Merry Christmas from Vietnam

We are about 6 days into our tour of Vietnam and so far so good. Saigon is amazingly busy with 8 milliion people and about 10 million motorcycles but we still quite enjoyed the city. We travelled up to Dalat for 2 days which is up in the mountains so a little bit cooler, only 20 maybe. The last 2 days we have been in Nha Trang, right on the coast and the weather here is perfect, 24-25.
Very nice beaches and not that busy, today we went on a boat trip for some swimming and snorkeling, excellent, except Marlyn would not go swimming. Tomorrow we head up tp Hoi An.
We are having a gift exchange on the train between Hue and Hanoi on Christmas night with the other 10 members of our tour. Our price limit is 20,000d.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
Don & Marlyn

Siem Reap & Angor Wat

We arrived in Siem Reap on Monday and found some cheap rooms @ Green Town guest house for $18.00/night. the next morning we hired a couple of moto's with drivers and spent the day touring the temples of Angor Wat. The whole area is huge and very impressive, with numerous temples to visit and wander through. It rivals the temples of Egypt although not quite as old but the setting in the forest is very nice. Next day we hired a tuk-tuk and drove up to Banetay Srie to veiw another temple and saw a lot more of the country and local villages. We also saw the floating village on the river leading into the lake, which are mostly Vietnamese fisherman. It was not all that impressive as the living conditions are pretty sad. Just another way for them to charge tourists money. We rented bicycle's and rode back out to Angor yesterday and went back to a couple of the temples liked. We should have just rented bike's in the first place but they do not want you to know that. Siem Reap is quite inexpensive for eating and drinking and everything is in US dollars. Beer or rum & coke are usually $1.50 each. The city itself is quite busy but relativly clean and loads of tourists, especially Chinese. The people are extremely helpful and freindly but they all want to sell you something especially the kids and they are persistent.

Singapore, the new city.

The flight from Cape Town to Singapore was 11 hours and one of these days I will actually sleep on a plane. I don't think Don got much sleep either but they have movies on demand so we got to watch a lot of fairly new stuff. We arrived in Singapore at 5 am and hopped a train to the city, into an area called Little India where we were staying. Singapore is 5 million people in a fairly small area so no matter where you go it is busy but amazingly clean. Public transport was a breeze so we saw quite a bit f the city and also did a tour one day. You have never seen so many shopping centers in your life though and I am sure that shopping is the number one pasttime. Despite all the concrete the city is still fairly green as they dedicate space to parks, all the building just keeps going higher and higher. Not the cheapest place to be though, food is inexpensive but beer is not, or are rooms. 4 days was more than enough, we have flights booked to Siem Reap in Cambodia, then to Vietnam for a 17 day tour, 1 week in Malaysia and then off to Australia.

Cape Town South Africa

Cape Town (actually South Africa as a whole) is an experience out of Africa. Cape Town is very much like Vancouver, but also very European with large high rise condos and loads of bars and restaurants on the water front. Plus streets that have clubs, more restaurants and bars, and lots of shopping(my favor, yea right ). The differences being that you cannot just walk into these areas at night but must take a taxi (safety issues) and the wind blows all the time. Tons of tourists, mostly from Europe.
We did all the tourist things in Cape Town and did enjoy most of it. We took the cable car up Table Mountain which stand behind the city. From there you have a view of two oceans - Atlantic and Indian, plus all of the city and harbours. We did a tour of the wine country, had some very nice wines and did the tour to the Cape of Hope and surrounding areas incuding the Kirstenbosch Gardens which was really fantastic. We also went to Robbin Island which is just in the bay off Cape Town. It has quite the history from leper colony to prison. This is where Mandela ans a lot of the current government officials spent many years of there life. We were in Cape Town for a week and did see a lot of the City. Off to Singapore now.

