Filed under: Thailand
We arrived from Malaysia by bus at Hat Yai then on another to Krabi where we overnighted before a boat to the Tsunami battered but now prestine island of Koh Phi Phi don.
Koh Phi Phi:
We arrived to grey skies but warm weather and managed to find some brand new digs up one of the hills from the main beach.
I booked in for some diving over the next couple of days with Hippo divers. We planned to relax on the idyllic sand beach flanked by Limestone kast headlands but the first day it rained like hell.
Day 2 I went diving but it rained a lot. The dive was ok but there was a big swell and the sites available were not that great, we dived Ko phi phi’s sister smaller island (a national reserve due to the island beng a nesting and subsequant harvesting site of swallow bird nest soup). THe dive was ok but visibility was crap and the coral a bit scrappy. A crappy day diving is still better than a day doing other things. Claire avoided the rain.
The next day was great weather blue blue skies and hot hot sun, we managed to get out to the Bida islands for diving, Bida nok and nai and it was great, top coral and great fish, still it s overdived with boats all over the shop.
THe last day we just relaxed and dossed about, it rained on and off but we could tell the weather was tirning for the best. we looked at the markets and ate.
Phuket:
This is the largest island in Southern Thailand and sex tourism den, the main beach is nice but rammed with chairs and free sunbathing is limited as so many chairs fill the sand. We found a nice place to stay we got it cheaper as the tourist numbers have dropped off in thailand over the recent past so they want people in beds. We lounged on the beach for a few days and I went for a dive on a huge boat out to Racha Noy and Racha Yai – two islands about 2 hours off the cost, great fish life huge thousand strong shoal of Fusiler fish we were hoping for Manta Rays but this marine beast still allouds me, the visibity was a lot greater than on Phi phi at about 30m but still the dive wasn’t amazing. On the last dive the current was running so strongly that we shot past the interesting stuff before we knew wherer we were! never mind….. shite loads of grub ont eh boat – i enjoyed that and the awesome weather.
Koh Sok National Park:
About 2 hours from Phuket we arrived at the national park, this is a great place, huge forested area with a massive lake about 65km fromthe nearest access road.
We decided to go elephant trekking for the afternoon and were introduced to our huge elephant whih took us slowly but surely up the riverbed of a small stream and waterfall, it was great, we couldn’t belive the elephant would get traction but no misshaps (thankfully : )) then we fed her a whole basket of bananas hihc she grabbed with her trunk and shoves in skin and all, their inquisative trunk is so nimble when it wants to be.
We stayed a night got up pretty early and trekked into the park, we could hear an elephant pretty close as we wandered through the trails but we didn’t see it. The fact it was the arse end of the rainy season meant some trails were closed but we walked to a waterfall of sorts then up to a high point in the park over millions of steps and a Indiana Jones style bridge. It was dense forest with loads of trees and bugs and animal noises, pretty amazing but the only wildlife we saw was a bird eating a lizard and lots of lizards and creepy crawlies. It was a fantastic place to relax and we seldom saw anyone else on our 5 hour wander.
Kanchanaburi -
After a bus into and out of Bangkok (we will explore this mad capital just before we fly home in January) we arrived at this city famous for being on the Death railway that linked Thailand and Burma. The city contains the famous bridge over the river Kwai that thousands of British and other POW’s were forced to build by the occupying Japanese.
We visited the bridge, the war cemetery and the museum and it was a very interesting place. The museum told of the atrocities that POW’s suffered at the hands of the Japanese and the horrendous living conditions during their working days, whilst the thousands of graves in the war cemetery were a real reminder of the life lost, UK, Dutch, NZ, OZ and other nationalities are lined up side by side. A lot of tour buses come to the site and friends and families come to see the graves, as I wandered the graves it was moving to see the flowers and cards from loved ones. One was from a 99 year old widow to her dead husband saying how she was glad she had finally made the trip.
The bridge itslef is a single guage railway crossing and filled with tourists wndering over it, a train still runs but just for jolly foerigners.
Sukhothai:
This is one of Thailand’s ancient city, formerly the capital of the Sukhothai kingdom in the 13 and 14th century. It is a UNESCO world heritage site and is bloody large. It is located about 15km from the modern city of the same name and after a short lorry journey to it we explore this vast 70km square site on bike.
WE visited about 8 temple like structures marveling at the multitude of Buddha images, palaces and general different types of temples. There were temples with moats, temples with multiple stupa, temples with multiple Buddha, Buddha with huge hands in a very small room (this was at Wat Si chum and was my favorite temple to explore). It was reminiscent of Angkor Wat in cAmbodia but the ruins are less immense, we also liked the temple on the hill (Wat Tapahan Hin) that gave a truly great view.
Chiang Mai:
Situated in Northern Thailand, I remembered this place fondly from my previous trip. We arrived in the city a day before the Loi Kratong festival (known locally as Yi Peng: Held on the full moon of the 12th month in the traditional Thai Lunar Calandar. Thousands of people assemble floating banana-leaf containers (krathong) decorated with flowers and candles onto the waterways of the city to worship the Goddess of Water. Hot-air lanterns (khom fai) are launched into the air. These are believed to help rid the locals of troubles and are also taken to decorate houses and streets.) . We had a great time. The city was packed all the time and there were street parades, markets, lanterns, fierworks, ballons and all sorts all over the place all of the time. The food was awesome and cheap as we have eaten anywhere.
We visited the cities temples and Claire went on a Batik painting class with a lovely lady called Ann, she created a elephant wall hanging and a Bob Marley Batik print. Very cool.
There was a parade of floats most nights to the Ping river and as we wandered down the streets we saw dancing, heard music took pics, dodged fireworks and ate like kings. Plus we took some time out and went to see Jimmy Bond film,
We also went on a 2 day overnight trek to see some of Northern Thailands ethnic Hilltribes. we first stopped in at a recreated (tourist) village where the ethnic minority hilltribes are housed for ease and convenience and where they can make more money and live ‘better’ than if they were in their native lands. We saw the distinctive gold neck clad Karen Longneck Tribe and yes the rings are bloody heavy (apparently the reason they wear rings about their necks is because there used to be Tigers in the places they lived that would attack and bite the women in the neck, thus metal neck bands means no Tiger food!) there were also Meo (Meow!) people, Hmong, Luha and Akaa tribes folks and they all seemed very happy in their touist bubble.
