Dos Chinos on Dos Wheels

The clouds over Torres del Paine N.P.

2011-10-01T09:17:00.001+04:00

*Flashback*

We’re talking late 2010, we had rounded the southern most tip of the American continent and were on our way up north to take a much deserved break from traveling and spend two weeks with friends.

But, before that all we still had to visit the Chilean National Park of Torres del Paine. And what an awe-inspiring place it was. Absolutely one of the highlights of the trip! And one extra special thing, the CLOUDS! Have a look at this video (around the 22-second mark) and see those cloud formations! Stunning and gorgeous :)

(if you read this post through the mailing list or Facebook, you’ll have to go to our blog and view the video there)

Chile - Torres del Paine from Q on Vimeo.

Dance performance

2011-06-27T12:27:00.001+04:00

My niece Olivia was in a dance performance, here are some photos.

The full gallery is here.
(gosh, it’s nice to be taking photos again with an SLR…)

Music by the River

2011-06-26T07:20:00.001+04:00

Worst Couchsurfing experience. That is one of our most popular conversation topics with friends and family. Just to clarify we don’t “surf” nearly as much as it appears - maybe occasionally at most, i.e. about 5% for those of you engineers. But it’s true that I like to talk about surfing because they often make more memorable experiences than boutique hotels. This is one of the stories I told many times. I think it is time to share it on the blog with everyone.

It was along the Trans-America highway called Carretera Austral in Chile. Gorgeous scenery and weather that we couldn’t get enough of. We pulled into the city of Coyhaique in an early evening and found the house according to the address given by our Couchsurfing host, Javier.

To call it a house is an over-statement - it was actually still under construction with fences and pit holes everywhere. We were confused - maybe we were at wrong place? So we circled about the town, asked around, circled about some more and asked around some more. Fifteen minutes later we found ourselves back at the same spot. Luckily Javier answered our prayers and showed up a few minutes later: he indeed lived at the location, but in a little cabin by the riverside further into the property, the front of which would be developed into some hotel.

After tip-toeing around the construction site, we found the cabin hidden among trees. Really it was just a small bachelor pad. Besides the kitchen and bathroom, Javier’s drum set took up about 1/3 of the living space and his sleeping mattress another 1/3. It felt a little tight for all three of us, but “we will manage somehow”, I tried to comfort myself in my head.

To our annoyance, the cabin was also a bit dirty and messy, so five minutes later, I rolled my sleeves and started cleaning out the dishes in the sink. Since it was still early, Q and I decided to wander around the town before dinner. Javier told us he was off to meet up with two other Couchsurfing travellers. He mumbled something about they would set up a tent for camping, but I subconsciously ignored the trouble sign.

We came back at around 9 at night to a cabin full of travellers and backpacks and a smiling Javier. By the way, we met a total of four Javiers in South America: one in Paraguay, one in Chile, one in Uruguay and one in Colombia, and all of them have this perpetually-cheerful look – a bit like the Sri Lankans.

Anyways, I digress, back to the cabin, the five of us chatted away. We found out the other two travellers were German university girls who had been trekking in Patagonia for several months. We were thoroughly impressed with their perseverance, and secretly wish we were younger and could do something similar.

Anyway, I digress again. Then it was getting late and way too dark to set up any tent so I felt it was necessary to address “the elephant in the room”. “What is the sleeping arrangement for tonight, guys?” I asked.

A complete silence of uneasiness momentarily froze everyone. Then the smiley Javier started scratching his head as if the thought hasn’t occurred to him.

“Well, my bed is a stack of three mattresses. So we can pull the bottom two out,” Javier finally broke the silence.

“But where? There is no space.” I continued my practical questioning.

“We will move the drums to the storage hut next door.”

So at eleven at night, the five of us carried the drums away like pack of diligent ants. Actually not all fit in the hut, so some were left blocking the entrance to the cabin. Fire hazard I know, but it was the best we could do under the circumstances and we were all getting sleepy, so I saved my safety speech.

It was a miracle that the three mattresses fit in the floor space. In fact they filled the entire space with no gap in between. So there we were, like a row of piglets, lined up nicely across the cabin.

Five of us lining up like piglets.

After everyone settled and lay down, Javier turned off the ceiling light. Suddenly all my senses were so heightened. I felt I was holding my breath and I received the same vibe coming from the whole room of tired travellers. With the darkness blanketing us, it finally dawned on us that we were going to spend ONE WHOLE NIGHT IN A ROOM FULL OF STRANGERS. Just like that we all held our breaths, too afraid to fall asleep.

Then something truly magical happened.

Javier turned on his record player, and next thing we knew, mellow and soothing jazz music flew out of it. Our ears were the first to start breathing again. I got up to capture this moment. My eyes just melted when they made out the sight outside the window – a river dancing under the moonlight! And next my nose found the faint scent of the wooden cabin. Just like that, everything became rustic and everyone was peaceful. I will never forget that feeling of excitement and relief that night. Then I passed out before the first song was over.

The second day morning before leaving Javier’s house, we ensured the German girls in private that it was not a typical Couchsurfing experience, and they should not be deterred from trying it again.

Whether they did again or not, we don’t know. But we do know we tried Couchsurfing again and again since then, and treasure it every single time.

Soap Box Derby

2011-06-20T12:06:00.001+04:00

Last Saturday was the First Annual Nevada City Adult Soapbox Derby. The weather was great, the turnout was great, the race was exciting, and the soap boxes were spectacular! Here’s a short impression of the vehicles participating (or view the whole gallery here):

It was great fun! View the whole gallery here.

A Lousy-to-Sweet Moment in Peru

2011-06-20T10:25:00.003+04:00

One of my friends Tanya suggested that I should post a photo of me in my motorcycle riding outfit since she cannot imagine me looking like an astronaut. While looking for such a photo, I recalled a moment we had in Peru.

Spring season was in full swing while we were in Peru, which meant more days than not, it rained on-and-off and constantly all day, and this particular day was no exception. Needless to say we were in a foul mood, with our motorcycle gears getting heavier and heavier soaked in rain water. For a good portion of the day I sat in butt-freezing clothes since my gore-tex motorcycle pants fails in heavy rain.

Sometime in the mid-afternoon streaks of lightening started hitting on the road ahead. All fed up with the lousy weather, Q stopped Casa in the middle of nowhere without warning. He gestured me to get off the motorcycle, and proceeded to throw himself down by the roadside.

I could tell he was really pissed off because he wouldn’t even look at me. And I was just glad that it’s not because of us this time! Knowing better I left him alone for a short while and scouted around as one does when stranded in the middle of nowhere. Now come to think about it, I must have looked quite funny since I didn't remove any of my motorcycle gears because I was too wet to. I quickly spotted a shepherd sitting across the road not far from us. I walked up to him and noticed his sitting trick – unlike Q who was on a patch of wet grass, the shepherd sat comfortably on a dry shrub above the puddles.

I decided to try it out – it worked like a charm!! Walking back to a slightly-deflated Q, I showed him the new trick, and we both had a ball trying it out!

me in my full motorcycle gears including helmet, jacket with rain cover, gloves, pants and boots.

About half an hour of resting (if above qualifies) in the drizzle later, the dark clouds finally cleared somewhat, so we decided to continue. The weather remained just as wet and lousy for the rest of the day, but we somehow felt lighter.

So what do you think now, Tanya? Is our travelling still the ideal vacation you had in mind? :)

You would think it’s almost summer

2011-06-17T09:48:00.001+04:00

While Shu’s kicking back in Toronto with Family and Friends, I’m hanging low with my Pamily in Northern California, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada between Sacramento and Lake Tahoe. I’ve done my fair share of relaxing, but there are also a few things that need to be done with the bike, among which: new tires!

New tires beg to be driven, of course, and I was happy to take them out for a spin. I made a big loop via I-80 to Truckee, from there to SR-89 along the west side of Lake Tahoe, then west on SR-88, back north on SR-49. See the map:

View Larger Map

So first I-80, a freeway that heads into the hills. Good for getting rid of the silicone on the new tires. Then I switched to the old road, which is more quiet, more scenic, more windy and with quite a bit of history to it. It’s the Old U.S. Route 40, or Donner Pass Road.

And a gorgeous view of Donner Lake.

You would think summer has started, I mean, we’re halfway into June, but snow tells you otherwise.

Right turn at Truckee, on California State Route 89 towards the west side of Lake Tahoe. You could tell summer holidays had started, because it was busy on the roads and all the parking lots. No pictures there because of that, and I’ve already been there a few times. But just south of Lake Tahoe I took a small road to shortcut my road, and instantly I was alone again.

After SR-89 a right onto SR-88, it climbs until 2600m/8500 feet and got really cold as well! But stunning sceneries again.

Some back roads from SR-88 to SR-49, north again and back to Auburn. Can’t think of a better way to wear in my new tires!

Check out all the pics in the gallery.

My Vacation Glam

2011-06-14T05:57:00.002+04:00

It has been a while since I looked remotely nice. The following photo was taken after an overnight party with mosquitos in Venezuela about two months ago.

As mentioned in previous posting, we are taking a vacation after travelling for a year, with Q in California and me in Toronto. I was very excited to dress up and wear some make-up again – this time for a friend’s wedding. (Congrats, Sergio & Desirée!)

Me with friends at the wedding

Thanks to Tita Tess, Criana and a California thrift store for keeping my glam look at a grand total of $3.50! Sweet!

Good Morning, United States of America! You Smell Good!!

2011-06-06T11:01:00.001+04:00

Some of you have noticed from the photos that Q was getting darker and skinner from the hard work of motorcycling for 60,000 km. Well, worry not, because we have made it to the United States of America, home to meals that not only smell good but taste even better.

Above: Hello, bacon! Only if I can sing to you. Oh, how much I have missed you.

It seems that we have to learn to count calories again!

Above: Last stretch to pamily through gorgeous yet freezing northern California.

Special thanks to our friend Kiyo for hosting us in Los Angeles and the Andrews pamily for hosting us in northern California! Yes, after a year’s travelling, we are on vacation! Hooray!

From Dos Chinos on Dos Wheels to Dos Niños in a Van!

48 Chowhound Hours in Mexico

2011-05-30T10:11:00.001+04:00

Chowhound: Someone who strategizes carefully, passionately, and adventurously in deciding what and where to eat. For example, Q and I are chowhounds.

The truth was we did not know what to expect of Mexican food before entering the country. We were too annoyed by the rampant corruption and security issues plaguing the Central America, we were just happy to get a step closer to North America. And we were in for a surprise treat. Mexico was AMAZING with such different and fun flavours. Here is a documentary of the food we sampled in the first 48 hours of arriving in the country.

First day lunch at roadside booth – Slow-cooked beef stew with meat falling apart under fork.

First day dinner in San Cristobal de Las Casas – Q taking in a street hamburger for $3 with layers of ham, lean meat and bacon along with veggies.

Second day lunch in Municipal Market: pots of goodies waiting to be picked and enjoyed.

For the rest of the second day, we feasted on more of rich and exotic Mexican treats…

Above: the BEST roasted peanuts ever. Directly from the farmers.

Above: bean bread

Above: all sorted beans

Above: Fat-bottomed ants! My my!

Above: corn bread.

Above: Refreshing and tasty tacos.

Okay I know we totally pigged out, but I truly believe that Mexico could make anyone into a chowhound. Trust me, you simply cannot resist.

Thank you, Mexico. It’s been a great pleasure.

Done with South America!

2011-05-14T06:57:00.001+04:00

Eight and half months into our motorcycle journey in South America, we have finally decided that it is time to move on to a new pasture, namely Central and North America!

Obviously this marks a huge-majorly significant milestone in our travelling, so to celebrate, here is a high-level map of our route in South America for a sneak preview. Thanks to Q for compiling it! The detailed EveryTrail map will come soon, hopefully!

Right, wish us luck in the Central America – it’s a different jungle out here! More to come soon…

Venezuela: Zombie Cars

2011-04-28T09:47:00.001+04:00

After our two-week adventure in Venezuela, it feels so good to return to Colombia, where once again we feel peaceful and safe. Just about all the rumors/warnings we heard about Venezuela before our trip were confirmed during our trip: shockingly-cheap gas, messed-up currency exchange, widespread police corruption, constant military checkpoints, dysfunctional government, garbage pollution.. Sadly the list goes on.

I want to talk about the cheap gasoline first. Guess how shockingly cheap?

We paid BLOODY US 1.2 CENT PER LITRE!!! And this isn’t the cheaper gasoline either, it was for 95-octane premium. So for 10 litres of gas, it’s only 12 cents; 40 litres, barely half a dollar! Yes, drool on that math. At times I wish I could gulp down gasoline like Casa - it would have saved us loads.

While we enjoyed the almost-free gasoline, we also suffered its side effects. Traffic jams make a daily and constant hair-pulling exercise. Maximum filling limit has been set for cars at border towns, so it was common to spot dozens of car line-up over-spilling the gas stations.

Most annoyingly, thanks to lack of government regulations, any car with four wheels can be on the road, even those that should have died ages ago. I call them the Zombie Cars. They are the hell twins of Cuban vintage cars. The Zombie Cars are so poorly maintained that they often break down in the middle of roads, which, you guessed it, add to those frequent traffic jams.

The truth is that I found these Zombie Cars so disturbing yet fascinating. So I decided to dedicate the last day of our journey in Venezuela to taking pictures of some of them. It turned out to be such an easy task. These featured in the photo album are only a few of the many that we came across within a couple hours. Enjoy!

Oh, if you do recognize some of the car model, feel free to point them out.

We are very glad to have seen the controversial country with our own eyes, but one time in Venezuela is more than enough for a lifetime. My whole body let out a big sigh as we left these zombies and Venezuela behind. Can’t say I will miss you much.

How to Get Dirty in Colombia

2011-04-14T07:32:00.001+04:00

It doesn’t take much to get dirty in Colombia as long as there is plenty of rain and you are on the road. You see, day-long rain often causes landslides in the mountains. Here is how we did it. (If you cannot see the video link, click here.)

For me, pushing Casa forward was hugely rewarding – it’s amazing how great it feels to be of so little power help!

You Asked, Now We Answer! (part II – techie special)

2011-04-13T08:11:00.001+04:00

This following question came from a friend through Facebook, and once I started writing, it grew and grew, so I decided to make a separate post on it. I do like my gadgets, and this trip is no exception.
The post contains lots of links to product pages and Wikipedia-pages for reference.

WARNING: Nerd alert!

What technology do you use, what do you miss – Edwin

The center of our computing world at the moment is our trusty Sony VAIO-P788K in gold (a demo model we bought on eBay, so couldn’t be too picky ‘bout the color).

Yup, it’s that tiny
(picture courtesy of SonyInsider.com)

I love it over a Netbook since it’s smaller, has much better screen resolution (1600x768 on an 8” screen vs. a meager 1024x600 (10”) on most Netbooks) and has a Solid State Drive, which is less prone to physical errors on its drive. But since the HD is ‘only’ 64Gb, and also because we need a good place to backup all our photos. And don’t forget all our TV series:

Boston Legal, Scrubs, The Inbetweeners,
Dexter, House M.D. and Mythbusters
(pictures courtesy of IMDB.com)

and movies:

The World’s Fastest Indian Little Miss Sunshine, Delicatessen,
Kick-Ass, How To Train Your Dragon, and The Cove
(pictures courtesy of IMDB.com)

which we watch while on the road, To store all those we have a tiny Western Digital My Passport SE of 1Tb (which is almost full…).

