Vietnam: Part 2

Ever since the day of our rigorous trek in the mud and rain in northern Laos, we have been met with rain whenever we leave a city. Every bus we have taken in Vietnam has been met with rain once it heads out. It sure makes it easier to leave these beautiful cities and move on to the next.

Since leaving Hoi An with much heavier bags and lighter wallets, we have spent most of our time at the beach. The first stop was a city called Nha Trang. It's a busy beach town that resembles the likes of a bustling South Beach or Miami. There is a great mix of locals and tourists. Around 4 or 5 o'clock, throngs of Vietnamese cross the boardwalk and go for a swim in their clothes, or set up for a picnic style dinner on the beach. The beach stretches for miles from a distant peninsula past a gondola that takes people to VinPearl Island. From what we heard, the island is home to a small amusement park and a few boats. We never made it across, but I admired the lights from the island in the evening and the Vin Pearl sign that resembles the Hollywood sign in LA.

We spent two days in the city enjoying the beach and the refreshing South China Sea. We went parasailing along the beach, being pulled around be a boat and flying high up in he air under a parachute. We also took advantage of the DVD player in our room to have a relaxing night in. It felt great to do something so normal after spending so nights wandering around cities by foot. I've also found myself eating mostly western food for the past couple weeks. Vietnamese food is delicious, but I just can't seem to bring myself to order another noodle bowl or plate of fried rice. We did have Pho the over night, a large bowl of rice noodles with your choice of meat that's eaten with chopsticks in one hand for the noodles and a spoon in the other for the broth.

After two days in Nha Trang, we hopped on a bus to Mui Ne, another beach town, though much smaller and resort like. The town is one long road that follows the sea for about 10 kms. Our hostel had a concrete deck facing the water hat the massive waves crashed up against and occasionally splashed me while I sat and read my book. There were sections of actual sandy beach further down the way, but we had some sand when the tide was out in the evenings. All afternoon, I could see dozens of kitesurfers and windsurfers out on the water.

We spent a day and a half enjoying our last views of the water. On our last day, a dark and ominous cloud thundered its way across the shore but didn't let a drop of rain fall. Yesterday morning, we boarded our last bus to Saigon while it was drizzling. It was still wet in Saigon when we arrived in the early afternoon. We checked into our hotel then fell asleep for a good couple of hours. For dinner, we headed out for another round of traditional Vietnamese Pho noodle soup then walked over to the Bien Thanh Market and wandered around the streets, picking up a couple things along the way.

Saigon is much more commercial than Hanoi. With a wider acceptance of commerce and trade, it has shaped the city into a relatively modern centre with a mix of commercial offices and stores and traditional, small corner shops. The roads and sidewalks are overrun by motorbikes. The streets look like the starting line of a race when hundreds of bikes are waiting at a red light. It's a bit hectic, but the broad sidewalks and boulevards make roaming the streets a little bit easier. This evening, when Simone and I were leaving a dessert cafe in a higher-end tourist area, we were escorted across the crosswalk by a security guard since motorists don't follow road rules like the ones back in Canada. A crosswalk here is more of a guideline for pedestrians of where is best to cross the street. By no means does it suggest people will actually stop for you. We cross the road with a look on our faces that says, "Hit me, I dare you," and keep walking as the traffic flows around us like a river around a rock.

Our one full day in the former capital of South Vietnam (now officially known as Ho Chi Minh City, though everyone here still calls it Saigon) was spent entirely on foot. We made our way to the former President's Palace, now called the Reunification Palace. It was left exactly as it was on the day Saigon surrendered and tanks stormed the front gates. The basement was the most interesting part, as it housed the war rooms and communication stations of the President. Maps of Vietnam and SE Asia with cities circled and routes laid out covered many walls.

The next stop was the War Remnants Museum, a shocking and overwhelming display of pictures, propaganda, and weapons from the Vietnam war. Having learnt about the Vietnam war from a North American perspective, it was eye-opening to see war stories from the other side. There was a very obvious propagandist tone throughout the museum, though one particular display of journalists' photos gave a very real telling of what happened from all sides. Outside the museum was an impressive collection of Army planes, helicopters, and tanks that loomed high over our heads. It felt a bit eerie to be standing next to such powerful machines that have played part in so much destruction.

After lunch, we kept walking, this time to a pagoda hidden down a small alley which turned out to be slightly unimpressive. Then we headed back to the hotel, stopping at the Notre-Dame Cathedral and elegant post office building along the way.

We're all tuckered out now from the miles we walked today. Tomorrow, Simone and I fly back to Bangkok where we've booked ourselves in at a rather luxurious hotel from a discount website. It will be a nice end to her month and my 4 + months of travel. I'll be home in 3 days. See ya soon.

Vang Vieng & Vietnam: Part 1

After trekking ourselves out in Northern Laos, we sat on the side of the road in the VERY small town of Ban Don Chai waiting for a bus that never came. After a good 30 minutes passed from when the bus was supposed to come, we ended up hitching a ride with a man in a nice Toyota truck that was headed to where we needed to go. Our driver spoke no English whatsoever, but we ended up in his truck anyway with the help of one of the shop owners in the town. I felt pretty safe about it, until the sun was setting and our driver pulled over to the side of the road. My thoughts briefly went to, "Shit. And this is where we die." But that thought quickly dissipated when I realized he just had to pee.

We were dropped off at the local bus station where we cabbed to our guesthouse. We were in Luang Namtha, and were there for just one night. We flew out the following afternoon on the only airplane the Luang Namtha airport sees in a day. The propeller plane flies from Laos' capital of Vientiane and back, once a day. The airport's baggage x-ray was broken, so a small Laotian woman did a short, manual search of our bags. Our boarding passes were handwritten.

Once in Vientiane, we got a taxi to the bus station... but we didn't quite make it there. The driver knew we needed a bus to Vang Vieng, so when he saw one behind us on the main road, he waved it over to the side of the road and threw our stuff in the back and we got in. The bus had a couple dozen locals on board along with several packages of flooring tiles, stacked one upon another in the centre aisle and at our feet. After 15 minutes of driving, the bus made a quick stop to pick up some more packages and filled up the back of the bus. Then it stopped a second time, this time for longer, to fill the bus up with boxes containing motor oil. By the time they were finished, we had boxes surrounding us on all sides and up to the armrests in the aisle. Passengers had to crouch to climb on top of the boxes to get on and off the bus. This is what you get for a 4 hour bus ride that only costs $5.

By 8pm, we were in Vang Vieng and quickly came across our hotel and the girls we were meeting there. Vang Vieng is in central Laos and surrounded by some beautiful mountain scenery, but that's hardly why most people go there. VV is famous for its tubing on the river, but more famous for the drinking that is done at the riverside bars before you can even get your feet wet. I spent all of 45 seconds in the water the day we went "tubing". There we others who were daring (or rather, stupid) enough to go off the rope swings and into the fast river that varied quite drastically in depths and was lined with rocks. I was a bit too busy with my bucket of vodka/7up to bother trying.

The post-tubing day included a whole lot of nothing. It was a much needed day off after the week of adventures and the day of partying before. We visited one of VV's many TV bars; semi-outdoor restaurants that have several TVs playing non-stop episodes of "Friends" or "Family Guy," or in some cases, movies.

The following day, we headed back to Vientiane on a bus then flew to Hanoi, Vietnam in the afternoon. We arrived in Hanoi around 5pm and made our way to our hostel in the Old Quarter. It was Saturday night and the night market was buzzing just a couple blocks over. We meandered around a little after dinner. The streets in Hanoi are constantly packed full of motorcyclist and the sidewalks are impossible to walk down since half of them are used as parking stalls for the motorbikes. But we managed to make it through the night unscathed.

That was all we really saw of Hanoi. The next morning we headed out on a tour to Halong Bay, 3 hours east of Hanoi and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There are over 3,000 islands in the bay and they make up a sea of domed, rocky islands. We spent the day and night on an elegant, dark-wood boat with about 40 other backpackers. We sailed around for the afternoon then went for a swim before hopping into kayaks. We kayaked to one of the islands and walked around inside a big cave. The cave was beautiful and a little creepy. But at one point, the guides made us crawl through a small opening into a completely dark area. We all turned on our flashlights at the same time and saw a glistening cave with formations hanging from the ceiling. I haven't a clue what any of the proper words are to describe what I saw, but it was really cool.

After a night on the boat and rainy morning heading back to the habour, we bused back to Hanoi only to get on another bus a short while later. This time, it was a sleeper bus. My bed was about 13 inches wide and about 3 inches too short for my height. I had a bed against the window, but my left side was being held in only by a small, short handle. Somehow I still managed to sleep quite well on the 14-hour overnight trip to Hue. Hue is just outside the DMZ (demilitarized zone) from when Vietnam was divided between north and south. We only spent the morning there as we hopped on another bus to Hoi An at 1pm.

Since arriving in Hoi An that evening, we've enjoyed our hotel's pool, the beach a mere 10 minute cycle away, and the more than 200 tailor shops in the town. This place has the world's largest concentration of tailors and I have already dropped an unmentionable sum on custom made clothing. We leave tomorrow evening which makes me a little sad because it is such a beautiful and low-key town. The food is incredible and the architecture is charming and elegant. We arrived on the night of a full moon and the town was lit with lanterns. But I am also relieved to be going since I don't know how much more my wallet can handle being here.

