Merry Christmas!!!

Have a safe + happy happy Christmas season!

December 24th?! Already?? I can't believe I started work THREE weeks ago. Seems like yesterday I was cleaning my room getting ready for work. Life whizzes by when you're having fun! Yes, work IS fun :) I swear! December was a great time to start work - I averaged 2 Christmas parties a week! Getting familiar with geophysics again is going smoothly as well. Seeing as I have no holidays to speak of, I will be one of three people on my floor next week. I could take more coffee breaks...but who would I talk to?!? LOL. No...the starbucks people don't know my name...yet.

I am super-excited about training next year. My supervisor told me I really should try and go to Houston for the 5-week Exploration & Production course (aww...houston??) but there is a geophysics course only offered in Rijswijk (who knows if that is the correct spelling...yay, Holland!) in September. So...perhaps Kilimanjaro will wait til next year, 3 week stint in Europe, here I come!

What have I been up to besides work the last month...well, work takes up 9 hours...C-train another 2...sleeping gets 8, leaving 5 hours. 2 of those are devoted to getting ready + dinner...woo, 3 hours to spare! There aren't enough hours in a working day...grr! But lately, I've been trying to finish Tender is the Night and catching up with my best buds from high school. Oh, and sorting those 4000 photos I took on my trip. Cutting down to 300 of the best of the best to print.

Christmas eve...doesn't even feel like it. I'm loving the almost 10 degree weather (yes, celsius!). I will make a strawberry ny style cheesecake today, and prepare a huge 11-person dinner tomorrow. Yup, a roast beef and baked chicken will all the trimmings. Mmm...who doesn't like glazed carrots?!??! mmm...baby carrots. Esther is coming from Edmonton today! Horray! My sister is awesome. I guess I should clear an area where she can sleep.

Ha ha, have an awesome holiday...and yes, indulge in chocolate. I certainly am! As my friend told me, Mary Christmas!

p.s. Colleen ROCKS!!! She got me the Jack Johnson dvds!!!!!!!!ahhhhh!!!!!!!! i miss thailand.

I didn't explain my life story to anyone today!

Garfield, my trustworthy pal!

My parents are awesome. Look at this sign they made me!! Garfield! It's been 4 days since I got back, but I'm still not fully adjusted. It's like the bed is TOO comfy and everything is so clean! The main problem is the jetlag. I've never had such difficulties before! But the past few days, these nap attacks hit me at 3pm... brutal! But I only gave in once and slept til 9 ...at which point my Mom told me to get up for dinner. lol.

Yesterday was my Mom's birthday! We went out for Dim Sum and even though I had Dim Sum EVERY DAY (sometimes twice a day!) in Hong Kong, it was still enjoyable. Portion sizes in Canada are I dunno, double those in Hong Kong? So are the prices...LOL. I baked my Mom a jello cheesecake. One of the replacement children, Alan, and my Dad's cousin, Jessie, helped out. Thanks Michelle, Jello cheesecake rocks! But doh, I cut the cake out of the springform too early, and the jello was all leaking out the sides...but shh, don't tell!

My Mom, me, and the tasty tasty lemon cheesecake...

Let's go for a whirlwind recap:

Hong Kong was super... stepping off the plane, my grandma and aunt didn't recognize me because I was so tanned. LOL, in Hong Kong, they like people to be "whiter". Seeing relatives was a breath of fresh air...I started to think of home + Canada + all you loyal readers of this blog. There was much shopping to be done and SO SO much food. Innumerable dinners with all my relatives, it was great to see my cousins! Man, we're all growing up! Crazy! Disneyland Hong Kong is nifty. I think the castle is 10x smaller than the one at DisneyWorld, and the park is doable in a day.

Dog meat restaurant...not uncommon in Guang Zhou...I didn't try it, of course!

I went back to Guang Zhou, a province in Southern China, and visited the village where my maternal grandparents are from. Wow, there's a boulevard that looks something like Les Champs Elysees right next door now! It's been 15 years since I visited, and the last time I was there, I banged up my eyebrow. One of the villagers that helped carry me to the hospital recognized me! And he gave me 4 live fish as a present! Wow... ok, this is horrible: Two of them died in the car...we had dinner before we went home...


Last few days in Thailand were covered in the last post...here are the anticipated pics!

Me, biking on Koh Tao...and of course, the tattoo. :)

Mommy, Daddy! Guess what?!?

I got a tattoo!!! LOL, ya, a real one...crazy! I'm going to call my parents about it in a few hours... currently, I am waiting in the departure area of the breezy Koh Samui Airport. It is 7:45 in the morning. Blast! I'd post a pic, but you can't on these free terminals. But what more can you ask for? Free food, free internet, free buzz (hey, from the cappuccino!!), direct flight to Hong Kong...Bangkok Airways is awesome!

So...getting a tattoo actually didn't hurt that much. Sort of felt like a dentist drilling...on my back. But the pain settled in about an hour after they were done? Sort of like a bad burn. Chilled out on the shaded Patio of a lovely resort after that...and enjoyed a Coco Kiss, a nice stiff blended cocktail to celebrate my last day in Thailand.

I can't believe it is finally over...it was a like a dream! I can't help but be corny at this moment. Today's sunrise was magnificent (my first in Thailand...the only other time I was up this early was during the Full Moon Party...and it was cloudy that day!) . Perfect blend of blues and pinks, with tall, leafy palms silhouetted against the horizon. And lucky me, I was saved from walking to the main road by an Italian guy!! Contrary to popular belief, money CAN'T buy everything in Thailand! The taxis (if you don't pre-order them...) don't start until 7am! Silly me, I forgot that the 3 hour flight to Hong Kong was "international" and only left an hour before departure for my taxi reservation... thankfully, this motorcyclist came along and swept me off my feet! Horray! Because trekking with 30kgs of crap is not cool. LOL, and I got lucky with the immigration official too!! I actually overstayed my visa for a day. Apparently, I can't count! Went for the visa run a day too early, and the fine is supposed to be 200B/day. But he wrote it off! Score!

What have I been up to the last two weeks? Just chilling out on Koh Pha Ngan...sun, sand, beach...you can't ask for more! I also went diving one last time, with awesome visibility at Sail Rock. Actually, it was really cool (nerd alert...)... there was a huge thermocline and you could feel the big difference in water temperature...and this made the difference between 30m to 2m visibility!! And in spots, you could see the "heat" making your vision wavy like a mirage! Cool! Ok, geek glee is over.

