Xi’an, Beijing, and Huangshan

For anyone who doesn’t know why we are traveling through China, we have a contract that requires us to teach two weeks, travel two weeks, and then teach two more weeks. We’re nearing the end of our two weeks of traveling, and I’m writing this from our mini bus to, Hangzhou. So far we have stopped in Xi’an, Beijing, and Huangshan.

XI’AN

Xi’an began at the Shangri-La hotel. Sounds fancy right? It’s not exactly like the Shangri-La you would find in Vancouver. One of the rooms we got had an enormous red stain on the carpet, which we can only assume was blood. When the hotel staff was notified about it, they decided the best solution was to put a towel over it. Then, in our room (Danielle and myself), because of a violent rain storm that hit just as we were arriving, we awoke to our ceiling literally collapsed on the floor. Water damage had cause it to give way while we were sleeping. Their solution was to clean up the debris that was on he floor – but the discussion of switching to a different room never came up. Anyways, I’ve seen much worse things in much cheaper accommodations throughout my previous visits to Asia, so this was but a minor glitch in our itinerary.

Xi’an did have some really cool moments. We spent our first day riding bikes around the “ancient city wall,” which is over 400 years old, and was first built during the Ming dynasty. The wall was a 14km ride, overlooking the city – which again, was a whole lot of tall apartment buildings, and not much scenery. It was another overwhelmingly populated city, with millions of people living in close quarters to this city wall.

We then went to the first market street that we really enjoyed. Previous ones in Hefei (where we teach) were full of junk, horrible smells, and too many eyes/cameras on us. I had previously posted that I was going to take a selfie on my own camera with every person who asked to take a selfie with me. That got old fast. At the markets, not only were we asked for selfies, but we would be directed to stand in certain spots, with every person in the group. It’s fine for the most part, as people are generally pretty friendly, but being in the shoulder to shoulder market, you don’t really want to stop moving. Anyways, the market we really enjoyed was called “Moslem street.” It had a large population of, you guessed it, Muslims. Delicious Muslim food, and colourful Muslim dress was everywhere. The market also has many, many types of meats hanging from vendor stalls, including, but not limited to (there are no limits here) deep fried squid on a stick, entire pig skeletons, whole roast duck, snakes, live scorpions, beetles, sea horses, starfish, and crickets. We also saw a vendor fight between three women, which was kind of hard to watch, especially since we had no idea what it was about. There were displays of men making long strips of taffy (about 4 metres long), and every sort of trinket you could imagine. The energy was buzzing.

Next in Xi’an we visited the Terracotta Warriors. Apparently, this is the 8th wonder of the world. There are mixed reviews among our tour members – some loved it, some (including me) were bored out of our minds. Essentially, this farmer discovered hundreds of clay statues of warriors, buried beneath his crops. The Warriors were created to protect the emperor hundreds of years ago. So that’s what it was – hundreds of clay statues of warriors – all the same colour, and roughly the same size. I can appreciate the idea behind this discovery being amazing, but when you’re actually there, starring at these figures for hours on end (remember we’re on a tour, and our time table is decided for us) in the blistering heat, it tends to get a little repetitive. We were told that 10 million people a year visit this site. By far the most exciting moment for me was when we got to shake the hand of the friendly farmer who discovered the warriors. He just hangs out there sometimes. When he discovered them in the 80’s, he was paid with a basket of eggs, and 30 yuen (about $6 Canadian). Yet, the site that they have set up surrounding the warriors has cost millions.

So then, we boarded the 5 hour bullet train, which travels 300km/h, to Beijing.

BEIJING

Beijing, Beijing, Beijing. First of all, somehow, we magically got to stay in the nicest hotel I’ve ever stayed. The breakfast buffet was a godsend. Sushi bar, omelette station, and a yogurt bar with tiny cut up pieces of fruit. We went to Tiananmen Square our first day. Super cool! It was a place I feel I have seen pictures of a million times, so seeing it up close was surreal. The massive picture of Mao was intimidating, and it almost felt like his presence could still be felt. Apparently, if you waited in the 3 hour line, you could go inside and actually see his preserved body on display. We opted out of that. It was the hottest day yet, and I actually bought and wore one of those stupid umbrella hats, but still got burned! Damn you China and your useless synthetic materials! We also got to tour around the palaces in the forbidden city, where Chinese royalty and “concubines” (the loveliest, roundest ladies of them all) used to live. The concubines existed merely to please the emperor, and there were hundreds of them.

On our free day in Beijing we checked out some more really cool markets – one of my favourite things to do traveling. The pictures describe them better than words can. We stopped in at a foot massage place, where we ended up getting cupping on our feet! Cool experience.

