Tree Loose Moose

Singapore

2010-01-16T21:41:00.005-05:00

Singapore
Now, the flights from Kuala Lumpur to Singapore can be incredibily cheap. I saw some for like $30 CAD, but I've heard they have literally been as low as $1 with taxes. I voted to see more of Malaysia by taking the bus. On the bus, I met a doctor who highly recommended I check out Borneo, an island shared between Malaysia, Indonesia, and Brunei, containing one of the biggest, thickest, most full-on jungles in the world, and the highest mountain in South East Asia. He said he had a friend from Germany who had made camp on one of the hundreds of uninhabited islands off the coast, and stayed there for 2 years, never once told to leave, or hassled in the least, all at no charge. Sweet.

Now, my Singaporean experience was very focused on one specific thing that was very far out of my control. Food. The guy I was staying with, Jeffrey, who happened to be friends with Chin Chin, was a chef turned investment banker, who was very much a food enthousiast. He was wealthy, and would take his family on 'food tours' in different asian countries every few months for over a week at a time, which often involved taking along a chef from that country. It was a non-stop feast for 3 days, starting with 'half-boiled egg's....basically egg yoke with seasoning that he made me drink in Rocky-esque fashion to prep my stomach for the days to come. He even brought me over to Malaysia just to show me the top restaurants of the country; an elite list that he'd compiled after more than 30 years of careful 'research'. One of these places even let me prepare some of the food. Before I'd even finish half of one thing, he'd drop another plate in front of me, or drag me off to another restaurant to try half of something else.

I was a little worried before arriving at his place on that first night, because judging by his couchsurfing profile, he seemed like a bit of a clean freak. He was very clear that he expected me to change my full outfit at least twice a day, and shower the same number of times, at least, and wash everything I had before arriving. A tad excessive, I thought, but it turned out to be with just cause, due to the slew of stinky travelers they'd hosted in the past who had stunk up a number of different mattresses. Escaping the smelliness in the constant heat did indeed require quite the effort, but the cold showers were more than welcome. He and his family turned out to be amazingly friendly and generous people. I left there with not only fond memories, but souvenirs, bags of snacks, and a pack of delicious instant malaysian coffee (they've mastered their instant coffee over there). He also chauffeured me around Singapore, taking me hiking and sightseeing, and sending me to some other really cool spots.

Singapore can be described as a chain of rooms with air conditioning, between which you dash only when absolutely necessary. It's very close to the equator....it is HOT!

On my last night, in the wee-est hours of the morning, after a late night nap, Jeffrey took me out to coffee shops for a tour of the night life. And believe me, there was nightlife. The city was booming. And the lights were all set up for the annual Formula 1 nighttime race all around town, which is featured in many video games.

Trip home
At around 3am, Jeff brought me to the airport. I was in terminal 3, which is the newest and most modern of the terminals at the Singapore airport, which is the most modern airport in the world. Not a bad place to wait around for a few hours until my 6am flight. However, after a few minutes of laying down, I started feeling something brewing inside me. Started as mild abdominal pain, and ended in gut wretching indigestion, feverish sweats, dizziness, and severe diarheaa. At this point, I really couldn't tell if I had H1N1 or food poisoning, and wasn't sure if I should be getting on this flight. I decided to suck it up and hope for the best. Luckily, the guy I was seated next too was from Hamilton and we had lots to talk about, so it kept my mind off of it, and he didn't seem to notice my trips to washroom in 10 minute intervals. We landed in Hong Kong, I managed to get some dry food and water in me, and I started to feel peachy again.

After a few delays, as we were sitting in the plane awaiting the taxi, we received an announcement to remove ourselves from the plane right away, because the crew coulnd't locate the emergency axe, and one of the passengers may have yoinked it. They searched all of our bags very very thoroughly (again), and 3 hours later, we were back on the plane ready to take off. 15 hours later, in and out of sleep, random movies playing on the big screen at the front, an hour wait at US customs in Chicago, another hour wait to have my baggage rechecked, and I missed my connecting flight by several hours (duh). For the first time that I can remember, the woman at the desk was actually nice, and helpful! Rather than have me wait for the midnight flight, she offered to put me on a less packed flight at 9am, and set me up with a nice hotel room and a free meal. Best sleep I've ever had. Other than almost missing my flight in the morning (waiting in the mammoth line with what I thought was a flight ticket, but was actually a receipt I needed to exchange for a ticket, but they let me in anyway) the last leg home was splendid. I had a seat in the middle of the emergency row with an empty seat next to me. Leg room! It's not a myth! Another beautiful nap, and I landed in TO, tracked down my bags that I was convinced were still somewhere in Asia because everyone else was long gone, and was greeted by my sister and her boyfriend. We headed straight to my friend Chris's cottage, where Ash and Andrew were chilling for the weekend. Perfect end. A weekend of music, wakeboarding, camping food and beer, and I was Canadian again.

What I Learnt
Everywhere is different, but everywhere is the same.
I am the same person no matter where I am.
Everywhere is beautiful.

Thanks for reading. Stayed tuned for the next trip :)

Malaysia Part 2

2010-01-13T14:19:00.005-05:00

Pilau Pinang
I set up a host in Penang, and jumped on a bus, where I met a few chinese dudes from Beijing who I'd see again later on. My host, a middle aged Chinese guy, swung by the bus station on his motorcycle and gave me a lift to his place (with my giant pack and guitar). He was responsible for the organization of most Chinese cultural events that took place in Penang, like operas, dragon dances, kung fu, drum shows, the list goes on. And I happened to have rolled into town on the 1 year anniversary of Penang being declared a UN World Heritage Site, so there was no shortage of interesting things to see, with front row or backstage access no less. Wasn't so lucky with my living arrangements though. Contrary to the spare room I was told I'd have to myself, which was being taken by a fellow couchsurfing couple (he had double booked), I was sleeping on a stained mattress in a storage room. Did I mention he lived in the Fight Club house. Pretty close. It was POURING rain outside, and the roof wasn't so watertight, so I was basically sleeping on a dry 3 x 5 patch on a filthy mattress, waterfalls dumping down around me, in a room filled with shelves of pails, buckets, and mops, all with an inch and a half of dust on them. Just before the first night, my host tells me "oh....if you hear any sounds, don't worry, it's just the rats chasing the cockroaches". I woke up with small red bites all over my body, and surely enough one of the other CSers woke up to find rather large bites taken out of his recently purchased pears, and his baseball cap. Needless to say, I didn't care to stick around this place for very long. Turned out, my host was jam packing his place with travelers because he was writing a book on them. Hosting allowed him to interview them and compile the feedback.

I had one other night at his place before we were saved by his friend Chin Chin. She offered to take the couple and I to her house for a few days. It was like night and day. She lived near the beach resorts on perfect crystal blue water, by lush green mountains, surrounded by palm trees, in a beautiful, pristine house, nay, palace. Well....house. There was no turning down her continuous offers to buy us meals and drinks, give us malaysian cooking classes, present us with feasts of fresh fruit, chauffeur us around the island, give us a tour of her friend's vegetable/fruit garden, a textile factory, and so many other interesting places. I think she showed us every restaurant worth eating at in Penang.

On my last day with her, I thought I'd check out a 'Fish Spa', which is a place where you put your feet in a pool of water and let the hundreds of fish nibble at the dead skin. Its a mix of being ticklish, and painful, but you feel like a million bucks coming out of there. Then I caught a ride to a national park, and hiked for a few hours, until I reached the remote 'Monkey Beach', which contrary to its name had no monkeys at all, only dozens of sea-doos and vacationing Arabs. Malaysia, being a partially muslim country with halal restaurants and countless mosques, is an ideal beach vacation getaway for muslims. I went for a dip, chatted with some locals, and paid a boater for a lift and bike ride back home. The next day, I said a sad farewell to Chin Chin, and the american/polish couple, and headed off to the Cameron Highlands.

Cameron Highlands
The chinese dude I had met on the bus had sent me a message that he lost his buddy and wondered if I'd be interested in some hiking with him. So, we met up again in Cameron Highlands, land of the mountains with a perfect climate for tea plantations. I only had one full day to spend there, so we made haste. Joined by a british dude, we did some jungle hiking, hitchhiked in the back of a 60s truck that reeked of goats or something, and explored a tea plantation with flowers of every color. The walk back from the tea plantation was about 2 hours long through the green hillside. By the time we got back and took off our boots...it was like "aaaahhhhhhh". Yup, one of those.

That night I was looking at a map on the wall and a western girl pointed out some other good hikes for me. She looked strangely familiar, so I told her so. The 'where are you from, who do you know' game ensued, and she turned out to be the T.A. from my first field course in geography! No joke. In a small town in the mountains of central Malaysia, I ran into my T.A. from a first year field course. We all stayed up chatting and reminiscing, had a run in with a Syrian guy who was angry at the world, particularly at us 'Americans', then we called it a night after some street pad thai. The buses were sold out, but I caught a ticket on the 'locals' bus. A rickety old thing with springs sticking out of the seats pulled up at 8 am, and I laughed out loud. It turned out the be the nicer bus behind it that I'd be riding. Phewf. It was the milk run, which was fine by me because I got to soak in some more scenery. A quick transfer back in KL, and I was bound for Singapore.

Malaysia Part 1

2010-01-10T22:40:00.007-05:00

I had been pretty comfy renting a room in Perth for 2 months, so flying into Kuala Lumpur Malaysia was both refreshing and terrifying. As soon as I stepped off the plane, the equatorial heat slapped me in the face and my clothes instantly took on that dampness that didn't go away until I got back on the plane to leave. For me, Malaysia was all about the couchsurfing. Right around the time of my arrival, I had decided I'd be heading home in 3 weeks, so it was time to fully experience couchsurfing for the rest of the trip. Best decision I've ever made.

It didn't take long to realize Malaysia is a very culturally rich place. The East India Trading Company brought many workers to Malaysia, and they never left. So you find a mix of the native Malay people, who speak Malay and are Muslim in majority, then the Chinese, who speak Mandarin and are primarily Buddhist, and the Indians, who speak Tamil and are mostly Hindu. Most people speak English as well, which makes it a pretty easy place for westerners to navigate. The social and political situation there is very stratified and extremely interesting...one could do a thesis on this I'd imagine. The best part of all this: the food! I can't say enough about it. Three amazing cuisines converging into a land of fusion restaurants, all with so many delicious options. I'm a fan of dips with bread, and there's no shortage of that. I was there during fresh fruit season as well...some of these fruits look like medieval battle axes...some of them smell like garbage in the sun.

