Ihathecat - Matt & Emma

Route so far: England to Ecuador, to Peru, to Bolivia and into Brazil quickly - for Rio Carnaval, then Argentina and Chile and over to New Zealand for a month, into Australia for a quick visit to lots of lovely friends and plans now are to visit Asia for a few months.

We're not very good at keeping the blog up to date, due mostly to being places where the internet isn't always around, or working, or the fact that we're a bit slow. In fact our blog is very much like London buses, zero contact for about a month, and then 3 epic installments that will clog up your inbox, sorry about that.

We're also not very good at keeping what we do write in any kind of date order. Sorry about that. But we'll always write the date it happened on the blog to keep things in chronological order. Of sorts. And you can always follow the route up top.

Matt's not very good at spelling either.

But we like taking photos, so you'll find a lot of those.

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Joined on: December 20th 2007
Last Login: July 9th 2008

Blog Entries: 35
Photos: 378

TB Code: [blogger=55163]
Status: BLOGGER

Blogs & Travel Journals

by Ihathecat, order by Date newest first.

By Ihathecat
May 28th 2008

Halong Bay

Asia » Vietnam » Red River Delta » Halong Bay

Grotto
Illuminated Caves

Matt Writes: Halong Bay is a World Heritage site that is made up of thousands of limestone karsts. A true natural sight to behold and one of the expected highlights on our Vietnam itinerary. We carefully shop around to establish a fair price against comfort, and hopefully the legitimacy of the company we decide to go with. We leave Hanoi at 8am, crossing the Red River and sampling hundreds of musical sounding horns (I think it is part of the Highway code here that you have to use them for 80 percent of the time that your vehicle is in motion). [View Full Entry]

By Ihathecat
May 26th 2008

Hello Hanoi

Asia » Vietnam » Red River Delta » Hanoi

Flag

Matt Writes: And so after relaxing in Laos it was time to make our way to the frantic Hanoi. There is a bus from Vientiene to Hanoi, but economics verses sanity would decide for us to take the 1 hour plane ride as opposed to the 24 (or so) bus ride. I think we have done our fair share of busses by now. The small Laos Airlines prop driven plane with dated upholstery wasn't as bad as we had been prepairing for. After travelling in Russian antiques in Cuba a few years back, we were ready for the worst which fortunately [View Full Entry]

By Ihathecat
May 14th 2008

Thailand to Laos border & Bouncy Buses

Asia » Laos » North » Luang Namtha

Laos Bus 1
And for a Sunday morning I for one, was loving the paint work.

Matt Writes ; We have spent the last two days driving through Northern Thailand. Two long bus journeys from Chang Mai to Chang Rai, then to Chiang Khong where we stamped ourselves out of Thailand and crossed the Mekong in a longboat (wobbling from the wieght of our backpacks) into Laos. Our next aim is to continue North to get deep into Laos. We are up early to decide whether to catch the renowned-to-be-over crowded Louang Phabang longboat trip, or to try something a little less orthodox. We go for the latter, catching a sawngthaew to the bus station. Here we [View Full Entry]

By Ihathecat
May 7th 2008

Elephant Nature Park and the best birthday

Asia » Thailand » North » Chiang Mai

Our House

Emma Writes The mighty Asian Elephant now numbers less than 30,000. No longer used by the legal and illegal logging trade to haul huge trees, decimating their own natural environment, the remaining workers have mostly been turned into tourist attractions. These symbols of strength now carry, mostly western, tourists around on spine breaking seats, perform demeaning tricks begging on the frightening and confusing city streets at night, or are forced by a sharp hook to paint self portraits. There are many, many tour groups in Chiang Mai offering all of these things, but the cruelty the baby animals have to go [View Full Entry]

By Ihathecat
April 23rd 2008

Deception Bay and the Quiz Night

Oceania » Australia » Queensland » Brisbane

Hoochy Mama
Helping Beryl concoct

Matt Writes - Due to inconvenient timings and Brisbane airport being out of town, our journey to Thailand from our friends Damian and Denise's house would have been a logistical nightmare lasting at least 36 hours. But Beryl & Norm, Denise's folks, were superstars and we were picked up from the train that had brought us south from Hervey Bay, fed and watered and given a bed for the night to break up the journey. We got to sample their home brew wines & beers and were even honoured as guests at the their weekly quiz night. Deception Bay Lawn Bowls [View Full Entry]

By Ihathecat
April 12th 2008

Everybody needs good Neighbours.

