Saturday 19 November 2016

London

We have been in London, England for almost two months now.  We needed the first month to get oriented:  confirm Vern's new job, figure out where we wanted to live, find a new school for Cooper, etc.  Now we're living in our new flat in Putney, just south of the River Thames, trying to furnish it affordably (a reality check after selling everything in Calgary before we left on the trip...now we need a lot of that stuff again...!).


Tonight we went into Central London to see some of the fun Christmas lights in the popular shopping areas along Regent and Oxford Streets.  Very crowded, and very pretty:


A park near our house, where Vern likes to go running:



 Big Ben in the background, but Cooper loves the multi-colour LED public art on the other side of the Westminster Bridge!


Vern got his UK citizenship on Sept 28 (inherited from his mother), so he is now a dual Canadian/UK citizen:



Friday 12 August 2016

Home Sweet Home

Our favourite place in the world is our cottage, on Portage Lake, in Muskoka (Ontario, Canada).  It's good to be back here after 13+ months of travel around the globe!






To see pictures from our trip, click here


Thursday 4 August 2016

Europe

Carolyn.  We spent the last 6 weeks of our trip in Europe:

France, 3 weeks, June 17-July 9 (Paris, Provence, Nice);
Italy, 2 weeks, July 9-23 (Florence, Cinque Terre, Milan);
Germany, 1 week, July 23-31 (Berlin, Dusseldorf-area).

Back in our early planning days (more than a year before we even left Canada), we originally put Europe at the end of our itinerary, because we thought that after 11 months of traveling in countries that were culturally very different for us, it could help our “re-entry” process to visit a region more culturally familiar.

As our planning developed (still before we left Canada), we found ourselves with the new idea that we might move to Europe after our trip, to live and work for a few years before returning to Canada – so with this in mind, having Europe on our itinerary at the end of our trip was a good idea to “scout” possible locations that we could live…

In reality, we arrived in Europe somewhat exhausted from the previous 11 months.  We played tourist a bit, and enjoyed some classic sights that we had never visited before – but the truth is that we all feel a bit “saturated”.  We have been so lucky to experience so many new things on our travels…and now…it seems we are having trouble absorbing anything more…

Cooper summed this up well, regarding his birthday in July.  We were in Florence, Italy and we asked him the day before what he would like to do for his birthday.  His answer:  “I do NOT want to visit a museum, or historic site, or art gallery, or church!” (What did we do?  We all went to a local public swimming pool and enjoyed a great afternoon in the water).


Actually, the temperature in Florence was around 38-40 degrees, and we often felt as hot and uncomfortable there as we had felt in India.  Paris had been a welcome 19-20 degrees when we arrived in mid-June (unseasonably cool for them), and Germany was more comfortable 23-29 degrees.

For us, the best part about our time in Europe was that we got to reunite with people we knew! On five separate occasions, we met with friends and/or family.  We were much more excited about these precious personal interactions than to see anything more on the tourist track.  Looking forward to being back in Canada soon!


Toronto friends Loriann & Kevin, whom we met at their vacation villa in Tuscany!


Reuniting with Gisella & Fortunato, at their Tuscany farmhouse where we stayed 7 years ago - we kept in touch over the years, and they love Cooper.


Visiting cousins Bernie & Susan in Herne, Germany - where Vern's Dad was raised.


Meeting Vern's cousin Andrea -- 31 years since their last family reunion in Germany!


Dinner with twins Bianca & Bettina in Meschede, Germany -- friends whom we know from their annual hiking vacations in the Canadian Rockies.



To see more pictures from our trip so far, click here

Friday 29 July 2016

Catching up...we just added a Singapore blog entry, backdated to June 17.  Please scroll down if you'd like to read this one (sorted by date).

Friday 15 July 2016

Very sad to hear the terrible news coming from Nice, France.  So many innocent people, attacked senselessly.  Touches us deeply because we were just there July 4-9...

