The Slowboat to Luang Prabang, Laos

When first told to take the ‘slow boat’ to Luang Prabang, Laos from Thailand, I was skeptical about the value we’d get from sitting aimlessly on a boat 2 days in a row. I wasn’t about to do it. At the best of times I don’t like boats – I find the sensation of being away from land disconcerting. Maybe a part of this is because I’m not very comfortable around deep water. And my resolutions to become a stronger swimmer have still seen no action (though, when I get home, I’m COMMITTED to swimming at least twice a week and finally learning a freestyle stroke, as I’ve yet to see anyone breast-stroke their way out of a dangerous ocean situation).

So when Dave suggested we take the slow-boat, I was appalled. I alternated between protesting and pouting, but the fact of the matter was, the only other option was a 12 hour mini bus ride over horrible roads. The slow boat it was.

Where we boarded the slowboat. We still bave no idea why all the boats were crammed so tightly together.

One of our many stops

This guy gave us a ride on his speedboat from Chiang Khong, Thailand to Xuai May, Lao, the night before we got on the slowboat.

We arrived at the pier that morning and saw a host of docked boat, waiting for the latest roundup of tourists. Apparently, 15 years ago, the slow boats were used to transport locals from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang. However, over the years Luang Prabang has been named a world heritage site and the tourists now flock there, so we were surprised to see our boat was occupied by a 90% tourist majority.

We got on the boat by literally walking up a plank from the ground to the boat. Suddenly I got vertigo and barely clambered up with my backpack on my back. Once we entered, we noticed the ‘luxury’ seats were all taken. At the front of the boat were about 16 seats that looked like they once belonged in a minivan. Beyond these seats were wooden benches (with backs, thank goodness) for a capacity of about 100 people seated comfortably.

We had been pre-warned about the wooden benches and had brought cushions with us to soften the ride. Mine was a graduation pillow that said ‘congratulations!’ on it, Dave’s had a pattern with little blue bears, but the most entertaining was the pillow of one of the friends’ we made, which read ‘You fill my little world light up’ and had a little bear hugging itself. The pillow belonged to Jeff the Aussie, and perhaps it was what made Jeff seem so approachable to us!  

Within the first 20 minutes of being on the boat, we saw one Frenchman fall into the baggage hole in the floor (he ended up with a bloody shin, and immediately a swat team of moms surrounded him with bandages, cotton and lao lao – the local whisky). We also saw quite a few tourists nearly stumble off a step on the boat, and Dave bashed his head against the ceiling while trying to get in. No blood though, so no attention or Lao Lao for him, unfortunately. ‘This is a death trap’ remarked one tourist’ ‘And we haven’t even left yet’ quipped another. And that’s how we made friends with Ed, Maria and Jeff.

The 3 were travelling together and we figured if we were going to be trapped on this death ship together for such a long period of time, we should make friends. This turned out to be a wise decision and they are LOVELY people who we spent the next few days with in Luang Prabang, and later met up with, through coincidence and good fortune in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap, Cambodia. Soon others joined the group as there were attracted by our little game of ‘Murder’ we had started playing as well as some card games where the loser had to eat the Blueberry-Hazelnut flavoured Pringles chips (yes..they tasted exactly as you think they do). There were Simon and Rosie who are also brilliant people (travelling for over a year !) who we went Elephant trekking with in Luang Prabang. And we rescued Christiane from the clutches of Frodo, the ship hobbit (background – we noticed one very loud American tourist who took off his shirt and had a nipple ring as well as a belly button ring. He was quickly christened ‘Lord of the Rings’ which then morphed into Frodo.)   Don’t worry – we didn’t make friends with Frodo so there is a slim to none chance he will ever read this blog.

 This poor wounded guy tripped into the luggage compartment that the Nurse mom is standing in !

During a couple of the stops, local kids would board the boat selling chips and beer.

An intense game of cards. Loser eats Hazelnut-Blueberry Pringles.

Turns out, in the company of good people the 2 day boat trip was a very fun experience. The Mekong River is absolutely beautiful, with densely forested hills rising by the water’s edge. And the boat moved smoothly enough that there was practically no sea sickness on the boat. In terms of danger, I’d say it was pretty low. While I didn’t see life jackets on the boat, in the rare event something did happen, the river is narrow enough for the average swimmer to make it safely to either bank. And I didn’t see any crocs to speak off, so I assume swimming would be pretty safe, as long as you didn’t ingest the water. Luckily, we didn’t have to find out.

