So I’m alive and well in South Africa … sorry for not updating but holy crap it’s hard to get internet in this place. I plan on spending a good chunk of time at an internet cafe sometime this week to get a real good post up and get the pictures finally up. They’re all organized, just need to be posted.

For now, enjoy the Thailand video one of the Norwegians posted. 

So I TRIED to get some pictures up, but in UAE tobacco and liquor is fine, but flickr is corrupting … who knew:

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Update: I’m ALMOST done sorting through the pictures, more blogging is coming. I figured I’d post this for interest sake so far!!

It has definitely been a while since I last posted but for good reason. The last two weeks, touring Thailand, I have met a great group of people, experienced the gorgeousness that is Thailand, bought too many suits and most importantly, enjoying possibly the best trip I have ever been on. This post is long so I’m going to try and structure the post by places that we visited and major adventures.

On a side note, most people are aware that I have in fact shortened my trip due to various reasons, but definitely not because I have not enjoyed my time in Asia. I am on my way to Mumbai as we speak, and will be catching a fligt tomorrow en route to South Africa. I will  be there until September 7. I am also in the process of uploading and sorting through more than 1000 pictures, they are coming!

Arriving in Chiang Mai
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After a 13 hour train ride to Chiang Mai, it is fair to say that everyone was exhausted on arrival. They never switched the lights off in the train and no one was used to sleeping with lights on. I think at best I got 2 or 3 hours worth of sleep at a time. We transferred to our guest house when we arrived at the station to get our pep talk for our up coming 3 day trek. We travelled for a couple of hours on the back of a pickup truck, going up roughly 500m in elevation. Coming into Chiang Mai on the train, I realized, we were in the middle of the jungle, minus the golf course I saw. As we climbed with the pickup truck, we were right in the thick of the jungle in the middle of nowhere. We stopped for lunch, which consisted of noodles wrapped in a banana leaf. I had to suck it up and use chop sticks. We continued to climb by foot for about 3 hours until we reached the hill tribe village, where we slept in a bamboo hut. The view was unbelievable and the sleep was pretty comfortable. Well at that point, anything was more comfortable than sleeping on a train. For dinner, we all sat on the floor in the bamboo hut, with the entertainment that evening consisting of lateral thinking puzzles from the tour guide. Amazingly, people’s brains were still functioning and able to solve puzzles that consisted of sticks. Up early the next morning, we were presented an opportunity to shoot arrows with a primitive form of bow and arrow, under the direction of a local hill tribe person. Let’s just say I sucked at it. Our trek that day was challenging as the trail, if I can call it that, would be on the side of cliffs in the middle of the jungle, with the ground being wet mud. It was a lot of up and down. Our lunch stop made it all worth it; we stopped at a waterfall. The water was cold, but refreshing, and it was not that big. We were able to slide down the waterfall, but by far my favourite part was sitting at the top of the waterfall in a hot tub like pool with the water crashing down on your shoulders. I felt like I was in heaven. Getting up to the top of the waterfall, not exactly the same experience. A bunch of us got stung by wasps. I got stung twice, on my stomach and one on my ear. The bugger stung me on my ear and would not let GO! I am just happy I didn’t have an allergic reaction. Our trek ended at another hill tribe village, which felt like a 5 star resort. When we got there, the Norwegians and myself decided to go for a sauna. The sauna could only fit 4 people, well 4 Asian people. We got 6 people in there. There were hot pockets in the sauna, so every couple of minutes, we would perform clockwise switches, sometimes we’d even do double switches. Our guide, Sid, suggested we fit one more person into the sauna. So in came Elana. She lay on all of our laps. Let’s just say the switches were a little bit more challenging. We’d have to lift her in the air and do the switch. We cooled off in the river in front of the sauna, relaxed, took a shower and prepared ourselves for our Thai massage. All the local women in the tribe were giving Thai massages. Roughly 8 people in a big room, lying on mats would get a massage at the same time. People outside could watch and pointed out to myself and others how my feet look like polar bear paws. Never have I been so self conscious of my scew tows and flat feet, but hey it was all in good fun. I instantly fell in love with the Thai massage. This would definitely not be the last. Dinner was buffet style. We had some Chang and Leo beer. Chang is OK, but Leo has a nasty after taste. This was the general consensus between everyone. Our trek the following day was gruling with extremely steep hills. In fact, the 3 hours we trekked were more challenging than the entire previous day. The prize? More waterfalls. It was bigger and also had a hot tub pool. Definitely my favourite. We transferred back to Chiang Mai for showers and laundry service. That same day we went elephant riding and some people went to bungee jump. The elephants amazed me at how nimble they actually are. At some points during the ride, I was surprised they could navigate such small paths. We were riding a mother, who was constantly followed by her stumbling 1 year old. After dinner, everyone except myself, Eric and Jason went to watch a Thai boxing match. As for ourselves, it was drinking night numero uno thank you very much. After many beers (they make large beers that are slightly larger than half a litre) and B52 shots, well we weren’t in the best of shapes. It was definitely one of the highlights for me.

