Monthly Archives: February 2016

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.