Then we got to climb the Great Wall of China! It was a climb alright. Beautiful views, and countless misshaped steps lead us to whatever the point we got to was. The whole thing was originally 6000km long, but it’s no longer intact.

What else can be said about a city with 22 million people and thousands of years of history? We saw a tiny sliver of it, but it left an impression for sure. Boarded the next bullet train to Huangshan! Saw a lot of flooding that’s been happening all over China

HUANGSHAN

We stayed here briefly, with only a one day excursion, but it was one of the best days yet. We started by going to a small Chinese village, where there was basic farming, and rice paddies. It was a very authentic experience, because it wasn’t your average tourist stop where vendors are just trying to sell you things. It was a real, tiny little village, with real, tiny little people. Again, pictures do more justice than words. To sum it up, there was a small creek running through the handful of houses that the villagers relied on for everything. Farming, drinking, fishing, laundry and washing.

We then ventured to one of the most beautiful sights I have seen in all my travels – Yellow Mountain. This is one stop that people have been asking us whether we were going to see it throughout our trip. It seemed to be highly recommended, so we were excited. It didn’t disappoint! We took a gondola up the mountain and took in the breath-taking views from 1600 metres. Broken record – pictures do more justice than words!

Off we go to Hangzhou! Soon to finish in Shanghai!

Two weeks in China!

We’re about a third of the way into our six weeks in China, and it’s easy to say it’s unlike any place I’ve ever been. We are teaching in Hefei, a city I’d never heard of before I was told about this job. It’s crazy to think now that I’d never heard of it, because the sheer size of it is mind-boggling. There are 8 million people in this city alone – roughly a quarter on the entirety of Canada. How do you describe the feeling of being so small and insignificant in the midst of millions of people, but also the feeling of standing out every second of every day, All at the same time?

All you can see for miles and miles is high rise buildings and roads stretching through the endless concrete jungle. Aside from some obvious city centres, it seems that all of the buildings are apartments, and to foreigners used to a beautiful city, such as Vancouver, they all look the same. All you can hear is the constant honking of the always busy street (but amazingly, traffic seems to move well all the time). We go to small street restaurants near our hotel often, and they all serve similar food – a mixture of different pork products, and vegetables on skewers – smothered in some type of spicy chilli sauce. How they can all stay in business, I don’t know, especially since every restaurant sells the exact same food too, with a few other meats and savoury soups. In a nutshell, the city is a whole lot of the same thing. 

Our school is four stories high, and probably holds about 2000 kids – a small primary school, according to one of our Chinese colleagues. Since we are working at a “summer camp” we are only using a small portion of the school, and working with about 120 children (age 3 – 11). The summer camp is supposed to be fun, because these kids have a strict school schedule, often including night and weekend school, during the year. It seems like a long day for 3,4 and 5 year olds, because they are at school from 9 to 4. We play a lot of games and make a lot of crafts, but at the end of the day they are still faced with the challenging task of learning a new language all day. Some miscommunications have definitely happened between the school staff and Canadian teachers; and getting used to regular Chinese customs, while trying to teach “Canadian” curriculum has certainly been a challenge. We are preparing for presentations for the parents on the last day of school, which we have been told numerous times are the most important part of the program. The parents also get feedback – similar to a report card – every single day. Needless to say, every day brings new differences to light, but overall is has been a good experience. Today I worked with a group of grade ones, wiggling with excitement all day, who were some of the sweetest kids I’ve ever seen. Many of the students also made me Birthday cards, and sang Happy Birthday in their loudest English voices. The school also made me feel very special on my birthday, giving me a giant cake, candles, and light up birthday hat. I later found out it was one of the Chinese teachers’ birthdays on the same day, but she made no mention of it – too modest – didn’t want to make a big deal of it. They have shown us much appreciation and patience as we have adjusted to temporary life here. On our first night they took us to a fancy Chinese restaurant, where our group tried everything from bullfrog to pig’s ears. I stuck with the stinky tofu (actually what it’s called) and boiled peanuts. What I enjoyed most was the spicy okra. Again, a very nice gesture from our hosts, who have done a great job making us feel welcome. 

On our first day at the school, camera crews were running wild, filming our every move, interviewing us for the news, and asking us what school in Canada was like (actually, the manager of the hotel stopped us in the lobby this morning to tell us he saw us on the news, and had filmed the clip… Really hoping we can get a copy of that clip). On the street, we have our pictures taken constantly, and always have eyes following us. A white person is a rare, rare sight here – much less a group of seven white women yabbering away in a foreign language. Cab drivers stop in the middle of our ride to take selfies with us, waiters and waitresses sheepishly ask if they can get staff pictures with us, and random strangers will try to sneak just the right angle so that they think we don’t notice, but blush when we wave at their camera. 

