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Trekking- what an adventure. We hiked for 8 days between Mardi Himal and Annapurna Base camp (ABC). We could have just done Mardi Himal alone in 4 days, but we wanted to extend our stay in the mountains a little longer so we cut into the ABC trek when we could.

From Pokhara we started by getting a local shuttle bus to the Baglung bus terminal, grabbed a bus to Kande from there, and from Kande we started our adventure. We hiked the first day for about three hours after a late start to the trek (early start to the day, but waiting for buses takes a long time). We arrived to our first teahouse (like a guest house) in Deurali (2100m) thankfully just before the rain started, around 3pm, and then it poured for a couple hours solid. We met lots of other trekkers at the teahouse we stayed in; we were a group of about 20 who were all heading up the next day. There was a cozy wood stove that made the dining hall really warm and enjoyable to be in. I had hand washed our socks and underwear so the stove also helped dry everything by morning. After meeting some new people and playing a few card games, we went to bed early and prepared our bags for the next morning.

We woke up at 5:45 and had ordered our breakfast for 6:15 knowing the bigger groups were getting theirs at 6:30. We wanted to be ahead of them to ensure we had a room everywhere we went (we always did) because those trekking with guides would have booked the rooms in advance and we didn’t want to end up sleeping in the dining halls. Also the rain always starts around 2-4pm so we wanted to be done hiking by then everyday to avoid being soaked.

We made a stop in Forest camp (2600m) for some food (slightly cheaper food prices here than anywhere else) and kept on our journey to the top. We reached Low Camp (2990m) around 2pm (about 7 hours of hiking/rest stops), had some hot showers, I washed a few crucial clothing items, and there were more games of cards in the warm dining hall. The food here and service wasn’t so great, it took forever for us and this Dutch/French couple we met to get anything we ordered, but at least we had good company.

The next morning we were up again at 5:45 and ready to go by 7. Our washing had dried perfectly by the fire and we had high spirits of making it to High camp today (3580m). There is no actual lodge at Base camp (4500m), so High camp is as close as you can get to staying there. It was a short hiking day, only 2.5-3 hours, so we tried to figure out what to do with the rest of our day. I didn’t want to do any washing up there because it was just too damn cold, so instead we, along with the Dutch/French couple, decided to check out a part of the hike to base camp before calling it quits. It was really nice not having a bag to carry, but with the thinner air it still wasn’t easy to hike. As the clouds rolled in, we turned around and near the end of our hike the hail started. We made it back to the teahouse safely and cozied up to the wood stove with some tea. I stretched out my muscles a bit and thanked the heavens for the luxury of not having to camp outside, like some groups had paid for.

We were up extra early the next morning, at 4AM. I hadn’t slept well that night because I was so cold, so needless to say I was tired. I briefly debated not going for sunrise, but Harry bugged me until I got up and I finally crawled out from the blankets. Some people got breakfast, we opted for granola bars and that was enough for us at that early hour.

Equipped with headlamps, we headed out with the Dutch/French couple and began our ascent. The terrain was snowy, rocky, and slippery. When the sun eventually started to peak from behind the mountains, it became very muddy as well. Regardless, we all made it to the first, second, and final viewpoints of the trek. We were surrounded by giant mountains that felt so close we could touch them. It was an incredible feeling, one that keeps me coming back to these mountainous regions and forces me to keep trekking even though it’s very physically demanding. It was worth all of the effort and I would do it again in a heartbeat if I had another chance.

Harry and Steve (a British guy) continued on to base camp. The map said it was another 3.2km with 500m elevation gain, so everyone else wasn’t so ecstatic about it. The views from base camp aren’t any better than the ones from the third viewpoint, so going there just ensures certain bragging rights and an ego boost. At the time I was with a Danish girl, so she and I headed back while the boys went to base camp. We still have our own bragging rights because between the four of us, the Dutch/French couple, and a Spanish guy, no one else even made it to the final viewpoint, they all stopped at the second point, which still had a nice view but not quite the same.

I turned around because knowing how quickly the rain/snow comes mixed with how much longer it would take me to get there than the boys, it just didn’t make sense for me to go. We still had to descend down to Forest camp that same day so I didn’t want to waste my energy. Enough excuses though. We all made it down quick enough, the boys only arriving back to High camp 45 minutes after we did (it apparently wasn’t so hard after all), and Harry and I had a quick meal before going down as quickly as we could to Forest camp. Down is, of course, much faster than up, so we didn’t have too many problems. My muscles and knees were pretty done by that point though; I was ready to be finished for the day. We all had hot showers and I did some laundry. It dried nicely by the wood stove, where we played our last game of cards with the French/Dutch couple.

The next day, they left for Pokhara. We decided to take another route to the Jinhu hot springs. We trekked down to Landruk, then up to New Bridge and finally Jinhu. About half an hour before making it to Jinhu, we were caught in the pouring rain. We were hot from trekking but the rain and wind were very cold. By the time we arrived to Jinhu, I was shivering and ready for some warmth, but apparently there are no wood stoves along the ABC trail any longer, which was a HUGE disappointment. The coziness in the teahouses was gone. So, we dropped our stuff and hiked down to the hot springs. There we had to take showers in the natural hot water showers (which were really hot) before entering the pool (which was fairly warm-ish). The temperatures of the water didn’t really make sense, and also the water was still quite dirty regardless of people showering, so I can’t say they were my favourite hot springs I’ve been too. Still, they were nice to relax and warm up in for a short while before heading up to avoid more rain.

We were up especially early the next morning because along the ABC trail it’s super busy and you really never know if you’re going to get a room or not without booking in advance. It being the end of high season, there weren’t as many people so it was alright. We hiked for about 5 hours up to Bamboo camp. We debated going further, but I wanted to stop here to do some much needed laundry (I had slipped in the mud the day before in my only warm pants). So we stayed and read the books we brought. We found it a bit harder to make instant friends here because it’s mostly big groups, older folks, and families on this trek, and they often keep to themselves a bit more. We were in a teahouse with a group of 20 Thai people, so we made more conversations with the guides that afternoon and evening.

The next morning, the usual happened as on any trek I go on- I caught a cold. Knives in my throat, runny nose, headache, etc. We had been planning to go up to ABC all the way and were only a night away from it, it was so tempting to continue up. So we decided to still try in a way that made things a lot easier for me. We left my backpack behind and brought only the essentials for one night in Harry’s bag, and he carried everything (Good Guy Harry). We made it maybe half an hour in before I started feeling worse and worse, and eventually I told Harry I couldn’t go on like this. So, because of my stupid cold, we couldn’t make it to ABC. We turned around and headed down- we had still seen some amazing sights. If it had been warmer where we were with wood stoves and if I had some proper medicine, I might have stayed an extra night at Bamboo and let Harry go enjoy the views up top, but we knew I would only continue getting worse if I stayed and we still had to hike it down.

We grabbed our stuff from Bamboo (Harry carried all of my heavier items) and made it down to Jinhu. We considered going further, but the rain started and I wasn’t really feeling up for it anyhow. We were only three hours hiking away from where we would catch the bus, and we definitely wouldn’t make it today anyway, so we were in a pretty good spot.

We met a really cool French couple there who had gotten a very good deal on what must have been the best room in all of Jinhu. Harry and I had been staying for 200 rupees ($2) per night (total, not each) and they were staying for 600 per night in this “fancy” room that had an attached bathroom and two huge windows open only to the mountains and forest. The bed was super comfy and they even had hot water when the sun was shining. Had we known we could get a deal like that, we definitely would have done it (they were staying for two nights so had some bargaining power). But the room was taken now and we had already settled in our cardboard box room, so we stuck with it.

The next morning we slept in a little (6:30-7am) and made our way to the bus stop in Siwai. We got there just in time to catch the bus and were on our way to Pokhara again. After maybe an hour we made it, then hopped on a public bus to get closer to our hotel, then walked another 20-30 minutes to finally reach it. We arrived and had much needed showers, food, and rest. Despite not making it to ABC, we were glad to finally relax our feet and muscles for a while.

