.
May 20

Ok, some final thoughts, as it's time to wrap this up and move on to other adventures. Before we do that, we must introduce "MadDog", our faithful travelling companion.

Joanne and I have talked about going on a trip around the world for a number of years and when we saw the ad for this trip, we thought, why not? (I have to admit that my first reaction was, but it starts only 3 weeks after we get home from Peru and Ecuador!). We thought: this will give us a taste of countries that we're kind of iffy on and then we'll know whether we've 'been there, done that' or we want to go back for a closer and better look. Had we done this trip on our own, we know that we would not have seen a fraction of the things we saw, or done a number of the things we did. We would not have volunteered our services to a school in Kathmandu, or to the Sisters of Charity also in Kathmandu. We would not have gone to "PasarBandar Baru Sentul" (a street market in the wrong side of town) in Kuala Lumpur. We wouldn't now know that there's a fine for first-time spitting in Singapore or how many types of tea are sold at "Ten Fu's Tea shop" in Beijing. W e would not have looked for the mosque that is one the one pound Egyptian banknote or discovered what the Romanian phrase"Dacataceai filosof ramaneai" means, and we certainly would not have taken the train (better known as the 20 hours of hell) from Thessaloniki to Bucharest. It certainly answered the question of where we would go back to and where we never have to go again.

We travelled with some fantastic people and shared some great moments with them. As some one else mentioned on their blog, the emotions were all over the place. They went from great joy and happiness to extreme frustrations and anger. This is to be expected when you put together a whole bunch of A-type personalities and throw a contest at them. I think that for the most part, everyone got along very well and that some long term friendships have been formed.

I would like to make special mention of a couple of teams that outdid themselves in the
fundraising department. Zoe and Rainey have been recognized by the organizers for the money that they raised. They did an outstanding job and were a great and a fun team. Another great team, and 2 first class people, were a couple of fellows from Calgary: Randy and Eric, who not only raised $ 40,000.00 but played the game in the true spirit of contest, with integrity and honesty. Another Alberta team, James and Shelley also put a great deal of effort into raising money for their charities and raised a lot of money. Well done! As a matter of record, no one from Canada was able to compete for the prize for most money raised, as the Great Escape Foundation is an American organization and not registered in Canada. Because of that, the money we raised in Canada was sent directly to the charity of choice rather than the G.E. Foundation and Bill and Pamela were unable to monitor how much was actually raised.

In closing, for our next trip around the world, we now know what we could and should be looking for instead of just hitting the hot spots in each location. Our take-home lesson: do some serious planning and homework, maybe make yourself up a little scavenger hunt and really get into the heart of the country that you're visiting. This is something that could be done on any trip or vacation and it would certainly make for a far more interesting trip.
All in all it was a great trip and we have no regrets. We're proud of what we accomplished, the money we raised for Doctors without Borders (which they sure can use now) and how we played the game. In the end our integrity was worth more than winning, and we applaud all those who played by the rules.

We want to thank everyone who supported us throughout our journey. Your good wishes
and your cheering us on meant more than you'll ever know. Some days it was the only thing keeping us going, so please, give yourselves a pat on the back, you deserve it.

The most common question asked of us (other than "are you insane?") has been "would you do it again?"
Answer: YES, as the basic concept of this contest is great and if some major flaws were to be corrected, then it would be brilliant.








MadDog is ready for the next adventure.

