A Night in Bangkok

On our way to Koh Samui, we had a quick stop in Bangkok.

A Day in Muong Ngoi, Laos

We were finally able to exchange some money this morning when the manager of the hotel returned from a bank run last night. Our hotel River Side gives the best exchange rates in town, even though they were pocketing about a 10% commission. We had breakfast, bought a ticket for the boat north and packed up.

We said goodbye to David who was going back to LP, and actually ran into the Finnish girl who was now traveling in her own, her Swedish compatriots having moved on to Vietnam. It's interesting having spent the three nights in Nong Khiaw because at the end we were the "veterans" of the place. We kept running into the other passengers in our boat but noticed which groups were newly arrived.

Sitting at the boat landing was kind of interesting, watching boats come and go, people getting on and off. A gay man from Toronto said we were a gorgeous couple. Being seasoned light packing snobs, we shook our heads at people lugging around suitcases full of stuff. Nowadays, even the younger backpackers have their huge bag on their backs and the a regular backpack in from. This is not unlike when I went to Cameroon and took my own picture of me hauling the same in Brussels.
A boats came in and unloaded cargo, there were these two old women hauling huge heavy sacks up the hill. They were work horses all right. Young men helped them load the sacks on their backs tied to their foreheads and watched them go, not helping.

Our boat was packed full. There were so many people going to Muong Ngoi that they got a second boat for the overflow. The second boat left and then more people came for a ride. In the end, our boat stuffed 27 people aboard, doubling up on the seats, plus sacks of supplies for the town accessible by river only. It was an iffy ride, especially up rapids, but we didn't sink and made it to Muong Ngoi.

The people here are really one with the river. It is used for transportation and tourism, recreation and food. The day begins with seaweed fishing and ends with laundry and a bath in the river. People brush their teeth in the waters.

Muong Ngoi had a boat landing similar to Nong Khiaw along with the concrete stairs up to town. The guesthouses that we intended on checking out were right at the top of the stairs. The "upmarket" choice Lattanavongsa was $13, clean and even featured a toilet and hot water, two luxuries new since our guidebook's review. Our cheapest yet!

We ate lunch at the restaurant overlooking a similar view of the river and karst mountains, glad that we made it up here away from the main tourist track. Had we gone on to Huay Xai, I think we would have missed out on what we were looking for here in Laos.

Traveling to Laos sounds like such an exotic and adventurous thing to do, even crazier is going to a place like Muong Ngoi where rooms are basic and cheap, and there is only electricity for maybe four hours in the evening. There are no motor vehicles and only one main road here. But wandering around LP and even sitting at the boat landing waiting for our boat along with a whole bunch of other people going to the same off the beaten path place, you realize that this town is pretty much <i> on</i> the beaten path.

It certainly feels safe, there are a lot of tourists here, the locals speak enough English to sell you Mars chocolate bars and enough signs are in English for us to know how to get around.   Which is fine for us really I think. If we had another two more days, I think we would have done a home stay, but I am quite happy with having visited Laos here. Were we to do it again, I think we would cut out time from the bigger cities in favor of exploring little towns like these up north.

After wisely sleeping the hot afternoon away, we walked up the road and followed the signs to the cave. We were rewarded with scenery of rice fields in amongst mountains and arrived sooner than we expected.

Shannon didn't want to wander in the cave too far, but I went all the way in with my cell phone flashlight. It was a big cave where again the locals hid out during the war. It was kind of creepy I must admit, being the only one down there. I think turned off the lights and let the darkness envelop me. There was a distant sound of an underground river, the air becoming more humid and warm. With the light back on, I found some white spiders and cricket like bugs that looked as if they'd jump on your face. After climbing around a bit, looking at stalactites chandeliers and imagining where the Laotians slept, I made my way back to daylight.

Cute puppies played around the countryside and walking back we found the main street abuzz with early evening activity. One boy was having fun pushing around a hoe making lines in the dirt. Some cranky babies were crying, kids played ball in the soccer field and others ate dinner without pants on.

Muong Ngoi is more quaint than Nong Khiaw, more unusual given the lack of vehicles and electricity. It is more condensed unlike Nong Khiaw which is bifurcated by the river and features a fancy bridge high above the water. It has more of a community feeling for the reason that everyone its closer together and only has one street. It's a really nice place.

We had some dinner. Selection out in the boonies is definitely limited and I once again had chicken noodle soup and Shannon had laap. I had a pineapple shake which wasn't available to me before because of the lack of electricity.

We had chocolate bars for dessert, an unnecessary splurge for sure. Taking advantage of the last couple hours of electricity, we read on the porch and journals, got clean with a nice hot shower and went to bed, excited to start a new adventure again in Thailand tomorrow.

The Real Laos Experience?

Shannon felt good enough this morning to attempt the river cruise up to Nong Khiaw.

The boat was smaller than we expected for a seven hour trip. Another passenger told us the capacity was a 10 people, but there were about 14. We were told there was a bathroom, but clearly not.

Low on the water we went up the Mekong and turned up on to Ou Nan where it became much more scenic. Picturesque mountains lined the shallow (dry season) river. Our boat was quite the vehicle as well. Long and narrow, we cruised close to the water. At one point it got too shallow and we had to take a truck up several kilometers. At another point, a new bridge was being built and the diverted river had a current that was too strong for the boat, so we had to do a hike through a construction yard.

