Dave Gets Trapped in Thailand with no Passport

Did I mention that all this time, while I was checking out historical sights, diving in tropical waters, learning to rock climb and whatnot I've been stuck in Thailand unable to leave until I get my passport back. No eh? Well I was.

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I arrived in Thailand still needing to get entry visas for Russia and Mongolia.* Unfortunately for me they can't issue them in Thailand but can only issue them in the country of citizenship or residency. So, within 12 hours of arriving in Bangkok, there I was at DHL sending my passport to the UK in order to get a visa assistance company to take my passport and application forms to the relevant embassies to apply for the visas on my behalf.

In my head a best case scenario would get me my passport back within a week. But real life had other plans. DHL itself were conspiring against me from the start as they couldn't even guarantee my documents would arrive within three days and because I was sending a passport which is of a 'sensitive' nature it would take three additional days.**


Then I lost two days when the Russians asked for bank details since I in the employment box I put 'unemployed-travelling'. ***Then once my application had been submitted I was informed my visa to enter Russia would not be ready until the 3rd of February.


I'd really like to know what happened between Canada and Russia relations since the last time I travelled there in 2007 when I was able to receive a travel visa in one day because they've now changed the rules and in all circumstances Canadians have to wait 15 days to process a visa application.

Regardless of the reason there was nothing I could do about it and though I was initially quite stressed about travelling around with no passport I quickly got over it. That is mostly because Thailand is such an easy going society. Not one passport checkpoint to be found in the entire country. I still broke into a sweat every time I saw a police officer though (even more of a sweat than the 30 degree heat was causing I mean).***It was helpful to know the date that I could expect everything to be finalized though as this meant I could stop checking email and hoping every day.




So there I was, travelling all over thailand and generally enjoying myself waiting to receive my passport until the given date. When I didn't hear from them on the expected day, February 3, I didn't even panic and instead took the opportunity to use my extra day in Krabi to go deep water solo climbing which was memorable not just because it was awesome but because I hurt myself.


On the fourth, late in the day after getting back from climbing, I got the word that my passport was enroute and that I could expect to recieve it on Friday February 6. I should mention that because I anticipated travelling around I thought it would be safer to have my precious, precious, round the world trip dependant travel documents sent to the Canadian Embassy in Bangkok rather than trying to predict which hotel I would be at at the time.

This turned out to be a tactical blunder for two reasons. First, I didn't forsee the process taking so long and so figured I would be near Bangkok when my documnets were ready. I wasn't. I was an overnight train journey away in Krabi.


Second, according to the tracking number, my passport was due to be delivered before 5:30 on Friday. No problem I thought. I'll arrive Friday morning by train, swing by the embassy in the afternoon and, passport in hand, make for the Laos border on another overnight train and be having fun in the sun sometime on Saturday.*****One problem with that scenario was that being a cushy tropical government office, the embassy closes at 1:00pm on Fridays.


A further wrinkle was that Monday, February 9th was a public holiday in Thailand and other Budhist countries to celebrate Makha Bucha Day. I've since learned that it represents the full moon of the third lunar month when hundreds of monks independently made a pilgirmage to see Buddha, though at the time I was pretty unimpressed as I considered my self to be quite inconvenienced by this 'unexpected' holiday.


I'm not going to lie to you. I thought this really sucked. I don't expect much sympathy for being trapped in Bangkok for a long weekend but I had already overstayed my 30 day travel visa and every day that I continued to stay in Thailand was a day that I wouldn't be able to visit somewhere else like Laos or China for instance.



So, the travel plan appropriately revised. I was determined to enjoy my long weekend in Bangkok, where I took in some Muay Thai Boxing and nearly bought a suit (if I hadn't had a really heavy backpack already overflowing with winter clothes for the Trans-Siberian railway I would have) caught up on some Premier League football (it's really popular in Thailand - I even got them to show the Fulham match!) and both relaxed and partied my face off (I did have four nights to kill remember).
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Over the course of the weekend I learned a few things about Bangkok. If you want to, you can get just about anything in the world on the streets of that fair city. Weapons for instance, including brass knuckles, extendable battons, switchblades, butterfly knives, ninja throwing stars (all illegal in western countries) and even pistol crossbows are available on the sidewalk markets and street corner stalls next to the tshirt vendors. 'Massages' and at night-time more overtly sex is for sale no matter what street you walk down.
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'Sidewalks' are a completely different concept in Thailand and Bangkok in particular. There it is where the scooters drive or where people set up tables to sell goods and services (see above) or just where they plant trees which then get so big that you have to step out into the street just to walk around the trees that are growing in the middle of the 'sidewalk'.
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Pink taxis were a nice touch and gave Bangkok a bit of a happy-go-lucky feel but the one of the things that took me by surprise was the sheer number of 7-11 stores. I bet you could give directions from any point in Bangkok to any other point solely by using 7-11's as a guide:

'Go straight on Soi 1 until you hit the 7-11, turn left and then take another left at the 7-11. Drive until you hit the 3rd 7-11 then get on the expressway. Get off at the 7-11 and go straight. If you hit the 7-11 you've gone too far...'

