Julie and Andrew continue their travels. The around-the-world voyage has ended, but that hasn't stopped them from visiting other locales. Since that epic trip ended, they've touched down in Cuba, Florida, Arizona, Mexico and the Philippines. Then a return to the Continent for a taste of France.
The summer chasing continues...as parenthood lets them be snowbirds in Florida.
The roads are clear and the airport is barren. No lines. After the crowds of last night it was weird to see the place so quiet.
Since we missed having the good HK dim sum, we had the famous HK airport dim sum. It's good and all, but I think the Chinese lady at work has made better dumplings.
To get to Pnhom Penh we connected in Bangkok. And coincidentally our friends Blaine and Leah were connecting at around the same time we were. Since we had time to kill we thought we'd try and see them at their gate. But Suvarnabhumi airport is huge and I'm fairly confident that we walked nearly 2km to get from our gate to theirs. And since the airport is built so that incoming and outgoing passengers are separated, we had to avoid security (and a cleaning lady) to get there. Upon arriving at the gate we could not see them. We knew they had a tight connection and were beginning to wonder if they'd made it. Suddenly Julie started banging on the glass partition and yelling Leah's name. But those two had just sprinted the distance we had just casually walked and were borderline delirious so it took them a moment to see us and then recognize us.
Using frenzied sign language and doodles on our tablets we managed to determine that we'd see them at our hotel in Phnom Penh.
One of the challenges of travelling is determining what to eat, where to eat and how to eat. Fortunately Asia makes it easy – the answer is noodles. Noodles for breakfast, noodles for lunch and supper is also often noodles. I had thought that I’d start the day with a Hong Kong waffle, but no, those aren’t for eating until midday.
Walking further down the street Julie abruptly turned into what looked like a warehousing area for the local florists and produce stands. She reckoned that at least we could possibly get ourselves a banana or something to tide us over and satisfy my grumbling belly. I asked the lady who sold us the token banana where we should go for a Hong Kong breakfast. She pointed further down the dim hallway crowded with pallets, boxes and industrial fridges. So we went, and popped out into an open space surrounded with stalls with large pots of boiling broth that filled the nose.
A smiling lady caught our eye and sat us down. I naively thought that this meant she could speak english since we’re obviously foreigners. But on the flip side, how many foreigners venture into this industrial diner? So maybe she thinks we’re living here and can speak Chinese!
Commence ordering by pointing! Take one didn’t work out so well when I received a plate with one runny egg on it. Julie’s noodles looked good though. Julie tried again and this time I got the full meal deal: a few slices of ham, more eggs and a wiener. The tea in the little plastic glass was super lemony and super sweet – just the way I like it! I think it was HKD46 for us both, about 6 Canadian loonies.
After brekky we wandered through Kowloon Park, which is a lovely park in the middle of this metropolis that can make you forget that you’re even in a city of millions of people.
OK, so technically we had nearly 48hrs, but subtracting for travel to and fro the airport and this nasty thing called jet lag (is it better to fly west or east?), we really didn't seem to have that much time here.
Julie and I kicked off our travels with the first debate of the trip - how to get to town from the airport. For future reference the train and an Octopus card are the best bet. The train includes a free shuttle to your hotel once you arrive at Kowloon Station. We used the last of my Holiday Inn points to get a nice room at the Holiday Inn [sing it] right on Nathan Rd in the heart of Kowloon. Primo location next to MTR stations and loads of action. However our plans of watching the fireworks from the rooftop pool were dashed when Julie went up there and found you couldn't see a thing besides the walls of neighbouring buildings. In a strange twist of east meets west, HK puts on Winterfest, where they pretend to be in the north. Just like we saw in Singapore last time round, the city was ablaze in Christmas lights and decorations and carols jingling from every loudspeaker. It's certainly a pretty sight and for us Winnipeggers it's a treat to walk around a festive atmosphere with only a sweater on. (I'm guessing temps have dropped to more normal levels back home?) There are decorations EVERYWHERE; Tiffany’s sponsors giant Christmas trees and a carousel in Statue Square and we even found a skating rink that had real ice!
Due to our time restraints we didn’t get to see too much. I had hoped to go on a walking tour after downloading an app onto our tablet and we didn’t even get back to Julie’s favourite global party place of Lan Kwai Fong. But we did happen upon what may be a serious contender to our magical little bar further up the harbour. Pier7 has a prime spot right below IFC, which is the tallest structure on the island. The view from here completely made up for the long flight and jet lag – I’d do it again and again just to see this skyline.
We did some investigating to find ourselves a party for NYE, and we found numerous options: HKD380 for a rooftop party @ the Harbour Plaza hotel, HKD500 for a party at the Intercontinental on the waterfront or HKD2400 for an extravagant 8-course meal with harbour view. By the time we made a decision we missed getting in on the cheap option - typical!
