Hua Shan Mountain

Today we headed back to the bus station and caught the public bus to Hua Shan Mountain. The Chinese seem to have perfected the art of extracting as much money from your wallet as possible - there was an entrance fee to the mountain, you had to get a bus up the hair pin mountain road, and then a further ticket was required to ride the cable car! That having been said it was certainly worth the fees!!

Hua Shan mountain has INCREDIBLE scenery - towering, vertical cliffs. The path up the mountain is paved with chains and many, many steps....the only place I have yet found that surpasses the number of stairs at Chamrong in Nepal. The climb was extremely tough on the old leg muscles and creaky ankles...however, we managed to make it up under the time specified in the guidebook and overtaking lots of groups. In places you had to climb vertical steps, carved into the rocks while pulling yourself up on chains - no mean feat! The top of the mountain afforded incredible views and a cold beer. After lunch we headed on to the Dragon's Ridge, the Heavenly Ladder and Wutong Peak.

At three o'clock we had to start heading down and decided to take the cable car. This proved to be quite the adrenaline rush as the car suddenly steeply veers down the mountain. The views are incredible and the 10 minutes it takes to reach the base is an added bonus!! We managed to link up to a bus which took us back to Xi'an after a 40 minute wait. The longer distance private busses here wait until they are full before setting out on the journey!

Once back in Xi'an feeling a little weary we opted to eat in the hostel cafe and watch a movie for the evening! It was a brilliant day ; )

Day 24 - Beijing to Xi'an

Up very early this morning to get out to the airport and catch our flight to Xi'an. Xi'an is a lovely city with old town walls , a bell and drum tower. We are staying in the youth hostel here which is very impressive, lovely rooms, lots of information on how to get to various tourist locations and activities every night. It even has a roof top sitting area!

After some comfort food at Pizza Hut we rented bikes and cycled up on the city wall. It was great being able to look down on the city - even though it was a little hot in the 35 degrees plus heat we managed to get all the way round the walls!! A beer half way round helped with the dehydration!

Day 23 - Beijing The Summer Palace

Today Cameron and I set off on local transport to go to the Summer Palace. It is very tricky navigating in China due to the language etc. so even if you get the bus or train with the right number it might not be going in the right direction! And sometimes you aren't too sure if you have arrived if all the signs are in Chinese characters! However, we managed to get where we wanted in the end.

The Summer Palace was lovely. It was set on a lake with lots of bridges, pagoda type buildings and beautiful gardens. We rented a paddle boat for an hour and toured the lake - lots of fun. Despite the crowds this was a very peaceful serene setting.

In the evening we met Laura Lee and her boyfriend Ryan for a meal of Peking Duck. The last time we were at this restaurant the duck wasn't going to be ready for 45 minutes so we had opted for other dishes. Tonight we were in luck. You eat the duck with the chinese version of tortillas, and vegetables. It was very good! (See Cam's blog for more details!)

Day 22 - Beijing The Forbidden Palace

Up and off to the Forbidden Palace this morning before Colin has to catch his flight home. There were huge line-ups for tickets, but once we got inside the Forbidden Palace is so huge that it didn't seem crowded at all. It is basically a series of courtyards and buildings. The gardens were beautiful.

Once Colin had left to get his flight, Cameron and I went down a local (narrow, old street) to get some noodles. It was interesting ordering as I wasn't quite sure what was in the dish - but it was very good. The restaurant was on the edge of the night market which has a multitude of fear factor dishes, lizards and scorpions on a stick for example.

Day 21 - Beijing

As Colin is flying home tomorrow we decided to go to another section of the great wall. The Chinese really have impressive tourist sites. The trail to the wall was beautifully paved. It was nice to see so many Chinese families of three generations enjoying the holiday together. This section of the wall was very impressive. We could see it stretching over the hill tops for miles. Unfortunately there was a big queue for the slide down the hill and we didn't have enough time to do that. On the way down Colin started bargaining with the locals for tee-shirts etc.- hilarious to see a Scotsman and determined store owners each cheerfully trying to out do the other - people were even video taping the event!

Day 20 To Beijing

This morning Paul took us to the local market. We a treat for the senses this experience was. We got to see chicken feet, various indistinguishable cuts of meat and local vegetables. We tried a meat dumpling which was very good.

