Mongolia! - Darcy

Our journey into Mongolia started full of adventure! We took the Trans Siberian train from Beijing to UlaanBaator, the capital of Mongolia. Now we we're quite excited that we were on the Trans Siberian for this leg of the trip as it gave us a taste of the big trip that will take us across Russia. The train was very nice, good compartments; four beds and a lockable door, smooth tracks, the bed's we're a little hard but very bearable. The funny thing is that in every train we've been on there has been boiling water available at the end of each car, what surprised us though was that the hot water boiler on the Trans Siberian used a coal stove! Everything else seemed quite modern, but every so often our train assistant would have to open a little hatch in the bottom of the boiler and toss in some coal.

Also the tracks between Mongolia and China are different widths. So as we approached the border the train stopped and each car was individually lifted up with immense jacks, and they had to change the wheels! We weren't allowed to get off the train to watch, but they changed a group of cars right next to ours so we had a good view out of our windows of the whole process. They also processed our visas during this whole time. The Mongolian border guard was a very tall strong looking woman with a very elaborate uniform. Aside from being incredibly intimidating she was helpful though and the border crossing was quite painless. The only real problem was that this whole process took about 3.5 hours, during which the bathrooms were closed. (For good reason, think of the poor workers changing wheels under the train!) Wanda was very relieved however as when the bathrooms were finally opened, the car assistant held back a line of eager men to let Wanda get in first.

So after all was said and done it was 1:00 AM, but we were in Mongolia and on our way. We drifted off blissfully to sleep...

I remember waking up and feeling strangely cold but I pulled the blankets up a little tighter and tried to ignore the small draft coming from the window. Again I woke up but this time the draft had a strange moist feeling. But asleep again. Again awake, about 6:30AM. This time I peeked out the window and saw nothing but fierce blowing snow and an endless stretch of desert. Now there wasn't a lot of snow, but it was blowing hard, and had been sneaking through the window onto my pillow, making a small pile. I decided to get up and get some hot water from the boiler to warm up, so I snuck out of the compartment careful not to wake up Paul, Tamara or Wanda. I found the car a little smokey. I got my water just as the assistant went to put more coal in the boiler, and when we opened the little door, smoke just POURED into the car. The wind was blowing so hard that the coal smoke wouldn't go up the chimney! He waved me to get back into my cabin, which I promptly did to find Tamara and Wanda just waking up. I started to explain all the bizarre things that were happening, but rather than just tell them I decided to show them. So I lifted the curtain over our window, not realizing that 3/4 of an inch of snow had collected around the edges of the window. Raising the curtain had unfortunately knocked off some small chunks of snow onto the face of the sleeping Paul. Paul, in good humor, just moved to the other side of his pillow. I was a little flustered by the absurdity of the snow on the inside of our window and quickly pulled the curtain back down in order to prevent more snow from falling on Paul. This had the unfortunate effect pouring a LARGE amount of snow on the face of Paul.

Now that we were ALL up, we all enjoyed the adventure of being stuck in a storm in the Gobi desert. The coal smoke that would pour by every so often only added to authenticity of our Trans Siberian adventure. The tracks were covered with sand, so some poor workers had to get out and shovel before we could move on. All said and done though we were delayed about 5 hours, which meant after about 35 hours we rolled into UB (Ulan Baator).

We were thrilled to be met by my brother-in-law Jonny. It was VERY nice to have someone who knew the country and the language. It's amazing though how soon you start to rely on someone who knows the language though. One time I wanted to buy a bottle of juice from a vendor, and my first instinct was to find Jonny to have him translate. As though I had never bought something from a vendor the past two months!

One of the first things that we did was leave UB for a Ger camp in National Park. The park was beautiful in a way that is similar but different than Canada. It was early spring, and since they don't get a lot of snow fall in Mongolia, it is a very dry, and bleak time of year. But there is so much space!(like Canada) Especially compared to China, which seemed full of people. I think we read that Mongolia has the lowest person per sq/km ratio in the world. We were able to go on a couple hikes and it was astounding to see the country stretching on and on. Also the rocks and boulders in Mongolia seem so ancient. They have that worn down look. We also got to do some riding (horses and two-humped camels), as well as hold a Gold Eagle, and live in a Ger. Ger's are the traditional homes of the Mongolians. They look kind of like little igloo's, but are made out of felt. Most Mongolians still live in them.

After the nice wind down time at the Ger camp, we left to see as much as UB as we could before we left to go see my sister in another city. The highlights of our time was the very diverse market, and an extremely interesting cultural show. Mongolians have very pleasant traditional music, which mostly centers around a horse-head fiddle, which sits on the lap like a cello, has two strings made of horse hair, and has a carved wooden horse head on the top. (Mongolian culture really centers around the horse, there are 14 horses for every person in Mongolia!) The Mongolians also do something called throat-singing, which is fascinating. There are different ways that it is performed. One is a find of choppy chugging/croaking sound, and another is a high pitched whistle that comes from the chest as much as anything. When I first heard the whistle, I was completely blown away. It sounds like some kind of flute or another instrument more than a human noise.

After this we travelled by bus to Erdenet, to meet up with my sister Marina, and my 20 month old niece Amy. I really enjoyed the wonderful opportunity to get a taste of what their life has been like for the past four years, see there friends and learn about their work. And just to be with family was the best of all.

We enjoyed getting to know the city of Erdenet. It's a very young city, only about 30 years, and was built to support a large copper mine. I think it's the third largest copper mine in the world. While in Erdenet we were able to also experience one of the premier Mongolian experiences, airag! Airag is fermented mare's (horse) milk. I don't know the exact process of how it's made, but most families are able to make it in there own gers. It's a Mongolian favorite, especailly in the summer. Kind of like our lemonade. We weren't sure if we were going to be able to have any since it was out of season, but a barrel came into town full of airag. Our Mongolian friend said that the quality was 'medium good'. I have to agree! I can't say that I'd love to drink it day after day, but I can honestly say that I enjoyed my cup and a half. It kind of tasted like bubbly skimmed milk with sour yogurt mixed in. It is mildly alcoholic. About 2% I think.

