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, but it's not as bad as in the north. That friendly Vietnamese spirit we wrote about is much less prevelant than before. Normal every day [View Full Entry]

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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 itself isn't that great, but using it as a base, we stayed for a few days and took in some of the coolest scenery this country [View Full Entry]

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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 older folks are a little standoffish, but we're thinking it's just because they've seen so much ugliness in their lifetimes and that they're just more reserved when it [View Full Entry]

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Ooohhh ... Cambodia ... (Part Two!) Once 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 = $0.25, 2000R = $0.50, etc), but anything more than that is quoted in dollars. Say some noodles are a $1.25 ... that means they want 1US Dollar and [View Full Entry]

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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 us up at our guesthouse in Thailand, drive us to the border, wait while we cleared immigration, and then would scoop us up again and we'd all head merrily to [View Full Entry]

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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 advertising a reggae guesthouse "off the beaten path", so we jumped on that opportunity. We ended up on a beach without other tourists, which is what we wanted, but the beach itself was [View Full Entry]

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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 permana-fro's (especially Trevor) ... where we take 3 showers a day just to "refresh". It's crazy, and unlike any place we've been! When we arrived in Bangkok on March 14th we were overwhelmed by two things right away: one was the humidity - it greets you like a slap in the face, and [View Full Entry]

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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 our plane. Swiss countryside is exactlly what you'd imagine ... we were treated to about 7 hours of fun filled snow covered mountains and cute little villages. [View Full Entry]

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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: priceless! Bienvenue back to France!!! Back when we got lost on our way to Geneva, we decided we'd skip Paris and spend time skiing instead, and promised ourselves we'd be back! It was also the 3 year anniversary for Kristena's mom, so it [View Full Entry]

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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 S-Bahns, U-Bahns, Subways, Buses, trams ... you could live here without owning a car, ever. Thank god Trevor knows how to read a map! When we first got to Berlin, we were feeling quite tired (don't laugh, this travel thing is alot of work!) and just spent the first few days [View Full Entry]

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