Last day in Delhi

Yesterday we went to the train museum and a planetarium. An indian astronaut has been in space as part of a joint USSR India mission. Though the planetarium show was an intro to our solar system 101.

Today we went to an american diner style restaurant for brunch, then walked around in a nice park, checked out a couple tea stores and are now waiting to take a taxi to the airport.

Actually I am supposed to be online to double check the flight times. I should get on that soon :)

typhoid or a flu

I've been sick the last couple days.

I had a fever and a cough. I looked it up in our guide book and narrowed it down to either a bit of a flu or typhoid. Probably just the flu. The lonely planet also said that 25% of visitors to India get some sort of respitory illness from their visit - so I am just that lucky.

Anyway I'm feeling much better now, though my body gave me a couple cold sores as souveniers. So thanks to that I am temporarily less good looking :)

I don't know why, but the touts in Jaipur were super aggressive. After a couple were getting a bit -lacivious- I had to become a bit -vociferous-. But it didn't count as a melt down.

But today we took a bus to Delhi and so far it has been pretty good. Broad sidewalks, grassy medians, tuktuks with meters and the tout possee here so far has been pretty laid back.

We are both pretty much "done" with India. After travelling for the last 2 and a half months, the heat and the layer of tout harrassment we get - we are out of energy to really engage or sightsee much for the last few days here. Plus it's raining.

We have met alot of great and interesting Indians while here though.

The first guy we met was Raj, an NRI (non resident indian) living out of london who gave us a free cab ride and shared with us his thoughts on India and the (communist) west bengal govt of Kolkata.

We met a few boys on our first train trip to Veranasi. There was a group of 4 of them sitting on our bunk area. One boy was moving across the country, closer to Kashmir, as his father was in the military and was being transferred. The three other boys were just hanging out to say goodbye. After they left we talked a couple times to the boy who was moving up north.

In our bunk appeared 3 coworkers who worked for the railways. One guy was a real talker and he kept talking and talking to us - you could see his co-workers feeling a bit uncomfortable. One of the co-workers also worked as a spiritual advisor to people designing their homes to maximize the energy flows by, among other things, keeping rooms aligned to magnetic north in one direction and the rotation of the earth in the other direction. The real talker didn't really buy his friends consultancy business so it ended up being a heated discussion.

Just before arriving to Veranasi the train was filled by boys on their way to school in Veranasi. There we were surrounded by about 10 boys in our area. It was cramped at first but we had some good conversations, especially with one charmer named VeeJay who said he was dating about 50% of the girls in his class.

On a trip to Abu Rd Station we met three business people (one man who owns a cotton seed oil refinery) and talked to them about indian culture (drinking vs non drinking) and religion (jainism vs hinduism) and feminism (indian vs western families).

On a bus trip to Udaipur we met the son of a brigadier doctor and had some good conversations about India vs China, nuclear power and religion (Hinduism vs Sikkism).

On the train trip to Jaipur we met a retired man, his wife and the mother in law of his son who were also travelling around India. They were from the south and they had one daughter and one son working in IT in Canada. I tried to make a joke to ask who was making the father in law's dosas while they were travelling. The answer: "the cook". Doh.

So travelling on public transit has been quite rewarding. You get time to spend with people that have at least a little in common with you (they are going the same way).

in Bombay Today

Kim and I are now in Bombay. Bombay is the Bollywood capital of India so we had to go see a Bollywood movie.

The movie we saw was called Singh is Kinng. We really enjoyed it even though it was all in Hindi with a couple English words thrown in.

From what we could tell, a village idiot like an inspector Clouseau or a Mr Magoo accidentally becomes the gangster boss, helps out an old lady who, as it turns out happens to be the mother of a girl he fell in love with, teaches the real gangster some lessons about his friends, and they get married in the end.

The production values were really good with scenes shot in India, Egypt and Australia. Some water stunts, car chases, music choreography and a Snoop Dogg cameo were more than we expected.

Tomorrow we are heading up north to Rajasthan which is supposed to be one of the most beautiful areas in India.

Agra and the Taj

So we did get to Agra eventually. We had a little bump getting accommodation because the first place we went to wanted 600 rupees, which is a bit high - but they wouldn't go down any. Fortunately the place next door had equivalent rooms and offered them for 400 rupees without any negotiation required.

Sometimes we are pretty good at negotiating prices. At one place the owner jokingly waved his finger at us and said that we were not Canadian/American but Indian. Especially Kim. Kim is more Indian than me. I tend to give in earlier than she does.

After a bit of lunch we headed straight to the Taj. It's really impressive. By impressive I really mean impactful. When you first see it, it causes a bit of a emotional pause - a little wow. Then you forget about it as you get close and check it out. But then when you look back at it again, you get that same little wow.

sahaja yoga

So our train wasn't actually 5 hours late. It ended up being 8.5 hours late. "That's India"

On our first day in India we met a English guy - but Indian by birth - named Raj who really liked to use the phrase "that's India" for things. For example, In Calcutta the metro line doesn't start running until 2pm. I asked him why? And his answer was "That's India". So the 8 hour late train didn't really phase anyone.

But while waiting we (mostly Kim) were approached by a religious group who had just attended a conference and offered to give Kim some Mandi/Henna tattoo. While Kim was getting a tattoo their leader explained to me their beliefs. The details are on their website at www.sahajayoga.com. The gist is that there are 7 energy centres in our body and that cosmic rays come down through these energy centres and break off in a prismatic way to charge the other centres. To reach enlightenment you need to remove the barriers to and within these energy centres. The sacrum is the most sacred of the centres and represents innocence and is/was the most pure at birth.

The cosmic rays are not necessarily cosmic rays, but because the highest known energy is cosmic, they call them cosmic rays.

It was an interesting discussion. They were going to teach us sahaja meditation if they could find a dark and quiet room but the could not. Which is ok by us anyway - I'm not the type to go or let Kim go into a dark and quiet room with strangers.

in a dusty internet cafe

The train to Agra - where the Taj Mahal is - is 5 hours late. So Kim and I are in a tiny dusty internet cafe near the trainstation in Gorakhpur. The room is the size of a wide hallway decorated with a Hindu poster, a small Hindu shrine.

Of the Hindu characters we both like Ganesh. The one that looks like an elephant. Ganesh used to have a human head, but there was a misunderstanding: Ganesh's father went on a trip and when he got back he did not realize that the man sleeping in his wife's bed was his more grown up son, so he took his son's head off. After realizing his mistake he put the nearest head he could find back on his son's body.

But since very Hindu Vernanasi, we have been visiting Buddhist sites.

First, near Veranasi is a relaxing place called Sarnath which is where Buddha gave his first sermon. Hence they call it the "birthplace of Buddhism". There are buddhist ruins there that marked the spot. It is also a very nice place to hang out, away from the Veranasi crush.

Second, further away - a 4 hour train trip and 2 hour taxi - is Karnath which is where Buddha died. There is a stupa marking where he was cremated and a famous 'resting buddha' statue that was recovered. Also there are Thai, Cambodian, Sri Lanka, Japanese and Vietnemese temples and monasteries there.

Kim and I stayed in the Vietnemese (buddist) monastery.

This is the first time either of us has stayed in a monastery, so we weren't sure if there were any rules or expected behaviours. A monk first showed us to the Buddha shrine, we took our shoes off - but didn't do much else. He then asked if we were looking for a place to stay and we said yes. Then a guy showed us our room and said it would be 300 rupees.

Unfortunately there was a power outage which meant that we had to go to bed at 6:30pm. I slept well and had lots of crazy dreams. In the morning we were woken up around 6ish by little monk boys quietly chanting and ringing a bell while walking clockwise around a statue outside of our window.

So we've seen two of the four Buddhist pilgrimage sites: Sarnath and Karnath. The other two are: Bodhgaya which is further east and is difficult to access because of the flooding from Nepal; and Lumbini which is in Nepal.

We briefly considered going to Nepal to check out Lumbini and Kathmandu, but the timing was tight because of the time we have and because Kim's Indian visa was single entry so we would have to apply and get another one from Nepal.

But we do think we have time to go to Bombay. Which is meaningful to me because of Gonzo in the first Muppet Movie.

in Varanasi now

We took the overnight train and arrived in Varanasi this morning. It's still hot here. As hot as Calcutta.

We are staying in the old city. The old city is like the medinas of Morocco (e.g. Fes) or Jerusalem, where all the buildings are connected along winding paths up and down through the city. We have also heard the Muslim call to prayer being played, so that is also reminiscent of those other old cities.

The other attribute of these types of cities is that we always get lost in them. Touts use this to help "guide" us to our hotel - by guide I mean walk in front of us and try to get into the hotel before us to claim a commission.

Today we visited the main burning ghat where bodies get cremated and their ashes put into the Ganges river. There were about 4 bodies being burned and we could see a queue of 3 or 4 bodies waiting to go up there. I also found out today that by the burning ghat is a building of people waiting to die --- so this addresses my earlier question about whether or not Hindus want to die or just be cremated in Varanasi - I think the answer is both.

Regarding the burnings, I couldn't see much in the fire but did Kim see a leg.

We are both feeling a bit run down by the constant touts. It is also apparently dangerous to be out at night here so we'll be hiding out in our hotel.

Going to Varanasi tonight

Kim and I are taking an overnight train to Varanasi tonight.

Varanasi is important to the Hindu relgion. Hindus, like Buddhists, belive in re-incarnation where after you die, you move into a different circles (based on your performance in your last circle), the goal is to eventually get to to the point of reaching enlightenment - at least this is how Buddhism works - and once you have reached this point you are done - the suffering ends - you stop re-incarnating.

Anyway, the reason that Varanasi is important is that it is a kind of re-incarnation loop hole. If you can die in Varanasi you get to skip to the end of the re-incarnation cycle.

So Varanasi is famous for some of it's crematorium ghats (stairs by the Ganges), where bodies are cremated as well as for it's purification ghats.

