Paul, Mark and Thirnan´s World Tour

Wai Ley Ley, Fiji

2008-09-19T15:32:00.003-07:00

Kuata Island

2008-09-19T15:32:00.002-07:00

Mantaray Bay, Fiji

2008-09-19T15:32:00.001-07:00

After a couple very sloppy nights on beach comber we were back on the boat heading further north to Mantaray Bay. Beachcomber was fun, but this place was amazing. The beach was so so, more of crushed shells than sand, but is was easily made up for by the surroundings. The resort sat on a channel which had by far the best snorkeling I have ever done. You could literally walk into the water off the shore, stick you head under water, and it was like falling into an aquarium. I really cannot do it justice. Schools of fish swimming all around you, the most variety of fish I've ever seen, amazing reefs, reef sharks, just unreal. You could rent mask snorkel and fins for the whole time for about $13, which was awesome cause it gave you the freedom to go whenever you felt like it.

View from the bar/eating area. The food was amazing, lots of fresh sea food.

Back on the beach

You can really see the reef in this picture below...

On the boat ride over I had met two lovely Australian girls Tanya and Alice. Unfortunately they were both spoken for, but hey, it happens. We hit it off, and I ended up spending the rest of my time in Fiji island hopping with them. Tanya had been working for Outward Bound for 3 the last 3 months in Fiji, so she had some inside info on the best places to stay.

At night we were entertained with some traditional Fijian music. It seems that every Fijian is blessed with a great voice. The other thing Fijians all share is that they are truly the nicest people I have ever met. I have no hesitation in saying that they are by far the nicest people anywhere I've been. And I had just come from New Zealand, where the people were also amazingly friendly. I don't know if it was because of the friendliness of the Fijians, but as a whole this week had the most friendly and open atmosphere out of anywhere I'd been on the trip. I would recommend a trip to Fiji for anyone.

They also had some challenges for free drinks. Obviously I accepted the challenge. The two of us had ropes looped around our wrists and linked together and had to figure out how to get apart. Though we alter found out there was a much easier way to do it (there always is with stuff like this), we did manage to do, and were the first ones ever to succeed.

Ahhh the sweet taste of victory. Apparently that taste comes in the form of fruity drinks. blast!

Mantaray bay gets its name because through about half the year mantarays come swimming through the channel, and you can go out snorkeling with them. When they spot them, the beat on a drum and everyone who wants to go out rushes down. We got to swim along with one with a couple meter wingspan that for a couple minutes...it was unreal. After that, back to the beach.
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The next night the got out the Kava, which is a drink made from a ground up root. It essentially tastes how it looks...like muddy water. According to wikipedia, "kava is a tranquilizer primarily consumed to relax without disrupting mental clarity." Sounds good to me. And plus, it's a Fijian tradition, so we had to give it a go.

After a few drinks and a little Kava we headed down to the beach to chill in the hammocks. However on the way we passed a papaya tree with 1 really nice ripe papaya that Tanya had her on from earlier in the day. Yup...we need to climb that tree and get that papaya. I had seen someone climb a coconut tree with the feet in front style shimmying up it....worked like a charm.

Chilling in the hammock on the beach, eating fresh papaya with the sea breeze blowing in our hair....what a great way to end an amazing day.

Beach Comber Island, Fiji

2008-09-19T15:32:00.000-07:00

Bula everyone (hello in Fijian). Been a while since the last post. Since we last wrote Mark and I have both been back home for a couple weeks, working hard at finding jobs. Before I went home I had 10 days in Fiji. At the time we booked our flights home, I considered just transferring through Fiji, not spending any time there. Thankfully I decided against it, because it turned out to be a highlight of the trip for me.

I arrived in the afternoon, having absolutely no plan, just a hostel I was going to which is didn't know anything about. Things started going well when I arrived at the hostel, which was essentially a resort which had 1 dorm room. It said 4 bed en suite, but was actually a 32 bed dorm with dividers in between every 4 bunks. Ayy, what can you do. I really wasn't too fussed because the places was packed with people, had a pool, a bar, and was on the beach. No complaints.

While I was checking in a met 3 cool Irish guys and a couple Scottish girls who were all heading out to the islands on a package deal. I checked with the travel agent there, and figured out I could do the same thing myself for cheaper and just tag along....done! So I headed out to Beach Comber Island the next day. It's known as the party island in Fiji (which for the most part is pretty low key), and a few people I'd met along the way had recommended at least spending 1 night there....kind of like going to Thailand and not going to a full party. Not quite the same, but still a great time.
The island was really small, you could walk around it in about 10 minutes. Just beach, bar, and 114 person dorm. Needless to say, you don't come here to catch up on sleep.

Aiden, James, Ahmet, Candace and Elenor. Good crew

Everywhere you go, they greet you and see you off with a song...quite nice really.

More fun in the sun. Not a lot to do here but booze and lay in the sun. Damn...tough way to end off the trip.

Rotorua, a self-described Thermal Wonderland!

2008-08-22T20:54:00.000-07:00

It turned out that our Kiwi buddies Dave and Simon were planning on being down in Rotorua around the same time we'd be passing through. There's an army style obstacle course of 6km in an open competetion, apptly named the "Tough Guy Competition." Everyone seemed to have a great time, no one taking it too seriously, and was more of an excuse for a weekend away and a large night out. We started off the everning with some drinking games before heading out to the bar.

Craig and T here are also familiar with the diverse range of Zoolander poses. Later that night I also found out Craig also is familiar with how to puke on the person standing right next to you after doing a tequila shot.

Simon and me. Dave pulled out having a work function on friday, and no good excuse for not making it down saturday. A beligerant phone message let him know how I felt about it.

14 Kiwis, 3 bars, countless beverages...a good night. Earlier that day we have checked out the "Thermal Wonderland," which is a whole bunch of rank smelling hot mud pools. They also have a gyser that shots off once a day.

Mt Maunganui

2008-08-21T22:19:00.003-07:00

Post Tongariro we headed further west to Waitomo, home of the glow worm caves. The tour takes through a large cave down to an underground river. You hop on a small boat and are towed further into the cave where the glow worms are doing there thing. With thousands of them lighting up the roof of the cave it's pretty cool. They don't allow photos. We then headed back east towards Rotorua to meet up with some fellas there for the weekend. We took the scenic route, by accident.
Along the way we stopped at Mt Maunganui for a little hike and view. Nothing like a good hike and a view.
On the side of this mountain is grass. And where there's grass, there's sheep.
On Rotorua it was.

Tongariro National Park

2008-08-21T22:19:00.001-07:00

The day out of Waikaremoana turned into a nice one, especially as we were passing just north of Tongariro. So we swung back there in hopes of the hiking on a nice day. We didn't have time that day but the next day was supposed to be a beauty as well so we stuck around. 3 volcanoes find home in Tongariro National Park: Tongariro, Ngauruhoe and Ruapehu. That's Tongariro on the left, and the perfect cone of Ngauruhoe on the right. Ruapehu is a little further right and our hike took us between the last two.
Next day we awoke and the day was indeed gorgeous so we jumped on the hike. As we stormed up the trail, overjoyed to be back on a hike worthy of our prowess, nothing could stop us. Except the risk of a nasty burn; we lathered up and pushed on. damn it we're hard.. rock hard.
Never having been on a snow hike it was pretty cool. Once again, pun not intended, I'm sorry these just happen.
This one's Ruapehu. I hope you like it.
Our destination was lower Tuma lake. it's in this crater.
OK these pics are gonna be a little out of order because the computer won't let me cut and paste them. Paul spent hours re-loading pics in other postings for just this problem. I'm not doing the same, mostly to spite him.
The majority of the trail had been unbroken in the fresh snow. Luckily it was freezing the night before providing a firm top layer of snow. Unfortunately it wasn't always enough to hold one's weight and any step could push through the top, sinking in up to your hip. It made for some humorous hiking. Naturally any time we'd tout ourselves for taking a good short-cut, or mention how this was quicker than following the winding trail in summer, the snow would give and our feet would start breaking through.
About an hour into the hike was Taranaki waterfalls. Did we take a picture? OF COURSE we took a picture!
This is back at Lower Tuma lake, our turnaround point and lunch stop.

Lake Waikeremoana

2008-08-21T22:18:00.002-07:00

After the franz joseph the plan was to make it up to the north end of the south island and do the Abel Tasman, which is a hike along the coast line, another out and back. After much research and price analysis we decided we wanted to kayak out and hike back. Then after further research into the weather we decided to scrap the whole thing and head to the north island where the weather system was hitting a little less.

We stopped at Tongariro National Park along the way but once again the weather sent us packing with overcast clouds preventing any chance of a view. So on to lake Waikaremoana in hopes of renting a canoe, cuz it's easier than hiking, and well were just lazy. The local canoe renter's last known address was in this small town beside a small lake just beside Waikaremoana.

The lake was infested with black swans.
After interrogating half the townspeople and staking out the canoe renter's house we finally found her. We succeeded in pretending to be nice people and she gave us the rental severly below cost and we were off. Unfortunately when making our decision to canoe based on laziness we forgot to account for wind and the resulting waves. Also, this lake had an adorable little habit of twisting the wind around corners to give us a headwind in every direction.
We finally got to the bay with the hut we were looking for. Some sub-par map reading on my part had us scouring the wrong hillside looking for the hut for about an hour. At one point, Paul even asked what that building was across the bay. I replied that it must be someone's private cottage, who chose metal siding for some reason. Much later, wetter and with slight bitterness we determined this was the hut we were looking for. Once again, the Department of Conservation had outdone themselves.
Day 2. Instead of packing up and moving on to the next hut as intended, our drained motivation led us to opt out for a day paddle out and back to some waterfalls.
Coming around a corner we encountered more wind reminiscent of the previous day. Needless to say we turned back.
Here's paul washing his hair. We like rough it, but not with dirty hair.
A break in the rain and wind in the afternoon prompted a round of frolf.
Here's my drive over the water hazard on the 8th hole. My throw made a characteristic slice hard to the right, sending it deep into the feskew and never to be found.
later on paul took a paddle up the adjacent creek. this gave us a nice 20 minutes apart. I missed him.
Full moon.
Paul playing with the settings on his camera. These candles burned for an amazingly long time, some say they could last 8 whole nights... but probly not.
Away from the DVD player of the van we needed something else to pass the time in the evenings. Paul taught me canasta. We took on Agnes and Ethel for the New Zealand championship.Day 3: Paul went for a day hike, I entertained myself in the hut as cabin fever slowly set in. Paul experimenting with the camera.
The hut from afar.
Day 4. It was time to make our way out. Because I feel the need to caption every picture - this is swan.
We camped by the lake in the van again that night, with intentions of hiking that bluff in the background for a view over the lake.
oh yeah, sometime around franz joseph the sliding door on the van stopped opening from the inside. Seeing as the lock of that handle had had mechanical problems, we assumed the handle had just crapped out. However the door could still be opened from the outside. You figuring this one out yet? I hope so, but if not, we didn't either. After struggling a few times with reaching an arm out the passenger door to grab the outside handle, paul decided to tackle this problem. He ended up constructing this fine little mechanism (seen below) allowing us to pull the rope inside the van, thus releasing the handle on the outside.
We used this until we returned the van. Upon informing the rental guy of the mechanical error with the door, he went to inspect. Turns out the child lock was on. Waterloo Engineering: complex solutions to simple problems.

