Airports

Well I am on the last leg of my travels, I am sititing in the airport in Vancouver waiting for my flight to Ottawa. Part of me can't believe that it is over. I have had an amzing year and half, I've seen and experienced so much and yet it all seems like it was all so long ago now. 2 weeks ago I was in Taiwan and now I am heading back to see friends I have not seen since I left 18 months ago. How time flies when you are having fun.

I had an amazing time with my family and friends in Victoria. I am glad that I stayed there for as long as I ddi even though I did not get half of the stuff done that I wanted to while I was there. They are paging us to board so I guess I must go. I'll be back from Ottawa at some point in the next few days. I guess I need to think of a new blog name since I am no longer in Asia. Anyone got any suggestions?

I've been busy

I have done lots of great things over the last week ...

I went to the Saltspring Island Fiber Festival on Saturday, it was good but I was disappointed at how small it was. However I did get to meet Maureen and her daughter and that was wonderful. It is always fun to meet people that I have met in cyberspace in person

We saw some llamas, angora bunnies and sheep

I was the lucky recipient of some excellent treats this week. Maureen made me the most amazing little photo album and bag. I am so happy with the album and it is already in my purse so I can show it off. I also got this very cute puppy tape measure from Kimberly in Hawaii, she is blogless but I sent it as a thank you for some chibi's I sent her awhile back

My mom's Backtack treats arrived today. I tried to get the dog to sit nicely for the photo but she had other ideas

so I kicked her out of the picture. Mrs.R sent a great needle case, pad, sewing needle case and some other little bits and bobs

An inside shot of the needle cases. They are both very cool and the large one was knitted and then felted. It is beautiful, thanks so much from me and my mom.

I am here in Victoria till Friday and then I am off to join the real world of the unemployed in Ottawa. It has been a lovely vacation but sadly it is almost over. Until then I will keep myself busy with my nieces and nephew - they are adorable after all and I need to spoil them a little more before I leave.

Bookbookbook

I finally got the bookbookbook and I am in love with already. Now all I have to do is end up in the same city as the harlot so I can get her to sign it. She is coming to the westcoast but I will already be back in Ontario by the time she gets here. Oh well, eventually I guess.

I have had a great week here on the Westcoast. I took Tai to the beach the other day and I wish that I had my camera with me as she ran around in circles and loved chasing the seagulls. It was comical to watch this little dog try to catch something that was as big as she was. My sister and her family arrived today and I have a weekend full of family time.... but I am going to the fiber festival tomorrow on Saltspring and I'm very excited. I promise there will be pictures for you Michelle, because she had to head home early and won't make it. I am hopefully meeting up with Maureen, I'm confident we will find one another at some point.

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

I made it

Well I should say we made it, Tai and I arrived home safely and my parents and niece came to Vancouver to get us. I am in Victoria until the 29th, visiting with my family and friends. I am looking forward to just hanging out and thankfully I brought the sun with me.

Thanks for all the birthday wishes, it was a great day and I am now the proud owner of Harry Potter 6. Now I just need about 24 uninterrupted hours so that I can get through it. I won't get them so I guess I will just have read a chapter here and there.

Saturday is Saltspring day.... sheep, wool and spinnning here I come.

My last Asia post

Just a quick note from Taipei, I am at the school using the accountants computer and so I have to be quick. I made it back here last night and got Tai back this morning. She is good but has a worrisome looking sore on her leg. We are off to the vet anyway to get her paperwork and I will have him look at it, hopefully it will not be anything serious. Tonight I am looking forward to making all my stuff fit into my luggage, it will be amazing if I get it to work. In then in the morning we are off to the western world. I hope Tai survives the trip alright, we will be off for a long walk in the morning before we get in the car to go to the airport, to get on a plane that will get us to Vancouver, to get in a car to take us to the ferry, to get to the island to finally get to my parents house. It will be long day but well worth it. Thankfully my parents are coming to Vancouver to gather the 2 of us and all my stuff, otherwise I might have to live at the airport because there is no way to transport all this stuf by myself.

I'll be back on the weekend, as a matter of fact by the time I am back I will also be another year older, amazing how time flies when you are having fun. Till Sunday then......

Just a few more Photos

I made it Bangkok in one piece and at the moment it is pouring with rain, I am hoping that it will stop soon so I get out and see a bit more of the city, but until then I thought I would give you a few more photos from Vietnam

We spent our last day in the sun at a great beach

The market in Hoi An

I can not believe how much the chinese influence is visable in Vietnam

The remains of the french are also seen in the old buldings, this not a great one but all the others are turned the wrong way.

