As we entered the city it reminded me of something out of a movie. The city was situated on a mountain and the streets were very steep. Walking the steep slopes really put a strain on me as I found it hard to breath given the altitude of 4,100m. Potosi is quoted as the highest city in the world. This was my first real experience with altitude. At first, I shrugged it off as I had been snowboarding at Lake Louise. But by comparison, the peak at Lake Louise´s resort is only 2,600m. On the trip, the highest elevation reached was around 5,200m which was experienced a few days ago moving across the Bolivian altiplano. Despite the precautions, I did experience shortness of breath and headaches.

Potosi itself had very narrow streets and many of the places reaked of sewage. The squares of the city did not seem too special. Each street seemed to have shops all relating to one thing. For example, there would be a furniture street, or a hardware street. The most popular type of food seemed to by fried chicken and fries. The main attraction of the city was its mines. At one point, Potosi was the richest city in the world with vast silver deposits. But now, most of the silver has been depleated. Given the importance of the mines and hearing of the deplorable conditions, I signed up for a tour of the mine despite knowing of the hazards involved. The tour started with a trip to the miners market where we purchased care packages to give to the miners. This package included a bag of coca leaves, a reactant, biscuits, pop, cigarettes (with coca leaves), dynamite, fuse, and amonium nitrate. The leaves are chewed and is used by all miners. It helps them stay awake for the long hours, and helps filter out the dust they inhale. Suprisingly, none of the miners use filters except the drillers which are covered in dust. The cigarette tasted much like a cigar as it had no filter. We also learned that a cap of 96% alochol is drunk before entering the mines. Having a taste of the substance burned all the way down. Oddly enough it comes in a bottle that looks like a cleaning agent but had the words "potable alcohol" written on it. Durning the tour, we learned of the difficult task of mining, the low wages and the low life expectancy of the miners. Most die between the ages of 15-30. We also learned of the devil they worshipped called Tio. At the mines, we were given the opportunity the wheel mineral out of the mine and push carts of minerals around in the mine. Inside the mine, we saw the workers work hard using only hand tools and dynamite. The tour concluded with a dynamite demonstration. The fuse was stuck into the dynamite which was then put into a bag of ammonium nitrate. The fuse was then lit. Suprisingly, the tour guide then passed the dynamite around allowing a photo opportunity while the fuse was winding down. After a few photos, the guide set the dynamite in a hole about 50m away before it exploded in a huge bang raining dirt down.

I should also note that while we were in the city there were prostests about wages from the unions. During these protests, dynamite was set off. At first it was quite the scare but it became quite normal to hear large bangs through out the evening. We also witnessed a huge march through the city with torches. It seemed liked something out of an old movie.

The visit to Potosi was an eye opener to see what people here did to survive. It wasn´t nice but it was definitely an unforgettable experience.

After a string of long and tiring flights, I finally made it into Buenos Aires. After landing, I found myself helping a German catch the bus going to centre of the city. The bus ride took a suprising two hours which was just as long as the flight from Santiago to Buenos Aires. As we made our way into town, my first impressions were that this was not Paris of South America. I´m sure that´s because of all the non-tourist neighbourhoods I passed by. There were quite a few shacks and poorly built buildings. But often you would also see the nice buildings.

I got off the bus at Congresso on Avenida de Mayo and I was amazed by the fountains and the congress building. I snapped a few pictures and within a few minutes of being off the bus, I was already a target of a pick pocketing scam. I was hit with a really smelly substance designed to be pigeion poop. Of course, two people started to help me clean up the mess almost instantly. Being on guard, I wiped off the part that was still liquid and "thanked" the con artsists for their help and decided to proceed to check in at the hostel to get cleaned up. As I made my way towards the hostel, I was again targeted not five minutes since the previous attempt. Same deal as previous but this time there were two "helpers" plus another guy who was probably going to do the stealing. As the "helpers" swarmed me and tried to direct my attention one way, I noticed the third apporaching me. Every time I turned to look at him he would pretend to take a picture of something. After I escaped this incident, I looked back and saw the three collaborate. I finally made it back to the hostel, I had to wash the clothes I had one, my bag and was forced to take a shower. I must say whatever concotion they made to resemble bird poop worked as it really stunk. So needless to say, my first impressions of BA were not that great.

