the world and more

2008-02-04T17:33:00.000-08:00

India to Indonesia via Singapore

- Our final leg home -

In Em's last post she said we might have been the only people not to get a stomach bug in India. Maybe that is true - we didn't get upset tummys - but by the time we left India I was suffering a sickness of another kind. We discovered when we arrived in Singapore that I had contracted a Denghi Fever type of virus during the three day wedding, which knocked me around like an angry bull in a rodeo. During the wedding I was feeling pretty fluey, as was Em, but by the time we left Baroda to get to Mumbai I was convinced it was more than a flu for me. Em was convinced that I was being my usual hypochondriac self and was really fine. This was until our flight from India to Bali. We flew out of Mumbai to Chennai then on to Singapore for 8 hours and then we were supposed to continue on to Bali. While waiting for our flight from Chennai to Singapore my body exploded in a wild fire like rash from head to toe. There was not much I could do about it so we took our flight to Singapore. There the rash seemed to have died down but a fever soon replaced it. I tried to sleep in a few different spots around the airport but couldn't get comfortable and then my breathing started to go on me. By now Em was thinking that maybe there was something a bit more wrong with me then just a flu so we went to the airport doctor. He took my temperature, looked at me and said that to fly in my state could be fatal. So instead of catching our next flight to laze about on the beaches of Bali, Em and I caught an ambulance to the Raffles hospital in Singapore. Now this - like the name would suggest- was no run of the mill hospital. It's owned by the Raffles Group, which owns the famous hotel, and was probably the nicest place we stayed during our whole trip! Once I was hooked up to the drip and had my mask on to breathe it was time to sit back, relax, and play with the hi-tech electric bed. Bed goes up, bed goes down, bed goes up.......and so on. You know how it is - the simple things and all that. After a week in there suffering from blood poisoning, and the denghi type thing, I was told I was able to fly again. Wicked. We checked out of there, said goodbye to all the great nursing staff and the doc and went looking for a cheap backpacker style place to stay. Our mate Grant who has been living there for years took us out and showed us around and made sure we were looked after properly. Great guy. Then before we knew, it was time to get back on schedule and head for Bali.

Bali.....well Kuta actually, was a bit of shock at first after seeing the rest of S.E. Asia. It was so not like Asia to me. More like one big shopping mall spread out over many kilometers. But as we did many times before we met some great people and soon found our groove with the place. Kuta takes some getting used to if you have just come from India or anywhere else that's so poverty stricken. Everywhere you look it's designer boutiques, 5 star hotels and extra trendy cafes and bars. It was a real culture shock at first. However Kuta is only a small part of Bali as we found out. In Kuta we would spend our mornings around the pool then go for a motorbike ride and go shopping. Then at 5:30 we would head down with our mates to the beach to get a cold Bin Tang and watch the sunset at one of the many beach bars (guys with big eskys full of beer and fold-up chairs). It didn't really take us to long to get used to the place. The funniest thing about Kuta is hearing Aussie accents agian. They are everywhere. It's a pretty wierd thing hearing your native accent after going without it for so long. Very amusing. Everyone there sounds like they have just walked off the set of Kath and Kim.

The main beach at Kuta

Sunset at the beach

Bol won the drinking competition at this bar ... surprise, surprise!

After seeing much of what Kuta had to offer we decided to ride up to the hills of Bali to the artists town of Ubud. The two hour ride to Ubud was great. Riding on the highways with packs of locals on their bikes. Trying to get to the front of the pack got the adrenalin going - a lot of fun if you are up for it. Once off the highways the gently sloping winding roads take you up to the greener lusher parts of the island until you hit Ubud. Ubud has a really laid back, alternative feel to it. Very relaxing with no hassles. It's a great place to go and chill for a while. We arrived mid arvo and spent literally hours looking at different hotels and bungalows until we found a place that was absolutly perfect for us. For about $12 a night we had ourself a two story bungalow with all the trimmings. Downstairs was an elevated lounge area, a groundfloor dining area with our own fridge, (very handy) and a tropical graden style open air bathroom complete with bath and HOT WATER!!!!! Now you might think that hot water isn't that special but when you have been having cold showers for the past 3-4 months, trust me, having a nice warm open air bath on a rainy asian day is one of the most luxurious things a traveller can do. Anyway - to finish off the tour of our "home" in Ubud, we head upstairs, where we had our private balcony complete with comfy lounges which were great for reading a good book or just to do a bit of daydreaming. Inside was our bedroom which had a hand carved four post bed and even a proper writing desk complete with lamp. To top it all off, for $12 a day (between us) we even got breakfast poolside every morning. You can't beat that!

Our bungalow
Around Ubud

During our time in Ubud and surrounds we would spend our days riding the motorbike, looking at all the local art and furniture stores or just seeing where the particular road we would be on at the time would take us. We had heard about a big active volcano which was not too far from Ubud - no more than an hour ride away. So one morning we decided to go and have a look. It was such a great ride, up the winding roads through the forests and bushlands until we encountered a police roadblock. "They won't stop us", I thought naively - "we are just backpackers". Yeah right. "Pull over sir" - said the smilling officer. There was something about his smile to this day that I still don't like. "Where are you from?" blah ... blah ... blah ... "Bike rego, licence and passport please". So I handed over my doccuments. He noticed that my licence didn't have the stamp for motorbikes but I argued that we weren't really riding a motorbike but rather a scooter. "Yes but it has gears and is 125cc's blah blah blah". By this time I was thinking that we might be in a bit trouble as he explained that he could confiscate the bike for 5 days, fine me a few hundred dollars payable at the nearest bank straight away and end up having to go to court. Then he asked me what I wanted to do about it. Strange thing to ask. But my reply was that I'd like to get on the bike with Em and keep on riding. Well - he said that can't happen so what do I really want to do about. I wasn't sure so asked him what he wanted me to do about it and his repy was: "It's up to you, what do you want to do about it?" The conversation was going in circles and getting us nowwhere and he never once broke that disturbing smile either. After 5 or so minutes of this backwards / forwards conversation Em stepped up and asked him if he wanted money? I was shocked as I was trying to delicately get around to the same question but in a more subtle way. I certainly wasn't going to just asked him out right "Hey mate do you want a bribe?" I was sure he would turn on us for trying to buy him off. However, his reply was "Well you could give me a present!" I aked if 50000 rupiah (about 6 Aussie dollars) was a good "present". He frowned at me and told me it was up to me but he didn't look too happy about it. So I pulled out another 40000 rupiah - handed it all to him (in all about $10 which is a lot of money over there) and his eyes nearly popped out of his head. "OK" - he said - "this is good ... now be on your way and enjoy your day ... oh and don't worry, there won't be any more police around. I am the main police officer for this region, you'll be fine enjoy yourself."

The volcano

Yeah right. As soon as we reached the volcano there were more police checkpoints. But with these ones we didn't stop or even look at them. We just gave it full throttle and sped on past. Upon getting back to Ubud I found out that 20000 was the standard tourist bribe and that it happens all the time. Well at least he would have had a good night out on our naiveity.

We spent about five nights in Ubud in total and really got a feel for the place but it was time to return to the bright lights and sunset beers of Kuta. Most of our mates in Kuta were surfers so we would follow them out to some of the lesser known surf beaches like Uluwatu, and Impossible Beach, and swim the reefs or bodysurf the smaller breaks while they surfed the big waves. These untouristy places really capture the imagination and the hearts of travellers who go there and show a quieter and gentler side to Bali.

Uluwatu

In all Bali was a cool place to go to. It is diverse, the people are beautiful and friendly and there is something for everyone. It is also very easy on the budget.

Bali was our final overseas destination and we left there feeling excited to be going home and to see everyone who we hadn't seen for so long, but also we felt sad. Sad that the trip was over and that we were going back to reality and routines. Sad that now all that would be left of our 22 month trip would be memories. Sad that it would be such a long time until we see all the people and places that we came to love so much along the way.

If you ever get the chance to travel and see so many different cultures, people and places - then do it. Don't let it pass you by. Travelling has no age, sex or racial limitations. So go on, put your pack on your back and get out there.

After 33 flights and 22 countries - look out Adelaide.

Balazs Varga and Emma Graham are back.

2007-10-22T04:01:00.000-07:00

INDIAN ADVENTURES

Southern Kerala and Northern Tamil Nadu

India is somewhere that was added and then cut out of our itinerary probably 20 times before we made the final decision and booked our flights. Our apprehension came because of all the horror stories we had heard about the country. It has a reputation as being somewhere you either love or hate, and from our experience speaking to friends and travellers who had been there, about 30% of people love it and the rest, well, they describe it as something akin to hell on earth. Because of these reviews we weren’t exactly excited about our trip there, but at least we had our expectations set low to avoid disappointment. And we had extra incentive to go to India because our good friend Dave (met in Vietnam the previous year) was flying there to meet us and travel for a few weeks before attending an Indian wedding. So it was late September when we finally left Bangkok, which as always had become our home away from home, and boarded the NokAir flight to Bangalore in the centre of southern India where we arrived at 2am with little cash, no hotel booked, and 16 hours to kill before a domestic flight further south.

Our first day in India was certainly an experience. We spent our first few hours at the Bangalore airport trying to get snippets of sleep on the brick ground outside as they wouldn’t let us indoors. We had countless people come and stand little more than 1m away from us for up to half an hour at a time, just staring in amazement at our pale skin. And when I say stare, I don’t mean a discrete sideways glance. I mean full on, in your face, staring competition style intensity. We ate the most amazing masala dosa (thin, crispy pancake filled with spicy potato mixture which soon became our staple breakfast whenever possible for the next month). And we polished off half a bottle of whiskey while playing cards, trying to will away the hours. Finally, we caught our domestic flight to Trivandrum in Kerala on the southern coast, where Dave flew in to meet us and our holiday began. Needless to say we were exhausted when Dave finally arrived and we made it to our hotel: by this point, we had been awake for 36 hours straight. But the excitement of the three of us catching up in this foreign land prevailed and we stayed awake until 5am drinking more whiskey and laughing like children, as we always do when together.
Trivandrum is the capital of Kerala and we didn’t find a whole lot to do there, but after a good sleep and an extremely spicy breakfast we made our way about 10km out of town to Kovalam – the area’s main beach. Having spent a lot of time on beaches in south east Asia, I have to say the beaches in India are completely different. Locals flock to the beaches each evening and stand waist high in the water gazing at the sun as it sets, fully dressed in their shirts and saris. Many of the beaches are black and set against the colourful clothes it creates an amazing image.
From Trivandrum we headed further south to Kanyakumari – the “Land’s End” of India where the Bay of Bengal, Arabian sea and Indian Ocean meet. Kanyakumari – at the northern tip of the state Tamil Nadu - is a pilgrimage destination for Hindus and contains an island rock memorial to the Indian Philosopher Swami Vivekananda as well as several important temples. After getting our dose of culture and a night of great food in Kanyakumari, we set our sights north again and re-entered Kerala, heading to the gorgeous cliff-top town of Varkala.
Varkala is probably one of our favourite places in India because of its relaxed, travellers atmosphere, rough sea which is great for body surfing, fresh seafood restaurants and views from the cliff out to the open ocean. We could easily have spent several weeks just chilling out there but because of our time constraints we only had a couple of days before it was time to jump on one of India’s crazy trains again and head slightly further north to Alleppey, where a little houseboat awaited us for a night’s journey through the famous Kerala backwaters.

One of our many "waiting" positions at the airport

Streets of Trivandrum

The first Indian beach we visited - Kovalam

The "Land's End" of India: Kanyakumari

After our visit to the Kumari Amman temple (idiots, we know)

The three travellers unite

From our balcony, Varkala

The town on the cliff-top

Bol getting into boogie boarding in Varkala
You can't get much fresher than that

The boys just after sunrise in Varkala

Backwaters of Kerala
Kerala is known as the Venice of the East because of its 900kms of canals. We covered barely 10km of them during our overnight trip, but even so it was such an amazing experience. The three of us hired a houseboat, which is a tube shaped bamboo structure with two bedrooms, bathroom, an outdoor lounging area and a kitchen. We had three staff to manage the boat and all the cooking for us, and we literally just sat back, drank beer and watched the world go by.

Our little beauty

Our captain was sun smart!

