The Life of GEm

How the time Flies!

2009-08-02T18:38:00.000-07:00

Hello! We're not too sure how it all happened, but all of a sudden we've been home for nearly 15 months, and haven't updated a single picture nor blog in that entire time. Obviously we had our fill while traveling! Now that it's Summer and we supposedly have time to do these things, we are going to endeavour to catch you up on our year that was with a few photo albums. The link to our albums can be found on the right hand side of this blog under 'Family and Friends'. We've started with our one-month stay in South Korea in April 2008, and will soon have our Canadian pictures of Summer 2008 and Winter 2008-2009 up. Also, we'll have photos of our new house up in the coming weeks!

As a quick update, Emily and I have bought a house (on June 6th) just outside of Salmon Arm, B.C. It has 5 acres of forest and meadow around it, with plenty of wildlife, birds and bugs to keep us happy. We both taught for the whole year, Emily teaching Grades 3, 4 and Kindergarten in the French Immersion school in Salmon Arm and me in a Grade 4 class in Enderby. Things for the Fall are locked up for Emily, and she just landed a permanent teaching job at that French Immersion school (Bastion Elementary) teaching French Kindergarten!!! We are pumped:) As for me over in the English camp, it will be a wait-and-see up to early September I'm guessing.

We've loved being back in Canada, and were blasted with a heavy winter - tons of snow and really cold temperatures - to remind us that we really do have 4 seasons here. And they all count. Currently we're looking forward to heading back to those low temperatures as it's been 30 degrees or more for the past 2 weeks with no end in sight. We have enjoyed getting your emails and photos of what you're all up to, and it's been really great to see those of you who we haven't seen for, um, over 4 years!

We're not too sure how we're going to use this blog (or if we're going to use it) now that we're back, but we will be posting photos and stories from our hiking trip into Lake O'Hara in Yoho National Park in the Rocky Mountains, which we're heading to on July 30th. Hope to hear from you soon, and in the meantime enjoy your summer (or winter) months!

Lake O'Hara Hiking Trip

2009-08-02T17:54:00.000-07:00

Melanie and Sean joined us from Calgary, and with my parents the six of us headed off into the countless peaks of Yoho National Park in the Rocky Mountains. Among all the park's jewels, Lake O'Hara must shine the brightest. Adorned with thick forests, breathtaking peaks and valleys, and the turquoise waters of the lake itself almost always within view, hiking here is sheer pleasure!

Lake O'Hara seen through the trees from the jumping off point to all the day hikes, and us six at the campground where we spent our nights.

Another great advantage to this area is that the number of hikers actually hiking around and in the campground are limited, as everyone has to bus in to the area and book 3 months ahead. It works, as on our first day, we encountered 3 people on our 8-hour hike! From the campground, there are a myriad of day-hikes that you can take leading up hillsides and above the treeline to 'saddles' from where you can look into new valleys below. The camp sits at 2000 feet, while our highest height we hiked to was at Wiwaxy Gap, just over 2500 feet. We had excellent weather, though the mornings were a bit cool at 4 degrees!

The majestic 'hanging gardens' of Opabin plateau and a lunch-spot view into another valley from Wiwaxy Gap.

Although Sean and I wanted to see bears (both Grizzly and Black around the area), we didn't get the chance, although close looks at 10 Mountain Goats made us feel very fortunate. It is amazing how much ground you can cover in one day up here, traversing ledges, valleys and mountain sides, all the while having the splendour of Lake O'Hara below you. Some patches are extremely steep, as seen below on the left, and the best advice is to just not look back, as there isn't much to stop you from tumbling all the way back down to the bottom. Other places, however, are a leisurely stroll.

Emily and Sean navigate the steepest part of our 2 days' hiking, while Sean joins Melanie taking in the view during a short rest on our first day.

It was fantastic to spend these 3 days all together, as living 6 hours apart doesn't lend itself well to joint visits! Melanie and Sean now look forward to moving into their new house on August 19th in Calgary, while my parents and us are heading south to Oliver to join Emily's parents, brother and aunt and uncle in some biking and wine-tasting! More photos of our trip, including some of the local wildlife, can be seen in our web albums, the link to which you'll find on the right side of this page under 'Family and Friends'.

China Part 3

2008-04-13T16:55:00.000-07:00

View of the Hong Kong harbour; wine at the Intercontinental Hotel - courtesy of M&D Styles!

After our month of driving around the New Zealand countryside (and successfully selling our car - Hi Shoki!), we went back China. First stop: Hong Kong. We stayed with friends Chris Lonsdale and Sheryl Climo who were wonderfully hospitable and easy-going, even when I decided last-minute to get a wisdom tooth taken out and was laying wan on their couch for much longer than our intended visit! It was so great to have a home away from home. Thanks for everything, Chris and Sheryl! We'll be thinking about you on your 'special day':)

Once I'd recovered, we headed to Yangshuo - where the mountains go straight up and straight down, meeting flooded rice paddies and swollen rivers. It was satisfying to finally see what we'd always imagined southern China to be. It was rainy and misty the whole time we were there, which suited us just fine as it fit our image of the place and also gave us a chance to take it easy.

Next we headed to Emei Shan (Emei Mountain) near Chengdu. This is one of the five most holy mountains for Buddhism in China, but of course we went for the birds. Unfortunately it continued to be rainy and misty and we hardly saw any birds, but we did see some massive monkeys (maybe snub-nosed macaques?) emerging spookily out of the mist, for which this mountain is also famous. We took the bus up the mountain and then hiked the 20km or so down the stairs. About half way down we stayed one night at a monastery where it was so damp that there was mist in the room and everything was wet - thank goodness for electric blankets!

Hellen and Justin with their new baby boy, and Justin's mom who is living with them for a year to help out. Samantha, our old boss at Western Language Center, who once again hosted us warmly - even with a broken foot! The gang at Western Language Center: our last goodbye for a long time.

Then we went to Xi'an to see Hellen and Justin's new baby and to say one last goodbye to our old friends who introduced us to Asia. The next time we get to Xi'an will probably be at least 10 or 15 years later, with kids, so it really felt like goodbye this time. It was neat for us to see them so near to the end of our journey seeing as how they were the ones to welcome us to China, and because of our wonderfully positive experience there, we ended up staying much longer! We hope we get the chance to host them in our home country in the future:)

With Armstrong (and his friend Ho Lin, taking the picture), flying kites in Zhengzhou.

Geoff squeezing through the 'Gleam of Sky' path at the Red Canal site.

Zhihwa and I looking down from the Red Canal site.

Then to Zhengzhou to see our 'lucky fortune friend' Armstrong who is studying a masters in English translation there. We met his friend Ho Lin who took us kite flying, and spent a couple of days with Zhihwa (whom we've met before): one day we drove out to the Red Canal project (a 10+year project in the 1960s hewing out a canal through a mountain - by hand - so allow the water from a river on one side of the mountain to pass through to the other side for irrigation), and one day eating and visiting Zhihwa's family.

"So we took a boat to Soooouth Korea."

It's neat to re-visit a foreign place, and we were glad to have a chance to fill in some gaps in our Chinese experience - Hong Kong, Yangshuo - and to be able to see our friends one last time. Around this time we also made the decision to come home a little early (early May instead of late June) so all this revisiting and goodbying seemed just right.

We boarded a big boat for the 16-hour crossing into South Korea a little apprehensive about seasickness but we had a most wonderful trip! We had our own little room, there was hardly any rocking, and we both had a good quiet sleep:)

The month of April we'll be back in our old home of Iksan, helping BirdsKorea in their last year of the Saemangeum Shorebird Monitoring Program (SSMP). We'll tell you all about that in the next blog:)

An Amazing Journey - The Bar-tailed Godwit

2008-03-05T20:18:00.000-08:00

For years bird researchers from the Miranda Shorebird Center in New Zealand and the Alaska-based US Geological Survey team believed that the Bar-tailed Godwit flew non-stop from Alaska to New Zealand on their Fall southern migration. Many peers didn't believe that this 40-cm long bird couldn't possibly fly the 11,500 km needed to complete the journey, especially as a non-stop flight would indicate no sleep, no food and no water over that time. Last year, however, for the first time in history, satellite transmitters revealed the truth, making those researcher's hypotheses a reality.

The Bar-tailed Godwits (left) at Miranda get pushed into these pools on high tide. We set up mist nets that the birds will fly into when landing there to roost.

Last year, one bird's battery lasted her entire migration, tracking her flight from New Zealand up through Yalu Jiang, China and then up to Alaska on her Spring northern migration. After breeding, the battery then lasted her entire southern migration, non-stop for 8 days and nights from Alaska to New Zealand. Her flag on her leg identifies her as 'E7', and following the tracking of her 29,000 km migration, she has now made news headlines as far off as Tehran. With that success in the bank, this year's project saw 9 birds implanted at Miranda, and a further 16 done in Broome, northwestern Australia.

After catching the birds in the nets we set up (left), we put them in boxes and either banded and released them on the spot, or took them back to the Center for implanting and flagging.

Having to wait for an after-sunset tide (therefore making the black mist nets difficult to see for the birds) put us in the position of kneeling beside the ponds waiting for the high tide on the nearby shoreline to push them our way. Hearing the birds whooshing over our heads in the cover of darkness was quite the experience. The more experienced researchers then removed them from the nets and placed them in special boxes, which we then took to a nearby van where they were measured. If they were big, healthy and already fattening up, they were kept as candidates for implanting and put aside. All the others, 40 or so, were banded there and then released. After 25 minutes or so, we had our candidates and it was back to the Center, a 2-km drive away, for the important part of the whole operation - the surgical implants of the transmitters themselves.

The largest birds were implanted with satellite transmitters (left), a procedure which sees them put under for 30 minutes. The rest, about 50 this time, are flagged and banded (left).

An Alaskan vet from the USGS team joined a New Zealand vet for the operations, during which the birds are put under for 30 minutes. The transmitter, the size of a date with a trailing black antennae (seen above, right) is implanted into an air sac in the bird's side. After they come to, they're flagged with black flags with white alpha-numeric lettering. Seeing these birds on the table really brought home how fragile these birds are, but also how resilient they are too. One hour after the procedure, they were brought back to the shoreline and released, ready to fatten up even more before heading north in two weeks.

The rest of the birds were measured, banded and flagged with a white flag (denoting New Zealand) with 3 capital letters on them. Now, when someone spots these flags up and down the flyway, they're an email away from knowing when and where the bird was banded, and another piece of these birds lives is filled in. Being a part of this team, which numbered 24 people, was an experience neither of us will forget. It was not only exciting holding the birds in our hands and seeing experienced people go to work, but also knowing that this project is using the latest technology to chart new pathways in the way we understand birds, and therefore, understand the world around us.

Giving signals for 6 hours and then going offline for 36, the bird's transmitter will create 'blips' on a screen, which can then be connected to show their flight path. A web page connected to Google Earth will be set up soon so we can track these birds as they begin their incredible 29,000 km migration, continuing what that species has done for thousands of years, but which we have only proven without doubt for 2 years. We will put the link on our blog when it's created. Now only time will tell to see if last year's incredible success can be repeated.

New Zealand

2008-03-03T20:57:00.000-08:00

New Zealand. A country we've literally heard nothing but great things about, and a place that we've been looking forward to seeing for years now. It didn't disappoint. With more beautiful scenery than you'd think necessary for one country, endemic flora and fauna so completely different from any other place on earth, and some of the friendliest people we've met on our trip so far, we had a fantastic 35 days driving around and taking it all in.

A hearty welcome from one of the 30 million sheep in New Zealand.

