Nunny
Michelle Nunn & Andrew Richards Joined: April 28th 2006
Logged in: April 16th 2009
Logged in: April 16th 2009
Travel Blog Posts
Inle Lake
After an extensive decision making process the previous night as to what time we should head onto a boat for a trip around Inle Lake itself, we don't make it onto a vessel till midday despite promises of mid morning. So, because we are all cacthing buses that arvie - the three aussies - the two of us and Melbournite Matt - climb aboard our long boat and settle in for the luxurious comfort of a plasitc chair with life jackets as cushions and giant golf umbrellas to protect ourselves from the sun. We first have to travel down a canal to reach the lake and were mighty impressed when a woman sat bout 2m high from the water and overtook us at at least 40km/h. But this was nothing in comparison to the hidden and ... read more
Trekking - 4th Dec
Day 2 of the trek and the crew seems to wake up with more complaints this time, not only about the freezing conditions and hard floors overnight (softies!) but also in the stomach region and the frequency of trips to the toilet during the course of the night was a source of amusement for a little while, but soon led to some hypochondria setting in with reports of malaria, bird flu and cholera circulating as the possible courses. Limon and Andrew seem to be the only ones who have avoided it and attribute it to their chilli diet and medicinal shot of Mandalay Rum before bedtime. We are eternally grateful to our hosts and we gift Oberon with a clip on Koala that he looks skeptically at for quite some time before appreciation sets in. We ... read more
Trekking - 3rd Dec
We met up with our trekking crew ie. Alex (French) and Jasmine (Myanmar) at the agreed hour of 8am, to find that two Israeli girls had joined our party at the 24th hour. So given that they have all done their time in the army and were uninclined to whinge and moan (Yeah right!) we made the assumption that these 2 must also be tough as nails, fit for a 3 day trek and given that they were subsidising our trip by another couple of bucks we welcomed them aboard. The first section saw us pad away from Kalaw and into the nearby hills where a pine forest was on it's last legs due to local logging campaigns, apparently once the home of a large monkey community they had all relocated as hunting took its toll ... read more
Kalaw
We leave Yangon on the 12 noon bus, heading off for 16 hours of joy to Kalaw. A steaming hot afternoon where the airconditioner was clearly warming up to finally blast us with freezing cold air as soon as the sun went down ensured a sleepless night, given that our wardrobe had carefully included shorts and Tshirts and not much else (hey we are still in the tropics right?). The temperature at night however can get as cold as about 2 degrees which meant that the occasional tea and coffee breaks were all we had to keep us warm and only contributed further to our insomnia. 4am we arrive in Kalaw (what kind of crazy schedule is that?) and wake up the local hostel owner only to find that the place is a bit of a ... read more
Myanmar - Yangon
As our trip comes to a close, we try and squeeze in one final country - the wonderful, the mysterious Myanmar. Now Myanmar, or Burma to many Westerners, has been in the clutches of a military regime since the late 80s when the first democratically elected leader came to power for only a brief split-second before the army came crashing in and has held her under house arrest for the last 18 years odd. Not a great first impression on the place, especially as you then continue to read about the ongoing elimination of many minority groups throughout the country and the hundreds of refugees that continue to flood across the Thai border. Top this off with guerilla warfare on the fringes of the country and the overly scrutinized internet access that all information must pass ... read more
Ton Sai
Well it was back to that favourite pose for the rest of the afternoon - stretched out in the hammock, book in one hand, beer Chang in the other. We finally decided that we should at least venture down the beach to get some dinner where we ran into Steve, Miss Laura (Finn) and some fellow Aussies from the Blue Mtns. Making some plans to watch the Chelsea vs Man U match that night which surprisingly was showing at the very next bar on Tonsai. No power, no cars but they had satellite TV! Ha! The first game Newcastle vs Portsmouth was a bit of a non-event (ha, just kidding Steve) but the crowd poured in for the main game and some passionate Thai fans and a few random poms and I shared the space around ... read more
Brothers in Arms
DAY ONE - 19TH NOV - Ao Nang We have been propelled across a continent to meet up with Vicki, Cyril and Will and finally enjoy some warm weather and quality relaxation time. We arrive in Ao Nang at around midday and do some brief reconnaissance work on our bike that we hired as soon as we arrived. We meet the others at the lovely "Golden Sands Resort" for dinner and more catching up on things in general and any relevant political developments that we've missed while being away. It was a good re-introduction to reality for us I think as we are nearing the end of our journey and have to start thinking about life back home. After dinner the three kids head off to check out the finest night life that Ao Nang has ... read more
Khao San Rd
So touching down in the luxurious and ENORMOUS new Bangkok airport we finally found the taxi stand after ensuring that we were going to be able to make the 30min drive to Khao San Rd without having to make the guy pull over. After travelling throughout the rest of SE Asia and parts of China, we forgot how fast the drivers are around here and found ourselves glancing nervously at each other as we propelled along the freeway at 140kms an hour. We arrived safely though at this infamous backpacker area which we had avoided the previous two times we had been through BKK, but spurred on by recommendations from Em,Pete and Steve, we bit the bullet and headed for Sawadee Guest house. Nice place, better still that they had an aircon room available with private ... read more
Beijing - Summer Palace
Well it was our last full day in Beijing so we decided to pack it in with a trip out to the Summer Palace - the retreat for emperors in the hotter months when the forbidden city just got UNBEARABLE - poor dears! However it was pretty damn spectacular if not massive and pretty damn natural despite the hoardes of tourists that swarm the place from sunset to sundown. We wandered around the lake for a bit marvelling at those that had attempted to cross the expanse of water on pedalos and others who were taking part in a corporate event of sorts involving walking as quickly as you could without running to win some sort of race. Luckily spontaneous race adjudicator Richards was on hand to pull those into line that were clearly breaking all ... read more
The Great Wall - JinShaling - Simitai
Well kids - what had saved us heaps of money to date ie. doing our own thing instead of taking the tours with the masses this time proved to be fruitless. The increasingly frustratingly wrong planet guide which we placed clearly too much faith in - told us we could get to where we wanted to go for 15 kwai one way, the hostel tour wanted 110 kwai return, ha we'll show them we thought! Setting off at some ungodly hour of the morning (albeit Tony was up before us!) we made our way to Donshimen on the subway as the sun began to rear its warming head - transforming a below zero into a comfortable 10 degrees. We found a Minivan to Miyun easily enough - infact it found us and clambered aboard not before ... read more
