Poirier-Tyler 2011 trip

We are back in Canada after a short stop in Europe.

Here is the link for some photos:

https://picasaweb.google.com/103917470736110892200/europe#

Here’s few more photos from the coast of Africa

Here is the link:

https://picasaweb.google.com/103917470736110892200/africa2#

Today I was able to upload some photos from our safari and trekking in the loita hills with the Masai.

Here is the link:

https://picasaweb.google.com/103917470736110892200/africa#

Nous sommes dans un petit voiture sur un long chemin au Kenya (du centre du pays jusqu’à la cote – Mombasa, environ 700 km a 60 km/hr moyenne!). Nous avons loue une petite auto avec un conducteur. Le chemin est plein de damions qui roule a peine a 50 km/hr et plusieurs petits villages avec des ‘speed bumps’ et plein de monde qui profite du ralenti des autos pour en vendre toutes sortes de choses. Notre conducteur n’est pas tres rapide … c’est penible! Il nous a fait un deviation a Nairobi ou on a perdu 2 hrs dans la traffic. Chaque fois que je lui parle (pour le garder reveille) il met son pied sur le frien – Ahhhhhh ! C’est difficile de croire, mais je m’ennuie presque de notre conducteur « formule 1 » de l’inde. Il aura été déjà a notre destination il y a quelques heures .. en assumant qu’on était encore vivant. Je reve d’avoir le control, mais j’essai du profiter du moment et ne pas trop me stresser. Pendant tout ca j’ai eu la tres belle souvenir du voyage que j’ai fait avec les filles cet hiver a Adstock. Sylvie conduisait le camion de Jean et elle est tellement efficace, pas de niaisage, en control, conduit tres bien … que j’aimeria ca que Sylvie sois ici en train de conduire au travers la Kenya!
(finalement nous ne sommes pas rendu a notre destination et nous avons arrete a un petit ville – interessant culturellement, mais Heidi est un peu stresse car tout est noir! Mais il semble securitaire de promener le soir ici, ce qui n’est pas le cas a Nairobi et autres plus gros villes.)
Il y a un phrase que Heidi dit de plus en plus souvent – voici un exemple typique du contexte : c’est le soir et déjà tres noir car il n’y a pas beaucoup de lumieres a l’exterieur. Nous sommes dans notre petit chambre d’hotel, les murs ont plusieurs defaut et les tuiles du salle de bien sont en moitie tombe … hotel standard quoi! Ce soir en extra – il n’y a pas souvent de l’eau, en effet il faut descendre a la reception pour en demande chaque fois que nous avons besoin (comme par exemple de flusher le toilet!) Tantot, comme standard, nous avons manque d’electricite pendant que nous preparions pour dormir, alors tout est noir (trouver les headlamps) et evidement pas d’eau. Heidi dit « Ahhhh, que j’adore les pays en developpement! ».
Il nous reste un peu plus d’un semaine au Kenya et nous avons decide de finir notre boyage avec un sejour sur la bord de la mer avec culture different et en esperant de faire un peu de snorkling si les conditions sont favorables. Nous avons passe 3 belles journees dans le bout du lac Navaisha. Un visit en velo au parc nationel Hell’s Gate avec les animaux en proximite, les hippopotames qui vient au camping le soir (heureseuement il y a un fosse et un cloiture electrique pour les eloingnee des tents car ils ont assez dangereuse comme animal. Plusieurs oiseaux interesente et nous avons passe un belle apres midi en style anglaise avec the et gateries illimite sur un parterre superbe, belle vu sur la lac, plusierus oiseaux fantastique et singe colobus. En retournant nous avons encore arrete au petit marche sur le bord de la chemin dont les madames sont vraiment gentille et content de nous revoir. Un autre souper avec plein de legumes et fruits!

3 day Safari in the Masi Mara (Heidi’s journal)
La premiere journee on c’est leve a 6;30 car un petit autobus a 8 passages va venir nous rencontrer a notre hotel. On apprend ensuit que 4 autres personnes allaient nous accompagner pour le safari. Il y avait un anglais, 2 americains, et une fille du Belgique. On doit conduire 5-6 heures pour se rendre au park national Masi Mara. On est arrive au resto apres 3 jeures de route. Un heure apres le diner notre camion a fraper un tres gros trou et la roue en avant a brisee. Notre conducteur était tres calm ca ceci arrive assez souvent. On a trouver un auto qui allait aussi au masi mara. Enfin le groupe c’est separer puis on est parti. En chemin le deuxieme camion a eu une crevaison mis ils sont prets car ils ont deux pneux de spare!
Un demi heure apres notre arrive au camp, nous sommes parti pour notre premier game drive. Chaque auto a un radio pour les aides a trouver les amimaux. Notre conducteur s’appelle George et il est un tres bon guide. Le premier soir on a vu quelques chose de rare – un guepard qui a attrapper un bebe wildebeest. Ceci est tres rare car ils attrapent quelques chose seulement 1 fois sur 5 essaies. On dort dans des petits bungalows avec une douche froide. La nourriture a l’hotel est tres bonne mais c’est toujours a base de ‘bean’ alors les odeurs sont assez forte dans le vehicule.
(HT) The Masi Mara was quite amazing for viewing animals. Tons of zebras, wildebeest everywhere, and many different sorts of animals in the antelope family. Quite a few giraffes, elephants, wild boar, ostrich, vultures and other birds. We saw quite a few cheetahs, including the spectacular chase and kill of the wildebeest. We also saw a family of cheetahs lazing around. The lions were quite special, one group of 17 with a mom who was feeding 3 new cubs – beautiful to watch them feeding! We were also lucky enough to see a black rino which is rare in this park. We were at the right timing for seeing the wildebeest and zebra migration including the famous river crossing. There were many hipos in the river and a few crocodiles waiting for lunch which was quite exciting. The crocs snapped at a few zebras but didn’t get anything! It was an impressive site to see the animals crossing the river, dust as they came down the steep river bank and jumping into the river, crocs and hipos waiting, lots of adrenaline!
We all really enjoyed the animal safari and would have liked to spend more time. Hopefully we will be able to do some more with good animal sitings, but the Masi Mara is supposed to be the best. Next a cultural trek to see some of the ‘real’ Africa – and it turned out to be very real!

