Three's a Charm - Troy & Kenz & Ryker's Adventures

The End of Malongo & The Beginning of our lives as T&K +1 = 3

So as October came to a close I finished off a long five week hitch - my last - in Malongo, Cabinda, Angola.  I was strangely surprised how sad I was to see myself leaving.  I discovered that I actually really liked my job.  I mean, I had never disliked work, but I was really feeling proficient, feeling like I was in the groove, rocking & rolling, getting things done, making a difference, and mostly making contributions to improving how we drilled wells.  And then suddenly it was over.  Poof.  2 years had come and gone just like that.  And I was suddenly sad to leave.  Sad to leave the people whom I had spent more time with in the last two years than my family, sad to leave such a beautiful (yet backwards) country, sad to leave behind Angolans who are some of the friendliest people I've ever met, and sad to say me and T's travelling days were more than likely behind us for a while as the baby would be with us soon.  It felt like something was coming to an end that I wasn't just ready to let go... but be that as it may, with the babe in my belly fast approaching 30 weeks old, mommyhood was just around the corner.

So I boarded the last plane for my final trip back to Canada.  I took a glorious month off work after a long 5 week hitch and then worked two weeks from home to bank enough time to start my maternity leave in January.  We had a restful Christmas in Sylvan Lake / Lethbridge and then settled into baby watch 2010.  I was so paranoid about being caught without Troy when I went into labor that I didn't let him stray very far outta my sight for four weeks before the due date.  Little did we know he could have gone back to Angola for another hitch because we just kept waiting and waiting and waiting for our day to arrive. 

Finally, at 42 weeks we were scheduled for an induction.  The babe was growing big (they estimated 9 lbs & 13oz) from the ultrasound and it was time to give him a push to join us.  After 3 days of pre-labor we finally went into labor on our own a night before our scheduled induction.  Contractions were very close together so we went in to the hospital on Wednesday night thinking I'd be punching the baby out in no time.  But it wasn't to be.  I was sent home to run the house outta hot water twice trying to ease the labor.  There are no words to describe the pain.  We were trying for a natural birth, but due to the position of the baby (face up) I was in for an excruciating treat called back labor.  I could not have an epidural early on so unfortunately I had to endure roughly 16 hrs of it until I could get some sweet relief & some much needed rest. 

 The labor progressed well & we made it all the way almost to the finish.  We tried one round of pushing & then the doc stepped out to get another doc and we knew something was up.  Dr. O'Keene, an old irish doc, came in & took a quick look.  The prognosis wasn't good.  The baby was too big for my little hips & was NOT going to come out the right way.  I begged for another two hours, he shook my belly and said "listen little lady - I've birthed 1000s of babies.  You are all belly and this baby ain't coming out on it's own", and then gave me two more hours to try.  By that time my body had run out of jam & he wasn't going to come out naturally.  At 11:44pm on Thursday Feb 17th, 2010 Ryker Lance Graham joined the world and we were now a family of 3.

New Year's Resolution - MackG Style

Ok - so as I head back to work & will have even less time for "internet", I have decided to resurrect our blog to keep some up to date info on Ryker like pics, stories, etc. for our families. I promise to go back and complete the info from the rest of our South African Safari & the wonderful 10 months we've had so far with Ryker. Look for it in the New Year when I have a week of transition time when Ryker is "daycare" training and I am home pining over him :)

South Africa - September 2009 - Day 6 & 7

Just after our last morning game drive we piled all our stuff back into the car to set out for the country of Swaziland which is completely surrounded by South Africa.  Swaziland is Africa's last traditional kingdom and the Swazi people were incredibly cheerful and friendly.  They use the South African currency and many people spoke Afrikaans there as well so it really didn't feel much different than South Africa.  Unfortunately for us, our GPS "accidentally" expired so we were forced to navigate our way into the country via a small photocopied map given to us by our guide at Kirkman's Kamp.  It showed what looked like the best route to cross the boarder and we set forth.  The drive toward the mountain range that separates the two countries was an easy one on the South African freeways, but as we pulled up toward the range our car started to get scared.  It was about 3pm and a large sign appeared on the road warning us that the boarder crossing was to close at 4pm.  We started to get a little nervous as the other boarder was much further to the South and out of the way.  So Troy gunned it - the car protested and whined as we made our way up up and up until I thought the poor little 4 cylinder engine would explode.  There were hardly any people on the road and we worried if we were stranded we'd be left there for days.  On further inspection of the map, the road we were on was found to be marked by ----- which meant that it was a gravel road.  Now our little car got even more scared, for there was no way it could negotiate such a gravel road, it was too late to turn back though to make the boarder crossing time of 4pm.  Thankfully the Gods were smiling on us, because they were in the process of paving the road for the upcoming FIFA world cup to allow for easier boarder crossings.  We screamed round corners with sheer drops to the side and I held on for dear life to the holy crap bar.  We made it to the boarder with 5 minutes to spare and you could see why it was a crossing that closed early because there was one small building with a lady working the counter and two guards chatting with their friends.  They "searched" our car and found it hard to believe we didn't have anything to claim - not sure what we were going to bring from Angola because you don't really pop out to the store to shop for goods there.  Thankfully they let us through and we began our decent down the other side of the mountain into a small logging town.  Without a map we went the way we thought was right, doubted ourselves and turned back, asked for directions that were no help whatsoever, went back the way we started, stopped at the exit to the town and had to show our passports to an armed guard (machine gun armed), the highway turned into gravel, we got nervous as we didn't have oodles of gas, the highway turned back to pavement and we were on our way!

