The Turtle crawl to Bordeaux

What a frigging long day...

It started off with Andy and I enjoying our cereal at the Hostel in Nice, France just about to leave to reach our next desination which is located in Bordeaux, France. Bordeaux is known for the famous French red and white wine serving millions around the world.

To get there we had to take a direct train which would only be 8 hours long. We planned our trip and to use our Euro-rail tickets which is cheap on the 10:00 am train and arriving in Bordeaux at 6:00 pm at night. Just the perfect schedule as we can arrive at our Hotel and then go out for some french food and some good Bordeaux wine.

Guess what?

We arrived at the Train station around 9:30 am and waiting in the line up until 9:50 am to pick up the tickets. The attendent at the station said that we could not use our Euro-rail tickets as the train was already full and we had to wait until the next train which was the 1:30 pm departure. I looked at Andy and decided this was our only option since the cost without the Euro-rail would be 170 Euro dollars (1.6 times as the Canada Dollar) which was waaaaay too expensive for our Worldly tour.

After using our Euro-rail ticket for the 1:30 pm departure, we went and found a grocery store and brought some snacks and waited in a nice Park called Mozart de park (something like that). This is where I had the chance to take some photos of soem pidgeons up close and see how humanly tame there were.

Getting on the Train at 1:30 was no problem and we managed to find the first class seats that came with the Euro-rail tickets. Everything was going well and with full expectations that we will arrive on time at 10:00 pm.

Guess What?

There was a unionized train station strike in the city of Marseilles which has delay trains arriving and departing up to 3-4 hours. So we had to stay in the train on the tracks just outside of the city waiting until the backlog was cleared.

As a result of this unexpected and un-publicized strike, we waited for an additional 2 hours before we could pass through. This delay ended up causing us to miss out on the local Bordeaux tram / buses so we had to rent a taxi to the hotel and then straight into the bed we go.

Wowswers...

St. Paul De Vence

After doing some research in Nice and on the Internet, Andy and I decided to visit a small village up in the hills called Saint Paul De Vence. With an average of 300 days of sunshine a year, St Paul's climate is suitable for both international and domestic tourism. St Paul contains over 1.700 acres, and has a population of 3.000 inhabitants, 300 of which live within the village itself. At the top of the village contains a small older style Roman Cathatlic Church in which we both saw a local saturday wedding take place. It was quite a beauitful place to be and I took advantage of the camera to capture the mood.

Located 40 minutes transit bus ride from Nice, between the mountains and ocean, this medieval village has 60-feet rocky outcrop, overlooks the surrounding landscape, with the Mediterranean sea and the Cap D'Antibes, the Alps and the Esterel Mountains at it's back.

Both Andy and I took lots of photos and even checked out the local art work. Afterwards we continued our venture to Vence which was located about 20 minutes by bus. This smaller town was higher up in the mountains however did not have the same look and feel as St. Paul medieval style. We did some walking around the town however we found a nice church and found a Jesus Christ stationed on a cross with vibrat reddish and orange colours filling the mood of the church.Stone Step walkways cover the whole village

I swore this was the real "Thinker" Sculpture

Stone Arch welcomes the guest into the Village of St. Paul

Another stone walkway with many of local shops open for business

A running Stone Water Foundation in the middle of the St. Paul medieval Village

An Ant's eye view in St. Paul's Village?

Normandy to Nice

After experiencing the chronographic, emotional, heart-touching, mind-blowing, illustrative, breathtaking views of the WWII history in northern regions in Normandy France, Andy and I have continued our adventures from the top of the country to the bottom settling in the French Riverian city of Nice, France. Nice is nearby to two known famous cities of Cannes (International Film Festival) and Monaco (The Formula One Circuit and also a big Tax-free Heaven City). We will be staying here for the next few days checking out the sights, cultures in this region before we move on.

I have to admit that Andy's knowledge of French really has helped us break through the language barrier and have gotten us with some great friendly support from the locals on our journey. For me, some of the basic words that I have learned in Elementary school has help break the ice when needed.

Au revoir!

The Gayest Photos ever?

After my recent humilation from Andy about posting the Gayest picture ever (click here for the picture and story) It was payback time to post picture of Andy and his Gayest picture ever on the west coast of Ireland. After his famous "nude"beach swimming with some member of the Shamrocker tours, I found an opportunity to catch him posing for Sport Illustrated's next swimsuit model of the year...

Click here to view the famous online photo shoot that was completed off the coast of West Ireland...

