Vipond Adventures

Monday, February 2, 2009

First impression of South Africa

Well this will be short and sweet as we have had a long day.

We first arrived in Cape Town on January 24th with Kelly's friend Tony greeting us at the airport. We quickly made our way to his home and had a few refreshments as Kelly and him caught up on old times. Tony and his wife, Janine, took us under their wing and showed us all around Cape Town for 3 days including thier cousins birthday BBQ up in the hills. After many bottles of wonderfull South African wine and amazing meals, at favorite dining spots, we said goodbye and headed for our hostel. There we met back up with Andrew and Kristy, who we originally came to South Africa with, and began our trip as tourists. We toured around the city hitting main shopping markets and beaches where we found the UV index to be 10 fold what it currently is in Kuwait. Long story short; 5 days into the vacation and we all resemble Lepers.
On January 29th we boarded a plane for Johanessburg, picked up our rent a car (2009 Mercedes Benz) and headed for our African Safari in Kruger National Park. This was a trip non of us will ever forget. 3 nights, 4 days, Lions (male,female,and cubs), Giraffes (almost stepping on the hood of our Mercedes) and Rhino's in the distance, among others, we had the time of our lives. Hippos grunted and lions roared through the night was we layed down to rest in our permanent standing canvas tents. YUP...AMAZING! We are now back in Cape Town after a 2hr flight from Johannesburg. We landed this morning at 10am so Kelly and I quickly cleaned up and caught a ferry to Robben Island, Andrew and Kristy headed for the beach. Robben Island is 10km off the coast of Cape Town and the site where the famous Nelson Mandela was imprisioned for 18yrs. We had a wonderful walk-through tour by an ex-inmate and got to see Nelson Mandel's cell. A pretty amazing thing to see and I'm sure you can imagine what it meant to a heartfeld history teacher like Kelly. Besides her now cherry colored back Kelly thought it was the best tour she had ever been on in her life. Yes the weather was hot and Kelly was sunburnt when we got back. I even caked on SPF 100 on her back while on the ferry....IT DIDN'T WORK!
Tomorrow we will go on a Winery Tour and visit a Cheetah outreach center on the way back. This will give us an up close and personal look at cheetah's as we were robbed of them while at Kruger. Not to mention an up close and personal look at the bottom of free bottles of wine. I promise i'll behave Mom.
In the coming days Kelly and I will climb Table Mountain, visit Wineries, and swim with Great White Sharks.
I will sign off for now.
We are back in Kuwait February 6th and should have the blog updated with pictures by the 7th.

Here's to diving with Great Whites..
R

Friday, January 9, 2009

Knowing one end of an engine to the other has come in very handy!

Well I had a very good day out throwing paint with the boys. Kelly opted out to go to some workout classes at the gym with some girls so I brought along a buddy instead. This time we were at the old jail house in Kuwait. This jail house was absolutely destroyed by Iraq so it makes for an awesome paint ball field. 4hrs of that and we had enough. First round in the game a guy came from behind me (backup didn't see him) and laced me from about 4ft away. Unfortunately one ball got me right in the mouth. Actually it was the mouth guard on the mask but it still felt like my lips ripped off. The mask has a screen on it so the ball smashed and paint ripped into my mouth at seriously high pressure. Long story short; I had a pink paintball for lunch!

Now onto the good stuff...

The boy that I tutor in grade 7 told me that his father had a Porsche and that it was reeeally nice but had a problem with the engine. So when "Dad" came to pick him up after tutoring I asked him, because we are now pretty good friends, about this porsche. Turns out the engine lets out a huge cloud of smoke when you stomp on it. He said he didn't want to bring it to a Porsche dealership because it would be very expensive. He is also leary about the mechanics around here trying to get a lot of money out of him for something that really wasn't that expensive. So I told him that I would be happy to take a look at it for him as I know my way around an engine. He was very happy to hear this and in fact was excited to hand me the keys to see what I could find out for him. Long story short...I now have a Porsche to drive for a couple weeks. And let me tell you when they say Porsche is a high-end car name, they mean it. This is an amazing car to drive. Besides the rear shocks needing replacement it rides very well and handles better then anything I have ever rode in. It has way more power than I would have imagined for a standard "Boxster" and is so fun to drive. So about the engine...yes it bellows smoke like the dickens when driven HARD, but runs fantastic all in all. A new motor for this little guy will hit your wallet at $15,000 but fortunately for my friend, after my trained eye gave it a once over, his little Boxster only needs a $70 air/oil separator. This unit is sort of like a PVC valve working from the crankcase allowing vapor to be vented back through the engine. When this air/oil separator fails it sucks oil from the crankcase into the throttle body and then into the engine. It doesn't always do it but when you "floor it" excessively high vacuum is created and oil is sucked up through the separator and into the engine. This creates a cloud of smoke for about a 500m radius and brings traffic, behind you, to a halt. Very very very embarrassing.