Even up further north development can be seen in the form of cell phone towers, even power lines along paved highways, and poor looking villages with brand new trucks parked under thatched wooden carparks. Still, young boys and girls are beaming happy just to have us wave to them on shore, some running down the bank to make sure to catch us.

How different life would be if you were born here, you know? This river scenery would be the norm fishing and farming for subsistence, seeing us strangely dressed light skinned people going about looking at you. The kids here muck around in the dirt for fun, playing with broken cassette tape or old tree logs, swimming naked.

The eight (not seven) hour boat ride went by quickly actually with pleasant conversation and a game of hearts with a recently retired American from Miami looking for an expat home in Asia, and a young couple from Spain. Eight hours on the boat, as cramped as it was was definitely better than eight on a bus. The water, air blowing on your face, towering cliffs and people going about village life was nice.

It doesn't mean we'll take the boat back however, Shannon already planning the minicab back. And this shorter trip made us glad we reconsidered cruising to Huay Xai.

We arrived just as the sun was setting behind mountains. It was also bath time apparently as people were out all along the river bathing, covered up of course, and also waving to us tourists as we cruised by.

Nong Khiaw is definitely more like the Laos we envisioned. While Vientiane and LP could have been just any other Asian city really, Nong Khiaw is where it just starts to get rural. Guesthouses lined the river and accommodations with hot water and wifi were easy to find, but the streets were red dirt and dusty, comforts a little more basic, and when darkness rolls around, it seems like bed time.

Shannon's first impressions: small, very rural and underdeveloped. Locals still try to charge 10,000 ($1.30) for a bag if chips even though the real price, available down the road is 8,000.

We quickly found a guesthouse for $20, a little pressed as it was getting dark already and rumors circulated that this little town booked up quickly. We had  dinner at the restaurant overlooking the river as the sky's final orange faded into night. We had a quick walk around before getting back to our room... only to find that it was only 7pm.

Oh well. Early start too the day tomorrow!

Luang Prabang

Shannon is sick today having eaten something bad, possibly the tasty chicken curry at dinner.

We spent the last two days in Luang Prabang, the famous tourist destination in Laos. Even when we arrived with Kenman, it was obvious that this city was wealthier than even the capital Vientiane. From the airport we were dropped off at Sisavangvong Road and made our way down looking for a hotel. We found Lan Kham Guesthouse with a balcony view out to the Mekong River for $50 USD.

You'd think Laos would be cheap, bring the least developed country we've traveled in South East Asia, but LP definitely is not. Over the years, tourism has raised the standards of living here and turned it into a place with streets lined with guesthouses, cafes and travel agencies. It seems like one sign-maker has a monopoly and wifi is ubiquitously available as tourists are now unable to travel without constant internet. Unlike other Asian cities, LP has managed to retain its relaxed atmosphere that everyone raves about in Laos. The market merchants aren't aggressive, the traffic is minimal and the streets are quite clean. That being said, the merchants seem less inclined to haggle, tuk tuk drivers can be found too readily and excursions end up being pricer than anywhere else in the vicinity.

After dropping our bags off at the hotel and enjoying lunch by the Mekong (not as romantic as it sounds as flies swarmed as soon a the food came), we wandered on foot, once again in the heat of the midday sun. Why do we do that all the time? There were a few markets stalls out and we saw the National Museum, but it was closed being a Sunday. We had a nap back at the hotel to cool down, had dinner and checked out the seemingly endless night market.

Because of how everyone seems to love it here, it felt like we were missing something in terms of sights or things to do, but the truth is, this isn't really a big activities city. Guidebooks and travel forums don't offer much help with itineraries either.

We set out on the second day with a plan. Hiring a tuk tuk, we went first to Tad Sae falls.

Definitely more spectacular during the wet season, it was really beautiful nonetheless. We went for an elephant ride, Kenman's first, and then played around in the pools. The limestone terraces were surprisingly not slippery and you could walk around on them without getting entirely wet. We watched other tourists after us "bathe" the elephants where they would ride the elephant bareback into the pools and get soaked. One Asian girlfriend didn't like it at all, but it was halarious to watch at her expense. On the way out, we got some bananas and sugarcane and fed the animals. Shannon was like a little kid trying to peel off individual bananas from the stalk fast enough to satisfy the reaching trunks.

We made a stop at a tourist Hmong village where we caught a glimpse of rural life. A path through the village was lined with tables of souvenirs where little girls were put to work saying to us foreigners "5,000," holding up five fingers and pointing to a friendship bracelet. I think some of the villagers were really desperate for extra income asking for "500" right off the bat for the same thing.

A rather long bumpy tuk tuk ride took us to Kwang Si waterfalls. This was a beautiful falls with the area around it covered to a picnic and relaxation area. We got there later in the day and the weather had already cooled of so Shannon didn't go for a swim. The rope swing landing front of the waterfall was too awesome for me to resist, and despite the chilly waters, I jumped in a couple of times. Further up the path is the towering waterfall. Shannon thought this waterfall rated right up there with Milford Sound falls. It was delightfully beautiful, I think the tallest in the country if not the region.

On the way back to town our driver picked up his daughter from school and dropped us off right at the night market.

