Around the World in 90+ days

Mount Kinabalu beat us down

2008-01-16T03:57:00.000-05:00

At 4096m Mount Kinabalu is considered to be the highest mountain in Southeast Asia (although there are higher mountains in Indonesia), and taking only 2 days to summit, is supposed to be a very do-able feat for the "average person".

First off I have to say that I'm glad we did the climb (Shameiz on the other hand won't let me say the "H" word -hiking). It was very challenging and the view from the top was blocked by clouds at sunrise, but the scenery was beautiful, and we really did have good luck with weather considering the time of year (it only poured like a biotch on the way down). We however are still confused at how we could have been so slow relative to all the average times given by our guide (who by the way was smoking like a chimney the entire way up), and being constantly by-passed by young-ins and hard-core older people. I guess we are just too out of shape. It took us 3 days for our leg muscles to heal enough to be able to not walk like retards and another few days to be able to walk up and down stairs without having to turn sideways .. although my right knee does still hurt (I know, I know, Jill, Julie and D.. wah wah wah my knee hurts).

Before the pics I'd just like to mention one more thing. It took us 5.5 hours on the first day to reach Laban Rata, 3.5 hours to summit and 7.5 hours (yes I said 7.5) to get all the way back down and with the help of a walking stick. The International Mount Kinabalu Climbathon in 2006 clocked the fastest male and female at 2 h 41 m and 3 h 14 m respectively to get all the way up AND down. Plus they started further down the mountain then we did! Amazing is all I can say.

Here's a pic of the mountain from the base:

Views on the trail:

Summit:

On the way down:

Palau Penang

2008-01-16T03:26:00.000-05:00

Ok so we're alive off that damn mountain and in a place called the Cameron Highlands checking out Tea Estates..but I digress.

After Langkawi we took a "Ferry" to an island further south called Penang. Penang was once the focus of the British Empire in Malaysia and the architecture is very old an colonial. Unlike the seclusion of Langkawi Penang is BUSY! Traffic everywhere. We spent one night in the main old colonial city of Georgetown and then spent 2 days relaxing on the Beach at the resort area of Batu Ferengi.

Notice I used the "" around the word ferry...that's because the High Speed ferry was a ghetto tourist / diving boat co opted to run tourists between Langkawi and Penang, the 2.5 hour journey was ended with dropping us off at the ferry terminal, note the decrepit looking picture below. A tad creepy. Burly south Indian men then scammed us into taking cabs to our hotels while trying to sell us tours of the island..fun.

Also, that night we walked along the boardwalk in Georgetown and ate at the hawker stalls. Most of the food was great, however, Mel has forever been traumatized the furry stuff above the boiled lettuce. It tasted like a Spider meets Fiber Glass at a fish processing factory and got married and had a kid named Throwup...Mel can usually eat anything...She had nightmares about this stuff. We think it's a vegetable...Anyone know what it is? THe reason we don't is cause we got all brave and went to 4-5 different stalls and asked them to give us their best stuff...Tourist Mistake #1.

Going Dark

2008-01-07T07:20:00.000-05:00

Hello All,

We're off to climb Mt Kinabalu day after tomorrow. Our flight to Kota Kinabalu leaves tomorrow. We'll try to post when we're done the climb, barring any unforseen toe injuries... :P

Peace

Langkawi

2008-01-02T21:20:00.000-05:00

This Island is very similar to those you'll find just north in Thailand. Not much to report, we are staying at the Berjaya Resort which is a spalled out mass with little cabins spread across the hills.

Our Hut:

Dinner Last Night at the outdoor Chinese Restaurant:

A random sign at a hotel close by:

We're not sure why they have a no Durian sign, it's sold everywhere...Maybe the stinkiest fruit in the world attracts monkeys?

Diving Palau Payar Marine Reserve

The weather has been great except for the a few windy days which were coincidently on the day we went diving..We went diving on an a little island called Palau Payar 35miles from Langkawi on the way south to Penang. They have designated the island and surrounding waters a marine sanctuary. Mel and I have never dove with visibility that bad, this picture of Mel is one I took at around 10m below she was 1m away...couldn't see a thing past 2-3 meters. Still saw some clown fish (Nemo) and a Lion Fish see below. That being said both dives were cut short as the other 2 divers in our group could not keep watch over each other. The first time one of the guys couldn't keep bouyant and surfaced..after a minute or 2 of realizing he was gone and then trying to find him we all had to surface 30mins into the dive. Dive 2 had a similar ending with the same guy getting lost in the low visibility and then surfacing again 30mins into the dive..we secretly think he was an air hog and just ran out of air but was to embarrassed to admit it...

Here is a Nudibranch:

Clown Fishies and a Lion fish:

Found in Translation

2008-01-02T20:49:00.000-05:00

Happy New Year!!!! + 3 days

going to rewind a little...before we got to Malaysia we were stuck in Shanghai 1 night, we didn't really do too much there as we are going to spend a few days on the way back...SHOPPING! But, from the brief glimpse of it I gotta say I love China...Not in the I love you cause you're soo hot kinda way but more in the I love you cause you're my quirky chaotic nerdy cousin kinda way...Let me demonstrate with pictures:

Yes...Yes it is..

And also the honesty:

And then the actual Hairy Crab Follow through:

So the pure hilarity of the engrish translations are ripe for a coffee table book. I hope someone takes the time to truly capture how awesome some of the translations are..I'll do my best in the 2 days we have, but you really need more time..

Finally in Langkawi

2007-12-30T02:04:00.000-05:00

Air Canada sux.

Our flight from Toronto to Shanghai was delayed for 3 hours because they were trying to "fix the entertainment system". 3 hours went by and they decided it couldn't be fixed, so after de-icing again, we finally took off. At least we had an exit row so lots of room for legs. And I have to admit the food wasn't too bad- something like General Tao chicken but it was pork instead. ..And the sleeping pills we took were fantab- knocked me out for 7 hours straight and Shameiz for about 5 hours. .. And even had a flight attendant, a nice lady from Quebec, be really friendly to us, telling us funny stories and giving us some travel tips for Malaysia (big surprise for Air Canada where, in my experience, all the flight attendants seems to hate their jobs and therefore hate you too). But alas, after 17 hours, when we finally disembarked the plane, we found out that we had just missed our connector to Kuala Lumpur. We were told that Air Canada would put us up in a hotel and the AC representative gave us instructions to go to customs and another AC rep would meet us there. HA! The AC rep was nowhere to be found. Luckily we were not alone. Joined by 6 others, plus Shirley who took up the role of tour guide, after a long couple of hours we had found our way through customs, pinned down the Air Can agent, and made it to the Ramada hotel.

Here's a pic of the group waiting for the shuttle bus to take us to the hotel:

Mini review of Ramada Inn.

Hotel room: Clean, a bit cramped, no cockroaches, beds as hard as rock.
Food: Dinner = meh. Wine tasted like water and green curry was just ok. Breakfast = awesome. Buffet of Western style and Chinese food. Hashbrowns fried to a golden crisp, fried rice spiced to perfection, and some yummy green vegetables (yes, I said vegetables). Yumm.

Kuala Lumpur is kinda small.

And there is not a lot to do there. So really the one afternoon and evening we ended up having in KL because of Air Canada wasn't too big of a loss. We visited the Petronas towers, which don't look that tall when you see them in person, but do look pretty cool at night when they are all lit up:

.. and then took a cab to go to Chinatown for some shopping at the night markets. Our cabbie was pretty cranky probably because we bargained him down to 10 MYR from 20 (he wouldn't use the meter and we knew that 10 was more than enough) and the traffic was pretty bad, so he dumped us in Little India and told us to walk a few blocks to Chinatown. No bother. Little India was interesting to see.. lots of stores with fried foods... and lots of garbage on the sidewalks. Hmm kind of reminded us of Delhi. :-)

Chinatown was pretty interesting too. Night markets with the usual- watches, clothes, bags, belts, clothes, perfumes and colognes, foodies, you get the picture. McD's with Red Bean desserts and a "Prosperity Beef Burger Meal". Here's some more pics of Chinatown:

Too bad we didn't get to go to the Reggae Bar. Jet lag took over at approximately 8pm and we had to boot it back to the hotel before we both passed out.

Mini review of Renaissance Hotel in KL.

Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. Had both a dry and wet sauna. :-)

Langkawi.
... to be continued...

Bored at the AeroPorto

2007-12-27T08:30:00.000-05:00

So..it begins...

We're in the Air Canada Lounge thanks to some spare passes Julie gave us...Thanks Julie!

So we'll be in KL in roughly 23 hours...yah..flight to Shanghai is ONLY 14hours, we figure 5 hours of Movie watching and then some sleeping aids ;) should make life easy.

We spend 2 days in KL before flying to Langkawi, which is a resort town in the Andaman Islands just south of Thailand..We hear there's nothing to do..:)

l8s

Mexico - Snorkeling Akumal Beach / Diving

2007-04-27T00:41:00.000-04:00

Nice Snorkeling - Definitely in the top 5 :)
Diving was meh - did see a Nurse Shark though

It might be time to change the tittle of this blog..since those 180 days are finito and now we're just piece mealing these vacations...ahhh the good old days

New Zealand - Fiordlands

2006-03-15T16:57:00.000-05:00

We we're there for 3-4 days travelling through the sounds and area.

Tongariro Crossing in New Zealand's North Island

2006-03-15T15:59:00.000-05:00

A fairly difficult (but no Kilimanjaro) 1 day hike up and over Mount Doom!

Somewhere in the Serengeti

2006-03-14T15:46:00.000-05:00

Picture of the Day - Victoria Falls

2006-03-12T22:23:00.000-05:00

Here are a couple of pics from Victoria Falls Zimbabwe. We were at the driest part of the Dry Season, so this is considered a trickle. At full glory there is so much mist most people are unable to take any pictures of the falls from the National Park.