All in all in was a fantastic month and I am sad that it is over. I am looking forward to being home though and I will be very soon. I left Carolyn at the airport in Danang and she went off to Cambodia to see Angor Wat ( I'm jealous) and I came to Bangkok to so that I could catch my flight back to Taipei tomorrow and then to Canada on Saturday. If the rain ever stops I will go to see some of the city today and maybe have a few more photos for you before I get to Canada.

It's almost done :(

I am sitting in a internet cafe working on the world's slowest computer with an internet connection that keeps on disappearing. This is try number 3. On Wednesday we got on a bus and rode 2 hours to a small town called Hoi An in the center of Vietnam's coast

It's a great little place with heaps of charm, character and things to do

It is another UNESCO sight and it's known for it's great shopping, tailors and good food

We have had a great time so far, we contemplated only staying a few days and then moving on but since we like it so much we decided to stay here. On Tuesday I am heading back to Bangkok before I go back to Taipei

Yesterday we went to see My Son, it was built by the Cham people beween the 4th and 13th centuries. What reamains of it is amazing to see, little of it remains in tact because it was bombed heavily during the war

There are a few temple building that remain in tact and they are working hard at preserving what is left

Today we are off to the beach, I twisted my ankle yesterday so I am not up for 2 much walking. We stopped at this great beach on the way here and I played with this little girl. The kids here are great, really friendly and a lot of them speak at least a little english. I'll post one last round of photos from Bangkok before I start the epic journey home. By the way, it's my sisters birthday today, Happy Birthday C, I would send you to her blog but I haven't convinced her to start on yet. Have a great weekend everyone, I will see some of you very soon.

Did we say 16, we meant 26, hours on a bus!

Okay as promised some more Laos photos

This is on the road back from the waterfall day trip, I wish the lady had been closer as she had a huge smile on her face

The view from the top of the waterfall, the hike was grueling but worth it

We jumped in and then lay on the top looking down into all the other pools from the photo above this, it was surreal

Look Sean and Paddy Gecko's

Another spectacular sunset

Thank God this is nto the bus that we are about to get on

We decided to be cheap and take the bus from Vietanne to Hue in Vietnam, the poster said it would take 16 hours. I am not sure who is still learning to count but it took 26 hours, it was not fun and we were not very happy backpackers. The 1st 12 hours were not so bad except for the blasting music but in the 2nd half we got share the bus with 4 fridges

Once we got to vietnam the rice fields were picture perfect

We finally arrived here late last night and were dropped on the side of the highway. We called a ritzy(by local standards) hotel and they came to get us, we are splurging and spending 2 nights there. Today we went to see the forbidden purple city here in Hue

What remains of it was cool to see, sadly a lot of it was destroyed in the war

We stopped for lunch at this great little place and got to make our own spring roll style wraps, they were amazing

Then we walked back tot the hotel for a swim, tomorrow we are off to Hoi An.

Buses 101

After spending 4 days in Luang Prabang ( a great little town with lots of character and places to visit) we got on a bus and headed to Vietainne (another dirty capital city with very little to do or see) the bus ride was through the mountains and within the first 30 minutes people around us started getting sick. Luckily for me my MP3 player drowned out most of the noise and I was able to sleep a bit. We finally pulled through the worst of it and ended up in a little place for lunch and then back on the bus for the rest of the ride. All in all it wasn't to bad for me but a few other people will remember it for a very long time. The scenery was amazing if you were able to watch it go by.

We got up the morning and went on a quest to find a bus to take us into Vietnam, it was bit of an adventure. The Tuk Tuk took us to the bus station and they told us that there was no bus until; Tuesday and they knew nothing of prices or schedules. Another person told us we were at the wrong bus station and that we should go to the other one. Off we went to the other side of the city, we pulled up to a Vietnamese restaurant and after some conversing found someone who would take us to were the busses left from. The man finished his breakfast and told us to follow his motorbike. (I was concerned about not seeing the bus that we would be riding on and did not want to put out the money until I was sure that we would ride in at least a little bit of comfort) They took us into the "office", sent some kids to get us some water and assured us that the bus we were taking was nicer than the ones outside. We decided to just go with it because our only other option would be to wait here until Tuesday. We got our tickets and the phone number of the person who sold them to us and hopefully at 6pm he will come to get us and put us on a reasonable bus headed for Hue, Vietnam. It takes 14 hours but we will be there tomorrow morning. From there we will head down the coast toward Saigon, slowly but surely.

Once I am in Vietnam I will post more photos. On Friday we went to a great waterfall and I got some amazing pictures, it was a long drive and then a long hike up but worth every minute of it. Talk to again soon from Vietnam.