Southern Circle Tour

Our Southern Circle adventure started on Nov 1 with a dinner where we met all the other travellers along with our guide for the next 3 weeks, Bianca. Along with ourselves we travelled with Anja, Nicole, Wolfgang, Oliver, Birgit, Jan & Carina, all from Germany and Juha & Crista from Finland. The next morning we packed up the truck which is our home for the next 3 weeks and headed north thru Botswana. After driving for about 12 hours we finally arrived at Elephant Sands camp where we pitched our tents for the first time. The next morning we drove to Chobe National Park where we did our first game drive along the banks of the Chobe river. We saw lots of elephants and hippos in the river, all trying to stay cool as it was very hot. There were also lots of baboons, warthogs and a few buffalo. Apparently the warthogs like to visit the town and wander around but do not bother anybody. We then crossed the border into Zimbabwe and headed for Victoria Falls where we spent 3 nights at the very nice Drifters Inn. The first day we visited the falls although the water was quite low and the falls were kind a small compared to rainy season, and then went for cold beers at the beautiful Victoria Falls hotel. The next day Marlyn, Anja, Jan & Carina and myself all went whitewater rafting on the Zambesi river. Even with low water levels the rapids were still class 3-5 and we went thru about 21 sets of rapids.
I got thrown from the raft twice and we also flipped the raft twice so it was quote an exhilarating day. The worst part was having to walk out of the river gorge at the end which is about 250-300m up, but that was where the cold beer was waiting. We did a group dinner at La Boma restaurant which serves lots of wild game ( warthog steaks are awesome, Mapaune worms are not ), puts on a drumming show and African face painting. It was a lot of fun.
We now head into Zambia and set up camp in Kafue on the Zambezi River. We spend part of the day relaxing by the pool and drinking a few beers as well as setting up the tents, that we are sure will be flattened by the hippos. Next morning we break camp and load up canoes for a two day trip down the river. We travel with the current so the paddling is not to hard and we view much wild life and one close encounter with a couple of hippos. This night we spend on an island in close proximity to a herd of buffalo...it was very beautiful and exciting with the animals outside your tent. Another day on the river and then camp with the wildlife once again. The next morning we break camp and are speed boated ( ran out of gas ) back to Kafue to spend our last night on the Zambezi River. Thank god there was a pool and an air conditioned bar because it was HOT.
Day nine takes us to the capital city of Lusaka and toward Luangwa National Park. Spend a night in a camp with chickens and children before heading out for the worst roads on earth. We had a small problem with the truck and Bianca, Don and Jan spent the evening under the truck while the rest of us cook dinner. Carina sat on a bench to read a magazine and within 2 minutes had 15 kids with her looking at all the pictures and asking millions of questions. It was quite hilarious.
South Luangwa Park is just a beautiful location right on the river bank with animals roaming freely. We had no problems but some previous groups have had some close encounters, mostly with elephants. We did a night and an early morning game drive and again saw quite a range of animals including lions feeding on dead hippos. We could park within 10ft of the lions and they just ignore us, but the smell was disgusting.
We now headed into Malawi, stopping in Lilongwe for some groceries, water and beer, and then onto Wheelhouse campground right on the shore of the lake. They are in 3 small coves so the beaches are quite private with no people wandering around. I did some snorkeling with Jan and Carina while Marlyn did some cultural village visits. It just happened to be my birthday then so Marlyn and Bianca decided we needed a party which started after dinner, moved into this cool little bar they have and it got pretty drunk out that night. Good thing the next day was not a travel day for most people, especially Oliver.
Heading south we drive down to Mulanje and camp at the local golf course which would have been great except they had no water and it is still HOT. Everybody keeps telling us it will rain but it never does. Mulanje has quite a large mountain ( for Africa anyway ) and the next day we hike partially up ( some young ones go all the way up ) and spent a few hours at the waterfall where there is an excellent swimming hole and the water is quite cold which feels great.

