Surin Day 1

I was a bit worried about arriving in Surin at 4:30 in the morning… however since my train was nearly two hours late we got in at 6:30, a much better hour to arrive. Sure enough stepping out of the train station I was greeted by dozens of Tuk-Tuk drivers all eager to take me anywhere I wanted to go. I was headed for New Hotel though, which at least from the map I had looked to be close to the train station. Close enough I thought I could probably walk…. Turns out it was all of about 30 meters from the train station, maybe less.

New Hotel was recommended to me by a woman I met online on Lonely Planet’s Thorn Tree website. Thorn Tree is a online forum for travelers, unfortunately it’s a poorly organized one. I far prefer Bootsnall.com’s forums, but Thorn Tree still has a larger following. I digress. Turns out New Hotel was an excellent suggestion. The room was very inexpensive, 160 Baht/night regularly (US$4.50) and for Friday and Saturday of the Elephant Round-up they doubled their prices. This was a room without aircon an without TV. They offered aircon and TV in some rooms. IMHO, TV’s are worthless, and aircon is rarely worth it at least not in these season. You really do get used to the heat, for the most part. By Thai budget hotel standards the room was nice. It was clean, big (too big) and had with a large firm bed and a desk. The bathroom was reasonably large with flushing squat toilet. The shower was cold water only, or more appropriately outdoor temperature only. You see, in the morning the water was cold, but in the afternoon the water tank on the roof got super heated and the water would be super hot. It’s a minor annoyance, you get use to cold showers in the morning, but in the afternoon when a cold shower would be really nice you get hot water. I should explain at night the temperature drops to around 80-85F and during the day it’s in the 90’s. I can’t give exact numbers because it’s all Celsius and I haven’t quite got the conversion down in my head/body yet. Anyway, they cleaned the room and changed the sheets daily, as well as bringing a fresh towel every day. I was a bit bothered by the few cockroaches that would occasionally make there way up the plumbing and into the toilet. Only once or twice would they try to make it out of the toilet and onto the outside of the toilet at which point they’d get squished by a shoe. The first night I made the mistake of leaving my lights on while I was out. I came back to find the bright white sheet on my bed covered with small insects. Flys, little crawling things that looked like bed begs but were not, all vet small little bugs that thought this giant shiny white sheet was a great place to hang out. I brushed off the bugs, sprayed some DEET on the sheet, slept in my sleep sack and put DEET on my neck and shoulders. I was very happy when I woke up in the morning and didn’t see a bug anywhere to be found. I’ll also jump ahead and say that in the morning I discovered on of my screen shutters open a crack, duct tape closed it, and that when I left the light off when I went out I came home to no bugs on the bed. Enough on the room, back to my first morning in Surin.

The room in photos:

 

 

 

 

 

After dropping my bags in the room, showering and reading up on Surin, I decided on a whim to see if I could get WiFi access in the hotel room. With much amazement it turns out I could, although just barely. I was grabbing a signal from some neighbor, but only if I held my laptop at just the right angle and very close to the window. It was enough I could get to email and browse a couple web pages slowly… but that’s about it.

At this point I wasn’t so sure about my room, not so much because of the “state” of the room, but because it felt like a quiet hotel and I wouldn’t be meeting people to hang out with here. So I thought I’d head out to check out the only Hostel/Guest House in town, Phirom Guesthouse. conveniently the morning market was on the way towards the guest house. Unfortunately after quite a bit of walking, but some yummy food, I discovered a note a the destination saying Phirom’s had moved. So I set about walking to it’s new location as indicated by map on the note. Turns out it has moved well outside the main activities in the center of town… a long way out it was a long hot dusty walk. If I’d realized how long it would be I would have taken a Saam-Loew (bicycle-rickshaw) or Tuk-Tuk. The guest house was nice but too far out of the action for my taste today. If I’d been looking for somewhere to relax away from it all it would be great. Fortunately just as I was leaving so was an older British woman whom had just called a Tuk-Tuk to come pick her up for a ride back to the train station, which I shared. Back at New Hotel, I showered again, something I’d do at least three times a day every day I was in Surin.

With so much done already it felt like afternoon, but in it was actually about 11am, so after a brief rest I headed out again by Tuk-Tuk to the Elephant Stadium to check out the festivities there.