Pic of the Day

2006-03-10T11:15:00.000-05:00

OK the shock is slowly wearing off and we can post again. For now we're going to just post pictures of the day, but there's so much we want to review, but we'll save that for later. There are some definate categories/themes for pictures that we would like to post, for example : Our Favourite Signs, Our Favourite shots from a moving vehicle, etc...

Anyway, here's one of my Fav's, taken on the first day of the Safari as we were heading to the Sopa Lodge in Tarangire national park, the hill in the background is known as...Tarangire Hill, go figure

Fricken Freezing!

2006-03-02T00:17:00.000-05:00

We're back...it feels weird....could have used another 12months!

Kia Orana

2006-02-21T18:47:00.000-05:00

Kia Orana all,

Well we've been lounging in the Cooks the past few days. It's hard to get out of bed when there's this view waiting for you the second you open your eyes :). The snorkelling in the lagoon in the picture(created by a barrier reef that encircles the island) is the best I've seen. Anyway, pictures to follow..later.

We still have a ton of pics we'd like to put up on the blog, probably more for us than you guys :), but we won't have time until we are back. So we'll post a best of an recap when we're back, also some more insights of the places we've been and what we thought of them. Anyway, hope everyone is doing well. We get to Tahiti(Bora Bora) on Thursday night and then Fly back home from there around Mar 1.

Back to the Honeymoon.

l8s

More New Zealand

2006-02-11T00:31:00.000-05:00

Thank god we finally hit a town that has some food variety. Namely, donairs and isklanders from a Turkish place, and a Thai food cart on the street. Can you tell we are missing food from home? The one thing that we have learned over the past few months is how lucky we are to have such a huge variety of food in Toronto. Can't wait to have some Rol San, Fune, Spring Rolls, Rajkapuri .. getting hungry now.

Anyhoo this post is dedicated to more pics of NZ.

First set of 4 pics are from the North East part of the South Island namely, Kaikoura, a small little coastal city who's claim to fame is all the marine life living around it. The seals in the pictures are Fur Seals (Really Sea Lions, but they have been misnamed).These guys are nocturnal hunters so they're easy to see lazing about during the day, we were at one point only 10meters away from them..

A lot of these are cloud shots, something about the clouds in NZ, they're just very grand.

Mount Doom in the North Island as promised.

Pics from Franz Joseph Glacier: We did a full day Hike on the glacier and these are some of the shots we got while on the climb. You wore a pair of Crampons (which are not used to relive cramps...) and walked up this crazy mass. Since the topography of the Glacier changes daily you end up in some interesting spots that the guides will swear were clear yesterday. The blue ice that you can see Mel's outline in is a Cave created by water, these caves can last days or months, this one is lovingly named the Worm Hole.

Yellow-Eyed penguins from a reserve called Penguin Place in Dunedin. These little guys are on the endangered list. They exist only in New Zealand on the South Island, and their numbers are a sparse 6000. The reserve offers them some protection in that they set traps for predators like stoat (sort of like a weasel). There are numerous above-ground walk-ways or "tunnels" throughout the reserve that are covered by wood, mesh, and leaves, so that people can observe the penguins without scaring them. We were there around 7pm so we were lucky enough to see quite a few penguins coming in from the ocean, from a day of fishing, back to their nests. Saw March of the Penguins the other day in keeping with the theme (courtesy of a $1 DVD from Thailand).. if you haven't seen it, watch it!

And finally a sign we saw posted at a gas station...some enterprising kid (I hope) has been laughing all the way to the bank with this unique offering..wonder what price he/she would get on eBay?

Images of a Journey Through Middle Earth

2006-02-04T17:08:00.000-05:00

Ok really, it's New Zealand..but same thing..I mean it just got bumped higher on the list thanks to Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings trilogy. Although honestly we haven't really sought out the filming sites. There are no remaining sets left, once filming was complete the crew was forced by the Kiwi government to restore everything back to the way it was. I believe all that is left, is a bit of Hobbiton, and from the pictures we've seen it ain't much :) The only thing we have seen, and that purely was because we drove by and noticed it is Mount Doom.

Sooo anyway, we got to Auckland, New Zealand on the 28th of January after a long overnighter from Bangkok. Auckland by the way is close to the top of the North Island in New Zealand. If you thought American customs was bad, you should check it out here. They aren't as worried about terrorists as they are about soil...Yah the dirt kind. Kiwiland has a big agricultural industry and they are ultra paranoid (I guess rightfully so) of foreign plants, sand, animals, diseases, etc getting into the country. So basically they ask questions like this on they're customs declaration card: eg: Do you have wood? (DO I!) or Have you got Hiking Boots?..a yes to any of the questions gets you a meeting with a friendly, hard to understand, latex glove wearing Kiwi..thankfully that latex glove is for your belongings and not you! after everything has been searched your stuff goes through an x-ray machine (yah, that's just to get into the country). And then you are cleared to get on your way, to be honest the process didn't take longer than 20 mins.

Ok so pick up a rental car from the airport at about noon after a crappy 4 hour of plane sleep and we try to get to a little crap smelling town (due to the sulfur gas released from all the hot springs) called Rotorua. There were only 3 things we wanted to do in the North Island : See Rotorua, Hike the Tongiraro Crossing and raft the low Worm caves in Waitamo. Our plan was to get to Rotorua and do the other 2 on the way back up. Driving in New Zealand has been the most fun and beautiful we have ever seen. I think driving through the Rockies comes a close second, but the thing about NZ is that you get changes in scenery every hour. One moment you're driving on the coast, the next your in the mountains, and all of it is stunning. I can't count the number of times we've just stopped the car to take pictures and take in the scenery. After 2 days and a night in Rotorua we drove towards the ferry that crosses to the South Island with a waystop in Palmerston North to sleep. After that, got on the ferry in Wellington, got off in Picton on the South Island and drove to a sleepy little town on the east coast called Kaikora, famous for it's Whales, Dolphins and Seal colonies. At this point we had probably driven 1000 klicks. After a full day in Kaikora tramping by the seal colonies, and by tramping, I don't mean the Julie kind (ok sorry Julie, it's just been so long since I made fun of you, I miss it..u know?), I mean the hiking kind, we headed towards the large city of ChristChurch. OK so large city means 300k people, but where they were is anybodies guess. Everyone told us the town was just super busy, but it looked empty. Also, everything closes early in New Zealand, the latest restaurant open, closes at 10pm..it's nuts..and frustrating for those of us who like to roll into cities late in the night..we've learned not to do that anymore. If you get in past 10pm, it is very very difficult to find a motel open (yah) or restaurant. We checked out empty ChristChurch and then drove through Arthur's Pass to the west coast. Stopped for 4 hours in Arthur's Pass town to tramp through the mountains and then made it to the Town of Franz Joseph, where one of the world's most stunning Glaciers is constantly moving. Recently it has been one of the few actually growing, at an average rate of 2meters per day..the thing is constantly changing. We hiked it and basically the guides were saying every hike is a new hike since the topography of the glacier changes daily. They have to cut stairs at the bottom for all us tourists every day and as we hike! We also spent 1 of the 3 days at Franz's sister glacier, Fox, pretty cloudy day though so the views were less spectacular. Anyway, yadda yaddda...lots of sheep and amazing scenery later and we are in Queenstown. The adventure sports capital of the world. Yesterday we tried jet Boating, took the gondala up the montain, and took some Luge Cars down (Really fun stuff). No Bungy this time, although they have a unique version here. They take you parasailing across the river on a platform, then when you are up on the parachute, you Bungy off..If we come here next time, we'll do that :) Today we are just hanging out and prepping for our 4 day trip into the Fiordlands national park. Anyway, here are the pics (seal and glacier pics to come):

1-5. Wai-O-Tapu (a.k.a. Sacred Waters) Thermal Wonderland in Rotorua (North Island)- Volcanic geysers, lakes and craters
6-8. Hell's Gate in Rotorua - hottest spring waterfall in Southern hemisphere (albeit damn small), mud pools
9. Biggest valley of windmills in New Zealand (near Palmerston North)
More on post below..

More NZ pics

2006-02-04T16:57:00.000-05:00

10-11. Sunset on ferry from North to South Island

NZ- pics cont'd

2006-02-04T14:52:00.000-05:00

12-14. Views from the highway
15. Lake Matheson- reflects Mount Cook on a sunny day :-(
16. Viewpoint of Queenstown
17. Sham on the gondola up to the viewpoint
18. Sign in lady's bathroom.
19. Another toe pic

More of Thailand's Islands

2006-02-02T00:57:00.000-05:00

Hey All,

Hello from Franz Joseph Glacier in New Zealand. Thought we'd finish off the Thailand pics before we started posting the Kiwi Land ones. Very Beautiful here. A bit cold today but we are pretty close to the Antarctic here..plus there's a Glacier 2km away so we can't really complain!

1) Our Long Tail Boat driver who took us to Phi Phi Lei. This is where the movie The Beach was shot. We did get into trouble on the way back as there was a storm coming in and waves of 5-8 feet started pounding the side of the boat. We almost capsized a few times and our driver lost his seat (The bouncing around tossed it out of the boat)..anyway he was fairly drained after getting us back..a little wetter..but safer :)

2)A group of Long Tail boats docked on Phi Phi

3)When the tourists run under cover from a rain storm all the local children come out to play. This little guy was enjoying the water while we huddled in a store pretending we were looking at T-Shirts but really just trying to wait out the storm

4) This one is taken on Koh Lanta. In that hole is a crab, and those spheres around the hole are what the crab spits out after eating all the nutrient goodness from the sand. Basically once the tide heads out thousands of these guys come out to eat the nutrient rich sand (That the tide has deposited)..really neat to see all these little designs..it basically changes the look of the beach in hours. Until the next tide, and the process starts all over..Circle of Life..blah blah blah

5) A view from Phi Phi Noi

6) This one was taken in Lanta from a beutiful Hotel that was a bit too expensive for Thailand ;)

7) This one is off Koh Samui in Ang Thong National Park. It's a large lake ina mountain

Koh Phi Phi

2006-01-30T19:08:00.000-05:00

OK this post is on Koh Phi Phi. We're a bit behind here because it was too hard to find Internet access in the North Island of New Zealand (namely because everything closes so fricken early!).