Kuala Lumpur
My first host was Agnes. I stayed with her in Kuala Lumpur for 4 or 5 days that were filled with amazing restaurants and spectacular sights. It was definitely action packed, never a moment to rest, which was exactly what I needed. Through her, I met most of the avid KL couchsurfers, mostly in one shot at a picnic in the park behind the Twin Towers, and some at random dinners throughout my stay. I went to visit a hindu temple in a giant cave up a thousand steps in the side of a mountain, with mango eating monkeys all around me trying to pick my pockets. Agnes also brought me to Melaka, the cultural center of Malaysia, to her friends traditional chinese wedding, and I got to participate in all the activities. One of these activities basically involved keeping the groom locked outside until he and his posse coughed up enough money that we'd agree to let them in to see the bride (this is age old tradition apparently...and they made me keep the money too). A six course chinese dinner followed, in a huge hall, no other foreigners to be found. Melaka is so beautiful, especially at night because it has a small village feel, with no structures more than two stories high, places of worship of 4 or 5 types all within a few blocks of each other, and everything lit up. We had a midnight dinner at a world famous hot pot restaurant.

Back in KL, I managed to score the last ticket to go up the Petronas Towers and walk the 'Skybridge' in between (they only give out a limited # each day). Agnes was really good at keeping me in the dark on the plans, so I'd never know what was coming next, even sometimes minutes before. I'd just go to bed when I was told, get up when I was told, and know that I'd be seeing really cool things that day. Pretty exciting. Side note, I was invited to volunteer with another CSer at a soccer game, and had to decline, but later found out the game was the national team versus the visiting Manchester United, and I would have been a bodyguard for a Manchester player. The wedding was cooler though.

If ever your couchsurfing in Malaysia, ask me about the host who runs an elephant sanctuary where you can volunteer to work with the animals. He also trains people in jungle survival, which you can tag alone for as well. It's definitely on my list for the next time.

I stayed for a few nights with Zul, a really interesting guy who lives at the other end of the city. There was an amazing view of the Towers from his balcony. He's the one who took a lot of the guitar playing photos I have on my facebook music page. We had a good chat until the wee hours of the morning. While waiting for him outside his apartment, I also met a cool Tamil guy who became my impromptu guide for the night and took me to his uncles restaurant where we ate and drank and chatted.

To be continued...

Australia Part 2

2010-01-04T12:00:00.010-05:00

Once the end of Ashley's teacher's college program came around, we got rid of her old Corolla, with which I had just learnt how to drive standard (on the left side of the road), and we rented ourselves the cheapest campervan we could find, although still not really that cheap with all the insurance we needed to cross the Outback. A little tip that I wish I would have known before hand ---> www.standbycars.com.au has a 'relocation' program that rents out vehicles to be brought back to a specific destination within a specific timeframe for sometimes as cheap as $1 a day, to save them the trouble of doing it themselves. Anyway, over the next 30 days, we made our way from Brisbane down to Sydney, to Melbourne, along the great ocean road to Adelaide, then through the 3-4 day stretch of the Nullarbor Plain (the southern portion of the outback) to the south-west of Australia, and around to Perth. We spent several days in all the major cities, and spent nights in many places in between, sometimes in a hostel, sometimes in caravan park, sometimes in abandoned parking lots or backstreets.

We saw so many amazing things, but there were definitely highlights for me. The Great Ocean Road/The Great Australian Bright are both drives along intimidatingly sheer cliffs dropping into the Southern Ocean, with no shortage of natural sculptures standing alone in the water, the remnants of ancient shorelines. Breathtaking. Also, the drive through the Nullarbor was amazing, particularly one night spent parked with the van in the middle of the vast nothingness, campfire fuelled by loose brush, and the risk of dingos always present. The number of stars we could see that night were unlike anything I've ever seen in my life. There were even fainter stars within the usual gaps between the stars, and fainter yet in the gaps between them. There was almost more white than black in the sky. The only audible thing were the road trains (long transport trucks passing on the highway we left behind about 400m ago. You could hear the slightest sound coming from kms and kms away. Otherwise, it was the kind of silence that leaves a ringing in your ears.

A lovely surprise was Esperance, a small beach town we had no particular aim to visit, but rather just stumbled upon looking for a place to sleep. A national park near this town called Cape Le Grand held probably the most beautiful beach I've been fortunate enough to set foot on --> Lucky Bay. Crystal clear blue waters, plunging into the Emerald green several meters out from the white sand laden beaches, with grains so fine they are bordering on silt.

Lastly, back in the first days of the trip, a great event came in the form of a secret parking spot for caravans in Sydney. After a night parked in a sketchy neighborhood, we were advised by the cops to get out of there for our own safety (should have known from the shaddy characters we could hear throughout the night) and to check out some areas further east. Not 20 minutes later, we found ourselves driving along a park at least a km in length, along the shore of a bay, with multi-million dollar homes on the other side of us, and no parking signs in sight. You learn pretty quickly that no signs = good to go. Not the best part yet...there were only a couple of other vans parked there, half a km from us...we could set up our chairs and cooking gear...and...the other side of the bay, which was filled with yachts and sailboats, was the Harbour Bridge, the famous Opera House, and downtown Sydney. The daytime view was spectacular, the evening view was indescribable. We thought it must be too good to be true, until a police cruiser pulled up beside us, we tensed up, and he gave us a smile before he headed over to sit by the water and admire the view. A home owner later came out and told us how lucky we were to find this spot. It was worth holding on to for 2 or 3 nights.

My trip with Ash finished in Perth in early June, when we said our tearful goodbyes as she boarded a plane home, and for the first time on this trip, I was traveling alone. What to do now. Not a day into it, I decided to drop a line to my friend Drew, who I had met in Russia on the train a year prior with Kyle and Justin. He was back home and wanted to meet for beer and to watch the footie game on tv. A few beers later, he invited me to stay with him at his house. It was the perfect set up. I checked out early from my stinky, overcrowded hostel and ended up spending 5 or 6 weeks at his place, waiting out the rain and preparing for the next part of my trip. I managed to do a lot of fun stuff throughout that time, like tour a submarine, tour some underground tunnels by boat beneath a jail, volunteer on a sail boat, and catch a ride up to Broome in the north of australia with a car full of travellers.

That trip to Broome was pretty interesting, because the car was on it's last legs, and we ended up breaking down in some interesting places. Once of which was in front of a senior's caravan campground, on party night. So, we ate and drank with the seniors in the mess hall. Side note, the morning, the world found out Michael Jackson had died. Anyway, we fixed the car, and it broke down again, this time for good, directly in front of the campground in Broome. It was pretty perfect. Did some cool stuff while I was there, like go to an outdoor movie theatre that was actually featured in the movie 'Australia', held a crocodile, and rode on a camel that was also featured in the movie. Also met with a couple of friends of friends for drinks. This is the point where I realized I'd never have a better opportunity to go skydiving. So, I bought my ticket, and spend 3 agonizing days thinking of nothing else but falling from a plane. The night before, when I was at my maximum stokedness, I got a call saying the plane had been broken all week and they were trying to fix it, so it was a no go. Blast! I got a full refund, but the exchange rate had fluctuated and I lost $40. Double blast!!

Another highlight of Australia was couchsurfing with Ash at Alex and Karen's house. They were this cool couple in Adelaide who showed us the ropes. We played lots of poker, they taught us how to make sushi, and they humbled us in terms of partying, staying up all night and all day pounding the drinks hard, then going to band practice completely wrecked, while we slept like babies hehe.

There are also a few other cool things I should mention, because, well, they are cool. One, the Australian money. It is super colorful, indestructible, and waterproof incase you forget it in your swimming trunks. Two, Coober Petty is this awesome place up in the outback that we didn't get to see, but heard lots about, where the residents live in homes underground to beat the heat. And three, picking up hitchhikers with a campervan is fun, because you never know what kind of crazy stories or good advice they'll have for you, and if you run into them again a day or two down the highway, it's like running into an old friend.

Go to Australia, it kicks kangaroo butt.

Australia Part 1

2009-12-01T18:59:00.005-05:00

Hey. It's me. I am still alive. You wouldn't think so from the number of posts since Taiwan. Wow, 7 months since the blog post, and about 10 months since I was actually in Taiwan. It goes by pretty fast. So, since that time, 5 and a half months were spent in Australia, and I'm gonna tell you about them. I'll try again to keep this brief, although I have yet to succeed at this. Actually, this probably won't be brief lol.

So, February 6th I said my see yas to Kyle in Taiwan and made my lonely way to the airport after a pretty solid night of partying, and a farewell Mike and Kyle (officially known as 'The Mockumentary') performance at The Armory. The 2 hours of drunk sleep didn't seem to phase the nervous excited energy from flying to a new country in a new hemisphere, where my friends were waiting. A 9 hour layover in Hong Kong gave me time to walk around town and reminisce of the weekend Kyle and I had spent there, and an overnight flight later, I landed in Brisbane. As I'm getting out some Australian $ at the airport, I turn around and see who? Adam from back home! That was awesome. He had come to meet me and show me to his apartment, which was surrounded by palm trees and had a great pool area, and it was a beautiful sunny day. We drank and jammed all day by the pool until we were red in the face (and shoulders) then hit the town. It was a rad first day. I spent a week there chilling with Adam and Jen, who arrived shortly after from being out of town for work.

Then, I headed to Byron Bay to surprise Ashley. We hadn't seen each other in over 13 months...she knew I was coming to Australia but she didn't know when. I had kept it a secret for the 3 months that I knew the exact date I'd be arriving, but something possessed me to throw it on my facebook status the night before I boarded the plane, without think about it. This took some scrambling to get out of. I ended up having to tell her that my flight from Hong Kong was cancelled and I was turning lemons into lemonade and staying in Hong Kong for two weeks. This way, I could show up in a week and at least surprise her a little bit. I wanted to make it on a weekend so she didn't have school the next day, and this lined right up with Valentine's day. Perfect. Next problem, I couldn't ask for her address cause it would be a dead giveaway, so I had to get Jen and Adam to say they were visiting her that weekend so she'd give them the addy. It was the only way to get it and make sure she would be around. So, 5 hours on the bus and I walked up to her door. And oh was she surprised. We spent that weekend together as she showed me byron bay where she was doing the teaching experience section of her Master's of Education. She had been renting a room in a house with another girl and I promptly moved in with her.

So a beautiful house in a beautiful town fell right into my lap. For the remaining 4 months of her practicuum, Ash headed to school during the days, and I busied myself with a handful of activities: trying to surf (trying...), bodyboarding, hiking in the rainforest, chilling on the beach, barefoot jogging, sea kayaking to spot dolphins and sea turtles, scuba diving, hanggliding, abseiling, lawn bowling, and cooking. I actually got very into cooking, since it was the first time I had a massive kitchen mostly to myself. Ash even showed me how to make Kangaroo burgers! It was very fun times.