Anyhoo, on Tuesday morning I arrived at the Canadian Embassy at 10:00am, not wanting to get there too early since I already spent so much time there on Friday hoping the package would be delivered before closing and successfully retrieved my passport and went immediately to the train station to buy my ticket outta there. Free at last I could finally leave Thailand. More optimistically I could finally go to Laos.
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If you're thinking that all this visa related chaos might lead to quite a lot of additional expense then you are absolutely right. Not only did I have to pay around 50 quid each way for courrier service for my documents but I had to pay 100 pounds for the admin fee of the visa processing company and then, because of the time it took to process my Russia tourist visa, I overstayed my allowed time in Thailand by 9 days and was fined another 100 pounds. So in addition to the cost of the visas I'm out GBP 300! I sure hope there is a lucrative job waiting for me when I get back!




Photos: 1) Checking out the Wats in Ayuttaya, the former Thai capital. 2) Buddha stautes lose their heads over time apparently. 3) A little bit of trip planning 4) Passport in hand outside the Canadian Embassy in Bangkok which is on the 15th floor. They wouldn't let me take a photo inside.

*In case you've forgotten, I'm taking the trans siberian railway from Beijing to St. Petersberg via Mongolia in late February. The visa to enter China was really easy to get and I went straight from the airport to the Chinese embassy in Toronto on the 23rd of December after arriving from Buenos Aires and had my passport with visa in hand by lunch time the next day.

**I have absolutely no idea what this is about. I guess there is a lucrative trade in sending forged passports around by courier or something that requires additional scruitiny in order for the courier to cover their a$$.

***By contrast in Argentina I had to show my passport every time I purchased a bus ticket and then again when I got on the bus and also every time I checked into a hotel and even a couple of times randomly on the street.

****Riiiight. So I'm not currently employed while travelling the world and if I run out of money I'm going to chose Russia in the middle of winter time to overstay my visa and sponge off the government. I really think not.

Rock Climbing 101

I actually didn't really envision myself doing any climbing when I went switched to the east coast of Thailand. Even though Krabi (Tan Sai Beach in particular) is famous for it's picturesque limestone cliffs with routes for climbers of all abilities, I'd been rapidly burning through cash and needed to slow it down a bit. Krabi isn't the place to do it. For one thing, on the beaches where everybody stays there is a scarcity of accomadation owing to tsunami when all the buildings were damaged if not completely destroyed so rooms were pricey, at least by Thailand standards. And for another thing there is nothing else to do there really.* It does look like this though so you can see the appeal generally:

So, with some time to kill and since I was there, finances be damned!...I took a three day climbing course.

The course focused on basic safety techniques and how to spot someone else when they are climbing, what knots to tie etc.,

with minimal concern for how high you actually went, and since most of the beginner to intermediate walls have adequate hand and foot holds you could get way up there.

The course then went on to teach lead climbing, (taking the rope up and setting it up in the anchor) and then multi-pitch climbing and abseiling down.

It was a real thrill though to climb up and meet my instructor at the 'top' only to continue on and lead the rope up the next 'pitch' to another anchor and then abseil down. It was really cool and you can see how climbers get addicted to it.

It was amazing. My muscles weren't ready for three straight days of that though and I could barely make it through the third day.

I took a well deserved rest day. With the beach and sun, Tan Sai is really a good place to chill out. It is the type of place where the worst thing that happens is the sort of thing that was posted on the message board:

Then, on my 2nd rest day I was out taking some photos when I bumped into a guy I'd met a few days earlier named Mike. He really wanted to go deep water solo climbing. It's climbing over deep water with no rope so if you fall you land in water.

The idea is not to fall but to climb as high as you can or as high as you feel comfortable, then jump into the water. In fact Mike wanted to go so badly that when the place said we needed three more people or else the outing would be cancelled he ran up and down the beach recruiting people and as luck would have it, it was an easy sell.