Today was the rehearsal day for the Elephant show and thousands of school kids from the area were all over the place to see the show for free. As I walked into the festival grounds 4-5 young teenage Thai girls came up to ask if they could practice there English with me. I was honored to be able to help, but the brief few questions they asked that I fill out their questioner on the elephant festival. It was just a couple questions, did I enjoy it, could it be better, what did I like most/least. I’m sure they were probably suppose to ask me all the questions, but was still impressed they’d gotten as far as the did before handing me the form. As I walked around the fair grounds adjacent to the stadium I was approached by a half dozen other groups of school girls all wanting to practice English. Surprising each had a different questioner to fill out. Some where more “where are you from” type stuff, some about Surin and more about the elephant festival. Several hours and a couple of stops to eat at the fair I thought I’d move on to the location of the Elephant Feast. As I was leaving the fair ground I was approached by one last group of school girls, after filling out their questioner… I was getting good at this, I thought I’d ask them a question. How do I get to Sri Paket Square (sp?). Their understanding of English wasn’t as good as I expected based on their speaking, but after a few giggles and requests on their part to speak slowly and repeat they helped me figure out on my map where I was headed. I walked away in the direction of the square figuring I’d find a Saam-loew to take me over there. I got about a block away when one of the girls from the last group ran up behind me and began speaking an pantomiming. It took a minute to understand but she was offering to give me a ride to the square on her motor bike. Flattered I couldn’t say no. The entire group of girls lead me down the road to where one of them, not the girl speaking to me, had a motor bike. They helped me cross the street and get on the back of the motor bike and I was off on a fun ride through Surin. It was amazingly fun

At Sri Paket (sp?) I got to watch them set-up for the next days elephant fest. They set up 2km worth of banquet tables along the road and then pile them full of sugar cane, water melon, turnips (?) and pineapples. I do love seeing festivals get set up. It reminds me of being at Octoberfest so many years ago at 5am and seeing the truck after truck unload dozens of kegs of beer in the morning.

I spent the late afternoon back at the hotel where I finally met up with Joy who was the one that had recommended New Hotel. Along with Joy I met Inga, Richard, Faye and Faye’s Father… and suddenly I knew a half dozen people in Surin. This is what I love about traveling. New friends. New Stories. I also have to admit I love having new friends without commitments. If any person sudden decided they don’t want to hang out with the other, you just part ways… no hard feelings… no bad thoughts…. because everybody understands and appreciates each others situation. Everybody is just doing their own thing and it’s totally normal to spend a day or two enjoying time with someone and they say “I feel like wandering alone today”. Then a few days later you might bump into each other in a market and sit down for lunch or just say hi and keep going… it’s wonderful.

 

Getting the heck out of Bangkok

I spent the morning figuring out my schedule for the next couple days and when/how I was going to ge to Surin for the Elephant Round-up. I determined I’d be best going on a night train (about 8 hrs). Then headed out to see Wat Phrea Kaew (Temple with the Emerald Buddha) and stop by the train station to buy my ticket.
The Emerald Buddha was beautiful, but a bit disappointing… it’ no where near as large as I expected. Being the most venerated Buddha image in all of Thailand I just expected it to be bigger. It’s most special because it is carved from jade. It is just about life size, which is small in comparison to many of the seated buddha images are several meters tall or more. The Emerald Buddha on an very high alter about 10 meters up in the air… The alter is spectacular, but somewhat overwhelms the Emerald Buddha. Regardless it was wonderful to see and sit and mediate, briefly, before it.
I walked around the temple grounds seeing all the amazing Chedi and Stupas around the grounds. There are also magnificent murals on the walls. As I left the Wat and Grand Palace I decided it’d be fun to make my way down to the train station by river boat.

I walked along river until I found a boat dock. I’m not sure why the river was so high, but much was flooded along the edges, water coming up into the streets. To get to the boat dock you walked through a little set of stores, quite like walking into Kimo’s on Maui. The floor of the stores all had a tiny bit of water on them and they’d built a temporary runway down the middle so that you could walk through to the boat docks without getting your feet wet. The runway however made the ceiling about 5 feet high. The boat dock actually had several docks for boats going to different places. It was all a bit confusing but I wasn’t too worried about getting on the wrong one since it just meant seeing more of the river. It’s not obvious since there are ordinary boats and express boats both going up and down river, as well as a third boat the simply goes across the river to another Wat. Fortutantly I made it on the correct boat, and no it’s not the boat in the picture, that’s a river cruise boat not a taxi boat. It was great to see the city from the water, so many houses and building sitting right on the edge of the water.

