AdventureCPA

Here in Thailand (and also in South America) dogs are often in the street which makes it difficult to determine which ones belong to a newby house or just live on the street nearest the most recent handout.  Either way, seems like a limp, open sore or torn ear are pretty normal.  They tend to answer to "Lucky." However, outdoor cats seem rare. (Perhaps due to the number of outdoor dogs.)  But now in two different Thai cities we have observed Cat Cafes.  Seems you go in and order tea or coffee, then relax while watching between 5 and 10 cats play, sleep or cuddle up in your lap.  Not my idea of a good time but they both seemed busy enough to stay in business and that is the test...right?

Another bus ride farther North puts us within range of the Golden Triangle...also once know as the Opiun Triangle with Thailand, Laos and Myanmar.  Again slightly small town but still about 200,000 residents.  Many temples and Wats.  The Wat I visited after the 999th one was the KiloWat.  Ha. At the Night Market that springs up every evening where the bus station is during the day we ran into three travelers that Denyse met during her Hiking Trek a few days earlier.  We then traveled around with them the most of the next day until they took off for other towns/countries. Applied for Visa for Myanmar on line, will see if it works.  Earlier got Visa for Viet Nam in which we had to hand over passport for three days while they processed it. So far SE Asia had definately lacked the geologic grandeur of South America but the change in culture from the US is still evident. Next back toward Bangkok and fly to Myanmar if we get the Visa.

Arriving in Chiang Mai, Thailand's second largest city we managed to get to a slightly smaller city and cooler temperatures.  Les public transportation but hotel costs went from $50 a night to $13 a night for the same level of comfort. Demyse used the next few days to do a two day trek and overnight with a "hill village" which included bamboo rafting, hiking and waterfall.  Then a half day Thai cooking lesson. During this time I worked on the CFP assignment, submitted it waiting for the next activity.  Almost done with this part! I spend quite a bit of time just looking at and marveling at the number of low power motorcycles and scooters in use.  Everyone over 12 years old must have one or two. Most are not available in the US but make for economical transportation for short trips. Most hotels have TV with several Thai channels including news, selling pretty much anything, old movies from all over plus channels from India, China, Al Jezzera, Korea, England and a ...

As mentioned in prevous post, Bangkok is a busy, bustling city. Also dirty, hot this time of year and filled with a global assortment of tourist. Lots of conspecuous(?) consumption with Mercedes, BMWs and the occasional Lamborgini.  Construction cranes just about everywhere and new infrastructure.  The high end Malls rival anthing in New York or Chicago's Magnificent Mile.  The Skytrain is a completely new above ground public transportation that makes the Chicago CTA look like a Model T. We slept for 16 hours two days in a row to recooperate from the 40 plus hours of air travel, then ventured out to take the tourist water taxi along the river (dirty) to see a museum, some shrines etc. To escape Bangkok and move on up north to Chiang Mai we when to the bus station...sat on the floor with everyone else  and the bus actually left only 20 minutes late.  Next Morning in Chiang Mai.

Notes on 42 Hours of Flying... All flights went pretty much as planned...two on United and one on Thai Air. All were on newer Boeing or Airbus planes which are really pretty similar.  Great in flight entertainment for binge watching.  Think I saw three James Bond movies.  Food was pretty standard (meal and snack for 10 hour flight) but seating gives a new meaning to crowded.  New planes seem to have the concept that higher class passengers get more room and economy get less.  Although no the Houston to England leg flight was pretty empty and I got to sleep lying down over three empty seats in a row. Early arrival in Bangkok Sunday Morning, two train rides and a walk to our hotel which seems to be in the commercial mall district.  Area could easily be called "The Mall of SE Asia" for all the luxury stores. Bangkok is hot , humid this time of year but people are very courteous, police and guards standing around everywhere.  No real hassles but st...

Long before our Dragoman trip we discovered that Chile has a discount airline so we decided that instead of 12 hours in a bus we would do 1.5 hours in an Airbus plane from Puerto Montt to Santiago. So Monday AM we took the $3 bus to the airport and all went well.  Flight went well.  Arrived at Santiago and planned to take bus to our hostel but a smooth talking, lying  tout convinced me to say ok to a 20,000 per person peso ride ($70 total]) instead of the 1,500 per person peso ride into town.  Kinda spoiled the whole day.   We should all feel sorry for the next 10 touts that try to approach me. In Santiago made use of the free walking tour (donation expected) to the city center and picked up box at grocery store to send cold weather stuff to home in Colorado. Thurday 11PM we start 42 hour journey  to Houston, London and Bangkok.  50,000 miles on United and $102.10 each will take you a long way if you can use their scheduling.  Will be in Hou...

