Old guard house 

Lookout point at the summit of South Mountain 

Desert landscape 

Those moutain textures I was talking about 

US suburbia 

A cactus...imagine that 

Pretty desert flower 

I made it to the top 

Weekend One

Hi everyone,

I have managed to last one week so far in the desert. This weekend found me by myself since Adam went back home for Easter, so I was left to my own devices for entertainment. Friday found me with a couple new DVDs in hand: The Fifth Element: Ultimate Edition, and The Ring. Since I have seen Fifth Element before I spent the evening with a fairly decent scary movie. I'd have to say that they this was better than your average fright flick (and no Mom it wasn't a slasher horror movie). After watching a bunch of the DVD extras I tried my hand at watch some Fifth Element, only to find myself passed out on the couch 30 minutes into the movie. :)

Saturday I had decided I would go out and see something that Arizona had to offer. After a morning of looking at the various cell phone providers (work wants me to have one...and I wouldn't mind anyway) and various tourist sights for Phoenix and Arizona I decide to visit South Mountain (just happens to be 15 minutes away). For anyone who is interested it is pretty much south of "downtown" Phoenix.

South Mountain used to be a Federal Park but long ago the city of Phoenix bought it. So after some brunch, and a stop at the store for some bottled water I headed into the park and found the Kiwanis trail head. The trail was only 1 mile in length (one way) and not particularly difficult, however it did offer me a chance to get a taste of the desert. One thing to note is that they really don't have soil as we would think of it back home, just crushed rocks of various granularity. Even with this extremely dry area there were still quite a number of flowers which were worthy of photos. Another is the trees, or rather the lack of anything approaching a tree. The closest things are what look like overgrown shrubs. Oh and yes there are lots of cactus...and they can become very tall (I wonder how old they must be). After making my way up and down and back and forth through a valley between two slopes I get to the end of the Kiwanis trail and learn from another hiker that I can reach the lookout at the nearby summit by continuing down the National trail a short ways (probably 0.3 miles). So of course I carry on. I eventually make my way to the lookout and it offers quite a view, both of the hills and of Phoenix beyond. I even took the opportunity to use my tripod and get myself into a picture (not a very good one though). When I start back down it has been about 1 hour since I started (I stopped and took a lot of pictures, around 75 during the trip). The hike back down goes much quicker, due to the fact I stopped less for photos and that it is down hill most of the way :). The hike both ways takes about 1.5 hours, no record for the ~ 2.6 miles.

After finding my way back to my car I decide to drive up the road to the actual summit of South Mountain. The drive up is a fun one, besides the 15mph speed limit around bends (would be nice w/ a sporty car and no one in the way). The view from the top is quite impressive (there is more visibility of the surrounding desert from this summit). I personally liked the look of surrounding and distant hills, something about the texture of the faces.

Now, there is no way I can upload all these pictures, but I'll upload a few of them (but first I'm going to go see if I can get a couple shots of the desert night sky).

P.S. The rest of the weekend was rather uneventful, consisting of me watch movies (Ring Two on Saturday night, Robots and Fifth Element on Sunday).

[Edit - Well it seems that the sky has developed a slight clouding problem, so no pictures of the sky tonight. I'll instead upload some pictures.]

I'm not dead yet

Hi all,

Sorry for my extended absence. I haven't died or become American yet. Just been a little busy here in Chandler. Mostly with work, but tonight (after stopping working at 7:00 Adam and I went ou with Lacey (and some of here friends) after work. We found ourselves at some karaoke bar. I'll say that the American's are a little funny with there choices. We did find that one of Lacey's friends was St. Catherines born...so it was neat to run into a fellow Canadian (more bellow with the rye).

The highlight of the night was that the bar actually had Crown Royal. So there were two rounds of Crown and Coke, and a round of Crown on the rocks. Ah isn't Canada wonderful. I'm sorry to all of you for being so quite so far. You can account a bit of it to the fact that Adam and I have been eating well and not American food--we have been BBQing some terrific meals. I know that won't be a very good reason for most of you but I hope no one will hate me for it. I hope to get in contact with some of you in the next day (you can guess as to who you may be).

I also wish you all a very happy Easter since I will be stuck down here in the US and they don't seem to have a stat holiday for either Good Friday or Easter Monday...so that means I'm working them :(.