Our hotel has treated us well, also asking for our pictures, and having the manager ask us to be sure to inform him if there is anything we would like to see added to the accommodations. We get free fruit every day, a warm welcome every time we enter the lobby, and reminders about what is/isn’t acceptable. 
Drinking by the pool? No problem. Going into the pool with out a swim cap? Phone call to the room saying, “we love you, but you must wear a hat in the pool.”
Routinely seeing people passed out drunk in the lobby? Acceptable. Leaving lipstick stains on your towels? You will be charged. 
We’ve come to love our favourite hotel patrons though, some of which have given me matcha birthday cake, met us at the bar, order taxis to places we never would have been able to communicate on our own, and helped certain teachers order KFC to their hotel room. They’ve been hilarious and great. 

We have been pretty busy with the school most nights, but we managed to live it up on the weekend. With my birthday being Friday, we went to a local bar called “Shipyard,” were we finally found some other foreigners! A birthday song on stage, and many birthday drinks later, we ended up having one of the most random introductions of our lives. Remember that band B2k from the early 2000s? No? Here’s a link to their 2004 hit ft. P Diddy https://youtu.be/CgiX53hjAPc Well, they were there. Some, or one of them anyway. We ended up being invited to a pool party the next night, where B2k was apparently performing. It ended up being an amazing set-up. A giant stage, amazing sound system, huge pool… But there were hardly any guests there. It actually felt like we were the only ones not paid to be there. The one B2k member did perform – his name was Raz-b. It was cool that he was there, but cooler that Danielle full-on dunked him in the pool after he splashed her. It was the best.

Right now, we are eagerly awaiting our tour departure this weekend. We are visiting major cities, including Shanghai and Beijing. Considering how overwhelmed we are by “one of China’s smaller cities,” according to our new Chinese friends, we really don’t know what to expect in these monstrous cities. Wish us luck!

 

The Elephant Nature Park

It’s been nearly a month since we finished our time at the Elephant Nature Park in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Immediately after our last day there, we made the long venture home to Vancouver, where I have been spending my time catching up with family and friends, soaking in a bit of BC summer, and searching for jobs and sanity during the ongoing BC teacher’s labour dispute. As with all of my travels, since returning my attitude about life in general has changed a bit. I have tried to focus more on how beautiful our province is, and how lucky we are to live here, rather than some of the nonsense that has been going on with my job. We are happy to be home, but there are just some days where we long for the freedom and serenity of the elephant sanctuary we came to love so much.

To begin, our time at the Elephant sanctuary was divided between volunteer work, observation, and interaction with the elephants (along with some fun shenanigans with the rest of our group). Our days would begin with the 7am breakfast bell, which was the first buffet of the day. ALL of the food was vegetarian, which is right up my ally! At 8am, our work would start. Within our group of about 40 volunteers, we were split into smaller work groups of about 14. Our first day was the toughest, and it was spent in the corn fields hacking down cornstalks with machetes to feed the elephants. Elephants eat about one tenth of their body weight every day, so you can imagine how much corn is needed to feed the 39 elephants that call the sanctuary their home. It was hard work, and certainly humbled me, as it was very apparent how little farm machinery is available in Thailand, especially to a sizable organization such as this one. We all rode back on top of the tall truck that was now filled to the brim. This meant we were sitting on the corn that was crawling with every kind of bug you can imagine, and that we were dodging branches and bridges, while holding on for dear life.

Our other daily jobs included cleaning up the elephant pens, prepping the fruits and vegetables to feed the elephants, and planting trees. Cleaning up after the elephants really wasn’t that bad, as they are also vegetarians!

Many people don’t realize that the Elephant sanctuary is also home to over 400 dogs, who were rescued from the 2011 flood in Thailand. Since the dog shelters were severely understaffed, we were told at the beginning of the week if we wanted to volunteer there, even for an hour, it would be much appreciated. So, I spent two days there.

Here you mostly walked the dogs. There were some in smaller cages, but they were either recovering from medical issues, or were new to the park, and the staff hadn’t quite figured out how social they were. Most of the dogs were kept in groups of 7-10 in larger “run” cages, where they could run around and socialize with other dogs. As you can imagine, there were a lot of dog fights that needed to be broken up. You usually did this by yelling and clapping as loud as you could, and if that didn’t work, then you would pour water on them. However, considering the situation they were in, the dogs seemed to get along pretty well.

If you weren’t walking them, you were cleaning their cages, or trying to get ticks out of their ears with tweezers. This was absolutely disgusting, but you could see how relieved the dogs were immediately.

