Tombs and Pyramids, Pyramids and Tombs

Hello again, it's taken a while to get this update finished but here we go.

Kendra's update ended with our amazing week long dive trip on the Red Sea. Once we were back on land we soaked up the sun at a resort in Hurghada (on the Red Sea Coast). There isn't much to say about it of course because all we did was eat, sleep, read and lay out in the sun.


The Beach at our Resort in Hurghada

On Sunday, after 3 days, we left Hurghada and went back to the craziness that is Cairo. I had only booked a hotel the night before so our fingers were crossed hoping that it would be decent. A bit of drama ensued on the way to the hotel when driving through a tunnel we heard several loud screeches and bangs as an accident took place right in front of us. Ohh, don't worry, an accident in Cairo isn't like an accident back home. Our driver just kept going and so did whichever car could still move. The best part was the Cab that probably caused the whole thing driving off with his rear bumper dragging on the road and two rather dazed looking people in the back wondering if they had just imagined it all. Judging by what we'd seen on the roads up to that point, we weren't suprised, just happy not to be involved.

Our hotel in Cairo turned out to be a bit of a gem. It was built originally in 1907, as a bath house, converted into British Officers club and finally a hotel in 1952. The place has so much character that it's been in several movies with several actors (mostly Egyptian) having stayed there. According to the hotel manager we stayed in the same room as an actor from the Monty Python movies who was there back in the 70's or something, we felt honored.

This second stint in Cairo was not to be like the first (i.e. sleeping) and once we were settled in our room we set out immediately to take in the famous sites. We started out with the ancient Egyptian capital Memphis. Next was the Bent Pyramid, the Red Pyramid, and the Step Pyramid of Djoser's (as well as a few tombs older than even the pyramids). You may have guessed then that the Pyramids of Egypt aren't just the famous ones that we see all the time but in fact there are many pyramids scattered along the vast plateau's above the Nile. From our first stop we could see as many as 15 (approx.) pyramids in our view North up the Nile valley, including - because it was a clear day - the Great Pyramids far off in the distance. Incredible. As a short history lesson, it's interesting to note that the practice of building the pyramids for the tombs of the Pharaohs was abandoned after it became obvious that they were easy targets for tomb robbers. Instead of constructing the massive pyramids they moved the tombs to a secret location near Luxor that would be much easier to conceal, hence the Valley of the Kings. Unfortunately for them this didn't work either and, as we mentioned in our first Egypt update, only one tomb from hundreds of burials was actually discovered intact, Tutankhamun, a.k.a. King Tut.

We were allowed to go into one of the pyramids called the Red Pyramid, which basically meant crawling down a steep sloping tunnel about 4 feet high for about 160m. Once through there were 2 large rooms to explore that really took your breath away, first, because it was truly rank in there, and second, because of the sheer genius of its construction especially considering the primitive technology available at the time. What makes these structures even harder to comprehend is the fact that they predate any stone structures ever found around the world. The first one, with the prestigous title of the worlds first stone structure, was King Djosers Step Pyramid built and completed around 2600 B.C. - That's 4600 years ago...What! How can these still exist and more importantly how can I be standing in a room where people once walked, or touch a stone larger than a car that was carved and put in place that long ago! More than the temples from the Nile, these pyramids really shook me with that revelation.


The road to the Red Pyramid, the first "True Pyramid" of Ancient Egypt.


The Bent Pyramid in the distance. This was constructed before the Red Pyramid, half way through construction they discovered the angle was too great and had to change it to a gentler slope in order to finish the work.


A closeup of the Red Pyramid.


King Djoser's Step pyramid and the worlds oldest remaining stone structure!



Our next day, the last in Egypt, we saved for the Great Pyramids of Giza. Trust me when I say we "Saved the best for last". The day started by visiting a section of Cairo called the "City of the Dead". This is a cemetary, found in the middle of Cairo, that was first used by muslims as early as 1200 AD. However, this cemetary is a bit different. As the population exploded in Cairo from 2 to 18 million people, the crypts of this "City", which have an extra room for visitors of the deceased, also became room for the living. Poor people began to squat in the crypts and use them as home...and we thought Calgary had a homeless problem!

We visited a large mosque in the middle of this "Dead City" called the Sultan Barqouk mosque. We spent an hour or so enjoying its architecture and the views allowed from climbing one of the two large minarets. Next was a typical tour ploy, our driver stopped at a papyrus painting studio and we got the spiel on how ancient papyrus was made. Of course they must have known that Kendra and I are suckers for paintings and we proceeded to find ourselves persuaded into buying some paintings at outrageous prices...Damn, it happens every time. I tell you, any traveller that says he's never been ripped off, is either lying, or just doesn't know it. Oh well, the paintings are nice.