Anywho, it is a little on the late side (1:45) here and I should really be going to bed. Night all and can't wait to talk to you guys. It isn't quite Canada here (though it does feel like our June right about now).

-Ryan
The forever displaced Canadian

From the sunny south

Hi everyone,

My blogging location has now shifted from the hot and humid Penang, Malaysia to the hot and dry desert of Pheonix, Arizona. My day started at an un-godly 4:45am. After a rounding up the few remaining items (my iPod & speakers) I was off in the limo (not a stretch this time) towards Toronto. Now my flight isn't scheduled for boarding until 10am, but since I'm here for so long I needed to apply to get a TN visa, so in addition to the regular 2 hours prior for international flights I was allotted 4 hours.

I arrived at the airport around 6:15. Only two hours later I'm waiting at my boarding gate with a grapefruit juice and a banana-nut muffin. I guess I really didn't need the 4 hours to get to my plane...better to error on the side of safety though. The TN visa application went fairly smoothly; I wasn't required to go into a small room and be interviewed, just a few questions periodically over the counter and a good 20 minute wait for the cashier to pay for my second visa. The Malaysian visa is much more impressive (for any of you who may have seen it). The TN is just a simple stamp and a piece of paper stapled in my passport--they did take my picture and index finger prints though. The flight left TO on time, and after a short flight we arrived in Phoenix at 12:55 pm local time (a half hour early). After a little while Adam and I finally found each other around 1:40 pm. We did our run around to get the new rental car (a Corolla) and a bite to eat (my early diner Adam's breakfast/lunch) and after all is said and done my trip took 11 and a half hours.

Currently Adam and I are still in a hotel, we were supposed to be moving into the apartment but it doesn't look like all the paperwork was finished by our office. So we are here in the suites a bit longer.

Well that is all for now. And we can consider the blog open for business again.

Enroute

Well I just nicely got into Hong Kong. One would like to say my trip is half over, in terms of stops it is, however we all know that the second leg of the journey is much longer than the first. Boarding for my flight starts at 1600 local time (same timezone as Malaysia) so I have a bit of time to kill.

The weather isn't as nice here as it was in Malaysia, nor when I was in Hong Kong last. Currently it is about 15 degrees out with rain showers and lots of mist/fog. But none of that caused any problems from my arriving flight, we got hear early as a matter of fact.

Well I'm going to go do some wandering around, and I'm sure none of you will be reading this for a while anyway (due to it being the middle of the night and all).

The Last Supper

I just finished my last supper in Malaysia. Ah, such a good feeling to be going back home. FYI we had Chinese, consisting of duck, red tiger fish, baby garlic bok choy, and some bad noodles. Oh don't forget the Tiger beer (a quite nice Singapore lager). This will probably be my last entry from Malaysia. :D

The Light at the End of the Tunnel

I can see it. Both with the project for work and for my return home. Over the last couple days things seem to be falling into their proper place (finishing the outstanding enhancements and defects). Currently I'm just checking in all the changes into source-control so I can do the final alpha exit release (kind of slow uploading the files across our VPN--an encrypted link to my work network in Kitchener). Tomorrow I am going to be the answer man, the support personnel will be asking me all their questions in hopes of transferring as much knowledge from me to them...hopefully the knowledge tank isn't on empty.

And the real good news. In about a day and a half I'll be on my way to the airport. I have had a pretty good time here (a few attacks of home-sickness), but I'm really looking forward to getting back home. I want to visit every one of you that is in Ontario (will be a busy week but a great one). In that train of thought I know when I'll be leaving for Chandler. I won't be driving as previously planned since the client really wants me there by Tuesday the 22nd for training. I will instead be leaving on a jet plane from Toronto (yes me in Toronto...me in Canada :D) on the 21st. So that gives me more time with you all, since it was looking like I'd have to leave on the Saturday such that I might get there for Tuesday's training if I were to go by car.

So all I have to do now is plan out my schedule for next week. Feel free to post your preferences (oh I have to go into work for part of a day to organize my Chandler trip thing...and get my OHIP extended). So comment away. :)

Sunday's Trip

If you hadn't figured it out from my previous post and the below pictures I guess I'll fill you in. Dave and I did indeed make it to our snorkeling trip--but not without a little incident. The main issue was that they didn't get the right name for our booking and didn't provide us with the proper stub. So thankfully we were at the pier with plenty of time to get things sorted out.

