August was a shitty month, lots had happened, but I’m glad that things are working out fine. I wasn’t in the mood to update the blog during August for sure. September is the travelling month, and I camped for 7 days at the Yellowstone and the Grand Teton National Park. It was one of the shortest trips I’ve ever taken but, it was definitely rewarding and I had taken countless beautiful pictures. Here is how it went….

It’s the end of the third day.. I’m laying in my tent typing on the iPhone trying to write my journal.. Where do I start. Flying from Vancouver to Salt Lake City was easy. The flight from SLC to West Yellowstone was a small propellor jet (wasn’t surprised) and it delayed for an hour. The West Yellowstone airport was tiny! and old. The baggage pick up area was just a tiny metallic platform where the ground people would unload the bagages onto a trailer and then bring them to the platform… it was literally 30 meters from the plane, kind of hilarious. Renting the car was super east though, got a mid size Chevolet, very clean and stuff.

Day 1
I drove to the Marketplace in W Yellowstone to load up a bunch of can foods, and water, just in case. Entrance to the park was really close by, less then 10 minutes away. Paid the entrance fee of $25 and the cashier said not too many people stick around for 7 days.. I drove straight to Norris, got my campsite registered (self register), set up the tent, and drove away. I passed by the Gibbon Falls, checked out the Artist Paint Pot Trail (with some really cool venting bubbling mud pools) and the Roaring Mountain. I went to the Norris Geyser Basin, super cool looking vents right from the ground! and there were abundant of them, some were blue, some green, some filled with mud and bubbling… it’s just crazy. At the end of the day I hiked up this pretty brutal trail called the Monument Geyser Basin Trail which was a 30 minutes constant, steep uphill climb. I wasn’t even sure how I was able to make it but it was welllllll worth the effort! At the top there was a huge area full of venting steam holes of different sizes, and the best part is that I got to actually walk on them and touch the boiling water! It wasn’t very hot actually, lol. Out of surprise there was another guy there, with his guitar, enjoying the solitude. This made my day.

Day 2
I checked out the Mammoth Hot Spring geyser area, walked along the upper and lower terrace loops, and saw tons and tons of very interesting white terraces containing different colors of water. Steam vents were everywhere, it’s like boiling water not in a kettle but on the ground, very interesting. It was an hour there and then I rushed to Tower campground hoping to get a site for the night, as it was already 2 pm. I was super lucky to get a site (there were only 32 of them!) Got my tent set up, and rushed to my next attraction which was the Tower Fall. Pretty impressive but nothing too crazy. Drove along the 7-mile dirt road called Blacktail Plateau Drive which was a waste of time, and thrn checked out the Petrified Tree which was anothet good waste of time. Drove down to the Canyon Village for some gift shopping and stuff. Went back to the Tower campground for the night.

Day 3
Didn’t have a very good sleep, got up at 6 to wash up and prepare, and had my usual canned sardine for breakfast. Got to the Mount Washburn trailhead, it was a 10 minutes unpaved, rough ride. Put my sunscreen on, filled up water bottle, and there I go. I was able to see the peak (end point) not too long from where I started, but it was crazy uphill! Took me at least 2 hrs to get up, luckily it wasn’t too hot and it was breezy. Along the way I spotted butterflies, chimpmonks, and tons of birds. At the peak there was an observatory deck, and some educational materials. Surprisingly after myself there were people keep coming up..! at least 10 groups of people other then myself. The view was of course stunning, although it would have been better if I came up an hour later so that the yellowstone grand canyon is more lit up. Getting down was BRUTAL! My toes really hurt and I actually had to stop a couple times just to give my feet a rest. In fact the hike was a little too much for my body and I have been feeling light headed for the entire day. After that I took a detour to the Canyon Village, got my lunch( sandwich) and drink, and an orange. Sent my postcard, and left for the main attractions. I checked out all of the view points on the North and South Rim Roads: Inspiration Point, Artists Point, Grand Canyon, Lower and Upper falls… etc. Not too many people around so It was really awesome and I was able go proceed swiftly. Not feeling too well, I decided go head down to Bridge Bay where I’ll be coping for the night. On the way I passed by Haden Valley and there where tonssss of Bisons around! It was kind of like being in Africa watching games. Some of them were trying to cross the road and it caused huge traffic jam. Nevertheless I stopped for a few times and got some decent pictures and videos of them. Got to the camp site finally, had to drive 5km North to Fishing Bay to shower (first shower in three days!) and drove back. Super stressed and tired, I really am hoping for a good sleep.. and no bears. Oh I spotted bears today from a distance, there were groups of people stopping by the road and Of course I had to get off he car. Thanks to my long zoom lens I was able go get a few good shots.

Day 4
Had no sleep last night because of the uneven ground I set up my tent on and during the night I was constantly sliding down. I didn’t even know how I managed to stay awake until 6am.. Got up and washed up and packed my tent. Worst thing was that there was a really bad cramp on my right knee, and I had trouble walking. It was probably because of the extreme hike I had yesterday, as I had similar experience back when I hiked in Utah. Luckily the pain went away in the afternoon. Hay fever was bugging me quite a bit today, not too bad but enough for me to have to keep a couple sheets of tissue paper in my pocket. I head up to the Hayden Valley and as expected, tons of Bisons again and they were crossing the road causing traffic, just like yesterday. Saw the valley in morning light, it was peaceful and magical. The Yellowstone Lake was equally awesome, with steam coming up from the surface of the water. I pulled aside and took a quick nap since I was feeling really tired. After that I checked out the Mud Volcano area, giant steam vents with boiling mud; and Sulfur Caldron which has boiling acidic water that can melt your shoes. I like the mud volcano especially the Black Dragon’s Caldron where boiling steam escapes from a cavern making roaring, deep sound, really cool. I then had some lame can food for lunch, and then headed for the West Thumb Geyser Basin. Upon entering there were pools of sky-blue colored pools of water and, not far from that I saw for the first time one of those ‘colorful’ springs that Yellowstone is known for. Really cool, rainbow colors, and luckily I brought my polarizing filter with me cause without it I won’t be able to capture the true colors of the springs. Headed back to Grant Village where I’ve set up my tent at noon (finally a really nice, leveled site) and I’m done for the day. Oh before that I dropped by the Yellowstone General Store to get some more gifts and stuff.

