Kit & Joanne's Great Escape

Seoul Survivor's: Day One

2011-04-17T08:12:00.000-07:00

Had a blast in NYC, almost

2010-05-03T11:25:00.000-07:00

So we wondered why the cops wouldn't let us into Times Square last night. They just kept muttering: "Police investigation....". So instead of getting tickets bought for a Sunday Broadway show matinee, we headed home to bed.

Now, on Sunday, Times Square is pretty much back to normal, packed with tourists and yellow cabs, but far more police than before. Imagine circling the globe, through Sri Lanka, Thailand & other "unsettled" countries only to come closer to trouble here in the land of the free...

Managed to get show tickets after all: A Little Night Music with Catharine Zeta-Jones as "the other woman" and Angela Lansbury hamming it up (deliciously) as the older-than-dirt countess with a steamy past. Good relaxing fun in an air conditioned theatre - it's 90 degrees here in NYC, and did we mention that it's humid?

Sunday was our day off. The "contest" is over, the champs anointed, and we assigned ourselves only the challenges of scoring show tickets and getting to Newark by bedtime for our 7 am flight north. Next stop Canada!

A final update, and all those missing pictures will follow as soon as we get decent internet access and can do the uploads.

Many thanks to all who followed us and sent words of encouragement.

MadDog, Mozart, Maria, Munschen, Marienplatz, Moulins & Metronidazole

2010-05-02T18:36:00.000-07:00

Well, that was quite the European tour!

We were assigned the task of getting from Vienna to Paris in 2 days: leaving our hotel no earlier than 8 am on Wednesday, and reconvening by 10 am Friday morning at the Meridian Hotel in Montparnasse.
Dozens of possible scavenges in cities that included Berlin, Prague, Bratislava, Budapest, Graz, Salzburg, Munich, Zurich, Basel, Freiburg, as well as Luxembourg (for a passport stamp) Strasbourg, Versailles and Chartres. Many sounded interesting, but the big challenge was to figure out an effective, efficient strategy for travel between cities in the time frame, while allowing enough time to actually accomplish the scavenges at each destination. More points for going north or east first (from Vienna), but then more likelihood of spending both nights sleeping on a train. Train fare (@ cheapest rate) provided for direct Vienna to Paris route, but not for "other excursions".

Decided not to blow the budget in a mad chase for points over eastern Europe, and instead see rather more of Paris (and cross it off Kit's lifetime to do list). So after a sad farewell to Vienna (we will go back there to actually enjoy it) we headed west by train. First stop Linz, to check out something in the town square, then on to Salzburg. Pretty town, but sadly corrupted by tourism and the Mozart connection. Every little shop is "Mozart this" or "Mozart that", or else tied into "The Sound of Music" (filmed here, at least in part). So after a few overly commercial scavenges we were back on the train to Munich. What lovely trains, especially after our last experience on Sri Lankan clunkers. Clean, quiet, comfortable, on time, with bathrooms that you could actually bear to go into.

Arrived in Munich with no guidebook or hotel reserved, so had to do a bit of detective work to get settled in for the night. Headed out to do a beer taste test (finally off Flagyl, so that is possible), only to find that the beer halls empty out by 11 pm (on Tuesdays, at least). What is the world coming to? We manage to find one ( The Augusteiner) full of revellers and get them to teach us a drinking song, then have them learn "Oh Canada" which they sing with great enthusiasm (if not accuracy - but then, neither do most Canadians). We proclaim them honourary Canucks and head out through the old city gates to bed.

Up the next morning to explore Munich in daylight. An architecture education in itself, with wildly baroque, rococco, and gothic buildings, cathedrals with clock towers, sundials and astronomical clocks. A lovely spring morning to stroll the broad main avenue towards Marienplatz square and catch the daily glockenspeil performance. Decided to watch the show from an adjacent church tower (Old Peter), so rushed up the mere 302 steps just in time to see the twirling figures and watch the jousting knights re-enact their daily battle.

Rented bicycles (a great way to get around, although very easy to get lost on the twisty streets whose names change every few feet). Despite a few missteps, we found the remaining city gates and toured the "English Gardens" before getting back to the bike rental place, finding a very misplaced Juliet and Hofbrauhaus (a giant beer gardenétourist trap - 5000 seats!).
Our plan is to head to Freiburg and perhaps on to Basel, but a train glitch calls for a change of plan. We're off to the City of Light.

Paris is ........ Paris. Dirty, crowded, and, reports to the contrary, the locals still take delight in being rude or deaf (at least anyone in the service industry - such as waiters, tourist information people, transit workers, hotel staff...).
A few regular people were quite pleasant though and helpful with directions.
We decide to have as much of a Paris experience as possible, given the time limits. Not interested in rushing through the Louvre (or queuing up to do it) so check out both the Arc de Triumph and the Arch de Defence (incredibly ugly). Off to Montmartre in search of artists and a very cool stature of a man walking through a wall - Passe Muraille ;)

Had to move our luggage from our Paris hotel (near Champs d'Elysees) to the GSH one in Montparnasse. The Metro system is superb. It's dirt cheap if you get a pass (the only cheap thing we found in Paris), but there are way too many stairs if one is lugging a suitcase. Off again into the drizzle to buy baguettes, try to visit the Pantheon (more rude Parisians), cruise the Seine to the Veterinary College, an obligatory covered market, up the Pompideau Centre (also very ugly, although it had a funky fountain). Getting dark now as we check out the "other" Statue of Liberty flame, a Zouave statue at Pont d'Alma, and just because it looks cool all lit up, the big metal tower. Home for a well deserved rest.

We awake to more drizzle. Sadly, breakfast is not included in the hotel booking, (again) so we set off in search of coffee & croissants, and, our final European scavenge, a few famous residents of the Montparnasse cemetery. Jean Paul Sartre and Serge Gainsbourg are easy enough, but Susan Sontag is lying low. The gate custodian is surly and unhelpful (quelle surprise!), but eventually, sends us off to the main office where a slow-moving clerk looks Sontag up and painstakingly writes out the coordinates on a form before sending us back to the gatekeeper who checks the chit, marks a spot on a map (completely inaccurately) and sends us on our way. We pay our respects to Susan and it's time to return to the hotel to put the lid on this European leg.

Well, almost. We're off to Iceland. Unfortunately, it's only a 1 hour airport stopover en route to New York. We're rather hoping the volcano erupts again and keeps us there instead.

Oh well, we'll always have Paris......

Wine & wienerschnitzel

2010-04-26T22:32:00.000-07:00

Got our list of challengers and there are many. The only stipulation is that we have to be in Paris on Friday 10:00 a.m.
This is rated a "par 6" leg, meaning that a good score here will likely decide the final ranking. Our goal is to not be last : )

We have challenges that we can opt to do in Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Czech Rep., Germany, Switzerland and Luxembourg. What to do, what to do?
more later once we come up with a plan.
Sadly, much of Vienna is "closed" on Mondays. We may just have to come back some other time.
k&j

Fortunately, not the Hilton (2)

2010-04-26T06:34:00.000-07:00

Over Jordan

2010-04-26T06:22:00.000-07:00

We really enjoyed Jordan and would very much like to come back and spend some serious time here. The people are wonderful and there are so many places to explore. We found a camping trip in Wadi Rum that sounds very cool and would be great fun to do.

One could probably spend a week in Petra and not see everything. Our brief couple of hours was just a teaser. Can`t imagine rushing through in a horse and buggy...