So looking at the map we thought we were only 4 or so hours away from Kirkman's Kamp in SA to our next Stop at Reilly's Rock in the Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary.  Needless to say we were NOT 4 hours away.  After leaving Sabi Sands just after breakfast, with one stop on the way to eat some pizza, it took us 7-8 hours to actually get to our homestead and was so dark by the time we got there we really didn't get to enjoy it.  Thankfully we checked in with a guard when we entered and if it weren't for him we would probably have slept in our car that night as it was pitch black by the time we arrived and the path to the homestead was winding and ambiguous.  The Mlilwane Wildlife Sanctuary is Swaziland's first sanctuary for wild animals and was founded by Ted Reilly on his family farm in the 1960's hence the name Reilly's Rock.  The "resort" is supposed to be the most luxurious place to stay in the entire country and incredibly "expensive".  I don't know if luxurious was the right word for it, but it was a colonial style homestead with brass beds, clawfoot tubs and we had a sitting room with a fire place in it.  There was one lone little TV in the lobby and a small bar with a selection of beer and soda.  It had more of a straight into the early 1900's feel vs. opulant luxury, but the Swazi women who worked there were amazingly friendly people and so excited when Troy tipped them good!  Something like $10 at home was a fortune to them!  The next morning we enjoyed breakfast on the veranda and enjoyed the views of the Ezulwini and Malkerns valleys from the lodge veranda.  There was an amazingly beautiful garden which we hiked through the next morning until the wind almost blew us over off the side of the hill.  Unfortunately since we knew roughly how long it had take us to get there we had to get on the road bright and early.  Thankfully on our drive out of the sanctuary we spotted wildlife - many little warthogs, wildebeest, impalas, and zebras that seemed to make the trip worth it.

South Africa - September 2009 - Days 4-6

Our next stop took us into the game reserves.  Adjacent to Kruger National Park is the Sabi Sands Game reserve and there are no fences between the national reserve and this private reserve.  We stayed at a lodge called Kirkman's Kamp which is a well known historic camp that traverses 6300 hectares.  It was originally built in the early 1920's and is an early South African lowveld colonial homestead.  We got to stay in one of the 18 guest cottage that had it's won private veranda looking out into the reserved.  The pool area was amazing and there is a hippo trail that "Harry" the hippo often frequents - whom we missed viewing one night after dinner.  This simply was the most amazing stop of our journey.  We arrived after a road adventure in which our GPS attempted to take us on a goat path down the fence line of the game reserve - which our little Toyota would have probably been destroyed getting there.  A local native saw us turn down there and shook his head as we drove along side the fence for about a mile and then laughed when he saw us pull out.  On our way to the reserve alone we saw numerous wildlife sightings from giraffes to nyalas to zebra.  Along the way in there was a hill on the dirt road and since we had such an underpowered vehicle for a pseudo-off-roading journey, Troy wanted me to get out and film him gunning it up a hill.  Needless to say since there are wild animals that could kill people afoot, I decided to stay in the car.  Troy however, was more than willing to sacrifice his pregnant wife for such a shot!

 

When we arrived they showed us around the lodge which was simply spectacular - with incredible views out over a river that ran through the reserve and over the lowveld.  We were given delicious welcoming drinks and shown about the homestead.  There was a lovely sitting room, veranda, bar area, etc.  Simply spectacular.  Our bags were taken down to our room and we prepared ourselves for our afternoon game drive.  On our way to a room we observed a monkey family that were foraging outside the back porch of our cottage and a large "pumba" that frequented the front lawn basking in the sun under a beautiful flowered tree.  We freshened up and meet our ranger Stephanie and our tracker (a local native named Joffa) for drinks/snacks before heading out.  I could easily get used to the afternoon tea concept.  Yummy treats/fruit/drinks every day sounds delicious.  We climbed into our vehicle and started out our journey with two other couples.  We saw animals ranging from zebra to elephants to rhinos to lions.  It was amazing as we pulled up to a path and a large white rhino and her calf saunter across like "no big deal, we're just out for a stroll".  After cruising around in the 4x4 we stopped for a "chocolateamerulachino" - where they mix hot chocolate, coffee and the local liquor amerulla made from a plant found in South Africa.  Delicious to say the least and when they brought out the biltong (local jerky) and dried mangos I was sold!  I myself due to Ryker being in my belly enjoyed "appletizers and grapatizers" which are like the koala drinks we have at home in Canada just South African style.  We jumped back into the range rover and took off to see the pride of lions who had made a fresh kill that day of a water buffalo.  We spent an amazing half hour viewing them by the light of a spot light at night.  The funniest moment of the day was when one of the male lions (there were 3 in the pride) came right up to the side of our jeep and take a big, stinky, gassy poop.  All of us were giggling uncontrollably while holding our noses.  It was one of the worst things I've ever smelled in my life.  We then went back to camp where they had prepared a lovely romantic meal for the two of us by the light of the lamp on the back veranda of the lodge.  It was here Harry made his appearance AFTER we went to bed.