<<original draft written Dec.31. finished in Winnipeg Feb.19>>
Beijing Capital International Airport never fails to impress me: the 60ft+ ceilings swoop in graceful lines between the towering support columns and I'm pretty sure it's the largest indoor space I've been in.
It's finally sunk in that we're travelling again. We're in China! It's colder than Vancouver. And as soon as we stepped out of the tunnel into the airport it smelled like China - you know what I mean. (Chinese restaurant smells) As we landed I saw the main doors where we stepped out into our first Asia experience three years ago and got even more excited to burst through the doors this time around. But gotta wait one more flight...
The flight from Winnpeg to Vanvouver was a rough one - some of the most up-and-down, side-to-side turbulence we've ever encountered. We had a bit of a scare for our trans-pacific flight - we could not check in online and when we showed up the plane appeared fully booked and we were sitting apart in different sections of the plane. Fortunately we were plenty early for that flight and Julie managed to find an actual Air China employee to nicely rearrange our seats for us. They fed us twice on the flight; breakfast at 3am Vancouver time and then lunch at 3am Beijing time, separated by two movies and about five hours of semi-valuable sleep.
I've just finished my second "Chinese breakfast" of the day (rice porridge, an intoxicated egg, and some sort of pickled vegetable) and continue my inability to sleep on a plane. (forgot my sleeping mask...)
Sure am looking forward to Hong Kong and waffles, bubble tea and that spectacular skyline!
I'm not really sure I'd recommend taking a substantial trip just after the Christmas holidays - because it's one level of stress to plan the holidays, and to add another level for trip planning seems a bit unnecessary. So in between shopping for other people, we've been shopping for hotels and flights for ourselves. :)
No matter, January follows December and by golly, we're going to skip most of it!
Here's the rundown:
New Year's Eve in Hong Kong.
Jan 1-8 in Cambodia, split between Phnom Penh and Siem Reap.
Jan.9-12 float down the Mekong to Saigon on a private boat that Julie's found us.
Jan.12-14: Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)
Jan.14-16 in Bangkok for our first nights in this metropolis.
Jan.16-20 in the Phangna region north of Phuket for some scuba diving and rain forest hikes.
Jan.20-23 flying home via BKK, Singapore, Tokyo and Vancouver.
When we first started planning this trip, we were torn between focusing on places that we liked the last time we were through SE Asia, and discovering new places and seeing new things. The latter option has won the day. We're no longer going to spend a week on the idyllic island of Phuket, Thailand. Rather, we're aiming for a small little island near Burma called Koh Phayam. That's after we spend a week or so in Cambodia, exploring Phnom Penh and the temples of Angkor Wat. In the early stages of planning I was relishing the thought of kicking back on the southern coast of Cambodia down near Kep - but as details got worked out, that dream was dashed due to lack of time. Nuts. But we are rendezvous'ing with another couple from Winnipeg in PP. And that shall be exciting to travel with some friends - sort of a first for us.
Andrew's luggage - Julie's is bigger
What to pack for such a trip? A vast assortment of gizmos, from two cameras to a tablet pc to a blackberry. This time I've splurged on fancy Exofficio underwear that reportedly can be worn and washed nightly. Fancy stuff. Our friends managed to only pack carry-on for their trip - I am amazed at their talents.
It's 3 hours till airport time in Winnipeg. The strange thing is...it hasn't sunk in yet.
Yet I'm sure it'll be a mad dash to the finish line to get everything sorted!
Wish us well!
...I really wish I'd properly finished this blog from our big trip. What good is a story that just abruptly ends?? bogus...
Ever since we started toying with the idea of travelling to South America I had been dreaming of experiencing the Andean highlands. I'm not sure why I wanted to experience them so much - since it's really quite barren, but there's a certain mystique to it, plus the sheer ruggedness of being up in the mountains.
A fellow named Brian had just arrived in Quito (he's the best friend of Julie's cousin Ryan) and we were looking for something to do before we all went to the coast on the weekend. A couple hours on the internet and phone in the morning found us a hacienda up in the hills and another trip with our friendly driver George.
Heading out of Quito - I'm not quite certain of the direction, but I'll say south - we looked for the mile marker that the fellow at the Hacienda told us to turn at. We never saw it. We found another hacienda at the side of the road, and it looked very nice but there wasn't much for activities - everything had to be booked in advance and that did not suit our last-minute planning. So we turned the little car around and went back down the rolling, rut-filled road that I'm amazed the car navigated. (that was just the drive into this hacienda - the highway was fine)
George started calling our target hacienda for directions and even he could not quite understand where we should go. We ended up on another rut-filled road that only trucks could drive down so we stopped and waited. And waited until someone's brother's friend with a truck came down
from the hills to pick us up.
