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146 days ago
After two years away I'm visiting Canada for 3 weeks: Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and now Vancouver. It's been a great trip visting with family and friends all over this wonderful country. Coming back reminds me of how different a place I now live. It was really good to see everyone. In Toronto Jet and Jules put up with me for more than a week and were even nice enough to share their 1st year anniversary dinner with me! On our first night Jethro and I enjoyed a hot tub with Rob and I was able to hangout with the family on a couple more occasions. Alexandra and Jaeger - my apologies for blabbing about financial stuff through the whole dinner! I guess Rob's and my excuse is we see each other so seldom these days that when we do connect we jump right into our own stuff... I got to visit Mari-Claire and her growing family in Guelph. We had a couple of great meals with Sarah and her new husband and I was able to see Rob Gomes and Susi too. Unfortunately I couldn't see as much of Liam ...
589 days ago
Just back from my first trip to South America. I met up with two great friends, Chris Brown and Robert Brunet. Chris is working as Administrative Consul at the Canadian Embassy in Caracas. Rob was able to sneak away from a busy family life for two wonderful weeks in Venezuela and Peru. Our trip began with getting to know a bit about Caracas, as our host Chris showed us around the city and we visited several beaches. Caracas is apparently one of the most dangerous cities in the world. This is driven by lots of violent crime occurring is specific barrio areas; about 200 people get killed each weekend. We then visited the eastern part of Venezuela - the Orinoco River Delta area. We explored many tributaries over a 3 day period, saw thousands of birds, chased dolphins, gawked at monkeys and fished for piranha. After a pit stop back in Caracas, we flew through Lima and on to Cusco, the ancient centre of the Incan Empire. At 10,000 feet Cusco is a fascinating and ...
826 days ago
Well, the second part of my trip to Canada was wonderful and scary. I had just returned to Toronto from a great few weeks in Montreal and Ottawa when we found out my father had to have an emergency operation. All went well and we ended up having a rare family time with Chris and Tara coming from Melbourne and Kelowna. Dad was very patient with us as we got in the way, provided unneeded advice and otherwise distracted him from his more important concerns! My apologies to people in Toronto that I was hoping to visit and/or reconnect with; next time we'll get better caught up and everyone will have more stories to tell! I finished up my Canadian travels with 2 weeks in Vancouver visiting with Diane and Steve. Many thanks Stell, for your patience as I messed up your apartment and ate all your food! We were able to do a working road trip around the southern Gulf islands and onto Vancouver Island. We spent several wonderful days on Salt Spring Island where my mad friend Stevie joined ...
877 days ago
It's been a long time since my last update; several people have asked why: the short answer is laziness; the slightly less short answer - and hopefully more accurate - is I've been living in Bangkok for a year and have been mostly sedentary; and I view this as a travel blog, with the emphasis on "travel". So I've been travelling in beautiful Canada for the last month, with one more to go before heading back to Bangkok. Reverse Culture Shock? Definitely: mostly around the wide open spaces (and very quiet..) different interactions between people (lots of good bickering) and the most wonderful, sweet and fresh air.... Oh yes, 9pm and still light in the sky is wonderful too. So it's been a whirlwind so far and amazing to get to catch up with so many friendly faces. It is deeply touching to be remembered, especially by the kids who, were wonderfully patient with their Uncle Bruce. My embarrassed apologies to Nelson, Roger and John for my humiliating golf game; but it ...
1086 days ago
Thailand has more than its fair share of holidays. The last two weekends were the King's Birthday and Constitution Day. Nattiya and I did two great road trips: the first to Chiang Mai/Chiang Rai and the second to her family home in Ratchaburi - about an hour west of Bangkok. Lots of photos for anyone who has the patience...
