Look Up And Blame The Stars

Aint nothing like a last stretch

2009-06-26T01:25:00.000-07:00

We are now in Srinagar, the place in India people tell you not to go to ever. A lot of extremists (Islamic extremists) here, so bombs and violent protests are the norm. The danger is exaggerated since it doesn't happen TOO often and its not always in the cities.

We have been staying at a house boat, which is exactly how it sounds; a house that is also a boat. We have to take boat taxis to get to shore and back. There are floating markets to buy everything you need and a lot of wild life. Its really nice here. We have been just relaxing, since we are about to go back into the shit storm of central India where you die in rickshaw accidents 3 times a day and the weather never bends below 45 degrees (and your ridiculed if you wear shorts!!).

Although I'm a fan of the place itself, since its gorgeous and reminds me of Canada in many ways, I'm not a fan of the people. They all seem like tricksters and sheisters. Even the family we are staying with can be really sketchy at times.

We have about 10 more days in India and I've realized 2 month trips are definitely not long enough. I feel almost upset to have to go home despite really excited about a lot of things coming up when I get home.

Speaking of which. When I come home, along with me will be cartons of cigarettes and beadies if anyone is interested :):)

Dave on the solo

2009-06-21T06:24:00.000-07:00

So.

We are in Ley. It is awesome here up at 3500m. The drive from Manali was bumpy, uncomfortable, dusty and absolutely incredible. Literally driving amongst these behemoths we call mountains.

Two days into acclimatizing, we realized we have to make plans, and make em quick. Andrew decided to go on a motorcycle trip with Reto (Switzerland) and ... i forget (Israel). I decided to go off on my own, up north to villages near the pakistani border. little did I know, what an amazing interesting place it is.

The people of Dah-Hanu are completely different looking from the rest of India. They are almost Mesopotamian looking (south Greece? Iran?). They have their own language that only 3 thousand people in the world understand and can speak it. They are the descendants of Aryans and the lost soldiers of Alexander the great. They are called Dards and they practice a mixture of Buddhism, amistali and pre-vedic religious aspects. They are called brog-pa, since their is a Muslim clan in Pakistan. I visited 3 of 5 villages left of these people on earth.

The Indus river and the surrounding area is pretty gorgeous (where they live). Green patches and thriving vegetation in the mists of desert-y hills and barren cliffs. The Dards dress very different, hard to explain.

I bought some grape wine (hand pressed, completely organic, nothing else but grapes and maybe water) that is delicious. I discovered Orhan Pumak? If thats spelled correctly. I was sexually molested by a Nepalese man (not really, but kinda). I ate amazing food and chilled with the locals. I was the only tourist there that added to my experience.

All in all, it was an amazing experience that I am both disappointed and glad that I experienced alone. Andrew should be back from wherever he ended up going (since he didn't show up in Dha!)in a few minutes. Thank god I called home today, luckily, it was fathers day.

Pace.

Strongest Man On Earth

2009-06-13T07:52:00.000-07:00

Everytime I am about to do something I had reservations about, well, I'm obviously skeptical about my own abilities to do it, whatever it is.

This time, it was about climbing a mountain. It took us eight hours in total. We accented about 1000 meters within that time. My legs are hurting pretty bad, but in a good way. I feel really good bout not just making it up there, but making it all the way to the top and realizing I am in shape to do things like this.

We got up there, and there were locals with their sheep, cattle, buffalo, horses, ect... We had a 180 view of all the mountains surrounding this mountain town. It was breathtaking. An incredible end to an amazing hike filled with hot chai, wild horses and packs of stinkin apes :) (seriously)

No time to rest though. In 4 hours, we are off the Ley in Ladack to do some intense trekking. The bus ride is about 18 hours WOO! Looking foward to it though. We only have 3 weeks left. May seem like alot, but its nothing. We are already making sure we have enough time to do what we want and it looks tight already, but we'll manage.

Thank zombie jesus we didnt try to fit southern India in this trip, that would have been impossible.

PACE

MAMAMIA

2009-06-07T09:19:00.000-07:00

So.

