Ready to Go

Your intrepid heroes are reporting live from Toronto's Pearson International Airport!  We're an hour out from our scheduled departure, and since I've got no idea at all if I'll be able to blog from this point forward I thought that I should check in.  At this point there's not a whole lot to say other than the fact that I'm very excited, and pretty tired.  This old guy isn't very used to staying up until 1 a.m. anymore.  Of course time is about to lose a lot of it's meaning for me since it will technically be Thursday by the time we touch down in Hong Kong.  I'm fairly certain that completely skipping Wednesday is going to have an adverse affect on my sense of time.  I can usually adapt fairly well to jetlag, but I'm preparing for a rough ride this time.  I'm just hoping that I can bounce back enough to be semi-functional by Friday when we start touring around.

A friend on Facebook suggested an application for managing proxies which I could use to access Facebook and Blogspot while in China.  Unfortunately the installation instructions were all in Chinese, so I was having a tough time figuring out what I needed to do.  Also, I think they were written by programmers, which never helps.  I'm still holding out hope that I'll be able to keep this blog going for the duration of our trip though.

Anyway, I'm feeling pretty sleepy at the moment, so I'm going to sign off and get ready to board.  I hope you're all doing great, and I'll see you in a few weeks!

Return of the Blog

Good evening everyone!  I know it's been a very, very long time since you've heard from me... largely because it's difficult to maintain a travel blog when you aren't travelling.  Sorry about that.  Well I'm back now!  For the moment...

You see, the thing is this, tomorrow night after work Euphy and I will be jumping on a plane to China.  Awesome!  For those of you who aren't familiar with Chinese internet policies though, I must explain that this poses something of a problem.  You see, China maintains a fairly substantial list of websites that they won't allow access to from within their country.  This security measure is jokingly referred to as The Great Firewall of China.  The major problem here is that China makes it very clearly that they have no love for Google, and Google owns Blogspot.  So that leaves me in a difficult blogging predicament.  I'm finally travelling this year, and I'm reviving my blog in honour of that, but possibly just in time to find that I'm completely unable to blog while I'm abroad.

The good news is that I have a Plan B and a Plan C.  For those of you keeping track, that's two more plans than I usually find myself equipped with.  Plan B involves using a proxy server.  Without getting too technical, that would allow me to get around the Firewall while in China.  I've done some research and free, anonymous proxies are abundant in China (for obvious reasons) but that doesn't entirely fill me with confidence.  I have no idea how accessible and reliable these services are, so the only way I can be certain that I'll be able to get through to Blogspot is to fly to China and try it out.  Fortunately that's something that I intend to do!

Now, failing that little experiment I'll still keep track of my voyage the old fashioned way - in a .txt document on my netbook.  When I get home I'll be able to upload all my antiquated journal entries here for your reading enjoyment.  Of course that's a bit of a lackluster Plan C, and I'll be the first to admit that.  By the time I'm home it won't be nearly as exciting to read about what my exploits WERE.  Also I'll be meeting up with a number of the people who will be reading this blog and regaling them with tales of my adventures (ad nauseum) anyway.  So I'll be focusing on getting Plan B working as quickly as possible.

As I'm sure you can all imagine I'm getting pretty wound up at this point.  I kept waking up last night thinking that it was Tuesday and almost time to go.  If I get any sleep at all tonight it will be a small miracle.

For those of you who are interested in keeping track of where I'm at, here's a breakdown of our flight schedule:

• October 3
• Leave Toronto at 1:40 A.M.
• October 4
• Arrive Hong Kong at 5:00 A.M. (local time)
• Leave Hong Kong at 9:00 A.M.
• Arrive Beijing at 12:15 P.M.
• October 11
• Leave Beijing at 8:05 A.M.
• Arrive Shanghai at 10:15 A.M.
• October 14
• Leave Shanghai at 9:45 A.M.
• Arrive Hong Kong at 12:25 P.M.
• Take ferry to Zhuhai
• October 21
• Ferry back to Hong Kong
• October 22
• Leave Hong Kong at 5:05 P.M.
• Arrive Toronto at 8:20 P.M.

