Seeing as I am sitting in a Starbucks in Kuala Lumpur airport with 6 hours until I board my flight to London I have a sneaky suspicion that I may be writing what might be my last blog...of this trip anyway.
Ummm, even just writing that's pretty upsetting!
I remember writing the first all those months ago in May 2009, 5 weeks before setting off to Heathrow’s terminal 5. I can't remember what it was about, pear cider and DVDs I think but it seems a million miles away from where I am now and only yesterday at the same time.
As you might expect i'm going through that clichéd self-reflective deep and meaningful stage...actually i've been doing that since day 2 or 3 back in LA. That's being a left handed Aquarius for you I guess.
Looking through my journal and blogs reminds me of all the randomness that's happened, the thousands of new faces i've come across and the 'interesting' situations i've found myself in. I can't imagine being in a place for more than 5 days now so have come up with a plan to hang out in hostels and Aussie bars to re-adjust myself to life while still feeling like i'm on the road, it might work...might not.
So anyway, back to the Thai Islands. After I finished my diving course on Koh Tao we ended up staying there for another 3 days, at first the weather played nice and the sun shone but by late afternoon we were woken from our sandy slumbers by fat drops of water falling on our faces and reminding us that even paradise has its off days.
Unfortunately, this off day turned into an off 2 weeks and although fun was to be had, it wasn't to be had with a growing tan.
Without the beach as an option more importance became placed on the evenings and the continued destruction of our livers. We had a good couple of nights out and met some unlikely randoms including the perhaps overly friendly Gary who drove Lottie and I up and down the promenade on his moped many, many times.
In the cloudy haze of vodka-redbull Gary seemed fun and a bit of a 'character'...in the sharp sober light of the next day it was clear he was just plain chav and to be avoided whenever possible.
The other highlight of Koh Tao was Ali the pancake man. This guy is a legend amongst those in the know, he makes the best thai pancakes i've ever come across and with such skill and pride. He's probably been doing it every day for years...litrally.
I ordered my usual (banana and nutella) and in seconds was presented with a chunky, chocolatey, bananary creation that melted in the mouth and sent the taste buds to heaven.
We decided to get out of Koh Tao fairly rapidly to try and chase the sun over to the west side of Thailand. This involved catching a boat to the mainland and then 2 more buses to the town of Krabi. It turned out to be a full 12 hours travelling (pretty standard now) and we arrived later than expected. Spontaneously we jumped in a cab to the town of Ao Nang, we'd heard it was supposed to have more life to it than Krabi and served as a good connection point to the stunning Railey Beach which we'd planned to visit the following day.
However, plans often change and when we got to Ao Nang I realised we might have well as bought a one way ticket on the tourist bus to 'Seedy Town'. This place was pretty grim. Very overpriced, too many 'happy ending' massage parlours, bad food, old men with young thai women and to complete the towns unfavourable portfolio a set of suped up supercharged tuk tuks lurked on a street corner complete with body kits, neon under lighting and throbbing subwoofers. All fairly hilarious really.
Unfortunately we woke once more to pouring rain and seeing as Lottie only had 4 days of her Thai holiday left we scrapped the visit to Railey Beach and just made the last boat of the day over to Koh Phi Phi, the party island. Our mentality here was, if we can't get the sun, once again, we'd go for the red bull. And that's exactly what we did.
Even shrouded in cloud Phi Phi was a beautiful island. Jaw dropping vertical limestone cliffs, turquoise waters and soft fluffy sand. We tried to ignore the fact it would have had a better vibe if the sky was blue but even without that we partied hard and all came good when we realised that not only one set of friends was also on the island with us, but two! Chris and Andrea who we'd met in Vietnam arrived within seconds of us and Dan, our northern bud from Singapore had also come to play.
There were loads of bars to try out, my favourite being the Reggae Reggae bar because the centrepiece is a large boxing ring where the public are encouraged to get up, don gloves and helmet and fight other random travellers for a measly bucket. It makes good entertainment and I was dyingggg to get up there and fight another girl, all the chick flights we saw were pathetic, really weak. Unfortunately I never did get the chance, maybe next time.
Our other local was the Irish Bar, it sold 3 for 1 buckets. Enough said.
One day we hired a longtail boat to get that productive feeling back and see some of the local area by sea. We went over to Bamboo Island, a tiny deserted island but picture postcard perfect and also Phi Phi Lai. Home of the infamous Maya Bay, also known as 'The Beach' from the book and film. Being a huge fan of both I loved standing where I knew Leo Di Cap had been and milked every second of it.
It was a great day and after much jumping in and out of the boat, backward somersaults and back flips we headed home to the big island for food.
On Chris and Andrea's last night we were on the beach dancing when the heavens opened and the monsoon rains came to party with us. It was obvious they weren’t going to stop so it became a case of if you beat them, join them. Obviously we couldn't beat monsoon rains so we danced on the sand and in the rain like devils possessed, soaked to the skin and bone, clothes and hair hanging limp from everybody. It was all a bit tribal but really fun and random.
I'm dribbling on now aren’t I, only 5 hours till I board the flight so might as well carry on...
By day 7 (and STILL no sun) Tina and I were Phi Phi'd out. Lottie had gone home, Dan had moved on and Chris, Andrea and Matt had all jetted off down to Malaysia. We decided we couldn't stay on the island anymore, it had had its fun with us and spat us out and now we had to leave. We opened a map and searched desperately for a new destination, somewhere to hold us for the 5 days we had left before embarking on the journey home and eventually, we found it. Koh Lipe.
Neither of us had heard of Koh Lipe before that afternoon but less than 12 hours later we were cruising south on a chartered speed boat under blue skies and fluffy white clouds (typical on the day we leave!). That's the great thing about travelling, so spontaneous you never know where you might end up.
It turned out that Chris, Andrea and Matt had also spied Koh Lipe on their journey down and it was all smiles as we were reunited on the new island.
The weather held up the following day and once again we chartered a longtail boat to take us out into the big blue for some snorkelling and sunbathing on the untouched beaches. This time the day couldn't have gone better and we splashed about in the currents (which were disturbingly strong I might add), bathed under palms and watched a pretty magnificent sunset from the bobbing helm of the boat. Paradise indeed.
And really, that brings me to now....the days after that were a bit non-descript, the weather faded and the looming prospect of packing for the final time was hanging over my head like the grey clouds outside our bamboo bungalow. It's been a medium sized mission getting here this morning involving a very wet boat, a bumpy minibus, a cramped tuk tuk, a claustrophobic night bus and a freezing cold coach but eventually, we made it, we are here at KL airport, for the third time, eating our third Mc Donalds and receiving our third immigration stamps.
Tina has just arisen from the dead on the table next to me which is good because I was beginning to think she'd past away at the last hurdle, but alas no, she's reaching for that banana chocolate muffin again.
I know it'll be awesome to see family and friends back home but I feel so disconnected from England at this very moment it's hard to imagine being back, it feels like another destination on my trip and then i'll be off again... who knows, maybe I will ;)
Monday 13 December 2010
Friday 26 November 2010
The Price of Beauty
Pulling into Phnom Pehn I was pretty hesitant as to what to expect. Our bible the lonely planet warns potential visitors that it's an intoxicating place that you'll either love or hate, or maybe even both but just on different days. The journey into Cambodia from the Mekong Delta wasn't too long or painful but for some reason felt exhausting. There was a lot of climbing in and out of a miniature speed boat and the hot sun felt doubly strong on the skin as we waited for our passports to be stamped and returned at the floating boarder.
Our bus dropped us off at the corner of a particularly dingy road and aggressive tuk tuk drivers were falling over themselves to get our business. The constant shouts of "LADY, LADY, LADY" were tiresome to say the least.
Eventually we found a nice guy to take us to a guesthouse and we checked in just as the skies opened and emptied the equivalent of the Pacific Ocean on us.
On our first day there we had planned to visit the 'Gold and Silver Temple' in town but soon realised we were a. inappropriately dressed and b. not that bothered about seeing yet more gold buddhas. We still had Angkor Wat to visit up in Siem Reap and were trying to avoid 'temple burn-out'.
Instead we got a lift to the renound Killing Fields where thousands upon thousands of people were massacred and buried during the era of Pol Pots Khmer Rouge regime in the 70's. There were 9,000 skulls on display as a tribute to the dead but I couldn't work out whether it was a tasteful of not.
Still, the museum was interesting and I managed to top up my historical knowledge. On the journey back our driver offered to take us to a firing range to try out some AK-47's or other equally traumatic weapons, I think his offer could have been timed better to be honest, there was already too much death in the air.
The other thing I immediately noticed about Cambodia were the number of disabled people on the streets. Everyone seemed to have been affected by war or tragedy and it was sad to witness, especially when trolleys of amputees and writhing children with contorted bodies were wheeled right past your restaurant asking for money.
On day two it was off to yet another site of sadness, the S-21 Genocide Museum where more poor innocent Cambodians were captured, held and tortured for months before being shipped off to the Killing Fields to be finished off and buried in the mass graves.
The S-21 building was originally a school for the local children which had been transformed into an eerily disturbing prison of barbed wire and wooden boxes to house the men, women and children. It really was disgusting to see and made my stomach turn that people were, and still are, capable of inflicting so much pain and anguish for no reason at all.
We had a couple of nice dinners and walked around the town a bit but those were the two main things we did. It was obvious that the area was soaked in poverty and needs a lot of TLC before it and its people can recover.
After Phnom Pehn we headed north to Siem Reap, home of the mighty Angkor Wat temple and many, many others We only spent a couple of days there, one doing the temple rounds and another chilling in the town, getting a nice cheap swedish massage.
Although Angkor Wat was amazing and very stunning I think I was more captivated by the two I saw back in Indonesia, the buddist 'Borobodur' and Hindu 'Prambanan'. I guess that's the problem of having such a reputation, there's a hell of a lot to live up to. I particularly liked the temple where Angelina Jolie was taken for the film Tomb Raider. It was a natural film set in itself and ancient trees had grown round and swallowed up the brickwork and carvings of the place. Doorways leading into pitch black were framed by gigantic roots that looked more like octopus tentacles than vegetation, loved it.
Tina and Matt chose to stay up in Siem Reap for a third day but I left alone on the night bus to get down to Sihanoukville on day 2. It was a fairly uneventful night time journey but I enjoyed the solo adventure and got quite a few reality checks when I found myself standing in the middle of nowhere at 4am surrounded by nothing but Cambodian goats!
I arrived into the beachy coastal town at sunrise and felt really liberated to be back by the sea again, especially as the inky black sky merged into a rainbow of navy blue, purple, pinks, oranges and yellows. I did the usual business of grabbing my bag and bartering a price with a motorbike driver and in no time at all was whizzing through the empty streets to my guesthouse, wind in the hair and smile on the face.
It was only 6am but I knew where some friends were staying and what room they were in so I made sure they got a nice early awakening to the day by sneaking in and jumping on their beds haha.
Sihanoukville went really fast, we spent 5 days there but they all merged into a bit of a drunken blur. There was a good group of people to hang out with and it was really nice to do the social thing again. It's apparently the 'place to go' for some beach action so that's exactly what we did, some beach action combined with some Cambodian style holiday vibe.
It was pretty sad leaving Jon and Craig on the 18th, we'd been travelling with them from the day we entered Laos and although we had to move on, so did they. We said our goodbyes and then that was that, we started the long process of getting down to the Thai island of Koh Phangan in time for the full moon party.
We caught a bus to Phnom Pehn (which broke down twice, lost it's air con half way through and was full of screaming babies and brown nappies), got a tuk tuk to the airport, a plane to Bangkok airport, a taxi in to Bangkok city, a taxi back to Bangkok airport (15 hours later), a flight to Surat Thani in southern Thailand, a coach to Don Sak pier, a ferry to Koh Phangan and FINALLY a jeep truck to our hotel.
All that took about 36 hours.
From that moment on, carnage ensued. It was just ridiculous. The thai redbull out here really does contain all sorts of illegal things because anyone who drinks it just goes loopy...it's great! I'll skim over the details but on our first night which was supposed to be a quiet one we went down to Haad Rin beach and didn’t get back till 6am. Our second night, the night before the big party which we were going to 'take easy' we ended up at a pool party and very much IN the pool until 4am, and then it was full moon day where we didn't hang up the dancing shoes till 11am the following morning.
After those three days I was finished, a walking zombie. Koh Phangan had had its way with us and spat us all back out.
We all felt bad for not really seeing any of the island except the party area so on our 5th and last day we hired a 4x4 jeep to take off road and into the jungle. It was an awesome day full of highlights but hanging onto the back of a truck while whizzing through rainforest meant i've now got about 400,000 big, fat, red, angry, itchy mosquito bites which look atrocious :(
I loved hiking up to the highest viewpoint on the island though where we found a tiny wooden shelter complete with pillows and hammock and a local guy serving iced tea, beer and playing Bob Marley. So cool.
From Koh Phangan we very groggily made our way to Koh Tao by the sea sick making, packed to the rafters ferry. Ever wanted to feel what its like to be squashed into a space smaller than your skull? Take this ferry.
We've been here a few days now and the group has been split up for a bit while we all do our own thing. I'm doing my SSI diving course for the next 3 days so am currently holed up in a little one bed wooden bungalow which I THOUGHT was cute and charming until I woke up covered with another million bites, this time from disgusting bed bugs. They’re all over my legs and body and have sort of merged with the huge mozzie ones so now I just look truely rank.
I'm actually lying on the bug ridden bed now typing this and can almost feel the parasites tucking into dinner as I type. Tomorrow, after my 2 dives i'm packing up my bags and getting the hell out of here and over to where Tina and Lottie are staying. It's annoying though as my accommodation price is included with my diving course....bed bugs included too though, not worth it.
Anyway, all is going well, the diving is going great. It'll feel good to finally be a fully certified diver and being here has put yet more ideas for the future in my head. To be continued...
Time for bed now, along with my microscopic little friends. Night night.
Our bus dropped us off at the corner of a particularly dingy road and aggressive tuk tuk drivers were falling over themselves to get our business. The constant shouts of "LADY, LADY, LADY" were tiresome to say the least.
Eventually we found a nice guy to take us to a guesthouse and we checked in just as the skies opened and emptied the equivalent of the Pacific Ocean on us.
On our first day there we had planned to visit the 'Gold and Silver Temple' in town but soon realised we were a. inappropriately dressed and b. not that bothered about seeing yet more gold buddhas. We still had Angkor Wat to visit up in Siem Reap and were trying to avoid 'temple burn-out'.
Instead we got a lift to the renound Killing Fields where thousands upon thousands of people were massacred and buried during the era of Pol Pots Khmer Rouge regime in the 70's. There were 9,000 skulls on display as a tribute to the dead but I couldn't work out whether it was a tasteful of not.
Still, the museum was interesting and I managed to top up my historical knowledge. On the journey back our driver offered to take us to a firing range to try out some AK-47's or other equally traumatic weapons, I think his offer could have been timed better to be honest, there was already too much death in the air.
The other thing I immediately noticed about Cambodia were the number of disabled people on the streets. Everyone seemed to have been affected by war or tragedy and it was sad to witness, especially when trolleys of amputees and writhing children with contorted bodies were wheeled right past your restaurant asking for money.
On day two it was off to yet another site of sadness, the S-21 Genocide Museum where more poor innocent Cambodians were captured, held and tortured for months before being shipped off to the Killing Fields to be finished off and buried in the mass graves.
The S-21 building was originally a school for the local children which had been transformed into an eerily disturbing prison of barbed wire and wooden boxes to house the men, women and children. It really was disgusting to see and made my stomach turn that people were, and still are, capable of inflicting so much pain and anguish for no reason at all.
We had a couple of nice dinners and walked around the town a bit but those were the two main things we did. It was obvious that the area was soaked in poverty and needs a lot of TLC before it and its people can recover.
After Phnom Pehn we headed north to Siem Reap, home of the mighty Angkor Wat temple and many, many others We only spent a couple of days there, one doing the temple rounds and another chilling in the town, getting a nice cheap swedish massage.
Although Angkor Wat was amazing and very stunning I think I was more captivated by the two I saw back in Indonesia, the buddist 'Borobodur' and Hindu 'Prambanan'. I guess that's the problem of having such a reputation, there's a hell of a lot to live up to. I particularly liked the temple where Angelina Jolie was taken for the film Tomb Raider. It was a natural film set in itself and ancient trees had grown round and swallowed up the brickwork and carvings of the place. Doorways leading into pitch black were framed by gigantic roots that looked more like octopus tentacles than vegetation, loved it.
Tina and Matt chose to stay up in Siem Reap for a third day but I left alone on the night bus to get down to Sihanoukville on day 2. It was a fairly uneventful night time journey but I enjoyed the solo adventure and got quite a few reality checks when I found myself standing in the middle of nowhere at 4am surrounded by nothing but Cambodian goats!
I arrived into the beachy coastal town at sunrise and felt really liberated to be back by the sea again, especially as the inky black sky merged into a rainbow of navy blue, purple, pinks, oranges and yellows. I did the usual business of grabbing my bag and bartering a price with a motorbike driver and in no time at all was whizzing through the empty streets to my guesthouse, wind in the hair and smile on the face.
It was only 6am but I knew where some friends were staying and what room they were in so I made sure they got a nice early awakening to the day by sneaking in and jumping on their beds haha.
Sihanoukville went really fast, we spent 5 days there but they all merged into a bit of a drunken blur. There was a good group of people to hang out with and it was really nice to do the social thing again. It's apparently the 'place to go' for some beach action so that's exactly what we did, some beach action combined with some Cambodian style holiday vibe.
It was pretty sad leaving Jon and Craig on the 18th, we'd been travelling with them from the day we entered Laos and although we had to move on, so did they. We said our goodbyes and then that was that, we started the long process of getting down to the Thai island of Koh Phangan in time for the full moon party.
We caught a bus to Phnom Pehn (which broke down twice, lost it's air con half way through and was full of screaming babies and brown nappies), got a tuk tuk to the airport, a plane to Bangkok airport, a taxi in to Bangkok city, a taxi back to Bangkok airport (15 hours later), a flight to Surat Thani in southern Thailand, a coach to Don Sak pier, a ferry to Koh Phangan and FINALLY a jeep truck to our hotel.
All that took about 36 hours.
From that moment on, carnage ensued. It was just ridiculous. The thai redbull out here really does contain all sorts of illegal things because anyone who drinks it just goes loopy...it's great! I'll skim over the details but on our first night which was supposed to be a quiet one we went down to Haad Rin beach and didn’t get back till 6am. Our second night, the night before the big party which we were going to 'take easy' we ended up at a pool party and very much IN the pool until 4am, and then it was full moon day where we didn't hang up the dancing shoes till 11am the following morning.
After those three days I was finished, a walking zombie. Koh Phangan had had its way with us and spat us all back out.
We all felt bad for not really seeing any of the island except the party area so on our 5th and last day we hired a 4x4 jeep to take off road and into the jungle. It was an awesome day full of highlights but hanging onto the back of a truck while whizzing through rainforest meant i've now got about 400,000 big, fat, red, angry, itchy mosquito bites which look atrocious :(
I loved hiking up to the highest viewpoint on the island though where we found a tiny wooden shelter complete with pillows and hammock and a local guy serving iced tea, beer and playing Bob Marley. So cool.
From Koh Phangan we very groggily made our way to Koh Tao by the sea sick making, packed to the rafters ferry. Ever wanted to feel what its like to be squashed into a space smaller than your skull? Take this ferry.
