Nov 12 - Dec 13, 2000
Short Version
Cebu is no Bali but it has great diving!
Macau is very similar to Hong Kong (but we got to see glimpses of the Grand Prix)!
China is just as bureaucratic & "propogandist" as everyone says (according to our 1 day there).
India was much more managable than expected with lotsa great stuff!
Sri Lanka was our 2nd favourite place!
Long Version
Cebu, Phillipines (6 days)
Day 58 (Nov 12): We endure the usual frustrations trying to catch the airport bus (eg. being told by cabbies "it doesn't go there from here"). Fly to Cebu (via a two hour layover in Hong Kong) & endure the usual frustrations of fending off cabbies at the airport. Choosing a hotel at nite is not easy. We pass up beachfront, pool, a/c & hot water because it's isolated & expensive ($45) to get an inexpensive ($16) rockfront, no pool, place with a nice location & sweet people. We only vaguely realized it had no a/c and no hotwater (it seemed like a good idea at the time). Turns out their restaurant serves the best bbq'd chicken we've ever had, so we're set.
Day 59: We had no plan for what to do in Cebu, so when it turns out to have the best diving in Asia we're delighted. We do two dives and see stuff right out of the Discovery Channel. Exotic but poisonous lionfish, walls of beautiful coral that drop right off into oblivion, breathtaking damselfish hidden in the dancing arms of sea amenome . . . it's awesome! Afterward our divemaster shows us a nearby hotel where we can get pool & a/c for $12. Still no hot water though & even the cold water turns out to be sporadic.
Day 60: The power is out across the island (maybe to protest the presidential corruption scandal?). We do two more dives then move to our new hotel. I do a nite dive while Louise relaxes in the room. There's a wild current due to the incoming tide & the divemaster & I are swept along like astronauts on the moon. I see my first shrimp & a slew of otherwordly creatures. It was surreal. I order the delicious chicken again & bring Louise room service.
Day 61: We do a day trip to Cebu city. What an armpit! Our travel book accurately describes its local market; "the ratty stalls soon give way to begging children and the smell of urine". The best site was the mall where all 16 ATM's were either broken or had huge lineups and then turned out to not accept foreign cards (we end up taxiing around the city in search of the one Citibank ATM). The customary transport in the Philippines is jeepney's; old (a broken speedometer is a must), about the size of a pickup (but seating 10) and cheap (you can ride anywhere for 16 cents if you find one going your way). Then disaster; our hotel's on again/off again water supply came on with the shower turned on (& aimed at our wash kits). We replace our soaked towels, toss our ruined bandaids etc. and air out the rest. Louise is not a fun person to be around tonite!
Day 62: Get up in time for lunch. Do two more dives. Lose my wedding ring when taking off my scuba gloves. Risk dinner at a local burger stand. At nite I opt to snorkel the area where my nite dive ended. However on your own & without a skin suit it's a little too spooky.
Day 63: Lounge in bed til noon. Tricycle (a motorcycle with a huge sidecar) to the only public beach. We're warned off the section for locals so head to the walled off tourist section; we're the only ones there (as has been the case almost everywhere we've been in Cebu). We chat with a few locals while awaiting a jetski (which never shows up) then tricycle home & lounge the nite away.
HK (4 days)Day 64: Back to HK and our hosts new appt; there's no 2nd bedroom but it's a much newer/cleaner place so we're happy (& tomorrow he gets a pull out couch). We book our one day China excursion & then take our host out for dinner (baby snow pea leaves & pigeon - delicious!).
Day 65: A 50 minute ferry ride gets us to Macau. It's the final day of the Grand Prix so we are stuck with a return time of 11:45pm! Macau is much like Hong Kong; big buildings with the old world villages hidden behind. We see the usual sites (lots of Portugese built Cathedrals) & sneak a look at the Grand Prix whenever we cross a bridge. After dark we tour every casino in town looking for one with a blackjack minimum I can handle. No such luck, but we did find the place that features Canadian strippers (it had been written up in the Toronto Star)! Unfortunately the cover is about $50. I don't think Lou would have wanted to go anyway!
Day 66: With big days behind & ahead of us, today we relax (it's a weekday so we have the place to ourselves). We do a little housekeeping of our hotmail account, sort thru our luggage, watch a few videos and start writing Christmas cards!
