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Exploring the Unknown
  • Sophie And Neve
Aug 2019 – Mar 2020

Exploring the Unknown

A 212-day adventure by Sophie Read more
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  • Sophie And NeveExploring the UnknownSophie And Neve

    Happy New Year!!

    December 31, 2019 in Vietnam ⋅ 🌧 20 °C

    Happy New Year! To celebrate the last day of 2019, we started our day with a run. We ran past cows that were just sitting on the road and goats that were running around. Then, we took some bikes and biked 2km to the Mua Caves. We walked on a wooden walkway that went across a pretty shallow lake. There were fields beside the lake with lots of goats running through them.

    The Mua Caves aren’t really caves. There are some caves at the bottom, but they are mostly filled with water. We walked up around 500 steps to go up to a viewpoint. It was really windy and foggy, but I think the fog made the view better. Then we walked down 250 steps and went up 300 more. At the top, there’s a big stone dragon. We got a bunch of pictures of us around it and then went back down.

    We spent most of the afternoon at home reading. We did go to a place called Rosa’s and got some smoothies. Rosa’s had some board games, so we played some of those.

    In the evening, the owners of our homestay invited all the guests to a big dinner to celebrate New Years. It was us, three other guests, the host and his family and his sister with her husband. For dinner, we got to make our own summer rolls. They’re like spring rolls, but they use rice paper instead and they’re not fried. There were plates of meat, egg, vegetables and noodles to make our summer rolls. They were so good!

    After that, they served us tea and watermelon at another table.

    There were fireworks in Ninh Binh, but we didn’t go to them. We stayed in our room and me and Neve watched a movie while our parents read.

    Sophie

    Pour célébrer le Nouvelle An, la famille qui est propriétaire de notre appartement a invité tous les personnes à un souper ensemble. Il y avait seulement notre famille, 3 autres personnes, la famille et la soeur du propriétaire. On a fait des wraps de riz vietnamien. Il y avait des plateaux avec du viande, du oeuf, des nouilles et du concombre. On pouvait prendre un papier de riz, mettre la nourriture qu’on voulait et l’enrouler.

    Après le souper, on a allé à un autre table pour du thé et du melon d’eau.

    Il y avait des feux d’artifices, mais on a rester dans notre appartement. Moi et Neve on regarder un filme et mes parents ont lu.    Read more

  • Sophie And NeveExploring the UnknownSophie And Neve

    An Interview with Neve...

    January 2, 2020 in Vietnam ⋅ 🌙 19 °C

    For today's blog post, I interviewed Neve to get a bit of her perspective on our trip, Vietnam and Ninh Binh...enjoy!

    What has your favorite thing been about Ninh Binh?

    The scenery and the hills covered by trees. I also like the little ponds that have giant lily pads with flowers in them.

    How would you describe Ninh Binh to your friends?

    Ninh Binh is a good place to go if you like exercise. It is really pretty. If you are going to stay here, don’t go with too many people because the homestay rooms aren’t very spacious. You would also want to stay just outside of Ninh Binh because it is less busy, smaller and the scenery is nicer.

    Your friend Nina is planning on travelling to Vietnam. Do you think she would like to visit Ninh Binh?

    Yes, because she would like Trang An because of the scenery and would enjoy the boat tour we took yesterday.

    If yes, what do you think she would like the most about this place?

    I think she would probably really like the hills and the fact that she could bike everywhere.

    What’s been your least favorite part of Ninh Binh?

    I don’t like that my parents make us bike everywhere. That’s not always fun! It gets annoying to have to bike everywhere and my legs start to hurt!

    What is something interesting you’ve learned about Vietnam?

    The food. They sell entire goats!! The food isn’t spicy, which is a good thing. The vietnamese usually take a bunch of little things and eat it. For example, if you go to a restaurant, you would order a plate of rice, a plate of various meats and take a bit from each to make a meal. They eat snails, but I don’t want to talk about them, because they are disgusting in my opinion. Who would want to eat them?

    Can you tell me what you did yesterday?

    Yesterday, we went on a 2 hour boat ride, where we went through a 1 km cave and some shorter caves. We also stopped at some spiritual temples. The 1 km cave had a lot of stalactites hanging from the top of the cave and we had to duck because they were so big. We also got dripped on by water. We also heard bats because at one point we came into a large chamber. The scenery on the boat ride was really hilly and there were lots of lily pads in the water. There were also huge rocks coming out of the water.

    What did you do today?

    Today, I biked into Tam Coc and a bit further to a bird sanctuary (we didn’t actually go into the bird sanctuary). Then we biked back into Tam Coc and had ice cream and tea. We biked 24 km today. This afternoon I did some math with my dad and now I’m answering your questions.

    What has been the hardest part about travelling?

    Umm...missing my friends, but it’s also missing Ginger because when I’m at home I don’t see my friends everyday, but I do see Ginger every single day. I also miss the snow.

    What have you liked the most about travelling?

    Getting to see new things like Notre Dam and the lock bridge in Paris. I also have enjoyed learning about different cultures, which has been interesting.

    Out of all of the places you have visited, where would you recommend your friends visit if they could only choose one spot?

    Budapest!! It has lots of coffee shops and there is lots to do.

    What has been the most favorite thing you have done while travelling?

    You can’t ask me that! It’s like if you have a cat and a dog and you had to choose which was your favorite. I’m not answering this question!

    What has your favorite food been in Vietnam?

    I like the crab spring rolls in Hanoi.

    What has your least favorite food been?

    Snails!!

    Clarinda and Neve    Read more

  • Sophie And NeveExploring the UnknownSophie And Neve

    Traveling to Sa Pa, Vietnam

    January 7, 2020 in Vietnam ⋅ 🌧 3 °C

    Yesterday we said goodbye to our homestay owners. We had such a lovely time in Ninh Binh. This area of Vietnam is beautiful, but what made our stay special was our homestay. We were treated so well and it was nice getting to know the owners. Our homestay owners made our travel arrangements to get to Sapa, a 7 hour bus ride. We were picked up at 8:20 and driven to the bus “station” in Ninh Binh. However, after arriving, we were told that the bus we were supposed to take had broken down. But, not to worry, a van had been arranged for us to take us to Hanoi and from there we would go to Sapa. We were told numerous times that this was going to be more expensive, but that the bus company would absorb the cost. We were also told that buses left Hanoi every half hour and that we would be dropped off at office number 679. It’s at times like these during our travels, that David and I look at one another and really hope we aren’t being scammed. But we remind ourselves that we never have been and that if things don’t turn out, we can always sort it out.

