Pai Go

Leaving Chiang Mai was less pleasant. I’d hit up the young woman at the front desk the day before to look into a ticket for me to Pai and she said something about reserving me one. This is partially on me, I didn’t realize they’d cut down on the number of minibuses going there and basically only one company was doing it. Unfortunately I didn’t find this out til the morning, when I returned from the cooking class the person on the desk told me there was no note from them. Come morning I asked and ‘no it’s full, maybe you go to station and ask’ (Yes well I would have done that yesterday or started researching alternatives if you’d left a note for me.)

To compound matters she sent me to the wrong station which was (just) within walking range with a suitcase so off I went just to find out that was only for full size buses and the route to Pai had been discontinued at some point. Hop in a grab to the other station, get there to find out all trips are full for the next couple days… ugh… ended up getting hopped on by a ‘private’ cab that charges 3x the price and doesn’t leave til they’re full but thankfully that only took an hour. Since it was basically that or abandon my reservation there and stay in Chiang Mai longer I went for it. To be honest I considered staying in Chiang Mai… or if I hadn’t booked a flight out of Chiang Mai to the islands maybe even just going somewhere else but since everything involved coming back to CM it seemed foolish (The CM-koh samui flight being the priciest in country flight I’d be doing.)

The road to Pai is known for featuring 172 nausea inducing curves as it travels up into the mountains and along a ridge line pass. To put the windy level into perspective it’s roughly a 3 hour trip to cross only 129km of highway distance. When you reach the pee/snack stop there are signs everywhere for motion sickness cures. Thankfully no one in our very packed minivan seemed to be feeling green though I noticed a few people had taken gravol in advance. There were definitely a few who looked very relieved that the journey was over

The road and the surroundings of Pai were stunning with sharp rising hills covered in an absolute carpet of greenery. It made me wonder how much greener it could get since I knew it was the dry season. One of these days I’ll have to come to Thailand in the rainy season and see some of these rivers and waterfalls at full force. The town of Pai… was less impressive. It’s basically become a backpacker mecca in the north and is the most reachable outpost on the Mae Hong Loop in the NW of the country. Even before Thailand legalized (sort of) weed it had a hippie commune rep. To be honest that was part of the reason I’d skipped it on my previous visit. My first impression of the town is that it seemed like Khao San Road in Miniature (KS Road being the backpacker strip in Bangkok that’s a combo cheap backpacker mecca/mini spring break atmosphere.) The poster child for the vibe here might have been the first guy I walked down the street behind. A tall bearded dude that could have been Indian Jesus smoking an enormous joint and wearing mirrored sunglasses and a velvet bathrobe that said ‘Maid of Honour.’

I had been mildly worried about this party central vibe and had booked a small guesthouse a bit off the main drag so I got my bearings and quickly set off. It was pretty clear that the main hive of activity was along this one street and in fact later in the evening it’s a nightly walking street for a few hours. I passed a few tshirt stalls, more motorbike rental signs that I can count and a few restaurants that looked like possibilities. In true thai fashion the sidewalk was barely a suggestion and as I hit the edge of the main district it disappeared… conveniently enough I was walking past the area hospital at least. Down a side street I found Ban Aew Pai, a small garden guest house with 6 or 7 bungalows. It was a picturesque place that seemed like it would be far enough from the noise.

I’d reached the point in the trip where I was kind of aching for some non-thai food so once I’d settled in I took a walk back into the hustle and bustle to try to find food/make some plans. Armed with a hopefully still valid recommendation from my old Thailand lonely planet I set out past bar after bar and eventually reached Maya burger which served a really solid little quarter pound burg with good toppings and crispy fries paired with a delicious garlic mayo. It was definitely a product of the moment but also pretty delicious in its own right. I blame that feeling of contentment for the foolishness that occurred next.

I was honestly trying to do some rafting… unfortunately the only one day trip was done as a one day ‘back to chiang mai’ trip and basically would have been doing the same trip I’d done a few days previous but with my bags being taken along in a van. Honestly had I been aware of it I would have considered it. The only trip the other adventuring company had going out the following day was a trek into the jungle. Don’t get me wrong, I’d been thinking I’d do some hiking in Pai… and in my defence their listing for this trip was a bald faced lie… but still I was mental. I blame my brain for focusing on the ‘finishes at a waterfall’ part. I stayed out for a while people watching but after a couple of drinks I was ready to just retreat for the night given the impending early start.


The day started with a pickup in a Songthaew (pickup truck with two parallel benches in the back) and we immediately headed north further along the Mae Hong Son loop. I’m not a person given to motion sickness but if I’d thought the minibus ride the day before was bad sitting perpendicular to the driving direction in a vehicle with only the barest suggestion of shock absorbers was a new level. It turns out were were travelling a solid couple hours out to the start of the hike (something else I’d missed on the brochure.) Along for the ride were a young British couple and a Spanish woman a few years older than myself. We introduced ourselves and chatted a bit but as the drive progressed and the road got worse conversation became more difficult. The British contingent was definitely feeling the motion sickness by the time we finished and I was honestly keeping an eye on him getting ready to dodge if he lunged for the tailgate.

Arriving in a small village our guide welcomed us and we met the other two hikers with us: two Slovenian girls who were doing a two day hike and who’d overnight-ed in the village. They were very nice but set off the first warning bells when they mentioned they’d definitely hiked way longer than the brochure said the day before. I didn’t really get much time to process that before we were on our way, touring the village and seeing the old style homes where the livestock was penned under the stilted cottages/huts and dogs wagged their tales at us but mostly just stayed in the shade. It was an interesting glimpse of a very different way of life to ours but I laughed pretty hard at the one guy who shouted out to our guide in greeting and he responded with ‘I go trekking, you come?’ and the guy said something that was pretty clearly ‘hell no’ in Thai. With that settled we started heading up into the hills.

Most of the people reading this blog are also prairie people and have probably also experienced the harsh realization that, no matter how good of shape you’re in, your legs are gonna complain when you’re suddenly expecting your legs to do this ‘uphill crap.’ I actually held up pretty well for the first half of the hike and was having to slow down to wait for the Slovenian girls a few times. The first stage of the path was clearly a livestock path and we used ladders to get over fencing a few times and frequently had to dodge cow pats, then a bit later the cows themselves. The views backwards as we climbed up the valley were phenomenal, unfortunately the rest of the hike mostly avoided any great view points.

When we eventually reached the top of the first mountain ridge and took a rest and water break. We all marveled at our guide Jon doing this hike in what looked like dollar store foam flip flops but to be honest he probably could have done it barefoot. Once moving again Jon pointed into a valley a few km away and pointed out his village. A few minutes later he also pointed out Myanmar literally just between the next two mountains, at our closest point we were only a few kilometers away. As much as I’d love to add another country to my scoreboard I don’t think that’s a border I particular want to mess with for funzies.