We met Cameron in his classroom and watched his students running around the track as a prelude to graphing the results. Mr. Adam even raced against his fellow teacher. It was awesome to see Cameron teaching - he is so patient with his students. We took us to see his biology lab too which was very interesting.

This evening we flew to Beijing.

Day 19 - Dang Dong

Yesterday we found a waitress in a coffee shop who could speak English and we asked her to write the Chinese characters for the Great Wall of China so we could go and visit the section which is near here. We found a taxi and asked if he would take us - which he agreed to but he said he would not wait. This was a little unnerving to say the least as the site was 20km away and we had to meet our driver at the hotel at 2pm. However, Colin dug out the mandarin phrase book and by the time we had got there managed to ask in Mandarin and he agreed.

What a great way to spend my birthday! We did a speed hike of this section of the wall as we only had an hour. It was pretty impressive with watch towers, lots of stairs and awesome views. The river acts as a border between China and North Korea and at one point here is only a meter thick....however you are warned against trying to cross it in all the guide books.

Once we were back in Dandong we went to get coffee and had some great waffles before meeting the driver and a speedy (far too speedy!!) trip back to the Maple Leaf School! We went out for a birthday dinner with Kristen, Paul and a friend which was lots of fun.

Day 18 - Dandong

Cameron had very kindly organized a trip for us to Dandong. We went by private taxi with two other Chinese passengers. It was difficult not being able to speak any Chinese but we managed to catch up on some sleep on the way - I didn't know but apparently the teenager next to me was sleeping with his head on my shoulder!

Dandong itself was an interesting city. The entire time we were here we didn't see one other caucasian person and were quite a novelty. We found a Tesco which we enjoyed going round - however our attempts to ask for and mime deodrant met with little success!! We walked to the Green Duck River and looked across to North Korea. On the surface, it looked pretty grim and grey. Although there was a ferris wheel just over the border it was static and we wonder if it is ever used or just for show. There was a bridge across the river which was "accidentally" blown up by the Americans ( along with the airport) during the Korean War. Only half the bridge remains as a monument. We walked across this through the cold blowing wind!

Dinner was a real fear factor affair tonight. We had no idea where to go. The first restaurant we tried mainly sold seafood ( we think!!), but the menu was all in Chinese and they had lots of tanks of strange looking creatures so we decided to try somewhere else. If you're going to have a fear factor experience you need to at least know what you're eating so you have the bragging rights!!! We went across the street and thankfully found a restaurant where the owner spoke a little English and could help us to order. This meal proved to be fantstic! You had a pot of boiling broth which you cooked meat and veggies in and dipped them in various sauces before eating them. Apparently this is a traditional hot pot meal.

Xi'an - Terracotta Warriers

Today we took on the challenge of navigating the Chinese bus system to travel to see the Terracotta Warriors. This was no mean feat - I honestly don't think I've ever been anywhere as chaotic, crowded, and frustrating as a Chinese bus station!! Eventually, after having searched several locations for the bus, evaded a multitude of hawkers selling various bogus trips we found the bus and had a very uneventful journey.

The Terracotta Warrior museum was certainly well worth the hassle getting there. The three pits were very impressive - lots of warriors , each with different facial features. The level of detail and craftsmanship was amazing. It took your breath away. I can't help but wonder what the well diggers who discovered them thought - although they would not have been aware of the extent of their find, archeologists are still excavating the site. We spent the afternoon wandering around the site and museum.

Cameron and I

Xi'an

Today Cameron and I were up early to catch the plane to Xi'an. We were both feeling tired and lack of breakfast food did not help!! The congee on the plane just didn't cut it : ( (think rice gruel -ugh)

We managed to get a bus down town and soon located our hostel down a busy narrow side street. The hostel is extremely nice and has lots of information on tours, a cafe, roof top views and pool room.

After a bit of comfort food at Pizza hut we rented bikes and rode on the old city walls -very picturesque as you could look down on the town. Despite the 35 plus degree heat we managed to do all 14 km -it was great fun.