Buying a car allowed us access to off-the-beaten-track locations we wouldn't otherwise have been able to see, which was a real highlight of the trip. Our good friends Adrian and Janice lent us their camping gear, which helped get us out into the wild, of which this country has an abundance, despite the major effects humans have had on this country's environment. Although only settled 1,000 years ago by the Maori people, this country's topography has been altered significantly, to the demise of many endemic bird, animal and plant species. The South island is where most of the large untouched patches of forest are, while the North island resembles a mixture between old English shrub-lined roads and pastureland grazed on by millions of sheep and cows. That being the case, we headed for the South first, and spent the bulk of our time down there.

We bought a car, borrowed some camping gear and hit the open water and roads for one fantastic month!

Abel Tasman, the Dutch explorer who discovered the islands in 1642 - a full century ahead of Cook, is remembered by Abel Tasman National Park. Located on the northern tip of South island, this is a lovely area for kayaking, beaching and hiking. Although he never actually landed here, he headed the first European expidition that sighted New Zealand after 600 years of Maori residency. As you move down the island, you follow mountain ranges and large tracts of forest. Driving through Arthur's and Lewis Pass was gorgeous, and hot springs around Hanmer Springs and Maruia were welcome on those chilly nights and rainy days.

The wind-battered West coast is rugged, wet and rocky. Hidden just offshore from the pounding waves are two of New Zealand's largest glaciers, Franz Joseph and Fox. It is one of the only places on earth where you can see glaciers while standing in rainforest. A little further inland is the country's highest peak, Mt. Cook. As we headed to the southwestern corner, we drove into Fjordland National Park, a massive area made famous by Milford Sound and a plethora of multi-day hikes and deep untouched rainforest. From there it was across the Otago flats, where it is dry, dusty and hot. Dunedin on the East coast is a lovely university city, and the Otago Peninsula near there hosts Yellow-eyed and Blue Penguins, not to mention the world's only Royal Albatross mainland breeding grounds.

North of that is the large city of Christchurch, which is only 2 hours south of Kaikoura, where we experienced the wonder of the 12-foot wingspans of the Albatrosses while out on a 3-hour ocean excursion. The Marlborough area near the northeast corner of the island is home to one of the country's largest wine regions, which we felt we should check out while in the area. We loved the open spaces, free camping and great scenery on the South island, and hope to get back here someday in the future to continue peeking into its treasure trove of natural nooks and crannies.

In what other country can you go from glacier to ocean to rainforest in ONE day?

Wellington, New Zealand's capital city located on the southern tip of the North island, is a cafe-laden, laid back city that most usually pass on as they head to the Cook Strait ferry to Picton on the South island. Driving from there to volcanic hotspot Rotorua, you pass long stretches of dry openess, and the beginning of the grazed lawn that the North island becomes. The volcanic cones around Rotorua are spectacular, and the hot springs, bubbling mud and super-heated pools of that city were something we've never experienced before. We also checked out Waikato University of Hamilton, where Emily's sister Maddie will be going for a semester of school.

Just north of Rotorua is Miranda and the Miranda Shorebird Center on the Firth of Thames. A great spot to view over-wintering Arctic migrants and some intriguing local birds like the Wrybill, we were here a couple of times, more recently joining the international team that caught Bar-tailed Godwits and implanted satellite transmitters used to track their amazing 29,000 km migration path. More on that in a later post. From there you pass the stretched cities of Auckland, and then up through twisty turny terrain to Paihia, where the 1860 treaty of Waitangi was signed, establishing an English governor of the New Zealand islands. From there it's a quick ferry over to Russel, which boasts the country's first church, built in 1863. It's a bustling tourist area, known for kayaking, boat tours and dolphin swimming. Back in the country's largest city, Auckland, we sold our car while staying again with Adrian and Janice, who were wonderful hosts during our comings and goings from their beautiful house and attached 11 acres.

From the massive 13-foot wingspan of albatrosses to the enigmatic Kea, birds were a big highlight, as was seeing Brenda and Dave, Emily's aunt and uncle:)

For us, our month in New Zealand was a wonderful opportunity to see one of the world's most beautiful countries, made famous by the backdrops of the Lord of the Rings and the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe movies. It also seemed that while driving into every small town in the country, Emily would remark, 'What a cute town!'. On top of the gorgeous scenery, it was refreshing for us to see a country with a managable population and lots of protected green spaces. It was, however, shocking to see the detrimental affects of introduced plant and animal species on local organisms, and reminded us, once again, how fragile the world we live in really is.

Adelaide, South Australia

2008-02-05T17:22:00.000-08:00

After doing a little birding in Melbourne and sight-seeing with mom and dad in Sydney, we all flew to Adelaide to mom and dad's new house for the year. It was so fun seeing them get settled into their new home, new town, new country, new continent, new hemisphere. We were there for about two weeks, and on the very last day my brother Luke joined us from the Philippines! It was great to catch up with Luke, even though it was too short. He'll be there for the next two months working and helping out at mom and dad's. Luke brought with him some very exciting news: he and his Philippino girlfriend Maya got engaged! It's difficult to get Canadian visas these days, so they're not setting a date now but the engagement is a commitment to work towards living together in the future:) It was just awesome to see him so happy. Congratulations Luke and Maya!
We also helped mom get settled in her new classroom, which began as a cleaning frenzy since the interior walls of the entire school had been painted over the break.
But we also managed to get out and see some of the sights around Adelaide, which is itself a very pleasant little city. This blustery scene is from Granite Island, which is joined to the mainland by a bridge. Aside from the lovely views atop this island, we also got to see Blue Penguins when they came in to roost at night. They were very cute, like you might expect penguins to be, but we didn't expect to see this animal walking on sand amid tumbleweeds! We also saw a few dolphins and a seal playing together in the bay:)
Our sightseeing happened to take us through a few vineyards, for which the state of South Australia is famous. It was d-r-y! But surprisingly cool. The sun was hot, but the shade was cool and at night and with the famed 'Gully breezes' blowing up from the southern ocean, it was positively chilly. Mom and dad say that it has become hotter since we left them, but we were all joking that it is a cleverly propagated myth that Australia is a hot country.
We sampled a little of the local wine and understand why it's world famous. Haselgrove was our fave.

The day we picked Luke up from the airport we also squeezed in a cricket match - or rather the morning of one day (of five) of the match between Australia and India, who are arch-rivals. And it just happened to be both Australia Day and India Day - what a coincidence, eh? We spent most of the time catching up with Luke and asking Geoff - who was the only one who really understood the game of cricket - to interpret for us what was happening on the pitch.

We had such a great time being all together again after so long apart. This year will be a big learning curve for mom, and a wonderful opportunity for mom and dad to work on this challenge together. Thanks for everything, mom and dad:)

Check out more pictures on our online Picasa web albums - the link is located under 'Family and Friends' to your right.

Australia - Melbourne and Sydney

2008-01-24T15:08:00.001-08:00

Australia! We were excited for this part of our journey for many reasons, and not just because we'd never been below the Equator before. This was the part of our trip where we would be visiting friends, seeing Emily's parents and taking a break from the life of the backpacker to appreciate the comforts of life, such as drinking tap water, showering in bare feet, and not digging into your backpack every day. Our trip started in Melbourne, where Ken and Carlene Gosbell welcomed us very warmly into their home. Ken is the Chair of Australasian Wader Study Group, and as such, is a partner of Birds Korea in the running of the SSMP. He and his wife live in a lovely home outside of the city, surrounded by an 'Australian garden', which means that there are no introduced species. Introduced species, both flora and fauna, have ravaged many parts of this country, and a movement is afoot that is trying to build up the resident species of all kinds.

The Gosbells took us for a drive through wine regions to their
lovely cottage in the hills, where we went on a few walks and took in some lovely birds and sights. The ferns covering the forest floor were just beautiful, as were the Crimson Rosella that landed on us when we got out some seed. We thoroughly enjoyed learning about many different kinds of Eucalyptus trees, which smelled lovely in the mornings.

Before we headed back to Melbourne, we met up with another one of the SSMP's big players, and a leading shorebird expert and good friend Danny Rogers, who, with the Gosbells, took us to a nature park to see a wide array of Australia's strange and wonderful animals, just in case we didn't see them in the wild. We got up close and personal with Koala, Kangaroo, Emu, Platypus and a whole host of other species that don't appear any where else in the world. We learned a lot more about them, including what a Koala sounds like. We're not sure how to explain it other than deep, guttural grunts with heavy breathing - in other words, not at all what you'd expect from such a cute fella.

Once back in the city, Danny teamed up with another shorebird expert, Chris Hassell, to take us to a sewage treatment plant at Werribee. Very few bad smells (unexpectedly) and thousands of birds of over 70 species, it was quite the day! We were treated with a beautiful sunset

as we headed back into Melbourne, one of many we've had so far in Australia. After this fantastic introduction to Australia - thanks Gosbells, Danny and Chris!!!, we were back in Sydney to meet up with another SSMP participant in Andrew Patrick. He took us to Royal National Park just outside the city, and we saw some amazing birds and a really different-looking forest than the ones we saw around Melbourne. One bird that we were particularly excited to see was the Superb Lyrebird, which some of you may have seen on the internet singing chainsaw sounds, or camera shutter sounds, or car alarms, along with an amazing array of other birds' calls and songs. Unfortunately, it was not the breeding season, when they perform these amazing songs and dances, but we did manage to see one, had great views, and heard it practicing some of its repertoire - absolutely wonderful experience.

The next day we entered Sydney proper to meet up with Emily's parents!
We hadn't seen them for 18 months, so we were pretty pumped at the
prospect. After we met at the hostel we were staying at, we enjoyed the sights of Sydney for 5 days, which was a real highlight. Sydney surprised us, though. We had expected it to be an ultra-modern, bustling city with all the fixings usually associated with big metropolis' around the world. What we found, however, didn't exactly fit what we had imagined we'd find.

New buildings there were, but tucked in between them and hidden away in their own districts were aged stone buildings with loads of character. Some were being used as museums, galleries or cafes, but many were simply there being lived in. We hadn't thought of Sydney as a particularly old city, so we were surprised to see so much history there. Surrounding these buildings is acres of green space. In fact, from our hostel, we could almost walk the 45 minutes to the harbour area using only paths through parks! Trees lined roads, birds flew in all directions, and dusk saw the skies flooded with massive Fruit Bats which descend on the berry-trees in Hyde Park, giving Sydney an unusual claim to fame. So, we walked as much as we could, and also made good use of the excellent transit system, which for us was a major bonus. Signs we could understand! Buses that actually arrive on time, with everyone sitting down!! Fares that are non-negotiated and posted clearly!!! Traveling has a way of lowering your standards, we're finding. On the plus, however, traveling also makes you appreciate things you'd never think of appreciating while living in the countries that we live in.

One place that wasn't a stretch to appreciate, however, was Sydney Harbour. We loved how
accessible it all was. The ferry to Manly left from bays between the Opera House and the Bridge. The Opera House could be approached, walked around, touched and entered. The expected throngs of people were actually quite spread out, making pockets of murmuring crowds, all basking in glorious sunshine.

Our ferry trip out to Manly was very enjoyable, as the beaches out there far less crowded than the famed Bondi Beach just outside Sydney. The water, however, was slightly warmer than glacial, so those of us with a pre-disposition to more equatorial water temperatures stayed rather dry. We took on a nice hike through dense brush to reveal wonderful views across the bay to Manly and the ocean beyond. Sydney truly is a beautiful city, but for reasons far different that we had anticipated.

Next up: Adelaide! Ryley is doing a teacher exchange, so they've traded house, car and job with a family living in the Adelaide Hills. We'll be there for just over 2 weeks, moving her into her classroom, and them into their house and neighbourhood, while enjoying all those comforts of home:) We also heard there are a few good wine valleys nearby . . . we hope you're all well, and that you've rung in the new year positively. Take care!

