Waterfalls, and a view, and another great overnight spot!

 We got up at 6:00am, and went for a hike!

We had been parked overnight at the back entrance trailhead for the Mount St. Joseph hike above the town of Carleton Sur Mer. That's a fairly long hike, and I had some computer work to do yesterday morning, but we figured we had time for the shorter hike to Grand Sault Falls.

Views over Campbellton, then back into the province of Quebec

We said goodbye to Denis and Marjolaine just before 10:00am Wednesday morning. Really enjoyed our stay with them! Thanks, and hope to see you again someday!

It was looking like a really nice day, and we had a plan to climb Campbellton's Sugarloaf Mountain before heading across the border into Quebec.

Well that was a good day!

This area around Campbellton is really nice. We were really enjoying our time with Denis and Marjolaine, and they said we were welcome to stay another night so that they could take the time to properly show us around the area.

Denis has had a hobby of building hand made cedar strip canoes that are easier to navigate the shallow waters of the nearby Restigouche River. And he offered to take us for a boat ride on the river!

We met two sets of blog followers yesterday!

Ruth had been in touch with a lady from the FB group Senior Nomads. Cynthia and her husband Tom are from Arizona, and have been full time travelers for only four months. They've got a cottage rented for a month up here in Dalhousie, New Brunswick which was right along our route, so we made a plan to meet up.

Dalhousie is a town of 3,200 located very close to the border of Quebec, just below the Gaspe Peninsula.

Miramichi was okay, but unimpressed with Bathurst

The rain had stopped overnight and it was starting out to be a nice day. We hadn't had a walk around town the day before due to the rain, so we went for a walk before heading out of Miramichi.

Our new Lifesaver RV Water Filter System

Yesterday was a rain day! Before the heavy rain started, we drove about 92 kms (57 miles) from Cap Lumiere Beach to the Miramichi area where we found a library and a laundromat and just waited out the rain. 

We didn't do very much yesterday, so today I'm going to tell you about our new water filter... the Lifesaver Cube!

Canada's only bilingual province

We hung out using the winery WiFi until about 10:00am, then set off heading north along the east coast of New Brunswick.

Pretty slow going because the secondary roads aren't in great condition, but we're in no rush anyhow so quite happy to plod along.

Welcome to New Brunswick!

I had some internet work to do yesterday morning, so we got up and drove right away, at 6:30am. But we had a stop to make first! There was a nearby waterfall I wanted to see, so we got some exercise with an early morning hike to Drysdale Falls.

Another great day exploring, and another perfect overnight spot.

We slept great at our overnight spot at Tennecape Wharf. And no, we didn't float away at high tide!

I did get up to go to the bathroom at about 3:00am, an hour after high tide, and I looked out the window to see the water about 8 meters (30') away, so no problem!

But by the time we got up, it was back to low tide again, so we left Igor there and went for a morning walk along the shoreline.

Fantastic overnight spot for our first night back on the road!

We had originally tried to leave Lindsey's before lunch, but then she had to go out in the morning and wouldn't be back until 11:30am, so we hung around. And then when she did get back, we decided we might as well have lunch, and then go. 

And then, we decided I needed a haircut, so Ruth got that done as well using some of Lindsey's equipment.

We think we're ready to go!

It's been a fun and productive month here at our daughter's place in Nova Scotia. We spent a lot of time with the family, and got a lot done to Igor!

And we were sure lucky with the weather. Very little rain, and temperatures between 20C to 28C (68F to 82F). Couldn't have asked for much better.

Finished Igor's bed, and took Sadie out for some birthday treats!

There was some rain in the forecast so I didn't get the fourth and final window done in Igor the motorhome. Instead, it was time to complete the upper bed!

First, I had to install the mattress underlay which prevents condensation and potential mold growth under the mattress by providing air flow.

August Expenses

We were a little over budget for August, but only because the budget wasn't accurate to begin with. I had forgotten to include anticipated expenses to celebrate our grandchildren's birthdays. We normally aren't able to do that when the actual event occurs, so we do it at the next available time. Which was in August!

Anyhow, not a bad month, considering we're in a very expensive country.

How much did it cost to restore our Airstream B-190 motorhome? The final tally...

When we bought this motorhome at the end of June, we knew it needed some work. But, due to that fact, we got it for what we thought was a good price at the time. Given what I know now (hindsight is always 20/20!) I think we may have actually overpaid by a little bit. 

Still, I think you'll see by the end of this exercise that we actually did okay!

Heading out on Tuesday!

I spent the day on Wednesday putting the window I had removed back together. All four of Igor's RV windows needed to be refurbished. The channels and tracks were all full of 31 years worth of gunk and had never been maintained. This causes the drain outlets to become blocked, and the windows start to leak.

It doesn't appear that they have ever leaked from the actual seal around the frames themselves. 

The parts have arrived!

The last major project on Igor is the RV windows. 

When we bought him, the exterior hadn't been washed in probably two years or more, and the windows were the same. The rubber seals had shrunk over time, and the drain channels were all gunked up and there was green stuff growing in them! 

Searching for fossils and another motorhome renovation complete!

All work and no play is no good, so we decided to take Cameron and his friend Chandler to Blue Beach for some fossil hunting. 

Blue Beach is a rocky shale beach where there have been numerous fossil finds in the rock. There is even a fossil museum at the location.

Always fun to get together with fellow travelers!

At some point in time, someone had installed a cyclone rotating sewer vent on Igor's roof. And these products actually work very well. But this one was in sad condition, and the installation hadn't been done very well in the first place.

Also, since we now have a diverter toilet and no black holding tank, we didn't have the need for a fancy vent cap. 

The rest of our time here in Canada

We are going to be in Canada until November 1st. A total of four months, which is the longest we have been here since the summer of 2018 when we drove up to the Arctic Ocean. 

So, what do we have planned for the balance of our time here?

Still waiting for a couple of things

When we had Bundy and Joyce, our RV in Australia, one of the things that was a problem was the lack of air space between the mattress and the bed frame. And because we were there in cooler weather, that caused a problem with condensation caused by our body heat when sleeping.

And our first motorhome Sherman did not have any kind of spacer either.

The biggest catch of the day!

We were on the road at 6:30am yesterday morning, headed for the popular coastal tourist town of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia where we had an 8:00am reservation to go deep sea fishing with Lunenburg Ocean Adventures.

Arrived at 7:30am to find it spitting with rain. And in the process of making sure grandson Cameron had everything he needed, Ruth realized that she had forgotten her own raincoat!

A frustrating problem solved...

Normally I do blog posts first thing in the morning. But on Wednesday the 21st we will be on the road very early, heading for the coastal town of Lunenburg where we are getting on a boat and going deep sea fishing for four hours or so.

This will be grandson Cameron's belated 13th birthday present from us.

Building the upper bed assembly

Our son in law Justin is a woodworker and construction guy, so he has all the necessary skills and tools to do this job. It's actually not a difficult job, and I could have done the whole thing myself. But what would take me a few hours, would probably take him thirty minutes!

And, most of his tools are in his van or at his current jobsite. So we managed to corner him on a Sunday to get this done!

Very pleased with the end result!

Back on Igor's roof yesterday! First part of the day was cleaning all the glue and residue from where the air conditioner had been installed. Then finished switching the air conditioner wiring over from 120 volt to 12 volt so that I could use the same wiring for the Maxxair fan.

Once again, more complicated than expected

Yesterday morning I got into taking off the roof air conditioning unit with the intention of replacing it with a Maxxair powered vent. 

The first problem is actually separating the unit from the roof itself. The air conditioning unit itself is fairly heavy... it probably weighs about a hundred pounds. So the second problem is actually getting it off the roof!

Another RV renovation update

I completed the solar installation, and moved on to the DC-DC charger. This is a piece of electronic equipment that enables the lithium batteries to be charged at a high rate of current while the vehicle is being driven. 

But to handle that high current, and the distance between the engine battery and the house batteries, I had to use fairly heavy 6 gauge cable. And run it the distance between the two.

Igor's new electrical system is almost finished!

Because we like being self sufficient, solar electricity is a "must have" for us when it comes to RV'ing. And we've done it for so long now that we're aware of our electrical needs.

I had bought a 200 watt RV solar kit that includes two 100 watt solar panels, all the wiring, mounting brackets, and charge controller. It was on sale at the time.

More motorhome renovation fun!

This part was actually not all that fun! 

On Friday, our new kitchen faucet showed up. We were very limited as to which faucet we could buy because of the angle of the body of the van where the kitchen sink is located. So when it showed up, the first thing I did was set it into place. Fortunately, it fit... with a half an inch to spare!

Passport photo denied!

Bit of a rain day yesterday. It spit on and off for the morning, then it really came down for three hours or so in the afternoon.

So, not a lot accomplished on Igor, although I did get the remote keyless entry system properly wired up and working, so that was good.

Everything I try to tackle on Igor becomes more complicated than it should be!

Had a nice day with the family again yesterday. Weather was perfect. Beautiful and sunny with a high around 24C (75F). 

Started off with a drive up to Scots Bay at low tide to do some beachcombing. Along the way is the Blomidon Lookoff with a view of the tidal basin and Annapolis Valley.

We're all a bit sore today, but it was worth it!

Canada's Bay of Fundy has the highest tides in the world. And the volume of water rushing in and out of the bay causes waves that somebody decided would be fun to take people rafting on.

We've known about this adventure for a long time, but had never done it. So with all the family together, and the grandkids now at the right age, we decided to take everybody out for a day of water and mud!

Four projects on the go

I've got four major things to complete on Igor during our time here in Nova Scotia. Rebuild the upper bed frame, install the solar panels, install the DC to DC charger, and repair the water leak under the kitchen sink.