Have not blogged in 3 weeks. A lot going on, a lot of moving around. I'm back in India, Rishakesh to be specific. It's where the beatles came in India to 'find' themselves. A lot of yoga, meditation, ect.. ect..

Hot as balls. Like 45 degree's? But we make up for it by finding waterfalls and bathing in the ganges. Met some really cool people. James, who we traveled with for 2 weeks has left back to bangladesh, gunna miss that guy.

Convinced him to shave all his beard except for his mustache and his life litteraly picked up since then. He got like 12 compliments a day. Only one guy, this drunk as fuck Nepali dude hated it. That's only because he's rascist towards Indians, which apparently a lot of tibetans/nepali's are.

Had a fantastic bday. Filled with hash, boat rides, boozing, steak, pool and more hash.. oh! and lemon fantas.. yyuummm.

Met up with a buddy from home in pokhara. That was cool. Hung out with alot of wierdo travelers fucked on valium, the essentials for long travels.

Just finished a 32 hour bus ride. Haridwar was balls, ganges was nice. Met a Indian tourist who loves his 'bang lassis'. Now in Rishakesh.

Gone tommorrow. Off to Manali, the mountain getaway, woot woot.

Its always tough to write this stuff. So much goes on in just a day, let alone trying to fill a 3 week gap in my travel blog.

ok. so I have decided a few things, since I've had time to contemplate my future. 1) I will be going to south america in the fall. 2) I am going to take my free trip to israel in december 3) moving to denmark will be in jan/feb unless unforseen events occur 4) I'll be going to N.B., N.S., T-dot, O-dot and the NYC during the gaps of the previous three points i have mentioned.

Ok, off to smoke 20 cent cigarettes, drink a limca (best drink on earth), listen to my ipod and work on this killer sudoku book I nabbed in Pokhara.

PACE

One Week In

2009-05-14T05:17:00.000-07:00

Hello errvyone,

So I suppose I'm supposed to give you all a summary of my trip thus far. I'll try to do it justice, but no promises.

The flight was pretty good. We got the seats we wanted, the food was great and we got pretty wasted since we get all the free booze we want. Trip was pretty long though. Think the whole thing was 20 hours?

So we get in Delhi just fine. Andrew accidentally gives the guy for the paid taxis (since we didn't wanna have to flag down a tuk tuk after being on a plane so long)way too much money. The guy played dumb, but Andrew was pretty confident and sure enough to get him to cough up the extra 500 rupees he pocketed (15 bucks?).

So we tell the taxi to bring us near the central train station. Apparently its where a lot of backpackers go to find a cheap place and head out the next day. There is a reason why many people from delhi look down on this area. It was pretty filthy. I mean like shit and piss everywhere and people shouting at you ect...

I didn't notice it then, but Andrew was pretty shocked and stressed due to the culture change, which is obviously expected. I suppose my prior trip with Sean to SEA prepared me for what we saw. We decided to pick a guest house close to this celebration going on. Little did we know that it went on to 430am and starting again at 7am, suffice to say, we did not get a good sleep.

The next day we had about 6 hours to kill before we hitched our 15 hour train ride to Varanasi. We walked around with our bags and payed the obvious price. People harassing us to go here, buy that, do this. We avoided as much as we can. We sat down for some shade at one point and low and behold, a group of 'professional' ear cleaners offered their services. Did I say offer? I ended up reading hilarious testimonials he got tourists to write about his ear cleaning services. When I didn't respond well, he offered to look in my ears for free, lucky me. When I refused, he showed me various pictures of him cleaning other tourists ears. What a trooper.

Train to Varanasi wasn't too bad. We met some really cool people who had been traveling for a year and India was their last stop. They taught me a new card game which is pretty awesome and kills loads of time.

Varanasi is a crazy little city. Complete chaos and mayhem. You think your going to die just about every second your riding in the back of a tuk tuk. The merchants are relentless and are ready to start the bidding for anything you want about 5 times the price, hoping you'll settle for half which is still outrageous. We took on a friend, Alison is her name. We met her at the train station and is still traveling with us here in Darjeeling (where I am writing this). We ended up at a really nice guest house with a court yard, good food and close to the Ganges (what people go to Varanasi for). Took some walks on the Ganges, watched the beginning of a cremation, the whole works.

