Bucharest, Romania

As everyone should see the Acropolis when in Greece, and since all museums were closed for Easter Monday, we waited until Tues morning to climb up the narrow streets of the Plaka on our way to the Acropolis, which lies on a high hill above the oldest part of town. We had a nice surprise once we got to the top - all museums are free today because of the holiday!

This afternoon we were one the move once more to Bucharest, a city in a country I know almost nothing about, except that during the late 80's, thier dictator, Cheausescu, was killed during the revolution to overthrow communism. Remember all the stories of children in orphanages? So I was very interested to see what this country was now like.

Our initial impressions of this city have been positive. The city seems to be coming back to life....there are some wonderful old grand buildings plus new construction as well. It's not crazy like Beijing though......work seems to be set at a steady pace here.

Look up the Palace of the People, the monument Cheausescu built to glorify himself and his wife, Elena. This guy was a huge megalomaniac that let absolute power almost destroy the country by by building a Versaille like monster palace that took all the resources of the people over 5 years to complete; actually it's still not finished. I felt a little sick thinking of the sacrifices the Romanians had to make in order for this building to be built.

In a lovely afternoon of partly sunny skies and fresh, smog-free air, we took in the Village Museam. Set in a huge park, old homes, barns, churchs & mills from all areas of rural Romania were dismantled and re-built in this park, for all to enjoy.....a beautiful outdoor museum.

After we headed back to the hotel....I must admit I'm finally coming down with a bit of "Romania's Revenge" and am not feeling great today. Imodium is a wonderful thing! Last night on the way to the hotel, Erwin twisted his kneed somehow and could barely walk; I was quite concerned we might have to see a doctor for it here. As luck would have it though, we're travelling with an orthopedic surgeon, who gave it a quick look, made Erwin wince (I think on purpose!) and quickly perscribed Advil to reduce swelling. A few hours later all was well. I can tell we're on the last leg of this race....we're all getting tired and cranky and want to wear clean clothes. We're still trying to have as much fun as possible, but our bodies are breaking down! A piece of my tooth broke off a few days ago as well, so I face the fun of seeing the dentist as soon as I get back.....oh that's just wonderful :(

So...... enough complaining!!!!!! Sorry..............

We have to pack tonight because we're spending the day travelling out of the city into Transylvania country....we should even see Dracula's castle. I'm really looking forward to this trip. Erwin wanted to go to the Black Sea, but I think Dracula is a once in a lifetime thing to do, so we hired a van for a bunch of us to go together. We could definitely come back to Romania and spend a few weeks here.

Athens, Greece

This morning we were slapped in the face with the challenge of trying to figure out how to achieve our local and future scavenges in several different countries and regions during this leg of the race, not knowing what would be open today or tommorrow. As you know, it's Greek Easter sunday that apparently stretches into Easter monday as well. All museums are closed as well as most shops. Teams are scurrying around trying to drum up info on trains, planes, and buses......this is the leg of the mass confusion! All the travel adds up to more than 24 hours on a train to get to the final destination of Bucharest, Romania.

We decided we wanted to enjoy Athens for the next 2 days as Erwin's never been here and we wanted to take full advantage of this area. Today we managed to take in some beautiful sites even though the gates were locked on many national treasures. We've heard the Acropolis will be open tommorrow and are crossing our fingers that we'll still be able to see it. It's the one place everyone has to see while in Athens, just like the Great Wall in China.

To give you an idea of what prices are like here, we spent 50 euros on a mediocre lunch, because "it's a holiday today, you know?" Now that we're in Europe, everyone is costing that much more....no more great deals.

The view from our hotel roof is spectacular as we're a stone's throw from the Acropolis, which is lit up at night for everyone to enjoy. Our room is a lot smaller than what we're used to....we've been spoilt during this trip with our hotels. We've got a bidet, though, I don't think I'll ever get the knack of using it correctly.

We're getting down to the finish line, only this week left to go.....I don't think we'll really understand how far we've come on this trip until we've been home for awhile. I feel much more confidant travelling, we've learned to push our way through crowds, to ask questions from anyone, anywhere, and to rely on complete strangers because "it's all Greek to us!" ha...ha...

Last night we had a team meal in a local restaurant where we really cut loose, I think we're all tired and needed to just forget about the game for a few hours. It didn't last long though, as one of the first challenges was attending midnight mass......after beer and ouzo, it was tough to get up enough energy to join the rest of Greece in their Easter celebration. I tried to get Erwin to go on his own, but he dragged me out so I had no choice. We seem to take turns getting tired and/or being the one to push the other to complete what needs to be done.