Some of the guys were absolutely outstanding climbers, and could comfortably climb up the wall until they got so high they were scared to jump (around 23m). I got the one guy jumping from around 23m on video and it is truly impressive. I, however, am still a novice. Though growing in confidence, most of the techniques I mastered in the course related to knots and use of clips and ropes and whatnot so that was of very little help over open water.

Still, I managed to get up to about 12 metres or so but then got a bit stuck. The trick was to swing one leg over to the stalagtite and then transfer the rest of your body weight over. It's easier said than done for a short guy like me and I was not at all confident I had the leg span to make it. So rather than risk it I decided to just get myself in the absolute best position before trying.

It's a difficult thing climbing. There really is no one best position. Sure some are better than others but you have to keep going. If you're stuck, you're stuck. Just admit it and enjoy your jump into the water. But if you've read my Aconcagua blog you'll know that I don't concede defeat easily whether it is to a world class mountain or just some rock face in the middle of the ocean. So I powered on trying to slowly move into the best position. The chalk had worn off my hands and so had the reserve chalk that i chalked up on my arms (climbers like chalk) so my grip was starting to fade. But if I can make this one last.....ooops...... SPLASH


OW!

I landed on my left side. I gave the boat the 'i'm ok' line but I wasn't really. I was quite sore . Still, we moved to a slightly less challenging wall and I successfully did that 2 times so it's all good. My ribs still hurt 2 1/2 weeks later but i'm sure by the time I get back to London I'll be tip top.

Photos: 1) Learning to climb. 2) View of Tan Sai and East Rai Lei beaches. Hidden from view west Rai Lei beach. 3) Self photo having reached the top of one of my first lead climbs. 4) My excellent doubled up figure 8 knot. It better be excellent. My life depends on it. Needless to say I spent a lot of time practicing. 5) View from about 20 or 22 metres depending who you believe. 6-7) Showing off some mad skills. 8) Abseiling down all by my self. 9) Monkey theft advertisment. 10-11) Deep water soloing. Starting out well. 12-13) Making the move across towards the stalagtite. 14)Note the splash in the last one -sideways for some reason but don't have time to fix it for now.


*Why did I go then? I guess subconciously I wanted to learn to climb. I met people who were serious climbers who loved it there but I just thought it was also just a cool place to hang out. It is but really only if you are a climber.

Underwater Photography 101

Back on December 25th I unwrapped possibly the best Christmas present ever; an underwater housing custom designed to fit my digital camera. It just looks sweet all on it's own as most dive gear does:

But a few weeks into the new year I was tired of just looking at my precious gift and showing it off to strangers everytime a random backpacker I met mentioned diving, so once I got to Ko Tao, a small island off Thailand's west coast remowned for it's diving, I was more than ready to take some kickass underwater shots. I was so excited that I didn't even care that the proprietor of the dive resort made me do a scuba skills review even though I have over 400 dives under my belt and I had been diving as recently as October in Madagascar and I've had my PADI Advanced certification since 1995.*

Anyway, skills review quickly dispatched we still had 1/2 hour of bottom time left so I spent the time furiously taking shots. Here are some of the early ones,

Actually these are the best of my introductory bunch which had a lot of flaws it must be said. It seems I have a tendancy to overuse the flash which led to a lot of particles showing up in my photos despite the awesome flash diffusion screen on the case. I am also inclined, probably as a result of taking so many landscape shots in the past few months, to zoom out and try to capture the entire scene which doesn't work too well underwater especially when the lighting or visibility is poor.

I did learn a few things by trial and error though. Sometimes the flash can work in your favour. Even though everything may look grey/brown as in the next photo, once a little light, or in this case a bright flash of light, is introduced into the equation you see the true colours of the undersea world shine through.

Still my shots were inconsisent at best and as the lighting conditions kept changing I was forever tweaking the settings never really confident that I knew what I was doing. Even my successes like this one,
or, diver from below


were basically good luck. For the diver from below I don't even think I was looking because I was concerned I would surface underneath him. I got to talking about some of the challenges I was facing with some of the divers on the boat** and it turned out that one of the divemasters, Chris, was teaching the underwater photography specialization and gave me a few pointers.


Later when we were talking over beers for 5 nights straight he suggested that I might benefit from the course and I told him that ever since PADI refused to recognize my 20+ logged wreck dives and declare me a 'wreck diver' I don't put too much stock in holding a specialized certification. The quality of the photos will determine whether I could call myself an 'underwater photographer'. But I had to admit that I could use some practical tips so I settled on a one day workshop.