The brochure for the hike had said 12km of ‘medium’ difficulty as we did the next section I felt very lied to. I don’t consider a half hour climb up giant loose boulders to be ‘medium’ myself we were all dying at the top even Maria the Spanish gazelle. Thankfully the giant cave at the end of this was well worth ascent view wise but I was still puffing hard. When he started moving us onward and I realized we were climbing the rest of the way to the top of that particular mountain I began to get worried, not just that we were still going up but that everyone but Maria was showing signs of serious leg fatigue in the brief moments we were heading downhill, stumbling or wobbling a fair bit. Thankfully it was around this time that Jon called a halt and we had lunch which turned out to be various bags of noodles and rice for the vegan, veg and carnivore among us. Mine was a really nice spicy curry chicken and rice, the 2-days girls who’d had that the day before got noodles instead.


The second half of the day was a bit less rough in terms of elevation up… but definitely stretched the definition of medium difficulty even more as after an initial section which Jon said was on old time road through the area (as well as some caves that he described as being hidey holes during wars with Burma) we headed on another path that was NOT a path for a solid 90minutes. Very narrow footholds, most of us grabbing at bamboo for support that may or may not still be solid, steep downhills that tested tired ankles and knees, it was rough. I’d done pretty well heat stroke wise this trip but was definitely feeling it a bit over the last 1/3. The outwardly fitter of the Slovenian girls had it worse however whenever we went downhill and she was probably nursing a sore hamstring.

For the most part our guide was great but over the last third of the hike he definitely pushed the pace a bit too fast. He seemed to be going by the pace Maria could set which was great… except Maria is a hiking nut that goes trekking in the Pyrenees every weekend all summer. The other five of us were struggling to keep up especially when the trail disappeared for the most part. At one point he called out ok next part flat then down (spoiler: it wasn’t flat, but it was open and sunny) and we were on the last stretch. The Slovenian girl groaned audibly at the start of another downhill section and I kept having to wait on her as she stopped as the trail was too slippery to pass by anyone safely. She eventually coaxed a promise from Jon that it was only another ten minutes… lies. The actual ten minute mark was where the serious pain began for all of us as it was a steep switchback where at times you were basically shuffle running from one tree to another… but in the end we all made it.

At some point Jon had explained to us that we’d actually take the truck to the waterfall as it was nearby but not right here, then end of our hike had us wading across a river at a washed out bridge location. Again it was dry season so I wondered what this river looked like a few months from now but Jon took our bags across for us and the rest of us just enjoyed cooling off and tried not to let the current sweep our tired legs out from under us. I’d stupidly forgotten to bring my water socks with me but eventually managed to struggle across the gravel to the truck once on dry land.

Don’t get me wrong, the hike was beautiful and I’m proud that I accomplished it (mostly) in one piece. I definitely question the person who wrote that brochure as I think it was probably the easiest it was all year right now and the brochure definitely doesn’t change for rainy season (basically all she did on my printout was cross off ‘raincoat’ on the list of items to bring.) I think with even a little bit of mud on that trail it would be fully hard for the full length and even as I would have called 1/2 of it ‘difficult’ terrain. It was also rather disappointing on the viewpoint front. The front half had a few good views, the cave was neat but the last half was mostly close in jungle/bamboo forest

The road from the trail end to the waterfall was godawful (it would be worse on the way out) but we were all still savouring the ride… given the waterfall apparently didn’t involve hiking I was a little worried it would be overrun with tour groups but I’d forgotten just how far we were from anywhere. We had it to ourselves and pretty happily dove in and fought the current over to get a solid massage by waterfall. I laughed pretty hard as the Slovenian girls pretty quickly got out shivering. I wouldn’t call the water warm but it was certainly not cold… I even said when they came back over ‘at least I can trust the brits not to think this is cold water’ and they laughed.

Back on the truck we drove out on one of the worst roads of my life, forded a number of rivers and coughed up so much fine dust into the semi open bed that any cleaning factor we’d felt from the falls was gone instantly we all felt caked with dirt. Given how bad the shower had turned out to be at my guesthouse I was steeling myself for an unpleasant wash. Just before we arrived at the main road we passed through one of the ‘Chinese villages’ a cluster of ancestral Chinese people that have elements of Chinese architecture in their dwellings and who often speak only mandarin apparently.

Back along the road Jon pointed out some of the ridges we’d crossed that seemed now impossibly high up but we quickly settled into a stupor until our pee break. I unfortunately was feeling a bit heatstruck so was concentrating on avoiding motion sickness and basically pounding water, even Maria eventually wedged her tiny frame into the bench seat by some magic and tried to sleep. I made it feeling better, but when the twists and turns ended and we pulled up to my place I said quick goodbyes and hobbled over to my room… making it to the toilet just in time to lose my lunch. Luckily I could just roll over into the shower stall and start hosing off the grime of the trail after that and thankfully was feeling more human after that and an hour or so laying in bed.

This was still Khao Soi country and I’d spotted a street stall the night before making up delicious looking bowls of it the night before so once my appetite returned I found the stall, pulled up a baby stool at the tiny picnic table ordered a gorgeous bowl of it for the equivalent of $4. Sadly that’s actually expensive much like the burger the day before at around $10, Pai prices were definitely of the ‘captive audience’ variety compared to Chiang Mai but I also knew things would be worse in the islands next. I’d love to pretend I stayed up doing something fun but nope, I browsed the walking street for a bit and bought a tee shirt but it didn’t take long before I grabbed some water and a bag of chips at 7-Eleven and headed back to bed. I think I made a token attempt at watching a QI episode and passed out partway through.


The next morning I wasn’t feeling as bad as I’d feared. There was stiffness (and some blisters) but I was mobile. I’d wanted to sleep in but despite the night noise not being bad this hotel’s soundproofing was truly abysmal and before 8am rolled around I could hear a chainsaw running somewhere, roosters crowing and martial music playing as well as some sort of rhythmic drum. I’d made no firm plans but unfortunately if you want to get anywhere around Pai you kind of need a scooter so I broke a personal rule and rented one. The roads were relatively less mental around here Thailand wise and it was also the day of the ‘all day float dj tubing party’ so most of the drunk and stoned teeny boppers were on the river and not on the roads.

I headed up to one of the other places I’d wanted to see here: Pai Canyon. It’s less a canyon and more an eroded formation on a ridgeline but the maze of pathways and steep drop offs is quite pretty. I didn’t do the full hike as it was full sun and I didn’t want to push it after the day before but had a good poke around. Hilariously the Thai tourist authority uses the phrase ‘the area is vast, similar to the grand canyon’ which takes some chutzpah.

