http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Kelly-and-Amers/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Kelly and Amers en-us Fri, 11 Dec 2009 23:19:32 +0000 Fri, 11 Dec 2009 23:19:32 +0000 The first thing to hit us was the heat as our plane touched down in Kerela near on 33 degrees but an altogether welcome assault on our persons. We were so excited to once again be able to don the flipflops and shorts We didn't recieve any hassle from anyone at the airport and I even caught the odd 'please ma'am' and 'thank you sir'. We'd both heard a lot of good things about the south of India http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/Varkala/blog-379326.html When the Rusian guy we met on the train from Jaisalmer to Jodpur assured us that the main bazaar in New Delhi was 'nothing but mud' I was certain that I must have misheard him. Surely in this day and age an upcoming 'Superpower' like India can manage to tarmac the central street in the main backpapcker area in thier capital city Of course they can't. It was made of the finest mud that together w http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Uttar-Pradesh/Agra/blog-377212.html Udaipur was a welcome surprise. It's billed as India's most romantic city and it was clear to see why. Udaipur is set around Lake Pichola which as far as lakes go especially Indian Lakes isn't that much to write home about however the 2 beautiful floating Palaces that sit serenely on its surface and the regal City Palace which remains the residence of the current royal family do indeed give http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Rajasthan/Jaisalmer/blog-372205.html After a mammoth 12 hour flight we touched down in Mumbai a little worse for wear and with no idea of what time of day it should have been. I wasted no time at all in using my broken 'punjablish' to organise us a taxi to our hotel on the outskirts of Mumbai.The city or what we saw of it at least was as we'd expected noisy smogfilled crowded and filthy. Immense shanty towns of makeshift sha http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Punjab/Amritsar/blog-365943.html It was really good to be back in Oz and this time we were going to 'do' Sydney properly. We stayed with my cousin Ritu and her family ion Mortdale once more but this time felt like we really got to know them well. The day after we landed I turned 29 and for a treat Kelly booked us into a 5 star hotel in the centre of the city for a night. It was nice to have a bit of luxury and we spent most of th http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Sydney/North-Rocks/blog-360490.html We started our Fiji adventure at a hotel called Aquarius smack bang on the beach at Nadi Bay a stone's throw away from Nadi Town and the airport. The hotel itself nothing to write home about and the beach even less so dirty grey sand littered with rubbish and the odd stray dog wanting to be your best friend. Knowing that we only had to endure this for a couple of nights before our real Fiji http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Fiji/Viti-Levu/Nadi/blog-358933.html 'You'll smell it before you see it' is what we'd read about Rotorua and boy they weren't kidding The place is one of the most thermally active area in all of NZ and when you're downwind of it all you can smell is rotten eggs due to all the sulphur in the air. We visited WaiOTapu an amazing thermal park full of crazy coloured lakes bubbling mud pools and the famous Lady Xnox Geyser that go http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Auckland/Mount-Eden/blog-349463.html Heading south from Moreaki we keep clocking up the Kms and the adventures keep on coming...We soon hit Dunedin which as you can probably guess by the name has a distinctive Scoth heritage which can be seen in the buildings all around. After climbing the steepest street in the world Baldwin St and getting the certificte to prove it we spend some time taking in the other local attractions we s http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/North-Island/Taupo/blog-345429.html Arriving in Christchurch on the South Island of New Zealand at an unsociable 11.30pm we made a bee line for the airport transport which helpfully dropped us off at our accomodation for the first few nights the Thomas Hotel right in the city centre. Waking up the next day we were greeted with the wonderful news that Jenny Kelly's little sis had finally dropped and baby Alfie had emerged pink http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/New-Zealand/South-Island/Mount-Cook-National-Park/blog-339815.html Next stop on the journey was Sydney where for a couple of days we stayed with Ritu and family a cousin I'd 'met' when I was a 1 year old just outside the city in the suburbs. Sadly it was the end of the road for Madge so after giving her a bit of a scrub aided by Amers and Kelly's little helpers we dropped her off and headed into the city to catch some of the sights. This time