TravelStream™ news feed for member elana on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/elana en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:31:09 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elana/16/1215014220/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elana/16/1215014220/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elana/16/1215014220/tpod.html Wed, 09 Jul 2008 14:31:09 -0400 From Asia to Africa

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Marrakech, Morocco

One could travel through Asia and Africa in the amount of time it has taken me to sit my busy bum down and write this. I haven't been dreading it. I have simply been going non stop since Vietnam. I have accumulated countless stories so rather than retelling those, I will try to explain what has been happening to me through the places I've been and the people I've met. I'm sorry to those of you that were anxiously awaiting a story about smelly streets, a horror bus ride or some war history. This is going to be more of a story about Elana being in love. Love from my personal experiences which are hard to express. In love with life, love for a country, love with a partner and love with a brother. But what is an artist unless they are continually evolving and challenging themselves to explore things they aren't comfortable communicating? This trip isn't only about me snapping photos of my journey through continents which encompass different cultures, beliefs, food and people. It is about me discovering me through these things. Time to step out of the box and reflect. So I will begin where I left off, leaving Vietnam.


From Vietnam I went back to Thailand to do a trekking trip in the North from a beautfiul place called Chang Mai. I was really excited to hike through the wild and reflect on my trip, my life. I wasn't looking for anything specific other than being able to be in nature. The trek was three days long and it included an hour sitting on an elephant through high marsh and a dirty rafting trip on an authentic bamboo raft down the mekong. There were 6 others on the trip. They were all friends traveling in pairs and then there was moi- solo. Right away I made an effort to communicate with them in English fearing that they might be exclusive since they each had their other. They were all very nice and we got on really well throughout the trip. One of the pairs was a French girl and guy. Initially I thought that they were a couple, a naive assumption based on most men/women traveling duos. The moment I saw the guy for the first time, my heart skipped a couple beats. I was thrown off balance as well. His humbling pressence and soft eyes and smile made me want to get to know everything about him. I knew right away that there was something special with him. This guy I will continue to speak of has a name of course and so from now he will be known as Julien. Julien, the man I finally allowed myself to completely fall for. I'm sure you could anticipate that something like this would happen to me on a year of hopping around the globe. It is probably my parents biggest fear; that I be whisked away by some foreign man, taken to their land and rushed into starting a family. Well this hasn't happened yet, I can assure you. Up until this point, I had been pretty distant every time I meet a guy cause I didn't want this trip to be about me and someone else. This trip is about me and I didn't want to be persuaded to go somewhere or do something because of a man. Well, I certainly couldn't deny the immediate connection that we had so I allowed myself to open up and give myself to him (no pun intended). Because my most serious relationship previously had been with a foreigner, I have a very open attitude towards living in the moment and not thinking about the future. Julien and I both shared the same beliefs so we took advantage of every day that we had together. We spontaneously did things special for eachother and together. We insipired and challenged one another. He gave me confidence and a sense of freedom that nobody has ever been able to give me. Why is it that I fall for men that live so far away? What is my problem! It must be a commitment issue, since deep down I don't have a sense of security that will bring me back home. I allowed myself to open up about every feeling, desire and dream. In Canada, I feel detatched from men. I don't know. I guess that is something I'll have to wait and find out whenever I return home. Maybe some things never change though. From Chiang Mai, we traveled in Laos together for two weeks. Laos was by far my favorite country in Southeast Asia. It is still so untouched and has a great mixture of things to do outdoors, landmarks and history. People are genouine, generous and friendly. There was absolutely no hassling whatsoever in Laos. Julien and I stayed up most of nights just talking and talking. His female travel counterpart, Amelia was amazing. She was just so excited for him that she let him branch off while I was around. She had never seen him in that light so she was happy doing her own thing. So that is where my love story ends for the moment. I am going to visit him in France in a couple of weeks and we are planning on taking a 2 week road trip in Portugal this fall so it isn't the end yet. Is there ever an end to anything?


From Bangkok I flew to meet Tyler in Morocco. The days leading up to this event were combined with mixed feelings of nostlagia- for the place and people I was leaving and so in love with and for the person I meeting and missing for a year, my brother. I couldn't wait to see him! I'm sure you have all felt this before. I played out 100 situations in my head of how we would meet. Tears streaming down our faces and all. Of course, this wasn't the case but sometimes I like to be a bit dramatic. I envisioned me spotting him at baggage claim, bumping into him by accident in on our stopover Madrid...of course none of this happened as well. It is never how you imagine it. I arrived in Marrakech about 10 minutes after him and I came out into the arrivals looking everywhere for him. Actually, when I didn't see him at first, I figured he missed his flight. That week he had alreeady missed two so I wouldn't have been suprised. Then between two bodies a small head emerged and said "Looking for someone?" There he was. A moment so simple and natural that millions of people undergo every minute but that was the being of my existence at that specific point in time. It was so great to see him. I am proud to say that for the first time in our entire lives, I have a flatter stomach than Ty. No but seriously, he looks so healthy and happy and handsome. We had so much fun together. We basically had a year of catching up to do cause no matter how many skype calls and e-mails exchanges, it doesn't get as personal as being there. Even though we have both been through so much this year, our relationship has remained the same. I'm still the same old bossy, controlling big sister. We just have more knowledge and exciting things to share. Tyler isn't as passive anymore but he needed me to remind him of little things like leaving his book or perhaps his passport on the table at a restaurant. Tyler could easily pass as older than me though and it happened many times where I was asked for ID.


We spent 10 days basically talking non stop. We both sunburned our lips so they were chapped beyond belief and it made it very uncomfortable to speak. However, we plowed our way through the pain and discomfort cause it was a gratifying trade off.. Marrakech was a little to much. People eveywhere from all directions trying to sell things. It was very easy to get lost in the souks. We spent the first two nights there and were dying to leave. People were pushy, aggresive and only after our money. I would have been very shocked had I not come from a part of the world that relies so much on tourism. Tyler was experiencing it for the first time and it was WAY worse than anywhere I have been yet. Men approached him from behind with snakes and demanded money after forcing them on him. Like, are these people mental? I'm sure most tourists punch them when they do that. Men grabbed me and tried every stategy to get me into bed with them. I can understand in a Muslim counrty why men are so persistent with western women but I mean come on. I had a man with me! We actually did pretend that we were a couple so that I would be left alone, though most of the time it made no difference. With our hostel, we signed up for a 3 day trip into Mezdouga in the Sahara desert. Other than being ripped off on the price and having an incredibly obnoxious, short tempered, ill manered, defensive, 23 year old guide named Youssef, ( a character I have mastered) the trip was unreal. There were only 6 of us in total. Another Canadian brother and sister and a Mexican couple who had the same strong feelings against Youssef so it just turned into a joke. Parts of it were a little ridiculous though. He would take us to the most expensive restaurants, places to get water, to buy turbans etc... plus, he would get a commission! It's all about commission, isn't it mum? Now that I am thinking about it, that guy made me sooo angry but that is besides the point. We really had an amazing time. Ty and I laughed our way through the camel ride into the desert. I have never seeen an animal shit so much in my life. I think camels have constant diarrhea. It is so bad that we weren't sure if we were walking on a rock on camel ka ka. They also have to be the funniest mammal alive. They are always smiling and eating. If only all people were like that, how entertaining would the world be. Camels kept Ty and I constantly amused while in Morocco. The trip also involved driveing through the atlas mountain range which was breathtaking.

After our trip in the desert we went to a place called Essaouira. A hippy haven where Brian Jones and Jimi Hendrix once wrote music (castles made of sand) and Tennessee Williams mapped out his first draft of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. It was really chilled out and relaxing. I will admit that we smoked our fair share of hash and roamed around the souks getting lost for most of the time. It was very relaxing, something we both needed after going non stop for so long. We ate so much tagine at the beginning of our trip (a Moroccan type stew dish made in a clay pot) that towards the last couple of days we lived on pizza. Italian food is the only other ethnic food that has managed to make its way into Morocco and it is very easy to get tired of eating tagine and Moroccan salad every meal. We met some rather interesting characters while we were in Essaouira. We were invited for tea on two occasions with Berbers men who taught us about their culture. We witnessed many fights while eating on the street. We made friends with a dog named Kifi who led us to crazy castle ruins. We learned the French word for peanut, which I thought was arachide but am pleased to share with you is KAKAWETTE. We met a man selling this treat out of a basket. He was sceaming KAKA... KAKAOUETTE. We thought he was metally insane so we ignored him and then Tyler approached him to see what the famous kakaouette were and they were peanuts. Apparenlty it is not the word in arabic or berbere but it is french. We got a deal at a beautiful hotel because we were the only costomers so we essentially had a terrace to ourselves. It was a really amazing time that we shared together staying up to all hours in the morning and blabbing.

I'm sorry to leave this so abruptly but I must be somewhere and i have to send this today or I will be really angry with myself. I will try to write again more frequently but since I'm now in Europe with no direction it might be hard. Don't give up on me and I won't give up on myself. Talk to you again soon.
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Hoi An, Vietnam

Elana's Not So Lonely Planet Guide to Vietnam:

I essentially traveled the entire country of Vietnam in a month and I have good and bad things to say about it. I have formed a love hate relationship with Vietnam. It is impossible to do this as a normal blog since I have experienced infinite amounts here so intead I have created a rough summany of my observations and adventures in case any of you wish to travel here one day. Welcome to a world where the landscapes are bold, the colours more vidid, the coastline built up and dramatic, the culture and history rich and compelling and live is lived faster.

Transportation

I have never seen so many motorbikes in my life. The streets in every city of Vietnam are crowded with motos. I found it very difficult to stick to my policy of not getting on one. In some places I visited cars didn't exist and if I wanted to see anything I had to succomb to sitting nervously on the back of a bike gripping the handle bars with my precious life. I saw the most dangerous things... up to 5 people and a dog on one bike. Now, that is close bonding for a family vacation. Most people did wear helmets on motorbikes which was reassuring. However, when it came to me renting a push bike it was a pretty big issue for me to get a helmet. Riding a bicycle with a helmet is unheard of so I became the laughingstock everywhere I cycled. People turned their heads, pointed, threw water buckets, almost got into their own accidents over ridiculing me simply for wearing a helmet. If only I got a dollar for every laugh, I would be a millionaire.

