Current Plans

After talking to Peter Tosh (spelling?) who use to live in Austria, my cousin Lisa Dueck, uncle Len Ralph and Classmate Dave Turrigan who all were in Germany some time during the last year, and a few exchange students from Germany I went to school with I've tentatively planned my trip.  Of course everything is up in the air, but to make it easier to meet up with people in Stuttgart and to figure out how I'm going to use my 6 day train pass I purchased I wanted to make some sort of schedule.

 

The numbers in [] are the tickets I've used so far.

 

Ulm 2 week training seminar (Nov 5 to Nov 19)

Munich Saturday (Saturday Nov 19) -might go straight from ulm to dresdin

Transit Munich to Dresdin (Saturday Nov 19) [1 of 6]

Dresdin (Sat Nov 19 to Mon Nov 21)

Transit Dresdin to Berlin (Mon Nov 21) [2 of 6]

Berlin (Mon Nov 21 to Wed Nov 23)

Transit Berlin to Cologne (Wed Nov 23) [3 of 6]

Cologne (Wed Nov 23 to Fri Nov 25)

Transit Cologne to Stuttgart (Fri Nov 26) [4 of 6]

Stuttgart (Fri Nov 25 to Mon Nov 28)

Transit Stuttgart to Salzburg Austria (Mon Nov 29) [5 of 6]

Salzburg (Mon Nov 29 to Wed Nov 30)

Tranist Salzburg to Munich (Wed Nov 30) [6 of 6]

Munich (Wed Nov 30 to Sat Dec 3)

Travel in Eruope

I'm trying to decide what I want to do while I'm in Europe for two weeks. One option is to get a train pass and just go from city to city... but its 350 for the pass I want.

http://www.raileurope.com/canada/rail/passes/eurail_germany_benelux_pass_youth.htm

Ultimately my trip will be planned based on my budget... which I haven't completely figured out yet. Buying a pass now would limit my options, but may be easier then buying a pass in Munich.

Suggestions?

New Blog

A friend has gratefully given me access to his server for pictures while I'm in Germany and for the time being I've also posted all my pictures from my Asia trip.

Go see it at http://lukecs.blogsite.org/

by the way if you didn't already know I'm going to Germany for all of November... Obviously we don't talk enough if you haven heard so give me a call or write me an email.

THANKS FOR THE SERVER ACCESS BILL!

Week 9 and 10 Thailand and Auckland

Theres a lot or freedom when you travel alone and I took full advantage of that freedom when I decided to hop the next overnight train to Bangkok, shuffle via Bangkoks sky trains to the right bus station and take the first available bus to Ko Samet. Having successfully orchestrated a 24 hour dash to the nearest beach I relaxed the next three days. Ko Samet wasn't that busy when I was there party because it was the beginning of the rainy season. Although it rained the day before I came I managed to avoid any downpours while on the island, thus I have managed to only have one day of rain while on a beach and even that was only because I left one day late for food poisoning.

When I arrived back in Bangkok I did my best to get to a guest house on Koe San road with out a cab or a Tuk Tuk. I took the sky train as far as I could then planned on getting a bus the rest of the way. Unforunitly after getting off the sky train it started to rain and I could only stand waiting with my backpack for half an hour until my resolve broke and I shelled out the 60 baht for a cab. I spent the last two days in Thailand writing blogs, sizing my suite, picking up tickets and eating Thai food. My last major meal was at a street vendor it was spicy and hot seafood soap and had large prawns, squid and crab.

My flight to Auckland connecting through Hong Kong was scheduled to depart at 11:30 however the clossest shuttle I could arrange left 6am. On the way to the airport we had a brief delay with a police officer (only a 200baht bribe from the driver) we got to the airport at about 8:30am when I checked in they put me on the first available flight which was at9:30am. The flight was really good (best airline I've been on so far - Cathey Pacific). They were very friendly and the planes had personal TV's with a good selection of movies and tv shows to choose from. The connecting flight was only a 2 and a half hour flight.

Hong Kong International airport is the nicest airport I've been too.Its huge, and not crowded. It has free internet, reclined chairs for sleeping or relaxing and many other services within the international termanel. My only complaint is that besides lounges they only have one restaurant and its prices are comparable to Canadian prices (so from where I've just been its pretty expensive). The wait over was 7 hours (good practice for my flight home. I spent most of the time relaxing in one of those reclined chairs (a luxury I'll miss on my 8 hour wait in Bangkok going home) and read a book. I sat next to a Air Canada jet bound for Toronto.

I was a little surprised to find myself on an Airbus to Auckland (I beleave it was a 340). Upon arrival to Auckland I made my way through customs. I was a little surprised how many questions were asked (having previously never been asked a question going through customs. There also seemed to be a lot of people looking at my passport (about 5 in total). Just before going through the last check I was told to go for inspection. I was seated next to a metal table and waited as they checked my passport (a process that took about 20 minutes). As I sat I watched as about 5 other people had there baggage search. From the luck of the draw I was the only white person picked for a baggage search. I was given a brochure about baggage searches and it said that customs officials were trained to find possible offenders. I guess I looked like I was smuggling drugs! I was a little annoyed that I could not contact Mary Ann and Ward (my Aunt and Uncle) as contact out (even by a third person or intercom) was not allowed. It took about an hour took search my bags and answer a few dozen questions. It was a fairly thorow search but I was a little surprised how they only glanced at my first aid kit but made sure to check all the pages in my books.

New Zealand

I've been in Auckland the last few days. Sorry about the blog delay but rest assured that I will post again. Its just a little hard to find the time to sit down and type. Anyways I'm off to Christchurch today and possibly queenstown tomorrow. Time is running out on my trip (just 5 days left).

Week 7 and 8 Thailand

Continued from before… I've been saving this up for a while so this post is really long.

Some of the sites in Bangkok where a little less impressive such as Thai Boxing and Wats (Buddhist Temples). I went to Thai Boxing on a Saturday night. They had pricing for locals (200baht) and foreigners (1000 baht). The place was empty, but the boxing was pretty good. There were a number of knock outs. Wats in Bangkok out number churches in Calgary. Wats are very similar to each other and often feature large gold Buddha's and many small Buddha's (they are everywhere). It's amazing how much money is spent on donations to Buddha. It is common to see plates of food and drinks in front of a Buddha statue.

After Bangkok I headed off to Ayutthaya. Ayutthaya was the capital of Thailand many years ago until Burma sacked it. The temples or ruins of Ayutthaya are hundreds of years old. I spent a whole day touring them and by the end of it I was pretty tired of temples. The temples are mostly brick and are often characterized by one large Buddha several (in some cases hundreds) of small Buddha's then a few large towers. Most of the temples cost 30 baht, but with that you basically can see and do anything (like climb up large towers).

From Ayutthaya I took a 12 hour train ride to Chiang Mai (sleeper train with fan). I'm getting use to trains now and I had a pretty good rest. I had booked my hotel and a trek in Bangkok so upon Arrival in Chiang Mai I was picked up at the airport and sent to a fairly nice hotel (nicest one since the Philippines). This hotel cost around 15 dollars a night it had AC, TV (one channel had English) and hot water. That night I went for supper at this tourist show. Everything at the show was very expensive (like every tourist area I've been). I've decided that I enjoy street stand food better then any restaurant food I've had so have now decided that that's the only way I'm going to eat in Thailand. My favorite food is noodle soup, partly because it's the easiest thing to order and also the cheapest but also because it's been one of my favorite meals. On the street all you have to do is point out the noodle you want. The soup comes with rice noodles, some meat and vegetables and a few sauces you can put on it. It costs 20 baht (roughly 70 cents).