    A limousine van arrived to drive us to Hanoi. It was quite nice and we arrived at office #679 only to be told that what we assumed was the bus to Sapa would leave in 1.5 hours. So much for getting to Sapa in 7 hours. At 11:45 another van arrived and we were told to get on. As I figured this was going to take us to Sapa, I got settled in. I removed my watch, sweater, shoes, got out my kobo and started to read “Educated.” Imagine my surprise when we actually arrive at the Hanoi bus station to be hurriedly told to get out of the van in Vietnamese and to follow a random guy who already had some of our bags, into the station. Such a bad decision to get settled in! We arrive at the bus station with no bus tickets, but somehow were told to get on a bus. We were told to remove our shoes and place them in a plastic bag and find a “sleeper” seat. Rather then a typical bus, this bus was comprised of three rows containing bunker style sleeper seats which reclined and had blankets. It was a great way to travel, except for the last 45 minutes which involved switch backs up towards Sapa. David told me it was a good thing I didn’t have a window seat because I didn’t really want to see how we were making it up the mountain in the dark. But we made it and while I had my doubts, I try to remind myself that most people are honest.

    Sa Pa is beautiful! We are in staying with a Hmong family, one of the Indigenous groups in the area. The food and hospitality has been amazing!! For breakfast we had crepes with sugar, a type of condensed milk and bananas!! We are still in one room with all four of us, similar to our homestay in Ninh Binh, but we are managing and still getting along well! Our homestay is about 4 km outside of Sa Pa, so this morning we hiked up the 4 km hill to get into town and familiarize ourselves with our surroundings. The scenery is stunning. This afternoon David worked on our budget to ensure our spending is on track while I came up with a 6 day itinerary for our stay. Tomorrow we’ll walk back to Sa Pa and climb Ham Rong Mountain. Stay tuned!

    Clarinda    Read more

  • Sophie And NeveExploring the UnknownSophie And Neve

    Worst Trek Ever!

    January 10, 2020 in Vietnam ⋅ 🌙 13 °C

    We came to Sapa to trek. We wanted to trek up Mount Fancipan, the highest mountain in Vietnam and Indochina, but it was really expensive and would have involved an overnight. Instead, our homestay owner took us through a bamboo forest. Our day started by taking a half hour taxi ride to a set of waterfalls named the Love Waterfalls. After looking a the waterfalls, we started on the trail to Fancipan and trekked uphill for 2 hours. We eventually arrived at a little lodge and had lunch. On the way, our guide used his machete to make me and Neve walking sticks out of bamboo. For lunch, our guide gave us some bread, some veggies, a bit of meat and some fruit. There were also little containers of something. Our guide pointed at it and said “Milk,”. We opened one up and it looked like yogurt or something. Someone said that it was probably mayonnaise, so we put it on our sandwiches. We thought that the bread was sweet, and it was a weird combination with the sweet bread and the meat on our sandwiches. Neve said that her bread wasn’t sweet, so it was a little weird, but then I realised that it wasn’t mayonnaise, it was condensed milk. My mom and I had put quite a bit on our sandwich. There was also a cat who was very friendly and was really wanted to help us eat our lunch, especially the apples!

    After that, we went uphill for another 2 hours before we started heading back down. At this point, we had trekked up halfway of Fansipan mountain. When we got near the lodge where we had lunch, and then we took a different path. This path took us through lots of jungle. There were huge leaves everywhere. We were going down through the jungle and there were trees everywhere with lots of bushes and plants. It was slow going because sometimes we would have to crouch down to get under leaves or trees. My dad and Neve were only a little bit behind my mom and I, but we could not see them because the jungle was so dense.

    After the jungle, there was a bamboo forest. The bamboo forest was the worst part, because we were still going down and some parts of the downhill were really steep. We had to go a lot slower because we didn’t want to fall. I had already fallen 3 times. Our guide kept on telling us to hurry up because it was getting late and it got dark around 5:30. We tried to go faster, but we still couldn’t go very fast, because it was super steep. The trail was washed out and the rocks were super muddy, wet and slippery. We had to crouch down on our hands to make it down!

    Eventually, it got dark out and we had to use our phone flashlights. Our guide had his phone, and we had one phone. It helped a little bit, but we were moving super slowly because we still didn’t have a lot of light. I think I fell 9 times on the whole hike. At one point, I almost fell off a cliff; it was dark out, so I couldn’t see very well and I fell, slipping down but caught myself just in time. My dad had to pull me back up. Everyone in my family fell and my mom was really scared going down. She does not like heights and she was worried about my sister and I. We finally made it to a road, and walked about 10 minutes before we got to a taxi. It was 9 hours of trekking, with 1.5 hours in the dark! The guide said that he hadn’t done the trail in a few years and that it had eroded because it wasn’t like that when he had done it before. The next day, we all got to rest. My sister and my mom were pretty sore.

    Sophie

    La nourriture dans Vietnam est très bon. Chaque nuit, les personnes de notre homestay nous cuisinent du nourriture différent. Ils nous donnent des petits plats avec 5 différents types de nourriture. Il y a toujours du riz et il y a toujours du soupe. Ils font des petits spring rolls beaucoup, et du brocoli ou champignon dans du porc. La nuit dernière, ils nous ont fait des frites et du riz de bamboo. C’est du riz qui a été cuit dans du bamboo, le riz est enveloppé dans un mince couche de bamboo. On a aussi des plats de légumes, come du brocoli ou de l’épinard.