Day 67: Day trip to Shenzhen; a "special economic zone" set up by China 20 years ago to complete with Hong Kong (just one hour away). It was previously just boring fishing villages & Hakka indians; now it's shiny skycrapers just like Hong Kong! Foreign companies come here in droves. It had China's first McDonalds and now has their only Walmart! Unfortunately it still has Chinese bureaucracy so we all wait at the border while a lady applies for a new Visa since her old one had a typo. Our guided trip starts at an ungodly 6:40am. We see the "lovely & innocent" children of the #1 kindergarten (propoganda is still alive and well in China), a museum with three of Xian's Terra Cotta Warriors (excellent!) & a local market where every kind of animal is for sale (a license for a dog as a pet is $4000, at the market it's only $2/pound). The afternoon is spent at a fantastic park with recreated ethnic villages & real ethnic dancers from all over China.
India (13 days)
Day 68 (Nov 22): Relax in the am, then 8 hour flight (via Bangkok) to Bombay. India is a surprise for us. I get sick before (not after) we arrive, it's surprisingly expensive (Bombay is India's most expensive city) and it's not nearly as overwhelming as we had expected. Louise is not well pleased by the appearance of a rat just outside our hotel though.
Day 69: We spend most of the morning planning our India/Sri Lanka itinerary, searching for a travel agent that takes credit cards and looking for an ATM that takes overseas cards. By 5:30pm we have our tickets, our money & we've seen tons of the cities street markets! Tonite is a tour of the red light district (nothing too exciting).
Day 70: A three hour tour . . . (by taxi). We see the very active Jain temple, hanging gardens, Ghandi's house, plus . . . the spectacular Victoria Train Station; possibly the most beautiful building I've ever seen. Then it's Asia's biggest laundry; with thousands of people smashing, dunking & hanging the city's wash. We see several members of the "Bombay Union of Tiffin Box Carriers" deliver, by bike wheelbarrow or however, thousands of tin boxed lunches made by Bombay housewives. Next we exchange the books we've read at a street market & take a 1/2 hour cruise of "lovely" Bombay harbour (we're the only white people on the boat). Tonite we fly to Aurangabad.
Day 71: Aurangabad is the home to several of India's greatest sites (there's lots of them). Today we see the Ajanta caves. They are temples & monasteries carved out of a cliff wall over hundred's of years by thousands of workers. The earliest caves date from the 2nd century BC. The sculptures & frescos that remain are breathtaking.
Day 72: Indescribable!! Ok I'll try. The autorikshaw guy we hire is swell & has a speedy rickshaw. Our hotel people have been superb & they pack us a nice lunch! Our evening ending meal is in a plush private booth at the Great Punjab restaurant where our four excellent waiters serve up fantastic food (& beer) for $11. Our sites are overwhelming. Daulatabad Fort is quite an experience. The group tours haven't arrived yet so there are few white people. We are asked to pose with people 4 different times. The fort has a lovely temple, minaret and walls plus fascinating defenses like the dark, spiral tunnel filled with bats (& bat guano) that we negotiate (with a weak flashlight) on the way up. We automatically talk to the only other white people we see. Turns out they're American's currently living in Sri Lanka (our next destination) so we arrange to hook up when we get there. Next (oh my) is the Ellora caves. There are 3 sections; one each for Buddism (like Ajanta), Hinduism and Jainism (what's that?). Some caves are plain, some merely good, some spectacular & then there's cave 16; the Kailastha Temple. It's the 8th wonder of the world (isn't everything?)! About the size of a football field, it was hewn out of solid rock from the top down. It is filled with intricate carvings that relay Hindu themes in much the same way as stained glass works for Christians. The work involved is inconceivable & it is the only thing I've seen that rivals the pyramids. Inbetween we spend time with the friendliest family of monkeys we've ever met. I go thru 8 rolls of film. Lou says it was a perfect day!
Day 73: Not a perfect day! Things have been much more expensive than we expected (on Oct 1 they raised the admission for Aurangabad's best sites from 20 cents to $15; for foreigners only of course). Aurangabad has no ATM's & only one bank that will give a credit card cash advance. It only does it from 1-2:30 on Monday-Friday, you need your passport, you must wait in line (it took the guy we spoke to one hour), they're not friendly . . . we decide to forget it. We still have some US$ we were saving, so we change that into Rupee's. The rest of the day is spent touring. We see a clone of the Taj Mahal (not quite as nice but very interesting), an ancient watermill & walk the local markets. That nite we fly back to Bombay & get the worst cabbie we've ever had; he says the hotel we want is closed (we didn't fall for that one), then tries to take us to his friends hotel, then takes us to a different hotel & says our place has changed it's name to this!!!. We eventually get to our hotel (ironically called the Shangri La!) & pay him 50 cents!
