http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Tania---James/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Tania James en-us Fri, 01 Jan 2010 06:04:53 +0000 Fri, 01 Jan 2010 06:04:53 +0000 We had a long journey to get to the Serengeti by the end of the day so most of the day was spent in the car. It was interesting to pass through the villages most towns had buildings which were little more than shacks and generally were built with logs and mud and thatched rooves whilst other housesshelters outside of the towns were made of anything that was available sticks logs canvas bags http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Tanzania/North/Serengeti-National-Park/blog-432784.html Our ride back from Amboseli involved me taking a turn in driving Fi's 4WD for a few hours which was some really interesting roads again and I have a new found appreciation for bicumen. This appreciation was renewed again on the road the next morning as we began our Tanzanian tour which started from Nairobi and involved a 5 hour drive to Arusha. Well 5 hours in theory. We were about 1.5 hours lat http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Tanzania/North/Arusha/blog-431055.html After some kerfuffle I finally got the all clear from the doctor that all was okay to travel and thankfully we made it to Africa We met up with lovely Fiona on Thursday night who picked us up at the Nairobi airport and then the next morning we were immediately off to one of the Kenyan Wildlife Services Park Amboseli. We took the two 4WDs boys Paul and James in one car the girls in the 'hu http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Kenya/Rift-Valley-Province/Amboseli-NP/blog-429271.html Our bus into Agra was relatively uneventful but we immediately felt like we were in back in a big city home of the Taj We were finally going to see it and couldn't wait We got into Agra about midday and were picked up by 4wDs to take us to our hostel. It seems we were staying just outside the East Gate of the Taj which was about a 5 minute walk if that The weather was predicted to be crap http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Uttar-Pradesh/Agra/blog-391919.html The morning started with an evil wake up hour another crazywindycold tuk tuk ride to the train station and the inevitable late train. Thankfully some chai helped to perk us up unfortunately it didn't last long with one of the most uncomfortable and cold train rides yet. The small mercy was that it only last about 56 hours and then we arrived at the smelliest train station in the world I swe http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Rajasthan/Pushkar/blog-391913.html We had a relatively early start and headed by 4WD to see some local villages before heading to Udaipur. We visited a Bisnoi tribe who are largely self sufficient and who care for all living things and try to help protect the environment and animals. They are also one of the only tribes who are legally allowed to consume Opium apparently this helps when working out in the fields. One of the tribe http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Rajasthan/Udaipur/blog-362008.html Alas it was time to leave lovely little Jaisalmer and catch the local bus to Jodhpur but not before we had our pictures taken for the region's newspapers Yes my fame is spreading slowly yet surely. We were wondering around the streets and a journalist wanted to take a picture of all of us with our sunglasses. We then found our piccie in the paper the next day I've got a copy and will scan a c http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Rajasthan/Jodhpur/blog-360672.html Okay so our train was meant to leave Delhi at 530pm. We rocked up a bit early after some really bad peak hour traffic to find that it had been delayed till about 730pm. So we pulled up our backpacks and sat down for a while. We decided to go over to the platform at about 7pm'ish and it was absolutely jam packed with people their bags as well as wheelbarrows full of cargo you name it they had http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Rajasthan/Jaisalmer/blog-359628.html After some dramas again with the visa they told me it wasn't going to be ready in time for travel I finally picked it up the day before ChristmasI flew out to Delhi on Boxing day night and arrived in Delhi at about 11am in the morning. I hung out in the arrivals area for a few hours for Rachael to arrive and then we hopped into our transfer to the hotel. Okay so I'm a little bit used to traffi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/National-Capital-Territory/Delhi/blog-359623.html Once we checked in to the Andromeda Villas we were able to relax a bit. The accomodation though having a slightly spartan feel was comfy and the views well just look at the photos. You hear everyone talking about it but you can't really appreciate Santorini unless you go there. We were staying in the area called Imerovigli the highest point. We were on the cliff face