Vietnam

2007-12-31T23:54:00.000-08:00

We're enjoying so many things about this trip, but I think the best part is the learning. Sometimes it's myths being corrected, sometimes blanks filled in, and always a new appreciation and a lot of ohhh!'s. Vietnam is a good example. We'd heard about the Vietnam war, of course, but, well, let's see... no, that's pretty much it. Really shouldn't be telling you this, but we didn't know that the Chinese ruled Vietnam for a thousand years, or that the French ruled for a hundred, or even that the northern communists defeated the Americans and united the country. So you can understand our surprise at finding Vietnam to have European architecture and Chinese-sounding music. (Go ahead, this is where you tut.)

This is the Vietnam we expected: dirt paths, flooded rice paddies, and everyone on bicycles wearing conical hats.

Actually, the European and the Chinese influences surprised us for different reasons. First, the Europeans. Those French, eh, just went everywhere - and where they didn't go, the English went. It's amazing how far-reaching European architecture and bakeries have spread in the world. Traveling Asia is like visiting a museum about the Rise and Fall of the European Empire, and the remnants are like ghosts. Secondly, the Chinese. We knew that Vietnam had some kind of Chinese influence, as all the south-east asian countries do, being so close to China and all, but it seems to be more pronounced here than elsewhere. The conical hats, the colour red, the nasal music, the tonal language, the faces, the habit of doing (almost) everything on the sidewalks - even the Vietnam flag is like a close-up of the Chinese flag.
After landing in Hanoi, we left the next morning for Cuc Phuong National Park, some 3 hours from Hanoi. It was beautiful, clean, and quiet: just the way we like it. We birded our little hearts out and snuggled in thick duvets on our bungalow's porch, sipping hot tea that tasted like smoke. There was electricity only from 6-10 at night, and it was gloriously cool - cold even! We wore the same thing everyday, and loved every minute of it, because it was the first time since Tibet that we haven't been sweat-soaked from morning till night. The park is massive, and in it there were a few 1,000-year old trees that you can walk to. The forest around those trees seemed especially magical, and indeed in one we could hear Brown Hornbills calling 45 meters up. They sound like dinosaurs. Ancient birds in an ancient tree.And of course we did a lot of walking in the forest. Love those root-vines that grow like weeds: this one we could sit on like a swing. We learned that these root-vines are from the fig plant, whose airborne seeds land on branches of big trees and shoot their roots out towards the ground, winding themselves around the host tree until eventually the host is suffocated and dies. Parasites even in the 'peaceful' plant world. In a place so full of life, you're reminded of death all the time, as leaves fall to the ground, insects are devoured by birds, and parties of ground creatures take what the canopy has given them and turn it into dirt.

We grudgingly left the forest and headed back to Hanoi on New Year's Eve, where we were greeted with millions of motorcycles - and at least half of that number trying to coax us into accepting a motorcycle-taxi ride. We've seen all sorts of hawkers in our travels, but never have we met taxi-wallahs who just won't take 'no' for an answer like we have here in Vietnam. Not even the second time, or the fifth, or the time when you make direct eye contact, put your hand on his shoulder and utter the word 'no' in the 'I really mean it this time' way. It's amazing. They just keep asking. Like we're going to say 'no' 20 times, but on the 21st time, oh hey, yeah, now that you mention it, we really DO want to go on a motorcycle ride! Thanks for asking!
Once we got over our initial shock of city-life (again), we came to see the beauty of Hanoi. The 'Old Quarter' (cute European area with all the tourist comforts and souvenirs) is at the head of a lake (see the picture) and the air is clean and fresh. The roads in the rest of town remind us of those from China - red banners strung between trees lining the unpainted streets filled with bodies going various directions on various modes of transport all at once. At first, it all seems like chaos, and you fear for your life. But, with practice, you see that there is order to the chaos, and you can descend into it without fear, or at least with a little less fear. One week in Vietnam was not enough to see more than these two places, but at least it gave us an idea about this country - hopefully enough to build more knowledge upon in the future, maybe in concert with a trip down the 1,800 km coastline to the Mekong Delta in the south... so much to see in this world!

Next stop: Australia! Where we'll be for the month of January, so the rate of blogging will drop off significantly. Happy New Year to you all, wherever you are, and keep those emails coming:)

Thailand

2007-12-31T22:51:00.000-08:00

Packin' in the heat in Thailand.

Thailand was - you guessed it - a surprise. The people were lovely - smiles everywhere and really good at dealing with westerners - and it was much more expensive than we had anticipated. Another surprise was the chance to see mom and dad Styles there: our paths just happened to meet up on the island of Ko Pha-Ngan. ('Course all the pictures of the four of us are on their camera!)

Overlooking a tropical paradise on Ko Pha-Ngan on mom and dad Styles' balcony.

Of course some things about Thailand were not surprises, namely the gorgeous beaches. It was easy to understand why westerners flock here in droves: the beaches really are beautiful, and there are tons of them (beaches and westerners). It was the windy season while we were on Ko Pha-Ngan, so there was less beachfront and more clouds and rain than usual, but we got enough sun for our little white bodies.

The Classic Beach Shot.

Our time in Thailand was actually split into several parts:

first, we flew to Phuket and made our way to Ko Pha-Ngan to get our beaching in and see mom and dad Styles, stopping for a couple of days at a great beach just north of Phuket (Khao Lak / Bang Niang) and for one day at a national park to do some birding (Khao Sok);

then we boated and bussed to Bangkok and from there bussed to Cambodia to see Angkor Wat and our friends from Korea, Melissa and Tabitha;

then we bussed back to Bangkok and met our Thai friend Sirya, who took us to Khao Yai national park nearby where we watched his friends do 'mist-netting' (i.e. catching birds and measuring/ringing them for study purposes);

then back to Bangkok a third time to fly to Hanoi, Vietnam. Bangkok's tourist hub (Khao San Road) began to feel really familiar, and the really funny thing is we didn't take any pictures there!

Confused? Yes, we are a bit too. Many conversations lately start with 'So where were we when...?' or 'Was that before or after...?'

Watching the mist-netting experience was an experience of a lifetime, and then they let us try! Sirya's friends (who are doing master's/phd's in the park) set up the nets and extracted the birds, but they let us hold them, measure them (weight, wing/tail length) and put rings on their legs to mark when and where they were caught. Then we let them go. So neat to hold a living bird in your hand! Especially because we've seen these same species when birdwatching and so know their names and habits. Though they really act differently when caught; like seeing how people react in different situations, we now feel like we know those specific species a little more intimately. The ringing gives the team a good idea of movement of the birds, both local residents and long-distance migrants. For example, one species, the Dusky Warbler, was caught in this same net location last year. Since then, it has flown north perhaps as far as South Korea and back - to the same place for the winter. This helps conservationists learn their habits, learn what ecosystems and environments birds need to use (and so then protect) and also learn about life spans and DNA on tough-to-identify species like the Warblers, of whom we caught 4 different species. In all a wonderful experience - thanks to Siriya and the wonderful Thai team:)

Geoff's paradise.

Geoff holding a Large Scimitar Babbler. Cool bill, eh? This guy made a huge racket!

We enjoyed Thailand more than we had expected to, not least because we got to see mom and dad Styles and hold some birds! Next stop: Vietnam.

Cambodia

2007-12-25T20:58:00.000-08:00

It is very interesting to see the difference between countries as one crosses borders by land. Usually the geography, weather and flora/fauna remain the same, so you're left to look for other differences to differentiate between the two. Between Mongolia and China, the only difference at first is the lack of gers in China, and the onset of the brick revolution that has swept that great country. Traveling overland from Singapore to Malaysia, the difference may be summed up as the differences between an ultra-organized compressed city and a semi-corrupt colonial country with a few less new BMWs driving around. Traveling from Thailand to Cambodia by land, however, provided many more reasons to believe you're in a new country.
So where does Cambodia begin and Thailand end? Cambodia begins where the pavement ceases. Where the Braham cow traces back to its Indian roots to once again become Waste Management Engineers, Grass Trimmer and Fertilizer Crews, Traffic Speed Control Troops and of course Planters of Natural Land Mines. Cambodia begins where the houses leave the ground to be propped up on rickety stilts, where dust billows from the unpaved roads and gas is sold out of used 2-litre pop bottles. The quick, friendly smile remains, the Southern-Chinese faces stay the same, and the language sounds equally beautiful yet unreachable, but all else takes on a whole new face.
Then you hit Siem Reap, and you feel like you've entered another country again. All at once, the pavement picks up, street signs and street lights shine at you from road sides, houses are firmly planted in the earth and you pass 5-star hotels on your left and right. Siem Reap, gateway to Angkor Wat, is everything a tourist hub should be. Western food and pubs, tourist trap shopping areas, quaint streets lined with people trying to drive you places and stores to find cheese, chocolate and wine. After traveling over 150 km of dirt road while taking 5 hours to do so, it felt like an oasis in the middle of the desert! We also lucked in on our trip, as Siem Reap held two more surprises for us - Tabitha and Melissa!! Our friends from Wonkwang University just happened to be on holiday here, and luckily they were there the same time as us! It was great to see them again and to share some of that cheese and wine mentioned earlier:) As Tabitha arrived a few days earlier than us, and Melissa a couple days later, we did not take in Siem Reap's main attraction with them. The main attraction being Angkor Wat.
Angkor Wat is spectacular. Not in the bright and linear lines of the Taj Mahal, though, nor in the ancient length and magnitude of the Great Wall. It is spectacular because it is unpretentious. It is old, but it has been allowed to age with dignity, unlike parts of the Great Wall, which have been rebuilt with a spirit only a plastic surgeon could appreciate. You are allowed to meander through Angkor Wat at your own pace and in your own direction, unlike the Taj Mahal, where you're herded some ways while being denied other paths. We loved Angkor Wat for these reasons and many more. The greenery around the area was peaceful, and seeing villagers going about their business is always rewarding. The sheer size of the area covered by Angkor and the other various Wats is absolutely stunning, and one is left in awe of what it must have looked like 300 years ago without the roads, cars and tourists. Check out our photos on Picasa, as words (at least mine) just don't do this place justice. The intricacy and refinement of the images carved into the solid stone are a marvel, and it struck us that the minds behind planning the various wats, all of which are different, are nothing short of genius. If you haven't seen this place yet, put it on your list, and somewhere near the top.
Although we only spent a few days in Cambodia, it was well worth it. In ancient Chinese tradition, there are 3 Great happinesses in life. One of them is seeing old friends in new places, and seeing Melissa and Tabitha in Siem Reap certainly met that criteria! Seeing Angkor Wat was one of the highlights of our trip so far, is a place we want to learn more about. Seeing a part of Cambodia was also extremely interesting, and we learned a lot by going overland - sights and sounds we would have missed had we skipped the 7-hour 150 km overland bus ride from the border of Thailand and flown instead. A great experience all around!
From here we're back to Thailand for a few days in Khao Yai National Park with Siriya - a Thai conservationist who joined us in South Korea last year to help count shorebirds during the SSMP (Saemangeum Shorebird Monitoring Program). From there its to Hanoi, Vietnam on Boxing Day and then Australia on January 2nd! We hope the holidays have treated you all well, and thank you to all of you who sent us well wishes for this holiday season! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas!

2007-12-18T01:41:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas, everyone! Here's our Christmas poem, this year to the tune of 'Feliz Navidad' because it was the first time that we understood the upbeat-ness of this song as we gazed out at beaches and sweated in flipflops - for once it was the slow solemn Christmas songs that sounded out of place with our surroundings! Italics is for the 'feliz navidad' melody; regular font is for the 'I wanna wish you a merry christmas' melody.

Feliz Navidad
Zul Saryn Bolon [Mongolian]
Kung His Hsin Nien Bing [Mandarin]
Suksan Wan Christmas Lae Sawadee Pee Mai [Thai]

Before we left our home in Korea
Em wrote her thesis on Buddhist ideas
Geoff did bird counting and was head teacher
Both run ragged and mostly apart

Shubh Naya Baras [Hindi]
Selamat Hari Natal [Malay]
Krist Yesu Ko Shuva Janma Utsav Ko Upalaxhma Hardik Shuva [Nepali]

Since the summer we're traveling Asia
Mongolia first then with Styles in China
Tibet, Nepal, six weeks all through India
Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand.