In the evening we ventured out to find somewhere for dinner. This is quite a challenge as often the menu is only in Chinese characters - we have to look for somewhere that has translation and preferably pictures too! We found somewhere that was very busy - always a good sign and ordered chicken kung pao, aubergine and lotus dish -very good!

Bangkok at night from our hotel















Cameron & Nicky outside Maple Leaf School in Dalian where Cameron is teaching



















Colin in the rock park












our new Chinese friends who kept wanting to take our photo, so we had to reciprocate











some of the many neat rock formations on the coast beside where Cameron lives - this one is called the Arabian Castle

Bangkok & Dalian

Day 15 – Bangkok (Nicky)

Got in Bangkok by nine this morning after a HORRIBLE breakfast of fried eggs…ugh!! Felt a little tired after the night train but really not too bad. It was pretty sad saying goodbye to the rest of the group…but this was softened by the anticipation of a hot shower, good breakfast and luxury of the Royal Orchid Sheraton.

We cleaned up, ate a second great breakfast and then off to the weekend market to make some last purchases before flying out of Thailand tomorrow.

We treated ourselves to a great massage in the hotel, fantastic western supper and then early to bed as we have a 4:30 am start tomorrow!!

Day 16 – Bangkok - Dalian (Colin)

Another early start – up at 4:30am and off to the airport at 5:00am to catch our flights to Guangzohu then on to Dalian to meet Cameron. Got the hockey results in Guangzohu and very disappointed to hear the Canucks have lost yet another playoff game to Chicago, so the series is tied 3-3 after the Canucks were originally up by 3. We called Katie while in Bangkok and it was good to hear all is well with her and the animals back in Kelowna.

The two flights today flew by as we both slept very soundly on each of them – only waking up when they brought food round!! It was LOVELY to see Cameron who met us at the airport and deftly instructed the cab driver where to take us in mandarin.

We arrived at the Maple Leaf Campus and were amazed by the size of the school and how modern the buildings are. Cameron’s apartment is good, interestingly he has a washing machine in his shower!!We went to Susan’s pizza for a quick supper.

So far China is not at all like we imagined – Dalian is really modern with massive development (30% increase in development per year!!!). 35 billion dollars spent on their transit system in 3 years!! There are lots of high rises, wide impressive streets. The school is situated in a Jin Shi Tan national holiday resort, the first state sponsored development resort so there are lots of apartments being built.

Day 17 - Jin Shi Tan (Nicky)

Today Cameron was teaching so we decided to go and explore the local area. We wandered down to the beach area and watched lots of small boats full of seaweed being unloaded. They were getting the beach area ready for the national holiday which starts next week. This involved painting the bridge railing (which we discovered a little late!!) and emptying sand bags on the beach!

We met Cameron for lunch and then decided to explore the rock garden. They had unearthed some incredible rocks when excavating and had turned the area into a garden. It was very impressive. We are very amused to discover that we are novelties here – lots of tourists stare at my blonde hair and groups want to get their photos taken with us, in a multitude of poses!!

We also hiked to the geological area. This proved to be much further out than we had anticipated but was well worth it. It was very nicely set up with pathways and signage to show you what the formations were. The rocks had names like the Arabian castle, dinosaur eats sea, Beethoven’s face etc. The trail was 1.7km long and then we took a little bus back to the start. However….we then discovered that the buses stopped running at 4p.m and there were no taxies to be had…groaning we started on the 6km hike back. Luckily for us at that moment a motorbike taxi pulled up and agreed to take both of us. Even more luckily for us, Cameron had very thoughtfully asked one of his trustworthy students to write out the names of the local places in Chinese script…so we whipped that out and he immediately understood where we wanted to go…so we travelled in style 3 on a motorbike back to the school!!

In the evening we took the Chinway ( train) into Kai Fa Qu for dinner, a look at the shops. We met Kristen (Chelsea’s sister) and a friend for Japanese food then rushed to catch the school bus home at 8:30pm. It was a great day.

photos

We're discovering it's easier to add the photos as a block rather than inserting into the text....this blog work is fairly tricky to do.....


This is Nicky leaping into the water at the falls above Luang Prabang
(the Sarong stayed on amazingly....)









