Angor for Wat!

Think of Lil' John's "Turn down for what!" and substitute "Angor for Wat" and there's the theme song I had running through my head for the past three days in the amazing wonder of the world, Angor Wat. Thanks, Amy.

Angor Wat is actually only one specific temple in a massive temple complex in Siem Reap. Without going into much of a history lesson (as we didn't know much either), the temples of Angkor were built to honour ancient gods of the Hindu faith or of the "God-Kings" of ancient Cambodia. There are hundreds of temples which you can explore and we had a three day pass to do so.

Exploring the Temples of Angor

We decided to leave Angkor Wat until the end. It is the biggest and most famous and if we had seen it first we may have not been as impressed with the others. Instead, we started with the "big tour", named such for the fact that we saw about 6 temples and drove around in a tuk tuk to the great distances between them. At our first stop, Amy and I bought the tourist pants... Kinda like super thin, loose fitting, colourful hammer pants. I definitely got swindled with a two for $16 deal (which I had bargained down from $18) when we saw at the next temple they were selling them 2 for $5.  White people problems.  About an hour later, I found out how thin the material that the pants I bought were as they ripped right down the middle. Pretty awesome to have random Japanese tourists point at you and laugh...

We started off at the "funeral temple" in the blazing Cambodian sun. We climbed high, posed for pictures and marvelled at how impressive these buildings were. That's basically what we did for the next 5 temples too. We had lunch at a super touristy place (99% sure our tuk tuk driver gets a cut from the ppl there) where I had a delicious but expensive Khmer Curry at $5.50 US. Considering beer is $0.75 at our hostel and breakfast was a sizeable portion at $1.50, we may be a little spoiled there. 

The Fab Four

During our visit to Banteay Srei temple ("the ladies temple") we were introduced to the selling techniques the Cambodians employed to trap tourists. Basically, they send these cute kids to follow beside you saying more or less the same script where they half guilt, half pressure you into buying "10 postcards, $1. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5....". "Hey lady, got good price." For some reason, they seemed to flock to Simon, our 6ft2 tall ginger. ;)

On our second day of temples, we explored the "small circuit" of Angor Thom, with the highlights being Phimeanakas and Bayon. Angor Thom was the last and most enduring capital in the Khmer Empire. Phimeanakas was a "celestial temple" built at the end of the 10th century in a pyramid structure. It was a little scary climbing such steep steps to reach the top! Bayon was a temple built to honour the King Jayavarman VII and is comprised of 216 faces carved throughout its structure. Creepy and beautiful at the same time. I think Bayon was my favourite temple. 

The faces of Bayon Temple

The last highlight of day 2 of temple madness was Ta Prohm, aka the "tomb raider" temple (as scenes were filmed there). In most temples, the structures remain intact and unaffected by nature but in this temple, trees and nature have grown up surrounding and overpowering it. It's the definition of architectural ruins and quite impressive to behold.

Wanna raid some tombs?

That being said, the most impressive temple and most famous of them all is Angor Wat. We decided to heed the guidebooks and friend recommendations to view sunrise at Angor. If you know me well, you know that I am not a morning person. Nevertheless, I woke up at 4:30 and tuk-tuked over for the 6:30 sunrise. We had some cloud coverage so it wasn't a picture-perfect view but it was still worth it. After the sunrise and a snack, we explored Angor Wat in more detail.

Sunrise at Angor Wat

It's huge. Not area wise (Angor Thom had more temples) but in height. It's crazy to think of how they got the sandstone from 50miles upstream (still a mystery), let alone build it without concrete or any modern building tools. We climbed to the top of the middle tower (? I like to call them acorns) and had a great view of the surrounding area.

After three days of temples, I can say I'm officially templed-out. I understand why it's placed on the  UNESCO World Heritage list. I'm so glad I've been blessed to be able to witness it in person.

Angor for Wat!

You're Macau-ing me Crazy

When travelling in a new country, you're bound to make mistakes or missteps. My first one of this trip? Attempting to see Macau in one day. Why didn't I just spend the day exploring another area of HK?? There's plenty of things I haven't even scratched the surface on! I got greedy with the proximity and prospect of travelling to another country (well a "special administrative region of China") in a day...