I feel like I could go on and on about how interesting Mongolia is. I'm not sure if it was because we finally had a guide who could tell us about the particularities of the culture, but Mongolia seemed extra-interesting. A very neat mix of modernity simple living, kind people, tradition, and bizarre facts.

Beijing - Darcy

So, before we head off into the great Mongolian countryside I thought I'd blog to catch things right up to date. Paul, Tamara, and I arrived in Beijing in good time and enjoyed exploring the old parts of the city. We have found Beijing to be the least foreign feeling place yet. It's a very nice well developed city, which has made it easy to get around in (a spectacular subway system!), but we've really enjoyed the more colorful hutong (old parts of the city).

A big treat was having our good friend Wanda join us. It's been very nice to have someone come along who can see things through fresh eyes, bring a lot of enthusiasm, and share stories with.

We visited the summer palace before going to the airport to pick up Wanda. It was quite nice, kind of like a big fancy park with some neat buildings. We all liked different parts about it, but my favorite was a long wooden walkway/corridor that was about 800 m long. The really impressive thing though was that each roof space and crossbeam and pillar had a painting of Chinese history, landscapes, etc. After 800m you've seen a lot of art!

So once Wanda showed up we planned out our three day plan off attack to see Beijing. The first day we went to the Forbidden City, which is really quite nice. It's the most visited spot in China and it was BUSY! It's not immediately all the impressive, the architecture is very nice and all, but it is once you walk through courtyard after courtyard that you start to feel the scope of how impressive the entire complex is. We even managed to escape the crowds for some nice quiet hang out time in the forbidden city.

This is just a side note, but we've been reading through a lot of guidebooks, and they are often quite witty. One of my favorites was about the Forbidden City; "About 100 years ago admission would have cost you your life. Now 60 Yuan will do."

After the Forbidden City we took Wanda to her first market experience, but it ended up being me who had the experience after a very enthusiastic middle-aged lady trying to sell me a gift took a swing at me with her calculator after I refused her first few offers. (I think she was joking. Plus I ended up buying it eventually so it was a happy ending.)

The next day we planned to strike out to the Great Wall! We had a good plan made to get there for cheap from our guidebook, but as useful as they are, sometimes the guidebooks lead you astray and after wandering around Beijing for the morning we could find the mystery long distance bus station, and had to admit defeat. But all was not lost, we made the most out of our day. We went out for Peking duck at a very nice restaurant. It was very delicious! I can see why the dish is a big deal. The restaurant had a neat history as well. It's been serving Peking duck much longer than Canada has been a country!

We also started to look for tours to take us to the Great Wall, since we didn't want to miss our last chance to see it! We found a nice Hostel that offered a "secret" wall tour that seemed very nice. The big plus was that there would be few or no other tourists there, and it's original wall, with no restoration.

Boy was it amazing! One of the grandest sights of the whole trip so far. It started of with us being really lucky as the day before there was a big windstorm and it blew all the smog away! (Boy is the smog bad in China.) We've only had a handful of smog free days in China and this happened to be one of them. The scenery around the Great Wall is spectacular in it's own right. Eerily like the foothills in springtime. It almost felt like home. There were plum trees blossoming and early flowers, blue skies and fluffy clouds. The wall itself is built on the highest points of all the hills and winds down and around in a very... well... beautiful kind of way. It was really something to see the watchtowers just visible at the end of each horizon. Plus our tour group was basically the only ones there, so it really added to the whole majesty of the hike to be able to fall back and spend a few moments alone with the wall. (I don't know if I've ever been as attached to an inanimate object in such a short time as with the wall! I got a little emotional spending a few moments alone with it and even miss it right now as I'm typing this!)

So that's China. On to Mongolia!


Mmmmm.... Duck.

My attempt at an artsy wall shot.

Ohhhh I really love this wall!

Our first sight of the wall. It was a bit of a hike. But beautiful and fun!

Part of the Forbidden City. Reduces maintenance costs in nearby cities. (Sorry, inside joke.)

Chengdu and Xian - by Darcy

So after we left Yangshuo, we took the train (always a good time!) to Chengdu in the Sichuan province. Chengdu was quite nice. A good transition for us into the bigger Chinese cities. Big, but not too busy, and easy to get around.

Now the Sichuan province is famous for it's food, tea, and pandas. Our first experience with the food was a bit of a suprise. We went to an authentic Chinese resturaunt and ordered 'fragrant chicken in garlic sauce.' It seemed a safe enough bet. We got a big bowl of oil/broth with lot's of different spices and some chicken floating in it. It seemed fine so we dug in. The taste was fine. Paul described it as a little 'flowery'. What really surprised us though, was that after a few bites our tongues and lips started to go numb. REALLY numb.
We discovered the next day during a cooking class that there is a special Sichuan pepper that has a numbing effect. Since then we've had it in lot's of dishes, but never as much as that first dish, and never in the same potency.

Our food dilemma was solved though through our wonderful discovery of a Tibetan resturaunt in a Tibet district within the city. We were a little nervous when the language barrier seemed especially thick, but as so often happens, we were helped by a Tibetan man who spoke perfect english to order a delicous meal. This was oe of the best of the whole trip. Yak meat dumplings (mo mo's) might not sound great to you back home, but they were AMAZING!

We were quite struck throught he whole experince how charismatic the Tibetan people are. Very friendly and social and excited to meet you. Even their distinct fasion is endearing. I can see how many travellers become very attached to the place. (And we weren't even in Tibet! Just a Tibetan community.)

The next day we headed out to see the pandas. There is a big panda research and breeding center near the city and they have lot's of viewing areas. Boy are those pandas charismatic! They even seem to have a bit of a knack for showmanship, doing extra cute things just for the fun of it.
So a little panda info; pandas actually have the stomachs of carnivours, but only eat bamboo (which is basically just wood). They can only digest 2% of the bamboo they eat, so they have to eat as much as possible and use as little energy as possible. This has led to the panda being VERY laid back. They recline in a very humanlike manner and just munch on bamboo stalks all day long. If pandas were human, they'd be the guy living in their parents basement watching movies and eating chips all day.
We also started to delve into the tea culture in Chengdu. We wandered into a tea shop and were invited to sit and sample some of the teas. Our hostess, a very kind young lady, went through many of the little ceremonial acts that made us realize that tea drinking has a long history that we know little about. It was tricky to learn more, becuase, for example, when we tried to ask why our hostess would pour a little extra tea on a little frog figurine, she thought hard for a few seconds, and then replied. "He's thirsty."