Day 74: Our flight to Cochin is 30 minutes delayed & 10 minutes late! The taxi ride is extortionate ($16!) but we find a nice hotel with a great guy who books the next few days trips for us. We hurry to a Dutch fort with beautiful wall paintings from the 1500's then we watch a Kalikathi dance & have a sunset dinner by the seaside!
Day 75: Up at 7am for a quick walk to the local churches & the wonderful chinese fishing nets (originally set up in the 1500's!), then it's off for a backwater cruise. We are in Kerala which is famous for it's series of brackish waterways. Our huge boat is poled around for 6 hours by 2 locals (tough job!). We stop at a variety of Indian "factories" the most interesting of which is a farm where they spin coconut hair into rope! Lunch is traditional vegetarian fare served on a banana leaf; delicious! Back in Cochin, we pick a fresh fish & have another lovely dinner.
Day 76: Things are slow in India. The Periyar Wildlife Park is about 190 kilometers away. That translates into a six hour bus ride. The ride is fascinating; passing local villages, tea plantations & beautiful hilly vistas. Periyar is unique in that the game drives are done by boat. We arrive in time for the final cruise seeing elephants, wild boar and wild dogs eating a freshly killed deer.
Day 77: Our 7am cruise departs 20 minutes late on a chartered boat since the 2 big boats are filled with Indian tourists. This cruise is mostly a dud but Louise delights in the otters swimming near shore. Next is an elephant ride (it's released & recaptured every day!), then I do a 2 hour trek through the forest. Louise opts to relax instead which for her means an afternoon of reading, phaffing (the English word for overly sorting & organizing things) & 20 minutes cleaning the hotel walls (can't really complain about having a wife who likes cleaning). The trek is led by a tribal guide & we see a variety of monkeys, giant squirrels & a king cobra! This is my 1st experience with leeches & I constantly knock them off my boots while my guide impatiently waits (he's had up to 40 on his feet after a hike). It paid off though since the hotel inspection upon my return shows no leeches!
Day 78: 8am bus to Trivandrum (the very southern tip of India). As we speed along the windy mountain roads we recall all the stories we've read about Indian buses plunging off cliffs. It didn't seem nearly as important back then. Our nervousness ramps up a level when we pass a bus perilously perched over the cliff. Apparently it got stuck in the mud while making a wide turn. Seems like everyone got out ok though. Not long after that we pass two parked buses. A normal situation except that these buses both have smashed in metal where their fronts should be. Must have been going pretty fast when they hit. Up until now we hadn't been worried about the constant passing & near misses as you pull in inches before oncoming trucks. Understandably we get quite concerned when our bus begins to lose steering control. We stop while the driver shows the conductor that the steering doesn't really work & then we're on our way! We are serenaded by squeaks as the driver madly turns the wheel to get the bus to negotiate a simple turn. We are relieved to soon arrive at a bus "sub-depot". Everyone gets off, so we do to. The bus drives away (with our luggage) & we brace ourselves for an all day delay, but after 25 minutes it's back & everyone gets on. No words are spoken but we're underway & hopefully the steering is fixed! After passing numerous working elephants, a 3rd accident & tons of waiting passengers (since our bus was already filled past capacity) we eventually reach Trivandrum where an autorickshaw driver is ready to take us on the usual "you don't want that hotel" ride.
Day 79: Our hotel is a paradise (except for no a/c). We're on the 3rd floor surrounded by palm trees & lush rice paddies. We rise at 7am, hit the beach, see the awesome temple in nearby Trivandrum, get a massage, hit the beach, then finish the nite with a sunset dinner.
Day 80: Hit the beach, change hotels (we need a/c!), get a massage, hit the beach, take a two hour private backwater cruise (seeing tons of beautiful birds & all sorts of activity on the water). Dine at a beach restaurant while watching the X-Men (not bad).
Sri Lanka (7 days)
Day 81 (Dec 5): Our flight to Columbo leaves 1/2 hour early (luckily we were there by then)!! The Americans we met in India have arranged a room for us in the mansion they're staying at & we spent the nite chatting & planning our tour.