Horray! The plane is about to board. See you soon at home!! Or at least I'll be on MSN more...I think. :)

Tick that off the list: Full Moon Party, Koh Pha Ngan

Ok, so take the craziest party you've ever been to...and multiply it by ten...THAT is the Full Moon Party on Koh Pha Ngan... an idyllic island full of palm trees and unspoilt nature in the gulf of Thailand. A group of us from the Coral Bay resort caught a taxi (twelve people crammed in the back of a pick-up truck...lol) to Haad Rin beach, ground zero for all the fun. When we got there, it was super quiet in the town, which worried me. Ha ha, we had just engaged in a heated debate over whether the party was on the 18th, or on the 19th...ads had posted both dates, but I was sure it was on the 18th because of the internet. Thinking back, it is pretty hilarious that your biggest concern is what night is the party on again? But seriously, I didn't want to miss this!! LOL. Live in the moment people. :)

The story right on the beach was completely different though!! Blaring tunes from the huge sound systems set up right in the sand, bodies swaying to a variety of tunes...hip hop, techno, hard rock, funky stuff, top 40...anything, people making out, glow in the dark body paint everywhere...I think some were doing it right in the sand...so ridiculous! So what was there to do but try my first bucket? LOL, as the name suggests, you get a plastic pail, a few straws and yep, your choice of vodka or whisky. So I went with the Sangsom (Thai whisky), Coke and Redbull combination, with plenty of ice. LOL, I polished off my own mickey? Crazy!! Over the course of the next few hours, I almost converted to Battism (but I told her I'd have to drink behind her back), took a dip in the water (white underwear I remembered later...ga!), rocked out at all of the beachside hot spots, signed a Canadian girl's t-shirt in a special place and just had an all around wicked time. Even through the throngs of thousands, I spotted Christopher and Linnus! Two swedish guys who were staying a couple doors down, at Coral Grand. I also bumped into a few people from Vietnam! Small world...or big party? Both I guess! Actually, in high season (dec-mar), the FMP can attract up to 30, 000...yikes! I don't think there would be any room to even move! Batti & I were hit with the tired bug around 5am, so we plopped ourselves down in front of the local 7-11 (there are 10 on every street in Thailand) and people watched for an hour...then the sun came up and wow...the amount of straws, bottles and stuff on the beach told the story! All the hardcore partiers were still dancing though, so we mustered up a second wave of energy and joined then. The beats slowly winded down, and they played the last tune at 8:30...whoa! I ended up grabbing some breakfast with the Canadian girls (ha ha, we first spent an hour "shopping" on the beach for matching sandals because they had lost theirs) and cabbed it back to Coral Bay. They wouldn't take me all the way to the resort (VERY crazy road, a la Koh Tao) so I had to walk (with my large bottle of water) back to the bungalow...LOL, the battle scar on my foot is from walking home? typical!!
So what is the moral of this story??

GO TO THE FULL MOON PARTY ON KOH PHA NGAN!!! it is awesome!!!!

Just to recap: I saw a turtle on my last dive at Shark Island in Koh Tao!!! So graceful, just paddling around the corals without a care in the world. The few hours before taking the ferry to Pha Ngan were hectic though! The lady at the laundromat had given my bag of clothes to some guy! noo! I spent the next hour running around like a chicken with its head cut off....but thankfully was able to retrieve the clothes after finding the dude eating lunch at the restaurant around the corner from the laundry place. Who takes clothes from a laundromat without checking them first??? And these were PINK! Ugh...

This is the whaleshark that we saw!!! SO COOL hey? 4 or 5 m long baby...wow!!

Simone has a couple other cool pics of Koh Tao on her site:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/31025008@N00/

My Love/Hate Relationship with Koh Tao

Check out the dirty legs after doing some off-road quad rides on Koh Tao! Woo!

Alrighty...here we go.
I love the island lifestyle, hate paying for it...food, internet, services are twice as expensive!

Diving in the morning is ridiculously good...but I can never wake up! Argh! I went to bed at 8:30pm and STILL managed to miss the 6:30am dive....by 20 minutes. I hate myself!!!

Love snorkelling in the warm waters with colourful corals and fish...I wanted to swim to Shark Bay, but these swarms of jellyfish came out of nowhere!! Ya, my face was feeling really numb, and the stinging was hiliariously painful (but I'm not a masochist), so I turned back without seeing the black-tipped sharks...they're supposed to be in the bay, everyday!

I love the cooler weather that the rain has brought...but WHY! WHY is it monsoon season in the south now? A week ago, it only rained at night...and now, it is pouring all the time. And there is no love/hate with damp clothes! Just malice.

A green swamp...in the middle of the tropical paradise that is Koh Tao. Batti is a quad PRO. Fearless!

OOh, I learned how to ride a quad yesterday! Man, that thing has torque...you can't let go of clutch in the 1st gear completely, or else you'll go flying! Took it for a spin down a deserted road (well, some Thais were laughing at me...) but left the off-roading to Batti, my new Dutch roomate. She goes crazy on that thing! Roads (if you can call them roads) on Koh Tao are sandbagged, and SO steep! Pictures will come...as soon as I get off these ridiculously expensive islands!

Ok, I won't bore you with more mundane details! I'm heading to Koh Pha Ngan tomorrow afternoon (after my last morning dive...to Southwest Pinnacle! LOL, for the 4th time....maybe I'll see another whaleshark! I have arranged a wake-up call...ha ha) for the legendary full moon party on Tuesday. Wish me luck! I know I'll be sleeping on the beach.

A couple more koh tao pics:

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/vampalcyone/album?.dir=/2a29&.src=ph&.tok=phqrJyDBXvHP7N7D

SCUBA mecca!

Ok, here goes the fastest update in the history of blogs. Well, at 2B/min...this is pricey for Thailand!

Ko Samui was nice, had some really delicious seafood and was accosted by these Thai cabaret performers...wish I could post the pic! Can't even tell they're guys!! We learned this neumonic device in scuba:

Bangkok (BCD - buoyancy control!)
Women (weights...I need 2.4kg on my belt)
Really (releases - check that your BCD and air tank are secured)
Are (AIR - ya, make sure it is turned ON...all the way!)
Fellows (final OK)

Ha ha, so that means I took a boat to Koh Tao, which is just north of Samui in the southern part of the gulf of thailand. It is amazing diving here! There are a bizillion dive shops. I am diving at coral grand divers, and my 200 B ($6 CDN) room includes a swimming pool. How ridiculous is that?!?! Lots of sun, soft white sand and shallow shallow beaches. The corals and fish are really cool. Puffer fish! And playing with the fish on the bottom of the ocean while they swim between your legs is fun. And ooh, Simone, a really awesome American woman I met, we did kung fu and crazy backflips and scissor kicking (think street fighter. ha ha) underwater. So much fun!!! I am continuing with the advanced open water course tomorrow. If you want to certify yourself, get a plane here!! It'll work out cheaper...and if the amazing underwater visibility (50m!) and abundance of wildlife doesn't convince you, the price will....only 9000 baht or less per course. ridiculous! Last night, we celebrated the end of our course and watched this movie that was filmed of us during the last day. It's pretty sweet...James Bond-esque somersault entries off the boat, descending into the water like skydivers in a ring formation...watching the teeny bubbles get HUGE as they race toward the surface. It is amazing. You gotta try it!!!

How to Lose Pounds...and gain them BACK!!!

Hey, yep, I lost a few pounds...worth of hair! LOL. After 5 gruelling hours (including an hour of my indecision and waiting...) at Hair Pro in Chiang Mai, I look even more Japanese than before. Here are some things to do in Thailand's northern capital:

• Go shopping!! The Sunday street Market is awesome (my backpack is an amazing 22kg...it started out at 14. eep!)
• Catch a traditional Lanna dinner and dance show; one of the skits portrayed a hill tribe party! Very random - the hill tribers would swing spastically around on these banner-like curtains tied to the ceiling...then smoke opium. indeed!
• Head up to Mae Sai, on the Thai/Burmese border. I was in Burma...for 15 minutes! Lots of ripped DVDs at the market...this included a visit to the tourist trap, the Golden Triangle. So named for the black market that used to exist between the border of the three countries: Laos, Thailand and Burma (Mynamar)... drugs for gold!
• Wade through calf-deep water because the Ping River floods...a lot. Twice in the 10 days I stayed in Chiang Mai!! Damn monsoons... ha ha

Right now, it is a ridiculous 33 degrees and so sunny I think I might go blind, on Koh (island in Thai) Samui. I thought my stand-by flying days were over... but thankfully, the supposedly fully-booked flight wasn't. Wow, there are a LOT of Israelis out and about! Happy Jewish New Year!