Now we are chillaxing in Pokhara and I am slowly getting better. We have moved to a nicer hotel closer to the center for the same price. It has comfier beds, fast wifi, and great showers, so it’s a perfect spot to get healthy again. And now I can get all of those pricy vegan, non-GMO, organic smoothies to help me get better (I’m too cheap so I go for honey, lemon, ginger tea and the odd carrot juice).

We are heading to Kathmandu in about a week, and I probably won’t have any updates until we head to our next country- Myanmar. So until then, folks!

I am now back in the country where the travel bug first really bit me- Nepal. Four and a half years ago I fell in love with the mountainous valley of Pokhara while volunteering at an orphanage and venturing into the Himalayas with some walking sticks and a large backpack. Before I get into that, I’ll finish off with India.

Harry and I arrived to Agra after about 4-5 hours of being on the train; the ride should have been 2-3, but it’s India so delays are expected. We hopped on a rickshaw to the Pizza Hut, where we would meet our new Couchsurfing host. From there our host, Rohit, took us to his hotel where we got an early nights rest in preparation for sunrise at the Taj Mahal.

After a poor nights sleep due to mosquitos buzzing around our heads all night, we dragged ourselves out of bed at 5AM to get to the ticket office by 5:30AM, which is when the crowd starts. You want to be the first person in the Taj to get the perfect pictures without anyone it your shots, but it’s hardly possible. Even at 5:30 the line up was long and the gates weren’t going to open for another half hour. My “perfect shot” actually took some hours of photoshopping out the crowd because by the time we entered there were already at least 50 people in front of us. But, regardless of people, it was still a spectacular sight to see. The architecture was, of course, beautiful; some of the detail was so intricate in the designs and everything was so symmetrical.

We learned the history behind the Taj Mahal- it is a Muslim structure (there is a mosque on site) and it was created as a tomb for the favourite wife (Mumtaz Mahal) of an emperor in the 17th century (Shah Jahan). It is one of the new 7 Wonders of the World. That is, of course, the long story short. If you want to know more, Wikipedia is probably more helpful than I.

Anyway, we were really glad we got to see the grand Taj finally. It nearly marked an end to our India journey- we had to then sit in our Couchsurfers clothing/gift shop for the next several hours while we waited for our night train to leave to Varanasi. It was alright though, we managed to find stuff to do and that night had a really good (and cheap) meal from the restaurant next door.

Around 10PM, our host drove us to the train station. Our train was to leave at 11PM. Something like four hours later, we finally caught our train. India, I tell you.

Our train being that late also meant we were arriving to Varanasi much later. We ended up being on that train for about 24 hours, it was supposed to be 10-12. At that moment we were really glad we hadn’t cheaped out and bought 3AC seats instead of sleeper or general. We knew it would be a long ride so we figured it wasn’t worth the pain of the lower classes. I wasn’t sad to be missing the heat of the day, the smells, the dust, people hoarking out the windows, etc. It was almost like we were in another world for 24 hours. Then we arrived in Varanasi and remembered where we were.

We were there around 3AM and still needed to get to the tourist centre. Rickshaws were trying to charge us upwards of 200 rupees, a complete rip-off, just because of the time (and our white faces). After much searching and bargaining, we finally found a guy to take us for 60 rupees. We were happy to have saved a total of about $2.80. I’m sure back home most of you are thinking, “Why would you even bother going through the hassle of bargaining for such a small amount of money??” There are three main reasons, the first being you can’t think in “back home currency”, you have to think, “What would a local pay” in order to know what a fair price is. The second reason is purely respect. The locals will think you’re just another dumb tourist if you don’t bargain to the bitter end. They might not like you so much if you get a cheaper price from them, but at least they will respect you and know you are to be taken seriously. The third is principle. It’s not right for locals to rip you off just because you have more money than them. I understand paying a bit more, and both Harry and I don’t mind it, but upping the price more than double is just wrong.

Anyway, we made it one way or another for a fair price to where we wanted to go, found a cheap room, and crashed until noon. We spent the next two days checking out religious sites and rituals, but blasted pretty fast through Varanasi because we just wanted to move on to Nepal.

After a couple nights there we were already making our way to the bordering country. We spent one night in a super awful hotel room in a city called Gorakhpur. We didn’t have a choice, it would not be a good idea to try to continue the journey through the night. All of the hotels were horrible. But I mean- this was reallllly bad. The dirtiest room I’ve ever stayed in, hands down. There was a little turd (about human sized) in the corner of the room, not even in the bathroom. That’s how bad we’re talking right now. We maybe would have chosen for a slightly better room but it was all we could afford with the currency we had left and it would have been really silly for us to get out more at the time (the ATMs charge you $5 every time when all we needed was $5). So we sucked it up and spent the night there. We were only there for about 6 hours anyway because we got up early to catch the 6AM bus to the border of Nepal, where we could finally live a little more peacefully.

We were still several hours away from peace because of the border crossing and the long bus ride to Pokhara (about 10 hours). But we were happy when we were granted our visas and were on the bus. Most of Nepal is a lot like India mixed with China/Tibet. Pokhara is the same but also with a very heavy Western influence. So until we finally arrived, we almost felt like we had never left India…except for the fact that the people are a lot less rude. That was an instant relief.

Over the past 4.5 years, Pokhara has become even more westernized and a lot has changed. The hotels have become much more plentiful and bigger, there are new outdoor shopping “centres” (not like a mall or anything, like a plaza with a few expensive shops). The prices have gone up a lot and it’s much harder to find cheap deals on things. And, on the positive side, it’s become a lot cleaner. There is still rubbish in the lake and here and there along the roads, but much less than the last time I was here. Also there are less cows on the road and stray dogs. I’m not sure if they were sent to other villages, adopted, dare I say euthanized, but somehow most of them have disappeared. They are also going to build an international airport here. I think to some extent they’ve gone too far- when I first came here, Pokhara had already lost it’s local charm but it still burned a bit beneath the tourism; now the flame has just been extinguished all together. You have to walk quite far out to see the real local side of the city. It’s nice to have decent western delights here, like REAL pizza, good (not great) baked goods, and all the vegan, raw, non-GMO, organic, soy free smoothies your hearth desires. But it’s really just another tourist city now.

Despite losing a bit more of it’s charm, we were super happy to be in Pokhara. We stayed a bit out of the tourist centre with some Polish Couchsurfing hosts, who provided us with the perfect room, super fast wifi, nice hot showers, and not to mention awesome company- everything we could have dreamed of. They were here for 6 months on their honeymoon and getting ready to leave because their visas wouldn’t let them stay another longer. Dominik is a software engineer, working on the road on some app development, and Patty is getting her massage therapy certification so she can eventually support herself that way. She is also a great cook and made us some really delicious meals during our time there. We ended up staying with them for about a week, maybe a bit longer even, and then they left to do one last trek before having to leave the country.

Harry and I moved to a hotel ($7/night), which was fine, but we did miss the luxury of being in their cozy house with the best wifi in Nepal. And that’s where we are now- prepping for our own trek. We’re about to do Mardi Himal, a lesser-known trek around the Annapurna Base Camp (ABC) area. I will let you know how it went when we get back; ttfn, ta ta for now.

March 18th Jaisalmer to Bikaner by bus: 6 hours, 6am-12pm
March 18th Bikaner to Amritsar by bus: 10.5 hours, 6pm-4:30am
March 19th visited the Golden temple until sunrise, 4:45am-7am
March 19th Amritsar to Chandigarh by train: 6 hours, 9:30am-3:30pm

We did that all in one go, and it was brutal. BUT, that’s what travelling is about sometimes. Not all parties, beaches, and “enlightening” experiences, that’s for sure. The journeys you make can take a toll on you; I’ve probably lost a year or two of my life just from the stress I’ve put on my body from crazy bus rides and lack of sleep. I will say though, I have never regretted a single adventure. Except for that time I got my camera stolen and didn’t have insurance. That I regretted big time.

