Gary and Manuela Travel

Hello!

We were in Munich, Germany for 4 days over the Easter weekend.  We hadn’t planned on going to Munich but as mentioned in the last blog, it was the best flying option for us from Sarajevo.  We enjoyed Munich with it’s lovely Marienplatz main square with the New Town Hall, which houses a great glockenspiel that does a little performance 3 times daily.  It also had some great architecture, and amazing, huge beer halls full of people.

We then decided to take the train from Munich to Innsbruck, on advice of our good friend, Christine.  And we weren’t one bit disappointed.  Innsbruck was breath-taking beautiful.  The mountains were exquisite and surrounded the entire town.  One day we took the cable car up to the mountains – stunning!  See if you can spot Gary’s costume malfunction in the mountain photo.  The poor woman who took the photo!

We found a lovely restaurant that served up locally sourced food and on the second night there (yes, we really liked this place!) I chose one of the specials, fully aware of what it was, but it wasn’t as appetizing when the server brought it and said “here is your baby horse”.  She really meant here is your small portion of horse, yes, horse.  It was very good.

We then made our way to Italy where we will be returning home from.  I will have a blog post shortly on the 2 cities we visited.

Ciao for now.

The countries that we briefly touched on in this region were:  Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia.  I say briefly because we only visited 3 cities within this region.

Serbia

BELGRADE – We flew into Serbia’s capital (Yugoslavia’s capital from 1918 to 2006) from Istanbul on March 15, spending two nights.  Belgrade was not a beautiful city but an interesting one.  It felt like it was still trying to live in the old communist regime.  They love Putin here.  The people, it appeared to us, seemed like they were struggling to make a living.  The young taxi driver who drove us from the airport to our hotel felt no hope in the country and couldn’t wait to leave.  The buildings looked tired and like very little had been done to them.  They still had trams, possibly from the 50’s or earlier, that looked like they had seen better days.  There was however a younger, creative crowd that was doing some very innovative start-up businesses.  It certainly felt promising.

Croatia

ZAGREB – We took the 7-hour train into Zagreb.  Stepping out of the train station we could tell it was a lovely city:  beautiful architecture and a sculpture facing the station, giving it an instant impression.  We spent 4 days here and really enjoyed our time.  A lovely walking city and beautiful architecture on just about every street.

Bosnia

SARAJEVO – We arrived in Sarajevo after a 10-hour milk-run train ride.  We were very tired by the time we got to our hotel and wondered whatever happened to the romance of train travel.  This was one of the things we were looking forward to once we got to Europe.  Once we checked into our hotel we walked down the street to a lovely traditional Bosnian restaurant.  The food was so yummy.

We had every intention of hanging around Sarajevo for a bit and then heading down to the coast and traveling up it by train, but the reality is that this area does not have the same infrastructure as other parts of Europe when it comes to trains.  Also the weather was crappy and when we looked at the 2-week forecast it was going to continue to be crappy.  So, we looked to flights instead and based on price, time, possible destinations, and less crappy weather, we decided to head to Munich, Germany.  The morning we woke up to head to the airport made us even more glad that we had made our decision – slushy snow everywhere!

 

 

After much contemplation about whether or not to visit Turkey during this time of turmoil, we decided to.

It was an absolutely amazing part of our trip and probably one of our favourites.  It’s really unfortunate what is happening there right now, and we could feel the anguish of the people we spoke to.  We are very saddened by the latest bombings.  We are also relieved we are no longer there.

We started in Istanbul which is such a vibrant city with a population of 14,000,000 people, and the people really appear to enjoy their city – they are out and about and eating and socializing.  The amount of cafes and little coffee shops surpassed anything we’ve ever seen in any city.  We loved all of the small neighbourhoods with all of their cute and funky shops and cafes.  Okay, so they don’t do coffee very well, unless you are into Turkish coffee, but they do the vibe well.  And I really started enjoying Turkish tea.  The people were SO nice.

There was so much to see in Istanbul that we even missed (don’t laugh or gasp) the Blue Mosque.  Actually, we got a bit confused and thought we had seen it, but it was the “other” mosque.  There are a LOT of mosques in the city.  Nonetheless, what we saw was spectacular.  If we didn’t know the Blue Mosque existed we wouldn’t have felt like we missed anything.

We were so excited about visiting the Grand Bazaar and had thought that we would buy a number of things there, but after our first experience in a carpet shop (for those of you who have experienced this you will know what I’m talking about), I actually ended up being very intimidated and quite stressed in shopping there and we ended up not buying anything!  Oh, except we bought an older backgammon game with inlay of different woods in an antique shop.  It was one of the things we really wanted to buy since we both enjoy playing so much.  It does take up a bit of room in Gary’s bag though.

We missed the Whirling Dervishes – we’re not very organized and so didn’t look into it and the performances were only on Sundays, and missed it, unfortunately.  Next time, since we have every intention of visiting Turkey again in the future.  But we did visit the museum and saw the beautiful room in which the ritual happens in.

