Up next on our Thailand itinerary was the northern city of Chiang Mai. The trip started of with an overnight train ride from Bangkok. I'd booked 2 tickets just before Johanne arrived, but all they had left were an upper and lower bunk on the sleeper train, not 2 lower bunks like we'd prefer. Johanne of course insisted on taking the upper bunk, which I'd already had the pleasure of trying out on my train from Hat Yai to Bangkok. Actually, the upper bunk really isn't that bad, just a little "snug" and brings out a bit of claustrophobia to those inclined (me included).
So, Johanne hauls herself up there and proceeds to have a mini-meltdown, while I'm laughing so hard I'm almost crying. She seemed to be having, umm, shall we say a bit of difficulty turning around on the bunk bed, which just made it even funnier. You had to be there, but trust me, it was hilarious!
We'd booked ourselves a room at the 3 sis (short for sisters, who could resist with a name like that!) bed & breakfast and ended up upgrading to their newer rooms in the "lodge" part of the place. My budget was definitely blown on this trip, but boy was it great to have a little luxury & not have to double/triple check the room & bed for bugs everyday!
We had a few things planned while in Chiang Mai, like a cooking class and a day trip in the surrounding area. The cooking class was great fun and made us discover some excellent Thai food. Although, I have to say that after that day, I will be staying away from spicy papaya salad. The "medium" spicy version our teacher suggested we make almost had me in tears, and I wasn't convinced I was going to survive ;-) I am not going to risk that again! Johanne and I were dubbed good Thai wife material because of our strong arms and ability to pound the crap out of ingredients in the mortar & pestle (merci MWM!).
Our 1-day excursion was completely disorganized & probably way overpriced for what we ended up doing, but we still had fun. It's amazing what a stress-free life will do for your attitude :-). I think Johanne enjoyed watching me freak out while riding an elephant. I was completely petrified, more so than for anything else I've done on this trip so far. For the first 15 minutes of the ride, I was convinced that the only thing keeping me from falling off the elephant and plunging to my death (OK, so I may not be stressed but I'm still dramatic) was holding on to the back bar of the "seat". It doesn't sound scary, I know, but trust me. When the elephant is trudging up and down hills on a narrow path, it becomes very very scary. For me anyways, since Johanne was cool as a cucumber and laughing at me the whole time.
The day included other activities such as riding a bamboo raft down the river and trekking to a waterfall. "Trekking" to a "waterfall" must be taken with a grain of salt. It was a 10-minute walk (uphill, but still) to a little trickle of water over some rocks. I think the waterfall only appears during the rainy season, but for some reason, the tour guides still think it is worthwhile to go there. It was funny to see them proudly point out the waterfall, with all of us just scratching our heads wondering what we were looking at.
We also visited a few hill tribes, including the "long neck" Karen tribe, where the women wear multiple brass rings around their neck to make it longer. Although I'm curious to see the villages and see how the locals really live, it just feels wrong somehow. It feels like gawking and somewhat like being at a zoo. It goes both ways for sure, as the tribe "villages" are mostly markets aimed at getting the tourists to buy stuff. Still, I find it uncomfortable.
The rest of our time in Chiang Mai was spent walking around town and visiting temples, shopping and getting foot massages. The best of all worlds!
After booking a few flights and scrambling to find accommodation, we set off for the beaches of south Thailand. Our first stop was in Phuket, more specifically on Patong Beach. After an initial "mishap" of being switched hotels on arrival, we settled into a beachside hotel on the very busy Patong Beach. It was no busier than an all-inclusive resort in Mexico, Cuba or the Dominican Republic, but there were supposedly more quiet beaches around, so 2 days there was plenty for us. Also given the fact that Patong Beach is very popular with the sex tourist crowds, with men young and old "renting" themselves Thai girlfriends for their holidays, we felt a little out of place. Even while trying to adopt a "live and let live" attitude, it was disturbing to see a whole family of men (father, 2 sons in their late teens, early twenties, 1 young son under 5), each with their own "girlfriend". When not taking care of their respective men, the Thai girls would play with the little kid. Sets a great example, doesn't it?
We left Patong Beach and headed 10 km south for another beautiful stretch of sand called Karon Beach. We stayed at a nice resort a bit further away from the beach, but it was quite worth it for the extra luxury it afforded us. My days of "lifestyles of the rich and famous" were quickly running out... The beach was nicer, less busy and a few more waves in the crystal clear water. We did nothing more than spend the day at the beach sleeping (Jo), reading (Janie) and swimming (both). Paradise! After 3 more days of this, it was time to move on & get moving! We took a cheap mini-bus to Krabi, a few hundred km away. Here is were we planned a few excursions, like going to Ko Phi-Phi, made famous in the movie "The Beach". We stayed in Krabi town and made 2 days trips from there: the first was to Ko Phi-Phi and surrounding islands for some sun & snorkeling. Johanne and I both being slightly scared of fish, I was really impressed how well we took to snorkeling. After initial "panicky" moments, we both settled into it quite well. I saw one of the fish from Finding Nemo, so I was happy :-)
The next day trip was a snorkeling/kayaking trip around Hong Island, another beautiful spot in the area. I was really nervous about the kayaking aspect of the trip, since my previous experience with it many years back did not go well (fell in the sea, couldn't get back on & had lifeguards sent after me. Quite unnecessarily I might add. Very embarrassing). We started the day off with snorkeling, which wasn't half as nice as the previous day, since the water was choppy and unclear. The kayak tour involved kayaking around Hong Island. Johanne and I were paired off and pushed into the sea with no instructions whatsoever. Whatever, we're both smart girls, so we could figure it out. After only a few minutes, it was very obvious that something wasn't quite right, since we kept veering to the right. After a few more minutes of experimenting, I determined that it was Johanne's fault ;-) She was obviously paddling way harder on one side than the other. The woman doesn't know her own strength! 10 minutes into it, Johanne already had a burst blister, we were both exhausted and I had no clue how we'd make it around the whole damn island! But at one point you just get over it and keep moving. An hour or so later and we were done. I was again impressed at how we both mostly kept our cool and didn't yell at each other (too much). We may make a good "Amazing Race" team after all!
And after our short stay in Krabi, it was sadly time to head back to Bangkok and say goodbye to Johanne. I was already feeling bummed, even before leaving Krabi, but I was fairly miserable by the time we got to Bangkok. We spent our last day shopping at the weekend market buying last-minute souvenirs, enjoying one last movie at the amazing Siam Paragon cinemas, and a nice meal in a proper restaurant.
I won't dwell on it too much, but saying goodbye the next morning was no fun at all. For the first 3 months of my trip, I always had this nice little break with Johanne to look forward to whenever I got homesick. Now that the trip is over, it's going to be a long while before I see Johanne again, or any of my family & friends from home (next up: traveling with Melissa through Africa!!!) Plus, even if I enjoy traveling on my own, it was nice to have a compatible traveling partner for a while.
The next 4 days were spent feeling low and holing up in my way-too-expensive-yet-still-shabby-and-depressing hotel room in Bangkok. I watched at least 10 movies on cable, I do not exaggerate. But since my visa expired on Feb 7th, I had to get my ass in gear and start moving again. By the time I got around to making travel plans again, the worst of my blues had passed and I was ready to move on. Next stop: Laos!
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Sunday, February 10, 2008
I'm back!!!
So, now that my "vacation" with Johanne is over (snif, snif), I should be back to a regular schedule of blogging. I'll hopefully be caught up by the end of the week, if my access to OK Internet connections continues.
I can sum up our vacation in 1 word: Fantastic! But of course, it wouldn't be a very interesting blog if I left it at that, so yes, I will go into a bit more detail...
Johanne's & my reunion was held at close to 2AM on January 7th. It was so great to see her, after more than 2 1/2 months away! She looked great, especially considering she'd had such long flights. And it made me laugh to see her arrive with 2 Canadian backpackers in tow, having corraled them into a little group earlier on during one of their layovers. Leave it to Johanne! Still the social butterfly my sister!
The next day started bright and early. We had 4 days planned inBangkok, and a whole list of places to go/things to do. And admittidely, I was eager to impress Johanne with my new found travelling skills and my stamina. However, my pride would take a little beating that day, as things didn't really go as planned...
First of all, I wasn't in the best shape that day, having managed to catch a cold somewhere between Malaysia and Thailand. I'd just been joking with a fellow traveller the week before that ever since I hit Asia, everytime I hear someone caugh or sneeze, I automatically think: Oh!oh! Bird flu alert! Kind of ironic that I'm the one now getting the cold, sneezing, coughing, blowing my nose, all the symptoms you'd expect from a good old fashion winter cold in Quebec! And of course, having just travelled half-way across the world, Johanne was in perfect health, with no signs of jet lag at all! So much for showing off to my sister :-)
The next blow to my pride came later that same day just after we'd left the Royal Palace. Before getting into that, I need to give you a bit of background: One of the things the Lonely Planet guide books are good for are describing the potential scams you may run into while travelling. One thing they tell you clearly, frequently and in BOLD flashing letters, is never to believe anyone who tells you that the attraction or place you want to go to is closed. This is almost always a scam to get you someplace else of their choosing, where you'll be encouraged to spend your money and for which the driver will get a commission. So back to my story: There we are on the corner of a main road, just outside the gate of the Royal Palace. Our next destination was Wat Po (aka Temple of the Reclining Buddha) and were just checking the map to see which way to go, when a nice gentleman offers up his help. He says he work for tourist information and he keeps saying: "just information, free free, no money". So I end up showing him our map and asking for directions to Wat Po, which he quickly gives us. He goes on to say that we should switch the order of our sightseeing, since Wat Po is closed this afternoon until 3:30 (it was around 12:30) because of a special ceremony for the King's sister, who'd just passed away the week before. I had heard about the Princess, so it all seemed logical to me (duh!). He also told us that we could take a tuk-tuk (motorcycle rickshaw) to go see the Giant Buddha and maybe stop off at a tourist information office to help plan the rest of our trip. He is so helpful that he even points out which tuk-tuks we can trust, telling us to take only the one's with drivers wearing an official looking shirt, with a collar and badge. How nice of him! And before we knew it, he had stopped a "good" tuk-tuk and even negociated a good price for us. It would cost us only 20 baht (about 65 cents) for our own chartered tuk-tuk that would bring us to 3 different places and wait for us while we visited. Sounds too good to be true? Of course it is, but still, it didn't ring any alarm bells for me yet.
After our perfectly nice stop at the Giant Buddha, we then stopped at the tourist information office, which ended up being just another travel agency. We were being pressure-sold a package for the rest of our trip, everything from flights, hotels and taxi transfers to/from the airport. We declined and I left feeling stressed about booking our time down south. By the sound of it, we would be lucky to find a flight at all. Now at this point, I still had no clue that I had fallen prey to a textbook example of a tuk-tuk scam, but the lightbulb finally came on when the driver suddenly stopped by the side of the road shortly after we'd left the tourist information/travel agent, and proposed to bring us to another one. We said "no", he said "OK. I bring you to a tailor where you can look to get clothes. You only need to look, no need to buy". Since I'd already been there, done that, just the day before (scammed by yet another tuk-tuk), I was not interested. After a bit of "chatting" with the driver, we ended up getting off then and there, without paying. Since we had no clue where we were, we started looking for a taxi and were lucky enough to get one before it started to rain. All's well that ends well.
Overall, our luck wasn't great that week, with little misshaps like trying to go to the museum on the one day a week it was closed, or showing up at the Teak Palace only to be turned away by the guards at the entrance because the Prince & Princess of Monaco were there visiting. But the misshaps didn't amount to much, considering I was having a great time traveling with my big sister.
One of the better moments of the week was an "Amazing" one. When we finally ended up at Wat Po, the Temple of the Reclining Buddha, Johanne and I were both quick to realise that we'd seen this before on the "Amazing Race", as part of a "Fast forward" in season 1. Of course, Johanne even remembered who won the challenge (team Guido). She's a freak ;-) We did our own reproduction of the challenge (dropping coins into a bowl. not Olympic-event material).
All in all, our time in Bangkok was well filled with sightseeing and catching up. I'd say 4 days in Bangkok is enough for anyone who isn't completely enthralled with big cities. It's big, takes forever to get anywhere, but you can do so cheaply. It's also hot, humid & very smogy. It has nice attractions and the best cinema I've been to yet (Siam Paragon, a must-see!).
I can sum up our vacation in 1 word: Fantastic! But of course, it wouldn't be a very interesting blog if I left it at that, so yes, I will go into a bit more detail...
Johanne's & my reunion was held at close to 2AM on January 7th. It was so great to see her, after more than 2 1/2 months away! She looked great, especially considering she'd had such long flights. And it made me laugh to see her arrive with 2 Canadian backpackers in tow, having corraled them into a little group earlier on during one of their layovers. Leave it to Johanne! Still the social butterfly my sister!
The next day started bright and early. We had 4 days planned inBangkok, and a whole list of places to go/things to do. And admittidely, I was eager to impress Johanne with my new found travelling skills and my stamina. However, my pride would take a little beating that day, as things didn't really go as planned...
First of all, I wasn't in the best shape that day, having managed to catch a cold somewhere between Malaysia and Thailand. I'd just been joking with a fellow traveller the week before that ever since I hit Asia, everytime I hear someone caugh or sneeze, I automatically think: Oh!oh! Bird flu alert! Kind of ironic that I'm the one now getting the cold, sneezing, coughing, blowing my nose, all the symptoms you'd expect from a good old fashion winter cold in Quebec! And of course, having just travelled half-way across the world, Johanne was in perfect health, with no signs of jet lag at all! So much for showing off to my sister :-)
The next blow to my pride came later that same day just after we'd left the Royal Palace. Before getting into that, I need to give you a bit of background: One of the things the Lonely Planet guide books are good for are describing the potential scams you may run into while travelling. One thing they tell you clearly, frequently and in BOLD flashing letters, is never to believe anyone who tells you that the attraction or place you want to go to is closed. This is almost always a scam to get you someplace else of their choosing, where you'll be encouraged to spend your money and for which the driver will get a commission. So back to my story: There we are on the corner of a main road, just outside the gate of the Royal Palace. Our next destination was Wat Po (aka Temple of the Reclining Buddha) and were just checking the map to see which way to go, when a nice gentleman offers up his help. He says he work for tourist information and he keeps saying: "just information, free free, no money". So I end up showing him our map and asking for directions to Wat Po, which he quickly gives us. He goes on to say that we should switch the order of our sightseeing, since Wat Po is closed this afternoon until 3:30 (it was around 12:30) because of a special ceremony for the King's sister, who'd just passed away the week before. I had heard about the Princess, so it all seemed logical to me (duh!). He also told us that we could take a tuk-tuk (motorcycle rickshaw) to go see the Giant Buddha and maybe stop off at a tourist information office to help plan the rest of our trip. He is so helpful that he even points out which tuk-tuks we can trust, telling us to take only the one's with drivers wearing an official looking shirt, with a collar and badge. How nice of him! And before we knew it, he had stopped a "good" tuk-tuk and even negociated a good price for us. It would cost us only 20 baht (about 65 cents) for our own chartered tuk-tuk that would bring us to 3 different places and wait for us while we visited. Sounds too good to be true? Of course it is, but still, it didn't ring any alarm bells for me yet.
After our perfectly nice stop at the Giant Buddha, we then stopped at the tourist information office, which ended up being just another travel agency. We were being pressure-sold a package for the rest of our trip, everything from flights, hotels and taxi transfers to/from the airport. We declined and I left feeling stressed about booking our time down south. By the sound of it, we would be lucky to find a flight at all. Now at this point, I still had no clue that I had fallen prey to a textbook example of a tuk-tuk scam, but the lightbulb finally came on when the driver suddenly stopped by the side of the road shortly after we'd left the tourist information/travel agent, and proposed to bring us to another one. We said "no", he said "OK. I bring you to a tailor where you can look to get clothes. You only need to look, no need to buy". Since I'd already been there, done that, just the day before (scammed by yet another tuk-tuk), I was not interested. After a bit of "chatting" with the driver, we ended up getting off then and there, without paying. Since we had no clue where we were, we started looking for a taxi and were lucky enough to get one before it started to rain. All's well that ends well.
