just two love birds

going round the world

[madetoroam]

South Korea was a treat. The country is so westernized and practically everyone drives Hyundai’s. The only strange thing is that hardly anyone speaks English. Of all the countries we went to, Korea was the most difficult to communicate in. We started in Seoul, the capital has ocer 26 million but you would never know it because it is so spread out and has no formal downtown like North American cities. We first visited the Korean war memorial. It showed all the wars that have happened since 100 AD including the Korean war. Outside they had awesome airplanes including a B52 Bomber. That thing was huge. Then we went to Gyeongbokgung palace. It was built in 1395 by the Joseung dynasty. It has been rebuilt twice. Once due to a fire and once after Japan’s occupation during WW2 because they destroyed most of it. It doesn’t look too exciting but the paint job on it is so intricate. After we went to the Korean Folk Museum and saw a show put on by the folk society. It had traditional singing and dancing and was really well done. Then we went to Gimcheon by train and did a temple stay. We stayed in Jikjisa temple. It’s 1600 years old and holds many national treasures. The inside of the main temple has over 1000 Buddha statues all with different faces. They traditionally don’t sleep on beds in Korea, they have an ondal system with is basically a small mat on a heated floor. All the beds in Korea were super firm. We had to wear temple clothing, which was super comfy and ate vegetarian food. We got to have tea with a Buddhist nun who also taught us about meditation and how to pray properly in the temple. She also took us on a nature hike and showed us some stretches. She was quite enamoured with Tyler’s beard. I don’t think she had ever seen one in real life before. There was another small group on the temple stay with us and they were all engineer’s for Hyundai. Tyler thanked them for their well made vehicles. After the temple stay, we took our first bullet train ans went to the town of Gyeongju. The town is famous for the tombs of old kings. Most of the tombs just looked like large perfect small hills in the ground. It also had remnants of an old palace that had since been destroyed right next to a lovely lili pond. After, we went to Busan, which is the second largest city in Korea. It has over 13 million in the metropolitan area. We were hoping to get some beach time in but the weather was cold and rainy. We visited the UN's Korean war memorial. We saw the graves of Canadians who lost their lices during the war, along with a memorial the Canadians donated. The cemetery was immaculate and you could not step on the grass. We also went to Haedong Yonggungsa temple. It is situated on a cliff overlooking the ocean. He main attraction is a large smiling golden Buddha. The grounds around the temple are also beautiful. Eaten in Korea prooved to be somewhat difficult because of the language barrier. I didn't know what things were half the time so I think I ate spicy spork and rice for most of my meals. It was good but no matter what we ate it all tasted like kimchi (spicy fermented cabbage). Koreans eat it with every meal including breakfast. Korea was a nice end to out Asian adventure. We are both ready to come back to North America.

[madetoroam]

Taiwan. We spent most of our time in Taipei. Taiwan although very modern compared to most other countries we have been too, is quite industrial looking. Most of the buildings look older and a bit dingy, not unlike some of he major manufacturing cities in the USA. It rained everyday we were there except for the day we left :( so we didn't get to see as much scenery as we had hoped. We went to Beitou hot springs. You can go to a public pool or you can rent a private room in a hotel for about $40 for an hour and a half and have your own private bath that pipes in fresh water from the spring. The area surrounding the springs reminded me of Yellowstone because of the smell of sulphur and the hot pools of water. We went to Taipei 101, which was the tallest building in the world for a short bit. It looks much different from the ground than the pictures you see from the air. There is of course a bit mall on the bottom with expensive designer stores very few can afford. We visited to main temples. The coolest one was Dalongdon Baoan temple. The paint detail on the building was amazing. It's style is definitely Chinese and much different from most of the temples the have seen on our trip. We took a side trip over night to the town of Jiufen. It's where they got the idea for the animation for the movie "Spirited Away". Of course it was pouring rain and made our get away slightly uncomfortable. They had several awesome tea houses that were hundreds of years old. There was one shop where a man made ridiculous masks. He was quite famous for then and his shop was more like a museum. They also sold some different types of food and deserts specific to the town. One was a rice pancake that they filled with ice cream, added nuts, then topped it with cilantro and rolled it up like a salad roll. I was different. It didn't really taste like much which was dispointing. They also roasted small ocean crabs that looked more like bugs. They were alright. My favorite desert in all of Taiwan was Mango Bing. It was shaved ice with mangoes, mango sauce and mango ice cream. Taiwan had the best mangoes I have ever had in my life. Better than all the ones we had in previous Asian countries. Delicious!!