Day 5
I had some good rest finally! Although it was freezing cold (below zero) and I almost caught cold when I got out of the sleeping bag (or maybe I already did?!) I had to tighten up the portion of the mummy sleeping bag so that only my eyes and nose is exposed. Got up around 7am, washed up in the extreme morning coldness, had my canned fish for breakfast, and headed towards Old Faithful. I’m now sitting besides the Lonestar Geyser after a 45 minutes easy hike. According to the guy I bumped into along the way the geyser erupted at 8:08am so I will have to wait until 11am to see it erupts again (it does it every 3 hours) and it’s 10:34am right now. I was able to catch the eruption! I was almost going to leave but somehow I decided to stick around for another 10 minutes and it paid off - it was about 9 minutes late. Super impressive 50 feet water shooting out of the main hole and some smaller holes.. and the sound of the pressure and steam was crazy. This has to be the highlight of the trip. I stuck around for a while and walked another 45 min back to the parking lot. My hay fever got a lot worse, I was literally sneezing and running nose nonstop I couldn’t even get out of the car when I got to the Old Faithful area. Somehow I managed to check out the general store, got a box of Clariton which sort of helped for then next 2 hours. The Visitor Centre was pretty nice, tons of exhibits and I watched a 15 min video there (intro to YS). I spent the next 2 hours wandering around the 50+ geysers along the trails next to the visitor centre. So many people..this has to be the most popular destination for visitors. I skipped the Old Faithful Geyser since the ranger predicts that it won’t erupt until an hour later. I was lucky enough to catch the eruption for the Grand Geyser though! Which was predicted to erupt “between 1pm and 5pm” so I considered myself super lucky. Loved the Morning Glory Pool at the end of the trail, super colorful and I think this is the one that they use for the postcards. Still sneezing crazily but I sill managed to check out the Black Sand Basin area. Nothing too impressive but I like the huge Sunset Lake spring and the Emerald Pool, they are both huge and equally colorful. I couldn’t do it anymore and had to make it back to Grant Village campsite…

Day 6
Had an okay sleep, more like half asleep. Got up around 7am, had a chat with a guy in the washroom and he said I look great, I said he looks great too and he said he looks like a monkey. People here are really nice, especially the older folks, 99% are nice. I did met some racist-ish older people that didn’t really seem to want to talk to you. Generally the park is filled with older couples or single old men(55+), very few young couples(mostly 30+) and almost none of the 20’s except for some Asian students. I wonder what makes older people come here. Most of them are super healthy I’ve even seen an old guy riding up the Signal Mountain Road Which is a steep, long uphill and he was like riding in air. Anyway after breakfast (chocolate muffin I got few days ago), I hit south to the Grand Teton National Park for my 1-Day Trip. First I had to get to the Colter Bay Campground to get a camp site. Got there at 9 and I’ve got a really cool site! Super private albeit a little far away between the parking spot and the actual site. Got my tent set up real quick and headed to the Colter Bay general store for some fridge magnets and souvenirs. Really nice and cozy store, with a proper(finally) supermarket next door so I had to stock up dinner and drinks. Headed towards Signal Mountain next which was a slow and windy 20 minutes drive. The view up there was awesome, a super enormous valley with some trees here and there, very scenic. I then drove to a couple lookouts including the Cathedral Lookout which has a pretty good view of the Teton mountain ranges. The park is pretty much all about these mountains, with various viewpoints throughout the park. It was a little cloudy so the Teton Mountain was in a shadow, but I still got some good shots of Mt Moran and the other few. Drove down further south to the South Jenny Lake where I paid $10 to take a shuttle boat ride across the lake. Hiked up half a mile uphill to see the Hidden Falls, which in fact was pretty hidden. I was feeling pretty weak and annoyed because of my already so after that I took the boat ride back. Drove to a few more viewpoints. The Snake River Lookout was kind of cool, although it was gloomy and also you don’t get a perfect view of the river, unlike the Grand Viewpoint in Yellowstone where you can have an awesome view of the yellowstone river. I called it a day and headed back to the campsite. It’a raining right now, I can hear every droplet very clearly as it hits my tent fly. I guess I should go to sleep.

Day 7
Had an okay sleep, not quite enough but it was alright, I can have all the sleep I want tonight. I wasn’t really sure how i was going to spend the day cause I have to fly out at 5:39pm, so I sort of go as I see fit. I started off driving back North to Old Faithful. Checked out the Black Sand Basin once again in case the Emerald Pool looks better, and it sort of did. Drove further up to see the Biscuit Basin and it’s got some huge geysers as well. Nothing beats the Midway Geyser Basin where the Grand Prisima Geyser was - world’s largest geyser and it was hugeee and super colorful. Insanely cool, and there were some Japanese film crew shooting there with 3D cameras. I took so many shots there literally used up most of my SD card storage. Checked out the Firepot Paint Point, another mud pot but it was huge. Drove along the Canyon Mountain Drive, kind of cool with a river and some nice and tall canyon walls but nothing compared to the ones in Zion NP. I think that’s pretty much it, kind of a relaxing day (I was on my flip flops for the entire time) so my feet are happy. Nice and cool too and the sun kind of warms me up, super nice weather for strolling along these amazing geysers. I consider myself lucky enough to be able to see most if not all of the colorful geysers under direct sunlight, as without proper lighting the colors won’t show up and you get a dull and boring picture. Had canned spaghetti and breakfast and lunch and an orange as desert. Got to the West Yellowstone Airport around 4:15pm, returned the car and that concludes my day. Right now I’m in the sky flying towards Salt Lake City, and then another 2 hrs of flight, followed by another 2.5 hrs drive back home…that’s the price to pay for all the fun I had, I guess. Small price though.