Traveling by bus was a whole world in itself. I purchased an open bus ticket on my entry to Ho Chi Minh City that would take me all the way up the coast of the country to Hanoi. I got everywhere by bus. From the moment I stepped on each and every bus, the karaoke began. Loud, winey, obnoxious Vietnamese music blasted into the night of the bus rides with video's accompanying them. There was never a dull moment without noise. On top of the blaringly piercing, utterly painful music was the honking. Many cars have their own honk. Not a standard beep beep but more like a cell phone ring tone. The horns would start loud and fade to quiet but they were always contstant. There was the happy birthday song honk, the silent night honk and many other indistinguishable Vietnamese hits honks. There is no such thing as signaling to pass in Vietnam. If a car wants to pass another, they honk and they do NOT hold back. If a car is approaching in the other lane, they will still pass barely scraping the cars in either lane. I chose not to look most of the time. I honestly felt like I was living in a live video game. The number of times my life flashed before my eyes, I cannot even count. But in real life you can't play again when its game over. It was impossible to sleep with all the noise and the consistent bright headlights shining in the windows from being on all sides of the road. I had earplugs and valium. I didn't sleep a minute. There was nothing more I could do other than edure the pain. If I closed my eyes, within 10 seconds my heart would burst out of my throat
and I would be launched up from my seat like popcorn popping.

A popular way to get around without a motor is taking a cyclo. They are great for the air and a nice realxing slow way to see a city. Well I should say relaxing for me, not for the skinny dude paddling me around. They are basically a large buggy seat attached to the back of a high bicycle that you sit in and get carried around in. The only downfall to the cyclo is all the motorbike exhaust you inhale cause of the speed. Other than that, a pretty efficent envirnmentally friendly way to get around.

People:

The Vietnamese people are battle-hardened, proud and Nationalist. If you think about every war they have fought in the last decades, they have succesfully weathered war upon war, always coming out on top. They are extremely perseverant in any situation, whether it is a bitch fight on the street ( I saw two of these with knives involved), getting you to sign up for a tour or buying something from their food stall. These people DO NOT GIVE UP. They are determined optimists who have survived colonialism along with communist rule. It is a tough culture with people who exuberate independence and sovereignty.

The Women- The women in Vietnam are extremely hard working and strong. They are always doing something. They balance a long hard pole over their shoulder with baskets filled to the brim carrying food, clothing and other shit. They try to sell everything calling Western women "Linda", something I still haven't figured out. I was offered a "sexy lighter" which revealed a dirty porn picture on the side whenever you light it. They also try to get you for " massage boom boom", which I think is self explanitory. Despite the heat, they always cover themselves up in layers of clothing to keep their skin pale. Many women wear masks to avoid the mass amounts of pollution. At multiple points in my travels in Vietnam woman approached me, rolled up their shirts and compared our skin colours saying, "You Vietnamese". Like in all Asian cultures, the paler the skin, the more weathy that person is. I think this is something I have mentioned before.

The Men- The men are the opposite of the women. They are unbelievably lazy and spend most of their time sitting around and hassling anyone who walks buy to get on their motorbike. The are wickedly rude and they constantly stare. I felt like an alien invader intruding on their land. They were not welcoming. Going for my daily runs was rather difficult. I would be honked at, chased, spat at, hassled and almost touched. The personal hygene among the men was revolting. They are a people who constantly hork and spit everywhere. They grow their fingernails which are always filled with dirt. They also grow their mole hair really, really long ( mamma, I know you are familiar with this from your Asian client who's mole hair you tried to pick of his shirt and when his wife slapped your hand, you then realized it was attached to his face). They get right up in your face to push you towards their guesthouse and the breath that comes out of them in unbearable. I almost fainted once, no exaggeration. Most people have yellow/black teeth, if they have any at all and some intense casses of the ginga, gingavitus. Men also just piss wherever they want. I did not intend on leaving Vietnam with a large vocabulary for the variety of penises but you'de turn a corner and they just pop right out at you. Not pleasent.

The Food

Vietnam was the worst country I've visited in SE Asia for food. You could pretty much get Pho for every meal, anywhere. The Pho in Canada is dynamite compared to the bland, cilantro overloaded soup in Vietnam. Many times when I was stranded in parts of the country where there were NO English speakers or other Westerners I survived on Pho Chay because that is all I could order and know what I would get. I once found a fat, puprle grub halfway into eating my Pho. The busy crowded streets reak of dried fish and even worse fish sauce. Fish sauce has to be the most foul smelling liquid substance on the face of the earth. Whenever a nice breeze would come, I would have to brace myself for the eau de fish sauce that would follow the initial 2 seconds of fresh air. Another really stinky food is a fruit called durian, which I could never bring myself to try because of the sour smell. I know you dont go to Vietnam to eat French food but it had the nicest, finest French cuisine I've ever eaten. I did try to eat as much Vietnamese food as I could but I got so sick of the greens. I lived off water spinach and mixed veggies for my first week and now I can't touch water spinach with a ten foot pole. Rice wine is a very popular, dangerous drink that is offered everywhere across the country. Rice wine is distinguishable on the streets by large glass vases with an orange liquid that contain things such as snakes, scorpions, baby crocodiles, goats hooves and gecko's. It is absolutely revolting. I have tried a batch that was not preserved in all the weird animals and I came very close to spewing, which would have been very offensive to the Vietnamese woman who force fed me it. One of the things you must do in Vietnam is eat everything that is offered to you or it is extremely disrespectful to the host. Little side note here: I did a two day trek with a homestay in the mountains of Sapa, Northern Vietnam. I stayed with a beautiful woman named Kuh in her tiny home. I slept in her sons bed, on the concrete floor with some blankets. For two days, I lived like her. I went to the toilet outdoors, dressed in the traditional H'mong minority costume for trekking and I ate all my meals with her and her family (rice, green beans, cabbage and egg, only flavored with salt). When I refused to accept more egg in my bowl because it was overflowing already, she teared up and couldn't handle the rejection. I felt terrible because they pretty much had nothing to offer me but they kept putting more food in my bowl. It was hard to accept knowing that they were hungry and I wasn't really. I could handle being hunrgy for two days and just pig out once I got back to civilization but they just eat the same thing every day. Imagine.

Money
A very short section on the waterproof, impossible to counterfeight money known as the Vietnamese dong. The conversion rate is 16,000 Dong to 1 Canadian Dollar. This made me a MULTI millionaire in Vietnam. It felt great to see that I had millions in the bank. Oh, and even though there is plenty of poverty in Vietnam, everyone has a T.V. Even Kuh had one in the mountains.

Land

The bountiful harvest that Vietnam has to offer is what kept me in the country for a month. It is asbolutely stunning- stretching 329,566 sq km's. The cooler climate mountainous areas of Sapa and Dalat had rolling, high emerald green soaring hills. Rice paties blanketed the entire country covering so much land. The coasline was great for diving ( I saw some incredible water life such as Moray Eels). The red, white and yellow sandunes take you into the dessert. The karst limestone formations into caves and through waterfalls were spectacular to explore. I just felt like a kid in a a playgorund with all the amazing nature in Vietnam. Despite all the beauty, the environmental consciousness is pretty low and there is plenty of pollution in the ocean and always a faint smell of burning garbage. The increase in motorbike numbers and construction has also contributed to the bad air.

A horrible habit I picked up in Vietnam was speaking in a sort of present tense, broken English so that people understood me so I appologize if this blog had bad grammar. I know you can already all deal with my horrible spelling. "So now I go. I go to eat. You understand? No come with me. I go to eat. Me go now." This is how I communicated because people didn't understand universal sign language. It was frustrating but helped with my patience.

Ok. So now me go. Yes. bye bye. I leave now.
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Phnom Penh, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

I have been really bad! I can't believe how long it has been since I have written an update and now, since I've been in Vietnam for two weeks, Cambodia seems so far away. I still have the images, smells and experiences close in my mind though. The border crossing into Cambodia took a while and Lauren and I were dropped off about 200 meters away from the crossing where a table stood with 5 young Cambodian men trying to get us visas. This Lauren found skeptical but I was all for it. I figured it would save us the line up and lots of time but it turns out that I was lucky to have Lauren say. "No Elana. NO no nonononono. We're going to the border to get our visas like everyone else that crosses it." Most likely, these guys were going to rip us off, I just didn't have the proper judgement. There were hardly any line-ups, we just happened to get into the wrong ones and not sign the forms properly so it took a little longer. Once we crossed, we met two American girls who were looking for a private taxi like ourselves to travel the horrible road into Siem Reap, 4 hours away. The road was suicide! Pretty much a one lane dirt road filled with potholes, cattle crossings, broken tree parts, rubbish, tankers, pick-ups loaded with dozens of Cambodians, motos and then us. Our driver was also a lunatic but we were all so thankful to have been under a roof in a small vehicle. The only thing that was available on the side of the road was pringles and baguette and cheese so by the time we arrived we were ravinous. The baguette here, by the way is just filled with air so it is like eating a rice cake. We didn't have much time in Siem Reap because Lauren was on a tight schedule so we decided to make the most of the next day in Angkor Wat. We arrived for sunrise at 5 a.m. and ended up staying wondering around the temple ruins until sunset at 6:30 p.m. For those of you who do not know, (and I wouldn't have had a clue of its existence) Angkor Wat is one of the historical wonders of the world. There are over a dozen temples that were built during the 12th century for a crazy King that are still standing. It is amazing how intricate all the carvings are and the amount of detail that still remains! My favorite temple was Angkor Thom, which has massive faces of Buddhist gods carved into the towers. Another which I found equally interesting is known as the jungle temple. Gigantic trees have grown on top of the ruins, its roots strong and thick span across them, engulfing the ancient boulders that crumble beneath them. It was in this temple that Angelina Joile filmed the Tomb Raider and fell in love with the "chidran" (children) of Cambodia.

I must now speak to you about these chidran. They are all so beautiful and bright. I can see why Angelina took it upon herself to adopt Cambodian chidran rather than Thai or Vietnamese. I'm sure all of the chidran of Cambodia have their own bank accounts with thousands of dollars in it becasue of of the jolly Jolie. I'm sure the parents of the chidran she bought live the life of a King as well. However, this does not stop the chidran from begging. Eveywhere in Angkor Wat. Chidran off all ages with various sorts of tactics would try to get every single dollar out of me. At first I thought they were brilliant. A six year old girl came up to me and said, "Where you frum?" Delighfully, I replied "Canada". Immediately, without a breath she vomitted out a monologue, " Oh Canada. Population 33 million people minus 2 (because Lauren and I were there). Prime Minister Steven Harper but no for long. Main language English and French. Parlez vous francais? Canada is very collld counry. Do lots of ski." I was taken aback by all this information. This child was worthy of a couple thousand riel. I handed over my money and smiled, hoping that this money would go to furthering her education so she will one day she will be whatever she wants to be. Little did I know that each and every child in the country knew this blurb. This is what they must learn in school. An easy way to impress the expats and make money. They learn different ways to beg. Some cried, others fronted a big smile and just repeated over and over, "one dolla, one dolla. One dolla for me. One dolla. Yes. One dolla". Lauren and I dicovered that the only way we would keep the chidran away was by telling them we were from Uzbekistan. Surely they would no nothing about this country and right we were. People would get our attention by calling us "laady". "Hello, laady. You buy somesing? Book, poscard, chewing gam? Come on lady." If it wasn't laady it was Madame. I don't know which I prefer but they both seemed degrading. They would find a way to make you feel as guilty as possible, never giving up, always wanting more. "You say you buy fwom me. Lady, you buy moar. Rememba me, Okay. You buys fwom me"... ad nausaum. Enough is enough! At one point I had 17 chidran hanging off my body. I felt like shark bait. I raised my purse high above their heads to avoid being robbed by these persistent litle babies. I left with about 40 postcards, 100 bengals and a bag full of books. A lot of the people asking for money were landmine victims. It was so sad to see and very hard to feel comfortable. We couldn't give to everybody, it was just impossible. We left Cambodia with a lot less money between giving to the childran, the wounded, the young parents with dehydrated babies in their arms and the old women trying to sell homemade goods and fruit. By giving, it only encourages more begging but it was so emotionally draining to see all the poverty and really, what is one dolla to me? It could feed a child and its family for one day when it could get me a coffee.

