Hope

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WOW After three amazing days in Vancouver Julia and I are now comfortably settled into the Quality Inn in Hope BC. Full from our dinner at a diner called 'HOME'. It was pure comfort food. Julia chowed down on a hot turkey sandwich a mug of hot chocolate topped with whipped cream and the largest homemade 'MM' cookie I've ever seen. I enjoyed a homemade tomato soup filled with veggies and a

‘Nam 2010

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In high school I did two projects about Vietnam one about its economic development and another about American films set during the Vietnam war this sparked my interest in the country and it was not until three years later that I had the chance to visit. Originally I intended to spend five weeks in Vietnam four in Saigon doing an internship for a media company and then nine days of Travel from S

‘Nam 2010Saigon HCM

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In order to save money I took two separate flights to Saigon both of them were Thai Air Asia Asiarsquos Easyjet. During my flight from Bangkok to Saigon I met a woman on the plane who knew about the company was going to work for which gave me a sense of encouragement that I had let myself in for something good. Three hours later I did not feel the same way. Arriving at the airport I was hara

Day One Ottawa to Vancouver

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Waking up a teenager at 430 am is never fun EXCEPT when it is to catch a plane Julia and I were up early and at the airport by 6 am to catch our flight. Unfortunately the airline lsquogodsrsquo were not on our side and our flight was delayed by an hour. No biggie but that extra hour sleep would have been welcome by all. By 800 am we were in the air and on our way. A turbulent flight w

Nam’ 2010 Hue or Hway

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The train ride from Saigon to Hue lasted 24 hours. It was not the most enjoyable train ride I had ever taken. I slept on the middle bunk beneath me were two Vietnamese families yes families not individual passengers who occupied two small beds. They were so loud the kids were constantly screaming at the top of their voices the woman beside me was friendly but was shouting down her phone every

Nam’ 2010 Hanoi shittest city in Asia

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I have only one word in which to describe Hanoihellipshit I checked into the hostel after arriving in Hanoi during the early hours of the morning. The hostel was located in the old quarter which contrary to the lonely planet guide is not full of charm it is not the Asia that I always dreamed of it is shit. The only exception to the shittiness that is Hanoi is the huge lake in the city centre.

2

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Day 2 was an very unproductive thank you unreliable wifi. The good thing is that I now have 3 interviewees that I plan to talk to this coming week. I have come the decision that I will only stay in Akumal for a month instead of 2. The remaining time I will spend satisfying my curiosity by visiting the Mayan ruins that consume this beautiful place. Not much has happened in the last 24 hours so s

North Dakota and first day at South Dakota

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Here are some of the pictures from North and South Dakota. Our first stop was at the Theodore Roosevelt Nat'l. Park in N. Dakota. A very different landscape from where we have been. This is what they call the bad lands. We spend a nice evening with Kevin and family and stayed at Ellsworth AFB a very nice RV park. A storm moved in that night and gave us some neat sky pictures. From there

Day 6 Grand Canyon National Park AZ

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Had a great night's sleep and ready for the Grand Canyon. We left around 5 am and stopped at a great local place called Mary's Cafe. We had our usual hearty breakfast as we've been sticking to two meals a day. Just worked out that way. The ride to the Grand Canyon was in perfect weather. Cool enough for jackets but didn't need chaps. We went by miles and miles of property without power lines

COP16 – Let’s Try This Again

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Copenhagen didn’t amount to much. Maybe the next world climate conference will.

COP 16 & CMP 6 – Launch of host country website
Cancún, Mexico — The sixteenth Conference of the Parties (COP) and the sixth Conference of the Parties serving as the meeting of the Parties to the Kyoto Protocol (CMP) will be held in Cancún, Mexico, from 29 November to 10 December 2010, together with the thirty-third sessions of the subsidiary bodies and the fourteenth session of the AWG-KP and twelfth session of the AWG-LCA.
The official host country of Mexico’s website is now available online.
Visit the website

COP16 will be in Cancun.  It’s not actually correct to say it’s near Tulum, as the website advertises,  but if you are going to COP16 you should try to visit Tulum even though it’s quite a ways down the coast.  I visited Tulum in 2007.  The Mayans in general are a cautionary tale about what happens when you misuse the land for farming and diverting water, etc.  Cancun itself is frighteningly overdeveloped on the ocean side, with resorts everywhere.  If there are any mangroves left there, they must be hiding them. In fact, much of the coast from Cancun down to Tulum is what I would call overdeveloped, and as everyone knows, that’s not exactly great for the ecosystems and the environment.  Tulum was a Mayan fortress, or a walled city, and mainly occupied around AD 1200.   The walls and location were to ward off invasions that would come from the sea, and obviously they were unsuccessful.  The Spanish eventually abandoned Tulum in the 1600s.

The photo below is one I took of Tulum on the sea edge, with some ruins in the back left area.  This area of Mexico is unbelievably gorgeous and [...]