us 15 km to his ger (that means yurt) for the night. It was a cold start to the trip, since it was dark 5 km into the trip and it lasted nearly 2.5 hrs. Patti had 2 blankets on and Colin rode up front and tried to communicate with Mr. Bold. We were greeted upon arrival by his family and a nice bowl of hot milk tea (hot salty milk with maybe a hint of tea, if you really look for it), followed by a mutton vegetable soup (they can call it veg because it had at least one piece of onion in it). This was the first of way too many meat meals consisting mostly of mutton or pure meat fat. The diet amongst nomadic families is really only meat and dairy products because the soil and climate doesn't allow any ting to be cultivated. Potatoes are considered a rare delicacy and spices are never used. So to say the least, by the end of the trip we were muttoned and milked out and ready to return to the relatively western flare of Ulaan Baatar for some much needed vegetables.

One of many meals of meat (really chewy meat with lots of fat)

Mr. Bold was a HUGE man. He has competed in the legendary Nadaam festival as a wrestler and won the Lion Title. We are not sure if that means he was the Champion but arguing the fact with him would not be a good idea. Colin had a go at wrestling with him and was thrown around like a rag doll. Mr. Bold gave us lessons in ice bowling, archery, and cheating at one of their favourite pastimes: sheep ankle bone. We are bringing some ankle bones home so you can all experience the fun!

All of the families that we met were wonderful and had something different to offer. We collected baby goats and saw a newborn goat. We saw a one year old ride a horse. We stayed with a family that uses a dog sled to get around. It was an amazing experience that we would do again...but in the summer, to avoid the cold. Given the rapid urbanization in Mongolia, true nomadism may be gone shortly leaving only tourist ger camps.

Now we are back in UB (had subs, veg & fruit for lunch!) and we are preparing for a two night trip into the motherland...Russia!

See you all soon,

P & C

Colin and Patti

Tran-Mongolian Part 1: Beijing to Mongolia

Unfortunately we spent too long in central and southeast Asia, so we left little time to spend in China before we boarded the train and started the first leg of the long journey west.

That being said, we thoroughly enjoyed the capital of China, in all it's glory. We had 7 great days in Beijing. We were fortunate to find a jewel of a hostel only a 10min walk from the the Forbidden City and numerous other famous sites. We packed in the sights at a lightening pace and managed to taste all that the restaurants and street vendors had to offer. The food was so good, I think we packed on about 10lbs.

On March 23, we boarded an early morning train at the central Beijing train station and bid China fair well.

The train ride went quite smoothly. We paid for 3rd class, called 'hard sleeper' in China, expecting to be crammed into our car. Luckily, since it is the low season and also not a big travelling time of year for the Chinese, we had a compartment to ourselves and our carriage was only half full. This means twice the blankets and pillows but a less stinky bathroom. Each carriage has a coal-heated hot water tank so you can make tea, coffee, noodles, etc. It is VERY convenient. If I couldn't have tea constantly to keep warm, I would have froze to death. We had instant noodles, bread and fruit with us but we wanted to give the dining car a chance for at least one meal. We were greeted by 3 smoking chefs and a hostess woman who was not happy to see us. We ordered some food and some 50cent beers and the smoking chefs went into the kitchen (they weren't too happy with us ordering). We received very greasy fried pork and a plate full of uncooked fried chicken (were they punishing us for making them work?). We polished off the pork and then proceeded to warn every tourist on the train about the chicken. Perhaps the Mongolian restaurant car will be better.

The Journey to Ulaan Baatar took 36 hours, which included about 6 hrs at the border for the authorities to check faces and the rail crew to change the wheels. Mongolia and Russia use a different gauge of rail than the rest of the world so at the border each car is picked up and the "bogeys" are changed to match the Russian system, or vice versa if heading out of Russia. This all happened from about 9pm to 3am so it made for a rather sleepless night. Locked out of the train at a freezing station while the Chinese authorities look the train over.

After sleeping till roughly 8:30am, we were greeted by scenery like nothing we've ever seen: the Gobi Desert. It's bizarre to see snow and dirt as far as the eye can see with a sprinkling of horses and the occasional camel (with 2 humps). Southern Mongolia is where NASA should be testing lunar equipment.

All in all, a great first ride. We have already discovered the perfect recipe for success on board the Trans-Mongolian train: vodka, scotch, raman noodles and PB & J sandwiches.