View of the lake that night.

The next morning brought fog and snow thus deterring us from the bluff hike. We headed out back west towards Waitomo with glow worm caves, unsure of where we'd kill some time on the way.

Franz Joseph Glacier

2008-08-21T22:18:00.001-07:00

Mark and I were both keen to do a glacier trek based on people we'd talked to and pictures we'd seen. Not knowing when we were arriving we didn't book anything ahead of time. We awoke to a beautiful clear day, absolutely perfect for a hike on a glacier, and rushed over to the office to see if we could get out on a tour that day. Unfortunately there was only 1 spot left of the full day tour, so we rocked off for it, with the other one going on the 3/4 day tour. Mark won, and the lady advised him he'd better be quick, because the bus was leaving soon. After he rushed to the car, got some food and changed, he ran back to find out the bus left without him. Ridiculous. So in the end, we decided to roll the dice with the weather and booked in for the full day the next day. With some time on our hands, we checked out a couple sites close by.
We've run out of stuff to talk about, so Mark just meditates now...

Luckily the weather cooperated with us, and we heading out in the sunshine the next morning. Now Mark, T and I have found over the course of this trip that we all dispise guided tours, especially when the groups are really big. We much prefer to be able to go at our own pace, and have the freedom to do as we please. In this case, for obvious reasons, we had no choice. As we met up at the base of the glacier, our worste fears were realized...the group was huge.

Luckily they split the 5 odd people into 5 groups, each with 1 guide, with each group going at different speeds depending how keen people were. We went in the first group, so it was actually not bad at all. Our guide and the group were all good fun. That's our guide Mike up ahead. This guy get's free heli rides up to the top of the glacier through the company on his days off and does backcountry ski trips. At the top of the glacier, they average 40m (yes..fourty meters!!) of snow a year. Needless to say, it's bottomless powder all the time.

The caves and crevaces on the glacier are contantly changing at it advances and melts, so it's total luck of the draw what you'll get into on any given day. We seemed to get pretty lucky, with a new crevace and a new cave both opening up the day we went.

Some of them were pretty tight...

Lunch time...

After lunch, as we got further up the glacier, the ice became less dirty and a deeper blue. And we finally got into some caves. Very cool (no pun intended).

This was one of the new caves, which was about 2 feet wide and high. I went through first, which was cool, but was regretable because we didn't get any pictures of us inside the cave.

So just pretend this is us...

And time for one more cave on the way out.

All in all a really fun experience. Pricey, but I reckon worth it.

Copland Welcome Flat

2008-08-21T22:17:00.006-07:00

Our second hike, once again was a 1 way track. Unfortunately the whole track was not open in the winter, or if you did want to do it, you needed some serious gear and avalanche experience. However, the first day of the hike is up to a hut which sits in a valley, surrounded by snow capped peaks, and is sat right next to natural hot springs. Can I say yes!

The hike started off well, about half of it being out of the forest, along a turquoise-blue glacier river.

Though not quite as lush as the Hollyford track, the forests here were also quite nice and very green.

Once again, the digs were awesome. Apparently the standard of the huts we've been in are on the higher end, there are some pretty dodgy ones. But either way, the hut network and their conservation program here is really impressive.

And possibly the greatest way to end a hike...hot springs. And these weren't those kind of hot springs where the water is kind of warm, but not that hot, where you just slowly cool off, and leave disappointed (if you can taste the bitterness in my tone, it's because we payed good money for such hot springs when in peru). These were proper hot springs, some of the pools in fact too hot to even tolerate. The source of it all is here, where rain water that has seeped down through cracks in the stone, heats up and is forced back to the surface.

We made the most of them, having another dip the next morning. Another great sunrise, as we watched the sun slowly make it's way down the mountains in front of us.

And oh yes, mediation if also recommened by The Solution. I'll give him credit..if I was going to meditate, this would be the spot.

Hollyford Track

2008-08-21T22:17:00.005-07:00

After a doubtful start and a long wait, we finally hit our first hike. The trek is one of a few in the south island that's open year round. Unfortunately it doesn't follow a loop, so we opted to camp half way, and do only part of the second half as a day hike (I later pulled out of this day hike as well, which as Mark will tell you turned out to be a good move).

The lady at the tour office told us the best thing about the hike was the forest. We weren't too excited by this idea, both being more interested in views of the mountains, but had heard good things, and had limited options. As it turns out, the forest was actually amazing. On account of their meters of rainfall a year, this was the most lush forest I've ever seen. Moss and ferns everywhere.

And nice waterfalls...

And enough breaks in the trees to satisfy out craving from views of the mountains...

After about 6 hours of hiking, we finally arrived at Lake Alabastar. Lakes, mountain views, say no more.

The Department of Conservation (DOC) in New Zealand has an amazing network of huts on all the hikes throughout the country. And while this can take away from the camping experience if you're really looking to be one with nature, it's fucking sweet when it's the winter. This was one of the newer huts, and was really nice. We were joined by a couple kiwi's spending a week hunting deer in the area as well (deer were introduced in the 1900's and with no natural predators became a huge problem. A hunter's paradise).

I will also take this chance to tell you about Mark's new hobby (T you're going to love this). It's been a while since Mark's thyroid condition has entered the scene, but after feeling a little bit low for a while, M decided to try out another recommendation of the Thyroid Solution...thai chi. While in Auckland, Mark snuck off early one morning to a class. And what better place to put it to the test than in the mountains. Being the good friend that I am, when he told me he was going for a walk, I followed him knowing full well he was going to practice some thai chi, and just had to get a picture of it. He thought he could hide behind a bush, but I found him...

The next morning we awoke to fog over the lake. Luckily for us, being winter, and in the mountains, the sun doesn't actually rise until about 9:00, so we were able for once be awake for the sunrise. Now I can't say I've actually made it up in time for many sunrises, but this was definitely the nicest sunrise I've ever seen.

Sunrises...excellent chi...

That day the plan was to do a day hike to the next lake. With sore knees, and a lazy demeanor, I decided to pass on the day hike which promised to be strenuous, and opted to go for a walk around the lake, possibly find a nice spot to set up the hammock and read a little, and enjoy the surroundings. It was nice.

Mark on the other hand, a man who doesn't enjoy sitting around, and who enjoys a good physical challenge, opted for the day hike. Highlights included falling into a river while trying to cross it (seen below), a lake that was average to good, and a 3 hours hike/half run to make it back in time before sunset.

That evening we found out that the kiwis also knew how to play euker, so we had some entertainment (the sun goes down around 6:00..and after that, not a whole lot to do by candle light). The next morning we were greeted by yet another amazing sunrise, and were on our way back out.

Not without a quick stop to climb a mossy tree.

mountains, valleys and sheep

2008-08-21T22:17:00.003-07:00

This posting should be after the hollyford. Please direct your attention there first otherwise you might get a very skewed idea of the relative location of the hollyford track and copland valley, and that we can't have.

After the hollyford we drove back up past queenstown and crossed the mountain range which tracks the west coast to head to copland valley. This journey took us through valley, mountains and lakes, sometimes all 3 together - amazing. Good day, good scenes, good drive. I believe I've enjoyed a good drive a few too many times for my age. Come this christmas, all are invited to join me cruising the streets admiring christmas lights.

New Zealand's sheep population outnumbers its citizens 10 to 1. Here's some of them.
More farming with mountain views. And still these farmers dream of seas of wheat as far as the eye can see.
lake + mountains, we like this combo.
Sometimes the sheep hearding trail overlaps with the main highways.
Queenstown from afar.
valley + mountains + paul, another favorite.
you know.
cows, living the good life.

Milford Sound

2008-08-21T22:17:00.001-07:00

like Paul said, standards change. so when we found out there was less than a certainty of rain, we hoofed it up to milford sound for the infamous cruise. I mean you've probly never heard of it, but it's infamous here. This is the iconic picture,
That was off the net. our weather provided a slightly different backdrop, but it was still cool to be cruising between the massive peaks.

There were some dolphins near the mouth who apparently like to hitch a ride on the push-wave at the front of the boat. also, I made up 'push-wave', I don't know what it's called.

back up the sound and a little more wildlife.

We also saw an extremely rare penguin but he was too far away to capture on film. I know, I'd be jealous if I were you too.

This is the waterfall seen from a distance in photo number trois. nothing insane but we had to have a waterfall pic, we've got quotas too you know.
The clouds began to part as the cruise was wrapping up so we took some pics just to prove it can be sunny in new zealand.
on the road back.
The hollyford track, hike the first, started near milford sound so we set up camp at a look out point. That's also the valley we hiked down to start the hollyford.
That night a flightless parrot took an interest in my towel drying on side of the van. Being an endangered species and thus protected they've gained quite the balls around us humans. unfortunately my sleepbag and the EPA were restricting my retrieval of the towel.
The next morning brought a glorious sunrise to sound off the start of the trek. The only thing missing was accompanying orchestra music.

New Zealand - in the beginning

2008-08-21T22:16:00.000-07:00

In the beginning there was rain, then fog, then more rain, then some snow, then some rain, then there was sunlight, then more rain.

After a quick stop in Sydney and another night at Scotty's place, we arrived in New Zealand. Although we were expecting some slightly cooler weather, 5 months of t-shirt, shorts and flip-flops had really softened us up. Our first 3 days in Auckland were rainy and cold. Luckily we had no intention of doing any site seeing, mostly just trip planning (which we had yet to start for NZ).
Our original plan was to rent a car/camper and drive down to Christchurch in the south island, and fly back up. However one of the companies had too many vans in the south island, and if you were willing to drive them back up gave you a really good deal. $19 a day, a third of what we paid in Oz. Not bad for transportation, kitchen and a bed. And although we didn't know it when we booked it, it also had built in DVD player. Sooo clutch. These are actually minivans converted into campers. A little tight, but it did the job, and was way better on gas than the hog we hired in Perth. We flew to Christchurch the next day.
While renting it, we asked a few important questions since there was a chance we'd encounter some snow along the way.
"Does the car have all season tires?" - yes
"Is the car front wheel drive?" - yes
Splendid, we're on our way.

As we were quickly finding out, this was not the best time of year to come to hike (ya, I know, winter, obviously not). However before we left, most people had told us the south island, where most of the hiking is, is still good year round. It might be cold, but how bad could it be?

oh, i see...pretty bad. After about an hour getting ourselves out of the parking lot, we soon discovered that the supposed "all season" tires which all spaceship rental vans are apparently equipped with, aren't quite the same as all season tires back home. In fact they bear a striking resemblance to our summer tires. ie, they SUCK in snow. Hunh, that's funny, the rear tires also seem to be the ones spinning. Oh wait, that because this isn't front wheel drive!