These weren’t the only dogs on the property! Around the area where we ate the amazing buffet meals, there were about 15 dogs that were pets, and would keep you company as you sat, drinking tea and observing the elephants. There was also an area called the “cat kingdom”, where at least 40 cats of all ages and sizes called home.

 

We also got to visit a local school that works hand in hand with the sanctuary. The kids made us bracelets, danced, and played us music. They, and their teachers are trying to learn English, so we spent some time conversing with them. On our last day we got to take a sketchy tube ride down the river too! I also am throwing in the random picture of one of the huge spiders that lived at the sanctuary. Their bodies were about 2 inches long, without the legs included.

Then there were the elephants! We got to bath the elephants in the river, feed them pumpkins and watermelons, walk along beside them, and I even got to sit underneath one! Most of them were very gentle, some of them (the babies) were incredibly rambunctious, but all of them were beautiful. I spent hours just sitting on the deck watching them. Sometimes they would be 5 feet away from me, and sometimes they would be way off in the distance with their herd. Wherever they were, they were mesmerizing. Since the elephants were rescued from all over the place, many of them came to the sanctuary without any companions. Families formed during their time here, most notably the 3 elephants with physical disabilities who bonded together when they didn’t fit in anywhere else. One of them had broken hips from bearing to much weight in logging camps and forced breeding, one of them was blind from being beaten when she couldn’t finish her logging camp work because she was pregnant, and one of them suffered severe injuries from stepping on a landmine.

It saddens me to talk about the circumstances of which these elephants came from. Aside from the babies born in the park, all of the elephants came from lives of severe abuse and neglect.

Since tourism is one of the major contributors to Thailand’s GDP, it’s not surprising that many tourists long to interact with elephants while visiting. Elephant riding, elephant painting. elephant circuses, and elephant begging on the busy streets of Bangkok, are all too common. While I can understand why people would want to support these practices, I strongly encourage you to think about how that elephant would, for example, be able to paint an intricate picture with it’s trunk. It seems quite obvious that this is not a natural behaviour, but often, people are blinded by the how amazing it is.

In order to “train” an elephant to paint, have people ride on them, or perform, an elephant goes through a “breaking the spirit” ceremony when they are a baby. Essentially, the elephant is taken from it’s mother, forced into a tiny bamboo cage so small that it cannot move, and beaten mercilessly into submission. Bull hooks, boards with nails, large sticks and other weapons are used over and over until the elephant “has no will to live”. This ceremony goes on for days, or weeks, depending on how the elephant reacts. Unfortunately, this is how almost ALL elephants are trained. Once this ceremony has taken place, the elephant will continue to be beaten until they get their performance right, whether it be painting or performing. I’m sure you can imagine how long it would take for an elephant to learn how to paint a picture – a task that would make absolutely no sense to them. I’ve attached a video that is a trailer for a documentary called “An Elephant Never Forgets”, and in it, you can briefly see Lek, the founder of elephant nature sanctuary, with some of her rescued elephants.

Her goal is to prove that their are other ways to train elephants to be around people, through compassionate practices, and gaining the elephants trust – although ultimately, she would rather they be left in the wild. She also has many rescue and awareness projects in Burma, Cambodia, and other parts of Thailand. She is an amazing lady.

The elephant sanctuary does not allow the use of bull-hooks or any type of weapon to control the elephants. Each elephant has their own “mahout”, a person who is responsible for supervising the elephant around visitors to the park. The mahouts at the sanctuary direct the elephants with verbal commands, and non-aggressive tapping on their sides. Furthermore, the mahout is selected by the elephant after spending some time together. If the elephant does not trust the person, then they do not work together. When the elephants are roaming free throughout the 250 acre park (how they spend the majority of the day), the mahouts often walk beside them in silence, or watch the herds from the distance. They NEVER ride them. They are very peaceful people.

Even since returning from Thailand, I consistently see photos on facebook of people visiting places where elephants sole purpose is to entertain. If you are planning a trip to Thailand, and are interested in seeing elephants, please consider visiting a rescue organization where elephants are not abused or forced to do very unnatural, often painful acts. Elephants are commonly chained up for most of their day, with no quality of life, unless they are working or performing. Identifying signs of stress such as the elephants swaying (or as a lot of people call it, “dancing”) is an easy way to tell that the elephant is very unhappy.

Anyways, to end on a positive note, I have also attached the video that is going viral of my favourite elephant from the sanctuary – a young female named “FAA Mai”. She is playing with a plastic pipe, and it almost looks like ribbon dancing. She is the one who I got to sit with 🙂

 

 

 

Chiang Mai & Pai

Our last destination before the elephant sanctuary was in Northern Thailand, where we divided our time between Chiang Mai city and Pai (pronounced “pie”).