    Pour le déjeuner, on a toujours des crêpes avec des bananes, du sucre et du lait condensé. Ils nous donnent du thé aussi avec le déjeuner et le souper.    Read more

  • Sophie And NeveExploring the UnknownSophie And Neve

    Pedicures, Manicures and Cat Cat Village

    January 12, 2020 in Vietnam ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    Today we visited a traditional Black H’Mong Village, called Cat Cat Village. The H’Mong people make up 53% of the Sa Pa population. In Cat Cat, there were lots of stores selling traditional dresses. If you go on a tour into Cat Cat Village, you can rent these traditional dresses as you walk around the village. We saw lots of women whose hands were blue because they dyed fabric with indigo dye. They used the dyed fabric to make lots of tapestries, bags, table cloths, coasters, scarves and clothing. The H’Mong women also embroider designs into their crafts. The the wife at our homestay embroidered Sophie and I some earrings that are very pretty.

    In Cat Cat, we went into lots of the shops. We bought some traditional tea and a tapestry. We also walked down to a series of waterfalls. There were also bridges that we could walk along. The waterfalls were very pretty. There were also water wheels, as well as lookouts and restaurants. There were also statues made out of dried ears of corn. You could go inside of them. Some of them were designed in the shape of a well, and a grinder. When we were leaving the waterfall, we stopped at one of the lookouts and saw a group performing traditional dances; they were wearing traditional clothing, which was very pretty. The only annoying thing about Cat Cat village was that the people trying to sell items kept asking “shopping, shopping” and getting annoyed at us when we didn’t buy everything.

    For lunch, we had yummy BBQ veggies and meat for lunch. When we were in Sa Pa, we lived with a H’Mong family and learned a lot about their lifestyle. The best part of staying at the homestay was learning how they cooked all their food on only one burner and yet made amazing meals. They also only had one cutting board, but a lot of sharp knives.

    Neve
    _ _ _

    Aujourd’hui ma Mère et moi on eu des pédicurie et Sophie a eu une manucure. Ma Mere a choisi la couleur grise - violette Sophie un blue foncé et j’ai la couleur bleu- vert. Les personne qui ont fait nos ongles étaient vraiment gentille. C'était vraiment relax et amusant. Ils ont fait nos ongles regarder parfait et vraiment beau. Les personne qui a fait nos ongles à prix beaucoup de photo de nous. Après les pedicure j’ai aller a un “coffee shop” et puis on avait un après midi relax et on est aller fair du shopping. On a acheté des headphones et des groceries. Ce soir on vais regarder une film d’aventure.    Read more

  • Sophie And NeveExploring the UnknownSophie And Neve

    Beautiful Malaysia (KL and Langkawi)

    January 20, 2020 in Malaysia ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    On January 18, 2020, we arrived in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I knew the moment we landed, we would love it here. As we began our descent, you could see the sparkling Indian Ocean and then gradually we could see land that was filled with huge palm trees. And the heat - it’s been an average of +35 since we arrived; we have all agreed that we much prefer -35 as opposed to the heat.

    Since we have been travelling close to 5 months now, we knew we needed to do some shopping in Kuala, Lumpur. We couldn’t have picked a better city as Malays love their shopping malls and they are all air conditioned. The girls and I spent an entire afternoon at the Mid Valley and Mega Mall. We replaced some of our worn out t-shirts with some really fun New Year’s themed shirts. The malls were really busy as many, many people prepared for the Chinese New Year which is celebrated on January 25 and 26, 2020. Welcome to year of the Rat!

    We also visited the KLCC Tower, the Petronas Towers, Little India, saw some really cool street art and learned about Malaysia’s history by visiting the national museum. There was so much more we could have done, but after our experience in Ha Noi, we also just wanted to regroup and take it easy. We had an amazing apartment in KL, that was perfect for hanging out in. Our apartment building also had an infinity pool so the girls went swimming at least once a day, and we also managed to get a couple of family runs in on the dreadmills (so boring, but with the heat, the only way we managed to run) in the building’s gym.

    After 3 days in KL, we flew to Langkawi, an archipelago made up of 99 islands on Malaysia’s west coast. It is surrounded by turquoise water and the beach, which is a 1.5 km walk from our rustic cottage style accommodations, has beautiful white sand. The only annoying thing about swimming at the beach is that tiny, 1 cm jelly fish sting you in the water. About every 20 seconds you feel a pinch somewhere on your skin. The stings don’t itch or leave any marks, but it is a bit annoying. But as Sophie and I agree, we can now say we have all been stung by jelly fish. There is a netted area that you can swim in, which catch the jellyfish, and sometime you can see jellyfish washed up on shore. It is high season for jellyfish so I guess the little ones getting through the net is to be expected. I really do hope that none of us gets stung by the larger jelly fish as I'm sure that would hurt much more than a pinching sensation. We have heard that vinegar helps with the stings, so may add a bottle to our beach bag. Despite the tiny jellyfish, visiting the beach will be a daily occurrence. On our first day here, we managed to catch the sunset on the beach, so I will be sure to go back to get some better photos.

    The last thing I’ll mention is that every Thursday evening between 6:00 and 9:00 pm, there is an amazing food market/clothing market about a 10 minute walk from our rustic cottage. We went last night and were not disappointed. I had Nasi Goren for dinner (Heit, your’s is still the best I have tasted), but this one was pretty good. David and Sophie had BBQ lamb and corn on the cob while Neve had sticky rice with Mango and a Mango milkshake - it was so good. You’ll know where we will be having dinner next week. We also tried some cookies for dessert that were in the shape of fortune cookies but with a fruit filling. The average price seems to be 5 RM per meal item, so about $1.62 Canadian.

    The rest of our days have been filled with catching up on banking, correspondence, submitting school receipts, finding a decent grocery store, and finalizing our dates for flying back to Canada. It is hard to believe that we have been away from home for almost 5 months. It has gone by so fast, but we continue to be incredibly grateful for this year away from the business of work and being able to spend quality time together as a family. Signing up for the deferred leave program and travelling abroad was one of the best decisions we have made and while there have been hiccups along the way, we wouldn’t trade this experience for anything.