Ended up meeting these four awesome girls from Australia and pretty much chilled with them for the 3 days we were in town for. We took a sunrise tour on the Ganges by boat watching people bathe in probably the most polluted water source known to mankind, it was good times. We got serenaded and everything. Andrew searched his heart out for a sari for Lianne but alas, it is VERY difficult to haggle, especially when your a foreigner and you don't know shit.

We winded up in a variety of shops. Some saris were awesome but too expensive, others offered us shit. They try to doll you up a lot by offering you things to drink and showing you shit you didn't ask to see. We winded up at one place where they showed us these wool/cotton blankets. They were incredible. Seriously awesome stuff. We angrily haggled them down to 2500 rupees each from 4800 each. But in the end, we walked out thinking we'll find better stuff. I hope we do, cause this one blanket was animal themed, and I really really liked it. So I hope I can find something better in Kashmir or something.

We finally said our goodbyes to Varanasi and the people at the guest house and headed off to jump on a 16 hour train to JNP, the drop off point to get a 3 hour jeep to Darjeeling. We left at 730pm in Varanasi and arrived in Darjeeling at 730pm the next day. Suffice to say, we were dirty, hungry and tired as all hell.

The journey had taken a lot out of me. There were no signs telling us which train cabin we were in so we had to ask. People weren't very helpful except for one who finally told us. When we entered in our cabin, it was FILLED with people sleeping on 'our seats'. We thought it was the wrong cart, ran around for a few more minutes to then realize that they had just decided to sleep on empty seats since Delhi. I quite viciously, kicked them out of their spots, got stuck with the bottom bunk, although I'd rather it had been me over Alison or Andrew, and enjoyed a terrible sleep. The only redeeming feature of the ride, other than booting this one motherfucker who tried to cuddle me, was meeting 'Yesh'. Really nice kid on his way to visit his parents in Nepal. He gave us a bunch of advice, we talked about life, he showed me the girl he's arranged to be married, it was a nice chat.

Haven't bathed or eaten in 29 hours, we arrived at NJP station. We then scrambled to the jeep stand in the nearby twin city (Silguri) and hopped in a jeep packed with 12 people for a 3 1/2 hour ride or so. The drive was breathtaking. It seriously is fantastic out here. The hills and cliffs and tea villages. It was just spectacular. During the drive we went from sweating buckets, to cold as ice. The temperature drop and altitude change was pretty intense. We finally arrived at our destination, walked around for a bit in the cold, then found our destination.

Nice, quiet place. Beds are simple. The owner is really nice. We ended up having a nice chat with a Tibetan man who was quite distraught at the transformation happening in his city, the new apt. buildings and such. With some encouragement from him, we realized how completely different central India is from Northern. The people, the culture the weather, literally everything. We felt safe. No harassment, no fear, no leering. It is just so nice. Also, as a side note, people in Northern India are mostly Tibetan and Nepalese looking people, not south Indian (stereotype of what an Indian looks like).

Had a really nice first day, no beg bug bites :) (Andrews thing). We walked around almost the entire city meeting a lot of people, scoping the Himalayas. We eventually bumped into this Nepalese man who converted to Christianity despite his father being Hindu and mother being Buddhist. Our discussion led us into his home where we drank tea and furthered talking. Although he claimed to know the truth, he knew little about religious traditions or 'fads' outside his own city such as Islam being the fastest growing religion in the world. It was nice though, and his dog was hilarious. We met a friend of his, a famous drummer apparently.

We eventually met up with Alison, got some grub and then decided to watch a bollywood movie. Turns out, its from bollywood, not a bollywood movie. It was set in Darjeeling actually and wasn't too bad of a movie despite the over acting, but who gives a shit right? What the best thing was about it was that at one scene, this guy is trying to serenade his wife in a bar and who do we see? the freaking drummer guy we met at the christian dude's house!!!! Me and Andrew instantly looked at each other and burst out in laughter. I almost shit myself.