Chiang Mai is Thailand’s second largest city, and it was nestled in surrounding rainforest. The minute we got there we liked it. Before our trip to Pai, we had the chance to check out a great cooking class and the Sunday night market. In the cooking class we each got to choose five amazing dishes to prepare, and between the two of us we chose banana spring rolls Tom Yum soup, pad thai, pas se ew, green curry, panang curry, papaya salad, and mango sticky rice. Man were we impressed with ourselves. We bought a couple of essential ingredients to bring home with us from the night market, and we are determined to prepare an authentic feast for family and friends.

We then ventured out to Pai, a gem of a city about 3 hours South of Chiang Mai. On our way, our bus driver picked up a hitchhiking nun! The only seat available was next to Alex, and she kindly asked some people to move around, since she was not allowed to sit beside a man.

The minute we got to Pai we started to fall in love with it. After only planning to spend a night or two, we ended up staying for five. Although very small, Pai was home to countless unique restaurants and free-spirited shops. During the day, we were able to take day trips to some pretty spots. A beautiful waterfall that had a water slide that the locals were showing off on, a cave that we got to take a bamboo raft through, and a majestic hot spring that we saw locals boiling eggs in upstream.

At night time the streets were filled with food carts that supplied cuisines from all over the world. Our favourite was the Indian food. There was also a Dalmatian running around that kept us company – along with all of the others stray dogs, that seem to be a recurring theme everywhere we go.

Since the girls and I had so much fun taking the easy rider motor bike ride up the coast of Vietnam, Alex and I decided we would find a way to get home in style. We found a travel agency that didn’t offer the motorbike rides usually, but by god they were gonna find a way to make it happen for us. They found us two drivers, and although the ride was sketchy with all of the hairpin turns, it was a blast. The drivers were so nice, and invited us out with them that night. I was too tired, but Alex stayed out with them until 4 in the morning, as they showed him the town.

We spent two more days soaking in Chiang Mai, and shopping around for gifts – then we were off to save the elephants!

Bangkok

We ended up spending more than one night in Bangkok! It was one giant, hectic, smelly, beautiful, eye-opening city – and there was tons to see and do. Bangkok was very different than any city I’ve been to this trip because it was by far the most developed. The sky train system was sophisticated, and much more efficient than Vancouver’s in many ways. We used it everyday, and for two direction-challenged fools such as Alex and I, it was a god send. We spent our first day at the giant malls in Siam square, which had every high end store you could possibly think of. At night we went to the 4D movie theatre to see Planet of the Apes, and loved the shaking seats, wind blasts and scent release that came with the show. We actually had no problem spending the entire day in the mall, and took full advantage of the wide food selections (as per usual).

The next day we ventured over to the famous Khao San Road. There was all sorts of weird things here – like fried scorpion on a stick. The vendors were selling the usual tourist favourites, but in a vast selection, and at competitive prices. At night time the streets were lit up by lanterns and open-flamed stoves on the food carts.

After spending more time at the mega mall and frequenting the street food vendors outside our hotel, we spent our last day in Muang Boran – The “Ancient City”. It was a giant park that had many famous statues and landmarks from all over Thailand. We road bicycles through the park, and it was really cool; but it would have been way cooler if tourists didn’t get charged an admission fee that was that was about 7 times the price locals are charged.

We finished up with a very expensive dinner at a very fancy restaurant simply because we managed to get lost for 2 hours looking for a particular restaurant we wanted to try. After getting fed up we declared that the next freaking restaurant we saw was going to be the one we ate at, and of course you can’t undo a statement like that.

Ubud

Ubud was a touristy city with lots of charm and culture. During our time here we were able to explore, venture out for a volcano hike, and walk through several beautiful temples and rice fields.

 

We first went to the local markets that offered everything from clothing to instruments. We were able to practice our bartering skills after searching out asking prices and comparing the ones from the central markets to those on the outskirts. Quite often the central ones were ridiculously overpriced, but with confidence and firmly insisting “this vendor offered this to me for this much cheaper”, we were all pretty successful. I really enjoyed talking with the market vendors and seeing how low they would go.

 

With Steve being a pretty avid climber, he and Danielle had already done their fair share of volcano hikes. He found us a good one that was at our skill level, and we left to hike it at 1:30am. We anticipated seeing the sunrise from the top, so we thought that leaving early would be worthwhile, but unfortunately the clouds blocked the sunrise! However, we still got to see the canyons that had steam coming out, and the wild monkeys that were running around all over the place.