Sultan Barqouk's Mosque in the "City of the Dead". We climbed the Minaret on the right to get the view from the next photo.



OK, and here it is, our last stop would be the most famous of all, The Great Pyramids of Giza. We'd seen them briefly from the car prior to this but now it would be up close and personal. @#$%, they are amazing. Of course we've all seen the pictures, heard the stories, and put an idea into our minds of what they are actually like, but you can never quite know if what you hear is true. Well let me say this, its all true! Every word of it! Incredible is too mundane a word for this.

My first impression, even as we saw them from a distance, was just how incredibly big they actually are. They are massive, and literally dominate everything around them. We first went to the famous Sphinx and then proceeded to spend 2 and a half hours, wondering around the site. Every time you closed your eyes and opened them again you just couldn't believe what you were looking at. The other rumours about this site are also true, yes, there is a KFC at the entrance, yes, the vendors are constantly barading you to buy a statue, ride a camel etc. and yes, the city is right next to the site, but who cares! How about some pictures.


The Shpinx, Khafre, and Khufu (Cheops) Pyramid's all in one photo. Oh yah, and tourists.


Kendra and the Sphinx


The Khafre Pyramid


The Great Pyramids of Egypt, L-R, Pyramid of Menkaure, Pyramid of Khafre, and the Pyramid of Khufu which is the largest actually. (The 3 in front were for Menkaure's Queens)


The Great Pyramid of Khufu standing originally at 146.6m tall and now after erosion and the removal/theft of the topmost stone just a bit shorter 138m!


The base of the Khafre pyramid, amazing.

So that was Egypt! Boring I know, the next morning we were on a plane and headed back to...Vienna actually. That’s right the trip isn’t quite over we have three nights in Vienna before we finally head home to start planning our next trip (can anyone say Peru...Galapagos).

Mike and Kendra

It's Hammer Head Time!

Greeting all, from a beach town, tourist villa, of Hurgada. We've been relaxing at the Hilton Resort for the past 2 days while our "land legs" return to us after our amazing Red Sea adventures.

We boarded the Emperor Serenity for a luxurious 7 day diving extraveganza in the southern part of the Red Sea. With a minimum of 50 dives logged, Mike and I barely met the requirements to dive in the south. We had heard from our previous travels that the south had the best, untouched dive sites, so we were really happy to be seeing these remote reefs that could only be reached by live-aboards. Two hours after boarding the ship, we were taken back to the the dive shop by a zodiac as they had forgotten our dive gear (BCD's, wet suits, and weight belts) - sort of essential for decending 30 meters into the abyss. A crucial miss, but luckily sorted out prior to our port departure.

Mike and I are always excited to do this sort of travel; on board with strangers from other parts of world to share in a commom love of traveling and diving. This time was no exception.... until Ute, the main dive guide, grabbed Mike, me and three Swedish guys from our meeting point and then said "and now to find the Americans". We have only come across a handfull of American tourists in the past and for the most part, they have been great people, but when we saw - I mean heard - the group of American's that would be joining us on our dive boat for the next 8736 minutes, we groaned deeply, but luckily the zodiac drowned out our dispair. Fourteen, middle aged, semi retired divers from Florida, partaking on one of their semi-annual diving trips, slowly, loudly and enthusiastically joined us in the zodiacs. By the time we reached the Serenity, we were already feeling our energy being sucked from us. As best as I tried to be open minded, by the middle of the trip, after diving or eating, Mike and I would escape to our cabin or to the very top deck of the boat. We endured comments like "We don't get a separate beach towel to dry off with? But everywhere else we have" (even though we got a towel and a terry clothed bath robe), "We're diving the WHOLE time from zodiacs? I don't want to do that!" (to which the guides accomodated and changed our itinerary so that we could dive from the back of the boat), "I can't eat the salad it has green peppers in it" (NO this comment wasn't made by me) to which the dive instructors profussly apologized and then realized only one dish of the ten provided actually had any green peppers. That's not to say that there wasn't some really nice American's on board - there was, but at least 3 quarters of them met the sterotypical "American" attitude that up until this trip I really thought was a blown out of porportion myth.

Luckily, 180 minutes a day were spent in the blissful sea in search of exotic creatures and everything else was forgotten. Because of the distance we had to travel to reach the various dive locations in the south, we usually completed 3 dives a day. However, each dive was on average 60 minutes long, which was great! The water was a warm 28 to 30 degrees celcius and visibility was incredible - at least 40 meters on every dive! The coral was unlike anything I'd ever seen before. An abundance of soft and hard coral in a rainbow of colours. So many times I found myself giving Mike the "Okay" signal, because that's the only signal we have underwater for positive things, but I would accompany that with a somersault to convey my contentment/excitement.

