Solar de Uyuni, Bolivia - Day 1

So today was the start of one of the best tours that I took in South America. A 3 day tour of Bolivia’s salt flats and beautiful lagoons in a 4x4 truck, with food and lodging was only $100 dollars. Granted the accommodations were a bit rough, with no heat and the first place did not have shower facilities, but we had people on the tour ranging in age from 25 to late 60s and everybody survived and enjoyed themselves.

On the tour that day, we visited the desert that inspired Vincent Van Gogh’s art work, volcanic geysers overflowing with mud and steam, and saw a tornado approaching us through the desert. We also explored a couple lagoons which were so vividly brilliant that they appeared to be painted vibrant hues of blue, green, white, and red. Complimenting the beautiful water colors were towering mountain scenes and masses of magnificent flamingoes. I’ve never seen so many animals of one species in one place at one time. Couple that with the amazing scenery and you are driven into visual sensory overload. Of course a picture can only get a fraction of what the eye can see so while the pictures that I have on this tour are stunning, the in person experience was exponentially better.

Trying to move around for your first couple days at high altitudes, 3000 meters is where you first start of feel some of the altitude symptoms, is like trying to run a marathon while carrying a horse who is kicking you in the head. You take five steps and have to stop, completely winded, hunched over trying to catch your breath, while a headache constantly pounds your skull. Sleeping at that altitude is a totally different matter. We had to sleep at 4200 meters on the first day and with no previous altitude exposure it was really difficult. The best way that I can describe it is to use a simile - sleeping at 4200 meters is like trying to breathe through a straw while a baby elephant performs back flips on your chest.

Solar de Uyuni, Bolivia - Day 1

Santiago, Chile - Day 2

So here are some things that I’ve learned about Argentina and Chile so far while traveling.

1. Most stores close between 2-6pm for a siesta so it’s really hard to purchase things or plan anything during this time. If you’re gushing blood and you need a bandage, tough luck wait until 6pm.
2. Most restaurants do not open for dinner until 8pm. Get a snack.
3. Argentineans eat a huge meal really late at like 10 or 11 pm so restaurants do not get packed until then.

Today I learned that in Santiago, restaurants are closed for dinner on Sunday.

I’ve been craving sushi for a long time and there was a sushi restaurant right next to where I was staying. I noticed it after walking back home the night before from a really crappy Korean restaurant. The Korean food was rather authentic, the place was run by Koreans, and only Koreans were in the restaurant. But the seafood tofu stew that I ordered was horrible, the shrimp were half rotten and the tofu somewhat grainy.

On the way back from that restaurant I passed this Japanese restaurant next to where I was staying. It was packed with people. Good sign. Packed with Asian people. Even better sign. So I decided to give it a try the following night. I went to the Santiago zoo, climbed up a mini mountain for a view, checked out a pre Columbian museum, and worked on my blog. In anticipation of my sushi dinner, I had forgone a large lunch and had a snack instead. After working on my blog, I exit my building promptly at 8pm, turn right, walk down the block and low and behold the restaurant is closed! WHHHHAT?!? What’s going on? I checked the time, it’s past 8 pm so the restaurant should be open. It’s Sunday? Japanese restaurants are closed on Sundays! No wait a minute ALL restaurants are closed on Sunday evenings! So like no one eats on a Sunday?

So I’m wandering around Santiago trying to find something to eat and I run into a Chinese restaurant…and it’s open. Just like in the states on Christmas and Thanksgiving, Chinese restaurants seem to open when others close. That’s work ethic.

Santiago, Chile - Day 2

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

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

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

Puerto Madryn, Argentina - Day 2

So I rented a bike today to ride to Punta Lomo which is an observatory for sea lions. The lady who rented me the bike said that it would be about an hour each way. I had to hurry because the only window to view the sea lions was in exactly one hour when low tide would provide a small beach area for the sea lions to congregate and work on their tans.

An hour each way? Puleeeese, I’m in decent shape and I use to bike a lot - 30 minutes easily, 45 minutes tops. Ya ok so I forgot to consider that I wasn’t riding on well paved bike trail in Fairmount Park but on a path of gravel and large stones up and down extreme hills in sweltering heat. The gravel hills were like running full speed up an icy embankment with my bike tires constantly spinning and fighting to get some traction in the gravel. Then I hit a sandy hill where I basically sank into the sand. I walked the bike up the sand hill and then attempted to coast down the other side of the hill in the sand…bad idea. My tires promptly slid out and a nasty twisted ankle or worse was awaiting me at the bottom of the hill. Luckily I caught myself and that was the only major semi potential accident that I’d have to deal with during the ride. The rest of the time I just had to deal with the scorching sun and the random cars that would drive by, kicking up a huge cloud of dirt that would have me looking semi African by the end of the trip. And it only took me about 1.25 hours.

The sea lions just LAY there?? 2.5 hours of biking in the sweltering sun for 15 minutes of watching undulating blubber with whiskers roll over to toast a different section of fat? I can get this at the Jersey Shore. Ok so at least I got some much needed exercise.

On a side note, I learned that except for 19 days out of the year when they are weaning their current young, female elephant seals remain permanently pregnant.

Puerto Madryn, 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

Sapa, Vietnam - Day 3

Sapa, Vietnam - Day 3

Sapa, Vietnam - Day 2

Sapa, Vietnam - Day 2

Sapa, Vietnam - Day 1

Sapa, Vietnam - Day 1

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 6

On my last day in Sihanoukville, I rented a motorbike and biked around the town to venture off the proverbial beaten path. I went up to Wat Leu, a temple on the top of the only hill in sihanoukville, and went around a bit. I’ve seen quite a few temples going through southeast Asia central but this one had statues of old men leaning on canes that didn’t appear in any of the other temples that I visited.

On the way down the hill I took a different path down the hill. I stopped to take a picture of a statue and this adorable little girl came running out of a house at me. I guess she doesn’t see too many foreigners on bikes. After standing in front of me for about 2 minutes and smiling, she runs over to the statue that I was taking a picture of and poses in front of the statue for a couple minutes while also trying to get her brothers attention to come over from the door step of their house, which was about the size of a large shack. When her brother finally came over, she wrestled him to the ground and then made him stand up and pose for more pictures. She’s in the running for the cutest kid award on my travels although she’s going to have plenty of competition.

Then I biked to the Kbal Chhay waterfalls about 20km away. Apparently it’s a popular weekend picnic and relaxation spot for the locals but I found it rather lacking. Not much of a waterfall although the hammocks looked rather comfy.

Finally, I drove around the rest of the islands and checked out the other beaches that were further from my hotel before meeting up with some Estonian friends for dinner. We went to a local popular Cambodian seafood restaurant where we were the only foreigners amongst a ton of locals. I was a little wary as the menu didn’t have any prices which was a prime opportunity to get charged foreigner prices, but we ordered a ton of food and it came out to be about 4 dollars each. We were hanging out at the guesthouse, which ironically is partially owned by an Estonian, and he went and got some local Cambodian specialties for us to try – a chicken egg with a developing chicken inside. It was two eggs with some lime and pepper but when you peel away the egg shell there’s a definite skeleton structure of a baby chicken with a head and the normal egg whites around it. It was like a soft boiled egg with tender bones in it – tasted like chicken. I wouldn’t order it at a restaurant but it was a peculiar delicacy to try once in your life.

Sihanoukville, Cambodia - Day 6

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