My bum's saviour.

No caption required.

Just one of the many entertaining signs in SE Asia.

We’d highly recommend a visit to Luang Prabang if you ever get to Laos. It’s a beautiful little place where people go for 2 days and end up staying the week. The place is safe as there is a midnight curfew (not really enforced, but all the restaurants and bars close, so what else is there to do), which we broke only once as we tottered home after a rather fun night with the group. We were approached by a young fellow selling ‘#1 best opium’ which Dave politely declined before we picked up the pace to get home to our guest house.

 - Dal

Chiang Mai

From Bangkok, we flew to Chiang Mai which is the main city Northern Thailand. It’s much more relaxed than Bangkok during the day but the night is still bustling with vendors at the huge night market. We did our share of shopping (my fake Teva’s I got for $6 lasted for 3 weeks before I replaced them with $10 Crocs in Ho Chi Minh City last week) to the point that we actually shipped back some stuff home to ease our carry load (Sidebar - our load is embarrassing. We’ve each one big backpack and then 3 trolley bags plus the small camera bag. And we’ve even shipped a 7KG box of clothes back to Canada. Our lesson is that we really don’t need that many clothes when travelling since getting laundry done is so cheap).  

The food at the night market was phenomenal..Dal and I would chow down on pad thai, tom yum soup, red curry, fried shrimp etc..and wash it down with fresh lemon or coconut juice. Our meals would usually total around $4-5 for the two of us leaving us completely satiated.

Since tourists do tours, we booked a day to go visit the most notable landmark in Chiang Mai, Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep, which is a gorgeous temple complex on the top of a hill. The site was chosen in year 1383 in a rather unique fashion: a relic of Lord Buddha was placed on an elephant’s back and the spot where the elephant finally laid down and died was chosen as the area to erect the temple. Sounds like a real estate developer’s strategy to me. This Wat proved to be worth the 300+ stairs climb as it was truly majestic and we were honoured to receive blessings from monks in one of the enclosed temples.

That same day we visited two other tourist attractions : The Snake farm and the Monkey farm. This was a compromise as I hate snakes and Dal thought it was unfair to have monkeys perform out of their natural habitat. 

The snake farm turned out to be a hidden gem for a few reasons

1)      Some of the snake cages looked quite rickety and one pane of glass within a cage housing an albino cobra looked like it might shatter with a small amount of force

2)      During the 30-minute ‘show’ that took place in a ring, the Thai announcer stood next to a ghetto blaster that was playing an instrumental version of Europe’s “ The Final Countdown”.  The volume would be high for a few seconds…he then he’s turn it to low and provide some commentary and jokes...then back to high volume.. Here a sample

·         “Snake very big”

·         10 seconds of the Final Countdown at volume level  7..then back to level 2

·         “Snake very fast”

·         10 seconds of the Final Countdown at volume level  7..then back to level 2

·         “Keep your eyes on snake”

·         10 seconds of the Final Countdown at volume level  7..then back to level 2

·         “He keep eyes on you”

·         10 seconds of the Final Countdown at volume level  7..then back to level 2

·          “His poison can kill you in 10 minutes”

·         10 seconds of the Final Countdown at volume level  7..then back to level 2

·         “Hospital 11 minutes from here”

This sequence literally carried on for 30 minutes and I completely regret not recording it on video just for his commentary.

3)      We got an opportunity to have a python drape itself around our neck and shoulders. It felt exactly how you’d probably imagine: heavy, slightly slimy and cold. The term drape, however is left open to interpretation by the snake. On me, you see the more traditional drape. However he gave Dal a bit more of a snug greeting.

Apparently monkey farms bring out my inner Homer Simpson/Peter Griffin as I was rollicking in laughter as monkeys shot basketballs through a hoop, lifted weights, sold monkey balm and recognized numbers. Dal was concerned that the treatment of these monkeys were poor as there was separation of mother and child, the performing monkeys were kept in cages (so as not to attack the crowd I suppose) and there were monkeys on display that were chained by the foot. I rationalized that the show only went for a few hours and then the monkeys were able to live normally again. Also, the monkeys were quite well fed as tourists could buy food for $1 and throw them to the various monkey. And of course…it brings joy to tourists and raises awareness about monkeys.