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Thursday 30 June 2016

We're in France now!

Will update the blog soon.  Still have some Vietnam blog thoughts to share...

Paris June 17-22
Southern France (Dordogne, Provence & Cote D'Azur) June 22-July 9



Puy L'Eveque (we stayed here for 6 nights)



To see more pictures from our trip so far, click here


Saturday 25 June 2016

Wow, THAT was stupid!

Vern.  Have you ever done anything really stupid?  I mean REALLY stupid.  The kind of OMG moment that makes your stomach bottom out, leaves you short of breath and then dredges up your entire vocabulary of four-letter words?  Oh, c’mon.  You know what I’m talking about. 

Over our journey, we as a family have subconsciously kept track of a few of those spectacular lapses of reason and/or common sense.   The good news is that only three of these stand out.  The bad news is that it was unanimously agreed that I own all of them.   In the hope of redemption, I have decided to share these incidents.  That, and the fact that if I don’t write about them, Carolyn or Cooper will, and they’ll seem much worse.


Idiotic Act #1 – Fight or Flight
Taken in isolation, this particular brain fart wouldn’t be a big deal.  I mean, everyone forgets to take restricted items out of their carry-on baggage occasionally.  But usually not when there has been a precedent.   Or two.

The first precedent came on day one, back in June 2015.  Cooper really wanted to bring his Swiss Army knife on the trip.   He hunted for weeks, and, after we’d sold almost everything we own and packed up the rest, it hadn’t turned up.  Imagine our surprise when it was expertly located by security at the Calgary Airport … in Cooper’s own backpack.  Luckily, all was not lost:  good friends bidding us farewell at the security checkpoint took the knife and mailed it to other friends in Toronto where we retrieved it a month later. 

So I had my warning.  Not enough of one, apparently, to prevent me from forgetting my own Swiss Army knife in my pack at the airport in the Galapagos Islands.  Again, luck was on our side:  I realized the mistake immediately after sending our suitcases through check-in.  It’s a tiny airport, and airline staff kindly walked me through security where I was able to place the knife in our checked luggage.

I don’t count that minor misdemeanour.  My true idiocy emerged at Rio International, where, accompanied by a feeling of déjà vu, the uncompromising security staff at the huge airport dug my knife out of my backpack thirty minutes before departure time.  Carolyn was not impressed.

Happily, I pulled off the save.  I sprinted back down the escalator where I found a bookstore and a café that could each spare me a small box.  I put the knife in the bookstore box, shredded the café box to use for padding, wrapped the whole thing up in packing tape donated by a friendly woman at check-in, and checked the knife.  It arrived safe and sound in Sao Paulo.   I will NEVER do that again.  I hope.



Idiotic Act #2 – Passport Control
We’d decided to spend our last few days in Brazil in the small resort town of Paraty, a six-hour bus ride from Rio.  The twenty-five minute cab ride from our hotel put us at the bus station a good half hour before departure.  It was during our leisurely check-in that I abruptly realized I had left my passport in the scanner at the hotel, where I’d copied it an hour before.  Carolyn was not impressed.

I did not want to leave my passport at the mercy of hotel staff, asking for it to be mailed on to Paraty.  Leaving my bags with Carolyn and Coop, I dashed out to the taxi queue where I found only one cab.  But man, did I find the RIGHT cab.  1)  The driver knew the hotel and the exact address.  No looking things up or asking for directions.  2) He appreciated the need to make the 50-minute return trip in less than half an hour.  3)  We mutually agreed that bothersome obstacles such as stop signs, no-passing lanes, and red traffic lights were more of a suggestion than legally binding rules of the road. 

The round-trip, including a mad dash through the hotel lobby to the computer with the scanner – to the surprise and alarm of some hotel staff and patrons – took 25 minutes.   It also included a big tip for my life-saving cabbie.