looking straight out t http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/South-Aegean/Santorini/blog-74264.html Guten tag My first foray to Oktoberfest in ze land of ze Germans consisted of waiting FOREVER to get our baggage at the airport and finding Dana Rochelle who flew into the other terminal in Munich the airport is humungous After standing in line for a taxi and being entertained by a group of guys in sombreros and ponchos accompanied by a stereo playing latin music as well as the Austin Powe http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Germany/Bavaria/Munich/blog-329495.html We thought we'd try and wait for a lovely sunny day to make the trip out to Hampton Court Palace but at the rate it's going so far we could have been waiting quite a while So we hopped on a train and paid a little dayvisit to the former palace of Henry VIII. The palace was actually originally started by Cardinal Wolsey in the early 16th century but after he fell out of favour with the king http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/blog-320979.html Another week in London consisted of my return to work and James still being a man of leisure thus the need to escape and pretend we were still on holiday. We got some cheap bus fares and made our way north to Cheltenham to visit Jenni Mat and attend the Postslip Beer Festival. Proceeding our arrival Jen took us on a walking tour of the lovely centre of town and 15 minutes later we were at Jen' http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Gloucestershire/Cheltenham/blog-306790.html Our first venture into the English countryside was a day trip to Bath with fellow Melbournites Dannielle and Rob. After a somewhat rocky start to the morning with Dannielle and Rob almost missing the train and then about a 40 minute delay halfway through the trip we got to Bath late Sunday morning. The morning started off with a brisk wind but thankfully after our pub lunch the sun decided to c http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Somerset/Bath/blog-305723.html Warning historical facts and gruesome descriptions are contained below proceed with caution.Summer you say So we're talking sunshine warmth and blue skies yes Hmm no this is England we're talking about after all. We finally offloaded the plane after about an hour and a half of circling and sitting on the tarmac after Heathrow was recovering from a very bad storm. I might have been a tad op http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/United-Kingdom/England/Greater-London/blog-301386.html Our first day in Thailand consisted not much more than shopping eating and Thai massages. We had got in late on the Thursday night and our hotel is literally right next door to one of the biggest shopping centres in Bangkok MBK which is 7 stories of heavenly shopping. So why start big right On the Saturday we got up quite early to venture out to Kanchanaburi home of the River Kwai and then http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Western-Thailand/Kanchanaburi/blog-297411.html James here. Believe it or not our train actually arrived in Cairo on time Though we were driven a little mad by our temporary guide who constantly sang the song from 'The Wedding Singer' throughout the night but with a few variations. The next day we arrived back in Athens happy to have a break from busy Cairo. We had booked one night in Athens planning to make the ferry ride to Santorini the http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Greece/Attica/Athens/blog-74262.html We said fairwell to our Nile boat today and had an early morning off to the Valley of the Kings. We were up early enough to get a piccie of sunrise so it was quite early and I was not full awake until we got to the place where we met our mode of transportation to the Valley of the Kings donkeys. Now I've had a little experience with horses before but donkeys are in a whole league of their own http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Upper-Egypt/Luxor/blog-74267.html This morning James was a tad under the weather. But it wasn't just due to the antics from the night before it seems that the chicken from the previous day had caught up with him and he had a touch of the gastro. We both managed to get up that morning and do a tad of shopping in town but by the afternoon he stayed on the boat and in bed while I headed into town to visit the temples of Karnak. We http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Upper-Egypt/Luxor/blog-74265.html This morning we were up early again for a quick stop at the temple of Edfu dedicated to the falconheaded god Horus. Okay quick bit of mythology for ya there were originally 4 Gods that were created two guys and 2 chicks. Each were betrothed to the other and Seth wasn't too impressed when he got stuck with the ugly sister of sadness who cried all the time and wanted the beautiful Isis who w http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Egypt/Upper-Egypt/Luxor/blog-74261.html