    Clarinda    Read more

  • Sophie And NeveExploring the UnknownSophie And Neve

    Snorkeling on Coral Island, Malaysia

    January 27, 2020 in Malaysia ⋅ ⛅ 28 °C

    One of the popular things to do in Langkawi that we wanted to do was go snorkelling. We had to get up early because to get to Coral Island it’s a 1 hour bus ride and then an hour long ferry ride. We waited at the place where the bus should have picked us up and finally the bus came, 45 minutes late. We thought maybe it wasn’t coming, so Neve and I had walked 2 minutes home because it was hot out and boring. My dad had to run to get us while my mom waited and made sure that the bus didn’t leave without us. The bus driver almost left without us, so my mom had to stand in the doorway.

    When we got to the boat station, we all followed a man through the station onto a boat. It was really old and made of metal. It was about 1 hour on there before we got to Coral island. We had to get on another smaller boat, because the big one couldn’t get too close to the shore. Then, we got snorkel masks and lifejackets. We didn’t have to use the lifejackets, but if you use them, you can just float on the surface instead of having to stay floating on your own.

    There were lots of colorful fish, some of the fish were rainbow and some were a really pretty blue color. We also really pretty coral, some of which was the color purple and little clown fish swimming in the coral. My mom, sister and I also so these really cool fish that were about 2 feet in length shaped like eels. They blended into the coral so we were lucky to see them. There were no jellyfish in that water, and there was a rope that went all around. They said that outside the rope there were big sharks and other mean fish, so we didn’t go outside it. I was still a bit scared that there could be big sharks inside the rope, but there weren’t any. There were smaller sharks, maybe a foot and a half long. I saw at least 5 of them. They just swam around, they didn’t bite anyone.

    On the beach, the snorkel people were selling fish food and we watched some people feed the fish. It was really cool, the fish would all crowd around and I even got to touch some of the fish. They’re really fast, so it’s easier to touch them if they’re all crowded together. I don’t think we were supposed to touch them, but I think it’s okay as long as we don’t touch the sharks.

    We got to snorkel for 3.5 hours and then we took the ferry and the bus back. I got a huge sunburn on my arms and my legs that really hurts, but other than that it was really fun.

    In the evening, we were watching a movie and we heard sirens outside. We looked, but it was just a few police cars driving around. They were announcing something with speakers, but we don’t speak malaysian so we had no idea what they were saying.
    15 minutes later, we started smelling something like diesel and then some gas stuff started leaking in through the windows of our cabin. We went outside and there were people in gas masks and hazmat suits spraying gas stuff around the houses and the field. They told us that they were fumigating for mosquitoes and that it wasn’t safe for us to be outside during it. We couldn’t go back inside because it was in there too, so we walked into town and got gelato.

    When we went back home, it still smelled weird inside so we turned on the fans and sat outside for a bit. I hope that they don’t do it again while we’re here.

    Sophie    Read more

  • Sophie And NeveExploring the UnknownSophie And Neve

    Beaches and High Tea

    February 2, 2020 in Malaysia ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    A few nights ago, Clarinda and I were out for our evening constitutional (since this is a post about high tea, pretty sure I’m not allowed to call it a walk). We noticed an ad for high tea, and told the girls about it. They were pretty excited, as they love high tea: the tea, delicate little finger sandwiches with the crusts cut off, clotted cream, jam, little tiny desserts served on three tiered trays and all things tea party. The highlight of our family tea experience (peak tea) was experienced a few years ago at the Empress Hotel in Victoria. The Empress sets a pretty high bar, so expectations were pretty high, given the fact that both Malaysia and Canada went through the British colonial experience.

    Dear reader, you may be shocked to learn that Malaysia did not deliver on our high tea expectations. Upon arrival we were confused: the multi-tiered trays, the clotted cream and jam, the scones-- all absent. In place we saw fried noodles and fried rice, curries, fish, mashed potatoes drenched in gravy, chicken nuggets, spring rolls, soup, samosas as well as a pasta station served up buffet style. They did have some finger sandwiches -- a generous coating of mayonnaise, with a light dusting of tuna preserved under heat lamps. Deserts consisted of a dry loaf and a variety of jellos straight out of a 1960s issue of Better Housekeeping magazine. Most of the food was mediocre, the highlight was the mashed potatoes, perhaps because I’ve not had them in months (or more likely because my standard of mashed potato excellence is boxed Idahoan potatoes).

    The girls were pretty disappointed in the tea experience, which given expectations, was a reasonable outcome. This served as a gentle reminder to us that expectations shape our perception of experience. If I re-frame the high tea experience as a buffet style meal that cost only about $6 CAD per person, then I would say that the meal was a total success. Perhaps easier for me to reconcile than it is for kids that have now been on the road for five months, and at times, are craving the familiar.

    David

    The beaches here are amazing. The water is warm, some beaches have lots of shade, the sand is soft and the beach is wide and long, the views and sunsets are so pretty. Unfortunately, the one closest to our house has little jellyfish that kind of hurt when they sting you but it's really pretty with the sunset. We found a beach that’s about a 30 minute drive from our place that is such a nice temperature. Today the tide was low so we could walk really far out. It's kind of like our own private beach because there aren't very many people who know about this beach because they just go to popular beaches. When there are people there they aren't too close to us. It’s really nice and refreshing to go swimming because it’s like +35 out.

    Neve    Read more

  • Sophie And NeveExploring the UnknownSophie And Neve

    8, 574 stair hike

    February 4, 2020 in Malaysia ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    After our horrible hike in Sapa, my parents wanted to do another hike in Langkawi to make up for it. My parents really like hiking and my mom was worried that we wouldn’t hike after our Sapa hike. After putting off the hike for 5 days because we were busy going to the beach, we finally did the hike. The hike was through the rainforest, up 4,287 steps and had an elevation of 800 meters. The steps were concrete and brought up the hill by Malays and probably took a really long time to build.