Kruger is well known for it's leopards, so the next day we were on the hunt for leopards.  Our game drive started bright and early at 6am after an early wake up call by our ranger and some pre-breakfast sweets we were ready to head off.  I discovered that dipping the South African version of "biscotti/sponge cake" combo into tea was absolutely delicious.  The views of the sun rising and the activeness of the animals was amazing as it was much cooler vs. the afternoon drive.  We were fortunate that day to find the elusive leopard after tracking it by the riverside for the majority of the day.  At one time our tracker Joffa who sat on the front of our vehicle looking for tracks the majority of the time was only 20 or so feet away from the leopard in his hiding spot whilst tracking him on foot.  Yikes.  Simply amazing to drive next to a leopard sauntering along the riverside - he even stopped to pose for us a few times.  That day I enjoyed a luxurious massage before our afternoon game drive and we went on a nature walk with our guid and learned more about the veld, how they track the animals, how the animals move between Krugar and Sabi Sands, etc.  A nice touch on the day and despite the heat it was worth it to learn some more interesting facts.  That evening they had a big group dinner in their version of a quionset - like a big outdoor pen that animals used to be trapped in and they use for celebrations after the kills.  It was neat, because the local staff performed traditional dances as entertainment.  The finishing touch on the day was the beautiful "decorating" of our room in which the staff ran us a luxurious bubble bath, set out champagne, and sprinkled our room with fragrant rose petals to set the mood.  Amazing.  The next morning we awoke for our last morning game drive both excited and disappointed that our time at Sabi Sands was coming to an end.  To finish off the drive the staff cooked fresh breakfast for us riverside in nature and we enjoyed everything from fresh scrambled eggs, delicious fruit, yogurt and granola on fluffy pillows and mats right in nature! 

All in all the most amazing stop of our trip both Troy and I would agree.  We got to see all of the big five minus hippos... which were to come later.

South Africa - September 2009 - Days 1-4

Ok, ok so this post is just a little out of date, but it was time to get up to date as we now have a new addition to the family to blog about.  When I was 16 weeks preggo, Troy and I took an amazing two week trip around South Africa - something we had been longing to do for the entire time we had been rotating to Angola.  At the end of our hitch in August we flew from Luanda to Johannesburg and started our SA adventure.  After a night layover in Joburg we retrieved our rental car and drove East toward Kruger National Park.  We spent two nights in the sleepy town of Hazyview in this quaint little inn - the Rissington Inn - that was situated right along the boarder of Kruger.  Our first day we spent touring around the area and driving the "Panorama Route" which is home to dramatic landscape and many cultural heritage stops.  The Byde River Canyon i sthe third largest canyon of it's kind (after the Grand Canyon and Namibia's Fish Eagle Canyon) in the world extending 20 km in lenth and was simply amazing to see.  The books say it ranks as one of the most spectacular sights in Africa and they don't lie.  We stopped to check out the canyon at numerous stops along the road, stopped at God's Window, The Pinnacle, Bourke's Luck potholes and the town of Pilgrims Rest.  God's Window is an amazing view of the canyon that opens up to an amazing vista of Blyde Canyon.  On a clear day you can see as far as Mozambique.  The sheer cliffs plunge down over 700m to the Lowveld and game reserve areas below.  The views are majestic and this stop played an important role in the 1980 movie "The God's Must be Crazy" when the bushman Xi travelled to the canyon believing that he had travelled to the end of the earth to throw away a coke bottle that had caused fighting in his tribe.  The 'Pinnacle' is a single quartzite column rising out of the deep wooded canyon that people get really close to the edge to get a good photo. I kept worrying about falling in even though we stayed behind all the regulation fences.  Bourke's Luck Potholes are named after a gold digger, Tom Burke, who staked a claim nearby.  Although his claim did not produce a single ounce of gold, he correctly predicted that large gold deposits would be found in the area.  Through countless eons the swirling whirlpools which occur as the Treur River plunges into the Blyde River caused waterborne sand and rock to grind huge, cylindrical potholes into the bedrock of the river. Pretty neat formation and there were tonnes of school children in their uniforms (hot and sweaty for the temperature) checking out this geologic wonder.  Pilgrims Rest is a living museum to the gold panning days of South Africa, which established the town in 1873 and remains "true" to the original settlement of the 19th century.  Well, as true as an old general store can be that sells Kruger candies and treats of today!  We ended the day driving around the canyon with possibly the best view in the whole of the Blyde River Canyon of the "Three Rondavels" which are huge, round rocks, thought to be reminiscent of the houses or huts of the indigenous people, known as rondavels.  The are also known as the Three Sisters which legend has are the three wives of a famous chief. Geologically they are three huge spirals of dolomite rock rising out of the far wall of the Blyde River canyon that offer a rather amazing view.

On a final note, we stopped at little town called Graskop for lunch and ate at the renowned Harries Pancakes.  Apparently pancakes aren't the same in South Africa as they make both savory and sweet pancakes like cheese and bacon and spinach and mushroom.  We opted to have dessert pancakes for lunch - Me taking in the apple pie pancake and Troy enjoying the banana and caramel one.  Simply freaking delicious!  We also stopped in at a candy shop along the way which also had a pretty large bookshop attached.  I guess they are a little more liberal in South Africa as there were "erotic books" in next to the fudge and sugar sweets.  It wouldn't be a vacation if you couldn't get candy and a little adult entertainment at the same time!

Mexico & New York - May 2009

At the end of April we got back from a long absence from home – recall that we had spent our last three weeks off enjoying the hospitality of Steve and Katie in Thailand vs. the cold winter that seemed to be dragging out at home.  Unfortunately for myself upon the trip home to Calgary I got deathly sick on the plane ride between South Africa and the UK.  High fever, aches, chills, extreme headache – which by the way are all flu-like symptoms that are indicative of malaria.  In London I attempted to treat what we thought might be the flu with potent over the counter medication and I rallied a bit.  But on the way home to Calgary the next symptom started – dysentery which is a medical term for the poops.  I like to think of it as basically total evacuation of all food in your body via the rear end or the best diet plan in the world.  Now I had five symptoms of malaria so as soon as my parents picked us up in Calgary we set off for the hospital.