Wishes:

Went down to Seattle for 3 days with Wendy and her family. The trip was quite fun and relaxing and not boring at all except for the long drives. Wish I had more time at the University Village shopping mall, it was a really nice place to wander around for a day or so. Our schedule was kind of tight, didn’t get to see much. One great thing I did was that I owned the gym at the hotel for a full hour, with HDTV and free ice cold water and air-conditing! Definitely don’t mind going back down there for more shoppings.

Been working out in my home gym lately, 2-3 times a week. Also been riding my bicycle around town, to supermarkets and malls etc. Sweating really makes one feel better and in fact, more relaxed. The $150 bicycle is holding up strong still, just a couple minor tightenings on various parts but that’s about it, possibly the best money spent in the last while. I got a huge bottle of Creatine powder today from GNC, going to load up with it and see what happens!

Also been working on writing songs and messing with Logic 9. Such a fun and powerful app which really does magic in terms of song arrangement. I finished up with my third song today, uploaded it to my SoundCloud page.

Today is the 2nd day after getting back home, having serious hay fever since I disembarked at the Beijing Airport. It was terrible that the symptoms broke out so quickly at the airport and I was sneezing and my nose was watering crazily, and it was an hour before my next 10-hour flight to Vancouver - someone on the plane is going to be really pissed off. Needless to say, I had a terrible 10-hour flight (luckily I stole loads of toilet paper from the washroom before boarding), couldn’t sleep at all. The girl next to me was probably scared seeing the toilet paper that I kept in my hands and at one point, I had to plug both of my nostrils with the paper to stop my nose from dripping. Still feeling bad right now, sneezing like crazy. Oh well.

The trip was very satisfying. I got to go to Tung Ping Chau (remote island off Hong Kong) with mom to see some really exotic landscape (mainly rocks along the shore). $260 HKD includes accomodation, 3 meals, and roundtrip ferry! Went to the Hong Kong Wetland Park to check out some birds and some gardens. Got to go to the renovated Ocean Park with Wendy to see one of the world’s biggest water tanks in the aquarium. But the highlight had to be the 6-day trip to JiangJiaJie in China - it was so packed with activities that I actually felt overwhelmed. I broke my lens again first day of the trip, lol. The front element came off again, but luckily I was able to borrow some tape from a Chinese restaurant and got it fixed temporarily. I broke the UV filter the last day of the trip though, my back pack fell off the bed to the floor, and the glass broke! That’s another $20..

I had quite a few “first times” during the past 3 weeks..First time

• Seeing a dead motorcyclist along the road (I was in a tour bus) and his wife was facing down crying, realizing from deep within my heart how fragile lives can be. Hope his wife will be okay.
• Seeing in person one of the best panorama views in China - floating gardens at the YuanJiaJie Scenic Area, where they took the scenery and used in Avatar.
• Witnessing the worst Earthquake/Tsunami in Japan. I was having lunch with Vincent in Hong Kong when I saw the news that showed how the 20m tall tsunami consumed the lands in Sendai/Japan. I had a true sense of terror, further confirming that the world is indeed going to end.
• Truly worried about Wendy’s safety (in terms of her getting injured) as the day she landed in Tokyo was the day the earthquake struck. Thank god she wasn’t in Sendai! I wish I was there.
• Realizing that eating Gwei Ling Go (Tortoise Jelly) can cure the peeling skin around my nose! I took 10+ of them when I was in Hong Kong my nose had never looked so good! I got to look for getting them here in Van.
• Getting ripped by a drug store in China. Paid 1800RMB for 3 boxes of drugs recommended by this guy that knows Qi Gong. He said that my liver is weak and has toxins and the Qi Gong that he applied to me (really felt it!) plus the drug will cure me in a month. Actually I don’t know if the drugs is going to work, will see.

Getting back to work tomorrow…argh.

It’s been 4 days since I’m back from Africa. My mind’s been pushing me to start writing a journel as usual but then I’ve been procrastinating since I knew it’s going to be a lot of work for my brain. I wish I could do the journel during the trip but the days in Africa were just so hectic, hot, stressful, and packed with activities, plus there wasn’t electricity for a few nights, I couldn’t keep the laptop running for the journel. Also the mosquitos! I hate them but they were everywhere. It was close to impossible to focus on anything while these little guys fly all over you.

I’ll try to remember, hopefully my memory isn’t as bad as I thought.

Day 0 - Vancouver -> Nairobi

We left early in the morning for the flight, connected in Seattle, Amsterdam, and then Narobi/Kenya. It was probably the lengthiest flight time I’ve ever had, close to 24 hours I believe, although Wendy and I had an hour or so doing some shopping at the Amsterdam airport. I had to buy a bottled of water for taking the malaria pills and it costed like 2.8 euro! What a rip off. We safely arrived Nairobi, it was hot already in the airport. After retriving the baggages we called a taxi at the kiosk. The driver didn’t really know where the hostel was (Khweza Bed and Breakfast) and then he took some weird shortcut which scared us cuz it was like some dark industrial area. He stopped the car at one point and we were like, shit what’s he going to do to us! Luckily he was just trying to back up to use another route. We got the the hostel (really nice one depite the mosquitos), checked in, checked out the mosquito nets (kinda cool), the cool African style lamp, and then it came the most devasting news. I found that my 12-60mm lens was broken! It failed to focus in the 12-18mm range. The metal ring at the bottom was bent, probably cuz I put it in the bottom compartment in my backpack and I recall dropping the pack on the ground for once when I was at the airport. I tried my best to open up the lens with pair of small scissors and attempted to fix it. I got it working partially but the 12-18mm range still wouldn’t focus. Almost wanted to kill myself. I had to use F22 for all of my wide angle shots for the duration of the trip. Sigh.

