World Price Index - 1st Edition

On our travels we have found that some items are very cheap while some are expensive. Here is a snapshot from the first half of our journey.

Beer:

• China: $0.60 (650mL)
• Nepal: $2-5 (650mL)
• Singapore: $5 (355mL)
• Thailand: $1 (650mL)
• Egypt: $2 (500mL) - Hard to find in stores

Taxis:

• China: $1.40 for 3km, $0.40 for each extra km
• Malaysia: $20 for 90 minute ride
• Egypt: $40 for the whole day or about $1-$2 for small trips (gas costs ~$0.20/L)

Food:

• Street breakfast in China: $0.30 pp (eggish thing)
• Peeking duck in Beijing tourist trap: $15 pp
• Pad Thai on the streets of Bangkok: $0.85
• Half pinapple in the streets of Bangkok: $0.30

Hotels:

• Nepal on trek: $2/night
• Egypt: $4-$10 per night

Trains:

• Ovenight sleeper from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur (1st class) - $80
• Ovenight sleeper from Kuala Lumpur to Malaysia Border (2st class) - $15
• 10 hour daytime ride in Thailand (2nd class, no AC) - $10
• Ovenight sleeper from Islands to Bangkok (1st class) - $30

Misc:

• Camel in Egypt: $2,000
• Porter to carry 90kg pole in Nepal: $10/day
• Rolex on the streets of Hurghada: $14
• Wendy: 120 Camels

Stay tuned for another edition!

Egypt

Hi all - sorry, this post is epically long so get comfortable and go to the bathroom if need be as there will be no intermission.

Egypt is shockingly different than anywhere we've been yet! Everyone wants to sell you anything, or pretend to sell you something and then walk off with your money, you staning empty handed. Luckly we haven't been left empty handed yet, well almost but not quite. At least we got some pictures.

One great thing about Egypt is the rich history. Everything you see here is from 4000 BC (and is still standing, with the original paint still showing) up to about 300 AD. It is just amazing to walk through the ruins of tombs, temples, and pyramids that were standing so long ago.

June 17th - Pyramids

Sight 1: Dashur about 40 km south of Cairo.

Phil and the Bent Pyramid.

Melissa and the Red Pyramid

We saw the Bent Pyramid and the Red Pyramid which were created around 2500 BC. We got to go right inside the Red Pyramid and entered the Red Pyramid by climbing up 125 really steep stone steps and then descending a 63 meter long and steep passage way that opened up into two antechambers (12 meters and 15 meters high) and then a burial chamber. The passage way was a very tiny opening, and we think it was just larger than a 1 meter square. I had to climb down the steep embankment bending over at my waist, and for days all of our legs were sore from the climb into the pyramid. It was quite an experience climbing down into the pyramid and into a burial chamber. This pyramid did not have any paintings, or hieroglyphics carved on the inside, it was just very well constructed rocks. We were amazed by the precision that they built the pyramid. Every single rock was a perfect rectangle with perfect corners and placed perfectly into place beside the adjacent stone.

Sight 2: Giza Plateau - Situated on the west bank of the Nile River, just west of downtown Cairo and is a suburb of Cairo.

Pyramid of Khafre.

Phil and Wendy (Waterloo classmate) riding a camel.

Great Pyramid of Khfu

We saw the 3 great pyramids in Giza, all situated on the Giza Plateau and were mind blowing. The city of Giza is situated around the pyramids, and it is perplexing to see a bustling city so close to the acient pyramids. We saw the largest pyramid in Egypt (the Great Pyramid of Khfu), stands a majestic 146 meters in height (but has eroded by 9 meters) and was completed in 2570 BC. We also saw the Pyramid of Khafre, which stands 136 meters in height and still has a smooth limestone cap on the top. The smallest was the Pyramid of Menkaure, originally 66.5 meters high, has eroded to 62 meters. At the Giza Plateau we also got to see the Sphinx, which was carved from the stone that lead to the Pyramid of Khafre. After walking around in the blazing desert heat for 6 hours exploring the pyramids, we headed back to our hostel at about 5:30pm for a much needed rest.