With only 50 dives under our belt, there were so many new things we learned, saw, and experienced on this liveabord. From drift diving, to cave dives, to unguided dives plus ideas on equipment to buy; our buoyancy and skill set improved dramatically over the 19/20 dives that we completed. One of my favourite dives was on our second day at a site called Daedalus. It was action diving extraordinare! We had a very detailed briefing before putting on our gear, where the instructors urgently stressed the danger of the dive. It was our first zodiac entry, so the first test came when we had to step into the small, rubber boat. A hard task when you are strapped down with your buoyancy vest, air tank and carrying 6 kilos (13 lbs) of weight to help you sink when you enter the water). When the driver stops the zodiac, he will count to 3 and then everyone has to do a backwards somersault out of the boat. Once in the water you have to find the reference point - a coral reef wall that drops 400 meters into nothingness. If the wall isn't found immediately, you have to ascend immediately because of strong currents. Although, the drop into the sea was very disorientating, our group of 5 divers found the wall successfully. The risk with this kind of dive is that because there is no bottom, you can sink beyond the recreational limit and have to do a decompression stop, so you have to be constantly aware of your depth. I have to admit that the dive was almost clausterphobic at times, because there was so much blue open water. It was quite mind numbing.

The main reason to go to Daedalus is because of schools of hammerheads can sometimes be seen. However, we were warned that with the warmer water temps, sharks are rarely seen in the summer months (March to May is a better time). Luckily, when we started out into the deep abyss, 30 meters in the distance, we saw the belly and side of a shark hunting. It was incredible to watch the grace and agility of this top of the food chain creature. All too soon the majestic fish swam out of our view. He was the only shark we saw on our whole trip, and once we surfaced, even though I didn't see the head for myself, our guide told us it was definitely a hammerhead! So cool. (I never thought I would say "cool" about seeing a shark!)

The marine life was terrific, but everywhere we went, resorts were being built along the red sea and the sites that were once inaccessable to day boats are being more frequented. From improper use of building material, workers fishing in the sea (as they cannot survive on the minimal food and wages offered by the construction companies), to dive boats dumping their waste into prestine sites and even divers lying across sand and coral to catch a photograph of an eagle ray, turtle, clown fish or what have you; the reefs are being damaged. I can only hope that strict guidelines and hefty fines will be put into place to minimize future damage to the Red Sea, but as demand from Eurpoean countries to visit Egypt continues, I suspect a blind eye will be turned.


The top deck of the Emperor Serenity Dive Boat!


Kendra and I in our daily gear.


Anyone want to go diving?


Daedulus Reef on the white board.


Daedulus Reef in real life!


From the Daedulus Reef Lighthouse.


Zabargad Island, an amazing dive site.


Overall, it was an incredible week with amazing weather, smooth seas, a great crew, and extraordinary diving. I guess the one good thing about the American's is that our honeymoon suite got used more often :-)

Hugs,
Kendra & Mike

PS. Pictures to follow

Honeymooners

Salaam 'alaykum Friends and Family,
We're at it again. Once more we find ourselves on the other side of the world enjoying the latest foreign discovery and cultural enlightenment. In case you didn't know, our current destination is the mystical land of Egypt. Kendra and I are now almost 2 weeks into our honeymoon and loving every minute of it.

On our way to Cairo we had the chance to meet up with our old friends from our Tibet trip last year, Karl and Petra in Vienna. We had one overnight stop there, and a great evening catching up. They put us up for the night, took us around the town to enjoy some local culture (an open air opera playing on a big screen at the Vienna town hall), and even fed us before we settled down to play some cards. We went to bed that night after being awake nearly 40 hours.

On Monday we finally arrived in Cairo, and were welcomed to the heat, the haggling, and the chaotic streets of this big city. As this is our honeymoon, I surprised Kendra when we pulled up to the Nile Hilton in central Cairo for our stay. Unfortunately for us the jet lag was a killer this time. In our 1-1/2 days in Cairo we only made it out of the hotel long enough to take a mandatory visit to the Cairo Egyptian museum. The museum is a huge place, chock and block full of artifacts, statues, sculptures, and even several royal mummies.


A view of the Egyptian Museum from our Hotel.