To give you an idea of this town, Byron Bay, it was a little surfing town that had blown up in recent decades to become a huge surfing/backpacking destination, but was still a pretty small place that managed to keep its charm. The crowds were clearly divided between the travellers, and the locals, the vast majority of which were full-on hippies. This place wasn't only known for its surfing, but also its music. Buskers came and went here, and every night there are a number of live acts on tour to choose from, at large venues that were always packed. I auditioned for a buskers permit here and made busking on the street another hobby, and a way to make a bit of money, and get used to singing in front of people. There are many surfing breaks here, one of which takes you along the shore for several MINUTES and drops you off just in front of a cafe, where you can grab a beer before heading back for another run. Some of the primary schools here have surf classes one morning a week, where class is in the ocean, even for the teachers. Those 4 months in Byron Bay were 'punctuated' by many awesome things such as visits from Andrew and Chris, the Soundwave Music Festival in Brisbane (w/ bands like Billy Talent, Alice in Chains, NIN, New Found Glory, Saves The Day, Finch, Moneen, Attack in Black, the list goes on and on), Bluesfest in byron (I was given one of the ridiculously expensive tickets while busking), and many small trips up and down the coast, including Fraser Island when everybody was visiting (Fraser Island is the biggest sand island in the world, and is also a paradise, in which you cruise around in huge 4X4 trucks and get drunko while seeing the most beautiful scenery you've seen in your life...whoever started this was a genius...however we were evacuated early thanks to hurricane Hamish moving in fast).

To be continued...

Return to Taiwan, Part 2

2009-04-16T02:36:00.005-04:00

The next morning, we woke up to realize that we were surrounded my humongous mountains. It was breathtaking. We were about halfway down the mountainside, with a view of the river below. We packed up, and of course they had a breakfast buffet ready for us. We paid his uncle, but the 3 marine guys were nowhere to be seen. We had made plans to hike with them in the morning but I reckon they were pretty hungover. So we headed out, but by this point my bike was spewing black smoke something fierce and we needed to get to a mechanic. We found a gas station and they rang up a mechanic for us, who showed up with tools not 10 minutes later. He changed my oil for like 10 bucks and we took off into the mountains again.

We got a wee bit lost and ended up loosing an hour or two, but we would have never spotted this giant suspension bridge had we not. So high up there. Safety isn’t a huge concern for the Taiwanese. This was clear while walking on this narrow suspension bridge a few hundred feet up and families of 3 whipped by us on their scooter (that’s 1 scooter for all 3) and expected us to jump up out of the way against the ropes. Anyway, we had a good long day of riding.

We stopped in a small place for lunch...decided to try the ‘stinky tofu’ I’d been hearing about. Apparently this particular place sucked at it because it was so gross I almost vomed. For months I had been occasionally smelling this horrible odor that is a mix of vinegar and rotting animals, as I’d walk through town. That’s stinky tofu. Some places make it taste good though, so I’m told.

Just before sunset, we cleared this really long tunnel. There was ice in the tunnel, if your wondering how cold it was up there. Upon coming out the other side, we found tons of bikes and cars pulled over, and immediately knew why. The sun was just setting over a ‘sea of clouds’, as they call it. We were above the clouds, where you could see the mountain peaks poking out. It looked just like a field of snow. Totally worth the trip up there.

The ride was spectacular for a bit longer, then the sun set. I have been cold in my day, but never this cold. We had to stop regularly to jog and thaw out the extremities, and we were already wearing all of the clothes we had. I even had a pillow case over my face. It was getting tough to drive with numb hands, and it was dark, foggy, and rainy/snowy. Jeff had the good idea to let a car pass up and follow it so it would light up the way, and eventually we saw the lights of a small town and headed down to it. Turned out to be a small aboriginal village called Lidao. The very first place we went into happened to contain a Chinese speaking Canadian English teacher who was keen to help us find a homestay. We downed a big meal and hit the hay.

Back on the road the next day, we were again dumbfounded by the amazing views everywhere around us. That tunnel the night before had been the highest point of the highway, and we were now descending and exiting the mountains. Everything was green and the road was very curvy. This equals a very fun ride. It took forever because we kept stopping for pictures. So, we finally came out of the mountains, and decided to speed it up a little. Kyle and Jeff zoomed by, and I kept up for a bit, but all along my bike had been coughing smoke. The oil light wasn’t on this time, so we thought maybe it was still burning excess oil, but low and behold, my bike started doing the sound Jeff said it would do if the engine seized, then it stopped. Mike’s scooter, RIP. Couldn’t even kick start it. The tricky thing with this was that your not supposed to leave Tainan with these bikes, or at least the foreigners aren’t because they can’t be trusted, and now we were on the other side of the country and the bike was dead. We went to a place that looked like a mechanic shop, mimed it out, and she lead us to a bike mechanic. This family was so nice. The old mechanic drove his truck out to our bike, loaded it up, and brought it back for us. He took one look at it and made a face that said “this is gonna cost you”. He said it needed a new engine lol. The cheapest way would be to bring it back to the rental company, and he wanted to call them himself, but we couldn’t do that because we weren’t supposed to have it way out there. His daughter then came out, who spoke English fluently, and brought us and the bike to a shipping company that could bring it back to Tainan for us for $40 USD.

After this was sorted out and we loaded everything from my bike onto Jeff's and Kyle’s, she took us to a Taiwanese bento-box type place, and then invited us back for coffee and snacks with her family. Such nice people. When we left, they bagged up all the oranges and bananas that were on the table and gave them to us as a goodbye gift! We got the girl’s number and she would later help us even more with the bike situation.

We drove down the coast, and I was now on camera duty on the back of Jeff’s bike. Not the most comfy way to ride, but better than the bus. This was the sunniest day of the trip so far. Jeff had never seen the ocean before, so when we saw it approaching in the distance, it was a big moment him. We rolled up the pants and walked out on the beach to challenge the massive waves coming in.

The rest of that day we went in and out of some smaller mountains, and ended up back in Kenting, where I had been on my first trip around Taiwan. That first night we got sloshed and played drinking games with some other Canadians we’d met. Kyle told this Taiwanese guy in a band that he and I were famous Canadian musicians, and halfway through their set they called us up on stage to do Hotel California. Neither of us knew that song, so we played another one, but Kyle forgot the words and I was drunk on the drums. Pretty funny when the guys in the band kicked us off the stage. We finished that night with a fire on the beach, and did the same thing the following night, with beer and few other people we had met. It was raining most of the daytime while we were there, but we got to do some good hiking in the lush green hills and through some gorges, and cruised around town a bit.

We made it back to Tainan in record time so that I could pick up the bike we shipped and get it back to the rental company before they charged us for an extra day. I made it to the address they gave, but no bike! The next few days were spent getting Chinese speaking people to call that address, other people to call the shipping company, even called the truck drive. The shipper said the receiver had the bike, the receiver said the company was still shipping it, and the truck drive said he never heard of this bike. So for a while we thought the bike had disappeared and I'd owe them a scooter. Eventually, the girl that had helped us before called me up to say that it had been brought to a different address! I drove there, surely enough found the bike, and walked it back to the rental company. It was 3 or 4 days late by this point, but given that I missed out on 2 days that I had already paid for, at especially expensive ‘holiday rates’, I wasn’t keen on paying for these extra days. When I explained that it broke down on me ‘across town’ and I hadn’t had a chance to walk it over until now, they just grumpily took it back. Because of the amount they had overcharged us throughout all the scooter rentals we'd made there up to this point, purely because we are foreign and don't know any better (so I was told by my Taiwanese friends who pay 1/4 the price for the same bike), and the fact that the bike was faulty to begin with, I didn't feel very bad for them. The girl who works at this place is also maybe the devil herself. The things she would grunt out in our faces every time we were there seemed even meaner because we couldn’t understand them. She would say these things as she closely examined our passports, which we had to provide as collateral when we took the bikes. We headed home and that was it.

Another highlight is when Kyle and I played at The Armory, the best bar in Tainan. They asked us to play on Chinese New Year, which was awesome because its a pretty big party night. That went really well, so they had us play again on my last night in town. We were called The Mockumentary, and we rotated on vocals, guitar and shaker. It was the first time I'd ever done lead vocals for most of a night. They were super good to us....payed us well, free beer, and provided the whole sound system. And the owner come up to do some traditional Taiwanese songs as well. Lots of fun.

And one more fun thing...I had had an urge to play drums for while, so I rented a jam space for a session and wailed on the kit for a while. The owner of the place was there and we got to talking over a saki bottle that never seemed to end. Really cool taiwanese punk guy, who had a band called Mr. Dirty. He invited me to go back that night to jam with them on bass, and I did. It was quite awesome, considering I had never played with such a dirty grungy punk band before, let alone a taiwanese one (mind you, the 3rd guy was canadian also). If I had been sticking around longer, I could have played at Spring Scream with them, which is a huge music festival in Kenting, but I was long gone by then. I'll always have the jam though.

That's Taiwan pretty condensed. There's lots more to say, but I had stopped keeping a journal by this point and am having trouble remembering everything. It'll come back to me though, and I might do an update if its anything important. Otherwise, the next posting should bring you up to speed to where I am in Australia.

Cheers, Mike

Return to Taiwan, Part 1

2009-04-13T03:40:00.005-04:00

Back in Taiwan! So, I seem to have accrued quite the backlog on my blog…a backblog if you will, since I’m at about mid-december in my stories, and as I write this it’s just before April Fools (do they have April Fools here….guess I should check that out before I do anything). Gotta catch up. So, rather than typing up about 30 pages of Taiwan stories, I’ll sum up my 2 months there in one post. So I met back up with Kyle and a good solid drunkening ensued. As I was leaving Taiwan the first time, Kyle had just joined with the soccer team. While I was gone, they had won a big tournament and had a week of partying. So the team was pretty tight by this point and Kyle knew half the foreign population of Tainan. Didn’t take long to meet tons of people. While I was there, Kyle and I did some English teaching. I started as a substitute teacher for a guy taking leave over Christmas, and occasionally taught at an alternative English school about a 30 minute scooter right away. Pretty great school….the kids were learning English through music, movies and games. The pay was also amazing, since it was a bit of a commute for me, so I didn’t have to work many hours to get by. Also got to spend 4 or 5 days with my couchsurfing friends in Taipei again and was taken on a long bike ride along the river, and did a bit of hiking and hot springing as well. I also satisfied my appetite for towers by going up the Taipei 101, the tallest building in the world. Around this time, the wheels started turning, so to speak, on a plan to bike across Taiwan, from the north to the south. Sam and David were gonna hook we up with EVERYTHING I needed for this trip during Chinese new year break while they were on vacation in NYC but the weather never panned out :(. Would have frozen my taiwans off. Anyway, ended up going on a scooter trip with Kyle and Jeff. I’ll go into more detail on this later cause it was radical.

Tainan, the city kyle and I lived in, is the cultural center of Taiwan (it was an older capital) and the 4th biggest city in the country. EVERYBODY rides a scooter there. People are quite generous as well. I was loaned a scooter for most of the time I was there, and kyle was GIVEN a motorcycle. Also, just as I arrived, I met a girl who was leaving the country, and she hooked me up with her cell phone and blankets and lamps and whatever she couldn’t take with her. Great people.

I did the walking tour of Tainan that the Lonely Planet suggested, and it was awesome. I had already seen a few temples, including a temple complex that is the biggest is East Asia supposedly, but the map in the book brought me to heaps of temples hidden within city blocks that I would never have found. I’m sure there are signs for these, but they all looked Chinese to me. Some of these temples and ancient walls were hundreds of years old. I also got to see the “Tree House”, which essentially was the remnants of a house overgrown by massive trees. There were a lot of vines in this house. So off course we got Tarzan and ninja photos.