We ended up bumping into the Americans in every single place we went and we eventually exchanged e-mails. We had a great night out partying with locals and the girls. The next day we went on a private boat through a floating village. Yes, it is exactly what it sounds like. A village that floats in the Mekong Delta. It has everything a normal village would have: a church, basketball court, schools, restaurants, shops, a doctor. Since it is dry season, the village all moves further out into the river. During wet season, they are a lot closer to land. The water during dry season is absolutely disgusting. It is literally shit brown. All of the human waste, boat pollution and rubbish from the people living in the floating village goes into that water, not to mention parasite heaven. When I asked our guide where they get their drinking water, he said it came from Siem Reap. I found that very hard to believe. These people couldn't afford drinking water and the cost of living in this village is far cheaper than having a property on land. Seconds after I asked the question, I glanced over at the floating school and a young boy ran out from recess, rapidly scooping the river water into his mouth as if it tasted like natural spring water. It was devastating. Many people have visible ring worm which looks like giant suction cups all over the body. A little fishing boat came by our and a little girl had a massive snake wrapped around her neck. Lauren was intruiged by this, meanwhile in the back of the boat, I was prepared to get ringworm and jump in the water. My fear was clearly evident and the guide didn't allow the girl to come in the boat with the snake. I did build up the courage to take a picture of a little boy with one later on but from a far away distance.

We took a 6$ air con bus down to the capital city Phnom Phen. No proper toilet on the bus so a struggle to hold in for 7 hours. I had heard about the Khmer Rouge Regime in Cambodia but I didn't know much about it. From 1975-1979, Cambodia was taken over by a radical communist named Pol Pot. He has this mental idea to kill of all the people in the country that would be educated enough to outsmart his ludicrous new system. This included all doctors, teachers, government workers, military, children in school, even Westerners that were in the country at the time. He killed people if they had tasted chocolate because they had enoguh money to do so. All inocent lives. During this time, more than half the entire population was raped, murdered or led to starvation and eventually death. Only some of the peasants were kept alive and many of them were killed as well. He wanted to leave only a certain number of woman and men and breed them with the Chinese to create a whole new species. Absolutely sick. His own kind...

We visited an old school that was converted into the cental prison, torture and interogation center. Everything remains the exact same as it was in 1979. I found out that it was made into a museum in 1980, only a year after the horrific events. There were galleries filled with photos of everyone who went into that institution. Once people were taken out of the prison, they were promised to be taken out to work in the fields but really they were just murdered there. We also visited these killing fields where there is a massive viewing gallery with millions of skulls from all of the victims that were never buried. I couldn't believe all the events of this massacre and how it is such recent history!

Cambodia was a huge wake up call for me. I have stopped ordering so much food because I don't need it. I feel much better not wasting. I would give my leftovers to people on the street and they were so appreciative. I have realized how lucky I am. Not that I didn't know this before but now I feel so much more fortunate to have been raised where I was. I don't complain about the little petty things and when I open my mouth to try, I think about how so many people in third world countries suffer every day and never complain. It has given me a tougher skin but a softer core. I only stayed in Cambodia for a week but it was action packed and every day filled with so much information and new experiences. I loved it but it was just to difficult for my emotional temperament.
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Bangkok, Thailand

Greetings earthlings. I speak from Bangkok.

I am back in the smelly city only this time it is much easier. I caught a cold on an overnight sleeper boat so I cannot breathe through my nose, hence I cannot smell the odours that bring back nightmares of Bangkok. The city is a lot more pleasent now. So my advice to all of you thinking of coming to Bangkok is try to get a cold! We have come back here because it is the only place that we thought we could get Malarone, preventative Malaria pills for visiting Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. We tried VERY hard to get this drug on all the islands in the south but were told "BAAAAAAAAAAANGKOK, you must go BANGKOKK" by all of the pharmacies. So here we are and I'm sure you could guess that there is no Malarone here. There is no malarone in Thailand period. We decided upon this preventative method due to the side effects of other pills that include, esophogal and mouth ulcers, blood clots, itchiness, indigestion, diarrhea, skin irritation from sun (which is impossible to avoid here), psychosis ( I don't want to hallucinate while in a genoside museum, thank you very much) and many more. Today we visited three pharmacies and a hospital and got diffferent information about the exact same pills- doxycyclin. We were told to start taking them a week before entering affected areas. We were told to take 2 per day, one per day, one per week, up to four weeks after leaving the area etc... Who do we trust? All we want is Malarone but it hasn't been approved by the Thai health system so it is not available here. There is a tremedous amount of drug fraud in Thailand as well so that is why we went to the hospital to try and find the pills. I never thought in a million years that it would be so difficualt to find Anti malaria tablets in a country where is is present. We are on day two of the drug and so far so good. Last night we went out to little Arabia and I had a bit of a reaction to the food. It easily could have been the doxycyclin but I would like to think otherwise. Tonight we had a really unique experience. We went to the movies and something we never imagined in our wildest dreams occured. Instead of there being previews, we had to stand for a minue long tribute to the King commercial. Lauren began laughing hysterically immediately and I couldn't help but catch on. The type of laughing when snot is pouring down your face and tears are welling up inside your eyes and you are just chocking on your breath. It was so utterly horrible and embarassing but unstopable. The film was called My Blueberry Nights, Nora Jones' screen debut. All I have to say is please everyone, save your time, energy and money and do not waste your any of it. Norah Jones was not blessed with acting skills as she is a musical genious. Since being in Bangkok for the second time, I have seen it in a toally different light, not only cause of my cold (however it certainly helps heaps) but becasue we have specifically avoided the busy, young backpackers phenomenon knows as Koh San Rd where we spent our last days here. The city is so extremely westernised and MASSIVE. I can say I'm ready to leave though. A little to much to handle after coming out of two weeks in the Southern Islands.

A couple of funny things about getting from place to place in the south. Last I wrote, we spent the New Year in Koh Phi Phi ( on the Andaman sea) which was such an amazing cultural experience. From there, Lauren and I decided to go to an island on the opposite side of the country in the gulf of Thailand called Koh Samui. It seemed like a long haul to Koh Samui but we are young and full of energy so we assumed it would be a cup of tea. The journey began at 1 p.m. on a ferry boat until 4 p.m. We decided to take it upon ourselves and get some sun while on the journey so we lay out on the front of the boat and just baked, making us extremely exhausted for the next leg of the trip, a bus. We got off the ferry in Krabi and transfered to a 6 and a half hour bus to Surathani. Since we were pooched from the sun, we were the last to arrive at the bus, which ended up being lucky and also not so lucky. There were two seats right up at the front waiting for us, cha ching. I had a window seat, cha ching. I guess those are the only sort of two good things about it. The curtain kept on hitting me in the head and I could barely see out of the window, the man sitting beside us was extremely ill and could have spewed on us at any moment, Lauren's seat was falling off into the aisle and WORST of all, absolute misery, torture- we had to listen to this SCREAMING Thai woman, whose job was to keep the bus driver awake by speaking in the loudest of tones and pitches. I couldn't close my eyes for a second without jumping out of my seat. I was honestly really angry. I wanted to begin having a conversation with Lauren at an obnoxiously high volume just to see if she would notice, react in any way, maybe even laugh a little. I thought it could have been really rude so I didn't but SHE was so rude and disrespectful. I couldn't believe it. Ok, I am deaf and my head hurt after that ride thanks to that big mouthed woman. Does she feel uber important in society with her really important "job"to succesfully bother the living shit out of everyone around her who actually payed money for the bus service? Nobody told us at Family Express (the bus company) that the ride came with a live broken record. I also think she got me sick. She kept on horking and sneezing and blowing her nose, all of these at the same volume and pace of her YELLING. If I see this woman in another life, I might have to kill her. We made it to Surathani and were informed that our boat to Koh Samui was broken. How can a boat from a massive port to a popular tourist destination be broken? There must be a replacement or multiple backups of sorts. This was the moment we were dreading. Being stranded at a busy, dirty port filled with night bazaars and drunks, completely dead tired and forced to make a major desision about where to next. A man raced up to us at the bus asking us for an extra 350 Baht (11$) to go to Koh Tao which we reluctanly handed over. Then wooosh, he disapeared. SCAM was our first instinctal thought. How could we know that he was going to buy our tickets and that our boat actually sunk. We assumed he was gone and that we would never see our prescious 350 Baht ( it gets a looong way here) again. He proved us wrong and came back with two tickets. Later we saw our boa to Koh Samui and it had a huge hole in the bottom and had sunk at the pier. Thai's have tried to take advanage of us every single day here. It is an extremely common thing but we have been trying our best to avoid it and we seem to be on a great streak. The boat left at 11p.m. and got into Koh Tao at 7 a.m. It was the worst ride I have ever experinced in my life. The cabin was one big room with around 50 people crammed in, all sleeping on their sides. I was in the corner in the place closest to the toliet. There was only one way to the toliet and that was stepping over me. All night I listened to and smelled people being sea sick, pucking, shitting and having whatever their terrible Thai toilet troubles were. I haven't mentioned the toilets here yet. Ooooh. Juicy. It is a hole, outlined with an area to step on. You have to stand, male or female to pee or poo. There is generally no toilet paper but they kindly supply you with the dirtiest possible water that is forcefully projected by a hose spray to rape your private parts. I just chose to drip dry. Most of the time there is urine on the floor. If you do have to poo, there is no flush. A bucket is generally provided for you to fill with more diry water to put on top of you doo doo, ka ka to force it down the toilet. You always have to look at it, that is the worst! So being closest to the one bathroom on a sleeperboat of 50 poeple, I just happened to be the one in the best boat eh. Umm Hmm. I didn't sleep a minute so in total I was awake for nearly two days just to get to a destination about 300 km's away.