June 18th - Egyptian Museum

The next morning, we woke up with only 2 goals in mind. The first being to explore The Egyptian Museum and to catch a train to our next destination. And we accomplished the two with great success. The museum contains over 120, 000 pieces from every period throughout Egyptian history and unfortunately has little organization. Egyptian artifacts are strewn everywhere throughout the entire building, on shelves, on the floor, in the corners, anywhere where the curators could place an item, an item was there, so it was like you had explore the museums cracks and corners to find the good stuff. For this reason, we spent 6 hours exploring the museum. It was an amazing museum, and the highlights include:

• Gray granite sphinxes. They are more human like than the sphinx at Giza

• The pink granite statue of Hatshepsut. She was the first female Pharaoh (ruler).

• Statues that were constructed during the Roman rule over Egypt. One statue had a Pharaoh headdress on, but had Greek facial features and curly hair. Many of the statues during this time had great Greek influence, and did not resemble at all any other period in Egypt.

• A sandstone panel that had engravings in three different languages. Hieroglyphics (Egyptian language), demotic (the "popular script") and Greek (official language of the rulers at the time)

• Tutankhamun galleries. He was a pharaoh who ruled for only 9 years, but is the only tomb that was found with all of his treasures (Every tomb of other pharaohs had been robbed).

• Tutankhamun's death mask. Made of solid gold, weighing 11kg.

• Tutankhamun's golden sarcophagi. Made of solid gold, weighing 110 kg.

• Royal Mummy Room. We got to see 11 actual mummies that were found in various tombs around Egypt. The mummies date from 1650 BC to 945 BC. This was a creepy experience, seeing a person that was alive thousands of years ago. The mummies still looked exactly like people, with hair, skin, teeth, and fingernails. They just looked dry like a raisin, which I guess is for good measures and has allowed them to survive for so long.

That evening we hopped onto an overnight train to take us south to the city of Aswan, which is situated on the banks of the Nile River. After a 15 hour train ride (it was supposed to be 12 hours), we arrived in Aswan at about 12:30pm. From there we went directly to the docks in Aswan to search out a felucca.

Our fleucca resting on the west bank of the Nile.

A felucca is a traditional canvas-sailed boats found on the Nile, and for tourists there are hundreds of boats that you can hire to take you for a 1 to 4 day trip down the Nile (towards Cairo). After about 1.5 hours of haggling with various captains, we hired a felucca for one evening. We sailed for about 4 hours, and then stopped for dinner along the bank of an island. The rest of the evening, we watched other boats sail by and the sun set. It was very relaxing being on a sail boat and the starkness of the green lushness that surround the Nile bank and the uninhabitable desert only hundreds of meters away was quite the sight. Unfortunately, Graeme got quite sick that evening, possible from the food that we ate on the boat, followed by Neil and myself the next day. We were only on the boat for the afternoon of June 18th and disembarked after breakfast on the 19th at 7am. That morning we hopped into a prearranged taxi to take us to Luxor, about 2 hours north of Aswan. But it took us about 4 hours to get there, because every tourist that travels between Aswan and Luxor in taxi or tour bus has to travel in a police caravan. This has been in place for the past 10 years, due to a single terrorist event that occurred. Nowadays it is thought to be more of a money grab for the government, since the caravan is underarmed to deal with a situation if it came up (too many tourists), and the caravan rides at the same time everyday, making it easy for the terrorists to pick off the tourists. We had a tourist police ride in our taxi with an automatic gun. I guess that makes the tourists feel more safe?? Oh well, we made it through the desert with no problems and arrived safely in Luxor on the afternoon of June 20th.

June 20th - Luxor

The 20th was spent as a recovery day, as Graeme, Neil and I were under the weather. Our hostel had air conditioned rooms, which were a blessing as it got up to 42 C that day!
We were all recovered enough by the morning of the 21st to go on a guided tour of three tourist sights that day. We ventured to the Valley of the Kings, the Temple of Hatshepsut and the Colossi of Memnon. The Valley of the Kings is situated on the west bank of Luxor, and is in the desert. This is where the Egyptians buried the pharaohs once the passed on. We got to walk into three of the tombs in the valley, and this was amazing. In the tombs, there was beautiful carvings of hieroglyphics, pictures of the pharaoh and other Egyptian scenes. The original paint that was used was still visible, and in one of the tombs, the paint seemed like the walls were painted yesterday. From there we went to the Temple of Hatshepsut.

