Nosteimo Greece (how's that for Greek-lish?)

I am in yet another stunning country, experiencing another new culture. I arrived in Athens, Greece last week after transferring through Doha, Qatar, which was a very unique experience in itself (even though I didn't leave the airport, the landscape was stark dessert) to the welcoming arms of familiar faces, Mother, Uncle, Aunt, and cousins. Greece felt new, but at the same time somewhat familiar, having been surrounded my entire life with stories and language and Greek culture from my Uncle George, who is a Greek Canadian and whose family journey's back to holiday in his birth country every summer. As I entered yet another new culture, I did it with a new group of travel mates; new habits and people whom I had not been around in a long time. We spent a couple days in Athens exploring the ancient acropolis, an ancient structure that I am not sure I have total historical appreciation for, but was stunning in and of itself. We saw the new acropolis museum as well, a fabulous display of ancient artifacts and ruins from the acropolis. I felt a little under pressure, being back around these openly familiar people, naturally being questioned from a number of people about my summer and my lifestyle choices, but appreciated the challenge. During those first days in Athens, we visited my Uncles old suburb of Athens, saw the home where he grew up, complete with lemon and fig tree out front, the church he attended, and the dilapidated school that he learned in. It was only after the hardship of the second world war that his family decided to make the semi permanent move to Canada, which eventually turned into the permanent home for his family, a country which seemed to carry through on it's promises of a better life, but that lacked the same comforting culture of Greece, their true home. During these same first few days in Athens, I discovered the sheer pleasure of home style Greek food enjoyed in the warm outdoor air of one of the very many tavernas. After plotting our adventures for the next couple of weeks in this new country that was new to me, but so familiar to my Aunt, Uncle and cousins, we journeyed on our first out of Athens adventure to Hydra, a quaint little pedestrian and donkey only isle close to Athens, with crystal clear turquoise waters and cute ma and pop tavernas. And now, I write to you from Stoupa. A small beach town, located next to a small fishing village, on the coast of the warm Mediterranean waters in south western Greece, in the lovely Pelleponesse area of this European country. Here, an area that has been on my Aunt and Uncles agenda almost every time they venture 'home' we are with some of my uncles family, enjoying swimming in the brackish beaches that are constantly supplied with fresh mountain water, crisp and clean, an anomaly in this seemingly desert like landscape. Late night dinners at tavernas in fishing or mountain villages where everyone shares the typically wonderful and fresh dishes, where melons, oranges, lemons and figs are so wonderfully sweet and ripe, being picked and eaten so close. Where I have discovered yet another fresh, beautiful culture, and will continue to for two weeks more.

The land of the Thai...

Hello all. Krista and I have entered the fourth and final country in our jaunt around Southeast Asia. We chose to spend the last week of our journey together in the tropical paradise - the islands of southern Thailand. After a unique night on an overcrowded truly westernized beach on the larger, more popular island of Phuket, Krista and I took a ferry ride over to Co Phi Phi. A tropical paradise indeed. I don't recall ever seeing water so clear and blue, with hints of green, and sand so white and brilliant. The island is well developed for tourism, most of the buildings are beautiful newly constructed bamboo huts, bungalows and small restaurants, bars and guesthouses, Phi Phi was decimated during the tsunami of 2004, but, as I have seen time and time again in Southeast Asian countries, the people have beautifully rebounded, ready to make a dollar from the tourists. Here, Thai massage, buckets of alcohol, sumptuous Thai food, tattoo parlours, and trendy beach bars with flame throwers reign high to entice the very young crowd to indulge during their beach holidays. The developed portion of the isle is small, and (refreshingly) there are no cars or motorbikes allowed on the island! Just carts to lug around goods in, bicycles and feet are at work transporting things here, down the narrow alleys lined with shops and restaurants. Today Krista and I were out on the water by hired boat to snorkel and see some more of the stunning beaches surrounding this group of 6 magnificent limestone cliffed, blue watered islands. (one of the beaches we visited was the set for the film 'The Beach'). They were all beautiful, the water clear, the swimming great, and the fish beautiful. Really a decadent way to end mine and Krista's time together (ahhh! I hate that I have to write end!) It's amazing again how nice the Thai people are that we have encountered (and how well they cook pad Thai, panang curry, and oh, of course you can't forget the sweet sticky rice with mango, maybe with a fruit shake on the side). That seems to be one commonality to the people of Southeast Asia: although they (constantly) want to sell you a sarong, scarf, tuk tuk ride, boat ride, or hotel room, they are generally very welcoming of tourists, quite honest, and very willing to show you their culture.