You start up a nice Porsche in front of a bunch of people, while they watch you, and it's like "Uncle Buck" just smoking everybody out.

Upon further investigation it was concluded that the part can be changed in about 1.5 hrs with a pair of pliers and a 10mm wrench. Whoo hoo!

Now I just need to find me a 3 ft, 40 lb person to fit inside the engine bay to change it for me.

Here are a couple pictures from paintball today and my new toy "smokey".

My principal Craig on the left, Gabe from Ontario, and Ted from Saskatoon

This is after I cleaned most of the paint off my teeth and face

Monday, January 5, 2009

What's coming up for us?

Well we are fully up to date with the new year events back home. First off, Congratulations Rod & Coralee on your beautiful little girl. We will be sure to give you a ring once you three get all settled back at home and have a fews days without the phone ringing off the hook.

The deep freeze has definitely hit The Pas this winter. Lots of people out sledding already, makes me miss home that much more.

Kelly and I are heading out this weekend for another paint ball match. There should be quite a good sized group as Santa brought a few new toys that some of our club members are dying to try out. After the battle we are all heading over to my Principal's house for a BBQ. He also paint balls with us.

Next week will be a short week for us as there is no school on Thursday. This is the day that mid-term exams start for all middle/high school. Exams go into the following week. Students will have one 1 hr exam each of the 5 days that week in Math, Science, Social Studies, Language Arts and Islam. Fortunately this means a week off for Kelly and I...well we still have to be at school and administer the exams but they are done at 9am. Students are very nervous for these exams as they are very focused on grades over here. Many of my students have already started studying and booking tutors for next week. So once we finish the week of exams on January 23rd we start our "winter break". This is a 2 week vacation for the whole school and yes we still get a spring break, that comes in March.

For the winter break Kelly and I and another couple from Ontario are heading to Cape Town, South Africa for the two weeks. This has always been a dream for ours to go to Africa so now is our chance. Kelly has friends there that we are going to stay with for 4 days so they can show us all around the city. Over the course of the holiday we have planned some "must do's". To begin, we will go on a tour of the Two Oceans Winery. It is a winery up on a high hill over-looking where the Atlantic and Pacific oceans meet. That should be a very dizzy, foggy, stumbling time. Also we will be going on an African safari to see 4 of the "BIG FIVE" african giants. The most exciting event of the trip is our planned tour to go cage diving with Great White Sharks. Just off the coast of South Africa, 2 hr drive from where we are staying, is an island with the largest density of great white sharks in the world. We are heading out with the legendary Brian McFarlane and his crew to go see these predators of the deep. He has a custom-built hi tech catamaran that can accommodate up to 40 people. Its about $200 for the 6 hr tour with all diving gear and meals/drinks included. We are both extremely excited for this. Kelly is more petrified than excited but I am stoked. If it interests any of you check out the website...www.sharkcagediving.net

Well that's the scoop on our plans over the next month. If anyone has any questions, comments, quandaries feel free to e-mail us at vipondrr65@gmail.com, we would be happy to hear from you.

I will likely make another short entry after the up coming weekend.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

New Years in the Emirates

Well we all managed to tackle the United Arab Emirates and make it home in one piece. Once we landed in Dubai we quickly made our way to our reserved rent-a-car. The girls had no idea what kind of car I had booked and never cared to ask. Typical. But when they were directed to a 2008 Mercedes Benz their eyes lit up. I looked at them laughing and said, "when in the Emirates do as the Emiratis". We made our way to our hotel and checked in then hit the city.

Our first objective was to meet up with a friend at the Atlantis Hotel on the man-made Palm Island just off the coast of Dubai. We never did end up getting a hold of him but did manage to spend about 2 hours around this magnificent hotel.

After leaving there we headed to the other massive hotel on the beach of Dubai, the Jumeriah Hotel. We parked the Benzy and walked straight in like we owned the place. Nobody stopped us so we just helped ourselves to the entire grounds of the hotel. We were all pretty sure that this was not something that tourists were allowed to do but if you dress to impress nobody bothers you...and they didn't. So we headed out through the hotel to the amazing view of the beach and the Burj Al Arab Hotel (sailboat hotel). This is the worlds only 7 star hotel and sits on its own man made island. It is $150 to enter the lobby and is guarded by a strict security gate. The foundation is built just as far into the ocean as the hotel is into the sky and averages $10,000/night. Yup ten thousand. We snapped pictures like the dickens and then headed back to our hotel.