Idiotic Act #3 – Jumping to the Pump
I still don’t know how I managed this one.  We were making our way through northwest Argentina in our rental car, excitedly heading towards Aconcagua National Park, hoping for a short hike to the base of Aconcagua itself, the highest peak in South America.   As a rule of thumb while traveling, I like to keep the gas tank above half full.  You’re in unfamiliar territory, you never know when you’ll hit your next gas station, and there’s no guarantee that they’ll have gas.   We weren’t in a big rush, but when we pulled into the station and nobody emerged to fill our tank, I took it upon myself.   It was only after fueling up that one of the staff rushed over and explained in rapid Spanish that I had filled my gasoline-only tank with diesel.  Well, shit, that’s not good.   Carolyn was not impressed.  (Neither was I.)

I knew immediately that I couldn’t start the car, or diesel would get into the fuel line and possibly into the engine.   With the help of a couple of service station staff, we pushed the car into a parking spot and I considered my options, amongst much (well-deserved) verbal abuse from my wife.   The only possibility was to drain the tank and re-fill it with gasoline.  The critical drawback to this plan was that it was siesta time, and the town mechanic wouldn’t show for two to three hours.  And of course I’d have to pay the asking price.   To add insult to injury, the garage was less than 200 metres from the gas station – I could have pushed the car there myself were it not along the highway.  

But there was no real option.  Carolyn and Coop shacked up in a nearby restaurant beneath a ceiling fan, and I waited it out at the station.   It was almost five hours from the fatal fill-up to the time when we were back on the road, $120 poorer.   We arrived at Aconcagua too late to hike and had to content ourselves with a few pictures of the distant summit.  I will NEVER do that again.



Today is June 25, 2016, and we are down to the final six weeks of our trip.  This should mean that there is insufficient time for me to do anything quite as stupid as any of the above.  Wish me luck.



To see pictures from our trip so far, click here


Friday 17 June 2016

Singapore

Cooper. I hadn’t realized that Singapore was so small until we arrived. Confusingly, the country of Singapore is just one large city on an island, but it’s a city with a lot of cool stuff. Singapore was the most similar country we have visited to Canada on the whole trip so far, as it had small houses to huge skyscrapers, but it was still very different, very hot. We enjoyed the Jurong Bird Gardens with its assortment of colourful birds and shows, and we also loved the Future World exhibit at the Art & Science Museum...but we loved the Marina Bay Sands hotel even more!

We spent 2 nights at a friend’s place and 1 night at the amazing Marina Bay Sands hotel that has an infinity pool on the 57th floor rooftop! Looking over the city above or level with the surrounding skyscrapers while swimming in a pool is awesome; the infinity part was a really nice touch (until it broke). Our room was the fanciest one we’d had yet on the trip and one of my favourite trip quotes was made here: “Your hotel room is on the forty-first floor”. The curtains covering the spectacular view out of our window even opened automatically when we entered the room and could be closed and re-opened with the simple touch of a button. It was a little bit disconcerting actually when we entered the room to have something moving inside that’s not controlled by us, until we remember that it’s just the curtains opening themselves.


Across from the Marina Bay Sands hotel, there sits the symbol of the city/country of Singapore: the Merlion. It may be a strange word, but it’s exactly what it sounds like, a half mermaid, half lion creature. It has a constant stream of water spewing from its mouth into the ocean. Near here were lots of outdoor food markets, and I was surprised to see the local food was actually somewhat like Vietnam’s (I like the Vietnamese food better though).



In Singapore they have a fruit called a durian, but it is no ordinary fruit because it stinks so much. People love it though, because it’s tasty. However, because it smells a lot, there is a law that it is illegal to have possession of one of them on the public transit lines. Another thing that I found strange is that it’s illegal to chew any gum in public. Also, people don’t drink anything at all in public other than at restaurants. We weren’t told that there was a law against this, so we had our water bottles with us while we went along our day.



Thank you Singapore for your wonderfully smelly durians (and one of the best swimming pools ever!!!)