    We saw some really cool trees with huge roots and they were super tall. Some of the trees were twisted into cool shapes too. It was really hot, but it was slightly less hot than usual because the trees were giving us shade. Some of the trees had giant leaves and some had huge tree trunks. All of us holding hands could not put our arms around some of the tree trunks because they were so big; everything in the jungle is way bigger than usual.

    Throughout the day the insects got louder and louder. They were pretty quiet when we started the hike, but by the end of it they were so loud. We saw some lizards on trees and moving around under the leaves. There were leaves and plants growing everywhere. The leaves were on trees and on the pathway. There was one tree that was so big, it had fallen down and broken the railing for the steps we had to climb. It was fun having to climb over the very large tree.

    We were the only people on the hike. There’s a viewpoint at the top of the hike and we saw people who had driven motorcycles up, but no one else hiked up. At the top, we could see little houses and we were so high up. We also saw a really cool bird flying; we think it was a great hornbill.

    After we looked at the view and had some food, we hiked back down. On the way down we heard a drone going through the forest. We heard it going most of the way down.

    After the hike, we drove into town and got gelato. I enjoyed this hike more than the trek in Sapa because it wasn’t as long and we didn’t have to hike in the dark.

    Sophie    Read more

  • Sophie And NeveExploring the UnknownSophie And Neve

    Climbing, friends, and no gum!

    February 9, 2020 in Singapore ⋅ ☁️ 25 °C

    My parents have friends from 20 years ago when they lived in Ottawa. We found out that these friends were doing a three month trip to Singapore at the same time that we would be there. We planned to meet up in the afternoon at a climbing gym.

    In the morning, we went out to find Climb Asia. My mom had found climbing pants online that she really wanted to get for me, but couldn’t order online. It was a lot harder to find the store than we thought it would be. We got off the metro and walked a bit before we got to the street it was on. Google maps was telling us to go in an entrance in a building that didn’t really look like the entrance. Then, we walked around a bit looking for the store and finally asked someone where it was. He pointed to a building and told us to go to the fifth floor. On the fifth floor, it looked like an office building, but we went through a door and got to an open area with lots of garage’ish looking places on the side. At the very end of the area, we finally found Climb Asia and got the climbing pants. Climb Asia had a lot of really cool climbing gear, including fuzzy, animal chalk bags, but they were really expensive.

    After going home for lunch, we took the metro to the climbing gym where we met up with Andrea, Marshall and Alex. Me and Neve climbed with Marshall and Alex while my mom talked to Andrea, who she hadn’t seen in 13 years. They talked a lot!

    We climbed for about an hour and a half and then went to Marshall and Alex’s apartment for dinner. We got to swim in the pool and had pancakes with real maple syrup for dinner. It’s really hard to find maple syrup in this part of the world, and me and Neve haven’t had it since we left Yellowknife. It was so good!

    In Singapore, there are some really crazy laws. Most of them aren’t enforced, but it’s still crazy that they exist. Some of the laws are:

    -No annoying people while they are in the shower - 1,000$ fine
    -If you don’t flush the toilet after you go to the bathroom, you could get fined up to 500$
    -Connecting to someone else’s wifi could get you 3 years in jail
    -You could go to jail for two years for being gay
    -No annoying people with a musical instrument
    -No singing in public, you could get 3 months in jail
    -No flying a kite that interferes with public traffic
    -No feeding pigeons, 500$ fine
    - Jaywalking can get you 3 months in jail

    En Singapore, il y a des lois qui sont très étranges. Par exemple:

    -C’est illégal de déranger quelqu’un qui prends un douche
    -Tu ne peux pas nourrir les pigeons
    -Tu ne peux pas chanter en publique
    -Tu ne peux pas déranger quelqu’un avec un instrument musicale
    -Tu peux aller en prison pour 2 ans pour être homosexuel
    -Tu ne peux pas connecter au wi-fi de quelqu'un d’autre
    -C’est illégal de macher, vendre ou acheter de la gomme

    Sophie    Read more

  • Sophie And NeveExploring the UnknownSophie And Neve

    The Jewel and Orchids

    February 9, 2020 in Singapore ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

    Once we landed in Singapore, we got off the plane, went through immigration and customs, we arrived in the arrivals part of the airport. In this part of the airport, there is a 10 storey mall. The mall is called the Jewel, which is in the airport, and has the world’s largest indoor waterfall. There are also smaller waterfalls and lots and lots of trees.

    On the upper level, there is a forest that has a trampoline, mirror maze, a hedge maze. We decided to do the canopy walk through the forest that had animals made out of flowers and lichens. There was a big elephant with water coming out of its trunk, an alligator, some parrots and lots of smaller animals. Each night, there is a light show that lights up the waterfall. It is very pretty.

    There was also a section called the fog bowls that were made out of fake grass and every so often, fog would come out of the different bowls. There was also a very pretty garden that had statues of really pretty mice. It’s very cool that an airport has all of this and in my opinion, it’s the best airport we’ve ever been too. You could probably spend a full day at the airport to shop and try out the different restaurants. Il y avait des fleurs qui pousser sur des arbres qui regarder faux il était blanc et jaune ou blanc et violette.

    Neve

    La journée avant hier on est aller à un jardin de Orchidée. C’est est vraiment beau il y avait un section out les orchidées était nommer après des personnes qui ont visiter le jardin. Comme un dès fleurs était nommer après Barack Obama et des autre personne important. J’ai vraiment visiter le jardin parce que les fleurs était beaucoup de différant couloir comme violette, rose,jaune,blanc et bleu. Je pense que les orchidées sont vraiment beau et colorée.    Read more

  • Sophie And NeveExploring the UnknownSophie And Neve

    Singapore Botanical Gardens - Part I

    February 11, 2020 in Singapore ⋅ 🌧 29 °C

    Today was our second full day in Singapore. We are really loving everything this city has to offer. Each day I continue to be impressed by the the many trees that line the streets, the beautiful parks and the various flowers. In fact, almost 30% of Singapore is covered by greenery, placing it ahead of cities including Sydney, Australia and Vancouver.