Anyway.

We are now in Delhi again (yaaaay, everyone’s favourite city <3 [ehem- major sarcasm]) filling our lungs with pollution, dust, plastic ash from when they burn garbage, and god knows what else. The cows seem to live on a solid died of plastic and they survive though so maybe it’s not that bad after all 😐

So looking back a bit- Bikaner there wasn’t much to do so we hung out in an air conditioned Dominoes for a few hours, lost track of time, and ended up almost being late for our bus. Out of desperation we hitch hiked on the back of a motorbike to make it to the station on time. That was the ONLY bus going, and it was expensive, so we didn’t have any other option than to make it. No tuk-tuks were picking us up and one really nice guy stopped to see if we needed help, and since we didn’t have our big bags, he was able to help us get to the station. We are forever grateful to him.

After a long night bus where we didn’t even get sleeper class, we arrived in Amritsar to see the Golden temple in all of its glory. This was my second time seeing it, but my first time actually going inside. Last time I was alone and there is this really long line you have to wait in to get inside. When you’re alone, it’s boring. This time I at least had Harry with me to keep me company, so it was alright. No photos are allowed inside so I’m sorry to say I have nothing to show for that. I do have a million photos of other Gurudwaras (Sikh temples like this one) if anyone is REALLY interested. But this is THE Gurudwara of all Gurudwaras, so it holds a very special status.

After we were done checking out sunrise, we moved to a cafe to see what we should do next. We considered staying in Amritsar for a night, but we figured it was better if we just kept going for now because we wanted to go to a much farther place next (Shimla). We looked up trains and caught the next one to Chandigarh, with general class. We did not have assigned seats, but still managed to grab some in the crowded space. The train is a lot nicer than the bus because it’s quieter, no honking, only a distant train horn once in a while. Also the bus is jerky with its harsh stops and go’s, and the train is much smoother. ALSO. It’s so cheap if you go general class; we often only pay 50 rupees (1 CAD) for tickets to places that are several hours away.

A quick explanation on the more common train classes of India. (Note: currently 50 rupees = 1 CAD dollar, easy math)
General/2nd seating– It’s the same car, but for general you don’t reserve a seat and 2nd seating you do. There is a minor difference in cost, less than 50 rupees for shorter (4-6 hour) journeys. General is around 100 for a 4-6 hour ride, 2nd seating about 120-140. One time we just jumped on a train because it was leaving that moment and ended up going the whole way without anyone asking us to pay. Free ride! There are downsides of course, it can be dirty, either from people throwing trash or dust/ash from outside, but I never saw any rats like some people had told me. It can get REALLY crowded, or it can be really empty, it just depends on the time and the destination. You will have people coming through the trains trying to sell chai, snacks, water, etc throughout the ride.
Sleeper– This class has actual “beds” you can sleep on that people use as seats during the day. Same as general, it can be dirty, but it won’t be as crowded. During he day most people sit, but at night, you can unfold the “beds” and lay on your reserved rack. There are three tiers stacked on top of each other, which works out just fine because you still have enough room to breath. You aren’t given any blankets or anything, but you might not need them depending on the time of year and where you’re going. If you do, bring a light sleeping bag, or at least a sleeping bag liner is nice to have, and a travel pillow. You will also get people constantly running through the trains selling things, but it’s not so bad if you’re wanting something to snack on. The price is something like 200-250 rupees for 4-8 hours I believe, still pretty cheap. You might end up doing some berth swapping here, it happened to me a few times in the past, either because a whole family wants to sit in one section or you have a lower berth and an older person has an upper. Makes sense, no harm in switching. If you’re tall-ish though, you want the section that has six seats facing each other, because if you’re on the wall side then you won’t fit. On the 3×3 seats, your feet can hang off the edge at least.
3AC– This is where it’s at if you want comfort and not TOO expensive. It’s still pretty pricy for India, but likely still cheap for you. Usually we’re too cheap to pay it though haha. They go for around 550+ for a 4-6 hour ride, but they are much cleaner. The AC is nice if it’s hot, but even if it’s not all of the windows are closed off to the outside smells and dust. The people here are much more educated and often speak at least a bit of English, and they won’t be hoarking up throat goop or chewing tobacco like in the other classes. The people here have paid for peace and quiet, so that’s what they want, although they still won’t hesitate to strike up a conversation with you. There are less people running through here offering you snacks, but still enough if you want something. Otherwise, the layout is exactly like sleeper, maybe with a bit more room. Because it can be a bit chill here, they offer free sheets to keep you cozy.
2AC– We’re starting to get real fancy here. This is where the slightly more elite Indians travel. Ticket prices are, of course, getting quite pricy here. About 900 for a 4-6 hour journey. You do get a free bedding set here as well, and there are only four people per berth instead of six. People often keep to themselves a bit more here; many people are business men/women doing some work on their journey. It’s about the same price as some cheap buses in Europe, but I would say more comfortable than them.
1AC– This can be about the cost of cheap Ryanair flight in Europe, or maybe the cost of a cheap bus in Vancouver, going for 1500 for a 4-6 hour journey. I’ve never used this class personally, I can’t justify it when I’m travelling in a country that SHOULD be cheaper than home. From what I’ve heard, there are berths with 2-4 people, depending on which side you’re on, and the cushions are softer for sitting and lying down. You have actual doors and can slide them shut, even lock them! This might be a good class for someone travelling with a lot of expensive photography gear, or for famous people. For me, though, it’s just not necessary.

Back to the story. About 6 hours later, we arrived in Ambala, a city not too far from Chandigarh. We hopped on a cheap bus to Chandigarh, about an hour, and then caught a local bus to the Punjab University. There, we met up with our Couchsurfing host, who introduced us to some of his friend circle. We grabbed a quick bite, then all sat on the grass lawn within the university grounds. We chatted over chai, then finally our host took us to his place where we crashed as soon as we could. After being in transit for two full days, I can really say we were tired.

We meant to stay for one night, but we needed a full chill day so ended up staying another. We got to do some work and I played a bit with our hosts German Shepard puppy, who was just the most adorable thing ever. While walking to a lunch spot, we also discovered that weed grows everywhere in this area, completely freely. It was really bizarre to see, but interesting to hear that no one really picks it/uses it. It’s a cultural thing. That night we spent some time getting to know our host and he helped us do a bit of trip planning, then it was time for bed.

The next day we made our way to Shimla. We started by taking a bus to Kalka, then hopped on the “Toy Train”, one of the attractions, to reach Shimla. It’s a cute train, but very slow. The journey is fairly scenic and I recommend taking it so you can see sunset along the way. There are several different trains you can take; we took the cheapest one of course, for about 50 rupees each. If I went again though, I might take the more expensive one for about 200, only because the whole time the fumes were SUPER strong in the cars, and it gave me a big headache and sick feeling. The AC cars are closed so I’m guessing you can’t smell it at all. The downside is that you can’t take cool pictures or see the scenery quite as well as in the cheap cars.

Six hours later, we were in Shimla. We walked two km to meet up with our host there, who was our Chandigarh host’s brother. He was a really cool guy who lived with his co-worker in a government house, given to them rent-free because of the job they have. The brother let Harry try on one of his turbans (see below) and we generally had a lot of fun with them and will always appreciate their awesome hospitality.

Shimla is a small city in the mountains. It’s got some really beautiful viewpoints and lots of hikes/treks around. We didn’t do any because we will be doing two in the Himalayas of Nepal, so we’re saving our money for that. We did do a small “hike” (not really) to this monkey temple that had a giant monkey/man statue. There were a lot of monkeys around so it fit quite well. It was a lot cooler there than the rest of India; we actually wore long pants and sweaters, it was amazing. I really loved the colder weather, I still miss it, can’t wait for more mountains!