On Wednesday we were off to the famous Nile city of Luxor where we would begin a life of luxury. Little did I know at the time of booking the trip but the Oberoi Philae cruise boat was actually one of the best on the Nile. When we arrived in Luxor we were picked up by a private car that took us to the boat. Once there the manager introduced himself and showed us to our cabin with our own private balcony overlooking the Nile. Once on board everything was all inclusive except drinks, they had a pool on the top deck, a bar, a lounge, and a restaurant, all of which were in immaculate shape. They took care of everything for us including arranging a guide to visit all the temples and sites along the way. The food was amazing, the attention to detail was amazing and the Nile was amazing. We were to be on this floating palace for 7 days/ 6 nights, and couldn't be happier.


The sun deck on the Oberoi Philae

Our days on the boat consisted of several hours of cruising and several hours visiting the Egyptian temples along the way. Our guide kept us entertained and well informed wherever we went. He would show us the famous aspects of each temple but also less famous ones and we were always given time to explore by ourselves, which is much appreciated as I hate being herded around from one thing to the next. For those of you who are interested we visited several temples including, Dendara, Karnak, Luxor, the Valley of the Kings, the Valley of the Queens, The Temple of Hatshepsut, Edfu, Kom Ombo, and Philae. We also saw an ancient quarry where unfinished sculptures can still be seen, and enjoyed a ride in one of the many felucca boats on the Nile. All of this was in a 200km corridor along the Nile. The history of the temples were mind boggling, some from 3700 BC, others from Alexander the Greats time, and others still as late as 300 AD. The size of these temples was equally mind boggling, huge obelisks, walls and columns are everywhere. Several of these temples I had never heard of and was literally in shock as we approached them. Shocking still is the fact that most of these temples, especially the tombs of the, Valley of the Kings, which had all originally been beautifully painted still retained their colors! In some cases after over 3000 years! Amazing!


The outer wall of the Temple of Dendara.


Some of the massive columns in the Hypostytle Hall at the Temple of Karnak.


One of the few remaining statues of the Pharaoh Tutankhamum, otherwise known as
"King Tut", at the temple of Karnak,

While the history of this place borders on surreal, so equally does the beauty of its landscape. The Nile is truly a life giving artery to the people of Egypt. Except for only a few small oasis' in the Western Desert, all of the settlements in the interior of Egypt are on the Nile. Of all the land in this country only 5 percent is actually habitable year round. The scenes of the Nile valley is one of stark contrasts. The dry beige desert cliffs and sand dunes are the backdrop to lush green trees and fields of maize, bananas, cotton, and fruit. Then comes the dark blue of the river and the mud huts of the villages. From our balcony or the top deck we spent hours watching as life on the Nile slowly drifted by.

We have now left our palace and spent a night in Aswan. As an adder to our trip on the Nile we also took a day trip to one last temple that could easily be called the greatest, Abu Simbel. With that we completed our historical Egypt trip and will now start our diving Egypt trip. Later today we take a tourist convoy (the only way for tourists to travel overland in Egypt) to the Red Sea where yet another boat awaits us, this time for a dive adventure to some of the worlds renown coral reefs.



See you soon,
Mike and Kendra

Epilogue

Well, its been a couple of weeks since we left off in Beijing. I believe a lot of people can guess where we are now...yes, we finally made it home to Calgary.

Unbelievable. 360 days after we left for Seoul we arrived home. We've been to 10 countries, countless temples, beaches, reefs, mountains, valleys, rivers and lakes. Small towns, big cities, the middle of nowhere and back. What a year! We've been home now for 3 weeks adjusting to Calgary life and the sub zero temperatures. We've met with family, friends and several freezing snow falls, Welcome Home!

Our trip is over and one phrase comes to mind, "Bitter Sweet". Its sad to know the adventure is over but great to have our own home again. We're drinking water out of a tap, putting food in a fridge, flickin through the channels, and meeting people for drinks.

So, what's left, how about some parting thoughts from each of us,

Mike:
In the few weeks that we've been home, usually the first thing I say to people when they ask about the trip is, "Amazing (obviously)...I could not have seriously imagined all the places we saw, or all the things we did". That is the absolute truth. Sure we had a list of what we thought we'd do, but once you actually find yourself in these places, there's always 5 other things to see and do that you didn't expect. Right there is the beauty of having such an open ended schedule, we were almost always able to see and do those extra things. For example, China. You may agree, if you kept up with the blog, that we saw a lot of that country. We left Canada with no idea that we would go there, and even once we made it, kept adding places when we heard about them from other travellers or on guesthouse walls. Same goes for our 6 weeks in Koh Tao, or our trip to Kakadu in Australia. But travelling isn't just about seeing places, its also about meeting people. We met plenty of good people a few of whom who we hope to keep in touch with and see many more times in the future. Of course there are also the strange situations one finds themselves in along the way; arguing over 50 cents for 1/2 a kilo of pistachios, being stuck in the middle of nowhere because the driver forgot to gas up, pointing out ingredients in someone's restaurant kitchen because we couldn't speak the language, and the list goes on. It wasn't always easy, we didn't always like where we were, but we always loved the journey and I assure you, never once, took it for granted.

