This is how you know

Soo mostly I just wanted to post this really hilarious photo of myself and I've had way too much time in the airport with nothing better to do.  And had I to laugh at the ridiculous things that we so quickly accept, when you on the road for very long. 

 

You know you've been travelling too long when:

1. A hemp headband is your solution to your bad hair

2.  Your cosmetics bag is a ziplock bag

3. You discuss the hygiene level of bathrooms with total strangers regularly 

And you hear yourself saying things like, "I prefer squat toilets, they're just cleaner"

4. You read back through your recent travel blogs and read yourself bragging about having dry toilet paper, like its a rare thing

5. Your husband voluntarily carries Kleenex and band aids  in his fanny pack...Your husband is wearing a fanny pack (the same "hip-zip" in fact that you relentlessly mocked your father  wearing on family trips)

6. You think$50 is too much to pay for a hotel and $10 is an outrageous price for a restaurant meal and your whole outfit is worth less than $5

7.  You think things smell good that actually smell very bad

8. You are constantly counting the number of pages left in your passport to make sure there are enough left

9. Seeing a rat run across the restaurant floor does not alarm you, cause you to stop eating, demand a refund or leave.  

10. You willingly go out in public dressed like this...and think it is ok

Orang-utan Obsession

Tuesday May 28 2013 9:15 am

In the airport once again.  This is becoming an excelling place for writing and reflection for me.  

We arrived in Kuching in Saturday May 25 in the evening.  Some of the funny little things that I enjoyed on MASwings is that they served complementary Milo (chocolate milk) and because you have to walk outside from the plane to the airport staff hand you an open umbrella as you leave the plane that you return as you enter the shelter of the airport.  Certainly cheaper than those movable boarding gate hallways that they have at home! 

We found a pristinely clean hotel with hot water, A/C, and dry toilet paper!  N went exploring and I crashed.  A system that he apparently really enjoys.  I always feel bad that I tier so much more quickly but he says he gets the best of both worlds travelling with someone and freedom to explore on his own.  I have still been feeling lousy during our time her but thankfully no more vomiting.  (I am not pregnant for those of you who are wondering.  After meeting a Dr who told us the type of malaria pills we are taking could cause serious issues to a fetus, I checked to be sure.  So all rumours can now be dispelled).  

We went to see the orang utans Sunday afternoon.  For a dollar you can take the local bus to the Semenggoh Nature Reserve.  It is about a hours drive outside the city.  Entry for non-Malaysians is about $3 each.  It was raining quite hard but  was still very cool.  We walked about ten minutes down a little path to a feeding area totally surrounded by jungle.  You can hear the orang utans coming through the trees and shaking in the distance before they arrive.  We were glad to have the zoom lens  because they are quite far away to get photos without it.  No flash is aloud. You have to be very quite,  no eating or drinking or kissing (apparently they interpret it as fighting).  On our walk back down the path one of the younger curious orang utans came across us in the trees, only then his branch broke and he fell out of the tree not far from us.  I was pretty nervous to be so close to him and also disappointed at the camera card was full at that point.  It felt pretty wild to be within five meters of a mostly while orang utan.  

The orang utans are semi-wild, meaning they live in an enormous jungle area, we aren't sure if connects to the rest of the Borneo jungle or if it is fenced in.  They do feed them here though, which is really the only way you'd be able to see them.  There are 26 orang utans that live here and they don't all come for food every day.  It seemed like the ones who came were mostly young or mothers with young or the very old male (didn't see until the second day).   

In the evening we randomly bumped into a guy from Argentina that we'd met at our hostel in Gunu Mulu and talked with he and a Dr from USA, living in Botswana, that he had just met.  She specializes in maternal mortality and was there for a conference.  We sat with the and talked for a big long time.  She was great!  

The next day (Monday May 27) we went back to get better photos (1000 of them!) with her.  I was glad we went back because we got to see another mother baby pair and the big male, who the park staff said was 52 years old.  