[madetoroam]

Bali, a tropical paradise that has something for everyone. The island is predominately Hindu and has a variety of different foods and unique temples. The first two pictures are of the Banjar hot springs in Lovina which is in the north of Bali. We took a local bus 8 km's out of town for about 40 cents each and then walked 2 km up hill to the small town. It only cost $1 to get in. The water is heated from a large volcano on the island. The water looks dirty but it's not, it's just full of sulphur. Lovina is a small town and very quiet and cheap compared to the rest of the island. I was able to get a massage on the beach from a local for only $6 an hour. The massages are great because many of the techniques have been passed down from generations ago. After Lovina, we drove 2 hours to the town of Amed. Famous for it's black beaches, which you can see from the picture. We went snorkeling and were able to see many small fish and an interesting Hindu shrine that is about 6 meters under water. After Amed we went to Ubud. The town was apparently made famous after Julia Roberts in "Eat, pray, love" but who really remembers? The town is kind of a hippie mecca. Many come from around the world to do yoga training. The town was quite busy and full of shops. Everything from local markets full of clothing and textiles to art galleries and famous wood carvers. We went to the monkey temple which was full of macaques. On the way there we stopped at a cafe and one of he monkeys came right up to the table next to us and stole the lady's croissant right out of her hand. I guess that's where the term "cheeky monkey" came from. There were three main family groups in the forest and they were extremely territorial. One monkey did not enter the others territory without getting attacked by a gang of monkeys. After the forest we went to an elephant temple. No elephants but there used to be a big Buddhist temple there but it basically fell off the side of the montain and was completely in ruin. We went to the Saraswati temple in the heart of town and you can see local dances at night. Tegallalang rice terrace was probably the highlight of the island. We woke up at 6 am and rented a motorbike. We drove about 20 minutes out of town unil we stopped on the side of the road looking at a map to try and find an entrance. A local came up and asked if we wanted a tour of his rice terrace and we happily said yes. We walked through the jungle down a steep hill until we got to a tiny cottage. We were totally amazed at what we saw. Miles and miles of rice terraces. We about a mile with the man while he explained in broken English how the land was divided, how much rice he got from his yield, how long it took to grow and how they got water from the mountain to irrigate all the crops. After the tour, we continued on our bike and stopped at a local restaurant that wasn't open and just started walking through the rice terraces. We came to one "checkpoint" with an elderly man asking for a donation. With it came the best coconut I have ever had. He used a machete and cut a hole at the top. It was very refreshing. We continued on and just enjoyed the view of continuous rice terraces. Never seen anything like it. The last picture is of the last hotel we stayed at on the island. Nothing fancy but it had a pool and cost less than $30 a night.

[madetoroam]

Out of all the countries we have been to in SE Asia, I would have to say that Indonesia probably has the most beautiful landscapes. There are thousands of snall islands and many of them have white sandy beaches with crystal clear water, hence why it has some of the best diving and snorkeling in the world. The first pic is of Manta Island, where lots of manta ray's like to hang out. I just wanted to jump off the boat and soak up the sun! The second picture is of Rinca Island, not far from Komodo Island. It doesn't have as many dragons but they are easier to see as the island is more arid and has less dense forest. We saw 6 komodo dragons in total. They are the laziest things I have ever seen. They only eat about once a month, sometimes two if they are very hungry. Our guide explained that their saliva is full of bacteria and if one bites a buffalo, it will take about a month for it to die and that's when it eats it. Smaller animals don't take so long. They only mate once a year and the process takes about 18 hours. The females with lay between 15 and 30 eggs in August and they will hatch sometime in the spring. Once gey are born, very few survive as they are easy prey for birds, monkeys, and even other komodos. They spend the first two years of their life hiding in tree's. The females are smaller than the males and have narrower faces. Their claws are horrifyingly long. The island itself is beautiful. On our way back to the boat to go home, all the others in our group were waiting by the bathroom, I assumed they were waiting for me to use the bathroom, but when I walked in, Tyler grabbed my shirt and pulled me back. One of the dragons was hiding in the bathroom and I nearly shit my pants when I walked in and saw lying there. It was only about 3 meters long. Back on the island of Flores, we ate at a local market every night. They had delicious fresh fish. You could choose whichever one you wanted and they would bbq it. It came with rice, two plates of vaggies and water. The biggest fish we ate was only 9 bucks. We also had bbq calamari our last night and it was delicious and not expensive either considering how big they were. The sunsets in this part of the world are beautiful. Watching them set is peaceful and mesmerizing.