We've been here a few days now and the group has been split up for a bit while we all do our own thing. I'm doing my SSI diving course for the next 3 days so am currently holed up in a little one bed wooden bungalow which I THOUGHT was cute and charming until I woke up covered with another million bites, this time from disgusting bed bugs. They’re all over my legs and body and have sort of merged with the huge mozzie ones so now I just look truely rank.
I'm actually lying on the bug ridden bed now typing this and can almost feel the parasites tucking into dinner as I type. Tomorrow, after my 2 dives i'm packing up my bags and getting the hell out of here and over to where Tina and Lottie are staying. It's annoying though as my accommodation price is included with my diving course....bed bugs included too though, not worth it.
Anyway, all is going well, the diving is going great. It'll feel good to finally be a fully certified diver and being here has put yet more ideas for the future in my head. To be continued...
Time for bed now, along with my microscopic little friends. Night night.
Sunday 7 November 2010
Is it Lizard Proof?
Bangkok was crazy, Kanachaburi chilled, Chiang Mai historic, Pai a hippy haven, Laos...well that was completely Laos. Blog over.
Ah only kidding, but in all seriousness it does seem that Central and Northern Thailand has a lot to offer to people seeking all types of adventure. One of the hardest things about 'travelling' in my opinion is the deciding on where to go. You've got thousands of tiny villages, hundreds of well known towns and more than a handful of 'must see' cities in a potentially unexplored country. Now add the temples, waterfalls, canyons, mountains and activities into the mix and there's just too much to consider. Infact, it's an indecisive persons nightmare, and that's only for one country!
I'm now 1 year 5 months and 8 countries into this incredible journey and still have 2left (both months and countries) to come. How have I got here (on this 11hr night bus filled with cinema style red leather recliner seats and not very friendly locals to be specific) and how did my brain cope with the decisions to be made up until now??
I'm thinking like this because Tina and I have had time to kill where we are and have used it to plan our itinerary up until we fly to the Thai islands in late November. We're going to be pretty short on time in Vietnam and Cambodia because we want to be on Ko Phangan for the full moon party and my head is swimming with dates, places, times, modes of transport, place names, accommodation names, peoples names, it's crazy!
Nothing an iced coffee (2nd of the day) can't sort out though.
We arrived into Bangkok on the 24th September and it was just what I expected, chaotic. We'd chosen to stay in the most chaotic area of town of course as that's the quickest and easiest way to get the vibe of a place but still, adjusting to the pace was something we had to do pretty quickly. The other thing about Bangkok was the weather, it's still monsoon season down there and the humidity levels were through the roof. You only had to turn off the cold shower and you were dripping again before you had dried off! With the heat came amazing thunder and lightning storms every single evening though which I loved and watched from the hotel balcony.
One evening we had left the guesthouse to brave the rain (thinking the worst was over) and look for a restaurant when the clouds let loose even more and a huge flash cut open the sky right above us. I was absolutely soaked even
though we'd only been walking for 5 minutes, Tina less so in her poncho(!) and we were both shielding ourselves from the storm with flimsy miniature umbrellas. Mine was particularly crap and gradually buckled under the weight of the water until I was left trying to shelter myself under 6 metal spikes sticking into the air at stupid angles like some kind of deformed metallic spider.
Bangkok seems like ages ago now but there was ALOT of shopping combined with some sightseeing and after 5 days (which felt like 5 weeks) we were ready to go. On our last day we had the added stress of trying to send home yet another parcel before closing time and having absolutely no money to do so. It was one of those moments where you think 'what the hell am I going to do now? We're absolutely screwed.'
It all started when Tina realised she'd lost her bank card in the post office and didn't have the cash to send her parcel. Although a bit of a bad shock we still had mine as a back up and planned to withdraw cash for the both of us with that.
That was until the ATM sucked mine into oblivion for no good reason less than 30 minutes later.
Here we were in Bangkok with no cash and no cards to get any with. I was f-r-e-a-k-i-n-g out with glazed eyes staring into space picturing all the terrible things that were coming our way and Tina was laughing hysterically at the stupidity/desperation of the situation.
In a strike of inspiration she realised she had one more unused Barclaycard hidden away in her bag and that we might be able to use that...but then the ATM refused to give us the cash and said we had the wrong pin!! It doesn't sound very stressful writing about it now but trust me, it was.
It was 4.56pm, the post office closed at 5pm, we were soaked through with the humidity, people were yelling at us in Thai from all directions and I was about to explode.
To cut to the chase, yes we eventually worked out the pin and got some cash but I had to have my bank courier out a new card to a random depot in Laos and get there on tuk tuk to collect it...another adventure right there!
After the drama of Bangkok we were pleased to escape to Kanachaburi, famous for its River Kwai and the bridge over it. We checked into a very cute little guesthouse called Sugarcane Lodge II and all was good until Tina walked into the bathroom and let out a huge scream before walking back out again with fear in her eyes. She said there was a lizard the size of a small dinosaur on the wall behind the door but it was long gone when I went to have a look.
After that incident her trust in Thailand was gone and when the loo started smelling like a regurgitated sewer it was game over for Sugarcane Lodge. We did move to another bungalow but there were mini lizards on the windows there too!
The next day we took the 'Death Railway' train over the River Kwai all the way up to a place called Namtok which was a nice journey and took us past some imposing mountainous type scenery. It's called the Death Railway because of all the men (mostly POW's) who died in the process of building it under Japanese supervision during World War II so it was quite a sobering trip when thinking about the history behind it all.
Once in Namtok I had a nice coconut/chicken soup and saw some German tourists strip down and bare all under a massive waterfall which was rather comical.
The rest of Kanachaburi was spent eating nice curries and having a massage and pedicure. I can't get enough of the massages even though it was a little weird and a big reality check lying virtually naked on the floor in a dimly lit room while a little Thai lady rubbed oil into my legs.
We took a 12hr bus north to Chiang Mai after a couple of days there and settled into a nice guesthouse only to unsettle out of it the next morning when I discovered another of our little lizard friends sitting underneath the loo seat waiting to share it with us. It wasn't the best start and when Tina found out we were as good as gone.
I really liked Chiang Mai, it was much more chilled than Bangkok and much smaller, it felt historic and was made up of 4 city walls that encircled the 'old town' which we were staying in. The streets were small and windy and cafes and bars more intimate. My only criticism was that it felt very empty and needed more people floating about for an atmosphere to build. There were a lot of older white men around with their wrinkly arms draped around much younger Thai women though which was quite disturbing to the eye.
We did some activity type stuff in Chiang Mai, the first was a 1 day trek in which we walked up to a hill tribe village, went bamboo rafting and unfortunately, rode an elephant. I say unfortunately because although hesitant about doing it in the first place, when we got to the elephant park (a patch of mud at the side of the road) they were bound to disgustingly short chains, were being hit by Thai idiots and looked very worse for wear. I absolutely hated it and have to admit, shed a few tears as we reluctantly climbed onto the poor things back :(
The bamboo rafting was pretty funny though and helped raise the spirits as we floated down the river getting soaked at the mercy of our 11 year old driver and guide.
The next day Tina went on a cooking course and I did the Jungle Flight zip line which is basically flying from platform to platform through the jungle at tree top level, it was great!
Our next stop was Pai, a little hippy town even further north and up in the mountains. We had planned to rent mopeds for our time there so as soon as we'd found a room we hired some out and whizzed up to a little waterfall a few kms out of town. We'd unknowingly timed our spontaneous ride with sunset and on the way back found a cafe balcony to sit on and sip some drinks while overlooking the golden fields of Northern Thailand below us. That definitely got us excited for the full days riding we had planned for the next day.
Things got off to a bumpy start with Tina falling off her moped at the first junction, I hadn't noticed so sped off alone with the wind in my hair and a smile on my face. It was only 5 minutes later when I turned around and saw a bunch of asians behind me I knew something had gone a miss.
Eventually we got underway with map in hand and sped down the windy roads to a number of local spots such as a little canyon, some hot springs and another waterfall. The weather couldn't have been better which made the exploring extra fun, it was a very good day!
Pai was our last stop for the first part of Thailand and after 4 days there we booked ourselves onto the notorious 2 day slow boat which goes from Chiang Khong down the Mekong River and into Luang Prabang in Laos. The boat cruises for 2 days with a bunch of other travellers and I found the whole thing really cool. The best bit and what we'd hoped would happen was to meet some other like minded people along the way and within 10 minutes we got chatting to 4 others sitting nearby. (We ended up travelling all of Laos together and will do some of Vietnam too i'm sure which is cool).
The 2 days went surprisingly quickly and we passed the time by playing cards and admiring the gorgeous Laos views. Infact before we knew it we were pulling up into Luang Prabang, Laos's jewel of the north and our new group of 6 began the hunt for some decent accommodation.
Ironically (and this always seems to happen) we ended up back at the very first place we checked out and set up camp there. It was a big old house made up entirely of rich dark wood like boat cabins so I nicknamed it The Titanic which kinda stuck with everyone.
You could really see the French influence in the architecture of Luang prabang and a lot of the restaurants were trying (some more successfully than others) to recreate European style menus. We had great weather and visited a gorgeous waterfall area on our second day which had a rope swing and rocks to jump off which of course we did.
On our third day Tina and I split from the others for a bit to hire some battered old bikes and cycle round the town to get a feel for the 'real Laos'. It was the best way to see things and we even bumped into a cute little sunlit grotto where some of the bright orange monks robes were hanging out to dry on a washing line, it made a good photo.
I hadn't felt particularly well that day and by the time we got back to the guesthouse a really nasty bug had taken hold and had me doubled up in a cold sweat with serious sickness. The next 12 hours were miserable and I moved out of the bedroom to spend the night living in a crumbled heap on the bathroom floor :(
Fortunately the whole thing passed within 24 hours and we were still able to leave for Vang Vieng late the following day.
The minibus journey down took about 6 hours and showcased some of the best mountain scenery yet, really dramatic panoramas and a chance to see tiny rural villages come to life as we bolted through. We had yet another insect dilemma that night when we returned from dinner to find a GIANT grasshopper climbing lazily across our duvet as we opened the door. Tina didn't see it and picked up a pile of clothes inches from it's long spindly legs.
'Step away from the bed. I repeat, step away from the bed' was the only instruction I could think to give! (We resolved this one by kidnapping a drunk backpacker from the street outside and holding him hostage until he removed the offender).
The highlight of Laos, actually, of Asian backpacking was tubing the next day, it's one of those things you can only hope exists and when you get to do it feels like a weird dream because it's just sooooooooooo good.
You basically get in your swimwear, hire a large inflatable tube of the day and get a tuk tuk up to a point in the Mekong river a few kms up to a start point. From there you spend the day drifting from bar to bar, rickety wooden huts on stilts serving potent vodka/redbull buckets and shots of local whisky. There's music banging out from each one and by the 4th one everyone is completely wrecked! Good times :)
Apart from tubing there's not a lot to do in Vang Vieng so we moved on to the capital, Vientiane. There was even less to do here and apart from some ten pin bowling with the locals and a mini adventure I went on to retrieve my bank card from a DHL depot in the middle of nowhere not a lot else happened. The highlight was jumping on the back of a scooter with Craig and exploring the crazy roads on wheels.
We got our Vietnamese visas sorted and booked ourselves onto the 24 hour bus from Vientiane to Hanoi, Tina decided to get there by plane so we split for a day (the first in 10 months!).
The bus journey actually went ridiculously quickly and I really enjoyed it, probably because John, Craig and I had the best seats at the very back which was like a big sofa. John, who makes me laugh way too much popped 8 Valiums and was out for the count most of the time anyway!
We stopped at some extremely random 'restaurants' on that journey, one which had a bag containing a big live lizard thing trapped in it (for eating?!) and another with a jar of dead snakes decomposing into a yellowy fluid, supposedly for drinking but the thought makes me want to vomit.
After successfully crossing the boarder and being let into Vietnam we cruised on into the capital of Hanoi and I was reunited at the hotel with Tina.
It was all a bit non-stop because less that 12 hours later we were up at 4am to catch a 10hr train with the locals up into the mountains to a place called Sapa. Tina and I were to spend 2 days there before returning back to Hanoi to meet up with Matt, a friend from home who's spontaneously come out to join us for the next 2 months.
Unfortunately the weather in Sapa took a turn for the worst and the thick white fog obscured any kind of spectacular views for most of the time. We did take a hike down to a local mountain village which was worth the effort though and also got chased by a tiny little tribal woman with one tooth. She was surprisingly scary.
We returned to Hanoi by night bus and decided to sample the Valium we'd bought back in Bali, 2 of those later and we were out for the count until the rude driver shook us awake and shouted "HANOI, HANOI, HANOI" in our faces at 4am.
I never did go back to sleep that night but the next day we somehow dragged ourselves around the Temple of Literature which was pretty and did alot of organisation for the upcoming weeks including booking ourselves onto a 2 day boat cruise in Halong Bay.
Matt arrived the following day and just like that 2 became 3! The beer out here is 8p a glass.....yes, 8p a glass. So we thought it'd be rude not to sample some while playing cards in the old town. I was happy because Matt has brought out his new Pentax DSLR and let me run around the city like a kid in a candy shop snapping away like the paparazzi.
Our boat cruise in Halong Bay was really nice and scenic, we got to sleep on an old Vietnamese junk boat and the area is an absolutely stunning collection of 2,000 limestone cliff islands jutting out of the sea at all angles. There are over 750 traditional boats that take hoards of tourists like us around the area and you get to visit an hugely impressive cave as well as watch the sunset while kayaking about the bay and eat lots of seafood type stuff on board. It was a nice 2 days and good to access to a different side of Vietnam.
From Halong we flew down the coast to Danang airport (skipping the historical town of Hue due to central coastal flooding)and went straight to Hoi An. Here we were reunited with the boys, had a few good nights out and explored the old town which is a protected historical site.
After a couple of lazy days there I managed to persuade Craig to split from John for a while and join Me, Mich and Matt in Delat for a few days. Once again we boarded a night bus and began travelling even further down the coast but this time more in land and back up into mountain territory. We arrived there 24 hours later and were soon to discover that we had been the last bus allowed up onto the dodgy roads because of the weather.
Aside from the rain Delat was a great way to see yet another face of the land and we found a great motorcycle tour company to hire some mopeds from with a local guide for a day. There was just the 4 of us cruising around these tiny villages and riding round bendy desolate roads, our guide described the areas, told us myths and temple tales and even took us to a local friends place for a fantastic lunch of traditional Vietnamese food which was delicious. I really, really enjoyed that day.
Time as ever seems to be speeding up again and after Delat the four of us grabbed a 12hr bus down to Ho Chi Minh city, formally known as Saigon. It felt quite a bit more western than Hanoi, more touristy which wasn't a bad thing just different.
It wasn't a grotty or crazy as i'd been warned and we spent our time there sightseeing, all the usual things. I particularly enjoyed visiting the Vietnam War Remnants Museum where there's a massive collection of photographs, information and artefacts from the war on display. It was shocking but extremely interesting at the same time.
And FINALLY, that brings me up to the present day, this is a blog that has got completely out of control in length! We left HCMC this morning and have decided to do a 2 day Mekong Delta tour as a way of getting up to the Cambodian boarder and into the capital.
Today we visited a local floating market, saw coconut candy and rice paper being made and then got taken on a little boat cruise amongst the Mekong islands. Unexpectedly we were then told to jump on battered bicycles and cycle down dusty roads to the restaurant we were having lunch which was another fun bonus.
Right now i'm seriously lacking in sleep and wish I wasn't sitting on this random boat being dive bombed by mosquitoes but ah, it's all part of the fun right?!
Ah only kidding, but in all seriousness it does seem that Central and Northern Thailand has a lot to offer to people seeking all types of adventure. One of the hardest things about 'travelling' in my opinion is the deciding on where to go. You've got thousands of tiny villages, hundreds of well known towns and more than a handful of 'must see' cities in a potentially unexplored country. Now add the temples, waterfalls, canyons, mountains and activities into the mix and there's just too much to consider. Infact, it's an indecisive persons nightmare, and that's only for one country!
I'm now 1 year 5 months and 8 countries into this incredible journey and still have 2left (both months and countries) to come. How have I got here (on this 11hr night bus filled with cinema style red leather recliner seats and not very friendly locals to be specific) and how did my brain cope with the decisions to be made up until now??
I'm thinking like this because Tina and I have had time to kill where we are and have used it to plan our itinerary up until we fly to the Thai islands in late November. We're going to be pretty short on time in Vietnam and Cambodia because we want to be on Ko Phangan for the full moon party and my head is swimming with dates, places, times, modes of transport, place names, accommodation names, peoples names, it's crazy!
Nothing an iced coffee (2nd of the day) can't sort out though.
We arrived into Bangkok on the 24th September and it was just what I expected, chaotic. We'd chosen to stay in the most chaotic area of town of course as that's the quickest and easiest way to get the vibe of a place but still, adjusting to the pace was something we had to do pretty quickly. The other thing about Bangkok was the weather, it's still monsoon season down there and the humidity levels were through the roof. You only had to turn off the cold shower and you were dripping again before you had dried off! With the heat came amazing thunder and lightning storms every single evening though which I loved and watched from the hotel balcony.
One evening we had left the guesthouse to brave the rain (thinking the worst was over) and look for a restaurant when the clouds let loose even more and a huge flash cut open the sky right above us. I was absolutely soaked even
though we'd only been walking for 5 minutes, Tina less so in her poncho(!) and we were both shielding ourselves from the storm with flimsy miniature umbrellas. Mine was particularly crap and gradually buckled under the weight of the water until I was left trying to shelter myself under 6 metal spikes sticking into the air at stupid angles like some kind of deformed metallic spider.
Bangkok seems like ages ago now but there was ALOT of shopping combined with some sightseeing and after 5 days (which felt like 5 weeks) we were ready to go. On our last day we had the added stress of trying to send home yet another parcel before closing time and having absolutely no money to do so. It was one of those moments where you think 'what the hell am I going to do now? We're absolutely screwed.'
It all started when Tina realised she'd lost her bank card in the post office and didn't have the cash to send her parcel. Although a bit of a bad shock we still had mine as a back up and planned to withdraw cash for the both of us with that.
That was until the ATM sucked mine into oblivion for no good reason less than 30 minutes later.
Here we were in Bangkok with no cash and no cards to get any with. I was f-r-e-a-k-i-n-g out with glazed eyes staring into space picturing all the terrible things that were coming our way and Tina was laughing hysterically at the stupidity/desperation of the situation.
In a strike of inspiration she realised she had one more unused Barclaycard hidden away in her bag and that we might be able to use that...but then the ATM refused to give us the cash and said we had the wrong pin!! It doesn't sound very stressful writing about it now but trust me, it was.
It was 4.56pm, the post office closed at 5pm, we were soaked through with the humidity, people were yelling at us in Thai from all directions and I was about to explode.
To cut to the chase, yes we eventually worked out the pin and got some cash but I had to have my bank courier out a new card to a random depot in Laos and get there on tuk tuk to collect it...another adventure right there!
After the drama of Bangkok we were pleased to escape to Kanachaburi, famous for its River Kwai and the bridge over it. We checked into a very cute little guesthouse called Sugarcane Lodge II and all was good until Tina walked into the bathroom and let out a huge scream before walking back out again with fear in her eyes. She said there was a lizard the size of a small dinosaur on the wall behind the door but it was long gone when I went to have a look.