Overall, our luck wasn't great that week, with little misshaps like trying to go to the museum on the one day a week it was closed, or showing up at the Teak Palace only to be turned away by the guards at the entrance because the Prince & Princess of Monaco were there visiting. But the misshaps didn't amount to much, considering I was having a great time traveling with my big sister.
One of the better moments of the week was an "Amazing" one. When we finally ended up at Wat Po, the Temple of the Reclining Buddha, Johanne and I were both quick to realise that we'd seen this before on the "Amazing Race", as part of a "Fast forward" in season 1. Of course, Johanne even remembered who won the challenge (team Guido). She's a freak ;-) We did our own reproduction of the challenge (dropping coins into a bowl. not Olympic-event material).
All in all, our time in Bangkok was well filled with sightseeing and catching up. I'd say 4 days in Bangkok is enough for anyone who isn't completely enthralled with big cities. It's big, takes forever to get anywhere, but you can do so cheaply. It's also hot, humid & very smogy. It has nice attractions and the best cinema I've been to yet (Siam Paragon, a must-see!).
Friday, February 8, 2008
Welcome to Thailand!
My time in Thailand did not exactly start off the best way. I'd booked a cheap mini-bus from my guesthouse in Penang to get me to Hat Yai, Thailand. Even if Hat Yai is NOT renowned as being a great place to stay, I'd decided on 1 or 2 nights there as a pit stop before taking the train to Bangkok.
I spent the 4+ hour drive litterally sitting on the edge of my seat, watching our driver trying to stay awake. He would blink at least 100 times/minute, and would even close his eyes for a few milliseconds too many. And he eventually did fall asleep, while I wasn't paying attention, and drifted a little onto the side of the highway. Luckily there was no harm done, and the adrenaline kept him (and me) awake for the rest of the journey.
Once in Hat Yai, I was kind of shocked to see that all the signs were in some unreadable script that I now know as being Thai. A little naive of me, but I thought english would be much more prevalent than it was, and it was unsettling to realise I couldn't even read street signs! At least in Malaysia, they use the same alphabet as we do, so even if I didn't know the meaning of the words, I could recognise them easily enough. Not so in Thailand!
As for Hat Yai itself, I don't have many positive things to say about it, so I'll be brief. I had done my research and knew enough about Thailand to stay away from the south-eastern provinces, where fighting and terrorist attacks still go on each day. My research wasn't that thourough though, since I didn't know that Hat Yai was also considered somewhat dangerous, with recent bombings targetting shopping malls and the train station. I found this out once already in Hat Yai, and I freely admit that it spooked me. Let's just say I didn't spend much time there, and booked my train ticket out of there for the next day.
I took the overnight train from Hat Yai to Bangkok, and had a lovely time. It was my first time on a sleeper train, but I was relatively comfortable on the top bunk, if a little claustrophobic, but I managed to sleep well. I met a Malay couple going to visit family, and they gave me plenty of tips and things to see while in Thailand. I think they were worried about me travelling on my own, so they tried to "take care" of me while on their watch. They were very nice and helpful.
I arrived in Bangkok at around noon on Friday. Johanne was scheduled to arrive very late Sunday night, so I had a good 2 days to kill without doing any of the obvious touristy stuff, since I would be doing it with Johanne in a few days. I just walked around the backpacker ghetto known as Khao san road, and people-watched for a while. A very interesting bunch of tourists, lots of hippy types too. And I was suprised by the number of Canadians in Bangkok. It's obviously quite a popular destination.
And as further proof of how small the world really is: as I was sitting there having dinner on Friday night in a little restaurant next to my guesthouse, I noticed a girl I thought I recognized heading for the reception desk. I quickly paid my bill and went to check, and yes, it really was someone I knew. I had met this Swiss girl in my dorm room at my very first hostel in New Zealand, on the 2nd day of my trip! And here she was again in the same guesthouse in Bangkok! Very small world indeed!
I spent the weekend wandering around, getting the lay of the land. Regula, the Swiss girl, having been in Bangkok before, showed me around the River boat and SkyTrain transport systems, so I would (hopefully) be a pro by the time Johanne arrived. I enjoyed myself a bit, but I have to admit I was mostly just really looking forward to seeing Johanne on Sunday night. It was a loooong weekend for me....
So, my first post about Thailand is a bit of a downer, but I promise it gets better after this! I was just off to a slow start, and really excited about seeing Johanne and starting my own little "mini-vacation" from travelling solo. More on that in the next post (and on Johanne's blog - johannel.blogspot.com)
And for those interested (yes, I mean you Dad!), I added a link to my travel map that I keep up to date in TripAdvisor. The link is at the bottom-right of the page, in the Links section. I usually add the cities that I've been to a few times a month, but I will also try to add the places I am planning on going to, so you can get an idea of my itinerary.
And lastly, don't be shy about posting a comment or just saying hi! I'm now back to travelling on my own, and would love some company, even if just "virtual"!!!
I spent the 4+ hour drive litterally sitting on the edge of my seat, watching our driver trying to stay awake. He would blink at least 100 times/minute, and would even close his eyes for a few milliseconds too many. And he eventually did fall asleep, while I wasn't paying attention, and drifted a little onto the side of the highway. Luckily there was no harm done, and the adrenaline kept him (and me) awake for the rest of the journey.
Once in Hat Yai, I was kind of shocked to see that all the signs were in some unreadable script that I now know as being Thai. A little naive of me, but I thought english would be much more prevalent than it was, and it was unsettling to realise I couldn't even read street signs! At least in Malaysia, they use the same alphabet as we do, so even if I didn't know the meaning of the words, I could recognise them easily enough. Not so in Thailand!
As for Hat Yai itself, I don't have many positive things to say about it, so I'll be brief. I had done my research and knew enough about Thailand to stay away from the south-eastern provinces, where fighting and terrorist attacks still go on each day. My research wasn't that thourough though, since I didn't know that Hat Yai was also considered somewhat dangerous, with recent bombings targetting shopping malls and the train station. I found this out once already in Hat Yai, and I freely admit that it spooked me. Let's just say I didn't spend much time there, and booked my train ticket out of there for the next day.
I took the overnight train from Hat Yai to Bangkok, and had a lovely time. It was my first time on a sleeper train, but I was relatively comfortable on the top bunk, if a little claustrophobic, but I managed to sleep well. I met a Malay couple going to visit family, and they gave me plenty of tips and things to see while in Thailand. I think they were worried about me travelling on my own, so they tried to "take care" of me while on their watch. They were very nice and helpful.
I arrived in Bangkok at around noon on Friday. Johanne was scheduled to arrive very late Sunday night, so I had a good 2 days to kill without doing any of the obvious touristy stuff, since I would be doing it with Johanne in a few days. I just walked around the backpacker ghetto known as Khao san road, and people-watched for a while. A very interesting bunch of tourists, lots of hippy types too. And I was suprised by the number of Canadians in Bangkok. It's obviously quite a popular destination.
And as further proof of how small the world really is: as I was sitting there having dinner on Friday night in a little restaurant next to my guesthouse, I noticed a girl I thought I recognized heading for the reception desk. I quickly paid my bill and went to check, and yes, it really was someone I knew. I had met this Swiss girl in my dorm room at my very first hostel in New Zealand, on the 2nd day of my trip! And here she was again in the same guesthouse in Bangkok! Very small world indeed!
I spent the weekend wandering around, getting the lay of the land. Regula, the Swiss girl, having been in Bangkok before, showed me around the River boat and SkyTrain transport systems, so I would (hopefully) be a pro by the time Johanne arrived. I enjoyed myself a bit, but I have to admit I was mostly just really looking forward to seeing Johanne on Sunday night. It was a loooong weekend for me....
So, my first post about Thailand is a bit of a downer, but I promise it gets better after this! I was just off to a slow start, and really excited about seeing Johanne and starting my own little "mini-vacation" from travelling solo. More on that in the next post (and on Johanne's blog - johannel.blogspot.com)
And for those interested (yes, I mean you Dad!), I added a link to my travel map that I keep up to date in TripAdvisor. The link is at the bottom-right of the page, in the Links section. I usually add the cities that I've been to a few times a month, but I will also try to add the places I am planning on going to, so you can get an idea of my itinerary.
And lastly, don't be shy about posting a comment or just saying hi! I'm now back to travelling on my own, and would love some company, even if just "virtual"!!!
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Malaysia whirlwind - Part 2
Hey all! I'm still backtracking, trying to catch up on my blog entries. Not bad, after this one, I'll only be about 2 1/2 weeks behind... In the meantime, I'm having a great time with my sister in Thailand. I'm sure I'll have more free time to update the blog when she leaves, so for now, bear with me!
My only plan for the first few weeks in January were to somehow make my way through Malaysia & into Thailand, in time to meet with my sister Johanne on the 13th. Without any previous planning or researching, I realised while in KL that it is very easy to find the best spots, since people seem to travel in almost set itineraries. As I quickly discovered and was recommended by most people I met, my next obvious destination was the Cameron Highlands, up in the mountains near the middle of Malaysia. It would be a nice break from the heat and pollution of KL, as well as being on my way to Thailand.
I took another VIP bus, this one not as luxurious as the previous, but still better than our own "Voyageur" type buses at home. I got to Tanah Rata, my destination, late in the afternoon, so my only activity on my first day was to watch a movie in the common room and luxuriate in my 3$/night dorm. I took pictures of the room for you all, it looks like barracks made out of tole. Still, for that price, I got a bed, blankets & no bugs, so I am not complaining.
Being in the mountains, it was much colder than it had been for me for the past month and a half. I actually took out my hoodie from the bottom of my backpack and made good use of the blankets they supplied.
The next day, I booked a sightseeing tour to visit the surrounding area. I had a great time, seeing the most beautiful landscape, with terraced farms and tea plantations. I don't recall ever seeing such beautiful shades of green! The tour also brought us to the highest point in peninsular Malaysia (which means excluding Borneo and the islands), on a mini-trek through a mossy forest and to visit a local tribe of orang Asli (meaning original people) who still live in very basic conditions in traditional Malay homes.
It was a full, fun day. I loved the mini-trek through the mossy forest, and felt like a jungle explorer when the guide brought us through trails that barely looked wide enough for a monkey, let alone me! I'm not sure about visiting tribes or local people in their homes though. It felt very odd to me, and somewhat like an intrusion into their lives. The kids put on a show for the tourists, but it feels "off" to me. I'm not sure I'd do that again...
Of the 8 people on the tour that day, every single one of them was planning on going to Pulau Penang the very next day (see what I mean about set itineraries?). That's where I was off to next, along with a couple from the tour. The others decided to take an earlier bus, but now being very lazy in the mornings, as well as not being in any rush to get to Pulau Penang, I decided to sleep in a little, in as much as you can sleep in in a barrack with 11 other people...
Pulau Penang is an island off the northwest coast of Malaysia. Georgetown, the most popular destination on the island, is a colonial town built in the early shipping days. It has a worn-out English feel. I spent 2 days sightseeing, one of which I spent with a fellow traveller from the Netherlands. We did all the touristy stuff, such as visiting the museum, the fort and going up on the lookout hill. It was good, and definitely gave me a bit of the feel of smaller Malaysian towns. The roads are packed with motorcycles, buses, tuktuks and cars and there are no sidewalks to speak of. Crossing the street remained a challenge for me, and I mostly managed by taking my cue from other people. I am getting quite good at directions, even managing to direct my taxi driver to my hostel on my very first moments in Penang. And although I'm still not the most adventurous eater there is, I've managed quite well. I've had good (and very cheap) meals at food stalls on the street, and has no regrets!
That's all for my time in Malaysia. I only spent 9 days here, but I think it was a great way to continue on my journey in Asia. It felt more foreign than Singapore, with different sights, sounds and smells, but at least I could read street signs and menus, as they are written in our own alphabet. Next stop: Thailand!
My only plan for the first few weeks in January were to somehow make my way through Malaysia & into Thailand, in time to meet with my sister Johanne on the 13th. Without any previous planning or researching, I realised while in KL that it is very easy to find the best spots, since people seem to travel in almost set itineraries. As I quickly discovered and was recommended by most people I met, my next obvious destination was the Cameron Highlands, up in the mountains near the middle of Malaysia. It would be a nice break from the heat and pollution of KL, as well as being on my way to Thailand.
I took another VIP bus, this one not as luxurious as the previous, but still better than our own "Voyageur" type buses at home. I got to Tanah Rata, my destination, late in the afternoon, so my only activity on my first day was to watch a movie in the common room and luxuriate in my 3$/night dorm. I took pictures of the room for you all, it looks like barracks made out of tole. Still, for that price, I got a bed, blankets & no bugs, so I am not complaining.
Being in the mountains, it was much colder than it had been for me for the past month and a half. I actually took out my hoodie from the bottom of my backpack and made good use of the blankets they supplied.
The next day, I booked a sightseeing tour to visit the surrounding area. I had a great time, seeing the most beautiful landscape, with terraced farms and tea plantations. I don't recall ever seeing such beautiful shades of green! The tour also brought us to the highest point in peninsular Malaysia (which means excluding Borneo and the islands), on a mini-trek through a mossy forest and to visit a local tribe of orang Asli (meaning original people) who still live in very basic conditions in traditional Malay homes.
It was a full, fun day. I loved the mini-trek through the mossy forest, and felt like a jungle explorer when the guide brought us through trails that barely looked wide enough for a monkey, let alone me! I'm not sure about visiting tribes or local people in their homes though. It felt very odd to me, and somewhat like an intrusion into their lives. The kids put on a show for the tourists, but it feels "off" to me. I'm not sure I'd do that again...
Of the 8 people on the tour that day, every single one of them was planning on going to Pulau Penang the very next day (see what I mean about set itineraries?). That's where I was off to next, along with a couple from the tour. The others decided to take an earlier bus, but now being very lazy in the mornings, as well as not being in any rush to get to Pulau Penang, I decided to sleep in a little, in as much as you can sleep in in a barrack with 11 other people...
Pulau Penang is an island off the northwest coast of Malaysia. Georgetown, the most popular destination on the island, is a colonial town built in the early shipping days. It has a worn-out English feel. I spent 2 days sightseeing, one of which I spent with a fellow traveller from the Netherlands. We did all the touristy stuff, such as visiting the museum, the fort and going up on the lookout hill. It was good, and definitely gave me a bit of the feel of smaller Malaysian towns. The roads are packed with motorcycles, buses, tuktuks and cars and there are no sidewalks to speak of. Crossing the street remained a challenge for me, and I mostly managed by taking my cue from other people. I am getting quite good at directions, even managing to direct my taxi driver to my hostel on my very first moments in Penang. And although I'm still not the most adventurous eater there is, I've managed quite well. I've had good (and very cheap) meals at food stalls on the street, and has no regrets!
That's all for my time in Malaysia. I only spent 9 days here, but I think it was a great way to continue on my journey in Asia. It felt more foreign than Singapore, with different sights, sounds and smells, but at least I could read street signs and menus, as they are written in our own alphabet. Next stop: Thailand!
Thursday, January 10, 2008
Malaysia whirlwind - Part 1
Hi all,
Sorry it's been so long since I've last updated the blog, but I've been boycotting it for the last week. You see, I spent at least 1.5 hours last week writing the most spectacular post ever (of course!), and just as I was finishing the spellcheck, I lost everything. Don't know how it happened and could not retrieve it no matter how I tried. I was too pissed off to start over again right then, so I gave myself a little break. But for those interested in more up-to-date travel news, you can check out my sister Johanne's blog at johannel.blogspot.com. We are now travelling together through Thailand (yay!) and she is much better/faster at updating her blog. In the meantime, I will backtrack and post over the next few days details about my time in Malaysia. Hope you enjoy.
After spending New Year's Eve in Singapore, I was off to Kuala Lumpur (KL, as known by the locals). I took a bus from Singapore bright and early on New Year's Day. It was a luxury VIP double-decker coach, complete with assigned seats, massage chairs & my own personal video player. The bus even has an attendant, who serves water, coffee and sandwiches. And all this for less than 15$ CDN!
