from the travels of hava and scott

BIG News

2011-02-19T21:46:00.000-08:00

So, there is big news in my family. My bother is getting married!! And he is getting married to lovely Vicky!! And the wedding will be in Kenya!! And it will be on the beach!! And my whole family will be there - all together in one place!! Yay.

Yay! I'm rather excited about this!

Dear Winter,

2011-02-05T15:37:00.000-08:00

It's time. I'm sorry, but you need to go. I thought I was managing quite well considering the rough relationship we'd had in the past. That was until yesterday morning when, as I was rushing to get to work, I crossed the intersection of 110 and 109 St in a grumpy mood because of the skating rink like conditions on the sidewalks, and felt my feet begin to move in a way I had not commanded. You see I told them to walk quickly across the street, and instead they both slid forward and directly up into the sky as the rest of me crashed backwards to the ground. In a daze I realized that the light had turned green, and I was lying in the intersection on my back. I jumped up in embarrassment, brushed myself off and kept walking. It was only when I was safe-ishly on the sidewalk that I noticed the bleeding gash in my hand. I wanted to turn around, go home and cry. But instead I limped along to school, bandaged up my hand and gave a presentation on struggling readers. It's time. I'm sorry, but you must go.

Love,
H.

Why You Should Go See 100 Mile House at 8:00 pm on Saturday, December 12th at Axis Cafe: (And bring your friends)

2009-12-07T19:00:00.000-08:00

1. Because they sound good. And listening to good music on a Saturday night is a lovely thing to do. (Have a listen and see for yourself).

2. To get in on the Olympic vibe. 100 Mile House is booked to play the Olympics (a fact - ok not the opening ceremonies, but at the olympics nonetheless). So for those of you who won't be able to make it to Vancouver in February, just come see this show instead. It's pretty much like going to the Olympics.

3. This band used to live in London - as in London England. They left London last year and decided to move to Edmonton - as in Edmonton, Alberta. Don't make them regret this decision. Yeah Edmonton!

4. So that next time you hear them played on CBC or CKUA you can say "oh I know them" and maybe even sing along. It makes listening to the radio just that much more fun.

5. So I don't have to sit by myself. It just looks bad when you're married to a band member and don't have anyone to come along to the show. Help me out people. I know - with a little time they will soon have some fans who are not related to them, but until then, please come and sit with me.

6. There is a little something for everyone. As promised on their myspace page, "some songs will have you up and dancing after a few chords, others will leave you wanting to hug the stranger next to you." Aww.

7. Though Scott is a man of many talents (eco home renovating, fixing cars on ridiculously cold days - such as today when my car overheated!?, silk screening, playing badminton in mandarin, roasting his own coffee, talking tech), he just really loves playing music. And when friends and family come to show their support for what you really love to do - it's a nice feeling. I know it would be much appreciated.

8. To play a little game called "What Did He Just Say?" Being from London, Pete has a bit of an accent. Not a problem once you are used to it, but initially it can be a little confusing. That said, it makes for a great game during the in-between song banter. I once heard a woman loudly proclaim (during the last 5 min of the show) "Oh I get it! He has an accent! I haven't understood a word he said all night!" Hee hee. For those who do understand Pete, it is great fun to just watch the rest of the audience lean forward, and look puzzled. For a preview of the accent have a listen to the edpod challenge on CBC.

9. To create a little buzz. Ever walked past a line-up and stopped to figure out why people were lining up? We need you to be the line-up.

10. It's cold - and what better way to warm yourself and your spirits than to leave your house and venture out to a cozy little venue with drinks, lots of wonderful people, and beautiful music.

We'll see you there!

Havilah.

I will not attempt to catch up.

2009-12-06T08:52:00.000-08:00

I will not make any attempts to catch up since the last time we posted. Instead I am just going to start from where we are at right now on a grey December day with mountains of snow around our house.

My most memorable accomplishments of the week have been:

1. Making mayonnaise from scratch.

It all started when my rather thrifty husband noted that we were out of mayo, and decided that it would be cheaper and better for the environment to make it ourselves rather than driving to the store to get some more. I was a little skeptical, but watched with interest as he found an online recipe, quickly scanned the ingredients list, dumped them all in a bowl and began whisking. After some significant whisking time he had a lovely looking oil and egg yolk soup. Thoroughly intrigued, and spurred on by my competitive tendencies, I took a closer look at the recipe and gave it a second try. The key - add the oil drop by drop. Time consuming? Yes. But the results are so exciting in a science experiment sort of way. And yummy. I think I could eat it with a spoon.

2. Finishing and sending off report cards.

I won't elaborate on this point. It's done. Thank goodness.

3. Staying warm.

I have a hard time at this point in the year. It gets so dark that I just want to hibernate in my bed all day, and when the first real cold hits I feel chilled for weeks even when I know I shouldn't be. I don't do well in the cold. This year has been better than most for a couple reasons. First of all, Scott has done an amazing job of re-insulating the house so that we are now snug as a bug at home without turning up the heat much. It's lovely. And secondly, I have decided to simply not allow myself to get cold. When going outside I take no chances. I pile on the sweaters, long underwear, 2 winter coats, scarf, mitts, hat and hood. I did learn a thing or two from living in the arctic. I am now warm. Do I look a little ridiculous? Yes. But I am warm.

4. Solo restaurant eating.

I recently had a conversation with a friend about things she had never done on her own. It got me thinking. There are a lot of things I have never done on my own. For those of us who are married, life can become a bit of a complicated ballroom dance where we navigate new experiences in life together - and while there can be great beauty in this when we are in time with each other, we can also find ourselves moving carefully so as not to step on the other's toes, or becoming outright clumsy as we try to navigate the other in a direction they may not want to go at all. What we don't realize is that it's ok to let go and try on our own. The key is knowing when to reach out and fall back into step. And so yesterday, while waiting for Scott to set up for a show, I took a cold walk through the snowy streets of whyte ave. As I passed by the window of a cozy looking restaurant it occurred to me that I have never eaten alone in a proper restaurant. Not a tim hortons, but a place where you get a real tablecloth and cutlery with some heft to it. So I went in. Being about 3 pm it was empty, but the sign said "Please wait to be seated" and I did. "A table for....?" "One" I responded. I pulled out a book while waiting and then ate slowly with my substantial cutlery, watching the snow swirl outside, savoring the simple beauty of being alone in that moment.

Sometimes we need to see it to believe it.

2009-05-20T18:20:00.000-07:00

The picture above is from the photographer Chris Jordan. I stumbled across it on a website last week, and it sure made me think. Here is a closer look.

And a closer still...

Yes. It is made up of pop cans, and depicts 106,000 aluminum cans - the number used in the US every thirty seconds. Every thirty seconds!

In a skype conversation with my sister Kendrah on the weekend, she told me about seeing some art in Brussels and described what the artist did. It was the same guy. How connected our lives can sometimes be across the world. Take a look at more of his work here.

The Flu

2009-05-06T16:32:00.000-07:00

I got the flu this week. I know what you are all thinking...and yes it's possible that it was indeed "that flu"but it wasn't severe enough to warrant testing, so I'll never know for sure. I missed a few days of work, but survived and am now on the mend. Speaking of mending, over the years I have developed a few key flu fighting strategies that I have decided to share with you here. Those of you that know me know that I am quite prone to catching germs (as are most who work with little kids) and so this comes with a significant amount of experience to back it up.

1. Drink Lots
I know we have heard this a thousand times, but I have taken this to a new level. What I mean by lots is non-stop. Just keep drinking until you are better. This doesn't work with cold liquids, which just make you feel sick if you drink too much, but I found that I can drink tea/hot water pretty much all day. Try it. It's the best remedy for sore throats.

2. Heated Coke with Ginger
Yes. It's exactly as it sounds. Pour some coke into a pot. Chop up big chunks of fresh ginger. Add to the pot. Simmer until it smells really strong and burns your eyes a little. Then drink. This one was reccomended to me in China. I was somewhat skeptical, thinking I was getting some great Chinese herbal rememdy and then finding out coke was an ingredient. But once again, try it. Clears up a stuffy head quite nicely.

3. Pickled Peppers
This one is for those extreme stuffy nose/sinus situations. You can't really feel the burn as you have lost your sense of taste, but with every pepper something pops in your head, and after at least half a jar, you are breathing freely again.

100 Mile House

2009-05-03T15:58:00.000-07:00

100 Mile House is a lovely little band recently transplanted in Edmoton from London. Scott is thrilled to be playing with them and I am equally thrilled to be having them over at our house for lots of practices. Have a listen and see for yourself...or better yet pick up a couple songs on itunes. Here are a few photos from the show they played last week at Hulberts.

Though you can't really tell from the pictures, there was a full crowd and the show actually sold out. Not too shabby for a the first gig in Edmonton.

By the way these pictures came to us courtesy of Zubot Media (known to most of you as Darryl.) Oh...and so did the pictures from the last blog entry. He's a handy guy to have around.

After...ish

2009-04-28T15:49:00.000-07:00

In the last post, I promised a few "after" photos of our kitchen. We still have a few little things to finish up but you get the basic idea. It's a sunny kitchen!

It's been 7 months

2009-02-28T09:39:00.000-08:00

Apologies for the long absence. But I am happy to announce that on this beautiful sunny morning I am going to resist the urge to go out and do one of the 1000 things on my to-do list and instead spend a little time in reflection. Though to be honest, I must confess that the -23 degree weather was also a factor in that decision.

So...where have we been? Here is the whirlwind tour of the last 7 months. Wow...hard to believe it's been 7 months.

1. I got a new job.

As most of you know I was on a two year leave of absence from Edmonton Public Schools, so I knew I had a job coming back to Edmonton, but wanted a change in schools. Despite knowing my odds were pretty ridiculous I went ahead and tried to convince a principal to interview me over the phone from China - which seems very normal to those working internationally, but is not exactly everyday practice around here. Anyway, to make a long story short, I beat the odds and got the job I wanted in the building you see above. I now work as part of this partnership, who despite having a terrible website is a team I am excited to be working with. And what makes us different from any other school you may ask? The answer is in the word "partnership" and the idea is that if we are to truly meet the needs of the city's neediest students we are going to have to rally together "the village" we so often talk about but that so often seems to be missing when it comes to raising a child. We work together with agencies that have the same interest in mind, making our school one of the very few where teachers, administrators, parents, family therapists, social workers, reading specialists, police officers, consultants, nurses, mentors, occupational therapists and many others are part of the fabric that makes up a normal day. In practice, it doesn't always work as it should, but it's a philosophy I support and am quite happy to work at making it work. Besides, I get to teach grade two (my favourite age) to 11 kids (yes 11!!!) and occasionally dress up as story book characters.

Scott is working as a substitute teacher and loves the flexibility given that he wears quite a few hats, and always has a lot on his plate to juggle. He is self described as a "stay at home dad without any kids." Rest assured, this doesn't mean he spends all day on the couch watching TV...because a) we don't have a couch, b) we don't have a tv, and c) he really has been very busy and if you read further you will see why.

2. We bought a house!
I was visiting a friend this summer when the topic of house hunting came up. At this point the house across the street was pointed out and we had a little discussion about how it might come up for sale sometime in the future. So I took this sneaky picture from the front window of the house we were in and emailed it to Scott (who was in Saskatchewan at the time). A couple days later, I left Edmonton and drove seven hours to Saskatchewan, feeling rather disgruntled with the housing market and quite ready to hop on a plane and flee the continent. When I arrived, there was a message waiting for me somewhere along the lines of "the house we talked about is going to go on the market in 2 days. If you want to buy it, you need to do it now." Not relishing the idea of turning around and driving seven hours back to Edmonton, we frantically started calling family and soon had a line up of people to go inspect the house on our behalf. 1 day later, after about a thousand phone calls/emails, and the savy negotiation skills of our dear friend Seble, we had bought ourselves a house - a house that neither of us had seen.

3. We emptied a house.

Our house came with stuff. The prior owner packed a suitcase and left, so we had a little more than you might typically have to deal with when moving into a "new" house.
Unfortunately the house also came with lots and lots of cat hair, so the cleaning out process wasn't too fun. I couldn't even go into the house without wearing a mask because of my allergies so Scott did the brunt of the work.

Pulling out the carpet
(The ENTIRE house was covered in carpet, including the bathroom, kitchen and garage!)

We gave away what was usable, recycled what we could, and got a dumpster for the rest.

An interesting find. We plugged it in and it still works!

4. We torn the house apart.

Opening up the kitchen and dining room.

Re- doing all the plumbing, and re-thinking the carpeted floor and pink wall tile.

Letting in the light- yes we did have to cut down some beautiful big bushes, but when the sun light flooded into the rooms, it made it all worth it!

5. We are now putting the house back together.

This is a slow, slow process, and we have given up all hope of finishing any time soon. Our main goal in renovations is to make the house as efficient as possible which means lots of time consuming projects without an immediate visible reward. At the moment we are working on re-insulating all of the exterior walls.