The next day I started a three day trek by Chiang Mai (It was all pre arranged and I'm not even sure what park it was). I started out with two girls, one was a photographer from Japan who was traveling by her self the other was from Finland and was traveling with her boyfriend. The girl from Finland had gotten food poisoning the day before so her boyfriend had gone on the trek ahead of her, because of this we were setting out the opposite way from usual so that they could meet up that night. The first part of the trip was a bamboo ride down a river. It was pretty fun. I was giving a bamboo pull to try to steer the rear of the raft and I sorta got the hang of it. I knew I was suppose to do something when our guide who had a poll in the front of the boat looked back and gave me a look.

After rafting we started on our trek. I have been walking most of this trip so the trekking was pretty easy. Still the pace and terrain was a good challenge and I enjoyed the walk. It was nice traveling in such a small group as it gave good opportunity to get to know everyone including the two Thai trekkers. The first night we stayed in a Village. It was pretty authentic, lots of pigs, chickens, cows, dogs and kids. The villagers lived off the land and made money from selling food at markets and selling drinks to the foreigners who came by about twice a week. The next day the two girls I was with headed back (they were only doing a two day hike) and I continued with the two guides. It was great to go hiking alone with the guides and I enjoyed talking with them. It was a pretty short hike especially considering we were able to go a little faster with just the three of us then the day before. We picked mushrooms on the way to eat for dinner.

When we go to camp we relaxed for most of the afternoon until another group of hikers came in. This group was about 10 people. I got a different perspective of farang (white rich people in Thai, has a negative connotation) then I had before because I was with the Thai guides. When the group came in all the white people talked with each other and all the Thai people talked with each other. I was with the Thai's. They talked about the farang (mostly about the girls who they pointed out to me. I enjoyed some mushroom soup then sat down with the other white people to enjoy supper. There were a couple lesbians from Holland, 4 UK guys, 1 Canadian from Vancouver, an older New Zealand lady and a couple (who I didn't find out where they were from). Like I said in a previous post you meet and experience a lot more when traveling alone. With this group the travelers who were in groups had there own conversations and didn't join in or attempt to bring in anyone else into their conversations. I on the other hand had a lengthy conversation with the two girls from New Zealand and Canada who were also traveling alone. It seems like all the lone travelers are either young women or old men. I've met very few young men traveling alone.

The next day we hiked out, went for lunch, then rode elephants. Riding elephants would have been a lot of fun, but they didn't look like they were treated very well and the whole time I rode on it I felt sorry for the poor elephant. After elephant riding we went back to the hotel where I enjoyed one of the nicest showers on my trip. After the shower and a short nap, the girl from Canada (who was staying at a different hotel) came by and we went out for dinner and some drinks.

Following the trek I booked a 1 day cooking class. In the morning we went to the market decided what we were going to cook (we each choose 7 dishes) and watched as our teacher bought some things for cooking. Cooking was really fun. We got to cook all 7 dishes from scratch then eat them. I could only eat about a quarter of everything I cooked. We got recipe books and I plan on doing a lot more Asian cooking when I get back to Calgary. Thai food has definitely been the best food in Asia. It's unfortunate that I won't be going to Vietnam on this trip because I'd love to follow up this cooking class with a Vietnamese cooking class.

The following day I headed to Chiang Rai where I planned to rent a motor bike. Chiang Rai was a very nice city with very few Farang. The white people that were there were older men (probably looking for Thai women). I didn't really fit in with the white people in Chiang Rai and frequently got bad looks from these old white Americans. They were probably worried that I was going after their 20 year old Thai women. The next day I rented a motorbike.

In Chiang Rai I witnessed the start of the monsoons that usually hit Thailand in June. While motor biking north of Chiang Rai I marked the event by looking down at my gas meter to find it was pointed at empty. I had earlier decided to rent a motorbike after getting advice from a friend (Andrew Essex) who had done this trip a year before. He had mentioned that it was the best part of his trip and after talking to several other travelers that agreed that renting a motorbike is a lot of fun I decided on doing it. I hadn't ridden a motorbike before but that didn't trouble the rental company. At first it was a little awkward making turns but I got the hang of it amazingly fast and was soon on my way to the golden triangle (where Myanmar, Thailand and Laos meet).

It was fun to drive instead of being driven for a change and I had no trouble getting use to traffic in northern Thailand. Having been use to seeing cars drive on the other side of the road I didn't make any turning into oncoming traffic mistakes. I was pretty unimpressed with the golden triangle and opted to get some lunch (my usual noodle soap) and head off for some more driving which I was enjoying. I decided to slowly head back to Chiang Mai taking a longer route back. The terrain North West of Chiang Rai had a lot more hills then directly North East of Chiang Rai (where the golden triangle is). I enjoyed riding my bike and made few stops (it was a fairly long way back). I filled up once as I went (50 baht to fill the tank, 1.70 Canadian). It rained a little as I went but I got passed the clouds and continued to ride until about 2:30pm when I noticed that clouds were closing in all around me. I had passed my last gas station and city about 25 km's back and still have 40 to go until the next city. The terrain at this point was large hills (nearly mountains). It was at this unfortunate point that I realized my fuel gauge was pointed at empty and that I had potentially 40 kms to go to the next gas station. It soon started to pour, but I didn't take much notice to how wet I was because all I could think of was my bike stalling as I approached a hill. Few things come to mind when its pouring rain and you are on a motor bike in the middle of no where with the nearest English speaking Thai is 40 kms away, and night is just 4 hours away. First I noticed the pillars that were every km and marked how far to the next major city. I read somewhere that it takes the average person 1 hour to walk 4 km and so soon I was figuring out how many hours it would take to walk to the next city and back to my motor bike. Realizing that at this point that that was 20 hours of walking the next thing I did was pray that I was going to make it to the next city. Next I thought about what I would do if my bike stalled. I figured that I'd park it on the side and walk trying to wave down someone that could take me to the next city. Realizing how difficult that could be the next thing I did was pray that my bike would make it to the next city. About 15 kms later while passing by a few houses I saw a hut with a few women in it. I decided to stop and ask them where the next gas station was. First I told them in English then pointed to my bike and showed them a sign of a gauge pointed down. After a long puzzled look she held up four fingers and pointed ahead. hmm I thought, only four kms to the next gas station. 6 kms later I realized she might have meant 40 kms or maybe that it cost four baht to buy whatever she was selling or maybe she was telling me it was 4:00. I focused my attention back to the sign posts and realized with amazement that I was only a 5 hour walk from the next city. The next 10 to 40 minutes where a little hazy, partly because it was raining so hard I could hardly see and partly because I was able to calm myself and enjoy the moment. It just wouldn't have been the same bike ride if everything went fine. Amazed and relieved I reached a gas station 40 km and about an hour an a half after it had started to rain.

