Paradise

I know it has been a very long time since we've written here. The internet connection is very slow here.


Right now we are in the Gilli islands. If there was one place that I visited that I can stay at forever, this would be it. This island is just East of Bali and it is located on the top right hand side of Lombok. If you look at the world map you cant see these three islands because the biggest one is 3km wide. All the hotels, restaurants, bars and activities are located around the island on the beach. There is one main street where everyone walks past. The town population is less than 800 people but no one really knows for sure. All the locals know each other and when there is a new face they make sure to make them feel welcome and at home. Their English is the best we heard in our travels which makes communication easy and very interesting. This island really is paradise. It is its own magical island that is not connected with the outside world. They don't have any cell phones, cars or motorbikes on this island. The only method of transportation is a Ferrari with one horse power. That is what they refer to their horse and carriage. This method of transportation is only used by very lazy tourists and to distribute goods that arrive by boat for restaurants and bars. We rented bicycles (mine had a little basket) to see the island.

We met a lot of people here and we see them daily. Its like a small high school where everyone has seen each other around and knows their whereabouts. I even met a lot of young adults traveling alone from Moscow. One girl is a dive instructor here. Marc has set up daily poker tournaments at 4pm and he won the first one, which is nice that he is bringing in some income. Every night there is a different bar that is having a party, and people are really friendly and get to know one another during the night. Last night we went to a ladies night which means that girls get free drinks. We saw one guy at the bar wearing a dress and I had to find out why. He said that it is ladies night and he came for free drinks. He couldn't walk at the end of the night and all for free. Apparently this wasn't his first time.

We are staying in a local Indonesian house. The owners have only four rooms to let out. This family like many others here are very welcoming. We spend a lot of time talking to them and relating on many fronts. Their way of life may seem so beautiful and worry free while in reality it is very bitter sweet. I find it very sad that more than half the kids are not it school and they have to start work as early as five years old. Its also really sad that medical services must be paid from their pocket and they don't have any insurance. Most of the people on the island have two jobs, they work every single day with no exception. Still they cannot afford to buy or rent a house and end up sleeping on the floor or a couch at a hotel. In return for having a place to sleep, as a third job they help the owners of the hotel by bringing tourists that don't have reservations. I like this one family so much that I have offered to help to add them to a popular booking web site to generate more revenue for their hotel.

At Gilli there is one power generator. The power goes out daily sometimes for 3 hours sometimes 12. I didn't mind this to be such a big deal until we were watching a very interesting movie in our room and just as the movie reached its climax the power went out. I will have to wait to see what happens.

Before we got to the Gilli islands Marc and I did a day tour of Bali. We saw a local temple built for a king, went to a silver making factory, Monkey forest, coffee plantation, and a mountain top to see a volcano.
Silver Factory: it was odd because they walked us through the factory and we literally watched over peoples shoulder while they were working. I felt really uncomfortable by this and the people were pretty upset to be disturbed from their work. However, we later went to their showroom and bought two pairs of earrings. I already lost one of the earing and have one wearable pair left. This always happens to me where i lose one earring so I figured the next pair I get will be glued to my ear, this way I can't lose it.
Monkey Forest: very beautiful forest with more than 1000 monkeys. The monkeys were trained hustlers. They climbed on your shirt and grabbed over priced bananas right out of your hand. I tried to give the bananas to the baby monkeys but the older ones were quite quick and aggressive and let me know that I was in the wrong. Marc also had an interesting experience with a monkey. As he was trying to hide the bananas in his backpack the monkey jumped on his back and grabbed the stack right out of his hands.
Coffee Plantation: was a hoax. The tour of the coffee grounds and plantation consisted of one man that was frying the beans in a pot while right next to it was a coffee bean bag of ready coffee. If you have any questions you should visit the gift shop they said to buy the coffee and try it at home. Nevertheless we were quite intrigued by one of the coffees that they had. There is a small cat like animal that lurks in the bushes of this plantation. It eats the coffee leafs and when it craps (excuse the language) the workers pick it up, process it in their pot and sell it. This coffee is very expensive, because the animal is very small therefore its waste is small as well. Marc and I didn't try this coffee but I did see a lot of Russians buying this coffee and referring to it as an Indonesian delicatessen to bring back home.
Mountain Top: this was a very beautiful place. It overlooked a volcano, a river and popular temple. Unfortunately our camera broke and we couldn't take any pictures. We did find out that they have a trek atop the actual volcano that starts at 1am to watch the sunrise. Once we go back to Bali we will do the trek and take a lot of pictures.