Temple of Hatshepsut

Ruins of a statue of Hatshepsut.

Row of columns supporting the third level of the Temple of Hatshepsut.

She was the first female that became a pharaoh for 15 years until 1458 BC. The temple was three stories and had a massive ramp that led up to the third story.

Finally, we went to see the Colossi of Memnon, which is a massive pair of statues 18 meters in height and at one time was the grand entrance to a large temple. But now they house many pigeons. Go figure.

Colossi of Memnon

June 22nd - Luxor

Our final day in (June 22nd) Luxor was spent waking up really early 4:50am for the best activity that we have done in Egypt yet, hot air ballooning. We went for a 40 minute ride over the west side of Luxor, and it was fantastic. We got to see the sun rise over the city and the Nile, and we could see many of the sights that we ventured to yesterday. One of the most interesting things was that the Egyptians have houses that don't have roofs on many parts of their houses, so as we were floating over the city at 6 in the morning, we were peering down on people sleeping. Our balloon covered the most out of all the balloons in the sky (about 12 balloons in total), and for the entire time we had a support vehicle following us on the ground full of crew to help us land. As we were coming down to land, we were curious as to where we would touch down. There was farmers fields all around, except for one paved single lane road. And to much of our amazement, we touched down nicely in the very centre of the road. It was a great experience and we have lots of photos.

Sunrise over the Nile Valley.

Balloons with Valley of Kings in the background.

Balloons fill the sky at dawn over the Nile Valley.

Burst of flame filling up our red balloon.

The final sight that we saw in Luxor was the Temple of Karnak. We spent about 3 hours exploring the ruins here. It is a huge sight of temples, stones, pillars, walls that over a period of over 1000 years, each pharaoh added to its elegance.

Graeme plays tour guide while Wendy looks on with obvious enthusiasm...Phil poses like a Monkey.

Exploring the Temple of Karnak...and maybe having a little fun as well.

Old paint on the roof...but what does it mean?

Neil Almighty!

Melissa plays in the magical Egyptian light beam.

It's a big statue thing.

June 23rd - Hurghada (Red Sea)

After our time in Luxor, we headed to the Red Sea to see its abundant sea life with our own eyes. We were thankful for the cool sea breeze which made the high-thirties temperatures seem a little cooler. We spent two days diving and the Red Sea is all that it is made up to be. We were most impressed by the clarity of the water, the diversity to sea life and beautiful corals!

June 26th - off to Nairobi

Today we depart from Hurghada by bus to Cairo from where we will fly to Nairobi overnight where our adventure continues!

Thailand - Koh Phangan & Bangkok

Koh Phangan, Thailand - June 10 -14

The journey to get to our next destination, Koh Phangan Thailand, involved many modes of transportation... And it shows our dedication to the beaches. It all started at the Perhentian Islands, Malaysia with:

8:30am, Ferry – 30 minutes: A ferry to the main land.

My hair going crazy on the ferry.

9:00am, Taxi – 2 hours: A taxi ride to a city on the eastern side of Malaysia to the Thai-Malaysia boarder.

11:00am,Walking – 20 minutes: Walking across the bridge into Thailand and continuing the walk to the train station in Sungai Kolok. Amazingly they let Phil into their country!!

12:30pm,Train – 10 hours: We then hopped onto a train to take us to Surat Thani,. On paper, the ride was supposed to take about 10 hours and get us to Surat Thani by 9:04pm. However, as we have found out, trains never keep to a schedule and we left 1 hour late and arrived about 2 hours late. However, the train ride was quite enjoyable. It had reasonably comfortable chairs and was an open air car that allowed for pleasant viewing of beautiful landscape found along the east coast of Thailand.



Our open air train ride.

View of the Malaysian country side from the train.


10:50pm, Taxi – 10 minutes: Once we got off of the train, we rushed to catch an other taxi to race to the night ferry terminal. The last night ferry that would take us to the island that left at 11pm, but since we got off of the train at 10:50pm, it was slim to nothing that we would make it. But we tried anyways., to no luck, and had to stay the evening in a hostel.




