Travel Blog Posts
July 23rd 2010
When we planned out our trip we knew that India, China and even Mongolia were going to be the major highlights of our 82 day journey around the world. Admittedly, South Korea was on the itinerary mainly because it was the most sensible choice as it was close to China, in the right direction towards home and was somewhere I haven't been yet. Neither of us knew a whole lot about Korea and really had no expectations at all of what we would encounter. After two weeks in this country we are both fantastically impressed in multiple ways and Korea definitely claims the status of unexpectedly brilliant. The differences between China and Korea we found to be staggering, in multiple ways. The Korean people are by far the friendliest we have encountered on our entire trip ... read more
July 11th 2010
After being in a place like Putuoshan which is more known for it's natural beauty than anything else, Shanghai has been overwhelming for the senses in mostly good ways. A city of 15 million people (half the population of Canada) always boggles my mind just for the simple fact that so many people live out their everyday life in an overwhelmingly crowded yet organized place. Life goes on as it does in any other major city, but in a place like Shanghai it simply feels like controlled chaos at many points during the day. From my own experience it was busier than London and cleaner than New Delhi, but still not quite at the level of insanity of Tokyo in terms of both. It was also a stark contrast to Beijing on the basis that Shanghai ... read more
July 3rd 2010
The time we spent in Datong was unique for a few different reasons. It is by no means a tourist city and we clearly stood out when we walked around the streets. We enjoyed it for the fact that it felt like a real and true glimpse of China, from the vegetable vendors on the streets to the mind blowing amount of high rise buildings being constructed. It's becoming more and more evident as we see this amazing country, that it is growing at a frenzied pace. In Datong they are constructing a "new'' city with high rise apartment buildings in various stages of development and new tree lined streets just waiting to be used. This new part of the city is currently not populated yet, but when it is, surely the city will be neat ... read more
June 21st 2010
Leaving Beijing after only a week was hard, but the excitement of going to Mongolia made it easier. We arrived in the capital Ulaanbaatar (UB) around noon with the weather hovering around 9 degrees and light rain falling. It felt a world away from India and China both in terms of weather and population. The entire country of Mongolia is home to only about 3 million people, a far cry from the people factories that India and China are in the world scene. We spent 3 days in UB getting things ready for our trip into the wild of Mongolia, and found the city to be interesting, if somewhat uninspiring. A third of the population of the country live in UB, so it has the big city feel, but maintains a slower pace than other world ... read more
June 8th 2010
They say that first impressions mean a lot, and Beijing did a wonderful job of warming us up and making us feel comfortable. It's an extremely big city, about 13 million, but it maintains a certain calmness which masks any big city feel. By comparison, it's about the same size as Delhi, but in the same way that a clean and quiet spot couldn't be found there, a dirty or overly noisy one can't be found here. The cars drive in their lanes, the people act like people and garbage mysteriously hides itself. All in all, the first impression that Beijing gave is the lasting one that I will carry in my mind. On our first day in Beijing we went to the Temple of Heaven park which is a huge 267 hectare area in the ... read more
June 3rd 2010
Upon arriving at the train station in Jaisalmer for our 18 hour journey to New Delhi, I couldn't help but imagine what train travel in India would be like. We had booked a ticket in the highest class which would ensure us a bed, air conditioning and a locking door, but it also meant the possibility of sharing a room with two other people. As luck would have it, the train supervisor ended up switching us from a four person room to the only two person room on the train. It made for a relatively comfortable experience as we bounced along through the night from the desert to the madness that is New Delhi. Arrival in New Delhi had many of the same views and landing at Mumbai airport. The poorest of the poor live in ... read more
May 27th 2010
Alright, so more decent internet means another bloggy blog. It's currently our last night in Rajasthan in northwestern India so I'll fill in on the last 10 days. We left Kochi and jumped a plane to Mumbai, then a quick connection to Udaipur. Landing in Mumbai was interesting just to see all of the slums around the airport. It put real images in my mind to match the fictional ones I had from movies like Slumdog Millionaire. And from my brief glimpses, I feel I can vouche for the validity of it all. The flights went as smooth as I could have hoped for and connecting in Mumbai was easy. Upon landing in Udaipur the announcment went, "Ladies and Gentlmen, welcome to Udaipur where the current time is 6:30 p.m and the current temperature is 40 ... read more
May 17th 2010
Alright so it's blog time again. Sorry to anybody who regularly checks what I write, the internet so far in India has been a bit sketchy, and my little laptop is running on it's last legs. Currently we are in Kochi which is in the southern state of Kerala. Our India experience thus far has been a very good one. By my best guess, the expectation that I had of India has so far held true. I know that I expected worse in terms of the ability to travel in the country and the general reception that people would have. We have been in India for 9 days now, so I'll give a rundown of how things have gone. We arrived in Chennai on our flight from Frankfurt at midnight. We breezed through customs and made ... read more
May 7th 2010
So it's travel time again. This time I'm not alone. I am making this journey around the world with a french translator in tow. For those of you who don't know, the translator is Audree, my girlfriend from Montreal. She's good at french, and is small, so she fits well in my backpack. Since my trip to Japan and New Zealand last year, I have been to Belize and Guatemala, also with Audree. It was on that trip that she passed the test, and I figured it would be safe to take her with me around the world. We arrived in Frankfurt, Germany on Wednesday morning and leave tomorrow morning (Saturday) for southern India. We will be in India for a month, then to China, Mongolia and finally South Korea. We're due to return to Canada ... read more
June 7th 2009
I made it to the Cook Islands and had a day and a half of the hottest and most humid weather of my life. The island of Rarotonga is a tropical paradise island only a quarter the size of Niue, but with 15000 people. After that glorious day and a half however, the weather turned to stink. 4 days straight of nonstop downpour, and no glimmer of the sun. I still rented a scooter and drove around the island, which took 40 minutes, but the things to do are severely low when the weather is so terrible. It was my first time driving a scooter and when you add the torrential rain, it made for a neat memory. After the first time that is. Every other time that I had to go to get food was ... read more
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