http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Two Canadians Eh/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Two Canadians Eh en-us Sun, 23 Nov 2008 09:56:24 UTC Sun, 23 Nov 2008 09:56:24 UTC Ladies and Gentlemen ... the curtain has come down the ship has sailed the fat lady has officially sung ... it's all been said and done and now we've been home for a month Time has flown by so quickly We flew out quite late on our last day so we had all day to think about what loomed ahead and it was such an odd feeling to know that in 36 hours we'd be home. Emotions were all over the place. http://www.travelblog.org//North-America/Canada/blog-340168.html The road has brought us to our last few weeks of beach vacation ... ever Well certainlly HOPEFULLY not ever but for a long time indeed Oh Canada is looming closer and closer ... After Elephantville in Chiang Mai we flew south to Phuket in search of some of the pristine beach we left behind months ago when we left Thailand for Cambodia back in April. The search turned up empty handed thou http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Thailand/South/blog-326213.html ... And we're not so sure we feel fine Welcome to the last blog from Team Canada as our aimless wandering around the world comes to an end. It is a sad day indeedBefore heading up north we set out for a dreaded visa run to Burma Myanmar. Border crossings leave us wanting to claw eyes out and have done so since the infamous Mr. Sam incident in Cambodia. Immigration officials tend to be http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Thailand/Central/Bangkok/blog-322997.html Bonjourno from the land of Pad Thai and Red Curry where we have had one of the most amazing experiences of our trip so far ... a day at an Elephant Conservation Camp in Chiang MaiThe initial idea of paying to hang with elephants left us a bit quesy horror stories of abused animals are rampant in Asia but our fears were unfounded because after spending a day with our elephants there were no q http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Thailand/North/Chiang-Mai/blog-319316.html Where in the world are we now Borneo Baby Borneo It always seemed like one of the coolest most exotic places on earth to go ... kind of one of those places that everyone knows about but no one ever actually goes to. It wasn't really on our list of destinations ... but after The Great China Belly Flop blueprints have been redrawn and ... here we are We had expectations of befriending or http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/blog-305843.html ... or at least that's what we told people. It started out as an experient with Kai and Danielle our DutchGerman friends from Thailand Cambodia and Vietnam telling us that it's bad mojo to tell locals you're from North America or Europe because then poof prices triple just like magic so they started telling people they were from the first most random country they could think of. We tried http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Indonesia/Bali/Kuta/blog-303916.html ... Uh No. That would be Cuba came our replyWe have survived 7 of the most miserable days known to Team Canada or to mankind in generalAfter Singapore our plan was to take a ferry to Sumatra an island of Indonesia and spend a few weeks up north checking out beaches and Banda Aceh the area most affected by the tsunami and do a few jungle treks to see orang utans. Plans did not go qui http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Indonesia/Sumatra/Pekanbaru/blog-294861.html Blocking out the scenery breaking my mind Do this don't do that can't you read the sign Our knowledge of Singapore consisted of no gum no litter great zoo and something about an American teenager getting caned in the 90's because he was bad. Singapore is a world class city It is truely the first taste of home that we've had in 8 months Not that we've travelling looking for home but w http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Singapore/blog-291976.html And back to Kuala Lumpur we go First time around we landed in KL due to the Chinese visa mishap but then left the city after a few days to continue onto Singapore and Indonesia. After Borneo we wanted to hit up some of the islands around peninsular Malaysia but ran into a brick wall At the time it was school holiday and every bus or train to the islands were full ... or the only available s http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Malaysia/Selangor/Kuala-Lumpur/blog-290797.html Vietnam really is a country of stunning beauty We've had some trials which we'll tell you all about soon and are having a hard time loving the country as unconditionally as we had when we first got here ... but despite the blah it's still such a beautiful country We've been in the north now for about 3 weeks and the highlights for us have been the towns of Ninh Binh and Sapa... Ninh