Tips for Picking your Guide Book

Whenever we decide on our next destination (or often even before we have) my first reaction is to head to the bookstore and buy a nice fat travel guide. Resist the urge!

TIP #1: HIT UP YOUR LOCAL LIBRARY
Get your hands on every guide book available on your desired location. Don't waste your time reading them all cover to cover. Ain't nobody got time for that! Skim through a few different guide books to get a feel for the one you like best: writing style, maps, layout. Truth be told (don't rat us out to the library) if the trip is not going to be that long sometimes we just take the library copy along with us and renew it a few times. You can't highlight, write or fold the corners down that way though.

Some books are better for preplanning your trip while others are ideal for getting you around day to day. The book, you also choose, depends on how you plan on using it. Some books will be better for preplanning (booking hotels and activities before you go), while others cater to being carried along with you and doing things more spontaneously when you arrive.

I also like to take out a few books on the local culture. I am mainly interested in the art so I like to read up on significant works done in the region and track them down if they are still in local museums or galleries. (Many works of Asian art, for example, on display in North America or Europe.)

THINGS TO WATCH FOR WHEN YOU DO BUY:

TIP #2 - SIZE/WIEGHT
A key feature, to pay attention to, is its mass. If you are going to be on a long trip with limited luggage space you, don't want your guide book hogging all the room. Buy one for a specific region or city if you can. Many guide books also offer PDF version that you can put on your phone or tablet. I liked this when we travelled through eight different Asian countries last spring. We didn't need a different book for each country and city.

TIP #3 -  MULTIPLE COUNTRIES IN ONE
If you are crossing borders on the same continent look for a book that specializes in that. Many of them will have tips on the best ways to cross borders or suggest good stops in multiple places. We liked Lonely Planet's South East Asia on a Shoe String, which helped us navigate currency exchange and border crossing. Some of our travel companions lost over $500, when they ignored the advice we shared with them from the LP.

TIP #4 - TRAVEL YOUR WAY, ON YOUR BUDGET
Lonely Planet is aimed at a younger backpacker audience while Frodor's targets at a bigger budget and more luxury-style travel.

Our personal favourite travel guide is Lonely Planet. I would never go on a trip without one.  It recommends the type of travel we enjoy most. I like a mix of the sights and off the beaten track. We also usually travel out of backpacks and on a budget.
More recently I've discovered "Top 10" is an intimidating place to first start.

TIP #5 - CURRENT
Often when you go on a trip someone you know will be excited that they were there ten years earlier. How convenient that they have saved their old travel guide all these years. Why don't you take it and save yourself thirty dollars? Travel guides can be pricey. Do not travel with a book even one edition out of date—it is entirely useless. An up to date edition is especially important in rapidly developing countries. For example, we found even some of the information in our current edition books was already out of date in India.

TIP #6 - DON'T BRING IT HOME
Some people like to keep their guide books on their shelves like little awards or pins on a map, which is a kind of a cool way to remember your trips. Some people consider books sacred and would never cut them up but for us though travelling light always takes priority over sentimentally, on this one. We cut out the sections of the guidebook that we needed for our trip to India and left behind the sections on provinces and cities we were not planning to see. As we leave a region we, leave that section of the guidebook too. I'd rather bring home something I bought there than an outdated book.


In case you can't tell from my mountain of library books we are off on another adventure again! We leave in a month to return to South Africa and on the layover home we are spending just over two weeks in Turkey. 

The Eye Glass Adventure

Saturday June 8 2013

A little back story: while on Gili Meno the arm, randomly,  fell off my glasses when I picked them up one morning.  I had packed some contacts but they are not ideal, between my very dry eyes and all the dust I don't last long in them.  (Although they did prove surprisingly great for snorkelling in!) I didn't want to try and have them fixed here and end up with a lot of hassel and my nice frames ruined for good.  We had seen glasses sold absurdly cheap in Bangkok, so I was hopeful that I could buy a replacement pair while on the go.  The trouble was finding a city on these small Indonesian islands big enough to have an Eye Centre.  I haven't seen any locals wearing glasses.  

We settled in the south of Lombok in a beach town called Kuta (yes, we also went to a Kuta beach in Bali - same name but different island).  Our hotel owner was very eager to help us get to Praya, where we could buy glasses.  He apparently had nothing better to do than drive two tourists half an hour on his scooter.  The $10 we payed him to take us is pretty good money, considering you can drive an hour on less than a litre of gas and a litre of gas costs $0.50.  We ended up having to take two scooters because after N got on behind him he declared it, "impossible" to take us both on one.  So his nephew, who works at the hotel was commissioned to drive a second scooter and off we went.  When we asked for helmets he assured us, "no problem." When we got up to 80 clicks I tell ya I was praying hard there would be no problem!  

The twenty year old nephew (who doesn't look a day old than 12) was very friendly and quite chatty.  When we stopped to fill up with gas he told me that he was from Praya.  I asked if he lived here in Kuta, now that he was working at the hotel.  He confirmed that he did but I wasn't sure if he had fully understood me so I clarified, "you don't drive here each day?" He threw his head back and laughed at the hilarious notion that anyone would drive half an hour to work every day.  And I laughed with him but not for the same reason. I laughed because this is such a different world where a half hour commute to work is obsurd.  

I'm not sure our hotel owner had ever been in an Eye Centre before.  He is a very friendly guy, missing about four teeth on the bottom.  He assured us that he would "help" us, meaning that he would prevent us from getting screwed over with me tourist price.  I'm not positive that he did help all that much but we we glad to have him because the girls at the Eye Centre spoke zero English.  