We're excited about Romania, a country we never thought we'd see, and hope to be able to get a whirlwind tour before we head out to another destination on Thursday morning.

Arrilval in Cairo

Blazing 110 degree heat on the airport parking lot, waiting for the shuttle bus, is how this leg started. From then on it became one of the most enjoyable legs we've had. Naturally, we did the camel ride and pyramid tourist thing, King Tuts tomb and the rest of the artifacts at the Egyptian Museum were a highlight, following by a wade in the Suez Canel, watching massive tankers being piloted through.....that's after a 2 hour drive through the blazing Sahara Desert.

We enjoyed a special experience with our taxi driver after he invited us back to his home to meet with his family for tea and desserts . The desserts were part of our scavange.

We also had a special experience in a downtown restaurant where over an enjoyable cup of strong, turkish coffee with the owner and his grandson, we were invited down into the basement where there was a bar set up especially for the Egyption resisstance movement against their then King Farouk, who was overthrown and exciled in 1954. The resttaurant still had the press for printing leaflets during that period and a secret door behind the bar for escape when police raids occurred.

The same evening, we took part in the night bazaar, which is a maze of shops, literally elbow to elbow, everyone vying for your egyptian pounds. We had some apple flavoured hookah in a cafe that seemed to be so full of people, we wondered where they all came from. We had to purchase a headress and robe, so Erwin could pretend he was the mafia shiek of arabia at our mandatory stop at 6pm the next evening.

Added to this, naturally we had to include a visit to the tomb of the disposed Shah of Iran, who we found out was the brother in law of the exciled King Farouk (that's your history lesson for this blog entry).Sailing on the Nile river and visiting the spot where baby Moses was hidden was an awe inspiring experience.

We are typing this blog from our new location in Athens, Greece, where we will be starting our next leg of this adventure called The Balkins. This will be a 4 day adventure with stops in Athens, Thessoloniki & Macedonnia. From there we move on to Sofia & Plovdiv in Bulgaria and wrapping up in Bucharest, Romania. We are on our own from now untill then including travel and accomodation, with massive bonus points for the team finding the cheapest hotel and actually staying for a nite. This leg is quite daunting and will definately make or break a teams effort for a top finish.

We have found our pace and are really enjoying ourselves. Tonite we had a celebration of sorts with a great Greek dinner and the many obligatory ouzo's. Janice started this blog but I'm finishing it, as she is having a nap before we head out to midnite Easter service. It is Easter Sunday tomorrow and most of this country will be shut down for the day, adding to our challenge of traveling and getting access to our scavenge points.

We will try to keep you all informed as best we can for the next few days depending on internet access, etc.

We want to wish our youngest son a happy 20th birthday....what a milestone, no more teenagers in this family. Dylan, we hope you day is special and can't wait to be home to celebrate properly with you. Hope you're enjoying Rock Band.

Cairo, Egypt

Can you believe that tommorrow will be our 14th day of this trip? It's been a total whirlwind, which we will use as an excuse why we haven't put anything in this blog for a few days. We had a crazy travel day, flying from Kathmandu to Bahrain, overnighting there for 12 hours, then heading off on another flight to Cairo. With some time changes thrown in, and 107 degree heat, I felt a little wilted, to say the least.



Bahrain was our very short introduction to the middle east, with our first citing of men in flowing white robes and headdresses and women dressed completely in black burkhas. They had some beautiful ones for sale at the airport, but I think I'll pass! I don't know how these women do it, in this insane heat....I have a lot to say on this issue, but I think I'll let it pass until I get home. Suffice it to say, women are clearly second class around here.



Well, on to Cairo, land of the phaorohs and pyramids. OUr hotel has it's own history; it was built in the 1800's and is directly across from the Giza Pyramids....awesome!!!!

Kathmandu by Daylight

After a good night's sleep and several bottles of courage at the hotel's watering hole till the wee hours, we ventured out yesterday morning to greet the unknown world of Kathmandu.

What an amazing experience! As you might have heard, Erwin is describing this trip as "excruciatingly enjoyable". For those of you who feel you've seen poverty at it's worst, this is a match, yet we were able to enjoy many positive and enlightening experiences.

