• 29Dec

  Rarotonga

  A trip around the world Comments Off

  This was our last stop before coming home, so we were hoping to unwind by relaxing on the beaches, swimming in the ocean and soaking up some sun. But…

  

  the beach on Rarotonga

  Rarotonga is a nice round little coral island. Its very cute and the road went right around the circumference. So to get to town, we hopped on a bus (either clockwise or “anti”clockwise) and took the tour of the island. The town was quite small and had a few touristy shops selling black pearls. I guess there are many black pearl farms in the Cook Islands.

  One thing we noticed about Rarotonga is that it rained a lot. We even looked into leaving a few days early to stay in Los Angeles. But the forecast for LA was rainy on the two days we wanted to be there.

  The storms were interesting, though, the rain and the wind blowing through the palm trees had a nice swooshing sound. Even when it wasn’t raining, the wind was so strong, that the sound the palms made was just like rain on the roof.

  One rare day, when it was hot and sunny, we sat out on the deck by the beach and read our books. The wind was so strong, we were going numb from the cold! Everyday seemed to follow the same pattern: Sleep in, wake up slowly, pick up our books and read till our stomachs told us to go eat lunch. Then we’d wander out to the store, buy filled rolls (like Subway sandwiches) and wandered up to the internetcafe/used bookstore. Then back to read more or nap, then make dinner, then either read or play cards with other couples in the same lodgings. The day it poured all day, we didn’t even leave the lodge!

  We went to town twice – once to get a drivers license from the police station to rent a scooter. The cop stop closed just before we got there (it was 1:30 on a Saturday) and all the stores were closed. Strange how things close so early!

  And yes, you read it right – you need to have a Cook Islands license to rent a scooter, AND you need to take a driving test around the block with a cop to get that picture license. So we got back on the bus and went back home. The second time we went to town was to see the rest of the island on the bus and to buy some pearls and souvenirs.

  The dog population: very weird. Almost every dog has short legs. Like a basset hound. Imagine a golden retriever or a German shepherd with short bow legs. I think there might have been some interesting crossbreeding and definitely some inbreeding of the dogs.

  Another interesting thing to see is the front yards of the houses. They have huge cement graves in their front yards. There are bigger cemeteries at the churches but almost every other house has a two or three graves.

  One day, when it cleared up a bit, we rented snorkel gear and snorkeled in the lagoon to one of the small islands and around the other side of it. We saw some cool fish and a lot of sea cucumbers. Richard picked one up so I could get a picture and it squirted this stringy sticky stuff that tied his fingers together. At least it didn’t puke its guts out! One type of strange fish, with its eyes set way back on its very colorful body was territorial. If we got close to one, it would stare at us and come straight for us! Yikes! I looked it up and I think it’s a triggerfish the Lagoon/Picasso kind. Saw some pufferfish too. And a really long fish with a long pointy nose-like mouth.

  The place we stayed at first was at Vara’s Beach house. It was a hostel, but we had a private room. It was loud at times and the kitchen and bathroom was kind of dirty but the beds were comfortable for us. Every evening after dinner, there were tons of little wingless bugs and bugless wings all over Richard’s side of the bed. Don’t know where they came from as there are screens on the windows. After 3 nights, we moved to a more expensive place up on the hill. Still owned by Vara’s, we had our own bathroom and a cleaner kitchen. The other people staying there were couples too, so we didn’t feel as old as we did in the hostel. The walk up the hill wasn’t too bad, there were lots of nice smelling flowers on the way, a cute pig, a horse, papaya and banana trees, and couple of goats to greet us on our way. Trust me, though, we got sick of our “Horses and Cemeteries” game when we only saw the same horse every day, and tons of cemeteries…

  Read a little bit about Rarotonga

  Tags: Rarotonga, Travel

• 02Dec

  New Zealand

  A trip around the world 1 Comment

  This was very fast paced trip. NZ is crazy, expensive, beautiful and full of volcanoes!

  We looked into booking a rental car through the internet and found the perfect vehicle for traveling around NZ – its called a sleepervan. These are minivans with the back seats taken out and a bed or mattress put into it. Some come with camping gear or just a “chilly bin” or an “Eski” (which are terms for “cooler” for those who speak Canadian). This was the perfect way to travel NZ – especially when you only have 8 days to see the whole country. Good for driving way past dark and then pulling into a rest area if you aren’t near a campground when you’re tired.

  So we booked online a week or two before. A day before we leave for NZ, we get an email from the rental company saying that they are all out (even though they had already told us they had one for us). Do you know how hard it is to rent a car for only 7 days on such short notice? Well we were driving one way from Auckland to Christchurch, and flying back on the last day. Oops, already bought the plane tickets when we found out that rentals are easier to find if you are driving the other way. After arriving in the Auckland airport and calling rental agencies we finally went with the original company, but could only get an old clunker of a car. It had a few dents, lots of kms, and made funny sounds every now and then. But it was good enough and wasn’t too expensive. Hostelling/ hoteling it would be okay. Maybe we’d actually use our useless International Youth Hostel cards we bought in Paris….

  So we zoomed out of Auckland and went north. But we didn’t make it too far north as we realized we didn’t have enough time to see everything up there. Yes, sadly the Bay of islands didn’t make our shortlist. Stayed the night (1) in Warkworth.