We carry two cameras (not counting the one in the laptop and three in our two cellphones) with us. For those who know me a little, I love my cameras and usually carry more camera stuff with me on a trip than other stuff (my camera bag usually weighs in around 6-10kg). But since we had to weigh every gram for this trip, I forewent bringing my Canon 5D with either my 24mm f/1.4, 135mm f/2 or 24-105mm f/4 lens, I also left my Hasselblad at ‘home’. Instead we have two camera’s, the first is a Panasonic DMC-LX3 (from an online review: ‘The LX3 is a compact camera that photographers can get excited about’), with a wonderful 24mm f/2.0 wide angle lens, it’ll shoot RAW and you can tweak just about every setting that you can on a big DSLR.

Our Panasonic DMC-LX3
(picture courtesy of dcresource.com)

Then we also carry a Panasonic DMC-TS2, which is water-, dust- and shock-proof, which comes in handy on the back of the bike!

Panasonic DMC-TS2 – dustproof
(picture courtesy of ces-show.com)

We used to communicate on the bike through our Sena Bluetooth Communication headset SMH10, and loved it. It’s all we wanted from a comm-set, easy to use (2 buttons only), charged through USB, versatile (we can both listen to our own (Bluetooth) MP3-music).

Sena SMH10 Bluetooth communication headset
(picture courtesy of SenaBluetooth.com)

But unfortunately my helmet got nicked one day in Ushuaia, so were minus one. We also had a problem with the other headset, so that one is somewhere in the world waiting for repairs under warranty. So in the meantime we have to shout at each other and we’re also perfecting our hand signals and taps-on-my-shoulder techniques :)

I left my fancy cell phone in storage with the rest of the stuff of our house, partly because running less risk of being robbed when people see a fancy phone, and partly because it’s quite chunky. So instead I bought a ‘chinese’ phone instead. Cheaper, runs on a regular Nokia battery, can take 2 (!) sim cards, even has Bluetooth so I can use it with the comm-set on the bike and the speakers on the phone are LOUD! Puts the ones in the laptop to shame (really, I love the laptop, but the speakers are cr*p)!
Our other phone is almost dead, unfortunately. It’s a Nokia E71 we bought in China in 2009 after the original one was stolen.

Cellphones used as public phones, securely attached with a wire to a fixed object, I guess you can’t call it ‘mobile’ any more

We use our trusty Garmin GPS 60Csx, our second one, since the first ran out of steam earlier in our trip. The model is from 2006, so quite old, but she does the job just fine, is small, handy, and the screen is readable under direct sunlight. No fancy stuff on it, no touch screen, can’t play MP3’s on it, nor can I connect my cell phone. It doesn’t even say the direction, just points them on the screen, but that’s just fine.

Our GPS in Bolivia, showing an altitude of 4112m (~13,490ft) above sea level, we went over 4500m (~14,760ft) that day!

We also purchased two e-book readers, highly, highly recommended! It saves us from bringing tons of books with us. I purchased mine from the get-go, a Sony PRS-300, a very simple and cheap model, but it does the job: I can read books on it, the battery lasts forever, and it’s light. I got Shu hers (with the wonderful product name of 4FFF N618) in The Netherlands when the discount store Aldi had them on special, it’s fancier than mine, it has a touch screen, can play MP3’s, it even has Wi-Fi. But the battery life is on the short side (she charges every few days, I can do weeks without a recharge, and that’s not just because she reads more than I do…), and browsing the internet is not really recommended, let alone writing emails with it.

Sony PRS-300 e-book reader is nice and compact
(picture courtesy of pocket-lint.com)

What do I/we miss? We miss our comm-set right now. That was really convenient, being able to talk on the bike driving at any speed at the press of a button. I also loved using it to listen to music, Dance Department podcast especially (‘The Best Beats On The Go!’).

What else? A cable to hook up our laptop to a TV so we can watch our favorite TV shows and movies on the big screen (add to that a projector! So far we stayed with 4 friends on this trip who had projectors to show movies on, we are HOOKED!).
And maybe a second laptop, or even just a smartphone so we can check our emails at the same time. Now we have to ‘share’ the laptop!

So now you know, this is the tech-side of our trip!

Speaking of technology, during the first part of our trip from UAE to The Netherlands, on top of our regular motorcycle gear, we wore Hit-Air Airbags.

How the airbag system works (click for large version)
(picture courtesy of Hit-Air)

Nope, not kidding, actual airbags that you can wear like a jacket, or in our case a vest on top of our jacket.

In Iran wearing our (bright yellow!) airbag jackets

Due to the change in conditions in South America, we decided not to wear them here. But I will continue to wear them when back.

The Reason Why I Love Colombia

2011-04-12T08:05:00.001+04:00

….Well, it is one of the reasons! The Colombian delicacy is called hormiga culona, a fat-bottomed ant that is fried and eaten as snack or cooked with food. I was told that the ants grow for over a year before being picked from the earth.

In case you are curious about the taste, well, let me tell you, the head bit is quite crunchy and the bottom more meaty, so a nice mix. And it tastes quite earthy and woody – not that I had eaten either. Delicious and addictive. I can see why it’s a local favorite.

More on Colombia to follow… Yes, just like Brazil, we are finding it hard to move on from this amazing country.

The route and photos - Iran

2011-04-02T20:38:00.001+04:00

(if you receive this post through our mailing list or Facebook, then unfortunately it will not show the way it’s supposed to –> please visit our blog to view it!)

Our trip through Iran was short in time, but quite a bit in distance. We started of from Bandar Abbas, drove via Shiraz, visited Persepolis, bypassed both Esfehan and Tehran since we visited them in 2008 already! Then up to the Caspian Sea, almost hit Azerbaijan, headed west again, via Tabriz to the border with Turkey, close to Mount Ararat.

The route that we took:

Click this link to view the route plus the photos full screen.
(if you read the Trip Stats in the map above, it says we drove it in 2 days and 3 hours, that’s a wee bit optimistic, although maybe it’s counting actual driving time, not real time. the 2715km total distance seems correct)

Click here for the full screen slideshow of the just photos without the map.

Driving in Colombia

2011-03-29T08:03:00.001+04:00

Up until Colombia, we had happily survived six months of driving in South America. Then a week ago we hit the country, and then I realized all the time we were just prepped for Colombian driving – it is so refreshingly dangerous that it is truly an attraction in its own right.

They say when in Rome, do as the Romans do. So by the same logic, when in Colombia, drive as the Colombians do, I guess? This is Q safely executing one of my personal favorites of Colombian driving techniques.

In case you cannot tell, it was double-overtaking on the left shoulder. Yes, they drive on the right in Colombia. …at least it was done over a dotted central line!

Two recipes and Colombian music

2011-03-21T08:40:00.001+04:00

Got these two recipes when we celebrated Christmas and New Year’s with friends in Puerto Madryn, Argentina. The combination of the first recipe didn’t sound too appealing to me, but I tried it, and I had to admit, it is just amazing! Try it yourself (make sure you have a nice, ripe, preferably Filippino;), mango)!

Rucola, blue cheese and mango salad

Mix

Rucola leaves (use the stems for the next recipe)
Blue cheese(cut up)
Mango (ripe! in dices)

and drizzle with

olive oil

Rucola spread

Blend

Rucola stems
Cream or white cheese

and use as spread on

Garlic toast

(or add garlic to the mix instead and serve on bread or toast)

Enjoy those!

This piece of music was played in a salsa club in Cali, Colombia. The whole place shouted and sang with this song, very cool! The title ‘De Donde Vengo Yo’ roughly translates to ‘from where I come’, and it is a local Colombian song, celebrating their ‘Colombianism’ and the diversity of the Colombian people.

De Donde Vengo Yo - Choc Quib Town on Vimeo.

(if you are subscribed to our mailinglist, you won’t see the video above, click here to open it in your browser!)

If I were a Tour Guide for the Aliens

2011-03-18T17:56:00.001+04:00

If one day an extra-terrestrial life-form comes to me and asks for direction to the one natural site on this planet, I would most definitely point it to the Grand Canyon in the United States. For those of you who have been there, you can relate to the tremendous shock and awe power it had on me when I first cast my sight on it.

However if the alien asks for the one cultural site on earth, I wouldn’t know where to point it to, until a few days ago when I came across this place unexpectedly - “La Capilla del Hombre” (The Temple of Man) in Quito, Ecuador. The masterpiece is built to house paintings and sculptures created by Oswaldo Guayasamín.

The center of Guayasamín’s work is about the pain and sufferings of indigenous people, but he also draws attention to the warmth and hope for the families and loved ones. His work and words touched me deeply:

For the children that death took while playing,

For the men that weaken while working,

For the poor that fail while loving,

I will paint with the gun scream,

With the thunder potency and

With the eagerness of battle.

(Disclaimer: The above photos are results from google image search.)

I guess the Great Wall in China makes a pretty close competition too, but I feel that the Wall is like us humans flexing our muscles and making ourselves look bigger, whereas the Temple was like that Mona Lisa smile – if you really look into her eyes, the complexity and sincerity will instantly touch your soul and draw you in.

The site is beautifully set against the mountain range of Quito and Guayasamín’s house and burial site.

Not to mention that while in Quito, in addition to the Temple, the aliens can also sample some of the most delicious and rich hot chocolate! Yum, what a treat. You are welcome, E.T.!

The route and photos - UAE

2011-03-16T10:14:00.001+04:00

(if you receive this post through our mailing list (same for FaceBook probably), then unfortunately it will not show the way it’s supposed to –> please click here and visit the website to view it!)

We’ve had numerous requests to show you the route we have taken. We also received just as many requests to show more pictures of our trip! Here you are, combined into one! I’ve used the website Everytrail.com to upload our GPS tracks and photos, it has linked the both together and it shows you which route we’ve taken and shows the pictures that go with it!

We started our trip from our former home, the United Arab Emirates, we drove from Abu Dhabi via Dubai to Sharjah, where we took the ferry to cross to Iran. This particular post is quite small, future posts will include more routes and more pictures!

The route that we took:

Click this link to view the route plus the photos full screen.

Click here for the full screen slideshow of the just photos without the map.

(seeing that I’m testing this, please let me know your feedback! any problems, suggestions, etc. are most welcome!)

You Asked, Now We Answer! (part I)

2011-03-09T10:15:00.001+04:00

Thank you all for posting all your questions, we were swamped with them, both through our blog, mailing list (if you want to receive automatic updates when blog, mail us on this address) and through Facebook!

Tell us about the ARCHITECTURE... - Anne-Marie & Thijs-Jan
A lot of the architecture in South America is colonial, especially in Argentina what we noticed was the lay-out of the cities, all rectangular, with a square (typically called Plaza de Armas) in the middle. The east coast of Uruguay was quite different, it seemed to be this place where a lot of (Argentinian, it would seem, lots of expensive cars with Argentinian license plates driving around) money was. A lot of modern villa’s with a view of the ocean.

What's the average km you do on a day (and of course also curious to the max you did and the minimum) - Mike
We’ve been traveling for just over 9 months right now, we’ve done 41.000k, which roughly makes 150km on average a day. But of course we don’t drive every day, far from it. We spent 1 month in The Netherlands and Germany waiting for our flight to South America, did 3 weeks in Buenos Aires to learn Spanish, 2 weeks in China to visit a wedding.
I would say we do an average of 400km per day, max around 800km, least, dunno, 0, I guess!

Best and worst CouchSurfing experience – Kun
As you might know, we’re quite avid CouchSurfers, and we surf during this trip as well! One of the best experiences we had was a completely unexpected one in Iran! We had a flat tire in the middle of Iran and we ended up trying to find a new inner tube on a Friday, their rest day, ie all shops were closed and it took us quite a while. It also didn’t help that we didn’t speak any Farsi, but the very helpful and resourceful locals managed to find just about the only guy in town who spoke English, and he was able to help us find what we were looking for. In the end, he invited us to stay with him and we met every member of his family over a wonderful evening barbecue!

Worst? Dirty places, like, really really dirty. Don’t like those… it happened 4 times so far that Shu felt the place so dirty that she started to clean the place, that never happened in our house before!!

Best and worst foods – Kun
Talk about a difficult question, seeing that you *know* that we’re Chowhounds!
Off the top of my head…

Lahmacun in Turkey, wow!

Asado in Argentina. Rodizio in Brazil

Ceviche in Peru
(or know as Kinilaw in The Philippines)

Worst? Any food that makes either of us sick or go to the toilet in rapid succession several times a day. So far it only has happened twice, once to either of us.
Shu answers: “When we were in Greece, we stayed with a self-sufficient family with their own garden and animals and cheese and bread. We picked up some sardines and crabs from town. Together we had such an unique and delicious meal. Also I have discovered that homemade food are better than bought.”

Place where you would go back in a heart beat, and a place where you will not go back unless you were clubbed over the head and dragged back forcibly – Kun
Eastern Turkey was amazing! Italy has been and always be a favorite. I loved driving Carreterra Austral in Chile, several roads in Bolivia and Cuzco to Nazca in Peru. Too many to describe! The unpaved parts of Ruta 40 in Argentina were among the worst…
Shu answers: “Brazil and eastern Turkey. Oh, just day-dreaming about them brings big silly smiles to my face. And a few friends´ homes as well: a lovely renovated house in Germany, and a self-built house in Tucuman, Argentina. I would not want to go to the Caspian Sea coastline of Iran. The area was poorly developed and traffic was terrible and dangerous. Come to think about it. I find it such a turnoff to see bad development which are quickly and poorly done, and abandoned soon after. Such a waste of resources.”

Can you please relate for us 3 of the stupidest arguments you've had while on this epic trip of yours? Please also share any interesting injuries or afflictions – Sonya
Hehe… yeah, we’ve had our fair share of arguments… the ride’s not always smooth when you’re spending 24/7 with each other. One specific one that comes to mind is an argument we had whether or not to laminate copies of our passports… yup. We sink that low… I argued we should do it, Shu argued that the ZipLoc bags that we’re using work quite fine. By now, we have one set that’s still in a ZipLoc bag (which, ironically enough, I carry), and Shu carries the laminated one after hers got wet in the rain!
Injuries. I took it to try out Enduro riding with the son of friends of us in Argentina. I made a spectacular crash trying to go down a hill. The bike was fine, I really hurt my knee, was limping for 2 weeks.

Enduro riding in Argentina

Tell us more about bed bugs!! Did the person who infected you know they were infected? Do they hurt? How can we save ourselves from them? – Sonya
No bed bugs for me! Luckily! But Shu has had them thrice so far, once during a CouchSurfing experience and twice in a ‘hotel’. We would not know who gave it to us, Shu says they do hurt. How to save yourself from them? If you know, let us know, cos we obviously haven’t learnt how to know. The obvious: make sure the room you’re staying in is clean, if it looks dirty, all the bigger the chance of getting them.

What have you discovered on this trip that you didn't know about yourself or your partner? Good or bad – Sonya
Good: I had been thinking of doing a motorcycle trip like this, but one of the things that held me back was that I have zero technical knowledge. ‘What would I do if I have a breakdown in the middle of nowhere?’, was the question that held me back. But I learned to accept whatever happens, and that things will sort themselves out, with the creativity that I have, and that others have. That, and I did take it upon myself to learn at least a few technical things about the bike.

Replacing the front tire

Knowing what you know about what's involved with a trip like this, would you do it again? I guess you're doing it right now so that answers that... – Sonya
Yup, would do it again in a heartbeat. And if you’re thinking of doing it: JUST DO IT! It’s you who’s stopping yourself from going, no one else. It’s scary to do the first few steps, but it is SO worth it!!!