I arrived in KL a little anxious and very much overwhelmed, as I was still feeling some culture shock since my arrival in Singapore. Adapting to Asia was taking a few days, not as fast as I'd hoped, so my arrival in KL, the largest city in Malaysia, was not without trepidation.
The bus dropped my off at a bus depot, which was pretty much just a big parking lot somewhere in the city. Luckily, I had traded my remaining Singapore dollars for Malaysian Ringgits with a girl at my hostel, cause there were no ATM's to be found on site. My first challenge was to get to the hostel. OK, fairly easily done since there were a dozen or so taxis (or teksi, in Malaysian) drivers looking for a willing sucker, oops sorry, I mean customer. This driver comes to me, I show him where I want to go, he grabs the paper (my reservation confirmation) out of my hands and heads to a group of drivers to ask them directions. There was a lot of eye rolling from the other drivers, cause my guy was just not getting it. This is not reassuring, since as it turns out, my hostel was on a main road in the most touristy area of KL. But lo and behold, after maybe 5 minutes, the light seems to go on over this guy's head! Now all that was left to do was to decide on a price, since of course, he and all of the other drivers refused to use the taxi meter. Not being in the best frame of mind, I accepted the first price quoted to me. I didn't even try to negotiate (doh!) but as it turned out, I didn't get fleeced to badly. Only by about 10 RM, which is 3# CDN.
The rest of the day was spent walking around, trying to get accustomed to the sights and sounds of KL. This city is just as Singapore, but way dirtier and stinkier. But the prices! I was completely amazed by how cheap everything is. A few examples: a 1.5L bottle of water costs 1 RM = 0.30$ CDN, A KFC trio (cause KFC is EVERYWHERE in Malaysia) is 8.60 RM i.e. less than 2.70$ CDN. And KL has lots of western shops and restaurants, with the obligatory Starbucks popping up on every street corner.
The next day I was up at the ungodly hour of 6:30 AM to meet with 2 girls from my hostel to get free tickets to the Petronas Towers. After a 30-minute jog (one of the girls was a very fast walker), I was in line for the daily ticket giveaway. 1400 tickets are dispensed every day for a tour of the SkyBridge that links both towers, and we were told to show up at 7:30AM at the latest or risk missing out. This may have been an exaggeration, but regardless, we were there early so no worries. We got our tickets and were given a 10-minute window to view the SkyBridge. Now, for anyone planning on visiting Kuala Lumpur one day, please skip the SkyBridge and head out to the KL Tower instead. The tickets are more expensive (as in, not free), but you get a much better view of the city, and you actually get to see the Petronas Towers, which are quite beautiful in my opinion.
Now my favorite part of my time in KL was actually about 15 km outside the city. On the list of "must see's" in my Lonely Planet (aka Traveller's Bible), was the Batu caves. So like a good little tourist, I set off to see what it was all about. Part of the adventure was finding the bus that went there, cause even though the direction in my Lonely Planet were quite precise, I still couldn't find the darn bus. After a bit of scrambling and asking 5 different people to get 5 variations on the answer, I spotted a group of tourists (i.e. western looking people) just standing around waiting and looking uncertain. When in doubt, assemble like sheep with other tourists and hope for the best! It usually ends up we are all going to the same place, and this time was no exception. The bus arrived a few minutes later and I was on my way.
Now my arrival at the Batu caves was one of those moments that gave me chills. I didn't know what to except, not really having any idea of what the caves were about, but I was quite amazed when I got there. The sight of the huge gold statue next to the 272 steps leading to the caves was very impressive. Plus, TV junkie that I am, I instantly recognized the place from one of my favorite shows ever, The Amazing Race! I absolutely love it when that happens!
I walked up the steps and enjoyed the great view in the caves. Monkeys were amusing themselves trying to steal food from tourists and getting the last sips of beer in cans thrown in the rubbish bins. Plus, I got to learn about the disturbing Thaipusam, a huge Hindu festival that happens here every Jan/Feb. 1 million devotees make the trek from the city to the caves, many taking part in gruesome and masochistic acts. Piercing their cheeks with steel rods, placing hooks down their backs and hanging thing on them, all to show their devotion.
As per my new pattern it seems, by the 2nd day in KL I was feeling much better and getting into the groove of things. I met a lot of nice people at the hostel, and I find that generally speaking, my fellow travellers through Asia are more sociable than those in NZ or Australia. I haven't spent a day fully on my own since I started my tour in OZ more than 1 month ago. So all in all, a good start to my time in Malaysia!
Sorry it's been so long since I've last updated the blog, but I've been boycotting it for the last week. You see, I spent at least 1.5 hours last week writing the most spectacular post ever (of course!), and just as I was finishing the spellcheck, I lost everything. Don't know how it happened and could not retrieve it no matter how I tried. I was too pissed off to start over again right then, so I gave myself a little break. But for those interested in more up-to-date travel news, you can check out my sister Johanne's blog at johannel.blogspot.com. We are now travelling together through Thailand (yay!) and she is much better/faster at updating her blog. In the meantime, I will backtrack and post over the next few days details about my time in Malaysia. Hope you enjoy.
After spending New Year's Eve in Singapore, I was off to Kuala Lumpur (KL, as known by the locals). I took a bus from Singapore bright and early on New Year's Day. It was a luxury VIP double-decker coach, complete with assigned seats, massage chairs & my own personal video player. The bus even has an attendant, who serves water, coffee and sandwiches. And all this for less than 15$ CDN!
I arrived in KL a little anxious and very much overwhelmed, as I was still feeling some culture shock since my arrival in Singapore. Adapting to Asia was taking a few days, not as fast as I'd hoped, so my arrival in KL, the largest city in Malaysia, was not without trepidation.
The bus dropped my off at a bus depot, which was pretty much just a big parking lot somewhere in the city. Luckily, I had traded my remaining Singapore dollars for Malaysian Ringgits with a girl at my hostel, cause there were no ATM's to be found on site. My first challenge was to get to the hostel. OK, fairly easily done since there were a dozen or so taxis (or teksi, in Malaysian) drivers looking for a willing sucker, oops sorry, I mean customer. This driver comes to me, I show him where I want to go, he grabs the paper (my reservation confirmation) out of my hands and heads to a group of drivers to ask them directions. There was a lot of eye rolling from the other drivers, cause my guy was just not getting it. This is not reassuring, since as it turns out, my hostel was on a main road in the most touristy area of KL. But lo and behold, after maybe 5 minutes, the light seems to go on over this guy's head! Now all that was left to do was to decide on a price, since of course, he and all of the other drivers refused to use the taxi meter. Not being in the best frame of mind, I accepted the first price quoted to me. I didn't even try to negotiate (doh!) but as it turned out, I didn't get fleeced to badly. Only by about 10 RM, which is 3# CDN.
The rest of the day was spent walking around, trying to get accustomed to the sights and sounds of KL. This city is just as Singapore, but way dirtier and stinkier. But the prices! I was completely amazed by how cheap everything is. A few examples: a 1.5L bottle of water costs 1 RM = 0.30$ CDN, A KFC trio (cause KFC is EVERYWHERE in Malaysia) is 8.60 RM i.e. less than 2.70$ CDN. And KL has lots of western shops and restaurants, with the obligatory Starbucks popping up on every street corner.
The next day I was up at the ungodly hour of 6:30 AM to meet with 2 girls from my hostel to get free tickets to the Petronas Towers. After a 30-minute jog (one of the girls was a very fast walker), I was in line for the daily ticket giveaway. 1400 tickets are dispensed every day for a tour of the SkyBridge that links both towers, and we were told to show up at 7:30AM at the latest or risk missing out. This may have been an exaggeration, but regardless, we were there early so no worries. We got our tickets and were given a 10-minute window to view the SkyBridge. Now, for anyone planning on visiting Kuala Lumpur one day, please skip the SkyBridge and head out to the KL Tower instead. The tickets are more expensive (as in, not free), but you get a much better view of the city, and you actually get to see the Petronas Towers, which are quite beautiful in my opinion.
Now my favorite part of my time in KL was actually about 15 km outside the city. On the list of "must see's" in my Lonely Planet (aka Traveller's Bible), was the Batu caves. So like a good little tourist, I set off to see what it was all about. Part of the adventure was finding the bus that went there, cause even though the direction in my Lonely Planet were quite precise, I still couldn't find the darn bus. After a bit of scrambling and asking 5 different people to get 5 variations on the answer, I spotted a group of tourists (i.e. western looking people) just standing around waiting and looking uncertain. When in doubt, assemble like sheep with other tourists and hope for the best! It usually ends up we are all going to the same place, and this time was no exception. The bus arrived a few minutes later and I was on my way.
Now my arrival at the Batu caves was one of those moments that gave me chills. I didn't know what to except, not really having any idea of what the caves were about, but I was quite amazed when I got there. The sight of the huge gold statue next to the 272 steps leading to the caves was very impressive. Plus, TV junkie that I am, I instantly recognized the place from one of my favorite shows ever, The Amazing Race! I absolutely love it when that happens!
I walked up the steps and enjoyed the great view in the caves. Monkeys were amusing themselves trying to steal food from tourists and getting the last sips of beer in cans thrown in the rubbish bins. Plus, I got to learn about the disturbing Thaipusam, a huge Hindu festival that happens here every Jan/Feb. 1 million devotees make the trek from the city to the caves, many taking part in gruesome and masochistic acts. Piercing their cheeks with steel rods, placing hooks down their backs and hanging thing on them, all to show their devotion.
As per my new pattern it seems, by the 2nd day in KL I was feeling much better and getting into the groove of things. I met a lot of nice people at the hostel, and I find that generally speaking, my fellow travellers through Asia are more sociable than those in NZ or Australia. I haven't spent a day fully on my own since I started my tour in OZ more than 1 month ago. So all in all, a good start to my time in Malaysia!
Thursday, January 3, 2008
Asia first impressions
There's something I feel I should admit to everyone. You see, the thing is, if someone had told me last year that I would be ringing in 2008 in Asia, as part of a 1 year round-the-world trip, I would have said they were absolutely, certifiably nuts. Crazy, no doubt about it. I've never had a burning desire to visit Asia. The opposite actually if I want to be truthful. I even remember discussing travelling to Asia with someone and saying it sounded like my worst nightmare. Way too crowded and too many people for someone not 100% comfortable in crowds. Plus being a picky eater, Asian food is not my favorite. Yet here I am, 1 year later and I'm travelling on my own through South East Asia. Crazy!
Then why am I here, you may ask yourself? Basically this trip has been my opportunity to push myself a little bit (or a lot), to get out there and live life a whole lot differently than my usual 9 to 5 (or in my case 7 to 5) job + watching TV. I want to see exotic places than I might not feel up to seeing when I'm retired, if ever.
All that being said, I was a bit anxious and worried about starting the Asian part of my trip. Hoping that I would adapt well and enjoy this part of my itinerary, since it does represent a huge chunk of my time, in theory. I arrived in Singapore, dubbed "Asia for Dummies" in the Lonely Planet, a bit nervous, exhausted and somewhat overwhelmed.
I definitely felt odd and out of place during my first few hours of walking around. Being a visible minority and not understanding the language being spoken around you is quite the change for me. Then I realised that Singapore is basically just another big city with 1 very clear passion: shopping. The malls are absolutely everywhere, and were very crowded while I was there. I can't say if this is because of an After-Xmas shopping blitz, but whatever the reason, they were packed. Some Singaporean call shopping their hobby or favorite sport, while most tourists seem very happy to spend all their time shopping.
Since shopping ISN'T one of my passions, it seemed to me like there wasn't much to do. I visited/shopped in Little India, visited/shopped on Orchard St., went to the Night Safari (basically a night zoo), visited a museum, and made an aborted attempt at visiting Sentosa Island, Singapore's version of an amusement park/beach resort. I was just so exhausted and hot, I ended up going to the movies instead (yay!!!).
Still, I ended up being happy about my time in Singapore. It gave me a chance to adapt slowly to being a visible minority, and being stared at for some other reason than just my weight. I got the chance to rest a bit as well, taking it easy and recuperate from my time in hot & sweaty Australia.
That's it for now. More on my time in Malaysia later, I've got to go catch a bus!
Then why am I here, you may ask yourself? Basically this trip has been my opportunity to push myself a little bit (or a lot), to get out there and live life a whole lot differently than my usual 9 to 5 (or in my case 7 to 5) job + watching TV. I want to see exotic places than I might not feel up to seeing when I'm retired, if ever.
All that being said, I was a bit anxious and worried about starting the Asian part of my trip. Hoping that I would adapt well and enjoy this part of my itinerary, since it does represent a huge chunk of my time, in theory. I arrived in Singapore, dubbed "Asia for Dummies" in the Lonely Planet, a bit nervous, exhausted and somewhat overwhelmed.
I definitely felt odd and out of place during my first few hours of walking around. Being a visible minority and not understanding the language being spoken around you is quite the change for me. Then I realised that Singapore is basically just another big city with 1 very clear passion: shopping. The malls are absolutely everywhere, and were very crowded while I was there. I can't say if this is because of an After-Xmas shopping blitz, but whatever the reason, they were packed. Some Singaporean call shopping their hobby or favorite sport, while most tourists seem very happy to spend all their time shopping.
Since shopping ISN'T one of my passions, it seemed to me like there wasn't much to do. I visited/shopped in Little India, visited/shopped on Orchard St., went to the Night Safari (basically a night zoo), visited a museum, and made an aborted attempt at visiting Sentosa Island, Singapore's version of an amusement park/beach resort. I was just so exhausted and hot, I ended up going to the movies instead (yay!!!).
Still, I ended up being happy about my time in Singapore. It gave me a chance to adapt slowly to being a visible minority, and being stared at for some other reason than just my weight. I got the chance to rest a bit as well, taking it easy and recuperate from my time in hot & sweaty Australia.
That's it for now. More on my time in Malaysia later, I've got to go catch a bus!
Friday, December 28, 2007
Australia wrap-up
The second part of my Outback tour was touted as being the most boring tour in all of Australia by our tour guide. He said this because there just isn't that much to see or do between Alice Springs and Darwin, just a whole lot of red sand, bushes and a few rocks. But luckily for us, he was a really good tour guide who made an effort to keep it interesting, even if there was a lot of driving involved.
The best stop of the tour was at Devil's Marbles, basically a bunch of huge rocks sitting in the Outback as if they had been placed there by some unknown giants. We scrambled around the rocks, taking amazing pictures at all the best photo ops. It's at one of these photo ops that I had my latest mishap that of course, I'd love to share with you.
Carl, our tour guide, proposed that we take a group photo on top of a big rock. He then looked at me and amended that, hum, maybe we'd be better off taking the photo in front of the rock, not on top of it. You see, the thing was that you actually had to leap onto the rock from a lower rock a few feet away. Imagine, to think he actually doubted my ability to get on the rock! The cheek of him! So of course, I say no, no, I can do it. Or at least try to do it. And of course, what was bound to happen happened. I didn't quite make it far enough, went "splat" onto the rock, lost my shoe somehow (???) and was flat on the rock desperately trying not to fall off like my shoe did. I basically had to scrape myself up onto my knee and then scramble safely onto the rock. I survived, but managed to scrape my knee pretty good. But someone was kind enough to retrieve my shoe from down between 2 rocks, so all was well. Hopefully the pictures will be worth it...
The third and final part of my tour was a 3-day sprint around Kakadu and Litchfield National Parks, way up top near Darwin. I say near Darwin, but really, nothing in Australia is really near anything else, so again, there was a lot of driving involved. This is also where I spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Here are some highlights:
So as I'm writing this, I have now made my way to my first stop in Asia: Singapore! Free Internet at the hostel (cool!) and still hot & humid weather (oh well).
I wish you all a Happy New Year. Hopefully, 2008 will bring you all the best!
The best stop of the tour was at Devil's Marbles, basically a bunch of huge rocks sitting in the Outback as if they had been placed there by some unknown giants. We scrambled around the rocks, taking amazing pictures at all the best photo ops. It's at one of these photo ops that I had my latest mishap that of course, I'd love to share with you.