I started to wonder heading east on Avendia de Mayo taking in the atmosphere. I noticed some streets were shut down with stages setup. I later realized that this was a long weekend and quite a bit of parties were setup. 9 de Julio, The road that was to resemble the Champs de Elysse was quite impressive. It was a 12 lane road flanked by another 4 lanes on each side. Down the way, you could see the famous obelisk. I continued down Avenida de Mayo until the the pink palace square and took quite a few pictures. I joined a Spanish tour of the building as it was the only way to gain access to certain areas of the building. Sadly I couldn´t tell you a thing about the building. Afterwards, I grabbed a bite at a Spanish and Argentinian restaurant at the recommendation of Pablo, one of the people that worked at the hostel. I ordered something rouleau. It was one of the daily sepcials so I thought I´d give it a go. I also ordered half a bottle of malbec which is the local favourite. I was greeted with a shot of sherry and suprisiungly huge prortions. I sat with an Irish couple and they too were suprised with how big the portions were. After the meal, you were greeted with more alcohol. In this case it was a shot of something that resembled lemoncello.

I returned to the hostel and made use of the terrace bar and met some other travelers. Of course this is one of the normal things to do. We shared a few beers and went out for the night.

The next day I made the long journey to Recoletta. At the park there was a market setup complete with entertainment including children´s puppet shows and live bands. The cemetary itself was quite impressive. The burial sites were massive and often decorated with impressive statues. Some graves were old and some were new. Most of them were failry well maintained. Many had a stairwell going into the depths of the earth. Imagine creeping around here at night. I also visited the famed Evita Perron´s grave. I also visited the art gallery near the cemetery and was amazed by the number of people it drew in. The artwork was quite weird and modern. I really couldn´t see why there would be such a strong interest.

I continued walking around town with the highlight being San Telmo. With it being the weekend, markets were out in full force along with street performers. There I witnessed the best drum troop I´ve ever seen. At first it looked very disorganized and very amature. But when they started to play, it really blew my mind. There were all different kinds of drums. You could tell that the performers loved what they were doing as they were smiling and dancing while playing. One of the drummer´s straps broke but he picked up his drum, wedged it between his legs, smiled and kept playing. The atmosphere was so amazing. Random people started to dance, people clapped their hands and just enjoyed the music. I did manage to get a brief video of their work. In other parts of San Telmo people were dancing to tango, and in another section people were dancing to jazz. The calibre of the performers ranged but it was great and people were having a lot of fun. Performers and spectators.

The evening started out similarly to the last by drinks at the rooftop patio. We ended up going to a club that Nacho, the barman at the hostel had connections to. It was a massive club which looked to be three stories high with a massive LED screen that spanned the three levels. I also had the drink of choice which was speed (liked red bull) and champagne. Oddly enough the bartender asked if I was driving. The club goers looked a bit coked out as many wore sunglasses.

The next day I went to Palermo with Sinta, one of the people who was staying at the hostel. I was amazed when we took the subway on line A as the train cars were original 1912. They were made of wood and the doors operated manually with no safty mechanisims. It was like going back in time. We walked to a highly recommended restaurant called La Cabrera where we shared a 600g Bife de Chriuzo. It was massive and delicious and one of the best steaks I´ve ever had.

After lunch, as we were walking through Palermo, one of the unlikelyest things happened. Or you could say it is likely given my track record in BA thus far. I got shat on by a bird once again. But this time it was real. I spent the rest of the day checking out Puerto Madero before meeting up with my tour group.