The rain, so worth it…

More answers to your questions will come soon! Keep sending us your questions!

Are You Ready for a Dirty Story?

2011-03-06T09:26:00.001+04:00

Quite honestly South America is a bit like most parts of Asia, with all sorts of toilet facilities that one can imagine. So every time when the nature calls while outside a touristy area, I often find myself debating whether I am ready for another possible surprise.

Today’s surprise came after a delicious lunch at a roadside food shed in a small Peruvian town. While Q paid for the bill, which was a whopping USD$ 6 for two complete lunches including soups and meat dishes - outrageous I know -my eyes quickly scanned the little roadside restaurant for any indication of a bathroom facility.

Definitely nothing obvious that I could see, but maybe in the back behind the shed? Hmm… I wonder if I should just cut my losses and go straight for the Shu-Pee device. Oh wait, but that’s at the motorcycle and I didn’t feel like running across a busy street just to get it. And holding out for a better spot isn’t an option either. Q already gave me heads-up on a long ride ahead. Hmm.

A couple minutes of cost-and-benefit analysis later, I find myself walking up to the lunch crew ladies by the big pots, and asked them if they had a bathroom. I was certain a small part of me was hoping the answer would be “no”.

Surprisingly somehow my question generated quite a bit of reaction from the ladies - I may even use the word “excitement”. Maybe it was because I was one of the few women who have lunch there? Just about all the diners were men when I was there except for me. Anyway, so one lady nodded “yes yes” so enthusiastically it was as if they have been waiting for this question the whole time! She gestured to the second lady who heard my question and was already acting on it. She quickly picked up a big bucket from somewhere, and scooped up some water from somewhere else with it. Then she signaled me to follow her to the back of the shed. Here it goes.

Aha, so there was a area shielded by a couple of weaved bamboo sheets. I was signaled to wait while the lady went in first.

I made out from the small cracks in the sheets that she first dumped the bucket of kitchen water down a what-looked-like a bare toilet seat, then she bent down and proceeded to wipe the seat’s rim clean with her bare hand!

At the moment I simply couldn’t believe what I was seeing. I called her that it was okay. She looked through the sheets and pointed up at the sky trying to tell me - what I believed was – that the toilet got dirty from rain.

It was such a humbling moment. All the time when I looked down on the lunch ladies for what little they had, I didn’t realize how they offer it all with all their hands with outmost kindness. For once in my life, I was grateful for a bare toilet seat.

Back on the road, the question did cross my sanitized mind whether the lady would wash her hands before tending to lunch duties. Then I told myself not to worry since there is no point. Well, at least until the next stop.

The Quest of Unsore Butts

2011-02-21T09:15:00.002+04:00

(Disclaimer: The following posting is rather long and may offend animal lovers. But it is fun and I took a great deal of effort documenting it, so please read.)

Q and I have managed to complete almost 40,000 kilometers on Casa – that’s our loyal motorcycle for those of you who are new to our blog. Many asked us,”Are your butts sore?” Well, it turned out both of us are quite butt-aware and were absolutely determined to keep them unsore.

The Exciting Beginning

We had three things done to our motorcycle to make the ride more comfortable while in Abu Dhabi.

First was to replace the original suspension with some Dutch custom super-duper one. I don’t remember how much it was, but it was a lot of money – as most Dutch things are.

Second was to firm up the underlying foam. We bought a cheap memory foam pillow, brought it to a local upholstery shop, and have it shaped to suit our needs. The goal was to raise the passenger seat a bit more so my vision is not just all Q’s helmet.

The last was to get ourselves a sheepskin buttpad, which commercially can cost a fortune. Now you may wonder, where does one go around find one in Abu Dhabi?! The answer was Stephan, who was an motorcycle expat living in UAE for decades, which meant he was very resourceful. Not only he patiently answered all our newbie questions, but provided us with the much-needed sheepskin. Ta-da, problem solved! Okay, the source of the sheepskin is still very mysterious but we knew better than asking questions.

Anyway, back to our butts. And we were ready for the motorcycle journey!

The Broken Pieces

For the first seven months, the sheepskin performed wonderfully and kept our butts perfectly comfortable through some pretty tough terrain. Come to think about it, maybe the expensive suspension has something to do with it too, but what do I know.

Then the rain season started and we failed to keep the sheepskin dry. A couple of times later the sheepskin started to tear apart, and soon we could no longer keep it on the seat. Eventually I picked up the pocket knife and cut it into two pieces, still hoping to salvage it for later.

Let’s just say we are clear now that in South America, there are definitely more rainy days than dry in the rain season. We kept the pieces of sheepskin in storage bag for most of past month.

Alternative Application

Then we came to the altiplano – 3,500+ m high planes in Bolivia. And boy, it was cold. I miscalculated with my clothes and was freezing on the back of motorcycle. I was so desperate for solution to the whole cold situation.

Should I buy some clothes? But I have plenty in storage! No.

Should I wrap a sleeping bag around me? Q said it would be too slippery. No.

Should I stuff newspaper in my jacket? The American dude we met in Buenos Aires did it and he did it. Well, not sure if I would get enough newspaper. Another no.

My mind raced through all our belongings. Eventually it occurred to me to stuff the now-two-pieces buttpad in my jacket: bigger one in the front and smaller on the back. Wah-lah!

I know how funny-looking my hairy chest looked. Go ahead and laugh, I don’t care, because I felt warm again, and that made heavenly difference on an eight-hour-ride through rain in high attitude. It was heavenly I tell you.

The Replacement

By now I have officially included the two-piece sheepskin as part of my outfit. So we started looking around for replacement sheepskin. After all, we are in a farming continent and the fat and furry sheep are everywhere, before in Bolivia and now in Peru.

While driving through a small town, we spotted shops with stock piles of sheepskins. We were quick to find a very thick (and smelly) one. The shop owner also made it a point in mentioning the sheep was recently slaughtered, so it is really fresh! What a bargain, only 6 soles (~US$ 2.5)!

Our enthusiasm quickly dimmed out as we discovered that what we bought was essentially thin and crispy rawhide with dirty fleece, which still needs to be cleaned and treated (“tanned” is the techincal word) before it becomes soft and supple leather. And tanning process is quite challenging when we are constantly on the road.

The Replacement – Take Two

By now we have a two-piece sheepskin and a rather-large and smelly sheep hide. Maybe a logical thing would be just to quit searching for a replacement and use what we have.

But then I saw a beautiful black sheepskin in a market stand. I won’t say it’s love at first sight but it was pretty close. 20 soles (~US$ 7) later, we have our third piece of sheepskin.

Next we found a leather workshop and was able to have the buttpad made out of the newly purchased sheepskin: basically cut to shape and attached with elastic straps.

On the way back from the workshop, I stuffed the third and newest sheepskin under my jacket to protect it from the rain. Take that, plastic surgery!

Honey, Do You Smell That?

So at the moment Q and I may have only two shirts each, we now have three sheepskins together. I guess that is a bit odd, but you can see how we got here.

One motorcycle, "two Chinese”, and three sheepskins. Anyway, if we smell funny the next time you see us, you know why.

Forty Kilometers of Dirt Road

2011-02-17T18:12:00.001+04:00

After getting ourselves spoilt rotten in Brazil, it is only natural that we were only a little worried and anxious to return to Bolivia. The memories of tough road condition and high-altitude sickness were still too fresh to recount. Well, like it or not, we found ourselves back at Bolivia’s door step.

And we were so not ready.

First, we were told at the border that contrary to our research information, the infamous “death trains” from the border town Quijarro to Santa Cruz no longer take motorcycle cargo. “The rules recently changed.” So they used to, but they don’t any more. Fantastic. So no train break for us, off the road we went.

The road to Santa Cruz turned out to be much better than originally informed: 640 km new and empty asphalt except for only some 40 km dirt road remaining.

We had an early start from San Jose heading to Santa Cruz on our second day in Bolivia, bearing in mind that this is raining season, and we were driving through parts of Pantanal, one of world’s biggest swamp, and a most beautiful one at it.

Off to an easy start…

Dirt road started…

Road condition quickly deteriorated with lorries and mud…

Then there were muddy puddles. Time for Q to shine…

And I enjoyed the pretty scenery…

Then there were rain showers: on and off, on and off… Quite refreshing!

And of course herds of cows were having their parade.

Just as the end of the dirt road drew close, tragedy striked: we hit a pothole and the impact broke off our right pannier (luggage case) frame…

Luck had it that the closest village didn’t have any electricity, so for the next half an hour, I had a little taste of what Casa bears every day: I sat and held the hefty right pannier on my right leg while Q tried to drive and look for soldering equipment.

Unfortunately there was no photo evidence of my heroic struggle against strong wind, protecting our pannier from getting blown off. But trust me, when we finally pulled into the village, I could tell everyone thought it was impressive.

The mechanic and Q managed to work through lunch and got the frame repaired.

Right after a quick lunch, we were back on the road where the pigs, cows, dogs, snakes, horses and vultures were only too happy to greet us!

Never underestimate how adventurous a trip in Bolivia can be. Even if it is only 40 km of dirt road.

The Fun Game of Border Crossing

2011-02-17T02:32:00.001+04:00

Are you a bit curious what the rules are for border crossing by and with a vehicle?

As it turned out, the principle is fairly straight-forward:

Step 1: The vehicle’s Rider and Passenger go through exit country’s immigration office and get exit stamps.

Step 2: Rider unregister/export the vehicle with exit country’s custom office.

Step 3: Both the Rider and Passenger go through entry country’s immigration office and get entry stamps.

Step 4: Rider register/import the vehicle with entry country’s custom office.

Simple enough? But of course that is just the principle, the actual procedures obviously vary from country to country, and often within the same country from border to border. Let’s not forget the actual execution of procedures would inevitably differ from day to day, officer to officer.

So just a few days ago we were reminded how something so straight-forward can be so exhausting. Here is a photo journal of our Brazil-Bolivia border crossing.

8:23 AM (Timer: 0:00) – Arriving at Brazil border. We made arrangements for this early arrival hoping for a quick exit.

Q quickly spotted a few other overland motorcycles already beat us to it. Turned out they were a group of Brazilians.

8:24 AM – Got shocked from the length of the line for immigration. Q said the line was three times longer previous day. Oh dear.

Is it me or the supposedly single-file line looked a bit chaotic?

9:08 AM (Timer: 44 minutes) Luckily the line moved reasonably fast, and we were done with the exit stamps (Step 1) and Q is onto exporting Casa (Step 2) at the Brazilian custom office. And what do you know, no line – hooray!

9:35 AM (Timer: 1 hour 11 minutes) Just luck has it we got a Custom officer who only typed with one finger at a time. Who knew it was at least ten times slower than with both hands? In the mean while, being exempted from this step, the Brazilian motorcycles were long gone, instead some bus parked way too close for Casa’s personal space.

9:38 AM Finally got our export paper and now to Bolivia. In this case, we were lucky that the two borders were only a few steps away from each other. We have seen some with an hour drive’s nothingness in between. Bye bye, Brazil!

We were a little surprised to have caught up with the Brazilians. I wondered why.

Also surprised to see that there were no lines at the Bolivian immigration.

9:47 AM It took less than ten minutes and it was done. I honestly don’t know what accounted for the difference on both sides. Oh, and for Bolivian standard, this is a very proper immigration office. The last one we had was on Paraguay-Bolivia border and we had to go around a farm-house-like place looking for someone who could stamp our passports.

9:57 AM It caught my attention that the money exchange “office” was set up right opposite immigration. Banks are not always available at borders, so there is a lucrative market for private business.

10:00 AM – The Brazilian bikers finished their paperwork and got their money exchanged.

10:12 AM Q finished his paperwork fairly smoothly, with only a few papers that needed to be copied. Minor details. I thought we were done with the border crossing.

Hola, Bolivia!

10:25 AM Not so fast. Q was told by the Custom officer that he had to get a “transit” pass from somewhere in town. Took us a few wrong turns to figure out the location. It turned out to be the police station.

See the sign on the door that says “Transito"? That’s where we get our paper.

Further down where the women stood in front of was a prison cell. I counted four people lying on its floor in a very cramp and smelly-looking space.

Guess who else were there? It’s our Brazilian friends!

Okay, I didn’t know exactly happened in that transito office, but I do know that the officer typed up some form for each vehicle by type writer, which by the way was almost as fast as the one-fingered computer typer earlier. Some senior police officer had to sign the forms. And we get the paper only if we pay for it first. Aha, here is the cat out of sleeve. We didn’t know if it’s corruption for sure, but we didn’t see any proof of service payment when we asked for it. Anyway, it’s only 50 Bolivianos (~5 euros), so we swallowed the funny taste and paid up.

11:23 AM Three hours later, we are finally on Bolivian road.

So it doesn’t matter how many times we have crossed borders with Casa, every time it will always play out differently. Luckily so far we have passed all the borders and games.

You Ask, We Answer!

2011-02-07T06:55:00.001+04:00

After eight months’ travelling, Q and I are feeling that *we* need to talk more. That means you, yes, YOU! Do you have any questions that you would like to ask us? Any topic goes: travelling, countries, ups, downs, finances, motorcycles, weather, emotions, couchsurfing, ...

Oh, and this is not us fishing for encouragement tokens. Not at all. Although they would make us pretty happy like you can’t imagine!

So talk to us, and we will talk back and maybe share some of the Q&As here!

Q wearing enhanced sunblock thanks to highway trucks.

Enchanted by Brazil: The Food Report

2011-02-07T06:41:00.001+04:00

“Ten days or less, we should be through Brazil”, so we thought before even entering into the country, and we couldn’t be more wrong. Three weeks later, we are still here in this amazing country.

Let’s start with food – of course, what else! Our eyes popped so wide open like you wouldn’t believe when we saw so many different veggies, spices, fish and meat choices, yes, so many that we wish we grew more eyes and stomachs!

Just like how the Brazilian official language (Portuguese) being different from the rest of South America’s (Spanish), the Brazilian cuisine has uniqueness written all of it too: deep-fried balls made with dried fish, delicious pizzas with four different toppings on one, ONE DOZEN juicy and fresh oysters for THREE DOLLARS, and don’t even get me started with those exotic fruit juices! It was the ultimate approval for our trip extension.

Midnight Snack: Fresh oysters!

So many choices, we are in fruit and juices heaven!

As much as beans and rice being the staple food in Brazil, you will find plenty of different cuisines. We had juicy steaks at a churrascaria (meat grill) that made us go wow in Porto Alegre, too much homemade seafood in Florianapolis (Thanks to Claudia!), sinful-tasty home-brewed beer in Curitiba (Thanks to Luis!), Shu-100%-approved Chinese food in Sao Paolo (Thanks to Marisa!), tasty local fish in Corumba, and dined in plenty great per-kilo (N.B. pay-by-food-weight) restaurants.

Menu from Churrastaria – the actuals look better!

Q loving the artisanal beer!

Honestly I am not doing Brazil justice by only mentioning the food and drinks without going into the details of their flavors and textures, which made us salivate non-stop for the past few weeks – Very lame but true!

For food alone, Brazil is a country well-worth returning to over and over. Not to mention the drop-dead-gorgeous sceneries and tropically-warm people. (More on them later.)

Brazil, Brazil, Brazil. We will dream of you.

And The Answer Is… (Warning: You Probably Will Not Like It!)