After Shimla, we took a bus to get to Rishikesh. Because the bus ride was so long, we had to make an overnight stop in Dehradun, which is maybe an hour from Rishikesh. We had a really cool host there, so it wasn’t so bad. I say cool because he was a night photographer, like me, and even had the same gear as I do. Being a shooter in India though, that’s tough when you’re doing night skies. The pollution really takes away most of the stars. Of course having a decent camera helps, but it’s really not the same as shooting in Australia, for example.

Anyway, we made it to Rishikesh the next day easily. It is another holy city like Pushkar, and like Varanasi (our next destination). It’s also a major yoga hub for all of the western yogis out there, offering lots of classes in both the physical and mental (meditation) aspects of the practice. It’s also a hub for many extreme sports, such as paragliding, rafting (Harry did this, I skipped), mountain biking, and trekking. It has a beautiful section of the Ganges running through it, one that is actually blue/green instead of mucky-dirt. The water looks clear and non-toxic, unlike what you would see of the Ganges in Varanasi. The water is quite chilly, but refreshing during the hot days.

We only stayed for two nights again because of the heat, and we’re now ready to move on from India at this point. It’s a hard country to travel, too much stimulation all the time. Some people do it for 2-3 months, I don’t know how they do it, we’ve done it for about a month and a half. So we made a quick two night trip in Delhi with an AMAZING host that I could not speak highly enough about. We wanted to stay one night, but his hospitality and kindness lured us into spending another night. Naveen (our host) lives with his wife, Pooja, and their two brilliant twin sons. He doesn’t speak much English, but through Couchsurfing has learned so much in just a few months and understands everything we say. He can mostly get his point across as well, which is good enough for us. Pooja’s English is great and the twins speak Hindi, English, and French very well, so that also helped. The twins are also talented in piano, guitar, rubix cubes, crazy fast math, and who knows what else. They are smart boys, way too intelligent for their age (around 13). Naveen and Pooja drove us around, had food prepared for us for breakfast and dinner, helped us figure out trains, and even paid for our ticket (we tried to decline but they had already booked!). We spent some cool nights together eating great food and chatting about anything and everything, and being amazed by the boys. We had a comfortable private room to relax in to top it all off- what more could we ask for?

But, we had to leave eventually, so we had the ticket booked and are now at the train station. They had made us a lunch but forgot to bring it, we said no worries and we didn’t expect a lunch at all. Of course they came back five minutes later with some drinks and a bag of snacks. They were too good to us! Anyway- off to Agra to see the Taj Mahal, something I missed last time, can’t wait to finally see it! We are nearing the end to our India journey, so close to Nepal I can almost feel it! I will leave with that for now, until next time.

We’ve been to quite a few places since my last post; we’re blasting through Rajasthan fairly quickly but still giving ourselves enough time to see what we need to see. We have lots of spare time on this trip so we don’t have to feel rushed or like we have a million deadlines to make. It’s nice to relax in a place for a couple days vs taking bus after bus after bus (which is actually what we’re doing today). So here’s what’s been up:

After Jaipur, Harry and I took a bus to Ajmer. From there we caught a local bus to Pushkar, a tiny little hippy town in the desert. It’s one of the holy cities in India, lots of ceremonies were happening while we were there. There are many temples and ghats (stairs leading down to water) all around this small, man-made lake that would be nicer to sit by if there wasn’t so much pigeon poop everywhere. It was otherwise a lovely sunset spot.

We walked around looking for a hostel/hotel, and came across a hotel with a great view and chill-out area on top for only 400 rupees (8 CAD) for a private room, the perfect place. We watched the monkeys jump from roof to roof while sunset was happening and relaxed after the long bus rides.

Pushkar is a city of European hippies who come to juggle, make jewellery, hula-hoop, or dance in a drum circle. This place sold the most jewellery, elephant pants, eccentric crop tops, and hookah I’ve ever seen. Regardless, it’s quite beautiful and quiet for India standards. Also the hippies are harmless so I don’t mind them.

In the morning, we did a sunrise walk from our hotel to the top of this hill, it took us about an hour all in all. We could have taken a cable car from the bottom but it was a pretty easy walk up in the cool dawn. There were some monks at the top to greet us, and a few other fellow travellers. We watched the sun rise over the mountains and slowly hit the city below; it was worth the walk up. On our way down, not too long after sunrise, we ran in to all of the locals who were singing and praying on their way up. Kudos to them, I would have cable car’d it up in the heat for sure.

We spent most of our time chilling at the top of our hotel because it was so nice, and there wasn’t too much to do there anyway. So when we were ready, we moved on to Udaipur by bus. That was about 7 hours if I’m not mistaken, and 250 rupees (5 CAD).

Udaipur has two lakes side by side and are connected by a dam of sorts. The main touristy lake has a palace and a fancy hotel on it that you can get a room for something like $20,000 if you like. Famous people stay there, according to their website.

We found a room for even cheaper there, we bargained for 1000 rupees for 3 nights (20 CAD), pretty good deal. Our hotel was very central too so we walked around after, got some food, and then straight to bed.

The next day we spent checking out the lake and doing another small hike, this time for sunset. It was worth it, very beautiful from the top because you could see the palace and the hotel from above. There was a temple up there as well, and some caged rats for some reason. We also could have taken a cable car here but with the time it would have taken to catch it from the line-up, we would already be finished with the hike.

After Udaipur, we took another long bus up to Jodhpur, the Blue City. The reason it’s the blue city is because there are so many buildings painted blue. If you ask the locals why they’re blue, no one knows the real answer. There are theories it is because blue helps keep the houses cool in the heat, or because there is a lot of indigo in the area and it’s an easy colour to make, or it was to mark who was and wasn’t Brahman. The truth will never be known.

There is a big fort at the top of the hill, Mehrangarh Fort. It’s got a lot of interesting history and some secret tunnels inside that were there in case the fort was attacked and they needed to move the women and children. It was also there to move royalty in secret, and only a few people know where the other side is.

Aside from visiting a fort, we mainly just walked around, looking for blue. We found lots of it around the old town, and from looking down from the fort. It is photographers heaven really, so much colour contrast with the ladies and their bright outfits. I found that was the best part of Jodhpur and almost wished I could stick around longer to explore more blue alleyways.

We visited a monument that looked like a small palace, quite beautifully built with marble. It’s a monument for a man named Maharaja Jaswant Singh II, built by his son as a memorial. The entrance fee is quite cheap so it’s worth a visit. Walking back from it, two men on a motorbike stopped by on the road and offered Harry a job as an extra on some Bollywood movie they were filming at the fort. It was an Indian version of Pirates of the Caribbean and he would be a British soldier. A pretty cool opportunity, definitely not something done for the money though (1000 rupees (20 CAD) for 12 hours). Had the hours not been so crazy (6pm-6am) he would have done it, and I would have gotten to join for the free catering. Unfortunately, we had to catch a bus early the next morning, so we’d couldnt say yes. Next time!

The Gold City was our next destination: Jaisalmer, which is right next to the Thar desert. It’s called the gold city because, like Pushkar, most of the buildings are painted/naturally one colour- gold. It’s got a large fort atop which must have been at least a partially man-made hill (maybe not), and it’s so large that there’s a whole city inside. Very touristy, not my favourite city I will say, but we got to go on an overnight camel tour in the desert and that was a lot of fun.

We found the tour from a hostel inside the city walls for 950 rupees each (19 CAD), and it was a good deal because most places were selling for upwards of 1500. We had heard about some bad tours for cheap, but this guy seemed very legit, so we went with his tour. We had made some Canadian friends at our couchsurfer’s hotel who were doing the tour with the hotel for 1700, so we thought we’d compare and contrast after.