At least the temperature here is much more conducive to working. The forecast highs of 23C to 26C (73F to 79F) are far better than the heat and humidity we had in Ottawa during July.

Fun to be back with the family!

We said goodbye and thanks to Judi and Ian and hit the road again at 9:00am, planning to arrive at our daughters place around lunchtime.

We drove straight through, and pulled into the driveway at 12:10pm.

Almost at the Nova Scotia border!

We don't think we had ever been into the city of Fredericton, New Brunswick (pop 58,000) so we decided to find a spot close enough to the center and go for a walk around before hitting the highway.

We set off at 7:00am from a totally peaceful night at the quarry, and ended up in a city park parking lot where a lot of people were walking dogs and getting their morning exercise.

We are going to be a day later than planned...

Not because of any problems... we just remembered that we don't enjoy doing too many miles in a day!

We had originally thought we would end up at our daughter's place in Greenwich, Nova Scotia this Sunday afternoon. And we could have, but it's still 500 kms (300 miles) away. That's just too many miles in a day for us.

Enjoyed being able to practice our Spanish again!

Woke up Friday morning after a very quiet night in the municipal parking at the village of Fortierville, Quebec. 

Igor's left rear tire has had a slow leak. I've been topping it up every three days or so. Not enough to worry about, but it was getting worse. The rear tires normally take 80 psi, and when I checked it yesterday morning, it was visibly low, and at 35 psi. Time to do something about it!

July Expenses... not bad, for our first full month back in Canada

We're going to be spending (pun intended!) four full months back in Canada, so we're prepared for the living expenses that go along with that. Having said that, July was about what we expected.

We had a budget of $2,700 CAD ($1,980 USD) for the month of July, and we ended up a few hundred dollars over that, but mostly because of renewing our passports, which is something I forgot to include in the original July budget.

Ingleside, Ontario to Fortierville, Quebec

We set off from Bob and Denise's place in Ingleside on Thursday at about 11:30am. Headed east towards Quebec City, although by that point, we weren't sure if we would make it that far, and it really didn't matter either way. 

Our only deadline is that Igor has an appointment with a garage in Nova Scotia on Tuesday morning to do the provincial safety inspection there. Yes, he already has one from Ontario, but the provinces don't talk to each other in that regard. Oh well... this way he will be twice as safe!

Ottawa to Ingleside... day 1

Went over and said goodbye to my mother on Wednesday morning. We'll be back again in mid September, so won't be gone long this time around. 

Then it was back to finish packing up Igor, but we were almost done anyhow. It never did rain like they were forecasting, so that was good.

The day has arrived!

Hard to believe we've been a full month in Ottawa. It was a really busy month for us, so time passed quickly.

We have almost everything moved into Igor. We purposely did as much as possible yesterday, because it was supposed to be raining this morning. But so far it's holding off. 

Igor is legal for the road!

Monday morning, we were out the door at 8:30am headed for the "Service Ontario" location nearest us. This is where the provincial government does any business related to vehicle and driver licenses, among other things. It opens at 9:00am.

I had tried to get an appointment online, but the next available one was the second week of August. 

Moving day, and getting ready to head out!

Friday was moving day at my mom's apartment. She was only moving from the 5th floor down to the 2nd floor, and from a one bedroom apartment to a bed/sitting room apartment without a kitchen, because all her meals will be done for her.

And that meant that a lot of stuff won't fit!

It's pretty standard that when you're dealing with the government, nothing is going to happen efficiently.

My mother has been in this seniors building for about 11 years now, in her own one bedroom apartment. And she is staying in the same building, but moving down to the floor where she no longer has to do any housekeeping or cooking. Everything is done for her.

But, her room is much smaller... more like a standard hotel room, with just a main living area, and a bathroom.

I've decided I'm not playing their stupid game

I bought us some more flight tickets the other day. Not the ones to Calgary that I already told you about... this time I bought flight tickets to Mexico!

Yes, we are flying to Cancun on November 1st. 

"But what about Igor?", you ask.

Another project complete... and two more started!

The paint was dry on the fridge vent that I was replacing, so I was able to finish that job yesterday morning. Actually, not totally finished, because I need two strips of foam that glue to the side brackets that tighten the door up so that it doesn't flap around. The only thing that holds it in place is the little twist knob at the bottom, so the foam gives it some structure at the sides when it's closed.

So I drilled out the rivets and installed the new one. Pretty happy with the result!

We ordered a compost toilet for Igor

After a lot of research, we decided that Igor should have a compost toilet.

Let me tell you a little about what I learned regarding compost toilets for RV's...

Time is passing quickly

Here we are, three weeks into the month. 

We're making good progress on getting Igor ready to go by July 31, but with only ten days left we're going to have to continue working hard. Especially with my mother moving next weekend. Fortunately, she's staying in the same building, just moving apartments... and she doesn't have very much "stuff".

Booked some more flight tickets!

I love booking flight tickets. Even when they're on a substandard airline like Air Canada (Motto: We're not happy until you're not happy!).

So I got a flight deal notification from a site that I subscribe to. Ottawa to Calgary direct, for only $188 CAD ($136 USD) return, tax included. It's about a four hour flight, so that's a great deal at $94 CAD ($68 USD) per person each way, taxes included!

In for a penny, in for a pound!

An old British phrase that has evolved to express someone's intention to complete a project once it has been undertaken, no matter how much time, effort, or money this entails.

And so it seems to be with our new house battery system for Igor. Once I decided to go with lithium batteries, I knew it was going to add up.

Just like Christmas!

We spent a bunch of money over the last two days. We need a lot of things to outfit Igor the way we want to, and we saved our purchases for Amazon Prime Day, hoping that a lot of the stuff we want would come on sale.

And sure enough, it did.

An interesting story...

We've been over at my mother's place pretty much every day. It sure is a pain and very time consuming doing this address change stuff, but we're making progress and can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

She's been going through her filing cabinet, and came across this interesting story...

One of the problems with an older RV...

At 31 years old, Igor can almost be considered a "vintage" motorhome. I guess that's why the Airstream B190 has a bit of a cult following. It was only made between 1988 to 1999... an 11 year period. 

The Ford E350 van chassis and much of the body was produced for a much longer period, and mechanical parts are readily available and inexpensive. But much of what is related to the "RV" portion of the vehicle has now become obsolete. 

You have to celebrate the tiny wins!

So we're out doing some grocery shopping last Thursday, and I happened to see the deodorant that I like, and it was on sale. Regular price $4.29, on sale for $2.99. Not bad. Anyhow, I picked one up.

I'd say 80% of the time, we check the prices on the bill as we walk out of the grocery store.  The other 20% of the time, we simply forget. But we're normally pretty good at checking.

Our Amazon delivery guy has been busy!

I think he's been at our doorstep every day this week! 

There's a lot of stuff you have to buy when you're outfitting an RV from scratch... as well as the stuff we are buying to get Igor fixed up the way we want.

The one thing we miss about Canada...

There isn't much that we miss from Canada when we're off traveling the world... but one thing we definitely miss is pure Canadian maple syrup! 

And the cheapest place to buy it is still Walmart, where they sell a 1 liter jug of the dark amber stuff, (which is our favorite) for $15.97 CAD ($11.71 USD).

Motorhome for sale... in Alaska!

Our friends Glen and Steve are the British couple who got us into this whole motorhoming thing back in 2007 when they stayed with us and explained how they travel and explore inexpensively by motorhome.

They have since bought and sold many times, similar to the way we are doing now. They buy in a different country, then sell when they are ready to move on. 

Getting Igor ready to go

Good thing I got the vent replaced which fixed that major water leak coming from Igor's roof. The remnants of hurricane Beryl are coming through southern Ontario today, and they are calling for heavy rain for about 4 hours starting around 10:00am.

There are still some very minor leaks coming from the windows on the side of the muffin top (that's what Airstream B-160 enthusiasts call the fiberglass roof) but I don't have a ladder. That can wait until we are at Lindsey's next month. 

Not sure why we get so ripped off here in Canada...

Spent a couple of hours yesterday with my mom going over some financial things and figuring out her change of address stuff. Of course the post office will do an address redirect for you, but it's not cheap... so the most logical thing to do is proactively change all of the addresses yourself, which of course you would have to do anyhow. But man, it sure is time consuming!

Then back to the house to finish my project.

No problem staying busy here! Especially with a motorhome project to work on...

Instead of writing a blog post first thing this morning, I was outside before 8:00am in order to take advantage of the cooler morning weather. The project today was to replace the old Fantastic Vent Van in Igor's living area.

The fan still worked, but the plastic had turned all yellow and while the previous owner had replaced the vent lid, they never did actually repair the leaks.

June Expenses... more than double what we had planned!

Well, it's time to get this mess out of the way. I've been delaying telling you about our expenses for the month of June because there have been odd circumstances involved!

Our original budget for the month of June was $3,500 CAD ($2,565 USD). Which in hindsight, was a bit ambitious as it was. And then, on June 11th, we made the somewhat last minute decision to come back to Canada which of course would put us well over budget. And finally, we decided to buy this motorhome in London, Ontario. 

Introducing you to Igor... our new motorhome!

We've been running through suitable names for our new to us motorhome, including all the suggestions made by readers on our FB page. We had narrowed it down to either Eddie or Hector. We had pretty much decided on Hector. Then, we're out doing some running around yesterday afternoon, and Ruth says "Igor. Because he has a hunchback". (Like Igor in the movie Young Frankenstein). And we both laughed. Too funny. 

Igor is not Spanish, but that doesn't matter to us. A name of Russian origin meaning warrior. Igor is short, sweet, and strong! And, we think it's funny. So, Igor it is.