Koh Tao was beautiful. lauren and I went snorkeling with sharks that were only meters aways from us. We saw about 4 or 5 of them. It was really cool. A very relazing spot and much needed after the long trip there. Now after spending a great amount of time by the water and in the sun, doing some shopping, sight seeing and getting healthy with malaria tablets, we are heading for Angkor Wat in Cambodia first thing tomorrow morning. The road from the boarder in Cambodia to the city of Seam Riep is apparently known to be one of the most poorly maintained roads in the world. Once again, this is a scam to get tourists to fly there from Bangkok but the story of the road is true. It is going to be another long journey, a change in visa, new currency and new rules. Another horrible but funny story that I'll have to begin my time in Cambodia. If you don't hear from me in two weeks, please send out a search warrant.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elana/13/1207388400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elana/13/1207388400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elana/13/1207388400/tpod.html Fri, 11 Apr 2008 10:58:53 -0400 THAILAND

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Ko Lanta, Thailand

My flight to Bangkok takes a total of 28 hours. The entire time I am wired. I do not sleep for one minute. During my 11 hour stop over in Sydney, I franticaly pace the airport. A million questions race through my mind faster than the rate in which I can even process them. They repeat themselves and I have no answers. I guess I will have to find out when I land in the city of 10 million people. What am I going to do when I arrive? I land at 3:10 a.m. How will I find a place to stay? Will I even find a place or will I be forced to sleep in a dirty ditch and die. I have nothing booked. I figured it would be harder for me to explain to a taxi driver how to get to a certain hotel rather than a general area. My lonely planet book calmed me down A LOT. It told me exactly what I wanted to hear. " If you are scared because you have nothing booked then fear no more. Most international flights arrive in the middle of the night and there are plenty of places on Koh San Dr that cater exactly to that. So now at least i know To Koh San rd i go. I have idea if this is a run down area. I do not care. All i know is that there will be a reception office open and a bed for me to sleep in once I get there. I just have to get there first. I step off the plane and the airport smells like what I pictured Thailand to smell like. A combination of cleaning products, smoke and chili. If only Bangkok actually smelled like this. I was dreaming. The moment I gathered my bags i was approached by three private taxi companies. I just read it in the book. " DON NOT TAKE TAXIS THAT AREN'T MARKED OR METERED." I said no to the first two but then I looked at the line up for the metered taxis and if I were to wait, I might have been there till sunrise. I took my chances with a private company and I had to pay for it! They were really nice though. In the car was the driver, the girl who approached me and her little sister. I was a bit sketched out by the fact that they were all riding with me in the car. I had a few quick negative thoughts like "what if they take me to some warehouse and strip me of my belongings and I'm forced to roam around naked with no money" "Are the girls just using me to get dropped off at home and i have to pay for it?" They played James Blunt and jack johnson in the car, was this just a coy to make me feel comfortable and at home? I can say that I safely made it to Koh San Dr. At this time it is around 4 a.m. I step out of the cab and right there and then I was hit with the odors. Let me try to explain. Well first off, you are all aware of my super sensitive sense of smell. Here we go, in all honesty. Please try to understand. Human and dog feces meet rotten egg (sulphur) meet coconut milk curry meet fishy raw seafood meet mothballs meet fried onions meet gasoline meet stale urine meet fermaldahyde/ grade 10 fetal pig disection smell. You must factor in all the pollution and the raging humid temperature of 36 degrees. There were people all over, like being on Queen st. in Toronto on a Saturday afternoon. I couldn't believe my eyes or my nose. I walked around for 2 minutes when I came across two Westerners looking at a map with their backpacks on. I found out that they were on my flight and like myself,were looking for a place to stay. We were led to a place called the Thai Cozy house, which was actually a recommendation by my friend Kristen who was just here a month ago. The three of us decided to share a room to make it cheaper. We got up to the room, dropped our bags and decided to go out for ONE drink to calm down a little from all the stress of the flight. At this point it was 5 a.m. It is pretty clear that one drink is never the case. We ended up staying at the bar till 8 a.m. By then we were all stumbling around, dripping wet with sweat and ready to head back and finally sleep. Only this didn't happen either. We were practically attacked by tuk tuk drivers. Tuk tuks are also a big no no for Thailand. They are extremely unsafe. Basically, it is a carriage where you sit with no doors that is run by a motorbike. I vowed I would never get in one. Shows how easily persuaded I am. I was so tempted to see something in the city and now it was just the break of day. I couldn't go to sleep. We payed the equivalent of 20 cents for a three hour ride. Its hard to believe isn't it. Well let me tell you a little more about how inexpensive it is here. Pad Thai on the street costs about 90 cents. You could go out to a restaurant and have whatever you want and not pay more than 10$ CDN. You might explode if you ate 10$ worth of food. To stay in a private self contained bungalow costs me 5$ To buy a 1.5 litre bottle of water (which I do about every hour) costs 33 cents. Do I need to go on? It is scary cheap and I feel bad spending such little money on something that would be worth so much more in Canada. But is it really worth more that is the question. It is amazing how this economy works. I can't wait to learn more about it. How can a Mars bar here cost 60 cents where at home it is almost double the price? Aren't they bought for the same price wherever they are manufactured? How can we do this. Anyways, so I must admit that it is nice to see my money go so far here rather than be eaten up in Australia. The only thing that seems on par is wine so I am trying to cut back. So on our tuk tuk adventure we stopped at multiple temples and at a massive Budda. At the Budda the boys paid for me to release little birds into the sky to symbolize a lifetime of peace and happiness. We had an incredible morning but crashed pretty hard by 1:30 that afternoon. I didn't wake up until midnight when i got a loud knock on my door and who was it....Lauren! She and her girlfriend Krissy missed their flight in NZ because of the time change and they ended up paying an extra grand just to get here. They were suprised to see that I had shacked up with two blokes but quickly realized how harmless, witty and fun they were. It was really nice having a couple of days with them. It was the closest thing I've had to having my brothers around. I am a pretty easy target so they just picked on me and made so much fun of me, every chance they got. It was really nice to have formed that relationship with them after such a short period of time. I found it very endearing.

From Bangkok I took an overnight bus to Krabi. I paid 600 Baht (20$) to get to the most beautiful province in Thailand. The bus ride wasn't the most pleasent. I sat next to a very smelly woman and I had to breathe through my mouth the whole way. Buses are extremely dry to begin with so I ended up in Krabi with a sore throat. More painful than the smell though was the eardrum poppingly loud, Thai dubbed version of the new Pirates of the Carribean. It was sooo annoying! The lights weren't working either so its not like we could read or anything. We were being brainwashed. " koh no tonsai meeeko. ASAIHI!" That is real Thai by the way. You might want to look it up...it could take a while to find the translation...We arrived in Krabi town and the first thing we saw was a giant sign that read " Don't Panic". We were slightly off edge because Krabi didn't look like it did in the book. Krabi is a small shit town but the name of this beautiful area is the Krabi province. Ahhhh. So it all made sense then. We hopped on back of a truck/ bus. I don't even know what to call these vehicles. We were dropped off in Ao Nang. Nothing to exciting here to see so we set off early the next morning to Railey beach. We need to take a long boat to get there. Long boats are great fun but they take a lot of work to get in and out of. Especially with a 16 kilo pack and a side bag and a day bag and now a new beach mat. I almost fell over and lost everything. Long boats are the main transportation from island to island unless you are traveling big distances you take a ferry. Railey is perfect and we stay there for 4 nights. Our bungalow is next to a place called the stone bar. Self explanitory. We love this place and we love the people. Thai's have amazing souls. They are extremely helpful and so kind. From Railey, Lauren and I rent kayaks and head on a 5 hour snokel adventure over to Poda and Chicken islands. We see lots of fish and dun dun dun... a fucking snake. Now, I am not over reacting again. This type of blue and black striped snake is one of the most venomous water snakes in the world. I spotted it first and scared the shit out of Lauren when I started swimming for my life. I am here to tell the story so I survived the horrifying sight. Lauren on the other hand was eaten and sent to hospital. I shouldn't joke about these things. I have actaully seen 4 snakes since I've been in Thailand and I'm sure some o them could eat people. Railey is probably my favorite place in Krabi. Every evening there is a crazy lighting storm, each more exciting than the last. There is not much of a booming night life, just people wanting to relax and have a good time. From Railey we goto Ko Lanta and stay at the most southern point to avoid many tourists. It worked and we basically had a huge private beach and the most incredible suset views I have yet experienced. The restaurant has amazing food but there is no power from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. which means no fan, no cooking, no internet. So we are forced to eat yogurt with mixed fruit, exercise and read our books on the beach. Sounds like a horrible life, doesn't it. We stay here for two nights and then head to Koh Phi Phi where we are now. Every single night so far we have been very lucky with accomodation. Last night was a exception. I have tried to erase it from my memory and Tyler, you may never want to come to Thailand after hearing this. We settle for another remote place, sort of because we are stuck. It is a big bungalow and we would each have our own bed. Very spacious but when we fold down the sheets we find mouse droppings all over the beds. It is to late to bug reception so we sleep on top of the sheets and get attacked by mosquitos, probably contracting malaria. God knows if I have it now! I already look like I've been living in the bush from all my bites. If that is the worst of our problems than I guess it is pretty good. Today we have changed locations to a busy area but it is so worth it. We are paying 20 big bucks to say in our own room at a resort with a swimming pool. A slight change from a backpackers! It is so amazing. I went scuba diving today on the island where the movie " The Beach" was filmed. I saw all sorts of amazing underwater life- green sea turtles, baracudas, lion fish, trumpet fish, nemos, eels and 100's of other types of fish. My dives were an hour each which is the longest I've ever been under the surface and the dive master was a sexy Israeli which made it all the more beautiful.
I am being yelled at in Thai. I am closing this place down. Please watch the fire show video. It is such an art! From here I will soon be heading to Cambodia and I will return to Thailand on my own in May to travel up north.
Kampunka ( Thank you)
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elana/12/1206255540/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elana/12/1206255540/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elana/12/1206255540/tpod.html Sat, 29 Mar 2008 04:42:04 -0400 New Zealand (South Island)