Wish us luck on leg 2: UB to Irkutsk!!

P & C

Tokyo

Tokyo was an electrifying place that is non-stop with cars, people and light.

Thanks to the Russian Embassy, we weren't able to leave Tokyo at all which was a blessing is disguise since we got to explore vitually every inch of the city. Each district was more interesting than the next with so much to see, do and taste. Some of our highlights from the city include:

Shibuya crossing. As mentioned before, it feels like 5000 people cross the street every 5 min.

Dinner at the Saito household. Tsubasa's family kindly took us in for the night, where we treated to hand made sushi and fresh crab.

Harajuku girls: human barbie dolls that conveine weekly to stand around.

Tsukiji Fish Market. This is where 4500 tonnes of fish are sold each morning. Then you can dine on the freshest sushi in the world in the small restaurants around the market for BREAKFAST.

The transit system, although expensive, moves so many people on a schedule that is never broken. 3.5 million people go through Shinjuku station every day!

Vending Machines, tucked into every nook and crany. So a beer, coffee (hot or cold) or any type of drink is never far away.

Sake museum in Niigata, with 300 sakes in a huge vending machine to sample.

The old temples of Nikko north of Tokyo.

And of course ACDC!

Thanks Steph and Tsubasa! Best hosts ever!

Patti thinks my beard is gross?

I don't know why?

We made it to Mongolia....it's cold. 4 nights in a yurt coming up....will be even colder.

Chinese censorship

Everyone, we apologize for the delay in info over the last couple days but didn't anticipate that our blog would be censored while we were in China. We will be leaving for Mongolia on March 23 and should be back on the blog by the 24th.

Thanks for the patience and thanks Mike for posting this for us.

Colin and Patti.

P.S Colin smells.

Tokyo

Some stats on Tokyo:

- 12 million people living in the city and 34 million in the greater area,
over 100,000 restaurants,
- more than 500,00 vending machines selling everything and anything,
- The fish market moves: 2246 tonnes of fish a day worth 1.8 billion yen
- The average height of a person is just over 5' tall,
and every single Tokyo'ite uses an umbrella.

So if your taller than the average Japanese person you had better watch your eyes.
It rained and snowed yesterday and crossing this intersection was the most dangerous experience since leaving home.

Colin and Patti

Japan: great hosts, skiing and consular let downs

Our trip from Saigon to Tokyo began at 3pm with a cab ride from Thomas' apartment to the airport, followed by an uneventful flight to Bangkok. We arrived in Bangkok at about 7 pm and got our luggage, eager to pass the next 7 hrs waiting to check into our next flight. We filled in the time nicely at first: dinner, a movie on the laptop and then we tried to sleep. When 3 am rolled around and we were still awake, we were dying to check in and hopefully find some softer seats, at least some softer than the floor. There weren't any soft seats but a lot of Delta hassle due to fear of terrorism. It would seem Delta is worried about it's planes that aren't flying to American destinations also, so we got several stages of security checks and were not allowed to buy anything at the duty free. It would seem that the hard alcohol could be used to make Molotov cocktails while waiting at the gate. We did take off, eventually, and made it to Tokyo ready for another day of travel.

Tokyo airport is the efficient behemoth that you would expect from the Japanese. We got our luggage, excited to tackle the train system into the city, which is another marvel of efficiency and organization. The size of the public transit system is mind boggling and amazingly always on time! Just incredible!! (Yes that is a double exclamation mark). We found our way and met up with our new hosts in the city, Stephanie and Tsubasa. Steph is one of Patti's long-time best friends and she just got married to Tsubasa.

After rendezvous-ing, and having a vending machine beer (or two, in Colin's case), we were whisked away on a bus headed to the mountain village of Niigata for a weekend of hot springs and skiing. We arrived in Niigata at 10pm and started drinking into the night, despite over 48hrs of travel without sleep. That night, we finally did get some sleep but we missed our first opportunity to ski since we overslept.