The ride down the river was wonderful and I started to see the real city of Bangkok. I saw dilapidated shacks falling into the river, next to new-ish high rise condos. It was great to see it all, to take it all in. From where the boat dropped me off I made my way through several non-touristy alleys toward the train station. Apparently I was in the automotive district or something, because every other shop had huge piles of car parts out front and were busily rebuilding engines, transmissions, differentials or whatever… Every few shops there would be a food place, sometimes tiny, sometimes larger. How great to be able to walk five feet to lunch… how horrible to eat the food soaked in diesel fumes all day. The highlight of the walk though was something unexpected as I walked along the channel. Just as I was walking past a local guy pulled a huge catfish out of the water. I gave him a big smile and thumbs up on his catch, he was clearly very proud. I ended up walking a long way down the street behind him as he walked and all the other locals would do the same thing (big smile/thumbs up) and comment on his good catch. So cool… this is the stuff I love about “getting lost on a walk in a new city”.
I finally made it to the train station and found the 8:30pm train was the only one with sleeper cars and it got in at 4:30am. I think it’s strange that neither the 10:00pm, 10:30pm nor the 11:15pm trains had sleeper cars, maybe they were just already booked… oh well.

With that taken care of I made my way back towards the hostel for a foot massage, a shower and dinner before turning around and heading back to the train station. The foot massage was fantastic the one hour massage which was 80% feet, 15% lower legs and 5% neck and back, cost me all of 250 Baht… US$7. It did wonders for getting my body back in balance after the plane flight, walking with an overly heavy pack, and the general lack of sleep.
The train ride started out louder and rougher than I expected but I got use to it and got a little bit a sleep as we went along eventually getting a few hours of sleep, but mostly doing some reading.

 

Arrival in Bangkok

Getting out of the airport in Bangkok was simple enough. Immigration had dozens of stations open each with a line of one or two people, so that only took a minute or so to get through. No questions, no hassles just a quick looks at my visa and another stamp in my passport. It does make me wonder how soon I’m going to fill up my passport… but I’ll worry about that if/when it happens. Next was picking up my baggage, which came out onto the carousel rather quickly. I’d already spied several other backpackers and was a bit jealous how much smaller their baggage was than mine. I’d really tried to pack light, but it’s clear I’m in the heavy load camp compared to many. I’m going to have to work on that and whittle down what I’m carrying. Between the baggage carousels was an ATM and a money exchange counter. I don’t know that I’ve ever changed hard US dollars into foreign currency; it’s also just always been easier and often at a better exchange rate to just take money directly out of an ATM. For major purchased I just use a a credit card which again is usually a better rate, although recently Amex changed their policy and now charge a few percent fee on foreign currency purchases, which is stupid and means I’ve hidden my my Amex away as my “just in case of emergencies card” (loss of my Visa credit card). Anyway, while I waited for my bag to come out onto the carousel I got Thai money out of the ATM. It’s pretty money, rather like Canadian money, color coded and size coded. Thankfully unlike Canadian money, there are only three coins 1/5/10 baht. The current exchange rate is about 35 baht to 1 US dollar, although I’ve seen as bad as 30:1 being charged some places. With money in hand my bag popped out from the depth of the airport and it was time to leave the secure international area.
Right at the exit of the international area there were several shops including a mobile phone provider which was what I needed for my last task I wanted to get done at the airport. I purchased a Thai pre-paid phone card for my GSM cell phone. I’d discovered that T-mobile, the global phone company (yeah right), only charges US$2.99/ minute for international roaming calls from Thailand back to the US… Conversely with a pre-paid phone card purchased her in Thailand I can call the US for 9 baht/minute or about $0.25/minute, and calls inside Thailand are just a few baht per minute. Especially nice was that a initial card purchase was just 1000 baht and came with 800 baht in credit, meaning the start up fee was just US$6. I can top that up anytime with more credit which then goes 100% towards phone calls. Compare that with Canada, where I didn’t buy a card. The cheapest card their was CAN$75 and came with CAN$50 in credit. CAN$25 wasted just on the card.
I was finally time to leave the airport. I think I’d been off the plane less than an hour by the time I’d gotten all of this done… not so bad. Outside the secure area there were several people offering to “get me a taxi”. Fortunately, from the advice I’d been given and read frequently I ignored them and went straight to the metered Taxi stand. I think it might have been possible and slightly cheaper to get to the hostel by subway/sky train, but carrying my ridiculously big backpack it’s was worth it to take the taxi and get dropped at the front door. The taxi ride was under 250 baht, including the 50 baht airport fee. I wasn’t really clear if the 50 baht was already shown on the meter or not, but I paid the extra 50 when the taxi driver asked me too. I think the meter showed 187…
The hostel was is wonderfully located on a large alley just behind Sukhumvit. Sukhumvit is a major street with a big night market on it and lots going on. I arrived at night so the shops were all set up and people were bustlingly around all over the place. I was a bit worried the hostel was was going too close to all the action, but it was just the right distance off Sukhumvit. SUk11 is maybe 50 meters from Sukhumvit and the alley itself is not a seedy dark alley, it’s a rather nice large pedestrian alley. Settled in I was excited to find WiFi in my room which I made use of for a few minutes before my first dorm mate came in. Surprisingly he was American (there aren’t that many here lots of Aussie’s and Euro’s). Paul, a student at CU Boulder had differed his last credit to travel while still a student and was half way through a year in Thailand. He’d actually been to Thailand many times and had lots of great advice. With that I headed out the check out the night market, get a bit to eat and try to find a padlock to lock up my computer in the drawer I had next to my bed. Dinner was from a street vendor selling meat on a stick, I opted for fishballs and shrimp. Yummy.
I expected it, but was still shocked by the prostitutes everywhere. It’s disturbing who prevalent and on the surface it is. The old guys walking down the street with 16 year olds don’t have a hint of shame on their faces, and frankly the 16 year old (or less) girls propositioning me didn’t seem the slightest bit shy about it either. I’m sure since I was walking around alone I got propositioned even more than normal. It was nearly constant until I started to recognize and avoid them and then it was just less frequent. I was happy when I got back to the hostel to see a sign above the front desk reading “Sex tourists are not welcome here”. It’s important to keep it in perspective. It’s certainly not most tourists and it’s not just tourists. Somewhere I read 95% of the sex industry here caters to locals… not that that justifies it but it does put a slightly different perspective on it.
I called it an early night, sort of, which meant I sat in bed on my computer working on photos and wishing I felt sleepy. I finally got to sleep around 3am and was up again at 6am. I’ve never felt the slightest jetlag going cross country, not even to Europe, but here the time difference is exactly 12 hours… it really couldn’t be worse.