The other place I travelled up to was the white buddha lookout which ‘you can drive right to it’ turned out to be quite the lie. It turned out you could drive right up to the base of the 500 or so steps up to the buddha. I guess they meant you could bypass the windy bit of road up to the gate which wasn’t a great walking road. I’d been told the view was worth it but I was not sure I had it in me and sat talking to the temple dogs for a bit before I mustered up the effort required. I grumbled but the view from the top was worth the climb, the Buddha statue definitely needs some TLC though. From the top of the stairs you got a panoramic view of the valley seeing just how tiny Pai was as well as the windy roads leaving in both directions.

Once down from the temple I had to make sure I returned my scooter. Technically I had it 24 hours but my bus out was leaving at 7 the following morning and I had a relatively early flight to catch from CM so I needed to be on it. The rest of the night was mostly people watching as I grabbed a curry and kind of marveled. I was definitely very in between ages on the audience here. As mentioned most of the crowd was gap year teens and early 20s types, a few slightly older hippie yoga instructor types… then there was a small but solid hunk of retirement age people visiting and staying in the nicer places and wandering the town for a bit before bed. I’m guessing they were more doing the short waterfall hikes/visiting the hot springs. Unfortunately while I made it through my own travels without injury I got run into a scooter when a combo of an inexperienced (drunk? rider) coincided with someone stumbling against me on the sidewalk and I’ve now got a fairly nasty gash and a couple of scrapes in my otherwise sore leg… Despite doing a very good job cleaning it I’m (now over a week later) still nursing it and have since had to go see a doctor and make sure it’s not infected/get an x-ray. Blue Cross is going to stop insuring me for Thailand as it’s the only place I ever make a claim on my travel insurance.

I tried to make it an early night but I now had a new neighbour next door and they were simultaneously very heavy footed and when they came back at two am I could distinctly hear them running to use and slamming the toilet seat multiple times though thankfully couldn’t hear any actual bodily fluid noises. Something about the construction of these cottages transmits sound through the beams I think. Unfortunately between that, other noises and the stress of having to be up early to make the transfer to that flight I think I only got about two hours sleep which probably compounded the ‘second day after’ pain from the hike. But, the transfer to the islands is a tail for next time.

Honestly Pai was interesting but I don’t think I’d ever go back. I feel like you could get equivalent hikes elsewhere with better vibes and less of a hippie spring break vibe. Sort of the same vibe I have with Khao San in Bangkok… I don’t mind being near the area but unlike Bangkok there really isn’t much else in Pai to get around the core of that. Going further out that road loop more independently would be fun, I don’t think I’m young and dumb enough to do the whole thing on a motorbike anymore though. If I can ever get someone to come with me it’s probably worth splitting a private driver for a multi day trip given such things don’t break the bank here.

Still I don’t regret it as I wanted some new experiences this trip which is where the back half of this program comes in. It’s now time for the ocean adjacent portion of proceedings in our next post.

A show with everything but Yul Brenner!

It is finally time. After a frankly very trying last six months of all kinds of issues I’m finally getting out of town again. For the first time on one of these bigger adventures it’s a re-run! Not fully the same of course but I’m heading back to Thailand and not crossing any new country off the bucket list for the first time in a while. That said, this isn’t likely to be my most detailed travelogue as a result as in some places I’ve already crossed off all the big ‘must sees’ and I’m more just soaking in the culture and back alleys.

Flight out was thankfully pretty uneventful, I double hopped through Vancouver and Hong Kong but managed to get an aisle seat with an empty spot next to me for the 14 hour hop which was glorious. Even managed to snag a plate of Xiao Long Bao in HKIA (thanks for the pointer Sun) as a recharge. Bangkok arrival was around 12:30 local which got me to my hotel around 2AM which honestly worked pretty well, I’d (as usual) only managed a few brief catnaps on the plane so I crashed hard… woke up for breakfast at 9 and was at least semi time converted the first day.

Bangkok is a neat city but I really wanted to focus on being elsewhere  after doing fully ? of my trip there last time but I still needed a day or two to be safe to adjust to heat etc. Unfortunately it was almost as smoggy as my last visit, am hoping my improved fitness/lost weight etc will make my lungs a bit more forgiving this time. Same temperature hop from a Winnipeg -30s deep freeze to +38, humid and smoggy though. Again stayed in the ‘backpacker’ quarter but on the periphery of the madness, this time at the new outpost of my fave hotel chain from last visit. ~$50 a night including a solid breakfast buffet, a nice pool to cool off after some long walks and a quiet-ish clean room with a balcony… what’s not to love?

My original plan was to just have a fairly relaxed day to acclimatize but I was feeling a bit more energetic so I went for a walk past the palace complex and over to Chinatown. The maze like markets of Bangkok’s chinatown are an adventure all their own and some portion of it is always bustling (the taxi the previous night had passed the absolutely rollicking produce market at 2am.) I picked up some crystallized pineapple for a snack and wandered the stalls, managing to mostly resist picking up much in the way of souvenirs despite temptation (I’ll be back to Bangkok before I go and no sense hauling anything heavy around for three weeks.)

One of the random streets I chose for my wandering appeared to be the music shop district and I saw some truly excellent guitar designs in the windows (and more than a few musicians grabbing gear for upcoming shows.)

In my pre-trip planning for this time I’d discovered that most train traffic has been moved out of the historic Hua Lamphong station in central Bangkok mostly to a new modern station 30 minutes north. Apparently there is still traffic but it’s minor lines and as I walked past the station it looked a shadow of it’s previous bustling self. I 100% get it, there was zero room for expansion, the station was ancient and crumbling and the waiting area could get so crammed you’d just fight for a patch of old stone to sit on if your train was delayed… but there was a romance about the place. I seem to recall writing a love letter to it in a previous travelogue so will link it if I remember.

Checking my map I realized I had already walked about halfway to one potential sightseeing spot so I wandered eastward a while then headed north towards Jim Thompson house. Along the way I also checked out a few of the modern shopping malls that the Thai folks seem to adore including the much recommended MBK center that has a food court with at least one michelin guide recommended stall. I used it mostly as a brief respite in the AC but grabbed a snack and a lemonade and listened to a girl with a nice voice sing 70s american rock. The mall itself was quite the place. Seven levels, many with specialties, medical clinics etc and the food court was as advertised and absolutely packed with locals and a few tourists/expats. Speaking of ex-pats… I used some innate Canadian radar and somehow stumbled past TWO Tim’s locations

Jim Thompson house was just north of here and is the preserved house of an American ex-pat who introduced Thai silk to the fashion world back in the 50s/60s. He disappeared in the jungle in the late 60s and there are various conspiracy theories about it (apparently the CIA wasn’t a fan of him.) Per the museum before he disappeared he did a lot of good in helping support/encourage the old silk weaving traditions and built this house near one of the communities he bought from. The house itself is a complex of buildings he rescued from various derelict places and had restored/rebuilt into his home. It’s a gorgeous place with a lush garden and some interesting art, definitely a bit of an oasis in the middle of the city.