We did have a great day in Niigata though. We started the day off with some bathing in the hot springs and then headed into town to the train station and the famous sake wall. In the train station, there is a sake tasting area with over 100 sake's on offer. Each one is dispensed from an efficient Japanese automated system. Pay 500 Yen for five tokens then head to the wall to make your choices. Since there is no English, you have no idea what you are going to get. Tsubasa translate some of the words for us but other than that, we were on our own and getting tipsier by the second.
On day two in the hills, we got fresh snow and hit the hill. We couldn't believe that there was rental gear that fit. I think I got the only pair of ski boots that was over size 10. Also, somehow Colin miraculously fit into Tsubasa's brothers ski/boarding pants. I didn't know there was a Japanese person as big as us Canadians! It would have been great to stay longer but Steph and Tsubasa had work and go to school, respectively, that night we got back to Tokyo.

We arrived back in Tokyo late on Sunday and had to start figuring out how to navigate to the Russian Embassy and apply for visas. In order to get from Beijing to Moscow we need three visas which we have two of already (China and Mongolia), however Russia is still outstanding. Every attempt to contact the Ruskies has failed and they have been generally rude and hostile on the phone. We have read or been told any number of problems could deny us a visa, so we are nervous about getting this one. To add to the problem, we have little time so we can't miss a day or we have to pay large sums for quick processing. It turns out that today was actually a Russian holiday, so the embassy was closed when we arrived after a 1hr trip on the Tokyo transit system. They had no notice on the door and no info about this on the website (thanks). It cost about 20$ in transit to get there so back again tomorrow and an extra 100$ in speedy processing fees.

DAMN THOSE RUSSIANS!

Patti & Colin

Vietnam

We almost overstayed our visit to Thailand, nearly didn't leave Laos and enjoyed Cambodia so much we only had one week left to spend in Vietnam before we have to fly to Japan. So we decided to enjoy Saigon and small trip to Mui Ne. Saigon is an amazing city that is moving and motoring at all times with a million small motorbikes.

We arrived 7 days ago to a warm welcome from our German friend from Koh Toa, Thomas Puschmann. Thomas was my dive partner during my advanced course and then another 9 dives in the Gulf of Thailand. The hospitality has been better than great: air-con, good bed, TV, Internet, whisky, washing machine, refrigerator, tour guide and best of all good company. He has shown us the best drinking spots, best food, how to get around and taught us basic words like beer which handily is bia so luckily for me, it wasn't hard to remember. Despite the short stay, we made the most of it (hangovers included) and will be back to enjoy more one day and visit the remainder of the country.We leave for Japan tomorrow and another chapter in this adventure.

A huge thanks to Thomas.

Colin and Patti

Bird's Nest White Fungus Drink?

After seeing Bird's Nest White Fungus drink in Cambodia and not buying it I was really worried I might have lost my chance to try it but Vietnam came through for me.

We are staying with Thomas in Saigon who we met in Thailand right now and his apartment building convenience store conveniently has "Bird's Nest White Fungus Drink", booya.
The ingredients read: Water, Sugar, White Fungus, Agar, Sodium Bicarbonat, Bird's Nest and Flavour.
Wow you can really taste the flavour and it's economical.

Road trip to the coast

Since leaving home we have rented a car or truck three times and motorcycles 10 times, so it seemed fitting for us to explore Cambodias beach destinations on two wheels. After securing a 250cc Honda Baja for 5 days, we headed south from Phnom Pehn to Sihanoukville. The journey was about 230 kms but took over 5 hrs, thanks to awful drivers and some num bums. We arrived in the coastal town safe and sound!
Sihanoukville is blessed with great sand and a steady breeze that makes the 35dec plus temperatures bareable and it has great seafood to boot. With our time dwindling in Cambodia, we only left ourselves two days to see this town and it's embarrasing to say we spent most mornings watching Olympic coverage then sitting on the beach and drinking the remainder of the day away. The really sad part is that we fit in with just about every other 20 something tourist. Still a great place.After , we headed straight east towards Kampot with one small hiccup. As we were heading out of town we got flagged down by the local police becase apparently it is illegal to drive with your headlights on. After some small talk, the only way not to have our motorcycle impounded was US $10. After that little hiccup, we headed off. The coastal drive was nice and the 130 km's to Kampot were easy thanks to the limited traffic on the road. A quick stop for lunch in Kampot and we drove on to our real destination of Kep. This small town was previously a weekend spot for Cambodians in the 60's and early 70's and was mostly levelled by the Khmer Rouge regime and the Vietnamese. The damage is still visible by the burnt frames of vacation homes and old hotels that dot the landscape. Despite it's appearence at times, the town is quaint and friendly and the seadood is even better than Sihanoukville. The local specialty is crab with kampot pepper and it is to die for. In fact any of the seafood dishes with the locally grown pepper is exquisite. This is likely a spot which, given a couple of years, will be overrun with tourists, so hurry up.With our time in SEA coming to an end, it was a relitively quick drive back north to Phnom Pehn despite 150 km of gravel roads thanks to construction. We did arrive safely and are preparing to head to Vietnam.