This would explicitly help me overcome one of the biggest obstacles to good underwater photography: being rushed. For normal recreational divers the tendancy is to see as much as possible but in order to get some of the better shots (the same goes for land based photography it could be said) you have to have a lot of patience to wait for the right conditions and for the fish to come to you because chasing fish around is fighting a losing battle.

I recieved a lot of pointers about depth of field and manipulating the amount of light you let in the camera. One of the biggest pointers though was to be sure to calibrate the white balance at depth by taking a clean white slate because how your camera interprets white will influence all the other colours.Another awesome tip was to explore the effects of what on land would be an extreme close up. The effect is remarkable and some of the patterns in the coral are really unique and cool (as above) and some of the shots up close of fish are also quite cool (below).



I still need lots of practice but I've got a much better idea about what makes an interesting photo and it doesn't help to have a bright sunny day either!

Photos: 1-3) Try as we might we couldn't get the bubble ring entirely in the full frame. The challenges of a moving target while the photographer is also swaying with the waves. 4) My new toy. 5) Showing off the skills. There's really not much to it. 6) Me UW self portrait 7) Crown of thorns. Enemy of the reef. 8) Not bad for a first attempt. It looks like they are hiding. 9) Diver and reef. 10) Hey, this coral is actually red!!! 11) I like how the eyes of all the fish came out in this one. It's busy but there is still a focal point. 12) Kind of cool looking silouette from below. 13) Chris. Truly a crazy and unique individual and excellent underwater photographer. 14 -16) Coral close ups. 17-19) Fish close ups.

*Ok it sort of bothered me I mean give me a break man. It doesn't really help that I stopped keeping logs after hurricane Ivan got mine all wet and so have no actual proof of any of my alleged dives
**It is a pretty big boat and on any given day there are beginner classes, specialty classes and just recreational divers.

Dave on the River Kwai

One of the great things about travelling without a set itinerary is the amount of pleasant surprises that you encounter along the way.* For instance did you know that the river kwai and it's historic railway bridge and related WWII historical site is located in Thailand? I didn't. But I was pretty excited to find out that it is just a short two hours bus ride away from Bangkok in a sleepy but cool riverside town called Kanchanaburi.

The movie The Bridge on the River Kwai is a classic Gerhard favourite and even though none of the filming of the movie was done in Thailand and the wooden and bamboo bridge that the forced labour of WWII prisoners of war built in the movie and then later blew up looks nothing like the current concrete and steel bridge (Kanchanaburi is an actual place after all so the bridge was rebuilt after the war), it was pretty cool to see.

I'm not going to lie to you, I made a video of myself walking across the bridge whistling the renowned "Colonel Bogey March" that is forever associated with the movie and goes something like:

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Whoo whoo. Whoo-whoo-whoo-whoo-whoo-whooooo. Whoo whoo. Whoo-whoo-whoooooo-whoo-whoo-whoo. Whoo whoo. Whoo-whoo-whoo-whoo-whoo-who. Whoo-whoo-whoo-whoo-whoo-whoo-whoo-whoo-whoo-who-whooooooooooooo. (repeat)

Unfortuately the video is about 10 minutes long so is both too big to upload and too long to be particularly entertaining (10 minutes of me whistling is pretty much unwatchable even if it is in picturesque Thailand on an historic bridge) but it features some interesting moments like:

1) Me side-stepping other tourists who were hanginging out on the bridge (it is pretty much the only tourist attraction in the town**)

2) Me whistling slightly quieter whenever I would pass said tourists in an effort to not get their reaction in the video but also in the hope they wouldn't notice what an immature idiot I was being.

3) Right at the moment I crossed the bridge and was about to dramatically emphasise it by zoomig in on the historic Japanese rising sun emblem on the bamboo watch tower they put on the opposite side some dutch tourist comes up to me and asks me if I know any good hotels or possibly somewhere to have dinner.

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4) Almost as soon as I told the dutch guy to 'F$%! off and stop ruining my kwai river bridge whistling video'***, the guard started blowing his whistle indicating that the train was coming. I mean it was near perfect timing, which was lucky because train and bus schedules and schedules in general are more just suggestions in Thailand so I couldn't have planned it that well. So I ended up getting the train crossing the bridge in the video as well which also took an excruciatingly long time since it had to slow down or stop often to allow all the aforementioned tourists hanging out on the bridge to get to the saftey platforms.

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Once I get back and edit it I think I can probably turn it into a pretty entertaining 2-3 minute clip. Too bad you already know the best bits.