Well, I've left out a lot of details but this is what you're getting. Hope you enjoyed my first entry! PACE

NEW CHAPTER

2009-05-06T07:28:00.000-07:00

So,

This is the first post of my India/Nepal trip. Haven't left yet, leave tomorrow. Packing is in process. I will attempt to update this blog more than I did while I was in SEA but I cannot guarantee it. I hope you all enjoy what I have to say.

-Dave

I do not feel like blogging

2008-06-06T20:49:00.000-07:00

so I wont.

Whast you need to know is that we gots our chinese visa and we're heading to the islands tonight, most likely Krabi then Ko Jum.

Peace

Holiday In Cambodia

2008-05-28T04:02:00.000-07:00

We'ze arez inz cambodiaz

drive was pretty nice, mets lots of peeps. Spent about 3 days/2nights on an island in the 4000 islands region in Laos. It was called Don Det. Spent the nights in 1.25$ wooden bungalows on the water. Very very cheap island and with some awesome things to do.

We rented bikes, rode to the other island and went swiming near rapids. Water was really nice despite being bitten by little fish who thought we might taste good. The bumpy ride back made sean loose his bank card, no worries, he has another one and still got his credit card. Wonderful day though.

There was this bakery on the island run by this brit, best fucking donughts and bread. Had a nice chat with him and then realized we were staying right next to his parents who were visting for the first time in 5 years to see where their son lives.

We ended up drinking that night with a bunch of peeps, most a dude from france, a guy from switzerland and his girlfriend from thailand. We were unable to buy mixed drinks, so we had to dish out the 1.50$ for an entire bottle of whiskey (note the sarcasim). Coke costs more than fucking whiskey. God damn I miss that place already.

Oh, and sean's bag was being ravaged by ants and we couldnt figure out why. We actually had to leave the first place because it became invested with ants. Turns out, one species of ants had laid eggs in seans dry bag causing another race of ants to seek and destroy them. War of the ants were taking place in sean's bag.

Before the islands we were in Paxse, where I uploaded some pics to my facebook. That place got boring fast, we only spent like 1 day there. we rented a motorcycle and drove to the waterfall you can see piuctures of. Natives were fishing while we were there, it was a very nice day for us. Despite almost getting t-boned by this fucking crazy person

A lesson on driving in asia: lights dont exist, stop signs are scenery and whatever you do, avoid the chicken cows and children that dart out in front of you. suicide missions they're after.

Cambodia is ok. We are in a seedy section but living in 'luxury', despite my wish to be 'rough and tough' for the entire duration of our trip. You cannot walk down the street without being asked if youd liketo buy weed, coke and opium. I've bought wayy to much already! obviously joking.

We have all our shit in order and will be going to hand in our passports for chinese visas tommorow. hopefully we get them, and me and sean can rest easy. It's been on our minds for a while. We'll be in phenom Penh for another 2 days, then off to Siem Riep to see some fucking temples. Not very excited, however it is afterall a 'must see'.

Next time I write, I'll be 22. It's my birthday on the 2nd, and hope to go out, meet some people, get drunk, and not have to fend off the following: tuk tuks, lady boys, prostitutes and drug dealers.

nighty night

eeyyooo

2008-05-22T01:08:00.000-07:00

IN Vietienne right now (capital of Laos) at an internet cafe. WE had two decisions to make today, whether we go to pakse or wait in Vietienne to get Chinese visas which may prove difficult. We rock, paper, scissored and Sean won, so we decided to stay here another night. Turns out, we showed up ten minutes late, and the embassy was closed and cant get visas for another 5 days, so we're heading on to pakse tommorrow night. funny how things work out like that.

We are currently spending the day with dave and christie, two amazing people we met on the slow boat. Christie is deaf and dave sign languages and interprets on the side. They are both post-social workers. Meaning they got fed up with the system and are currently making a documentary called "exploring deaf worlds" where they travel all over interviewing people and looking at deaf institutions. They are leaving for India tonight, so itll be the last we see of them in a long while.

They video taped us talking about our brothel experience in bangkok. Fun times.

Oh, on the way up to vang vieng, we got into a head collision with another car. Everyone was ok except for me. My bottom teeth pierced my lip onto the other side. Luckily i didnt loose a chunk. Just have a scar and some swelling.