7:15am, Taxi – 15 minutes: Arising early, we hopped into a taxi that took us to a bus terminal, so that we could get on a large tourist bus to herd us like cattle the ferry terminal.




8:30am, Bus – 1 hour: The bus ride was much longer than expected, as the day ferry does not leave from the same place as the night ferry. It took 1 hour to get to the ferry terminal, on a bus that had 5 seats across, where there was only space for 4... It was mighty squishy!




9:30am, Ferry – 3 hours: We then boarded the ferry that would take us to Koh Phangan, and was stuffed to the brim with tourists, and it looked like spring break in Cancun with all the young people abord. The best part of the ferry was the yummy ham sandwiches that we purchased, and the epic nap that I had.




1:00pm, Taxi – 20 minutes: One last taxi to go. We decided to stay on a beach located on the west side of the island, so once again, we hopped into a taxi and were dropped off in paradise... White sand beach, palm trees with coconuts, hammocks, and blue ocean.

And this only took us 29 hours to island hop!! For the next five days, we would call this home, where the number of hammocks exceeded the number of tourists, and the most strenuous activity was determining if the coconut above our heads (as we were lying in a hammock) would fall on us. But worst of all, the hardest decision to be made was if we should continue napping in a hammock, or get up, walk 20 meters to the beach and have a massage.

Our coconut conteplation hammock.

Enjoying the sunset on the beach.

So maybe contemplating coconuts wasn't the most strenuous thing we did... We actually finished our Advanced Open Water Diving certification in Kho Phanang. This consisted of 3 more dives, 2 of which were amazing and the last being an experience. We did 2 dives at a sight called Sail Rock, just north of Koh Phangan and it was beautiful, especially since the visibility was about 25 meters. There were tons of fish, but the most memorable fish were a huge grupper that was about as long as my arm span and a tail as big as my torso, and a school of barracudas who were 4 feet long and as thick as my leg. The unnerving part was that 4 of them swam within 5 feet of me. Luckily I put on my happy face and did not aggregate them. I guess my cunning smile won over their hearts! On the second dive at Sail Rock, we got to swim through the chimney. This was a rock formation that was hollowed out like a chimney (hence the name...) but had a hole throughout the formation about 5 feet in diameter. You could enter it at 18 meters and exit it at 12 meters and the sea life in the chimney was amazing, you just had to be careful of the sea urchins (spiky animals that cling to the walls) covering the inside of the formation. The third dive, as was stated before, was an experience. It is mandatory to do complete a navigation dive in which you use a compass to get you from point A to point B. We did this dive off of the beach where we were staying, and it was a perfect place to do a navigation dive, and only a navigation dive... The visibility was a staggering 2 meters, so there was no way that we could cheat at this dive. We had to swim in a 15 meter square, starting at our instructor and ending at our instructor. If you were off even the slightest bit, there was no way that you could find the instructor again. Luckily we all succeed and are now all Advanced Divers (though I don't feel like one).

Phil looks strangly like a sea otter eating a sea urchin.

Preparing to dive!

The rest of our time in Koh Phanang was spent eating Pad Thai (I LOVE Pad Thai! And ate it at least once a day) or Thai curry, lounging in our hammocks, drinking the “Bucket” on the beach, watching EuroCup 2008, having oil massages on the beach, renting a scooter to drive around the island (Only Phil and Neil did this... And they had quite the adventure, but survived in one piece) and in general having a jolly good time!

Drinking the Bucket. A concoction of Coke, Red Bull and local whiskey.

It seems that Neil doesn't get enough to eat!

Bangkok, Thailand - June 15 & 16

We left the beaches of Koh Phanang on a ferry to catch (you guessed it, our favourite mode of transportation) a night train to Bangkok. And once again, our train was delayed in leaving and late in arriving, but this time we were expecting nothing other than tardiness. Our time in Bangkok was short, but we were all waiting eagerly to arrive, because we were to meet up with the one and only traveling duo: Ashley and Julie! (For those of you who have no idea who they are, here's the low down... My (Melissa's) high school friends who have been traveling for the past 6 months in Fiji, Australia, NZ & South East Asia) Our adventures started early in Bangkok... Right when we stepped off of the train. We needed to grab a taxi to our hostel, which wasn't too far from the station. Since it was a short ride we were directed to a Tuck-tuck. I had no idea what this sort of contraption was before I stepped foot in South East Asia, but it is a common mode of transportation here. It is a small, 3-wheeled vehicle that can sit 2 people comfortably, and 3 kind of squished. But of course all 4 of us piled into the vehicle, along with all of our bags and had the squishiest ride of all. Apart from feelings of claustrophobia, we arrived safely to the hostel.