We want to wish you a Merry Christmas
We're thinking how good it will be to see ya
Although we're far soon we will be nearer
We send our love wherever we are.

Malaysia

2007-12-17T01:01:00.001-08:00

Returning to Malaysia always has the feel of coming home for us. When my parents traveled through here in 1973, they were picked up while hitchhiking by a warm family who quickly opened their hearts and homes to them. For the next 22 years, letters and pictures were exchanged until we went back as a family in 1995. By then, the young children from '73 were grown with kids of their own, and the connection continues to this day. They live just outside of Kuala Lumpur, the bright capital of Malaysia, and every time any of our family members or friends travel through Malaysia, we are invited into their homes and lives again. The Grandmother Savithri, her daughter Santhi and Santhi's husband Ganesan welcomed us, along with their three girls, Manjoo, Tharra and Urmila, who are growing up amazingly fast.
Santhi's brother Arunan lives with his wife Veronica and daughters Amara and Calista and new son Vernon only 20 minutes away. Not only do the two families give us a warm and comforatble home away from home, with great food and fantastic company, but they also give us a look into Malaysia that few foreigners are afforded. A tri-cultural country, Malaysia is for many countries a model for multi-culturalism in action. That model, however, isn't perfect, and indeed while we were there a demonstration was held downtown, complete with riot police, projectiles, and the finality of a road block in and out of the downtown area. This demonstration, however, was different from previous demonstrations, as it was the first time the Indian population spoke out against the government, accusing them of unfairness in their dealings with the three peoples of the country. The Malays, the ethnic majority but long-time economic minority, enjoy all kinds of rights and privileges that the other two races are beginning to tire of. Pro-rated university entrance numbers, obligatory partnernship with Malays for any business opened by the other two races, and monetary supplements for any number of life's tough spots all lead to an unfair level of treatment, so the Indians and Chinese say. It's not like Singapore, where there really are no ethnic peoples, as everyone basically moved there en masse through the past couple of centuries. It's these small insights that the family provides us that help us grasp what makes this country tick.

Apart from this, Malaysia is a burgeoning state, with lots going for it. One look at the downtown area, with its broad streets, clean roads, friendly faces and sky-scratching highrises, and you have to remind yourself that you're in Asia. Central Market and Chinatown bustle with shops and outdoor vendors selling all sorts can't-miss articles, while the KL City Center has the Petronas Towers, the KL Tower, and the business high rises that give the city its opulent feel. Walking the streets of KL, you feel like you're walking through the United Streets of Beneton, with clothes fashions from all over the world, not to mention face shapes and skin colours. The real attraction of Malaysia, however, is on the east coast - beaches. Unfortunately, these gems were under the monotonously wet attack of the monsoon season, so we were forced to avoid them, leaving our beach time for Thailand. We therefore headed to the hills, Fraser's Hill, to be exact.

Fraser's Hill sits 3 hours north of KL, sandwiched between Malaysia's other attractions - the tea estates of the Cameron Highlands, and the sweltering rainforest of Taman Negara National Park. We chose Fraser's Hill because it it less developed, actually only 30% developed and 70% undeveloped rainforest, which differs from the 80% developed Cameron Highlands. It had also been raining quite a bit, and we were a little tired of watching for leeches on our shoes when trying to bird, so the National Park, which is known for such creatures, was also out. What we found was wonderful. Quiet trails led through the forest, while birding from the one-way roads leading off the hill were very productive. We met the leader of the local NGO and had a great chat with him about the environmental scene in Malaysia, which, to our surprise, seems to be quite positive. No other country we've traveled in has had a rosy environmental picture, and we've interviewed people in all of them. The good will towards the environment, however, was only created through the disastrous 2004 tsunami, which devastated mangrove areas along the coast. The government learned to respect that force, and in turn has been actively working with local NGO groups to protect undeveloped areas while promoting environmentally-friendly development. A bit of a leap from tsunami destruction to environmental protection, but hey, the environment will take it any way it can!
After 4 days in the cool breezes of the old British hill station, we descended back on KL before heading out by plane to Thailand. Because of the way we've structured our trip - trying to see a lot of places in not a lot of time, we don't leave ourselves much time to breath in a country and its people. Singapore felt like a whirlwind, while we did India from top to bottom with only a couple of breathers in between. Although we only spent 10 days in Malaysia, we felt refreshed, like we had taken a break from the break-neck pace we've been on. Thanks to the family and some lovely time birding and hiking through quiet green spaces, we're ready to take SE Asia by storm! Well, we're ready for 10 days of beaching in southern Thailand anyway . . . Happy holidays to you all, and we wish you all the best in the New Year!

Singapore

2007-12-16T23:37:00.000-08:00

Singapore was another surprise. We flew only 4 hours from Chennai (Madras), but we couldn't have found a country more opposite from India! To borrow a Konglish phrase, "Singapore is no": no garbage, no poo, no pollution, no noise, no chaos, no smell, no touts, no cows, no dogs, no beggars - in fact, no poverty, no untended plot, no unmanicured space, no unfinished corners. What Singapore is is orderly, clean, wealthy, organized, efficient, and sparkling. It gave us an idea of how a mother can love equally two children who are polar opposite: we loved the chaos of India, and we loved the control of Singapore. In fact, we suspect that we loved the orderliness of Singapore because we had just come from the overwhelmingness of India. We recommend visiting the two one after another (but India must be first!): they complement each other like sweet and sour. We were fascinated by the business-amusement-park feel of the clean and manicured streets of downtown Singapore. (Actually, Singapore reminded us a lot of Vancouver; we're curious now to visit Vancouver now to see if it too feels like an amusement park.) No messy life processes happening on these streets! All ugly scenes of life are effectively hidden from view - in fact, one might come to forget that sickness and death exist in Singapore. In India, this is impossible: homeless dogs with missing patches of fur, glazed eyes, and open sores roam the streets; small children and bent-backed elderly sell trinkets to make a living; unbelievable numbers of people have no shoes and no food; garbage and other unpleasants stay where they've been discharged. But in Singapore, everyone is well-dressed, well-fed, healthy, and of a moderate age; and there are no stray dogs at all. In India we felt like the prince Siddhartha viewing old age, sickness, and death on the streets and contemplating nirvana; in Singapore we drank sweet coffees at Starbucks and not once did death come into our thoughts. But as much as we were affected by these surroundings, the minds of local people are thoroughly shaped by them: in India the people moved slowly with a look of fatalistic resignation in their eyes; in Singapore they moved slowly with the confidence that they were not in the constant mortal peril of being hit by a moving object (car, motorcycle, cow, whatever) or stepping in anything unpleasant. The population of Singapore is made up of Chinese (about 70%), Indian (about 20%), and Malay (about 10%), but there is a difference in Singapore: the Chinese are plump, the Indians have shoes, and the Malays have to compete for jobs and university spots. Not generalizing, of course. Basing these sound opinions on two full days in Singapore - obviously you can disregard that grain of salt you've got. Isn't traveling great? You finally learn to let go of stereotypes and simplifications, and really see the intricacies of life in all their complexity. We passed our one hundredth day of travel while in Singapore and, chance would have it, we stumbled upon this "fromagerie", with real cheese, baguette, and wine, so that afternoon we enjoyed these luxuries and played a little chess. (Geoff's still winning every game, but it's just a matter of time, I tell him.) International places such as these are commonplace here, which shouldn't surprise the student of history. This city's fortunes have been won and lost on it's power as a port, a middle-man between countries. Today, 70% of the country's GDP is made through 'services' given to other countries. Banking, shipping, docking, refining, all of these things lead to places like Le Fromagerie. Singapore has grown internally stronger by welcoming external dollars and business, and will continue to flourish because of this.

The next day we took the metro and a bus out to a nature reserve. It was our first time in mangroves, and the closest we've been to monitor lizards. And some great birds, of course: fantails, tailorbirds, kingfishers, whimbrels, sandpipers, and an eagle. Being such an organized and wealthy place, Singapore has allocated money to places like this nature reserve, and we were impressed with how tastefully this preservation project was done. With all the growth this country has undergone since it's birth in 1965, it is refreshing to see that some areas have been fully protected and that development doesn't have to mean outright takeover of all natural areas of land. That being said, it is definitely an urban country, void of wild, unmanaged natural spaces.
We stayed with Chithra (below) - a cousin of Santhi's (the family in Malaysia) - her husband Ashok and nine-year-old daughter Nikita. We really enjoyed our short stay with them, and we were especially impressed with Nikki's confidence and composure in welcoming us to her home (we arrived while her parents were at work) and showing us around. We also enjoyed peppering Chithra and Ashok about life in Singapore, and the changes that they have seen in this city, which only became independent 42 years ago, but which has grown into one of Asia's Little Dragons. Add that to the myriad of 'National Campaigns' the government dreams up, and you've got one happenin' place. It's Singapore's size that really gives it an advantage over other countries. Take this example - a few years ago, APEC descended on Singapore, and organizers thought it would be nice if they were welcomed by the Singaporeans. So, EVERY Singaporean, all 4 million of them, had to send in their smiling picture via email, which were then posted online, on walls and at the airport to welcome the delegates. At the same time, locals were encouraged to smile and be helpful on the streets through the 'smile campaign' and 'help a foreigner campaign' to help make the meeting successful and the delegates happy. Where else would this happen, or more importantly, where else could it happen? Nowhere. That's another reason Singapore is unique.
A lovely place to visit, Singapore is, if you look at it as what it is - a city. As far as cities in the world go, however, it would be tough to beat this one. Next stop, Malaysia:)

Southern India

2007-11-13T01:29:00.000-08:00

Mumbai's (Bombay's) European architecture.

After zipping through the north to see what we considered the must-see sights, we slowed down the pace once we got to the south. A 27-hour train ride took us from Varanasi to Mumbai, and these two cities soon came to represent opposite poles in our Indian experience. Where Varanasi was dirty, Mumbai was clean; Varanasi loud and crowded, Mumbai quiet (for a city) and spacious; hot and humid, vs breezy and manageable; scary at night, vs evening promenades along the waterfront; backward and poor, vs modern and well-to-do; decrepid one-story buildings, vs 18th century European cathedrals; no green space, vs tree-lined streets; cows and waterbuffaloes and dogs roaming the streets, vs 1950s taxis and double-decker buses for your convenience. We're certainly not city people, but we were charmed by Mumbai.

Marine Drive , downtown Mumbai.

Mumbai felt like stepping back in double time: the architecture was 18th century, and the vehicles were 1950s.

Having lived and traveled in The East for these last few years has made us constantly aware of our identities as Westerners. Mumbai was the first place that we felt valued for our British heritage. Usually we're aware of people thinking we are American - and either valuing or despising us because of it. It was interesting for us as Canadians to have this other half of our cultural identity brought to the fore. British cars, British buildings, British signs and turns of phrase, British accented English. No McDonalds, no skimpy-ly dressed blond models on billboards, no Britney Spears blasted on the street. India has a definite Englishness about it, and nowhere did we feel it more strongly than in Mumbai.

Well, we WILL be looking for a car when we get home...how 'bout this style, dear?

The cathedral at Mumbai University; Emily appropriately pensive.

We spent one day walking around the city along Marine Drive. We met an elderly man on his daily walk with his cronies who performed the national duty of interogating the foreigners. Whereareyoufrom?Whatisyourprofession? Whatareyournames?Howdoyoulikeourgreatcountry? HowlongareyouinIndia?