One other big highlight was the fish spa. A fish spa, for those not in the know, is basically an aquarium containing schools of very small fish. Tourists dip their legs in this aquarium and the fish swam to the legs picking off dead skin. It’s really a win-win situation for everyone. We did it for about 20 minutes..and I could never quite get comfortable with the sensation of these little guys pecking at my legs. Dal blissfully enjoyed it. I have to admit though that my legs and feet did feel like a baby’s bottom afterwards, as promised by the vendor.

- DP

Remembrance Day

In the last 2 weeks, we’ve visited

• Vietnam War Remnants Museum, a tribute to the 1.1 million soldiers and the 3.0 million civilians that perished
• Cu Chi Tunnels, a very strategic location that the Vietcong defended against the US and Vietnam armies by using an intricate ground tunnel system to hide, move and attack
• My Son Temple Ruins, in Hoi An, Vietnam where we saw bomb craters and the remains of temples
• The Killing Fields in Phnom Penh, Cambodia where over 17,000 people that were tortured by the Khmer Rouge were dumped into mass graves – over 2.5 million people died during this regime
• The Cambodian Land Mine museum that was started by Aki Ra, one of CNN 2010 Hero finalists

These experiences, along with the Genocide museums and churches we saw in Rwanda, have been nothing short of heartbreaking for us. It’s simply astonishing such brutalities against fellow human beings have occurred in the last 35 years under the watch of the world. I have a tremendous amount of respect for the people of these countries that appear to have forgiven their oppressors and have moved on to carry wide smiles on their faces, although they remain mired in abject poverty.

“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed” – The opening of the US Declaration of Independence written in 1776 by Thomas Jefferson. This quote is also displayed, sardonically perhaps, at the Vietnam War Remnants Museum in Ho Chi Minh City.

In North America, war is justified as a last-resort method to defend basic freedoms. Having travelled through countries where citizens have suffered and been displaced by wars and still don’t enjoy these freedoms has made me appreciate what we have in Canada. We enjoy the right to achieve a standard of living to essentially experience anything we desire. We have personal and national security. We have rights. We are given free education. We are a land of opportunity for immigrants. We have social programs for those in need. We’re not a perfect country but all things considered, we have so little to complain about.

“I would like the opportunity to come to Canada” – said optimistically by countless people we’ve talked to during our trip. Sadly, I know that the majority of the people that express this desire will never have this opportunity. Poverty is an immovable anchor for the current generation and their best hope is to provide their children such an opportunity through education. Of course many of these children are also expected to help provide money for the family which hampers their education and the cycle of poverty continues. Throw in corrupt governments and enterprises that strive to widen the gap of rich and poor and it’s easy to be disillusioned.

Is there hope ? We've had the fortune meet people who have dedicated themselves to creating glimmers of hope for those in need. In Rwanda, we stayed with Cathy and Teste who run http://www.prefercanada.org/. At the Cambodian Land Mine Museum, we learned about Aki Ra who was a former Khmer Rouge soldier who has now dedicated his life to removing active landmines from his country. http://edition.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cnn.heroes/archive10/aki.ra.html . And tomorrow, we get to meet Ponheary Ly, another CNN 2010 Hero nominee, who supports the education of over 2,000 children in Cambodia http://edition.cnn.com/2010/LIVING/06/18/cnnheroes.ly.cambodia/index.html.

This Remembrance Day, as a Canadian, I am grateful for the freedoms I enjoy and the people that have protected them. As a citizen of the world however, I am saddened that all men aren’t given equal opportunities to pursue life, liberty and happiness. As a human being, I’m inspired by those who smile regardless of their circumstances and dedicate themselves to improving the lives of others.

-DP

Boy selling postcards in Hanoi, Vietnam

Woman, working at Handicapped Handicrafts, near Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Taken in Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Theogene, one of my favourite kids

Aliene and Sarah

The adult class in Rwanda..one of my favourite photos

Safari in Tanzania

Given we were already on the continent of Africa, we reasoned it made absolute sense for us to go on Safari and catch some of the local wildlife. We decided we’d get our safari on in Tanzania, with trips to the Ngorogoro Crater, the Serengeti and Lake Manyara.