Enjoying our "welcome drink"
The chef on our boat was amazing

One of the canals

View from the window You can't beat these sunsets

Hampi
After our relaxing cruise we had a manic 24 hours which included travelling up to Kochi by public bus (not recommended) and then flying to Bangalore (sometimes the 17 hour train trips are worth sacrificing the budget to miss) and finally catching an overnight train to Hampi, in the state of Karnataka. Hampi, often called the City of Ruins, is quite spectacular with its clusters of temples, ancient monuments and boulder strewn landscape. We hired a rick-shaw driver over two days and visited countless temples which are like a smaller scale of Angkor Wat. It is a very religious place and amongst the ruins lie many important Hindu temples which are still used for worship today. The town of Hampi itself also has a great relaxed travellers vibe, making it a great place to spend a few days chilling out. The only set back is it is a "dry" town and so an ice cold beer at the end of a hot, temple viewing day, is only possible if you taxi it out of town (which we admit, we did do one evening :)

The view from the outdoor Mango Tree restaurant where we feasted on talis
Peak hour traffic in our rick-shaw
The cows and oxes are all decorated with paint and bells in Hampi

One of the many temples we visited
Amazing scenery - reminded us a bit of Central Australia
Dave and Bol amongst the temples

Goa
From Hampi it was time to hit the beaches of Goa, known as India's real tourist hangout and to Indian purists "not the real India". Real or not, we aren't people to turn our noses up at fresh seafood, cold beer, palm trees and beaches. Our first stop in Goa was Palolem, near the very southern tip. Our entire trip was several weeks before the tourist season really started, which in many ways was great because there were less people everywhere and cheaper places to stay. However in Palolem it also meant the beach shacks were still being built for the season and so we had to stay a street back from the beach. Apart from that, we absolutely loved Palolem. A gorgeous beach filled with local cows - we absolutely love the cows everywhere in India: so gentle and cute with their lovely long lashes! And we got to spend time hiring a motorbike to check out the area with some other travellers we met. We had a really great few days.
From Palolem we headed two hours north to another coastal town called Benaulim where Dave's aunt and uncle live. We stayed with them there for a night and his auntie took me sari shopping in preparation for the Indian wedding we were heading to. So much fun! She also gave me bindis to wear for the wedding, as well as bracelets and a lesson on how to wear the sari. One night wasn't enough to spend with his lovely family but unfortunately, with time against us again, we had to head off further north the next day to another coastal town called Calangute, where a group of Dave's other mates from England met us, as they too had flown over for the Indian wedding. Calangute was a bit more built up than other places we visited in Goa, but even so we had a fun few days eating amazing curries, swimming and even dabbling in a little late night karaoke. Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody never sounded so good!
By the time we left Calangute there were six of us in our little travelling group: everyone but us was from England with an Indian background. It made the trip so much more meaningful because they could speak with the locals wherever we went and so we got so much more insight into the place, rather than just being treated as tourists. Our last stop in Goa was Arambol - right at the northern tip. Much like Palolem in the south, Arambol is a relaxed travellers hangout with bungalows and beachside cafes. Another place you could easily spend a few weeks just hanging out, but we had other pressing engagements: namely an Indian wedding to get to!

Palolem beach

Love those cows!

We found this stunning spot on our day trip on the motorbike
Bol and our bike
Dave with his auntie and uncle
Sunset at Calangute

Our matching beach huts in Arambol
Front of our guesthouse, Arambol
The bay to the north or Arambol's main beach

The Wedding
Dave's best friend Neel, also from London, was holding his wedding in Baroda in the state of Gujarat and kindly said Bol and I were welcome to attend even though we had never met him. Nice guy! So we had the amazing experience of attending a two day Indian wedding filled with feasts, dancing in the street, the most decorated horse drawn cart known to man and crazy ceremonies involving face paint. Bol borrowed an Indian suit for the Sunday (main ceremony day) and I of course had my sari all ready to go (thankfully the hotel's housekeeping could help me put it on). So we fit in pretty well and were not too shy to get up there and dance as if we were changing the light globes. They really do dance like that in India! It was an amazing weekend and we were so lucky to be able to experience and Indian wedding in India. Neel and Asha's families made us feel so welcome and we know it is a weekend we will never forget. I, especially, will not be able to forget it for a while because it is custom for all the female guests to have a henna tattoo painted on them the evening before the wedding. So for the next month or so I have some pretty full on designs covering the front half of my feet in a bright shade of orange. All part of the experience :) We were also in Gujarat at the same time the Navrati Festival (Nine Nights Festival) was being held and so we got to attend parties filled with 250,000 people (40,000 of which dance in the centre of a stadium). Amazing to watch.

Samir, me, Dave, Neel, Paz, Mike and Kate at the Saturday evening event
Getting the henna applied
Dancing in the street at the Navrati Festival
The main arena for the Navrati Festival
All dressed ready for the wedding day

Top and Bolow: Wedding cermony rituals

Dancing in the street in the lead up to the main ceremony

At the ceremony
Neel arriving at the wedding in style

We are now in Mumbai for two days before we jump on a plane headed for Bali. Thanks to us both coming down with the flu we haven't managed to see much of the city yet, but will try to get a glimpse before our flight tomorrow. All in all though, I can say we fall into the "lovers" category of India. We only had a month here - far too short - but I know we will return to explore the north of the country in years to come. We found the people extremely hospitable, the food absolutely amazing (the extra kgs is proof of that!) and the scenery spectacular. The cities can be a bit full on but if you limit city stays to a couple of days and then get out to the countryside, India needn't be the hassle that many people find it. Amazingly neither of us got stomach bugs while here. We could quite possibly be the first travellers to India to say that (touch wood - still 24 hours to go). And who can fault a place which has such cute cows and such a crazy driving style where leaning on the horn is the only way to get around!

2007-09-23T23:06:00.000-07:00

Sabaidee Laos

When in Bangkok we ran into an old mate of ours Conrad, who we had met the previous year when we were all travelling through Laos. Unlike the rest of us who loved Laos and then moved on after a month, Conrad actually got a job running a bar/restaurant and lived in the gorgeous country ever since. So when we ran into him on the streets of Bangkok, it was fate that we should return to Laos. And that's just what we did. After saying goodbye to Rachael and pulling ourselves away from the relaxation of the Thai islands, we ventured to Vientiane, the capital city of Laos. Now Vientiane is about the smallest capital city you could ever visit. There isn't a whole lot to do there, tourist wise, however it is a great place to catch up with mates and eat good food (the restaurants are some of the best in Asia). We stayed in Vientiane a total of 7 days, which is far longer than most people would spend in the tiny capital, but we needed to wait for our Indian visas to be processed at the embassy and so we bided our time with several things, including a few "firsts" - namely: We ate crickets for the first time (deep fried and surprisingly delicious); We went to our first Laos club, where Hummers, Porsches, BMWs and Mercs paraded out front in sharp contrast to the poverty of the country - and a bottle of Johnny Walker Gold sat on every table; And we rode three people to one motorbike for the first time in our lives (a small motorbike too) ... and yes, the police did pull us over, but being in Laos, they simply fined Conrad on the spot a whopping $4. Crazy times.

See ... perfect fit!
In Vientiane

Crunchy and strangely delicious
Bol, Paul and Conrad
The view across the Mekong from one of the many riverside eateries
We loved the "cook it yourself" meals (all this cost a total $2.50 including beef and squid)
With our mates at the Laos Club called "Romeos"

We decided it would be fun to take a stroll - and shower - in this downpour. The locals found it hilarious.
Stocking up for a BBQ at our mates place

After a great week in Vientiane we collected our passports from the Indian Embassy (where we had to wait half an hour for $8 change because the correct person to issue the change was in a meeting .... just an indication of the bureacracy we are about to experience when we get to India). With our passports in hand we farewelled our mates and jumped on the ever-fun overnight bus south to the Si Phan Don, otherwise known as the 4000 islands. The south was the one region of Laos we missed when we visited in 2006, and so we were excited to finally see a new aspect of the beautiful country. We chose to stay on Don Det, one of the few inhabited islands of the Mekong, and we couldn't have chosen a more perfect place for stunning scenery and pure relaxation. We were among just a handful of tourists on the island, because it was low season, and on arrival we made our way to the north side of the island, otherwise known as the sunset side. The sunrise would also be beautiful I am sure, but we knew we would never be up early enough to view it, so sunset side it was! After walking for about a kilometre we came across the perfect place for us: a small string of bungalows jutting out over the Mekong. They were very basic - just a wooden hut with gaping holes - but when travelling through these parts of Asia you learn to value different aspects of accommodation. These bungalows had hole-free mosquito nets which was our only real criteria, considering the Dengue Fever and Malaria in the region. Plus they were just $1 a night- right on our budget! Tena Bungalows became our home for six days and I can't really tell you what we did apart from hang out with some friends we made on arrival, walk around the island (about 2 hours to complete the loop), master the art of hammock swinging and polish of a pile of books each. The island had no electricity so apart from a few hours of generator time in the evenings, we enjoyed candlelit nights and stumbling to the toilets in the dark with our torches. It was the perfect way to get ourselves completely unwound before heading to our next destination, which would be undoubtedly frantic: India.

Our home for the week

The sunset view from our balconyStress, stress and more stress

On our balcony by candlelight

Mates David and Evelyn at the bungalows

Heading to Don Det

The path to our bungalow

Island life

Our daily walk took in many rice fields

Kids making their way home from schoolThere are more water buffalos than people on the island
And nearby this waterfall has the largest volume of water in Asia

We eventually left Don Det and headed back to Bangkok by train to get ready for our flight to India. At each station all the girls waved to Bol, so he felt like a celebrity - and a huge stud all at the same time!

And while he stayed awake and soaked up his new celebrity status, I went to sleep in the crazy train bunk beds I have grown to love.

2007-09-23T22:57:00.000-07:00

Thailand Once Again

After driving around Europe with the two girls, Em and Rachael, we said our farewells to our mates in England and headed back to Thailand for our slow leg back towards home.

The bangkok Bandits

And their get away driver.

After a few chilled out days in Bangkok the three of us took the early morning bus back down to one of our favourite islands, Koh Pangnan. This was Rachael's first time to Thailand and the islands and was a much needed return for Em and myself. We headed back to our old stomping ground, Had Yao. Had Yao for those of you who don't know it, is a quiet bay with a long white sandy beach and crystal turquoise water with coconut palms as a back drop. There we met a group of guys who are building a new resort called Shiralea Resort. Garry, from Oz, Seb and Geoff from the UK were great company to share the beach with. We would spend the days either riding around the island on our motor bikes or sitting on Garry's balcony overlooking the water, and most of the nights having a quiet beer at the Eagle pub where Garry worked.

Our mate Seb found a great BBQ place where we ate a few times. It was a self serve, self cook kind of deal and was tasty as. The girls, guys and myself ate there a few times cos not only was it tasy but it was also real cheap. About three dollars a head for all you can eat. Not bad at all.

The guys also were part owners of Cobra Stadium Mui Thai boxing and arranged V.I.P. seats for us for their grand opening fight night. We had a quick bite at the BBQ place before the fight then headed to our V.I.P. Seats. It was great. Cob, one of the owners and Head trainer was a great guy to meet and the atmosphere was electric. We were sat at the very front, right next to the ring. We were so close to all the action that we had to cover our drinks whenever the fighters were in front of us to stop their sweat from dropping into them. It was our first Mui Thai fight and we absolutly loved it. Back at Had Yao, Em and I stayed in our usual bungalow resort, while Rachael, it being her last week away decided to live it up a little. This worked out well for everyone. Her bungalow was pretty sweet, set on a hill over looking the bay and the mountains. She had cable tv, A/C, mini fridge, breakfast for two and a swimming pool. All of which she generously shared with Em and I. We were spoilt rotten by Rach. Em and I alternated as Rach's breakfast guest each day. After breakfast we would get together in her air conditioned room and would watch a movie before deciding what to do for the day. Cheers Rach, thanks for your all your generosity, you were a pleasure to travel with.

Rach's first Sang Som bucket.

View from Rach's balcony.

Rach's pool.

Sweet.....

Had Yao Beach.

Sunset from Garry's balcony.

Had Rin beach.

More of Had Rin Beach.

Easy riders.....

Rach showing off her riding skills.

Me and my mate Garry.

Two beautiful views.

Garry and me after finding a road that was just too steep and sandy.

Eagle Bar at night.

BBQ with Seb, Garry, Rach and Me before the Mui Thai fight.

BBQ.

Off to the fight.

V.I.P's...This was actually how close our seats were to the ring.

Check out the "Flying" Ref.

After Rachael departed the island and headed home to Oz, Em and I decided to stay on the island for another week. Seb, Geoff and Garry organised a 'Thai" BBQ for us on the land where their resort was being built. It was a great night and the food was delicious.

Unfortunately is was soon our turn to say goodbye to the guys and the island we love so much and head back to Bangkok. (More photos to come when we can find a PC with a DVD drive).

2007-08-14T06:01:00.000-07:00

The Last English Hoorah

During what was to be our last visit to England for a long time, we had a huge list of "must dos". London sightseeing, catching up with friends, tracking down some family history and a road trip to Cornwall - we had a lot to fit into our 10 day visit. So we spent our first weekend catching up with mates for food and beer (surprise, surprise), plus we showed Rachael the what's what of London. We spent a day doing a bit of an "Em and Bol's Walking Tour" taking in Buckingham Palace, Harrods, the Thames, London Bridge, Tate Modern, Westminster Abbey etc etc.

Bol and Rach in Green Park soaking up some rare London sun

Westminster Abbey and Big Ben

Silliness outside Buckingham Palace

Rach thought we should swing on the Buckingham fence for this pic.

The guards aint what they used to be: Where are the cool hats??

Girls by the Thames

Lunching with Grant and Vicki on a boat on the Thames

While in London our friends Tim and Traci bought me a birthday cake for the previous week. They had to carry the cake around all Friday night from pub to pub because I was supposed to meet them out and I failed to show up because I was sick with a stomach bug. So they reorganised things to have some friends over at their place on Sunday for beers, cake and bbq. So sweet!

And of course no London blog posting would be complete without the photos on the town with mates ..... minus me because I was home feeling sorry for myself while staying close to a bathroom :(

So after an action packed weekend in London we headed off on our five day road trip to Cornwall. We hired a "Wicked" campervan (an Australian company which has spread out to the UK) and hit the road. The van was decked out with a big bed which converted to table and chairs, as well as a gas cooker, sink, esky etc, so we were able to completely live out of the back of it. Fantastic. To save money we actually hired a two seater van and the third person had to lie down on the bed in the back the whole time, out of sight of police. Such rebels:) So each day Bol would drive, Rach and I would take turns snoozing in the back, and then at night we would find either a campsite or a simple truck stop to pull over and sleep in. The three of us squeezed snugly into the bed - not much room to move, but it did the trick. We didn't even have blankets so each night we would wake up several times and turn on the heater for five minutes so that we didn't freeze. Now that's travelling!

