For those of you keeping up on our where-abouts you should fully know it’s been 4 months since we made the last leg of our journey to home. During this time I’m sure you also all noticed our blog entries died down to pretty much a sudden stop. Adjusting back to the real world has been some awesome fun, lots more work then we are used to, busy busy busy, and we can’t forget about the gambit of emotions to go along with all that!

Luckily we did not jump back into the work force right away and planned to have 2 months of seeing friends and family, espcially since we did not have a home yet. Our condo still had renters in it until July 1st. So, we stayed mostly with my parents, with sleep-over extended visits to various friends houses here and there.

The start to life back in Canada was a short visit to Calgary. Our great friends Steve and Karen who traveled with us for 2 months through Europe were great hosts for these couple of days and made us one of the best dinners we had in a long ass time. We love steak, especially Triple A Alberta Beef. You’ve never have beef until you have eaten this. Trust us! We tried steak all over the world and nothing came remotely close to Alberta Beef. Our friends showed up Gordon Ramsay in their own backyard. No fancy gourmet kitchen or posh restaurant with a ridiculous priced menu. Take that Gordon!

We then flew home to Vancouver filled with extremely happy family/friends to see our return. Welcome home BBQ’s, parties, simple get togethers, outings and repeat. We truly felt missed and were quite thankful of my parents letting us live with them until we got our condo back.

However, on top of all this hub-bub, we really had a hard time getting out of bed and doing anything during the day. We were still quite used to sleeping in and then relaxing all day on a beach or in a pool. Plus, I’m sure we had a large dose of jet lag in our systems as well.

May long weekend we drove out to Salmo B.C to help PK Sound with the Village stage tear down at Shambhala. Demolish parts of the stage and clean up the forest during the day and drink with friends around the giant bon fire at night.

After May long we drove back to Calgary for a couple weeks to do some much needed renovations on our loft in order to get a new renter for July 1st. New paint, new carpet, replace some light fixtures, replace the bathroom door, hang up curtains, clean it up, list it, and interview possible renters. When I look back at the work we did it doesn’t sound like much. But, like most renovations things never go as planned and ended up being quite the headache. It sure felt good once it was completed! I wanted to move back in after pouring my heart and soul into it. It looks SO good and in result rented quite easily. Unfortunately we were so down to the last minute we completely forgot to take after photos!! =(

Another highlight for us was participating in our first scavenger hunt with Alex and Heather. We named our team Gang Green, wore all green clothing, and decorated my car for some extra bonus point team flair and scavenged the city for items and photos. It was a blast and we won second place!! Can not wait to do it again next year. Much thanks to Mike Awesome for hosting this!!

Suddenly July long weekend approached us and that meant three things. First, Scott would be going back to work at his old job. The second was one more weekend spent at The Village helping now with the beginnings of the new stage construction. Third, we got to move back into our home! It was a busy week of driving, constructing a stage, moving, unpacking, and Scott adjusting back to the work life.

As great as it actually was to live with my parents for the past two months. We truly have an amazing relationship with them. Which was only made stronger when they both traveled all the way out to Thailand for a month with us. It’s now amazingly great to truly and finally be home.

We still have a ton more stories to share from our travels. Vietnam, Cambodia, and one last week in Thailand are still to come, even some tales from on the road in Canada. Also, coming up are more things to share about our adjustment back home and stories about the music events we have attended. I’m sure Furry Friday will also make a big come back appearance soon enough!

Sorry to have been on such a hiatus. But really… we are not sorry! We’ve been really enjoying life and every moment of being home. Hope your summer was as awesome as ours.