Less than 2 months left!

Colin and Patti.

Phnom Pehn

Back again and eager to give this capital city another chance we arrived high from a great time in Siem Reap. This time we were able to get into the guesthouse we had reservations at and have discovered a great new corner of town. Making the "Top Banana" guesthouse home for 5 days, we got to explore the city and enjoy some luxuries that we haven't had since leaving home: real baguettes, stinky cheese, cheap wine and salads that can be trusted.Unfortunately for Phnom Pehn the major attractions bring to life the tragic history of this beautiful country. Visiting the S-21 museum and the killing fields are a must see while in Cambodia if not only to see the horrorfic history but more importantly realise how far this country has come from those days. There has been very few places that we have travelled since leaving last year where every single person you smile at returns an even bigger smile.
A great city and a great country.

Siem Reap and Angkor Temples

After a rather interesting start in Phnom Pehn, we headed north to Siem Reap to see the temples at Angkor. Expecting nothing less than to be blown away, this UNESCO site did not disappoint. We expected to spend three days visiting the temples but stayed for 6 days to allow for some reflection and break time between visits. Some of this break time was caused by alcohol consumption...oops. At least it was an Angkor themed bar: Angkor What?Although Siem Reap is a a big tourist draw and the city is at times over-run with barang (tourists) we found a quaint little guest house away from the masses to relax from temple viewing and the heat. It had a tv and this started our morning obsession with LIVE olympic broadcasts.Angkor Wat is the big draw and the largest temple in the area and is also the busiest, although Bayon and some of the smaller complexes are exquisite. We've included three photo galleries of the temples as every angle was photogenic.

Cambodia: Ups, Downs and now way up!

After a great couple of days in Sinphandon (southern most part of Laos) we hopped over the border into Cambodia. We spent our first night in Kratie about 2 hrs south of Laos and had a great introduction into the warm Cambodian culture. We only had one night in the north with the desire to head south to Phnom Penh and eventually Siem Reap.

We arrived in Phnom Penh with an email confirmation at a guest house and word that they would pick us up at the bus station. Well no pick-up and no way of communicating where to go? Our first tuk-tuk driver says "Yeah I know the place" and of course after ten minutes of driving, we haven't found our guesthouse. So we ask for to stop at an Internet cafe and we can get an address. We get the address and call the guesthouse he gives instructions and says he will pay the second tuk-tuk when we arrive. We arrive and the man at the door pays the tuk-tuk after we exchange some words about the current level of service. That settled we go in and a young man at the bar says that he doesn't have a room as per in the email. He shows another room not at all what we asked for but at same price (hideous). Then two more rooms (also not what we asked for and at different prices). At this point we are frustrated (to say the least) and demand to talk to the person we communicated with on the email. They say 5 minutes we will get him and during this time Patti starts looking around the area at other places (and finds lots of other places). Then a new man enters and says that he doesn't have the room he stated in the email. At this point we have had enough and decide to leave. As we are heading out man at the front demands that we pay the tuk-tuk to get us here since we aren't staying. We say no (since we were out the money for the first tuk-tuk and the money for the internet and phone call)! He grabs my backpack and re-demands. I push him backwards after saying we aren't paying and you lied. He get really offended and starts the rich tourist thing while raising a fist. Patti says you lied and we aren't paying. Man raise fist and heads her way. I get very angry and push backwards again (while two of his friends are closing in) and say we aren't paying you lied!! He yells a lot of profanities and tells us " you pay now! people get hit by cars all the time in Cambodia@$%ing tourists" and lets got of my backpack. We walk off a little shaken and find a nice place down the street.

We decide that night that we need to start fresh with Cambodia and catch a bus the next day to Siem Reap and to explore the beautiful temples of Angkor Wat!