2011-02-03T05:48:00.001+04:00

Before giving the answer to the quiz question posted earlier, I need to explain a traditional Brazilian kids’ favorite sports – "cerol”. It is a form of kite fighting, involving coating the kite lines with tiny broken glasses stuck on with glue, so they can cutting other kite lines. It was rather harmless to the kite-flyers when they wear gloves to fly the kites.

(photo for illustration only)

But you probably guessed it, cerol kites are extremely dangerous for motorcycles on the roads, with broken kite strings end up dangled in trees along the roads. After causing some serious accidents to motorcycle riders, cerol has been banned by the Brazilian government. But it is still quite popular in country side, so accidents are still reported every year. Luckily we were warned by our Couchsurfing hosts in Sao Paolo, and were told to get our very own anti-cerol device: it is mounted in the front of the motorcycle, and the hook on the top can cut off any dangerous cerol lines. So there you go, it is a string-cutting safety device.

Now not only we feel safer travelling with our new accessory, but it will serve as a souvenir from Brazil!

Sons of Maria

2011-01-31T06:59:00.001+04:00

Our couchsurfing host Maria rushed out of her apartment building and greeted us with warm hugs. Already her smile made us feel a lot more at ease after a long day of travelling. It is Rio de Janeiro after all, a city with high-crime reputation that made us quite a bit nervous. After all we have received enough warnings from fellow Brazilians.

Maria introduced us to her mother first, then later on her younger son David who was in his early-twenties and was surprisingly shy around strangers. During a later conversation, Maria mentioned that both her sons were professional ballet dancers. “Oh yeah, I read in your Couchsurfing profile that you dance samba very well!”I said to Maria,”So it runs in the family!” Maria heard me and just smiled.

The second day morning while having breakfast, we heard Maria’s mother singing to songs played in the radio. Such a beautiful voice to a body weakening by cancer. I commented to Maria and was told that Mother had been singing in a choir up until last year even through several years’ cancer treatment. Once again I commented,”Looks like plenty artistic genes in your family!” Again Maria just smiled.

Later that day the topic of Maria’s sons’ performances came up again while we were in the kitchen. While showing me photos of various performances, Maria casually mentioned me that both her sons were actually adopted. David at birth, and the older son Javier much later. “How?” My curiosity never ends.

Maria carried on flipping the photo album and pointing here and there while answering:“Well, David and Javier became friends when they studied in the same dance school since they were boys. Many years later, Javier’s family found out that he was gay and kicked him out on the street, so he had been staying with different friends. For a while he was staying at my home and we got along great. The little while turned to a longer time period. Then one day Javier asked me if he can invite some friends over. Of course.”

“Then he asked,’When I invite my friends, instead of saying that it is at my friend’s mom’s house, can I just say it is at my mom’s house?’”

“That was a few years’ back, and we have been a family since then. Now Javier wears a tattoo that says Son of Maria.”

When Maria finished telling the story, I saw through my teary eyes that her hands were still caressing through the photos. It was with such tenderness and pride.

Rio de Janeiro is indeed what people call “Cidade Maravilhosa”, Marvelous City. It gives you what you are looking for if you look hard enough. Some times hope, sometimes fear, and sometimes even a mother.

Fine Print: The names in the story are changed to respect family’s privacy, but this is a real story.

Quiz Question

2011-01-31T02:16:00.001+04:00

Some say the following accessory is for back-scratching. Some say it is for fishing. What do you think it is for? I will give you a clue. It is commonly used by motorcycles in Brazil!

Live from Uruguay

2011-01-20T03:49:00.003+04:00

The photo album of Uruguay part of the journey is here. The highlight was undoubtedly the amazing drum performance by Nico Arnicho. We thank our Couchsurfing host Javi for this wonderful tip! Check out this video that Q took. (If you cannot see the video link, click here.)

Personally I thought Uruguay was a small country with strong beats that should not be missed.

Now onto Brasil!

A is for Asado in Argentina

2011-01-19T23:04:00.001+04:00

Now that we are heading north, we have left the gaucho (cowboy) country behind. However I feel compelled to blog about one of the most essential cultural signatures in Argentina: Asado.

Asado is essentially barbeque, but done in a very patient and artful way. A typical asado consists of many different types of meats, besides the common steaks, there are often interesting parts like intestines, sweet bread, blood sausages - all the same delicious in different ways. A good asado is served over the course of several hours, with the meat selection getting increasingly better and more delicious.

Just about every Argentinian man takes extreme pride in his techniques in making the perfect BBQ - it may cause a heated debate as to who is the best asador. But there is no doubt in my mind that the best BBQ is in Argentina.

We have had the honour of joining a few and it never failed to impress. Here are some great asado moments. (Sorry to make you drool, dad!)

(Courtesy of Juan Pablo in Puerto Madryn)

(Courtesy of Claudia y German in Tucuman)

(Courtesy of Bas y Sas in Buenos Aires)

There, A is for Asado. Now you know the most single important cultural fact about Argentina. If only if you can taste the meat yourself. So tender, so delicious…

“Where Are You From?”

2011-01-19T19:31:00.001+04:00

It is one of the most frequent questions we get from the curious strangers, and it is the one we dread answering most. Some days I feel like getting the following laminated and stick it to our foreheads.

Driver: Half-Filipino Dutch.

Passenger: Chinese Canadian.

Motorcycle: UAE-registered German.

Bet you can’t imagine all the questions that answer would invite, and very quickly instead of a 10-second speed chat, we are telling the whole dozen-page story. Sometimes hearing myself makes me feel like a broken record player, telling bits and pieces about ourselves and trying not to be too confusing at the same time.

Often we just reduce our answers to single words, out of sheer laziness. Mine is “Chinese” and Q’s is “Holland”. But with a slightly more educated or observant crowd, Q gets himself into trouble with the simplified answer. “You don’t look very Dutch.”

Crap. Here goes the broken record again. I guess at the end of it, we are eager to see those satisfied nods because we too can be curious sometimes.

So where are you from?

The Switch

2010-12-29T20:36:00.001+04:00

I knew it would happen. I just didn’t know when.

As you may have noticed in my recent postings, I missed home a little too much, in fact I couldn’t stop dreaming about it. I really really missed home. All the strange environments I wake up to every day morning, always different and strange, sometimes clean, sometimes dirty or smelly, even worse buggy. The thought of home grew stronger and stronger, and I am nowhere near it. It was getting too much, and I knew I had to stop, but I didn’t know how.

I was so homesick that I couldn’t even make up my mind as to what to do for the next few months. Should we stay in South America, or perhaps go to another part of world, or settle down somewhere for a while? I couldn’t decide because what I wanted was a home. I began to feel like a baby who can’t take its mind off the unreachable cookie jar.

Then I sat myself down, and asked myself what does it take to stop obsessing about home. I don’t know about your conscious, but mine isn’t always available when I call. Eventually it came to me. Somewhere along the way, I forgot to look at what we have and simply appreciate them. We are having a once-in-a-life time and doing the things that we have been dreamt to do for ages.

So I switched myself back on, re-appreciating my two sets of clothes and Casa. And you know what, my home sickness is gone. Just like that. Now more than ever, I am looking forward to explore more of South America in the coming few months with Q, Casa, and everything else we have with us.

Speaking of which, you may wonder where Q was in this whole picture. Well, he was the silent supporter. Don´t we all love one. I love mine.

Happy New Year, Everyone! Enjoy your home for us. :)(:

(Photos from our Christmas celebration with friends in Puerto Madryn, Argentina. Muchas gracias, Gaby, Ber y la familia!)

Roadside Stops

2010-12-12T19:38:00.001+04:00

There is a reason why at some of the road-side stops, I only walk around and stretch my legs, but refuse to drink or eat, even if I could certainly use a bit of both. Because it is a 10-step process to get anything in my mouth.

1. Release right-hand glove velcro straps (2).

2. Release left-hand glove velcro straps (2).

3. Pull out sunglasses.

4. Release motorcycle helmet buckle.

5. Pull off helmet.

6. Stuff the sunglass in one of the gloves, and stuff gloves in helmet so they don’t get blown away or misplaced.

7. Find a flat surface (ground usually) and put helmet on it so it doesn’t get blown off.

8. Pull off balaclava off face. (Before you panick, the face below is not mine, but of a fellow overland motorcyclist.)

9. Feed self with water and snacks.

10. Reverse steps 1-8 to get ready for the ride again.

I won’t bother you with the steps involved in dealing with nature calls.

That is why sometimes I try feed myself chocolate this way. Enjoy your ginger-bread cookies, everyone!!

End of The World at Last

2010-12-12T07:56:00.001+04:00

Six months into our travelling, we have reached a significant milestone of our travelling – Ushuaia, Argentina, known as “El Fin Del Mundo” (The End of the World). For situating at ~54 degree south, it is the most southern city in the world, and we are standing at it!!

To be honest, Ushuaia didn’t quite feel like the end of the world with some more islands scattered to its south. But it is such a stunningly beautiful place, I am more than happy to live with this end-of-the-world memory.

So we should be jumping up and down at this highlight. Except there is something missing, or rather we are missing something. Home. Not just a Casa with two wheels and two sets of clothes. Our purple sofa. Our worn-out coffee-table. Our sharp knives. Half a year of bed-hopping (ha!) later, we have a serious case of home-sickness. So now you can guess what my new year’s resolution is.

Happy preparation for the holiday season, everyone! :)

Selected Views for You

2010-11-23T04:13:00.001+04:00

When we travel with Casa, more than half of the time my view is the back of Q’s helmet, less than half of the time it is completely dark because I tend to doze off during the boring parts. Only occasionally – as occasional as one spots a Cindy Crawford I suppose - we come across some views that are so gorgeous that they are stuck in our minds. Here are some to share with you:

We have just ridden through the Lake District of Argentina – another wonderful sight for all of us:

Now on the front porch of the mystical Patagonia, and see what greeted us:

And for the first time in South America, we know exactly where we are heading to for the next two weeks! This is very exciting, and I shall share with you once we reach THERE!

Our Luck in God’s Office

2010-11-10T20:21:00.004+04:00

“People in the province are fond of saying, ‘God is everywhere, but his office is in Santiago.’” - Lonely Planet guidebook

We have been very lucky during our travelling so far: whenever something goes wrong with Casa, help always come along our way very quickly. This time, we were so lucky that we already had the help before we knew about the problem.

This occurred last Friday. Just as we pulled into Santiago de Chile city, Casa started making some really loud and disturbing clunky sound. We had to pull an emergency stop off a highway and take a closer look.

It turned out that Casa’s rear wheel ball bearing was completely shot. So there we were, in the middle of nowhere, stuck again. Fortunately we had pre-arranged couchsurfing for Santiago, and our host Javier was quick to rescue. He called the local BMW shop, and was able to arrange for a pickup transportation for Casa.

When we finally dragged our tired and hungry bodies to Javier’s house later that night, you can imagine the look on our faces when we were immediately greeted with delicious lentil stew and carrot rice. Talking about experiences that money cannot buy. (Sorry I was too eager to eat and forgot to take photos!)

Later on that weekend, fearing that we will be stuck in Santiago for a while for spare parts, I sent out a few more couchsurf requests, and received overwhelmingly positive responses. Thank you, Santiago hosts!

The truth is that more and more, our travelling is less and less about tracking from point A to point B. The most interesting experiences often happen after the most frustrating incidents. In addition to tourist attractions, our journey are landmarked by friendly faces and warm families. It is incredible.

Stuck as we are, we are more than happy to count our lucky stars in God’s office. Thanks, dude!

Finally a big THANK YOU to Chile Moto Rent on their kind offer of test-driving their BMW F650GS. Good luck with your business!!

Good Morning from the Pacific Ocean!

2010-11-03T14:41:00.001+04:00

It took us a while to get back on the road since returning from China/Toronto, but we finally managed. And here we are in northern Chile, riding down south along the Pacific Ocean coast line. Personally I am loving the dramatic and gorgeous scenery of mountain-meets-ocean!

Oh, and I have always wanted an opportunity to say this: we ate yummy CHILI in CHILLY CHILE!

One Hundred Hours for Two

2010-10-21T21:44:00.001+04:00

Dear family and friends, sorry for the lack of postings in the past few weeks, for Q and I have made a side trip to attend my cousin’s wedding in China. And since we started in South America, the travelling itself was already an epic.

First we bid farewell to Casa and stored our motorcycle travel equipment with the Incredible Two-cumanos Germán y Claudia (more on them later), and started with a 15 hour bus ride from Tucumán in northwestern Argentina to its capital Buenos Aires. Even though the bus ride was long, it was well-serviced, with dinner consisting of a snack, a cold plate of several small salads, and a hot plate of main dish and sides. The fully-inclined sleeper seats also spoiled us for the flights to come.

Our friend Claudia saw us off at the Tucumán bus station.

Us enjoying our dinner on the sleeper bus.

The flight from Buenos Aires to Toronto was about 13 hours including a stopover in Santiago de Chile and a fly-over of a live volcano. I have to say the Chilean Andes looked fantastic and I can’t wait till we get there with Casa. The 9 hours stopover in Toronto passed by quickly thanks to a dimsum brunch with our friends in Toronto (Thanks Cri for making it possible!)

Gorgeous view of Santiago de Chile

Thanks goodness that the 12 hours flight from Toronto to Beijing was rather uneventful, and 3 hours layover later I found myself dreamwalking onto yet another one-hour flight to Jinan, my home city and our final travel destination.

So we travelled for over 100 hours in return for a wedding, which lasted about two hours. However the family gathering made it worth every minute of our travelling. Congrats to my cousin Da and his wife Yi for their lovely wedding – dozens Argentinians have admired your wedding photos!!

Thankfully the return journey was somewhat less painful as we stopped over in Toronto for several days and Buenos Aires for a couple days. (Thanks to TH & Ron y Bas & Saskia for accommodating us!)

To all our dear family and friends: We always think of you and talk about you everywhere we travel. You travel with us.

Just Can’t Get Enough of Bolivia

2010-09-28T08:11:00.001+04:00

After 11 days in southern Bolivia, we feel we barely scratched its surface. But what we had was an experience of a lifetime. EVERY DAY was tough, memorable and eventful in Bolivia – it felt like an adventure traveller’s dream and nightmare at the same time. Here are some made-us-stronger moments:

Border crossing through the Gran Chaco. We battled endless dust, sand, trucks, construction. Q and Casa had terribly hard work from the get-go.

Camping in a ranch under racks of fresh meat, which were taken away for dinner by the time I took the following photo. The whole night we were surrounded by the farm residents like dogs, pigs, chickens, cats, goats, sheep – you name it.

It was no easy matter to claim to have visited Potosi. Situated at 4000+ meters, it is as one of the world’s highest and most dramatic cities. After feeling constant nausea and headache for three days, I have added “suffering high altitude sickness” to the list of must-dos for adventure travellers.

Visiting Uyuni salt flat. Just like Iguazu Falls, this is another top attractions of South America. And yes it was salt – I can taste to that! Click here for the photo album.

Camping on the salt flat was not easy with gusting wind and dropping temperature, but it was most rewarding.

Watching moon rising on the salt flat. It was another magical moment on our trip. Opposite to fading sun, we witnessed the moon appearing in the eastern horizon so modestly and peacefully.

Riding through beautiful Tupiza canyons.

Savoring llama chops lunch platter for 1 Euro, including corn, veggie salad and various potato roots. And in case you are wondering, llama meat tasted GREAT. It has a much leaner texture than beef, but with just as much taste. YUM.

Having a flat tire outside beautiful Uyuni. We had a quiet and vast land to ourselves for a couple of tiring hours. Bless or curse – who can tell?

