If in doubt, add more wine

We just finished watching the movie "Hemingway and Gellhorn" and you could say I've been inspired to start writing! That and we're 12.5 hours into a 14-hour flight from Vancouver to Hong Kong.  It's such a long flight that you can't really comprehend it; nothing else takes 14 hours to compare with it.  For example, we're about to eat for the third time - do I really need another meal? Especially after I've essentially been eating Julie's as well? (It baffles us that they don't know the ingredients of the meals they're serving us.)   Did Julie really need four mini-bottles of shiraz-grenache? The answer to all questions is likely no, but hey, we're on vacation!
Overall it's been an enjoyable flight; one that may reinstill my faith in Air Canada. Our stewardesses have been very nice ladies, even snagging Julie a meal from first class that was dairy-free. The one french woman was quick to dole out disciplinary advice to a young mom ahead of us - apparently there were no fights in her house and her boys did their chores.
For the record, sitting in the very last row of a Boeing 777 is actually quite good: there's nobody behind you kicking your seat, you're in a row of just two seats, you're close to the galley (more wine please!) and the toilets (maybe too much wine?) and since it's a big plane there are multiple lavatories so there's no queue of people standing beside you. 
Also for the record, it's almost worth the flight to Vancouver for the sushi. The fresh, thick-cut slabs of wild salmon were sumptuous, and cheap too!  Need to thank our hosts last night, the Jamans (old university friend and former roommate from the hey days of 369) who made us feel welcome and suggested the sushi from a strip-mall restaurant. His cute three-year-old daughter gave us a glimpse of the princess fixation that Julie's two-year-old niece will possibly soon develop. (Oh, I've just been informed that that fixation has already developed.)

Well, the drink cart's coming round again. I'm almost surprised that this flight's almost over.  Time to sign off.
-A

Why do we do this?

<p>Trip planning can go two ways; on one hand you're super excited to read about the places you want to go and see and experience. On the other, it's a test of negotiation and time management when you realize you cannot possibly do it all within your given time frame.<br>
There are over 7000 islands in the Philippines - you try picking the idyllic palm-fringed one that you want to go to! How to choose? Well, we both want to do some scuba-diving, and windsurfing and I've got the plethora of suggestions from the Filipinos at work. So we're trying to evaluate the islands on their merits of satisfying those two activities. Not easy. <br>
We're definitely going to a place called Palawan that I've had my eye on for years. It's purported to be one of those "frontier" places, where everything's a bit more natural and rustic. The big tourist draw here is the underground river; an 8km long cave with a river in it that flows out to the sea. Beyond that, there are numerous tiny little islands with their own quaint, white sand beaches that you can lay claim to all on your own. <br>
Aside from Palawan, we don't know where we'll go. Boracay ("bor-ACK-ay", not "bora-kay") is PHP's version of Cancun, with loads of nightlife and some of the best windsurfing around. A small place closer to Manila is Puerto Galera. Not much of a town, or beach, but better diving.  Finally there's Bohol, which I'm thinking is the best combo of beach, diving and hopefully windsurfing. It's also much touted by my Phils friends.</p>
<p>The drawbacks of travelling, especially the self-tour style that we do, is the scheduling and research.  A couple weeks ago Air Asia decided to move our connecting flight ahead by 3 hours, which essentially mucked up the entire flight from HKG to Palawan. At times like these we we sort of wish we just booked a tour and someone else could deal with this.  It took a while but they eventually refunded our fare. It's too bad since we scored one of their great $25 seat sales. <br>
A few last-minute cram sessions in the evenings before our departure will certainly be a test of negotiations.
In the meantime, we almost totally forgot about planning Hong Kong! But fortunately that is quite easy by simply visiting www.discoverhongkong.com and checking out the events.  It's food and wine month! :-)

Snow's flyin'... we best be flyin' soon too

Winnipeg showcased its multi-climate capabilities in fine form this week.  A short 5 days ago we were all out in shorts and singlets playing in the park eating pumpkin pie ice cream.  Then we had a couple days of autumn, before BAM! a winter storm gusts into town forcing us to scramble for coats and gloves and consider installing the snow tires.
Makes me think I may not bother trying to find a replacement for my stolen mountain bike (I may still be in mourning over that loss), but the long-term forecast sees temps back into the 'teens a week from now. {Kona vs Specialized? ...a 29er for sure.}

Aside from that, we have other things to consider - another trip! Only 6 weeks to go until we are jetting off to another set of islands in the Pacific.  First we'll visit one of our favourite islands - Hong Kong - for a few days.  Every time that skyline flashes up on my screen saver I cannot wait to see it again.  Our last visit there seemed so short, but then again, we're using HK as a jet-lag buffer so it'll likely be the same way again.
Our true destination this time is the Philippines.  We've never been there before, yet having been within spitting distance at the Tip of Borneo. Why the Philippines?  We were debating a couple of locations (especially with a friend of mine relocating to Peru) but I think an article I spotted in the NY Times sealed the deal after I sent it to Julie. We immediately contacted the folks at Tao Philippines to see what they had to offer. (If you look at their website, you'll likely be drawn in as well. Spectacular!) It took a few months (waited out the rainy season) but we've booked a cruise! We're not actually with Tao, but with another outfit that does a combo river/ocean tour. Pretty stoked either way.