Little Shop of Horrors

I finally got a chance to post my photograhy work on the famous Hanoian Musical called "Little Shop of Horrors" that I was working on in Nov of 2006. One of my best friend Melissa was one of the "Urchin" ladies and her smoochie picture was something I caught when I was taking pictures at the dress rehearsal.

I was responsible for the light design of the show as lighting design was my speciality when I study theatre in High School and afterwards.

Click here to see The Passionate Traveler's Little Shop of Horror's pictures..

The Rolling Green Shamrocking Troope

Monday:

We left Dublin early in the morning around 8:30 am leaving the hostel that we never actually got much sleep out of (Usally full of Rugby players or recent high school graduates who been screaming all night) and headed out into the countryside in our wonderful yellow shamrocking bus called the "shamrocker". The group of people are listed as follows:

Karen (Guide): she was one of two local people who came with us on the bus. She was responsible for organizing, planning and being the all around general tour guide. She was quite funny and always tells good jokes and keeps everyone happy and in line

Patricia: (Driver) She was one of the other local who came with us as she played the co-tour guide when Karen was busy with other task. "Trish" was very known for her great countryside stories and jokes especially about her amazing abilities driving farming equipment around Ireland and growing up a countryside girl.

Izza: (Nurse from Australia She was the liberator and inspires of the entire whole group that came with us on this tour. She had the amazing gift of compassion, caring and making everyone feel like at home. With her partner Stephanie, they were an amazing women couple that everyone love being with as their smiles, humour and compassion were very contagious.

Stephanie: (Nurse from Australia) "Steph" was Izza's partner and she was a great friend I met as she was full of life, compassion, and happiness. She brought energy to the group that was needed by all.

Roland: (Policeman from Austria) Roland was a well built work out dude who I got a chance to know well as we decided to run for an hour together in the countryside area of Doolin. He was much bigger than me however much thinner as perhaps the Gunniess Beer is finally showing on my belly (Ouch) His love for football and a huge MC Hammer Dancer certainly brought some common activities between us.

Carola: (Physical Therpist from Austria) Carola was Roland's older sister and she was busy taking pictures with her little silver camera and was complaining that she did not have enough memory on her camera to take more pictures. Her english was not very strong so it was hard for me and the other to know her well.

Laura: (Teacher from Australia) Laura was taking a break from teaching part time in London from her Grade 2 classes. She will be quiting her job at the end of June to continuing her travels with the other Australians from this group. This was the chick that Andy really likes hanging out with.

Scary: (ER Paramedic) I got a good chance to talk with Scary many times over the trip as we both talked about ER stuff and medicine. We had this wonderful conversation talking about the different categories how ER paramedics work in Australia and Canada. Perhaps a move back into Medicine?

Blaney: (Backpacker from Australia) Blaney had the biggest thickest accent in the whole group. I swore to god that he was talking from the grrrrrrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeeat highlands of Scotland and he was saying "bloody arse" or "Rack off" or "arvos" or what ever... He was soo difficult to understand that I just smiled and drank beer with him anyways.

Nathan: (Freak from the USA) "Nate" was the biggest anti-social guy I ever met. He would do nothing and when people ask him how he was doing, he would simply say nothing or the word "fine". The most scary part of his is that Laura found him sleeping inside the toilet early in the morning after an extensive night of drinking. Details are still sketchy at this point.

Marla: (unkown occupation from Italy) Marla was another women who came with us but her english was quite broken so it was hard to communicate with her and she had trouble with the rest of the group. All I know that she loves DJ music and Andy's dancing superman body. Sigh...

I know I am missing a couple of others here however I will get them as soon I receive the group email from Shamrock Tours a few days later.

Stay tuned for more from the passionate traveler...

Shamrocking through Ireland

Andy and I have left on a backpacker's tour across the green country with an young hippy organized event put on by a local company called Shamrock tours. This six day trip will take us all the way to the west coast and then heading south follow by the southern tour and back to Dublin. Later, I have posted some wonderful scenic landscape pictures for everyone to see as the views were spectatular. Click here to see the pictures...

Here is their website: http://www.shamrockeradventures.com/

Pictures Around Dublin

Visited several landmarks around Dublin including the Dublin Castle, Dublin Spire and went to the Chirstchurch located in the trendy tourist area of Dublin.

Found myself going to Sunday's morning church service and spend some time talking with God and finding some peace.