Well that's okay, everyone else with rentals seems to have chains, bit of a pain, but should be fine (note, chains are not included in spaceship rental)
Okay, well we can see if we can buy some, apparently you should be able to pick them up for around $60, they'll probably come it handy again ($180, actually)
Alright, well lets see how long this is going to last (road we're currently parked next to is closed, it's supposed to snow for 2 more days).
Bollocks!!!
Well this is just swell. Luckily we bumped into a couple English guys who'd stopped at the gas station we were at to put on chains (included with rental, of course). They'd just come down the road we needed to drive, and said it actually wasn't too bad. And their tires were as bald as ours. And from my experience in England, where any snow shuts the cities down, if English guys say it's okay, it's okay. Sure enough, the hardest part of the drive was making out of the parking lot. The snow stopped about 20 minutes up the road. To Mt. Cook we go!!

(Mt. cook is currently in thick fog, no point) To Queenstown we go!
Luckily we finally encountered some decent weather. Our standards had adjusted quite quickly...by decent, I mean overcast with mean looking clouds...but no rain/snow.

Time for the age old Cole thanksgiving tradition of hitting rock with a bat made out of a tree. Never gets old. Apparently my baseball swing bares a striking resemblance to my golf swing. Golf swing or not, the rock's goin yard town.

That night, we hopped on to an organized pub crawl. Jager bombs anyone?

We'd been told that in NZ you could park a campervan basically anywhere (unlike most countries were it's illegal to camp unless is a campground). However we were awoken at 7:30 the next morning to a knock on the window.. "Hi, my name's Dave from the Queenstown parking authority, you can't camp here, and if you do it again I'll give you a $400 ticket. You've got 5 mintues to leave". I love how friendly people are here, even when this guy's being a hardass he still introduces himself first. All jokes aside, NZ has probably been the friendliest place we've been (Brazil gives it a run though). This early morning wakeup was one major drawback of freedom camping I suppose, and it onyl happened once. The other drawback is lack of showers, however we found ways around that. The big hostels are quite easy to just walk into and usually have shared showers in the hallways, so we made due (not without getting shut down a few times along the way).

After Queenstown, we were back on the road on our way to Milford Sound.

Katie and the Robsons (sounds like a band)

2008-07-26T19:29:00.001-07:00

While on exchange England I had the the pleasure of getting to know a nice young lady called Katie. Despite clearly being a city girl, Katie grew up in a small town just south of Coffs Harbour called Sawtell. Though she goes to uni in Newcastle, her family still lives in Sawtell, which is a quaint little town with a lot to offer. Katie picked up Mark and I in Byron and we headed down where we spent 3 days with her family.

On our first day Katie's dad David arranged for some kayaks to be borrow from a family friend. We spent the morning paddling out the river down to the sea.

As well as the pelicans below we also got to see stingrays and fish swimming in the shallows (well Katie and I at least. Mark saw nothing, which bothered him greatly).

That evening Katie took us up to a lookout which has a nice view over the beach. She also informed us that this is where she used to go to make out with boys when she was in high school.

Don't worry Marieke, Mark got some love too.

Katie's house is right over there.....

After another day chilling out and seeing more of the town, David took the day off work and took us out for a hike. The hills behind Coffs are actually pretty high, and the localized climate makes for unexpectedly lush rainforest.

Now Katie is not what one might call an 'avid hiker,' or 'in good shape'. And although there was some concern of Katie "ruining it for everyone," she came along. What a trooper. Her favourite part...the clothes and shoes she borrowed from her sister.

This is the start of a steep decent down to the waterfall.

There was only one way in and out of the waterfall, so we had to walk back out on the same trail. Katie had held up well on the hike thus far, however the climb back up was her undoing. I believe "it felt like my heart was about to jump out of my mouth" was how she described it.

The next day we drove down to Newcastle where we had dinner with Katie's sister Trish and her man James. Katie and Trish both live in a nice area, however most of Newcastle is a hole, as it's basically a large port town for coal shipping. The next day Katie put Mark and I on the train to Sydney.

Helen and David, thank you for having us. The food and wine were delicious and it was great to finally meet you.

The Bay of Byron

2008-07-26T19:28:00.004-07:00

My first day in Byron I took a jog up to the infamous lighthouse. you haven't heard of it? well let me tell you.. this is a lighthouse. seriously, that's what it is, I don't know what else to say. nice view.
Our place of residence was the Arts Factory which sports outdoor picnic tables and hammocks providing many places to "chill" - a traveller's favoured activity.
Rich and Claire, who were friends met in Laos and hailing from Englang, met up with us in Byron. We went for a stroll on the beach and decided to build a sand castle. We let this guy apply the finishing touches.
Paul showed up that night and the four of us shared some dinner and a box of australia's finest goon (boxed wine). Next day we hired a couple surf boards between the four of us and hit the beach. Paul finding his true calling at the beach.
Continuing our image as surfers, without actually surfing.
Our hangout for the day.
While we did go surfing, Claire decided to spare us only taking fotage of us doing sports we know.
I could learn something from the french guys on the right about spontaneously looking happy.
Paul working the camera.
That night brought with it another round of cheap wine. Rich and Claire tought us a dice drinking game they'd picked up in Hong Kong. It goes simply by the name "dice", beautiful in it's simplicity. Rich can't contain his excitement.
We headed out to see a live band at Hotel Beach Bar. It appears Marieke's not the only older woman I can attract.
PDA's must be a little different in england.
Next day we were back on the boards. This time the waves were at Wategos beach, and perfect for beginners.
Heading out for the surf. This part I can do.
Waiting for the waves. Also good at.
Here's Rich catching a wave... bastard.
As Rich strides confidently out of the water, I falter on another wave and curse him in the background.Sunset came again, and again it brought our fantasy of being artistic photographers.

Fraser Island

2008-07-26T19:28:00.003-07:00

After some quality R&R in Brisi, we headed off to Fraser Island, the world's largest sand island. Mark took off a day earlier because Brisbane offered little chance for activity, and Slim was getting restless (he also had some flight stuff to figure out upon his return). Since he also forgot his camera in Brisbane most of the pictures are mine, so I'll take the lead on this entry.

We opted to do a 'self drive' tour, which is essentially a rental of on overland vehicle, only you don't need a full group to do it, they just put people in together. It's a lot cheaper, and you get to meet people as well.

Day1

We were greeted by a calm sunny day, and after our briefing, grocery run, and booze run, were on the island by about 1:00. That's our sweet ride on the far right.

And the first team photo. We were a solid international crew, representing Germany, Switzerland, Holland, Iceland, Korea, and of course Canada. Everyone got along really well, couldn't have asked for a much better group.

There were also another 2 trucks that went out on my day, each with only 1 guy in each of them. Now I know what you're all thinking, a guys dream, Paul, you missed out. Well, hopefully without offending all our female fans, when you're camping for 3 days, quite often with people who've never camped before, no, it aint a guys dream. Just ask Mark...

Luckily he did find some friends among the other trucks who went out that day, so it wasn't all bad.No back to us....the drive to Lake Makenzie begins...although navigation shouldn't have been very hard, a few groups did get quite lost (we only got minorly lost).

But we finally arrived. This place was awesome. Fresh water lake which is just clean white sand... only in Australia. Although we were unable to swim in the shark infested ocean, this made up for it.

Who likes waterproof cameras...

Goon time! I introduced a drinking game we learned from some Kiwis in Brazil. It was a hit.

The dingos lurked near by looking for scraps. They're actually really cute, and just look like domesticated dogs.

Day 2
First stop was the Maheno ship wreck. We never did find out the actual story behind the wreck...you can make up your own.

Aside from the dingos, there was other wildlife. The sand crabs are have an orderly system of ball making for digging out their holes. We never actually saw a crab though.

And a big mother jelly fish..

Second stop for the day was the Indian's Head lookout. Nice views, and got to see some tiger sharks swimming in the waters below.

And then the Champagne Pools. The name comes from the frothy water that washes over top of the rocks. This is as close as we came to swimming in the ocean.

Back on the Fraser Island highway. The beaches here are registered highways, and have a speed limit (80 km/h). There are actually police who can give you tickets. It was really fun driving the trucks.

The tents and tarps were pretty shite, but got the job done.

A couple friendly Aussies camping a little ways down the beach invited us over to their fire (which were illegal on Fraser). Guitar is usually the instrument of choice around the old campfire back home, but they went authentic with a big honkin didgeridoo.

Day 3
Eli Creek started the day. Just like Lake Makenzie, the water was crystal clear, and the bottom was nothing but clean sand.

Then to lake Wabbi. Crystal clear...not so much.

The sane dunes were really fun to jump off of though.

So are the beaches....team photo time! (if you're looking for me...I'm taking the picture)

And now some free advertising for our rental company.

Melbourne, Sydney & Brisbane

2008-07-26T19:28:00.001-07:00

Well these are three cities, and most of you have been to cities, so the pics and tails of our ventures may not provide the usual entertainment, but god damn it I'll try.

MELBOURNE
It's a pretty cool city, some call it the culture center of Australia. I would agree. Being a little cultural myself I tried to bring some class to the table...

Our hostel was in a neighbourhood called St. Kilda - kind of a big deal. Our first night there we were pooched from all our strenuous travelling, so we cruised St. Kilda and crashed. Second night the hostel bar was putting on a ladies night. I thought "you know who likes ladies, Behrang's ex-roommate Heath!". well actually he doesn't like them, and he prefers to go by Heathie. He came anyways though 'cuz he's a champ.

The following day was spent in recoup and wandering the local streets, trying to find direction and purpose.

Next night we opted for a bar hop around the city center. Some of our roommates came along.

I doooon't know...

Back to daytime. This time we wandered the banks of the river for some views of the city.

I picked up a new hat, it made me feel like a movie director. is it just me? ok, sorry, we don't have a lot to write about. Fraser Island's next, don't worry.
SYDNEY

My buddy Scotty from whistler lives in sydney. he put us up and showed us around. First Manly beach, then the fairy from Manly into sydney harbour.

Went out on "the piss" as they say, that's his bud Kade.
Paul interacting with the local wildlife.
Scotty bottom right. Stew far right. Stew had an interview the next day at 9. He decided the best prep would be to party 'til 5am. he's still waiting to hear back from them.

Next day we strolled the vista of Bondai beach. perfect waves for learning and here we were without our rashguards.

a quiet night and an early flight put us in brisbane by 1:00. We were crashing with paul's bud Saul from Leeds, who didn't get off work 'til 6:00. Storing our bags at the train station we set out to see the sights. For Brisbane this means a trip to queen st. - shops and restaurants - and south bank, home to a man-made pool with beach. Where Baywatch stars retire.
We had a couple bevies at a local bar that night. I was introduced to the australian trend of off-the-track betting in bars. Luckily wagers start at 50 cents. 4 bars, a few adrenaline rushes and multiple let-downs later, I'm $5 in the hole. Don't worry, I got a line on a winner that's gonna pay for this trip.

Saul and Paul. oh yeah, paul cut his hair.

Perth and WA

2008-07-01T03:15:00.000-07:00

After our day of R&R, Mark and I finally arrived in Australia. Perth was a nice city, full of really nice parks and beaches. It definitely had the feel of a much smaller city (i think it's almost 2 million), kind of felt like being in the suburbs...everywhere. After a staying in a hostel for a couple nights a friend of ours we met in South America named Luisa offered to let us stay with her. Given that a dorm room costs $30 a night each, this was a no brainer. Luisa and her mom Elena treated us to some proper Italian hospitality, we even met the extended family. We like to think we're now part of the family.