Carl, our tour guide, proposed that we take a group photo on top of a big rock. He then looked at me and amended that, hum, maybe we'd be better off taking the photo in front of the rock, not on top of it. You see, the thing was that you actually had to leap onto the rock from a lower rock a few feet away. Imagine, to think he actually doubted my ability to get on the rock! The cheek of him! So of course, I say no, no, I can do it. Or at least try to do it. And of course, what was bound to happen happened. I didn't quite make it far enough, went "splat" onto the rock, lost my shoe somehow (???) and was flat on the rock desperately trying not to fall off like my shoe did. I basically had to scrape myself up onto my knee and then scramble safely onto the rock. I survived, but managed to scrape my knee pretty good. But someone was kind enough to retrieve my shoe from down between 2 rocks, so all was well. Hopefully the pictures will be worth it...
The third and final part of my tour was a 3-day sprint around Kakadu and Litchfield National Parks, way up top near Darwin. I say near Darwin, but really, nothing in Australia is really near anything else, so again, there was a lot of driving involved. This is also where I spent Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. Here are some highlights:
- Dragged my ass on an what should have been an easy 3.5 km walk to get to a swimming hole, wearing my fly net the whole time and still getting freaked out by the amount of flies around my face.
- Cooled down in the swimming hole for a while, then dragged my a** back from the swimming hole, this time twisting my ankle, falling and scraping the other knee that had so far been intact.
- Went on a guided night walk through the forest on Xmas Eve, looking for snakes, spiders and crocodiles. Found 2 out of 3 (no snakes) but as an added bonus had my first experience with leeches!
- Had a huge traditional Xmas lunch on our tour, with ham, turkey, chicken, salads, ... all the while fighting off the biting ants and coping with heat.
- Went to another swimming hole after Xmas lunch to cool down again, only to be nibbled on 3 times by biting fish! On my disgusting wounded knee that still won't heal in all this heat and humidity! Arggg!
- Finished off Xmas day by going out to dinner in Darwin with the gang from our tour. Somehow, we didn't get the memo that most restaurants would be closed on Christmas Day. Who knew! ;-) Ended up having an excellent (not) Chinese/Italian take-away meal with the gang.
So as I'm writing this, I have now made my way to my first stop in Asia: Singapore! Free Internet at the hostel (cool!) and still hot & humid weather (oh well).
I wish you all a Happy New Year. Hopefully, 2008 will bring you all the best!
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
An update from the middle of nowhere!
I had a great week on my tour from Adelaide to Alice Springs. This is exactly what I wanted to see of Australia, and I have not been disappointed. It's vast, empty, harsh, hot and so very different from anyplace I've ever seen. From the news I get from home about the snow piling up non-stop in Montreal, I really can't think of anyplace more different than where I am now! By the way, I hope you are all surviving winter so far. I feel for ya! :-)
The first part of my tour covered the trip from Adelaide to Alice Springs, the aforementioned "middle of nowhere". For 6 days, we drove anywhere from 3 to 7 hours a day through the desert, stopping at interesting places along the way for walks or for taking pictures. The highlights for me were Uluru (amazing!) and Kata Tjuta (even prettier than Uluru).
It was also quite the experience for me, with firsts like camping under the stars and sharing duties with 24 strangers for 6 days straight. The group was actually really good, and I met some really nice people. The camping was OK, although I can't say that I'm a fan of feeling dirty all the time (red sand & dust from the desert that covers you from head to toe) nor of sleeping without a pillow. And the showers, well, I'll just leave that to your imagination. Let's just say I am becoming an expert at scanning for bugs like centipedes and cockroaches while rinsing the shampoo from my hair. And I now know to look under the bed for dead mice before going to sleep in an underground cave. Loads of fun! :-)
I promised my sister Julie that I wouldn't complain of the heat, since she is freezing her butt off in Quebec and is not loving the early start to winter you've been getting this year. So this is not a complaint, I swear, it is simply a statement of fact: The Outback is HOT! On the few days where the sun was shinning full blast, you felt like you were baking in the sun. To give you an idea of how hot and dry it gets, when I washed my hands at one of our rest stops, I left the toilet without drying my hands (no towels or dryer) and within 5-10 seconds, my hands were bone dry! I was so amazed, I wet them again just to count how long it took to dry them, and didn't make it to 10 seconds. A bit geeky of me, but I thought it was so cool! And we were quite lucky with the weather, since it wasn't that sunny all the time. We had a few days of clouds, and some rain, and without them, I don't know how I would have managed not to get heat or sunstroke. It's also why most days on the trip start out really early (like as early as 3:45 AM!), so that you can get activities done early in the day before it gets to hot. The hottest parts of the day were spent sitting on a very old, uncomfortable but luckily air-conditioned bus.
I am now in Alice Springs until tomorrow, when the 2nd part of my tour starts. I will probably not be in contact until the day after Christmas, so I wish you all a very Merry Christmas!!! Enjoy this time with your respective families, and stay safe!
As for me, I will probably be missing home a bit next week, but I still appreciate every minute of this trip I'm doing. No regrets or complaints from me!
Merry Christmas!!!
The first part of my tour covered the trip from Adelaide to Alice Springs, the aforementioned "middle of nowhere". For 6 days, we drove anywhere from 3 to 7 hours a day through the desert, stopping at interesting places along the way for walks or for taking pictures. The highlights for me were Uluru (amazing!) and Kata Tjuta (even prettier than Uluru).
It was also quite the experience for me, with firsts like camping under the stars and sharing duties with 24 strangers for 6 days straight. The group was actually really good, and I met some really nice people. The camping was OK, although I can't say that I'm a fan of feeling dirty all the time (red sand & dust from the desert that covers you from head to toe) nor of sleeping without a pillow. And the showers, well, I'll just leave that to your imagination. Let's just say I am becoming an expert at scanning for bugs like centipedes and cockroaches while rinsing the shampoo from my hair. And I now know to look under the bed for dead mice before going to sleep in an underground cave. Loads of fun! :-)
I promised my sister Julie that I wouldn't complain of the heat, since she is freezing her butt off in Quebec and is not loving the early start to winter you've been getting this year. So this is not a complaint, I swear, it is simply a statement of fact: The Outback is HOT! On the few days where the sun was shinning full blast, you felt like you were baking in the sun. To give you an idea of how hot and dry it gets, when I washed my hands at one of our rest stops, I left the toilet without drying my hands (no towels or dryer) and within 5-10 seconds, my hands were bone dry! I was so amazed, I wet them again just to count how long it took to dry them, and didn't make it to 10 seconds. A bit geeky of me, but I thought it was so cool! And we were quite lucky with the weather, since it wasn't that sunny all the time. We had a few days of clouds, and some rain, and without them, I don't know how I would have managed not to get heat or sunstroke. It's also why most days on the trip start out really early (like as early as 3:45 AM!), so that you can get activities done early in the day before it gets to hot. The hottest parts of the day were spent sitting on a very old, uncomfortable but luckily air-conditioned bus.
I am now in Alice Springs until tomorrow, when the 2nd part of my tour starts. I will probably not be in contact until the day after Christmas, so I wish you all a very Merry Christmas!!! Enjoy this time with your respective families, and stay safe!
As for me, I will probably be missing home a bit next week, but I still appreciate every minute of this trip I'm doing. No regrets or complaints from me!
Merry Christmas!!!
Monday, December 10, 2007
Road trip!
My last week started off on a bit of a low, having arrived in Melbourne to find that the hostel I managed to book myself into the day before was a bit scuzzy and sooo not my style. Added to that was me worrying about my plans (i.e. didn't have any yet) for the rest of my time in Australia. This planning as I go along will get some getting used to, but hopefully I'll be an expert at it by the time my trip ends.
I ended up spending my time in Melbourne going to the movies twice ("Death at a funeral" - very funny English movie, "Into the Wild" - liked it a lot) and spending hours on the Internet getting some stuff settled. So don't ask me what I thought of Melbourne, I can't really form an opinion based on what I did or saw... Just don't stay at the Nomads Industry hostel if you come here, although to be fair I've heard that most hostels in Melbourne are of the same quality.
So, once I made some plans, I was ready to move on. I spent a couple of days in Phillip Island, south of Melbourne. This is where the world-famous (at least now it is!) Penguin Parade happens every night. Those of you who've read my previous post about penguins realise that this would be a draw to me, having the chance to some again. This time, the "penguin parade" was a very touristy attraction, with hundreds of people paying good money to sit in a stand on the beach waiting for the penguins to return from the sea at nightfall. It looked more like a "tourist parade" at one point... But when the sun sets, hundreds upon hundreds of penguins make there way from the sea to their little nests on the beach. It really was an amazing site, these cute little 30-cm penguins waddling up from the ocean!
Phillip Island is also where I was introduced to the joys of summer in Australia. No, I'm not talking about the beautiful beaches, although there were plenty, nor the hot weather or blue ocean. No, I'm talking about the bloody Australian flies. You see, there is this well kept secret about Australia that I learned only once I got here. I was warned about the snakes, spiders, killer jellyfish, crocodiles, ... before my arrival, but no one ever mentioned anything about the flies. What's so bad about flies, you ask? Let me tell you, these are not your typical Quebec black flies that buzz in your ear once in a while and move on. These are disgusting, sticky little black flies that Will. Not. Leave. You. Alone. They fly around your face, trying to get into any orifice they can. These charming flies particularly enjoy the eyes, nose, ears and mouth, and nothing will deter them in their quest to drive you absolutely crazy. The only thing that keeps them somewhat away from your face is doing the Aussie wave, also known as the Aussie salute. A constant "whoosh-whooshing" movement in front of your face.
So there I was on Phillip Island, ready for a nice day at the beach. I had packed myself a little picnic lunch, a good book and had big plans for snoozing the afternoon away. I got to the beach, sat down and lasted 30 minutes before I realised I couldn't take it anymore. My hands were cramping up from waving all the time, I couldn't get a bite of my lunch without having 10 flies hovering around my mouth and when I tried to lay down and ignore them, they just had a field day trying to get to my brain through my ears (or so it felt like to me). I gave up and headed to the shops were at least the number of flies would be a bit more manageable, but not before I managed to make a complete fool of myself by having a meltdown right on the main street. As I was waving my hand frantically in front of my face, one fly got to my eye, even behind my sunglasses. I freaked and threw off the sunglasses, which also sent my hat and hairband flying. I was not a happy camper. Then I noticed I had attracted a bit of an audience, so I started laughing. Better that than going absolutely nuts, which is what I felt like doing. The flies have not gotten any better since then, but I think I've adapted now. The Aussie wave is now an automatic thing when I'm outside, so much so I think I may be waving in my sleep...
Next up after Phillip Island was a 3-day road trip from Melbourne to Adelaide, via the Great Ocean Road. I was very excited to drive in Australia, to see if driving on the left-hand side would come back to me quickly (I'd done it before when I worked in the UK for 6 months). It did, and it sure felt good to be behind the wheel of a car, that much I can say! Driving on the left didn't prove to be to much of a challenge, and shifting gears with my left hand is actually more natural to me than the right. What did prove to be a challenge was using the "flicker" to signal a turn instead of using the windshield wipers all the time (the windshield wipers are on the left of the steering wheel, where my "flicker" would be at home). I think I started getting the hang of it on my 3rd day. The drive on the Great Ocean Road is absolutely beautiful. I took so many pictures, it'll take me hours to upload them. Very much worth the while!
I had to upgrade my living arrangements for those few days on the road, since I was travelling during "schoolies" week. "Schoolies" is the Australian version of Spring break for the recent high school graduates. They head "en masse" to the beach, taking up every budget accommodation possible. So I had to upgrade to motels, or else sleep in the car. Not a difficult decision to make! Especially since next up for me is a 2-week tour of the Outback, including 6 nights of camping under the stars!
I hope all of you are enjoying Xmas time at home. I have to admit it is just not the same being so far away and being in a warm climate for Christmastime. Hearing "Jingle Bells" on the radio whilst sweating in 30C weather is just too bizarre for me...
I ended up spending my time in Melbourne going to the movies twice ("Death at a funeral" - very funny English movie, "Into the Wild" - liked it a lot) and spending hours on the Internet getting some stuff settled. So don't ask me what I thought of Melbourne, I can't really form an opinion based on what I did or saw... Just don't stay at the Nomads Industry hostel if you come here, although to be fair I've heard that most hostels in Melbourne are of the same quality.
So, once I made some plans, I was ready to move on. I spent a couple of days in Phillip Island, south of Melbourne. This is where the world-famous (at least now it is!) Penguin Parade happens every night. Those of you who've read my previous post about penguins realise that this would be a draw to me, having the chance to some again. This time, the "penguin parade" was a very touristy attraction, with hundreds of people paying good money to sit in a stand on the beach waiting for the penguins to return from the sea at nightfall. It looked more like a "tourist parade" at one point... But when the sun sets, hundreds upon hundreds of penguins make there way from the sea to their little nests on the beach. It really was an amazing site, these cute little 30-cm penguins waddling up from the ocean!
Phillip Island is also where I was introduced to the joys of summer in Australia. No, I'm not talking about the beautiful beaches, although there were plenty, nor the hot weather or blue ocean. No, I'm talking about the bloody Australian flies. You see, there is this well kept secret about Australia that I learned only once I got here. I was warned about the snakes, spiders, killer jellyfish, crocodiles, ... before my arrival, but no one ever mentioned anything about the flies. What's so bad about flies, you ask? Let me tell you, these are not your typical Quebec black flies that buzz in your ear once in a while and move on. These are disgusting, sticky little black flies that Will. Not. Leave. You. Alone. They fly around your face, trying to get into any orifice they can. These charming flies particularly enjoy the eyes, nose, ears and mouth, and nothing will deter them in their quest to drive you absolutely crazy. The only thing that keeps them somewhat away from your face is doing the Aussie wave, also known as the Aussie salute. A constant "whoosh-whooshing" movement in front of your face.
So there I was on Phillip Island, ready for a nice day at the beach. I had packed myself a little picnic lunch, a good book and had big plans for snoozing the afternoon away. I got to the beach, sat down and lasted 30 minutes before I realised I couldn't take it anymore. My hands were cramping up from waving all the time, I couldn't get a bite of my lunch without having 10 flies hovering around my mouth and when I tried to lay down and ignore them, they just had a field day trying to get to my brain through my ears (or so it felt like to me). I gave up and headed to the shops were at least the number of flies would be a bit more manageable, but not before I managed to make a complete fool of myself by having a meltdown right on the main street. As I was waving my hand frantically in front of my face, one fly got to my eye, even behind my sunglasses. I freaked and threw off the sunglasses, which also sent my hat and hairband flying. I was not a happy camper. Then I noticed I had attracted a bit of an audience, so I started laughing. Better that than going absolutely nuts, which is what I felt like doing. The flies have not gotten any better since then, but I think I've adapted now. The Aussie wave is now an automatic thing when I'm outside, so much so I think I may be waving in my sleep...
Next up after Phillip Island was a 3-day road trip from Melbourne to Adelaide, via the Great Ocean Road. I was very excited to drive in Australia, to see if driving on the left-hand side would come back to me quickly (I'd done it before when I worked in the UK for 6 months). It did, and it sure felt good to be behind the wheel of a car, that much I can say! Driving on the left didn't prove to be to much of a challenge, and shifting gears with my left hand is actually more natural to me than the right. What did prove to be a challenge was using the "flicker" to signal a turn instead of using the windshield wipers all the time (the windshield wipers are on the left of the steering wheel, where my "flicker" would be at home). I think I started getting the hang of it on my 3rd day. The drive on the Great Ocean Road is absolutely beautiful. I took so many pictures, it'll take me hours to upload them. Very much worth the while!
I had to upgrade my living arrangements for those few days on the road, since I was travelling during "schoolies" week. "Schoolies" is the Australian version of Spring break for the recent high school graduates. They head "en masse" to the beach, taking up every budget accommodation possible. So I had to upgrade to motels, or else sleep in the car. Not a difficult decision to make! Especially since next up for me is a 2-week tour of the Outback, including 6 nights of camping under the stars!
I hope all of you are enjoying Xmas time at home. I have to admit it is just not the same being so far away and being in a warm climate for Christmastime. Hearing "Jingle Bells" on the radio whilst sweating in 30C weather is just too bizarre for me...
