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Québlog

   Hello all three of you and welcome to the second instalment of our Québec City vacation blog.  I guess it is my turn to fill you in on what we have been up to since DawnO’s last post.  First of all I feel a burning desire to explain something to you.  I am NOT a Celine Dion fan.  My love for her could not move mountains.  If she decides to call it quits tomorrow I am quite certain that my heart will go on.  However, I do appreciate the fact that she is a world class talent and respect her enough to sit on the side of a grassy hill and listen to her sing a tune for free.  Consider the matter clarified.

  The day after the concert we decided to find a tennis court to play on.  If you can believe it we actually brought luggage that we had to check (roller blades, tennis rackets, books).  We thought it would be a good idea to walk to Laval University, play tennis, and then take the bus back home.  It didn’t look too unreasonable on the map… we need to smarten up.  After DawnO kicked my tired ass all over the court we headed out for crépes.
  Yesterday DawnO planned a superdate which involved a trip to the Île d’Orléans.  It’s an island located in the mouth of the St. Lawrence river that is connected by a bridge to Québec City.  We rented bikes and rode around the island stopping at cool shops and fruit stands along the way.  Afterwards we headed back to town for some pretty good Nachos.  
  Last night we tried to get into the “free” Cirque du Soleil performance but we were foiled because we were standing in the family line.  Also, most people had tickets that were given to them by the hotels they were staying at.  Once they let the ticket holders in you have a small chance of getting any leftover seats.  Since we did not have any children with us in the family line, we were hooped.  We ended up going to the waterfront to watch the image mill.  It’s a film the city projects on to the mill across the water.  They have speakers set up all along the docks where people can sit and watch the show.  It was pretty amazing how they used the entire mill to tell their story.
  Anyway, on to the pictures.  We’ll blog again soon!

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It’s All Coming Back To Me Now

I love Quebec City this time just as much as I loved it 11 years ago.  Since my first visit here I have been struggling to put into words the magical feeling that this city evokes.  It’s the same feeling that I encountered when I visited Prague, London, and Edinburg.
Finally today I think I put my finger on it.  I was running on the Plains of Abraham this morning and noticed banners on all of the lamp posts.  Each post had 2 messages: one historical, and a related modern message.  The one that caught my attention had, on the left, a drawing of a cannon and the word ‘Battles’, while on the right, a depiction of the bandstand where they play live outdoor concerts with the message ‘Harmony’.
I think that the magic comes from this contrast of old and new.  This city (like the ones listed above and many others) is a canvas of centuries old architecture with a modern overlay.  It is a place where we see a McDonalds housed in a stone building, a busker stand in front of the Chateau Frontenac, and a light show broadcast on the face of an old mill.  It is not unusual to hear the tolling of church bells and the base beat from a club on the same block.  Cars patiently wait behind horse drawn carriages at stoplights hung on the archways of the old city wall.  We can feel the ghosts of where we came from as we create our futures.

Don’t let the stereotypes sway you; Quebec City is an easy place to travel.  It is a ‘walking city’, with much of the tourist draw in an area that can be manoeuvred on foot.  Moreover, the tourism industry of Quebec knows how to woo a visiter.  The old town area is packed with art galleries, artesian booths, gelato stands, street performers, benches with views, and essentially anything else one may desire. There are free events abound: outdoor concerts, Cirque de Soleil shows, and fireworks.

The language ‘barrier’ is a misnomer.  RobO and I have been speaking an awkward kind of Spanglish – too much ‘si’ in place of ‘oui’.  We’re like parents who holler out the name of every child before finding the right one.  “Hello… Hola… Bonjour”.  The people we’ve met have been accepting and accommodating, replying in whatever language we offer.

Yesterday was our first full day to explore.  We explored the oldtown around our condo (a wonderful studio suite right beside the Chateau Frontenac with (drumroll please) a Murphy bed!!), then made our way to the Plains of Abraham, rollerblades in tow.  This was the catalyst for this whole trip; I ‘bucket listed’ for Rob to experience this setting.  Under the proud and watchful eye of this old battleground, the city has laid a large track only for rollerbladers.  After working up an appetite, we headed for fresh poutine, followed by refreshing gelato.  Our evening included more city exploration and finished with an exclamation point: listening to Celine Dion’s outdoor concert from a grassy hill beside the Citadel.  (Note: the concert was not free for those in attendance, just for the thousand-odd group of us who sat one hill over!)

I’ll let RobO fill you in on today’s events in the next blog as this is getting rather long. So here’s some pictures!!

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So long, Nepal

We are gearing up for our 24+ hours of flights home but we thought we’d do one last blog to show some more pictures of our time here. We hope you have enjoyed reading robodawno as much as we’ve enjoyed writing it. Our next blog will come to you in mid-July from Quebec City! It’s time to travel a little closer to home.