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Christchurch, New Zealand

This is going to be the hardest blog I have yet to write because so much has happened since I last wrote! I normally write everything down as well but since my journal was stolen I haven't been as good at marking down the little funny things. 
I must tell you though that our bags were located about 5 days ago in the bushes of a reserve and all our belongings minus my I-Pod were there! They didn't catch the shithead that caused all the trouble but what goes around, comes around and I'm sure he'll get it someday soon.
My mum and I did an 11 day tour, which I will tell you all about. Some of the other unbelievable things we did were skydiving together, white water rafting, glacier hiking, sea kayaking and hiking all over the country (my favorite). We had a lovely time together and believe it or not, we both survived eachothers company for 3 weeks straight. I bet many people doubted that. I must admit that I was a little worried going into it after having been on my own but we ended up being a perfect team. We did bother the hell out of the majority of our group but we had fun doing it. So the group trip went like this.
Day 1- Christchurch to Queenstown:
We spent this entire day driving from one side of the south island to the other. Cheryl and I were worried that the entire trip would be like this.We stopped for lunch at the crystal clear Lake Takapo and got to know a little bit about everyone on our trip. There were 10 of us in total. If I could be so kind as to intorduce them. These are the folk we spend 11 days and nights with, no escaping. Meet:
Hendrick and Lay- Hendrick is a Dutch man married to Lay, a Malaysian woman. They met on a Trek America trip 25 years ago and fell in love. They now live in England. He has the most annoying accent ever and became extremely annoying to listen to. Even more unbearalbe though was his snoring. It was as loud and a train I tell you, and the vibrations it caused! Everyone was restless many mornings after being stuck in a cabin with Hendrick. Lay decided to take it opon herself to cook all the meals. She was the biggest control freak in the kitchen. Every day we had a duty. Every other day we would have to cook. I LOVE to cook but somebody got in my way every cooking duty I had which left myself along with everyone else in charge of dish washing or drying duties. It was soooo freggin annoying! Her meals didn't even taste good for crying out LOUD. I have to enforce that we had 4 meals with coconut milk out of 11 days. That is enough coconut milk to last me a year. Now I can't stand the smell or taste of it and I'm going to THAILAND! Thanks a lot Lay.
Helen- The youngest but most mature of the group. A proper 18 year old on her gap year from England. Cheryl wanted to adopt her and gravitated towards her when I wasn't around. She was really sweet and such a trooper.
Martin- A crazy overly intuitive 34 year old genious from Switzerland. I was convinced that he worked for a secret gov't and had a computer as a brain. Really he works as a project manager. Him and I always hiked up at the front of the group and I rarely understood what he talked about. He was extremely entertaining and a great character study. Martin met Cornelia and we think she will whisk him over to Canada to be married.
Cornelia- A 23 year old from some prairy farm in Western Canada. She was the only one close to my age and we couldn't be any different. 
She graduated from college in forestry. She now works as a forest ranger and is an extreme introvert. Her parents are both Swiss and so her and Martin were destined to meet. 
The hooked up on the last day and Cheryl was the only one that sensed it coming. They are so much alike, it is scary!
Luke- A chubby, cute, balding British man who never exercised a day in his life. After the trip he decided he would make a huge lifestyle change. He supplied all the great tunes during the car rides.
Kevin- nice at first but EXTREMELY condescending and critical of everyone. He always cracked jokes under his breath about Cheryl that were really rude. He is an American aerospace engineer living in Seattle. I would be very happy to never see him again.
Eva- Cute Danish woman who just got divorced, quit her job and decided to do a hiking trip with a very injured knee. She couldn't participate in any of the overnight hikes which made it very boring for her. 
Chris- Leader of the group. He worked as a vet for over 20 years and had his own pracice. He decided to make a radical life change and pusue his hobby of hiking. Now he is making no money but is loving every minute of every day. He was loads of fun and a great guide. He helped Cheryl out a lot!
So there you have our team. I might refer to them by name in some descriptions of the trip.
Day 2: Queenstown to Fiordland National Park
Today is the "trial" hike to test our level of fitness. We do a 3 hour hike up to a place called Key Summit. Apparently it has an incredible view which we didn't get to see. It was so damn windy, foggy and not to mention absolutely pouring rain. Cheryl decided to take it opon herself to truely reveal who she really is right off the bat on this hike. Despite the shit weather, she stripped down from her warm gear into her running bra. This happened immediately after Chris lectured us about the importance of polypro gear and always dressing to protect your body against the elements. So Cheryl broke the rules right away. She learned from it when she began shivering as she was sweating on the way up. This was the hike when Eve realized she couldn't do anything and walked down a quarter of the way up. That night we slept in these musty cabins. Mum and I had to share with Henrck and Lay...and the sandflies. New Zealand is the most amazing place i've visited yet on earth but the sandlfies make it a little annoying. A famous Mauri story explains that the sandflies were placed here so that it wouldn't overpopulate. They are that intolerable. We ate coconut curry tongiht.
Day 3- Milford Sound
Today we rented sea kayaks and took a 5 hour paddle through Milford Sound. This is one of the wettest places in the world and the most commonly taken photo in New Zealand. It is a massive sound in Fiordland National park, New Zealands biggest. There was a cascading waterfall 3 times the height of Niagara Falls.This area is known for having colonies of young male fur seals so we kayaked amonst the adorable mammals. 
It was a rough kayak because I was paired with Kevin who has a shoulder injury and a two person kayak is very difficult to manoever as one. It was a work out if I ever had one. That night was our first night camping. 
Like actual pitch a tent camping, camping. Cheryl has only done it once before and that was on our family trip to vancouver when it was all done for her. I figured she would take it as a learning opportunity but as soon as the tent came out of the van, she dissapeared.
I was forced to set up the tent alone. Well, I stubbornly set it up alone. No one could find her. She told me she was going to the toilet but she totally booked it as fast as she could to avoid having to do anything involving dirt. We had a nice evening playing some ice breaker games and drinking wine.
Day 4 and 5- Green Lake Hike
Today we had to pack up for an overnight hike. We walked a little over 7 hours to get to a hut in the middle of nowhere. The visuals on this hike were mid blowing. During the ice age, the glaciers gouged the fiords and lakes, hollowed out the rounded valleys and shaped the granite mountain peaks. There were different types of forest all over the hike. On the way up, red, silver and mountain beech filled the valley. We walked through moss covered forests and climbed over the bush line to the top of Mount Burns. The most spectacular thing about this walk was there was not a soul in sight. It was so much more rewarding to be hiking with a heavy pack on my back. We must have stopped 12 times along the way for all the little piggies to eat. I swear to you, I have never been amonst such pigs! These people would pack like 4 sandwiches for a three hour walk, like they were going out for the rest of their lives and had to take their last meal. EVERY SINGLE walk was the same story. I couldn't believe it! That is probably why they were so slow. I mean come on, that is not nessecary. There are straving children all over the world and these people NEED to take 6 muesli bars, a bag of candy and four sandwiches on a hike. I am not exagerating when I tell you this. Cheryl and I would get so frustrated and repulsed every time someone pulled out a sandwich.
The hike into the hut was long but the weather was phenominal and the scenery was so breathtaking and majestic. I've never been anywhere like it. The way out was a different story. We walked through grass taller than us, had to cross through dips in the ground and the most different to what I'm used to was doing river crossings. 
The funniest thing about this is that my boots were soaked from being outside overnight when it rained and I was concerend about hiking for hours with wet feet. We had no idea that later on we would be waist deep in water. 
It helped that it was raining because we were all already completely soaked. You have to look at the picture of the tall greass with Cheryl. Please feel free to zoom into her facial expression. This is what she looked like the entire hike. 
She was NOT a happy camper. After the morning hike out, we drove to the southermost city in New Zealand for a stop at the best fish and chips I have ever had. To the people that know my weird eating habits, this is a big step for me! From there we carried on to Curio Bay in the Catlins, an unspoiled scenic region of coast.
We stayed in a beachouse here so mum and I decided to escape and go for a walk to breathe a little. We were approached by a cute sea lion on the beach who was rolling around in the sand but then he tried to charge at us.
Day 6- Cannibal Bay
This morning we walked to a tidal platform that contained tree stumps from a fossilised forest 180 million years old. It is one of the most extensive fossil forests in the world. Some plant species identifed in that region are similar to those in South America. After this we drove to Cannibal Bay, our second night of camping. This night is very different from the last because we weren't only camping, we were sleeping on a farm in the sheep and cow shit, literally. We had to shovel an area around the tent so that we wouldn't get poop all over it. I'm sure you could guess what happened again when it came to setting up. Cheryl took off to the beach and has an encounter with a penguin. We went penguin watching for about an hour and saw two Yellow Eyed peguins swim in from low tide and walk along the beach. We wanted to get closer but apparently they are really afraid of people. Anyways, so once camp is set up, Cheryl comes back, drunk off her half glass of wine, bragging to everyone that she and a penguin has a special moment together on the beach. All this happening while I'm shoveling shit and struggling not to get it all over myself putting up the tent. We had a hangi that evening for dinner. Hangi meaning Maori earth oven. This is how it is prepared. You dig a giant hole and make a fire. then you put stones on the fire so that they heat up. 
You then place the food (potatoes, turnip, parsnip, carrots, chicken, lamb and beef) in foil on top of the hot rocks. 
Immediately after they are placed on the rocks you cover the food with wet towels and then completely cover up the whole so that the food is basically steamed undergound.
It was such a tasty feat! We ate under the stars listening to the sheep bah and the cows moo. It was an expereince like no other.
Day 7- Central Otago
Today was a pretty lazy day but we stayed on a sheep farm in a beautiful house. When mum and I went for an evening run, we were chased by a sheep. Now sheep noramlly run away from people as fast as they can but this guy just started running after us.We learned later on in the evening that his name was rabbit and he identifies with humans more than he does with sheep. I have never run so fast in my life! The next morning I went and fed rabbit water by a big nipple bottle and it was the cutest thing in the world. Just so you know, there are 10 times the number of sheep in New Zealand than there are people. 4 million people and 40 million sheep.
Day 8- Mt Cook National Park
Only 3 of us (me and the Swiss lovers) hiked up to Muller hut, a 6 hour return hike climbing over 3000 meters. It was basically straight up, then straight down. A very tough climb but well worth it for the views of the Hooker and Mueller glaciers, Mt Sefton icefall and awe inspiring views of Mt Cook, New Zealands highest peak. We camped again tonight and mom finally took it upon herself to help with the tent set up! We ate coconut curry again tonight.
Day 9- Rangitata Valley
Today we went white water rafting. I was the last person to start getting into my gear and Cheryl was the first one. She ended up being the last one on the bus and I was one of the first. Because there could only be 7 people in a raft and our group was 10, mum and I jumped at the opportunity to escape the group and go in a raft with the most expereinced guide there. Since we volunteered so quickly and both raised our hands at the very instant we could, our group became a little distant for the rest of the trip. Whatever, we could care less! We had the best expereince rafting and our guide allowed us to surf in the rapids for longer than any other boat. I jumped off a REALLY high cliff that a woman broke her back on a couple years back but it was so much fun! We did 2 grade 5 rapids that were so scary. I can't even begin to describe how funny it was being in the raft with my little mother. She would fall in the boat and stop paddling...oh boy it was funny. The lake was a beautiful turquiose colour that was caused by the glacial silt suspended in the water. The scenery we passed while rafting was used as the backdrop for "Edoras" in the Lord of the Rings.
Day 10-11 Mt Somers Hike
This was our last overnight hike. Instead of mum carrying a pack, I took the majority of her belongings and put them in my giant pack so it was a tougher walk. Mt Somers is an old volcanic rhyolite dome. The hard volcanic rock withstood glaciation and has created an interesting topography with rock outcrops, waterfalls and narrow gorges. We climbed out onto a point with great views of the Southern Alps. There was an abandoned coal mine up there which was real neat. Once we got to the hut, we went exploring in some water caves. After the hike out the next morning we drove back to Christchurch where we strted. It happened to be St. patty's day so we all went out and got drunk! 
It was such an amzing 11 days but mum and I were FED UP with the group and ready to spend our last week in the South Island alone.

