We Wander — Mark & Meghan’s World Travels

You may have noticed a brief lull in our posting. You could blame it on the fact that we are on Koh Tao, a tropical Thai paradise island with ample snorkel and relaxation opportunity. You could blame it on Mike and Sarah: we are having way too much fun and playing way too many hands of bridge (or not enough, no such thing as too much bridge). Or you could blame it on the fact that our computer power adapter has hit the fan. Ironically, it ceased charging our computer just days after purchasing a new battery. We have to pay exorbitant amounts of Baht to receive a new one here in Thailand. The new battery and power adapter monetarily equate to a new iPad. Oh how I wish we had one of those over my clunky old Powerbook. Our new power cord is supposed to arrive today. We are hoping they got it right and we’ll be back online with photos and fun in no time.

It feels so good to be in Thailand. I can wear tank tops and shorts above knee-length, beer is cheap, and the food is delectable. We are on bit of a beeline trail up north to Laos. This morning we arrived in Bangkok after a 21 hour train ride from Georgetown, Malaysia. It was a breeze in contrast to any of our Indonesian travel terrors. As JT would say, as paid for by McDonlads: “Ba da ba ba daaaaaa! I’m lovin’ it.”

Three nights ago we left the peace and quiet of Lake Toba to head for Medan, a large city on the northeast coast of Sumatra. The plan: to spend one night in Medan recovering from the 5 hour bus ride (this one had absolutely no leg room, a nightmare for me especially) and then to catch the fast ferry to Penang, Malaysia on Sunday morning. Our time in Indonesia was nearly up, and we were feeling ready to leave.

As it turns out, Indonesia wasn’t quite finished with us. We discovered upon arrival in Medan that the ferry only left on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. A warning to other travelers — the Lonely Planet guide is wrong on this one, at least the 2008 copy we have is. They were also wrong about the price. When we did buy our tickets they ended up costing nearly twice what the book said. I guess it’s important to learn early on not to trust the guidebooks implicitly. We’re usually much better at avoiding things like that, but we missed this one. As a result, we suddenly had three days to spend in Medan.

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Recently Mark and I experienced a $1 expenditure day. I like these days. Volunteering has it’s benefits.

With $1 we purchased delightfully refreshing and delicious banana shakes. Sometimes we have $2 days because we purchase one at lunch and at dinner. Next door to our base is a tiny shack where ‘we’ve’ convinced the owners it would be to their advantage to purchase a blender. They listened to this wise advice and every day are inundated with volunteers looking for some fruit shakes.

Our favourite flavours include: banana, banana + chocolate, banana + avocado + chocolate, and lime. I have yet to try a mango shake which is rumored to be fantastic. However Willy, the shake maker, never has any mango in stock. I’ll keep you posted on the mango situation.

On our first day in Mumbai, we joined a small group of other people from the cruise on an organized excursion. The group was made up of staff from the ship and other travelers with open minds. This was no regular overpriced cruise ship excursion; one of the guest relations officers that we’d made friends with had organized a tour of the Dharavi slum through a Non-Government Organization (NGO) called Reality Tours, and she invited us to come along. Dharavi slum is supposed to be Asia’s biggest slum, but depending on who we asked we heard varying information on that. Our guide told us that over one million people live there, and someone else said fifty thousand. On first hearing about it, we were a little apprehensive that taking a “tour of the slums” was simply putting the lives of these poverty-stricken people on show for tourists. But we read a little more about the NGO, and learned that 80% of their profits from the tours went to funding a computer learning centre and a kindergarten in the slum community. We thought it would be an experience worth having, not for enjoyment’s sake, but for the sake of learning more about the lives of the people here. Five of us went in a car with a driver and an english-speaking guide, and after driving past some of the city’s major attractions, we parked at the edge of Dharavi and got out of the car.

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We form ideas on what a place is like before arriving or while sitting at home in our living rooms. Most of the time, the experience is altogether different. But Dubai was just as strange and excessive as I’d expected it to be. In some ways, it’s a place that needs to be seen to be believed because some of the things you hear about the city sounds so crazy. But then you see it and it’s kind of like ‘ok, yep, that’s a ski hill in a mall’ and you’re left with a somewhat empty feeling because all of it is just so unreal. Still, some things managed to surprise us and we had a great time in the city.

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I can’t decide which I’m enjoying more. Now that we’re in Athens, I can’t get enough of the snacks. Pitas with meat and tzatziki and veggies - yum! But a part of me already misses the pizza in Naples…

Travel is good for our mental health, but bad for our physical health.

On Eating
Everything is a novelty to us. Another bottle of Rioja? Croissants with butter for breakfast? Brie? Blue cheese? Camembert? French fries with mayonnaise? Bacon sandwich? Olives? Anchovies? Meat with that meat? Duck fat fried duck fat? But of course. When in Rome.

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Today is day 48 on the road. It’s hard to believe that it has been over a month and a half since we left Ottawa. I was thinking about it the other day, and realized that I haven’t had any real bouts of homesickness yet. There could be a few possible explanations for this: perhaps I don’t miss home at all, or I’ve somehow found something else to fill in the gap…

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