From there we travelled onward yet agian, to Xian (pronounced She-Ann). Xian is the ancient capital of China so there has been lot's to see. The most notable being the Terra Cotta Warriors. They were quite spectacular. What struck me the most was how lifelike they seemed. It almost seemed like the at any second the figures were going to turn they're heads to see who was looking at them. We were also struck at how bizzare the ancient world is. The labor that must have gone into creating thousands of clay warriors, each unique, with actual weapons, is absolutely mindboggling. And all just to have an army in the afterlife!? It sure doesn't make sense with our modern werstern minds.

Xian also has many other neat sights. There are massive ancient city walls (about 18m high and 15m wide.) surrounding the inner-city. They are quite neat because you can bike around the whole thing from the top. We even tried out a tandem bike, which was quite humorous. There is a great museum. There is also a muslim sector left over from the silk route days, that we enjoy shopping around and snacking in. Sesame and sunflower cakes mmmmmmm! We even saw a spectacular water fountain show in front of an ancient pagoda.

Tommorrow we leave for Beijing via train to meet with our friend Wanda who is coming to join us for the rest of the trip. We are sure excited for her to join us and add some new perspectives!

China- Yangshuo

The view from our first hotel in Guilin, China!!


Exiting Vietnam proved to be a beautiful drive through lush mountains. The border at Vietnam was quite chaotic, the system for getting an exit stamp was a whole bunch of people crowded around the counter trying to get close enough for the border guy to see your passport and grab it. None of us Canadians were really interested in participating in this but, eventually realized that this seems to be their system and we don't have much of a choice. Just as we were developing our plan of attack a guy came out the side of the counter where we were standing and just took our passports and continued to take a whole stack of passports from people. We were pretty sure we would get our passports back... A few minutes later the guy came back a crowd quickly formed around him as he called out peoples names and gave people back their passports. From there we continued on into China. The China border was much more orderly and flowed nicely with the exception of them searching all of our packs...
From there we took a bus to Nanning the capital city of the Guangxi province and immediately switched buses and continued on to Guilin which is the connector city to our desired destination of Yanghsuo which is a small town surrounded by mountain karsts (limestone peaks). It was here that we immediately notice the differences between China and the rest of Southeast Asia. No one really spoke English, all of the script at the bus stations was in Chinese, we were the only white people and EVERYONE was staring at us, staring beyond normal social boundaries, I think even beyond normal Chinese social boundaries. (We have since noticed that people particularly stare at us when we wear shorts, which we don't quite understand because the Chinese wear shorts and short skirts all the time... we think maybe they are looking at our 'weird' shoes (we all have Keens), I don't know...we are also a little dirty... that might be it). Once in Guilin we were met by a lady who spoke English and told us she could take us to a hotel, it was late so we went. It was actually quite a nice hotel room, very large with an en suite. We were woken up in the morning by a peculiar fellow knocking at our door asking us what our plans were and then offered us a boat ride to Yangshuo. We had heard that this was a nice boat ride but very expensive, as such we had planned on taking the bus. His offer was significantly lower priced than the regular boat ride but significantly more expensive than the bus. After this man accompanied us to the bank and then to lunch we decided to accept his offer. We began our journey with him giving us a hand written receipt that read "3 foreign friends from Canada are taking a boat trip down the Li Yang River to Yangshuo" (the receipt system is a little different here, also, in the past recipes have been important to keep because they will get you through all the steps of your journey, we had our doubts about how far an hand written english receipt that reads like a childrens story would get us) The man first took us to a city bus, then he got off the city bus and told us his wife needed his keys but he would be back... and so we were left on the bus, going... somewhere... with our 'receipt'. But, sure enough he came back on the bus only to again get off a short while later again because he had something to do... again, still on the bus, going... somewhere... But, yet again our friend somehow got back on the bus. I still have no idea how he got off and did whatever he had to do and then caught up to the bus. By this time it was early afternoon, cold and rainy- perfect for a boat ride. We arrived at the river and got on our 'bamboo' (plastic piping) raft. The boat ride truly was amazingly beautiful, unfortunately we were all freezing, particularly Paul who was at the beginning of a cold/flu. At the end of our boat trip we had a mandatory and expensive, but delicious fish lunch at a fishermans house who lived right on the river and then continued on a bus to Yangshuo.

Here is a lovely place on the Li River that also happens to be on there 20Yuan bill


This is the same place without the money, I wish I hadn't posted it but it took a long time to load the picture so I am leaving it up.

Waking up the next morning we were disappointed to realize that Paul was quite sick and I (Tamara) was also sick. Darcy had been quite sick in Vietnam and was still recovering, which made for a sleepy day in our hotel room. We ventured out to eat, took a stroll down the tourist road, but that was about it. The next day was much the same. By the third day we were all feeling a little better and decided to rent bikes and cruise around the country side. Yangshuo is a truly beautiful place, small and laid back. The guide book says that it is a backpackers paradise and that some people who come here end up stay for months and even years. We all agreed that we could easily stay here for a long time. We biked to some main tourist spots particularly free ones called Moon Hill and the Dragon Bridge. Moon Hill is a mountain that has a bizarre hole in the middle of it. The Dragon Bridge is a bridge that is apparently 1000 years old, it was mostly restored but still cool. Now, Yangshuo's one downfall is that the only map in English is modeled after an ancient hand painted map that happens to be entirely useless, we spent a lot of time wondering where we were and where we were going but that made for the best part. The best part was biking through rice patties, weaving through the village streets, hitting dead ends, getting stranded next to a river and having to pay to get fairied accross. The fourth day we spent biking in the country side again, going through muddy trails on our cruiser bikes (some people did the same trails on tandem bikes, I have no idea how) we also explored some caves, watched some people go climbing. Yangshuo has been a wonderful time for us to recuperate and enjoy a less structured form of tourism.



This is the view from the top of Moon HIll- truly amazing the mountains went forever


Here is Darcy attempting to bicycle through the rice patties, some of the places were not bicycle friendly... but very fun!