Our plan right now is to avoid flying back to Thailand due to the situation there and we are trying to change our ticket for direct flight from Bali to London with stopover in Bangkok (only airport). In the mean time we are staying here and have no plans to return to Thailand.

P.S Marc had a very funny idea that I must share. The public bathrooms here smell very bad. The idea was to capture this smell in an air freshner and sell it to the homesick Asian community in Toronto. I don't know, but there might be something to it.

Bali - Indonesia

Wow Bali, what a change from Vietnam. The airport is located on a beach. It was a very good thing that our pilot knew what he was doing because an inch off and we would have landed in the water. Bali is very beautiful: its sunny, rich with colorful architecture, exotic trees and flowers, people are smiling, the sand is white and the water is crystal clear. Most of the tourists are from Australia and Netherlands. There are very few Canadians in this area (its very far from Canada). We are staying a short walk from the beach and our hotel has a very nice pool. Including breakfast we are paying $25 per night, we were very happy with this deal. Our plan is too see a few more islands, a volcano, wild animals, a few temples, the mountains and maybe maybe try surfing.

Last night we had sushi for dinner. We were both really craving it, there are very few sushi restaurants that we have seen so far. Our dinner cost us three times what we paid for one nights accommodation and it was mediocre. When I get home from the airport I already have a plan. I will stop at country style for coffee and a bagel with cream cheese (I have not seen one bagel or cream cheese here) and then I'm going to a sushi restaurant. After this trip I have definitely come to the conclusion that Toronto has the best food and fairly close to authentic cuisine from abroad.

We want to wish everyone who is celebrating a happy Easter and a happy Passover. Were sad to miss the Casimiri Easter celebration. I'm sure Charlene and Vanessa cooked a very delicious and hearty meal (I hope without any explosions this time :) ) Let us know how it went. I'm also very sad to miss my family celebration dinner. I miss home cooking and my family very much.

P.S - After rereading this blog I realized how much of it was concentrated around food and I realized that its dinner time!!! I will leave you now and hope to hear from you soon!

Malaysia - Toronto?

Marc and I have safely landed in Kuola Lumpar, capitol of Malaysia. We are staying in china town. This city is very similar to Toronto. The buildings are tall and the people are from everywhere in the world. They have people from the phillipines, all over asia, arabic, india, pakistan, and so on and so forth. We saw the sites yesterday and even ran into a group of sailors from Pakistans, the pictures are amazing and im looking for a place i can put them up quickly. Tomorrow we leave for Bali and will update with a better blog once we are there.

Kissess

Just an update

Were back in Hanoi from out travels up north. Wow Sapa the mountains were beautiful and we took an overnight train there and back and slept on bunk beds. It was really fun and very interesting to learn about the culture of the Coh Lao people. They are a tribe of 400 people who have lived in the mountains, farming their own food and totally separate from any civilization. They wear traditional costumes. They marry each other based on the year they were born in for example I'm 1981 year of the buffalo. I would need to marry someone who matches my year if I lived in that tribe. Very bizarre. They don't go to the hospital but rather use traditional medicines to heal one another. More than half the kids dont attend school, its their parents choice and often they choose to have their kids help them sell and beg. They walk 12 km to Sapa daily to sell their bags and other useless stuff they make. The interesting thing is that women are the ones who are breadwinners while stay at home to raise the children and farm the land. We noticed that they have a lot of cute puppies running around but very few older dogs. We inquired and wished we didn't. When the dog reaches around 1 years old... yes they eat them.