    To begin our day, we explored the Singapore Botanical Gardens, including an extensive garden dedicated solely to orchids. It was really relaxing strolling along the tree lined walking paths taking in the many different varieties of flowers. Along the way, we were fortunate enough to also encounter a monitor lizard, many turtles, a white throated king fisher (a type of bird that has a striking turquoise blue, as well as brown and white). After strolling through the botanical gardens and exploring the orchid garden, we took the bus to McRichtie Resevoir Park, Singapore’s oldest resevoir. See Part II.

    Clarinda    Read more

  • Sophie And NeveExploring the UnknownSophie And Neve

    McRitchie Resevoir Park - Part II

    February 11, 2020 in Singapore ⋅ 🌧 29 °C

    The main reason I wanted to explore McRichtie Park was to walk across a 25 metre suspension bridge. What I didn’t realize is that it was a 1 hour hike to get to said bridge and then another hour to complete the loop. If you’ve been reading our blog post on a regular basis, you will know that my girls are not the keenest hikers, unless it involves the world’s tallest mountain. They were not impressed that I was yet again, making them hike. It was also threatening rain.

    The hike was fairly easy in my opinion and took us through primary forest along boardwalks. Unfortunately, about 20 minutes into our hike, it started to rain. At first, it wasn’t too bad, but after about another 20 minutes, it started to pore! However, by this time, we were well on our way to seeing the suspension bridge, and macaque monkeys, so we persevered. Neve was most unhappy and again, blamed for this excursion. By the time we got to the suspension bridge, we were pretty soaked despite wearing raincoats, but I think it was still a great hike. We got to see macaque monkeys and the suspension bridge took us over the treetops, which was really beautiful. After we finished our hike, we took two buses to get home to get dried off and out of our wet clothes and got ready to head over to the Gardens by the Bay - see Part III.

    Clarinda    Read more

  • Sophie And NeveExploring the UnknownSophie And Neve

    Gardens by the Bay - Part III

    February 11, 2020 in Singapore ⋅ 🌧 29 °C

    After a quick dinner, we headed over to Gardens by the Bay, a nature park spanning 101 hectares and containing more than 1, 500,000 plants. We explored the flower dome, the world’s largest greenhouse containing many different varieties of plants as well as animals carved out of driftwood. The greenhouse also had huge trees within its structure, including 1,000 year old olive tree. Next, we explored the cloud forest, an enclosed structure that contains a waterfall built into a mountain of flowers and plants. We then took an elevator up to the top of the plant wall mountain and took a walkway that surrounds the plant mountain back down to the ground floor.

    The last part of visiting Gardens by the Bay included a light show centred around the garden’s man made supertrees. These supertrees collect rain water that is then used to water the plants in Gardens by the Bay and also have solar panels in them. The supertrees light up as orchestral music is played for a fantastic light show lasting 20 minutes. Unfortunately, the rain that started during our hike, had not let up, so we decided to just get soaked again, enjoy the show and head home. What made this day really great is that we got to enjoy the Gardens by the Bay with our friends John and Andrea and their two boys, Alex and Marshall. We haven’t seen John and Andrea in about 13 years as we moved to Yellowknife and they moved to the states, so it was great meeting up in Singapore of all places.

    Clarinda    Read more

  • Sophie And NeveExploring the UnknownSophie And Neve

    Vintage clothing shopping in Taipei

    February 16, 2020 in Taiwan ⋅ 🌧 20 °C

    What to do when it’s a rainy day in Taipei - vintage clothes shopping, of course. I have to say, I have been overly impressed with the fashion since we started visiting South East Asian and Aisan countries. Everyone just seems to take care and dress really nicely. What better way to try and get some cool second hand/vintage clothing by visiting vintage clothing stores on a rainy Sunday. Finding vintage stores was a bit of a challenge as I soon discovered that the Taiwanese are not into vintage clothing and prefer to buy new clothes. I guess there is a bit of a stigma around buying gently used items of clothing. After reading several travel blogs, I found three vintage clothing stores: Blue Monday, Little Sparrow and Damn it! Vintage.

    I have to say, I was disappointed, but alas, such is the risk in visiting Vintage clothing stores. You aren’t always rewarded with finding that perfect on-of-kind item of clothing. Blue Monday was the best as it actually had women’s clothing, but in my opinion, was a bit pricey. Th other two vintage clothing stores, along with Mitty Vintage which we happened upon down a side street, were all geared towards men’s vintage clothing - lucky David! And when I say vintage, I mean straight out of the 80’s. Spending a rainy afternoon finding each of the stores was still fun, but I am definitely looking forward to a visit to Vintage Vogue in Yellowknife when we get back home.

    Clarinda    Read more

  • Sophie And NeveExploring the UnknownSophie And Neve

    Hiking and a bit of climbing

    February 17, 2020 in Taiwan ⋅ 🌙 11 °C

    Yesterday, we took our first day trip outside of Taipei. We had wanted to check out Longdong, a well known climbing spot in Northern Taiwan and the weather promised no rain. We left our Air BnB at 8:00 a.m. to catch a 9:00 a.m. bus. This seemed a bit early to me, but thank goodness we did, as it took a good 45 minutes to find the right bus station. Was it the Taipei main bus station or the bus station we could see across the street. After asking at the Taipei Main Bus station and the information desk, and several google translate cell phone conversations later, we were finally on our way to the correct bus station. While we were able to get one way bus tickets to Longdong, we didn’t quite get a clear answer on how to get back to Taipei, but as David said “I’ve heard there are buses, so we can figure it out later.” Ok...again, open mind and a bit of faith it would all work out. I had actually contemplated staying home today to just read but I didn’t feel right in leaving David to sort out the buses on his own with two kids and then also have to find out where exactly the climbing routes were in Longdong as we hadn’t purchased the Taiwan climbing book. I’m glad I decided to go.