Bol and our "Wicked" van with its trademark spraypaint job

As I mentioned earlier, our expedition combined some sightseeing with some family history. The first part of that history came during our first day when we visited Surrey, about an hour out of London, to track down some old landmarks for "Poppa Crawley" - my mum's dad. Poppa was in hospital in Surrey during the war and he gave us some photos from 1940 of the old hospital, his friends house, a street in Godalming and some other landmarks to try to find. We were successful on all accounts. We spent hours chatting to enthralled locals who just loved seeing old photos of the area. And the local Godalming museum was so interested in his old photos that they took photocopies and asked that we get in touch if we have any more information about that time for them. We finished off our successful first day with a visit to Stonehenge and then we drove most of the distance to our next destination, Bodmin, before finding a truck stop to pull in at for the night.

In Godalming at the exact spot my grandfather took a photo in 1940

At Ryecroft, his friend's place, which has hardly changed in almost 70 years

Stonehenge at Dusk

The next day we continued with the family history part of our journey. We pulled in at Bodmin, which is at the top of Cornwall, mid-morning. Bodmin is where "Poppa Birdwood" - my dad's dad, spent his childhood. I had a couple of vague names and addresses to follow and after many questions to locals I found the two things I was looking for: Scarletts Well and Tranquil Lane Cottage. My grandpa had liked to hang out at the well when he was a child, and Tranquil Cottage was his home. I was so happy to have found them both and we spent the morning wandering around and taking photos before hitting the road again: destination St Ives. We had originally planned on staying in Newquay for our second night but the line ups to enter the town were ridiculous because of a surfing championship being held there. So St Ives it was - which turned out to be a gorgeous little beach town witha great campsite for us to stay at.

Tranquil Lane Cottage, where my grandpa grew up

At Scarletts Well

The beach at low tide in St Ives

Our campsite in St Ives

Our campsite was between this paddock and the ocean

So with my family history investigations behind us, the next day was spent getting stuck into some Cornwall sightseeing. First off was the Lost Gardens of Heligan - a garden previously hidden away and overgrown for decades, which has recently been rediscovered and restored. Then we drove to the world renowned Eden Project - a series of biomes which look like they are from another planet, containing tropical plants in what are essentially man-made humidity chambers. After these two "educational" stop-offs we jumped in our beast of a van and headed to Looe- a beach-side town recommended by my dad- where we had a beer, took a stroll on the beach and generally spent a couple of hours relaxing. Our final destination for a busy day 3 was Chesil Beach, in Dorset, where we arrived in time for sunset. The beach is quite amazing: millions of perfectly polished, smooth pebbles over a series of tiers which eventually taper off at the ocean. After a long day we ended up pulling over in a truckstop, having a cider and quick game of cards and nodding off to sleep.

This strange character was hiding in the Lost Gardens of Heligan

The crazy biomes of the Eden Project

Above and Below: At Looe

Bol at Rach at Looe

Beers in Looe

The amazing pebbles at Chesil Beach

Sunset at Chesil Beach

The next morning, bright and early, we had an interesting suprise while eating breakfast. Who would have guessed that our lowly truck stop would be the scene for tank training for the army! So we slurped on our weetbix while watching the boys in green with their ever so stylish berets cruise around in this:

A bewildered Bol and Rach enjoy the morning entertainment

After breakfast we jumped back in our van and headed for Monkey World. For those of you who don't get Animal Planet on TV, Monkey World is the sanctuary used for the classic animal show "Monkey Business", which follows the lives of a group of gibbons, orangutans, chimps and baboons as they leave their formerly terrible lives and get rehabilitated. Just fantastic! Seeing the monkeys in real life was amazing and they each had good sized enclosures and clearly enjoyed interacting with each other in their new home.

Awwww........

After Monkey World we found a nice spot to pull over to cook some Spaghetti Bolognaise for lunch ....

Doesn't get much better than that

And then we proceeded to the popular beach town of Brighton where we spent our final night having drinks with some of Rachael's friends before driving our beast back to London the next day. All in all we had an AWESOME road trip and returned the van with big smiles and no dents. We were so glad we had taken the time to check out some of England's countryside before leaving theUK for our beloved Asia.

2007-08-14T05:11:00.000-07:00

From the Lake to the Dam

After our whirlwind trip through France we drove the car to Geneva and checked into a hostel, where we spent two nights. After Annecy, the lake at Geneva wasn't quite as stunning and the town not nearly as charming - but lucky for us there was a big festival being held so we spent our nights watching bands while sipping on sangria. We visited the United Nations where Rachael had me posing for the camera doing some pretty silly things - like pretending to hold up the broken chair (see below). After a full day and two nights we awoke at 4am to head to the airport for our plane to Amsterdam. Catching ridiculously early flights is one way to ensure a cheap ticket! We arrived in Amsterdam at 7am and called our mate Kim to arrange to meet later in the day. Kim had kindly offered to let us stay in her great apartment for the three nights, so we were really lucky. Amsterdam is a pretty crazy city, comprising of three main things: bicycles, red lights (with accompanying girls) and coffee shops. We found it to be a really vibrant place with extremely friendly people, who put an end to the "Dutch people are arrogant" theory we had heard so many times. We had a fantastic few days sampling all the city had to offer, including the bicycles which we rode into the country to get a view of the famous windmills. Apart from not being able to sit down for two days after the bike ride, we had a fantastic time in "The Dam" and will definitely return next time in Europe.

Geneva Lake (above) and outside the UN (below)

Amsterdam is filled with canals

and is quite possibly the most bike friendly city in the world

Amsterdam at night

The Red Light district

Rach and Kim out in the red light district

One of the many sidewalk cafes in Amsterdam

That's one way to make money!

Riding to the country

2007-07-29T08:45:00.000-07:00

Eight Days in France

DAY 1 - July 21st

HELLO PARIS

We heard a lot about Paris before we arrived - everything from "it is the most romantic city in the world", and more commonly, "it is over-rated, very dirty, the people are rude" etc etc. As soon as we arrived we knew we fell into the category of Paris lovers. We made our way by taxi to the 18th district, Montmartre, where our cute little hotel overlooking an artists square awaited. Montmartre is beautiful - everything you would expect of Paris's artists quarter. Narrow cobbled streets, buskers, cafes sprawling onto the footpaths. We just loved it. We arrived mid afternoon and wandered around the area before meeting a couple of Rachael's friends for some drinks and the ever essencial "when in Pari" snails. They looked disgusting but were suprisingly delicious, with a buttery/herb coating.

View from our bedroom

Robbie, Nicole, Bol and Rachael enjoy one of Montmartre's sidewalk cafes

They're better than they look - honestly!

DAY 2 - July 22nd

EXPLORING GAY PARI

After a hotel breakfast of chocolate croissants and cream cheese baguettes, it was time for the three of us to set about exploring Paris. We headed straight for its most famous landmark - the Eiffel Tower. Up close the tower is massive and the queues to climb it are equally big, so we decided to skip the ascent and simply took some piccies from the ground. After the tower we took a stroll along the River Seine to the Louvre which is unbelievably huge. We spent several hours perusing the exhibitions and barely made a dent. Of course we checked out the Mona Lisa, which as everyone says is much smaller than you would expect. After the Louvre it was the Notre Dame and then back to Montmartre for a relaxing evening. After this day of seeing so many beautiful city scapes and buildings, Rachael declared "Je t'aime Pari" - and has been saying it constantly ever since!

At the Eiffel Tower

The three explorers

The Petit Palais
Out the front of the Louvre

DAY 3 - July 23rd

A rainy day with a VERY silver lining
We spent today exploring our district - Montmartre, which must be the most picturesque area of Paris. For anyone heading to Paris I would definitely recommend finding a hotel in Montmartre. Rachael became our tour guide for the day, because Montmartre is where her favourite film is set: Amelie. So she led us around the district trying to find landmarks shot in the film, like the cafe, fruit shop, metro stop etc etc. Problem with this lovely tour was that it was raining all day -- but that didn't stop us trudging around. Part way through the day we stopped for some lunch and I was given a HUGE surprise. Rachael presented me with an early birthday present. I couldn't believe it. She gave me a ticket to the real Moulin Rouge to see a show with her. I had been saying for days how great it would be, but it was something I could never afford. Little did I know she had already planned to buy me tickets before she even left Adelaide. I was soooo excited. So after many hours in the rain getting wet and cold I raced back to our hotel to get ready for our big night out. Rachael lent me some shoes and a skirt, because there was no way my backpackers clothes would suit the occasion. And she even straightened my hair for me so I really fit the part! We headed to the show where Bol proceeded to take photos of us out the front before we went in, as if we were celebrities or something. The show was amazing. All the singing, dancing, costumes, elaborate acrobatics. We watched in awe as we sipped our expensive real French champagne. Twas a night I will never forget.

One of the cute streets in our district

The Sacre Coeur

The Montmartre cemetery

Beautiful summer weather

Apparantly Amelie walked through this tube exit in the film
The Moulin Rouge, where the wind machine means everyone can feel like Marilyn Monroe

DAY 4 - July 24th

ON THE ROAD AGAIN

This was the day we said farewell to Paris and hit the road for a tour through France. We hired a van (which turned out to be more of a big car than a van -- so we struggled to sleep in it as planned!) and headed out of Paris towards .... well we didn't really know where. On our way out of the city we dropped into Paris's main cemetery to quickly see Jim Morrison and Oscar Wilde's graves. Then we drove and drove and drove and found ourselves nowhere near the Champagne region we wanted to visit ... so we eventually stopped and bought a better map and then drove and drove and drove ... and still weren't very close to Champagne ... so we changed directions and drove and drove (direction south) until midnight when we decided it was time to sleep. It wasn't as boring as it sounds - we did see some beautiful scenery - but it certainly hadn't been the easy road trip we planned. But that was okay. We had a seven seater van (I loosely use this term) to sleep in the pit stop for the night. Bol and I crammed into the boot area while Rachael tried to sleep in the front seat. The result was this: about 1 hour sleep each, a lot of shivering as we had no blankets (not good when we already had colds) and a very grumpy three people when the sun greeted us at dawn. The road trip had really begun now! And it had seemed like such a good idea :)

On the road again

Jim Morrison's grave

One of the cute little French towns we passed on our journey

We passed gorgeous views such as this

And then finished it all off with a sleep in the back of this! Cosy.

DAY 5 - July 25th

THE DAY AFTER

So with little sleep, sore throats and runny noses, we headed off on our second day of our road trip. We had spent the night near Lyon and decided to drive to the very south coast of France where we had heard the beaches were beautiful. Despite some stressful moments in the car trying to read maps and follow the ridiculously sparse French road signs, we visited some cute little towns like Orange and Avignon before reaching the coast. Despite my assurances that "it wasn't that bad sleeping in the car" and "we really should do it again to save money", Bolly and Rachael decided that we would stay in real beds from now on during the road trip. So we settled ourselves in a little beachside town called La Ciotat and enjoyed the luxuries of a hot shower, blankets and pillows. We didn't arrive until it was almost dark and so after freshening up we went out for a great pizza meal overlooking the water. Then, with our eyelids involuntarily closing due to our previous night's lack of sleep, we decided to call it a night.

The Arc de Triomphe in Orange

Lovely scenery along the way

The streets of Orange

DAY 6 - July 26th

LET'S HIT THE BEACH
What to do when in southern France? The answer is easy really. We had finally made it to our destination and so we decided the only thing to do was spend a day with not too much driving, and a lot of swimming and time in the sun. We finished it off with some wine and cards. And that was about it for the day!

Our so called van
The beach at La Ciotat
Views over Cassis

Back to the relaxing holiday times

DAY 7 - July 27th

SO THIS IS HOW THE RICH DO IT
Day 7 was Rach's day in the drivers seat and we hit the road to see how the "other half" live. We spent the day weaving along the coast stopping at Monte Carlo, Monaco (where Rach pretended she was a race car driver), Nice and Cannes (where we stopped for a swim). The entire stretch is filled with condos, palm trees, flash cars, luxury boats, cranes -- I guess it is a bit like the Gold Coast of France. Not necessarily my sort of place to live but definitely interesting to check out for the day. The photos below show a bit what it was like, although it is hard to take photos from the car as it is all wizzing by.

Go Rach, Go

The Race Track

At Cannes

DAY 8 - July 28th

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!
Despite my love of sleeping in, we decided to get up at 5am on my birthday to hit the road so that we could arrive in our next destination - Annecy, near the Swiss border - by early afternoon. We packed up the car and hit the road. It was great beating all the traffic and we made good time as we sped along the highway. After a few hours we decided to exit the highway and take the regional road, which turned out to be a top decision. The scenery we encountered as we got nearer the Swiss border was absolutely stunning. Mountains with snow peaks, deep gorges and water hundreds of metres below us. Along the way we stopped for breakfast and Rachael gave me presents she had bought over from my family in Australia. It was so nice to get cards and gifts from home, so of course I got all teary in the middle of McDonalds. That's the way Em! But all in all we had a great time. A no stress day on the road where for once we didn't get lost and we actually made it to our destination by just after lunch, giving us time to spend a lazy afternoon perusing the lakeside town before heading out for a birthday dinner of mussels and cheese fondue. Just perfect.