This female was a bit of a show off.  This was right over our heads connecting the main jungle are to the main feeding area

   

The park staff deliver the bananas in there for a size reference.  The park staff seem to have some relationship with the orang utans, since they bring food every day but they. Were still very caught opus with them and did not touch them at all.  

The big male.  All the others cleared out when this guy arrived for breakfast.  He moved pretty slow but he could obviously hold his own if it came to it.  

We had planned to go see some other monkeys, with long floppy noses, that only live here but I was to sick.  And we were hoping to see the worlds largest flower but unfortunately it wasn't in bloom.  It only blooms about 30-50 times per year for a few days so we weren't banking on seeing this one.  

I wasn't feeling well after the orang utans so I rested and N went exploring again.  In the evening we went to a movie theatre and saw Gatsby and then still feeling like garbage I went to bed at 8:30 pm.  

I'm hoping my health cooperates for our last month in Asia.  I didn't feel like I got to see as much of Kuching as I would have liked to. It's a really cool city.  N and I think it's really the perfect mix of developed and undeveloped.  It's very cute and there is tons to do and eat.  I was disappointed I was unable to eat so little.  Every few steps there is a little food stand with candy corn, hamburgers, waffles, iced coffee or noodle soup.  The river front is very attractive and we enjoyed walking down it in the evening, after dinner.  You can just mosey along listening to the buskers and buying snacks for less than a dollar. The people are very friendly and helpful!  When we were trying find the bus to the reserve an elderly Muslim woman set down her four bags of groceries in the middle of the sidewalk to guide us to the information booth and then point us to the right bus.   We were kind of blown away by this hospitality from a complete stranger.  We didn't experience any scams in this city either, which was great!  To me from our brief stay it seems like quite a nice place to live, a great mix of the familiar and the more interesting flavours of Asia.  Really enjoyed our time here!  

Now we're headed to Bali (after a long layover in Singapore) where we will join some friends who are off on their own adventures.  I'm really  looking forward to familiar faces and easy conversation!

Caves in Gunu Mulu National Park, Borneo Jungle

Friday May 24 2013 9 pm 

My alternate title for this blog was "Fighting Phobias".  I'm quite proud myself for overcoming a couple of my major phobias in the last few days!  Mainly heights and small dark spaces!  

Getting to this place was a long journey.  It took four flights with long layovers before we finally arrived.  Fortunately when we did finally get here, we could see it was well worth the escapade.  Entering Gunu Mulu National Park is like stepping into another world Louisiananter into complete rain forest.  The power of nature here is quite enveloping.  

The bridge into Gunu Mulu National Park

We arrived yesterday evening too late to go out on any tours and too tiered to do much trekking on our own.  We tried to go on a walk and ended up about a hundred meters out in a total downpour.  It was lovely but we were completely soaked.  There is a decent cafe where we passed most of the evening.  We turned in early totally exhausted from our journey.  I think we fell asleep shortly after 6pm!  

We had two cave tours with a guide booked for today.  Shortly after breakfast though I fell violently ill and vomited for half an hour.  So we rescheduled the morning tour for tomorrow and I slept off whatever they was with N at my side caring for me.  I was so grateful to have him!  And very happy that they rescheduled our trek hassle free!  

In the afternoons I was feeling mostly fine again.  

It is a 3 km walk through the rainforest on boardwalks, although it took us about an hour because we all wanted to stop about a million times for photos.  There is so much cool stuff to see:  plants and bugs.  It took us about an hour because we all wanted to stop and look at everything!  (Inside joke: I couldn't help wishing Enviro-Gord was there with us).  I took so many photos but I really don't think any photo could translate the depth or interest of the rainforest.  N and I both felt that they've done a very good job of making the park feeling natural and accessible to visitors.  

We went to Lang Cave and Deer Cave.  The caves far exceeded my expectations.  They are enormous! The magnitude of them really cannot be captured in a photo because of the dark.  Deer Cave is the largest public cave in the world.  And there is only one other known larger cave in the world.  Again the park has done an excellent job if these!  They at lit inside but just enough so that you can see the really cool stalactite and stalagmite formations and the boardwalk.  It is a huge!  And the formations and just unbelievable!  I am not a huge fan of small, dark, damp places but I really enjoyed the tour of these caves.  