Adding insulation to the front entrance

The beginning stages of our kitchen.

At this point we have our bathroom, kitchen and one bedroom pretty much done. Unfortunately, due to some hard drive malfunctioning, I don't have any official "after" pictures to post right now. You will have to wait for those, or come on over and see for yourself. I will try to put these up soon. There is much to say on the topic of renovations, but truth be told I'm really really tired of talking about it, so that too shall have to wait for another post.

6. We had our first house concert!
It was fantastic. Good music, good people, good food. The concert featured our good friend Alice Worthington backed up by Scott on violin and Gary on vocals. A big thanks to those of you who came out to support Alice and join in the fun. And if you didn't make it out, don't worry, we expect to have more concerts in the months to come. We'll keep you posted.

So as you can see we have been busy...but that's no excuse for dropping the ball on our blogging. We'd like to think we still have a few readers out there and will do our best to keep you better posted. It's nice to be back.

Summer 2008 - From the Garden of Gladys

2008-09-30T20:33:00.000-07:00

These Are a Few of Our Favourite Things (About Being Back in Canada)

2008-07-14T16:54:00.000-07:00

1. The Sky

Isn't is incredible?! We haven't seen a real BLUE sky in ten months, so every time we look up, we are in awe.

2. Family

What can I say? To steal a quote from my favourite childhood song, there's nothing quite like "special times with special people." Yup. When my sister Kendrah reads this she will sing the next line "spending times, with ones I love." And at this point imagine a key change where my brother Josh jumps in with the echo "ones I loooooooooove."

Sadly Kendrah is travelling around Africa, and can't join us, but we're doing our best to keep the times special even though she is missed. Josh on the other hand made it home from Sudan via Zimbabwe for a happy reuniting.

While family is one of our favourite things about being home, the Chinese style of posing for pictures is definitely a favourite from China that we are putting to good use here.

My family (minus my sister Kendrah)

Scott and Josh hanging out on the Victoria harbour

3. Food. Mmmm

Now don't misunderstand me. We LOVED eating out in China. That's right, loved with capital letters. But it's been nice to eat all the food we haven't had much of for a year, like fresh berries, garden veggies, good cheeses, olives and breads. And seeing as we ate out about 90% of the time in Guangzhou, it's nice to be back in the kitchen with familiar ingredients around. Get back to us in a couple weeks to see if that novelty has worn off!

A fresh west coast crab summer supper

4. Updating Ourselves on the Latest Adventures of M&J

M&J are my mom and dad (Myron and Janice) and their life is never dull. I could try to explain, but that would require writing at least one book if not several. Most of you know what I am talking about. They recently moved to beautiful Port Alberni on Vancouver Island (where all these pictures were taken) and the current development in their life is the purchase of a sailboat. (See photo below). Do they know how to sail? No. No they don't. But that hasn't stopped them before. We are very excitied about this event and hope to mooch a little adventure off them if they'll indulge us in a trip or two.

Speaking of boats, adventure and M&J, check out what we saw while lounging around on the deck of their house which overlooks an inlet.

their house

We saw this sail by!

These ships are part of the tall ships festival held in Port Alberni every three years. The ships have sailed all over the world and include replicas of famous old boats (ie used by Christopher Columbus) as well as boats made for/used in films like Pirates of the Carribean. It was a pretty incredible sight which elicited more than a few "woweee's," especially when they started firing off their canons.

5. Relaxing

Port Alberi has a fantastic used book store, my parents have a hammock on their deck and there was always time for long leisurely walks through the woods or by the water. No further explanation required.

6. The Incredible Beauty of this Country

We are so lucky to be able to live in a place as beautiful as this. Don't take it for granted lucky ducks.

2008-07-13T14:59:00.000-07:00

Our summer holidays started off with a bang this year as we arrived on Vancouver Island and went straight into a kayak trip. This is an annual family event and was a good time despite us being rather jet lagged.

This year we went up to Telegraph Cove in the hopes of spotting some orca whales. There are resident pods of whales in the area but sadly we didn't spot any on our trip. We did however see some playful dolphins, a couple seals, bald eagles, and hundreds of little jumping fish. Our trip this year included some of the Ibsen clan (good family friends) so it was quite a crowd with 13 people and 9 kayaks in all.

packing up

setting out

our campsite

view from our campsite

the group
(this is a bit of an indecent photo, with some of us looking half naked, but I assure you that they are clothed on the bottom half, under the spray skirts...well not that I actually checked...)

Here is a video clip for you. Nice thing about a double kayak is that one person can do things like take videos and eat chocolate while the other keeps paddling. Hee hee.

Yes...We Are Back!

2008-07-02T13:51:00.000-07:00

We are back in Canada for all those wondering where we have disappeared to. So much to tell you about the last few weeks. Yup. But for those wondering, here is the agenda for the next few weeks.

July 1st: step off the plane in Canada with the Japanese lacross team (How very patriotic!)
July 2 - 5: kayak trip to telegraph cove (off Vancouver Island)
July 6 - 12: hang out with M & J in beautiful Port Alberni (Vancouver Island)
July 12 - 20: fly to Regina and spend time with the Zubot family in Lumsden, Saskatchewan
July 20 - 26: drive to Stony Plain, Alberta to help out and join in the fun of celebrating Sarah and Anthony's wedding (Yay!!! So very exciting!!!)
July 26th and on: reunite with friends and get down to the business of sorting out life in Edmonton. We are pretty much starting from scratch so that will be our next adventure.
Step 1: find somewhere to live...

So hope that answers a few questions. Looking forward to seeing many of you in this part of the world very soon. xx

A Perfect Ending

2008-06-28T18:17:00.000-07:00

A few weekends ago we were invited out of the city by our friend Teri to visit Tea Mountain (about 2 and a half hours out of Guangzhou). It was a bit of a last minute decision to go and we really had no expectations for the weekend. What a pleasant surprise. It was the perfect way to finish up our time in China. We will tell the story in pictures.

Terri expertly cooking up the soup

Our first stop was about an hour out of Guangzhou where we met Pauline, a former roommate of Teri's to have some delicious chicken soup (the local specialty in the area). It has to be eaten within an hour of the chicken losing his/her life. So needless to say, it was very fresh! The flavor is primarily from wild roots and herbs found in the area. Delicious.

From left to right: me, Grace, Pauline's husband, Pauline, Teri and Wendy

From there, we drove another hour to "tea mountain" which as you can guess from the name is a place where people have grown tea and jasmine for generations. It's stunningly beautiful and we had the privilege of staying in a little village at the very top of the mountain with Pauline's parents. Sadly, the younger generations have all left the mountain for the cities, so many of the fields have been abandoned. Instead the people drive out from Guangzhou for a taste of the chicken soup and the mountain is now dotted with little chicken soup restaurants. Perhaps a name change might be in order...

terraces

village street

view from inside the house

kitchen with a wood stove

packing tea leaves

Hiking:

Dinner Under the Stars:
After a lovely hike through the mountains, we had another chicken soup feast with purple shelled vegetables (a type of greens) on the roof of a restaurant at the very top of the mountain. Another chicken gave up its life for this event. Our table looked like this.

Sunday Morning:

We got up bright and early to catch the end of the sunrise

and then set out to the jasmine fields to help with the morning picking. Jasmine farming is incredibly work intensive. The flowers and buds have to be picked every morning for the plants to keep producing, and this needs to be kept up for about 6 months. Add to this the bugs that have to be picked off by hand and well, yeah, it's an incredible amount of work. Seven of us picked for an hour and at the end of it all, when we arrived back at the house hot and tired, we found out that we had picked about a dollar's worth. The next time you purchase something with jasmine, take a moment or two to think of those that put in all the hard work to produce it and who are paid very little in return.

picking jasmine

early morning dew on a spider's web

walking back into the village

When we got back to the house we had a breakfast waiting of plain rice congee (rice porridge and plates of fried crepes rolled and stuffed with sugar. Yum, yum, yum.

Parting gifts of green tea and dried jasmine

As it was Sunday morning, we were invited to attend the local church in the city down the hill. And being the special guests we were (he he) we were invited to perform a couple songs for the church. This was not a big deal for Scott, but was somewhat anxiety inducing in my case. We ended up deciding on two songs, a Cantonese one that we attempted to learn (but miserably failed at) and an English one that everyone else picked up with an ease, making us embarrassed by our language inadequacies. Oh well - we did our best!

Song practice

leaving the mountain

early practice at the church

All in all, it was a fantastic weekend and indeed, a perfect ending to our year in China. Thank you Teri for including us in this weekend!

KTV - Karaoke China Style

2008-06-21T03:37:00.000-07:00

Karaoke is a social institution in China - everybody does it. So after our farwell dinner with school staff ( yes school is over and we are officially on holidays - woohoo!) when some of the teaching assistants invited us to KTV, we had to go. Can't leave China without the KTV experience. Take a look.

Farewell Dinner:

Rainy Walk to KTV:

Lynsey showing off her new umbrella

Time for Some Karaoke!
The Venue:

Each group has their own private room with a waitress standing outside.
It was a shiny atmosphere. Very very shiny.

The Singers:

The fabulous Ms. Maria

Rabaka Ridinger pulls out a few moves.

George and Lynsey crooning to Patsy Cline

Lily and Annie teach us how its really done with some Chinese pop

It was all in all a very fun night. Though looking around the room I did notice that some of us were more excited

Sandra

than others....

Not gettin amongst it Helen?

By the way, the person singing on the left is my TA Ellen - one fantastic teaching assistant! It's going to be a tough transition getting back to teaching in Canada without someone around to read my mind. And to top it all off, she's also got a lovely voice.

Oh dear - I've done it again. I've posted without including any pictures to prove we were actually there. We tend to spend most of our time behind the camera. Sorry about that. Here I am demonstrating the effects of humidity on fine hair.

This is Lara with me. She teaches art and is really very nice despite her best attempts to look scary.

And here is Scott, hiding in a corner.

So there you go. We were there.

All Good Days Should Start With Noodles

2008-06-13T19:49:00.000-07:00

Sorry - we were temporarily pulled away by a week of report card writing, marking and field tripping at school. The week flew by though and we have all of 6 days left before the end of the school year. Hard to believe. So here's a brief update if you've been wondering what we've been up to.

Tom and Anne Marie visited us last weekend and we had a great time exploring the city on foot with no real agenda in mind. We started off as all good days in China should...with a bowl of delicious handmade noodles. Here is Scott capturing the noodle making process on camera much to the delight of the restaurant employees. We could go on at length about noodle making, but will save that for another post.

We then made our way to one of Guangzhou's beautiful parks to kick around the shuttle cock (China's hacky sack) for a bit.

Taking the metro

shuttle cock

Admiring grand babies - one of China's favourite pastimes

We followed up the park with a timely visit to the Sun Yet-Sen memorial hall while it thundered and poured outside.

When my parents were here 30 years ago, it looked like this.

Yes this is their picture!

Unfortunately, the pouring rain prevented us from getting a "30 years after" shot of the scene, but here's one I found on the internet (I think the blue sky may have been photoshopped in.)

From there we wandered the streets for the rest of the evening.

dried meat shop

We found this little alley and stopped here for a drink. A man at the shop befriended us and gave us the low down on the neighborhood. Apparently the pink building behind us used to be a hospital for pregnant women. The doctor that started it was quite well known, and so is the building. The doctor fled to Hong Kong when the communists came into power and now the building is used as an apartment building. That's the jist of the story - not sure if we quite understood all of it.

friendly cats

We then strolled the river banks in the evening, marveling at a surreal collection of sights.

Light gazing from the rooftops of miniature houses

a little dog in a funny little park with concrete mushrooms and trees that were half cut down. (think about this - if you were to create a park, why would you a) make concrete trees, and b) make concrete trees that looked as though they had been cut down?) It was a sad and strange little place.

portable karaoke by the riverside

A gym under an old building in what looks like it should be a parking lot - there were no lights except the ones on the street, but yet the place was full of teenagers drinking beer, grannies working out, kids playing on see saws and a man with a handlebar mustache sitting on the stationary bicycle, watching, just watching.

We also saw a watermelon restaurant, but forgot to take a picture. Its a real restaurant with tables, chairs and stacks of watermelon. Not a bad idea on a hot night. They cut the watermelons in half and serve with a bunch of spoons.

Sadly our camera battery died so we have no photos to document the second day of walking, but you get the idea. Guangzhou is never a dull place, always something to pique your interest if you get out and start exploring.

Under My Umbrella.

2008-06-03T06:28:00.000-07:00

I dedicate this post to Gary and Alice....and their love for songs about umbrellas.

Never in my life have I gotten so much mileage out of an umbrella as in the last month. I don't leave home without it - ever.