We are back in Canada and have been happily reunited with our cats, Charlie and Kerrigan. However, we don’t get possession of our condo until July so in the meantime Scott and I have been living at my parents place with our cats. My mom has two dogs, Heidi and Peppe, both of which are small chihuahuas. Our cats have been living mostly in my parents “looking room” which is a large mostly unused room with some couches and a dining table. (basically a living room with no TV)

Anyways, Scott and I had to leave for the week leaving our cats to be watched by my parents. I have recently received this notice from my mom on facebook:

To: Deidra & Scott

Official notice of eviction of Charlie & Kerrigan from the Looking Room
Eviction took place today & cats have been relocated to the Elvis Room (Note: my mom’s computer room is full of Elvis pictures)

Reasons for eviction.
1. Behaviour: Both cats were observed sharpening there claws on furniture.
2. Threats: Both cats were threatening other members of the pack & endangering a life {Peppe’s life}
3. Noise: Meowing at the closed doors on repeated occasions.
4. Elopement: Constantly attempting to escape resulting in stress of sitters.
5. Poop: Not using their own bathroom. Evidence was found on floor.
6. Restricted area: Using the dining room table as part of their marathon. (Note: Our cats like to run a marathon every night back and forth every night. Maybe they are exercising?)
7. Boundaries: Have been found sleeping in sitters closet.
8. Mess: Have been leaving hair on couches and horking hair balls.
9. Damage: French doors have evidence of damage

Outcome of Eviction

All there possesions were moved to the Elvis Room. So far the cats have adjusted very well and behaviors have improved. Extra attention & love has been given to them to help adjust to there new environment. Only Kerrigan has attempted to return to the Looking Room. With the Elvis Room door being left open it has somehow created a calming effect. So far the whole pack are respecting there boundaries. Peace at last.

From the Sitters

Ever have one of those days? Those days that everything seems to go wrong? Monday, April 26th 2010 was one of those days. Today reminded me of a scene in the movie Benjamin Button. That if just one damn thing went right it would have changed the entire outcome. But instead, it turned into the worse day of travel in 300 days around the world. And the thing about it? It was fucking preventable.

Today was the day we were supposed to be going back to Canada. The end of our trip. Going home to deal with our loft, see friends and start decompressing from our trip and preparing to get back to the world. We had just spend the last 10 days at a posh resort in Koh Phanang. We wanted our end of the trip to be perfect and come back to Canada on nothing but a high note. We had it all planned. A ferry from Phanang to Koh Samui at 12.30, flight to Bangkok at 2.15pm, Bangkok to Taipai at 5.05pm, Taipai to Vancouver, Vancouver to Calgary. 21 hours of travel and we would be home. Unfortunately the universe had other plans.

Our hotel told us that the ferry from Koh Phanang to Samui would take 30 minutes, and 15 minutes to the airport. So we got on the boat at 12.30pm. But the boat had other plans. Two ferry’s full of people came in at the same time which caused a ruckus on the dock. We were on the boat, but the boat just sat there. Until about 1.00pm. Slowly it made it’s way to Koh Samui, and we had a bit of hope. But it was misplaced as the trip took 55 minutes, and at 1.55 we arrived at the dock.

Running with our bags we begged a taxi to take us to the airport as fast as possible. We found a great driver who busted ass down the roads, but kept getting slowed down. First a bunch of scooters. Then a dump truck with opposing traffic. In the end we made it to the airport just to see our plane fly away. Though we had hope, as it was Bangkok Airways, known for good service.

Doesn’t that look like a face that you can trust will take care of you?

So we talk to the ticketing agent who booked us a flight in an hour, for a small fee of $60. But the plane wouldn’t land until 4.40, 25 minutes before our China Airlines flight was due to take off. They suggested to carry on our bags and arranged to have someone meet us in Bangkok on the tarmac to escort us to the international terminal and catch our flight. They called ahead and said it would be taken care of. Sounded great to us!

But because we were carrying on our bags, we had liquid and items that couldn’t go on. I gave away my moonshine rice whisky that I picked up in Pai (more on that in the coming days) to a taxi driver who seemed extremely pleased and ran off to share his loot to some fellow security guards on their break. We were starting to run late as this all took time and we ran to the security with all of our bags. This is when things started to go downhill.

“Sir, do you have bullets in your bag?”