May 11, 2008

We have arrived - and in one piece - in Romania. We made our way to the designated Marriott Hotel and, since we'd arrived a day sooner than scheduled, had to make our own hotel arrangements.
We opted for the Ibis Hotel very near the Marriott (whose prices were beyond silly).
We had a lovely suite at the Ibis with a separate bedroom, 2 bathrooms and a living room.
Not bad for 120E. Not only that but it was right outside the People's Palace. The People's
Palace is now where the government sits since Ceausescu vacated the place
after the 1989 revolution. The palace is 330,000 sq. meters, 12 stories and 3100 rooms
and is the second largest building in the world. Now, I realize that personal space is very important to some people, and I do like mine, but 3100 rooms?? It really is a fabulous building.
Some of the scavenges in Bucharest included:
- Locate Kilometre 0. Explain it (25)
- Take Metro to Arcul de Triumf and explain it (35)
- Visit the tomb of Vlad Tepes and learn the legend of Dracula. (75)
- Locate at least 2 plaques dedicated to "heroes of the revolution". What revolution? (25)

Anyway, the arch was getting a face lift and was totally covered with scaffolding. We did
visit the Village Museum which gives you a look at a rustic version of Romanian life,
and also found the plaques where students were killed during the revolution, complete with
bullet holes still visible in the buildings.
It was fascinating and I would have liked to see more of it. We completed all we could in Bucharest and hopped a train (yes, though we swore no more trains... ever) and managed a first class ticket to Brasov, Transylvania for a look at the castle made famous by Bram Stoker.
Again, not enough time to really enjoy it, just a quick look, but Romania is somewhere I would come back to. Lots of interesting things to see and the country side was beautiful as well.
Then our usual 9 p.m. meeting to turn in our score sheets and get info on the next destination. It was announced that no points would be issued to anyone for this Balkan segment due to the cheating of some. For those teams that did this entire leg by bus and train, with integrity and in the true spirit of the event, it was devastating. It was a decision that pleased no one except the leading teams ( mere coincidence?? ). This sure made that 20 hour train ride even uglier.

AMSTERDAM - our favourite city in Europe. We arrived about 10 a.m. and caught the train to Central Station - it's so civilized - and our hotel - NH Barbizon Palace Hotel, steps from Central Station. Here some new rules were added, no concierge (we'd started off in Beijing as having 10 minutes with the concierge and when that was abused it was changed to 3 questions), no taxis or hired cars of any kind (that slowed a couple of guys right down) and no more pairing in groups (this question had come up at the beginning in Beijing and had been ok'd by Bill). We were feeling a little dispirited about the "contest", but here we finally had some great scavenging that didn't require deep pockets, and food scavenges that we could actually eat instead of having to worry about tummy upsets. (Being chained to a toilet in Cairo for 24 hours strikes me as being a little more than an "upset tummy")
A real hardship, we had to eat herring, pannekoek and frittes. Not only that but we had
to have an Indonesian rijsttafel dinner, and enjoy something from "De Kaas Kamer". Life just got so much better, we cleaned up and got all the food items (with pleasure), found out that service in the Red Light District cost 50E, went on a canal tour and found the thinnest house in Amsterdam (it's the width of the front door - regular size front door). The captain of the canal boat was kind enough to stop for a minute so we could get pictures of a spot where you can see and count seven bridges. We rented bicycles and toured the city on them, an easy way to see Amsterdam. We also visited the Flower Auction, which was amazing. Every day, the auction sells 19 million cut flowers and 2 million plants, in 12,000 varieties, from 7,000 nurseries, representing 3 soccer fields.

We also visited an old windmill called "De Otter". Originally it was used as a saw mill for boat building and is still used as a saw mill but not for the boat industry.
Some of the stuff on the list we opted not to do as we've been there in the past. Like visiting Zaanse Schans, Muiderslot and Den Hague.