The beach is absolutely GORGEOUS. Silkly white sand and palms... but I think I have resort jealousy. My windowless 400B (A whopping $12 CDN...) A/C room is a *gasp* 2 minute walk to the water. Oh well, won't be spending much time there with these turquoise waters calling.

Speaking of which, ta ta!

B-Limey!

Some much needed R&R on the top deck of our boat...

Ok...bad pun with the title...my bad. Anyways, Halong Bay redux! It was an amazing three days. Got lucky with the weather and just avoided the monsoon rains. On the first day, we cruised leisurely in and out of the karst formations, and anchored in a bay for a moonlight seafood dinner and some swimming at sunset. Jumping off the 2nd floor deck of the boat was fun! LOL, lost my top...but thankfully, the water is "turquoise" and not crystal clear.

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/vampalcyone/album?.dir=/4107&.src=ph&.tok=phWdosDBn0LWrsGp

For some reason, blogger won't let me upload anymore photos...so the link above shows a couple more pics.

The second day, we visited Monkey Island and scaled the prickly limestone to the top of the island...our group of 5 then headed to Cat Ba Island. We had a pretty ridiculous second night! First of all, one of the guys was an exact splitting copy of Devin (if you know him...), right down to the gift of gab, posture and clothing of choice! The difference: Gareth is an Aussie and he studied social science vs. physics. Crazy!! After dinner, we hit up a pool bar run by an Aussie expat. After a few rounds of really embarrasing pool, we went to the panorama bar at our hotel, hoping that there would be some Ka-ra-o-ke... sorry! Bar closes at 11:45pm. I really wanted to have karaoke under my belt before leaving Vietnam! It's SO popular with the locals. Well...we found a late-nite discotheque and enjoyed the Napoleon Dynamite-esque dancing by the professionals (sculpted bodies and everything) from Belgium. They closed abruptly at 1 am, with the last song being Bryan Adam's Everything I do...ooh...yes, my favorite!

So, Miss Canada suggests swimming...the beach was just a leisurely 15 minute stroll away. So we headed there and went for an early morning dunk.... and were interrupted shortly after by an angry Vietnamese guy. Probably for the best...looking out for our safety right? LOL, thankfully, only the two guys were skinny dipping (no comment).

Everyone was late for breakfast on the third day... but we still made it back to Hanoi by 4:30! Before flying out the following evening, I indulged in a sumptous Chocolate Buffet at the Sofitel Metropole Hanoi (US$10!). Seriously, you can OD on sugar... what a strange feeling! Sort of like you've got energy, but you can't really concentrate enough to use it... and you want to sleep at the same time... Weird.

Mary...the Masseuse?

Today is Day 2 of my five-day Traditional Thai Message course with Baan Nit (Baan means home). Mama Nit is one of the teachers, but my instructor's name is Pen, and I am studying with one other student, a talented Japanese masseuse, Miyako. Ha ha, if you're nice, I'll give you a body-melting massage when I'm back!

Boom (far right) was our charming Thai chef...she learned the tricks of the trade from her mom. David, Sally, Jane and I (wow, we have names straight out of "My First English Book") had a great time pounding the hell out of the curry paste.

Last Sunday, I took a Thai Cooking course, where we prepared 5 delicious dishes...

• Chicken with Cashew Nuts
• Sweet and Sour Vegetables
• Tom Yum Gung (yes, the tasty tasty Thai Seafood soup!)
• Pork in Red Curry
• Mango in Sticky Rice (this is THE BEST dessert)

LOL, I'll make you some authentic Thai food!

Back to Vietnam for a sec...the Halong Bay trip was spectacular. Gorgeous scenery and amazing seafood. The limestone karsts jut out at amazing angles and one of the caves can fit 3000 people inside at once!! Will post the photos soon...

And my sister, Esther, found that if you google blog search my name, mine comes up under the related blogs! Cool!

http://www.google.com/blogsearch?hl=en&q=mary+lee&btnG=Search+Blogs

Ok, lunch break (a relaxing 2 hours) is over now...back to the back breaking work of massage!

Crazy Bac Ha

After a sleepless night in the hotel with paper-thin walls, I woke up at 5:45 (ugh, AM!) to catch the local bus to Bac Ha at 6:30. Asking for directions to the local bus station was of no use, because private taxi touts were everywhere!! There was no straight answer from anyone. Ugh! Turns out that the bus station was seriously 300m from our guesthouse, just around the corner. Ha ha, we made it there by 7am and bartered with the unyielding minibus driver for the fare. The final price was 30.000 dong per person, with the posted price being 23.000...I am sick of the foreigner surcharge! Haha, on our way back...the bus was packed to the brim with many people sitting in the aisles and standing... it makes PERFECT sense that we had to pay 40.000 pp... somehow, getting more people on the bus doesn't make it cheaper. The ride there was a bumpy 2 hours...but coming back, was 4 hours in total!! Ahhh...Vietnam.

Even though the road to Bac Ha was the worst I have encountered in Vietnam (waterfalls...running right across the road! and lots of mudslides), the Sunday market was worth the trip. People from all the neighbouring hill tribes descend en mass and buy everything from livestock to earrings.

The train ride back to Hanoi on the hard sleeper was tough (hard means HARD! Straw mats...the gorgeous embroidered blanket I bought at the market came in handy..lol), and we arrived at 4:15am. And believe it or not, we ran out of gas for the THIRD time. Ya, I'm serious! But this time...it wasn't entirely our fault. The people steal the petrol from your bike when it is in the cargo compartment. SOP. So we thought about putting some gas in a bottle in Lao Cai, but it was raining, and we were lazy. Thankfully, there is always someone to help out when a profit is involved; we paid a guy 10.000 dong to bring us some gas... WOO! What an end to the motorbiking adventure. I am still in one piece, but SO grotty from wearing the same 2 sets of clothes for a week. But that's why I checked into a very pricey US$16 dollar room with ooh, A/C and hot shower!! Living like a queen now! :)

Beautiful Montagnard Villagers

Happy Birthday to my twin! Esther!!! And ha ha, all my other twin too! Cheryl!!!

Tourists are bomarded by the local ladies offering handwoven bags, bracelets, earrings...anything you want! I tried on one of their reed "backpacks"... surprisingly heavy, but comfortable!

So, I celebrated my 22nd year of life over a duo chocolate pie and a tasty almond apple tart, at Baguette & Chocolat, a bakery in Sapa. Didn't really feel like a birthday! Thank you for all your birthday wishes!! I miss you all! We'll party when I get back ;)

When I woke up this morning, Sapa was entirely blanketed by the clouds...looking out the window, I could see maybe 200m?!? It was gorgeous. Unfortunately, I had dropped my camera (yikes!) and couldn't take a photo. The local market was very colourful!! All the women from the various hill tribes were buying lengths of black linen for their skirts and vests, and there was a huge selection of food, from the ubiquitous PHO BO (beef noodle soup), to something more exotic...it looked like stuffed snake! We sat down for some noodle soup with pork & tofu, and the local chef sprinkled these long grains of white powder over the bowl...I think they use MSG liberally here still! Eeep! Heart attack in a jar... never ask for a menu...because the local price is always 5000 dong (US $0.30) a bowl. :)

Tiered rice paddy fields dot rural Vietnam.