Shannon loves markets. Unable to help herself, she stops at nearly every stalk looking through dresses and bags. Tonight, she made a few purchases and Kenman got a couple  of gifts as well.

We had dinner at an unlikely sounding restaurant The Pizza Luang Prabang, where I had pizza and Shannon had her fateful curry. Kenman ordered two identical dishes, one was just in soup, the other dry.

We made a booking to Nong Khiaw by slow boat. We originally planned to take the two day Mekong River cruise down to Huay Xai, but our unexpectedly accentless travel agent suggested that unless we were planning on crossing the border to Thailand, that there wasn't any point. So we decided that a trip up to Nong Khiaw and then Muong Ngoi would be more interesting, and then fly out of LP to Thailand. Arrival into Thailand by air gives you a 30 day visa as opposed to 15 by land (I guess they prefer wealthy tourists who can afford to fly).

Before bed, we realized that there would be no food on the seven hour boat trip so we frantically went back to the market for some muffins and fruit, as well as an ATM stop.

That brings us to today (Jan 31) Shannon going to the unwell all night. We thought about going on the cruise, but at the last minute, asked to change our ticket to tomorrow and checked in for another night at the hotel.

Munduk and Jatiluwih

We didn't get to sleep in today as our driver was scheduled to meet us at 9am. Hurriedly, we packed, had breakfast and settled our bill.

As a souvenir of our stay here, I bought some admittedly overpriced pajamas from the hotel trying to take a piece of the Komaneka experience back with me. But hey, I haven't bought anything yet!

They presented us with another gift bag for our departure, another two scarves! I think actually they probably forgot that we already got a set.

Because the hotel was so memorable, along with the feedback survey, I left a thank you note and tip for the staff.

We set off with our driver, the first stop being Munduk for a hike.

Artha was more chatty than Darma, our driver to Tulamben. Along the way, he pointed out a bunch of things, talking about rice agriculture, his two children getting married at 17, his son marrying because he got his girlfriend pregnant, driving him crazy.

He visited Hawaii once sponsored by a friend her worked for, and although the place was nice, he liked it much more in Bali because there was more "power." Here there was a lot of spirituality and worship. They make offerings all the time and the calendar was full of ceremonies in the Hindu religion. Hawaii seemed "empty."

The landscape gradually turned mountainous as we neared Munduk. No, not Rocky Mountain mountainous, but lush green mountains, cool with a view of lakes on one side and visibility off to the northern coast on the other. We stopped at a viewpoint between lakes Tamblingan and Buyan for some photos.

The Munduk waterfall was quite easy to find, being a well beaten track now paved for accessibility. It was pretty nice and unique in that you could walk up quite close to the base of it along a shallow shore.

Instead of heading back like most tourists at this point, we went for an hour hike off to the second waterfall. To get there, you continue down the paved walk down past the sign to the coffee plantation. At a main dirt road, take a left down hill and keep going. Passing by barking dogs, villages pointed us in the right direction.

The second waterfall was really nice, more natural and bigger. We didn't follow the stairs to the end, and even then had quite the sweaty work out getting back to the car.

Munduk was nice, but not great, considering we've seen so many waterfalls already. I thought about staying a night up around the area, but for us a day trip was sufficient.

Artha suggested stopping at the Temple by the Lake. Here was a beautiful temple packed with both Indonesian visitors and Western tourists. Javanese tour buses were paying a visit with offerings to the temple and we say a couple of ceremonies performed.

The crater lake was peaceful with a pagoda built off on the water. Small boats floated lazily around.

Shannon remarked that there was so much more to Bali than just the beaches. And it's true. Our impression of Bali from back home is one of beaches, sand and warm waters. Very similar to maybe Mexico beach resorts, but just a little more exotic. But really, the beaches aren't even the main part of the island, at least not on our vacation.

We thought it was really too bad that some people missed out on all of this. Some friends of ours only made it to Kuta and Nusa Dua and didn't enjoy it much.

The landscape is so varied, it's people full of character, all sorts of foods to try and sights to see.

Artha suggested stopping to pick some strawberries. He drove us up this side road where he usually went because the prices were much better. We picked a kilo of strawberries while the farmer picked us another kilo, so we ended up with too many strawberries for $5. Artha also got a bag and told us about how he liked strawberry shakes, mixing it with milk and honey.

We went to Candikuning market. Before our car even shut off, a woman ushered us to her stall and began giving us all this fruit to try. We didn't know what half of it was, but we tried things like white mango, two types of passion fruit, snake fruit, tamerino, and this purple one that looked like a small squash.

We eventually bought some fruit. She started off the price with a crazy $20 for four purple fruits, two passion fruits, some crackers and cashews. The bargained her down to $4, but even at that, a Javanese woman who saw the spectacle whispered in Shannon's ear that she was getting ripped off. Later, Artha told us our bag of goodies looked like about $2, so that wasn't too bad and we treated the other $2 like a tasting, which was really quite good.

The market is definitely tourist geared. Reading about it, I was expecting something louder and dirtier, more local like the Klungkung market. Shannon bought a belt and a gift for Julia.

Our final stop was the big highlight of the car trip. Jatiluwih is famous for its rice fields, protected from development and I think an upcoming UNESCO heritage site. We had already seen lots of rice fields, so I wondered if it'd be any different, but this place was amazing!