We were sad to leave Amsterdam and volunteered at the airport to stay if the flight was over booked, no such luck. Off to Toronto we go.
We arrived in Toronto late in the evening and checked into the Intercontinental Yorkville
on Bloor Street for 2 nights. Here we used the subway and street cars for our scavenges
as the TTC is the most efficient way to go downtown TO. We visited Honest Ed's and actually bought something for .03, yes - 3 cents, then to the Bata Shoe Museum, to Casa Loma, then had dim sum at a restaurant on Spadina, also stopped at the Hungary Thai, and Kensington Market. We hit China Town, Greek Town and had a snack at a Greek restaurant, then on to Bonjour Brioche, the breakfast place that inspired "DeGrassi Junoir High", then off to Maple Leaf Gardens, A.C. Centre, took the PATH to the Hockey Hall of Fame. Visited the ROM, the Walk of Fame, Gretzky's, The Second City theatre and made it to the CN Tower by 3 p.m. closing time for this leg. We met at Horizons in the tower and handed in our score sheets, had some drinks and snacks and lo and behold, Joanne and I won the Toronto leg - but that was only because we live there (according to Bill). And all this time I thought we lived in Victoria! After the
ceremonies at the C.N. Tower we went back to our hotel and got ready for the final
party of the trip. We had a wonderful dinner, shared stories and memories and said good bye
to new friends.
No more scavenges to do! We now have some time to reflect on our journey, more later...

May 10, 2008

Ok, where did I leave off - Cairo I think. I forgot to mention that we visited Alexandria
in Egypt. It was a great spot and having just spent about 10 days in extreme heat, the cool breeze off the the Mediterranean was really nice. We found some amazing sites here, beautiful gardens and parks, palaces and a stunning library. We saw some very cool country side on the way to Alexandria and the taxi ride back was an adventure in itself. When thinking back on it, it's a miracle that we actually survived some of the cab rides. We handed in our score sheets and
were told of our next destination, Athens.



Library in Alexandria














We arrived in Athens and checked in to our hotel - right by the Acropolis - fantastic. We had
no scavenges for the rest of the day - a couple of hours of much needed R&R and in the evening
we have a group dinner at a local restaurant. Joanne and I wandered around a little and discovered that Greece, including Athens, was closed for a long weekend. It would re-open
on Tuesday. It was Easter Weekend - the biggest event of the year in Greece. All the
tourist sites, most shops and even the train stations were closed. This would be very interesting!!
Anyway, we met the gang at the hotel and wandered off to the restaurant. Since GSH was picking up the tab for this, the wine flowed and flowed and flowed. We did ourselves proud, and after much Retsina and other wines, dishes were smashed - as per Greek tradition - we honoured several Americans by making them Canadian citizens. Anthems were sung and generally everyone (at least at our table) let loose. A great evening and the look on Bill's face when the dishes started flying - priceless. At 10 p.m. we were to meet in the hotel bar and get our scavenge books for this leg of the trip. We also then found out that this leg would end
in Bucharest, Romania and that we had to find our own way there. Flying would not be allowed.
The first scavenge was attending midnight Mass at a cathedral not far from the hotel.
The service started inside and because of the huge crowd it moved outdoors into the square
in front of the cathedral, where a stage had already been set up. It was quite a spectacle and
we stayed for about an hour and then had to get back to the hotel to get some sleep.
The next morning we completed several scavenges locally and decided to take a ferry to
Aegina. It was a beautiful day and we just wandered around and had a very nice and relaxing couple of hours there. Back on the ferry and took the train back to near the hotel and completed a bunch more scavenges on the way home. Definitely somewhere I want to go back to.
Didn't get in to see the Acropolis (just saw it from outside the gate) but did catch Hadrian's Arch,
the Temple of Olympian Zeus etc. etc. It was very difficult getting train information as
so much was closed. We decided to blow the budget and take a taxi (we shared with Lloyd and Treacy)from Athens to Thessaloniki as we really wanted to see Delfi and Meteora. Not only were they big bonus points but 2 sites that Joanne had not seen when in Greece 25 years ago. They were amazing, well worth the effort of getting there.