Troy was such a trooper and after 5 hours of waiting I got a bed, some IV fluids, medicine via IV to treat migraines, a shot of morphine that I didn’t really like, and a million vials of my blood taken.  Thankfully the malaria smears came back negative and the fever finally broke that night so at 5 am Troy and I got to go home – me with my IV still in my vein and orders to report back to the infectious disease clinic the next morning.  Still no conclusive results from the tests, but the infectious disease doctor took one more icky sample I’d rather not discuss, gave me some powerful antibiotics to take, told me to lay off the booze, and thankfully the go ahead to go to Mexico that Sunday morning.

So on Sunday we set off for Kevin & Stephanie’s Mexican dream vacation destination wedding fest 2009.  Now think back to what was happening in Mexico at the end of April and you will recall swine flu hysteria.  That Tuesday Canada implemented the travel ban to Mexico and charters stopped flying.  Luckily our charter outta Mexico was still good to go that upcoming Sunday, but many people were forced to leave early.  Swine flu also meant many of the public activities were closed and our resort basically started to clear out on Wednesday when new people stopped coming in.  It got so dead, that on the day we left they closed our resort and moved everyone at the four resorts belonging to Riu all into two of the resorts.  It sucked for the people working there, because they lost their jobs which so heavily rely on tourism.  Not to mention the fact that the pool bar essentially ran out of liquor later in the week, and there was no premium drinks to be found.    However aside from these challenges our group of ~40 or so managed to enjoy the week and the wedding went off without a hitch.  Many a fun time were had at the pool bar and even Mama Sue got her party on a few of the nights.  The weather was great, the beaches beautiful, and the breakfast buffet pretty darn good.  Unfortunate for me, but probably fortunate for my liver, my “African Parasite” wouldn’t tolerate alcohol so I had to make short work of some serious fresh banana shakes.  Oh so tasty.

We returned home to a message on my phone from the Canadian Health Inspector who was wondering where I had picked up a third world country bacteria called Shigella.  Now if you’re really interested in gross third world diseases google it, but this girl knew she had a problem when the public health inspector came a calling.  It is basically like e coli, but spreads not in animal feces but in human feces.  Nice hey?  From the time frame of infection I acquired it here in camp more than likely from contaminated food sources and I would come to find out later upon return that it spread like wildfire through the camp here right after we left.  Needless to say, he was much relieved that I obtained it overseas and not in Canada – however as patient “zero” in Canada he was highly curious whether or not I had spread this highly contagious disease to anyone I had come in contact with.  Thankfully I was the sole person infected and did not give this prize of a bacteria to anyone!

So we set off for Sylvan Lake, enjoyed a quick week and many a booster juice and then returned to Calgary for our New York Vacation with my parents.  On Sunday we left for a week spent in New York.  We toured around Grand Central Station, Times Square area, 30 Rockefeller Place, did an NBC studio tour which was super cool, went to the top of the Rock and the Empire State building, took in Madame Tussads, the Museum of Natural History, Ellis Island, the Statue of Liberty, did a cruise around the island at night (beautiful pics), visited the Bronx Zoo, walked leisurely through Central Park, took in a Yankees Game at the New Stadium, shopped, went to FAO Schwatz, went to both the  David Letterman show and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon (you could see us on TV!) and experienced a little of New York with two Broadway shows – Chicago and Lion King.  All in all a great week with my parents and a good way to visit New York the first time around, not too rushed but managed to see many of the hot spots.  The nicest part was that we rented a condo which gave a good home base to experience the city from.  The trickiest part sometimes was the train – only when we went down the wrong side a few times and went the wrong direction or got on the express trains which didn’t stop at every stop.  Oopsy.  But I think I did pretty good nonetheless at navigation! 

Next days off will include some definite home time in Calgary and Sylvan and we have five glorious weeks off after working five over here this hitch.  My sister’s new baby should arrive so we’ll see a lot of her and my visiting parents, hopefully some time with the nieces and nephews at the zoo and Drumheller, another wedding celebration for Kevin & Stephanie, and relaxation in our home in Calgary which we dearly miss.  The only bummer is a trip for Kenz to Houston for work in the middle of her days off and a trip to San Ramon for both of us to attend a forum at the end of our days off.  At least we’ll get to travel on work time back to Africa and rip Chevron off of four days!  He He.  Next days off promise two weeks travelling around South Africa and I can hardly contain my excitement!  We will be joined by Carmen & Charlie (the Thurston’s) for the latter half which will be great.

Also I know, pictures, pictures…. I tried to upload but here it is too slow to effectively do that and I wasn’t home at all last hitch so I’ll post a few these days off.  No promises but I’ll try!

Thailand 2009 - Railey Beach & The End...

So after Steve and Katie took off to avoid the rain we settled in for some quiet time reading and relaxing poolside.  Poolside you ask when we are so close to beautiful beaches?  Well interestingly enough Troy and I are more "shade" people in an effort to protect our marshmallow white tender skin vs. laying in the sun soaking up rays.  We were lucky being one of the resorts who have their own pool area right next to the beach.  When I say beach, on our side of Railey (the East side) it is more like a mud flat / mangrove swamp.  When the tide is high it was all the way up to the sidewalk lapping at our feet around noon, and then by dinner time it recedes a huge way out leaving bare flats behind.  Railey West where the sand is has the same tidal effect and it's hard to imagine where all that water can go.  You can walk out on Railey East on a sidewalk quite a ways to and see all the longtail boats that are beached from the retreat of the tide.  At night they have a little shuttle bus to take people to and from the longtail boats that stick around a ways out where the water is still deep enough. 