On the tour, a German guy and a British couple joined us, which was great for the extra company. We started by getting a jeep ride around 2:30pm to a tiny, abandoned village. The history I couldn’t get super clear…but I believe the ruler was a horrible guy and so overnight all of the inhabitants up and left 200 years ago, and no one returned. Now it’s mostly piles of sand stone and plastic from tourists.

Next we drove off to another tiny village (inhabited) and got on some very healthy looking camels. They are treated well there because the locals know a lot of things wouldn’t be possible without them, so they want to keep them in good condition. We rode for about an hour until we found our private sand dune to camp out at, and stopped there.

Our guides made us a lovely dinner of dal (lentils), mixed vegetables, chapatti, and rice. Then we watched sunset and after they sang some desert songs with a large water bottle and tin plate for instruments. They rolled out our mats on top of the sand and that was where we slept under the stars, no tent required. For India, it was quite beautiful because it’s not that often you can see some decent stars. There were some large dung beetles crawling around throughout the night, but they didn’t seem to want to go on top of our mats so much as underneath them, so that was fine. The best part was that there were no mosquitoes, so for once I wasn’t being terrorized by tiny insects.

We woke up the next morning right before the sun rose. We all had slept fairly well for the mats we were given, no complaints from anyone. Two of our guides made us breakfast while the other one went searching for the camels, who had all disappeared during the night (normal apparently). In the end they found most of them but were still missing one, so we returned to Jaisalmer while the one guide and his brother went searching for this last camel.

That night we met a cool couple, another Canadian and an Australian, and ended up having dinner with them and chatting about our travels, work visas, world politics, and all the things travellers talk about. We then saw the others who had paid 1700 for their tour, and came to the conclusion it was nearly the exact same experience. So my advice to anyone doing it- fine a decent price, but only go with someone trustworthy, otherwise you might end up on one of the bad tours that are supposedly out there.

It was a good end to our stay in Jaisalmer; the next morning we were on a bus by 6am to Bikaner, which is where I’m writing this post. It’s a town less travelled, even we’re not here to see it. We’re just passing through to see Amritsar and the Golden Temple. We’re taking another bus at 6pm, overnighter that will get us to Amritsar around 4am. So it’s going to be a long few days, wish us luck.

I am back in India again, I really can’t believe it. It’s such a crazy place that drives all of your senses mad constantly. It’s hard to escape the noise, smell, dust, and general pollution all at once. But, nonetheless, I still managed to get myself back here so I could see all of the things I missed from my last trip.

Harry and I arrived in Delhi a few days before the Holi festival (more on that in a minute). The first thing I recognized was the smell when I opened the airport doors to officially enter the country. It’s a smell unlike any other I’ve ever smelt- but you get used to it. We hopped on the metro with our big backpacks (although we’re pretty lightly packed) and made our way to our first couchsurfers home (Aditya).

Three metro lines later, we walked a short walk to his house. Aditya’s wife, Nisha, was there to greet us. She is a lovely lady, very quiet maybe because her English isn’t so great, but super nice and welcoming. We met Aditya 15 minutes later and were treated with the highest hospitality they could offer. A great bed, warm shower, kitchen- what more do you need? There was a Colombian surfer there as well, who we got to meet later. He was also a really cool guy and he was travelling with his huge Nikon kit (body and three large lenses). It made me feel a bit ashamed for wimping out and bringing only my tiny Fuji, but this was exactly what I bought it for.

Nisha and I cooked some wonderful meals together and I got to try some amazing curries. Nothing I haven’t had before, but she really knows how to cook them well. Now I’m pretty sure I can make authentic butter chicken when I get home, which tastes nothing like what you make from the jar, mom.

Harry and I explored a temple (Akshardham) and some markets. At one of the markets, Harry bought a tailor made suit for only 60CAD; we haven’t seen it yet so we have our fingers crossed it doesn’t fall apart after wearing it once. I bought a shirt to cover my shoulders since I no longer own any for hot climates, and I am still on the look out for a nice skirt to cover my knees. Head, shoulders, and knees need to be covered here to enter certain temples, some it’s just shoulders and knees. Clothes here are cheap enough after some hard bargaining, so I figured it’s better to buy things here than in Belgium.

Then Holi happened. We came to India a few days earlier than we had to (my visa said I had to leave March 5th, but we left Feb 26) specifically so we could experience this festival. It celebrates spring, love, and new life and commemorates the deity Krishna. It’s the one I’m sure you’ve seen pictures of before, with all of the colour powder that gets thrown around. It’s super crazy in certain temples, people throw water on you and colour, sometimes it’s got some chemicals in it and it stays on you for a week. I’m still trying to get some of it off. But it was a lot of fun; we started by celebrating with some kids in Adytia’s complex. The photos attached will show what happened there. Then we walked the streets of Delhi and people would often stop and bless us with colour and give us a hug. That, or they would throw water balloons (sometimes buckets) at us. It was all good though, we had a great time and are really glad we got to see it.

Our next destination was Jaipur. There we stayed with another host- but in his hotel. We got a nice hotel room for free, with everything we needed to have a really comfortable stay. We got to hang out with our host a bit and he was also a really warm, welcoming guy. He made sure we were well taken care of and offered advice on whatever we wanted to know about. He is a well travelled man who has been to both Belgium and Canada, so that was kind of cool to chat about.

We visited a few forts I had been to before; Nahargarh, Amer, and Jaigarh. All very interesting places with a lot of history, and a lot of monkeys. Jaipur in general seems to have a large monkey population. When we were browsing through the street markets they were also jumping around from roof to tower to whatever else they could hang off of. We also visited the lake palace at sunset for some nice photos and to watch it light up at night. All of these places are very beautiful and well worth a visit if you’re in town.

We are now in Pushkar, a little hippy destination in the desert of Rajasthan. Here clothes are near-optional (for the westerners), or at least some hippies like to express that, but I can kind of see why because of the harsh heat that hits in the midday. It’s thankfully not humid, so I don’t mind it as much, but it still makes an impact on you. Harry and I are currently chilling at the top of our hotel (8CAD/night for a private room) and listening to some bizarre, trippy, indo-hippy type music that screams “let’s get high”- maybe not our style, but it’s a really nice break from the crazy big cities with constant honking. The honking is here too, don’t get me wrong it’s EVERYWHERE, but it’s less in comparison. Although last night there was a wedding going on and so the whole city/village had to hear it because it’s such a tiny desert community. The party went on maybe until 3 or 4 AM. Thank the lord Shiva for earplugs.

Anyway, it’s hot and I’ve been staring at my screen for too long, so peace, love, happiness, and all that other hippy mumbo jumbo, I will be back within two weeks if I’m not being lazy.

Nearly three years ago, my German friend Mia and I decided to go on a road trip together. Long story short, we picked up Harry in a bar, and Mia’s roommate Kate, and the four of us embarked on a pretty epic journey along the west coast of Canada and the USA, then back up through the canyon lands and the Rockies. We were all stuck in my tiny little 2 door Civic for 25 days, lots of shenanigans were had, needless to say.

We had met up once more in Canada for a mini road trip before we all went our separate ways (Kate back to Australia, Mia to Germany, Harry to South America, and myself to Asia), and now we got to meet up again a third time in Europe. Ideas started forming when Kate messaged us all in December saying she was planning a trip to London and that she could come visit us all while she was here. It’s quite easy and cheap to travel within Europe so of course we were going to plan something cool.

So, a month and a half later, Kate showed up in Belgium and more shenanigans commenced. Over three days we showed her around Bruges and Ghent, and then embarked on our third road trip. We drove from Deinze to Düsseldorf, where Mia lives with Chris, and since I slept a lot of the way it seemed like a pretty quick drive to me, but really it was about 3 hours. In Canadian terms, that’s not bad or particularly long at all, but in European standards we seemed to have done the impossible.