  New Zealand is a great place for seeing great sites, doing fun outdoor activities, Lord of the Rings mania, and for going to bed early. “Open Late” means “We close at 9pm” or earlier. If you are winging it like we did, call ahead for reservations, or get to town before 8:30pm. If you don’t have a place to stay or haven’t eaten by then – good luck!

  

  Wai-O-Tapu boiling lake

  Sites:
  The Rotorua (spent 2nd night) thermal reserve in Wai-o-Tapu (http://www.geyserland.co.nz/) is amazing. It was awesome to see all of the hot pools with different colors and steam rising out of all kinds of crevices, geysers (not pronounced geezers ) and boiling mud.

  

  boiling mud

  More thermal activity near Taupo at a place called Craters of the Moon. Zooming across the north island (in the pouring rain) we arrived at Waitomo caves in time for the last trip of the day – but it was flooded so the glow worms had to wait till the next day. We found a great place to stay (3rd night) on an ostrich farm (http://www.waitomobigbird.co.nz/ - yes, the free evening forest walk with Ross -who is the farmer and a conservation officer- to see the forest glow worms was great! And the breakfast of ostrich eggs and bacon was yummy). The next day we went into the Waitomo caves (http://www.new-zealand.com/WaitomoCaves/index.html) and saw the limestone formations and the glow worms. It was like looking up into the night sky with millions of stars.

  From there, we zoomed down to Wellington - it was still raining hard, so we missed the spectacular views of the volcanoes on the way. We hoped to catch a ferry to the south island that evening. Most people look at the schedules of things, but not us – we like to live on the edge. We missed the 5:30 by 15 minutes and found out the next one wasn’t until 1 am or 3 am. Since we didn’t have a place to stay for the night in Picton, we had to stay in Wellington for the night (4) and catch one at 9am. Strange ferry system – weird hours and very very very expensive to bring a car across. Our rental company didn’t offer us the switch at the ferry option – (leave the car there, walk on the ferry, pick up a new one at the other end). Anyways, Wellington was nice, but we avoided town since this was the weekend of the Return of the King movie premiere and we didn’t want to get stuck in traffic.

  We drove south from Picton to Kaikura (where we didn’t have enough time to go whale watching) then south and west to spend the night (5) in Greymouth. Looked for some penguins, but didn’t find any. From Greymouth, we went south along the west coast to the Fox and Franz glaciers.

  

  Fox Glacier

  Oh yeah, saw the Punakaiki Pancake rocks sometime that day – but the tide was low so we didn’t see the blowholes blowing. Penguin search today yielded nothing again. Got a flat tire near Wanaka (driving through the misty mountains?) (the Whistler of NZ), but rolled into town after 10. Nothing open except the gas station. Spent some time looking for a hotel/hostel/motel/campground but everyone was in bed for the night. The gas station was open and the attendant offered us an expensive option – a night (6) in a lodge - he gave us a business card and everything. We had no other choice, so we left the car and walked to the lodge. Turns out his wife was waiting there for us, and we were their first visitors ever. They were planning to open in a couple of weeks, but since we needed a place… and it was a very nice place. There was a hottub (but it was too late for us to use it) and an awesome view of the mountains out the window (no curtains yet)– everything was brand new, comfy and cosy. Expensive, but it was worth it. I found the website http://www.blackpeaklodge.co.nz/facilities.htm.

  Next morning, we were awakened by the fire alarm! I guess they had put the timer on the breadmaker and set it wrong. Oops, it was kind of funny… and we had to get up anyways to get the tire fixed. Waiting for the tire to be replaced, I went down to the post office and got stamps – they have Lord of the Rings stamps! http://www.nzstamps.co.nz/cgi-bin/nzstamps/web_store/web_store.cgi?cart_id=&page=recent/2003_lotr.htm . Looking at the site now, I noticed that there is one I missed! :o( Oh well I guess Merry and Pip will have to stay in the Shire…

  From Wanaka, we went to Invercargill and then started east along the coast. Saw the fossil forest – a coastal shelf where you see old stumps and logs that used to be trees but are now solid rock. We looked for penguins here, but again none :o(. Farther along the south coast, we drove on some gravel roads and we found penguins! The yellow-eyed hoiho penguins! Yay! Driving out of there, we got another flat tire. Still two hours from Dunedin – we drove on the spare, and called ahead to get a chalet at one of the top ten parks (they’re a good deal and not too bad).

  Driving around Dunedin, we got lost a few times, but somehow made it back to our place. It was too late to drive out to the end of the Otago peninsula to see the Albatross and the penguins, so we put it off until the next day. Had a good sleep there (7)

  Next day we got the tire replaced and decided that we didn’t have enough time to drive out to the end of the peninsula and back as we had to get the car to Christchurch the next day before the rental place closed. The drive was nice going up the east coast – saw Moeraki Boulders and more seals and nice coastline. We made it to Christchurch in time, and after some searching, found a nice motel to stay in. We returned the car (no refund for the new tires we bought them) and got the guy to drop us off at the shopping center. We found an internet café and checked our email and then cabbed back to our motel. Early night (8) as we had to get up early to catch the flight back to Auckland.

  

  moeraki boulders

  In Auckland, Ngaire (whom we met on the Egypt trip) met us there and took us around town. After visiting Willie (her hubby) at work we went to the top of one of the craters and looked around. What a beautiful city! So many strange grass covered craters scattered around town. We went up the Tower and then for coffee. After that, we went back to the airport to catch our next flight to Rarotonga.