Annecy is just about the most beautiful town you could ever visit

At my birthday dinner

The Annecy Lake

Spectacular views along the way

And so ends our Eight Days in France - and all three of us have determined it is a beautiful country we would be happy to return to one day soon. Next time we will be a little more organised to avoid roadtrip stress, as I think we tried to see too much in too little time .... but it is all part of the adventure, isn't it?

Next stop Geneva.

2007-07-29T08:43:00.000-07:00

Barcelona

After hearing so much about this city it was hard for it to live up to the expectations we had for it, but we had an awesome time absorbing its colour, vibrancy, and checking out the wide range of bars, street performers and strange and unusual people on offer. What really made Barcelona great for us though, was catching up with old friends. We had a week of catch up drinks and fun times with mates from across the globe. We spent the first few nights with our friend and old London housemate Ben Cullen and our mutual friend Brooke. Then a newer friend Rachael Will joined us, which was followed by my good mate Alex Ouwens all the way from Sunny Adelaide. Then finally we were joined by Em's best mate Rachael Bannon. Wow! Now that's alot of friends to play with. Wicked! Most of our time was spent either swimming at the beach, which had water filled with gold glitter, walking through the winding alley's or having a few bevvies at our apartment in the city centre or at one of the many local bars. We visited the main Gaudi cathedral which, known for its ugliness, was beautiful in a strange way. We took an elevator to the top of one of the spirals, then walked across a small walkway to the next adjoining spiral and then down the spiral staircase to the bottom. From the walkway between the two spirals you can see the whole of Barcelona - great view and enough height to get the old vertigo going. Well worth the adrenalin rush. For a bit more adrenalin the walk down the spiral staircase, all of some 400 stairs, is a rush in itself. The centre has no railing so if you lost your footing and slipped you could in fact fall down the middle to a very painful death!

Overall our week in Barcelona was a great time to spend with old friends. It really makes travelling so much more fun when you have mates to share the experiences!

Me and Ben Cullen.

Em and Brooke.

Em, Me, Alex and Ben.

Rachael Bannon, Rachael Will and Em.

One of the Busy streets off Las Ramblas.

Las Ramblas at night.

The Gaudi Cathedral.

View near the top.

Watch your step mate!

Me on the balcony of our apartment.

Beach babes.

Las Ramblas at dusk.

On set of some commercial we happened to walk past.

In the gothic quarter.

Me showing the barman at a some small bar how the alcoholic drink absinth should be prepared.

2007-07-18T02:01:00.000-07:00

Morocco

The first word that comes to mind about Marrakesh is Wow!

The place is amazing. I admit that I was a little apprehensive about going there from some of the stories that I had heard. "You'll be hasselled more than you have been in your life, don't go there with a blonde girl becuase she will get hasselled." Etc.... But it was great. The people are friendly, the food teriffic and the atmoshpere is buzzing. We stayed in a beatuiful Riad ( a courtyard home converted to a hotel) that had a lovely atmosphere, great staff and even had a plunge pool to cool us down from the Moroccan heat.

Above: Photos of the Riad we stayed in.

We (Em , me Tim and Traci) spent the days wandering through the souks (a maze of alleyways filled with local goods for sale) and eating as much local food as we could.

The souks and some of the small markets.

I had heard from a few people that the food in Morocco was not all that good, I have no idea where they had eaten but the food is incredible. Mildly spice meats and vegetables cook in tajine's, ( a kind of clay oven that is left on coals to cook for hours until the meat falls apart). Great skewers, squid and fish, cous cous, salads and excellent olives all at real cheap prices. From the early evening in the main square of Marrakesh the local guys set up huge food stalls selling all of the above as they try and lure you into their stall with a friendly "G'Day mate" or some other typicle aussie saying.

Culinarey delights for every one and yes we did eat one of those heads.

As the sun sets the Square really comes alive. In the day you can stroll around it with ease and a lack of crowds but come night time and it is as Em says "Like being at the big Day Out." People every where. Snake charmers, story tellers, you name you'll probably see it in the square.

Above the square in the day and at night below.

Some of the sights in and around the square.

To get out of the city we decided to hire a car. Tim Didn't have his licence on him so the driving was left up to me. Fun! Well actually it was, once out side the city the roads open up to some beautiful landscapes, though the further you go the worse the actual roads get, but we made it all the way to Essaouira and back which was good news to us. Essaouira is only 175km from Marrakesh but it took us 3 hours to get there. It is a lovely coastal town full of colour and ambiance. We had a quick look around, ate a pizza and pretty much had to head back before it got too dark. The drive back was easy until we got into the city again. Push bikes, motor bikes, cars, pedestrians, donkies, all comming at you from any and every direction without warning. It took me an hour to come off my adrenalin rush! Our Riad manager explained Moroccan driving to me as this: " In Morrocco there are no laws on the road, we drive by instinct". Now there´s a statement!

Views from our drive to Essa wera.

The four of us decided to head to the new city for a night out, we walked into one restuarant but decided against it due to it being the type of food that we could get anywhere in the world. We were wondering around looking for local food and stumbled upon one of Marrakesh's finest restaurants. Pretty much bookings only, quite posh. So we walked in, in our board shorts and flip flops and some how managed to get a table. The place was beautiful. As was the food. We had a feast of different tajines, cous cous and about 15 different types of Moroccan salads accompanied by a bottle of red. All of which cost us about fifty Euros between us. Not bad for a flash place.

All this and wine for 50 Euros.

After a few more days it was time to say goodbye to Tim and Traci and then a day or two after we too left. We took with us very fond memories of Morocco and Marakesh and recommend it to anyone.

2007-07-13T10:11:00.000-07:00

MONTENEGRO

We had allocated a month for camping through Croatia but after three weeks Bol and I found ourselves in Dubrovnik, having visited all the islands that camping was allowed on. After hearing many travellers rave about a place called Montenegro - which we have to admit we had barely even heard of before - we decided to check it out. It is a small country which only became independent from Serbia a year ago, and it is positioned between Bosnia and Albania. To cut a long story short, it is a series of stunning bays with huge mountains as a backdrop. We really couldn´t have found a better place to spend our last week of camping. We found a small village call Morinj in the Bay of Kotor and set up our tent for the last time. Our campsite was very basic (holes in the ground sufficed as toilets!) but its location made up for this, as we were camped right alongside a river and just 20m from the ocean. As usual we spent our days purely relaxing; playing cards, swimming, eating, you get the drift. We also met a great couple from England (Owain and Nicki) who we spent a few days with. I think the photos tell the story ...

2007-07-13T08:09:00.000-07:00

Korcula

Once again Em and I found ourselves at the best camping spot. A healthy 20 minute walk from Korcula's town center and right on the water's edge. Korcula town is another of Croatia's gems. Bizarrely it is famed as the birthplace of Marco Polo despite no evidence ever being found. Regardless, the local shops have used it to their advertising advantage and it is hard to walk a few meters without running into Marco Polo Tours, Marco Polo Travel, Marco Polo Guest House and so it goes on and on. Most of our time here was spent swimming, eating and hanging out with mates - both old and new. We spent a great afternoon and night with our old mate Dean (who we met in Vietnam) who happened to be in town as a tour guide for a boat full of Aussies. We also ran into Robbie and Jen who we first met in Jelsa and again later on in Dubrovnik. Our camp site was full of really cool couples. Craig and Emma from the UK were alot of fun to hang out with, as were an older couple we met from Brussels, Peter and Kristine. They both run a music school and we spent many nights at their camp drinking red wine, made by the campsite gardener who delivered to your tent. They were really cool and even gave us a brand new trumpet which we sadly had to give back the next morning due to having no room to take it with us. It had seemed like such a good idea the night before after a few wines! Patrick and Melanie were another great couple who were doing a 3 week camping trip around the islands. Having so many cool people to hang out with while camping really made Korcula a memorable experience. But sadly, after almost a week enjoying the town and the beach which was directly in front of our tent, the time came to pack up camp, say goodbye to our new friends and take the ferry to Dubrovnik.

Dean and Me on his tour boat.

Jen and Robbie.

Craig, his girlf friend Emma and me enjoy a seafood dinner.

Peter and me.

Kristine and Em.

Patrick, Melaine and Em.

What a feast.

Rides like a professional.

Sorry girls but he's taken.

Korcula Town.

View from the ferry.

Onto Dubrovnik

For the first time in over two weeks we planted our feet onto the mainland and into the port of Dubrovnik. With our backpacks on and the sweat starting to pour, we hopped on the bus and headed for our next camp site. O.K. so we weren't on the water's edge or even properly in view of it, nor was it the great cheap prices of the other camp sites, nor was it close to town ... but our camp site did include the use of the next door hotel's beautiful pool area. Nice. All day we would lounge around the pool tanning, reading and swimming - feeling like kings and queens. We did manage to tear ourselves away from the pool to visit Dubrovnik's old town which was beautiful, very, very touristy, but beautiful all the same. The old town is surrounded by ancient walls and the Adriatic sea and can be seen at many different angles from it's surrounding cliffs. Due to having such a nice pool at our disposal there isn't a whole lot more to tell about Dubrovnik. Next in our journey is Montenegro.

Part of the old Dubrovnik habour.

View from on top of the old cities wall.

View from one of the cliff tops.

Awwwwwww.

Outside walls of the city.

Old town.

Now why would we want to leave this?

Well maybe for this!

Sunset from our camp site.

Real campers don't use plates.

2007-06-18T08:11:00.001-07:00

Isle of Hvar

After a leaving my people on Bol behind, Em and I headed onto the Island of Hvar. After spending such a great time in Bol we were not sure if the next place we visited would be as nice. Hvar is quite a big island and has many towns and Jelsa is the one we picked, and we picked well. Only a 20 minute ferry ride from Bol, we found ourselves in one of the nicest little harbours that I've seen. It hurts me to say it but the town has a much more homely feel to it than Bol. Although it has a lot of tourists it seems to have more of a local feel to it.

Our campsite is only a short walk along the small cliffs and coves to and from town. On arrival we were lucky to get the best site of them all. Unlike every one else we get shade all day, a very big bonus, and are only a few meters from the beach. We fall asleep to the sounds of the water gently lapping up onto the shore and the first thing we see is the beautiful green/blue of the ocean right in front of us. For some reason unlike with Bol, the water here has a green colour closer into the shore and gets bluer once you are further out. Apart from swimming every day - sometimes 2 or 3 times - we have discovered the local fish market, which is very small but sold us over a kilo of fresh live mussels for just over three dollars Aussie. Not bad. So it was mussels with a garlic and white wine sauce followed by tortellini in mussel stock for lunch, and spaghetti with a tomato and mussel sauce for dinner. Oh yeah! Not bad for a campers budget!

Em enjoys a mussel dinner

Sunset in front of our tent.

Day time in front of tent.

Cheers Babe!

What a creation.

Great place for night time swims.

Waiting for the mussels to cook.

Hvar is quite a spectacular island and in my opinion the best way to see it is by motor bike! Em and I hired a little scooter for a day and took in the sights. We got to ride through a 1.5km tunnel under one of the mountains to get to the other side of the island from where we are staying. During the trip we got to see open ocean and the rugged coast, explore private coves and bays aswell as all the towns on the way. After riding for 4 or5 hours we decided that it was time for lunch. We saw a sign that said there was a little restaurant on a secluded bay so we headed for it. After winding down the long and steep road that hugged the cliffs and hills we parked the bike and walked the rest of the way to the bay only to find that there was nothing open there. Oh well. We got back on the bike and headed up the hill. Near the top of the hill the petrol light started flashing. That's cool, we still had a bit of fuel left and we could see a town up ahead. Cool. We got to the town at the top of the mountains, in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by weird stone walls and piles and lavender bushes, and even if there had have been a petrol station there, which there wasn't, we wouldn't have gotten served anyway cos of siesta! Hmmm, fuel light has stopped flashing and is now permanently staring at me with it's bright orange glow. No problem, I'm sure there will be another town around here soon. And of course there was, and of course they didn't have a petrol station, or a restaurant, or a shop, and of course if they did have any of these things we wouldn't have got served, why? Yeah you got it, siesta. Luckily there was one person actually outside who we asked directions on how to get to the nearest town with a petrol station. "Just go down that dirt road over there for about 3 or so km and you'll be alright" was the reply - but in broken English. So putting our lives in the hands of higher powers we headed down the steep and winding dirt road. Well we call it a dirt road, I'm sure there was some dirt under all the bloody big rocks! But hey, after riding down through the valley past the ghost town, as you do, we finally made it to the flats and eventually to the seaside town of Milna. A lovely little town wrapped around a bay. Here we finally stopped and treated ourselves to lunch. Steak! The first steak we had eaten in about 9 or 10 months. Oh yeah, juicy goodness. O.k. Lunch over let's get some petrol! Once again we had no luck, so a quick ride back to Hvar town running on fumes we made it to a petrol station! Phew! By the time we returned the bike, our backs, necks, legs - basically all our muscles were aching, but it was well worth it. The island is really beautiful and diverse.

Through the alleyways of Stari grad Town.

One of the many coves we found.

Rock piles and lavender - this is everywhere on the island.

What a view.
Rock walls were all the rage back then.

Finally down on the flats and dirt of the "dirt road".

Cool little ghost town.