After that incident her trust in Thailand was gone and when the loo started smelling like a regurgitated sewer it was game over for Sugarcane Lodge. We did move to another bungalow but there were mini lizards on the windows there too!
The next day we took the 'Death Railway' train over the River Kwai all the way up to a place called Namtok which was a nice journey and took us past some imposing mountainous type scenery. It's called the Death Railway because of all the men (mostly POW's) who died in the process of building it under Japanese supervision during World War II so it was quite a sobering trip when thinking about the history behind it all.
Once in Namtok I had a nice coconut/chicken soup and saw some German tourists strip down and bare all under a massive waterfall which was rather comical.
The rest of Kanachaburi was spent eating nice curries and having a massage and pedicure. I can't get enough of the massages even though it was a little weird and a big reality check lying virtually naked on the floor in a dimly lit room while a little Thai lady rubbed oil into my legs.
We took a 12hr bus north to Chiang Mai after a couple of days there and settled into a nice guesthouse only to unsettle out of it the next morning when I discovered another of our little lizard friends sitting underneath the loo seat waiting to share it with us. It wasn't the best start and when Tina found out we were as good as gone.
I really liked Chiang Mai, it was much more chilled than Bangkok and much smaller, it felt historic and was made up of 4 city walls that encircled the 'old town' which we were staying in. The streets were small and windy and cafes and bars more intimate. My only criticism was that it felt very empty and needed more people floating about for an atmosphere to build. There were a lot of older white men around with their wrinkly arms draped around much younger Thai women though which was quite disturbing to the eye.
We did some activity type stuff in Chiang Mai, the first was a 1 day trek in which we walked up to a hill tribe village, went bamboo rafting and unfortunately, rode an elephant. I say unfortunately because although hesitant about doing it in the first place, when we got to the elephant park (a patch of mud at the side of the road) they were bound to disgustingly short chains, were being hit by Thai idiots and looked very worse for wear. I absolutely hated it and have to admit, shed a few tears as we reluctantly climbed onto the poor things back :(
The bamboo rafting was pretty funny though and helped raise the spirits as we floated down the river getting soaked at the mercy of our 11 year old driver and guide.
The next day Tina went on a cooking course and I did the Jungle Flight zip line which is basically flying from platform to platform through the jungle at tree top level, it was great!
Our next stop was Pai, a little hippy town even further north and up in the mountains. We had planned to rent mopeds for our time there so as soon as we'd found a room we hired some out and whizzed up to a little waterfall a few kms out of town. We'd unknowingly timed our spontaneous ride with sunset and on the way back found a cafe balcony to sit on and sip some drinks while overlooking the golden fields of Northern Thailand below us. That definitely got us excited for the full days riding we had planned for the next day.
Things got off to a bumpy start with Tina falling off her moped at the first junction, I hadn't noticed so sped off alone with the wind in my hair and a smile on my face. It was only 5 minutes later when I turned around and saw a bunch of asians behind me I knew something had gone a miss.
Eventually we got underway with map in hand and sped down the windy roads to a number of local spots such as a little canyon, some hot springs and another waterfall. The weather couldn't have been better which made the exploring extra fun, it was a very good day!
Pai was our last stop for the first part of Thailand and after 4 days there we booked ourselves onto the notorious 2 day slow boat which goes from Chiang Khong down the Mekong River and into Luang Prabang in Laos. The boat cruises for 2 days with a bunch of other travellers and I found the whole thing really cool. The best bit and what we'd hoped would happen was to meet some other like minded people along the way and within 10 minutes we got chatting to 4 others sitting nearby. (We ended up travelling all of Laos together and will do some of Vietnam too i'm sure which is cool).
The 2 days went surprisingly quickly and we passed the time by playing cards and admiring the gorgeous Laos views. Infact before we knew it we were pulling up into Luang Prabang, Laos's jewel of the north and our new group of 6 began the hunt for some decent accommodation.
Ironically (and this always seems to happen) we ended up back at the very first place we checked out and set up camp there. It was a big old house made up entirely of rich dark wood like boat cabins so I nicknamed it The Titanic which kinda stuck with everyone.
You could really see the French influence in the architecture of Luang prabang and a lot of the restaurants were trying (some more successfully than others) to recreate European style menus. We had great weather and visited a gorgeous waterfall area on our second day which had a rope swing and rocks to jump off which of course we did.
On our third day Tina and I split from the others for a bit to hire some battered old bikes and cycle round the town to get a feel for the 'real Laos'. It was the best way to see things and we even bumped into a cute little sunlit grotto where some of the bright orange monks robes were hanging out to dry on a washing line, it made a good photo.
I hadn't felt particularly well that day and by the time we got back to the guesthouse a really nasty bug had taken hold and had me doubled up in a cold sweat with serious sickness. The next 12 hours were miserable and I moved out of the bedroom to spend the night living in a crumbled heap on the bathroom floor :(
Fortunately the whole thing passed within 24 hours and we were still able to leave for Vang Vieng late the following day.
The minibus journey down took about 6 hours and showcased some of the best mountain scenery yet, really dramatic panoramas and a chance to see tiny rural villages come to life as we bolted through. We had yet another insect dilemma that night when we returned from dinner to find a GIANT grasshopper climbing lazily across our duvet as we opened the door. Tina didn't see it and picked up a pile of clothes inches from it's long spindly legs.
'Step away from the bed. I repeat, step away from the bed' was the only instruction I could think to give! (We resolved this one by kidnapping a drunk backpacker from the street outside and holding him hostage until he removed the offender).
The highlight of Laos, actually, of Asian backpacking was tubing the next day, it's one of those things you can only hope exists and when you get to do it feels like a weird dream because it's just sooooooooooo good.
You basically get in your swimwear, hire a large inflatable tube of the day and get a tuk tuk up to a point in the Mekong river a few kms up to a start point. From there you spend the day drifting from bar to bar, rickety wooden huts on stilts serving potent vodka/redbull buckets and shots of local whisky. There's music banging out from each one and by the 4th one everyone is completely wrecked! Good times :)
Apart from tubing there's not a lot to do in Vang Vieng so we moved on to the capital, Vientiane. There was even less to do here and apart from some ten pin bowling with the locals and a mini adventure I went on to retrieve my bank card from a DHL depot in the middle of nowhere not a lot else happened. The highlight was jumping on the back of a scooter with Craig and exploring the crazy roads on wheels.
We got our Vietnamese visas sorted and booked ourselves onto the 24 hour bus from Vientiane to Hanoi, Tina decided to get there by plane so we split for a day (the first in 10 months!).
The bus journey actually went ridiculously quickly and I really enjoyed it, probably because John, Craig and I had the best seats at the very back which was like a big sofa. John, who makes me laugh way too much popped 8 Valiums and was out for the count most of the time anyway!
We stopped at some extremely random 'restaurants' on that journey, one which had a bag containing a big live lizard thing trapped in it (for eating?!) and another with a jar of dead snakes decomposing into a yellowy fluid, supposedly for drinking but the thought makes me want to vomit.
After successfully crossing the boarder and being let into Vietnam we cruised on into the capital of Hanoi and I was reunited at the hotel with Tina.
It was all a bit non-stop because less that 12 hours later we were up at 4am to catch a 10hr train with the locals up into the mountains to a place called Sapa. Tina and I were to spend 2 days there before returning back to Hanoi to meet up with Matt, a friend from home who's spontaneously come out to join us for the next 2 months.
Unfortunately the weather in Sapa took a turn for the worst and the thick white fog obscured any kind of spectacular views for most of the time. We did take a hike down to a local mountain village which was worth the effort though and also got chased by a tiny little tribal woman with one tooth. She was surprisingly scary.
We returned to Hanoi by night bus and decided to sample the Valium we'd bought back in Bali, 2 of those later and we were out for the count until the rude driver shook us awake and shouted "HANOI, HANOI, HANOI" in our faces at 4am.
I never did go back to sleep that night but the next day we somehow dragged ourselves around the Temple of Literature which was pretty and did alot of organisation for the upcoming weeks including booking ourselves onto a 2 day boat cruise in Halong Bay.
Matt arrived the following day and just like that 2 became 3! The beer out here is 8p a glass.....yes, 8p a glass. So we thought it'd be rude not to sample some while playing cards in the old town. I was happy because Matt has brought out his new Pentax DSLR and let me run around the city like a kid in a candy shop snapping away like the paparazzi.
Our boat cruise in Halong Bay was really nice and scenic, we got to sleep on an old Vietnamese junk boat and the area is an absolutely stunning collection of 2,000 limestone cliff islands jutting out of the sea at all angles. There are over 750 traditional boats that take hoards of tourists like us around the area and you get to visit an hugely impressive cave as well as watch the sunset while kayaking about the bay and eat lots of seafood type stuff on board. It was a nice 2 days and good to access to a different side of Vietnam.
From Halong we flew down the coast to Danang airport (skipping the historical town of Hue due to central coastal flooding)and went straight to Hoi An. Here we were reunited with the boys, had a few good nights out and explored the old town which is a protected historical site.
After a couple of lazy days there I managed to persuade Craig to split from John for a while and join Me, Mich and Matt in Delat for a few days. Once again we boarded a night bus and began travelling even further down the coast but this time more in land and back up into mountain territory. We arrived there 24 hours later and were soon to discover that we had been the last bus allowed up onto the dodgy roads because of the weather.
Aside from the rain Delat was a great way to see yet another face of the land and we found a great motorcycle tour company to hire some mopeds from with a local guide for a day. There was just the 4 of us cruising around these tiny villages and riding round bendy desolate roads, our guide described the areas, told us myths and temple tales and even took us to a local friends place for a fantastic lunch of traditional Vietnamese food which was delicious. I really, really enjoyed that day.
Time as ever seems to be speeding up again and after Delat the four of us grabbed a 12hr bus down to Ho Chi Minh city, formally known as Saigon. It felt quite a bit more western than Hanoi, more touristy which wasn't a bad thing just different.
It wasn't a grotty or crazy as i'd been warned and we spent our time there sightseeing, all the usual things. I particularly enjoyed visiting the Vietnam War Remnants Museum where there's a massive collection of photographs, information and artefacts from the war on display. It was shocking but extremely interesting at the same time.
And FINALLY, that brings me up to the present day, this is a blog that has got completely out of control in length! We left HCMC this morning and have decided to do a 2 day Mekong Delta tour as a way of getting up to the Cambodian boarder and into the capital.
Today we visited a local floating market, saw coconut candy and rice paper being made and then got taken on a little boat cruise amongst the Mekong islands. Unexpectedly we were then told to jump on battered bicycles and cycle down dusty roads to the restaurant we were having lunch which was another fun bonus.
Right now i'm seriously lacking in sleep and wish I wasn't sitting on this random boat being dive bombed by mosquitoes but ah, it's all part of the fun right?!
Sunday 3 October 2010
Eat, Drink, Travel, Eat, Drink, Travel.
It's blogging hour again and this time i'm on another Air Asia flight leaving Kuala Lumpur and heading towards Bangkok...very exciting! I've got Eminem shouting in my ear, an empty sweet packet beside me and a blank screen in front of me so lets go.
The Lonely Planet sings the praises of Thailand something chronic and i've read every page about the city so feel prepared to land amongst the chaos which is undoubtedly heading our way. Lady boys, go go bars, unrelenting touts, endless curries, pad thai dishes, cheap beer, bring it on I say, i'm ready for you Bangkok.
So since I last posted 2 weeks ago Tina and I have done our little circuit of the Malaysian peninsular and ended up where we started in KL.
Our first stop was Malacca in the south west and as usual we kinda ballsed up the timing of our visit without realising. It turns out that the religious festival which had left KL so quiet was the same festival that prompted all the locals to take a weekend holiday down in Malacca and therefore left us buggered when trying to find some accommodation. We thought we'd be all carefree and 'travelly' by rocking up and looking for a place once there but when the guesthouse owners started laughing in our face it became worryingly clear there were not many rooms to be had.
Luckily we came across a table of locals in one of the hostels that were very sweet and managed to book us into a room at a place they knew (although it was horribly overpriced) and then gave us free food and beer which always goes down well!
There was Vung, born in Melacca but now living in Chessington back home for over 25 years. Tang, the owner of another local hostel and Joe, who was a 60 something classic New Yorker of Italian decent with an outrageously brash accent and spoke about being on the run from the Mafia after selling up his businesses and emigrating abroad.
We only spent 2 days there which was more than enough time to soak up the vibe of the place and had some great unexpected food experiences - namely an amazing banana/strawbs milkshake, crazy good Chicken Rendeng curry and an epic breakfast at the 'travellers cafe. It's funny how important food becomes when travelling, the day really revolves around meals and drinks out. I love it so thank god the only other person that loves it more than me is Tina!
From Malacca we caught a coach down into Singapore, which was a bit something and nothing in my eyes, it was nice and i'm glad we went but nothing particularly grabbed me about the city. It was bursting at the seams with shopping malls in which I wasn't allowed to buy anything and seemed to lack a cultural identity because everything was either Chinese or Indian influenced. It was extremely clean though and the public transport system was excellent...but it's all so new and has been designed for modern man so I guess it should be.
The highlight of my 3 days there was the free scooter tour that our hostel put on and we were lead around the city on two wheels whizzing from museum to park to library to Chinatown to harbour front, we even got to skate along a section of the F1 track they were erecting for the grand prix!
We also adopted a nice guy called Steve but we called Dan for some reason and dragged him along on our day trip to Sentosa Island. Sentosa is marketed as 'Asia's playground' and supposed to be full of theme parks, pretty beaches and luxury resorts but something must have gone wrong somewhere along the line, maybe the budget ran out or the builders went bust but it had an unfinished dilapidated vibe about it and everything was sort of, falling apart.
When we finally reached the beach we were met with the beautiful view of about 50 oil tankers all just sitting out at sea. Very bizarre, almost post-apocalyptic actually.
Anyway, Sentosa wasn't all that bad, we had fun and ate the new 'Magnum Gold?!', not to be mistaken for 'Magnum Gold'. We were shocked to discover this new flavour masquerading as our all time favourite limited edition flavour from Australia (The difference being caramel inside not honeycomb sauce...I can't believe i'm even writing this, okkkk, so moving on....).
We had a 7.45am flight to catch from Singapore up to KL and then a connecting flight booked to take us up to Kota Bharu in the very north east. This meant getting up horribly early and in the middle of the night but having a sausage and egg Mc Muffin followed by an Oreo Mc flurry for breakfast at the airport compensated for it lol.
We were only using Kota Bharu as an over night pit stop before heading down to the Perhentian islands which was a good thing really as it wasn't much to look at. The vibe was much more muslim up north and even though we were covering our shoulders/knees some of the locals still seemed to think we had three heads.
I'm ashamed to say we ended up having a second Mc D's for dinner(!) We tried to be authentic and buy from the street markets but after circling the same stalls 10 times we just couldn't bring ourselves to eat it...whatever 'it' was. I mean, to get to the food at one stall you had to practically fight your way through a curtain of flies, not tempting.
The next morning we hopped onto a minibus which took us down to the harbour town of Kota Besut and from there took the 30 minute speed boat ride to the Islands. The Perhentians is made up of 2 islands, Besar the 'big island' and Kecil which we were staying on. Good accommodation is pretty hard to find on Kecil but as usual we'd done our research and were v.happy with our wooden stilted bungalow at Senja Bay resort on Coral bay.
The next 3 days went by in a blur of pancakes, milkshakes and sunbathing by the sea but it was Tina's birthday on the Sunday so we made it extra special by going out for a delicious breakfast, followed by a 3 hour snorkelling trip where we followed a turtle and shark, a beer at sunset (of course) and then the most amazing dinner at Bubu restaurant on Long Beach.
In the morning I'd set up a little birthday shrine of coral on our balcony to present the prezzies and homemade card I’d been working on but it typical blasé fashion she walks out, looks straight through it and says "Right, down the beach?!' haha!
On our last day in paradise we had to be extra careful about being in the sun as our malaria tablets seem to make us feel as if we're being burned alive for some reason. We just lounged about on the sun beds and chilled out with our adopted Perhentian boy Ben.
Ben specifically told me that I should be honest on the blog about the people we meet so I have no qualms in saying what a tosser he was and how pleased we were to leave him behind, marooned all by himself muhahaha.......ah only joking, he's very nice :)
Before we knew it it was time to leave and we scrapped our idea of catching the 'jungle train' to the Cameron Highlands (sometimes things just arn't worth the hassle) and we took a direct bus there.
Up in the mountains there was a distinct chill in the air and for the first time in over a month we even got to wear leggings, exciting times! We drove 1300 meters up and found ourselves surrounded by a series of rolling green hills covered head to toe in a patchwork blanket of tea fields and strawberry farms, it was very cute.
The main town wasn't as quaint as the Lonely Planet made it out to be but there was still an air of Englishness about the place. Probably because of the tea and scones on offer at some of the hostels, which yes, we did sample within an hour of sliding out of the mini bus.
We only spent one full day there and used it by doing a half day tour of the area, firstly to a pretty rose garden way up on the hillside with stunning views over the land and then to a strawberry farm, bee farm, insect/butterfly house, bhuddist temple and the main attraction, a visit to the Boh tea plantation where we enjoyed a great cup o' tea :D.
Blah. blah, blah, skip forward 48 hours (we went back to KL for our flight) and now we're back to the present and headed straight for the crazy capital of Bangkok...
Bring. It. On.
P.S Because I haven’t got round to posting this until now we’ve actually been to Bangkok (4 days), Kanachaburi (2 days) and am now up in Chiang Mai. I never knew keeping on top of a blog would be so hard! Update to come shortly...
The Lonely Planet sings the praises of Thailand something chronic and i've read every page about the city so feel prepared to land amongst the chaos which is undoubtedly heading our way. Lady boys, go go bars, unrelenting touts, endless curries, pad thai dishes, cheap beer, bring it on I say, i'm ready for you Bangkok.
So since I last posted 2 weeks ago Tina and I have done our little circuit of the Malaysian peninsular and ended up where we started in KL.
Our first stop was Malacca in the south west and as usual we kinda ballsed up the timing of our visit without realising. It turns out that the religious festival which had left KL so quiet was the same festival that prompted all the locals to take a weekend holiday down in Malacca and therefore left us buggered when trying to find some accommodation. We thought we'd be all carefree and 'travelly' by rocking up and looking for a place once there but when the guesthouse owners started laughing in our face it became worryingly clear there were not many rooms to be had.
Luckily we came across a table of locals in one of the hostels that were very sweet and managed to book us into a room at a place they knew (although it was horribly overpriced) and then gave us free food and beer which always goes down well!
There was Vung, born in Melacca but now living in Chessington back home for over 25 years. Tang, the owner of another local hostel and Joe, who was a 60 something classic New Yorker of Italian decent with an outrageously brash accent and spoke about being on the run from the Mafia after selling up his businesses and emigrating abroad.
We only spent 2 days there which was more than enough time to soak up the vibe of the place and had some great unexpected food experiences - namely an amazing banana/strawbs milkshake, crazy good Chicken Rendeng curry and an epic breakfast at the 'travellers cafe. It's funny how important food becomes when travelling, the day really revolves around meals and drinks out. I love it so thank god the only other person that loves it more than me is Tina!
From Malacca we caught a coach down into Singapore, which was a bit something and nothing in my eyes, it was nice and i'm glad we went but nothing particularly grabbed me about the city. It was bursting at the seams with shopping malls in which I wasn't allowed to buy anything and seemed to lack a cultural identity because everything was either Chinese or Indian influenced. It was extremely clean though and the public transport system was excellent...but it's all so new and has been designed for modern man so I guess it should be.