The rest of the day I wandered a bit farther in that direction before turning back for home base. I definitely misjudged my path a bit however and added an extra couple kilometers thinking one sleepy area would be more interesting than it was. Given the heat and the travel the previous day I should have taken it easier but did eventually stumble back to the hotel, quickly beat a path for a cooling swim then spent the rest of night reading by the pool. I honestly don’t even remember what I had for dinner that night… clearly not much as I was famished the next morning at breakfast and demolished something like 6 mini pancakes, eggs and yoghurt.

Bangkok felt somehow both familiar and not. To be honest I think the not is mostly that I found it less wild this time? The chaotic streets are a riot… but after being to Hanoi seem tamer traffic wise. I couldn’t live here, the smog is simply too much but the people remain friendly and the vibe is lovely.

My second full day I decided to scratch off something I’d meant to do on my previous visit and see the medieval capital of Ayutthaya. I didn’t want to do one of the package tours though (for sale all over town and probably worth it) I just wanted to wander the ruins with some music playing and feel the spirit of the place. Unfortunately I discovered that the minibus ‘terminal’ is no longer just a haphazard collection around Victory monument but actually out by the northern train/bus stations so it turned out to be less of a deal than it would have been to self-guide. The minibus itself was all of 70 baht which is about $3 for the hour and a half or so ride north.

Ayutthaya is as mentioned the former capital of an earlier Thai based empire, there are partially restored temples and government buildings, temple spires, stupas and the like. It’s a reasonably sprawling series of complexes that the government somewhat annoyingly charges separate entry for instead of just one pass. Rather than farting around in a tuk tuk I decided to get some extra exercise and rented a bike from a guest for a few baht and bounced around between the various sights.

It was worth the trip however the ruins are not as ancient nor as complex/extant as other places I’ve been in Thailand and SE Asia. I found Sukhothai more impressive… though obviously the proximity of Ayutthaya to BKK makes it far more accessible. I enjoyed the walks around and saw my first elephants of the trip (though sadly they were being used to ride.)

Back where I’d rented my bike I ordered a giant pineapple smoothie and a small bowl of curry and spent probably two hours alternately reading my book and looking across the street to one of the most whole of the remaining towers. It was a solidly relaxing afternoon and I managed to not die cycling in Thailand!

I didn’t linger much beyond that as I figured getting back into Bangkok might get worse the later I waited so I hopped back in a mini bus and transferred back, this time taking the subway and the river bus to get back to my neighbourhood to save the feet a little. A quick swim and an episode of QI later I headed out for my last meal in Bangkok this leg, checking out an apparently locally famous Pad Thai joint. 

On the way there I passed what appeared to be late night market setting up that was definitely a bit more on the black market side of things. It was an interesting vibe but I was hungry so I didn’t linger til they set up. When I got to the restaurant I was a bit worried as it had the air of someplace that got famous then coasted on tourism. Thankfully those fears were not realized as though it definitely had that vibe the Pad Thai had a particularly funky shrimp oil and delicious prawns and actually came with the sides it should etc.

Side note: I love pad thai, it’s also one of the dishes of the Bangkok region, but I also try not to have it much over here as it’s something you can get very good versions of in North America. I generally try to focus on dishes that are different here or just not as good back home. Stay tuned for my paean/laments about Khao Soi once in Chiang Mai.

Sadly I had an early train the next morning so with that it was back home, a quick beer in the alley vw van bar with some people watching then off to pack/bed. Bangkok was fun the 2nd (3rd?) time around and it was nice to already feel myself getting used to the heat, another side benefit of my new size. Still I always worry about shifting from the deep freeze of January winter to the smog, high 30s and dankness of Bangkok. Thus far I seem to avoided getting sick as a result like last time so fingers crossed that remains the case.

Next stop: Chiang Mai, already one of my favourite destinations in the world.

European Adventure: A hot shower at a fair price…

Venice was a delightful city made a lot less wonderful by the terrible digs. The hostel had six showers per floor and each floor was made up of five or six 16 bed dorms. I had the extra fun of being in the top bunk by the door so I heard every single movement of the door as people arrived back at random points during the night. The lack of showers was made worse by the fact that one or more of the shower curtains seemed to disappear randomly. They were also located in coed bathrooms which didn’t thrill many people and didn’t have hot water once while I was there. As someone who doesn’t function particularly well without a morning shower it was a fairly major problem.

The city thankfully made up for it as I headed out the next morning. I started out by taking advantage of the fact that I’d given up on sleeping and gotten up and out of the hostel by 8 and thus had a lack of cruise ship groups and walked around most of the city again. People were up and around, but as it was Sunday morning as well things were fairly laid back. Once it got a bit later I headed back to St. Mark’s and took the museum tour which included access to the balcony overlooking the square. It was quite fascinating to look through the various displays about the various building periods of the basilica and the art that has been added and subtracted over time. The tour includes a few glimpses into the interior of the church and the famous mosaics so thankfully I didn’t really feel the need to come back after mass to see it again.

I spent most of the rest of the day exploring the outer islands in the lagoon, particularly Murano the famous home of the glass blowing industry. There was a fantastic variety of different workshops and a few of them even had live demonstrations. I’ve always been interested in glassblowing and seeing how quickly the experts can tool out 3 or 4 beautiful pieces of work in a row with deft moves. The island itself is very Venice looking but feels very much quieter despite the number of tourists still walking around. I stayed longer than I’d planned in fact after finding a beautiful little trattoria with a treed courtyard and fantastic pasta.

The following day was another early start that turned out to be for naught when the train I wanted to take was full. It ended up taking an extra 90 minutes with a third  change to get to my next destination. That said, the Cinque Terre region on the Ligurian coast was totally worth it. I ended up staying in the tamest of the towns which honestly wasn’t a bad thing given how I was feeling after Venice. Almost the moment I got in the door I was enjoying a long and gloriously hot shower, finally feeling clean after 3 days. I went out for some food after and talked to my roommates a bit but was pretty much out of it early. The hostel was beyond bizarre though as in addition to a 1-3pm lockout for “cleaning” they also required you to be out of the bedroom by 10 so it could be cleaned. Since it was a place with 2 8-bed dorms and 3 double rooms for couples  you had to wonder what exactly it was they were spending so much time on. We were really unimpressed when a cleaning woman came into our room while we were sleeping and stripped the beds of the people who had left early while shouting in Italian to the woman at the front desk. This wasn’t the only instance of staff rudeness either, but the place was clean, cool and quiet so it made me happy overall.