The next day we decided to take a hike to Ton Sai beach just on the other side of the peninsula, where most of the limestone rock climbing that Railey is known for is co-ordinated.  There were many more "granola" lodges & people backpacking for cheap then where we were situated.  Good grief it was a 45 minute trek in sandals on a sketchy shale path up hill the majority of our way to cross the peninsula which once we were halfway there it was no turning back.  When we got to the other side we decided it prudent to take a boat (lazy & for safety) back to our beach.  Thankfully Troy was carrying some cash on his persons to get back over to Railey and by that time we were sweaty and in need of both lunch and a swim and capped the night off with the worst meal of the trip.  Do not order pizza in Thailand unless you see a wood fired oven or else you may get a mccains frozen pizza delivered to you!  Thankfully they serve these great little Thai pancakes all over Railey that you can fill with whatever you want from tuna to egg to fruit.  Now they aren't very healthy at all as they are basically deep fried in front of you on a wok, but when filled with banana and coated with nutella how can you say no for $1.20? 

Unfortunately the next morning the relaxing beachside end to our vacation came to a quick close with one last longtail boat ride back to Ao Nang beach to catch a cab to the Krabi airport for our flight back to Bangkok.  We enjoyed a lovely home cooked Kun Nid meal at Steve and Katie's, packed and prepared to say good-bye the next day.  Wednesday morning Troy and I had Kun Lek drive us to Tesco (the grocery store), where we were enthralled by their version of superstore.  After the cooking class we took and all the great Thai meals we wanted to pick up some supplies so we could cook them at home in Canada - in theory.  One last farewell lunch with Steve and Katie at the Sizzler (ha ha) and we were off to the airport to head back to Angola... Hopefully we'll be back in Thailand one day - maybe to work and travel more!

Thailand 2009 - Khao Sok National Park

On Friday morning we awoke and set off from Phuket to Khao Sok National Park - after a beautiful 3 hour drive through some beautiful scenery and an awesome lunch for $2 total by a street vendor we arrived.  Steve and Katie weren't due in from Bangkok until later that night so we had half a day free in the area to ourselves.  We checked into our "treehouse" resort - we stayed at a lodge where all the rooms were in the form of treehouses - ours being named after tarzan!  These cabins up in the trees were pretty neat - the tree looped through the room & our bathroom was roofless or outside on the edge of our cabin.  We even had a front balcony and a back walkway to our own private balcony perch.  We thought we'd be roughing it here, but our room had a computer and satellite TV in addition to the air conditioning!  I was glad for the bug nets too as there are some inhumanly large bug beasts in the forest.  We then set off for the afternoon by bicycle to explore the area.  We found this great little stand selling fruit smoothies for super cheap, took a dip in the creek with a monkey watching over us, and enjoyed a foot massage.  When Steve and Katie arrived we inspected their treehouse that ended up being the resorts "honeymoon" lodge.  It had it's own wooden bar area, a leopard pattern couch, and a beautiful outdoor bathroom with an amazing tub!  I knew one of the two of our groups was going to get that room for the stay and since Troy and I arrived first I thought we would be the lucky couple to honeymoon in the trees.  At first I was a little envious, but when their A/C unit shorted out on the Saturday night I was okay with our tarzan lodge after all! 

Saturday morning we decided to enjoy a day with a hike in the national park.  So we grabbed the map and set out for viewpoint #6, which was to be a swimming hole located at a spectacular gorge.  The first part of the walk was easy and enjoyable and well signed.  We never really did find point 1... but points 2 and 3 were easy to find.  After hitting point three with signage telling us ~2.8km to the next point we thought - ok another hour and we'll be there.  After that sign all that was posted were little brown arrows to mark the rather ambigous path we were now on.  The main path had been quite wide and easy to spot, but this path looked more like an animal track.  The little arrows gave us confidence we were on the right track, and we arrived at this amazingly tall complexly rooted tree where a couple of other hikers were sitting.  After some chit chat about elusive point 6 and their guide pointing the supposed way we continued onward - IN A CIRCLE!  40 minutes later we were right back at the huge tree going directly up it and it's roots and NOT the direction indicated by the guide!  So trudging along without any real confirmation that we were going the right way we went for about another half hour and then victory!  Another sign - we were at point 4, but still 1.5km away from elusive point 6!  Something tells me the signage wasn't very accurate on the distances so it being lunch time and us being tired we decided that a swim at the waterfall of point 4 was probably better than point 6 would ever be and it was settled.  Glorious to swim in such beautiful surroundings with fresh waterfall spring water rushing around.  We feed some of the little fish with banana pieces and set back off to camp.  On the way back I was leading the way and despite my most careful footing, I had a wipeout at the base of a steap slope into a muddy creek bed.  In hindsight the wipeout was kind of amusing as the group frantically called to me from higher up the hill to see if I banged my head and was okay.  So I rinsed off and we set out again minus a head injury and with only a couple bruises and one cut on my knee to show for my tumble.  The rest of the trip Troy thought it funny to repeatedly ask me if I remembered falling and what my name was - dork.