Gibbon' it all

I had the strangest feeling the other day; I got in a truck in Laos and realized about 5 minutes into our drive that we were driving on the right-hand side of the road. For the past 4 months, it has always been the left-hand side. It was weird to feel what is normal to me feel wrong.

We were on our way to "The Gibbon Experience," a three day, two night zip-lining and trekking adventure in the middle of the jungle, in the northwest part of Laos. We arrived in Laos late Saturday afternoon after a 6-hour bus ride from Chiang Mai to Chiang Khong in Thailand. Then we crossed the Mekong river in a shaky, long-tipped boat to Huay Xai (pronounced "way sigh") in Laos. It is a small transit town for tourists and backpackers, with one main street that has all the guesthouses and restaurants, though not very many locals can speak English.

The next morning, we met in the Gibbon office with ten other people. We split up into two groups of five and seven and piled into trucks. The road was a lot better than I expected. Laos is further behind than most of South East Asia in terms of development, so I was pleasantly surprised to find myself on a nicely paved highway for most of the journey.

Our trip came to a stall when our truck had to pull over and fix something with the axel. We sat on the side of the road for close to an hour while our driver worked to fix whatever was wrong. We were at a small store that seemed to be a meeting point for a lot of the Gibbon employees.

Once we were ready to go, we all got back in the truck but didn't make it more than 100 meters when the driver turned back around, we all got out, and he started fixing something again. Another fifteen minutes passed and a new truck arrived to take us the rest of the way.

We finally turned off the highway a little bit later and drove for another 30-45 minutes down a rough, dirt road to a small village where the other group was waiting. I didn't quite understand why they were waiting for us because as soon as we got there, they took off and we had to wait five minutes before heading out.

We heading out on foot towards the mountainous jungle with only a small backpack with our clothes. We stopped after fifteen minutes for lunch then continued on. It was almost straight uphill after that. We climbed and endless amount of makeshift stairs to make our way up to the base camp. I started to feel the burn in my untrained legs very quickly and I was surprised at how hard I found I to breathe. Everyone had passed me at this point and I was slowly making my way up the never ending stairs with just a guide with me. I started to worry how I would handle the rest of the trek if I was having so much trouble already. After several breaks to give my legs a stretch and my lungs a chance to catch up, I made it to the base camp where the others already were.

We were each given a harness for the zip line as it started to rain. The rain didn't matter much because we had all soaked through most of our clothes with our sweat. It helped to cool us off as we still had another 2 hours to go to get to our treehouse.

We reached our first zip line after a ten minute walk. I snapped my safety carabeener onto the cable and climbed onto the main part of the wooden platform. Then I unhooked my zip roller and latched it onto the cable as well. The roller is two metal wheels that slide along the cable and are held together inside a metal casing. There is a piece of a rubber bicycle tire on top to serve as a brake when squeezed against the cable.

I sat down on the edge of the platform and waited for the okay to go from the guide on the other side of the line. After hearing it, I slid off the platform and accelerated along the cable through the trees until they opened up and I was speeding along the line in the middle of the sky. I looked down at my dangling feet and saw the ground very, very far down below. I looked out to the forested mountains in the distance and the huge open area around me. I felt excitement and exhilaration, but also major fear and panic from being so high up. A series of unprintable words ran through my head as I realized what I was doing.

Forty seconds later, I was arriving at the platform at high speed. I hadn't actually tried out my brake yet so I wasn't pressing down on the right part. I zoomed toward the platform and nearly crashed into the tree that the cable was attached to. Thankfully our guide stopped me before I could injure myself.

We carried on through the jungle, going across more zip lines and hiking up more inclines. After climbing the stairs at the beginning of our trek, my legs were shot. It became even harder for me to walk through the trees and up more hills. It was one of those tests that was so physically demanding that all sorts of thoughts and emotions were running through my head. Anger, frustration, sadness, and more were all building up inside me. I started thinking mean thoughts, the kind of thoughts that only come up in times of intense pressure, but that you would never actually say out-loud. There was no way I could stop going and I didn't want to. But I was shocked at how my body was handling the trek, or not handling it rather, and I just wanted to make it to the treehouse.

Finally we did. I was elated to be finished, but nervous about the two more days ahead of us. I pushed it to the back of my mind as we explored our treehouse. It was a circular, open-air treehouse about 50-60 meters off the ground. There was a small staircase leading to a second level that had room for two people to sleep. The main area had room for six more to sleep, and had a kitchen sink and area for a small table and camping chairs. There was a bathroom with a shower-head attached to one of the branches of the tree, a sink, and a squatting toilet. The toilet was often swarmed with wasps as there was a nest nearby, so we had to use the shower-head to spray any buzzing around before going about our business.

We had a cooler full of fruit and other snacks in our treehouse that our guide cut up and put out for us to eat. Other guides zipped in and out of the treehouse bringing dinner and hot water for tea and coffee from the kitchen not too far away. The sun went down around 7 and though we had solar powered lights, we sat in the almost complete darkness with our group watching fireflies and drinking the "whisky" in our cooler. We were with a German couple who seemed to be in their late twenties, and a Dutch girl the same age as Simone and I.

The second day turned out to be much better than the first. We packed up our bags and zipped out of our treehouse and headed out on another two hour trek. This had some hills, but nothing compared to the stairway to heaven (or hell) we had to climb the day before. We hiked and zipped all the way to a waterfall where we stopped to swim and eat lunch. We trekked another 20 minutes or so to our new treehouse for the night. We zipped in under the treehouse and crawled up a few stairs to get inside. This treehouse was smaller, with the bathroom being below the main area, next to platform where we zip in on. It was more set in amongst the trees so it felt lower to the ground. But looking down we figured it was probably a bit higher. It also swayed whenever someone came to or left the treehouse.

It was only 1pm when we got there, but it felt like it should have been much later. A thunderstorm started to roll in around 2 so we couldn't go out and use the zip lines until it passed. We went out again around 3:30-4 after the rain stopped then had dinner. That night passed much like the night before, drinking the so-called whisky from our cooler and hanging out with our group.

The next morning, some of our group went out for a morning zip before coming back to the treehouse for coffee. Then we zipped out of our treehouse and then across the river to hike down to the kitchen for breakfast. It had started to rain before we headed out and it didn't stop throughout our entire trek that day. We trekked for a solid two hours back to the village where the truck would come pick us up. It was a really nice hike, through some cool parts of the jungle. The rain fell constantly, and though we were drenched, it kept us cool. We often stopped to pick off leeches that latched on to our shoes and were trying to crawl up our legs and inside our socks. We had to cross three different shallow rivers, two of which the bamboo bridges were broken. If our shoes weren't drenched already, they were after that. When we reached the third bridge, we didn't even bother using it since it didn't really matter at that point.

Unfortunately, we realized because of the rain, the trucks would not likely be able to make it down the dirt road to pick us up. After sitting around for an hour discussing the possibilities, our group along with the seven people from the other group, and two guides headed out again in wet shoes for the highway. No one really knew how long it would take because the locals were giving us all different answers.

Turns out it was a 4 1/2 hour muddy, mostly uphill hike. Two guys went barefoot and the rest of us walked with our shoes constantly getting clumps of heavy mud and clay. My feet felt like they had extra ten pounds each attached to them. As we worked to get rid of them mud, it would just continue to clump up on the bottom of our shoes. But we just had to keep walking because we had no other option.

The group started to break up as some moved faster than others. I was at the back with the dutch girl from our group and our guide. Simone stayed with us for a while until her impatience with uphills got her motoring to the front of the group. At one point, we were walking next to a man with two small horses and he told me to hold on to one's tail as it pulled most of my weight as I moved my feet along. It was really helpful except for when the horses let one or two rip. I got pulled by the horse for about three hills until the man with the horses stopped to collect some water on the side of the road.

From there, we trudged on the endless road for what I though had been an hour or an hour and a half since we had left. Turns out it had been three. I couldn't believe we had been walking for that long already and the guide said we had another two hours to go. About ten minutes later, I decided I had enough with my shoes. I had planned on ditching then after the trek anyways. So I undid my shoelaces and took off my soaking wet socks and left them on the side of the road. It was either going to be a great idea, or an awful idea.

As soon as they were off, my pace picked up. It was a lot more slippery and I slipped and fell twice, breaking my bamboo walking stick in the process. As we got closer to the end of the road, the mud got harder and there were more rocks. It got harder to walk and my feet got scratched up, but I had no other option since my flipflops weren't going to hack it in these conditions.

An hour and a half after taking off my shoes, and four and a half hours after leaving the village, I saw the last river to cross. I walked through the foot-deep water, cleaning my legs along the way, then finally made it up the last hill to where our very late lunch was waiting. Sigh.

Thailand

It's been just under a week since my last post, but it feels like a month. After arriving in Bangkok on Sunday with Sandra, we headed to her old apartment where she lived this past year. We met up with some of the other teachers still there and went for a quick dinner. We went to a place around the corner where the owner speaks barely any English so the girls have to point to their ribs to order pork ribs and flap their arms to get chicken wings. He also runs down the street to buy a case of beer whenever they arrive because he never quite has enough in stock for what they drink...

After dinner, Sandra and I rushed off to the airport where we were late picking up our friends, Simone and Andrea, who just arrived from Winnipeg. We taxied into downtown Bangkok to our hostel near the popular Khao San Road, a short street filled with bars, shops, street food vendors, and people trying to get tourists to go see a "ping pong show" (if you don't know what that is, too bad, I'm not about to explain it here).