After this top we actually did some more elephant trekking and then finally began to walk. It was pretty tough going through forest, fields, hills, trees and finally up a bloody huge hill to overnight in a Lahu village. It was a great night, the local kids came and made friends and taught us magic tricks, it was great to see that up in the hills they can easily be amused by simple string and don’t need the artificial stimuli of telly and the like. Food was great also, sticky rice all the way and a great sunset and thai green curry.
Then onwards to Laos!
Filed under: Malaysia
Singapore:
After a poor at best 5 hour delay from crap Oz budget airline Jetstar we arrived in Singapore about 11 pm. We booked straight into a hotel in the Red light district (Gaylang) and as our taxi got closer the streets were packed with ladies of the night.
Luckily however the hotel was not the knocking shop we thought, all was good and cheap as chips, so we set about exploring Singapore…
First we buggered about exploring the bustling capital and city, taking in the old colonial district down by the river and feeling all British Empire and all, then we went to the pretty damn cool Asian Civilization Museum – this gave as the once over an all things anthropogenic and basically told about how the Malay peninsular was messed about by invading Japanese, Dutch British and a few others, it was a well stocked place with plenty of traditional dress, hands on demos and all.
Another day we spent wandering the river side and Fort canning hill, the very green park where the britts built a large fort bunker thing.
Then we went shopping, obviously when i say that i mean Claire more than I and she only did it as much as the budget would allow (so none really) but it was a relief to dip in and out of the air con bohemouth malls in the humid air.
Finally we took the advise of Jenny and Jay from Oz and went to Sentosa island. This is a man made place advertised as a resort with fake beaches swimming pubs and all. It was surprisingly good, full of cool Singaporean teens, but i went swimming with container ships as a backdrop. The journey there was fun enough on the monorail and all…. but i’d expect nothing less in fast paced Singapore.
Malaysia:
Bussed it from Singapore to Melaka(aka Malacca) the former Malay capital, nestled on the Malay straits (west coast of peninsular Malaysia). First impressions of Malaysia as it flew by the bus window are bloody hundreds of rubber trees all over the place.
Melacca was a great place, basically a colonial chess piece in years past, the dutch had a bit then the britts and before that the Japanese I think. It was pivotal in its location on the shipping route, so the dutch wanted it for spice trade. There were lots of battles for control, cool dutch looking buildings remain, a host of random museums, a bustling china town with great street food, great local artist called Charles Cham (play safe use Malaysian rubber). We wandered around the local fort come church come highest point in town the site of the governors residence and I wandered about the museums. The whole city just had a great relaxed vibe oh and i just remembered it was all about the veg curry joint with a 2 USD lunch buffet all eaten with hnds and served on a Banana leaf -fantastic.
KL – Well what can I say? … i didn’t love this 4 years ago and it is same old now but claire and I managed to have a descent enough time. we camped in China town (just a term of speech – we slept in a guest house run by a nice butch lady boy, with more fish tanks than beds….). Shopped in the mad covered china town market, went to the Petronas Towers (tallest building in the world until 2004 when another Asian country built something and errected a spire on top to pip this beast : )). Wandered ……………… Ate free curried chicken and noodles on the roof of our hotel whilst watching a shitty copy of Kung Fu Panda. Ah and we also went to the Batu Caves the bloody large limestone caves about 6 km from KL center the site of many monkies and a huge Hindu shrine, pretty damn cool and this time not raining.
Cameron Highlands:
A lovely pleasant place, the weather was a little rainy but in the highlands it is always this way. We coincided our visit with Deepvaliso there were about 5 million KL residents taking a break here but still it didn’t loose it’s appeal. We went top the huge Boh tea plantation set up by a Scott a load of years ago, the view of the mountainous tea plantation was fabulous, lush uncleared tea as far as you can see. We also went to a honey farm, strawberry farm and a variety of other farms grown using hydroponics. The highlands has really seen a take off in agriculture since i was last here and the fact that water is running short in the area underlines how much they need to keep an eye on this. They grow watercress, straws, turnips, corn, all the fruit you can think off and loads more.
Another day we went trekking along one of the famous jungle trails. We had a great time, the path was a little washed out in places as it being the arse end of the rainy season meant bank erosion had occurred, but we saw huge trees, lush vegetation, heard the deafening cacophony of Cicada’s and birds and sweated our way along.
Pulau Pangkor:
This was lovely little island off Malaysia’s west coast, we had a bit of rain here as our visit was during the transition from the west to the east Malay monsoon, but it was nice to relax on a beach and do very little.
We ate great seafood here too, lovely prawns and squid. When the sun finally did come out we jumped on the white sandy beach and relaxed in the water.
Bukit Merah:
We visited this little Malay tourist spot on the advice of Jay and Jenny our English mates in oz on the tip off that you can get up close to some Orangutans. It was an effort to get to this lakeside tourist spot but after much taxi and bus combination we found ourselves on a boat shooting over to Orangutan Island. Once there we came face to face with about 30 Orangutan’s from little baby ones oddly being cared for in cots (?) to ruddy huge ones after a feed and some attention. It was pretty cool, the idea of the island is that you are the ones int he cage as you explore the place inside huge mesh tunnels and the Orangutan’s move about it. claire feel in love with the 4 month and 6 month old babies being hand reared they were i must admit very cute indeed. I was more amused by a juvenile male that came frtom the island interior into the shalls of the lake climbed up on a frat and had a piss then drank it! Ah the joys of captivity!
After the primate experience we caught a bus to Hat Yai in Southern Thailand…
Filed under: Australia
So after lovely Fiji we flew into Melbourne with budget Air Pacific and were met by our lovely mates Scott and Ainsley (now engaged!)