Mistake #1: Leaving late. I got lazy when I woke up early today. Watched some YouTube at 6am but then fell asleep again until 9:30 and didn't leave the apartment until 11.... The ferry to Macau was about an hour away and then the ferry itself was another hour. I had to be home for dim sum dinner with James and Zoe so this limited my time I. Macau to about three hours.

Macau Tower

Mistake #2: Thinking I could do a lot in 3 hours. Maybe go see that famous burned down church, browse around the casino area, gamble a bit, have some lunch. Not sure how I thought this possible in three hours, but I was feeling ambitious. Instead, I spent about 15 minutes trying to cross the road to where the hotel shuttles were, then the 10 minute ride there, and  then wandered around feeling small and out-of-place. My sanuks and MEC backpack made me a little different than the other Vitton and Prada clad clientele. I gambled a bit, got lost trying to find the bathroom and then got lost trying to find where to get the shuttle back to the ferry. 

Mistake #3: Gambling. I like slot machines, I get very optimistic and am not normally too sad when I lose. However, when one is in a foreign country one should pay closer attention to the machine she uses. There's a bit difference between a $10.00 machine and a $0.10 one. My $170 HK didn't last me very long. :(

However even though there were some blunders today, there were also some silver linings. Try to make the negatives into positives because regardless of everything, I'm still travelling Asia at the moment and not having to wake up to go to work. 

Silver Lining #1: I saw the Vegas-of-the-East! It was pretty impressive and massive. A lot of the hotel/casino area was under construction but the areas that weren't were impressive. According to my guidebook circa 2009, the Venetian is the 5th largest building in the world with "enough space to comfortably fit 90 Boeing 747 jets". So getting lost there wasn't really something to be ashamed of. It even had a river and gondola rides throughout it similar to the one in Vegas. 

The Venice Canal in the Venetian Macau

Silver Lining #2: People watching. The Venetian was the perfect spot to watch how easterners interact on vacation. People were very helpful when I was lost and I'm pretty sure I only saw about 15 white people the whole time. I also saw some hilarious tour groups huddled together, old men playing card and dice games I could begin to understand, and children on leashes. Basically the same sort of things you'd see in Vegas, just without American accents.

Silver lining #3: Nata Tarts! Macau was colonized by the Portuguese and was only incorporated into China in '99. As a result, there are distinct Portuguese influences on the area, including their dessert. You can hear all about my love for Nata tarts in this old post from my time in Lisbon so I won't reiterate that ( http://topuptube.blogspot.hk/2011/05/dont-worry-mum-im-in-lisbon.html?m=1) Basically, I was just pretty please to be eating that while waiting for the ferry home. Desserts always make this grumpy Suse happy. :)

So, SO good

The Peak, Protestors and Kung-foo

It's a pretty cool thing to travel halfway across the world and meet up with friends from back home. Especially when it's unexpected! 

I got a message the night before on FB from my friend Adrian saying that he was also in Hong Kong at the moment. Adrian and I used to work at Variety Village in the summers but haven't seen each other in a few years. I was originally going to spend the day being a solo tourist so I loved the idea of touring around with someone I knew!

Lucky for me, Adrian had been to Hong Kong quite a number of times and had some great suggestions. Instead of taking the Peak tram to see the famous view of Hong Kong, we skipped the long queue and jumped in a cab with some Russian tourists (who didn't speak much English but seemed fine with splitting a cab). We went to a HIGHER peak of the "peak" than the regular "stupid" tourists do and had a great hike down and around the mountain. 

The View from the Peak

After the hike and a wander around central we went to the Sogo area to see some of the #OccupyHK and umbrella movement democracy protests. There weren't many protestors there (even protesters have to work on weekdays) but tons of tents, signs and information. I was really glad I was able to see that. Potential history in the making!

The Umbrella Movement

Adrian bought us some fish balls, meat cubes, and sugar-cane water from a street vendor. It's nice to have someone who can order in the native tongue. We also went to a "susan would have never found this" ramen restaurant for a late snack. Luckily even though neither of us could read Chinese, there were pictures to pick from. I really liked the boiled egg that came with it.