“Uh, yes, I guess I do… ” How do you answer that question? I had forgotten all about the empty shells from the shooting range in Phnom Phen. I was going to make a cool art project for the people who donated money to ensure I didn’t shoot live chickens. And I had the empty shells in my bag. Which apparently you can’t bring on a plane. Who would have thought?

They searched my bag again, and found my swiss army knife that Steve had given to me in Switzerland. There was no way I could convince them to take it onboard, and I couldn’t mail it. Luckily the super nice security lady offered to mail it to me. The day started to look up a bit, but we were holding up the plane and had to run to the tarmac.

We put our bags in the back of the plane, told the stewardess about our problem and that we needed to get off right away in Bangkok. Everything seemed fine at this point, and it looked like Everything was turning up Milhouse. But really, it was turning into the constant diarrhea you get in SE Asia.

I’m starting to feel like Jack Bauer here… tick tock tick tock

The plane lands at 4.40pm. We had 25 minutes to get to our gate, should be enough time. We grabbed our bags and ran out onto the tarmac looking for our Bangkok Airways representative. But of course, nobody had a fucking clue. The people on the tarmac told us to get on the bus with everyone else and someone would meet us inside. Inside, there was no one. We ran our asses off to the international transit point, and sweating (it was 37 degrees after all) we saw a Bangkok Airways representative. Great! But she had no idea what we were talking about. Neither did the other person who came, or the security guard standing there.

I could see where we had to go! We had a stupid sticker from Bangkok Airways that was supposed to let us through, but they refused. Saying we had to go to the 4th level because we didn’t have our printed tickets. The printed tickets they were supposed to have for us at the gate. After 10 minutes of calling around, we ran to the 4th floor looking for China Airlines with all of our baggage. All 75kg’s of it. In the heat. For about 1KM. Trying not to knock over everyone. In our flip flops. Fucking hell.

Enter WTF angry Scott

By the time we made it to the international check in, there was nobody at the China Airlines desk. Or the ticketing office. Or on their ticketing phone number. It was 5.20pm and they disappeared like the VC in the Chu Chi Tunnels. And guess what? Nobody had a clue how to help us out. We managed to contact a China Airlines number who said we could go to Taipai tomorrow, but there were no flights to Vancouver in the next week.

At this point we started to lose it. Bangkok is going through massive civil unrest right now. People are dying on the street, grenades are being launched and it looks like a massive crackdown on the protesters is about to happen by the army. There were a ton of military in the airport itself. For the same reasons I wouldn’t travel to Mogadishu right now – namely self preservation – I didn’t feel comfortable putting Dee and I in the middle of this for the next week or two or three. Even the Department of Foreign Affairs has advised Canadians against non-essential travel to Bangkok because the ongoing political demonstrations in the Thai capital “have been marked by violence, death, and injury.”

`The security situation is very volatile with significant potential for further civil unrest, violent clashes, and attacks,” the department warned in an updated advisory Monday.’

The trains are shut down, malls are closed, army and protesters are roaming the streets. There are advisories from Britain and USA to avoid it at all costs. So we took the hint. We didn’t want to hang out in a Bangkok hotel for a week or more, only to have the airport shut down like 2 years ago and be even more stuck.

So I tried calling Orbitz, who we booked our flights with. After dropping the call a couple times, I was told that the China Airlines ticketing office was closed and they couldn’t offer me a refund. I had to wait for 2 hours for them to open. What kind of BS is that? I booked via Orbitz, but they say they’re just a booking site and we have to contact the airline. What’s the point of booking through a travel company if they’re not going to help you when things go south? We waited and waited, tried calling 7 times and were finally told too bad that we had to stick around Bangkok until China Airlines sorted it out.

Okay, now we are just sad and want to head home…

At the end of our ropes of this travel day from hell, we just went and booked a flight to L.A. From LAX we can fly to Calgary and be back in Canada and make at least one of our flights that we booked from Calgary to Vancouver on Thursday. But really, what a fucking day.