There was a couchsurfing meeting in Tainan while I was there, with people from all over Taiwan. One of them was the first host I stayed with, back in Taipei. I joined them for coffee and that eventually turned into a night out. Going out in Taiwan with a bunch of Taiwanese people is the bomb. They took me to all of the best restaurants, some of them very small places, and we tried a few things at each place. Since this is in Tainan, its the best of the best of Taiwan really. Then we checked out a temple at night where everything was lit up and there was a festival going on on the grounds as well. Really cool authentic Taiwanese experience.

I had heard about this “monkey mountain”, a hill in Gaohsiung, the 2nd biggest city in Taiwan just an hour or two south of Tainan. I rode a scooter down there and hiked up. No monkeys, because apparently they’re only out until 4pm-ish, but a sweet hike nonetheless.

Tainan is near the ocean, so a scooter ride can take you to the beach where there's surfing, kite surfing (sometimes free), good reading spots, and all sorts of beach stuff.

The scooter trip was a little iffy at first. None of us knew what we were getting ourselves into, other than everybody telling us it would be freakin cold, and to bring full-on winter gear. Hard to believe this whilst sweating buckets in town, but we did bring everything just in case. I turned out to be a long weekend, and all the scooters were booked, so we had to wait until the evening to pick them up. They only had 2 available, so kyle decided to take his old beast of a motorcycle and see how she fared. Our friend Ian speaks some Chinese and was kind enough to help us sort of the bike situation. So, this trip would take us from the west coast of Taiwan where we lived, across the mountains on the Southern Crossing HWY to the east coast, then along that coast to the most southern point of the country, then back up the west coast to home. Taiwan is over 70% mountains, with all the major cities along the flatter coast lines, so there were LOTS of mountains to cross, and we got pretty high up there. Once we got the scooters (important side note: jeff’s was very new, mine was very old) it was already 8pm and we weren’t sure if we should hold off our departure. Jeff eventually persuaded us to hit the road that night because he was short on time before he had to head home, so we did, and even before the mountains bundling up was very necessary. Also, scooters can cruise! My bike stalled on one of the longer straightaways…..foreshadowing? We made it to Maolin where we had reservations at a lodge, but the English speaking person who we spoke with from the lodge decided to leave, and we couldn’t communicate with them on the phone to obtain directions anymore. None of the locals seemed to be able to help us either. We found a hotel lobby type place with a party going on, and started talking to these guys who spoke a tiny bit of English thanks to their Marine training. They were wasted and friendly and one of them invited us to stay at his place. His wife didn’t like that very much, so he invited us to stay at his uncle’s lodge instead. At this point it was midnight or something. He woke up his Uncle, who got up all smiles and prepared us a feast. They even busted out a brand new bottle of Johnny Walker. We sat there and chatted, and there were a lot of high fives and handshakes and shots every time we understood each other. They showed us our room, which was big enough for 6 but it was only the 3 of us, and we crashed hard.

To be continued...

Korea, Part 3

2009-03-11T19:21:00.004-04:00

One of Meg’s friends hosts an open mic, and I showed up just as he was wrapping up, so he gave me the go ahead to play as long as I wanted, which was awesome because I had only played alone anymore once before. Sweet.

I spent one afternoon drinking coffee at a Starbucks and writing out Christmas cards containing the worst English I could find, and sending them back home. Felt like I was home again, complete with a snowfall.

One of Meg’s friends was hosting 2 couchsurfers while I was there, and they both were in the process of biking across Asia. One of them had started cycling from Germany 2 years ago and had come through Turkey, Iran, the Himalayas and Russia. The other had paid the North Korean government 1500 Euros to let him bike through for 7 days! A big deal because at this point, North Korea had put a stop on the tourist groups allowed into their country because of an incident with a south korean woman who was shot dead for trespassing into the military zone. Tourists were only allowed in to very few areas though, and only since the last year or 2.

I guess I was in Seoul at the right time, because on a night out on the town we met up with one of Megs friends who was planning a trip to Japan in the near future, and he was a firm believer in karma. He wanted to treat the bikers and I to a crazy night out in Itaewon, the big foreigner bar section of Seoul, in hopes that somebody would do the same for him in Japan. It was pretty awesome…countless bars to choose from. From hookah bars, to dance clubs, to quieter bars that will download any song you request, no matter what genre you want to hear (odds are they have it already in their endless vinyl collection). By the way, at the beginning of this night, we went to check out the band of the guy who hosted the open mic. His band’s name was “U. R. Seoul”. Say that out loud. I laughed.

Anyhoo, the same guy later on took Meg and I out to the fish market for some live squid. Yes, live squid. You walk along the stalls and pick the one you want, and they have it brought over to one of the restaurants bordering the market, and they prepare it there for you. The squid is really just chopped up, but the nerves remain active for quite a while afterwards so the pieces are still squiggling and sticking to anything they touch. Not for the faint of stomach. Requires lots of chewing too if you want to avoid the suction, so don’t show up with a weak jaw. You dip the squid in a special sauce and can eat it with lettuce leaves. Pretty tasty, actually. If you ever see the movie “Oldboy”, probably the most famous Korean movie, there’s a scene where he eats live squid. It wasn’t like that, but check out that scene anyway. It’s gross. Also had string ray...this one was cooked, and was pretty good too.

Now, I saved this bit for the end because I know I can ramble on about it for a while. I’ll try to keep it short though. I hopped on a guided tour to the DMZ (the Demilitarized Zone between North and South Korea). I had planned on going into North Korea, but as previously mentioned, they canceled all this just before I arrived. This was amongst the most interesting things I saw on this entire trip so far. Here’s a quick story to explain the DMZ as I understand it: after WWII, Korea was still an undivided country, no North or South Korea, but there was lots of pressure being applied on the country, communist Russia and China from the north and west, and capitalist Japan and the U.S. from the east and south (the US had troops in Korea). Korea was in a very unique position to grant either party quite a bit of power because of their geographical location, but Korea was tired of violence. So, without war, they split the country in two: communist North Korea and capitalist South Korea, and everyone had to decide which side they would reside on, and there was no coming back. To avoid violence between north and south troops at the border, they created the DMZ, a 4 km wide zone with no military presence. This is the zone you get to see from a distance on this tour.

The biggest and heaviest flag in the world is there, north korea’s, because there are small villages in the DMZ that existed before it was created, 1 on either side of the border, and they kept one-uping each other on flag size.

So, many years after this split north korea put into action a plant to invade south korea, which they had been working on all along. They took it all the way to Busan. The U.S. decided to step in and helped retake all the territory, and then some, all the way into north korea. China shows up and moves north korea back down, and it goes back and forth like this for a long time. Eventually, there was a cease fire signed, and a limited number of troops are allowed to patrol in the DMZ on either side of the border. Once they go in, they aren’t allowed to leave for a pretty long time.

Surely enough, south korea eventually discovered 1, 2, 3, then 4 tunnels under the DMZ! It’s rumoured that there are 94 more tunnels so far undiscovered. They contacted the UN, and north korea denied responsibility at first, then in the face of undeniable evidence they change their story to that it was a rogue prospector digging a coal mine without realizing where he was. Such an interesting place.

When tourists were allowed, residents were not allowed to make eye contact, let alone speak to them. Only a select few were allowed to learn English and communicate. A giant antenna blocks out all outside information, so they only know what they are fed. They believe their leader has supernatural powers, that he changes the seasons, etc.

Anyway, I just ordered a collection of essays by North Koreans who somehow managed to leave, sometimes by swimming across a river and dodging bullets. The essays are all about life in the country and where the country is headed. Such an interesting place.

My flight back to Taiwan was booked for Friday, 2 weeks after my arrival, but I moved it to Monday so that I could snowboard the second time. Oh yes, and while I was in Seoul, I bought a 2 month visa to go back to Taiwan, the whole reason I had to leave in the first place. Caught my flight Monday, and I was off.

Korea, Part 2

2009-02-26T17:17:00.004-05:00

Kyeunju had no shortage of sites to keep tourists occupied. The city and surrounding area are dotted with royal tombs...mainly big parks you pay to enter and you walk around large mounds in which kings and queens are buried. One had been escavated and you could see the inner workings of these things: a mix of wood structure, rock piles, earth, and precious belongings. I also saw an ancient astronomical observatory, a sacred pond, a few more temples, and an ancient traditional city that had been preserved. Tourists are able to walk around and experience what it was like hundreds of years go, but the town still has inhabitants. So you get tourists snooping around while these people are just going about they daily chores, tilling their small crops with their Toyota Corollas parked out front.

What definitely takes the cake for me in this city was an early morning hike I undertook on my last day there. It started snowing, which was an unexpected but welcome surprise. This hike took me to a scenic lookout wayyyy up in the mountains, but not before passing several Buddhist landmarks, including a giant Buddha carved into the rock face. The view from the top allowed me to witness the full scope of this thing in comparison to the people standing around it. It was pretty freakin big! Like 25-30 feet high.

Just beside my hostel, there was a Korean bathhouse. I was told to try this out. Basically, there were two big rooms, one for men, one for women, with many shower heads and stools with scrubbers beside them. In the center there was a big hot tub, in the corner a cold tub, and a dry and wet sauna. The idea is to lather, scrub, rinse, soak and repeat for as much time as you have to spare. I didn’t have much time, but I can see how you’d come out of there like jello. Also heard there are sometimes old men who’s job it is to scrub down your back for you. I didn’t encounter said old man for I was the only one there at the time, but I can envision the naked ackwardness.

I forgot to mention that on my second night at this hostel, upon walking into the common area, who do I come across? Bazu. Reunited at last. He and I, along with however else was game out of the hostellers, checked out a few really nice restaurants over those couple of days, one in particular with the cushiony floor sitting that I had grown to really enjoy. I also forgot to mention that Bazu was a drinker. Every night he would bust out the Japanese Sake he had brought from home, or the Sodju and Mackaulay (both very popular Korean boozes….booze….boozei??), and he wouldn’t take no for an answer. As you’d try to finish your 8th glass, he would tell you another of his countless travel stories accrued during his time on pretty much every continent. Quite the interesting character he turned out to be indeed. Sadly, when I left in the morning he was still in bed, so I left him a goodbye note with my email on it, but when I returned to pick up my bag and catch my bus, the note was still there, untouched, and he had checked out, so it would seem I just took off without saying a word. Hope he’s still doing ok.

Now I’m on the bus to Seoul. I have my 2nd couchsurfing stay lined up with Meg, an English teacher from Canada. Within 10 seconds of being on the bus, I met a guy from the states and we chatted the entire 4 hours there. Went by pretty quickly. Thanks to some directions from Meg, I made it to her place to find that she had a loft apartment, with the whole upstairs section just for me! Also, I got to be her first couchsurfer. Her friend had collected so many good stories from CS that she wanted to give it a try too. We got along spendidly. So much, in fact, that I extended my stay for an extra weekend. While in Seoul there was never a dull moment. Actually, minutes after meeting her at her apartment, she took me away to collect some more friends, and we all walked over to a party, where there were like 6 guitars laying around, with even more guitar players, and everybody was singing along to songs that I knew. A much missed slice of a home. I nearly shat myself. They even had the fabled acoustic basses that I had wanted to try for years. We rocked out until the wee hours and had a great time.