Oceania » Australia » Victoria » Melbourne

Number 24
Oh yes, the balcony Charleen got proposed to. Later on curly locked Henry moves in

Emma Writes - After a good few nights out in Melbourne it was time to visit Harold. Bishop that it. Yep, we were fulfilling a dream we'd only just thought up when we requested a visit to the infamous street from Aussie stalwart soap opera, Neighbours. Sam, and her stunt driving skills, obliged. Into the Silver Swift we went, driving brake neck speed for half an hour we arrived at Ramsey Street, which is, disappointingly really called Pinoak Court. Nevermind what it's called, look - there's Ramsey Street! And you can drive on it. So we did. *BEEP BEEP* went the [View Full Entry]

By Ihathecat
April 10th 2008

Melbourne and The Tallest Buildings in the World. Ever. Maybe...

Oceania » Australia » Victoria » Melbourne

Federation Square

Matt Writes; Melbourne was always going to be very different from the other places we had so far visited. For one we were meeting friends there and would only have three days to cram in sight seeing along with three years of catching up. Secondly, the friends who were to play hosts to us have been known to be...how can I say... rather decadent? So the prospect of seeing this vibrant city whilst holding a glass of ice cold beer wasn't exactly an alien concept. It was wonderful knowing that on arrival we wouldn't have to negotiate a foreign transport system [View Full Entry]

By Ihathecat
April 9th 2008

Auckland and the last chance to do something stupid

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » Auckland

Our honourable host.
Kylie!

Emma Writes - After a fond farewell to our camper van, we'd become very attached to it over the past month, the next leg of our journey involves a quick trip to Oz to visit friends. First of all in Melbourne at the Four Floors of Whores to meet Sam and Doona and then up to Hervey Bay to see Damo & Denise and finally meet baby Deia. But first of all we wanted to see Auckland and meet our Aussie friend, Kylie, who was in New Zealand for work. This worked out great timing as we'd be missing her in [View Full Entry]

By Ihathecat
April 6th 2008

Arachnocampa Luminosa, Oryctolagus cuniculus & Struthio camelus

Oceania » New Zealand » North Island » King Country » Waitomo

My Team!
Rope is for abseiling, not quite sure what was the exact purpose of the gladiator style weapon.

Matt Writes: Most people spend Sundays nursing hangovers, eating oversized breakfasts while reading equally large Sunday supliments, others may attend church. Our Sunday was to veer (ever so slightly) to the side of unorthadox ways to spend the day of the Sabbath. Up at 7.00 for a quick breakfast because by 8.30 because we were once again squeezing ourselves into damp wetsuits, this time with boots and hardhats with lamps. Today we were going to explore the Waitomo Caves. After a few giggles at our ridiculous costumes we drove the short distance to the cave entrance where we selected our favoured [View Full Entry]

By Ihathecat
March 28th 2008

Greymouth, Arthur's Pass, Beer and Bugs

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Greymouth

Acid
Acid with your beer anyone?

Emma writes - The West Coast of the South Island is no stranger to rain. So to get away from the shockingly bad weather we booked onto the Monteiths Brewery Tour, which apart from drinking the stuff, it seems it's the only thing to do in Greymouth. $15 each got us a tour of the brewery and processes and more importantly a tasting. But somehow it was my turn to do the driving. Brew, shmew... onto the taste tests and we had a huge group of American teenagers on our tour who were really only interested in the later of the [View Full Entry]

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