Since we arrived back in Canada...

So, it's time to get you caught up on what we've been doing for the last week. I'm not going to do individual posts for the several days that we missed... otherwise I'll never be up to date, and we've just got too much to do.

So... where to start? Well, when we arrived at our son's place in Gravenhurst, Ontario on June 28th, he and his girlfriend CJ already had plans for the weekend, so they weren't home when we arrived. He did come back and spend a couple of hours with us on Saturday morning.

Our one day in Porto, Portugal

Still trying to get caught up on our blog posts, and there's still quite a lot to tell you about! We had a very hectic week between when we finished our big hike and we made it back to Canada.

I already told you the story about our flight delays, so when we arrived in Porto, Portugal on the 26th of June, we only had the one day to explore. 

Big news... we bought another motorhome!

Anybody who follows our facebook page already knows this because I posted a photo four days ago and it is probably our most "liked" facebook post ever! But, I didn't provide any details. So here is the whole story...

We had sold our European motorhome Max last August. We're not done with Europe by any means, but Europe is easy to do by motorhome, so our plan is to put that off until we're in our 70's.

Peaks of the Balkans Day 10... Vusanje to Theth, 17 kms

The last day of our Peaks of the Balkans hike!

This day was billed as a grueling 21 km hike with 1,306 meters (4,300') of elevation gain, followed by 1,600 meters ( 5,300') of descent into the valley of Theth. That's a tough hike for anyone, but made even worse by the fact that they gave us a 4:00pm deadline to arrive back in Theth for our ride to Shkodra, with a penalty of €10 per hour for every hour you are late!

Peaks of the Balkans Day 9... Taljanka Peak Loop, 9.2 kms

Even though it was fairly short, this was probably the second toughest hike of the trip, but with spectacular views of the Gerbaja Valley, as well as stunning views of the Accursed Mountains. It's actually a detour from the classic Peaks of the Balkans trail, but it was included by the organizers of our trip since it is one of the most panoramic of the area.

We were picked up at our guest house in Babino Polje by van and arrived at the trailhead in Gerbaja Valley at 9:15am.

Peaks of the Balkans Day 8... Roshkodol to Babino Polje... 11 kms

June 21 was a relatively short hiking day as we had only 11 kms scheduled due to guesthouse allocation. That was totally okay with us though, because it still entailed a steep one hour climb at the beginning, and then a descent into the valley that seemed like it would never end.

And wildflowers... lots of beautiful wildflowers!

Casino Fun On The Fly: How To Keep Playing In Prairie or Park - Gambling On The Go

We all love a little time resting and relaxing, whether that looks like chilling on your couch with a good book or spinning a few reels at an online casino. When you’re trotting around the globe, either at a breakneck pace or snail-slow, taking the odd breather is pretty crucial in making the whole journey worth it, but a lot of people think they’ve got to hit casino central to indulge in their passion for high-thrill gambling… not so!

Peaks of the Balkans Day 7... Gacaferi Pastures to Roshkodol, 14 kms

Continuing with our recent ten day hike in the mountains of Albania, Kosovo, and Montenegro.

We woke up to a wonderful breakfast at Gacaferi Guesthouse. Probably our best overnight experience of the trip. Really friendly people, and the food was great. It was going to be a hot day, and once again we wanted to get an early start.

Peaks of the Balkans Day 6... Climbing Kosovo's highest mountain, 18.5 kms

This was probably our favorite day of the whole ten day adventure. The Gjeravica Peak hike is one of the most scenic, with sweeping views over a mountainous landscape. 

We had separated from the friends we had made over the previous days. They were now one day ahead of us, and some of them had done the Gjeravica Peak hike the day before but they encountered clouds near the top, and weren't able to enjoy the great views. Not the case for us!

Peaks of the Balkans Day 5... a day off? 8.5 kms

We had done some strenuous hiking over the previous 4days, having already completed 65.7 kms (40.7 miles) since the start of our Peaks of the Balkans adventure. 

So, we had scheduled a day off to give ourselves a break. When I was speaking with Marigona at Balkan Adventure, she included a short 8.5 km "day off hike" to keep us busy during our rest day!

We interrupt this program for a special news bulletin

We have a lot more to tell you about our hiking trip to the Peaks of the Balkans. However we're going to delay that for a day or two to tell you what we've been up to since our hike ended.

What an adventure the last 36 hours have been!

Peaks of the Balkans Day 4... Cerem to Doberdol, 15 kms

A relatively easy day on Monday June 17th. Only 15 kms (9.3 miles). Still with 1,025 meters (3,363') of cumulative altitude gain, but it didn't seem as strenuous. 

A bit of a late start as we set out at 8:30am. Again a beautiful sunny day!

Peaks of the Balkans day 3... Valbone to Cerem, 16 kms

So, Sunday the 16th. Day three of hiking. Breakfast not as good as yesterday. Bread, cheese, eggs, apples and some kind of fritters. Fine, but not as good as the day before.

Set off at exactly 8:00am. The route was known to be difficult. "Only" 16 kms (10 miles), but this would prove to be the toughest day of the entire trip, with a cumulative elevation gain of 1,215 meters (3,986') over 5 kms (3 miles). And a rocky karst trail that was difficult to get your footing right.

Top scenic walking tours to experience this summer

Looking to go on some scenic strolls this summer? You’re in the right place! In this article, we will look through some of the most beautiful trails from across the world. 

Peaks of the Balkans... Theth to Valbone 17 kms

We have returned from our hiking adventure, and will try to quickly get caught up in posting. If you missed day one, you can read it here... https://www.travelwithkevinandruth.com/2024/06/hiking-peaks-of-balkans-day-1-theth-to.html.

Day two was the popular Theth to Valbone route. This is the most popular hike in the whole region, with many people only coming to Theth to do this route.

Hiking the Peaks of the Balkans... Day 1, Theth to Blue Eye, and return, 17.7 kms

We are now finished our 10 day Peaks of the Balkans hiking trip that took us through the  Accursed Mountains (also known as The Albanian Alps) of Albania, Kosovo, and Montenegro. It's going to take us a while to get caught up on blog posts because that's the longest we've been off line since we did our Kilimanjaro trip over three years ago!

But we shall start at the beginning. On June 14th, we woke up in a hotel in Shkodra, Albania where we helped ourselves to a wonderful buffet breakfast at 7:00am.

Some pics from the last few days

I'm writing this post from my phone, so apologies in advance for any formatting problems!

This is the last time you'll hear from us for a while!

Today is the official start of our hiking trip! No hiking involved, but a hotel in town is part of the trip, so we have moved there. Then tomorrow morning they supply breakfast and then they drive us up into the mountains at 8:30am where they have a 19.8 km (12.3 mile) day planned for us!

And the long term weather forecast looks fabulous! Sunny, with highs of around 25C (77F), except for a couple of days where it's supposed to get up to 30C (86F). Gonna be sweating on those days!

Motorhome Trips in America’s Wild West

The freedom of the open road has always been a major attraction for us and we have been lucky enough to experience the great outdoors across a variety of continents. But a road trip that is on many people’s bucket list is one taking in the wild west of the United States.

 

Generations have grown up on old western films and even more modern stories depicting this fascinating region of the world. Those long straight roads were built for motorhomes to explore and we thought we would share with you a trip that would allow you to take in the stunning scenery and sights – as well as a chance to check out all the Las Vegas betting online sites.

Albania has become a tourism hotspot

We slept in a little after arriving at Tirana Airport so late. Made it down for breakfast just before 10:00am. Pretty refreshing to see the prices, after having spent almost six weeks in England! 

Although, things are more expensive than the last time we were here, just like everywhere else in the world.

Arrived in Albania - a little later than planned!

Tuesday was a travel day! We had to make our way from Birmingham, England to Tirana, Albania.

We left the hotel just before 9:00am and did the twenty minute walk to Birmingham Coach Station where we caught the bus towards London's Luton Airport. We had to transfer half way to another bus, and arrived at the airport right on time at 12:15pm. Cost for the buses was £21.85 ($27.85 USD, $38.25 CAD) each.

Major change of plans.

I mentioned the other day that there's a lot going on behind the scenes here at Travel with Kevin and Ruth, and that is proving to be totally true.

Our original plan for July was to continue through the Balkans, with quite a lot of time spent in Serbia, a country that we have never been to. Then perhaps Georgia for August, before heading back to Canada in September.

Well, all that has changed.

4 Affordable Ski Resorts in Europe for Holidays on a Budget

Excitement is high when you decide to go on a ski holiday, but it plummets when people check the prices. You won’t have to go through that if you search for deals at affordable ski resorts in Europe. Chances are that you haven’t heard much about such budget-friendly establishments, but there are many out there. In this article, you’ll discover four of them, which are characterised by amazing prices and excellent services, so that you can enjoy the exhilarating experiences offered at the best ski resorts in the world without breaking the bank. 

Hiking in Peak District National Park... day 2

Unknown to most who have never been, the name "Peak District" has nothing to do with mountains or the landscape. And to be honest, we didn't know that either. In fact the terrain in Lake District National Park has more mountains than Peak District does. In fact, the highest point in Peak District is only 636 metres (2,087 ft) above sea level.

But Peak District is not quite as busy as Lake District, and the scenery is just as good. And there seemed to be a lot of walking trails in just about any direction.

I'm not gonna lie, we were pretty much done!

We had done Friday overnight at the Ravenstor Hostel in Peak District National Park. We had met our friends Antoinette and Ki there, and we all had breakfast together and then headed out. They do a lot of hiking in this park, and they had planned the route for us. 42 kms (26 miles) over two days!

We set off day one at 9:30am...

We have arrived in Peak District National Park!

