Ushuaia, Argentina - Day 4

Today I went on a boat tour of local animal preserves checking out seals, birds, and local fauna. In the evening, I went to see some beaver huts and damns. The locals had imported the beavers to harvest their pelts, but the beaver’s pelts did not grow the same way that they did in Canada and the locals couldn’t use the pelts as originally intended. As a result, the swimming mutant rodents have built damns, flooded the natural habitat, and taken over the forests as they have no local predator.

Ushuaia, Argentina - Day 4

Puerto Madryn, Argentina - Day 4

Today I went on a tour to observe black and white dolphin and to visit Punta Tombo, the largest colony of Magellan penguins with over half a million penguins on a small peninsula. This article from the Washington Post describes some of the penguin’s characteristics and habits.

These little guys were fun to watch as they waddled around, played with each other, and took care of the baby chicks that were starting to appear.

Puerto Madryn, Argentina - Day 4

Puerto Madryn, Argentina - Day 3

One of the benefits of traveling is that it dramatically increases your tolerance and patience in difficult situations. It exposes you to excruciatingly slow, inefficient processes or procedures; or ones that are simply unfamiliar to you. Yet inspite of all the trials and tribulations that accompany traveling, you get the sense that it forces you to adapt and look at the optimistic aspects of the situation. You have to – otherwise you’re going to spend your vacation mopping because it invariably happens to anybody who travels extensively.

So today I took a tour of Peninsula Valdez, a UNESCO World Heritage site, to see whales, seals, and penguins but we also got to see dolphins, armadillos, a white whale (only 2-3 are born every year), llamas, and grey foxes. Oh and two flat tires. On the same back wheel. The roads are really long, dusty, and extremely rocky so I could understand how flat tires happen with some frequency. We were at our second stop checking out some seals and upon boarding the bus the driver realized we had a flat and spent about 30 minutes changing it. About 15 minutes into our drive to the next stop we heard a loud pop. It was an hour to our next destination. Luckily the back axle had two tires per wheel so we could do the drive, but we had to do it at about 15 MPH instead of 40 MPH.

After our 45 minute stop at the seal sanctuary we were suppose to go to the penguins and a museum, but they still hadn’t changed the tire or found a tire to swap out with another tour group. The driver was still staring at the wheel. Did it change itself in the last 45 minutes? Can we please have some action or progress here? Sigh. Things move rather slowly around here. Oh well, after milling around for another hour we grabbed another bus back to the city and got to see the penguins but had to skip the museum. And everything ended up OK.

Puerto Madryn, Argentina - Day 3

Le Tigre, Argentina - Day 1

I took the worst tour EVER! Le Tigre is about an hour north of Buenos Aires is a river district where there are supposed to be nice river house for a weekend getaway. So the tour was a boat ride up the river. Spent most of the day on a bus or boat and saw a ton of crappy houses on a muddy river. I wouldn’t spend a weekend here if someone gave me an all expense paid vacation here. Lovely! Never the less, I took tons of pictures since I was bored so I’ll let you come to your own verdict.

Le Tigre, Argentina - Day 1

Luang Prabang, Laos - Day 4

So I found out today that Thai and Laos are relatively similar in terms of culture, food, and language. I met some Thai Airways flight attendants at a waterfall which was severely overflowing due to the huge monsoons that have been hammering the area. Every four years they get an irregularly high amount of rain fall during the wet season. In Vang Vieng, where tubing is popular with tourists, the river had become so flooded and powerful that a Swedish girl flipped over in her tube and died when her foot got caught in the rocks. They had to suspend tubing for a while amongst the massive evidence of the rain’s impact as houses and buildings were left in disarray, bridges collapsed, and trees were strewn around like Godzilla had just sauntered through. At the waterfalls we were practically walking mid shin deep in water up the steps which are obviously not normally covered with water.

At dinner, we were talking about how a lot of the foods of northern Thailand and Laos are very similar. The use of sticky rice, formed into small balls with your hands and then dipped into the foods, is common in the northern half of Thailand and in Laos. The languages are also somewhat similar and the girls spoke Thai to the Laos people and they were able to understand Thai mainly because the only TV channels that they get are Thai. I also believe that at one point Thailand had ruled parts of Laos.

Luang Prabang, Laos - Day 4

Halong Bay, Vietnam - Day 2

Halong Bay, Vietnam - Day 2

Halong Bay, Vietnam - Day 1

UNESCO World Heritage Site

Halong Bay, Vietnam - Day 1

Hue, Vietnam - Day 2

UNESCO World Heritage Site

Hue, Vietnam - Day 2

Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam - Day 4

So today I took a tour of the Mekong Delta, which was quite possibly one of the worst tours ever…I mean most tours have some kind of filler (take the dumb tourists to a candy store, toy store, art store, something where they’ll buy useless junk and the tour will get a commission store)…if that’s what you’re looking for then this tour did not disappoint. We saw how honey was made, how coconut candy was made, rode a cart pulled by a miniature donkey (poor thing), and listened to some Vietnamese band. Needless to say, wasn’t too impressed with the Delta region.

An interesting thing that I noticed today’s tour were the vendors lined up on the side of the street. There would be 15 of them on one side of the street spaced out perhaps 10 ft or so apart selling the EXACT same products whether its bread or fruits. Like perhaps diversification may help? I mean who drives by the same road every day on the way to work and says “hmmm…I’ve seen a 10 bread stands by the side of the street…perhaps I’ll stop by the 12th one?” I suppose the power of persuasion works well here….

When a city has 12 million people and 8 million motorbikes, motorbikes tend to be the only transportation available; and it’s amazing what a little resourcefulness will do when loading them to capacity. I’ve seen couches, bales of trees, loads of lumber…and now flocks of ducks and geese…like 50 of them on a motorbike…

Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam - Day 4

Sihanoukville, Cambodia - Day 3

I took an island tour of Bamboo Island which is about 1 hour away. The waves were rather choppy and at least one girl regurgitated her breakfast for the fishes. We went snorkeling near one island and then had lunch on the beach at Bamboo Island. After lunch we hiked through a small forest and the discovered a uninhabitated beach on the other side of the island where we had the entire beach with pristine soft white sand and surfer worthy waves all to ourselves.

On the way back through the forest, we came across some locals who had smoked out a bee's nest and were enjoying the fresh honey straight from the honey comb. The honey was obviously amazingly fresh and included complimentary burnt bees as an extra protein supplement.

Sihanoukville, Cambodia - Day 3

Sihanoukville, Cambodia - Day 2

I went on a tour to the Siem National Park where we rode out on a wooden boat through the park to this small fishing village. We hiked through the woods to a deserted beach which was beautiful.

Then it was more relaxation on serendipity beach next to my resort.

Sihanoukville, Cambodia - Day 2

Bangkok, Thailand - Day 4

Bangkok, Thailand - Day 4

Bangkok, Thailand - Day 3

Bangkok, Thailand - Day 3