It was still raining when I got to Chaing Rai. I figured I knew how to get back to my guest house but it was 7:00 dark and wet. Nothing looked like it did that morning. Worse then being completely soaked was that my bike would stall when I stopped and it was getting harder to start the thing (even with gas in the tank). My maps were useless now because they were completely soaked. After about an hour of wondering around the city trying to keep the motorbike running I finally found something I recognized and managed to get to my guest house. I took a shower then had something to eat and went to bed.

The next day as I sifted through my still wet belongings I re-read the contract and realized that it specified a 100km maximum daily usage. I didn't bring that up when I gave the keys back to the guest house and checked out. I took the bus back to Chaing Mai. On the way we stopped at a police check point. I had seen several as I was biking but they had never stopped me. I think the check points are because of ongoing tensions with Myanmar. I guess in 2002 there was a minor conflict but I'm not sure why there were so many check points now because everything I saw seemed very safe and there was no news reports on the subject. Anyways this was the second time I had to show my passport at a police check point (the first being in Malaysia).

I've spent the last two days in Chiang Mai. I haven't had a lot to do and because its low season and it's been raining fairly frequently there hasn't been a lot of activity on the streets. Today I plan on taking a train to Bangkok then heading to the closest Island I could find on my map (Ko Samet) for a 3 day break from city life. I need to be in Bangkok on the 29th to pick up plane tickets and get a suit fitting. I don't have much time, but I rather go to an island then spend another week in a city that I've already been to.

I hear Calgary has had a lot of rain. It's interesting that in Asia if the temperature drops below 5 all the schools close and in Canada if it rains for a week like it rains in Asia for a couple months the rivers flood and people are evacuated.

Week 6 and 7 Thailand

Last I left I had just been in Bangkok a few days. Bangkok is an amazing city and I spent several days walking around exploring. I've taken public transit in most of the major cities I've visited and did the same in Bangkok. Bangkok has every mode of public transit imaginable. It includes, skytrain, subway, train, river boat, and bus. The buses and river boat are about 5 baht (10 cents) and can take you almost anywhere in the city if you know which one to use. There are no transit maps, so its sorta like going to the bus station in Calgary when you only speak french and trying to get somewhere when you have no idea what that somewhere looks like.

I've talked to a lot of people that didn't like Bangkok, but like everywhere you hear good and bad about every place. I find travelers a lot different in Thailand then in Malaysia. Thailand seems to be the starting place for most travelers and I've met a lot of fresh travelers who have only been to Australia before coming to Thailand. You can tell the difference by the way they spend money for Western comforts, and eat in restaurants. Theirs a larger variety of travelers (even in the low season). I've met people of all ages. Strangely the majority of the travelers seem to be women and couples. I have yet to meet a lone male traveler. Some of the highlights of Bangkok was Ko San road, and Street Markets/food. Kho San is the capital of backpacking. The streets are full of overpriced food, clothing, backpackers, and Tuk Tuks (small motorbike street cars). I didn't like shopping or eating on Kho San road but people watching was amazing. It was like an urban zoo with a huge selection of different kinds of human. I had only one meal on kho san road all others were in markets or street vendors off the road. Thai food is amazing and I love buying it in markets where the selection, quality, environment and cost is unbelievable. Every city has a day and night market. Street vendors sell fruit, meat on a stick, soups and a wide selection of none western food, clothing and merchandise.

I'd like to continue but at the place I'm typing in Chiang Mai the internet has gone down once and the power just went down erasing a few minutes of my typing (thunderstorm outside). Its 10:00pm and I'm going to Chiang Rai at 6am so I think I'll pack it up and post more about Bangkok and my travels to north Thailand later.

rice fields in the middle of the forrest.

kids playing in a village during treking in Chiang Mai

navigating the river in Ayutthaya

massive stone budhas (everywhere!)

Budhas in Ayutthaya. (even stone budhas get thirsty)

Thai Boxing in Bangkok

more lizards in Bangkok

khaosan road Bangkok

huge geckos in the perhentian islands in Malaysia

Longest Canopy in the world in Tamen Negara Malaysia. Its about 10m off the ground.

beautiful El Nedo

mmmm mangos

I've seen these things everywhere I've gone. The largest was about 3m long with a body about a foot wide.

The Twin towers just after thunderstorm

Week 5 and 6 Malaysia and Thailand

My last major update was in Kota Bharu. After Kota Bharu I headed off to the Perhentian Islands. The Perhentian islands were nothing like any beach I was on in the Philippines. The perhentian islands is made up of two islands and several beaches on each island. I only visited three beaches as the others were the resort beaches where prices are 10 times more. The beach I stayed at was called long beach. Simply said it was a backpackers beach. The beach was a lot smaller then others I have visited it had no roads (the only access was by water). There were a lot of white foreigners on the beach nearly all of which were in there 20s. Many of the waitresses and scuba diver instructors were also foreign. The beach was very clean and other than taxi drivers (that took people to the main land and other beaches) there was nobody asking you to buy something. The prices were about double the regular mainland prices (Beer in Malaysia costs alot). I stayed at a place that had a 24 bed dorm (which as practically empty for most of my stay).  I spent most of the time relaxing and reading.  On my third day I went Snorkeling.  It was a day long trip and we went to about 5 sites.  The neatest thing was the giant sea turtles (with up to 1m diameter shells).  Well you're swimming along looking at them they'd occasionally come up to breath and surface right next to you.  I think I enjoyed the fish and coral better in the Philippines but it was still really amazing here.  It seemed like older coral or at least coral that was exposed more then what I saw in the Philippines.

 

I was planning on leaving the next day but I came down with some food poisoning that lasted about a day.  It was ok though lots of people came in that day (about 12 new people into the dorm) and it rained most of the day anyways.  So I just visited most of the time.  I decided to skip the beaches in southern Thailand and head straight to Bangkok from the Perhentian Islands.  Beaches get boring and it seems I've spent most of my time on them.  Unfortunately I didn't find anyone to travel with on the Perhentian Islands (and thus save money on long distance taxi).  I took a Taxi from the Perhentian Islands to the border crossing about 1 and a half hours and it cost about 20 Canadian.  I was a little surprised to come a cross a police check point on the way.  They asked to see my passport and then let us pass.  The border crossing was really easy in fact a little to easy.  If I had wanted I could have easily walked across without getting my passport stamped, I had to look for the booths to stamp my passport.  on the other side I took up an offer to get a bike ride to the train station.  At the train station I hooked up with a couple people from Calgary.  Unfortunately the computers were down so we had to take a train to Hatt Yai in the hopes of finding another train to Bangkok (the train was just about to leave when I arrived so it was perfect timing).  It took about 5 hours to get to Hart Yai, here I changed what was left of my Malaysia Ringets to Thailand Baht and grabbed some lunch/supper.  The next train was about 2 hours later so it was great timing and the food was really good.  From Hart Yai to Bangkok the train was about 16 hours we took a sleeper train so we could sleep on the way. 