We said goodbye to Aly and Martin this morning. Thanks again for putting up with, and looking after us! We wonder where in the world we shall meet again.

And we headed into the city of Sheffield. This is the city where my grandfather went to work in the steel mills when he was 13 years old!

It is so frustrating!

While we have been quietly meandering our way through the English countryside, there is a lot going on behind the scenes here at Travel with Kevin and Ruth. Let me explain...

Although we've been enjoying ourselves doing this "senior backpacking" style of travel, as we call it, we are missing our favorite method of travel... motorhome.

The area where some of my relatives came from

A bit of a dismal morning, so we just stayed indoors until things cleared up. It ended up being a decent afternoon, but with a cool breeze.

Aly and Martin took us for a drive through some of the smaller towns. My grandfather (my mother's father) was born in nearby Wakefield. He started working in a steel mill there when he was 13 years old.

Funny story...

We fly to Albania on Tuesday evening for our 11 day hike in the Albanian Alps. We're so excited!

In preparation, we've been trying to do some walking every day, but it's tough to get in any hilly areas to work the legs. So we've booked a walk in Peak District National Park this coming weekend.

A nice walk to the next village

Monday was a dull morning, and we had some computer work to get caught up on. Aly and Martin went to do some work on an investment property they bought, and they did not make it back until dinner time.

The skies cleared mid afternoon though and so we went out for a 10 km (6.2 mile) walk to the next village and back.

Beautiful day in York, and more photo matching

The forecast was for a gorgeous Sunday with sunshine and a high of about 21C (70F), and that's exactly what happened. It was a perfect day.

We set off just after 9:30am along with Aly and Martin and the four of us drove about 45 minutes north to the ancient city of York.

May Expenses - thanks easyJet!

Well, we had a budget of $2,750 CAD  for the month, and we ended up spending $3,097 CAD ($2,275 USD). Not bad, considering we always make our budget purposely at the low end of the scale to give us something to strive towards, So it's actually pretty rare that we meet our budget. But considering Ruth bought new hiking boots, that's really the item that put us over the top. Having said that, I should have budgeted for them in the first place.

Technically, we spent far more than that, but we were lucky that our easyJet flight had been late and they compensated us £880. We also used some credit card points to pay for our flights from Antalya to Paris on the 1st of May.

The pubs in old town Hull, England

Saturday morning we went for a walk in the center of Hull. They call the area "Old Town". 

Hull has a lot of history, dating back to the 12th century, and next to London, it was the most bombed city in the UK during the blitzes of WWII when 95% of the city's buildings were damaged or destroyed. 

We're lucky nobody was hurt!

We took a rare blogging day off yesterday! But we're back on track now, and so I'll combine Thursday and Friday together in this post.

On Thursday, we spent the day running some errands with friends Glen and Steve.

Almost bought another motorhome!

Yesterday we drove down to Manchester airport and picked up our housesitting host. Again, ridiculously expensive parking charges, just like the other day when we dropped her off at Liverpool airport where they had a £5 ($6.35 USD, $8.70 CAD) fee just to drop someone off close to the terminal. 

We were picking up this time, not dropping off. But at Manchester airport, there is no free pickup outside the terminal. So I figured out a place where we could wait for free five minutes away, and when she made her way through immigration to the baggage she sent a message. Then we could drive to the short term parking area where it cost £6 ($7.60 USD, $10.50 CAD) per half hour.

It was a good week house sitting

Despite the regularly overcast skies, we had a good eight days here in Preston. It seemed to pass by really quickly, even though two of those days had wet enough weather that we never left the house!

We need to try to do more house sitting. I actually applied for one next week, but when the host doesn't respond after 24 hours, I withdraw my application, explaining why. 

England has so many scenic walking areas!

It was another wet drizzly morning, however the forecast called for clearing around lunchtime, and that's exactly what happened. 

We made a plan to have lunch, and then head forty minutes north toward the town of Arnside where there are a couple of National Trust properties with a lot of walking trails.

I came across an eSIM data plan that never expires!

When we were in Turkiye for most of the month of April, I had bought an eSIM for the phone. This was my first experience using an eSIM.

Usually we stop in and pick up a local SIM card for whatever country we happen to be traveling to. It's not as convenient as an eSIM, but its often quite a bit cheaper.

Fantastic hike in Lake District National Park

We woke up Saturday morning, and we were happy to see the sunshine through the bedroom curtains. We planned to meet up with friends David and Mirsie in Lake District National Park, so to have nice weather would make for a perfect day!

We hit the road at 7:45am for the hour and fifteen minute drive to the village of Coniston located in Lake District National Park.

These boots are made for walking...

We packed a lunch and set off to the Forest of Bowland National Landscape about 40 minutes drive east of Preston. 

Still overcast and misty even though there was no actual rain in the forecast. High of 12C (54F).

The rain finally slowed down enough to get out for some exercise

Another wet cold miserable day yesterday here in northwest England. We stayed inside until the rain slowed down after lunch, but the unappealing weather doesn't change the fact that we're trying to be in shape for our upcoming 10 day Albania hike.

So we bundled up and set out on an 8 km (5 mile) urban hike leaving directly from our doorstep here in Preston.

Wandering around Liverpool, and new hiking boots!

We were up just before 5:00am Wednesday morning to take Jane down to Liverpool airport. It was about an hour drive, mostly on the motorway. Of course the highway is not very busy at that hour, and with sunrise in this area at 5:00am it was already light outside.

Arrived at the airport to find they have an odd way of dropping off and picking up people. You have to pay £5 for "express" drop off at the terminal where you have five minutes to say goodbye or you pay another £5!

Easy tips for hiking on a budget

Hiking is an activity that is typically very affordable as it’s very accessible. For the most simple hikes, all you need is a basic set of equipment and then you can simply start walking through the terrain and set off on your adventure - then, as you begin having bigger budgets to play with, you can look into hiking holidays, which are based over a few days or weeks (depending on the duration you would like to do). 

Cat sitting, but that doesn't mean we'll be sitting still!

We did the last bit of our drive from the Dairy Farm to Preston yesterday. 

Arrived in Preston around 3:00pm, and stopped in at a Lidl grocery store to pick up a few things we knew we would use, of course not knowing what our host Jane might have in the fridge that might need using up. 

We sure put on the steps!

The step counter on the phone read 24,365 by the end of the day.

We had checked out of our room but left our bags in the storage area so that we could make our way to pick up our car rental on the other side of Birmingham. Then, I found a little breakfast and lunch restaurant in a nearby industrial area. That turned out to be a great choice!

On the road again!

We had an enjoyable couple of weeks with Helen and Tony. Thank you both for having us. Always lots of laughs when we get together, and we look forward to the next time. Hopefully this coming November in Mexico!

We got packed up and our ride arrived at just after 6:00pm. Tony's Uncle John had come down for the wedding, and they live north of Birmingham so were able to drop us here on their way home. 

And then the skies opened up...

Other than feeling a little tired this morning, we all survived wedding day. We had arrived at the venue yesterday around noon, and had an hour and a half or so to get ourselves cleaned up and into our fancy dress clothes.

Obviously Ruth and I don't carry around fancy dress clothes! However, when we went to the wedding in Ireland last year,  we had Max the motorhome with us and we were able to transport our clothes to Helen and Tony's where they were stored until we needed them yesterday.

Steaks on the grill

So, we've decided to keep the rental car as we had it arranged with pickup in Birmingham on Monday. We probably would have saved a few dollars by taking our house sitting host up on her offer of letting us use her car for next week, however the logistics became difficult. 

Anyway, we decided that the extra cost was worth the extra convenience. 

Getting ready for the wedding

We have a car rental booked for this coming Monday in Birmingham, but yesterday evening I received a note from our house sitting host that she has an older car we can use if we want to. Which is very nice of her!

And I can cancel our car rental at no charge, but before I do that I need to check out just how much we'll save to see if it's worthwhile. 

Nice day trip down to Wareham, Dorset

We packed a lunch and set off for an hour drive towards the riverside town of Wareham, Dorset. But along the way we stopped in at the village of Moreton. Helen and Tony knew of an interesting little church in the village.

Moreton is also the resting place of  Lawrence of Arabia!

House sitting booked, and a preview of next month's adventure!

I mentioned the other day that we had applied for a house sit up in Preston, England and we found out that we were accepted. So we'll be looking after Stripey the cat for 8 days from May 21st to the 29th.

We're also renting a car, but we don't pick it up until we get to Birmingham on the 20th. It looks like we may be getting a ride up there from one of the other wedding guests. With a car rental, we'll be able to do lots of day trips from Preston, including some time in Lake District National Park which is about an hour north of Preston.

Off to the doctor... again!

Boy, it seems like we've been in a lot of doctors offices the last while! 

I wasn't even going to tell this story because it may be nothing... but as travelers, it's always interesting to hear how the medical system works in other countries. So, here it is...

Day trip down to the Jurassic Coast

We were all up at 6:00am Sunday morning. We had made a plan that we would drive down to England's southern Jurassic Coast and arrive there before the crowds. It was supposed to be a beautiful day, and based on the weather forecast it might be the last one for quite some time!

Our thinking was that we would then be able to head back later that morning while most of the traffic would be in the opposite direction.

I told her she would never be bored.

Saturday afternoon we took a trip over to a nature reserve just west of Glastonbury. It's run by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, and sure enough there were a lot of birding people there with the big zoom lenses and birding scopes.

It's times like this that I miss having the big camera with the fantastic zoom lens, but to be honest, I don't miss it enough to go back to carrying something like that around. Totally happy with the camera on my smartphone.

What's on the agenda for the rest of the month?