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Carolyn.  In addition to the excitement of being in a new country for the first time, I had been looking forward to Singapore for another reason:  I would be able to line dance here!

By now, I have been missing this part of my "normal" life.  I did have a chance to attend one line dance class in Cape Town, South Africa in March, and now the chance to attend a class in June - wow, only 2 classes in over a year - that's a far cry from the 6-7 per week that I used to attend or teach in Calgary!  Yes, some of my friends understand that I am going through withdrawal pains.

I had so much fun joining a class in Singapore!  Thank you to my line dancing friend and instructor, Philip Sobrielo (Singapore native whom I know from our annual Vegas line dancing event) for not only inviting me to his classes in Singapore, but also for hosting our family for two nights in his new apartment...you're awesome!








To see more pictures from our trip so far, click here


Wednesday 8 June 2016


Things I Carry Around the World

Cooper.  When we travel and meet new people, many ask, “How do you pack for a year?” and our answer is always the same, which is that we pack as if it’s for a week, and do laundry often. But…some things that I carry around the world are not what you would probably guess.

One of the weird things that I’m carrying in my suitcase are some pool tiles from Rio De Janiero, Brazil. Seven of them, to be more specific. I found them on the pool deck, already loose and I thought that they were pretty. I also have some coloured pop can tabs to be colourful, balloons for a surprise party, nine bendy-straws for some drinks (the number of straws is going up dramatically in Vietnam), and some shiny rocks from Madagascar.

I’m also carrying something that has given us trouble a few times at airports, but we always find a way to keep it with us: an empty glass bottle from Namibia. Don’t laugh. It’s not just a regular glass bottle, who would carry that around? It has curves and stuff designed into the glass, so it’s cool.

Oh, and I also have a rubber duck, which I found somewhere in India that I don’t remember…but there are almost never any bath tubs in places we are staying anyway. I also had a sheet of purple see-through plastic (I think it’s called cellophane) that I got in Brazil, which I sometimes hung up on apartment and hotel windows to cast purple shadows in my room. But just recently, my parents sadly made me throw this in the rubbish bin because it had faded so much it wasn’t purple anymore.


Actually, we have mailed home four packages of souvenirs and extra clothes, despite the fact that we told ourselves at the start of our trip not to buy many souvenirs over this year. Luckily for me (well, sort of), in this fourth souvenir package, I have sent home my pool tiles, my rocks, a marble, the glass bottle, a miniature toy bike, and three small wooden elephant keychains. Sure, it may make my bag a pound lighter, but it’s a little sad to be separated from these little things that make me happy (but I’m definitely keeping my balloons and straws with me, especially the rubber duck, though I don’t know why). 



To see a full list of what I carry around the world (clothes, entertainment, etc.), click or tap here: Things I Carry Around the World (Normal Stuff)




To see pictures from our trip so far, click or tap here: Trip Photo Album

Tuesday 31 May 2016

Foodie Corner: Street Food

Vern.  Hanoi, Vietnam

There are many places in the world in which food purchased from street stalls is bound to cause stomach issues, sometimes for both locals and tourists alike.   In Vietnam, however, the safe, simple and delicious dishes prepared and served by roadside vendors is one of the country’s highlights.
Vietnamese “street food” is so popular and so much a part of the culture that tour operators offer excursions focused entirely on sampling these local staples. 

As we’ve journeyed from south to north through the country, we’ve made a point of eating at street stalls almost daily.  It’s not just the food – the ambiance is part of the adventure as well.  You’ll normally sit on tiny little plastic stools at a low plastic table, fitting right in with the local crowd… with the possible exception that taller westerners either need to splay their knees or keep them up around their chin.  (A little pre-meal yoga stretching might not be a bad idea.)  It’s fun, it’s good and it’s cheap. 