Melbourne – we spent about 6 days here kipping for free on ains and scotts sofa (many thanks) we explored the city sites, lesbian cafe in Richmond, the river, south bank, Victoria market… We went on a road trip with ains and scott to the Healsville sanctuary where we saw all the ozzie wildlife; koala, wombat, dingo, liar birds, ro’s. On an unrelated day we ate ro to it was served with red wine for $9.99 it was tasty and healthy with very little fat. In Melbourne we also saw Richie smith and his wife Adrienne, it was very nice seeing them, we ate noddle soup in a Vietnamese place and had home made lemonade from a huge lemon tree they have in their yard (cheers for the floor smithie!)
Sydney – we night bussed it to Sydney and knocked on the door of another of our friends Jenny and Jay Lynn (Mum – formerly Gower, i.e lyd’s mate) we stayed in their cool pad in Potts Point and soaked up the sunny days, we saw bondi beach, harry’s pies (tasty!), did a day trip top the beautiful blue mountains just inland from sydney and marveled at Gum trees aplenty, Cockatoos and waterfalls and amazing views, we also ate more pies to. We saw the opera house and wandered the Domain and botanic gardens avoiding the multitude of flying foxes (fruit bats) hanging from trees and defecating all over (cool : )).
Then we teamed up again with Scott and Ainsley and drove with them north and inland a bit to Scotts olds place int eh valley (exact location unknown). It was ace, a sizable place on the valleyside with amazing views of a creek and forest. We got very drunk and met some of their mates (we were sober when we met them but got piddled as the night rolled on – they were Barry and squeeze, cool people.) we played a drink version of twister Claire got hiccups and then slept, whilst ains scott barry and I went ‘Yabbying’ (?) basically fishing for fresh water crayfish in a shitty river at 2 am int he cold with chicken fat on string, we got a few bites or thought we did when drunk and rolled home later. Scott rolled over int he wet it was funny.
Byron Bay – Bowled up in Byron bay and did some surfing with old terry from Kool Cats surf outfit, it was cool and we both managed to hone our skills from Nicaragua to achieve 3.5 seconds on the bus size boards before crashing into oblivion. Claire saw a dolphin jump from the water whilst we sat on the main bay and we generally pottered about Byron enjoying the sun and beach.
Surfers Paradise/Main Beach – here we teamed up with cousin Katherine and fiance Jade, we had a great time, the weather was great and the place plastic and like Vegas but the beach was white, sand squeaky under foot and sun hot. we went to the surf club with ?Jade and Kat (very home and away) drank champagne and got pissed, then on to a pub at the casino Jade did a Mango Daiquiri frozen drink and got brain freeze, we headed home lost the keys to thew apartment Kat had rented for her olds for the upcoming wedding, climbed the balcony, Jade passed out, we took him home his pants fell down we looked a site, it was funny as hell we eventually got in. nursed a hangover all the next day did nothing and then left. Great time had, good to see those guys.
Brisbane – Hooked up with Claires mate from work in London called Erin. She showed us the sites, we went up to a mountain to look over the sprawl of Brisbane Oz’s working city. The weather was great, Erin then took us on a power walk along the river and gardens and back to her pad that she shares with her mate Emma. We went for a drink at the powerhouse that night like Battersea power station but smaller and converted to new trendy bar. Next day we went off by train to the Glass house Mountains national park up near Steve Irwins Australia Zoo. It was pretty amazing with these jagged peaks rising above the flat plains. We walked up one Called Ngungun it was smallish but gave great views all around. We passed huge pineapple fields on the way and marveled at how they grew from bushes and not trees. Bizarre.
Noosa – Here again we loafed about int he sun on the beach and did little else, it was a nice place quite an upmarket beach but pretty and that is about all.
Fraser island – We bussed, ferry and van combo ed it to Fraser Island the largest natural sand island in the world. We started a 2 day guided tour. It was pretty damn good the first day weather was not so hot with a fierce wind howling along the 75 mile beach so we went to the central station which used to be the home of the loggers on the island, then off to the stranded lake Wabby green as you like with huge catfish. It was a real trek to this over the huge dunes but surreal when we got there and great for a dip.
Next day we went along the beach, saw dingos and a sea snake and stopped at the wreck of the Maheno which lies majestically across the beach affording lovely shots and the ideal place to get run over as the beach is a national highway but us tourists are invincible right! Then on to Eli creek where I swam and got cold nuts and it comes out to the beach and looks lovely. Finally up to Indian head where the weather was clear and afforded great views of the sea and we even managed to see a few whales breaching and heading around the point. lovely time.
Airlie Beach/Whitsundays – Arrived at Arilie beach the gateway to sail around the beautiful Whitsunday islands. We went aboard a Maxi racing boat and sailed our way over to Whitehaven beach. The scenery was amazing blue blue seas, lovely islands and whitehaven beach with white as you like sand but a fair few other people there as well. We ate like kings and then jumped back on the boat for a sail back. Claire and I had a go at helping them sail we raised a few sails and it was bloody hard work but a good laugh and a great day out.
Ayr – I dived the SS Yongala (steamship). this was random little stop at a farming town next to the coast. We arrived late got a taxi to the beach avoiding Kangaroos and I woke to a fantastic still day for diving. We powered the 40mins to the wreck and the water was like a mill pond and blue. We jumped in and had 2 great dives on the old steam ship that sank killing all crew and passengers and a prize race horse due to a tropical cyclone some 70 years ago. The dive was very rewarding, i touched sea snakes, saw loads of turtles, a Guitar shard (head like a ray) loads of grouper, stingrays and other cool things, one of the best dives I’ve had. Claire had to just potter about at the diving lodge and wait for me. She didn’t mind.
Cairns – We arrived here in Northern tropical Queensland and went straight on an overnight tour of Cape Tribulation further north. We saw virginal rain forest, did a croc cruise, saw the reef meet the rain forest, walked along near deserted beaches i ate a green tree ant that tasted of lime and we relaxed. We drank billy can tea and enjoyed the delights of tropical fruit ice cream – wattle seed ice cream was lovely.
Back to Cairns and i jumped on a 2 day live aboard boat for more diving on the Great Barrier Reef. Unlike my last experience 4 years ago I went further out on the reef where less people go and less of the reef is mashed up. The dicing was fantastic vivid colors, pristine coral, loads of turtles, sharks and fish, eels and slugs and nurdibrach. Met a cool couple called Nick and Sian and I got drunk with them in the woolshed the crappy backpacker bar full of wet t shirts and shit Oz beer!