We crashed shortly after midnight and got going again the next morning around 10. It was Sandra's birthday so we went out to one of Bangkok's many malls to do some shopping. After a lunch break that saw many communication barriers come into effect (like Andrea attempting 3 times to order a Pepsi and finally getting it after about 25 minutes) we headed back to Khao San for our first experience with the famous Thai massage. I got a 30-minute foot and leg massage for $4. We were led up to a room with at least 25 cushy mats, each right next to each other. Most of them were full so we took whatever was available and waited for our masseuse to find us.

It felt pretty strange to be lying quietly in a room with so many people getting massaged at the same time. The room was silent except for the murmur of strong Thai hands digging into tourists' muscles. Then there was the occasional moan or sigh, then the thwack-thwack-thwack from the traditional Thai massage of hitting one's back with the outer edges of your hands.

There are Thai massage places everywhere you go in Thailand. I went for a back massage last night, but it probably looked more like a one-sided wrestling match with a teeny-tiny Thai lady who had fingers that made up an iron fist. At one point, she had me sitting up with my hands behind my head and she pretzled herself around me then stretched me out and every vertebrae in my spine cracked. This was followed by her rolling onto her back and taking me with her so that my body made an arc over her like a footbridge. It was a good thing I was facing the ceiling so that she couldn't see my face of complete shock and awe over what was happening at that moment. I have yet to decide if I enjoy Thai massages or not. I had a couple bruises on my feet after my first massage and the one yesterday was quite the adventure, as you can see. But one thing is for sure, these little ladies are impressive.

We spent the night of Sandra's birthday on Khao San. We had dinner then sat at an outdoor bar that serves buckets of drinks for 200 baht (~ $6.50). You can get any liquor you want mixed with any juice or soda, topped up with a heap of ice. We're uncertain on the quantity of liquor actually in one bucket, though it easily surpasses any amount that could legally be served in Canada. At midnight, the birthday torch was officially passed on from Sandra to Simone. But the night ended soon after when one of guys from our hostel got a little too excited over the celebration and let his beet bottle slip and smash into the ground... as well as Andrea's foot.

The next day, we flew north to the city of Chiang Mai. It's a town surrounded by beautiful, lush and green mountains. Our first full day here, we took a cooking class. I learnt how to make cashew chicken, spring rolls, and red curry with pineapple. The curry lesson was the most interesting. We made the paste first, which was exhausting and caused all to break out into a sweat from mashing a mix of ingredients together in a mortar. Then we used the paste to make the actual curry dish. I was first up and our teacher greased up my wok with oil then threw in the chicken. That's when the giant flame erupted from the wok and nearly burnt off my eyebrows.

The cooking class was followed by an almost as exciting day riding an elephant and white water rafting in Mae Kong river. It was 10kms of muddy water with amazing level 4 and 5 rapids throughout. It's something that I've always wanted to do and was absolutely amazing. We were 5 in our raft, but we stuck close to two other rafts of the same company. A couple people got tossed from the other rafts, but fortunately I managed to stay in at all times and only sustained a minor toenail injury.

Yep, we went through this.

We wrapped up the last of our Thailand adventures today with a day out rock climbing at Crazy Horse. This is the mountain below. We did a couple routes on the backside of the mountain, then did two more after lunch on the lower left handside of this photo.

The first climb up was challenging because I was getting used to the feel of everything. It was a level 5A (levels go from 4A/B/C to 9A) and about 12 meters high. I followed that one up with a level 5B about the same height. There were two more routes at that location, but I had to sit them out to avoid aggravating my knee.

It was a lot of fun climbing but incredibly exhausting. I came down from my first climb dripping with sweat and unable to keep my hands still. During my second climb, I was near the top and my left leg was shaking uncontrollably from having to hang on for so long. By the third climb (a 23 metre hike shown below), my arms felt dead and my thighs were weak. I got about 1/3 of the way up and was stuck at a tricky point on the wall. I didn't trust my knee enough to hold up, so I had to lower back down and call it a day.

We leave Chiang Mai in the morning on a bus. We're crossing over into Laos in the afternoon, then heading on a 3 day/2 night excursion in the Bokeo forest where we sleep in treetop houses accessed only by ziplines.

Beach Bums

Okay, I did it. I went snorkeling again. Sort of. Lindsay, Kathryn, and Sandra signed up to go snorkeling and I planned on just going along for the boat ride. We piled in with a half dozen other people and headed out to the first location, K.K. Bay. I sat in the boat while the others checked out the underwater life. I almost fell asleep from the rocking motion of the boat. I could see bright yellow and blue fish swimming around the edges of the boat as I dangled my feet off the edge.

After a good 15-20 minutes, we headed over to Shark Point. I was lying in the boat, about to fall asleep, I heard the voice of our guide, "You want to see shark?" I pretended I was sleeping until he climbed into the boat and pulled out a mask and snorkel. I eventually stood up and waited for him to clean out the mask. I put it on with little enthusiasm and followed him into the water. After seeing that I was uncomfortable with the snorkel, he led me back over to the boat for a lesson in breathing underwater. I got used to it after a while, but felt nervous heading away from the boat. I ducked my head under the surface and saw a blacktip shark about 25 feet away. I kept swimming and came across a school of colourful fish, followed by a single, bright parrot fish, then another shark near the ocean floor. The coral below was a greenish-grey colour and made up all sorts of shapes. We headed to the right and I almost crashed into the boat. I freaked out a little and took the snorkel out of my mouth. I told the guide thanks, but I want to go back in the boat.

After Shark Point came Turtle Point. It wasn't much of a point if you ask me; it was a spot between the two islands that, at the time, had two massive turtles swimming around in it. I watched from the boat as a dozen or so snorkelers followed one of them as it swam around in big circles, eventually making its way up to the surface for a breath before ducking back under again. It's shell had to have been at least a foot and a half in length.

The rest of the week wasn't nearly as eventful. It included several days of reading, eating, and sleeping on the beach. We ate a one restaurant every day for dinner. They had a beach BBQ everynight. I had barracuda, kingfish, prawns, and more. The food was so good that as we ate, we discussed what we would have the next day.

Sandra and I are now back in Kuala Lumpur. We flew in with Lindsay and Kathryn last night, but split up when we arrived. They headed to a hotel near the airport to sleep before an early morning flight to Bangkok this morning, while Sandra and I headed downtown for a dinner out and a visit to the Petronas Towers, the highest twin towers in the world... until Dubai builds taller ones, unless they already have.

We're just a few hours away from boarding a plane to Bangkok. We'll be heading over to Sandra's old apartment, where Kathryn and Lindsay already are, take a quick rest then head back to the airport to pick up Simone and Sandra's friend, Andrea.

Highlands and Islands

I'm sneaking a few quick minutes away from the hot, mid-afternoon sun to post this. We arrived on Pulau Perhentian Kecil (the Small Island) in the southern tip of the Gulf of Thailand. It is paradise. The water is unlike anything I have every seen. On the edge of the sand, the water is crystal clear. I can see the blue painted on my toenails peeking out from the sand on the sea's floor. Looking out in the distance, I can see the colour change from a translucent teal green to a vibrant blue, like a glowing pitcher of blue kool-aid.

The boat ride out was a bumpy one as we sped along in a large motorboat over the waves. As we approached the beach, two smaller motorboats came to fetch us and take us up on to shore. We got soaked from the splashes of the waves, but managed somehow to keep our backpacks relatively dry. The four of us managed to get one of the last rooms at a hostel at one end of Long Beach (the name made me expect a stretch much longer than the one we arrived at). Our room is on the second floor of a chalet-type hut and one of the rooms has a balcony that looks out on the rest of the beach.

Long Beach is a backpacker style locale that has about 300 yards (I could be really off on that measurement...) of white sand. Scattered along the beach are a variety of hostels, restaurants, diving centres, and beach umbrellas. The view from our side of the island is Pulau Perhentian Besar (the Big Island). The vibe is laid back, but the hosts are welcoming and jump at the chance to help. There too many restaurant tables for visitors to fill, so while the beach is smaller than other I've been too, it feels unpopulated especially during the day when many tourists are out diving or snorkeling.

It's hot here, but without the unbearable humidity. There is a constant, gentle breeze and the water is warm enough to walk right into but cool enough to still be refreshing.

Before heading over to the islands, we spent a couple days in the Cameron Highlands. We took a surprisingly luxurious bus (for only 35 Malaysian Ringgits ~ $12 CDN) from Kuala Lumpur to Tanah Rata. It is a busy tourist town amongst in the forested mountains, surrounded by strawberry farms and tea fields. It felt similar to a ski town like Banff, though surrounded by jungle instead of snow. We took one day to do absolutely nothing except read and drink coffee at the Starbucks down the way. The next day, we took a Rainforest tour and walked their mossy forest, drove to the highest point of the highlands, and toured the Boh Tea Plantation, a 200-hectare region that makes the most tea in Malaysia.

It rained on and off the entire time we were in the highlands, but it was a refreshing change of climate from the hot and sticky Indian weather. It is now Monday and we are going to be on the island until Saturday morning. I don't plan on accomplishing anything except for reading and eating. Maybe another snorkeling attempt... maybe.

Quiet on the set

I met a movie star today. A Bollywood movie star. Aamir Khan, comparable to the likes of Hollywood's George Clooney, was filming an action movie in a construction yard today. Thanks to the arrangement of a friend of a friend, we were heading to the set around 3pm this afternoon. By 3:45, we were in his trailer shaking his hand and introducing ourselves. He was wearing a khaki Mumbai police uniform for his role. He had just been called to set, so we followed him to where the shot was being set up.