The next day, the Norwegians, Elana and myself visited the hot springs. The springs were roughly 105 degrees. There was a special spring where you could actually boil bird eggs. What did this mean for the rest of the springs and the mineral swimming pool? They all smelled like eggs. The springs were a bit of a disappointment, but oh well, something to put on the list of things we did.

We spent our last day in Hanoi walking around the city and taking in some of the beautiful architecture and sculptures. We really had a greet stay in Hanoi. All the places we’ve been so far we’ve seen tons of foreigners, but not surprisingly not that many Americans or Canadians. On our cruise in Ha Long Bay, we met this family that have actually travelled and lived in all places of the world. They were Canadians. Somethiung I regret not taking pictures of was all the swimming we did in Ha Long Bay. We jumped off our cruise ship, which I’ve posted in the album. The Vietnamese workers on our boat jumped off with us, with one guy doing head first dives. Insane. While we were in the water, the lady part of the Canadian family, swimming next to me, go t stung by a jelly fish. Let me tell you before you knew it, I was out of the water, not pushing and shoving, Castanza style during a fire. Overall, I wish that there weren’t that many boats. Literally there were dozens,if not almost a hundred. Check out the pictures that I’ve updated in the Hanoi album.

I am actually on an overnight train to Chang Mai from Bangkok writing this, so when you see this it’ll be a little delayed. We’re sleeping on the train so the 13 hour ride should be a short one. We’re arriving 7 AM tomorrow morning. Now let me tell you something, Bangkok is definitely a very different city when it comes to Asian standards (or at least what I am used to). They have pictures of their king EVERYWHERE with gold painted frames. The pictures range anywhere from poses to him taking pictures on the beach with his walki-talki to him playing with kids. It’s rather ridiculous but you run into it everywhere. Anyway, we joined our tour group yesterday, which we will be spending time with for the next 14 days. The group consists of teachers and librarians from the States to 5 guys from Norway. Naturally, Elana and I have been hanging out more with the Norwegians. First day we met up with everyone, we went out to tour the city with one of our new tour group friend. Jason, the inner city teacher from Dallas, Texas. Anyhow, knowing very little, we stepped foot into a tuk-tuk (pronounced “took took”), a chopped up motobicycle with an attached rear end for people to sit in. Not really understanding what was going on, a local on the street basically made our itinerary for the day and handed it to the driver. We went to a bunch of temples and to a bunch of tailors. One of the tailors we were at were considered the number 1 tailor in the WORLD by National Geographic. For $220, I got myself a custom made suit and shirt with a tie. Cashmere with wool, pin stripes, muchos great. I had my initial fitting today and I was amazed, not only does it look awesome, the suit is VERY comfortable. So after our suit shopping, our tuk-tuk driver took us to “very good thai restaurant, good seafood”. Picking out our fish and putting it in a bucket for the cook to well cook and a $250 bill for three, we were staring at our first DUH scam moment. Jason, the Texan felt bad for us and so treated us to the meal, which helped a LOT, seeing as that was almost half y spending money for the 2 weeks. We visited more temples, which all look the same. We met up with the rest of the group and had beers at the hotel. Elana, the Norwegians, the Texan and myself headed out to Backpacker lane, to continue the drinking festivities. The beer in Asia is very hit and miss. The Australian lager I had was very good in Singapore, but the native Asian, Tiger Beer, is aweful. Last night, I had two different beers, one good, one bad. But hey at least I tried. Oh and the bill for 4 beers and chicken fried rice, less than $10. I love Asia for that, everywhere, well almost, it’s quite cheap. We went our for our bike ride around the city. I get pretty grumpy just walking around looking at stuff. Cycling was a welcomed treat. It was very hot and I was tired from last night, which isn’t fairing so well for me right now. I am excited to start trekking tomorrow. We’re trekking for 3 days in the north and we’re staying with the natives in their houses, should prove interesting.

I miss rugby, a shower that isn’t attached to a toilet and most off all I miss my peoples!! I definitey don’t miss taking calls. We’ve playing cards on the train for the last 2 hours. I am muchos tired and needed to get away from everything for a bit. Am I going to survive the entire 2 month trip? I honestly have no idea. Has my opinion changed about Asian people? To be honest, yes. You very quickly realize, Asians are very different. Some cultures are nice, but have hidden agendas. Some are boring and well some are just plain nice. So far my star in Vietnam has been my favourite. Bangkok is nice, but eveveryone is out to screw you. Last night we had to take 2 taxis and a tuk tuk ride to get to our destination becaue everyone kept taking us to sea food places!!

