The Expedition

i can imagine the cold anymore

2009-10-15T00:45:00.000-07:00

cos its so damned hot here. love it.

rich and i flew up to siem reap to see angkor for 2 days. Our flights were $100 vs $3.5o for the bus, but as we are very time poor it was well worth it.

managed to see more temples but in far less detail than i did last year, as we had to speed tour to get it all in for rich and get to the outlying temples for a new experience for me. so whilst sweating approximately 1 litre every 45 mins we soldiered through, awestruck. Ranging from 900-1200ad, the variance in the temples is amazing, each with different architecture and engineering, and tales of war, of gods and of kings.

back in pp now. retuned to a middle eastern theme a home last night on rach's deck. smoking a huge sheesha pipe, mint, melon, cinnamon and apple tobaccos were sampled , burning frankincense and watching huge bats fly past. ahhhh. to add to my agony i started today with a full on shiatzu massage. man he knew what he was doing. my shoulders are apparently like rocks...oh oh. posture classes when i get home.

cant beleive its our last day here. i feel so at home, i cant bear the idea of our 5 flights to get home to the cold and probably a destroyed garden from the hail!

got some bugs for dessert tonight, grubs cricket cockroaches and all. wooop.

see ya'l soon x

We heart Cambodge

2009-10-12T07:33:00.000-07:00

back again and oving it.

as always we are hosted by the lovely Rach, this time in her Phnom Penh palace, with our own room with an ensuite! spoilt! Its a lovely airy naked wood home with a large deck dripping with orchids aching of the humid romance of the east. we were greeted by geckos in the house on our arrival and the sounds of the neighbourhood kids playing in the street. Needless to say we are loving her new surrounds.

in typical expat fashion we have tiki toured round town in tuk tuks, dining on khmer food(including tarantulas!) and all sorts other international food, from french o Italian and Lebanese. Eating like royalty to.

we have shopped, visited some sites, some have worked, while others have swum at pool bars and taken afternoon massages. And did i mention eaten like sultans!? it's been Divine.

great times catching up with rach. pleased to say she's well after a bout of fever, running rings around me as i type decorating her house middle eastern/kiwiana style, and is fully assimilated into life here - and tempting us into it as well. its a far off possibility but not this time for us.

anyway, must be off to pack for angkor wat tomorrow. xx

feeling hot hot hot

2009-10-08T04:32:00.000-07:00

yes, it is very hot and muggy here. i hear its hailing in welly?! wow - we picked a good time to go!

the sun burn continues too. i now have passed the white hand of sauron stage and now have psuedo arm bands of white. terrible.

had a beautiful snorkle around some coral filled inlets in phi phi ley yesterday. saw lots of little fish, and large parrot fish. brain coral are huge and sorta funny. like lots of submerged brains muttering on the bottom of the ocean. we also went to monkey bay and saw charasmatic local monkeys with baboon like faces with white coloured eyelids. little baby ones and old wise looking fellas.

any who, gotta go eat some seafood and visit ZARA! xx

the journey continues

2009-10-06T05:55:00.000-07:00

here we are, back in Thailand! my third time in Phuket, and Phi Phi right now.

Its hot, lush, green, muggy and beautiful.

We have swum, shopped, fended off mosquitoes, hoovered pad thai and fruit shakes to our hearts contempt. We'll, when is it ever enough, its only been three days! Could do longer in Thailand easily but somewhere else next time I think is on the cards.

What a mission getting here though. WLG - AKL (8 hour stop over, boozing with Kendra and other welly relics, and a surprise pop up (literally from behind a pillar) from Marina on K rd!!), then flying to Brunei (11 hours), 2.5 hour stopover, then to BKK for another 2.5 hour stopover , then to Phuket. 30 or so hours later its still the 3 of October. Exhausted.

We followed this with a day of debauchery. I gave up before 12am, and found the boys at 9am (!!) the next morning wandering the beach, wet, covered in sand, ears and all, a little incoherent and drunk describing a night of buckets of red bull and whiskey, a popular tourist drink in Thailand, aren't we sophisticated, and many, many night swims....classic

so i put them to sleep and spent the day bathing and swimming as they slept it off!

Classic thai times. I have cuddled a lot of cute little kittens but fear not, it seems they have cleaned up around here. they're not the mangeythings they used to be, most have collars and look pretty healthy. so i cant resist. i may have recieved a few flea bits through...opps.

I have the most ridiculous tan marks too. described as a white tee shirt with the white hand of sauron across myt chest i have achieved a truly shameful, 'english tourist' type lobster burn. hopefully i can even it out once before i get home...

feels like we've been here a lot longer than we have, but thats always the way with travels.

Back to Phuket tommorow, to see a lady about some monkeys and a shop about zara. xxx

Home sweet home

2008-12-14T11:44:00.000-08:00

It's the end of an era.

I am sitting in my mum’s lounge with a cup of tea and CNN blaring in the background. Tui keep flittering past the window to gorge themselves on the flax flowers out the front, the birds are going berserk, shrieking as the sun bursts through the breaks in the clouds, sweeping by in the high Wellington wind. This is home.

Our days have been filled with reunions and surprises, as we decided early on to keep our return secret so we could scare the crap out of our loved ones. Nice eh!!

We've managed to do so with Dad and Wendy, who we scouted straight away on the way through town from the airport - a testament to the village like size of Wellington; then arrived home to a dinner party at Mums where I freaked my brother Brett and my lovely Grandma; and since then have continued to spring our friends daily. It's been fantastic and there are still a few people to get around but I hold out little hope for the gossip wheel to keep our return secret for much longer.

So it's over, no more UNESCO World Heritage Sites, world wonders, culture shocks, hostels, backpacks or lengthy transits. This had become our lifestyle and our job over the last eight months, as it was 24-7, planning, prepping, doing and enjoying. Undoubtedly, it's been the most amazing experience of my life and I will always be thankful to Andy for planning and undertaking it with me.

The best decision I've made was to do it. My life savings are gone and substituted with a rather large visa debt but I am enriched with a huge wealth of experience and knowledge about the 22 countries we visited, about the world, and about myself. Personally it has grown me, in my sense of self, my values, and taught me truthfully my strengths and weaknesses.

It was a whirlwind tour of sorts, despite the length of time we were away, the fact we were always moving, never working a day and having had so much to see in every country. It was hard at times to decide what to see and what to skip as its impossible to do everything, but when torn we would remind ourselves of how amazingly lucky we were to be in these places at all and that we can’t see everything, so if we truly want to see these things we will return one day.

Our mantra was that this trip was like a world tasting platter. Arranged as a taste test of everywhere we have always wanted to go, it would provide us with a better understanding of the realities of these places and would serve as an experience to learn where we enjoy the most, where we didn't enjoy and where we want to return and travel more extensively in the future. This was the perfect type of travel for me as prior to this trip I had not travelled much and had little idea, really, of what I would prefer as I had little to compare it against.

It's hard to know yet the outcome as it is all so fresh and still filtering through, and we are so happy for the beauty and culture of home, but currently what sits in my mind is the Caribbean, Central America, and India. We loved Guatemala which has led to an interest in the entire Central American and Caribbean region, and unfortunately as India was always to be in monsoon season when we were able to go we couldn't visit it on this trip. Regardless it is a place that requires more time than we could have given it. Asia of course is high on our list to return to as it is beautiful, easily accessible from NZ and holds the lovely Rachael Lowe, Andy's sister, in Cambodia one of my favourite countries. And finally Europe is also top of mind as it is so rich, stylish and historical, we love it and will no doubt return there too. So pretty much everywhere is a goer, I should've known, it's rare I don’t try and enjoy a little bit of everything on a platter!

We met some amazing people on the road who will forever be in our memory and hopefully we will see again one day. I must say too, thanks for all the love and support we received from home, it always brought a grin and much gossip to hear from you.

Travel in the 21st century is such bliss, I shudder to think of the same trip fifty or even twenty years ago: no internet; no skype; no short haul flights; and in many areas no roads or access at all; and loads of dodgy overland travel. It would have been a dangerous, long, lonely and hard road. The reality now is that home is an internet cafe away, and if a country is not in conflict it can be travelled. The tourist market is one of the biggest consumer markets in the world and is protected as such. Travel in most regions is quite easy and many of the harder to travel countries have tourist police due to the government’s desire to protect its industry.

In eight months we suffered little more than a cold and the travellers tummy, nothing was stolen and we had little trouble. So I implore you, if you have the desire to travel go and do it, on your own terms, wherever it is you have always wanted to go, pick a goal, do your research and go.

Travelling is an addictive thing that leads to more and more roads and for me brought a strange reality of how huge and varied the world is, and yet how small and the same it is in many ways. Oh and guys, I must finally say, that we did it all in jandals

Peru = Alpacas, altitude and ancient ruins = ace

2008-12-04T12:36:00.001-08:00

We loved Peru. It´s another slice of the international pie with a very distinct flavour, coca.

Coca is the plant from which Coca Cola built it´s empire and the cocaine industry also flourishes, but before all this abuse it was and still is an important ingredient in the Andean culture religiously and practically for altitude sickness and pretty much all other ailments you may have right up to childbirth. And now it´s an important part of my daily ritual in the place of my long love, coffee. I´ve been drinking 2-4 cups daily to the joy of my numbed mouth and soothed heart.

The altitude of Peru was fine initially apart from some heart thumping moments walking up the hill to our hillside hostel in Cusco and around Machu Pichu. The coca tea helped too but after the first week of extreme altitude and crap hostel's and the coldest weather we've faced bar topless bus tour in Paris, I´ve finally succumbed to my first cold of the trip. Bums. So here I am sunburned from Machu Pichu with a cold. Will the irony ever cease.

Machu Pichu was mystical, surreal and grand. We missioned up at 5am to make the first bus and arrived at 7am, disappointed to find that there was no 2 hour hike up as we thought but a gate straight in. Our guidebook was rather misleading and my sleepless anxiety of a early morning hike in the altitude was all for nothing. It took me a while to realise this however as when we first came through the gates it was so misty that I couldñ´t see jack apart from some rather large rocks and several alpaca mowing the lawn.

Felix our German comrade since the Galapagos Islands suggested we climb Wayana Pichu first, the peak at the end of the complex, as it´s a great viewing point and only allows 400 people up a day. Great call. We were some of the first 10 people up that morning and were in the best spot possible to see the mist clear.

Surrounded by the huge jagered peaks of the Andes, with mist flying upwards like water flowing against gravity in the growing morning sun, we climbed the steep stairs, with the help of steel rope, fighting off the strain of the altitude that was causing our hearts to thump and breath to leap from our lungs. It´s not a great distance but at that altitude its hard going. The only grace is that we did it at 7am and not at 10am like the second 200 people in the heat of the morning. Oh dear, they were actually moaning as we skipped past on our way back down!

Thankfully, the beauty of the ruins, the exotic lush alpine forest, the sharp crown of mountains, silver shining rivers 1000 meters below, the buzzing hummingbirds and slowly clearing teasing mist forced us to stop every few minutes to take snapshots and just breathe it in on our way up. A good thing so we didn't burst our hearts under the strain.

As we climbed the mist would briefly part and the image of Machu Pichu would flash past us, a second later swallowed up again. The higher we got, the better the angle and clarity became until we were at the top of the hill, sitting on huge grey boulders at the far edge of the ridge, in silence, watching the ruins reveal themselves. It was pure serenity. We sat there for two hours enjoying one of the best views of my life.

A 600 year old, geometric, organic, jewel of mans creation in the natural crown of the Andes, Machu Pichu is mesmerising. After the mist cleared, and the small cloud ribbons fell away from the peaks, the sun burst through the sungate on the opposite side of the mountains and sent a ray of light directly across the valley striking the main complex of the ruins directly. Think Indiana Jones, Raiders of the Lost Arc, the scene with the light ray in the cave marking the spot on the mimi city, but on a huge and real scale. If we had been down there we would have seen the light burst right through the three windows, a sacred temple through which the sun's rays pass illuminating the "Sacred Plaza" beyond. All proving how well the Inca designed the city around the movement of the sun and stars.

It´s an amazing structure built around the astronomy of the region. The site is believed to be selected because of its position relative to sacred landscape features—such as its mountains, which are in alignment with key astronomical events that would have been important to the Incas.

Deservedly a world wonder, we spent the day exploring, and went away grining ear to ear, dehydrated and exhaughsted with about 700 photos up our sleeves (plus video). I´ve managed to get it down to just over 400 keepers but thats as far as I can get it.

Damn world wonders!

The one and only Galapagos Islands

2008-11-23T09:28:00.000-08:00

WOW.

I have never experienced anything like the Galapagos Islands in my life. Nowhere else even comes close. Its pristine environments, the variety of such unique species, and their indifference to your presence makes it a surreal, unforgettable and amazing experience which is hard to put into words. But of course for you, I'll try.

My initial expectations were far exceeded which was a hard feat as they were so so high to start with due to my love of the environment and concept of the Galapagos as my environmental Mecca. I was not wrong!!

I saw every animal I'd hoped to see, most of which we were within touching distance of. True to rumour they have little fear of humans so you can get as close as you like as long as you don't touch them, which I did with all bar the sharks and rays, go figure. If you love animals you must visit the Galapagos one day.

