We have arrived in India.
After a boat, a bus, another (bigger, packed and much sketchier) boat, another bus, a taxi, a plane, a night at the KL airport and one last plane ride...we arrived in Trichy in the south of India.
I won't deny it is hot. 37 degrees today...and it looks like a few solid 40s coming our way...but surprisingly (so long as you stay indoors at midday) it has not seemed to crippled us yet too much.
But then again, we've been here a day. We noticed on CBC.ca some interesting news, 27 tomorrow for toronto - we will be thinking of you tonight when the temperature here drops down around there...
It is a hectic place, to be sure, and that is evident already. But also immediately evident is the rich beauty of this land, and the people who call it home.
For those of you who know us well, you will understand why I am cutting this short. I smell the samosas sizzling on the street - no time to write, must consume copious amounts of Indian food!!! (Peter Anthos, we are thinking of you and your diehard love of the stuff)
Much love from India,
maeve/jay
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Saturday, April 18, 2009
...from Bali to the Gili's....
Hello hello,
It has been sometime since our last post and we re currently on one of the "Gili islands", located north of lombok, which is an island east of bali...a sampler location would simply to say paradise. After enjoying my birthday in our guesthouse pool in kuta surrounded by more Aussies and Swedes than i can count was fun, we decided to move a little inland to a village called "ubud". We were fortunate again to find a guesthouse with pool feet from our door, after many a stroll in town we would find ourselves with a nice afternoon dip to cool off.
The real draw of Ubud is that there is a patch of forest known as "the sacred monkey forest", basically it is home to about 300 macaque monkeys who will roam all over you if you let them. We of course took an afternoon to visit these little cheeky buggers. We arrive to find an entrance fee of 15,000 rupiah, which is roughly $1.75 and banana bunches for sale for about $2, naturally we wanted to feed some so we purchased our bananas and headed off. The first monkey we see if far in the trees and looks to be one of the larger males, he eyes us as we enter. Maeve eagerly waves the bunch in the air, and his eye is caught. He heads down the tree and heads towards us, maeve pulls one banana off the bunch and offers it to him...he sees it then lunges at the bunch, maeve startled, drops them and jumps away to see him make off with the whole bunch...hes big for a reason. Lesson learnt, do not taunt a monkey with bananas.
After enjoying a couple more nights in ubud we headed out for a 3 hour boat ride to the Gili's and we have been here ever since. The beach is gorgeous, the weather is amazing and the view back to lombok is the most beautiful we have seen on the entire trip. Needless to say we are taking the time to enjoy some peace and quite before we head to India in one week now.
I would like to say a big thank you for all the birthday wishes, Bali was not a bad place to spend it but missed everyone back home.
To the settino clan for the virtual "happy burds-day", than you very much,it was amazing. Maeve and i happened to be at a restaurant on the island that had wifi so we got chance to watch it on my ipod along with the videos of lyrik...ill give a big thank you to mr. gentile for arranging that, as next to my dad he is the most tech savvy of the bunch.
Love you all lots.
Time is flying by but crawling at once. We'll see you all before we know it.
jay/maeve
xoxo
It has been sometime since our last post and we re currently on one of the "Gili islands", located north of lombok, which is an island east of bali...a sampler location would simply to say paradise. After enjoying my birthday in our guesthouse pool in kuta surrounded by more Aussies and Swedes than i can count was fun, we decided to move a little inland to a village called "ubud". We were fortunate again to find a guesthouse with pool feet from our door, after many a stroll in town we would find ourselves with a nice afternoon dip to cool off.
The real draw of Ubud is that there is a patch of forest known as "the sacred monkey forest", basically it is home to about 300 macaque monkeys who will roam all over you if you let them. We of course took an afternoon to visit these little cheeky buggers. We arrive to find an entrance fee of 15,000 rupiah, which is roughly $1.75 and banana bunches for sale for about $2, naturally we wanted to feed some so we purchased our bananas and headed off. The first monkey we see if far in the trees and looks to be one of the larger males, he eyes us as we enter. Maeve eagerly waves the bunch in the air, and his eye is caught. He heads down the tree and heads towards us, maeve pulls one banana off the bunch and offers it to him...he sees it then lunges at the bunch, maeve startled, drops them and jumps away to see him make off with the whole bunch...hes big for a reason. Lesson learnt, do not taunt a monkey with bananas.