It really is amazing the diversity of places the world has. I guess I didn't really know what to expect but I've been shocked just how different each place is. It really is an eye opener. Bangkok is amazing. I've spent the last day catching up on sleep and checking into travel plans but throughout it all I've got a pretty good first impression of the khao san road area. I can't really describe it... but in simplest terms its a stable chaos. Theres a lot more police in Bangkok. I've even seen one give a ticket for an illegal left turn. In the Khao San Road area their main purpose is to protect the tourists. People really do a great job of milking money out of tourists, especially on Khao San Road. Chang Beer is 6.5% and comes in can or 640mL glass bottles. After a day in the Thailand heat and walking around that one bottle will make anyone pretty tipsy. The price ranges from 40 baht to 80 baht that is around 1 to 2 dollars Canadian at most restaurants. Water is 5 baht for a 1L container. Prices fluctuate everywhere its not a shock to walk just a few steps and find something half the price. My lunch today was fried noodle and beef from a restaurant on Khao Sand Road, it wasn't that great but I paid 65 baht for it. My Supper was beef and yellow noodle on a street stall a little ways from Khao Sand Road it was 20 baht and much much better then my lunch.

I think the strangest thing about my travels is the fundamentals of life in other countries. Overall in Asia there is little to no enforcement of the law, and so for some enforcement breaking has severe penalties. Still many laws are not in place. I have not seen a real DVD since I was in Canada. In the philippines you where asked if you wanted to buy DVD's. Elsewhere (Malaysia and Thailand) people openly sell and show pirated DVDs on the street. I've watched several at guest houses and restaurants. The DVDs come out within a day of the release of the movie. The quality is ok, however they also include English subtitles which are usually very bad, written by someone who seems to have very poor English. It seems the poorer the country the less the law matters. I never experienced the Philippines like I've experienced the rest of Asia but its definitely the poorest area I've travelled. In the Philippines I saw several signs that seemed to advertise that beer is good for driving (keeps you cool). Just now on Khao San Road I saw several things that surprised me (all within the watchful eye of the tourist police). One sign at a liquor cart said they didn't ID people and just next to that you could get fake ID (student and press ID). You would think that this lack of laws and enforcement would make it extremely dangerous to travel. I'm sure this is the case in some parts of the world but from what I can tell Asia is a very safe place. Of course I still consider things around me and protect my stuff as I know that if some wrong doing happens to me there is little I can do about it. Manila looked the most dangerous of all the places I've been and this for the most part could be attributed to the incredible poverty, overpopulation and lack of other white people (making me stand out). In Malaysia and Thailand white people don't stand out as much, and in many places there are tons of them. People are friendly, and often honest (I don't trust anyone that approaches me on the street to sell me something). Things are left very much in the open and look like they would be very easy to steal.

 

4 more days in Bangkok then I'm off to Ayutthaya.

Meeting People

Meeting people can be difficult at times. Especially when travelling in areas where white people don't frequent (less english speaking people to talk to). I usually meet people in dorm rooms or while travelling. I never imagined that I would meet so many Canadians and have been shocked again and again by where the people I live are from. Starting in the Philippines I found that only met locals while I was away from Lorena and Peter. The only time that happened was in Boracay when I went on walks by myself (I've been doing a lot of treking like this). Unfortunately few locals spoke enough english to make a conversation. In Malaysia I spent two days in a Dorm in KL before I had a good conversation with some one. This only occurred the night before I left when I first met a Girl from Argentina and talked for about 3 hours then later the next morning when I met the other girl in our dorm who was from Montreal Canada. Unfortunately like every person I've met relationships only last about one day. After KL I met a couple of people from Switzerland on the Bus to Jarantut. In Jarantut I met a guy from California in the dorm. I also gave some advice to someone just arriving. I met up with that same guy on the perhentian islands but only talked briefly with him. The first two days on the islands I was in a dorm with few people and only started meeting with people after two days there. This is where it got weird. First I met a girl on the beach from Calgary, then when scuba diving I met two girls from Calgary and about three others from different places in Europe. Then a few days later I met another girl from Calgary. I didn't have substantial conversations with any of these fellow Calgarians but was shocked by how many I met in like one day (4 out of 5 Canadians). The only people I talked with for a while where a couple of people in the dorms. Its so strange, you hardly know a person and yet you find you can talk to them for hours. I met one guy from the UK who had been travelling for about 7 months... mostly in Australia. Then I met an Architect from USA (I think it was Oregon) and I talked to her most of the day that I stayed because of food poisoning. Meeting people this way reminds me a lot of my third year in engineering where I met and got to know so many people in just one year. Only here its for just one day and have yet to give my contact information to anyone other then a local who wanted to talk to someone from Canada. On the train to Bangkok I met two Calgarians. Since being in Bangkok its been hard meeting up with people (I have a single room). Two times while walking on the street I met up with people, both were from Canada (totally a coincidence I'm not looking for Canadian flags) and one of them was from Calgary. So I guess my question is... Does anyone notice the lack of people in Calgary? Tomorrow I'm meeting up with a guy I met on the street that wants to visit Canada.

Arriving in Thailand

I just arrived in Bangkok

Thailand is completely different from Malaysia and the Philippines.

I'll post something soon.

Tentative travel plans for the rest of my trip are.
Thailand for three weeks
I'll spend a little time in Bangkok finalizing travel arrangements and catching some of the sites then make my way north to Chiang Mai. This may include dropping by Ayutthaya on the way. Chiang Mai is in a mountainous forresty region of Thailand and I've hard has a large concentration of buddhist monks. Around Chiang Mai is the golden triangle which is supposed to be really interesting. I've been going fairly slow and staying fairly long as each point as I go and in many ways I think this is better then forcing the trip and seeing a few more sites. By staying a week in one place you get a good idea what the place is all about. After Chian Mai I'll head back to Bangkok. I'm aiming at doing this in about a week in a half, leaving me about another week and a half before I have to extend my Thailand visa by re-entering the country. This I'll probably spend on a beach either one near Bangkok or one in southern Thailand (Krabi, Ko Phi Phi, or Ko Phangan). When my Thailand Visa expires I'll fly to either Vietnam or Auckland, New Zealand.

New Zealand or Vietnam for 2 weeks
This is going to be a hard choice to make. I have an aunt and uncle and two cousins in New Zealand. The trip will cost about 1000 dollars more then Vietnam but will still be less then if I flew from Canada. I may go to new Zealand on another trip but I'm not certain when that would be.
I've been told by a lot of people that Vietnam is a really great place to visit. I'd either go to Vietnam by plane or bus through Cambodia. I think two weeks is just enough for Vietnam and may be rushing it a little. I think it may be better to save it for another trip with Australia, Indonesia, Laos, Cambodia, and China (all of which I've heard are excellent). Then again it might be better to save New Zealand for another trip.

EDIT: I've decided to go to New Zealand, because I overbudgeted my trip here I have the extra money required to go and its somewhere I always wanted to visit. Its unforunite its winter there but a good stepping stone for getting use to the 10 to 15 degree weather I'm expecting in Calgary. Vietnam will have to wait. This only leaves me with about 23 days in Thailand. It would be hard if not impossible to change my return ticket from Bangkok so I'm going back to Bangkok before heading to Calgary. That means I'll be spending 2 days travelling. Auckland to Hong Kong (12hrs w/ 1 hour layover) Hong Kong to Bangkok (3hrs w/8 hour layover) Bangkok to Taipei (3hrs w/ 1 hour layover) Taipei to Vancouver (12.5 hrs w/ 5 hour layover) Vancouver to Calgary (1 hr). I leave Auckland noon on July 16 and arrive in Calgary late afternoon July 17.