The next morning was time to do the famous hiking. The region is primarily  made up of 5 towns along a beautiful stretch of coast each nestled amongst vineyards and olive/lime groves. The paths between the towns that were originally used for harvest time are now incredibly popular hiking trails. I hear they’re beyond busy in high summer but things were calm enough now you were able to walk them only letting people pass every five minutes or so. Unfortunately one of the paths was shut off completely due to a landslide, but I still got to walk the prettiest parts when the time came. It turned out to be a gorgeous day for it as well but hot enough that reaching the end and being able to hop into the sea was the best reward of all (not that it kept me from grabbing some gelato afterwards.) Unfortunately as I was trying to get on the train to head to the other end of the 5 towns and do  one of the shorter parts of the hike not affected by the landslide I found out that it was a major strike day for Italian transport workers. This has been going on all summer and resulted in 80% of the trains being cancelled so when I looked at things I realized I risked being stranded for the night if I did any more hiking so I went back to Corniglia, grabbed a pizza and walked up to watch the sunset. Truth be told I was pretty wrecked between the hiking and swimming so it wasn’t a bad thing.

European Adventure: Spicy in the Balkans

Split was everything it was promised to be, a little slice of vintage feeling Mediterranean city. I got there fairly late and again had problems finding my hostel, this time because there was no street sign and the sign for the hostel was an etched piece of glass the size of a cue card invisible in the falling darkness. The broken A/C had eventually led to temps that had to be above +40 on the train, with the laptop eventually overheating to the point where I couldn’t use it anymore. I didn’t exactly smell pretty and it had been a long day by that point so I had a shower and a bit of a rest before taking a night time walk around and down to the water.

When morning came it was time for some more proper exploring. The town itself build up around Diocletian’s palace, built for the Roman Emperor’s retirement years right on the Dalmatian coast. In the years since a bustling little city has grown around it, the core of which is built into and around the palace itself. Many of the ancient roman walls now house shops and tiny flats have been built incorporating various ancient walls. Later merchant “palaces” have also been built within the roman palace making for an interesting mishmash of architecture. The whole area is a UNESCO world heritage site and certainly deserves it, but it can be hard to see the impressiveness of the structure as a whole with so much of it hawking souvenirs or ice cream.

Just outside the palace is the large bay on which most of the town encroaches. I actually got a very Whitsundays vibe about it as it’s the center of a thriving party cruise trade around the islands. It’s also a busy ferry port with larger ferries crossing to Italy or sailing to Greece and smaller ones serving the offshore Croatian islands. If I come back I’ll definitely head out on a boat, but given the amount of time I want to spend in Italy and how long it will take to get out of here even a 2 day trip wasn’t a great idea. After spending some time in the local museum (mostly about the palace) I gave in to the sweltering temperatures and spent the rest of the afternoon at Split’s “famous sandy beach” conveniently near my hostel. It takes a lot of nerve to call that sand since it was a tiny stretch perhaps  50 paces wide of what could more accurately be described as gravel and mud, most of the rest of the beach area was a concrete breakwater. It was perfectly pleasant but I hope those people get a chance to see a proper sandy beach at some point in their lives. On the other hand even mud was a happy thing because apparently the coast is notorious for sea urchins and almost anywhere else it behooves you to wear rubbed water shoes when you’re swimming off the rocks. The bay itself was beautiful though, shallow out quite a ways with a resulting wave pattern so jumbled that you could never surf but you could float and be randomly swished around like inside a washing machine. The water was wonderfully warm and seemed especially salty and buoyant. It felt amazingly refreshing and I probably spent over an hour in my first time with a few shorter sessions as the afternoon wore on. I can now check the Adriatic off my “bodies of water I have been in” list.

Later that night I decided to treat myself to a nice dinner, but the Croatian people seemed to be obsessed with pizza and pasta (not helped by the large number of Italian tourists who cross) so finding something different was a little tough. Oddly enough my incredibly bubbly hostel host recommended a little bistro that specialized in Mexican and Indian. My hopes weren’t high but I was dying for something different that my diet the past week or so and Enchiladas fit the bill. Unsurprisingly they weren’t super spicy, but the flavour was nice, as was the strawberry Margarita I added on before realizing it was the equivalent of $8 cdn. It really never pays to not order beer over here. After returning to the hostel with a few beer from the supermarket I ended up watching old episodes of 30 rock with a couple of Canadians who were sharing my room before settling in to a fairly early night since it was a marathon train day the next day.

I really don’t understand the Croatian railway system. I’ve taken 4 different trains within Croatian borders now, all are daily scheduled trains so you think they’d understand the traffic patterns surrounding them but they’ve lost a mean of 48 minutes on  my journeys on them. I’m really not sure how one falls 70 minutes behind on a 6 hour journey with few stops and no catastrophic breakdowns. I’ve been warned by Chris/Jodi and others that Italy is just as bad, but at least in Italy if you miss a connection chances are there’s another train in no more than an hour. This afternoon trying to get out of here I hopped on my connection with only 5 minutes to spare despite having an 80 minute window by the schedule. Had I missed it I would have been waiting 8 hours for an overnight sleeper and would have been paying for a hostel room in Vienna that I wouldn’t be using. That said, I really loved the journey this time. Probably because I wasn’t in a heat induced coma with most of the shades drawn I noticed a lot more of the scenery this time. Sweeping mountain valleys, sharp peaks and quaint villages all featured in an incredibly varied landscape as we climbed quickly from the coast up into the central valleys of the country. Little towns blurred by the train (or crawled during our slow sections) yet everywhere there were unfinished buildings. Most of these were built of red cinderblock and most had the exterior walls done and often a slate roof as well but windows and doors were gaping holes into ruined interiors. In most cases it was clear they’d never been lived in. I’d put them down to houses that were abandoned during the strife around independence time and certainly some of them had decayed to a point where that makes sense, but others had clearly been built and abandoned quite recently, some even had scaffolding collapsing around them with plastic sheeting torn to shreds. It was quite the mystery and none of the Croats in my train car this time spoke English so I couldn’t even ask.

Overall I’ve really loved Croatia, it’s simply a great place to visit. The country is beautiful from Zagreb through the mountainous inner regions and the beautiful coast. The people themselves are much more happy and welcoming than some of the other Eastern European countries I’ve been in. The younger generation appears to be eager to learn English so making yourself understood is never too hard. Most importantly, though it has of course commercialized to some extent seeing a recognizable brand name is rare (outside of soft drinks of course) and though I did see a sign for a McDonalds on a train station wall I never actually came across any western fast food despite a fair bit of exploring. Better still, it’s cheap. Even living in hostel world I heard a few people talking while I was exploring and between lower prices and not being on the Euro they figured Split was half the price of some equivalent places in Greece. If you happen to be touring Europe and want a cheaper beachside or eastern European adventure I’d really recommend it (though I’d probably suggest grabbing one of the ferries from Italy if you can’t find a cheap flight… That’s what I would have done if I didn’t have a railpass to use. (and sadly none of these ferry companies honoured it like the Greek ones tend to.)