We've probably been to more temples than our Hindu population in Abbotsford. From riverside, open-fire cremations of commoners and royalty, to a hidden 14th century community, where they still beat grain with sticks to gather seed, and goats and chickens live amongst the families, to viewing ancient carvings depicting the Kama Sutra, which are approved Hindu sexual positions. (No need for Playboy here!) Cows are sacred and roam freely amongst the streets, eating and pooping at will. Children in school uniforms, walk to school on dirt paths, within inches of being run over by vehicles snarled in traffic (especially by tourists in taxis) .

We were blessed yesterday by a Hindu Holy Man; however, we're still not sure what the blessing entales. Erwin and I received red and yellow powder on our foreheads and had orange flowers sprinkled over our heads. With Erwin's hair gel, the flowers stayed in all day!

On another note, we've had to make a decision. There is a high degree of competitiveness amongst the teams here, and in order for us to stay in the top percentile, we feel we would lose the ability to fully absorb the culture and experiences of the countries that we have and will be visiting. So don't expect to see us in the running for 1st place anytime soon.....it's become more important for both of us to "enjoy the moment" to the fullest. We'll still be in the competition as there's great opportunities to see and do, and let's face it, we are still competitive to a certain degree, and we don't want to be last!

Tommorrow we'll have been on this journey for 12 days, the half-way point. At 4pm we hand in our scorecards for Nepal and get our marching orders for our next location.

p.s. Erwin wants you all to know that he's helping me with the narrative in this blog.....he's feeling left out, could you give him a little praise for this blog as well? :)

Kathmandu, Nepal

Where to start......Kathmandu is the mirror opposite of Singapore. This is a very poor country with terrible infrastructure, smog, 18th century living along with cell phones and jeans.

We arrived here late yesterday afternoon and it was dark before we ventured out into the streets of the city. I think I experienced total culture shock coming from our elegant, 5 star hotel to the dark, dusty, busy streets of Kathmandu. I felt uncomfortable, but not really afraid....there is very little crime here.....however, I felt like I'd landed on some strange planet that I couldn't quite make sense of.

Just outside the hotel gates must be one of the poorer regions of the city. The buildings are all approx 3 stories tall, made of red brick. There was no electricity in this area, so we saw small shop stalls lit by candles and gas flames. I think most of the light came from the vehicles travelling the streets. It felt eery.....the dust and smog were choking me....I was definitely out of my comfort zone. I was happy to see the Hyatt later that evening, it feels like an oasis amongst the constant whirlwind of noise, cars and people that is this city.

I keep on thinking....why am I here?

Planes, Trains & Automobiles

Today is Friday.....we're in Kuala Lumpur, finding a bus to Maleka, then on to Singapore.

Our days have been packed with all kinds of transportation, I feel like I know the back seat of a taxi intimately. The first week of this trip has been a whirlwind of all kinds of transportation, scavenges, and seeing new sights.

Maleka was a highlight for us as it was controlled by the Dutch for over 150 years and there's still a lot of Dutch influence in this beautiful town. It would have been nice to spend a few days here; however, we're off to Singapore where we've got more mandatory scavanges to complete before our 10 pm deadline when scavenge time comes to a screaching halt.

There's so much to say about everything we've done each day, it's almost overwhelming. Singapore is a gorgeous city that we'd love to come back to one day. It's combination of historic Colonial architecture with the modern highrises and lots of tropical greenery and parks is a perfect combination here. It makes me feel like I need a gin and tonic....very British. The view from our hotel room overlooks the harbour rivaling the harbour view in Vancouver (but not quite)

We enjoyed our cab ride with the world's only "singing" cab driver. He can sing in 9 different languages and his cab is set up as a kareoke bar. He even had me singing Abba tunes before the hour was up. Add to that, the world's largest water fountain, Hindu temples, ancient mosques, Chinatown, Little India, and having our fortune told by a parrot!

We met everyone tonight at the world famous Raffles Hotel for drinks, have you ever spent $17 on a beer before? If not, come here, it's easy....a Singapore Sling is $22....!

Just a reminder, drugs and guns will get you the death sentence, good thing Erwin has neither. Spitting on the pavement or just spitting out your gum will get you a big fine here as well....it'll cost you $150! No wonder this place is so clean. You can't even buy gum in Singapore, it's forbidden.

OK, want to know where we're going next?.......Kathmandu, NEPAL

We'll be up in 4 hours to catch this flight, but I'm so excited. Nepal! I can't believe we're going to Nepal!