That said, with Hindus, I'm not sure if you actually have to die in Varanasi or if you have to be cremated there to finish re-incarnation.

Not really related, or possibly directly related to re-incarnation, there are lots of vegetarian restaurants in India.

Calcutta traffic report

Today in Calcutta...

Calcutta has too many people, too many constant horns, too much dirt.

Everywhere you look are crowds of people. Crowds of vehicles.

Here there is so much people and vehicle traffic: I can't imagine they are actually going anywhere - they are all just moving around to fill the spaces in the traffic - to split off and to form new crowds.

Destitution

So, yesterday I posted that the beggars I had seen weren't desperate and dying. But this wasn't meant to judge, I had meant to counter the image I had of Calcutta.

Anyway, yesterday, we were on a block lined with destitute people sitting on the sidewalks the whole way down. On one sidewalk there was a mother and father sleeping under a tarp, while their 4 year oldish naked son was playing on the traffic side of a steel barrier. Here the whole family was destitute. Here there is another level of poverty.

Hello from Calcutta

Kim and I arrived today into Calcutta. Not that it's called that anymore, it is now called Kolkata which keeps the english pronounciation more correct.

It took the cab driver over an hour to get to our hotel 22kms away. The cab was prepaid, so the message here is that there is alot of traffic to deal with.

There are cows occasionally on the side of the road. So there are sacred cows here.

The air is really polluted. Tastes a bit like Cairo in that sense. Because we both had to get up early this morning for the plane we are both wearing glasses instead of contact lenses - which I think might be a good thing because otherwise it would probably be stinging our eyes.

We have seen some poverty here, but not like you might imagine - if you are like me you might imagined that Calcutta meant crowds of beggars desparate and dieing. But we haven't seen that. There are some beggars on the street and also some just poor people sleeping or keeping to themselves on the street. One boy followed me around and started touching my pocket that held my camera. I ended up slapping his hand away - It was more reactive than I would have wanted to be.

We have also seen Indian yuppies or Indian yuppies in training (puppies?). We were just in a coffee shop drinking iced lattes and iced tea and there was an excited table of Indians argueing/working together on what sounded like a group business school project.

I didn't notice this at the time, but they were all speaking English. But I did notice at the time that when speaking English, they have the same Indian accent Indian people have at home. I suppose that the accent is portable is obvious, but from that I felt a connection to the Indians who live here and the Indians I know at home.

I don't think we will spend much time in Calcutta (Kolcata). Maybe we will try and find tigers outside of the town somewhere.

More Laos

In Luang Prabang we rented a couple bicycles and rode to a waterfall. We didn't get to the waterfall we were looking for, but did end up in a small village type area which was pretty cool.

We kept running into Darren and Jody from England there, so we travelled with them to Vang Vieng. Actually, on the flight to Luang Prabang, they were sitting next to us on the airport bus, then coincidentally were sitting behind us on the airplane and then we saw them two or three more times in the village and then coincidentally their seats on their bus down to Vang Vieng was again right behind ours. So really we were travelling with them without having to do anything.

Vang Vieng is famous for inner tubing down the river. You rent an innertube and then float down the river. As you float down the river, you float by many many bars playing techno and using poles and ropes to pull the tubers in. Many bars have swings or ziplines to throw you into the river. One bar had Mud volleyball/mud wrestling.

Kim suffered an injury while mud wrestling, so to be safe we took her to the French embassy in Vientiene to have Monsieur Docteur check it out.

Kim's injury is minor - But we saw lots of people on crutches and with broken arms etc coming out of Vang Vieng. Monsieur Docteur told Kim that she was the third person he saw from Vang Vieng the day she was there.

So Vang Vieng is super fun, but also stupid fun.

in Laos

Kim and I arrived here yesterday by plane. One weird thing about the plane trip is that occasionally tiny bits of ice would fall on me from somewhere above.

Luang Prabang is a small town and very laid back compared to the cities we visited in Vietnam. Sometimes, even, there are no cars on the road!

We booked a couple bus tickets and will be going to Vang Viet tomorrow.

Hanoi

We've been in Hanoi now for a couple days.

The 31 hour train trip was ok. At one point there was a big thump - big enough so that a water bottle fell and hit Kim waking her up. Then after about 5 min the train stopped completely and there was a very long announcement in Vietnemese. We were sharing our compartment with two and a half - one was a toddler - but they did not speak English so could not tell us what happened. The lady under my bunk made a chopping motion on her neck so I interpreted that to mean either a suicide, or that the engine on the train had been killed.

Later another Vietnamese guy came and visited the guy under Kim's bunk who told us that the train hit and killed a motorcyclist and dragged him for awhile. That was too bad.

The visitor also wanted me to give him my ticket after I was done using it. I agreed, but didn't know why he wanted my ticket. I figured it was some kind of fraud and, later, thought I should have said "no, unless you can tell me why".

When leaving the station, the attendants punched his ticket but were careful to actually take our ticket. Our guy wasn't happy but I wasn't going to go and insist that the attendents give me my expired ticket so I could give it to a stranger. So there was some sort of scam there.

We got into a taxi from the station because we had our big backpacks. However the cabby went around the old city lake - we knew our hotel was between the station and the lake and not requiring a scenic tour around the lake. Plus Kim was watching the meter and it was clicking Kilometers inconsistenly (popping) at maybe at a rate of 5x the actual distance. Ie we would go 20 meters and it clicked 100 meters. So forced the cab to stop confronted the driver and gave him 50,000 dong instead of the 74,000 on the cab.

Since that incident we have got into some good cabs and another one that required a confrontation and early exit (this time I only gave the guy 20,000 dongs instead of the 54,000 and climbing). Fortunately we have found that the little cabs seem to all have doctored meters, while a couple companies (minh linh - white cabs with green lettering and hanoi taxi) have reliable meters. So if we look for a cab, we usually wait for a white one with green lettering. In a white and green cab I think the cost from the station to our hotel the first night would have been 15,000 dong. So in the end my giving the original scammer 50,000 dong was pretty generous.

We had a pretty busy day yesterday visiting the Ho Chi Minh mausoleum complex, the Hoa Lo Prison museum and a water puppet show.

Ho Chi Minh specifically requested a cremation, but he is a national hero so after his death they locked him away in a huge monument to his life.

The Hoa Lo Prison (aka Hanoi Hilton) is the same prison that John McCain stayed at during the Vietnemese war. The story of the museum was more about how the French colonists had tortured and violated the revolution's comrades before and during Vietnam's independence struggle in the 50s. Regarding the American's held there in the 60s and 70s, they portrayed that the exact same prison had turned into more as a summer camp with volleyball tournaments and sing alongs. The displays show one side of the story, but at least that side of the story makes us want to know the other side of the story.

The water puppet show was really cool. The had these wooden puppets and would use a bamboo screen and a pool of water to hide the puppets and then tell little stories. Some of the scenes were pretty cute with a little guy swimming after a fish, then doing a backstroke. You had to be there. It's funny to watch a puppet doing a backstroke in the water. There was also a scene where two birds, possibly phoenixes, got together and then an egg popps out of the water, then they get together around the egg and then a baby bird pops out.

Today we took a white and green cab to the Van Mieu temple of literature (the country's first university and then went to a fair trade store called Craft Link. For lunch we took a white and greed to this crazy hofbrauhaus.

Tomorrow we are going on a two day kayak and mountain bike tour in Ha Long Bay. A pretty place near to Hanoi and the ocean (the bay).

Downpours in Saigon

It's raining alot here today. My clothes aren't just damp wet, they are wring it out for a litre of water wet.

We are thinking of taking a train up to Hanoi. Originally we were going to stop in Hoi An and Nha Trang - both beachy - but if it's so wet, it doesn't make sense. Plus we already did alot of beachy in phuket and sihanoukville.

So we are heading, through the rain, now to see if we can book some sleeper bearths in the overnight train up there.

Beef Lok Lak, Pho and Pad thai

Yesterday I had a beef lok lak in Cambodia. Lok Lak is small chunks of beef in a ginger gravy with a pot of black pepper sauce. The sauce was awesome. Cambodia has a famous Kampot black pepper that grows in the Kampot province. It's part of their "pepper culture".

Today we had some Pho in HCMC and it was good. To me it was less beefy, less salty or possibly msg than at home. For herbs there was the regular basil leaves and another herb that looked a bit like dandelion. Overall the soup was a cleaner or clearer than I've had back home.

But food will depend on which restaurant you go to... What pho tastes like in Vietnam is like asking what sushi tastes like in Vancouver. There are trends and that is interesting but the different cooks will have some influence.

For example, in Thailand I had the best pad thai I've ever had. It was at a restaurant called Lin Pin in Bangkok. I don't really like Pad Thai, but this one was really good - there was this aweseome crunchyness to the peanuts, which when I looked further I realized wasn't the peanuts but some dried shrimp. The bean sprouts were meatier, the basil that came with the meal was a full on handful of basil (like if you bought 2 or 3 of those fresh basil packs from Safeway and just threw it down on the plate.

I (and Kim too) also had the worst Pad Thai - we got it from the Bangkok airport. It smelled too fishy. When we landed in Phuket Kim barfed. Then she barfed again into my fleese jacket in the car on the way to the hotel. So after picking out the barfy pad thai that absorbed into my fleece - we stopped having Pad Thai.

going to Vietnam tomorrow

Tomorrow we are heading to Vietnam. We are going to Ho Chi Minh City (aka Saigon, aka Hochy, aka HCMC).

It will be a long 12hr Cambodian karaoke ride back up to Phenom Phen and then back down to HCMC. Customs and relations between Vietnam and Cambodia are way more positive than Thai-Cambodian, so the border should be easy.

It's always fun to see a new country so that should be exiting tomorrow.

Overnight in a hut on the beach

Last night we stayed on "Bamboo Island" aka Koh Russei. It is a remotish island that you need to take a ferry to.

My dream was that it would be really cool to stay in a remote beach, in a neat deserted island shack on the beach somewhere. Doesn't that sound cool?