We stopped for lunch looking out to the terraces. Rows upon rows of fields stretched as far as the eye could see. Flooded rice terraces with newly planted rice stalks terraformed the entire hilly landscape.

Artha was disappointed we couldn't see weren't able to see the tall rice which was planted here, as they must have harvested just a few weeks ago. Tall rice yields crop twice a year, as opposed to the newer GM short rice that's harvested thrice. He said it also tasted better and was quite a sight growing much taller.

An entrance fee of $2 along the road afforded an even more wonderful vista.

We were very lucky today with the weather. Not a drop of rain, and the fog that usually blanketed Bedegul lifted so that we had great views of the lakes and mountains.

It was 6:15pm when Artha dropped us off at our new hotel Pertiwi, just next to our old one. We paid Artha the 500,000 we negotiated and tipped another 100,000. Drivers usually quote $66, but I've been able to negotiate down to $55 easily. We've heard of one couple getting $44 (400,000), but that's really good.

Pertiwi has beautiful grounds, nice decorations and two pools where we went swimming as soon as we checked in. It's definitely no Komaneka unfortunately, now that we've been spoiled by their exemplary service.

We had a tougher time than expected booking a boat to Nusa Lembongan. Several shops along Monkey Forest do tours on the side so they aren't familiar with all the ferries. As a result, we got some sketchy quotes and details about getting to Lembongan, with one shop telling us that the boats weren't running because of rough seas.

We eventually booked the trip at one of the stores specializing only in tours and transportation, who knew what they were talking about.

The manager was pretty talkative that evening. He thought I looked just like his nephew who was a doctor in his village he told me. Now, he was working at a government hospital in Denpasar to get experience before gradually shifting over to private practice. He himself was a lawyer, but was over worked and changed careers to tourism as the pace was better.

He first started learning English in the mid 80s when two students from Vancouver stayed at his uncle's as a homestay. I can only imagine how undeveloped tourism was back then. Judy, one of the girls, was studying law at the time and now a judge in Vancouver.

We stopped off at an Internet cafe charging 10c every 5 minutes. I caught up with emails and we made a few more travel arrangements.

An older woman next to us was from Toronto and we got chatting about traveling. She was headed to NZ for two and a half months, traveling on her own and planning to work along the way.

She told us she loved Luang Prabang and ended staying there 2 out of her 3 weeks in Laos when we asked her what she thought about that area. Ben told us that that was his favorite SE Asian country, and we've heard great things from pretty much everyone about Laos that we may have to see how it goes and potential cut out Thailand altogether for another trip.

Back at Pertiwi, we ate as many strawberries as we could and went to bed, looking forward to the beaches and snorkeling of Nusa Lembongan.

Tulamben diving

We took a short break from Ubud because they were still charging "high season" prices at the hotels. We decided to head over to the east coast and stay at Tulamben for two days and then return to Ubud.

The snorkeling / diving in Tulamben is absolutely amazing. We've been to many places snorkeling and I have to say this ranks among the best. The corals were not as bright as it was overcast and thunderstormed while we were in the water, but there were a diverse variety of fish ranging from little blue fluorescent ones, to ribbon fish, a tremendous school of jackfish, tons of angels and bigger tuna like fish deeper.

We explored the two halves of the sunken USAT Liberty wreck, torpedoed by the Japanese during the war. It was shallower enough to see from the surface, but certainly much more interesting close up on a dive. The water visibility could have been better at about 15-20 meters, but a lot of the ship is no deeper than 5-10 meters making it a perfect place to try out my new freediving skills!

We took a break for lunch after Shannon's course. Later in the afternoon, we went out again for snorkeling. I did several dives swimming around the wreck, some scuba divers wondering what the heck I was doing down so deep without a tank. Shannon couldn't believe a I swam through the deck of the ship emerging on the other side and almost gashing my head on a piece of coralled metal.

Aside from the wreck, another highlight were the hundreds of jackfish swimming about creating a tornado of fish right at the surface. You could swim right into the school, the fish always just out of reach.

We didn't even leave the resort today, swimming in the pool for a little while before cleaning up. Then it was dinner at the restaurant and night time already.
 

The next morning, I was glad to wake up feeling great after freediving. Because I got sick with a horrible headache after freediving on Gili Trawangan, I wasn't sure if the water pressure, equalization, or just breathing up made me sick. But I guess it was just a bad bug, maybe even dengue as Dave might have thought.

After a fried rice nasi goreng and toast and eggs for breakfast. We slathered on sunscreen waiting for our food to digest before heading out in the waters again.

This time, I borrowed a diving belt with one weight as yesterday I was using up a lot of energy just to keep myself from surfacing. As well, we took a life jacket for the breathe ups.

The water couldn't be any nicer at about 29C. Usually snorkeling, I get cold pretty quickly, but even relaxing for free dives, this is probably the only place where water temperature didn't keep me from staying in the water.

Once again, we were swimming among schools of tropical fish, easily finding the swarming school of a thousand jackfish once again. I did several more dives in the wreck with my longest video recorded dynamic breath hold at 93 seconds. Shannon tried a couple but had a hard time sinking, the weight making a big difference.