The highlight of my 3 days there was the free scooter tour that our hostel put on and we were lead around the city on two wheels whizzing from museum to park to library to Chinatown to harbour front, we even got to skate along a section of the F1 track they were erecting for the grand prix!
We also adopted a nice guy called Steve but we called Dan for some reason and dragged him along on our day trip to Sentosa Island. Sentosa is marketed as 'Asia's playground' and supposed to be full of theme parks, pretty beaches and luxury resorts but something must have gone wrong somewhere along the line, maybe the budget ran out or the builders went bust but it had an unfinished dilapidated vibe about it and everything was sort of, falling apart.
When we finally reached the beach we were met with the beautiful view of about 50 oil tankers all just sitting out at sea. Very bizarre, almost post-apocalyptic actually.
Anyway, Sentosa wasn't all that bad, we had fun and ate the new 'Magnum Gold?!', not to be mistaken for 'Magnum Gold'. We were shocked to discover this new flavour masquerading as our all time favourite limited edition flavour from Australia (The difference being caramel inside not honeycomb sauce...I can't believe i'm even writing this, okkkk, so moving on....).
We had a 7.45am flight to catch from Singapore up to KL and then a connecting flight booked to take us up to Kota Bharu in the very north east. This meant getting up horribly early and in the middle of the night but having a sausage and egg Mc Muffin followed by an Oreo Mc flurry for breakfast at the airport compensated for it lol.
We were only using Kota Bharu as an over night pit stop before heading down to the Perhentian islands which was a good thing really as it wasn't much to look at. The vibe was much more muslim up north and even though we were covering our shoulders/knees some of the locals still seemed to think we had three heads.
I'm ashamed to say we ended up having a second Mc D's for dinner(!) We tried to be authentic and buy from the street markets but after circling the same stalls 10 times we just couldn't bring ourselves to eat it...whatever 'it' was. I mean, to get to the food at one stall you had to practically fight your way through a curtain of flies, not tempting.
The next morning we hopped onto a minibus which took us down to the harbour town of Kota Besut and from there took the 30 minute speed boat ride to the Islands. The Perhentians is made up of 2 islands, Besar the 'big island' and Kecil which we were staying on. Good accommodation is pretty hard to find on Kecil but as usual we'd done our research and were v.happy with our wooden stilted bungalow at Senja Bay resort on Coral bay.
The next 3 days went by in a blur of pancakes, milkshakes and sunbathing by the sea but it was Tina's birthday on the Sunday so we made it extra special by going out for a delicious breakfast, followed by a 3 hour snorkelling trip where we followed a turtle and shark, a beer at sunset (of course) and then the most amazing dinner at Bubu restaurant on Long Beach.
In the morning I'd set up a little birthday shrine of coral on our balcony to present the prezzies and homemade card I’d been working on but it typical blasé fashion she walks out, looks straight through it and says "Right, down the beach?!' haha!
On our last day in paradise we had to be extra careful about being in the sun as our malaria tablets seem to make us feel as if we're being burned alive for some reason. We just lounged about on the sun beds and chilled out with our adopted Perhentian boy Ben.
Ben specifically told me that I should be honest on the blog about the people we meet so I have no qualms in saying what a tosser he was and how pleased we were to leave him behind, marooned all by himself muhahaha.......ah only joking, he's very nice :)
Before we knew it it was time to leave and we scrapped our idea of catching the 'jungle train' to the Cameron Highlands (sometimes things just arn't worth the hassle) and we took a direct bus there.
Up in the mountains there was a distinct chill in the air and for the first time in over a month we even got to wear leggings, exciting times! We drove 1300 meters up and found ourselves surrounded by a series of rolling green hills covered head to toe in a patchwork blanket of tea fields and strawberry farms, it was very cute.
The main town wasn't as quaint as the Lonely Planet made it out to be but there was still an air of Englishness about the place. Probably because of the tea and scones on offer at some of the hostels, which yes, we did sample within an hour of sliding out of the mini bus.
We only spent one full day there and used it by doing a half day tour of the area, firstly to a pretty rose garden way up on the hillside with stunning views over the land and then to a strawberry farm, bee farm, insect/butterfly house, bhuddist temple and the main attraction, a visit to the Boh tea plantation where we enjoyed a great cup o' tea :D.
Blah. blah, blah, skip forward 48 hours (we went back to KL for our flight) and now we're back to the present and headed straight for the crazy capital of Bangkok...
Bring. It. On.
P.S Because I haven’t got round to posting this until now we’ve actually been to Bangkok (4 days), Kanachaburi (2 days) and am now up in Chiang Mai. I never knew keeping on top of a blog would be so hard! Update to come shortly...
Saturday 11 September 2010
What is it with people exposing themselves in Malaysia?!
Something blatantly obvious to both Tina and I was that we were definitely the minority on our flight from Indonesia over to Malaysia. I know this sounds obvious but really, big foot and the loch ness monster would have had a better chance of blending in than us in our neon sunglasses and haviana flip flops.
Just after I finished writing the first blog I had the unpleasant shock of walking down the isle and opening the toilet door on some poor old unsuspecting Indian grandmother who was firmly wedged into the tiny space in front of me. She definitely wasn't pleased at my discovery but lock the door for gods sake woman!!
We landed without problems and even met an older American guy called Benjy who shared a cab with us into the city to bring the cost of the fare down. It's pretty interesting meeting people for a fleeting moment, learning something about their lives and then never seeing them again. Benjy was from LA originally but had retired and moved to Chang Mai in Thailand 6 years ago, a random choice.
Although we arrived in town just after lunch it turned out to be a very uneventful day and was spent checking into a gross guest house, paying, walking out of the door and discovering a much nicer one 10 metres down the road, returning to the gross one, arguing for our money back against the lady boy on reception (we lost), checking out, re-checking in at the new place, paying again....you get the idea. It was worth the hassle though, this place is a diamond in the rough that is Chinatown and the free internet and breakfast are good perks.
So that day came and went, we tried to go out for dinner but again rather typically we'd landed in Kuala Lumpur on the Muslim equivalant of Christmas eve and everything was dead. I ended up scorching my taste buds into oblivion on a NOT mild korma at a restaurant called Spicy Corner (yes maybe the name should have been a hint) and rolling back to the hotel feeling a tad unfulfilled.
Today again, didn't go to plan but wasn't a complete disaster. With it being their Christmas Day even the famous Petronas Towers were closed and our intended trip of going up to the 41st floor sky deck which was supposed to be the highlight of KL for us didn't happen. Instead we ended up heading straight to the KLCC mall (an absolutely vast 6 floor monstrosity) and being enticed into its expensive looking shops with wide eyes and open mouths.
I'm not exaggerating but today, I found this mall experience both incredibly depressing and exhilarating at the same time. I've been wearing the same 20 items of clothing for over 15 months now, I'd virtually forgotten that the possibility of other clothing existed. Other designs, colours and shapes...
What made the whole thing really REALLY bizarre was seeing a Debenhams, a Marks and Spencer, Zara and the queen of them all...Topshop! It was like entering a temporary portal to England and it threw me.
I ran my fingers over the velvety fabrics, the silky and expensive looking rails, the glittery, sparkling (and overpriced) accessories and then caught sight of a disturbing sight in a tall full length mirror. Wincing, I realised it was my incredibly unfashionable and traveller-bum looking reflection. How had I come to look like this! I've never craved a full wardrobe replacement shopping spree so much it was painful.
Anyway, I did allow myself the mini splurge of buying a necklace, bracelet and hair band from Accessorize (another shop that made my mouth fall open) and then felt the intense and immediate guilt of spending 23 pounds, yes pounds, on those three things.
I grabbed Tina, encouraged an urgent evacuation from the KLCC pronto and then ate another mind blowingly, explosively hot bowl of noodles.
On our way home just when we thought the day's excitement was over we got lost again and ended up walking down a dark alleyway in Chinatown. Rounding a corner we both got more than we bargained for and were faced with an old Malaysian man with his trousers around his ankles holding onto his 'member' firmly, pointing it at us you could say. I don't want to go into detail but it truly has scarred the eyes and Tina's face was an absolute picture.
Think we'd better leave KL now and head down to Melaka!
Just after I finished writing the first blog I had the unpleasant shock of walking down the isle and opening the toilet door on some poor old unsuspecting Indian grandmother who was firmly wedged into the tiny space in front of me. She definitely wasn't pleased at my discovery but lock the door for gods sake woman!!
We landed without problems and even met an older American guy called Benjy who shared a cab with us into the city to bring the cost of the fare down. It's pretty interesting meeting people for a fleeting moment, learning something about their lives and then never seeing them again. Benjy was from LA originally but had retired and moved to Chang Mai in Thailand 6 years ago, a random choice.
Although we arrived in town just after lunch it turned out to be a very uneventful day and was spent checking into a gross guest house, paying, walking out of the door and discovering a much nicer one 10 metres down the road, returning to the gross one, arguing for our money back against the lady boy on reception (we lost), checking out, re-checking in at the new place, paying again....you get the idea. It was worth the hassle though, this place is a diamond in the rough that is Chinatown and the free internet and breakfast are good perks.
So that day came and went, we tried to go out for dinner but again rather typically we'd landed in Kuala Lumpur on the Muslim equivalant of Christmas eve and everything was dead. I ended up scorching my taste buds into oblivion on a NOT mild korma at a restaurant called Spicy Corner (yes maybe the name should have been a hint) and rolling back to the hotel feeling a tad unfulfilled.
Today again, didn't go to plan but wasn't a complete disaster. With it being their Christmas Day even the famous Petronas Towers were closed and our intended trip of going up to the 41st floor sky deck which was supposed to be the highlight of KL for us didn't happen. Instead we ended up heading straight to the KLCC mall (an absolutely vast 6 floor monstrosity) and being enticed into its expensive looking shops with wide eyes and open mouths.
I'm not exaggerating but today, I found this mall experience both incredibly depressing and exhilarating at the same time. I've been wearing the same 20 items of clothing for over 15 months now, I'd virtually forgotten that the possibility of other clothing existed. Other designs, colours and shapes...
What made the whole thing really REALLY bizarre was seeing a Debenhams, a Marks and Spencer, Zara and the queen of them all...Topshop! It was like entering a temporary portal to England and it threw me.
I ran my fingers over the velvety fabrics, the silky and expensive looking rails, the glittery, sparkling (and overpriced) accessories and then caught sight of a disturbing sight in a tall full length mirror. Wincing, I realised it was my incredibly unfashionable and traveller-bum looking reflection. How had I come to look like this! I've never craved a full wardrobe replacement shopping spree so much it was painful.
Anyway, I did allow myself the mini splurge of buying a necklace, bracelet and hair band from Accessorize (another shop that made my mouth fall open) and then felt the intense and immediate guilt of spending 23 pounds, yes pounds, on those three things.
I grabbed Tina, encouraged an urgent evacuation from the KLCC pronto and then ate another mind blowingly, explosively hot bowl of noodles.
On our way home just when we thought the day's excitement was over we got lost again and ended up walking down a dark alleyway in Chinatown. Rounding a corner we both got more than we bargained for and were faced with an old Malaysian man with his trousers around his ankles holding onto his 'member' firmly, pointing it at us you could say. I don't want to go into detail but it truly has scarred the eyes and Tina's face was an absolute picture.
Think we'd better leave KL now and head down to Melaka!
Anyone know of a good bug exterminator?
Hello there again,
It's a good thing I feel like writing today as not only am I due a blog update, i'm sitting on an Air Asia flight to Malaysia and have 2 1/2 hours to type away. This is my 13th flight since leaving the UK nearly a year and four months ago and they're beginning to feel like the only piece of familiarity in my life, like little pockets of time that connect one adventure portal to another. Like I say, we're leaving Indonesia today and heading for the bustling city of Kuala Lumpar with its considerably larger population than i'm used to of 1.5 million.
It's been a busy few weeks and we've squeezed lots of things into our time in Indo, we did cut it slightly short though by making the last minute decision to cut out a visit to Jakarta and fly straight from Yogjakarta (central Java) to KL instead. Apparently Jakarta is a bit of a rank city, over populated, over polluted, over developed and has on going politcal tensions with the Malays making it not the safest place at the moment so every day saved now is an extra one down the line later in the Thai islands :)
So going back to Bali...
We finished off the holiday part of our time there by filling the days with a combo of relaxation, good food and more shopping. A salon called 'Smart' got to know us quite well because of our frequent visits for manicures, pedicures, facials and massages...and I know it's extravagant but I just had to try the '20 finger' full body massage where you're 'served' by 2 therapists! (Was good but maybe a bit too much going on to relax!).
We also visited some great little Indonesian restaurants in Kuta, one called Keputat and the other The Clay Pot, we both tried traditional dishes which were awesome...even though I did order way too much by mistake :/
As the week drew to a close we had left some of the best stuff till last by taking a walk down to the beach for the famous Legian sunset which we viewed from a local cafe institution called Double Six (the chicken satay was excellent here). In the evening we utilised those free VIP tickets we got from the local guy at Gado Gado the week before and got dressed up to pay a visit to a couple of clubs, one called Cocoon and the other Bacio. Much to our delight the alcohol for invitation guests was free and the music (house, of course) and entertainment was great.
Our last night was equally good, another good meal at an italian restaurant (and run by one) and then a live gig by Aussie Gold Coast band Tjuana Cartel who rocked it. I'd been meaning to go to their gig when I lived in Surfers but couldn't make it so was pretty happy to see them live on the beach at Ku De Ta in Bali! It was our 3rd trip to Ku De Ta in a week but justified because I think it's the best bar i've ever been to...ever.
The following morning was the usual rush of packing, checking out and ordering a taxi. We were headed for the Perama office (local tour operator) who were shipping us over to the Gili Islands just off the coast of Lombok, the next island over to the east.
Anthony recommended the Gilis and he wasn't wrong to do so, the islands are tiny, just three spots of land made up of white beaches, palmy coconut groves and wooden bungalows but it was a little paradise. We were staying on Gili Trawangan, the busiest one (even though you could hardly call it busy) and during our three days there we took a boat over to Gili Air (2nd busiest) which was practically deserted. God knows what quiet Gili Meno was like!
I'll try not to bore you with the finer details but after some hunting we found some good priced accomodation in the heart of the village amongst the locals and got down to the business of eating fresh fish and drinking beer, very important obviously.
Tina and I had just been talking about her extremely strong fear of animals and how it had begun to affect her enjoyment out here in Asia when something of particularly bad timing happened. We'd just got back from dinner when I strode into our bathroom to use the bin, I hadn't bothered turning on the light but as I placed my water bottle on the floor something dark and large moved on the wall about 3 inches from my hand.
Jumping back I slammed my hand onto the switch to reveal the biggest spider I have ever had the misfortune to come across in my life, it was greeny/black and large, and that's all the information I needed to know to get the hell out of there.
It's fair to say that I don't deal with spiders very well. Snakes? Fine. Rats? Fine. But spiders? Not fine. I screamed nice and loud (as expected) and began to break out in a cold sweat. what ensued was half an hour of chaos which resulted in me running out to the village and grabbing a random local who didn't speak English and dragging him into our room until he removed the offender. It was 11pm which made me feel extra bad as he had to wake up his mates who were all asleep in preparation for their Ramadan worship at 3am but we were both near hysterical and they had no choice.
In the end we had three Indonesian guys locked up in the bathroom with a broom and a series of banging, crunching and yelling noises ensued. Then it went quiet...
Eventually they emerged with a broken mirror, destroyed picture frame and the dead spider. Needless to say the whole event didn't go down too well with Tina who was already feeling extrememly fragile from all the stray cats and dogs outside.
I thought after that we'd be fine but the following night I walked in to find a big fat cockcroach scuttling across her
pillow.
While on the Gilis we also met the French and Italian Stefan and Alassandro who invited us to their hotel's private beach to watch the sun set behind Bali's three volcanoes. It was nice, a campfire, beers and lots of travellers lying back and enjoying the live music. The circumstances how we met those two was pretty funny...basically...I stole their double stuff Oreos.
We were walking around the island and stopped off at a bungalow bar to indulge in a smoothie when I spotted the unopened pristine packet of goodness hiding underneath our table. Like any normal person I assumed they'd be left or forgotten about and seeing as i've I have a healthy addiction to double stuff Oreos helped myself lol. You can imagine my profuse apologies when Stefan came wondering over looking for them eek!
Once we left the Gilis we had a pretty uneventful stopover in Lombok, although beautiful and much more deserted than Bali we were staying in a bit of a ghost town and some of the people I saw were more than weird.
From Lombok we began the long and slightly painful 3 days of travel back over to Bali and across onto Java. I think we did something like 36 hours of travel in 3 days. The only plus from this trip was meeting Patrick and Agnes from Austria who became our new buddies. I was very happy to discover that Patrick is a fellow kitesurfer at the same level who loves to do kite surfing holidays with his mates and extended an open invite my way to join them. Bring on Greece, Spain, Tahiti and of course Hawaii again!! :)
While crossing islands on the ferry the local boys seemed to have a fixation with our small group and started taking out their mobile phones and trying to get inconspicious snaps of us. It really began to piss me off (i'm sure the blonde hair doesn't help) so I used my sarong as a headscarf so only my pair of mirrored aviators popped out of the burka like slit on my face. They probably thought I was taking the piss out of them oops but no-one was getting a photo of me without my permission!
Our destination was Mount Bromo for a sun rise hike and eventually our minibus was climbing up the mountainside in the pitch black towards The Cemero Inn, our accommodation for the night. Unfortunately for us, the acommodation was a big pile of crap.
This place was more suited for a family of bed bugs than a bunch of weary and travel tired backpackers and Tina and I couldn't stop laughing hysterically when the local guys showed us to our "room". A cell in Alcatraz would've eminated more warmth and invitation than the 4 square feet infront of us. We both popped a sleeping pill and set the alarm for 3.30am, it was the only way to get us through.
The actual walk was really enjoyable, Patrick, Agnes, Tina and I layered up against the cold and began shuffling forward into the darkness with our torches. We didn't have a guide and took a wrong turn resulting in a decent sized detour and nearly missing the sun rise, the very reason we were there(!) but With nothing but grey dust around us in every direction we were lucky to stumble upon the right route and once I knew the summit was acheivable pushed forward despite having to shed layer after layer of clothing to compensate for the constantly increasing temperature.
Determined not to miss this I stroad on ahead and pulled myself up the 'stairs of death' a near vertical climb to Bromos summit while shouting words of encouragement behind me such as "Nearly there guys! Come on, only another......238 steps to go!!!". Anyway, we all made it in the end and it was beautiful, a great start to the day.
There wasn't any time to hang about in Bromo, by 9am we were back in the minibus and continuing west towards our next stop, Yogjakarta. Yogja gets great reviews in the lonely planet and is depicted as a bit of an arty town with its roots based in traditional batik work and a scattering of restaurants worth sampling.
We spent three days in total there and although I didn't get to see the famous bird market nor the Kraton (main historical attraction!) because of bad planning we did get alot of vital planning done as well as odd jobs and decided to skip the visit to Jakarta and jet off straight to KL from where we were.
Highlights were going to Via Via for dinner (twice because it was so good) with Patrick and Agnes, visiting two famous and beautiful temples (the buddist Borobudur and hindu Prambanan) and haggling a guy down from 50,000 rupiah to 15,000 for the cutest little leather belt pouch ever.
No idea what to use it for but it's sooooooooo cute.