  Here is a great site for planning a driving trip around NZ - http://travel.newzealand.com/

  On to Rarotonga

  Tags: New Zealand, Travel

• 24Nov

  Thailand

  A trip around the world 1 Comment

  Diana’s comments:
  We don’t know what caused it, or what happened, but our first three days in Thailand were wasted in sickness! It might have been the deathly sick looking guy sitting next to me in the plane, but Richard had such a high fever and was almost delirious that first night. After that we sort of both settled into a version of Delhi Belly that we didn’t dare to try out Thai food for the first week! Luckily for us, in Bangkok, there were 7-Elevens every two blocks on our street and a KFC around the corner.

  We extended our stay in Bangkok for a couple more nights and felt good enough by the fourth day to venture out. Bangkok is quite the city! People were selling frogs and cockroaches with other meats on the street; the night market near our hotel served up anything you might need; massage parlours on every other block; traffic is unmoving; and and 7-Elevens everywhere!

  Scams are another thing we found an abundancy of in Bangkok. They are friendly and will try to help you find directions, only to tell you that the site you are looking for is closed for the holiday (it really was a holiday, but they’ll say that anyways) and to come with them in their tuk tuk for 30 baats each, they’ll show us some other places. Cabbies will not understand the name of your hotel or the place you want to go, will try to get you to negotiate a price, but if you ask them to use the meter, they’ll drive you all over (pretending?) that they don’t understand the map you are pointing at. It was quite fun there.

  At Patpong market, we laughed at the “menus” thrust in your face naming shows you can watch (women doing amazing things with cigarettes and ping pong balls etc). Richard had to get a copy of one of those lists, if you are brave, you might ask him to see it.

  

  at the Grand Palace in Bangkok

  After seeing the various sites in Bangkok - the Grand Palace with the Emerald Buddha, the reclining Buddha, a longtail boat trip on the canals, the festival where they make little floats out of banana leaves and flowers and a candle and float them down the river at night - we bought tickets to Krabi (in the south) and stayed there for a little while. There we did things like ride an elephant, kayaking, snorkeling around the different islands and swim in the amazingly warm water.

  

  krabi elephant tour

  We also booked 5 nights on an island called Koh Siboya. We stayed in a bungalow that had power only from dusk till around 11pm. That means the “room with bathroom and fan” was only a “room with bathroom” all of the other hours of the day. There were also many bugs in our room - I was in a dilemma because it was too hot to stay in the covers, yet too many bugs to take them off. Needless to say, we had many hot sleepless nights. But we survived the heat by not doing anything. Being the only tourists at this particular resort (one of two on the whole island) we had the whole beach to ourselves. The water was very shallow and very hot! Not just warm but so hot it hurts your feet.

  

  sunset at Koh Siboya

  The resort employees entertained us a bit by taking us fishing with nets just off the shore. We caught tiny little fish and some bigger flying fish which they served up for dinner. One man climbed a coconut tree to shake out a monitor lizard which they caught for their father’s dinner. Most of the time though, we spent reading in a hammock and watching the hundreds of crabs tidying their holes on the beach.

  

  Richard's new friend

  After Krabi, we had no more time, so we went back north to Bangkok for one more shopping day before leaving for New Zealand. We wandered half the day in the 15000 stalls of the Chatuchak weekend market and back to Patpong in the evening to look at all of the fake brand name stuff again.

  If we hadn’t been sick and if we’d had more time, I think we would have done more here in Thailand, but I think because we were so worn out from Egypt and India, we didn’t make full use out of the 3 weeks here. It would have been nice to go north to Chiang Mai and also to see Angkor Wat in Cambodia, but we are at least well rested for our next really hectic trip in New Zealand.

  Tags: Thailand, Travel

• 03Nov

  India

  A trip around the world 1 Comment

  Breaking Headline: 12 days and still SOLID!

  Unlike Egypt, where the question of “Is it gas or is it mass?” rears its ugly head like a prairie dog every few hours, India has been surprising. I originally thought I would go through enough toilet paper myself to have the tree-huggers crying foul. The food here is good, but we have paced ourselves a bit better and they tend to tame it down a bit for us.

  So we started off our India adventure in Mumbai(Bombay) in style as we had booked very early and were in a five star hotel being pampered so we didn’t really get out to much as we just wanted to relax after Egypt. However, on the taxi ride to the hotel, we seen the poor of India. Apparently Mumbai has the largest slum of anywhere in Asia. For about 75% of our drive from the airport to the hotel (40+km) there were shanties along the side of the road. The nicest of these homes had brick walls and were at least 60sq ft. However, those were few and far between with the vast majority made of corrugated sheet metal and being smaller. About a third of them were simple sticks and tarps no bigger than 4ft by 8ft. In these a whole family would live with washing, cooking, and toilet facilities being the roadside in front of your place. Quite a shock from what we are used to.

  

  Mumbai - flower petal decoration for Diwali (beginning of Indian New Year)

  After Mumbai, we flew to Delhi to join an organized 9 day tour with the first stop at Agra- the Taj Mahal. Many say it is the most beautiful building in the world; it was definitely nice but didn’t make me fall to my knees weeping or give me a sudden urge to propose or anything crazy like that. We also visited the Fort there which was where the Shah who had built the Taj was imprisoned by his son. For a brief background, the Shah built the Taj for his wife as a tomb, and from his room in which he was imprisoned, he had a perfect view of it. I bet all of you are thinking that the son was a real ass, but remember this story when you are putting your 90 year old parents in the Geezer Palace close to your home! That’s right Alison, to be nice, Mum and Dad can live with you

  Some monkeys we found in the entrance to Agra Fort.