We've been really lucky with the weather this week, but it looks like we're in for some more typical "British" weather next week. Overcast with rain and a high of between 15c to 18c (60f to 65f). Oh well, it is only May after all, so we've had it pretty good.

Yesterday morning, we took Lindsey and Sadie over to the Castle Cary train station for their ride back to London's Gatwick airport.

Last day with Lindsey and Sadie

Yesterday morning, I received a notification from our Wise currency account that £880 ($1,103 USD, $1,509 CAD) had been deposited by easyJet. If you missed it, this is related to the compensation for the late arrival of our flight from Paris to Bristol. 

They said it would show up within 7 days, and it did! Did I mention we love easyJet?

Out for a hike above Cheddar Gorge!

We've done a lot of walking in the past couple of months, but it's been mostly flat city walking, not an actual trail hike that includes some climbing. And with our big ten day Albania hike coming up in just over a month, we need to get our legs in better shape.

So yesterday we went up to Cheddar Gorge to do their 5 km (3 mile) Gorge Top Walk.

The smallest city in England

We never did get any rain, but it was after lunch by the time some blue sky arrived. It turned out to be a nice afternoon, with high around 20C (68F).

Tony drove us over to the city of Wells... the smallest city in England based on the fact that it has both a cathedral and only 12,000 residents. We had gone through on the bus the other day and Lindsey had said she would like to go back and wander around. Helen stayed home... she has a bad foot and is trying to give it some rest.

Made it back to Helen and Tony's

On Monday, we walked almost 2 kms to the Bristol Bus Station and took the 10:55am bus from Bristol to Glastonbury. 

The bus was right on time, and it cost an amazingly cheap £2 ($2.50 USD, $3.40 CAD) per adult, and half that for Sadie.

April Expenses

We've been busy since the end of April, and just haven't had time to post our monthly expense report!

We started the month of April by arriving in Kuwait City on April 1st and had two flights throughout the month as we made our way to Istanbul and Antalya, Turkiye. 

Our budget called for $3,115 CAD ($2,300 USD) for the month, but we knew we had some medical things to get looked at, and ended up spending $3,512 CAD ($2,566 USD) in total.

Fantastic news!

Well, the "maybe some good news" from yesterday unexpectedly turned into fantastic news today!

I had mentioned yesterday that because our easyJet flight from Paris to Bristol was late arriving that we may be entitled to compensation. The European Union (EU) has some strict regulations governing the airlines and their commitments to their passengers, and if your arriving flight is more than three hours late, you can submit a claim to the airline.

Arrived in Bristol, England... and maybe some good news!

Yesterday's blog was posted late, so if you missed The view from the Eiffel Tower you might want to go back.

We were up at 5:45am to catch the bus to Paris airport for our 9:00am easyJet flight to Bristol, England. The bus outside the hotel arrived right on time, but we didn't have any small bills to pay for the bus. Only a €20 note. It was supposed to cost €2.50 each for the adults, but when I went to pay, the driver just waived us on through! So the ten minute bus ride to the terminal was totally free.

View from the Eiffel Tower

Friday was a bit of a hectic day! We had to be out of our apartment by 11:00am, but had arranged to be able to leave our bags behind, provided we were back to pick them up by 1:00pm.

So we headed out to return to the Eiffel Tower in the hopes of getting up there to match up another photo or two.

Busy day touring Paris matching my father's photos

For whatever reason, Paris has never been on our "to do" list. I guess that's why it took 62 years for us to get here!

We've only got a day and a half to explore the city, so we were pretty much planning on sticking to the highlights. But with lots of walking, we would see other stuff along the way.

Welcome to Paris!

France is not a new country for us. However we have never been to the actual city of Paris, despite having flown in and out of Paris airport a couple of times.

So when our granddaughter Sadie said that she wanted to see Paris as part of her trip across the pond, we decided that now is a good time!

Next blog post coming to you from Paris, France!

Our daughter Lindsey and granddaughter Sadie arrived in London, England yesterday morning after doing the overnight flight from Halifax, Nova Scotia. 

They spent the day exploring London, and then the evening and overnight at Ruth's aunt who lives in the city.  Today, they plan to go to a theater show, among other things. Then tomorrow afternoon they will take the chunnel train from London to Paris.

Road Trip Savings: 5 Top Tips for Economical Car Hire Deals

No one can deny that cars are among the technological advances that have made everyday life much easier. An additional and extremely important benefit is that travelling has become much less tiring and much more fun. Brits know how great road trips are, as they’re their favourite getaway holiday plan. In doing so, they not only experience something out of the ordinary but also get to know their own country better. However, not all of them know how to save money when looking for a car. You can avoid pitfalls by following our top tips for economical car hire deals in the UK.

Liverpool’s Concealed Delights: A Day to Discover the City’s Hidden Charms

London is the top destination in the South of England, but in the North, the elegant Liverpool is a city that takes everyone’s breath away. Its musical legacy, its maritime heritage, and the urban beauty make it stand out. You may have read articles about the special character of this English city before. However, this one can be the first to reveal Liverpool’s concealed delights. Spend one day of your holidays going to the underrated attractions mentioned below, and you’ll get to know Liverpool in more depth.

Exploring the Unforgettable Journey of Kevin and Ruth: A Tale of Wanderlust and Adventure

So I was wasting time on the internet, and playing with the free ChatGTP Artificial Intelligence program.

Just for fun, I asked it to come up with a blog post about the history of Kevin and Ruth from Travel with Kevin and Ruth. And literally less than two seconds later, it came up with the text. It's quite amazing... and almost a little spooky! Here it is...

More photo matching coming up!

Saturday afternoon, we walked down to the beach. 

Even though the property where we are staying is billed as being a beach stay, it's still a 2 km (1.3 mile) walk to actually get to the beach. There is a big open "forest" area between us and the beach with a lot of walking tracks, but none of them appear to actually lead to the beach. So we had to go along the road.

Moving day

We chose our new place east of the city of Antalya at Lara Beach. Somehow we had to go almost 16 kms (10 miles) with all of our worldly belongings.

I checked the price of a taxi, but that was going to cost over 400 lira ($12.30 USD, $16.80 CAD). Not really that expensive, but we had lots of time so I checked into taking the bus. The problem of course was carrying all of our "stuff".

This is our third time in Antalya

The first time we were here was back in December of 2020, during Covid. At the time, we had an inexpensive rental car, and that convenience enabled us to get an inexpensive apartment on the outskirts of the city so that we could do a lot of day trips.

The second time we were here was in late February of 2022 when we were here with our motorhome Max. 

Lots to look forward to, and it's coming up quickly!

We've proven to ourselves again that two weeks in one spot is enough for us. 

Even when we like where we are, we get itchy feet after a maximum of two weeks and it's time for a change of scenery. And sometimes that's all it takes, is a change of scenery... and some different areas where we can go walking and explore.

Fun to watch the Turkish Stars aerobatic team

We didn't leave the apartment until 3:00pm Tuesday afternoon! Not sure exactly where the day went, but the time does seem to pass quickly, even when we are doing nothing. Neither one of us seem to have any problem wasting away a few hours on the internet. Wasting is perhaps the wrong word, as I am generally researching either future travel or something to do with our investments in the gold market, and Ruth spends a lot of time labeling and organizing our photos.

And speaking of photos, I sure took a lot yesterday!

Booked another flight!

2024 is turning into the year of flying! We've already been on 10 different airplanes so far this year.

Still, it's a long way off from the 21 different airplanes we were on in 2019. We keep track of all of our flights since 2012 at this website... https://my.flightradar24.com/karead7/. You can use the drop down box in the bottom right corner to see the flights by year.

We heard the very loud noise of low flying jet engines overhead!

I've started doing our tax returns. We always have to pay each year, so I never file until the last minute. The Canadian filing date is April 30th, so I've got a few days yet. I find it easier to do a little bit each day.

But because our income isn't very high by Canadian standards (in fact, we are considered poor!) we really don't pay very much in taxes. Most of what we end up paying is the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) contributions because our income is considered self employed, so we have to pay both employer and employee portions. 

Windy day in Antalya

For several days they had been forecasting deteriorating weather conditions here in Antalya that were supposed to culminate in a big storm on Saturday. They said there would be 100% chance of heavy rain on Saturday morning.

Well... Friday had that odd fog that sort of hung around all day. And when we woke up Saturday morning, it had been spitting with rain and the roads were wet. 

Exciting plan during the month of June!

Back in October of 2022, we were in the small city of Peja, Kosovo. 

Peja is located on the north eastern edge of the Accursed Mountains, also known as the Albanian Alps. It's an absolutely gorgeous area, and is still virtually unknown to the masses. While we were there, we did some day hikes in the area, specifically on part of what is called the Peaks of the Balkans trail.

We went for a long urban hike here in Antalya

We headed out at 10:30am to walk down to the Duden Waterfall. It's a long 9 km (5.6 mile) one way walk through the city of Antalya. But from the central area most of it follows the coastline, so it's really quite scenic.

Temperature was a pleasant 23C (73F), but it was a bit muggy with an odd fog in the air.

Keeping expenses down

Our original plan was to come to Antalya to get the doctor stuff looked after, and then head north outside the city to some of the smaller towns and explore some of the countryside. However, current car rental prices here are not what they were during Covid! 

One of the reasons we love the motorhome form of travel... we can go where we want and when we want and it's easy to stay in the countryside where we can enjoy the fresh air and get out hiking.

Finished at the eye doctor, and a little walking tour of old town

Yesterday was our 10:00am appointment with our ophthalmologist. We had intraocular lens replacement surgery in December of 2020, and we totally trust the doctor who did it and so we like to return to him every now and then to get our eyes tested. Plus, coming back to Antalya is really not a hardship!