Enduring corrugated roads for days. I never knew my teeth can tap dance so well!

We are back in asphalt-lined Argentina now. But just like all our clothes still layered with Bolivian dirt, all my mind and senses are still filled with colors, taste and smell of the country. I want to say we will have to figure out a way to get back there, but I am also hesitant because it has been such a grueling challenge. Maybe take it in small doses somehow?

Anyway for now my puzzle is how to fit one of these under motorcycle helmet. I love ‘em little cutest Bolivian hats!

A Day in Bolivia

2010-09-19T03:01:00.001+04:00

Today is 17 September. We woke up in Tarija, a southern city of Bolivia. Our goal today was to travel up north and go half towards Potosi. Although the city was only 300 km away, we were told it takes 12 hours driving to get there. The rather long drive was a curious case since we were told by several locals that the road was “asphalt”. The following is a time capture of our day – yes, it’s a long one, so you might want to grab a cup of tea before continuing.

7:30 am – Woke up and went for the included breakfast. We were rather disappointed with it considering we splurged on the *4-star” hotel room – it was USD40 per night, five times what we paid for the previous night. The room itself was quite a luxury relatively speaking, even though we never got the fridge working and the toilet seat kept on snapping down on our backs the moment one sits down, but just some minor details.

10:00 am – Finally finished packing and left the hotel. To replace the broken GPS unit, Q tried to get one of our cell phones working instead. A moment of excitement when we thought it worked, only to realize later at the end of day that it wasn’t configured correctly and so the day’s driving was not captured, but excitement was good while it lasted.

10:16 am – The joy of asphalt only lasted 15 minutes, we were told at the check point there was a 50 km of mountain pass that will take us two hours.

10:57 am – The road ascended quickly and continuously. It was tough, but still much better than the ones we encountered in the first couple days in Bolivia.

11:04 pm – We were in the Andes! Gorgeous view of the mountain range with some abandoned civilization trace.

12:05 pm – Ascending for 2000 m later, we have altiplano and asphalt! Q sends a big MUAH to the road.

12:19 pm – We stopped to replenish food and water. I picked up cocoa leaves and tried to use them as the locals do. They are supposed to reduce fatigue and effect of high altitude.

12:32 pm – The altiplatos (high planes) opened up to us. It is hard to believe we were cruising down at 3000 m in altitude.

12:39 pm – Heading into another mountain pass, which means the road becomes unpaved again.

12:42 pm – Again gorgeous view and by some miracle the road turned paved.

1:31 pm – Stopped for lunch and fuel. The gasoline was only available from container, and cost 5 Bolivian pesos/liter (about 70 US cents), about 30% more than service station. Fuel is subsidized by the government in Bolivia.

1:56 pm – A curious villager got Q into a half-understood conversation during lunch.

2:11 pm – Unpaved road after lunch. Blech! But at least we aren’t walking!

2:22 pm – The sign announced “Pavement in 5o m”!

2:46 pm – Q was lo-lo-loving it!

3:19 pm – Came to a village that is half way to Potosi, and entertained the idea of staying for the night, but nah, we felt pretty good and wanted to make some extra mileage, so we got back on Casa and marched on. It turned out that was a bit of mistake – we should’ve quitted while we were ahead of game.

3:23 pm – Yikes.

3:41 pm – There was a detour that was even worse than the unpaved road if you can believe it.

4:03 pm – Back on pavement.

4:09 pm – …And we were off again.

4:50 pm – Finally came to another village and tried to find accommodation – but no luck! Had to continue on and with the sun start setting, we started regretting not stopping earlier.

5:10 pm – Another detour and this time it was wet, muddy and slippery from construction. The effect of high altitude was already quite notice-able as I panted from a short walk-up.

5:19 pm – The unpaved turn looked so evil and cool. Should we love it or hate it?

5:40 pm – We stopped at another village, considering camping out, but was told by a villager that there was hotel half an hour down the road, so we continued on, anxious about the sunset.

6:04 pm – Discovered one of the two screws holding head light in place was gone! That’s what the Bolivian roads do best! With time being the essence, we quickly derived a temporary solution with a smaller screw and some rubber. It worked and we are on.

6:13 pm – Told by a small construction village that we came across that there was hotel another half an hour away. No choice but to continue. No sight of any village or hotel as we were told.

6:34 pm – Accommodation at last. It was behind a small shop/restaurant in a village, but it will do. Plus, it cost just under 3 USD. Q said it’s possibly the cheapest he’s ever done.

As we started unpack, we discovered more broken things: the chain guard has been knocked out of place, the right pannier (the big metal luggage things) has a loose locking mechanism, AND our portable hard drive is making funny noise. I think Bolivian roads shake loose every nuts and bolts that we can or cannot imagine.

So this is our day 3 in Bolivia and it is one of the better ones. To be honest riding in Bolivia is a lot more challenging than we expected, but we are adapting, taking it easy, and most importantly keeping our spirits high.

No dull moments here! Wanna join us? :)

The Gran Chaco

2010-09-17T01:30:00.001+04:00

Our decision of heading up north after Buenos Aires is driven by the weather factor. Argentina was still rather chilly coming out of winter and we were drawn to warmth.

They say be careful of what you wish for.

Casa’s display reads 36.5 degree celcius – and this is with complete overcast.

We are in The Chaco, northern frontier of Paraguay. It has a nasty reputation as the “Green Hell” – harsh and unpredictable weather condition rules the region. We decided to make a day trip and see for ourselves.

It started off quite well: some uneven and unpaved roads but apparently considered well by the locals.

Then the road condition deteriorated rather quickly with thick sand masking hard rocks.

Next thing we knew all of us were flat out covered in sand.

Fortunately all of us were unharmed (Thanks to Q for making sure I wore my protective gears), except for, wait for it, our GPS.

YIKES, with a broken antenna, our GPS would not be very useful for our navigation into Bolivia tomorrow, not to mention the rest of the trip.

Later today while I was glancing through our travel guidebook, this caught my attention. Apparently the annual three-day Rally Transchaco motorsport is considered “one of the toughest on the planet”. Wish we read that earlier!

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Update: Above was written about three days ago, we couldn’t post the blog because of lack of internet. Will send new post soon, but here is a preview of our border crossing into The Gran Chaco part of Bolivia.

Iguazú Falls

2010-09-13T08:11:00.001+04:00

Q said he had never heard of Iguazú Falls before arriving in South America. And I have only read about it in some travel literature – that it is one of the world’s largest water falls. With the little knowledge we had, we made it our first stop after leaving Buenos Aries.

And boy, were we in for a treat! Iguazú Falls were pure heavenly and magic…

As a Canadian, I am embarrassed to admit that the Iguazú Falls was far better preserved and presented than Niagara Falls.

In addition to the magnificant falls, we were also pleasantly surprised by the exotic plants and animals covering the area. (click below to view bigger image.)

It has been a pure eye candy and we simply couldn’t get enough. Such was a privilege.

Buenos Aires

2010-09-01T00:36:00.001+04:00

Buenos Aires is like *that* girl in your high school, you know, the one who was so good at so many things and made them look so easy - to top it off, she was also annoyingly beautiful and popular. We consider ourselves lucky to have befriended with it.

Food

It took my stomach a week to get used to the meat-heavy diet, which explained the lack of postings, by the way. You can’t walk a block without spotting one or two parrillas (restaurants specialized in grilled meat). Unlike Asian cuisines, spices are used sparely so you are a lot more exposed to the juicy and fresh taste of the meat itself.

Above: locro soup

Above: The best Japanese I have ever tasted in my life!

Dancing

Dancing to Buenos Aires is like fog to London except a lot more pleasant. We have had constant run-ins with it. We even tried out tango ourselves through a city-organized free event. By the way, isn’t it always the case that you come out of a lesson feeling so confident and ready, only to find yourself mesmerized by how wonderfully others just glide on the dance floor?

Art

Art is everywhere in Buenos Aires. It covers wide range of topics and makes the city colorful, fascinating and stimulating.

Streets

From old colonial style buildings, to busy shopping malls, to vendors selling food, flowers and newspapers, to all sorts and sizes of protests, the streets in Buenos Aires are nothing but lively.

Markets

In addition to enjoying Buenos Aires so much, we got Casa back last week – YAY! So we are getting ready to starting travelling again this weekend. Tearing ourselves away from the comfort of BA will hard and sad, but on the other hand, I am sure the rest of Argentina and South America will continue to impress.

The Little Things of Buenos Aires

2010-08-16T04:56:00.001+04:00

Just as we got comfortable after a month in Europe, where things are fairly straight-forward and well-organized, we find ourselves in South America. Buenos Aires is so refreshingly different, and by that, I mean a whole new world different. Just about everything makes us tick, particularly the little things!

Getting from Airport to Accommodation

There are generally two ways for tourists to get from the Buenos Aires airport into the city: by public bus or by taxi, and there is big difference between the options. Okay, we didn’t quite draw this table for comparison, but it is one way of looking at them.

	Bus	Taxi
Cost	4 pesos (1 USD)	140 pesos (35 USD)
Travel Time	1.5 hours	20 minutes
Difficulty (to locate/follow)	**********************************	*

Guess what we chose?

(Okay, we had those crazy eye looks because it was a long trip and late at night!)

Getting Coins

There is a funny situation with small changes in Buenos Aires. Basically coins are hard to find, so much that there is a black market selling/buying them. Apparently it is common practice for grocery shops to use candies, and pharmacies aspirin instead.

Problem is that we need coins for riding buses, which only take coins.

Thanks to all the money research, we were able to exchange for the right amount of Argentinean pesos at the airport, which gave us some precious 7.50 pesos in coins! (By the way, we saw exchange rates different by 15% at different exchange counters.)

After a security guard pointed out to me where the bus shelter was, he asked the first Spanish sentence that I understood fully, “Tiene monedas?” - (Do you) have small change? “Si!” I answered proudly and walked away with a big smile – great success!

Finding SIM Cards

After a good night sleep at our host’s place, we woke up with a list of things to purchase, including telephone SIM cards. Usually it would be easy because telecomm shops are all over the place, but today is Sunday and as we found out, most of the shops are closed on Sundays. Our host suggested to try one of the malls. Tried and no luck. As we wandered down one of the main shopping streets, our hope of getting SIM cards today was getting dimmer as the street empty.

Our host also suggested that Chinatown should be good to visit today, so we did. Guess what we found?

People buzzing all over the place. Line-ups in front of restaurants and queues at supermarkets. And best of all, we found SIM cards – among many other goodies!!

YAY, I found Chinese instant noodles. :D

Taking the Subway

Subte is the name for subway system in Buenos Aires. It was fun, convenient and easy to use. An added bonus is that we get 90 cents change back every time when we purchase single-trip passes. Read: COINS!

Q standing in front of subway station name sign post that says “9th of July”.

Buenos Aires, 24 hours and such a fabulous adventure already! …We haven’t even got to the amazing food yet! ;)

Quick Update from Rio de Janeiro

2010-08-14T23:25:00.001+04:00

As Q mentioned in previous post, we are finally on the road again – YAY! After two days in London, where we dropped off our beloved Casa at a cargo depot, we have boarded the plane to South America! Thanks to a twelve-hour layover, we are getting a pretty dramatic view of Rio de Janeiro with dark rainy clouds rolling by.

Buenos Aires, here we come!!!

Bye bye Holland...

2010-08-11T18:09:00.003+04:00

UK here we come!

After having been in mainland Europe for 'slightly' longer than we had hoped for, it's off by boat, on our way to the UK. Only for two days before we drop the bike and take a plane ourselves to our next destination: South America! And it won't be quiet, we've already got our Spanish lessons lined up starting on Monday!

Our extended stay in Europe gave us extra time to meet up with friends, we loved every moment of it! It was great seeing your new house/meeting your new girlfriend/seeing your son/daughter for the first time/(other, elaborate) (cross out whatever is not applicable to your situation;). And thanks to everyone for their support of our big trip! Yes, I know, we will try to write on the blog more often :)

(and if you happen to be in London these coming days, drop us a line! we'll meet up for a drink!)

Far From Glamorous

2010-07-18T00:52:00.001+04:00

Q, Casa and I arrived safely in the Netherlands a week ago, and that marked the end of first segment of our big trip - hooray! (Separate posting with map to follow.)

Looking back at our postings so far, I can see how we tried to pick out positive stories and focus on enjoyable bits – probably to keep up our own spirits first and foremost. To be fair, it is a bit misleading if we have been painting nothing but rosy pictures. The truth is that our travelling was quite smelly, dirty, itchy, heavy and, well, hard.

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I recall back in Bandar Abbas, Iran, at the very beginning of our big trip, I sat in a small and stuffy hotel room, counting out the mosquito bites from previous night's ferry ride - 9, no, 10, wait, that was a double? I had to do it a couples times to confirm since the construction noise next door kept on distracting me - apparently it is okay for hotels to open for business when half of it is still being built.

The total bite count was 10 - I did a quick math in my head about how this would turn into a pretty disastrous situation should it continue, and the thought scared and depressed me a little. Then I realized the discomfort around my belly and back and neck weren't caused by insect bites after all. It was heat rash – painful and itchy red patches all over. Of course this would happen if you wear the same sweat-soaked clothes with 8 kg of motorcycle gears in 40+ degrees for two days – DUH! A moment of stupidity later, I felt a sudden panic – this was from only two days, how would I manage more? "Ugh, check this out," I cried to Q, "My body is telling us to get outta this region." No response from Q. I turned around and saw him passed out in bed from sheer tiredness.

In the following few days we tried to head up north as quickly as possible to beat the heat. Unfortunately the frequent military checkpoints made it rather difficult – I calculated that there were about four of them to each gas station we come across.

Because of the heat, we often got exhausted by midday and needed to pull off the roads for a nap. To find a shady spot to nap is hard since trees were hard to come by also because of the heat.

The first day we headed in Turkey, we welcomed a thunderstorm in our dry and cool hotel room. Like little kids, Q and I were so giddy and excited about it. We probably wouldn’t be as enthusiastic had we known that the same thunderstorm would follow us for most of Turkey. :)

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There you have it, our travelling was far from glamorous. In fact it is pretty darn hard at times. Luckily even the worst parts somehow make good stories after a while. Just like life.

Let the game decide...

2010-07-07T00:00:00.002+04:00

We're in Bolzano, Italy, watching the game in the football world cup between Uruguay and the Netherlands. It's exciting, because it's the semi final. If 'we' win, we'll go to the finals! That's been a long while...

So, what will be decided. Today, if Holland wins, we will go to Holland quickly to watch the final on home turf. If they lose (they just scored 3-1, so I guess it won't happen), we will go to either Germany for the final, or Spain, whoever wins...

Let's see how it goes!

Back to the roots

2010-07-03T11:00:00.001+04:00

We have left Asia behind and are now in Europe, Greece to be precise. We finished two weeks of Turkey and are now crossing through the home of the Olympic games on our way to catch a ferry to Italy.

Since Turkey we have picked up CouchSurfing again, and Greece is no exception. We made a last-minute request to a few people in the second largest town of Greece, Thessaloniki, and the family of Maria, Kosta, their son Michelangelo and a whole farm of animals, ranging from dogs, cats, fish, one horse, chickens, you name it, have agreed to host us. To our relieve, they don’t live in the downtown area, they live in modest house in a small coastal village some 30 minutes south of Thessaloniki.