 

The North American Road Trip Ends at the North Pole

The drive to JFK was smooth. I’m glad Matt suggested the one way car rental idea, much better and cheaper than the other options I’d researched for getting me from their house to the airport. I left the house exactly at 6am like planned and got the the airport exactly at 9am as planned, 3hrs before my international flight. Which was good because the computers were down and they were checking everyone in by hand.

Eventually the computers got back up and check-in sped up, but in the end the flight was still delayed in taking off by about an hour. I thought I’d make a dozen phone calls in the hour or two waiting to board the plane, but there was no service in the airport terminal. I like a dozen others walked around the terminal with cell phone in hand looking like was tracking a radio collared animal.

When we’d finally boarded and reached the runway we turned around. This was the second time in two week I had a flight make it to the runway then turn around. The first was flying back from Long Beach when someone “didn’t feel well”. This time is was something wrong with a “panel” in the cockpit. Anyway, that added about another hour and a half delay but I had better cell phone reeception sitting on the plane than in the terminal so I made couple calls. Then finally… I left US soil.

So here I sit on the plane, next to a really nice guy, also named Jon, whose been to Asia many many times. He’s gone both in his youth as a back packer as well as his years have started to add up. It’s great to her his stories about India, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. I can’t help but think that I hope many years from now I have similar stories to share some day.. perhaps ones that don’t involve broken legs in a bus accident though.

Finally I’m done updating my blog, at least with the typing, not the uploading. It seem appropriate that at this very instant I’m almost directly over the north pole and crossing to the “other” side of the world. The non-stop flight from JFK to BKK flys almost due north, over Quebec, over the pole, then south over China and into Thailand. Flight time is 16 hours 35 minutes and roughly 8600 miles. We were originally scheduled to land at 5pm local time, but now it looks like it’ll be closer to 7:30pm. Which is why I’m glad I already booked a room at a hostel for the night. I’m also assuming I’ll get some daytime views of the Himalayas out the window of the plane as we fly over (yeah!!!).

 

Parties and Packing

The four days in Pennsylvania went quickly.

I spent the Wednesday I had to myself packing and planning as much as I could. Changing phone service, the last credit card billing addresses, insurance information as well as running around trying to find someone to re-weld my cracked exhaust pipe.

On Thursday I took care of a few more errands before heading down to Philly to pick Elena up from the airport. It was wonderful to see her again, and I’m really glad I got to spend this last weekend with her before I go overseas.