When we finally arrived at El Porvenir it was marvelous, and surprisingly busy considering how hard it was for us to get there! A fire and a hot cup of cedron tea warmed us up as we realized we may not have brought enough warm clothes to survive up here!
Our sleeping quarters were pretty basic and suitably rustic but quite comfortable and most
importantly - warm.
The serenity of the location was only broken by the yelps from the large group of teenagers who were running around the place. Fortunately Brian, being a high school teacher, handled a pair of attention-seeking girls with the skill that only comes from handling these mind-field personalities on a daily basis.
We went out for a bit of a hike around the place and as the sun fell behind the mountains it made for a spectacular view.
DAY 2
An early start today cuz we've got all these activities to do!
Brian got geared up in a hockey bag's worth of wool, fur and high-tech polyester to spend the day on a horse with a guide. Julie and I took off on a pair of mountain bikes to spend the day even higher up in the mountains riding around the famed Cotopaxi mountain. I suppose something got lost in translation when they were describing the day's tour to us... For when we started driving up the side of the mountain in the Land Cruiser, going higher and higher and snow started blowing around us we were wondering what we were
doing here! And then even more so when we got out of the truck into the blizzard and started CLIMBING the mountain! I apologised to Julie - insisting that I had no idea that we were going to climb another mountain. We were obviously more acclimatised to the higher altitudes on this day than we were last Novemeber when we climbed Kinabalu. The gravel scree filled our shoes with stones as we trudged our way up the slope, trying to stay on the leeward side of the hill to reduce our exposure to the whipping wind.
We made it to the "refugio" and were grateful to be out of the wind and a chance to warm up. A cup of hot chocolate for $1 and a pot-belly stove did the trick nicely. I explored the building and there are loads of bunk beds upstairs in what I think would be an uncomfortable place to spend the night. But I suppose if one is a mountain climber and properly prepared then this would be great. And as we left the refuge for our trip back down, what looked like experienced climbers were making their way up and past the refuge towards the glaciers above. We felt that 4800m was high enough.
Just below 4000m the weather drastically improved and the bikes were unloaded off of the truck. It's downright fantastic cycling up here: there are myriad colours of little flowers eking out survival in the sprawling valley, peaks rising all around, glacier-fed streams splashing over rocks, and the best thing is that our ride was almost ALL downhill.
If anyone's seen the Discovery Channel commercials "the world is just awesome", it is. The line kept repeating in my head as we zoomed down the gravel trail, bunny-hopping over boulders sticking out of the ground and the occasional horse "pie".
After our trip to the jungle in Borneo, we were pretty keen to get back to it here in Ecuador. Especially after learning that the east side of the Andes forms the headwaters of the mighty Amazon river.
And when we found an option to cruise the Amazon on the Manatee river boat, Julie was sold. Andrew also thought it sounded pretty neat so before we knew it we were jetting off into the jungle and then transported by mini-bus to the river’s edge, where our canoe awaited.
The boat itself and the entire concept was great. However while the weather was on our side (amazing lack of rain for a rainforest!), time was not. The boat moves along at a pleasant and leisurely pace it is relaxing but doesn’t get us deep enough into the jungle to see the best spots. So we spent a lot of time in the motorized canoe zipping further upstream to the protected park areas.
The tours kept us busy exploring the plants and wildlife of the area, led by our friendly and knowledgeable guides. Notably was the visit to Lago Limoncocha Natural Reserve where we traveled around the lake to see black caimans (mini crocodiles), observe several species of birds and try our hand at piranha fishing.
The trip was memorable for the people we met - our dining partners were a couple from Sacramento who shared their stories of living in the South Pacific as rafting guides, the wildlife and scenery that surrounded us and unfortunately the stomach flus we caught!
All and all it was a pretty good tour – we’re glad we did it. The boat was nice, our quarters were comfortable, the food was tasty and the excursions were satisfactory. We probably would have rather spent more time cruising on the boat than off of it. For this reason perhaps the 5d/4n cruise is a better option than the 4d/3n we did.
Andrew’s most interesting part of the cruise (apart from the food of course!): seeing the clay licks that the parrots and parakeets use to aid their digestion. He’d never imagined that he’d be deafened by the chirping of parakeets as thousands of them descended from the trees to the patch of mud. Julie found the birds to be noisy and irritating, much preferring the cruising time aboard the grand boat.
we traveled around the lake to see black caimans (mini crocodiles), observe several species of birds and try our hand at piranha fishing. 