After 8 days in Istanbul we flew to Cappadocia in central Turkey, another UNESCO site.  The entire area is comprised of a number of villages featuring amazing rock formations, some known for its fairy chimneys, some for its caves.  If you are interested in more info here is a website:  http://www.topofturkey.com/en/cappadocia.html.  We stayed in a cave hotel, a lovely small one with only 5 rooms and we were the only ones there for the 3 days we stayed.

We arrived early in the morning and went on a full day tour of the different valleys and areas with a guide shortly after our arrival.  We happened to ask him about carpets since this was something that we really wanted to buy while in Turkey and the Grand Bazaar had proved not to work for us.  Well, of course he knew of a place where his friend worked.  Luckily it was a co-op, for lack of a better description, where the workers were treated well and they had their health care subsidized by the government.  And we lost our heads and bought a beautiful carpet that cost the price of a small used car!  It’s being shipped (hopefully!) back home.

One of the many amazing things to do in Cappadocia is go on a sunrise hot air balloon ride which we did on the anniversary of our 6 months’ travel.  It was really quite fantastic.  I had no idea how a hot air balloon actually worked but found out that the pilot can only control the up and down motion, the rest is controlled by the wind.  Our pilot took us into spots so close to the rock formations which I thought would not have been possible.  It was a little unnerving at times, but amazing.  The landing was another thing I found fascinating:  the pilot actually lands the balloon right on the back of a small trailer attached to a pick up truck.

On our third day we rented a car and visited a couple of the underground cities.  Amazing!  We were headed towards the biggie, but on the way there we happened upon a small one in a little town that didn’t look like much but we decided to check it out.  No other tourists around so in we went.  As we were entering the “building” (these are all natural cave structures that various groups throughout history built into) the guide from the site asked if we wanted help and we said no that we had our own flashlight and we would be okay.  But he knew better and eventually followed us in.  Good thing!  I think on our own we would have been inside for a whole of 5 minutes, but when he showed us around I’m sure we were inside for about 1 hour.  It was pretty amazing to see how groups of people had lived in these caves, with stables for the animals on the first level, “wineries” on the next level, churches, living quarters, communication holes where they could send messages to different sections within, and shafts (tunnels) that they traveled through for safety.  These were small shafts that for parts were horizontal and then became vertical with foot holes on either side so that one could climb up.  When we got to one of them our guide pointed and motioned us to go up.  I looked at him to see if he was joking, but no, not joking.  And just to make sure, I asked “us, go up?”.  Yup, he said.  If memory serves me right, I believe he showed us how to do it the first time, and then we navigated through at least a couple more shafts.  There was two that I just refused to go up/down (even Gary refused one of them – he couldn’t see the end of it when he looked up).  At one point I turned to Gary and said, “This guy assumes we’re the athletic types”.  It was pretty crazy stuff, but a good experience.

The next day we were flying to Belgrade, Serbia, and when I woke up at 6:00 a.m. I looked out and lo and behold it had snowed and was -1℃.  I have to say that it was really beautiful.  We drove ourselves to the airport with our rental car – it was a beautiful drive.

We spent a couple of days in Belgrade and then on to Zagreb, Croatia.  I’ll write soon.

Arrived in Rhodes Town on the overnight ferry from Santorini on February 28th.  The ferry ride was very comfortable.  It made many, many stops along the way and we thoroughly enjoyed watching the goings and comings at each port that we were awake for.  It must have stopped at least 4 or 5 more times overnight while we were in our berth.

We enjoyed entering the port of Rhodes Town at sunrise.  It felt much warmer here than in Santorini.  Rhodes Town is a walled medieval UNESCO city.

We stayed in the old town.  It was pretty quiet at this time of year and at times felt like a ghost town.  It was challenging finding a restaurant even in the new town (where people actually live) just a short walk on the other side of the wall of the old town.  The only places we could fine were either tavernas where only men hung out, or young people bars.  They only smoked (and did they ever smoke) and drink – not much eating going on.  We were so intrigued (and grossed out since we had to inhale it all of the time) by the number of people smoking – just about everyone (we were pretty much the only non-smokers) – that we did a search about Greeks smoking.  And guess what!  They are at the top of the list in the world for the most smoking.   Just to give you an idea, 40% of the Greek population smokes whereas only 15% of Canadians smoke.

Rhodes is a lovely town to walk around in with the old cobblestones, the Grand Masters Palace, Street of Knights, and all of the lovely historical buildings.

We rented a car for a day and drove to Lindos where 30 years ago our good friends Christine and Paul had spent some time, and it was great fun sending them photos so that they could reminisce.  We especially enjoyed the challenge that Paul imposed on us to find the exact spot that they had stayed at and the steps just down from them (Paul had provided us with photos from 30 some years prior), and believe it or not we found the place and we took photos with the same poses as they had in the photos.  Great fun!  Lindos sits in a beautiful setting and has its own acropolis up on a hill overlooking the town and the ocean.  And on the way back to Rhodes Town we stopped off at Anthony Quinn’s beach.  We could see why the former actor chose to have a house there.