Thursday, November 29, 2007
In the land Down Under
So I've been getting some subtle and not so subtle hints to update my blog more often. Sorry about that, but I do my best...
I've been in Australia for the past week, enjoying the sights and melting in the humidity. I am shocked to see how unfortunately and digustingly sweaty I get in this weather, and it's only been in the low to mid 20's since I've arrived. I simply cannot (I repeat, I cannot) fathom what 39C with 100% humidity feels like! I'm not sure I want to know, but I suspect I'll find out in the next few weeks when travelling up north into the tropical Top End of Australia. But enough about the weather for now.
I arrived in Sydney last Friday, and have been living the high life since then. I've been staying at my cousin Doug's & his wife Beth's place in Sydney, located right in the middle of things in Darling Harbour. Doug & Beth have been very welcoming, and I've been treated like a royal visitor. A personal tour guide, amazing home cooked meals, a room to myself, a nice reprieve from my current backpacking lifestyle!
My days in Sydney have been somewhat lazy, since I have been mostly enjoying the above. I did get the chance to visit the central
business district, see the Opera House and walk for what seems like miles around various Sydney neighborhoods. The highlight of my sightseeing in Sydney was the BridgeClimb, where, as the name suggest, you climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge up to the very top (see picture below). It wasn't too difficult, even for little old me. The worse bit may have been my half-jog to get to the BridgeClimb in time for my 1:15PM climb, having misjudged the time it would take me to walk there and having lazed around all morning doing my laundry and talking on Skype. I was red-faced and sweaty even before starting the climb. Charming. :-)
I left Tuesday morning for a 2-day getaway to the Blue Mountains, where I had my first chance to partake in the very typical Australian pastime of bushwalking. Now for those of you who aren't very up on their Aussie lingo, the "bush" is a very general term used for what we Canucks would call "woods" or "forest". I didn't know this before getting here by the way, I thought the bush referred to the Outback. But no, those are 2 different and separate things...
My first bushwalk started on a cloudy afternoon, in walking distance from the hostel I was staying at in Katoomba (cool name, isn't it?). The scenery is gorgeous, and I was really enjoying myself, walking on a trail high on the cliff surrounding the most amazingly green canyon far below. I was quite thrilled that there I was, "bushwalking" in Australia, all the way across the world from my home. I enjoyed myself for a full 10 minutes, until it hit me. There I was, in the bush in Australia, land of the killer snakes and spiders. The country that has the most ways you can die an ugly death at the hands of reptiles and arachnids. I kind of froze for a minute there as I remembered this, but started moving again, slowly and with a little less enjoyment than I was having a few minutes before. I also remembered what Beth told me, that even though you hear all these scary things about Australia, you probably won't ever see any of the things that can kill you. But still, "probably" isn't all that reassuring when you're on your own in the bush.
I did manage to enjoy the rest of my walk, but I can't say that I saw much of the scenery as I was walking. I was too busy looking out for snakes and spiders. And I did see quite a few spiders, but they were smallish and I'm pretty sure they weren't of the killer variety. I didn't see snakes but I did see a small iguana/lizard/some kind of reptile.
The next day I had more bushwalking planned. There is this one walk that involves the "Giant Stairway", with 800 or so steps leading into the bottom of the canyon from high on the cliff above. This is where a few years ago Doug & Beth saw a girl puking near the top of the steps, after her climb up. Puking not being high on my list of things to do while in Australia, I decided to go down the steps and back up further along the trail in a 10$ gondola ride. Call me lazy if you want, but it was still quite the workout just going down the bloody steps. My legs certainly feel it today as a result of my walk yesterday.
I'm heading off to Melbourne this Sunday. I am doing it the "flashpacker" way, i.e. I am going to Melbourne on a 2-hour flight instead of taking the 12-hour overnight bus. For an extra 30$ AUD, I got myself a cheap flight and I am very happy about it. For those following on Google Earth, the rest of my time in Australia should be spent visiting Melbourne, going from Melbourne to Adelaide via the Great Ocean Road, from Adelaide to Alice Springs via Coober Peddy, then an organized tour of Outback highlights (Uluru, Kings Canyon, the Olgas) from Alice Springs to Darwin, which should be my final destination in Australia. There are so many places to see and the country is so big that you really can't do it all in 5-6 weeks. You have to make choices, and those are mine, even if they involve some of the hottest places on earth at this time of the year. Anyone want to join me? :-)
I've been in Australia for the past week, enjoying the sights and melting in the humidity. I am shocked to see how unfortunately and digustingly sweaty I get in this weather, and it's only been in the low to mid 20's since I've arrived. I simply cannot (I repeat, I cannot) fathom what 39C with 100% humidity feels like! I'm not sure I want to know, but I suspect I'll find out in the next few weeks when travelling up north into the tropical Top End of Australia. But enough about the weather for now.
I arrived in Sydney last Friday, and have been living the high life since then. I've been staying at my cousin Doug's & his wife Beth's place in Sydney, located right in the middle of things in Darling Harbour. Doug & Beth have been very welcoming, and I've been treated like a royal visitor. A personal tour guide, amazing home cooked meals, a room to myself, a nice reprieve from my current backpacking lifestyle!
My days in Sydney have been somewhat lazy, since I have been mostly enjoying the above. I did get the chance to visit the central
business district, see the Opera House and walk for what seems like miles around various Sydney neighborhoods. The highlight of my sightseeing in Sydney was the BridgeClimb, where, as the name suggest, you climb the Sydney Harbour Bridge up to the very top (see picture below). It wasn't too difficult, even for little old me. The worse bit may have been my half-jog to get to the BridgeClimb in time for my 1:15PM climb, having misjudged the time it would take me to walk there and having lazed around all morning doing my laundry and talking on Skype. I was red-faced and sweaty even before starting the climb. Charming. :-)I left Tuesday morning for a 2-day getaway to the Blue Mountains, where I had my first chance to partake in the very typical Australian pastime of bushwalking. Now for those of you who aren't very up on their Aussie lingo, the "bush" is a very general term used for what we Canucks would call "woods" or "forest". I didn't know this before getting here by the way, I thought the bush referred to the Outback. But no, those are 2 different and separate things...
My first bushwalk started on a cloudy afternoon, in walking distance from the hostel I was staying at in Katoomba (cool name, isn't it?). The scenery is gorgeous, and I was really enjoying myself, walking on a trail high on the cliff surrounding the most amazingly green canyon far below. I was quite thrilled that there I was, "bushwalking" in Australia, all the way across the world from my home. I enjoyed myself for a full 10 minutes, until it hit me. There I was, in the bush in Australia, land of the killer snakes and spiders. The country that has the most ways you can die an ugly death at the hands of reptiles and arachnids. I kind of froze for a minute there as I remembered this, but started moving again, slowly and with a little less enjoyment than I was having a few minutes before. I also remembered what Beth told me, that even though you hear all these scary things about Australia, you probably won't ever see any of the things that can kill you. But still, "probably" isn't all that reassuring when you're on your own in the bush.
I did manage to enjoy the rest of my walk, but I can't say that I saw much of the scenery as I was walking. I was too busy looking out for snakes and spiders. And I did see quite a few spiders, but they were smallish and I'm pretty sure they weren't of the killer variety. I didn't see snakes but I did see a small iguana/lizard/some kind of reptile.
The next day I had more bushwalking planned. There is this one walk that involves the "Giant Stairway", with 800 or so steps leading into the bottom of the canyon from high on the cliff above. This is where a few years ago Doug & Beth saw a girl puking near the top of the steps, after her climb up. Puking not being high on my list of things to do while in Australia, I decided to go down the steps and back up further along the trail in a 10$ gondola ride. Call me lazy if you want, but it was still quite the workout just going down the bloody steps. My legs certainly feel it today as a result of my walk yesterday.
I'm heading off to Melbourne this Sunday. I am doing it the "flashpacker" way, i.e. I am going to Melbourne on a 2-hour flight instead of taking the 12-hour overnight bus. For an extra 30$ AUD, I got myself a cheap flight and I am very happy about it. For those following on Google Earth, the rest of my time in Australia should be spent visiting Melbourne, going from Melbourne to Adelaide via the Great Ocean Road, from Adelaide to Alice Springs via Coober Peddy, then an organized tour of Outback highlights (Uluru, Kings Canyon, the Olgas) from Alice Springs to Darwin, which should be my final destination in Australia. There are so many places to see and the country is so big that you really can't do it all in 5-6 weeks. You have to make choices, and those are mine, even if they involve some of the hottest places on earth at this time of the year. Anyone want to join me? :-)
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
My last week in New Zealand
OK, so I don't want to rub it in, really I don't. I know that it snowed this week in Montreal, and more snow is expected in the forecast, but the weather here in New Zealand has been seriously great these past few days! I've just spent the better part of today working on my farmer's tan and maybe a little bit of sunburn as well. It was 28C and not a white cloud to be seen. Pretty good for the end of November, hey?
I've continued to enjoy my time in New Zealand since the last post. I'd say the pace has definitely slowed down a lot from the first weeks of the Magic trip, when I was on the move to a new destination almost every day. I've had the chance to relax a bit more in a few places, and it's been great.
For those non-adventure lovers out there (there are bound to be a few!) , I did 2 excursions you might be interested in if you ever make your way to New Zealand. The first started from Dunedin, NZ's very-own Scottish town. The weather was not the best when I was there, and I had my coldest days since being in NZ (min 1C, max 8C. Brrrr!), which is saying a lot. I decided to do an "Animal safari", since it sounded good and was a nice way to spend my day in Dunedin instead of doing nothing but avoid the cold and wet weather. First off on the Animal safari was a stop to see some Royal Albatross, the largest sea birds around. Now if you're anything like me, you're thinking at this point: ooh, big deal, birds... I'm not into birds too much, so even if I did see a Royal Albatross, I could barely tell the difference between this and a normal "mouette", at least not from afar. But our guides were really excited that we got to see one, so I guess that means I'm lucky, right? Next up the guides brought us to a farm by the sea where we got to watch my new favorite animal (or bird?): the penguin. We walked through farmland to the beach to see the tiny little penguins return from a hard day at sea. Some of the older penguins are used to seeing humans, so they don't mind you so much, but the younger ones are a bit nervous. They would swim out of the sea, start waddling up the beach, then stop dead in their tracks. They'd look up at us to where we were standing still more than a 100 meters away and do a u-turn and head right back to the sea. Or stand very still and pretend to be invisible. Too cute! We were also brought to a shelter on a hill by the beach, where we could watch the penguins moving around without them seeing us. We saw some newly hatched penguins being protected by their parent, and other eggs just starting to hatch. Very cool!
The other non-adventurous activity I did took place in Lake Tekapo, this very small village that has a summer camp/cottage feel to it. Reminded me of the Laurentians. Anyway, the weather was so nice and a great change from the cold and wet weather of Dunedin, that I decided to stay 2 nights instead of just one. On my first night there, I did a star-gazing tour. Since I never get to see the stars even at home, being so close to all those lights emanating from Montreal, star-gazing is something I really wanted to do while in NZ. I was lucky enough to arrive in Lake Tekapo to great weather and cloudless skies. There is also an observatory up on a hill close by, so now was my chance to see the Southern sky at its best, plus get close-ups of the Moon and constellations via a huge telescope. The "tour" began at 11:30PM and lasted until close to 2AM. I got to see literally thousands of stars in a sky so bright and lit up that it looked fake. Brilliant!
Aside from that, I enjoyed spending a relaxing day sitting on the beach by Lake Tekapo, with nothing more pressing on my agenda then doing my washing and calling home. Since then, I have moved on to Christchurch, my last destination in New Zealand. I've spent a couple of days walking around and visiting, as well as thinking about my next destination: Australia. Even if I've enjoyed New Zealand tremendously and I think it was the best place to start my trip, I'm looking forward to moving on to a new country now. It's kind of like starting over on a new trip, but with a bit more "backpacking" experience under my belt. Not much, since NZ was so easy, but I don't have the same worries I did when I started my trip in October. I now know I can do this, and enjoy every challenge along the way. It has now been more than a month since I've stopped work, and I must say I am in no rush to get back. I have plenty of other things to do, places to see, people to meet, new "favorites" to discover...
I've continued to enjoy my time in New Zealand since the last post. I'd say the pace has definitely slowed down a lot from the first weeks of the Magic trip, when I was on the move to a new destination almost every day. I've had the chance to relax a bit more in a few places, and it's been great.
For those non-adventure lovers out there (there are bound to be a few!) , I did 2 excursions you might be interested in if you ever make your way to New Zealand. The first started from Dunedin, NZ's very-own Scottish town. The weather was not the best when I was there, and I had my coldest days since being in NZ (min 1C, max 8C. Brrrr!), which is saying a lot. I decided to do an "Animal safari", since it sounded good and was a nice way to spend my day in Dunedin instead of doing nothing but avoid the cold and wet weather. First off on the Animal safari was a stop to see some Royal Albatross, the largest sea birds around. Now if you're anything like me, you're thinking at this point: ooh, big deal, birds... I'm not into birds too much, so even if I did see a Royal Albatross, I could barely tell the difference between this and a normal "mouette", at least not from afar. But our guides were really excited that we got to see one, so I guess that means I'm lucky, right? Next up the guides brought us to a farm by the sea where we got to watch my new favorite animal (or bird?): the penguin. We walked through farmland to the beach to see the tiny little penguins return from a hard day at sea. Some of the older penguins are used to seeing humans, so they don't mind you so much, but the younger ones are a bit nervous. They would swim out of the sea, start waddling up the beach, then stop dead in their tracks. They'd look up at us to where we were standing still more than a 100 meters away and do a u-turn and head right back to the sea. Or stand very still and pretend to be invisible. Too cute! We were also brought to a shelter on a hill by the beach, where we could watch the penguins moving around without them seeing us. We saw some newly hatched penguins being protected by their parent, and other eggs just starting to hatch. Very cool!
The other non-adventurous activity I did took place in Lake Tekapo, this very small village that has a summer camp/cottage feel to it. Reminded me of the Laurentians. Anyway, the weather was so nice and a great change from the cold and wet weather of Dunedin, that I decided to stay 2 nights instead of just one. On my first night there, I did a star-gazing tour. Since I never get to see the stars even at home, being so close to all those lights emanating from Montreal, star-gazing is something I really wanted to do while in NZ. I was lucky enough to arrive in Lake Tekapo to great weather and cloudless skies. There is also an observatory up on a hill close by, so now was my chance to see the Southern sky at its best, plus get close-ups of the Moon and constellations via a huge telescope. The "tour" began at 11:30PM and lasted until close to 2AM. I got to see literally thousands of stars in a sky so bright and lit up that it looked fake. Brilliant!
Aside from that, I enjoyed spending a relaxing day sitting on the beach by Lake Tekapo, with nothing more pressing on my agenda then doing my washing and calling home. Since then, I have moved on to Christchurch, my last destination in New Zealand. I've spent a couple of days walking around and visiting, as well as thinking about my next destination: Australia. Even if I've enjoyed New Zealand tremendously and I think it was the best place to start my trip, I'm looking forward to moving on to a new country now. It's kind of like starting over on a new trip, but with a bit more "backpacking" experience under my belt. Not much, since NZ was so easy, but I don't have the same worries I did when I started my trip in October. I now know I can do this, and enjoy every challenge along the way. It has now been more than a month since I've stopped work, and I must say I am in no rush to get back. I have plenty of other things to do, places to see, people to meet, new "favorites" to discover...
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Cruising in the southland...