If just one thing had happened our way, we would be touching down in Canada right now. If there was no full moon party, two boatloads wouldn’t have come in. If there was not so much wind, we would have made it in 30 minutes on the boat. If the cement truck wasn’t driving 20KM’s an hour, our taxi would have made it on time. If Bangkok Airways actually made a phone call like they said they would, someone would have met us on the tarmac to escort us. If we didn’t waste time with the idiots at the international transfer point, we would have made it to the checkin and through security. If someone at China Airlines was actually there to talk to, we could have settled things.

But no, not one fucking thing went the right way today. And this is why April 26th is now going to be a banned day. On this day I’m going to do sweet fuck all for the rest of my life. Stay in bed. Don’t go out. Hide under the covers.

But luckily we found a flight from Bangkok to Seoul at 12.15AM on April 27th and had 5 seats all to ourselves. We then went to the Korean Airlines lounge and received 40% off the entry price because we were in transfer. And now have free internet, buffet food and unlimited Jim Bean Bourbon and red wine to forget about all these troubles. And it seems that I drank all their Jim Bean Bourbon, and they’ve replaced it with Johnny Walker Black Label 12 Year scotch. Nice. Plus a shower which was like heaven after losing 20lbs in sweat running around like the Tasmanian devil. Plus we have an emergency exit for our 12 hour flight to LA, and two seats to ourselves from LA to Calgary with some friends waiting for us on the other side. It looks like April 27th is the day everything turns up Milhouse.

Watch out Bangkok Airways, Orbitz and China Airlines… the wraith of Scott is coming your way!

The only thing left? To get a refund from China Airlines. They’re easily going to sell our tickets to people on standby, because frankly, everyone wants to get the hell out of Bangkok right now. Let’s hope Orbitz/China Airlines is going to take care of me. Otherwise I’ll get so angry another volcano will erupt. I’ve gone way overboard on a $100 rip off, this is 2k gone. And for that much, I have all the time in the world to be a pain in the ass.

So there it is. Our day from hell. What turned into a happy 21 hour travel day is now 42 hours of travel back home. Where absolutley everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. The only good thing? We’re still alive and slightly drunk, heading back to Canada. Hopefully the custom officers at LA won’t be the usual assholes that they were when we last went through the US a bunch of times. But that’s entirely another story about the complete incompetence of customs and airline security staff.

Bangkok Airways, Orbtiz, and China Airlines has made us feel like a piece of trash today.

Today is the day we fly back to Canada. Can you believe it? It has been 305 days since we flew across the pond from Calgary, Alberta to Dublin, Ireland. Not quite a year like we originally planned, but in all honesty it is a perfect amount for us. We are feeling quite ready to head on home. Or at least to leave Asia, which we have been traveling through for the past 6 months. I feel like if we were heading to a different country (like Australia) we’d feel quite anxious and excited to keep on traveling. But, our funds are far past gone and it’s time to head on home.

However our dreams have not traveled as far as they can go just yet! Coming home to Canada does not all mean back to the daily grind. Yes, we’ve made plans for ourselves to still “travel” or the next two months. Which I guess means we will be traveling for a year when all is said and done. What are our plans? Couch-surf at various friends and family, volunteer at the Shambhala Music Festival, and also camp across BC and Alberta in-between all of that. It’s going to be grand!

Our travel back home involves a total of 17 hours in the air. With 4 connections that means a grand total of a 21 hour travel day! Yikes! To think we used to moan at 9 hour days… Luckily we have our upcoming adventures to look forward to plus more! Thoughts of great Alberta Beef steaks, homemade hamburgers, true Canadian style BBQ anything, cheap sushi, poutine, bagels and cream cheese, brushing our teeth with tap water, wasting time with friends, high speed internet and always working wifi, two laptops, our cats, dancing to amazing music pounding out of the best sound system in the world (unlike this one), camping in the beautiful Rocky Mountains, feeling the love from our families, not having sub-titles at the movies and on TV, fresh salads, cooking for ourselves, wheat beer, the list goes on and on….. I’m sure all these thoughts will help our gruesome travel home pass right on by.