And that's it!  How do you like that first flight?  Leave on one day, arrive the next day.  The joys of crossing the International Dateline.  You'll notice that provides an equally bizarre day on the way home too, with a 15-hour flight culminating in slightly over 3 elapsed hours.  I'm sure that will do wonderful things to my brain.

We're joining a tour group for our time in Beijing, and then staying with family for our time in Shanghai and Zhuhai.  So the Beijing leg of the trip will be very structured and organized, but after that we'll be much more free to do things at our own pace.  I'm quite keen on having a bit of local insight for our few days in Shanghai.  It's a rare treat when you can spend time in an unfamiliar city with people who really know it well.

Okay, I'll leave it at that for now, and I'll do my best to check in one more time tomorrow before we get on the flight.  After that it's anyone's guess about how well my blogging will go, but with any luck I'll have lots of updates for you.

Sleep tight my friends!

My New Toy

Howdy everyone!  How long has it been since my last post?  Oh... a long time.  Right.  Sorry about that.  I'll be perfectly honest - I've been suffering from a severe lack of motivation and inspiration lately.  Euphy and I are hoping to go to China this year, and that's looking really good... but it's also looking like it won't happen until October or November.  It's going to be a pretty lean year for me in terms of vacations, so I'm afraid that there's a real risk of these posts continuing to be pretty sporadic.  For now though I've got something fun to post!

I just picked up a new camera!  I've been on the fence for the last couple years about upgrading to a more serious camera, but the price point of even an entry-level DSLR has always held me back.  In the post-Boxing Day sales though I came across a gem that I just couldn't pass up.  I scored an Olympus E-PL1 Micro 4/3 camera.  For those of you unfamiliar with micro four-thirds it's an emerging new style of camera that seems very well suited for people like me who are interested in getting a little more serious with their photography without breaking the bank or lugging around a massive camera.  While they lack the proper viewfinders of full-sized DSLR cameras, micro 4/3 cameras are smaller and generally cheaper while still offering a more customized and powerful range of shooting options.  They take a smaller lens, which keeps them compact, but the 4/3 format means that they effectively double the focal length when compared to a traditional 35mm camera.  So, for example, my stock 14-42mm lens would give me the same range as a 28-84mm lens on a 35mm camera.  I was able to pick up the camera with the stock lens plus a 40-150mm lens for half price!  So I may not be 100% in to the DSLR game, but I'm a heck of a lot closer.

The only unfortunate thing about grabbing up this cool new camera was that I've got no big trips on the horizon, and I've been struggling to find things to point it at.  I can only take so many pictures of Euphy around the house before she gets annoyed with me.  To that end we made a trip out to the Toronto Zoo this morning.  It's not quite as active there during the Winter in terms of what animals are out and about, but it's also a LOT less active in terms of the human herds.  Free parking and an abundance of free space around all the good viewing areas make a Winter visit to the zoo an appealing proposition.  It was a great chance for me to get the camera out and really put it to work!  I was trying to get some shots of the wolves, but they were (unsurprisingly) pretty chilled out while we were walking by and I couldn't get a good shot.  That is until we left the nearby Australasia pavilion and started to hear them howling!  We made haste for their area just in time for me to see one in the classic pose - head thrown back in a long howl.  Unfortunately I didn't get my camera to my face in time to capture the moment, but it was still awesome to see, and the whole pack began a brisk jog around the compound so I had a chance to take some much more lively photos.

I ended up taking a ton of photos (197, 168 of which I kept) and I can't imagine just posting a half dozen of them here for you all to see.  I've uploaded them all to my Picasa site and I'll post the link here.  I allowed the Picasa app to shrink down the images a bit for easy upload, but they still look pretty good.  Please, enjoy:

https://picasaweb.google.com/103388161460296980507/TorontoZoo_Jan22_2012?authkey=Gv1sRgCIKEzdnj2ca96AE

Well, that's all for now.  I'm going either figure out something interesting to write about so that I can keep these posts more frequent, or failing that, I'll find a way to notify everyone of my infrequent posts when they happen.  Until the next time, be well my friends.

Live From Killarney... Finally!