We were met at the Kilimanjaro airport by our guide ‘Nile’ and were told we’d have to wait for 3 more people to join our group. A few minutes later we heard they would not be joining us, which meant Dave and I had essentially scored a private tour for the next few days.

Our safari started with the Ngorogoro crater. We’d typically start our drives at 7am and keep going until 5pm. Every time Nile got a message on the radio, he’d zip off into a new direction and Dave would ask ‘what is it?’ and I would say ‘let’s not ask in case we jinx it’. Usually, this rushed frenzy resulted in some fantastic animal action. One time it was a pair of lions in heat. We waited for 30 mins to see if they would do the deed but apparently they had just finished and were lying in a heap on the floor, napping in the sun. Oh well. Another time it was 7 females from a pride, ready for the morning hunt. They stalked and charged a herd of buffalo and we believe they caught one further off. But then, the buffalo turned and charged the lions and it was amazing to see them chase off the pride. The males in the pride proved themselves completely useless by wandering about aimlessly, and after being unable to locate the kill, plunked themselves under a tree. Useless. In their efforts at doing nothing, they managed to leave the cubs behind, one of which went missing, and we watched the mama lion walk around and call to the lion cubs for about 20 minutes before we had to race away. We hope she found the little one.   

Other exciting scenes included a lion guarding a freshly killed zebra, mangled beyond recognition. I quipped that his friends must be in mourning as they all wore black and white that day. Cheap, I know.

 In Tanzania, safari vehicles are not allowed to go off designated trails, and I was somewhat concerned that any animals we saw would be too far away from the path to get a good look at. After all, if I was an animal I’d want to stay as far off the path as possible and leave the humans to themselves. I needn’t have worried – as if positioned by the park rangers (which they weren’t) we found the wildlife to be extremely cooperative. We spotted prides of lions and herd of elephants, zebra, buffalo, hippos, giraffe, cheetahs, monkeys of all shapes and sizes, wildebeest and hyenas close to, or on the trails, and most of them seemed to acknowledge the vehicle but not be overly concerned by it. Female lions walked in the shadow of the safari vehicle, perhaps grateful for the shade and generally went about their business.

The entire experience was wonderful. I think even the most steadfast atheist would have to look around at the amazing creation and realize that God, or something, must have had a grand plan to create something so magnificent. I simply cannot imagine how so many varied species of animals and birds are indigenous to one area of the earth. This must be where Noah’s Ark landed.

Africa did not disappoint. It lived up to every grand movie scene, where jeeps race against an endless horizon and epic music scores from Hans Zimmer play in the background.

As we left the Serengeti, I felt a sense of happiness for having crossed off a major item on my bucket list, and a bit wistful that I was leaving this beautiful land. Then, in a moment of pure cheese, I played Toto’s ‘Africa’ on my Ipod and looked misty eyed at the ‘Thank you for visiting the Serengeti. Please come again.’ sign as we charged out.

- Dal

A male lion. Regal, yet surprisingly useless.

Herd of Elephants.

Whatchu lookin' at ?

It's almost like she's posing for a portrait.

Giraffes getting ready for a drink of water.

Lioness guarding the kill.

Leopard in the tree.

Add caption

Driver Ghasana and his family

** We realized we still had a few Africa stories to share with you such as this one and the safari we did in Tanzania. So we apologize for backtracking from Bangkok **

‘Ghasana’ was our driver for quite a few of our roadtrips while in Ruhengeri. We got to know him as the driver that Cathy would have to threaten to drive slower, by offering to lower his tip everytime she had to tell him to slow down.

He’s the guy who ran out of gas while on the way to Nyarama. We only know this because the car stopped and he had to walk to the nearest gas station to get gas, while the rest of us sat with the car on the edge of a busy roadway . Which finally explained why there were empty gas canisters sitting in the car.

He's the guy who's the father of Toufiq, the smiling, suave, stylish boy we hung out with at Lake Kivu (we have a post about that trip).