We have loved every minute of Siem Reap and Angkor, I've taken 600 photos in two visits and will go again tomorrow. This has been a true highlight of the trip. We will be posting photos soon.

Don't get worried about us, this is our first real tussle while abroad and we are pretty sure we are still decent people. To make up for the potential bad karma, we've been extra generous with any nice Cambodian who serves us or helps us out.

Colin and Patti

Engineers on vacation!

We left Canada to see the world and explore culture and what do we end up doing, visiting a mine. As we were travelling through Laos an aquaintance that Patti met in University noticed that her status on Facebook indicated that we were travelling through Laos. Turns out the aquaintance; Douglas Caffel, works at a recently opened copper mine north of Vientiane. So off we went to visit PanAust's mine in Laos thanks to Doug. It was a great sidetrip in a great country. The mine arranged a ride from town to the mine's camp (5hr drive), meals and accomodations for one night and a tour of the operations. For those geeks interested in earth moving there is a photo album on our Picasa photo page.

Thanks Doug for the great tour.

You can get the geeks out of work but can you get the work out of the geeks?

Typhus!

I've had a splitting headache for nearly a week now and finally decided to visit a clinic. Thankfully in Vientiane the Australian embassy has a western quality clinic and doctor that will see any person from a commonwealth country. So we rented some bikes and headed to the embassy to hopefully have my head checked. The doctor quickly determined that it could be Dengue Fever or Typhus based on my descriptions so he took blood and ran some tests. The Dengue came up negative so likely Typhus. So now we get to spend some extra time in Vientiane while I take antibiotics to get rid of the Typhus.

On a pleasant note the city has the best western food we've had since leaving Canada. We had some excellent french cuisine last night at prices that would make McDonald's nervous a home.

Colin and Patti

Tubing in Vang Vieng!!!

We just had one of the craziest days on our trip: tubing in Vang Vieng!!

For anyone who has been there before, yes it is still craziness and for those who haven't and who like to party, it is AWESOME!! To the young backpacker crowd, this place is a rite of passage and the party tone is set early on in the day. Colin and I were definately above the average age (most kids were Brit gap year-ers or Aussies on holiday) but we still had fun. The day consists of riding a tube down the river, while stopping off at bars along the way. These aren't normal bars though, these are makeshift shanty bars which also provide homemade swings, zip lines, slides and a whole amusement park worth of homemade contraptions to entice the drunken tubers.

The day went like this...
After a lazy breakfast, all the backpackers descend on one of two inner-tube rental shops who quickly take your money, make you sign a waiver and then whisk you off to the inner-tube launch site. When you arrive at the launch, a nice lao-lao (homemade whisky) shooter is waiting for you. Before you even launch your tube, you can stay and have some drinks at Bar 1. At Bar 1, they have a homemade trapeze set up and anyone can attempt to be an acrobat for FREE. Colin and I chose to do our acrobatics before we drank too many 1$ 650ml beer laos. It was a riot!! No injuries for us...You could also get a bucket of anything you might fancy for about $4 (Vodka Redbull, Lao-Lao and coke, etc.). After a few more beer laos and even a bucket of Vodka Redbull, we decided the swings were so much fun that we had to try again. This time I had a bit of a side flop and some mild bruising...oops. Our final 'ride' was further down the river...it was a giant homemade slide. It looked amazing!! When I got to the top, I noticed it was all tiled and I thought perhaps it would scratch me all over the place. Luckily it didn't. However it did shoot me off the bottom like a canon! Take a look at the videos...looking at them now makes us feel a bit stupid but hey, EVERYONE WAS DOING IT!! Oh, and there were little Laos children flying all over the place. There were 5 year olds in their undies doing backflips off all the trapezes!!



Miss you all,
P & C

Thailand -> Laos

We spent an amazing month in Thailand! In fact we enjoyed it so much we almost forgot to leave. We were issued a 30 day visa upon landing in Thailand which allowed us to stay until Jan 18th and we left 30min before the border closed on that exact day. Severe financial penalties (17$) would have ensued had we left late.

We've now been in Laos for nearly a week and it has also surpased our expectations. It is so amazing to be immersed within a country where the average person has so little compared to western standards and yet is so giving and welcoming.

Since arriving we've spent most of our time in the north, somewhat off the heavy tourist route, and visited some small villages that are really only accesible by walking or being pulled by animal. It has been somewhat reminescent of Africa in terms of the ruralness and lousy roads.