Poor Romain got chewed out by the salesperson at the shop who fixed my camera. When you've been touring for a while, you start to expect the worst...I don't think the guy expected me to pay, but I was going to offer but Romain insisted it should be free...eep! This set the guy on fire and Romain got a lecture on how locals are actually nice people and don't necessarily expect to be compensated for being helpful. doh!

This is Zhao, whose mother embroidered the handbag I bought...

After lunch, we visited Cat Cat Village, a H'Moung minority village very close to Sapa. There was a gushing waterfall and serene rice paddies. Gorgeous! We then hopped on the motorbike and easily covered the 36km to Lao Cai, right next to the Chinese border. It is absolutely BOILING here...

Running on EMPTY...twice...in 24 hours!!!!

Rickety bridge in DPB...a remant from the war against the French back in 1954.

These last couple of days have been exceedingly ridiculous... so, here we go!!

Wednesday, Sept 14th... just after leaving the internet shop where i last posted, Romain and I hit up this dessert shop, lit attractively in green and pink flourescent lights. SE Asians seem to have a liking for all things kitschy. We used the "point at the picture" ordering technique and ended up with a taro flavored float and a mixed fruit sundae. YUM! Since we were the only people in the shop, the Vietnamese owner decided we would like "western" music...so he took out the karaoke VCD and started the techno "happy birthday" disc. LOL...Then he brought out the big guns! A 500 mL bottle of home-brew cherry wine. He wouldn't quit with the shots until we finished the entire bottle!!! He also dished out a whole plate of wafer rolls to go with our ice cream, and brought out two more strawberry soft serves...EACH! After we seriously could not down anymore cherry wine, he brought on the Bia Ha Noi...I had to run the unopen bottles back onto the shelf to refuse! Then, after we proposed to leave, he strong armed us into going for some CHAO (rice) at about midnight...the restaurant was closed though! Reluctantly, he walked us back to our guesthouse... we thanked him profusely for the ridiculous evening and shoved money into his pocket because he wouldn't accept it any other way. WOW! Talk about Vietnamese hospitality!!!


Taking a breather on the side of the raod...we gave Morris (our Minsk) a break because he was having trouble accelerating...

Thursday, Sept 15th...We toured the miltary historic sites of Dien Bien Phu and had a late lunch before setting off at about 4:30 pm for Lai Chau. eep! It was getting late, but how long could it take to cover 103km?!? Well...ha ha, if you run out of gas about 3/4 of your way through...a while!! At about 6:30, we noticed that the Minsk wasn't really accelerating too well...so we stopped at the side of the road and gave the bike a chance to cool down...maybe it was overheated?? A passing local took the bike for a spin too, and everything seemed fine; so we set off again. Ha ha, the bike then puttered to a complete stop after we hit a small hill. DOH! We switched the valve to "reserve" and managed pull another 15kms before the tank was bone dry. It was 7pm and pitch black outside, but thankfully, we used some wild gesturing and broken Vietnamese to wrangle Romain a ride into the nearest town for 5 litres of precious gas.

Passed the time by taking pics of the moon while I waited for Romain to come back with the gas...

*News Flash* Never trust a man's judgement on gas. Yep, so I did suggest before we left DBP to fill up, but hey, according to the Minsk manual...we were supposed to get 250 clicks out of a full tank! oh well...

So, we arrived in one piece at about 8pm and headed straight to a restaurant promising BUN CHA (noodles in soup with grilled pork). Right before leaving Hanoi, we had the most delicious bun cha so we had our hopes up. My lord! I may have been veggie for I dunno, the past 6 years or something, but this did not taste like pork. MYSTERY MEAT!?! It was very "wild"...hopefully just wild boar...and not dog or something! eep!


Beautiful landscapes on the way to Sapa...

Friday, September 16th... From the crazy mishap with the gas the night before, we decided to play it safe and fill up the tank completely before starting the 180km run from Lai Chau to Sapa. The weather changed from blazing hot to winter chilly (ok...so it is Vietnamese chilly...like 15 degrees C?) all in a day. I think we've climbed about 1000m though!

Noo! The internet shop is closing...will continue this saga soon.

The road from Lai Chau to Sapa was absolutely amazing...the curves were not too tight and we whizzed past the beautiful country landscapes at...I would guess, 60km/hr. (Ha ha, the Minsk has no gauges...) We had lunch in Phong Tho, and LOL, we stopped at this particular PHO COM shop because I made the passing remark, "Hey, there were white people in that place!"...the first fellow tourists in 4 days! WOW! About 40km to Sapa, Morris started to putter out...noooo!! NOT AGAIN!?!? Using the last of the petrol in the regular tank, we managed to make it another 20 clicks up around the huge mountain. We switched to the reserve tank after that and prayed for downhill sections...we saved gas by cutting the engine and yelled "beep beep" as we rolled down the road. Pushing the motorbike and running after it to reach a downhill section was really only embarrassing when people were watching I guess! LOL... Amazingly, we managed to coast most of the 20km to Sapa and the tank only hit empty about 200m from the petrol station in the town centre. PHEW!!! We made it into Sapa at about 5pm...so yes, we ran out of gas...TWICE!!!! in 24 hours!!

*News Flash* Never trust the Operator's Manual nor the guy from the rental shop when asking about mileage on a rental bike....

The bornes on the side of the road helped us navigate and I made rough speed estimates from time to time...

No...we're NOT married!

Gorgeous sunset on our first day of motorbiking...on the road to the Thai village, Mai Chau.

After 6 weeks in SE Asia, I think I've finally found the place where there are no fellow tourists. Ever since leaving Hanoi, we have not seen any other western tourists at all!! Unheard of, really. Currently, I am hanging out at a packed internet cafe (3000 dong/hr = US$0.20) that is around the corner from our hotel...we're the only guests at this "Beer Factory Hotel", named for its proximity to the Bia Hoi plant (the cheapest I've seen is 1500 dong/glass...that's US$0.10!!). It's so funny, everywhere we go, the first thing people asks is, are you married? Ha ha, why don't the 3-pages that the lonely planet dedicates to Vietnamese phrases include "No...we're NOT married"??! Here's the other conversation I've had a billion times:

Local "Where you from?"
Me "I'm from Canada!"
Local "But you, I think you same same (insert name of SE asian country) girl"
Me "Oh no, I was born in Hong Kong, and now I live in Canada!"
Local "ahh...." (This is either an 'ahh' I understand, or 'ahh' with a goofy smile that tells you they don't really understand english. Travelling is awesome.)

Motorbiking is seriously the most awesome way to see the countryside!! Life along the road in Vietnam is amazing...beautiful rice paddy fields, long winding roads, and the little Vietnamese children are the most adorable kids ever!! Many still wear the traditional hill tribe clothes and they all carry brightly coloured, hand-woven shoulder bags. After only 3 days practice, Romain is getting pretty good on the Minsk! LOL, the 3rd gear on the bike is absolute crap though! It is so ridiculous. There are 12% grade roads here!!! (the road sign says so...no...i didn't bring surveying equipment along...) I think we're only making 30km/hr on average. crazy.