First a note about the ferry ride.   Our three day, four night ferry experience was a welcome break from the get up and travel every day we had done earlier.  Three meals a day but this was not a normal cruise.   No casino, no free wine or soft drinks, just beautiful scenery and a one hour nature talk about the area every other day.  And every once in a while we would go to the back of the ship and check on the cows loaded in trailers.  They got to stand rib eye to steak for the four day ride. With 12 hours in open ocean Denyse spent a few hour seasick but recovered quickly.  We traveled past islands, thru islands within about 20 meters of "the hard" on either side.   Didn{t see another glacier but watched the milky water from one draw a line across the ocean water as they slowly merge.  The ferry stopped at the town of Eden, Chile for the weekly supply run.  No dock so the townspeople come out in their small boats to take on supplies and I...

Here are a couple observations on Patagonia I missed earlier. 1)  Due to the long distances in Patagonia and few people, an electric grid like most of the world is use to does not exist.  Several of the small towns including Chaltan have a town generator which nosily runs on diesel or propane.  Not unusual to turn it off at night so I guess entire town goes to bed at 11PM.    However, without the electric grid cell phone service must still work of some cell towers in the middle of nowhere have wind generators and backup diesel or propane generators to keep them going on their own. 2)  Area is still having disputes between families who have lived on the land for generations and those educated enough to use the eventual land registration system of titles make claim on the land.  Especially if it has mineral or timber assets. 3)  Bicycle Touring and Motorcycle touring in Patagonia is in full swing.  Numerous loaded bikes (Mostly Mountain w...

AFter Ushuaia and the end of the world we did a 14 hour bus ride back up to Puerto Natales where we will catch the Ferry to Porto Montt.  It is delayed a day due to prior bad weather but weather seems pretty good now.  While trying up upload pictures to here facebook page Denyse deleted all her photos of past two weeks... That is why few photos in this section.  Hopefully more to come soon. wbsite for ferry company is  http://www.navimag.com/

January 28 we arrive at Ushuaia, Argentina which bills itself as the Southern Most town in the World on a continent.  End of the World thing.  That of course if you exclude Porto Williams across the Beagle Channel because it is mostly millitary, Antartica doesn't count. etc.   But it is the beginning point for most of the cruises to Antartica. Dragoman cruise ended there and we did a few hour tourist boat trip to see sea lions, rocks with birds on them and a colony of penguins.  Penguins were cute. I haven't really mentioned our fellow tour mates.  I addition to Denyse and me there was another couple 'of age' who were from Australia.  They were a delight a meet and chat with.  Also several late 20..early 30 couples many of which quit jobs to travel the world and this was just one part of it.  And a few singles mostly in the 30 year age group.   All in all a nice group of people to travel with although i suspect they didn{t know what to...

January 17, 18 and 19 in El Chalten then a drive to the other end of the new National Park and El Calafate.  This included a daya trip to the Perito Moreno Glaciar which is one of the few advancing glaciars in the world.  I did a boat trip to the face of the glaciar and we both walked the lookout overlooking it.  Only about 5 KM across the face of the glaciar and hundreds of meters high. Next up was a drive to Torres Del Paine National Park and back into Chile.  This park rivals Yellowstone in size.  During our first day hike got caught in a sudden gale with driving rain, those gale force winds and small hail.  Rain the next day but then cleared up for a later hike to watch Condors fly high above and finally to the base of the Tirres del Paine Spires. January 27 we headed south and crossed the Strait of Magellan via Ferry and another camp at a gas station.  Piebold Dolphins swim with the ferry across this narrowest part of the Strait.

January 15 and we drive all day on thye Carretera Austral.  Seems Chile promotes this route for North South tourist traffic in competition with Argentina's Route 40.  Up one down the other seems like a good idea to me.  Except in Chile the Carretera Astral ends at Puerto Montt which is the north end of our upcoming ferry ride.  Here is a map of Route 40.  Notice Chile is noticibly absent to the West. Beautiful area with mountains, streams, lakes etc. Then back to Argentina to drive the Argentinian Patagonia and camp beside a gas station.  This is one empty place which I can only liken to what the Western US must have been when my father drove it in a model T sometime in the 1920's.  Empty and few services.  Roads may be two lane concrete or 1.5 lane gravel.  Or 1.0 lane Mud puddles. This brought us to El Chalten which is a 15 year old town built to take advantage of the Glaciar National Park and Mount Fitzroy. A new tourist town sit...

Well, we`have been off line lately, busy and limited Internet Cafes to use to make the post.  But now the Dragoman trip is over and we have a little more schedule control.  So, here is more narrative. After Pucon we moved onto Bariloche, Argentina.  Bariloche is a vacation destination with a large lake, good restaurants and overlook hill with a view to rival the best of several continents!  We walked up and down (could have paid to take the ski lift type transport) and found a 360 degree view of all the above.   Also Chocolate and really big slabs of beef.  I ordered the standard size and ate off it for three days. Bought a new camera for Denyse to replace the one stolen in Peru as scenery just too good to totally miss. Heading South from Bariloche (which is on Route 40) we then headed back into Chile and camped along what many consider the best kayaking river in Chile.  Out of the city.  Try feeding 22 campers from a 1950s era limited groce...