One thing that I'm actually having a hard time adjusting after being away for only a month is how the fruit tastes at home. In SEA, it was so, so sweet. The bananas were so sweet, it was like eating berries. All the fruit was fresh.
Today at lunch I had a banana and it tasted like cardboard in comparison. Such a difference. I have no idea how people who grew up in warm places become used to the (winter time) fruit here.
Ugg.
Wednesday, 24 February 2010
Saturday, 20 February 2010
Funniest argument wins
In my family it's usually the funniest argument that wins a debate. If you are too busy laughing, that means that you can't add a counter argument and have effectively lost. It feels less like the other person has "won", and more like you are conceding defeat the funnier person.
This doesn't seem to be as common among other families. There, they tend to use well thought out arguments, or dogma, or loudness to try and win a discussion.
An example is where Laura was pushing for buying "light" or "healthy" cheese but I was arguing against it because I don't like the taste as much. It went something like this:
L: But it's better for us!
J: Every time I eat that light cheese, a little part in side me dies.
L: Ya, the fat part.
Another example was where a couple of us where trying to convince my middle brother to stop wearing the tapered, 80's jeans that he thought were cool (and might have been) when he was a teenager. There was some discussion on how to actually describe the jeans, so Laura who was doing some task in the kitchen was called over. When asked what type of jeans they were, she glanced at them and 1/2 a second later made the deadpan judgment that they were "woman's jeans". Everyone got a good laugh and as far as I know my brother has never worn those type of jeans again.
It's just impossible to debate when you're gasping for breath because you're laughing so much.
This doesn't seem to be as common among other families. There, they tend to use well thought out arguments, or dogma, or loudness to try and win a discussion.
An example is where Laura was pushing for buying "light" or "healthy" cheese but I was arguing against it because I don't like the taste as much. It went something like this:
L: But it's better for us!
J: Every time I eat that light cheese, a little part in side me dies.
L: Ya, the fat part.
Another example was where a couple of us where trying to convince my middle brother to stop wearing the tapered, 80's jeans that he thought were cool (and might have been) when he was a teenager. There was some discussion on how to actually describe the jeans, so Laura who was doing some task in the kitchen was called over. When asked what type of jeans they were, she glanced at them and 1/2 a second later made the deadpan judgment that they were "woman's jeans". Everyone got a good laugh and as far as I know my brother has never worn those type of jeans again.
It's just impossible to debate when you're gasping for breath because you're laughing so much.
Friday, 19 February 2010
"Pedestrians in Ottawa don't have the fear of God in them"
The title of this post is something that Laura said this morning. Looking around Ottawa, people cross the road when the little cross walk guy says so, they don't have to often worry about 2 way traffic on a one way street, and no one worries about being run down by a scooter on the sidewalk.
On our trip, if there wasn't stairs preventing you from getting to a place, it was fair game for scooters. Traffic lights were more like suggestions. 2 way traffic on a 1 way road meant "try and stay single file if driving in the wrong direction". "Right of way" meant "biggest guy wins". Walking around could send the heart racing with the danger involved. In a couple of places I would sing my crossing-the-street song which went a little like "just don't die... just don't die... baby steps.... just don't die".
Really it was just about the "slow walk" in order for the scooters to break around you like the water in rapids breaks around a rock. If you sped up or slowed down unexpectedly you would cause problems. You also had to figure out which people wouldn't actually yield to you and pause while this went on.
People in SEA have much different comfort levels of personal space, including when driving / walking. In Saigon when we were going from the airport to our hotel, our driver was driving so close to the people on the road (because there wasn't a side walk) that a guy paused lifting up a smoke to his face because the van side mirror was passing between his hand and face. In Ottawa if you get within 6 feet of someone they would yell at you for "almost hitting them".
Now we're back, it's sort of nice not having that amount of stress crossing the road. Since I've been at work, I've hardly checked if I was about to be run over by a scooter on the sidewalk.
On our trip, if there wasn't stairs preventing you from getting to a place, it was fair game for scooters. Traffic lights were more like suggestions. 2 way traffic on a 1 way road meant "try and stay single file if driving in the wrong direction". "Right of way" meant "biggest guy wins". Walking around could send the heart racing with the danger involved. In a couple of places I would sing my crossing-the-street song which went a little like "just don't die... just don't die... baby steps.... just don't die".
Really it was just about the "slow walk" in order for the scooters to break around you like the water in rapids breaks around a rock. If you sped up or slowed down unexpectedly you would cause problems. You also had to figure out which people wouldn't actually yield to you and pause while this went on.
People in SEA have much different comfort levels of personal space, including when driving / walking. In Saigon when we were going from the airport to our hotel, our driver was driving so close to the people on the road (because there wasn't a side walk) that a guy paused lifting up a smoke to his face because the van side mirror was passing between his hand and face. In Ottawa if you get within 6 feet of someone they would yell at you for "almost hitting them".
Now we're back, it's sort of nice not having that amount of stress crossing the road. Since I've been at work, I've hardly checked if I was about to be run over by a scooter on the sidewalk.
Tuesday, 16 February 2010
Travel thoughts from South East Asia trip 2010 part 2
To continue from part 1.