From there werented a car again and I drove to Franz Joseph glacier. For a commercially guided glacier, they take you up to the highest point you can go in a glacier in the world. It was such an interesting day, but it was really long. 
Mum kept on asking the guide when we were going to start climbing down but we signed up for a 9 hour hike! We basically took the car around from the west coast up to the most northern part of the south island and did our own hiking, sightseeing and winery touring and skydiving!. There is just way to much to write about! I can't take anymore time with this one. It has taken me ages...especially uploading all the photos so I hope you enjoy them.
I just hope that every one of you gets a chance to visit this place. Everywehere I look I am shocked by the beauty. Now I am off to a completely different non Western culture... Thailand! I am sure I will be in shock...especially my bowels.

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elana/11/1204615320/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elana/11/1204615320/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elana/11/1204615320/tpod.html Thu, 06 Mar 2008 00:26:20 -0500 New Zealand (North Island)

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Taupo, New Zealand

Virgin blue is the most despicable airline. What kind of name is that anyways? " Come and have a pure experience with... virgin blue". Lame. It lived up to its name, that's for sure. It sure was virgin like. We didn't get anything on the plane. No perks or advantages. Nothing exciting. No food or beverages. I was really craving tomato juice, even though Ali bought me a 1 litre jar in Brisbane and I pretty much downed it before my flight. I love my salt. We didn't even get a movie. They tried to charge 15$ for a dinky little DVD played that didn't even have new releases. Instead of doing anything, I played out 1000 different scenarios of how I would react when I see my mum at the airport. Some involved tears, laughter, falling over, tripping, dropping bags, running, hiding, embracing her with a mouth full of food and the list goes on. I almost ended up sleeping through my mums long anticipated arrival. My flight arrived at 12:20 a.m. so I pulled out my sleeping bag and tried to crash on the first bench in full view of the arrivals. Mum was coming in at 4:50 a.m. Obviously things never work out exactly how you imagine them. If any of you know my mother well, you know that she gets lost very easily. She has absolutely no sense of direction whatsoever. We planned to meet at baggage claim but once I got to the airport, I soon realized that after baggage claim came customs, which I had to clear immediately. I figured that since we had no back up plan, we would automatically be fucked and Cheryl would get lost. I waited and waited and at last came mother. Like a little curious birdie, her head bobbed from side to side searching for moi. She was late because customs had to search her hiking boots that still had dirt chunks in them from hiking last fall. I stood up and met her in the middle of the walkway. We had an audience of people who were waiting for the next flight. Mum started choking up, the way she did when we completed our first half marathon together. It was a tad embarassing but a beautiful moment.

We have not had the best of luck since being in this "safe", "crime free" country. After spending two days in Auckland ( a boring city) we had our car broken into in a gorgeous sea side town. Mum left her giant bag in the trunk over night. I have to stress that her bag was so big, she couldn't even carry it up the steps of the hotel herself. I mean, who packs a bag that they cannot carry. There had to be every pair of running shorts she has owned over the course of her running career along with her entire old and new wardrobe. I am travelling for a year and I have 1/8th the amount of "stuff" that Cheryl decided to bring with her for one month. Until the day our stuff was stolen, she wore the same thing every day anyways! So that's just a side note. We never would have thought that anything like that could have happened to us, especially here. Unfortunately for mum she lost all her gear, which can all be replaced but still. My little red beck peck filled with books, my journal (waaaaaaaaaaaaa, with all the contacts I've collected over the course of my travels) and my passport organizer with all my flight tkts was what was taken from me. Its such a shame because what the hell is the value of that to someone else. Fortunately, we carried our passports on us and had all our money and cards. And thankfully I transfered my USB sticks with all my photos to my purse the day before when I uploaded photos. If I lost those, I would be a wreck. It was a really horrible way to be welcomed into this incredibly stunning country but it could have been worse right? We still have our car and we are here with eachother. Despite this horrible occurance, we have been quite trusting of others. Yesterday we met an Israeli woman who we invited to stay with us in our condo. We left her alone there when we went out for dinner and had horrible images of her robbing us blind. Mum has been EXTREMELY paranoid about our car now. We cannot leave anything in it, not even an energy bar. God forbid some hungry bum were to break in to our car and steal the meal of life, a powerbar. But for some reason, we trusted a stranger in our home with all our belongings. We ended up driving her to Wellington today. Five hours in the car with a blabbing Israeli trying to tell me my fortune and mum going on about her big plans to run a marathon in Israel. Do I need to go on? I was ready to drive the car off the road. After we got off the ferry in Picton, we picked up a hitchhiker from California. It was actually Cheryls idea. Isn't that something? We made it here without our throats being slit. She was actually very nice. She was also very stinky. Deb was her name. She just got back from a 5 day hike in the wilderness. She was wearing snowpants. Might I add that today was around 20 degrees. We did her a favour and she was very thankful.

I have taken on the role of driver + navigator. When in a new place it would be hard to do both of these things but with Cheryl I have no choice. If she tells me to go left, I go right. If she screams, I relax. If she tells me I'm on the sidewalk, I know I'm still on the road. Go back, I keep going straight. Turn down the music, I turn it up. I do exactly the opposite of what she tells me. Dad, you have an awful lot more experience with this. I admire your patience. It took me about 2 hours of driving to realize that I would be navigating my way around the country. It has gotten a little better. She has developed her own sign language now so that she can communicate with herself when she is distressed about my driving. I ignore her and she expresses herself silently. I drove from the top of the North Island now down to the top of the South Island.

We have been having an amazing time together. Yesterday we did a phenominal, challenging 18.5 km hike called the Tongariro Crossing. It is really hard to describe what we went through. We covered an incredibly diverse range of terrain and flora. We saw volcanoes, craters, thermal springs, waterfalls, sandoons and lush forest. We slid down thick mud sand in the clouds barely visible to each other, climbed up large pointy boulders, strolled through wild forests, galloped along fields amonst mountain tops which looked like the sound of music. So far in New Zealand, everything seems to be more amazing than the last. Everywhere I look is a picture. I have been snapping like a maniac. I really need to take it easy with the camera becuase it is hard to capture this beauty on film.

At the last minute in Canada, Mum decided to book a timeshare in Lake Taupo. We stayed there for 4 nights. It was such a treat for me to have my own kitchen and not to have to share a bathroom with 20 people. From there we took day trips to a volcanic valley, hot springs and Napier (an art deco town that suffered from a major earthquake). The morning after the day we arrived, the NZ ironman triathalon was on right outside our window. All day mum commented on the athletes, " That woman is obese, how the hell is she still going!", " Oh my god, look how old that man is!" I could tell it was killing her to watch all these happy people burning calories and pushing their bodies to the max. That night my friend Eloise who I met in Australia from France was in Taupo so we went out for drinks. In the meantime, Cheryl decided to run alongside the exhausted triathaletes. She ended up running over a half marathon just cheering them on. It was great support but she was sore the next day. I was hungover the next day.

There are so many funny things that happen to us on a daily basis that it is really hard to count them.We have probably burned as much energy laughing as we have hiking. People we meet are continually shocked by the way we communicate with eachother since I have basically taken on the role of parent. I am the mum and Cheryl is the daughter. I mean, people have actually asked if we are sisters. That didn't make me to happy but I'm sure you could imagine how thrilled Cheryl was. She can't hold her wine. One glass and I have to put her to bed if she hasn't already passed out on the couch. I calm her down all the time. I am in a mode since I've been going for almost 4 months so traveling does come easier for me. She has calmed down a bit and has been going with the flow a lot more that I would have thought. We are already growing and learning together and seeing things that that I didn't think were real. Honestly, the natural scenery is shocking. Everywhere I look I am amazed. Even though a lot of the day I am frustrated, embarassed and annoyed with my darling mother, I wouldn't want to be here with anyone else.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elana/10/1203662340/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elana/10/1203662340/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elana/10/1203662340/tpod.html Sat, 23 Feb 2008 04:54:36 -0500 Along the coast

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Byron Bay, Australia

I've been travelling up the coast of New South Wales and have now made my way into Queensland. I thought I would cover a lot more territory in the past month than I actually did but I found myself getting stuck in some places for a little longer than I anticipated. I met loads of people that I didn't want to leave and I decided to do my PADI open water scuba diving certification. This is something I never thought I would do but it just seemed like the perfect opportunity. This brings me to my first stop outside of Sydney in Coffs Harbour. I took a very painful overnight bus and arrived in Coffs at 6 a.m. I immediately befriended two Israeli's, Shlomi and Yuval who just finished in the army. We got there absolutely exhausted but decided to make the most of our day and went out canoeing for hours. At this point I only thought I'd be spending one night there so I needed to do as much as possible. When we got back from our beautiful canoe trip, I found out about the diving course. It would last four days and we would get 4 open water dives for a cost of 355$. I would also have to pay for a 70$ medical examination. This was the biggest pain in the ass because I already have a 17 page sealed and signed examination from my doctor at home that they wouldn't allow me to use. The Australian government is very picky about these issues so I didn't put up a fight and went for my appointment. I don't know how they can be so uptight about issues as such when the doctor examining me just celebrated his ninetieth birthday. There were only four of us in the course, an American, two Swiss and myself. We all walked into this old, idiodine smelling private clinic. The doctor walked out of his office and we all thought he was a patient. He was small and quite frail with white hairs bursting out of all his sensory holes, hardly any left on his head. The hunchbacked man slowly walked from his office to the front desk to collect all of our pee specimens, dropping one on the ground. I don't think I can stress enough how old this man was. His secretary had to come and pick it up because he couldn't bend over himself. I was called into the office. It was a very informal examination. I sat in a chair beside his at his desk. The desk being completely invisible from all the papers sporadically spread out. I sat there patiently waiting for him to read through my medical form and came across his diploma on the wall. The paper looked like it had been dyed with tea bags. You know how in school if you were ever doing a project that was set years ago, you would make it look older by dabbing it with tea bags to give it a yellowish colour? Well, the rusty paper read, Dr. B.H. Dolman O.A.M. M.B, 1942. Honest to God, he has to be THE oldest practicing physician in the WORLD. Please look it up, I wouldn't be surprised. Blood pressure time. He put the cuff around my arm. Flakes of dead skin from his decrepit hands fell like feathers onto my arm. I was worried that he didn't have the strength pump. He did, but it took a very, very, very long time. Finally once the cuff was completely inflated, he listened and listened. I thought he fell asleep. My arm was about to fall off. My fingers started turning blue, my elbow tingled and felt like I badly smashed my funny bone and my veins began bursting out of my skin. Eventually the old man told me that I had a nice low blood pressure. I think he made it up. Next in the examination he made me do a "new" test, a test that I have never done before because according to his standards new is maybe 1945. It was to check my balance and he made me stand with my eyes closed and my feet touching eachtother. He told me to stand there as long as I could. Immediately this worried me. I could stand there forever, he would all asleep then die and I would still be standing like a fool in his office with my eyes closed. He made me touch my nose then raise each arm in the air. I passed and I only had to stand there or about 3 minutes. Next on the list was the eye test. The doctor decided to check my urine sample while I was doing the eye test; only the sink he was checking in was right in front of the eye chart. He kept on interrupting my test by blocking the letters so my 20/20 vision was not as sharp as it normally is. I kept on repeating the letters cause he would slowly dodge in and out o the chart so I would forget which letter I read last. The final thing he had to do was listen to my breathing. During this he had a nice stare at my breasts. That's o.k. though, I gave it to him. He needs something to keep him going. So I allowed him to take his time, which was an extremely long time but I felt like I did a good deed. It was an interesting experience at Dr. Dolmans office. Our group o divers were the last to see him. They decided it was about time to change doctors. I must give it to him though.