Our hosts in Greece, with their home-grown pumpkin

We were welcomed with some delicious foods after a 13 hour driving day, and were pleasantly surprised to learn that among others the cheese was of their own making. Now on our second day here and we are learning more and more about the self-reliance they have built for themselves. They have their own garden in which they grow a lot of produce, lots of which they use themselves, including cucumbers, tomatoes (some of which they sun-dry), lemons, limes, courgettes (zucchini), herbs, prunes (tasted their home-made prune marmalade), pumpkins (pumpkin pie).

Home-made prune marmalade and pancakes

The horse and Michelangelo

Tonight we enjoyed a wonderful simple, but oh so delicious meal together with the family. Barbequed sardines and oyster mushrooms, and also home-made tzatziki, a delicious salad (you guessed it, most, if not all, ingredients were from their own garden), home baked bread. Simply gorgeous! I think we can learn a lot about self sustenance, I mean, Shu and I do make the odd product ourselves, but we never grew anything other than the odd herb plant, but we don’t come in the least bit close to what our hosts are doing here. And best of all, it is simply delicious and healthy!

Home-grown tomato

The family loves doing all this, and with the economy being hit hard in Greece, it reaps it rewards in many ways. And it is a great for them to keep local traditions alive as well.

True back to your roots.

Turkey Experience: Ups and Downs with Casa

2010-06-28T02:17:00.001+04:00

We spent a few days in the Cappadocia region, known as the Grand Canyon of Turkey. We thoroughly enjoyed it with Casa, who fared well even with some ups and downs.

This post is dedicated to our friend Sonya and Sonya-alike, who encourage us to more blogging. :)

Turkey Experience: Fell in Love with the Back Door

2010-06-28T01:55:00.001+04:00

It is common for tourists to enter Turkey through the western region, like Istanbul. However for us, we had to take the back door after Iran: Northeastern Turkey, and we saw the endless grass pastures, open horizon, peaceful lakes, free-running horses, wild flowers, gorgeous mountains.

It was B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L. And we so fell in love with it.

We will go back to this amazing place on earth one day. We simply have to.

Iran Experience: English and Motorcycle Angels

2010-06-23T17:57:00.006+04:00

It is our firm belief that in every Iranian city or town, big or small, there are at least one Iranian who speak just enough English to help translate any motorcycle problem we may have, and invite us home for dinner – we call him our English Angel; and one Iranian who seems to know a whole lot about motorcycle mechanics and can either fix the motorcycle problem on the spot - he would be our Motorcycle Angel. And the best part – both these two guys would magically appear within ten or twenty minutes of us stopping and without us looking around for them. Okay, five minutes tops if in the dead centre of a small town – I know, much faster than Abu Dhabi ambulance service. We had two breakdowns with Casa in Iran to enforce our belief.

Breakdown #1 – Day 6 in Iran. Casa’s rear inner tube suffered a spectacular rupture – turned out the special-tough tube was too thick for the extreme hot weather we were riding in. And to my brilliance we ditched the backup rear tube just before we left UAE because of my concern with the weight we were carrying. So there we were on the side of busy highway trying to fit the 21’ backup front tube into the 19’ rear tire as a temporary solution. There were several delightful show of Iranian hospitality during this rather painful process: some police gave us some water, one truck driver gave us a hand, and another one offered us much needed food.

As mentioned in previous posting, big motorcycles are scarce in Iran due to government regulation, so finding an inner tube of right size became a real challenge – not to mention it was a Friday (weekend) so all shops were closed. Delijan was the first immediate small city we stopped in. A couple minutes in front of the only hotel in town resulted in a fairly large group of spectators, including our Motorcycle Angel Hussein. He quickly made several phone calls and his cousin Mehdat – our English Angel appeared. After an hour of Hussein riding in and out, we received two inner tubes for US$ 14 only on the spot! Mehdat explained to us later that Hussein managed to find a store that had the tubes, called the shop owner to open the shop and got the goods for us with us sipping chai all the while!

Mehdat invited us over to his home where we can replace the new tube more comfortably. That was a great idea, so was a mid-afternoon watermelon break, followed by a refreshing shower, followed by a picnic with Mehdat’s very curious family, followed by a lovely dinner in a family picnic house, followed by a sound night of sleep in their guest room. We loved how Mehdat answered all our requests with “Why nott?” and “Yes, you are rightt!” – you can imagine how grateful we felt. Above: Mehdat and Hussein

Above: Picnic with Mehdat’s family. By the way, Iranians are obsessed about picnics!

Above: Dinner picnic under grape vines.

Breakdown #2 – Day 8 in Iran. We stopped for a photo, and then Casa refused to move again. It turned out that the rear bake pads were completely eaten away due to a poor adjustment made the previous day. This time around we were in the middle of a small town – so small it was not in our map! Professor Salman, our English Angel appeared just in time to help Q communicate with our Mechanical Angel who was apparently a local motorcycle shop mechanic. I reckon the shop got a flurry of emergency phone calls that sounded like this: “Is this the motorcycle shop? Yes, we have two tourists who are stuck here with their motorcycle. No, they don’t seem to have much clue of what they are doing. Yes, it is next to the bridge. Okay, so someone is already on his way.”

The whole drama was over in under an hour. As we pulled away from the site everything quickly returned to its normal state like nothing took place. Well, except we now have an invitation to Professor Salman’s for dinner.

It was an interesting dinner. I was asked to cook the only Chinese dish I knew – yes, some Chinese women can be that undomestic. Judging from how quickly one of the guys switched back to his leftover Iranian stew, I am not sure the locals enjoyed the food as much as Q. After dinner we received an invitation to stay up to one month in their house if we can be English tutors to their two college relatives. “Please”, said one of them, “we beg you to stay!” It took some effort for us to decline the offer – the Salmans may still be puzzled as to why the two budget travelers would turn down offers of free food and accommodation. Looking back now, as much as we felt frustrated and desperate, everything with Casa worked out just fine in the end. In addition, we gained some priceless experience interacting with locals. So maybe it is not so bad to have a mechanical breakdown once in a while after all. In Iran that is.

Iran Experience: Casa Craze

2010-06-16T21:14:00.001+04:00

The Iran leg of the trip has been full of challenges and surprises. One of them was the crazy reception our motorcycle received, which by the way we have lovingly named Casa – yes, that’s Spanish for “home”. :)

Casa drew a sizable crowd very quickly wherever we stopped – at gas stations, grocery shops, restaurants, hotels, you name it. Not only the crowds would continuously ask us questions, they would go as far as touching and posing next to the motorcycle. As we found out soon enough it is illegal for Iranians to own motorcycles with over 200 cc engine capacity in Iran, so with 800 cc, our Casa naturally stands out in this motorcycle-popular country. At first we found the unwanted attention very annoying and frustrating, later on we still found it annoying and frustrating, but got used to the crowds and started taking photos of the crowds. Check them out!

So much for a celebrity experience! I am pretty certain I heard a huge sigh of relief from Casa when we left Iran. :)

Hello from Iran

2010-06-13T08:59:00.006+04:00

We started our trip from Abu Dhabi on Friday 4 June and 2,500 km later we have arrived at the Caspian Sea coast in Iran. We plan to cross into western region and Turkey in the coming couple days.

So far the biggest excitement was spending eight gruelling hours at Bandar Abbas port, having a spectacularly ruptured rear inner tube and trying to find replacement, and driving through crazy traffic via the scenic pass to Caspian coast. Reliable internet is hard to come by so this is just a quick note informing everyone that we are doing well.

We miss our friends in Abu Dhabi dearly and want to give a shout out to all of you for your support during our last few days in the Dhabi!

And BIG thank you for all the family and friends who have "donated" your support - Sorry I seemed to have confused a lot of people in my last post - we don't want any money donation - your encouragement is the best gift we can ask for.

Our Big Trip and Please Donate!

2010-05-17T18:20:00.004+04:00

Here is a question for everyone - Suppose you didn’t have any constraints, give it work or relationship or financial, where do you see yourself live? Now obviously we all have commitment of various sorts, but the answer does brings out that dream buried deep down somewhere by the daily routines.

For Q and I, our answer is - on our motorcycle!

To all our family and friends, we want to share with you our latest development and plan. We have decided to leave UAE after three fruitful and exciting years, and take this opportunity to realize one of Q's dreams – riding a motorcycle around the world for about six months, a.k.a. going on a Big Trip! As for me, I am just happy to be wherever Q is. *Aww!*

Ever since the decision was made, we have been working frantically to get ourselves ready for moving and the Big Trip. In short, it is shear madness right now and we can't wait till we get on the road! In terms of where-to afterwards, well, we don’t know yet but we have our eyes on a few countries and will certainly try very hard to get to one of them.

As you can imagine, this will a huge change in our lives – not only because of change of location but also lifestyle – we will get to be modern day nomads and live frugally again - how cool is that! I reckon Q will grow an afro towards the end! Here is a sneak preview of what we plan to do – everything is subject to change!

Right, now that you know our case, this is where we will plead for your donation- we desperately need encouragement. Lots and lots of it. We will not be able to enjoy the trip nearly as much if not for your support, interest and smiles. Please donate generously.

Love,

Shu & Q

Asparagus!!!

2010-05-16T14:33:00.002+04:00

Yessssss, white asparagus in Abu Dhabi :)
Last night we enjoyed two portions of beautiful white asparagus at our local German beer cafe, of course complimented with a delicious (but expensive, we discovered later... what to do) glass of Riesling.

(First test post from my phone, pardon the image quality...)

Our cheap eateries in Abu Dhabi

2010-04-22T12:49:00.001+04:00

Time Out Abu Dhabi just published a list of 31 cheap eateries in Abu Dhabi. Very pleased to see so many of our long standing favorites in the list! Among others:

Asian Garden (Thai and Filipino. Never really a fan of multiple kitchens in restaurants, but we tried it and were addicted. When we asked the waiters what nationality the cook is, he proudly said they have two cooks, one Thai and one Filipino! We’ve been regulars ever since.)

Lebanese Flower (Lebanese –> shawarma and other Lebanese goodies)

Kathmandu (Nepali)

Bandung (Indonesian)

Beijing (Chinese, approved by Shu)

Al Fujairah (Pakistani, delicious thick curries)

Captain’s Arms (pub food, one of the few pubs with a very nice cosy outside; ‘terras’ in Dutch)

There are also a few eclectic ones, among which:

49ers The Gold Rush (steaks, as Time Out Abu Dhabi put it: ‘if this were a magazine it would be pure ‘top shelf’, because of the clientele that populates the place after 9pm, ‘nuf said :)

And also a few we have yet to try, like:

Transilvania (Romanian)

and Fish Hut (fried fish…), at just over one Euro/US$, it’s a steal!

My mouth is watering!! Time for LUNCH :D

(you can read the full article here)!

Sex And The City – Not in Abu Dhabi!

2010-04-12T23:18:00.001+04:00

I have to make this blog posting because of my rights given to me by all the Sex And The City DVDs I own. Contrary to perception, the upcoming SATC2 movie (trailer here) will NOT be featuring a single scene from Abu Dhabi, even though the name is mentioned all over the place. All the scenes were shot in Morocco.

So how did this all happen? Well, how should I put this kindly. It seems there is a beauty competition for international tourism spotlight. Somehow AD decides to let its prettier neighbor to do the catwalk bearing its name - All in the name of boosting tourism! Ironically given the first SATC movie was pretty much banned in UAE, I doubt the new one will get shown here.

Don’t get me wrong, the city has its own charm – just not what is portrayed in the movie! Will the real Abu Dhabi please stand up?

Made me Scream

2010-04-03T00:50:00.002+04:00

The National published two interesting articles on UAE lifestyle today. One of them is about how the car crashes in UAE costs Dhs 21 Billion (Eur 4 Billion or US$ 6 Billion) a year, equivalent to one eighth of the country’s oil export. This is in addition to the ~1,000 lives the crashes cause each year. *Gulp!*

The other one was about Emirati young women’s spending habit and seemed less alarming until I started reading it. Here are some excerpts from the article – yes, I know they only represent individual views, but you can get a glimpse through their situation:

Mai Mohammed, 21, from Abu Dhabi, one of those taking part in the ZU (N.B. Zayed University) discussion, says she spent up to Dh3,000 (N.B. Eur 600 or US$ 900) per week at the boutiques in the malls of Dubai with her friends.

“The pressure is not on me. It’s on my dad and my mum. We’re girls and we have to look after our fashion and style,” said Ms Mohammed, a fourth-year student.
“It’s my parents who are under pressure. They’re the ones who pay.”

And although they do tell her to watch her spending, her tastes have grown expensive.

“Chanel, for instance, it’s my number one brand,” she said. “My parents want to give me what I want.”

Ms Mohammed’s room has a separate dressing area that houses three wardrobes; one for abayas (N.B. see photo below), another for jeans and T-shirts and a third for accessories. She said she thinks she has about 30 name-brand handbags – Chanel, Dior and Fendi. Her most expensive is a classic red Chanel bag she bought in London for about Dh16,500.

“Even my mother wants to take my card away a lot,” she said. “We’re actually spoiled.”

Photo courtesy of The National. A black abaya robe can cost up to 2,000 dhs.

….

“In the first year [at a university], there’s pressure when you see all the other girls. Then you get used to it,” said Mariam al Amimi. “In my first year, I bought a lot of clothes. I went a whole term without repeating any of them.”

Fatima Abdulrahman, 23, agreed: “In the first year, everyone wants to show off.”

The students said that they felt that because they wore abayas, they had to spend a little more on accessories like phones, make up and shoes in order to express their fashion sense and individuality. Some girls like their nail polish to match their BlackBerry cases, for example.

“Sometimes we want to show off, sometimes we want to show off who we are,” said Sarah al Dhaheri, 20.

Matching nail polish to BlackBerry cases?!? AAAHHHHHHHH!!!! I don’t care if anyone thinks I am self-righteous - this cannot be right.

My Bit of Abu Dhabi Impression

2010-03-27T21:30:00.001+04:00

Q is in the Netherlands attending his dad’s retirement party -Congrats, Bart & Wads! I figured I can take a camera as my companion to the Abu Dhabi streets and see what I get. Here are some photos to share with you.

This is the city we live in – somehow I saw its heart better through camera lens. I wonder why.

Look, Two Wheels, Hooray!

2010-03-07T21:00:00.001+04:00

Isn’t it just so exhilarating to be on two wheels and cutting through fresh air – especially in crazy Abu Dhabi traffic!

I have been biking to work this winter – it is about half an hour one way and takes me through about 10 km of multi-flavored city: downtown congestion, road barriers, highway bridge, pedestrian side walks, building elevator, construction site, and corniche path – watching sunset over the water front is very therapeutic after a long day at work! Q caught me one morning as he stopped on the way to the Abu Dhabi airport. (If you cannot see the video link, click here.)

Another exciting development in our lives is that I am learning to ride motorcycle! Yes, in Abu Dhabi – can you believe it?!? I know, I can’t even believe it myself!!! I don’t want to jinx anything so the storytelling will have to wait till I pass the road test next Monday. But in the mean time enjoy the video Q took – thanks for watching my back, sweetie! (If you cannot see the video link, click here.)

More to follow on our two wheels adventure in Abu Dhabi… Stay tuned. :)

I Can, therefore I Spend

2010-02-25T23:12:00.002+04:00

Here is a photo of my manicured fingers. For my friends back in Toronto, I promise you this is a one-off thing, so don’t panic. But the experience did prompt me to blog about this human behavior magnified in this part of the world: I can, therefore I spend.

