New Zealand

The final stage of our journey before settling to work for a year in Australia. New Zealand was immediatally a country of epic scenary, friendly locals and a lot of sheep.
Christchurch was closed down to tourists so we got out of there and drove all the way to mount cook stopping at beautiful lake tekapo on route.  At the foot of NZ's tallest peak we camped out for the night in our little campervan 'charlie'.
Next stop was Queenstown the adventure capital. We didnt have a lot of money for adventure activities but  still loved it here and took full advantage of the beautiful weather and surroundings. A travellers right of passage here is Fergburger, (the best burgers in the world).
From Queenstown we took the milford track to do a short cruise on the amazing milford sound (actually a fiord). The drive through Fiordland national park was probably the most scenic part of new zealand that we were able to see, it was simply stunning.
After Fiordland we made our way past lake wanaka and up the west coast of the south island.
The west coast highlights had to be the rugged and wind swept coast line and pancake rocks at punakaikai. The sandflies were not so fun, those things are vicious and sometimes we couldnt leave the van for long without getting covered in bites.
Last stop on the south island was Nelson and the Abel Tasman national park. We had a stroke of luck and managed to get a days tramping (trekking) in at Abel tasman before the rain started. The next few days were spent catching up with our good friend danny we met in china. This was a relief as we realised we hadnt actually had a real conversation with anyone but each other for nearly two weeks. Theres only so much gin drinking and card games you can take before going a bit crazy.

The south island was over and we made our way across to wellington on the ferry.
Windy Welly is a nice city with a reputation for bad weather, the museum here (te papa) was amazing.
The final week of NZ was a literal wash out. We travelled from wellington to lake taupo managing to get  a morning of nice (ish) weather to see what all the fuss is about. Unfortunately we didnt manage to fit in a skydive due to all the rain, and oh how it came down.
Our next stop Rotorua rained solidly for two days but we did manage to go to a geothermal wonderland (not as good as it sounds) and see a Maori cultural performance (very cheesy but fun).
Soo with dampened spirits and dampened belongings we arrived in Auckland, a nicer city than we were told it was. We spent a few days catching up with friends and exploring here before our return to Sydney with a nearly empty bank account but glad of the times we had exploring beautiful new zealand.

New Zealand Photos

Java, Nusa Lembongan (and a bit more Bali...)

 Mount Bromo

Our last two weeks in Asia and Alice's mum came out to meet us. We picked Tina up from the airport after hours of driving around, Lost. For Tina's first meal we ate Balinese duck at a local warung (small restaurant). Our first few days were spent by the pool, drinking rice wine and playing dominos with hotel staff (meh mehmehmeh). We left Ubud and headed for Java our first stop being Mount Bromo, a semi-active volcano flanked by two other volcanoes in a luneresque landscape. We woke at 3.30am for sunrise at the summit, which was beautiful.
Next stop in java was yogyakarta, the cultural capital. Here we stayed in a Losmen (cheap hotel) down a series of warren like alley ways, this added to the charm but made it hard to find. Our first day we visited borobudur, said to be the worlds biggest buddhist monument and had a lot of school kids take our pictures. The rest of yogya was spent wondering the market and sampling the many delicious street foods on offer.
A twenty hour bus and a boat later and we were in Nusa Lembongan a tropical island off the coast of Bali. With nothing to do but lye on the beach and explore, we did just that. Alice even rode her own scooter for a day.
Our joint 24th birthday was spent here also. This started out really well with a nice meal  and a few drinks courtesy of tina.. however it all went a bit wrong at the end of the day. Turns out something was very wrong with the tuna we ate, first we had itchy mouths and later i was covered in a red rash. NOT FUN.
Soo last stop in Asia was Sanur where we spent our time lazing on the beach and eating the last delicious asian food we could manage to get down us...After a teary goodbye between Alice and Tina we were done and off to Australia..

 A Few Photos

Lombok to Flores; and everything inbetween

So its been a pretty crazy couple of weeks. The photos are just a taster of what its been like.
We started in Senggigi Lombok, a dramatic coast line of black and white sand beaches and cliffs rising out of the sea. On a scooter we roamed the coast jumping from beach to beach. I managed to drive in to a swarm of bees and got stung a few times.

In Senggigi we decided to book a four day / three night boat trip from Lombok to the island of Flores, visiting komodo national park on the way to see some giant deadly lizards. These trips are notorious for being dangerous as the seas are pretty hard to navigate around these islands, so naturally we were a bit apprehensive.