After enjoying a couple more nights in ubud we headed out for a 3 hour boat ride to the Gili's and we have been here ever since. The beach is gorgeous, the weather is amazing and the view back to lombok is the most beautiful we have seen on the entire trip. Needless to say we are taking the time to enjoy some peace and quite before we head to India in one week now.
I would like to say a big thank you for all the birthday wishes, Bali was not a bad place to spend it but missed everyone back home.
To the settino clan for the virtual "happy burds-day", than you very much,it was amazing. Maeve and i happened to be at a restaurant on the island that had wifi so we got chance to watch it on my ipod along with the videos of lyrik...ill give a big thank you to mr. gentile for arranging that, as next to my dad he is the most tech savvy of the bunch.
Love you all lots.
Time is flying by but crawling at once. We'll see you all before we know it.
jay/maeve
xoxo
Monday, April 6, 2009
Bali Bound
Hello to everyone,
Hope you enjoyed our April Fools joke. Of course Ho Chi Minh is not a hologram (as far as we know, anyway) but most of the story up until the man taking a picture was true. They really did scold Jay for having his arms behind his back, ha ha ha.
Anyway, our time in Viet Nam is quickly coming to a close. After we finally received our Indian visas (yay!) we decided to high tail it out of Ha Noi to Cat Ba island which is in Halong Bay. We were only able to spend two full days there, but on our first full day we had a wonderful boat tour of the bay (which hopes to become a world heritage site one day) and met a few other Canadians who were finishing their big travel adventure. It is incredibly hard to describe the beauty of Halong Bay...we have a few great photos but those too won't do much justice, all I can say is some places are worth braving tourists hoards and kitchy pearl stands...
Getting out of Ha Noi was lovely, the whole "not fearing for your life" when you walk down the street was wonderful, because the motorbike quota in Cat Ba was significantly lower than in Ha Noi. Jay and I have both been battling a bit of a headcold so we took it easy our second full day in Cat Ba, skipping another adventure tour and opting for a good walk and appreciation of the bay from land.
Today we had to head back to Ha Noi as we are flying out to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow morning. We took a speed boat and bus back to the city, not the ideal way to celebrate two years together but then again, we are in Viet Nam so how could it get much better? I know! BALI! Haha.
We are going to be arriving in Bali tomorrow evening, with our connecting flight bringing us from Ha Noi through KL onwards to Bali. Forecast for Bali this upcoming week ranges from 30-32 high with a low of 29 and not a drop of rain to boot. This is something we are greatly anticipating, Northern Viet Nam is a rather rainy place this time of year!
Glad to hear the weather in O Canada is shaping up, hopefully it stays true so our sunkissed bodies won't seem as harsh to you all come June, hehehehe.
LOVE TO YOU ALL,
Maeve/Jay
Hope you enjoyed our April Fools joke. Of course Ho Chi Minh is not a hologram (as far as we know, anyway) but most of the story up until the man taking a picture was true. They really did scold Jay for having his arms behind his back, ha ha ha.
Anyway, our time in Viet Nam is quickly coming to a close. After we finally received our Indian visas (yay!) we decided to high tail it out of Ha Noi to Cat Ba island which is in Halong Bay. We were only able to spend two full days there, but on our first full day we had a wonderful boat tour of the bay (which hopes to become a world heritage site one day) and met a few other Canadians who were finishing their big travel adventure. It is incredibly hard to describe the beauty of Halong Bay...we have a few great photos but those too won't do much justice, all I can say is some places are worth braving tourists hoards and kitchy pearl stands...
Getting out of Ha Noi was lovely, the whole "not fearing for your life" when you walk down the street was wonderful, because the motorbike quota in Cat Ba was significantly lower than in Ha Noi. Jay and I have both been battling a bit of a headcold so we took it easy our second full day in Cat Ba, skipping another adventure tour and opting for a good walk and appreciation of the bay from land.