10) Always keep your finger and toe nails properly trimmed. It really sucks when something hits a toe nail or you try and pick something up and it bends it backwards / breaks it. Bleeding on vacation always sucks.
11) With a few exceptions (Laos, Cuba), places always seem to prefer the local currency. They might accept USD, but it's better to go to an exchange place and than get screwed on the exchange by 0.50 or 1 $ every time you buy something.
12) Just about everywhere in the world has better coffee than North America.
13) If you've forgotten something like your regular glasses on the night train, most likely you've forgotten something else.
14) Related to #13, Laura likes to put things under pillows.
15) Try not to feel too sad when the locals treat a natural beauty that they live in like their own personal garbage bin. Try not to judge.
16) 18 G per person of camera space might be more than needed.
17) Tour guides might move at a faster pace than you are comfortable with.
18) If you're not used to living by the sea, be super careful where you walk on the beach.
19) Just because at home getting out of the kayak without shoes is fine, doesn't mean that it is where you travel to. Remember: coral is sharp and will mess you up.
20) Zip off pants are great things and are highly useful: when the weather changes, when it is really hot, for rafting, and a new sport that I created called "Extreme Puking".
21) In SEA, when you see really shinny floor tile, you're most likely expected to take off your shoes / sandals.
22) Wearing footwear that doesn't slip off feels like it add hours to every day.
23) A straw and a cool coconut is one of the best drinks ever.
24) Coconut water can be used as an intravenous hydration fluid. I've never seen this, but it always makes me feel safe when I drink it.
25) I dislike people that I don't know in the pictures that I take. Sometimes you have to be really patient and wait for them to leave, sometimes you need to do creating zooming or change your composition, and other times you have to suck it up and just take the picture.
26) Going to tourist sites and seeing signs like "Landmine cleared by ..." makes me nervous. I can't help that.
27) "Old" in Canada is considered 100 years. This doesn't translate well when cities that you visit are celebrating their 1000th year and complexes you're going to were started in the 12th century.
28) Locals in SEA must think that they issue Lonely Planet books as you step off the plane. Every tourist seemed to have one, is many different languages.
29) Pale, white people like us still burn on cloudy days. Always reapply sunscreen, even if you're tubing down a river at the time.
30) Pictures never look as amazing as it does while you are there. Our digital cameras (right now) just don't have a good enough dynamic range.
31) When at a cooking school for tourists, make sure you set your own pace and don't get pushed through things too fast. Remember you're on vacation and not at work.
32) When you set up rules for yourself like "don't take pictures of people without asking", if you start breaking these rules you feel dirty. But if you don't break your rules, you might never get any of the shots that you remember the most (monks in their orange robes).
33) If you don't help out your wife as she is being swarmed by little asian women trying to sell her stuff, and instead you just take a picture of said swarming (before the group tripled in size), most likely you'll be in trouble.
34) If you try to follow other people's itineraries of all the interesting places / things that they did, don't try and do things that they did in a 3+ month time frame in 4 weeks. Even if you fly from point to point, that schedule might be too aggressive.
35) Snakes can be heavier than they look, and they are really strong. Especially when they feel like they are trying to constrict and enter into your mouth.
10) Always keep your finger and toe nails properly trimmed. It really sucks when something hits a toe nail or you try and pick something up and it bends it backwards / breaks it. Bleeding on vacation always sucks.
11) With a few exceptions (Laos, Cuba), places always seem to prefer the local currency. They might accept USD, but it's better to go to an exchange place and than get screwed on the exchange by 0.50 or 1 $ every time you buy something.
12) Just about everywhere in the world has better coffee than North America.
13) If you've forgotten something like your regular glasses on the night train, most likely you've forgotten something else.
14) Related to #13, Laura likes to put things under pillows.
15) Try not to feel too sad when the locals treat a natural beauty that they live in like their own personal garbage bin. Try not to judge.
16) 18 G per person of camera space might be more than needed.
17) Tour guides might move at a faster pace than you are comfortable with.
18) If you're not used to living by the sea, be super careful where you walk on the beach.
19) Just because at home getting out of the kayak without shoes is fine, doesn't mean that it is where you travel to. Remember: coral is sharp and will mess you up.
20) Zip off pants are great things and are highly useful: when the weather changes, when it is really hot, for rafting, and a new sport that I created called "Extreme Puking".
21) In SEA, when you see really shinny floor tile, you're most likely expected to take off your shoes / sandals.
22) Wearing footwear that doesn't slip off feels like it add hours to every day.
23) A straw and a cool coconut is one of the best drinks ever.
24) Coconut water can be used as an intravenous hydration fluid. I've never seen this, but it always makes me feel safe when I drink it.
25) I dislike people that I don't know in the pictures that I take. Sometimes you have to be really patient and wait for them to leave, sometimes you need to do creating zooming or change your composition, and other times you have to suck it up and just take the picture.
26) Going to tourist sites and seeing signs like "Landmine cleared by ..." makes me nervous. I can't help that.
27) "Old" in Canada is considered 100 years. This doesn't translate well when cities that you visit are celebrating their 1000th year and complexes you're going to were started in the 12th century.