Koh Phi Phi was our favourite place in Thailand. It's made up of two separate islands- Phi Phi Lei and Phi Phi Don. Phi Phi Lei is where some scenes from the movie, The Beach were shot. You can only visit it during the day, except if you camp on the island (very limited number of campsites- like 5). Phi Phi Don is the bigger island and where all the accommodation is. A relatively small (compared to Koh Lanta and Koh Samui) but very picturesque island. It is quite built up since the last I was there, 4 years ago. Lots of little shops, restaurants and bungalows. And nowhere near as commercialized as Koh Samui. They're still doing some re-building from the damage done by the tsunami, but like I said, it's more built up than before.

We only had 2 days in Koh Phi Phi. Spent one day diving, and one day sleeping (we were exhausted from the diving)/ touring Phi Phi Lei. As I mentioned in my last (very short) post, when we were diving we saw a Leopard shark lying on the ocean floor near Koh Bida, which we'll show you a pic of when we get back (can't scan in photos from the underwater camera here). Must have been around 2 metres long. Really cool looking with big spots all over it (hence its name). We also did our deep dive there. A lot of people will start to experience nitrogen narcosis at around 26m depth and start to act all silly. The instructor will get you to do some mildly stimulating brain task to see if you can accomplish it. Happy to say that Sham and I can both spell our last names backwards at a depth of 32m (I'm lucky mine is so short). Neither of us got really silly although both of us mimicking a mermaid's swim was very amusing at the time. We also did a night dive right around Phi Phi Lei. Sham and I both had primary lights plus a backup each. The Divemaster had only one light, but looked like a really good strong, robust light. About 5 mins into the dive, both of Shameiz's lights were out, and my backup somehow got flooded so he couldn't use that either. So we had to hang on to eachother with my crappy light and follow the Divemaster around (more difficult than it sounds when you can barely see what's around you, and to try to control your bouancy together so you don't crash into the rock/ coral below). By the end of the dive, my crappy light was the only one working. Luckily we saw a couple Barracuda, so that made the dive worth it.

OK here are a few pics--
1. Viewpoint on Koh Phi Phi Don (this is not the whole island!)
2. Beach on Koh Phi Phi Don where the ferry docks (accidentally deleted pic- will re-upload later)
3. and 4. Maya Beach on Koh Phi Phi Lei
5. Sunset on the way from Phi Phi Lei to Don
6. Sham drinking

Will post New Zealand soon. So far it has been really nice driving around the North Island- sort of reminds us of B.C. Just got into the South Island last night. Going to search out some seals today on the beach. L8R.

PS. Re Sham's toe. I didn't describe in the last post, that the big ball of crap on his toe is puss. It just sort of exploded out of his toe all of a sudden. Anyways, it's all better now.

Koh Lanta

2006-01-24T03:22:00.000-05:00

Here are some pics from Koh Lanta. Sham got his openwater PADI cert (yay!!!! finally!!!! (stupid toe) ). We did a cool night dive together and saw some barracuda (my cheapo crap light was the only one working by the end of the dive), did a deep dive (32m- and proud to say neither of us got nark-ed out), and saw a leopard shark and lots of Nemos (a.k.a. Western Clown fish). Not much else to say since I'm under the influence right now, we're getting kicked out of the Internet place in oh 5 mins, and Sham is ummm busy. We're actually in Koh Phi Phi right now. Looks pretty darn good considering it was wiped out by the tsunami just over a year ago. Off to Phuket tomorrow (cell phone shopping!) and then off to New Zealand! Will post more.. sometime soon...

O, and on the topic of toes, my right big toe's toenail is 3/4 fallen off. Will post pic of toe with no toenail when it gets fully ripped off. Know you're all looking forward to that. Weirdos.

(This is gross but there were too many requests so decided to post)

The Conservatives won???

2006-01-23T23:39:00.000-05:00

YUCK...

Well maybe we will stay in Thailand :)

Thailand - Koh Samui and Koh Phangang

2006-01-16T05:43:00.000-05:00

Hello Everybody,

We have spent the last 6 days on the islands of Koh Samui and Koh Phangang.

Pictures
1) is a 80m waterfall in Koh Samui at the centre of the island. We took elephants up again since hey I had a bum toe and all, only to discover they only take you up about 50meters..another rip off :)

2)This was one of those we are going to get shot moments that turned out to be not so bad. After the waterfall Mel and I caught a cab (or so we thought, turned out to be one of the elephant riders finishing his shift and being a "cab" driver. Anyway he was trying to tell us something on the ride back that we couldn't comprehend bount sleeping and elephants. About 10mins into the drive he turns off the road telling us we only have to wait a minute and takes a small dirt road to the middle of no where. First thoughts in both our minds were we're going to get mugged, so we went about hiding things (specifically passports and credit cards) in and around us and the car while the driver stepped out. Turns out his final piece of work for the day was to get the elephant beds ready and their food. The elephants were brought to this location to sleep and feed, it was really amazing to watch and be there while they we're "off shift" :)

3-5)Are of our trip to Anghtong National Marine Park. Mel and I decided to take the 500meter hike up to the top to check out the view since I couldn't snorkel or swim...500 meters, right, no big deal...well wow..we can't believe they let tourists actually do this, this was a more technical climb than Kilimanjaro and took us 40mins up and 55mins down..the last pic is of the stretch from the viewing point down, it didn't get much better than this the whole way down..nuts eh? But what a wonderful view, it was worth it.

6-9) Are from our 3 day trip to Koh Phangang where the infamous Full Moon Party is held, surprisingly..every Full Moon. Difficult to take pictures but basically about 5000 people on a beach all night partying to various DJs. Very interesting. These pics are of the Fire Performers, a sign for the Elephant Bar and the last pic is off randowm people jumping through the ring of fire..and I don't mean the post General Tao kind :P..Notice the fire theme!

10-13) Are of our little Hotel Bungalow (My Phangang Resort) while we were in Phangnang. Really quaint place, with a very quiet beach right there and gorgeous sunsets

So we're off to Koh Lanta tomorrow for 4ish days to do ....nadda. My toe is good to go as per the folks at the hospital and I'm going to get my diving cert :) The nurses gave a big woop when they got to look at it, what a fuss...I was actually proud at that moment :)

I hear you Torontonians are experiencing some good mild weather :) Hope it lasts past March!

Thailand - "Ping Pong for you?"

2006-01-09T03:22:00.000-05:00

Hello from Pattaya,

The seediest town ever. Yes Yes seedier than Vegas, Niagara Falls, Amsterdam (at least the seedy parts) and a few otehrs combined. Everywhere you look there are older, usually white men with young Thai girls.."Weekend Girlfriends". Anyway, an interesting place. Many Go GO Bars, Ping Pong Shows (and I don't mean the game), Transvestites (Thailand is famous for it's gender bending culture and cheap plastic surgery), markets, tourists, etc.

But we're getting ahead of ourselves. Mel and I are a few cities behind in terms of posting so let's catch up on Thailand. We started off with 4 days in Bangkok. Spent New Years eve at an open air market called Pat Pong which is lined with clubs and go go bars and tons of shopping stalls in the centre. We ended up at an open bar listening to a live duet (think American Idol rejects- William Hung- no wonder he thought he sounded good!). Everything from Fity Cent to Maroon Five. The oddest thing was the choice of song for the midnight countdown..Maroon 5..This love..odd odd, but fun!

Anyway, Bangkok has some great scams, all of them perfected and delivered with a level of politness you can only laugh. We got caught by one though. While walking around on day one a middle aged man asked us waht we were looking for..we were hungry and he seemed to know everything and since it was New Years eve nothing was open...he got a Tuk Tuk driver for us and explained everything to him..well that was a scam, the story goes he was waiting for his wife, but in reality he's a guy that gets business for the Tuk Tuk. The Tuk Tuk then proceeded to take us to all the hsopping places..we were so thankfull, these places were quality and cheap..that was a scam too, basically he gets a gas vouture when he takes us to these places...So whatever, we have watches and diesel clothes we don't need etc.. Also, the tailers here are really cheap. Mel got a suit and a dress and I got 2 suits (Italian Wool) + 2 shirts + 2 ties all custom made and fitted for $500 US..nice stuff.

After our 4 days in Bangkok we went slighlty North and West near the Burma border to a place called Kanchanaburi. The pics below are all from that trip.

1)Erawan Waterfall - This pic is only one of the 7 stages. Basically you hike up to each of the stages. About 2km walk up. Very beautiful, the toe hindered me from seeing the last stage, as I can't get it wet, but basically Mel climbed the rocks to get to the top!!!

2-4)Mel & I petting the Tigers. They're just slighlty bigger Tiku's :P. This picture and the next 2 were taken at a Monk run sanctuary for reclaimed animals. These tigers are taken care of and those that can be released in the wild will be. Very cool place.

5)An elephant Ride through the Jungle. Our elephant was cranky, and it's amazing how much persoanlity they have. Sadly there are only 2000 wild elephants left in Thailand. about 3000 are in captivity, 2000 in tourit traps like this one and others adn 1000 illegaly used in farming and the logging industry. We felt guilty about this one, but they are treated well and fed well...but yeah

6)For those of you that saw the Movie "The Bridge OVer the River Kwai", this is the bridge...well not really. The original bridge was built by POWs captured by the Japanese to create a railway from Thailand into Burma for Supply routes. I believe 17 people died per KM and a total of 17000 soldiers and civillians died in total. A sad place really. This bridge was rebuilt after the war with steel after the original was bombed by the allies near the end of the war.