Friday, Elena and I spent most of the day together, although she ran out to a spa for a facial and massage with Em which I searched for a new back pack since I’d decided mine was too small. As much as I wanted to squeeze into a tiny pack, there was just now way to pack my boots and carry the minimal clothing I wanted to carry. It all fit in the pack I had no problem until I add the boots and couple small items. Anyway, my search was futile and I decided to make do with one of the two other bags I had with me. Either the fairly big trekking pack I’d taken to Europe which I didn’t like because it’s top loading or the big north face duffle bag I have that has optional shoulder straps but no waist belt As with so many decisions I went back and forth many times… I finally settled on the real back pack since I’ll probably be doing some trekking and don’t want to think of what it would be like to hike with the northface duffle without a waist belt for support. I’ll look for a pack in Thailand, hopefully finding a medium sized panel loader (zippered) and sell or send home this pack.

Saturday was the party which was loads of fun as always. Elena made a vegetarian soup and a pumpkin risotto. Both were fantastic, as was all the food.

Sunday was absolutely crazy. I needed to drop my van off with Mike in Westminster, Maryland (outside Baltimore). I’d gotten a one way car rental from Baltimore Airport (BWI) to JFK. So Elena and I drove down to Baltimore to pick up the car and then to Mikes & Carries new house. Which is big and beautiful and I see Mike and Carries doing a ton of work to . Nearly his entire family was over to help them move in so Elena and I got to sit down and join them all for lunch. It was really nice to see an entire family (Mike’s parents and grandparents as well as sister) stop in the middle of the day to sit down to lunch together. Elena and I headed back towards Pennsylvania in the rental car leaving the Vanagon with Mike. The Vanagon covered roughly 12,000 miles since I left California. The drive home was miserable, they’d shut down 2 of the 3 lanes on I-95 so it was stop and go traffic for two hours. It took nearly five hours to get back to Matt & Em’s, even though it took just under three to get down to Mike and Carrie’s including the stop at the airport. It all made for a very late and harried night where I packed and re-packed again trying to whittle down the amount of stuff I’m taking and making sure I really am happy with my choice of bags… The three of us got to sleep shortly after midnight. Yes it sadly was my last night sleeping with Tucker for a long time as well.

I’m deeply worried about him while I’m gone. I’m far more worried about him than Elena. Elena I can email and talk to all I need. She understands where I am and how long I’m gone for. All he knows is the guy that rescued him from the pound three years ago and that has spent nearly every minute of the last six months with is suddenly going to be gone. I’ve done what I can. I gotten him use to living at Matt and Em’s, use to the other dogs, as settled as I could possibly could… I’ve left him with people I know, love and trust as much as anyone else in the world… but it’s still hard.

In the morning kissed and hugged both my loves tearful good-byes and headed for JFK airport.

 

Acadia

I got into Acadia later than planned, about 8pm. I’d thought about just over-nighting at the walmart just outside the park, although it happens to be one of the walmarts where the local ordinances don’t allow over-nighting in their parking lots. I thought however I’d drive into the park and look for a camp site anyway and use Walmart as a back up. I’m glad did for two reasons. First, the campground was nearly empty and beautiful. Second, while looking at the campground board another solo camper drove up, fully equipped with kayak, bike and skis on her roof and Washington State plates. After a quick hello I invited her over to the campfire I was planning on later. I wanted to burn the wood I’d now hauled from Cape Cod and through Canada that I didn’t really want to bring all the way back to Pennsylvania. Anyway, it was great to have another random friend met on the road to chat with by the campfire that night. Amy was on a three month hiatus before starting a new dream job for her back in Washington, Hippotherapy (Occupational Therapy using horses).

In the morning I awoke to a incredible forest around me. I couldn’t just drive out of the park as I’d planned… now a couple days behind schedule to get back to Pennsylvania in time to get “things” in order before picking Elena up from the Philly airport. I figured another half day wouldn’t be the worst thing, so I took the morning to walk with the dog along the Otter Cliffs. Acadia National Park is the only (as far as I know) national park that allows dogs on their trails. Why this is I suspect goes back to the origin of the park which was primarily private land donations, rather than the usual Federal Government purchasing. After a beautiful walk along the Otter Cliffs, under clear skies I took Amy’s suggestion (Amy grew up in the area, Conneticut IIRC) and hiked Pememtic Mountain. The hike ended up being much longer than I had planned, and shortly after starting the clouds moved in. In spite of the wet weather the hike was wonderful and tucker certainly enjoyed running like crazy up and down the steep trail. The trail was categorized as “moderate”, which almost turned me off from it. I thought about switching to a trail categorized as “difficult”. I’m glad a didn’t… Acadia has a reputation for rock and root strewn trails, legendary for twisting ankles… this trails was no exception. Tucker of course took it all in stride running up steep rock section that had me using hands to make my way up, and jumping down cliffs that I carefully negotiated descending with my still recovering sprained ankle. Again, the best pictures end up on Flickr, so go look there for more photos from Maine/Acadia.