We booked the trip last year, paying a whopping amount without question as we both knew it would be a priceless experience that we absolutely had to do. We opted for a 8 day cruise on a small yacht which allowed us to visit both the north and south islands of the volcanic chain. We chose a small yacht which turned out to be the last yacht tour operating on the islands as all the other companies have upgraded to the larger cruise ships to maximise on patrons. These take up to 200 people who are treated to an en suite, gym, restaurant and god knows what else...not our style at all!

Our tour was perfect for us. We had a maximum of 6 other tourists at a time so were treated to the small group experience. This meant we could organise ourselves to be the first each day to the islands beating the other enormous tours so we could experience the islands on own. It also meant that we were with relatively young travellers that could cope with yacht life who were more suited to us than the elderly loads we saw ambling along the shores.

We were also very lucky to have the best tour guide, a Galapagos born environmental guru who know the ecosystems and their components inside out, and respected the environment and its inhabitants. Our biggest fear was being lumped for 8 days with grumpy comrades and a bad tour guide after reading about guides that fish up our dinner from the protected waters and pollute the park under your nose without respect or care for what they are working for. There was none of this with Che Che thankfully.

One of the greatest things about the Galapagos is how close you can get to the animals. When I saw one I'd just walk on over to it and take a closer look. This was with both land and sea animals, walkers and flyers. Unless you are a bumbling, loud, tourist that will surge up to them and make them uncomfortable, which I did only once approaching a playful sea lion for an underwater photo and almost collided with it in my enthusiasm, they'll calmly trust you to approach them without fear.

I first experienced this with the tortoises on our first day when we hopped out of the ute and walked straight up to the old giants in the wild. If you walked too fast they would pull their head in but moments later it would pop back out and continue ripping at the grass or just sunning its wrinkled face completely un-threatened. We'd been whisked straight from the plane to some farmland to see these huge and ancient tortoises in the wild. A great start to our expedition!
I was relieved to see there were heaps of these old giants lumbering around on the grasslands, bathing together in muddy pools, and wandering on the dirt road as we approached causing us to go off road as they calmly sat on the road and watched us swerve!

Above their mammoth size what is most fascinating to me about the Galapagos Tortoises is their age. The oldest recorded one has lived to a whopping 150 years in the wild, which is a a conservative estimate compared to the locals, as our guide believes they live to over 250 years! Our children's children will have the result from the current research. I rolled this around in my head as I perched on my knees, and looked into a tortoises wise old eyes, with it looking right back at me. I was marvelled by its age, and thinking about all the human history that has passed in their lifetime, the arrival of Europeans on their islands, the species that have been erased, the wars that have passed and the US strategic stations that invaded their habitats in the Galapagos; and more personally, the generations of my family that have been born, lived, and died, and me sitting in front of him the meagre 5th, 6th or 7th of my ancestry to live to his one.
Later in the trip we had the privilege to meet the famous 'Lonesome George', the last known individual of the Pinta Island subspecies of Tortoise in existence. A sad result of the destruction the introduced species have caused to the Galapagos ecology. George was found on the island alone when it was too late to begin a breeding programme. There is however a small hope for his kind as they have recently bred him with a very genetically similar subspecies, only resulting in 3 viable eggs. Unlikely to succeed but you never know, well, actually we will know the result and the future of his species in less than three months. Fingers crossed.

Once on the yacht, our days were divided between trips to the various islands, snorkeling, eating and playing cards on the long journeys. Every day was filled with new experiences and learning. Each island had its own welcoming party for us, be it sea turtles, sea lions, rays or sharks in the shallows, a penguin or sea iguana watching us from shore, or a frigate or booby flying over head. Usually several of the above.

We'd adventure into the islands, eyes needlessly peeled for the different species on offer as they tended to be so prolific you barely had to try to see them as they'd be sitting right in front of you! Some islands had endemic land iguanas, huge and colourful, brilliant yellows with large spines, brown eyes and weathered scaled lips, lying flat on their bellies absorbing the heat; sometimes there were flamingos, sitting on one leg, a brilliant pink staring back at us like plastic figurines from the garden ...that blinked; there were huge piles of communal sea iguanas, lying upon each other for warmth, snorting spurts of salt from their noses at us to our disgust and entertainment; we smelt the rich perfumed sap of the various endemic deciduous trees, that was sometimes like frankincense, sometimes a rich woody sandalwood other times like a musky rose; we watched huge albatross chicks wait patiently in their nests for their parents and then the parents run down the aptly named 'albatross runways' leading off high cliffs to take flight; we walked across hardened lava fields that had poured into the sea, now a frozen black river over barren red landscapes, similar to icebergs, we found that once we were surrounded by the black mass the detail came out, it became hugely variable, made up of different oil slick like colours and varieties of frozen organic forms, from the ripples of waves, to piles of thick sailor rope, and bouquets of open faced roses strewn on the ground.

We always had to be careful where we stood at all times in case of the small trusting lava lizards or iguanas bathing on the rocks, or nests being trodden underfoot. We had to be even more careful still with the gorgeous little sea lion pups to not let them touch us as they often tried to do!

These were high on our favourites list, with a call like a high pitched yelping lamb they sat on the beach sun bathing, paddling, playing with each other or shells and sticks as toys, passing time until their mother returned with dinner. Like sirens they'd try to seduce us closer but in their case with their cuteness, chasing our shadows, crying to us, rolling around in the sand and sometimes even sneaking up on us for personal contact but it would be to their detriment not ours if we made contact. They're absolutely harmless, posers for the camera and the epitome of cute but sometimes tragic reminders of how our small actions can influence a life. Sadly this is because if we give in to temptation to allow contact with one of these little creatures they will likely be rejected by their mothers who operate on scent recognition and will subsequently eventually starve. We saw several skinny, lost puppies, desperately tying to get milk from other mothers who aggressively rejected them. It was really upsetting to see.

Little surprise then that when me and a gal from our boat saw other tourists allowing the pups to rub against them onshore we let rip at their tour guide. He had the gaul to say that it is not a proven reaction to which I sharply shot him down with the question of the 'is it worth the risk!!!?' argument. Ridiculous. We also spoke to the tour group about it directly, with a boiling rage under the surface yet outwardly calm demeanor to ensure they understood their potential impacts on these pups that they seemed to have such admiration for. It was not my place but after seeing their actions and hearing the pathetic justification of the tour guide we took it upon ourselves to get the message out.

The snorkeling was the best I have ever experienced due to the abundance and variety of animals and beauty of the unpolluted pristine waters. We often swam both in the morning and afternoon. In one amazing dive I swam with almost everything I had hoped for on the entire trip within 3/4 of an hour. We began by following a reef where we spotted various rays, huge puffer fish with cartoon like eyes, corals, starfish, surgeon fish, and tuna darting at us from the depths. There were trumpet fish lingering in the current like long ropes with pig like snouts and reptile eyes, occasionally a sea iguana would swim past with colours of the rainbow, red, green, yellow on their black coal base. We followed huge schools of fish, each occasionally flicking their sides to us, flashing silver as a knife, when a large sea lion whipped past me within a meter dancing around its prey before my eyes. I saw a Ridleys Sea Turtle, the same species as the one we saw laying her eggs in Guatemala sitting in an underwater crater. She lifted up and I swam beside her alone as she stared back at me. magic. That was until the cold shiver of being alone in shark infested waters rippled through me and I returned to the guide! We continued on and after a while I realised our swim team of 7 was reduced to just me, the water baby and the guide as the waters were very cold so people were dropping off to the trailing dinghy. Sad for them they missed out on the highlight of the days dive, a HUGE stingray about 1.5-2m in diameter, digging on the bottom, already 30 cm or so deep into the sand scuffing up food for it as the many hangers on surrounding him feeding on the food he threw up. We dove down to it and saw up close the yellow tiger eyes watching us as it churned the sand up. A beautiful sight.
The female sea lions were fine to swim with, perfectly safe as long as you don't encroach on their space too much...no matter how much they do on yours! We had to be cautious of the males as they can be aggressive and are very territorial due to their harem lifestyle. A few times they hopped in the water to bark at us, warning us to back off and then herded their ladies back on shore. We naturally respected their wishes and froze in those situations.

There was one sea lion that played with us on shore mimicking the other divers, spinning as we spun, blowing bubbles back to Andy and swimming under your legs given the chance. The sea lions are so charismatic. The puppies of the sea.

One of the best moments we had was late at night when we were all lying up on deck staring at the starry sky competing to see who could spot the most shooting stars when blind Andy spotted some fast moving shapes over the side of the boat. We leapt up to check it out and realised that it was two predators and our boat was surrounded by phosphorescent plankton!! It in turn was attracting a whole feeding chain of animals for our entertainment. The fish were feeding on the plankton, and those that were feeding on the fish there were the real stars. First we saw fast, graceful animals darting about which we worked out to be sea lions. After that we saw slow, long, swaying animals, which we worked out to our excitement to be white tip sharks....but and most exciting of all we saw a strange shape, far larger than the other predators with a broad face.....swaying through the school like the whitetips....a HAMMERHEAD SHARK! Crazy. Such a strangely shaped animal, and to see this lit up in the water like an aquatic Greek constellation in flux in the black sea of glittering phosphorescence was unreal.

There are so many other stories to tell, but as this post is already ridiculously long, I´ll save them for when we are home, wine in hand. xx

...the (October) sun in Cuba...oh oh oh

2008-10-26T12:10:00.000-07:00

We finally made it to Cuba!

You may not know this but our entire worldwide expedition was born initially from a simple plan to travel to Cuba. But we found when we looked into the flight costs it was actually so pricy that we would instead just do a round the world trip, and save a little more cash for spending. A little, mmm...

So, clearly the Cuba segment of our trip was very important to us, and to do it justice we planned a full three weeks tiki touring to ensure we got in all the sights. Can you feel where I am going with this? Yes, sad but true, there was a mistake with our booking... (cue the frightful slap of the piano keys)! Sad to say it, our travel agent ruined this plan for us.

For reasons unknown he booked not one, not two but three flights out. Sounds awful handy doesn't it, the airline is our oyster and we can just hold seats willy nilly... well maybe thats how it goes in fairy land where the trees fruit gumdrops and rivers are made of chocolate, but not in the real world! You'd think a professional travel agent would know this! No again! Airlines don't take kindly to that sort of traffic choking carry on so instead of holding all three flights for him, they ended up cancelling two, which were the later ones, leaving only the flight one week after our arrival. Argh to say the least.

This left us with only a week to cover Cuba, the initial days of which we wasted lazily taking in Havana oblivious to our restraints. Once we had the word we only had time to head to Trinidad, the only other side of Cuba we saw before our speedy exit.

(end of rant)

And with a fake smile come grimace I move on...

Havana is a city brimming with life. Its true to all its stereotypes: Cigar toting little old men sit in huge doorways chatting the day away; women hang out the windows watching the street life like a soap opera; the wide spanish streets are adorned with classic and well mantained american cars, a vintage car lovers dream; huge, grand old buildings loom, cracking apart, most boarded up, but thankfully many are now in the process of restoration; all of which are smothered in roasting hot days and matching steamy nights, with live music filling the air day and night.

The first thing that struck me as we drove into Havana were the images of Che and Castro (oh and Cienfuegos...an equally famous revolutionary, lost in the past and suspicious plane crash) throught the city. Not just monuments but billboards and street graffiti. Next it was the roadside crowds of semi clad young locals exposing their best assets like peacocks in full display. The body confidence and sexuality of the people is to say the least, impressive.

It was an 80s time warp fashionwise. An example, women (and occasionally to my horror men too) of all ages and sizes, wore mid drift tops letting it all hang out. Seeing a 60 year old, rather obese woman cranking a fluorescent pink boob tube was not uncommon sight. But even stranger than this circus freak like sight were the seven year old girls who tore up their tees in imitation and tied them into bikinis. Maybe the time warp is yet another result of the trade embargo, its a worry otherwise!

They´re equally confident socially. Locals often approached us in the street to find out about our itinerary, genuinely interested in how long and where we´re going in Cuba. We´d feel guilty sometimes telling them our plans (prior to our flight problem), as we knew that we were going to see more of their country than they´d likely seen. They were extra warm when they found out we were NZers, and glad to hear we were staying in a ´casa particular´ (homestay) rather than a hotel for the real cuban experience and direct cash injection for the locals.

We enjoyed mojitos regularly (and can vouch that they are better in Wellington than Cuba) in street bars with locals on plastic chairs, and in regal colonial hotels with high columned decks and palm trees. Typically the latter when we needed a break from the intensity of the streets.

Like any other foreign city hanging out on the streets is great when you are feeling up to coping with the beggars , hustlers and tricksters. It´s the best way to get chatting with locals, to hear their stories and have a laugh, but can get taxing after a while. On top of the constant approach of beggars and street merchants, the barmen attempt to raise the prices up to 200% when the prices are clearly on a board infront of us, open beers for themselves and add them to our tab, and if you dont ask the price upfront you always recieve a ridiculously overstated bill in return. The saving grace is that local bars are fantastically cheap so is not too upsetting at the end.