Bay of Milna where we finally got some lunch.

Yet another beautiful bay.

Hvar town where we finally found some petrol.

The rest of the time we have been swimming in the beach in front of our tent, which is more like a big lake or swimming pool. It's so calm and clear and the temperature is perfect!
All up, the isle of Hvar and the town of Jelsa will be an experience that we won't forget in a hurry. Tomorrow it is off to the island of Korcula for another new adventure.

2007-06-13T04:02:00.000-07:00

Camping in Croatia

With two visits to Greece under my belt, and Italy now crossed off the "must visit" list ... where else do you go when you want some Mediterranean time with crystal clear blue waters. Hmmm. Maybe we will give Croatia for a go .... for a whole month! Bol and I were so excited to get back to the ocean and start the new chapter of our travels. We arrived in Split, Croatia, on June 9th laden with a tent, mattresses, gas cooker, camping chairs, esky - you name it, we were ready to camp. We were again joined by Mary and Rachael for a few days and it was fantastic to be able to share such a gorgeous place with good friends. After our plane was delayed by 15 hours (Bol's new catch phrase is "Wizz Air - They'll Keep You on the Ground"), we arrived in Split about midnight and headed out with Mary for a welcome drink. The architecture in Split is stunning and it is easy to see why it is becoming the latest "it" destination for travellers. The old town with its cobbled streets, bordered by such blue water - we knew immediately we had made the right choice. Our welcome drink wound us up sitting on some locals boat at 4am chatting away (Croatians in general speak English very well). We eventually made it back to our hostel for some much needed sleep - ready for the catamaran ride to the island of Brac, where we would stay in the village of Bol the next day.

Split by day ...

... and night

We are now in Bol (today is June 13th) and it has turned out to be a beautiful place with probably the bluest water I have ever seen. You can imagine Bol when arriving in Bol (this is getting confusing) .. but he bombarded Mary, Rach and I with his one-liners: "My people, I have returned", and "Fear not... your leader has returned." I am sure you can all imagine it!

Our four days in Bol have been exactly what we needed. We have been staying in a fantastic caravan park where Felix, the owner, bends over backwards for his guests. He even took over the rest of assembling our tent. We obviously looked a bit novice. And each day the four of us have been basically just walking, having picnics on the beach, swimming and swimming some more. We hired a boat the other day and puttered around the island, dropping the anchor for swims whenever we found isolated bays.

Front view of campsite (above) and our tent during its first pitch

Captain Bol (above) with his crew (below)

Doesn't get much better than this

Bol and I said goodbye to Rachael and Mary this morning - they have headed off to London. Luckily we still have 25 days left in this amazing country, hopping from island to island with our tent. 'Tis the life.

2007-06-13T02:29:00.001-07:00

Hungary

From Venice it was back to Budapest to resume our visit from some nine months earlier. It really felt like returning home. This time we were greeted at the airport by Jano - a friend of Eva and Balazs' who made us so welcome and even gave us an apartment to stay at in a gorgeous area of Buda. Our 12 days in Hungary this time around consisted of many catch up meals with family and friends. Every day we met someone different for lunch and dinner. Nobody escapes a visit to Hungary without gaining a few kilos. And with things like deep fried goose liver on the menu, it is not hard to see why. People would listen patiently as I tried to practise my limited Hungarian and order meals in my new language to the amusement of waiters. At least this time I didn't tell the waiter that "I am very tasty" as opposed to my meal .... like I did last visit! We also had our friends Anna and Alex visit from London for a few days and Mary and Rachael came from Ireland a few days later, so in between catching up with the Hungarian contingent we also did a bit of general tour guiding, including an evening boat ride down the Danube.

Mary, Rach and I with Parliament House in the background

On the boat ride down the Danube

Bol and Jano at one of our favourite restaurants

Bol at the winery with Lake Balaton (Europe's biggest lake) in the background

But forgetting all the fun catch-ups, day trips and delicious meals we devoured, our visit to Hungary this time had an entirely different purpose. His name is Jakab - our six week old godson who is the sweetest thing you will ever meet. As the godfather, Bol took great delight in asking everyone to kiss his ring. And despite his nerves in being responsible for holding Jakab during the christening ceremony, he managed to keep him content and tear free, even when the water was splashed on his tiny forehead. Bol drew the line at nappy changing though, so I stepped in to prove to Tommy and Ilde they weren't entirely crazy in their selection of godparents. Our visit to Szeged to meet and christen Jakab was truly an honour for us and cross fingers the family will come to Australia next year so you can all meet them.

Awww - our godson Jakab

With mum and dad shortly before the ceremony

The doting godfather

And godmother

And it was so great to catch up with Uncle Tibi

2007-06-13T01:54:00.000-07:00

The Reunion

On the bus a few minutes after our reunion. Awwww.

Some issues with Schengen visas meant I had to return to London for a few weeks in mid-May, leaving Bol to finish out our work in Italy. I wasn't too happy about leaving Bol and my new life as a gardener, but knew it was a small price to pay for our upcoming 7 months of travel. Luckily I managed to get some work at my old office in London, which helped the time pass while also giving the bank account a much needed boost. Come May 28th, I was out of there, and Bol and I reunited in Venice with its reputation as one of the most romantic cities in the world. This was the starting point for our seven months of travel through Europe and Asia. We couldn't be happier. To save money we decided to stay in a campsite, which in Italy means a place with a resort sized swimming pool, restaurant, pub and supermarket, with hundreds of tents and cabins dotted around. The campsite in Venice took us back, in many ways, to Australia, and even more so to that classic Aussie film The Castle. No ... we didn't have to dig any holes and strawberry and icecream didn't feature on the menu (sorry for those of you confused at this point who haven't seen the movie. I suggest you rent it though). What made our stay in Venice resemble The Castle was the fact the fenceline of our caravan park bordered with the airport runway. Nothing like the sound of aeroplanes taking off overhead to provide that relaxed, peaceful atmosphere Venice is famous for!

Apart from this minor detail, which caused more laughs than sleepless nights, Venice turned out to be the picture postcard city we had expected. For three days we meandered around the narrow corridors which line the canals, taking in the ambience of the city. It really feels like it has been built purely for tourists, simply because of the fact it is so hard to believe that people actually live on the water, drive to the supermarket in their boats, the firemen, police and ambos drive speed boats with flashing sirens, and kids go to school by boat. Quite amazing.

Each day in Venice we would buy our picnic lunch from the supermarket and sit right on the waters edge eating. Who needs fancy restaurants! And the Venetians use one of their old gondolas to make the 2 minute trip back and forth across the Grand Canal for just 50 cents, so even tourists like us can aford a gondola ride. Thanks guys. I'll let the pictures below speak for themselves.

2007-05-02T08:29:00.000-07:00

ITALIAN TIMES

When in Rome

Em and I had the luxury of getting a four-day weekend so we decided to catch the train down to Rome. We were doing it on the cheap so decided to stay in a caravan park just outside of the city. It was a great decision. It had a bus stop out the front which took us the Vatican and had a great atmosphere and people to meet and hang out with. There is so much to see in Rome and we tried to cram it all in. So we covered: The Spanish Steps, Vatican, Trevi Fountain, Pantheon, Colosseum, countless churches, marketplaces, squares - you name it, we did it. We also met a great bunch of mates in the caravan park, so it was sightseeing by day, party by night. To the point the security guards kept having to come and tell us off. Yes, we regressed to our teenage years and enjoyed every moment of it!

The Swiss Guards at the Vatican with their fashion statement

The Spanish Steps at night - how romantic

The gang in the caravan park

Bol with his nifty speaker device inside the Colosseum

Em throws a coin and makes a wish into what she "thinks" is the Trevi fountain

And then we find the real Trevi fountain by mistake two days later

The Easter Procession
We may not have had chocolate eggs or a treasure hunt this Easter, but how many people can say they joined in a medieval torchlight parade in a small Italian village? Us ...

Anghiari
Anghiari has got to be one of the most beautiful towns in our region. It is perched up high on a hill about 20 minutes from our house and offers views over the whole Tiber Valley. Such a great place to spend a Sunday afternoon meandering around the cobbled streets, watching the artists paint in the cellars of old buildings, and having a beer overlooking the valley.

(Above) Looking up at Anghiari and (Below) The view from Anghiari across the Tiber Valley

New Friends

Well, after our first month when it seemed we were living in a village with hardly any young people, our employers children came to stay and showed us around. It turns out there are a stack of people our age in San Giustino and so now we actually have a great social life as well. One night the village mums cooked a massive feast for about 80 of us in a hall and then a band played while we all danced. So much fun. And one of the guys we have become really good mates with often has us over for dinner to sample his dad's meats. They make the most amazing prosciutto and salami. And they make their own wine - so it is always a great evening when we catch up with Cappy!

At the feast with our mates

The band which kept us on our feet

Dani, Em and Vicki at one of the local wine bars

Cappy, Bol and Pat pull their best faces

A night on the town

To the Beach

Finally the weather is warm enough and we can really enjoy the Italian beaches! A group of about 15 of us headed off from San Giustino one Sunday morning at 7.30am and drove south for a couple of hours to a great set of bays. It was so great to get in the water again.

And that's it for now!

2007-03-29T03:28:00.000-07:00

ITALY

The last thing we ever expected on this trip was to wind up living in a small Italian village working as gardeners. It's the kind of experience usually reserved for "people trying to find themselves" in the movies. But I guess after a year away from Adelaide, nothing should surprise us anymore. So here we are living the quiet life in San Giustino - a small village in the Tiber Valley on the Umbria/Tuscany border. It is about as opposite from our life in London as possible. We've traded in the stainless steel appliances, central heating, trendy shops, traffic jams, packed clubs and office jobs, for rolling hills, a wood fire, stack of books, piles of prosciutto, cheese and wine, and of course the sound of church bells ringing through the town every 15 minutes. There are two other people in San Giustino who speak English - both are our employers. The rest of the time communication here depends on us trying to combine the handful of Italian words we know with our charade skills, which we luckily mastered last year when travelling through Asia.
When we were on the plane from London, I guess you could say we were feeling a little anxious. Considering we had obtained our new jobs simply by responding to an online ad, and we never even spoke to our new employers, we didn't really know what to expect. The ad had called for a couple who could help with landscaping and labouring jobs. It said accommodation would be provided, but for all we knew, it could have been in a dirty caravan (not that all caravans are dirty of course, but this one could have been). So we were really going in blind. Such is the nature of travel. So after a stop-off in Pisa to quickly see the tower and join all the other tourists getting photos taken while pretending to hold the tower up, we jumped on a train and then a bus to our new home, right in the centre of Italy.

The main street (above) and laneways of San Giustino (below)

San Giustino is surrounded by hills and is probably the only town in the region without a tourist base. It is really just a residential village, which has allowed us to quickly settle in and become accepted as part of the local community. Our three biggest concerns (What will our employers be like? Will our accommodation be hideous? Will our jobs be hellish?) quickly subsided on arrival. We discovered our new employers, Jim and Caroline, were an English couple who had lived in Italy for 18 years and operated a business looking after holiday homes in the region. Their clients are mostly foreigners - Americans, Brits, Germans - who are extremely wealthy lawyers, investment bankers etc etc. They explained that Bol's job would be going to the properties each day with Jim to carry out a variety of heavy labouring and garden maintenance jobs. My job would be to accompany Caroline's dad, Bill, to do the softer gardening - mainly mowing lawns. So far so good! Next they invited us to meet them for beers in the evening. Even better! And finally they led us to our new residence. "Please don't be a dirty caravan, please don't be an abandoned building ......" Hallelujah! Our new home is an old one-bedroom split level cottage, very Italian in style, with a terrace on the upper level with views over our village and up to the mountains. By this point, Bol and I were both grinning, knowing we made the right decision and had come to the right place.

The side view of our house

Sitting right in the centre of our house

Above and below: The views from our terrace (the perfect spot for an after work wine)

Our neighbour pottering in her garden.

She's always up for an animated chat even though we do not understand a word.

We have almost been here a month now and time is flying. We've slipped into a relaxed, holiday feeling lifestyle where we sip wine on our balcony, take trips to various villages and cities each weekend, and have a Friday night routine of meeting our employers at the local for beer and tapas. We are trying to take advantage of living in such gorgeous surroundings by actually making the effort to get fit. That's right - after a year of eating, drinking and talking about going for walks, we are finally going for a walk every evening through the mountains behind our house. And it is surprisingly enjoyable. Maybe it's because we walk through this .....

..... with views like this

Despite always thinking that I would never enjoy gardening, I have surprised myself and am absolutely loving working in the outdoors. There's something about working in the Italian countryside, starting the day with an overgrown garden and ending it with a smooth lawn stretching out before you. All of the properties we work on are large estates spread across various parts of Umbria and Tuscany and so each day we get to see a new piece of the Italian countryside. The weather extremes during our time here have been quite amazing. Most of the time I have been gardening while the sun beats down on my back, but one day I actually ended up working in the snow. Bill kept calling me back inside out of the cold but I continued to work away. Being able to lawnmow while snowflakes were falling on my face and the Hilltop Hoods were blasting through my MP3 Player was one of those once in a lifetime opportunities that I didn't want to cut short.