Being a good sport, Adrian came with me to the Avenue of Stars even though I know it wasn't a priority for him. The Avenue of Stars is he Cantonese cinema version of the Hollywood walk of fame. I only knew of four stars (Jet Li, Chow Yun Fat, Jackie Chan and Bruce Lee) but I still liked reading about Cantonese cinema along the boardwalk. I also posed beside the Bruce Lee statue for a classic white girl attempting Kung foo imitation. 

Hiiiiiii-yah!

After that it was time to say bye to Adrian and I headed home for a mellow night. According to his pedometer, we may have walked 20k that day. Phew! That's a lot for this out-of-shape schlub. Bring on the dim sum to even this out!

Lights, Rocks n' Seafood: A weekend in Hong Kong

Day two was kicked off with a tipoff. Woke up and watched the Raptors game with some coffee (Vietnamese style with condensed milk to sweeten it!) before heading to James' teaching friends brunch. It was nice to meet all his crew if just a little awkward with not knowing everyone and celebrating the engagement of a couple I've never met before. But the food was great and it was nice to hear stories about teaching in Hong Kong (incase I get itchy feet in Toronto!). Capped the afternoon off with a glorious nap (damn you jet lag!) before heading to Kowloon and central for the night.

We had dinner at an area called TST (Tsim Sha Tsui) at a very yummy Thai Restaurant in a giant shopping centre full of designer boutiques and luxury watch shops (HKers are obsessed with luxury watches, I've never seen so many Rolex stores that close together before!). We met up with Krakers and his wife Isabella which was wonderful. Krakers had just come from a Chinese doctor (naturopath) and had a bag full of eastern medicine. He's really committed to the eastern lifestyle, with agreeing to twice a week acupuncture to cure his ailments. Pretty interesting stuff!

Then it was off to the HK light show (a musical light show on the Kowoon side of the HK harbour). Armed with beers and a good butt rest we enjoyed the show and the HK skyline view. This includes the tower made famous by "The Dark Knight". We took the Star Ferry across the water to central side and had some pier beers and crisps.

I am Batman

Now for the HK nightlife! We headed to a place called "Racks" at LKF (Lan Kwai Fong). Anthony Bourdain went here in an episode of "Layover". It had pool and beer pong tables set up. They even pour the beer into the cups for beer pong, what service. ;) A "few" beverages were consumed, an awesome trick shot was demonstrated by yours truly, a windy cab ride home and Zoe's delicious cheese pancakes concluded the night.

Waking up to jetlag and a hangover was not much fun. In fact, I ended up taking a melatonin to help me back to sleep. That shit is wonderful. Upon waking up to Zoe's delicious home baked scones (James Waller, you're a lucky man!), we headed out for an overcast day at the seaside. We took a minibus to Sai Kung pier where we had some pizza for lunch. We saw the wet market, where local fisherman display their daily catches on boats. Buyers come up, choose what they want and then the fishermen send up the food via ladders. 

Then we hopped on a boat tour. Thank goodness we had Zoe with us to explain what the Cantonese boat driver pointed out along route. It was pretty funny when we stopped the boat to look at "coral" and basically just seeing  the ocean.

Our boat arrived Kiu Tsui Chau Island (Sharp Island) / Kiu Tao, where they have the Hong Kong Geopark. Baaaaaaaasically, a beach and a buncha rocks. ;) Spent the rest of the afternoon reading on the beach and exploring the island before heading back for dinner. 

Geopark, Geopark!

We had seafood for dinner at an Anthony Bourdain recommended (a theme in this trip so far!) seafood restaurant at the Sai Kung pier. If you're fancy and rich, you can even order straight from their fresh fish and seafood in tanks beside the restaurant. With my two locals as guides though, we ordered a smorgasbord of seafood off the menu. 

Fresh seafood in Hong Kong

To fill our bellies, we ate: deep fried breaded squid (not a fan of this dish, too chewy), razor clams in a black bean sauce (delicious), scallops with garlic and glass noodles (too garlicy for me), and a crab stirfry with ginger and onions (my favourite). I am definitely eating outside of my comfort zone on this trip by trying everything "foodie" James suggests. That's the point of traveling though, to try, discover and fall in love with new things. Bring it on, Asia. I'm loving it so far. 