Mahout training
















Elephant bathing - I wasn't sure I was going to stay on...











biking around Luang Prabang














hot air balloon over Vang Vieng









sunset over Vang Vieng









bike ride in Vang Vieng














Kayaking in Vang Vieng















Relaxing between elephant rides in Luang Prabang














Mrs Mahout

















Cavers about to exit (note econo head torch)

Day 9 DonDeng – Luang Prabang (Nicky)

Woken up by the monastery drums at 4 am, followed soon after by the enthusiastic roosters! After breakfast and strong coffee - the spoon could literally stand up in it! We bade farewell to our kind hosts and headed off to Vat Phu which was an impressive fifth century temple. Lots of steep stairs, holy water, sacrificial crocodile stone for human sacrifices. Colin chatted away to a saffron robe clad monk who was eager to get his picture taken with us. It is interesting to see how few Caucasian visitors there were visiting the temple even though it is a World Heritage site! It was also very good to see that people were actually using garbage containers and there wasn’t much garbage strewn around. There is definitely a very different mindset towards garbage in South East Asia. The local people seem to throw their garbage anywhere.

In the afternoon we flew up to Luang Prabang - flight was a little sketchy….lots of turbulence. Surprisingly they also fed us. As we landed in LP we saw totally different countryside – steep mountains, jungle and lots of terraced rice paddies.

The town of LP is a world heritage site and is very quaint. The buildings definitely show the French colonial influence. It also had the best night market we have found so far with lots of local crafts, beautiful silks and needle work. Colin found a bottle of whisky complete with cobra and scorpion which he bought – not sure if it will be allowed back into Canada……

Day 10 Luang Prabang - waterfall (Colin)

An unusually reasonable start at 7:30 am saw us loaded into a tuk-tuk – yet another version of a tuk-tuk called (phonetically) a “som two” (seats 6 comfortably – we had 10 in it) for the ride up to a waterfall. It became interesting when a couple of large spiders were spotted. Several ladies tried to change seats which sent the tuk-tuk into a death wobble. On the way to the waterfall we went to a bear sanctuary – it had Asian black bears (a bit smaller than their North American cousins) and sun bears (much smaller). The bears were amazingly active, standing up and wrestling with each other – very cute.

The walk up to the waterfall was really beautiful with many falls over limestone rock and clear pools, surrounded by jungle. We elected to make the hike up over the top of the falls – it was fun over steep ground and wading across the river at the top, however no views were to be had. On the way down we stopped at a pool that had a great rope swing, followed by some swimming. Even Safety Ann took a turn!!

In the afternoon we did a cycling tour of Luang Prabang which was great fun – the city is a world heritage site and quite beautiful with lots of old buildings which had a distinct French influence.

Day 11 Luang Prabang - Elephants (Nicky)

I was REALLY excited about what the day would bring as Colin and I had signed up to be mahouts (elephant trainers!!). When we arrived at the elephant camp our first activity involved climbing onto the back of the elephant by holding onto the top of its ear. The elephant would bend its knee to give you a boost and then basically the trainer shoved you until you managed to scramble up –not too dignified to say the least!! We also went for an elephant ride through the river. We had a choice of riding behind the elephant’s neck or on a “saddle” (like a park bench strapped to the elephant’s back). We both did the neck option. Our mahout was very keen to photograph us - 60 pics in five minutes!

In the afternoon we took the elephants down to the river to bathe them. We each had our own beastie and a scrubbing brush and rode down a steep path riding on their necks. The elephants sunk under the water, soaking us as we were on their backs – we didn’t have a change of clothes either!! We got to stand on their backs –it really was an amazing experience and certainly well worth it.

As soon as we got back from the elephants we went for a crazy bike ride around LP – speed seemed to be the order of the day!! A quick banana pancake by the river followed by the night market and off to bed quite exhausted (again)!

Day 12 – Luang Prabang – Vang Vieng (Colin)

This day involved a lot of traveling on our small 15 seat bus (typical to other legs of our journey) over some very steep windy roads. Jason describes this very well in his and Lisa’s blog as they travelled the same road a few weeks before. It consists of crazy overtaking heading into blind corners – one highlight was when our seriously underpowered bus actually overtook another bus which was its self overtaking!