After 4 days in Perth and a couple good nights out, Mark and I headed out in a camper van for a week.

DAY 1:
Uneventful, mostly driving to get down the southern coast. However, a stop worth making was the "Wave Rock." Very cool.

The not unlike our wine purchasing tactics in Argentina, our camper van selection was the second cheapest. The extra headroom was a nice addition, and it also had a second bed.

Apparently the second bed is good for starting over the edge like a weirdo at the guy below. I have no other explanation for this picture.

DAY 2:
Now we know we're in Australia..

The first real destination, Esperence was finally reached. Much of the shoreline is protected as national parks, so the beaches are almost deserted (this may have also had something to do with the fact that it's currently winter in Australia).

The cold weather was no match for Mark and his boxers though. T, if you're wondering, Mark's quest for a bathing suit continues. One might think that finding board shorts in Australia would be easy. And...it is. Unfortunately Mark is a man who knows what he likes, and it aint what Australia's got.

We quickly realised that being winter, the sun sets quite early, usually around 5:30. After that, there isn't really much to do when you're camped out in the middle of nowhere. And thus, the "goon bag" (as they call box o' cheap wine in Australia) was discovered. It worked well at facilitating early bedtimes so we could wake up at the crack of dawn and get a full day of activity in. Unfortunately, while helping with the early bedtime, it also helped with sleeping for 12 hours at a time.

Day 3:
Our first kangaroo sighting...

And a trip up to the top of "Castle Rock."

Continuing with our trend of avoiding campsites where you had to pay (typical rate it $20 per night), we were forced to get creative. Not only are Woolworth's parking lots well lit, they also have plenty of obstacles which work well for frisbee golf.

DAY 4:
The day started off with a hike to the top of a lookout in Albany...Mark was happy.

The rest of the day was spent driving through amazing old growth forests. These huge eucalyptus trees rot in the middle as they age, then are often gutted by brush fires. The result is massive hollow trunks.

It's hard to see me, but if you can find me on the left of this one below hugging the tree you can get a sense of how big this thing is.

Next stop, the canopy walk...

And finally, the 'imposing' coast line outside Pemberton was home to the "Natural Bridge."

DAY 5:
Once again, we started the day with a hike to the to of a scenic lookout.

Followed by more old growth forests. This region had a couple old fire lookouts that the public can climb to the top of and enjoy the view. This was BY FAR the sketchiest thing I've done on this trip. The "ladder" to the top, was a spiral staircase made up of 1" metal rods drilled into the tree. Though there was a cage set up so you couldn't fall off the side, there was nothing below. I'd even find this surprisingly dangerous if I was in Bolivia. With nothing but these metal rods spaced out every foot or so, we climbed to the top of this 75m lookout. The view...average to good.

And of course, yet another amazing beach.

And this time, instead of hiking to the top of a scenic lookout in the morning, we just set up shop for the night on one. We never determined if this was allowed, but I'm pretty sure not.

After some more frisbee tossing, and subsequent struggles from Mark, I held a little seminar before bed. Next lesson....hackysacks.

DAY 6:

The original plan for day 6 was to go on a wine tour in Margaret River. However, we had heard good things about whale watching this time of year from a few people. Turns out, this time of year is their migration, and after a long hall they stop to rest in a bay outside of the town we were in.

Though the pictures naturally won;t do it justice, this was really cool. There were 4 whales which were swimming all around our boat for the whole 2 hours, getting within about 30 feet.

With the boat dropping us off at 1:00, we figured we could still check out a few wineries on our own. We were quick to realise, it's just not quite the same as doing a tour.

DAY 7:

The night before, we set up shop in an IGA parking lot right in the center town. Easy access to bars and restaurants, it worked out quite well. We met a Canadian fella who was heading out with some friends who we joined for a rather large night. Mark ended up bailing out at about 11:00, which was a blessing, because I awoke to the hangover of all hangovers. 5 litres of cheap wine...not advisable. Mark took one for the team and handled the 3 hour drive home while I slept in the back.

The one quick stop on the way was Bussleton Jetty. Apparently one of the worlds longest jetties.

And then back to Perth we went. Luisa and Elena put us up for another couple days before we headed out. Thank you once again for your hospitality.

Hotel Pan Pacific, Kuala Lumpur Airport

2008-07-01T03:13:00.000-07:00

We were back in KL on our way out. Upon returning to the mall to watch Indiana Jones 4 (good, see it) T and I decided to do a little browsing. He recommended this hat. They tell me that even if purchased the sticker is not to come off.
Next day we head to the airport to close out our time as a 3-man team. Turns out Paul and my flight to Oz was cancelled a month prior, but due to a system error they neglected to contact us. We were given a choice of flying through Singapore with a 6-hour lay over or being put up in the Hotel Pan Pacific for the night with complimentary meals. We chose the later, it turned out well.

We settled right into the life of luxury with our bathrobes and saw T off.
With the tearful good-bye outta the way, we got straight down to business.
I jump like an orangutan. The complimentary buffets came with, among other things, a sushi bar.
Not to mention a desert island, with a chocolate fountain the middle.
feeling a little sub-par in the dress department we decided to try to fit our environment for dinner.

Here's me checking the legs in my uhhhh, water - alcohol not inclusive.
Paul enjoying the delicacy of this food.
Being a little lethargic from taking full advantage of the buffet, we had to lie down a for a bit. Unable to roll myself over I called room service for a little assistance.

Gibbon Experience, Laos (Bokeo Nature Reserve)

2008-06-13T22:10:00.001-07:00

We took a 2 day slow-boat along the Mekong to Huay Xai. Decent scenery along the way. Met a generous, alcoholic Burmese man who didn't quite grasp the fact that we didn't speak chinese. I tried my best, but, just couldn't get it.
Got to Huay Xai, slept and set off on Gibbons the next morn. The experience starts with a 3 hour car ride out into the jungle. About a half hour out our truck broke down.
So they sent another, which also broke down.
One more truck and we made. Just look at how happy T was to finally get there.
We set off into the jungle with our harnesses and before long we were zipping at roughly 50 clics, 150m off the ground.
First day was we just hiked and zipped 3 or 4 lines out to our tree-house for that evening.
View from the bathroom of the tree-house.
Dining room.
Tea room.
Day 2 we woke up at 5:30 to head out on a trek looking for the gibbons.
Like many before us, we didn't find them. Not to worry, twas a foggy sunrise, which made for cool zip-lining.
After breaky we head out towards a waterfall, near treehouses 4 and 6 where we would sleep that night. The waterfall didn't meet the standards of our blog. After lunch at the waterfall, the guides told us it was free time 'til dinner and we could use the zip-lines at our leisure. So we spent the next 3 hours doing exactly that, cruising and zip-lining through the jungle, essentially just the 3 of us. it was ridiculously fun.
That last pic there is of tree-house 4, the setting of an ominous tale. Our group was 8. 6 were to sleep in tree-house 6, and 2 to sleep in the seclusion of tree-house 4. There were 2 couples in the group, however for some reason neither wished to take the opportunity of a night alone in the jungle. Paul suspects hard-core religion, I think it was fear of intimacy, Dr. Phil taught me that. This gave Paul and I the chance to start spending some quality time together. So we have dinner at tree-house 6, head out and get to tree-house 4 just as it's getting dark. The wind picks up and the tree starts swaying. We had been informed in the opening video briefing that if the wind gets too strong, the guides will come evacuate you, but wait for the guides. Then swaying picks up. We call down to the guides on the ground about 200m away. They yell something back. This exchange happens a couple more times. Two massive trees across the valley fall and crash into the jungle. We decide to get the hell outta there. Upon arriving at the guides' huts they explained to us that they were yelling at us to come down. Apparently we were only in danger code orange, not red. In orange the danger is just enough to have weaker guests fearing for their lives, while the guides yell stuff at them in convoluted english, adding confusion to the fear and compounding the stress. We missed this part of the video briefing.

The wind calmed down and we returned to the hut. Already on edge I lay shaking in the fetal position. Just as I thought the sweet release of sleep would take me away, a tremor hit the jungle shaking the tree once more. I called to Paul in his mosquito net to see if he too needed a new pair of boxers. Groggily he told me to grow a pair and get back to sleep.

Luang Prabang, Laos

2008-06-06T08:43:00.000-07:00

From Vang Vieng we bused to Luang Prabang, standard route. Luang Prabang is an old french colonial town so it's got plenty of cafes with patios lining the streets. in fact one might say an extreme number of cafes. once again, extreme, that's just how we roll. It's also got this restaurant with small fire pits in the middle of the tables. They pour coals in the pits and put a big metal saucer on top for you to cook some meat and veggies in.
Was pretty cool to do the cooking ourselves. good deal for the restaurant too, people paying to cook their own food. felt like I was painting a white fence.

The bars in Laos legally have to close at 11, outside Vang Vieng that is. Somehow this licensed bowlerama dodges that law so everyone goes for some late night pin striking. T draws his talent from multiple viewings of The Big Lebowski.

Luang Prabang is home to roughly 400 buddhist monks. We toured some of their establishments.
view from a hilltop temple.
Second day we bartered to get an elephant ride, kayaking and 20 minutes of internet in exchange for local currency. Me and Stampy...
Paul and T relishing their remaining time together, knowing all to well how quickly the sand was running out of that hourglass.
Third day we got a crew together and head out to some waterfalls an hour outside town. Just wouldn't be a blog post without topless Paul.
Damn that's 3 in a row. but who's still counting right?

The crew in front of the waterfall.
Well it's a waterfall, so T and I cozzied up. sorry Marieke, he's good.
At 5:30 every morn, people from the town gather along this one street to donate food to the monks, their only source of sustenance. We went to check it out our last day.
All 400 of 'em line single file and cruise down the street. This sight is made all the more authentic by tourists getting right up beside the monks for pics. despicable. hope you like the pics.

Vang Vieng, Laos

2008-06-05T04:37:00.000-07:00

We got back to Hanoi, did some blogging and hopped on a 24-hr bus to Vientiane, Laos. The shuttle to the bus picked us up at our hostel. Other passengers of the shuttle held us up a half hour raising concerns of not getting seats on the bus - it's a local bus. Not to worry, it seems they wanted to ensure we'd make the bus in time and got us there 2 hours before departure. Looking to make the best of the situation we decided to kill some time tossing a disc in the bus station parking lot. We were told this was not allowed and that boredom was the only acceptable behaviour.

Continuing to stress excessive punctuation, we arrived at the Vietnam/Laos border 2 hours prior to opening. It opened. We crossed. The bus failed inspection due to leaking oil. A hefty bribe was negotiated. Apparently bribes are a negotiable transaction here.

We hit Vientiane, stayed the night and moved on to Vang Vieng. We set up shop at RiverSide Bungalows. T rented a bike and got into the spirit of the town..