Ruth had been diagnosed with a minor tear in one retina, and she needs to have it checked regularly. My eyes are fine, but I've got a few floaters in one eye. Doesn't really bother me though.

Doctor visit results

We don't normally talk about our health issues, unless they directly affect our travels. First of all, we really don't have any to speak of, other than the ones we've already written about and our regular readers know all about them. Ruth's gluten allergy (which isn't really an issue), my heart health, and our eye surgery back in December of 2020.

What brought us back to Antalya is a checkup with our ophthalmologist, but Ruth had another issue she wanted looked at.

This is pretty tough to take!

Sunday's plan was to walk up to a gluten free cafe and shop north of the old harbor to see if they have any decent bread. We had found this little place last time we were here in Antalya, and they also have lots of bakery treats... all gluten free!

So we headed out and up through the old harbor area.

Kind of a funny story, actually

We don't have much planned for our time here in Antalya. That's one of the reasons we chose to pay a little extra for a central location, because at least there is a lot of walking to be done. Antalya has some beautiful coastal walks right here in the center of the city.

The other reason we have no plans is because Ruth has a medical issue she wants an opinion on. I won't get into the details yet, until we know for sure what the problem and solution is. Don't worry, it's not life threatening!

A situation like that could get out of control

We were up at 5:45am Friday morning and out of the apartment by 6:00am in order to get to Istanbul's SAW airport in time for our 9:50am flight to Antalya.

It was a 15 minute walk to the metro station, and then almost an hour on the subway, running the full line from Kadikoy to the airport.

Someday we will have a rematch!

Cheryl is still on holiday, so on Thursday, she and her boyfriend Ahmet, took off for the day, and we didn't mind looking after Gus again. We've been so lucky with the weather, and yes, it was another gorgeous day. It's spring in Istanbul, and you can tell by the people out in the park that they've been looking forward to this kind of weather!

Lunch with fellow full time travelers

On Wednesday, we took the ferries to the Istanbul neighborhood of Fener to meet fellow full time travelers Ken and Mary for lunch. This is one of the couples we had met the day we arrived back in Istanbul a week ago.

Our friend Cheryl had recommended the Fener area because of the old and colorful houses built onto the hillside.

We love going to the local Turkish market

There are a lot of nice fruit and veggie shops in the area that we are staying here in the Kadikoy area of Istanbul, however it's always cheapest to get your supply at the local market. Unfortunately the nearest one is 2.5 kms (1.2 miles) away, and the main market only takes place on Tuesday... but yesterday was Tuesday!

So we walked over there to pick some things up.

The spring tulips in Istanbul are really pretty

We figured we should get out and do some exploring, so we hopped on the ferry to Eminonu which is the main historical district. We have been there before, but we wanted to go back to Gulhane Park to see if the spring tulips were still in bloom. 

Another beautiful day, but with a cooler high of about 18C (64F) and a strong breeze. Lots of sunshine though!

Our second eSIM experience was much better!

The day wore on yesterday without ever hearing back from Maya Mobile. Really terrible customer service, and I will leave a review in that regard. Eventually, 24 hours after buying their eSIM, I sent a new email to customer service asking for a refund. Ten minutes later, the refund was granted... no questions asked.

So at least there is that.

Not a good first eSIM experience

The last time we spent any length of time here in Turkiye, we had no problem getting an inexpensive data plan on my phone. However, things have changed!

The local providers only have expensive "tourist" plans available for non residents. And there is only one choice... and it costs 1,100 lira ($34.50 USD, $46.75 CAD) for 20GB of data over 30 days.

Scammed on our first day in Istanbul!

I mentioned the other day that we had a story to tell, but I didn't want to tell it until I knew the end of the story. And I tell the story as a warning to others so hopefully it won't happen to you!

We arrived in Istanbul at SAW airport in the eastern end of the city. From there, it is an easy ride on the underground metro system to the ferry terminals at Kadikoy.

We did something a little different yesterday!

This is our third time in Istanbul. As far as big cities go, we kinda like it. Especially the Kadikoy area where our friend Cheryl lives. Lots going on, a 15 minute walk to all ferries and public transit, and really nice park space nearby. 

We are going to enjoy the next week looking after Gus the dog. Especially with the perfect weather forecast!

Return to Istanbul

We've been pretty busy the last couple of days! With more than a few stories to tell, but some of them we don't know the ending to yet, so they'll have to wait. 

But I'll give you a condensed version of what we've been up to the last couple of days. It's all a bit of a blur!

A fun evening out in Kuwait City

One of the reasons we came to Kuwait City is because two of the women in our Mauritania train ride group last year are from Kuwait. And they had said that "if you are ever in Kuwait, look us up!".

So we did!

They offered to pick us up at our hotel at 7:30pm and take us out for a Kuwaiti dinner!

Welcome to Kuwait... country #72 for us!

We were up at 4:45am to take a taxi to Abu Dhabi International Airport in order to catch our 8:10am flight to Kuwait City.

I had received an email from Wizz Air saying to be sure to arrive at the airport 4 hours in advance of our flight to ensure sufficient time to get through check-in and security. We've done enough flying to know that this is ridiculous. 

March Expenses... we had budgeted for an expensive month!

We were on four different airplanes during the month of March, and spent the latter part of the month in some fairly high end places... so we had planned in advance for an expensive month.

So although it was certainly at the high end of what we usually spend in a month, it wasn't unexpected.

In our last budget update at the end of February, I mentioned that we had a planned budget of $3,837 CAD ($2,826 USD) for the month of March. We came in at $4,082 CAD ($3,017 USD) in total.

Last day in Abu Dhabi... the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque

Most things in Abu Dhabi cost a fair bit of money. There are quite a few theme parks... Ferarri World, Warner Bros, Yas Island Waterworld, etc. And while they would be fun (and fairly expensive!) for a day, that's not what we came here for. 

But probably the most popular attraction in the city is the Sheikh Zayed Grand Mosque. And it's totally free to visit!

Men to the back of the bus...

Our hotel has a free shuttle bus that leaves at 10:00am to the Sheik Zayed Grand Mosque. This mosque is a major tourist attraction in Abu Dhabi, and it boasts of 64 million visitors since it opened in 2007.

So after our filling all you can eat breakfast buffet, we hopped on the free bus to go check it out.

Day one in Abu Dhabi

I know many people love Abu Dhabi and especially the nearby neighbor Dubai. But neither of these places have ever been very high on our to do list, and the only reason we are here is because of the flight routes that made our "hop skip and jump" journey from Bangkok to Istanbul a little more interesting.

The displays of opulence and wealth in Abu Dhabi and more so in Dubai can be interesting though

Welcome to United Arab Emirates (UAE)... country #71 for us!

Last you heard from us, we were waiting at Male Airport for our flight to Abu Dhabi. 

Things didn't really go according to plan for us in Male. We took the public ferry at 6:30am from the island of Dhiffushi, and the two and a half hour trip went by quickly. So we arrived at the Male ferry terminal at about 9:00am. Problem is, our flight wasn't until 7:00pm, so we had more than a few hours to waste.

Last day in the Maldives, and some things we want to tell you about.

Writing this at Male Airport while waiting for our evening flight to Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

We had a lazy last day on Dhiffushi Island. So lazy that it didn't even occur to us that we never did a blog post on that last day! And by the time we realized that, I just figured it could wait. Besides, we didn't do very much, although there are certainly some things we want to tell you about.

Swimming with the sharks

While we could spend our three full days here on the island of Dhiffushi just lazing about, the Maldives are one of the top locations in the world for snorkeling and diving. We are not divers, but we are quite happy to do some world class snorkeling!

Especially when our host told us that we could be swimming with the sharks as well!

Day one of island life

So, we are staying on the island of Dhiffushi in the Maldives. The island itself is about 1 km long, by 200 meters wide. At a slow pace, it takes about 30 minutes to walk around the circumference of the island. About 1,300 people live here full time. Dhiffushi is the most eastern inhabited island in the Maldives and is the first to witness sunrise every morning.

From the Visit Dhiffushi website... Dhiffushi was one of the first non-resort islands in the Maldives to commence offering holiday accommodation and was the leader from which all other islands followed. It's two main areas of commerce are fishing & of course, tourism. Affordable luxury, sprinkled with a wide variety of activities such as jet ski's, snorkeling with turtles, kite surfing and much much more. Proving visitors don't need to pay out for an expensive all inclusive resort to experience an amazing holiday in the Maldives. 

Welcome to the Maldives... country #70 for us!

We were up early again Saturday morning in order to catch our 9:15am flight to the Maldives. We purposely had our accommodation so that it was walking distance to Bangkok's Don Muang Airport and in ten minutes or so we were in the terminal.

Through immigration quickly, as well as security and waiting at our gate with an hour and a half to spare.

Travel day!

Well, our time in Hua Hin is up, and this morning we were up at 5:15am in order to catch or 6:40am train back to Bangkok.

Everything went smoothly, except that the train was a half hour late arriving. Apparently Thai trains are notorious for this, however our experience to date with the Thai train system has been really good.

What it cost for our two weeks in Hua Hin, Thailand

Thailand has a reputation of being a cheap place to visit, and while that is still totally true, costs have gone up here just as they have everywhere else in the world. 

Anyhow, we wanted to prove to ourselves that Thailand can still be done on the cheap. Because if you want to live like a tourist and eat "western" style food in higher end restaurants, it's still going add up to more than what you think it should.

We would go nuts here

While this two weeks at Hua Hin has been some good downtime, and we've got a lot accomplished on the internet, we are just about done.

Heck, even when we're in a place that we like we're ready to move on after two weeks. 

A few details about our upcoming trip to the Maldives!