Vang Vieng is pretty crazy, i dont know how else to explain it. Friends, Family Guy, movies playing all over the place at restaurants where you can just chill out and watch them. Alot of morons were there though, just acting like imbecils, mostly the aussies and drunk brits.

We did "inner tubing" which is essentially floating down a river, stoping every 5 minutes at a bar to either drink yourself stupid, smoke opium or have a mushroom tea/shake. BY the end of the day, we were pretty fucked. even though we had said we were going to "take it easy"

MY stomach has been terrible. I'm not sure what to do with it, maybe ill take general anti-biotics to help settle it. NOthing seems to stay in my body for long. but its all good, just part of getting used to everything.

We are worried about our chinese visas, although most tell us it really isnt that bad, but then you hear stories where people are denied. I think we'll try and sort it out in pakse, if they even have an embassy there.

VIetienne is pretty boring, not much to do here. Plus, prostitution is pretty in yo face. 60 year olds at pick up bars rubbing 20 year olds, pretty gross, but meh.

It is always hard writing these things because theres no way to really get down what im seeing/doing or thinking. SO I hope your enjoying a bad interpretation of our adventures so far, although I'm sure I have omitted quite a bit. oh oh.

IN Vang VIeng, we were looking for a place to stay and what not and we come across a beatifull place with a birds eye view of the lake and the island bars. THere is an old guy there and he doesnt understand much english so it was difficult to talk to him. Then, sean has the idea to pop the big question. "tu parle francais"... it was incredible. the dude spoke perfect french and we just drank and talked for hours. we talked about canada, colonization, beer, tourists, the whole lot. I was really awesome for us to connect with a local on that kind of level. Last time that happened to us, the dude tried and in part did, scam us.

We also ended up playing snooker with some locals in Luang Prabang which is a lovely relaxed city you get to after the 2 day slow boat ride.

anyways, I think thats all i got in me to write about. peace dudes and dudettes.

werd folks

2008-05-17T03:12:00.000-07:00

In laos just partyin it up. The first time we've had a chance to meet up with a shit load of people and just chill out. Doing some awesome Laos bbq dinners or just hitting up a bar and getting crunked. Peopl from all walks of life, pretty awesome to meet up with so many people and realizing theres so much one can do with their life.

Did a 2 day boat ride on the mekong to Luang Prabang which was pretty cool. Thats where we sorta met everyone. Sorta sucked being stuck on a boat but we played tons of games and got to know eachother alot. fun times.

Heading to Vang Vieng tommorow. I hear it is a crazy party town, so we'll see how we deal with that, haha. anyways, I'm sure alot has happened to us since last week but I cant really recall at the moment.

oh, went to the waterfalls yesterday. Fucking gorgeous. Went swimming and what not. We also just had a few games of snooker with some locals which was cool too. We have a desert 'date' tonight for 730.

lataazz peeps

...

2008-05-10T00:01:00.000-07:00

bamboo room...tibetan drifter...food...bike rental...drive very far...flat tire...men with big guns...chicken sandwhich...jungle drive...giant mutant bugs...back broken sean...wet passport...bed time...

WERD

2008-05-07T20:54:00.000-07:00

Okay, so i'm writing another blog only two days after the last one and couldnt be bothered. Things are much better now. We are out of bangkok and in Chiang Mai and couldnt be ahppier. No harassment, no sexy ping pong shows at tailor shops who serve snake wiskey and train tickets. sigh. It is beautiful here, up in the mountains and all so we've decided we will rent some bikes tommorow and drive to nearby cities, a nice little motocycle trip. Possibly hit up a national park, but who knows.

Tonight though, we hit up barfly! thats right, barfly! Pour les francophones! Gunna be fucking awesome. We're also thinking about seeing muay thai and the kick ass night bazzare they have here.

We have met some awesome travellers, especially this one dude James, awesome guy. He found himself trekking through the jungles in Ko Chang with a biologist and his wife (doctor), holding a machette in case of a tiger attack. Pretty awesome stuff. We will be heading to Laos in a few days I guess.. havent sorted shit out yet, but who cares.