It was all worth it and I made it most of the way down the marvelous Maine coast before sunset. I was headed for Pennsylvania, but also wanted to stop by a friends in Harpswell Maine. Well, friend isn’t quite the right term. Jon is a mechanic, a Volkswagen mechanic and partners with the guy who imports and sell the engine conversion I have in my Van. He has helped me out by phone many times over the years and I really wanted to say thank you in person. The thank you took a little longer than planned… my scheduled arrival back at Matt & Em’s had already slipped form 5pm to 7pm to 10pm thanks to the hiking in Acadia and now was after midnight… and of course it was raining again…. raining hard again.

Thankfully I arrived safe and sound… close to 3am and Tucker and I were greeted by two very happy dogs

 

Cape Breton to Halifax

The ferry crossing was short and uneventful. A somewhat pretty view back toward PEI and a somewhat pretty view toward Caribou, Nova Scotia, but nothing like the view from the ferry back towards Quebec City, wow was that a fabulous view. I’d been wavering on weather or not to I’d have time to drive the Cabot Trail around Cape Breton as I’d hoped. As usually I’d pretty much decided NOT to do it until I decision point where I could turn left and go all the way around the island, or turn right and head straight for Halifax. Of course I decided to drive it. I t seem early enough that I’d get around most of it by daylight and see the legendary coast line views. About an hour up the west side of Cape Breton the rain started… and heavy. Very heavy, and in fact it was half sleet, frozen rain… I stopped off first at a pizza place for lunch, but a youth sports team had just come in for a party and the 45+ minute wait for a slice of pizza convinced me to find somewhere else. The convenient choice then became a Tim Horton’s down the street. Tim Horton’s is a Canadian institution, it’s part sort of Starbucks but better… Higher quality food and more variety, good sandwiches and pastries… and quick which was key if I was going to make it around the Cabot Trail in reasonable time. The weather was still nasty but I decided to press on a little further. Fortunately just past Cheticamp the weather cleared up, still cold, but clear enough to enjoy the beautiful views.

I made it most of the way around the island before dark, when headed down 105 near Baddeck Tucker began making noises like he was going to throw up. I quickly pulled to the side of the road, well off roadway since I new I’d be jumping out quick and wanted him far away from the road as well. Tucker and I both jumped out the passenger side door and into a wet soggy muddy ditch. Well, Tucker ended up not throwing up, yeah!, just a false alarm. We hoped back in the car to pull away, when I discovered I’d pulled a bit too far off the road into the very soft gravel. No problem I thought, I’ll just put the van in four wheel drive… only all four tires started spinning and digging into the soft gravel. Ok, lock up the rear differential and try again… still digging in and not moving. Eventually I tried to rock the van out of the holes I was digging into the gravel, which seemed very promising until after rolling back and forward the van suddenly started to slide slowly sideways into the ditch. The van was now leaning over at about 30 degrees and there was no way I was driving the van out, so I shut down the engine. Tucker took most of this in stride… stride meaning he was now standing half on the seat and half on the car door. I was leaning up hill hoping the van wasn’t going to actually tip over on it’s side. In truth Vanagons are very bottom heavy and very very hard to tip over, but I was at the point I was sliding out of the seat sideways. I don’t know why, but I was having trouble getting my phone to connect to AAA (CAA in this case), whom I was hoping would be able to winch me out. Perhaps because I was dialing an 800 number from Canada. Fortunately an ambulance came by in the opposite direction and kindly stopped to check on my predicament. They let me use their mobile phone which worked no problem and AAA was sending a tow truck. The ambulance drivers even waited by until the tow truck came in about 30 minutes. The ridiculous thing, is since I was chatting with the paramedics while waiting, I didn’t even think to take pictures of my van in the ditch until just after the tow truck driver had gently winched it out… doh… sorry it was really spectacular to see though.

I’d had such a wonderful experience couch surfing with Patrick on PEI that I took his suggestion and emailed couch surfer he’d stayed with about a year ago in Halifax, Nova Scotia named Dali. She too was ok with the dog, of which I was amazed especially considering she had two pet ferrets.