Horses and donkeys and camels, oh my

2010-04-26T06:12:00.000-07:00

Landed in the surprisingly cool (only 15 degrees C at 10 AM) Kingdom of Jordan. All more than brain dead after leaving our Colombo hotel at 3 am then not sleeping much (or at all) on the 7 hour flight to Amman. More than ready for some mental and physical scavenges.
Only 2 nights in the Hyatt here, but lots of challenges involving long-distance driving. Amman is only about 50 km east of the Dead Sea and Jordan River, so time for some of us to dredge up faint memories from Sunday school to help decide which mountain Moses died on and visit it. Never expected to get to the Dead Sea, and yes, you float in it like a bar of Ivory soap. Being a "sinker" in normal water, that was quite novel.
Everything here is difficult to accomplish. The Jordanian people are incredibly friendly (quite the contrast with Egypt), but things that seem direct and easy to do somehow aren't. So we accomplish only a couple of items before night falls, and as there's supposedly a 10 pm curfew (will it be enforced this time?) we decided to pause (for once) for a sit-down meal. Another task was to have an after-dinner "hubbly bubbly". Quite a production as the waiters brought over a hookah, fired it up, and almost pretended not to snicker as we puffed away and tried not to choke on the perfumed smoke. Slightly buzzed, we headed home for a very early start the next morning. No breakfast again : ( but we're on our way to Petra.

It's a 3 hour drive down to Petra, and about half way there the sun rises: a giant dull red ball slowly slides up and then suddenly it's brilliant day. Wish we could master the art of car sleeping as well as our 2 companions (another team willing to split the hefty cab fare).

Petra was amazing. Definitely a wonder of the world. If you've been there you know, if not, put it on your list. An ancient ancient city from a long-forgotten civilization, and like Machu Picchu, lost for centuries. You pass through a long, long narrow and deep rock canyon (great for defence) with stone gutters (for water pipes) before emerging into the city proper. First glimpse as you emerge is the spectacular Treasury building (the classic postcard photo), towering before you. The path continues past dozens and dozens of other buildings, temples and tombs, all built into the sheer cliffs behind them and as one with the rock. Centuries of erosion give them a strangely melted appearance, as though they were made of wax and had sagged in the heat of the sun. Amazingly (and disturbingly), you can walk into & climb over them all, and we discovered that some of the rocks are brilliantly coloured and striated. Inside the buildings and rooms, these colours have been preserved, and appear as rainbows on the walls and ceilings. Imagine an iridescent colourful shell from a tropical beach spread across the wall.
Reached the end of the main thoroughfare and our next task, to visit the monastery at the top of the surrounding cliffs. There are stairs leading to it (about 9000?) but although it wasn't as hot as Sri Lanka, we opted to take donkeys (the driver assured us they were air-conditioned!). What he didn't tell was that the donkeys climb up the steps! So we lurch up, with their hooves scrabbling on the narrow stone steps, as they jockey for position (every donkey wants to be in the lead, and will scramble to push past the others -usually on the side of the narrow path with the sheer drop. Or, almost worse, on the inside while squeezing itself (and your leg) against the inner wall. About half an hour later we were dropped off at the top, with the grinning offer of a ride back down. We took in the view from the monastery (another fading temple straight out of Indiana Jones - which was partly filmed here) before making the descent (on 2 legs) and the long trek back to the taxi. In the meantime, crowds of tourists had arrived, and the previously relatively serene canyon was packed with tour groups. Felt much better about that 4 am start.
Off to Wadi Rum near Aqaba, the Seven Pillars of Wisdom, and the ghost of T.E Lawrence (note to self - get Lawrence of Arabia DVD when we get home). Went in search of ``Àin Shalaaleh`` (either a restaurant, or a natural spring, depending on who we talked to). So we climbed high into the dusty, rocky hills and found a tiny oasis of green with cool, clear water trickling from the cliff face. A long, long length of 2 inch black hosepipe runs down from the spring to the little Bedouin village far below, where it arrives piping hot from the sun`s heat on the pipe. Perfect for making tea.
A mandatory camel ride, and then back to the taxi for a long hot and tedious 300 km drive back to Amman. Three of us squeezed into the back seat of a tiny taxi while the driver plays loud local music on the radio. You just had to be there.... By the time we arrive we`re so exhausted that we`re cross-eyed. So is our taxi driver, a cheerful fellow who will be happy to never see these crazy passengers again. Scavenges available in town are now closed for the day (sadly, that included the Turkish Bath, at least for women), so we settle for grabbing a snack and doing a little laundry to save our suitcase smelling like donkey or camel or horse or us, before gratefully turning in our score sheets at ten and rushing to bed. We get breakfast tomorrow! Our flight isn`t until 10:30 A.M., and we`re off to....................
Vienna!

We`ve just arrived in Vienna but sadly will not be here long, hotel only booked for one night, and we don`t know yet where we`ll have to get ourselves to before the flight to New York. I have no doubt that we will be flying to N.Y on Friday evening and will know at 4 p.m. what we`re doing.
k&j

Unfortunately, not at the Hilton

2010-04-26T06:10:00.000-07:00

Wow, Colombo, Sri Lanka. This is finally, after many years of strife, a safe place to go. We arrived late at night. A 45 minute shuttle bus through dark empty streets of a city we would find far more bustling in daylight. Opened the curtains the next morning to a view of Beira Lake and Slave Island in the heart of Colombo's old part. A 10 a.m. briefing: we're here for 5 nights and have been handed a huge list of things that we can choose from. We plotted out a potential route and went off to a tourist bureau to find out if we could do what we`d planned. Some of the out-of-town destinations required us to take the train at least one way so we had to be careful that we didn't get stranded somewhere. A GSH-imposed 10 pm to 5 am curfew complicates travel as well. One challenge included delivering school supplies to a rural school, so we headed off to The Pettah (old market) to pick up footballs and notebooks and pencils. After a few minutes of that, we decided we wanted to get out of the incredibly hot, sticky, noisy, crowded city. We chose a triangular route that started in Kandy: three hours away by rail. We checked into the Queens Hotel. Lonely Planet likens it to the elegant colonial hotels such as Hanoi's Metropole, Singapore’s Raffles. Maybe, if one spent several millions on it - great potential to be a truly magnificent hotel. Knocked off a few challenges, including a beer taste test (or juice or pop, but why would you?), then off to Sri Dalada Maligawa - the Temple of the Sacred Tooth. Apparently someone rescued one of the Buddha's teeth from the flames at his funeral pyre (back in 483 B.C.) and it ended up in Sri Lanka. The Portuguese were thought to have destroyed it in the 16th century but allegedly only got a fake incisor. So here, guarded within 7 caskets (like Russian matryoshka dolls) is the tooth. After a few scavenges in Kandy (like finding a live elephant which we managed to do at 7 a.m.), a series of taxis took us to visit 3 different ancient monuments: cave temples at Dambulla, and the first of many sets of stairs we will climb today. These are shallow caves filled with magnificent religious paintings and statues (quite unlike the grotty grottoes of Luang Prabang). On to Sigiruya to see a strange rock formation (old volcanic plug) something like the Devil's Tower in Wyoming, though not as high. But, since the 1 hour climb up is via a path on the sheer rock face, plus narrow metal stairs and catwalks, it's plenty tall enough! Not much to see on top except a great view, and low brick walls/foundations of a possible monastery from the 3rd century B.C. On the way up there is a gallery of some amazingly well preserved frescoes of well-endowed women, presumably not painted by the monks, but then again...