In the evening you wait outside to see the "bat exodus"!  Every evening, that is not raining, 2-3 million bats leave Deer Cave in a thin spiralling cork screw formation to go out and hunt bugs for their late night dinner.  There at almost no mosquitos in the area.  We haven't even worn bug spray even though it is hot and humid.  It's really perfect mosquito climate but there are very few.  It's great!  For about a half and hour the bats spin and wind our of the cave in a long stream.  It initially looks more like bugs than bats.  It's quite cool though!

We met a Dutch couple from our tour and had dinner with them and then played some cards.  It was a great day of exploring despite its rocky start.  

Saturday May 25 2013 

We have crossed the half way point in our trip, as we are scheduled to be back in Edmonton June 24.  

We got up a bit earlier this morning to pack up and then go up a bird watch tower.  It's about a fifteen minute walk and then a lot f stairs but to the tops of the trees.  I wish we'd had time for the canopy walk, which I think at some point gives you a view over the trees.  This one is designed for bird watchers so you can just see over the tree tops but mostly just into trees all around you, not over them.  

Next we joined a tour for two more caves.  You take a boat down the river to get to these caves.  Clear Water Cave is the longest cave in Asia, eighth in the world, at 190 km and still being explored.  It has a river running through it with, you guessed it, clear water!  We also went to Wind Cave.  These caves were darker, damper and the passages were smaller.  These caves had a lot more stairs in them.  I have officially worked off my winter weight! They were cool but I enjoyed the ones yesterday more.  

The major perk to this trek was that we got to go swimming in the river at the rest point outside the caves.  The water was chilly but very refreshing after the long hike.  It started raining while we were in the river.  It's a bit surreal to be swimming in a Malaysian Rainforest River in the rain!

We're flying to Kuching now for a few days.  The plan is to do some day tours into the jungle to see the orang utans.  

Last Days in Cambodia

Tuesday May 22 2013 9pm

Time is just flying by!  I can't believe how long it's been since I blogged!  

Thursday May 24

This ended up being our last day in Seim Reap sort of randomly.  We were going to just take a day to relax and chill out: shop and go to a pool.  We ended up shopping for like an hour and then N got bored and started asking random tuk tuk drivers for prices to some remote temples.  He quickly bartered one driver down to $23 to drive the two of us 2 hours (one way) to these random temples.  And so without really thinking about it, I was like, "okay let's go!" So we bought some toilet paper and a big bottle of water and we were off! 

It turned out to be a very long, very dusty ride in a tuk tuk but every moment was worth it!  We passed about a dozen village weddings, one blasting Gangnam Style.  We laughed so hard!  And we got to see some rural Cambodian life, including their very interesting stilt houses.  Not totally sure why they build them in stilts, my guess is during rainy season housejs on the ground flood.  

The temples ended up being totally worth the journey!  I would highly recommend it!  It was one of the coolest things I've ever experienced.  I think this is much more what they would have looked like when first discovered by Europeans: covered in fines with trees powerfully charging through the walls.  I can never get over these trees!  They just grown on and through the rock like its clay, as though it is not even there!  It's just amazing!  No description and no photo can do it justice, I just think everyone has to go!

A guide took us all though it and helped us get up into the vines, to sit in them.  Unfortunate in the photos they don't look as up as they are.  The one was like four feet up over the rubble and I was nearly in tears by the time he got me down.  Ugh hate my fear of heights!  

After that we kind of felt like we'd seen what we wanted to and didn't feel the need for another day of temples.  We decided to take a night bus, which I wasn't thrilled about, to Phnom Penh (pronounced Puh-nom Pen not Fnom Fem...took me a while to get that).  The bus ride was unpleasant.  It left at midnight and was chaotically "organized" with lots of yelling and little communication.  Once we did get going the driver blasted some loud local music and the locals were loud enough to converse over it.  I was so tiered and grumpy.  We made like six stops in the first hour and then I had to pee in a dark sketchy ally.  