Driving into Halifax it has a great small sky line and several pretty bridges by night. I drove straight in and met with Dali at her home, a big old house she shares with a couple roommates. They all welcomed me and the dog in. I’m really loving this couch surfing thing. Shortly after arriving a bunch of Dali’s friends showed up. Another great group of people to sit and chat with. A few beers to get to know eachother and we all headed out to play some pool and drink some more beers. Halifax is a small city, and we walked across half it in less than 20 minutes to get to the pool hall. It was a great evening. As usually I played one good game of pool, and then was awful the rest of the night.

Unfortunately my schedule was starting to pinch me… so I planned just the one night in Halifax and a fairly early departure the next morning. I do wish I had more time so I could have gotten to know Dali and her friends better, Dali was really so sweet. We did have time to grab breakfast together before she went to class a little corner restaurant with a full vegan breakfast menu (so cool). I dropped her at class, got a qucik picture of her with the now world famous Tucker, who also appears to be getting a bit jaded by his fame.

Then Tucker and I took a few hours to walk the waterfront and around the citadel with Tucker. It’s a beautiful waterfront, lots of pictures on Flickr from Halifax. I should point out, I try to put my “best” photos on Flickr, and put a few that go with the story good/bad here, so do check out Flickr, way better photos. Anyway, I think the waterfront and a walk down some old street with beautiful houses and trees turning colors was the highlight for me. The citadel was cool too, although much smaller than the one in Quebec City and with not quite as spectacular of views… still worth the walk though.

I left Halifax headed south back into the US, specifically headed for Acadia National Park in Maine.

 

Gaspe to PEI

I got into PEI by way of the fairly new one billon Canadian dollar bridge. The bridge is 7km long… it’s really and impressive bridge for lots of reasons, including be subjected to winter ice flows, but I’ll let you look up all the cool engineer stuff yourselves.

The evening I got in I met him at a Tim Horton’s where he was already meeting a friend for coffee. Later that evening we headed to Dooley’s Pool Hall to shoot some pool with some of his friends and have a beer or two. It was a great introduction to some really cool friendly people, exactly what had been missing in Quebec City. I was already loving the couch surfing thing.

After a hour or so of playing pool I followed him home and got settled in. Patrick’s mother had already made up a futon bed for me, complete with a blanket on the floor for Tucker. Sooo sweet! It was late though so I wouldn’t actually met her until morning. Since it may sound strange, Patrick had moved back home to help take care of some family business for a while, I think it’s great that his family is cool with him continuing to host couch surfers. In fact as I search for couch surfers I’m finding a surprising mix of couch surfers and couch surfing hosts. They come in all ages and living situations just friendly people willing to offer what ever they have to offer. More on that some other time.

In the morning Patrick’s generosity didn’t stop when he offered to make me breakfast, pancakes and eggs. All I can say is the man makes some wicked good pancakes!

Since I was there on a weekend and Patrick wasn’t working he was able to take the day to show me around PEI on a driving tour. What a great tour it was, he took me to corners of the island I never would have found on my own. I was so amazed at what a better experience it was to be able to nag out with a local than I ever would have had on my own. We visited lighthouses down dirt roads, beaches of all sorts, and toured downtown Charlottetown. One of which was the building where the signing of the confederation of Canada occurred on PEI. After grabbing a beer in town we headed back to Patrick’s home where Patrick again cooked for me, this time some fabulous spaghetti in spicy alfredo sauce. What a guy! I decided to try couch surfing on a whim and it turned out to be such a fabulous experience, such wonderful people. It all made me realize the couch surfing isn’t really about a free couch to sleep on, oh I’m sure it’s that for a few people, but for most it’s about connecting with people from all over that are interested in experiencing a place in a different way than your regular tourist.

In the morning I got up early to head for the ferry off of PEI towards Nova Scotia. Again Patrick the consummate host even set HIS alarm to make sure I got up on time and then made me more pancakes while I showered and packed up my stuff.

 

Gaspe

The Gaspe Peninsula was beautiful. The north coast of the Gaspe along the St. Lawrence sea way was breathtaking. Words wouldn’t do it justice, so just go look at Flickr for more photos. As night fell I got into Gaspe National Park at the tip of the Gaspe Peninsula as called Cape Gaspe and sometimes spelled Gaspie. I became a bit confused looking for a campground, signs said winter camping was available some places, but then only in group sites… Anyway, after quite a bit of searching an staring at locked gates in front of campgrounds I finally discovered there was an entirely separate small campground just for group camping that appeared to be open, although it was totally empty. Eager to get to sleep I pulled in and went to bed. It was a cold night.