Day 1 - Stone Town

Next morning we had a very very nice breakfast in the terrace and had an awesome chat with the hostel driver Juma. We then checked out and went to the airport again for Zanzibar. Fly540 budget airline that we took was actually fairly nice, provided us with sandwich, cookies, and drinks. We connected at New Mombasa and then to Zanzibar. Despite the noise from the small plane it was a pleasant flight and I slept all the way. Zanzibar airport was tiny, old, and hot, and we had to pay for the Tanzania VISA which costed $50USD per person, what bullshit. We took a taxi that brought us to the “meeting point” for the tour - the Garden Lodge Hotel, situated in the middle of the infamous Stone Town. The “hotel” looks nice from the outside with great curb appeal, with hanging flowers and all that. However the rooms were small, hot, dark (and the beds have bedbugs which luckily we didnt encounter but our groupmates did). Luckily there weren’t too many mosquitos. After checking in, Wendy and I went out for a walk in the Stone Town. The buildings were short and “stoney” which I could tell that they were build in the old days. Streets were fairly narrow, the ground was very uneven, but it still has its charm - buildings with colorful doors/windows, nice detailing around the frames, interesting paint colors, and since 99% of the women there were muslims they wear really colorful clothes which make great contrast to the exterior of the buildings and is awesome for pictures. Around 5:30pm we wandered back to the hotel, full of sweat, and met with the group of people that we’d be travelling with for the next 10 days. The tourguide Freddy told us to meet at The Africa House for a drink. We went there, saw the group of people, and surprised that they already knew each other well and started chatting as if they were friends. Wendy and I had no clue what’s happening and not until after a while that we realized these people already had a few weeks worth of travelling together from Cape Town to Namibia. We tried to chat with them but since they knew each other too well we were feeling a bit left out. Oh well, I didn’t really care, just a bit weird. Still, they were nice and I could tell they were all enjoying their trip so far. In the evening we visited the “night market” where local sells grilled seafood, “Zanzibar pizza”, and other delicacies.

Day 2 - Nungwi

On the next day after an average breakfast we left with the group early for the “Spice Tour”. After an hour or bumpy ride we arrived at the Spice farm. The tour was REALLY interesting! We got to see a huge variety of spice/fruit plants, got to taste seeds like pepper, cinnamon, cardmom, and saw mango/passion fruit/mint trees etc. I also saw ginger on the ground! They looked interesting. The local people were kind enough to give each of us some very nice looking hats/handbags that they wove, and I also received a grass tie that noone else in the group had! We bought some spices at the end of the tour, namely curry, coffee, and black pepper. After the tour we had another hour of drive before arriving at the beach called Nungwi. The beach resort was SUPER COOL! We had the best view for the ocean, with torquise blue water, white sandy beaches, great looking bars, and nice roomy rooms with a powerful fan in the ceiling. No mosquitos! We really had a blast there. The rest of the day we spent wandering the beach for a bit, had a lunch at an open restaurant with TONS of flies bugging us while we were eating (super bad experience) although the food was delicious. Wendy and I got down into the water and it was so warm and comfy! We spent the rest of the day in the water, watched the sunset on the beach, and then had dinner at a restaurant next to our resort. I have to say that the food was super awesome. We ordered a grilled octopus dish, and a curry/spinash dish with rice. They were extremely delicious. That was the first night I started to be amazed at the skills the locals have in cooking.

Day 3 - Nungwi

After getting up early we had breakfast at the hotel bar. 360 degree panorama at the ocean, couldn’t get ANY better. And of course I was forced to take pictures here and there. We then head for snorkling. It was a mixed feeling - the boat ride was extremely long (2.5 hours) and almost all of us had serious sunburn due to the extremely fierece sun, despite putting on sunscreen. Wendy had nausea and was feeling really sick, and I wasn’t feeling good either. The snorkling part was cool, although since it was Wendy and I’s first time we had to wear a bulky life-jacket in order to keeep afloat. The coral and fish we saw were amazing though, not super crazy good like those seen in the Discovery channel but still it was eye-opening - fish with catchy colors and weird shapes, sea stars, uni, huge huge corals…etc. Wendy’s life jacket kept on getting loose I had to help tighten it up for a few times, and her airtube was broken so sea water was getting into her mouth while breathing - not a great experience but oh well. On the way back they took us to a location where they had lunch for us and the grilled fish was TASTYyyy! So yummy that I had 2 rounds of fish and rice. Took another 2 hours of boat ride back to the beach, it was better as we grabbed a seat under the roof so we weren’t exposed to the sun. We had some great dinner again at another seaside restaurant. I got grilled calamari (very tender) and Wendy had a chicken stir fried African noodles. Wendy wasn’t feeling too well after the sun exposure, and I had most of the food with half of the noodles packed away.

Day 4 - Stone Town

After breakfast we drove all the we back to Stone Town from the beach. After getting back to the hotel a few of us opted to visit the “prison island” were we got to see some super big sea turtles. They were awesome! Old and huge, and cute in a way. I tried to “pick” one of them up by holding it on its 2 sides and it was super heavy, lol. The prison itself was boring despite some great colored windows. I loved the island though, it’s so peaceful, quiet, and pretty. The sailman brought up a couple colorful sea stars from the shallow water and of course Wendy and I took the chance to snap a couple shots. After that we wandered around Stone Town for a while again, bought a couple paintings at great prices (thanks to Wendy’s bargaining power), and then headed to The Africa House again for a drink with the group. I captured the picture of a lifetime there, with a sailboat right in front of the setting sun! I heard that photographers actually pay to have these sailboats sailing back and forth the setting sun so I considered myself super lucky. I helped Shaline the tour guide fix her computer virus for a bit, and then headed to the night market for food again. This time we had the sugarcane juice and it was sooo tasty! They put pieces of ginger into the cane while squeezing them with the machine and the juice just tasted so good. Had another Zanzibar pizza, and some grilled fish, for our dinner.