The beach >was< remote - there were just maybe 10 cabins (maybe 4 couples), two bars and some farms. And our shack was pretty neat, airy even.

Unfortunately for me and my sunburn induced desire to go to sleep early, that night, a Friday, was a party night at one of the bars and I think everyone (Cambodian farmers included) on the island came out to party.

I'm not complaining. It's just not what I had fantasized.

How to fix a jellyfish stinging

Kim and are currently in Sihanoukville which is a beach town on the southern end of Cambodia.

The big news today is that I got stung by a jellyfish while swimming near the beach.

I don't actually remember if this is the first time that I got stung, but a couple nights ago we watched a documentary on the "National Geographic" channel about two australian scuba divers that survived being stung by a tiny >killer< jellyfish. The male scuba diver was in the hospital in pain for 2 days, while the female diver was in pain for 2 weeks!

I don't know which >kind< of jellyfish stung me - I only recently learned there was a killer kind - so I asked the bartender near the beach if there were jellyfish. He had a Scottish accent so I'm sure he understood the question and he said yes, but none big enough to be worried about. Being a good bartender, he gave me a lime to squirt on it.

The lime didn't make much of a difference.

But anyway, now 5 hours later, it doesn't really sting that much anymore. Which is good because Kim, being a good girlfriend, had offered to pee on it! (Which I think is actually only for certain spiders - not jellyfish.)

Cambodian food

I did and don't know that much about Cambodia. I knew it used to be a french colony and I've seen a couple war movies that reference it. But alot of what Cambodia is was a mystery to me.

Like when is the last time you went to a Cambodian restaurant?

What do they eat?

Cambodian food has similar foods to Thailand and Viet Nam and Elsewhere.

Like Thailand: You can get a nice chicken or fish curry which tastes alot like the Thai versions with slightly different spices. We had a fish Amok and on a different night a chicken Amok - these Amoks are curries prepared in banana leaves.

Like Vietnam: You can get pho and apparently soups that you make yourself at your table are super popular here. We went for pho last night, but it didn't turn out very well. Kim didn't get a stomach upset from the pho, she just got mental upset when the waiter wouldn't give it to her because it is only served at breakfast!

(That pho is only served as breakfast is still TBD if this will be everywhere.)

Like Elsewhere: We had some nice barbequed spare ribs at a Khmer restaurant.

Cambodia has a couple unique things that I haven't seen elsewhere. We stopped for a quick snack and they had hard boiled eggs. I was going to have one, but Kim warnesed me that there was something "in the egg". Sure enough the girl we were sharing the taxi with was having the hard boiled duck embryos. It's eaten just like a regular hard boiled egg, but dipped in some sort of spice.

I didn't try the egg. Partially because I didn't know my company that well. If I was to start eating it and couldn't keep it down, it would have been worse - I think than to start eating it. My imagination thought that it might feel like eating oysters or wet feathers.

Today, on the bus from Siem Reap to Phnom Phen I tried some roasted banana leaves with rice and banana inside. It was pretty good and filling. Also healthier than the can of pringles we had as well. Kim noticed that some people were eating dried tarantulas as well. I didn't see them on offer - but I might try one - or maybe just a tarantula leg if the chance comes up.

I probably won't try Durian though. It just smells bad so I am not sure the rewards justify opening that curtain.

angkor vs anchor

How do you spell Angkor? I guess I just did. So that wasn't hard.

But how about pronunciation - To pronounce it, Angkor sounds like Anchor. Pretty boring so far right?

But consider that there are two popular Cambodian beers: Anchor and Angkor! Anchor is a good beer Angkor is not.

How would you order the good beer, if the names sound the same?

Kim and I did some research and after getting the wrong beer once and getting the right beer once the trick is that if you want the good beer you need to ask for >And-Chore< beer and not "Anchor".

More details as we get them.

Cycling Ankor Wat

Today was supposed to be a day off. After two days of travel we were going to take today off and then visit Ankor Wat tomorrow.

But I found it hard to not just, you know, go have a look to see what you are going to see. So we borrowed some bikes from the hostel and went up there.

It was supposed to be a 15 min, maybe 1 hour tour. But it ended up being a 4 hour extravaganza as the more we saw, the deeper into the Ankor Wat area we went.

Both the sites and the environment of the sites exceeded expectations. The series of temples are all inside of a well treed park so it was enjoyable to ride our bikes from place to place. Ankor Wat and the other temples were cool to look at and appreciate the heavy stone work - by heavy I mean the full on figures made out of stone - as well as some of the light stone work - like the relief stone carvings showing mostly scenes of Vishnu conquering over demons.

Unfortunately one of the seats on the bikes was not attached to the bike properly so after experimentation we ended up taking turns sitting on the pannier bracket on the rear wheel and riding "cruiser style" on the back of that bike. It was pretty painful considering how much riding we did.

In Cambodia

We have been travelling alot in the last couple days. Two full days of travelling is draining... Day one we took a 12 hour bus from Krabi to Bangkok. Day two was a four and a half hour bus to the Cambodia border, lining up to exit Thailand, lining up to get a Cambodian Visa, lining up to get the visa stamped, then a four hour cab ride to Siem Reap.

Siem Reap is where people stay when visiting Angkor Wat. We haven't visited it yet - We might take today off and look at it tomorrow.

Done with Phi Phi we are on a stop over in Krabi

We spent the last couple days on Phi Phi Island. It is supposed to have some of the most beautiful beaches in Thailand and I can say it does have some of the most beautiful beaches I have seen. Warm, crystal clear water, sandy beaches, limestone cliffs and lush greenery make it so.

We stayed at the Natural resort there. I had asked the travel agent who helped us book it if it was on the beach and I suppose it sorta was - but not "on on" the beach like I wanted it to be.

Anyway, the beach was super close and I enjoyed that the whole area was secluded by the fact that you needed to take two boats to get there.

There was a little restaurant where I had fresh barbeque squid, a ginger fried fish and a barbequed red snapper. Kim is feeling better so she had mussman curry and sweet and sour chicken. (She still hasn't got back to the hot stuff and won't be touching pad thai anytime soon).

I had bought a cheap snorkel and mask in Phuket, and Kim rented one from the hotel. We used the masks to look around the coral and chase some tropical fish - some reminicient of those in Finding Nemo.

Today we are in Krabi. We are planning on taking a really long 15 hour bus ride to Bangkok tomorrow. Most run over night, but we are going to try and take a day one so we don't have to sleep on the bus. Kim is sitting at the computer next to me trying to figure out where we will stay tomorrow night in Bangkok - maybe somewhere near the bus terminal because we'll need to use the bus again to head out to Cambodia.

a fish called army

We have free internet, but the internet room is hot. So we haven't been posting much.

Yesterday we rented scooters to ride out to the beaches on the other side of the peninsula. We ended up taking a wrong turn, so we checked out Phuket from the top of a look out point. We eventually made it to the beach, more of a fishing pier with a strange looking dog than a beach. But the weather was getting stormy so we headed back to our side of the peninsula.

Back on our side, Indian Ocean side, we headed up to Patong and stayed at the beach there. Patong was way busier than the beach near our hotel. The advantage of going to the beach near your hotel is you can leave all your valuables in the hotel - which >has< to be safer than alone on a beach chair. But at Patong, I didn't feel that safe - so our swim was a bit short and we headed back to our hotel a bit earlier than planned. The original plan was to check out the ladyboy show, but I guess we can just do that some other time.

Today we woke to thunderstorms and a short power outage. But really all this meant was that we had a later start to our day.

I got another massage and Kim watched another movie while it rained.

Later we headed down to the beach and played in the ocean. There was a fish about the size of a goldfish that kept hanging around me and my arms - It would not go away. I think it liked my armpit.

Kim asked if he had a name, so I named him "Army".

Today we rode an elephant

We took some public buses to the Elephant refuge nearby. We rode an elephant - it was a rough ride.

We didn't get to steer the elephant ourselves - there was a guy up front who would nudge the elephant's ears with his feet, speak to it and occasionally hit it with a stick with a metal point.

We could have paid for a one hour ride, but half an hour was too long anyway (I checked my watch about 3 times on the trek). You can also take care of an elephant for half a day, which looks like fun, but we were happy just to see the elephants.

Tomorrow we are heading to Phuket (poo-get). It is more of a beachy town down south, so we should get some more tans and hopefully less burns.

Currently in Chiang Mai

Currently we are in Chaing Mai and are enjoying it very much. Discount Tuk Tuks, inexpensive massages and restaurants make it even funner.

Today we spent the whole day taking Thai cooking lessons.

A couple days in Bangkok

We arrived from Macau, took the bus into town and both our eyes were stinging. We think the stinging is from the air pollution, but fortunately the stinging has stopped.

The first night we checked in and went down to the Patpong night market.

The sidewalks were filled with people getting ready, unloading bags and boxes into their stands. So we were a little early. We were also early for the go-go bars: there the there were empty bars except for small groups of girls putting on makeup.

Yesterday morning we got up and had a full day in Bankgok.

We had breakfast at the hostel, and tried to get a taxi to the Grand Palace downtown. Fortunately there were two taxis outside of the hostel. Unfortunately they refused to use the meter in the taxi and wanted to negotiate a price. We had asked the hostel clerk how much a taxi should cost and she said about 80 baht. The cab drivers wanted 320 baht. Then they wanted 200 baht and finally they wanted 120 baht. We weren't really trying to negotiate, we just wanted them to use the meter, and while repeating that, they just kept lowering the prices. Figuring we might find a more honest taxi we headed up the street.

We went up the block and found a nice guy who suggested we take a tuk tuk for only 20baht to the ferries and take a ferry. For 20 baht, we figured we couldn't go wrong. The tuk tuk was pretty fun - no seatbelts in a crazy bumpy ride. The tuk tuk dropped us off at a ferry terminal but it looked like they only had tours - tours for 750 baht. So it turns out we escaped the negotiated price scheme of the taxi drivers to the overpriced ferry rides. We were only going downtown to the Grand Palace and, as we found out later, a boat downtown costs 17 baht.