Off again, now to Polonnaruwa, a major Sri Lankan centre about 1000 years ago and full of dozens of ruins, old irrigation systems (some of them still working) and Buddhas scattered around the town. Like the previous city it's a UNESCO world heritage site. We had to find specific buildings in the sprawling site, so scurried around for a while. As well, we located 3 magnificent Buddha’s carved into a rock slab (it wasn't on Bill's list, but we went to see it anyway). Rushing now to get to Anuradhapura for the night before our 10 p.m. curfew. Anuradhapura, a capital city between 380 B.C. and 800 A.D. is also a site of scattered relics, though some are still in use. The highlight is the Sacred Bodhi Tree, the oldest authenticated tree in the world and allegedly grown from a cutting of the Buddha's original Bodhyaya tree. Nearby is a magnificent white dagoba (stupa). We also located an even more massive ancient stupa (from 3 A.D.) that once rose 100 meters, second only to the pyramids in height at the time. This was our final stop before heading to Minhale for yet another hilltop temple complex (did I mention that it's unbelievably hot and humid?) More stairs, all the way up to the stupa and lookout (guarded by some rather aggressive monkeys). On the way back to Anuradhapura, we stopped at a local elementary school to drop our stash of soccer balls and school supplies. A snack of "short eats", then got to the train station in lots of time to catch our train back to Colombo. We found out that the train was going to be late and wished we had had opted for longer eats and a beer instead. As the train pulled in we waited as it slowed, only to be bowled over by first one, then several people leaping onto the train in order to get a seat. Taking the hint, we grabbed handrails and swung aboard, just barely managing to snag a couple of seats, though unfortunately not by a window. Then we sat and sat and sat in the hot railway car. The train finally jerked into motion after about 30 minutes and we were off, painfully slowly, but off. Indian trains are famous for people meandering through selling snacks, drinks etc. and we were not disappointed. We just didn't know what they were selling and refrained from trying the food offered. The train, allegedly an express, chugged slowly south, stopping every few kilometers at some little whistle stop for 10 to 30 minutes. At one stage we took 30 minutes to go about 1.5 km, only to back up most of that distance while cars were shuffled. Slowly progressed southwards, passing miles of rice paddies, with occasional spottings of water buffalo, elephants and peacocks. We arrived back in Colombo six hours later, hot and tired and headed straight for a shower and bed. The next morning we completed a number of scavenges in the city, which included finding moonstones and talismans, talking with a jovial priest about the gruesome legend of St. Lucia (“quite a girl” he called her), and a 3 hour visit to an orphanage. We concluded this leg with a group dinner which ended very early as everyone was really tired from all the travelling and the intense heat and humidity. We also found out that we had a 3 a.m. bus to the airport for a 6 a.m. flight to Amman , Jordan.

What Wat ?

2010-04-23T07:29:00.000-07:00

Somehow we've managed to lose our Chiang Mai blog but will re-write on the plane tomorrow am. (See below)
Just finished 4 days in Sri Lanka, Bob, did we mention that it was hot, not only hot but hot and humid.
If you would like to keep up, go to Globalscavengerhunt.com
2010 event to catch everyone else's blogs.
We promise to catch up tomorrow.
b.t.w. we're off to Jordan very early tomorrow.
k&J

Somehow the computer gremlins managed to delete our blog for the time we spent in Chiang Mai Thailand - the "Rose of the North". Now, after 5 days of running around Sri Lanka, those 3 days are a little blurry (as are we, since we had to get up this morning (?) for a 3 am bus to the airport.

So, perhaps somewhat imperfectly, our recollections of Chiang Mai:

Another ancient city, with an old part roughly 1 mile square surrounded by remnants of wall, plus a moat. We landed mid-afternoon, and after the requisite briefing, started planning our attack on the scavenges. Major points available for driving several hours north and crossing the border into Burma (easily enough to do, apparently), but we couldn't face the idea of a 9 hour taxi ride just for bragging rights (and at the expense of seeing the city. So headed out in search of food (mango chicken - yummmmmmm) and "an eatery in the Night Bazaar specializing in insects" = : o
No luck with the latter, and all the wats were closed for the day, so after collecting a few other scavenges (assorted fruit, flower & flea markets) headed home for beer & bed, with an early morning planned.

Started at the royal palace (open to the public when the King isn't in residence). High in the hills outside the city with a great, if hazy view. Wonderful gardens: we strolled through the fern garden, cool and serene, to the sound of birdsong. The city was already hot humid and sticky, and we were sorely tempted to just stay there, but there were wats to visit, so off to the first temple, also up in the hills at the top of 20+ km of switchback roads. Up a funicular railroad to tour a spectacular complex of buildings. Down the dragon stairway and into our first of many little red trucks. These serve as shared taxis: you flag one down, negotiate a price to your destination, and hop in the back, where there may be other people. Very effective system - the trucks are everywhere.

Decided to do a run out of the city in the opposite direction, to search for more wats and go to the Elephant Conservation Centre. Only 60 km but we'd chosen a taxi that needed a valve job and almost needed to be pushed up the hills, so it was a loooooong ride. Elephants were great though. They're retired working elephants, and help to earn their pensions by putting on a few little shows each day. They actually seem to enjoy doing little demos of how they would tow, lift and stack logs in the teak forests using tusks and trunks. But then, it was play time and they got to pound on xylophones. The real treat was to watch them paint. We’d seen a documentary back home on the painting elephants but to see them in real life actually doing it was amazing. Flowers were a popular theme, but one of them, brush stroke by brush stroke, created....... an elephant!

From here we headed back to Chiang Mai via Lamphun to search for yet more wats. Back in Chiang Mai, we knocked off a couple more temples, and chatted with an incredibly charming Buddhist abbot who taught us how to pray properly. With us kneeling on the floor with him, he went through the 4 Noble Truths. After Truth #2 our calf muscles went into spasm, and we don’t remember much about Truths 3 and 4. A stroll through the Sunday walking market, and then, still sorely disappointed by our failure to find the bug restaurant the previous night, we went for a second look and were successful in finding bamboo worms and grubs for sale. More beer required. The following morning, one last wat, and visits to orchid and to snake farms before it was finally over. After was all well and done, we headed out for a Thai massage (why couldn’t that be a scavenge?)and had the best massage ever, and it was only $7.00 for an hour.

Later today we're off to Sri Lanka!.

2010-04-18T07:33:00.000-07:00

OK, so it was only pretending to be hot before, now it's really hot
42C + humidity. More tomorrow.

Water, water everywhere

2010-04-17T08:25:00.000-07:00

Happy New Year! Let's join the festivities in Luang Prabang.
This entire town is a UNESCO world Heritage site. It`s only about 1 mile long and about 4-5 blocks wide, but has about 3 dozen temples.

We arrived in Laos at about 7 p.m. A total change in temperature, back to hot, hot, hot.. Fortunately beer was one of the scavenger options, and guess what, it was the first one completed by all the teams. Up painfully early the next morning (out by 6:15 a.m.) to join in on an "alms giving ceremony". We join the crowd at a nearby temple in giving food to the monks as they walk past in a long line in their bright orange robes, their begging bowls gleaming in the sun.

Next on the list was bicycle rentals, then caught a "fresh food market" on the way to arrange for a boat to take us to .....caves. A 24k (2 hour) trip up the Mekong River in a long boat - very peaceful. Passed fishermen with nets, locals bathing in the river (and bathing their elephants) and numerous riverside villages that looked as if nothing had changed in them for centuries,except for the addition of satellite dishes.