The scenery was quite spectacular – lots of steep jungle covered hillsides many of which are cultivated with rice, corn and other unknown crops on impossibly steep terrain – just like you see in calendars, but not easily photographed because the air was quite hazy due to smoke from logging clearing fires.

When we got into Vang Veing, we went on a cycling tour of town which was fun, before going to an ‘Aussie’ restaurant for supper. Not too much Aussie about it, except for the steak and kidney pie that Nicky had as she was craving western food.

Day 13 - Vang Vieng – Vientene (Nicky)

Up bright and early for a kayaking trip on the Ton Soule River. We first decided to brave the local suspension bridge – very rickety, full of holes and very wobbly –a real fear factor experience! The kayaking was superb, and Colin and I managed to navigate most of the rapids, at one point it looked like we were going to capsize and we had to trade kayaks with the guide as ours sprung a leak.

Half way down the river we climbed up to a cave. Using flashlights and candles we crawled through narrow openings waded through pools and scrambled over slippery rocks. It was pretty exciting!

After a quick lunch we once again braved the crazy drivers and windy roads as we headed off to Vientiene the capital of Laos. The hotel (Laos Paris) here was a bit of a disappointment – not very clean and rather strange, with a few mosquitoes hovering around waiting to pounce – not too comforting in malaria country! In the evening we went for a tour of town (moderately interesting), followed by night marketing (more interesting), then a local disco (very interesting) up until the midnight curfew which the entire country is subject to.

Day 14 – Vientene - Bangkok (Colin)

In the morning we made a visit to the local UXO office – UXO is an organization that is working to clear up unexploded ordinance in Laos and assist land mine victims. It was really quite harrowing to get some insight into this largely unknown situation. We learned that in the early 70’s the USA contravened the Geneva agreements and bombed Laos (a small country with a population of 8 million) with more bombs than the entire amount of bombs that were used in WWII. It was called the Secret War because the USA emphatically denied doing it until it was exposed to the rest of the worked when so many Lao people fled the country & in turn was investigated by others. The USA motive was to curtail the “passive” support Laos was providing to the North Vietnamese by allowing men and supplies to sneak up and down the Ho Chi Mhin trail in Laos (I think). The nature of the bombs was horrific – cluster bombs that distribute about 300 smaller bombs (called bombies) – in total more than 80 million bombies were dropped. It’s estimated that more than 30% do not explode on impact and contaminate large chunks of the country – quite a hazard for farming.

In the afternoon we visited the local Laos National Museum – generally pretty lame, but the sentiments towards the “Imperialist Americans” and their “puppets” was loud and clear.

In the late afternoon we crossed over back into Thailand and boarded the overnight train to Bangkok. I was a little apprehensive about this leg wondering what we might get (or not get) for services, so took matters into my own hands by stocking up on basic survival rations (beer and chips) before we left. As it turned out it was fairly comfortable – they converted the seats into bunk beds, and served food – albeit a bit sketchy – especially the breakfast which Nicky tried to eat and came to regret it. I had one bite of my fried egg and backed off, so I fared better (but not scot free).

Day 5 – Phnom Penh (Nicky) In the morning we broke away from the tour because they were going to visit an orphanage and we felt it would be sad and difficult for us. Instead we went to the market via tuk-tuk ... only to find it was closed because it was their New Year. We ended up going out for coffee and then having pizza on the roof top restaurant.

In the afternoon we went to Tuol Seleng Prison. This was a very harrowing experience. Basically, people who were opposed to Pol Pots regime, or perceived as a threat in any way were imprisoned in five foot cells and tortured here. They took pictures of inmates as they entered the facility and many of these are on the display. Wheen they had “confessed” they were transported to the killing fields at Choueng Ek and brutally killed. Along with every member of their family so that no one would be left to exact revenge. Of the 20,000 people who went through this prison only 7 survived usually because they had some skill, such as portrait painting which the regime could use. Pol Pot’s goal was to create a communist agrarian society. When he came to power he cleared out all the towns and forced the people to work from dawn to dusk in the fields. All the intellectuals and anyone who opposed the regime was tortured and sent to the killing fields/ Many of the atrocities were committed by soldiers who were adolescents. We also visited Cheoung Ek where there is a stupa of 9000 skulls (see photo.....these are rel skulls!), mass graves and bones and clothing work their way to the surface of the pathways so you are walking on them. It is horrifying to think that 1.7 million people were known to be killed, 1.3 million are missing – half the population were annihilated. The economy was decimated and the intellectual capital of the country destroyed. It People who lived through this experience have been traumatized. As a result 50 % of the population is currently under eighteen, there are noticeably few middle-aged people and Cambodia is impoverished, those who would have been the entrepreneurs and leaders are dead. I find it really disturbing that when the Vietnamese liberated the Cambodians, Pol Pot did not loose power and in fact retained a seat at the United Nations until the late nineties. Only now are the leaders being tried for genocide thirty years after the event.