Anyhow, I hope I can get everything uploaded when I get to Chang Mai so you guys can see what’s going on.

Cheers.

We got back from Ha Long Bay yesterday and as we sit in our hotel, while it rains,I’m in the process of uploading pictures and listening to a bunch of English kids complain about how they should get half their tour money back because they didn’t go snorkeling or kayaking. Poor hotel staff are yelling at each other and at them; it’s quite entertaining to watch actually.

Ha Long Bay was absolutely gorgeous. We met some pretty nice people that gave us tons of tips on what to do and expect in Thailand and Laos. Check out the pictures as they do the place a lot more justice than I could ever describe in words. We’re flying to Bangkok tonight and start our grand tour tomorrow.

We had an awesome time and are muchos excited to get started on our journey!

I know I haven’t posted for a while so this entry will cover our last day in Singapore and our stay in Ho Chi Minh City or how the locals like to call it, Saigon in Good Morning Vietnam!

I am in the process of uploading pictures and videos so by the time everyone reads this you should see everything up. I have posted links to the right under Blogroll ->.

So our last full day in Singapore we spent taking Peter B’s suggestion by going to Sentosa Island. Really Singapore reminds me a lot of Toronto actually except they drive on the other side of the road and there are about 100 million times more people and cars. Sentosa Island is basically a very nice and spiffy Centre Island. We took a monorail in. One thing that really impressed me in Singapore was the subway system. The entire system of buying tickets for the train is electronic and the tickets are proximity passes. You wave the pass in front of the entrance gates which automatically open for you when the proxmity pass (your ticket) is waved in front of it. Anyhow, Sentosa was okay, everything was really nice, clean and pretty boring. We tried tanning, but the weather didn’t hold and the sea isn’t exactly much of a sea. What was impressive though was seeing that Singapore is sea port, there are tons and tons of cargo ships lining the sea, which you can see them from everywhere. The monorail system is linked to a major mall in Singapore (Vivo City), which is VERY nice and really expensive. Singapore is quite westernized so it felt I was more at home, couldn’t say the same thing for where we were staying or walking outside though. After walking through the mall, we headed back home on the fancy subway system, got some dinner. I had some Australian beer and chicken masala, my first indian dinner. Our hostel was in Little India and oh man there are TONS of them. The weekend consists of tons of brown guys lining the streets visiting each other on the curbs drinking beer. We got back to our hostel and prepared for our trip to the Night Safari. Interesting concept, but you know nothing special. We got to walk around a bat cage with bats and see some pretty nasty looking rodent type creatures. The leopards and lions were classics. The next day was off to Ho Chi Minh!

Ho Chi Minh, you land and first thing you see are military choppers everywhere. The terminal itself isn’t bad. In Vietnam, I’m a MILLIONAIRE!! I got roughly 1.4 million DONG and a taxi into the city. First impressions, WOW I’m surprised people can walk across the street without getting killed. Everything is extremely run down and very basic. Check out the pictures. You’ll see things like tons of wires on one pole. Motorbikes are really cheap in Vietnam and so are naturally the choice for transportation. I was seriously scared to go close to the streets, but you get used to walking through the street while a wall of dozens of motorbikes are coming towards you. Food is very cheap. Our dinner cost roughly $3. We just walked around most of the first day we were there. We woke up early the next morning to head to the might Mekong Delta, a river that crosses Camodia, Vietnam, Laos and Camodia. It provides most of the nutrients needed to feed the rice crops. In the pictures you’ll see we visited a floating vegetable and fruit market. Unbelievable to see how people live, sleep and trade on boats. Everything is very old and worn, but everyone has a TV and a cell phone. We were literally in the middle of nowhere watching locals talk on their cell phones. Our tour was a full day and was OK. It was a lot of sitting. We sat in a bus, boat and a hammock. We spent this morning in the market, where I got myself 2 adidas shirts for roughly $30. People are really funny and overly friendly trying to get you to buy fake everything. bargaining was fun; at one point the woman kept telling me that I was the first customer and it was lucky. Lucky for me or for you? So I should pay more? I was so confused. Seeing that my shirt made me look “handsome”, that was going to be a sure buy for me. Everyone touches you and begs that you buy something from them. Either way, the people are really friendly, quite funny to watch and entertaining.

We’re in our hotel in Hanoi, which has a lot more wealth and already looks a lot tidier and more modern than Saigon. We’re going on a tour for 2 days in Ha Long Bay. We’re going on a cruise and should  be a good time. naturally, there will be pictures.