Week 3 and 4 Malaysia

I spent a night by myself in Manila before going to Malaysia. It was ok, but uneventful. I didn’t like walking around Manila much. It’s a very dirty city with no side walks and little to do if you only have one night by yourself. I got a taxi to the airport, he over charged me but I wasn’t in the mood to argue. The plane ride was about 3 hours long when I landed in Kuala Lumpur I could already see a huge difference. First the airport was far nicer then any of Manilas three airports (of which I had the pleasure of visiting). Secondly while we were landing I noticed street lights something I hadn’t seen much of in the Philippines. I got ripped off again by the taxi ride from the airport, next time I arrive at an airport I’ll be going outside and find a bus or a metered taxi anything but the absurd airport taxis that cater to people that think in American dollars and not Malaysia Ringets. Needless to say the ringet is close to a quarter what an American dollar is and I paid about 4 times what I should have.

I guess now is as good as time as any to talk about the roads. When in the Philippines I thought the road system was going to be pretty standard thoughout Asia. I was wrong Kuala Lumpur (KL) has some of the best roads I have ever seen. There is far less congestion, and far more rules of the road, I even saw my first speed limit.

In the Philippines especially in Manila the roads are filled with trikes and Jeepneys. A Jeepney is sorta like a long jeep. I have a few pictures but can’t upload them right now so I’ll just direct you to a google image search. A trike is just a bike with an attached side car. Theres also taxis and huge buses. The rest of the cars are either trucks or assorted grocery vehicles or very nice cars. Its strange to see such a wide variety of run down commercial vehicles with so many very nice private cars. Equally shocking considering the lack of lane markings and rules of the road is the lack of dents and scratches on cars. Manila was mostly gridlock, from all I could tell the government is constantly making a futile attempt to make roads to match the traffic. They refrain from making any rules or sign postings to regulate this traffic. In a few places there are traffic lights or people directing traffic but for all extensive purposes no one enforces these forms of traffic control. Walking across busy lanes of traffic is the only way to get anywhere. Its likely this won’t change anywhere in Asia. Crosswalks are apparently a north American phenomena. I’m surprised to see some sidewalks painted on the road but not shocked to see no one pay any attention to them. Once you get use to vehicles constantly zipping by you it becomes fairly easy to cross roads.

Kuala Lumpur has one of the most efficient transit systems I have ever seen. It consists of buses, trains, monorail, and subway. There is very little congestion and the roads are in extremely good condition and in many places even have sidewalks. There are forms of traffic control but just like in Manila little enforcement. Lately I’ve been surprised to see traffic cops… mostly for double parked cars. Seeing police is a very rare site.

Malaysia is far more developed then the Philippines. It also seems to have far less poverty. There are slums, shakes and beggers everywhere in the Philippines. In Malaysia I haven’t seen a shanty town, and haven’t seen many beggers (about as much as downtown Calgary). There aren’t many security guards and many places are placed or have rules that would allow a thief easy access to stealing things. From what I can tell despite the lack of police and security there is little crime here.

Upon landing in Kuala Lumpur and getting a ride in the taxi to my hostel I took a walk around got something to eat and went to bed as it was already fairly late. Unfortunately because I arrived so late there was no space in the dorms so I had a single room. The next night I spent in a dorm. Its far easier to meet people in dorms especially others like myself traveling alone. There were so many backpackers at the hostel and hostels close by. It was fairly surprising to see so many, especially after the Philippines where I saw very few white people. It was nice to be able to walk the streets without people constantly staring at you. I spent two full days in Kuala Lumpur. The first day I walked over to some museums and sites close to my hostel. It was nice walking and just getting an idea of the city. A few places were closed because it was a holiday. The following day I took the Subway to Kuala Lumpur City Center (KLCC), which as the twin towers that KL is famous for. I went early so I could get a free ticket to the sky bridge. The twin towers were very impressive. They had a very informative center at the base and despite not being able to go to the top of the towers I’d rate the twin towers over Taipei 101. I spent the day exploring KLCC and the mall that is underneath the twin towers. The mall is one of the biggest in Asia and had an impressive collection of nice stores. It was fairly expensive, comparable to West Edmonton mall. Still I had no problem in shelling out 10 ringet to see Star Wars Episode 3. Its hard to get a baring on how much things should cost but I’ve found that the easiest way to figure it out is by finding out how much a pop from a pop machine costs. In Malaysia that’s 1.5 ringet but for all extensive purposed 1 ringet has the buying power of 1 canadian dollar. This helps control spending. Some areas that cater to western people are far more expensive (3 to 4 times there actual cost to natives). Its easier to avoid these areas if you know what the value of the local currency actual is.

After KL I went to Taman Negara, Malaysia’s largest national park. The place I was staying in KL was next to a large bus station. I asked one of the ticket booths if I could get to Taman Negara or Jarantut its gateway city. She told me no and that it was at another bus terminal I asked which one… didn’t recognize the name so asked if it was the other one listed in my guide book and she said yes. I wasn’t completely confident in the answer as there was an apparent communication problem between us so I checked it with the manager at my hostel. I took the subway to where this bus terminal was then asked someone for directions. I was led to a train station… a little confused I made a futile attempt to explain bus not train. I noticed a nearby hotel and went in to ask someone who pointed out where the BUS terminal was. When I finally arrived I asked if I could get to Taman Negara and the attendant said no other bus terminal (ARGH). So I asked her to point it out on my map. I think she was confused it was likely that she didn’t speak English but she got someone to help me and after some difficulty I was shown where the bus terminal was. Luckily it was just a 15 minute walk away. I arrived at the bus station and was directed to one of the 5 ticket booths where I was told I could get a ticket to Taman Negara. I found a few white people there and asked them where they were going. They told me it was Taman Negara and the bus was boarding. I quickly got my ticket (which was pretty cheap, at just 10 ringet). I talked to the two Switzerland guys who told me that they came the day before to find that the bus was booked up. I was very lucky not only to find a bus that had a seat, but also a bus that was to leave in a couple minutes. I would have otherwise have had to wait three hours for the next bus.

I spent two days in Taman Negara. I met an American in the dorm there (the first person I’ve met whose first language is English). Its interesting and helpful talking to other backpackers as they often have similar experiences to share. It makes me feel good to know that I’m not the only one that has problems communicating with locals and getting places. I spent the two days in Taman Negara mostly hiking on the trails. It can be challenging walking trails in a rainforest because of the heat and humidity (my glasses were constantly fogging up and I was always soaked in sweat). There was very little wild life to be seen. The most interesting part was the long walking canopy they had which was several hundred meters long and dangled over 10m above the ground surface.

From Taman Negara I took boat and bus to Jarantut where I stayed until I could catch the 3:30am train to Kota Bharu a city on the north end of the Malaysia Peninsula. The train was 1 hour late I was the only white person on board and the women next to me had three children. The seats were made for people far shorter then myself and despite all this I slept for most of the 7 hours train ride. I was a little worried that I wouldn’t figure out when to get off. While the stations had signs, I was faced the wrong direction and it was difficult to see the signs. The train only stopped for a few minutes and because of several delays I had no concept of when to get off. Thankfully I had purchased a Malaysia map in KL and could figure out where I was after several stations. I got to Kota Bharu in one piece and have since been walking around the city exploring. Tomorrow I plan on heading to the perhentian islands where I plan on relaxing a little and enjoying the beach.