On the way home we visited the orphanage as the group wanted to give them some rice and the children wanted to dance for us. This was a really up-lifting experience –not what I had thought at all! The kids were cheerful, the bigger ones looked after the smaller and they seemed pretty happy. They danced for us and taught us one dance where you had to jump over sticks….quite painful if you missed the beat!!





Day 6 – Kratie (Colin) As usual, another early start. Sadly we had to say good bye to Jason & Lisa who were heading south to Cambodian beaches, while we headed north east to Kratie. It was a long drive over bumpy roads – the small bus we were in didn’t do too much to smooth out the ride. We weren’t too impressed with early impressions of Kratie – too much litter and a shabby market, however lunch at a local restaurant (ginger pork & rice for me, usual veggie option of vegetable fried rice for Nicky) turned out to be good – you never quite know what you might get at these local restaurants…... After lunch we went on a tuk-tuk ride out to an area on the Mekong River where the “elusive Irrawadddy dolphins” are known to exist (the elusive term being a quote from our guidebook). The ride out was along the banks of the Mekong, through some beautiful rural countryside, so the early negative feelings towards Kratie were beginning to fade. At the dolphin location we went out on a boat ride to start our search. I must say I wasn’t really expecting to see any based on the “elusive” term, however much to our surprise we saw lots of them and managed to get some decent photos. It was quite stunning being out on the Mekong in the late afternoon as the sun was setting. Nice clear water and a gentle cooling breeze (all that was missing was a cold beer). After dolphin watching we went for an extended tuk-tuk ride in the interior countryside – through rice paddies with many quaint local houses. Typically they’re wood structures up on stilts. The locals seem to live on the “open plan” area under the house during the hot season (which incidentally is the season we’re travelling in – typically around 35C, with pretty high humidity – not unbearable, but certainly hot). Our tuk-tuk rdie turned out more exciting than we planned when one of the three we were using broke doen, so we hade to cram into two, which taxed the 100cc engine to the max towing the tuk-tuk loaded down with 6 people. We didn’t get back ‘till long after dark, but it was fun non the less. By the end of our stay in Kratie, we had changed our minds entirely, not so much of the town part, but the overall experience was great fun. Just one more lesson for me not to judge a place too quickly.

Day 7 – Don Khong, Laos (Nicky) Well, as per usual we were up bright and early as we were crossing the Laos border and had a few hours travelling to get under our belt. We had a great breakfast of good coffee (the last hotel had only hazelnut flavored coffee –not pleasant!!) and crusty rolls, sweet banana

s – all it lacked was a hunk of brie! The journey itself was bumpy (no surprise there!!) –I’m so grateful our bus is air conditioned. Crossing the border was pretty straight forward. A local café exchanged money for us at an exorbitant rate –but what can you do when you need some local dosh! For lunch I tried something new - morning glory and sticky rice. Morning glory is a veggie which tastes fairly similar to asparagus. ( One of my fav. vegetables so this was a real find)

After we crossed the border we went to a very impressive waterfall. We scrambled down a treacherously steep path to dabble our feet in the water – flip flops would definitely not be my foot ware of choice if I went there again!! It was extremely hot when we scaled the hill again. Colin bought himself a new pair of sunglasses as his were road weary and the frame was cracked. He then sneakily placed his old sunglasses on the rack and tried to get me to come and look at the pair he nearly bought – only to find the stall vendor had removed them. We went to the island of Don Kong to stay for the night –very picturesque. The hotel was right by the river, very quaint and a highlight was that we could get our laundry very efficiently done next door!! We hired bikes and had great fun cycling. As part of the New Year tradition, the local kids were lying in wait with buckets of water for anyone travelling the road so several of us got completely drenched!!