We walked around Düsseldorf that evening and got some poutine for dinner (yes poutine, and it was great), then went out for a drink or two to try German beer. Can’t say I particularly like it (I’m being too Canadian- I dislike it a lot), but I still enjoyed tasting the difference between Belgian beer.

The next morning we started the day with a very healthy breakfast, provided by Mia. She then had a pregnancy consult with her new midwife (I believe I mentioned in my last post about her that she’s pregnant), and afterwards we jumped into the car and drove for two hours to go see some epic castles. And I must say, they were pretty impressive. The first one more-so than the second I think, it is called Eltz Castle. You can get some really good views of it from different viewpoints, and I could see it being very touristy in the summer but while we were there it was very quite and closed for inside tours. Perfect for us because I was also doing some pregnancy photos of Mia, much easier to do them without crowds of people.

After wandering around for a while, we drove to another nearby castle to check it out before we went home for dinner. At Eltz castle we weren’t allowed to fly our drone, but here there were no signs saying otherwise so we did snap a few shots while we were there. There was nobody at this castle anyway so it was all ours.

We drove to Cologne to grab a bite and check it out, and we ended up getting some delicious Thai food for a pretty decent price. We then walked around and I got to see the magnificent cathedral for a second time. It is still under construction from the last time I saw it a year and a half ago, but I think that’s normal due to it’s grand size. We had parked outside of the centre to avoid the craziness and high parking fees, so we hopped on a bus to get back to the car. The bus ate one of my euro coins, it was sad. Then it ate the next ladies coins as well. The bus driver wasn’t particularly nice about it and actually told the lady to get off because she couldn’t buy a ticket (I guess she ran out of change?). What a jerkface.

Anyway, we made it home safe and sound, and the next morning enjoyed another healthy breakfast. We drove to these ruins Mia took me to last time for her post-wedding photos, we we decided we’d take some more photos there. It was completely closed off, maybe due to the flooding that was happening lately, but we weren’t going to listen to any signs. We jumped the gates (shh) and had the whole place to ourselves, it was perfect. We spend maybe 45 minutes taking photos and no one bugged us. Kate and Harry played assistants and they were wonderful, I’d hire them any day. Chris played husband and baby daddy very well, and obviously Mia was a great model as always.

We grabbed some sushi for lunch, I had been craving it forever. It’s one of the things I miss the most about Vancouver. Here it’s always quite pricy, but still worth it once in a while. I could actually go for some sushi right now.

After sushi, we said our goodbyes to Mia and Chris. Our stay was too short but it was very sweet indeed. Another 3 hours on the road and one fry stop later, we made it back to Deinze. The next morning Kate left us for London, where she is now working for the next little while. Hopefully another road trip will commence between us this summer, with the addition of a little one.

Now to a completely different, but much shorter, story, two days ago Harry and I were in Antwerp checking it out with Harry’s aunt Saskia. She lives there so she took us around town a bit just so we could get to know what it’s like. It’s right on the water and has a big harbour and even a beach, which is supposedly much nicer in the summer. We got to see the big shopping street, the grand main train station, and some little antique shops. I actually found an absolutely glorious camera that I’m still dreaming about in one of them, an antique Kodak Reflex. Beautiful thing, wish I bought it. I’ve got some film I can modify so I could actually use it. And only €40 ($60CAD), not too bad. Thinking about it now I’m a bit regretting not buying it, so I may have to make a trip back to Antwerp.

Anyway, that’s all for now, folks. Leaving for India in T-24 days!

Two weeks ago, I decided to take a trip to Paris. There was this deal for a train ride from Brussels for only €11 in January. Crazy good deal, I tell you, for a train ride (trains are usually really expensive, €70+). Paris is about 2.5 hours by train from Brussels, not too bad, so I jumped on the deal and decided I’d visit my lovely Canadian friend, Kate, for a night. That’s the great thing about Europe; you go in any direction for only a few hours and you’re in another country. Belgium particularly because it’s so tiny.

So a week later I packed my bags and started my journey from little Deinze to Brussels. Getting to the train station, I ended up having to pay €11.60 for the hour long ride to Brussels. How hilarious is that? More expensive than my ride to Paris.

I arrived to the station in Brussels, quickly realized I had mixed up my train times and my train had left hours ago (this is normal for me, there’s nothing I love more than wasting time and money), sat around for ten minutes trying to figure out a game plan, and managed to find a Eurobus for €15 that arrived around 6:30pm (original arrival was 3:30pm I thought, actually it was 1pm). A painful 4.5 hours later, I managed to get to Paris, but with a bit less time than I had wanted.

Regardless, Kate and I had a lovely evening out and the next morning I got to eat all of the croissants I could dream of (one because they’re actually REALLY big there). We spent the morning walking around and sightseeing for the most part, but our main goal was to take some nice photos of each other, and I think we more-or-less accomplished that. By noon we had to stop though because it was already time for me to go home.

We made it to the station in time for my train, said our goodbyes, I collected some stuff from her that she had of mine, and off I went. The train ride was really comfortable in comparison to that Eurobus, I must say, so I would recommend it to anyone travelling from Brussels to Paris. IZY by Thalys, google it if you’re planning that particular trip.

So that was the end of my short-but-sweet time in Paris, a total of 19 hours.

After Paris, Harry and I decided to make some official plans and book our trip to Asia. At the end of February we will be flying to India, then Nepal, Myanmar, and Malaysia. I’ve already done India, Nepal, and Malaysia, but I am quite keen on doing India again because I missed out on a lot on my last trip, and Nepal is just so beautiful with the Himalayas. I’m really missing some good mountains in Belgium so it will be a great trip I think. This solves my 3 month visa problem, so after three months we will return to Belgium and be able to do another three months before embarking on our next journey to Australia and New Zealand. Exciting times!

Currently we have a good friend of ours over, Kate. But not the Canadian-in-Paris Kate, this is Australian Kate (we know a few Kates). She just got her working holiday visa for the UK and so she decided to come visit us before she started her new job. She was one of our original road trip members on my USA/Canada road trip (for those of you who remember I did that nearly 3 years ago). We’re going to go visit our other road trip friend, Mia, who was the one who came to visit Harry and I recently and is from Germany. So we will be doing another road trip together soon around some of Germany (yay).

Yesterday afternoon/evening we took Kate to the coast of Belgium because it was such a lovely day, and also to Bruges. We spent lots of time walking around and sightseeing, and it was really beautiful because there weren’t as many tourists this day (Monday) and we got to see it with all of the lights on at night. It was just so pretty.

Today will be Ghent, and in a couple days off to Germany, so more after that. ~~

Not much has been happening lately; I’m slowly learning some very basic Dutch, I went shopping during the sales here, and I got to see Alt-J in concert the other night very randomly. Life has been a bit slower than usual, but good.

A couple weeks ago a friend of Harry’s, Willem, called him and asked if we’d like to join him to his vacation home up in the Ardennes, the Belgian “mountains” (ehem, hills). We weren’t doing anything else so we decided to take a mini road trip and go check it out for three nights. Willem picked us up and off we went.

When we were getting close, we stopped by a grocery store to pick up some ingredients for food. The amount of food and alcohol the guys bought was baffling- I never thought we’d finish it all. Spoiler alert- we more or less did.

We arrived around 4pm and took a quick look around. The outside is built like a tiny castle, made out of grey bricks to have a medieval feel. The inside, on the other hand, is very modern and not cabin-like at all. It is very beautifully built and we could have lived out the rest of our days in that place. It’s quite small but feels very spacious and cozy at the same time. The fireplace gives it that homey touch and is so wonderful to sit by. They still had their Christmas tree up, and that just added to the coziness. All in all, it was such a simple little place, but I would never want more than what was in that house to call my own home one day.

We then got cooking; I made some pasta sauce that simmered on the stove for a few hours, filling the house with a tomatoey aroma. Willem’s friend Basil showed up a bit before dinner, and now the amount of food and booze made a little more sense. We ate and all had seconds because lets face it, I’m a great cook. Then we played a few games of Rummicup (kind of like a numerical scrabble) and crashed for the night.