Paul maneuvering through narrow (and slippery) paths


The 1000 year old Dragon bridge


Beautiful Yangshuo right before sunset

We were quite sad to leave Yangshuo but China is a big country...

More Pictures!

I had a good chance to post some more pictures, so here they are. Hope this gets you even MORE excited to join us Wanda! They are random shots from the whole trip.

This is from the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. They really do love the conical straw hat.


Another shot of Angkor Wat. It's a little to bad the scaffolding was on the main tower, but I hope the picture communicates how majestic the temple really is.

This is Wat Bayon, it was definately the most bizzare temple in Angkor. Look carefully to see all the faces.

There was good snorkelling around this rock at Koh Tao. This seems like so long ago already!


I couldn't resist another elephant photo. This is our newfound friend Billy showing a little appreciation for the ride. (Unfortunately Billy got really sick a couple days after this. We are SO thankful our health has been good!)

Vietnam Pics - Finally

Ok, so this is a look at Halong Bay, there must have been hundreds of mountain/islands like this. We were lucky with a really nice day. It can often be foggy, but we had a good clear afternoon.

This is inside a cave in one of the bigger island/mounatins. The cave was very impressive, even though there were cheesy mutli-colored lights throughout. This was a nice shot though.

Another classic of Halong Bay. There should be a little boat by the island if you look carefully.

Paul and Tamara with classic Vietnamese hats on a pull boat in the Mekong Delta. If you look carefully you can see that Paul's hat has a pink ribbon.

This is some prawns that we were cooking over our hotpot fire. After this we put the pot back on and cooked pieces of beef and noodle and veggies and bread in a spicy broth. Kind of fondue style.

Just a quick note!!

There are 3 parts to Vietnam and despite the order we posted them in, blogspot posted them in a different order, oh well. It will make the most sense to read them in order starting with part 1.
One more thing that we neglected to mention about Vietnam is the introduction of the audible turn signal light, yes it doesn't matter if you are in the vehicle or on the street you will hear every bus, motorcycle and car that is turning... On top of that, you know that beep that big trucks or buses have when they are backing up? Apparently, all vehicles can get customized reverse sounds (that resemble ringtones)my favorite of which was the Happy Birthday song.

Vietnam part 2- the long, skinny part. By Paul

Vietnam was great. Our time there was far too short as I think we are finding with most countries. I think this trip is more of a 'sampler', giving us a taste of each country. I know there are certainly things I would still like to see or spend more time doing there. We were actually quite sad to be leaving the south and Saigon. As we were waiting in a park to go to the train station we met a couple of very friendly students. After about 45 minutes we were sad to have to cut the visit short. I think that may sum up Vietnam for me.

We decided to get off the train at Quy Nonh (approximately 1/3 of the distance between Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) and Hanoi)and spend a couple of days there to get a bit of a taste of that part of Vietnam, spend one last day on the beach and then head north. We picked Quy Nonh because it wasn't supposed to be very touristy and this proved true. We took an overnight soft sleeper and we actually had the 4 berth cabin to ourselves. It was pretty luxurious. Tamara and I had both spent a night in a top berth in Thailand (where there aren't cabins, they don't turn the lights off, the curtains don't block the light or give privacy but do block the fan and people are coming and going all night) so Darcy said this was his turn. Both Tamara and I decided that it didn't count as a 'top berth' night as it was arguably better than the bottom and he made us cater to him all night. Oh well.

Quy Nonh was beautiful and we found that the Vietnamese there really, really like their coffee- about 4 or 5 coffee spots for every place serving food and they are very active in the evenings. There were probably 5 or 6 road-football games going on along the beach road after supper in the blowing sand. Much like road hockey except most guys are in barefeet, they only sometimes stop for motorbikes and there was blowing sand instead of snow.

We had some tasty seafood and then decided to go for some ice cream at a shop Tamara had read about and was eager to try. As we walked in we thought that the local tom cats had been peeing in the corner but we sat and ordered anyways. There were some pretty interesting choices. Darcy got "European deep-fried" ice cream. Tamara and I both ended up looking at the 'special Durrian ice cream' so Tamara decided to get the "Funnyman sundae" (seriously)instead. Well, once I got my ice cream I realized the smell was not due to Tom cats but due to this lovely desert. I also started to remember stories from my brother Dave saying some hotels forbid Durrian in them, but smoking and pets are okay. The first bite with the fruit on it tasted much like it smelt. After that it got better although Darcy claims a little bit of it ended up in his bowl spoiling half his 'lovely dish'. I think it's pretty normal to have a desire to brush your teeth three times after eating ice cream, right?

Our second day we decided to go and spend some time on the beach and in the South China Sea at the leperosy hospital. The hospital has a beautiful beach and grounds. It is a very nice hospital and the family come and live with patients there and the residents that can work both outside the compound and in it and support themselves. We had the whole beach to ourselves, hammocks in the palm trees, warm water and fun waves. It was a great day to relax and read and play frisbee in the water. They make very unique little boats out of bamboo there that are perfectly round and bob in the water. (I'll try to include a picture next time. We also found that as we went north these boats gradually turned into boats with a bow and stern). As we were playing frisbee a fisherman was rowing/paddling his little round boat past in the surf and asked us to throw it to him. He retrieved it with his boat, threw it back (upside down- I'm sure he'd never played with one before) and then kept going on his way. Such a little thing. I bet he has no idea how much that made our day!

We continued on to Hanoi but we were unable to get a 'soft sleeper' and so ended up with 'hard sleeper berths' and were game to try it. It was a fun experience and often comical. We joined the train in progress at just before 5am and in this class there are 6 berths in a cabin. "Hard" means hard- they were shelves with literally a sheet for padding. The three ladies in the cabin reshuffled out of our berths and we got to sleep. The ladies were up about an hour later having a good visit. The 'coffee lady' came around then and sold Tamara and I coffee before I could figure out what time it was and then she grabbed Darcy's bare toe sticking out (a brave lady, too, I might add) and asked him once he was awake(?) "Ka- fee? You want ka-fee?" We became quite fond of her over the next 29 hours. We were able to spend much of the day in the soft seats car playing crib, reading, swapping mangoes, cookies and candies with an older couple next to us and watching the scenery, of course. The train goes next to some stunning coastline and through the Demilitarized zone. Over the course of the trip, our roommates changed a couple of times, each time being middle aged vietnamese ladies with a very ready sense of humor and understanding(even if not literal) for these foreigners. Despite the hard sleeper being shelves that were just about long enough we all found that we slept surprising well and got to Hanoi thinking we were ready for it. Well.....