The next day we headed to the Emirates Mall and looked at the indoor ski-hill. Wendy and Tricia loaded up on souvenirs then we headed to "Chill out". Chill out is a bar/restaurant that is completely made out of ice. Everything in the bar is carved from ice, the seats, tables, cups, chairs, lights, etc. It is $15 to get in and they give you a big parka, boots, gloves and a toque. We had a cup of hot chocolate and then left. It was quite chilly in there after sitting for awhile but still only -6 Celsius. After that we drove down to the public beach to watch the sunset over the Burj al Arab Hotel.

The next day was a trip to the capital city of Abu Dhabi. It was 160kms away and a very nice drive along the Emirates coast. Once there we headed to the Grand Mosque, which, is the 3rd largest mosque in the world. The tours for the mosque were closed for the day but, as a male, I was able to head straight in and check the place out. Reason being, women have to cover in order to go into a mosque and the tour desk that gives females the dresses to cover themselves with was closed. So the girls stayed back and took pictures of the outside. This place was unbelievable.

After the mosque we headed to the heritage village to check out some local handicrafts but most stores were closed until 5pm so we went down to the beach for some tanning and then headed back at sunset. Kelly blew some glass and then bought her work of art and we explored around for a half hour or so. The last stop for the day was the Emirates Palace Hotel. This hotel was US$3 Billion to build and was completed in November 2005. It occupies 2,550,000 square feet of floor space, underground parking allows housing for 2,500 vehicles and it has its own marina and helipad. Most of the suites are furnished in gold and marble and the cost of staying for a night begins at $400 for a small 600 square foot room and goes all the way up to $12,000 a night for the 7,300 square foot Palace Grand suite. We parked the Benzy underground among the $500,000 Rolls Royce and Maybach's and then explored around the entire grounds of the hotel. We took pictures inside and out and could not believe our eyes with every corner we turned.

We got back to Dubai at around 1am that night. The next day we spent the morning at Wild Wadi water park. This was the largest water park in Dubai but still not up to the standards of the rest of the city. We had a blast but it was a far cry from Wet & Wild in Florida or West Edmonton Mall water park for that matter. We headed back to our hotel at around 2pm to get ready for our desert safari. This desert safari we had arranged the day before included, 4x4ing on sand dunes, BBQ dinner, belly dancing show, camel rides, and sandboarding throughout the afternoon and evening. It was an extremely fun time as we blasted over mountains of sand in a Toyota Land Cruiser. There were many times when we figured we were all a goner. Talk about a dream job for that driver. There were also opportunities to rent quads and go out on the sand but it was $40 for 15mins and the quads were Grizzly 400's. NO THANKS (no offense Rick). They had Banshee's and Raptor 700's for rent at another place but we didn't have the time for those. THAT would have been worth it!!

I think that was the best way possible to spend new years eve. We all had a blast!

New Years eve night parties were all called off throughout Dubai the morning of the 31st by Sheik Mohammed, ruler of Dubai and Vice President of the United Arab Emirates because of the crisis between Israel and Gaza. We were very surprised of this news, as was the rest of the city, but thankful that we hadn't put out hundreds of dollars for a new years eve party that was now cancelled. The reason for this order from the Sheik was to show support and condolences towards the Palestinians who have lost many loved ones in the battles over the past few weeks. Basically he didn't want his people to be celebrating and having a great ol' time while this tragedy was taking place. It really didn't affect us at all as we had no plans anyway but it would have been nice to see the huge fireworks display that was also cancelled. Needless to say it was a quiet celebration at the crack of midnight but was an unforgettable new years eve day.

Our rent a car 08' Benz C-200

Atlantis Hotel

Aquarium inside the Atlantis Hotel

glass sculpture in the lobby of the Atlantis

"Chill out" the ice bar

Burj Al Arab Hotel

Jumeriah Hotel

ABU DHABI

The Grand Mosque in Abu Dhabi

Inside the Grand Mosque

East gate at the Emirates Palace Hotel

Front of the Emirates Palace Hotel

Back of the Emirates Palace Hotel

Inside the lobby

Outside the lobby and valet area

Hotel shuttle vehicles; 2 Rolls Royce and 2 Maybach's =$2 million

DUBAI

Monkey at the desert safari

Sandboarding

This was a really cool baja style dune buggy that some local had

Thursday, December 25, 2008

MERRY CHRISTMAS

MERRY CHRISTMAS to everyone!!