The second thing I say is, how..."Kendra blew me away...". How quickly she adapted to tough situations, how enthusiastic she was at seeing new places, and how I watched her discover a true love of travelling. This past year was only made better because she was with me the entire way. I can only say that I am looking forward to our life together and more great memories with her by my side.

Kendra:

How can I express my year away? Life altering? Inspiring? Educational? Transcending? Adventurous and courageous? Of course, it’s all of the above and so much more.

As I think back to a year ago, wondering how I was ever going to survive a backpacking trip and how I was to pack my whole closet into my 22 L backpack, I was filled with anticipation and a sense of panic. Except for the resort beach trips I had never traveled and was not very geographically inclined. So little, that I believed Africa to be one country and had no idea where “SE Asia” was. Like I said not geographically inclined.

Although I still believe that backpacking isn’t for everyone – such as my sister Alana, I love you, but you would never survive the toilets in China; it became a lifestyle that I adapted to and prevailed. Perhaps adaptability is the key word for traveling for a year. You had to be ready to deal with any situation that hits you. There were times when I would want to cry – and sometimes when I did cry… no one forgets the leeches do they?… but I sucked it up and kept on going because what else could I do?.

The gratitude I feel towards Mike for opening my eyes to our world will never be properly expressed. Without his dream to travel for a year, I never would have saw a sun rise on Angkor Wat, gaze at the formidable Mount Everest, trek 52 km, abseil 30m into a cave, or log 49 dives and touch a shark. Throughout our journey, he was my rock – except when he was dealing with Chinese admission prices that is. His ability to pick up languages, read maps and shop at markets was truly admirable. I am so thrilled to be spending the rest of my life with this amazing man.

It’s crazy to think that our 6-8 month trip turned into a 360 day adventure. I never expected to be away from home that long, but everywhere we stayed became our home away from home surprisingly quickly. The people we met along the way really made the trip and hopefully will stay lifelong friends. Mike always said that nothing ever changes in a year – but this year was the exception with all of my family members moving, my youngest sister getting pregnant, not to mention all of the engagement announcements

Now that we’re home, it feels so surreal to have been away for a year. It’s surprising how quickly you fall into your old routine and the memories start to fade. It’s also amazing what will trigger a travel memory – a commercial on TV, a question on jeopardy – and the smell, sound and imagery is suddenly right before you and you are back in that special moment..

However happy I am to be home and seeing my friends and family; I am also eager to plan our future trips – our first one being a honeymoon to Egypt and the Red Sea. Another being a 6 month sabbatical within the next 5 years to do not for profit work. Something I promised myself to do after seeing some of the atrocities in developing nations. Without this year away, I would never have had these dreams.

So that wraps up our blog and our travels. Hope everyone enjoyed reading it as much as we enjoyed writing it. We're going to print this out in colour, bind it, and put it on the shelf at the house, memories for life. To all the travellers we met along the way, thanks for the memories. To all the family and friends in Calgary, its great to see you again.

Deep Regards,
Mike and Kendra

PS. THE END

World Heritage in Beijing

Well like I said before, we're not quite done.

As we finished the dive trip we realized that within the next 48 hours we would be making our way from Phuket Thailand, to Singapore, and finally to Beijing. It was hard to believe, but the last major destination on our trip awaited us.

On Jan 9th, we reluctantly left our little boat paradise and headed back to civilization, Phuket Town. We spent the night in a comfortable room before catching our 8:00am flight to Singapore. Once there it would be a 15 hour wait before our flight to Beijing at 1:20 am (1:20...what?). We had all day in Singapore to do whatever we wanted. What to do, what to do? Luckily, Kendra had been in contact with Nigel and Furee, who, you may remember we visited on our first trip through Singapore, and arranged for us to meet them at a cafe to catch up. In the last year, these two had been busy. Not only did they get engaged, but were now married and accomodating a new guest, their 2 month (nearly) old baby son, Naveed! Not bad! So it was under completely different circumstances that we met up with them and were introduced to their little pride and joy. We spent a couple of hours catching up, swapping stories and basically having a good time. It was great to see them. After the visit Kendra and I found we still had over 4 hours to get back to the airport and ended up catching a movie, and grabbing a decent dinner. Just like that we were aboard another flight and landing in Beijing. To recap, that was, Wake up in Thailand, visit some friends and catch a movie in Singapore and then wake up in Beijing...a strange day to say the least.