As I write this I’m actually watching a wedding under a big Marquee taking place outside a small station we’ve stopped at. People are dancing in traditional costumes and the bride (I think) is going absolutely wild with them. This really seems like a country where it would be a blast to pick up a Croat-English dictionary and just hit the road. Unfortunately it’s now been 10 minutes stopped here with no one getting on or off and another train also sitting right next to us doing the same so I’m wondering how long the delay will be this time. Likely just enough to keep me from getting to the hostel before the underground in Vienna shuts down for the night.**

*oh, and sadly… no I did not see a Dalmatian on the Dalmatian Coast so the Corgi in Wales is still the dog moment of the trip.

**yes (just barely)

European Adventure: Heat Wave

I apologize if random spelling mistakes creep into this entry as my word document has apparently decided that I’m writing in European French out of the blue and autocorrecting in accordance.

Prague has instantly climbed into my all time favourites  for international cities. It seems like half the European set movies of the past 20 years have shot scenes here and some of the tours are even focused exclusively on movie locations. I did the more pedestrian (in every sense) free walking tour of the old and new towns and enjoyed it so much that I added on the Prague Castle paid tour from the same guide. Thanks to Chris and Jodi for pointing out that these tour guides were good because I can’t think of a better introduction to Prague.

After getting a mostly adequate amount of sleep (one of the Americans in the room has a cough at the moment that sounds like an 80 year old with emphysema crossed with a TB patient) I was up reasonably early for the walking tour. My guide turned out to be an Australian of all things, a woman who’d moved here to teach English soon after the velvet revolution, met a guy and stayed. She was very knowledgeable (though at times had that tour guide grasp of reality that makes the history student in me groan) and had quite infectious enthusiasm. The free tour turned out to be far more substantial that I’d expected, lasting almost four hours and covering more or less everything from our hostel to Prague Castle. They operate solely on tips for the free one, but I gave her as much as I was paying for part two of the tour as my contribution anyway.

She started with a brief overview of the last 1000 odd years of Czech history, always bringing back the connections to whatever was near us or giving some background for something we were about to see. One of the reasons Prague is used as a film location so often is the variety and preserved state of most of its architecture. Walking through just the new town you can find anything. Looming gothic churches sit nestled beside gorgeous baroque masterpieces while nearby you can see a sharp contrast between Art Deco and Art Nouveau vs. the later grim and functional soviet contributions. I don’t pretend to be an expert but I am a bit of architecture nerd and I was in heaven as we explored. Adding to the fun is the lively colours that adorn many of the buildings. Even in cases where it has faded there’s still a strong pink or yellow hue that you wouldn’t find in the more staid capitals of Europe.

One of the first sights we took in was the epic astronomical clock, thankfully safe inside the only bit of the old town hall that survived a spiteful Nazi bombing run after the war was already lost. The next day I’d return to watch it chime in the hour which involves the figure of death coming to life and ringing a bell while the other figures shake their heads to say “no, not now.” It’s really a remarkable display given the age of the clock. We also visited the jewish quarter, decimated during the Nazi occupation population wise yet most of the synagogues and cultural artefacts survive. Why? Because Hitler decided that the Prague neighbourhood of Jozefov (named after the first emperor to given them significant rights) would serve as an excellent museum for the exterminated Jewish race. This of course puts one hell of a damper on the preserved nature of the sights. One permanent exhibit is of children’s drawings from the holding camp to the north. An artist who could have escaped the Nazi conquest but instead stayed because her husband was not able to leave ended up scrounging art supplies and somehow convincing the camp authorities to let her give the children art lessons as therapy of sorts. Most of these children had either been stripped from their parents or had already seen their parents shipped off to Auschwitz. Before being shipped off herself the teacher in question managed to conceal a number of suitcases full of these artworks in the camp grounds where they were discovered after the war. I believe of the 15,000 odd children sent to the transhipment camp, under 50 survived the war so in many cases these drawings are the only tangible evidence that these kids existed. It’s absolutely heartbreaking yet at the same time so important to see and take note.

Thankfully by this point we’d had a quick meal break at their chosen breakfast/lunch joint where I got a bagel with egg and amazing farmer sausage quite cheaply. We’d already done a ton of walking by the time the first tour ended after the jewish quarter and the castle tour started almost immediately after. Given that it was 38ish above at this point we all gratefully flopped down in the shade on the grass by the river for a short break. I’d met several other guys travelling solo on the tour and we had all elected to add on trip to the castle though one of them was regretting it by this point. Thankfully we still had Kate our bouncy Aussie as our guide and with a number of other people added on from the other English groups we headed across the bridge into the lesser town. Once home to the more working class folks of the older city it’s now almost all palaces and upper class dwellings after a fire levelled the area. We started in Wallenstein Palace at the foot of the hill. Once owned by a famous general of the Austro-Hungarian empire it now houses part of the state government as well as more gallery space. The gardens are still maintained in something approaching their original state however and are open to all. The highlight of the gardens was once a large collection of statues with greek mythological themes, however they were taken during (I believe) the 130 years  by the Swedes who still maintain that they “rescued” them and will not return them. Shades of the Parthenon.

The castle itself is less a castle than a semi-fortified collection of palaces and churches at the top of the hill. This is not to say it’s not an impressive sight. From almost anywhere in the city with a view west you can see it looming over the city and the view when you reach the top (our first stop was the monastery) takes your breath away. You can see back down over the entire castle, but also beyond to the old and new towns the spires of many churches poking up into the bright sunshine. Prague is (apparently) known as the city of a thousand spires because of the massive number of churches, yet almost none of them are still sacred spaces because the Czech people are now apparently 90% atheist (hooray!)  Most of them are now used as gallery spaces, museums and even office space. Of those that are still open as places of worship none impressed me more than the Cathedral of St. Vitus in the castle proper. Most of it is a gothic masterpiece, yet apparently it took so long to finish that one of the towers was finished in a renaissance style and various adornments throughout represent  other periods. Mismatching aside it’s a marvellously intricate work covered in beautiful carvings, mosaics and beautiful stained glass that fills the interior with a rainbow of colours as the sun moves across the sky.

The rest of the history tour filled in some of the gaps in our knowledge. Kate pointed out a few of the palaces seized from noble families either by the Nazis or the Communist regime post war. Some of these leading families had even returned in the 90s and had their property returned. In several of these cases the families gave their ancestral homes over to the government again (who really needs a 500 room palace in this day and age anyway) and some of these families have begun taking part in the modern Czech democratic process as well. There was much discussion of the various defenstrations of prague as well, with the windows in question being pointed out. Kate ended the tour by explaining that given historical precedent… “never get in an argument with a Czech above the first floor while standing near a window.”