We left Rhodes on a jet plane on March 4 and headed to Istanbul, Turkey.  We’ll be writing about that very soon.  Stay tuned.

We really enjoyed Greece!

Well, it doesn’t get much better than this…………………

This was exactly what we needed after our time in Southeast Asia and the last few months.  Not complaining, just stating a fact that long-term travel is challenging at the best of times.  We took the one 7:25 a.m. daily boat from Athens to Santorini and arrived at the port of Fira (Thira), the capital, at 3:15 p.m.  A very comfortable boat and pleasant trip.

We couldn’t believe the view and how lovely the island was.  Of course we’d seen the postcards and all, but until you see it with your own eyes…….

Being winter it was very quiet and although not many restaurants and shops (and laundry mats – we needed one desperately) were opened in the main town of Fira, we much preferred that to being surrounded by tourists.  And of course the prices were much lower for accommodations.  Winter or low season is when renovations/maintenance of buildings and roads take place, and need to stop at the end of March for the start of the tourist season.  Apparently in high season one can hardly drive or walk easily due to the crowds.    The weather was unseasonably warm at anywhere from 16-20℃.  Perfect for walking, and walking we did.  Just to get from our room to the road was a 159-step climb, and down to breakfast was a 49-step descent/climb.

It’s such a great island to walk around in, especially through the labyrinth of back streets and lane ways.  Often you couldn’t tell if you were walking on a public path or through a private residence.  So many nooks and crannies to explore and to look out from.  The view was always different no matter where you were standing or sitting.

We spent 11 days relaxing and exploring.  It was the most relaxing part of our travels thus far.  One day we walked down the cliff pathway to the old port and unexpectedly the water taxi was about to go to the volcanic island of Nea Kameni which was right across from the larger island of Santorini, so we hopped on.  There were spectacular 360º views from the island.  The ride across also included the hot springs, but we hadn’t (thankfully) prepared for this so did not partake.  Those that did go in tried to put on a good face but we could see them shivering.

One of the days we rented a car and tooted around about half of the island, exploring a couple of traditional villages, Santo Wines Winery, driving up the switchback road to Ancient Thira.  We quite enjoyed looking at the ruins and the view as well.  There’s the view thing again.

On another day we took the local bus to the prehistoric settlement of Akrotiri.  There were some very interesting ruins there from 1650-1500 BC.  The excavation began in 1967.  It’s quite incredible how something like that survives (no pics since I thought we had forgotten the camera in our room, even though I had it in my bag all along, oops!).

And our favourite day was the 2 1/2 hour walk/hike from our village of Firostefani to the village of Oia, at the northern end of the island.  It was a truly spectacular walk – a highlight of this trip for sure.  And our feet certainly got a workout.  Mine especially in my minimalist running shoes – I could feel every rock and stone under my feet.  They really got a massage and all the little bones and muscles worked like they’ve never worked before.  We took the bus back to Fira, had lunch and then still had to walk another 15 minutes to our village.

The people here have a rough exterior but are very kind and generous.  I don’t think there was a time in a restaurant where we didn’t received something for free, like a dessert and some Vinsanto (which we really liked).  All of the wine we drank on the island was from the island and Vinsanto is their sweet wine that reminded us of port.  The way they grow their vines is especially interesting due to the fact that it’s really windy on the island – that’s adaptation for you!  Have a look – https://www.google.com/search?q=vines+of+santorini&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwiQh8T4gJrLAhVi_HIKHa8uCFEQsAQIIw&biw=1366&bih=639

We certainly will miss Santorini, and so glad we got to see it during low season.  We arrived in Rhodes on February 28th.  Talk soon from there.

After spending 11 weeks in Indonesia and Southeast Asia and almost a week in Beirut, Greece feels so laid back.  The last 3 months, although enjoyable, have definitely been work.  We didn’t spend more time in that region because we never found a place that we could just rent for a while and relax.  Having said that, it was really amazing and the people were wonderful.

We arrived in Athens on February 13th (the second day of a farmers’ demonstration right in the middle of the city – the previous day there had been a bit of violence but all appeared peaceful when we arrived), and spent 4 days seeing the sights.  Neither of us expected to enjoy the city as much as we did.  We thought it would just be a big, old dirty city, but in actual fact it was a great city to walk around in, and the sights were spectacular.  We’re putting the Acropolis on the top 10 of our list for sure (and you can pretty much see it from almost anywhere in the city, as Gary’s photos show).  And there are so many other great sights in the city as well, such as Hadrian’s Arch, the Panathenaic Stadium which hosted the first modern Olympic games in 1896.  It was so beautiful.  The Acropolis Museum was fantastic, and has been voted by National Geographic as top 3rd museum in the world out of 10.