7) Hellfire Pass along the railway above that killed the most people.

Cheers,
Sham
P.S. Toe is doing well and slowly healing, my diving plans are probably out the window for Thailand, will probably have to do that in the Cooks, but at least I get to keep my toe!!! :)
PPS. Personally I think he should just replace his toe with a steel toe. That would be v. cool. (Mel)

My Toe

2006-01-08T02:14:00.000-05:00

Is being a pain.. :P

Had to go back to the Hospital to get it drained again..changed the antibiotics..yadda yadda. Interesting twist to the vacation... :)

Anyway, in Pattaya now and probably for a few more days. We had a good time in Kanchanaburi an will post the pics soon (There is one with Mel sitting down with a Tiger..full grown Tiger..sleeping in her lap). Might head to Koh Samui in 2-3 days and chill out. Anyway, will try to post the Pics soon. Hope all of you are doing well!

Also..Congrats Nick on Making UHURU! Show off :P

Cheers!

India 2

2006-01-03T04:27:00.000-05:00

So hello from Bangkok again. Let's rewind back to India for awhile. I'm sitting at an Internet Terminal by the Hotel while Mel gets her 1 hour Thai Massage for 300bhat ~ 8Cdn Loonies. Also, my second toe on the right foot got infected on one of the blisters (scabs) I had from my climb, my guess is it happened in India.. anyway..the story involves extreme pain, a needle between the toes to get a local anesthetic..and some other gross stuff, so I'll spare you the details, I have some pics..but I think I'll spare you that as well.

Anyway, it looks like my toe is not going to fall off and the infection is receding..cause hey I can walk again, and Mel has helped nurse it back to health and is being stringent so it doesn't get infected again...anyway..

Sooo India.

Well first of all, of all our destinations it is the one that we spent the least amount of time in. Mostly because I really wanted to do a full India trip in the future and knew that is a 4-6 week kinda thing. We ended up with 4 days in India mostly because it was a stop over anyway, so we decided to get a bit of a taste. So we chose to stay in the Delhi area, mostly because of it's close proximity to Agra and it's famous Taj Mahal.

Fist of I think we can now crown (although it's still a bit early) the worst Airline we've ever flown....drum roll please.....AIR INDIA!!!!!!!! although American Airlines (or maybe Air Zimbabwe because of the unpredictable fuel shortages) is a close second :). Air India.. the staff are cranky, plane is smelly, bathrooms are not clean (we think since the plane was inaugurated), always delayed, counters never open on time, same food on all 3 flights we took, etc...

So our trip to India started off with delays.. although the plane was on time by Indian Standard Time standards. Basically we had a long travel day from the start. We flew from Kilimajaro Airport to Nairobi, Nairobi to Mumbai and then Mumbai to Delhi. The flight leaving Nairobi was delayed 4 hours (Air India said there were problems leaving Mumbai and so the plane was late), that made us miss the connector from Mumbai to Delhi which almost half the aircraft was on. So we were stuck in Mumbai from 3am to 1:30pm. But just before boarding time, after we were at the gate there were some "Mechanical Troubles"..which delayed us further. So we can shake stuff like that off no problem. But it became quickly apparent that in India your guard has to be way up all the time, everyone we interacted with tried to scam us..fake politley..but scam none the less. I think our guide from the Taj Mahal summed it up perfectly. He said "In india we can and do do everything that the west does, we just don't do anything 100%, everything is about 60%..SOMETIMES WE GET CLOSE TO 80%..BUT NEVER A 100%"..that's about right. We never encountered anything in India that made us say..wow that was amazing...although the Taj was amazing...Agra and the experience of getting to the Taj was a mini adventure.

We hired a car for 3 days to take us from Delhi, to Jaipur and then to Agra and finally back to the Airport. We had a portly quiet driver named Deepak who spoke very little, but a nice man regardless who came alive with conversation near the airport as he realized he should probably start working the tip :)

Some things we observed
-India is the dirtiest place we've ever been to (OK 1.2 billion people can't all be made to use garbages, especially since 700 million or so are utterly poor)
-The povery in India is in your face, and you sadly start blocking it out, it's also amazingly sad, although the poor are fairly adept at the scams here..I guess you have to be
-Monkeys and Cows roam the streets freely(They are considered Holy) and play a central role in the government sponsored garbage cleanup program (by eating/ playing with/ sleeping in the garbage)
-Everyone tries to bud in line..EVERYONE! Lines are the most chaotic things in India. Old ladies are the worst, they act as if nothing is going on and then get mad at you when you point it out. In Jaipur we witnessed a large older lady try to bud in front of the line and got heckled to the back..she moved 1 spot back :) At the Delhi Airport, people were RUNNING to get in front of other people when counters started to open up. It was funny yet at the same time, maddening. If you would like a taste of this in Toronto, visit the Indian Consulate, there where all the tourists take a number a good number of people keep budding and pleading their case for why they should bud. I was even approached by a budder to give up my number since his aunt (who was eating an Ice Cream cone 2 seats up) was very sick..yah..
-Public Urination is very common. The first time I saw this a man in a crowded street in Jaipur started peeing on the city palace..we were in a car 5 feet away from him on a busy street, no one batted an eye. Since that point I started counting, I saw over 25 men from the city to the country peeing within 20 feet of a road. I also (unfortunately) saw 5 instances of people going #2..nuts hunh! Notice Picture below with highlighted rectangle.
-The Taj Mahal is a diamond in the rough..Agra is one of the dirtiest places ever..and then there is the Taj with it's magnificent beauty. I'm surprised with the number of tourists (over 5000-6000 per day) that visit because of the Taj there aren't enough funds to clean up at least the areas around the Taj?!

Anyway, not sure if maybe it was us or India..but we walked away from India thinking we should probably see some other parts of the world first...India has moved down the must-see countries sadly..I dunno, I'll ponder this longer, let you know what I come up with!

OK so the pics
1)Man peeing in Delhi
2)Delhi
3)View from our Delhi hotel room
4)A group of buffalo budding into line at the entrance of the Taj, one Bull actually chased a tourist who ran off screaming..wish I had a pic of that!
5)Us at the Taj in Agra
6)Open Engine farm trucks carrying various grains and produce
7)The floating palace in Jaipur

India

2005-12-30T06:53:00.000-05:00

Is frustrating, which I was ready for since these are my peeps and all...but they exceeded my expectations ;), but more on that later. We're off to Bangkok now and will post from there...HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We're Alive!!!!

2005-12-25T05:45:00.000-05:00

Today is day 2 of our recovery. We are still incredibly fatigued (we should be sleeping right now!), and doing the duck walk cause our calf muscles are so tight and we have blisters are all over our feet. Apart from that.. climbing Kilimanjaro was an amazing experience (I can say this now that my body feels half-way back to normal) and one we'll never forget.

We conquered Gillman's Point- 5685 metres, on December 22 at approximately 6:30 am. Everyone in our group of 12 made it. Only 5 of 12 made it to Uhuru Peak (5896 metres) for various reasons- total exhaustion, altitude sickness. Uhuru Peak is on the opposite side of the crater rim, and although only ~200 metres higher in altitude, takes about 2 hours to get to. Sham and I realized that once we hit Gillman's, we were completely exhausted and didn't have enough energy/ food/ water (our camel backs froze half-way up) to continue another 2 hours to Uhuru (plus 2 hours back to Gillman's, plus 2 hours down to base camp, plus 3 hours to our next camp). So unfortunately we didn't make it to Uhuru. Maybe in a few years we'll try it again! (hahaha Sham is giving me a dirty look now)

I wanted to keep a log of what was going on day-to-day, but at the end of every day when we got to our new camp, I was too exhausted to pick up a pen, let alone put down some meaningful thoughts. So here goes, Sham's and my recollection of our 6-day trek up Kilimanjaro.

Day T-1.

Met the rest of our group of 12 that we'd spend the next 6 days eating, sleeping, walking (crawling), snoring, coughing, drinking swamp water, going to bathroom at all kinds of inopportune moments, and bonding with. Brett and Sharon (a.k.a. the Brits/ Army guy), Leslie, Merna, Tom, Dan, and Marc (a.k.a. the American Airforce), and Patrick and Hassup (a.k.a the Fins).

Transferred from Moivaro Lodge to Kibo Hotel where we'd spend our last night in a warm bed. Weighed our bags to make sure they were less than 15 kgs. They weren't. Sacrificed some hot packs, hot water bottles, some medicine... and were good to go (after breaking the scale.. oopsies).

Day 1.

Early morning buffet breakfast. Last bottle of o-so-good spring water, last taste of non-sandy food, and last flushable, sittable, CLEAN toilet.

Transferred to Rongai gate, approximately 3-4 hours by a rocky dirt road. Ate our boxed lunch (somewhat edible), and met our guides, Fraterin, G, Robson, and Charles. Put on our backpacks and adjusted our walking poles, and off we went.

Trekked 3-4 hours through farm land, and forest. Saw some black and white monkeys. When we got to the campsite, all the tents were already setup, and popcorn and tea/ milo/ hot chocolate was served in the mess tent. mmmm popcorn...

This was our first night out under the stars..and as romantic as that sounds..it gets old really really fast when the cold starts to freeze your :) First off we were on some pills called Diamox that help you deal with Altitude Sickness, but are also a Diaheuretic. Secondly we had been drinking roughly 3 litres of Water each to maintain hydration. The combo made us have to go to the bathroom at least 5 times the first night..and getting out of a tent into very chilly air to walk over 100 feet to the Hole in the ground (and making sure not to step on the swarm of biting ants) is a bit unnerving..the good news is that this was the warmest night we would see for the next 6 days!!!