After that short time in the north we headed to Luang Prabang which is the start of the major tourist corridor and looks like we will be with the masses until Vientianne were we hope to head into the less touristy south. We miss the slow pace and no hassle of the small town, but we are loving all the comforts and luxuries available in Laung Prabang. We've had great coffee, baguettes, and cheese already and we just found a shop with cheap French wine. We deserve this...since we've been eating noodle soup at least twice a day for the last month.

One of the great parts of any country is the national beer and Beerlao has been the best brew yet, since arriving in Asia. No more Chang-overs!!!
Cheers to beers. (Colin's sign-off)
Check out some actual pictures of Thailand and Laos, not just beer pics, using the links on the right. Miss you all, we'll be home in less than 3 months, (Patti's sign-off) Boring!! (Colin's response)

P & C

Losers win big

Since leaving home we've participated in a couple of trivia nights at pubs around the world but we've never won so much for doing so lousy as we did in Chang Mai. Teamed up with Julien a British retiree living in Chang Mai we succesfully answered less than 50% of the questions. Prizes were for the top three scores and then the worst score who gets a pitcher of beer, however we didn't actually have the worst score. So we wouldn't have won the pitcher if it wasn't for Julien who attends regularly to lose the contest but win the pitcher.

Team "Canucks" total points 49!
Rewarding pitcher of Heinenken with teamate Julien.

Hockey tonight on T.V. and the Habs to boot

We've arrived in Chang Mai in northern Thailand and are ready for a couple of days of non-movement and relaxing before we head east to Laos. This town has been hyped pretty hard by fellow backpackers along the Thai route and so far it hasn't disappointed. We found a great little guesthouse for next to nothing and have had some great meals of both Thai and western style food (needed every once and awhile).
The greatest discovery so far is that a bar called the U.N. Irish Bar is showing NHL on a big screen and tonight New Jersey and Montreal, booya. It might feel like home if it wasn't for the 34deg heat and the amount of animal organs for sale in the street.

The Status of our Stuff

We've been gone for approx 8 months now, with 3.5 months to go. The first 8 months have taken quite a toll on stuff. Here is a little status list:

• Our sleeping bags are dirty (Colin's stinks).
• Colin is on his second SLR camera, has had repair work on one of his camera lenses and I'm on my second camera. Thank goodness for second hand stores. I got my camera used for less than half the price of a new one and it is in better shape than my original one.
• Colin is on his 3rd pair of flip flops and so am I.
• I have new hiking shoes (first ones got a bit roughed up while camping in Africa) and have lost my atheltic sandals (chose not to replace these).
• Lost one of my little green amber earrings during a scuba lesson (yes Jan, my little amber studs from Poland). Lost several earrings in other places, leaving me with a bag of mostly one earring per set.
• Both of us are on passport number 2.
• We have our original bank cards, except I no longer have a Royal Bank debit card.
• I have about 50% of the originals clothes I brought, still in ok shape. Colin has almost all of his original clothes, lots with holes and faded armpits.
• Oh, and for those of you who knew we were each bringing only 3 pairs of undies...I have 2 of my original set and one replacement pair purchased on a discount shelf in Nairobi, Kenya. Colin has all 3 original pairs of undies....check this pair out, crotchless boxers!!! (he got two new pairs for Christmas but is yet to throw out the old ones). Yes, that is a HOLE!

Hehe, all in all, we are doing fine. You've got to expect these things, I guess. Wish us luck on our last 3.5 months. Hopefully no more big ticket items will be replaced!!

Miss you all, love,

P & C

Happy New Year to All

We celebrated a rather drunken New Years in Koh Tao on the beach under the full moon. Now it wasn't a true full moon party of the Koh Phangan legend but it did have almost all the same ingredients; buckets of booze, sand, full moon and dancing. The only thing it was missing was about 25,000 people.The entire evening was great, we started with a wonderful seafood meal at the King Crab on the beach then met up with Thomas (Colin's dive buddy) at Vibe Bar before hitting up the real party at Club Fiz. Didn't hit the sack until about 4:00am and woke up with a serious hangover. Although Thomas was much worse off and didn't make it out of bed until around 5pm.

We have another couple of nights in the islands before we really explore Bangkok and then head north, can't wait.

Love you all.

Colin and Patti