We met up with Ashely and Julie that afternoon and had a grand time. The major goal of the evening being to have some convocation drinks to celebrate our graduation, since our convocation ceremony (you know, the one when you walk across the stage to get your diploma) was occurring that day, back in the city of Waterloo. Unfortunately we couldn't attend physically, but we were there mentally... At least for the celebration part. That evening consisted of cheap street food, cheap beer from 7/11, margaritas, and more beer... Quite an adventurous night. Details may be reveled at a later time.

Yes, that is Ashley & Julie in the picture!

It was fantastic that we could spend 2 days with Ashley and Julie in a far away land. It was great to share those experiences and fun times with you guys!

Our time in Bangkok was short lived, and we did not get to see much of the city, but good times were had by all. Now it's a 10 hour over night air plane ride to Cairo Egypt that is next on our plates!

Malaysia

We took an overnight train from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. We opted to travel in first class on the train which gave us two cabins, each with two beds and a bathroom including a shower. All the personnel on the train wore railway uniforms however our cabin attendant was dressed like a rock star. He had the rock star sunglasses, a popped collar and a gem-studded belt which made me laugh a little. Arriving in KL at 7am, we made our way to the hostel then got tickets to go up to the skybridge of the Petronas Towers. For the rest of the morning we visited the KL Aquarium. On our second day we slept in and worked out scuba arrangements for the Perhentians. We then walked around for a few hours and devided to visit the KL Bird Park. As soon as we went through the gate, a few of the birds took a liking to Neil's shoes. After some time in the park, a downpour started which trapped us a 5 minute run from the exit. We waited a little for the rain to stop but when it kept strong, we decided to run and get out. In hindsight, the running was useless. We were soaked in the first minute and any rain after that did not matter!

Phil's epic breakfast... I believe that it is bigger than him!

The Petronas Towers.

Mmmm, I love shoelaces!

The highlight of our Malaysia experience has been learning to scuba dive in the Perhentian islands. We arrived took an overnight train from KL to the north of Malaysia then took an hour-long taxi ride to a town on the coast. A 30 minute fast-boat ride then brought us to the Perhentians. The 18 hour trip from Kuala Lumpur to the island cost us about $30 each including the sleeper train, 1 hour taxi and ferry.

When we arrived, the owner of the dive shop who we had spoken to the previous day greeted us on the beach. We had decided earlier that we wanted to do the PADI Open Water Diver course. The course takes 4 days and afterwards we would be certified divers. The whole experience was great. In out 4 days we had 2 shallow dives for practicing skills then 4 deeper dives, the deepest to 17m. After our course, we decided we like it so much that we stayed another day to do a deep dive and a wreck dive. We plan on continuing our diving adventures in Thailand and in the Red Sea.

The Perhentian Islands.

Our dive centre - Turtle Bay Divers

Diving facts about Neil:

• Neil is an air breathing machine, he would typically breathe one third more air than the rest of us.
  
• Neil is a buoyancy monster. He is the skinniest and should require very little extra weight but it turns out he needed more than anyone else.
  
• Neil's fins were as long as Melissa's legs.
  Wetsuits don't come in Neil's size. His was loose and baggy.
  
• Neil is incapable of balancing on the floor of the sea. He would slowly drift and fall.
  

Singapore

Yes, I know... It's been a long time since we've updated our blog. We just wanted to keep you guys on your toes, eagerly waiting to get more tales. So here it begins again.

We arrived in Singapore on the evening of May 31 and what a shocking difference from Nepal. We were used to broken down cars, streets that were not wide enough for the traffic, cows in the street, traffic signals that were not obeyed, traffic lanes that were recommendations and just general craziness. Singapore and Nepal are like black and white, different in all respects. It was a great introduction to get off of the airplane, walk out to the taxi stand, climb into a brand new taxi (that had leather seats and seat belts! WOW!) and drive down a street lined with palm trees. The driver even used turn signals, what a luxury. And I didn't even have white knuckles once during the trip!