We did give in to one of the hundreds of street cigar sellers that approached us, who sold us a few quality cigars for $1us each. He took us to a small local bar, apparantly that Hemmingway frequented, and while Andy smoked his cigar I attempted the salsa with the tout...and soon realised my two left feet. There is no bopping along to music in Cuba, from a young age they all learn to dance the proper steps. So its a 2 step by 3 step affair in which this little NZ girl that rejected jazzballet in her staunch tom boy years has no ability. (Note: on return to Wellington must do a salsa class and remedy second left foot).

Trinidad was a calm relief from Havana. It´s a roasting little UNESCO heritage town with (like many other places we've visited now) beautiful colonial Spanish architecture, painted every shade of the rainbow, cobble stoned streets, horses and carts, live alfresco music by night, beautiful little churches and best of all stunning white sand beaches.

It was a beautiful place to spend our final night in Cuba, watching several live bands and dancers perform a fantastic mix of cuban african styles, while sipping our mojitos. And the perfect place to spend our last morning swimming in the carribean again sipping our mojitos. Got to go back there again and see some more one day, unfortunately at this stage my return list is getting too big!

Guatemala - my little piece of Eden

2008-10-04T14:43:00.000-07:00

Well, we have absolutely loved Guatemala and must say are sad to go. The craft markets, quaint cafes, suberb coffee, cracking pastel painted spanish architecture, historic mayan cities, delicious food, but far above all of that its the beautiful and rich environment and people that make it shine.

When the cab pulled up in Antigua on our first night I was awestruck when I looked across the street to see a huge ruined stone church, beautifully engraved with mayan detailing, a spacious courtyard with no roof but grass and epiphytes instead, lit magestically in the gloaming hour. Minutes later we came across a brass band in full kit striding down the cobblestone street blasting jingle bells merrily with locals jiving along beside it. From that moment I knew Guatemala was going to be one of my favourites.

The environment is unlike any I have seen before. One day we are in awe of the towering and perfect cone volcanoes around Lake Aititlan, the next watching spider monkeys show off in their natural environment and following that standing in Tikal, the ancient mayan city imagining the great civilisation that once inhabited these now ruins of grand proportions.

The best moment however for me, a moment I have fantasised about since I was a little girl, was holding a freshly hatched leatherback turtle in my hand moments before releasing it and hunderds of others into the sea. So small and fragile, only about 7cm long, with huge flippers and heads that their small frame can barely support out of the water. We were ridiculously lucky in Monterrico where every night we were there we saw hatchlings by the hundreds frantically flop thier way to the sea with the help of the turtle hatchery based on the beach.

The other huge piece of luck was the arrival of a 30 year old Ridleys Turtle on the beach near our hotel to lay her eggs one night. She layed a mere 98 eggs in half and hour then flip flopped her way back to sea. That was a beautiful and magestic sight, and a sight that gets rarer and rarer every year so meant the world to me.

On top of these natural experiences we have been treated to listening to howler monkeys bark and scream like sand people at the ruins of Tikal, watched and been watched back by pairs of toucan high in the trees, watched coatils 1m away rummage for food, saw floating buzzing hummingbirds feeding on nectar, and spied freshwater otters swimming in the mangroves. These we all saw in their natural habitats which is a rare experience in these times too.

The people of Guatemala are the icing on the cake or should I say the delicious guacamole on the soft taco! We have met some interesting locals who were good representations of the diversity here. Our guide in Tikal was an excellent and knowledgeable man of mayan history, classic and recent years of Guatemalan history. On top of the immense detail he described to us on the ruins, forests and ancient people of Tikal he told us about the recent civil war, which only ended 12 years ago and the huge impact it had on the people.

He described the sad truth of how the hilltribes were murdered, tortured and displaced, and of the horiffic lengths the government troops would go to to decipher whether they were linked to the rebels or not. As many of the tribes lived in isolation and were therefore innocent of the political turmoil going on in their country at the time many were not affiliated with either side, governement or rebel. This was a unacceptable fact for those fighting who then committed horrible torture on the people of these tribes to determine the truth.

This answered a question that had been plagueing me from my first full day here when a young girl with no hands asked me for money. After giving her some coins I turned to our friend who had been working here for a month or so and knew many of the locals stories. The word in tourist cirlces was that that her parents probably mutilated her to make her a more effective beggar... A spine chilling thought that had Andy and I reeling. But in light of our guides tales I think its more likely now that she was a victim of civil war torture in an effort to have her parents confess an affiliation.

It reminds me of the witch test from the dark ages where a woman would be thrown into a river to see if she floats, if she does, shes made of wood, is therefore a witch, and will be killed, and if she doesnt float? There are no right answers with these sorts of horrific acts. This was 12 years ago and like Cambodia the people I see each day, driving the bus, grazing thier cows on the side of the roads, slapping out hundreds of hot tortillias in the toritlliaria, delivering the mail, experienced this, and like cambodia are some of the warmest, freindliest people we have seen on our travels. I like to think they have a tight grip on what truly matters in life.

There is still a class hierachy here based on race, commonly pure guatemalans (mayans) at the bottom, half casts (typically with spanish) in the middle and the remaining spanish from the colonial days at the top. This changes however when you head toward the carribean where we met a local carribean negro who explained that there unfortunately another tier is added which is the ancestral negro community there that sit below the mayan in that part of the country. We looked around and realised he was right. All the staff were mayan, none negro, however contrary to the majority of people on the street were negro. he estimated the population there in livingston to be about 75% negro and 20% or so mayan. Another sad truth. This is interesting because my first thought was that this was due to their arrival as slaves but his ancestral line and that of many of the negro in Livingston are not there as a resut of the slave ships but have been there for thousands of years, like in cuba our next destination.

Despite all these realities the people dont wear it on their shoulders. They are some of the warmest and kindest people we have met on our travels, right up there with Cambodians. It was an absolute treat to travel here and I emplore you all to see it once. My shoes have melted from scorching lava, my ankles are coated in mosquito bites but my heart and soul are filled with the fantastic experience that is Guatemala.

Leaving Europe

2008-09-30T09:10:00.000-07:00

Since I last wrote we have driven from Perpignan to Cognac, to Paris, to the French Alps, to Geneva, then Milan, Venice, Montepulciano, Rome, Marseille, Porto, Rio Maior, Lisbon, Toledo and finally to Madrid. When I say we, it was actually Andy driving as I cant drive, and even if I could would not try myself on these roads. I instead was the ever faithful and alert navigator. It was like the Peugeot rally minus the roll cage, sweet bodysuits and helmets.

The toll roads are fantastic three lane super highways, but the drivers are erratic, unpredicatable and as Andy hypothesised one day after a mad driver almost smashed us off the road they may actually get their licences from cereal boxes. The Italians with their wild non indicating ways, overtaking at speeds over 160km/hr were ridiculous, but worse were the Portugese. One day travelling on a local highway we saw three crashes and four dead dogs over a 15km stretch of road. We travelled a whopping total of 8352ks, Andys most ridiculously long drive being a total of 18 hrs. He´s like robocop, eyes on the road, no expression, pure determination. Amazing.

During our roady we had Robyn my aunt, my cousin Zak, Kate Salmond, my enduring primary school friend and her partner Chris, and Mima my bud with us. It´s been rad having so many NZ´s around, partly due to our isolation and lack of english speaking contact, but particularly as they are all such good friends and good company. It actually felt like home sometimes which is comforting after almost 6 months on the road.

Andy was lucky to have the entire Team NZ for his birthday celebrations in Rio Maior, north of Lisbon, Portugal, the closest place he has beyond NZ to a homeland. There we drank the night away in our picturesque windmill home with the fire blazing and the circle of death drinking game ruining us in the best way. Mima was a power house that night managing to polish off an entire bottle of Jagermeister to sober Robyn´s entertainment. Unsurprisingly Mima was also the one that always failed at the animal noise card as she was so foggy brained she could never remember or do the noises... and anyone who knows Mima knows how hilarious she is in that state, let alone making dolphin noises...eeeeiii eeeeeiii...I have videos!

Heres some shots http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=54347&l=e9a2d&id=694561720

We had a few fantastic nights out with Mima, our longest travel buddy, all ending in absolute debauchery. The best, no doubt being the feverish streets of Lisbon. With the help of some of the local skaters as tour guides we downed 50 cent beers, and 1 euro cherry liquor shots both from standing street bars, african buskers gyrating in a way 10 years of yoga will never allow me to do.

Money is not going so well. Its due to mainly shopping, Andys expected and must do football expenses, and our call to come to Europe early for extra Greek islands and Turkey instead of Egypt in the hottest month. Good news is however that today at check in for our flight to Guatemala we were offered 150 euros each (over $300 nzd), and an all expenses 4 star hotel if we fly out the next day as they had over booked. That´s equivalent to over a weeks budget in South America each, so we gladly accepted. Easiest days work Ive ever done!

Fricken ´GUATEMALA´.

Its so weird getting my head around going from Europe to Guatemala. Culture shock here we go again. I wonder how it will feel compared to our last one of Vietnam to Jordan....think it may beat it.

A little catch up is required!

2008-09-12T10:15:00.000-07:00

It has been too waaaaay long since my last post! This is mainly because of the surprising lack of internet cafes and to boot the speed of our travels.

Since my last post we have travelled to Morocco where we met up with Jess and Christina, back to Spain, through to France where we met Robyn and Zak, and are now in Italy with crazy ass Mima.

We are still having a brilliant time, absolutely love Europe, and have gone way over budget in doing so! We will claw it back along the line...we hope. The shopping is fantastic, particularly in France and Italy, which has damaged the coffers... not to mention the three football games and merchandise to boot that Andy has coughed up for! Got to do it though. When in Rome...

Andy particularly loves Italy, as you all know, and is currently considering a tattoo to signify his love for his team, AS Roma. Lucky we have Mima, the tattoo guru with us to design it with. We don't however like the look of our local tattooist who has a weird poster of himself with glowing green eyes and bad tattoos out front...may have to wait for NZ.

We picked up our beautiful Peugeot in France and have already put about 3,600 k on the clock, zooming down the toll roads at ridiculous speeds that one would never sanely attempt on NZ roads that put chills up poor Robyn's spine. Any other driver than Andy I would protest but he never takes it beyond the conditions so I rest assured.

Morocco was beautiful, and if you have had a chance to check out our shots you will already know this. It is one of those places you go snap mad as everything is so different to what you know but is also finished with an artisans touch. I also found this in Venice which was the most beautiful city I have seen yet. It becomes impossible to put the lens cap on and just relax as its all so framable!

My favourite place of the towns we visited in Morocco was Chefchaouen. It reminds me of a a typical cobblestone Greek town, but instead of white its painted an equally tranquil sky blue, adorned with rich silk fabrics in reds and oranges and dropped in the foothills of the North African Rif Mountains. After the chaos of Marrakesh and its tourist trade soured markets at 50 degree temperatures it was pure bliss to melt into this cool (er) mountain town and laze the week away.

There our days consisted of lounging in cafes and at our second home, Antonio's, sipping on Moroccan mint tea, reading great books, chatting to other travellers and as always playing cards.

I went to a Turkish Haman, where for about $20 NZ I had a full one hour treatment that completely stripped my tan back to a NZ winter skin! Its composed of the five stages: 1. the sauna, or as they say the seasoning of the body with heat, 2. Vigorous massage, 3. Peeling off the outer layers of the skin, ( and yes, this is as gross as you imagine!) 4. Soaping, and 5. Relaxation.

This was all performed on me by a strong little old lady with the most perfect skin, wearing nothing but her bikini bottoms on the bare ground in front of everyone in the spa. Afterwards the outside temperature of 35 degrees was actually cold to me and I had to sit on an orange juice for about 30 mins to regain my senses! Fantastic.

Would love to do it again right now actually as its exactly what I need with this never ending cold...argh, sniffle, wheeze. xx

Madrid, a city after our hearts

2008-08-14T03:51:00.000-07:00

I can honestly say after our first half hour of wandering Madrid's streets we knew it was one of our top places. The people, food, architecture and history, it's overwhelming. The air was electric, fresh, breezy and warm. I found myself stealing huge deep breaths of it as we walked the vibrant streets on arrival, grinning at eachother, shaking the days transit out of our weary travellers bones excited about what's ahead again.

The world famous nightlife lived up to expectations. Not in a glow stick toting club scene way but in a relaxed wandering wide eyed sort of way. Old, dark wood, wine and tapas bars, retail shopping open till 10.30, huge parks and beautiful old buildings lit up showcasing their fineties in detail.

The stone buildings sit shoulder to shoulder on the promenade each unique, with thier huge statues, balconies, domes, all decorated with mixes of stone, gold and brass. Then into the side streets, the streets are thin with towering stone apartments of different shades of pastel pink, yellow, cream, green, all with the typically Spanish black wrought iron balconies many dotted with colourful pot plants hanging greenery and flowers overboard.