I checked in at the tour hotel and met my tour roommate Andrew. After the tour meeting, the group of roughly 25 went out to an Irish pub for a mix and mingle before turning in. The following day Andrew and I visited the sights and sounds of BA of which I had visited previously before meeting up with the tour group for a tango show. It was much more than dancing as it also involved a story line. Sadly it was in Spanish so quite a bit of the preformance was lost.

One thing that I did notice about BA and later the rest of Argentina is that people were very politically involved. Protests happend frequently and was visible everywhere. This included all forms of media which included banners and marches, graffiti, and even graffiti on dogs.

Overall, I was quite impressed with the city especially the atmosphere around the markets and San Telmo. Did it blow me off my feet? No. But it could have been the hype that I had heard about the city before arriving.

I had finally arrived in Thailand. Despite all I have heard about the sex trade and the lady boys, I was by no means prepared for what I saw. Patong Beach, the town that is the most famous for its nightlife in Phuket, lived up to its reputation. I arrived late at night and the partying at the clubs and bars were in full force. After dropping off my bag at Patong Beach Backpacker Hostel, I wondered around town. All the main streets were packed with bar goers of all ages and Thai girls were everywhere pressuring you to sit and have a drink. I wondered down one side street which was a mistake. As I walked further and further down the street, I noticed everyone was a guy or a lady boy. Recognizing I went down the wrong street, I quickly back tracked and got out of there. I found the bar seen very creepy. There were 80 year old men dancing with Thai girls who looked 18. Every bar, young girls would come up to you asking you just to sit down. I’m all for parties and having a good time, but this was too much as it was so sleazy. There were a few bars that seemed more normal and more fun like Rocky City which had a live cover band. After witnessing the nightlife, I made my way down to the beach where I witnessed people sending of flying sky lanterns. This is basically a hot air balloon made with paper that is lit like a lantern and sent off into the night sky.

The next day I relaxed on the beach out in the hot sun. The white sand beach was amazing just as many had said before. The water was hardly refreshing as the water temperature was around 30C. The beach was covered by beach chairs looking like your typical resort beach. Vendors walked up and down the beach selling drinks, clothes and lotions. On the beach, you could also rent jet skis.

When the heat was too much to bear, I returned to the hostel where some backpackers were watching movies. There I met Nick the Norwegian, Kelly from England, Alix from California, Adam from Sheffield, Mike from British Columbia and a couple of Germans. There was talk about a ping pong show where girls do various things with the vaginas. These “things” included blowing a whistle, shooting balloons much like a blow dart, ejecting ping pong balls, ejecting fish, inserting water with Coke coming out and many more weird stunts. Most people at the hostel had seen or heard of these acts before, so the Germans and I decided to experience it firsthand. As weird it was and as impossible as it seemed, they did it.

The next day, I made my journey to Koh Phi Phi. There wasn’t much to Patong Beach and it was not how I envisioned it. I said my goodbyes to the new friends I had made at the hostel and continued my journey.

I arrived in Kuala Lumpur very early in the morning after leaving Shenzhen late in the evening the night before with a short stopover in Singapore. From the airport, I took a bus to KL Sentral and took the monorail to Bukit Bintang Monorail station. After getting some directions from a local, I found my hostel on Tingkat Tong Shin, just a block away from Jalan Alor where all street food stalls were located. Arriving very early in the morning, none of the staff was there but one of the residents of the hostel, John, helped me out. I dropped off my bag at the hostel and John gave me directions to get to the Batu Caves.

I caught an air conditioned bus to the caves which took about 45 minutes. Right outside the caves was a giant statue of a Hindi deity. Towering 42.7 metres, it is the tallest statue of Murugan in the world. It was made of concrete and painted with gold paint. Next to the statue were 272 steps to reach the entrance of the caves. As you climbed the stairs, there were monkeys climbing with you. They were literally everywhere. Some monkey had baby monkeys hanging off them. At the top of the flight of stairs, it offered a great view of Kuala Lumpur in the distance. The cavern of the cave itself was massive housing many Hindu shrines inside. Of course, the monkeys were also around. Some tourists seemed more interested in the monkeys than the caves and shrines. The shrines were quite spectacular as there were many figures carved and painted that decorated them. There were also monks praying and blessing their followers. I did find it strange however when I approached some people to help take a picture for me. Often they would look at me very strangely and back away. I thought it was quite obvious what I was asking but from the reactions on their faces it didn’t seem that way. I eventually did find some foreigners who understood me to take some pictures.