[madetoroam]

The sea life of Indonesia. From Bali, we took an hour and a half plane to the island of Flores in south eastern Indonesia northwest of Timor. We stayed in a town called Labuanbajo where we went on two snorkeling trips. The first day went took a two hour boat ride to a small island just off of Komodo Island. When we got in to the water I couldn't believe my eyes. The coral was absolutely amazing. I couldn't even tell it was underwater. Red, orange, green, fluorescent yellow, purple, blue and every color in between. There were so many fish I could hardly keep concentrated on one. They had zebra fish, leopard fish, nemo fish, dory fish, red snapper, jellyfish, and a million different other ones I have never seen before. You can swim right up close to them, they don't seem to be bothered. There were huge schools of fish, one right after the other, it was amazing. Our next stop was at Manta Point, where the Indian Ocean meets the Pacific. The current brings with it huge Manta Ray's. The ones we saw were probably between 3 and 4 meters wide and they just glided elegantly and effortlessly against the current. We saw 6 of them in total. We also saw two white spotted eagle ray's, a shark, and a hawksbill turtle. The turtle let us swim with it for about 10 minutes. The following day we got on the same boat and went to three different spots. The first one had beautiful coral, a turtle, and fish just like the day before and had this awesome big blue fish that was about a meter long and probably weighed 50 pounds, just floating in the coral. Then we went to castle rock where there is literally this huge volcanic rock in the middle of the ocean and the current swings around it like the water in an top load washing machine, you just keep going round and around and are quite tired afterwards. We saw a couple sharks, many different schools of fish and lots of awesome coral. Our third spot was not far away and the water was super warm, almost like a bathtub. We saw a blue spotted sting ray, tons more fish, and a turtle. The water in this part of the ocean was super clean, we had awesome visibility the whole time. I was so giddy the whole time, swimming with turtles was a childhood dream. Tyler couldn't get over how big the manta's were. Truly an amazing experience, so many childhood dreams came true. Defenitely one of the best!

[madetoroam]

Gili Meno, a tiny island an hour boat ride from Bali was a tropical paradise. The island is so small you can walk around in about an hour and a half. One of the best thigs about this island was that there are no vehicles or motorbikes allowed. They use horse drawn carriages to carry all goods around the island to the local vendors. The beaches were beautiful white sand and the water was crystal clear. Locals would sell fresh coconuts on the beach and use a machete to cut it open so you could drink the water. Snorkeling off island was awesome. You could see coral and fish would swim right up to you. The sunsets were amazing. As the island is Muslim, drinks are very expensive but it's all made from local fruit. Our accommodation was fairly cheap and most of the food was as well. 8 days of RnR was great!

[madetoroam]