Chin kee wee.

PS: The coffee sucks in Asia, the best you can do is 3-in-1, which has milk, sugar and coffee in a sachet. It tastes disgusting. If you go to a restaurant you either get “white” or “black” coffee, which is black or coffee with milk (from a can). Vietnam is NUTS!

Hey guys,

I got around to uploading some pictures: http://asia.hendre.biz.

Check it out!

So after a gruling and tiring 13 hour flight from San Francisco to Hong Kong in an ancient airplane filled with Indian people, I had my first “Asian” experience. I was really thirsty coming off the flight as the flight and decided that my first purchase would be water. Simple enough. Turns out that the US$5 bottle of water I bought (labelled *something* “sweat”) was some sort of really sweet energy drink. After examining the bottle, I realized it said that is was an “Ion supply drink”. On a side note, Hong Kong was gorgeous. Flying in you travel through a maze of small islands. The airport itself was nice, but not as nice as the international terminal in San Francisco. I posted some pictures of Hong Kong on Flickr for your viewing pleasure.

After consuming all my ions and a really smooth relaxing flight, I arrived at the hotel in Singapore around 1:30 this morning local time. I did not sleep at all on any of the flights to minimize jet lag because we were flying with the sun the entire time. This hotel is seriously a backpacker hotel. You cook your own breakfast and do your own dishes. Our room has Ikea furnishings and is literally a hole in the wall. I’ll be taking pictures through our stay here and keep you updated. We’re living in little India and man oh man, it’s crazy people everywhere, buzzing and driving like crazy.

Today was site seeing day. ie. lots of walking, picture taking and being stared at or down should I say. Imagine Singapore as a city in the jungle. No kidding. This place really is clean, super humid and hot. There are plants and trees everywhere. Initially arriving at the airport this morning, Singapore initially reminded me of Florida with all the palm trees everywhere. Just as in every city I’ve been in, nothing starts off a site seeing day as …… STARBUCKS! Singapore is very westernized, with pretty much everyone speaking English. Reading Lonely Planet, they pretty describe this place spot on. It’s a place where nothing really exciting happens and where you’re not allowed to spit or chew gum. We’re going to go check out more touristy stuff tommorrow, potentially hit the BEACH. With all this heat that we have here, I’m pretty sure I should be able to get rid of my sandal farmer’s tan.

So what’s my initial impression of Singapore? Gorgeous at night, but dulls down in the day, traffic is nuts and people love staring down “Americans”, seriously, they’re not even subtle in the least.

We’ll be planning out our day tomorrow a lot better. Now I’m tired and probably forgot half the stuff I’ve been thinking about today I wanted to mention. Oh yeah, I watched Vantage Point on the plane, damn it SUCKS!

Update: Not all the pictures have uploaded because I’m quite tired right now. But please enjoy what has been posted.

I arrived in San Francisco last night, but let’s just say it wasn’t the most seamless flight I’ve ever experienced (well at least this time I was on time). Security flagged my carry on luggage to be searched, well that ended in me having a chat with the security guy for a good 10 minutes about my Asus EEE PC. The guy couldn’t believe it was a computer, which reminded me about this article I read about a MAC Book Air PC, where the security guys didn’t believe it was a computer and the guy ended up missing his flight. Well my security guy was more interested in how it works, how much it costs and where to buy something like this.

Flight was bumpy but man without turbulence, the A319 shined, SO smooth and quiet. I was happy to see that I got to the hotel just in time to catch Leno, but fell asleep half way through it. Woke up this morning and had an awesome scrambled egg and bacon with cheese breakfast (come on seriously I plan to drop 50 pounds when all I have to eat is carrots in Asia, so give me a break).

Here I am waiting to board my ancient 747-400 to Hong Kong and it looks like it’s going to be PACKED!

My itinerary for the next few weeks including sight seeing in Singapore and then heading over to Vietnam.

Keep it real.

PS: I think I might be the only caucasian person on this flight … no no … yeeup no I’m the only white guy.

For my first post, I was going to add our blooper video, but I have yet to get my hands on it, so I will post it when I can.

I’m leaving tonight for San Francisco, will be staying the night there (compliments of Aeroplan, by thank you) and heading to Singapore tomorrow! I am very excited and sad at the same time, seeing my summer has come to an end (in Canada) and I will be leaving family and friends for 2 months! (that really hasn’t sunk in just as yet :P).

Watch this space as I will be uploading pictures, maps and videos to keep you guys entertained. On my days off, I may just add some pages reviewing certain places we’ve visited.

STAY TUNED!

Update: All comments will now appear as they do not need moderation. Here is the hilarious bloopers video. Thanks Dave!!