We arrived at the caves and found them full of Buddhas that looked for the most part like statues whose best-before dates were long gone, almost a graveyard for unwanted deities. Back in the boat and on the return trip stopped at a Wat then back to pick up our bicycles. Laos was approaching the end of their New Year's celebrations, and one of the rituals is the tossing of water. As you go down the street there are huge barrels of water where kids, both old and young, fill up their water pistols or use bowls or buckets to hurl water on anyone passing by. Including policemen! Extra points for soaking tourists. Way more fun than Halloween. We had brought zip-lock bags for our wallets and cameras and we really needed them. The whole city just goes nuts and joins in on a free-for-all water fight frenzy. We were absolutely drenched by the time we got to the end of one block. They have also taken to tossing flour on you and Joanne at one point looked like one the holy men we saw in Kathmandu. A few budding delinquents added dye to their water, and our clothes are likely permanently pink. But generally it was a memorable experience. Many of the kids took almost as much delight when they missed their target as when they were dead on. Other scavenges included a trip (in the back of an open truck = perfect sitting targets for hurling water at) to visit and swim at some local waterfalls, and catching a sunset at a monastery high up on the town's central mountain (not exactly a B.C. size mountain, though there were a hell of a lot of stairs to climb). It would have been wonderful if not for the pouring-down rain and the lightning (as we were standing right next to a stupa - the tallest structure for some miles!). We also visited a local orphanage and dropped off a bag full of soaps, shampoos, toothbrushes and of course something far more interesting: cookies and stickers.

The next morning we had a couple of unscheduled hours to see the sights that we didn't have time to get to the day before (or were closed because of the holiday) before our flight to Chiang Mai, Thailand. The water-fight is over, so we won`t have to protect our cameras, though it was mostly all good clean, wet fun. All in all a good day, have we mentioned that it's been hot?

Drop us a line if you've been reading this, we'd like to hear from you.
Team MadDog
k&j

More from Thailand

Fortunately, not at the Hilton

2010-04-15T00:53:00.000-07:00

Ha Noi Vietnam

We arrived late in the afternoon and reached our hotel at about 6 p.m. It's another beautiful hotel in the old quarter of Hanoi. It was build in the early 1900s and is incredibly elegant - in the style of Raffles and other colonial gems. We knew we would not be getting the whole day off and sure enough, we were handed our booklets and so everyone headed out to do a scavenge or two before bedtime. We all decided to do a mandatory food scavenge together and found a restaurant close by that had the item we were looking for on the menu. It was a rare opportunity to catch up with everyone. This morning we awoke to rain, so Joanne and I chose a 3 hour Vietnamese cooking class as one of our scavenges. We learned how to make egg rolls, a stir fry and green papaya salad. The best part, of course, was that we could eat what we created. We had a pretty productive morning and managed to complete quite a few scavenges. Some highlights were: the One-Pillar Pagoda, several ancient temples - (ancient as in about 1020), looking for Ho Chi Min under glass (adding to our collection of preserved and revered icons, having seen Mao 2 years ago), a statue of Lenin and a picnic in a park (in the rain) and a highly entertaining (if hokey) water puppet show. We toured the Temple of Literature and the infamous Hanoi Hilton. Even found a few airplane wreckages dating from the 1972 Tet offensive sitting in people's backyards. Hanoi is where John McCain was shot down, though of course that wasn't the wreck that we had to find- far too easy (insert image of K laughing at J making airplane crash noises for the cabdriver). Propaganda is everywhere, with pictures of the heroic antiaircraft battalions that successfully defended the nation from the imperialist USA forces.

This year is Ha Noi's 1000th anniversary. It's a very intriguing place- great mix of ancient and modern. People who almost seem to have no homes - they're eating & cooking meals on the streets, playing checkers in the park or riding their mopeds everywhere. Crossing the road here is quite the adventure: never sure if you'll actually make it across intact. Fortunately, the mopeds & cars all went around us, instead of through us, and so now after 2 soggy days here we're moving on to Luang Prabang, Laos this afternoon. We wonder if the beer will be as cheap (about 2.50 for 2 litres) or the breakfast croissants (this is a French city, at heart) as sweet in our next stop.

Lowlights? The infamous taxi turbometers. These cabbies have a little button that allows their meter to spin like a possessed slot machine, jumping before your eyes from the real fare, say 15,000 dong to 250,000 dong. Mind you, that's still only $12.
The many markets are fabulous hives of activity, but the food markets do leave you wondering about the source of last night's dinner. Forget the rules about keeping meat refrigerated, or covered.
And then there was the "scrispy chicken head" that made the 1000 year egg look good......

k&j

Hong Kong Peaks

2010-04-12T19:38:00.001-07:00

Hi all
a quick second post as we wait to head to the HK airport for our afternoon flight to...........

Hanoi.

Need to arrange to upload blog and pictures to this site to show everyone what we're been up to in the past 48 hours.
In the meantime - 1,000 year eggs, one chop, many Star ferries and at least 10,000 Buddhas later we are ready to leave hot, humid and foggy HK and head to hotter, humider and sunny Vietnam.
Looking forward to getting to sit on the plane
More later (see below)
k&j

Hong Kong

We landed here about 6:30 a.m. After a 14 hour flight everyone was very happy to get off the plane and into our hotel. We were checked into the Harbour Grand Kowloon, a beautiful hotel right on the water with a spectacular view of the Hong Kong skyline (when not obscured by dense fog). We were to meet in the lobby at 11:00 a.m. to receive our first set of scavenges. Joanne and I took our booklet to our room to plot our route for the day. Two days, two separate set of challenges, with a couple of overlapping options. It took us a while to get ourselves organized (we were just a "little" bit tired) before heading off to the nearest ATM to get some cash and then purchase our "Octopus Card". It's a cash card that is used for all public transportation- one swipe lets you board buses, ferries, trams, trains, and, of course, the amazing subway system. The highlights of the day were Hong Kong Park, a beautiful park with waterfalls, aviary and a tea museum. We managed to complete a few scavenges in spite of the heat and humidity, and the fact that we were totally brain dead. Early to bed to try and catch up a little. The next morning we met again and received another set of scavenges. The best of these was the 10,000 Buddhas Monastery. Well outside the city, tucked on a hill top and the only way to the top was a long (half km), steep path lined with statues of Buddhas. I think there were actually 13,000. There were over 400 stairs to climb and it was hot!! We also enjoyed the bonsai trees at Chi Lin nunnery, and a funicular to the "The Peak" with a spectacular view of Hong Kong and Victoria Harbour (the fog had finally lifted, in part). We also discovered why hundreds of women spend their Sunday in the park in groups playing cards and picnicking. After High Tea at the grand old Peninsula Hotel in Kowloon we handed in our score sheet and were told that we would be off to Hanoi, Vietnam the next afternoon and we would have the morning off.
Did I mention that it was hot???

San Francisco and the adventure begins

2010-04-12T19:12:00.000-07:00

sor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px; height: 150px;" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_KIlEVuExD7w/S-LcTkEGKeI/AAAAAAAAFSk/FrvDuWCJMVc/s200/002.JPG" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5468175126237686242" />

On a spectacularly warm and sunny spring day in San Francisco, we have found words to live by, and we find ourselves in Buena Vista Park, not far from the famous "summer of love" locales of Haight-Ashbury. It's noon and we have only about 3 hours of free time left to explore this cool city before the organizational meeting for the GSH. We're on top of one of the city's many hills, with a great view of the city, the ocean beyond and even a rather hazy Golden Gate Bridge in the distance. There's time for a gentle stroll down the steep, steep side streets, through the Castro district with rainbow flags on every lamp post. This will likely be our last activity for the next 3 weeks that's not done at a run. We're keen to get started though, and meet the other competitors. Let the adventure begin!