So, maybe by the time your read this we will be in the air or even with our feet back on good old Canadian soil. To our friends and family… we will see you real soon!!!

Now back to our regular scheduled posts. Remember, we are still a few months behind in sharing our tales! Look forward to these upcoming adventures and more!

A private sunset trip around Phi Phi Leh
Overstaying our welcome in Thailand
Tubing in Vang Viang with the A-Team
Getting a new wardrobe in Hoi Ani
Are we in the Sahara or Vietnam?
Shooting M60′s at Cambodia’s Happy Gun Club

We’ve been without internet the last 3 days and have come to find our site is down. All of our posts, pages and comments had vanished. It seems our web host, hostpapa severs went down and around the same time we lost everything and our database shrunk to 0mb. Sent an email to hostpapa support and got a response saying “We don’t backup customer files, it’s up to you. case closed”

I have to say it’s pretty shitty customer service from hostpapa.ca No apology, no explanation why the servers crashed, no nothing. The only way I knew their servers went down (which they didn’t admit) is because I have a third party reporting service for outages. Also a friend of ours uses hostpapa and she actually got an email.. where the hell was ours?

Anyways, so we drank our troubles away through many pitchers of BeerLao, pool with the A-Team and many whisky cokes. This morning instead of tubing we nursed our hangovers and got ready to get our dream back up and running again. Lo and behold, I do an upgrade to the newest version of WordPress and it magically all reappeared like nothing happened.

My guess is that hostpapa realized that killing baby kittens is wrong and decided to make it up with this magic. But really, did wordpress magically have a backup we didn’t know about somewhere in cyberland?

None the less, sorry for the hiccup, we’re now back to our regularly scheduled program starting Monday.

Pulling up the events screen I have to say that we’re a bit jealous that we’re not in Vancouver right now! There’s so many concerts, Kid Koala (above), Dj Numark and tons more. If they had released all the free concerts earlier we may have rearranged our schedule a bit.

It also makes it easy to check out the games that are playing, and times.  It used my iPhone’s GPS to synch the Vancouver time to our Thailand time. This’ll make it easier when asking places if they’re open at 8AM so I can watch the game!

If your in Vancouver or traveling around and want to keep up with how many Gold Medals Canada is getting, I recommend this application for your iPhone. Just in the itunes app store.

Click on the addresses for a google map location.

Sunshine Diner (2649 West Broadway) - Located in Kits, this place has the best Eggs Bennedicts in town. Awesome breakfast menu and good lunch. Enjoy their 50′s atmosphere paired with a delicious milkshake!

Cafe Crepe (location maps)- If you want a great cup of coffee, cheap liquor, great crepes and fantastic panini’s, go here. There’s quite a few around including at UBC..

  

The Naam (2724 West 4th Avenue) - One of the few 24 hour restaurants in the city, they have an all vegetarian menu. Who says you can’t have desert for breakfast?

Great Sushi – The Eatery (3431 West Broadway) – Most sushi places you go to in Vancouver are excellent, but The Eatery is our favourite. With a heavy manga theme and loud music, it serves tasty infusions.

Cactus Club Cafe (location maps) – There’s about 6 of these around downtown and kits, with more throughout the lower mainland. A good place to have a steak, the Blackened Cajun Steak is my favourite.

White Spot – Everywhere! – This place is legendary. If you want a great hamburger go here. The BC Burger is one of the best hamburgers around. They call their secret sauce “Triple O” for a reason!

Steamworks Brewing Co (375 Water Street) – Located in Gastown, part of downtown, this place brews their own beer and has a great pub menu. Their nachos are fantastic and you’ll be able to watch the games. Don’t forget to order yourself what we like to call “The Tower of Power!” Tip – head down the stairs to the sports lounge, it’s more relaxed than upstairs, complete with comfy sofas!

The Boathouse (1795 Beach Ave) – Best place for reasonably priced seafood. I dare you to take the platter! This is the place we take people from out of town to get their fill, and everyones always impressed.