The trip started with a very rocky sea crossing to the islands of Moyo and Setonda, here we showered in fresh water waterfalls and saw a nice salt lake.  The people on our trip were all really nice and we immediately formed a good group. There were only seven of us which meant a lot of room on the boat.

Our next day involved being woken up at 5 am and told to jump in and swim to the beach. We were on Gili Laba and climbed a hill for amazing views of the crystal waters and a dry landscape. Next we went to Pantai merah (red beach) for some amazing snorkelling. The pink sand here made the beach beautiful. Finally we were off to Rinca one of komodo national parks island. We did a two hour trek and saw quite a few of the beasts along the way. We did some more snorkelling and lying on the beach for the last day and finally arrived in Lubuanbajo Flores.

Flores is an incredible mix of mountainous landscapes, insanely friendly people and natural splendour. The bus rides were far from comfortable (one minibus we counted 33 people) and the roads are shocking. First we visited a town called Moni were we went to see the incredible multi-coloured crater lakes of Kelimutu. Trekking down from here to swim in waterfalls. We went on to a town called Ende and then to Bajawa to see traditional villages renowned for sacrifices  and soak ourselves in the natural hot springs. Flores has a real rural charm to it,, there are macadamia trees everywhere making the forests shine silver and the people are genuinely happy to see you. We were sad to leave.
Back in Lombok we spent a few days relaxing on desserted beaches in Kuta. Paradise.

Photos

Bali and the Gili's

Rice fields in Bali; September 2011

Our first day in Bali was pretty disorientating, Kuta the main tourist town is like Magaluf for Australians. The traffic is incredibly hectic and the music is loud. This was a bit worrying at first but as soon as we ventured away from Kuta we were relieved to see that Bali is all its cracked up to be. After an hour or so of riding around on a scooter we managed to find Kerry and James, some friends from home at there place in Sanur (it took 15 minutes to get back).

With Kerry and James we went to the port town of Padangbai were we organised a car rental for the next week. This trip let us see the REAL Bali. We started in padangbai and went to the blue lagoon, a nice little beach and then on to candidassa for lunch and a haircut (by some nutter). On the drive to Amed the views over rice fields and mountains were breathtaking.
We spent two days at a really nice place on a black sand beach in Amed, we went out with some local guys who tried to teach us some bahasa indonesian. 'Appakabar' (how are you) sounds like something out of harry potter.
Next up was Lovina, were we went to see dolphins in there hundreds, this was incredible. On route we stopped at a balinese hindu temple, the guy showing us round was VERY friendly. From Lovina we looped round through the mountains and past some huge lakes along some questionable roads and finally arrived in Ubud. Ubud is the cultural capital of Bali, and well known (trust me they dont let you forget) for being the setting of "Eat, pray, love". James got his duck he was looking for, so he was happy.
After six days we arrived back in Padangbai to get the boat to the Gili islands. On Gili Trawangan we spent our time lying on the beach, relaxing by kerry and james pool and eating very delicious satay chicken. We chartered a glass bottom boat for a snorkelling trip of the islands, this was possibly better than the snorkelling on the Perhentians, so yeh AMAZING.
After an incredible two weeks we said goodbye to kerry and James and headed for Lombok.....

Photos

Singapore

 Singapore (zoo)

Singapore is a modern, clean and very safe feeling city. It is the kind of city either of us could live in (i could live at the airport). The food is great and people are really friendly. All this does come at a cost though, we were paying twenty dollars each to be in a 10 bed dorm with the worst snorers on the planet.
During our stay we visited the (amazing) zoo, continued eating a lot and had singapore slings by the river. As is our habit in cities we did way too much walking around, but this was probably a good idea as we will be spending the next few months lying on the beach....