We then came back Halong Bay. We were on a boat overnight and sailed to an island called Cabata. There we hiked through a few caves that were thousands of years old. We kayaked into a lagoon, and ate a lot of seafood. The trip was really fun except the weather was rainy. Vietnam is a beautiful country but like we mentioned earlier the people are getting to us. So we are happy to leave.

We changed out itinerary because we didn't want to go to Laos, it was difficult to get there from Hanoi and a lot of people had not the best things to say about it. We did hear great things about Bali Indonesia instead. After careful research and budged examination we decided that we can squeeze it in. We booked our tickets to Bali and we are leaving tomorrow. We will have a stop over in Malaysia for a few days in the capitol city Kaula Lampur. We are very excited about these plans and cant wait to get out of here.

Marc and I definately cought the traveling bug. We love it and now just want to go to every country in the world (not on this trip). We met so many people and we learn so much from each person we met. On the boat there was a couple from Poland, they were our age and the girl spoke Russian. She worked in Ukraine and Moscow and told me so much about these countries. I got to speak Russian for the first time on this trip which was amazing and to my surprise I'm still pretty good. We were having a conversation about Poland joining the European union in 2004 and how a lot of Polls (polish people) left the country to work in the United Kingdom. I actually knew from speaking with Irish people we met previously that Northern Ireland is part of the United Kingdom and I was so proud to have such knowledge. I already feel that I have learned so much and grown as an individual on this trip. Besides now we have many places to stay around the world for example: Poland, Denver Colorado, England, and Amsterdam.

We read your emails and we are so happy to hear from you. Please keep them coming. We miss you all terribly and cant wait to come back to the best country in the world!!!

Restless in Vietnam (Hanoi)

After getting of the phone with my family and friends I was pretty emotional. I kept talking about what my family said and how Irene, Olga and Timmy are doing. The day was doomed, I was homesick. Everyone kept asking me how is Vietnam? I kept saying to imagine China town but bigger. I've been thinking about that question all day and decided that it was not a fair answer. We are staying in the Old Quarter, a touristy area in Hanoi. The city is very beautiful with rich history left by the French (churches, bridges, opera house, rivers) intermingled with new industry and malls. I find myself annoyed by the people and their behaviour towards tourists; the smell, the constant noise and endless scooters flying by.

There are endless tourists traps and we have identified many of them throughout our travels, but the odassity of people here is untolerable. The majority of people in Hanoi are rude and lack manners. It feels as though when they are looking at us, all they see are disposable dollar bills.

For example I went to buy soap and asked the clerk how much it costs. He showed 60 dong on his fingers (yes their money is called crap). I quickly translated it to canadian and realized that he's proposing that I pay $5 for a 200 ml bottle of Dove. I immediately said it was too much, then he proceeded to ask how much I am willing to pay. He handed me a pen and a newspaper and we started the negotiation. I decided to turn the bottle over and make sure that it was in fact soap that I was buying. To my surprise I found a white sticker with a printed price that said 35 dong. I took the pen and wrote 35. The clerk looked surprised; how was it that I was able to guess the exact price, of which he would have sold to a local. He started bargaining with me and I was so upset that I left the store. He ran after me and made a grand gesture that he was doing me some big favor and losing his pants to sell this soap for a local price. He got into a huge screaming match as I was leaving with his son (who probably put the sticker on the bottle in the first place).

We went to a temple yesterday, got thirsty and decided on a coke and fanta. The sign read: coca - 8, joy - 5. I figured coca to be coca cola and joy, well I wasn't sure why fanta was joy but figured my purchase should amount to no more than 13 crap. Out of habit before handing the lady my money I asked how much, she said 20. I looked at her and then at the sign and explained to her my rationale about 8+5 =13. She got really mad and handed me 4 dong change. It turned out that joy is water but they ran out. I thought to advise her that if she is going to rip of tourists she should find a more conspicous way rather than posting the prices on top of the fridge. My better judgment got me and I decided against it. Who am I to teach her how to run her business.

