TravelStream™ news feed for member where2now on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/where2now en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Tue, 22 Apr 2008 11:46:53 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/where2now/backpack_2007/1208640600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/where2now/backpack_2007/1208640600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/where2now/backpack_2007/1208640600/tpod.html Tue, 22 Apr 2008 11:46:53 -0400 Matt and Terri's backpacking adventures around the world.

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Patong, Phuket, Thailand

We decided to get married on our trip, and couldn't think of a better place than Thailand - good value for money with a beautiful setting. Our friend Sly turned us on to La Flora Resort Patong on the island of Phuket. A brand new 5 star resort, La Flora is right on the beach in central Patong. Through the magic of good connections, we got an incredible deal, and stayed at a resort that costs literally thousands of dollars a night for just a tiny fraction of their normal rates.We had a suite overlooking the ocean, with a private swimming pool - the accomodations were spectacular. The food was great, and the staff were just incredible. They really made us feel like family with all that they did for us. Many members of the staff even came out to our ceremony, on their own time in their best clothes to be there with us.We were married right on the beach (complete with gawkers in speedos) at sunset. There were raging thunderstorms that cleared up just long enough for the setup and ceremony, before starting up again. Seems like good luck to us!Enjoy the photos, and look for our entire Thailand update, coming in a couple weeks.Matt & Terri 
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/where2now/backpack_2007/1204673520/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/where2now/backpack_2007/1204673520/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/where2now/backpack_2007/1204673520/tpod.html Wed, 02 Apr 2008 12:42:23 -0400 Matt and Terri's backpacking adventures around the world.

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Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

