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Published: December 21st 2005
Hi!
Well I am sorry for being so crap at keeping this blog up to date, just too many things to see and do and no time to sit on Internet and update you all, but here isa big one to keep you all going.......
New Zealand- Auckland
We arrived really early in the morning so we were a bit spaced out, however it all seemed so easy, the airport was fantastic had loads of info on hostels and really friendly old staff, plus it was a big bonus that everyone spoke english. We hopped on a bus and made it into the town centre.
Auckland is a funny old place has a very english feel to it but so much more chilled out. Everyhting seemed to go at such a slow pace, we finally worked out that many peeps were away on hols as it was labour day so it sort of explained the ghost town feel. The weather wasn't great pretty grey but we had a comfortable hostel for the first 2 nights so it was ok.
We didn't really do much in Auckland it was just nice to chill out and not have to worry about not being able to communicate with people and being ripped off! We found a fantastic supermarket called Food Town so i stocked up on peanut butter and vegimite (not as good as marmite) and lots of tasty normal bread not like the sweet stuff we kept on finding in South America and of course lots of chocolate!
We did a bit of sight seeing but nothing really overwhelming, the ports were pretty. Everything looked very manicured and well kept.
We had to swap hostel on our last night, the one we ended up in was a bit strange, had the feeling of being a sheltered home for all sorts of odd balls! Luckily we only had to stay one night.
Australia - Sydney
We were in Sydney for 1 week which was cool, stayed in Kings Cross redlight district! Was an interesting place, a real mix of people including old, young familes in amongst the Pimps and prostitutes! It was probably a lot tamer than Kings Cross in London!
We saw all the famous sites which were cool probably better than on the postcards you see. Again the people are quite chilled out and relaxed so had a good vibe to the place. It was strange but you really did feel as if you were on the other side of the world!
Bondi beach was cool, we were lucky as we went on a weekday so it wasn't too busy, the water was cold though, apparently it doesn't warm up until jan/feb time. Saw lots of Aussies having a BBQ. All seemed very soap like, the school kids do really wear uniforms like they have on Neighbours and Home and Away! There were loads of sand flies which were really irratating after a while. Also went to Manley beach which was also pretty a lot busier than Bondi we saw surf school going on which looked like lots of fun! I wish i was a better swimmer then I would have definately have given it a go.
Another highlight of our time there was that we watched Measure for Measure (Shakespeare) at the Sydney Opera house, we manage to get free corporate tickets. It was funny listening to old english in an Oz accent! I reckon the Opera house looks its best at sunset/night.
The Botanical gardens where also cool saw lots of parrots flying around the place looked really pretty 😊 There was also a wedding happening picture perfect place to have it hey? An old man who was obsessed with The Bill started chatting to us and pointed out a possum alseep in a tree it looked so cute!
Singapore
Singapore is a really modern well organised city, however it didn't quite match my expectations, can't quite pinpoint why. Its a city obessed with shopping there are malls everywhere so much better than the ones you get at home. It was steaming hot which took a bit of getting used too.
We arrived around Eid and Diwali time so there were lots of events happening around the place also a lot of pretty lights illuminating the place at night. I got Mendhi done and went to a really pretty temple which was cool. Also this was the first place i got to eat good indian food after 4 months, so I was a happy bunny.
Not much else to say about singapore, apart from we stayed in a really nice botique hotel, which was a nice treat for us.
Malaysia "Truely Asia"-There are so many adverts on sky TV for tourism in Malaysia at the moment and all of then start with the phrase "Malaysia Truely Asia" very annoying but catchy so I had to include it!
Kuala Lumpar (KL)
KL was our first stop, it was manic! Really busy and polluted and dirty! We stayed in China Town along the main street where the night market happens, which was buzzing all the time. Was good to walk around but I didn't really like KL plus the heat and mosquitos were doing our head in!
We took a day trip to Batu Caves which were cool they were caves with hindu temples inside. There were so many monkeys around, they looked cute from afar but where quite vicious! It was also nice and cool in the caves which gave us a break from the heat.
Petronas Towers (highest towers in the world) were impressive, we didn't get to go up them though as they were closed for Eid. This part of town was in complete contrast to where we were satying Uber modern and obviously the place for people with money!