Kickin it off HK Stylz

 I made it. I survived the 15 hour flight, busy subways, and having meat for the first time in a year and a half. Welcome to Hong Kong!

The flight was.... Long. I was spoiled on my last flight to Asia with the benefits of first class, but settled for being a common coach passenger on this trek. It was the biggest plane I had ever been on, I think! It was Air Canada's Boeing 777 (about 450 seats according to my pal Mr. Wikipedia). Seat mates were a young man and an older lady, perfectly non-talkative the entire flight. Movies watched: Dawn of the Planet of the Aprs (yeeeeeeeesh), Billy Madison (to make up for the last one, I watched one I knew I'd like -- t-t-t-today junior!), a 2-part documentary on 1964 (woo American History nerd!) and about 30 minutes of Tammy (couple of lol moments but I fell asleep). Food wise, I found 2/3 of my meals to be great (tofu and rice with no sauce was blargh, but tofu scramble and rice wrap were amazing!). Huge hint: if you ever get hungrier than other people, pre-order the veggie meals, you get it delivered like 10 minutes before everyone else (pretty sure I got some death stares when that happened).

When I arrived, the first thing I went in search of in the HK airport was... A hairbrush. I forgot mine at home and couldn't find one there, so that's part of my mission for today! Took the airport express train into the city and arrived at HK station (HK Island). It was wonderful to see James! Especially since he had a beer and pork bun waiting for me when I arrived!

Yes, you heard that... Pork bun. I am putting my vegetarianism on hold for this trip. I want to experience new foods and new cultures and unfortunately a lot of that involves meat. I will most likely still stay away from the slabs of meat styles, but will be open to trying everything once and stick to veggies when possible.

James, my host with the most!

Speaking of dinner, James and I headed off in the #searchforSzechwan. After deciding the cab line was way too long, we took a more traditional route and hopped on the subway. In Hong Kong, they have a transit card similar to London's Oyster called the Octopus (still haven't figured out the name choice yet).. But unlike London, it also can be used to make purchases at certain stores like 7-11 or Mcdonalds... It's like HK's own debit card! 

We took a very busy rush hour subway to a place near James apartment. We hopped on the #11 minibus to go to a  Szechuan restaurant that James' wife Zoe recommended and was later going to meet us at. Well, turns out we were on the wrong bus after having some passengers yell/explain our mistake to us in Cantonese. We hopped off and switched to a cab.

After finding the restaurant (getting lost is just a part of the adventure), we grabbed some beers and peach tea (very sugary and delicious, reminded me of those ice-tea freezies that we used to love in Grade 8). We ordered an assortment of food covered in spicy Szechuan sauce (super spicy, a little too much for this little white girl!). We had jellyfish (kind of like a crunchy slimy noodle, not my favourite), beef and green beans, chicken hot pot and a noodle dish. Even though I was a bit worried about introducing meat into my system, spicy meat at that, everything seems to be a-ok.

Yummy!

It was pouring by this point so we took a cab back to James hotel (errr, apartment), but seriously this place is gorgeous! Huge swimming pool, gym, billards room, movie theatre (byo-DVDs) and soon to be built spa. James says because they live so far away, they have all these amenities to attract people.  Jet lag had seriously kicked in and after poppin some melatonin, I was out like a light by 9:30. Slept all the way til 6:30 am, so hopefully it won't be too bad! 

James' view from his living room window

Overall, a pretty eventful first 5 hours in Asia. Tried meat, got lost, fell asleep. Well, maybe it's just eventful because I'm halfway across the world! ;)

It's Been a Long Time Since I Rock N' Rolled....

It slightly saddens me that I haven't written a travel post on this blog in well over two years. When I came home from living abroad in England, I realized I had very little money saved and a HUGE student debt waiting for me. Working to pay that off and combined with the fact that it has taken me until this WEEK to get a supply teaching job in Toronto, left very little time or money to travel.