We will be in Istanbul, Turkiye early next month, and when I was looking at flight prices and doing the route planning between Bangkok and Istanbul, I figured out that we could break the trip up with a few different destinations and it would cost about the same.

One of the choices along the way was to head to the Maldives... a group of islands in the Indian Ocean that is well known for their very expensive resorts and crystal clear blue water.

Cheapest day yet!

On Sunday, we hopped on the local transportation as far south as it goes. It only costs 15 baht ($0.42 USD, $0.57 CAD) per person no matter how far you go. 

So we went right to the end of the line, and walked down to the beach. There is small "island" at the end. Not really an island, but when the tide is all the way in, it looks like it is.

Kind of glad we've had all this down time

First thing I did Saturday morning was to check our online banking to see if the credit card problem was fixed. This time, it showed that my "available credit" was back to normal, instead of being a big negative number. With that confidence, I proceeded to book the Pegasus Airlines flight from Antalya to Paris and it went through with no problems at all!

So at least that is fixed, although with no explanation from Scotiabank at all. 

Well, that was a frustrating day!

It started off with an email from Turkish Airlines saying that they had cancelled and rescheduled our Kuwait to Istanbul flight originally on April 4th, to exactly the same time on April 5th.

I looked at all the options, including keeping it at April 5th, but we decided we were actually better off  changing it to April 3rd. So I did all the changes online, and it seemed to accept everything. 

Until I looked a little closer.

Paris is expensive!

So we're going to be spending a couple of nights in Paris with our daughter Lindsey and granddaughter Sadie at the beginning of May. And we knew in advance that Paris is expensive. But I figured that I'd be able to find some accommodation that is at least reasonably priced. 

Nope!

We got sidetracked!

Spending two weeks in one place means that we will have a few days with not much going on, and yesterday was one of those days. 

When we went out for lunch, we went to a new place on the other side of the tracks. Not the wrong side of the tracks... just the other side!

We've got a ton of exciting travel coming up!

Spent the morning researching various flight options to arrange meeting up with our daughter Lindsey and granddaughter Sadie in Paris. And the plan is starting to come together!

We've got her flights booked now. She's going to arrive in London a bit earlier and spend a couple of days with Ruth's aunt. Then they are going to hop on the chunnel train and take the train to Paris on May 1st. We will fly May 1st from Antalya, and meet them in Paris.

Good thing we all like different things!

We took the local transportation up to the central area yesterday. Not much to see, really. Hua Hin is a beach resort area and the beach is why people come here. 

The central area doesn't have much worthwhile. We wandered down to the beach, and then through some of the seedier bar and massage areas, but there isn't much going on there during the day.

Down to the beach!

It's too hot during the day to get a decent walk in, so we tried getting out early. But even before 8:00am, it's not early enough. You still end up drenched in sweat. Of course that would probably happen in the middle of the night as well, since the overnight lows are still around 27C (81F).

Our condo is only a ten minute walk from the beach, so we figured we might head that way just to check it out and walk along the beach.

Foreign exchange costs

First on the agenda here in Hua Hin was to get some more Thai baht cash. We had made an agreement with our host here to pay him for our accommodation in cash, and in exchange we got a healthy discount. But that discount is partially offset by the fact that it actually cost us money to get that cash.

Almost all Thai banks charge a fee of 220 baht ($6.20 USD, $8.40 CAD) for the privilege of using their ATM.

This will do for a couple of weeks!

It was a nice little guesthouse we stayed at near Bangkok's DMK airport. Really nice friendly people, and we've booked another night in there when we return to that airport to fly to Maldives on March 22nd.

Also, it's located a 15 minute walk from the terminal itself, and the commuter rail line to Bangkok's main train station. So it's really convenient as well.

Moving day today!

Didn't do anything yesterday! We were tired, and it was baking hot out, so other than getting out for some food, all we did for exercise was to walk with all of our worldly belongings from one cheap hotel room to another one.

But, we did a lot of internet research sitting in our air conditioned room, and got our condo and train tickets booked for our trip to Hua Hin today.

Change of plans!

We would have preferred to remain in Vietnam until March 22, but because of the screw up with the dates on our Vietnam visa, we had to leave the country by March 7th. Yes, we could have gone through the hassle and expense of getting an extension, but we didn't think it was worth it. In hindsight, maybe we should have, but of course hindsight is never useful, except as a learning experience!

Then we thought about going into Laos for a couple of weeks, but that was also going to involve visas, and the flights weren't cheap, and the route over land wasn't easy. 

Exploring Hanoi, Vietnam

On Monday, we spent a few hours wandering around Hanoi. Our hotel is located right in the center of the old quarter, and there is enough to see just walking about watching daily life that we didn't need to go very far. Still, we put on a lot of steps!

It is most fascinating watching the traffic. I took a couple of videos for you further down.

Out for a bike ride, then off to the big city of Hanoi

On Monday, our train to Hanoi didn't leave until just after 4:00pm, so we had most of the day to do some more exploring.

We rented a couple of bicycles and decided to ride up to the tourist boat port of Trang An just to see some different scenery and check out the area.

The right place, at the right time!

The highlight of the Ninh Binh area are the various boat tours that take you through the scenery and caves. There are quite a few options to sort through, and various routes to choose from. 

I did a lot of research, and we had made our choice and planned on doing a boat tour on Monday morning when it would be less busy. But it didn't turn out that way, and we're glad that we were in the right place at the right time to do things a little differently!

There's a reason it's busy here

There's not much to see in the actual town of Ninh Binh itself. But that's what people use as the transportation hub. Most of the hotels and restaurants are in the popular area at the town of Tam Coc, about 6 kms (3.7 miles) away.

And the reason Tam Coc is popular is because of the scenic geography with small rives flowing through three cave systems. The big attraction is a boat trip through the caves, although we are saving that for Monday when it will be less busy.

We found all the tourists!

And they are here in Ninh Binh. Every last one of them, apparently!

We woke up to another drizzly day in Vinh. You could tell it had rained quite a lot overnight, but fortunately we missed that and it was just drizzling a bit when we left for the train station.

February Expenses

Our expenses did pretty well in February, all things considered.

We had a budget of $2,385 CAD, and we spent $2,457 CAD ($1,810 USD) for the month. And the extra was solely related to our decision to fly from Da Lat to Vinh instead of taking buses. Without that, we actually would have been under budget. So we're really pleased with that.

One of the best meals we've had in Vietnam!

On Thursday, we took the minivan back to the city of Vinh. We simply went and stood on the main street. We were actually waiting for the number 31 bus that runs between Con Cuong and Vinh, but there are also the same system of minivans that we took to get to Con Cuong in the first place. And we were only at the stop for five minutes before one came along, so we hopped in it.

It was quite a bit quicker going back. We must have got in the "express" van, because it didn't make nearly as many stops as the one we took going up, and it was a little more expensive, at 120,000 dong ($4.90 USD, $6.60 CAD) per person for the two hour and twenty minute ride.

Last day in Con Cuong, Vietnam

Well, we haven't seen another westerner for five days... since we left the airport in Da Lat. 

And we also haven't seen any sunshine, at all! It hasn't really rained, it's just been foggy and overcast, with some occasional drizzle. Temperatures have been nice though, with highs around 20C (68F). 

We had the waterfall all to ourselves!

We did a little better for our included breakfast, as they brought us a big plate of chicken and egg fried rice and vegetables. Not fantastic, but at least we started the day with full stomachs!

Once again, the sun never made an appearance. The temperature is fine, nice and cool with a high of about 20C, but it drizzled with rain on and off. Not enough to stop us from going out exploring on our rented scooter!

Beautiful scenery in this rarely visited part of Vietnam

Our fancy hotel room is supposed to be "breakfast included". But of course nowhere does it say exactly what you'll get for breakfast. 

There were no guests in the dining room when we went down about 8:30am. As I mentioned yesterday, the place is very quiet. But there are a lot of staff around, and they are all very pleasant and cheerful.

If you are going to splurge, it's best to do so in a cheap country!

We had arranged with a "limousine service" to take us from Vinh to Con Cuong. I already knew that the word limousine here in Vietnam doesn't describe the same type of vehicle that we might envision in North America. Here, it is simply a minibus. 

We had been told to phone in at 8:00am, to confirm pickup at 8:30am right at our hotel. Which we did, but then it didn't show up until almost 9:00am, which didn't surprise us.

We've been on the move, so just playing catch up with you a little bit...

Writing this from our very basic, but relatively clean, 287,000 dong ($11.75 USD, $15.75 CAD) per night hotel room near the Vinh Airport which we flew into this (Saturday) morning.

We had to leave the hotel in Da Lat early this morning, and I had no time to write a blog post. So I'll update you on the past two days, because I'm not sure when you'll hear from us again!

Playing tourist in Da Lat, Vietnam

We hopped in a Grab taxi again on Thursday. A little further this time, as our drop off point was the Da Lat Cable Car. We had met a guy during our hike the day before who suggested this outing... the Da Lat Cable Car, followed by the Datanla Waterfall.

Cable Car rides are always fun, but we find them way overpriced in most situations. This one was not bad, at 120,000 dong ($4.95 USD, $6.60 CAD) each for the round trip ride.

We are overdue for an adventure!

On Wednesday, we hopped in another Grab taxi, this time to the center of the city. We really hadn't seen the city, other than driving by the outskirts on our way to our guesthouse the other day, so we figured we had better go check it out since many comments have been from people saying how much they like Da Lat. 

It cost about 80,000 dong ($3.25 USD, $4.40 CAD) for the 6.5 km (4 mile) one way trip.

Finally made it out for a hike... temperatures are perfect!