We returned the motorbike not having used it much, got an ice cream and chips on the way back to the hotel and just lounged the rest of the day.

We made some plans for our last week in Bali (already!). Originally, we wanted to spend the last couple of days at Nusa Dua resort hopping, but figured that it wouldn't get better than this here in Tulamben, and at western prices. So we looked into spending some time at Nusa Lembongan. We also booked the Komaneka back in Ubud, now that the prices have dropped $70 from high season.

Tulamben turned out to be one of the highlights of Bali, I must say. These last two days have been amazing just relaxing at the Ocean View hotel and snorkeling. Even the intermittent rain didn't hamper our mood because we were either in the water or just relaxing on our deck.

A taste of Gili

The island life

(Dec 22, 2011)

The day after our freediving course, we checked out of Ozzy Bungalows and into Villa Almarik, the more upscale hotel that we discovered on our bike ride north of the island to Coral Ocean 2, the restaurant with delicious pizza but mangy cats wanting to steal food.

Almarik was beautiful. For double the price (apparently we negotiated a very good rate) of Ozzy, we got full housekeeping, excellent breakfast, free welcome massage, free introductory scuba dive, and a bunch of hotel amenities like DVD player, and shampoo.

It was a good thing we switched to this nice hotel too because we ended up spending a lot - and I mean a lot - of time in our room. Both of us were still feeling sick and mostly lying in bed or on the beach chairs. Too sick to even go into the water which was a shame because apparently the snorkeling here is excellent.

I suffered through a combination of drenching sweats at night, nausea that hasn't resolved over two days which is unusual for me, and lightheadedness.

Hopefully it will go away by tomorrow and we can do some snorkeling before we return to Bali.

I actually really like this island. It is similar to Caye Caulker in Belize in that motorized transportation is not allowed, so people get around on bike, horse drawn carriages or walks. It is more charming though, busier, and has real beaches.

It is a busy little place with restaurants trying to get your business each time you go by their menus. Dive shops galore line the street and accommodations of varying degrees of luxury can be found.

Although it takes a really long time for food to come out, the fresh mango juice more than makes up for the delay. Last night, Shannon and I had dinner beside the water watching a lightning storm over Lombok island.

It is dang hot here. It gets over 30C with heaps of humidity. Just laying under an umbrella reading causes me to be drenched in sweat. This would be a perfect time for a fresh fruit juice, except that the power has gone out on the island so the blenders don't work.

The power went out on me a couple nights ago when I went all the way down to the south end of the island to tell Steve we couldn't meet him for dinner. In addition to feeling sick, the chain fell off my bike, and the power went out. All of a sudden, the booming music was doused by silence, the street completely black with the stars emerging in the sky.

Sydney!

Mt. Cook

We left Queenstown and drove the 3 hours up to Mt.Cook. On the way Hannah called and we were able to have a catch up on the phone. Edward took over the driving so I could talk on the phone. Unfortunately we were cut off a few times in "low spots" so we kept having to call each other back! I will not forget when we were cut off for the second time I was waiting for us to drive over this one hill and all of a sudden there it was....A beautiful turquoise blue lake with snow covered mountains in the background! This was our first glimpse of Mt. Cook and it was breath taking. We pulled over onto the side of the road to take photo's. The water was so turquoise colored and the sky so blue and the snow covered mountains, a real picture of beauty.

The rest of the drive up to the mountain was gorgeous as we followed the lake all the way there.



When we arrived we found a place to stay at the backpackers place. A hotel room with a view of the mountains for $100 as opposed to the Lodge room for $230. These were our only options as there is nothing else there, just a Lodge with a restaurant, a pub, an activities center which consisted of a small planetarium/movie screen, and a backpackers hostel.

In the evening we watched a documentary on Edmund Hillary, the first man to climb to the summit of Mt. Everest. It was quite interesting. Later when it became dark we went on a star gazing tour. This turned out to be really good as we both learned a lot. We were able to see many stars through a telescope and also jupiter with 4 of it's moons and identify many of the constelations. The southern hemisphere can see stars that we cannot see in the northern hemisphere. Here we were able to see Betelguese (sounds like beetle juice) which is a massive sun that we aren't able to see from the north. It was really cool!

Betelguese is the low bright orange star
to the left of the mountain in the middle

The next day we went hiking (again!). Our guide from Franz Joseph Glacier recommended the Hooker Valley hike so that is what we did. It was a 3 hour hike that took us over a swing bridge which I was almost blown over due to the crazy strong winds! Along the way we followed a glacial stream all the way to the base of the Mt.Cook glacier. The water was freezing! This was a really nice hike, quite easy, but seemed to take forever and the wind was relentless! This country is extremely WINDY!! Very strong winds that almost blow you over! On the trail was a guy using crutches....not sure how he managed but he was determined.

You can see the base of the glacier covered in dirt just at the waters edge

walking back



Adventure Capital

Finally, we landed in a town with some Saturday markets on a Saturday! We visited the two markets in town, the sun blazing and the wind howling, the combination giving a crisp blue lake with exciting waves.

We both did the Shotover Jet, the famous jet boat as I discovered with more research. This is probably the one to do for a thrill. It was much better than Hukafalls jet. It flew through Shotover Canyon cutting close to the canyon walls.