Delfi







From Thessaloniki we took the train
to Bucharest - we managed to get a sleeper - although not a first class : ( - for the first leg to Sophia, Bulgeria. The train was a little slower than scheduled and we arrived there at
10 a.m. We did manage to get a few hours of sleep in between customs officers getting us up to check passports. We could have, and probable should have, stayed in Sophia for a few hours to do some scavenges here. Some of us were very
anxious to get the train over and done with and get to Bucharest. At the station I had a bit of a run in with a couple of Bulgarians who thought that I should pay them for not carrying my bag from the station to the train. To add insult to injury, they wanted 50 of the local currency which would have amounted to about $25.00 - dreamers.....I must give them credit for trying to get hold of my bag so that they could take it, but come on, it's a rolly bag. Maybe they felt that they should be rewarded for the effort and the good intention. Bulgaria, not on the list of places to go back to. The next leg to Bucharest was another 8 - 10 hours, again, couldn't get first class seating and were stuck in a pretty disgustingly dirty second class. We won't even go into washroom conditions. All in all it was a pretty rough ride, there was no food or drinks available on the train and we were lucky to at least have some water with us. I would say that this was by far the worst part of the 3 weeks.
More on Romania later.
K

,
May 9

We had (or at least I had) great intentions on keeping up the blog and letting you all know where
we were and how things were going, but you know what they say about good intentions....
Yes, we are home after a gruelling 3 weeks on the road, and if you're reading this then you've likely read the "official" blog from the folks at GSH and already know where we've been and all of that stuff. So now you'll only get my thoughts on the trip and share our experiences.


It was an amazing adventure. It was fantastic, aggravating, fun, maddening, it made us laugh and it made us cry with the frustration of it all.


San Francisco, what a wonderful place to start. We had a relaxing day to start our adventure with. We checked in to our hotel on Union Square and met our fellow contestants at 3 p.m.
After introductions were made (like we're going to remember all those names), we were sent out
on a practice scavenge. This gave us a very good idea of what we would be doing for the next 3 weeks. Let's get those running shoes in high gear.......... We had 3 hours to complete as many
as we could of the scavenges and would meet at 7 p.m. for dinner, presented by the organizers at a restaurant near the hotel. This gave us the opportunity to chat a little with our group. They seem like a great group of people and we should have a good time.
This is where we found out that we were leaving at midnight for Beijing. The picture is of a building we ran across in S.F. that has all it's furniture attached to the outside of the building, maybe space is an issue?

Beijing was for me the most interesting of our scavenges. Our scavenges took us to the
"Summer Palace", "Forbidden City", "Mao's tomb and of course the "Great Wall".
We had multiple scavenges within the Summer Palace and the Forbidden City so spent
a fair bit of time there and I felt that we actually saw some of it instead of just running by
it, grab a picture and go. We saw a couple of the Olympic sites i.e. , the "Bird's Nest" and
the Aquatic Centre and they are magnificent buildings. We went to a night market and
had a little snack - something vegetarian and not the deep fried silk worms or cockroaches although Joanne was tempted. I found the procession to view Mao's tomb quite fascinating, how long has the man been dead and still, every day, there are thousands lined up to view him. Amazing !!


From Beijing to Kuala Lumpur. The scavenges here are quite different in the sense that we have much more running to do, and not a lot to explore in any one place. Although we toured all over the city, with the use of their wonderful transit system. Up the famous Petronas towers for a great city view. We had a lot of markets to go to here and sample foods (or not, looking at some of the hygienic conditions). We also went to an elephant sanctuary where we rode an elephant, fed an elephant and Joanne had a bath with one.

Joanne and her new friend.


KL is an amazing city and someplace I would go back to and explore further.


Our next scavenge would take us to (finding our own way) to Singapore. Well, that was an experience. We decided the best and most efficient way was to take a cab as we did have scavenges to complete on the way. We completed what we could and off to Singapore. We had to meet at 9 p.m. at the world famous "Raffles Bar"
and had many scavenges to complete before then. Anyway, the cab dropped us off at the border between Malaysia and Singapore (cabs are not allowed across the border) and we asked a border guard how to get across. He told us to get on a bus and pointed us in the right direction so we hopped on the bus and off we went. On the other side (in Singapore) we discovered that we had failed to get our passports stamped with an exit stamp in Malaysia. After being taken to the "back room", and much discussion we were given 2 options. One, we could go back (on the bus) and get the exit stamp, then come back again OR they would let us in but there would be a flag placed on our passports by the Malaysians since in their eyes we'd never exited the country. Since we didn't know where we were going next - having our passports flagged didn't seem like a good idea. It would have been a perfect opportunity to disappear forever though....hmmmmm....
Needless to say we opted to go back, get stamped and carry on. Unfortunately this killed several hours and really put us behind the 8 ball. Unfortunately, our adventure didn't score us any points with the judges. S'pore is a very modern and expensive city. We didn't see much of it but looked like a place we could spend a few days - so add it to the list of places to go to someday. We might skip the $15 per glass beer at Raffles though.