After Borneo, we took a quick pit stop in Singapore. Didn't stay too long because it was extremely expensive. If you went out for dinner a beer would cost you around 10$ and a glass of wine would be at least 14$. We went on a night safari at a zoo park which was the main highlight. After Singapore, we flew to Yogyakarta (pronounced jogjakarta) Indonesia. We visited Borobudur temple, which was built in the 9th century. It is the biggest Buddhist temple in the world and has 504 Buddhist statues. The temple was abandoned in the 14th century after Java began to convert to Islam. It was then brought to western attention in the 19th century and underwent many restorations. Compared to the other main Buddhist sights like in Bagan, Angkor Wat, and My Son, Borobudur is in the best shape. From Yogyakarta we took a 12 hour bus to Mount Bromo. It took us 5 hours just to get out in to the countryside. Java is one of the most populated islands in the world with over 140 million people. We woke up at 4 am and Tyler thought it would be a good idea to walk to the viewpoint instead of paying the money to take a tour in a nice comfortable jeep. It was pitch black, raining, and we had no flashlights. I started to get really annoyed when I saw all the other tourists on motorcycles and jeeps being transported and Tyler knew it. We had two motorcycle drivers follow us the 3 km and continually ask us if we wanted a ride because it was 20 km out of town (Tyler insisted google maps said it was 3 km, it wasn't). We kept telling them no and accused them of lying to us about the distance. As we continued to walk unable to see anything we clearly realized we made a bad decision. One of the motorcyclists yelled "it's not 3 km, you lost man." Tyler decided we best take the motorcycles to the viewpoint so we drove up a mountain in the pouring rain, the road was full of switchbacks and I saw my life flashing before me the entire way up. When we got to the top the first thing tyler said was "please forgive me, we should have taken a tour." Damn rights we should have! We waited about an hour with a couple hundred other tourists only to take pictures of clouds because of the rain. We were disappointed but we went back down the mountain and climbed to the top of Mount Bromo and saw the crater. Because its an active volcano, it smelled like sulfur and when we got closer it started stinging our eyes. We then took another 8 hour bus ride to Mount Kawah Ijen. The scenery in Java is extremely beautiful but the people who work for the tour companies are another story. They tell you what you want to hear and don't tell you the true cost of anything until you get to your destination and have no choice but to fork out an extra 20 or 30$ a person for park fee's or whatever. We began our hike up the mountain at 2 am. It took us almost 2 hours to walk the 3 km to the top and then another 20 mins to reach the bottom of the crater. We had to wear masks and scarves around our nose and mouth because the sulfur burned so bad. When we finally got to the bottom we were lucky and saw the blue flame. It is only one of 3 places in the world that has it. The flame is caused from sulfuric gas that leaks out of the ground at over 600° celcius. Locals mine the sulfur and it is extremely labour intensive. They have to hike up he mountain and in to the crater to get the sulfure blocks and then hike up the crater and down the mountain twice a day to make 5 to 8$ a day. Most of them wear no lung or eye protection and work 7 days a week. The inside if the crater is filled with the largest highly acidic lake in the world. It's a beautiful turquoise color. We watched the sunrise from the top of the crater, walked back down the mountain and took a bus to the ferry station to get to Bali. Time for some RnR.

[madetoroam]

Borneo Malaysia. This place is amazing for nature lovers. First we flew in to Kuching and went to Semenggoh wildlife park and saw orangutans. They are semi wild. They can enter and leave the park freely, the rangers can't stop them. We were fortunate enough to see about 10 of them including 2 babies. They are very shy territorial animals which made it difficult to get a good picture. We watched them eat fruit and play around on the vines. Then we took a bus and a boat to Bako National Park. We saw Proboscis monkeys (also known as Dutchman monkeys), and they are only found in Borneo. They have big long noses and huge pot bellies. They are pretty big and probably weigh 30 to 50 pounds. You can hear them swinging through the trees from a distance and they gallop like a horse when they are on the ground. We also saw a big group of Silvery Lutungs. The mama and her reddish orange baby were adorable. They also had bearded pigs, which look like a wold boar but with a funny beard on it. They have small tusks and are really quite cute. They are also only found in Borneo, Sumatra, and peninsular Malaysia. They also had fearless macaques, but thankfully these one's weren't as aggressive as the ones in Thailand and didn't try to steal your food and break in to your belongings. When we were hiking to a secluded beach, Tyler came across a scorpion. I thought it was a plastic toy that washed up along shore until it started moving. Scared the shit out of me!. On the way back from our longest hike we were walking up a steep hill and I almost stepped on a monitor lizard. Luckily I didn't because he was quite cute and even posed for the camera nice. This island is absolutely beautiful. We saw beautiful secluded beaches, waterfalls and the sunsets were absolutely amazing. If you ever want to see rare animals in he wild and beautiful scenery, Borneo is the place to be

[madetoroam]

Our first stop in Malaysia was Kuala Lumpur. Nothing too exciting to see there besides the Petronas towers so we decided to take a four hour bus ride north to the Cameron Highlands and stayed in a town called Tanah Rata. It was a much needed break after the heat in Cambodia. The pics are from a hike we took. We hiked to the top of Gunung Jasar mountain. The view was spectacular and we saw several pitcher plants. On the way down from our hike we stopped at a local strawberry farm and had chocolate covered strawberries and a milk shake. Then we made it to a town called Mardi, where we went to the local horticultural centre. The flowers were beautiful. I have never seen anything like that blue orchid. The birds of paradise were also in bloom whih was great because they are one of my favorites. The centre also grew all kinds of herbs, vegetables, and edible plants. They grew tea and had machines to process and package it. They even had a pen full of little Peter cotton tail bunnies. I think we walked about 10 km in total and in our way back we ran in to with another fellow traveller we met in the Mekong delta in Vietnam. We had dinner at an excellent family run north Indian restaurant, he chipati was delicious and gluten free : )