In return for completing this interview, he presented us with a Mahabharata flower, which, he explained, represents the main characters of the Mahabharata, one of India's most-important ancient epics (the other most important epic being the Ramayana). In fact, for all you epic connoiseurs, the Mahabharata is 8-times longer than Homer's Iliad and Odyssey put together! The 100 purple petals around the outside are the 100 sons of Dhristrarashtra (I think that's the right spelling); the five yellow stamens represent the 5 Pandava brothers, who are cousins of the 100 brothers (the 5 brothers are unfairly harassed and sent into exile; eventually they are forced into a war with their 100 cousins, who will not agree to peace, and with the divine help of Krishna the 5 brothers defeat their 100 cousins and take their rightful place on the throne); and the single pistil represents the shared wife of the Pandavas. If anyone's interested, R.K.Narayan has re-written the Mahabharata in a very readable and enjoyable story - less than 200 pages. It's like reading the Coles'Notes of Shakespeare.

Mahabharata flower.

After singing the praises of Mumbai on the first day, on the second day we were attacked by allergies and a slight fever, which we blamed on the train air-con....until we took this picture of a rooftop restaurant: on the left, without flash; on the right, with flash. Look at the picture on the right. No, that's not snow. Or rain. We think it's dust at best, or maybe industrial pollution. It didn't smell like pollution, but maybe we were fooled because of the breeze. This incriminating picture suggests that Mumbai is not quite as clean as we first thought. Two weeks later Geoff's allergies are better but I'm still fighting a sinus infection.

Despite the pollution, this was possibly the coolest restaurant we've ever been to: on a rooftop looking over the harbour, sand 'floor' with stone pathways, fountains and mini waterfalls lit up with lights, sitting in laid-back armchairs under open tent-canopies, with deep-bass funky music and the smell of hookas from nearby tables. Oh yeah, and the food was awesome! We took pictures of the bathroom for future home-modelling inspiration.

Short hike at Rainforest Retreat.

We really enjoyed Mumbai, but we were happy to get out of the city into the countryside. Another 24-hour train ride south took us to Bangalore - the Call Center Of The World (we didn't stop: it looked like a dump) - and from there we caught a bus to Madikeri and then a taxi to Rainforest Retreat. It's an ecologically friendly, sustainable agriculture rainforest plantation. Their main crops are cardamom and coffee, plus they have other crops of pepper, vanilla, pineapples, and beans. We really liked the natural philosophy: they are completely organic and they say things like "Nobody owns land, but we've lived here for 10 years" and "We have very healthy predatory populations of spiders, scorpions, and frogs that help to keep the ecosystem in balance." The food was fantastic and it was blissfully quiet and green. We learned how to cope with leeches (who crawl like inchworms along the forest floor) and we saw the biggest spiders and moths we have ever seen. In fact, the moths there are the largest in the world.

Our cabin at Rainforest Retreat.

While we were at Rainforest, we met a Canadian (!! - rare to meet a Canadian; there really aren't that many of us in the world!) physio therapist/yoga instructor named Teresa. We took her advice and went to Turtle Bay Beach Resort when our time at Rainforest came to a close.

Normal light, and storm light, at Turtle Bay. Really enjoyed the afternoon thunder-and-lightning storms:)

Turtle Bay.

Turtle Bay was a very nice, relaxing beach resort; the staff made us feel like VIPs; the food was great (hm, seems to be a theme throughout India...in fact, I'm kinda hungry right now); white sand; waves; birds...you get the picture. Unfortunately, Geoff hurt his back trying to lift one of our big bags on a bumpy bus, so he had to be careful during our time here.

Kundapur, near Turtle Bay. Our temporary get-well center.

The day came when Turtle Bay was all booked up (because of Diwali festival - man, there are festivals every week in India! They have an incredible stamina for celebrating!) so we moved to a hotel in Kundapur nearby. And we've been here four days or so while we wait for Geoff's back to get better. Armed with Teresa's physio advice, ibuprofen, tiger balm, and a loving wife, he's getting back on his feet. We should be back on the road in a few days, a little wiser and more committed to a daily yoga routine;)

In general, the south seems different from the north in the ways you might expect: hotter, more humid, palm trees, nice beaches, smaller and darker people, spicier food. What a pleasant surprise India has been all round! Next stop, SouthEast Asia.

Northern India

2007-10-26T03:27:00.000-07:00

Two words can sum up how we feel about India after spending two weeks in the North. Pleasantly surprised. The people have been helpful and kind, the touts have been fairly easy to handle, the poverty, though bad, hasn't been as pervasive as we feared, and the food has been nothing short of fantastic. That being said, India is not a country in which you can just 'cruise' through, and by overloading all five senses on a daily basis, it manages to leave a mark on you, whether you want it to or not. Luckily for us, so far that mark has been a mark of approval.

Prayer flags and stones decorate the circuit around the Dalai Lama's residence in McLeod Ganj.

Those five senses then . . . we saw a cows make a diving grab for a vendor's goods, moving faster than we've ever seen a cow move before. We watched a ten-year old boy approach another, look at his goods he had for sale, and jokingly barter with him before returning to his own stall full of goods to buy. On the Ganga River, we saw three boys using the river as a latrine, while around the bend and downriver, older men brush their teeth and the women do laundry. Meanwhile, at our knees, our guide dips his hand in the river and shows us the water, "See? It is clean, you no have worry". And all around you, people, with a light dusting of wandering cows. Then there's the garbage piles and the river water . . .

In front of the Taj Mahal just before sunset.

Our ears are blasted by car horns, pierced by autorickshaw wails, and deafened by truck and bus honks, while "Sir, you want to buy? Sir, just looking. Hello Miss, you see? Good price, good quality. Hello! You want taxi, see here (showing us a piece of paper) nice city sightsee" is whispered, yelled or thrown at you as you walk by. In Varanasi, population 1.6 million, we awoke to a loud 'mooo' outside our window, which, being a holy cow, could be taken as quite an auspiscious start to the day.

The nose is perhaps the least well-off of the sensory organs, as a poupourri is throw at you at every step. The morning air is made pungent by the garbage left over from days before. At any point you could meet the sweet smell of incense burning, or of holy sticks/flowers being burned, or the strong smell of cologne on a passing man, proving his wealth in his scent. The cities burst with cars, emitting deisel, gas and propane fumes by the ton, while the sides of the roads and rail tracks are used as toilets, emitting a surprising variety of stenches from sun-baked to . . never mind. Riding on all of this is the scent of curries cooking, which is like finding an oasis.

That being said, if the nose gets the shaft, the mouth gets the gold. Curries come in all shapes and sizes, from creamy paneers to light dhals to curry soups. The meals often include more than one taste, so your taste buds are pulled in all directions as you work to take breaths between bites, and every order starts with, "Two chai please", often to be followed by "two more, thanks". The heavy use of beans, peas, tofu and cheese has allowed us to veer away from meat - we haven't had any meat since we arrived 18 days ago, and are loving it so far.

And the body - what jostling it takes in the back of an autorickshaw! Or in the train station, where Emily rounded a corner and promptly ran into the nose of an oncoming cow, which was ambling into the station's main hall. The gentle rocking on the trains is forgotten when we get on a bus, which roars down roads irregardless of the people, dogs, cows or goats in the way, let alone oncoming traffic or the pot holes. The cool of the hill stations to the heat of the Gangetic plain to the sultry smoothness of river-side in Varanasi, the body does take a beating!

Sunrise on the holy Ganga (Ganges) River, Varanasi.

On top of all this is the sights to see. Delhi was done in quick-like fashion, hitting the spots we wanted to while taking in the inbetweens as much as we could. It suprised us how wide and open the streets were, and lots of trees and parks dot the map. The hill stations were fabulous, and the Tattapani hot springs were a major bonus.

Being in McLeod Ganj and seeing where the Dalai Lamas holds residence was a real thrill. He was away in the States at the time, but soaking up the atmosphere created by all those Tibetans, monks, aged hippies and vendors amid gorgeous mountains was three days well-spent. It was also very refreshing for us to think that no matter how harshly China stamps out the Tibetan life in Tibet, at least there is somewhere that it can continue to thrive, if not grow, again.

A leaf from the Bodhi tree, under which the Buddha reached Enlightenment, Bodhgaya.

Agra was nothing short of dirty, so the Taj Mahal, already a stand-out, was truly stunning. It's pleasing design, intricate marble carving and ridiculous amounts of inlaid gems and stones made it something to behold. The holy Ganga River flowing behind it only added to the timelessness one feels when standing next to something so famous and aged. The babble and flow of the thousands of onlookers contrasted sharply with the quiet reverance we encountered while sitting under the Bodhi tree in Bodhgaya, where Gautama became Englightened. The tree you see there is actually an off-shoot of a tree that itself is an off-shoot of the actual tree the Buddha sat under in c.500 B.C! Like in Sarnath where the Buddha gave his first sermon, King Ashoka created a stupa to commemorate the occasion, which is impressive in itself.

The Ganga river, so important to the Indian traditions and past, was wonderful to see waking up at dawn. Watching the people go through their morning rituals - the bathing, washing, brushing, toiletering, swimming, was quite the sight. The ghats, or large steps rising out of the water, were topped with pagodas, temples and in one place, the area where bodies are burned daily for cremation. The river lives and breathes as the people do, and it seems that in every Varanasian a little bit of that river resides. We abstained from ingesting any of the water, being the prudes that we are.

So India so far has been great, and we're not even half way finished:) We're now in the Vancouver-esque city of Mumbai (we haven't even seen a cow yet!!!) where we're gearing up for another 24-train ride, this time to the outsourcing capital, Bangalore. Chances are that all of you have talked to someone in Bangalore in the past few years, as many businesses us them as their call centers. From there it's to the hills, jungles, backwaters and temples of the south. Be sure to check out our Picasa photo album for part of the trip. Hope you're all well, and thank you for the continual stream of emails and well wishes - all are appreciated, even if not replied to!

Nepal

2007-10-16T04:03:00.000-07:00

After the long desert of the past 30 days in Western China and Tibet, Nepal was a revelation. Moisture picked up off the oceans surrounding the subcontinent gather into clouds over Nepal, hit the Himalayas and dump their cargo onto this country, leaving everything north of the Himalayas stark and barren, but making Nepal itself a fantastic menagerie of life. The forests outside Kathmandu, the city where we spent 8 days, boast over 500 species of flowering plants, over 380 species of birds and countless species of insects, including gorgeously-coloured butterflies and thirsty leeches. Nepal, squished between mountain ranges both to its north and its south, is a healthy mixture of forest, rainforest, plain, mountain, lake and river, making it an outdoorsperson's dream. However, much like some of the beautiful flowering plants we found, thorns are hidden amidst the lushness, leaving the country in a fragile state and one best traveled warily.

Kathmandu is located in this lovely valley ringed by mountains, with the Himalayas just out of view.

Coming into Nepal, we admittedly didn't know much about it other than its close proximity to Mt. Everest and the Himalayas and that it was a great place to trek. What we learned in our very short time there surprised us. For example, we didn't know that in 2001, the prince at the time took up arms and massacred his entire family before turning the gun on himself. Imagine young Prince Harry doing this to the present-day Queen and all the rest of the family? The outcry and disbelief would echo around the world. How could we not have heard of this? We also learned that now the country is a democracy, but the election that was supposed to happen months ago has been suspended time and time again, leaving the people with less and less faith in their leaders. Then there's the Maoist rebels wreaking havoc in the West, kidnapping, killing, creating strikes and generally keeping things in a constant state of flux. They were granted opposition status as a party, then decided they wanted more, and have since walked out of parliament and have taken up alterior means of trying to get what they want. On top of that, we had a few experiences in the city and one in the forest while birding that made us feel a little uncomfortable, and glad that we stayed in the close confines of Kathmandu.

We're now in the land of the sari, and Nepal was a good precursor for India.