Binh i http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Vietnam/Northeast/blog-285410.html And ... Vietnam rears it's ugly head We are starting to think that perhaps it wasn't the best idea to extend our visa's as the second half of our time here hasn't been nearly as pleasant as the first. North and South Vietnam are very very different. In the south people are friendlier and more laid back. They want to earn a living and of course hit up tourists for money as often as they can bu http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Vietnam/Red-River-Delta/Hanoi/blog-281697.html We love Vietnam After a not so favorable run in with Cambodia we were feeling a bit weary of Vietnam because we haven't really heard anything good about it from other travellers ... but we love this country Little kids are the most friendly always calling out to say hello The people have gotten a rap for being mean but our experience is turning out to be the exact opposite Some of the http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Vietnam/Southeast/blog-275639.html Ooohhh ... Cambodia ... Part TwoOnce we actually arrived at our destination in Cambodia the most difficult part became figuring out the money system Cambodian currency is the Riel and the exchange rate is about 4000 Riel to 1 US Dollar. Sounds simple no It would be if there weren't a crazy system of mixing up Dollar and Riel For anything under a dollar prices are quoted in Riel so 1000R http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Cambodia/blog-268504.html Ohhhh ... Cambodia ... Entering Cambodia was a gong show. An unbelievably frusturating infuriating expensive gong show We had heard from many other travellers that the borders crossings from Thailand to Cambodia are sketchy at the best of times so as a result we decided we'd rather spend a little extra and pay for a bus to take us straight to Phnom Pen. We were expecting a bus which would pick http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Cambodia/blog-267354.html We have arrived in Paradise Well sortof. Finding that serene secluded tropical beach is a bit harder than we imagined ... tourism and commercialism have really taken over Thailand and there don't seem to be many regulations about how much is too much when it comes to developing the islands or protecting the natural environment. In Bangkok we saw a sticker on the back of a bathroom door adverti http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Thailand/East/blog-263183.html Team Canada is never going to complain about cold weather again. Not even if we find ourselves sitting naked on ice cubes in Siberia. Thailand is unbelievably hot The kind of hot where your skin is instantlly sticky just thinking about going outside ... where we both have permanafro's especially Trevor ... where we take 3 showers a day just to refresh. It's crazy and unlike any place we've http://www.travelblog.org//Asia/Thailand/Central/Bangkok/blog-259099.html We came we saw we spent waaay too much money and ate waaay too much Macdonalds ... now we go To Thailand We gave ourselves an extra day to catch our flight in Munich because even though we had to opt out of our Switzerland tour due to inflated crack prices we still wanted to see the Swiss countryside and decided to take the scenic routes from France through Switzerland to Munich to catch http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Switzerland/blog-259094.html Train ride from Lyon to St Gervais 75 Euros ...3 nights accomadation in cute ski chalet 288 Euros ...Ski rentals for 2 days 120 Euros ...Lift tickets 124 Euros ...Stale pasta and small bottle of water 25 Euros ...Skiing sopping wet down a black diamond in the French Alps with a runny nose pricelessBienvenue back to FranceBack when we got lost on our way to Geneva we decided we'd skip Pa http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/France/Rh-ne-Alpes/Chamonix/blog-259088.html Berlin Berlin Berlin ... a city with quite a history We don't even know where to start with Germany. Unfortunatelly we were running out of time in Europe so we really only got to see Berlin but what an incredible city Their public transportation system is absolutelly insane They've got SBahns UBahns Subways Buses trams ... you could live here without owning a car ever. Thank god http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Germany/District-of-Berlin/Berlin/blog-253803.html Welcome to Sin City ... The only country in the world where you can get high and pay for sex and no one caresWe arrived in Amsterdam at midnight on a Saturday night ... apparentlly not a very bright idea as there wasn't anywhere to sleep Up until this point in our travels we haven't prebooked any accomadation in Europe so this took us by biiiig surprise and we ended up wandering up and dow http://www.travelblog.org//Europe/Netherlands/North-Holland/Amsterdam/blog-253801.html