Random Photos

Here are some random photos taken over the course of my travels that I thought I would share:



From Vietnam: not brilliant
noodles but not horrible

From an airplane somewhere:
the word "orange" has never
seemed less complicated...



I take it "landung" means "landing"...

... which makes "emergency landing"
hilariously "not landung".

 

And before I left to go to Japan, I took a picture of the clothes I was taking with me. I thought it would be interesting to compare it with what I would bring back with me. So here are the before and after pictures (after picture taken when I got back home after Paris and Edinburgh in December):

 

Before

After

I think the most notable differences are the cleanliness of my shoes and the presence of an ugly Christmas sweater. It's only been 4 months since then (and only 1 week since I've been reunited with all of my belongings) but it already seems pretty incredible that that is all I lived with for 4 months.

 

Definitely going to do it again!

And to summarize...

I’m finally mostly set up in Montreal and long term travel is over for a while – I’ve committed to spending a year here before making any more decisions (although I do confess to already having some vague planning thoughts about where I’d travel to next). I thought I’d just do a summary post of my travels as a whole so here goes:

1. I took 17 flights, which took me the entire way around the northern hemisphere… plus halfway across North America and back twice (… so maybe not a very environmentally friendly trip).
2. I visited 10 countries (including my own… but not including the few hours at the Istanbul airport, the few hours at the Dublin airport or the mad dash through the Manchester airport). I cannot name a favourite country.
3. I used 10 different currencies: yen, riel, dong, kip, baht, rupees, euros, pounds, and dollars (x2). Despite my half-assed efforts, I came home with leftovers of each currency and so can now play money exchanger whenever I want.
4. I travelled by plane, train (regular, shinkansen and sleeper), car, van, jeep, truck, local bus, long distance bus, taxi, subway/metro/skytrain, tram, cable car, tuk tuk, tractor, motorcycle, bicycle, ocean ferry, river ferry, river boat, cruise boat, basket boat, row boat, canoe, inflatable raft, kayak, surf board, snow shoes, skis, and lots and lots of walking.
5. I spent nights in hotel rooms, ryokans, hostels, a cruise boat cabin, homestays, tea houses, volunteer quarters, a sleeper train cabin, friends’ houses (thanks Mike!), relatives’ houses (thanks Brenda and Frank!), a ski condo and a couple of airplanes. I’m surprised that I didn’t actually sleep in a tent at all.
6. I used all sorts of toilets from fancy built-in-bidet, heated-seat western toilets to squat-toilet-style outhouses and everything in between. I got used to putting used toilet paper in the garbage instead of in the toilet and flushing with a bucket of water.  I perfected my half-squat stance for seat-less western-style toilets without ever understanding why anyone would think that this kind of toilet is a good idea.
7. All the travelling I’ve done since the beginning of August, plus all the pre-trip costs like vaccines, supplies and insurance has cost almost exactly $24,000, which is actually less than I had expected.
8. I learned how to say “thank you” in four more languages.
9. I took somewhere around 3100 photos, which then got whittled down into about 1350 that I actually kept.

And the general lessons that I learned over the course of the last 8 or 9 months:

1. Packing cubes (little bags that you can separate things into in your big bag) are great. I was a little leery because I thought they wouldn’t be space efficient but it was really nice to not have to root through my whole bag trying to find underwear or a shirt. And there are always enough random leftover items to fill the small crevasses in your bag.
2.   You can buy toothpaste and shampoo everywhere. Do not carry full sized containers of these. Ever.
3. The Dukoral (traveller’s diarrhea) vaccine was a fantastic idea. It tastes horrible but I made it through 10 countries, 5 of which do not have consistently (or any) potable tap water, without a single stomach issue.
4. Travelling with a laptop was a good idea. I wasn’t sure about this before I left. I regretted it every time I had to carry all my luggage for any real length of time (my laptop plus the lockable bag I got to keep it safe weighed a good chunk) but being able to pay credit card bills, keep an eye on my bank account transactions, and book hotels/tours/flights without having to worry about internet café security issues made it worth it. The ability to sort through the photos I took along the way was also a huge perk.
5. Garbage bag pack liners are great. It’s nice when you don’t ruin your clean laundry when you accidentally put your pack down in a puddle or put your pack in a luggage hold of a bus going down a dusty road. Plus, my pack can zip open down the side and I found having my bag contents in a garbage bag added an extra layer of security (a flimsy layer, yes, but it meant people couldn’t just unzip the side and grab whatever items fell out).
6. Standing out as obviously being a tourist makes you a target for scammers, beggars and anyone selling anything but it also gives you huge leeway in being able to make social gaffs. Nobody expects you to understand anything, which is actually really nice… especially when you don’t understand anything.
7. Don’t go home until you have something to jump right into. Nothing’s worse than coming back after an awesome trip to have nothing to do but sit around and think about how much fun you had and how much fun you could still be having if you were still travelling. (Ok, putting things in perspective, there are obviously many worse things in life but this still sucks).
8. The world is only as intimidating as you make it out to be.  
9. Don’t worry so much.  Sometimes things will be awkward, stressful, annoying, costly, painful, exhausting and/or embarrassing but really, in the end, things will be fine.

Nevada

After two months of delays, I was all set to return to work March 2nd and was actually excited about it. The Thursday before, my start date was delayed by another week so I browsed through last minute vacation deals and ended up in Las Vegas for 3 days.