Well Wendy and Tricia arrived right on time with zero issues with visa's or transfers. Upon their arrival we indulged in a Christmas potluck feast at our apartment building. There was about 45 of us teachers and family members who came out for the dinner.

Today we headed out into the desert to look for the camel herd that we never found when Mom and Dad were here. Well we found them and it was a pretty cool experience for these Canadian tourists we have with us. Ended up going for a chocolate fondu at a nice little patio on the gulf, then got into a race with a Lamborghini on the way out. This rich lambo driver juiced it off the green light for about 3 sec and then backed off and cruised really slow so I caught up to him and as he was admiring the girls I had with me I stomped my foot pedal to the floor. I got about 6 feet ahead of him before he quickly realized what I was doing; he dropped about 4 gears and was GONE! The sound that thing made at 8500 rpm was amazing. I was literally shaking after that episode for about 5 mins. Very cool. I don't even know if the girls knew what was going on.

Tomorrow we will conquer the Avenues Mall and maybe see an IMAX movie.

At 25 degrees and the number of Christmas trees around us being less then I can count on one hand this really does NOT feel like Christmas. We both really miss the holiday festivities with you all and can only ask that you take an extra gulp of Egg Nog for us.

All the best to you and yours over the holidays and we will add another blog once settled in Dubai next week.

Take care and Happy Holidays

Sunday, December 14, 2008

Done traveling for a few days

Well the crew made it back to the airport last night around 10pm. They were flying out at 1:35am and should be back in Wpg 4pm Monday afternoon. All in all I think they really enjoyed themselves, especially in Jordan. Mom was very comfortable with the culture, easily chatting up the locals everywhere we went. Now we have a few more people on Team "big bad" Middle East. The pictures probably speak for themselves but I am sure everyone will have stories to tell you once they are back. Kelly and I are back to work now until next Wednesday then we are off until the new year. Wendy and Tricia arrive next Wednesday so we will stay here in Kuwait for 5 days and then fly to Dubai where we will spend New Years. It should be a pretty fun vacation for all. Hope to do some Bedouin camping, sandboarding, snowboarding, and hit the huge waterpark. We are also planning on driving to Abu Dhabi for a day trip to check out the UAE's capital. We will take a little break from the blog until they arrive next week and then let you all know what they think of Kuwait before heading to Dubai. Talk to you soon.

Friday, December 12, 2008

Petra, Wadi Rum (by Kelly)

After a lovely adventure on the Dead Sea we departed for the Ancient city of Petra on Tuesday morning. It took us awhile to get there since, after being rerouted off of the main highway, we found ourselves driving the deserted back roads of rural Jordan. We managed to find our way there after stopping to find some help.

Help can be hard to get in Jordan as many people do not speak any English. It is a much less common destination for many because it does not hold the glitz and glam of places like Dubai. It is a destination that shows the true nature of the Middle East. The streets of even the smallest town are filled with men, women and children going about their daily rounds to get fresh produce and meat for dinner. People sell their wares and work hard in order to make a simple living.

And then there are the Bedouins.... the nomads who live in caves and live the simplest, yet arguably the happiest life, of any people I have ever encountered. The Bedouins have been around for centuries and date back to over 2500 years ago. Their culture and ways of living are so well settled that I find it truly admirable how comfortable they are in their own skin and the harsh desert environment. We all picked up the book "Married to a Bedouin" about a women from New Zealand who fell in love and married a Bedouin man from Petra. She moved there to live with him and his family in their cave. They had three children and the story goes on. He passed away in 2004 and she now spends her time between Petra and New Zealand.

The people of Jordan are some of the kindest I have met. That is saying a lot because the people of the Middle East have a tendency to show more kindness then most city dwellers in North America. In Kuwait, many people are more than happy to strike up conversation and find out where you are from. However, that is because 70% of the city is Expats and they come from other places. We have many things in common with 70% of the population of Kuwait City because we are all living a life away from the comforts of home and family. However, Jordan is different. When you get to Jordan you find that, even though you are a tourist and you are a main source of income for the country's economy, the local people are genuinely interested in you. Many will strike up perfectly innocent conversation and offer to show you places without an ulterior motive. It can really test your North American paranoia! Even through broken English we found ourselves feeling comfortable conversing with total strangers.