The thing to do in Vang Vieng is tubing, down a river, surrounded by mountains, lined with bars, each sporting a rope swing, zip-line or other device to propel yourself into the water. that's how you support tourism.
After hitting the sauce for 2 nights and a day we took a breather on the second day. what to do? more frolf? more frolf.

having recouped it was back to the river.
one of the funny things to watch is people trying to manoeuvre themselves in their tubes over to the first bar. this is sometimes less than graceful.
more tubin
being a traveller hub it only made sense we should run into someone, that's Hannah from our Acacia tour.
Between my overly flexed skeletal right arm and T squeezing his breath I think it's clear we've been keeping in shape.
alcohol and high speed swinging on home-made contraptions. don't worry it was all supervised.
Paul making friends...

Sapa, Vietnam

2008-05-26T20:12:00.001-07:00

Sapa is a relatively small town (less than 40,000) in the north of Vietnam in the mountains that boarder China. The surrounding area is home to small villages of Vietnamese natives. We arrived in the morning and after catching up on some sleep (overnight train), we headed up a trail to the top of a mountain that overlooks the city.

One of the nicest things about Sapa was that the temperature is significantly cooler than anywhere else we'd been in SE Asia. Very nice to be able to walk for more than 30 seconds without sweating. As always, Mark managed to find a dog to play with.

We had all afternoon, so plenty of time to stop and smell the flowers.

The following day we headed out on a 2 days trek. There was no shortage of water buffalo used by the locals for plowing their rice crops. T wasn't pleased about this.

The main industry in the area is rice. The hillsides are covered in terraces with some pretty elaborate irrigation systems which all feed out of natural rivers.

Despite Sapa being nice and cool, we quickly dropped to lower elevation and were back into humid bamboo forests.

Only one way to fight the heat.

We arrived to our homestay at about 3 in the afternoon (our guide informed us we were her fastest group ever...no big deal). It was such a cool spot. Tiny little village surrounded by rice fields with a huge waterfall behind it.

When this chicken was nesting, they swapped its eggs with duck eggs (i think the mother died), but the chicken and the ducklings were none the wiser.

For the rest of the afternoon we headed out the waterfall...

Sorry Marieke, you're pretty than T, but he's got a big advantage when he keeps taking Mark to romantic spots like this.

The next morning we headed out early and hiked into the fog. A nights rain and muddy clay paths made for a grueling first couple hours until we reached the summit.

Ban Ho village from above...

Unfortunately T was left in charge of bringing sunscreen on the hike...and in a shocker to us all he forgot it. After getting pretty burnt the first day, T and I were forced to resort to natural means of sun protection. Yes, i know, it looks ridiculous...but it actually worked really well.

Dermott, if you read this, this place is for you. Waterfalls everywhere!!!!

And a final picture with our guide Dom. Don't let her tiny stature fool you..she whooped our ass on the hikes, and she didn't in running shoes.

A last meal before the train. The view from the hotel restaurant was amazing...

Halong Bay, Vietnam

2008-05-26T20:11:00.005-07:00

After a few days in Hanoi, we left on for a boat tour in Halong Bay. This was highly recommended by basically every traveler we met in Vietnam, and was well worth it. We went for the slightly more expensive option, which included better food, free kayaking, and karaoke (this was the big selling point for Mere). After a quick scare with the girls forgetting their passports at our guesthouse, we were on the road for a painful 4 hours in a minibus, in which Mere recounted some less than tasteful camp stories which the entire bus could hear (i don't know how they could, she has such a soft voice).

Finally we arrived..oh yess

The steep rocky cliffs had a very similar look to Krabi (Thailand). Absolutely beautiful. We were also very fortunate to have a clear sunny day, which hadn't really happened much in Vietnam for us yet.

The bay was full of women in row boats selling snacks and drinks. The beers on the boat were kind of pricey, so this was a nice option. However, if you got caught with outside beers you had a to pay an "opening fee". Mark staked it out and managed to get a bunch into our room while the crew was distracted. Unfortunately he was rattled for an hour afterwards because he almost got caught. Ya...he's a real badass. Maybe crime just isn't your calling Mark.

The first activity of the afternoon was to go to a set of caves. The view over the bay from the entrance was very nice.

The caves turned out to be a lot more impressive than we expect. Pictures won't do it justice, but here's a few.

After that it was into the kayaks. There was a cool lagoon about 20 minutes away that is only accessible by going through a hole in a massive cliff.

Kayaking back into the sunset.

Quick stop for some beers before we got back on the boat....love it.

And a swim before the sun went down. They weren't down with us jumping off the top, but everyone pulled the ignorance card.

And finally Mere got her wish...karaoke time. When we first got up there the crew were all watching a Japanese soap opera and told us "no music, no karaoke". Fuck that!!! They caved pretty quickly though. Best song honours go to Mere and Jenny for "Oh What a Night" (seen below), best commentary goes to T ("Try the salmon, it's excellent"), best rap goes to Mark (the song wasn't even a rap song....what a thug!), and best joke goes to Andy for his borderline jokes that only a sweet old man can get away with.

Didn't take long to get the whole boat rockin (that's Andy in the foreground). Despite the pretty large mix of ages, it turned out to be one of the funnest nights in Vietnam.

Even the crew got into it. The guy in blue shirt left and put on pants for this performance. Love those Vietnamese love songs.

Later in the night, T returned from the bathroom with news "Two things. First of all, Mark is passed out on a couch, so we need to mess with him (all present agreed). Second, the ladder in still in the water, so I think we should have a late night dip." Mark was actually awake, so he got up before we could do anything, and joined us for the swim. Crew; not happy. And that kids, is way you don't leave the ladder in the water.

The next day was another beauty...nothing to do but relax and enjoy the sun.

Part way through the morning we passed by a floating fishing village which was pretty cool..

After 1 night back in Hanoi, and a last night out with the girls, we said goodbye. Take care ladies, safe travels home, and see you back in the T-dot.

Hanoi, Vietnam

2008-05-26T20:11:00.003-07:00

We pulled in at 6am and set up shop in the old quarter. Once the girls had roused from their uninterrupted sleep we headed out to cruise the streets led by Jenny's unfaltering orienteering, all we had to do was not let go of the rope.

We checked out an island on this small lake in the middle of the city. An old fishing post of a late king.
The rest of the afternoon was uneventful. The girls went shopping. I bought a pair of converse shoes. This is my weak attempt to diversify my style from standard old-man clothes. I'll carry them through Australia, wear them once, they'll find residence at the back of a closet at home, then be donated to goodwill in a spring-cleaning operation 5 years from now.

Headed for Halong Bay the next morn.

Hue, Vietnam

2008-05-26T20:11:00.001-07:00

Hue was a mandatory 6-hour stop over from Hoi An to Hanoi. T took this opportunity to get a dental-wire bent back after it had popped out. It was touch-and-go but he's back in the game. Paul and I were able to hop on the second half of a full day tour. This took us to the citadel, a buddhist pagoda and finally a recommended boat cruise down the perfume river.

The citadel is an old small city, surrounded by a wall, 10km in circumference. There was some pretty cool architecture and sculptures inside.

Outside the main gate.
Babu goes to SE asia (seinfeld fans?)...
little shrine at the back of the pagoda.
some monks in training, discussing the meaning of life, enlightenment and who was better, early skinny buddha or older fatter budha.

The boat trip didn't produce any blog-worthy pics.
M

Hoi An, Vietnam

2008-05-26T20:10:00.000-07:00

Hoi An was our next stop on our on off bus ticket. The city is best known for its' picturesque Old City and for the millions of tailor shops around. All three of us spent some time getting suites and shirts hand tailored here for a fraction of what it would cost back home. Unfortunately we have no pictures of that whole process but take it from me we look damn good.

We ran into Jenny and Mere again here and went out on the town a couple of nights good times.

After the first bar we went to closed we went to a after hours bar called King Kong where a pathetic game of team pool was played.

Walking home with the sun coming up provided some good photo opts.
Deep in thought.

Nha Trang, Vietnam

2008-05-26T20:08:00.001-07:00

Nha Trang was a brief two day stop on our bus journey north. The beach located in the heart of the city was quite nice although weather wise we didn't luck out to much.

The one temple we visited during our brief time in Nha Trang was Long Son Pagoda and it did not disappoint. This gold Buddha and the two other large Buddha statues located were it's main attraction and pretty cool to see.

Our room bath tub provided an excellent place for me to wash all my clothes at once. The water was too hot to touch by hand and yes that is a flagpole. Traveling really makes you apprciate washing machines.

Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

2008-05-26T20:07:00.004-07:00

We all arrived safe and sound in Vietnam with know problems whatsoever. Ho Chi Minh previously known as Saigon was our first stop. We mainly used the city to help plan the rest of Vietnam and get some much needed R&R but we got out and some things as well. Cu Chi tunnels which are located about an hour drive outside of the city was probably the most interesting thing to see around Ho Chi Minh. During the Vietnam war these tunnels were part of a much larger network that covered much of the country used by NFL guerrillas to resist American front. This is one of the entrances to the tunnel system. As you can see it's Vietnamese size.
Mark had know problem squeezing due to lack of proper nutrients on this trip.

Paul was able to squeeze in everything except his head which may or may not have a direct correlation to how dark his tan has gotten on the trip.

I didn't even attempt which i think was a wise move. I blame Mac's genes and steak.
You really wouldn't want to step on that.
Or that

Or let this swing into you.
The tunnels themselves were just like you would expect small and dark.
Mark?
We also ran in Jenny and Mere again in Ho Chi Min and went out for a few bevies at a bar called Apocalypse Now. Good times for sure.
This guy was an ex pat that was creeping on Jenny and Mere and was difficult to shake. He did however buy a couple rounds for the group. Way to take one for the team girls. Eventually he got the hint.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

2008-05-26T20:07:00.003-07:00

We arrived in Phnom Penh circa 3:00 and headed straight to the Vietnamese embassy to score some visas. It was here that we met Jennet and Meredith. Throughout the next few posts you will come to know and love them, or feel indifferent towards them, either way. Sticking with our goal of branching out to new cultures, these two hail all the way from eastern Toronto. The land where what we know as "Bloor St." becomes "The Danforth". We decided to booze as a collective that night. I invited out my good pal Brendan MacDonald who happened to be in the neighbourhood. He brought his acquaintance Mike Boynton. They also brought their personal hire tuk-tuk driver Joe (likely not his birthname, he's vietnamese). Boozing was fun.
To introduce the characters, from left to right: Mere, Boynton, mr.cole, Jenny, Brendo.
Our guesthouse was on the edge of a lake/marsh.
View from the guesthouse restaurant.
The next day we went to check out a couple of sites related to the Khmer Rouge. The Khmer Rouge was a communist army that took over Cambodia by force in 1975. They forced all people living in cities to move to the country. The idea was to establish an economy based on an absurd amount of rice exports. Many men, women and children, accused of objecting to the movement were tortured and killed. The people carrying out the killings were often doing so out of fear for their own safety from the ruling party. Roughly 1/3 of the country's population (or 1.5 million) were murdered under the Khmer Rouge rule. In 1979 the Socialist Republic of Vietnam invaded Cambodia and removed the Khmer Rouge from power. The people of Cambodia are recovering and trying to move on. We visited 2 sites: Tuol Sleng and the killing fields. Tuol Sleng was a detention and torture center and has now become a museum detailing various aspects of the Khmer Rouge rule.

