Backpack-istan

So, we started by flying into Chennai and heading straight for Mallahapuram, or otherwise known as backpakistan. Malla is a small, slow paced port town that seems to run on tourism. The little town consists of a few streets notorious for budget hotels and restaurants serving delicious local and foreign cuisines, specializing in freshly caught seafood. When dining at any of the street or sea view restaurants, watching other travelers wondering by while you wait for your meal, it becomes inevitably clear why this town is known as "backpakistan." The city itself used to be huge port that enabled trade with many parts of the world, including china, Persia, Rome, and other nations, but the main attraction in Mallahapuram is the Archaeological site that surrounds the outskirts of the little town. It consists of amazing monolithic carvings of temples and sculptures carved out of a single piece of rock (apparently the second biggest of its kind in the world with the first being in Cambodia). Here you also find Krishnas butter ball (a big circular boulder seemingly balancing on a slanted slab.) It is said that the British thought the positioning of the boulder was dangerous and tried to move it with 10 elephants, but still it didn't budge.There is also a magnificent temple at the shore(aptly named the shore temple) that really is a spectacular site to behold at either sunrise or sunset.

This is my Canada - Top 10's

Blogger roulette!

Packed already to go!

Started with Pamela from Spunkygirl Monologues, we're supposed to tag 3 people in our blogs showing some great places to visit in Canada. I was tagged by Claudia from Travelling Moms. Guess Ian will be writing about Canada!

Here we go!

First, find a friend, and start checking off the list at the bottom. I took my best friend, Damian, and did a bicycle tour in the maritimes. We flew to St.Johns Newfoundland and pedaled our little legs all the way to Ville de Quebec. Just a little over 2,100 km covered in a month.

D day

Flying out!

And so it begins, "the journey" after years in Korea. With a few bucks in hand, we dash out the door trying to throw 3 years worth of life into 3 corners of the world. Its easily the most stressful morning in a long time. It also takes the record of most money spent in less than 5 hours; but it was all worth it. A fit on the streets, last minute packing, last minute check in and awesome re-packing skills in the security cloak room later, we head on our plane in premium class with full reclinable chairs. We are currently enjoying our copius amount of leg space and looking forward to a full flat bed in the premium class for 6 hours. Taking full advantage. We have a drink to celebrate the end of one chapter and the beginning of the next of our lives.

We now head off into the depths to feed our long lost addiction, aptly named "the travel bug." Looking down into the ocean of dimly lit city lights, the stars congregate screwing up the horizon banishing the earth beneath us.

Soon, well land in kuala lumpur, with 30 degree heat blasting at us from our comfort of 5 degree weather in seoul.

Goodbye Korea, hello the rest of the world! Time for the fun to begin...

Dress to kill - in winter

Coming back from the depths of the cold

Having grown up in Canada, it seemed like common sense to figure out how to dress for winter. A lot of layers and coats. But not only until I started doing a lot more winter activities with friends and really thinking about how to stay warm did I actually "learn" of a "correct" way to dress for winter.

Meeting people from everywhere else in the world has made me realize even more how little we know about how to survive the blasting cold - afterall, Canada is notorious for being cold. In Korea, the winter of 2012 - 2013 has been the coldest in a long time, reaching to the depths of -20 Celsius, temperatures this Canadian boy is no stranger to. Seeing people that look like the Michelin man all  bundled up and still cold has inclined me to share with you a few tricks I picked up on how to dress for winter.

Sections are broken down into:
1) Layers
2) Materials
3) Application (how to apply layering to day-to-day activities)
4) Body Physiology in Cold Weather.

The worst thing about travelling...

... Saying farewell. And so that was it. Our farewell dinner. We held it at Little India Seoul, because of our lovely friend, Shalla; owner and proprieter. Our friends hogged over half of the restaurant, and Shalla hooked us up with a buffet for all of us.

Post dinner good byes started becoming messy *womp womp* through the night. The last stragglers with us managed to pop into a venue while we decided to hit home, and the other half moseyed on their way into the dark abyss.

A chill night, hopping into the cab, we decided to call it earlier than usual (3am, haar har).

We would like to say a HUGE thank you for everyone who came out. You don't even know how much it means to us for us to see you guys. This farewell is definetly a bittersweet one with unknown plans to see all of you "somewhere, sometime in the future." And even though we will try and see you guys in the future, it might be a long time from now.