When we got out of the park we stopped at a little "English" pub and had the longest lunch ever - 2 hours.  They had the biggest menu of assorted strange items I've ever seen from Ostrich burgers to Italian, to Thai, to pub food.  You name it they had it - even crocodile!  We ordered such a weird mismash of stuff that we weren't surprised it took so long in hindsight.  Note to self:  All veggie burgers prepared English style are deepfried - seriously.  The wait gave the boys time to enjoy some beers and us to just relax and chat after our strenous hike.  That night Katie and I searched out for some traditional Thai foot massage which was excellent while the boys found a bar to enjoy a few wobbly pops again.  Being that it is a national park and quite quiet by the time we were ready for dinner, mostly everywhere had closed, so we enjoyed a nice late dinner at our lodge again before sadly heading to bed to set out the next morning our separate ways.  On a side note, every day I got up and took in a run on the national park roads.  Simply stunning to jog through limestone studded cliffs with fog intermingled throughout in an hauntingly eerie fashion that only seems like it could exist in a movie it's so surreal.  Jogging past rubber plantations with workers tapping their trees, past family farms where people live in small wooden houses and up a beautiful hill overwhich a few spectacular homes are built made me see how living there so close to the park would be like living in a slice of paradise.

Interestingly enough our resort was hosting the local monks for prayer and breakfast the next day as we were preparing to leave.  The monks subside soley on the good will donations of people in Thailand and the spread of food out for them was amazing!  The Thai idea of breakfast is very different from ours - it is the same types of food they eat for lunch so there was a full smorg of rice, noddles, thai dishes being enjoyed.  And we got to listen to the sounds of their chanting as we ate our eggs & toast.  Mr. Dean our driver then arrived to take us back to Krabi for our flights and we said goodbye to Khao Sok, piled in his 5 seater car w/o seatbelts, and set off.  Despite the fact we had all gotten some good sleep over the weekend, within 40 minutes we were all out like a light, heads nestled on pillows provided by Mr. Dean (professional drivers know their customers) to awaken in Krabi.  The only worry was when the car started acting up on the homestretch to Ao Nang beach.  Mr. Dean patted the dash and said it was just "tired" as it had already driven from Krabi to Phuket to Khao Sok and back to Krabi that day!  Talk about some serious mileage for Mr. Dean who then had another airport pick up after us!  I guess being a driver in Thailand can be rather lucrative.

We climbed into a longtail boat and set out for Railey beach which is only accessible by boat to enjoy an afternoon relaxing at our poolside resort with Steve and Katie before they flew out.  Unfortunately after lunch hit, it looked like a big storm was going to blow in so Steve and Katie climbed right back into another boat to head back to Krabi to catch their flight.  Turns out the Thai boat captains were hustling as the storm never hit our area at all and unfortunately they didn't get to enjoy 2 hours of relaxation by the pool that we did!

Thailand 2009 - Phuket Island

Monday afternoon we landed in Phuket and travelled via driver to the South of the island to a less touristy area called Kata Beach and hunkered down in our hotel.  After a little wandering we were picked up by yet another Toyota Commuter van that shuttled us and some other tourists to the Phuket FantaSea show.  It is this glitzy Thai version of "dinner theatre"/Cirque du Soleil/broadway musical.  Entertaining to say the least - the funniest part being the guys whose job it is to mop up elephant pee and pop during the show.  Call in the giant mop & squeedgie! 

The next morning we had another early morning pick up and took off for a day of sailing.  This day ended up being one of the best of our trip.  We arrived on board the Sakai piloted by a local Thai captain, chaperoned by Captain Mark the Aussie captain who owns the boat and entertains whilst sailing, and an excellent Thai cook.  There was me and Troy along with a French couple with a small little boy who was deadly cute.  We set off from the beautiful marina area for a day cruising the islands, caves, and hongs.  A hong is a cave "lake" that exists because the roof of the cave has collapsed in.  The ones we entered were only accessible via a cave entrance - some entrance points you can enter via a small boat or kayak if the tide level allows.  Neat stuff to go to a place where no people are and take in the stunning limestone scenery.  We visited a few caves and hongs that day getting to check out the sights from mangrove trees to tickle crabs!  The little guy love the visit to the pirate cave where rumor has it pirates buried treasure years ago.  There were tonnes of holes dug by the locals looking for the mysterious treasure.  Captain Mark told us that the Thai's have made a national pastime out of playing the lottery, praying to win the lottery, and searching for treasure!  Lunch on a secluded beach included just us and an impending rain storm!  We enjoyed a swim and a picnic of traditional Thai food with no one in sight.  The day had been filled with delicious fresh fruits, tempura veggies & wings, Thai sweets wrapped in packets of banana leaves, delicious coconut lemon muffins, and on and on...  I could handle having a Thai cook around all the time!  We sailed a bit of the way back to the pier, but with the crazy storm weather we maybe only sailed for about an hour or so of the day.  After being thoroughly soaked we headed back to the hotel to nurse my poor sunburned back.  Stupid sunscreen failed me as the heat there is so very intense as like here at work close to the equator and the reflection of the water must have amplified it.

Wednesday morning we awoke and had yet another driver pick us up to go North to the province of Phang-Nga for a three hour quadding trip.  It was just Troy and I alone with two locals taking a nice drive through rubber plantations, creeks, a trip to a waterfall & swimming area, and a visit through the local traditional village lifestyle.  I didn't realize how rubber trees are tapped by a local farmer each night, drain into a little cup, and accumulates for sale.  I wish I had also never smelled the rubber because it stinks like really bad breath! Naturally when we stopped in the village, the village crazy guy found me and sang a song.  Touching really, but all he wanted was some money and when we left he blew a whistle as we drove away - very strange!  After a long drive (2hrs) back to our hotel we enjoyed a much needed few hours when the sun was less intense in the beautiful torquoise waters of Thailand.