The next day, I picked myself up a subway pass, because traveling around Seoul requires a ton of commuting if you aren’t living right downtown. Seoul seemed like an old cartoon where the characters are running and the same background is passing by over and over, except this background was Starbucks, Holly Coffee and Pizza Hut. Don’t let me give you the wrong impression because there was a lot of local food too.

I managed to fit a lot into the 9 days I stayed with Meg. We all went snowboarding twice...yes, snowboarding...not many runs upon yet but one of the hills was nominated for the winter Olympics that hit Seoul in the 70s I believe, so the runs that were open were pretty long and pretty sick. We just rented the gear at the hill, and the people I went with were nice enough to hook me up with hats and gloves and everything else I couldn't rent.

I caught a Korean Basketball League game, in which each team has a height restrictions of 6 foot 5, and each team is allowed 2 foreign players. Coincidentally, each team had 2 6'5" guys from the states.

Also caught a b-boyz show…highly recommended if you’re ever in Seoul. It’s a breakdancing show at a small venue, but its mixed with several styles of dancing, like the ROBOT, lots and lots of the robot, and the whole thing follows a plot. Its very up close and personal and extremely entertaining.

I met up with the Russian girls from Busan again and Natalya showed me around Suwon, where they were just wrapping up their semester at uni. We walked along the fortress walls that surrounded the small city just outside of Seoul, and hung out at a little pub until my bus arrived. I rode the bus for an hour into town, and took a cab for nearly another hour from there to Meg's. Turns out, it was just a big triangle, and I could have caught a cab straight to Meg’s for half the cost and a quarter of the time.

More...

Korea, Part 1

2009-02-22T21:34:00.004-05:00

The high speed hydrofoil ferry to Busan, South Korea from Fukuoka, Japan takes less than 3 hours. With a 30 minute bob break halfway across the sea because something was stuck in the propeller and they announced they were letting it ‘work it’s way out’, we pulled in a bit late. As I was figuring out how to get to the hostel I had booked, an elderly japanese guy introduced himself as Bazzu and asked if he could tag along because he hadn’t booked anything. I said sure and we navigated the subway network together until we found the meeting point where June, the hostel owner, would come pick us up. After several failed attempts at calling him, we finally got through and he showed up shortly after. The hostel, Forjuneteller's Backpackers Inn, was full (only an 8 person place) but he let Bazzu stay on the couch for the 1 night. We passed by an eel restaurant, an all you can eat tuna place, a dog meet restaurant, and probably four 7/11s before we got to his backpackers. This turned out the be the nicest, most modern hostel I’ve ever stayed in. It was on the 21st floor of a highrise, and was totally brand spankin' new. Complete with a skype-ready computer, free breakfast, free laundry, a giant tv for chill-out time, and a cool roof you could sneak up to. All of the highrises in that area had helicopter landing pads on the roof, a great place for a quick beer and a fantastic view.

I spent the next day getting used to the idea that I was now in Korea. Went for a few shorts walks, checked out the cuisine, and got a feel for how the ordering of the food would go. Did lots of catching up on skype that first day too. One interesting thing I noticed was the dancing girls in front of certain stores with sales going on. One particular store had two girls dancing in sync, half naked but balancing it out with big warm fuzzy boots, because, after all, it was the dead of winter. They were also occasionally mentioning whatever they were selling into a PA.....I think it was shoes.

I spent about 4 days in Busan, the 2nd biggest city in South Korea, and saw many a cool thing, such as temples (including a cliff side temple, which is one of a kind or at the least very rare), a temple hike along a mini great wall of china studded with amazing glimpses of the city, the biggest indoor fish market in korea, some more hikes down sheer cliffsides, and several very different but very tasty dinners. At one point I tried a cup of juice from a roadside stand that was made from some sort of root. That one tasted like wood.

I got to meet several cool people during my stay here, including an American army couple now teaching high school math in Seoul, and 2 girls on a student exchange program from Russia. Downed quite a few beers with the former, which led to an intense game of flip cup with a gang of teachers, and a few tear jerking songs at the karaoke rooms, and spent a day wandering around with my new russian friend Natalya and her schoolmate. I also had my second couchsurfing.com experience here...not quite the same as I wasn’t staying with anyone this time, but rather just meeting up for a coffee. We ended up catching a movie afterwards too. Made for a great afternoon/evening of conversation. Met an Australian brother and sister duo as well that I hope to catch up with later on during this trip.

Bazzu was a reoccurring character throughout my time there as well, sometimes there, sometimes not. I was never sure when he’d pop up, but he was always up for whatever I was doing. This wasn’t always a good thing, because being 80 years old he was a bit of a slower walker than I was. Also, he met and surpassed his quota on saliva production, which almost made me vom a couple of times. But he always had an interesting story to tell.

From here it was an hour bus ride to Gyeongju, which is the cultural center of South Korea, much as Kyoto was the place to be for temples in Japan. I had been told of a famous hostel with a traditional korean atmosphere, so I followed through with this tip, and it turned out the be a great decision. My room was very simple, straight to the point, but very comfortable, and the hostel grounds were straight out of an asian movie. My sliding door was made of paper with a wood trim, and my mattress laid directly on the heated floor, with nothing more than an end table and a mirror in the room. The courtyard was enclosed by tropical looking trees, and korea bbqs were had most nights out on the picnic tables. The owners were, I’m sure, some of the nicest people on the planet. The husband demonstrated his musical stylings with a korean flute type instrument, and then showed me the hostel water well, which seemed to be his pride and joy because of how deep and clear it was (the green light he had installed added to the effect too), and his wife pretty much planned out my 3 days there for me.

I met 2 soldiers on break from their service (south korea has a mandatory 2 years military service), and they introduced me to the real Korean bbq experience. I had thought I knew all about it because I had tried it a few times in Canada, but this was totally different. Big slabs of ‘bacon’ (really just big slabs of pork) are cut up with scissors on the portable grill, mushrooms are grilled up, kimchi is served (spicy cabbage in sauce), and you eat this all wrapped in lettuce leaves or this very pungent herb leave, and dip the whole in a delicious sauce red sauce. This is all washed down with beer served glasses ('Cass' or 'Hite'). So good. Kimchi would become my obsession for the rest of my time in Korea. The guys spoke very little English, but managed to invite me over with a “Hello! You like food?”. With a little help from a translation website later on, one of them explained to me that he was training to be a paratrooper. He had completed 8 solo skydives so far, and he was only 18 years old.

Continued....

Japan, Part 3 of 3

2009-01-29T08:26:00.001-05:00

Since I had unlimited rail system access, I could travel back across the country to Fukuoka, where I had already passed and would be heading again to catch the ferry to Korea in a week. There, I met up with the Virginias again, and we partied like it was our job. The next day, I think I may have had the worst headache of my life, but we were all so zombied out from the prior evening that I probably laughed more that day than any other time in my life as well. I'm talking tears. Everything was so funny, even though it hurt to laugh. Come the next morning at 6am, we cabbed to an arena and were 2nd in a line with our hotel blankets. Once it opened, we bought our tickets and went back to sleep.

Later that day, we headed back over to that arena. The tickets we had bought, the reasons we were in Fukuoka, were the sumos. It was the final day of the sumo festival that occurs 4 times a year, each one lasting 15 days. This was wicked. We had a full day of watching these huge babies in diapers, from the lowest ranking to finally the Yokozunas (top guys with the most time allowed for intimidation). Learnt a lot about the rules, the history, the ranking system, and the current condition of the sport...ask me if you wanna hear about it! One interesting thing about it is that there is actually a drop of several feet around the sumo stage, that is relatively small to begin with (compared to the fighters) and the crowd seating begins just a few feet away from the stage. People were getting trampled by rolling fat naked men left and right, but nobody seemed to care. Doesn't that hurt? That night we hit a bar and some of the sumos showed up for drinks. Also, the dancefloor was cleared eventually for some breakdancing crews to perform. I headed back to Nagoya the next day.

I left Les & Sarah's place the following day to check out Kyoto. First thing I did, which I thought would just be a little side activity, was hike up a hill to try to catch a glimpse of some monkeys I had heard about. It turned out the be one of the coolest things I would see in Japan. On my way up, I found one in the grass and watched him for a while, since it could be the only one I'd spot. Once I'd had enough, I continued up to find about 99 more monkeys in the clearing by the tourist feeding house (for feeding monkeys, not tourists). You buy a bag of apples and pass them the pieces through the fence. I help on to one of the pieces as Charlie (or so I named him) grabbed it, and I observed his tiny hands for a while. So human like. I taught him how to catch the pieces I'd toss to him from a few feet away. I was called outside then and the monkey master threw down some monkey seeds or grains or something, and instantly the monkey population doubled as they all swarmed in from the trees. A freezy of fights, flailing and fun ensued. I spent a good hour up there snapping shots. The rest of that day was fairly uneventful, mainly just fighting through the masses, trying to get to the next temple, or to just walk around. Lots of people there for the pretty fall colors. I returned to Kyoto the next day, but this time I stayed in the city. The temples were nice enough during the day, but to my surprise, as soon as it was dark enough, massive lineups were forming. After curiously watching from a distance, I decided to see what all the hype was about and go into one of the temple grounds. Upon entering, I realized immediately that the fuss was all about the colors. The lights turned on at night and the tress were on fire. Bright orange, red and yellow everywhere. Majestic ponds with statue centerpieces reflected these images seamlessly, and of course the grounds were spotted with temples and other things. Way cooler than during the day. I walked for a while longer and then headed back.

I said my 3rd and final see-yas to Les and Sarah and thanked them for letting me freeload for a total of over a week, and I set off for Hiroshima. All of the bomb related stuff was within one area, the Peace Park, which used to be a busy section of town but was the hardest hit by the bomb. To be completely honest, this was the first time I'd even been in a museum where I was just as alert and aware when I left as when I had arrived. I think I read every single piece of english text in the place. I even rented an english audio guide. The museums, memorials, and the actual ground zero were all very captivating, although at times slightly disturbing, due to the graphic posters and wax statues. There were 4 photos taken minutes after the bomb went off, until the photographer couldn't stomach it any longer. It definitely served its purpose. I made sure to stick out my bag with the canadian flag on it, to avoid the dirty looks that I was certain would be shot my way, but it turns out that wasn't the vibe at all. In none of the exhibits was there really any blame placed anywhere, just unbiased facts. I spent the rest of that day again in a cool hostel, making friends, playing ugitar, and sharing stories. The next morning I bussed back to Fukuoka and rode a highspeed hydrofoil boat across the sea to Korea.

Other interesting stuff about Japan -->
-The Metro employees who's job it is to cram the last people onto the Tokyo subways before the doors close.
-The Japanime porno comics at the convenience stores. I call it Japornime.
-The ease of getting addicted to coffee. I drank more coffee in Japan that any other time in my life.
-The abundance of men in suits and women in miniskirts, no matter the weather.
-The obligation to drink with your boss, no matter what your situation is at home and how long he wants to drink for.