We got to Phnom Penh at about 6am and the cute backpackers we wanted to stay in was full so we ended up on the third floor of the dingy one next door.  The hallways and stairs were about two feet wide and for some reason standardized step heights/widths are a foreign concept here, which makes a third floor room a new adventure every day.  

I was pretty worn at this point and got kinda sick.  Fortunately we didn't have much planned here so I laid in bed and watched the one English tv channel and barfed and slept and enjoyed the various other joys of travellers tummy...sigh.  Though I love travelling my body really seems to not.  I have been avoiding local food and seem to be on the mend now, thankfully.  Although this whole trip flights have really been doing a number on me. I've cuddled a paper bag on every plane!  

The architecture here is quite uniquely Cambodian looking and there a Buddhist monks everywhere in Phnom Penh!  It Is quite cool looking to see them next to all the exotic looking buildings.  They're very good about letting you take their photo, which is nice.  

We went to the Killing Fields the one day.  I did some reading on them before hand and was shocked that I hadn't ever heard more about this so recent and disturbing part of human history.  It was a very emotional trip.  I was glad we went.  They have done an amazing job of the memorial. It is very tasteful and respectful but really expresses the horrors of what happened.  I don't know how to write about it without writing a short story about.  It was very moving.  It is a very important place.  

 Pagoda with skulls of genocide victim's

Our driver offered for us to go to a shooting range, where you can shoot semi automatic weapons, on the way home.  N and I found that a pretty morbid combination.  

Today we checked out the Kings palace.  It was kinda cool.  There is a big gold Buddha in the one building that is like 90 Kg or gold and 2080 Diamonds.  We were expecting it to be more dazzling but it is pretty cool.  The floor of that building is made of silver tiles, they are mostly covered with carpets though.  You're not allowed to take any photos inside.  

Now we're in the airport. Waiting for our second of four flights to get to Gunung Mulu National Park.  It is in the jungle, kind of rainforest-like.  It has the largest public cave in the world!  And lots of interesting animal life.  Our time here is short so we have a lot to pack in!  I'm very excited for this Park! I think it's going to feel like some serious adventuring!  

Angkor Wat - Tree Takeover

Saturday May 18 2013

Angkor Wat

Called the ultimate expression of Khmer genius.  It is a symbolic representation if Mt Meru (Hindu Paradise-home of the gods).  It is the worlds largest religious building.  It has never been abandoned like the other sites and in nearly continuous use since it was built.  It was built around the same time as the European gothic period, Westminster Abbey and Chartres.  The main temple is dedicated to Vishnu.  

The size and scale of the site are extremely impressive.  

We went for the sunrise but the muggy air meant we didn't see one.  

Angkor Wat from the back

Angkor Wat view from the front

Ta Prohm

This section is "nicknamed the Tomb Raider temple...nature has run riot, leaving iconic tree roots strangling the surviving stones" (this post is almost entirely borrowed from South East Asia on a Shoe String Lonely Planet).

12th cent Mahayana Buddhist Temple "reminds us equally of the awesome fecundity and power of the jungle" and for me likewise of God. It spoke so clearly of the fickle nature of even great human accomplishments!  

Built by Jayavarman VII from 1186 apparently looks much like all of the temples would have when European explores first came upon them.  

It was used as the location in the movie Tomb Raider.  

This was my all time favourite site to explorer! It was just so cool!  I would go just to see it!

Bayon

"The surreal state temple of legendary King Jayvarman VII, where 216 faces bare down in pilgrims, asserting religious and regal authority." The faces apparently hold a string resemblance to the egocentric king.  

Ancient Angkor Temples

Friday May 17 2013 6pm

We must have been weary with travel because slept in until 10 this morning.  We got some nice brunch and then found a great driver to take us to check out some the lesser temples near Angkor Wat.  His motorcycle rickshaws was all decked out with Batman logs, it said "The Bat Mobile" on it and he had a batman shirt and helmet!  

We were there probably 11-4:30pm

The ruins are very cool to see and very impressive!  We checked out about six sites and were quite weary with walking.  It's not that hot but we're not used to the heat or being outside so much.  We were just dripping both of us!