At the ferry terminal there were two girls from Denmark who looked like they were trying to catch a ferry as well. They told us that the guys there wouldn't let them get onto a boat without purchasing a tour. So we decided to go and split a cab. And together we did that, and got a ride to downtown for 70 baht (for all 4 of us).

When we arrived at the Grand Palace we were not at the correct entrance, but a guy came and told us that because it was Sunday morning the monks are in in prayer until 2pm, after which the Grand Palace is free. He showed us pictures of his family and pictures of him as a monk and told us to only trust Tuk Tuk drivers in uniform. He gave us some tips where we could take tuk tuks for 20 baht and then come back.

We decided to just have a walk and sure enough the the grand palace was open, so we had a look inside. I had to rent some pants because I was wearing shorts.

In Macau

Kim and I arrived yesterday. The line up at customs was insane, it was like a football field full of people lining up at 10 or so counters. It took about an hour to get through - fortunately it was not too hot.

The hotel is extremely big - what can you expect if it has canals running through the second floor. We did make an effort to leave the hotel and check out the town.

The town square looks very European. Lisbon (in Portugal) has these huge squares and there is a small version of that here. Also the architecture of the catholic buildings also looks very Portugese. And yesterday I heard a guy speaking Portugese.

Most signs are in Chinese, Portugese and English. By far though, Macau is a Chinese city.

Back at the Casino/Hotel, Kim won big at Blackjack!

Last couple days in Hong Kong

The last couple days in Hong Kong have been a bit weird. Or too normal. We went to a movie yesterday and a theme park today, so that's too normal.

We have been eating alot of chinese though so that's different. By coincidence we have had lunch twice in a couple posh restaurants. The type of restaurant where they put the napkins down for you, pull your chair for you, give you fine china and two pairs of chopsticks. But despite all the poshyness lunch for two people was only 42 dollars. Actually, that $42 sounds expensive for lunch. But have you ever been at a restaurant trying to recount how much money is still in your wallet because you might be 'in trouble'. These places give you the sense that 'you might be in trouble' so when the cheque comes and it's only $42 then it seems like a really good deal. e.g. One hostess came to my table to ask for my name so she would know how I should be addressed (Mr. Payne).

Anywhoo, we have been through many neighbourhoods in Hong Kong. We were in Mok Kong yesterday which had some really cool markets. Markets with pans of fish, still alive waiting to be bought, turtles stacked in cages, chickens available to be slaughtered, eels wriggling in buckets, frogs stacked in a big box. We didn't touch that, but there was a guy slaughtering and skinning pineapples so we bought one of those.

We also revisited the Tsim Tsia neighbourhood in Kowloon which we didn't like the first night we were there. It wasn't that bad - I think at the time it was an emotional shock and we may have taken one of the more sketchier paths there that night.

Tomorrow we are heading to Macau, which according to the Hong Kong and Macau Lonely Planet, exceeded Las Vegas last year as being the casino central of the world. There are Las Vegas hotels like Wynn, MGM and the Venetian there. We are going to stay at the Venetian because, after reflection, I figured thats where I wanted to go - I think Macau is going to be Hong Kong's vegas and the Venetion is pretty Vegas to me. Before deciding on that hotel, I tried to ask several agents at the ferry terminal which hotel currently has the best deal going - but they couldn't understand what I was asking. What I mean was, I wanted to know which hotel, say, would normally cost $1000 a night that might have a $100 a night special going on. They didn't understand what I was asking. I know it's a complicated question - but I still hoped I could get an answer.

I also had an ambition to take a helicopter from H. We were pretty close actually to booking one, but then I read the fine print.

In Hong Kong

Kim and I got into Hong Kong last night. We flew in from Nagoya, arrived at the airport and took a shuttle and a bus to our hostel in Kowloon. I did my research so we were looking forward to a double room with bath for 3 days. The luxury here is that the room was private, the bathroom was private and the best part - we would be in the same location for 3 days which makes everything easier.

Coming into Kowloon was a bit of a shock. The driver seemed to be going in circles as he zigzagged down the one way streets. It was a free shuttle (or at least free in the sense that it came with the passes we bought) so he wouldn't be doing this to increase our fare.

But we were more shocked by how multi cultural Hong Kong and especially Kowloon is. Remeber we are coming from Japan where we were often the only non-Japanese in sight (not an exaggeration). The first thing we did was walk by a group of about 20 Africans (speaking in their language), then we walked through a gauntlet of East Indians selling watches, then an English beggar who was spewing insults at pretty much everyone (our 'insult' was "oh, ok you are white", so I guess you can go)". Persians, Chinese, Americans, Canadians are here too. Last night we ate near some people from Spain who were incredibly rude. Of course I could be wrong about exactly where these people were coming from, my point is that there are lots of different people. But I guess that's not my only point. I suspect that there is alot of illegal immigration as well.

Our hostel is in the Miramar Mansion on Nathan St. (the hostel is called New Garden Hostel.). But it's not a mansion in the richy rich sense of the word. Maybe it is a mansion in the 'it's big' sense of the word. It was a 'souk' style building, 16 stories high, with maybe 100 rooms on each floor, with a big central open area. You need to picture a building that used to be white, but is now obscured with mold, dripping water, and wires - some with laundry some without. I'm sure I've seen this sort of thing in some modern action movies. Or possibly the idea of the 'projects' might have the same vibe. To add to the image you, you need to add that each floor had only one elevator to service it - so there were often lines, monitored on the main floor by security guards.

Anywhoo, we decided this morning to bail on our booking. I had already paid, but really we weren't going to be comfortable here or enjoy staying. From a security sense the place is a fire trap plus there are enough sketchy characters loitering around the place that it wouldn't be too hard to imagine someone (not in our secured area, but in the general area) being knifed. Not only that, but the beds were really really hard.

We are now happy at the Central Park Hotel. In the matter of hours, tripadvisor.com and a visa card we have gone from a grotty, hope I live through the night place to a nice executive room on the 22nd floor with tinted glass showers, designer bowl sink overlooking the park with a view of the harbour.

Tonight we going to ride a gondola up to the 'peak' which is the highest point in hong kong to have a look at the city. Tomorrow we are going to watch Batman at the
super modern AMC pacific place theatre

at the Nagoya airport...

Kim and I are currently at the Nagoya airport waiting for our plane to Hong Kong. We have about an hour before we board, so I thought I'd update this blog.

I booked the flight from Nagoya because it was cheaper and I figured we would get to see another city before leaving.Actually, until a couple days ago, I had forgotten that I had booked the flight out of Nagoya and thought we were leaving Narita in Tokyo. Not that it mattered much because we checked in time to make sure we went to the right place.

We up super early this morning because I thought we would try and visit the Robot Museum in Nagoya. Unfortunately, when we got there a guy told us that it was closed. I think he meant that it was closed permanantly. Oh well, no robots for me.

I did have sushi for lunch though, and here they did give me wasabi with my sushi (it's been about 50% - whether or not sushi comes with wasabi). The sushi was ok, it had barbequeue eel which for me is hit and miss and today it was a miss.

So we are boarding in about an hour - the things I haven't posted about are Kyoto and Kobe.

Kyoto is the cultural capital of Japan. It is packed with temples, though it is also very urban. If you look at any pictures of Kyoto, they always show the temples so you might get the idea that it is only gardens and temples. Rather it is gardens and temples on the outskirts of a very urban city. Kyoto also has some pedestrian only covered malls which Kim and I both enjoy.

Because Kyoto is super close to Kobe, we decided to take a short trip to Kobe to splurge on a Kobe steak dinner. The kobe beef is super marbled (Have a look at this picture -see how much fat there is!). The whole dinner was prepared in front of us by our own chef. We also bought a bottle of wine which made it all fun. For me, I found it to be too rich to enjoy as a steak. More to be enjoyed in small quantities as a delicacy.

Of the cities we visited (Osaka, Tokyo, Hiroshima, Kyoto, Kobe, Tokyo again, Nagoya) our favourite was Osaka. This is because we had alot of fun on the market street ordering ramen from a machine, getting photos in a photo booth, visiting our first temple and discovering our first Manga Kissa (called Popeye's). The same things exist in all of the other cities, so it's hard to tell if we just liked it more because it was our first time or if the Osaka market streets were more fun.

So, that leaves 30 minutes till we board the plane to Hong Kong. Woo woo!

Hiroshima

After Mt. Fuji, Kim and I visited Hiroshima, which is down the south west tip of Japan - so it was a bit hotter than Tokyo or the Mt Fuji area.

Heat has been an ongoing battle or characteristic of our trip. Drinking lots of fluids is made easy by the fact that every block or two has a vending machine selling water, cold drinks and cold coffee. Because Kim was burned we borrowed an umbrella from the hostel/hotel/ryokan that we were staying at. She felt silly at first, but less silly when we counted and 1 in 3 women walk around with umbrellas in the sun there.

Ryokans are japanese style hotels. We have stayed at four or five now and what they have in common is that as soon as you enter the hotel, you must take off your shoes and wear slippers or walk around in socks. The rooms are super small and the main area of the room is covered with a tatami mat. Our bedding is thin mattresses with a duvet on top. The first thing we do when we go into the rooms is try and figure out the airconditioner because usually the rooms are about 32 degrees Celcius inside. Going to the bathroom requires putting on your normal slippers, then switching to bathroom slippers that are kept in the bathroom and then switching back when you are done.

At the ryokan in Hiroshima we met a french girl who was waiting for her brother. There seems to be lots of french tourists in Japan. She came with us a bit to see some of the Hiroshima monuments to the war and the atomic bombing. The trams have automated announcements in Japanese and in English. It is really weird to hear, in the middle of an urban city, an announcement like 'next stop, atomic bomb dome'

The atomic bomb dome is a monument which is the remains of the theatre which was about 600m from the epicentre of the bomb. There are lots and lots of monuments in this area.