Day 5 - Moshi

We got up super early (5am?) had some really average breakfast at the terrace of the Garden Lodge Hotel, and started heading to Moshi. I can’t even remember how long that ride was, maybe 9 hours? Super bumpy ride in the tight/dirty overland truck (although it looks cool from the outside), almost like some amusement park ride. We had lunch at a stopover place (very average), and the ride continued. When we got to the Moshi campsite the sun’s already setting, and we had to put up this huge tent, although it wasn’t too difficult or anything. The site was fairly spacecious. Had an okay dinner (with tasty soup but that’s about it) at the restaurant next to the campsite.

Day 6 - Arusha

After packing up the tent in early morning, we left the site and headed for Arusha. We were able to see the snow capped tip of the infamous Mt. Kilimanjaro, Africa’s highest mountain. We stopped by some local supermarket in Arusha to “stock up” for supplies since the guide said supplies are very limited in Serengeti NP. We bought a huge bucket of water, some snacks, and exchanged for some Tanzanian cash. After arriving our campsite for the night called “Snake Park”, we checked out the snakes (tons of them there), some small animals, went to the Masai Cultural Museum they have in there (kinda interesting with exihibits of Masai people’s clothings, houses, traditions..etc), and then of course visited the local stores they had there in tiny little huts selling all kinds of beaded jewelry and other local crafts. Wendy got tons of stuff there and I didn’t get any until when I re-visit it a couple days later. Can’t even remeber what we had for dinner, probably some lame stuff.

Day 7 - Serengeti NP

Did we have breakfast? We must had but I can’t remember what. Anyway we hopped onto a really cool looking safari vheicle in the morning and headed for the Serengeti National Park. On the way we stopped by a local craftstore where I got a really cool looking “snake box” made with stone and when you pull the cover a snake would stick its head out. When we were almost there we opted to visit a local Masai village and I’m glad that I did. A few of our groumates also came along and as soon as we arrived at the village, we were being welcomed by the local people and they sang us a “welcome song”! They performed some additional traditional dances, and guided us to their “houses” which were some tiny little hut made with mud. There’re two beds inside, a fireplace, some super tiny holes for the “windows”, and that’s pretty much it. I was surprised how well the guide spoke it in English, and I highly doubted that they actually live there. Nevertheless we visited a local kindergarden with tons of kids. The main guide explained how the lectures go and one of the kids there demonstrated how they learn the English alphabets by yelling them out loud. They were really cute. We were brought to the craft booth of course for some selection of beaded crafts but they were overpriced and we didn’t get any. Overall it was well worth the price and detour (I think it was like $10USD per person). we had a game drive the very same day in the afternoon all the way until sunset. Now this was really eye-opening. The driver opened up the roof of the vheicle and we had 360 degree view of the safari plain. We saw a leopard, tons and tons of zebras, African elephants in the far (glad that I brought my 2x teleconvertor and the 50-200m zoom lens), cows, gazelles, giraffes, some weird looking birds called Secretary Bird which spends most of its time walking on the ground, lions (saw a few baby lions playing on some rocks!), hippos from a distance, and a great great African sunset. I really love the shapes of the Umbrella Thorn Acacia trees, just feels so Africa and I really felt like I was watching the Animal Channel - silhouette of the trees in the setting sun - what else can be better. That night we camped at a site within the park I believe, with tents and dinner already set up so we didn’t have to pitch them which was a relief. Dinner was great (our cook makes awesome food), with soup, main course, and fruits. Campfire followed which was nice, however the washrooms were dark and nasty, had to make my way there with a flashlight. We were pretty much surrounded by animals like hyenas (they howled at night!) and buffalos (I saw their eyes with a flashlight, perhaps 50 feet behind our camps). It was a restless night but an interesting experience.

Day 8 - Serengeti NP to Ngorongoro Crater

We headed into the Serengeti NP early in the morning again for a game drive, towards the Ngorongoro Crater area. Again tons of animals on the way, and we got a closer up to some of them like the Marabou vultures, hippos at a waterhole, and a family of lions with a male and a female. We saw the vervet monkies recognizable by their blue “balls”. Saw a few hyenas (good to see them in real as I’ve seen them numerous times on Discovery Channel), a White-backed vulture on top of a tree, the super colorful song birds, ostridges, tons of warthog (Pumbaa in Lion King, and apparently they have really bad memory), leopard… We stopped by the entrance gate to the Ngorongoro Crater for washroom break and a giftshop, then continued our way further in for a lunch stop. Craziest lunch ever, as we were completely surrounded by 4-5 Marabous ready to take over our lunchboxes. One of our groupmates actually got her piece of fried chicken taken away by one of them! Scary but cooool. Further game drive brought us to some buffalos, an African elephant (took the driver a while to find it, by tracing the trees they were destroyed along the way). We camped at the rim of the Ngorongoro Crater, although we couldn’t really walk down the rim as it was blocked by thick vegetations and tons and tons of poo on the ground which was super gross. The site was okay, dinner was awesome again, and we had campfire and some chats after that. It was really cold up there at night and I had to cover up myself with a fleeze insert for the night. No animals walked by I think…