It's the rainy season in southern China which means that the weather is nice for most of the day, even sunny, and then when you least expect it the sky will literally turn black and out of nowhere a thunderstorm appears. And does it ever storm. One minute there is a little pitter patter splatter of rain, and the next you are wading ankle deep in water. I now know why they make such cheap shoes in China - because you will ruin them when it rains. As much as I love my umbrella, when it really storms as it did on my way home last night, there is not much you can do to stay dry. I came home with only a dry head. The rain falls sideways in Guangzhou.

Some random thoughts on the topic:

Walking with an umbrella is an art. Crossing a street with a hundred people holding umbrellas is a scientific nightmare.

So many things to think about - how to angle it for the best protection, how to pass others without getting an eye poked out, who goes up, who goes down. And then there are indoor issues - the proper etiquette required when bringing a wet umbrella into a shop or restaurant. Someone is always taking my umbrella away from me to put into a special plastic bag, or to store in an umbrella holder, sometimes with a key- it's all so complicated. In Edmonton we wear rain jackets. In Edmonton, it doesn't really rain. Not really.

I had a beautiful umbrella moment recently. I left school a little earlier than usual, right after my students had been picked up, and as I made my way home, it started to pour. I popped open my umbrella, and continued on my preoccupied way. Suddenly, I hear a chorus of "Ms. Havilah's!" and look up to see about ten of our Korean students with their mothers on their way home. Each of them was under a bright umbrella - a mosaic of blues, yellows, pinks and reds, poka dots, stripes, and checks. The entire group stopped, waved, and then as if choreographed, in the midst of the thundering rain, the mothers all smiled and bowed in unison. breathtaking.

Scott and I usually get along well, but not under one umbrella. It just doesn't work. We may need one of these.

A final thought. What if you could combine an umbrella and a rain jacket? hmm.

We've Been Pleasantly Surprised

2008-06-01T03:20:00.000-07:00

Guangzhou isn't exactly known for it's music scene, but we've been pleasantly surprised by some good shows while we've been here. Last weekend we ventured out into University Town (a huge campus on the edge of the city, impossible to navigate) in the hopes of seeing the Eric Truffaz quartet (from France). After walking on deserted streets for quite some time (note - Guangzhou doesn't really have deserted streets, there are always people around so this was a bizarre experience. We could even hear insects and frogs croaking) we finally heard some jazz floating through the misty air and followed our ears the venue. Special thanks to John and Mya whom we have no pictures of (sorry) for helping with the navigation process and being such good company for the night. It was a great show.

By the time we found the place there was only standing room left. Spot any familiar faces?

Special mention goes to percussionist Marc Erbetta who was pretty amazing to watch.

Other musical highlights for the year were performances by the Guangzhou symphony,

and Notch (the Nordic Chinese Music Festival) which brings all sorts of nordic musicians on tour of China once a year.

One of the best things about seeing music here, is the appreciative audience. There is a real untapped market for live music performances.

Though on that note, the authorities may still be a little uneasy about such things. At this show, the performers encouraged people to get out of their seats, and when they finally did, security guards came swarming out of nowhere to get things back into control. As you can see, it was a pretty wild crowd what with all that standing, clapping, and picture snapping. hm.

If you've ever seen Susanna and the Magical Orchestra perform, you'll know they are just that. Magical.

Vacation Part 2

2008-05-30T19:07:00.000-07:00

From time to time we are going to go back and show you how we spent our vacations this year. Here is Part 2.

December: Austria

Yes, you read that right. We went to Austria for Christmas. And no, Austria is not that close to China. In fact we could have flown back to Canada in the same amount of time. But we went to Austria for the second part of Neil (Scott's brother) and Esther's wedding. They had had an earlier ceremony in Canada that we couldn't make it to so we were pretty happy to get to Austria for the second half. Not only did we get to see Neil and Esther (actually meet her and her family for the first time), but hey, it's Austria! Hard to think of a nicer spot for a winter vacation. It was the perfect break from big city China. Blue skies, (oh how we miss blue sky!), sparkling frost, sledding, skiing, fantastic friendly people, all the food we miss (real bread, good cheese, wine, chocolate) and a lovely wedding to top it all off. Good times.

Before the Wedding:

The Ceremony:

Neil singing to Esther

The Reception:

The reception was in a cozy little Austrian inn - simple and beautiful.

mmm... schnitzel

Winter Wonderland:

Esther's home - where we stayed

Quite the spectacular background for sledding!

Neil and Esther

Getting some air...Neil

Esther

Scott almost loses his glasses

We also spent 2 fantastic days skiing in the alps but for some strange reason have no pictures to show for it. Sorry! (Dear Neil and Esther - please send us some skiing pictures so that we can insert them here.)

Christmas:

Did you know they use real candles on their Christmas trees in Austria?!!?? Just like the story books! And for all you Ford/Stonehockers out there - Does this not look remarkably like Anna?

Breakfast with good bread and jam and cheese and coffee and....

Sight Seeing in Salzburg:

View from the castle

Sightseeing in Vienna:

Best thing about Vienna? Mulled wine sold on every street corner. Warms you up nicely and tastes so good!

And that was Austria.

Koreans go Canuck

2008-05-30T18:00:00.000-07:00

For those of you that don't know, though we are teaching in China, most of our students are Korean. Their parents are here doing business (many in the fashion industry) and they send their kids to international schools to learn English. So we've lived in China for almost a year, but spent the majority of our time with Koreans and feel like we've learned more about Korean culture than Chinese. For example, did you know that Korean kids should ALWAYS accept a paper from a teacher with two hands? It's a useful little tidbit of information when keeping everybody in line.

The cultural exchange goes both ways. My classroom is just down the hall from the music room and I was quite surprised one afternoon to hear Corb Lund's "The Truck Got Stuck" blaring through the halls. I took a peek in the music room, and there is Scott's guitar class rocking out to some good old Canadian country music. Wish I had a couple cowboy hats and a video camera. If you don't know the song, find it on youtube and then imagine it being played by a bunch of Korean city kids that have probably never been in a truck, or a tractor.... hee hee

Corb

I teach a grade 1/2 class of non-english speakers. They're an incredibly hyper, fun bunch, but its challenging to find literature they can understand, or relate to. On a whim one afternoon, I read them the classic Canadian kids poem - Dennis Lee's "Alligator Pie," and it stuck. They think it's possibly the best thing they have ever read/chanted/heard. So very exciting...
Here's a picture of us presenting it to the school yesterday. We were a hit.

Yes, there I am doing the elementary school teacher thing. I used to be annoyed by such people, but you try getting a bunch of kids to perform in unison without it. It has to be done!

Vacation Part 1

2008-05-29T04:07:00.000-07:00

It's been a pretty busy year for us. One of the joys of teaching at an international school is the holidays. You typically get the usual North American school holidays along with the national/religious holidays of the country you are working in. Our holiday schedule went like this: one week off in October (Mid Autumn/Moon Cake Festival), 2 weeks off in December (Christmas), 3 weeks off in February (Chinese New Year), 1 Week off in May (Labour Day?), 1 Day off for the Dragon Boat festival in June. Not too shabby. And the best part of having holidays in this part of the world, is that there are so many fantastic places to visit close by. So here's the run down on how we spent our vacations.

October: Hong Kong

We meet these fine folks for the first time at a wedding last summer, and later learned that they were living in Hong Kong for the year (only two hours away by train!).

Since then we've had quite a few visits back and forth and Tom and Anne Marie have become our Canadian "family" while we've been here. It always feels a bit like going home hanging out with them. Here's a look at our first visit to Hong Kong.

the harbor

National Day Fireworks
(I think the cell phone touting crowd was more interesting than the fireworks!)

Riding the trams - our favourite thing about Hong Kong

Care for some shark's fin?

Hong Kong is an easy city to navigate with great public transport and pedestrian walkways

On the Star Ferry with our friend John

Typical Hong Kong diner - every seat is filled,
no wasted space spent on only sitting with people you know

The harbor at night - if you have ever tried eating cotton candy on a windy tropical night, you know its not an easy task. It melts faster than you can eat it, and ends up blowing bits of liquid sugar all over your face and clothing.
Not reccomended. This particular piece of cotton candy lasted all of 2 min.

going up the peak tram - it's very steep, and old, a little scary

view from the top

So that's a little peek at our first trip to Hong Kong. Vacations part 2 coming up...

When the Torch Came to Town

2008-05-26T05:48:00.000-07:00

The torch came through Guangzhou a couple weeks ago which was quite the exciting event. The run ended a couple blocks from our school so we had to go check out the action. I'll let the pictures tell the story.

Getting ready.

The streets

We walked towards the sports stadium (where the torch was finishing it's run) and came to a standstill about here. It was impossible to see a thing. Finally we saw the top of a blue bus roll by and heard a huge roar go up from the crowd. People then started jumping the fence around the stadium and running. We stood around for a bit and then shrugged our shoulders and said "why not?" How often are you in a crowd of hundreds of thousands trying to catch a glimpse of the Olympic torch? So we decided to do as the Guangzhou-vians were doing and hop the fence. We had no idea what we were doing/where we were going, but we ran along with the crowd till it stopped, and then saw this.

The crowd was really getting excited at this point, so being the good husband that he is, Scott boosted me up on his shoulders ....and this is what I saw.

First - a van full of photographers, and then.....

the Olympic torch! Right in front of my illegal, off limits spot! It's a bit hard to see. The runner is a woman in red and white on the left hand side of the picture. If you click on the picture, you should see a larger image. The crowd was incredibly loud at this point, but I did my best to scream a play-by-play down to Scott who could only see a whole lot of cell phones, and black hair in front of him.

The best part of this whole event was actually after the torch passed us by. We just wandered around the crowds for hours, taking pictures, posing with random groups of people ( we get asked to do this a lot!). We recently met someone that was involved with the planning of the run, and she told us that there were half a million people on the grounds that afternoon. Have a look.

The crowd

I don't know these people. They just wanted a picture with me!

China loves its marching bands!

We'll end with a personal favourite. We came across this guy just like this - in a crowd of half a million people reading a scrap of newspaper that he found on the ground. Must have been an interesting article.

Our Little House on the 25th Floor

2008-05-23T18:59:00.000-07:00

Here is a peek at our apartment on the 25th floor. Most cities in this part of the world are vertical. Everywhere you look there are massive buildings looming overhead that make you feel like an ant.

The neighbourhood

Apartment shopping was fun. We had all of one day to find and move into an apartment. It starts out with us going into an apartment rental office (there's one on every street corner) and giving our ballpark rental figure. We are then escorted around the neighborhood by two men in black suits with name tags (think mormons on mission). If you don't like what they have to offer, then you try another office. After looking at about 12 apartments, we picked the nicest one and met the landlords for the negotiating. We had a translator from our school with us, and spent 90% of the time sitting there wondering what was going on. When we questioned our translator over some of the details of the negotiation, our landlords piped up in decent English. Who knew? After everything is decided on, we sign, stamp and fingerprint a thousand papers all in Chinese, and hope that we are not agreeing to sell off our first born child. It actually worked out well for us, and we have great landlords. We moved in the same day and got back to the apartment to find our landlord's whole extended family scrubbing away to get it ready for us. And they insisted that they take us out for dinner to welcome us to China. Nice, nice people.

This is the view from our apartment if you look directly down.

We've got quite a nice private park in front of us, where the elderly gather to do Tai Chi in the mornings and parade their grand babies around in the afternoons (my favorite moments of the day here!). This is also the only place I have found where my feet can walk over a tiny patch of grass and sigh. the grass

As you can see (2 pictures up) we have a swimming pool (which closed for winter right after we moved in, even though it was scorching hot, and has yet to reopen for summer, even though it is once again scorching hot). Instead it has done a fantastic job of breeding mosquitoes! But it looks pretty. There is also a tennis court, which we have yet to play on for similar reasons. But the park is great, and comes complete with very fun exercise equipment, ping pong tables and gold fish ponds.

Here is the view from our apartment windows.

By day #1

By day #2

By night

The apartments here are furnished when you rent them. Ours is a little sparse as we are the first to live here, but we have seen some that are beautifully decorated. The bonus for us was that we got to pick out the mattresses for the beds. Mattresses are notoriously hard around here (think rock, or tile floor) so we were happy about that. Mattress shopping went like this. Landlord takes us out in his fancy dancy car to a mattress store. He says, "pick one." We lie down on a few, find the softest and say "we want that one." We drive back to the apartment and half an hour later a man rides up on a bicycle, a bicycle(!) with two double mattresses strapped on behind him. Voila! It was a bit like a magic trick.

living room

Bedroom #1

Bedroom #2

Our kitchen. If it look small that is because it is.
It's exactly as big as this picture makes it out to be plus a fridge on the end.

Balcony off the kitchen for a washing machine.

Bathroom - this sink seems to follow us around the world

Dining room/Entrance

So that's our apartment. Not much else to say about that. It's a good place. We have a few nice neighbours and an office on our floor. Yes, an office. This is a common thing in China. From the outside, it looks just like someone's apartment, but when the door opens you see pink cubicles and row after row of neatly attired women clicking away on a keyboard. We don't know what they do, but it looks rather boring. I'm hoping a dvd shop opens up next door. Or maybe an Indian restaurant.