While we were travelling around New Zealand, we couldn't wait to get to Vietnam, so that we could feel like we "have money again." NZ isn't exactly friendly to people that have $100 or less a day to spend, so getting to Vietnam was awesome. If you've got $100 in Vietnam, you are literally a millionaire - $100CDN is about 1.6 million Vietnamese dong. It was pretty strange having bank notes with massive numbers on them be worth about 1.5 cents, but we got used to it.Getting into Ho Chi Minh City (or, as the mostly non-communist South refers to it, Saigon) was quite the culture shock. HCMC is BIG and bustling. Something like 9 million people live there. They apparently have 4 million scooters in that city alone. The traffic is unbelievable. Walking around is a bit of an art - crossing the street involves forgetting every self-preservation instinct one possesses: you just take a step out into traffic and make eye contact with the drivers - they don't slow down or stop, they just steer around you - a scary thing to experience at first. The people are very enterprising, and are out at all hours, everywhere, trying to sell whatever they can to make a living. The funny thing is, since Vietnam's economy was opened pretty recently, most people are still really bad at sales. We're used to honeyed compliments from Moroccans trying to sell us rugs, but in HCMC you get shouts of "YOU BUY SOMETHING!" from every person running a stall on the side of the road. It was a constant source of amusement.We did a few tours in the area - out to the Cu Chi tunnels and the Cao Dai Holy See was a day trip for us. Cao Dai is a new-ish Vietnamese religion that reveres a whole grab bag of people and gods (Victor Hugo???). We saw their main temple and watched a mass. Cu Chi was our stop after lunch. Cu Chi was an important battleground during the Vietnam war, where NVA built extensive tunnels to attack and defend against American troops. We saw a whole mess of horrid VC booby traps, crawled through a tunnel and fired an AK-47 assault rifle. Good times. Next thing we did was take a 3 day tour through the Mekong Delta, which is the main bread, er, rice basket for Vietnam. The highlight of that trip was visiting a floating market in Can Tho, where farmers on boats laden with produce sell their wares to locals running through in smaller boats.After the Mekong Delta, we connected to Phu Quoc Island by taking a ferry called the "Superdong". All aboard! Phu Quoc Island is a small bit of paradise, nearly untouched by tourism (for the moment). There really isn't much to do, except enjoy the water and rent a scooter to explore. We spent three days there, but didn't really get up to very much. Jetting around on the scooter was good fun, and we got totally caked in red dust from the roads.We also got stung by jelly fish while swimming in the ocean. Having come from Australia where jelly fish are, at best, horribly painful and disfiguring, and at worst, fatal, we were pretty freaked out. Thankfully, the Vietnamese variety are pretty tame in comparison. The time to visit Phu Quoc is now, as it is apparently slated to be massively developed with big western style hotels. We figure that would totally ruin the authentic experience of eating 25000 dong pho at a road side stand and finding sand in the bottom of it.We made the mistake of booking an open bus tour north from HCMC on the usual tourist route. We got screwed with a really really crappy uncomfortable bus service, but for $30 each, we really couldn't complain. Mui Ne was the first stop, a strip of over priced hotels and restaurants along the beach. We visited a restaurant 3 times (it was great), but between lunch and dinner one day the prices went up by 25%. Nothing like a 9000% yearly inflation rate on food prices to put a dent in the budget. Mui Ne is famous for it's beach - kite surfing is huge there, since the wind is always whipping along the beach. Dalat was stop number two on our second-rate tour. Dalat is inland and has a pretty high elevation - gave us a nice break from the sweltering temperatures we'd experienced up until then. Dalat is famous for it's "Easy Riders", a group of motorcyclist tour guides. We met Rot (pronounced like "wrote") as he is the nephew of the proprietress of our hotel. An Easy Rider with lots of good reviews to his name, he took us on a really cool day tour of the area - we went to a silk making factory, checked out a beautiful waterfall, saw some traditional farming techniques, and his mom even made us lunch. Anyone thinking of visiting Dalat - you can look Rot up at the Pink House Hotel - you won't be disappointed.It was around this time that we realized we were quite pressed for time. We had to fly out of Hanoi on the 29th, so had to compress things slightly. Reading up in our book, we figured that Nha Trang was easily skippable, so we spent just one night there, then did an epic overnight bus journey to Hoi An. Hoi An was one of the highlights of our trip to Vietnam. Hoi An is the place to visit to have any item of clothing hand made for you for next to nothing. We visited "Safety Happiness Cloth Shop" and blew a bunch of money. I had two full suits made, and Terri had her wedding dress made as well. 24 hour turn around, including fitting, and they can make anything you want (just pick something out of a magazine). Cloth choices run the gamut from cheap junk to beautiful cashmere. We also got custom fitted shoes, and our wedding rings made. Being in Hoi An really made us feel rich - like we could afford anything we wanted - it was a pretty cool experience.Our last stop was Hanoi. We hated the over night bus trip to Hoi An so much that we decided to fly up to Hanoi rather than experience another one. Hanoi was...disappointing...We didn't really see much, just sort of wandered around. Our hotel had mold in the bathroom that was so horrible, had it been worse I'm sure it would have crawled out of the bathroom in the middle of the night, and eaten us. It made us quite ill, which put a damper on things for us there too. The only redeeming quality of Hanoi that we found was the Water Puppet Theater. Water puppetry is an ancient art in Vietnam - think Muppets in a swimming pool and you'll get a good idea of what it was all about.Vietnam was a great experience. The time to visit is now, since prices are still so low there. Things are changing and expanding at a phenomenal rate, and in a few years, it may not be as charming a destination as it is now.Next stop: Bangkok, Thailand...stay tuned...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/where2now/backpack_2007/1204440060/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/where2now/backpack_2007/1204440060/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/where2now/backpack_2007/1204440060/tpod.html Fri, 07 Mar 2008 12:36:00 -0500 Matt and Terri's backpacking adventures around the world.