Good evening everyone!  I hope everyone is enjoying their Thanksgiving long weekend.  I'm happy to say that we're all having a wonderful time up here in Killarney.  Unfortunately I haven't managed to get a blog post in because of some unexpected technical changes.  I attempted to post Friday night to let everyone know that I was here safe and sound, but apparently they've changed up their WiFi policies here at KML and you now need to obtain a username and password from the front desk which will only function for a limited time.  I guess they had a lot of people abusing the free internet around here.  It was too late on Friday to get a pass for the internet, so I tried to post using my mobile upload e-mail address... and I got a bounced e-mail.  Blogger has undergone a lot of changes recently, and it's been a long time since I've attempted a mobile upload, and I guess some of the changes must have invalidated my secret e-mail address for mobile posting.  I'm hoping that I'll be able to re-enable that at some point because it's always been a good contingency plan in the past.  Yesterday I ran into the same problem where I ended up getting into blogging mode after the front desk had closed and it was too late to get online.  Same story tonight... just having too much fun during the day and not thinking about getting online.  Tonight I decided to tether my laptop to my cell phone to get internet access that way.  I'm a bit concerned about data usage when I'm doing that so I'm not going to upload any pictures until I get back, but at least I'm able to blog by doing this.

Okay, tech problems/excuses are out of the way, time to catch up.

Friday was mostly a travel day, so not much to report there other than that we had a very nice ride up.  Unfortunately Gray and Susan had to work on Friday so they weren't coming up until much later and they hit some BAD traffic on the way up.  Even after getting off work very early they still didn't arrive until 9:30.  Fortunately we were able to save them some dinner because they'd had a pretty brutal trip up here.

Saturday morning we set out immediately after breakfast to make a run at The Crack.  The weather was absolutely gorgeous and the sunlight made the Fall colours stunning.  It was everything I'd hoped for in my previous Fall trips, and it made for an amazing hike.  The second half of the Crack hike is very strenuous and it proved a bit too much for Euphy, who isn't an experienced hiker.  In hindsight I shouldn't have started her off on such an arduous hike, but she was a trouper and we made it most of the way up.  Dad, Gray, and Susan made it to the top and Euphy and I chilled out on a ridge below them.  We were still way up in the air and got some fantastic pictures from up there which I look forward to posting when we get home.  It was a tiring hike for everyone involved and we mostly just chilled out for the rest of the afternoon.  Just before dinner I got Euphemia out for her first ever kayak paddle though.  We just did a brief paddle around in the channel outside of the lodge, but she was really getting the hang of things by the end, and we had fun out there.

Today Dad, Gray, and Susan headed out for some fishing while I went shopping for souvenirs with Mom and Euphy.  We followed that up with a visit to George Lake, a bit of lunch, and then a nice, easy hike along the Lighthouse Trail.  That hike was much more to Euphy's taste and we really enjoyed the scenery.  During the times we spent at the Lodge Euphy was entertaining herself by feeding peanuts to the local chipmunk population.  I think I'm going to have a very difficult time convincing her to come home on Tuesday without smuggling one out in her coat pocket.  She's very much in love with her new pet Chippy.

We've been hanging out in the Carousel lounge this evening looking over all the pictures everyone's taken over the last few days.  I'm not sure what tomorrow holds, but this cellphone tethering thing seems to be working out fairly well, so I think I'm safe to say that I should be able to check in again tomorrow night to tell you all about it.  Until then, keep enjoying your long weekend!

Some Changes, But Still Lots of Excitement

Howdy everyone!  I hope this week has been good to all of you.  I've got some good news for this week: Euphemia has got a job at BMO!  That's really exciting for her and should be a great opportunity for her to start building a career.  On the travel side of things though it has a real potential to derail our plans for a trip to China next year.  Obviously the start of any new job is a time of uncertainty, and we can't really say right now that she'll be able to just take off for 3 weeks in the Spring.  A career is more important than a vacation right now though, so we're basically assuming that China is off the books for the time being and we'll be playing 2012 by ear.  I just wanted to get that out there since I've already been talking-up this proposed trip.  There's no question that we'll get there eventually, but the timing is uncertain for now.  I'm not terribly worried... I'm sure China will still be there when we get our vacation schedule sorted out.