The shopping got to Andy on our first day when he hit Zaras, his clothing Mecca. We spent a mere three hours deciding on a top notch new wardrobe, down to the shoes for his return to NZ. It's now on a ship to Mamas house and I am jealous of his splurge! I just couldn't think winter wardrobe let alone try it on. Stifling in this heat. There were some beautiful and affordable pieces that would put some of our boutique designers to shame, however not enough for me to go crazy. Budget is too tight. Womens wear in NZ is far better than the mens thankfully.

Now for the art. In one day I can confidently say we saw works from over half of the worlds master painters accross only three museums. Dali, Goya, Durer, Picasso, Miro, Lichtenstein, Delaney, Riviera, Bosch, Ernst, Manet, Monet, Rothko, Kandinsky, Velazquez, Raphael, Rubens, El Greco, Bruegel, Kirchner, Pollock, Bacon...it goes on! Absolutely mind blowing.

The first museum, the Prado, has over 1,300 paintings on display and apparently a total of 10,000 including the archives. It's considered one of the top collections in the world. Unquestionably it holds the world's finest collection of classical Spanish painting...who were very much inspired by bible tales.

Christ, I have never seen so many images of Christ in my life! Easily 600 paintings of Him in different torturous moments, for all of us remember, tears and blood streaming. They're fantastic and powerful pieces but did wear us down after a while and I'm sorry to say we found ourselves skipping whole sections of the bloody contorted pictures.

Mary held the number two spot, typically portrayed holding a grinning Christ on her knee - with the face of a 30 year old on a pudgy baby frame - I mean come on, didn't a baby with stubble and smile lines give a strong cue who his daddy was!? Guys.

The Prado was built in Goya's day in Madrid and has a huge collection of his works, portraiture and my favourites - the Black Paintings. He painted these Black Paintings directly on the walls of his last manor in the outskirts of Madrid purely out of his own desire unlike his other commissioned works. They are powerful to say the least. It's thought they're themed on the dark side of humanity, with themes of the Spanish war, fates, witchcraft and chaos they conjure up all sorts of feelings, passions and thoughts on reflection. Amazing. Thats the magic I hope for when visiting a gallery, inspiration.

I discovered Bosch at the Prado, a Flemish painter who painted well beyond his time, as masters do. "The Garden of Delights" is a painting showing Adam and Eve on 3 panels, in life, heaven and hell. He painted a unpredictable and chaotic world of bizarre animals, forms and acts he said 'as strange as life itself'. Looking forward to learning more about his painting, Brett, if your not already there you will like his stuff.

The second Museum, the Reina Sophia had the one and only "Guernica" by Picasso. What a moment, turning around and seeing that. Huge, overwhelming, powerful and plus some. Two guards stood at either end dwarfed, staring back at the crowd, all still, in silent awe. My eye moved over it again and again peeling back the layers of the work, the horse, the lying man, the mother and child, the flame, the Spanish bull all fratured in the rays of white light and shade. The plans and progress of the work are on display too which give insight into the forms and plan of the work. I love his individualism, through the day we stumbled upon several of his in different Museums and knew in a second that they are his due to his unique style.

Dali also blew us away, such busy works in such comparatively small canvasses. My eyes danced around his seeing new forms in the foreground then stepping back into the background. The transition seamless. One moment its a face then a lake. Such perfect paintings. Even with my face to the glass I could barely see the brushstrokes.

The last gallery we visited was the Thyssen, a private collection of Noah's arc proportions. It contains samples of the full history of the painting movement. From the Italian primitives to Renaissance, to the Fauves to Expressionists to Abstract and Surreal to Pop and beyond. Room after room we walked through the history of art. sigh....

And that's just the galleries. The other important thing that makes or breaks a city, other than an excellent metro which Madrid boasts, is the coffee. It was strong, fresh, everywhere and finally affordable. After Greece and Turkey where wed pay up to $NZ7 for a bad reconstituted milk coffee, a descent flat white in Madrid is typically $NZ2 and the best chocolate croissant of our lives only $1NZ! And the food... forget about it! A great pasta on the main drag is only about $NZ9 and a bottle of descent rose only $NZ7 in a silver service restaurant. Hog heaven.

Andy keeps murmuring about how easy it would be to live in Madrid. Its true, its right up our ally and tempting... but at the moment for us, there is no place like home and no bigger draw card than our beautiful friends and family that we miss and talk about every day. Yes alread, after our 1/3 way mark, we're talking a lot about home, what we want, and what to do. Yet we still have 8 months up our sleeve! So don't you worry, home is still where the heart is.

Selcuk, Turkey

2008-08-05T09:14:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting by the pool, remedying my hangover by way of sweating it out in extreme heat and the classic - hair of the dog. In this case, its Efe's the turkish standard and very nice pilsener.

I've not drunk much on this trip at all, believe it or not, but last night we both went crazy with a bunch of Aussie backpackers and the lovely NZr, Rosie Fenton (of Haines fame). We were fueled towards this I think by the releasing feeling of being surrounded by people that provided little slices of home. Their accents, mannerisms, style, music, and opinions to an extent too. All mashed together the atmosphere made us feel the most at home either of us have felt on the whole safari!

It was a great night kicked off with a welcome bbq, followed by a pool comp that Andy almost won and ended with the die hards chatting away round our nagili our sheesha's name in Turkey, exchanging travel stories and playing a form of truth or dare... without the dare, so just truth, that as always with a bunch of strangers goes too far!

It was great to be round so many people that understood me when I spoke at my normal speed, and above this could get all my wacky slang. It's been awhile since I could talk so easily (apart from to Andy) without pausing constantly, and extra explanation to get over the language barrier. And more than this it is such a treat to be hanging out with another kiwi. After almost 4 months on the road we have only seen two other NZrs. Strange eh, we are comparatively big travellers compared to other countries but my experience doesn't show this at all. Sometimes people remark they've never met a NZr before, the other day this came from a tour guide of five years in Marmaris, a huge turkish tourist town.

I think you should all hit the road and up the stats around here and swing by for a drink with us!

The joys of independant travel - Crete, Greece

2008-07-28T00:23:00.000-07:00

Ups and downs are a fact of life, particularly when you're on the road, so I thought I should give you a taste of this bitter sweet fact by documenting our last few day’s events.

Firstly heading to Crete. It was an exhausting mission composed of two busses on Santorini to the ferry terminal; a 2 hour late ferry to Crete; a rip off cab ride 100m up the road on arrival to the bus station; a bus of unsure destination in the dead of the night across the island resulting in our being stranded in Sissi - a small, skanky, tank top wearing, 20 cm short skirt sporting, glow stick toting, budget cocktails named ' the head f*#ker' producing, general bad side of the Greek islands corrupted by tourists town where we tried unsuccessfully to hire a car to gain some control of our travels; and eventually gave in to another expensive cab ride to our little town of Milatos.

Milatos however was well worth the mission. We were offered a choice of apartments on arrival which for one blew us away as usually we're pointed to a room and that’s that, and opted for the very tasteful 3 b'room apartment with a deck with a beach view sheltered by palms. Yes sir!

We spent 4 beautiful nights there, cooking our own meals which is a treat for us, lounging by the pool, exploring the lovely beachside township almost totally devoid of other tourists, and Crete in our zippy little Chevy rental car, and drinking one day away with some Essex expats with a collection of reptiles in their apartment that would put Wellington Zoo to shame. No shit, they had 16 snakes, a few lizards and a cane toad - one of the boas was 15 feet!!

We meet these critters when we were half boozed (and expecting his boasts to be half hot air) and instead were blown away. I got some excellent photos of us snuggling them. Andy looked awfully Cleopatra like with his little snakey curled around his wrists, sorta like that princess babe in Conan.

Any who, we loved it there, I can honestly say it was the best accommodation so far and we were sad to leave. But exciting too, because as far as we know we were heading to Turkey the next day....we were wrong.

After a 12 hour ferry ride (supposed to be 10), a 75 euro cab ride that was not planned for in our meagre budget, after the planned 10 euro bus never arrived (as they don’t run on Saturdays, and the website timetable doesn’t bother to mention this!), which followed our prearranged cab driver demanding extra money for no decent reason and succeeding as we didn’t have the correct change we arrived in Rhodes. Straight away we were struck by the place and upset that we didn’t have any days planned here. Fate intervened however in the morning when our ferry was cancelled and we had to spend the next day regardless. A good turn of events!Woohoo

Naxos, Greece - Beach Buggin'

2008-07-16T01:40:00.000-07:00

We are so glad to be here!
It's super hot, the beaches are absolutely stunning - actually the best I've ever seen - and to match the people are stunning too. The rumours are not true, Greek men are not all super hairy with mono brows and fob chains, there are some amazing specimens about and so far both Greek men and women are on top of my most attractive list for this trip.
Needless to say skin exposure is on a high and is the biggest relief after the middle east. To walk the streets in a sleeveless dress was my biggest kick on our first day, let alone all the nudey bathing since.
For the last two days we've hired a little beach buggy to tiki tour the island. Great call, each day we pack a little picnic and fire off around the coast to see the sights and sites.
The buggy scores high on the cool factor, being a low riding, open air bright yellow broom broom, but really low on comfort as its fricken loud, and offers no reprieve from the heat which reaches about 35 degrees with no breeze.
So, we zipped around and saw some beautiful old white wash churches, one as old as 600ad though you wouldn't think it, ancient marble statues, marble mines, one literally overflowing into an avalanche of white rock against a huge green peak - stunning, and also visited a Temple to Demeter which was the oh so classically Greek columned style I've been hanging out for in my minds eye of what I'll see in Greece.
The beaches are killer - we found one beautiful little bay amongst the white stone where we had our Greek picnic and lazed for the day. I looked so funny, swimmimng topless with my white goggles on checking out the fishes and old marble rock under the water. Its no biggie here to go topless so an ace opportunity to get a clean, no lines tan not to mention have the hippie sense of being one with nature swimming near nude in the med.
I see why people fall in love with this place!

Wadi Musa, Petra, Jordan - the search for the Holy Grail

2008-07-07T11:21:00.000-07:00

At the moment we're high up in the hills of Jordan in Wadi Musa to visit Petra (yes, the place that Indie found and lost the Holy Grail in number 3). It is absolutely stunning and not to brag but our second world wonder on this trip.

We have 5 days here now instead of our planned 3, as the previous accomodation in Aqaba near the border tried to put us in a tent instead of a room at an exhorbatant rate for what it was, in 50 degree temps...so not an option!! So, after a 24 hour day of travel and some well worded business advice to the ahole hotel staff in Aqaba, we jumped ship early and hailed a cab to Wadi Musa.

To describe where we are now, it's a small mountain town where every house is made of stone and painted cream. It's surrounded by ancient, jagged, dry, erroded hills of rock and is visually to die for. We've been treated by crimson desert sunsets iced with a cresent moon the last two nights...awww.

The people are way freindlier than the first batch of Jordanians that I met last month, but that's pretty easy. But of course, they are more used to tourists here and our skin exposing ways. I am still carefull however not to attract too much attention, so have reverted to some strategic conversions of dresses to long skirts etc in a terribly daggy fashion, but worth it.

We met a stunning Bedouin man today in Petra who chatted with us while we smoked hooka. He lives in the caves, is 27, and unmarried. For that reason, Rachael Lowe, we've decided you should never visit here as you would be too tempted to stay and marry a local! He told us a few tales of western woman who come here for a week or so holiday and instead married and never left! One is a NZ'er who married a Bedouin man here 27 years ago, and has written a book on her experiences. We'll have to met her tomorrow to get her last name and look her book up, should be interesting hearing how she adjusted to the cave dwelling nomadic lifestyle here. Funny though, you see these guys, wearing their long robes and thick eye makeup and can easily see how women get swept up in it. Dont worry though, Andy is enough of a gorgeous nomad for me to ever be tempted by those boys!

xxxxx

Jerusalem - Holy!

2008-07-03T06:25:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting in a beautiful and of course very old, as are most things here, stone hostel about 200m away from the 'Old City' part in Jerusalem.

I love the Old City area, it's a labrinyth of ancient white stone with everything you hope to see in Jerusalem in one place: amazing historical sites, fantastic markets, and of course great cafes. It's completely walled in by huge crusade style architecture and is divided into four quarters: Muslim, Armenian, Christian and Jewish, each as you can imagine, with their own unique character on offer.

The markets are brimming with gorgeous fabrics, glass works, ceramics, colourful stone beads and handcrafted jewelery to spices, teas, dried fruits and arabic sweets (my favourite is by far rose and pistachio...mmm). It's all so tempting but sadly apart from the cafes, too pricy for me and for that matter not the sort of thing to squash in our packs for the next 9 months to get home, so ba humbug!

We have however bought a frankincense burner, arabic coffee and pot and a sheesha (hookah) pipe so we can continue the arabic lifestyle down the line. Here's hoping we can get it all through customs... Sheesha was always predicted to be an indulgence for us in this part of the world which today we had in the Muslim Quarter with the perfect partner - mint tea. Quite the scene, being the only woman sitting amongst robed men puffing away, eyebrows raised and a little boy giggled.