I returned back to the city from the Batu Caves and wandered around Chinatown. Petaling Street is the main street in Chinatown which is famous for its markets. Being in China earlier, I found the markets a bit more expensive. What they had was very similar as you would find the same sunglasses, t-shirts, belts and wallets as you would find in Shenzhen. It also seemed that I found more people in Kuala Lumpur that spoke Cantonese than I did in Canton province. Knowing that I would be back in China, I didn’t buy anything. I also knew that whatever I bought, I would have to carry it around on my back for the rest of my trip.
Making my way back to my hostel, I found it incredibly hot. Coming from China where at some parts of my trip I was wearing five layers, I found it quite difficult to adjust to the 36C weather that I was experiencing. Getting little sleep on the flights, I decided to rest up and take a nap.

At the hostel, I met Doris from Singapore and Nadia from Korea. We walked through the city to KL Tower which is the tall tv tower. The tower itself is on top of a giant hill which makes it look like it is taller than the Petronas Twin Towers. Once reaching the tv tower, we elected not to goto the top. Instead, we wandered around the base of the tower which there really wasn’t anything there. We then made our way to the Petronas Twin Towers which were much more spectacular. We first entered the Suria KLCC which is a shopping centre home to many posh stores. It was a breath of fresh air as the shopping centre was air conditioned. We then proceeded out to the KLCC Park to get a good view of the twin towers. The park itself was quite beautiful as there was a swimming pool, playground, pathways and many fountains. We took many pictures from a bridge in the park of the twin towers. Just being there was sort of surreal after seeing the towers many times before in movies. Unfortunately, you can’t actually go up the tower except for the Skybridge which you have to line up early for.

That night, we returned to the hostel and had dinner at the street food market. Like always, I tried to go with what the locals typically eat. So that night I had Curry Mein which is a curry noodle soup. Needless to say, it was tremendously spicy meal. With the night temperatures not dropping much and the extremely spicy soup, I was sweating like crazy and even coughed at the spiciness of the meal. The Singaporean and Korean also found it spicy but not to the same degree.

After dinner, the girls returned back to the hostel. Being only in Kuala Lumpur for one night, I returned to the night markets on Petaling Street where there were a lot more vendors than during the day. From the market, I tried to find the old train station but was unable to even with a map. I had to be very careful as I had been warned that KL is not very safe after dark and by that time, it was close to 11pm at night and the streets were pretty much deserted at night. So, I was running up and down the streets looking for the old train station until I gave up. I ended up finding Merdeka Square or Independence Square where there were surprisingly many families out with their children despite the late hour. Many of them were playing with toys that launched vertically and glowed in the night. Afterwards, I returned to the hostel. I wanted to experience the night life but opted not to as the girls were not up for it and I was quite tired myself.

I woke up early in the morning to go line up to view the Skybridge. Originally, Doris and Nadia were going to join me but they decided not to as they were too tired. When I got there at 8am, there was a massive line and I worried that I wouldn’t be able to see it due to my evening flight. After lining up for about an hour, I got my ticket for 1:30pm. I walked around the area to kill time before going up to the bridge. The views were great but not that spectacular as it wasn’t that high. But just being on the bridge was very cool. It essentially was a very high +15 bridge, but it’s the most famous and coolest one in the world. It would be cooler if it had a glass floor.

My brief stop in Kuala Lumpur was over as I returned to the hostel to pick up my bags and took a monorail and coach to the airport. At last, I was only a few hours from Thailand.