I didn't actually spend any time in casinos (unless you count the casino at my hotel in which I kept getting lost while trying to find the elevators to the hotel rooms) or on the Strip. Instead, I rented a car and went hiking at some near by parks. I hiked all day each day and then returned to my hotel and crashed (I was a bit sleep deprived when I got there because of flight delays and my stomach still being on eastern time).

The first day I went to the Hoover Dam and then to Lake Mead National Recreation Area. I did a walk from the park to the dam which went along an old railway line that was used during construction of the dam. What I found really noticeable was how low the water level was in the lake. The lake was created when the dam was constructed - the water in the lake is what powers the hydro generators in the dam and also provides water to Las Vegas. The ever-decreasing water level (and dire consequences) has been in the news in the past year - it will be interesting to see what happens in the future and what solutions for electricity and water supply are found.




Hoover Dam

Upstream of Hoover Dam

Lake Mead Recreation Area



Railway tunnels



Lake Mead

The second day I went to Red Rock Canyon Park, just west of Las Vegas. It was here that I forgot that I can control the weather by putting on sunscreen. There wasn't a cloud in the sky when I got there so I figured I should put on sunscreen and then an hour and a half later it started hail/rain/snowing. I retreated to my car for a while (ate lunch and read a magazine) while it blew over and then continued hiking. Near the end of the day I came across a small herd of deer, which was kind of neat.

Red Rock Canyon

Red Rock Canyon




Consequences of sunscreen application




Red Rock Canyon




Deer
























 



The last day I went to Valley of Fire Park. I enjoyed scrambling in the rocks in the park (which I may or may not have been allowed to do... but I didn't get hurt and neither did the rocks so I figure it's all ok).




Valley of Fire

Wave of Fire

Rock Erosion

Me

Valley of Fire



Desert moonrise

There were a lot of "no guns/weapons allowed" signs in the parks, casinos, stores, etc. I could never decide whether the signs made me feel safer (because there would be no guns/weapons there) or less safe (because they needed to post the signs in the first place).

British Columbia

After Christmas and New Year's, I had some time before going back to work so I went to British Columbia for two weeks. Here's where I went and what I got up to:

Vancouver
Spent some time exploring downtown, hanging out with rarely-seen relatives (hi Brenda and Frank!) and doing some walking beside different bodies of water.



Granville Island

North Vancouver



Olympic Cauldron



Eagle and flocking birds

Whistler
Spent one day cross-country skiing (classic skiing in the morning and I tried skate skiing for the first time in the afternoon) and the next day snow shoeing (in the rain). I really enjoyed it despite the numerous blisters I got on my feet (in different spots with each activity).



  

Tofino
Spent two days surfing in the mornings (took a lesson the first day and went out on my own the second day) and walking along beaches in the afternoons. I left Tofino tired and sore!



Long Beach

Long Beach



Long Beach

I'm standing up!



I'm the one who just fell off the
green board.

Victoria
Walked around downtown and along the coast. Also had the best quesadilla's I've ever had.

I really enjoyed my time on the west coast. It was only two weeks but I felt like I got to some different places and did a lot of different things.

Edinburgh

After Paris, I stopped off in Edinburgh for a few days before heading back to Canada. It was really nice to be back in Edinburgh! I got to catch up with coworkers, flatmates and friends and even got to attend the office Christmas night out. Plus it snowed!



Snowy Royal Mile

Art Gallery photo

For many reasons, it was really tough getting on the plane to head back to Canada after my short stay in Edinburgh but I'm really glad I had a chance to catch up with some wonderful people.

Plane photo

Paris

Because I didn't made it to Paris while I was working in Scotland, I figured it would make a good stopover on the way home from Nepal - it would break up the journey and the time change and ease me back into colder climates. Plus, it's Paris.

 

I think it lived up to what I was expecting. I did some walking around and visiting art museums. I got sick, which kind of sucked because I had little energy so probably didn't end up seeing as much as I could have, but on the other hand, getting sick was pretty unsurprising and highly overdue. On top of getting sick, I also got bit by some sort of insect near my eye, which swelled up. So I was perhaps not at my best in Paris... but, hey, I was still in Paris!

 

Here's what I managed to see/do in Paris:

• Eiffel Tower (I didn't go up though)
• Sacre-Coeur and Notre Dame churches (I figured after all the wats, shrines, temples and stupas I'd visited over the past few months, I might as well see a couple churches as well)
• Arc de Triomphe
• Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
• Centre Georges Pompidou (another modern art museum)
• Musee D'Orsay
• Musee de Louvre



Eiffel Tower

Sacre-Coeur

Art at Centre Georges Pompidou















Notre Dame Cathedral

Trying to look at the Mona Lisa



One of the many nice ceilings at the
Louvre



Paris from the top of the Arc de
Triomphe



Paris from the top of the Arc de
Triomphe



Paris

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I tried my best not to think about how expensive things were. I've found that my perspective of how much things should cost has changed over the last few months. It's a bit of a shocker to go from decent meals for $4-$6 to a place where a hot dog with a bottle of water costs you $12. I had to stop thinking about it and decide that 15€ was actually fine for a meal or else I never would have eaten.

 

Money and sicknesses aside, I'm glad I stopped in Paris. I really enjoyed just being in Paris.

 

Nepal - Airplane photos

When I arrived in Kathmandu from Bangkok, our flight had to circle for about half an hour before it could land (apparently very common and I was lucky that my plane did not have to be diverted to India to refuel). Anyhoo, I didn't mind the circling as it allowed me to take these pictures of the Himalayan mountains:







Also, my flight out of Kathmandu was delayed by 4 hours, which is also very common, so maybe keep the delays in mind if you're ever thinking of flying into or out of Kathmandu.