We sat in chairs behind the director, Reema Kagti, with her earphones on and eyes focused on the monitor. We watched them film about 8 takes of one scene, then Aamir (or A-Khan as we've dubbed him) came over to chat. We sat for a while and talked about Canada, cricket, travels, and teaching. About 4 years ago, he produced and starred in a movie, "Taare Zameen Par" (Every Child is Special), about the pressures and expectations Indian children face in school at such a young age, and particularly the treatment of children with learning and mental disabilities. We watched it a couple weeks ago while in Agra. Being that the 4 girls I am travelling with are all teachers, one of which is continuing her studies specifically in disability management, the movie was a hit in our group.

After chatting for a bit, Aamir was called back to set to film a couple more takes of a different shot. His assistant escorted us to another spot nearby and the director yelled at us to walk faster and get out of her shot. The day's shooting was called to a wrap and we headed back to his trailer. We sat in one part of the trailer while he changed to head home. He came and sat down with us again and signed the stack of DVDs we hauled in with us. 8 copies of Taare Zameen Par and 5 copies of "3 Idiots," a follow-up of sorts to the former, about high school students competing to make it into university. The autograph sessions was followed up with a quick photo outside his trailer. There was a small crowd of people waiting for an autograph and to snap a picture. I think we all ended up in their photos.

It was an exciting last day to have in Mumbai. The past 3 1/2 weeks have been pretty amazing and it was a great way to top it all off. I've covered 5 states in India and feel like I've barely scratched the surface. My time in Kenya prepared me for a lot of what I saw (and smelled), and to always look both ways when crossing a one-way street. But I definitely had some very new experiences in India. I was able to experience the home team win the Cricket World Cup. I witnessed an already vibrant country come alive and celebrate a national victory with cheers, chants, and fireworks (lots and lots of fireworks). I saw one of the seven wonders of the world, and my tastebuds adapted (somewhat) to the spicy curries and kormas of India.

It wasn't all smiles however. As always, trips have their rough patches and no country is perfect. It was stressful at times and I found it particularly challenging to travel with a group for such a long time. I'm used to taking trip with 1 or 2 other people, so it was difficult to adjust to travelling with 5 other people at all times. I've found myself often seeking out solitude. The initial comfort from travelling with new and old friends faded after spending several days in the same van for hours at a time. Time alone with my own thoughts became more sought after and appreciated. But its made me adjust to a new way of travelling, and really it was the first time in a while where I wasn't the one calling the shots.

India brought out another feeling I had never quite experienced before. Travelling around the northern parts of the country where women are treated differently than in the more modern Mumbai was a shock. I had never been more aware of my gender or made to feel as uncomfortable as I was for just being female. Stares from men stemmed from pure curiosity all the way to perverse, but it felt like mostly of the latter. We've had numerous pictures taken or attempted to be taken of us, and have been followed from various distances on several occasions. It brought up an anger in me that I didn't know I could feel. I was upset for myself and also for all societies that allow this type of behavior. We come from a country where looking at someone for longer than a couple seconds is considered rude. Yet us 5 girls stood in the Jaipur Observatory only to be the objects others were observing. Kathryn reversed the roles and snapped a picture of a dozen men sitting and standing in a line staring directly at us with no attempt to be discreet. We wore scarves and capri pants to maintain as much modesty as we could in the heat, but it didn't matter. It felt as if they could see right through the clothes on our backs.

As any country does, India has its pros and cons. What it does well and what it fails at. My most favourite place in India is still Mumbai, where I began and will end this leg of the trip. As we were driving to the movie set this afternoon, I realized why this city was like no other I have been too. We were on our way to see a Bollywood film being shot while passing dilapidated buildings, slums, shiny business centres, samosa stands on the corners, bustling train stations, and busy retail stores. Because unlike the definite grittiness of New York versus the perceived shine of Hollywood and L.A., or the southern hospitality of the lower United States, it all exists together in Mumbai. The city of 18 million people doesn't try to define its areas or its identity as a whole. It is a mix of everything and just is what it is. While the east may have a rivalry with the west, and the Bollywood stars tend to live on Pali Hill where the real estate is steep and faces the water, everything and everyone in Mumbai seems to weave its way into one solid fabric. It is a fabric that I like very much.

Heat, Humidity, and the Himalayas

I'm back in Mumbai and feel quite at home. We were only supposed to arrive tomorrow morning, but Carleigh and I booked a last minute evening flight to arrive back at the same time as Dean. Carleigh wasn't feeling well and I didn't feel too passionate over spending another night's sleep on a bus. Sandra, Kathryn, and Lindsey are on the bus as I type along with one of Dean's friends.

We spent the last two nights in Goa, a small beach state about an eight hour drive south of Mumbai. I was told there are over 16 beaches in the area, all with various colours of sand. We were at Baga Beach, a brown sand beach. It was party central; a booming tourist town for Indians and foreigners alike. But at this time of the year, the heat is at its peak and I felt it. Just standing still took immense effort.

The one full day we had in Goa was spent sleeping in, then heading to a hole-in-the-wall restaurant that served the best Goan seafood in town, according to Dean and his friends. They weren't lying. We feasted on butter garlic prawns, rock crab, masala king fish, pomfret fish, freash calamari, and other mouthwatering deliciousness. Then we scootered our way to the beach in the late afternoon to play in the warm and rampant waves of the Indian ocean. In the evening, we headed out to The Saturday Night Market (not kidding, it doesn't have a special name of any sort, just "The Saturday Night Market"). It was a large area of local vendors selling everything from jewelry to carvings to clothing. The majority of people there were Russian and European tourists. There were also several food vendors selling specialties from all over India while bands played the main stage.

The heat and humidity of Goa was a shock coming from the Himalayas. We spent 3 relaxing days of mostly shopping, sleeping, and eating in the town of Bhagsu, next to Mcleod Ganj, home to the Dalai Lama's temple of exile. We visited the Buddhist temple and it was quite unlike what I was expected. Its a relatively modern building (they have only been there for 50 years) with many open areas to meditate and pray. It is set right out the outskirts of the town. Monks walk the streets of the towns in their crimson cloaks and scarves, stopping to chat with locals, and sitting in cafes on the corner. Every once in a while, I would see one pull out a cell phone. We often sat near a group of them at a restaurant. They added a sense of calm and serenity to the area. Their quiet and peaceful manner permeated the room.

There is a path that goes around the temple complex. It is lined with Tibetan flags of white, red, yellow, blue, and green. Monks and Buddhists make the walk with prayer beads in hand and spin Om wheels as they pass them. Om wheels are cylinders with prayers written on them that are spun by people walking by and it is as if they are saying the prayer by spinning it. As we walked the path ourselves, we could see the beautiful mountains and snowy peaks of the Himalayas. We passed cows along the way, and there was one particularly uneasy encounter that pinned me versus a half dozen calves. There were rocks on my right, a cliff on my left, and a wall of cattle straight ahead. I didn't like any of my options. I managed to make my way through unscathed and finished the walk huffing and puffing the thin air up the last steep hill.

I have two more days in Mumbai that involve more shopping, some henna tattoos, and possibly a meeting with a big Bollywood star... but I don't want to jinx that. So I'll fill you in if/when it happens.

From Marble to Mountains

I must admit, I had no idea why the Taj Mahal was built until I arrived at the gates. And in case you're like me, it was built back in 1632 by emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his third wife. It took 22 years and several thousand tonnes of white marble to build. It looks exactly as one would imagine. No bigger or smaller than pictures make it out to be. We arrived around 9am to the grounds. It is almost impossible to see the palace from outside the gates unless you are high up in a building. The palace is walled on 3 sides, with the back looking out on a river. From the entrance of the gates, the Taj looks quite majestic, as intended. The early morning sun and fog made it glow and look like it was floating in some way. The Taj is perfectly symmetrical, with a mosque and a guesthouse on either side, completely identical in construction.

After slipping on out cloth booties over our shoes to protect the marble floors, we got to see the Taj Mahal right up close. There are thousands of tedious stone gem designs inlaid in the walls and floor of the Taj. The emperor cut off the thumbs or whole hands of the artists who worked on the building so they would not be able to recreate the same beautiful work for someone else. Shah Jahan buried his wife inside the Taj and later decided he would build another Mahal for himself across the river, this time in black marble. His son thought he was spending too much money and exiled him to the Agra Fort where he stayed until his death. From his room in the fort, he could see the Taj Mahal and even put diamonds in the ceiling so he could see its reflection when he lied down.

This is what we toured next, the Agra Fort. It is a huge fort 2.5kms away from the Taj. We spent 2 hours touring only a quarter fort. It was mostly built by the grandfather of Shah Jahan, Akbar the Great, but many of the buildings inside the fortress were built by Shah Jahan during his imprisonment. It seemed as though many of the buildings were used to house the many concubines of the rulers. 5,000 of them to be exact.

Our next stop was the town of Amritsar. Located less than 30 kms away from the Pakistan border, we were in the far northwest reaches of India, in the state of Punjab. We headed to the Wagha Border for 5pm, when the border closing ceremony was supposed to start. There must have been close to two thousand people on the India side alone. Probably close to the same amount on the Pakistan side. Each side had grandstands surrounding the road especially for these daily ceremonies. For an hour, there was music playing and women and children running up and down the road with the Indian flag followed by dancing. Then at 6, the official ceremony began. Indian and Pakistani officers wearing Spartan-like helmets marched, yelled, and blew the trumpet on either side of the gates. Their style of march was different than the sharp and concise movements of the western military. Their march included the occasional high kick and ended in an aggressive and somewhat spastic side step. Shouts of "Hindustan!" and "Pakistan!" could be heard from either side respectively. On the India side, there was a man oddly dressed in a white jumpsuit leading the soldiers and the crowd in cheers. Finally, after a lot of pomp and circumstance, the gates were opened, hands were shaken, and the flags were lowered. And this happens every single day.