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Temples and Shrines

We’ve enjoyed the last couple of days around the Kathmandu valley. Yesterday after the Holi excitement died down we did a walking tour of Kathmandu. It is amazing to go down all of the little alleyway streets and run into so many thousand year old temples!
Today we ventured on the local bus to a neighbouring city called Bhaktapur. It is a medieval city that is filled with even more ancient stupas. What drew me to going there is a place called ‘Potter’s Square’ where they make, dry, fire, and sell pottery.
From what we have seen, the Nepalese people live simple, peaceful, and happy lives.

I’ll include lots of photos, including some of our more artsy shots from the past couple of days. Enjoy!

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Holi Moly

We have arrived in Kathmandu, the capital city of Nepal. As soon as we arrived we ran into our nemesis that we made in Pokhara, so we switched guest houses. For more info you can ask us about it when we are home. This morning we got our Indian visas handed in after quite a frustrating process that frankly made us never want to return to India, ever. But enough of the bad stuff, and on to the positive.
Today is Holi, the national celebration of Spring! People flock to the streets to throw water and different coloured powder all over each other and shout “Happy Holi!”
DawnO was fortunate not to get bombed but I took it in the face a few times.
We also took a taxi to Swayambhunath which is a Bhuddhist temple that sits on top of a large hill that overlooks the entire city. This “monkey temple” has a lot of beautiful buildings that I’m sure have a lot of interesting and important history, but I like my blogs like I like my reading books… full of pictures.

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Chitwan National Park – Safari x3

Over the past 2 days we have done 3 different types of safaris: by jeep, by canoe, and on elephant! There were definitely benefits to each of the methods.
By jeep we were able to go deep into the park and had the luck to see a leopard! We also saw numerous rhinos, 4 different types of deer, wild boars, peacocks, and had a brief visit to the crocodile breeding center, where we saw baby crocs! The downfall of the jeep was when it started monsoon raining and hailing and we had an hour’s drive in the open top jeep to get back. Did I mention we broke down too? If you come here (and you should), we would recommend a half day in the jeep.
This morning we went by canoe. We saw numerous crocs in the wild, as well as many different birds. We ended at the elephant breeding center, where we saw a 15 day old baby elephant and numerous other little guys. I could have stayed there watching them all day. The cutest was watching the new baby learning how to use it’s trunk – much like the first time a human baby uses pincher grasp for Cheerios.
This afternoon we did an elephant back safari. OK, I guess there weren’t really any benefits to this. It is really uncomfortable! But an experience none the less.

We have 1 more day to explore Chitwan, then on Sunday we’re headed to Kathmandu for our last few days.

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Chitwan National Park – Elephant Bath Time

We had an eventful morning that made the top 5 experiences of our lives. Today we bathed with an elephant. I went first and DawnO went next. What a cool experience and cost us each $1.25. You can’t even buy a decent slushie for that back home. We were the first ones there to bathe her so we avoided the huge crowds that eventually form. Afterwards we even got to feed her some bananas. We may go again tomorrow! I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves.
Ps- Her name is Myah

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Never a dull moment

So what do a couple of sore legged Canadians do the day after finishing a trek in the Himalayas? They go paragliding and rent a canoe to row around the lake. Throw in some amazing Indian cuisine and you have yourself a perfect day. Awesome.

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Poon Hill Trek

Hello all,
We have emerged from our trek and can once again blog!
We had a great time during our trek through the mountains. With our hired “expert”, Lok Raj, we got to see some pretty amazing things and I (RobO) got to give him my ridiculously large backpack to carry the whole way. Too bad we can’t hire him for the rest of our trip.
Highlights include: bamboo forests, seeing the mountain range as the sun rose, and spectacular views from each guest house. As for the food, it was pretty great. Dal baht is quite good after all, especially after a long day of climbing stone steps. I know what you’re thinking… Weren’t we supposed to be gone for 9 days? Well, unfortunately we had to cut the trek a bit short to sort out Indian visa issues which have now been resolved. We’re looking forward to the rest of our trip which will include the bathing of elephants and paragliding! For now enjoy the pics we were fortunate to capture.

P.S. Terry WTF if you’re reading this, I’m happy to report that marathon training is back on due to 5 days of alternating stairs and eccentric squats, with a 35 lb pack on! -DawnO

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Nep-blog

We love Pokhara. It’s kind of like a mix between Banff and Cuba, as weird as that seems. We were right at home in the lakeside area, where there are lots of outdoor adventure shops and great little cafes.
We rented bikes today and cycled to a Tibetan settlement just outside of town. We had an amazing lunch right next to a suspension bridge. We had the opportunity to listen in on the Tibetan monks chanting in their temple. We also secured our porter and plans for our trek that starts tomorrow.
RobO is being a champ at catching up on his sleep and curry consumption.

We likely won’t be able to blog for the next 9 days as we’ll be trekking in the Himalayas. But when we do blog, it’s gonna be good!!