Farming in the rice fields of rural Vietnam...

We left Hanoi at about 3pm, and arrived in the Lac village (Thai minority) near the city of Mai Chau at about 7pm. What a harrowing experience on the back of a motorbike! But Romain assures me that driving here is safer than France. His reasoning is that since there are no real rules of the road here, people drive very cautiously and even with close encounters, drivers stay in control. LOL, that may be true...but the biggest problem we've had so far are the stupid stray dogs!! They seem to walk towards the sound of the horn. UGH!

In the Lac village, we stayed in a traditional Thai house on stilts, made out of bamboo. Just like Vietnamese everywhere, the locals here got up at about 6am and started cutting their wood to make furniture, washing up, daily chores...but we managed to delay breakfast until 11am. So yesterday, we spent about 5 hours on the road, stopping at the city of Moc Chau for lunch before arriving in Son La at around 6pm. Finding good food has been pretty hard! You're basically stuck with either COM (rice) or PHO (rice noodles). I always have my eye out for SINH TO (fruit shakes)...watermelon, mango, papaya...they're all delicious! KEM (ice cream) is lovely too...all the asian flavours...taro, red bean...even durian. awesome. The people out here in the NW are very friendly and always invite us to sit at their table, even if just to make hand gesture conversations.

The cutest kids ever! The guy on the left even wanted to give us 2000 dong for luck! But we really couldn't accept. :)





Today, we left Son La for Dien Bien Phu. The sceneary was aboslutely spectacular. We stopped SO often for photos!! LOL, it took over 6 hours to cover 140km...but bear in mind, the divided highway ended and we embarked on the narrow country road that allows a motorbike to just barely pass a large truck. Ha ha, the wide oncoming truck made driving straight through a large puddle inevitable...but thankfully, my pants dried quickly! We also had a close encounter with a friendly mob...of about 50 little children! They were really excited after I showed them the photos I was taking on the digicam. SO CUTE!!! Cattle also graze in really precarious positions on the mountains! Small boys, about 7 or 8, sit on top of a bull and lead the herd to new feeding grounds. The locals also smoke tobacco from really long pipes...I think it is tobacco...but who knows!

gorgeous countryside that just doesn't end...

Russian Minsk: The New Ride

Romain on the Minsk...

Today, Romain and I are leaving Hanoi on motorbike...a real adventure! We're going to do the "Northwest Loop" in Vietnam, and visit a bunch of minority hill tribes. Neither of us have really done motorbiking before, but a lesson from the shop owner gets us on the road! LOL, this is a 125cc bike, with 4 gears that you shift with a clutch...should be interesting! Thankfully, we are getting transferred onto the highway, and get to avoid the messy traffic of central Hanoi.


The past couple weeks have been amazing!! Vietnam is such a beautiful country, with lots of friendly people and tasty gastronomic delights. I was in HCMC for National Day, and there was an anti-climactic display of fireworks. I met a bunch of people and we headed out to the aptly named Apocalypse Now Club...about half the people there were prostitues I think! It is really scary that the industry operates so openly.


Woo, canyoning is awesome!! Yep..that's me there! LOL

I caught a bus to Mountainous Dalat, located in the central highlands...beautiful waterfalls!! I went abseiling/canyoning down 5 waterfalls nearDatalana falls and it was SOO crazy! No matter how many times you go down, getting past that "edge" feeling is scary... ha ha, the last waterfall we tackled was called the "washing machine"...the water pounding down on your body is ridiculous.

Next, I visited the coastal city of Nha Trang...beautiful beach resort town with a party boat trip...but since most people have just gone back to school (including hoardes of Vietnamese tourists), I was the first person at the "floating bar". Ha ha, bad mulberry wine from Dalat mixed with some tasty sea water. yum! Nha Trang also has some relaxing mineral mud baths and I was pounded into jelly by a trained masseur. So good.

The light was playing a game in the islands near Nha Trang...

The local market in Hoi An...all the ladies still wear the conical hats!!

An overnight bus landed me in Hoi An, a quaint little town that oozes Old World Charm. Shophouses are built with Chinese, Japanese and even Arabic influences, and there are loads of French Colonial buildings too. Hoi An is famed for its tailors as well! I had two suits and a few dress sirts made...they fit PERFECTLY. It is SO awesome!!! The Cau Dai beach in Hoi An was 20 meteres wide and I dunno, endlessly long. The sand was silkly and the coconut trees made it picture perfect. A beautiful 20 minute bike ride from town. The food in Hoi An was amazing too!! Lots of great seafood (I inadvertently ate baby shark! set menu...eep! It is very "meaty" and only has a bit of fishy taste) and satays.
Look Mom, it's your name...on a shophouse in Hoi An.












A most gorgeous sunset in Hanoi....

Then, an 18 hour bus got me to Hanoi...capital of Vietnam! We're off to visit the elegant rice paddy fields and get mobbed by little children in traditional garb. Don't worry, I'll be super careful on the motorbike.

Ho Chi Minh LIVES!

On the corner of every street in Vietnam

The propaganda is everywhere! Ho Chi Minh posters adorn the streets in Saigon (central HCM City) and are almost as abundant as the red communist star/hammer and sickle banners. Tomorrow is National Day in Vietnam, celebrating the 60th year of indepedence of the republic, and the 30th anniversary of the liberation of southern Viet Nam and national reunification. Cool.

What isn't cool is the fact that the museums I want to go to are all closed! Ugh...


The view of HCMC from my US$2 dorm room, on the 7th floor...yep, there are NO elevators people! ugh...

First, a recap: The last day of the Mekong Delta tour was great! We visited these floating fishing village, where they breed loads of cat fish. Then we hit up a Cham minority village...Chams don't have their own country anymore (1st the Khmer Empire, then the Vietnamese took over) but spots of the country have mosques and they follow the muslim way of life...5 prayers a day and all.

After that (it was only 9am and the sun was ridiculous already!), we headed back to HCMC by bus. Ha ha, all the tour companies are basically fronts for one big delta tour. I think I switched buses & tour guides 3 times! On the last leg of the journey, I met a couple of Americans who are studying in Chicago, Amy and Derek. We met later that night for the "special" at Pho 2000, which is the "local" restaurant that Bill Clinton (yes, THAT guy!) visited during his visit to Vietnam in 2000. Ya, it wasn't all hype. Superb pho!

We did a bit of shopping in the local market, picked up some bling bling rings and knock-off paraphanelia. We stopped into the local food stalls to play some cards and ended up learning some Vietnamese games from the waiters! They were so young!! 13-16... ha ha, even with the suits being all jumbled up, and our inability to speak the local tongue, we had a pretty good time!

Card Sharks!! Check out the hardcore guy in the bottom left.

We then met up with a Malaysian girl, and a guy from Mynamar (He was promoting tourism to his country)! A couple of Belgians joined our little group (really tall guy - 6'9" and a photographer) and we stayed until POLICE raided the little cafe! Crazy! Apparently, the motorbike and furniture were on the "public" part of the sidewalk denoted by the RED versus YELLOW brick on the floor. Geez! It was kinda hectic, so after that, we called it a night.

Yesterday, I visited the war museum and the reunification palace...hot work walking in HCMC! Ate some tasty taro-flavored ice cream and people watched for a bit, and enjoyed a nice PIZZA dinner (US$10 - pricey...maybe it was the feta. lol) with Francoise, a Swiss girl who was staying in the same dorm (US$3!).

