http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Cliff-and-Ruthie/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Cliff and Ruthie en-us Fri, 01 Jan 2010 21:32:27 +0000 Fri, 01 Jan 2010 21:32:27 +0000 We have to go home eventually and after searching for flights we found the cheapest route was from Frankfurt Germany to Wilmington North Carolina. So off to Dusseldorf we go. Our quick bus trip was a little longer than we expected due to some idiot trying to smuggle weed into the country. Pot is legal in the Netherlands but not in Germany so donrsquot you think the border patrol might be look http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/blog-410895.html The Netherlands was a quick hop from Edinburgh and so off we went. You hear all the stories about Amsterdam so it was up to us to confirm whether or not they were true. We decided not to stay in the city center but to try out some of the neighborhoods around it. Our first place was a really nice apartment which sounds like an odd thing to get excited about. After living in just one room bungalow http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Netherlands/North-Holland/Amsterdam/blog-409364.html After spending a couple of good weeks with family we were off again to explore Scotland. This time we headed up into the highlands to some trekking. We caught a train about halfway up the West Highland Way and made several treks in the Crianlarich area. Perfect weather was on our side and made this hillwalking even more beautiful. The walk was everything from small farms with livestock roaming th http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/The-Highlands/blog-405664.html After leaving Norway we decided to continue our European travels and go to Glasgow Scotland to remeet my Cliffrsquos family. My mom is from here and itrsquos been nearly 30 years since Irsquove visited. I had vague memories of some of the places I had visited when I was young. Ruthie has met some of the family but never traveled to Scotland. Checking these spots out with Ruthie was a lot http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/Scotland/Glasgow/blog-405654.html We took an unplanned trip up to Trondheim Norway to see our friend Karin. We met Karin in New Orleans a few years back and she is married to another friend of ours also from New Orleans. Karin is now a NorwegOrleanian. It wasnrsquot long after we arrived before we were on our way to the first of many parties. Her friends are very nice and loaned us clothes so we could survive the Norwegian sp http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Norway/Trondelag/Trondheim/blog-401429.html We had a nice flight from Nepal through Qatar on to England. The English are so nice and orderly which is quite a shock from our previous travels. People actually line up in queues and give you lots of personal space. We caught the ldquoUndergroundrdquo or the ldquoTuberdquo to our guesthouse and it turned out to be the smallest most expensive place we have stayed on our entire trip. We ha http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/blog-398074.html The captain said ldquoIf yoursquoll look out the right side of the aircraft you will see Mt. Everestrdquo. There it was the tallest mountain in the world. It was a bit in the distance but there was no mistaking what we were all looking at.After landing on the second try we made it into the capital city of Kathmandu. The ride into the city was an eyeopener. From an island with no cars t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Nepal/blog-398048.html On April 9 2009 we both participated in a beach and dive clean up with our friends from Phi Phi Barakuda Dive Shop. PADI Project AWARE promotes these beach and dive clean ups all over the world for Earth Day. I cleaned up the beaches with a few of the girls that morning and then joined Cliff and all the divers on the boat for the underwater clean up later that afternoon. It is amazing how much ga http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Phi-Phi/blog-391803.html The Songkran Festival Happy New Year Thai style. Itrsquos April 13 2552 Thai calendar and today is the day they celebrate their New Year. This really canrsquot be described at least not by me. We all join in with the locals and proceed to throw massive amounts of water on each other and everyone else. Over the past couple of days you could feel the excitement building with small bucket http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Phi-Phi/blog-391810.html Itrsquos been 3 months since we last spoke. No excuses no apologies.We flew out of the Philippines in late January and landed at the airport outside of Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. We caught an express bus to KL Sentral mid city bus terminal not really where we had intended to go. We had sent our Lonely Planet guide book back home because we were so familiar with the city or so we thought. Well http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Phi-Phi/blog-386916.html We left Sipilay and headed for Dumaguete. After another day of tricycles and buses we checked into a mansion. Well it was called a mansion anyway. Dumaguete was the first city we had been in for a while. Itrsquos a college town on the bay. There are some bookstores some gallerias and a McDonalds. What else do you need I was able to get in a couple of good dives in a nearby town Dauin. There http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Philippines/blog-364280.html We landed outside Manila at the former Clark Air Base which turns out to be a 2.5 hour bus ride into the city. As we approach the city through the rice fields into the city itself you get a feel for how poor it is here. The shacks turn into the shanty towns as we approach the city. About 200000 people live in an area 1.5 sq km. Itrsquos estimated 1.5 million people live in slums of Manila. I ha http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Philippines/Negros/blog-353259.html After the coldest plane ride ever we touched down in Bali. We haggled with a few cab drivers found the one who ripped us off the least and went to Kuta. Kuta was the scene of two different bombings 2002 and 2005 by Islamic terrorists. If you have ever been to Huntington Beach CA just imagine it in Bali. If you want Hard Rock Caf KFC Starbucks McDonalds Dunkin Donuts Circle K Versace y http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Bali/blog-347745.html Hopping off the bus in KL Kuala Lumpur we knew we were back in the kinda city we like. There were tons of different people on the streets hanging out on the move and just being city people. No more cookie cutter city this wasnrsquot Disney. It had a mix of high rises think Petronas Towers and hundred year old Chinese shop houses Islamic architecture and colonial buildings. People were t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/blog-344990.html A short flight from Kuching Borneo to Johor Baru Malaysia and a bus ride put us in Singapore. We had to exit Malaysia and go through customsimmigration to make it onto the island of Singapore. For some reason it took longer to do this than it did to fly from Borneo and take the bus to the border. It took less time to travel through communist countries than to cross this border go figure.We had http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Singapore/blog-338901.html We made our way to Brunei by ferry boat after a brief stopover on the dutyfree island of Pulau Labuan to stock up on some Vodka. There is no alcohol sold in the kingdom so we had to plan ahead. The age of consent is 14 but one can never drink maybe that makes sense after all. We made it to the capital Bandar Seri Begawan and found out two of the top attractions in the city as noted by the ho http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sarawak/Kuching/blog-338784.html After leaving Phi Phi we were ldquoOn the road againrdquo. We left Krabi Thailand to cross the border into Malaysia. Our minibus took us all the way to Penang and dropped us off between Little India and Chinatown. We gorged ourselves on Indian food almost immediately and loved it. Luke our visa run friend stalked us a little later on that evening and we ended up drinking with new friends un http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Sabah/blog-335374.html It may be hard to understand but travelling is hard work. We stay in a guesthouse for a few days do our walking tour see the sights day and night itrsquos usually different eat the local food and sit back and see what the people do. Then we hit the road again which can sometimes be a 16 hour journey. After 3 months of this we were tired grumpy and wanted a rest.We decided to hit one of http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Phi-Phi/blog-332512.html One Night in BangkokhellipWe arrived back in Bangkok Thailand on August 1st after many wonderful weeks on the road. Bangkok was just a quick stop over for final destination in Thailand Phi Phi Island a.k.a. Paradise. Getting there was of course a journey also. We took the overnight train from Bangkok to Surat Thani. Our second class fan cabin was nothing like the comforts of the overnight t http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Phi-Phi/blog-332508.html Back in Hanoi we transfer to the train station for the overnight to Sapa. I canrsquot believe how nice the carriage is our travel agent is looking out for us again We arrive in Lao Cai in the morning we are really close to China now only about 3 km from the border. Sapa is one hour drive away. The mountains are beautiful temps are cooler but not cold like everyone told us. Our hotel is re http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Vietnam/Northwest/Sapa/blog-315973.html