Vietnam 1- Mekong Delta- Tamara

We entered Vietnam via the Mekong River which was a delightful boatride with some great scenery of the river lifestyle. The border crossing went smoothly and simply. We arrived in Cho Doc in the afternoon. We were all immediately amazed at how different Vietnam seemed compared to Cambodia. Cho Doc was a busy small town with not to much to see so we decided to move on the next day. Our next destination in the Mekong Delta was Vinh Long, a larger town a little off the tourist track. We all immediately warmed to Vietnam and were amazed at how friendly people were. Everywhere we went people would smile and say hello to us, pointed us out to their children (some cried, others said 'HELLOOOOOO' and then would get really shy). They just seemed genuinely interested and excited about our presence. It was also a relief to have 'hello's' that were not followed by 'you want to buy something...'
We took a boat tour of some of the islands around the town as well as had a lovely hot pot supper. The hot pot supper could have been a disaster if not for the help of and extraordinarily friendly Vietnamese fellow who helped us through every step (it would have been a horrible supper had he not helped us. The man did not speak english but seemed genuinely excited to hang out with us, he didn't want us to leave and might have offered to pay for our meal. But, sadly, we had to leave. I must say, the island lifestyle has a genuine charm to it.
The next morning we took a bus ride to Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City), I am not even going to bother trying to describe how terrible and frightening the bus ride was... we were certain that at any point during the bus ride we were about to get into an accident or that someone was going to puke... thankfully, niether occured.
Saigon was a wonderful city, the tourist area is particularly well designed. There was a beautiful park very close to our hotel where tons of locals could be found jogging, walking, playing hacky sack, playing badminton or just relaxing. We were fortunate to meet a few local Vietnamese people who were looking to practice their English. Talking with the local people is one of the best parts about travelling. They seem to especially be interested in our perceptions of them and their country.
Saigon also presented us with a new learning curve for crossing the street. There was too much traffic to wait for a break (we tried and it never comes.)The only way to cross the street is simply to walk out into traffic slowly and not make any sudden movements, but keep moving, if you stand still in the middle of the street people will honk at you. We simply had to walk and just trust that the people on the motorbikes and in the cars would first of all see us, and second that they would go around us... a few close calls... but I think we got pretty good at it.
Due to the chaotic traffic, Paul and I could not resist taking a moto taxi ride through the city. It was quite a rush with only a few close calls...
Another interesting thing we did in Saigon was visit The War Remnants Museum, we found it quite interesting to see the war details described from a different point of view.
Southern Vietnam has been truly delightful.
Sorry for the lack of pictures, the USB ports are not working, we'll try to put some on later.
Much Love*

Vietnam Part 3 - The North - by Darcy (not Tamara)

Well, let's start with the capital of Vietnam, Hanoi. At first we found Hanoi very 'Hanoi'ing. Get it? I should probably say at this point that Tamara and I have taken up making puns from city names and places. 'Would you like a Viet'nam' and cheese sandwich?' This is much to Paul's chagrin. "'Ha Long' will this go on?" Anyway, we read in our ever handy guide book that some in Hanoi will actually take abandoned apartments, turn them into shady guesthouses and then name them after popular guesthouses or tourist information hubs.

So when we got into Hanoi off the train we were greeted by the usual taxi crowd trying to get a hold of you. We tried to pick the most honest looking and gave him the address to the guesthouse we had decided on. We got a little suspicious when the driver seemed hardly interested in the address we gave him and then got more suspicious when he immediately got on his phone. Lo and behold after driving for longer than we thought was necessary we met someone on the side of the road who flashed a card of the guesthouse we were after and said "Oh we're full but have a new site. Is very good!" Fortunately this is exactly how the guidebook spelled out the trick, so we decided just to get out there pay the driver and make it on our own. We've toyed with the idea if not paying or paying little for taxi's who trick us but apparently (as we read later) these con-ers in particular can get a little angry you call them on it. But after some help from some semi-honest cyclo drivers
(note to cyclo drivers out there, don't try to raise your offer after you've already given the customer their change) we found the guesthouse we were after. So a bit of a rough start to northern Vietnam, but all things considered not too bad.(I should probably note that Tamara would disagree about the 'not too bad'. She found the scams in Hanoi especailly infuriating, or Hanoi-ing as it were. We all agreed she wasn't allowed to blog about Hanoi.)

So this guesthouse, The Thu Giang, was exceptional. If anyone ever goes to Hanoi go there. It's family run,largely by two younger sisters with good English who love nothing better than to help traveller's enjoy the city as much a possible. After having trouble finding us a good cooking class one of the girls offered to teach us a dish, Bun Bo, that we had at a little restaurant and loved. So she charged us 30 000 dong (yes, Vietnamese money are dongs) which is about $2.5 which is what we would pay to eat it on the street. Even though she spent two hours walking us through the process, including a market trip! Remarkably generous. So it was more than worth it to go to the REAL Thu Giang.

So the area in Hanoi that we were staying in is called the 'old quarter' because it dates back many hundreds of years. You could sure tell it wasn't designed in modern times, because no street ran straight, the names we're sporadic, and our map was suspiciously misleading. Now Paul is an excellent city navigator and Tamara by her own admission is especially good with maps. But I think that we must have spent more than half our time wandering around having little or no idea of where were. It was unbelievably confusing. I think that if you designed an actual maze city it would be easier to get around. Mazes have some kind of design behind them. But that's all part of the fun right? right? We did get to refine our Saigon perfected street crossing teqniques in smaller more congested streets, so that's a plus.

Well, it didn't take us long to decide to move on from Hanoi. Don't get me wrong though, there was some neat stuff in Hanoi, we saw an interesting water puppet show, and got to visit the mausoleum of Ho Chi Mihn who is preserved in glass in the Lenin style. He looked good. Dead, but good. But on from Hanoi we went and took a three day tour of Ha Long Bay (get the earlier pun now?)