Jerusalem is holy to three major religions; Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It's the holiest city in Judaism and the spiritual center of the Jewish people since the 10th century BCE. Some of the holy sites in the Old City are: the Temple of the Mount (where the Jews believe Adam and the world for that matter was created) and the West Wall (the Western Wall is venerated as the sole remnant of the 1st Holy Temple and a place of pilgrimage for Jews, as it's the closest permitted accessible site to the holiest spot in Judaism), the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, (where Jesus is said to have been killed and buried) - we had no idea of this when we were in there, bad uneducated tourist! will go back today to take it in, and the Dome of the Rock (where the Muslims believe Muhammad ascended to God) which is absolutely beautiful and of course I took copiuos photos.

Needless to say its pretty amazing seeing these sights. I couldnt help but think of how many other people would love to see them as it would mean so much more to them than they do to us little atheists, however the history, the art and amazing architecture was pretty moving. I often find myself watching the pilgrims as much as the sights because they're so swept up in it. I find it amazing that they believe in it so passionately when the other religions and sights and contradictory tales are so nearby. Thats just me. Oh to be so one sided - life would be so simple.

Given this history, there's no wonder there is so much conflict here. Yesterday as you probably read, a Palestinian charged a bulldozer down a busy street close to where I sit now on a rampage, killing three Israelis and injuring over 40 people. I was surprised by the Prime Ministers response to this which was; "I think we need to be tougher in some of the means we use against perpetrators of terror. If we have to destroy houses, then we must do so, and if we have to stop their social benefits, then we must do so. There cannot be a case where they massacre us and at the same time they get all the privileges that our society provides". An interesting response when the bulldozer attacker was shot dead on the spot, so he would only be punishing the family by a cruel and clearly unfair form of collective punishment, and is dangerously teetering on the edge with that statement of speaking about the Palestinians as a whole not the family?! Argh. I dont know what the answers are here but that's an example of the chaos of both the actions and reasoning underlying this complex, beautiful, and ancient waring area.

It's definately a bizzare feeling when we stop and think about where we are and what does happen on these streets but I can honestly say we feel safe. I saw that bulldozer article, see huge tanks being transported by night, see gun towers and the gun toting teenage soldiers, but I also see a country striving for the normality of daily life without conflict, trying to find a way ahead on a person to person level.

On a completely different and cherrier note, I can't believe it has been less than 3 months since we left NZ. It feels like so long ago. I'm already having fantasies about catching up with all of you, holidays around NZ, a flat white from Fidel's or a Chargrilled Pineapple Caipirinha from the Matterhorn on my return!! Way ahead of myself there. Come on Emma, you still have the motherland of Caipirinha's to go - Brazil.... let alone half the world.

Happy Birthday (Month) BRETT!, I am desperatly looking for a cool milestone bday present for you but they are all so holy and biased in that way that I've had no luck yet... it's like searching for the holy grail...well we are going to Petra on Sunday so I'll see if Indy left it there. That'd be a sweet present eh? I'll try xx

Golan Heights, Israel

2008-06-24T01:54:00.000-07:00

Shalom!

We've spent the last week in Israel in the Golan heights with Andys brother, Nessem. Another treat of our travels, thanks to Andys family again, is having this opportunity to live and breathe the culture and lifestyle in Israel, and more importantly spend time with Nessem who Andy rates as one of the most important people in his life.

We had planned on Israel being the end of our mideast trip, mainly to make parting a lesser sorrow with the fam, however changed our routing on a whim within an hour of arriving in Jordan. This was thanks to a greedy handed airport worker who groped me on the bus! I, being the polite kiwi pushed his hand away rather than shouting, smacking, or generally embarrasing him publicly which is what I learnt afterwards is the correct response. It seems obvious now but in the moment my intinct took over and sadlyI froze reverting to the subtle manners approach, thinking 'surely he gets that I am not into this guff. Nope, got to be tough here. My carefuly arranged arsenal of angry looks, short responses to his typical, 'where are you from' type questions, and carefully arranged arm, bag and books on my lap, didn't do much good to keep away his intrusive hands. Grr! Not a biggie, but really offensive. Next time I will bite...not literally but you know.

So, definately not to judge the country by one sour apple, but after that experience and the general first impressions of Jordan we realised that the best way to cut our losses and ease into our new surroundings would be to hop accross the border straight away, being the impulsive munchkins we are, and start off in Israel.

So after a long days travel from Amman to Jerusalem, then to the top of Israel we surprised Nessem by walking down the main drag a month early!

Needless to say it's my first time in occupied territory - the Golan Heights was taken by Israel from Syria in the 6 day war in the 1960's, and the military presence is strong in my virginal eyes. When Iraelis hit 17 years old they automatically serve 2 years in the military and following this 1 month each year until they reach 60! Its pretty strange seeing kids in skate shoes with pants around their asses and M16's slung over their sides sleeping on the bus next to us.

The food here is to die for, the largely organic fruit is usually picked the same day we eat it day by Nessems mother who still works the fields, or by a sneaky side of the road manouver on our drives through the country. I've never had cherries or apricots like these before. The hummus, falafel, and local cheese 'lahbne' is too good. Aula, Nessem's wife is going to teach me to make it for ya'll on my return!

It's a beautiful country and obviously a strong contrast to Asia and for that matter NZ. I could babble for hours about it but as we are using the neighbours internet I'll resist. I will say though that it is far more lush than I expected. It is more like what I imagined a lot of Europe to be like with the fresh produce and cream stone hills dotted with olive trees and stone fruit orchards. You know it's Israel though when you see the old bunkers, active mine fields and ruins of castles from the crusades. One, Nimrod castle dates back to 1229 ad, during the 6th Crusade. We drive past it each day, there's much history here! It's facinating being somewhere so old for a little kiwi. Jerusalem was another story! HOLY!! (haha)

Anywho, rest assured despite the infamy of Israel and the Golan Heights, and the UN presence here we are utterly safe. Nessem, Aula, and Andy, their son (and Andy's namesake) are great hosts and we are having a blast.

I'll add some photos soon.

xxx

p.s - We have decided to flag Egypt this trip as it will just be too damned hot this time of year. Instead we're swapping it for more Greek Islands and a few weeks in Turkey!!
Egypt will have to wait for the Africa Expedition in 2011

Team Fancypants and Fanzipan Mountain - Sapa, Vietnam

2008-06-10T00:46:00.000-07:00

Wooooohoooooooo!!

We just climbed Fansipan Mountain, the highest mountain in Vietnam at 3,143m and the highest peak in the entire Indochina Peninsula. Dad, I hope you're proud!

It's a fair feat when you compare it to Mount Cook which is 3,754m, so 611m less than that. However to be fair the conditions are a lot easier on Fanzipan, no ice, no equipment required. Hold on, I'm making it sound too easy. Rethink.

When we first met our guide he told us that 'women can't climb the mountian because they are too weak' and continued on along the lines of 'we wont make it' and will probably give up... Me and my female companion joked around, like, 'oh but we're pretty strong'... dead pan response, 'most women stay at base camp or turn around'.

Not at all what we needed to hear after a nights stressing over the stupidity to commiting to this tortutous plan of a three day tramp into the foothills of the Himalayas tackling the highest peak of the region. I was really nervous that I wouldn't make it.

To put this in more of a 'oh dear' perspective, this was on the back of our second sleepless overnight train, and a 16 hour day in Hanoi consisting of pure time absorbption till the next train in the form of 30 cent beers. I was exhaugshted and freaked at the idea of physical activity, let alone this extreme challenge, but frustratingly could not think of a valid excuse apart from fear of failure. Andy was in a worse situation than me, subsitsting on less than 4 hours sleep on top of the 2 day travel exhaughstion and about four to five times the amount of hangover I suffered... go figure...

Day one was fine, an easy tramp through beautiful misty rainforest, a few river crossings and small inclines to our base camp. We made it under the predicted time - good start.

Day two however was the real test. We were up at 6am and left base at 7am. A long, gruelling, slippery, cold, wet, mud coated, knee jolting, thigh straining, back fudging yet somehow fun half day later, we were all on top of the mountain eating baguettes and drinking cold coffee. What a sight. I was soaked, with umpa loompa hair, sporting short shorts, muddy legs and a $1 poncho made from a plastic with less thickness than your average supermarket bag not to mention missing a whole arm (an earlier casualty), standing on a misty, wet, rocky, peak saluting my achievement with a Mars bar. I am so proud we did it! We knocked it off!

Other credits aside from my achievement of climbing it with lack of sleep and well, overall fitness go to Andy with his ridiculous hangover, worse lack of sleep and his terrible knees and above that to to Jessie, one of our fellowship, who was hammered by travellers tum the night prior and had serious tummy cramps and no real nutrients at all in his system but still made it to the top! Ridiculous.

I'm super glad we conquered it particularly after the guides sexist, pessimistic, un-encouraging comments! HOH, we did it in time, and un fit! JEEZ. Sisters are doing it for themselves eh Sarah!!

Outro: the Team Fancypants theme song 'Aint no mountain high enough...'
We played this when ever we needed encouragement and, well, when we were getting hyper. Contrary though, it was totally high enough for me!

We were really lucky to meet and form Team Fancypants, by luck from sharing a van up to Sapa with three travellers planning to vanquish the mountian. Without them I know we wouldn't have done it, we just wouldn't have considered it! It turned out to be such a great call and perfect with such great people. Definatly a major joy of travelling is the people you meet along the way. And in this situation hopefully, we'll see these guys down the line - Sarah, maybe Portugal, Jesse, maybe Spain for the tomato mash up, and Nic... You tell us! Definately more cards, mad challenges, and red wine.

Dalat and Mui Ne, Vietnam, A Few Firsts.

2008-05-31T22:15:00.000-07:00

We had a few firsts in Mui Ne. It was our first Vietnam beach town, our first moto hire, first puncture, first descent rip off and my first real desert experience.

To begin, the moto. Andy decided to give an manual a shot, and was surprised to find there's no clutch on these beasties. Is that the norm? Not sure. I always thought Harleys have clutches? Anyway, he took to it really well, and soon we were living our Vietnam easy rider dream thundering (as much as a little moto can) around the stunning coast line.

The freedom was great, we've been cooped up so much public transport and tours that I'd forgotton how grand it is to be your own master. We toured the countryside, stopping off at some local fishing spots to get a look see at the traditional painted boats with bold yellow, red, and blue stripes across the sides and two big eyes painted on the stern. There were hundreds of them. We also stopped at a cemetry facing out to the sea with stone plots painted bright blue, green and pink all pastel bursting out of the red sand earth. Stunning. The area reeked of kodak moments as awkward as we felt about it.

We continued our tour 25km out to the white sand dunes where you can hire plastic boards off local kids to ride the huge dunes on your belly. Unfortunately this is where our back tyre blew out! Andy did well to control the bike which fish tailed a little and brought it to a stop. SHIT. It was super duper hot and we were on top of a hill god knows where. Not a good feeling.

So we took it off the road and walked to the next town, luckily not too far off. Promptly we found a 'honda' shop - painted on a piece of cardborad hanging from a tree. It was a home made tin shack with a man sleeping in a hammock and a monkey chained to the side. Excellent.

20 mins later we were back on the road $200,000 dong lighter. It turns out it should have only been $20,000D but them's the breaks, I should have batered, I should have asked the man to call our resort to negotiate payment, but instead we were so happy to get it sorted we didnt really stop to think. Good news is $200,000D is about $15NZD and the hotel came to the party of a quater of this after some major battles.

So we continued on, out to the dunes along a dirt road with a oasis on our right, spattered with pink lotus blooms and palm trees, and another stunning cemetry on our left. A kid waved us down shouting 'whi san doon!' and we hired his mats and headed out to the desert on foot.

Worst call ever. It was noon, it was dry, it was hot beyond belief, and the dunes unknowingly were about 15 mins walk away. The walk out was hard, instantly I lagged behind Andy, my hobbit legs cursing my advance. every full step turned to a quarter as my feet sank into the sand. the sun pounded down, and the incline of the dunes was soon upon us. It was a stunning sight, cliffs of white sand against a bright blue sky, wind whipping over the tops making little sand fountains that curled around the peaks. Whatever. This was wasted on me as the sun had sapped my energy and patience along with it.

As we climbed the wind picked up and soon we were being thrashed by sand - yes girls - microderm abrasion, sun bedding and sauna all in one! Microderm abrasion on the eyeballs though, not so fun.

Soon we reached the top of the ridge and gave surfing a go. Andy started out really slow, tossing sand up making watching him impossible. I lay down on the slope, face first, but no movement. The sand was washing over me as the wind scattered over the top of the dune. It was about 50% air 50% sand. Eyes closed, mouth closed. I started getting desperate and flapped myself round like a dying seal to get some traction and get out of the sand stream. Woosh! Suddenly i was flying down with my feet out trying to slow it down! Andy was like a target in my sights, smiling away, till he realised the trajectory and leapt aside, a near miss.

It was fun for 15 seconds, but effort vs reward, no way worth it! Getting back out of the valley was harder still, the incline was greater, the sun was hotter, I was hotter, basically a sand crusted beast. On the second ascent I was pathetic, every two minutes i had to stop to let the energy return to my weakened thighs. It was a strange feeling, i wasnt tired, or panting, my sweat was dry by the sun and sand, but i had absolutely no energy or muscle to get up the hill, forced to move at a snails pace.