I’m starting to get a little home sick. I feel so foreign. It gives me some bearing on how people that immigrate to Canada must feel. While I have been meeting lots of people relationships only last the day or so you spend in the same place. People are fairly helpful and by asking questions you can usually figure things out. Even so its always a little stressful riding with a taxi driver that doesn’t speak English, going on trains where you aren’t sure where your stop is or walking around a city that has no street signs. I calm myself by assuring myself that even if I end up where I’m not meant to be I could find my way back or eventually find someone that speaks enough English to help. This is indeed true and has prevented me from panicking in situations others might find impossible. It still leads to an overall sensation of always being out of place, something that will take more than a couple weeks to get use to.

First Impressions of Malaysia

I'm going to make this short because I just got here and I want to sleep soon.

Kuala Lumpur is completely different from the Philippines.

Week 2 Palawan

Palawan is one of the most beautiful places I’ve been in the Philippines. Upon landing in Puerto Princesa we went to Lorenas friends place (the ones that we stayed with in Manila). Their house in Puerto Princesa is not as nice or as new as their Manila house but in many ways much better. First its lived in so theres things on the walls and secondly Puerto Princesa is a much nicer city then Manila. I learned a few more things about the family (The Castros). They’re main business is a series of pawnshops about 125 over the whole Philippines they also own a mango plantation and a resort that we visited in el nedo.

Puerto Princesa is around 100,000, its far cleaner then Manila and the atmosphere far less chaotic. Outside of Puerto Princesa and throughout most of Palawan there are beautiful rainforests with a wide variety of plant and wildlife. We visited a salt-water crocodile farm and the Castros plantation the first day. At the crocodile farm (which is more of a zoo then just a crocodile farm) we explored by ourselves (practically no on there). If we cared to we could have gone into any of the cages, there were no locks. I think I enjoyed the monkeys the most. They didn’t seem well fed and were eager to snatch leaves we gave them (see pictures). Most of the animals at the “zoo” were captured by poachers. The plantation that we went to after the crocodile farm was a real treat. As its summer most of the fruit is in season here and there is a lot of fruit. Fresh coconut is nothing like what you get in Canada! My favourites so far have been calmance (a small lime) and mangos. There are so many Mangos! I have no idea how a country so small could have so much of one fruit. Needless to say I’ve had my share of mangos. I think I average at 4 a day.

The next day we went to the underground river. The river is the longest underground river in the world. It was really impressive! It stretches almost 5 km underneath mountainous terrain. The tour went 2 km. I can’t even speculate at how high the tallest areas were but from what it looked like the mountains covering this underground lake were only shells. After the tour we had lunch in a picnic area close by. There were tons of dragon lizards and monkeys who’s obvious food source were tourist lunches. The lizards were over a meter long and there were over two-dozen monkeys running around. One monkey somehow got a mirror. He’d frequently pause and reflect on himself, making sure he was groomed for the pictures we took of him.

The following four days were spent in El Nedo. Its located about 250km north of Puerto Princesa. Half that distance is paved the other half wasn’t. It made for an extremely bumpy ride. Worse yet was for whatever reason they are currently in the process of constructing about 30 bridges all at the same time along that road. On the way back it rained hard and the road was extremely muddy. El Nedo is a tiny town in the middle of nowhere. It only has power 12 hours of the day and no running water. We spent two days in El Nedo island hoping. Unfortunately due to a cold and bad sunburn I only went one day but it was very fun. Snorkelling was really neat. I saw all the fish except the turtle and whale from Finding Nemo. The terrain in El Nedo is wickedly beautiful. Huge heavily vegetated shear cliffs everywhere.
I’m spending my last day in Puerto Princesa relaxing and uploading photos. Todays the last day with Lorena and Peter the rest of my trip will be on my own (unless I meet my uncle near the end). I’m looking forward to the adventure. One day in Manila, then off to Kuala Lumpur. I’ve read in my Let’s go book that theres a couple of hostels next to the bus station in Kuala Lumpur. That’s where I’ll start. I’ll explore the city then go north to a national park, then farther north and explore some of the coastal islands. Hopefully I’ll meet a few people with advice of what to do because as of right now that’s all I have. I’m sure it will be fun… I’ll post later.

Lots of Trikes

mmm Beaches

Crazy Borokay Sunsets

Manila Market (GreenHills)

inside of house

house in Manila

mmm more sea food (not much for the heads)

tallest building in the world Taipai 101

why do I need a title for every picture?

more pictures

Pictures from Lorenas camera

Pictures

I'm uploading pictures to my uncles ftp account, he setup for me, as we speak. He's looking at getting read only access for people who want to look at the pictures and will probably post the directions to logon and retrieve the images or I will later. For the time being I'll post a few images on this blog.

Week 1 Manila and Boracay

I must say the response to my first blog is amazing. Maintaining the level of detail I placed in that first post is going to be very daunting. Since entering Manila the trip has been anything but an adventure. Its been more of a vacation. Lorenas family and friends have been very hospitable to the three of us. We haven’t spent a dime in Manila. Friends of Lorenas family have a house in Manila for there kids who usually attend school here. Their main house is in Palawan an island we will be going to tomorrow. Besides letting us use there house they’ve given us the services of there maid who cook us meals and a driver who has driven us anywhere we want to go. People here are use to it but I’m not. Its like being famous. Everyone is serving you and everywhere you go they look at you because you’re the only white guy and are twice as tall as the average person. We stand out everywhere. It has its blessings and curses. Everyone treats us like we’re the richest people on earth, security at airports, malls, and everywhere else (they have a security people at EVERY entrance) hardly look at us. Unfortunately at markets and tourist hot spots this means every vendor wants us to buy from them. This was especially prevalent in Boracay the tourist hot spot of the Philippines. Ever minute we’d get a jet ski ma’am/sir, Rolax ma’am/sir, sunglasses ma’am/sir, ride ma’am/sir…. Its amazing how real counterfeit goods look. 20 dollars for a Rolex really does look like a bargain.

Manila is grubby, has high pollution and the traffic is amazing. I’ll leave explaining the traffic in a later post (because it needs that level of detail). Manila is nothing really special. Most of it looks far worse than the worst parts of Calgary. Its so strange to see a combination of very rich people and very poor people in a very grubby setting. Because we were driven around most of the time I really never had an idea where we were in the city. My favorite parts of our stay here has been our current accommodations (with Lorenas friends), our one day visit to a golf and country club with a friend of Lorena’s mom, and our picnic and dinner with Lorenas Aunt and Uncle. The malls which I’ve heard so much about are nothing great. Most of the ones we’ve gone to are for the rich in Manila which means nothing is at great value. We did visit Green Hills which is a market like I’ve never seen before. Hundreds of vendors all selling counterfeit goods at unbelievably low prices. Some parts of Manila are really beautiful. This includes a mall we visited last night which has a beautiful food court and where we had dinner with Lorenas uncle who owns a club in a richer part of Manila. The dinner was in a super trendy and expensive bar. But it was their opening night and an open bar.