We ended the day with a Gondola ride up the mountain for some magnificent views. The AJ Hackett bungy jump was there. I think this was the first one, but other than for historical reasons, it looked like the Nevus jumps and swings would have been much better. We did a luge ride, like the one Edwin and I did in Sentosa in Singapore. It was pretty fun.

 For dinner, we succumbed to $5 lamb shanks from the Alpine Supermarket.

Towards Queenstown

The drive to Queenstown was punctuated by several waterfall stops and majestic scenery. There were more waterfalls than was possible to visit, the Blue Pools where trout could be seen in clear glacier fed rivers, and lookouts were framed with big skies, mountains and lakes.

We made a lunch stop at Wanaka where we had a little fun at Puzzling World.

Just outside of Queenstown was Arrowtown, a historic themed town where we learned about the Chinese immigrants coming to NZ to mine gold.

We found a little gem called The Whistler for the next two nights. For the usual $105, it featured pretty much a full kitchen and even washing machine.

Some say Queenstown is overrated, but I thought it was quite a beautiful city. Mountains, lake, resort like feel with tons of restaurants, gift shops, outdoor sporting stores and Asian tourists. This evening, the turquoise blue lake was rough with white caps from the incessant wind.

We ordered some Indian food but then discovered $4.50 lamb shank dinners at the grocery store on the walk back to the hotel. I aborted the India curry and had a delicious lamb shank. Then I had the curry anyways.

Unfortunately our washing machine malfunctioned and didn't wash while we re-watched the movie Couple's Retreat. Guess which resort Couple's Retreat took place at? No, not the one we stayed at. 

Franz Josef Glacier

No sleeping in on tour days! We got up, had our lunches packed and got suited up for our glacier hike.

The Franz Josef Glacier Guides is the largest tour company in all of NZ, also owned by the Maori tribe who made some good investment decisions. The guiding company had some pretty good gear including boots and crampons, as well as raincoats and storm pants. I've noticed here in NZ that most tour companies have full gear for their activities which is great for tourists like us.

We were expecting rain today but amazingly, the weather was great! Our guides told us that being the wettest part of the country, appreciate the sun whenever you can.

The hike was definitely a highlight of NZ. It started off with a quick tramp through rainforest suddenly giving way to the rock valley leading up to the glacier. Waterfalls cascaded down on both sides of the valley. The day was marred when I lost my sunglasses somewhere on the track.

The weather was variable on the ice as we walked through deep ice crevasses, through ice tunnels and walked on the frozen imperceptibly flowing glacier.

I was really glad for the advice we got from friend and the Internet to do the full day tour rather than the half. The guides told us where the half way mark was and it barely got started on to the glacier!

We repeated our dinner at the Landing then ending off the day with a soak in the Glacier Hot Pools included with the glacier tour. 

Rain

It was pouring today. We drove from Westport down to Franz Josef taking about five hours.

Although it was a full day of driving, there were a couple of sights that we wanted to hit along the way which were outdoors.

The first was Cape Foulwind. Yes, quite foul today indeed. From the car, we saw the lighthouse, admired the waves crashing against the rocks and drove on.

We didn't stop until the Punakaiki Pancake rocks. Along the way, the highway ran along the coast which was pretty dramatic because of the wind and rain causing some pretty impressive waves.

Even though Punakaiki should have been a free walk, because of the rain, the iSite got us anyways when we bought ponchos.

We got out and got wet! The iSite agents told us that what made this afternoon spec was the fierce wind. Usually, it only just rained.

The track out to the ocean and pancake rocks started off with rainforest, then tall grasses that reminded me of a corn field. Then all of a sudden it gave way to the full brunt of the wind and rain.

The sea had carved out impressive caves in the multilayered rocks and with the weather, ocean sloshed around eroding the cliffs further.

Now that we were wet anyways, it didn't matter so we backtracked a bit on the highway to Truman Track. This 20 minute walk was well worth it too, taking us to the beach. The rain let up slightly but the wind continued to howl making the caves and overhangs along the way good reprieves. Towards the end of the track, a waterfall fell and flowed out to crashing ocean waves.

The drive was really quite long and I was at the wheel. But with my audiobook Moneyball, the driving was surprisingly not tiring at all. I'm always impressed at how audiobooks totally make a fatigue fighting marathon of a drive completely different where I sometimes hope the drive to be longer just so I can find out what happens next in the book.

In Franz Josef we booked a full day guided hike and I was really annoyed that they didn't apply the $10 off coupon to both our tickets instead of just one, because we only had one coupon. I told Shannon that while Southeast Asian countries rip off tourists for a dollar or two here and there, here you still pay more as a tourist but it's a factor of ten more.

We pretty much checked out all the accommodations in Franz Josef and even a couple places just outside of town. I was not surprised that everything was much more expensive. We ended taking a room with the smallest sink we've ever seen (but at least there was an ensuite) for $68 a night at Chateau Franz. Shannon used her charm to talk down the friendly host from $76.

We had a very nice dinner at The Landing. The lamb shanks were good! So good in fact that we would return the next evening as well. 

Hiking Abel Tasman!

Even after having not rained torrentially yesterday we were still rewarded today with clear blue skies, perfect for our postponed walk in the national park.

