Thailand - Vacation from Traveling

Phuket, Thailand, the FINAL STOP on the Great Escape.

On my way to Phuket I had a stopover in Bangkok the vibrant capital of Thailand. Bangkok is a hive of activity and a feast for all the senses. I do love this city.

Phuket, on the other hand, is a tourist magnet for partying Europeans and certainly not one of the nicer parts of Thailand, however the diving is excellent! I dove for three days aboard Scuba Cat's great dive boat. The corals were bright and the fish abundant. Sweet! I ended the trip by attending a beach volleyball tourney (China beat May and Walsh in a great match) and then experienced Loi Kratong, a Thai festival where candles/flowers are floated in banana leaf baskets down any and all waterways. Magical!

A sweet end to an awesome trip.

Laos - Smiles and Relaxation

Laos is a pleasant country full of smiles and classic SE Asian rural scenery. Laos is still a very poor nation of rice fields and oxen, but the people are warm with laughter around each corner.

The Mekong and its flood waters are the heart of the country. As I flew in the entire country seemed to be under water with villages on tall posts connected by causeways. Children played in the flooded patties and oxen cool themselves in the mud while the people await planting as the revitalized soil is drained.

Luang Brabang, the focus of my visit is the wonderful ancient capital of Laos. The town in protected as a World Heritage City and despite many tourists has a lovely and relaxed atmosphere and great Laotian food. I will return to this lovely area in the future to ride bikes and travel down the Mekong...

Cambodia - History and Healing

In the tourist capital of Cambodia, Siem Reap, the brilliant ancient history of Cambodia shines. The Temples of Angkor are truly spectacular. There crumbling remnants represent a brilliant ancient culture. Angkor culture was greatly influenced by Indian religion and the fusion with Siam (Thai) art and design wonderful. Wandering the re-built and overgrown temples was a wonderful experience.

After all the temple climbing, I had legitimate (not "traditional") Khmer massage where elbows and incredibly strong fingers are used to crush your muscles into submission. In the end, the old saying "pain cures pain" seemed to hold true.

The Killing Fields memorial near Phnom Phen was a sobering reflection on the recent past. Cambodia is still facing the horrors of the Khmer Rouge and impacts of decades of political meddling of western powers. As a traveler, the resulting begging, touting and hassling is tough but it is worth it to support the Cambodian people.

Northern China - Warriors, Walls and Duck

Continuing north, we flew north to Xian's new airport (all Chinese airports seem to be new) . Here we spent four days, viewing the old city walls, temples and of course the Terra Cotta warriors. China has an incredible 5000+ years of imperial history, longer than Egypt, Greece and Rome we all learn in the west. The Chinese themselves are rediscovering their own heritage and expressing it through increased internal tourism, arts and cinema.

We finished China with a week in and around Beijing. We feasted on hot pot, visited Mao, shopped, saw a Kung-Fu show and experienced Chinese Opera. The hassles traveling in China are surprizingly few with friendly people and more English than I expected. Great trip! Check out the amazing photos with the link to the right.

Comment: China's 1.3 BILLION people are all striving to be part of the incredible economic growth here. Everything is new or under construction: roads, airports, buildings...amazing! On the down-side, there is smog and brown skies EVERYWHERE and stars are a rare site in most of eastern China. I hope that we can help China learns from our mistakes and or it may be to late for all of us!

Southern China - Balloons, Pandas and Spice

Our next leg took us whirlwind across southern China from Shenzen to Guilin/Yangshou and on to Chengdu. Shenzen is a frantic shopping and industrial area just across the border from Hong Kong (yes there is still a border as HK is a "special administrative region") where Hong Kongites go for fake hand bags, manicures and dentistry.

We took a sleeper train overnight (ok except for ubiquitous cigarette smoke) to Guilin, the area famed for the rugged limestone hills and green environment. We walked around Guilin's cliffside temples for a day and headed to the tourist mecca of Yangshou.

Yangshou is an old Chinese village that has grown from rustic backpacker hang-out to full fledged tourist town for both Chinese and foreigners. The main strip is full of music pumping bars, cafes, restaurants, and trinket shops. The experience was intensified as it was China's biggest tourist week: National Day. Despite the crowds, we stayed here five days and loved every minute. We took a river cruise, hiked, biked and took a sunrise balloon ride over the limestone cliffs. Truly beautiful place.

Out next stop was Chengdu where we visited a Panda sanctuary (more like a zoo) and saw six month old Panda cubs and their mothers amongst the 30 odd Pandas at the site. Chengdu is also in Sichuan where we feasted on famed spicy Sichuan dishes from restaurants and street markets.

Hong Kong in Style!

High on Shouson Hill, I am looking over the green hills, across the beach and the exclusive Ocean Park neighbourhood of Hong Kong, watching a ship drift slowly into the horizon. Soon I will go for a swim before heading into central Hong Kong for my umpteenth Dim Sum lunch. Life is tough on the road.