Proof that we actually do work here

One of the properties we maintain

Me and my trusty mower

The view across San Giustino when the temperatures dropped below zero in the mountains

My view from the lawnmower

OUR FIRST VISITORS .....
Last week we had our first visitors come to see us in San Giustino. Our friends Anna and Ilke came from London to stay with us on Friday night and the four of us went to Florence, which is just 70km away, for the weekend. It was great to be able to show some friends our lifestyle here and to take them on our walk through the mountains. And Florence has to be one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. The market squares, ornate buildings, galleries, museums, river, colours ... we absolutely loved it and plan to return in a few weeks. Here are some photos from our time with the girls. We'll fill you in more on Italy in a few weeks. We are planning a four day weekend in Rome next week, so will try to write more after that. Until then ...

Above: Now we just need the band to go with our CD cover!

Below: Around Florence ... aaah.

2007-03-05T07:18:00.000-08:00

BERLIN TO KRAKOW

The view over Berlin

Finally I was out of the pub in the middle of nowhere - well actually in between Oxford and Whitney, but pretty much in the middle of nowhere. It was a real relief to leave and get back together with Em. She had done a wicked thing and booked us a trip away to Berlin and Krakow. Just what I needed, what a girl.
We flew into Berlin, worked out how to to get a train into town and then walked around til dark looking for a backpackers. We finally found a great place, dropped off our bags and went for a walk.

Em in our great backpackers.

Berlin was nothing like I had remembered from my last visit. It isn't the prettiest city in the world. Mostly I think that is due to 70% of the city being lost to the bombings of World War II.

Me in a Berlin courtyard.

Glimpse at the Jewish Gallery

However it is a very vibrant and creative city with a wealth of history. Em and I did alot of walking in and around the city. There is quite a lot to explore. There is also alot of graffiti, more than most cities. There is one piece of graffiti that is quite cool though. There is an old hippie guy who rides around on his bike with a bucket of paint and his brush. He only paints the number 6. His idea is that the number 6 represents the word sex (because of its German translation). Being an old hippie he is into free love and it is his subtle way of spreading the word. It also has a second function because he only paints it on broken or temporary surfaces that either need repairing or removing. If you go there and look around you will see the number 6 everywhere.

The work of the hippie 6 man.

We visited some of the local bars and restaurants that the city has to offer and were impressed. One of our favourites was this Italian place that is huge and packed but the atmosphere was great. The walls are covered with graffiti by famous people and bands that have visited the place. Really cool place to eat.
At the pizza place

We also went to the top of the TV Tower which is Europe's second highest tower. The views were amazing.

Yeah you guessed right, the TV Tower.

Berlin also offers free walking tours. We went along on one that was led by a Welsh ex-pat named Barnaby. Great guy and great tour. We walked for about 4 hours and took in so many sights and so much information. We got to see where Hitler's bunker once was which is now a carpark for the housing block behind it. The same site is also where he and his wife killed themselves and also where they were cremated. Many people do a little jig and alot of men will do a "wee" on or near the tree just to say they did it on Hitler's grave. Another historical site that we saw was one of the few remaining pieces of the Berlin Wall. Also we saw checkpoint charlie - one of the many former passport checkpoints between west and east Berlin.

(Photos below of Barnaby our tour guide and tour shots)

Em on the site of Hitlers bunker and death site

The original sign at Checkpoint Charlie

The next night saw us off from Berlin and onto the overnight train to Krakow.

Bye Berlin - hi Krakow

Krakow has got to be one of the prettiest cities in Europe - the old town especially. We stayed in a great little backpackers right in the heart of the town, just off the main square.

Main square and below the main market building.

The old town is amazing. It has over 600 bars and cafes just around the main square itself. There is a beautiful cathedral where on the hour every hour a bugle player will play. The story goes that some time in the 1200s a bugle player was playing at the top of the cathedral tower to warn of invading troops. During his tune he was shot in the throat by an archer's arrow and died. So now every hour one of 7 town firemen volounteer to play the tune from the tower. They play it four times one from each of the tower's windows, and to really commemorate the old bugle player they stop on the very last note that he was killed on. It's kind of kooky but I think it's really a unique thing to have as part of your town's heritage. While in Krakow we did a lot of walking and touring. We visited the famous salt mines about half an hour out of the city. We walk down 68m underground on a wooden stairwell. Then through dozens of tunnels, chambers and even cathedrals and chapels to finally get to 135m underground. Everything in the mines is made from salt - the floors, the walls, the roof, the statues - even the carving in most of the chapels. What an amazing place. To get back up we got to go in a three level miners' lift. It was great and only took about 45 seconds to get back up to the top.

The main cathedral where EVERY THING is made from salt.

The next day we went to Auschwitz 1 and Auschwitz 2 Birkenau. Auschwitz 1, which was the first camp, was not like we see in the movies with the long wooden huts built in an open field. Instead it was big three story buildings on a smaller property built just near the town. It was a very sombre place. 75% of the people who were taken there never even made it to the gate - they were sent off to Birkenau to be sent to the gas chamber. Mainly the strong men and some women were allowed to stay because they could work, but the old, weak and most of the children were sent to the chambers. Crazy. We spent alot of time there being led by a tour guide which in a way made it less personal - though there were so many people visiting that I can see why it was in guided groups. We were led into some of the old barracks where there was a room that had 2 tonnes of women's hair, which mind you was only a small portion of what was originally cut and stored for further sale. We saw rooms piled to the roof of shoes, or suitcases, piles of wire rimmed glasses or kitchen utensils. Huge piles of hair and tooth brushes and peoples clothes. It was very surreal, and again these were just very small percentages of what was actually taken from these poor people. Many thousands of people were killed here and we were taken into one of the gas chambers and crematoriums. Such a crazy experience.
After Auschwitz 1 we went onto Auschwitz 2 Birkenau. This is where the main killings took place. The Germans had destroyed a lot of the camp including the chambers and crematoriums as a way of destroying the evidence after the war, but still a lot of the camp exists. It is the site of Birkenau that is usually used for the movies. The long wooden huts and the watch towers. It's hard to put into words what it is like to be in these places, but it is well worth the time to go there to at least get a small idea of what it would have been like for those who were killed or just spent time in the concentration camps.

Auschwitz 1 main gate, the captions reads, "Work will set you free".

Birkenau main gate and photos of the remaining camp.

The main platform where the living and the soon to die were chosen.

The next day we slept in and then went for a big walk to the Old Jewish Quarter. It was a beautiful place. There is an old market square where you can get fruit and veg and many old buildings, synagogues and laneways. After a bite of lunch we walked up to Wawel Castle to take in the views across Krakow.

Some local delicacies

Meat Head.

Beatuiful Architecture.

Wawel Castle

From the castle

Em in one of the castle's courtyards

2007-02-27T05:44:00.000-08:00

Ireland

I might be the first person to go to Ireland in the winter and actually see sunshine, but I'm definitely not the first to go there to find out that Guinness takes amazing when poured in its homeland. Nor will I be the first to discover the land of leprechauns has spectacular countryside and the most welcoming people you'll find abroad. My first trip to Ireland late in February was definitely one of laughs, Guinness and gossip (which is to be expected when catching up with old friends in new places). My first stop was Dublin where I was greeted by Gordon, a guy Bol and I forced our friendship upon in Thailand. We saw him reading a book in a bar and decided we wanted to sit down and have a beer with him, so we pulled up a seat and disturbed his peace, and the three of us proceeded to travel through Laos together having an amazing time. Anyway - enough background. One of the first things Gordon explained to me on my arrival in Dublin was that he simply could not drink with me during my stay because he was producing a play and had a government grant application due in three days. At the same time he said he wanted to show me all the best Guinness pubs Ireland had to offer, but that he would drink Lucozade and watch me down the ale. Well, by the time we reached the first pub that evening where I would consume my first ever true Irish Guinness, Gordon had succombed to the temptation and said he'd have ... well, just one. That was at Grogans, then we proceeded to McDaids, Mulligans, the Stags Head and finally Ri Ra (a club where we would end up dancing like idiots until 4am). Yep ... Gordon sure showed me! Does this look like the face of a sober man?

Below - Gordon at the theatre where his play has been performed

The next day we arose (not surprisingly) quite late and after scoffing down some greasy hangover food we headed off on my first sight seeing tour Gordon-style. First stop was the main recording studios of U2 - a funky, graffiti covered building near the harbour's edge. Then we went to his university Trinity College which has some of the most gorgeous grounds and grand buildings. (Everone in Ireland says "grand" so I just thought I should slip it in) And its free to study there! The college also contains the Book of Kells, which contains a copy of the four gospels in Latin and was written over 1000 years ago. When you see it up close the patterns and letters are in such amazing detail, and the Long Library situated above the Book is also incredibly impressive with its rows and rows of historical bound books. After our history lesson it was onto St Stephens Green, a really beautiful park in the middle of the city. And from there - well it was time to refresh with a mini-Guinness tour through pubs Kehoes and The Palace. That topped off our first full day and we spent a relaxed evening cooking duck in Gordon's apartment, which is right in the city centre. A quiet night was definitely in order.

One of U2's main studios

Trinity College

The view outside my bedroom window in Gordon's apartment

Dublin's docklands, which have recently been redeveloped

The next day I left Gordon in peace to get on with his producing work and I became a true tourist, jumping on one of those buses with no roof for the first time. The driver was comical, as had been promised, and he drove us all around the city explaining the important sites and dropping us off at museums, churches, parks ... you name it. It felt way too touristy to be cruising around Dublin on that bus, but I have to say if you only have a short time in a city, it is a fantastic way to see the main sites. I saw everything from Dublin's main sculptures and statues, which they like to give rhyming nicknames (eg the Tart with the Cart, the Hags with the Bags, the Stiletto in the Ghetto ... you get the drift), right through to St Patrick's Cathedral, Phoenix Park, Kilmainham Gaol and the National Museum.

Em being the tourist

The national museum

My final morning in Dublin was spent having a farewell breakfast with Gordon which turned into a surpisingly entertaining event. On our way to the cafe was passed this group ....

And on the way back we realised that they were dressed this way because they were participating in bungee rugby - a promotion for the huge England-Ireland Rugby match scheduled for the coming Saturday night in Croke Park (a very controversial event). Have you ever seen anything as crazy as bungee rugby!!

What the??

So after a fantastic few days in Dublin with an amazing host I jumped on a bus headed south to the city of Cork where my mate from Adelaide, Mary, and her lovely lad Mick are living. A supposed four hour journey turned into six but at last I arrived in Cork feeling hungry and excited to see Mary after a year of my travels. They met me at the bus stop and it was like I'd only seen them yesterday - instant chatting, catching up on gossip ... you get the drift. They took me out for dinner and then we went to a very cool little Irish pub for a couple before falling into bed. And may I note as a huge thanks to Mary and Mick that they had completely cleaned our their spare room and turned it into the cosiest bedroom ever for me. Absolute champions! Made me feel so at home and welcome.

Mick and Mary out the front of their apartment

The Adelaide girls inIreland!

The next day was Friday and I had the day to myself to explore while the others worked, so I headed into the centre of Cork and wandered the streets for hours with my camera taking shots of the town. It's pretty small so great to walk around, and the whole town is based around the river and so houses lean up the hillsides overlooking the waterway in the town's centre. With all its colourfully painted buildings and narrow streets I really loved the feel of Cork.

Around Cork

That night I got homely and decided to cook Risotto for everyone, because it's my latest addiction - bacon, mushroom, asparagus and blue cheese risotto. Mmmm. After dinner and some drinks we headed out to town and met up with some of Mary and Mick's friends to see an Irish band. The band was fantastic - cello, violin, guitar and vocals - with a really atmospheric sound. Very moody Irish or something. I got into it anyway and by 2.30am the three of us took ourselves home (via a greasy chicken shop). Nothing like Hillbilly Chicken to feed the late night appetite! There was a funny incident with the chicken - don't know if this will translate - probably one of those: you have to be there moments, but I'll try. I was sitting on the couch with two pieces of chicken. Mick only has chips, so after I finish one piece of chicken I offered Mick my second. He thanks me and accepts it and when he's about to take a bite I quickly mention "If you can't finish it all, I'll eat the leftovers." This is a tiny bit of chicken, so I'm obviously being a complete Indian giver - but I get the chicken back nonetheless and am very pleased with myself. This became an incident which kept us laughing all weekend. (Sorry, I really think you did have to be there - but trust me, it was funny!)

On Saturday Mary and I got motivated and went to the gym!! My first time in about five years. But I guess I can't even really claim it. While Mary did her weights, machines etc ... I spent the entire time in the pool. And I wasn't even swimming. I was using a kickboard and floating on my back. That's the way! That afternoon it was time to get prepped for the Rugby. That's right. Ireland V England at Croke Park (which is in Dublin) and it is only the second time foreign sports have been allowed on the grounds since the 1920 Bloody Sunday massacre when British troops, prior to Irish independence, killed 13 people. Anyway - there was big controversy around the match - and huge hype over the fact that God Save the Queen was to be sung at the match's opening, considering the England-Ireland tensions. BUT ... it turns out no violence happened and Ireland beat England 43-13!!! A fantastic time to be in Ireland at the pub watching the big screen.

Sunday turned out to be an amazing day as the three of us got in the car and did a road trip. I love a good road trip and when it includes driving through spectactular Irish countryside, what could be better! Mick and Mary took me through the Ring of Kerry, which is a group of roads joined together in a circle (you don't say!). Travelling the ring allows you to see all sorts of landscapes including gorgeous coastlines and I just loved it. We stopped for a Sunday pub lunch (roast and bread and butter pudding) and then made it home in time to head to the pub one last time - this time to a "trad session". A trad session is the local term for a traditional music pub session where locals bring along their instruments and jam. So much fun!