Tonight, as Krista and I rambled our way along the beach, with the tide a long way out, we saw plenty of people with headlights staring down into the shallow water, we wandered down to see what they were in search of. When we asked the man what he was doing, he proudly held up a small bag of lightly coloured prawns, and let us tag along for a minute or two, as he placed a simple bamboo cylinder around a prawn when he spotted one, and let Krista (attempt) to scoop it up with her fingers and place it in his trusty bag. "Cop coon" we hummed as we slipped away back up to the dry sand "cop coon lai" he loudly replied, happy that we spoke that simple word aloud to him. Sometimes, little words, little actions, can really mean a lot.

Tragedy and beauty

Really, I could think of many words to describe Cambodia, but the first one that comes to my mind from what I have seen and learned from being in this country for 4 days is Tragic. Krista and I started in Phnom Penh where we visited a jail and killing fields where thousands of people were brutally (and I mean brutally) tortured and killed during the Khmer Rouge Rule between 1975-1979. It was horrific, learning the senseless ways that such horror was inflicted on such innocent people. It made me disappointed and confused that my fellow race could be so brutal, but more unknown about how the rest of us could sit back and watch it all. We saw some startling photos, walked over the communal burial sites of thousands of people and it was just all confusing to me. And you can still see what many Khmers (ie Cambodians) call the aftermath of this genocide - poverty in a way that I have not seen in other SE Asian countries yet. Although this country has quite a history, that does certainly not stop with the genocide (there have been endless battles with the Thais and Vietnamese, unexploded landmines all over the countryside, starvation and famine, endless socio economic issues) the people seem very resilient. I have yet to meet a mean or rude Cambodian, and like Laos and Vietnam, they seem utterly proud in a shy way of their culture, and want to show you how a Khmer lives. It's beautiful to see that even after such unexplainable tragedy (the tour guide we have right now has actually done an amazing job of telling us some horrific stories of his past - and he's one of the lucky ones) the people here are coming back.

Now enter Angkor. A stunning, intruding, amazing, artistic, engineering masterpiece. Temple after temple, surrounded by majestic moats and floating lily pads, these ancient (and I mean ancient) ruins are full of awe. Today we saw the sun rise over Angkor Wat, and tomorrow we will venture into some more of the temples that have been slightly taken back by mother nature. They are truely a marvel, and they make me want to read more and more about them when I return home in September. Sending you my hellos!

Stay another day Laos

Luang Prabang is tonic for the soul. From the moment we got to this quiet UNESCO heritage listed town I knew that it would be wildly different then the vibes I got in Vietnam. The meek and curious nature of the beautiful Lao people means that they don't push at the market, they don't ask you a ridiculous amount of times if you'd like a tuk tuk ride. Instead, these shy friendly people want to show you their culture, to share their passion for "sticky" with you and to giggle cutely at the long nosed "falang" that us white Westerners are. Luang Prabang seems to have more money, they have a glorious number of ancient temples that throb with Buddhist chants at both 4 am and pm. They have a really great set of local talents; weaving silk, creating handicrafts and creating culinary delights reign high here. The World Bank (sometimes of questionable intentions) here seems to have picked up on these special talents and has put together an intriguing sustainable tourism campaign to market such local beauties to tourists. The town is surrounded by water, the Mekong River to the west and the Nam Kahn to the East which means that local guesthouses have set up some beautiful riverside patios dishing out local delights.

And then you easily forget the seemingly clean wealth of Luang Prabang when you trek out into the Khmu and H'mong hill tribe villages as Krista and I did. We stayed in one such village where everyone shares a communal water tap, and where 50 bodies gather around the bamboo home that has a television and an accompanying generator to create electricity to have it one. But somehow, these people seem happy. It's hard to know if they desire to escape the lifestyle they live (one we would immediately see as poverty) or if they know no different and value their traditional way of life. Krista and I have enjoyed Laos alot. The night market is beautiful, the fresh exotic fruit smoothies delich, the kayaking on (insane) rapids in rainstorms was invigorating, and the cuisine is most delightful. But mostly it is the kind people in this place. They have such personality, and such pride.

Unfortunately though, my dear travelling buddie Krista has come down with a case of the common traveller's ailment (even though the food we ate was all so delicious, and the exact same that I ate...) So send her some of your good healthy energy, cause she's bummed about feeling rotten.

Oh Oh and guess what! I have a home to live in come September in Toronto! Peace for the day!