Oh where to begin?!

2008-05-23T04:03:00.000-07:00

It's been a while. And so much has happened, it's hard to know where to begin. So here is my best attempt at a summary.

We made our way back to Canada last summer (07) for a whirlwind friends and family tour.

You know you're back in Alberta when......

Lost luggage arrives!!!!

A tent that was packed up in the pouring rain in Frankfurt + bags that were lost +
bags recovered several days later = the look on my face

Scott is reunited with an old friend

The summer was spent hanging out with fine friends such as these,

fine family such as these,

beaching Canadian style (at Tofino) - brrrrr

Mmmmm - fresh west coast crab
(Dinner with my Mom and Dad overlooking beautiful Sprout Lake, Port Alberni)
This was a delightful, relaxing time, but sadly we are very short on pictures to prove it.

and these,

Zubot family reunion (think non-stop music, wild dancing and lots of laughter..good times)

and celebrating fine events such as these,

Ty and Kelsey get hitched

Happy birthday Nanna!

Edmonton Folk Festival (We don't have a picture of us for some reason, so these lovely folks will do)

Lovely might be a stretch....but we do love her! :)

It was a good summer, but a little exausting (we drove across the prairies 7 times. Yes 7.). Let me illustrate this point in photos. The praires are beautiful.

Open... free
But the drive can be a little mundane at times. I have entitled the next series of photographs, "Across the Prairies, One Too Many Times." Here is how Scott keeps himself awake during the long. long, drive.

I don't recommend you try this last one, though if you are going to do it,
Saskatchewan would be about the best place for such a thing

After all this excitement we were ready to hide out and leave the country again so we threw our resumes out to the universe to see who would take us on a one year contract (most international schools accept a minimum 2 year contract). Two weeks later, we found ourselves stepping off a plane in Guangzhou ( a nice relaxing little city of 12 million in southern China), a little dazed and disoriented. "Huh? What? How exactly did this happen again?" We really never had any ambition to go to China, hadn't ever really considered it - and yet there we were. China.

Day 1 in China - view from our hotel room

Hello again!

2008-04-11T17:49:00.000-07:00

Well folks, in an interesting turn of events, it appears that we are no longer prohibited from posting on our blog, as we can now get past the "great firewall" and into this section of blogger. We can't actually view our blog to see what it looks like without a proxy, but hey, who's complaining? Not I. One step at a time. Things have been good on the internet lately. BBC has been back on, and yesterday we actually got onto CBC again. Yay. We like real news.

We do watch a censored version of Hong Kong news on TV, which gives us the basic "big world" stories and local Hong Kong news. But Hong Kong is not actually a very big place and the news can be, well...somewhat mundane. An example - we recently saw a story about the discovery of a crack in one of the rails on the Hong Kong metro line. I was expecting a story about a resulting near death accident, but no. The story went on to explain what the responsible city department does in such a situation, and gave a detailed play by play of crack maintenance. Then we get half a line of something that sounds interesting, and the tv breaks into burst of static, and cuts to cell phone commercials at ear splitting decibels. Ah well. As far as the internet is concerned, things seem to be settling down at least for the time being. We're glad to be back. Hello again.

Testing....

2008-04-11T17:45:00.000-07:00

Is it possible that we can actually post on our blog after months without access? Gasp!

2007-12-16T07:50:00.002-08:00

Well, it's only taken us....um....an entire year to finally get this done.

Happy Anniversary
Guy and Anja!!!!!

We hope this brings back a few good memories for you.

Much love,
H & S

What do you think?

2007-12-16T06:45:00.001-08:00

Scott and I were determined to get some pictures taken and with about a half hour of light left in the day, we whisked the happy couple off for a photo shoot. We are total amateurs with a camera but had to give it a shot as there were no other photographers around. Here are the results. What do you think?

On our way.

Photo Shoot

Ahhhhh. A job well done.

The Ceremony

2007-12-15T21:13:00.000-08:00

A men's choir first walked into the church singing a rich, deep "Oh When the Saints Go Marching In" This was followed by Guy's sister, brother and 4 of their friends singing a song they had written. And then came Guy and Anja, Guy's 2 godparents, and Scott and I. Here's a peek at the ceremony.

The Rings

The Witnesses

The Vows

(Remember what I said about the vows earlier? The plan was to read vows from a traditional program. But, things don't always go as planned. When the moment came, the pastor said "Now you can say your vows to each other" (it was in French, but I figured it out by the fleeting panic on Anja's face. Once again they had to pull out impromptu vows. Good thing they had a little practice earlier in the day. I think I even heard a few lines from our wedding! :)

The Kiss

The Scene

Congratultions

I love these next two pictures so much that I had to make them larger. I think they sum up the atmosphere better than any others. Beautiful.

Archaic or not, it worked!

2007-12-15T20:00:00.001-08:00

So what happened with the hair situation? We now had the problem of how to create "wedding hair" without any tools or time. After a discussion on what was needed, Guy dropped us off and said he would be back with a solution. I have to admit that I was a little skeptical. It's not as if you can run to your local drugstore and pick up a curling iron. Sure enough, half an hour later (I'm kicking myself for not having a picture of this!) Guy comes sprinting up the hotel stairs with a massive iron contraption in his hands that look as if it belonged in medieval times. Behind him are two women trying to keep up, one with curlers in her hair. Guy found another recommended hairdresser, and asked her to come to the hotel with her curling iron. She said that she was busy doing someone's hair, but after some explaining/negotiating/begging and pleading, she took pity on him and hightailed it across the city to help out. The woman in curlers was the lady who had been getting her hair done. She came along to give a hand. And the iron contraption was indeed a curling iron. It was the size of a tv and heated up like an oven. The rods were put inside to heat up and then used as a curling iron.

Archaic or not, it worked. Hallelujah!

Having completed his heroic mission, Guy took a few minutes to get ready.

Here she comes...

Blurry (sorry!), but beautiful!

On the way to the church.

Arriving

Another surprise - Scott and I found out that we had to take a more official role than we hoped by representing Anja's side in the processional. Yes indeed. We had to walk up the isle behind the bride and groom! Once again we handed off out camera to Demitri, Guy's younger brother. He got some interesting shots from his perspective a little closer to the ground. We like these.

And in we go!

Visit to the Village

2007-12-15T18:55:00.000-08:00

After the civil ceremony, we made a stop at the family village (on Guy's father's side) so that Guy and Anja could greet the elders and accept congratulations.

And then it was a mad rush back to the hotel to get ready for the next ceremony.

Surprises

2007-12-15T15:34:00.000-08:00

If you love surprises....than this was the wedding for you! :) Enjoy.

The wedding was a full day with 3 different components. There was civil ceremony, a church ceremony and the reception. This was a new concept for us, but more surprising was the information that we were to have 3 different outfits and change between each part. Oops.

The day started off with an early rise to get ready.

The family had arranged a hair dresser for Anja. (No this is not the hair dresser. :) This is Guy's little brother lending a helping hand. ) I had told Anja that I would gladly help out in any way I could, but that I was hopeless with hair. Some of you are probably on step ahead of me and can see where this is going to go. Unfortunately, despite the best of intentions, Anja's fine caucasian hair just would not behave the way that the hair dresser thought it should and 2 min before we were supposed to be out the door, I heard a stressed out "haaaviiiilllahhhh....." coming from the mirror. I go into panic mode. I don't do hair. My attempt at a calming "It's fine." didn't seem to do the trick, so after a few hopeless jabs with bobby pins and I decided to switch tactics to "it will work for the first ceremony. We will have lots of time to fix it before the church service." And off we went.

Here we are before the ceremony. It was supposed to start right at 9:00, but in true Cameroonian style, started 2 hours later when the officiant arrived.

Oh well, lots of time for taking pictures ...

This plant is considered to be a symbol of peace. You'll see it in a lot of photos.

Another little surprise for us was that we were to sit on the stage with Guy and Anja to represent Anja's family. There went our plans to be taking pictures and filming the ceremony. We passed our cameras off to enthusiastic volunteers and assumed our positions.

This is the stage from the back of the room. We are sitting on the far left.

The crowd. (Can you spot our driver behind the kids?)

The Ceremony:

The most memorable moment for me was when the officiant asked Guy (in french of course) if he wanted a monogamous or polygamous marriage. Hee hee. Poor Anja was not given a chance to answer the same question - but being the upstanding guy that Guy is, he answered with a solomn "monogamy." At this point the crowd erupted into cheers and broke out into a monogamy song. We've got some beautiful video footage of this that we will try to get posted. It gets better... the officiant looks down at the 2 stamps he has on the table. He gingerly picks one up, presses it into the stamp pad and tests it on a strip of scrap paper. Yep, it's the right one. He then stamps the wedding document 6 times with a bold red "Monogamy." Ha. love it. (FYI - a little factoid. As you may have guessed polygamy is legal and accepted in Cameroon. - though it is not as common as it used to be.)

Signing the papers.

Another little bit of excitement came when the officiant told Guy and Anja that they could now say their vows to eachother. They didn't know that there were vows at this ceremony. And they were planning to read the traditional vows from a program for the church ceremony. Surprise! Without missing a beat they both pulled off lovely vows off the top of their heads, and in more than one language!

The vows and rings.

The kiss.

And the party afterwards, full of singing dancing and more picture taking.

Scott and Talas

This picture does not do the scene justice. Imagine them all singing at the top of their lungs!

2007-12-07T01:15:00.000-08:00

Somehow in all the running around we did before the wedding (see last post), we actually found time to take a little trip out of the city to visit the family land and village. It was the perfect antidote to pre-wedding stress. Cameroon is so beautiful. Take a look.

Coffee Beans

They can be a little sour!

Family home that is being built on the land as a place to retire.

Guy was an excellent tour guide and nature interpreter.

He is about to give us a beetle nut to sample.
And we are about to become very wired.
Who needs Starbucks when beetle nut grows in your backyard?
A homemade whistle.

Some Other Pretty Things in the Yard

Beautiful papayas (in a picture that just will not rotate!!)

After a visit to the land, we stopped by the village for a walk through.
Saw some fantastic traditional architecture...

Lending a hand.

It's heavier than it looks...

Watching the scene

The highlight was a visit to the King's quarters, (a little community of his own) where he lived with his many many wives. Unfortunately we didn't have a lot of time to spend here as it was really interesting. We were also restricted to certain areas - ie places used for rituals were out of bounds for us "outsiders" as well as sacred drums which we could only view from a distance. The anthropologist in me wanted to soak it all in and ask a million questions, but we settled for a quick walk through.

Entering the Kings Quarters

Inside

The houses you see in this picture belong to the King's wives.

The King's House

At this point we thought we'd snap a few pictures and be on our way, but after a bit of discussion with the guards, we were invited in to meet the king. Sorry - no pictures of this! But it really did happen. Yes siree. We met a king. We were given a quick crash course in the etiquette of meeting a Cameroonian king and then entered the gates. We had to kneel down on the patio and when he came out to meet us, lower our heads and clap twice. Turns out he's really nice guy - speaks good English. A few speeches were made, we were welcomed to the country, we clapped again and were back on our way. Wowee. We met a king and clapped for him. clap clap clap clap. That's what you do when you meet the King. Who knew?

I am realizing that in our hundreds of pictures of us in Cameroon, we have very few that actually include us. We were too busy spending time behind the camera for that. So here's a blurry one of us leaving the village - just for good measure. We were actually there. Promise.

2007-12-02T00:01:00.000-08:00

The days leading up to the wedding were an absolute whirlwind of activity - and there is simply no way that I can get through it all. Suffice to say it was an experience I will never forget and there are stories enough for several long nights of entertainment. You provide the food and wine - we'll bring the pictures and memories. But until then, here is a little smattering to give you a peek. A few highlights.

1. Wedding Counseling

Even though Guy and Anja had gone through counseling before they left Canada, the pastor that was going to marry them in Cameroon wanted to get together for a few sessions as well as go over the agenda for the wedding. This started the first morning we were in Bafousam. Having spent all our time together, it seemed normal for Scott and I to tag along to the church. We wanted to take a look at the building and think about how we were going to take pictures. Here we are in the church.

I think the pre-wedding stress was starting to hit Guy. (A funny little side story about the guy sleeping in the back of the picture. He was our cab driver. On the way to the church we flagged down a cab, piled in and attempted to move up a tiny little hill. The cab broke down. We jumped out, and grabbed the next cab we saw (the guy in the picture). He became our official driver for the next 4 days, came with us everywhere we went, ate with us, took us shopping, and was soon like family. Watch for him in the photos!)

So there we are admiring the sunny church and we get the word that the pastor is ready to meet with Guy and Anja. Ok, we said we would wait for them in the church and have a look around. 2 min later, Guy's father comes running over and asks us why we are not coming. We quickly learned that like most other things, marriage counseling in Cameroon is a group event. There were about 12 people in attendance including Guy's parents, god parents, interested aunts or uncles, Scott and I (representing Anja's family), the special couple, the pastor and the church secretary.