Mike

Japan, Part 2 of 3

2009-01-29T08:25:00.002-05:00

Going into Tokyo on the train from the west, you get a pretty great view of Mt Fuji. I did not expect it....seems kind of surreal thinking bacck on it now because I was half asleep. Anyway, I had had the idea of checking concert listings for Tokyo before going and this turned out to be one of my better ideas, because to my surprise, Billy Joel was playing at the Tokyo Dome the night of my arrival. Just him & his supporting band. No way there would be tickets left. Sarah had heard that you could buy concert tickets @ the 7/11. She took me to the 7/11 near their place in Nagoya. After much trial & error, and the clerk ultimately coming to our rescue, we figured out that there indeed some nose-bleed section seats left! I managed to buy one by credit card. A 3 hour train ride later, some scrambling for luggage storage at the Tokyo Metro Station, and I found myself in a sea of Japanese B.J. fans, inching my way to my seat down yonder. The show kicked arse. His encore songs were my 3 favorite too. Not much movement on the part of the crowd, other than my section in which there happened to be lots of foreigners belting out the lyrics. No cameras allowed apparently, as I was reprimanded for shooting some footage, but the memory of the show is still pertty vidid regardless.

Afterwards, I retreived my bag and caught a subway to "Electric City" where I had booked a room. I made a mental note of the rollercoaster outside the Tokyo Dome. After some help from the hotel crek via payphone, I finally found the Athabasca Capsule Inn. It's called a capsule inn because you sleep in a 1 person pod with a tv and a draw curtain for the hole you came in through. You leave your bags and clothing in the lockers downstairs. I was in a room with 29 other capsules, and there were 4 floors of this, men only. These places were intended for business men who couldn't return home that night for 1 reason or another, usually because they had to get plastered with their boss. At first, women weren't allowed, but since the capsule inn's have gained popularity, some now have special floors reserved for women, as did this one. So, 7 floors of capsules total. There was also a bathhouse style bathroom with a hottub. I stayed 2 nights, not because I enjoyed the place that much, but because I couldn't be bothered to track down another hostel. I regret this now because, for one, the capsule inn, counterintuitevly, was very pricey (but in Tokyo, what isn't), but also I would have liked to stay in a Ryakan, a traditional Japanese hotel. I will try to track one down in Vancvouer when I'm back in Canada.

Anyway for the next 2 full days, I explored different must see spots, like the famous intersection you see in movies where if you were to look a building above, you would be hard pressed to see any pavement beneath you. I also checked out a palace with a swedish dude I met at the Starbucks, then the Tokyo Tower (just at sunset, so I caught the daytime view, then got to enjoy the nighttime view again --> best time to go to these places in my opinion). I yet again enjoyed good music, like a Japanese easy rock duo in the tower, and an amazing jazz trio in the street. Not only is the music fantastic, but people there really appreciate it. They were dancing and shouting along with the jazz band.

The next day, I crossed paths with one of those munks who chime a bell and take 1 careful, calculated step at a time down the busy Tokyo sidewalks, in a straight line amidst the hurried people heading every which way. This was featured in the movie "Baraka", if anyone has seen it. I gave him some $ after watching him for a good 5 minutes.

Travelling around Japan, you notice and hear about a lot of crazy stuff. One such thing, one that I failed to witness, was a gathering of young people every Sunday in a certain part of Tokyo, who all dress up like Japanimation characters. Apparently the realism is astounding, and they walk around the streets. They also meet up in a park and just chase each other around, my guess is its for the tourists. Give it a gander on YouTube.

The 2nd morning of my visit, I forced myself out of bed at 4:30AM and dragged my ass to the fish market to catch the early morning hustle and bustle of the seafood sales. It trully is a madhouse, interlaced with streams of tourists. Kind of funny to complain about tourists when I'm one of them, but I try not to interfere too much at least. I had been told to try a sushi breakfast at 1 specific restaurant right on the fish market grounds. It was the most popular one, but apparently worth the wait. Standing in line, I met an Aussie couple, and the guy didn't want to try the raw fish, so he took a stroll and I hung out with the girl while we ated and eventually dined. The sushi bar only sat about 10 people, so it was tight, but the food was inredible. They serve it to you right on the wooden counters. We got an 11 piece set of fish that had only travelled a few meters from where it was actioned off. That's fresh. So fresh in fact, the he slapped down a piece of surf clam in front of us and said "Still arrrrivvveee!". He meant "Still alive", we realized as the piece curled its up tentacles towards us.

Coincidentally, after parting with her, I went for a walk in that Electric City section of Tokyo, thus called because of its endless supply of multi storey electronic stores selling the same stuff, and i ran into the girls boyfriend. In a city of over 12 million people, I ran into the same guy twice in 2 totally different parts of town. So we hung out for a while looking for the outdoor store section.

I caught a quick pint at an Irish pub for a little taste of home, and then had to leave to catch my train back to Nagoya, but not before riding that rollercoaster I had promised myself I'd conquer. It went up to the tops of the buildings, THROUGH a hole at the top of one of them, and dropped back down, a couple of times over. Glorious. I was the only one screaming out of my group of 8 year olds.

Japan to be continued...

Mike

Japan, Part 1 of 3

2009-01-29T08:25:00.001-05:00

Sam, my couchsurfing host and new friend, was kind enough to drive me to the international airport in the very wee hours of the morning, where I caught a flight to Naha, Okinawa. Okinawa is a cluster of Japanese islands between Taiwan & Japanaland. The original plan was to take the 4 day ferry from Taiwan all the way to Kagoshima, Japan, but soaring fuel costs forced the only ferry company into bankruptcy, so the compromise was to fly halfway and boat from there. I arrived in Japan and was greeted with posters warning me against drugs, weapons and pornography. After they confiscated my drugs, weapons, and pornography, they went on to take away the sandwich I was saving, which was given to me on the plane, ironically. I got some hostel info from a japanese girl at the info counter who had spent a few years in Banff, Alberta, and I set out into Japan. The hostels all seemed way too expensive (Okinawa is a very touristy area, as I discovered) so I asked a pair of girl travellers on the train (1 from england, 1 from sweden) if they knew of a cheap hostel, and we ended up spending the day together finding the hostel, hanging out on the beach, going to my first "Hotto Motto" (Japanese fast food chain) and legit Ramen noodle place, and learning some japanese numbers. The hostel turned out to be the sweetest one I'd ever stayed in --- $10 USD a night got you a bed, free internet, free laundry, free bikes, guitars, djembes, a dozens different spots to hang out in on comfy cushions, and a ton of people to hang out on them with. That evening, we got into a serious guitar sing-along. With access to the internet, the lyrics were flowing. At 2am, I found myself heading to a Kareoke room with one of my new friends. We belted out some Spin Doctors, Hanson, Bon Jovi, the list goes on... We also put a major dent in Japan's beer supply. These kareoke places are private kareoke rooms, so we have our own kareoke machine, comfy couches, and a phone to order more beer. Eventually 6AM rolled around and I had to be at the docks to catch my ferry, which I was looking forward to, because I could sleep for 25 hours straight. I staggered home, packed my bags, but upon arriving at the terminal, I found out that they did not accept credit card, nor were there any ATMs open in the city until 8am, and maybe in all of Japan for that matter. An exploratory cab ride that I could not pay for in the end proved this true. I missed my ferry, then couldn't find the hostel that I had come from. The hangover set in. After an hour long walk around, I finally found the place, somebody saved me from sleeping in the hallway and let me back into my room.

I woke up an hour after check out time, with a pretty solid headache on and no money to pay for this extra day I'd be spending here. I set out to find a bank machine from which I could withdraw funds, absurdly thirty and hungry, and discovered that the only ATM that would work for me, the guy with the foreign bank account, would be the Japan Post machine. I found this out after trying every other bank machine, of course. I now had money. I drank enough water to drown a whale. I spent most of that day chilling at the hostel because there was so much to do there, but interrupted that with a walk in the late afternoon around a hilltop castle, where I met some nice ducks, a cat, a turtle and some fish.

I'll speed this up a little now because at this pace, I'll be writing a novel on my 3 weeks in Japan. So, the next morning I finally caught the 25 hour ferry to Kagoshima. 'The Last Samurai' dude comes from here, not Tom Cruise but the other guy, and not the actor but the character. On the ferry, nobody spoke a word of english except for the one creepy drunk japanese guy who I kept catching staring at me with his head peering around the corner, and I'd have to pretend I was asleep to avoid him.

I arrived at 7 the next morning to find Virginia, a friend from back home who was teaching english in Japan, waiting for me at the terminal. Awwwwww. I stayed with her for 4 or 5 days, during which time I was further initiated into the Japanese lifestyle through shopping malls riddled with xmas sales, amazing restaurants, a freezing foggy hike along a volcanicaly active mountain ridge, some "onsens" (hotsprings), and a bike around an island who's centerpiece was another active volcano. The school kids on that island wore hard hats for protection from flying debris, and there were busstop style shelters in case of a major eruption. Lava flow tenches revealed solidified magma, which was very cool. I finished that day in a hotspring that doubled as a buddhist temple. So I was sitting there in the water robe they give you, surrounded by japanese men and woman, in this lagoon style place under huge outstretched trees, surrounded by rocks down a cliffside, seperated from the ocean by not more that 2 feet of stacked stones (you could lay back with your hand in the ocean and your body in the warm water...pure awesomeness), all the while people worshipping in front of the statue and candles carefully placed under one of the trees. Pretty cool stuff. The outdoor mall also had a foot massage hot water trench...almost as cool.

I said my temporary goodbyes to Virginia and her friends, who I had had an awesome time with, I activited my JR pass, which gave me unlimited access to their train system for 2 weeks, including their famous highspeed 'Shinkansen' trains, and I headed up to Nagoya to meet up with Les and Sarah, 2 more friends from back home. I had a great time staying with them for another 4 or 5 days. They introduced me to the game Jungle Speed. Check it out, you will never be the same. Nagoya is fairly central, so I was able to check out nearby places during the day too and head back to stay with them at night. Japan can get pretty pricy, so this helped me quite a bit. I rented a jam space with Les, Sarah made all sorts of awesome Japanese dishes, I also ate at great restaurants, and went on a couple of hikes.

Also, I happened to be there on a weekend and as I walked around to explore a bit, I stumbled upon lots of outdoor concerts. I ended up hoping from show to show. Started of with a Japanese Idol type guy on a stage in an outdoor mall, then I caught the end of a punk show with 10 bands playing 3 songs each, then on to a punk and funk type show that was just starting and went on for a good couple of hours. I was realizing that there was tons of good Japanese music in Japan....go figure! Also noticed that skateboarding, bmx-ing and breakdancing were all over the streets here at night.

I then headed to Tokyo for a brief stay.....