    Longdong is located on the pacific ocean, along quite a rocky shoreline. It was windy, so we were rewarded by fairly significant waves in beautiful turquoise waters. In hindsight, we realized we were dropped off one stop too early, so had a bit of a hike to the climbing crag. We went along the shore which involved some boulder hopping, but it was really pretty as we were right by the ocean and able to see the waves come crashing in. As we weren’t sure if this was the right way to the crags, we stopped to ask some locals, who showed us a less rocky path, however, it did mean back tracking a little bit. Taking the new route involved just a bit of uphill along a well paved path and then just a bit of downhill to get to the climbing crags.

    While David and Sophie got a route set up, Neve and I went a bit further down on fairly flat rocks to take in the views of the ocean and watch the waves. It was quite windy so in the end, David, Sophie and Neve only climbed one route, but that’s ok. We can either come back or do some indoor climbing in Taipei. It was also fairly cold out and while we had warm gear, I think we all got a bit chilled. The other bonus was that we met a Canadian couple from Calgary, so it was fun chatting with them about their travels. All in all, it was a really nice day, spent hiking, climbing a bit and trying to navigate public transportation. In the end, it was quite easy to get back to Taipei, with only one bus ride and then a train ride. It was also really nice to see a bit more of the countryside, which is mountainous and lush.

    P.S. The girls will be blogging again - we just got behind because we've been seeing so many things so figured it was best to get caught up.

    Clarinda    Read more

  • Sophie And NeveExploring the UnknownSophie And Neve
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    A Puurfect morning

    February 18, 2020 in Taiwan ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    While Taipei has lots to offer, there are also a number of day trips within about a 1 hour train or bus ride from the city. Today, we traveled to Houtong by train to visit the Cat Village. The village is tucked away in the hills of Northern Taiwan and is home to about 200 cats and only about 400 humans. Houtong was a coal mining village until the last coal mine shut down in 1996. At this point in time, the population dwindled to only 100 people. Houtong was home to hundreds of stray cats and in 2008, a local resident, who happened to be married to a vet, began posting photos of the villager’s efforts to look after the strays. This of course attracted visitors and volunteers to help the stray cats. Within two years, Houtong reinvented itself as the Cat Village, with many little shops selling cat themed items as well as restaurants and cafes. Each of the cats is vaccinated and spayed/neutered.

    Houtong is set along the Keelung river, so it is not only beautiful to walk through but while strolling along, you can stop and pet the cats if they let you, sit down and hope they come to you for some snuggles, or admire them from a safe distance. All the cats are super friendly, and for the most part, get along quite well with each other. We did see a few play fight, but I wouldn’t expect anything different with this many cats living together. We really enjoyed our visit and it was super fun going through all of the cat boutiques to check out cat themed items. In the end, we decided to buy cat themed socks and a cat themed reusable grocery bag. It was a puurfect way to spend a morning.

    Clarinda    Read more

  • Sophie And NeveExploring the UnknownSophie And Neve
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    Din Tai Fung

    February 19, 2020 in Taiwan ⋅ ⛅ 8 °C

    Last night we decided that we were tired of the food court where we have been eating each evening, so instead we went to a restaurant called Din Tai Fung. It’s a chain restaurant with restaurants in Taipei, as well as London, Dubai and L.A. It was really busy, and since we hadn’t made reservations, we had to wait 15 minutes before we could get a table. Even though it was a chain restaurant, it was pretty nice. The waitress even put jacket covers over our jackets that we had hung on the back of our chairs.

    After figuring out the menu, which was written in Mandarin, we ordered dumplings, wantons, xiaolongbao, noodles, cucumber and cabbage. We also got tea with dinner. We shared all the dishes and they were delicious. My favorites were the wantons, but it was all delicious. We saw another room where they were making the xiaolongbao, which are kind of like dumplings but round and bigger and filled with meat and broth. It was really cool to see them cooking them. One person rolled out little circles, and he did it so fast. To eat the xiaolongbao, you’re supposed to mix ginger with soy sauce and vinegar to make a sauce, then dip the xiaolongbao in the sauce and poke a hole in it so the broth leaks out onto your spoon. I just dipped the xialongbao in the sauce and ate it like that. For dessert, we had xiaolongbao filled with chocolate. It tasted kind of like a pastry with nutella; it was definitely the best part. If you ever go to Taipei or any other city with a Din Tai Fung, then you should have dinner there.

    Sophie    Read more

  • Sophie And NeveExploring the UnknownSophie And Neve
    111

    Sky Lanterns

    February 21, 2020 in Taiwan ⋅ ☀️ 12 °C

    We took a train trip to the Pingxi region just outside of Taipei the other day. It is a mountainous region that used to be full of coal mines. The first stop was a place called Juifen. There are rumours that the movie “Spirited Away” was inspired when Hayao Miyazaki visited. The town was pretty, but was quiet. The next stop was Pingxi. We had some Taiwanese sausages, they were delicious. We did a hike up to some local peaks. There were some sketchy bits that had ropes to hold on to.

    The final stop was Shifen . In Shifen we released a lantern. Before you release a lantern, you write hopes and wishes on the 4 sides with special ink and a paintbrush. You then take the lantern onto the train tracks with 2 people who work for the place where you buy your lantern. One of them takes pictures while you release it and the other one lights a stack of paper that is placed on the bottom of the lantern. We had a pink lantern which means we will have happiness

    It was really fun to release the lanterns and if I ever went back I would do it again but I would do it at night and try to be there for the Pingxi lantern festival when 1,000’s of lanterns are released into the sky.

    Neve    Read more

  • Sophie And NeveExploring the UnknownSophie And Neve

    Kumano Kodo Pilgrimage Route - Day 1

    February 28, 2020 in Japan ⋅ 🌙 0 °C

    On February 28, 2020, we set out on a 6 day trek of the Kumano Kodo, an ancient pilgrimage and spiritual route in Japan. From Kyoto, we took two trains (one of which was a bullet train and travelled close to 200km/hour) and one bus to get to Tanabe, the gateway to the Kumano Kodo. What’s interesting, is that the Kumano Kodo is the sister pilgrimage route of the Camino de Santiogo in Spain. If you complete both, you can become a dual pilgrim. The Kumano Kodo has been a pilgrimage destination for centuries and is surrounded by steep mountains. To begin our trek, we had a fairly easy 3.7 km to trek which we began after visiting the Kumano Kodo Kan Pilgrimage Centre. The trail is really well signed in both Japanese and English including signs that say “not Kumano Kodo” to ensure you don’t go the wrong way. Today’s trek had us walking through beautiful cedar forest and we got to see the biggest tree any of us had ever seen. It was amazing! The other neat thing about the trek is that along the way, you collect stamps that you place in a Komano Kodo booklet. In order to become a pilgrim, you need to collect all of the stamps along the way. This earns you a completion stamp and once you have this stamp, you can then trek the Camino de Santiago, and once you have this completion stamp, you get a certificate for becoming a dual pilgrim. Collecting the stamps has been a great way to keep the girls motivated, although honestly, they seem to be really enjoying the trek.