  

  Agra Fort - monkeys near the entrance

  

  At the Taj Mahal

  From here it was off to Khajuraho to visit the temples. There are a few temples remaining here that have intricate carvings all over them. However they are most known for 2% of the carvings…those from the Kama Sutra. Some of the things depicted are more hard-core than anything you can find anywhere on newsstands. If you doubt me on this statement, lets just say the horse had a big smile on it’s face! Everywhere you went, there were “hawkers” selling Kama Sutra books and keychains with movable parts depicting some Kama Sutra positions. And yes, of course I loaded up on those, never know how many stocking stuffers you need.

  Here is one of the temples from an angle that shows some of its sculptures

  

  A Temple at Khajuraho and some of its sculptures

  After here it was off to Allahabad to see one of the most holy places in Hinduism, the meeting of the three rivers (actually only 2, as one supposedly is an underground river, but it apparently dried up 20 or so years ago). From the small boat it looked much like the Thompson and Fraser meeting- clear water mixing with brown silt. Driving here was just as chaotic as Egypt, but unlike Egypt where biggest wins, driving in India is one big game of chicken, where the boldest goes where they want first. There are thousands of the tuk-tuks (motorized rickshaws) with a larger size looking like they came straight out of the movie Mad Max.

  Next on to Varanasi, the holist place for Hindus. This is what you expect when you come to India. It is absolutely nuts. People, tuk-tuks, rickshaws, big trucks, cows, goats, pigs, beggers, and the occasional elephant all trying to share the same piece of road at the same time.

  Here’s a cow looking for some kebab leftovers…

  

  A cow looking for some kebab in Varanasi

  If you are Hindu and die in Varanasi, you receive salvation instead of reincarnation. So it was pretty funny dealing with one boy trying to sell you stuff, he kept saying “good deals at this store, no money for me, just want good Karma”…..that speech worked well until you said that since they were going to die here anyway, Karma meant nothing. That seemed to get rid of him….or it could have been the person we were with who told him she would send him to salvation immediately if he didn’t get lost. By the way, we think he gets about 40% commission.

  It was unlike any place, on the shore of the Ganges watching the cremations on wood pyres, some 200 a day happen, and I think I inhaled at least a few people and another few were stuck to my shoe….We walked through a building where there were about 5 old ladies, all of them just waiting to die. Do you say hello, ask them for tea, play cards….

  

  Cremation on the Ganges

  The Ganges is a scary river, certain castes of people are not burned and are placed in the river once dead. Better yet, some priests go into a trance just before death, and are then sunk in the river. Needless to say, I didn’t order the fish, although someone else did, and funnily enough, stopped eating it when I asked where the fish comes from.

  It was interesting travelling through the small villages, take out the road with the cars going through, and it could have been 200 years ago. When we would stop, people would just show up to stare, and if you took their picture, the thought of asking for money never even entered their minds (unlike everywhere else we have been). The kids (and their parents) really liked to see pictures or short videos of themselves on the camera and would all start giggling like little school girls upon seeing themselves.

  Then it was back to Delhi. On the overnight train back, when I first looked out the window I was greeted with a site I have never seen before. Sunrise glistening off of about 50 Indian bums. Apparently the whole town took their morning toilet duties together in a field. There they were, 20 feet apart, all in a perfect squat and looked like a field of cabbages. The beauty of that kind of disappeared when there was one close to the tracks and you could see him in full squatting action. No breakfast that morning.

  Spent 3 days in Delhi visiting the local sights etc., and being hounded every 30 seconds to change money or buy a shawl. Interestingly, in New Delhi (the modern area and where the government is) there are no cows anywhere. The papers call them a menace. I think it will be interesting to see what happens in India in the next 20 years….I am sure blood will be spilled as the government wants to progress, yet hang onto the culture….cows, technology, and religion don’t seem to mix so well here. Just the other day thirteen people died when some Hindu children retrieved their cricket ball from a Muslim mosque (or the other way around, doesn’t really matter though) and they took offence to that.

  The Baha’i Lotus Temple in Delhi.

  

  Bahai Lotus Temple in Delhi

  Well, that’s about it for India. See you in Thailand

  Tags: India, Travel

• 21Oct

  Egypt

  A trip around the world 1 Comment

  Egypt 101: Eat poop drink poop eat poop drink poop poop poop drink poop. That pretty much sums up the food. It was good at the start, but after you 14th day of boiled eggs for breakfast, it becomes a bit monotonous. Everything else is amazing!

  Cairo is nuts, I thought drivers in Italy were a bit edgy, it is just a free for all here. Any Canadian driver would be in an accident in 2 minutes here. I have yet to see a car without at least 3 dents…I think they sell them that way. I think they also sell them with the horn wiring backwards…it seems like you have to pull the lever to shut it off; as there is no other reason to explain all the constant honking.