There is also a peace memorial museum which shows the before and after impacts of the bomb. Touring the museum, both Kim and I felt a bit sick to the stomach.

Interestingly, the displays suggested that there were more political and scientific reasons for using the bomb than military ones.

On the political side, the displays suggested that the U.S. was looking for more leverage post war vs the Soviets. This leverage was to come from two ways: 1. by demonstrating the weapon and 2. by shutting the Russians out of the victory over the Japanese.

On the scientific side, the displays demonstrated that bombings of Hiroshima were deliberatly curtailed prior to the atomic ones so that the impact of the bomb could be measured. On the other hand several scientists that developed the bomb were specifically against using the bomb. i.e. the Szilard petition

On the military side, there is a wikipedia site which debates the bombings. Citing this site, if 1946 United States Strategic Bombing Survey, and military leaders like Dwight Eisenhower, Douglas MacArthur, Nimitz, William D Leahy and others felt it was militarily unnecessary then I think it was militarily unnecessary.

Really, the bomb shouldn't have been used and should have been used first as a negotiation tool. There are references which show this option was considered at the time: e.g. e.g. Memorandum by Ralph A. Bard, Undersecretary of the Navy, to Secretary of War Stimson, June 27, 1945

Mount Fuji

Kim and I visited Mount Fuji - you know the snowcapped mountain that is iconic of Japan.

We took a couple trains there, booked a couple nights in a hostel (we couldnt get a private room so we shared a room with a guy from slovakia and a girl one night, and the slovakian and a guy that came in for only 10 minutes the second night).

I don't know why climbing mountains is so tempting. Its actually quite painful - especially for me - my knees get super sore on the way down. When I climbed Mt Sinai a couple years ago I twisted my ankle so was hobbling around for a week. Not to smart for a traveller as hobbling is both more difficult and sort of embarrassing.

But can you not climb the mountain?

What I mean is --- If you are near a mountain and all the other travellers are doing it, don't you actually >have< to climb the mountain? Like if you get sore knees, really you should not come within 10 miles of a mountain or you will be compelled to climb it... Can you go to the base of Mt Fuji and not suffer for it?

So anyway, we did climb the mountain and we got terribly sunburnt. I took a picture of Kim's sunburn (its on her treemo site). Since that picture our burns have turned into blistered burns (from the sweat trying to escape through burnt skin and is starting to peel). Plus my left knee was sore for two days.

But at least I didn't twist an ankle.

stuff I haven't seen yet.

No, I haven't seen any Sumo wrestlers, DDR dance screens on the side of buildings, Samuris, underpants in vending machines or ninjas.

Yet.

sushi comparo

I have only had sushi twice since being here. Kim likes sushi, but has a limit of like 6 pieces, so I'll get more experience later this week.

From my limited experience so far, what I have learned is that sushi restaurants are usually stand alone. In Canada, usually there is a mix of options at the same restaurnts. But here if you are going for sushi, you are in for sushi.

The sushi itself is similar enough to what we have in Vancouver. Based on what I've seen so far, on Nigiri sushi, the rice beds are smaller and rounder than what we have at home. For Maki sushi, the sushi chefs roll them individually using precut seaweed sheets instead of rolling and cutting. There is more wasabi in the sushi than at home, which make sense, because of the 'shocking' discovery that they do not give you wasabi. That's right - no wasabi for you to mix with your sushi. Just soya sauce and the wasabi the chef already put in the sushi.

To continue the Vancouver comparo, there is more variety here. Lots of different octopussy things and other things that I honestly don't know what they are.

I did venture out and had a random one called 'natto', which, was super super hard for me to swallow. The plate came with three pieces, but I was only able to swallow one, flushed down with the water and tea I had left.

Only 2 seconds ago I googled natto and it turns out to be fermented soya beans which is according to wikipedia also popular as breakfast. If I knew that at the time, it would have been better to appreciate. Instead I was left with my imagination who suggested that it might possibly be chunks of regurgitated fish stomachs in a poison brine.

Interacting with Japanese

In general, we don't interact with Japanese people that much, outside of purchasing things, because - well - we don't speak Japanese.

But, so far, vagually speaking, they ignore us. Not ignore in a bad way, but I mean, they don't pay any attention to us, unless we talk to them. At which point they are as helpful and polite as can be.

In purchasing things, generally we just point and gesture how many of each we want. This morning I had a 'croque monsieur' and Kim had a bagel, we both had lattes. So we just pointed to my croque and then pointed to me, then Kim did the same for the bagel, and then gave the "2" sign for the lattes. Then they said the price, which we read off of the cash register, handed them the money, took the change and we say some variation of "domo", "domo arigato", or "domo arigato gozea mast".

Today we were looking for a ramen restaurant. Kim likes ramen and yakisoba, fyi. Anyway we went into one place and inside the girl was cleaning the floor. We didn't know how to ask or gesture for when it was open. Then the cook came out to try her luck with us and gestured that they were closed. We pointed to the ramen and said that was what we were looking for. She invited us in. So I suspect they opened the restaurant, just for us for that time to give us ramen. Honestly I don't know. Maybe they were being super nice, maybe they were just confused and were open the whole time, or maybe they just saw that if they gave us some ramen, then the whole confusion would be over.

Pachinco parlors and Arcades

There are tons and tons of Arcades and Pachinco parlors. Several sponsored by well known brands like Sega and Taito.

The pachinco seems to be an obsession by lots of Japanese. It doesn't make any sense to us at all. I put in a 100 yen ($1) and Kim tried to play. She turned a knob and there were lots of silver balls bouncing around and eventually, after like 200 balls, we were out of balls and the game was over. I think you can make money playing this, but we didn't.

There are also slot machines and betting machines. There is a table top betting machine about the size of a large pool table where horses on magnets run around the table and people will bet on the races. I would have tried it but I did not understand the writing. Again, I presume you can make money on this.

Video game wise, what is interesting is that the arcades are on multi-levels. With girl games on the lower levels and more 'boy' games on higher levels. By girl games, I mean little photo booths where you can take pictures and paste icons (Kim and I tried this). And there are crane fishing games where you can try and grab teddy bears and drop them into a chute using the crane. By boy games, I mean shooting games, fighting games. Also on these levels are some real-time strategy games and also some 'group soccer games'. By group soccer I mean that there was a whole room dedicated to a single game and about 6 stations where each player had a set of consoles to manage their part.

I keep checking out game places as well as "manga kissa" places. I forget if I mentioned magna kissa already - but they are awesome internet cafes where you can have private massage chairs or a couch, or a flat area, or a regular area, and then have free access to movies, comics and games, drinks and ice cream to play for an hourly rate. Actually I'm sure I have written about this before, but I still like them, even if they aren't 'that far in the future'. By that I mean there aren't moving sidewalks or robots or hover cars. But there are more advanced video games, internet cafes and vending machines.

Puppy Hotel is not for Puppies

While wandering through some of the pedestrian alleys in Osaka, we saw this hotel down the hill that had lots of little puppy statues on the outside.

A hotel with puppie statues? Yep!

I had heard that in ultra urban areas, people will really pander their pets. I had also heard of pet-coops were people could share the joy and care of a pet - so I wondered if this was one of those places.

Was the hotel for puppies? Nope!

Outside the hotel, there were pictures of the rooms. All modern, people sized rooms. One that showcased a room with a built in hot tub in a gazebo style bathroom. But the most interesting part is that the prices were for either "Rest" or "Stay". Haha. We had found a love hotel. "Rest" is for short love. Stay is for, presumably, long love. And the puppies are, obviously, for puppy love.

Being the curious types we decided to check out the super-deluxe, multi floored, hot-tub in the gazebo, penthouse room. We went in.

There was no one inside the lobby. There was a computer and a touch screen, so I pressed the buttons until I got a piece of paper that came out: "601" and some japanese writing. So we had just made our reservation....

We walked up the stairs and into the room where there was a vending machine. Being Japan - where everything is vending machines (Many ramen restaurants work by you buying a ticket from a vending machine on the outside, and then you hand the people inside the ticket it prints) - the vending machine is presumably where we were to pay.

So we tried to pay. Another thing is that Japanese vending machines (like the subway ones anyway) want money before they awaken. So I put in 1000 yen ($10) and pressed the buttons. The machine then asked for 26700 more yen! What???? $267 more dollars? Ok, this was a bit more than we wanted to pay.

The idea was just to check out the place and the culture not to have secret expensive getaway. $267 was a bit out of our budget. So we were going to leave. $10 was lost but we had the experience.

But the machine: Locked...down...the...doors.

What I mean is that we were completely trapped in this room. There was no way out of the room, and so far no human contact at all. All we had was a locked door and a machine asking for $267 more dollars.

It can be tense when you are locked in a Japanese room with no way out and a machine wanting alot more money than you intended.

We pressed all of the buttons over and over and about 15 minutes later the machine gave us the option to pay $35 dollars. We paid it. The machine unlocked the door.

So, like what did we buy for the now $45 dollars? Was the room ours? Was that it? What were we supposed to do now???

While discussing this, the machine >dutifully< LOCKED...US...IN...AGAIN!

Were we smart to get locked into a room twice? Costing $10, now $45, with a machine hungry for $267?

It might not seem that smart of us to have got locked into this room twice. But we did spend $45 dollars at this point so I >assumed< we must have had bought >something<. We just weren't sure what.

Fortunately at this point the phone in the room rang (I had poked at the phone before, but it didn't make sense before). The voice on the other side said: "You ALREADY PAID". I said, "Yes I paid. We wanted to just buy Rest but the machine wanted $267 dollars".

He said: "just dial 9 in an hour and we'll let you out."

So clearly, now, we realized that it is normal for the machine to lock you in the room, and then you are supposed to pay when you leave and there is a short grace period before it locks you into the room again. This info was not in our guide book.

So, eventually, we called the 9 and got them to let us out. Because this wasn't the normal way, we ended up talking to two maids though the door and one person on the phone to get the door unlocked. They did not know how to do this exactly. The irony to this whole situation is that these systems are specifically setup so that you see 0 people when going into and out of these love nests.