Go Fish – The Best Fish and Chips in Vancouver (1505 West 1st Avenue, 604-730-5040)- We’re pretty big on seafood in Vancouver. If you want the best fish and chips in town – which means ungreasy and large portions cooked by a gourmet team – head here. The halibut and chips are my favourite, but salmon burgers are always popular. Located at the fisherman’s pier on Granville Island. Look for where the fishing boats are, you can walk along the prominade. Expect a long line, open 11.30 – 6.00.

Tim Hortons Coffee (everywhere)- great basic coffee, double double is an institution here in Canada. Cheap coffee and good sandwiches you’ll trip over them everywhere.

I’ve certainly missed many, but had to make a short list of our favorites. Are there any you can recommend? If anyone takes my advice please let me know!

It’s tough being away from home this Christmas, as we always spend two days filled with both of our families, too much food and drink and lots of good times. Being away makes us appreciate it more, and next year we’re going to decorate the hell out of our tree with ornaments we’ve picked up this year. We did manage to spend it with 2 great new friends, Anna and Adam, who we met when we were in Payam recently.

We met them for early drinks and found a turkey dinner. While it wasn’t as great as Scott’s sister Kathy’s, but it was a good enough filler. And the company more than made up for it, turning what could have been a sad dinner into a very festive occasion.

Merry Christmas to all our families, new and old friends. Make sure to eat some extra turkey for me! And if you have a furry friend, give them an extra hug for being awesome.

Scott and Steve at Oktoberfest

The beginning of our european adventures with Karen and Steve started in Amsterdam, and faster then we expected the date arrived to say goodbye to them as they set back to Canada.

We were happy we could squeeze every last possible second with them by traveling from Berlin to Amsterdam with them, where their round trip flight was leaving from. We didn’t have plans to spend the night there as we only had a few days remaining on our eurail passes and wanted to explore a bit more of the Netherlands. So we made a plan to take the last train out to Den Haag that day.

Karen and I at Sun & Bass

With one last walk through the Red Light District, we ate some amazing ribs for the 3rd time at this one restaurant. We had ate there twice on our first visit to Amsterdam, and had been craving them for the past two months. I don’t recall the name but it’s on a main Red Light district street with no canal on it that leads to Dam Square. Some landmarks on the street are the St. Christophers Hostel, a laundry mat and the one you just can’t miss it…. The Cock Ring. (lol) Once you feel you are on the right street, if you see a green restaurant advertising a RIB SPECIAL, then eat there! They are some of the best ribs (aside from my moms!) I’ve ever eaten.

Giraffik 4 at Juno Beach

Anyways… seeing our friends faces for the first time in that train station and then saying goodbye to them again, 2 months later in that same station was bittersweet. We had some amazing times!!! Endless stories for us to share with our kids to make ourselves sound cool. “What? You did what mom back then?? No way!!”

Karen and Steve, much thanks to you for deciding to come travel with us for 2 months in Europe. It was really a dream come true, and I know that even though we had a pretty solid friendship before, this just made it titanium. Much love to you!

Our big group in Rome

I also want to take this time to send a shout out to James and Christy. For coming all the from Canada to Italy to attend Sun & Bass and then spend a few days in Rome with us four. It was really the icing on a already spectacular cake!

Our awesome group of friends having a drunk ass time at our wedding

Scott and I feel really lucky to have all the friends and family that we do in our life. We know they all wanted to come out and do some travels with us… but we are all on our own adventures and it’s not always so easy to combine them due to various life things getting in the way. However I do know in our hearts we have inspired all of you to one day get out there and see some the world! Which really is one of our main goals of this trip. To inspire others to try the same!

And low and behold it’s still working! Our friends Alex and Heather are flying out to Thailand to meet us up for New Years. It’s going to be some crazy fun times and the date they arrive is happening so soon!! Other great news is my PARENTS of all people are planning to travel out to Thailand for almost a month! I can’t wait to hug them and see their faces. I’m so proud of them for coming out of the travel box to a place they’d never dream they would go to before. It’s going to be fun.