Lorenas uncle was very nice and also took us on a picnic with his family. I must say I’m getting use to this Filipino food. The only thing that continues to surprise me is that they seem to eat the head of almost anything. In Canada the heads are always chopped off. It seems in the Philippines you always eat the head. I’ll try everything once! For the record I like squid head but not shrimp heads and I haven’t had a fish head yet. Its really best not to know what it is such as the pig blood I had for lunch. It tasted good but I could only have a little of it because I thought about it to much.

On our second day here a friend of Lorenas moms (none of us had met her before) invited us to go to what I’m sure is one of the nicest golf and country clubs in town. While none of us have any idea what her or her husband does for a living its pretty obvious they are well off. She told us that her and her daughter go to the golf and country club (called wok woks) everyday. We enjoyed a nice swim in a large pool by ourselves as the place was pretty empty mid week. We then had a one hour full body message. I haven’t had a message before and this was definitely an experience. We finished the day off with dinner. These sort of days remind me of you guys back in Calgary and Red Deer. Every time we are really enjoying ourselves we look at our watches and confirm that people in Calgary are working and it makes it that much more fun. I heard it snowed in Calgary yesterday!

We just got back from Boracay the tourist island of the Philippines. Boracay felt really safe. I think this was because the locals really milk the tourists for as much money as possible. Everything had an international and a local rate and for many things it was obvious that they had huge mark ups. We spent four days in Boracay the highlights were the beautiful white beaches and blue water, the sea food, and the walks I went on. For an island that is supposedly a party island I was surprised to find that restaurants were never full (always at least half empty), and things closed down at 10 to 11 at night. Its hard to get use to darkness at 6pm and always finding it much warmer outside then inside. Despite being peak tourist season in Boracay there were very few Caucasians, and it never felt crowded (like in the super super busy stores in Manila). The water was very clean but the sand had a fair bit of garbage on it… especially smoke butts. There was hundreds of palm trees. The vegetation, and sunsets were amazing.

Lorena and Peter weren’t much for walks but I took the time to go on a few long ones. I had several conversations with locals who felt a lot more comfortable approaching someone that was walking off the beaten path alone (once again I remind you that Boracay felt a lot safer than Manila I don’t think I was every in danger). Unfortunately because of the language barrier these conversations didn’t amount to much more than where are you from, where are you going, what is your name, how do you like it here. Still I felt that I learnt more about how it is to live in the Philippines with just a few of these conversations then 2 months of being paraded around by a driver could ever make you feel. Its amazing how little these people had. Still I’d love to be in there shoes for just a month to feel it. Its hard to understand what it would be like, but I think you can get happiness from a lot of sources and money is only one of many sources. I’d like to go into more detail about how I was humbled by the experience but the truth is I haven’t strayed far enough from the tourist path to be humbled by my experiences. This is one of the reasons why I look forward to breaking away from Peter and Lorena.

Most of this trip so far has been planned by Lorena and while its been nice, its also been difficult making sure everyone is happy all the time. At times its been a struggle to find a happy medium between the three of us and for the most part I’ve given up and just followed what Lorena and Peter wanted to do. The alternative, doing it alone, would probably not be as fun, as Lorena’s family and friends have been great hosts for us. Plus, I’ll have plenty of time to do it a lone and despite a few conflicts traveling as I have been is very relaxing (far more than finding your way by yourself).

The next part of my trip is a week in palawan then its one day by myself in Manila and then off to Kuala Lumpur to start the real adventure. Please feel free to ask me questions in the comments section of this post. I’ve missed a lot of details that I’d be glad to expand on if anyone is interested. Its far easier to answer questions then try to remember a week worth of activities.

Enjoying myself. No time to surf the internet.

I haven't had a lot of time to write and even now I only have a mater of minutes until I need to get off this internet. Its so hot here 35C or hotter but its really beautiful. I'm currently in boracay enjoying the fine sands and warm water. Its price is about double anywhere else in the philippines because its as resorty as Banff (just a whole lot hotter). Anyways times up so I'm going to go to the beach and read. I'll post another blog when I have time (or rather surf internet then enjoying paradise).

Travel and Arrival

I just arrived at Lorena's mom's friends' place. I have just spent two days traveling half way around the world. We had a 4 and half hour layover in Vancouver. I was really tired because I haven't really slept that well before we left (trying to start adjusting early for the jet leg). Vancouver was really nice, especially compared to Calgary’s -10C.

From Vancouver we took a 12.5 hour flight on China Airlines to Taipei. It was a good introduction to being in a world that doesn't speak english because most of the passengers were from China. Although China airlines mainly catered to Chinese languages they always had things spoken and written in English. In Vancouver we went to the China Airlines desk and asked if we could change our tickets to an exit seat so we could have more leg room. They were really nice and took the time to change our seats and double check our baggage receipts (that is Lorenas and Peters bag tickets because I didn't have to check my bag). It was really nice having the exit seats because it was five times the foot space and we could get up and stretch every so often (not to mention lay back in our seats and put our legs out). It was also right in front of the washroom, this proved to be relatively interesting as we saw countless people try to figure out how to open the door to the washroom. Its also interesting to note that 5 people used the bathroom 90% of the time (I think if my mom was on the flight she'd be one of them). The food and movies were really good, but it was really hard to sleep even with the extra leg room. Still 12 and a half hours went by a lot faster sitting in one seat than I would ever imagine.

Because the flight was going West we followed the sun the whole trip (daylight for 22 hours). We got to Taipei at 3:30pm. China airlines had arranged free accommodations for the night and a bus was waiting for us at the airport. It was interesting walking from the plane because there was a large group of photographers, media and police. From what it looked like there was someone important coming to the city. When we departed today everything was taken down. Both at the airport and throughout the city I noticed that the police always had there lights on and that many cars also had red and blue lights and a few had horns that sounded like sirens. If this was going to be my only vacation outside of America I would have paid 2100 dollars just for the bus ride from the airport to our hotel. Taipei has two airports. One is near the center of the city the other is close to an hour away from the city. We landed in the one far from the city and our hotel was half way between the airport and Taipei. I knew that Taipei would be different from Canada in a lot of ways but I was still amazed by how much. Its impossible for me to explain what it looked like (when I have more time I'll try uploading a picture). The vegetation was unbelievable, if theres dirt there were plants. It makes sense why there is so many people living in Asia. Even the most run down garbage stricken building was absolutely beautiful.

Maybe it was because of the lack of sleep or the high humidity but everything had so much more to it than in Calgary. What I mean is that every where you look it is like looking at a beautiful painting with an extreme level of detail. Something you could look at for days to absorb all the details. It reminds me of something my mom likes doing and that’s going to the mall and just watching people interact, only here its not only people that are interesting but its also the buildings and trees. If I could I would have loved to walk to the hotel and look at everything on the way, but it would have taken me months!