In fact, there are two video displays which show the outside street so you can see who is on the street to decide when to make your discreet exit.

For us, though, on this mission, we did learned new things but got like 1/10 for being "discreet".

In Tokyo

So we have been in Tokyo now for a couple days. So far it has not been what I expected: It is a big huge city, much like New York or London - which I expected. But I guess I also expected more neon, more futuristic buildings, more futuristic things.

Compared to Osaka, Tokyo has alot more foreigners. In Osaka it was common for Kim and I to be the only gaijin around. In Tokyo there is an established foreigner community, so for example, it did not seem that weird that we went to an Irish pub tended by a real Irish man last night.

The Tokyo metro system is disorganized - there are 3 separate overlapping systems the JR lines, the tokyo metro lines and another other (toijin?) lines which all use different tickets. Its not a big deal, we are getting better at it - I guess the reason I bring it up is that it is something that makes getting around more difficult than it needs to be. For example, we had to buy 3 separate tickets this morning to get to the Indian embassy, where Kim has submitted her passport for a Visa.

Regarding Kim's visa, it should be ready by next friday when we are back in Tokyo.

BTW, Kim is also keeping a blog, featuring pictures at www.kimberlywarnes.com which has stories from her perspective. Also, if you want more pictures than her blog then you can also check out Kims Treemo channel

hello from osaka japan

Kim and I got here last night. First impressions are that it - Osaka anyway - is more industrial and served by tons of rail ways which reminds me of England. For some reason I expected that everything would be super modern and there would be no rust. There is lots of rust. Also, in getting from the Airport to Osaka the train passed through lots of small (backyard sized) rice paddies which was different.

But the weather is much warmer and humid and England - reminds me of central america - We are getting used to being sweaty all the time outside (all indoor locations are air conditioned)

So - so far it is a tropical England.

We managed to make our way using the trains from the airport to get to our hostel and went for dinner last night. We ended up at a japanese restaurant, which I chose because it looked clean and open - but after ordering we realized that it was sort of like a Japanese Denny's. I had a combo meal of pumpkin soup, and meatloaf on rice. Kim had a tastier combo of rice, teriaki fish, fried chicken and miso soup.

Today we got up early (before 7) because we are still a little out of sync with the time difference. We took a train and then a subway downtown (Osaka) and found some of the entertainment districts. Before this, we went to Mr. Donut for a donut and coffee, but after we ended up at a Starbucks because Ms. CoffySnoot wanted another one ;). Since then we walked around and took a picture of a temple, the access was closed so we took a picture from the outside, but the caretaker came by and let us walk around the statues/tombstones. Lots of buddhas and alot of buddhas wearing worn, red, bibs.

We went down the entertainment district and took some pictures in one of those girly picture booths where you can put hearts and other decorations.

So right now, we are both in Popeye's media cafe sitting on massage chairs playing with the internet (Kim is uploading pictures). The media cafe has different kinds of booths for different kinds of uses. Ours has massage chairs, others have just normal chairs, some have a sofa, and some have flat/bed type accomodations. The outer walls are lined with comic books, the air is stale smoke. Because it is still early in the day, there are probably only 5 other people in here.

trying a different blog for south america

thought I´d put my south american postings here

bruges antwerp cologne

bruges is prettz cool. itäs a compressed citz where thez keep things the old waz so I think that might be whz it seems liek there are alot of old people there. read that no skateboarding is allowed.

first night went drinking with santiago from argentina, cicz from iceland and met doug from america. waz too manz beers ß over 8 ß donät do that round thing again

second night when drinking )just 2 beers= with santiago, guiemette from france, two mexican girls and a guz from oregon. (german kezboards switch the z and y)

antwerp - i had high expectations because it sounded cool and the trainstation was stunning to see on arrival. it was bigger than expected but dirtz and hard to move around in.

cologne ß so far is exceeding expectations. got off the train to the smell of pretyels and bratwurst. dinner was a beer and hotdog. Citz is prettz big and shinz ß probablz because itäs a centre for trate shows ß or mazbe vice versa.

Did mz laundrz. Needed two german people to help read the instructions. Thez had a hard time with it. I might have been able to just press the buttons randomblz and have gotten it to work just as well. But I guess this waz thez will have a storz to tell about the time thez tried to help a foreigner do his laundrz.

going to bruges

on Tuesday - back on following wed

things to remember

travel reminders - to myself
* earplugs are a traveller's best friend
* bring a watch - seem to buy a new Casio each trip.
* grounding by using the internet or getting a cappuchino
* being open
* nintendo ds
* unconstrained travel is easier than two week scheduled
* planes are a hassle compared to trains. trains let zou see the countrz
* busses are better to see the cities but often more complicated than trams or metro
* plastic bags are noisy
* blue green blacks
* ask questions more than at home
* hostels with bars vs hostels with no bar
* prioritz is recommendation, then hostelworld or hostelz, last is the lonely planet
* book when zou know zou are going to be somewhere - post flight

visited tate modern and design museum

Couple of my favourite places from before. Tate Modern was cool again as alot of exhibits have changed (or I've just forgotten about them) in the last 1.5 years. The centre part/wind tunnel used to have this sort of noise/screaming display: Instead now they had these silver slides where people could slide down from the 2nd or 3rd stories of the museaum. Forgot to bring my camera.

Design museum: Only went to the shop as it's free and has some interesting books.

Between Tate Modern and the design museum there is a Canon photographic exhibit: last time I was here it was on volcanoes or something. This time it's about scenes from Japan. Pretty cool pictures of Mount Fuji, temples and islands.

back in London

Back in london yesterday - forgot about the right handed driving, the smelly hostels, the shared showers, the crazy underground, instant coffee and how cosmopolitan this place is.

Back in Vancouver.... NOW

Just got back today.
The fridgy smell of a 7-11, the view of the north shore mountains still with a bit of snow, the sun setting over the downtown, the funny coloured money that is so narrow it actually fits in my wallet... some re-integration impressions.

Finding the beach and back

I wasn't exactly lost, yet. I had gone to go find this beach which after a walk, a ferry ride, two longish bus rides and another 45 minute walk. By the time I got there I was able to take a few sunset pictures and watch someone parasailing off the adjacent cliff.

But it got dark. And it is a 45 minute walk to the bus stop. So I decided to try hitchhiking. The reason is that there are no buses from this beach to the next city and it took me about 45 minutes to walk there before. I asked a guy who was leaving, but he said he was going the other way. So I started walking anyway. The guy later passed me, but didn't give me a lift.

Later another guy did pick me up and dropped me off at the bus stop. It was really cool - like I had hyperspaced 30 minutes of space. He spoke Portugese but nothing else. Portugese and Spanish are not the same language, but I try some Spanish words, just in case they overlap.

While at the bus stop I went to buy something to drink. The lady owner - through an interpretive dance circling, jesturing and counting fingers towards the clock on the wall - told me that I had missed the last bus.

As I was over 100 km from Lisbon so I did not really want to wait and then see if I could get a taxi there. I expected that taxis might not want to do that run and/or it would be expensive.

So I started walking. A bus passed me! The dancing lady/soda vendor was wrong!

I chased the bus for awhile, hoping the bus driver would stop. He wasn't stopping so I kept running in a silly way, hoping the bus driver would think I was really crazy/desperate and that would somehow further motivate him to stop. That doesn't seem to work.

I was actually lost in the sense that I did not know where I was on a map. But there was a road sign for Lisboa so I wasn't lost in the sense that I knew which direction to go. If I knew where I was on a map, then maybe I could choose a larger town that might have later busses.

Anyway, I just kept walking on the trail to Lisboa, out of this small town and towards a forest. At this point the street lights stopped and if I continued further I would be in complete darkness.

So it was around 9. I thought I would stand near this lampost and see if someone would give me a ride to Lisbon. I figured I would wait until around 9:30 and then head back.

There weren't that many cars actually. Maybe one or two every five minutes. Some slowed down, some sped up. All went by. I have never hitchhiked before, so I wasn't sure what the best technique was to look pickupable or other techniques to pass the time.

I threw rocks to pass the time. I considered throwing rocks at cars, actually. I imagine alot of hitchhikers think about throwing rocks at cars. But this is probably a bad karma idea.

I walked around in circles too.

I threw out my thumb in some arbitrary way when I saw a car coming.

In anycase I wasn't paying much attention. Then as I was making another round in my circle dancing, I noticed that a big truck had actually stopped and was reversing!

A girl had the window half undone and asked where I was going. I said Lisbon (in English). They invited me in for the trip! All the way to Lisbon!

Turns out Jr (from Portugal) and Jessica (from France) are a camera crew and had just finished a long day filming a surfer and a fake Mauri for a cell phone commercial for an East European provider. In anycase they could speak Portugese, French and English. We spoke mostly English, because their English is better than my French.

So I got back to Lisbon! And I felt really lucky. Jr. thought it was really cool that this was the day that he found a Canadian in the forest.

Portugal Quiz

Is Portugal part of the EU?
What currency does Portugal use?
What major sports event was hosted here last year?
Is Lisbon on the Ocean?

Lisbon so far

Just got into Lisbon and I have been walking around for a couple hours.

So far it is a very very nice day, the city itself seems laid back and has wide pedestrian only paths and plaças (plazas) which makes it nice to explore.

The overnight train was ok. The bed was too narrow for me to sleep the way I normally do, so I kept getting pain in my right shoulder.

I shared the compartment with someone from China who is doing some marble business, a Portugese Ph.D student studying environmental economics and an American psych. major who is doing an exchange year in Barcelona. The Chinese guy had his baggage stolen the day before by a group of people at the train station. One guy dropped his (empty) wallet and while the Chinese guy picked it up and got thanked over and over, the other guys took his bag (with sim cards, his id card and a chinese visa card). The Portugese guy made him feel better by describing how he had his bag stolen a week before while on a train (I think): he said he got up to look at the fiesta and left his (non urgent) bag on the seat, when he got back it was gone.

going to portugal

on my way to portugal. two nights ago in casa, last night in ageciras, now in Madrid to take overnight train to lisbon.