My parents with Scott and I on our wedding

Okay, back to our regular schedule travel stories….

The city of London as you can probably tell from our previous posts was quite a tiring experience. Our plans were jammed packed filled with sight seeing, eating steaks, roller coaster riding, attending a few music events, and other adventures. We were highly anticipating our time together in London, so much so we even posted about our plans a year ago. Well, due to previous travel weariness from our past non-stop adventures, being surprised by how expensive the UK was and then sharing a tiny hostel room with a snoring Scott just a mere few feet from all of our ears I think it created some ups and downs for us all. We all had a great time finally experiencing our long made plans in the city where Drum & Bass comes from, but at the same time we were all very tired and couldn’t wait to find some time to just relax and not be so much on the go all the time.

Enter Bath. What sounds more relaxing than a Bath? It was the perfect plan! Spend some days relaxing and recharging in a Hot Spring before we head down to Italy to party for a week at Sun & Bass… Located right by Bristol and giving us an easy access to visit Stonehenge, a must see on all of our lists.

We hopped off our train arriving before check in time at the Travelodge. Having already stayed at the Travelodge in Bristol, we were prepared knowing you have to pay an extra cost to check in early. So, we arrived to Bath with wine and cheese in our bags and scouted out an area to enjoy ourselves. We found the perfect spot right behind the train station where a beautiful canal runs through the city and we choose to pass a couple hours enjoying our wine and cheese before we check in. It was the perfect start to our relaxation stop.

Bath is a great little city. It reminded me much of Baden-Baden in Germany. Filled with beautiful old architecture, cobble stone walking streets, shops galore, fancy restaurants, smiles from happy locals, and a luxurious Hot Spring. The only difference I found was of course the language, and Bath locals seemed much younger then in Baden-Baden.

We really did enjoy our time here, but were a bit disappointed by the only “true” hot springs in Britain, the Thermae Bath Spa.

1. The price is high. 2-hour session: £22.00, 4-hour session: £32.00, Full day session: £52.00
2. We had coupons via our train tickets from London giving us 2 for 1 access into the Thermae Bath Spa. What we were not told and told very rudely by was it’s not a 2 people get in for the price of 1. Instead, each person still has to pay. You just get a 4-hour session for the price of a 2-hour session. When we arrived there was only 2 hours left until they closed. So we could not use our coupons
3. There is no uniqueness to it and I’m beginning to think all public hot springs in Europe are designed the same. More emphasis on the “Roman Bath” style. So, it’s just like going to 5 star spas with swimming pools. Sounds nice… but in my mind this is not what a hot spring is. It is a place to be therapeutic and relaxing much like a spa, and having those services at a hot spring is great. But when the entire place looks like this you get removed from what it really is, therapeutic waters provided to us from nature.

Radium Hot Springs, B.C., Canada

If you really want to experience a hot spring like it should be experience, come to the Rocky Mountains of Canada (even better if it’s the winter!). Enjoy a hot spring in its natural element for a much cheaper price that gives you all day access even if you don’t want to stay all day. You can choose from pools based right beside mountains with views of lakes, inside caves with dripping stag-mites, or free ones at the end of hiking trail inside a rocky pool, or a series of natural pools leading you down to the ocean. The variety is endless with an first and foremost emphasis on the nature of the area, and if you really want those expensive spa treatments there is always this option available to you inside the spa area.

In conclusion, Bath is a great little city to visit to get away from the busy city of London with the bonus of a visiting the only hot spring in Britain. It is a nice relaxing spring once you get past the cranky lady at the till. The rooftop pool has a great view of the city but watch out depending on the day as the water can be cold up there. If you do plan to check it out, make sure to arrive 4 hours before is closes if you have the “2 for 1” coupon from your train ticket or check out this twilight special for £37.50 to make an entire evening of the experience. (Includes dinner)