And Oh Boy was it fantastic! We'll get pictures up when we can, but there are hundreds of little forest covered mountain peaks scattered throughout the Bay. The little ship we got to take would just Cruise lazily between the islands, and just when you think that things couldn't get more majestic or beautiful we would round another island/mountain and there would be an even more fantastic view. We got to take kayaks out for a few hours and were pointed in the direction (OK, I've got to take a moment to express how you can never be sure what you are getting into when asking the locals about the sights. For example, 'the most beautiful temple' in all of Angkor might end up being a little ho hum compared to Angkor Wat and when our guide for the kayaking pointed us in the direction we were to go he said, "Ummmm go round this island, through a channel, take a right, go through a cave, come back" all while tossing out vague hand waving.) So we follow his 'directions' and what he called a cave was a water tunnel (stalagmites and all) through a mountain into a whole grotto completely surrounded by mountain cliffs! Sorry but there are no pictures because we didn't risk our camera's on the kayak, but I wonder if you could google earth it? It might even have a name. (If it was in Canada it would be on our $20 bills, but in Vietnam I don't even know if it has a name!) It was totally inaccessible except by those little boats. I was certain that a place like this couldn't actually exist on earth. But there we were. A very special moment for sure.

Add on to this experience and the amazing scenery that the rest of the group on our tour group consisted of some very kind and interesting Irish, Dutch and Eastern Canadians who quickly became our friends, this was certainly one of the highlights of the trip. Oh yeah, and when it came time to jump into the water for an evening swim, who were the only ones to jump from the top of the boat? Paul, Tamara and I! Who knew we were so cool? (I actually think it has more to do with being used to cold. No one else even went in the water. It seemed fine to us!)

We ended the experience body surfing on one of the beaches of the islands. It actually was a bit chilly that day, and I think the locals thought we were crazy, but it's a good thing that we went because things only get colder as we travel north. But that's for the China post!

Oh, I suppose I should also mention that the exit process from Vietnam was quite comical, involving much confusion, large crowds, waving arms some gentle pushing and stacks of passports. Stay tuned for our mid China "top lessons we've learned so far about travelling" post! Again sorry about the no pictures, but we'll get them up as soon as we find a reliable usb port. They are worth waiting for!

(Plus as I read this over I realize that I use a ton of brackets. Sorry.)

Cambodia, in a nut shell- by Tamara

Here are some photos from our trek in Thailand




So, I shall begin by telling you about getting to the border. Our plan was to get our visas right at the border because it is the cheapest route: $20 USD. We took a bus that dropped us off right close to the border, then we planned to take a tuk tuk right to the border. Now, so far we have been fooled by a few tuktuk drivers (as in they have taken us somewhere different than we had originally negotiated) and have come to expect it. However, when we said 'take us to the border' it seemed straight forward enough. First, the driver took us to a travel agency (who are known for gaining commission on all tickets and visas that can otherwise be purchased for cheaper, tuk tuk drivers work in tandem with travel agencies and get a cut of the commission), clearly this wasn't the border. But, who knows maybe this is how you get a Cambodia visa. Sure enough, the visas were significantly more expensive:$35 USD , we politely declined the transaction, they got mad at us, we left. Then our tuk tuk driver drove us next door (literally) to a Cambodia consulate where the guard told us we could get our visas for $32 dollars....... we didn't even get out of the tuk tuk we just said 'please just take us to the border', so she did. The border looked like a border from the old west, hot, dusty and busy with sinister looking folk around ever corner. It wasn't long before a fellow singled us out, and told us he knew of a great travel agency where we could get cheap visas : $30USD.... we didn't even break stride as we could see he was not pointing in the direction of the border. Now, we are finally at the visa window that has a sign saying 'Cambodian Visa $20USD', finally! Of course, there was a guard outside the window who then said it cost $26USD, we argued with him and eventually he just walked away, then the guy at the actual window said it cost $20USD plus $3USD... by this point we were tired of people trying to take our money and continued to argue with him, then he went down to $3 extra for all of us, we continued to argue, he said if we didn't pay it would take 3 to 4 hours, we said that was fine and went and say down.... we got our passports back with our visas about 4 minutes later. They did spell my name wrong (Tamama) but it was well worth it.

Crossing the border from Thailand to Cambodia reminded Darcy of the US\Mexico border, there was quite a stark difference. Cambodia seemed poorer and the people a little rougher. Lonely Planet describes Poi Pet (the border town) as the cesspool of Cambodia- it is no exageration. We were glad to get on a bus and be on our way to Siem Reap. The bus ride was hot and exhausting but thankfully brought us to a wonderful family run guesthouse. We spent the next two days exploring the wonderous Angkor Wat, which for those who don't know is a large collection of ruined temples in the jungle of Cambodia, the largest and nicest being Angkor Wat which is the largest religious building in the world. It was quite amazing and difficult to fully describe. But I will say, the stairs are comically steep... I don't know how they managed to build such amazing temples with stairs that more resemble a ladder or stone wall. Despite the awe of Angkor Wat, our favorite temple was one that they have left in it's overrun jungle state. It is truly amazing to see how strong and persist those trees are and the temples for that matter. I should also say that the people selling souveniers at Ankgor Wat are the most persistent yet. So far Darcy has bought 1 scarf and 6 flutes; Paul: 2 scarves , 1 tshirt, 2 books; Tamara: 4 scarves, 2 tshirts and 10 postcards! I should say that these kids selling souveniers will follow you around and harass you, the little boy I bought the postcards from first followed me to an entrance that I also had to exit from asking me to buy "10 for 1 dollar" and I said "no thanks" he said "maybe on the way out" I said "maybe" MISTAKE, once I got out of the temple he said " I wait for you, you buy now" I said "no thanks'" he said "ÿou said maybe later, I wait long time in the hot and now you no buy, you lie to me" I said "umm"...." He said "three for 2 dollars, you buy (with a whimper) " (in case you haven't done the math that is now 30 postcards) so I said "what am I going to do with 30 postcards?" he says "send them, give them away, I no care"(now crying), so, alas I now have 10 postcards of Siem Reap\Angkor Wat, which actually turns out to be 13 postcards because the case doubles as 3 more postcards...