The remained of 2011 still has some great opportunities for travelling fun though, starting with our adventure to Killarney this coming weekend.  I don't have much to say this week outside of the job news, but starting on Friday I should be back in Travel Blogging Mode.  Friday will just be a transit day, and I'm not expecting that I'll have any wild stories to tell, but check-in sometime in the evening and I should have a post up just to kick the vacation off.  From that point on I'll try to get regular daily posts out for the duration of the weekend.  With any luck I'll get lots of pictures uploaded too, but the Internet connection up there can be a bit spotty, so picture quantity will be entirely dependent on my ability to quickly upload them.

On that note, I've actually got a new camera that will be coming with me on this trip.  I decided a few weeks back that it was time to retire the old Olympus point-and-shoot and upgrade it.  I opted for a Fujifilm offering that's similar in specs to what I was using before; it's waterproof and shock proof, and is a compact point-and-shoot.  The big upgrades are that I've gone from 3x optical zoom to 5x, and 7.1 megapixels to 14.  So far I've only had the opportunity to take a few photos with it, so I haven't really put it through it's paces yet, but I'm finding that the old warning of "more megapixels does not equal more better" is holding true.  (Yes, the appalling grammar was intentional.)  Despite having double the megapixels I'm not thrilled with any of the pictures I've taken yet.  I'm really hoping that it's just a question of less-than-ideal lighting conditions and that I'll still get some decent pics while I'm up in Killarney.  The weather forecast is VERY promising for the time that we'll be up there, and there could be an unprecedented opportunity to get some truly fantastic pictures of the Fall foliage.  If they turn out sub-standard because of my camera I'll be greatly disappointed.  We'll just have to wait and see.

To demonstrate why I'm making a fuss about the new camera here's a shot I took yesterday of Euphemia on my back deck, trying to get a bit of Fall colour in the background:

That photo has been shrunk to 25% of its original size for easy blogification (now I'm making up words) but if you view even this smaller offering at it's full size you'll see a lot of graininess.  Look around the inner edge of her glasses frames and it's pretty rough.  Like I said, I'm hoping that it's just that I was shooting into the sun, but my initial impression is that I'm not getting as good an image as I would have on the old Olympus.  Time will tell.

Well folks, that's all for now.  I hope you all have an excellent week, and I'll touch base again on Friday!

Coming Soon, To a Toronto Near You

Good evening ladies and gents!  I hope today finds you all in good health and better spirits.  It's been an unseasonably warm weekend and I've been making every effort to enjoy the fine weather while it lasts.

I know that November isn't exactly right around the corner, but I wanted to give everyone plenty of warning in advance this year: The Gourmet Food and Wine Expo is coming!  This is an annual event that I haven't missed the past four or five years running, but always seem to remember at the last possible moment.  This time I wanted to get a post out early in the hopes that some of you will be able to join me for this year's event.  Some of you may recall that I've mentioned the Expo before, here's last year's post-show post:

http://colinswanderings.blogspot.com/2010/11/food-wine-and-travel.html

For those readers who don't feel like re-reading my old posts, I'll attempt to summarize the show.  Food.  Wine.  Lots.

All jesting aside, it's a great way to get out and try some new wines.  I've frequently been introduced to something amazing at the show; it was at a similar show that I discovered Mediera, which remains a personal favourite in the fortified wine category, I tried a tequila there once that totally changed my perception of the beverage, I got my first taste of what amazing whites are being produced in New Zealand, and last year I found out that The Republic of Georgia makes incredible reds.  The show really hits the three I's: interesting, informative, and intoxicating.

I got a discount code via e-mail this weekend, and while I'm not sure if there's a limit on how many tickets I can apply that to I'm certainly willing to put in an order for all my friends and family in the hopes of getting us all in there on the cheap.

This year's show runs from November 17-20 and I expect that I'll be heading in there on Saturday the 19th.  We've discovered through trial and error that the best experience can be had by attending the show as early in the day as possible, before the crowds set in.  On Saturday the doors open at noon (presumably to conform to appropriate social conventions around what time of day to drink) and I will be making every effort to be among the first people through the doors.