Our next stop was Kathmandu, Nepal. What a change from S'pore! Without a doubt the poorest country I've ever seen. The air and noise pollution are fierce. The things used as vehicles, spewing exhaust fumes and constantly blowing their horns, are unbelievable. This contraption looked like a cross between a rototiller and a very small pick up.
But, one does what one has to, there is no money for nice fancy cars or trucks so people make do. And they are a wonderful people and we enjoyed talking and interacting with them.
We also did some volunteering here and spent a morning in a school, talking to and
playing with the children. They range from nursery school to grade 10. We spoke to
a class of grade 8 students - a very polite, nice bunch of kids who are very anxious to learn and have definite goals made for themselves. I have no doubt that they will achieve their dreams. They are learning English right from nursery school and have some computers in the school. It'll be very interesting to see what changes the Internet brings to their lives. We did a second volunteer item and went to the "Mother Teresa Hospice". A site where they house infants that have been orphaned or are malnourished (read starving), and in a separate building, adults who are either severely disabled or terminally ill. We provided funds for them to purchase some necessary items (we had offered to go and purchase these items but the sister very tactfully explained that she would get much more from the shop keepers than we as tourist would, so, please, cash will work just fine).
One of the scavenges possible in Nepal was to "find a black rhino on top of an elephant".
Although time consuming this sounded like fun, albeit grammatically impossible. Some of the other teams were going so we tagged along and had a great time. We rode on top of an elephant for a couple of hours and saw monkeys, deer, rhinos and a Bengal tiger (in the wild). It was truly amazing. We had to stay overnight and our elephant took us to our camp site. A fabulous camp with a huge tent, twin beds and a change room attached to the tent, as well as a bathroom, complete with shower, attached to the back of the tent. Our bags were waiting for us in our tent. The only way to go camping (apart from the saucer sized spiders we found inside that night). In the morning, back on our elephant for the ride to the bus to get back
to Kathmandu. It was an early morning ride, with the sun rising over the river - did I mention
we were on an elephant : ) - This was the most fun scavenge.
We also took an airplane ride past Mount Everest. Although very cool to see the world's highest peak, it was much like flying over the Rocky Mountains.

OK, we're off again and we flying to Bahrain. This should have been a day off but due to
airline schedules changing, we arrived there in the evening and were off again first thing in the morning to Cairo, so the visit was pretty minimal. Just enough time to notice the many cranes & tall buildings being constructed - trying to become another Dubai?. Touched down into the heat of Egypt (but it's a dry heat!) The Great Pyramids are something to see. And to think that they build these things without the use of computers, huge pieces of machinery or anything else. Just a bunch of Egyptians carting these huge blocks around and put them in place and wow, there's a pyramid!
We also went to the spice market - Bill is really big on markets - and visited several mosques.
This is not a place for 2 women on their own and so I enjoyed Cairo less than Joanne did. I found it very annoying dealing with the camel drivers and peddlers near the pyramids and also the taxi drivers. Their goal in life is to rip you off by whatever means possible. Having said that, we did run
into some very helpful and nice people in the heart of the city and not everyone should be painted by the same brush. Much like everywhere else in the world. Unfortunately there was
no time to go to Luxor, again, we'll have to go back and see the places we missed.

That's all for today - more tomorrow.