Met some americans and a brazian/american couple who we think got sold expired ferry tickets to spain.

Madrid is much nicer than i remember. Possibly the change of season, that I know more spanish, and that it is the first wester city I have seen in a few weeks and that it is familiar.

Coming home May 13th

Not because of any big bad reason... I thought that things might end because of a big reason - say I got sick, hurt or destitute. But I'm not. I don't really have a big reason; other than to see my family, friends and city. That is the big reason.

So I am flying home May 13th from London. As I am currently in Rabat, Morocco now I will make my way up through Morocco, Spain, probably Portugal and then to London between now and then. Right now I am shocked - by how quick the decision came - and excited to return.

In Marrakesh

Kim has come and met me in Casablanca. We spent the last couple days in Marrakesh which was very cool.

The centrepiece of Marrakesh is an open plaza called Djemma el-Fina which at night is packed with thousands of people. Stalls are selling freshly squeezed orange juice, other stalls have sit down barbeques, street entertainers include dancing displays, music displays, monkeys, colourful water vendors, snake charmers, children boxers. My main image of Marrakesh is that of the smoke, the thousands of people, the bicycles, and motorized scooters somehow pushing and prying themselves through this square.

Marrakesh was very busy. I called at least 20 hotels which were all booked up. So... guess what... we ended up using a tout to find us a hotel! So touts can be useful in certain situations. The first night we were able to find a room. The second night we could not find a room so slept on the terrace of the Hotel Ali.

Sleeping on the terrace was pretty cool, some other travellers offered us their little tent shelter that they had built the night before and did not need anymore. It was mostly a blanket, strung up between chairs. I don't know if it was actually useful, but it was nice to accept the gift anyway.

Marrakesh was very busy because it is a 4 day weekend in Morrocco. The birth of Mohammed was on Thursday (Awashar Mabrooka!) and there was a free rock concert in the square on Saturday night. We tried to push our way into the concert on Saturday, but it was just impossible. It was a big mosh pit and I caught a young boy grabbing the zipper of my backpack. Kim caught a young boy grabbing her.

We are now in Fes and have been wandering around lost today. I have found the answer to the question I had before coming here... Do people in Fes wear feses?

Tomorrow we will go have a look at the tanneries.

Robbed in Casablanca

I met these two guys in the park...

Though I should say that I have been meeting alot of very sincerly friendly Moroccans lately. Yesterday I spoke with a couple University students for about an hour and a half and if I go to back to Tetuoan I will go visit one of them. On the bus I met a friendly couple of teachers who teach in a rural school who gave me their addresses to go visit them. Last night I met a couple nice guys in Casablanca who also invited me to their home.

The day before I was invited twice to people's homes in Chefchaoen.

So last night after politely declining the invitation to the guys place, I started to ask myself if maybe I am being a bit too closed. Perhaps I should open myself up a bit more and experience more people and share more experiences. What do you think? Maybe our culture is too suspicious? Maybe it is just me?

With that in mind, I met a couple guys in the park I decided to really engage more. I talked for awhile with one guy and accompanied him to a cafe down some back streets. We talked about religion, philosophy and travel. He kept calling me his brother. His philosophy seemed very down to earth and more like Buddist than what I imagine Islam is about.

When I went up to use the bathroom I felt strange about taking my backpack with me. My backpack has my passport and camera inside. I figured that if he said something I would explain that I had toilet paper in the backpack and that I might need it (they don't use tp here).

Anyway, I finished my tea and he finished his cigarette and went to pay. He came back saying that there was a problem and wanted to know if I had change for 200 dirham. I didn't - I only had 120 dirhams. He insisted that I give it to him and he would sort things out.

As we left the cafe, I still had no sight of my 120 dirhams. When I asked him about it in the street he said not to worry. When pushed a little more he said he had already spent it on hash and alcohol.

So what do you do? You are in an empty street with this guy?

Shake him down?

Brow beat him?

Call the police?

How about philosophy. I said that if he was that desperate to compromise all of his personal principles - which we had discussed for the last hour - for 120 dirhams he could take it.

So we parted ways, me with empty wallet. Him with bad karma (maybe).

Then, as I am walking down the street, his friend from the park approaches me and starts trying to sell me hash! I explain to him that his friend had just stolen all my cash, but I don't think this guy's french is very good because he then starts offering to find me some Moroccan women or even some genuine Moroccan entertainment.

I keep walking. He keeps pestering.

What do I want?

Women? Hash? What do I want?

So I say I want the Gendarme, the Surete, the Police.

He says fine! We will go find them. As we approach a building that is guarded by an Army guy - I think he is Army as he is dressed in brown while the police are in blue. we go over there and start talking to him. I explain in french, but the Army guy doesn't know french. I wasn't even sure why I was talking to this guy actually, I was still a bit in shock about the whole 120 dirham thing but I think that this guy had the gall to continue hassling me pissed me off.

So the Army guy doesn't know french, but my hash pimp is translating something to him in Arabic. The Army guy motions for us to follow him back to the entrance of the building he is guarding. As I am following him, the Army guy turns around and starts running towards me!

My hash dealer had fled behind me! He was taking off around the building running as fast as he could with only an occasional glance backwards: Running so that his feet and legs were ahead of his body. Picture that!

The Army guy then calls out four other Army guys and by now two police guys guarding the other building across the street join the chase to the park.

Ok. wait. 120 dirhams is only 12 euros. And the guy they are chasing is just a pimp/hash dealer and only a friend of the guy that took my money. And now there is an armed - really! -squad of seven guys loose in the park! I don't know what they are thinking because the only thing I know the Army guy knows for sure is that the guy fled.

So I made sure that I explained the whole situation to the police guys who did speak french and they said I was lucky that I did not have my papers stolen. They were very sincere and apologized for the whole thing. They gave me directions to the Mosque and the beach. The Army guys eventually returned to their posts.

So on the way to the Mosque...

Guess what?

I met another guy.

We start talking.

He invites me to tea at his mother's house.

What do you do? Get back on the horse? Run away like a hash dealer chased by the Moroccan army?

So I went to tea. Everything turned out ok, but this even this guy was also a bit shady. He insisted that after our visit, I not speak to any more Moroccans and that he was a Saudi by birth and that there are lots of problems with tourists here. He also did not want to go all the way to the Mosque with me because of the Tourist Police. To me he was a bit too insistent and paranoid. Almost confessional actually. Like the idea that the people most fearful of being robbed are theives.

In the end, I am happy that this because it affirms that I should trust my instincts to be cautious if I want to. What I mean is that I had been cautious, but decided to override that instict with a desire for more engagement. I think I can still get more engagement and continue to be cautious. It's not a dichotomy, though I guess in my clumsy-learning-experential way, I made it one.

Starting to understand Chefchaouen

I am starting to understand Chefchaouen today. Sure there is a touristy area, which has it's pros and cons as a visitor, but it also has a genuine souq, market area, living areas which are very accessible from the touristy area. The market area, the alley ways and call to prayers reminds me alot of the Moslem area in Jerusalem. The souq, town reminds me a bit of Hebron. Of course I have not been to that many souqs - but it is interesting that the appearance and culture spans that distance from Palestine/Israel to here.

Anyway, I bought some green peas and some oranges from the souq. 5 Oranges were about 25 cents, half a kilo of green peas cost about 35 cents. I have been having fun with the big bag of green peas... When people were offering me kif or hash today, I tell them I have some really big bag of good, high quality stuff and try to sell them a pea pod. Presumably, The Surete Nationale won't have a problem with my peas.

This morning I went for a walk in the mountains and met a few shepherds. I just missed a goat calf - if that is what you call a baby goat - being born, but did get to see the shepard (probably 14 or 15 years old) try and encourage the goatee to feed from the mother. I walked across some plowed areas which are probably the kif fields. I did not take pictures - though - because I am a bit paranoid. Ok, I took a picture of the goat. But that's it!

All of the boys play soccer here. Constantly. I think they probably get up in the morning, play soccer, go to school, play soccer at recess, come home and play some more. Every flat place in the city (and in the beaches in Assilah) gets used for soccer fields. What is kinda funny is that they also play it in the steep alleyways and ramparts of the medina - getting in the way and getting in trouble. I have no transition for this - sorry - but their balls are all flat and soft.

The passeo is also a tradition here, as it was in Assilah: Everyone goes out for a walk between 5:30 and 9 to find out what is happening in the city. According to the Lonely Planet, this tradition is a carry over/import from Spain. What is funny is I spent over a month in Spain and did not see it there... Perhaps it is one of those old fashioned rituals that gets modifed at the source (say into tapas crawls) but doesn't change in the colonies.

from Asilah to Chefchaouen

I spent yesterday in Asilah again. Walked to the beach again and met some of the people I met the day before - One fellow kissed me on the cheeks. Besides that surprise, walking to the beach is always a relaxing activity.

Asilah is in the very north east corner of Africa. I can picture myself as a little stick figure on the corner of the continent. This image is helped - in my head - by memories of the video game Heart of Africa (and Seven Cities of Gold) which I used to play on the old Commodore 64. In Heart of Africa it would occasionally zoom in and out of the pixelly versions of Africa and African villages. As I was jumping into the Atlantic ocean (and bouncing back quickly because it is cold) I could just picture my video game equivalent doing the same.

But enough obscure video game references that maybe my brothers can relate to...

Along the trail to the beach (along the Atlantic Ocean) there are little military tents spaced out about every half kilometre. At first I thought they might be for people smuggling but a couple guys I ran into told me they were looking for hash trafficers. The couple guys I ran into were Morroccan and I walked with them for awhile, speaking Spanish because one guy did not know French.