Overall effort: leisurely stroll
Elevation gained: 750 metres (1950 to 2700m above sea level)

Day 2.

Waking up in the cold is difficult..but the guides usually wake us up to check that we're all ok and then bring hot tea to our tents allowing us 30mins to wake up. Then they bring the warm water to wash and give us 30mins to pack everything. After that we have breakfast where the ritual of getting our Platypus bags and water bottles filled with boiled stream water (swamp water as we all lovingly called it). By this time the porters had put down all the tents and were packing our Big Bags for the climb.

Travel Fact :
On this trip we had 3 porters per person. Basically to carry our 15kg bag, tents and food. That's a big team! And these guys are incredible.. they always start the climb later than us, and beat us by a mile to the campsite. Usually everything is setup by the time we get to the campsite.

Breakfast consisted of porridge, swamp tea, swamp Milo or hot chocolate, fruit, eggs bacon, and toast with margarine/ jam/ peanut butter. Once breakfast was complete we started our 7 hour hike. This time the walk was much more difficult and involved a very steep incline. We walked 4 hours at a very very slow pace, the local term for Slowly Slowly is Pole Pole (Pole-eh, pole-eh)..we hated this term by the end of the trip..it's like a mantra out here!

After 4 hours in the cooling weather we hit our lunch spot. Hot lunch was varied every day and was surprisingly good considering we were hiking a mountain! :). Another 3 hours of tough hiking and we got to our second camp spot called Kikewellwa. This was a cold night..freezing..and the Diamox water combo was still going. OK for those of you squeemish ones you may want to skip the next bit.

OK so one of the things that really was difficult was doing the good old Number 2 (Long Haul as it is known here) in the stinky Kaibo..I had held out a whole day but wasn't able to this day...well let's say this was the thing that caused many of us a lot of stress...and became common camp conversation...anyway, we're all experts now.. be it at the Kaibo, behind a rock, at 3am in the bloody morning (when it's freezing freezing cold and you have 4 layers of clothing on top and bottom and a hot pack stuffed down your shirt!), or on the final ascent path up to the top.. :)

Overall effort: Intense Long Inclined Hike
Elevation gained: 900 metres (2700 to 3500m above sea level)

Day 3.

Same deal for breakfast but a relatively short but intense hike. The air was noticeably harder to breath and some people started feeling the effects of the altitude. Which included intermitent tingling of the extremeties and pressure headaches. Mel and I thankfully were ok this day (for the most part anyways!). This was a beautiful hike but extremely difficult due to the body needing to get used to the lack of oxygen.

By 1pm we were at a place called Mawenzi which was a beautiful spot. After lunch we all hiked up ~100 meters for an hour to get acclimatized and then came back down to rest for dinner. The jackets and fleece were out for the day...the night was the coldest I have ever experienced outdoors. We both froze that night, the frost was all over the tent, water bottles froze, and on top of that, we ended up with a tent that couldn't fully zip up which just added to the problem.

We must mention here that this place had the outhouse with the best view. No door. Just you doing your thing while enjoying the view over the cliff.

Overall effort: Intense Inclined Hike
Elevation gained: 750 metres (3500m to 4330m above sea level)

Day 4.

We were incredibly tired and cold by this day. Sham's fingers and toes were intermitently tingling (feels like when your foot falls asleep and then finally you get some blood to it.. i.e. pins and needles). We were also losing our appetites and had to force ourselves to keep eating and drinking the disgusting iodine treated swamp water. Today's hike was supposed to be relativley simple and flat, with a gain of only 370 meters to the base camp at Kibo Hut. The hike took place across the Saddle of Kilimajaro which made us feel like we were walking on the Moon or Mars.. very surreal. Unfortunately we both found this long flat hike quite difficult. Mostly due to the lack of oxygen and higher degree of cold. Also, it was very windy across the saddle. The hike took 6 hours and by the end of it we were completley exhausted. We got in around 1:30pm, and started to mentally prepare for the final ascent that night, starting at midnight. Exhausted and cold we took a nap..only to be woken up for lunch which was not so impressive ...back to bed and woken up at 5pm for a briefing on the climb that night. Some more soup and some other stuff and back to bed!

Overall effort: Intense Long Hike
Elevation gained: 370 metres (4330 to 4700m above sea level)

Day 5
.. begins at midnight. We were woken up to prepare for the ascent... it was so cold (although warmer than Night 3).. but not cold enough to hide the smell of the bathrooms. There were many people here and not just our group as this is the convergence point for the Marangu and Rongai trails heading up for the final ascent.

Anyway, we get our boiled swamp water. This time we added Gatorade which masked the iodine taste and would lower the freezing point of the water. Everyone was trying to eat as much as possible.. this is incredibly difficult when you have no sense of hunger. Anyway, around 12:30 we were lined up and started our Pole Pole walk.

If anyone could have conveyed to us how hard this was, maybe we wouldn't have gone. We both felt this was the most difficult physical thing we had ever done. 6.5 hour hike, straight up with no oxygen in -5 (plus windchill weather). Many of us lost feeling in our toes and fingers, were always short of breath, would over heat, get too cold, thirsty, run out of energy, etc.. Somewhere mid way our primary source of water (Camel Backs) froze, Mel was smart and ate Power Gels at every break (which was every 10 steps), I couldn't stomach anything. We call what we did that night the Zombie Walk, and it was the only way you could make it up. Just keep your mind focussed, and walk...when you're not thinking about walking it goes faster. There were many points where I thought I would just turn around..but Mel had a determination and we just kept walking. My biggest mistake was asking how far to go when I was the most tired..the answer was a resounding at least 3.5 hours...a death sentence, when you are freezing, thirsty, way past the term known as fatigue... That may have been the hardest moment. Once up at Gillman's we both realized there was no way we could make Uhuru this time :(

Anyway, when you're at the top you are completely and utterly exhausted..and there is still another 2.5 hours down to Kibo, and then after that, a few hours to complete a 10k hike to the next camp site... It was almost impossible contemplating walking another 10km by the time we got back down to Kibo (around 9:30am). I was exhausted and passed out with a little bit of fever. Mel was still on her adreneline rush but came back to earth shortly after. Once everyone was back down we started off to Horombo Camp Site 10km away. In total, it ended up being 15 hours of walking and summiting...RE-DIC-U-LUS.

One big surprise: we found Coca Cola (and beer) at the camp site! The group bought a ton at a pricey rate..but hey..it was Coke and beer!

Overall effort: Almost impossible ascent and then long hike
Elevation gained: ~1000 metres (4700 to 5686m above sea level, and then back down to 3720m at Horombo)

Day 6
Basically usual routine, except much more tired.

6 hour lesiurely (but painful as the blisters piled up) hike down to the gate... and much celebration that night at Kibo with everyone.

This post hasn't fully done justice to the trip. There were many stories to tell.. we'll try to tell them all soon!

Picture Descriptions:
1. Our certificates
2. Pepe posing on Mawenzi with Kili's peak in the background
3. Sham and one of many outhouses
4. Night 2 campsite
5. Sham on the saddle with Kili's peak in the background(day 4)
6. View from Gillman's Point (on crater rim)
7. Sign at Gillman's Point
8. Mel with Fraterin (lead guide), and Robson (our wonderful guide who sang to us all the way up the mountain to keep us going, and carried our bags down the mountain!)
9. Us at Gillman's
10. Group photo at Kibo Hotel after final descent
11. Our friends (a.k.a American Airforce crew) at Ngordoto Mountain Lodge Hotel on Christmas Eve (good times!)
12. The Real Santa Claus at Ngordoto

Lion King cont'd

2005-12-25T01:36:00.000-05:00

Here are a few more pics of the safari for your viewing pleasure. They were taken in the same parks as the previous post. Sham and I are still missing the experience and hope to come back some day!

1. Poomba eating (Couldn't find the pic of momma Poomba with her two little ones.. will have to find that one later)
2. Timon getting ready to pop back into his hole
3. Shenzy checking us out
4. Simba on top of the world
5. Zebras at a watering hole (they run out of the water every few minutes in case there's a lion hanging about)
6. Baboon hanging out on a rock
7. Mating lions (yes, we have a clip of them mating)
8. and 9. Leopard chill'n out in a tree till he gets hungry again
10. Baby elephant staying close to mom
11. Hippo yawning (look at those teeth!!!)
12. Sunset in the Serengeti
13. Sham and our guide and friend, Robert, at Arusha National Park

Now if you happen to be thinking of going on a safari vacation to Africa, we'd highly recommend Predator Safaris (based in Arusha). They were very helpful in planning our safari to make sure we saw the most possible given the time of year. And our guide/ driver, Robert, was incredibly knowledgable, and made sure we saw everything we wanted to see. Thank you again Robert and Nabeela!

Jambo from Tanzania

2005-12-13T08:31:00.000-05:00

Hello Everybody.

Tanzania is amazing! The pictures from above were taken in either Tarangire (pronounced Tar-ahn-gear-eh), the Ngorongoro Crater(A complete Alien World) or here in the Serengeti where we are now.

Today is day 5 of the Safari and we've been lucky enough to see all the animals we were looking forward to. The Big Five (Leopard, Lion, Buffalo, Rhino and Elephants), we saw a lion and a baby zebra square off, and surprisingly the Zebra won. Although we do have a pic above of where a Zebra lost (see lion with Zebra leg in mouth), we didn't see the kill though. We also saw 2 Giraffes trying to mate..there is a whole bunch of snark I can get into here..but I'll let it go ;), either way, let's just say the male had a lot of work to do :D

The bad news is we also saw the Bug Five (Sisi Flies (sp?), Spiders, Roaches, some weird bugs that move like star fish, mosquito's).

