http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/howard-and-lisa/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from howard and lisa en-us Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:53:15 +0000 Mon, 16 Nov 2009 16:53:15 +0000 I decided to head south the next day Wednesday to Kuala Selangor about 80km northwest of Kuala Lumpur. I expected much of the road to be familiar to me since in the early 1980rsquos I often used to drive the coastal route from KL to Lumut to take the ferry over to stay on Pangkor Island. In this part of Malaysia however the landscape has changed beyond recognition. What were once narrow http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/blog-443975.html After breakfast I left Kota Bahru to drive to Pulau Banding in Belum. For the first 50km the road meanders through villages in flat quite pretty countryside but after the rubber plantation town of Jeli the eastway highway begins. From here it climbs and descends it is mainly a onelane road although some stretches have uphill overtaking lanes but from Jeli to Belum it never stops winding http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/blog-443973.html I left the very pleasant Tanjung Sutera resort and set out north. By threethirty I was checked in at the Hyatt Kuantan and slept for the next eighteen hours.Once Irsquod been up a couple of hours on Friday I felt vaguely better and caught up with a few things had a buffet breakfast and then addressed my laptop which had been giving me problems the past couple of days by just turning itself http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/blog-443968.html Almost on a whim in October of 2008 I decided to load up the Fortuner with camera and birdwatching equipment bird books maps and a list of bird watching locations and head north into Malaysia. I had no set plans no firm route and no hotel bookings. I left Singapore on Monday the 13th with a wonderful sense of freedom it had probably been 40 years since I set out on an almost totally unp http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Malaysia/Johor/blog-443961.html Overnight we had steamed slowly back north to Cuverville Island named by Gerlache after a French Admiral between Rong a female contributor to Gerlachersquos expeditions Island and the Arctowski Peninsula at the mouth of Andvord Bay. When we awoke it was overcast here and we decided not to go ashore but to relax and enjoy the environment from the ship. Cuverville is home to 4000 Gentoo P http://www.travelblog.org/Antarctica/Antarctica/blog-372577.html Sunrise was about 3.20 a.m. local time and I awoke at four Lisa shortly thereafter. Outside we were met with a stunning spectacle We were entering the Gerlache Strait named after the great Belgian Antarctica explorer Adrien Gerlache who discovered and mapped this part of the peninsula and offshore islands in 1898.Brabant Island was on our starboard side and the Danco Coast of mainland Antarc http://www.travelblog.org/Antarctica/Antarctica/blog-372559.html The wind picked up again as we approached Penguin Island creating a short choppy sea. By 9.15 a.m. Lisa and I were ashore on the rocky beach and set out to climb to the top of the 170m caldera unfortunately the way up was too crowded with petrel and albatross nests for us to pass without disturbing the brooding birds so we spent our time along the beach and up on a headland with a large Chin http://www.travelblog.org/Antarctica/Antarctica/South-Shetland-Islands/blog-372525.html We woke up from time to time when the ship pitched particularly violently but managed to sleep to about 7.30 a.m. although Lisa got up for a cup of tea around four. After a shower she was feeling quite reasonable and had a light breakfast she seemed to be getting her sea legs.It was a beautiful morning with not a cloud in the sky. The wind since we left South Georgia had been about 2025 kn http://www.travelblog.org/Antarctica/Antarctica/South-Shetland-Islands/blog-372522.html And what a sunrise it was Overnight we had cruised slowly to Gold Harbour and from our balcony we were greeted with the sight of a pink and yellow sky over a bank of icebergs to the east and a dark blue sky above us and to the west over the large deep Bertrab glacier. When we were ready to brave the cold and we emerged onto a windless deck just before four orsquoclock the sun crept above http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/South-Georgia/South-Georgia/blog-372513.html We cruised slowly on a flat sea into Fortuna Bay dominated by the beautiful Konig Glacier at its southern extremity. The sky was perfectly blue and the temperature was 11C how lucky were we with the weather By eight orsquoclock we hit the beach amidst a bunch of adult male Fur Seals and walked up onto the grassy plateau at the foot of the glaciers. Away from the beach it was all much http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/South-Georgia/South-Georgia/blog-372478.html