Singapore photos

Malaysia; Truly Asia

Malaysia is immediately a very different country to those we have previously visited. The multicultural society here is very obvious with malay, chinese and indian people rubbing shoulders at every corner. This mixture of cultures and how well it works is refreshing. Food is the one thing that stands out in malaysia, with a huge mix of smells and tastes on every street there is no chance of ever going hungry here. Although ironically it has been Ramadhan while we were here so a lot of stuff is closed during the day and of course people are very hungry..
The country itself is also extremely diverse. While here we have been to Penang (a food paradise). Then the perhentian island (literally paradise) where we went snorkelling and saw sharks, rays and giant turtles. From here we went through a very islamic town Kota Bharu and took the jungle train to Taman Negara, one of the worlds oldest rain forests. We did our own tailor made (easy) jungle trek and did the canopy walk. The Malaysia tourism board posters that are everywhere inspired us to do this.
We needed a city fix after getting covered in mud and sweating more than is believable, so headed to Kuala Lumpur (KL). There is a rollercoaster in one of the many shopping centres here. Ofcourse we had to visit the petronas towers as well.
Next up was the Cameron highlands, a very green and VERY cold area of tea plantations and strawberry farms. A long days walking came with the rewards of "tea Tarik " and strawberry cheesecake. Delicious.
So there was just one place left to go before returning to KL for malaysian independence day, this was Melaka. Both of us really enjoyed it here. The mixture of colonial architecture and old chinese houses was really charming. The busy night market was great too with drunk chinese dance groups spilling out on to the street at random intervals. By now we felt like we had seen everything Malaysia had to offer so decided to head back to KL for our last few days before heading in to Singapore.
photos of Malaysia

Southern Thailand

Thailand; Koh Phi Phi

Arriving back in Bangkok was surprisingly comforting. Knowing a place even a little bit makes it feel a bit more homely. Alice's friend Emily was in town so we met up to go to the weekend market. Chatuchak  market is huge, supposedly asias biggest (ofcourse alice needed new clothes).. Before heading to the beaches we decided to go see Harry potter at the cinema. Standing for the national anthem at the beginning was quite strange.
Next stop koh Tao, where less than an hour in being on the island we bumped in to Hannah someone we knew from home. We actually did very little in koh Tao, merely moving between the bungalow, beach and bar. Our holiday from our holiday.
With Emily and Hannah we headed to Koh Phi phi for more drinking,  eating and sleeping. We watched Emily do the fire show every night and Alice even had a go ( although she was a bit scared).
Malaysia here we come.

Thailand Photos

Vietnam

Halong bay

Due to meeting so many people, drinking too much and generally having too much fun in Vietnam this blog entry is a tad late.
We started Vietnam in the Mekong Delta, where we decided to do a tour. This was a cheap option that took us through chau doc, can tho and ben tre. The tour itself was a bit cheesy. The way that life is lived on the water there is facinating, the floating markets in particular impressed us.
From here we went on in to saigon, a crazy city with as many motorbikes as people. After a brief stint in the city it was time to hit the beach.
Mui ne was our next stop and we arrived in the rain. The beach wasnt much to look at but we had a great day out exploring the surrounding area and the amazing sand dunes.
After a scary bus ride we were in nha trang with some new friends in tow. Nha trang has a bad press as there are a lot of stories of prostitutes robbing drunk men. We actually really enjoyed it, the beach was beautiful and there was great local food. The best day here had to be our big kids day out at the vinpearl land waterpark situated on an island.
Hoi'an has be our favourite place so far on the trip. The beaches are stunning, the town is charming and the beer costs about 10 pence a glass. What more could we ask for (oh yeh amazing food). There was a group of about ten people we would eat and drink with every night here, so it was a shame when the group had to go there seperate ways.
A couple of nights in Hue and off to halong bay. In true Vietnam style the views were amazing and the people great but the tour was ofcourse terribly run.
Another winner in Vietnam was Sapa. A cool town high in the mountains surrounded by minority villages. Our first experience of these people was a very old (very drunk) h'mong lady force feeding me rice wine at 9am. Our days trekking with a local tribe woman was amazing and the views unlike anything we had ever seen.
Hanoi was our final stop. Despite the delicious cheap street food (pho or noodle soup) it is a hard city to love. Everyone is trying to rip you off and the traffic is actually insane. But then this is what vietnam is all about so what can you do but embrace it.


Vietnam Photos

Cambodia: part two

Bamboo Island, Cambodia June 2011



The next part of our journey started in Phnom Penh; cambodias capital city. This was the first real city we had been in for about six weeks, so it was nice to arrive. Here we met up with friends and did some drinking. Inbetween these activities we squeezed in some sights and learned about cambodias dark past. The s-21 genocide museum and killing fields of chouek (not so good hung over) were really moving.