Although neither of us would put Greek food as our favourite on the list, we enjoyed many snacks (and I do love snacks!).  And we enjoyed some really good Greek wine too.  I had no idea!

The people here are so nice and so willing to help, and forgiving too – you know how tourists can be!  Those that work in the hotel and tourist industry are very professional and good business people.  Very accommodating.

Well we’re now in Santorini, and ready for some relaxation.  We’ll touch base from there shortly.  In the meantime enjoy Athens.

 

Since we decided not to do India and the area we had to decide on a city/country that we could stop off in in order to try and get time on our side for better weather before we approached Greece and Turkey.  The Middle East was not a place that called to either of us, but we did consider Tehran, Iran but the entry process was quite complex and timely.  So we decided on Beirut where we could get a visa on entry (which didn’t actually happen – it was the easiest entry we’ve had so far), and we both had heard about Beirut being quite a happening kinda place.  So, not worrying too much about the tension within the country or their recent garbage problem, AND after a full day of travel, we flew in on February 8 and spent 5 days there.  We had a 9 hour lay-over at Bahrain and, armed with our camel milk chocolate bar, we booked ourselves into one of the airport lounges to get some rest.  The regular airport seating and areas were so uncomfortable and noisy.

Beirut is a city that requires time to get to know.  We loved the city:  it had culture, architecture, food, drink, scenery.  What more could you ask for?  But it was so multilayered and complex that it was hard to understand.  We didn’t feel that in the short time we were there that we could even begin to get to know the people who came across as having a very hard shell.  They were far from being warm and fuzzy.  No one was interested in talking with you, and frankly they kind of intimidated me a little, except for a couple of people that actually said hello and smiled in a couple of the cafes that we patronized.

There was tension in this city, although not always visible.  I felt aware that any minute now something could happen (although that was probably just my overly cautious nature).  There was a lot of armed uniforms around.  There was even armed non-uniforms – one day Gary spotted a young guy dressed in civilian clothing with a gun sticking out of his jeans.  On our first walk-about day we got to a section of the downtown core that has been completely renovated and rebuilt – it was barricaded and had a couple of armed guards in front.  It looked really beautiful, and we could see a couple of people near the cafe so we asked the guards if we could go in, and with a sideways, suspicious glance one of the guards asked to see our passports, and upon showing them to him he let us through.  It was the eeriest feeling we’ve had so far in our travels.  Here was this beautiful area, with a clock tower, cafes, shops, a lovely hotel, but without anyone in it – a ghost town – and we couldn’t figure it out and there was no to ask (or no one we dared ask).  I kept thinking that we shouldn’t be there.  Each time I’ve written something here I have researched it so that I could write about it, but in all honesty it is always so complex that I didn’t know where to start.

The only person that we had an opportunity to talk to, or rather feel comfortable asking questions, was our taxi driver who on the way to the airport we discovered he was actually from the Emirates but had come to Beirut 10 years prior and really liked it so stayed.  He explained that there was a lot of corruption and that there were many levels of uniforms everywhere and others that didn’t wear uniforms but could still stop you and question you any time.

You could still see (and feel) evidence of the 1975-90 civil war, with bullet holes in the buildings and rubble in empty lots.  The infamous Holiday Inn still stands with holes in it – it was part of The Battle of Hotels also know as the “Hotel Front” during the 1975-77 period of the civil war.  But over all the city has been re-built into architecture that shows what it once was – beautiful and cosmopolitan for the most part.  What we loved about the city was the fact that people are really trying to live harmoniously together (most groups, anyway) – you see a mosque right next to a Christian church; and Muslims working with Christians, and so forth.  But, there is still much tension between Shias and Sunnis.

The Lebanese are very fashionable people and Gary and I certainly felt out of place, so much so that we both wanted to buy a complete wardrobe.  We did buy a couple of pieces, as we knew our next few destinations would also be fashionable places and we were looking a bit touristy and frumpy.

Gary got another haircut here, but I didn’t dare ask his barber guy if I could take a picture – this was one serious guy!

We’re in Athens, and are heading to Santorini on February 17.  Will write from there soon.

……a land lost in time.

Myanmar is bordered by 5 countries:  Bangladesh, India, China, Thailand and Laos.

Arrived in Yangon (formerly Rangoon), Myanmar’s largest city with a population of over 5 million, on January 28th.  It’s notorious for it’s heavy traffic and you can expect to find yourself in a traffic jam each time you venture out in a taxi, which you will be doing to get around.  Gary and I love to explore any city on foot, but this one is truly challenging to get around that way so we decided to do the taxi routine with a couple of exceptions:  1) the BIG temple in town called Shwedagon Pagoda (just down the street and around the corner from our hotel); and 2) after the pagoda we walked straight down the main road to the downtown area – a bit of a walk but we made it.