Darwin – We flew from Cairns to Darwin and began to sweat as the weather hit at least 38 degrees C every day. Here in Oz’s Northern Territory (NT) we decided to explore the national parks. First off we went to Litchfield national park , on croc cruise where they dangle chicken and ruddy huge beast jump from the water to grab it, it was cool but scary. Then we marveled at the millions of Eucalyptus trees all over the shop, the huge cathedral termite mounds the termites hoard iron and taste of rusty nails – i know i ate some. Then we swam in some lovely water falls and saw Monitor lizards, birds and lots of spiders. And i enjoyed a couple of beers whilst floating about in a water hole. we couldn’t swim all over the place due to ruddy large crocs.
Kakadu national park was next – this was an overnight thing and we saw more wilderness and unspoiled forest, Aboriginal people own most of the land the government stole it then gave it back to the natives under the condition it is a national park. We saw frill necked lizards, Walabe, Aboriginal cave art, bloody huge 6 truck road train hurtling along the Kakadu and Stewart highways, more waterfalls, swimming holes. The scenery was stunning and the experience amazing one of the biggest eye openers was the Aussies in the NT – it is a really rugged place and so hot that to live there they are different somehow, more dependent on beer and with more of that curt aussie charm. Still we had a good time and manged to wangle an upgrade to deluxe tents with fans and a refund as the specific tour were booked fell through.
Other than national parks we went to the Mindal Beach markets so some music that can only be described as speed didge and ate like kings, i bought an authentic Didge made from termite munched wood and crafted by an aboriginal fellow called Terry. go figure…
anyway that ends oz onwards to Asia!
We were so happy to be leaving New Zealand, not because it wasn’t amazing, it was, but it was chuffing cold and we needed the sand, sea and sun (especially the sun!).
Mana Island
After luckily only spending one night in Nadi we took a boat to Mana Island. It was beautiful, white sandy beaches, blue sea and lots of sun. Apparently the program Survivor was filmed there, Will and I didn’t care enough to look. We watched some amazing sunsets and Will did some cool diving. Also we think we may have ate a puppy which I was nearly in tears over. The first night we went out and there were 4 very cute pups, the next day we had some dodgy meat for lunch, it was disgusting, it was fleshy and had lots of bones in it, anyway the guys in our hostel kept saying it was a puppy! But the next night we went to see the pups and there were only 3 of them, so sad!
Mana island was good, we met some crazy irish guys, one of them we buried in the sand when we were drunk but he was too drunk to care and probably would have stayed there all night if we hadn’t of moved him. We got to watch some fijian dancing and flame dancing, it was very nice and relaxing (and warm, fianlly).
Coral View Island
Our next stop was Coral View Island, it was a very nice island with the best accomodation we have stayed in in a while. Will got to do lots of diving and was also offered a job there which he may have said yes to if it wasn’t on a tiny island. Will also did a shark feeding dive. We also went snorkeling in the blue lagoon, where the Blue lagoon movie with Brooke Shields was filmed. The sea was so clear and gorgeous.
White Sandy Beach
The next stop was Kuata island for one night, it was a gorgeous little island but very basic accomodation, our friends next door found a mouse in their room, the scream was classic, it made us check under the bed, luckily we didn’t find any.
We than caught the boat to White Sandy Beach which was just a beautiful little island, with a white sandy beach. We did some manta ray snorkeling but didn’t see any 
and just spent the last few days soaking up the sun and learning the Bola dance.
The Beachhouse
When we got back to the mainland we headed south to The Beachhouse, Love Island was filmed at the resort. It was a nice place, very relaxed and chilled out.
We got attacked by a skinny little dog called peanut, we were unhappy about that! Got to read alot outside where it was very very windy and not very sunny. We also went to a Rugby game, it took about 3 hours to get to, mostly on dirt roads, it was awesome, men were passed out from drinking Kava, women were screaming at the game and football boots were being broken and switched round every 10 minutes. It was a good game, all we know is that the red team won but we (our drivers) didn’t want them to win.
Our last night involved a little too much drinking and why do people invent drinking games?? They always end badly!
Next stop Australia…..
Filed under: New Zealand
Auckland – so after the flight from hell with 200 plus Chilian kids going to see the Pope for World Youth Day, we arrived in Auckland. It was cold and wet. We picked up our campervan (Toyota Hiace) and drove to a camp in Auckland for a couple of days to explore Auckland. We generally just pottered about and slept after out budget 2 days of flights from Mexico.
Bay of Islands – We drove the olde camper beast up North and arrived at Pahia the gateway to NZ’s Bay of Islands. being winter but still sunny we didn’t embark on any dolphin cruises or anything mad and simply got the water Taxi across the bay to NZ’s first capital of Russel. It was very quaint and quiet and we walked to Flagstaff hill where they kept hoisting union Jack flags and Mauris kept cutting it down… Then we visited the Waitangi Treay Grounds where Mauri and the British crown signed a treaty that established a British Governor in NZ and made the Mauri the rights of British subjects. As there were 2 versions of the treaty (Mauri and British) there was misunderstanding…. the british point of view was that the governor would run NZ whilst the Mauri disagreed. Ho hum.
Cape Reinga – Up to NZ’s most Northerly point, the road was dirt and the weather drizzley but we passed some amazing coastal views, every 10 minutes yield yet another Kodak moment. We camped near the beach in the middle of no where then walked to the tip of the cape and saw Cape Reinga’s lighthouse. It was a lovely morning with prefectblue skies as we watched the Tasman Sea crash into the PAcific Ocean.
Kauri Museum – we drove south back fromt he cape and stayed by the west coast. We visited the oldest Kauri tree in NZ a huge beast and then popped into Nz’s Kauri museum detailing everything Kauri from how they chopped them, transported with dams, collected gum (sap), turned them into dressers and furniture and how the Kauri fellers lived.
Coromandel Penninsular – After a lengthy drive along an amazing road that hugged the coast we arrived in the Corramandel Penninsular. We had some amazing sunny weather and duely visited hot Water Beach and tried to dig a hole on the beach and sit in a hot water pool, we nearly accomplished this but not having a spade and using our hands the hole wasn’t the best…. nice beach though.
