Author: patrickddrogers

The next stop on our Greek Odyssey was the island of Rhodes. Claire and I both wanted to make it there on this trip, but I honestly didn’t know that much about it beyond the fact that there was some sort of medieval history to the place, maybe a castle or something? That, and I liked the sound of the name. But that was enough, so we left Kos on a high-speed ferry that took us along the beautiful Turkish coast and made our way to the island to spend four knights nights there.

As with much of this part of the world, there is a lot of history to discover. But the big draw of the island is the old walled city, fortified by the Knights Hospitaller in the early 1300s, defended by them until 1523 when the city was taken by the Ottomans, and then restored during the post-1912 Italian occupation and in modern times. And boy, was it impressive to walk through the gates, past the massive walls, and stroll the cobblestone roads of old Rhodes (where the knights once rode).

We spent a couple of afternoons exploring the old city. Although it certainly attracts large crowds of tourists (especially when a cruise ship pulls into port!), the majority of these seem to be drawn to the souvenir shops and the terrasses in the squares, content to sit with their pints (or boots) of beer. After perusing the shops ourselves, but foregoing the pints, we found it surprisingly easy to find some quieter corners full of history, such as the Hospice of Saint Catherine, a small museum in which we found ourselves alone to explore (for free!). It’s looking pretty good these days, after having been damaged, and subsequently restored, in the 1480 siege, the 1481 earthquake, and the WWII bombing!

We also splurged and paid the entrance to the big castle in the centre of the city, also known as the Temple of the Grand Master. Restored by the Italians in the 1930s, it was really impressive to see the rooms inside. Although I love history, I have to confess that I’ve never really been into the medieval period, at least not beyond what’s covered in Monty Python’s Holy Grail. So, it was quite fun to learn more about this with the kids, and to try to fit some of the pieces of the historical puzzle together with what we had already seen in places like Istanbul. (On that note, though we loved the historic sites in Turkey, the entrance fees were often rather exorbitant, especially given how much they’ve gone up in a few years and that we had to buy four tickets. The sites in Greece have been more reasonably-priced, and the kids have all been free.)

I don’t want to give you the impression that we spent all of our time learning though, like some family of nerds. We also hit up the beach, which was a short walk from our apartment in the new town, and worked on our tan. We finally had some hot days, and though the water was still quite cool, it was also spectacularly clear. As a bonus, there was a permanent diving platform a short swim out from the beach.

I also managed to get out for some beautiful runs, along the coast, through the moat of the old city, and even up to the ancient Acropolis where I had the pleasure of running alone around a stadium that was built over 2200 years ago.

In between the ruins of Pergamon and those of Ephesus, we had a stopover of a couple of nights in non-ruined Izmir, one of Turkey’s biggest cities (known as Smyrna back in its Greek days). We arrived on a beautiful, sunny, and hot afternoon. It’s been cooler weather in Türkiye, so we took advantage and spent the afternoon in the expansive green space of the Kültürpark (where I was thrilled to find a well-maintained 2km running track) and then by the seaside, where we could feel the warm Mediterranean air, and practically taste our upcoming adventures in Greece (in addition to the taste of the ketchup chips we were eating).

Our stay in Izmir wasn’t very long, so I can’t say we explored much of the city. Since our second day was a cool 10 degrees and rainy, the kids got some homework done in the morning, we then explored a nearby older neighbourhood of bazaars and coffee shops, and spent more time in the park. I, of course, went running in a singlet and shorts, passing locals sporting winter coats.

Our next stop was Selçuk, base-camp for exploring the famous ruins of nearby Ephesus. Ephesus was a very important Greek, and then Roman city, and also the spot where John and Mary went after Jesus’s crucifixion. To avoid touring the site in the 10 degree rain that was forecast, we opted to head there directly upon arriving in town. This turned out to be a great decision (if I may pat my own back here); the weather was perfect, and an afternoon was the right amount of time to dedicate to the site.

From town, we had a reasonably pleasant 3 km walk to the site. By the time we passed the long lineup of cars waiting to get in, and reached the parking lot packed with tour buses and cars, we could tell that this wasn’t going to be the same quiet experience we had touring the Acropolis in Pergamon! After paying the hefty entry fee, and collecting our audio guide (well worth it), we headed into the site.

Despite being in the shoulder season, the site was packed with tour groups, history buffs, and those just seeking to do a photoshoot! But despite the crowds, and the fact that only a fraction of the ancient city has been uncovered, Ephesus is just such an impressive site, filled with so much history that it will certainly be a highlight of our trip.

With visiting all of these historic sites, and with the help of audio guides and Wikipedia, it’s really fun to be giving our kids a broad sense of history. We are having some great conversations about history, empires, and religion. Henri has been reading Percy Jackson, and I’ve been reading Stephen Fry, so we are starting to get decent at our Greek Mythology!