Kathmandu itself is quite the place. We spent most of our time in Thamel, a Bangkok Khao-san road-esque place that was like stepping into a dream-nightmare after the beauty and emptiness of Tibet. On the one hand, there was every food known to a Westerner's mind. Curries, Mexican, pizzas, Italian, steaks, chocolate mousse, apple pie . . . the list goes on. Also plenty of beers and wine from France, Chile and Australia, including one of our favourites, Hardy's Shiraz. On the other hand, motorists there have very little respect for your toes, and motorcyclists are simply coming through. The main street of Thamel is jam-packed with internet cafes, restaurants, bakeries, ATM machines, money exchangers and everywhere people selling trips, bus rides, tiger balm and hash, the latter a little more quietly than the three former. Add to this taxis, motorcycles, peddle bikes, small trucks, dogs, and you've got yourself one happening place.

Sun sets on an ancient structure which we guess houses deceased.

It was neat for us to be there with Mom and Dad Styles, as they were here in 1973, and just a few things had changed! It's not very often that you get to see what a place was like 35 years later through someone else's eyes like that, and we thoroughly enjoyed it. Like most other places that have been 'discovered' by tourists, some changes are good, and others not so good. Check out their blog for more on their thoughts on what's changed, and their experiences in Pokhara, a lake-side town a few hours out of Kathmandu valley. Nepal is a place we'd like to go back to, though the political situation would have to change significantly for us to actually do so. For this trip, it was a great place to recover a bit from the last 30 days of buses, trains and dust, and to prepare ourselves for what for us is the scariest part of our journey, India.

A touch of old in downtown Kathmandu.

We will spend 6 weeks in India, trying to take in as much as possible in that time, both in the north and the south. We've heard mixed reviews of the country, and, after reading some of its authors, also know what to expect in terms of poverty and beggars. But, it's a country that has drawn both of us for various reasons, so, to India it is! Hope all is well with you, and thank you to those email senders among you - we appreciate the updates:)

Tibet

2007-10-02T02:39:00.000-07:00

Onto Tibet! Our silk road voyage blended into a journey south to Tibet, but with two key differences: we were on a train instead of buses (praise Allah) and the scenery became decidedly mountainous rather than sand-duney.

Train twisting and climbing into the Tibetan plateau.

For once the LP was wrong, in our opinion: rather than being bored we were enthralled by the open landscape between Golmud and Lhasa, where animals abound. We counted 250 hooved wild animals (we think: wild donkeys, antelopes or gazelles, deer, goats), 10 foxes, a wolf, countless raptors (including three Himalayan Griffon Vultures, which are even bigger than Cinereous Vultures) and other birds, not to mention the hoardes of grazing sheep and yaks. We also admired the delicacy of the lichen and grass on the hills: made us think of the Dalai Lama's request that Tibet be internationally protected as a unique ecosystem because it is mostly unspoiled but is very fragile. Once the lichen and topsoil is disturbed, it takes a very long time to recover it, if ever. Geoff especially was glued to the window and was rewarded with lots of wildlife spotting.

Lichen 'skin' covering the muscles of the mountain.

Lhasa was a place of mixed feelings: on the one hand it was clean and there was good food and shopping, on the other hand it was easy to see China imposing its shops, restrictions, and people on the Tibetans. We worked hard to see all the sights: we biked to both Sera and Drepung Monasteries and took a bus to the third one, Ganden. We went to both the Potala (Dalai Lama's winter palace) and Norbulingka (summer palace), and we even fit in some birding and shopping.

Potala Palace, Lhasa

We biked on some country roads to Sera Monastery and met some cute - and dirty - kids:)

And we saw the monks debating, Tibetan style! So much energy! And aggression, but good naturedly. Very cool for us to see.

Having seen as much as we could in Lhasa, we hired a Tibetan driver and his Toyota LandCruiser and set out for a four-day bumpy ride to the Nepalese border. Our driver Sonam was friendly and good-humoured and we really enjoyed seeing Tibet through his eyes. 'Our number-one teacher in Tibet!' we told him:) He helped us to see beyond the city of Lhasa into the village life of Tibetans where the Chinese influence was less apparent.

Three families eating together and taking a break from their barley harvesting. We met them on our way from Lhasa to Nepal. Mel and I are sitting there at the back: he with a farmer's hat, and me with a red scarf.

We crossed over several high passes, stopping to breathe the air and acclimatize, and to take pictures. On one of these high passes, as we stepped out of our stuffy jeep on to a windy and dusty mountain top, a local girl selling bracelets remarked on my flipflops, admired my toe-polish, and motioned for me to paint her nails. So I dug out some nail polish and we had a mountain-top manicure, haha:) I gave her the bottle when we were done and she gave me a bracelet; lots of smiles and a picture. Her name is Tsereh.

The scenery all the way along was amazing - like driving through a postcard. The last 30km were the most harrowing and long 30km of our lives. Picture this: single lane dirt road made so muddy by the rain that any car other than a jeep would have been stuck or slid right off the road, winding down a mountain, 1000m cliff on one side with a turbulent river at the bottom, and sheer rock wall on the other side, at night, in the fog, and the rain, with raging waterfalls flowing onto the road (washing out parts of it) and over the road so that we drove under them like a carwash and over them like a river, with semi's going up and down the same road, passing construction materials and machines and tents, and skirting fresh landslides that included some rocks as big as a small car. We went 28km in 3 hours. We had to stop a couple of times because a semi up ahead was stuck or there was a rock on the road, and once our front tire fell into a hole but our driver managed to drive out of it. To top it all off, when we were finally in view of the border town that was our destination (at 11pm) we got stuck for 2 hours because the road controllers at the bottom were accepting bribes from vehicles wanting to come up the road: the road is supposed to be open for downward-traffic only before midnight and upward-traffic only after midnight, but the guards at the bottom take some money and let upward-traffic go up, which, of course, completely clogs the road and makes it impassable for everybody. It certainly was a grande finale to our overland adventure!

The next morning we woke up to find ourselves in a lush rainforest ecosystem: in our harrowing ride in the dark we hadn't been able to see the transition from the arid Tibetan landscape to the tropical Nepalese one. Geoff says "It's like we've stepped off the movie set of 'Mission to Mars' and onto the one for 'Jurassic Park'." And it really is. The change is amazing. So far we're really enjoying our time in Kathmandu with its trees and funky courtyard-restaurants. We're here for a few days and then head on to India, while Mel and Donna go back to China to explore the south. We've had such a great time traveling together: we all feel very fortunate to have had this chance to experience (and survive!) all these adventures together. We'll miss you, mom and dad Styles!

Next stop: Delhi! Make sure to check out our Picasa Web Albums for more pictures.

On the Silk Road

2007-09-18T02:07:00.000-07:00

Deserts take on the most unimaginable forms. Flat basins strewn with fist-sized stones stretching from horizon to horizon. Massive sand dunes rising out of this flatness to 1715m, the highest in the world. Wide valleys dotted with worn mounds of rock 20-50 meters high, biding their time like lost swimmers before being pulled under and to drown in the sand swirling at their bases. Stretches of land with small 3-foot high mounds dusted with salt crystals in all directions, like driving across a piece of Melba toast. Ever present along the way are snow-capped peaks and huge mountains ranging in and out of view. Flitting by in our jeeps, sleeper buses, minibuses and trains, these different desertscapes zip by faster than a painter could sketch them, leaving us with an only an overall sense of the magic and wonder of this part of the world. For the hundreds of thousands of souls who traversed this Silk Road on camel or horseback, they would have had more time to ponder their surroundings, and wonder what form of God would create such stark and hostile beauty.

One of the few oases we saw - Crescent Moon Lake outside Dunhuang.

The Silk Road is like a river, with its headwaters in Xi'an. From there, the road follows a northwest course through the Gansu corridor where it's pinched on both sides by 3000-5000m high mountain ranges. Once it hits Dunhuang where the desert spreads in all directions, however, it becomes a delta, and branches off across Central Asia before it deposits itself into the ocean of Europe. Branches lead one south to Tibet, India and Pakistan. A myriad of roads flows through the present-day '-stans' before heading into Saudia Arabia. One road leads north into Russia. Finally, the trunk stops in Istanbul, where West meets East. Names like Dunhuang, Turpan, Korla, Miran and Jiaohe don't mean much in today's world, but for centuries these were places travelers wandered through on their way to Xi'an or back. The Gansu Corridor/Dunhuang area was of such significance, that over history the equally-powerful empires of China, Tibet and Mongolia fought each other, each taking it over in turn. When China owned the corridor, the Silk Road flowed. When Tibet or Mongolia owned it, the tide was stemmed, and silk and gold stayed on their respective sides.

Sunset on our camel ride out into the desert, where we stayed overnight.

As we left Xi'an, we had no idea what we were getting into. This is a largely forgotten part of China, and finding information on some of the places we wanted to head to was rather like finding clouds in the skies over these deserts. We've had to remind ourselves time and again that we're still in China, as the faces, language and food has changed significantly. This area is largely populated by Uyghurs, Kazhaks, Mongols and Tibetans, though the Chinese government is still in full 'Han-isation', and construction is everywhere.

The oasis of Dunhuang was our first stop, and it proved to be a nice, sleepy town. The Mogoa Buddhist caves are some of the world's best, and recent documents found preserved in them have told us that these cities held the same name at least 1700 years ago. Crescent Moon Lake was just as famous back then, and pictures and accounts of visits there abound in the literature and on the walls of the caves. We enjoyed a great sleep in the desert, with no one and nothing around for kilometers - the stars were unbelievable, and the camels were suprisingly comfortable to ride!! It's easy to see why these places were famous along the Silk Road - from brown and desert to green and lush in a blink of an eye - amazing.

Is this China? Han Chinese become the minority out West - muslim Uighurs, like this man, abound.

From there we pushed on to Turpan, otherwise knows as the second-lowest depression in the world at 500 feet below sea level. The dry, heavy heat was the kind that made you feel like you deserve a tall, cool beer at the end of the day, even if you did nothing all day. This area is famous for its grapes, raisins and melons, of all things!! It is very strange to drive through hours and hours of arid desert, only to find yourself surrounded by trees, rushing water beside the roads, and local fruits and vegetables! We also tried the wine, which was ... well ... did I mention they're famous for their grapes? One highlight here was getting to go into the courtyard of one local family that were just finished harvesting their grapes - we had a great time checking out their drying racks and learning the process of turning grapes into raisins, Turpan style.

After crossing the Taklamakan desert, we headed up into the Tibetan plateau on quite the road!

After Turpan, we really headed off the map. We were heading for where we are now, Golmud, which is the city you need to pass through to head into Lhasa, 1000 km to the south. To do this, we thought it would be a good idea to head across the Taklamakan desert and then up into the Tibetan plateau, and arrive in Golmud from the West, a sort of back door. Wow - what an adventure. The first 6-hour ride to Korla was uneventful, but the next supposed 6-hour sleeper across the desert actually took 12 hours - why? Sand storm!!! The wind and driving sand was amazing, and, coupled with a massive thunder and lightning storm, was an experience we won't soon forget. Peeking out the windshield while the driver tried to drive through the storm was like looking into a snow-storm, except it was yellow instead of white. We emerged in Ruoqiang dusty and dirty, needless to say.

From there it was a 6-hour packed jeep ride up into the Tibetan plateau - truly amazing scenery and quite the road!! 9 people packed in a 6-person jeep...well, we focused on the scenery. A quick 2-hour bus ride out of a hellish Asbestos-mine town and we landed in a city called Huatugou that reminded us a lot of Annikin Skywalker's home town - a city where you'd expect nothing could survive. A quick overnight in a hotel with no heat and no running water, and the we took a sleeper bus to Golmud, where we just bought our tickets for Lhasa!!

We're here for 2 days to acclimatize to the elevation (2800m) and cold (14 degrees this morning at 11:00) before heading through 5000m passes and into Lhasa. We're pumped, not only about surviving the past three days of travel, but about finally heading into Tibet! Check out our Picasa web album for more pictures. We'll probably update again once we hit India in about 10-days time. See you then!!