- Nails. Getting French manicure only cost me AED 50 (EUR 10 or USD 13) in a decent ladies-only salon in a shopping mall. Because how affordable it is, getting manicured and pedicured becomes a popular weekly routine for a lot of ladies – both local and expats. Whereas I just got depressed hearing from my Filipino aesthete that it’s been four months since she left her baby behind.

- Hair. I have never seen as high percentage of blonds among Caucasians as in Abu Dhabi. I’m serious. The second time I saw the same Lebanese hairdresser, he asked me, “why don’t you dye your hair?” I said, “no, i like mine grey.” he went, “Oh, I remember you. Last time you also didn’t want your hair dyed.” That was three months ago – I was surprised he remembered me. As if that wasn’t enough, he went on saying, “You are not from this world. Look around, everyone dyes their hair.” Okay, maybe not everyone, but it’s pretty close. Apparently if you can afford adding that touch of gold in your hair, you get it done!

- Cars. Earlier today a colleague complained that he had to pay AED 8,400 (EUR 1,700 or USD 2,200) for his wife’s car registration renewal – all just for her speeding tickets. I asked him what kind of car his (house)wife drives – he said Audi. Just another case of I can therefore I spend.

Like a friend once said, “Abu Dhabi is a place that brings out the best of you and the worst of you.” Unfortunately it’s more the latter for most of us. I’m secretly hoping the nail polish will chip off sooner rather than later.

UAE Visitors Take Note

2010-01-11T23:17:00.002+04:00

Unless you are good at reading fine prints, avoid visiting Dubai or Abu Dhabi. Yes, you heard me. UAE is a country where vacation is to be enjoyed with caution. Here are the fine prints that most visitors are not aware:

- It is illegal to drink alcohol without a liquor license in this country, and I suspect none of the tourists would get one considering the application process is lengthy. (story link)

- It is illegal to swear in public, especially to locals. No f-word, no middle-finger, no jokingly, no moment-of-excitement. None. (story link)

- It is illegal to have sex or stay in the same room outside wedlock. And yes, that means rape victims can be charged on the same account, oh yes. (story link)

The list goes on.

Surely all these illegal activities exist among tourists and expats, but just like car accidents, they rarely happen and most people are happy with their day-to-day lives without noticing anything until something goes wrong.

Oh yeah, and if one is really unlucky and got in the way of an important local (story link), it’s a good idea to get on the very next flight out of the country before setting foot in a police station.

There you have it. UAE visitors take note.

Touching base

2009-12-31T15:21:00.002+04:00

My previous employer in the Netherlands (LVNL) asked me to write an article for their internal magazine updating them with what’s been going on with us since we left.

I really enjoyed my time working there, and this is a way of touching base with my previous work and colleagues.
(hallo LVNLers (and all others!), post a reply or send an email, let us know how you’re doing!)

They allowed me to publish the article on the blog, have a read if your Dutch is up to scratch :)

(for people on our mailing list, if you don’t see the picture in this post, go to the blog to read it)

(P.S. changed the link to a bigger picture...)

How to stake an Emirati tree

2009-12-27T18:32:00.003+04:00

Did anyone else notice the odd-looking three-legged trees around Abu Dhabi?

The featured trees have been this way for at least the past year and half, and this is what happened when a thunderstorm hit:

In my humble opinion, they provide a very good illustration of relationships of Emiraties and expats in the country's development. Enough said.

FYI, the following are some Facts about Staking a Tree:

"Tree staking is never done with the intention of harming a tree. Staking is usually done with love and with a desire to promote root and trunk growth and protect a young tree from harm.

"What some tree planters do not understand is, rather than helping a tree develop root and trunk growth, improper tree staking replaces a supportive trunk and root system with an artificial support that causes the tree to put its resources into growing taller but not growing wider.

"If and when the stakes are removed, the lack of trunk and root development makes these trees prime candidates for breakage or blow-down. In the first good windstorm, down these trees come. They have lost the supportive protection of natural development."

From Abu Dhabi: Christmas Carol, Bedspace Ads and Liquor Store

2009-12-23T00:44:00.001+04:00

Some random things to share with you of our life in Abu Dhabi.

- I crashed a private function to watch our friend Meg sing Christmas carol. The backdrop is a giant light display of UAE flag, left beaming from the UAE National Day celebration back in early December.

- Bedspace ads posted on a random bus shelter, which is not in use and simply acts as sand collector.

- Although I’ve never visited an adult video shop in Toronto, somehow I reckon the experience would be similar to that of visiting a liquor store in Abu Dhabi, except there are really only a handful of them. As you can see below, the shop windows are all blacked out, and after your purchase, you carry your bottles in black unmarked bags… not to mention the mandatory liquor license!

img source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/biglittlesister/3363630996

From the local liquor store, Merry Christmas and drink up, everyone! :)

"Always Welcome in Jordan"

2009-12-10T23:30:00.008+04:00

"Welcome, welcome!" Just about every Jordanian we met in Jordan repeated the simple yet warm word to us while we were there for 11 days last week. It turned out the word can be used loosely as "hi", "bye", "thank you", "okay", or filler for moment of awkward silence. During a typical quick conversation, you can hear the word muttered at least a dozen times. It's essentially the duct tape of Jordanian's English vocabulary.

So what did we do while we were there. Let's see. My top highlights would be...

- Camping in a Bedouin tent in the middle of desert:

- Driving in the mountain range

- Sleeping in an ancient cave next to Petra:

- Selfishly and gladly having Petra's Treasury all to ourselves in a beautiful early morning:

- Mudding ourselves at the Dead Sea:

- Diving/snorkelling in the the Red Sea at Aqaba.

- Moon walking in the dark night under full moon in Wadi Rum:

- Riding very spirited Arabian horse:

- Camel Riding!! (Smell you later!)

Special thanks to our couchsurfing hosts for helping make such a memorable trip: Akram and Bianca in Amman and Nawaf in Petra!

Crossing Expats' Boundaries

2009-11-07T01:01:00.010+04:00

Q and I are wexpats - expats who came from western countries. And that essentially defines our "environment" long before we even landed in Abu Dhabi: from what type of car we would drive, to what range of accomodation we would choose, to what type of friends we would hang out with, etc, etc, and surely and naturally we did just that - settled very comfortably in our wexpat environment. But once in a while we venture out of our comfort zone and into other expats' "environments". And the result? It's always surprisingly pleasant. One such example was watching the Pakistan v.s. New Zealand cricket match in the Cricket Stadium last Saturday.

The first thing we noticed was that bad traffic jam leading to the stadium turned a two-lane side street into a four-lane. Some Pakistanis opted for parking further away and made up the lost time by running towards the stadium. I can't recall the last time I saw even one person running towards a sporting event, let alone crowds. The enthusiasm caught on me before we even reached the parking lot.

It was our first cricket match ever, and it was a "50-overs" "one-day match", i.e. a long form, and long it was - the match started at 3 pm and we left at 10 pm - an almost-herotic SEVEN hours, and it still had another good hour to go by the time we left! It was an all-around wholesome experience: the crowd, the teams, the stadium, the friends, and the poster! Okay, some may argue beer was missing. :)

I can't quite describe it but the level of dedication and enthusiasm somehow made me respect the Pakistani expats much more so than before. A lot of them may be alone here, they may not earn much, and they may not be able to afford many hobbies, but for what they can manage, they really make the most out of. The cricket match was quite a display of such spirit.

I wish I had something more intelligent to say about this boundary-crossing experience, but really at the end of the day I felt truly happy, for the people surrounded me at the stadium were truly happy - and that is something I don't get when walking into the fancy hotel bars of Abu Dhabi.

Wastas + Abu Dhabi = ?

2009-10-31T00:51:00.008+04:00

Wastas are "connections" in Arabic - they are about who you know to help make *things* happen. Think them as wheel teeth that keep the clocks ticking, and in the case of Abu Dhabi, often for free!

These are what Wastas have got us during the past two days: Beyonce concert last night, F1 Grand Prix practice at the circuit this afternoon and Jamiroquai concert tonight - all for free! A little background on these F1 concerts - AD organizers made an interesting decision that they were only available to race pass holders, and not available for purchase by general public. It turned out for the Jamiroquai concert alone, a total of 15 friends/acquaintences attended mostly, if not all, without ever purchasing any race passes. Oh yeah, the arrangements were all quite last minute as well. So even though three days ago we didn't plan on having anything to do with Abu Dhabi F1, already we've been to three events at the fresh-paint-scented venue!

Yas F1 Circuit from West Grandstand-that's RedBull car racing across on the bottom there.

Jamiroquai was only 20 meters away!

I don't think Q and I quite get the hang of this cultural phenomenon, but why should we even bother. Sometimes, it is easier to just go with the free flow.

Mistakes and Passports Don't Mix!

2009-09-28T23:08:00.006+04:00

The following are the stories that both Q and I have gotten tired of repeating over the past month or so. Our mission was to get me a replacement UAE residency visa since my passport got stolen while traveling in China. Now that I typed it all up, I can see how tricky the situation was and that it would take a miracle for any UAE immigration office to understand, not to mention helping us.

The Story of Four Passports

Every single immigration counter we went - and trust me, there are many of them - we had to explain that my passports #1 and #2 were stolen in China, while holding a mint #4 backed up by a certified copy of #3.

#1: Regular Canadian passport issued in Toronto. I moved to Abu Dhabi with it in 2007, so it has my residency visa. It had to be replaced back in April this year because it ran out of blank pages for visa stamps, but I still kept it for the residency visa page.

#2: Regular Canadian passport issued in Abu Dhabi. It was a replacement for Passport #1. It had my Chinese tourist visa and was what I used to enter China.

#3: Temporary Canadian passport issued in Shanghai after #1 and #2 were stolen. It was issued and given to me in Shanghai on 26 August - ahh, what a glorious day! It also contained the replacement tourist visa for China – it was "zero entry" as I only needed it for leaving the country. This is the passport I entered UAE with.

#4: Regular Canadian passport issued in Shanghai but picked up in Abu Dhabi. I had to return #3 in order to get #4. For some odd reason, we were not allowed to keep temporary passports. I had a certified photocopy of #3 including the UAE entry stamp. It was essentially blank and this is where the replacement UAE residency visa should go. The problem is…

The Story of One Mistake

When I left China with Passport #3, I got an exit stamp of “31 August 2009”. It was all good until I entered UAE after the overnight flight. Instead of “1 Sept 2009” the stamp I got “1 August 2009”! Unfortunately I didn't notice the error until several days later when staring at a certified copy of #3.

Of course this whole thing didn’t make sense and we all thought it was obvious to the UAE Custom that they made the mistake, but I was so wrong. Essentially it appeared that I was in UAE without any paper record - in anther word, illegal.

The Story of Two Residence Visas

In order to make my Edinburgh and Italy trip, we had to pull a last-minute Mission-Impossible stunts on the day of my flight. It was pure drama and I only wish we weren't doing it. Doing one of those door-to-door car switches at highway pit stop and zooming down highway at lightening speed definitely pushed our adrenaline to a new high.

In the end we had to cancel my old residence visa on passport #1, so I could leave UAE at all. While I was in Italy, Q worked with his company to get me a new residence visa, so now #4 is on its way to be completed with a visa sticker.

As we learnt from this experience, one of the fastest ways to learn the local government culture is to lose your passport. If you don’t believe us, try it. :)

--------------------------------------
To reward those of you brave souls who reached this point of the posting, here are some photos from our trips in China, Edinburgh and Italy. Enjoy - we certainly did! And do let us know how you are doing. We miss all of our family and friends dearly. Love from Abu Dhabi!!

A breath of fresh air…

2009-09-17T01:49:00.001+04:00

…well, relatively speaking, of course :)

This morning at 6 am, when I left work after my graveyard shift, it was a very amiable 27 degrees (81 Fahrenheit for you non-metric lot). It felt like a draw of fresh air!

It means the height of the summer is over and in a few weeks temperatures should be down enough during the day to be able to venture outside without being scorched to a crisp!

The visa saga continues meanwhile. Having spent another 4 1/2 hours at the immigration department, the new resident visa is on its way and I should have it tomorrow. That means Shu would be able to enter the country legally again! The rest of the work is mostly hers, getting all the tests required for a residence visa. But we’ll do that when she’s back next week.

The two accompanying photos have been shot at Sheikh Zayed Mosque here in Abu Dhabi. I guess the last photo sums up two important aspects in Abu Dhabi life quite well, religion and commercialism…

Shu has left the country...

2009-09-13T12:47:00.001+04:00

That's actually a good thing! We had a lot of issues trying to replace her residence visa when she got back from China. The visa was in the passport that got stolen in Shanghai. It's not resolved yet, but the situation was such that she also couldn't leave the country without it either! We managed to resolve the issue temporarily, but we'll have to work on the rest when she gets back... I'm sure Shu will inform you later on about the whole procedure (to give you a slight hint what we've been through, so far I've spent a good 15 hours at the Immigration Department....).

She's off to attend a wedding in Edinburgh before flying to Italy to tour over there together with a friend from Toronto! This was the message she sent me yesterday:

'I found the Mound and the Prince Street Garden, and sat on the grass, and walked on the grass in zigzag. I loved and missed how nice it felt. :)'

The Princes Street Gardens, from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Or as a friend put it: 'having actual weather again is interesting!', when commenting on her move to The Netherlands after having lived in the Middle East for several years.

Other than that all is well. We're experiencing full on Ramadan, and will end in just over a week from now. We went to an iftar celebration in the posh Emirates Palace . The food was hidiously expensive, but also very good. Still only did it for the occasion...

Later this month, one of my best friends arrives for a few days before we set of to fly to South Africa, where we'll rent to motorbikes and tour the country for two weeks!

Let us know how you're doing!

The Dark Moment of Travelling

2009-08-24T22:21:00.005+04:00

Honestly I think I've had my share of adventurous and bizarre travel situations, so it comes as quite a surprise to look at my current situation.

Here is the scoop. As Q mentioned in the last blog posting, we are taking a trip in China to visit relatives. Well, the trip came to a complete halt when my purse was stolen while dining with Q and family in Shanghai a couple days ago. Thankfully nobody was harmed or anything. Besides money and a few other gadgets, the most important travelling item was also gone missing - my passport. The damage control and police report aside, none of us could have imagined the trouble involved ahead to get me out of China. After tearing up Shanghai for the past two days, it finally dawned on me what it is:

- First, I need to get my courier package containing Canadian-government issued IDs required for my passport application. It's supposed to arrive in Shanghai tomorrow, but last time we checked it was still sitting in Hongkong for some odd reason.
- The Canadian consulate informed me that it takes THREE working days to get a temporary passport. (FIFTEEN for a regular one, which I will also apply at the same time and request to send to Abu Dhabi for pickup.)
- After getting the new passport, I would need to get a so-called "pink slip" for accommodation registration at local police station. Apparently all foreigners are supposed to do it, but nobody does. Well, not this time, because I was told that I'd need it for the next step.
- The Chinese government requires me to get a new visa in order to let me out. According to official and unofficial websites, this steps takes FIVE working days.

All this development has blown every bits of my travel plan out of water. It's not just bad. It's almost disastrous. As you can imagine, I do feel like quite trapped at the moment as I cannot travel anywhere in China without passport. At the moment, I am not even hoping for miracles, I am just hoping that I will be out of the woods soon. Never thought Abu Dhabi could look so attractive right now. On the positive side - there is always a positive side - it is China and I am staying with relatives (Thanks so much, K-Pam!), so we are trying to make the best out of this situation by doing loads shopping - who knew spending money after losing money was such a great therapy! :)

I remember reading a list of emergency services provided by Canadian government and mentally patting myself on the shoulder for not calling from a jail for legal service. Truth to be told, it could be worse.