The diving was worth every penny and even more. The course ended up being postponed two days because the sea was so rough. This kept me in Coffs Harbour for a total of one week. The weather in Australia has been the worst in history. It is good for the country because this year is the break of the 100-year drought, but it is not the best for my summer of travelling. It has rained around 23 days in the past month. The diving conditions were still great. The water was clear and blue and the visibility underwater was around 8 meters. The first day we went out on the boat I learned two lessons. The first was NEVER drink the night before diving and the second being take Kwell's to avoid seasickness. I learned both of these the hard way. I was going on 5 hours of sleep and a heavy night of wine drinking. I will never do this again. Not many people can say that they have spewed 15 meters below the sea. I can. I vomited nine times that morning and one of those times was into my regulator under the water. It was the best way to attract all the fish because schools of them surrounded me to eat the little pieces of food coming out of my regulator. One might ask how you throw up under water? Well, you do it right into your breathing tube (regulator) and it comes right out the side If you take your regulator out, you have a huge risk of inhaling water and choking to death. Every time I surfaced, I had an accident. It didn't help that I hadn't taken the Kwell's. The second day, I got 11 hours of sleep and took the Kwell's the night before and the morning of. My dives were astonishingly different from the previous day. I think it is the closest I will ever come to flying. Diving is so therapeutic and liberating. It is effortless. I had the privilege of diving in a spot where Grey Nurse sharks have a colony. These sharks are harmless to humans. Their teeth are curved in so they can only eat things that they can swallow whole, which excludes humans from being eaten. A grey nurse was lingering over my head, only about 3 meters up and I wasn't even afraid. I was the only lucky one in my group to see it. We saw a couple of wobbegongs, carpet sharks, plenty of stingrays and an abundance of fish.

By the time the diving course was over, I had met many friends to travel with but people were going in all directions. I continued on with a fellow Canadian named Brad and an American named Kristi to Byron Bay. Brad and I really hit it off and he became my tennis buddy. It is so much easier to meet men when travelling alone! I did have a special connection with an Irish guy that I met in Byron except it was spoilt when he asked me when we would get married. He told me that I was the "perfect bird" and that he wanted to bring me home to Dublin to marry me. As soon as he said that I distanced myself. Up until that point, we had a great time together but he just freaked the shit out of me because he was completely serious. Alrighty, bye bye buddy.
Brad and I went on a tour to a place called Nimbin, just an hour outside of Byron. Nimbin is the marijuana capital of Australia. A mere 200-meter town set up with bakeries, shops and a herb superb museum. We went with a bus called Jim's alternative tours, which was lead by a true hippy. He was completely stoned the entire time. The moment we stepped off the bus locals surrounded us. All of them had the same monologue "want any buds, magic mushrooms, special cookies, I've got the best rates. Follow me. Walk with me. Come on now." The sketchiest thing about this weird little hippyville is that it is completely illegal. There are only 8 police officers that patrol the area and when the dealers see a cop they abort. The bus driver informed us of the special code to remember if there are any suspicions of the police. If the word TAXI is yelled out, the dealers disappear and if you are in the middle of a deal you just casually walk away. Brad and I bought a couple of cookies thinking we would be ripped off but we would try for fun anyways because they were so cheap. By the time we left Nimbin after about an hour and a half, the entire bus was completely stoned. The tour guide played the best tunes as we rolled though the green hills. It felt like something out of a movie. I couldn't believe we were all in the same state. On the bus tour there were adults and teenagers. We lost a couple people in stops along the way but they were all found. We spent around an hour eating macadamia nuts and melon in the middle of the forest where this American hippy has been living for the past 28 years. In between smokes he would plant trees. Now, he has his own forest where he lives as a hippy with the bare essentials. He was completely insane. Nobody could follow what he was saying at all and it wasn't because we were high. He was just nuts! I guess anyone would be if they lived in the forest for 28 years without leaving. We went on to explore a fascinating waterfall where we were all in awe. Once they dropped me off at my hostel I crashed for 3 hours.

I stayed at a hostel called The Arts Factory that won the award for the #1 hostel in NSW in 2007. This place was amazing. It was its own little village with multiple accommodation options. You could either stay in a dorm, a tepee, a wagon, a bus, a tent or a cabin. I was going to stay in a tepee but in fear of the common huntsman spiders I stayed in a dorm. I went out that evening at the hostel bar called Buddha Bar for trivia night. I ended up winning a 125$ value prize of sea kayaking with dolphins but the surf was to high that I couldn't get out before I left for Brisbane. Now I am in Brisbane staying with Ali and Stafford who I spent Christmas with in Canberra. Ali took me on a city tour yesterday on her Vespa. It was so much fun! I spent the afternoon in the sun at a man made beach that is in the heart of the city. It is unbelievable humid in Queensland compared to where I've been so far. There are skin cancer clinics all over the place. I've got two days more here and then I head off to New Zealand to meet my mum! My adventures in Australia have quickly come to an end but I am looking forward to the future.
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Sydney, Australia

I've been in Sydney staying with my friend Ada for the past week and a half. I have sort of invaded her house. I had no idea when I arrived how long I would be staying but she has been so hospitable that it is kind of hard to leave. I have finally decided to start my solo journey up the coast. I am taking an overnight bus tonight so that that I can save on accommodation. My final destination is Brisbane but on the way I'm stopping at Coffs Harbor and then Byron Bay. I'm really looking forward to being on my own but to be completely honest, I'm quite petrified. How the hell am I going to cope with myself? I'm going to get sick of me. It is going to be a good challenge though and I know I will only benefit from it. I prepared by going out and buying three new books so I always have something to do.

In Sydney I've kept really busy but some mornings I just sleep in and spend time on the internet. I have to take advantage of it while I can! One of the most cultural things I did was celebrating the Chinese New Year here at the Ma's. Ada is Chinese and her parents don't speak much English at all. For New Years Eve, all the 6 siblings gathered around the table with boyfriends and wives and moi. They served two giant hot pots filled with pork, beef, dumplings, greens, seafood and stuff I couldn't identify. Later I was told that there were pig's feet and cow intestines in there. I wasn't the most adventurous but I did eat some things I normally wouldn't have. It was really funny because for the entire duration of the meal, so you think you can dance Australia was on T.V. It was like a sauna in there. Everyone sweating crammed into the table with soup bubbling and rosy red cheeks from the wine and beer. After the meal I was given a beautiful red envelope with Chinese characters on it and inside was money. I couldn't believe that this family welcomed me into their home to celebrate their New Year and on top of that, gave me a gift. Unbelievable. Every morning when I come downstairs and Ada is at work, her mom prepared traditional Chinese meals for me. I never really knew what they were but I always ate and I haven't been sick yet.
I went to the Blue Mountains on a day trip and I was seconds away from being stranded in the National Park. I found myself in a situation where I overestimated my speed and directional capabilities. On the bus tour we were offered a choice of two walks. I decided that I could do both. The first one was a stroll to Wentworth Falls. Because I was stuck behind an older Irish couple who were chaotically arguing about their new camera, it was a VERY slow walk. I wanted to see as much as I could so once we got to the waterfall, I decided to run back up the 20 minute trail and run to the other walk which everyone was already back from. I was not equipped with any rain gear because I left it on the bus. It was gorgeous out when I started walking so I didn't think there would be any need for it. The little old tourists were so Goddamn slow that the weather managed to completely shift and turn overcast. Once I got the lookout point of the second walk, it started really coming down hard. I was fearful of my new camera breaking from water damage like the one I dropped in the ocean two days earlier, so I stuck my entire bag under my zip up jumper and sprinted up the hundreds of steps. I thought I gave myself plenty of time except when I got up to the top I came out a different exit than I entered from. I found myself panting and literally dripping wet outside of a Bed and Breakfast. Where did this extravagant place come from and where the fuck was the car park! The rest of the gang was probably eagerly waiting to get on with the tour. This was the first stop and I already had an entire bus of people waiting for me. I couldn't be that girl. This happened to me in Cuba but I can openly say that it was entirely my mothers fault. We were on a bus tour in Havana and decided not go to the rum factory tour, only when we got back to the bus everyone had been waiting for us for 20 minutes. We were immediately shunned for the rest of the day. I was terrified that this would happen again. So there I was, wheezing, sprinting through the forests looking for any English speaking human to help me find my bus. Then there were the park rangers who saw me earlier strolling down with the oldies to the waterfalls. Now I was drenched, flustered and panicky. They showed me how to get there and it really wasn't that difficult or far but I still ran my heart out. Like a drowned sewer rat, I waked onto the bus expecting to be shunned once again. However, this time I got a round of applause and laughter. People were offering me towels and water, the bus driver even made everyone give me a hip hip hooray. This act created a snowball effect on the bus. Instantly everyone gravitated towards me, wanted to be my best friend. Old, foul breathed women wanted to know my life story. Fat polish men wanted to sit beside me and invited me to eat lunch with them. I never expected this reaction. It was all very funny. Later on we went to a natural landmark called the Three Sisters. There we had options to either walk, take a cable car or ride a train with any combination of the two getting up and down. I decided to walk up and down to save the money. Also, that way I would appreciate the views more and I couldn't let all my fans down. It was a phenomenal workout and worth getting soaked again, only this time I had my rain gear.