It's a good thing I feel like writing today as not only am I due a blog update, i'm sitting on an Air Asia flight to Malaysia and have 2 1/2 hours to type away. This is my 13th flight since leaving the UK nearly a year and four months ago and they're beginning to feel like the only piece of familiarity in my life, like little pockets of time that connect one adventure portal to another. Like I say, we're leaving Indonesia today and heading for the bustling city of Kuala Lumpar with its considerably larger population than i'm used to of 1.5 million.
It's been a busy few weeks and we've squeezed lots of things into our time in Indo, we did cut it slightly short though by making the last minute decision to cut out a visit to Jakarta and fly straight from Yogjakarta (central Java) to KL instead. Apparently Jakarta is a bit of a rank city, over populated, over polluted, over developed and has on going politcal tensions with the Malays making it not the safest place at the moment so every day saved now is an extra one down the line later in the Thai islands :)
So going back to Bali...
We finished off the holiday part of our time there by filling the days with a combo of relaxation, good food and more shopping. A salon called 'Smart' got to know us quite well because of our frequent visits for manicures, pedicures, facials and massages...and I know it's extravagant but I just had to try the '20 finger' full body massage where you're 'served' by 2 therapists! (Was good but maybe a bit too much going on to relax!).
We also visited some great little Indonesian restaurants in Kuta, one called Keputat and the other The Clay Pot, we both tried traditional dishes which were awesome...even though I did order way too much by mistake :/
As the week drew to a close we had left some of the best stuff till last by taking a walk down to the beach for the famous Legian sunset which we viewed from a local cafe institution called Double Six (the chicken satay was excellent here). In the evening we utilised those free VIP tickets we got from the local guy at Gado Gado the week before and got dressed up to pay a visit to a couple of clubs, one called Cocoon and the other Bacio. Much to our delight the alcohol for invitation guests was free and the music (house, of course) and entertainment was great.
Our last night was equally good, another good meal at an italian restaurant (and run by one) and then a live gig by Aussie Gold Coast band Tjuana Cartel who rocked it. I'd been meaning to go to their gig when I lived in Surfers but couldn't make it so was pretty happy to see them live on the beach at Ku De Ta in Bali! It was our 3rd trip to Ku De Ta in a week but justified because I think it's the best bar i've ever been to...ever.
The following morning was the usual rush of packing, checking out and ordering a taxi. We were headed for the Perama office (local tour operator) who were shipping us over to the Gili Islands just off the coast of Lombok, the next island over to the east.
Anthony recommended the Gilis and he wasn't wrong to do so, the islands are tiny, just three spots of land made up of white beaches, palmy coconut groves and wooden bungalows but it was a little paradise. We were staying on Gili Trawangan, the busiest one (even though you could hardly call it busy) and during our three days there we took a boat over to Gili Air (2nd busiest) which was practically deserted. God knows what quiet Gili Meno was like!
I'll try not to bore you with the finer details but after some hunting we found some good priced accomodation in the heart of the village amongst the locals and got down to the business of eating fresh fish and drinking beer, very important obviously.
Tina and I had just been talking about her extremely strong fear of animals and how it had begun to affect her enjoyment out here in Asia when something of particularly bad timing happened. We'd just got back from dinner when I strode into our bathroom to use the bin, I hadn't bothered turning on the light but as I placed my water bottle on the floor something dark and large moved on the wall about 3 inches from my hand.
Jumping back I slammed my hand onto the switch to reveal the biggest spider I have ever had the misfortune to come across in my life, it was greeny/black and large, and that's all the information I needed to know to get the hell out of there.
It's fair to say that I don't deal with spiders very well. Snakes? Fine. Rats? Fine. But spiders? Not fine. I screamed nice and loud (as expected) and began to break out in a cold sweat. what ensued was half an hour of chaos which resulted in me running out to the village and grabbing a random local who didn't speak English and dragging him into our room until he removed the offender. It was 11pm which made me feel extra bad as he had to wake up his mates who were all asleep in preparation for their Ramadan worship at 3am but we were both near hysterical and they had no choice.
In the end we had three Indonesian guys locked up in the bathroom with a broom and a series of banging, crunching and yelling noises ensued. Then it went quiet...
Eventually they emerged with a broken mirror, destroyed picture frame and the dead spider. Needless to say the whole event didn't go down too well with Tina who was already feeling extrememly fragile from all the stray cats and dogs outside.
I thought after that we'd be fine but the following night I walked in to find a big fat cockcroach scuttling across her
pillow.
While on the Gilis we also met the French and Italian Stefan and Alassandro who invited us to their hotel's private beach to watch the sun set behind Bali's three volcanoes. It was nice, a campfire, beers and lots of travellers lying back and enjoying the live music. The circumstances how we met those two was pretty funny...basically...I stole their double stuff Oreos.
We were walking around the island and stopped off at a bungalow bar to indulge in a smoothie when I spotted the unopened pristine packet of goodness hiding underneath our table. Like any normal person I assumed they'd be left or forgotten about and seeing as i've I have a healthy addiction to double stuff Oreos helped myself lol. You can imagine my profuse apologies when Stefan came wondering over looking for them eek!
Once we left the Gilis we had a pretty uneventful stopover in Lombok, although beautiful and much more deserted than Bali we were staying in a bit of a ghost town and some of the people I saw were more than weird.
From Lombok we began the long and slightly painful 3 days of travel back over to Bali and across onto Java. I think we did something like 36 hours of travel in 3 days. The only plus from this trip was meeting Patrick and Agnes from Austria who became our new buddies. I was very happy to discover that Patrick is a fellow kitesurfer at the same level who loves to do kite surfing holidays with his mates and extended an open invite my way to join them. Bring on Greece, Spain, Tahiti and of course Hawaii again!! :)
While crossing islands on the ferry the local boys seemed to have a fixation with our small group and started taking out their mobile phones and trying to get inconspicious snaps of us. It really began to piss me off (i'm sure the blonde hair doesn't help) so I used my sarong as a headscarf so only my pair of mirrored aviators popped out of the burka like slit on my face. They probably thought I was taking the piss out of them oops but no-one was getting a photo of me without my permission!
Our destination was Mount Bromo for a sun rise hike and eventually our minibus was climbing up the mountainside in the pitch black towards The Cemero Inn, our accommodation for the night. Unfortunately for us, the acommodation was a big pile of crap.
This place was more suited for a family of bed bugs than a bunch of weary and travel tired backpackers and Tina and I couldn't stop laughing hysterically when the local guys showed us to our "room". A cell in Alcatraz would've eminated more warmth and invitation than the 4 square feet infront of us. We both popped a sleeping pill and set the alarm for 3.30am, it was the only way to get us through.
The actual walk was really enjoyable, Patrick, Agnes, Tina and I layered up against the cold and began shuffling forward into the darkness with our torches. We didn't have a guide and took a wrong turn resulting in a decent sized detour and nearly missing the sun rise, the very reason we were there(!) but With nothing but grey dust around us in every direction we were lucky to stumble upon the right route and once I knew the summit was acheivable pushed forward despite having to shed layer after layer of clothing to compensate for the constantly increasing temperature.
Determined not to miss this I stroad on ahead and pulled myself up the 'stairs of death' a near vertical climb to Bromos summit while shouting words of encouragement behind me such as "Nearly there guys! Come on, only another......238 steps to go!!!". Anyway, we all made it in the end and it was beautiful, a great start to the day.
There wasn't any time to hang about in Bromo, by 9am we were back in the minibus and continuing west towards our next stop, Yogjakarta. Yogja gets great reviews in the lonely planet and is depicted as a bit of an arty town with its roots based in traditional batik work and a scattering of restaurants worth sampling.
We spent three days in total there and although I didn't get to see the famous bird market nor the Kraton (main historical attraction!) because of bad planning we did get alot of vital planning done as well as odd jobs and decided to skip the visit to Jakarta and jet off straight to KL from where we were.
Highlights were going to Via Via for dinner (twice because it was so good) with Patrick and Agnes, visiting two famous and beautiful temples (the buddist Borobudur and hindu Prambanan) and haggling a guy down from 50,000 rupiah to 15,000 for the cutest little leather belt pouch ever.
No idea what to use it for but it's sooooooooo cute.
Wednesday 25 August 2010
Balinese Beauty
But it's not all doom and gloom by any means...
It's goodbye Australia and hello Asia as I enter my seventh and final chapter of this adventure. Destination Bali is the first stop and I swear its been the promise of this holiday that's kept us going through the darker times of Melbourne. Those days and nights when I thought I was going to throw a plate of steak in George's face and then smash it over his head feel long gone and my time out here in paradise feels all the sweeter knowing that it's my hard work and his money that are going to pay for the months ahead.
It was a pretty emotional taxi journey out through the CBD to the airport, we passed Tina's old office and even the door of the Eureka Tower which is the tallest building in the southern hemisphere and where we had our first night out. Fitting really, ending where it all started in a way.
Arriving at the airport we were suddenly aware that this was it and hopefully all our planning was going to pay off for a smooth journey. Alas this was not to be...it turned out to be an absolute stress buster and i'm surprised we didn't explode with what happened! We were at check in when the red lipped Virgin ground staff lady promptly informed us that we needed an onward ticket out from Indonesia to board the flight and get into the country...ARGHHHH!!! (This happened to us in NZ too so you would have thought we'd learned our lesson).
We were already running late and were last to check in anyway so this was not good news. We made a mad dash to the internet computers and kicked off the annoying kids playing on them to get onto Air Asia's site and book a flight FAST. It was so stressful and all in RP currency so didn't make sense, everything was in millions!
We chose a date, booked it and finally thought the drama was over but then realised we couldn't print the itinery out as evidence. After haggling with the Virgin Blue staff to print it out we realised they'd only e-mailed through an insurance policy, not the actual ticket...DOUBLE ARGH!!!!
In the end a nice lad checked us in despite thinking we hadn't actually booked a flight as the flight number was different to the usual Air Asia number so we thought we'd been conned. It was his 2nd last day so luckily he didn't give a f*** but in theory he shouldn't have let us on. Then we ran flat out to the gate and into our seats, which amazingly were together and we even had a spare one next to us. The flight went fine although we were on edge the whole time about not being allowed into the country at customs because of our dodgy Air Asia booking!
Anyway we got in and that's all that counts so now i'm pleased to say i'm typing this from the hotel 'pool beds' feeling very relaxed and sun soaked. I'm not sure what it is about the two of us but Tina and I seem to have this ability to attract good things at the moment and have had all sorts of benefits/unexpected goodies thrown our way. On check in we were instantly upgraded to the luxury villa that comes complete with private pool, loungers and 'relax couch' area, there's a beautiful four poster bed complete with muslin drapes which is gorgeously romantic not that we need it (!) and even a......BATH! I haven't had access to a bath since I left England which is, yes, a year and 3 months ago, hence my excitement.
On our first dinner out we got chatting to the matre'd who turned out to be a part time tour operator too who could help us out with trips, not only that, he just happened to have a pair of VIP tickets to club night happening the following Friday which he gave to us, random!
Our first few days have been typically jam packed and although we both just want to lie by the pool and veg out we're both struggling with turning off our in-built OCD compulsions, the need to see and do everything that there is on offer. Our hotel is based near the beach on the border of Legian and Seminyak which is a great location as it's far enough away from Kuta (the mental tourist hub) to be peaceful yet in the heart of everything.
It's now day 4 and the first time we've just got up and done nothing, the first couple of days we both went crazy by trying to buy everything on offer in Kuta. The cheap prices and combination of markets and holiday vibe have proven deadly and my purse is noticeably emptier than it was just a few days ago....however I am wearing a couple of nice silver rings and a new bikini now though ;)
On Saturday night god knows how it happened but yet again I managed to utilise my contacts from The Terrace and got us two free tickets to the infamous Ku De Ta White party. Ku De Ta is one of those swanky club/bars on the beach which hike up drink prices to shocking amounts yet get away with it for being such a great venue.
The white party was the bars 10 year anniversary party and tickets on were sale for over a 1,000,000 rupier each, that's about 80 quid. Through the power of strategic emailing and skype I got in touch with a club owner back in Melbourne who then got in touch with his 'Bali contact' who then met up with us to get us in.
It was an epic night and had some of the best house music i've ever heard being played for 6 hours straight, amazing!
Yesterday Tina and I managed to get ourselves away from the coastal areas and inland via a minibus to Ubud. A fairly
touristy but much more rural village that's well known for its silver jewellery and a sacred monkey forest sanctuary. The journey up there was great, I just switched on the ipod and zoned out to my tunes while watching the scenery change from moped infested roads to shimmering paddy fields.
We had a fun day haggling for things, sipping beers with incredible views out over the farmland and wandering around a very 3rd world style market. We even checked out the monkey forest (something i'm surprised Tina agreed too although very relunctant!) and watched them steal food from people and cause all sorts of havoc. It was cool seeing the baby monkeys only a meter or so away from us but not so cool when the mummy beared her teeth and looked like she was about to rip the flesh off our bones.
Talking of haggling, it's something I should mention just because of how hirlarious the situations have been when we're doing it. The poor Balinese locals don't have a chance when we let loose on them and it's fair to say our tactics of bullying/begging/yelling at them seems to be working a treat. Sunglasses also seem to have become a bit of a running joke out here. Every stall, and I mean EVERY stall sells hundreds of fake Ray Bans, they're everywhere! Tina and I have this thing where we get lured into the shops by the pretty colours and then spend hours looking at pairs. A few nights ago things got a bit hysterical when we got a taxi into Kuta to go out for dinner and both ended up coming back to the hotel with 2 extra pairs of shades and NO dinner, thus taking my total to 8 pairs. It's actually ridiculous.
Apparently we both now have Balinese boyfriends, both who run sunglasses stalls and who want to take us for a ride on their mopeds hahahahahaha.
Right, think that's probably enough for now?! If you've made it this far then thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy the installments to come. Bali really is beautiful, this is my first time in Asia but it's everything I hoped it would be, I love it here. I'm sure the stories will get more and more random...........
It's goodbye Australia and hello Asia as I enter my seventh and final chapter of this adventure. Destination Bali is the first stop and I swear its been the promise of this holiday that's kept us going through the darker times of Melbourne. Those days and nights when I thought I was going to throw a plate of steak in George's face and then smash it over his head feel long gone and my time out here in paradise feels all the sweeter knowing that it's my hard work and his money that are going to pay for the months ahead.
It was a pretty emotional taxi journey out through the CBD to the airport, we passed Tina's old office and even the door of the Eureka Tower which is the tallest building in the southern hemisphere and where we had our first night out. Fitting really, ending where it all started in a way.
Arriving at the airport we were suddenly aware that this was it and hopefully all our planning was going to pay off for a smooth journey. Alas this was not to be...it turned out to be an absolute stress buster and i'm surprised we didn't explode with what happened! We were at check in when the red lipped Virgin ground staff lady promptly informed us that we needed an onward ticket out from Indonesia to board the flight and get into the country...ARGHHHH!!! (This happened to us in NZ too so you would have thought we'd learned our lesson).
We were already running late and were last to check in anyway so this was not good news. We made a mad dash to the internet computers and kicked off the annoying kids playing on them to get onto Air Asia's site and book a flight FAST. It was so stressful and all in RP currency so didn't make sense, everything was in millions!
We chose a date, booked it and finally thought the drama was over but then realised we couldn't print the itinery out as evidence. After haggling with the Virgin Blue staff to print it out we realised they'd only e-mailed through an insurance policy, not the actual ticket...DOUBLE ARGH!!!!
In the end a nice lad checked us in despite thinking we hadn't actually booked a flight as the flight number was different to the usual Air Asia number so we thought we'd been conned. It was his 2nd last day so luckily he didn't give a f*** but in theory he shouldn't have let us on. Then we ran flat out to the gate and into our seats, which amazingly were together and we even had a spare one next to us. The flight went fine although we were on edge the whole time about not being allowed into the country at customs because of our dodgy Air Asia booking!
Anyway we got in and that's all that counts so now i'm pleased to say i'm typing this from the hotel 'pool beds' feeling very relaxed and sun soaked. I'm not sure what it is about the two of us but Tina and I seem to have this ability to attract good things at the moment and have had all sorts of benefits/unexpected goodies thrown our way. On check in we were instantly upgraded to the luxury villa that comes complete with private pool, loungers and 'relax couch' area, there's a beautiful four poster bed complete with muslin drapes which is gorgeously romantic not that we need it (!) and even a......BATH! I haven't had access to a bath since I left England which is, yes, a year and 3 months ago, hence my excitement.
On our first dinner out we got chatting to the matre'd who turned out to be a part time tour operator too who could help us out with trips, not only that, he just happened to have a pair of VIP tickets to club night happening the following Friday which he gave to us, random!
Our first few days have been typically jam packed and although we both just want to lie by the pool and veg out we're both struggling with turning off our in-built OCD compulsions, the need to see and do everything that there is on offer. Our hotel is based near the beach on the border of Legian and Seminyak which is a great location as it's far enough away from Kuta (the mental tourist hub) to be peaceful yet in the heart of everything.
It's now day 4 and the first time we've just got up and done nothing, the first couple of days we both went crazy by trying to buy everything on offer in Kuta. The cheap prices and combination of markets and holiday vibe have proven deadly and my purse is noticeably emptier than it was just a few days ago....however I am wearing a couple of nice silver rings and a new bikini now though ;)
On Saturday night god knows how it happened but yet again I managed to utilise my contacts from The Terrace and got us two free tickets to the infamous Ku De Ta White party. Ku De Ta is one of those swanky club/bars on the beach which hike up drink prices to shocking amounts yet get away with it for being such a great venue.
The white party was the bars 10 year anniversary party and tickets on were sale for over a 1,000,000 rupier each, that's about 80 quid. Through the power of strategic emailing and skype I got in touch with a club owner back in Melbourne who then got in touch with his 'Bali contact' who then met up with us to get us in.
It was an epic night and had some of the best house music i've ever heard being played for 6 hours straight, amazing!
Yesterday Tina and I managed to get ourselves away from the coastal areas and inland via a minibus to Ubud. A fairly
touristy but much more rural village that's well known for its silver jewellery and a sacred monkey forest sanctuary. The journey up there was great, I just switched on the ipod and zoned out to my tunes while watching the scenery change from moped infested roads to shimmering paddy fields.
We had a fun day haggling for things, sipping beers with incredible views out over the farmland and wandering around a very 3rd world style market. We even checked out the monkey forest (something i'm surprised Tina agreed too although very relunctant!) and watched them steal food from people and cause all sorts of havoc. It was cool seeing the baby monkeys only a meter or so away from us but not so cool when the mummy beared her teeth and looked like she was about to rip the flesh off our bones.
Talking of haggling, it's something I should mention just because of how hirlarious the situations have been when we're doing it. The poor Balinese locals don't have a chance when we let loose on them and it's fair to say our tactics of bullying/begging/yelling at them seems to be working a treat. Sunglasses also seem to have become a bit of a running joke out here. Every stall, and I mean EVERY stall sells hundreds of fake Ray Bans, they're everywhere! Tina and I have this thing where we get lured into the shops by the pretty colours and then spend hours looking at pairs. A few nights ago things got a bit hysterical when we got a taxi into Kuta to go out for dinner and both ended up coming back to the hotel with 2 extra pairs of shades and NO dinner, thus taking my total to 8 pairs. It's actually ridiculous.
Apparently we both now have Balinese boyfriends, both who run sunglasses stalls and who want to take us for a ride on their mopeds hahahahahaha.