    At the end of each day, we stay in either a Minshuku, which is a family run guest house, or a Ryokan, which are Japanese style inns. Ryokan usually includes an elaborate japanese style dinner and breakfast in the morning. Both have Tatami style mats with futon style mattresses. At the end of our day, we stayed in a Ryokan and had the best dinner ever. The breakfast was also amazing and included dried fish, pickled vegetables, rice, miso soup and some egg. In the evening, we had our first experience with an onsen.

    We will be trekking for 6 days and feel so fortunate to be able to embark on such a peaceful adventure. Tomorrow we will have an early start as the forecast is calling for rain and we have 13 km to trek.

    Clarinda    Read more

  • Sophie And NeveExploring the UnknownSophie And Neve
    1
    4

    Food along the Kumano Kodo

    February 28, 2020 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 2 °C

    The food we have had on the Komano Kodo is probably some of the best food we have ever had, so here are some photos to inspire a journey to Japan!

  • Sophie And NeveExploring the UnknownSophie And Neve

    Komano Kodo - Day 2

    February 29, 2020 in Japan ⋅ ☁️ 4 °C

    Today we woke up and went to the main dining hall for breakfast. For breakfast, on our plates, there was a big piece of smoked fish that still had its tail on it. We weren’t completely surprised, but it was the first time Sophie, my dad and I had fish for breakfast. The fish was good, but I would not eat fish for breakfast on a regular basis. We also had rice, squash, some egg, and miso soup that had a lot of green onions in it.

    Next, we went up to our room to grab our bags to start trekking. The first part of our day was the hardest because it was a 200 m climb up with only a few flat parts. Throughout the day, we saw a lot of cedar trees and still had some uphill parts. Then we stopped for lunch after trekking for 9 km outside of a little convenience store/cafe. We ate our lunch of sushi, a clementine and an energy bar that our home stay had prepared for us this morning. It was very cold and started to rain so we went inside the cafe and had cups of tea and coffee with a small treat. We started out again and got some more stamps and finished our day in a very nice home stay that we don’t have to share with anyone. It has a bedroom, a living room, a dining room, a kitchen, and a bathroom with a shower.

    Neve    Read more

  • Sophie And NeveExploring the UnknownSophie And Neve
    1

    Collecting two more Kumano Kodo stamps

    February 29, 2020 in Japan ⋅ 🌧 7 °C

    As we have mentioned in our earlier blog posts, collecting the stamps along the Komano Kodo is both fun, but it is also important to collect all of the stamps along the route to ensure we get our completion stamp at the end of our trek. This will ensure that we receive a pilgrim designation. Throughout the day today, it was raining. The rain really started to pick up in the afternoon. However, there were two stamps we required that were a 2 km walk from our Minshuku. Despite the rain, we all put on our rain gear, grabbed our umbrellas and made the trek for two more stamps. I’m so glad we decided to head out in the rain again because it was a beautiful, albeit wet, walk. We again saw huge trees and a beautiful gate leading up to a shrine. It was well worth the walk and we got two more stamps.

    Clarinda    Read more

  • Sophie And NeveExploring the UnknownSophie And Neve

    Trees along the Kumano Kodo

    March 1, 2020 in Japan ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    Today we trekked 17 km. Our trek started with a fairly steep 1 km climb and then settled into a downhill. The rest of the day was fairly flat and at times, our route took us through small Japanese villages. We collected 9 stamps today including our Komano Kodo completion stamp. We were also gifted some cookies by an elderly Japanese couple driving along our route who asked where we were from. It was so nice!!

    Because I absolutely love trees, I will post some of my favorite tree photos from today. Enjoy!

    Clarinda    Read more

  • Sophie And NeveExploring the UnknownSophie And Neve
    2131

    Tokyo - Day 1

    March 5, 2020 in Japan ⋅ ☀️ 2 °C

    For our first day in Tokyo, we did a shopping day. We started by going to Shibya crossing, one of the busiest crosswalks in the world. Half a million people cross per day. We went up to the second floor of a building to the starbucks to watch all the people cross. It was crazy how many people there were, even though there weren’t as many people as usual. I can’t even imagine how many people there would be on other days.

    After that, we went into a huge department store. There were all kinds of things including kitkats, tea, kitchen supplies and little knick knacks on 5 different floors. It was really loud with music being played and flashing lights everywhere. It was kind of distracting. We bought some more flavored kitkats.

    For lunch, we went to the Kawaii Monster cafe. Normally we would have needed reservations, but it wasn’t as busy as usual, so we just went in and got a table. There were strobe lights and flashing colorful lights everywhere. There was loud music playing and crazy unicorns and bunnies hanging from the ceiling. There was a big spinning cake in the middle of the floor, and one of the back rooms had giant macarons on the ceiling. There were women who worked there in cosplay costumes. We all ordered a burger, which came looking like a little monster. The bun was purple and it had eyes and horns made of chocolate. The burgers were so good.

    In the afternoon, we went to Harajuku street, which is a youth shopping district. There were lots of stores filled with crazy cosplay costumes and giant shoes. We didn’t go on a weekend, but sometimes on weekends, there are people dressed up in costumes and stuff. The style here is very different than the style in Canada, so we didn’t end up buying any clothes. It was a really fun day in Tokyo.

    Sophie    Read more

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