I had already decided earlier on during my trip that I would treat myself to an overnight trip to either Milford or Doubtful Sound when I was in the South Island. A day-trip to Milford Sound, part of NZ's famous "fiordland", is almost mandatory for any visitor to New Zealand, but I had met a few people who had mentioned that the day trips are really long days and there is a lot of sitting on a bus involved. If you can afford an extra 100$ or so, you can do an overnight cruise and that breaks up the long bus ride and gives you an extra special place to sleep that night! Since I'm not spending thousands on bungies and etc..., I decided to go for it. I also had to choose between Milford & Doubtful Sounds, both beautiful fiords but each with their own "cachet". I chose the lesser travelled Doubtful Sound, simply because it is usually more expensive than Milford Sound but was on special the day I booked it. By a "poule de luxe" standard, if it was more expensive, it had to be better, right? Sorry, I'm not really that shallow. It's really the cute guy at the hostel reception desk that convinced me to go the Doubtful instead of Milford ;-)
So bright and early Monday morning I was off to catch a coach (bus, for us Canadians) for the first part of my journey to Doubtful Sound. The bus brings you as far as it can, then you hop on a boat to cross a lake (Lake Manganui) and take another bus that finally brings you to your final destination, a 70-passenger boat waiting for you on Doubtful Sound.
I had heard somewhere that "fiordland" is the wettest place in NZ, and thought that it rained there something like 350 days out of every 365. It turns out I was misinformed, it only rains about 200 days a year, but it does get the most rainfall in all of NZ. Everywhere else measures rainfall in millimeters, but there they measure it in meters. Seriously. Some parts get more than 6 meters of rain a year! All this to say that I was really expecting it to be rainy, and I was not disappointed. The ship's crew make a really big effort to make sure the passengers don't let the weather influence their experience. The fact that is was raining hard is actually a bonus, as you get to see dozens of "temporary" waterfalls falling from the cliffs. One of these waterfalls is actually higher than Victoria Falls in Africa, but it doesn't "count" as it is temporary. Meaning when the rain stops, so does the waterfall... Actually, I'll have to look that up. The guides on coaches and boats can basically tell you anything and you'll believe it. I must learn a bit more skepticism. (side note: my first "Magic" coach driver told us to look out the window at the new breed of animal they are raising in NZ. A sort of sheep, but with a long neck like a giraffe. it's called the "shiraffe". I actually believed it for maybe 10 seconds until I saw some lamas grazing in a field. I called the bus driver on it later that night in the bar, and he just laughed and told me they make up stuff all the time...)
Back to the cruise: It was a beautiful trip, in an almost mystical looking place. Because it is so remote and in a protected 3million square km park, you feel like you are in the middle of nowhere and are the only people there. With all the mist and rain and waterfalls, there is an eerie mystical feeling to the place. It's not to be missed if you ever decide to visit NZ!
The ship was nice, my shared cabin the smallest room I have ever slept in. It's no bigger than a train sleeping car, with 4 bunk beds. I met 2 Scottish girls and 2 Kiwi guys and spent most of my time with them. On the trip back to Queenstown, the sun poked out of the clouds, but not for long. It has been raining off and on since then, so I've attended to the mundane tasks of laundry, shopping and Blog instead of freezing my butt outside in cold wet weather! (another side note: really, if you ever decide to come to NZ, make sure you pack a jacket or fleece or something more than a cotton hoodie!)
And one last thing, thanks to my sister Johanne for reminding me to update my profile with my new age. That was really nice of you ;-)
So bright and early Monday morning I was off to catch a coach (bus, for us Canadians) for the first part of my journey to Doubtful Sound. The bus brings you as far as it can, then you hop on a boat to cross a lake (Lake Manganui) and take another bus that finally brings you to your final destination, a 70-passenger boat waiting for you on Doubtful Sound.
I had heard somewhere that "fiordland" is the wettest place in NZ, and thought that it rained there something like 350 days out of every 365. It turns out I was misinformed, it only rains about 200 days a year, but it does get the most rainfall in all of NZ. Everywhere else measures rainfall in millimeters, but there they measure it in meters. Seriously. Some parts get more than 6 meters of rain a year! All this to say that I was really expecting it to be rainy, and I was not disappointed. The ship's crew make a really big effort to make sure the passengers don't let the weather influence their experience. The fact that is was raining hard is actually a bonus, as you get to see dozens of "temporary" waterfalls falling from the cliffs. One of these waterfalls is actually higher than Victoria Falls in Africa, but it doesn't "count" as it is temporary. Meaning when the rain stops, so does the waterfall... Actually, I'll have to look that up. The guides on coaches and boats can basically tell you anything and you'll believe it. I must learn a bit more skepticism. (side note: my first "Magic" coach driver told us to look out the window at the new breed of animal they are raising in NZ. A sort of sheep, but with a long neck like a giraffe. it's called the "shiraffe". I actually believed it for maybe 10 seconds until I saw some lamas grazing in a field. I called the bus driver on it later that night in the bar, and he just laughed and told me they make up stuff all the time...)
Back to the cruise: It was a beautiful trip, in an almost mystical looking place. Because it is so remote and in a protected 3million square km park, you feel like you are in the middle of nowhere and are the only people there. With all the mist and rain and waterfalls, there is an eerie mystical feeling to the place. It's not to be missed if you ever decide to visit NZ!
The ship was nice, my shared cabin the smallest room I have ever slept in. It's no bigger than a train sleeping car, with 4 bunk beds. I met 2 Scottish girls and 2 Kiwi guys and spent most of my time with them. On the trip back to Queenstown, the sun poked out of the clouds, but not for long. It has been raining off and on since then, so I've attended to the mundane tasks of laundry, shopping and Blog instead of freezing my butt outside in cold wet weather! (another side note: really, if you ever decide to come to NZ, make sure you pack a jacket or fleece or something more than a cotton hoodie!)
And one last thing, thanks to my sister Johanne for reminding me to update my profile with my new age. That was really nice of you ;-)
Sunday, November 11, 2007
Birthday blast-off!
First of all, thanks to all of you for your birthday wishes, emails and videos. It was good to feel so close to all of you on what could have been a tough day far from home... Thanks again!
My "New Zealand" birthday started off bright and early to the sounds of helicopters buzzing in the sky. A good sign for my own helicopter trip planned for 10AM! But then a glance out the window got me worried, as it was very cloudy and visibility seemed low. And even if some companies take their helicopters out for tours and heli-hikes, it didn't necessarily mean that my company would...
I left for the helicopter place at 9:30, just to be sure I wouldn't be late. The village is so small, it literally takes 5 minutes to get from one end to the other. So I left my hostel at 9:30 and was at the helicopter place at 9:32, only to be told that all flights were cancelled for this morning and I was rescheduled for 2 PM. I wasn't exactly pleased about this, even though only fickle Mother Nature was to blame. This meant I had to be back at the helicopter place at 1:30PM, which also meant I didn't have much time for walking around the glacier as I had planned. The next bus available for the actual glacier area was in 1 hour, and I would only have 2 hours there before I had to get back on the next bus. Oh well. What can you do.
So after killing 1 hour waiting for the bus and honestly feeling a bit sorry for myself, (yeah, poor little me, I know) off I went to the glacier. It was really something special to see and I thoroughly enjoyed the walk through the rain forest to get to the glacier itself. Kind of weird thinking of glaciers and rain forests in the same context, but there you go, that's NZ for you. The glacier itself is impressive, with spots of blue ice visible even from the ground. And for once I wasn't the slowest walker on the planet, as I made it to the glacier and back in plenty of time to do another walk, that brought you to a lake with a reflection of the glacier in the water. Spectacular, but you'll have to take my word for it, since I only had a disposable camera with me. Forget trying to buy a digital camera in Franz Josef, they only sell disposable cameras at the gas station and one tourist shop. Still, the view of the lake and the glacier was excellent.
I then rushed back to the village and kept my fingers crossed that my scenic flight would happen. The day was clearing up, but not that fast and there were still lots of clouds around. I was at the office at 1PM and was told that no flights had left yet, but to come back in 30 minutes. At this point, I'm already resigned to the fact that I won't be going but that at least I got to see the glacier up close and I enjoyed it. So, back to the office at 1:30 after a 30-minute, 90 cent call home, only to be told to wait again. 1:35, 1:40, 1:45, ... and finally, at 2 PM I was told it was a go! Woo hoo! Off I went accompanied by 3 Americans (1 older couple and 1 guy my age) across the street to the helipad. We were briefed on what to do and not do around the helicopter (i.e. don't raise your arms around the back of the helicopter like that Dr. did on ER) and settled into the helicopter. I was sitting up front, right next to the gorgeous helicopter pilot (something about pilots and firemen. It must be in their job descriptions...) and off we went!!! It was amazing, not scary at all. It just kind of floats up, up and away! The clouds were still heavy around the base of the glacier, but we quickly got above them and saw the glacier up close. You could see the crevasses and blue ice really well. The helicopter flew around both the Franz Josef and Fox glaciers, as then brought us close to Mt Cook, NZ highest mountain. The scenery was unbelievable and the 40-minute helicopter ride worth every penny! We even got to land on one of the glaciers and kick around in the snow. I have to admit the snow part was not too impressive coming from a Quebecois who dislikes winter, but the landing on a glacier part was worth it! I took 20 or so pictures with my disposable camera. I have no clue how they'll come out, but I'll sure remember my *gasp* 37th birthday for a long while!
My birthday then got even better since I spoke to all my sisters at once after my flight. I think I was still giddy from the experience, so I doubt I was really coherent... I was told to make sure I checked my email today, so off I went to the Internet cafe, funnily enough located inside an old red bus. My family had had a dinner party the previous weekend since my parents are off to Florida for the winter, and they had all taped little messages for me and posted them on YouTube. They even sang me Happy birthday and had a birthday cake for me as well! It was great, and I didn't shed more than 2 tears, so that was good to.
That's it for today! I am now in Queenstown, a.k.a. Adventure capital of the world. It's a beautiful place, but I was kind of at a loss today as to what to do when you're not into bungy, white-water rafting, sky-diving, jet boating, ... I ended up going shopping in a local shopping area to get myself a better deal on a digital camera than in all the tourist shops in Queenstown. I think I got an excellent deal for NZ. The camera I bought here is exactly the same price as I found on FutureShop, and a girl I met in my hostel dorm has the same one and paid more than 100$ extra in Australia for hers. So not bad.
For those following me on Google Earth, I'm off tomorrow on an overnight cruise to Doubtful Sound. Hasta luego!
My "New Zealand" birthday started off bright and early to the sounds of helicopters buzzing in the sky. A good sign for my own helicopter trip planned for 10AM! But then a glance out the window got me worried, as it was very cloudy and visibility seemed low. And even if some companies take their helicopters out for tours and heli-hikes, it didn't necessarily mean that my company would...
I left for the helicopter place at 9:30, just to be sure I wouldn't be late. The village is so small, it literally takes 5 minutes to get from one end to the other. So I left my hostel at 9:30 and was at the helicopter place at 9:32, only to be told that all flights were cancelled for this morning and I was rescheduled for 2 PM. I wasn't exactly pleased about this, even though only fickle Mother Nature was to blame. This meant I had to be back at the helicopter place at 1:30PM, which also meant I didn't have much time for walking around the glacier as I had planned. The next bus available for the actual glacier area was in 1 hour, and I would only have 2 hours there before I had to get back on the next bus. Oh well. What can you do.
So after killing 1 hour waiting for the bus and honestly feeling a bit sorry for myself, (yeah, poor little me, I know) off I went to the glacier. It was really something special to see and I thoroughly enjoyed the walk through the rain forest to get to the glacier itself. Kind of weird thinking of glaciers and rain forests in the same context, but there you go, that's NZ for you. The glacier itself is impressive, with spots of blue ice visible even from the ground. And for once I wasn't the slowest walker on the planet, as I made it to the glacier and back in plenty of time to do another walk, that brought you to a lake with a reflection of the glacier in the water. Spectacular, but you'll have to take my word for it, since I only had a disposable camera with me. Forget trying to buy a digital camera in Franz Josef, they only sell disposable cameras at the gas station and one tourist shop. Still, the view of the lake and the glacier was excellent.
I then rushed back to the village and kept my fingers crossed that my scenic flight would happen. The day was clearing up, but not that fast and there were still lots of clouds around. I was at the office at 1PM and was told that no flights had left yet, but to come back in 30 minutes. At this point, I'm already resigned to the fact that I won't be going but that at least I got to see the glacier up close and I enjoyed it. So, back to the office at 1:30 after a 30-minute, 90 cent call home, only to be told to wait again. 1:35, 1:40, 1:45, ... and finally, at 2 PM I was told it was a go! Woo hoo! Off I went accompanied by 3 Americans (1 older couple and 1 guy my age) across the street to the helipad. We were briefed on what to do and not do around the helicopter (i.e. don't raise your arms around the back of the helicopter like that Dr. did on ER) and settled into the helicopter. I was sitting up front, right next to the gorgeous helicopter pilot (something about pilots and firemen. It must be in their job descriptions...) and off we went!!! It was amazing, not scary at all. It just kind of floats up, up and away! The clouds were still heavy around the base of the glacier, but we quickly got above them and saw the glacier up close. You could see the crevasses and blue ice really well. The helicopter flew around both the Franz Josef and Fox glaciers, as then brought us close to Mt Cook, NZ highest mountain. The scenery was unbelievable and the 40-minute helicopter ride worth every penny! We even got to land on one of the glaciers and kick around in the snow. I have to admit the snow part was not too impressive coming from a Quebecois who dislikes winter, but the landing on a glacier part was worth it! I took 20 or so pictures with my disposable camera. I have no clue how they'll come out, but I'll sure remember my *gasp* 37th birthday for a long while!
My birthday then got even better since I spoke to all my sisters at once after my flight. I think I was still giddy from the experience, so I doubt I was really coherent... I was told to make sure I checked my email today, so off I went to the Internet cafe, funnily enough located inside an old red bus. My family had had a dinner party the previous weekend since my parents are off to Florida for the winter, and they had all taped little messages for me and posted them on YouTube. They even sang me Happy birthday and had a birthday cake for me as well! It was great, and I didn't shed more than 2 tears, so that was good to.
That's it for today! I am now in Queenstown, a.k.a. Adventure capital of the world. It's a beautiful place, but I was kind of at a loss today as to what to do when you're not into bungy, white-water rafting, sky-diving, jet boating, ... I ended up going shopping in a local shopping area to get myself a better deal on a digital camera than in all the tourist shops in Queenstown. I think I got an excellent deal for NZ. The camera I bought here is exactly the same price as I found on FutureShop, and a girl I met in my hostel dorm has the same one and paid more than 100$ extra in Australia for hers. So not bad.
For those following me on Google Earth, I'm off tomorrow on an overnight cruise to Doubtful Sound. Hasta luego!
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
A rainy day update
So, I've only been gone 3 weeks and already I'm slacking off in the blog department. Sorry about that... My days are usually pretty filled and although I do have time to check my emails, I haven't really had that much time to update the blog. But it's poring rain right now in Franz Josef and I've just bought a 2-hour Internet card, so here I go!
The past week has continued to be very busy and beautiful. I really have been lucky in the weather department, with little rain and when it has, it didn't really matter. I've also continued to be a wuss, spending a couple of hours last Friday watching people do bungy. In this case, I actually take back the wuss thing and just say that I've been really smart. Throwing yourself off a bridge with a rubber band tied around your ankle just seems silly to me :-) But watching other people do it sure is entertaining!
After Taupo, a nice little village somewhere in the middle of the North Island, the bus headed for Wellington. It was a long day's drive with lots of stops here and there. One stop will be interesting to Lord of the Ring fans: the drive goes through a desert road where you get this amazing view of 3 mountains, one of which being Mt. Doom in the Lord of The Rings movies. It was really cool, even though I have to admit to not being a real fan of the movies (blasphemy here in NZ). I hope to post a few nice pictures of it soon.
Speaking of The Lord of the Rings, guess what movie is played in almost every single hostel TV room here in NZ? You guessed it, LOTR. I guess people like to watch it again after seeing the locations "in real life".
A had a short stay in Wellington, only 2 nights - 1 day, as I was in a rush to get to the South Island. Wellington was OK, basically another big city but with a nice seaside location. In really lives up to its nickname of "Windy Wellington", or at least it did for the time I was there. Visited another museum (probably my last in NZ, since they are not my favorite places), walked around the city, took the Cable car up to the Botanical Gardens and walked back to the city center. I also caved in and went to my first movie of my trip. It had been at least 3 weeks after all since I'd been to the movies! I saw "Atonement", a British movie that may have played at home a few months back, but I'm not sure. All the other movies playing were at least 2-3 months behind what we get at home, so I'm assuming this was the same. It was a good movie, or at least a good way to spend 2 hours out of the wind and resting my feet!