Here's the link to the official website:

http://www.foodandwineexpo.ca/sitepages/

I'm recommending that anyone who has the opportunity to be in Toronto during that weekend send me an email so that I can get some tickets.  Gray, Susan, and I had a blast there last year, but this year I'd love to make it a group event.  Give me a shout if you're interested!

Back on Track with Travelling

Hello ladies and gents!  Sorry for another prolonged quiet period there.  Euphy and I had both been pretty sick for awhile with a nasty cold that just wouldn't let up.  Work hasn't exactly been a sunny vacation spot either.  I'm happy to say though that the rough transition period at work is coming to an end and we're starting to get in to a more normal routine.  I didn't work at all this weekend!

I'm also happy to announce that your travelling blogger is finally going to be getting his butt in gear and doing some travelling!  Go figure!

The first trip on this brave new agenda is a weekend in Killarney.  The whole family is heading up for the Thanksgiving long weekend.  It will be Mom, Dad, Graydyn, Susan, Euphemia and I for four days at the Killarney Mountain Lodge and I couldn't be more excited!  I'm pretty sure I speak for everyone when I say that too... the levels of excitement from everyone have been palpable.  It will be Euphy and Susan's first trip up there, so there's the Adventure Excitement on that front, and of course the rest of us are very familiar with just how awesome it is up there, so we're all exited just to get up there and have a great weekend.  I'm hoping for some good weather so that we can get out there and enjoy some hiking.  I don't think I've ever been to Killarney quite that late in the year, so I'm not sure what to expect in terms of Fall colours, but I certainly have my hopes up that we'll be treated to a really great show.  With that much time to work with we should be able to fit in one of the more substantial hikes like Silverpeak or The Crack.

I'd also love to do a nice bit of kayaking while we're there.  It's been awhile since I've done any kayaking without some included camping... and all the gear that accompanies such an adventure.  It'll be fun to get out in some unladen kayaks and splash around.  Euphy's never been in a kayak before, but I'm confident that she'll get out there and love it given the opportunity.

On that note I'm proud to say that Euphemia was brave enough to hop on the back of my bike this afternoon for a trial run!  She was understandably reluctant to let me buy her the necessary (and pricey) safety equipment for motorcycling when she wasn't even sure if she'd enjoy it.  We made due this afternoon by having her wear my entirely too large jacket and gloves and just confined ourselves to the (relative) safety of a parking lot.  It wasn't a perfect taste of the world of motorcycling but it was a good opportunity for me to get my first experience of having a passenger, and it let Euphy get a basic idea of how it feels to be on the back of a bike.  She really seemed to enjoy it, and we're planning on hitting the motorcycle show this December to try to score some off-season deals on a bit of gear for her so that we can start doing some more substantial rides next season.

The last, but definitely not least, bit of travel news for today is that we booked a trip to Cuba!  WOOHOO!  It's something we've been talking about for awhile now.  Euphemia's never been to the Caribbean before and I really wanted to take her somewhere exciting for her birthday on December 12th.  We decided to head down from Saturday the 10th to Saturday the 17th so that we'd be somewhere sunny and warm on her birthday.  We were strongly considering Negril in Jamaica since I'd had such a great time down there for my cousin's wedding back in '09, but the Paradisus Rio de Oro in Holguin, Cuba came highly recommended from my parents as well as my friends Chris and Beth who got married there a few years back.  I was inclined towards Jamaica because I really want Euphy's first Caribbean vacation to be a great experience, and I was confident that we'd have a good time there.  In the end the Paradisus won out largely because we got a great deal on it, and it was important to Euphy that I have a bit of an adventure too instead of going somewhere I'd been before.  Holguin was a good compromise there; I've had great feedback from a couple trusted sources, so I can be confident of a great trip, but it's still new to me, so there's the important element of adventure.  We just booked the trip today, and I'm buzzing with excitement!  It's a good thing I've got the trip to Killarney to hold me off or I'd be running circles in my living room right now!

Well, that's all for now folks.  I'll check in next week, most likely with one of more generic travel-related posts.  We're just getting started with getting a general timeline laid out for next year's proposed trip to China, so there's not much to comment on in that space yet, but I'll keep you all posted as we start to get things worked out there.  Until next week, have fun!