While Alex went his first Asian massage with Steve, Danielle took me for a Birthday pedicure! What a great friend 🙂

 

We also planned out a tour to see several ancient temples. We were all required to wear sarongs as we walked through them, so that our knees were covered. My favourite one had a holy water bath, where tourists were allowed to soak in the holy water. This temple also had a huge koi fish pond, that was full of hungry fish you could feed. The temples were surrounded by beautiful jungle scenery, which is exactly what I pictured Asia to look like.

 

Ubud was home to thousands of stray dogs. You could not walk down a street without seeing one. They tended to gather in packs at night, and you could often hear them howling or fighting. We found a place called BAWA – Bali Animal Welfare Association. In the midst of all the animal neglect, it was nice to see that someone had started a positive place for animals. Luckily we found this place, because the day we found a kitten that we thought had been run over by a moped, but was still alive, we all didn’t know what to do. Steve suggested we ask the person at BAWA, and they asked us if we could try to grab the kitten with a blanket or wait with him until an animal ambulance arrived. When Alex ran back to get him, he realized that he was just severely malnourished, and his matted fur had made him look squished. Anyways, long story short, we brought him to the office and bought a couple cans of food for him. This is literally the only place we have been where there would have been anything we could do for this poor little guy.

 

Finally, I think it needs to be said how saddened we are by the flight to Kuala Lumpur that was shot down. After reading about how some of the younger victims were on they’re way to Bali to explore after a stopover at KL – the same itinerary that Alex and I just had – it really put things into perspective. Our thoughts are with them and their families.

 

 

 

 

Gili Islands and Kuta Beach

Our travels in Indonesia began after a one night layover in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. After getting totally ripped off by a cab then staying at a hotel where people screamed in the halls all night long, we were regretting that we didn’t just tough it out in the airport for the night. We travelled over to the Gili islands immediately upon arrival, where we met up with Danielle and Steve! We travelled by way of “fast boat” which was a one hour speed boat ride, compared to a 4-5 hour ferry ride that was our other option. It was very bumpy and choppy to say the least.

The first island we stayed on was called Gili Trawangan. Here we swam in the bluest waters we had ever seen. The first night we walked across the island to watch the sunset with some Bintangs. The combination of the lit up sky and the tidal pools at low tide was beautiful. The following morning we snorkelled with too many turtles to count. The bigger ones were so calm that you could just float overtop of them a few inches from their shells. They were eating sea grass and looked like cows grazing in a field. The snorkelling was easy because you would walk up to one side of the island and the current would carry you all the way around, so you didn’t even have to swim. At the part where the ocean all of a sudden turns much darker on the surface, there is a massive drop off in the sand below sea level. Watching the fish and turtles swim down into the abyss was both eerie and humbling (it makes you feel very small).

Unfortunately, coming back in from the water, I was hit by a wave and got a big sand burn on my back. One of many small injuries I’ve collected traveling here. That night we all hung out in a little bungalow on the beach (essentially a flat wooden surface above the sand, with a table, cushions, and straw roof. Lots of stray cats joined us for dinner.

We watched the sunset a second time, and ended up walking back in the dark. We navigated our way through herds of cows and little frogs jumping all over the place. The full moon guided us back – a journey that Danielle, Steve and Alex were much more confident about taking than I was. Walking through the dark jungle with a dim flashlight? Not my forte.

After another day of lounging on the beach and eating Indonesian noodles (Mie goreng), we headed over to the second island – Gili Air. This one was less touristy than the other, so it was a nice change of pace. We stayed in large bungalows made completely of bamboo, and were woken up every morning by the dozens of chickens running around. We could see them run underneath us through the cracks of the floor. Lots more beach lounging, stray cats, and a really nice dinner on the sand at this island.

Finally, we made our way over to Kuta beach in Lambok (not the same Kuta you would find on the island of Bali). Right when we got there we were given motorbikes to make our way around the island with. When Alex was taking the bike for a test drive, he crashed it into the ditch. After a heated bartering session with the owner of the home stay he ended up paying $250 for the damage to the bike. Luckily we got to the beach and several young puppies came to hang out with us for the day, and made us feel better. We fed them coconuts.

The next day Steve took us one by one on the other motorbike to a beautiful lookout point over a beach with huge waves. I was the first one to be dropped off, and while Steve went back to get the others, a huge herd of water buffalos surrounded me. They were some of the most docile creatures I’ve ever seen. This day also happened to be my birthday, and Alex surprised me with a pre-planned vegetarian feast and a homemade birthday cake. The dinner was at a place called Mario’s, and our hosts were some of the sweetest people I’ve met the entire trip. To top it all off, he got me a bracelet with an elephant charm (because we are heading to an elephant sanctuary at the end of our trip). So, he’s out of the doghouse for the motorbike incident.