Our time was short and sweet in Singapore. Arriving late on May 31st and leaving the evening of June 2nd. I'll try to keep this entry short and sweet as well. :)

May 31st

We arrived quite late and had no idea what to do, until we read that there was a 24 hour shopping mall in close vicinity. We decided to explore the mall and were quite surprised to the amount of people who shop at midnight! The mall had everything under the sun for sale and it seemed like the entire city of Singapore was shopping that evening.

June 1st

The next day we decided to do some more touristy things, like a Bumboat tour through the river in Singapore. The ride was highly recommended by fellow tourists, so I thought that we'd give it a try. When the boat pulled up to the dock, it was much more run down that we'd expected, but I guess that it's OK. It made it more authentic. However, the kicker was that there actually wasn't a guide on a microphone informing us about the sights of the city. Instead there was a boom box and the driver hit "Play" and a recording of someone blared at us during the ride, accompanied by music and sound effect! In all, it was a little disappointing, but life goes on.

Our Bumboat river tour boat.

After that we strolled through China town and had a fantastic lunch and had the MOST AMAZING 1 dollar ice creams from a street vendor. There were many flavours to choose from and then you had to decide what the ice cream delivery mechanism would be... Wafer cookies or bread (that was pink, green and white coloured). I definitely preferred the bread!

The very tasty ice cream bread snack!

That evening we went to the most amazing zoo. It was called the Night Safari and in this zoo, the animals are not caged in, but there are moats around them to keep them in. So the only thing separating you and the hyenas, lions, elephants, rhinos is open space, and (hopefully deep enough) moat! It really gave the illusion that you are strolling through the animals territory. It was interesting to see nocturnal animals in a zoo and they were very active. My favourite was the elephants, and the rhinos. -- Check it out: http://www.nightsafari.com.sg/ --

Dinner after the Night Safari was at a place that used to be a convent,
but turned to night club and restaurants.

June 2nd


We started this day by heading over to the Botanical Gardens to have a look at a great park. The highlight of this garden was the Orchid Garden that was there. Thousands of beautiful orchids, many of them were award winning. Graeme was in his bliss, as he loves to take pictures of flowers, and here there were many to shoot! There will be some fantastic desktop images for your computer from the hundreds of photos that Graeme took.






From there we ventured to the hugest tourist trap around, Sentosa Island. It is an island that is just south of the city, and has lots of entertainment, beaches, restaurants, golf courses and resorts. We took the express monorail from the mainland which was pretty cheap, but it looked more like a slug chugging along the track, so we named it the "Sentosa Slug". The only activity that we did on the island was the luge. A 650 meter long track that you rode down on a plastic sled that has wheels under it and a breaking system (breaks engaged when you pulled back on the handles). We thought that it would not be overly exciting, since all the pictures we saw were of small children riding down. However, we were mistaken! It was intense and you got going pretty fast. I even got my sled onto 2 wheels as I screamed around a hairpin corner. It was an exhilarating ride, wind blowing through your hair, rocketing down the hill. Luging was enjoyed by all! From there we walked around part of the island, along the beach, looking for the cheapest beer and were pleasantly surprised to find a happy hour with reasonably cheap beer ($4.5 Singapore dollars per beer = $3.40 Canadian dollars) compared to other locations on the island. This cheap beer is still outrageously expensive for Asia! What happend to the 50 cent beer we could get in China?!?

The Sentosa Slug

A chairlift ride on the island

Beer at happy hour (don't worry... We had the beer after we went luging!)

Mentally preparing for the luge

The last activity that we did before leaving Singapore was visiting the Tiger brewery. It wasn't actually the brewery, just another tourist trap which included a video history of the beer, a 3D video of how Tiger beer is made (we got to wear those funky glasses) and beer tasting at the end from a -2 C beer tap. The videos were quite cheesy and at times a little inappropriate... But the beer tasting at the end was great! The -2 C beer was very tasty and I even got to pour my first beer from the tap. It was so tasty, we just had to get another jug!

And now off to Malaysia