Frances Naik and Gillian Shiells
The time has come at last, after many years of plotting and planning, scrimping and saving (and some borrowing - thanks to Parents Naik and Parents Shiells!), for us to say goodbye to the sunny shores of Glasgow and head off on our World Tour. What follows will hopefully be an exciting and inciteful look at our backpacking journey. We hope this blog will keep you sufficiently up to date and entertained with all our adventures and travels. It should be a good record to keep for posterity and to show the grandkids, but mostly to make you all wildly jealous! So, with rucksacks packed full of imodium, bug spray and hair straighteners, we now venture into the wildernesses of deepest, darkest South East Asia, Australasia and North America. Wish us luck. We're sure to need it! So long, Franny and Gillian xxFranny and Gillian
Travel Blog Posts
New York from the Sky, the Sea and the Inside of a few Pubs.
Published: January 20th 2009North America » United States » New York » New York
December 1st 2007
Recovering from the all-but theft of my Mexican gin and tequila by Las Vegas customs, we arrived safely in New York. Finally getting used to the travelling thing, we had pre-booked an airport shuttle to take us to our pre-booked hostel. However, upon arrival at the hostel we decided that someone should fire the hostel reviewer because the place was a dump. There were no rooms: just a warehouse divided by curtains. Even though they had a record of our booking, there were no available beds and we had to sleep in the back with the staff. There were only two bathrooms and to top it off, some girl spent the whole of our first night puking very loudly. We were not going to pay 33 bucks a night for that. Unfortunately, we had already paid ... read more
Bright Lights and Large Holes in the Ground
Published: January 14th 2009North America » United States » Nevada » Las Vegas
November 23rd 2007
Following the mammoth 15-hour journey from San Francisco to Las Vegas via Yosemite, I believe Franny and I should perhaps look at a map before setting off on these wild adventures. We had wanted to see as much of the country as possible, so we thought it would be a good idea to experience the famous landscape of Yosemite National Park (incidentally, just in case you have an insensitive best friend who almost wees herself laughing at your mistakes: it is pronounced Yo-sem-it-ay, not Yos-eh-mite like I thought). Our GPS did get slightly confused at the National Park system, but we got there eventually. Because of the late hour, we thought it best not to hike up to the falls, as we still had a 9 hour drive to Vegas. Driving around the park was visually ... read more
San Francisco: The Rock, Cycling Large Hills and Overly-large Hair
Published: February 20th 2008North America » United States » California » San Francisco
November 17th 2007
For the second time in a month, we landed in LAX and enjoyed the spirited company of the US customs agents. This time though, instead of taking a shuttle bus, we had arranged to pick up a rental car so that we could start our road trip. Having booked the cheapest economy option, we were told to go to the garage and choose anything from row 1. However, the only vehicles in row 1 were three minivans and a PT Cruiser that was just being driven away. There must be some mistake. We are in our mid-twenties. We like hip hop and wear DCs. There is no way we can be seen driving a minivan. After being told by the sullen attendant that there was no other option, we chose the lesser of three evils (the ... read more
The Rest of Mexico: Guanajuato, Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta
Published: February 2nd 2008North America » Mexico » Jalisco
November 13th 2007
I think perhaps I watch too much television that encourages stereotypes. Prior to arriving in the country I had been dubious about bus travel within Mexico, and thought that it may have involved sitting in the back of hay trucks with the chickens. In fact, I could not have been more wrong. Getting on the bus in Mexico City, we found that we each had a seat the size of an arm chair that had full foot rests and reclined horizontally. We were given a snack of a sandwich and a soda, and there were two toilets and a kitchen with coffee and tea making facilities in the back of the bus. There were also TVs throughout the bus that played movies during the journey. If only buses were like this back home. We settled down ... read more
Mexico City: Naked Protests, Pyramids and Dia de Muertos
Published: February 2nd 2008North America » Mexico » Distrito Federal » Mexico City
November 2nd 2007
Arriving in Mexico City, we were ever so slightly alarmed. Mexico had not been part of our original round the world agenda, but we had decided to go there after reviewing our dreadful finances in an Auckland McDonalds. When we were first making plans, we were going to spend the last four weeks of our trip driving from the west coast of the States to the east, before flying home from New York. However, due to our meagre monetary state, we realised we would probably not make it further than Utah on our grand road trip, before having to sell our kidneys in order to make it the rest of the way home. Hence the plan was hatched to spend two of those weeks in Mexico, where our backpacker buck would stretch much further, and if ... read more
Hollywood, LA: Movies, Movies Movies in La-la Land
Published: December 15th 2007North America » United States » California » Los Angeles
October 30th 2007
In true Doctor Who fashion, we managed break through the laws of space and time travel: we went back in time. Without the aid of a DeLorean or a Tardis, we arrived in LAX nine hours before we left Fiji. Amateurs. All we needed was a jumbo jet. After waiting in the longest queue in US immigrations history, we picked up our luggage and took the shuttle bus to our hostel. We were immensely excited to see we were staying just off Hollywood Boulevard, alternatively christened by Greenday as the Boulevard of Broken Dreams. We took a stroll and could not decide if it was lunch or tea time, but being that we were hungry, we ate at the Pig and Whistle, which had waitresses that would look more at home on a movie set than ... read more
Fiji: Rafting, Sand boarding, Rainforest trekking and the end of our Trainers...
