You Can Count On Me

On our way home from Zurich, BG and I worked on our lists of "Top 10" things. We'll be putting it up in a number of separate posts for your reading pleasure -- also so that when we finally meet up with our friends, we can talk about more interesting things than, "What was your favourite country?" We want to hear about what's going on in your lives too!

Top Natural Wonders or Vistas

1. Milford Sound, New Zealand
   





2. Glacier Express Train from St. Moritz to Zermatt, Switzerland -- all seven hours.





3. Bai Tu Long Bay, Vietnam





4. Victoria Peak, Hong Kong





5. The sand dunes at Sossusvlei, Namibia





6. Fish River Canyon, Namibia





7. Cape Point, South Africa





8. Tiger Leaping Gorge, China






9. Poon Hill, Nepal





10. Yangshuo, China

Honourable mentions go to "Edoras", in New Zealand, and, of course, Mount Everest.

Most Memorable Historical or Cultural Visits

1. The temples of Angkor, Cambodia
2. The killing fields of Cambodia
3. The now-retired prison at Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was incarcerated, Cape Town, South Africa
4. The Taj Mahal, Agra, India
5. The Sydney Opera House, Sydney, Australia
6. The Potala Palace, Lhasa, Tibet
7. The military fort near Jaipur, India
8. The giant Shiva statue near Grand Bassin, Mauritius
9. The Sydney Harbour Bridge, Sydney, Australia
10. The streets of old Hanoi, Vietnam
    

Most Memorable Meals

1. Hot Pot dinner (including chicken testicles), Hong Kong
2. Fresh seafood feast with friends, Hong Kong
3. Bamboo chicken (including chicken feet), China
4. The Ganesh Restaurant, Jaipur, India
5. Breakfast in western New Zealand, where I was offered a chunk of freshly slaughtered wild boar
6. Gorgeous Indian meal (eaten exclusively with hands) in New Delhi, India
7. The Safari Platter (including five different types of wild game!), Cape Town, South Africa
8. BG's birthday dinner in Noosa, Australia
9. A traditional Christmas dinner with all the trimmings (for $9.00!) in Yangshuo, China
10. A huge seafood feed in the Sydney Fish Market, Sydney, Australia

Book Recommendations (based on the countries we visited)

1. Shantaram, Gregory David Roberts: called "the best bad book" in one review, this book is brutally written and terribly long, but paints a perfectly vivid portrait of India.
2. First They Killed My Father, Loung Ung: describes the destruction of her family and life during the regime of Pol Pot in Cambodia.
3. Catfish and Mandala, Andrew X. Pham: a Vietnamese-American returns to his birth country.
4. Himalaya, Michael Palin: written during the filming of the BBC documentary, describes perfectly the culture and landscape of the Himalayas.
5. The Lord of the Rings Trilogy, JRR Tolkien: the movies were set in New Zealand, so of course you have to re-read the books.
6. The Long Walk to Freedom, Nelson Mandela: the great Nelson Mandela describes his incredible life (South Africa).
7. The Killing Fields, Christopher Hudson: another book about the Khmer Rouge (Cambodia).
8. Into Thin Air, Jon Krakauer: the author describes his summit of Mt. Everest and the disaster that followed.
9. Are You Experienced?, William Sutcliffe: A cynical view of the world of [sic] "real backpackers" in India.
10. The Life and Times of Michael K., J. M. Coetzee: Experience the life of a black, mentally disabled man in apartheid-era South Africa

Finally, our new top favourite foods

Note that Val and BG have two completely different lists...

1. Lychees, mango, jackfruit (Val). Mango with sticky rice (BG).
2. Espresso -- (V). Tim Tams (BG).
3. Black licorice (V). White chocolate Magnum ice cream bars (BG).
4. Spicy papaya salad (V). Puits d'amour (French pastries) (BG).
5. Sparkling water (V). Portuguese Custard Tarts (BG).
6. Rooibos tea (V). Lime & black pepper chips (BG).
7. Marmite/vegemite (V). Coconut and corn cakes (Thai street food) (BG).
8. Octopus vindaye (V). Luxemburgeli (meringue cookies)(BG).
9. Feijoas (V). Cauliflower with butter and breading (BG).
10. Macadamia nuts (V). Sand-roasted peanuts from India (BG).
    