All this is thanks to Anna's friend Lien Khanh, who lives in the American diplomatic estate, where we are staying.

Hong Kong is a vibrant city with busy active streets surrounded by relaxing green hills and filled with tall condo and office buildings. The food is Cantonese, cheap and fantastic! Anna is enjoying shopping and we are both enjoying exploring the sites and planning for our mainland China adventure.

Highlight: cheap, fantastic food and meeting Anna's uncle's family.

Japan - Food and Karaoke, What Else?

After a brief stop-over in T.O., we flew off to Tokyo, Japan to visit with my buddy Will for 8 days. We had a great time eating our way through the large list of Japanese cuisines: Okinomiaki, Sukiyaki, Izikaya, Shabu-Shabu, Sushi, Tempura etc etc.

Our best times were spent in the Karaoke booth in the seedier parts of Shinjuku with champagne and plenty of sours. Luckily there is no sound-track available!

On our last night in town, Will took us to a floor show in Shibuya. The show was a high energy combination of dancing, singing on a transforming stage to an audience of about 50. Amazing production for such a small audience. The star of the show (and several other dancers) were tranvestites in various stages of transformation to females thanks to adept Thai surgeons... Typical in Japan, each table was expected to host the performers for overpriced drinks after the show. Great fun to trade jokes in broken English with a garish Japanese transvestite!

Definitely a unique culture!

Arctic Circle and Lapland

The final leg of our African leg was to drive across Swedish Lapland and hike north of the arctic circle.

We started by picking up some gear in Stockholm (thank you to Andy for delivering in person from London) and enjoying a few days of museums (there are literally hundreds in Sweden) and exploring Swedish culture. The culinary side can be explored very quickly (meat, potatoes, flat bread, hotdogs and pickled fish) but we did manage to get in a few good meals of reindeer and herring.

Striking out from Stockholm we drove 15 hours north to the artic circle and the town of Jokkmokk. We spent five days in the area canoeing, hiking and enjoying the non-stop rain and cloudy skies. Yes, we didn't pick the best time of year to come to Sweden, but still managed to enjoy ourselves with good 3-ply Gortex.

The nature looked very much like northern Ontario but with reindeer, good Swedish organization (orderly cities, public transport etc) and Sami (Lapp) people. The Sami are an ethnic group of reindeer herders who live across Norway, Sweden, Finland and Siberia. Interesting history with much the same historical prejudice and Native NAs or Inuit people...

Off to Japan to conquer Mt Fuji!

Cape Town Finale - Beauty and Poverty

Our African adventure ended in Cape Town with fine dining, live music and great people. Cape Town was lovely, with table mountain, good restaurants and lots of wandering potential.

On the darker side, 2\3 of the population (black and colored) still live in "townships". We took a tour of one of these commmunities to see for ourselves. The trip was eye opening! The scars from aparteid still show full force here. Sixteen people in a shack, buckets for toilets, no running water, immense poverty! Things are changing and the old shanties are being replaced but the standards are still very low... Current trends are positive but the reality of the past is appalling! Sanctions actually worked in this case to force political change...

We did love this city anyway and will return when we can to support the South African people. World Cup construction is underway and the government will have made some big changes to put on a good face for the worldwide attention. Sport can improve the world!

Great White Shark Diving

In Cape Town I went Great White cage diving. Gaansbai, RSA is the white shark capital of the world with National Geographic "shark alley" just off shore.

Swam next to three good size (3m), hungry great whites for about half an hour watching them demolish giant fish head and thrash the water. I was protected in a metal cage tied to the size of the dive boat. Way cool except that there were 15 foot swells and the boat was bobbing like a cork in a kids bathtub! Ending up puking my guts out for the first time ever on a boat for a full two hours. Gotta pay to play I guess!

South Africa - Wine and Ocean

South Africa, with a devalued Rand, is by far the best valued country on our entire trip! We toured around "the Cape" wine and whale districts and spent some great days in Cape Town itself. We ate at a five star restaurant, went to several spas where Anna spoiled herself rotten, and stayed in four and five star accommodation all for relatively cheap!

Highlights were shark diving (see separate blog), hiking table mountain, eating game (warthog, springbok and kudu) and an sweet apartment with a real front loader washing machine (first in 2 months).

Our favorite town is Franshoek. We stayed in a converted barn (now five star apartment) that was bigger than our condo in Toronto, and nicer appointments. We also ate at a five star French restaurant and shopped for Zimbabwean springstone art. Wonderful and recommended to anyone off-season, as it was SO cheap.

Southern Namibia - Dunes and Desert

South from Swakopmund we drove through the Namibian desert-dunes. Amazaing micro-wildlife with lizards, chameleons and beetles living in the most harsh environment. Hiked through many beautiful landscapes including Soussessvlei (largest sand dunes in the world).