In Hue, the last city we stayed in, we ran into a traditional hotel scam. We saw a hotel we liked on trip advisor (a website were using), we called and made a reservation for two nights. When we got there they only had one night available but they paid for our cab to their sister hotel. The manager of our first hotel knew how much we were willing to pay and told their sister hotel our price. The sister hotel was more like a dirty uncle hotel and worth a lot less. Marc went to look at the room and I decided to look through their brochures. I found the price of the rooms glued to the counter. Marc came down and said the room was ok, not as nice as the other hotel, but it will do for two nights . He said our room number is 204. The manager quickly grabbed my bag and started carrying it to our room. I explained that we need to know the price before he takes my stuff up to the room (negotiation tip #1 always establish the price before you take the room, or enter the restaurant or put on the shoes). The manager quoted the price we were willing to pay for the nicer hotel (I wonder how he knew). I pointed to the sign that I dug up and pointed to room 204. The price was exactly half. To make a long story short he discounted the room just a bit and said if I wanted the price on the paper that I would have to go somewhere else. I wasn't willing to go anywhere else, it was hot and we just got off the overnight bus.

Bargaining Skills: As I previosly mentioned when we got to Thailand I was really good at bargaining. Something happened, Marc perfected the skill and I got weak. In Hanoi there is a really lovely shoe market. We promised Vanessa to bring back a pair of Nike shoes in black - size 8. My friend Shay who has been to Thailand three years ago said I can get them for $10. Well this is not the case anymore. We have been to many shoe markets and real Nike stores and we cant find any nice ones (but were still looking). I found these fake Puma shoes and fell in love. The first store we went to the Puma on the left was twice the size the Puma on the right. The second store we went to they were ripped and in the third store the slipper fit. I put the shoes on and started bargaining (remember the negotiation tip, this is a mistake). She said 350 I said 150 she said 250 I said 200. I looked and Marc and said "she wants 250 I dont know what to do". Marc said "the first store was willing to give them for 165 take off the shoes and lets go there". I looked at him and said, "but those shoes were bad and these are perfect". Marc looked at me in disbelief, shook his head and left the store. I ended up getting the shoes for 200 but after 15 minutes of making puppy faces. Outside I was all smiles wearing my new slippers, Marc looked at me and asked, "what happened, you used to be so good at this."

Vietnamese Massage: The day we were leaving Hue we got a Vietnamese massage. It wasn't a far stretch to assume that if the Thai massage is so popular, that these neighbours would learn the craft, steal shamlessly (like they thought us at Cintas). Apparantly the Viatnamese are to good for that and they invented their own massage. First things first, I know that we went to a proper massage place - no funny business. My girl was 16 and Marcs was maybe a few months older. They were both wearing mini skirts. The massage started with her pating my back wihout applying any pressure for about 30 minutes. She sat on top on the bed (in her mini skirt). It was really awkward. In the middle of the massage the lights went out, so they dissapeared for about 10 minutes to get the candles. During the black our next door neighbour fell asleep and started snoring. The rooms were divided by paper thin walls so the sound effects were clear. I felt that I could also feel the breeze from his snoring. So much for a relaxing experience. When the girl returned she countinued to pat my arms and legs. In about 15 minutes the massage was over. She handed me a feedback form which had two questions. Rate the massage good or bad and how much is the tip. The length of the massage including the black out was 45 minutes and we paid for 60 minutes. We saw two rats running by as we were leaving and they forgot to give us our mineral water. I would not recommend Viatnamese massage.