NUMB3RS

Now that the trip of a lifetime is coming to a close, we can allow the expected analysis to begin. We will start with the numbers; luckily, Excel is not necessary.

Number of flights taken: 19
Number of countries visited: 16
Number of kilometres: according to our RTW ticket, 39,000 or so.
Number of days away from home: 448
Number of times forced to watch Horton Hears a Who: 3
Number of times Step Up: The Streets watched voluntarily: 3 (I like dance movies.)
Number of pairs of shoes worn: 4
Number of boats ridden: 8 (me) + 2 (BG)
Number of times seasick: 1 (me) + 2 (BG)
Number of flat tires changed in a four-week trip through southern Africa: 7
Number of people being crammed into a 12-seater bus: 18
Number of months without snow: 20
Number of packages shipped home: 10
Number of laptop repair visits: 4
Number of times BG stayed up all night rebuilding laptop: 4
Number of teabags being brought home from Mauritius: 350
Number of kilograms of chocolate being brought home from Switzerland: 3.2
Number of photos taken on this trip: 15,000 or so.
Number of times violently ill from stomach bugs: 0 (Yay!)
Number of days a shower was skipped: 4 (not bad...)

You Know You're in Africa When

• The taxi runs out of fuel two blocks from your final destination, and it's not a big deal. (At least it wasn't the highway.)
  
• The menu lists ostrich filet, springbok, and kudu steaks with chips.
• The band plays 'Stand by Me', accompanied, fabulously, only by tribal drums.
• It takes two months to receive confirmation of a hotel booking, and you're kind of okay with that.
• Food described as spicy is actually slightly too spicy.
• Planning a trip requires asking questions like, 'Is the ferry for the river border crossing actually big enough for a car?'
• The country you're visiting has eleven official languages.
  
• And the taxi driver can speak six of them.
• People finally know what I'm talking about when I mention Mauritius.
• The mosquitoes are positively nuclear. (Not nucular.)
• People talk about driving over 340m high sand dunes without flinching.
• Campers gripe about the pea-sized sand fleas, adders, and scorpions like we talk about black flies. It's the crocodiles and hippos you have to really worry about!
  
• Everything can be braiied (barbequed.) Everything.
• People own SUVs not for status, but for survival. Land Rovers aren't pretentious, they're practical!
• Chocolate bars have the consistency of candles.
• You're a 12-hour flight from Europe, but in the same time zone as Germany.
• Local wine is divine, and the fruit juice is magical.
• You can wake up and look out to the ocean, and then look the other way to Table Mountain.
• People eat corn porridge for breakfast.
• Tofu is exotic.
• All of the east-flowing rivers in the continent are infested with little tiny snails that become parasitic worms that burrow into your skin and invade your bloodstream. Don't swim in them.
• The people are beautiful, the beaches are to die for, and the air vibrates with exotic culture and energy.
• History is horrific but there's always hope.
  

A Travelers Companion to Australia

While Australia is an easy country to travel and remarkably similar to home, what with its English signage and familiar foods, there are still enough differences to leave even the most itinerant traveler slightly befuddled – I think it has to do with Oz being upside down.

1. You already know this, Canadians, thanks to the 2000 Sydney Olympics and our team uniforms, but the word “Roots” has very bad connotations here. Don’t wear your Roots T-shirt in Oz. Especially don’t wear sweatpants with “ROOTS” printed across the butt, as hilarity at your expense will ensue.

2. Ladies: Aussies will call you “Darling” and “Love”. Embrace it, especially when the words are uttered by an adorably tanned male barista with adorable eye crinkles, dark curly hair and a sexy smile.

3. Food translations: Chockie = chocolate bar. Sambo/sanger = Sandwich. Pie = pie of meat, not pie of sweet. Be forewarned!

4. Nobody here drinks Fosters beer, which means that Aussies remain utterly unimpressed and un-charmed by our surname.

5. There really are kangaroos, koalas, wombats, cassowaries, and crocodiles running wild here, to say nothing of the snakes and spiders. Eeeeek! Thankfully, we haven’t had our lives threatened by anything creepy and/or crawly… yet.