Thursday we hired a driver named Mr. Sam who not only had a sweet ride but was a certified local tour guide.  He took us to a couple of beautiful viewpoints in the South of the Island along with stops at some quieter beaches.  We then climbed a big hill in his SUV to the high point on the island on which they have built the "Big Buddha" that is literally BIG!  Built to honor the king the giant buddha is made of plaster and covered in white marble.  It is being built by Burmese laborors (cheap labor Mr. Sam said!), on donation funds alone, and is costing an insane amount of money as white marble is very expensive.  The view from the top was great and we learned a lot about Buddhism from Mr. Sam.  Our next stop was Wat Chalong which is the famous Wat on the island and Mr. Sam told us even more details about the local temple that resisted invasion and has some impressive history.  We then enjoyed lunch in Phuket town overlooking the island.  One of the best views of the trip to relax and enjoy the sights.  The afternoon wound down with a quick trip to the butterfly farm / insecterarium.  No butterflies landed on us this time, unlike in San Diego two years ago, but they were beautiful to see.  I could have done without the beetle samples though - ew!!!  The last stop of the day was one at the Gibbon Rehabilitation center where they take in Gibbons that have been poached from the wild and attempt to work toward release.  They had some sad stories of animals there - ones beaten, made to smoke, drink, all in the name of pleasing tourists for photos.  Since Gibbon possession is illegal in Thailand they take in any animals that are confiscated.  The list of animals that would never return to the wild was sad.  There are many Gibbons who have "lost their song" and have been treated so poorly that they can never be released.  On the upside they've had successful breeding pairs, and releases to the wild so the story is encouraging.  The whole sanctuary was not for profit and left us feeling a little sad at the cause of the Gibbons.  We spent our last night in Kata beach enjoying the street stores, making good deals at a market or two, and enjoying a delicious Italian meal which was more than welcome after the Thai food overload!

Friday morning we were picked up for our last weekend adventure with Steve and Katie in Khao Sok National Park...

Thailand 2009 - Chiang Mai

On Wednesday night we took off for Chiang Mai - a larger city in the North of Thailand about an hour's flight from Bangkok.  After checking into our sweet digs we set out to discover a bit about the night street life in the city.  I almost can't help but laugh when I hear groups of Thai ladies yelling from the bars to come in and party.  They aren't selective and will take men or women in their establishments to come and buy drinks.  We took a seat at a quiet Irish bar and had a few drinks to take the scene in.  We were hassled a bit by people trying to sell crap to tourists, many of them children and some of them quite young.  Now I know where the flower lady that used to roam the bars of Edmonton at night trying to sell flowers to guys to give to the lady they're with comes from - Thailand. 

The next morning we had arranged for a driver to pick us up and at 9 o'clock we set out to explore the Mae Sa Valley Loop which is a traditional loop around the area that showcases the highlights.  Our driver Aek started off the day by taking us to the Mae Sa Elephant Camp which was really neat.  We arrived in time to watch them get their baths, feed them a few bananas and then settled in for the show.  The Mahoots (their keepers) showcased their talents to us and we got to see everything from traditional elephant behaviors, to them playing soccer, to elephant painting (which we bought one), to a show of how their power was used previously when elephants were working animals logging and building structures.  We feed the greedy buggers lots of bananas and sugarcane which was really neat!  We visited the nursery and got manhandled by a few babies and snotted on too. 

Next stop was the Queen Sirikit Botanical Garden which showcased a lot of beautiful plants, flowers, scenery.  We bought these dried spicy strawberries from a local lady which ended up being one of the favorite strange flavors of the trip.  By this time we were famished and Aek took us to "tiger kingdom" for lunch where we ate lunch on the patio watching the tigers.  At the end Katie and I paid for the privelege to cuddle a few of the tigers.  I choose the medium tigers and she choose the babies.  For 15 minutes we got to go in the tiger cages and take some photos.  Pretty amazing to be so close to a wild animal like that.  No touching the face, but everywhere else they enjoyed the scratches.  I however am allergic to tigers as I discovered and experienced some itchiness for a bit but more than worth the $10 and the scratches to be so close to these animals!

After lunch we set out to see the hill tribes and mae sa waterfall.  The hill tribes is a sad part of Thai history as most of them are refugees and don't have any citizenship status.  We went to a complex where 5 tribes sold their goods & the long neck Karen tribe (Myanmar refugees) which is famous for putting gold rings around their necks to stretch them longer (actually just pushes their shoulders down).  Many of the books told of how the people have no rights, no citizenship, and live basically as squatters off the land.  By banding together they are hoping to get formal recognition from the government.  The sad part was that basically none of the "entry" fee they take for you to visit the location goes to the tribes and they rely mostly on purchase of their goods & payment for photos taken with them as income.  The cutest part were these two little guys on plastic tricycles barreling down an huge hill racing.  I can't believe they didn't wipe out at the speeds their plastic bikes hit.  So funny!  We then finished the afternoon off visiting the Mae Sa Waterfall which was a beautiful 10 tiered waterfall to which we made it almost all the way up.  There were a bunch of locals enjoying the day in the park and picnicing along with swimming.  By the end of it we were sweaty from the climb and it was time to head back to town for dinner and a quick wander around the Kalare night bazaar to haggle for knock-offs where Katie got a "coach" bag for a real good price.