Okay! Back to the present...The US$30 cooking class I took this morning was wow, a nice dip in the pocket, but so worth it! Best meal in Vietnam yet! We made a really tasty banana flower salad, ginger steamed rice (tastes WAY better than it sounds...simple, yet delicious!), pork done in a traditional claypot, clam soup, and sweet corn dessert. It was good that the chef had ideas for substitutions! Not sure if I can find banana blossoms too easily. Maybe I'll start a garden. Ha ha

After that, I took a xe om (motorbike - 20.000 dong ~ US$1.25) to Cholon, the Chinatown of HCMC. Woo, my choppy Cantonese came in handy. LP didn't have any maps (not like the others have been too too accurate anyways!) so I sorta stumbled around and visited a bunch of pagodas. Crazy...there were thousands of these probably 6" ceramic figures all along the roofs of the temple! The nice guy at the convenience store where I bought some water even walked me to the bus stop.. ha ha, they have relatives in Edmonton. For 2.000 dong, which is about $0.15, I got an A/C bus back to the central market. I took a hot stroll to the HCM Museum across the Saigon river, only to find that it was closed! Boo!! At the bridge, I met this Israeli guy, who COINCIDENTLY, was Francoise's acquaintance! WHOA. Small world in Pham Ngu Lao, the backpacker district in Saigon...

Burning incense sticks at a pagoda in Cholon, HCMC

Big Headed Shrimp in the Mekong Delta

So, Friday night was the last one spent in Cambodia - we met up with two Dutch girls in front of the FCC (Foreign Correspondent's Club - nice view, good HH drinks!) an hour later than planned because they had mistaken FCC for the French Cultural Centre! Stupid acronyms. LOL, we then crashed the 2nd anniversary party of the "Ginger Monkey" bar close to the riverfront. Tasty cocktails (mudslide, orgasm!) and cheap US$0.50 local Angkor draft.

Saturday morning....7am early ride to HCM city! Ho Chi Minh is EVERYWHERE in Vietnam right now - National Day, their 60th anniversary is 2-9. The bus ride was pretty uneventful, except for the place where I bought some custard buns...and while eating them...found out ants were also sharing my breakfast! eeeep!! The Vietnam border post took a ridiculous amount of time too. Bureaucracy my a$$! The "Happy Tour" guide was very nice, and she sang us a song to ease the pain of the mid-day sun on our bus. We arrived in Saigon at 3pm, and took a 10.000 dong (expensive?! I think so...) moto ride to the blue gecko to meet Thibault, the 2nd member of the Left Handed Trio. LOL, that's the name of the jazz band Romain is in. The ladies at the Blue Gecko bar welcomed us to Vietnam with some pretty strong house vodka & chocolate milk shooters.

Yesterday was the first of a three day Mekong Delta tour. The first leg of the trip was extremely well-touristed, to the point that it was just downright hilarious. The "authentic" villagers we visited looked so drained from performing the same thing over and over! Ha ha, doesn't help that it was a cheesy Vietnamese version of "old lang syne". After a gruelling 4 hour bus trip that involved ferrying across the 3km wide (wow!) Mekong River, we arrived in Can Tho, the unofficial capital of the Mekong Delta. It was a buzzing city, with lots of patrons at the roadside restaurants and pool bars. Two other girls from Montreal joined me in the "homestay" option.

It was definitely a unique experience! Phuong was the only member of his family of 10 that spoke English. They were so hospitable! We were served tea in little shooter glasses. The best part is that they use a hollow coconut shell as a tea cozy!!! Dinner was served on the floor; a nice hot-pot of fish soup, and get this: Shrimp chips with stir fried tofu and green beans! So awesome! We washed everything down with some "you can't taste anything but the alcohol" rice wine and "YO"ed (Vietnamese version of cheers) our way through dinner. Bedtime was at 10pm, and mosquitos nets transformed the living room into our bedroom! There were some strange noises (hopefully just the pigs in the back, and not rats!) but I managed to get a good nights rest.

So...I am the big headed shrimp in the Mekong Delta - argh, I think I forgot my cap at Phuong's house!!! Ha ha, the worst part is that the cap cost more than this 3-day tour (a steal of a deal - only US$26)...gaaaa!

Today, we hit up some of the more authentic spots in the delta. TWO floating markets, with nobody selling souvenirs (vis a vis the tourist trap in Thailand!). The first one was a wholesale market, the second was retail. The canals and small rivers that connect all parts of the delta make up one huge river system, in a very fertile valley.

Next stop....Chau Doc, right back at the Cambodian border! Ha ha...we climbed Sam Mountain, and visited a Chinese Pagoda which some chill views of some rice paddy fields. That night, I stayed with a couple of French gals in the stuffiest room ever ("free" accomdation is like that) and had a really nice hot pot soup at Bay Bong restaurant.

hooked on s'ville

This was me, about 3 weeks ago...gone fishing in Singapore, near the rustic island of Pulau Ubin. You can see Malaysia from it's shores!

FFWD>>
A week of fruit shakes, fresh coconuts and swimming was super relaxing!! And very easy on the pocket :) A night in the Mealy Chenda guesthouse in Sihanoukville (named after King Sihanouk of Cambodia) was only US$2! The beaches were not as nice as in Mauritius, but the water was much warmer - almost hot! I think it is about 29 degrees.


I took a boat trip out to some of the neighbouring islands (including Kos O'Russey - but there were no bamboos on bamboo island...only a military base!) and we went snorkelling. My broken snorkelling tube confirms that yep, the gulf of Thailand has really salty water. Such colourful fish and coral! For lunch, our guide Borey grilled up some fresh Baracouda fish (from the dirtiest market I've seen to date!) with tasty French baguettes and salad. He was studying for an economics exam later that day too. Many young Cambodians work very hard, making ends meet with day-jobs and studying at university in the evenings. Ooh, and scary, a girl I met on the trip had dengue fever! DEET, here I come!

I don't know what it was, maybe the local water, but my tummy wasn't feeling too well the first few days in S'ville. So I went to the "best" restaurant in town for a mediocre meal that cost 5 times the price of my room. Ha ha...hanging out at the Sokha Beach Resort's swimming pool was nice too - met these two high-flying American travellers, Diane and Susan, and they were nice enough to take me in their private A/Ced taxi back to Phnom Penh. Amazingly, our taxi driver had survived Pol Pot's regime & the reign of terror under the Khmer Rouge between 1975 and 1979. He recounted the harrowing story of his life as a teenager working on the railways for the KR. I also read "Stay Alive, My Son" by a Montreal-trained Cambodian engineer that managed to escape to Thailand during the same era. It's frightening to think that this mass genocide happened under everybody's noses less than 30 years ago...and we haven't really learned from history, have we?

*Michelle!* I drowned my free Robots watch too... as I was diving into the pool, I remembered! oops...the US$1 replacement I've got isn't entirely ugly.

Phnom Penh is a pretty condensed capital. There are wide boulevards, but cars, motorbike drivers and tuk-tuks line the streets and weave in-and-out spontaneously. Traffic lights don't mean too much, and I feel like a deer every time I have to cross the street. A couple of Norwegian girls taught me a good trick. Anytime someone offers, "MOTO?", you say, "That's not my name!" Good stuff!!