In the morning I had to scrape the frost of the inside of the windows… I was up just before sunrise and figured it’d be nice to try to see the sun rise over the ocean so I headed a little further down the road in hopes of finding a spot I could view the sunrise over the ocean. Instead I found a trail head… I thought well maybe if I walk a little way down the trail I’ll be able to see, and besides Tucker could use a good walk.

So I started walking… then I kept walking… it was a beautiful trail… As I walked along the quiet cliffs I heard something from behind me, when I turned and looked down toward the water I discovered it was a whale, 20 meters off the cliffs, 20 meters down, breathing… wow what a great way to start the day. So I kept walking… I kept thinking I’d turn back, but I just kept walking because it was so beautiful and peaceful and quiet. Somewhere along the way Tucker chased something up a tree. At first I thought it was a beaver, but later realized it was a porcupine. I’m very happy it ran up the tree rather than quill him, that would have been ugly. By the time I reached the tip of the cape, my five minute morning walk turned into a 4km hike to the end where I discovered a beautiful lighthouse quite unexpectedly. It was a beautiful morning. I didn’t actually see the sun come up out of the ocean, but it was all worth it. With that I hiked back. So I started driving a few hours later than planned, but that’s what is really nice about this… no real schedule to keep means I can find, whales and porcupines and lighthouses I didn’t even know to look for.

The drive down from Gaspe to PEI was equally beautiful. Patrick’s suggestion was a great one and I was looking forward to meeting my first couch surfing host.

 

Quebec City

I spent two days in Quebec city. I had really only planned on one day, mostly because I figured there wouldn’t be anywhere to camp. However, thanks to dog-friendly.com and petfriendly.ca I found a cute little hotel right in the middle of Old Quebec that allowed pets (with reservations only and in specially designated rooms). It was a little pricey, but not ridiculously so, and for the benefit of staying in heart of the old city it was worth it. I decided to plan on staying two nights so that I could get one really full day of seeing the old city.

The first night I spent mostly just getting settled into the room. I had dinner downstairs at the restaurant/pub attached to the hotel and then took Tucker for a short walk around the area near the hotel at night.

On the first day I did what I like to do best in old cities like this, take a walking tour. Early in the morning I went about looking for a good one, and found one that said taking Tucker along wouldn’t be a problem at all, yeah! It was advertised as a 2 hour tour, but went just over 4 hours! Which was good but also a bit tring. On the tour I started chatting with a really nice older man who was thrilled I was traveling the way I was. It turns out he was from Doyelstown of all places, right next door to Matt and Em in Pensylvania. He really wanted me to come visit his family when I came back down into the US, but I told him unfortuntaly there just wouldn’t be time. He was so friendly though, he really left an impression. As we walked I later found out he had just turned 80 years old! Wow, I was impressed he was getting around Quebec city, up and down the steep streets and stairs, really well. I little shuffle to his feet, and certinally a little extra care going up and down the stairs, but I was amazed. I hope I’m still traveling and exploring at 80 the way he is.

After the long walk I took a very tired Tucker back by the hotel room, and headed out solo to find dinner and walk into the newer part of the city. Everywhere I went I was blown away with what a majestic city it is new buildings, old buildings and streets. It all comes together very well here. I think part of it works because it is North Americas only walled city. The old walled city is maintained in all it’s historical beauty and glory, while a new city grows outside the old walls. Yet, the old city is still fully functional not just a tourist zone.

Worried a bit about where to stay in Prince Edward Island I checked out couchsurfing.com again. I signed up a long time ago and have always loved the idea, but never bothered while on the road trip because it seemed like a lot to ask someone host me and Tucker on their couch. In part because I realized my solo explorations of Quebec City left something lacking, and because I figured there was no harm in asking I sent an email to a pair of couch surfers in PEI. One, Patrick, responded very quickly with a “absolutely, no problem with the dog give me a call when you get here”. Way more hospitality than I expected. The other responded a few hours later with equal generosity, but I took the first offer.

Patrick also suggested I check out the Gaspie Peninsula on my way down from Quebec City towards PEI. Always one to take a locals advice I changed my plans a little to spend an extra day going up and around the Gaspie and camping in a national park there. With plans for the next couple days set, I left Quebec City by way of another locals suggestion (Sylvie’s this time) and took ferry between Quebec City and Levis… wow what a great view back towards Quebec City.