Roturua – We arrived in smelly bad egg Sulphurtastic Roturua and went off for a lovely Polynesian Spa, very realxing, acidic pools and alakaline ones for the skin, it was a great realaxing experience with lovely views across the lake. Then we went to a Mauri entertainment night with tradition Hangi food (food cooked in an oven in the ground) I ate my own body weight in food, chicken, beef, fish, pasta, all together. Lovely. There was a traditional Mauri dance show and I attempted the Haka it was amusing after plates of food it was the last thing that I wanted to do. Claire chickened out doing Poi dance and preferred to just point and laugh at me!
Taupo – Rainy Taupo, we arrived it rained we camped it rained, we walked and marveled at the huka Falls then went to the Honey Hive and ate a large amount of honey from tubs. I marveled at the Geothermal powerstation and then watched the rapids at Aratiatia come to life as they release water throught the dam to make electricity (simple things) : )
Napier – Art deco Napier on NZ’s East Coast was splendid. It is a town that was levelled to the ground in 20/30′s by an earthquake therefore they rebuilt it all but in the Art Deco style of the period. It was great everything is art deco, banks, shops, fountains, skate park and outdoor theatre and toilets. We explored the area along an art deco walk, visited the national aquarium where we saw shark feeding, crocs, piranha and lots more. Then we went and relaxed in Napier’s Sea side spa, overlooking the water, it was great to watch the stars coming out whilst in the hot water – maybe they could make Margate Lido like this….. or maybe not.
Wellington – Windy wellington was windy, we saw a Rita Angus exhibition in the national gallery and did touristy things like going up the cable car to the mountain overlooking the city. Then we got blown and battered for 3 days so much so that our sailing on the ferry to the South island of NZ was canceled.
Kaikoura – The drive down Nz’s South islands East coast was amazing, the surf smashes into the beach metres from the tarmac, we stopped off for lunch and Fur seals were in abundance. We arrived at Kiakoura wanting to go out on the boat and do some whale watching but the blustery weather up north and the fact the NZ was being hit by the largest storm in 10 years meant that we were unlucky and we decided to push on.
Hamner Springs – We decided to drive the Lewis pass over Nz’s central mountain range towards the West coast but stopped at the small adventure town of Hamner located up the mountain. Hamner had fresh alpine air and lush trees all around we walked around the alpine slopes and through forests enjoying the relaxed atmosphere then we did some more relaxing by going to the Hamner springs spa resort and enjoying the mineral enriched water whilst seeing the snow capped peaks in the distance.
Waiuta – Next we overnighted in an old gold mining town along the south islands west coast. Then town is located high on a plateau with great views across the valley and hills, it was once a huge place with many houses and shops but when the gold dried out, all the people left and took houses with them, some are left like the post office barbers and rugby pitch and swimming pool. All the mine equipment remains and they have the deepest mine shaft in NZ! very interesting, claire thought I was silly exploring the ruins but I enjoyed it
Fox Glacier – We climbed the Fox Glacier amid high winds and the fear of being blown off the ice! But it was fantastic, beautiful ice holes, crevasses, holes and rivers afforded great kodak moments and a great stroll on the ice.
Wanaka – We arrived at the lakeside town of Wanaka and enjoyed its relaxed atmosphere. We climbed mount Iron an ice shaped peak to get a good look of lake wanaka and the surrounding mountain ranges peaked with snow. Then we decided to be more active and enrolled on a 2 day Ski lesson program 90 english pounds! bargin! We drove every morning up a pretty dicey track (snow chains a must) to arrive at the piste at Cardrona ski field. Skiing is great and loads of fun! we had a ciouple of lessons and got the basic wedge turns and stops and then hit the slopes, it was great to cruise along the slopes and marvel at the pure white powder all around. Definitely a ski holiday in the near future we think.
Queenstown – We arrived in Nz’s adventure capital and went to a adventure film festival (very daring!) it was great all about skiing and canoeing and mountaineering basically going wrong. Other than that we wandered around Queenstown and booked our trip out Milford Sound.
Milford sound – We took a coach trip down to one of NZ’s Southerly Fjords called Milford sound. The weather was great and we were able to really enjoy the mountains and views during the cruise. The panoramic views were amazing, we saw penguins and seals and even ran over a blind sea bird in our boat, it was ok afterwards. Milford Sound is a truly amazing place, everywhere you look there is nature, waterfalls, sea, ferns, mirror lakes, mountain passes and no other bugger there!
Dunedin – We arrived in student filled Dunedin and booked our selves straight onto a Cadbury’s choc and Speights beer tour! they were both pretty good and i’ve not eaten so much chocolate in such a small period of time! the beer tour was good to and the unlimited beer at the end made up for it even if it was only shitty NZ tipple in silly little glasses! why don’t they do pints? Other than this we cruised around the Otago peninsular and loved the views of unspoilt bays and lovely country, twisty roads and more great kodak moments.
Kiakoura – We tried again with the whales and drove back to Kiakoura, we were unlucky on the first day with a huge swell cancelling our trip but we stayed the night enjoying the great sunny weather (apparently not shared off shore). But it cleared the next morning and we had a great time spotting 5 14 sperm whales off NZ’s cast, it was amazing to be 10 meters from one of the beasts cruising along and hearing it blow out the spary from its air hole and then bring its tail up to dive. Truly breathtaking! Claire didn’t fair to well on the trip as there was still a large swell running but she managed to see some whales in between spewing into bags!
Christchurch – We dropped our camper off here without any major accident and it felt odd to have to carry our bags again after 5 weeks on the road! We spent a few days exploring Christchurch’s galleries shops and generally mouched around until we flew on to Fiji for some warm weather. Oh and Claire bought a cool SLR camera.
Filed under: Mexico
Ok, so it began with an overland bus journey from Belize city which was fun. The first Mexican point of call was;
Tulum – Rain rain rain, the beach was perfect white sand the bluest water you have ever seen, but the tail end of some tropical gale was lashing the coast so we managed a half day on it, dodging the rain storms. The Mayan ruins at tulum were very gentrified as I feel is the Mexican way nothing like the rough and ready no roped off areas Guatemalan and Honduran site. The Mayan city of Tulum is right on the cliff and the location is amazing, shame about the tourists and th rain!