On our second day in Selçuk it did indeed rain. It was cold. We read, played cards, and wrote blogs!

(Elsie)

À Bursa, on a fait beaucoup de choses. Par exemple, il y avait un très beau château. Il était identique à celui que moi je dessinerais si quelqu’un me demandait. C’était le château classique des années médiévales.

Dans chaque quartier en Turquie, il y a une mosquée. La mosquée de notre quartier était très belle. Elle contenait une magnifique fontaine et plein d’enfants qui couraient partout.

Un jour, on a monté une côte, puis en haut il avait la tombe d’Osman Gazi et sa famille. C’était Osman qui a commencé l’Empire ottoman, puis “ottoman” vient de son nom.

À notre premier soir, on regardait où manger, puis il y avait une place de pide (la pizza turque) à 4,9 étoiles sur Google. Tellement c’était bon, on a mangé là 2 soirs sur 3. Le cuisiner faisait la pâte devant nous, puis il la mettait dans un four en briques spectaculaire! Après, il mettait de l’huile et les garnitures qu’on avait commandées.

Bursa a une équipe de soccer qui s’appelle Bursaspor. Il y avait des drapeaux de cette équipe partout. Malheureusement on n’a pas pu aller à un match parce qu’ils jouaient dans une autre ville. Un soir, on marchait, puis il y avait même une parade pour célébrer la victoire de Bursaspor.

To wrap up our around-the-island tour of Taiwan we made stops in Taitung, Kaohsiung, Tainan, and Taichung, before heading back to Taipei to catch our flight to Istanbul. Yes, that’s tying together a lot of “Tai-“s, and I hope that I didn’t mix any up!

Before describing those stops, I just wanted to note how easy the logistics of traveling in Taiwan were. In contrast to Sri Lanka, where we were often figuring out how to get from one place to another (bus, train, PickMe?) on the fly, in Taiwan I just hopped on the TRA website and booked all of our trains in advance. Sure, it was less adventurous, but it was a nice change.

Now normally, arriving in a new city also means trying to figure out how the public transit in that city works, but in Taiwan, we could just use one card to pay for any public transit in any city we made it to. It’s so easy that they called it an EasyCard, and you can just top it up at 7-Eleven. Now I can’t imagine Toronto and Montreal getting together to figure out a common payment system to make life easier for everyone, but they managed to do it in Taiwan. This meant that we didn’t hesitate to take the bus whenever it was convenient. Though I’m sure the kids will still complain that I made them walk too much…

Another thing that, personally, I really appreciated in Taiwan was being able to get a bunch of running in. Every town had some decent running routes, either along a river, a canal, the coast, or rice fields; there were washrooms everywhere (iyyk); and I didn’t have to worry about traffic or stray dogs chasing after me.

With those generalities out of the way, here are some brief notes on our stops. As usual, we spent a lot our time eating fantastic street food and drinking bubble tea. We made lots of use of our translation apps, since a lot of the menus were just in Chinese.

Taitung – This one didn’t even make it in our guide book, but we decided to give it a try and enjoyed a couple of nights there. Though I can’t say it was particularly exciting, it was pleasant. We ate well at the night market, and spent an afternoon walking and seeking shade in the Forest Park, which didn’t have as much shade as we were hoping for in the heat of the South! As a bonus, Elsie and Ben got invited to join in a rather complicated game that a group of Taiwanese kids were playing at the park. No one spoke much English, so the rules weren’t always clear, but they had fun.

Kaohsiung – The city is an industrial hub, but also has a cool hipster/yuppy art district out by one of the old piers. This was a very pleasant way to spend a few hours, exploring the installations and the little shops. Given the heat, we also embraced my suburban roots and spent a few hours at the mall in the AC, replacing some clothes that had seen better days. On another day, we visited the Tiger and Dragon Pagodas at Lotus pond, where we made sure to enter the dragon and exit the tiger. As a result, we are supposed to be in for some good luck!

Tainan – Here, we spent a lot of time wandering the small streets to find delicious food. We also made it to the Anping neighbourhood, where there was of course an old Dutch fort from the 1600s, because there seems to be an old Dutch fort in every country we visit. There was also a Chinese fort from the 1800s nearby, built to prevent the Japanese from invading. But despite it including “eternal” in its name, the Japanese took over 20 years after its construction.

Taichung – We only spent one night here, since our flight was fast approaching. But we spent a bit of time in the lovely Taichung Park (made during Japanese rule), before finding a huge night-market in a shopping district. It was Saturday night, and the place was hopping!

We then caught a train to Taipei, where we spent a lovely afternoon with friends and a sushi train. Then it was off to the airport for a late flight.