Cool things about Phnom Penh:

• the Royal Palace is beautiful
• cheap internet...but slow (US$0.5/hour)
• awesome people (kids diving into the tonle sap river that is a murky brown), friendly moto drivers
• great view of the Boeung-Kak lake from the lakeside guesthouse
• nice bars on the riverfront
• random people singing...and it sounds pretty good!

The not so cool things about Phnom Penh:

• Boeung-Kak lake is probably toxic! so dirty!
• The Lazyfish guesthouse made me want to leave Phnom Penh! US$3 or not, eep, mosquitos aren't worth it!
• HOT HOT HOT. I think it must be 35 degrees out! and wind doesn't really tunnel through these streets...lol
• garbage everywhere! I don't think it is in the Cambodian culture quite yet to use rubbish bins.
• the seedy sex-tourist business rears its ugly head now and then

Currently, I am waiting to meet my new French friend (Romain!) and we're going to Vietnam by bus this Saturday. Can't wait for...pho...

I had the TOMB RAIDER cocktail!

I think I'm all WAT-TED out. Just spent the last 3 days exploring some of the temples Angkor has to offer. Cambodia is an amazing country - the story behind these gorgeous, massive, and majestic ruins is so rich! Many kings reigned this forgotten corner of the world... the temples are located in a rural setting, rainforest like, with many parts close to rice farms. There are lots of children selling souvenirs and it is a really big reality check to see the living conditions of some of the locals. Siem Reap is such a booming place though, I think quality of life has really improved in the past few years.

Don't have time right now to upload any pics...but check out this gallery that I saw at a store here...the temples are amazing!!

http://www.asiaphotos.net/gallery/Angkor/


I'm staying at nice (AIR CONDITIONED!) Red Piano guesthouse ...the restaurant by the same name was superb. Awesome atmosphere, tasty food, and best of all, the tomb raider cocktail! LOL. Angelina and gang were filming some sequences at Ta Promh, one of the most amazing sites with trees growing out of the ruins all over the place. We spent our first and last day exploring the temples by Tuk-tuk (3 wheeled carts)...but the second day, we rode bikes!! Man, these things were rented for US$2 (everything is in US dollars!) and they were sketch. LOL, Doi's bike got a flat right in the morning, and my back tire also busted by the late afternoon. After toughing it out, we deserved some khmer massages, no? Ya...the massage was pretty relaxing.

Getting here was another story. The bus ride from Bangkok to Siem Reap was utterly RIDICULOUS. After being herded around like sheep for an hour, we finally boarded a bus, then were taken near the Cambodian/Thai border. Then we waited 2 hours for our visas at this pre-designated restaurant, and crammed in the back of a service truck to get to the border. Next, it was a HOT affair lining up at the Thai and Cambodian border crossing. Then, a tuk-tuk to a bus waiting area, which was another hour... the worst was yet to come. A 10 hour CRAZY bumpy ride on the worst roads that SE asia has to offer in the wet season. And the A/C minibus. Ya, nope...it was broken. Open windows! Argh. Ha ha, then we were shipped off to this guesthouse in Siem Reap. It was dirt cheap, but the rooms that DIDN'T smell like mold, had no A/C. doh!

But all of this didn't come as a surprise since I was staying on Khao San Rd in Bangkok, which incidently, is where I bought the bus ticket. Eep, for like 7.5 Canadian. Can't expect more than what I paid for!

Bangkok was a pretty dazzling, glitzy place compared to the clean serenity of Singapore. I was there for about a week - Doi and I visited lots of awesome temples (world's largest gold buddha, reclining buddah 45 meters long, etc...), the floating market (touristy, but they sell fruit/veggies/meat/anything...on these teeny boats!), the weekend market (largest in Thailand, 300 000 people every weekend...WHOA), and I also took a trip to Ayutthaya, the old capital of Thailand. Staying on Khao San (yep, from "The Beach" with Leonardo DiCaprio) was pretty cheap, but loud, and only mildly sketchy. No bugs! Horray! But no A/C either. :)

Yikes...Singapore was amazing too. But i'll recount that later...my hour of cheapo internet is almost up. :)

Jewel of the Indian Ocean

"You gather the idea that Mauritius was made first and then heaven, and that heaven was copied after Mauritius..."
~Mark Twain

Check out some of the photos we've taken!
http://photos.yahoo.com/vampalcyone/

Pereybere Beach, Grand Baie, Northern coast Mauritius

Michelle & I have spent almost three weeks in Mauritius now! I can hardly believe it. This island seriously has the best variety of beaches in the world! And because of the huge unbroken coral reef that surrounds the 330km of coastline, the beaches are shallow, silky smooth and white. Amazing!!! We've divided our time between visiting Michelle's dozens of relatives (every Chinese person in Mauritius knows each other...) and lounging on the beaches.

If you're looking for a place to go for your honeymoom (ha ha), try the Maritim Resort. The service and food are equally ridiculous! I tried windsurfing and waterskiing for the first time too. So much fun! And since the sugar industry is king in Mauritius, the rum is verrry tasty. :)

Michelle & I also visited the neighbouring island of Rodrigues. It is a very rustic & relaxing place. The weather was working against us, but we spent plenty of time at the pool! They have also never heard of vegetarians...so I ate some calamari curry. It was tasty! But then I got hives...argh! Thankfully, they weren't itchy. Ha ha, Michelle can testify that the mosquito bites are more deadly! *no malaria...lol*

Port Louis, the capital of Mauritius, is quite hectic, and takes some getting used to. The locals drive like madmen, serpentining and braking around throngs of pedestrians and mopeds. The shops are mostly family owned, with the exception of a few budding costco-like grocery chains...ha ha, SPAR bought out Michelle's family's land a few years back. There is a HUGE Indian population in Mauritius (60% or something) and we've had lots of delicious Indian/Mauritian food. Dholl Puri is this flatbread that is really good with marsala (curry) and gateau piment are fried lentil balls with some hot peppers.

Michelle heads back to Calgary this Friday, and I am on my way to Singapore...I started mentally preparing for the humidity already. Looking forward to more tropical fruits!

You'll want to go to SA!

Here are some pics from our trip! The First few are of some signs and stuff we found in SA. It's too bad we didn't get one of the "hi-jacking hot spot" road sign. I hope you understand.

http://photos.yahoo.com/vampalcyone/

http://www.livejournal.com/~blue_squishie/

We're in Mauritius right now and it has been SO awesome! Michelle's relatives are super friendly, and everyone greets family and friends by "kisses" on the cheek. LOL, and if you don't know, the number of people Michelle is related to is innumerable. We walk down the street in Port Louis, and bump into people! haha, I'm loving the tropical fruit, and the pretty beaches.

And although I am not the reading machine that is Michelle, I finished another couple of books: World of Suzie Wong (read it! Hong Kong in the 50s...) and The Romanov Prophecy (Made for Russian history buffs). Tomorrow, we're going to stay at Grand Baie in a bungalow closer to the beach...mmm...mmm...

South Africa is super lekker!!

Today our first day in Cape Town by ourselves. It was super foggy this morning! Couldn't even see table mountain from our hotel (ooh, so swank! nice after the camping/cold cold nights at the inns...ha ha), which is on St George's Mall. But eventually, the mist subsided and just now, the table was almost laid! That's the postcard worthy instance when the clouds look like a table cloth, over the flat summit of table mountain. So cool!