We headed for the coast next for our first beach time. Thias turned out to be a slight disaster as our first day in the koh kong conservation corridor was heavy rain. Due to the weather we couldnt make it to the islands here but managed to go see the largest mangrove forest in south east asia. This turned out to be pretty impressive.
Next stop Sihanoukville, a beach town with beautiful white sand coves and a lot of prostitutes. The town was quite sleazy and the weather a bit wet, but we still  managed to get sunburnt in true brit style. The surrounding islands were also really scenic though the water was a bit murky for snorkelling.
Kampot was the next place along the coast. Another wet bus journey saw us in to the town where we decided the rain wouldn't stop us doing what we wanted. So we donned ponchos and rented a scooter to take us out in to the surrounding countryside; which was beautiful. A highlight of this was getting a crew of six together and doing a day trip of over 100 kilometers to kep. The crab market in kep did some of the best sea food we have ever eaten.
Back up to Phnom Penh to meet Amy and Abby some school friends and have our last Cambodian meal; Beef lok lak and fish amok delcious. (tina i hope your writing this down).

Photos from Cambodia

Cambodia - part one

Angkor wat at sunrise, june 2011

We arrived in Kratie after an interesting boarder crossing - the bus got stuck in the mud, and the crossing was still being built, so we had to walk into Cambodia.
The first night we went to see the rare Irrawaddy river dolphins, it was a bit wet but still good fun. Day two was an eventful day. A man approached us and asked if he could take us and a friend around koh trong island on his horse and cart (for $6). This included fishing and lunch cooked by his wife, a great start to Cambodia. That night we were woken at 1am and told to evacuate our hostel as the market directly opposite was on fire. We spent the night outside, the fire turned out to be really bad but noone was hurt physically.
Cambodian people are super friendly but a little pushy at times. We witnessed this first hand in Siam Riep where everyone greets you at a run with shouts of "hey laydeeeee, gentlemaaan you buy you buy". The temples of Angkor were amazing, we arrived at 4.30 for sunrise and by mid day were exhausted.
Our next stop was Battembang where we did a day of touring the countryside in a tuk tuk. This was very bumpy but we saw some really interesting khmer rouge strongholds and caves.

It is SOOOO hot here.......

photos from cambodia

The temples of Angkor

Southern Laos

Before heading south we went to the capital of Laos Vientiane. Because of it being so expensive we decided to do the city and its sights in one day on a moped. This was great fun but incredibly tiring. However, five minutes in to the bus journey out of Vientiane I  (alex) deleted the photos of the whole day, woops.

From there we went all the way down the Mekong to Pakse, from which we took a bus directly to the small town of tat lo in the coffee growing region of the Bolaven plateau. Tat lo is named after a waterfall in the centre of the village. In the evening we went to watch the villagers washing clothes and children playing in the waterfall. We arranged to do a half days trekking with a local guide. This was really good, walking through tiny villages, waterfalls and crop fields.
Pakse was our next stop, this only merited an over night stop so we headed south to Si Phan Don (4000 islands).
Don Det in the 4000 islands turned out to be a great place to stop off and we ended up lingering longer than expected drinking cheaper than cheap whisky and lying in hammocks reading all day. Cycling on the neighbouring island of Don Khon was great also.

 A perfect ending to Laos...

Southern Laos Photos

Northern Laos

Luang Prabang May 2011

From chiang khong thailand we crossed over in to Laos, the boarder crossing was basically two sheds either side of the river. We were quite proud of ourselves as we seemed to have chosen a different route through Laos to our fellow travellers crossing the boarder. This pride came with some nerves as we didnt know what lay ahead. After two buses, a boat and a day and a half of travelling we were at our first destination. Muang Ngoi Neua is a peaceful little town with no electricity that is accesible only by boat. Although a little hot at night it was a great place to see the slow pace of life in Laos and meet the friendly local people. From Muang Ngoi we took a stunning boat journey down the Nam ou and Mekong rivers to the ancient city of Luang Prabang, a place that is very difficult to dislike on arrival. Delicious food, a great night market and temples dotted between everything make Luang Prabang an instant highlight of Laos. (Although the delicious food did make me very ill).

Our next stop in Laos is Vang Vieng, a small town notorious for drinking and debaucherie. The biggest draw for us was the climbing which was great but of course we had to do some tubing too. (Tubing = to get a tractor tyre inner tube and float down the river stopping at bars to drink lao whisky and do various activities) Although not the nicest town, Vang Vieng is surrounded by beautiful countryside so could eisily have been overlooked, but luckily not we had fun.

We are now heading to the capital Vientiane and then on in to southern Laos.