All the teams gathered at the Palace Hotel, a beautiful old grand hotel that dates back to the early 1900s. We took over an upstairs sitting area and were introduced to the other teams. There are just 7 teams this year. One couple, Sammy and Brian live in Dubai and have already traveled half-way 'round the world just to get here. Then there's Zoe and Rainey from Texas (the defending champs), Heidi and Lily,a mother/daughter team from Barbados (who just happen to be Zoe's sister and niece), Christine (Zoe's mother) teamed up with Barbara (a 2009 competitor), Carol and her daughter Rebecca from Indiana, Travis and April, also from Texas, and co-workers of Z & R, and last but not least, Joanne and me.
They all seem like fun and terrific people and I think everyone will be getting along really well.
After introductions and a review of the rules we were given a sample S.F. scavenger hunt as a teaser of what was to come. It looks like there have been some great improvements to the rules that will keep all of us on our toes. At this point we still don't know what our first destination is - this will be revealed at a group dinner later this evening.

For dinner we met at a nearby restaurant called LuLu and had a wonderful meal, with a good chance to do some socializing with both old and new friends. We all tried to guess where we would be going, but got no hints from the organizers until, just as we were finishing up, they announced that our flight to Hong Kong would be leaving at 1:20a.m.
So, a quick return to the hotel to pack up, take a sad last look at the soft and inviting bed that we would not be sleeping in. What a waste!! But......
we're going to Hong Kong.

We're writing this on the plane, managed a few naps on this 14 hour flight, saw 3 movies and finally landed at about 6:30 a.m.

We will try to update from Hong Kong - we're here for 2 nights and then my guess is Vietnam.
j&k
Team MadDog

2010-03-30T18:17:00.000-07:00

One week to go, and the guessing game has started. Where are we going? Will it be Hong Kong, Japan or Korea to start. We know we're going to Vietnam, but where? Will it be north or south? Where ever we end up it will be amazing.
Right now we're busy tidying up loose ends. We have the first weeding session of the season done and now need to cut the grass in the vineyard and the lawns and let's not forget Revenue Canada.
Flights to SanFrancisco and from New York have been booked, hotels for S.F. and N.Y. are reserved -- we're ready.
More from S.F. next Friday.
k

2010-03-17T08:47:00.000-07:00

March 17, 2010
Happy St. Patrick's Day.

Only 3 weeks to go. It's getting exciting. One stop we know we're making is Vietnam. Yeeeaaaa!
We sent off our passports as soon as we got home from Baja and it took less than one week to get them back, with visas. We're good to go.
We've also found out that we are leaving from San Francisco and our last stop will be New York City. Also great as Joanne has not been to New York so we'll likely spend a few days there before coming home. No other news at this time, working on getting the spring chores done early.
Cheers
Kit
p.s. Janice and Irwin, thanks for the note, you guys were great and wish you were coming.
k

Getting Ready

2010-03-08T18:48:00.001-08:00

March 8, 2010

One month to go............. we're just back from a week in Cabo San Lucas, Baja, Mexico.
We stayed at Pueblo Bonito Sunset Beach. It's a resort, more like a self contained village,
on the western edge of Cabo. Far enough away from downtown bars and clubs so that noise is not an issue, but close enough to hop into town to shop, enjoy a meal at a local restaurant or do any of the many available activities that are offered around Cabo. We had a car rented for the week and and had arranged to spend a night in Puerto San Carlo, a village on Magdalena Bay.
The bay is huge and is the winter home for grey whales. They hang out here in the calm and warm waters to have their babies. In the town it's easy to arrange a boat ride out into the bay to see the mothers with their young. We had arranged for a "panga" to take us out first thing in the morning and after a 3/4 hour boat ride we came upon several "greys". They are very curious and friendly and will swim all around the pangas, under them and right next to them.
According to the guides, they enjoy having their heads patted and they certainly don't seem to be at all stressed by the attention. We had a fantastic morning there and in the afternoon headed back to Cabo. The rest of the week was spent on the beach or by the pool - very nice!

Party's over and now it's time to get all the things done in the vineyard, and at home, that need to be done before May.

Back soon
Kit

Mad Dog's Great Adventure 2010

2010-03-08T18:43:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone

The date is January 9, 2010, and yes, Joanne and I have done it again. We've signed up for another Global Scavenger Hunt. Yes, we did whine and complain, a lot, about the lack of sleep, the endless hours on airplanes and in security lineups, the very early wake up calls, the extreme heat and exhaution but we liken it a little to child birth (an area where we both have soooo much experience) where you forget about the painful bits and revel in the great bits. In any case,
we thought if we were to ever do it again, this is the time so we're off to parts unknown on
April 9 and back on May 1. This time we will try to do a better job of keeping our blog up to date.
Before then, we're spending a week in Baja and have a condo on the outskirts of Cabo.
I'm specifying "on the outskirts" cause we're both way too old to be in the centre of this party town that is totally geared to 18 - 30 year olds. However, we are close enough that we could have a week of partying to get us into shape for GSH. - nahh, not going to happen : )
We'll update as we get info.
K&J

September 4

2008-09-06T19:04:00.000-07:00

September 1

This morning we debated whether to go directly to Edmonton and have a few days out of the camper exploring the city, or detour via Lesser Slave Lake and get to Edmonton tomorrow. We opted to do the latter and since it was a pretty nice day, we detoured up to Lesser Slave Lake Provincial Park. Stopped for a picnic lunch in the park - sat by the lake for a little enjoying the sun, then decided to spend the night at the Martin River Campground. A beautiful spot, and not too many people there, so easily found a spot away from everyone else. Lots of bugs though, so we had to find a spot near the water where it was breezy. We'd arrived early enough to go for a long walk on the narrow sandy beach. When we got back to our site, we hauled out the lawn chairs and parked them on the beach and got a little reading in- that was a first! At dinner time we built a great fire (tons of free firewood) and bbq`d prawns and baby potatoes. Entertainment provided by a couple of squirrels chasing each other through our campsite. Obviously used to people (and being fed!). Had power, surprisingly as it was a provincial campground. All in all a good day and it was really nice to see some sun and get in a good walk.

Sept. 2
Up at a decent hour and off to Edmonton, we arrived at the Reddington's house early afternoon. After unpacking some stuff we went for a short walk as their house is right by MacKinnon Park. It`s one of many parks along the North Saskatchwan River that are all connected making it the longest urban public park area of any city in North America. The main trails are wide and paved making it great for bicycling, roller-blading or walking. We walked to the nearest grocery store, about 8 blocks away to grab some groceries & wine, and discovered that they have WiFi at the in-store coffee shop. Very clever marketing!
The next morning we drove over to Safeway& got caught up on emails. Ran a few errands (CAA for maps for Kit's trip, Future Shop to look for roadtrip tunage etc) before ending up at the West Edmonton Mall – we were in Edmonton, what were we to do………? While we explored the mall & watched the sea lions it rained ( like we haven’t seen enough of that) but started clearing late afternoon. We went back to the house, washed the RV a little and enjoyed having a little more space. Had bought a really nice steak for dinner, so got to enjoy some famous Alberta beef. Should have bought another one to take home with us.
Thursday morning brought the sun and so we walked downtown, which took us a little over an hour and explored the centre core of the city. It`s a really nice city and we could certainly see why people love it. By 3 our feet were getting tired and it was time to hike back to the house, and get things organized for leaving first thing in the morning. As fantastic as the drive was, it was really great getting a few days off from sitting in the RV. Jo is flying back to Victoria early tomorrow and has to be at the airport by 7:30 a.m. The airport is in LeDuc which is about a half hour south of the city, so off to bed as we have to be up at 6.