L-R: Kendra, Me, Nigel holding Naveed, and Furee in Singapore

When we arrived in Beijing we noticed two things. One, we were tired! I felt like the walking dead. Between only 5 hours sleep before leaving Thailand and fitful naps on the plane there wasn't much rest in those 2 days. Two, oh Yah, it was cold! -8 C to be exact.

So much for fun in the sun, it was back to the northern hemisphere winter. This at least woke us up a little as we were basically sleep walking to get from the plane to a shuttle bus to a cab. Of course, we got a traditional Asian welcome into the country by the cab driver who obviously could see that we had just arrived and needed a place to stay and proceeded to rob us blind on the cab fare...yup, you just can't let your guard down for a second. In all it took around 2 hours to get from the airport into a warm cozy bed, and for the next 48 hours, yes thats right, forty-eight, we caught up on our sleep (we couldn't even blame jet lag, it was the same time as Singapore). A marathon of power naps, call it what you will, but it was with a feeling of slight guilt that we woke up on that third day to start exploring this most interesting world capital.

Not only is Beijing the capital of the worlds largest populations but it also boasts a cultural heritage unrivaled by all but a select few of the worlds major cities. There are several world heritage sites within the city as well as several within a days drive, there are temples, universities, galleries, theatres, palaces, and pretty much anything else you could imagine. Furthermore, one cannot forget to mention that the city is gripped in olympic fever or should I say, olympic marketing fever, with plenty of projects completed and underway that will make the city that much more impressive for the big event. We couldn't wait to get started.

That first day we started out with a map and a plan to explore. We came across a small market street, and were treated to an impromptu 1 hour lesson on the intracacies of Chinese tea drinking. Aferward, we must have still been a bit rusty on the whole bargaining thing as when we went to buy some of the tea we ended up paying the first price offered, oops. We walked out, realized what we did, and found ourselves laughing about how much we just spent on tea, oh well at least we were laughing. We continued walking and soon found ourselves in that most infamous of Beijing meeting places, Tian' anmen Square.

Tian' anmen Square caught the worlds attention during the 1989 anti-government protests that ended in massacre. In one day during the government crackdown it is estimated that over 180 people were killed. In total across Beijing and other Chinese cities the numbers of actual deaths and injuries varies on who you talk to. Peoples Republic of China (PRC) officials estimate 200-300, students and organizers of the protests say 2000-3000, whatever the number its easy to agree that it was a brutal affair. For us, however, 18 years later, the square was now a meeting place of tourists and those that prey on them. As we tried to enjoy the sights around the square we were bombarded with people selling strange paraphernalia and asking if they could practice english with us before trying to get us to buy a tour, visit an art gallery, or go to an acrobatic show. In the spirit of being spontaneous we ended up actually going to an acrobatic show that night. All in all Day 1 turned out to be a long day.


The main gate at Tiananmen Square

The next few days were a mixture of Sightseeing and Markets. In Beijing we visited the Temple of Heaven, a Taoist temple complex originally built in 1420. Here is the place that every year on the winter solstice the emperors of China would go to pray to Heaven for a good harvest. The centerpiece of this complex is the "Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest" a magnificent triple-gabled circular building, built on three levels of marble stone base recently renovated for the Beijing olympics.


Hall of Prayer for Good Harvest, Temple of Heaven

We visited the famous Forbidden City or Palace Museum as it is now called. Its extensive grounds cover 720,000 square meters. It is listed by UNESCO as the largest collection of preserved ancient wooden structures in the world with 800 buildings and 8,886 rooms. Needless to say, we didn't see them all, although we tried after wondering around for nearly 6 hours.






We went to old market streets and a Beijing silk market which used to be a charming old street but is now a 6 storey building. Each floor jammed packed with vendors selling a lot more than just silk. When it came to shopping in Beijing, Kendra and I felt that we could open the gates just a "bit" and, seeing as we were about to head home, pick up some great souveniers that we might not otherwise have bought. This little "bit" became a big "BIT" after we found a couple of items that, for the price, just couldn't refuse. We bought, Chinese porcelin, Qing Dynasty Vases, carpets, and paintings, we bought so much that in the end we actually had no idea how we were going to get it home. We also realized that we had now properly busted the budget, as if the dive trip hadn't already.


Kendra with the owners of this antique shop just after getting a couple vases.

So that about wraps up our trip to Beijing...
...
just kidding...

