http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Cookiek/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Cookiek en-us Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:54:39 +0000 Fri, 18 Dec 2009 16:54:39 +0000 Big news. I have found a foolproof way of not giving into jetlag. As soon as you arrive home begin renovating a room. Painting walls is far less boring when you are so tired you are hallucinating that the Seven Dwarves and Spongebob Squarepants are helping you.Things that have amused me no end since returning home Standing in front of my washing machine at four orsquoclock this morning jet http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-394292.html Sometimes when I am far away from home feeling a little bit ill I am now at the tail end of bird flu thanks for caring and having fallen overdown numerous toiletsbeen sick in public and generally humiliated myself for the hundredth time in a week all I want for a bit of comfort is a ham sandwich. So imagine my delight when we stumbled across a caf in Beijing with ham sandwiches on its m http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/blog-393213.html Ok so actually all this blog should really contain no words just a zillion smiley faces and a thousand photos. We camped out on the Great Wall last night and it was amazing one of the best experiences of my life. I have had the hugest grin on my face all day and even Buddy canrsquot believe he has done something so fantastic I can only hope he remembers it when hersquos older.A couple o http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Beijing/Great-Wall-of-China/blog-391689.html We have come to quite like Xirsquoan. Aside from the Whitsundays this is the longest time I have spent in one place during any of my travels. At first it was a little daunting itrsquos very busy the traffic never seems to let up and the city is a surging mass of bodies and push bikes whichever way you turn but we are relaxed into it now. We have learned to cross the roads as the locals http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-389924.html The last couple of days in Yangshou I ended up getting really ill. I came down with a nasty cold high temperature sore throat shivers and shakes the works. I had had a bit of a niggling throat for a couple of days before hand that I thought wasnrsquot going to come to anything but being up in the clouds on the rice terraces freezing cold and soaked through finished me off and the nigglin http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Shaanxi/Xi-an/blog-389305.html In the lsquolong hairrsquo Huanglou Yao Village in the PingrsquoAn rice terrace fields they have a tradition where they offer you tea and if you take two chopsticks off the tray to stir it it means you must stay the night with a family in the village. When our guide first mentioned it to us I thought it was just a funny quip but as our morning at the village went on and I heard more a http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Guangxi/Yangshuo/blog-387770.html GuangzhouWe arrived in China by way of rail traveling from Hong Hum to Guangzhou where I promptly managed to fall down a toilet get my foot stuck and twist my ankle getting it free and then had to take a taxi to our accommodation with my right shoe covered in pee because me being me I had picked the one with a broken flush. In my defense it was a very small toilet cubical and it had one o http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/China/Guangxi/Guilin/blog-386969.html So we have made it on to the last leg of our journey and while I am excited about all the things we will experience in China I am also a little sad. Sad that in four weeks time I will be back at home still not even the slightest pang of home sickness and I still have that awful feeling of loss when I leave Australia. Buddy is missing Alexandra and Jessica so much and I just keep thinking h http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Hong-Kong/Hong-Kong-Island/Wan-Chai/blog-386289.html It is very nearly time to go and I donrsquot want to I love Australia and we have had an amazing time here as always. We stayed one final night with Kim in Brisbane and I think I am already coming down with post Australia depression and even though I am not headed home I still feel really sad to be leaving. Itrsquos even worse than last time as I am even more comfortable here now. To t http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Brisbane/blog-385526.html Oh my gosh I am in heaven We are staying on Hamilton Island in the Whitsundays and it is simply stunning. I take back everything I have ever said about places I want to live because I want to live on this Island for the rest of my life I cannot describe how beautiful it is here. After all the travelling these past few days are the first time I have felt like I am on a lsquoholidayrsquo h http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Hamilton-Island/blog-383833.html For um the second time in a year as we arrived at the end of March last year I am attached to the place by a bungy chordOh lord you know I donrsquot miss home one little bit. I wish I did. It shouldnrsquot be this way I should at least be a little homesick. I still have weeks and weeks of this trip to go but already I am dreading getting back. Who knows I may even find a way to exten http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Airlie-Beach/blog-382449.html I cannot believe that our time in New Zealand is almost over. The time has gone in a flash. I hate that at home the weeks just drag by We have had anabsolute blast I love it here. The past couple of days we have been in Christchurch. 16 days and about 10000 kms later we have come full circle. We were supposed to be staying at a campsite that is really central to the city but I did a really s http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Christchurch/blog-380718.html Well we finally bumped into a nazi organic eating mother and Buddy managed to show me up in a spectacular fashion. We went into the campsite kitchen last night and there she was chopping up a vast array of root vegetables and oven cooking a chicken holiday Lifersquos too short yeah Surrounded by a gaggle of rosy cheeked but incredibly miserable looking children god donrsquot their k http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Picton/blog-379816.html If you feed a child chocolate spread and diet coke in a forest and no nazi organic food only mother is around to see it are you still wrong Backpacking round the world on a budget is kiddie food heaven. Chocolate spread sandwiches lsquocos no fridge so canrsquot take along butter cereal bars and a variety of meals in tins and pasta and tuna. Hersquos loving itWell yesterday was a bi http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Murchison/blog-379427.html Hey I know another entry. But believe me Milford Sound deserves its own blog.We had to get up at 5.45 am Ugh Buthellip.. I swear to God this was one of the best days of my life ever. The coach Jouney to Milford Sound from Queenstown was really long about 5 hours but every second of it was stunning. We had a great driver though who put in quite a few stops. As soon as we left Te Anu th http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Milford-Sound/blog-378679.html Can I be really fickle and change my mind about my favourite place in the world Can I change it to Queenstown please because Oh my God LOVE. Itrsquos amazingly beautiful. Water lovely little town fantastic mountains can anyone say lsquowhy did you move to East Angliarsquo. The drive down here was amazing. I met a couple of people at the campsite in Wanaka who advised me to travel to http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/blog-378642.html Want to live here....want to live here.......plus the name appeals to my childish nature.I know it seems to be a theme with all the countries I go to apart from the rancid hell hole that was Italy. I guess I must be really unhappy in England. But I REALLY want to live in New Zealand. It is wonderful. We are in Wanaka at the moment and I have fallen head over heals in love with the place. It's http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Wanaka/blog-377640.html Ok ok. Two entries in the same day. But I need to get internet as as when I can seeing as mobile phone signals are hard to come by in this part of the world. So we drove the 3 and a half hours from Christchurch to Lake Tekapo. Driving in New Zealand is fabulous very much like driving in Suffolk not many cars around. The landscape that we have seen so far is a cross between Suffolk and Icelan http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Lake-Tekapo/blog-377193.html Just to let everyone know that we have arrived in Christchurch safley. I am never going to read a blog which starts off by saying 'after an uneventful flight' without giving a bitter laugh ever again. The flight was horrendous. London to Hong Kong was fine but Hong Kong to Auckland was as close to hell as I would ever like to be. About four hours into the flight we hit a tropical storm over the P http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Christchurch/blog-377049.html So two weeks today until we set off on the latest adventure. Buddy and I will be setting off for New Zealand on the 24th flying into Auckland from London with New Zealand air then hopping on a connecting flight to Christchurch. I cannot wait to be off again We have been kicking our heels at home for far too long. So first off we will be travelling the south island of NZ for two and a bit wee http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Suffolk/Eye/blog-371295.html