Ankgor Wat at Sunrise


Tamara getting attacked by girls selling scarves....


Darcy at the Jungle Temple

Darcy also had a lovely experience with a girl who at first gave him a free bracelet then told him "Maybe come look in my store", Darcy said "maybe not", she said "Maybe no in Cambodia means maybe yes", Darcy just walked away (which is honestly the only way out).... she replied "you are not good... you are bad to me" Darcy felt bad, but not bad enough to buy! Just so everyone knows Darcy is quite a barterer, by far the best among us and the most resilient to their tricks (as you can see).

After 3 days in Siem Reap we were on our way to the capital, Phenom Penh. Phenom Penh is supposed to be the most dangerous place in Cambodia but like anywhere, after enough time seems more normal than anything (although I should say there was a fight just outside as I was writing this... how ironic). A few funny things about Cambodia is that everyone has checkered scarf that they use for everything from a head wrap, scarf around the neck, towel, clothing, to carry random stuff and even as a hammock for little kids. There are also hammocks everywhere, I am pretty sure that at any point there is a hammock within sight of every Cambodian. They even back up their vehicles to trees and hang the hammock from the vehicle to the tree and sleep. Another thing that is interesting about Cambodians is their ability to utilize the motorcycle or bicycle. Now, at the beginning of our trip when we were in Koh Tao in Thailand we thought it was funny when we saw 3 people on a motorcycle, and hysterical when we saw a group attempting to put 4 on... here in Cambodia it is not uncommon to see 4-6 people on a motorcycle among normal traffic, you think I am joking but I am not, we keep hoping to get a picture but it hasn't worked out.
There has also been a few opportunities for us to have the dead skin eaten off of our feet by fish... massage by Dr Fish... it seemed like a good idea... except for Darcy who would said he would only do it if it was full submersion.


Now, I am not sure about anyone else but I had no idea about any of Cambodia's history before coming here except there involvement\proximity to the Vietnam war. Did you know that Cambodia underwent a genoicide about 30 years ago and 2 million Cambodians died... the worst part about it is that the UN doesn't really acknowledge it as much more than an unfortunate event of the past... it is quite heart breaking. We visited a place called 'the killing fields' which is where alot of the executions occurred and mass graves were. There is a large monument full of skulls and old clothes that were dug up from the graves... it was errily sobering. We also visited a highschool that was turned into a prison during the Khmer Rouge reign that was used for interogtation and torture, again, devistating and sobering.

On the brighter side, it is quite amazing to see how far Cambodia and its people have come from their recent past which crumbled almost their whole infrastructure, economy and culture. The Cambodians seem to have very close communitites and have the brightest yet most humble smiles I think I've ever seen.

On to Vietnam. Hurray!

On to Cambodia- Tamara

Our time in Chaing mai was concluded with a lovely trek into the jungle of Thailand. We left at about 9:00 in the morning into the back of a truck with 6 other people for a 2 hour drive... Thankfully, we had a few stops which included a picture perfect waterfall, the water was quite cold but not to cold for us Canadians. The next stop was at some hot springs, now being that it is about 35 degrees celcius, the hot springs did not seem appealing but, eventually our group all got in and found that it felt quite nice and made it seem not so hot outside. It was after all this that we began our trek, we began hiking on very moderate and simple trails complete with bamboo, vines, fruit trees as well as trees that tower higher than I have ever seen. We walked through 3 hill tribe sights and got to see how these people live. Our guide grew up in a hill tribe and said when he was little he would walk 2 1/2 hours to school everyday... and I don't think he was joking. We walked about 9 1/2 km to our final hill tribe sight where we would spend the night in a bamboo hut. It was a beautiful sight right along the river, sure enough as we arrived we could see people building a bamboo raft that we would be using the next day as well as people bathing in the river, chickens- everywhere and of course puppy dogs. But, what went surprisingly unnoticed were the elephants that were just behind our hut. Bah, it was amazing! The evening concluded with one of our guides playing guitar and singing for us- again, amazing.

The next day we were woken up at about oh, 1:00 am by the roosters that were clearing confused as to what time it was, then again at 2:00, 3:00 and yes 4:00, and then I think at sunrise as well but they may have quit by then. Despite the roosters, we all had a fantastic sleep. We all woke up to traditionally dressed hill tribe women ferverently trying to see us jewellry and elephant purses, we all caved.

After breakfast it was time for our elephant ride. What is funny about Thailand is that everyone seems to have a pretty casual approach to everything, the elephants didn't seem to be behaving very well but no one seemed very concerned about it. The elephant I was supposed to ride kept walking away from the platform, no big deal, they just told me to get on. The elephant that Paul and Darcy were on was about 45 years old and the one I was on was about 9 which I think for elephants are the rebellious teenage years. All the other elephants followed promtly in line while the elephant I was on continually would go off the trail and start eating. My guide was walking on the ground beside with a chain around one of the elephants legs, sometimes he would pull on it and grunt at the elephant trying to cue it to keep walking or go a different direction... the elephant won every time... it would eat until it finished, it would go the direction it wanted, it would pick up dirt for a while, it would break a branch off of a tree and hit itself on the head with it... but eventually it would always end up back with the other elephants. We rode for about 2 hours all along and in the river, it was delightful. Elephants are quite majestic and seem to have sad yet captivating eyes.

We then got onto our bamboo raft which turned out to be more fun than I ever thought. Although we did not go on super fast or rough waters there were several times when we thought that the raft would flip, the raft would break or that our guide had abandoned us... but all was well, we all arrived safely, well, except for Paul who at one point got his bamboo pole caught in some rocks on the river bottom which ended up with him getting clothes lined and launched into the water... haha, luckily for him no one really saw it and so everyone thought he jumped in the water on purpose. We were all expecting trekking to be fun, but it was far more fun than we ever imagined.

We left Chiang Mai on the 11th, we were all sad to go but the epic must go on. We arrived in Cambodia on the 12th... but that my friends is another story...!
I did forget one thing, we were walking in Chiang Mai and saw two dogs behind a gate, one was lying on its back sunbathing with all 4 paws in the air while the other came over to sniff me, he was very friendly. But, while Paul and Darcy were distracted by the sun bathing dog who we wern't sure if it was actually breathing, the friendly dog went over and sniffed Paul, then lifted his leg and promtly started peeing on Pauls foot. I must be honest I saw the whole thing coming but I thought Paul was watching, he didn't realize until the dog was near finished. And then by that time the mysterious sunbathing dog was up and both dogs looked quite pleased with themselves. We're pretty sure it is a tourist scam.