One of the interesting things here was the driving, for various reasons, but one of them being that most cars have the steering wheel on the right side (opposite to Canada) and driving is done on the right side (same as Canada).  In all other countries that have the steering wheel on the right side driving is done on the left side of the road.  Here’s an explanation I found; have a read since it’s quite interesting and not a long read – http://www.minordiversion.com/2012/03/the-unique-world-of-burmese-driving/.

Yangon was the capital city until it was moved to Naypyidaw  in 2005 without any explanation, another decision made by the crazy military government that was in power until recently.  Unfortunately Yangon’s beautiful architecture has suffered due to many of it’s businesses and government offices moving to the new capital.  There are people trying to revive Yangon but in the words of an artist of a show we popped into, it is a “stuttering progress”.  It took me a few days to warm up to the city (I actually wanted to leave right away) but Gary liked it’s rough-around-the-edges beauty right away.  The city was so spread out hence one of the many reasons we had to take a taxi everywhere.  They do not have a subway or bus system to speak of and I imagine this is one of the reasons for the congested traffic.

We both loved the people.  They were so warm and kind and gentle.  Most of the time if we felt that we were intruding at a temple where people were praying we would just observe from a distance and we were always invited in along with the locals.  It was really beautiful.  And the artist who gave me a souvenir, as he put it, of a “tattoo” because he was so appreciative of me not waiting for my $1 change.   Those were just some special moments of the interaction we had in Myanmar.

After a bit of research into a flight from Yangon to Bagan I was feeling a bit nervous considering someone had written in their blog that air travel in Myanmar is not the safest and they are known to have an accident twice a year.  That was really reassuring.  But all went well and the flight even left early!  The scariest part was that they had called our flight a little earlier than expected but not in English (or at least we didn’t think so) so we just sat around, la de da, until an airport employee approached us – luckily at check in we were given a sticker to wear to identify the flight we were booked into – so he spotted us.  Tourists!

Everyone comes to Bagan for the temples.  You even buy your admission into the temples area (13 x 8 km area) upon exiting the airport.  There are 3 “towns” you can stay in in Bagan:  Nyaung U (the furthest from the temples and cheapest accommodation, a.k.a backpacker, party town), Old Bagan (the closest to the temples and most expensive, a.k.a. paying too much for what you’re getting), and New Bagan (somewhere in between).  We stayed in New Bagan.  Our hotel was really lovely in a quiet, out of the way spot, and close enough to walk into the dusty old town which reminded me of isolated Alice Springs in outback Australia, only no sidewalks and dustier since there was sand (dirt) everywhere.  Mode of travel for tourists was bikes, e-bikes, horse and carriage and taxis.  Taxis were hard to come by and best pre-booked by your hotel.  One day when our hotel couldn’t get us a taxi for 45 minutes we decided to start walking into town and were stopped by a local on a motorbike who asked if we wanted a horse and carriage and said he had one just down the street and we agreed and said we would walk and meet him there.  Oh no, he didn’t want us to walk, so tells the two of us to hop on the back of his motorbike.  Here’s me, of course, asking “are you sure?”.  Of course he’s sure, people carry the equivalent of truckloads on their bikes!  Off the three of us went to his house to get his horse hooked up to its carriage.  And away we went to a few more temples.

Out of the 10,000 Buddhist pagodas, temples and monasteries that were erected in Bagan between the 11th and 13th centuries, only an estimated 2200 still remain today.  A number of them were destroyed during the 1975 earthquake.   And unfortunately they have been restored very badly for the most part (I call it patchwork renovation instead of restoration) and not restored in their traditional/historical design or materials – this is one reason why Bagan has not been successful in becoming designated as a UNESCO site.  On our second day in the area we rented e-bikes (too much like scooters for me – too much out of my comfort zone) and went tootin’ around to various temples, some of which had no one around, and no, or very few, tourist buses around a lot of the area.   We spent about 5 hours out and hardly made a dent.  It is a vast area.  When you are up high on a temple looking down and around all you see are temples (stupas) everywhere, as far as the eye can see.  It’s really quite spectacular.

Our second day was spent planning our next segment of our travels, i.e. booking a hotel, flight, etc. while sitting by the pool, and then in the afternoon we did a tour about 1 hour from Bagan to Mount Popa (or as Gary accidentally called it to the man who sold us the tickets, Mount Poopi – and I can tell you that Poopi would have been a much more appropriate name).  For those who’ve been following our travels on our blog, you will know that I don’t go to where monkeys are wandering freely.  Well, again with no research on our behalf on this temple off we went to the monkey infested site.  It was absolutely disgusting.  The temple which is on a mount with a 777-step climb is in a beautiful spot overlooking hills and valleys and you get the sunset if you go when we did.  As our van was pulling up towards the area at the bottom of the stairs I already knew we were in for trouble.  Gary was sitting in front of me in the van and he silently, slowly turned his head in my direction.  He knew I would not be happy.  There was garbage everywhere and guess what that attracted?!?!  MONKEYS!  They were everywhere hoping for a handout from the tourists.  They covered the stairs up and I was absolutely terrified.  I was holding Gary’s hand and hiding behind him – I felt like a child hiding behind its parent.  And to top it all off when we got to the top, the temple and the entire site was in complete disarray with dirty floors and again garbage everywhere – oh, and I forgot to say that there was monkey shit and piss everywhere up the stairs as well.  And you’re climbing bare footed since it’s a temple.  And the sunset was okay but we could have picked a better place.