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Christchurch, New Zealand

We got to New Zealand with the intention of working for a few months. We had planned on doing that in Auckland, since we understood it was supposed to be a lot like Vancouver. We flew into Christchurch, then drove a few days up north to Auckland to try to find a job. Well...Auckland isn't, in fact, anything like Vancouver. After spending about a week there, we unfortunately learned that it is a pretty disappointing place. We did have a bit of fun though - we went bungy jumping, which ended up being bloody terrifying, but fun nonetheless. We ended up settling down in Hamilton, about 2 hours south of Auckland. Hamilton (unlike the Hamilton at home) was a pretty nice town, and we enjoyed living there. We scored a pretty decent place near downtown at the YWCA, and set out to find jobs. We were very quickly hired at a company that described itself as a business that sold products to established clients. We were under the impression that we'd be selling office supplies to area businesses. WRONG. In fact, the job entailed walking around trying to sell crap out of a duffel bag. Seriously. Our mantra was "Every Door, Every Store, Every Floor, Every Person." We'd go out in teams of 2-4 for a day, and assault the poor citizens of a certain neighbourhood, trying to convince them why they should purchase an unbreakable flashlight, or a dancing, singing Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer snowglobe. We walked randomly into offices and businesses that were trying to serve customers. You name it. I couldn't believe we were never arrested or shot. It was, to be blunt, bloody horrible. Terri ended up being quite awesome at it, but I pretty much stank, so was re-assigned to selling car wax at gas stations. GOOOOOOOD fun.When we could take it no longer, we left to travel around and see the country. We rented a car and bought a tent. We froze every night. There were a couple really stand out things that we did: Black Water Rafting in Waitomo was a trip through subterranean caverns - rappelling, tubing, climbing up waterfalls. And the entire cave system was full of glow worms, that stuck to the ceilings of the caves, and...well they glowed. We met a Canadian couple there from Vancouver, Mel and Ryan, who we inexplicably ran into many times throughout our month of travelling. The other really cool thing we did was a sea kayaking trip in Abel Tasman National Park. We did a bunch of hiking (they call it "tramping" in NZ), saw some bubbling mud pools in geothermally active spots in the North Island, and visited some museums around as well. There were a couple funny things about New Zealand that offered us never ending entertainment. First: Pedestrians don't have the right of way. At all. My boss delightedly told Terri on my first day back from selling kids colouring books that "Matt almost got hit by two cars!" You apparently shouldn't cross streets, well...ever. We were cursed out for crossing a street while there was no traffic, only to have someone come up from around the corner and have to step on his brake lightly. This happened more than once.Second: New Zealanders don't wear shoes. It seemed to us that, every time we went out, 25% of the people we saw were barefoot. They'd walk through spilled gas to fill up their cars, they'd step in very suspect puddles under urinals in bathrooms. This was all the more surprising considering New Zealand has the most broken glass scattered on streets and sidewalks that we have ever seen, anywhere. I suspect that the Prime Minister likely goes barefoot in Parliament.It sure is funny, the things you notice...Happily, we got some really nice photos that will fill in the blanks from this entry. NZ is a beautiful place.Next stop for us: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Stay tuned...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/where2now/backpack_2007/1190246400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/where2now/backpack_2007/1190246400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/where2now/backpack_2007/1190246400/tpod.html Sun, 11 Nov 2007 03:17:35 -0500 Matt and Terri's backpacking adventures around the world.

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Brisbane, Australia

37 Days + 7559 km in a rented van + 2 dirty hippies in the Land Down Under = One awesome road trip!"Strine" slang we learned:Bathing Costume: Bathing SuitBogun: White TrashCheers: Thank YouChunder: To VomitGoon Bag: Bagged WineGrog: BoozeHow You Goin?: How Are You Doing?Jumper (Jumpa): Sweater (Australians don't pronounce the Rs at the end of words, then randomly add Rs to the end of words that don't have them. For instance, we live in "Canader" to hear it spoken)No Worries: Relax, no problemReckon: To Think or SupposeSunnies: SunglassesSuss It Out: To Check It OutWetties: Wetsuits (To sound like a proper Australian, shorten everything, and add "ies" to the end of it - ie: surfies, schoolies, etc.)We were pretty terrified to leave the airport after hearing all about Australia's horrendous and poisonous wildlife from our many Aussie friends (thanks a bunch everyone), but we finally managed to drag ourselves out of the building, into Brisbane, keeping a good eye out for Drop Bears and Ring Snakes. We stayed at a hostel that would make a Moroccan hostelier blush, and did some sightseeing. The idea was to rent (aka "hire") a car to drive up north to Cairns for Gerry and Melissa's wedding. The distance was something like 1400 km, which I figured could be done in about 12 hours. Everyone I spoke to told me it was going to take at least 20, but I refused to believe it would take that long. 20 hours over three days later, we arrived in tropical Cairns, where we lazed about and did some snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef. I seem to remember something about someone getting married too...We got turned onto this company called Hippie Camper, that rented nicely done up Mitsubishi vans with ridiculous flower and butterfly paint schemes. We figured that was likely going to be the best way to see the east coast of Oz, so we went for it. The van had bench seating and a table inside that converted to a double bed, with a battery powered fridge, a sink and a 20L water tank. We stayed in a mix of pay camper van sites (which are plentiful and often fantastic in Oz) and free side-of-the-highway rest stops, with compost toilets (or sometimes none at all) and very occasionally cold showers. We'd try to do 150 or so km per day, and stop at all the cool sites. Along the way we saw a 7 metre tall "gumboot", a giant fibreglass banana, sailed and snorkelled through the Whitsunday Islands, took a 4WD tour through Fraser Island, hiked through the Blue Mountains, drove the Great Ocean Road, and caught up with a buddy from our days in Lake Louise and saw the famous Sydney Opera House. There was wildlife out the ass. Most of it not in the form of roadkill! We saw: Koalas, Kangaroos, Wallabies, Green Tree Frogs, a Cassowary (look it up), Whales, Lorikeets, a fresh Wombat in the centre of the road (it was probably still warm, so we figure it counts), Fairy Penguins and we're pretty certain we saw the top of the head of a Platypus in a stream. Driving Oz in a camper van was undoubtedly the best way to see the country, and we highly recommend it! Visiting Australia is like visiting Canada - you wouldn't really go for the cities, you go for the nature, and the views.The Australian people are by far the nicest we've ever met. Everyone here is so easy going and friendly, we sort of wondered if there was something in the water. In our whole time here, we only met two people who weren't nice - we were reasonably certain that one was crazy, and the other we just told off and went on our way. We caught up with our buddy Dan just south of Sydney, who we know from working at Lake Louise. He took our travel-weary butts in, housed us and gave us some bloody fantastic food and drink, which was a nice break from freezing in the van at night. Oz was certainly one of our favourites. Yes, I know we say that about every other country we visit, but we really mean it! We'd recommend it to anyone, and we really hope to return and see some more of it. Next stop: New Zealand, for touring and (eww) work. Stay tuned...HIPPIES AWAY!
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Sydney, Australia