[madetoroam]

Preah Khan (first 3 pics) built by Jayavarman VII in the 12th century and was thought to be the head quarters of a large organization and is estimated to have held over 100 000 servents, officials, dancers, and teachers. It is currently in ruins and along with some of the other complexes has a unique microbial fungus degrading the sandstone making it hard to restore and preserve. Bayon Angkar Thom (next 3 pics) meaning “great city” was the longest lasting Khmer capital. The Bayon temple is extremely unique in that the pillars have four different faces (one on each side). No matter where you go jn the temple, one of the faces is always watching you. It’s a bit unsettling but nevertheless totally awesome. It is believed that the 216 faces are of Jayavarman VII himself. Preah Ko (next 2 pics) was built in 879 in the Hindu style under Khmer King Indavarman I who established the Khmer empire. It very much reminds me of the temples of Bagan in Myanmar. It was built to commemorate the death of the King’s family members. Bakong temple (last 2 pics) was also built by King Indavarman and bears a striking resemblance to the Borobudur temple in Java. It reminded me of the Bagan temples as well and if I remember correctly, they were built about the same time. It has the same stepped pyramid shape. It has many elephant statues and has a great view from the top.

[madetoroam]

From Phnom Penh we took an 8 hour bus to the city of Siem Reap. The city is famous for the magnificent temple complexes. The first three pictures are of Angkor Wat which means “capital city”. It was built in the 12th century Hindu style by King Survayarman II. It is the largest religious monument in the world and is a classical style of Khmer architecture. It was built with over a million tonnes of sandstone, and has greater mass and volume than the Great Pyramids of Giza Egypt. Banteay Kdei, in the next three pictures, is a smaller temple to the north east of Ankor Wat. It was built in the midddle 12th century by Jayavarman VII as a Buddhist monastic temple in the Bayon style. The complex is in ruin due to its poor quality sandstone however it is slowly being renovated. The last pictures are of Ta Prohm, also known as the “Tomb Raider” temple. It was built by King Jayavarman VII as a Buddhist monastery and university. It was abandoned after the fall of the Khmer empire in the 17 th century. The temple has been taken over by the jungle. Tree’s are literally growing through everything. It has been left in ruins and has only recently began being restored.

[madetoroam]

Traveler's tip #10

If at al possible, do not go to Cambodia in April. It is one of the hottest damn places we have been so far. 37 degrees on the ground, even hotter around the temples. I'm melting

[madetoroam]

Choeung Ek killing field is located in Phnom Penh. During th Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, nearly 3 million people died from genocide, famine, and disease. There are many killing fields in Cambodia but this is one of the biggest. They estimate that over 10 000 people were killed here, many of whom were political prisoners. There are over 5 000 skulls displayed as well as many other large bones. When you walk along he pathways, you can still see people’s bones and clothes are sticking out of the ground. The government built a memorial stupa to acknowledge the genocide and display the skulls of the people as a reminder. Tuol Sleng was a high school that the Khmer Rouge turned in to a prison. In 1975 the governement marched all the citizens of Phnom Penh out in to the countryside to become farmer’s so that Cambodia could become a self sufficient agrarian society. During this time, the Khmer Rouge used the prison to torture and interrogate people who were thought to be a threat against the regime. You can still see dried blood on the floor and chains on the walls. They were forced to sign false confessions and were then taken to the killing fields at night. The prisoner’s were told they were being transferred to another prison and did not know what was about to happen. Loud music and diesel generators were used to mask the sound of the people screaming for their lives. The Khmer Rouge rarely used guns and mostly used hand tools to carry out the deed. DDT was used to mask the smell. Seeing this was just as bad if not worse than visiting Auschwitz.