On the Ring of Kerry

My last pint of true Guinness at the trad session

Fiddle Dee

And that just about sums up my Irish experience. Monday it was back to London for me to meet up with Bol and head to Berlin and Krakow. I absolutely loved Ireland and can't wait to return with Bol in the summer when we'll try to stay a little longer and get some camping in. I realise this blog entry has been about ten times more detailed than I ever do ... so thanks for sticking with me! I was just in the mood. I guarantee the next few will be brief.

2007-01-26T11:11:00.000-08:00

Wow - Is that an angel I see?

That's right folks, all my wishes for Europe came true this January when it snowed in London. It went a little like this:
Emma ... drags herself out of bed on a Wednesday morning and stumbles two metres to the shower. Within three seconds Emma peers out the window, which happens to be in the shower, and gasps.

Bolly: "Are you alright?"
Emma: "Is that (pause for dramatic effect) .... snow?"
Bolly quickly jumps out of bed and looks out the window, because he's taller he can see more and quickly confirms the finding: "Yes it is!!"
Emma jumps out of the shower without bothering to wash herself, pulls on lots of layers of clothes, flies down the stairs, switches on the computer to send a quick email to her boss announcing: "I won't be coming in today because IT'S SNOWING and I've never seen snow before. I'll make up for it by working an extra day next week." And then they head into the backyard where Emma bursts into tears (well not really, but her eyes did fill up with tears) as she touches snow for the first time (again, not really, but the only other time she saw it she was two, and so says that doesn't really count). After indulging in a quick snow fight in the backyard, Emma and Bolly head to Alexandra Palace park and wander through the snow for hours, feeding the cold ducks in the pond, making a mini snowman, and making snow angels (actually, just Emma did this because nobody else would ever bother trying to make an angel in 2cm of snow). Most of you reading this will know that my wish for Europe was to see snow just once - and I didn't have high hopes of skiing or anything. I just wanted to tick off three things: A snow angel, a snowman, and a snowball fight. January 24th was the day I did all these things!! Here are some photos to prove it. (I do realise I swap from writing in third person to first person several times in this blog entry, but that's what holiday writing is all about - not having to be correct!) Enjoy the photos. They say it might snow again this week. Fingers crossed. But I might have trouble taking photos of me doing snow angels this time because Bolly is in Oxford and so can't accompany me :(

2007-01-04T07:44:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas from London!!

Hello Australia and Merry Christmas. We didn't have a white Christmas unfortunately but we certainly had a fattening one. Christmas morning was a buzz of activity in the kitchen. Tim stuffing poultry, Traci making the stuffing, Em and I helping out and the others entertaining us with guitars and songs as well as making sure the Christmas wines were being tended to. We were lucky to spend the day and evening with good friends, food and wine. We had prepared for the meal - a 5.5 kg Goose layered in bacon, 2 Pheasants in bacon, extra stuffing, roast veggies and some Spanish stuffed peppers with prawns for entree (prepared by Susso our Spanish house mate). Oh I almost forgot the homemade gravy with the extra special ingredient, yeah you guessed it, a whole lot of goose fat. MMmmmmmmmmm goose fat. It really was a feast.
Before eating we all sat around together and watched each other open gifts from friends and family. It was a great orphans Christmas.

Styling......

What's better than a game of Jenga for Christmas

Anna and Em around Anna's tree.

Mike rocking out in the garden

2006-10-19T06:28:00.000-07:00

LONDON

Welcome to the land of double-decker buses and squirrels in your backyard. You heard it right folks - SQUIRRELS!

So we have finally ventured back to a country where English is the first language. After six months of various games of charades, the world is suddenly very loud as we can understand what everyone is saying, all the time. Very strange. But despite our initial objections to doing the "Aussie living in London" thing - it has come to the point of our trip where it seems the most logical step, especially considering it's time to top up the bank accounts to fund more adventure. So we arrived in London two weeks ago and have been slowly finding our feet. We got off to a good start, becoming the first Aussies ever to come to London and not have to spend endless weeks looking at terrible rat-infested accommodation before finding something liveable. Thanks to our Adelaide mates Tim and Traci, we managed to move straight into a gorgeous house in Muswell Hill (a trendy/posh northern London suburb) on the day we arrived. It's a pretty huge house - and there are about eight of us living here - so there's always something going on, which we absolutely love. The communal areas are all very modern - stainless steel appliances (we even have a dishwasher!) and cable TV throughout. And our room is amazing - an attic conversion with ensuite - so if we ever want to get away from the household commotion, we have our little third-floor retreat. But considering Bol and I are probably the loudest people in the house, it's not really a problem!

So .... ladies and gentlemen .... welcome to Muswell Hill

Home sweet home

Our gorgeous loft conversion

With a very cool shower

And ever so sparkling toilet

Our backyard where the squirrels like to hang out

Where our chef-man Bol creates

And the lounge where housemates and mates from Adelaide get together for beer o'clock

Bol with housemates Ben and Ben. Thanks for making it easy to remember guys!

Our local shopping strip

And the park at the other end of our street (there is also a big duck pond and ice-skating rink!)

The view over London from just near our house

Now since we've arrived, we have not had much of a chance to leave the house. We call it the "financial forced grounding" - but we anticipate freedom should only be a matter of weeks away. We did manage to go out one night to catch up with our AWESOME mates we met in Vietnam, Grant and Dave. And we have done a "walk around London Bridge" day. But apart from having some mates around at our place and job-hunting, there's not much to add about our first two weeks here. Except this one heartwarming story:
Dave (champion in pics below) came around to our new house a few days after we arrived and brought with him about a million tupperware containers filled with amazing Indian food. His mum and dad had cooked it for us as a "welcome to England" type housewarming gift. Awwww ... the people you meet when you travel!

The London tube system is a crazy, crazy thing to get used to

The River Thames with St Paul's Cathedral in background

London Bridge is falling down ....

Our champion mate Dave at our travellers' reunion

First the camel and now this - Should I be worried?

Grant (who we travelled with for 6 weeks in Asia) and new girlfriend Kristen

2006-10-08T13:57:00.000-07:00

Onto Africa

When in Europe, why not head to Africa? That was our view exactly. After almost two months in Europe - knowing we were to head to London to live and work very soon - we decided to head to where it was warmest and bask in the sun before it disappeared for many months. So we flew from Budapest to Tunisia where the land was dry, the camels were stubborn, and the lazy days kicked in.
Upon arriving at our hotel we were soon to discover that absolutely no other guests spoke English - a slight problem considering we were hoping to have some sociable times in Tunisia. After three days of eating, drinking and swimming alone, along came Eoin and Martyna - a poor unsuspecting Irish guy and Polish girl. Picture Bol and I sitting at the bar alongside the pool when we overhear someone actually order a drink in ENGLISH! I immediately went over to the guy and said "Excuse me - where are you from?"
Poor unsuspecting guy: "Ireland".
Me: "Oh my god - we have been trying to find someone to hang out with for days. I can't believe you speak English. This is soooo good. Pull up a chair. Have a drink."
Poor unsuspecting guy: "Ummmm - I was actually going to have a swim."
Too bad. We gotcha now! Fastforward another day and another poor unsuspecting Dutch man Roel joined our group.
So a happy Em and Bol had found our friends in Africa and we spent the rest of the trip eating, drinking, laughing, lazing, swimming and dancing to cheezy African music together. A very cool bunch who we will definitely visit in their respective countries as soon as we can.

Martyna, Eoin, Bol and Roel during one of our night sessions in the hotel pub

Nothing like waking up to this in the morning

Or this out the front of the hotel

And who can go past this kind of evening entertainment

Roel and I get into the hotel's "chava chava" dance

Our champion barman and mate Kader

Bol decides to show off his bar tending skills

So apart from lazing about our "everything is included" hotel, we went on a few trips to the neighbouring towns Sousse and Monastir (Where Life of Brian was filmed) and we also of course joined the "no tourist can go to Africa and not go on a camel ride" tour. Unfortunately, I actually became the "first tourist to go on a camel ride tour and not get on the camel" because I chose to steer the horse and cart instead. The saddle looked unsafe, okay!!! Plus, they wouldn't get the camels to sit down while you got on, so you had to be lifted up in a very uncomfortable manoevre, which I decided against. Such an idiot! But I did feed the camel a piece of cactus with my teeth, so I guess that counts as my African camel experience.

My view from the "camel cop-out" cart

And Bol on his "I'm not a cop-out" camel ride

He wants to kiss the camel but a piece of cactus stands in his way

Wandering the deserted streets of Sousse

And the not so deserted streets of Sousse

A Tunisian man taking a siesta

And who can go past the African sunset

All in all Tunisia was a much needed week of pure relaxation and sun. Now we are off to the big smoke of London - I guess you could call it returning to reality. But we will be sure that between the work and rain, we have some UK adventures to remember. It shouldn't be too hard ...

2006-09-20T05:40:00.000-07:00

Szeged and the Vargas

By way of explanation, Szeged is the town my uncle Tibi and his family live in - and it became our home for almost two weeks after we left Gyamoindre. Szeged is where Em really got to know all my relatives: aka The Varga Clan.

After a bit of a drive with Em and myself in my cousin Peter's car and Mum and Dad in my uncle Tibi's car, we pulled into Szeged. Driving over the Tisza river brought back some fond memories of my last visit to this beautiful town. 17 years! Such a long time. Em and I dropped our bags off at my other cousins (Tommy) and his girlfriends house (Ildi) where we were greeted at the gate by their "cute as" dog, Panka, who soon became our "dog away from home" dog. Tommy still had work to do, 12 hours every day mon-fri, so we let him be and headed off to Tibi and his wife's house. Tibi's wife Kati had prepared a great meal for us which didn't last too long with the hunger we had.

After eating we loosened our belts and sat around catching up with all the goss and happenings of Szeged and the Varga clan.

Once Tommy had come to get us we went back to his house and drank wine with Ildi, her daughter Luca and of course our new found friend Panka.

Over the next few days we explored the city by car and foot, more often than not on foot to work off all the huge meals we kept eating.

Over the past five years the local council had spent a huge amount of money "renovating" the town. Well I have to say it was money well spent. The town center is amazing compared to how I saw it 17 years ago which is really great to see. Over the week or so we spent in Szeged we played tennis - badly, swam, walked, bowled, ate and drank more than we should and laughed a whole lot. We were also there

in time to share in Tibi's 75th birthday and also his 50 year golden diploma award. Two very special days for him and I felt priveliged to be able to be there for both of them. For Tibis birthday, Em and I were wondering what we could get him. Out of thin air Em came up with "THE" idea of the year. A photo frame with all his "Varga" relatives. I got to say it - I was a little weary of the idea but when he opened it at his birthday dinner I knew she was right. He loved it and all of Em's hard work had paid off. Also now all my cousins and second cousins had an explanation as to why this Australian girl kept taking photos of them when she didn't even know most of them.

The old saying goes: You can't pick your family but you can pick your friends. In my case there is no picking needed. They Rock!

Bruce Willis, some hairy guy and Brad Pit

Tommy and Ildi

Awwww Panka

I think he likes his present

Em's master piece

The brothers with Tibi and Kati

Tibi with with golden diploma and his golden girl

2006-09-01T07:35:00.000-07:00

HELLO EUROPE

Part I: Welcome to Budapest

Okay - here it is. The moment you have all been waiting for. After spending one month in Europe we have finally got organised enough to post our first blog entry. And be prepared - it is a long one. We have tried to get you all up to speed on how we have been occupying ourselves. So it started like this: Bol and I arrived in Budapest on August 11 but our luggage unfortunately got sidetracked somewhere in London because of the terrorist scare. But while we didn't have any of our belongings, we were lucky enough to have a wonderful friend Peter to greet us and take us to our accommodation. Peter had a spare apartment, complete with furniture, which he let Bol and I use as our home for our first week in Europe - and every time we returned to Budapest since. For those who don't know, Budapest is divided into two parts with the River Danube running through. One side - Buda - is considered more beautiful with the famous castle (pictured above), many parks and gorgeous residential areas. The other side - Pest - contains most of the city: the businesses, malls and also many apartments. Our flat was in Buda - a very luxurious one bedroom place with a gorgeous view. It instantly felt like home.

The first thing that hit me on arrival in Budapest was the city's beauty. Having never been to a traditional European city before, I was awe struck by the intricate architecture, the castles and historic buildings. Our first week was really spent meandering through the streets of Budapest, catching up with some of Bol's old friends he hadn't seen for 15 years, and in true Bol and Emma style making new friends to share beer with. Our new friends came in the form of a group of 22 Irish lads visiting Budapest for a weekend stag-do. Needless to say more than a few beers were consumed, giving us a very merry Budapest welcome.

During that first week we also went on several daytrips, including a drive to the country with a Varga family friend Miklos. He took us to yet another gorgeous castle with spectacular views extending to Slovakia. All in all it is safe to say that I fell in love with the city of Budapest in that first week and then it was off to our next destination: Austria, where Bol's parents were waiting for us at the train station.