We were originally planning on heading to Jordan after Sri Lanka, but as circumstances evolved, we decided to instead backtrack and head to Taiwan. We managed to make it through some overnight flying— leaving Colombo near midnight, with a connection in KL— surprisingly fresh, and landed in Taipei City. Though we really enjoyed Sri Lanka, we were particularly excited about this destination, and I think that Taipei will be one of the highlights of our trip.


The architecture of much of the city is a bit… utilitarian, but even coming in from the airport on the light rail, we could appreciate the beauty of the surrounding environment: the river, the mountains nestled in clouds, the sea, and the lush vegetation. Everything just seemed so green. 



One of the best parts of our stay in Taipei was the fact that we were staying with our friends Allan and Sandy. Even though we hadn’t seen each other for over a decade, and have added a bunch of kids to the mix, it just felt natural to get back together and hang out for a few days. It’s been a few months (since Australia) that we’ve been on our own, and staying in a house with people we knew was a nice change!

Not only were Allan and Sandy great hosts, but they were also great tour guides! They took us hiking up a mountain in Yamingshan National Park (easily accessible by bus from the city) to get some stunning views; out to explore some cool neighbourhoods; to the Shilin night market; and Allan even took me out for a run along the river.

We told Sandy that eating was a big part of our style of travel, and I don’t think we could have had a better food guide! I think we discovered all of the best things that could be found to eat in the city, including the famous stinky tofu (Ben is a fan!) , a hot-pot restaurant with all-you-can-eat ice cream (everyone was a fan!), lots of bubble tea (of course), the night-market scene, and a bunch of other things for which I forget the name, but remember the taste! I’m staring to get hungry again just writing this…



We also headed off to do some of the touristy things on our own, and Taipei’s extensive light rail (the MRT) made it very easy to get around. We hit the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial, whose architecture is rather impressive, as well as the National Palace Museum, where a lot of China’s most impressive artifacts and artwork ended up after the KMT fled to Taiwan after the communist revolution.

With our bento boxes in hand, we then boarded a train to start our journey around the beautiful island.

We’ve left the beaches of the South and the elephants of Udawalawe behind to head into the hill country of Sri Lanka, once prized by the British for not being quite so d@mn hot as everywhere else we’ve been.

Part of the adventure of traveling is finding one’s way from one place to another. In isolated Udawalawe, we didn’t seem to have a whole lot of options— elephants just don’t need public transportation. We were planning a simple solution: a PickMe ride (~ Uber) to our next destination of Ella for about 50 CAD. However, our guesthouse was able to call around and find us a local driver for the same price. We liked this option, since that would mean that this driver would get the full fare, without giving PickMe a cut.

So the next morning our driver showed up for what I can only assume was his first day of work. He was young, polite, didn’t speak much English, and seemed a touch nervous. But we headed off and his driving was great… and so of course we got a flat tyre. No problem for us: our driver did an excellent job of demonstrating to me and the kids how to put on a spare tire, but once we were back in the van he was clearly a touch frazzled. After all, the van had a temporary tyre and we still had a good distance to go. Fortunately, we were in no hurry, and managed to communicate that via a translation app to our driver. Relief took over his face immediately. We stopped for fuel*, spent some time in a local garage seeing the boys change the tires (all of them!) on our van, as well as those of a transport truck. In the end, we made it to our destination a little later than planned, but after an afternoon with the kind of entertainment that tourists would line up to pay for. Our driver had a rough first day on the job, but he did great, and looked to be momentarily on the verge of tears when I gave him a decent tip.

*(As a side note, the Israeli-Trump war with Iran is clearly having its effect on life and tourism here. When we stopped for fuel, there was a long queue of vehicles overseen by a soldier with an assault rifle. Drivers now have a QR code to keep track of their ration of fuel for the week, and just as we were leaving the station closed (at noon). Due to the fuel shortages, the work-week has been shortened to four days. Our guesthouse here is reporting fewer tourists due to cancelled flights as well. On a personal note, we’ve had to cancel our planned trip to Jordan (due to travel advisories) and have opted to spend a little more time in Asia.)

That was the long version of “we made it to Ella,” a touristy town in the hilly interior with a very relaxed vibe. We had an amazing guesthouse with a beautiful view overlooking Ella Rock and the surrounding hills, and opted to take it rather easy over our few days.

In the mornings we did short hikes (out to world-famous-in-Sri-Lanka Nine Arches railway bridge one day, and to little Adam’s peak another day), did some homework in the afternoon, and perused tourist shops before finding a resto for rice and curry in the evening. It was great, with the exception of the monkeys terrorizing breakfast that one morning.

After Ella, our next stop was Nuwara Eliya. Normally, the way to travel in Sri Lanka is by train and the routes in the Hill Country are known to have some spectacular views, so much so that reserved cars are rumoured to normally sell out well in advance. Unfortunately, these days there isn’t much chance to ride the train, as a cyclone last December (and subsequent landslides) damaged a good part of the rail network.
 However, we did manage to take a short two-hour trip from Ella to Ambewele (completing the journey to Nuwara Eliya by taxi), so we at least got a taste of what we were missing. And the ride was beautiful, passing on ridges high up and offering stunning views of the valleys below.