“Pho”, the ubiquitous Vietnamese noodle soup, is considered by many to be the country’s national dish.  While it can be found in many upscale restaurants, street side establishments can have equally tasty varieties.  We discovered that pho in Saigon is generally different from pho in Hanoi.  We’ve been informed that the recipe for the broth is a guarded family secret, whether north or south.   Be sure to try both Pho Bo (beef) and Pho Ga (chicken). 

On a motorcycle tour of Saigon, we were introduced to Bhan Cuon, essentially a rice roll filled with ground pork, mushrooms and spices dipped in fish sauce with chilli peppers.  Delicious!



Today we tried the specialty of Hanoi:  Bun Cha.  This is served as a “some assembly required” noodle soup.  You’ll be given a bowl of broth containing vegetables and pork.  Fresh cilantro and mint are served on the side, along with a plate of soft vermicelli noodles.  Chopped garlic and chilli peppers are available to spice up your dish to your personal taste.

Any one of the above meals will cost you in the neighbourhood of 30,000 Vietnamese dong, which is about $1.50 US.   Filling your belly with tasty local cuisine for less than two bucks… it doesn’t get better than that.


Saturday 21 May 2016

Motorbikes in Vietnam!

Vern & Carolyn. Motorbikes, motorcycles, scooters - whatever you call them, they are everywhere, in all shapes and sizes.  Most foreign tourists are overwhelmed by them, even scared of them.  But because we have just spent a month in India's insane traffic, nothing here in Vietnam phases us!

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The population of Vietnam is about 92 million, and there are about 42 million motorbikes.

In Saigon, we were very happy to hop on a 4-hr motorbike tour of the city, and after seeing how easily the traffic flowed around each other, never really exceeding a steady 30 km/hr, we've now rented our own bike for 2 weeks in Hanoi (see photos below).


For your amusement, here is the review of the Saigon motorbike tour we wrote for Trip Advisor:




Superb:  Not Your Average Tour!

We were intrig
ued by the idea of a motorcycle tour – but we didn’t quite understand how it would work for our family of three (surely we wouldn't all be expected to ride the same bike?!).  Turns out it was fantastic!  

 Three motorbikes arrived with a driver/guide for each of us – and while it was at first a little disconcerting to watch our child being driven away with someone we had just met, it was quickly obvious that this experience was going to be great for all of us!

We chose the night tour (too hot during the day) and it was an evening of fabulous fun, learning, and feasting.

Guides Sunny, Kien and Harry were exceptional.  Each was knowledgeable, spoke English very well, and, most importantly, they were all enthusiastic and clearly enjoyed their work.  Safely mixing in with the throng of thousands of scooters and other motorcycles on the downtown streets of Saigon was magical.

The 4-hour tour offers a unique perspective of the city.  Not only did we visit landmarks, we sampled popular Vietnamese fare at three different street venues and even had the opportunity to prepare one of the dishes ourselves before we ate it. 

Another destination was Saigon’s flower market, and armed with a "cheat sheet" of key bargaining phrases in Vietnamese, we were given some money and had to negotiate a purchase (a very useful exercise!). We also spent time at the popular pedestrian mall, asking questions of our guides and interacting with the locals (primarily to give away the flowers we had acquired, appreciated by everyone).

We’ve raved to several fellow travelers about our experience, eager to refer more well-deserved business to Saigon Adventure.  But it seems many foreigners are reluctant to join the traffic chaos on the back of a motorbike.  We can assure you that at no point did we feel unsafe.  The drivers were very conservative within the flow of traffic, and we cruised through the streets at a relaxed pace.  Having said that, just being in the middle of it all was very invigorating and exciting, and we left our night tour with more energy than we started with.

If you are looking for an experience that goes beyond the ordinary, we highly recommend joining 
Saigon Adventure on one of their many tours!


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And now it's almost three weeks later in Hanoi, and we are independent (and careful) motorbike enthusiasts!  Although it is quite a lot less fun when it's raining...