Net net – Ghasana built a reputation for himself as a sweet, if slightly scatterbrained, fellow. So of course, when he invited the group to his house the night after ‘boy’s night’ at the Soldier Bar, the boys happily accepted and I happily tagged along.

I was already looking forward to meeting Mrs Ghasana – the woman’s reputation preceded her, as apparently she held court at the soldier bar the night the boys went out. As well, she was the only woman there that night, and managed to make herself at home, in spite of being a somewhat conservative muslim lady. There are reports of dancing as well, but we’ll pretend those reports are unsubstantiated…

At 5pm on the Saturday Ghasana came by to pick us up and we dutifully went over with gifts of food for the home. As soon as we arrived the respect-o-meter for Ghasana skyrocketed. His kids were beautifully dressed, his wife and family seemed really happy and healthy and he kept his family in a really nice house. We were taken out back where Ron explained we were going to see ‘domestic lifestock’ but when we rounded the corner we were greeted by large, potted mushrooms. Not sure how mushrooms got translated to domestic lifestock, but that is a minor detail.

After the tour, we were seated in the living room where two of Mrs. Ghasana’s friends had come to visit. They wanted to get a closer look at the muzungus who came to dinner, no doubt. Suddenly one of the women looked at me and said ‘I know you. You gave me a goat! Julie!’ Sure enough, we fished out the laptop to take a look at all our goat pictures, and there was Mrs. Ghasana’s friend, pictured with Julie, her goat. I looked with some concern at the plate of meat curry before me, pointed at it and enquired ‘Julie?’. Thankfully, I was wrong, and little Julie was alive and well loved by the lady’s two daughters, who apparently make up songs about Julie and sing them to her. It made us feel good to know that the goat, and her owners were still keeping quite happy.

Once dinner was over we dutifully went outside the house to take some pictures where it seems like the whole part of town stopped to stare at the foreigners, after which we all walked home with our swollen bellies, and a warm place in our hearts for Ghasana. It was also pretty darn cool to share a meal with one of our goat recipients. All in all, an excellent evening.  

- Dal

Night before Ghasana's house..hanging at the solider bar. Max (German who was volunteering for a year), Ronnie's brother Collins (who reminded us of Bowfinger), me, Ronnie, Ghasana and Mrs Ghasana

Ghasana and his wonderful family

The woman on the far right, a family friend, was a goat recipient !

Big group photo

Julie, the goat

Bonus photo ! As we walked home from Ghasana's house, Steve and I came across this kid with a Winnipeg Jets jersey ! Gotta love retro NHL jerseys in Rwanda.

One (4) Night(s) in Bangkok

After spending our last two days in Africa relaxing in Kigali and sending out some goat photos (still many more to be sent out), we flew to Bangkok from Rwanda on Kenya Airways via Nairobi. The Nairobi airport is a massive hub in Eastern Africa and was littered with plenty of Europeans (as was the safari and the gorilla trek). It might have been the most depressing major airport I had ever been to. Drab lighting in a dilapidated building without any good food options. Two memories for me are 1) The men’s stall in the bathroom…I summoned my inner-gymnast to extract myself from the stall as the door swings inward and effectively pins you against the toilet bowl. 2) When it was time to go to the gate, they do the ticket and security check..and everyone waits in this stifling room with crappy plastic seats. We notice some people angling towards the front and since we had carry-on bags that we wanted to ensure got into the overhead bins above us, we discreetly jostled our way close to pole position as well. Finally the doors open and it’s a stampede through the tunnel to the airplane ! No orderly line whatsoever. It was a goldmine of new material for Russell Peters as our flight was a full of Africans/SE Asians/Indians..none of whom have sterling reputations for their etiquette on public transportation.

The flight itself was uneventful (thankfully) and 9 hours later, we were in Bangkok. Bangkok’s airport was incredibly efficient (as most of the Asian airports we’ve been to thus far) and we were out in about 20 minutes and took a taxi downtown to our hotel.