From Beijing to Xi'an

2007-09-04T00:22:00.000-07:00

After leaving the wilderness of Mongolia, we trained across desert, steppe and more desert into Northern China. The landscape up there is vast, empty and flat - a far cry from the mountainous terrain we saw in Mongolia. The alien landscape was offset by us sharing a sleeper booth with a Chinese couple. We were worried about pickpockets on the train, as we were warned at every turn in Mongolia to watch out for them. However, as soon as we heard our train-mates speaking Chinese, we started up a broken conversation, and all was well:) We felt as though we were coming home. As we approached Beijing at dawn, the Great Wall peered down upon us from mountain tops, the traffic increased, the other bus sleepers' cellphones starting ringing and the next stage of our journey began!

The desert landscape of Southern Mongolia and Northern China.

After checking into our hostel in Beijing, we relaxed for the day, ate some great Chinese food and then met Mom and Dad Styles, who had just come from their year in South Korea - a unique meeting!! Since then, we've been slowly working our way West, and are now in Xi'an, the beginning of the Silk Road and our home for 6 months in 2004 when we worked here teaching English - another one of our homes away from home!

One ever-present reality of China - masses and masses of people.

Our first stop, Beijing, was unbelievable. New roads, old ones completely gone, construction and renovations everywhere - this is a city in the midst of major facial reconstruction. It now has a lovely, relaxed almost regal feel, with broad boulevards, flowers and trees everywhere, no horn honking and lights lining streets at night. With the Olympics only a year away, the push is on to make Beijing a world-class city. From our own perspective - it's working. We even enjoyed blue sky and clear air for the 4 days we were in the city - amazing! The Great Wall 10km hike was fantastic to see again, and MnD were blown away by it. Unreal what 750,000 slaves will do when put to work eh? After great feeds and some major dumpling feasts, we then headed off to see our Chinese friend's (Li Jin, or English name Armstrong) parents in his home town of Zhoukou, in Henan province. This province, usually off the tourist map, holds 100 million people, 3 times the population of Canada!!

Seeing the Great Wall again was wonderful - and to see it with my parents was even more special.

Once again we met with wonderful Chinese hospitality, with literally unending feasts of local dishes (every Chinese city or town worth their salt has a famous dish) and lots of time to have discussions on everything Chinese. It was heart-warming for Emily and I to see MnD meet Armstrong's parents - what different lives they have led! His parents are two people who were sent to the fields during Mao's Cultural Revolution, and now he is in his last year of work and she is already retired. They lead a happy, simple life, and were more than happy to open their arms and hearts to us once again. We also played a bunch of mah-jong, which was great! From here it was off to the provincial capital Zhengzhou to check out Armstrong's new university and see his friends for what else -more eating!

Armstrong's parents and family friend, in their home in Zhoukou - absolutely wonderful people:)

Chinese students live through competition us North Americans can only dream of (well, actually, nightmare of). To enter his Master's degree program, Armstrong had to take a lengthy test which another 1,000 people took. Only 67 were taken from this massive list, and he was one of them! He's now in Zhengzhou National University, getting a Master's in Translation. This university is ranked 37th in China, which, being naive Canadians, we thought wasn't that great. However, seeing that there are over 1,000 universities (!!) in the country, 37th all of a sudden looks really really great. His friends all speak great English, and they treated us to meal upon meal - more Chinese hospitality! One more major number fact for you - Zhengzhou train station, being situated in between all the major cities in China, is therefore an important transport hub. Being important leads to over 1,000,000 people passing through that station, EVERY DAY. Trying to comprehend how many people in this country is like trying to count stars at night - just a waste of mental effort!

Armstrong's new home - Foreign Language Center, where he'll be doing his Master's in Translation.

We've now been in Xi'an for a few days and have gone to see our old school and friends, and, of course, eaten more great food. Tomorrow we're shopping with Hellen and Justin, whose wedding we went to a year and a half ago. The day after MnD take in the Terracotta Warriors and Friday we head out on a 22hour train ride following the Silk Road through Gansu province and into Dunhuang, a major Silk Road hub for centuries to see cave art and 1700m-high sand dunes meet oases! Should be great - from there it's through the Taklamakan desert and into Tibet via Golmud, for those keeping track on maps at home. Hope everyone is well, and take care!!

Mongolia

2007-08-22T19:24:00.000-07:00

When a tribal outcast named Temujin became Khan ('King') of the Mongols in 1189, Mongolia's history took what was to be a most suprising turn, and its next two centuries have left an idelible impression on the world. That same man, later titled Chinggis Khan (Genghis Khan), unified the previously warring tribes of the steppe in 1206 and then set out to conquer the known world. The next 200 years saw Mongols ruling China (the Yuan Dynasty under his grandson Kublai Khan), Russia and Eastern Europe (the Golden Horde), and riding through the plateau of Tibet, shaping and adopting Tibetan Buddhism as they went. Although the Manchus and internal fighting put an end to this amazing empire, the Mongolians made their stamp on history, and have been proud of it ever since. As we flew over the arid desert and endless steppe on the way to Ulaan Baatar, and later when we bumped and jostled across the grasslands into the countryside, it was easy to understand how the Mongol people became so hardy, a trait that helped shape their present.

Russian-looking buildings were the norm in Ulaan Baatar.

The mystery and grandeur of this country and its history, however, comes to a grinding halt in the capital city. Half-built, congested, busy and polluted, the city is a far cry from what once was a gorgeous valley here in north-central Mongolia. As people move off the steppe and into the city, the usual urban problems crop up, including water pollution and overuse, poverty and crime. The city has under a million people, so it is easily walkable. The number of foreigners in the city suprised us, especially compared to Korea. Even though it is small, it's a metropolitan city: it's possible to eat Turkish, Italian, Mexican, Russian, German and almost any other European food here. The Mongolian people in the city are an entertaining mix of dusty horse-riders, decked-out young women, and traditionally-dressed elders with the life of the steppe wrinkled into their faces.

This temple and attached monastery is one of the largest in Mongolia.

Outside the city, the people are quick to smile, warm, curious, and above all, proud of their nation. Over 300 years of brutal Chinese rule left an extremely bad taste in these people's mouths, and after Sukh Baatar helped them gain independence from the Middle Kingdom (China) in 1921, they became, in 1924, the 2nd communist state in the world after Russia. Then followed years under Russian rule under the Communist party, which even today shares the power with the Democratic party. That influence is easy to see in Ulaan Baatar, and because of it, most older people can speak Russian. The official Mogolian script is currently Cyrillic, the same as Russia.

We spent 4 days living in this ger ('gare'), amidst silence, greenery and good people.

We didn't come all this way, however, to see the city. The steppe, the desert, and the rolling hills in between have captured imaginations for centuries, and, if all goes well, will continue to do so. We hopped on a mini-bus with an American family and a German/French couple, and drove 4 hours outside of UB to the Khan Khentii Strictly Protected Area to stay in a low-impact ger camp. The area we stayed in was absolutely wonderful. No cars, no electrical wires, no cell phones, and virtually no people. Night was silent and totally dark, except for the sky, which shone with thousands of stars and the shadowy outline of the Milky Way. Our days were spent wandering the grasslands by foot or by horse, or floating down the Tuul River by raft. The birds were fantastic - a lot of new ones for us, but the most impressive were the raptors - eagles, kites and buzzards are seen floating effortlessly almost everytime you incline your head towards to the blue sky. The people out there live a peaceful and quiet life, either raising herds, growing vegetables or tending to their family's needs in their ger. The ger itself is a wonderful invention, and upon asking how much they were, we were told that a good one goes for a yak, while less-quality ones will sell for a healthy horse. We'll keep that in mind.

No roads, people or power lines as far as the eye can see . . . ahhhhh:)

The camp itself had wonderful food, kept cold in the fridge by a combination of solar panels and a wind rotor. The gers are totally collapsable, leaving no mark on the environment except for the rings on the earth under them when they pack it up and move to higher ground before the onset of the killer winter. Sitting in late evening on our hilltop watching the sun set over the tranquil valley was gourmet food for our soul, and we felt rejuvenated and revived after our busy last few months in Korea.

Lots to do while staying at the ger - including some horseback riding with friends Daniel (German - in photo) and Anne-Sophie (French).

We then had 3 more days in the city before heading off to China. However, after getting more and more depressed as we got into the city, we headed right back to a travel agent after we found a hostel to stay in. We had brought our tent etc to camp, and hadn't used it yet, so we decided to hire a driver and head back to the hills, this time to Terelj National Park, just south of the Khan Khentii area. After taking the rugged jeep through rivers, up mountains and through passes, we ended up next to the Tuul River overlooking a perfectly still mountain valley with nothing but the sound of wind, the birds, and distant cattle to keep us company. The driver, a 62-year old Mongolian named Konchik, spent most of his time in local gers seeing old friends once we got settled in a perfect camp spot. We did teach him some cards, however, and shared many laughs while trying to communicate through sign language and facial contortions. It was a wonderful end to our time here in Mongolia, a country which we will come back to, not for the city, but for the amazing country, that itself reminds us so much of home.

The greatest gift we received from Mongolia was the feeling of inspiration: somewhere in the world there are people living in harmony with their surronding environment, and this country, although fighting huge changes, is in a position to make decisions to protect their greatest resource - the steppe and deserts where past peoples helped create one of the world's largest empires, and who could again rise in the world's eye as a country who takes a stand against the environmentally destructive path so many other countries have chosen.

Life on the Steppe is often harsh, but the summer affords life some growing room.

We can only hope our next journey here will find the countryside as quiet and healthy as we did this time. We're off tonight at 8:20 on a train to the Chinese border, and tomorrow we'll find some way to get to Beijing to meet Mom and Dad Styles. We'll be visiting our old haunts, favourtie restaurants and seeing our Chinese friends who helped make China a wonderful place to travel. We're looking forward to the next stage on our journey! Hope you are all well, and thank you for all the emails we've received telling us about what journeys you are on:) We'll write again from Xi'an. For more photos of Mongolia, visit our photo album found on the right hand side of this page under 'Family and Friends'.

First Days in Mongolia

2007-08-16T06:48:00.000-07:00

Our trip has kicked off in Ulaan Bataar, a city that seems to be half-built and mostly neglected. After living in South Korea for 3 years, we think we've been spoiled by living in a 'Western'-like country. We have quickly come to remember that most of Asia is still 'developing'.

Huge Russian-style buildings stare down congested roads filled with Japanese and Korean imports, as well as the usual belching buses and window-tinted Mercedes. The city sits in a valley between Okanagan-looking mountains made of grasslands and topped off by a skiff of forest. The air is wonderfully dry and much cooler than the Korea we have left behind.

We have taken two days to walk around the city trying to take it all in, and we're somewhat confused by what we see. Most places we're looking for have been found (or not) not on the main streets, but behind main streets. To get to them you have to walk through empty lots and dirt tracks we'd never think of walking down anywhere else. Most places are not where they should be on the map, and we've taken to just 'heading in that direction' and 'finding what we can find' in terms of restaurants and attractions. Huge apartment blocks are deserted, and just one block off the main road you're met with pebbled 'streets' and broken fences. They certainly borrowed heavily from the Russian style of architecture, so the Leather Goods Factory, a Government Building and the local abandoned apartment block all look the same, give or take a few panes of glass and some misplaced concrete.

The people found here are a similar mixture of coifed and non-coifed, which makes for an interesting mix. Lots of foreigners of all ages and nationalities ply the roads and cross the streets with us in nervous bunches. We spent an hour yesterday with a sunny Portuguese man finding out that the avenues out of this country are few. We've decided to take a 20 hour local train ride to the border, cross the border into China, and then figure out the final 12 hours to Beijing once there. There are no seats on International trains until September 8th, and flights would break the bank. Who knew Mongolia was such a hot-spot??!