A funny side note that happened at that dinner was when Danielle helped me put the bracelet on. I guess the charm must have fallen off onto her plate, and she ended up eating it! Luckily she found it before she swallowed it.

Overall Indonesia has had the most beautiful beaches so far. Can’t wait to see what happens in Bali, where we are heading via ferry right now.

 

Hanoi and Halong Bay

We arrived in Hanoi after a 15 hour train ride. Kayleigh and I got to our room only to realize that the 2 bunks below ours were occupied by a family of 4. Cramped living quarters to say the least. Kirsten and Alexa did not fair much better, as they had 3 extra people in their room as well. The train probably had the worst bathrooms of the trip thus far. No toilet paper, no soap, disgustingly dirty (as I’m sure you can imagine from all the splashing around in a moving train), and a stench that grew worse by the hour. It was the longest ride of our lives. Anyway, things didn’t get much better when we got off either, as we chose a taxi driver who clearly was trying to scam us. What should have cost us about 2 dollars (in comparison to the other cabs we were taking), he tried to charge 10 dollars for. After making sure our bags were out of the trunk, we flat out refused to pay him the whole fair – a move that he seemed to knowingly agree with.

Finally we arrived at the backpackers hostel for a night before taking of on our cruise of Halong Bay. The cruise was called “castaways” and was a self-titled “party boat”. The Bay itself was beautiful – the cruise was anything but. In the midst of excessive drinking (not by us of course!) and god knows what else, we were told that if we drank with our right hand or used the words “ten” or “mine”, we either had to down our drink or do ten push-ups on the spot. We are getting too old for this s#*%. The first day was spent kayaking through the bay, and diving off the boat – which was awesome! The first night was spent playing unmentionable games and literally saving a crazy drunk Irish guy from drowning. Kayleigh and I retired to the room at about 2 am to hear a huge splash (we were the only ones on the boat to hear it). We ran outside and looked over the edge to find this Irish guy helplessly flapping his arms, and not responding to our calls. Kayleigh ran up and grabbed his friend to pull out his dead weight body from the water. He lived to see another day.

The second day we made our way to a private island where we got to go tubing and play volleyball. Kayleigh also rock climbed and made it to the top of the hardest course! At night we all went swimming in the bay and saw the infamous glowing plankton. If you swished your hands in the water, it would light up and you could see tiny sparkling plankton sticking to your arms. It was one of the coolest things I’d ever seen. Very magical. Our accommodation consisted of a cabin, with no walls and about 14 bunks. We got a mosquito net. That’s it. No pillow, no blanket, nothing.

Somehow everybody made it out alive. I had the pleasure of having one of the Irishmen fall asleep on my shoulder for the whole bus ride home. Needless to say, we were happy to get back to our hostel.

We spent the next day exploring the city and eating the best food (noodles, pho, spring rolls – the usual). After all was said and done, the city didn’t have as much to offer as we had anticipated. We ended up finding a good karaoke bar and belting out tunes by ourselves.

Then Alex came!

All five of us spent the last night of the girls trip together going to a pub crawl put on by he backpackers hostel. 3 bars and a lot of good tunes later, it was pouring rain, and we took a moped ride home. Alex and I said bye to the girls in the morning and headed back to Halong bay (on a much tamer boat). Again we got to kayak, swim with the plankton, and enjoy the beautiful landscape. The water calm enough that we could swim to neighbouring islands. We tried to take pictures, but they just don’t do the magnificent scenery justice. We also witnessed the most ferocious thunder storm of our lives. The noise woke us up at about 3 in the morning, and it sounded like the entire sky was going to collapse. The lows of the trip were finding a cockroach, and giant jumping worm, and a spider in our rooms. I tried to wash the worm down the drain with the shower head, and it crawled back up three times! Sick.

We’re now sitting at the airport awaiting our flight to Bali, where we will be meeting our good friends Danielle and Steve!

Hoi An

We arrived in Hoi An after the dreaded 12 hour overnight bus ride (the first time is kind of fun… But then it gets old really fast). We stayed at a popular hostel called the Sunflower, which was about a 15 minute walk from town. However, the heat was unbearable at times, and we learned quickly that a taxi ride would only cost us the equivalent of about 2 dollars. Hoi An is famous for it’s custom tailoring. All of us bought multiple items, with the most significant ones being Kayleigh’s bridesmaid dresses. They turned out beautiful, and the staff was so accommodating that they made 3 separate alterations at no charge. Another strategy we used was to look up pictures of clothing online from our favourite stores, and the tailor could literally make whatever you showed her. All for great prices too.