North in Chiang Mai by Paul

Well, I've been told it's my turn so here I am. It has been a lot of fun so far with many memorable things already. I won't try to fill you in on all of them but here's the short version of what's happened since Darcy last wrote. We had a couple of days in Bangkok before we got our passports back with our new, attractive, Mongolian visas so we spent time seeing the sites. We visited the world's largest reclining Buddha, saw the grand palace, a few other very iimportant Buddhist sites and also a couple of silk shops courtesy of tuktuk drivers (I'm sure a book could be written about them- who, for the most part we found entertaining in their scams, but very slick). Once we got to know the river taxiboats, the skytrain and taxi system getting around Bangkok was getting to seem second nature.

We left on the night train to Chiang Mai. This mode of travel has us looking forward to the trains in our future- it is quite a nice way to go. We started the crib tournament and am sorry to say that Tamara may be the most consistent crib player I've ever played as she has won 4 of 6 games to date. Because points are lost if we get skunked, there is a good chance that Wanda may be in 2nd or 3rd place when she joins us in 6 weeks!

Today we took a cooking class where we learned how to make 6 different Thai dishes. It was fun and tasty. I think Hastings lake Bible camp may have a Thai menu this summer. Tomorrow we head out on a 2 day trek where we will see some of the countryside, a national park, stay in a village adn then ride elephants and take a bamboo raft back down the river. Should be great and I'm sure you'll hear more about it.

I'm going to try to load some pictures now. If they're there, you'll know it worked. If they aren't, you'll know I tried, was in over my technological depth and will have to leave it for one of the others. Hope all is well with you all. Go Oilers!

Back in Bangkok - Darcy

We have some spectacular pictures of our time on Koh Tao, but they will come later but just you wait! We all had a wonderful time on the island. We spent our last day on a snorkeling tour and got to see the Nemo fish swimming in their anenomies. (spelling?) And lot's of other fish too! But alas, our mockery of the rookie traveller's sunburns come back to haunt us and we all got too much sun, which added to the fun of travelling back to Bangkok on a bus with air conditioning only on one side and movies with no sound 95% of the time and sudden blasts of incomprehensible noise the other 5%. That's the fun of traveling right? (It's easy for me to say I was on the air conditioned side:)

So we are back in the hustle and bustle of Bangkok now. We completed our applications for our Mongolian visa's and they'll be ready for us on Friday. So now we have a couple of days to see the sights here in the big city. It is quite something. A funny mix of very modern and still early development. For example to get to the emabssy, we took a boat taxi down the river, much the same way I'm sure it's been done for ages, and then hopped on the skytrain which is more modern than anything I've seen in Canada.

The sunburns are already going away and we are still healthy and happy, for which I am grateful.

Island fun - Darcy

Ok, so when we got to the Mongolian Embassy it was closed for a couple days, so we decided to leave Bangkok to experience the Thai beaches in the south. So we caught a night bus that day, and by 8:00 AM we were on our way to Koh Tao, our little island paradise.

And it is beautiful!!! White sand beaches, palm trees, clear ocean waters... Someday I will try to get some pictures up for you all. Our bungalo that we are staying in is only about 30ft from the ocean.

Yesterday we rented some small motor bikes, fins and snorkels and toured around the island. It's not too big, about 20 sq/km. So when we found a nice beach we stopped and jumped in the water to see what was there. It's amazing, even just 100 ft away from the shore there are so many different colorful fish. We've probably seen 40+ different species.

So the plan is to take a snorkeling tour tommorrow, and leave for Chaing Mai in Northern Thailand the next morning.

I am really grateful that everything has been going so well so far. Thai people are absolutely wonderful and it's been pretty easy to get around. The stomach is holding out quite well so far. I've only had one bathroom related adventure... details not neccesary.

It's hot. I haven;t stopped sweating for days.

Hope that all is well for everyone back home. As nice as it is to be here, I still do miss my friends and family back home. Take care.

safe and sound - by Darcy

We are here! After a long day of flights Paul, Tamara and I arrived safely in Bangkok with all our luggage. We had a good night in our fancy little hotel, and went slept through the night Thailand time, so we shouldn't be too jetlagged. Only one cockroach so far. Today we are off to find the Mongolian embassy to get our visa's. Sorry this is brief, but Thailand awaits! Yeah Thailand! (miss you Laura.)

Who is excited!?!?! By Darcy

Well, I am currently taking it easy at the Taerum household in Calgary, and all is well. Tamara is just finishing up her packing, and I'm all ready to go, so I thought it would be a good time to post.

This morning my parents were kind enough to take me to the Chinese consulate where I recieved my visa to enter China. The deadline to have your application in so that you could recieve it the same day was 11:00 AM and after an early morning and a good drive we were there at 10:15 with a medium sized line up. No problem right? Well the line moved slower than we thought and I was handing in my application literally the last minute (10:59). Anyway, it was no problem and 45 minutes later I am allowed to enter China!

So tommorrow Tamara and I (Thanks for the ride Larry!) leave to catch an 8:00 AM flight to Vancouver where we will meet up with Paul. Together we will then catch a noon flight to Tokyo for a brief layover, and arrive in Bangkok at about 10:45PM. (And I think it will be Wednesday?)

So that's it. Lot's of flying. I am quite excited. We are almost very literally on the other side of the planet. Does anyone know if the stars will look different? Or is that a north-south thing?

Thanks to everyone for all the goodbye's. I already miss you Laura.

And so it begins! (Almost) By Tamara

Well, I guess this is our blog. Almost everything is ready, we have our visas despite much stress over getting our Russian visas on time, $300 and 3 weeks gets you one fine Russian Visa. For those who don't know Darcy, Paul and I (Tamara) leave on Tuesday the 24th forBangkok, while poor Wanda has to slave away at CLBI and WMPL for 2 more months. Well, since we are still here... I will cease writing.... keep checking in to hear all about our epic journey!