Street Hustlers: There are many people who offer to take tourists on the back of their scooters and carriages. They are at every corner huddled in bundles. They all have one line-- one hour very cheap. There aren't that many tourists during the day so when we are spotted walking down the street they all run towards us together. I dont even bother any more because they are so rude; however, to this day, Marc continues to say no thanks politely the first three times and then not so politely the next few times. Today he snapped. He got into an argument with a local. Marc and I were standing and trying to figure out where to go next. The large map in my hands may have been a giveaway. One local came up and said, "one hour very cheap" to which Marc said no thanks. They went back and forth about five times. Then another one came up, clearly the first one wasn't too convincing so the second one would try. Marc got so upset he shouted, "cant you see that we are having a conversation and you are interrupting." I dont think they understood but the fact that such a response came forth I knew Marc has had enough. As did I. The locals just laughed.

I dont want to give you a really bad impression of Hanoi, we did get to do a lot of really touristy stuff. Yesterday we saw a water pupper show in a traditional Vietnamese theater. It was about the rice fields, legends of the dragons and the sword accompanied by traditional music and singing. We also visited several temples, a church (left by the French), museums and went to the Cinema to see Revolutionary Road with Kate Winslet and Leo Dicaprio. Tomorrow we are going to Sapa, supposed to be the jewel of Vietnam. We booked the trip with our hotel so everything is taken care off. Overnight train, hotels, hikking, and overnight stay in the village. When we get back we are doing Halong Bay, also a tour booked with the hotel. In one week we will be off to Laos for ten days.

The best part of the trip is sitting in a coffe shop and opening our book, looking at the map and pointing to our next destination, then plotting the most efficient way to get there. I dont know if we will have access to the internet in the next 4-5 days because we will be away from civilization in the mountains. As soon as we are back, Marc or myself will blog.

I also wanted to mention that I got Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy and I am really excited about reading it. It's a russian classic and I'm embarassed to say that I still haven't read it. Marc said that he would it read after me.

Hope you are all doing well. Thanks for following our adventures!! we miss you.

Kissess

From the Pen of Marc

There are a few things that I would like to share with our fans. I know Veronika had touched upon some but I will add to those events. I will start with our day today.

We had booked a tour to see some royal grounds in Hue city. This place is called the Citadel or the forbidden purple city. We were to be picked up by no later than 12:30pm for the buffet lunch. We were supposed to go first thing in the morning but I was supposed to draft my fantasy baseball team. The draft didn't happen so we spent the morning drinking coffee. Literally we had 3 or 4 coffees each waiting for the bus. Needless to say, the bus didn't pick us up and when we called the travel agency they decided to send a waitress from the restaurant we were to have lunch at. We kept asking the tour operators as to why they didn't pick us up but they were convinced that a waitress walking us to the restaurant instead of the bus is just as good.

We finished lunch and made it to the purple city. This site was once home to the royal families and is now in some areas a place of worship. Once again there was a diferent line and price for locals and foreigners. It was incredibly hot today and combined with all the coffee Veronika and I drank, we weren't exactley the best people to take on a tour. We found out that the grounds were built like 200 years ago. "Big deal" Veronika said to me. She made a good point though, after visiting Angkor Wat (900 plus years ago) anything less shouldn't wow us. The tour started and the guide explained something about the dragon representing the king and went on about unicorns and the phoenix and other mythological creatures. I could have given this tour and made a bunch of garbage up about Ligers and Bigfoot too. So Veronika asks the guide the first question of the tour, "Does the king actually believe that dragons exist?" I obviously couldn't stop laughing and at that point we decided that we couldn't listen to the guide anymore. We kept our distance from the rest of the group and took some pictures. The heat had made us delerious so most of the pics were of us doing kung fu moves. Veronika will post these picks on facebook so stay tuned.

Next stop: Pagoda. I always thought that pagoda was a bench by a pool, at least that is what the controls for the light in my backyard says. A pagoda is a place where the Vietnamese pray and monks study. We saw these monks picking their noses and shouted for them not to clean house in public. Good thing they don't understand English. It was at this last stop we were supposed to hop on a boat to take us across the river with the rest of our group. Veronika and I ducked out of this tour early as well. Actually, we didin't participate in this one at all and we waited on the steps in front of the boat.