Taken when the army moved into Phnom Penh.

Taken when the army was expelling city dwellers to the country.
They have erected a monument in memory of those murdered at the killing fields.
Inside are stacks upon stacks of just some of the hundreds of skulls of bodies dug up from the surrounding fields.
One of many mass grave sites. This one held 450 victims.

Angkor Wat, Cambodia

2008-05-26T20:07:00.001-07:00

After Bangkok we hopped on a bus and head for a city in Cambodia called Siem Reap. Just outside of this city the Angkor ruins can be found. The ruins initially constructed in the early 12Th century by King Suryavarman II and were definitely one of the highlights for Cambodia. One of the really nice things about visiting the ruins here is that you able to climb around and walk through the various sites more so than allot of other ruins visited.

Not really sure how trees are able to grow at top ruins like this but they seemed to be everywhere which we all thought was pretty cool.

This ruin known as Bayon is probably one of the most famous within Angkor. Apparently the faces are of the King Jayavarman VII represented as Bodhisattva (translated as Wisdom-Being).

We didn't manage to take a picture of it but i think we ran into a couple doing the Amazing Race here. We'll have to check out the next season but the couple was being followed by a camera man and they had to find a specific face in the ruins. I did my best to make a cameo between this and Bollywood I am really getting my face out there.

Bangkok, Thailand

2008-05-26T20:04:00.000-07:00

T and I flew and Paul bused into Bangkok. Having splurged an extra $40 on the flight, T and I decided to save $2 going with a cheaper hostel that night. It all balances out. Our place was on KhoaSan Rd, seen below.
With a day sans Paul, T and I decided to cruise around the Bangkok black markets. The first market turned out to be 3 blocks worth of women's clothes and fabrics. Not looking to join the Lady-boy movement, we pushed on. We headed east towards MBK, the knock-off clothing mall, hoping to hit a restaurant on the way. 4 hours later, we'd seen a massive golden buddha statue, and had yet to cross a restaurant when we hit MBK. Apparently the restaurants were congregated here. We bought some T-shirts and polos. I checked out the watches.. still haven't found the one. Boozed a bit that night. Met some lovely young local ladies, with surprisingly deep voices and firm hand-shakes. They insisted we join them in their hotel room, for some fun partying, but we were exhausted so we hit the sac.

Paul rejoined the crew the next morning. We hit the malls again the next day for some more clothes and to pick up an external hard drive to replace our previous, faltering picture storage unit (a.k.a. "Steve"). We were able to load our Ipods with flicks from one DVD stand. With that, the expected number of books I'll read fell by 80%. We hoped on a bus the next morn to Siem Reap, home of Angkor Wat.
M

Rai Lay, Thailand

2008-05-23T03:39:00.000-07:00

A ferry and a longtail boat ride got us to Railay. No land access, not unlike our cottages, that's just how we roll. We got off the longtail onto the beach and decided to chill with the sunset before finding lodging.
little disc in the fading light.
It just so happened there was a 3-day festival/competition for fire-dancing and rock climbing. extreme combo. Lots of RedBull fans. The night time fire-dancing shows were inclusive with live music and food on the beach.
chillin.
The show.

Post booze shenanigans.
The next day we rented some 2 man kayaks, it was team building exercise. Unfortunately there were 5 of us. T got cut from the team.
Our kayaking venture took us to a beach with some caves. Some bigger caves, some smaller. Some filled with penis statues and some not.

That night the festival was back on. This time on the adjacent beach, separated by a treacherous scramble across rocks both slippery and jagged.. another extreme combo. we like to keep it extreme. well not really, but we try.

Following morn we put our discs to use with some Frolf along the beach. This event was made possible by Mary Young and Marieke Scholz. Marieke Scholz - picking up Mark's slack since 2006.

There's a lot of canadians in south east asia. Good representation from lawrence park too. That night we ran into about 7 from the LP area who we partied with. Just trying to branch out.

M

Koh Phi Phi, Thailand

2008-05-12T06:55:00.000-07:00

After a day of recouping from the all night festivities, we made our way to Koh Phi Phi, on the west side of mainland. We got there in the blistering heat of afternoon. This gives those hotel owners offering A/C an edge on bargaining. They said 150, we said 100, they said 150, we took 150.

It was on Phi Phi that we got our first intro to the legendary Lady-boys. There was a group of them on one corner trying to draw customers to a Lady-boy Show. Now I'm told some of them pull it off quite well, and that I'd never know. I'm sure this was often the case, but there's definitely the flipside, born with Robin Williams hands and a voice reminiscent of Sean Connery. Not much you can do about that. Unfortunate for them.

Next morning we headed for some cheaper accomodation and met up with Paul's bud Ty Pridham, who was travelling with his girlfriend Ali. I decided to do my PADI Openwater cert while on Phi Phi, so I headed out to get it going. The rest of the crew went to chill on one of the nicer beaches of the island.
That's Ali's friend Teagan. Coincidentally it was Ty's birthday, so they got sloppy that night. Apparently booze doens't mix well with diving; that's me sucking water in the background.
A few drinking games kicked off the festivities. By the end of the night it was clear who won.

Day 2 was spent predominantly in recoup for the rest of crew, watching flicks at the guesthouse. My PADI cert continued. By 5 o'clock everyone was back in shape, good enough reason to do it all over again. Day 3 I finished by cert by 1. We hired a long-tail boat to take us around to some beaches and snorkelling.
Inclusive on this tour was the infamous Maya beach from "The Beach".Before heading off to RaiLay on the last day, we hit the local beach on Phi Phi.
Then we ventured up a decent hike to a lookout point. Paul's sunscreen didn't quite set before the hike.
View from the lookout point.

Koh Phangan, Thailand

2008-05-12T06:23:00.000-07:00

After 5 weeks and relatively little bowel disruptions, T and I thought we got out clean. We celebrated with some seafood bought on the side of the street. Then in the airport on the way out, the so-called "Dehli Belly" hit both of us. Thankfully only a 24 hour ailment, with the help of some antibiotics.

We landed in Kuala Lumpur on the 17th. We went to check out the Petronas Towers. Saw "Street Kings" on the big screen. It sucks, don't see it.

Next morning we were off to Krabi. Met a solid Swede by the name of Gustav. Cabbed to Surat Thani and hoped a ferry to Koh Phangan arriving a couple days before the full moon party.
Cozy Bungalows.

In Thailand the cheap route for intoxication is "buckets". I don't know why I used quotation marks, they're actually buckets, with a healthy mix of red bull, coke and vodka.

Paul likey...
T, not so much.
T trying to maximize inflow.

taste test, I like blue.
the infamous partay.
Gustav on the right.
party on and on 'til the early morn..

Agra Club Golf Course, India (Agra)

2008-04-15T07:55:00.001-07:00

T and I had a couple days to kill on the way back to Dehli. We figured we take the time to really immerse ourselves in Indian culture, so we hit the links.
The greens were uncannily well watered. The fairways, not so much, understandably so.. sometimes the lie was a little thin.
Caddies are mandatory at the Agra GC and provided some useful course info. Here's one explaining the relationship between the ball and it's "home" in the cup.
Where some have stray dogs, India has cows. Where some have canadian geese, India has more cows.
My play was a little poor. I figured the shirt was the problem.

Varanasi, India

2008-04-15T07:53:00.001-07:00

Varanasi sits on the Ganges river. Despite a bit of a hygiene issue, the Ganges is considered deeply spiritual by natives of India. As such, many choose to cremate their loved ones on the river, their ashes falling in. Understandably it's disrespectful to take pics of the cremations, so use your imagination here.

Similarly, it is seen as a soul cleansing experience to bathe in the river. The bathing takes place in the early morn. Our guesthouse offered free sunrise rowboat rides along the river, for a sneak peek. Unlike the cremations, it's cool to take pics of the bathing, as long as you can accept yourself as someone photographing a man washing himself.
Stretching back about a click from the riverside is a network of alleyways, before you hit road. It's pretty cool to get lost wandering the markets and restaurants in these alleys.

In true Indian style, there are cows and bulls chilling around the alleys like stray dogs. There are no stray dogs. For the most part these large bovines are peaceful creatures, accepted in homes as part of the family.
On occasion however, they know not their own strength. Such was the case when one reared it's head in anger catching Thirnan in the kidney with it's horn. T still has flashbacks of the fire he saw in it's eyes and the raw animal power thrust into his torso. Shortly thereafter we encountered a small calf in the alleys named Snowball. T avoided eye contact and backed away slowly.

Now with all these cows and bulls, one might expect cow patties littering the alleys. It seems there's a bit of an industry in drying them out for fertilizer or fire starters. Here's Paul checking the purity of one batch.
100% pure, totally uncut, he's never seen anything like it.

Varanasi.. at night.
Cruising along the river in the evening.
We met a fellow canuck by the name of Meghan. Some may recognize her as the Albertan representative in the 03 Canadian Amateur Hair-Stylist competitions. She still contends the Ontario representative used illegal scissors and should be stripped of her title. Regardless she gave T and I the best cuts we've ever had. sorry Sal (my barber).
Me doing a little jump-rope to shed some pounds. Gotta keep those ribs looking sharp.

Marieke's vacation time - all of it

2008-04-14T22:57:00.000-07:00

As some of you may have noticed, my mug has been omitted from all India pics to date. It's because the one know as Marieke came for a mid-term review of my travels. After 3 days in Mumbai, Marieke had had enough culture and wanted what she came for - some beach time, so we headed to Goa. 9 days were spent there, soaking it all in before heading to Dehli and the infamous Taj. Here's how it went down...

MUMBAI
Wanting to look my best for Marieke's arrival, I picked out my finest pair of boxers and combed my hair to perfection.
As already told in the tales of Paul and T, caucasians are kind of a big deal in India. With Marieke's german background and coming off canadian winter, her skin was it's whitest white, prime for locals to take photos aplenty. We sold a copy of this one for 6 bananas. That's the Gate of India behind us.
on the end of a pier.
Chowpatty beach.
kid making a living.

GOA
Goa's full of beaches, some say more beaches than one can handle. Having researched it thoroughly, Marieke decided the beach for us was Palolem, the party beach in the south.

Palolem - at night.
from the stoop of our hut.
Our time in Goa consisted of an endless hunt for beaches. When Palolem beach got old we rented a moped and headed north in search of other beaches.
Beaches with hot sand.
Beaches with dogs to play with.
Still unsatisfied with the amount of beaches, Marieke insisted we rent a moped again, this time going south in hopes of finding still more beaches.

Resort beaches where we could pretend to be guests.
Protected beaches for turtle nesting areas..
..with no one around to witness Marieke secretly practicing her frisbee skills..
.. and get pics for to apply as next week's Sunshine girl.
Despite all the beaches reached by moped, Marieke's thirst was still unquenched. Thus she insisted we rent a kayak to look for more beaches by water.
Now I ask you, does that sound like a girl who's had all the beaches she can handle? I think not.