We have to admit that it felt a bit awkward at first - like we were intruding on some really personal territory. We don't realize how culture influences our sense of privacy until we are put into these situations. 5 min into the discussion as Guy and Anja are explaining why they want to marry each other in front of an attentive audience, Scott leans over and whispers that he doesn't feel quite right being here. A second later someone asks Scott why he is just sitting there instead of taking pictures. Scott stands up and takes a few quick snaps from the back of the room. "No! No! go behind the pastor's desk! Get a good close up! Where's the video camera?!?" Another winning moment was when we went around the room and had to dispense a piece of marital advice. Well, they didn't actually ask me. Scott got the honour, what with being the head of the family and all. Now anyone who knows my dear husband will see the humour in this as he is not one to be put on the spot, and making speeches of any sort is not exactly a strong point. Not to mention the fact that that we had been married for all of 2 months at this point. I was filled with alternating waves of panic and giggles as I slowly saw his turn coming closer. (Here he is thinking of something to say!)

But lo and behold he pulled it off with something generic enough that it now escapes our memory. I think it was something to do with praying. Always a winning theme. Now that we have been married for a year, we are fountains of knowledge on the subject....but we'll save that for another post. What we did get out of this experience though, was an appreciation for the strong sense of community in Cameroon. Getting married here is more than just a decision between 2 people - it involves a larger community who is willing to support and foster the relationship. I think we could learn a lot from that.

2. Buying an Outfit for the Groom

Guy made the decision that he was going to wear a traditional outfit for the wedding. So we set out to find it. It was a little different than the usual experience. I think pictures are enough to tell this story

And....

VOILA!!!!

3. Venue Hunting

We went to take a look at the venue that had been booked for the reception, and made our way to the banquet hall of the Hotel Preisident. Suffice to say that what we found was....well...less than presidential material. We knew that we were in a small city in Cameroon, west Africa, so at first we weren't quite sure what to expect. If this was all there was, we would just make do. Then we met the caterer - this lovely lady in the curlers and she promptly informed us that the room we had was worst in town.

Not exactly what you want to hear 2 days before a wedding. She assured us that we could do better and so we piled into her car and hit the streets looking for a new venue. An exhausting 5 hours later we had seen all the great places that one could use for a reception. And all these great places were booked up! There was a glimmer of light though. The last venue we saw was booked, but the bride had never returned to pay a deposit. If they didn't get the $$ from the bride the next morning, the place was ours. The next morning we found out that the missing bride had been in the hospital. She was indeed using the venue, and we were indeed going to have to live it up presidential style! Oh the drama!!! Though there were tears looming, we decided to take it as a challenge and look at the bright side of life. For example, the fantastic fake chicken in a patch of dirt that greeted the guests on the way to the banquet room.

Nothing says elegance like a fake chicken - in a patch of dirt.

#4. Decorating

We had one day to tackle the room and so we made a plan of action, delegated jobs and went to it. Guy lit a fire under the hotel management to get the room cleaned up, Scott started attacking the electric system to figure out which loose wires hanging off the ceiling were connected to which light bulbs that where not lighting up and Anja and I went out in search of lots and lots of fabric to cover everything with. Our driver rose to the occasion, escorting us through the fabric market and haggling the prices down for us and then a team of people met at the hall to get to work.

It would be nice to say that with our hard work and positive attitudes everything looked beautiful in a couple hours and we were ready to go. But things are always a bit more complicated than that. To summarize, halfway through the decorating, the caterer showed up and announced that she was in charge of the decorating and that it was all being done wrong - or something like that. Then there were a few shouting matches and tears and the four of us going "Huh? Does anybody know what is going on?" And people stormed in and out and it was late, and we were told to leave, and so we did - all the while still saying "Huh?!? Does anyone know what is going on?" Oh the drama. And the next morning (ie the day of the wedding) we came back with much fear and trepidation to find that Cinderella's godmother had made a visit to the room, and it was all awash with satin and pink ribbons and amazingly transformed. And we were so stunned that we forgot to take a picture! Sorry!!!

I would like to take this moment to say a bit about Anja.

Most brides turn into basket cases before their weddings. And most brides do not travel to Africa to meet their extended family for the first time, to have their wedding in a place where everyone is speaking a different language, and where despite your best attempts to control or plan events - there is simply not a lot that is in your control. I don't know how she did it, but she did - with sunny positive attitude, and lots of laughs. Take a second to give her a little ovation. She really deserves it! Puts my "oh no - there's an unnoticeable floral pattern on the white table clothes" disaster into perspective. Here she is the day before the wedding cool as a cucumber. :)

#5 The Family Preparations

A whole different set of preparations were taking place at the family home. Massive amounts of food to be made, people to visit with, songs to be sung and dances to dance. Who cares about decorating with all this happiness around you?

The Dancing

Making Food for the Crowds

The Consumption of Beverages

We're ready for a wedding!

Fighting the Dust

2007-09-22T02:01:00.000-07:00

After a day in Yaunde, we moved on to Bafusam, the hometown of Guy's father to get ready for the wedding. Bafusam is a dusty place. Red dust that is everywhere and permeates everything - your feet, clothes, hands, lungs.... This perhaps is the first image in my mind when I think of Bafusam. Red dust everywhere.

Let me back up a bit. We arrived after a long bumpy bus ride spent munching boiled peanuts, that was preceded by an almost fist fight, plenty of shouting, the throwing around of luggage and the squeezing of many many many people into a vehicle not fit for the squeezing of so many people. If this sounds a bit confusing to you, I'm sorry. I can't really explain what happened, as I don't know myself. All I know is that there were some negative feelings and it may have had something to do with the price of the tickets and the asking of more money, and the throwing of luggage, and the firm lady sitting behind us that absolutely refused to move over because she paid for one seat and she was darn well going to get her one seat and not share it with three other people. (That is my translation based on her tone of voice, crossed arms, and refusal to move despite much yelling, and the resulting moving over of people in the row behind her and man that then sat on the little piece of floor between the sliding door and the seats.) Someone said to us once that in Cameroon you have to learn fight for everything - not only the things you want but even the things that you should be entitled to.

We tried to stay out of the fighting - but from what we saw, it was true. It takes a significant amount of struggle and fight to move the smallest bit in the direction you want. And for most people the struggle is over issues like food, housing, clean water, health care, getting a job, and supporting your eight younger siblings through school, not to mention things like fighting corruption, greed and injustice. We on the other hand had the luxury of fighting over things like making sure some guy didn't steal our bags out of the trunk of the cab with the lid that didn't close (good eye Scott!), and keeping the red dust off. Nothing to complain about.

Hello Yaounde

2007-07-31T14:56:00.000-07:00

We stepped off the bus in Yaounde on the side of a red dirt road at dusk - and into the welcoming arms of Guy's family. They are the embodiment of the concept "home" full of hugs, laughs and lots of tender care. At their house, we were given our own room with lovely, brand new crisp sheets (though we did feel a bit guilty for evicting whoever was in that room. We found out later that while we had the luxury of sleeping two to a room, everyone else was piled in at least four to a room.) That evening was another of smiles, and much joyful jumping up and down. Happy people.

Guy brought out the gifts - oh so fun!

Shoes,
basketball jerseys,

Mp3 players....

Good stuff. And we recieved a few gifts as well!

Here we are with a doll and a collection of Cameronian food in a basket (food of the wooden variety so we can keep it as a memento)

And here is Anja with her basket of food and a wall hanging. There is a subtle message for her in the wall hanging. See if you can figure it out.

Most of our time here was spent visiting on the porch (see below) and running around on various erands. We registered our passports at the Canadian embassy (as passport theft is a serious problem in the country) and were given certified photocopies to use as ID while we were there. It was a bit surreal to spend half an hour in the plush ac Canadian embassy office, flipping through coffee table books of Albertan scenery while we waited. Then it was back into a hot cab and winding through busy streets. We made a quick stop at the fanciest hotel in town for a walk through the ac lobby and a luxury bathroom break (nice little trick in third world countries - just walk in like you are supposed to be there!). Guy then decided that he was going to go shop for his wedding outfit. "Shopping" consisted of driving slowly past a couple street stalls, sticking his head out the cab window for 2 seconds and then declaring that there was nothing here that he liked. Hee hee. So instead we bought some "soya" a Cameroonian staple which is really just meat on a stick served with powdered spices on the side for dipping- and can be found everywhere! We ate a lot of soya over the course of this trip...

Other important errands - visiting family,friends and more family and more friends.... finding a pretty headband for the bride, and buying a lovely outfit for the mother of the groom.

Here are a few more pictures of Yaunde:

The view from the street outside the house.

On the Way to Yaounde

2007-07-27T22:33:00.000-07:00

Sorry.....been busy. It's been a while. We know. Again, sorry.

The next leg of our journey in Cameroon was a bus ride to Yaounde (the capital city) where the first half of Guy's immediate family lives. Finding the right bus was a bit of an ordeal, especially considering Guy is very particular when it comes to the transportation of his fiance. ;) No rickety rust bucket with goats tied to the roof for him!

We eventually found a satisfactory safe-ish looking bus after checking out a few bus stations. I scored a front row seat as I could tell that the trip was going to be a bit hard on my stomach (word of wisdom for others plagued with motion sickness - taking a long bus ride after eating a grilled fish for breakfast is possibly not the best idea). I survived without any major upsets, and had a great view of the scenery. However, I didn't have the camera with me, so here are some pictures through the window of the very back seat courtesy of Anja. They are a little blurry/smudged, but provide an authentic "like you are right there" sort of feel. Take a look.

gas station

market

coiffure

one of the many street bars

snacks for sale at a stop (always the best part of a bus trip)

Here's a random little note about this journey. Halfway through, a man gets up in the aisle and calls something out to the driver who promptly pulls the bus over. The man gets out along with 6 or 7 others. Yep, you guessed it, a roadside pee stop. But the interesting part is this - it is the only country in the world where I have seen women join in the event. And I am not talking about hiking out into the bushes as I would be tempted to do. Nope, they just pull up their skirt and join the crowd. So take that world. Cameroonian women chalk up a point in the gender equality game. Though it does require wearing a skirt....

Breakfast in Douala

2007-07-18T11:37:00.000-07:00

Breakfast turned out to be more of a feast than we anticipated. Having spent the last three weeks in Morocco, where there is a culture of eating pretty much nothing for breakfast (coffee and a pastry), our stomachs had fully adapted to the no breakfast, big lunch routine. So when we sat down for a "breakfast" consisting of a full traditional meal in front of us (including one large whole grilled fish per person) and thirty people sitting around watching us eat...it was a bit of a daunting task. Due to Guy's excellent negotiating skills, we eventually compromised on half a fish each, and dug in. The highlight of the morning though, was watching and helping out with all the preparation. Have a look.

Anja stirs up a little ndole (bitter leaf sauce)

Big smiles from the master cooks.

grilling fish

coconut cracking

mmmmm. coconut milk

Scott tackles some mjondo - mashed cassava root that is rolled in banana leaf - the perfect compliment to grilled fish (and no he is not that sweaty, we got caught in the rain!)

breakfast is served - bon appetite!

and enjoyed by all....

especially Guy - here he goes for round 2, or 3 or....

And Continues Some More

2007-07-16T16:50:00.001-07:00

I wish we had more pictures of this night or some video footage to really bring it to life for you, but in the craziness of it all, somehow the cameras were left behind. (If you don't know what I am talking about, scroll down) You'll just have to use your imagination. I believe we left off in the middle of a dark alley.

As we started walking, Guy's cousins took us by the hand and guided us through the dark with lots of laughter and broken English. "Jump jump," to let us know where potholes needed to be crossed, or water avoided. At one point we passed by a large group of women dancing and singing by rows of blue plastic chairs and a canopy over the road. We learned that it was a funeral and the organizer had simply closed off the whole road to use the space. After a lot of jumping and a maze of alleyways later, we eventually made it to the simple little house of Guy's aunt and a little while later to the home of another aunt.

What followed is a bit of a blur. Imagine what it would be like to see your family after being away for six years, and to that add the infectious, exuberant Cameroonian spirit. I'm hoping you are picturing joyful screams, hugs, kisses, much jumping up and down, the biggest smiles, and of course more dancing. Anja was a major attraction being the much anticipated newest addition to the family,and Scott and I smiled, nodded and tried to make the best sense we could of all the French flying around us. We spent the rest of the night watching the reunion unfold while sipping coke, and munching on crispy fried fish, head and all. Really really tasty. mmmmm. All concept of time and convention thoroughly thrown out the window, at some insane hour, we eventually made arrangements to meet with the family in the morning for breakfast and a taxi ride later (that I have absolutely no recollection of), we found ourselves with a bed in sight. And so ends day one of our adventures with Guy and Anja. It was a fitting start considering the pace of events that followed...