Tomorrow morning we leave the growing/aged city for the countryside for 4 days in a ger camp for some hiking, solitude and greenery. Should be fantastic, and hopefully the internet connection will be good enough after the trip for us to load some pictures!! Take care, and hope all are well back home.

Saying Goodbye

2007-08-09T21:09:00.001-07:00

Our time in Korea comes to an end on Tuesday the 14th, and our last day of work for over a year is under 6 hours away from being complete. Our time in this small country has been absolutely wonderful. The places we've gone, the people we've met, the experiences we've been fortunate enough to enjoy and the memories we have made here in South Korea have left an impression upon us that won't soon dissipate.

For over a month now we've been slowly working away at our 5 piles (things to send home, things to sell, things to give away, things to leave here and things to pack for our travels), and finally we're getting close to whittling everything down to fitting in our two travel backpacks. Cody says the mess in our apartment has downsized from 'nuclear' to 'napalm' to 'hurricane' in the past three days alone. Impressive.

Our great staff, whose company we've enjoyed so much and who we'll miss in the months to come.

One thing that has been the toughest to say goodbye to has been the friends we've worked with over the past two years. We were extremely lucky to have 10 other foreigners to work with, who were not only our sounding boards and moral support when needed, but also our camping partners, soccer, ultimate and basketball teammates, our wine-tasting amis and 10 more reasons to look forward to heading in to work every day. With 8 of us leaving after today, we wish the remaining 4 the best of luck in building the wonderful closeness we've enjoyed so much in the past years!

Parting with our Pride, and its new proud owner - Casey from Jeonju.

Our nice little car has driven us 40,000 km around this country, affording us looks into places many foreign teachers don't have the luxury to peer into. Up mountains and through tunnels, across bridges and into snow storms, our travels in Korea have opened our eyes to what this country has to offer!

One of our friends, Mr. Yu with Ha-yeon, his darling daughter.

Our Korean friends have taught us innumerable things about the Korean people and culture and have helped explain things during the usual times of bafflement you get when you live in a foreign country. We've come from knowing nothing about Korea except about the Korean War to having a fairly solid understanding of what makes this country tick, and what makes their people so fiercely patriotic. This understanding will in turn help us grasp the deeper meanings of the changes we'll see in this country in the years to come, whether that be union with their fellow Koreans to the North, or another amazing economic spurt.

Certainly times are changing here like they are elsewhere, the younger generation beginning to fight against the older's grasp on things. Like the first generation without war in the Western world has made huge inroads into changing the social and cultural landscape there, so this first generation without war will do the same. With such a deeply Confucian system, however, that change will take longer to play out, and indeed it may take until the next generation for things to radically change.

We've been so fortunate in the experiences South Korea has afforded us. Emily has finished a Master's Degree in Oriental Studies, and learned about Asian culture and religion from teachers who grew up with these values. That experience cannot be done in Canada. Her thesis is now finished printing and editing, so if you'd like a copy, she'll be more than happy to send you a copy through email! I have also been fortunate in having my eyes opened to conservation and shorebird counting. The experiences I have had with Nial, Birds Korea and through the involvement in the SSMP have changed the roles Emily and I now play in the greater society, and given us cause to stop and think about how fragile the world around us is, and how necessary it is for us to change our behaviour.

As you know, we're heading to Mongolia first, where we'll be for 10 days until we meet up with Mom and Dad Styles in Beijing on the 25th of August. The adventure begins. As internet will be as spotty as sit down toilets and hot showers while traveling, we will not be updating the blog every day. We do aim, however, to update once a week, hopefully on Mondays, to keep you abreast of our travels. So, check in on us every once in a while, and please send us emails more often than that:)) Take care, and we hope this finds you happy and healthy.

Junam environment camp

2007-07-29T18:30:00.000-07:00

Emily, Jeff, Tabitha and I trucked on down the country to Changwon city and neighboring Junam reservoir for the second English environment education camp for middle school students. 27 students, 8 Korean and 8 foreign volunteers got together to put on this camp, organized by our group - Birds Korea, the Ministry of Environment and the UNDP, whose officer in charge of the camp was Ms. Hong Su-yeon.

Jeff's team listens for their 5 sounds.

For these students, it was something completely different and a chance to get closer to the natural environment so easily forgotten or ignored these days. Breaking them into 6 groups and with one foreign and one Korean team leader each, we enjoyed a variety of activities and exercises.

Tabitha's team finds leaves to draw.

The first day saw us outside almost immediately, doing a natural treasure hunt, where they had to find and draw 5 leaves and 3 insects, find 3 different coloured flowers, and describe 5 sounds they heard. After that it was birdwatching time at Junam, both in the rice fields and at the man-made reservoir itself.

One group birds around the rice fields in the heat of the day.

Making things much less pleasant than the February camp at Upo was the 33 degrees heat, high humidity and glaring sun. That combined with the general lack of birds (summer is the least productive birding season in Korea) made for some challenging outings.

End of day discussions and thoughts at Changwon University.

The students then had to make and Eco-map of the area, complete with habitat areas, where different birds were and areas in which they noticed problems such as disturbance or pollution.

Eco-map making at the Junam Education center.

We ended Sunday with an activity in which they each had a different focus (home, school, world) but had to make a list of 5 things they could do to help protect the environment and help stop the rising species extinction rate. After half an hour, it was amazing and gratifying to hear what suggestions they came up with - truly amazing coming from kids who have never thought about these things in this way before!!

For us, too, it was a rewarding experience, not only in that we were able to see students outside of the classroom, but to teach them about something that matters to us all - the protection and conservation of the environment around us. As Emily and I are leaving, it's out last in Korea, but who knows what opportunities for this kind of thing await for us back home?

Only two more weeks to go - split by a weekend of camping with Cody and Karen, then we're off to Mongolia to start this trip we've been seemingly planning for years! Hope you're all well:)

Busy days . . .

2007-07-24T07:21:00.000-07:00

As our time winds down ever quicker, we seem to be getting busier and busier trying to tie up loose ends that we've accumulated over the past three years. We sent home 5 boxes full of worldly possessions last week (sorry Murray and Ryley;) with more to come this week. Emily sent off our passports today to apply for Mongolian and Indian visas, to arrive the day before our departure (is that too blase?) Our teaching days are down to 13 while our weekends have dwindled to three. One of them, the next one, we will again be taking part in an English Education camp for Middle school students.

This marked the first time the Korean volunteers birdwatched!

This time around, Tabitha and Jeff (both staff members) will be joining Nial, Emily and I as we aim to increase the environmental/ecological education of youth in this country. The last camp was a huge success, and we hope this one, again with 30 students, goes off well too. One thing that will make it much easier is the high level of English that the Korean volunteers have. This past weekend, we had a workshop together with them and had a chance to see the sites we'll be using. We';ll have a mixture of vocab-building activities, games and birdwatching time with the students, who stay overnight at the University we're based at (luckily, we get to head out and stay in a local hotel!) It will be something completely different for these kids! Should be great!

The summer lushness of this country always amazes us, after the long brown of winter

The weekend following, its back to our favourite camp site for our last weekend with our favourite camping couple, Cody and Karen, before they head to Kamloops (yes Sean, you're dream is slowly coming true - everyone's going to Kamloops!) and we head the opposite direction. After that its one more weekend with family and we're off on the 14th, providing our passports return when they're supposed to, with visas they're supposed to have in them! Will post again after this weekend's camp . . .

Emily spotting the Great Egret hiding in the rice paddies - can you spot it?

Take care and keep your emails coming - we're enjoying your updates:)

Nice work on the emails!

2007-07-09T18:45:00.000-07:00

Over 40 letters from Canadians have now been sent to the South Korean ambassador in Ottawa. Nice work! Similar letters are rolling along in Australia, New Zealand, the U.S., South Korea itself (being sent to the Ramsar Convention organizer) and, soon, England. The next 6 countries will fall into place over the coming months as we find translators and experts from those countries to help us write them. Now that the initial energy has been expelled, we need to find ways to get this site published on large lists/websites in Canada to spread the word. If any of you have connections to non-governmental environmental organizations and think that they would possibly post such information on their web page, please try and pass this information on. Andy Henderson has already contacted Global Response, in addition to Birds Korea doing so previously. We are going to email the David Suzuki Foundation, as well as Canada Bird Studies. Any avenues that may lead to a spread of this knowledge are worth looking into! Thanks for all your help, and enjoy reading Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:))

Restore Saemangeum!

2007-07-04T22:38:00.000-07:00

30% of the world's Great Knot used Saemangeum.
What does their future hold without our help?

As I mentioned in our last email out, I have been working with Birds Korea on a project (Saemangeum Shorebird Monitoring Program) that aims at assessing the damage of the Saemangeum reclamation project on migratory shorebirds. Through it, the true importance of this site for humans, birds, fish and benthos (the organisms that live in the tidal mud) has come to the fore. The 33 km-long wall has been closed now for over a year, with only two 500 m-long sluice gates opening and closing, allowing fresh water to come in, and stagnant water to leave. The difference between last year's bird counts before and just after the wall was completed and this year's counts was stunning. The drop, as we expected, was huge. The Great Knot, pictured above, dropped from a peak count of 88,000 birds in 2006 to just over 3,000 birds in 2007. You read that correctly - a 96% decline by the very next spring migration!

This picture below was taken this May, inside the wall - that dry mud may never see salt water again, and the organisms in it, the birds and 25,000 humans whose jobs were lost due to the ongoing reclamation, are all adversely affected by this crime, which in itself breaks international treaties, such as Ramsar, which South Korea has signed. However, there is something we can do to reverse this situation . . .

An email campaign has started, found at this site:

www.restoresaemangeum.com

where you can go, click on your home country and by simply typing your name, email address and home city, you can send a pre-written letter to your country's South Korean ambassador, urging him to keep the two sluice gates open at all times, thereby allowing life-giving tides to rush back in to this dying ecosystem the size of Singapore, and hopefully restoring some of what has been already lost. We also want to protect neighbouring Geum Estuary, now the number one site for migrating shorebirds in the Yellow Sea.

In a nation where seafood is one of the top diets, and where over 200,000 shorebirds come to refuel, these fields of thousands of dead shells are heartbreaking to find.

Rarely do we get an opportunity to help a cause that someone we know is working for. This is it. Please help us send out 40,000 emails to the ambassadors of your home countries, one email for every hectare the South Korean government is killing with this plan, still with no clear end-use. Help 25,000 people's livelihoods. Help the tired shorebirds in need of fuel and rest and the millions of organisms trapped inside the wall who are on a silent march to death. Help us do something to protect this fragile part of our earth. Thank you!!!

Favourite Campsite

2007-06-28T21:23:00.000-07:00

In his many meanderings around Jeonju, our friend Andy found this slice of camping heaven. It is quiet. It is remote. The only sounds you hear are birds, the wind flowing through trees and the small creek that runs by the camp site. For those of you in Korea, you know how hard this is to find. For the past few weekends, we've been heading out there with fellow teachers Cody and Karen (strangely enough, Kelowna residents and ex-OUC grads) to sit back and relax.

We've turned it into a bit of a home-away-from-home, adding natural seats with rock back rests, an upgraded firepit, a few 'tables' for cooking and two gardens, just for the heck of it.

With the hammocks up, the birds singing and our beer cooling in the creek, there's no place we'd rather be these days!

We're bloggin'!

2007-06-27T09:02:00.000-07:00

Welcome to our new method of communication! No more mass emails for you to slog through. No more return-to-sender messages coming back to us. No more trying to remember email addresses for all of us:) Now all you have to do is click into this site anytime you want and you can see what we've been up to and where we've been - with pictures! Our time in Korea has wound down to 7 weeks, and our travels will start soon, so we thought we'd join the new age and start a blog as a way for us to keep in touch easily through our adventures through Eurasia. More posts and some pictures to follow once we figure out how this thing works. For now, hope you are well, and have a great day!