AUG 31

2008-09-06T19:02:00.000-07:00

August 31
The campground at Charlie Lake was really nice, large treed lots and very quiet (since it was late and rainy when we arrived). We drove into Ft. St. John for a quick look and for some fuel. Seems the town`s one and only claim to fame is that it is the southern end of the Alaska Highway, and they milk that fully, with a Mile 0 cairn, and an Alaska Highway Hotel etc. From there we backtracked a little & we headed off in the direction of Dawson Creek, detouring on a very scenic road that took us along the Peace River and gave us amazing vistas of fields with freshly mown and baled hay and the river in the background. We passed through the tiny, pretty town of Hudson`s Hope and on to Chetwynd. Every town here has its claim to fame, and Chetwynd has chainsaw statures, scattered all over town. We camped in Dawson Creek for the night, after a brief glimpse of a moose on the roadside.

Sunday a.m. we hit the road and had a pretty uneventful drive. We’ve left the mountains and are in Alberta, on the way to Edmonton, and things have flattened out. For the most part it was sunny with lots of clouds floating about and we did have a brief shower. We did manage to find the world’s largest beaver in Beaver Lodge, Alberta. We made camp early at a nice little RV park in Valleyview.

2008-08-30T21:04:00.000-07:00

Thursday August 29, 208

We left Whitehorse early Wednesday afternoon after hiking at Miles Canyon, just as some dark clouds started moving in. We might have stayed around longer to explore the area, but decided to try to stay ahead of the rain. Still mostly overcast but with enough breaks on the cloud to enjoy the vistas.
A lovely stretch of road for about 30 km along Marsh Lake followed an hour later by a 53k drive next to Teslin Lake. Although we spent the afternoon in the RV, there was very little traffic so we were able to cruise along at a relatively slow speed and enjoy the scenery and it is spectacular. Snow capped mountains, jade coloured lakes and streams filled with rapids and eddies. Every 50 miles or so, a little place like Johnson’s Crossing, Swift River or Rancheria, each with a gas station/restaurant, and all advertising the “World’s Best Cinnamon Buns”. Stopped for a short hike & look at the Rancheria Falls - still under a little halo of blue sky as we cross the continental divide. By evening we reached Watson Lake and our last town in the Yukon. We found a typical RV park/gravel parking lot right downtown and within walking distance of a grocery store, post office and the famous sign post forest. As it happened to be dry and still daylight at the moment, we wandered over to check out the sign post forest-Watson Lake’s main (only?) tourist attraction. It’s a large area with over 70,000 signs of every description. Started with 1 sign from an American soldier during construction of the Alcan Hwy in 1942. It seems to be a favourite of the German tourists as there are a large number of road and town signs from every corner of Germany, but also thousands from the USA and from places as far away as New Zealand. There are road signs, city and town signs, licence plates and name plates off RV’s along with every other conceivable sign. Obviously people knowing they were coming here have brought a sign with them to nail to an empty spot on the posts. Sadly we didn’t find any from Victoria or from Guelph…. that is not to say that there aren’t any but we didn’t see them. A goal to strive for: obtain signs, by whatever means necessary, from both these places, get them to Watson Lake and mount them in the forest.

We were fairly late getting away Thursday morning, after discovering that the motorhome had two grey water tanks, not just one, buying some groceries and some local Yukon beer at the liquor store (cranberry-wheat beer!) and off to the Liard River hot springs – we can use some heat! On the way there we stopped for lunch at a little road side café that boasted great buffalo burgers so we thought we should try them out to see if it was true – it wasn’t. Not only were they not buffalo, they tasted like the greasy grocery store pre-packaged type. Onward to sit in the hot springs. The hot springs consist of 2 natural hot spring pools in a natural forest setting, complete with change houses. It’s the second largest hot spring in Canada. The water temperature was somewhere between 110F and 126F. We started off in the cooler section and it was fantastic. Jo worked her way up to the hot section while I stayed in about the 115 - 120 F range. We were not able to try out pool 2 because of bear activity in the area. It was a really nice break and while there we had one of our sunny windows and that made it even better. From Liard we moved on to Muncho Lake and made camp in a provincial park, at MacDonald camp site. It’s a beautiful 11k lake that’s famous for being one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. When the sun is on it, it is the most spectacular shade of jade and is surrounded by dark hills and snow capped mountains. We had site right on the lake with no neighbours and a view to die for. On Friday, the rain that had started overnight didn’t let up all day. It only went from drizzle to downright pissing down rain. We did have to stop a few times for small herds of caribou that were meandering on the highway, getting their salt fix for the day. The forecast for tomorrow in not much better for this whole area so we carried on the just north of Fort St. John and camped for the night at Charlie Lake, again in a provincial camp ground.

2008-08-27T22:30:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

We headed south despite the road closure warnings. We had checked the road reports first thing in the morning and were told that the road was still closed. Then, after cleaning up the breakfast dishes we checked one more time. The highway had been opened BUT could close again at any time. We decided to risk it and down the road we went. We got about 2 hours down the road, half way to Carmacks & we ran into a road closure warning. As the road wasn’t actually barricaded, Jo spoke to one of the Yukon highway workers, who suggested that if it were him he would go for it, so we carried on. Just north of Carmacks we passed a huge construction earthmover moving very slowly down the road. At Carmacks we hit the barricade; the road had closed about 25 minutes before we got there. The road had washed out, and a roadcrew was installing new culverts. We prepared to be parked there for a number of hours (days?). We thought about going about ½ mile back to Carmacks, but there really wasn’t anything there to do, other than nap or watch DVD’s in the rain, and so we opted to stay put at the barricade. About 10 minutes later the flag man came over and told us that this was going to be our lucky day, opened the gate and let us go through-ahead of the earthmover (and the famous red German sleeping bus). About 10 miles down the road we saw the problem. Lots of water damage to the road from the flooding from the day before, all kinds of mud and the road half torn up at one spot. They were in the process of installing more culverts to handle the extra water - and they’ve been getting lots of that this summer. We made it to Whitehorse, ended up with a great campsite, in the woods and no neighbours, kind of what we had imagined we would be finding everywhere in the North ( we should have been buying lottery tickets…). In the evening we wandered around Whitehorse (saw the log cabin skyscraper!) ate the best fish & chips we’ve ever had and went to the infamous “Frantic Follies Gold Rush Review”. A great vaudeville style show, like the show in Dawson City (but actually well done), Can Can girls, singing, Robert Service poetry and very bad jokes but a good time. It’s been running 39 years, so they must be doing something right, though they do bring in busloads of tourists from the cruise ships at Skagway. This morning when we got up there were actually a few little blue bits in the sky and we took advantage of it and went to Miles Canyon. It’s a beautiful canyon about 6k from Whitehorse that has walking and xcountry skiing trails all the way into Whitehorse. A very narrow gorge with high cliffs on both sides of the Yukon River, with a pretty fast current going through. We had a nice hike there and then back on the road.

More tomorrow.