Our first night in Hoi An was spent at a restaurant overlooking a river with small boat cruises and floating candles. We obviously took part in both of these activities, and I have to say it was sort of a magical experience. We had little old ladies who could best be described at “wise” selling us candles and homemade banana cakes, then laughing at us while we struggled to get into their boats.

The next morning we rented bikes (all day for $1!), and rode around town. We went to the local beach, and witnessed other travellers being heckled by little old ladies selling “parking spots” for the bikes. We rode past rice fields, water buffalos, and a lot of big sketchy trucks that zoom by. If you’re not paying attention, you could easily end up in the ditch. However, by this point in the trip, we were much more confident navigating our way through traffic, and crossing roads with dignity.

The following day we did a cooking class that included a trip to the market to pick out fresh ingredients, and a boat ride through a bunch of Palm leaves (I really don’t know how else to describe it). We got given authentic rice field hats to wear, and it was really a great experience. The staff included a bubbly old lady, and a bunch of other guys who supplied us with fresh passion fruit juice all day. We learned how to make fresh spring rolls, Vietnamese pancakes, pho, and vermicelli salad.

Our last day in Hoi An was spent visiting some ancient temples that were really cool to look at, but I honestly could not tell you a thing about them because I couldn’t understand a word that our guide was saying. All I know is they were old, important, and many of them were bombed
by American forces during the Vietnam war.

Finally, we decided to take the “easy rider” express and work our way up North via motorbike. All of us girls had our own bikes and drivers, along with our giant backpacks strapped onto the backs of the bikes. We rode along the beautiful coastline where we stopped at look out points, swimming lagoons, an American bunker from the Vietnam war, and a mountian made completely out of marble. We all agreed it was our favourite part of the trip thus far. If I was to recommend just one thing to anyone traveling in Vietnam, it would be this.

In the midst of all this adventure, we drank a lot of banana smoothies, coconuts, and Saigon beer. We saw a lot of street dogs, cats, chickens (you name it!) and a lot of weird things at the markets. On multiple occasions, I saw motorbikes driving with dead pigs draped over the back… And bikes with cages full of small animals like birds, piglets, or puppies. Obviously, not my favourite sights to see, but it just was another reminder of how different life is here. People work with what they’ve got, and they get by with a lot less. Next up… Hanoi!

 

Nha Trang

We arrived in Nha Trang after a ten hour bus ride called an “overnight” bus. Basically this meant that we got to lay down at the back of the bus in a row of five seats. It was the ultimate slumber party! Especially since the fifth seat was occupied by a 60ish year old lady who snored the entire way. The first day we arrived was mainly spent on the beach. You can rent beach chairs for the equivalent of about a dollar for the entire day, and servers will bring you coconuts to sip on. I was still trying to get the hang of crossing the road, and got smoked by a motorized bicycle as we walked home from the beach. It was bound to happen.

We went out to a bar called “Why Not” a few times during our stay. Again, we mainly kept to drinks made in coconuts, and cheap, cheap beer. Kayleigh and I took a moped taxi ride home, and we’re bombarded with a group of women telling us that we were “So pretty! So pretty!” Not as flattering as it sounds… As they were trying to steal our bags. After talking to other tourists, many of them had similar experiences. One guy said he had been robbed 5 times since arriving in Vietnam. Unfortunately, our last night there a guy jumped out of nowhere and tried to grab Alexa’s bag off of her shoulder! Luckily she had it across her body, so he wasn’t successful.

One day we took a boat cruise called “Funky Monkey”, where a lively crew took us snorkelling, played us live music as a boy band, and set up a floating bar that you held onto with your feet, while lounging in a tube. Since we were from Canada, Kirsten and Kayleigh got pulled on stage to sing “My Heart Will Go On”, as the boy band acted out the “I’m flying!” scene from Titanic.

The next day we went to an amusement park called “Vin Pearl”, that required you to take a gondola. It is apparently the longest gondola in the world, and gave a beautiful view of the beaches. The park had sketchy rides, and a great water park – my favourite part being the wave pool that had bigger and better waves than I’ve ever been in!

Our last day was spent at a spa where we were treated like kings. Facials, massages, pedicures, food and drink, all for next to nothing. Who did we think we were getting all of this fancy schmancy treatment? The girls have had several massages thus far, all for about $5/hour.

On the whole, we’ve been eating a lot of pho (some very sketchy), noodles, curry and spring rolls. We’ve been drinking a lot of dirt cheap drinks. We’ve been getting a lot of beach time and sunburns – which makes us appreciate the air conditioning in our hotel more than ever. Finally we have been taking in all the sights and sounds, and enjoying the Vietnamese culture and people. They are wonderful.