Day 82: Our driver ($40/day) picks us up at 8:30. We do the usual tour of Columbo (eg we leave). Our 105km journey to Kandy will take 3.5 hours (there is no 401 in Sri Lanka!). En route we see an Elephant Orphanage, with babies being fed milk, adults doing what adults do, and the whole gang wandering into the river for a bath! Soon we're at the hill town of Kandy where we watch some local dancing & crash in our best hotel yet (eg. modern & clean bathroom)!
Day 83: Today we get to see the tooth of Buddha. Actually we see the coffin not the actual tooth. Well the coffin is hidden in a room, but we did at least see the outside of the room! As you can imagine Sri Lanka has very tight security (the Tamil Tigers keep bombing things to gain their own homeland) & nowhere is it tighter than at the Buddha's tooth temple. We get searched twice & there's a unit of police in a bunker at the entrance! Next is a lovely botanical gardens & a bird reserve where I get my first leech (we shouldn't really have been wearing sandals!). We decide not to tell my mom about the bus bombing on the East coast.
Day 84: First is the Aluvihara Rock Temple with it's graphic illustration of the punishments awaiting sinners (laddling out your brains etc.). Next is Nalada a rare mix of Buddhist & Hindu together in one temple. Then Dambulla, a 400 step climb to five 2000 year old caves replete with frescoes & plastic Buddhas. Then the highlight Sigiriya; a 5th century fortress/palace built on a 200 metre high rock. It's huge water gardens are filled with birds & halfway up the rock are rare non-religious frescoes of court beauties. We decide not to tell my mom about the Tamil Tiger attack at the village beside where we were staying.
Day 85: Sri Lanka is famous for its ancient cities. First was Anuradhapura. It was the capital of Sri Lanka from 400BC until 1000AD. It was a lush civilization whose fame was known worldwide. It was followed by Polonnaruwa which lasted until around 1200AD. Polonnaruwa being much more recent is in much better shape & is much easier to appreciate. It has marvelous sculptures & some complete buildings. We spend the day there then our driver takes us to his favourite elephant spotting site. We luck out & see a dozen & watch them til dark.
Day 86: Having seen elephants yesterday, we cancel our plans for a safari drive today & simply relax as we drive to Anuradhapura. En route we stop at Mihintale the birthplace of Buddhism in Sri Lanka. We arrive in Anuradhapura in time for the annual festival at the Sacred Bo Tree (the oldest tree in the world!). The strict security (2 searches & another bunker full of soldiers) is not enough to keep my boots from being stolen (you have to take your shoes/hats off at all temples) & I walk home in my socks.
Day 87: I've developed the flu, so Louise is stuck carrying the camera bag all day. To our untrained eye Anuradhapura is a lot less impressive than Polonnaruwa. It takes too great an imagination to picture its glory days. After lunch we head to Negombo, a beach resort just north of the airport (conveniently away from Columbo!).
Day 88: Our hotel is right on the beach & has a lovely but cold pool. After a 5 minute tour of the sites (there are none) and a 20 minute layout on the beach (the most we ever do) we just veg the rest of the day. At 7pm we try to hit the sack for 5 hours sleep (I've been sleeping most of the day anyway . . .)
Flight Home
Day 89 (Dec 13): Our 27 hour journey back home starts with a 2:30am flight to Hong Kong (via Bangkok). On our 4.5 hour layover I race into town to pick up the stuff we left (a big parcel of art, a huge plastic box of Bali souveniers & Japanese photo albums and misc stuff I have to squeeze into Lou's knapsack). Our 15 hour flight to TO is uneventful but not particularly pleasant. The movie selection is not that great, we don't feel too well (Lou now is also sick) & we're a little sick of airplane flights. We arrive in TO & spend; one hour on the tarmac waiting for our gate to clear, 50 minutes waiting for our luggage, then 80 minutes driving home in the snowy mess.
It's good to be home!!
Total Film Used: 62 (rolls of 36)
Total Movies Watched: 20
Best Food: Bali
Worst Food: Korea
Best Diving: Cebu
Least English: Japan
Best Site: Kailastha Temple, India (Ellora)
Nicest Hotels: Sri Lanka
Most Interesting Overseas Newstory About Canada: None (not even who won the election!)