Day 9 - Ngorongoro Crater to Arusha

The breakfast was good, filled us up quite well. We then headed for a morning game drive down into the crater itself. Now this one was truly spectacular! It differs from game drives in the Serengeti NP in a way that you no longer see these vast plains with no ends like in the Serengti, but the landscape was surrounded by the rim of the crater.. though the crater itself was hugeeee. TONS of animals down there actually, in great concentration, due to the confined space I believe. We got super close up view of the buffalos (got their head shots =D ), very high concentration of zebras and babies, plus everything else we saw the day before. We went through a thick rain forest area in the crater with really interesting vegetations, and it was also where we spot a few rhinos (yay for seeing all of the “Big 5″!) despite them being super far away. We witnessed a possible hunt for zebras by a few female lions although the zebras got away, which was really intense and cool (again felt like I was on Animal Channel!) We saw bones and remains of animals along the way which was kind of cool, and we also spotted a mating male ostridge doing a “dance” in front of a female! Just so awesome. That concludes our 2 day safari and it was really satisfying and eye-opening. The way back to Arusha was BRUTAL, with roads that weren’t even properly built and tons of roadworks. I could hardly stay on the seat…and I really dislike the overland vehicle because of that. Took almost an entire day of driving and we were dropped off at the Hotel Boulevard where we met our “potential” driver for the Nairobi day-trip there. He took us back to Khweza Bed and Breakfast, and gave us a fairly good deal for our day trip for the next day. We asked him to bring us to a laundry place where we can drop off our huge bag of dirty clothes. We ended up using “Queen’s Cleaning” and too bad they couldn’t return the clothes the same day and we had to pick it up the next day at noon. We paid Juma at Khweza to bring us to the Masai Market where Wendy and I went crazy shopping for local crafts. We were approached by a few locals and they told us we could pick whatever we want in the market and then we would have a chance to bargain/pay at the end. We got jewelry, shirts, and a bunch of other stuff, ended up costing $100 USD although the guys initially asked for $3xx, lol. We had an awesome and cheap (in price) dinner right at Khweza and I was shocked by the value. Portion was huge, and delicious! The staff were all super friendly and they even have a section of the patio with plastic sheets put up on the sides to block the wind. We had a great stay there for the night.

Day 10 - Nairobi

Our potential driver David couldn’t make it and he called his cousin Tony to replace him and luckily Tony was a great guy and he treated us real good. First thing in the morning we headed to the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust animal orphanage to see the orphaned baby elephants (we didn’t get to see the rhinos). At 11am visitors were lined up near a pool of muddy water and in a short while the caretakers started to lead a dozens of baby elephants out and man, they were cute..!! They started off drinking milk in these supersized baby milk bottles, and started playing around in the mud pool and occasionally had drink at a huge metal bucket full of water with their trunks. The caretaker did a great job explaining everything from how these elephants lost their parents, how and when they were brought to the
facility, to their daily routines, food they eat, things they do, they names..etc, though I was so busy snapping pictures and I missed a lot of the info. There was a second round where they brought out another dozen elephants that were a bit older and bigger. We got to pet them and play with them, touch their trunks, and have photos with them. It’s a heartwarming experience not just because of their cuteness but it was really a privileged experience to be able to get so close to these wonderful animals. I was super happy. After that we headed for the Giraffe Centre, where we were given a handful of giraffe candies” which looked like tiny corks but apparently the giraffes love them. Wendy tried to put them in her mouth and the giraffes would give her a “kiss” grabbing the snack from her mouth. The place was crowded, but luckily we were still able to get some super close-up shots, plus of course we got to pet them! The driver brought us to a restaurant called The Verandah and apparently it’s where tourists usually go for lunch. Drivers get free lunch there as a complemental service. The food was good. I had seafood curry and Wendy had a ham sandwich with melted cheese and fries. It was a bit pricy though. They have a really huge giftshop there where you can get local crafts from many different countries in Africa. I ended up getting a wall-hanging crocodile made entirely with beads, which costed $1xx USD but I fell in love with it at first sight…so…lol. We then headed to the Nairobi Animal Orphanage which was an overpriced facility, most like a tiny zoo. At least we got to pet a few baby cheetahs by
paying a small fee of $30USD, which was the highlight of the tour. Nothing much in there otherwise, I wouldn’t suggest going there especially after a great safari trip. We had an incident at the end of the day - we totally forgot to pick up our laundry! Tony was worried and he waited for us at the entrace gate to the animal orphanage, and rushed us back into the city centre. Traffic was extremely bad, and we almost missed the closing time for the laundry. We finally made it, and immediately headed for the airport to board our plane towards Amsterdam. We met three of our groupmates at the airport, they looked really tired and I almost felt sorry to tell them how much fun we had in our Nairobi day trip..!

Day 11 - Amsterdam -> Cologne

Got off the plane, headed straight to the car rental place. Wow it was SO SUPER COLD in Amsterdam and we could barely feel our fingers. It really pissed me off that Dollar-Rent-A-Car didn’t have an office at the airport and we had to make a phone call in the cold to ask for a pick up. We waited in the cold under the huge Panasonic screen outside of the airport where the major car rental companies are for around 15 minutes. We quickly got our car, headed to Mcdonalds for a warm drink and to charge up my laptop, and began our European journey. I was worried about the VW Jetta lacking winter tires but it actually performed really well on snow and I was impressed. First stop was the De Haar Castle. It was actually open although the inside of the castle was closed. We paid a small fee, walked around the garden area, took tons of pictures in the freezing temperature, took a peek inside the castle as its main gate was open. They were heavily renovating it and construction workers were everywhere. I think this is the first time I’ve ever visited an actual castle so it was really interesting to me. We drove to the town of Urchet next, saw its Dom and went inside it for some pictures. Again my first time in a gothic church and also first time seeing those enormous organs hanging in mid air. I felt awesome. Saw the gothic looking clock tower as well, but the light/weather wasn’t ideal so I didn’t really feel like taking too many pictures. Next we drove to the Dick Bruna huis, or the Miffy Museum that Wendy dreamed to go to. We had to pay a steep fee which also includes admission to the Centraal Museum but unfortunately we didn’t have time for it. Went straight into the Miffy one after getting the ticket and we were greeted by a golden Miffy statue right away. Further inside was a room with huge walls full of Miffy childrem story books, really cool. There were more Miffy stuff inside and also a Miffy gift store where Wendy got her very cute Miffy tee. A long drive all the way to Cologne followed, and it was dark when we got there. Headed for the underground parking right underneath the Dom, we visited the enormous Christmas Market despite the freezing temperature. Tons of people, very festive, with booths selling delicacies and all kinds of cute little things. We started off getting a “Gluwine” which is essentially a cup of warm red wine with some cinnamon spice added. I paid a bit more to get the cup which has the logo of the Dom tower gold plated on it. Had an interesting pizza, and also some German sausage in curry sauce. We met with Wendy’s friend Christian to have a drink at a local bar, he’s friendly and I can tell he’s a really bright guy. He brought us to another Christmas market which looked even better than the one we were at but then we didn’t really have time for it, what a bummer. It was too cold, we saw him leave and headed straight to the hostel. Now I really have to talk about this hostel, which is more like a nice hotel, with super clean, bright rooms, awesome bathroom with super nice showerhead and waterflow, and we discovered two extra beds that were hidding inside a closet! Sadly Wendy felt really sick for the night and she didnt get to enjoy the warm shower at this cozy hostel. It was the “Youth-Hostel Cologne-Riehl”. I will definitely stay there again.

