Machu Picchu Trek Fauna, Peru

So in the four days of hiking up to Machu Picchu we experienced quite a varietal of fauna and vegetation. Some huge aloe looking plants here. A vivid assortment of purple, blue, red, and yellow unique flowers which ran the gamut of the rainbow sprinkled the trail over there. A veritable rain forest greeted us on the third day of the hike. All flushed against the jaw dropping snow capped mountain back drop. In this photo album of about 140 pictures, all the pictures are of different plants with the exception of a couple favorites.

Yellow Lady Slipper Flowers

Machu Picchu Trek Fauna

Ushuaia, Argentina - Day 2

Ushuaia is purported to be southern most city in the world. While there are other groups of people further south than Ushuaia, like Antarctica, this city has all the trappings of a genuine city with a hospital, university, army base, etc. There is one road that connects Ushuaia all the way up through North America and ends in Alaska. On my lake trek we ended our canoeing part of the trip at a sign which says its 17,848 km up to Alaska.

Ushuaia started out as prison city; where Argentina would send their most harden criminals. They have since transformed the prison into the oddest museum that I’ve ever been too. A couple wings of the prison were transformed into the museum with the cells holding the presentations. As cells are usually built to hold one or two people the rooms were obviously small and only one or two people could fit comfortably in each cell at a time.

This museum was a peculiar amalgamation of curios from Ushuaia and the surrounding areas with a rather haphazard approach in presentation. If you asked me what the theme of this museum was, I would have no idea. It’s like the museum curator went door to door and collected antiques from the sheds of the locals. There was a collection of old typewriters, next to stuffed penguins, birds, and other local animals, next to a corporate oil drilling diorama, next to a model collection of sailing boats, next to life sized models of the prison’s most notorious prisoners. And to top it all off there was a fine arts gallery in one wing showcasing Pategonia’s local talent.

The museum was $3 dollars for Argentineans and $15 dollars for foreigners. Perhaps we should make Disneyland $50 dollars for US citizens and $250 for foreigners. Well at least you are allowed to visit the museum over a 48 hour period so I split my trip up over two days since it was getting a bit late and I wanted some dinner.

Ushuaia, Argentina - Day 2

Buenos Aires, Argentina - Day 4

Today I did everything that a married couple with 2 young children would do. I went to the zoo, the Evita musuem, the Japanese Garden, and then out to dinner at a really nice steak restaurant. The restaurant was awesome and well recommended by my guidebook and a friend who lived in BA for a while. I've eaten at a lot of good steak houses in the US but this was right up there in a top 2 finish. The steak was perfectly done medium rare (is there any other way?), humongous, and very flavorful. The complementary sides were excellent with an expansive variety and almost stole the show. What a wonderful meal and at $35 a miniscule fraction of the cost at a top US steakhouse. I also had enough leftover meat for two more meals. I made a steak salad for lunch the next day and then for dinner the day after, I sliced the steak and added it to some beef ramen that I picked up in Chinatown.

Everything except the zoo:

Buenos Aires, Aregentina - Day 4

They have rideable rodents at this zoo. These guinea pigs on steroids get up to to 4ft and 140 lbs and are hunted for meat! Besides the usual lions, giraffes, and monekys, they also had an albino wallaby, albino tiger, seals, llamas, and random funny animals wandering around to feed.

Zoo:

Buenos Aires, Argentina - Day 4 Zoo

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

Phnom Penh, Cambodia - Day 1

I hung out with a group of 4 Estonians in Sihanoukville who were also going to Phnom Penh so we decided to meet up to do some sightseeing. They were carpooling in a taxi and I was going to take the bus which was only suppose to be a 3-4 hour bus ride. The thing that they forgot to tell me at the bus station was that they would be blaring Cambodian karaoke music the entire time and that the air conditioning wasn’t working. It was maybe 90 degrees outside and about 110 degrees inside the sauna on wheels. Even the climatized Cambodians, who wear long sleeve shirts and pants in the 90 degree heat and never sweat, were perspiring profusely. The bus driver was also driving rather unpredictably and even though it was pretty much on straight road, he would spend most of the time in the opposite lane passing cars, trucks, motorbikes, people, animals, and the occasional gaping hole in the road. So to add to the din and oppressive heat, we also had 3 people throw up on the bus due to the motion sickness brought on by the erratic driving. I promised myself to never again take a bus trip in Asia over 4 hours.

When I finally arrived in Phnom Penh blue faced and dehydrated, I went to go check into my guesthouse along the river. I took a quick shower and grabbed some lunch in the restaurant on the first floor before meeting up with the Estonian group to go to the royal palace. Who should I run into while eating but another Estonian that I had met on the island tour in Sihanoukville about a week prior. For some reason Estonians’ seem to love Cambodia.

Phnom Penh, Cambodia - Day 1

Chiang Mai, Thailand - Day 1

Chiang Mai, Thailand - Day 1

Philipines - Day 4

Philipines - Day 4

Indonesia - Day 4 Ubud

We had a flight from Bali to Jakarta in the afternoon and we were suppose to be back to our hotel at 3:00pm to catch a taxi. We were a little late as our massages ran over and we got back at 3:30pm. Ubud is about an hour away from the airport and the flight was at 5:30pm...the taxi driver was passing cars on a 2 lane road...we would be going head on onto an oncoming car and the taxi driver would just honk and the other car would just slow down...it was sooo bizarre and scary at the same time...we were flying around trucks and bikes and the guy's hand was constantly on the horn...about halfway through the trip his brakes started squealing...that was the craziest car ride that I've ever taken...someone could replicate that for an amusement park ride...oh well we made it to the airport in under an hour and made it to our flight safe and sound...

Indonesia - Day 4 Ubud

Indonesia - Day 3 Ubud

We did water sports in Kuta beach in the morning - going parasailing, jet skiing, banana boating, and snorkeling. Then we hung out on the beach for a while. Afterwards, we took an hour cab ride up to Ubud, the cultural area of Bali

Indonesia - Day 3 Ubud

Hong Kong - Second Day

So for our second day in Hong Kong we were a little jet lagged, woke up early, and walked around in the “Central” area where there are a number of sights to see. We went to the high end IFC mall in the financial district right by the ferry and the wharf. There are a lot of banks and expats in that area. We walked around an open market, through the Soho district (an upscale area of restaurants and shops), to the Man Mo Temple (which is one of the first traditional style temples built during the colonial era), and through the Dr. Sun Yet Sun Museum. Then we rode up the mid level escalator which is the longest escalator in the world up to the top. There are a lot of expensive old money houses in the mid level section and a lot of expats live here. At the top we walked about half a mile down to a botanical garden where we saw some interesting primates. Then we met up with my cousin and went to the roof top of the IFC mall where there is spectacular view of the Kowloon side. We rode a ferry across to the Kowloon side and then had dinner with my uncle and cousins. We finished off the night with some traditional Chinese deserts of almond jelly and milk pudding.


Pictures of HK - Day 2

Hong Kong - Day 2