Of course we went to the Great Wall! I saved this for last as it is definetly the highlight of our week in Beijing. Based on advice from fellow travellers and our own likes and dislikes, we got on a day trip to a section of the wall that is a lot farther from Beijing than the traditional spot and therefore less crowded and touristy. We were in for a treat, not only was there no crowds but our minibus was the only one there, meaning only 10 people in total. Because it is low season as well there was almost no vendors or shops ( I say "almost" because we were followed by people for a while when we got there trying to sell stuff but it wasn't bad at all). What this all translated to was a trip to a world famous site on a beautiful day, with basically just ourselves around to enjoy it...amazing. The section we went to is at a place called, Jinshanling. It took nearly 4 hours (should've been two but traffic there is brutal) to drive there but that section of the wall is original, no renovations, pure history. We walked along it for 10 km, through guard towers and over ridges to a place called Simitai. It was everything I had imagined and more. Check out the photos.


Thats Kendra standing on this secluded section of the wall.




So that was Beijing, and where are we now...

It's Dive O'clock !!!

With heavy sea legs, Mike and I have just returned to land after an incredible 8 day/ 7 night liveaboard sail and dive trip. With Thailand weather, sails up, an old friend, and a mecca of diving in store for us, we knew that this last minute adventure would be one of the best highlights of our year away.

Our diving adventure began on Jan 2 with a tuk-tuk ride from Patong Beach to Chalong Bay Pier, where we saw Alex again (one of the instructor from Ko Tao and co-owner of the sail boat), gave him an enthusiastic hug and met the rest of our liveaboard gang... 3 couples from Swedan. You might not be impressed, but we found this somewhat surprising as we'd only met one other Swedish person on our entire trip and oddly enough the couples didn't know each other either. Suddenly, Mike and I were the minority as English speakers - the first time in a while; especially when we found out our dive instructor was also, you guessed it... Swedish!

A two hour mini-van ride took up us to the pier, where we laid eyes on our home for the next 8 days; The Sampai Jumpa. The wooden hull with 3 sails had a charming quality about her and we were happy to get aboard. Alex and his team: Fred (the underwater tour guide), Ee (the Captain), Lin (the chef) and Khai (the engineer) welcomed us aboard, introduced us to the 21 m, 5 cabin boat, and over a round of Tiger beer, described the hectic schedule we would succumb to for the next 7 days.


View of our ship, the Sampai Jumpa, from the ocean

An example of our Day:

* 6:30am - Wakie Wakie
* 7:00am - Dive #1
* 8:00am - Hot Breakfast
* 10:30am - Dive #2
* 12:00pm - Lunch
* 2:30pm - Dive #3
* 3:30pm - Snack
* 5:00pm - Dive #4 (this could be a sunset or night dive)
* 7:00pm - Dinner & Beer o'clock

Phew! So, to sum it up, it was pretty much: dive, eat, relax, dive, eat, relax, dive, eat, dive, eat, and relax. The dives were stellar (but more on that later), the food was exquisite - with the culinary tastes of traditional Thai and western dishes (I got off the boat almost 2 kilo's heavier), and the relaxing, well... sun and boat... need I say more? I was in heaven!


Ready to jump in - honestly is that what I look like in the mask? Where are my upper teeth?!


Mike is ready for our first night dive!


Before every dive, Alex (in this case) or Fred gave a briefing of the site and all the marine life that we could potentially see.


Relax time!


Relaxing as well - that's another one of the Similan Islands behind him (I think #2?)

As for the diving, well let me first draw you a picture of the Similan and Surin Islands. Located 100 km northwest of Phuket, in the Andaman Sea, the Similans is made up of 9 different islands. The sea floor is littered with enormous bolders and stunning coral reefs, creating a haven for marine life. One hundred km further north is the group of 5 islands that comprises the Surin. The islands have sandy beaches and lush with tropical vegetation. Because of the monsoon season, diving in this area is limited from Oct to April each year. The Similan's boast having one of the top 10 dive site's in the world: Richelieu Rock. The islands are also home to some of the sea's most fantastic creatures; including manta ray's and whale sharks. We were eager to jump in and explore this diving wonder.


View of Similan Island #8 from our boat.

With our own computer watches to monitor our stats while underwater (necessary for multiple day dives), on Jan 3 at 7:55am, our group decended for the first time into the Andaman Sea. The location was Anita's Bay; a nice leisurely dive to get everyone reaquainted with their equipment and bouyancy skills. Minutes after depleting our BCD's of air and plunging 27.7 m into the 24 Deg C water, we glanced up into the ocean blue and to our shock and amazement, witnessed a large manta ray passing by. Mike was going to point out a Trumpet fish to me, but when he turned around, the ray was right behind me. The 3 m ray maneaveured gracefully in the water and circled us once, enabling me to see it's soft white under belly before continuing it's search for food. Fred, our dive guide was stunned b/c in the 15 years he's dived the Siliman's he has never spotted or heard of anyone spotting a manta ray at this site before. So, dive one: check mark for the largest ray in the world!