Right, think that's probably enough for now?! If you've made it this far then thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy the installments to come. Bali really is beautiful, this is my first time in Asia but it's everything I hoped it would be, I love it here. I'm sure the stories will get more and more random...........
Neighbours...actually more of a case of Home and Away?
I can't believe it, I started writing this Melbourne blog in my 7th week, then it was the 17th week and before I knew it I was hanging up my Aussie hat, leaving the country after a year of amazingness and I never did get around to finishing it.
Well here it is in its full glory AND if things couldn't get any better, i've had a little play on the new template designer and freshened up the design and everything! Wow.
Soooooo...17 weeks on and yes, Michelle and I were still in Melbourne, working like busy bees and storing away the honey money for the next chapter of the adventure which felt long overdue. Saving I find relatively easy, saving on Australia's minimum wage of $15 an hour was not so easy... especially when we found ourselves living in the 'suburb to be seen in' along with Danni Minogue, her new beau and baby.
When Tina and I first arrived in Melbourne (for the 2nd time) on April 15th our first port of call was getting a taxi to Dylan and Lynn's house in South Yarra. Dylan and Lynn are mates of Ants (my bro) who left London and made the move to Australia themselves in 2008. They put us up in their new place for 4 days when we made a flying visit in February and offered to house the homeless again if we needed it.
Not one to take an offer lightly it was only a matter of time before I was banging off a facebook message letting them know our flight details and asking for the spare key to be left under the back door! We just needed a place while we found our feet and sorted out new jobs and accommodation so we're very thankful to them for that and probably saved about $300 in hostel fees.
One key piece of advice i'd give to potential travelling buddies is make sure you have the same priorities because it just turns out (but we both knew this anyway) that Tina and I are equally 'ocd' obsessive and borderline freaks about writing lists, being productive and getting EVERYTHING sorted as fast as humanly possible. I'm not exaggerating when I say that by the end of day 1 we had set up a sort of temporary mobile office in D+L's sitting room. We had two laptops on the go, wireless internet being used to the maximum capacity, excel spreadsheets of house viewing times, job applications and phone numbers being created. In the corner of the room Tina sat with the Skype headset on calling endless agents and account managers looking like she was on a call centre marathon challenge.
It was fair to say that by the end of the day we felt we'd had a good stab at getting going on this new Melbourne phase....
By the end of the first week both Michelle and I had jobs, Tina had utilised her account managing experience to land an admin role in an office full of 40 somethings in the Southbank area and I started working at a restaurant in a boutiquey art hotel 10 minutes away called the The Cullen.
Through the powers of fate we also stumbled across the ultimate apartment, perfect in every way and complete with a pool and gym in the rooftop to help get rid of 4 months of backpacking stodge which i'm pleased to say worked a treat. The Wierd story behind the apartment is that it turned out we were moving into Lukes bedroom, Luke being the random Brit we met 4 months previously in New Zealand while doing the glacier hike! It was completely crazy that his boyfriend showed us around the place and we didn't even know it was his, some things are just meant to be.
Over the weeks we've been really strict on not going out too much, especially at the beginning to make sure we were on track with our targets but there have been certain things to tick off the list and add to our agenda which have made our time not only in the city, but in Victoria a fun and memorable one.
Over the weeks we got to know Gerald, our local Avis car hire rep, we even worked the Tina and Doxie magic by blagging the corporate rate for our trips! Dan (Tinas friend) came to visit from Sydney and we drove down the peninsular to the seaside town of Sorrento. This is a place that throbs with tourists in the summer months but had that slightly wind blown desolate feel to it when we went down. It was great driving through the wine regions and having the freedom with the car to go in search of random deserted light houses and look out points though.
A couple of weeks after that Tina and I went in search of a mini adventure yet again and stopped off at the infamous Ramsey Street otherwise known as Pin Oak close, it was soooo weird to be standing outside the houses I used to watch on tv after school in the 90's, especially when it's in Australia...on the other side of the world! After a pit stop there we drove on into The Dandendong Ranges, a scenic drive up into the mountains which look over the Victorian plains. It was a sunny day and worth the climb up to the top to look out at the view of our temporary home.
That day we also managed to fit in a lunch visit to an award winning pie shop as well as some tasty scones and cream in one of the villages on the way down which was completely done up in christmas decor to celebrate the 'Christmas in July' thing the Aussie's do during their winter.
One memorable moment from the day was when in typical Tina and Doxie style we actually managed to lose our hire
car. We were trying to be good and thought seeing as we'd driven up there we should stretch the legs and go for a walk. Unfortunately the sky had clouded over and spots of rain started appearing on the windscreen. We had our umbrellas with us so not to be discouraged I slipped off the uggs and put on the trainers in preparation for an hour of fresh air. We left the car at the tip of a small and VERY muddy walking trail and followed some battered old signs further and further into the forest into we got to the rather disappointing waterfall we'd been looking for, it was more of a muddy trickle.
Anyway, on the return leg the sky was losing light fast and we couldn't quite remember the exact way we'd come from so had to make a bit of an educated guess, which we must have gone wrong because when we reached the car park our car wasn't there! We had an initial 'freak out' and then agreed we must have arrived at a different car park and had to somehow find the first one.
I had horrible visions of having to sleep up in the mountains but after a couple of attempts a car stopped for the waving lunatics on the side of the road and pointed us in the right direction.
In our last month we upped the socialising another level and went out another two times, this time going to as many places as possible in the process. We managed 5 clubs in one night and it didn't cost us anything either because of my new Melbourne friend connections which we utilised to the max (one being a massive bouncer called Tiny who I made skinny lattes for!!)
Our trip to Oz also wouldn't have been complete without a trip to an AFL footie game which we enjoyed loads. We watched Calton vs Collingwood (known for their bogan/chav supporters) at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and to my horror/delight we had the worst of the bunch sitting behind us, a real gross family with painted Collingwood flags on their faces constantly yelling pointless abuse at the Calton team.
It was particularly pointless abuse seeing as we were in the highest tier of seating and miles from earshot of the players.
Before we knew it we were into August and the weeks running away from us, a special mention has to go out to the restaurant Babble for giving us the best fillet steak of our lives during one of our treat meals out in Chapel Street. Babble itself is really cute, done up like the inside of a ski chalet with a log fire, stone walls and antler and candle chandeliers. For the hour and a half we were in there I forgot I was in Melbourne and almost expected to walk out onto the snowy streets of Switzerland.
That was our second to last weekend and now that I was working more evenings we'd managed to plan another day trip away at the weekend to Phillip Island, a little pocket of land south of Melbourne connected to the mainland by a bridge but more known for it's wildlife and environmental attractions.
Gerald at Avis had obviously thought he was doing us a favour by upgrading us two car sizes but it's fair to say Tina and I were both shocked and unhappy about being presented with a family sized 'dad type' saloon car for our 3rd and final trip.
This thing was a beast and neither of us wanted to be the first to drive it out of Melbourne! We got there fine though and enjoyed fish and chips on the promenade in Cowes and then cruising around the circumference of the Island in the sunshine.
We finished up the day by watching the very talented local surfers ride huge barrels as the sun set and then I somehow got lost on the drive home. Oh well, all fun and games.
The following weekend I gathered everyone i'd met in Melbourne together for a 'leaving party' night out and we went to an infamous St Kilda venue to watch some local Dj's called Dirty South play. It was good to finish my time in Melbs with a bang and seeing the group out together really reminded me how far we'd come in just 4 months of setting up a brand new existence in a brand new city.
Our last week was crazily hectic and there didn't seem to be enough time to do anything at all. Both of us were working right up until the day before we flew out of the country and any free time was filled with boring tasks like renewing insurance, tax rebate appointments, filling out forms and post office trips. Our last night in the apartment was a randomly great one though with two goodbye visits, one from Karl (good friend from work) and the other from Dylan and Lynn.
Alot of champagne and wine was consumed and the night turned into a bit of a blurry reminiscence of our time in Australia and included some nostalgic staring out across the night sky to the beautiful city scape from the balcony.
When the alarm woke us up at 6am with the traces of a headache to remind us of the night before there just wasn't time to deal with it. What followed was a frantic 3 hours of packing and cleaning before leaving for the airport. We were so rushed that there wasn't even time to eat the remaining 6 milos that sat on the fridge shelf waiting to be devoured...a real sign that things were manic. So before we knew it our keys were on the side waiting for their next owner and the front door closed for the last time.
......And then that was that, Melbourne was over.
Well here it is in its full glory AND if things couldn't get any better, i've had a little play on the new template designer and freshened up the design and everything! Wow.
Soooooo...17 weeks on and yes, Michelle and I were still in Melbourne, working like busy bees and storing away the honey money for the next chapter of the adventure which felt long overdue. Saving I find relatively easy, saving on Australia's minimum wage of $15 an hour was not so easy... especially when we found ourselves living in the 'suburb to be seen in' along with Danni Minogue, her new beau and baby.
When Tina and I first arrived in Melbourne (for the 2nd time) on April 15th our first port of call was getting a taxi to Dylan and Lynn's house in South Yarra. Dylan and Lynn are mates of Ants (my bro) who left London and made the move to Australia themselves in 2008. They put us up in their new place for 4 days when we made a flying visit in February and offered to house the homeless again if we needed it.
Not one to take an offer lightly it was only a matter of time before I was banging off a facebook message letting them know our flight details and asking for the spare key to be left under the back door! We just needed a place while we found our feet and sorted out new jobs and accommodation so we're very thankful to them for that and probably saved about $300 in hostel fees.
One key piece of advice i'd give to potential travelling buddies is make sure you have the same priorities because it just turns out (but we both knew this anyway) that Tina and I are equally 'ocd' obsessive and borderline freaks about writing lists, being productive and getting EVERYTHING sorted as fast as humanly possible. I'm not exaggerating when I say that by the end of day 1 we had set up a sort of temporary mobile office in D+L's sitting room. We had two laptops on the go, wireless internet being used to the maximum capacity, excel spreadsheets of house viewing times, job applications and phone numbers being created. In the corner of the room Tina sat with the Skype headset on calling endless agents and account managers looking like she was on a call centre marathon challenge.
It was fair to say that by the end of the day we felt we'd had a good stab at getting going on this new Melbourne phase....
By the end of the first week both Michelle and I had jobs, Tina had utilised her account managing experience to land an admin role in an office full of 40 somethings in the Southbank area and I started working at a restaurant in a boutiquey art hotel 10 minutes away called the The Cullen.
Through the powers of fate we also stumbled across the ultimate apartment, perfect in every way and complete with a pool and gym in the rooftop to help get rid of 4 months of backpacking stodge which i'm pleased to say worked a treat. The Wierd story behind the apartment is that it turned out we were moving into Lukes bedroom, Luke being the random Brit we met 4 months previously in New Zealand while doing the glacier hike! It was completely crazy that his boyfriend showed us around the place and we didn't even know it was his, some things are just meant to be.
Over the weeks we've been really strict on not going out too much, especially at the beginning to make sure we were on track with our targets but there have been certain things to tick off the list and add to our agenda which have made our time not only in the city, but in Victoria a fun and memorable one.
Over the weeks we got to know Gerald, our local Avis car hire rep, we even worked the Tina and Doxie magic by blagging the corporate rate for our trips! Dan (Tinas friend) came to visit from Sydney and we drove down the peninsular to the seaside town of Sorrento. This is a place that throbs with tourists in the summer months but had that slightly wind blown desolate feel to it when we went down. It was great driving through the wine regions and having the freedom with the car to go in search of random deserted light houses and look out points though.
A couple of weeks after that Tina and I went in search of a mini adventure yet again and stopped off at the infamous Ramsey Street otherwise known as Pin Oak close, it was soooo weird to be standing outside the houses I used to watch on tv after school in the 90's, especially when it's in Australia...on the other side of the world! After a pit stop there we drove on into The Dandendong Ranges, a scenic drive up into the mountains which look over the Victorian plains. It was a sunny day and worth the climb up to the top to look out at the view of our temporary home.
That day we also managed to fit in a lunch visit to an award winning pie shop as well as some tasty scones and cream in one of the villages on the way down which was completely done up in christmas decor to celebrate the 'Christmas in July' thing the Aussie's do during their winter.
One memorable moment from the day was when in typical Tina and Doxie style we actually managed to lose our hire
car. We were trying to be good and thought seeing as we'd driven up there we should stretch the legs and go for a walk. Unfortunately the sky had clouded over and spots of rain started appearing on the windscreen. We had our umbrellas with us so not to be discouraged I slipped off the uggs and put on the trainers in preparation for an hour of fresh air. We left the car at the tip of a small and VERY muddy walking trail and followed some battered old signs further and further into the forest into we got to the rather disappointing waterfall we'd been looking for, it was more of a muddy trickle.
Anyway, on the return leg the sky was losing light fast and we couldn't quite remember the exact way we'd come from so had to make a bit of an educated guess, which we must have gone wrong because when we reached the car park our car wasn't there! We had an initial 'freak out' and then agreed we must have arrived at a different car park and had to somehow find the first one.
I had horrible visions of having to sleep up in the mountains but after a couple of attempts a car stopped for the waving lunatics on the side of the road and pointed us in the right direction.
In our last month we upped the socialising another level and went out another two times, this time going to as many places as possible in the process. We managed 5 clubs in one night and it didn't cost us anything either because of my new Melbourne friend connections which we utilised to the max (one being a massive bouncer called Tiny who I made skinny lattes for!!)
Our trip to Oz also wouldn't have been complete without a trip to an AFL footie game which we enjoyed loads. We watched Calton vs Collingwood (known for their bogan/chav supporters) at the Melbourne Cricket Ground and to my horror/delight we had the worst of the bunch sitting behind us, a real gross family with painted Collingwood flags on their faces constantly yelling pointless abuse at the Calton team.
It was particularly pointless abuse seeing as we were in the highest tier of seating and miles from earshot of the players.
Before we knew it we were into August and the weeks running away from us, a special mention has to go out to the restaurant Babble for giving us the best fillet steak of our lives during one of our treat meals out in Chapel Street. Babble itself is really cute, done up like the inside of a ski chalet with a log fire, stone walls and antler and candle chandeliers. For the hour and a half we were in there I forgot I was in Melbourne and almost expected to walk out onto the snowy streets of Switzerland.
That was our second to last weekend and now that I was working more evenings we'd managed to plan another day trip away at the weekend to Phillip Island, a little pocket of land south of Melbourne connected to the mainland by a bridge but more known for it's wildlife and environmental attractions.
Gerald at Avis had obviously thought he was doing us a favour by upgrading us two car sizes but it's fair to say Tina and I were both shocked and unhappy about being presented with a family sized 'dad type' saloon car for our 3rd and final trip.
This thing was a beast and neither of us wanted to be the first to drive it out of Melbourne! We got there fine though and enjoyed fish and chips on the promenade in Cowes and then cruising around the circumference of the Island in the sunshine.
We finished up the day by watching the very talented local surfers ride huge barrels as the sun set and then I somehow got lost on the drive home. Oh well, all fun and games.
The following weekend I gathered everyone i'd met in Melbourne together for a 'leaving party' night out and we went to an infamous St Kilda venue to watch some local Dj's called Dirty South play. It was good to finish my time in Melbs with a bang and seeing the group out together really reminded me how far we'd come in just 4 months of setting up a brand new existence in a brand new city.
Our last week was crazily hectic and there didn't seem to be enough time to do anything at all. Both of us were working right up until the day before we flew out of the country and any free time was filled with boring tasks like renewing insurance, tax rebate appointments, filling out forms and post office trips. Our last night in the apartment was a randomly great one though with two goodbye visits, one from Karl (good friend from work) and the other from Dylan and Lynn.
Alot of champagne and wine was consumed and the night turned into a bit of a blurry reminiscence of our time in Australia and included some nostalgic staring out across the night sky to the beautiful city scape from the balcony.
When the alarm woke us up at 6am with the traces of a headache to remind us of the night before there just wasn't time to deal with it. What followed was a frantic 3 hours of packing and cleaning before leaving for the airport. We were so rushed that there wasn't even time to eat the remaining 6 milos that sat on the fridge shelf waiting to be devoured...a real sign that things were manic. So before we knew it our keys were on the side waiting for their next owner and the front door closed for the last time.
......And then that was that, Melbourne was over.
Monday 12 April 2010
Round Trip Road Trip
Our road trip to Cape Tribulation has been, well, a complete disaster! I think both Tina and I knew it was off to a bad start from the moment we left the hostel to pick up our rental car.
We woke up on this warm Saturday morning in Cairns full of the hope that the looming grey clouds that had been stationed above us for days would have cleared to reveal crystal clear blue skies and sunshine. Unfortunately, the thick blanket was still above us and there remained no sign of a break in the depressing weather.
Onwards and upwards though right?! We'd booked and paid for 48 hours with a car and pre-paid for 2 nights up in Cape Tribulation so the show must go on...
Or not.
The twats at 'All Car Rentals' obviously deemed us not worthy of the standard economy model so presented us with the biggest piece of s**t blue Nissan Micra i've ever seen. As Tina turned the key in the ignition it coughed and spluttered but then immediately died on us and this didn't fill us with hope for the onward journey. Even the dodgy owner couldn't get it started with all his tweaking under the bonnet so much to their disatisfaction we were given the keys to a better set of wheels. Not an upgrade I may add, just the car we should've had in the first place and not the crappy micra.
By this time the rain had become torrential and with wipers on full speed we trundled north out of Cairns in the direction of supposed paradise. I'd been looking forward to this trip to Cape Trib for about 10 months now so I have to
say my mood was particulary sour at this point. Infact I knew we'd hit a new low when we found ourselves in a McDonalds 15 minutes out of Cairns using their free wi-fi internet to 'pass the time'...oh dear.
You have to remember that where we were going is known for it's pristine white beaches, warm turquoise blue waters, spotless skies and vivid green jungle.... not the grey misty fog which is all we coud see. Livid is the word, livid.
Anyway, early afternoon we stopped at a little cafe for lunch (well a late breakfast actually and the BEST ((and only))eggs benedict we've ever had) and were warned that the creeks might be over flowing and to watch out for that, so dripping wet and with this new advice we hot footed it up to the Daintree ferry to make the crossing over the river to get to our accommodation as soon as possible.
Arriving at the ferry booth and being greeted by the spotty youth serving us remains seared in my mind as the ultimate nail on the coffin when he so helpfully informed us that Cow Bay Creek (the road north) was closed and there had been a massive mud slide so no-one could use the roads for at least a day. Bollocks.
I think it was at this moment that Tina and I just had to laugh because it couldn't have gone more wrong and things really were that bad. We'd paid for a car and accommodation we didn't even need and tears were close to being shed!
In desperation (and with the rain pelting harder and harder as darkness decended) we realised we were in a pretty bad situation with not only no mobile phones but no-where to sleep either. It was at this point we randomly ended up at a tiny cafe in the middle of no-where eating a homemade banana muffin and using their phone to call hostels for an unplanned bed that night.
Every cloud has a silver lining I guess so instead of dining on lobster in the 'garden of Cape Tribulation eden' we ended up in a tiny stop over called Port Douglas spending the evening drinking cheap wine and listening to a reggae band (who were actually so good we bought their CD).
I'm already working out how much it'll cost me to fly baCK here from Melbourne, hire a car again and have the experience we should've had this weekend....hmmmm alot. Damn!
----------------
It's now the evening of April 7th, and indeed the night before my first ever suicide attempt because tomorrow I will be throwing myself out of a plane 14,000ft in the sky and hurtling towards to ground and certain death at a mininum of 200km an hour.