6. The sun’s UV rays are approximately a hundred million billion (give or take two or three) times stronger here than they are in your northern hemisphere home, so you’ll burn to a crisp in about three milliseconds. Wear sunscreen, and then add some more. And then wear a hat.

7. Food, gas (petrol, sorry), clothes, and mascara (!) are more expensive here than at home too.

8. Aussie men like their shorts short, which can be good, but can also be very bad. Aussie ladies like their shorts even shorter than the short shorts that their male counterparts wear.

9. There are male toilets, female toilets, and disabled toilets here in Australia. Those poor disabled toilets; I wonder what happened to them.

10. Australians are possibly the friendliest people in the world, so don’t be in a hurry to go anywhere or do anything once involved in a conversation with one. If traveling, Australians will want to know where in Australia you’ve been, where you’re going, and how you’ve gotten on so far. They will then ply you with advice about your future destinations. Here’s a hint: take the advice, as they’re always truthful, sometimes painfully so.

In the end, my most important point about traveling Australia is this: COME TO AUSTRALIA!!!!!

p.s. Just for Dawn: Doona = Duvet.

The Best Things About New Zealand

In no particular order...

• No pennies. All prices are rounded up or down to the nearest tenth of a dollar, so the smallest coin you'll ever have in your pocket is a ten-cent piece. Fact: this is awesome.
• All-Blacks. New Zealand's national rugby team is made up of broad-chested, sinewy men in tight shirts and short-shorts, which makes watching rugby a thoroughly absorbing experience. I'm just sayin'.
• Feijoas. They may smell like bathroom deodorizer (or maybe bathroom deodorizer smells like feijoas), but they taste yummy and I like typing f-e-i-j-o-a-s.
• The Kiwi way of saying that something is "Cruisy". I'm not exactly sure what it means, but I think it's good.
• Very clean and very abundant public toilets.
• The fact that, as Canadians, we qualify for free health care in New Zealand in the event of an accident or trauma (the trauma = bad, but the free care = good.)
• Seeing people walking barefoot in the streets and grocery store. Maybe that's more weird than good.
• White-chocolate coated vanilla ice cream bars (BG's input for the day.)
• The fact that one can, if desired, buy possum-fur nipple warmers. Or belly button warmers. Or "willy warmers." Any takers?

Love/Hate

We're at T-4 days right now, and I'm thinking about the things I'll miss about home -- and the things I won't miss. Without further ado:

Things I Will Not Miss

1. Nickelback
2. Winter... I don't care if it's a dry cold or a wet cold. Cold is cold!
3. Junk mail
4. Monday mornings
5. Tuesday mornings
6. Wednesday mornings... and so on.
7. Bills, bills, bills
8. The Little One (you know who you are)
9. Skinny jeans (please let this trend be dead by the time I come back)
10. Weekend cottage country traffic, road rage, commuting
11. Shaving my legs (hate this necessary chore... will do, but likely with less frequency)
12. ironing
13. laundry, vacuuming, dusting
14. Costco
15. Pretentiousness, superficial materialism

Things I Will Miss

1. Friends and family... you are numbers 1 through 800, at least.
2. Basic sanitation
3. Second Cup coffee!
4. long weekends in the summer
5. Scrabble
6. Shopping, makeup, clothes,shoes... pretentious, superficial materialism
7. My cats
8. Watching the leaves change colour
9. Lettuce (the leaf, not the restaurant)
10. Sushi
11. Internet surfing
12. Grey's Anatomy
13. Justin Timberlake (he's my boyfriend, didn't you know?)
14. Diet Coke
15. Our Sonicare Toothbrush

Luckily, all of the things I will miss are still going to be around when we get back. We've been talking a lot about our "vision" of what this new adventure is going to bring us, and here's what we've come up with -- I have to say that it's going to be worth it.

1. A better appreciation of what we have already
2. A better idea of what we want and what we really need
3. More emphasis on happiness from relationships and experiences and not from "things"
4. More understanding of other cultures
5. More patience (VAL)
6. More flexibility (VAL)
7. A closer connection to each other and our relationship, and no, we are not going to write a song about this.
8. A more relaxed attitude
9. Learning to sit still (BG)
10. Fun and adventure!!!