Laos Photos...more to come

Northern Thailand

Mae Hong Son. May 2011

We arrived in bangkok at 11am and it was already 35 degrees so the decision was made to stay somewhere with a pool, luxury. On our second day in bangkok we bumped in to a guy we had met in china and decided to head up north together. Northern thailand is really relaxing, especially compared to china, so most of our time was spent doing just that. In Chiang mai we did a cooking course with some friends then headed to Pai, The local bus ride to Pai was  four hours over some of the steepest landscape imaginable. Pai is a chilled little hippy town with nothing to do but chill and explore the beautiful countryside. The place we stayed was being run by a french muay thai fighter who spent the day tending to what he reffered to as his 'bong buffet'. The coffee in northern thailand is really good so Alice has been very happy, and the quality of food goes without saying really. The only downside has been getting eating alive by mosquitos. Today we head in to laos...


Photos from northern thailand

Beijing

Beijing is HUGE. We learned quickly that a small section of map was a very long walk. I had blisters on the first day, woops. There was barely a moment to rest in beijing. Our days were packed full of sightseeing and eating huge mouthwatering dumplings.

The great wall was incredible, we took a ski lift up to the top of the wall, and a tobbogan down (this reminded me of skiv family tobboganing trips)

We went to a famous peking duck restaurant, where we spent more money on a meal then we had in two weeks on food. Duck heart was on the set menu and was actually pretty tasty.

Our last day in beijing was spent cycling around the city, getting lost and exploring all the hutongs.

beijing photos

xi'an

Xi'an city walls, April 2011

Xi'an is a breath of fresh air after being in the hectic city of shanghai. People are more friendly and the food is incredibly cheap. This was one of  our biggest surprises in china as we were not expecting much from xi'an but would both recommend it to anyone.

The muslim quarter was an area filled with narrow streets and tiny local restaurants selling the best noodles we found in china. Wondering these hectic enclaves was great fun at night and like most of china that is when xi'an comes in to its own.

The terracotta warriors were interesting to see although maybe not what we liked most about xi'an. Our luck with hostels has been great in china, all of them being super clean and with good communal areas to meet other travellers. We did a dumpling making class for free one night in our current hostel.

The best day in xi'an had to be cycling around the city walls on a tandom bike and getting sunburned (not so fun).

Xi'an Photos

Shanghai

It took us 24 hours to get to Shanghai by sleeper bus, which was interesting, who knew anyone could eat 5 pot noodles in a 24 hour period (Even at 5am)

Shanghai is a totally different city from all the other places we have visited in china, lots of signs in english but when you try to talk to anyone they dont have a clue what you are trying to say. In one restaurant i (alex) had to go in to the kitchen and point at the vegetables we wanted to eat.

The bund is very impressive, on one side of the river there are colonial style european buildings and on the other ultra modern skyscrapers.

Shanghai Photos

Guilin

Guilin China; Twin Pagodas April 2011

Guilin is not as nice as yangshou scenery wise but we have had a good time here. The hostel we are staying in is great for meeting other travellers and they make a mean bacon sandwich. From guilin we went to the dragons backbone rice terraces, they were amazing to see. Street food in guilin was delicious, with an array of differrent kebabs and vegetables (all very spicy and deep fat fried) on sale.

Guilin Photos





Yangshou

Moon hill; Yangshou China; April 2011

After a 10 hour sleeper bus, we arrived in yangshou at 4AM in the morning. The manager of the hostel we are staying in hasseled us into buying some tours off him. We did a an intense day of cycling during which we climbed the hill in the picture above and went in to an underwater cave where there was a mud bath and hot springs. Yangshou is a very scenic place with otherwordly natural beauty, despite the mass of karaoke obsessed chinese tourists. The next day was spent on a bamboo raft floating down the li river. The public bus we used to get there was so full that the drivers assistant handed out plastic chairs for people to sit on in the aisles.

Climbing in Yangshou was also really fun, although a little scary at times. This made us want to do a lot more outdoor climbing if we get the chance and have the money.  Overall yangshou was a really good place to start china as a lot of people spoke english and menus were all easy to read.

Yangshou Photos

Hong Kong

Hong Kong; city skyline March 2011

We immediately found ourselves lost in the lights and confusion of hong kong. Our hostel was a little tricky to find (being located twelve floors above a shopping arcade) on the longest and busiest street in kowloon district. It took us over an hour to buck up the courage to go into one of ther local restaurants and eat.

The room we are staying in is just a bit noisy, the toilet shower combo in the bathroom is quite interesting, if you wanted you could use both at once you could. Luckily we both have earplugs so the traffic noise is not such a problem.

From hong kong we went to see the big buddha (its a big buddha), went up victoria peak on the tram and visited some very different markets. These included the bird, flower and goldfish markets. A day trip to macau was also squeezed in and was a weird experience. Macau's mix of  european and chinese culture is unlike anything we have ever seen.

Hong Kong