Thursday 12 May 2016

Tourist AND Tourist Attraction

Carolyn. All the way through India, the locals - and specifically the domestic tourists viewing the same sites that we were visiting - were fascinated with Cooper.  It's as if he is a famous celebrity, so many people asked to take their photograph with him!  He is not only a tourist, but he is also a tourist attraction.  White skin is considered to be exotic, Cooper is usually the only white kid around, and the Indian people are not shy.  So say "cheese"!!

Sometimes Vern or I were also asked to be part of the photo, but we think they were only being polite - really, they only wanted Cooper.  After the group shots, they almost always asked for another photo with Cooper alone.

The funny thing is, we had to adjust our timing at most sites we would visit (to communicate to a waiting driver).  If we thought we might take half an hour to visit a certain temple, then we also added another 10 minutes for the extra time it would take for Cooper to pose in other people's pictures.  Should take an hour?  Better make that an hour and a quarter.

Great interactions result from this exchange of a few words and smiles on camera, and we almost always feel like we've made new friends - but the extra attention can be overwhelming.  Once or twice Coop said he didn't want to leave the hotel room because he didn't want to be hounded for photos anymore.  Poor little guy.  But honestly, whenever we were out there, he was always happy and willing to participate.

Nothing like this happened in South America or Africa.  Now we are in Vietnam.  The 'Cooper as celebrity tourist attraction' phenomenon has continued a little bit.  But nothing like it was in India.


 


  








Click here to see the rest of the pictures from our world trip so far: Trip Photo Album


Saturday 7 May 2016

India

Cooper. India is many things. You can say that it is crowded, it is beautiful, it’s dirty, it’s big, it’s polluted, and that is all true. For almost the whole trip, my parents have been telling me about India, and how crowded and different it is; but we arrived in Kerala (Cochin), and it was green, pretty, and clean. While there, we went on a beautiful 2 day house boating trip on the southern India river canals (called the Kerala backwaters) and after that we visited the tea plantations (which were even greener).…and then we went to Delhi.

In Delhi, we saw dogs and cows searching piles of garbage on the streets for food. Cows were everywhere! Cows just wandering the streets with cars avoiding them, nobody cared. There were three lanes on the road with six cars across! The vehicles are honking their horns non-stop, forcing us to cover our ears several times to avoid breaking our eardrums. Our first morning in Delhi, my dad and I wanted to go out for a morning run, when it wasn’t too hot yet (33 degrees C was a cool temperature), because it’s usually 43 – 45 degrees C in the afternoon. We got out of our hotel and looked down the road, but we couldn’t see the end of it because of the ‘smoke’ obscuring the view. The air didn’t smell of fire smoke, so we asked a local and they said it was pollution. Gross. We decided not to do our run because we didn’t want the pollution in our lungs.

One of my favourite things to do here is ride in a tuk-tuk: a sun protected motor tricycle. The tuk-tuks were everywhere, more than the cars. Tuk-tuks are very loud and are the biggest polluters. The drivers of the tuk-tuks know that in the tourists’ countries, they pay a lot more money for a taxi than they do in India, so when we ask for a tuk-tuk driver to take us 1 km, they say: “300 rupees”, which is 6 Canadian dollars. But, if a local asked to go the same 1 km, the driver would say: “40 rupees”. We always bargain them down to a reasonable(ish) price, which is still more than a local would pay. 


After Delhi, we went by train to Agra, the home of the Taj Mahal. While waiting for our train, we sat in the station and observed the locals’ favourite thing to do on the train: throw garbage out the window. That part was disgusting, but when we got on the train, it was clean and comfortable (and air conditioned). The next day we went to the Taj Mahal. It was amazing. Unfortunately for us, they were cleaning the big towers around the main building (called minarets), so scaffolding was blocking some of the view, but it was still beautiful. 