  Not being morning people, it has been good for us here as over 2 weeks, we have had at least 6 starts before 5am. The earliest was a 2am start for a hike up Mt Sinai for sunrise. Searched hard but could not find any graffitti left by Moses or the other stone containing the 11th through 20th commandments. I am sure #11 is: If you are German tourist climbing Sinai up a small path, do not hold hands and do not stop in the middle of the trail for a break. Apparently “excuse me” isn’t understood everywhere, I was following so close to this one lady who wouldn’t move on the descent that I think I may have gotten her pregnant. As you may be able to tell, Egypt may be curing my mornings, but not my patience.

  So, if you are female and are not confident about your looks, come to Egypt because when a Western woman walks, everything stops. Every man within 50 meters is gawking or blowing you kisses. I think Diana secretly likes it even though she complains about it. I don’t think she enjoyed the walk through the bazaar as much though, at least 10 people per sq meter for about 15 blocks. Then when it became really congested, Diana started to feel a lot of people grabbing her bum…

  As per my first line I started popping Immodium like candy for a week or so as we were on a felucca cruise down the Nile for 3 days and then went on a 3 day desert trek. No matter how bad I need to go, it is still hard to poop in the bush…especially when there is a water buffalo 20 feet away looking at you. Or if you are a woman, it is amazing how there is no one around, but as soon as you assume the crouching position, about 10 Nubian men magically appear to watch.

  Egyptian people are all very friendly, although 98.763% are trying to sell you something, lure you into there cousins store, or give you useless advice for money. As soon as you tell them you are Canadian, they all immediatley say : aaaahhhh Canada Dry. The guide on the desert trek actually asked me why all Egyptians say it? I tried to teach him the theme song to Hockey Night in Canada instead, but it wasn’t a big hit.

  We also rode camels and donkeys to get to different places. The first donkey I had was pretty small, I thought I was going to kill it, but I think it was barely saved because over every large bump my feet would drag, I almost considered picking it up and walking with it, but then I remembered I am a wimp. The camels made you think you were a big fatso, because once you got on they started to groan and holler until they got up. Just to make sure that I wasn’t actually gaining too much weight and being a burden on the beasts, I didn’t get on once and just moved the saddle a bit and sure enough, it screemed bloody murder. I didn’t feel to sorry for them after that.

  The desert trek was not what I expected, I assumed all of Egypt would be flat and sandy with a bit of rock here and there thrown in….visions of Lawrence of Arabia. Instead, in the Sinai area, it is all rocky hills and small mountains with lots of sandblasted canyons. The other side (Red desert near Libya) is apparently more of the sand dunes etc.

  Spent the last day snorkelling in the Red Sea which was very nice, tons of fish as there was a reef called the Blue Hole, essentially there was a shallow reef (2 feet deep) that went out in a circle from shore, and in the middle is an empty hole that is about 50 feet deep. It also seemed very weird that just across the water you could clearly see Saudi Arabia…didn’t realize that I was going to get that close.

  Thats about it for me, maybe Diana will write some more later.

  Oh yah, Pyramids, Sphinx etc were all amazing.

  Next to India

  Tags: Egypt, Travel

• 04Oct

  Greece

  A trip around the world 1 Comment

  here we have a lot of time for exploring the Greek Islands and relaxing on beaches.

  Diana’s comments: So far, I like what I’ve seen of Greece. In Athens, there is a ton of construction going on - guess they are still getting ready for the Olympics next year. I guess Vancouver will be the same in a few years to come. We did all of the tourist sites we could in one day: the Acropolis with the Parthenon at the top, a few odeons/theatres, temple of Zeus, the changing of the guard. Did you know that the Acropolis is on a mountain that looks like solid marble? All of the ancient buildings look like they are made of solid white marble!

  Our hotel wasn’t the cleanest, but it had a balcony with a great view of the Acropolis. I’d show you the pictures, but we still have the upload problem.

  On the 14th we took a ferry to Naxos - we picked it because it was the first one coming along the day we picked to head out to an island. Of course it was my overwhelming desire to be on a beach on the 15th (my birthday!) that made us pick the first one… Anyways, when we got off the boat, we were bombarded with people trying to get us to rent at their hotel. One man caught our attention and we decided to go with him. I think it was the fact that he used the word “New” in his description of “Seaside Studios”. Plus, it was a good price for us. We made a good choice - this place had a fridge, bathroom with shower, a private balcony with sea view and air conditioning. And everything only one month old. Once we were settled, we sat on our balcony and watched an awesome sunset.

  Of course, I got what I asked for on my birthday - beach, sun, swimming and a good book - thank you Richard for getting me there! A good way to bring in the new decade.

  It’s been over a week now, and we’re still staying in the same place. Aside from spending many days laid out on the beach, we have rented a scooter and scooted around the whole island. We found the Aria Cave on Mount Zeus, but we had only a tiny flashlight so we didn’t get far. We spent a day walking around Naxos town and went to the Temple of Apollon (or Dionesis?) that only has an arch left, climbed up to the castle and wandered around its maze-like streets. Today we took a day trip to Paros (1hr ferry) and rented a scooter. We found the butterfly valley, but saw only four butterflies since it is the end of the season. After driving past many beaches, we found a great place to jump off a cliff into the sea, but being chickens that we are, we only jumped off the lower rocks (about 8ft).

  We have plans to go to Santorini soon, and maybe another daytrip to Delos/Mykanos.

