The adventure begins!! It begun before we even left, as a matter of fact. An emergency,high-stress sitaution arose, just to test us, of course. I had to make an urgent trip to Ottawa the day before we were leaving in order to collect our passports and visas from the Indian embassy who had taken a little longer with them than expected. But low and behold..the crisis was solved. Phew. We took a train from Montreal to New York City (normally 11 hours, but ended up being 14 because of "rail delays"). And of course as any adventure begins we met some [View Full Entry]

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Ok...So first of all I would like to say...YES, i know that its been a YEAR since we first arrived to ChiangMai. And I sincerely apologize for not getting this blog up here sooner. You know how life gets....CRAZY. SO... The story goes.... We left Indonesia for Kuala Lumpur, once again. This time with NO idea where to go to next. We finally came to the conclusion that we needed time to focus on our bodies and get in shape...and what better place to do that then on a hot, sunny beach in thailand. Well...somehow we found a Canadian pilates instructor [View Full Entry]

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It took 12 hours to get to Mount Bromo from Yogyakarta. It was a long ride, with 2 long stops due to multiple flat tires...but we are pretty much immune to being annoyed by all of that stuff anymore. Delays just don't bother us one bit, we know we will get there...eventually. We were just happy that we didn't have to do the same, return trip, back to Yogyakarta the next day like all the other tourists in the van. Phew. The sceanary was great at times...but for the most part the journey was spent driving in and out of the [View Full Entry]

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So...after enduring a 3 hour delay and another terrifying earthquake at the Padang Airport, we were saying goodbye to Sumatra and on our way to Java. Finally, after almost 4 months in Indonesia, we were going to see the heart of this wild country. We had just touched down in Jakarta about 2 months ago but never left the vicinity of the airport as we had a flight to Singapore the following day. We arrived, this time, in the evening, hopped in a taxi and were driven through the wide and busy streets to the main backpacker center; Jalan Jaksa. First [View Full Entry]

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The journey to Bukit Tinggi was not quite as bad as we had anticipated....the 16 hour bus ride seemed to just fly by...no joke. At this stage in the game, we don't even blink an eye went we are about to get onto another night bus. The ride was fine, quite bumpy, slippery and slidy for the most part since the road pretty much disappeared during the night and we found ourselves driving through deep, slippery mud. No sleep for us that night. We arrived in Bukittinggi at 9am, check into a hotel and went to sleep. The next day we [View Full Entry]

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Lake Toba...How we DO love Lake Toba. Its been 5 days sice we've arrived and we are damn happy to be here. The goin' is SLOW, the food is DELISH, the air is COOL and the accommodation is CLEAN. Life is sweet in Toba. We don't really want to leave on Sunday like we've decided to do. But if we want to see other things in Sumatra and then Java...unfortunately we must move on. Though we could do as Martin and Sara, a Swiss couple we met here, and just decide to give up all of our plans and donate our [View Full Entry]

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Aceh, Aceh, Aceh... so here is the story, We went to Pulau Weh and felt very Love/Hate about it. YES..its a beautiful, tropical island, with palm trees everywhere, and soft powdery white sand beaches with the most clear blue water you could imagine. But, its always relevant to where you've been and where you are going, I believe. and I have to admit that we have been quite blessed with delicious, deserted, tropical beach paradises already in indonesia. and as easy as we are to please....the circumstances just weren't right. The first night we got there, it was dark already when [View Full Entry]

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So, Guillaume and I vowed that since we totally cheaped out and didn't go to Komodo Island it would be OUR duty, as professional travellers, to go on a jungle adventure and see wild orangutans. I have to say that the adventure started long before we even set foot in the wild Sumatran jungle. First we had to endure the terrifying, uncomfortable (yet somehow hilarious) 6 hour minibus ride from Berastagi to Gurah (where we would begin the trek). With two new friends in tow, Eyal and Mirit, and an expression of sheer terror plastered on each of our faces, we [View Full Entry]

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Still in Pen-town. Loving it. We had to stay here a tad longer than we had anticipated because I was waiting to see a doctor. I thought that I might have cancer-tuberculosis-japanese-yellow-fever-tendonitis-athletles-foot desease. The tropical version of course. It turns out that I don't have anything and I'm actually quite healthy. To make do while waiting for this doctor, Jenny and I did what we know best. EAT. The only thing any sensible and logical human being, equipped with a mouth and a digestive system, would do when surrounded with such an abundance of insanely amazing food. [View Full Entry]

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So, I suppose it could be seen as a good thing that the indonesian gov. only gives two month visas at a time for tourists... otherwise guillaume and i may have never visited Singapore or Malaysia...and that would just be sad..cuz we are having a great time here. Before leaving the country we were in Makassar, Sulawesi... having a joyous time after a very hellish 30 hour boat ride. All I can really remember about Makassar is: taking many becak rides (bicycle rickshaws), eating fresh fish, drinking fresh soursop juices, watching Indonesian idol in the hotel room with cold beer and [View Full Entry]

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