The Night Continues

2007-07-12T21:49:00.000-07:00

One of the first lessons we learned in Cameroon was never to make assumptions about what we were going to be doing or expect to stick to any sort of plan. At any given moment the "plan" would deviate, mutating into a something totally different. We started chanting the mantra "go with the flow, just go with the flow" first as a survival technique and later for the joy of knowing something crazy was just around the corner.

The lesson began that first night. Remember, it was late, Guy and Anja had just arrived (after 2 days of travel) with a welcoming party, partying in our hotel room. Again, our assumption was that now we would say our goodbyes and get to bed, ready to start our trip in the morning. But oh no. It is not the Cameroonian way. Instead we hear the words "Let's go!" Go? Go where? In the next instant, there are about 9 people crammed into an elevator that fits four and an instant later piling into two cabs barreling through the warm black night.

Now, let me interject with a few thoughts on traffic. In Cameroon (like a few other countries I could name) it follows no laws except perhaps some high speed Darwinian evolutionary theory. Anything goes as long as you're the one that survives. My cab driver curses the vehicle beside us as we pull a u-turn into oncoming traffic and narrowly miss a crash a couple centimetres away. Meanwhile the other cab stalls in the middle of heavy traffic. The group decides to switch cabs, and Scott opens his door to get out just as a motorcycle drives into the aforementioned door. The driver of the bike doesn't seem to think anything much has happened, and drives off with a chuckle and slightly bent handlebars. Scott decides that it is best to just close the door. The driver waits for a small break in traffic and lets the cab free roll backwards (into oncoming traffic) until he can pop it into gear and continue on.

The cabs drop us off on the side of a dark lane, not because we have reached our destination, but because they simply cannot go any farther. We are in one of Duala's rougher neighbourhoods where streets gradually disintegrate into narrow ruts of rock, mud and garbage between crumbling concrete walls. Getting out of the cab I see a few food stalls with lanterns, some roasting corn, the carcass of a car stripped, rusted, abandoned, groups of teenagers leering incredulously at us white foreigners. Where are we? All I know is that where ever it is, it is a place that fits all the criteria for where I am not supposed to be in any city in the world in the middle of the night. "What would my mother say?" I think to myself, and at that exact moment Anja leans over and whispers "I'm so glad my mother does not know where I am right now."

Day 2: Guy and Anja Arrive

2007-07-07T19:53:00.000-07:00

On our second night, Guy and Anja arrived at our hotel in the dark, full of smiles and adrenaline. They were escorted by a crowd of boisterous cousins, jumping, dancing, hugging, kissing, beyond excited to have them here. A whirlwind of introductions begin as well as our induction into the Cameroonian way of greeting (kisses on alternating cheeks, four times). This was soon to become very, very familiar to us. Not a big deal when you only have to greet one or two people, but in a crowd of ten, fifteen, or twenty it is exhausting! I have never kissed so much in my life as over those three weeks.

Everyone quickly piles into the room we are sharing and in a matter of seconds the TV is on, music blaring and everyone is dancing. We are stunned by abrupt change of events (especially when compared to the past 24 hours, where Scott and I considered the discovery of dubbed italian soap operas to be excitement.) Hands pull us onto the dance floor and the party begins. Take a look...

Okay....no nasty comments about my dance moves - or lack thereof. :) Guy is hands down the star of this show and every other dance party we had - and there were many!

Welcome to Douala

2007-07-06T10:03:00.000-07:00

We arrived to the hot sticky air of Douala two days before Guy and Anja. Despite our objections, Guy sent a friend to pick us up at the airport for which we ended up being very grateful considering we arrived in the dark in what was obviously not a country much frequented by tourists. A long, bumpy drive brought us to the Parfait Garden, our home for the next two days.

view from our hotel balcony

As soon as we arrived, we were given strict instructions from Guy's friend not to wander off the main street our hotel was on. In the morning, we took his advice with a grain of salt, attempted some wandering and quickly decided that maybe sticking to our street was not a bad idea after all. Here is a look at our street from the balcony window. Note that the sounds in the background were not added. This is actually what is sounded like curtusy of a cell phone company and some very large speakers.

The next two days were spent wandering up and down that very street, hunting down internet cafes, buying pastries and attempting to take money out of the bank (a problem we never quite resolved over the next three weeks - thank goodness for emergency cash and Guy's generosity). We also found this to be a good way to pass the time:

Finally.

2007-07-05T20:15:00.000-07:00

Finally. It's the moment you've all been waiting for. You can stop sending us complaints and obnoxious reminders. We are finally going to tell you about Cameroon. But before we begin, we feel a little background information is in order.

First of all, why have we waited ...um...months to get around to doing this? Yes, we are great at procrastinating, but there is a bit more to it. Recently a friend asked us what the most interesting part of our trip was, and it was, without a doubt, our time in Cameroon. Not only was it the most interesting, but it was also the part that taught us the most, stretched us and most enriched us. So how could we just slap up a few pictures and captions and call it done? Now that we have some time on our hands, and unlimited access to a computer, we will do our best to give this part of our journey the effort it is due.

On a side note, leaving Cameroon off the blog until the end has had it's advantages. Though we are glad to have so many readers out there, it kind of takes the wind out of our sails when we meet you and begin to spin our wild(ish) tales of adventures and you say "oh...we already read that on the blog." Talk about anti-climactic. However, stories of Cameroon have been the magic trick up our sleeve. "Oh yeah? Well, I bet you haven't heard this one!" And then there is the credibility we get on the travel scene when we exchange our lists of places visited and casually drop in the name Cameroon. Nobody goes to Cameroon.

The other major reason we are finally getting around to doing this, is that we are meeting Guy in a couple days and rumour has it he is not too happy about the poor reception we have given Cameroon on this blog. You see, Guy looks like this.

(okay he's not that scary sideways, but imagine him right side up. This darn picture will not flip!)

And though I did take karate in grade six, and Scott has a mean thumb-of-war we really don't think we can take him on.

So let us begin.

A few years ago, we met

Guy, (originally from Cameroon, relocated to Edmonton, Alberta, hydro geologist, self proclaimed meatatarian, professional scrabble player, writer, martial arts master, amazing dancer, giver of great parties, incredibly generous, an all around great friend)

and he introduced us to ...

Anja (originally from Germany, relocated to Edmonton, Alberta, who works in a lab growing and killing cancer cells in order to earn her phd and ultimately better serve humanity, adventurous, talented artist, brave enough to play scrabble with Guy, loves to dance, very kind hearted, and an all around great friend)

They decided to get married in Cameroon. It would be Guy's first time home in 6 years, and the first time that Anja would meet Guy's family, not to mention set foot on the continent of Africa. And since we were taking the year off to wander the world, we invited ourselves along. We thought it would be a great part of the world to see, and that it would be a fun wedding to witness. We would bring our camera, a small video camera, stay in the background, observe from the sidelines and who knows, maybe even collect enough footage to make a little film.

Ah... such naivety. It's hard to stay in the background when you are in the centre of attention. Bit of an oxymoron. And then there was the part where we represented Anja's family at the wedding which required a little more than we expected, including last minute surprises like being called on to give marriage advice in a counseling session, and walking down the aisle with the bride and groom. Yes, you heard right. Down the aisle. But let's start this story at the beginning...

Croatia in Review

2007-07-03T09:28:00.000-07:00

After having been in Croatia for three weeks, we've compiled a list of random thoughts about the country. In no particular order, here they are:

1. Croatia is beautiful.

2. You can float blissfully in the blue water that is so calm and clear and blue it's impossible to describe. It is basically the largest swimming pool in the world where you can snorkel without a mask because it is so crystal clear.

3. Croatia is famous for it's relaxed beaching attitudes and nudist beaches. Just find yourself a piece of rock for the day, and take it all off. (okay he's not actually naked, but I thought the picture worked hee hee)
Or better yet, take a walk through town like this family.

4. The grouchiest old ladies have the best private accomodation. With views like this.

Or this...
And rooms right out of Mary Poppins that look like this...

5. The grouchiest old men sell the best sausage. This guy was at some sort of food exhibition where most vendors were handing out free samples to prospective buyers. But he started yelling at the crowd because they all swarmed his booth wanting a free taste. Very funny.

6. The beaches are all rocky which takes a little getting used to, but once you do, there are some distinct advantages: cliff jumping, no sand in your swimsuit, incredible views.

7. If you see a steady stream of kids emerging with some form of food, follow the trail backwards and go there immediately. You will be rewarded with a very tasty treat. This is how we came across the best piece of pizza ever.

8. We think this sign is funny.

9. We found the tub!

10. Apparently it is common on the last day of school for kids to prance around the streets in packs, ripping up their school materials and throw it all over the place, while singing at the top of their lungs.

11. Floating toys are essential in the calm waters of the Mediterranean.

12. You can spend hours watching the local kids by the water. They roam around in packs with no apparent supervision hurling themselves over cliffs, swimming way into the sea with no form of floatation device, driving/paddling around boats. They have absolutely no fear and are fantastic swimmers/divers/back flippers/dare devils.

13. Scott is never content just to watch.

14. We are now sea urchin buddies. It was definitely worth that last cliff jump to get a better picture, though. Even if you have to limp around for a week after receiving the gift of 20 or so prickly things lodged in your foot. ouch. Sorry no picture here.

15. Did we mention that Croatia is beautiful?

16. It' s the perfect place to spend hours reading, writing, and contemplating life...or just generally looking fantastic in a bathing suit.

The Rumours are True...well, some of them are

2007-06-29T23:45:00.000-07:00

There are a few rumours floating around out there saying that we have made it back to Canada earlier than expected, so I thought we should post something to clear it all up. Yes, it is true. We are back. We hopped on an earlier flight and made it home. Now we are busy recovering from jetlag, dealing with the unpleasant realities of life (car insurance, banking etc) and catching up with friends. Don't worry, we will not abandon the blog just because we are back. We will be filling in all the missing blanks from our trip, now that we have unlimited internet access. Yay!

A Day in Split

2007-06-14T06:42:00.000-07:00

Here are a few pics to show you how we are spending our days in Split.

We start the morning with a trip to the vegetable market, to scout out the best fruits and veggies and take in all the delicious sights and smells.

This is followed with brunch at the park.

Hav has a cheese problem called cheesitis, whereby she loses her ability to judge how large a piece of cheese should be purchased for a lunch in the park. This has occurred more than once. The piece in the picture is what remained after we had eaten! In her defense the cheese was delicious and has since been consumed.

We then engage in some wandering.

The old city is made up of the ruins of an ancient palace belonging to Diocletian. Its a great mixture of the old and new as the buildings are now home to the cities main trendy shopping district. Another interesting note- the streets here are made of a shiny white marble rather that the usual cobblestone that we have seen in so many other old cities. Splitians also seem to really like shoe shopping. It took us a while to notice that there was a ridiculous ammount of shoe stores in this part of the city, so we started to count. In 10 minutes of random walking at a slow pace, we passed 13 shoe stores. Split also has a thriving arts community with lots of art galleries and music in town. Hav ponders some prints.

We have heard quite a bit of opera and some jazz wafting through the streets, from hidden practice rooms. These guys were practicing singing some folk songs in an old dome where the acoustics were amazing. Four people sounded like fourteen.

We usually find some particularly engaging sight and settle in to watch. Yesterday, we happened across the shooting of a Karlovacka beer commercial, which made for a few hours of great entertainment.

Extras waiting for their turn.
The concept was to have 2 beautiful women sipping their beers at a sidewalk cafe (with other slightly less beautiful women behind them). Over to the side was to be a tour group from China taking pictures of the ruins of the palace. All of a sudden, one of them spots the chilled beer on the table and yells "beer!" and they all sprint to the beer with their cameras flashing and crowd around the table with the gorgeous women taking pictures of the beer (ignoring the women). The real entertainment for us was watching the fake Chinese tourists, who may have actually been real Chinese tourists. They spoke very little English, didn't have a translator and did not seem to have any experience doing this sort of thing. So, much of the time was spent with the director acting out how he wanted them to behave over and over and over. Pretty funny. Here they are running to the table with their cameras.

Director (in black) demonstrating camera clicking movements.

Take a look at the top of this picture and you can see Hav watching from a wall above the scene.

The evenings usually involve a cheap supper consisting of some sandwich/pizza/salad type of thing and then we hit the cafes where the rest of Split also heads to. Everyone finds themselves a seat with a drink and the watches the world go by. We also happened across this scene where crowds were gathered around tables of free drinks. Turned out to be the opening for some glass sculpture show. So we joined the crowd, had a drink and saw a glass sculpture exhibit. Last night there was a street performer festival, and we found a good jazz club but sadly our camera battery died so we can't prove it. And eventually... we make our way back to our little apartment. Here is our street.