When i finaly did make it i resolved to retreat, Andy however decided to give it one more go after his dismal beginning. Bad call. When i saw him again at the top of the next ridge his face was red with blood, his eyes lost, his feet heavy. Way worse than i had been. My eyes were spotted with the begginings of a faint so we headed back. I am proud to admit during our exhaustive walk back i still managed to be a green kiwi and pick up the scattered cigarette packets across the sand. Some people eh, littering in the desert! i dont know.

When we made it back to the roadside stand, I collapsed and inhaled a big bottle of water. The kid took Andy around the back and cooled him Vietnamese style with buckets of well water. He even even soaped his head. What a sight!! I took photos but they do the moment no justice. I'm sure the kid thought it was all pretty funny. ...ha ....ha ...ha

Lesson - deserts are ridiculously hot and punishing, and desert sports are generally a bad idea. Go figure.

Good morning Vietnam!!!

2008-05-26T03:35:00.000-07:00

Haha - sorry about the title, so cheesy but so hard to resist!

We've been here 8 days and covered three very different areas: First Saigon, big city, moto madness with a power cable sky; then Mui Ne, a stunning little fishing village grown by the tourist industry into a halfway there resort destination; and now Dalat, way up in the mountains, a refreshingly cool, clean, forested town with coffee plantations, and vineyards galore- bliss.
So - first Saigon, we spent our time divided between city exploring and war history.

The city was like a cross between Singapore and Bangkok. Clean and green in many parts like Singapore with actual, walkable sidewalks unlike most of Cambodia, and spacious parks on every few blocks, but also chaotic like BKK with the famed motorbike mania, and where biggest cars on the road gets the right of way.

Still a lot of poor people about but not half as many as BKK or 1/4 as many as Cambodia. Their tactics were different too. Instead of straight begging they offered packs of gum or packs of tissues in exchange. Maybe this made it legal practise so they could enter the retaurant and approach you mid mouthful, which they did. Don't know. What was new was women carrying their kids while begging as a heartstring yanker. Argh.

So on the war side of things we covered two tourist destinations, the Cu Chi tunnels and the War Remnants Museum.

The Museum was hard going, particularly the section on chemical weapons. Agent Orange, Phospherous and Napalm. The graphic photos of the effects are no short of horrific. To use weapons like those is a kind of heartlesness I am scared to admit exists, and seeing the effect on the people made me angry, nauseus and sad at once. I don't know if it has phappened already but I hope the US has recognised and apologised for what they did and are effectively still doing here, due to residual chemicals, and also beyond Vietnam, scattered over the border into Laos and Cambodia.

Napalm, Agent Orange, Phosperuos and Cluster bombs rained down on VC guerillas, civillians and neighbouring countries alike during the war . The effects are still felt today, with those that still bear the scars, walking the streets I saw, but also with birth defects from Agent Orange and ecosystem damage predicted to last for hundreds of years to come. Disgusting.
We also visited the Cu Chi tunnels, crawled through some, saw the bamboo traps, B52 bomb craters, heard guns cracked off by enthusiastic tourists (not us), and watched some genuine propoganda videos from the 1960's. Brett, you would have loved the Life Aquatic style backing music to this, I of course filmed some for you.

The tunnels were amazing. We were standing there chatting to the guide about the tunnels, and she asked, 'where do you think they are?' I smartly pointed to the ground, like derr, right under our feet, she conceeded, then asked 'but how do you enter?'...we looked round, could see the widened openings with step ladders for the tourists and pointed to those. She grinned, kicked the dirt from under her feet to expose a very very small wood lid. It was about the length of my shoulders and the width of my forearm. (photo to come). wow. She lept in, then Andy, then me. Easy going in, awkward coming out as you need to put your arms up to get out, or your shoulders will be too broad.

I then witnessed a worst nightmare come true... everyone was giving the hole a go, and lots of the girls worried they wouldnt fit. there was one, genuinly concerned but the guide encouraged her she'd be fine. she wasnt. she got stuck!

It was horrible, going in was ok, but as she tried to get out she got jammed. She started freaking in that so very awkard joking manner, half laughing, half shrieking about her 'damned fat ass' and profusely apologising to everyone for holding them up. it was hard to watch and hard to resist the little red guy on my shoulder pushing me to take a photo! in the end, Andy and a ex US soldier turned bagel eating bohemith yanked her out using her pants as wedgy leverage. she wont be forgetting that in a hurry, poor gal!

The propaganda here is subtle to the Vietnamese I imagine, but rings clear for us. One of the stories we heard from our passionate, freindly and oh so eccentric tour guide was: '2 million American Imperialists were killed at the Cu Chi tunnels!' .... We found this strange and questioned this with her at the time only to have it repeated back to us, strange because only 1.4 million millitary personel were killed in total during the entire Vietnam War, and 6% of this figure were US troops. I also felt the propoganda vibe at the War Remnants Museum where they exposed the torture and massacres the US carried out on the VC which is something that should be brought to light and remebered but I couldnt help but feel uncomfortable with the one sided natureof the story telling.

YUCK YUCK YUCK

I know that I am just a babe in the woods and know little about what went on here which is a good thing for my sanity, and too hard to imagine anyway. But what has resounded for me both in early days in Vietnam and throughout my Cambodia experience is that we are a scary, ruthless species when driven to it. I keep thinking to myself, wow, how could this have happened, how could someone make that decision, or phsically do that, but at the same time having waves of realisation that it is still happening all over the world in different manners in diferent stories, that are talked about like histories.

Nicer post coming soon, promise. We're off on a hired moto today to explore Dalat today. Going to check out some coffee plantations and waterfalls.There are loads of tours, even our lovely hotel manager offeringto take us on a private tour of his village but due to our budget and and our desire to get away from the tourist buses and regimented timetables will opt for independant moto travel.

Andy - the enigma at the mo - is considering posting at some point soon. I can report he's loving the trip and is particulrly excited about Dalat. Within a few minutes of being here he was trying to figure out an extra day into our schedule to stay here longer. it's funny, in our last days in Cambodia we were both feeling like skipping Vietnam and going straight to Jordan as we were feeling like a big change but now we realise there is so much to see here and so little time!

I have a ridiculous amount of photos to upload but not computer fit enough to upload them.

Oh and thanks for the comments I can see have been posted but frustratingly I cant view them. Dont know whats going on but I can post using the back end of this site but I cant view my blog....ever since we hit Vietnam. strange eh.

Ending Cambodia

2008-05-25T19:37:00.000-07:00

We're now in the former 'Saigon' now called 'Ho Chi Minh' after the war...whatever you prefer. Me the former, not for any deep reason just the beauty of of the word. I'm surprised to hear most people calling it Saigon still, mainly tourists mind you, not sure of what the locals think of that carry on. Already I miss that local perspective we were blessed with in Cambodia from Rach here. It's hard to know what's really going and how people really feel as we skate along the tourist surface. In our first Communist country.

It's our last night in Saigon tonight and our last with Rach. Tomorrow we head north and she heads back to Cambodia. Sad. We have had an excellent time and will miss our third amigo lots.

Now, before I get into this I must admit that I've been blog slack of late so will try and catch you up the best I can. It's a deadly cycle not updating, the longer I leave it, the more experiences we have, and the harder it is to accurately tell the tale of our adventures, as my mind and literally body has moved on. I shall do my best. Hurrah!

Essentially the highlights are as follows....

1. Fairy bread for the orphans!

We wanted our last visit to the kiddies in Cambodia to be special and somehow kiwi so decided on spoiling them with fairy bread! Who would've thought all the neccesary ingredients would be at a Phnom Penh supermarket!?

When we arrived at the orphanage we were warmly greeted by the one Brett named 'hip hop', due to his sweet hip hop branded top in our first photos. Hip Hop ran up to and proceeded to leap up on Andy when he saw him. Aww..... I was second best but also got a giant hug. He is so warm and affectionate compared to the other kids, and also so young. Jokes about adoption were flying that afternoon for both Hip Hop and 'Calvin' (I named after Calvin from Calvin and Hobbs as he is such mischief and in his own admirable world half the time).

I now understand Angelina...

As for the fairy bread we had to make it with the kids spoons and serve it in their personal bowls as that was all we had available. They had never seen anything like it. Logically the kiddies proceeded to eat the strange rainbow bread goodness like soup with their spoons out of their bowls instead of picking it up. He he. This was only however after everyone had a piece in front of them as these tiddlywinks have great manners.

After spoiling their dinner we played volleyball with the older kids (Cambodia's unofficial national sport). Great fun and totally friendly, they were just happy to play. No competition or scoring at all, like a weekend at the summer bach.

We were sad to go but so glad to meet them and experience what we did. Truly unique. I'd love to go back in the future and see how they are getting on. Return journeys with Rach have been discussed!

A few photos but not many as the connection here is crapola. Will update them later on.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=37213&l=b2e7f&id=694561720

2. Leaving Cambodia - local style

We agreed to give local transport a go instead of the comfy buses or cars the standard traveler use for a true Cambodian travel experience.

This comes in first equal for me as far as the local transport experience, with the 'taxi' ride we experienced to Svey Rieng. This is where they fit 4 in the back and 4 in the front. Impossible you say....not if you put 4 in the back, two in the passenger seat and one under the driver! He sits on their lap, and proceeds to drive for several hours over some pretty crazy roads. Wacko but cost efficient.

But I digress, back to the border trip.

We walked laden in the heat to the market where we asked the locals in broken Khmer where their goods trucks were going and when. We found one heading to the VN border at 10am. It was only just over an hour away so we agreed to go for it and settled into some cards at a drinks stand.

We soon had about ten spectators watching our game and giggling away at us, trying to suss the game and get the odd chat in. It was the highlight for me, just all hanging out trying to communicate. Unfortunately 10am turned to 10.30 to 11.00 to 11.30 and we were off near to noon. That's the downside, you're in the hands of the driver who needs to fill the truck to make the journey worthwhile. He did his best but it was a long, hot wait.

We sat in the back of the truck which we shared with shared several other khmer, 2 scooters, massive bags of bags of oozing produce, and three body bag sized bunches of lotus flowers. Nothing goes to waste with those plants, the flowers for decoration, the seed heads for chewing (yummy nutty goodness), the stems used in noodle soup like a celery of sorts, and the roots for chewing. Again with the digressing. It was a cool experience and a fitting farewell to Cambodia, traveling with the locals in their mode of transport.

We soon hit the border hot and ready, and after some time in the lines and some bribary observed we were in Vietnam!!

The first thing I noticed was the lush green fields. They have irrigation. The second was the lack of roadside rubbish. They have a organised rubbish system. Cambodia lacks both of these.

The next thing was the bikes and masses of power cables. I thought I had seen some pretty amazing masses of both of these in Thailand but Nam takes the cake. The power cables threaten to choke out the sun on some corners.

....I have way more to say but I am running low on brain juice and desperately need 'lunner'....my new phrase for lunch and dinner combined. A naughty habit we've picked up with the lack of structured days and lunch times and late rises.

Oh the life.

Keep those comments going - love hearing from you all!

Rach - the coffee is even better here! strong and fresh! I see why you rave about it now.

xxx

Our Itinerary

2008-05-19T00:16:00.000-07:00

Travel Itinerary For:MR ANDREW LOWE MS EMMELINE JOHANSEN ---------------

Thought I should let you know the detials incase anyone decides to join the expedition?

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Our Flights:
Hong Kong 12-Apr 1
Thailand 13-Apr 21
Cambodia 4-May 28
Vietnam 1-Jun 16
Jordan 17-Jun 5
Egypt 22-Jun 18
Israel 10-Jul 21
Jordan 31-Jul 1
Greece 1-Aug 10
Spain 11-Aug 1
Morocco 12-Aug 13
Spain 25-Aug 6
France 31-Aug 8
Italy 8-Sep 8
France 16-Sep 1
Portugal 17-Sep 12
Spain 29-Sep 1
Guatemala 30-Sep 19
Cuba 19-Oct 21
Chile 9-Nov 3
Ecuador 12-Nov 2
Galapagos 14-Nov 7
Ecuador 21-Nov 7
Peru 28-Nov 14
Bolivia 12-Dec 21
Chile 2-Jan 5
Argentina 7-Jan
Uruguay 27-Feb 10
Brazil 9-Mar 29
Chile 7-Apr 2

Detailed Europe itinerary:
Aug 1 – Athens, Greece
Aug 2-7 - Naxos, Greece
Aug 8,9,10 – Athens, Greece
Aug 11 – Madrid, Spain
Aug 12-24 – Morocco
Aug 25 – Algeciras, Spain
Aug 26,27 – Valencia, Spain
Aug 28,29,30 – Barcelona, Spain
Aug 31 – Perpignan, France
Sep 1,2 – Cognac, France
Sep 3,4 Paris, France
Sep 5 – Pierrelatte, France
Sep 6,7 – Cannes, France
Sep 8,9 – Venice, Italy (My birthday!)
Sep 10,11 – Montepulciano, Italy
Sep 12,13,14 – Rome, Italy
Sep 15 – Savona, Italy
Sep 16 – Lourdes, France
Sep 17 – Braganca, Portugal
Sep 18,19 – Porto, Portugal
Sep 20-24 – Rio Maior, Portugal (Andy's birthday!)
Sep 25 – Marvao, Portugal
Sep 26,27,28 – Lisbon, Portugal
Sep 30 – Madrid, Spain

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Angkor, Siem Reap, Cambodia

2008-05-18T22:58:00.000-07:00

Wat can I say...ha ha...couldn't resist the bad pun!