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Right. Kanchanaburi itself is a generally relaxing place (though if you stay too long a slightly boring one). In particular, the guesthouse I stayed in had a massive riverside garden and hammocks and deck chairs which was great for,you know, relaxing by a river in a hammock for instance.

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The city is also a great jumping off point for doing activities like elephant riding, rafting down the river or checking out the Tiger Temple.

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The Tiger Temple has an awesome sounding name conjuring up images of tigers and monks living on a mountain-top, but is actually just a zoo. And not even a very comprehensive zoo with just a few animals other than tigers.

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Although there is a temple thee it isn't particularly historic, is made of poured concrete with pillars tall enough to allow the monk's 4x4 pickup to be parked underneath and had a satelitte dish so the monks can presumably keep up do date with news from the dali lama or just watch the Simpsons in HD, whichever strikes them.

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It also wasn't so much on a secluded mountain top as it was in a field. The field was secluded though. Although by secluded I mean inconveniently located in the middle of nowhere requiring a long and expensive journey from Kanchanaburi. Speaking of expensive, I didn't mention the outrageous entry fee of about 500 bhat. Which may not seem like much (it's about GBP 10) but this is Thailand and, I thought was supposed to be a temple, but I guess satellite upkeep, 4x4 fuel and insurance and tiger food is pretty expensive these days.

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This brings me to the tigers. Real live tigers (although not particularly ferocious as they are prone to sleeping during the heat of mid day and are kept well fed and are used to the attention that hundreds of visitors a day bring).***

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The tigers weren't near the temple though. For saftey purposes they were in the viewing valley a few hundred metres away where, for the price of admission, you could line up, hand one yellow shirted unsmiling worker your camera, where another would hold your hand and lead you around to where the various tigers were sleeping, while yet another would be sure to stand directly behind you so that you have an authentic yellow shirted tiger temple employee in all your photos of authentic, aweomely powerful, amazing, full grown, giant tigers who are sleeping.

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There was also an authentic monk there but you had to pay more for him to appear in your shot.

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Still though, tigers are cool. Especially big ones with big pointy teeth who even with their chains on and sleeping could easily rip your face off so being up close is a thrill and something you couldn't really do in a westernised country.

More adventures of Thailand to come....

Photos 1) Bridge on the River Kwai. The real one. Not the fake movie one. Which was blown up at the end anyway in a great movie ending. 2) DG crossing back over the river. Note the bombs that they placed on either side to emphasize the authenticity of the WWII site. 3) Some guy riding an elephant. 4) DG at the 'Tiger Temple'

*Incidently one of the worst things about doing that is missing out on stuff that would have been easy enough to see 'if only I had known sooner'

**That is if you don't count internet cafes, massage parlours and the awesome tree fort bar that I got ridiculously drunk at with my two Sedish friends Matilde and Emma on 'bring your own vodka night'

***Actual words 'sorry mate I can't help you out I just got here this afternoon myself but most of the restaurants and stuff are on the other side'

****Also, allegedly, they are not drugged according to the volunteer english speaking staff. Did you get that? A tenner a head AND you don't even have to pay your staff. These monks must have gone to Harvard Business School or something.

New Beard's Eve - Because All Good Beards Must Come to an End

Some people loved my beard. I know because they would say things like "Hey, love your beard!" or "Great beard man." Other people had not so much love for the beard and they would say things like "Your beard is silly"* or "Dude, your beard is getting a bit out of control".

In fact, towards the middle of December, once I passed the 4 month milestone I had to agree that my beard was starting to look a bit er..unkempt. But I was allowing it to become so because I had already determined my exit strategy from bearded life. I decided to host a new year's eve beard shaving party at my parents house near Toronto where I had scheduled a 10 day stopover for the holidays on my way from Argentina to Bangkok.**

In early November I set up an event page in facebook for a new year's eve party and, so people might feel more involved, invited anyone who wanted to to grow a beard which they could likewise shave off on what I was calling 'New Beard's Eve'.

The main reason I set it up so far in advance was that I was due to be travelling in South America and specifically trekking in the Andes for a few weeks ending in mid December which I figured might be a bit late to schedule a new year's eve party. Since I also knew that access to the internet would be sporadic and I wouldn't be able to answer questions and generally keep up the hype I appointed Matt as administrator of the event in my absence. Initially he was less than enthusiastic***, but once he came up with the title 'Beardministrator' which he could use when referring to himself in the third person (eg. 'The Beardministrator would like to remind everyone...etc.) he was ok with it.