Thankfully I'm limiting my chances of succeeding by having an ozzy dude strapped to my back and pulling the parachute chord. This paragraph will be highly distasteful if anything actually did happen so sorry about that.
We are currently staying at a really nice hostel in Mission Beach called Absolute Backpackers, it's fairly new on the circuit and has a great layout and vibe. Infact Mission Beach has a great vibe too, laid back and tropical, just like how I thought the whole East coast would be.
We escaped from the grimness that was Cairns yesterday by booking a coach back down south, the
reason for this is to hopefully have better weather than we did on the way up and finally do our skydive and Whitsunday Cruise. Luckily the sky is predicted to be blue tomorrow, hence the booked plunge.
In 2 days Tina and I are planning on taking a water taxi over to Dunk Island* to feel like we've actually had some contact with the barrier reef because we sure as hell don't yet! The taxi is $30 return and this morning when walking past the hostel noticeboard I read an invitation to win a trip for 2 to Dunk Island...perfect!!
*This never happened, we wanted coffee and cake instead ;)
The only thing between me and my prize was a paper aeroplane competition, the furthest flight winning. Not taking the challenge lightly Tina and I logged onto You Tube to find a video on how to make a good paper plane, this was followed by some eager practice throws (from me) and Tina looking sheepish and worrying that I was looking "too keen".
As 7pm rolled round I limbered up and made sure my launching arm was warmed up nicely, my competitive
hat was firmly on, the prize was ours for the taking. At first only 3 people were there to enter, Me, Tina and a random Swede so things were looking very much in our favour. But then, out of the blue, 2 boys and 5 other girls shuffled over to compete. Suddenly our chances of winning were somewhat diminished but I remained undetered as my 'Padi Concorde' (a streamlined jet made from a PADI diving brochure) had flown strong and far during my pre-testing.
Eventually the contest began and a number of different designs were put forward. When it came to me I raised the arm, tilted the plane's nose slightly down and with a deep winning breath launched my creation high into the air.......
"WHAT WAS THAT?!?!" I yelled. Unfortunately, my fickle aerodynamic jet decided to be highly UN-aerodynamic
for the main event and did a stunt twirl and crash virtually next to my feet. It goes to say, I, nor Tina, won and who did?
The bloody Germans, grrrrrrrrr.
Aside from the fun and games we've had our house hunting hats on and have been knee deep in Gumtree applications for somewhere to live in Melbourne. Our flight is booked out from Hamilton Island to Melbourne on the 13th and Ant's mates Dylan and Lynn have very kindly offered to put us up again while we find a cool, chic, trendy, city pad....we hope!
------------------------------
....WOW. wow. wooooooooow.
What an amazing past 5 days we've just had, although to be honest it seems alot longer. The clouds must have felt
bad for their behaviour over the last few weeks so finally decided to bugger off and allow us to re-kindle our romance with the sun and have (to be completely honest) the best five and final days of our East Coast travels we could have asked for.
The skydive in Mission Beach went perfectly to plan and will stand out as an unbeatable moment for ever. How can
you possibly beat the rush and excitement of launching yourself out of a little plane door into the sky?!?! That adrenaline buzz was something i've never had before and if you could bottle it and sell it on the streets i'd be a very rich girl.
Tina and I ended up being the last jumpers of the day and not only were we the only two paying customers in the plane, we got to go up and jump with all the instructors who were doing their 'fun' solo jumps of the day. Although I was initially worried about the sun's light being a bit weak for our DVD's it turned out perfectly and we ended up falling
through the sky as that dusky evening light began to take over from the blinding blue brightness of the day. The
poor cameraman doing my shots must've been feeling some pressure as he found out about my job and photography hobbie as well as me grilling him a little bit on his technique, styling and equipment!
With smiles still plastered on our faces the next day we took our last greyhound journey of the trip to Arlie Beach and had fingers, toes, legs, arms and ears crossed that the weather would hold up for our Whitsunday cruise. We knew it would make or break the tour and really felt it was time luck played along with us...
...and it couldn't have been more perfect. I'm not exageratting when I say there was not one single cloud in the whole
sky from the moment we left the marina on our boat Avatar to the moment we moored back into port.
Our skipper, a Kiwi called Neil, said that it was the best weather he'd had for the past 3 months and he wasn't wrong.
We got the stunning sunrise, sunset and stars that we bitterly missed out on in the desert and sucked in every single second of it. Shooting stars whizzed over our heads every few minutes and we could see the Milky Way VERY clearly, it was incredible!
The boat was great too, a huge 26 person trimaran with big nets to lounge about on and a host who provided a tasty
selection of treats to his passangers (Melbourne gyms here I bloody come!!!).
In between topping up the tan Neil took Avatar to some reefs so we could have a bit of a snorkel, unfortunately the
cyclone had left it's mark in the water and the visability was pretty poor but to be honest I was just happy to be out
amoungst the Whitsunday islands in the sun and water. Between November and May it is compulsory for anyone entering the water to wear a stinger suit, this prevents a nasty sting from the dreaded box jellyfish and certain death. The suits in question are pretty funny, tight blue stretchy all-in-one's and gave us some funny photo opportunities too :)
On day 2 we went to paradise. Definetely unquestionably paradise. Whitehaven beach must been the Whitsunday's most famous and photographed beach. The ice white sand is 98% silica, so pure that NASA paid the Australian government millions of dollars for 5 tonnes of the stuff to build the Hubble Telescope.
At low tide you can climb up to a lookout point which gives the picture postcard view you see on all the brochures and the combination of vivid greenery, white sand and turquiose sea is enough to take your breath away. Shallow white sandbars snake in and out of turquiose channels of pristine water to give this swirly painting effect on the beach and all you can hear is people exclaiming "Oh my god, look at that...".
Ok ok, enough of that basically if you're ever thinking of going...do :D
We woke up on this warm Saturday morning in Cairns full of the hope that the looming grey clouds that had been stationed above us for days would have cleared to reveal crystal clear blue skies and sunshine. Unfortunately, the thick blanket was still above us and there remained no sign of a break in the depressing weather.
Onwards and upwards though right?! We'd booked and paid for 48 hours with a car and pre-paid for 2 nights up in Cape Tribulation so the show must go on...
Or not.
The twats at 'All Car Rentals' obviously deemed us not worthy of the standard economy model so presented us with the biggest piece of s**t blue Nissan Micra i've ever seen. As Tina turned the key in the ignition it coughed and spluttered but then immediately died on us and this didn't fill us with hope for the onward journey. Even the dodgy owner couldn't get it started with all his tweaking under the bonnet so much to their disatisfaction we were given the keys to a better set of wheels. Not an upgrade I may add, just the car we should've had in the first place and not the crappy micra.
By this time the rain had become torrential and with wipers on full speed we trundled north out of Cairns in the direction of supposed paradise. I'd been looking forward to this trip to Cape Trib for about 10 months now so I have to
say my mood was particulary sour at this point. Infact I knew we'd hit a new low when we found ourselves in a McDonalds 15 minutes out of Cairns using their free wi-fi internet to 'pass the time'...oh dear.
You have to remember that where we were going is known for it's pristine white beaches, warm turquoise blue waters, spotless skies and vivid green jungle.... not the grey misty fog which is all we coud see. Livid is the word, livid.
Anyway, early afternoon we stopped at a little cafe for lunch (well a late breakfast actually and the BEST ((and only))eggs benedict we've ever had) and were warned that the creeks might be over flowing and to watch out for that, so dripping wet and with this new advice we hot footed it up to the Daintree ferry to make the crossing over the river to get to our accommodation as soon as possible.
Arriving at the ferry booth and being greeted by the spotty youth serving us remains seared in my mind as the ultimate nail on the coffin when he so helpfully informed us that Cow Bay Creek (the road north) was closed and there had been a massive mud slide so no-one could use the roads for at least a day. Bollocks.
I think it was at this moment that Tina and I just had to laugh because it couldn't have gone more wrong and things really were that bad. We'd paid for a car and accommodation we didn't even need and tears were close to being shed!
In desperation (and with the rain pelting harder and harder as darkness decended) we realised we were in a pretty bad situation with not only no mobile phones but no-where to sleep either. It was at this point we randomly ended up at a tiny cafe in the middle of no-where eating a homemade banana muffin and using their phone to call hostels for an unplanned bed that night.
Every cloud has a silver lining I guess so instead of dining on lobster in the 'garden of Cape Tribulation eden' we ended up in a tiny stop over called Port Douglas spending the evening drinking cheap wine and listening to a reggae band (who were actually so good we bought their CD).
I'm already working out how much it'll cost me to fly baCK here from Melbourne, hire a car again and have the experience we should've had this weekend....hmmmm alot. Damn!
----------------
It's now the evening of April 7th, and indeed the night before my first ever suicide attempt because tomorrow I will be throwing myself out of a plane 14,000ft in the sky and hurtling towards to ground and certain death at a mininum of 200km an hour.
Thankfully I'm limiting my chances of succeeding by having an ozzy dude strapped to my back and pulling the parachute chord. This paragraph will be highly distasteful if anything actually did happen so sorry about that.
We are currently staying at a really nice hostel in Mission Beach called Absolute Backpackers, it's fairly new on the circuit and has a great layout and vibe. Infact Mission Beach has a great vibe too, laid back and tropical, just like how I thought the whole East coast would be.
We escaped from the grimness that was Cairns yesterday by booking a coach back down south, the
reason for this is to hopefully have better weather than we did on the way up and finally do our skydive and Whitsunday Cruise. Luckily the sky is predicted to be blue tomorrow, hence the booked plunge.
In 2 days Tina and I are planning on taking a water taxi over to Dunk Island* to feel like we've actually had some contact with the barrier reef because we sure as hell don't yet! The taxi is $30 return and this morning when walking past the hostel noticeboard I read an invitation to win a trip for 2 to Dunk Island...perfect!!
*This never happened, we wanted coffee and cake instead ;)
The only thing between me and my prize was a paper aeroplane competition, the furthest flight winning. Not taking the challenge lightly Tina and I logged onto You Tube to find a video on how to make a good paper plane, this was followed by some eager practice throws (from me) and Tina looking sheepish and worrying that I was looking "too keen".
As 7pm rolled round I limbered up and made sure my launching arm was warmed up nicely, my competitive
hat was firmly on, the prize was ours for the taking. At first only 3 people were there to enter, Me, Tina and a random Swede so things were looking very much in our favour. But then, out of the blue, 2 boys and 5 other girls shuffled over to compete. Suddenly our chances of winning were somewhat diminished but I remained undetered as my 'Padi Concorde' (a streamlined jet made from a PADI diving brochure) had flown strong and far during my pre-testing.
Eventually the contest began and a number of different designs were put forward. When it came to me I raised the arm, tilted the plane's nose slightly down and with a deep winning breath launched my creation high into the air.......
"WHAT WAS THAT?!?!" I yelled. Unfortunately, my fickle aerodynamic jet decided to be highly UN-aerodynamic
for the main event and did a stunt twirl and crash virtually next to my feet. It goes to say, I, nor Tina, won and who did?
The bloody Germans, grrrrrrrrr.
Aside from the fun and games we've had our house hunting hats on and have been knee deep in Gumtree applications for somewhere to live in Melbourne. Our flight is booked out from Hamilton Island to Melbourne on the 13th and Ant's mates Dylan and Lynn have very kindly offered to put us up again while we find a cool, chic, trendy, city pad....we hope!
------------------------------
....WOW. wow. wooooooooow.
What an amazing past 5 days we've just had, although to be honest it seems alot longer. The clouds must have felt
bad for their behaviour over the last few weeks so finally decided to bugger off and allow us to re-kindle our romance with the sun and have (to be completely honest) the best five and final days of our East Coast travels we could have asked for.
The skydive in Mission Beach went perfectly to plan and will stand out as an unbeatable moment for ever. How can
you possibly beat the rush and excitement of launching yourself out of a little plane door into the sky?!?! That adrenaline buzz was something i've never had before and if you could bottle it and sell it on the streets i'd be a very rich girl.
Tina and I ended up being the last jumpers of the day and not only were we the only two paying customers in the plane, we got to go up and jump with all the instructors who were doing their 'fun' solo jumps of the day. Although I was initially worried about the sun's light being a bit weak for our DVD's it turned out perfectly and we ended up falling
through the sky as that dusky evening light began to take over from the blinding blue brightness of the day. The
poor cameraman doing my shots must've been feeling some pressure as he found out about my job and photography hobbie as well as me grilling him a little bit on his technique, styling and equipment!
With smiles still plastered on our faces the next day we took our last greyhound journey of the trip to Arlie Beach and had fingers, toes, legs, arms and ears crossed that the weather would hold up for our Whitsunday cruise. We knew it would make or break the tour and really felt it was time luck played along with us...
...and it couldn't have been more perfect. I'm not exageratting when I say there was not one single cloud in the whole
sky from the moment we left the marina on our boat Avatar to the moment we moored back into port.
Our skipper, a Kiwi called Neil, said that it was the best weather he'd had for the past 3 months and he wasn't wrong.
We got the stunning sunrise, sunset and stars that we bitterly missed out on in the desert and sucked in every single second of it. Shooting stars whizzed over our heads every few minutes and we could see the Milky Way VERY clearly, it was incredible!
The boat was great too, a huge 26 person trimaran with big nets to lounge about on and a host who provided a tasty
selection of treats to his passangers (Melbourne gyms here I bloody come!!!).
In between topping up the tan Neil took Avatar to some reefs so we could have a bit of a snorkel, unfortunately the
cyclone had left it's mark in the water and the visability was pretty poor but to be honest I was just happy to be out
amoungst the Whitsunday islands in the sun and water. Between November and May it is compulsory for anyone entering the water to wear a stinger suit, this prevents a nasty sting from the dreaded box jellyfish and certain death. The suits in question are pretty funny, tight blue stretchy all-in-one's and gave us some funny photo opportunities too :)
On day 2 we went to paradise. Definetely unquestionably paradise. Whitehaven beach must been the Whitsunday's most famous and photographed beach. The ice white sand is 98% silica, so pure that NASA paid the Australian government millions of dollars for 5 tonnes of the stuff to build the Hubble Telescope.
At low tide you can climb up to a lookout point which gives the picture postcard view you see on all the brochures and the combination of vivid greenery, white sand and turquiose sea is enough to take your breath away. Shallow white sandbars snake in and out of turquiose channels of pristine water to give this swirly painting effect on the beach and all you can hear is people exclaiming "Oh my god, look at that...".
Ok ok, enough of that basically if you're ever thinking of going...do :D
Tuesday 30 March 2010
We Survived!
In true Tina and Doxie form it turned out that cyclone Uluri hit the Queensland coast the very exact day we were booked to visit Fraser Island! For those who don't know, Fraser Island is one of only 10 world heritage sites and classified as a 'tropical paradise'. Along with the Whitsundays it is deemed THE thing to do while travelling the East Coast of Oz and the millions of travel centres, brochures and sales reps that promote doing a trip there boast of the endless blue skies, diamond white sand and turquoise sea.
You can imagine our frustration then (and that is putting it VERY mildly) when we learnt that Uluri was heading for the coast just north of Fraser Island and the weather pattern it was bringing with it resembled something like an angry washing machine.
I have to mention at this point that I feel we were rather mislead by the irritatingly chirpy and rather slimy tour guide at the 4x4 base in Hervey Bay who assured us that not only would we be able to continue with our pre-planned itinerary of the island but that the bad weather would probably 'swing' right past us.
Now skip forward 48 hours and picture 8 grumpy girls bumping along the beach in a 4x4 at 6am, still half asleep and wearing an odd selection of pyjamas while the wind whistled through the axels and horizontal rain lashed against the windows. I can assure you, that at that moment, the weather had not swung past us.
However, not all was disastrous, even though we'd been the only group to miss our ferry boat to the island the day before (not a good start) and the weather was seriously trying to dampen the sprits of our once in a lifetime paradise trip, I think we did a great job of making the best of the situation.
There were 8 girls in the group which consisted of Tina and I, Jen, a friendly chatterbox from Newcastle, Jenna and Emma, two mates from Scotland and the 3 Germans. Two of them were pretty harmless but the third was a rather rotund individual with a penchant for taking more than her fair share of food, most annoying.
On day 2 the plan was to drive along the flat sand of Eastern Beach and up to Indian Head at the north of the island for breathtaking views and to bath in the Champagne Pools (natural rock formations). But alas, the crazy sea was spilling it's salt watery guts up virtually the whole width of the beach and we'd been warned that if the vehicle touched salt water a hefty $5000 fine would apply to the group. Hence Jen who was driving the beast, and I who was perched up front navigating, voted to get inland pronto and re-route the day.
To cut a long story just a bit shorter it was a long, long day with almost 10 hours of continuous driving and many obstacles to get past (including a full sized tree that had been uprooted and fallen across the track blocking our path). The weather cleared up a bit and the driving was an adventure but it wasn't the relaxing day we'd all had in mind! Timing the tides right we managed to get back onto the beach and drive up to a sand dune we could unload and camp behind for the night. We managed to set up camp and cook a meal before dark but I was absolutely gutted when for the millionth time was denied any form of sunset, just a cloudy sky :(
Another issue for Tina on the trip were the Dingoes, very much alive, active and wild. They are a cross between foxes, wolves and dogs and scavengers by nature. Tina who it'd be fair to say hates most animals was absolutely bricking herself every time there was a rustle in the dark. Can you believe that out of a group of 30 people in total only 2 people had brought a torch camping with them....TWO PEOPLE?!?! And that was me and Tina! What's wrong with people!?
Anyway, back to the dingoes, I was doing my best to reassure her and act very blasé about the possibility they could attack us at any moment when to prove my point of being safe I shone my torch into the inky black next to us only to meet the glowing eyes of a tooth bearing dingo about 5 meters from where we were sitting.
It is at this point I’d like to say I calmly stood up and shooed the animal away in a responsible manner but instead I sort of yelled 'DINGOOOOOOOO' into the night and everyone scrambled to their feet and ran with the shock.
I don't think Tina ever quite recovered.
We also developed a system we named the '360 degree wee' when having to use the 'non-existent' bathrooms in the night. It would involve one of us preparing the site while the other rotated around them with two torches flailing light beams in all directions dramatically as so to pre-empt any dingo or snake like animals creeping up on us while doing our business. I always ended up in hysterics as to me the torch light of the operation reminded me of the high strength light beams used at award ceremonies on the red carpet. I tended to narrate at the same time announcing something like 'Welcome to to 82nd Oscar Ceremony held here in LA......' maybe you had to be there lol.
Much to my delight, when I awoke at 3.30am on our second night in order to do a loo stop with Tina I looked up and couldn't believe it, the sky was crystal clear of any cloud and every single star was out in force. It was absolutely beautiful and that one moment, seeing the stars like that was all I needed to make the trip amazing. I didn't want to go back to sleep so sat up for 15 minutes just staring at them before passing out on the rock hard floor again. When I woke up in the morning the cloud was back and I wondered if it had been a very good dream. We got a bit of a sunrise which was nice but it was a shame that in the 4 mornings I’ve been up before 5am there hasn't been a clear sky to enjoy.