To Marieke's great delight, we found a secluded beach, all to ourselves.
Look for this one in next year's christmas cards.
DEHLI
Being in India, Marieke decided she should see the Taj, so we headed up to Dehli for a little more big city India. We toured around town for a little sight seeing.

Humayan's Tomb.
Marieke relaxing by Humayan's tomb, and shortly thereafter being defecated on by a bird. They say it's good karma.
The Red Fort. India has a lot of forts.
Lodhi gardens.
India Gate, the second.
Masjid.
Marieke spending some time with her fans, after all they're the ones who make it happen.
Chandni Chowk
Marieke thoroughly enjoying a popsicle, they were good.
We hired a cab and took a day trip to Agra to see the Taj. 5 hours there, 4 hours back, long day. Was worth if of course. I have a feeling you might be pretty familiar with pics of the Taj after Paul and T's upcoming post, so I'll keep it to one.
M

Agra

2008-04-12T22:21:00.002-07:00

Leaving Jaipur we headed to Agra for a day trip to see the Taj Mahal.

The building itself is nothing special on the inside however the outside definitely makes up for it. Not really much else to say.

Enjoying a few bevies with a sweet view not such a bad day at all.

Jaipur

2008-04-12T22:21:00.001-07:00

From Jodhpur we headed to Jaipur Markless. Jaipur turned out to be a really eventfull stop with lots to see. Bike rickshaws were more common here than in previous cities visited so we thought we would give one a shot. You really end up feeling sorry for these guys because they really are working it in the heat. Especially pulling Paul and myself being that we are definitely bigger than the average Indian.

The old Pink City is probably what Jaipur is most famous for. This older part of Jaipur was great for just walking around an exploring at your own pace.

While walking through the Pink City a man approached Paul and just started talking to him. This is very common in India basically everywhere and 90% of the time the person is just trying to sell you something. As it turns out this guy was a University student in the town that had just finished his final exams for the semester and had nothing to do. He offered to show us around the city as a tour guide for free and in exchange we would be helping him with his english. He was a good guy so it worked out really well for the group of us.

The Monkey temple was probably the coolest thing that we got so see in Jaipur. This temple just outside the city was completely overrun with monkeys everywhere.

The Temple involved a series of pools that men, women and monkeys would all bath in. Just in case you were wondering the colours in this picture are correct the pools were quite green. I tried to trick Paul into going for a swim but no dice.

Apparently goats can jump pretty high, I did not know that.

Floating Temple

Amber Fort

Our friend ended up taking us to this Elephant temple which for a small donation we could get up and close to about 6 elephants. It made for some pretty good pics.

The last thing we ended up seeing in Jaipur was this fort atop a mountain overlooking the whole city. The view did not disappoint.

We ended up arriving at the fort just around the time that it was closing for the day. In order to get inside and check out the amazing view from the top one of the workers insisted the we bribe him. 10 Rupees ($0.25) was what he was after and we obliged on condition that we could document it.

Funniest picture from India so far.

Jodhpur, India (Rajathan)

2008-04-04T07:51:00.001-07:00

Jodhpur was our next stop in India and it came with a added bonus...

Mark returned from traveling with his lonely self (dramatized photo of actual event) and was eager to spend some quality times with his good friends. The time apart for Mark had not gone well as he is easily frieghtented.

Jodhpur is an interesting busy city with lots of markets and historical sites. The most notable attraction being Mehrangarh Fort, definitely the most impressive fort so far.

This temple was referred to be some of the locals as the mini Taj Mahal. We later would find out that was a bit of a stretch but cool regardless.

This guy makes a mean pair of shoes you can count on that.

This palace built by the royal family and at one time was just a residence. Now however it is both a residence and a hotel. Unfortunately you were only able to see a fraction of it if you weren't actually staying in the hotel. Collective disappointment was high.

By the end of a couple days Mark set off to tackle another part of India on his own once again. Lets hope he doesn't get lost.

Udaipur, India (Rajasthan)

2008-04-04T07:49:00.000-07:00

After a great time in the south, we headed up north to the province of Rajasthan. It was a long 2 days of travelling, taking back to back overnight bus and train, so we were pretty spent when we got there. We ended up checking out a guest house our rickshaw driver's dad ran, which turned out to be new, clean, and really cheap (200 Rs for the double room, about $5). The view from the rooftop restaurant was great, though the food left something to be desired.

Though the city was actually pretty big, it had a small feel because most of the sights were all on the lake. All the streets were very narrow, many of them only accessible by foot.

Like a lot of cities in India, everyone does laundry and baths in the lake, which is absolutely filthy. Apparently it's less evident after the monsoons because the water level rises significantly.

T put it best..."I would rather drink the water from Lake Ontario than bath in this water."

There is a palace up an a hill above the ghats which over looks the lake. On the lake there are also 2 palaces, one of which has been turned into a swanky hotel. A chunk of the James Bond movie Octopussy was filmed in Udaipur, and it's become standard at every guest house to play that movie every single night. No other movies are available.

Dinner on a rooftop restaurant, lovely.

The second day there we booked our rickshaw driver to take us around the city. His English was excellent and he was a pretty good guy, a little pricey, but we figured worth it. Of course, he gave the job to a friend of his who barely spoke English. The tour turned out to be fine in the end, however we've found these kind of sneaky deals standard issue in India.

Above is a local vegetable market, below T is testing out some

We finished off the tour with a trip up to a palace on top of a hill which overlooked Udaipur. The palace was nothing special, but had a great view and a great sunset.

Hampi, India (Karnataka) - Moped Diaries, Part II

2008-03-30T07:55:00.000-07:00

Before heading north to see some of the classic sights of India, we decided to stop into a town called Hampi which we had heard good things about from a couple other travellers. It was a good move. It turned out to be an unbelievable place, which has received surprising little hype given how cool it is. The town is quite small and remains very rural given how great a tourist attraction it is. The town is set amongst ruins from the Vijayanagara empire which was apparently one of the largest empires in India's history, roughly 1300's to mid 1500's. The hole area is surround by jungle amongst massive boulders which were used for the huge temples. Below is the main street of Hampi....

T and I walked up to see a view over the town on our first day...
And like all south American villages where all the kids play soccer, everyone in India play cricket...

T and I got blessed by an elephant...so we got that goin for us, which is nice.

The monkeys hang out on the main tower, waiting for the ladies selling bananas to let their guard down so they can make off with bananas. I saved them the trouble..

In Hindu religion, cows are often considered to be sacred, and thus beef is not eaten anywhere in India. As well, cows cannot be killed for the same reason. We're not sure where they all came from then, but for some reason, every town place we've been to is full of stray cows, like you have stray dogs. Literally cows all over the place, eating garbage, lounging around, getting in the way of rickshaws. This fella here was just looking for some love....

And once again, we headed out on the open road on the mopeds. There really was no better way to see all the ruins which are littered throughout the surrounding area.

The some of the ruins were very impressive, and unlike a lot of other places you may see ruins, they were free to enter and we seldom saw another person inside.

It was nice buzzing around because the roads were all but empty. The traffic we encountered was the odd heard of goats.

After a siesta to pass the afternoon heat (it was really, really hot), we headed out to a waterfall we heard about. The trail there was a beautiful walk through palm trees and banana plantations.

As it turned out, the "waterfall" was more of a fast moving river, but it turned out to be really cool. The rock had been carved into really cool shapes over the years.

After that, we headed up to a temple on the highest peak in the area for an awesome sunset.

The monkeys in the area also like to enjoy the sunsets up there.

There was a snake charmer outside our hostel the next day which was pretty cool.

Now remember kids, don't try this at home...

Our rickshaw driver to the bus station was Mr. Paul. He had very professional business cards..

Us with the Irish boys...good fun lads...hopefully do it again in Thailand. Grape!

Pete (Aka "the body Maloney) decided to stay behind in Goa to be with a lady, and we actually never got a picture with him. All we had was this one from the bus to Goa. Apparently he sleeps with a bag over his head, hostage style, when he's on buses.

Palolem, India (Goa) - Moped Diaries Part 1

2008-03-30T07:52:00.000-07:00

After a very short 17 hour bus ride from Mumbai, we arrived at Palolem, a beach town in the province of Goa. The bus tickets we bought were for a sleeper with AC. We got neither, India Travel Agents 1 us 0.This beach is supposed to be one of the better party beaches in India although it still seemed tame. Regardless we had an awesome week.

Hugh our Irish buddy suggested that we rent mopeds and tour around the mostly rural area, defiantly a good call.

Paul was really hoping that the mopeds came with a leather one piece suit. It didn't so he decided to go shirts off, that's just how he rolls.

Riding around on mopeds allowed us to see allot of the area that wouldn't have gotten to see. Added bonus the four of us on mopeds looked pretty rough.

Along the way we ran into this temple and had a look inside.

This lad is the third Irishman of the group Dermott. He was a big fan of the mopeds as well.

Sweet bucket T

Along the way we stumbled upon this small secluded beach. It was a bit of a trek to get to but completely worth it.

That just screams badass

Another week in Paradise, I'm getting used to this.

The Beards

2008-03-26T23:47:00.001-07:00

Not sure who's idea it was, but at some point prior to the tour we all agreed to grow our beards for the entire 30 days. Though it wasn't the plan at the time, Mark hadn't shaved since new years, so he figured why not let her go, so he was looking at a solid wood chopper beard by the end of it. When we were in Dubai, a guy even asked him if he was Muslim.

Mark in all his glory. The shirt and the axe are a nice compliment...and of course...the crazy eyes

Alan here knows a thing or two about beards.

T had a pretty solid (and slightly ginger) beard by the end...

Which is more than can be said about me...

Our buddy James also got on board a little way through. We had a head start, but a solid effort in only 2 weeks (okay..it's way better than mine).

And what's left to do when the month comes to an end??? Shave ridiculous facial hair of course. T and I started off slow with goatees for a day...T all of a sudden looked like a 35 year old blue collar worker.

I just looked stupid...

And now for the final products. Though a little reluctant at first, we managed to convince T to go with the never before seen mouth donut....

I went with the dirty stash and chin tuft.....greasy. To top it off I added the greasy pony tail...nice.

James went with the half beard, and matched the hair to it. Business on the left, party on the right.

There was only one option for Mark....an ultra thick neck beard...gross.

Thanks to Sibylle for putting up with the beard...and my ensuing sleazy shenanigans when I had my mustache.

Lookin good boys....lookin real good.

Arusha, Tanzania

2008-03-26T23:46:00.000-07:00

Arusha was our last stop on the tour. As well as being the jump off point for our Serengeti tours. While there we did a walk with a local from the town near by Maasai village, who are an indigenous group occupying northern Tanzania and southern Kenya.

At the end of the walk, we were treated to a traditional ceremony of song and dance.

These guys have got ups...

And on the way home T and Mark found a guy who offered a camel ride....can I say yes!

And the whole group together on the last night of the tour..

If you happened to notice our ridiculous facial hair, but need a closer look, please see the next blog entry.