Back in the truck we have a long drive heading to Mozambique. We get as far as Chomoio and set up camp beside a hotel. You have never seen bugs so bad in your life, the bar was raining with them and the bathrooms were crawling. Good thing it was only for 1 night. Another day of driving and we make it to Vilanculos on the coast of Mozambique. Quite a small town but all of sudden you have a lot more white people than before as Mozambique is quite a popular tourist destination these days and there are a lot of hotels and camps being built. We only spend 1 night in Vilanculos and then drive down to Inhambane where we take a dow over to the peninsula where the beach camps are. We are staying in casitas at the Drifters Barra camp right on the beach and it is an idyllic location with miles and miles of beautiful beach, and virtually no people to speak of. The weather was hot but cloudy and windy so the snorkeling and whale watching did not pan out to good but a few people, Jan, Carina, Anja and Nicole got some good dives in. This was an awesome place to stay and probably one of the most memorable and is fast becoming a major tourist draw. Nice to see it before too much development. Marlyn and I went horseback riding with Juha and Christa, and Marlyn will never be in the rodeo but at least she did not fall off. After 3 nights here we loaded up again and drove down to Maputo, the capital city, for 1 night in a hotel with a fabulous seafood restaurant. Maputo is a big city with too many people but the economy is strong here at least.
We are now on our way back to South Africa and Kruger National Park. After some of the other countries it is like coming back to civilization again in South Africa it is so developed. Kruger is an awesome park with very developed infrastructures, camps, hotels, etc. We camped at a place called Berg en Dal for 2 nights and had 2 excellent game drives ( one @ 4:30 am ) and saw lots of animals especially rhinos which was very cool. The lions were lying on the road, a group of about 8 and we just sat in the truck about 10ft away watching and taking pictures. Very cool.
Our last night was spent at the Drifters Inn at Hazyveiw which was another very nice location right in the forest and beside a river. Bianca made the group one last dinner, traditional South African, which was excellent. The next morning most of us headed back to Jo'burg and on to the next leg of our trip. We were fortunate we travelled a easy going group of people and there were no major dis-agreements and Bianca was a fabulous guide.
Cape Town update coming soon.

Good bye to Egypt

We took a 2 day trip out to the black and the white deserts, approx 500 kms southwest of Cairo.
We were joined by Omar and Faisal from Saudi Arabia and had a Bedouin guide to tour us around. The Black desert is almost volcanic looking with all the hills covered with black rock. The white desert is an ancient seabed with bizzare looking calcium deposits covering mile and miles of land. We pitched camp around 6 or 7 other groups and slept under the stars for the night. The whole area is now a protected park which was a surprise to all the guides, pretty funny. An awful lot of driving for 2 days but it was nice too see something different.
Marlyn says, good bye and good riddance to Cairo. We leave tomorrow on our 23 day tour of South Africa, Botswana, Zambia, Zimbabwe and Mozambique. Last week the temps in Botswana were in the 40's, hopefully we will not melt. Next update probably not till end of November.
Sorry no pictures at this time, maybe the next computer will let us download.

Talk to you later
Don & Marlyn

Welcome to Egypt

After spemding time in the civilized and small Greek Islands arriving in Cairo was a bit of culture shock. The city is very old and dirty, garbage everywhere, and the traffic and noise is staggerring. We have not even considered attempting to cross a major road as traffic signals of any kind are non-existant and you really put your life at risk The tour company we hired has been excellent, they really do everything for you from airport pick up to meals and tours.

We spent the first 2 days in Cairo seeing the sights, pyramids of Giza, the Sphinx, old Cairo, the Egyptian museum and of course the obligatory shopping bazaars, were they really do not like to hear no. Too bad for them! We then took the overnight train down to Aswan ( 14 hours in a sitting car - not great). What a difference Aswan is to Cairo, clean and green, right on the Nile, nice city. Which we would have known that sooner. So for 4 days and 3 nights we cruised the Nile and took in the ancient temples from Aswan to Luxor. The boat was excellent, met lots of interesting people from all over the world and our tour guide Marcos stayed with us the whole time. You could not have asked for a better guide, very personable and very knowledgable. So if you are planning on a visit start in Aswan or Luxor, much smaller cities and much more to see and easy to get around. The amount of tourists down here is staggering though, at one temple I counted 100 large tourist buses with more coming, and it is not even busy season yet. I cannot imagine what it will be like in a month. All the local people we encountered have been very freindly and welcoming to tourists. They always want to know where we are from and they always reply, Canada Dry!!

Back in Cairo today and then we have a 2 day desert trip, camping at an oasis for 1 night. Should be a fun experience. After that off to South Africa. Way too many pictures to post so here a few.

All the best

Don & Marlyn