The next day, after breakfast, we all went for a long walk around town while it wasn’t raining too hard. I can’t remember the name of the village we were in, but it was really cute. Everyone had their own homemade mailboxes and many people had little decorations on or around their doors and windows. Because it’s the off season and also a generally quite place, there wasn’t much going on in town, nothing was open. You had to drive 15-20 minutes to the nearest grocery store, but that was fine, no tourists is always nice.

We walked along the river and through the fields, and eventually got a really nice view of the whole town. I think we walked for about two hours; it was really nice to get outside and enjoy the fresh air. The rivers were super flooded from all of the recent rain, but apparently it was fairly normal. Some guy said he had been kayaking through the trees that morning, pretty crazy.

We made it back to the cabin and Willem started cooking for dinner that night. He made an absolutely delightful chicken with white wine sauce, it’s something I’m going to try to make for myself eventually because it was just so tasty. More Rummicup that night since there wasn’t much else to do, and then bedtime.

The next day Basil left and it was just the three of us. We all did some work in the afternoon, glued to our laptops, and then another awesome dinner commenced. More Rummicup afterwords, we were starting to get really good.

The next morning we cleaned up and left. We said goodbye to the Ardennes for now, and would love to return in the early summer when it’s a bit more green and with better weather. It really is a beautiful place to be and has such a village feel to it, because it is a proper village, after all. Until next time, Ardennes.

During January a lot of Europe has an on-sale month, similar to boxing day but it lasts most of January. I’ve spent a lot of time walking around Ghent the past week checking out these sales, some of them better than others. It’s helped me get to know the city a lot better and I’ve found so many cool little spots around town. It’s such a huge mix of medieval architecture and modern technology, as you can see in one of my photos with the castle, the ferris wheel, and the tram. It’s really interesting to see such a mixture of eras in such a small space.

Two nights ago our friend Jonas texted Harry and I asking us if we wanted to go to an Alt-J concert that night. For €35 each, we couldn’t say no, that’s a very good price. I have never been crazy about the band but I have enjoyed many of their songs and do have them in my playlists, and also triangles are my favourite shape as well so Alt-J and I have something in common there.

The opening show was by a singer/songwriter named Marika Hackman; quite the last name. I have never heard of her but her music was pleasant and very easy to listen to, I would recommend it as good background music. When Alt-J came on, everyone was super stoked and the crowd was going wild. They put on a really good performance, I would certainly recommend them live. They had one of the craziest light shows I’ve ever seen, very well thought out and executed. They played mostly songs from their previous albums, which was good because those are the songs I mostly know and also their new album I’m not a huge fan of. Overall, it was a great night that ended in some delightful Belgian fries.

Now Harry and I are planning what to do next. We’re not 100% sure on our plans, but we may smell Asia coming up quite soon. We will keep you all updated ~

xx

It’s been a while since my last post, been crazy busy trying to figure things out here! But anyway, here’s what’s been going on in the last little while.

In the first couple weeks I was in Belgium, we got some pretty crazy snow! It came down quite hard for a few days, it was super beautiful. Considering I had no where to go by car, I loved it and didn’t want it to end. It really made it feel like the winter holiday season. This was around the time that “Sinterklaas” came to give all of the children presents. Sinterklaas is a Belgian tradition and he comes December 6th every year and delivers presents to all of the good children. But he himself does not go down the chimney, he gets on top on the roof (somehow?) with his one horse (whose name is “Bad Weather Today”) and sends his helper “Black Pete” down, who then becomes covered in soot (hence, “Black” Pete), and he opens the door for Sinterklaas. Sinterklaas then leaves you chocolates, mandarin oranges, speculoos cookies, and other various sweets before he leaves behind the real gifts. There are no stockings, but instead you leave out a shoe and you fill it with carrots, sugar cubes, and other goodies for Bad Weather Today (the horse) to enjoy. There is controversy with Black Pete, many saying this tradition is just a “racist Christmas” because he’s “sending a black slave down the chimney”, but realistically this is just a harmless tradition with no racial implications whatsoever. So on December 6th, we awoke to little Sinterklaas chocolates being spread around the kitchen table as well as a small gift each from Sinterklaas (of course Harry’s parents). It felt nice to experience a new tradition that I had never heard of before and it was great to spend that time with a family that has been so good to me.

So later on Harry and I went out to enjoy the snow. We walked around the area he lives in, Deinze, and enjoyed the powdery white stuff while we could. We walked to the river nearby where there is this platform you can use to cross the water when you turn the wheel by hand, no electrical aids. In Canada or America, I don’t think you would see that in too many places, not in a big enough city like Deinze, maybe in the boonies. Most places there would have been something electrical put in years ago because who actually does manual labour these days…

Anyway, we ended up in this cute little coffee house that served warm drinks, beer, and wine (everywhere serves beer and wine), and we warmed up by the fire for a bit. There, we watched out the window as the polar bear swimmers were out in the river turning blue in their bathing suits. This is apparently common, and even some children do it with their parents. I’ve seen it in Canada before but always for the official polar bear dip, not just for fun, so this to me was crazy. I got cold again just looking at them! We drank some more of our warm hot chocolates before gearing up and turning around to make it back for dinner. We walked through the small farm areas where there are lots of adorable ponies and sheep to say hello to. Some of the ponies even wanted to say hello back and came right up to us for pets (and I’m sure they were hoping for carrots as well).

A few weeks later, Christmas happened. We spent Christmas eve with the immediate family; Harry’s parents, Linda and Yves, as well as his three brothers, Lennart, Rikkert, and Jochen, and one final addition of a family friend who joins them every year. It was certainly not like a Christmas I’m used to with turkey, stuffing, potatoes, and brussel sprouts. Instead we had appetizers of little cheese pastries in phyllo dough, chips, and escargot. Our main dish was cheese fondue with cherry tomatoes, green grapes, and bread. Couldn’t say I was sad missing a year of turkey for cheese fondue, I’m drooling thinking about it. For dessert, we had a log of ice cream that was much better quality than I’m used to, and made to look very presentable instead of just coming out of a tub.

The next morning we had a light breakfast and got ready for lunch with the whole family. Everyone dressed up to go to a restaurant they go to every year, one that is privately catered in a fancy, old house. There were about 25 of us, but normally there are 40. The Dutch side from Holland did not come this year, making it a much smaller event than usual. I met all of Harry’s closest cousins, aunts, and uncles. I had already met his lovely grandmother from before, and it was a pleasure to see her again. After we had some appetizers brought around on silver platters, we sat down Grandma made a speech. Being the only English-only speaking person there, I couldn’t understand it, but it was translated to me. Next, one of Harry’s aunts read a nice poem to everyone. Then we got to have our appetizers and main courses. The main course was very good, I’m not sure exactly what it’s called, but I would say one of the items was a whole, candied pear, and it went along with a slice of very carefully cut turkey, fresh apple sauce, cranberry sauce, and three croquettes (fancy tater tots). Still drooling. Dessert today was individual portions of nugget, also amazing.

By the time we were done all of the food and talking, it was around 4pm. We went to Grandma’s house then to open presents. Harry’s family does a “secret santa” styled gift giving, but minus the secret part because everyone knows who bought who what. Afterwards, at least for those of use that were actually hungry after the lunch meal, we had mini sandwiches and small desserts to munch on. I had one and a bit of tiramisu, but I couldn’t fit much more in my stomach.

Overall, it was a wonderful Christmas. I did miss my family during it, but I’m glad I got to spend it with another loving family.

