http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/stickbugg/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from stickbugg en-us Sat, 26 Dec 2009 13:58:13 +0000 Sat, 26 Dec 2009 13:58:13 +0000 We left early morning to take an Amtrak from Montreal to Albany New York. We figured it be best to travel more normally accross the border to avoid getting hassled and questioned excessively. Even on the train when the inspector saw my passport stamps he asked on top of the regular questions how do you afford to travel to all these places I calmly explained to him that after high school http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/New-York/Albany/blog-416234.html From Union Station in downtown Toronto we took a GO train to Oshawa. Just before boarding our train with her Al's Katimavik patch initiated a conversation with a girl who used to be a transient traveler. She told us a few of her stories and talked about some others in GTA who had built a dualstory house out of old pallets as means of squatting. The more I hear of these people the more I'm http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Ontario/Toronto/blog-416224.html I spent 2 weeks volunteering at Sanctuary church.At Sanctuary we are becoming a healthy welcoming community where people who are poor or excluded are particularly valued. This community is an expression of the good news embodied in Jesus ChristSanctuary is NOT a soup kitchen mission or service provider. It does not seek to evangelize the masses or bribe people with meals and beds to become http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Ontario/Toronto/blog-409597.html On Wednesday June 3rd we took some time walk around a get lost. We walked around in the East end of downtown to check out a friend's place. While on our way we ended up taking out a guy for lunch. He had approached us and told us that when we was sleeping in the park last night someone had stolen his bag and his brand new hat and that he could use money to buy some new stuff. Of course w http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Ontario/Toronto/blog-408845.html On Monday June 01 I had an apple cinnamon instant oatmeal breakfast packed my backs and left with Al at 730AM. Scott had insisted he deliver us to the outskirts of Thunder Bay himself so that we'd have a great place to start from. We walked from an outer intersection for at least an hour possibly another halfhour. Things were looking pretty bleak and the difficulties of getting out of http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Ontario/Toronto/blog-408532.html Our first ride from Blumenort to Steinbach was given by an 80year old man in a minivan. Not sure exactly what motivated him to pick us up but he was en route to his sons' farm where he was still working. He told us about how much of a pleasure it was for him to keep working on the farm at his age.We walked about an hour from the Blumenort corner past Friesen Drillers and quite a distance fur http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Ontario/Thunder-Bay/blog-405266.html I am in Steinbach. I have not yet packed but am about to.At 7AM tomorrow me and my pal will be hitching East in Canada and down into the US. We've got an intinerary schedule some minimal packings friends in some places some arrangements to volunteer. But we haven't got a clue on how it'll turn out. I'm not sure we care to think about that right now or that it's important.I had written a http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/Canada/Manitoba/Steinbach/blog-403157.html Alan decided to head home early so I pushed on towards Chiang Mai by myself.I took the taxi to the outside of Bangkok and waited for a ride to Chiang Mai at a truckstop. I talked to one driver who was going to Tak which is 23 the distance. He told me talk to another pickup driver which he said what going to Chiang Mai. The guy wasn't and my Tak ride has disappeared during that time. I wai http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Northern-Thailand/blog-294885.html Out of Khlong Thom we spent a night at Crystal Lagoon which is a very clear blueish pool in a swampy park. We were able to take the 45 minute hike in and swim liberally for some short minutes and go back once it started to get pretty dark. Another half hour and we would have been up the creak with finding our way out. Because we went out after 6pm we were able to get in free. We watched Cr http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/blog-289528.html The first accommodation we found after deboarding the minibus in Phuket town was a decent deal Downtown Hotel. Alan caught up on much needed sleep in the afternoon and I wandered like a forlorn vagrant down streets in the dirty business district passing by stores in vain transit my attempt to be active instead of inactive I called it exercising willpower in the face of my own fatigue. I s http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/blog-289515.html When we woke up in our tent on the beach we went for a quick underwear dip packed up and caught a bus back to town where we hung around at the guesthouse for a few hours. We caught a much needed breakfast surfed the Internet and found the time to shower ourselves. We did some wandering through the town and market I saw cooked rats for sale we chewed some betel because I wanted to show Al http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Tao/blog-282484.html After picking up my bags in the Bangkok airport I walked towards the exit to hunt for my trusty comrade Alan. A split second was all I needed to lock my eyes on the lanky arablooking dude with a sign that read Rail 'n' Jail. It was Alan wearing a galliveyah and a matching headdress all which he brought from his time in Egypt. And only Alan would do this for me. I of course couldn't stop http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-279896.html Metro Manila I've noticed that using the word metro makes any place sound like a cool place to be. Metropolis sounds like a bunch of boring cities but metro brings to find hiply highstyled youth with wellfit clothing and whimsicallyoriginal shoes riding atop a high speed train that darts to and fro within the millions of ultracool stores. Whatever the case Manila was a good experience http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Philippines/Manila/blog-279885.html After I exited the Visayas I bused to Baguio for a day. The city is often praise by Filipinos for being a place to excape the heat. It's elevation and lower temperature made it feel like home and it's dirty old buildings made it feel like Winnipeg. But many people also say thhe city is a victim of a bad city planning and it too congested. As a pedestrian of the city you don't really notice http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Philippines/Cordillera/blog-276472.html Cebu was a surprise. I had my first couchsurf and I my host was a lawyer who isn't as stiff as you'd expect him to be. He's very easy going and very flexible with who he could hang out and we had many great conversations. The second day I was there we met with two more couchsurfers and went to a beach 2 hours from the city for a night. Moalboal beach it was. We also went to a waterfall whi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Philippines/Visayas/blog-274007.html this is either the update you have all been waiting for not the update you have been waiting for or an update you have not at all been waiting for. foremost as blogger i ask your apology for my lack of punctuation and grammar. trust me i usually use it consistently but today i'm lazy. losing a 35 minute email in a split second doesn't help things any either. i'll make this short and summ http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Philippines/Palawan/Puerto-Princesa/blog-269148.html So yesterday I finished writing about my experience in Vietnam. Today I write to you a bit about Cambodia.The place was dry. As far as I'm concerned Cambodia borders on the definition of desert at least within the boundaries of Indochina. We were lucky to be in a nice bus where we had AC instead of having to open our windows. I was happy to see the return of beef on the side of the road som http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/North/Siem-Reap/blog-263802.html So here's a little something I can tell you about my experience in Ho Chi Minh city formerly Saigon.I have never seen more motorbikes than I did here. I thought the Philippines had pretty much converted to two wheels but this was a whole new level of motorbike obsession. Apparently the government raised standard vehicle taxes in order to push citizens toward more spaceconscious transportatio http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Southeast/Ho-Chi-Minh-City/blog-263522.html This last week or so in Batangas has been nice. One highlight was that we were teaching kids at a Chinese elementary school about identity dreams character and unity. I taught the identity portion and I think they really took it to heart. This place is nice and relaxing but pretty suburban which is not necessarily my style. I think I prefer metropolises and nature. I don't know I think I http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Philippines/Batangas/blog-257280.html Last week we went for another 6hour bus ride to Bataraza a town in southern Palawan. We took a walk into some bushes to visit lowlander tribes as opposed to the highlander mountain tribes we visited last time. The culture is very similar to those tribes in the moutains except that these people are mroe civilized. Clothes are normal most of them can speak Tagalog and are either attending s http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Philippines/Palawan/Puerto-Princesa/blog-253946.html