Double checking the prescription is right

There was very minimal slightly outdated selection.  It was kind of stuff that was popular when I got my first pair of glasses, ten years ago, maybe even later.  And I felt very rushed and silly for asking to try on more than one pair.  So I decided I was just going to go hipster and get the old man frames.  Our liaison said, they made me look beautiful because they matched my hair.  I have to admit all the way back I was singing in my head, "I wear your grandad's clothes, I look incredible".  Love that song!  

For $50 all in I was fairly happy with the resulted eye sight.  N is really pumped to try and claim this on our Health Insurance.  I'm optimistic that the place I got other pair will be able to repair them, when I get home.  So I am not wearing this kind of quirky look all the time. 

Love the wood arms on my new retro glasses

Sunday June 9 2013

Today we rented a scooter and toured around the coast of this island.  It is so breathtakingly beautiful!  We came across the illegal gold mining we had read about, which was kind of a rush (nice pun right*).  It's not nearly as sketchy as it sounds.  I'm not real sure what about it is illegal it was very out in the open.  And we checked a bunch of beaches that are normally supposed to be quiet but were busy with locals because it was Sunday.  We did find one lovely beach that was totally deserted!  It was really cool but there was something strangely eerie about being in the ocean and being so alone.  I can't really explain it, it was like something in a bad movie I was just waiting for jaws to emerge out of the ocean or the mafia to come from over the hill and kidnap us.  Tragic that my overworked imagination spoiled our romantic beach experience, although N felt it too.  It was just too quiet.  Still it was pretty sweet!  And we did stay there for a fairly long time but it just felt kinda weird to stay too long.  

Low season is just ending here so there are a smattering of shops that are open but they only have a dusty selection of left overs from last years stock.  Hotels are just starting to raise their room prices.  All the restaurants look closed but are in fact open, though most do not serve half of what is advertised on their signs.  We did find the most amazing pumpkin curry ever though!  I am going to have to find a recipe for it when we get home!

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.  

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. 

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.  

Super Trees in Singapore

Thursday May 2

We arrived in Singapore at noon.  Our friend K and her little boy met us at the airport.

We dropped our bags at their apartment.  It's a cute little (by Canadian standards) two bedroom place.  It's a very comfortable size.  They have a lot of visitors and were all set up for us.  We even got our own room. K has fun decorating style and has made the place feel very homey!

K is at home with her son.   D works long days.  So K and little S were our tour guides around Singapore, and excellent ones I might add!


The main thing I wanted to see was the super trees I'd read about that we're just finished.  So we went to them first thing was go to the Gardens by the Bay.

On the way there were several fountains that provided great entertainment for the little guy in our company.

The super trees did not disappoint!  I do not fully understand them but they are these enormous metal trees, I think there are five of them.  They are metal with plants growing out of them horizontally.  They have solar panels all over them, I think.  They are supposed to be fully sustaining as in they recycle back all e energy they use or something.  I don't really know, just google it if you're interested (haha). What I do know is they're super cool to see and Eco friendly and I loved.

They also have two domes right next to them that are sort of like the Mutart Conservatory, in Edmonton x10.

The one we went in was called The Cloud Forest.  Inside there was this mountain of plants with a waterfall coming off the front.  You take and elevator up and then walk down this spirally ramp.  It has beautiful plants all around it.  Cloud forest are a special kind of ecosystem that is at great risk with global warming and apparently takes 200 to 300 years to mature.  It had a very interesting assortment of crazy awesome plants. I loved it.


We had dinner in the Arab quarter.  We at a restaurant call Alaturka that served Turkish food for dinner. Yum!  You can get pretty much any food imagination or in Singapore.  And it's awesome!

Beijing - Forbidden City

Wednesday May 1 2013 1:30 am

Jet lag and excitement about seeing the Great Wall today are keeping me awake.  

Yesterday (April 30)

N wandered around the street our hotel is on and found a cool little bakery.  He got this cool breakfast sandwich type thing and a loafs of raisin pineapple bread for quite cheap.  They were very tasty.  

It proved quite difficult to book a trip out to the Great Wall due to the language barrier so we decided to hold off on that and opted to check out Tiananmen Square.  

We walked and took the subway there.  They have a very sophisticated subway system. 

We spent the day exploring Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City. On our way we accidentally stumbled upon quite a cool little fruit  market and managed to buy some fruit there.  

The  Forbidden City was packed because of the Labour Day holiday, that wasn't really a big deal though.  It quite cool for the first 2/4 km in but about half way we realized that every phase was virtually the same.  I came out with over 150 pictures of what look like all the same building.  It was very pretty but maybe four hours of walking  was a bit ambitious for our first day out.  We were pretty blistered, burned and  beat by the time we got back.   It was a lot hotter than we'd thought (about 25-30*C) so I ended up with a nasty sunburn on my neck.   

The smog in the air is different than I expected.  You might not notice it if no one had said anything to you.  It's just that the air never feels fresh.  And when I got back to the hotel I had a few coughing fits.  It just sort of sticks in your throat and you can't get it out.  

We are really enjoying Beijing.  The people are kind and friendly, but almost no one speaks English.  We feel very safe on the streets, which makes travelling so much more enjoyable.  

Today we plan to leave early (as in normal waking hours 6am...not the middle of the night which it is now) and bus to the Great Wall.  We are hoping that by going early and going to a further away and less touristy parts of the wall we will miss the major mobs and maybe even get a seat on the bus.  It's about a two hour bus ride.