There was also an amusing incident at a little remote cafe in which Tina and I spotted a urn of hot water and thought it would be ok to take a couple of cups worth to use with our own teabags that we carry everywhere with us. Apparently NOT as when we began walking out of the door a real bloody jobsworth of a woman came over asking us just 'who did we think we were helping ourselves to things that aren’t ours' etc etc....IT WAS ONLY SOME HOT WATER FOR GODS SAKE!!! I should mention that not only was it 7am but the bad weather beach incident had just happened and everyone was somewhat pissed off. I told her I thought her tone was unnecessary (hahaha!) which much to my amusement wound her up some more. Because Tina and I are stubborn we resorted to paying the $1 EACH for the hot water and sipped our fruit teas with smug looks on our faces.
On day 3, our last, we managed to cram in all the bits we'd missed out on the previous day. We saw the famous ship wreck, a gorgeous natural spring creek, the stunning Lake Mackenzie and I thoroughly enjoyed driving the 4x4. As I sped through the forests it felt worryingly like I was in Jurassic Park and kept expecting a t-rex to jump out and rip the truck apart with it's teeth. I would've liked to have driven a bit more like a maniac but something told me the 7 other girls in the back wouldn't have enjoyed that as much as me.
Really randomly we also bumped into Ross and Jon, our buddies from New Zealand at the Lake on Fraser Island so there was much hugging, whooping and exchanged chat before having to split again. It turns out that Ross has been offered a 2 year contract with a dive school in Cairns to become a dive instructor (full training and accommodation provided!) as is going to take it with open arms. Looks like his family won't be seeing him for another few years then!!!! His new employer is apparently a 30 something guy with a 42ft catamaran boat and enjoys entertaining on it so we're praying to the gods we get a few days out on that!
So anyway, after a long and tiring 3 days the group returned back to base on the mainland looking like a selection of
beaten up war soldiers with all sort of ailments but good memories and a memory card full of photos.
--------------------
Then it was onwards and upwards to the town of 1770, a fairly recent addition to the backpacker map as far as I’m aware but this is what excited me about it, finally somewhere a little different, not too commercial. I believe everything happens for a reason and that day we bumped into Ross and Jon they warned us not to stay at Cool Bananas (the hostel we were booked to go to) but instead to stay at Southern Cross, and how right they were!
Southern Cross is gorgeous, so so soooooooooooooooooooo nice :) Every time I arrive somewhere like this I profess my love for it and start engaging the brain into plan mode, how can I stay here? when can I come back? Could we work here? When? How? Now! What made my eyes extra wide about 1770 is that it's awesome for kite surfing and there are kiters floating around with their boards and backpacks, I was in love.
Jen who is also on her way up the coast had tagged along with Tina and I which was perfect as we got to stay in our very own 3 person room with no strangers yay! There were to two rooms to each little wooden house dotted around the grounds and a pool, hammocks, camp fire etc to keep the travelling feel of the place alive. The houses also had large verandas out front so you could sit out and enjoy a beer while watching the sun set, or in our case, watch the mosquitoes rip us to shreds.
We had three days to kill in 1770 but it's gone really fast which is a good sign and has been the best stop yet. On day one I got to realise the life long dream of cruising down the highway on my very own chopper motorbike complete with a custom paint job of the American stars and stripes all over the bodywork, this was a good day.
The tour was called ScooterRoo and you basically rock up at this large shed where at least 100 awesome looking motorbikes, all hand painted with cool designs sit waiting for you, the highly inexperienced and over keen punter to jump on the seat and open that throttle to it's max to feel the wind in your hair and bugs in your teeth.
This dude's set up must make his insurance company cringe because to me, the idea of 40 backpackers (plus a few random German tourists) skidding to a nasty halt on the gravely tarmac seems like quite a realistic possibility but luckily it didn't happen to us!
Instead Tina, Jen and I sped along the highway on our choppers and flame-lined helmets feeling like stars on a film set while the sun set in front of us. When we'd finished cruising I asked the owner what the bikes were, where I could get one and how much they cost, I now know the answers and will be purchasing one, complete with stars and stripes on my return.
On day 2 the sun stayed out for us and Jen and I did a 3 hour surf lesson for a measly $17!! It was perfect, 20 mins of basic tuition by a brown wrinkly skinned, bleached blond haired surf dude. We both managed to stand up and ride a wave which was good fun but the strong current meant it was hard work and really bad for my back :/ (I'm paying the price today believe me).
Day 3 (today) has been super chilled, Jen left last night and Tina and I have enjoyed eating the BEST muffins ever made in the history of man. I've eaten alotttt of muffins but these are something else, seriously good!!!!
Now we're waiting to board the Greyhound night bus which will be a 14 hour long journey argh! I don't think we'd really thought about how long this was until 10 mins ago when eating our jacket potato, beans and cheese. That's more than a flight from London to LA...and half of London to Australia!....but Tina makes a good point, at least we save on one nights accommodation, a poxy $30 (which we'd happily spend on 6 white chocolate magnums anyway)
In summary it’s been a great few weeks but if I ever hear just one more Australian mention that this is the most uncharacteristically wet summer they've ever had again, I think I will rip the tongue from their mouth and send it in a little parcel to the Sahara where i'm sure it'll be nice and Sunny! :)
------------------
Whoops, didn't get a chance to send the blog until now and now it's 4 days later than it was so had better mention the last few days because they've been so fun and defo worth a decent mention.
So we survived the night bus, it wasn't the 14 hours of hell that we thought it might be, it actually went pretty quickly
and we both managed to get some hours of zzzzzz as we trundled through the more non-descript towns of the east coast. There's something about being cooped up on a bus and travelling for hours that makes you buy crap, crap you don't even want but suddenly find yourself drawn to. An example being 'My god, I desperately need that horribly greasy chicken burger even though it's 7am and I don't even like chicken burgers'. Or in my case, 'I must have that 5th pack of skittles AND the M&M's'. To be honest, it's amazing I haven't been sectioned into a fat camp with the treats i've been buying but you only live once eh.
We pulled up into Townsville around 11.30am and jumped in a cab to take us to our residence for the next 3 nights, Orchid Lodge. As Tina and I surveyed the landscape of desolate retro architecture and abandoned shop facades whizzing in front of our eyes we realised that the Lonely Planet travel writer reviewing Townsville had clearly been on acid while accessing the area to see it in such a positive light and hastily cut short our pre planned 3 nights to 1.
It was a useful stop over though and the hostel was more like staying at your granny's house then a hostel. It came complete with free laundry facilities and the old ladies running it were very cute.
However, cute old ladies were not enough to stop us venturing over to Magnetic Island on the ferry the next day and we made the 8k cruise out of Townsville to our new home in Nelly Bay. Here we have been staying at Base hostel, a VERY cool place which is more like a resort than a backpackers. The huge wooden decking pumps out music across picnic tables of people eating and drinking while the sea laps at the foot of the door. The whole place backs right onto the beach complete with palm trees and a full moon glowing onto the water.
In our three days here Tina and I have really chilled out and explored the island by hiring the craziest little car from
'tropical topless rentals'! It looks just like a larger version of a barbie car complete with pink and white plastic decor and was a convertible of course. It was wicked to zip around the empty roads feeling like I was in a computer game.
Another perk was the fact that one of my prizes from the Australian visa bureau that I won for my blog was 3 nights free accommodation here at Base so I've been staying here for free and that's $100 saved!
It was funny because today I was walking round taking pictures and who should call my name from reception but Jen, she'd caught up with us here on the island which was cool and we've just had a nice dinner together so that's all good. She's been telling us about her trip in the Whitsundays which we're doing on the 10th and getting excited about but also thinking about our sky dive which is happening on the 7th at Mission Beach. I can't believe i'm going to be throwing myself out of a plane in 7 days, hope the parachute opens :/
Going to post this now before it gets any longer now, hope whatever you're doing and where ever you're doing it in
the world you're doing it well and having fun, laters! :)
You can imagine our frustration then (and that is putting it VERY mildly) when we learnt that Uluri was heading for the coast just north of Fraser Island and the weather pattern it was bringing with it resembled something like an angry washing machine.
I have to mention at this point that I feel we were rather mislead by the irritatingly chirpy and rather slimy tour guide at the 4x4 base in Hervey Bay who assured us that not only would we be able to continue with our pre-planned itinerary of the island but that the bad weather would probably 'swing' right past us.
Now skip forward 48 hours and picture 8 grumpy girls bumping along the beach in a 4x4 at 6am, still half asleep and wearing an odd selection of pyjamas while the wind whistled through the axels and horizontal rain lashed against the windows. I can assure you, that at that moment, the weather had not swung past us.
However, not all was disastrous, even though we'd been the only group to miss our ferry boat to the island the day before (not a good start) and the weather was seriously trying to dampen the sprits of our once in a lifetime paradise trip, I think we did a great job of making the best of the situation.
There were 8 girls in the group which consisted of Tina and I, Jen, a friendly chatterbox from Newcastle, Jenna and Emma, two mates from Scotland and the 3 Germans. Two of them were pretty harmless but the third was a rather rotund individual with a penchant for taking more than her fair share of food, most annoying.
On day 2 the plan was to drive along the flat sand of Eastern Beach and up to Indian Head at the north of the island for breathtaking views and to bath in the Champagne Pools (natural rock formations). But alas, the crazy sea was spilling it's salt watery guts up virtually the whole width of the beach and we'd been warned that if the vehicle touched salt water a hefty $5000 fine would apply to the group. Hence Jen who was driving the beast, and I who was perched up front navigating, voted to get inland pronto and re-route the day.
To cut a long story just a bit shorter it was a long, long day with almost 10 hours of continuous driving and many obstacles to get past (including a full sized tree that had been uprooted and fallen across the track blocking our path). The weather cleared up a bit and the driving was an adventure but it wasn't the relaxing day we'd all had in mind! Timing the tides right we managed to get back onto the beach and drive up to a sand dune we could unload and camp behind for the night. We managed to set up camp and cook a meal before dark but I was absolutely gutted when for the millionth time was denied any form of sunset, just a cloudy sky :(
Another issue for Tina on the trip were the Dingoes, very much alive, active and wild. They are a cross between foxes, wolves and dogs and scavengers by nature. Tina who it'd be fair to say hates most animals was absolutely bricking herself every time there was a rustle in the dark. Can you believe that out of a group of 30 people in total only 2 people had brought a torch camping with them....TWO PEOPLE?!?! And that was me and Tina! What's wrong with people!?
Anyway, back to the dingoes, I was doing my best to reassure her and act very blasé about the possibility they could attack us at any moment when to prove my point of being safe I shone my torch into the inky black next to us only to meet the glowing eyes of a tooth bearing dingo about 5 meters from where we were sitting.
It is at this point I’d like to say I calmly stood up and shooed the animal away in a responsible manner but instead I sort of yelled 'DINGOOOOOOOO' into the night and everyone scrambled to their feet and ran with the shock.
I don't think Tina ever quite recovered.
We also developed a system we named the '360 degree wee' when having to use the 'non-existent' bathrooms in the night. It would involve one of us preparing the site while the other rotated around them with two torches flailing light beams in all directions dramatically as so to pre-empt any dingo or snake like animals creeping up on us while doing our business. I always ended up in hysterics as to me the torch light of the operation reminded me of the high strength light beams used at award ceremonies on the red carpet. I tended to narrate at the same time announcing something like 'Welcome to to 82nd Oscar Ceremony held here in LA......' maybe you had to be there lol.
Much to my delight, when I awoke at 3.30am on our second night in order to do a loo stop with Tina I looked up and couldn't believe it, the sky was crystal clear of any cloud and every single star was out in force. It was absolutely beautiful and that one moment, seeing the stars like that was all I needed to make the trip amazing. I didn't want to go back to sleep so sat up for 15 minutes just staring at them before passing out on the rock hard floor again. When I woke up in the morning the cloud was back and I wondered if it had been a very good dream. We got a bit of a sunrise which was nice but it was a shame that in the 4 mornings I’ve been up before 5am there hasn't been a clear sky to enjoy.
There was also an amusing incident at a little remote cafe in which Tina and I spotted a urn of hot water and thought it would be ok to take a couple of cups worth to use with our own teabags that we carry everywhere with us. Apparently NOT as when we began walking out of the door a real bloody jobsworth of a woman came over asking us just 'who did we think we were helping ourselves to things that aren’t ours' etc etc....IT WAS ONLY SOME HOT WATER FOR GODS SAKE!!! I should mention that not only was it 7am but the bad weather beach incident had just happened and everyone was somewhat pissed off. I told her I thought her tone was unnecessary (hahaha!) which much to my amusement wound her up some more. Because Tina and I are stubborn we resorted to paying the $1 EACH for the hot water and sipped our fruit teas with smug looks on our faces.
On day 3, our last, we managed to cram in all the bits we'd missed out on the previous day. We saw the famous ship wreck, a gorgeous natural spring creek, the stunning Lake Mackenzie and I thoroughly enjoyed driving the 4x4. As I sped through the forests it felt worryingly like I was in Jurassic Park and kept expecting a t-rex to jump out and rip the truck apart with it's teeth. I would've liked to have driven a bit more like a maniac but something told me the 7 other girls in the back wouldn't have enjoyed that as much as me.
Really randomly we also bumped into Ross and Jon, our buddies from New Zealand at the Lake on Fraser Island so there was much hugging, whooping and exchanged chat before having to split again. It turns out that Ross has been offered a 2 year contract with a dive school in Cairns to become a dive instructor (full training and accommodation provided!) as is going to take it with open arms. Looks like his family won't be seeing him for another few years then!!!! His new employer is apparently a 30 something guy with a 42ft catamaran boat and enjoys entertaining on it so we're praying to the gods we get a few days out on that!
So anyway, after a long and tiring 3 days the group returned back to base on the mainland looking like a selection of
beaten up war soldiers with all sort of ailments but good memories and a memory card full of photos.
--------------------
Then it was onwards and upwards to the town of 1770, a fairly recent addition to the backpacker map as far as I’m aware but this is what excited me about it, finally somewhere a little different, not too commercial. I believe everything happens for a reason and that day we bumped into Ross and Jon they warned us not to stay at Cool Bananas (the hostel we were booked to go to) but instead to stay at Southern Cross, and how right they were!
Southern Cross is gorgeous, so so soooooooooooooooooooo nice :) Every time I arrive somewhere like this I profess my love for it and start engaging the brain into plan mode, how can I stay here? when can I come back? Could we work here? When? How? Now! What made my eyes extra wide about 1770 is that it's awesome for kite surfing and there are kiters floating around with their boards and backpacks, I was in love.
Jen who is also on her way up the coast had tagged along with Tina and I which was perfect as we got to stay in our very own 3 person room with no strangers yay! There were to two rooms to each little wooden house dotted around the grounds and a pool, hammocks, camp fire etc to keep the travelling feel of the place alive. The houses also had large verandas out front so you could sit out and enjoy a beer while watching the sun set, or in our case, watch the mosquitoes rip us to shreds.
We had three days to kill in 1770 but it's gone really fast which is a good sign and has been the best stop yet. On day one I got to realise the life long dream of cruising down the highway on my very own chopper motorbike complete with a custom paint job of the American stars and stripes all over the bodywork, this was a good day.
The tour was called ScooterRoo and you basically rock up at this large shed where at least 100 awesome looking motorbikes, all hand painted with cool designs sit waiting for you, the highly inexperienced and over keen punter to jump on the seat and open that throttle to it's max to feel the wind in your hair and bugs in your teeth.
This dude's set up must make his insurance company cringe because to me, the idea of 40 backpackers (plus a few random German tourists) skidding to a nasty halt on the gravely tarmac seems like quite a realistic possibility but luckily it didn't happen to us!
Instead Tina, Jen and I sped along the highway on our choppers and flame-lined helmets feeling like stars on a film set while the sun set in front of us. When we'd finished cruising I asked the owner what the bikes were, where I could get one and how much they cost, I now know the answers and will be purchasing one, complete with stars and stripes on my return.
On day 2 the sun stayed out for us and Jen and I did a 3 hour surf lesson for a measly $17!! It was perfect, 20 mins of basic tuition by a brown wrinkly skinned, bleached blond haired surf dude. We both managed to stand up and ride a wave which was good fun but the strong current meant it was hard work and really bad for my back :/ (I'm paying the price today believe me).
Day 3 (today) has been super chilled, Jen left last night and Tina and I have enjoyed eating the BEST muffins ever made in the history of man. I've eaten alotttt of muffins but these are something else, seriously good!!!!
Now we're waiting to board the Greyhound night bus which will be a 14 hour long journey argh! I don't think we'd really thought about how long this was until 10 mins ago when eating our jacket potato, beans and cheese. That's more than a flight from London to LA...and half of London to Australia!....but Tina makes a good point, at least we save on one nights accommodation, a poxy $30 (which we'd happily spend on 6 white chocolate magnums anyway)
In summary it’s been a great few weeks but if I ever hear just one more Australian mention that this is the most uncharacteristically wet summer they've ever had again, I think I will rip the tongue from their mouth and send it in a little parcel to the Sahara where i'm sure it'll be nice and Sunny! :)
------------------
Whoops, didn't get a chance to send the blog until now and now it's 4 days later than it was so had better mention the last few days because they've been so fun and defo worth a decent mention.
So we survived the night bus, it wasn't the 14 hours of hell that we thought it might be, it actually went pretty quickly
and we both managed to get some hours of zzzzzz as we trundled through the more non-descript towns of the east coast. There's something about being cooped up on a bus and travelling for hours that makes you buy crap, crap you don't even want but suddenly find yourself drawn to. An example being 'My god, I desperately need that horribly greasy chicken burger even though it's 7am and I don't even like chicken burgers'. Or in my case, 'I must have that 5th pack of skittles AND the M&M's'. To be honest, it's amazing I haven't been sectioned into a fat camp with the treats i've been buying but you only live once eh.
We pulled up into Townsville around 11.30am and jumped in a cab to take us to our residence for the next 3 nights, Orchid Lodge. As Tina and I surveyed the landscape of desolate retro architecture and abandoned shop facades whizzing in front of our eyes we realised that the Lonely Planet travel writer reviewing Townsville had clearly been on acid while accessing the area to see it in such a positive light and hastily cut short our pre planned 3 nights to 1.
It was a useful stop over though and the hostel was more like staying at your granny's house then a hostel. It came complete with free laundry facilities and the old ladies running it were very cute.
However, cute old ladies were not enough to stop us venturing over to Magnetic Island on the ferry the next day and we made the 8k cruise out of Townsville to our new home in Nelly Bay. Here we have been staying at Base hostel, a VERY cool place which is more like a resort than a backpackers. The huge wooden decking pumps out music across picnic tables of people eating and drinking while the sea laps at the foot of the door. The whole place backs right onto the beach complete with palm trees and a full moon glowing onto the water.
In our three days here Tina and I have really chilled out and explored the island by hiring the craziest little car from
'tropical topless rentals'! It looks just like a larger version of a barbie car complete with pink and white plastic decor and was a convertible of course. It was wicked to zip around the empty roads feeling like I was in a computer game.
Another perk was the fact that one of my prizes from the Australian visa bureau that I won for my blog was 3 nights free accommodation here at Base so I've been staying here for free and that's $100 saved!
It was funny because today I was walking round taking pictures and who should call my name from reception but Jen, she'd caught up with us here on the island which was cool and we've just had a nice dinner together so that's all good. She's been telling us about her trip in the Whitsundays which we're doing on the 10th and getting excited about but also thinking about our sky dive which is happening on the 7th at Mission Beach. I can't believe i'm going to be throwing myself out of a plane in 7 days, hope the parachute opens :/
Going to post this now before it gets any longer now, hope whatever you're doing and where ever you're doing it in
the world you're doing it well and having fun, laters! :)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)