Cameron Highlands
The drive from KL to Cameron Highlands was cool, really scenic lot of greenery. The weather was really cool too almost felt cold there. We found a little appartment to share with few people which was comfortable. We took a mini day tour to see some tea plantations and local produce farms, the place had a defiante colonial feel about it, you could tell that it was a Hill station during the Brtish rule, lots of the cafes offered scones and jam and strawberrys and ice cream!
Penang
Penang was bit of a strange place it seemed to have had its time in the past as being a toiurist destination and now was just a place people stopped overnight. We didn't stop here long ended up staying in a typical dumpy hostel type place! There was a really creepy old man there which freaked me out a bit. So overall not much to say apart from buying a really cool hat which folds up into a fan!
Langkawi
This was our first tropical paradise beach! It was gorgeous we had a beach hut on the beach and you could see the sea from out window. The water was lovely really warm, proabably the warmest sea i have been in. Was really nice to be able to wake up have breakfast along the beach and then go for a swim, very relaxing!
Thailand
Krabi
We only had a short stop here but stayed in a lovely new hotel really nice decor. We arrived at the end of rainy season so there were still the nightly downpours. We went for food along the harbour so all the stalls were open air which was fine until it started to pour down with rain and thunder and lightening! Was quite a scene one minute we were eating away our yummy pad thai (prob the best one we had the whole time in Thailand) the next we were running for cover! The lightening lit up the whole sky was quite an amazing storm.
Ko Phi Phi
Ko Phi Phi was absolutely stunning! We arrived by boat which was a pleasant journey. Then we took a long boat to our beach shallet. It was quite amusing as we rang the day before to make a reservation and the guy on the phone sounded like a proper Jeeves so we were trying to work out if it was an english guy or a Thai person with a very posh accent. We met 'Jeeves' in person and he turned out to be a snotty old man! Well maybe snotty is the wrong word but he had a definate colonial presence about him which made me cringe. (It was interesting to find out that Thailand had never been colonialised only occupied by a the Japanese for short time - little bit of history for you). Anway the beach was amazing the water was crystal blue and you could see the coral at the bottom of the sea and loads of tropical fish swimming past you. It was also quite warm so it does deserve the 5*. The only downside about this beach was that the coral was quite sharp and yep you guessed i managed to cut my toe- ouch! We didn't stay too long here as the accomodation was quite expensive and we wanted to keep on moving as it felt as if we had long distances to cover.
Ko Pha Ngan
We arrived in Ko Phangan the night before the full moon party at Haad Rin, so there were lots of peeps around. We tagged on to this really loud group of Aussies which worked out well for us as we had to pay less for a taxi to the hotel and we managed to get a room at the place they had already booked.
The beach again was lovely, wasn't as clear as Ko Phi Phi but there was no coral and the sea was nice and calm making it much easier to swim. We spent a few days here which was cool our beach hut was on the beach so it was nice to sit in the hammok and watch the sea.
The full moon party was fun, a lot less mad than i expected! It wasn't too busy, just the right amount of people apparently the one in December is more popular as there are more tourists on holiday. There were lots of people playing with fire, poduims on the beach (no Vic I wasn't dancing on them!) and all sorts of music playing. All in all was a good night. The next morning we were getting ready to leave and the aussies i mentioned earlier were just returning from the party, they stank of alcohol and were buying more for breakfast - err!
Bangkok
I was pleasantly suprised with Bangkok it had a good feel about it. After a crappy night bus journey we arrived at 3am and were just dropped on the side of some street! (Thats south east asian buses for you). Anyway we found our way to the famous Khao San Road (the road you can buy almost anything on, including degree certificates - why didn't i just do that?!) which is meant to be buzzing 24/7 however it was almost dead at 3am! Had bit of difficulty finding a hostel but found an ok one in the end.
Our time in Bangkok was spent looking at numerous Wats (Budhist temples) and shopping in the many markets - i have really become crap at this I don't think i bought anything!
The most impressive Wat had to be Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of the Emerald Buddha) and the grand palace. It was all really sparkly and colourful, lots of mosaic encrusted pillars and marble statues and large golden domes. It has been rennovated recently so it did look in pristine condition. The older wats where equally impressive, Wat Pho ( the oldest and largest temple in Bangkok) had a very big reclining Buddha, was too hard to fit in one Pic!