Sydney
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Melbourne, Australia

Melbourne
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Canberra, Australia

Canberra
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Cape Tribulation, Australia

Cape Trib
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/where2now/backpack_2007/1188820800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/where2now/backpack_2007/1188820800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/where2now/backpack_2007/1188820800/tpod.html Sun, 16 Sep 2007 12:06:04 -0400 Matt and Terri's backpacking adventures around the world.

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Porto, Portugal

We finally arrived in Portugal after 2 flights, and a night spent "sleeping" on a cold concrete floor in the airport in Frankfurt, Germany. Good fun. An easy way to visualize what Portugal is like, is to imagine what Mexico would look like if it became a First World nation overnight: Really nice scenery, but still sort of broken down and dirty. It is also nearly all hills. It was no wonder why most Portugese are really fit.We started off our trip in a town in the north called Porto. Porto is famous for it's production of Port, which is a variation of wine, with brandy added. While in Porto, we ate fabulous pasties, wandered aimlessly in the streets, and took a train tour to a Port winery. We really enjoyed the winery - it seemed like if we spent any more time in their warehouse, we'd have gotten drunk from the fumes.We took the bus down to Lisbon after a few days in Porto. Lisbon is safely skippable. Maybe allot one day for the town. There isn't really a lot to see, a good chunk of it is dirty, and their waterfront is mostly boarded up. How does one board up a waterfront? They sure figured out a way. I did meet a charming fellow, though, who told me he had some great cocaine, and offered me a free taste when I appeared sceptical. Imagine: a FREE TASTE of cocaine. He pulled off quite the marketing coup that day. Unfortunately, I was a tough nut to crack, and wasn't interested. He finally left me alone after I yelled for all to hear that "I DON'T DO DRUGS". It could have been a Public Service Announcement commercial with a voice-over by Nancy Regan. I was actually offered drugs no less than 5 times in one day. A personal record.One of the few really cool things about Lisbon were the sidewalks. They're made up of individually shaped stones, which are arranged in geometric patterns. We learned that it was a make work (probably slave labour) project for Lisbon prisoners during the 19th century. They became so popular that they were copied by cities all over the country.Definitely the highlight of our trip to Portugal was our next destination: Lagos, in the Algarve region in the south. My dad nearly disowned me when he thought we skipped going to the Algarve, so for the sake of my family's unity, we decided to head down there. What a place. We got there right at the end of high season, when most tourists had gone home, but the weather was still great.We met up with a friend of ours, Cara, who regular readers might recognize from our stop in Edinburgh. Cara was visiting with her brother Ben and sister Marnie, and the stars just happened to align for us, so we could all meet up in Lagos for a few days. Together with our super cool Australian roommates Anna and Jenny we had a great time hanging out, eating and drinking. Terri and I also swam quite a bit at the beach nearby, and generally just lazed about and slept a lot. It was a fantastic break after running around Europe for over four months. Lagos was the only place we've visited so far that we were actually sad to leave. It was a completely amazing place to visit (dad, you were right). We'd certainly recommend it to anyone who was going to Portugal, over any other destination there.We're taking a short trip back up to England to see our friends Jon and Clare just outside of Oxford before we fly down to Australia for my best friend's wedding. Stay tuned...
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Faro, Portugal

Faro
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