Not only was he ok with it he took to it like a duck who was growing an awesome beard would to water ( basically such a duck would take to water the same as a normal duck but would be more cool due to his wicked beardedness). In the 20 days that I was offline trekking in the Andes, he continually hyped up the event and generally raised the 'beardthusiasm' to incredible levels. Not only had he and my other brother Steve started growing beards but so had my good friend Sean from high school.

There were now going to be four of us shaving off our beards on New Beard's Eve. And the lads were exchanging notes about how their beard growing was coming along and transformed the event from just a vague concept that I came up with one day while wondering how long I should keep my beard, to a ligitimate 'Event' that now even had an acronym: NBE.

Evidence of the enthusiasm include the following magazine covers:



and:


And to top it off, my bearded breatheren****had even gone so far as to order NBE hoodies that even said 'STAFF' on the back and VIP shirts for the ladies which all came out on Christmas morning after I unwrapped mine.


Having a custom made NBE hoodie really fired me up and looking back it's hard to say which was more fun, the final planning stages or the actual event.

Planning was excellent becuase it gave us a chance to flex our creative muscles a bit. Like creating the Beard Trivia Game or Jeap-Beard-y using the latest PlayStation 3 quiz game that lets you upload your own Q and A like: Q: "Who wrote the line: To Beard, or not to Beard, that is the question?" A: William Shakesbeard. We came up with 31 more just like it!

We also created the Great Hall of Beards featuring great beards of history so people would know they entered the right house:

There was also the NBE Guest Orientation packs which included a fake beard for all those who did not or were incapable of growing their own beard:

The fake beard came with graphical instructions for how to wear it similar to the lifejacket instructions on airplanes. "Don't forget to secure your own beard first before helping others."

The night itself was really good fun and I got to catch up with great friends who I don't see that often. Not eveyone could stay late due to the fact that their small children require a lot of attention and have more enthusiasm for the snack table than the official NBE Beard Shaving Centre but it was nice to see them all the same. Still, I declare that NBE 2008/2009 was a big success. As a group we went from looking like this:

to looking like this:


Passing through various stages like this:

this:


and this:


Until the result was four clean shaven "gentlemen".*****

I would like to point out that for me, growing a beard while travelling was easy and fun and all part of the adventure but I think it took real guts for Matt, Steve and Sean to start growing beards in Mid-November with the sole objective of shaving on NBE all the while still working and living their 'normal' lives. Thanks guys! It was a fun night, and going from this guy:

to this guy:


on NBE wouldn't have been the same without you.

In the end my 2008 beard travelled with me through 8 countries and lasted from August 15, 2008 until the wee hours of new year's eve which, if you're counting, and I am, is 140 days assuming you count Friday August 15th as day 0 which I do. Whatever the count, it shattered my 2007 Project Chabal/Beardvember beard which only made it to 67 days but was still pretty impressive.

The clean shaven adventures of Dave continue. Next stop: Bangkok!

Photos: 1)DG having just applied mousse to the beard to y'know make it stylish and whatnot. 2) Hanging out chez Gerhard with a nice xmas nogg doing some light beard related reading 3) Matt taking care of some last minute Beardministrator business. 4-5) Magazine covers made by the Beardministrator 6) Beardthusiasm at its best with the new NBE shirts. 7) Sean and Matt in the 'Great Hall of Beards' that's Darwin in the background Al. Samuel de Champlain was the other one you couldn't guess. Excellent guess on Czar Nicolas though. 8) Matt demonstrating proper fake beard technique. 9-10) The beards before and after. 11-13) The 'durings' 14-15) more before and after.

*Sounds better when coming from a Malagasy girl in french 'votre barbe est drole' or something to that effect.
**Some may not consider this to technically be 'on the way' but it was the way that I took
***I think his initial reaction was something exactly like 'Wait a minute, how did I get to be administrator. I am not a beard Curator by anymeans I am still a beard noob. I am only 3 weeks and 1 day into said beard and it does not warrant any kind of administrator privlidges. oh.. I;m off to climb a mountian.. can;t talk now have great bearded adventures to take part in. well yer not the only one thats busy.. in fact as you have so previously pointed out you are probably the least busy as you are on yer vacation'
****Matt came up with that handle. Further evidence of his outstanding performance as Beardministrator.
*****Technically 3 since Matt didn't finish the job until the next morning and was actually passed out sleeping on the couch while we were saying final goodbyes to our beards. But hey, as Beardministrator he's entitled to do what he wants without people giving him grief about it eh?