With two weddings, a social or two plus a Rotary Group Study Exchange to India to consider, the time between now and Nov.16 will fly by.  I should probably start reading that PHP Lonely Planet book soon.  I've quizzed a number of Filipino co-workers about where to go, and they all say Boracay, Palawan, Cebu and maybe Bohol.  We're definitely touring Palawan, and likely Boracay as well to test our newly-learning wind-surfing skills (yes, we've had a busy summer).

[I can't believe this trip is here already.  I honestly have not even sorted through the photos from our last tour.  Time flies when you're having fun I suppose.]

back home in the ‘Peg

We made it back to Canada after definitely taking the long way home from Bangkok.  By taking consecutive red-eyes we managed to squeeze in a brief tour of Tokyo on Sunday. And then repeated Sunday in Vancouver, but were too tired to do any touring.
It’s Monday now, and we’re back in our house. Our wonderful house-sitter (Julie’s friend Heather) picked us up as we dashed out from the airport with only rain jackets to shield ourselves from the cold wind. Fortunately for us the cold-snap ended just in time for us to arrive!
I probably have a thousand photos to sort through and pages of notes jotted down from the last 26 days.  Updates will likely follow as it’s all processed.
It was a fantastic trip, and I think just the right length: long enough to feel like we’ve been away for a long time, and also long enough to make us yearn to come home.
Now to get over the post-vacation blues and plan the next one!

See'em'n'reap

When we arrived here in Siem Reap Julie made it clear that she didn't want to stay long in a tourist town. And after experiencing the heat while at Angkor it was decided that we must escape to the southern coast - my dreams of Kep could come true!
Fortunately there flights direct from Siem Reap to Sihanoukville. Too bad the flight just left and it's not every day. So plans changed. Our driver Mooney had mentioned the floating village and a floating forest that he thought we should go see. So we did some investigating after dinner (at Angkor Palm, a worthwhile Lonely Planet trap) and found out that we could formulate our own tour to the village without spending $32pp and a whole day. Rather it worked out to about $15pp and took only 3 hours.
The village of Kampung Phluk is on the edge of the large Tonle Sap lake and it experiences water levels that fluctuate by about 6m. To cope with it, all buildings are built on stilts or truly do float up and down. Our man told us that there was about 4m of water here in the waterway and it could reach up to 10m. Spread out across this vast area that's a staggering amount of water. (For reference, Tonle Sap lake appears to be a bit smaller in size to Lake Manitoba, and when it flooded badly in 2011 it only went up about 2m.)
We were here at just about the peak of dry season so most everything was in the air. Our taxi driver turned into our guide as he could speak English while our boat driver could not. He seemed to have done this tour thing before as he was doing a fine job showing us around and answering our questions. The floating forest is basically the flooded forest, through which you could rent a small paddle boat and go through. For lack of time, and disinterest from all but Julie, we skipped it.
We disembarked onto land at the local Buddhist temple, and were quickly spotted by a number of girls and ladies selling snacks, drinks and school supplies.  The temple looked brand new but the rest of the village was a study in poverty. Smoke from grills and piles of burning trash wafted through the main drag. Moving from the temple towards the houses, school children were suddenly running around us and the sales ladies strengthened their sales pitches on the school supplies.  Julie and Blaine took the bait and were promptly led up the stairs into a classroom of the school. Honestly I was expecting more of a response from the kids when Julie and Blaine handed out the scribblers and pencils, but then I realized that if this happens with most tourists then this likely compares with getting socks and a sweater for Christmas. The kids were very polite though. We wondered why some children were in school whilst others were not. Turns out that the school operates in shifts.
It was a neat experience and I'm glad we went but I doubt you'd ever need to take advantage of the Guesthouse here.

Following a failed attempt at getting our taxi driver to show us street food, we flew away to PP on Cambodia-Angkor Air - a pleasant experience. 
Back on the ground our man Siy was at work for us finding a car to take us to the southern coast. On the plane we'd decided upon going to Kep. Too bad Siy's buddy wasn't warm to the idea. Agh! Dreams dashed!
It cost us $70 for the ride, plus the $10 "deposit" we'd given Bondal in Siem Reap. I assume that was simply Bondal's cut for drumming up business.  Ask Blaine to prove the math.