After waiting about 45 minutes we were able to board or boat (not as impressive as the Georgian Bay glass bottom boat tour) but much faster than the rest of the boats out in the water. The trip took about 1.5 hours to arrive at the island (Pulau Payar Island to be specific). Once we arrived at the floating platform we got a quick overview of what was in store for the day and some instructions. So I finally got my first taste of swimming in the sea (quite literally...mmm salty). After a couple minutes I figured out how to actually do the snorkeling thing. And wow the fish were everywhere, they barely got out of your way. They only pulled my leg hairs a couple of times. The coral wasn't very impressive they only had a single type which was brownish and and like the tops of cauliflower.

We were supposed to go feed sharks via a glass-bottomed boat, however the sea became too choppy for the boat. Which was disappointing. They did however feed the fish around the platform with what was the shark food...this brought out the barracuda. Now that is quite an impressive fish, glad it didn't decide to nibble on my legs. ;)

After exploring the beach and returning to the platform for lunch is where I made my mistake of not applying sunscreen to my legs. Oh and have I been paying for it since. Legs are a very bad place for a burn. You see when trying to sleep the sheets rub against the leg hairs which irritates the burnt skin. Oh and pants have a similar effect. Needless to say I finally got some Aloe and hopefully it speeds the healing of the very annoying burns.

Oh I forgot to mention the cute little Chinese fishing boats out in the middle of the sea tethered to what looked like bamboo poles (must be very long poles). And there were lots of them. Unfortunately we had an old British guy that for some reason felt he should sing sea chanties. Tell me why boats make people think that they can and should sing?

So that was about all for my last weekend in the tropics. Next weekend I'll be reporting from the Great White North!

What OS are you?

Which OS are You?

Welcome area of Penang Hill 

Looking up the tram track (the first leg of it). The hill is about 700 metres above sea level...if I recall correctly 

Cute monkey couple 

Looking down at what looks like someone's house from the tram transfer point 

Looking out over Penang Island 

Leaving Penang on a boat 

Looking at the island from the floating platform 

Some people on the beach 

Notice the open trench...these are everywhere 

The temple proper 

A tower at the temple 

It looks so cute here 

Watch for low doorways and hanging objects 

Looking down Cambell St. 

Cambell St. Mall (the one w/ the goat heads) 

KOMTAR Tower (~ 60 stories) 

Plan C Continued

Hi all,

Just got back from S2 with Dave. It seems that the early 80s is still alive and dong well in Malaysia. The bar was extremely amusing, we plan on gong during happy hour tomorrow and capturing it on video and still (video will be needed to fully appreciate it).

Well let us back up a little bit first. After our late afternoon pool and nap for Dave we headed to Penang Hill. This is the hill by which the entire island is formed (the small mountain with the island surrounding it). Probably the highlight of the trip was at the half way point (via the cable trains). At this time we had about 20 minutes to look around, and the monkeys were looking around too (I think they found a bag of chips from somewhere). So it was really cool to see real wild monkeys running around. I got many pictures (of which only a few turned out due to the low light level) and a few movies. So I will likely upload them before the weekend is out. Oh and for anyone who was wondering, beer really isn't that cheap here. This evening Dave and I spent approximately 170 Rm on beer (75 RM per bucket -- 5 bottles per bucket)...Carlsberg at that. And now I am feeling that Carlsberg is a pretty crappy beer.

But I have gone and skipped stuff again. The trip up Penang Hill was a pretty cheap trip (the ticket for the cable car up and down for both of us came to 8 RM) and had an incredible view. I got a couple pictures (but wish I had taken my tripod) overlooking Penang Island. At the top there was a restaurant/hotel which we were going to eat at however they ran out of the outdoor tables (it was much cooler up there at about 700 metres above sea level). There was also a couple temples, we went into one (I didn't take pictures since I didn't feel it was appropriate (people were actually praying in the temple at the time). It would have been a great spot to have a telescope (oh and a couple hours later)....Orion was straight overhead.