The next morning, day 3 we were picked up at 5:30 for the sunrise at one of the temples in the area.  It was quite dark with lots of stars when we started out and got to the top of the temple and at first we appeared to be the only ones there until we discovered some young folk had camped out inside the temple in order to catch sunrise and free accommodation, and then a few more tourists arrived and noisy ones at that, but overall it was quite an experience seeing the sky change colours and then at about 7:00 the red sun coming up behind the mountains.  And looking west the hot air balloons started rising up to the sky to view the sunrise and that in itself was beautiful.  Overall, very spectacular.

On day 4 we awoke at 4:00 to get picked up at 4:30 for a 13 1/2 hour boat ride up the Irrawaddy River heading for Mandalay (reminds me of Kipling’s poem, Mandalay – http://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/poems_mandalay.htm).  The boat left the river bank in Nyaung U at 5:25.  It was a long, lazy ride watching the river life going by with villagers washing their clothes, loading things onto their boats or barges, watching the transport barges going up and down the river.  Funny enough the 13 1/2 hours went by rather quickly.  And it was especially nice since there were only 14 passengers on board and normally 100+ could fit.  It wasn’t a luxurious boat by any means, very basic and a bit outdated but quite comfortable.  We got sunrise and sunset, and because it’s so hazy and smoky in Myanmar the sun becomes a round ball of fire.  It was so beautiful.

Mandalay.  What can I say……….a dusty, hazy old city of just over 1 million people, with fantastic potential just like Yangon, but also decaying.  We were able to do some walking here but the sidewalks were in terrible shape and most often we would walk on the street which wasn’t that appealing in a city that’s not very pedestrian friendly.  Our first venture out took us to Mandalay Palace.  All of the buildings in the compound were destroyed during WWII except for the mint and the watch tower.  The compound was very interesting but like everything here, not maintained very well, although better than most.

The next venture out in Mandalay took us to Mandalay Hill, 1729 steps up (the CN Tower has 1776), bare footed, of course.  It always felt so good to wash your feet when you returned back to the hotel, especially in Mandalay.  At the bottom of the hill we were lucky to catch a snake charmer/magician (there is a very large Indian influence here).  Many locals were gathered around and at first it looked exciting but many started to lose interest when not much was happening – we wanted to see the snakes, not just glimpses.   But while standing around, we got to see a wonderful procession of decorated cattle and carts, horses, people, all going towards the temples at the bottom of the hill, making their offerings to Buddha.  It was beautiful.

We have so much enjoyed Myanmar, in a strange sort of way.  The people have been the most amazing we have encountered in our travels, and we sadly say farewell to them, and the experiences that they provided us.  We also say goodbye to Southeast Asia where between it and Bali went spent 11 weeks.

We’ve decided not to visit India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, et. al., as originally planned as Southeast Asia has taken up a lot of our energy.  So India will have to wait for us for another trip.  Instead we spent 5 days in Beirut, Lebanon which I will report on very shortly.  And we just arrived in Athens on February 13, marking 5 months of travel.

This post took especially long due to the internet connection in Myanmar and Beirut.  We just arrived in Athens, Greece on February 13th where we marked 5 months of travel.

Enjoy the photos until the Beirut posting.

Hello, or Sabaidee as they say in Laos (Lao).

Arrived in Vientiane, on the evening of January 19th, with a fairly easy ‘on arrival’ visa process.  Our hotel was very central to everything in this smallest of SE Asian capitals.  A very low-key city and quite refreshing in the sense that it was easy to walk around (the sidewalks were in pretty good shape for SE Asian standards), mellow people, great night market with the most small artisan stalls we’ve seen so far.  Most markets have sold mainly mass produced and knock-off stuff.  We haven’t been buying anything except for a few minor things we needed (flip flops, t-shirts), due to luggage space and having to cart it around, but we just loved the wood cuts here done by a particular local artist and so couldn’t resist; luckily they roll up very nicely and we bought a protective tube for them – easy to carry.  We would have bought more but when we returned to the market on our third night there, she wasn’t there .  It was great that we got to meet her on our second visit to the market.  She teaches at the art college in Vientiane.

On our first day in the city first off was a trip to the Myanmar (Burma) Embassy to apply for our entry visa.  An easy process; they really help you out – one of the required bits of information on the form was the address of where we will be staying when we get to Myanmar.  Hell, we didn’t even know which city we were flying into.  We didn’t want to book anything in the case of a problem getting a visa, and weren’t sure how long we would be spending in Laos.  So when we told the person this she went over to a brochure and told us to write down one of the hotels listed.  Okay!