Last night, we went to Mesopotamia, our first Kurdish food experience. No, we did not go crazy in the Shisha lounge....it was really good! We sat on the floor and listened to crazy vibey tunes and enjoyed some kebabs and stuffed aubergine. No belly dancers last night though.... it was our first night without our dear tour guide, Otto. Ha ha, the deserted streets were a bit unnerving...and Michelle & I are oddities here...racially speaking. Man, we get weird stares everywhere!

Here's a quick run-down of the best things in SA:

Joburg: gold reef city is a lot like heritage park!
Pretoria: huge voortrekker monument, the university scene was cool
Kruger National Park: Awesome!! Saw the animals in their natural environment. We saw 4 of the big five! Leopard was evasive.
Durban & east coast: BEAUTIFUL crashing waves from the indian ocean. We saw the moon rising on the horizon, that was so cool. Dolphins surfing! So neat!
Drakensberg: The mountains are specatcular & great hiking!
Karoo: Desert- like, awesome sandstone formations...kinda like arizona - the most beautiful sunset ever
Garden Route: Knysna was cool - saw the humpback whales!!
Cape Town: Table mountain...nice killer 200m vertical ascent. But the views were worth every minute! Beautiful waterfront to run along, awesome food... wine region was fun! Cheese tasting was great...there's one called "La Beryl"!! Haha, so pungent.

Ok, will report more later! bye bye!

An update! Hi from Sunny Africa

Michelle & I landed in Johannesburg, South Africa yesterday...it is so gorgeous here... The skies are a beautiful blue, and the soil is red! We're staying with Michelle's family friends - they're awesome! Kim, Linda, Belinda and John. Ha ha, get this - I've got my first cell phone... for emergencies and SMSing only. lol. The best part about it is that it has the Imperial Death March for a ring tone. woo! star wars!

errm, ya! The 28 hours in flight to get over here were worth it. I finished reading Animal Farm (very good - can't believe those pigs!) and Journey to the Centre of the Earth (that's going to satisfy my geo craving for a while). Also picked up The World of Suzie Wong in HK (appropriately!) and we'll see how that turns out. The 3 hr stopover to see my aunts, and 4 airplane meals later (plus cup noodles), I landed in Joburg - it was only 7 degrees out!! But it gets up to the mid 20s in the daytime. The sun sets at 5:30. Crazy! Speaking of which, we're leaving on the tour tomorrow...which means 5:30AM is when we'll have to be out the door. sleepy time! Maybe after some yearbook proofs (joy!)

movie reel

Six Degrees of Separation - curiously enough, everyone at Queen's is only separated by TWO degrees, I swear. But it was a pretty decent flick. Quirky, made you think about the people you meet. I can't believe the lady was SO taken in by "paul", played by will smith though. Seems like she was too vulnerable to begin with. Do we all remember our lives as one anecdote after another?

Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - you can't deny it! The answer is 42! Having read the books in the summer after 1st year (thanks to Andrea! For introducing them!), all the details were lost on me. That, and I have a particularly bad memory for things like plots, TV shows, etc. I thought it was pretty funny, taken at face value. Apparently, the movie really screwed with the actual book, especially the ending. I guess the main fault with the movie was that the story was too weak. Seemed very disconnected and that the characters were just sort of jumping around from one scene to the next. I really liked the way they brought the explanations from the hitchhiker's guide to life though - retro cartoons. sweet!

Boogie Nights - WHOA. didn't expect anything like that! I just thought it was some movie set in the 70s, maybe about a disco or something. well, there was a disco i guess! And porn stars! What would it say...if it was your name in flashing neon lights? Dirk Diggler? ha ha. this movie was a wild look into the lucrid life of a up-and coming, A-list, then washed-out junkie porn star. Interesting commentary on the side of life I never hope to witness myself.

James Bond - You only live twice - I think this may be the 3rd Sean Connery James Bond flick I've seen. Stereoptypical portrayal of Asian cultures, good ol Bond action. Not very many good one-liners as noted by stu, but hey, the piranhas made up for it!

The Butterfly Effect - watched this one with donna - lol, gripping! literally. Anyways, we apparently saw the screening version that had a different ending than the theatrical release. Te guy didn't die at the end!?!? I totally called it. Pretty interesting concept. Kudos to Ashton Kutcher for attempting a serious role. We picked up on some random time inconsistent ideas that don't make sense, but maybe that's getting geeky. It was scary at times, a pretty good mind-numbing sort of movie.

Finding Neverland - Johnny Depp is so versatile! This Peter Pan inspired film was original and had really good acting & cinematography. A little slow at times, but enjoyable. I didn't even know Peter Pan started out as a play! You really did feel bad for poor Peter though. He was so mature at this young age, and brought a child's perspective into grown-up issues.

The Hudsucker Proxy - it was the last day of UNIVERSITY! After a lovely dinner at Luigiana's (very romantic, lol, Donna and i shared almost everything - i had to get my own dessert, lol), we went to Bobby's place and watched this movie, from chris's recommendation. It's for kids, you know! Super creative, very funny, inspiring movie! Perfect mix of comedy and drama.

Stay Tuned - yep, same night. We started watching this early 90s movie at the Dwayne's underworld scene, and then proceeded to finish the movie. THen we decided to loop around and watch the beginning! Bizarre! But fitting for this movie. It was hialrious. The guy from Three's company (john ritter) plays the typical "bad father" who is a big couch potato that gets sucked in to the evil world of TV reality controlled by who else...the DEVIL! Don't watch too much TV, it's bad for you. seriously!

Spanglish - off-beat drama/comedy. who doesn't like funny cross-cultural movies?? i liked the young actress that played the daughter - she was really convincing. I could totally see where the mother's pain was coming from (both families!) Tackles some pretty tough issues, and the "mother" character was a great comedic relief. Feel-good movie that makes you appreciate the fact that you should just be yourself.

Bride and Prejudice - speaking of hilarious cross-cultural flicks, this one was awesome. Why? Do you even have to ask?? Combing the classic Elizabeth and Mr. Darcy story with bollywood?!? Sweet! I love the random singing and dancing.

Hitch - ha ha, Beryl and I watched this one, also ripped. Good to see Amber Valletta is branching out! lol, you saw the previews, now watch the long version! nothing too stimulating, but it was a nice, light, amusing fluffy movie. i liked it.

now i'm thinking. wow, i watch A LOT of movies! and this is on top of the regular TV?! crazy! good thing i can never remember any of it. ha ha. later!

relics of the 90s...awesome.

Collective Soul...wow, they completely blew me away! I couldn't believe they were this good after what, 13 years??

Yep, so Andrea and I headed to Stage's last night to see them in concert. After an extremely disappointing set from The Waking Eyes, we were greeted by the over dramatic, wildly entertaining, bubbly personality of the collective soul front man (the real lestat would be like that, if there ever was one). People our parents' age were getting ridiculous on the dance floor, but hey, I guess everyone needs some time off once in a while! haha

The concert was so much fun - rockin out to songs from their glory years, listening to a few songs that sounded suspiciously the same...they came back for an awesome encore too! sweet! then we went to the brass, realized they had really crappy beer on tap, and headed home instead. After sepending a few hours making the best ofuse of the super fast internet at 3am, to dl the latest work by my idol, daniel johns, it was bed time!