The next morning, we checked out the Golden Temple. I found wikipedia explains it better than I could, "The Golden Temple is considered holy by Sikhs because the eternal guru of Sikhism, the Sri Guru Granth Sahib, is always present inside it and its construction was mainly intended to build a place of worship for men and women from all walks of life and all religion to come and worship God equally." We had to remove our shoes and cover our heads with something other than a hat. As we entered the area surrounding the temple, we has to rinse our feet in a small pool.

The temple itself is situated in the middle of a holy water pond. The whole area is encased by a building that forms a large square around the pond. The floor was white marble inlaid with various designs. The marble formed steps into the pond where men were taking baths. We crossed the bridge to the temple to see inside. It was a long wait for a very brief walk through the small and crowded temple. Worshipers bought food for offering at a stand, brought it to the temple to be blessed and left it there, then picked up the blessed food on the way back and ate it. After walking through the temple, we walked around the back and worshipers were scooping up holy water from the pond with their hands, drinking it, then putting the remainder on their head. This was the same holy water that people were bathing in, and that we saw giant goldfish swimming around in. I think the more I learn about different religions, the less I understand them.

We are now in Dharamsala, on the western edge of the Himalayas. It is where the Tibetan exile was moved to in 1960 after the 14th Dalai Lama originally established it in another town in 1959. We had a 6 hour drive from Amritsar that was far from pleasant. Our driver didn't seem pleased about having the task of driving us. He drove like he was in Grand Theft Auto, weaving in and out of traffic. I think I almost vomited 14 times and brushed death about 16 times. And that was all before we reached the actual mountains. He took the sharp twists and turns at 80 km/h, passing cars, buses, and rickshaws... and the cow having a nap along the curb. Once we arrived in lower Dharamsala, he stopped and refused to drive us the extra 6kms to Bhagsu in upper Dharamsala here our hotel was located. After a phone call to the hotel back in Amritsar that hired him and a few grumblings in Punjab, he sped off again. We reached our hotel and I could finally unclench my jaw and feel my shoulders slowly unwind.

All was forgotten once we got to our room and checked out the view. We're a couple thousand feet in the air and can see the snowy tops of the Himalayas. We're surrounded by dark green forests and the air is chilled. It's the first time I can say I've been cold in the last 3 months, but it's incredibly refreshing.

Rajasthan

It's been a week since my last post, and in that time we have toured the northern state of Rajasthan. On the first of the month, we flew out to the city of Udaipur. It was very quiet compared to the busy streets of Mumbai. The city surrounds a calm lake with charming architecture and a grand palace. We toured the palace that is now a museum in many parts, though the king of Udaipur still lives there. He has also converted many other royal buildings in Udaipur and around Rajasthan into hotels to make money. April 2 was the final Cricket World Cup match between India and Sri Lanka. We left Mumbai one day before the match took place there. It would have been quite the sight to see since India ended up winning the match. Even now, a week later, the newspapers have at least 2 or 3 pages dedicated to the cricket world cup. It's been pure madness. The night of the game, we could hear cheers and fireworks in the streets of Udaipur before the match was even over all the way into the next day. After a couple nights in Udaipur, we headed further north to Chandelao. On the way, we stopped at the Ranakpur Jain Temple. Jains are a branch of Hinduism, and are a little more extreme in their practice. They always walk around the temple clockwise to bring good luck, they don't eat any food that is grown underground (and are vegan as well), and they do not kill insects. It was after this visit that I got the nickname G.I. Jain for the amount of flies that I kill on our bus. The temple was beautiful, made almost entirely our of marble and every surface had intricate carvings. Our night in Chandelao was spent in a medieval fortress. Our rooms used to be stables and were made entirely of stone. In the morning, we went out for a jeep safari. There weren't very many animals to see, but we ended up stopping in a village to see pottery being made. The jeep we were in had a dead battery, so the driver had to get people to push it to start. But when we were leaving the village, it wouldn't start, even with half the men in the village pushing it. We stood there for over an hour waiting for the driver to fix it, even after the stick shift came off entirely. There were kids all around us, and being with 4 elementary school teachers, they were very much entertained. We finally got rescued by our regular van and headed on our way to Osiyan, a desert town, for a camel trek. We arrived around 5:30pm and headed out right away. We rode for an hour to some large sand dunes where we got off and spent a while climbing to the top and taking in the view at dusk. From the ground, the dunes didn't look like they went on for too long, but once we reached a point at the top, they seemed endless. We rode the camels back to our camp and made it back just before the lingering light from the setting sun disappeared. We stayed up late into the night enjoying dinner and drinks outside our tents under the clear night's sky. There wasn't a light in sight in distance and we could only hear the sound of our own voices. It was like that all night until the sun came up and the birds woke up and even came to visit us in our tent. Jodhpur, the second largest city in Rajasthan, was our next stop. Here we got spoiled with a beautiful boutique hotel that even had a pool. We spent part of the day visiting the Mehrangarh Fort, but were easily pulled away from any markets for an afternoon at the pool. From the fort, we could see the tops of many buildings that were painted blue. We got no explanation why they were painted blue, but only told that Jodhpur has the nickname "the Blue City" because of it. The next day, we were off again to now the largest city in Rajasthan, Jaipur. On the way we stopped in Pushkar, an overly tourist town that had nothing but a temple, overpriced stores, and pushy shopkeepers. It changed the mood for us heading into Jaipur. We arrived in Jaipur around 6pm and after settling into our hotel, we walked the bazaars and were immediately bombarded by competing shopkeepers. Jaipur is also a big tourist attraction, but fortunately we knew our prices and weren't caught paying the 950 rupees for a pair of flats that I ended up getting for the 150 they were actually worth. It was a hectic night and we all went to sleep a little wound up. The next morning, we were ready to give it another go and headed out a guide to see a few sights of Jaipur. While the sights turned out to be very beautiful and interesting, our guide didn't give us different perception of the people of Jaipur as he was equally as pushy as the vendors on the streets begging for our business. That aside, we got to see the Amber Fort, a spectacular fort just outside the main city of Jaipur. Most of the fort is painted in an amber yellow. This was supposed to be continued in the rest of Jaipur, but our guide informed us that they ran out of paint during the process of painting the fort that they had to switch to a peachy pink. The rest of Jaipur, at least the parts within the old city walls, has to have all buildings painted the same pink by law. So Jaipur also has a coloured nickname, "the Pink City". We spent the rest of the day visiting shops for spices and souvenirs and sarees. At the end of the day, I ended up with a bag of spices and teas, some semi-precious stone jewelry, and a bright pink saree. We were exhausted and tired of the craziness of the city. One thing that has stayed the same in all the cities we have stayed in... the road noise. Incessant honking fills the air and never seems to take a rest. So we decided to order in pizza to our hotel and hide out for the night. It was nice to finally have some western food after so much rice and curry and local food. We are now in Agra, home of the Taj Mahal which we will be visiting tomorrow. Its the most tourist town so far, which is to be expected. But its also a shock from the lower key areas we have been to. Even though they have several tourists in many of the other cities, we still got looks like we're aliens or something. My favourite thing about driving through the rural areas has been to see the family farms at harvest. They do it all by hand and the women are still dressed in bright pink, blue, yellow, and orange sarees while at work. Looking out on a large wheatfield, I can see spatters of colours hidden amongst the grain.

Dharavi

We had another overwhelming experience today. We visited the Mumbai slum, Dharavi. It was quite unlike any slum I have seen before. I was expecting something similar to the Nairobi slum, Kibera, but it was very different. They are both urban slums, but Dharavi is much more industrialized. The streets are made of old patio stones and are really nice when I compare it to what I saw in Kibera. Their houses are single rooms, but often people will have one or two room stacked on top. The buildings are made of concrete and just their roofs are metal, unlike the metal shacks that Kiberans live in.

There are many industries flourishing in Dharavi; leather, soap, denim jeans, fabric dyeing, textiles, luggage, baking, pottery, etc. One of the first workshops we stopped in to see had men attaching pieces of metal frames together, the same metal frames that give rolling suitcases their shape. We also saw denim patterns being cut out and the basic stitches sewn in to be later sold to companies who will put their custom designs on them before selling them to the public. It was quite fascinating to see all this going on in a slum. I was actually looking at where the "Made in India" clothing actually comes from. I always imagined these materials coming from large factories, but they were being processed in small workshops in the middle of an urban slum.

To get to the first workshop, we walked through an alleyway full of junk. It was the scrapyard of Dharavi. People collected scrap plastic, cardboard, metal, and a slew of other things to bring to this area and sell to someone else who recycled these materials in some way. We saw mostly piles upon piles of bags filled with junk. I don't know what they turnover rate of this junk is, but it didn't seem to be moving fast.