Today we had to head back to Ha Noi as we are flying out to Kuala Lumpur tomorrow morning. We took a speed boat and bus back to the city, not the ideal way to celebrate two years together but then again, we are in Viet Nam so how could it get much better? I know! BALI! Haha.
We are going to be arriving in Bali tomorrow evening, with our connecting flight bringing us from Ha Noi through KL onwards to Bali. Forecast for Bali this upcoming week ranges from 30-32 high with a low of 29 and not a drop of rain to boot. This is something we are greatly anticipating, Northern Viet Nam is a rather rainy place this time of year!
Glad to hear the weather in O Canada is shaping up, hopefully it stays true so our sunkissed bodies won't seem as harsh to you all come June, hehehehe.
LOVE TO YOU ALL,
Maeve/Jay
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
ngươi hê tháng tư ban ngay!
Still in Ha Noi. Tomorrow we are getting our Indian visas and so we are looking forward to moving onwards to Halong bay, though we won't have much time before we fly out of Ha Noi to Kuala Lumpur and on to Bali on the 7th.
Ha Noi is certainly not the worst place to be waiting for a visa...there is a lot to do and we have been experience a wide array of Vietnam's history and culture. We visited the Military Museum, which features many old warcrafts from the American and French wars. We also have taken in a few solid cyclo rides in the city, as well as plenty of strolls around the lake in which it is said magical turtles live.
But, perhaps the most shocking experience we have had was this morning, when we visited the mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh. It is only open for two hours a day, and in true Lenin style, he is displayed in a temperature controlled glass case which you are ushered around with a horde of other tourists.
We arrived at a good time in the morning, considering that a line formed behind us which greatly exceeded the one in front of us. We waited for about half an hour in the line (a note to my mum, Donna, I was fearful of another Istanbul harem experience...luckily this did not occur) and as we approached the mausoleum itself, we knew this was some serious business. It is a huge multi-level tomb, with soldiers all around and standing to attention within. It seemed they had a sort of double duty, because aside from protecting Ho Chi's resting place, they were the etoquitte police. A group of girls in front of us were whispering and were shushed angrily, and while Jay and I thought we were the epitome of etiquitte...one soldier insisted Jay put his hands at his side, instead behind his back. Anyway, we were swarmed in a huge group of tourists and we slowly approached the room in which Ho Chi Minh was resting.
As a sidenote, it was actually his dying wish to be cremated. We thought it was odd that they would ignore this man's dying wish, considering he was their leader, but little did we know we would soon understand the truth of it all...
The room was very museum like, with the glass case at its center and soldiers standing all around it. We walked around it slowly, some people even stopped (as much as was possible) to get a better look. Cameras are strickly prohibited in the room and they check you at every stop to ensure you don't have one. Unfortunately, somehow, an American man had gotten his camera in and at the risk of having it confiscated (or worse) he pulled it out and before anyone could stop him, he snapped a picture...flash and all.
The guards were on him immediately, but it was after the flash went off that everyone in the room noticed something particularly strange...Ho Chi Minh's body was flickering! As if it was there one second and not the next, it went on for a spilt moment while the guards frantically tried to usher us out of the room. But the damage had been done and it seemed the guards had lost all forms of etiquette as they shoved us out, screaming into our ears.
Ho Chi Minh's dying wish was fulfilled...because his mausoleum merely contains the most deceptively created hologram, which for years has fooled tourists and locals alike into believing that they had actually kept his body perfectly intact. The American man who took the picture is being prominently featured in the newspapers as a conspirist who new well that Ho Chi Minh was cremated upon his death...
Needless to say, the country is shocked...but no one more so than us. Admittedly, I was confused as to what was transpiring, but Jay immediately knew it was a hologram and whispered to me hurredly "its a hologram!".
The news is already all over this and we would be surprised if you hadn't heard of it back home yet. We have contacted CBC and Canwest to see if they are interested in our perspective of the story, considering we were of the few who actually witnessed it happen...