OH. And to all those (thanks julia) who were concered with me twirling around a giant water typhoon, fear not. That is in Burma and has yet to effect the North, at least where I am at the current moment. I hear about 8000 people have been killed so far, pretty intense shit. I'm hoping me and Sean continue to face good weather. No rain in sight really, except for the usual rain in the wee hours of the morn'.

anyways, until next time.

PEACE

AH

2008-05-06T22:17:00.000-07:00

Me and Sean need to get out of Bangkok. We are bussing to Chiang Mai later in the evening. We have had some very eventful days so far. Tourist areas are getting on our nerves, everyones out for cash and don't give a shit about you. Sexy, Ping Pong Show, Where you go, Free, TAT and Tailor Shop are words meant to warn you! We are starting to get the hang of standing our ground.

We had some supper with this really nice Thai dude last night, until we realized he was ordering alot of food, expensive at that. So after we spend way more on a meal then we have the entire trip, he wants to meet his friend at a campus bar. Turns out his friend doesnt exist and you have to pay for chicks to sit next to you, and the copius amounts of drinks and food we didnt order. So after he tries to extort us for money, threating to call the cops or some shit. We told him we would gladly wait for them, and eventually he gave up and we left. Dude racked up like a 800 CAD bill. fucking nuts.

It was really really funny now that it is in hindsight. Thats just one of many stories of how people try to get money from you. Its not all bad though, don't get me wrong.

We met this awesome Austrian guy Max, he showed us around quite a bit. Told us where we should go in Koh Pang An. Which we will. Anyways, we've decided we are just doing what we want, when we want. If we feel uncomfortable or uneasy, then fuck it, we're outta there. It's how you gotta do it.

Not sure what else to write about. Weather is hot, but honestly, not too hot. I'm in jeans and a t-shirt and fine. We visited Wat Pho yesterday, that was cool. Giant sleeping Buddha. We have been eating amazing food, mostly from stands. It's really not as bad as people make it out to be. Just gotta be smart about where you get it really.

Well, thats all I gotta say about that. Until next time.

-Dave

2008-05-04T15:37:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone,

I;m in Bangkok right now and it's 538 am. We went to bed super early from being jetlagged so we woke up super early. The sun aint even out and we're sweatin bullets. Flying went alright, me and Sean toughed out the 13 hour flight really well but the 6 hour one was brutal so we downed a few valium. I was super impressed with the airline food, butter chicken, humus, ginger chiken, omlete, it was pretty sweet.

We checked into a really cheap guesthouse. It's pretty decent, two beds and two fans. Hardly even need a sleeping bag here, you'd sweat your body weight in a night. We just got back from a walk around the area, which is 'Khosan Road", a backpackers haven. Stray cats and dogs and people sleeping all over the street are pretty common here.

At about 10, we're gunna get driven around in a tuk tuk by Shay, a nice dude. We're not entirely sure what to do today, but we know we want to see more of the city, possibly the 'ritzier' parts.

Anyways, I'm off to take a shower or something. Kinda hungry too, maybe grab some noodles. SUKKA WHAT?

-Dave

T - 18 Days

2008-04-15T13:08:00.000-07:00

Even though I am ankles deep in shit, also known as school work, the only thing on my mind right now is my upcoming trip. The good thing about it, is that I have no idea what to expect.

Unlike my trip to Banff, I was ready for not having a job, getting into quarrels, sleeping on a campsite and getting ridiculously drunk. This trip, I don't quite know what me and Sean will even do there. I suppose that's a good thing right?

The thing I'll probably enjoy most in this trip is not having to really do anything, or, having any particular days where I have to be somewhere. Plus, traveling with my good friends last year has taught me that traveling with people you really know, does not mean you'll get into fewer arguments. Sean is totally an independent dude, so if we don't get along, theres no problems in taking some time off from each other.

Being the big MMA fan that I am, along with boredom and nothing better to do, I stumbled upon a pretty funny story I hope I never have to find myself in or witness. It's a video by WEC featherweight champ Urijah Faber about his 'bar fight' in Bali. It kicks in about 1:10mins. Enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOQLg7Kc8So