And so ends a day in Split. Tomorrow we are off to the islands for some beaching.
Till then...
ciao

escape the little hooligans

2007-06-12T07:13:00.001-07:00

A quick update. We just arrived in the city of Split (a name full of oh so much punning potential) after a grueling all night ferry. It should have been a very pleasant trip, but ended up being in the middle of a rather energetic and immature junior high crowd. We got ourselves the cheap "deck" tickets, rather than the ones for a bed, and found out this means that you are actually on the deck, as in outside on whatever bench you happen to find. This was actually shaping up to be a good thing as the weather was beautifully warm, the sea calm and we were in plenty of good company with backpackers of all ages rolling out their therma rests and sleeping bags for a good nights sleep under the stars. Check out this set up. The guy actually pumped up this giant air mattress for a night of sleeping in style.Things were going well, even had a little supper...

... until the junior high kids showed up, who I may add, all had sleeping bunks in rooms somewhere. But as kids of this age will do anywhere in the world when unsupervised, they turned into a bunch of animals screaming, running around, throwing things, blaring loud music. We ignored it at first assuming there would be a curfew of some sort, and that there would be some teachers around the corner eventually. We did eventually spot the teachers. they were sitting on an opposite bench from us trying to sleep, chatting loudly at 1 am, oblivious to the absolute chaos around them. Now I am not one to complain about teachers, being one myself....but really the situation was crazy. Perhaps it was some bizarre psychological experiment we wandered into. Eventually we had no choice but to pick our stuff up and head inside where we found all of our fellow "deck" passengers seeking refuge from the children gone wild on the restaurant floor. So we pushed a few chairs aside and joined the crowd. In the morning we even saw people who had brought their bedding (mattress and all) from the cabins to try and escape the little hooligans. We did manage to get a few hours sleep in, and arrived in Split this morning.

Tired.

We decided to try our hand at private accommodation rental as this seems to be the thing to do here. This entails haggling with elderly women at the ferry dock, looking at pictures, walking to the house to take a look, haggling some more, etc. Eventually, after looking at a few places we got a little apartment in the old town for a good deal. So we plan to explore this area for a few days before trying our hand at the ferry again as we head to the islands and further south.

Will keep you posted. Gotta split.

2007-06-12T07:13:00.000-07:00

Tired.

Special Times with Special People

2007-06-10T07:32:00.000-07:00

As most of you know, my siblings are both NGO workers toughing it out in unforgiving Sudan to make the world a better place or at least try to patch it together a bit till the answers come in. And lucky for Scott and I , they require regular R and R time every couple months, which makes for a great excuse to get together for some serious chillaxing. So we met Kendrah, Josh and Joshs friend Moustashio in Italia for a week and rented a charming villa in the country side with a private pool - sadly it rained most of the time, so the pool was a bit underutilized, but we really cant complain. Believe it or not this countryside holiday works out cheaper than staying in a campsite. We highly recommend it to anyone travelling in the area - a concept here called "agroturismo". See http://www.homelidays.com/

Because we are having some internet access problems, I have taken the liberty to cut and paste a delightful little story written by Kendrah and posted on her blog (see links) about the trip. Thanks dear. Enjoy.

Once upon a time there where 4 happy siblings who decided to go on a holiday in Italy.

The big (and wise) sister, knowing that the big brother and little sister would be weary from their hard work in far-away Africa booked a villa for the 4 travelers to rest their weary heads.

The villa was in the province of Umbria, a beautiful place that looks like this,

And this,

For the first few days, they did nothing but rest. Lots of this,

And this,

And this,

Now and then, they would run out of food and make a long walk into the nearest village,

To buy fantastic Italian food that looked like this,

And this,
And this,

And this,

Eventually, they decided that perhaps they should broaden their horizons and so they ventured off to the nearby cities to explore narrow streets,

Eat as much gelato as they could get away with each day,

Admire beautiful sites,

And ponder the lives of those who were in these places long ago.

Like St. Francis of Assisi who traveled these roads,

And wished peace and goodwill for this country.

When their time expired at the beautiful villa, the 4 rested siblings, decided to venture even further to the big city of Rome. They had heard great things of this renowned place and wanted to see it with their own eyes.
Here their eyes took in beautiful architecture,

And much ancient history.

They could not pass up the chance to visit a new country (to add to their list) while they were nearby, and so of course, they stopped in to visit Vatican City.

To their regret, they did not chance to see the pope, but they did visit some of the remarkable possessions within his city walls.

And their eyes took in more breathtaking artistry,

And ancient history.
And they couldn’t help but write home about it.

After all this, the siblings parted ways, sad to be divided, but content from the rich rest, fantastic food, superb sites and beneficial bonding time.

The End

if we just eat plums, we could save a lot of money here

2007-06-09T05:42:00.000-07:00

We are back. Sorry. We took a one month hiatus not because we don't value your readership, but because we have been living in a tent, in the outskirts of little towns and out of reach of decent internet. Sigh. We miss internet. From now on our posts will have to be much more succinct as long gone are the days of cheap access. Sigh.

So to bring you up to speed, we spent the last month in Italy with Scott's parents (more on that to come once we can find a place to upload pictures). After they left, we met up with my sibs, for one week in lovely Umbria for some serious R and R time. Special times were had...with special people. :) More on this later as well.

After J and K left, we took a night train from Rome to Trieste and then hopped on the first bus to Slovenia. We spent a day by the seaside in Piran and then moved on to Croatia where we plan to spend the next 3 weeks before going home on the first of July (how patriotic of us!).

Our first thought on Croatia:
1. the beaches are pebbly
2. people like to trampoline a lot
3. the old ladies on the bus are really chatty and will talk to you at great length if you just nod your head now and then
4. the sea is a stunning blue green
5. plum trees grow like weeds
6. if we just eat plums, we could save a lot of money here
7. the veggie markets are full of people selling from their home gardens (oh so good)
8. people sell homemade olive oil/schnapps on the highway
9. beer is cheap
10. all the kids we have met speak incredibly good English
11. Lisa Selvey has a twin in Croatia
12. there are many similarities to Italy in terms of beautiful landscape and availability of pizza, but subtract the hordes of tourists and the resulting hype - so far we are liking it very much

More to come...

We Are Still Alive

2007-05-09T06:36:00.000-07:00

Sorry everyone for the lack of posts lately. It's been a challenge to find internet in Germany, Switzerland, and Italy as we've been camping off the beaten track mostly in smaller centres. We've also been moving around quite a bit since arriving in Frankfurt on May 1.

We met my(Scott's) parents in Frankfurt on May 2, the starting point for our journey south into Italy together. We spent the first night in traditional fashion, going to an old German tavern where we ate a huge meal of sauerkraut,sausage, potatoes and apple wine, after starting out with an appetizer of handcheese with music(a strong piece of cheese covered in vinegar and onions, which actually was quite tasty). We had been to this place a couple years ago when we were passing through frankfurt and felt quite ill after eating all the sour dishes, but this time realized that potatoes are the key to keeping the meal balanced. A much better experience this time.

The next day, my dad and I picked up our rental car which turned out to be a sweet vehicle(a small mercedes A180) because we missed our rental pickup the previous day and the car we were supposed to receive was gone. One of the key features of our new car was a gps navigation system, which remained unused for the first couple days until we could figure out how to change the language on it to English from German. This was a major breakthrough, however and has saved us many hours of stress. It is incredible now that we've gotten it working. All you have to do is type in the destination and the system takes over and tells you where to turn and when. You can even choose whether the voice speaking to you is a man or woman.

Ok, that's all I can say for now as our time's up at this internet place. By the way we're in Cremona, Italy, the world capital for violin making, but more on that and the everything else later. And hopefully some pictures too.

Fruits of Southeast Asia

2007-04-26T05:44:00.000-07:00

This was written a while ago, but is being posted now that we are back in a country that has not banned YouTube. If you hadn't heard, Thailand recently banned the site when someone posted disrespectful videos of the king. They take the monarchy very seriously in Thailand. And if you are wondering, we just arrived back in India early this morning (after yet another overnight haul) and now have a few days to spend before our flight to Frankfurt. Sadly, we are in Delhi...again...not our favorite place. South India, we miss you. In any case, back to the topic at hand. Fruit.

We've really been enjoying the fruit in this part of the world now. It started in Bangkok with all the portable fruit stands serving up papaya, green mango, guava, pineapple, durian, jackfruit, star fruit, dragon fruit, lichies, watermelon, and many more varieties. The fruit is so fresh and it's always cut up for you and put in a handy little bag including a little poking sticks for picking at it. And it's cheap. Very very cheap. We found an incredibly good fruit stand when we were in Penang, full of exotic fruit I've never seen before. So, each night we would find the fruit stand and try a bunch of these new things out. The follwing is a little description of what we experienced. Sorry, smell and taste not included.

Kickapoo Joy Juice. The BEST name for a drink. ever.

2007-04-20T05:04:00.000-07:00

How we discovered Kickapoo:

Scott: I'd like to try a new drink. What's that little kid drinking in the green can?
Hav: I don't know.
Scott: Hm
Waiter: Stands in front of our table
Scott: What is that green can?
Waiter: mumbles something incoherent
Scott: Is it a fruit drink?
Waiter: mumbles something incoherent
Scott: Okay I'll get that
Hav: Did he just say "joy fruit?"
Scott: I don't think he speaks English

We receive the green can. "Kickapoo Joy Juice "

It tastes pretty much how it looks. A cross between Mountain dew and anti freeze. But with a name like that how can you resist?

Cooking in Chiang Mai

2007-04-19T00:21:00.000-07:00

We are still in Chiang Mai, and if we didn't have to fly back to India in a couple days, there would be a high likelihood of us remaining here for...ever. The accommodations are great, the food is superb, the sights are many, the Internet is fast and all of this is cheap. Ahhhh. That is the sound of satisfaction.

Since arriving here we haven't really done a whole lot. There are all sorts of trips you can take into the mountains and surrounding area but somehow the temperature lulls you into a more sedentary way of life. Feeling a little lazy, we decided to sign ourselves up for something a bit productive. Cooking classes.

Incredibly touristy, but THE thing to do in Chiang Mai, there are classes advertised on every corner. Despite low expectations, we actually learned a lot, had a good time and of course ate way too much.

We started with a trip to the market before getting down to cooking.

Our menu for the day consisted of veggie fried rice, spring rolls, papaya salad, Chiang Mai style curry noodles and deep fried bananas. Sadly we only got a picture of the first dish and they just got better as the day went on.

The secret ingredient - oyster sauce!

Our class (members from Norway, Toronto, Hungary, and Denmark).

Scott pounds up some papaya salad.

Our lovely instructor.

Taking a nap between courses.

You can see more pictures of our class on the Baan Thai Cooking School website. They have not posted our class yet, but check back. We took the class on the 18th of April, so you will need to select that date from the sidebar.

Water we doing now?

2007-04-17T23:21:00.000-07:00

From Singapore, we flew to back to Thailand to the city of Chiang Mai and landed right in the middle of this.

Thailand's Songkram festival. For those of you not familiar with this (as described on http://www.topics-mag.com/internatl/holidays/thailand/songkron-festival.htm) :

Songkram is a traditional Thai New Year that starts on April 13 annually. It is also called the "Water Festival" because people believe that water will wash away bad luck and make people fresh. On this day, we sprinkle small drops of water to bless monks and elders. Their hands are sprinkled with perfumed water. In addition, this festival is for rain because it is the hottest season.
Nowadays, during the Songkram Festival, people always throw water on everybody who walks past their houses or walks down the street with cups or buckets of water, squirt guns, hoses and anything else. Everyone gets wet, but it is all in a spirit of friendliness, blessing and fun. People who get wet actually do not get angry because they know that it is traditional.
People will go to the temples to bathe Buddha images and give special food to the monks. People will do good things such as freeing fish or birds and other animals from their cages.
On this day, everywhere in Thailand, people celebrate and enjoy the festival. Especially in Chieng Mai which is in the Northern part of Thailand. We can see many foreigners enjoy this festival with Thais. Everybody also enjoys public events such as beauty contests, parades, and marching bands.
The Water Festival gives us freshness, happiness and fun because the weather is very hot. I hope everyone will try to visit and enjoy this festival.

Essentially, the entire country hits the streets for 5 days (yes that's right. 5 days!!) for a massive water fight. Everyone from teenagers, to old grannies, to little kids.

The shops are full of water fighting paraphanilia,

and no one emerges unscathed. If I look a little cold it is because I am. Despite temperatures in the high thirties, the shock of having several buckets of ice water (some with ice chunks) poured over your head is well...cold. Not that I am complaining. (sorry Mihra and all others in cold climates).

Here are a few other pictures to give you an idea of what it is like. Most of these were taken from our hotel balcony as you will get wet, with or without an expensive camera in your hands. Inagine 10 times this ammount of activity on the busier streets.