Inside View of Christ ChurchExterior View of Christ Church

Dublin's Spire "The Needle"

Dublin's Castle

There are more pictures from the passionate traveler of Dublin posted here...

Guinness Beer

Spending my first few days in Dublin was cool as both Andy and I walked through the town checking out various landmarks and historical structures.

One exciting moment was that we both went to Ireland's famous and number one brewery which was known for producing the dark smooth black shoe polish beer called Guinness.

I had this beer in the past for different occasions especially on St. Patricks day however here in Ireland, St. Patrick's day is everyday and everywhere from north to south and west to east. We can find the beer in almost every pub in a glass or can and it's commonly served to the locals after a hard day in the wheat / grain harvest.

When I tried it for the first time, I was totally "wowsers" as I have never tasted something sooo smooth and good for a beer in my life. Andy and I spend many hours at the brewery learning what make this beer a "stout" and not a lager or an ale. The machinery and the historic timeline of how Guinness became popular today.

Dublin / Belfast

Wowsers...

My first day in Dublin was pretty cool, green countryside, hay fields, potato Farms, Sheep and Dairy cows roaming in the landscape that fills my visual curiosities.

Andy has rented a car which he had to return to Belfast airport as they would charge us an extra 100 pounds if we returned it in Dublin. So right after my flight have landed, we have taken a drive on the best highway of Ireland heading up to the north.

Belfast has shown itself differently than Dublin due to the old political history and the fighting between the Catholics and the Protestants. There are remains of the car bombing and the security that people have implemented to protect themselves when the conflict was really bad.

The deep message remains through a vast amount of art work and murals located on various brick walls around the city. Click here to view the photos of Belfast here...

We had a Guinness beer and traditional irish stew at a local pub before taking the bus back to Dublin. Indeed my cameron friend was right that you have to drink it at room temperature to enjoy the richness and smoothness of the stout.

Took a bus ride back to Dublin and took a frigging two hours to find the hostel that Andy made reservation at. Instead of crossing the river, we ended up wandering around the shopping area for a hour before we decided to ask a police man where the hell are we.

This was my first time spending a night in a hostel. I did not realize that we were going to sleep in the room with 10 other people in a bunk-dormintory style room. Of the showers and the sinks were unisex as well so everything here is 100 percent shared.

A big sleep is needed as a) I am still on Vietnam Time zone and b) I had not had a sleep since I left Vietnam for 2 days...

Angry/negative people can be bad for your brain

Found an interesting read this morning from another Blogger's website talking about Socialogy and happiness..

Click here to read the article:

Heathrow Airport

Wowswers!

What a frigging big airport with sooo many passeningers heading to different lcoations... Once I arrived, I had to staying in two long line ups for security and custom control. The security is really bad as the liquid policies affected everyone and the officers are making everyone take everything out of their bags... What a nice way to see some old gramma's pink underwear or her asthma medication.

The custom officer was kind of a crazy control-freak maniac asking me every question in the book including what my birthday was, what the exact address of my hotel and even better yet, an email corrspondent explaining my route and what my plans were. Guess what? I had none of these so my "yes sir" and "no sir" responses was the successful way out of that airport...

off to ireland and to consume another dread star buck coffee...

No longer in Vietnam...

Well my professional career has ended in Vietnam after a hostile take over of ill-manner, rude, arogent self-centered butt kissing consultant has stolen my position at the International School in Hanoi. I am not going to comment on what happen or dwell into this as this experience was a chapter in my life and it's time to move on.

I am currently writing this blog entry at the back of a newlink magazine / newspaper shop in the Hong Kong airport waiting for my flight to London, England. I have to admit it's quite tricky to compose this blog since the internet is Cantanonese and I have no clue what i am clicking on. All I know that the Dell keyboard has english letter which allows me to speak my mind as I leave the Asian continent in a few hours.

For those who don't know, I want to apologize for not revealing the truth about my departure from Hanoi and heading back to Canada as I had to find a easy solution to terminate my contract with the International School without any eye-raising from the dreaded management that been controlling my life for the last 6 months.

I am leaving Vietnam to spend 3-4 months with my best friend from Canada to do a worldly tour starting in Ireland and making my way through Europe and traveling back into Asia. We have plans to do WWII history, touch africa, visit the middle east (not Iraq) and climb in the Himalayas and visit the forbidden city of Lhasa, Tibet.

Please do come back and check this blog as many pictures and compositions will be posted for everyone to see.

Here we go!!... time to grab a star bucks now... it's been 6 months.

Wowsers!