So the big day finally came. I woke up at 5:00 in the morning for the first time probably since needing to board a flight or something like that. Who thought I would be waking up that early to torture myself instead of taking off for some adventure. But I guess I was waking up for an adventure, a challenge to conquer. From the pains of the training runs, I carefully taped up my feet and nipples, selected a thinner pair of socks and greased up chaffing prone areas with Vaseline. Boy can I say those training runs paid off. Too bad I didn’t know any better before, that way I would have avoided weeks of idling due to injuries which limited me only to a maximum distance of 26km. I had a small breakfast that consisted of fettuccini with meat sauce that I had prepared the night earlier. I then laced up my shoes, double knotting them and made my way to Bridgeland for the start of the race by C-Train. To my surprise, the train was packed with other runners. Some were in deep concentration, some were sleeping, and some looked as if it was just another day. When I finally arrived in Bridgeland, I had to stand in line to check my bag in. Despite leaving early, the horn to signal the start of the race sounded while I was still in line. Fortunately, race time is recorded by an electronic chip that is tied to my shoe which is detected when crossing the start, finish and other timing points. After I finally checked my bag in, I plugged my headphones in and loaded up some motivational run songs I had picked out the night earlier like Bonnie Tyler’s Holding Out For a Hero and Eminem’s Lose Yourself. The start area was like Deerfoot Trail during rush hour. It took quite a few metres after the start line before it was even possible to run. Along the sidewalks we were greeted to groups of supporters as they clapped and cheered. Some small bands had even up along the route to help carry us on. The first ten kilometres was a breeze and as I passed crowds of runners. I had even caught up and passed the 4:15 pacer despite the late start. The crowds started thinning out at Memorial and Parkdale as many of the runners made their U-turn back to Bridgeland as they were only doing a half marathon. Even the steep Shaganappi Trail hill did not faze me as I powered on. Fatigue started settling in as I ran through the university grounds but I did not stop. I crossed the midway mark of 21.1km at 2:05 which was bit slower than my usual pace, but I didn’t have to contend with the crowds, Shaganappi Trail hill and running another 21.1km in my training runs. I finally had to stop briefly and walk for a bit at the 24km mark but I kept on going. At this point, I kept on starting and stopping. The 27km mark a fellow racer mentioned that there’s only 15km left. She was absolutely right. As simple as it may sound, thinking of the smaller numbers made it sound so much better. I had run 15km with no issues numerous times before and this should be no different. Counting down at this point was the way to go. With that mentality, I pushed on through Varsity and down Shaganappi Trail and turning back on to Parkdale Boulevard which lead to Memorial Drive, the homestretch. Less than 10km left. At this point, I grabbed two cubs of Gatorade at every aid station and cooled off with a sponge as well. Fortunately it was a relatively cooler day than what we had been experiencing the last few days. During the final stretch, my knees and ankles ached with pain. Runners were passing me as my walks became frequent with nothing I could do. At the 39km mark, I had to stop as the pain in my knees started to become paralyzing. Three more kilometres. Any other time, three kilometres would have been accomplished in my sleep. I gathered everything I had, and ran and gave it my all towards the finished line. As I entered Bridgeland, I could hear the crowds cheer and clap. Words of encouragement coming from complete strangers. With a hundred metres left to go, I could hear the presenter announcer my name as I drew closer to the finish line. A few painful strides later, I threw my hands in the air as I did it. I had completed a marathon. I was then congratulated and given a finishing medal that doubled as a belt buckle and was asked if I was okay. My knees and ankles were more than sore and I was in pain. Being close to tears because of what I just accomplished, I said that I was okay. I passed the field hospital setup at the finishing line to the aid station serving Gatorade and chugged two full cups. I moved to the racers only area and broke down onto a grassy area to stretch out. Never have I had to endure such physical pain to accomplish a goal. Now knowing that I can finish a marathon makes me think that everything is now possible especially to think I did not start running until mid-February. I’d like to say I don’t think I could have ran this marathon without all the supporters, organizers and volunteers along the route as they were just incredible. Thank you for helping me reach my dream. Death Race 2010, look out, I’m coming for you!