One of the guys I’d been chummy with on the tour was staying in the same hostel as I was so we caught the same tram back and ended up grabbing dinner together. It was a good time, especially with the ever present and ever cheap Czech beer. We had less luck looking for a bar afterwards though as it was reasonably late and we’d forgotten it was Sunday night. After the long day of walking neither of us felt up to the bar crawl/pub hop (value for money wouldn’t have been there) but anything that was more of  a sit down for a drink place looked to be closing. We ended up deciding to grab an ice cream instead but this turned out to be almost as much of an issue. We eventually gave up after walking up all of one side of Wenceslas square and grabbed a McFlurry… only to pass 3 delicious looking gelato places on our way back down the other side. Curses! Still, as McFlurrys go, it’s hard to beat Toblerone as a flavour.

The next day I enjoyed a bit of a sleep in before heading back out for another long walk round the city. This was my chance to see some of the things we’d only glazed over the day before like the aforementioned Children’s drawings the interiors of a number of the churches and in general just savouring things a bit more. It was a fantastic day again weather wise, a little too hot in fact but not bad if you took some water along. I also ended up adding the beautiful Charles Bridge and parts of lesser town to my list, checked out the Astronomical Clock chiming in Noon and enjoyed the delightfully weird Kafka museum (once featured on TAR.) Over the course of the day I think I went through another 6 pints of Czech beer (usually cheaper than buying a bottled water) a bunch of water and two very Czech beer accompanying meals of Schnitzel and fried cheese. The latter of these was at a brewpub Andrew found that was absolutely amazing. Once a commercial brewery (from 1500something to the mid 1800s it’s now a microbrewery, restaurant and brewpub on the various levels. Most of the eating areas are built in former keg storage areas so low arched ceilings and intimate surroundings. The transformation has been really well done though, you get the charm of the place without feeling like you’re in a claustrophobic cave.

I really loved  Prague but I can also see how friends that have been more than once talk about it slowly being ruined. Once upon a time you could live like a king here for about $15 a day but it’s now becoming quite the tourist destination. More power to them in some ways, but the brits in particular seem intent on making it a British outpost for retiree weekends away and stag/hen parties for the younger set. Wenceslas square is now full of stripclubs/cabarets, casinos and Brit mainstays like Marks and Spencer’s and Tesco. At the moment it’s still great, but I’d visit soon before it loses some of its unique charm.

At the moment I’m on board the Railjet from Vienna to Budapest (since my eurail pass is no good in Slovakia I had to do a slight detour) and it’s by far the best train I’ve had yet. Fast, comfortable and well appointed I really wish my journey on it was farther than the 2.5hour trip I’m scheduled for. They even gave me a juicebox and a mini kitkat when I got on. I wasn’t actually originally planning on Budapest but I’ve heard from multiple people how gorgeous and cheap it is so I figured it was worth a look. I’ve got another week or week and a half until I start having to serious consider planning the end game of my trip so I figured I’d be spontaneous while I could. We actually just passed what was once the much more serious Hungrarian border and yet again there’s towerswith machine gun nooks and the remnants of massively thick stone walls. It’s amazing how much things have changed in 20 short years.  I don’t even have to show my passport and my only real reason for whining is the fact that (like the Czechs) the Hungarian currency isn’t the Euro and I’ll have to get a carefully measured amount of local currency to last for a couple days. Nothing like the old days of course so I can’t really complain.

Budapest  brought me back to the heat, it was ungodly. From the sounds of things it’s around the same level of heat you’ve had back home, but with no A/C, no fans and no respite. I was impressed by Budapest as I arrived, much like some of the other towns I’d passed on the train it had an obvious air of post-communist rebuild but they were driving hard towards a modern European presence. Since joining the European Union they’ve been flourishing and it’s quite obvious everywhere you go in the city. My hostel turned out to be a large converted apartment on the first floor of a gorgeous old building near the city center. I actually walked past it several times as the sign was hidden deep in the doorway, invisible in the falling dusk. On the third time past I noticed a carved building number that matched however and made my way into a cavernous entrance hall. I finally  found my way to the keypad, buzzed the door and eventually was admitted into a near pitch black staircase up to the second floor. Once I’d finally made it into the hostel I was quite impressed at first glance. It had hardwood floors, giant high ceilings and old mouldings all around. Unfortunately the lack of ventilation meant it was baking and having to have the windows wide open all night meant a massive amount of traffic noise. Something about the Budapest trams seems three times louder than any others and annoyingly enough we were right on the route of the only night tram in the city. Add to that the Japanese crotch rockets, wannabe hot hatch drivers and the snoring aussie girl and it’s a wonder I got any sleep. Earlier in the evening though I had a different sort of noise problem, hippies. Now don’t me wrong, I enjoy the guitar, I love it in fact. What I love less is moronic people who can’t really play yet but feel the need to sit in a hostel common room playing their two known cords in some five bar progression from a song they memorized. This goes on over and over and over until they do some awkward flourish which is supposed to be the end of the song. Then they pass the guitar to their even less talented buddy who repeats the process. It’s maddening, thank goodness for noise cancelling headphones.

The next morning I woke up somewhere on the scale between refreshed and zombie and had my third shower in Budapest. I’d decided to go check out Budapest’s castle hill in Buda (for those who don’t know they’re two separate cities separated by the Danube River. This turned out to be quite the jouney as I first walked down and past the quite impressive Hungarian Parliament. It’s a magnificent building that looks more like a church or museum but I sadly had to skip the interior tour as there was at least a 2 hour lineup in the hot sun for it. They’ve obviously had the heat wave for a bit as the grass was suffering and sprinklers were gushing everywhere. I was actually sitting on a bench for a rest occasionally enjoying the slight mist when a man with a very furry black dog ran into the line of fire, deposited the dog then ran back out. The poor thing obviously needed to cool off, but it sat there looking absolutely miserable as shower after shower hit it, but didn’t move until he called it back to him. I can just imagine trying that with Kali or Chica, they’d be out of the spray before I’d even turned around to run.

Crossing the chain bridge (old but nearly destroyed when the Nazi’s dropped it in a rear guard action during their retreat) I could see up to the Castle hill. I was ridiculously hot so I decided to partake of the funicular this time. Sadly I have to say it was a bit of a letdown after Prague. There are some gorgeous buildings, in particular a very pretty, very eastern orthodox looking church but overall just not quite the collection of impressive places that Prague is. Fantastic views of Pest to the east though. Looking down at the Danube one could see a number of truly massive riverboats. About the width of a standard river cruise boat (or even one of the paddlewheels for the Winnipeggers) they were massively long, some approaching proper cruise ship length. They had what seemed to be proper cabins up and down the sides so I’m guessing you can cruise from city to city in them. I guess the Danube doesn’t have any sharp bends, none of those things would be able to turn the corners on the Red back home. I finished by trip by checking out a few of the caves under the city which were neat, but used so much over the centuries for the storage or bomb shelters that they don’t feel as much like natural caves as they probably used to. There’s a day trip through some more natural ones but sadly I don’t really have the time to invest in it.