The next day we went on a ziplining "Flight of the Gibbon" adventure through the rainforests north of Chiang Mai.  Simply amazing day.  They picked us up at 8am and we set out in a sketchy mini-van tourister vehicle for the rainforest.  After arriving at base camp we took a little stroll up a waterfall awaiting the return of our guides from their early morning tour.  We then got all strapped into our safety gear and harnesses, took in a short safety instruction mainly on how to use the brake, and drove up to the start point of the course.  When we arrived at the first platform location high in the treetops we could hear the Gibbons singing.  Truly incredible.  There is a mating pair in the forest where we were and when they are happy the Gibbons will sing.  Gibbons are highly endagered and most have been poached to extinction for use as "street animals" in Thailand.  Thus they are a protected species and it was just a privelage to hear them sing.  We then ziplined throughout the forest on 18 stations in total with over 2km of zipline strung up.  Exhilerating and crap your pants scary at first but worth the sore butts from the harnesses to fly from treetop to treetop like a Gibbon!  The brake was key that is for sure and we had some serious fun that day!  It was then time to return to town and take in dinner at the restaurant atop the hill in the city center of Chiang Mai famous for it's view.  Well we can't tell you much about the view as it rained our entire dinner almost!  We had to take a Songthaew (truck with benches in the back) to the restaurant which didn't have much traction on the hill up in the rain.  A few sketchy moments, but we made it to the top at last.  On the way home we had this crazy taxi driver that Katie spoke to in Thai and told them to get drugs to prevent babies!!!

That Saturday we were joined by our driver Aek again and we set out for Doi Suthep which is a famous Thai temple.  We climbed 306 stairs to the top, enjoyed touring the beautiful buildings, checking out the view, and just relaxing in the area.  The topper of the day came next when we visited Phuping Palace which is the Royal Family's residence in Chiang Mai province.  The grounds were amazing to behold and this was some of the best time sent on our trip.  Since no one was allowed to wear shorts in we all had to rent fisherman pants to cover our legs.  Thinking that those pants may be one of the best inventions ever - so roomy - perfect for a big meal!  I definitely could handle living in this simple yet beautiful palace!  After a quick lunch we set off down handicraft highway to take in the Thai silk factory, the umbrella making place, and the teak wood furniture crafting store.  I didn't appreciate how much work it is to get silk from that little worm and how much skill is required to hand weave garments.  The paper umbrellas are some of the most famous handicraft exports from Thailand and are beautiful.  It was neat to see how they harvested the bark of the Saa tree, treat it, make paper, and in turn make umbrellas which they then paint/decorate to be sold.  After that we jumped into the van and asked Aek to take us to the teak store.  He said it was very close and he wasn't lying - we drove about 10 feet down the wrong side of the highway and turned right into the parking lot of the teak factory.  Funny how Aek actually drove us there since the two stores were side by side!  They had some amazing pieces there - Steve found a bar he loved that was collapseable for his' parents cabin in NF & haggled with the lady.  Best deal for Steve, but he settled for taking photos and now is devising ways to have it copied instead of paying $2000!  Crafty Steve.

We then headed to Don Mueang Cave to finish off the day.  We clambered up a bunch of stairs to get to the entrance, acquired a flash light for $1 in case of emergency as the cave was well light and went on it.  It had some VERY steap stairs and we had to duck in a few places.  After much effort and a little nervous sweating by some we got to the bottom.  The cave's claim to fame are the following three sights - a giant stalactite (it was huge), a reclining buddha, and a supposedly preserved dinosaur footprint (that we never did find as the signs were in Thai)!  We joked a bit about them shutting off the lights, and Troy kidded that we would all be thankful for his $1 flashlight rental.  Ironically when we got out the monk & keeper turned off the lights in the cave and locked the door - apparently they had forgotten the two kids who went in after us!  Steve freaked out on their behalf and using Katie's skills with Thai they managed to communicate that there were still two pwople in the cave!!!  Steve's eyes were huge with disbelief for a while - that would have been frightening to say the least!  After they saved the day we decided to hike up to the viewpoint and discovered that apparently 300m is quite high to hike.  It took some time & sweat to get to the top but the view and the photo we took were worth it!  That night we went to the Saturday night market after dinner which was really neat to see local items of all sorts for sale.  Steve got his wish that day and we all climbed in a tuk-tuk (3 wheeled motorcycle like a rickshaw) built for two and headed back to the hotel.

Sunday afternoon Steve and Katie headed back to Bangkok and Troy and I decided to take in the zoo for a few hours.  This zoo had good reviews & they have two pandas on loan from China that just don't seem to want to have a baby.  They put the male on a slimming diet to make him more appealing, have shown videos of pandas mating to them, and all sorts of crazy stuff in the hopes they will mate and have a baby panda before they have to return the pair to China.  Apparently they must have done the deed at least once because the zoo is now on "pregnancy watch" and they had a picture of the action up on the wall for visitors to see!  Keep your fingers crossed for the Chiang Mai zoo.  It was the largest zoo I've ever been too and when the sign says 1140m to white tigers they mean it is REALLY a km away!  We got ourselves tuckered out fast and only saw 20 or so different animals.  We should have paid up for the tram that takes you around the zoo!  That night after a rough day on our feet we purused the Sunday Market which was right out front of our hotel and took up 10 blocks or so!  Huge market, but we managed to find the guy with chocolate covered fruit sticks for 50 cents each and this lady selling little fish waffles filled with fruit or chocolate delights!  Best pocket change spent ever as we went back to get waffle fish 3 times!  Sunday drew to a close and Monday morning found us up and at 'em heading to the airport for our flight to Phuket island along the Southwest coast of Thailand.