  So I just realized we never finished updating this page with the rest of our stay in Greece. So here is the rest:

  We went to Santorini for two nights - we found the view and sunsets amazing! We made the trek down the cliffside to the old pier and took a boat trip to the “active” volcano island and hot springs. The volcano was good with its craters and steaming rocks. The hot springs was disappointing since it wasn’t very hot, and it was very mucky. We jumped off the boat into the cold water and swam to the heat, but felt that it was gross so we swam back almost right away. There were no near beaches, so we rented a scooter and drove to one of the black sand beaches (it was pebbles and not sand) and it was very hot on the feet!

  We went back to Naxos and to our favorite Seaside Studios where Vaggelis and his sister kept a room waiting for us (thank you!). In the last five days here, we were beach bums every other day. The day trip to Mekonos and Delos was interesting. Delos, which has nothing on it but a large archeological site was interesting to walk around and see the statues and ruins. We didn’t have much time on Mekonos, but we saw the famous windmills and some pelicans wandering around the town. One day in Naxos we also rented a scooter again and took our new big flashlight and explored the Aria cave again.

  Thanks to Vaggelis and his whole family (who by the way, gave us so many fresh tomatoes and veggies that we had Greek salads every day), we really enjoyed our stay in Naxos.

  Overall, we left Greece feeling rested and relaxed and ready for our next adventures in Egypt

  Tags: Greece, Travel

• 11Sep

  Italy

  A trip around the world 2 Comments

  Richard: Arrived in Turin (the NorthWest) at 11:30pm to find out that no trains or busses run after 11pm. After an introduction to Italian driving thanks to our taxi, we made it to the hotel in record time. Italian driving is pretty much go wherever you want, whenever you want….as long as your car is bigger than the next guys…..there is no such thing as worrying about the limited amount of lines on the roads. My kind of driving. The next day we were heading to Venice but had a few hours to kill with nothing to do. We knew we had heard of Turin before for some reason but couldn’t remember why for a while and then it hit us…The Shroud of Turin. For the non-religious or non-Christians, apparently this is what Jesus was wrapped in upon his death. You don’t actually get to see it as it is in some box somewhere, probably the Pope’s Attic, but you do get to see a life size photo with some “negative” pictures which show it better. As carbon dating shows it came from the 11th century, lets just say that I did not run off to become a monk. Not sure if Diana is going to become a nun either.

  Then we were off to Venice. What a maze of a city, little streets everywhere, not one of them straight for more than 100 meters. Very interesting, no cars or bicycles on the island anywhere. Everything is done by boat through the canals. We just sat there on one of the bridges for a hour watching the flury of activities. Boats lined up four across, specialized garbage boats, ambulance boats, everything. Totally different world. That night, went for the inevitable romantic gondola ride. Sorry mum and dad, no grand kids yet, but at least we got a deal on it when we walked after he told us it was $120euros for an hour- it may be romantic, but I don’t need to spend $180 CAD to get some lovin’.

  From Venice it was off to Pisa for the day. Apparently we have not gained to much weight yet as it didn’t tip over when we climbed it. I won’t give the technical details of the angle etc as it doesn’t sound like much, but once you are in it and on top, it is leaning pretty good. Then it was off to Naples via a 2nd class sleeper train (6 people in one compartment).

  I am pretty sure the family we shared the compartment were real happy when I took off my shoes, been sweating in those babies for 18 hours straight. Even I had trouble sleeping! Got into Naples at 6:30am. Yikes, never seen such a dirty city in my life, not a garbage can to be found anywhere, and a lot of people sleeping on cardboard. We thought it might improve when we got away from the station, actually really hoped as our hotel was pretty close, but it appears the whole city is that way. Went to Pompei and saw the ancient city from around 50AD. It is huge, in five hours of hustling, we only saw about 50% of it. Highlights had to be the brothel with it’s individual rooms, each with a descriptive picture above it in case you were at a loss of what to do. Even seen one pictures for some hot girl on girl action, it was just like surfing the web! Apparently civilization hasn’t really advanced that far in 2000 years. I am sure when we make it to Mars, the first thing we will find is some Martion porn. Next day, we were all pumped to see this great mountain that covered Pompei with ash: Mt Vesuvius. It is the only active volcano on the European continent, which we both later learned only means that it should blow it’s top every 30 years or so (it’s been 60 since the last one though), not that there was going to be molten lava pumping like Hawaii. Instead it is a massive crater….or so we guess from the postcards. It was cloudy, and they fail to tell you at the ticket booth that you will only be able to see 15 feet in any direction. So it was a good hike in the clouds.

  Next to the capital, Rome. After Naples, we were a bit worried. It is night and day, cleaner, but still see old men peeing in public anywhere they choose…I am trying to get a picture, but I have not been quick enough yet. Plus with the Italian passion, I think they will try to kill me if the catch me taking a picture. They speak very expressively and loud, it seems like everyone is angry with each other, and based on the driving, I can see why. You take your life into your hands crossing some of the major roads, a game I have come to enjoy and Diana to loathe. Have gone to the Forum, Colosseum, Pantheon etc. All very impressive structures when you realize that these were made hundreds or thousands of years ago….I can’t even figure out the Caramilk secret and these guys have done stuff that baffle the experts now. So far that is where we are and more to come…..