I was very lucky to continue working with my Westcoast Connection family over the past two years to provide me with a bit of travel time as well as work experience. On top of my Californian adventure (the last blog post here), I had the awesome opportunity to work as a trip leader for teenage community service trips in Costa Rica (2013) and Alaska/Pacific Northwest/Hawaii (2014).  I was also able to secure enough cash during my rotating job schedules to afford short getaways to Boston and Austin to visit friends of mine who were completing graduate studies in the United States.

 However, I haven't done a proper backpacking trip / adventure into the unknown in a long while. My glorious red backpack has been sitting in my attic so long that I'm afraid its going to go on its own adventure (a la "The Brave Little Toaster" styles) from sheer boredom of being unused for so long! Lucky for me - thank the Buddha, sun, stars and whatever deity you want - I am finally going on a much anticipated new adventure... this time, to South East Asia!

In November, I will be heading to SE Asia for a month. Not a long time for travelling around there (most people I know who have backpacked there have taken like 3 - 6 months to do so) but just the right amount of time for me. I was able to book myself off of my supply teaching gig (the BIGGEST benefit of working temporary jobs!) and I was able to find friends who are travelling there at the same time!

I will be travelling with Simon, Karen & Amy for most of the trip. Simon & Amy were friends from high school (Amy since grade four) and Karen is Simon's better half (who I've known for quite some time too). Starting November 5th, I will be flying to Hong Kong to visit and crash with James and Krakers (two buddies from teacher's college). I then fly to Cambodia to meet up with the others and begin my trek through Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. The city wise itinerary will be Siem Reap - Phnom Penh - Ho Chi Minh City - Hoi An - Hanoi - Luang Prabang - Huay Xai. 

I cannot begin to describe how much I have missed travelling, but I will try to paint a picture. There are so many stories, histories, wonders and cultures in the world to experience. I think that's why I loved majoring in History in undergrad - exposing myself to a different world than I was used to (albeit in a time sense, more than a location sense). When I saw places like Auschwitz, Versailles, or Churchills War Rooms, it really made all that history I studied even more impactful. 

Funny thing is, I never used to like travelling this much! My family roadtripped and camped all the time but solo travelingn was not my idea of fun. I got homesick at camp and sleepovers all the time. When I was in university, I had such bad anxiety about sleeping in unknown places that I used to get panic attacks when I travelled to different ONTARIO universities for fencing tournaments.

It was only when I went to teacher's college in a city far away from my hometown, completely on my own, that I realized that it was really easy to make new friends and have a new life in a different locale. I was forced to be independent in a way I never had before and realized I was a much stronger person than I ever thought I was. I was no longer defined by my previous friends or boyfriend or athletic/academic pursuits and that was okay. After that year up north, I had the courage to plan a backpack trip through Europe with friends the following summer.

 THAT was the trip that really cinched my travel bug. I met new friends from all around the world with ease, saw places I had only read about in books or seen in documentaries, drank beers in steins bigger than my head, got lost, got found, kissed boys, saw art, took trains and not only survived the whole process, but FLOURISHED. I felt passion again. When I had the opportunity to live abroad in England and teach, I jumped at it. Hindsight being what it is, I wish I had stayed the full two years instead of splitting it into two and coming home early, but I do not regret one moment there.

With the past three years attempting to get a teaching job in Toronto and finally getting my toe in the doorway, its hard to pass up the travelling lifestyle. Heartbreaks and job setbacks impacted my life for a few years. After so long trying to teach in Toronto and finally getting it, I have to try it out for awhile. Maybe I'll get a full time job or in a relationship and I might even commit to a two year phone plan in the new year (BIG COMMITMENT EH?). That just means I get to be even MORE excited when I get to do trips like the one I have coming up in November. And you, dear reader, get to experience it with me. 

Caifornia & The Canyons - Westcoast Connection!

For the past three weeks, I have been working with a company called Westcoast Connections - 360 Student Travel. I was a trip leader on a teen tour for 21 days of California & The Canyons. There was a group of 48 teens, aged 12 - 14 with 7 staff.  I was saddled with the job of "trip blogger" as I have had some experience with blogging in the past. ;-)

While blogging, I had to include each trip member's name at least once, but for these copies of the trip blog, I have deleted their names. Just for privacy and what not. Hope you enjoy hearing about my adventure across the west coast!

Click "Read More" to read the blog that I wrote for this trip :)