Looking ahead

I leave in 3 weeks! Yikes... gotta get ready.

Rotorua to Auckland and home, December 31-January 2

Yes, it was a rushed dash to the finale. I breezed into Rotorua (geothermal sulphur-spewing town), and plomped down by the slightly murky swimming pool at my hostel. The I noticed that the pool water smelled sulphurous -yep, it was bathtub-warm thanks to underground springs and geothermal heat! The swim was surprisingly refreshing, and it connected me up with my New Year's crowd: a Spanish girl, a British couple and I rang in 2009, dancing until my legs hurt. Up rose early so I could go to the luges (basically a gravity-powered go cart and ski lift operation). Fun, but not life-changing.

Then on to Auckland, which, I almost regret to say, makes Vancouver look amateurish in terms of civic investment. It's a clean, attractive pedestrian environments, well-done integration of heritage and newbuild, public seating and planting, funky restaurants, street life, digitally-updated bus sops, and, my favourite: kitty-corner pedestrian crossings (yes, all cars stop to allow peds to cross in all directions, including diagonally)!

And then 22 hours of flight time home to see the happy faces of my parents. It was an incredible, trip of a lifetime.

I'll end this blog with some words from Bruce Springsteen:

You can hide `neath your covers,
And study your pain,
Make crosses from your lovers,
Throw roses in the rain,
Waste your summer praying in vain,
For a savior to rise from these streets,
Well now, I’m no hero that’s understood,
All the redemption I can offer, girl, is beneath this dirty hood.
With a chance to make it good somehow,
Hey what else can we do now?
Except roll down the window,
And let the wind blow back your hair,
Well the nights busting open,
These two lanes will take us anywhere,
We got one last chance to make it real,
To trade in these wings on some wheels,
Climb in back heaven’s waiting on down the tracks
Oh-oh come take my hand,
Riding out tonight to case the promised land…

Taupo, December 30

"With these things there's no telling,

We'll just have to wait and see,

But I'd rather be working for a paycheck,

Than waiting to win the lottery..."

-Bright Eyes

Said goodbye to Kevin and the family and bussed in the rain to Taupo, adventure capitol of New Zealand (actually, I made that up, but there sure are a lot of outdoor sports available here -if you call jet boating a sport). Hiked up to Huka Falls and had a bathe in the geothermal hotsprings. Taupo appears to be a tourist town by a lake, but done well instead of tacky. They have made impressive investments in public and private infrastructure to make this place attractive to visitors and locals: extensive greening of streets, innovative lamp standards and benches, beautiful public garbage bins (and recycling!), pavers, no chain-link fencing, structures kept in good nick, etc. If only Canadian towns of 35,000 looked this good!

Napier, December 27-29

"I ran aground in a harbour town,

and lost the taste for being free,

Thank God he sent some gull-chased ship,

to carry me to sea..."

-Bruce Cockburn

The festivities continue. More eating and socialising with outgoing/laid-back Kiwis. I may be recovering from the food-poisoning weight loss in Thailand. Spent a lovely day out on the boat with the relies (yes, that's me in a full wet suit -I am now confident that I can scuba in West Coast waters. This water was freezing cold buy I was toasty). The guys got lobster and sea urchin (the former tasty, the latter, not so). Then we fished, catching a dog fish and an eel -not eating fare.

Today was wine tasting day, and I picked up some nice locals for Kevin and Paula to enjoy (I can only carry 2 max). The highlight of the day was a lovely Malbec that they said tasted of "toasted Christmas cake"! It did.

New Zealand (Napier), December 23-26

"Four seasons in one day,
Lying in the depths of your imagination"

-Crowded House



Ahh, Christmas in the southern hemisphere. Sweet as. My parting gift from Bangkok was being shortchanged by a cab driver (are cabbies ever honest?!), and flew to Hong Kong, then Auckland, then Napier where I was pleased to se Kevin again. In good Kiwi style we headed straight to the workingman's club for some local brews and the meeting of countless friendly Kiwis.

Christmas in New Zealand featured many of the traditions and rituals from home with some delightfully notable exceptions: i) X-mas Day contains two full-on meals: lunch (turkey, ham, BBQ salmon and trimmings) and dinner (mostly same); ii) swimming in an outdoor pool, plus cricket with the kids, iii) numerous toasts and speeches. Met lots of great people, whose names I have already forgotten. No surprise there. I even pulled in some nice gifts of local wine, which, incidentally, is excellent.

Weather is clear and temperate today, just how I like it in winter.

Bangkok, December 21-22

"One night in Bangkok makes a hard man humble,

Not much between despair and ecstasy"

-Murray Head

Back in the City of Light and happy to be here. Some of my fellow travellers despise Bangkok, but once you get away from the backpacker places, it's a breathtaking city (in more ways than one). I splashed out on a boutique hotel in the Silom Road area which is pleasant while still lively (less punters and more high end hotels and locals). The hotel is a sleek, compact affair with just the right touches of good taste: lots of white plaster walls and real wood furnishings, a sunflower over a wooden bathtub, a hip little hotel bar, and dance music playing softly in the halls. Dance music? It eventually became apparent that I am staying in a place favoured by gay travellers: the good taste, the dance music in the halls, the gay staff, and the men's guide to Bangkok in the room! All this for about $120 a night (including a nice breakfast).

It was also a good choice location wise, as I planned to visit the Dome, an outdoor rooftop restaurant where I had an exceptional meal and service (visiting a restaurant alone, one relies on more heavily the service to make the experience). I started with a Southeast Asian Martini (a blend of gin, lychee liqueur, ginger and kaffir lime) and squid cakes in sweet chili sauce (yay, finally felt safe eating squid!). The had spicy Thai morning glory and Bresse chicken in lemon sauce. As my Aussie companions would say: so good.

OK, now I'm off to Auckland for the next stage of the adventure. Happy Christmas to all!

PS: the sidebar pics include some of the Thai-glish that I love to capture: the first one is the info booklet in my hotel (it's a fancy way of saying "six" channels) and the latter was a SkyTrain platform advert (I would have visited but was concerned that they were not specialized enough...)

Vientienne to Bangkok, December 20 to 21

The trip from Vang Vieng to Vientiane (Laos' capitol) was the coolest mode of transport I have yet taken: kayak! Admittedly, we left VV by truck, and arrived in Vientiane by truck, but for part of the journey we kayaked. And not wimpy, slow water kayaking but helmet-requiring rapids too! The guide took my glasses from me during one difficult rapid stretch, which I was thankful for as we tipped into the river and had to rescue another kayak er who was stranded on a rock. After lunch, my guide asked to borrow my lifejacket and returned my glasses. Of course, this pretty much meant that my kayak would tip! (I blame the lousy balancing of the other guide who shared it with me!). I was pushed under the water and quickly realized that the current was holding me under. I was thankful for my dive course instructor's words: stop, think and resolve the problem. I surfaced to discover that my glasses were still on.

The truck broke down on the way into town, thus ensuring that I got a full compliment of true Laos experiences. Had a nice dinner with my travel mates down by the river. Although they snickered at my insistence on seeing the kitchen where the food was to be prepared, I was especially thankful later on when another guest in my hotel began vomiting loudly about 4 a.m.!

Here's the stretch of river that tipped me into the water. Hope there's no river worms breeding in my brain now...