We have only so far found one article on the internet (presumbably, the papers tomorrow are covering the story but TV is all over it)... The article is in Vietnemese but if you use the following link to translate the title, ngươi hê tháng tư ban ngay (don't mind the boxes, paste the entire title into the following link and the article results will pop up)
Here is the link:
http://translate.google.com/translate_t#vienng%C6%B0%C6%A1i%20h%C3%AA%20th%C3%A1ng%20t%C6%B0%20ban%20ngay
Let us know what you hear at home! We are following tabs closely.
Love,
Maeve and Jay
Ha Noi is certainly not the worst place to be waiting for a visa...there is a lot to do and we have been experience a wide array of Vietnam's history and culture. We visited the Military Museum, which features many old warcrafts from the American and French wars. We also have taken in a few solid cyclo rides in the city, as well as plenty of strolls around the lake in which it is said magical turtles live.
But, perhaps the most shocking experience we have had was this morning, when we visited the mausoleum of Ho Chi Minh. It is only open for two hours a day, and in true Lenin style, he is displayed in a temperature controlled glass case which you are ushered around with a horde of other tourists.
We arrived at a good time in the morning, considering that a line formed behind us which greatly exceeded the one in front of us. We waited for about half an hour in the line (a note to my mum, Donna, I was fearful of another Istanbul harem experience...luckily this did not occur) and as we approached the mausoleum itself, we knew this was some serious business. It is a huge multi-level tomb, with soldiers all around and standing to attention within. It seemed they had a sort of double duty, because aside from protecting Ho Chi's resting place, they were the etoquitte police. A group of girls in front of us were whispering and were shushed angrily, and while Jay and I thought we were the epitome of etiquitte...one soldier insisted Jay put his hands at his side, instead behind his back. Anyway, we were swarmed in a huge group of tourists and we slowly approached the room in which Ho Chi Minh was resting.
As a sidenote, it was actually his dying wish to be cremated. We thought it was odd that they would ignore this man's dying wish, considering he was their leader, but little did we know we would soon understand the truth of it all...
The room was very museum like, with the glass case at its center and soldiers standing all around it. We walked around it slowly, some people even stopped (as much as was possible) to get a better look. Cameras are strickly prohibited in the room and they check you at every stop to ensure you don't have one. Unfortunately, somehow, an American man had gotten his camera in and at the risk of having it confiscated (or worse) he pulled it out and before anyone could stop him, he snapped a picture...flash and all.
The guards were on him immediately, but it was after the flash went off that everyone in the room noticed something particularly strange...Ho Chi Minh's body was flickering! As if it was there one second and not the next, it went on for a spilt moment while the guards frantically tried to usher us out of the room. But the damage had been done and it seemed the guards had lost all forms of etiquette as they shoved us out, screaming into our ears.
Ho Chi Minh's dying wish was fulfilled...because his mausoleum merely contains the most deceptively created hologram, which for years has fooled tourists and locals alike into believing that they had actually kept his body perfectly intact. The American man who took the picture is being prominently featured in the newspapers as a conspirist who new well that Ho Chi Minh was cremated upon his death...
Needless to say, the country is shocked...but no one more so than us. Admittedly, I was confused as to what was transpiring, but Jay immediately knew it was a hologram and whispered to me hurredly "its a hologram!".
The news is already all over this and we would be surprised if you hadn't heard of it back home yet. We have contacted CBC and Canwest to see if they are interested in our perspective of the story, considering we were of the few who actually witnessed it happen...
We have only so far found one article on the internet (presumbably, the papers tomorrow are covering the story but TV is all over it)... The article is in Vietnemese but if you use the following link to translate the title, ngươi hê tháng tư ban ngay (don't mind the boxes, paste the entire title into the following link and the article results will pop up)
Here is the link:
http://translate.google.com/translate_t#vienng%C6%B0%C6%A1i%20h%C3%AA%20th%C3%A1ng%20t%C6%B0%20ban%20ngay
Let us know what you hear at home! We are following tabs closely.
Love,
Maeve and Jay
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