We're now finishing our fourth and last day in Angkor, Siem Reap, where the most concentrated amount of wats (temples) in Cambodia are situated. This region boasts the famous Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom ('Big Capital') both of which are supremely iconic. If you don't know the names of the temples you will doubtlessly know the images, some from Discovery channel and others from the all time movie great 'the Jungle Book' and the not so all time movie great 'Tomb Raider' which were both largely shot in these two wats.

We bought a three day pass and tended towards 5-6 hours a day tiki touring around with our tuk tuk driver Samreth. It was an amazing experience and I implore anyone coming through South East Asia to get up here to see these amazing temples. The scale, detail, and unique beauty is staggering. Words can't describe, photos can try, but you really just need to experience it yourself.

Here are some shots from our first day of exploring.....
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=36353&l=ce157&id=694561720

We have two days after this of experiences and over 1000 photos, no joke. We need to get ruthless and cull some but they are all so fricken sweet!

Only halfway through our third day, this morning after a 4am wake up to see the sunrise over Angkor we had our first moment of the 'templed out syndrome' travellers talk about. It was also on our second to last of the eight wats we covered, so we did pretty well! Not hard though if you pace yourself in the heat as they are all so unique -you always see something new at each temple: roots pushing the rock apart; crooked smiles on the giant faces; a beautiful and still perfect Apsara (celestial nymph) image after over 800 years of weathering; an ancient Buddha prayed to by probably tens maybe hundreds of thousands of people over its long life; evidence of the war, often in the form of destroyed Buddha statues or bullet holes in the walls; it goes on. All these surviving so many generations, when my grandfather, and his father, and his fathers father were born it was still ancient to their generation! Ridiculous.

Coming from such a young country, the age and mass of history in a place like this blows my mind.

I particularly loved the apsara images. I've loved the image of the apsara and what she embodies for a long time now so seeing the real images in their most ancient form was pretty cool ow. And leads me to my next point....I am considering my first tattoo. I would say I have decided but as I don't have it yet, and have to wait for the right conditions to get it done (i.e. Europe), and am quite flippant with tattoo ideas, I will call it considering. I was going to get it today but Andy advised the likelihood of infection in the terrain we've been covering is pretty high, and that it would be no fun pussing particularly in the place I am thinking about getting it done... haha....calm, down....the arch of my foot! So that's exciting. Mum....comments?

xx

For our Mama's

2008-05-14T04:27:00.001-07:00

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We took these on Mama's day but couldn't upload them till now!

Miss you all - I'm sure Brett and Soph put on a good spread for you.

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Sihanoukville and Kep, Cambodia

2008-05-14T02:02:00.000-07:00

We've officially passed our first month of travelling!

It's strange, feels like a lot longer as we've eased into the travelers lifestyle completely. I can't imagine how weathered I'll feel at the end of this... or maybe it'll be the opposite, revitalised and full of life ... a girl can only hope.

We just arrived back in Phnom Penh after a tiki tour to Cambodia's beach towns, Sihanoukville and Kep. Unfortunately the weather was crap so no real lazing on the beach time, but Andy and I did manage a swim/bodysurf in Sihanoukville, the waves were really strong for SE Asian standards. Everytime i resurfaced after a wave dunk i had to yank both sections of my bikini back into place! The waves would tear them out of position and pull me into the shallows to add insult to embarrasment.

Sihanoukville is a realtively new destination in Cambodia, founded in 1964 as Cambodia's main port. It's a whitish (off white, stucco) sand beach with cafe's galore and yes ... fire dancing to lure the tourists into the bars like moths to a flame. The experience I had was of a sleepy, poor (lots of begging kids selling trinkets) beach town with not much going on. I'm sure this is different for those that visit it in high season without the monsoon rain we were treated to.

After two nights we moved onto Kep, which was Cambodia's most popular beach town prior to the sixties, frequented by the rich French and Cambodian elite. We could see this from the magnificent stone villas spotted along the lush coastline, which were obliterated during the KR years. Now they're broken and weathered, many shot up with bullet holes, all grey water marked stone as the paint has peeled off - essentially in a state of complete disrepair.... and absolutely oozing character!

Locals have squatted in those that still are habitable and others that are not, were free for us to explore. We took bikes from our bugalows and went for a tour. The villa's are still full of splendor, with tiled floors and high ceilings, some as high as the sky as they've been blown out in the war, some without floors too so you can look straight up two stories or more. Geometric forms everywhere. We saw the old palace the king built before the KR, which now houses squatters who welcomed us to come in and have a look. They were all irrisistable to photograph, draped in vines and the scars of war. Luckily we were out of battery or I would have used our whole 8MB card on shots of them only!

Kep's also great for seafood...which Rach, Andy and I all love, so when we were out of exploring might we popped into a seaside cafe and had fresh crab and ginger squid. Honestly...the food here is so cheap and delicious. The downside is I did tempt fate on my last post boasting no tummy trouble yet and have now experienced my first tummy trauma. Its been two nights so far and seems to be letting up thanks to the drugs we stocked up on in NZ.

Hope you're all well and snuggling up infront of the fire/heater/ heat pump with your hot cuppas and think of me occasionally while I sweat and demand rooms with fans.

Angkor this weekend!! YAY

xxx

Svay Rieng - another side to Cambodia

2008-05-09T01:08:00.000-07:00

Jum-reap suor ya'll

I'm still loving it here and have seen so much more of it now.

The variety is thanks to Rach, Andy's sister. She's been an excellent guide around Phnom Penh city, showing us loads of local bars where we've subsisted on their generous 2-3 hour happy hours, taken us to some fine and reasonably priced restaurants, negotiated some great tuk tuk & moto rides, introduced us to heaps of locals and expats, and as you can imagine provided a plethora of advice in general. However, definitely my biggest thanks to Rach is for taking us to her home 2.5 hours outside of Phnom Penh in rural Svey Rieng. There we saw another side of Cambodia, a side that most tourist do not see.

What an experience, to see first hand rural life in Cambodia, smell the smells, see and occasionally meet to the people, and see how they live.

It's very rare for westeners to visit so they were equally interested in us. We had lots of random calls of 'hello!' from kids and adults alike as we wandered around, and of course the constant watchful eye. I've found the most translatable thing is a smile, so I beam and wave at most of them, most of which reciprocate with a big grin orspurt of an english saying they've learnt. Its a fantastic feeling just communicating.

She's has been working Svay Rieng for over a year now for the Rural Economic Development Association (REDA) via VSA, on a project with the goal of providing care for children orphaned by AIDS. There are approximately fifteen kids under their care between the ages 3 and 18 .

We visited the orphanage yesterday and got a feel for it. The kids live in very basic huts made from local materials and subsist on food from their own gardens and small fish from the ponds spotted around the village. Its a small place, with loads of chickens and dogs and small community labour tasks going on.

We shouted ingredients for a lunch for the kids as a little hello and thanks for having us. It was amazing what the cook could do with the basic veges we bought. A delicious eggplant stew, a mixture of pumpkin and garlic and chilli, a sort of fish curry, some salad, all with a very delicious lime and cracked pepper sauce, very common in Cambodia and of course all on rice.

We originally had our seats set up at the head of the table facing the kids, very formal 'fa fa' but Rach insisted that we sit with the kids, so we forced some room and settled in with them instead. It was a quiet affair, the kids were hushed by our strange presence but as lunch went on, we chatted and they eased up and responded to some of the silly faces I pulled at them and Rachs questions to them in khmer. They loved the fish curry, consisting of the sprats i saw them hammering to death earlier that day.

It was really cool just hanging out with them, grinning away at each other. We took loads of photos, and as soon as i showed them I was taking photos they started manically pulling the peace sign at the camera - haha. There was one little bald guy who quickly got over eating and went and stood next to Andy, just staring at him, fascinated by the hairy portugese beast in front of him. Ww've got a great film of this. Will try to get it on youtube.

It was serious stuff seeing these kids - They have such a lonely, hard reality being orphans of such a manner in a karma based society, - some believe their situaion is due to bad deeds of a former life - but not all of course. And on top of this they have already been through so much, loosing their parents and being alone. They aim to teach them so they can survive after the orphanage but it plagues Rach how they will really survive without this support.

Onto the nice side though... I'm so glad they have this project to keep them off the streets. Sure, it's not all roses, and there is room for a lot of improvement, and that is another thing that frustrates Rach as progess is slow and hard fought for here. But it comes down to - how much is enough? And in this case a little is a lot, what they're receiving warms me when i think of what situation they could be in.

On our way back to Phnom Penh we got a view of this potential reality on the streets. Our car was stopped waiting for the river ferry and along with the market people with baskets on their heads of their wares, and little girls and boys (along with the standard older disfigured beggars) were tapping on the window begging for money. We've had beggars this whole trip but seeing these kids was really sad. Some of the girls were carrying very little babies, the girls were under 10, and the babies under 2, so they must be their siblings. It's likely they were carrying them for the extra sympathy to tug on our heartstrings which ofcourse it did. But isn't that fair enough? It's a true reality.

It's a hard decision. It's likely their parents are putting them out to beg, which is a practice I don't want to support. I'd prefer it if they had some goods to sell, so they're earning their money by learning how to earn it. But with the poverty here, the lack of education and farming experience of many and simply no land or home to produce anything from what choice do they have? They cant produce so all they have is to beg.

As the tourist it's a really tough call to decide when is enough. If we gave $1USD to each beggar we've seen so far, our entire budget would be gone. This situation of begging and street life is very sad, and this is where the kids we meet would end up without REDA and people like Rach doing what she does. So three cheers to Rach!

On other aspects of our trip to Svay Rieng, I expereinced my favourite Cambodian meal so far is the Cambodian pancake, ban chao, which is something I had had before in NZ thanks for Vina, Vibol's mama's great cooking. Essentially it's a pancake which is stuffed with veges and meat and comes with a plate of flavousome greens and delicious peanut sauce. mmm! We had it at a local place near Rach's which had little outdoor shacks for eating in. During our meal we had many dogs, geckos and a few toads join us. haha. Gotta love the rural life. That night I had terrible tummy cramps... another factor of a city girls tummy in a rural setting. Touch wood though, thats the worst I've had yet. No real food poisoning as predicted yet. I am nervous now...argh...tempting fate.

We also visited the local market , cracked muddy roads with bikes and cows everwhere. Everything is in sections, food, clothes, and believe it or not electronics, all displayed in stalls.
The meat is displayed on outdoor tables, flys and all -my tummy could never cope with that sort of thing, (as with my pancake experience) but the hardened local tummies must be fine with it... The veges are great though, cheap and fresh, most just look a little different so you've got to be daring...like the passionfuit with a pink exterior.

photos: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=35512&l=b78a4&id=694561720

AND NOW ADDED....Shots of REDA

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=907679&l=082b1&id=549351527

There are way more fantastic ones but this connection sucks so we'll have to wait!

Anyway - I better stop. This is ridiculously long and I congratulate you if you made it to the end of this rambling post. Funny enough...I HAVE SO MUCH MORE TO SAY! I'll save it. Love to all and keep those updates comming. I love hearing from you. xx

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

2008-05-04T01:37:00.000-07:00

Finally we are here.

I've wanted to visit this country for almost ten years and here I am!Dramatically mind you, we flew in through a forked lightening storm where our plane was forced to circle for a good half hour. Pretty scary being trapped in a tin can in an electrical storm. The landing was the icing on the cake, for reasons unknown the pilot doubled our speed to land then slammed us down - BANG - on the runway leaving me blinking my eyeballs back into their sockets. Definatley my scariest landing yet!

It was and is so great to see Rach - easy to spot her smiling face and blonde curls amongst the Cambodian crowd.

Phnom Penh is different to what I had expected. I imagined something similar to Bangkok, with busy, crowded, crazy streets, instead PP has wide empty streets for the most part with lush palms and vines dripping from beautiful french/Indochine architecture. Don't get me wrong the traffic is crazy but not like other cities. there are no traffic lights, you just beep and slow down when you come to a intersection, oh and its right side drive so crossing the street can be a tad confusing.

We're staying in 'NGO Land', the part of the city that houses most of the NGO's, and the UN. Its a relief not to be in the main tourist part of the city, and from the little i have seen is a very beautiful part - with boganvillia everywhere. BTW - boganvillia's nothing to do with 'bogans' despite the excellent name - it's the vine with the pretty pink leaf like flowers.)

We ate some bugs the other night, cicada,s crickets, grasshoppers and grubs. The staff at a bar we were drinking at had two bags full of various fried creepy crawlies and were munching away and offered us some. It surprised me as i had always thought it was just a trick pulled on westerners as something really crazy to do like 'woah man - i ate spiders in Cambodia!' but as they were chowing down on them and were seriously offering them we gave it a shot. They were surprisingly yum, very oily and sauteed in soy or something like and yes its true, they taste rather nutty. I had three in all and most preferred the grubs, less crunch.