Thur, 05/January

Sorry no pictures

Having some technical difficulties. And we're simply moving too fast to keep everything up-to-date.
Only one week left in our little holiday! Looking forward to camping out on little Koh Phayam for a few days. Might be able to shake this cold.

Cheers,

Angkor Watever

Wake up at 4:30am and meet the tuktuk driver outside the hotel at 5am. Rattle along through the quiet streets all groggy and squinty-eyed. Get to the entrance gate, smile for the camera and hand over a wad of cash ($20pp and FYI, day passes are on the backside of the building). Buy a cup of coffee (surprisingly good for $1.25) at the roadside stand. Make your way across the road dodging tour vans to cross the moat into Angkor Wat as the rising sun lightens the sky.
And so begins your day of sightseeing at the vast temple complex that was built to worship the Hindu god Vishnu.

It seems that everyone knows to go to Angkor Wat super early to see the sunrise over the temple so I should not have been surprised to see a crowd of a couple thousand around the best vantage points to get the photo that you can easily download off Google (I checked last night). Yet go early to beat the crowds and more importantly beat the heat. By 10am it's freakin' hot. And the Asian tour buses have arrived.
The temple itself is downright amazing. The incredible detail and the volume of it is enough to render you speechless. Phenomenal. But then you walk into a corridor and it is suddenly apparent that something/somebody peed in it. We didn't see all of it and didn't try to get to the upper levels, but we'd seen enough after an hour and a half,  plus I was hungry.
Earlier on our way in, Angelina Jolie (not her real name I'm sure) spotted us and gave us some hints where we should go for the best views, provided we went to stall #3 for "brekfah". She was cute and Julie says she was hitting on me and thus we went to eat there. I should mention now that on the way to the strip of food stalls to the north of the main walkway, the girls snuck off to use the toilet. Leah said it was just slightly better than the one on the bus. The chicken & pineapple fried rice at Jolie's stall was good, but it's likely the same as one would have received if you sat 4ft away at the Batman cafe. After eating our noodles, Blaine, Leah & I thought we should hit the toilet before going to the next site. Seems that by this time the "orphan" kid had taken his post at the gate to the toilet and demanded 1000 Riel to use the sh*tty facilities. When Leah tried to walk past him the kid quickly brandished a stick and started trying to herd Leah away from the door. Not feeling like being caned by a 6yr old, we walked to the next toilet area. Same thing, except no stick. Blaine & I hung back (we balked at the price to pee) while Leah and another lady tried to get in to the outhouses with this scrawny kid trying to block the door all the while yelling "one thousand!". With the other lady taking the kid's attention Leah managed to get in. When she exited I gave a sign to go to the right, anticipating the the kid will be expecting her to return to us. Eye contact was made and she was off! Running past the palm tree, around the flower garden meeting us on the path back to the cafes, with screams of "one thousand! One thousand!!" fading into the distance. For some reason I was expecting the kid to put some sort of Khmer curse on us, or at least spread the word and have a coconut conveniently fall onto us.
Crossing the moat back to the road, it was surprisingly easy to find our tuktuk driver Mooney inthe sea of tuktuks and mini buses. Next stop, Angkor Thom. (Reminder to Julie: we've left Angkor Wat. It is but one temple of the many Temples of Angkor.)
Angkor Thom is perhaps more impressive since it is so large, once housing nearly one million people within its walls (at a time when London was merely a large town). Bayon is super cool with its many faces staring down at you. Baphuon is big and grand and you can climb up it for a great view back across the raised walkway. The Terrace of the Elephants is also impressive but the "possibility of visit" signs don't let you see it. You can walk on it, but not see the carvings of elephants that stretch 100 metres along its side.
By this time it's hot and we're getting a big tired. Many guides and online postings will say that you need a week to take it all in. We say different - 8hrs is plenty to get the gist of it. The lunch area at Thom is good and busy. Each tuktuk driver has a friend who operates a cantina so the decision of where to eat has been made for you. No matter since it's all the same. While Blaine & I were waiting for the girls we had a couple beers and a dragon fruit shake to cool off. Not to be outdone, the girls showed up with 6 beers and a T-shirt for $6. It all depends on how hard you barter.
...

I'll wrap this up with some final comments. The toilets at the lunch area are free to use when you show your park pass and they're quite nice. It's beyond us why such decrepid facilities exist at the famous Wat, and it's also beyond me how you'd get in this far without having a park pass.
Before leaving the lunch area, we bartered once again for beers for the road and a shirt for Blaine.
Our final stop was Ta Prom - the Tomb Raider temple if you've seen the movie. Apparently lots of people have since there's a built-up photo-op stage in front of it.
Oh, and if we're energetic when we get home we might try to calculate our carbon footprint of this trip. Today I'm sure was bad: tuktuk motorbike around all day and then each of the 40 food stalls has a generator a few yards away out back providing power for stoves and blenders.

4/JAN/2012