Mike

Taiwan, Part Deux

2008-12-21T23:27:00.005-05:00

After these 2 nights in Kenting, I made my way up the east coast to a town called Hualien, meeting along the way some interesting tea enthousiast graphic designers from Czech Republic. My plan was to bus up into the mountains in Taroko National Park, apparently one of the most scenic places in Taiwan, but upon arriving there found out that the road would be closed for a marathon the next day, and the last bus already left. It was taxi or nothing, so i forked over the cash (some taiwanese guys helped me find the best deal) and after a long and pricy taxy ride, checked into a hostel up in the moutains, where I shared a room with a French guy doing almost the exact same trip as me but in reverse, so we exchanged advice on where to go. I realized that to make it to Taipei when I wanted to, I would have to get up super early the next day and hike back down to the park entrance with the marathoners.

I slept through my alarm. Good start. Did a 2 hour waterfall trail first that takes you through tunnels actually carved into the moutains under some of the waterfalls, and releases you to spectacular Jurassic Park style views. Absolutely beautiful. I then collected my full pack and started the walk down, with a few thumbs up and words of encouragement from the runners and volunteers. Made me wonder what I was getting myself into. Turned out to not be a 3 hour hike like I was told, but rather a 5 - 6 hour hike, at a fast pace, in the rain no less, and with cheap chinese shoes that fell apart half way down, but not before doing a number on my footsies. But the entire thing is along a very steep V shaped gorge, and the whole thing is like one long scenic lookout. Also, lots of suspension bridges, and I really dig suspension bridges. Finally made it down, after a few spider run ins (signs warn you about venoumous spiders, poisonous snakes, and killer bees), and made it to Tapei eventually by train.

Now, I had been dying to try out this Couchsurfing thing, which for those of you that don't know it, is an online network of people that offer up their couch or a spare room for travellers to crash on for free. They either love showing off their city, love having company, or just love supporting travellers because they were or will be travelling themselves. I had finally gotten someone to accept me, a bearded scraggly looking bloke by this point, who had no prior references to ensure them he wasn't a psycho. Daphnee was willing to take me in. So we arranged a meeting spot at Taipei 101, currently the tallest building in the world. She picked me up and wisked me away on her scooter to another building. Turns out, I happened to arrive on a night of a Taipei couchsurfers party, and it happened to be on the rooftop of a luxury apartment building where a wealthy couchsurfer was renting an apartment for a month, and the roof happened to have an incredible view of Taipei 101 with it's own little cloud hovering over it amidst an otherless cloudless sky. Wish my camera battery hadn't died, cause it would have probably made for one of the greatest pictures ever taken, EVER. So I met pretty much all the couchsurfing hosts, and decided right then to stay in Taipei for 5 days. When we got back to her place, she had a japanese style guestroom for me, gave me a key to her place, had printed directions for me to get back there, and even left me breakfast every morning before she left for work! I got to try all sorts of traditional Taiwanese foods with her, like vinegar style tea. She grew up in Taiwan but had done much travelling and studying abroad, so she spoke very good english, and french as well. So the next day she took me sightseeing, and when she wasn't available to take me around, she arranged for her friends to take over! Saw temples and shrines, one at the top of a moutain, participated in the worshipping at a doist temple, went to many great restaurants, raced swan boats on the river with the whole group of couchsurfers again, went to "snake alley" where I tried snake soup and a shot of alcohol/snake blood with my taiwanese guide, with whom I struck a deal that I'd only try it if she tried it with me.

The coolest thing for me was when the girls brought me to a hidden hot spring a little outside of Taipei. down a small trail, by a river, surrounded by huge mountains, with a cool moonglow to it because this was 11 pm. Sat in the different temperatures of the most legit hot springs I've ever been to, being the only foreigner for miles and miles, it felt like. I realized that people actually use some of the pools as a communal bath when they don't have their own shower/bath facilities at home.

One of Daphnees friends, Samantha, offered to let me stay at her place that night, which was my last night in Taipei, so that she could drive me to the airport the next morning for my 6am flight! Unbelievable hospitality. Her husband is an IronMan competitor and told me of a route where you can bike in a circle around the whole country of Taiwan in only 11 days. Might look into that later on.

The main thing I retained from my time in Taipei though was that after couchsurfing, you end up being real friends with these people and often with their friends as well, and I realized how awesome of a concept couchsurfing was. I was addicted. Anyhoo, the next morning I was off to Japan...

Mike

Taiwan Part 1

2008-12-19T00:40:00.001-05:00

Hi everyone,

Where to begin. I think I'll break this into several segments so its not too long. I can see this getting pretty long if I don't keep myself in check. I'll start with Taiwan, and this will go with the pictures that are now up on the facebook part of the blog.

So in the last blog, Kyle and I were just arriving in Tainan, Taiwan. We were newbies with no contacts so the first thing we did was check into a hotel. The second thing was head to the bar. The Armory is a well known place amongst the foreigners (even featured in the Lonely Planet on Taiwan I believe) and we had heard that from meeting people there, including the owner, everything else would fall into place. It did. Took no time to meet a ton of people and get involved in the sports and game nights that are pretty plentiful around here. After 4 or 5 days, Kyle and I found a 3 bedroom apartment for about 7000 New Taiwan Dollars, which is roughly 300 Canadian dollars a month! Pretty sweet location too. So we moved in started to settle. We rented scooters and checked out the area, including a beach nearby, and just kinda hung out for a while.

We knew if we wanted to stay longer than 30 days we would have to leave the country to pick up a visa eventually. With this in mind, and since I already wanted to check out these countries, I decided one night that I would make a 'side trip' to Japan and South Korea before coming back to teach for a while. There was a really big soccer tournament coming up that Kyle wanted to stay for (I'll let him tell about that), so it would be the first time I break off to travel alone. I also decided that before I flew out of Taiwan it would be fun to do a quick weeklong tour of the perimeter of the country. I met a Taiwanese family who helped me plan out my itinerary, and the next day I left.

I caught a train up north a little and hired a van to take me up to a small town in the moutains called Alishan that is famous for it's sunsets. Met a budhist munk (or nun?) along the way who gave me a bagged lunch for having helped her load her boxes into the van, which I thought was very cool. Did some hiking there amongst the ancient temples and massive 1000 - 2000 year old trees for a few days, amazing mountain views all around, and got up at 4:30am to catch the train to the summit for the sunrise, that is supposedly the fastest in the world (only a few seconds to clear the horizon). There's also often a sea of clouds covering the valley, making it even more picturesque. Some of my favorite shots from this trip were taken up there.

I headed back and bused, trained, taxied all the way back to the southern tip of Taiwan, to a beach city called Kenting (took the wrong train and ended up on a subway type run that lasted 3 hours longer than expected). Arrived at 9:30pm with no hotel, and to my surprise, thousands of school kids flooded the streets, celebrating a holiday that I happened to arrive on. Found a cheap place and crashed for the night. Next day, rented a scooter, rode around on mountain trails (have to go back to try a hiking trail where you can mingle with wild monkeys), and settled on a beach for a while.

I met a Taiwanese woman who studied abroad (actually now lived in Spain) and she treated me to a beer on the beach, as well as invited me to use some of her umbrella shade that you normally have to pay for. Side note...before this, my bag was sitting in the sun, the sun moved, the shade cast by the umbrella touched my bag, and the woman in charge of renting out the parasols instantely came running to collect money from me. Anyway, 2 beers on the beach and a meal later, she decided I was going to be the lucky person to whom she would pay forward all the hospitality she had received throughout her travels in her younger years (not the last time this would happen to me throughout this side-trip either). So she told me to make it back to that same spot for 5pm and she'd drive me to a great hot spring.

I hoped on my scooter and cruised to the south so I could say I walked along the most southern point of Taiwan, and continued on a highway along the other coast that cuts back across to where I was before. A quick dip, and a shirtless bike ride to dry off, and I made it there for 4:59. She drove me to the hotsprings resort about 30 minutes away, complete with every type of water massage you could think of, and the view of the silhouetted mountains in the darkness wasn't so bad either. She covered the quite expensive bill, I realized she was wealthy hehe, and she dropped me back off at my bike. Don't think I even got her name throughout that whole thing. Anyway, I satisfied a craving for western food with pizza at Smokie Joe's (with a big sign on the door that says 'no smoking'), learnt a bit about Taiwan from the bored waitresses since I was the only person there, caught some live music and called it a night.

Mike

PS. Taiwan Part 2 coming soon...

2008-10-20T03:24:00.003-04:00

Just noticed how long that was. Holy cow!

And Justin, the ball is in your court for a blog post.

Mike

PS. Bunch of new pics up on our Facebook 'Tree Loose Moose' page!

One Hong Kong and a Macau later

2008-10-20T02:50:00.003-04:00

So the Tree Loose Moose have split up. That's right. It's now Two Loose Moose and a Solo Loose Goose. Justin had a really good setup in Shanghai so he's sticking around there for now and Kyle and I took off on thursday afternoon. Wednesday night we ended that leg of the trip proper with an open mic performance of a few covers and a song we wrote on the trip that has been stuck in all of our heads. "Pretty pretty baby, your not my mommy so don't tell me what to do (what to do)". Then we boarded the overnight train to Hong Kong, and a crazy weekend ensued. Arrived and met a Chilian dude travelling alone, and found a hostel with him...the cheapest one in the book (about $11 CAD a night), on top of a mountain near downtown HK. Hoped in a cab, rode for a bit, only for the cabby to stop at the base of the mountain road that leads to our hostel, saying it is closed (turns out, because of construction the road is closed every weekday from 11 to 6). So we start hiking with our full packs on.....30 minutes later and about 5000 stairs, we walk into reception, the sweaty messes that we were. The view of all of Hong Kong more than made up for it...incredible. We cleaned up and headed back to town about 7pm, jumped into a high speed hydrofoil boat, and an hour later we were in Macau (different 'country'....so had to do the customs thing to get there....FYI Macau was a Portuguese colony so many streets, buildings, etc. have Portuguese names. Hit the first casino...weren't feeling it, so we stumbled upon another, which turned out the be the biggest casino known to man (probably)....an endless maze of chinging, dealing and yelling. Tried my hand at blackjack and was on fire for a while....people betting on my plays. Made up for my loses at the slots, then as we were gearing up to leave, noticed a few Craps tables, and we had heard that these were the best odds in a casino. Got the Chinese attendants to explain it to us, and starting playing alone. Before we knew it, we had a full table, full of people cheering and high fiving each other, and small fortunes were won and lost. I was on the 'lost' side hehe, but still managed to end up by a few bucks, and Kyle won a bunch. By the time the boat landed back in Hong Kong, it was 5 am and we had to sneak back into our hostel under the back gate.

Next day, we hit up a hiking trail about an hour away that we had heard about. Completely amazing views....the "Dragon's Back' trail takes you alone the ridge of a mountain, with a view of the ocean to the right, and a gulf to the left. At the summit, we spotted a beach with massive waves, and decided to try to make it down there. An hour of walking and jogging later, we found an incredibly long set of stairs that took us down to "Big Wave Beach", where we jumped in and body surfed on the gigantor waves, in the dark at this point. Had a beer and headed back.

