Carol Hedges

mistysea

Carol Hedges

Travel - one of the highlights in life



Oceania » Vanuatu » Efate » Port Vila May 22nd 2010

Back in Efate again - at least this time it is not raining - WOW it looks so much nicer. As usual we had nothing booked on arriving at airport, after trying one place (too expensive) we ened up at the Nirvana. Great place but empty - as usual we were the only guests. This place had a coral beach, although the same issue of only being able to swim at high tide. We worked out the last day would be great as the tide would be high around 10am, it was really not warm enough to swim prior to that. On our way to this resort we went past a Surf shop - and yes they DO surf. I had never heard of surfing in Vanuatu - but then I had not heard anything much ... read more
Friendly local
Blue Hole
Nirvana Bungalows

Oceania » Vanuatu » Santo » Luganville May 16th 2010

A long way north but it’s still raining - much warmer though which is great, it was really quite cool in Tanna. We grabbed a cab and went to see if we could find a room in the only place in town that mentioned a beach. No problem, this island as well was very quiet with very few tourists. The beach at Beachfront Resort was black sand and the water was very stirred up from all the rain but the place was very pretty. Again the bungalows were quite basic but did have hot water and the staff put fresh flowers everywhere. A tradition here and makes things look so much nicer. A tour guide came to us in the resort and asked what we wanted to do. There were a number of tours we wanted ... read more
Millennium Cave
Millennium Cave
Millennium Cave

Oceania » Vanuatu » Tanna May 11th 2010

At the airport the guy on the desk said he new of a place we could stay, some new bungalows so we booked that for one night, then we got talking to the owner of one of the 2 expensive resorts on Tanna and a photographer that was going to take pictures of the volcano for a new tour they were setting up. They told us how there were no tourists at the moment, talked about the tour and somehow it ended up that Andy invited us along. The owner Huey kept saying we should stay at his place but we knew the price (about 300 AU per night plus), were we booked was (we thought) 40. In the end he said he would match our current price just to get people there, so we agreed ... read more
Lanakal Town centre
Tanna store
Tanna servo

Oceania » Vanuatu » Efate » Port Vila May 10th 2010

When we landed at Vila airport, the weather was overcast but on entering the terminal the atmosphere was great. There was a lively band playing - their music is very similar to black American kind of jazzy. It was warm, perfect t.shirt and shorts weather. Luckily we had booked a couple of nights to start as the islands are not at all like asia and it would be quite hard to wander around and find somewhere. We jumped in a taxi as we had not worked out the buses - shame it would have been much much cheaper and more interesting. The buses in PV are everywhere all the time, you just hail them and they take you to your door. It can be a great way to see the backstreets and get familiar with the ... read more
Blue Pango view
Blue Pango view
2 of 6

Asia » Hong Kong » Hong Kong Island January 28th 2008

Well its coming to an end - all too soon. Firstly now I have a little more time back to the Treetop adventure park. It was quite different, I loved the zip lining and if I did it again would try and really get some speed up when you take off. There was so many different elements. Going sideways on upright rope mesh was surprisingly difficult. There were varying different ladders - not too bad but occasionally you get a long gap which for people like me with short legs was hard.... The scariest of all was where you launch of a high platform on a kind of swing - then you have to catch a rope and haul yourself up to an even higher platform. I would never have made it without the help of ... read more
tt2
tt3
tt4

Asia » Thailand » Central Thailand » Ko Chang January 25th 2008

Well now we are five. We picked up Iain, Lissa and Becky from the ferry on the 19th. Had a car for the first day to show every one around which made life easy. First trip a fishing and cooking trip on a local fishing boat. It was run by a Brit (as most things here appear to be). Great trip though, even though we only caught very small fish and are not sure if we will be able to re-produce the wonderful curry (due to translation issues). In between trips were days of not doing much but swimming although we did hire 2 kayaks - Lissa was not feeling great and did not come so Iain and Becky plus Steve and I decided to go out to an island and around it. Had no idea ... read more
elephant
elephant1
sailing

Asia » Thailand » Central Thailand » Ko Chang January 18th 2008

Had a great night in Trat - food was just excellent, quaint little town, very quiet. Off in the morning for ferry to Koh Chang. A trip of an hour on a large plodding ferry, again just stunning scenery with lots of mountainous islands although at this point the water is not clear due to river silt. Next some fun with the first nasty person we have encountered. There were not enough people to completely fill the ute so even though there were people who knew the price the lady driver tried to charge as all 3 times the amount each (on top of adding the charge for the missing 2 people). She was really rude - it must be such a bad reflection for people who have not been away much before, not a good ... read more
Fire dance
Dodgy road
sunset 2

Asia » Cambodia » South » Sihanoukville January 6th 2008

We decided to travel in luxury to Kampot this time and got a taxi - really just because taxi 2 hours and bus 5. Taxi goes a different route and yet again I was amazed by the scenery coming down to the coast. If only it was not for the rubbish the place would look just wonderful. It is not till you come somewhere like this that you realise how much damage plastic bags have done. We had been looking forward to our favourite curry all day, but on arriving in Kampot we discovered the restaurant was shut for there day off..... Still Kampot is relaxing after PP, we ended up having a very social night with all the expat bar/hotel owners. Hung around doing housekeeping till lunch (just so we could have a curry), then ... read more
Ream NP1
Sinhoukville
Fruit seller

Asia » Cambodia » North » Siem Reap January 3rd 2008

New Years Eve - Took a tuk tuk out to the Floating Villagesin the late afternoon (apparently the quietest time). Quite a shock as the people here are obviously very poor which we have not seen much of yet. Still even though they live in squallor and minute falling down shacks they still have TV and Radio!!!!. When we drove up it was so crowded with buses and tuk tuk's we actually debated on not bothering with the river trip. Still as we were there we did - whole boat to ourselves - luxury. It is a most amazing sight, they have floating schools, a floating basketball court, shops, service station, church, pool (8 ball) room - apparently very hard to play due to water movement and lots more. In the dry they tow the boats ... read more
Floating villages 1
Killing fields
Native animal 1

Asia » Cambodia » North » Siem Reap December 31st 2007

After spending the afternoon on arrival around the pool we thought we had better get on and do some sightseeing. Hired a tuk tuk for the day $15 for the 3 of us (but I think price same regardless). Driver was lovely and very helpful. First stop Angkor Wat - very impressive entry, the moat around it is so huge it makes English moats look like puddles. Hard to imagine how many people and time it would have taken to dig. I had not realised how large the whole thing is, Angkor Wat itself covers an area of about 1 sq km and is the largest religeous structure in the world. It is amazingly well preserved and there is also work going on to restore the worst bits and also to bring back the carvings to ... read more
Fried spider
Angkor Wat
Bayon




Tot: 0.145s; Tpl: 0.007s; cc: 10; qc: 91; dbt: 0.0864s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.2mb