Kenya, Africa – 18 july 2011
Overnight flight to Nairobi, Kenya from Bangkok via Doha. Very interesting to see all the people dressed in their muslim/arab clothes ? men in full white with the white head ?scarf? and black rings holding it in place and the women in full black with only their eyes partially visible. Had an interesting converstion with the father of a ?clan?, his wife was sitting beside him, but even when I addressed a question to her it was the man who answered. We had a group of women in black sitting behind us on the flight to Doha ? they were certainly far from reserved and often lifted their face veil and were almost the loudest on the flight!
Our arrival in Kenya was interesting! We were quite tired and then had to wait in line 1 and a half hours to get the Visa ? first introduction to the African bureaucracy. The guest house/campsite arranged for a taxi to be waiting at the airport which worked really nicely. So far our arrivals in the new countries have gone very well with a little prior organisation.
The Upper Hill Campsite in Nairobi has been a good place to start. I was (and still am a bit) nervous about the security of travelling here, especially in Nairobi. There are lots of stories of people getting mugged and worse and it is very dangerous to walk around after dark, even by taxi you must be sure of the driver. The people here have been very helpful and friendly and a super added bonus ! ? they have children about the same age as Alex and Heidi so the kids are having a great time playing. We spent a day organising trekking, etc, while the kids had a lot of fun playing. The temperature is really cool, almost cold, long pants and sweater during the day while sitting in the shade. The sun if very strong so it can still be quite hot when walking. The camp ground has a beautiful garden with many different fruit trees and other huge trees, some with nice flowers. There are some little ?cottages? and a bunch of canvas tents and a few rooms in the main building (we have one of these ? it is quite small without a bathroom and more expensive than most of what we paid in Asia).
I am taking a few minutes to update the Blog and write some emails (something I haven?t often taken time to do), it is nice to relax a bit more and I imagine that having the kids happily playing helps me to have some time off. ** It has been really wonderful to spend all these months with the kids 24 hours a day, to get to know them even better and live through all their daily emotions (and obviously them having to deal with ours!). They are really super to be around and on the odd occasion when we are not all together for a little while it feels strange and lonely.**
We have planned to do a 3 day safari in the Masai mara area since the big yearly migration is happening there now. We couldn?t have had a better timing on our trip for this ? hopefully we will be able to see some exciting river crossings! After the safari we will do a trek for 5 days with the masi people staying in their small villages ? should be quite interesting (we even have to take our own water on the trek ? we?ll see!)
2nd bureaucracy fun ? trying to get money ? Andre has spent half the day running around to all the banks and waiting in many lines ? and wow, 3 hours later he managed to get $500!!
We hope that everyone is having an excellent summer and enjoying some vacation time. Hugs to all!

Here a mix of photos from Myanmar. Click on the link below:

https://picasaweb.google.com/103917470736110892200/myanmar#

We have been enjoying Bangkok again, with good food (yogurt, cereal and nice Thai!), fast and good internet and overall easy interesting living. We managed, after quite a bit of searching, to find a place to start in Nairobi … maybe not so easy travelling as in Asia, but we’ll soon see. A lot of the car rentals are already full, but hopefully we will find something to do a nice safari. We spoke to a few people over the phone and I think we will be able to work things out there wrt safaris and hopefully some trekking also and maybe a few days relaxing at the beach!
Heidi and I took a Thai cooking course yesterday which was a lot of fun and I think Heidi will be able to do some nice Thai recipes when we get back home. While we were at the course the boys did some electronics shopping – Andre was really impressed with the quantity of parts available, much more variety than you can find in Montreal. Alex is having a great time on the Ipod with new games that he has been able to download (Myanmar was very restrictive for Internet and very slow – interesting for the kids to see how different governments control the population!) and he also really enjoys the street shopping and crazy Khaosan road atmosphere.
It is hard to believe that our Asia tour is almost over. We had a lot of fun, some periods and countries were harder to travel in than others, but overall quite a learning experience and a real change of culture. Now we are off to Africa which will be a first for all of us!

Everything is going well but internet is sketchy, we will update when we get back to Bangkok on july15

Quick update from Myanmar, we are enjoying few easy days in Mandelay. We used the bikes to visit around town. Bikes are used by a lot of people and we feel pretty safe on the road. Internet access is limited and slow, so we will update the blog when we get back to Bangkok.