We finally arrived in Petra around 5 pm... just in time to see the sunset over Wadi Musa (The Valley of Moses). Wadi Musa is the biblical town were Moses struck the rock and started a spring of water that watered the people of Jordan. It is immediately beside Petra. We arrived and had dinner and an early bedtime. It was as if we knew what we were up for the next day....

We woke up at 7:00 am Wednesday morning with intent of going to the Archeological Site early. We were a bit jumpy with anticipation and their was an air of excitement in the cool morning breeze. Ryan and I have been dreaming of visiting the Ancient Ruins of Petra for 5 years now. We all got to the entrance, hired a guide and we were off. The guide brought us through the 2 kilometer, 3 meter wide gorge that serves as the only entrance to Petra all while teaching us about the Ancient Nabataeans that once called this place home.

When we reached the Treasury, the most popular and commonly known monument of Petra, we were excited to see the Grandeur of the buildings. The buildings of Petra are all carved with ancient expertise into the side of the surrounding rock cliffs. It truly cannot be described... it can only be explained in pictures. We kept going through the ancient City of Petra as the Bedouins sold their wares around us and spoke in broken English to the tourists making their way through the excavated ruins. We finally decided to brave the mountain climb. We needed to cover a series of over 800 stairs up the side of a mountain to get to "Al Dier" or the Monastery and get a view of the "top of the world" which overlooks Bethlehem, Jerusalem and the mountainous terrain of Israel and Jordan.

I was very proud of Shirley, Rob, and Mom. It was a climb that many people chose not to do because of the 800 stairs. We made our way back to realize that we had walked over 9 kilometers that day. We stopped for pizza for dinner and then Ryan and I headed back to do another 4 kilometers and do the "Petra at Night" Tour where you walk the entire first leg of the ruins but they are lit by candlelight. How lovely! It was so romantic, just us and 100 Chinese tourists.

The next day we were off to Wadi Rum, where the "Lawrence of Arabia" movie was filmed, to tour the Desert in a Safari Jeep. We were taken on a Bedouin adventure indeed! Our guide, Hasan, was very accommodating but spoke very little english. Just enough to get by. He was very quiet but knowledgeable and accommodating. We stopped for lunch and got a fire going to make traditional Bedouin black tea. Then Hasan handed each of a us a knife, fork, and a plate with an onion, desert grown cucumber, tomato, homemade flatbread and a can of tuna he had opened with his extremely large Bedouin knife. It was a simple lunch that tasted great after a long morning of running up the red sand dunes of Wadi Rum.

We were taken back to our campsite with about 1 hour left of sunlight. As soon as we got their we were shown our rooms. We were to live as Bedouins and being sleeping on small diwaniya foams with sheepskin blankets. It gets down to 7 degrees at night so we were excited to see lots of blankets ready for us! We watched the sunset over the desert and then sat down in our tent with a fire blazing in the middle of it. The sides of the shelter were closed to keep the wind out and we got quite warm and cozy on the foams by the fire. Hasan's brother and nephew kept us company and spoke with us while Hasan made a traditional Bedouin dinner of us.

When dinner was ready, we enjoyed a FANTASTIC meal of Chicken, potatoes, Rice, bread and Vegetables in Fresh yogurt. Of course, we ended off the meal with Bedouin tea. It was a lovely evening. We exchanged stories and songs. Singing is a big part of Bedouin culture so we ended up singing national anthems and impressed the Arabs with a rollicking rendition of "O Canada". It was a great night that will forever be in our minds. We settled down to sleep early again to the peaceful silence of the desert. The wind softly blew into our tents as we settled off to sleep. Rob and Ryan had their own way to warm the tents which we were not fond of but the aroma did keep the Rattlesnakes and Scorpions at bay

We woke up early to go back into Rum Village (which sounds like a party place but really isn't). We had to now drive the 3 1/2 hours back to Amman to catch our plane. All was successful and now we find our selves back at home in Kuwait.

It has been a wonderful time with our parents and we are so happy to have had them here to share a little piece of what our lives are like during this year of adventure. We are so proud of them for braving a part of the world painted so "volatile" by the North American media. It is nice to have them understand now what a wonderful place the Arab world is. It truly is not what you see in the media; in fact, it is a much nicer and safer place than any city I have ever visited in Europe or North America. Coming home will be less difficult now that our parents understand what our life has consisted of for the past year. We will miss them and it will be a tough goodbye... but we will see them again soon.

These adventures make us realize how lucky we are to have happy, supportive and healthy parents who are up to being adventurous alongside us. They support our decisions to do crazy things; they are with us in spirit everyday no matter where we are around the globe. They are truly great parents and even better friends.