It wasn’t until I got back to the Hostel around 7 that I realized I hadn’t had anything to eat all day. I swear travelling solo is a great weight loss regime for me, I forget to eat and walk constantly. At this point I was dying to change into a clean shirt, but I was completely out of them. Apparently the hostel offered a laundry service though, so instead of having to sit there doing it I gave them my bags of quite ripe stuff and headed out to a recommended restaurant for a bowl of goulash and some thick Hungarian bread. It was quite delicious and served with a spicy Hungarian paprika infused sauce to add heat for those that wanted it. Afterwards the new roomie who’d replaced the Aussie asked if any of us wanted to check out a ruin pub so a few of us took off. I forget what the place was called, but I’m told they’re all fairly similar. Basically a ruin pub is a pub/restaurant that has taken over an old communist era semi ruined building and (usually in the courtyard) has a number of tables set up. It was ridiculously cheap and had wifi so a few of us sat and had some beers while catching up on email. I had 4 beers and the bill with a good tip came out to like $7 cdn.

A few hours later as I settled in and tried to sleep it was even hotter than the night before, I wondered if I’d get any sleep but I think exhaustion took hold and I got, if not a restful sleep, at least a few consecutive hours of semi sleep.

Things sadly didn’t get any better the next day as I left for Zagreb. I’d elected to take the train direct from Budapest to Zagreb rather than taking the nice train back to Vienna then from Vienna to Zagreb. While I figured that would be a nicer train, it also would have been 4 extra hours and a much earlier departure. I’d made a huge mistake. The train was packed to the gills with people, I sat in a first class compartment after being told I didn’t need a reservation and began to bake. None of the compartments had A/C, the temp was pushing 42 according to the station sign. Later I was told by a conductor that my first class cabin wasn’t going all the way to Zagreb so I had to switch to one that was already 90% full by pushing my way with bag past 4 second class compartments of people hanging out the windows to stay cool. Dirty looks a plenty. It turned out “direct” was one hell of a misnomer as well as we stopped at what seemed like every single tiny station between Budapest and the Croatian border, often sitting there for 10-15 minutes despite no one boarding and losing the only cooling the train was getting. I plowed through  the only water I had in the first hour of the 7 hour journey and had stupidly (from fatigue I’m guessing) forgotten to buy any food for the train. We ended up arriving in Zagreb a full hour late after a lovely 45 minute inspection of the train by Croatian border security. It ended up being 9ish before I managed to get a drink and a bit to eat. By the last hour of the train ride I was composing a film noir blog post in my head and trying desperately not to pass out.Zagreb itself seems like a very nice city, I just won’t get to see much of it this time through.

I was zonked at this point, a brief walk around had gathered me two giant water bottles for tomorrows train, a bottle of coke an enormous slice of pizza that I near inhaled and one of the best strawberry ice creams of my life. After finally getting clean in the shower I flopped into bed and answered emails before just giving in and watching a movie, unable to make myself get up and go get a beer. Two of my roomies eventually showed up and turned out to be very odd French girls who would stop talking any time I moved. They never mentioned me in their conversation, just clammed up whenever they were reminded that I was in the room. Bizarre.

The next morning I had a much nicer walk around Zagreb enjoying the parks for a bit before heading to catch my train down to Dalmatian coast. I’m writing this now on said train… great first class car and accompanying A/C except… the A/C is broken in our car and all the other cars are full…

…on arriving I had another marathon session just trying to find a place with an unilluminated sign. Really don’t understand that, it looks like a beautiful place though and I look forward to exploring in the AM.

On the road…

446

I’ll be moving home in the next week or so (including a 2500km-ish drive) so updates will likely be non-existant. Twitter updates if anything, but international data charges are beyond stupid so I’ll probably have the phone off. Hopefully I’ll have some fun pics once I’m home at least.

Three Quick Hits: Tron Edition

2146_app_temperature-sensitive_glass_tiles_shower_big

Check out these amazing temperature sensitive glass tiles. Their website has a number of pretty funky uses for them but I think my favorite is the shower setup. Definitely like a mood ring for your walls, they’d probably make an excellent kitchen backsplash. The only downside? At $33 for a 4×4 tile, I’m looking at $18,000ish just to do my tub surround, doing my whole bathroom would be more like 35 grand.
Check out the website here, hat tip to MentalFloss

If you’re like me you’re probably excited about the upcoming Tron Sequel, especially after the latest trailer. It honestly looks like they may have been faithful to the original yet expanded the idea. Even if you’re not a massive Tron fan, the one thing you likely know from the movie is the lightcycle concept and the accompanying visuals. The NightBright Tire is ostensibly a safety item, but I think we all know where the inspiration came from and the real reason they sell them:
nightbright

Lastly, if you’re a Tron fan with some money to waste, why not consider a functional, road legal replica of the lightcycle from the upcoming film. Only $35,000 USD will get you a custom built lightcycle in one of five colours. You can even have your choice of gasoline or electric engine for the thing. From the ebay page:

The back cover opens up at the push of a button and there is a neon glow that exits from the back of the bike to resemble the lightcycles colored light trail from the original game. These bikes will also come with a TRON style helmet (Not DOT Approved)

Amazing, and since these guys are the guys that did the batpod replica I can see it actually being built too.

lightcycle

An uncertain neon oasis…

vegas

 

We are in the middle of a global economic recession. Though I certainly wasn’t in any doubt about it before, I had it systematically reinforced during my recent visit to Las Vegas. Things are bad in Sin City… and getting worse.

 

…more after the break…

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Do not touch the rabbit, the rabbit is hot!

Just in time for Easter… 

 

Entertaining and yet mildly creepy (at least to my eyes) but I wonder why he didn’t do the most obviously hilarious method: Bunny on a hotplate!

The Album Cover meme…

As usual I’m weeks late to the party on one of these, but here’s mine.

The idea behind this meme is that you combine random info from randomized sources to create a CD/Album cover for your fictitious band. Ikinci Qala brings a sort of Ladysmith Black Mambazo vibe to mind and the album title/artwork meshed surprisingly well. I feel like my band is probably loved by hippies everywhere and is often a special guest at folk festivals.  Apologies for the shitty graphic quality, stuck with only Paint on this computer.

album

Here’s how to play along:

1 – Go to “wikipedia.” Hit “random”
or click en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 – Go to “Random quotations”
or click www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3 – Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

4 – Use photoshop or similar to put it all together.

5 – Post to Flickr or your website.

For funsies here’s another one I did later on… classic (it’s spooky how often the image/band name or title match well):

album2final