We booked the brief 3 hour trek between Bark Bay and Anchorage. The booking entailed arranging water taxi drop off and pick up in and out of the parks.

It was a beautiful walk, and I have to say again how well maintained the trails are in NZ. Props to the Dept of Conservative.

The section we went on followed the coast giving us beautiful views of beaches, going over streams and pools, a swinging bridge at Sandfly Bay that we kayaked under two days ago, and ended off traversing the sandy foreshore between Torrent and Anchorage.

We drove from Kaiteriteri to Westport, the landscape turning mountainous as we hit Buller River, going along the gorge.

We found a motel, bought groceries for dinner and stayed in. Actually, pretty much all of the motels we've stayed in here have cooking facilities, usually consisting of two burners, a microwave, a small fridge and some utensils. It was nice buying exactly what we wanted for dinner, cooking and eating at half the cost otherwise at a restaurant. 

The Storm that Never Came

We were warned about a big rain storm coming in overnight so we were wary about hiking in Abel Tasman today. Waking up early to check the weather, dark clouds loomed just off shore so we decided to go back to bed and sleep in.

For some reason, for lunch I only had two kiwis, a chocolate chip muffin and chocolate ice cream cone. I paid for this in a headache in the afternoon until I ate some chips in the car.

On the recommendation of our host we drove north to check out the biggest and clearest fresh water springs on the continent, Pupu springs.

It was a bit of a long drive out there for a half hour walk, but it was interesting to see the thousands of liters of crystal clear water well up from a couple of springs in a lake. Unfortunately, the wind had picked up rippling the lake and obscuring the clarity and colors beneath. Some of this water had been underground for 2-10 years and the clearest next to a springs found in Antarctica.

Along the way, we made a side trip to Harwood hole, and sink hole almost 200 meters deep. I was seriously thinking about turning around because the gravel road was so rough, narrow and windy, but we eventually made it. The walk turned out to be great starting off with Lord of the Rings like dense silverwood trees giving way to acid rain carved marble rocks that gave the trail a bit of a challenge. Eventually, the path opened up to this huge drop into the abyss.

While driving, Shannon and I decided to start focusing on doing things here in New Zealand that isn't available in Canada. The countries are just too similar with tons of nice hikes and walks that you just can't do them all. Also, because it is difficult to do some things without a guide, it starts eating away at the bank account.

Even if we were to rent kayaks at Abel Tasman, we would have saved maybe $20, so we decided to do the guided tour. But maybe because of the season, mediocre weather and lack of wildlife, it definitely wasn't worth $320.

We looked at our calendar, read through the rest of the AA driving guides and figured we can cut some time out of NZ and consider possibly going to the Philippines for a couple weeks instead.

For those interested in budgeting, our expenses in CAD not including flights in each country so far is

Los Angeles: $2268 (6 days, $378/d)

French Polynesia: $6336 (14 days, $453/d)

NZ: $4604 (18 days, $256/d)

Abel Tasman National Park

We were excited to do the full day kayaking tour that was had booked around Abel Tasman. A friend of our told us that this was the best thing she had done in all of New Zealand.

It wasn't a bad day for kayaking. It was a little cold to start off with but once with all the gear on like the splash suit and kayak skirt, it was good.

We paddled down the coast from Tonga Bay down to Anchorage swinging by a couple of islands including Tonga Island to view some seals.

It was a decent day out in the outdoors with the sun staying behind the clouds until the tour was over. The water was very calm despite our guide expecting 30 knot winds. We saw a couple of seals, but not the hundreds fighting over prime mating rocks that would have been cool in a couple weeks time.

So far, I have to say New Zealand had been rather disappointing. Shannon and I seem to have arrived probably at a bad time during the year. All the travel literature we're using shows people frolicking on the beaches and taking swims in pools after long hikes, but it's been too cold and windy most of the time to take off my fleece. Here at Abel Tasman, we're probably a month too early to see the seals and whales, as well as enjoy the fruit season and even flowering of the vineyard plants.

The prices are expensive for what we're used to, and I can't help but keep thinking about beach, warmth and dirt cheap stuff in Asia, especially when we gave in this evening for a delicious Thai meal in Motueka.

Doing some reading for our trip ahead, it doesn't look too much more different. Queenstown looks interesting being the adventure capital of the world, but Fiordland sounds similar to what we have back home.

What's been good is that we haven't had a problem finding relatively inexpensive accommodation and not booking ahead of time. But I guess this is the tradeoff for low season.

Wine country better with strawberries

We started off the day drinking right after breakfast. Strange, but that was the only way our schedule worked. We visited several vineyards in the region and sampled their wines.

We decided not to do a tour but instead go around ourselves which was fine. For me personally, not being a big wine fan, not really liking the taste and on top of that wine being an expensive hobby, doesn't really make sense for me.

I decided not too long ago that I really shouldn't try to force myself to enjoy alcohol since I don't really like it for any particular reason. The only type I can really say I do like are late harvest wines.

We ended up going around to four vineyards before we carried on. The experience for us was essentially the same as our tour in the Okanangan. The wines to be honest didn't taste different: "dry," as they would say.

A nice stop was the hydroponic strawberry farm near Blenheim where we picked a basket and had some very tasty yogurt.