Also during our time in Bangkok there was some event going on to promote healthy living (i think) was quite amusing as in the park they had loads of people doing aerobics all together dressed in yellow t-shirts and pants, they seemed to be having fun but i don't know how they managed to do it in the heat!
Chiang Mai
The highlight of our time here had to be the thai cooking course we did. It was a lot of fun felt as if we were proper Master Chefs and even if i do say so myself it was the best Thai food i had tasted the whole time there!! Our teacher was funny her name was Nooky she made me giggle the whole time we were there, with her odd phrases ( can't remember any at the mo).
We also hired a motor bike, which was really cheap and fun got to drive like the locals (i.e. in any manner they please!) It was a good experience we drove up this really long winding mountain to Wat which was pretty, coming down was a bit hairy but fun. (Laura, we looked like the two cartoon characters on the birthday card you gave Ivan!!) We whizzed around to do all our chores including getting chinese visa so our time in Chiang Mai turned out to be quite fun. The only pooey bit was that my wallet got stolen on a night bus on the way back to Bangkok, was such a pain and the Banks in UK are pretty crap at sorting stuff out for you 😞 It also delayed our plans for crossing the border to Cambodia.
Cambodia
The border crossing was a lot better than we had psyched ourselves up for. The only pain was the corrupt visa guys, they got 5 extra dollors from every foriegner that crossed and they get to pocket the money amongst themselves so you can see how the rich people keeping on getting richer in these countries, just got me annoyed.
Our journey to Siem Reap was probably the most interesting journey we have done! We hired a private taxi (with 2 other people). The driver din't speak any english but was very smiley. The first 20 mins of the journey seemed really random to us he kept on driving along dirt tracks in the middle of fields, we all honestly thought that he was going to stop us and rob us of all our money and belongings! It turned out that he was just trying to avoid bumpy roads and paying bribes to more dodgy corrupt policemen, we all had overactive imaginations!
Despite having a sore bum from the bumpy roads we arrived in one piece and the driver was actually really sweet he just communicated with us through his smiles : ) Poor guy also had to endure learning english from one of the women travelling with us who was quite patronising! The scenery was really pretty and rural, lots of rice fresh green fields with no buildings obscuring the view for miles on end.
Siem Reap
Siem Reap was an odd place. I really liked it was full of contradictions, lots of old and new stuff mingled together, it is a place that is cashing in on the tourism boom to Angkor Wat but there is a really evident disparity between the rich and poor. It was sad to see really young children begging and lots of land mine victims who had lost limbs. Basically if you have got the money youcan really live a comfortable luxurious lifestyle.
Angkor Wat
These ancient temples were very grand and impressive. The ruins varied in their condition but they were all good to see. It was a really hot day so we hired a tuk tuk to take us around the complex, the guy was very sweet and smiley (I think smiling is a common trait amongst Cambodian people 😊 There are a few communities living within the complex so also got to see a bit of rural life and lovely bright happy children, they seemed so content doing simple things.
Phnom Penh
Phnom Penh is the capital city, quite big and busy but had a nice feel about it esp around the river area. Again there were some nice places to eat and drink. The main site we saw here was the Grand palace which had a peaceful feel to it, we chose a day when there wern't many tourists around. I will have to bore you all by showing you loads of my pics from here and the rest of my journey.
We didn't really do too much else here as I caught some weird bug and was feeling poorly, which really frustrated me as I wanted to be doing stuff but i just didn't have the energy grrrr.
Well that is probably lots for all of you to read, I better go. I still have to tell you all my tales from Vietnam but havn't got time now. I will try and do another update whilst I am in China.
I am really looking forward to seeing all of you soon not long til I come home. I hope you all have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year looks like I will be in China, which should be different. Girls, I am really lookign forward to opening my last card........ 😊
Lots of love and hugs xxx
p.s most of you will be on holidays soon so there are no excuses for the lack of emails!
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Vic
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Nish-Lee!
Sitting in cold and rainy Brussels reading about all your adventures! The motor bike sounds cool, so does Cambodia. Glad food is OK chickpea. Big Love from Vic x