Scavenging in KL, Malaysia

Erwin up at 5:30 a.m., down to the train station ATM, get some Ringgits ($)...do some scouting around, looking for Starbucks, found it too early so settled for hotel coffee.

Came back up to the room, kicked Janice out of bed and gave her a shower (Janice is typing, she says this did not happen) Down for breakfast and the scavenging started with identifying 4 types of Malaysian mystery food, nasi goreng being one.

We 're off to the races after breakfast, checking out some local markets for scavenging points, then to the world famous Petronis Towers where Erwin had his second encounter with law enforcement......still no jail time (Janice says "rats")

Then we're off to the only casino in Malaysia, which happends to be at the world's highest elevation (6800 ft) for a casino, and the largest indoor theme park in the world and the largest hotel in the world, all at the same location.....like an Asian Las Vegas. It took 1.5 hour bus trip for $2.10, then 1/2 hour cable car ride up the mountain to the actual resort, where Janice had to go into the casino on her own to buy a chip, which was the scavenge, as Erwin was refused entrance as he was not dressed properly (3rd encounter with enforcement)....still no jail time (is there a theme going on here?)

After scaling the mountain, we finally got some culture into the day (after a Starbucks) by visiting the world's tallest Hindu statue/shrine located at Batu Caves. This was extremely impressive as we pushed, pulled, dragged and climbed up 272 steps, avoiding monkeys and pilgrims, to access the cave that housed a Hindu shrine.

Next, it's off to Chinatown where we had to find a knock-off CD of some of our favourite music at the night market. Then it's back to the hotel for a few beers (we're too tired for dinner).

At the hotel, we were surprised to hear that some of the teams were already leaving tonight instead of in the morning to our next location in order to get a jump on some of the scavenges for tomorrow.....it's seems to be getting competitive. We are staying for the night, as we feel we can do just fine after a good nights' sleep and a great breakfast in this lovely hotel.

See you on the next post from Singapore and from there, who knows?

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

Look it up if you don't remember where exactly Kuala Lumpur is. All I can say right now is we just completed another marathon travel day (mind you, after a 14 hour flight, followed by a 3 hour chaser flight, nothing seems bad any more).

Don't think Erwin and I are basking on the beaches or sleeping in every day. This morning, we had to be at the airport by 5:30 for a 3 hour flight from Beijing to HongKong, connecting onto another 3 hour flight from HongKong to Kuala Lumpur. Our travel day started at 4 a.m., arriving at our new hotel at 6:30 pm. Met with everyone else in the lounge at 7 for our new game plans.

This is going to be different than Beijing as we have mandatory challenges now that we HAVE to complete or all the other challenges won't count. I took a quick look through the challenges and there's some that look very interesting.......

Everthing comes to a screeching halt on Friday at 10pm. We meet then at the world famous Long Bar in Raffles Hotel, Singapore. Yes, some time on Friday, we have to make our own way from KP to Singapore.

That's all for today, Erwin's snoring....I'm tired...can't concentrate any more. I think we get to have nasi goreng here tommorrow, at least I'll know what I'm eating.

The Great Wall

Yesterday was a great day as we spent some time in the morning, exploring the Great Wall of China approx 1.5 hours away from Beijing. Awesome is all I can say, it was well worth the taxi trip. Coming down the hill was the challenge though, having to manuver through all the vendors selling their wares. They were so aggressive I had to physically push them out of the way!

After a few beers, it didn't seem too bad any more. It was quite a climb getting to the wall and the beer was well deserved! We seem to be drinking a lot of beer here. I think with all the smog, it just seems to sooth the throat......does that sound like a good enough reason?

From there, we taxied to the Summer Palace, used by the emperors and their families in bygone times to get away from the heat of Beijing. Another awesome place! I'll try to put some pictures up soon, but I've only got dial up right now and it's really slow.

One challenge we had to do was take a picture of a little kid with a pair of those split pants on and no diaper. I had a hard time not feeling like a pervert trying to casually take a photo of some little kid's butt.....tried to look like I was fixing my camera, but I got the shot!

At 10pm we all met to hand in our scorecards and find out where we're going next......are you ready?.........I'll let you know on my next post :)

And a very Happy Birthday to my favourite, youngest, sister Jacki. Hope you have a wonderful day Jack!