Travel Fact
Sisi flies are said to have single handedly driven the Massai from the Serengetti plain.

We also got very lucky in the Ngorongoro crater. Our original hotel had overbooked and we were then sent to a 7star Ngorongoro Crater Lodge..one of the pics from above is a view of the crater from the room. Suffice it to say it was the most amazing place Mel and I have ever stayed in.

We are "Luxury Camping" in the Serengetti for the next 2 days and then back to Arusha to rest for 3 days before the climb. (Nick : We are staying at Moivaro Lodge Dec 15, 16, Kibo Lodge Dec 17, then we climb from the 18th - 23rd, night of the 23rd at Kibo, 24-25 at Moivaro Cofee Lodge again). For those that don't know Nick is climbing up Kili while we are on the way down..good luck man!

Cheers

On Safari

2005-12-10T10:22:00.000-05:00

Have a tonb of pics..but no way to post from here. We're on a little Coffee lodge just outside the Ngorongoro crater..might be able to post some at the end of the Safari in 5-6 days. Hope all is well.

Cheers

1 2 3 4 BUNGEEEEE!!!

2005-12-07T12:25:00.001-05:00

WOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO We did it!

Jumped off the Victoria Falls Bridge 111 Meters. I must say it was the stooopidest thing I have ever done, but I'm glad I did it! This was Mel's 2nd time, so go figure. You just really have to psyche your self up and then just do it, there is no time to really feel fear until your bouncing up and down and have a chance to evaluate the fact that if something gives way you're lion food :) . And although Zimbabwe is a 3rd world country the folks at the Zim Bungi we're very professional and safe....

Anyway..The other 2 pictures are of a Wild Hog who walked us to the Bridge, I was more scarred of the hog than the jump I think :) (Mel scoffed at this line :P ), the other pic is of Pepe enjoying Vic Falls.

Sooo people go to Vic Falls. I know it's a bit cliche saying the best way to give charity is to be a tourist, but in this case it's really true. The people here are going through so much and the poverty is mind numbing, but not once did we feel too unsafe and we met some wonderful people here that helped through some interesting predicaments. We spent more on tips then we did on lodging and food, but the people here were gracious, even returning some lost sunglasses. No one ever overtly asked for a tip, and even the guys that bother tourists for money by the bridge, relented after a while and were wonderful tour guides, you have to tip someone that figures out you aren't going to give them money and then just gives you a free tour :) .. either way, you can't help everyone, but your heart does go out to the people.

Travel Fact
Also, here in Zimbabwe, Mel and I are Millionaires (maybe Billionaires)...Conversion rate $1 Cdn = 66 000 Zibabwe Dollars. That rate was 1 CDN = 27 000 Zim Dolalrs 3 months ago. Stuff here's isn't Egypt cheap, but is still very affordable!!

We are in Harare today (1 day early) due to some rescheduling Air Zimbabwe is doing due to the lack of Fuel (yah, sanctions...long story, maybe one we'll tell when we get back). Anyway, when got off the plane there were no cabs and a wonderful woman(Thanks Bongi!) just offered us a ride to the Crown Plaza (where we decided to stay, since this is on travelers Insurance). There was also the nice receptionist that put us up in the Honeymoon suite..and sweeet it is! Anyway, put Zimbabwe on your travel to list, it is 3rd world and it is Africa, but, if you're an experienced traveller you'll be fine.

Also wanted to thank our South African friends Marc and Tanya for being great company in Egypt and volunteering to ship some art back for us, hope you guys got home ok!! We'll email you your Camel pics soon!

Anyway, we're off to Killimanjaro via Nairobi tomorrow. Hope all of you are doing well.

Cheers

Surreal Egypt

2005-12-04T07:26:00.000-05:00

Hello All,

This will be quick as we are shortly off to the airport. Here's a small sampling from Egypt.
2)Giza During the Day
3)Sakkara Pyrmaid with a Camel that I took without having to pay any Baksheesh!
1)Sunset on the Nile somewhere between Edfu and Luxor from our Cruise Boat

The whole place was surreal and we would definatley recommend doing a guided tour as Egypt is a difficult country. Our toiur with Top Deck tours was great with a wonderful tour guide. I'll try to post the pictures from Abu Simbel sometime, assuming we get Net connection in Zim :).

So Vic Falls for 4ish days and then off to Tanzania! All the Best

Cheers

Where the streets have no lane

2005-11-27T09:34:00.000-05:00

Cairo. It's like an alien city. We've been here relaxing and taking it easy for the last 3 days. The only touristy things we've done are see the night show at the Giza pyramids(tacky, but worth it) and get ripped off by local cabbies (who are crazy). The night show is worth seeing if you go to the Pizza Hut across the street and order some food, let the waiter know you'll give him a good tip and he'll dim all the lights, turn down the music and open the windows, which allows you to pretty much experience the same things as the guys that paid the 65 Egyptian pounds each and sat within the pyramid compound.

The pyramids are unreal and it's difficult to ascertain their true size at night. The whole view was surreal with all the donkeys on the street side by side with the cab cars and then these majestic pyramids mixed in with the smell o putrid and the tacky light show. We can't wait to see them in the day!

Food. Is good and cheappp with the best falafels I have ever had! And...they we're only $0.25 CDN each. YUM!

So the roads..wow..no lanes..everyone is weaving, pedestrians are forced to walk on roads due to the state of the sidewalks, even on highways. We got in at 11pm Cairo time and we were in traffic jams all the way. Rush Hour in Toronto is orderly and speedy comparatively.

We begin our Touristy Tour tomorrow and get a daytime view of Giza and the Sakkara Pyramids, then a night train to Aswan and then a 3day Nile cruise to Luxor and finally a one day flight to Abu Simbel and then another overnight train back to Cairo.

One more thing about Cairo. Pollution, it's dense, the air always smells like some mix of rotten and gasoline. Blow your nose and the resulting fluid is black. I feel like I've been smoking since I was 5 here. It is an alien world, you can't see those too often, really looking forward to Abu Simbel and the Valley of the Kings.

Peace.

Some more wedding pics

2005-11-23T16:54:00.000-05:00

OK with 20 minutes to go till we have to leave for the airport, here's a link to more wedding pics from Vani, Jill, Julie, Damian and Adam.

Click Me!

(You can view the pics without signing into Kodak. Click the link below the Continue button labelled "View Photos without signing in")

They're in no particular order ! If anyone else has Costa Rica pics they would like to share, please post a link in the comments section. Thanks!!

Pepe all over the world

2005-11-23T14:37:00.000-05:00

Hello Everybody,

Ok, we are in the final stages of prep to leave. Our flight leaves at 9pm tonight to Cairo via Heathrow. It hasn't hit us yet. The hustle and bussle of the last 3 days really hasn't let it sink in...It'll probably happen on the plane.

So packing...I really don't think we overpacked..but that damn climb up Kilimanjaro made us carry an extra carry on each. We will have to ship that stuff back after the climb.

Above is Pepe, a lovely goat that we all came across hanging out in the pool in Manuel Antonio. Pepe is coming with us, so look for him as we travel. He's much more photogenic and enjoys the limelight.

Anyway, Cheers and see you all soon

Driving in Costa Rica

2005-11-22T08:43:00.000-05:00

Costa Rica Bridge
Originally uploaded by _s dot.

Let me start off by saying I love driving. I love it all the time: Rush Hour, DVP, Country Roads, 401 during construction (which has been all my life), and also driving in Costa Rica...but man, that may have been the most stressful driving of my life. Let me rewind a bit.

So Week 2 after all the family had left, some to head back home some to other parts of Costa Rica, Mel and I decided that we wanted the freedom to decide what we wanted to do on the fly, hence, we rented a car. Mel and I were pretty excited about drving, only to discover that Mel had left her license at home...I was secretly happy about this turn of events since I LOVE DRIVING (I secretly regreted secretly being happy about the license thing later on)..so anyway off we went! The plan was to drive to Volcan Poas on the outskirts of San Jose, stay the night, and then head to the Caribbean Coast.

Travel Fact:
Manuel Antonio to San Jose distance = 275km, Time to Travel 4hours in good weather on a Major Costa Rican Highway.

Anyway long story short we didn't see Poas that day or the morning after due to cloud cover (we did get to see the day we left though, it was beautiful, I think Mel might post that soon)..but due to some luck, the Park Ranger let us know Tropical Depression Ghandi was forming on the Caribbean Coast and wiping away all the roads..FUN! So we changed our plans to find the sun..we decided to drive to the Nicoya Coast to a wonderful little beach town that Lonely Planet couldn't stop raving about called Playa Del Coco.

Travel Fact:
Distance to Playa Del Coco from San Jose 305 km, Driving Time = 6.5 hours on the worst roads I have ever seen.

No pothole in Toronto can compare to any of the ones we saw on this trek. For your viewing pleasure we shot this video of a typical stretch of road, note, this is the Main Pan American Highway, the largest highway in Costa Rica.

Anyway, to spare you the details we now hate Lonely Planet too, Playa Coco was Kaka. Mel would want me to remind everyone that I was a wreck after this drive, cranky tired and moody..I blame the drive :) anyway, we soon realised that the sedan we had was nice but we'd need an SUV. We switched cars in Liberia(30km away) to take what the locals call the Monkey trail, the fastest way to get from Liberia to Playa Tamarindo a place we knew and liked :)

Here's a little taste of the Monkey Trail

Video 1
Video 2
Video 3
Video 4

Yah..nuts

Anyway, here's some take aways

1)Get a Fricken SUV from the get go
2)Get a Standard Transmission, cause we needed it, not sure we could have pulled it off with an Automatic
3)If you want a very chill vacation, let someone else drive you
4)if you love driving, definatley do it...just break up your drives
5)Keep aware of the exchange rate: 1 Costa Rican km = 5 Canadian km
6)The fastest you are ever going to drive is 90km/h for maybe 1-2 minutes at a time
7)There is a cop around the next bend, we must have seen over 20 and pulled over 6 times. 5 for no apparent reason (I'm fairly certain it was to check Mel out) and once when we were speeding (HA!), but the cop was nice, after admiring the Hena / Mendhi on Mel's arm and coming to the conclusion that there was no way we could communicate with each other, he said something about being Canadian, had a laugh and let us go on our way..wonder what he would have done if we had American Passports?