Day 8 – Champasak / DongDeng homestay (Colin) Too many early starts! So we whimped out the optional 7:00am cycle ride having done one the evening before. The early part of the day was spend island hoping – off Don Kohng island, travelling north up the side of the Mekong to Champasak where we had lunch before hoping on over to DonDeng for the afternoon & night. Lunch was on a floating restaurant where almost everything we tried to order wasn’t available. I a moment of recklessness I decided to order fish soup (we were on a restaurant floating on the mighty Mekong after all). This turned out to be a big mistake, especially as I’m pretty fussy about the type of fish I like. My soup had at least 5 small, but whole, cat fish – heads, eyes etc etc. I left the table pretty hungry and traumatized, so decided for the meantime I would join Nicky (who had decided to avoid all meat on this trip) and the rest of the vegetarian team. The trip over to DonDeng was pretty cool on a flotilla of pontoon style rafts powered by the traditional mini Honda engine and the big long external propeller and shaft captained by 10 year olds. Our accommodation on DonDeng was also to be a bit of an adventure – it was set u as a home stay were we lived & ate with locals in their house. Nicky has done this before in Nepal and loved it; I wasn’t too sure! As it turned out it was great – although very basic, getting to interact with the locals and get a sense of how they lived was worth it. Some of the notable differences were they eat on the floor sitting cross legged on mats – sounds easy, but one rule is you’re not supposed to let your feet point at anyone as it’s offensive, so after a while my old joints were getting pretty stiff. The house was also “open plan” - open being open to the outside, so it was really like a covererd deck – not that bad as it is so hot with no a/c. During the night however you hear a cockerill crowing at least every hour, then there’s the drums that start at 5:00 am to call the monks to prayer, then the motorbikes and people who’re all up by 6:00 so when it was time to get up for out Thai yoga at 6:30 am we were still a bit tired. The final major difference is the bathroom arrangements – no running water and more yoga maneuvers required to use the squat toilet (with nothing to assist balance). The shower involved a tank of water and a pot – quite refreshing! In the evening we went for a tractor ride round the island – very quaint, but incredibly hard on the butt sitting on the wooden floor going over the many many bumps. After dinner we decided to go down and join the locals who were having a final day of celebration for their New Year (this must be about 4 or 5 days they’ve been going at it – I’m only assuming it’s the last day because tomorrow is Monday….). This event turned out to be hilarious although I don’t think I can do a good enogh job of doing it justice in the retelling. One highlight was when Arran & Phil went to get beer and were approached by a few of the local beauties who wanted to dance with them. After coming back with the beer, the same girls followed them to the table where they were getting quite friendly.......then some one suggested one (or more) looked like doyboys (men dressed up as girls), so we did a foensic examination on the camera and sure enough there was the adam's apple larger than life!!! (to be continued......)

Day 4 Angkor Wat

Day 4 - Angkor Wat (Nicky) to be continued.... What an amazing day !! We had heard that angkor Wat is the sight to visit in Cambodea but it far exceeded our expectations! We left bright and early to avoid the crowds and visited one of the smaller temples. It had been featured in Tomb Raider with Angelina Jolie. Day 5 - Seim Reap to Phenom Penh (Colin) Yet another early start - up at 5:30, off at 6:30 by bus. It's the Cambodian New Year holiday, so the roads are packed. Turned out to be a total white knuckle drive with constant overtaking of vehicles (motor bikes with up to 5 people per 50cc motorbike, one motorbike even had a dead pig!). We stopped for lunch at a small road side restaurant where among other things we had a tarantula crawl over us, we ate grass hoppers, deep fried tarantula and a very tasty frog stuffed with coriander. We were very pleased to meet up with Jason & Lisa in the afternoon - they travelled over by overnight bus from Nah Trang in Vietnam. Together with our tour group we went on a walking tour of Phenom Penh, followed by dinner at a restaurant that supports orphaned kids.