The taxi driver that took us to the Myanmar Embassy also included in the price stopping to get some more passport photos and waiting for us at the Embassy.  And he also had a “great” idea to take us around for the morning to various sights, one of them being the Buddha Park about 26 kms outside of Vientiane.  It was a very strange sculpture park where statues look old but were put there in the last 40 years or so by an artist that wasn’t very popular with the government at the time.  At least we didn’t take a tuk tuk there this time.  Then we went to a temple (I’m almost done with temples – this reminds me of folks we know in Toronto, who went to Ireland last year and had a term they used – ABC (Another Bloody Castle).  Ours would be ABT).  Then off to a monument of sorts in the city called Patuxai Arch (resembling the Arc de Triomphe).  Our driver also had another “great” idea to take us to another city heading towards Luang Prabang where we were heading next.  But we decided that we’re almost done with private drivers as well.  We decided to take a mini-van to Luang Prabang, via the backpacker, party city of Vang Viang, which took about 3 1/2 hours plus a stop.  We stayed overnight at the nicest hotel in town which for the money wasn’t really that nice, but you couldn’t beat the view, and we just wanted a relaxing place (no temples, no drivers).

The next day we got on another mini van and headed to Luang Prabang, a UNESCO designated city.  We had read on various blogs and sites that it could take 6-8 hours to get there, and after our bad start (departing 1 1/2 hours late), we expected the 8 hours.  Fortunately, even with at least 5 stops along the way including one where the driver stopped to show his “girl” the piece of land he’d bought for them (this is all assumption since we couldn’t understand a word), we made it in 6 1/2 hours – hurrah!  But let me tell you about the journey……..the road was pot-holed to the point where even when the driver drove in the centre or opposite side of the road still couldn’t avoid the holes; when it started to rain the road became red muck (don’t forget the potholes); then we got fog (still raining); then each toilet stop we made I held it in due to the standard of the toilets – I made sure I didn’t drink any water on that trip (I have to say that I just couldn’t master the ‘squat’ toilet without mishap – I won’t go into details); I had the hard middle seat right beside the driver; and the temperature kept lowering and the driver drove with the windows open.  AND even with all these factors the scenery, when we could see it, was spectacular and we got to see lots of village life (you’ll see the photos below).

We arrived in Luang Prabang in the pouring rain.  LP was the capital of Laos until Vientiene took over the title in 1946.  It’s such a beautiful town – the nicest we’ve been in in Asia.  Unfortunately it rained and was cold at 8℃ – yes 8℃ for most of the 4 days we were there!  And there’s no central heating in any of the buildings we were in, and most of the dining is done outdoors, but we did love the improvisation in the restaurants – a little clay/cement pot with hot coals by your feet.  It certainly helped but it was still damp and cold.  Mulled wine, in Laos believe it or not, also helped.  And when we didn’t feel like walking around any more in the cold and damp we went back to our cold room and huddled under our bed covers, fully clothed, reading or watching a movie on our computer just to warm up.   I had 4 layers of clothing on.  On day 4 the rain stopped and we finally got around to see the sights in the town.  It was beautiful, and the food – ooh, so French.  The city has a great mix of local Laos and French colonial architecture.  And there’s still a lot of local life in the town.

We flew into Myanmar (Burma) on January 28 and will post our journey there in a week or two.  Until then, enjoy the photos of Laos.

 

 

Before getting to Cambodia, in a literary sense, I just wanted to go back to Thailand again.  Gary and I returned to Bangkok a second time just for a couple of days since we had a flight to catch to Phnom Penh from Bangkok.  (We marked our 4 months away in Bangkok.)  The first time in Bangkok for New Year’s, a couple of weeks prior, was spent in a resort hotel, pretty much away from the street and night life so we couldn’t walk anywhere and didn’t see much besides temples.  This time around we stayed right in the midst of “it”.  When we got out of their transit system from the airport and walked a short way to our hotel the area was busy mainly with transportation people, i.e. taxis, tuk tuks, and the best transport for a single person, motor bike taxis, but otherwise the area was quite unassuming.  We checked in and went for a late lunch just down the street.  Went back to the hotel for a rest and when we woke up it was dark outside.  When I looked out of our window from the 18th floor it looked like we were in a whole different area altogether.  The streets had completely transformed:  the transportation people were no longer there; there were twinkly lights everywhere, and loud music; and the street outside our hotel had become a “food court”.  It was pretty incredible.  I would describe Bangkok as New York city on steroids (I thought NYC was already on steroids!).