As we walked through the streets of the industrial area, there was quite a bit of space between buildings. This is relative to the two-foot wide alleys that we snaked through once we reached more residential parts of the slum. We had to duck from several open electrical wires over our heads, while at the same time dodging the milky-grey puddles on the floor beneath our feet. Apartments seemed to be everywhere; we turned a corner and there would be a doorway with a sheet covering the entrance and we could hear people inside. A lot of times these curtains were open so we could see inside. It would be one room with either tiled, linoleum, or concrete floors filled with all the possible appliances you could find in a house, with the exception of a washing machine. They do all their laundry by hand. This being India, all appliances and electronics are dirt cheap, so everybody has them all. The residences were surprisingly nice, though still small. Still, a far cry from the beds crowded into a small shack like the ones I'm used to seeing in Mlolongo.

One of the last areas for us to visit was the market. At one particular corner, people gather to sell produce. Then down the way, there is the fish market. Dharavi also has a few schools, as well as churches, mosques, and temples. Even with the wide variety of religions in close proximity to one another, there isn't any conflict within the slum. Our guide, a resident of the area, said the former First Lady spent a lot of time in Dharavi working at building it up as a community instead of allowing religion to divide it up, and it worked really well.

While Dharavi is a very condensed slum (1.2 million people in 1.7 square kms), it wasn't very crowded this morning. India was playing Pakistan in the semi-final of the Cricket World Cup, so many people took a full or half day of just to watch the game at 2:30. Even the stock exchange closed at 1pm.

We watched the game of course. We even bought India jerseys for 100 rupees a piece (~$2.25) to wear during the game. I read up on the rules of cricket before arriving in Mumbai, knowing very well I would be watching a game or two. I was able to follow the game, and after seven and half hours of play, India beat Pakistan and moves on to the final versus Sri Lanka on Saturday. The streets turned into a party tonight. On our way home from Dean's friend's house, where we watched the game, we saw people dancing and playing music in the streets and setting off fireworks.

The many sights of Mumbai

I am exhausted. We have just come back from a 14 hour day of touring the amazing city of Mumbai. My belly is full from the vegetarian feast we just had. The restaurant we went to served an all you can eat Thali. See plate full of food below... and it just kept getting refilled.

You can see strawberry basundi in the bowl on the left (strawberries and cream pretty much), then a yogurt curry, the sweet dal, then some good potato and pea dish, then something I didn't eat much of, then spicy dal. The green bowl off the plate is spinach soup which was delicious. The bowl in the middle of the plate was a dessert, it was some bread thing that was soaked in sweet syrup. It was also very good but I could only handle a small bite. The breads include chapati and something made with cumin spices, and all the other stuff on the plate I can't remember the name of. But it was all very delicious. We got two varieties of rice with this too. The glass in the upper left corner is filled with spiced buttermilk... yuck. I did not enjoy it.

To fill you in on yesterday, my cousin Sandra and her three friends, Carleigh, Kathryn, and Lindsay, arrived from Kuala Lumpur early in the afternoon. The four of them have been teaching in Bangkok for the past year and are now on summer break and travelling around Asia. We spent the day eating more crab curry, taking care of errands nearby, and doing a short road tour of Mumbai. We went for dinner and spent 110 rps a person... about $2.40 for a full meal. Yay, India. We spent the rest of the evening at Dean's and he called in an order of chilled Kingfisher beer from the beer store (they deliver ANYTHING in Mumbai, even McDonald's).

Now, back to today...

Our long day began at 8am when a car picked us up and drove us into downtown Mumbai. Our first stop was at the Dhobi Ghat, a massive outdoor laundromat. Men wash clothes by hand all day. Each one does a specific thing then tosses the clothes to the next person. It's a very physical task as we saw men whipping clothes in and out of the water to wash and rinse. As you can see below, there are just rows and rows of clothes hanging out to dry. There is apparently a textile company behind the Dhobi Ghat that has a lot of its items being washed there. This was on the Amazing Race one year, so you may remember it if you watch that show.

Stop number two was at Mani Bhavan, Mahatma Gandhi's house from 1917 to 1934. It is now a museum to tell the story of his life, and his room is also preserved.

We then arrived at the Gates of India to board a ferry to the Elephanta Caves. The caves are a UNESCO World Heritage site that were carved out of stone in a mountain to honour the god Shiva. We passed many oil rigs and ships on the way to the caves, as the navy base isn't too far away. Once we arrived at the docks, we had to walk down a long jetty to finally reach the island. The air was thick and hot and completely stagnant. No reprieve from the heat by a wind, just the air from the speed of our walking. Once we reached the gate, we had to journey upwards on slippery stone steps. Those who didn't want to make the climb could hire four strong Indian men to carry them in a chair attached to two poles. We saw a couple of people going up and down in them though the ride seemed pretty bumpy.

There were five caves. The main one was the most impressive. They date back to the 5th and 8th centuries, but had to be restored in the 1970s. There are carvings of gods in the walls and columns throughout the cave. You can see some of it below.

Wall carvings in the main cave

The outside of cave 2. The names of the caves aren't very interesting: Main Cave or the Great Cave, and Caves 2, 3, 4, 5.

The view of Taj Palace (left) and the Gates of India (right) from the boat to Elephanta.

We stopped at Leopold's cafe after the caves to meet with our tour guide for our upcoming trek in northern India. Dean led us through about 7 blocks of pure market shopping to get to the cafe. It was torture for us girls who have yet to spend a penny on purchases in this city. Dean then took us around to see Mumbai University and the High Court, then to the Victoria Terminus train station.

I've already mentioned the over-stuffed trains that I see passing by on the other side of the field in front of Dean's house. Well we went into the busiest train station in Mumbai. It was a constant blur of people going in every direction. When a platform was announced on the screen for a particular line, a rush of people headed in that direction. We had to hang on to each other to avoid getting lost.

Central Station from the outside. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage site.

People going everywhere.

One of the platforms inside Mumbai's busiest train station, Victoria Terminus.

There are 18 million people in Mumbai... well that's registered people. Dean estimates it to be more. The real estate is ridiculous. Property is so expensive that young people cannot afford to purchase, so they are forced to live at home for a long time or they have to rent a condo from someone else. There are no real apartments or any one-story houses left. It's all condos here. A full floor unit like the one I am staying in now is very hard to come by these days. Most floors have several units and can be quite small. Something like where I am staying now would easily go for $1 million, and we're about a 35 minute train ride to downtown (longer by car, depending on traffic).

I'll let you know about another kind of real estate in Mumbai after we visit Dharavi tomorrow, one of the largest slums in the world. Population: 1.2 million. Area: 1.7 square km.

Taste of India

I'm finally here. I've been looking forward to coming to India for quite some time now. I arrived Saturday morning at 5 am and was greeted by Dean and two of his friends. This was my first time meeting Dean - he is from Mumbai but have been living in Winnipeg for four years now. He is friends with Carleigh, a friend/schoolmate/colleague of my cousin Sandra (sorry if this gets confusing). Carleigh and Sandra arrive on Monday (the day I was originally scheduled to arrive in Mumbai) with two other girls who they have been studying/working with in Thailand for the past year. All six of us will tour Mumbai until April 1st when we go on a Northern India tour for two weeks. After that, we are flying down to the southern province of Goa to enjoy the beaches.

When I got off the plane, it didn't smell bad as I was expecting. There was a distinct change in the air however, and I could feel the humidity in the air immediately. The biggest difference I noticed between India and Kenya... air conditioning. Something Kenyans don't quite believe in, whereas Indians love it. Yay for me. I seem to be handling the heat better than Dean though, who arrived the day before me from Winnipeg. My two months in Kenya acclimatized me to the heat.

After being welcomed by Dean and his friends, we got in a small, old-school Fiat cab and headed to his place. As we drove out of the airport, my nose was hit with an awful stench that lasted for a minute or two, but dissipated as we drove further away from the airport. The streets were not busy at that hour, so within 30 minutes we were at Dean's apartment. Their unit is the entire second floor of a 5-story complex. It has 3 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms, kitchen, and a nice size living/dining room. The living room windows look out on a small, sandy sports field where kids play cricket and soccer for most of the evenings and weekend. On the far side of the field are the train tracks. Trains pass every two and a half minutes heading either way. They terrify me because I know I will have to ride one and every one that passes by looks like it have about a thousand people too many in it. There are people filling up every available space, and more hanging out the doors.

After sleeping in all morning, I got up to find Dean had left to run some errands. It was just me, his grandma, and two cousins in the apartment. They offered me chai and bread with butter which I accepted. Dean's grandma sat next to me the whole time and just watched. Intermittently, she would ask me a question in her broken English which she often had to repeat once or twice. She thought it was strange that I only had one slice of bread and she also seemed confused when I poured myself a glass of water and drank it before finishing my tea.

Once Dean returned, I went with him and his sister, Elna, to run some more errands and check out a market. We rode in a rickshaw, one of the 250,000 that drive around Mumbai. The driving here is crazier than in Kenya, though people don't go that fast, so in a way, it feels safer. After coming back from the market, we hung out until it was time for Elna's going away party. She is moving to New Zealand where her husband is on the 30th.

The party was at a Catholic sports club next to the field across the street. There was a big screen with the England vs. Sri Lanka cricket match on. The room was full of club members having dinner and watching the game. About 25 people from Dean's family were at a table at the back. It was such a fun night and so typically Indian. Aunts, uncles, and cousins filled the table. They peppered me with questions all night and laughed when I found a dish too spicy. Even the 3 year old next to me was chowing down on the hottest dish on the table while I was chugging back my glass of water. The food was great though. Everything had at some kick to it, but only one made me choke.