I was up and early on Monday to take the ferry across the Cook Strait to the South Island. The ferry was huge, has a movie theater among other things to keep people quiet during the 2.5 hour journey. I was really surprised that the crossing is actually from west to east and not north to south as you would assume. It seems that Wellington on the North Island is actually lower south than Picton, the ferry terminal on the South Island. Who knew!
Next stop was Nelson, another very quaint village. I checked out the town for a couple of hours and got ready for the next day's "Seal safari". Nelson is close to Abel Tasman national park, an amazing area with lots of secluded bays, beaches and a really famous tramping (i.e. walking) path. I'd booked myself a "Seal safari", which was basically a combination of bus to get you to Abel Tasman, a boat to cruise along a few bays and visit the seal colony and a 1.5 hour walk back to a bay to finally be picked up by a water taxi to do the trip in reverse. It was a gorgeous day, with a beautiful blue sky, but still pretty damn cold. I had 4 layers up top and spent most of the day with all of them on. The only time I took my hoodie off was after huffing and puffing my way uphill for a while. But the kicker was the visit to the seal "colony". The boat stops for 5 minutes across from an island where I counted 5 seals. Supposedly they are all off somewhere busy mating or something. I saw another 3 more swimming in the sea, so grand total for the "Seal Safari" was 8! Still, I had a really good time. I walked back with 2 other girls, and even though I huffed and puffed uphill, it was a relatively easy walk. At the very end of the trail, we had to choose between the low tide trail and the high tide trail. When in doubt, you would think that we'd have chosen the high tide trail, but no, we went with the other obvious choice of following the group ahead of you and assuming they know what they are doing. Just as obviously, they didn't. We ended up having to roll up our pants, take our shoes and socks off to wade across a little stream or pond to get to the beach. Cold, but it was pretty funny, especially watching other more complainy type of people get all worried about getting their feet wet... Funnier still were the stories one of the girls shared with us about her time spent in Australia. Can't really repeat them here though ;-)
Next up was another looooong bus day to get from Nelson to Greymouth. The only claim to fame of Greymouth, besides being a mandatory overnight stop on the Magic bus, is the Monteiths brewery tour. For 25 NZD you get a tour of the brewery, a taste test of all 7 of their brews as well as an all-you-can-eat sausage diner with a free pint of your favorite brew. It's a good opportunity to meet more people (as if you don't meet enough already every day on the bus and sleeping in dorms all the time!). I spent awhile talking to a couple of American girls who had just come from India, Thailand and Australia. I left with a couple of notes on what to do and where to go, and I am already looking forward to the next destinations!
So it's still going really well, if a little rushed sometimes. I'm looking forward to sleeping somewhere more than 2 nights in a row. Like I said, I've been meeting a lot of people, mostly from the hostels and the bus. Have I mentioned though that it seems that mostly girls/women travel to NZ on their own? There have to be guys/men somewhere, but they certainly aren't on the Magic bus or in the hostels I've stayed in. On most days, our bus is filled with lets say 20 girls and 1 guy travelling with his girlfriend. And most of those 20 girls are English or Irish. Bizarre...
Off to do some camera shopping as mine bit the dust a couple of days ago. I hope to find one today since tomorrow is (hopefully) my helicopter tour of NZ's 2 glaciers and highest mountain! It's my birthday gift to myself! I say hopefully, because it is weather dependant. So please send good weather vibes down to NZ for me tomorrow!
The past week has continued to be very busy and beautiful. I really have been lucky in the weather department, with little rain and when it has, it didn't really matter. I've also continued to be a wuss, spending a couple of hours last Friday watching people do bungy. In this case, I actually take back the wuss thing and just say that I've been really smart. Throwing yourself off a bridge with a rubber band tied around your ankle just seems silly to me :-) But watching other people do it sure is entertaining!
After Taupo, a nice little village somewhere in the middle of the North Island, the bus headed for Wellington. It was a long day's drive with lots of stops here and there. One stop will be interesting to Lord of the Ring fans: the drive goes through a desert road where you get this amazing view of 3 mountains, one of which being Mt. Doom in the Lord of The Rings movies. It was really cool, even though I have to admit to not being a real fan of the movies (blasphemy here in NZ). I hope to post a few nice pictures of it soon.
Speaking of The Lord of the Rings, guess what movie is played in almost every single hostel TV room here in NZ? You guessed it, LOTR. I guess people like to watch it again after seeing the locations "in real life".
A had a short stay in Wellington, only 2 nights - 1 day, as I was in a rush to get to the South Island. Wellington was OK, basically another big city but with a nice seaside location. In really lives up to its nickname of "Windy Wellington", or at least it did for the time I was there. Visited another museum (probably my last in NZ, since they are not my favorite places), walked around the city, took the Cable car up to the Botanical Gardens and walked back to the city center. I also caved in and went to my first movie of my trip. It had been at least 3 weeks after all since I'd been to the movies! I saw "Atonement", a British movie that may have played at home a few months back, but I'm not sure. All the other movies playing were at least 2-3 months behind what we get at home, so I'm assuming this was the same. It was a good movie, or at least a good way to spend 2 hours out of the wind and resting my feet!
I was up and early on Monday to take the ferry across the Cook Strait to the South Island. The ferry was huge, has a movie theater among other things to keep people quiet during the 2.5 hour journey. I was really surprised that the crossing is actually from west to east and not north to south as you would assume. It seems that Wellington on the North Island is actually lower south than Picton, the ferry terminal on the South Island. Who knew!
Next stop was Nelson, another very quaint village. I checked out the town for a couple of hours and got ready for the next day's "Seal safari". Nelson is close to Abel Tasman national park, an amazing area with lots of secluded bays, beaches and a really famous tramping (i.e. walking) path. I'd booked myself a "Seal safari", which was basically a combination of bus to get you to Abel Tasman, a boat to cruise along a few bays and visit the seal colony and a 1.5 hour walk back to a bay to finally be picked up by a water taxi to do the trip in reverse. It was a gorgeous day, with a beautiful blue sky, but still pretty damn cold. I had 4 layers up top and spent most of the day with all of them on. The only time I took my hoodie off was after huffing and puffing my way uphill for a while. But the kicker was the visit to the seal "colony". The boat stops for 5 minutes across from an island where I counted 5 seals. Supposedly they are all off somewhere busy mating or something. I saw another 3 more swimming in the sea, so grand total for the "Seal Safari" was 8! Still, I had a really good time. I walked back with 2 other girls, and even though I huffed and puffed uphill, it was a relatively easy walk. At the very end of the trail, we had to choose between the low tide trail and the high tide trail. When in doubt, you would think that we'd have chosen the high tide trail, but no, we went with the other obvious choice of following the group ahead of you and assuming they know what they are doing. Just as obviously, they didn't. We ended up having to roll up our pants, take our shoes and socks off to wade across a little stream or pond to get to the beach. Cold, but it was pretty funny, especially watching other more complainy type of people get all worried about getting their feet wet... Funnier still were the stories one of the girls shared with us about her time spent in Australia. Can't really repeat them here though ;-)
Next up was another looooong bus day to get from Nelson to Greymouth. The only claim to fame of Greymouth, besides being a mandatory overnight stop on the Magic bus, is the Monteiths brewery tour. For 25 NZD you get a tour of the brewery, a taste test of all 7 of their brews as well as an all-you-can-eat sausage diner with a free pint of your favorite brew. It's a good opportunity to meet more people (as if you don't meet enough already every day on the bus and sleeping in dorms all the time!). I spent awhile talking to a couple of American girls who had just come from India, Thailand and Australia. I left with a couple of notes on what to do and where to go, and I am already looking forward to the next destinations!
So it's still going really well, if a little rushed sometimes. I'm looking forward to sleeping somewhere more than 2 nights in a row. Like I said, I've been meeting a lot of people, mostly from the hostels and the bus. Have I mentioned though that it seems that mostly girls/women travel to NZ on their own? There have to be guys/men somewhere, but they certainly aren't on the Magic bus or in the hostels I've stayed in. On most days, our bus is filled with lets say 20 girls and 1 guy travelling with his girlfriend. And most of those 20 girls are English or Irish. Bizarre...
Off to do some camera shopping as mine bit the dust a couple of days ago. I hope to find one today since tomorrow is (hopefully) my helicopter tour of NZ's 2 glaciers and highest mountain! It's my birthday gift to myself! I say hopefully, because it is weather dependant. So please send good weather vibes down to NZ for me tomorrow!
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
A wuss in the Adventure capital of the world
It's been a busy couple of days since my last post. I've been on the go since Monday morning, slowly but surely travelling down to the south. Monday morning started off bright and early to take the bus from Auckland to Whitianga to view the Coromandel peninsula. I started off slightly sad to be saying goodbye to Claire, the new friend I had met in my early days in Auckland and had met up with again in the Bay of Islands. It's all part of the travelling business, but it's bizarre how quickly friendships can be made and lost...
The Coromandel peninsula is a gorgeous place to visit. The highlight of the day is supposed to be Cathedral Cove, a beautifully shaped cove by the east coast of the North Island. The Magic bus brings us to a car park (parking lot for us Canadians) and we are to walk down to the cove. The bus driver let us know that is quite a good walk back (meaning uphill, yet again) and that we have 1 hour and a half before we leave. Clueless little old me spends like 15 minutes up top taking pictures, going to the bathroom, slowly getting started down the slope when I first notice the sign saying that the walk to the Cove is 45 minutes. As I'm quickly going downhill, my math skills kick-in and I figure if it's 45 minutes one-way, it's at least 1 hour and a half return trip (duh). And since it's all downhill to get there, I imagine it will take me even longer to get back. And even better yet, since I am the slowest walker I've ever met, I figure if it's 45 minutes for most people, it'll probably be even longer for me... So I start to panic and decide to forgo Cathedral Cove and go to the 2 different bays that are on the way day (Gemstone Bay and another whose name I forgot). They were quite beautiful, but still, I was disappointed I wimped out of seeing the main event...
We also stopped in at Hot Water Beach on our way to Whitianga. This is where you take a shovel with you a dig yourself a hole that fills with steaming hot water being heated by the geothermic activity right below. The smaller the whole, the hotter the water. Just dipping your toe in one of these holes can scald you in 2 seconds flat. Pretty cool, yet somehow scary as well. I figure if water is that hot just on the surface, we can't be too far from an explosion or something. Seriously, New Zealand is a beautiful country, but I wouldn't want to live here. It's made up almost entirely of volcanoes that are destined to erupt. It's not a question of if, but when. I'd rather not be here when it happens :-)
The next day was spent travelling from Whitianga (nice sleepy beach town) to Rotorua, by way of the Waitomo. For those of you who've seen the Planet Earth DVDs, Waitomo is where they have the glowworm caves. I was looking forward to this place even before I got to NZ and was not disappointed. You can visit the caves in a few different ways, either by abseiling down into them, blackwater rafting (rafting in the darkness of the caves), tubing down the river or by simply walking in and taking a boat to see the glowworms. Guess which one I chose? Obviously by the title of my post, I chose the easiest way and walked into them and then took a boat. It was amazing. You're in the pitch black cave and can't see 1 foot in front of you, but if you look up, you can see thousands and thousands of blue dots lighting up the cave's ceiling! Who would of thought that I could get excited over a bunch of worms!
The final destination for that day was Rotorua, the stinkiest place in all of NZ. And I mean that literally. Rotorua is the hub of geothermic activity in NZ, and the whole place smells of sulfur. The smell is worse some days than others, and it seems we were lucky to be there on a good day. If that was I good day, I wouldn't want to be there on a bad day. Piew! It's really cool though to be walking around town and see steam come up from cracks in rocks or from ponds of water. That and boiling mud! Rotorua is also THE place to do a Maori traditional evening. They bring you in a bus to a traditional Maori village and they put on a show for you. You finish off the evening with a hangi, a Maori meal cooked up under the earth. Kind of like their own version of a mechoui... This is what I did for Halloween. And since quite a few of you have asked me, I can now confirm to you that Halloween is basically non existent here in NZ. I heard of one bar that had a Halloween night, but that's in. No candy, no masks, no decoration, nothing.
It's been an excellent couple of days. The weather has been good to me up until now (it's currently raining, that's why I'm on the Internet) and I'm slowly getting a farmer's tan (face and arms only). And every time I get on the Magic bus, I see familiar faces from previous buses as well as meet new people. The most interesting conversation I've had lately is with a Japanese girl who is in NZ for 2 weeks. She tries really hard, but doesn't speak English very well. At one point, there I was in the middle of a typical conversation (how long are you here for, where are you going next, which has been your favorite spot so far, ...) with a girl her and another girl from Taiwan. Neither of them speaking much English and all of us using sign language to understand each other. Hilarious!
Hope you all enjoyed Halloween. I'm in Taupo now until Saturday and off to Wellington next. Not sure how long I'll stay, since I only have 3 weeks left in NZ and the South island is supposed to be even better than the North...
The Coromandel peninsula is a gorgeous place to visit. The highlight of the day is supposed to be Cathedral Cove, a beautifully shaped cove by the east coast of the North Island. The Magic bus brings us to a car park (parking lot for us Canadians) and we are to walk down to the cove. The bus driver let us know that is quite a good walk back (meaning uphill, yet again) and that we have 1 hour and a half before we leave. Clueless little old me spends like 15 minutes up top taking pictures, going to the bathroom, slowly getting started down the slope when I first notice the sign saying that the walk to the Cove is 45 minutes. As I'm quickly going downhill, my math skills kick-in and I figure if it's 45 minutes one-way, it's at least 1 hour and a half return trip (duh). And since it's all downhill to get there, I imagine it will take me even longer to get back. And even better yet, since I am the slowest walker I've ever met, I figure if it's 45 minutes for most people, it'll probably be even longer for me... So I start to panic and decide to forgo Cathedral Cove and go to the 2 different bays that are on the way day (Gemstone Bay and another whose name I forgot). They were quite beautiful, but still, I was disappointed I wimped out of seeing the main event...
We also stopped in at Hot Water Beach on our way to Whitianga. This is where you take a shovel with you a dig yourself a hole that fills with steaming hot water being heated by the geothermic activity right below. The smaller the whole, the hotter the water. Just dipping your toe in one of these holes can scald you in 2 seconds flat. Pretty cool, yet somehow scary as well. I figure if water is that hot just on the surface, we can't be too far from an explosion or something. Seriously, New Zealand is a beautiful country, but I wouldn't want to live here. It's made up almost entirely of volcanoes that are destined to erupt. It's not a question of if, but when. I'd rather not be here when it happens :-)
The next day was spent travelling from Whitianga (nice sleepy beach town) to Rotorua, by way of the Waitomo. For those of you who've seen the Planet Earth DVDs, Waitomo is where they have the glowworm caves. I was looking forward to this place even before I got to NZ and was not disappointed. You can visit the caves in a few different ways, either by abseiling down into them, blackwater rafting (rafting in the darkness of the caves), tubing down the river or by simply walking in and taking a boat to see the glowworms. Guess which one I chose? Obviously by the title of my post, I chose the easiest way and walked into them and then took a boat. It was amazing. You're in the pitch black cave and can't see 1 foot in front of you, but if you look up, you can see thousands and thousands of blue dots lighting up the cave's ceiling! Who would of thought that I could get excited over a bunch of worms!
The final destination for that day was Rotorua, the stinkiest place in all of NZ. And I mean that literally. Rotorua is the hub of geothermic activity in NZ, and the whole place smells of sulfur. The smell is worse some days than others, and it seems we were lucky to be there on a good day. If that was I good day, I wouldn't want to be there on a bad day. Piew! It's really cool though to be walking around town and see steam come up from cracks in rocks or from ponds of water. That and boiling mud! Rotorua is also THE place to do a Maori traditional evening. They bring you in a bus to a traditional Maori village and they put on a show for you. You finish off the evening with a hangi, a Maori meal cooked up under the earth. Kind of like their own version of a mechoui... This is what I did for Halloween. And since quite a few of you have asked me, I can now confirm to you that Halloween is basically non existent here in NZ. I heard of one bar that had a Halloween night, but that's in. No candy, no masks, no decoration, nothing.