Cenote diving – So i decided to delve into the underwater cavern world of the Cenote, I went to Dos Ojos (two eyes), two dives and they were splendid. A cenote is basically a flooded cave system. The water is so clear that when you are in it it seems like you are floating in mid air! it is odd, the cave was full of stalagmites and stalactites, few fish but amazing viewing, it is pretty shallow about 12m max but the environment is sometime closed overhead, the view into a part of the cenote with access to the surface brings amazing light effects. The highlight was when we experienced a Halocline, which being and oceanographer I will bore you with…. a halocline is an area of water with a large salinity gradient i.e two layers of water with different densities that don’t mix (the fresher rainwater and the underground cave water) the effect is a visual shim,mering of water, you can see it as you approach like a heat haze, it was odd, vision was altered and the fish looked odd, very cool experience. There was also a bat cave and a crocodile marking the half way point…. see the pics.
Playa del Carmen – This was a tourist mecca, easily the most touristy place Claire and I had been too in the last 5 months of your travels, just like the Spanish coast, the beach was fantastic and the water warm and many Americans all over (i guess Mexico for them is like France for Britt’s), we wandered miles past the big tourist hotels and you can still find beach front that is backed only by rough fences and few people, it was relaxing here and we just soaked up the sun and went to Wallmart.
Cancun – This was even more touristy than Playa del Carmen although this was only what we heard as we spent one night here, went to the cinema and looked for an SLR camera.
Isla Mujeres – This was a magical little island off the coast of Cancun, we took a boat over there and found a cool little apartment, then basically at on the beach sweated a lot and became more tanned.
Palenque – This was a long 18 hour bus ride from the Yucatan peninsula to the region of Chipas (Mexico’s poorest and more like Guatemala), we arrived in the early hours of the morning. we stayed in the forest in a jungle lodge that was damp and humid. after a couple of hours kip we waled to the Mayan ruins of Palenque – famous for the tomb of K’inich Janaab’ Pakal (Pacal the Great) whihc they found within the bowels of one of the temples. although the site was smaller than tikal and copan it was still very impressive and worth a visit. the Palace structure was very interesting with grafitti from the spanish conquistadors and the Acroplois structures with their intact roof combs were a joy to see! we are know Mayan ruin experts!
San Cristobal de las casa – this was a sleepy little Mexican town famous for it markets and the fact that it was taken over by the Zapatista Army of National Liberation a few years back (they want to be Mexican but still indigenous and to be reckognised and treted as so – they were basically not listened to and told to be quiet). We did some interesting things here ; first we went to the nearby Canyon del Sumidero whihc is a canyon you take a boat into, it was very impressive, at some points the vertical walls rise to over 1km, the views were amazing, the only poor thing was the amount of rubbish especially plastic bottles floating in the river – really bad! Next we went to Mayan Medicine museum – this was an odd but very informative place, it told the story of mayan healing, candels burnt to make people feel better, how mayab women give birth whic is on their knees infront of a husband that is sitting on a chair with the midwife behind. It told us things like they use skunk uribne to get ride of skin conditions and they pray using candeles incense and bottles of pop that they drink in the shrines (the burps they see as being good for sick peopl). It was a great and bizare place with a 12 minute graphioc video of a mayan lady giving birth to wrap it up…
Oaxaca city – This is historically the home of Zapotec and Mixtec peoples and is a city known for its markets both food and clothes. Here I ate Mole whihc is a traditional choclate suce, I had it in a dirty little market over chicken, i had black mole and it was ok not sweet cadbury’s choc more a little bit like cooking choc. I also ate some bugs – these I paid for they are little grasshopper heavily seasoned and dried they taste like sundried tomatoes and they are nice but strong in flavour and you need a drink to wash them down. also whilst here we went on a day tour to see the Mitla ruins. They were amazing. They were first built in 200 BC and display an interesting mix of Zapotec and Mixtec styles. The walls are covered in mosaics and geometric repeating patterns (see the pics).
Next we went to ‘Hierve El Agua’ a petrified waterfall in the middle of nowhere, it is surrounded my mineral (not hot as i found out) springs that look like you are swimming in pea. the view was amazing and the stone waterfall in the distance.
Finally we went to a Mezcal distillery – mezcal is a drink made from cactus (a specific type of cactus but i can’t rember whihc) Taqueilla is a type of Mezcal. We saw how they dig up the root (shaped like a pineapple) cook it in the ground then mash it to get a paste/glue like mush then they ferment and distill it and then we drank it, ity was ok better than devbil water tequilla and as it was free I tasted a lot.
The next day claire and I went to Monte Alban – it was the largest Zapotec city site in mesoamerica and commands a mountain top position with great views. It had temples tombs and ball courts like Mayan sites but wasn’t quite as impressive in my opinion, although the central plaza was vast and the stones making up the observatory had cool images hacked into them to symbolise the other tribes and people the Zapotecs killed! great.
Mexico city – So we finally made it to Mexico City and it was crap weather for a large amount of time. we strolled around the central square marveled at the giant flag in the middle, rode the best and cheapest metro (about 20p flat fare anywhere), went to the Frida Kahlo museum and read the letter from Rockefeller telling her husband Diego Rivera (the mural painter) to remove the painting of Lennin from his mural at the Rockefeller center in New York. We wandered to the giant Teotihuacan pyramids a few km’s outside Mexico City and went ‘Oh my God they are huge’ -we climed the 300 m Pyramid of the Sun and the pyramid of the moon. When the Aztecs came across the site they thought the huge pyramids had been created by giants, this place was immense although a lot of the site has been poorly recontructed.
thats a wrap!
Filed under: Belize
Belize and the English language oh how we loved that. Obviously we are both fluent in Spanish?! now but it was good to be understood and understand!
The bus ride from the border was mad, it looked like we were driving past a huge lake, but a guy told us that all the water was from flooding and it was some of the worst rain that they have had in years. So the first stop was Belize city, not much to say, we had to stay there for one night which was fine and the next day we left.