"There is our boat 357, it just got here" I told Veronika.
"It looks like it's leaving" she says.
"No they wouldn't leave without us". Immediately after I said that I remembered the way we behaved and it only made sense that they would leave us behind. Good move guys. So Veronika and I hired a couple of scooter drivers that took us throughout the city and back to our hotel. At the end of it all I have no hard feelings about the worst tour I will ever take.

Veronika mentioned the sleeping bus we were on but left out some details. The bus has three rows from the back to the front and there is the top bunk and the bottom bunk. My seat was the middle row so I had Veronika to my left and a gross person to my left (as always). This guy was coughing in his sleep and kept snorting. Not dry snorting either. You know when someone is sick and they are really congested? Yeah, he consistently sounding like this. Since we were the second last row to the back I had probably the grossest feet (other than my own) beside my face the whole night. Whoever designed these buses could not fathom that there are people over 5'9". The best part is that this is a sleeping bus and you have to pay more. My question is why should we pay more when the bus driver slams on his breaks every 100 metres and is leaning on his horn for 10 minute intervals. Not even two gravol pills could gaurentee me a good nights rest. The over night travel wasn't very peachy.

The morning made it all worth while when majority of the travellers got off the bus and new travelers got on. I was half asleep when I heard the two loudest Vietnamese guys ever enter the bus. Guess where they sat. Right beside me. At first, I was annoyed but then I heard a familiar voice. I thought I was still dreaming but when I was fully awake I got confirmation. One of the guys sounded exactley like the Cookie Monster. I was obviously amused and found myself eavesdropping on the conversation. Then Cookie Monster started talking and ended his sentence with the words "gobble gobble." I almost pissed myself. That guy made the uncomfortable trip absolutely priceless for me.

Veronika has also posted some pics of my new haircut. I originally went to the salon and asked them to shave my head. Obviously the lady could care less and cut my hair like Arsenal striker Robin Van Persie. Veronika and her convinced me that it looked good. I know that next time I will offer the person cutting my hair double the price if they can shave my head in under one minute. Give me a chance to chicken out and I will 10 out of 10 times. Angelo, I might consider flying you to wherever I am to give me a proper haircut next time.

Another thing about South East Asia, no matter where yo are every 3 kilmoetres it smells like farts. I share your amazement. The reason for it is still unclear to me but I will find out and report back to you as soon as I uncover the truth.

Over and Out

P.S. If you haven't seen a funny movie in a while watch Hot Rod. You will thank me later.

Nha Trang & Hue - Vietnam

Our last two days in Nha Trang were so much fun. We ended up visiting a wonderland type of park called Vinpearl Land. We spend the whole day in a water park going down slides, we soaked on the beach, went to underwater world where we saw sharks and turtles, saw an animal circus show with monkeys and dogs, saw a magic show, and played indoor video games (pics on facebook). The park was huge but really diserted so we really had it all to ourselves. On the last day we went to do a mud bath and soaked in mineral water pools and tubs. We then took an overnight bus to Hue. The bus had actual bunk beds and was really comfortable to sleep in. Yesterday we got to Hue. This city has a lot of interesting sight to see and today we are going on a bus tour around the city. Yesterday we had a wonderful seafood dinner on a floating restaurant on the river. Olga and Timmy - update on Pho. We tried it but not at a specialty Pho place just at a regular restaurant and so far the verdict is that Toronto Pho is sooo much better. We have another week or so in Vietnam so we will try it again but at a specialized Pho place and we will report back.

Marc went to a hairdresser to shave his head. The lady acted like she understood everything and was going to shave it, but at the end she just gave him a very nice haircut. She said that she cant shave his hair because its so nice. Marc said he would give it a few days and we even had a vote on facebook and everyone said to shave it.

Mama and Papa thanks for calling Shmurak he emailed me and offered to be our tour guide all over Kiev. I am so excited to see Kiev and Shmurak, I actually remember him from when we lived there.