Pre Tour (Nicky) Well after waffling around for a while, we finally decided if we were going to go to Asia we needed to firm up on our plans….so 10 days before we were leaving we finally booked our trip. We had hoped to go through Vietnam, however, if seemed as if it was going to be impossible to get a visa, so we opted for Cambodia and Laos – the only tour in fact through Gap Travels, which still had space available. We didn’t book the Chinese leg of the trip as we had to get a Chinese visa and weren’t sure this could be accomplished at short notice. So, we went to Vancouver, hit the Chinese visa office and discovered that because we were “out of towners” we were given preferential treatment –much to the consternation of the other people who had been waiting there for 2 or 3 hours!! When you went in you had to take a number – then someone who had a spare number, handed us a lower number – so then people were really furious!! So we ended up spending thirty minutes in the visa office and getting our visa the same day. So… it looked as though we were all set … arrangements had been made for horse and dog sitting -Cooper was going to be looked after by our neighbor – as he’s nearly 14 we felt he needed to be in his own environment….however…… the week before we left his arthritis flared up – he lay on his bed refusing to eat, unable to get up, collapsing when he did… it looked like we needed to make some tough decisions. : (Wally had some pain medication so we started giving that to him as the vets office was closed for the weekend….it was absolutely amazing – by Mon night he was bounding across the yard to greet me, playing with Wally and Angus…so on the Monday I went to the vets to see what we could do to mange his arthritis. Cooper is now happily livin’ the high life at the Bark ‘n’ Fly, the 5 star dog kennel, with a free upgrade to first class in view of his elderly status and recent ill health!! Heated floor, play area, dog treats ... need I say more!! Great to be able to go away and know all the pooches are being very well cared for! Day 1 - Kelowna to Bangkok (actually two days because of the international date line) (Colin) We’re off on this adventure that was only conceived at the last minute and hastily arranged, in true Adam style. The flights were quite intensive going from Kelowna - Vancouver-Beijing-Bangkok in one operation. 26 hours door to door. Interestingly, while moving through Vcr airport, I bumped into (almost literally) a colleague who was actually on the same conference call as me at the time. The Air China flight from Vcr – Beijing was pretty tough as the seats weren’t at all comfortable – not built for our western physique perhaps? I tried out some interesting yoga type moves to try to get comfortable, but they didn’t work! (and they annoyed Nicky!!). It was cool calling Cameron from Beijing airport to chat as we’re passing through. We’re very excited about the plans Cameron is busy making for our return leg where we’ll spend time with him in Dalian and NE China. It is really nice to be back n Bangkok. Many of the early impressions bring back fond memories of our last visit with the Haworths & Billys – such as the over loaded mopeds, tuktuks, Sihnga beer, happy local people, unusual chips at the 7-11 – all of which was soaked in at 2:00 am local time when we arrived. Better sign off for tonight, as I’m technically infringing into Day 2, which is Nicky’s. Day 2 - Bangkok (Nicky) Well… back to last night….Colin was really busy before we left , and didn’t have too much time to read through the information…I didn’t clue into how significant this was until we got to Bangkok and he was telling our taxi driver that we were travelling to Chang Mai (Northern Thailand) … well darlin’, do I have a surprise for you...we’re actually going to Cambodia!!! To be continued…. Photo’s to follow when we know how… Day 3 - Bangkok - Seim Reap, Cambodia (Colin) Today we were up at 5:30 am and off at 6:30 am with the 8 others on our tour plus our guide enroute to Seim Reap in Cambodia. All a very nice group including people from Australia, England, Ireland, and some from BC (Ft St John & Penticton). A fairly long day when all of the various border protocols are taken into account - many forms, photos, security guards etc. The border it's self is quite odd with massive amounts of goods being transported by hand carts. The countryside is quite rural with lots and lots of rice fields that are between crops at present. At the border, our guide appeared with grass hoppers - dried and ready to eat! After some deliberations we both decided to give it a go. More mind over matter as it turns out - fairly dry with no objectionable taste. Here's Nicky snapping hers up. Our hotel in SR is very nice, with a swimming pool right outside our window - very welcome in the 34C heat. In the late afternoon we went for a tuktuk tour of the city which was great fun