Later at night, we headed back to town and went up a 45 degree tramway to a famous lookup point, where we could see a different view of the city lit up. Heard about a bar strip, took a cab there, and turns out it's more like a bar neighborhood, with like 200 bars within a couple of blocks, on a really steep hill. Drank among the hundreds/thousands of people until the wee hours of the morning, met a bunch of travellers, got separated from each other, and somehow pulled into the hostel at the same time as the sun was coming up. We went to sleep (in the dorm room with about 38 other beds).

I woke up in the morning, and casually glanced at my watch....it was 12:10. Our flight was leaving from the Hong Kong airport, over an hour away, at 1:45, and we had slept through our 9am alarms. I thought about it for a while...was it worth panicking and trying to make it, or was it a lost cause? Once you put that kind of thing in motion, theres no stopping. Decided we had to try, and it quickly turned into the begining of "Home Alone", bags been stuffed, things being left behind because there was no time. We got there at 1:20, after the most expensive cab ride of my life, and the front desk tells us they don't let you check in after 40 minutes pre flight. So there. She put us on the 3:30 flight and we had time to relax finally.

Later that night, we land in Taipei, go to the visa office, and find out not only did we need to have an onward flight booked from taiwan before they'd let us in, but we also needed to get our visas before arriving. So rather than staying for 2 or 3 months and working, now we must leave the country before 30 days goes by, and get the 'visitor' visa to come back with. The airline helped us out and whippped up an imaginary itinerary to show the customs officials that we had an exit flight booked, which they never even asked for in the end, and a high speed train later put us in Tainan, where we have made a good contact already and are joining a soccer team later this week. Staying in a $15 CAD a night hotel right now and starting the job, apartment, motorcycle, guitar, cell phone, djembe and mandarin lesson hunting process now. Looks like we'll be here for a month, then will hit up Japan before coming back for another month with the proper visa. Oh yes, and throughout all that, Kyle's been walking around with a sprained ankle. AND, they wouldn't let him leave the train station at first, because you need your original ticket to open the exit gates, and he had lost his, and apparently that's a 'big deal' and he would have had to pay for another whole ticket just to open the gate. After like an hour of detainment, I found his ticket that somehow ended up in my pocket, and the security guards let him leave. Ok that's it. More updates to come! And good pictures, lots of them, I swear.

Ciao

Mike

Shanghai

2008-09-23T02:05:00.003-04:00

Nihao! Our apologies for the century it took for us to update you. We are still in Shanghai, and have been contemplating our next move. We slowed down the pace a little and have been focusing more on chillaxin' after a month of fastpaced sightseeing. Justin landed an english teaching gig with wee kids a few times a week, Kyle and I decided to extend our visa's for another month and are heading to Taiwan after that to try to find our own teaching jobs, hopefully with a visit to Hong Kong first. So...we've been staying with Kendra, SOnja and Cori for over a month now, and today we are moving into a place we will rent for the remainder of our stay here. We've seen some pretty cool stuff so far. A highlight is definitely Shanghai biking...pretty chaotic, and incredibly fun. Also very interesting to see highrise buildings here, and then small alleys with chickens and ducks running around everywhere. Also lots of small hidden restaurants, shops (bags and watches...you buy...good friend....7 for 100 RMB!) small barber shops, excetera. Had a birthday on Saturday, my 26th one. Was a pretty sweet day....started it off with a game of Risk, then had a bunch of people over, played drinking games and 'catchphrase' (do yourself a favor and look into it), had a roundtable freestyle with some guitars. Then headed out to a few bars in the wee A.M., and woke up without a hangover. It was like magic. First taste of Canadian Club for a while too...it brings you back. Checking out an acrobat show on friday, and did a bit of travelling to a small town nearby with a very scenic hike around a lake. Also paid a visit to a mansion that people rent out for parties the other day. It doesn't take long in Shanghai to start seeing the same foreigners at the bar and at parties...very cool that we already know a lot of them. Hopefully will be checking out some more mountaineous regions before we settle down in Taiwan for a while and the Tree Loose Moose split up to 1 and 2 moose and meeses respectively. Haven't had any crazy food really, but we have seen tiger paws, snakes and toads, and lots of pigs feet in grocery stores. Kyle's been playing football (soccer) a few times a week...Justin and I went to watch the last game...and drink...turns out they needed some goalkeepers for the game to happen, so we filled in, beers in hand. Try playing soccer in sandals on turf and not spilling your can. Went to see a live band at a music venue the other day as well....first time in a Chinese moshpit, rocking out to lyrics I don't understand. Linkin Park, Kanye West, and Avril Lavigne shows coming up before we leave too...might have to bite the bullet and check out one of them.

So, as you can tell, not as much sightseeing over the last month....really just soaking in the Shanghai experience. Hopefully will fit in some Shanghai go-karting and paintball, and maybe some shark diving if we're lucky (tried once already but missed our ride). Also gonna have a bunch of suits tailor made for us for incredibly cheap, and send them home, so the next time you see us we should be pretty spiffy lookin. Will try to get some more pics up for you, and start updating more regularly again. Cheers and thanks for checking in!

Mike

Pictures

2008-09-02T07:32:00.018-04:00

Helloooooo. Here are some pictures. Half of the best ones from my camera are on here, the other half on our facebook 'Tree Loose Moose' page. Sorry they're not in any order or sometimes rotated properly. Enjoy!

-Mike

Olympic fever

2008-08-26T21:41:00.004-04:00

Ni hoa!! Beijing was GREAT! It lasted about a week. We visited the great wall, the forbidden city and Tian na men square. All of which were AWESOME! Then, it was OLYMPIC FEVER!! and let me tell you, we were infected! All three of us meese were in full fledged canadian outfits which led to a papparazzi photoshoot that would outdue Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's mysterious affair with a texan midget and his seven foot bearded wife. Can you just picture Justin in his clown mask making faces to the sea of Asians?!?! We then headed to a man made lake surrounded by bars and joined the hundreds of people dancing in the courtyard. We grabbed a bite to eat and played a chinese version of hacky sack for hours on end. Also, at another bar strip we met the middle eastern guy from 'This hour has 22 mins'.He was there filming skits and we were the only ones to recognize him. We ended up buying tickets for the track and field finals from a scalper(dont ask how much!)where we were the rowdiest group in the whole birds nest. We truly dont know how CBC missed us. Thanks for nothing Ron! Beijing Beijing wor ai Beijing!! To give an idea of how big Beijing is, we watched the closing ceremonies fireworks on tv, and only heard them once it was done being aired. It sounded like the city was under attack!
We just arrived at my cousins Kendra's place in Shanghai where we plan to stay with her and her GORGEOUS roomates for a couple nights till we figure out our plan of attack for Shanghai.
Peace!

Mongolia/China

2008-08-20T05:36:00.006-04:00

Hey folks. Last update was from Lake Baikal, Russia. Later that day, we went to Irkuustk and did a little sightseeing, then hopped on a train that would cross the Mongolian border to Ulaanbataar overnight. This was the first time we really started seeing lots of other backpackers, and it hasn't really stopped. Quite a community of travellers out here. The border crossing actually took a while, with passport checks and custom declarations on either side, so we had 6 hours in a small russian border town. After several hours killing time in the hot sun, we decided to bust out the guitars and entertain the train full of passengers sitting around the platform. Everyone gathered round, clapped, swayed and sang as we played for the 40 or 50 people from all walks of life. One guy in particular joined in by making up lyrics in Korean....a really cool moment where language barriers didn't exist. Anyhoo, we made it to Ulaanbatar the next day and were swept away to the a national park on the outskirts, where we did some bad ass/horse back riding (not that sissy walking in a row stuff...these horses could giver..."choo!"), some hiking, some fine dinning, even some basketball. Incredibly friendly people out there. Then we spent a few days roaming Ulaanbataar, capital of Mongolia, and saw stuff like the Black Market, a buddhist temple, a Mongolian rock band at an Irish Pub, and some more night life. Lots of coverless manholes in that city..watch your step. Then, overnight train again to the Chinese border, another long wait, then onto a Chinese Sleeper Bus with like 40 beds, each one seemingly designed for midgets. No joke, the bed ended just below my knees. Overnight on that thing, with about 5 random stops for passports throughout the night (Olympic security), and now we're in Beijing. Feel somewhat like a celebrity out here, because we get way more stares and waves here than anywhere else so far. Some people ask for pictures, especially if we're playing guitar. They also like our arm hair. Gonna hike on the Great Wall tomorrow, and maybe the Forbidden City, and try to get some tickets for the Olympics. Next update will probably be from Shanghai. All the best to the west! Pictures to come...

Goodbye Russia

2008-08-13T22:07:00.000-04:00

Hey all. Well, our time in Russia has nearly come to an end. After St Petersburg, we took the overnight train to Moscow, and trust us, Moscow never sleeps. Did the tourist stuff (the Kremlin, Red Square, Lenin's Tomb, Cathedrals, boat rides, you name it) but also had the real Russia experience of an attempted mugging, a near arrest, a subway pervert, and defending an innocent woman from her abusive boyfriend, all the while drunk as skunks. That sounds bad, but it was all in 1 night. The good far outweighed the bad! Good = amazing sites, beautiful woman, good food, fantastic company, and vodka. One of the sweetest things about Moscow is the Metro system, very cool. We parted from Aussie Drew and Ray from TO, and jumped on train to Lake Baikal (3.5 day ride!)with the other 3 guys in our group (2 Brits and 1 Prairie boy). The train ride itself was something else. Now we're at the end of a 4 day stay at a small village near Lake Baikal, the biggest/oldest lake in the world, holding 1/5 of the global freshwater supply. Did some hiking, same bartering at the market, ate fish, went swimming (brrrrrr), snuck bikes out in the middle of the night and met many locals. Now we're heading back to Irkuust for the day and jumping on a train yet again to Ulaanbatar, the capital of Mongolia, and will be camping for a few days. Won't have access to any technology while we're there, so the next you'll hear from us, we'll be in Beijing. Watch for us painted red at the Olympics, screaming "CAAAANNNNAADDAAAAA!!!!". We'll try to update you on the event we'll be watching (whatevers cheapest). For now, thanks for the patience in waiting for an update, and we'll talk soon! Justin, Kyle and Mike.

How are things?

2008-08-05T19:01:00.000-04:00

Justin, let us know how things are going...we are very interested....

Nat, Bob & Joel

Continued from Sweeden

2008-08-03T12:57:00.004-04:00

sweeden Rocked. Beautifull people. We had a blast are first night in Russia. Chilled out at the hotel met some locals and drank. One of them happend to be secret military police, showing us his id and then the gun. Later that evening I had the chance to shoot it off as we saluted Canada and Russia relations. People love us as soon as we tell them were Canadians. It's still all catching up to us so will digest then talk more but for now know that we are the Canadian sensations.

Travel Blog Launch

2008-07-27T14:51:00.009-04:00

Hey everybody! Our blog is up. Leaving on Thursday...first stop: Russia. Pre-departure post to come.