Today, I went out again with Dean and Elna to visit a couple friends. One of them lives in a nice, new apartment in the suburbs of Mumbai. It's not much different than the rest of Mumbai except there is a bit more space between buildings and much more greenery. On the way back, we saw a car accident with a small mob of people in front of the cars arguing and fighting each other. Dean's mom made crab curry for lunch. It was my first time eating crab straight from the shell. They also made me eat the curry and rice with my hands. A little messy, but a lot more fun than using a fork.

Day 67: Out of Africa

Today is the halfway point of my travels. Once it's all over, I will have made a complete circle around the world. Today, I continue east to Mumbai, India.

Today is my last day in Kenya. I'm up early as usual. This morning, the sky is blanketed in clouds, but I can already see it breaking up to make room for the sun. Within the hour, it will close to the usual +30 degrees Celsius that I've grown accustomed to over the past 9 weeks.

The days have been cooler as we head into the rainier part of the season. It's been a lot more bearable, though I was very much spoiled by the air conditioning at Diani Beach that I now have a hard time getting myself to go out in the sun.

It's been a challenging 2 months. It took me the first couple of weeks to adjust to the heat, dust, and homesickness. I remember my first day here; we were in Mlolongo doing a mobile testing event and it was over 30 degrees, sunny, and I was surrounded by strangers, users, and piles of burning garbage. All I could think was, "Is this what the next 2 months are going to be like," and "What did I get myself into?"

Of course, things got better. The strangers turned into friends, the users were still users but I learnt how to deal with them, and the piles of garbage became a symptom of the picture of a very big problem. Though I never learned to enjoy the heat. As I found out more about the problems of Mlolongo and the neighbouring towns, I developed a sense of hopelessness for the cause. The government corruption, cultural differences (i.e. much slower pace of doing things, traditions), and onslaught of problems made me feel none of it could be improved with our two hands.

As I continued to observe the way the centre worked and what they did on a daily basis, I realized it was about giving people the power to live better lives by feeding them proper knowledge. There is a lot that can't be changed from the ground level, and until some major governmental shift happens, this will still be the case. But joy still exists in the lives of these people who live in such miserable, hard-up conditions. And by giving them tools and assistance to either improve or extend their lives a bit more, we're helping.

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As I prepare to go to India today, I am expecting Mumbai to be like Nairobi on steroids. I found Nairobi to be hot, hectic, and packed full of people. I can only imagine Mumbai will be hotter, more hectic, and have a LOT more people. But I am very much looking forward to it. Except for the smells... their reputation precedes them. I keep thinking of comedian Russell Peters' bit on the Mumbai airport, "It's as if they hired a guy to shit in front of every plane door." ... Great. I'll let you know how it goes.

Diani Beach: Round 2

What I can I possibly say about the last 5 days? After returning from safari, we unpacked and repacked before heading out to the coast the following morning. We were originally supposed to take the $13 overnight bus to Mombasa, but opted for the $55, 45-minute morning flight instead. It was a great decision and money well spent. Especially since Tom had a small bout of sickness the night we were supposed to be leaving. But he was able to sleep it off and we headed out in the morning without any issues.

We walked out of the plane in Mombasa and were greeted by a thick wall of hot hot heat and humidity. I had forgotten how warm it was there but was immediately reminded by the sweat that started to bead on my forehead as I made my way across the tarmac.

We were the same group of six that were on the safari. We headed toward our resort in a very pleasantly air-conditioned van only to be greeted by a tall Kenyan man in a traditional African costume with a tray of welcome drinks for us. As we slurped them up in record time, half of us (Tom and I, and Deb) were told we had been upgraded from our original standard rooms to cottages with views of the Indian Ocean, and a bathroom fit for a king. Milanne and her parents had not been upgraded but had paid more than the rest of us for an ocean-view room that didn’t show much of the ocean at all. So after some chats with the manager and some pacing from Doug, they also ended up in a cottage with an awesome deck and view of the water.

Once we had all settled into our rooms, we headed for the beach and the pool and ordered a round of drinks. The scenery was a far cry from Mlolongo and we were in paradise. After an afternoon of relaxation, Katie, Josh, and Josh’s parents came over from Beachalets (the place we stayed at during our first trip to Diani Beach) for some pre-dinner drinks. After hanging out on Deb’s patio, we all went out for dinner to Ali Babour’s Forty Thieves restaurant for dinner right on the beach.

The following day was pretty much the same, except us ladies started off the day with a visit to the hotel spa. A really, really far cry from life in Mlolongo. That night, we met up again with the foursome again and the 10 of us headed to the sister restaurant of Forty Thieves, called Cave. It is a restaurant set inside a coral cave that is over 120,000 years old and used to be completely underwater when the coastline used to be about 5km further inland. Needless to say, the setting and atmosphere was spectacular, and the food was phenomenal. Looking up from our table, we could see the moon peeking through the gaps in the cave’s ceiling. The only way in or out of the restaurant is by a magnificent dark wood staircase that winds down into a dimly lit lounge.

The third day, all 10 of us met up again in the morning to board a glass-bottom boat for a round of snorkeling. Having tried it last time and not quite enjoying it, I opted out of the actual snorkeling and enjoyed the view of the marine life through the glass window in the floor of the boat. Once we reached the sandbar, we all sat amongst the shallow waves with beers purchased from the man with the cooler strapped on a surfboard.

We were brought back to shore around noon and after a short camel ride for the 5 other ladies (I didn’t join in since I’ll be getting my fill of camel rides in India), we walked along the beach back to Forty Thieves for a long afternoon lunch. It was Katie, Josh, and Josh’s parents’ last day at the beach, so after lunch, they headed back with us to our resort until it was time to head to the airport.

All of us in our group of six were enjoying ourselves so much that everyone except for Deb decided to extend our stay by an extra day. Deb is Winnipeg-bound today so she needed the extra day in Mlolongo to pack up. But the rest of us were able to get the same rooms at the same rate so with a quick change of flight, we were set.

Friday was our last night in paradise. There was a special beach barbecue at the resort. Tables set up in a big, beautiful alcove on the beach with live entertainment and a giant feast. Big metal grills featured at least 5 different kinds of meat and tons more sides and salads and desserts. After dinner, we watched an impressive acrobatic show. There were even free camel rides for guests.

After 5 days of feasting and sloth-like behaviour, we packed everything up, got a few more hours in the sun and pool, and hopped back on a flight to Nairobi. This time we exited the plane under cloud cover and some spitting rain. This soon turned into a complete downpour as we headed into downtown Nairobi for another dinner with the whole gang. The rain was quite refreshing after the heat and humidity of Diani Beach.

Deb is leaving Kenya today, followed by Tom on Tuesday, then Milanne’s parents on Wednesday. Then I’m India bound on the 27^th. One week left in Africa.

Slums and Safaris

It's been a busy week. Tom got here late Tuesday night, completely wiped, so we took it easy on Wednesday so he could get somewhat adjusted. It was neat to watch someone else take everything in on the first day and think about how I reacted during my first week. He was experiencing some major culture shock and temperature adjustment. I think he drank about 14 gallons of water in the first 2 days.

If adjusting to Mlolongo wasn't hard enough for him, on Thursday we headed to Kibera, the largest slum in Nairobi and the second largest urban slum in Africa. 170,000 people in an area just 5km from Nairobi's city centre. The first thing we saw was a stretch of houses that had just been burned down the night before. We navigated through the streets with the help of our guide, Octo Pizzo, a now famous rapper in Nairobi who lived in Kibera up until 2 years ago. He still owns a house in one of Kibera's 13 villages, which he took us to. On the way to his place, we passed many horrible sights and smells; makeshift gutters with dark brownish-grey water, dogs with just skin and bones digging for scraps, and piles of burning garbage. The people were friendly of course, waving and saying hello as we passed. After working our way down a dirty drainage slope, we reached a bridge over the "River Shit". When the sun goes down, a lot of the villagers head to the river to relieve themselves because they don't have toilets or the money to use the public toilets (a tin shack with a hole in the ground).

Octo's house was a small 8' x 12' shack with metal walls and roofing. He keeps it for his brother who is away at boarding school, so he can stay there when he is not at school. He wants him to live in Kibera so that he will mature faster.

The most surprising thing to me about Kibera was how functional it is. With that many people in the slum, it seemed to be working like a regular city, just on a much lower income level. It was a lot less destitute than some of the other slums I've visited. Something Tom noticed immediately was the amount of mobile phone stores and "kinyozi" salons there were (barber shops). Its strange to think about what people will spend money on even in such disparaging conditions. It also got me thinking about the impact that communications and technology improvements have had on even the most remote and desolate places in the world. Our safari guide was getting phone calls on his cell to tell him where the interesting animals were, and the people of the traditional Maasai tribes were walking around in their shukas and would suddenly pull out a cell phone. But they still drink cow's blood and live in houses made of mud.

After almost 3 hours in Kibera, we made our way back to Mlolongo and packed up for our 4-day safari. 6am Friday, we were up and ready to be picked up by our guide. They showed up in an old Nissan van with a pop-up roof. The 6 of us (myself, Tom, Deb, Milanne, and her parents Doug and Michele) climbed in and headed on our way. We drove about 6 or 7 hours through the Great Rift Valley toward Maasai Mara National Reserve, stopping along the way at lookout points and for lunch. It was close to 3 when we arrived, so we unpacked and relaxed for an hour before heading on a game drive. Our accommodations were pretty cool. There was a U-shaped line of army tents on concrete pads with thatched roofs on top. Each tent had 2 or 3 beds and a half-circle bathroom off the back with toilet, shower, and sink. There was a main dining hall that was open on three sides where we spent our evenings relaxing.

