Travel Blog Posts
April 23rd 2012
Hello hello! Checking in from a rainy Colombo today which makes a change from the searing leg blistering heat of the past 3 weeks (turns out I can now even get burnt in the shade incase anyone is counting and now look somewhat reptilian from the waist down). We started our visit by trying to aclimatise slowly to the heat so headed to the hill country to lakeside Kandy where we shared both our hostel and breakfast with a troop of monkeys (and a couple of leeches!). Really friendly people who chat about the cricket (oh yes that was in town) and fill you up with tea about as frequently as you encounter the national head wobble. Kids here love to try out their English and so we have been included in lots of school project ... read more
April 2nd 2012
Xin Chao from Ho Chi Minh City, I love it - Vietnam has stolen the show so far. Even when people 'accidentally' try to change your currency into a ten-fold decrease in value and the powercuts keep on going, the infectious smiles and the ability to hear 'looking looking, buying buying, motorbike motorbike' always make me laugh. Tip for visitors, if you ever think it is OK to cross the road, there is ALWAYS another motorbike, its never OK, just go, I hope you played frogger when you were a kid. Vietnam is sponsored by boats. Thats wooden junks, putt putt boats, rowing boats endless boats. If people are not sailing/rowing I swear they are drinking (in a good way). On land we have embraced hillstations, balconies and doxycyclin. Somehow fate sent us to Hanoi Backpackers ... read more
March 12th 2012
Ni hau from southern China! The land of outstanding countryside, men loudly clearing their flegmy throats, stew with dog and rat, and conversations conducted at 17 times the normal volume both face to face and over the phone. Seems we have managed to visit both side of China with flashy Hong Kong and Macau to downright unassuming beauty in Yangshuo and Lijiang. In the former I loved pulling out my Octopus (Oyster) card to pay for dinner, but not for the snake balls which thanks to my terrible conversion rate head calculator meant they were 10 times more expensive than we thought (tasty though!). National History Museum was fab from geological formations through to the 1997 hand over - however the small semi propoaganda video at the end made me want to wash my brain a ... read more
February 19th 2012
Good morning campers! Well for the last week or so we have been in the unsung hero of the lesser spotted Gwang Ju and the giant that is Seoul. Gwang Ju stole us - or original 3 ays got somewhat extended following a fateful night in a Speakeasy and a small Chinese visa snafu. As South Korea has decided to not issue onward visas to other countries unless you are in possession of an Alien Registration Card and wont issue an ARC unless you are registered as a student or foreign worker we found ourselves in a little Yossarian-eque situation, particularly when the helpful lady at immigration responded to my well intentioned question of "Then how do we leave Korea?" with "I dont know". Needless to say we stayed in Gwang Ju for longer, presented a ... read more
February 8th 2012
Annyeong from South Korea! After a tax-related disasterous exit from Japan we 'beetled off' to South Korea on a hydrofoil. Hmm, thats an INTERESTING mode of transport on your tummy. Although the crew on the port all stood in uniform and waved us off with hats in hand making me feel like the queen so all is forgiven! Had a good old potter in Busan going to Seomyeon beach (Managed to wear mearly one jumper and my coat - woohoo!) fun fair, lighthouse, multiple visits to Paris Baguette cafe, and some good walks. Started to dawn on us quite how much people love to hike. I dont mean a normal passion, but an obsession requiring the purchase of every known gadget and piece of apparel on the market. For our walk around Geumgang Park to see ... read more
February 2nd 2012
Well hello there! So Hiroshima. Please forgive me if my lack of adjectives on this subject appears coldhearted but I would struggle to put into words exactly how I felt here so you can have the facts. My English is not expansive enough to share how I felt not knowing if smiling in the area was disrespectful, or the thoughts running through elderly Japanese when they saw two western visitors exiting a train at a stop called 'The A-Bomb Dome', or if I was self-indulgent to think this. To get an idea of the WW2 impacts on Hiroshima we visited the Peace Park, A bomb Dome, children's memorial, blast hypocentre and museum. The first visited the A bomb dome which is the remains of a former presentation centre, one of the few remains from the blast ... read more
January 23rd 2012
Well hello there! So to pick up where we left off - we headed on to Nagano where we stayed in a scary empty hostel reminding me of round the twist. The city shared strange food offerings / translations (couldnt decide which) with my favourites of womb, uterus and lung being usurped by 'hormone on a stick'. However due to my strong Nottingham stomach this did not disrupt our trip and we arrived as planned at Yudanaka. Here we were greeted by the remarkable site of small Macaque monkeys kicking back having their own little onsen jaccuzi party in the middle of a snowy forest - Cheeky buggers! To warm up later we headed to a jazz bar in Nagano to be bedazzled with 'Moon Liver'accompanied by a tremendous guitarist of 40 years, bass and saxophonist. ... read more
January 12th 2012
Amy-san back again! So after the city we headed up to Mt Fuji to discover tatami seated eating, and cycle round one of the 5 lakes. I am still totally in love with Japanese loo seats. Not to be too crass but after a day walking in 0 degrees, it really is a treat! Pottered on to Matsumoto which is much colder than Tokyo which requires some imaginative dressing to stay warm but all is forgotten at Matsumoto-jo which is just beautiful in the snow. However I decided the best thing to do was have a tea ceremony with Neil's family friend (how our 74 year old host managed on her knees the whole time is beyond me!) then get naked with 2 older women I had never met before at an onsen (very hot public baths). This ... read more
January 3rd 2012
Tokyo Been here for a week and I honestly think this is the weirdest place in the world. Where else would you have people walking their monkeys on leads in the street, people taking down germ protection masks to smoke, and people on TV competing to not laugh for the longest when put in comedy situations then hit with a rubber baton. People are constantly asleep on the tube but never miss their stops as there is this weird ice cream van-esque noise that plays at the stops! You buy food and drink by vending machines that give you tickets which you then pass on to someone who works there. I swear we have been in every direction possible on the underground but I get no wiser each time! Jet lag is a cruel thing so ... read more
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