  Diana: Who can beat that entry? Not me, just wanted to add that we met Tracey in in Rome and we dragged her around to all of the places we wanted to see. We also went to the Vatican and the Sistine Chapel. You can get quite a sore neck from looking at the ceiling for an hour. The Vatican museum had a lot of nice ceiling paintings that looked quite 3D - Richard didn’t believe us when we told him they were only painted. I liked those ones better than the ones in the Sistine Chapel - they looked more real, and not as cluttered.

  We went to the Spanish steps, but no one wanted to climb them since they didn’t look exciting enough to make us want to see what was at the top. We went in search for the Aquaducts and found some of its ruins near the city walls. After that, we decided to go out to the Catacombs to see what they were. Kind of interesting seeing underground tombs and places of prayer.

  Finding a place to eat here is always an ordeal. We keep thinking that the next place we find will be better, so we keep walking till we’re so worn out we’ll pick the next thing that comes along. I think by the time we leave we’ll have had our fill of ‘real’ pizza, and pasta. Looking forward to Greek food…

  Next to Greece

  Tags: Italy, Travel

• 02Sep

  Portugal

  A trip around the world 1 Comment

  On arriving in Lisbon, we decided to leave right away and go straight for the beaches of Lagos, a small tourist trap town in the Algarve area of Portugal. Lagos (pronounced ‘lagosh’) was quite confusing with tiny streets covered in mosaic patterns, all inside ancient fortress walls.

  Our little room had a balcony and was clean and comfortable, but was not very secure. The door to the balcony did not lock.

  Each day we got up late and meandered down to one of the beaches and sat there, smimming/reading/people watching and, of course, speculating about what all of you are doing there while we are working so hard on our tans. Very exhausting!

  On the third day, we found new accomodations - an ‘appartomento’ as Sr. Viana called it. Very nice! Complete with full kitchen, full bath, living room, balcony, TV (sitcoms are very weird in Portugal).

  One day we wandered down to Ponte de Piedade where there are nice grottos (caves and interesting rock formations caused by the tides). We wandered around the point and then found another beach to laze around on before the trek home.

  Richard’s comments: Pretty much, we did nothing here except take it easy as Diana indicated above. Once again, my lack of culture will show as I found different things interesting. The bus station half way to Lagos was my introduction to non-Canadian plumbing. After 2.5 hrs on the bus, I needed to use the washroom, so after finding it, pushed open the door, and at first thought that this stall was out of order, so went to the next one and after opening the door found it in the same state..I was expecting this later in our trip, but not in Portugal…a squat toilet; a simple whole in the floor. Upon a close look, I decided that I really didn’t need to go that bad considering the guy before left me a present courtesy of his bad aim. Not to get to graphic, but it looked as if a cobra was about to strike. Look out Immodium, I think I found a better cure to diarrhea. Too bad I didn’t have my camera, but I am sure India will give me ample opportunities for pictures.

  Diana failed to mention one stop of interest in full detail. On the way back from the grottos, we first saw a little sign for a beach, so decided to check it out. After a 20 minute hike down the cliff on this little trail, we came to a beautiful beach among the cliffs. But that was not all that greeted us, there were about 10 old naked Portuguese men. These were not the Adonasis’ as Diana was probably hoping for as they were not carved out of stone like a statue, but rather were wrinkly old men. Too make it even better, there was one poised like a supermodel right at the entrance showing off what God had endowed him with, and apparently what he lacked in a penis and modesty, he made up for in testicles. I grew up in a farming community, and have seen some large nuts on pigs and cows, but this guy put them all to shame. Needless to say, we were out of there pretty quick; well, as long as it took me to pry Diana away. The nightmares have are slowly subsiding.

  After 8 days in Lagos, we were quite relaxed for our next trip - on to Italy.

  Tags: Portugal, Travel

• 25Aug

  France

  A trip around the world 1 Comment

  Our stay in France will be short, as we only have time to see Paris before we fly away to Portugal.

  Updated: August 25, 2003

  Bonjour from Paris! Ahh - the sights and smells of the French. Everywhere we go our senses are overwhelmed with great sights and powerful smells. From the aroma of fresh bread in the patisserie down the road (yummmmm) to the aging stench of the underground trains. The view from the top of the Eiffel Tower to the dark creepy skulls in the catacombs.

  

  looking up from under le Tour Eiffel

  We are having lots of fun here. It is hot, but not as hot as it was during the first few days in London.

  Our first day we arrived at the hotel and relaxed. There is no air conditioning, but we can open the windows up wide and a nice breeze cools it off pretty quickly. The next morning, we slept late and because we forgot to change our clocks ahead, the maid was upset because it was almost noon before we let her clean the room. Ooops.

  Today is actually our fourth and last day here. While here, we visited the Louvre (where we saw the Mona Lisa, Venus de Milo, and many other great works of art), the Catacombs (tunnels and tunnels of skulls and other neatly arranged bones) and the Pantheon (Foucault’s Pendulum and a crypt with famous French people such as Marie Curie and her husband, Victor Hugo, etc.)

  

  the catacombs under the city have walls and walls of bones - this one has a heart shaped out of skulls

  Also on our list of things we did was to climb the Eiffel Tower, climb the towers at Notre Dame (lots of gargoyles and chimera) and climb Montmartre to see the bastille of Sacre Coeur (oops I probably spelled that wrong!). While doing all of this, we seem to have gotten a handle on the underground train system here. It seems everywhere we go we are going up or down stairs and down tunnels that go on forever.

