The 100th Day

Woke up this morning, stretched, hiked 10km, ate salmon cakes. Now I am ready to fly from Rutland, Vermont back to Canada. Wowza. 100 days on the road with the red bag. England, France, India, Thailand, China, USA.

Its truly amazing having friends all around the globe. I must give thanks to the following folks for letting me sleep on spare beds, feeding me and letting me do a load of laundry and making me feel at home (as always):

Alex, Tim and Maya in Oxford and Sussex
Saz and Loz in Oxford
The Halperin's (Claire's parents) in London
Chris, Shaila and Will in Mussourie
Yvonne in Beijing
Jason and Timber in Shanghai
Ann and Aki in New York City
Ari, Lena and Kia in Washington D.C.


And of course thanks to everyone for sending emails, words of encouragement and general well wishes!

I feel like I am making an Oscar speech.

Onto the RED BAG
I didn't use or barely used, but still carried with me:
- first aid kit
- mascara, eyeliner and bronzer
- all medications

What proved to be indispensible:
- a black wicked hooded jacket from MEC
- the Rayban sunglasses
- orange headband to cover up these really bad roots
- lululemon bra
- just about everything else. I packed quite well actually!

I didn't get sick. I didn't get anything stolen or lost. I didn't break any bones. I didn't buy any cigarettes. I didn't eat Peking Duck in Beijing. I do feel fit. I did take 2000 photos. I went on a lot of boat trips. I met a ton of cool people, and saw many old friends.

But to be honest, I am now ready to swap my hiking boots for a cool pair of heeled boots again, I definitely need to get my eyebrows waxed, and I'd like to sleep in one bed longer than 7 nights...

Hiking in the Green Mountain State

I've been doing some amazing hiking in Vermont, the green mountain state. It is the second least populous state in the U.S.A, and about 70% of its land area is covered by forests. What a better place to be as the leaves start to change colours. It really is gorgeous here. I'm at a hiking spa at the Inn of Six Mountains in Killington. I've been doing the organized treks, advanced level, through the forests for a full on week now, which are about 12-15km each day (but sometimes straight up!). The trails are either part of ski hills, mountain bike trails, the Appalachian or Long Trail. Then its yoga and/or a massage and/or strength class and/or a glass of wine in the afternoon. Hee hee. Definitely a fine place to get fit again as I move toward the end of this adventure. Oh and I didn't take the above pic, I scammed it from the internet cause I can't add my own photos using this particular computer!

American History

Wow, there really are some places in the big ole United States of America that are truly beautiful. It helps that the weather has been agreeable, and the sun is shining wherever I have been these past few weeks. I'm now in Boston, intellectual capital of the Americas with Harvard, MIT, Boston Uni, and also, the birthplace of the American Revolution ("the cradle of liberty"). This place has an amazing vibe. I like this town. Before getting to the home of the Red Sox I spent a few great days in the nation's capital, Washington D.C., where I stayed with Ari, a friend from grad school, his wife Lena and dog Kia, and also met up with J.B., my frequent houseguest in Cairo. It was a great time getting to know a really cool and laidback city. Did you know in D.C. that approx. 17% of the population are lawyers? I learned that.

I'm a such a tourist geek here in the States. Why the hell not eh? In Boston I went on one of those hop on hop off bus tours and then proceeded to walk the Freedom Trail. Its basically where they have the famous sites mapped out in a 2 mile not-so-straight line. I saw the navy ship USS Constitution, Paul Revere's house, the church where he made the signal that the enemy was coming, Bunkers Hill... etc. The famous things we hear about but never actually know what they are or why they are important and for whom. Sometimes I am quite amazed at what historians tend to forget to mention or simply omit because it doesn't fit in with the nice story they have built for themselves. I am learning more about the other side of American history through the great book by Howard Zinn "A People's History of the United States". A leftist history from the perspective of the Native Americans, women, slaves, liberals and other disenfranchised members of American society. My Dad is gonna love it...

Me and Ari on a paddle boat on the Potomac River. There are also a few monuments close by... Jefferson? Lincoln? Washington? Can't remember which is which!

George Bush wasn't in on this day. Apparently he was at his ranch in Texas. I wanted a tour of the White House, but there is a 90 day waiting list!

A not so unusual sight in NYC.

And, what better way to learn about America then to try out my hands at a local shooting range? Thanks to Aki for suggesting this as our adventurous activity in NYC! But I'll never shoot a gun again.

Labour Day Weekend in the Catskills

I met up with Mark and Ann and Aki, friends from Ottawa now living in NYC, for a weekend in the Catskills, New York State. We rented a house and Neil, one of Aki`s lawyer friends joined us for the long weekend. The five of us had a great few days hiking, swimming in lakes, odd moments of frisbee playing, devouring local produce and blueberry pies, enjoying our Scapa whiskey and Californian red wine and general chillaxing.

We also learned that the defining concert of the 1970`s, Woodstock, was not actually held in Woodstock, but in the town of Bethel about 42 miles away from Woodstock in the Catskills. The hippies are still out in full force in the artist colony, and it is definitely a town still bringing in the tourists being famous for something it actually had nothing to do with!

Along the California Coast

What better way to re-enter North America then through Los Angeles, a city completely devoid of substance or character. I did the touristy thing and took a bus tour of Hollywood, movie star homes, Venice Beach and Sunset Boulevard. Didn`t see any stars, but did notice that they have Lululemon on Rodeo Drive, and caught a glimpse of Barbra Streisand`s hybrid Ford in her driveway.

I then quickly got out of the hostel I was staying in with the pimps and prostitutes of Inglewood alongside the wannabe actors and actresses from smalltown US of A, and rented a car to set forth along the Pacific Coast Highway. An absolutely stunning 12 hour drive through the winding roads through the Big Sur, amongst the trees and mountains up to San Francisco.