Next stop was Caye Caulker, an island just off Belize. We found a nice little cabin on the beach,it was nice until we went into the bathroom and saw there was a hole about the size of a tennis ball on the floor of the shower, needless to say Will nearly lost his soap a couple of times. The island was nice although it didn’t have a beach which was a shame. We just lounged about for a few days, enjoying the cloudy weather but at least it wasn’t raining so we were very very happy about that. The first night we left for dinner a little late and had to take a torch with us, we were than confronted with about 50 crabs all over the beach, I don’t think I have ever stuck to Will as closely as than so each dinner trip was an adventure….
Our next door neighbours dog just had puppies, they were only about 3 weeks old and continued to run around everywhere, I fell in love with them especially the smallest and I think I have converted Will to actually liking dogs now hurrah!!
The day before we left we did a snorkeling trip that went to the Hol Chan reserve. Right so everything was going smoothly for the first 45 minutes on the boat (a sailing boat by the way) until I felt a bit seasick, the Captain gave me some pills and just before I was about to jump in I threw up, lovely!! I jumped in after though and demanded a life jacket as we were in the middle of the ocean and it was so choppy and I didn’t want to drown Will by holding on to him for my dear life. We were looking at some fish and when I poked my head out of the water Will told me not to freak out but there was a sting ray just under me, about 3 meters under me, well I didn’t freak out but I didn’t move for a good 10 minutes until I couldn’t see it anymore, it was very big! The next stop and I felt worse, the dam sea, it had nothing to do with the sharks and rays in the water. It was mad, the Captain started throwing chum over the boat and about 20 nurse sharks (they didnt look that scary and were only about a meter long but they were sharks) were right next to the boat. Everyone went in and than the Captain shouted at me to show me this huge sting ray that he had in his hands! Craziness! A few people got out as apparently the rays started coming to the surface but Will enjoyed it 
The third stop was pretty cool, Will swam through a small little cave and we saw some bigger fish and cool reef. It was the best snorkeling we have done so far. On the way back they made a lot of rum punch, I stuck to the water just to be on the safe side
And that it is on our Belize travels, all the excitement lasted for a whole 4 days, off to Mexico now.
Filed under: Guatemala
Antigua – After marvelling at Copan in Honduras we shuttled it (minivan) to the city of Guatemala, we had to drive through shitty Guatemala city which was grim enough. Antigua is as the lonely planet says the kind of Guatemalan city that would have come about had Scandinavians built it, tidy, nice parks, no stray dogs…
Anyway it was a nice place full on Spanish schools and sun and plazas and ruins as they keep having earthquakes. We climbed an active volcano (Guatemala has many) this one was called Pacaya and with health and safety thrown to the wind we climbed up to the lava field in the crater where u can stand on or in lava that moves at a snails pace. Some cool photos later we descended in the dark. It was pretty special.
Lovely Claire turned 25 her so we went for a Thai ,meal and drinks , she beat me at pool a few times and we hit the sack about 11pm – how hardcore are we. : ) we had fun though
Lago Atilian – We took another chicken bus to the beautiful Lago Atilian, a huge old volcanic caldera filled with water with several idyllic towns around. first we stayed in Panahachel which was non decrepit and a little dull. that day we walked to a nearby village called Santa Catarina where it is all about the local ladies indigenous indigo coloured dress (the name escapes me). We were accosted by a little waif girl and we bought some Quetzal key rings ( a little green bird with splendid regal Green feathers) – apparently Guat´s national bird but they have few as they keep smashing their habitat.
San Pedro la Laguna was next – a real hippie place backed by the looming Volcano San Pedro where we did a lot of cool stuff. Went horse riding along the lake (which i have now called arse smashing as when the silly old nag decided to canter and gallop that is what happened!) lovely views. then we relaxed in Solar thermal baths that lie along the lake shore – the water is heated in vast coils of black pipe that lie on the shore and then when u want to take a bath they fill it for you and you relax into the night. Very nice.
Next we went kayaking across the freaking huge lake (it was vast) to another town called San Marcos – where I bought a choco banana the best thing ever (and it was about 3 p). We had a coffee and enjoyed the view. Then tried to paddle back but a force 5 gale had blown up and scuppered us we took in many a splash and had to hug the shore for about 5 miles to get home very moist but a good day.
Quetzaltenango (Xela – pronounced Shela!) This is in the highlands, the bus journey was very wiggly but nice. We enjoyed this town with its fresh mountain air and decided to be silly and climb the highest peak in central America called Volcano Tamjumlco at 4220m. So there we go on a day 2 day hike, we had to carry the food 8 litres of water and ourselves. We bussed it to the foot of the beat and climbed into the clouds, it was walking really but hard as it was steep, we clambered through cloud rain and had lunch under tarp. Then we clambered more above clouds marvelling at the views of rolling highlands and volcanic peaks. we camped int he rain, pissing rain, the food was good, soap, hot dogs, desert coffee. the idea was to puck on at 4 am for the remaining 200m to the summit and watch the sunrise. so at 4 we got up cold and tiered and scrambled up it was tough but rewarding, some of the best views I have ever seen, there was a layer of cloud below and all of Guatemala’s volcano peaks could be seen, the Atilan range, the active Pacaya, the active other one (?) with its smoke cloud and the one we were on complete with ruddy massive crater behind me! Many pic was snapped (see flickr photo stream soon….) the descent was quicker but equally as hard.
Chichicastenango – a great stop was for this very traditional and vast market. We got a few bits and had some welcome sun with a hostel with a funky cemetery view.
Coban – The journey to Coban was epic, the lonely planet pens it as a dramatic ride along some beautiful country, well it was hills vallies rivers, but it had rained a lot (we later found out that Hurricane Alma was following us into Guat and bringing 72 hours of mental rain) the road in one place was gone, and there wasn´t much there to begin with. We sat on the road side int he hills for 5 hours as the road was re built with a lot of bulldozers. coban was also wet and we stayed one night before going to Lanquin and Semuc Champey.
Lanquin is the jumping off point to Semuc champey which is the most amazing place. It is in the middle of now where a good few hours bum jarring minivan to it, basically a series of crystal clear pools on top of a limestone bridge int he forest with the main river running underneath the limestone plateau. The pictures are amazing, the water fresh and clear and ideal for swimming, i have never seen anything like it ever. A magical place (even if it did rain).