I can't wait to see Angkor Wat tomorrow!  We're planning to go for sunrise.  

Our Bat-mobile 

 

I wasn't a fan of going under these arch ways. They did not look the most stable. 

I love how the roots grow through the stone

You see many land mine victims begging for money. Sometimes they are playing instruments for donations to support their families. 

Bussing to Cambodia

Thursday May 16

We got up early and took a Mini Bus with about a dozen other travellers from 7:30-1:00.  We made a lot of stops that felt unnecessary and unnecessarily long.  Fortunately i met a really awesome girl from Hamilton! Such a small world.  We had very lengthy conversations for the rest of the ride.  People from your home country just feel like family when you're abroad! The stop at the boarder took about and hour and half to get everyone organized.  Then once in Cambodia we took a full size bus.  We had to wait until it was full so we got talking with some other travellers and met A guy from Mexico and another guy with duel citizenship UK/USA.  We found out that our friends had paid $$27 and $22 respectively, for the same trip! At the boarder we had read tourists were often pressured to convert their money.  This was indeed the case, so we did not convert our money but despite our caution our friends did. They told them there would be no ATMs available and that they would charge high fees.  They also told us that if we used their currency "reel" we would get better prices than using US dollars.  But the exchange is 4 200 reel to $1 USD who can do the math quick enough to compare the price?  Once they got back and saw ATMs everywhere and slowly calculated our their money our friends realized they had again been tricked.   It's frustrating that a person has to do such careful reading to avoid scams but we're glad we did!  

Our second bus ride seemed to take forever but we had good company so we had a lot of fun.  We made very long stop at quite a nice remote restaurant that I'm sure has a great deal worked out with the tour company.  We to our final stop at 7:30pm.  Ever so conveniently they dropped us 3km outside the city.  A herd of motorcycle rickshaws were awaiting us...how thoughtful.  Again a scam so out of spite we walked to the city with our little crew.  We found a very nice hotel lonely planet recommended for $12/night with clean white sheets and fresh towels (total luxury for a backpacker).  We all hit the shower.  We were not a pretty smelling crew at this point as it is +37 with about 50% humidity here.  Then we went out for pizza and Mexican food.  The restaurant options are quite western.  It was a really fun night of laughing and telling stories of home and travels.  We had a really great time.  Sadly the girl from Hamilton had prebooked at one month stay at a yoga centre so we said farewell to her.  I was sad to part ways.   

Floating Market - Bangkok

Wednesday May 15 2013

We got up early to check out the Floating Market near Bangkok.  It's about an hour drive through the country.  It's lovely and lush as you get outside the city.  

We had been warned that it was extremely touristy.  And that definitely was the case, unfortunately.  All around the floating market is a barrage of shops selling cheap souvenirs, hippy pants and t-shirts.  We had a lot more time than was needed to browse these shops.  You take a motor boat with the whole tour group to the main site and then from there you rent a cheaper smaller hand paddled boat to slowly go through the market.  This market is lined again with souveneer items.  In the boats are some people selling more authentic things like fruit, spices etc but mostly it's hats, t-shirts and placemats.  

Overall it was a fun experience that we enjoyed.  

That night we checked out the giant gold reclining Buddha.  It was very large and the site was pretty cool in general.  

Buddhist monks walking outside the walls of the temple of the Reclining Buddha

Floating Market outside Bangkok

Reclining Buddha

Buddhas feet

Reclining Stray Cat

We packed up that night to take bus to Cambodia early in the morning.  We prebooked this trip specifically asking, "we make no other stops?" And we assured no.  So for $8 each  we had our tickets for our 7am-5:50pm journey to Siem Reap

Having a Blast in Bangkok

Tuesday May 14, 2012 9:20 am

We landed in Bangkok, Thailand last night at 3am.  We had already booked our hotel, so we just headed straight there with little fuss (aside from the can driver refusing to use the meter that the Lonely Planet had warned about).  The hotel is more like backpackers, and I was initially distressed by the dusty sheets on the single beds and the lack of AC in the tiny cell. This morning when the light flooded in its okay, despite the dust.  It's a comfortable hot here totally bearable, unlike India.  The area we're in is extremely touristy.  As in more ugly Alibaba pants and backless tank tops than you can count touristy!  I am currently enjoying a strong cup of coffee and American Breakfast # 2.  Now we're off to explore!