My original thinking was to rent a scooter here in Da Lat, which many tourists do, even though it's technically illegal in Vietnam unless you go through a local licensing procedure which most do not. But it's not the illegality that stops me... I'm just not that comfortable with the crazy traffic, even though it's far less busy here than it was in the big city.

So we are relegated to using Grab taxis, which are not as convenient, and slightly more expensive depending on where we want to go. But that's our choice, so we'll make it work.

Mixed first impressions of Da Lat area

We had arrived at Da Lat airport after dark on Sunday night, so we didn't get any idea of what our hotel or  the surrounding area looked like until we woke up Monday morning.

And we were pleasantly surprised!

Here's a rare treat for you!

We met up with Susan and Blair just in front of the Saigon Opera House just after 9:30am in order to do the Hop on Hop off bus tour. 

We normally find these types of tours too expensive, but we figured in a cheap country it might be more reasonable. And it was, compared to most other cities around the world, but still not good value for us.

A quick walk around the downtown of Ho Chi Minh City... and taking a last minute flight!

First order of business was to get some breakfast. While we like Vietnamese food, we don't so much like it for breakfast. But we managed to find a place that did omelets and smoothies down on the main tourist street.

There was a western looking guy sitting beside us, and it turned out he's a Canadian from Northern Alberta. Been coming here to SE Asia every winter for 19 years, other than two years during Covid.

Good morning, Vietnam! Country number 69 for us!

But before we talk about our entry into Vietnam, we have to back up a day or two. 

On Thursday, we were waiting for our Vietnam eVisas to be processed. I checked around 11:00am, and mine was still listed as "in processing". I had sent the applications in on February 3rd, but that was a Saturday and it said that processing time was three business days. So that meant that they should have been processed by the end of the day Wednesday February 7th. 

Kayaking in Kampot

The first place we stayed here in Kampot had an advertisement in the lobby for river kayaking. It included pick up and delivery and a cocktail afterwards, but at $25 USD each, our first thought was that it was pretty expensive.

Then when we were out looking at accommodation options the other day, we had walked by a place that had a sign up saying kayak rental $5. That sounds like a better deal to us!

Thinking we're going to stay an extra day

Didn't sleep well the night before, so I had to have a morning nap instead of an afternoon nap! Only problem with that is that you kind of waste away the cooler morning, and by the time you get out to do something, it's baking hot.

But, we needed some exercise, and they have a couple of old bicycles here at the resort. They are junk, and not comfortable to ride, and the gears don't work properly... but we set off anyhow to a waterfall about 5 kms (3 miles) away.

More travel planning, and an afternoon by the pool

I spent a couple more hours planning onward travel yesterday. While it would have been much easier to only have to book one direct flight from Bangkok to Istanbul, it's going to be a lot more interesting doing the four flights from Bangkok to Maldives to Abu Dhabi to Kuwait to Istanbul!

So I booked the remaining two flights yesterday. In total, it is costing $513 USD ($691 CAD) each for the four flights, which is actually a few dollars cheaper than it would have cost for the one direct flight.

This is MUCH better... and, some exciting news!

We moved yesterday... to a much nicer spot. 

Before we left though, we walked into town to do some stocking up. The new place isn't walking distance to any worthwhile shops, and we knew we were going to have a fridge in the room at the new place, so we could do our own breakfast. And keep some beer cold!

We needed to do better!

If we wanted to stay at our current accommodation, we had to change rooms. The host offered us an interior room with no windows, for only $9 USD ($12 CAD), compared to the $12 USD, ($16 CAD) we had paid for the first night.

For that price, we would give it a shot for a night. It's not really the type of place that we'd like to spend more than a couple of nights, and in all honesty I'm not enjoying the heat, and without air conditioning it's pretty darn warm. On the other hand, the price is very attractive!

I wanted to leave our options open

We finally made it out of Phnom Penh. 

Even when we're in a place that we really like, we feel the need to move on after two weeks or so. So when we're in a place that we don't like, five days is about four days too many! And so it was with Phnom Penh.

Still in Phnom Penh!

We got up Thursday morning to find that Ruth had a bad stomach. There was no way she was prepared to sit in a minibus for three hours! So I went down to the front desk to make sure we were able to stay another night, which was no problem... so we are still in Phnom Penh!

Ruth never left the room all day. I went out for a half hour power walk just to get some exercise.

I guess we're going with plan B

Well, it's Thursday morning here in Phnom Penh, and our eVisas to Vietnam still show as "in processing". Due to Chinese New Year celebrations, their office is now closed until the 14th, so we're stuck here in Cambodia until then.

So, plan "B' it is!

Stuck in Phnom Penh

We're here in Phnom Penh waiting for our Vietnam eVisas to be approved. A bit frustrating because Phnom Penh was never on our "go to" list in the first place. But, totally my fault for not planning the eVisas in advance.

And the secondary problem is that the visa department is closed February 8-14 because of Chinese New Year. They did say standard approval time is within three working days, but they probably have a rush of applications prior to the closing. Anyhow, two days have passed, and the website still says "in processing".

Phnom Penh Red Light District

Yesterday, we spent a couple of hours wandering Phnom Penh in the baking heat. It never really cools off here. When the overnight low only goes to 27C (81F), it doesn't take long for things to bake as soon as the sun rises.

And yet, over 2 million people call this home. And there are quite a few expats here. We don't get it, but once again, it's good that we don't all like the same things.

Arrived in Phnom Penh

We said goodbye to our host Manel at Manel Guesthouse in Senmonorom. We had a really good stay there. Manel and his family treated us really well. He even gave us each a hug when we left. Can't recommend them enough. We can tell already that this will be our best memory of Cambodia. 

The minivan was there to pick us up at 9:15am for our six hour drive to Phnom Penh. 

A few things to talk about...

After we got back from the elephant visit and jungle trekking, we just hung out at the guesthouse and relaxed here in Senmonorom the last couple of days. We had a lot of onward travel planning research to do, and some decisions to make, and really... we just needed to take a couple of days and do nothing!

But with that done, there's a lot to tell you about!

January Expenses

Not bad, all things considered, but still more expensive than we thought it would be given that we are in "cheap" countries. Also considering we spent almost a week with our friends Han and Michelle and they hardly let us pay for anything! (Thanks again!)

And of course I had my heart health tests done during the month, which added a lot, however even taking that amount off it was more expensive than we planned.

Jungle trekking in Cambodia

We woke up from a poor nights sleep in the indigenous homestay hut. The bed itself was comfortable enough, and we weren't bothered by bugs... it was the dogs barking! No idea how everyone sleeps around there. Like in Mexico, they must have an afternoon siesta!

But... we had some hiking to do! 

A day learning about the elephants!

On Tuesday, we did the first part of a two day tour here in eastern Cambodia. Day one was a visit to an elephant sanctuary. It's actually called The Elephant Community Project. 

Interesting story behind how it all works. The guy running it was hired in 2015 to do a study about how many "domestic" elephants there were in Mondulkiri province. He visited all of the small towns and villages and farms and at the time of his research, the final tally was 64 elephants. 

Cambodia's highest waterfall

The guesthouse where we are staying has scooters for rent. So we paid the $10 USD ($13.40 CAD) daily rental fee and hopped on a scooter for the 35 km (22 mile) ride to Cambodia's highest waterfall.

And our host Manel gave us a list of things to see along the way.

Our first day exploring the area...

Senmonorom is known as an "off the beaten path" destination for tourism. There sure are a lot of guest houses and hotels here, although they seem to be mostly empty. The guest house where we are staying has 10 rooms, but we were the only ones here last night. 

Our host Manel says that tourism here hasn't yet recovered from Covid. And because Cambodia charges a visa fee, most tourists who like SE Asia flocked to Thailand first. 

We think we're going to like it here!

We were up at 6:00am Friday morning, and quickly packed up and headed down for breakfast. 

When we bought the tickets, we were surprised that they asked which hotel we were staying at so the tuk-tuk could pick us up. We had assumed that we would have to make our own way to the bus station. But sure enough, the guy was there right at 7:00am.

Visit to Cambodia's stilt houses

Well that was an interesting day. 

The tuk-tuk driver we had met the evening before at dinner picked us up right on schedule at 10:30am Friday morning. The plan was to drive us out to the local village of Kampong Phluk on Tonle Sap Lake.

Tonle Sap Lake is part of the Mekong River system, and is the largest freshwater lake in SE Asia.

Decision made!

We haven't done very much the last couple of days, but we had some computer stuff to catch up on, and some onward travel planning. And, we had to make a decision regarding the Koh Ker Temple that we wanted to visit.

The problem is that the Koh Ker site is located 113 kms (70 miles) from here, and there are no public transportation options.

Angkor Wat Temple Complex Part 2...the highlight, and final thoughts

Continuing on with our day tour to Angkor Wat. If you missed part 1, you can go back to it here.

We actually enjoyed the second half of the day better than the first half.

It included the Ta Prohm Temple... also often called "The Tomb Raider Temple", due to its depiction in the 2001 film Lara Croft: Tomb Raider. It was this film that originally caused visitor numbers at Angkor Wat to skyrocket.

Angkor Wat Temple Complex Part 1

The complex is huge... it's over 400 acres in size. Pretty much impossible to do in a one day visit, so they sell 3 day and 7 day packages as well. But, it's also pricey. A one day pass costs $37 USD ($50 CAD). And, you need to be able to get around the complex. We hired a tuk tuk driver to spend the day ferrying us around the various temples for a cost of $20 USD ($27 CAD) including tip. So for two people, $94 USD ($127 CAD). An expensive day out.

We got an early start to try and beat the crowds, and to a certain extent, it worked. We left the hotel just before 8am, and by the time we bought our tickets and walked to the entrance of the main temple, it was 8:30am.