Flores – An island in the Lago de Flores in Northern Guat. A nice place with nice weather but not much else. We did our washing and Claire lost a sock.
Tikal – after much deliberation as to if a sunrise tour or actually sleeping in the Tikal Mayan Ruins would be best we opted to spend the night. so we arrived at the legendary Mayan ruins in Tikal found a tent and wandered the ruins set in lush jungle. These ruins are all about tall pyramids unlike at Copan Ruinas in Honduras. We clambered up Temple 5 for an amazing view above the tree canopy at all of the other temple pyramids. Temple 5 was about 60m high and the climb up it was mad, near vertical not for faint hearted and the top wasn´t even roped off! mad! We had the temples to ourselves as we had entered the ruins in the afternoon and it was great, jungle sounds engulfed us and we felt the humidity.
The nest day after a 4 am wake up we payed a shot gun wielding guard to escort us to Temple 4 the highest in Tikal at 67m where we watched a cloudy but amazing sunrise. Howler monkey cries thronged the air and it was very magical moment. After more exploring of the vast site (which is still being uncovered) we left and via long arse journey went into Belize! or former British Honduras.
Willy
Hello campers, will at the helm now.
so Hondurous was bloody hot, dry and dusty but amazing. We began with the lengthy border run from Northern Nicaragua, through Los Manos, Danli we arrived at Tegucigalpa – it was a shite place and crime all over, we stayed one night and the owner of the hotel told us ot to go out at night…. safe.
We bussed it to La Ceiba on the Northern coasty, whihch is the jumping off point to the diving Mecca that is the Bay Islands. We decided upon going to the large4r of the three islands called Roatan.
Roatan – It was a great little place, dive shops all over the beaches, white coral sand, sun and a good feel. I did some amazing diving, wrecks, drift dives, deep dives, night dives, saw and heard Toadfish, droupers, Barracuda, Pufferfish, Parrotfish, Eels, the famous String of Perals (phosphurescence from nocturnal sea animals), moonfish and loads more, it was a great place, better diving than OZ and just about on a par with Fiji, I took some good underwater pics witht he camera (see the panel to the left and our flickr account). Claire embarked on a discover Scuba course and after some persistance decided she was hapier snorkelling than being underwater puffing off a tank – she still saw some great fish as we snorkelled about the prestine coral just off shore.
Tela – along the coast from La Ceiba we spent a couple of days in this seside town, ok beach spolit by Diesel tanker 250m off shore helping to ease honduras{s power problem whihc insidently means the power goes down every other hour : ) Tela is the home of the 2nd largest Tropical Garden, set up by the united Fruit Company for research back in teh 80{s and still maintained, it had a great swimming hole with friendly fish Claire liked them.
Marcala – Great little town, really local feel, didn{t see any other white boys (or girls) we walked to asome amazing waterfalls, and found a Gigantic cave (Cueva Gigante in Espanol), with some crazy stencil like ‘ancient’ prints on the wall. There was nobody else around and we had a nice relax, a hawk gave claire a fright as it was circling her ready to nibble and local lads directed us. It was very nice and Hot!
Gracias A Dios – Meaning thank good this place was – We arrived in this dusty backwater near the El salvador border. The former capital of the Hoduran colinial rule and lovely cobbeled streets and plaza. We found a great place to eat where everything was 100 % organic, a meal was cheap as chips, we had organic coffee, fresh fish, fresh veg, blackcurrant smoothies, tortilla, it was ace. We also went to some roasting hot springs whihc were a welcome reliefe after the 4 km locust filled walk to the place.
Copan Ruinas – This was a small town 10km from the Guatemala border. Famous for the Mayan ruins called Copan. We went we saw and we sweated a lot. The ruins were amazing, great plazas, pyramids and the jem of the site the 62 steps of the Hidreglpyic stairway. The maya were a clever bunch.
Right, we got to Nicaragua and the first place we headed was to the beach of course, the lovely (and very touristy) San Juan Del Sur. The beach near our hostel was the windiest beach ever, we actually got cuts from the sand blowing against our legs, the beach also had a dead eel in the sand every meter or so, very strange!
The next day we went to another beach for a surf lesson, obviously Will managed to stand within 5 minutes (because he is great at everything ) but an hour later and 100 tries later I managed to stand for more than 5 seconds, result!! The next day we went to a little island in the lake called Isla de Ometepe. It was a lovely tranquil place we were happy as we were the only people around, we went swimming in the lake which was great, than Will casually mentioned that there are Bull sharks in the lake at which point we ran out. We also went to the gorgeous swimming hole (ojo de agua) but as it was a Sunday lots of families appeared so we went to the beach for the day (a hard life), we caught the local bus back to our town in the afternoon and everyone on the bus was pissed and singing and playing a cheese grater?!!
The next stop was Granada, the bus route was crazy, about 20 kids and women got on selling everything from drinks, cooked lunches to pills?!! Went to Laguna de Apoyo, it is a lagoon in a dormant volcano (I know I was a little freaked out by it too). The volcano is over 21,000 years old and 250 meters deep. It has been one of the most relaxing places so far, the water was amazing to swim in and it was super chilled out! We also went on a boat tour of islands near Granada and visited a tiny island (about the size of two large rooms) called Monkey Island. It had 4 monkeys on it that were brought to the island and now live on there, we felt sorry for the monkeys, it was just strange that someone would do that.
We went to Matagalpa next to do a coffee tour. The coffee plantation that we visited, Selva Negra, was amazing, everything was organic, they even had houses for their 300 workers on the plantation and apparently half of their staff were women. The tour was good as the guide was the owner of the plantation and a very chatty and educated man called Eddy, however we were disappointed as we didn’t even get a cup of coffee out of it.
Our final destination was Esteli, it was a quiet little town. We went to the Galeria de Heroes y Martires, it was a huge room dedicated to the memory of the towns fallen revolutionaries. The museum is run by mothers of the martyrs and it was very moving seeing all the pictures and clothes of the people that fought, by far the best museum so far.