OK back to packing. We leave tomorrow night! Cheers

More Wedding Pics

2005-11-20T13:25:00.000-05:00

Ola everyone,

We are back, after a ridiculous flight with American Airlines. We now officially hate American (that story to follow). Anyway, I'm down with a cold and taking all home / Pharmaceutical remedies to make it go away...

Anyway Vani has some teaser photos up on her site. Check them out Here and Here.

Thanks Vani! If you're looking for a great wedding photographer check out her site!

Finally some pics

2005-11-16T19:31:00.000-05:00

Here are some pics finally of:
- our peeps piled into the airport van,
- the crazy lizard in the pool at Casa Romano,
- a precarious bridge on the ride out of Manuel Antonio,
- crocodiles chilling out underneath another bridge,
- cows on the road to Volcano Poas

Hiding from Tropical Storm-to-be Ghandi errr Gamma

2005-11-14T19:18:00.000-05:00

Sorry no pics this time cause this connection is way tooooo slow. We are stuck in Playa del Coco hiding from the rains brought on by the maybe tropical storm Gamma.

OK let me start over. After piling everyone into the van, we said a sad good-bye to all our family and friends on Saturday morning. It was a very memorable and fun week, and we hope that everyone had a great time. The rest of the day was very lazy and enjoyable. Two things worth mentioning: the huge flying iguana (a.k.a holy shit that's a crocodile in our pool!), and the poor monkey that Altaz spotted falling from atop the hydro wires. We only hope that the staff from a nearby place found the injured monkey in the bush (after it dragged itself from the road, out of harms way), and were able to take it to the vet in Allejuala.

The next day Sham and I rented a car and dropped Altaz off at Jaco beach. Pretty big place, lots of restaurants, bars and other nightlife. And most importantly, big surf. (Hope you're having fun now Altaz!) Then we were off, headed to Allejuala, and to Volcano Poas. Unfortunately, after staying a night at the bottom of the volcano, and getting up rather early (5*%!!:30am!) to get to the volcano before the clouds took over, the tropical depression had already started to affect the weather and we couldn't see a thing. It was a nice drive up however.. very windy crazy turns, overlooking luscious coffee plantations, and the occasional dog wandering into the road at the last possible moment.

So it was right at the entrance to Volcano Poas where we found out that the Caribbean coast was being drenched in rain and that there was a tropical storm developing. So we decided to seek refuge on the northern Pacific coast. As was recommended to us, this is the best place to be in such weather. So off we went, and after 6 hours of Sham dodging constant huge potholes (you'll see later what I mean), we are here at Lonely Planet's recommended Playa de Coca. I must say now, I STRONGLY dislike the Lonely Planet person who wrote up the piece about this place. It's really not what we expected. And so we will be off again tomorrow, probably headed to Tamarindo, maybe to Samara. Going to have a few drinks now. At least the bar life here is good.

We're Hitched

2005-11-11T20:19:00.000-05:00

What a wonderful day :) But......

1)Semi-planned blackout for 6 hours during prime get ready time
2)No water during prime get ready time due to above
3)Makeup lady was late
4)Hair appointments delayed
5)Initial Beach Location road was suddenly blocked day before
6)Rained just before we started, ended up using a little restaurant by beach location 2
6)Huge traffic jam due to flipped over bus on a small hill. Bus was stuck and unable to get to Reception. We had to walk across accident to second waiting bus past the accident

But regardless, we had a great time and it all added to the adventure. All our guests were great too, and rolled with each of these hurdles. Anyway, the reception went great, the owners are a bunch of Torontonions that miss home and will be heading back in a year or 2. I'll post their link soon.

Most people are leaving tomorrow for home. We have another week in CR and are going to take 1 more day in Manuel Antonio to rest and plan the next week. We'll try to stay in touch!

Pool Partay

2005-11-09T21:14:00.000-05:00

25 drunk party guests, 7 sober ones, 10 bottles of alcohol, 1 pissed off Sloth (shown in picture, hanging out right by the pool), 1 broken blender and loads of fun. Best story (I can tell) of the night was when an unsuspecting guest was walking by the pool with a fresh set of towels and was broadsided into the pool by Jenn..cause you know, that's what Jenn does! Also, gimmick for the night was to give everyone a glass with a nickname on it. Examples :
Ass
Cap'n Ass Wipe
Burn Victim
Smelly
Dominatrix
Blondie
Rum Mum
Lame Dame
etc.. We still refer to each by these names today..

Tomorrow is the big day, we're not nervous, but we just found out that they are shutting the power down in the entire city from 6am - 2pm..yah in the middle of a weekday..it'll be an interesting day!

Attack of the Killer Monkeys

2005-11-07T18:51:00.000-05:00

So another Monkey story today. My Mom and Saro skipped todays boat cruise and decided to eat breakfast outdoors on the balcony. Well, turned out Monkey's like toast so out of nowhere a tree full of Monkey's was poised to attack the 2 fearfull breakfasters..so they ran into the house with the food. The picture above was taken later in the afternoon when the roving band of Monkey's were a few trees out.

Second pic is of the dolphins that swam by during the boat cruise. I'll post soon regarding Manuel Antonio in general from a tourist perspective, in case any of you are thinink about vacationing here. Obviosuly we're big fans! Ok, my 30mins on the computer are up!

l8s

MONKEYS!

2005-11-06T17:57:00.000-05:00

Ola Ya'll,

Qucik one today, here's a shot of the spider monkeys we saw during the tour of the National Park with Everyone. Every one rolled in late last night (that story to follow) ;)

Anyway, these Monkies stole a bagel right out of Saro's hand, which for the price of a bagel gave us a great show of Monkey Mayhem...ok off we go..it's starting to rain :(

Sunshine at last!!!

2005-11-05T14:14:00.000-05:00

Hola senioras y senioritas...

So we have a bit of catching up to do. As per Sham's previous note, we arrived safe and sound 3 (?!!) days ago. The flight from Miami was delayed 3 hours and smelled of sewage when we stepped on the plane, but we survived, and got to our hotel after 15 hours total of travel.

It was cloudy and a bit rainy our first day here, but yesterday and today are GORGEOUS so we hope the weather holds. But if not.. well we’ll just have to do more drinking (see pic 3)! Pic 1 is of a cool restaurant right on the beach. Feels like you’re in the middle of the rainforest, depending on where you’re sitting.

Yesterday we sat our butts down on Playa Espillada and sunbathed for a few hours and then went kayaking. Huge bloody waves, but we made it a few kms out and around some “little” land mass (see pic #2). It was cool riding a big wave in and we almost made it right to the end but the kayak turned over and dumped us both out.

Today we moved from Hotel Verde Mar to Casa Romano. See pic #2 for the view out of our bedroom window. We’re pretty proud of ourselves for booking it and we’re sure the family and friends staying there will like it.

OK that’s it for now. We’re off to do a bit of grocery shopping and some surfing before everyone else gets in!

Adios amigos.

We're here!

2005-11-03T17:12:00.000-05:00

In cloudy Costa Rica!

No pictures yet as I left my USB cable at the Hotel (3kms down hill on a windy road). We're up by Casa Romano cause we wanted to check it out. For those of you coming up it's about 25mins Up Hill on windy road, Cabs are probably best for those of you at Hotel Verde Mar. After the long travel day yesterday we're still a bit pooped so we're heading back down the hill and taking nap (Mel claims she's not taking a nap). We did get time to hang out at the beach today, although not sunny, it wasn't raining during the day either, so we'll consider that a good sign. Ok this one was short and sweet. Hopefully we'll upload pictures soon.

We Outs

2005-11-02T00:31:00.000-05:00

Another Phew!!! We're packed!! The trick is to use those large heavy duty ZipLock Freezer bags. I roll all my clothes (usually 4 t-shirts or 3 thin pants) into the ZipLock bag, Zip it up most of the way and then let all the air out...It's actually really therapeutic. Anyway, the black suitcase is the one that comes back with somebody since it is wedding related only.

So..our flight is at 9:45 in the morning and we won't get to CR until later in the afternoon, we took the cheapy stop over in Miami flight, so hopefully read some books and settle into Tiko time. We're in Costa Rica for 2.5 weeks and then return to the T-dot for 3 days to repack!

For those of you concerned, we still left half the electronics...It's going to be interesting when we repack for the Big Trip in a few weeks...Although, I'd sacrifice clothes for electronics any day :D

For those of you that are coming up, have a safe and enjoyable trip and we'll see you in Manuel Antonio! For those of you staying in the temperate climate of the North and have this as their homepage (Nat!):P, Mel and I will try to stop into a cafe (Don't worry Cancer Care Ontario folks, I will not be testing out the iPort security) sometime before the wedding, and hopefully a few times after. TTY guys soon!

Errands, Errands & Hurricanes

2005-10-30T23:23:00.000-05:00

PHEW...what a crazy few weeks. Kudos to all you guys that have had big weddings in town, I can't imagine the amount of work that went into that! I've heard from some friends that it took every weekend for a year to get their weddings planned...although Mel and I haven't gone through that, it's been hectic with the wedding and the trip. We'll be glad when we're done planning..Which means Tuesday! Although there are some items left to figure out for the trip...we'll do the rest on our 3 days back here after the wedding.