The hotel was stunning and I am confident it will be the nicest hotel I stay at on this trip. Its actually a golf resort which includes an amazingly beautiful golf course designed by Jack Nicholas. When we got in we checked ourselves into our rooms, took a shower (which felt really good after traveling for 18 hours) and went for the complimentary supper. When we sat down to eat the first thing they gave us was glasses of ice water. It seems so odd to be worried about the water and hard to deny it when you’re so thirsty. Equally hard is trying to ask for bottled water when the server knows little English and doesn’t expect the question. We asked them if it was boiled or purified and after asking a couple other servers to confirm the first answer we were pretty satisfied it was safe. I think that being served questionable water is going to be fairly common. In Manila we had a similar circumstance where we were served pop with ice cubes which we confirmed were made from purified water. I don’t think I can nor do I always want to worry a great deal about water in places that look sanitized and that have lots of people drinking the water. Personally if the locals are doing it (and aren’t dieing on mass) I think there is some merit that I won’t get deathly sick from doing it. When I do get sick, as I have been assured by many I will, my outlook on this may change (I’ll keep you informed).

Me and Peter had decided before that no matter how tired we were we wanted to go into Taipei and see the tallest building in the world (Taipei 101). So after dinner we talked to one of the hotel staff about getting into Taipei. It was 6:30 by this time and already dark. Our taxi driver hardly spoke a word of English but got us to the tower (it cost about 800 Taiwanese dollars, the exchange rate is about 25 to 1). After a somewhat difficult conversation we were able to arrange with an extreme amount of doubt that he would wait for us for three hours and drive us back home for an additional 1000 dollars (we didn’t pay until we got back to the hotel). The elevator to the top of the tower cost 350 dollars. The elevator up to the observation deck is the fastest elevator in the world and it only took a few seconds to get up (my ears popped far more than when we flew). Of course all I could think of as we went up was that they had to get one of these in the F block of Engineering. This one took less time to do 85 stories than that one takes to do one story. In the observation deck we grabbed some audio tour equipment. To borrow the equipment you need to give some form of ID or 1000 dollars. I gave my ISIC card which I could care less about losing but I noticed that most people gave their passport (which seems fairly crazy if it could be avoided). The tour was fairly pointless when it was pitch black outside. We could see the second airport I mentioned before was located next to Taipei 101 in the middle of the city, but other then seeing a few planes land and looking out to a seemingly endless city the view was pretty boring in the dark. Taipei 101 also hosts the largest and one of the only publicly viewable dampers. If only there was a structural engineer there to explain things for me and Peter. We decided to go right back home after about an hour of looking around. The whole trip cost us about 50 Canadian each, and while the tallest building in the world is a must see for a structural engineer the trip would have been 100 times better if they gave us a detailed structural overview of the building design. Maybe I should phone ahead so that they have it on hand when I got to Kuala Lumpur to see the second tallest building.

Our trip from Taipei to Manila was short and painless. Things I had been warned about before hand were no where to be seen. Going through customs was extremely easy. At the security check point in Calgary I set off the metal detector and had to run my money built through the x-ray machine, then I had to open my bag to identify a package they were concerned about which happened to be my camera. In Vancouver I set off the metal detector and had to explain to the security personal what an object was on the X-ray machine (my lock). In Taipei the metal detector didn’t go off and no questions were asked. Neither Taipei or Manila had swarms of people asking us to buy stuff, the airports were not crowded nor were there many police (except when we entered Taipei).

A great way of getting rid of foreign currency before going to a new destination is to buy a pop at a vending machine while waiting for a plane, then walking around the terminal enticing other people to buy soft drinks then waiting by the pop machine and exchanging American dollars for local currency that works in the vending machine. We got rid of all our extra Taiwanese dollars at a favorable exchange rate.

I’m so glad I didn’t have to check my bag on the plane. I doubt I will have to check it on this trip (unless I get so much I have to take back both bags I have full). Unlike Lorena and Peter I always had everything I had at my disposal and if it hadn’t been for them I would have saved about half an hour waiting for my baggage.

Just writing this makes me realize how much I have actually seen and done that I would like to remember. I think tomorrow I’ll buy a journal so that I can record while moving rather then having to sit in front of a computer and think of things that happened within the last 7 days. Its now nearly 11pm and while I feel that I’m hardly going to have any jet lag 11pm seems very late (9am Calgary time). So I’m going to call it a night and continue on about Manila another day.

On my way

My flight leaves tomorrow morning. I will be in Manila Philippines on May 4 at 9:55am local time.

Here are some links
http://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/
5day.shtml?world=2387&links
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/destinations/
south_east_asia/manila/index.htm
http://www.manilaview.com/

Links

Some useful links I've been using to find out more about what I'm going to do on this trip.

http://www.travelindependent.info/
http://pleth.tripod.com/
http://www.lonelyplanet.com/

Theres so much to read and so little time before I go. I think I'm going to have to wing it for the most part (Figure things out as I go). I bought a camera today. Its much cheaper than the one I currently have and also much smaller. Going to be a lot easier to carry around and use!

I'm not sure how often I'll be updating this blog... I guess it depends on how much I want to write about my trip and how many people want to read it. It would be great if you could let me know if you read these posts so I have some idea of how many people are taking a look and care if I keep it updated. I better get back to studying for my last 3 exams. I'm leaving on May2nd at 6:30am, have a 1.5 hour flight and a 4.5 hour layover in Vancouver, then I have a 12.5 hour flight to Taipei (arrive on May4th at 3:00pm), Staying in Taipei for the night then flying into Manila in the morning (2 hour flight).

The jet lag is going to be pretty bad and I plan on preparing a little by changing my sleeping patterns the few days before the trip. The time difference is +14 hours.

Travel Plans

I've been considering my routes and although these may change this is where I plan on going. I'll start in the Philippines where I'll spend 2 and a half weeks either with friends or by myself exploring the islands. From here I'll fly into either Kuala Lumpur or Singapore whichever is cheaper. Then travel north. I'm definitely spending time in Malaysia and Thailand and have yet to decide on Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. I'll likely make it to Bangkok and decide there as I can get most of my needed visa's there. On my way home from Bangkok I'm going to do a 4 day stop over in Tokyo.

Trip

I'm going on a trip!

Starting around May the 5th I'll be heading to the Philippienes then traveling around south east asia. I plan on visiting Malaysia, Thailand and considering going to Cambodia, Vietnam and Tokyo. I'll be gone for 2 and a half months.

Although I don't have a lot of time to put a detailed explanation of what I plan on doing (nor do I actually know) I plan on posting updates as things develop, and while I'm travelling (as long as I can find internet cafe's). As far as preparation goes lets just say I've sorta waited to long to decide to go and am now doing everything at the worse possible time, in the middle of final exams (don't tell my parents that its a distraction). Besides school work I'm currently working on purchasing tickets, getting vaccinations, buying things I need for the trip and convincing my parents I'm going to be ok (the later of which I'm doing horrible at).

A lot of people have asked why I'm doing this. A backpacking trip in which I'll basically be roughing it for 2 months and spending most of the time figuring out how to get from point A to point B and what visa's I need on the way. (What sort of vacation is that anyways?)

This is not really a vacation as much as a learning experience. This trip will be a great opprtunity to learn more about the world and more importantly more about me. While its not something I've planned for years its something I feel is a neccesity given the oppurtunity. As an aside there seems to be a great deal of people that love doing the international backpacking thing, I've found tons of sources for information and frankly I find the concept interesting and higly appealing. Lets just say its a whole lot more fun researching Thailand then researching the constructability of masonry structures.

hello