Mumbai, India

2008-03-20T21:43:00.005-07:00

After our three days in Dubai, we headed to our first stop in India Mumbai (Bombay). Mumbai is a city of nearly 17 million people, with about 55% of the population living in slums. The city itself is an actual madhouse with cars and mopeds everywhere.

Things started off pretty well for myself meeting a new friend right off the bat. In India being a western tourist is a bit of a novelty for some of the locals which sometimes translates into them taking pictures of you for no reason whatsoever. I think i made his day.

We decided to rent a cab driver for the day and have him show us all the major sites to see. It is a great way to see the city especially considering the cabs are dirt cheap and absolutely everywhere.

We have visited so many temples already that it is tough to keep tract of them all. The architecture is extremely unique and is like nothing we have witnessed for hand before.

In Mumbai we met back up with a couple of Irish buddies that we had traveled with in South Africa Hugh and Peter. Our cabbie Bablu is helping Hugh light up his beedie (Indian cigarette), he was a very helpful man.

This one area in Mumbai is where a huge amount of the cities laundry gets hand washed. Unfortunately we weren't there when the madness was going on but apparently it is pretty ridiculous in full swing.

Most of the cabs are still the old model vehicle that you see on the right but it is slowly starting to change like allot of other things in the city.

There's our boy Bablu. I like India this place makes me feel tall.

Eating in a restaurant in Colaba we were approached to be extras in a Bollywood movie. Apparently they are constantly looking for white extras and are willing to pay 500 rupees (approximatley 13 dollars) for a days work. Our seen was supposed to be a club in Europe somewhere.

Look at our costumes they can't get much more western than that.

Just another night on the town in our funky western clothing. I have a vest just like this at home I use for special occasions.

This costume fit Hugh's personality to a tee. What are the odds.

We weren't allowed to take pictures on set unfortunately, however for all those that are wondering it included allot of dancing. Paul and myself stole the show.

We decided to leave without getting paid half way through the day as the novelty had worn off. The industry wasn't to happy about this at all. "You'll never work in this town again", which is fine with us.

Dubai, UAE

2008-03-20T21:43:00.003-07:00

After a few days taking it easy in our campsite in Nairobi, we said goodbye to Africa and departed for India. On our way we had a 2 day layover in Dubai, which is about as long as you need to see the city. After that the only way to entertain yourself is to spend lots of money.

The Dubai of today needs no introduction, as it's turned into an amusement park of a city over past decade. We stayed in the old part of Dubai, which is still heavily market based and very cheap, which was a nice surprise. This old city used to be surrounded by white sand, which has now been replaced by skyscrapers.

The city is fairly spread out, which makes it next to impossible to see anything on foot. We opted for "Big Bus", which is the same company that does the open top bus tours in London. Hop on hop off service all over the city every half hour. Not too shabby.

This is the view of downtown (new) Dubai from the old part of town. Apparently they have smog in here.

Dubai's economy was built on oil, but it now accounts for less that 6% of their GDP. They have however managed to continue their financial success in tourism and trade. If you're of Arabian decent, you're taken good care of. Not a word of lie, this beachfront mansion is their low income housing, given to families who earn less than $10,000 a year. There was blocks of these sitting on the beach.

And for the rich and famous, the world's only 7 star hotel.

Even their shopping malls are ridiculous.

And no middle eastern city is complete without...a ski hill.?

You can go shopping in the mall, eat lunch, and ski, all in the same building.

The tour guide on our bus told us that over half the worlds tall cranes are in Dubai due to the extremely rapid expansion going on right now. I still find that hard to believe, but there certainly were an excessive amount.

And here is the world's tallest building. Apparently it's been designed so that additional floors can be added if another country tries to top it.

And the view driving through the downtown.

Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania

2008-03-20T21:43:00.001-07:00

The Ngorongoro Convervation Area used to be part of the Serengeti National Park, but was separated after disputes of ownership. It's apparently the only wildlife reserve in the world that also has indigenous peoples who still live off the land (the Maasai). The crater, which formed when a giant volcano exploded and collapsed on itself some two to three million years ago, is 610m deep and the floor is 260km², and is home to approximately 25,000 large animals, and the highest density of predators in Africa.

And in case you get stressed..just remember.. (we all know the lion king song)

No shortage of wildebeest and zebras. We saw the largest herds here.

4 male lions ended up right in the middle of road and were walking around the trucks.

Finally got to see a hippo out of the water. They move surprisingly well.

A female lion having some buffalo head. There was a whole pack off the right as well keeping an eye out as she ate.

Team Jeff (our guide) minus Hannah.

After an awesome day down in the crater we camped up on the crater rim. It was a really cool campsite. We even got zebras who visited at night and grazed outside our tents.

The Serengeti, Tanzania

2008-03-20T21:42:00.003-07:00

After a nice break from the game park rides, we were back on it in the Serengeti. The sign at the entrance wasn't too impressive.

Like Kruger, there's a lot of hype, and it's pretty pricey. Fortunately it did not disappoint. Within out first hour, we got our first cheetah sighting of the trip, and it was not shy. Didn't take long for it to walk right over beside our jeeps.

Another hour later we found this big fella sitting up on a rock...

And then another cheetah with a fresh kill..

The next day we headed out for an early morning game drive. Baboons were everywhere.

We spent a half hour sitting here while a heard of elephants walked in around us and hung out at a watering whole.

No shortage of hippos. Still had yet to see one out of the water though.

So, on the whole, we all give it a big thumbs up (so does Michael, that crazy Dane).

Zanzibar, Tanzania

2008-03-20T21:42:00.001-07:00

After a brutally hot night in a campsite in Dar es Salaam, we boarded a ferry to Zanzibar which is a large island off the coast of Tanzania. The island is home to about 80,000 people, and is primarily Muslim. There is a long history of spice trade, especially with the Arab world, and continues to be their number one industry.

The first stop was Stone Town, which is the old quarter of the capital city (Zanzibar City). It was hot and bright there, luckily you didn't even have to leave the bus to find sunglasses.

The town was a series of narrow winding alleys and whitewash buildings. It gave the town a very Mediterranean feel, and was a great place to walk around and shop for local art work.

Highly recommended and not a disappointment, we watched the sunset from a roof top patio bar. The lovely young lady in the picture here is Rachel, or Pip as she insisted we call her. She was a sossy Londoner who we got to know well, she was good fun. Pip, see you at the cottage next year.

That night we stumbled upon a night fish market in which they all take the days catch and prepare tasty kabobs. Fish off the street in Africa, definitely a questionable move, but everything looked and smelled fresh, so we decided to go for it. It was really good, and a fun experience doing as the locals do.

Mark was looking for a good Zanzibar T-shirt, and found a guy selling pizza who's shirt he liked. The guy insisted there was nowhere to buy them, they were home made. Mark had no choice but to trade him for it, straight up.

With our brief time in Stonetown over, we headed up to the pristine beaches in the north of the island. Absolute paradise. Somewhat like places in the Caribbean, but very undeveloped and uncrowded. Amazing!!!

Time to soak up some rays...

That night mark found a guy who did booze/sunset cruises (yes, we've been on a few now). For $20 a head, 2 hours all you can drink and a trip around the bay. Great deal. The only shady thing is that the guy needed money in advance to go buy the booze. We were a little sketchy but had to role with it. Luckily he made us feel better with a very official receipt.

The boat was a classic fishing boat...even more sketchy.

But once we got on, it was a blast. James on the left was another good buddy of ours on the trip. He liked to go hard.

We stopped after a while and went swimming off the back...

And Mark and I enjoyed a romantic sunset...

And would we say we got our money's worth.....oh ya!!!!

Unfortunately, without Marieke, Mark was once again forced to resort to the love of a dog...

Lake Malawi

2008-03-20T21:41:00.004-07:00

Lake Malawi was the next stop staying a total of 5 days at three different campsites. This campsite (forgot the name) we arrived at dusk and were dieing to go for a swim after a long day of traveling. The water was extremely warm.

Apparently we weren't supposed to go swimming here because of the threat of hippos that like to hang around the area. Probably would have been nice to know that beforehand but regardless we lived. At this point all of our beards (minus Paul's which is still quite patchy and thin) were in good growth which must of helped out in the situation.

Along the way Paul and Mark met a couple of friends (Pockets 1 and Pockets 2) and decided to let them crash in there tent for the night. It was the first night Mark didn't feel as though he was alone.

We had heard allot about Kandee Beach before we arrived and it met all of our expectations. Really nice place to relax for a couple days.

On the second day that we were there the group went out on a cultural walk which i unfortunately could not do because I had come down with heat stroke.

That night there was an African themed dress up party at the campsite. Each person was given one garbage bag to make a costume out of. Mark and Paul only needed half of there bags.

Still recovering from heat stroke Mark and Paul had to make up for me not being there, good work boys. Their is nothing whiter than a man's thigh.

Livingston, Zambia

2008-03-20T21:41:00.003-07:00

Next stop after Botswana was Livingston, Zambia, home of Victoria Falls. Botswana and Zambia are separated by a river, and despite Botswana being one of the more wealthy African countries, no bridge has ever been built across. They kick it old school with huge ferries. Apparently some truckers have to sit in a lineup for 3 days before they can get across.
We had 5 days to kill there, so we took it easy for a few days before heading out on any activities. First one was the bungee jump. The platform is on the bridge which joins Zambia and Zimbabwe, about 120m above the river...very high. Despite feeling pretty good about the whole thing, it hit me the moment we walked on to the bridge how high it was.

Classic form...
The face says it all...

Zip line over the canyon...a little more relaxing.
View from the bridge...
The next evening as part of the trip there was a dinner and booze cruise

Mark and T both went on safari walks which turned out to be a guaranteed up close with a rhino. The rhino is followed 24 hours a day to protect it from poachers since the other one on the reserve was killed months earlier. It also had a dislocated knee, so it wasn't too hard to keep up with.

This guy is who the poachers get to deal with. Literally "shoot to kill" if they see a poacher because the poachers will shoot them otherwise. Ridiculous.
Our campsite was full of these monkeys which although very cute at first, turned out to be little punks. They would run after you screeching if you they sensed any fear. The security guards at the sight said they best way to show them who's boss is to give them a quick yank on the tail. And definitely don't leave valuable lying around, for some reason all monkeys can sense when something is expensive.

Mark's beard was really coming into full force by this point.

Our last day there was a trip to the falls. The overhead shot is courtesy of someone who went on a helicopter ride...a little rich for our blood.

The falls were really impressive, though actually hard to see at times because of all the mist.

For the most part, there was so much it just felt like it was raining the whole time..but a nice warm rain.

Chobe River, Botswana

2008-03-20T21:41:00.001-07:00

We got to the next campsite in the early afternoon, which was a nice change from the all day drives. After a nice little siesta and some time in the pool, we headed out on a boat cruise down the Chobe River which is part of a national park.

No shortage of baboons...

Elephants were everywhere as well. It was a nice change from the dry barren pan in Namibia. Everywhere was lush and green.

A hippo got a little too close to one of the babies...

But for the most part, the elephants didn't really care how close you got.

Baboons, antelopes, and elephants and hippos, all living in harmony.

And apparently elephants can swim..and quite well. Who knew.