And then further, not much further, there was the prostitution industry (we like to call it the red light district), pretty much everywhere.  Gary and I spent a lot of time discussing this topic and came at it with very judgmental Western eyes.  But as we continued to discuss it (we had already started the discussion in northern Thailand) we started to have a slightly different view.  Rather than get into it in too much detail, I’ve included an article by a travel blogger who lived in Thailand at one point, and I thought that he made some excellent points:  http://www.nomadicmatt.com/travel-blogs/why-sex-tourism-in-thailand-is-not-as-black-and-white-as-you-think/.  Have a read if you’re interested in the topic.

So, after having to get yet another Cambodian entry visa, this time in Phnom Penh, we spent 4 days there.  Although it is Cambodia’s busy capital, it is still small in the Asian sense, at approximately 2 million people.  I’ll state here that I’d started feeling tired and weary of traveling within Southeast Asia by this point and was feeling especially this way once arriving in Phnom Penh.  But once we started doing things within in the city I felt quite differently about things.

We started out in a resort further out from the centre of town but realized we really wanted to be in the centre of it all and thus changed hotels.  Our hotel overlooked the Tongle Sap River, a temple and the busy street below.  It’s a crazy city with a very lively night life and tuk tuks everywhere.  One unfortunate thing about Cambodia is that they like trading in US$ and at the current rate of the CAN$ it’s not as cheap as it should be for us in a Southeast Asian country.  But nonetheless we can’t (and shouldn’t really) complain.

On our first full day in PP we visited Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum.  A very moving experience.  I fought back tears for much of the 2-hour self-guided tour.  At the end there were two of the survivors, one had been an artist in the prison and the other a machinist who fixed small equipment such as typewriters.  Those that had a skill in the prison were slightly more likely to survive since they were needed (as is most often the case in a war).  Although they too would have been executed later, these were two of the lucky to escape.  It was quite amazing seeing them there, sharing their stories.  Their expressions appeared to be kind and forgiving.  Later in the day Gary and I spoke about a trip to the Killing Fields but we both agreed that we just couldn’t after what we’d already heard and seen.

The next day we crossed the street from our hotel to Wat Ounalom temple and although not the most spectacular temple it was certainly a spiritual visit for us, and also connected us to our great tuk tuk driver/guide, Khun (I will talk about this shortly).  Before we entered the temple grounds he tried to sell us a tour as most drivers will.  We told him we would think about it but wanted to visit the temple first.  He told us the temple was closed but to look around, which we did.  The temple was indeed closed but we came upon an elderly man, whom I will call the guardian of the temple and he motioned to us to follow him.  He led us to the door of one of the small temples and unlocked the door for us.  It was a very small space with a statue of Buddha.  He entered and motioned for us to do the same.  We sat and he showed us what to do, and then proceeded to give us a blessing.  In our case it involved our “guardian” whisking water on us and then scooping some water into our hands so that we could rub on our faces.  We both thought it was so very kind of him to allow us in, so to speak.  We then decided that we would do the tour with the tuk tuk driver, and this turned out to be another spiritual piece of our day as well, though in a different way.  Our driver was very articulate which is one reason we decided to go with him, since it’s difficult to get a feel for the country if you can’t ask questions and talk to the people.  He was very candid with us about the political situation in Cambodia and when he noticed our interest he shared many things with us.  Another emotional time in this city.  Here was someone who had a number of family members including his father killed during the Khmer Rouge regime (he was about 10 years old during the time).   Although he was marred by the past and frustrated with the current government, he was still so positive.  I asked him how he kept his spirits up and he smiled and said that he was hopeful of a better future for his kids and their generation.  And although there was a lot of corruption, there were also some people  doing really good things.  He spoke a lot about the corruption of the country (this is a country that you still need to be careful who you talk to about this), and the corruption is obvious – you are either very rich or very poor.  The young begging children tell it all.  And although Khun was one of the more fortunate ones – he owns his own tuk tuk and he has been asked to work for the government on numerous occasions but has chosen on principle not to – he still lives one hour from the city and works a very long day.  One of the fun things we saw outside one of the temples we visited were groups of people playing Cambodian shuttlecock.  There were a couple of people in different groups that were quite amazing – you can view one in this YouTube video (he’s 69 years old now):  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7Mo2kwUPog.

The next day we met Khun again and went to visit Phnom Chisor Temple, about 1 1/2 hours outside the city.  Okay, so we were the only tourists crazy enough (again!) to take a tuk tuk that far.  We went through an extensive section of road that had major road work going on and if you thought Toronto had problems with that you should have seen the layer of red dust we had covering us (if you’ve ever done dry walling, you can probably imagine).  Do you know how sticky that dust is?  I’m not sure I’ll be wearing my white t-shirt again.  Our driver stopped early on to buy masks for us and thank goodness for that.   The good thing was that on the way back we really got to see the rural way of life through the back roads.  It was all quite an adventurous experience.  And very amazing, dust and all.

We’re flying to Vientiane, Laos tomorrow (January 19th) where we will obtain our visa for travel into Myanmar (formerly Burma) after spending a bit of time in Laos.  See you in Laos.