August 26,2008

2008-08-26T23:11:00.000-07:00

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Yesterday we left Delta Junction, Alaska and headed for Dawson City, Yukon. Having been told by a few people that the “Top of the World” Highway was in terrible shape, lots of gravel & for the most part a mess, we had much discussion before deciding to give it a go. We figured that we may never be this close to Dawson again so let’s just do it. We’d also heard that it was a beautiful drive and the weather was not too bad, overcast with the very odd bit of sun but at least it wasn’t raining, so there was hope of seeing some scenery. At Tetlin Junction, just south of Tok, we headed east toward Chicken, Alaska. The road to Chicken was quite good for the most part. The town/village (hamlet ?) of Chicken was interesting. It consists of an RV park, a couple of stores, half a dozen houses and a bunch of rusting mining equipment. There is no electric power in the village, no plumbing or conveniences that we take for granted every day. Not some place that I would want to live, thank you very much. We hit gravel road just before Chicken and it was gravel until the Canadian border, with lots more stretches of gravel on the so-called “paved” sections. That said, the drive was spectacular. The section from Tetlin to about the Canadian border is spent slowly climbing and then the road snakes along the top of ridges and you get the most amazing views on both sides. The terrain is high, rolling hills covered in the most amazing colours of vegetation. There are stunted spruce trees, and spindly birches, but at the top of the ridges they’re scarce because of the altitude, and the shrubs, because it’s fall, have changed colour and it’s an unbelievable display of dark reds and yellows interspersed with very dark green (almost black) spruce and fir trees. The underlying rocks and lichens are various shades of greys, greens and browns, and you can see for miles and miles across this tapestry of colours. The drive was very much worth the extra miles. The Canadian customs post is perched on a windswept hill with no sign of neighbours except the local herd of caribou (some of which calmly crossed the road in front of us). The customs officers work one week on, one off, from May to October, with only their US counterpart to talk to, though we did notice a big satellite dish at the post. We crossed the muddy brown Yukon River on the little ferry & arrived in Dawson City at about 7:30 p.m. After checking into an RV park just outside the city we went back into town to check out “Diamond Tooth Gertie’s” - an old style saloon/casino with some games tables, slot machines and on-stage entertainment. We caught the 8:30 show, lively if amateur, with a chorus line of dancing girls doing the Can Can, then wandered the streets of the town. The streets are not paved and still have old style wooden sidewalks. Many of the shops, hotels etc. are in the old western style and very nicely done – painted multi-colour to show off the trim on the windows and verandas. Unfortunately, most of the businesses were closed for the day, other than the numerous bars and saloons. We briefly considered trying a Sourtoe Cocktail, but agreed that we could live without that experience. There are paddle wheeler boats tied up along the levee of the famous Yukon River. Signs everywhere suggest you try your hand at panning for gold. We got home too late to make dinner so settled for a glass of wine and some cheese and crackers before bed. Off to Whitehorse today we hope, though there’s word that the road south of Carmacks is closing because of flooding that’s caused a washout. So, do we backtrack to Tok? Great drive though it was, it’s a long rough road to repeat. The decision is made: head south!

August 24, 2008

2008-08-24T23:02:00.000-07:00

Here we are in Delta Junction, Alaska. Since our last post we have spent a day and a half in
Denali National Park - WOW - what a place! We found a great RV park on Thursday evening
about 7 miles from the park entrance and spent a couple of nights there. On Friday a.m. we
boarded a bus for an 11 hour ride to the end of the only park road, at Wonder Lake. Wonder Lake is about 90 miles in from the visitors centre. Now 11 hours sounds like a long time but when you stop very regularly for wild life plus a rest stop every hour and a half, it wasn't that bad. It certainly didn't seem like 11 hours. We saw grizzlies - 17 of them - moose, Dall sheep, cariboo, a red fox and ground squirrels. Besides all the wild life, the scenery was spectacular. The only thing we were disappointed over was not seeing Denali (Mt McKinley -Alaskans do not call it McKinley, after some guy from Ohio who was never in Alaska, and refer to the mountain as Denali which means the Great One in Athabascan). It was an overcast, drizzly day, but the clouds broke occasionally, and the early fall colours on the hills were spectacular.
The next morning we awoke to glorious sunshine - something that has been rare this summer
in Alaska. We hemmed and hawed over whether to head up the road to Fairbanks or go
back to Denali and hope that the mountain was showing itself. We opted to go back and take our chances. Private vehicles are only allowed in for the first 15 miles, after that you need a special permit or to be camping (for a minimum of 3 nights). At about mile 5 we saw a grizzly bear right along the side of the road enjoying a snack of some sort. Unbelievable to be 10 feet from
a very large grizzly that was pretty much oblivious to our presence. We, on the other hand, were very happy to have the car between him and us. We watched him for a while and then moved on and at about mile 9 there was Denali in all her splendour. What a spectacular sight! At this point we were so glad that we had taken the time to backtrack a little. We decided to take advantage of the beautiful day & drive the whole 15 miles & and do a short hike at the end of it. While on our hike we spotted some Dall sheep, more ground squirrels, ptarmigans and a marmot. A great time was had in Denali but it was time to move on, and so off to Fairbanks- the only sunny place in Alaska this week. We found a good RV park right in the city and Jo frantically perused the guide books to find things to see and do here. It's not the most exciting place in the world but thank goodness the Sandhill Crane Festival was on. We went off to see the cranes, as well as hundreds (thousands?) of Canada Geese on a stop here while migrating south for the winter. Apparently the cranes pause here every August en route to Saskatchewan & ultimately Texas. Then we cruised through the Fairbanks downtown area - a very brief stop, as it was pretty much closed for Sunday, but didn't look like it would be much livelier on a weekday - and off to North Pole, Alaska. We had planned to spend the night here but it was just a little too much. The light standards are candy cane colours, the street names are things like Santa Clause Lane, Kris Kringle Lane - well, you get the idea.
A must see - so we were told - was Santa Claus House where one can buy anything and everything for xmas decorating. All this xmas spirit and xmas music was just too much for us and we had to move on, and move on we did to Delta Junction - the starting point for the Alaska highway. Tomorrow onto Tok, Chicken and Dawson City, Yukon.
More in a couple of days.
j&k

Aug 22, 2008

2008-08-21T20:37:00.000-07:00

We woke up to a lovely morning in Seward. It's on a narrow bay, surrounded by snowy peaks. Like Homer, it overlooks the area of the Harding Icefield, so multiple glaciers in view, appearing to slide down the mountains towards the sea. Toured town (that took about 5 minutes) and then went back up the road a few miles to Exit Glacier. We hiked up a mile or so to see it up close and personal but were unable to touch it, due to instability in the area. It was still spectacular to see it so close up, blue, like all the others we've seen, looking oddly like it's made of blue styrofoam. You can hear the road of the melting water flowing underneath the tons of ice. Plus the hike was good, as we're not getting as much hiking in as we had hoped so far. Amazing to see how far the glacier has receded over the past 50 years.
After our hike we headed back to Anchorage and spent the night there at the same campground that A&B used, noisy but do-able. We left first thing this morning for Denali. Drove up the Parks Highway, which is supposed to be scenic, but the clouds have moved in, so the mountains are hiding, and the 5 hour drive up wasn't all that exciting. We have a bus ride into Denali booked for tomorrow, hopefully the skies will clear a little so we can see something. But we did finally see our first Alaskan moose (2 of them, in fact, albeit at a distance) on our way to tonight's campground. With luck we'll see some wildlife closer up tomorrow.
As mentioned, our sunny skies left us somewhere near Anchorage and we we're back to rain today. I'm having high hopes for tomorrow.
The camper is working out really well. Lots of room and easy enough to drive and maneuver.
One of we has been sleeping quite well in it - that would be the one taking it back to Ontario.
More in a couple of days.