It's been an excellent couple of days. The weather has been good to me up until now (it's currently raining, that's why I'm on the Internet) and I'm slowly getting a farmer's tan (face and arms only). And every time I get on the Magic bus, I see familiar faces from previous buses as well as meet new people. The most interesting conversation I've had lately is with a Japanese girl who is in NZ for 2 weeks. She tries really hard, but doesn't speak English very well. At one point, there I was in the middle of a typical conversation (how long are you here for, where are you going next, which has been your favorite spot so far, ...) with a girl her and another girl from Taiwan. Neither of them speaking much English and all of us using sign language to understand each other. Hilarious!
Hope you all enjoyed Halloween. I'm in Taupo now until Saturday and off to Wellington next. Not sure how long I'll stay, since I only have 3 weeks left in NZ and the South island is supposed to be even better than the North...
Saturday, October 27, 2007
My new definition of a work day
Today is a "work" day for me, and as you will see, it's quite a different work day than most of you have (lucky me). I'm in Auckland City and I'm doing some chores before starting off on my next Magic bus trip tomorrow morning. I went to pick-up a Magic Bus handbook to help me figure out the rest of my time in NZ and found a cheap Internet cafe where I made my first Skype call for free. Seriously, what did people ever do before the Internet?
I am then going to buy laundry detergent and do some well needed laundry. I am overdue and have started using the sniff test to figure out what to wear in the morning. Sorry if this grosses anyone out, but at least I still shower every day! (some people don't you know...)
Anyway, I thought I'd take this cheap Internet opportunity to give you some impressions about my time in NZ so far, as well as living the life of a backpacker.
I am then going to buy laundry detergent and do some well needed laundry. I am overdue and have started using the sniff test to figure out what to wear in the morning. Sorry if this grosses anyone out, but at least I still shower every day! (some people don't you know...)
Anyway, I thought I'd take this cheap Internet opportunity to give you some impressions about my time in NZ so far, as well as living the life of a backpacker.
- Kiwis (New Zealanders) are really very friendly. I haven't met a single rude person as of yet. As an example, I was heading up a hill to a great viewpoint when visiting the town of Russell on Friday, and this nice lady stopped her car and offered me a lift. She says she always picks up people at that spot, cause she sees so many people turn around when they are only halfway up the hill. It would have taken me the better part of an hour to get up there (because of my superior athleticism and great walking speed ;-) ) and instead, she dropped me off 3 minutes later.
- I don't know what I really was expecting weather-wise, but it's colder and wetter than I thought it would be. I'm not bothered by it, but if I had known I maybe would have brought something warmer than a hoodie with me :-)
- I also wasn't expecting it to look tropical in places. The far North for example, could easily pass for the Carribean (maybe if it were a bit warmer).
- Even though I am supposedly perfectly bilingual, I still have to ask everyone to repeat everything they say at least twice. My brain is slowly starting to adapt to all these different accents, but it is taking time.
- It seems to me that most travellers I have meet are either from the UK or from Germany. There are some other nationalities as well of course, but not in so many numbers as those two.
- It really is a very small world. I've met people in Paihia earlier this week and then passed by them on Queen Street (i.e. the Main) in Auckland. It seems like there are more backpackers in the country than there are residents.
As for life on the road, here are my impressions:
- La "poule de luxe" is truly dead and buried for now. No more 5-star hotels for me.
- Sharing rooms with 4 or 5 other strangers is not as hard as I thought it would be. It was awkward the first day, and even weirder the first time I shared a room with 3 guys and no other girl, but you get over it real quick.
- I try to spend as little time possible in the actual hostel rooms. They are so tiny, you can't even sit up straight when sitting on a bed. I only go there to sleep.
- Even though I'm on my own, I am almost never alone. There are always other people around, no matter where you are. Privacy is a thing of the past...
- I already have a love/hate relationship going on with my backpack. It's getting better organized every day, but I never seem to find what I'm looking for right away. And although carrying it is OK for short distances, putting it on is not easy.
- Most people I've met at hostels are in their twenties, though some are older. Lots of young couples and people travelling on their own.
- Some travellers look like they could whip-up a 5-course gourmet meal from crumbs they find in hostel kitchens, but I am certainly not one of them. I don't cook much at home, so do you think cooking in a hostel is going to be any better? And how exactly do they carry all that food around with them when going from one place to another? I actually had cereal AND 2 glasses of milk for breakfast on Friday, only because I didn't want to waste the little pint of milk I had bought earlier. And the small block of cheese I had bought the day before and put in the mini fridge in my room suddenly had 2 sets of teeth marks in it the next day. They weren't mine, since I am civilised and used a knife when I had some.
That's it for now. I have been on the Internet for 3 hours already, and only managed to upload 50 pictures. They are in flickr now if you want to see them: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rtwjanie/sets/72157602749647327/
Friday, October 26, 2007
The beautiful Northland!
Time sure flies when your having fun!
I left Auckland Wednesday morning to start my first Magic bus trip to the Northland. It's been amazing so far. Not that many people on the bus, maybe 15-20, as we aren't in the high tourist season yet. It's great for us travellers, as you get all the space you need, no line-ups and no problems reserving stuff as you go. It started off well, with a good crowd, if a bit shy and quiet. The main stop of this trip is to the town of Paihia, the "main" town in the Bay of Islands. This place is breathtakingly beautiful, and I mean that quite literally. It's all hills around here, so walking around does take your breath away, at least mine ;-) But seriously, it is simply gorgeous. If this is any indication of the rest of the country, I'm in for a great time.
I've done a cruise of the Bay of Islands, saw some dolphins and the most amazing untouched beaches and islands. I've also had a day trip up to Cape Reinga, the northernmost spot in NZ. The views are spectacular, you see where the Tasman sea meets the Pacific Ocean. The day trip also takes you to giant sanddunes, where the more adventurous can try sandboarding. Needless to say I was the official picture taker for our crowd. I had 5 different cameras and had to try and remember which went with which person. That was adventure enough for me!
Another cool part to the day is the ride back. A stretch of 90 km of beach, called 90-mile beach (go figure!) is actually considered a highway! Max speed 100 km an hour, you ride on the beach, over sand and little streams of water, as if you were speeding down the 10 in direction of Sherbrooke!
It's hard to convey how beautiful this place is, but I'll try an upload some pictures when I manage to get a decent Internet connection. I'd really love to update the blog more often, but hey! I've been busy for one and Internet is really expensive for another... So I do my best.
Next leg of the journey starts (hopefully) on Sunday with a trip to the lower part of the North Island. More on that later.
I left Auckland Wednesday morning to start my first Magic bus trip to the Northland. It's been amazing so far. Not that many people on the bus, maybe 15-20, as we aren't in the high tourist season yet. It's great for us travellers, as you get all the space you need, no line-ups and no problems reserving stuff as you go. It started off well, with a good crowd, if a bit shy and quiet. The main stop of this trip is to the town of Paihia, the "main" town in the Bay of Islands. This place is breathtakingly beautiful, and I mean that quite literally. It's all hills around here, so walking around does take your breath away, at least mine ;-) But seriously, it is simply gorgeous. If this is any indication of the rest of the country, I'm in for a great time.
I've done a cruise of the Bay of Islands, saw some dolphins and the most amazing untouched beaches and islands. I've also had a day trip up to Cape Reinga, the northernmost spot in NZ. The views are spectacular, you see where the Tasman sea meets the Pacific Ocean. The day trip also takes you to giant sanddunes, where the more adventurous can try sandboarding. Needless to say I was the official picture taker for our crowd. I had 5 different cameras and had to try and remember which went with which person. That was adventure enough for me!
Another cool part to the day is the ride back. A stretch of 90 km of beach, called 90-mile beach (go figure!) is actually considered a highway! Max speed 100 km an hour, you ride on the beach, over sand and little streams of water, as if you were speeding down the 10 in direction of Sherbrooke!
It's hard to convey how beautiful this place is, but I'll try an upload some pictures when I manage to get a decent Internet connection. I'd really love to update the blog more often, but hey! I've been busy for one and Internet is really expensive for another... So I do my best.
Next leg of the journey starts (hopefully) on Sunday with a trip to the lower part of the North Island. More on that later.
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Getting into the groove
I can't believe I've only been in Auckland for 4 days so far! It feels like I've been gone at least a week, if not more.
It has been great so far, with really busy days. I've been mostly visiting Auckland city and it's surroundings, as well as trying to get the rest of my time in New Zealand organized. After a couple of days of being here and still not having a clue as to what my itinerary was going to be, I was starting to get edgy. Part of my day yesterday and today was spent figuring that out. Since Auckland is either the starting or ending point for most trips, I've met quite a few people in the same boat as I. Some come here for 6 months to a year, others for a month of so. And most do their planning once they get here, so that reassured me.
I finally decided to do a "Magic Bus" trip. This is a type of hop-on hop-off backpacker bus that follows a specific itinerary, but you stop for how ever long you want at every stop. You can stay a day, a week, a month, whatever. I wasn't initially interested in this, it seemed a bit to "packaged" to my taste, but then I got some more information on it and it seems ideal for me. I now have 4 1/2 weeks left in New Zealand, so I got to get a move on... I've chosen to do the "New Zealand Encounter" (see http://www.magicbus.co.nz/main/productDetail/index.cfm?productID=94) that covers both North and South Islands, but first with a side trip to the very tip of the North Island (see http://www.magicbus.co.nz/main/productDetail/index.cfm?productID=74).
The first leg of my trip starts on Wednesday, so I still have a day left in Auckland. It's a beautiful place, with lots of little harbour islands to explore, so an extra day is fine. So far, I've seen: "Downtown" Auckland (what they call the CBD: Central Business District), the neighborhoods of Parnell and Ponsonby, the Auckland Museum, the Sky Tower (highest standing tower in the Southern hemisphere) & Devenport Island. Not bad for my first 4 days!
I've also met and talked to a bunch of people at the hostel. It's a really easy-going environment and everyone has been great so far. I actually went to the Museum with a girl in the same room as I, and tonight am going out to diner with a fellow Quebecois who just got in last night.
P.S Thanks to all who have posted comments on my blog. I'll keep trying to do my best and post regularly. Bye for now!
It has been great so far, with really busy days. I've been mostly visiting Auckland city and it's surroundings, as well as trying to get the rest of my time in New Zealand organized. After a couple of days of being here and still not having a clue as to what my itinerary was going to be, I was starting to get edgy. Part of my day yesterday and today was spent figuring that out. Since Auckland is either the starting or ending point for most trips, I've met quite a few people in the same boat as I. Some come here for 6 months to a year, others for a month of so. And most do their planning once they get here, so that reassured me.
I finally decided to do a "Magic Bus" trip. This is a type of hop-on hop-off backpacker bus that follows a specific itinerary, but you stop for how ever long you want at every stop. You can stay a day, a week, a month, whatever. I wasn't initially interested in this, it seemed a bit to "packaged" to my taste, but then I got some more information on it and it seems ideal for me. I now have 4 1/2 weeks left in New Zealand, so I got to get a move on... I've chosen to do the "New Zealand Encounter" (see http://www.magicbus.co.nz/main/productDetail/index.cfm?productID=94) that covers both North and South Islands, but first with a side trip to the very tip of the North Island (see http://www.magicbus.co.nz/main/productDetail/index.cfm?productID=74).
The first leg of my trip starts on Wednesday, so I still have a day left in Auckland. It's a beautiful place, with lots of little harbour islands to explore, so an extra day is fine. So far, I've seen: "Downtown" Auckland (what they call the CBD: Central Business District), the neighborhoods of Parnell and Ponsonby, the Auckland Museum, the Sky Tower (highest standing tower in the Southern hemisphere) & Devenport Island. Not bad for my first 4 days!
I've also met and talked to a bunch of people at the hostel. It's a really easy-going environment and everyone has been great so far. I actually went to the Museum with a girl in the same room as I, and tonight am going out to diner with a fellow Quebecois who just got in last night.
P.S Thanks to all who have posted comments on my blog. I'll keep trying to do my best and post regularly. Bye for now!
Saturday, October 20, 2007
The neverending day
Day 1 of the Big Adventure was certainly a long one... 31 hours from YUL to AKL, or 34 hours if counting door-to-door from Brossard to Auckland. It went as well as could be expected with some highs and some lows along the way. The highs: A nice going-away lunch with Mom, Dad, Jackie & Johanne, managing not to completely fall apart when saying goodbye at the airport, managing to sleep at least 5-6 hours on all the flights combined, my backpack arriving at Auckland airport at the same time as I did, and lastly but not least, arriving safe and sound.
The lows: A few minor ones like uncomfortable seats (no shit, excuse my language), and the same movies being shown on all flights (saw the movie Gracie twice, even though I had never heard of it before, and The Rise of the Silver Surfer twice as well...) but the only major one worth mentioning is that I managed to catch a cold & started getting symptoms the day I left. After 5 hours of flying, I was completely congested and both my ears were blocked. As of the time I'm writing this more than 50 hours later, my left ear still feels like I have an ear plug stuck in it...
I had a few "freak out" moments as well. The first one involving my money belt, as I was leaving the plane on my 2nd flight of the trip. I could not find it anywhere and was convinced I had left it in a bathroom stall at LAX. The freak out lasted 5 minutes until I got off the plane and dumped out my carry-on and found the damn thing.
The 2nd freak out moment was after arriving at the hostel. I had managed to start the trip without actually putting on the backpack. It was trekked from the car to a cart to a plane to a cart ... without going on my back. Getting it there is no easy task, let me tell you. I can carry it OK, but picking it up and putting it on in a quick and timely fashion is beyond me. I hope I get better at it soon. Anyway, back to the freak out. The hostel office was not opened when I arrived and I had to wait 1 hour before being able to check in. At this point, I'm exhausted, sicker than ever and thinking what the hell am I doing here. And I'm going to do this for a whole year?
It got better when I finally checked-in, even though there was only 1 bed left in my 5-person share, and that was a top bunk with no ladder! I was glad there wasn't anyone in the room when I got there, as I could practice getting on and off the bed without an audience. Not a pretty sight :-)
I spent the rest of my very long first day getting settled in. I walked around the neighbourhood (think a less trendy version of Laurier in Outremont), bought a new cellphone, got myself some dinner and shopped for my breakfast for the next 2 days.
All in all, not a bad start!
The lows: A few minor ones like uncomfortable seats (no shit, excuse my language), and the same movies being shown on all flights (saw the movie Gracie twice, even though I had never heard of it before, and The Rise of the Silver Surfer twice as well...) but the only major one worth mentioning is that I managed to catch a cold & started getting symptoms the day I left. After 5 hours of flying, I was completely congested and both my ears were blocked. As of the time I'm writing this more than 50 hours later, my left ear still feels like I have an ear plug stuck in it...
I had a few "freak out" moments as well. The first one involving my money belt, as I was leaving the plane on my 2nd flight of the trip. I could not find it anywhere and was convinced I had left it in a bathroom stall at LAX. The freak out lasted 5 minutes until I got off the plane and dumped out my carry-on and found the damn thing.
The 2nd freak out moment was after arriving at the hostel. I had managed to start the trip without actually putting on the backpack. It was trekked from the car to a cart to a plane to a cart ... without going on my back. Getting it there is no easy task, let me tell you. I can carry it OK, but picking it up and putting it on in a quick and timely fashion is beyond me. I hope I get better at it soon. Anyway, back to the freak out. The hostel office was not opened when I arrived and I had to wait 1 hour before being able to check in. At this point, I'm exhausted, sicker than ever and thinking what the hell am I doing here. And I'm going to do this for a whole year?
It got better when I finally checked-in, even though there was only 1 bed left in my 5-person share, and that was a top bunk with no ladder! I was glad there wasn't anyone in the room when I got there, as I could practice getting on and off the bed without an audience. Not a pretty sight :-)
I spent the rest of my very long first day getting settled in. I walked around the neighbourhood (think a less trendy version of Laurier in Outremont), bought a new cellphone, got myself some dinner and shopped for my breakfast for the next 2 days.
All in all, not a bad start!
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