A final message to all you Zubots reading this. We have reserved rooms for all of you for next years annual camping trip. A 3 hour water fight is nothing compared to this. Though note that as was mentioned in the above article, "Everyone gets wet, but it is all in a spirit of friendliness, blessing and fun. People who get wet actually do not get angry because they know that it is traditional." You may have to leave the car seat/stealing trailer cap/forgetting grandmother antics behind. :)

Rules Rules Rules

2007-04-16T23:11:00.000-07:00

Singapore is famous for it's rules and censorship (which was the subject of many conversations while we were there). A few examples:

- no chewing gum in large quantities

- no durian (a local fruit with a strong odor) on public transport

- no littering (hefty fines for this)

- no urinating in elevators

- no riding your bike in underground walkways

- no spitting

- no drugs (death penalty for possession of about the equivalent size to 2 Canadian quarters)

You get the idea. In it's defense, the city/country is incredibly clean, efficient and well organized. (Case in point. It is the ONLY country in the world where we have gone through immigration and security in the airport only to then be pulled aside to complete a survey on how we felt the service was. Did they smile at us? Did it meet your expectations? Oh and did we mention the candies in a nice bowl on the immigration counter?) On the other hand many rules have a paternalistic air to them, as if the citizens are children that need to be taught about basic decent conduct. Does someone really need to tell you not to urinate in the elevator?!?

Here is a short film about censorship in Singapore courtesy of Josh K.

Click To Play

Short film Royston Tan made in 2004 after "15" got 27 cuts from the Singaporean censors

Singapore

2007-04-16T00:08:00.000-07:00

Do not take an overnight bus from Malaysia to Singapore, unless you want this to be the result: (If the embedded video doesn't work, go here to view)

After our great swim, we made contact with Hav's relatives Carolyn, Hawksing and their sons Josh and Jonathon. They graciously took us in for the three days we were in Singapore, introduced us to the amazing cuisine available there, and acted as our excellent tour guides for the city.

Day One: After relaxing and settling in in the morning, Carolyn took us out for lunch at a nearby mall, and showed us just how diverse the food in Singapore is. From what I could tell it was a mix of Indian, Malay and Singaporean dishes of which I have no clue what the names are. (feel free to comment on this Carolyn). But it was delicious, I know that. Later in the afternoon, we met up with Josh and headed to the Botanical Gardens. It had just rained so the gardens were incredibly green and lush, perfect for photographing. We went for a walk through the orchid garden, and learned to our amazement, that there are hundreds of varieties of orchids there, coming in all assortments of colours and sizes. Here is a sampling:

Day Two: Being exhausted from the previous day's activities and lack of sleep, we opted on sleeping in to recoup. We ended up taking most of the day pretty easy, taking advantage of the computer situation to burn dvd's of what is now amounting to thousands of photos, and then waiting out the sudden downpour and thunderstorm to get moving. Hawksing, Carolyn, Josh, Hav and I eventually went out to Sentosa Island just a short train ride off the coast of Singapore. It is now a resort island but was previously used by the British to set up a defence against Japan in WWII. Because we arrived later in the day, some of the exhibits were starting to close, so we chose to go mini golfing as it was still open.

It's been a long time since I've been mini golfing, and this course was particularly hard as the putting surface was cement, allowing the ball to roll and roll and roll, nevertheless making things frustating, but we all had a lot of fun anyway.

The highlight of the day for me, however, was what amounted to the BEST Chinese food dinner I've ever experienced. Oh my. If you think ginger beef is the pinnacle of Chinese food, then you are sadly, sadly mistaken. Some of the memorable dishes were a seafood curry, bean curd, sweet and spicy soup, and a beef dish that was the most tender beef I've ever had. I love food.

Walking through China Town after the meal.

Day Three:Hav and I took a tour of the National Museum of Singapore, which did a great job of describing Singapore's fascinating history.

And it did in a high tech way, which always gets me excited. I love tech. We were given a lime green box we hung around our necks with headphones attached, which was basically like a little computer with a colour lcd screen on it. So when you enter the museum, you just type in the number on the display into the computer and then you get an audio description in your headphones. It would even sync up the audio to videos being displayed on the walls. We could have spent all day there, but unfortunately didn't have time with all we wanted to see. Nonetheless, we were very impressed.

View of downtown buildings from cricket field.

Next, we checked out the Singapore Art Museum, housed in a cool old Catholic boys school.
We didn't have too much time, so we kind of whizzed through it, but enjoyed it also as it featured mostly local and other artists in neighbouring countries. Then we were off to meet up with our hosts and wandered around the river where many old buildings have been converted into upscale clubs.

View from the river. One of particular interest was called Clinic, and was based on a hospital theme.
The drinks came in IV tubes, it included a morgue behind the front desk, and the waiters wore scrubs. creepy.

To cap the day off, what else to do other than have yet another excellent meal. This time it was Indonesian, and one of the highlights was the fishhead curry, a common dish in this area. (note the teeth)

It was excellent, and I over ate. But much worth it. A great end to our time in Singapore.

Thank you so much Carolyn, Hawksing, Josh, Jonathon for your hospitality during our stay. And for being such excellent historians/tour guides/people that can predict our every interest and/or whim before we we even think it. You really spoiled us! You win the "Hav and Scott's best tour guide award" hands down.

False Alarm

2007-04-15T22:53:00.000-07:00

It's okay, you can go back to being our friends. Turns out we dont have fleas after all. We discovered the source of the problem...little black flies that bite really hard and are small enough to get in through the mosquito nets. And once we made it to squeaky clean, relatively bug free Singapore the problem dissapeared. In the meantime, we did have a few days on the beach in Cherating where we spent more time doing this...

than this...

Taman Negara

2007-04-14T05:00:00.000-07:00

Okay, here it is - the long awaited jungle episode.

For a little background info on the Taman Negara take a look at the link. Most people have to enter the national park via a 2 hour river boat ride, but we came in the back door on a mini bus from the highlands (coincidentally meeting our 4th Edmontonian on the trip). We got off at the small town of Kaula Tahan which exists just to support the tourists and trekkers preparing to enter the park. This town, bordering the river has a few guesthouses, stores and equipment rental places while the restaurants are actually floating barges right on the river. Makes for beautiful scenery with your meal, but takes a bit of getting used to for those of us prone to motion sickness. The national park begins on the other side of the river and requires a ferry to get across.

Breakfast on a floating restaurant. You can see the park entrance on the other side of the river.

We were actually really impressed with the park and how well it is set up. (Though we did get a chuckle out of the wording at the bottom of this sign that was set up in front of the unofficial guide shops. tee hee.)

Only about a tenth of the park is accessible to the public via hiking trails. Combined with the incredibly thick vegetation, this means that it is virtually impossible to spot any creatures as they usually stay well away from the paths. But it makes a lot of sense in terms of providing a good wildlife sanctuary. That said, walking back along a pitch dark road to our guesthouse on the first night in town, a large black creature jumped out of the bush and crossed the path right in front of us.

Right here. This is where we are absolutely sure that we possibly could have seen a tiger...or a wild boar...or something else with four legs.

The other creature we did see a lot of were giant lizards (monitor lizards?) sunning themselves on the path. The picture is a bit dark - but you get the idea.

We spent the next two days hiking through the park. And how do I even begin to explain what that feels like?!? Like nothing I have ever experienced before. The second you cross the river and walk into the jungle you are hit by a wall of heavy, wet heat. You can feel the oppressive weight of the air on you, and almost have to struggle to breathe it in. Imagine sitting in a hot hot steam room. Do you know the feeling? Now imagine hiking in it - for hours - much of it uphill. We ran into a few others hiking and wondered where they had gone swimming. In another 15 min we understood. We were swimming in air, and the combined effects of the air and our walking (ie. sweat). Suffice to say that under these conditions what would normally seem like a simple walk becomes quite difficult. And you soon begin to look a little like this.

The other striking feature of the jungle was the sound. It is so loud! Most of it high pitched squealing insect sounds. Like a cross between speaker feedback and distant power tools. After a while, you begin to tune it out and don't notice, but at first it is a bit alarming.

We did the world's longest canopy walk, which takes a bit of nerve at first as the bridges really
sway. If you are anything like me you spend a significant amount of time eyeing the ropes visualizing yourself plummeting 40 m to the ground. But once this becomes a bit dull, you really enjoy having a bird's eye view at the top of the canopy.

Here are a few pictures from our hikes:

And suddenly camouflage made so much more sense.

Huge Trees!

Some guys working on the park trail show us their pet scorpion.

Scott tests the Tarzan theory. There are vines everywhere.

And then there are the bugs which are truly vicious. You will die without mosquito repellent. Lucky for us, it was drier than usual when we where there, which meant the leeches were not too bad. Here is one that I spotted just as it was about to make a lunge for my shoe.

The most interesting part of our hiking was coming across an Orang Asli settlement, one of the indigenous people groups that still live in the park area. This particular tribe is nomadic, so by settlement I mean a couple tarps tied to the trees, a fire and 3 or 4 pots. There were about 20 people there at the time, mostly women and children sitting under the trees chatting. It was a bit like turning the corner and walking into a national geographic page. The children especially were looked pretty "wild." Most were pretty much naked, had crazy frizzy hair, huge smiles and machetes. Even the little ones (ie 2/3 year olds) had a big knife in their hands. Sorry - no pictures. Somehow it felt a little voyeuristic to do so and we had heard a bit about the negative effects of tourism on these settlements. So we just said hi and continued on our way without disturbing them too much. It really got us thinking about their lifestyle though. Especially dealing with all the snakes/scorpions/spiders/giant ants/mosquitoes/flies/leeches 24 hours a day, not to mention the whole hunting and gathering predicament. I was quite fascinated by this little glimpse and have since tried to get my hands on some literature about this group, but haven't found much yet. Apparently a thorough study was done in 1937 and according to one website the information is not yet dated. Hm.

We rounded off the trip with one guided hike (having heard great things about the well educated guides). We opted for the night trek. because a) it sounds like a good thrill and b) when do you get to hike in a jungle at night? Turns out the park only allows night "treks" on one little path that borders the river, which would have been fine if everyone else in the area didn't also sign up. I think it was especially bad that night as there were 2 high school field trips participating. So we pretty much just walked in a straight line with 100 others, everyone shining their flashlights around, talking loudly. So much for being at one with nature. It was actually pretty funny. The saving grace was that in our particular group there were only 4 people and we had an excellent guide, who managed to spot all sorts of interesting bugs and plants and fill our minds with facts. So we saw lots of walking sticks, a baby tarantula the size of my hand (did you know they eat birds?), luminescent mushrooms, giant ants, cicadas, and a family of deer at a natural salt lick. Not too bad considering.

The final picture here is of the 2 hour boat trip we took to get back to civilization.

Cameron Highlands - Malaysia

2007-04-12T02:43:00.000-07:00

For those of you that like things in chronological order and have been disappointed by gaps in the blog, here's a closer look at the time we spent in the Cameron Highlands before we arrived in Kuala Lumpur and the jungle but after leaving Penang.

The Cameron Highlands were a much appreciated break from the heat. After a long winding drive which seemed to get endlessly higher, we alighted the bus in a town called Tanah Rata in the highlands and actually felt chilled! Is this possible? We're in Malaysia after all, it's near the equator. In any case it was nice to breathe some cool, fresh air, very reminiscent of the Rockies back home. With similar vegetation to boot. Lots of evergreen type trees. What are those called? Coniferous, right (it's been a long time since grade 7).

Ok, so one of the main things to do is go hiking. And me (Scott) being too cheap to hire a guide thought we'd do a trail that our guidebook said would be a nice easy walk. And it was once we found the trail 1 hour and 2 km later than expected. Oh well. We found a lot of cool little things growing and scurrying about in the forest. Here are some of the highlights:

millipede

mushrooms on an old tree

acorn...I thought ones that look like this only existed in Disney cartoons

what are these called? for some reason I have fiddleheads in my mind.

Once we completed our little forest walk we decided to hike up another hill 5km(again I'm too cheap to hire some form of transport) to check out the local "Boh Tea" plantation. It was pretty hot and we were both dripping with sweat by the time we made it up but it was worth the visit. The views of the plantation were great.

We had time to grab a cup of tea and a snack at the plantation before we headed on our 5 km walk back down the hill where we could catch the bus to town. To our delight, as we started out down the hill, a worker from the plantation stopped next to us with his truck and offered us a ride. We. Were. Thrilled. Once at the bottom we thanked him profusely for the ride and hopped out where we would catch our bus. However, we did not know where the bus would come, and thought, "Hey, nine kilometres uphill to town can't be that bad?" Wrong. It is that bad. Especially when your feet, knees, and hips, are already aching from the 13 previous kilometres of walking. The next two hours were kind of a blur. I do remember moaning a lot, and getting many weird looks from locals zooming by in their vehicles. It's kind of like someone choosing to walk from Edmonton to Spruce Grove on a scenic Hwy 16, you just DON'T DO IT. But just when we were entering the stages of complete despair we saw it: the Tanah Rata sign.

We made it. Yes. 22 km and 6 hours of walking. It was well worth it. And we celebrated by eating chicken tandoori in town, which was excellent by the way, kind of like coming home to a good home cooked meal of meat and potatoes. And that was the Cameron Highlands.