Eleni and Eric
Let's face it, travel diaries are boooring! No-one cares that you spent 59 hours balanced on top of a train holding onto the goat you hired, or that you had to wake up at 2am in order to trek up the local hill with your 15-year-old tour guide Chang. Sad but it's true.Quest for the Golden Carrot
Well my friends, this diary is different. You see Eleni found a treasure map in her attic. It talks of a mysterious magical Golden Carrot, the ultimate vegetable-based prize! Legend has it that the owner of this Carrot becomes inundated with offers of full-time employment, and so we are giving up the traditional method of job searching to hunt this trophy down and, therefore, sort of 'cheat' our way to a job! What a plan!
And you have been invited along for the ride! (not literally of course, we'd rather it was just the two of us, but this is where this diary comes in.) This is where you keep up-to-date with our progress, marvel over our pictures, and grow more and more bitter over the fact that we're at yet another exotic location.......and you're not. (Unless you actually are.)
Anyway, don't miss part one........coming soon!
Travel Blog Posts
August 11th 2006
So here it is, the final chapter of our amazing, often scary and dangerous, but always fascinating and interesting, journey. I had arrived in Bangkok, my final destination. Having extended my ticket, I timed my return to England to coincide not with my friends Tim and Nic being in Bangkok (as I had them believe), but perfectly with the depletion of my bank account. I arrived back in Thailand with only £30 and Colin, my under-used credit card. (Now I'm back in England that isn't so much the case!) An enjoyable couple of days was spent with the couple from Warwick. Drinks in Khao San Road one day, a visit to the National Museum the next, and an afternoon walking through the narrow bustling markets of Chinatown. Before dinner we found a nice green to lie ... read more
August 8th 2006
I must apologise to those of you who have eagerly been anticipating this entry. I have been very busy, but here it is at long last, so need to worry! Ho Chi Minh City Vietnam = Motorcycles. There are about 200 motorbikes to every car here. There are no conventional taxis, and to get across the city you have no choice but to jump on the back of some stranger's bike, and hold on for your life! (This is especially tricky if you've got your enormous backpack with you as well!) And the Highway Code (and red lights for example) are more guidelines than actual laws, which makes crossing the road pretty difficult. There's a knack to it though: Step slooowly off the pavement, and inch across the road, staring into the eyes of each motorcyclist ... read more
July 23rd 2006
I arrived in Cambodia through an "unofficial" border crossing from Laos, set deep into the forest off a long, tiny dirt track. Immigration control was a small wooden hut, and we were obliged to give a bribe to the officers that manned it to let us through; this is standard procedure. Once on the other side, we boarded our transport to Siem Reap, which I like to call: The Rust Bucket. But who am I to judge? As far as I know all vans in Cambodia have doors held together with masking tape, that don't fit the frame, and ocasionally fall off. Perhaps cracked windscreens and no glass in the front windows are the norm, and who needs two windscreen wipers and headlights when one will do? Maybe I'm not used to engine radiators hanging from ... read more
July 21st 2006
Vientiane Next time you walk into the local branch of your bank, take a moment to count how many cash machines there are in it. More than one? Congratulations, you are in the presence of more ATM's than there are in the whole of Laos. Vientiane, the country's capital, is the location of this unique money withdrawal machine. The word capital usually conjures up images of skyscrapers, parks and a busy, bustling city. This sleepy, run-down little town couldn't be further from that scenario. I didn't stay long. The two things I saw while I was here were actually quite impressive though. Pha That Luang is a big golden structure and is the Laos people's proudest monument. And Wat Si Saket is just another temple really, except it's home to a million billion images of Buddha ... read more
July 14th 2006
Kyoto Anyone who has read Memoirs of a Geisha is likely to expect Kyoto to be a quaint little town, as we did. In fact, Kyoto use to be the Capital of Japan and has a population of over 2.5million. Nevertheless, Gion Corner, behind the main hubbub of the high street, did conjure up exotic images of Geisha running to and from appointments. The word geisha has negative connotations and they are normally known as Geiko in Kyoto- meaning talented lady. We were told that we were unlikely to see real Geiko because the nature of their work is discreet and secretive, and tourists cannot just walk into tea houses to see them. We did see many women dressed in Kimono and Yukata hurrying around, but we found it difficult to distinguish between women and Geiko. ... read more
July 9th 2006
I spent a week in Tokyo, first with my friends and then with my mum, who came to take me home. Tokyo has to be one of my favourite places so far, probably because it was here, after 10 days in Japan that I started finally getting to grips with Japanese culture - I love it! As our guide book says, you have to be open minded in Japan and do your best not to come with preconceptions - easier said than done! I realised that as soon as you make one assumption, something will happen to prove you wrong. For instance, we found the Japanese very pro recycling - we spent ages on the streets emptying our lunch bag trying to figure out which of the 3 bins the napkins (combustible) and plastic bottles (non-combustible) ... read more
July 8th 2006
Having such little evidence to go by, I suspected that my mission to find the Golden Carrot may prove impossible! Considering the sheer number of temples in Japan alone I thought 3 weeks could not possibly be enough time. As we left Chiran, then Miyazaki and then my friends left to go to Kyoto and then home, time was running out, and fast. My family were expecting me home in less than 7 days, but could I return empty-handed? And then, out of the blue, I opened my weary eyes towards the end of a short cruise up the river to find it right there in all its glory - the G.C.!! Right by Sensoji temple, in the heart of Asakusa. It's fitting that its near the temple that houses a small statue of the Buddhist ... read more
July 8th 2006
Have spent the last week in Chiang Mai, Pai and Bangkok (again!), before heading into Laos. As a picture is worth a thousand words, here is a 12,000 word essay on my adventures of the past 7 days. Things that happened but weren't captured on film: At the cookery school, we learnt how to cook onions in a way that could burn your house down. By heating the wok to a temperature just shy of the sun's surface, and then throwing the onions in, making sure to point the wok away from your face (our teacher's eyebrows were painted on because she'd lost them in such an accident!), we created a burst of flame straight from the pan! I did manage to catch it on video, but sadly no photos. We rented bikes to cycle to ... read more
July 1st 2006
From Chiang Mai, located in the north of Thailand, I undertook a 3-day trek into the Thailand jungle. I was picked up early doors from my hostel, thrown in the back of a van with 6 others, and driven deep into the rainforest. The first day started out quite hot, and we hiked uphill for several hours, looking forward for a "swim" at the waterfall. Well the waterfall was impressive, but the body of water beneath it was about the size of a paddling pool. Still, a perfect way to cool down in the heat. That's when it started to pour. Did I mention it was rainy season here? A monsoon descended upon us, but on we walked, through the driving rain and slippery mud, and reached our base for that evening's rest and meal. Thankfully ... read more
June 30th 2006
Another Japanese entry from me! So next stop was still in Kyusu, but a different city- Miyazaki. We're now at Shiv's place, and Natasha and Ann-Marie have joined us. We spent our first night at what has to be the best restaurant so far- Yawaraku. Really varied food- pumpkin and potato pie, chicken Nan Ban (chicken with tartare sauce) and familiar spicy noodles with veg! On Thursday we had a very busy day visiting shrines and castles. This was the first day it hasn't rained since we've been here. First stop was Aoshima, a small island linked to the mainland by a bridge. Here there were some funky rock formations called the Devil's Washboard and a shrine. Next stop was Udo-jingu, a really pretty shrine set in the rocks. There was a small rock pool, where ... read more
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