Day 12 - Cologne -> Brussels

Wendy felt really sick in the morning, I had to call her insurnace company the activate her medical insurance. After checking out we headed straight to the Sankt Marien-Hospital which was really close to the Dom. Wendy saw a doctor there and he said she was having a viral infection or something, and prescribed nothing but some pain killers and nausea drops. I walked to the pharmacy near the central train station to grab the drugs while Wendy awaited at the hospital. She took the pills and they actually worked. We saw down at a Mcdonalds near the Dom for breakfast (I loved the German sausages they had in it, came with three of them! And tons of eggs). Went into the inside of the Dom, took some pictures, Wendy went back to the car to rest, and I kept on snapping. Didn’t have a chance to go up to the top part of the Dom, will do it next time. While Wendy had a nap in the car, I drove to the next stop which was the Horst Castle in Netherlands. Damn, it was closed! On the web it says it’s empty and you can walk freely in it but it was closed when we got there… Regardless that wouldn’t stop me from taking pictures and I spent a good 30 minutes wandering around the frozen lake and snapped away. I like how it looks, very cute, and fantasy-like. Our journey continued all the way to Brussels/Belgium. The hostel we picked was kind of ghetto, with old room and with no amenities (the breakfast was AWESOME though). After dropping
off our luggage we drove the the Grand Place to check it out. It wasn’t really snowing but was super cold, but they had this very cool projection onto the biggest one of the few historic buildings there, which I could tell was designed specifically for the shape of the building. With some neat animation and sound, it looked really interesting and hi-tech. There are lamp posts in the centre which lit up with different colors going with the sound. We were starving and not after long we went into this restaurant very close to the Grand Place for some food. We ordered a huge bowl of mussels and then a braised beef cooked in belgian wine, both were very delicious =D The bill was a bit on the steep side but I think it was worth it. Since it was too cold we checked out a bit of the Christmas market around the corner and
then headed back for the night.

Day 13 - Brussels -> Domberg

Breakfast at the hostel was awesome! They had this huge coffee machine that makes all kinds of italian coffee. The cereal was tasty as well as the ham, and I really liked this chocolate paste that they had, called Kwatta. We parked near the Manneken Pis, didn’t take long to find it and he was in fireman outfit! I’d rather him naked though so I can take picture in its original form..oh well. Godiva Chocolate was right next to the statue so we went in and got a cup of really delish hot chocolate. After that we walked along the narrow streets nearby, had a super tasty strawberry chocolate cream waffle at Leonidas, walked back to the Grand Place, and then it started to snow like crazy. It was pouring! Checked out some souvenir stores and then we decided to head back to the car. When we walked pass the Manneken Pis
again someone’s already changed his outfit! He’s now a Pope, looked hilarious. Despite the bad weather we went up to the top floor of “Parking 58″ to check out the “360 panorama” which was recommended by the guidebook we grabbed at the hostel. The views were okay, but everything was blocked by railings so it was kind of shitty. After staying for 15 minutes or so we’ve decided to skip a few of the stops and spend our time at the Atomium, which proved to be a wise chose that we made. I’ve seen that structure on paper a couple times but it was wayy dramatic when I actually stood underneath it looking up. We paid to get into the “balls”, took an elevator to the top floor, checked out the INCREDIBLE panorama views (10x better than at Parking 58), went into the other “balls” on the sides which hosted some exhibits and snack shops. It was very cool to traverse along those “tubes” from one ball to another. We had a hot soup and some snack at the cafe at the ground floor, and headed straight for the hostel in Netherlands. The Westhove Castle we were supposed to stay at locates at the west end in Netherlands, when we got nearby the snowstorm started to build up very quickly and it was really scary to drive - without winter tires and four wheel drive. Somehow we were able to locate the castle, but couldn’t find the parking. Not until we asked the guys inside we realized that the parking was on the other side of the castle, and once parked you have to walk a dark, lengthy trail covered in snow all the way back to the castle. We dropped off our luggage, Wendy went to the room and I took the keys and headed for the parking, not knowing how scary it’s going to be. Turned out to be alright, and I made it back safe with help of a flashlight. I really liked the wooden “covers” for the windows, I think they were original and people just painted them over. Super high ceiling, with comfy beds but the heat wasn’t strong enough.