A few days ago, my good friend Mia messaged me saying she was thinking about coming to Belgium the next day on a mini road trip with her husband before her baby is born. She lives only 2.5-3 hours away in Dusseldorf, Germany, not too far. We welcomed her over, and the next day she actually came! It was such a nice surprise to have her over before the year ended. Similar to when we met up in Italy last year, she was wearing a very similar outfit to me again. How does that keep happening? You can check it out in the photo, the hat and braids may have been faked, but everything else was legit.

When they arrived, we went to Ghent to check out the Christmas market and just walk around. We found a great vegan restaurant because both Mia and Chris are vegan, and had an incredible meal. Super tasty and much more sustainable for the environment (because my plate didn’t contain soy, which is actually really bad for the environment). I had a dish with chickpeas, brown rice, spinach, and other things I can’t remembered that was covered in the most delightful peanut, curry sauce. We after checked out some of the best bars and Chris tried out some Belgian beers he had never had before.

The next day we went to Bruges together. We arrived a bit after lunch and walked around and enjoyed playing the role of tourists for a while. It is a really magical place, but unfortunately it’s overrun by tourists with giant cameras, even during the cold months. Still, we basked in the glory of the historical centres and the architectural details. We didn’t have a whole lot of time there because Mia and Chris had to run off to their next destination before nightfall, but we really enjoyed our time together and hopefully will see them near the end of January!

Tonight Harry and I are getting ready for the new year. We’re preparing some food for a couple guests of ours, and later on will be heading to another friends house. So for now, happy new years eve folks! Wish you all the best in 2018, and I hope you all can achieve your new year goals. Cheers, Salud, Prost, Schol, Kanpai, etc, talk to you again when it’s 2018.

Heyyooo. So we made it safely into Brussels airport without much trouble. I say without much because of course there was a TINY bit of trouble, it being Venezuela and all that we were leaving from. This will be the final set of observations I have about the country, so read up!

I did not talk about our ride to the airport on my last post. We left Raul’s place at 9:30am and it took us about an hour and a half to get to the airport. We drove through the outskirts of Caracas and saw many of the Favelas in the mountains, spread far from the city centre. Our driver told us some stories about what happens in those poor areas, none of them sounded good. He said that 80% of the people living in them were thieves. How accurate that is, I’m not sure, I would say it’s just his opinion. I don’t doubt that they are dangerous and should be avoided at all costs unless you are looking for trouble.

So we arrived at 11am, which is what we expected. We didn’t hit any traffic and had no troubles with guards along the way, everything went smoothly. Our flight wasn’t until 5pm, and we knew we would be arriving very early, but you just never know in this country so we thought it was best to leave when we did.

When we got there, we walked around a bit, and quickly realized our flight was ready to check people into security. There was already a long lineup for our flight with people wanting to check their bags, so we joined them. The airport in general wasn’t that busy, when we were looking at the screens to see the flight gate numbers, we saw only 10 flights for the day and even a few of the next days flights. Not enough people can afford to leave Venezuela, and no one wants to be there, so it clears up lots of room on the flights board.

After we checked in, we used the last of our bolivares on food and water. We spent 3 hours on the dodgy wifi trying to do basic things, but of course for my iPhone it did not work at all (iPhones are terrible for connecting to wifi I’ve noticed many times). Eventually we boarded our flight, and off we flew for the next 20 minutes or so to Curacao. We weren’t dropping off or picking anyone up there, in fact no one left the plane at all. Our reason for stopping there for nearly an hour was solely to get gas because, as I’ve mentioned, NO HAY GASOLINA in Venezuela. I’m not sure where the plane came from, but it couldn’t refuel in Venezuela due to no gas, so I suppose all of the planes that leave refuel in Curacao and maybe other islands and countries nearby.

When we finally left, we unsuccessfully tried to sleep in the tiny seats (TAP airlines >:/ ). Something like 9 hours later, we arrived in Portugal. We were so happy to be back in Europe, until we saw the prices of course. No more living like royalty and affording whatever we wanted, time to get back on the budget train and live economically. We had about 6 hours until our next flight and managed to get in a small snooze on a padded seating area. Before we knew it, it was time to leave again and we grabbed a quick snack before heading to our next flight.

We arrived in Belgium around 6pm. We resorted our bags, changed our flip flops to hiking boots, switched our hippy travel tees for the only sweaters we had, and packed away our shorts for proper pants. We still maybe looked a bit rugged and tired, but at least we would be able to manage the temperature change from 35 degrees to 2 degrees. When we exited the baggage claim, we found Harry’s friends waiting for us right away, holding signs that said “Hot Girl” and “Ugly Guy” above their heads. They’re too sweet.

Upon feeling the cold, I was in heaven. Life was good again, I was finally going to get to be in winter. We went to Harry’s friend Alain’s house and shared some typical Belgian food of Bicky burgers and fries. I don’t eat burgers, so I indulged in the fries with samurai sauce and some other deep fried delights. To go with the meal, we had Harry and I’s favourite beer, Barbar. I typically don’t like beer, there aren’t any in Canada I would ever buy on my own because I want to drink them, but here I would buy this beer; I urge any non-beer-drinkers to try it when they are in Belgium. After a beer and a half each and lots of good talks, it was time for bed because we were crazy tired. We slept at Alain’s house because it was easiest, and had the greatest sleep we had had in a very long time.

The next day we woke up feeling fairly refreshed, but could have probably slept another few hours if we had the choice. We wanted to get on the rhythm of the country so we forced ourselves up at 9:50am. We meant to get up at 9 when my alarm went off, but as soon as I turned it off we heard Alain calling us and it was 9:50. Funny how that works.

We went downstairs and had a delish breakfast of croissants and other pastries that I don’t remember the name of. The other ones were full of raisins (aka- Satan’s Droppings) so I opted out of those ones, but the croissants were amazing. One of them had almonds (God’s Droppings) and another something like nutella inside it (I’m drooling).

We then talked a bit more about life, what’s been new, etc, and noticed it was snowing out. We went for a walk in the beautiful powdery stuff, although then there wasn’t a lot of it yet. Over the next 24 hours it snowed enough to have a thin layer on the ground, it made the European setting look even more magical than it already looked. To people from Canada and America, Europe is like this fairytale wonderland full of history with every step, and in a way you’re just waiting for the elves and unicorns to pop out of any corner. For Europeans, it’s just normal and a typical walk in the park.

After our walk, Harry’s friend Jonas picked us up on his way from work and was nice enough to drive us to Harry’s parents house. We arrived and his mom was home to greet us; she was very happy to see her son again after 1.5 years. We settled in and had some tea and coffee by their fireplace, and again caught up on life. It was so nice to be in a place where we knew we weren’t going to have to repack our bags another 50 times and leave soon- we will be here for a while.

Again we slept like logs that night, and forced ourselves up at 9am. We went to the hardware store with Harry’s dad then went to visit his grandmother (Nanni). Nanni lives in a gorgeous house that, again, reminds me of some fairytale land. Beautiful, Victorian furniture, Asian statues, and various other art pieces and collectors items scatter the house. I began to realize, as I was walking up her stairs to use the bathroom, that Europe is full of very tiny stairs. By that I mean the size of every plank you step on is just too small, even for my tiny feet. You have to kind of walk on an angle to be able to comfortably use the stairs without feeling like falling, and it’s like this at every old pub/tavern, independent clothing stores, and many of the non-modern houses. I guess people back in the day either had smaller feet or just enjoyed the thrill aspect of taking the stairs.

After having some lunch at Nanni’s house, we took the tram for €3 each to Ghent. When we got off the tram we grabbed a quick waffle on the way to meet up with Alain, another €3 total, and found him in the city centre. We walked around a bit, then went into a pub to escape the cold and get a hot drink. The hot chocolate here is WAY better than in Canada, by the way. This is expected though I guess. We finished the evening at the bar he works at, the Troll Cellar, and had a quick drink before heading home to Deinze.

We are both so stoked to be here right now and have no official plans on what’s going to happen next, but we do smell New Zealand and Australia in our somewhat near future!