[madetoroam]

From Saigon we took a 3 hour bus to the city of Vinh Long. We stayed at a wonderful home stay on a small island. We met many French tourists and ate delicious food. The homestay had fresh fruit trees and a large garden. We had fish both nights for dinner and the fresh pineapple for desert was amazingly sweet. After that, we took a local bus to the city of Can tho where we went on a floating market tour. We woke up at 5 am and got on a small river boat with a guide who spoke good English. We went up river for about an hour and watched the sunrise. Then came to the first market. It was a wholesale market. The boats would display what produce they had by tying them to a roap in the front of the boat. They had everything from sweet potatoes, pumpkin, beats, tomatoes, onions, potatoes, pineapple, guava, and water melon. Some of the boats were so full they looked like they were about to sink. This is where smaller river boats buy large quantities of produce, then go to the anoher floating market along shore to sell to local merchants. There are people on the river that sell breakfast, such as the yummy soup in the picture, to coffee and tea and even lottery tickets. On the way back from our tour we visited a rice noodle factory. They began by drying the rice in the sun, then peeling the shells off the rice which they used for fire or feed for animals, then they would boil the rice and mash it up, put it on large crepe iron and used a weird stick made from weaved pieces of wood to put the large circular rice paper on bamboo mats to dry. Once they are dry they put the rice paper through a sheet cutter that shredded the large rice paper in to long noodles. Our guide explained that the large boats would go up the mekong delta to local farmers and buy whatever produce they were selling, then they would come back to the wholesale market and spend about a week or until the produce was gone and then go back up the mekong. The people lived kn the tiny back ends of the boat where they just had enough room to sleep. They used the river for everything, except drinking (thank god).

[madetoroam]

Cu chi tunnels, just outside of Saigon where the viet cong hid and lived during the war. They used the tunnels for transportation of goods, housing, hospitals, and food and weapons caches. They began building the tunnels in 1954 and by 1968 the tunnel was 400 km long. The part of the tunnels we visited had to be made bigger after the war for western tourists to be able to visit. The Viet Cong set up deadly booby traps and because the tunnels were so well hidden, the U.S carpet bombed the entire area in hopes of destroying them but were not very successful. There a few pictures of former U.S tanks, helicopters, and bulldozers that they had to abandon once they began to pull out of the war in 1972.

[madetoroam]

A four hour bus ride from Hue, we went to the beach in the city of Danang. It is he third largest city in Vietnam but where we stayed on the peninsula you would never have guessed. It was quiet and in the process of being developed. The beaches were deserted. One afternoon i think I counted 15 other people. This was our opportunity to try some seafood. Every restaurant had buckets of the catch of the day, everyhig from crab, lobster, and shrimp, to fresh fish. On our last evening we tried red snapper in a pineapple tomatoe sauce. It was delicious. We went to the Cham museum. The Cham are typically either Hindu or Muslim and the rivaled of the Khmer's for over a thousand years. It's most likely that they are from Borneo. Their sculptures are quite detailed and impressive. Their art and sculpture in this area are repsentative of the Hindu religion. After Danang, we took a local bus a half and hour south to the smaller city of Hoi Ann. It is a well preserved port city and was the largest port in SE Asia during the first century and was controlled by the Cham people. It is now a UNESCO world heritage site. The architecture is a beautiful mix of foreign and Vietnamese. Hoi An is famous for its tailoring. You can go and have custom suites made for a few hundred bucks, however some are better than others. There are also merchants to make leather shoes and bags. Hoi An was previously controlled by the Japanese hence the Japanese covered bridge. At night the old town became alive with street vendors and food stalls. You can rent a private boat and go canoeing down the river. The locals also sold floating candles that you can send down the river. Apparently it's supposed to be for good luck. The paper lanterns were beautiful, all different colors and sizes. They also had specific kinds of food such as cau lau which is a noodle dish with pork and another dish where you wrap spring rolls, pork, vegetables in rice paper and eat with a spicy fish sauce, quite delicious. If you take a short bike ride out of the city you can enjoy the green rice paddies and locals with their animals.

[madetoroam]

Traveler's tip # 9

I haven't written one of these in a while. Tip on taking a night bus in Asia: DON'T DO IT. Not only do you not get any sleep, but people smoke, spit, speak loudly, and the bus plays extremely loud Asian pop music all night. Oh and the "beds" are probably to small for anyone over 5"4. Pay the extra $ and get a sleeper train or better yet, fly.