Today I spent a couple hours speaking french with a guy named Abdazizi on the bus ride from Asilah to Tetuoan. He said he made the trip alot these days and invited me to visit him in Tetuoan if I returned there. Or in Casablanca which is where his mom lives. My french wasn't good enough to figure out what he does.

In Chefchaouen they do hashish. I am not going to mention touts anymore, but I will kinda mention that I ran into 4 very friendly people who were offering me only the best accommodations, grass and hashish. According to the Lonely Planet guide, Chefchaouen is marijuana country and it is therefore difficult to rent a donkey from August to October when the 'Kif' harvest comes around.

The cafes play Led Zeppelin and Bob Marley and the medina reminds me a bit of a typical mountain tourist town (like Whistler say). So I can see why it might be a place to have a good time.

Either way, I am not really interested in hash right now. I am thinking of either treking a bit in the mountains for a couple days or moving on. I have not decided. Chefchaouen has a really positive reputation for a place to visit - but so far I would rather be closer to the ocean. Though Chefchaouen also has a reputation for people coming for one day and staying a week...

There is a river somewhere nearby... maybe I should go find it.

Asilah

I am in Asilah now and spent the day walking to Paradise Beach and back.

After my last post I thought that maybe I should not have brought up the touts. I was thinking that they might overshadow the perception of Morocco as they are pretty much the first thing I wrote about. On the other hand they are the first thing you encounter when you get here. On the other hand they are just to be expected.

Anyway while on the walk I came across a German guy and we ended up walking together. We went for tea at a small stand and a local guy started talking to us. Eventually the local guy kept following us and wanted us to go to his hotel...And wouldn't go away.

I know, I know. It is the third tout today. And I wasn't even going to bring them up anymore. Ok that is it....

Morocco is very beautiful and inexpensive. My single room in my hotel costs about 7 Euros per night. My pizza and orange juice dinner cost 3.50 euros. Though my suntan lotion cost me 15 euros! My suntan lotion cost me the same as two nights accomodation!!!! (everything is in Morocco Dirhams, but Euros are what I am used to).

I have had a bit too much sun, and I don't know if my fancy suntan lotion is working (or maybe I put it on too late) so I might hit the sack early tonight.

Back in Africa

Or back in Muslim country, or in the gateway to Africa, or just Morocco.

I am in Asilah, Morocco on the Atlantic coast. I have only been here an hour so far, but so far so good. I like how green things are near the coast. It looked like there were some cool parks and fountains in Tangier. Also the Moroccan flag is pretty cool - solid red with a big green criss-cross star in the centre.

There were touts but so far don't seem as bad as those from Egypt. One followed me for a bit when I got off the ferry, until I got to the police checkpoint. Another pair followed me from the bus to my Hostel in Asilah.

In Tarifa

I am now in Tarifa. The southern most city in Spain and closest to Morrocco. The ferry to Morrocco takes 35 minutes from here.

When I arrived to Tarifa, while I was getting my bearings, I was approached by an older/elderly lady from Italy looking for a Hostel as well. The place she found was charging 35 euros and she wanted something for around 15. I offered for her to accompany me to the hostel (like a pension which is like a hotel, but with a shared bathroom) I was looking for. Unfortunately when we got there there was only a single room or a twin room available... what is the right thing to do in this case???....

So anyway, I am now sharing a twin room with a complete stranger tonight. Should not really be a big deal, but it is a bit different than from normal shared accomodation where it is less personal because the structure is set by the youth hostal.

The Tarifa beaches are long, windy and there are about 200 kite surfers out there practicing or surfing. There are a few windsurfers (10ish) as well. On the hills there are hundreds of windmills (those white modern ones).

I did an intro to kitesurfing in Vancouver and I think it takes a while before becoming useful or safe in the water. So I don´t think I will do any here and will be heading to Morrocco soon instead.

Back in the U.K. (technically)

I am back in the U.K.!

Well I am in Gilbraltar which is a U.K. town at the bottom of this huge rock. I got here yesterday - it is my first visit to the South Coast of Spain and of course this place is English. I had heard that Spain was full of fish and chip shops etc. but that is definitely not true of Barcelona, Madrid or Granada. I saw zero fish and chip shops there.

Gilbraltar does have fish and chip shops, police dressed as bobbies and the back machines only dispense British Pounds (though I keep getting Gilbraltar pounds as change - so they must be coming from somewhere). According to my guidebook about 80 percent of the population was born here. Based on my experience, Spanish is definately the first language, but everyone seems to know English as well.

Gilbraltar is an interesting visit. I thought the city was going to be at the top of the rock. But it is actually crammed into all of the available flat land at the base of the rock. On the rock there is a wildlife refuge which is full of birds and monkeys. Apparently this is the only place for wild monkeys in Europe. The customs back and forth between here and Spain is very lax. They seem to be mostly concerned about cigarettes going into Spain as everything in Gilbraltar is duty free. The monkeys were not as exciting as I had hoped. I actually did not want them to be anywhere near me because they smelled funny. They were jumping on lots of people though and could be coaxed onto your shoulders (for a peanut).

Gilbraltar is also very green. Most Spanish hills and mountains (including what I saw of the Sierra Nevadas) is very brown and dusty. However, being on the coast and having the rock as a cloud magnet keeps everything much more lush than elsewhere in the south.

It is pretty small and self contained too. The airport landing strip crosses the roadway into the city... So what they do is close the road for the 3 flights a day that land and take off here. It is pretty strange to cross customs, then walk across an airport runway to get to the city.

After Gilbraltar I am thinking of visiting Tarifa (windsurf capital of Europe) or seeing if I have time to go up to Lisbon before heading down to Morrocco.

Living in Granada

Well I have not posted for awhile...

I have pretty much been living in Granada for the last month. I am taking Spanish lessons at a school here in town and I am learning more and more Spanish each day. That said, these (human) languages are BIG! And I have the worst memory for new words. It takes me a few times using a word in a real situation before it sticks.

I am living in a small room in a Spanish lady´s apartment. Carmen and her daughter live together here and rent out two rooms. Last week there was an American here as well. I am not really touring so much as living here... I have been to the doctor and to the dentist. I am running out of contact lenses so I might need to go to see the optomotrist. Paying the bills and going to ´work´. Though no taxes yet :)

My daily routine looks like this...
7:45AM wake up. Hopefully not hungover, or still inebriated, or without having done my homework.
8:00AM Have breakfast (desayuno) with Carmen. Always have coffee and tostadas con tomate. The tostadas con tomate is a Andalucian standard. It is grated tomato, spread on toast then drizzled with olive oil, finished with salt.
8:20 AM Take shower, make bed. If necessary do my homework.
9:00 AM Grammar class with Pepe. Technicalities of the language. Over the last few weeks we have been going through the present, past and future tenses. Regular verbs, irregular verbs. When and how to use Me Gusta vs Paracen. How to use Hacer.
10:30 AM Break. Usually check the internet or go for a coffee with the rest of the class at the local cafe. Carmen makes a very strong coffee because they normally water it down with milk - but because I don´t water down mine I cannot handle more than one per day.
11:00 Conversation class. Sometimes discuss vocabulary, sometimes play games.
12:30-2:30 School is done for the day. Usually check the internet and run some errands.
2:30-345 Comida (lunch) with Carmen. This is the big meal of the day. Vegetable, starch, meat dishes. Carmen makes a very good Comida and I am lucky to be able to have non-restaurant or ´real´ Spanish cooking. Paella, Ham, Tortillas, Eggs and Bacon, Pasta, Mushroom thing are some of the dishes I can remember.
345-530 Siesta.
530-900. Some times homework, sometimes school activities (like watching videos) etc.
900-2AM Usually ´La marcha´ or going for Tapas. Basically it is like a pub crawl with free food. Anytime you order a drink in Granada you get some free food. For example last night when ordering beers we got bagels with ham and cheese. The next round of beer came with small hamburgusas. I forget if I described tapas already, but they are a unique and important part of going out in Granada. Spanish people normally say they are going for Tapas when they mean they are going drinking. I and probably other students say we are going for drinks. And when the rounds start, the next round is triggered by a shortage of food or beer and not just beer as it happens everywhere else. Free tapas and the siesta are classical parts of Spanish culture which are still alive in Granada but less so in Madrid and Barcelona.
12, 2, 4 AM Go to bed.

Semana Santa Processions

Last week has been crazy here. Every single day from last Saturday, until yesterday there have been religious processions to celebrate the ressurection of Jesus.

Every day there was about 6 or 7 processions of 100s of people dressed up in pointy hats and cloaks (the same outfits used by the K.K.K.) holding candles the size of baseball bats, people swining incents, people carrying crosses, carrying big floats, large musical bands, some military (only once that I saw) and women dressed for and actively mourning.

The freaky thing is to see the hundreds of adults and children (the penitents or nazarones) marching down the street dressed like they are in the K.K.K. Here is an example from the local media: http://servicios.ideal.es/especiales/semanasanta/album2005/universitaria.html. They have pictures from all of the processions on all of the days at http://servicios.ideal.es/especiales/semanasanta/fotografias.html.

The processions shut the city down for the whole week. The main streets are blocked. It becomes impossible sometimes to move through the city. To walk home from my class one evening, I had to walk through and sometimes next to and along the people dressed in these outfits.

Even if you cannot see the processions, you can always here them march as the patriotic/religious music fills the city.

Siesta in Granada

In Granada, they take the siestas. Apparently in Madrid they are not doing it as much.

What this means is that the normal store hours are from 10-2 and then from 5-8 and almost always closed on Sundays and Holidays.

What this means for me is that there is little point in doing things between these hours. The stores are all shuttered, so you cannot even look in the windows during this time. You cannot even tell what the store is because everything is behind steel roll-up doors.

I have lunch, take a nap and then get up around 5. I am very used to it - I am surprised it did not take very long at all. In fact, if I miss my siesta, I feel like I am hungover.

This means that the day is long here. Or that there are two days per day. One mini day, and one bigger day that goes on until very late at night. Lots of people are out on the streets at 2AM every night.