At 4pm, we headed into the reserve to check out some animals. We saw loads of zebras, buffaloes, giraffes, Thomson's gazelles, and impalas during our drive. We even caught a glimpse of the illusive leopard and a pride of lions taking a snooze in a ditch. Out of the Big 5, we managed to see 3 in our first few hours. (The Big 5 are: Buffalo, Rhino, Elephant, Leopard, and Lion... leopard often being the hardest to spot and the one most people don't get to see).

After a delicious dinner, we called it a night and headed for our beds. In the middle of night, we could hear the howls of hyenas off in the distance. Apparently, they weren't too far out. There are a couple Maasai tribe members who walk the perimeter of the campsite to keep watch for any hyenas trying to come into the camp.

The next morning, we headed out around 7:30 for a full-day game drive. This time we headed much further into the reserve, heading as far as the Tanzanian border where were could see the Serengeti. On the way, we passed many more animals, the usual zebras, gazelles, buffaloes, and giraffes, but we also saw our first few elephants. There was 4 of them and they got pretty close to us. We managed to see the leopard again, this time it a much better view than before. It was walking around so I got a couple good pictures of it. We also stopped at a river loaded with hippos. There must have been about a hundred of them in various parts of the river just sitting below the water with their eyes and ears poking through the surface. We walked further down the river to where the crocodiles are, but none of them surfaced. We only saw the back of a baby croc a little way down the river.

After a picnic lunch where a monkey stole Deb's sandwich right from her lap, we headed back. It was a long drive but we saw some more animals here and there. I took a nap in the back and woke up to another small herd of elephants nearby. As the drive was winding down and we were getting closer to the gate of the reserve, our guide John got a call on his phone and stepped on the gas. Something good was going on. We pulled up next to another van of the same company and saw a cheetah, fresh off the chase of a Thomson's gazelle. He was hiding in some shade behind a tree stump with the gazelle at his feet. We could see his narrow chest heaving in and out as he worked to catch his breath. We waited a good 5-10 minutes until he finally started to dig in on his catch. Starting from the rear, he tore off some skin and dug in under the ribs. He started to pull off one of the back legs and we could hear the bones crunching between his teeth. Occasionally, he jolted upright and took a look around, worried about another animal coming in to steal his meal. It was the coolest thing I have ever seen. We weren't more than 15 feet away from him, and when our driver turned on the van to head out, the cheetah felt threatened and gave us a bit of a growl. That's when I sat back in my seat and slid my window closed.

Our 3rd day on safari started out early at 6am. We went back into the reserve for the final time. This time, we saw a pride of 16 lions. They were scattered in the tall grass near the road, having just finished eating their morning kill. We saw one of them still chomping on a leg of some sort. After a few minutes, they started to stir and got on their feet. They walked toward the row of safari vans on the road and wove in between them, coming right up to where we were. A few of them looked up at us and kept going, another trailed behind with the leg still in his mouth.

The afternoon was spent in our van heading to Lake Nakuru. We got there in the early evening, waited around in the lounge until dinnertime, then headed for bed. This morning, we headed back out on the road for a drive around Lake Nakuru National Park. We saw a few more animals, some monkeys who tried to sneak into our van to steal some food while we were in it, and a few baboons who jumped into another safari van (not ours!) at a lookout point and stole some bananas. We saw the final of the Big 5 - the rhino - though off in the distance. Aside from that, it wasn't terribly exciting. We saw loads of pelicans and flamingoes, but they didn't really compare to the cheetahs, lions, and elephants.

After lunch and another 4 hours in the van, we arrived back in Mlolongo. Tomorrow morning, we fly out to the coast for 4 days and 3 nights in Diani Beach.

Kakamega Rainforest

I'm exhausted. 3 days, 17 hours on a bus, 12 hours of hiking, and not enough hours of sleep. Our adventures to Kakamega Rainforest, about 400 kilometres northwest of Nairobi, began Friday evening when Katie and I hopped on a matatu to Narobi. We had a quick dinner then headed to the bus station for 7:30 to catch our 8pm bus that left at 9:10pm. The ride wasn't too bad until about 2am... once we hit one bump, they just never stopped. We arrived at the Kakamega bus station around 6am where our taxi driver was waiting to pick us up... I'm guessing he had an easier time finding us than we had trying to spot him since we were the only 2 white girls in the crowd. We drove another 45 minutes during sunrise to the Kakamega Forest Station where we got into our room and slept until about 9am when Milanne, her parents, and Deb arrived (these high rollers took a plane).

Oh yes, I should backtrack. Milanne's parents, Doug and Michele, arrived Thursday night. They came bearing 3 suitcases full of gifts. It was like Christmas: Round 2. Two suitcases were full of toys and clothes for kids from the orphanage and in town. The last suitcase had gifts for Beautiful, Benson, and Salima. Some home baked goods and candies and other snacks from home that have been almost demolished by now.

So back to Kakamega. After our short nap, we laced up and headed on a river walk with our guide Nancy. It was a great walk through the forest with a lot of up and down. I started to get tired out after an hour and a half and my steps got sloppy. I had to force myself to pick up my feet to avoid slipping and rolling down a cliff into the depths of the forest. After a couple hours of hiking, we reached the river. There was a small stretch of rapids that we relaxed by. Katie and I climbed onto some rocks in the midst of the rapids and washed our feet in the water. It was fun until we couldn't figure out a way back to the shore. I had to take off my shoes and trudge through the water, but I managed to step on a thorny twig the second I slipped off my shoes.

We pre-ordered dinner at the reserve's canteen - a small wood hut with 2 picnic tables inside and a notebook to write down orders. We each ordered chicken, rice, and vegetables. The vegetables were a plate of potatoes, kale, and tomatoes. It was delicious. The rice was a massive bowl that would have fed about 3... we ordered 6 of these. The chicken was a gamble. Some of us got hearty pieces, while others got small drumsticks. Either way, it took all of us about 30 minutes to chew one bite... Michele couldn't eat hers with the roosters running around her feet. The chickens even got into a fight and provided us with some after-dinner entertainment.

After dinner, we looked at the menu to order breakfast for the next day. Having learned our lesson with the rice at dinner, we asked about portion sizes for breakfast. Turns out this was a very smart move as one order of toast turned out to be an entire loaf of bread. We paid about 3 dollars for 3 eggs, the loaf, and some butter to feed 6 people.

That night, we were in bed by 6:30pm. We even beat the sun to bed. It was much needed as I slept solid until our 4:30am wake-up call. We were on route by 5am. We rounded up 13 British teachers who arrived too late the night before and had to place to sleep so they slept on the concrete floor of the rangers' office. So the 20 of us headed out in the darkness with our flashlights for an hour and a half walk. The last 20 minutes was a steady uphill, and the last stretch was pretty much a climb. The sky was bright by then and the air was thin so we were all huffing and puffing and scraping our way up to the top of the hill. I was the first one up to the top because Katie diverted onto the wrong path and disappeared for a bit while accidentally taking a much more challenging route.

Once we recovered at the top, we sat there for a good 45 minutes enjoying the sunrise and taking in the view of all of Kakamega's 240 square kilometres. There was steam and fog coming from the rivers and lakes within the forest. We were at the highest point in the forest and it looked endless.

After a much easier trek down the hill (except for the first steep bit down that made a few of us slip), we headed back to the canteen for breakfast for our loaf of bread and eggs. We were joined again by our feathery friends... you can probably guess that Michele didn't have eggs either. Then we relaxed (...napped) for about 90 minutes in our rooms before heading off on the "intro hike"... which we did last... ? But it turned out to be a great idea because it was mostly flat and Nancy showed us a lot of plants and monkeys in the forest. So there wasn't much effort involved, which was nice since we were all beat at this point.

We only last about an hour and a half on the last walk. We spent the rest of the afternoon on the deck of our guesthouse facing the forest. A huge thunderstorm came through and I was in all my glory. After it cleared up, we headed to a nearby retreat resort for dinner. It was a much fancier place than where we were staying and they're geared towards religious retreats. We had 2 hours to kill before we were able to eat so we sat in their garden drinking tea and listening to Doug complain about them not serving beer at this place. At 6, we went to the dining room for the set menu dinner. Leek soup, then roast with potatoes, snap peas, and carrots. And gravy! We were very happy... especially when they came around asking us if we wanted seconds. I made sure I got my 1,200 shillings worth (~$15 CDN). They even had bread at the table... something I haven't seen since leaving Canada.

The next morning, Katie and I got up early again and headed out as the sun was getting up to catch our bus. We opted for a more.... hmmm... let's say, local bus. It was a massive and very worn bus with 5 seats in a row. It made frequent stops during the first 2 hours. Kids going to school got on and off, as well as many others. One very smelly man sat next to Katie and we had to open the window and almost stick our heads out to avoid smelling him. Luckily, he got off at the next stop and we could go back to breathing easy. That's when the lady with the chicken in her arms got on and sat there with it on her lap. I think there might have been another chicken in a box under the seat a couple rows ahead of us. It was another 6 hours from there, with one pit stop on the side of the road. I decided I could wait until Nairobi instead of using nature's washroom.

At 2pm, we finally got dropped off in Nairobi, except not in the spot we thought we would. We were tired and in completely unfamiliar territory, so we found a cab and made our way to the house. Finally.