I spent a day pampering myself. I went on the ferry to Manly, a suburb of Sydney that you can only access from the city by boat. My friend Roxy lives there so I went and spent a night with her before she moved to Brisbane. She had a goodbye party at a Thai restaurant so I splurged on delicious food and wine and then we continued the celebration at a club where I spent more money. The next morning we went out for sushi, did some shopping and then went for a Chinese massage. The woman who did me was a teeny little Asian woman and I figured she wouldn't be strong enough for me. Turns out that it was the best and cheapest massage I've ever had and it was on top of my clothing. She was gooooooood.

I don't know if I've mentioned how big meat pies are in Australia. It would be like the equivalent to our poutine I would say. You see them everywhere. All bakeries offer a large assortment of pies. We went to the most famous pie place called Harry's Café de Wheels in a suburb called Woolloomooloo. No joke. Woolloomooloo. It's actually really fun to type. Woolloomooloo. This chip truck looking pie shop serves Tiger pies which is a term to describe the toppings that they put on top of the pie. My Veggie tiger pie came smothered in mashed potato, mushy peas and gravy and mmmmmm was it ever delish.

I went to Olympic park to have a swim in the pool. It was huge and the park itself is a giant maze filled with stadiums, fields and food. We wended up getting free tickets to see Gladiators filmed live. Gladiators is a T.V. game show where fit men and women compete against the fittest gladiators in challenges like rock climbing, running from one side of a bridge to the other without getting smashed off with giant flying balls, hitting each other with giant foam sticks bla bla bla. It was really entertaining but the event lasted for 4 hours and we could barely make it through two hours. They had to keep starting and stopping because they were filming it and I didn't get on TV. This was my goal so I left a little bitter.

Sydney has been fun but I'm really looking forward to being in my own company by the ocean with a good book. You'll hear from me again soon...hopefully.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elana/8/1201568400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elana/8/1201568400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/elana/8/1201568400/tpod.html Wed, 30 Jan 2008 22:17:54 -0500 Tasmania

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Launceston, Australia

Australia Day, January 26, 2008

Today has been wonderful- it even is now, despite the fact that I have given myself a stomach ulcer. We woke up this morning in our lovely day use only camping area to be surrounded and taken over by waspish-horsefly bug things that swarmed us. I can see why they did. We were pretty stinky and hadn't washed our bodies in four days. We had our first leisurely morning- reading our books and drinking coffee. Then the sun came out. When the sun comes out, the beast flies begin their attack. This happened when we were eating our first hot cooked breakfast. After we ate, Lauren and Krissy struggled to put up the tent while I swatted myself with rags trying to do dishes in the ocean. Then, we hopped in the van and got the fuck out of there. Today I rode in the back of Bethan (our van). There is no seat back there so my body takes all the abuse of the bumpy, swervy dirt roads. Within the first 30 seconds, I must have killed a dozen of those buzzing buggers. I sounded like a warrior, charging for my life. Oh the sounds that came out of me. My voice cracking with frustration, my hands shaking in rage as I viciously swatted them till they fell to their ends.
We pulled into the local Strahan beach to dump our rubbish, only to arrive right on time for the hicked out Australia Day festivities. Giant sausages and meat pies everywhere, children with hair died and faces painted, teens lined up to do three legged races and the whole shebang. All we wanted was a shower. Just to be clean. Is that a lot to ask? The beach was way too packed to pull what we did with our last public beach shower. Last time we gathered around a freezing cold outdoor shower, got naked and alternated between holding the tarp for the showerer. This incredible invention would fail at this beach... way too many people around. So we pulled outta there with not much direction for the day, only hoping we found find a shower at some point.

The previous day I met a lovely older couple in Gowrie Park that was camping with their two young kids. The man gave me some great advice about places we had to see and things we had to do so we were first led to Nelson Falls. A short 20 minute return walk to slow falling, high waterfalls. There was nobody there but us and it was so beautiful. Then we went on to do a bushwalk to Donaghy's Lookout in a National Park. We saw the Franklin River and the mesmerizing white- quart size dome of Frenchman's Cap. Now we really needed a shower. We were sticky and sweaty and stinky and visibly dirty. Our only solution was to pull into a caravan park and use their facilities, something we haven't done yet but then we saw that there was an entrance to the Lake St. Clair National Park so we went in there to scope it out. It was the head office of the park and it was a gorgeous chalet. We were able to buy tokens for a shower. I bought two tokens for six dollars, which gave me 12 minutes in an incredible shockingly warm shower. I came out feeling like a whole new person. It was nearing 7 and we hadn't eaten dinner or found a campsite yet. We would have had to pay in the National Park and we just refused to settle for that. There is plenty of land to go around so why we would pay to sleep on it? Just a little side note- we did not pay for a site or campground once while in Tasmania and we camped for 11 nights. We were pretty good about finding sites and getting set up to cook dinner but tonight the shower was the priority.

We drove down the road, out of the park to the Wombat Café, which was open an hour earlier but with our luck were closed by the time we got there. So we continued along the road with no listed campsites or food stops on our map until out of the blue popped a sign to Bronte Park, only 4 km's away off the highway. There was even a sign that had a restaurant on it. We hadn't eaten out since camping and we were now on night nine so all it took was for the three of us to look at each other and we RAN into the restaurant. Remember now, it was Australia Day, so the entire town of about 40 people were gathered and wasted at this hotel/pub/bar. Everyone knew each other and knew that we were from elsewhere. We were out of place instantly but the drunkards swarmed us and asked us a million questions. They were mostly men between the ages of 35-65 who all looked older than they were because of their lifestyles spent out in the sun farming and drinking. We got to talking to these men and they were all very nice but extremely sheltered from the rest of the world. Shane, a 36 year old man was born and raised in Tasmania and has never even left it, not even to go to the mainland. Two men, Lyell and Roger promised to show us a great camping spot. We hadn't thought about where to sleep, we were just so excited about food so we were thrilled that they could help us out and we wouldn't have to worry. Surprisingly we weren't sketched out at all. We somehow trusted them and could sense that they meant well. They were so excited that we had come to their land that they just wanted to help as much as they could. They wanted to show off their playground. Allow us to experience waking up and roaming free in their acres and acres of farmland amongst the cows and sheep.

At the restaurant I ordered the chicken Kiev with a side of mushroom sauce. Mmmmm. Doesn't that sound great... mushroom sauce. It came in a LARGE saucepan and I couldn't believe how generous they were with it, considering the small piece of chicken they gave me. Like, "would you like some chicken with that mushroom sauce?" I loved the mushroom sauce so much that I went a little crazy... dipping fries in it, garlic bread, even my chicken that it came with and before I knew it, I had consumed the entire saucepan! Mushroom sauce is basically a demi- glace or a chicken Marsala sauce minus the wine, or to put it a more disgusting way it is gravy with fried mushrooms. I, Elana Levitan ate a bowl of gravy without even realizing it. I was distracted talking to these men. I had no control over my mushroom sauce intake. It was all so goooood, so hot, so salty, and so GONE, in my stomach to kill me. It took close to ten minutes for me to start feeling my body failing... my healthy, exercised organs beginning to reject the lard that I had poisoned them with. It was time to drive off to this campsite because it was starting to get dark, which meant I had to get back into the boot of Bethan. The moment the door opened, I slid into the back and fell over into the fetal position. This was the spot where my system would fail me. Where I would die. I unbuttoned my pants hoping it would help. No luck. I wasn't that full, I was just in pain. In agony. I couldn't really breathe. I had to take short, hollow breaths to avoid the burning sensation I had in my left rib. My stomach was pinching and I was getting nauseous because the car was vibrating and bouncing up and down, side to side on the gravel, pot holed dirt road. This might be the last thing I see. A partially obstructed vision of the clouds and the sky getting darker. The smell of the dusty roads entering the windows and making me cough. I am dying in the back and the girls in the front have no idea how horrible I feel.
After 20 minutes of suffering, we arrived in this baron valley, completely isolated from any civilization whatsoever. Have they brought us here to kill us? Disturbing thoughts race through my mind but this isn't how I'm going to die anyways. I have already gone through the worst and soon it will be over. For some reason we trusted these men but really, they could have done anything they wanted. Obviously our intuitions were right and they led us to one of our favorite spots. They said they would come and check up on us in the morning and that we were welcome to stay as long as we wanted. They stayed and had a drink and then set off back to the pub to continue celebrating Australia Day. I told the girls about my mushroom sauce attack and we had a good laugh. The pains all went away once a little gas was passed. We chilled out under the stars, looking at constellations we had never seen before. The wind whistling at a rapid pace. Then, a car with one headlight pulled in where we were sitting. Now, this could be a problem. If Roger and Lyell know where we are and they are harmless, everybody else in the town is going to know where we are. I was really scared. My heart was racing. A farmer stepped out of the car and he was someone I recognized from the pub. My heart got better. It turns out; he owned the land that we were sleeping on along with the 300 cows and 20,000 sheep. He just wanted to welcome us to it. I could tell right away that he was very lonely because he awkwardly stood around with a beer for a lot longer than we anticipated. He just wanted company. We learnt a bit about him as well. Again, another man who has never left Australia. He left after about a half an hour to go and watch for this famous 4 who live in Bronte Park and have stolen his cows. This is the kind of place we stumbled upon in a desperate search for food. It was another typical day, being led to have funny and completely unexpected experiences.

Here is a portion of a silly song that the three of us tried to write over a fire and lots of wine.

Time is stressful.
Take me there.
Get me to a picnic table so I can set up my life.
Compare this existence to where I lived at home,
Now I ain't got no walls but I am free to roam.
So show me mountains and them cowed filled hills
On the quest for the best beach we will get our fill.
O Bethan- WOW, WOW hold a minute,
Its our life, got everything we own in it.
Drive on Bethan, drive on
Take us to the place where we belong
But no, no Bethan, don't sleep past dawn
You're our feet and we gotta be moving on.
Mornings filled with flies and lies,
Pack up, eat and poop seems to define our lives
Until the next land that our Canadian souls will conquer
We'll hold onto the highs and continue to wander.


In Tasmania, we covered close to 1600 km's in 14 days of traveling. We drove all up the entire east coast, through the middle up north and over to the west. On the east coast, we stayed on a beach everynight and on the west we were in the mountains but always by a river, creek or stream. We visited a wildlife park where I touched and held koala's and wombats. The tasmanian devils were really disapointing. They were ugly little scavangers. We visited the Marakoopa caves and did countless nature walks in National Parks. Five out of eleven nights we had fires. We all got along great and it was my first time meeting Lauren's girlfriend Krissy who is really easygoing. Now they have gone off together to Auckland, NZ to try to find work and we will meet again once I get there. We will all be reunited and continue our journey together in Thailand on March 29. Now I am in Sydney and I'm travelling alone for the next 3 weeks in Australia. I've been staying with my friend Ada from my exchange and tonight I'm going over to Roxy's, another Greensboro connection. I honeslty don't know what I would do if I didn' have these friends all over the place who I met in the U.S. It is so helpfull and fun! Every minute I am gratefull.
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