Day 14 - Domberg -> Gent -> Rotterdam

We had breakfast at the ground floor or the castle, it was fairly tasty, with ham again, coffee, boiled egg, cereal..etc. Somehow there were quite a few people coming in for breakfast even though I thought there were way less people staying at the castle the previous night - didn’t hear much noise for the night. After the food we walked along the path around the castle to check it out, took quite a few pics, saw the frozen canal with tons of ducks in it. It was a fairly neat castle with nice details here and there. Sadly the museum and the garden were closed so maybe we’ll have to visit them next time. Next we headed for Gent, an old city in Belgium, for the Gravensteen Castle. I didn’t read much about Gent but as soon as we got there you can easily tell that it’s a super old city with historic building everywhere in town - in fact I don’t recall seeing anything that looked “recent”, perhaps the city has special building codes in order to retain its old town look and feel. Now this castle is really very “castle” - With old, stoney, greyish exterior, and the typical “dents” on the top edges of the walls. I was glad that I paid to get in, it was really an eye-opener. The castle was hugeee, with lots of different rooms, passages, exhibitions, cellars…etc. Most of the exhibits were about how criminals were tortures and executed in the past. My fisheye lens was greatly used here and I was glad that I brought it with me, worked super well in the confined spaces. I liked how they preserved a lot of the original details, or maybe it was a result of a renovation with stones that mimic the past, I don’t know. After getting out we walked along the streets in the city centre, had some very tasty, super long hot dogs at a hot dog stand, checked out the super old-looking Dom (Sint-Niklaaskerk), kinda neat. Wendy got more chocolates at Leonidas, and not after long we headed back to the car for Rotterdam where we would spend the night. Not hard to locate the hostel “ROOM”, which was a funcky place with lots of neat little decors. Our room was tiny but nicely decorated by some designer. It was clean and warm, can’t complain, although having to walk the 3 stock of stairs that lead to the room was a pain. Ended up having “dinner” at a Mcdonalds as most stores were closed on the Sunday night, but any food is good food when you are starving.

Day 15 - Rotterdam -> Amsterdam -> Vancouver

We had an average breakfast at the hostel and headed to the city of Schiedam to see the “world’s biggest windmills”. Schiedam was a pretty and peaceful city in the outskirt of Rotterdam. The streets were extremely narrow, with canals here and there. We parked near the first windmill that we were supposed to go, called “Palmboom”. These huge windmills were mostly built in the 1700’s and you can tell by its exterior and each of them has a stone carving on it which shows the date it was built and some other stuff. Most of the windmills were closed, including the Palmboom which is one of them where people can go in and check out the inside of it, kind of sad. Still we took tons of pictures, saw 5 of the windmills, checked out the alleys and canals. Sadly I stepped on a poo, which took me a while to get rid of with help of grass and fresh snow… Our final stop was Gouda in Netherlands, where there’s this townhouse with very nice stained glass windows that I wanted to check out. Turned out that the exterior of the town hall was more interesting than the inside of it, which were mostly renovated space for conference uses. The stained glass windows were interesting though, although they looked fairly new. We were lucky enough to witness these construction people trying to erect a 60 feet tall Christmas tree right outside of the town hall. Police were around and there was this huge crane that picked up the tree and workers were putting it into the right position, kind of cool. We picked up our lunch at Subways after that and headed straight to the airport as we were really tight in schedule. Stupid KLM made us pay 55 euros for one of our luggage which really pissed me off, other than that the flight back home was good and that concludes our journey, pretty much. Very satisfying trip, other than the jet lag I’m experiencing, and the weird dreams as a result of the malaria pills, I’m a happy man. Can’t wait to go back to Africa, really.

Wendy and I went camping on Saturday at Gold Creek. I think we stayed last year at the same camp site but as always, the experience was very different. Weather wasn’t so good when we got there, drizzling but not too wet or anything. I tried to set up the tarp with ropes, tied up stones to one end of the rope, threw it all the way up so that it would catch some branches high up on the tree. The trees were fairly far apart but we ended up making a pretty nicely tilted tarp set up. Setting up the tent was a breeze, but starting up a fire wasn’t. Splitting the firewood wasn’t so hard but we had a hard time starting up a fire - tried using some smaller pieces of dried wood as the tinder, which didn’t work, they just wouldn’t burn for more than 10 seconds. Luckily we bought a fuel tablet which helped a LOT. It would keep burning for maybe 5 minutes straight which got most of our firewood started burning. The little electric fan that I brought helped a lot as well to get the fire going. Next time I’ll try dried leaves and dead tree twigs… We had a fun time barbequing all the beef, chicken wings, saugages…etc that we prepared, kept eating non-stop until the sky turned dark.

The next day we hiked the Lower Falls Trail, which was a 6km round trip easy hike. We stopped over at various scenic spots, checking out the clear looking water and river rocks. At the end of the hike it was a very pretty looking fall, actually one large one and a few smaller ones. The weather was so nice and sunny, which made the falls look really nice. We climbed to the top of a huge boulder to have some lunch, before heading back to Richmond. Overall the trip was a great one and we had a lot of fun doing quite a few different things.

On another note I got a refurbished Kitchen Aid 4-speed blender at New Country Appliances for $69. It works magic! I tried chopping ice with it it literally chopped up 12 icecubes in less than 5 seconds! So far I’ve successfully made coffee frap and chocolate frap with it, the size of the ice granules was perfect, tasted just like those in the cafe. The blade component at the bottom was a bit loose though but I was able to tighten it up with a crank. Now there is a very minor leak when it’s blending but it’s not really noticeable. I’ll see if I can further enhance my fix.

It’s been a week since I’m back from the trip. It was an extremely satisfying and fun trip, comparable to my Utah trip last August. Even though the weather wasn’t cooperating at all, I managed to go to most of the places in the original plan (even though the scheduling was all messed up). I had been doing a diary/journal everyday, and ended up with a 11-page document

Needless to say, I’m back to work and there’s TONS of work..! I got an iPhone from work though, pretty awesome! Been playing with the phone for a while, loaded a bunch of cool apps onto it. So far I’m liking the phone. The screen is awesome, the OS is really responsive, and it’s really easy to setup apps on it. The 3MP camera isn’t the best but it’s adequate.

I’ve taken over 5000 pictures this time and it’s overwhelming to go through them.. Very satisfied with the pictures though, much better then ones I took in Utah. Probably going to take a month or so processing all of them, but it’ll be well worth.

I got a papercraft of the Stonehenge from Wendy. It’s a scale model in printed paper all I have to do is to cut it and glue. It’s just 1 huge page of cutting, doesn’t seem too hard. I want to start building it soon, but it’s time to work on my tax return..