My kinda place

2009-08-19T18:08:00.012+04:00

A hole in the wall, filled with locals, smack in the middle of town, and not a foreigner to be seen. And the food is delicious!

My bowl of noodles with spicy pork and soup - delicious!

Have a look at the hole in the wall

In Shanghai at the moment, Shu is about to board her plane in Abu Dhabi and will join me here tomorrow. Visiting family and friends, and the odd shopping and sight seeing here and there :)

Here's some more pics from my first few days here:

Tofu, veggies, meat with hot peppers and rice for lunch

Playing Mahjong on the street

All in all, seriously enjoying myself!

Dhaka Madness

2009-07-29T11:10:00.006+04:00

Q is in Dhaka, Bangladesh for a four-day trip - Because he can, okay? Get over it, you lot!

His first text message after just landed:"Bangladeshi
passport number of the guy I'm hitching a ride with. ######. Heavy rain on
arrival. Just adds to this excitement!"

Second message:"I don't think anything can prepare you for Dhaka. It's sheer madness! I'm doing okay. On my way to a village for the night with my CS host. ... Also already met up with Andi (N.B. friend from CS who inspired the trip in the first place). Meeting up with her again tomorrow. We also already have a couch in Cairo :)"
Third:"4 hrs by bus, 10 mins in rickshaw and 20 mins by motorcycle and we are in the middle of nowhere. Lightning everywhere, so no star gazing. But the rain sounds cool. :)"

Okay, I admit that we are a bit of adrenaline junkies. But just imagine for a moment, sitting in rickshaw cutting through the heavy rain just to get to a nowhere village in Bangladesh - it does make you smile, doesn't it? :)

p.s. Here are a few photos from our recent weekend road trip to Musandam, Oman. I treated Q to a fantastic birthday dinner in an Indian eatery for a grand total of 28 dhs (less than 6 euros or 8 dollars) - Sweet!

Do You Bling?

2009-07-26T21:38:00.000+04:00

Introducing the latest addition to ultra-luxury lifestyle: Swarovski-crystal encrusted bottles of water at US$70 each! Like the 7Days article pointed out, that is the same amount of money that would supply a child in Africa with clean water for life! To the UAE distributor Harvey Nichols, I think this so-called "unique lifestyle product" is ultra-low, and it's time to uncool all the glitters!

Somebody Pinch Me!

2009-07-26T20:50:00.001+04:00

Some days I just can't help but wondering, "where the heck am I???" Today I was briefly transported to India when I received the following email from an Indian colleague, J, who I have exchanged no more than a dozen hi's in the past year.
My dear friends,

Behold a copy of my marriage invitation attached. Proof that it is finally happening! It would give me immense pleasure if you could grace the occasion by your presence. Your prayers and blessings will be appreciated in any event.

However, it would give me equal pleasure if you could come to enjoy a lunch on Monday the 17th of August at our office at 1:00 pm. It is no coincidence that the marriage ceremony is also scheduled for that day in Cochin – India. Enjoy the lunch as I bid farewell to bachelorhood.

Apparently it is very common in certain Asian and African cultures to send out an office-wide wedding invitation. Personally I think they make some of the best social celebrations, but I'd feel weird not knowing the happy couple fairly well.

Culture shock aside, it also made me smile to read the bible verse quote on the invitation, "It is not good for a man to live alone, I will make a suitable companion for him. (Gen. 2:18)"

...I'm sure they love each other very much! :)

And One of Them is Mine...

2009-07-20T20:28:00.005+04:00

Take a guess at the number of traffic fines that the Abu Dhabi police issued in the first half of 2009. Ready? *Drum roll, please!* A grand total of 705,377! In six months! According to The National report, that evens out to about "one traffic fine for every second person in the emirate"!

I'm embarrassed to admit that one of the 433,202 speeding fines is mine: a hefty AED 700 (equivalent to 140 euros or 190 dollars).

I will never speed again.
I will never speed again.
I will never speed again.
I will never speed again.
I will never speed again.
I will never speed again.
I will never speed again.
I will never speed again.
I will never speed again.
I will never speed again.

UAE's New Mercedez-Benz

2009-06-29T19:37:00.003+04:00

When I first moved to Abu Dhabi two years ago, I refused to drive the Lexus Q bought, why? Because I was a new driver and I knew better to practice on something cheaper and more basic. And what do you know, three days after I got a rental, I had a fender-bender in the crazy parking lot!

On that note, these two news caught my attention and make me wonder why UAE doesn't have that common sense. One is on Abu Dhabi's bid to host the headquarter for IRENA (International Renewable Energy Agency), and the other being the feasibility study for Dubai to host the 2020 Olympics and the World Expo.

So I am just going to be the dumb child in the Emperor's new clothes parade and say it flat out, "The UAE doesn't have relevant qualifications!" A quick search on "Germany renewable energy" returned 4.6 million results, whereas "UAE renewable energy" 322 thousands, that's 7%! Similarly "Canada sports" returned 1.76 billion results, whereas "UAE sports" only give me 6.8 million, that's less than 1%! Let's face it, with UAE being the most wasteful country and has far fewer sports facilities than shopping malls, I fail to see how these monuments can be erected on tooth picks. (All you nerds out there, don't even think about proving this.)

The main reason UAE wants them is publicity - the international gigs would make fancy show-off toys. I welcome their interests in the subject matters, but maybe they should consider practice in a Toyota first before bulldozing down the roads with their Mercedez-Benz.

Photo taken in AD traffic by a colleage. Can you tell how shiny the car was???

UAE Private Sector Workforce by Nationality

2009-06-24T20:16:00.002+04:00

This pie chart captures the essence of this report.

Abu Dhabi Moments

2009-06-22T10:44:00.008+04:00

Just thought to share with everyone some of my, what I call, "Abu Dhabi Moments".

Moment #1: The following is from a recent The National article. Keep in mind that compared to her fellow young country men/women, this young Emirati woman is significantly more motivated - she has her own boutique store! Note I used the word *has*. I can't tell how much she *runs* it since all she talked about is how much fun it is to *buy* for the store. Yipee!

Image courtesy of The National

"When I was younger, I was really not into fashion. My sister used to wear this crazy silver lipstick – it was very 1990s – but I wasn’t interested. Then suddenly one day I had a problem and I just felt like letting go. I went and bought a bag from Louis Vuitton and I’ve been a shopaholic ever since. It was the turning point."

Moment #2: I saw this with my own eyes while walking home the other day. A guy had two cell phones against his ears, one on each side, driving car with his elbows. I was

Moment #3:

Oh, guess the car model correctly to prove you are an Abu Dhabian!

The Search for a Perfect Accomodation in Damascus!

2009-05-27T17:44:00.016+04:00

Here is a question that should surely get some reaction from just about everyone: Exactly how rewarding is *planning* for a trip? My answer? It is often more rewarding than you would have initially thought! Take this weekend trip to Syria for example. Q and I only have four days, so we decided to spend it all in the the ancient city of Damascus. The search for a "perfect" accommodation has proven to be quite exciting in itself.

Our first choice for accomodation was CouchSurfing (obviously!), but not so lucky this time. The CS community seems much smaller in Damascus, oh well, hopefully we made some contacts with locals who will be able to meet up and tell us about the city they live in, so that's always good.

Then I tried the traditional hotel search on the internet. Surprise, surprise, rooms in renovated boutique hotels ain't cheap - a decent one is easily $200 per night! Hmm... I guess the old town is UNESCO for a reason!

Luckily I came across a tip recommending www.yallahouse.com, which mostly arranges accomodation for international students and long-term visitors. After some email exchanges, this is what was proposed to us...

A room in a traditional Arabic house with a fountain in the middle courtyard, for just under $40 per night! *Tada!* If that is not perfect, I don't know what is. *Tee hee hee!*

I love how much enjoyment I am getting out of this search without even leaving Abu Dhabi. :D It's true... Early bird does catch the worm, even if it has to work harder!

=====================================

And on a separate note, I previously mentioned there's a special announcement that Q was going to make but he's busy, so he delegated the task to me, so here it is.

Congratulations to Wads (N.B. Q's mother) for receiving knighthood award from the Dutch government! It was a wonderful recognition for her 30+ years of volunteering work in the philipino community!

Bart (N.B. Q's father) managed to keep it all a surprise for Wads until they arrived at the reception theatre, and everyone had a blast! Here is a photo collage of all the flower bouquets in their living room afterwards. What a celebration!!!

My Indian Visa Saga Continues...

2009-05-18T10:34:00.003+04:00

As you may recall, I missed my trip to India back in April because I couldn't get a visa in time. Well, I continued to pursue since then, hoping to clear it for any future trip plans. All the government bureaucracy aside, I still find myself drawn to the country itself.

Keep in mind that my visa application was submitted back in the beginning of April, and I ran into a major obstacle for being born in China and was required to get an additional security clearance from New Delhi.

Today, when I called my friend Mr. Sashi at the embassy, to my delight he remembered my case right away, "oh yes, the Canadian!" then he continued on in the same tone, "Oh no, we have not heard from New Delhi!" After realizing that I didn't quite share his excitement, he suggested to escalate the matter to the First Secretary Consulate, Mr. Babu, since he has "the ultimate power" for visa issuing.

After dropping my first phone call (I am sure accidentally!), Mr. Babu put me on the speaker phone - I hate discussing private issues over a speaker phone since you just don't know who else might be listening on the other end. Oh well, not like I had any choice! After explaining my situation, Mr. Babu told me that "No problem, 15 days to one month." But it has been over a month. "From today." Oooh, *another* 15 days to one month. But what if still no response, "Well, we cannot give you a visa without the clearance from New Delhi."

It just dawned on me that there is a chance that I *may never* get a visa to India. Yuk. Well, at least this whole pursuit of visa experience is making me somewhat acceptive of failures! :)

My Reverse Culture Shock

2009-05-03T14:43:00.018+04:00

Have you heard of Reverse Culture Shock before? According to Wikipedia, my new best friend after Google, "Returning to one's home culture after growing accustomed to a new one can produce the same effects as entering a foreign environment, which an affected person often finds more surprising and difficult to deal with as the original culture shock." Well, that explains all the mental flossing during my recent trip to Europe:

Munich, Germany

After living in Abu Dhabi, I am surprised to see that I have become really good at stealing traffic crossings, you know, like stealing bases in baseball games, when the traffic is light. In fact, maybe a little too good.

It's 8 pm on a Thursday night and the shops are closed! Where do people go? I think I'm experiencing culture shock, and I didn't think I would.

I had one of the best days of my life today.

There must be a book out there on how many ways to dissect a preztel! It's got such a peculiar shape. (N.B. Susi, my Couchsurfing host, told me that it resembles a man with arm crossed and hands on shoulders. :)

Eying a bunch of kids playing soccer in a huge open field, I can't help but feeling left out. How outdoor livable is Abu Dhabi?

I think I just accidentally drooled over myself when I saw two happy-happy girls riding bicycles passing by me, followed by their mother who had their younger sister on her back seat.

In the next 15 minutes, the world doesn't exist while taking a delicious nap surrounded by trees, grass, Alpen mountains and warmth of the sun. Peace!

For the first time in my life, I was transformed into a princess - in my jeans and walking shoes! The disney magic took place in a little cafe inside Neuschwanstein castle - I swear I saw sparkles flying off the distanced lake. (Video link here)

Watching trees rolling on and off the train window frame next to me is the ultimate Green Therapy.

Sitting in a BMW X6 is not the type of thing I'd ever admit to, but I'd do it just for kicks since I'm practically sitting in the home of BMWs (N.B. BMW Museum). It's like you have to try eating with chopsticks when in China!

How cool is it to see another underground train travelling in the same direction overtaking slowly. It's like watch a set of slow-motion movie frames in a pitch black space.

(N.B. After entering a brauhaus, i.e. pub) It felt like I just fell through the rabbit hole - halls of people drinking and talking and eating *at noon*. Such a contrast to the chilly and grey weather outside.

After Abu Dhabi, I think I would say "I can live here" to a lot of cities.

Cooking a super delicious food is the best way to make sure no food would go wasted!

Salzburg, Austria

I wish I were more enthusiastic about where I come from, i.e. Abu Dhabi, but I am not. And Toronto already seems so far away.

Cold water runs colder here, not warmer! Love it!

Sleeping on the balcony under the countless stars and surrounded by the Alpen mountains sounded quite stupid at first, but turned out very romantic! The only casualty were my glasses, which were blown off to the ground by wind and I ended up with a chipped lens as my souvenir.

How could one ever get tired of admiring the Alps?

I'm Debbie Downer from Abu Dhabi. Had to bite my tongue from starting sentences with "This is how it is like in Abu Dhabi..."

Travelling solo in Munich and Salzburg accounted for the first half of my trip. Here are the trip photos. I spent the remainig trip in The Hague, The Netherlands with Q and his family for a very special occassion, which will be announced when Q is back tomorrow. :)

“The streets have names! The houses numbers!”

2009-04-23T22:43:00.001+04:00

This was one of the messages Shu sent me hours after she had arrived in München, Germany, for a shortish trip to Europe.

“You can tell the Germans drive their cast fast, but well!”, was another text message she sent.

It actually brought a HUGE smile on my face :)

I guess it doesn’t make much sense unless you have spent some time here in the sandpit. For those who haven’t, here is a quote from a CouchSurfer who was going to stay with us, whom we just sent the description of our buildings’ location (building x, behind building y, on street y): “can’t you just send me the address?”, silly guy, I know, of course not, no one would understand it, let alone know how to find it!

The way-things-work-here-in-the-sandpit: All streets have numbers, most of ‘em also have names, all of them have nicknames. A map will usually show you only the official name that no one uses, and if you’re lucky, it’ll also show the number. But no one uses those either (apart from people who have just arrived and haven’t adjusted to the ‘system’), cos everyone uses the nicknames, which are on no map. Also, houses don’t have numbers, well, they do, but no one uses those. That would be too easy, eh?

So imagine the surprise of being in a country which is actually organized to use street names and house numbers for what is was intended! So one could actually give an address and find his way around!

Also, speeding is one of the main causes of accidents in this country, linked to a staggering number of deaths. But it’s not just speeding, and Germany is the prime example for this. No speed limits on most of its highways, and a relative low number of casualties on its roads. It’s more than just speeding, it’s the way people drive. And out here, it’s maniacal. The comparison I draw is the difference between driving in Manila and UAE, in Manila, traffic might be worse than in UAE, but people at least take others in consideration. Whereas here, people don’t. It’s that simple. A signal to switch lanes here is interpreted as a signal to block the other person, at all costs, to enter the lane he/she wants to enter. It’s horrible.

I guess for us, traveling outside the region, is our reality check, to know that there is a world out there which is understandable, in which people can give you an address which you can look up and actually *find* on a map!

We were talking about it for the past few weeks. We hadn’t necessarily planned to go back to Europe, but circumstances made it this way (not that we mind, mind you!). And it is our way of making sure the real world is actually out there, with real people, with real addresses!

Shu has just started her trip to München, Germany, and will also visit Salzburg, Austria, to visit friends, and then will join me in The Hague, The Netherlands. I will join her there, flying in from Brussels (where else?! Anywhere else would just have made sense!).

It’ll be a welcome week surrounded by friends and pamily, and addresses that make sense :)