Khajuraho was a very nice place, with amazing temples from a thousand years ago that are preserved extremely well. The temples are completely covered with hundreds of detailed sculptures on the outside, and it was all chiseled by hand. We toured the temples with a guide, and he showed us how to meditate inside of the temples. I didn’t really like meditating, but I think my parents liked it. 





Varanasi is the place where Hindus come to die to stop the reincarnation process. To do so, most bodies are cremated and then put in the river, but some bodies are just wrapped in cloth and put in the river whole. The reason they are put in the river is because the Ganges River is the most holy river in all of India. Every night, thousands of candles are ‘donated’ to the river for a big (and loud) ceremony of chanting and bells. One night we attended the ceremony on land in the massive crowd, and another night in a boat on the river, where we set off candles with a New Zealand family (but the wind blew all of our candles upside-down). 




Our hotel (Alka Hotel) was in the ‘old city’ part of Varanasi, which is a no cars zone. It’s a maze of alleyways that are too small to fit cars and are filled with cows, dogs, small shops, and temples. Our hotel had a Ganges River view, so we saw all of the boats going by. We saw the burning Ghats, which is the place where the dead bodies are cremated in open bon-fires and the ashes of the bodies are thrown into the river. We couldn’t take pictures on land (to be respectful to the dead), but we could take pictures from the boat. Despite the fact that it is the dirtiest water I have ever seen, the locals bathe and wash themselves in it and drink it as well (mmm… dead body flavoured water!). Weirdly, people also throw their garbage in the river, which is a strange way to reward the river of its holiness. 




After our five nights in Varanasi, we were sad to leave and go back to Delhi. When back in Delhi, we went to a modern temple (unlike the old temples in Khajuraho). The temple was much, much bigger, and all of the carvings were made with modern, mechanical tools, yet it was all still very impressive. Also in the temple, we saw a display of Swaminaryan’s life (a boy who had no fear, and walked 12 000 km by foot without shoes in India), and the display was done by animatronics. It was cool, but I think that animatronics are really creepy. Part of the exhibit included a boat ride, and it felt like the ‘It’s a Small World’ ride in Disney World.

Today is our last day in India, and overnight we are flying to Vietnam, but before we leave, we are going to the toilet museum! I don’t know why or who thought of that, but we’ll see!


Click here to see the rest of the pictures from our world trip so far: Trip Photo Album

Monday 2 May 2016

Travel and Exercise

Vern.

Myth:  You get more exercise when you travel than in your day-to-day routine at home.

To be fair, this depends in part on your daily activities back home.  Carolyn and I were both certain that being on the road, day-in, day-out, would be a huge calorie burner.  The reality has been somewhat different:  getting from point A to B often involves a bus, train or plane, which equates to sitting on our collective butts for hours on end.  City walking tours have been great, as have the odd trekking sections of our journey.  We’ve sought out bicycle excursions, only to be foiled by lack of child-sized bikes.  My morning runs are not always possible while on the road:  I’ve been thwarted by climate, pollution, city geography and wildlife.  (The open areas around our safari camps in Botswana, for example, were extremely enticing for a nice, long run.  Until our guide pointed out that lions are attracted to moving prey, and we could hear them around camp.  That was the end of that.)  Carolyn had only a few weeks’ gym membership when we lived in Peru briefly, and Cooper gets nowhere near the amount of daily physical activity that a twelve-year old requires.

So we have come up with a different strategy.  We are indulging in fitness avoidance training, otherwise known as getting F.A.T.  Getting F.A.T. has proved far easier than other forms of activity we’ve engaged in over the years.  I have further found that my diet of new, rich exotic foods meshes perfectly with this training regimen. 

Some of you may have reservations as to this approach, but it builds character.  Pounds of it.  The end goal is to lose all remaining doubt and become uncommonly tough travelers.  (This is also known as L.A.R.D.B.U.T.T.)

At our current rate, in our remaining months on the road we are sure to continue getting F.A.T., which will result in L.A.R.D.B.U.T.T. for each of us.  Don’t look too closely at the pictures.

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