Published: December 15th 2007Oceania » Fiji » Viti Levu
October 27th 2007
With an apparent incapability for packing all that I own in to one backpack, I arrived in Fiji wearing most of my clothes, and immediately started sweating in the humid climate. Franny fared somewhat better and was gleeful at the musical reception we received from the colorfully dressed guitar players when we stepped off the plane. As with most tourists to the Fijian islands, we landed in Nadi (pronounced nan-dee, for all those of you who are uneducated in these matters!) and had the shuttle waiting for us to whisk us away to our resort. I realise I may have made this sound slightly more exotic than it was, but for backpackets like ourselves, it was quite luxurious. As with any other hostel, we were sharing with other people in our dorm, but we were excited ... read more
New Zealand: Outdoor Adventures on the Stray Bus
Published: December 15th 2007Oceania » New Zealand » South Island
October 20th 2007
After some teary goodbyes in Sydney, we left the 25 degree loveliness and were plunged into the cold that is New Zealand's springtime. Landing in Christchurch was similar to landing in Glasgow, and after falling asleep on the plane I awoke panicking that I had been the target of some horrible conspiracy to take me home early. As we drove through the leafy suburbs on the airport shuttle, it was obvious that Christchurch had been built to look like a typical English town. We had chosen a hostel which had looked fairly close to the bus stop, but as we lugged all our belongings on what felt like a 10km hike, we realised the map had not actually been to scale. Nevertheless, we booked into the hostel and went to explore the town. There was a ... read more
The Last Leg of Australia: Bowen to Cape Trib, and back down to Sydney
Published: October 8th 2007Oceania » Australia » New South Wales
October 10th 2007
So it was, with tears in our eyes we left the Childers Massive in Bowen, to carry on our own again. Not since travelling in South-East Asia at the beginning of our trip had it been just the two of us, but with Bob groaning, we set off up the backpacker coast. We had originally planned to drive to Cairns in one day, however, after not leaving until after lunchtime, we realised we would not manage the 700km trip before sundown. Back at home, I would not think twice about driving in the dark, but on the unlit, windy roads of north Queensland, it is best not to risk it. As neither driving off the side of the road nor having an unsuspecting ‘roo bouncing through our windscreen seemed like particularly good ideas, we decided to ... read more
Bowen: Fruit Picking, Rain and the Loss of Some Teeth
Published: September 11th 2007Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Bowen
August 13th 2007
Bowen. I believe the best thing I can say about Bowen is that it is not Childers. We arrived with the boys in Hicksville at the end of May and set up camp at a small caravan park in Horseshoe bay. The campsite was perfect: sauna, hot tub, swimming pool, nice kitchen facilities, and only a 30 second stroll from a gorgeous, secluded beach. But before I start sounding like an over-zealous campsite critic, I will say that there were some bad bits too. Namely, the owners kicked us out after a week. The large population of Snowbirds living at the campsite over winter did not take too well to us making noise after dark, hence, we got evicted so that the Blue-hairs could rest properly. At that time, the Baz Luhrman film ‘Australia’ was being ... read more
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