28) Locals in SEA must think that they issue Lonely Planet books as you step off the plane. Every tourist seemed to have one, is many different languages.
29) Pale, white people like us still burn on cloudy days. Always reapply sunscreen, even if you're tubing down a river at the time.
30) Pictures never look as amazing as it does while you are there. Our digital cameras (right now) just don't have a good enough dynamic range.
31) When at a cooking school for tourists, make sure you set your own pace and don't get pushed through things too fast. Remember you're on vacation and not at work.
32) When you set up rules for yourself like "don't take pictures of people without asking", if you start breaking these rules you feel dirty. But if you don't break your rules, you might never get any of the shots that you remember the most (monks in their orange robes).
33) If you don't help out your wife as she is being swarmed by little asian women trying to sell her stuff, and instead you just take a picture of said swarming (before the group tripled in size), most likely you'll be in trouble.
34) If you try to follow other people's itineraries of all the interesting places / things that they did, don't try and do things that they did in a 3+ month time frame in 4 weeks. Even if you fly from point to point, that schedule might be too aggressive.
35) Snakes can be heavier than they look, and they are really strong. Especially when they feel like they are trying to constrict and enter into your mouth.
Sunday, 14 February 2010
Jetlag
When we went out east we (at least I felt I didn't) have any trouble switching to the new timezone. I patted myself on the back with my brilliant strategy of "changing to the new time zone mentally as soon as you got the first airport on your trip there" and getting as much sleep as I could on the way.
People told me that it's harder going west to east. I knew that with my extensive experience of one trip that I had figured it out and would be fine when we came home.
I might have been mistaken.
So far my "wide awake, you've been sleeping too long" wake up times have been: 3 am, 3 am, 5 am and now 6:30 am. But I only went to bed at 2 am. I know that anyone with kids or that does shift work would be like "I *wish* that I cold get 4.5 hours of sleep!". In my defense, 2 hours into a 12 hour flight they paged for someone to help out (and Laura did), so she didn't get much sleep on that flight and neither did I. So, step 2 of my plan was foiled.
This post if more of a recognition of my hubris and loss thereof than a rant session.
People told me that it's harder going west to east. I knew that with my extensive experience of one trip that I had figured it out and would be fine when we came home.
I might have been mistaken.
So far my "wide awake, you've been sleeping too long" wake up times have been: 3 am, 3 am, 5 am and now 6:30 am. But I only went to bed at 2 am. I know that anyone with kids or that does shift work would be like "I *wish* that I cold get 4.5 hours of sleep!". In my defense, 2 hours into a 12 hour flight they paged for someone to help out (and Laura did), so she didn't get much sleep on that flight and neither did I. So, step 2 of my plan was foiled.
This post if more of a recognition of my hubris and loss thereof than a rant session.
Friday, 12 February 2010
Travel thoughts from South East Asia trip 2010
Every time we travel, I say to Laura "I'm going to blog this!" and I almost never do. Which she has pointed out to me. Until I get some kind of offline blogging software figured out, that's probably going to be the way it goes.
Here's some thoughts from our trip.
1) When you pause on the street and someone quickly offers to help you out, most likely they have other motives. Bangkok seems to be particularly bad for this.
2) Laura's iphone was invaluable on our trip for communicating home and checking things while on the road. The only frustrating was that we only used wifi and not 3G.
3) Places in other parts of the world (in this case SEA) put a lot more responsibility on the individual to ensure their safety. If the person does something dumb and drives off a cliff that doesn't have a guardrail, well, one less idiot.
4) I hate not having the prices listed and having to barter for everything, including a cup of coffee. It just takes so much energy.
5) Rice shooting out of your nose is grosser than it sounds.
6) Riding "bareback" on the neck of an elephant is a lot harder than it looks.
7) Traffic moves more like a school of fish or the shoppers on a busy Christmas shopping day. It's all about "body" language (speed and direction of the vehicle) and communicating with horns and lights.
8) When you hear "If there is a doctor onboard, please identify yourself to the crew" 2 hours into a 12 hour flight means no rest for Laura.
9) I should be sleeping right now.
Here's some thoughts from our trip.
1) When you pause on the street and someone quickly offers to help you out, most likely they have other motives. Bangkok seems to be particularly bad for this.
2) Laura's iphone was invaluable on our trip for communicating home and checking things while on the road. The only frustrating was that we only used wifi and not 3G.
3) Places in other parts of the world (in this case SEA) put a lot more responsibility on the individual to ensure their safety. If the person does something dumb and drives off a cliff that doesn't have a guardrail, well, one less idiot.
4) I hate not having the prices listed and having to barter for everything, including a cup of coffee. It just takes so much energy.
5) Rice shooting out of your nose is grosser than it sounds.
6) Riding "bareback" on the neck of an elephant is a lot harder than it looks.
7) Traffic moves more like a school of fish or the shoppers on a busy Christmas shopping day. It's all about "body" language (speed and direction of the vehicle) and communicating with horns and lights.
8) When you hear "If there is a doctor onboard, please identify yourself to the crew" 2 hours into a 12 hour flight means no rest for Laura.
9) I should be sleeping right now.
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