7:42 pm

Well turns out there was no need for nervousness, Bangkok has been lovely so far.  We spent the day wandering around the city in the area near our hotel.  We ended up in a web of sort of underground feeling shops.  They weren't underground, but they were all sort of like inside/between buildings so that there was little sunlight, and they wound round and through.  I don't think they were meant for tourists as they were selling unfamiliar religious icons.  

We have found the Thai people extremely helpful and friendly.  There are of course people trying to scam you like in any touristy destination but thanks to a little before and research and a bit of experience under our belts we were able to avoid the tricks this time.  The trick is someone offers you a day tour for less than a dollar but then you end spending all your time in tourist knick-knack shops feeling badgered to buy and the driver makes a tidy commission.  It started to feel like everyone was in on it after a while, but we still managed to avoid this experience.  

We checked out a giant standing Buddha.  

We took the sky train that is the main metro that runs through the glitzier part of downtown.  It's cool cause it runs quite high over the city centre, so you get an ideal view of things.  Right in the core is super high end looking.  It's all glass and metallic enormous skyscrapers.   It's one most impressive looking cities I've ever seen if you only saw that city centre area.  

We hopped off at the largest mall in South East Asia.  It was so awesome.  All the stores I love at home and many new ones. Plus delicious food everywhere!  Starbucks and Dairy Queen were familiar. Then they also have these wicked Sushi buffets where the sushi rides a little convert belt all around the booths, and you just pluck off whatever you'd like!  And gelato and steak places!  I got totally lost in this enormous stationary store.  I was in there for like an hour!  I know there a few of you out there who can appreciate my love for this place.  I honestly could have bought the whole store!  (Mom I think I found your fav Korean pens...not sure, but they're really nice and from Korean anyway haha!) I bought myself this awesome little contraption that cut perfect circles for $3!  Hopefully, it doesn't get taken away I the airport...just thought of that.  

As the train progresses you move from glamorous skyscrapers to plane cookie-cutter condos.  Slightly shorter whitewashed concrete buildings one after another begin to line the route.  They are not offensive in the appearance but decidedly ugly.  They gradually get worse looking as the train shoots along.  Near the end of the line, the skyline seems to disappear.  You have to stand at the edge to observe the grubby slummy residence below.  They are similar to what we saw in Mumbai, not a full on the actual shanty town but very rough conditions.  An expanse of tiny crumbling and filthy apartments toppling over each other, climbing in a sickly stairway around ten stories high.  These sort of harsh conditions in such proximity always make cringe and wish I hadn't seen them.  They make me wish there was a way to ignore the knowledge that human beings live there.  Likely large families cram into one small hovel each night.  They make me wish I didn't know the conditions that some people endure and the fact that I can do nothing about their individual lives.  They make me resume that desperate, helpless pit in my stomach I feel.  But I did see it, and I did feel it, and the train whizzed by.  

From the train, we took a river boat.  

Now you have two options with the river boat:

A) Book through a tour company

Cost: $30/person

For a one hour trip 

B) Follow the locals

Cost: $0.50

To get off where you please-near your hotel

Guess what we chose?  Obviously B!  A dollar is not too shabby for a sunset river cruise with my hotty husband!

Turns out riverboat is one of the primary modes that people commute home after work.  You can take e express from one end of the river to the other, or you can take the one we did which makes regular stops at various little docks along the way, like a bus.  It was totally great.  

For dinner, we found a great little spot near our hotel for some fantastic Pad Thai!  I must say tofu is growing on me.  Aside from the large rat that ran past our table mid-meal it was a romantic evening.  Rats are terribly alarming though cute if I did not know they were disease infested, I will never get used to their presence.