around our jau http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Victoria/Melbourne/Swanston-Street/blog-334834.html The first 'real' city that we had encountered we found Brisbane to a pretty lively cosmopolitan place and it roughly marked the halfway point for us and our epic road trip along the coast of Oz. We'd heard a lot of good things about the place and weren't disappointed. On day 1 we explored the botanic gardens which is actually just a big park and around the river making time to swing by some of http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/New-South-Wales/Hunter-Valley/blog-328430.html After a 4 hour stop off at Darwin we landed in Cairns to beautiful sunshine and 28 degree heat. We had arrived into civilisationWe were picked up from the airport by the hostel we were staying at Dreamtime Traveller's Rest which turned out to be a really nice place with a very helpful chap at the helm. It was all a bit surreal to begin with as it had been so long since we'd been in a Western co http://www.travelblog.org/Oceania/Australia/Queensland/Mission-Beach/blog-324095.html Singapore was pretty uneventful for us mostly because we were on a budget but particularly because it was just a whistlestop 1 and a half days and 1 night before we flew out to Indonesia for the last leg of our epic South East Asian adventure. After getting through customs the most thorough of any country we'd encountered in the last 5 months we booked into the stupidly overpriced YMCA on Orc http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Bali/Ubud/blog-323693.html We were both really looking forward to the Cameron Highlands it sounded like a pretty unique place. It's a former Colonial hill station that the British used as a retreat from the hustle and bustle of normal Malaysian life and due to it's high altitude it's considerably cooler than the remainder of the country. The Brits also left thier mark on things like the architecture with most of the oldes http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Wilayah-Persekutuan/Kuala-Lumpur/blog-318405.html We touched down safe and sound in the island port of Penang and made our way to the capital city Georgetown. This was meant to be the 'most Malaysian place in Malaysia' representing the country better than any other province city or rural area. The place was a bit dissapointing as we were met with crumbling buildings lots of dirt the place felt filthier than a lot of cities its size that we'd http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Penang/George-Town/blog-310785.html Refreshed after our time in Salad Beach with Kate and Alan we said our goodbyes and hopped on the Express boat that would take us to Ko Tao. The journey started out nice but as with all good things it soon came to an abrupt end the waves ended up battering the ship and the rain was coming down sideways by the time we docked. And trudging from one guest house to the next once we were ashore was http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Krabi/blog-302153.html We were overdue some beach time so were looking forward to Sianoukhville in the south of Cambodia but there's really not much to write home about the place. The beach was nothing special dirty in places but pleasant enough and there wasn't that much going on in the town. We rented bikes one day and cycled all around but it wasn't very big and so we'd seen all there was to see within a couple of http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Ko-Samet/blog-295910.html Nothing could have prepared us for the day we had in Phnom Penh the capital city when we arrived and decided to visit S21 and The Killing Fields. We didn't really know that much about the history surrounding these places so were eager to find out more. Phnom Penh itself was a spralling dirty place much like any other SE Asian city but the it felt seedier somewhat more desparate a feeling tha http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/South/Phnom-Penh/blog-293121.html Flying into Siem Reap in the north of Cambodia was a bit of a shock to the system. After weeks in Laos where the temperament was chilled out and we almost never got hassled for anything Siem Reap was the complete opposite. From the outset there were motorbike drivers tuk tuk drivers beggers and people trying to sell us stuff coming at us with arms outstetched from every angle. We retreated im http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Cambodia/North/Angkor/blog-293040.html Making our way back to Luang Phabang we decided to to break up the 6 hr journey by stoping for a couple of days at Vang Vieng. Vang Vieng was your typical tourist hangout the likes of the Khao San in Bangkok or Las Americas in Ibiza well sort of streets and streets of bars and restaurants albeit quite laid back and chilled out all pointing the way down to the main river. The main activity o http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Laos/West/Luang-Prabang/blog-289859.html