Nuwara Eliya had a very different vibe compared to Ella, and we had trouble placing the feeling it left with us. I would describe the city as a mix of bustling Sri Lankan city with some sort of amusement park called “Little England,” where there is a golf course, Victorian gardens, a post office out of the English countryside, and a surprising number of horses. Since the town is at 6000 ft, the climate is relatively cool, so we were able to get fresh strawberries, and we also had the thrill of putting a sweater on for the first time in months!

Sri Lanka (or * Ceylon * if you’re trying to sell a tourist something) is of course famous for tea, and we were in tea country, with hillsides covered by plantation estates. So one morning we grabbed a tuk-tuk out to Somerset Estates and did a tour of the Tea Factory. Our guide took us through the factory and explained the whole tea-processing operation. We learned a lot, helped by the fact that we’re not too shy to ask really dumb questions. Though the tasting of all of the different teas at the end was a bit disappointing (they were extremely bitter… maybe over-steeped?), the tour finished with tea and cookies in the shop, where the kids could put as much milk and sugar as they liked.

It turns our kids aren’t used to that much caffeine, and our early bedtime routine proved to be a casualty of our curiousity.

– Elsie

Je vais parler des foodcourts. Pour commencer, j’ai aimé Singapour parce qu’il avait des foodcourts. On est allé à 5 différents. La première et deuxième fois étaient à Maxwell foodcourt. Il s’appelle comme ça parce qu’il est sur la rue Maxwell. Pour notre dernier souper on voulait manger là, mais il était fermé pour le ménage. Donc, on est allé à un autre (Amoy), mais malheureusement il n’y avait pas beaucoup de stalls ouvertes. Moi, j’ai mangé une salade. Au stall, on pouvait choisir 5 trucs pour mettre dans notre salade et une protéine et moi, j’ai mis des pâtes, du maïs, des tomates, des pommes, et des concombres et pour ma protéine du thon.

Un des jours on s’est arrêté pour aller jouer dans un parc. Il avait des monkey bars. On jouait qu’il fallait traverser les monkey bars le plus rapidement possible. Henri a réussi en 6,3 secondes et il s’est arraché de la peau de sa paume de main!

Donc, j’ai dû choisir son repas au foodcourt. Il voulait que ce soit une surprise. Je lui ai pris des nouilles avec des trucs dessus qu’il a adoré. La prochaine fois, Henri et Benoît voulaient que je leur choisisse leur repas. Henri l’a trouvé pas aussi bon que la première fois et Benoît l’a aimé.

Moi, j’ai mangé un congee au poisson qui venait avec un long beigne. C’était vraiment bon, mais chaud!

Pour choisir nos repas, les parents nous donnaient 10 dollars singapouriens et on allait se trouver un truc à manger.

Maintenant partie de Singapour, je m’ennuie des foodcourts . 😢

(Henri)

Dans le zoo de Singapour, différentes options s’offraient à nous incluant le night safari, le river wonder et le principal, le zoo. Mon préféré était le night safari qui ouvrait seulement le soir à sept heure. Malheureusement on n’a pas pris beaucoup de photo à cause du noir. Mais on va mettre des photos de plus tôt.

Donc après avoir visité les autres attractions on est allé à l’entrée et on a vu les différentes options et on a commencé par le tram. Le tram nous faisait voir plein d’animaux actifs durant la nuit. Durant le trajet on a vu des chèvres de montagne, des hyènes et plein d’autres animaux. Le plus impressionnant était le tigre blanc. On le voyait très bien même dans le noir.

Après le tram, nous sommes allés à l’amphithéâtre qui commençait à chaque heure. Ils nous ont présenté quelques animaux comme un hiboux qu’ils ont fait l’expérience de combien de degrés il pouvait tourner sa tête. Tout le monde a crié des réponses. Finalement la réponse était 270 degrés. Il nous ont aussi montré un porc-épic, une sorte de singe où on avait aucune idée c’était quoi. En dernier un hyène est sortie du haut et toutes les lumières étaient fermées pour pas qu’il nous voit.

Quand il faisait vraiment noir on est sortie faire des trajets et soit voir des animaux de plus proche ou de nouveaux animaux. Quand on est arrivé à une partie vitrée on a pu regarder un hyène à quelques mètres seulement qui faisait la garde. Quand on a vu un gros tamanoir mama a trouvé que ça ressemblait à un extraterrestre. Et on a été au première loge pour voir un gros rhino.

On est partis à dix heures le soir ce qui fait qu’on est resté là trois heures et au zoo au complet plus que douze heures!