It was a windy drive through the Golden Bay towns to Motueka where we stopped for dinner at Gothic, an old church converted to restaurant. At Kaiteriteri, when we were "this" close to staying at the resort and spa for $140 a night, we found a private basement suite for $80 that more than met our needs.

A review of our budget revealed that we had just broken the $20k mark on our vacation budget with the New Zealand excursions costing more than we expected. 

On to the South

Hard to believe but today marks the one month period since our the start of our sailing trip so long ago and six weeks since we left Canada!

We got up early this morning to go up to the Mount Victoria lookout and admired the view of the city. The radio played a song called "Nothing beats a nice day in Wellington" and indeed it was a very nice day out.

We then checked in at the ferry terminal where we left our car and went over to the famous Te Papa Museum for a couple of hours before our ferry departure.

We encountered a talkative host who told us about his children and grandchildren and how they were all either living in the US or Australia because they made much better living there.

The museum itself was very good and because we were limited on time, we only got to see a couple of exhibits.

The ferry crossing was uneventful and before long we were cruising in Marlborough Sound, a beautiful sight to welcome us to South Island.

Our first stop was Picton iSite where they were very helpful in assisting us with planning our next few days in the Marlborough and Abel Tasman National Park area. With a general sense of our itinerary, we drove to Blenheim just a half hour away, a town of about 20,000 to stay for the night.

My first impressions of South Island is that it seems bigger. Maybe because it is rumored to have a lot more things to see and do, and also because the mountains are larger and waiting in the backdrop as opposed to the smaller green hills of North Island. So far the weather has been great with sunny skies, but the cool wind still posters. Accommodations are more expensive. Our motel tonight is $112 and the $70 places we were used to didn't exist. It could be because we are in wine region though.

In the evening, we ate Pizza Hut, watched Shutter Island on tv and made plans for vineyard tours tomorrow and Abel Tasman the next few days which should be nice.

NZ's Capital

We had a nice leisurely day in Wellington today. After sleeping in, we had good intentions to head straight down to the iSite to do some South Island planning. However, minutes stepping out of our hotel, we were distracted by an outdoor clothing clearance sale followed by a bookstore where we spent some time looking at their Bali Lonely Planet guidebook.

Because Christmas holiday is coming up, it's actually kind of difficult traveling by the seat of your pants because we have to consider how many weeks we'll need in NZ, then how long to spend in Australia, and finally, how to go about traveling around Bali so that we know where to book a place during the holiday week where it supposedly fills up.

After eating at a downtown food court, we eventually made it to the iSite where we decided not to do another Lord of the Rings movie set tour since we didn't recognize most of the fictional locations listed in the brochures despite having just watched Fellowship of the Rings.

We strolled around the CBD window shopping while busy locals bustled around us. We took the cable car up the hill mistakingly purchasing a round trip ticket as we would later walk back down the hill anyways.

At the top, there was a cable car museum about cable car history in Wellington. Very similar to San Francisco, except there they had a working cable system instead of a mockup.

The walk down the Botanical Gardens was nice. I should have worn more than just my t-shirt as the weather was windy and cool in the shade. Kind of like Canada, cooler than you'd expect.

At the base, we made it just in time for the last Parliament Building tour of the day. This was actually well worth the hour visiting the Beehive and Parliament building, gaining a bit of history about NZ, as well as its similar executive and legislative arms of government.

We had to walk back to our hotel because our parking ran out. Here it doesn't seem like you can buy parking for a full day which was quite annoying. We moved the car to the street where it was free until 8am the next morning, so we get to sleep in a little.

On the way back, we actually bought the Bali and Lombok Lonely Planet to do some planning. Here we experienced the high prices of books in the country. I remember that was the case in Australia too where books were so expensive, people set up book clubs and shared each other's books to make it more affordable. The Lonely Planet which was listed as $25 USD cost $50 NZ, about $40 CAD equivalent.

Which brings me to why things in Canada (and the US) cost so much less than goods anywhere else. Here, a soup at a restaurant would cost $8 CAD. Pop about $4, $3.5 for a can at the store. A whole roasted chicken at the supermarket was $9, a waterproof camera was $460 when BestBuy.ca listed it for $320. Gas is $1.70 a liter.

The things I found cheaper were hotels, about half the price of an equivalent in North America. Car rentals is probably less too at $28 a day, and when you work it out, cell phone plans would be better.

We had dinner at a place called Hog's Breath Cafe which had surprisingly good prime rib. I negotiated a 20% discount, as there was a coupon at iSite, but I neglected to take it because, who would have thought we'd go to this restaurant anyways?

While at the restaurant, I scored another deal booking a ferry to South Island. The famous Interislander was full, but there are actually two ferries that operate between Welling and Picton. The Bluebridge Ferry was having a promotion and cost $50 less with a student card.

After dinner, we watched Contagion, went back to our hotel, did a load of laundry, in an actual laundry machine this time, and then bed.

Reading about Bali actually got us both excited about Indonesia, which we were a bit hesitant about initially after hearing about the scams. We are also considering adding Philippines to the itinerary and perhaps abbreviating Thailand, since we've been there already.

In any case, looking forward to finishing Wellington tomorrow morning and seeing what's next in the South Island. The outdoor clothing store guy admitted that South Island hands down beats North for pretty much everything.