On our way back down to the cable car we came across a couple from Britain. They are on a 7 month excursion from Thailand to Australia. It was very nice to chat with some other folk who were visiting the area. They had been through multiple parts of Thailand, into Cambodia (visiting naive villages and such). Sounded like fun (but 7 months is a long trip).

Anywho, I really should be off to bed since I have to be in the lobby by 7:30 in order to catch the ride for our snorkeling trip. Nigh all (yes I'll upload the pictures at some point soon).

Plans Foiled

So our grand plans didn't quite execute as we had envisioned them. The flight to Bangkok only had a single seat available--boo. So we checked the only scheduled flight to Singapore. It was also full (oh and extremely expensive since it was through Singapore Airways). So there was plan A foiled. Plan B (flight to KL), the flights were going approximately every 2 hours, but the first available flight was at 2:30pm and at a cost of RM 338 round trip per person...very steep considering we spent RM 69 for three of us to take the bus one-way to KL. Time for plan C...wait we didn't have a plan C. Lesson learnt, Penang airport isn't big enough to try and just catch a flight asap...should have went and got tickets Friday night (or maybe even thought about booking earlier in the week).

So we did put together a plan C. We went back to Georgetown and did a little self guided trek. What did we see? Well we found ourselves off the tourist beaten path and in the local's part of town. We wandered through a honest to goodness market, with people butchering meat right in front of you. Oh you can't forget the whole goat head sitting on the table. Or the sides of...something just hanging pretty much in the walkways (watch your shoulders). Oh and the stench of death (well raw meat on a blistering hot day in a metal roofed building). So that particular part of the market was a little unsettling on the stomach (especially after a breakfast of Sushi King--the place with a conveyor of sushi plates).

After the lovely meat market, we found ourselves near a couple temples a Buddhist and an Islam one (I think). See the pictures. We didn't go into the Islam (or was it Muslim) since I don't think it was a tourist one...looked like a functional one to me. Later today we are going to venture to Penang Hill--we are just taking a break from the heat with a swim in the pool (and Dave is napping since he fell asleep in the taxi (teksi) on the way back from Georgetown. And probably followed by checking out a bar or something tonight.

Oh and we have already booked an adventure for tomorrow. We are going to some island via ferry (or as they spell it feri) and snorkeling. I'll let you know how that goes.

So, despite having our plans thwarted we are keeping busy, and entertained.

For now that is all from somewhere out there.

The Plan

So due to Dave and my great planning skills we aren't really able to book any fights for tomorrow ;). So the plan is to get to the Penang airport with enough time to catch the flight time to Bangkok and hope that they have some open seats. If the do, we are off to Thailand (I know that wasn't the concenses from the crowd but...that is where we are planning). If not then we will catch the next plane to KL. Once in KL we plan on getting a hotel room to stash some stuff then head out to Batu Caves. Depending on how long that takes we find some filler activites. Dave wanted to pick-up some things from the Chinatown street market--so we'll do that in the early evening. Then head down to the drinking district via the mono-rail (or the other tram) for a taste of the night life in KL.

So as you can see we have a plan, a backup one even. Pretty good for a few hours of planning head scratching at the last minute. I'll definately do the Singapore trip if/when they send be back here to Malaysia (thank you all for your input).

Well I should be off to bed as we are planning on being out of here and at the airport by 9am.

Choices

So Dave and I have the tough choice of what to do this weekend. The items on the table are: fly to Singapore; Thailand via bus, or plane or something; or an island resort in Malaysia. Neither Dave or I seem to have a strong preference towards one or the other (we are leaning towards Singapore or Thailand). So what is the opinion of the jury? And what ideas for what to do there (Singapore is small, but as for Thailand we have no clue as to which part to goto...Bangkok maybe...that could be fun).

So, please offer us your thoughts.

Long time no write

Hi all,

Thought I'd let you know that I'm still alive. It has been a very busy week and a bit--logged about 63 hours over the last week.

Amy should be arriving back home shortly--that lucky girl, even if there is all that snow there. Just another week and a half til I get to return to the great white north. :) When I return I'll be there for a full week before driving down to Chandler, AZ. I hope to get a visit in with as many of you as possible--so a little bit of running around may be happening.

-Ryan