For those of you watching the news, Hurricane Beta (they're using the Greek alphabet now) did not hit Costa Rica directly. Manuel Antonio is on the pacific coast where hurricanes are rare this time of year and Beta was another Atlantic hurricane. Basically the pacific coast did get rained on, but none of the water surges/wind that were expected on the Atlantic side.

Speaking of hurricanes what's with the Greek alphabet names now? What about Indian or Chinese names? Doing that would also solve the problem of people not evacuating, a name like Hurricane Bhupendra would surely scare those Floridians into leaving their homes no?!

The Tikster

2005-10-26T08:19:00.000-04:00

For those of you that haven't had the pleasure of meeting her, I'd like to introduce you to Tiku. We're definatley going to miss her .... a lot. She's an old lady now, over 13 Human Years old, which means my family has had her since I was 16. She's been moved a lot, lived with my Mom when Altaz and I were in University, and has for the last while lived with Mel and I. She's definatley a Senior Citizen now and has been through the ringer; 2 Cancers, 1 weird growth that keeps coming back and 1 bum hind leg later, I'm hoping she's got another few years in her. Mom will be house sitting for us and looking after her while we're gone.

We were planning on taking her for the wedding to Costa Rica, but decided against it, since we're not sure she could handle the flight. Also, Air Canada changed their Pet policy on us out of the blue. You used to be able to take small pets with you on the plane as long as they were left in a cage. Now they have to go with the regular luggage...I'm sure it's those terrorist Terriers they're worried about, a couple of bad seeds ruin it for the rest of doggy land..End Snark

Javier the unwanted house guest

2005-10-24T23:17:00.000-04:00

Still prepping for our wedding and not much to blog, so here's a little story from the last time we were in Arenal, Costa Rica :
Mel and I were staying at the Tabacon Hotel in Arenal, which luckily had a really nice view of the Arenal Volcano . Anyway, we stayed 3 nights and the first day we noticed this big patch of dirt on the floor of the closet. We figured they were just lazy maids. Anyway, every day we would see the dirt and laugh and wonder why the maid would clean everything so well but leave that one patch, and always in a slightly different spot. On the third day as we were packing up, I got up close and personal to Javier (pronounced Havier)..the Roach..this thing was the size of my hand..When I told Mel she had the presence of mind to pretend nothing was wrong, ignored me and continued packing..I on the other hand was flipping out..how do you kill a roach the size of your hand?! Anyway, she wouldn't (didn't want to) believe me regarding the roach so I took this pic, and then we took off. In retrospect I'm glad we only figured it out on the last day. I would have had to call the reception, cause ain't no way I'm messing with a Roach that ate cows for a living, and they would have laughed at me all day. I'm also glad I took the pic, cause no one believes me that this roach was that big..I wonder if it could fly?

Costa Rica

2005-10-23T20:36:00.000-04:00

Not much to write today....ok we bought a mini GPS device...for uploading to google earth (so we can map out our route throughout the trip), geocaching (if we're bored)... but more on that later. Today some pics of Costa Rica. For those of you attending the wedding and doing the ZipLine tour, rest assured that the pics here are of the ZipLines in Monte Verde and are the highest and longest in Costa Rica, the ones in Manuel Antonio aren't this "scary"..but close :P . That's GI Mel showing no fear, as always! The other pic is of Manuel Antonio Park, Beach #3 I think, it's a beautiful place.

Da Villa

2005-10-20T19:25:00.000-04:00

Soooo..T-11 days until we get the hell outta dodge for this little paradise. We booked through a woman named Tricia Morris, who we found while surfing the net for rental houses in Manuel Antonio. Her homepage is here. She was a tremendous help during the booking process and suggesting wedding planners in the area. If you're looking for this type of accommodation in Costa Rica, we definitely recommend going through her(contact info is on her page).

Although the house can handle weddings (as seen in the pictures on the link), and although that was our initial plan(to hold the wedding reception at the house)...too many people showed up...which is a good thing..Crazy People :P So now the reception is at a restaurant.

Man I am sooo glad we are doing the wedding this way i.e. Away...wooohoooo VILLA! ..I'll shut up now

Google Earth

2005-10-18T18:03:00.000-04:00

Bored?
Have Google Earth?.
Then Download this file.

I love Google Earth! Check out the current version of our travel plan..which changes..usually after a bathroom break..because that's where the Lonely Planet books are ok! Sheesh.

Geek Stuff - Please avert eyes if not so inclined

2005-10-17T19:55:00.000-04:00

So..we like toys....Interpret that as you will :P . Most of this stuff has been acquired over the last few months, I've really just needed an excuse to purchase it. Here's what were taking :

1) Camera Panasonic DMC FZ5
Ok I wanted a DSLR, Mel wanted a small camera. We both wanted something that could handle a variety of lenses and with a long zoom. So the compromise solution was the FZ5. This thing fits in the palm of your hand, 12x Optical Zoom (Check out item 05, that makes this a 24.4 x Optical zoom), all the advanced features. 1 glaring problem..no Manual Focus ring..I hate that..but there is nothing else with this zoom length and a small form factor that also has Manual Focus..oh well.

2) Camera 2 - Canon a70
We're going to try to be nice and switch Camera's every other day, since this is the runt camera..I have a feeling this one will be mine!

3) iPod Travel Speakers.
Best thing about these is that I can use Batteries, they fold up fairly small, and they also work with the portable Mini Battery pack (16) and 120-240 AC outlets

4) Raynox 0.5x Wide Angle (Almost Fisheye) lens. Works with both Camera's using the adapters in (08)

5) Raynox 2020 2.2x Teleconvertor Lens
Makes the Panasonic 24.6x zoom the Canon into a 6.6x zoom

6) 2 4-LED Head Lamps
Works off 3 AAA batteries, really powerful. We'll need it for the climb since peeing in a hole in the middle of the night at 13000 feet can get nasty....yah I said hole..I may get a selective case of constipation

7) His and Hers iPod Minis
Got these 3 days before the nano came out..it still hurts a little inside. The reason for the his and hers? Hers is predominantly alternative, I'm more of an R&B Hip Hop guy..The jostling for Radio presents during the morning drive is a whole other story ;)

Geek Stuff Part II

2005-10-17T18:51:00.000-04:00

8) 1 - Panasonic Lens Adapter and lens hood, 1 - Canon Lens Adapter, Bunch of Filters which works with both adapters (UV, Polarizer, Radial)

9) His and Hers Binoculars
We've heard through reading a lot of reviews that it makes sense to bring a set of Binoculars for each person, not one wants to miss a Rhino giving birth or a Giraffe pooping you know.. + we share everything, but electronics, no scientific reason has been able to explain this

10) 2 - AC 120V - 240V to 12V DC AC to Car lighter adapters
Basically converts a wall socket into something you can attach a car adapter too. The charger for the Battery pack(18), the ImageTank OTG (12), Panasonic battery Charger (16), Flashtrax (11) all can be charged through their respective adapters though this

11) FlashTrax
40GB Image storage system, with LCD Viewer. Also an MP3 player, runs of Linux. Basically you put in a compact flash card (use adapters for SD (24) (17) ) and it copies the contents onto the internal drive.

12) Image Tank OTG
40gb Image storage. It has USB OTG "On The Go" technology too, which means it will take anything connected through it's USB port and copy it to the internal drive, this includes External HardDrives, Camera's etc... It also has the CF to HD capability as the FlashTrax

13) Compact Battery Charger + Battery pouch
Can charge 4 batteries at a time AA or AAA

14)Mini Tripod
Cause you know I have shaky hands! Fits both Camera's

15) 12 V DC Car adapter -> 9V DC charger
Works on the Portable battery Pack (16) and The Image Tank OTG (12)

16) Universal Battery Pack
My Favourite thing on the whole list. This thing has adjustable output voltage (7.2, 6, 5, 4, 3) and has many adapters on it. It can
Recharge/Run the iPods, using item (23)
Recharge/Run the Image Tank (12)
Recharge/Run the Flashtrax (11)
Recharge/Run both Camera's (1,2)
Run the iPod Mini Speakers (3)
Run the 5 LED head light (22)

Can be charged via wall outlet or Car charger....rrrrrroooooooowwww..ok I need to go shower...

17) SD, Memory stick, CFII, MMC, SM -> CF Type I converter
For the Flashtrax (11) and ImageTank(12). Also, it allows us to use the Secure Digital cards we have for the Panasonic with the Canon

18) Panasonic Battery Chargers & Batteries
2 Chargers (1 works with car adapter and wall(
3 batteries

19) 2 Universal world Travel Adapters
The Swiss army knife of Travel adapters. Converts all wall sockets to North America plug style

20) Various USB cables for all devices

21) Screen Wipes

22) 5 LED lamp
We had bought a cheapo spare LED headlamp...well..that broke..cheapo and all. SO I soldered a DC adapter so we could use the Universal Battery Pack (16), consider it a spare flashlight

23) Ghetto USB Chargers
I made these using some help from hackaday.com Basically I can charge any USB chargeable device with a 9volt battery so that means
Recharge/Run the iPods, using item (23)
Recharge/Run the Image Tank (12)
Recharge/Run the Flashtrax (11)
Recharge/Run both Camera's (1,2)
Run the iPod Mini Speakers (3)
Run the 5 LED head light (22)

yah kinda like a USB battery pack. Also created a way to use the Universal Battery Pack to charge USB devices.

I think that's it!!!! So yah, a lot of redundancy built in. Other than the time and the memories, the pictures are going to be the next most important thing, and we want to make sure nothing happens to them..I'm knocking on wood as we speak. Don't ask me how we're going to pack this stuff yet.

We'll get a trial run during the wedding to test this stuff out. Any Questions?