Tian Jin, China

Today we decided we would capture some scavenger points outside the city of Beijing. We jumped on the bullet train and went to another city about an hour away called Tian Jin. The bullet was very modern and clean but lacked the type of speed we were anticipating, nothing over 200 km......was a little disappointing, but we managed to maximize our scavenger points in this city with stops at one of the first and original roman catholic churches, an historic & colourful shopping mall/sidewalk fair.

Then we found a Starbucks, which was almost empty - heaven in the midst of all the humanity here! We took a China break and had some lattes and a sandwich. Then we had to find a pet store, that turned out to be 4 stories and carried whatever you wanted from pet lizards, mice to an monster stockpile of fish. There isn't even a pet store like this in Beijing apparently.

From there, we waited an hour to catch the train back to Beijing and happily people watched over a few lukewarm Budweisers.

We wrapped up the days adventures with traditional hot pot, sort of like Chinese fondue. We know some of you would love this style of eating, and you know who you are!

One thing we learned today is how to gob, spit, or hork in every situation and in any place......yuck! For all you guys, this place could be heaven for spitters, burpers, and farters.

The weather's still great, but the smog seems to be thicker, like soup....we can start to taste in the back of our throats.

Everyone here is really working hard to gear up for the Olympics this summer. With so much construction still going on, it looks like it will be touch and go if it all gets completed on time. There is so much other construction going on here due to their accelerated economy, wherever we go, there's something being built or remodelled. We don't how this will all end for China, but its changing rapidly.

Bejing (Peking) China

After 18 hours of travel (yes, 18 hours!) we arrived in the Olympic City for our first stop. This airport has only been open a month and is a monster, a dragon to be specific. The roof undulates like a dragon's body and tail. The terminal we were in is over 1 km long. Weather is good - 60 degrees with lots of smog.

The hotel, 5 star for sure! After settling in our rooms for a couple of hours, we met with everyone else, got our Beijing Scavenge Hunt List, and it's game on!

Some of the scavenges we finished today were visiting Tiananmen Square, which includes the ceremonial flag lowering and Erwin's first encounter with China's armed guard. No jail time yet. We also visited Chairman Mao's tomb, the Forbidden City, the largest outdoor TV and the largest billboard in the country, as well seeing roasted cockroach, snake, scorpion, raw squid, all served on a stick for easy eating while you walk! For dinner we opted for traditional roasted Peking Duck.

Not many people speak English here which makes it challenging to get some of the information we need, without being able to use the computer. We can only use the computer when we're not scavenging.

We just filled up on breakfast and are ready for our 2nd day in China.

San Francisco

Arrived in San Fran, relaxed for a bit, then met the organizers and the rest of the constestants over a drink at the hotel, where we were given a list of "practise" scavanges for the rest of day.

One of the bonus scavanges was to email a picture of one of us sitting on a four-legged beast. Nobody said it had to be alive, so we found a big, old Chinese lion outside a shop for Erwin to straddle. We hoped it would earn us a few extra points. The next morning, Bill (coordinator) reminded us about that and added it had to be "alive". Darn!

Next was a getting to know you Asian dinner (do I sense a theme here?) We thought we could go back to the hotel and finally get some much need rest, only to find out at the dinner, our plane bound for China was leaving at 1:00 am that morning! We had 2 hours to get ready and get back to the airport. Needless to say, no-one stayed for dessert.

There are some motiviated competitors among this group. Everyone is playing it very low-key at the moment, with comments like "I just want to see what the world has to offer, If I don't get all the points, I just want to have fun, etc......... We're thinking this is part of their strategy. It's actually our strategy as well....

Last Day before Leaving!

This weekend, we received our final email from the organizors....it includes 9 Clarifications, 36 Travel Tips, 22 Rules and Regulations, a 12 point Travelers Creed, and a bunch of misc. instruction. Janice likes this because it gives her something to "go by". It doesn't necessarily please Erwin who likes to make his own rules and likes to think "outside the box".

We've already determined to take separate vehicles to the airport and book separate rooms at each hotel so we won't get on each others' nerves.....(just kidding!) However, the stress is high right now, trying to get everything ready to go.

Of course, the day before we leave, the weather is changing and becoming sunny and warm....maybe we'll just stay home and work in the garden........ :)

Twelve hours from now, we will be on our way!

p.s. Call Mr. Rooter as often as you can for service while we're gone, cause we're gonna need extra cash.