Back on Minerva Santa Claus and his elf arrived by Zodiac to much applause and amusement after taking a couple of celebratory turns around the ship and everyone took a photo with him seated next to a Christmas tree on the stern. And I always thought Santa lived at the North PolehellipDuring lunch we saw an Orca Killer Whale surfacing very near the ship plus our first iceberg as we steamed http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/South-Georgia/South-Georgia/blog-372366.html We awoke to a beautiful sunny morning with only a gently rolling sea under the ship. I spent the morning sorting and deleting most of the hundreds of photographs taken the previous day and catching up with email communications with an occasional foray onto deck to watch the Giant Petrel Blackbrowed Albatross and later the enormous Wandering Albatross that crisscross the shiprsquos wake http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/South-Georgia/South-Georgia/blog-372360.html After a light lunch on board we went into Stanley for a wander around the neat colourful small town of about 2000 with its pub churches civic buildings and four terraced town houses that could have been transported brick by brick from Victorian England apart from the green corrugated roof rather than tiles. The morning cloud had blown away and it was a beautiful sunny afternoon. We were t http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Falkland-Islands/East-Falkland/blog-372356.html The light in the Falklands is spectacular. At the same latitude south as London is north the light is completely different from that of southeast England. I have no idea why this should be but it is so I awoke at about 4.45 a.m. peered out through the curtains at a stunning cerulean sky and golden hilltops around the bay it was not a hard decision to throw on some clothes grab the camera http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Falkland-Islands/East-Falkland/blog-372350.html We anchored near Blanco Bay in Port William at 8.15 a.m. on a grey drizzly morning Port Stanley nestling behind low hills in Stanley Harbour off to the south. But by nine orsquoclock the sky had pretty well cleared it was 10C with 2025 knots of wind across the bay and Zodiac landings were deemed to be feasible so we set off for a nearby rocky beach. Up behind the beach was peaty rocky http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Falkland-Islands/East-Falkland/blog-372348.html We left the hotel at seven for flight to Ushuaia in the far south of the country from which 95 of Antarctic expedition ships depart. We had been to Ushuaia several years before when we finished a driving trip through southern Patagonia here it is a pleasant own of 60000 or so whose culinary claim to fame is its Patagonian baby lamb rackroasted over a charcoal fire. By noon we were digging http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Falkland-Islands/blog-372346.html Having spent a delightful week with family and friends in a largely cold and grey London we finally set out on our longawaited trip to the South Atlantic and Antarctica. Our first stop was Buenos Aires where we touched down around noon and emerged into warmth and sunshine a much appreciated contrast to December London. Always eager to prove my credentials as a savvy and seasoned traveller e http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Argentina/Buenos-Aires/Buenos-Aires/blog-372334.html Pondicherry and Mamallapuram Experiencing the UnexpectedWe left Tanjore early since on the way to Pondicherry we wanted to make an unscheduled stop at the small town of Chidambaram to see a temple that closed at noon. We had a beautiful early morning drive through the Cauvery delta full of bucolic agricultural landscapes although some of the villages were clearly dirtpoor accommodation comp http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Tamil-Nadu/blog-324156.html From the Western Ghats into Tamil NaduAfter breakfast at the Coconut Lagoon a launch took us ten minutes or so up one of the canals to the car park on the road at Kumarakom where our driver Narayan was waiting for us with the Toyota. Our journey now took us inland to the Western Ghats climbing quite steeply for perhaps half of the 120kms to Kumily. As we climbed up to over 1000m rubber plantat http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Tamil-Nadu/blog-323767.html Kochin and the Kerala BackwatersWe awoke to yet another beautiful day although it did seem to be getting a shade hotter as the days went by. We had coffee by the Nilaya Hermitage pool and a large late breakfast before packing for our trip back to Cochin. Rami and Donna were staying one more night before returning to London so we made our farewells to them and to all the wonderful Nilaya staff an http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/India/Kerala/blog-323492.html