Namibian people (mostly Germanic or indiginous) were very friendly. In the middle of the desert we got a flat and found the patch from our previous flat had also failed! It was near dusk and there are NO cars on these roads. We were facing a night in the desert! Luckily had a weak rented cell phone signal and Johan Frank Schultz (I love this guys name) from a nearby guest farm came out to rescue us. We stayed at his place and had wonderful stay.

Wildlife is "farmed" in Namibia so after viewing there was eating... Springbok, Oryx, Ostrich, Kudu, Warthog and Gemsbok were all consumed in steaks or amazing Billtong (African beef jerky). See and eat, just like the lobster tank!

Northern Namibia

Anna and I simply loved Namibia. In the north we spent a day self-safariing in the world famous Etosha game reserve. We saw amazing things driving from waterhole to watering hole. That night we went to Outjo and enjoyed the best meal of the trip, dining on Oryz steak and Springbok carpaccio. Hmmm.

Windhoek, the capital was vibrant, safe and we saw Pirates of the Caribbean for a taste of home. We then moved on to the German town of Swakopmund on the coast where we stayed at a great guest house. With a German colonial past, the area is well organized with great food and infrstructure. During our stay we took a Living Desert tour to see the small animals of the mighty Namibian sand dunes. Chameleons, spiders, lizards and beetles all form a robust, but fragile, ecosystem in what seems to many as an empty land.

7000km African Driving Tour

In a rented VW we drive from J'Burg to Gaborone and Maub, Botswana and on to Etosha, Windhoek, Swakopmund and southern Namibia. We finished the driving tour in style in South Africa. Infrastructure was great in the whole region. Despite great roads in Namibia, many were dirt/gravel and our car had old tires (my fault for not checking). Well we got two flats and were saved by a great german farmer Johan Frank Schultz on the second or would have slept in the bush.

Additionally, we got stuck in the sand in Okavango and got a speeding ticket in Botswana. Any way it was a great trip and recommend the drive to anyone with wander lust about Africa.

Okavango Delta Safari

Having flown to J'Burg and driven 1500 km across the endless Kalahari to Maun, Botswana we embarked on a flying and makoro safari in the famed Okavango delta.

The Okavango a "pan" or depression that floods annually and supports abundant wildife in the middle of the Kalahari desert. The delta is fed by monsoon rains in Angola and was in full flood. During this time dust turns to marsh and life springs from the dusty, parched plains. The plains obsorb the entire river and it eventually dries up and never reaches the sea.

Enough geography. We took a bush plane into Gunns Camp in the central delta. From here we spent three amazing (and expensive!) days doing walking and makoro safaris into the game reserve. A makoro is a wooden dugout canoe that is poled through the shallows ny local gudes. The boats travel in 3 to 20 inches of water to avoid the large number of resident hippos!!

After poling to an island in the delta, we went on several walking safaris. It was one thing to see elephants from a Land Rover but another all together to be in the line of stampede of these incredible beasts. Other highlights included warthogs nesting under our tent platform and a hippo grazing ten feet from our tent for several nail biting hours. Hippos are the most feared and hated animals in the area for their aggressiveness...

After three days we flew out again over this magnificent wilderness. Wild!

Zanzibar the Spice Island

For five days after all our safari-ing we went to the warm coastal island of Zanzibar. As a former Sultanate, it is muslim and very beautiful.

Despite the crowds there to attend the Dhow Country Film Festival (a dhow is a wooden sailing vessel that used to dominate Indian Ocean trading) we had a wonderful time wandering the streets of Stone Town. We saw an inspiring and somewhat disturbing film on female circumcision in West Africa. Superstition and poverty are driving mutiliation of millions of girls for no reason... Had many good African beers afterward to lighten the mood.

We then spent four days "Thai" style at a thatched roof bungalow on the beach reading, eating fresh fish sushi and swimming with dolphins. Life is good!

Tanzania Safari

After Kili, we took a five day safari trip around the Serengeti (Swahili for endless plain) visiting many great national parks. We travelling in a huge Land Cruiser this time through the great infrastructure of Tanzania.

Again we saw incredible wildlife with the highlights being lion cubs playing and feeding and the elaborate ostrich mating ritual. We stayed in great lodges built right in the parks where lions literally wander THROUGH the hotel at night while hunting.

It is truly incredible how the wildlife (prey and predators) ignore the presence of humans as they go about their business. For the most part I thought my presence was not harming their behaviour, and hopefully helping to preserve it!

Good times!

Mt Kilimanjaro

We met met my friend Erik in Arusha on July 7 and headed for the mountain the next day. For four days we trekked up the Machame route towards the summit trail. Hardly roughing it, we had 14 porters, 2 cooks and 2 guides to assist our fragile western bodies up the mountain. Being served on the mountain was a bit hard to take after canoeing in the great white north recently, but in the end the crew helped us up an incredible amount of elevation (19800 ft)!

Our total group was five people and we all summited on July 12 at 7AM after 7 hours of final night ascent. Great feeling to go down afterwards!

The trip was amazing despite the incredible number of other hikers on the mountain... Try Mt Kenya for more remote challenge!