Our manta ray. Friggin' awesome!

The dives continued at a lightning pace and we were introduced to many new species of marine life such as Octapus, Kuhl Stingrays in the sand, White Margin Unicorn Fish, Redtooth Trigger Fish; Longnosed Emperor Fish, Blue Starfish on the sea floor, etc. We started to practice Negative Entry dives (where you deplete your BCD and fix your face mask on board then jump into the water, with no surface stop and immediatley start to decend) necessary for strong currents and high waves. Unfortunatley I had to skip out on a couple of dives because I had a reverse block - where air gets trapped in your ear while submerged and then when you surface the pressure is greater, creating a very painful ear ache. Luckily after a dose of cold medicine to unblock my sinus cavities and ear drops, I was back in the water again without missing too much marine life; although my left ear is still plugged.





On our second day of diving, Fred had led us through a swim through created by rocks and Mike and I were the last ones to go through, content to stare at the box fish and my favourite: the Oriental Sweetlips. After we idlyically sauntered out of the swim thru, we noticed that everyone else was in a frenzy and racing towards something. By the time we reached the group 20m ahead of us, the fish that had gotten their attention had disapeared into the murky water. When we reached the surface, we found out that everyone except Mike and I had spotted sharks! White tipped reef sharks to be exact. Our instructor saw 6 while the majority of people saw 2 or 3. Mike and I were so dissapointed! Continuing to stress our dissapointment throughout dinner, Alex stated that the objective for the next day's dive was for Kendra (that's me) to TOUCH a shark. I laughed and said before I could touch one, I actually had to see one!

So, the next day (Jan 5) on our third dive, at Three Tree's site, after 10 minutes of diving around a sandy pinnicle, Fred pointed out a LEAPORD SHARK sleeping in the sand. It was the first time that Mike and I had seen a shark and we were ecstatic (plus it's much easiler on the nerves to see a shark when it's sleeping below you in the distance rather than prowling around you in the ocean). Slowly Fred drifted closer to the sleeping hunter and beckoned me to follow. I did and slowing we pivoted our way right beside the beast and then Fred indicated for me to touch the shark and without any hesitation, I DID!!! Its back was hard and sandpaper like. My touch wasn't gently enough though, because the shark woke up and slowly swam around the group, looking at us inquisitely before moving a few metres away. This was one of the best moments of the trip for me.


Oh, I wish this was a picture of me touching the shark, but we didn't have the camera with us on that dive. This is me descending after jumping from the boat (above in the picture). That's Mike's knee.

Another favourite diving moment was at a site called Koh Bon. Mike accuratley described the dive as "Manta Ray Theatre". Our diving group held onto a rocky ridge covered in coral and floated in the current waiting for Manta's to drift by and we were rewarded with multiple sightings! There was at least 3 different rays that curiously circled over us at least 10 times throughout the 50 min dive. The rays measured in 3 - 4 metres, not including their tail. Such an amazing thing to see these majestic creatures floating in the water around you. It was a very special moment to share our dive with them. An encore performance an hour and a half later resulted in another 4 sightings, plus a quick glimpse of a leopard shark swimming in the blue 15 meter away while we completed our safetly stop.

The marine life bonanza continued with giant eels, octupus, sea snakes, poisonous yet beautiful lion fish , camoflagued scorpian fish (yet again poisonous), Durban Dancing Shrimp, and even 2 very rare yellow Tigertailed SEA HORSES!. We also did a couple of wreck dives, which was really neat to see. All in all, the diving was everything that we had hoped for and more. The only thing missing was the elusive Whale Shark, which I personally think are a myth anyways :-)


Giant Moray Eel


Clown Fish

When we weren't in the sea, we became friends with the Swed's: Eva & Dag; Mathias & Per; and Karin & Mathias. Another diver joined us on our second day- Marg from Bathe, England, who was also lovely. Surprisingly, everyone was around the same age and we all got along really well (unless they were talking about us badly in Swedish and just pretending to be nice to us in English the whole week). Now we'll have to visit the Scandanavian country as we have so many places to stay! Unfortunately our friend Alex, had to leave the boat mid way through the trip. It was great to see him for a third time and I'm sure we'll see him again in a few years when we sign up for his new luxury dive boat trip!

Well that's 20 more dives for the ol' dive log book!

Sunkissed and feel like fishies!
Kendra & Mike