Bangkok itself can be described as commercial and culinary craziness surrounded by majestic history and beauty.  We ate, we drank, we bought and then we ate some more. Here are some of our Bangkok highlights

Patpong market : Patpong Market is one Bangkok’s famous night markets bustling with stalls hawking real and knockoffs clothes, watches, jewellery, DVD’s and art. It’s also known as Bangkok’s Red Light district as evidenced by the numerous approaches I received (with Dal standing next to me) to come see “nice ping-pong show” by men holding menus of various sexual acts that could be performed at ‘best price’. As a sidebar – what does it say about Bangkok’s tourist clientele if the lead pitch is the ping-pong show. Really???? That’s the tried-and-tested hook that gets the most people to enter their club ?? What ever happened to the classics such as “Come see pretty girls” or “Five dollahs...girls love you long time”. We responded that we preferred badminton..and got zero laughs from the pitchmen.

Negotiating: As a strong believer that most things can be negotiated, Thailand’s markets are a magical playground. After our first couple of purchases where we got fleeced (we paid a combined $25 for items we discovered later we could have got for $15), we mastered the art of “hear the starting price – react with incredulous facial expressions without saying a word – allow the vendor to drop the price by 40% on their own - then make an offer at 10-15% of the original asking price - come up to 20-30% of their asking price if we really like it - walk away - get called back - agree at around 25%.”

Massages : Dal and I had been really looking forward to asian massages, but we may have gone overboard. We wound up getting 3 massages each during our 4 days there. My first one was a thai massage where the masseuse essentially twisted me into a pretzel while expertly stomping all over me. Ironically, I wound up getting a hamstring cramp during one of the twists..but the masseuse standing on my back was able to fix that quite promptly.  We also got a massage at 12:30am after shopping at Patpong market….60 minutes of bliss included a foot massage, then head, neck and shoulders followed by tea..for $8 each.

Food : Good God the food is incredible in Thailand. Several times, we OD’d on the soups, the pad thai, the curries etc.. so fresh and so cheap. One of our favourite joints was the food court in Robinson’s supermarket because we knew it was incredibly clean and we could both eat well for about $4 and it was a nice 10 minute stroll from our hotel. Dal was also hooked on the mango and the baby coconut water that we bought on the street for less than $1.

Taxi Tricks : Thanks to reading Lonely Planet and a few blogs, we were prepared for a common scam that unscrupulous taxi drivers pull on unsuspecting tourists. The rule of thumb is to ensure they use the meter before you get in the taxi. One time, we forgot this rule and entered the cab of an overly-friendly chap. About two minutes into our ride (which I knew would be about 120 baht) I asked about the price. The taxi driver smiled gleefully and said “don’t worry..good price”. I asked “how much ?”. He grinned widely again and said “20 baht”. Right away, I knew why and said forcefully “No stops”. He responded “only 1 stop..I take you to nice tailor shop”. The cabbie gets a sweet commission for bringing tourists to the shop, which is often not even on the route to the original destination. We threaten to get out of the taxi and his disposition quickly changes from cheery to pouty and we have a bit of a debate (Thais don’t like loud brash arguments). Silence then ensues and we enjoy a quiet although tense ride the rest of the way for 100 baht.

Lee Min Ho : We decided to check out some of the malls near Siam subway station when we started to notice around 3:30pm a bit of a crowd forming consisting of teenage girls near a makeshift stage. We continued our shopping and at 4:30pm, the crowd had swelled to at least 1,000 people on the ground floor with lots of people watching from other floors. Some asian star named Lee Min Ho was making an appearance. Of course we had no idea who he was but we decided to join the hordes and wait for his arrival. Without the benefit of Google, we were left to guess at his relevance and we settled on recent Asian Idol winner as our best bet. At 5:30pm, the crowd was now massive (and yes..there were a LOT of Hello Kitty paraphernalia) spanning 7 floors. We had already waited for an hour for his arrival so bailing now seemed stupid. So we waited..and waited some more..played Angry Birds on the iPhone..made lots of jokes at our predicament..and finally at 6:15, we saw him from our 5^th floor perch. Pandemonium ensued as teenage asian girls shrieked in delight. Of course we joined in, professing our love for Lee Min Ho quite loudly which only drew a few stares. When we got to our hotel, we googled him and he’s apparently a South Korean heartthrob actor http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Min_Ho . Whoopee.

Embarrassingly, we didn't see any temples since we knew we'd be seeing a tonne in Laos and Cambodia. However we're in Bangkok again for a couple of days prior to flying to Mumbai and have plans to visit the Royal Palace a couple of other sacred areas.

-DP