ANCHORAGE AND HOMER

2008-08-19T21:53:00.000-07:00

August 19,2008

Greetings from Seward, Alaska

We arrived in Anchorage without too much effort, got our rental car and went off to find
our B&B. Having successfully checked in there, we dumped our luggage and headed off across Anchorage to find Adrian and Becky at their RV park. They were kind enough to offer to make dinner and we had bbq'd halibut, fresh beans, salad and potato. Great dinner. We left early as Jo was really tired, having been up since about 1 a.m. Alaska time. Early to bed and up early the next day. We picked up A&B and introduced them to R.E.I. From there we headed to downtown Anchorage for lunch. We did some wandering around and caught the market downtown. We also picked up tickets for a glacier cruise out of Whittier for the next day. The overcast sky gave way to sun, so we took a pleasant stroll on the waterfront trail and then went in search of dinner.
A&B knew of a great grocery store selling wonderful seafood items so we picked up
some beautiful fresh salmon, a salad to compliment the fish and dinner was dealt with.

The next morning we picked A&B up and drove down to Whittier, getting to pass through N. America's longest tunnel to get there. We got there in plenty of time and exhausted the town's attractions in about 10 minutes. It was looking pretty bleak when we got on the boat but the skies cleared (to some degree) and we saw some great scenery, beautiful glaciers (26 in all) and tons of sea otters. We also saw some calving of the glaciers, which is pretty awesome. The sun appeared as we returned through the tunnel, and we got a great view of the snowcapped mountains along Turnagain Arm on our way back to Anchorage to get ready to head off on our own tomorrow.
Aug 18. We dropped A&B off in Whittier where their floating chariot was waiting. They were sailing on the Island Princess to Vancouver. Jo and I took possession of the RV and took off for Homer.
By the time we got there it was pretty overcast and it rained steadily overnight, but on Tuesday a.m. (today) the skies cleared and the scenery was beautiful. After enjoying the morning and part of the afternoon on the famous Spit, we headed back along the Stirling highway and arrived in Seward, Alaska.
We had picked up some fresh-off-the-boat halibut for dinner - it's soooo good. More later. k

North to Alaska

2008-08-14T09:53:00.000-07:00

August 14, 2008
North to Alaska, go north, the rush is on - ok, so maybe we're a little late for that....

Summer has finally arrived on Vancouver Island, and we're leaving............ BUT we're going to Alaska, where at the moment it's cool and wet but we have high hopes for better things ahead
A new place to explore.
We hope to do lots of hiking, see some wildlife, although hopefully, not too up close and personal,
and, at the least, some spectacular scenery.
We'll be in my brothers motor home. We'll be driving it from Anchorage to Kitchener.
k&j

2008-08-05T11:52:00.000-07:00

August 5, 2008
Well, things don't seem to be slowing down very much for us. Wow, what a year it's been so far.
As soon as we recovered from our global adventure we got into planning and organizing the Fathers Day weekend activities. This is an annual event for us and it's a Morgan weekend. Joanne and I plotted a route that we (mostly Jo) hoped would be an interesting run around the peninsula. Lots of twists and turns to keep the drivers happy and to make it slightly more interesting for the passenger, we would make it a "Poker Run", and add a couple of scavenges just for good measure. A Poker Run is mostly an eastern event where you race from check point to check point collecting playing cards and the person or team with the best poker hand wins. That seemed simple enough, so we gathered some friends to man the check points and hand out cards, and after much tidying up, weeding etc. June 14 arrived and we were ready to go. The run went very well and everyone claimed to enjoy it. When they all returned, and we had 20 Morgans here, we had a pig roast which always is a big success and a great day was had by all. On Sunday we all drove to Beacon Hill park in downtown Victoria for the annual Fathers Day Picnic. This show attracts about 400 British cars of every description and vintage as well as motorcycles. The Morgans had a good showing with 32 cars. This is the most we've ever had.

No sooner was this weekend over, and our 8 house guests departed and we were off to another great Morgan event. The "Devils Punch Bowl" run to Oregon. Joanne and I left on Wednesday and visited Hurricane Ridge in the Cascades before heading down to Portland where we were to meet all the rest of the group. Unfortunately it was pretty fogged in and because of snow we could only go part of the way up (Morgans and snow are not a good mix). After leaving the ridge we drove down the Hood Canal to meet up with a few other Morgans at Tumwater, Washington.
The next morning Jo and I decided to take the long way to Portland and headed east and then south toward the Columbia River and follow it. The plan was great but with the very late spring in the mountains we couldn't get around Mount Rainier and had to turn back. By this time we had managed to kill half the day and ended up booting it on I-5 to Portland. The weather was beautiful and the mountains were spectacular. We saw Mount Rainier, St. Helen, Hood abd Adams. That evening we met the rest of the gang and first thing on Friday a.m. we set of on our route to the Newport area. The ride was fantastic and lunch at a vineyard along the way was
a great touch. We arrived at the Alpine Chalets by about 4 p.m. and off to the beach.
On Saturday we roamed around on the beach, hit the outlet mall in Lincoln city to stock up
at the Columbia store and met for our pot luck dinner in the parking lot with the rest, including 8 cars from the Northern California club. A great weekend and ended with seeing the Tall Ships arrive in Port Angeles while waiting for the ferry back to Victoria.

That pretty much finished June, July we stayed home for the most part and got a lot of work
done around the house. The grapes needed to be tended to, we built a vegetable bed by the vineyard, beat back some ivy and generally did household chores. We did manage to escape
for a few days up island. We had been trying to get to the Cape Scott area for a couple of years and just never quite made it. Well, this was the year. We loaded up the VW and headed up.
The weather was not great but we did manage lots of dry bits and went to San Josef Bay
and looked around the area in general. Beautiful up there. We'll have to gather our hiking buddies and have a go at the northern trail that has opened up that goes from Cape Scott east to near Port Hardy. Another year....
From there we went to Malcolm Island and Sointula - found a beautiful camping spot, had a great hike along the beach and since the weather was deteriorating on the north Island we headed home to where it was sunny.
We're now in the process of getting ready for Alaska. Joanne is in Toronto working and will fly
directly to Achorange and I'll meet her there.

All for today.
k

2008-05-20T09:11:00.000-07:00

.
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.

2008-05-11T13:26:00.000-07:00

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...

2008-05-10T12:36:00.000-07:00

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

2008-05-09T08:10:00.000-07:00

,
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.

2008-04-10T21:45:00.000-07:00

Thursday, April 8

We're in San Francisco and excited about meeting all the other contestants tomorrow afternoon.
We had a beautiful day here, sunny and warm and took advantage of that by taking the ferry
to Sausalito. While there we ran into Lloyd and Treacy - we must admit that going to Sausalito was
their idea and Jo and I decided that it was a great plan and so we stole it. The ferry gave us a great
view of the S.F. skyline as well as a good look at Alcatraz Island. Ended the day with a great Mexican dinner (guessing that we won't have many of those in the next 3 weeks).

Tomorrow the fun begins..........

Kit and Joanne

April 4, 2008

2008-04-04T08:31:00.000-07:00

Wow, only 5 days before we leave for San Francisco and start our great adventure.
The excitement is building ......