  Last night we were curious about the Moulin Rouge, so we went there. It is quite expensive and there was a sign posted “formal attire required”. Since we are on a budget and only have travelling clothes, we decided against going in. So we walked up and down the street to see the area. It seemed that the surrounding area is all bars with “exotic” dancers and peep shows mixed in with interesting little boutiques selling things I dare not mention here. (XXX!!!)

  Anyways, tomorrow we are off to Lisbon and Richard is currently trying to find us somewhere to stay. Sorry I couldn’t put up any recent pictures.

  PS. When walking down the streets of Paris, here’s a tip - stay away from the area around the trees on the sidewalks. I don’t think they have Pooper-Scoopers here.

  Richard’s take: So we finally entered the cosmopolitan meca of Paris, height of haute couture and fashion, and our introduction to it was a man peeing on a wall….and not in an artistic way, he was just hosing it down. I could have understood if it was an old man, but it wasn’t. Once again, the lesson learned was don’t make people pay to use the bathrooms. As Diana mentioned, Paris is a smorgasboard for the senses, fresh bread in the morning which transforms into day old urine by the evening. As for the sights, braless women everywhere, my neck hurts from the whiplash, and my arm from Diana hitting me, even though I profess my innoncence in that I was simply looking for an interent cafe.

  The food, albeit better than English, is not as good as I was hoping. I assume this is because we are not eating at the expensive restaurants seeing as a cheap place still runs you about $50 CAD for a basic meal for two, whereas a nice place is $100 a person. At the cafes, you soon learn to only drink wine or beer which is cheap compared to the bottled water, $8CAD for a bottle….and the French wonder why people detest them.

  The Louvre is absolutely huge, the whole time I was pretty much lost, but we mananged to see the 2 main attractions: the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo. I was pretty sure before I left that I did not have an artistic bone in my body, and seeing these confirmed it. As far as I could tell the Mona Lisa was one of those paint by numbers kits you did as a kid….I’ll stick to my stack of atristic Playboys instead. The sculptures are amazing though, I can’t figure out how they cranked out so many of these with the tools they had back then. Give me a Dremel and Play-doh, and I still would fail Grade 1 art.

  Much like England it is amazing at how old things are, it’s kind of funny that we classify houses built in the 1920’s and 30’s as “heritage houses” while here, if its not over 300 years old, who cares. Looked at some condo prices out of curiosity, some as London, a place of 400 sq ft runs you about $600,000 euro if it is in a decent area. Yikes, doesn’t appear the salaries are anything great, so I am not sure who buys these, but I hear you can get a 100 year mortgage….what a great inheritance to leave you kids….a house with only 30 years left on the mortgage.

  Well Diana has told you about the sights, so nothing more to say on that…off to Portugal and relaxation….

  Tags: France, Paris, Travel

• 25Aug

  Great Britain

  A trip around the world Comments Off

  Aug 10 2003 - 1st stop London: We spent four nights in London, where we took in all of the sights we could. Arriving at the hotel around 6 pm, checking in proved to be a bit of a problem. Apparently a someone else already checked in under our name earlier in the day! After getting all of that straightened out, we arrived in the room and realized the air conditioning wasn’t working. (with the heat wave in London, the temperature in the room was hotter than outside!) The last night we were there the AC finally came on, though that was the first cool evening since we’d arrived.
  However, the nice weather meant very good sightseeing…

  First we took one of the open top double decker buses and got a view of the whole city and its main sites. It included a nice cruise up the Thames. Here is the start of the cruise where we took a nice shot of tower bridge.

  

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  Here are the House of Parliament, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey as seen from the end of the cruise. We toured these on the next day.

  

  We also went to the British Museum where we saw lots of cool stuff including the Rosetta Stone. (Can you see us in the reflection? That was not on purpose but I thought it looked sort of cool)

  

  Trafalgar Square was a nice relief to the hot weather, as the fountains are used as swimming pools. Here we took pictures of the lions around the monument. Richard is sitting on this one…

  

  We also went to:

  • Buckingham Palace to see the changing of the guard
  • Picadilly Circus
  • the Science Museum
  • the Museum of Natural History (lots of dinosaur bones and other dead things! and a nice rock/mineral collection)

  In the evenings we went to shows - we saw Stomp and Phantom of the Opera. Both were good, but Stomp was much more fun!

  Yesterday we rented a car and drove up north to visit James and Charlotte, our friends in Peterlee (near Durham). Today they took us to see a Barnard Castle (it is in ruins), Bowes Museum and Durham Castle and Cathedral. I’ll put more put more pictures up later…

  Updated: Aug 25, 2003

  We also drove to the Northumberland coast and to Newcastle - where we visited more castles and cathedrals. Another day we drove to Scotland and went to Edinburgh and climbed the Scott monument and visited Edinburgh castle. James and Charlotte, our ever-patient guides, also showed us the Scotland highlands and Hadrian’s Wall.

  On our way south through western England, we visited Richard’s uncle David and his wife Aileen in Lytham St. Anne’s. From there we navigated our way to Avebury stone circles and to Stonehenge. From here we made our way to the airport to return the car and catch the tube to Waterloo Stn for the Eurostar train to Paris

  Sorry I can’t put pictures up, I’m at an internet cafe that doesn’t let me do it!

  Next to France

  Tags: England, Scotland, Travel

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