We visited the Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum today which was hard going. The site was a high school which was used as the Prison by the Khmer Rouge during the civil war. As you know this is where horrific torture was carried out and blood still stains the floor and the air. I still feel pretty ill thinking of it but it was a side that I wanted to see. There's a lot of information, and photos and artifacts (including skulls) from what went on in display to give you a very clear idea of what went on.

Typically my worst thought is usually right. For example, the exterior walkway of the top floor of one of the buildings was fenced in with barbed wire...my first thought, to stop people jumping off- later this was confirmed. argh.

It was a reminder of the scale and how horrific and recent it happened. There is not a Cambodian living today that wasn't effected.

x

Tramping in the foothills of the Himalayas

2008-04-29T08:17:00.000-07:00

doesn't that sound nice! and it was, Chiang Mai oh my, it was nice.

We did a two day, one night tramp. I'm determined to call 'tramp' to the confusion of the fellow Canadian 'trekkers', staying true to my bushwhacking kiwi roots. So there

In total we trekked, damn, tramped, for a good 5 hours in total,visited two villages, white water rafted, watched some evil nasty bugs burn in our candle and then rode an elephant and bamboo rafted.

It began with the tramp over a series of really steep hills to the first village of about 200 or so people of which we saw about ten. It was very simple with raised, thatched houses, no power, no running water, surrounded by the scars of fire stick farming and a few coffee fields. Chickens, dogs and kids (yes what a strange combo) everywhere. Had a cup of green tea and sheltered from the heat for an hour or so laughing with the kids who were all vying for our attention.

We continued further in over some steeper hills, exposed to the sun throughout as the bush is not the lush jungle I'd imagined but more like beech mixed with frangipani trees and giant bamboo. Super different to NZ forest. We made it to the village we stayed at overnight later that day - that of the 'Long Neck' tribe.

Aptly named, the Long Neck Tribe are the stunning people we've all seen on TV where women lengthen their necks and legs by way of 3/5/7 gold bands. They wear beautiful bright colours and make stunning shawls, bedspreads, cushion covers and anything else they hope you'll buy. There were about 6 women and one stunning little girl no older than 7 who were long necked.

As with as many local tribes in Thailand, and probably around the world now, they subsist largely on the tourist dollar for their crafts. It's disheartening as you go in imagining you'll have this close experience of hanging out with the locals, maybe sharing a drink (maybe poppy tea like Holly and Jas did on the same trip...damn it we didnt have this offer) or just sitting around the fire together. But in fact it was another mini craft market and the opportunity to take some photos of them, and rightly so, after a few hours they pop off to their private lives after they close up their stands. This bearing in mind their perspective that they've just come home from a day of selling craft at a local market to more tourists waiting in their village with cameras and no intention of shopping.

They were absolutely fine with photos but i only snapped off a few feeling strangely sick with embarrassment as they stared down the lens, as I was taking their photo like i would a beautiful temple or flower, not as a person that i know. i need to ponder this one.

The other thing that sat weird with me was the stark contrast of their stunning adornments and pride they took in their personal appearance verses the stark, dishevelled state of the village. There is firestick remenants everwhere, sick dogs (old and young cute pups) covered in scabies, slimy water streaming from the toilets, rubbish scattered around. The latter largely due to the tourist visits i imagine.

Anyway, it was an experience, and we had a great time in all hearing everyone elses stories around the fire, watching the fire bugs fly buy and the scary gianty flying ants getting stuck in the candel wax and melting away. The white water rafting was so much fun, and Andy was the El Capitano of our bamboo raft with the guide instead paddling behind the raft trying to tip us gals out when we were unawares. geez

I have a plethora of photos but the camera is not on hand so will try to get some up in the next few days.

One more day here then overnighting to BKK for a few days before we will be in the hands of one Miss Rachael Lowe! Can't wait!

check out the photos here!!!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=34628&l=1e087&id=694561720

over and out

Chiang Mai oh my

2008-04-26T21:16:00.000-07:00

Wow - glad to be here. The longest journey so far, beating the pants off last weeks trip to Phagnan.

In short , we drove across Phagnan to the ferry back to the mainland, followed by the bus across to Surit Tani, then hopped on the train to Bangkok. This was an overnight sleeper train (comfy enough), we had a day at the weekend market in Bangkok and indulged in retail therapy. After which we caught another overnight train to Chiang Mai. PHEW ... May give into a Thai massage today. It's $200baht which works out to be around $8NZD for an hour!

Chaing Mai is up at the northern end of Thailand, inland. Its a lot cleaner than Phuket and BKK , and very lush. We found a cool hotel with a pool and nice facilities , covered in vines, french architecture, painted pink. so cute. We'll be here tonight and off on a jungle trek over night tomorrow to some remote villages, waterfalls, white water and bamboo rafting and did i mention elephants ? cool cool!!

Back on Koh Phagnan we had a crazy night on the "full moon beach" on a non full moon day, which is, you guessed, it where they have the mad ass, sex fest, bucket drinking, glow stick toting, full moon parties.

We started the night out sensibly, rationing a small amount of money each to take along which was left over from our daily budget. We heeded the warnings all over our hotel not to take valuables (particularly digital cameras) to the party. We were pretty early there, not many people yet, so decided on one bucket at $270B (we were assured this was a 'goot brice' but later discover they are about half this) and also got a Turkish hubbly bubbly with apple tobacco to sit on as we watched the festivities.

An hour later party goers streamed in, I negotiated the next bucket for almost half the original with our remaining cash . We were out of moola and desperately wanted to stay on. Oh oh.... Our drunk selves betrayed the sober and Andy ran back to the hotel to get more and .....the camera! It was such an amazing scene we couldn't resist documenting it! I stayed behind and diligently guarded the bucket and hubbly. Ironically - we took one big pan of the scene and ran out of battery. ARGH!

We continued to have 2 more buckets as the tide edged in. The 'ravers' were mad with booze, dancing on tables , screaming to the bad music, throwing up on the shore. In stark contrast the locals walked along on the tide line with torches collecting the change the tourists drop as they go frivolously mad. The party was really going by this point and we were having some excellent debates when a massive wave came in (not tsunami size but the locals likened it to it) and splashed all up Andy 's leg, wetting our camera! I freaked, yanked it out of his pocket and dried it as much as poss - it was raining too so all round bad situation with a camera with no water resistance at all!

It died that night, I felt sick with frustration at making such a dumbass call ... but luckily when we hit Bangkok it miraculously came on. phewf.

xx

moving on

2008-04-23T20:53:00.000-07:00

Koh Phanang has been fantastic. More beautiful beaches, less commercial than the other places, and lots of 'goggling' (i have goggles no snorkel hence 'goggling').

I might have mentioned we meet a Swedish couple on the night ferry here and have been thick as thieves since. They're really fun kids (...younger...), up for anything, which has so far been a lot of buckets, sea kayaking, more cards, beach lazing, and moving to the 'full moon party' side of the island to get a taste for it. There's no party on at present but it's always pretty crazy here, we shall see tonight.

Tomorrow we're catching a ferry back to the mainland and a sleeper train to Bangkok followed by another train to Chaing Mai. I feel a hotter climates coming on. We're planning on rafting and elephant trekking. woop woop.

After that we're heading into Cambodia, Andy's dying to see his lovely sister Rachael (as am i) and I'm also so excited about Angkor Watt! unreal. Stop getting ahead of yourself Emmeline!

love to all xx

New Territory - Koh Phagnan

2008-04-20T21:20:00.001-07:00

I completed my longest back to back over land and sea journey yesterday/day....composed of a water taxi to Phi Phi town, a ferry to Krabi (3.5 hr), a mini van to Surit Thani(3hr), a over night ferry to Koh Phangan(7hr), and finally a tuk tuk to the north end of the island (short).

The overnight ferry was great, chatted with some swedes and when we were finally tuckered out we just lay down as the whole deck was carpeted with beds (check out the shot on FB), really comfortable.

I was however attacked by the mosquito militia again. Argh. Andy - nada!

Koh Phangan's stunning and quite different to Phuket and Phi Phi as its not as developed. There are not masses of power cables, 7/11's or for that matter a sealed road but they are working on that.

Spoke to a old gent on the tuk tuk who's been diving around this island on his house profit for the last 20 years(!) this morning. He said Phangan is now changing with the increase in tourism will probably grow to be like the others within 5 years. A shame but that's what happens with these beautiful places, we all want to come here, supply and demand, and with us comes convieniance. I'm glad we're seeing it as it is now.

Its also a lot cheaper - our bungalow is right on the beach, with a/c + fan for the half of what we paid in Phi Phi and less that half of Phuket! I'm loving lying on the hammock and watchuing the day go by.

Sorry Ma, we've decided to rent scooters today to check out the island, apparently there are some beautiful waterfalls nearby. We'll take it easy, promise :) ....No insurance on these either....

photos!! http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=34627&l=cbc03&id=694561720
xx

off to Phagnan

2008-04-19T19:33:00.000-07:00

Sawadee!

We just got back from two nights on Ao To Koh, a snorkelers paradise on the other side of Phi Phi.

A shame we both had shark fear... Andy made it in to his waist..then turned around back to sun bathing...I however managed to the edge of the reef! It was about 60m from shore, quite the accomplishment, but as soon as I saw the dark unknown water, and heard the two guys I was with shout out, "wow, check out the barracuda..." I freaked. The worst feeling was swimming back in, blind to what was behind me, imagining the approaching Great White chasing me down, I made it...damn my over active imagination.

I tried again later at low tide , but that meant I was no longer floating above the fish but right between the coral structures in their fishy lairs. I subsequently ended up in a war with the local parrot fish. They are beautiful neon critters, but full of rage, sitting, waiting, sizing me up as I approached and then......pow! Firing at me, unfazed by my under water boxing (yes, I sank down to face them and let of a fury of underwater biffs!). Anyway, they were fearless, I think they had rabies...fish rabies.. there were too many of them, so i turned back, defeated by 10cm Thai (versions of) piranha...

The rest of our time was divided between cards, reading, swapping travel tales and advice with other travellers, and lots of beer (yes Rach - Cha CHANG). Amazing wildlife in that bay, the reef was teeming with a rainbow of tropical fish: nemos and puffer fish; blue, orange, and yellow clams; and hungry angry rabies monsters. And on land, there were so many types of lizards - some flew with flaps of skin under their arms, heaps of geckos (our friends as they killed mossies and are ridiculously cute, chirping all night), snakes, and a monitor lizard. i missed out on the last two, just heard the tails, but am ok with that.

So all in all, it was pretty chilled, we made some good friends and are now heading of to Koh Phangan via ferry, bus, ferry this afternoon arriving tomorrow night. That will be an experience. Must buys some nuts.

Photos soon xx

beginnings!

2008-04-17T06:43:00.000-07:00

I'm sitting in an internet cafe, sweating away in 35+ heat at 8.45pm on Phi Phi Island after a day of snorkeling, kayaking and swimming. There's a lot of laughing and shouting going on, caged birds chirping, and bikes ringing as they squeeze through the streams of people behind me.

The air smells of fresh rice, fish sauce, and night flowers...and I've added to it the tourista smell of insect repellent. It's necessary, I was massacred two nights ago by an army of mosquito's, horrific, i look like i have pocks....Andy wasn't affected at all, damn him, as he has leather tough skin. So jealous!

We had a fleeting stopover in Hong Kong, we headed to town, had noodles and a nosey and like the true backpackers we are, slept over in the airport. Surprisingly bearable when you're jet lagged and exhausted!

We then moved onto Kata, in Phuket, which was, as always, very beautiful and chilled for the two days we had there....apart from the first day when we arrived on Songkran, Thai new years!! It was a full on, island wide, water fight! Everyone was out on the streets with hoses, water guns, buckets, anything they could soak you with... and boy they did! A welcome reprieve in the heat and all friendly fire, sometimes followed by a talcum powdering - sort of a like tar and feathering, but felt more like a cleansing ritual for the new year than medieval torture . The timing was eerily fitting for us with the start of our year of travel.

We're now on Phi Phi, Andy's first time, my second, the beautiful island most will know from The Beach movie. The main industry here's tourism so it's very comfortable. Went to the beach they filmed it at today, its different as its not closed in, but absolutely stunning. We're leaving the main town area tomorrow for a isolated beach oin the other side of the island, Ao To Koh. Looking forward to getting off the tourist trail. Its cool but too many spending temptations, hassling from the scuba divers, suitmakers, accomodation, taxi boat and well everyone with something to sell. I will however miss the little kittens and puppies everywhere, friendly as, seemingly surviving on tourists generosity, many without owners, independant and very tame.

In a few days we'll head to new places I haven't been to before, eastern islands and then northern Thailand. Woohoo!!

more soon and photo's on facebook - Here's a link http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=33386&l=28882&id=694561720 xx

ps - Rach and Vibol - just as you predicted the food is so fricken good, its really hard to resist. i am pretty much made out of pad thai now.

pps - Haines people - please excuse the spelling and bad grammar, I know you'll notice!