Bol with Peter (left) and brother Gabor, who we would be spending many more nights eating and drinking with

"The Irish lads" top and bottom, who we will be sure to visit next year

A typical street in Budapest

One of the many bridges over the Danube linking Buda with Pest

Bol stands on our apartment balcony

And lies on our apartment couch

The castle about 60km from the city

Miklos and I at the lookout point on the way to the castle

Part II: The Varga Family Road Trip

"Austria to Budapest"

As the train pulled into Austria it is safe to say we were feeling a little anxious. Meeting up with Bol's parents was the first time in five months we had seen any family and so we both felt a little strange. Surreal is probably the best word. After a tearful reunion the four of us were driven into the heart of Vienna to our hotel where birthday presents from my family at home awaited me - and of course a few more tears as I read my belated birthday cards. This was the beginning of what we will always refer to as "The Varga Family Road Trip" - a whirlwind tour of Austria and Hungary. Every day was a different sightseeing tour, a different feast with old friends and free flowing wine. At a conservative guess, Bol and I both managed to put on three kilos in those first two weeks as we were treated to massive breakfasts, lunches and dinners even when we thought we would burst. In both Austria and Hungary the people show their love with food - and these old friends certainly loved the Vargas, and because I was with them they had to love me too. Granted, few of them spoke English and my Hungarian is extremely limited, but I think this only added to their desire to feed me up. Food: the language of love!! Hungarian food is much richer than what we got used to in Asia. It's all about meat, potato, dumplings, cheese and goulash. But when you wake up each day to bread, a range of cheeses, salami and paprika - who's complaining!

To detail exactly what the Varga Family Road Trip consisted of would take me all week, but in brief the itinery for our first two weeks together went a little like this:

- three days in Austria with many day trips including a trip from Vienna to Krems, where Bol used to live and study as a teenager;

- two days in Sopron, which is a very cute, traditional Hungarian town near the border of Austria;

- three days in Csorna, the town where Bol's dad grew up making many daytrips to neighbouring towns and many family friends;

- several days in Gyor where Bol and I made some new friends and went out on their boat;

- a return to Budapest for the "Budapest Parade": a scaled down version of Berlin's Love Parade;

- and many other day trips which as mentioned previously, all included a lot of extremely friendly Hungarians and their wonderfully rich home cooking.

Looking over the city of Vienna

St Stephen's Cathedral - in the heart of Vienna

The Hofburg Palace in Vienna

Top and below: Bol in his old home town of Krems

Bol outside his old apartment in Krems

Bol and his mum Eva outside Schonbrunn Palace, Vienna

We were treated to a horse and cart ride through the grounds of Schobrunn Palace by a friend Edwin

What could be nicer than the Austrian countryside in summer?

Checking out the cobblestoned streets of Sopron

Bol and his dad Balazs outside the family's old shop in Csorna

Bol and Eva during one of our many "burn off today's lunch" walks

Dinner in Csorna with family friends - very typical of the Hungarian hospitality

My first time on a bike in 12 years - and we got to ride through a field of sunflowers!

Enjoying the water in Gyor

I was so excited to see my first stork!

The Budapest Parade

Bol and I dressed up :)

A Varga family reunion in Budapest

Part III: The Wedding

Most of you would have heard me talk about the Hungarian wedding we were to attend. Well, I just had to post some pictures from the night. It started off a little rocky as we all had to walk several kilometres from the pre-drinks location to the church - and with high heels the women were complaining let me tell you! It got to the point where Bol's dad was about to ask the bride and groom if I could join them in the horse and cart for the ride back to the reception. And I'm serious - he wasn't joking. He was about to ask and it took some fast talking to convince him it wasn't appropriate! But once the reception got underway the night went from strength to strength. We all ended up doing traditional Hungarian dances, arms linked and wine in hand. And Bol and I even joined in with the couple dancing - which is an indication that the wine must have been good!

One for ya wallets :)

Balazs and I sample the red

Who's that stud on the dance floor?

With Miklos, Antonia, Balazs, Csaba (the groom) and Eva

Bol and I harrass the bride and groom

Part IIII: A holiday within a holiday

After all the running around we thought we deserved a holiday and so we met up with Bol's uncle and cousin. We all headed a few hours out of Budapest and joined a couple of friends Andrew and Andrea at a holiday house on the river. We spent a relaxing couple of days fishing, eating, drinking and snoozing in the sunshine. And we were actually successful in catching fish - which is very rare for us!

Bol gives Rex Hunt a run for his money

Bol and his uncle Tibi (Balazs's brother) saw the wood for the night's fire

Balazs leads us in a yoga class

The fish cooks over the fire ready to become stock for fish soup

Me, Tibi and Bol

Next stop: Szeged, where Bol's uncle and cousin live for another Varga Family Clan expedition. Bolly will fill you in on the details in a few days. After this mammoth effort, I'm passing him the blog posting responsibility! Bye for now ....

2006-08-09T23:40:00.000-07:00

The Best and Worst of Asia

As we prepare to say goodbye to Asia tonight - madly trying to squash all our purchases into our backpacks - we thought we'd do a final web entry to sum up our impressions of the four countries we've ventured through. A bit of a best and worst list if you like before we board the plane to Budapest where the beer is expensive and the showers are hot. You see, there's good and bad everywhere you go, and we certainly won't miss the cold showers of Asia.
Thailand: As you know, our first and last stop was Thailand and we spent a total two months checking it out from Chiang Khong in the north to Kho Pha Ngan in the south. Thailand's food has to be mentioned under the "best" category - the Pad Thai, amazing curries, fresh fruit shakes and noodle soups. The mouth waters just thinking about it. Kanchanaburi to the north-west of Bangkok was one of our favourite regions, with the Tiger Temple and the amazing seven level waterfall at Erawan National Park. The Elephant Nature Park out of Chang Mai is also a place no visitor should miss. In the "worst" category, topping the list is the price of travelling through Thailand. When you arrive from Australia you think "this is amazingly cheap" but after visiting other Asian countries and returning it seems ludicrously expensive. I mean, $2 for a beer --- come on!
Laos: We found the people in Laos to be the friendliest of all the Asian countries we visited. They're so relaxed, they always smile and noone ever hassled us. The people really make Laos an amazing place to visit and their nature makes you feel like it's a place you want to return. Also, having been only opened to tourists since the late '90s, Laos' landscape is yet to be dominated by tourist infrastructure. For us, the scenery in Laos was the most raw and beautiful we encountered during our travels. Floating in a tube down the river in Vang Viang is a must. The big red mark against Laos would have to be its food. The local food is nothing to write home about and it is the one place we both got food poisoning several times. As Bol used to say "they need to really pull up their socks" in the kitchen hygiene department. Oh - and Pakbeng - the little town you stop at overnight during the two day slow boat trip down the Mekong is another "worst". That town really should be used to stage a horror film. Stay away if possible. It's very creepy. Buses in Laos were also a little scary. Sitting crammed alongside a row of armed guards is not exactly our idea of a relaxing journey.
Vietnam: What can we say.... Sapa in Vietnam's north next to the Chinese border was one of our favourite places in the entire four and a half months. The mountains with mist and thousands of rice fields were breathtaking. Other big ticks for Vietnam were:
Bia Hoi - sitting on the edge of the street drinking draught beer for 13 cents a glass. Nothing beats that;
Hoi An - any town with lines and lines of tailors just waiting to make you whatever clothes and shoes you want is okay by me;
Trains - it's the one country that is almost entirely serviced by trains so whenever you travel long distances you jump on a train, sleep in a bed and wake up as you pull into the station at your destination. Now that's cruisy travel.
The worst of Vietnam unfortunately has to be the people. Of course not everyone, but most people we encountered in the service industry caused us grief. Many of them were pretty rude and aggressive and after one month in the country, the constant calls of "Where you from?" "You buy, you buy" and "Why you not buy from meeee" started to do our heads in a bit. Of course there were exceptions but overall, they tainted our impressions of Vietnam.
Cambodia: Putting our heads together, the only negatives we could come up with for Cambodia were the hangovers encountered after our visits to Pub Street. I mean, come on, anywhere with a street called Pub Street is bound to give you a headache. And the child touts at Angkor Wat also left a lasting impression. For those who have seen Children of the Corn, you'll have an idea of what we mean. Our favourite aspects of Cambodia were:
Angkor Wat - obviously an amazing place, no explanation needed;
Sunrise Children's Village - the orphanage we visited in Siem Reap was really a highlight of our time in Cambodia;
The Lakeside District - the place we stayed in Phnom Penh was rustic and colourful and gave us endless days of entertainment;
Monika - the Laos woman who cooked for us in Phnom Penh. Truly a gem.

Okay -- I think we've exhausted it. Overall Asia has been an amazing experience. The countries have been very kind to us. Considering the horror stories you hear, we've had a really smooth and happy trip with lots of laughter each day. We're feeling a bit sad to leave but also excited about stage II of our travels through Europe. Now we have to go finish packing and head to the airport. We'll write again when in Hungary eating goulash. Take care XXXX

2006-08-09T00:26:00.000-07:00

The Bangers Routine

We just realised that we've now been to Bangkok six times this trip and have barely mentioned it on the blog, except for when we arrived. So... we thought before we fly out tomorrow we should tell you a bit about our Bangers routine. Because we use it as a stopover in between visiting more exotic locations, we never get up to too much when in Bangers, but there is a definite rhythm we've developed with the place. Each time we stay at Tavee Guesthouse, which is a bit out of the city in one of the quieter districts Te Wet (pronounced Tay Weeeeeet). Tavee has a resident dog called Do-do. The poor thing is a boy but the owners do his hair up in a pink bow. No wonder he's not very friendly. Across the road from Tavee is the BEST street stall you'll ever find. It's a pork noodle soup stall run by none other than "Noodle Man". He's our super hero. He's the cutest man you'll ever meet and the soup is the tastiest thing you'll ever eat. An awesome broth with noodles, pork pieces, pork dumplings and pork crackling. Mmmmm. He's a vital part of each day in Bangkok.

Around the corner from Tavee is a market you have to walk through to get to the river. Each time we walk through we have to bow our heads to avoid seeing the massive pig's heads staring at us from platters. We catch the ferry down the river to visit different parts of the city and often, while waiting for the boat, we feed the fish which jump out of the water in a crazy frenzy to reach the bread crusts. (See photo).

Whenever we're in Bangkok we try to catch up with Bol's cousin Chris, who indulges us in wine and takes us to extravagant places like the restaurant on the rooftop of a 64 floor building. We also sometimes head out to bars with mates, but to save money we often drink sitting at tables outside 7-11. That's right - unlike Australia the supermarkets sell beer. Very handy when on a budget.

As most of you would have heard, Bangkok is amazing for shopping and so we've spent a fair bit of time buying up winter clothes in preparation for Europe. As well as our backpacks which are now bulging at the seams, we've bought and filled a large suitcase. And when we're really in need of some modern comforts, there's a cinema in the city with $3 movie tickets. And the seats recline - now that's luxury backpacking!!

Home sweet home

Noodle Man. Ooohhhhh....

Noodle Man and his loyal subjects at his stall outside 7-11

The boys can't even wait for their chopsticks

Bol "pretends" to give Wayne a birthday kiss when noone is watching

Okay -- the boys made me put this on the blog cos they thought it was hilarious. Two seconds before the photo was taken I was patting a dog, but it was obviously camera shy, so instead I was left looking like an idiot in the middle of the footpath.

Our ferry stop

The fish feeding frenzy

Where else could you have your shorts fixed on the edge of the street for 80 cents!

Bol and his cousin Chris on one of our nights out

The dome on top ofthe 64th floor

The view from the 64th floor

2006-08-08T21:13:00.000-07:00

Ko Tao

Once again we found ourselves in the calm and tranquility of Ko Tao, only this time it was even more relaxing. Wayne went off to do his advanced open water diving course and we did very little. And we loved it. Mind you we did manage to fit in a 10km walk every day to town and back, wich believe it or not we loved to do. We met a really nice couple who lived on the island, Dan and Signe. Dan is a dive instructor and Signe is finishing off her dive masters course. We spent most of our days hanging out on their balcony playing music and having a few quiet ones while Wayne did his course. They also had the cutest little puppy that was more like a baby kangaroo called Dorie. She was found on the side of the road covered in oil and dirt and generally in a bad state. Some Thais had cleaned her up and Dan and Signe took her in and made her a part of their family. Such a cute little pup.

The weather this time wasn't very good so we really didn't get up to much at all so there isn't much more to tell so it's off to Bangkok for a few days and then onto part two of our trip - Europe.

A picture says a thousand words....

Part of our daily walk

Main street Ban Mae Had - Ko Tao

Chillin on the Balcony with Hal and Dan

Awwww ......

No Em you can't keep her!

2006-08-03T21:45:00.000-07:00

Back to the Islands:

Kho Pha Ngan

There's not too much we can say about Kho Pha Ngan which we didn't say in our previous blog on the place back in April. It's quite simply gorgeous, and again we spent our days riding motorbikes to visit the hidden beaches, eating, drinking and meeting new friends. This time around we stayed on the east side of the island in a bay call Had Yao, which was stunning. We stayed in really nice bungalows on the beach and there was a great vibe about the place. We drank beers every evening on the beach with our new mates as we watched the sunset. 'Tis a hard life.

One of the beaches we'd visit on our motorbike

Overlooking Had Yao
Sun, anyone?
Someone's gotta do it
The beach with a storm approaching
Our evening hangout spot
At low tide
Bol relaxing on the roof with mates

2006-07-30T22:13:00.000-07:00

Birthdays "Thai-style"

Well, I've reached the magic age of 25 - a quarter of a century - where everything reportedly "goes down hill from here". I don't believe a word of it. This year I got to celebrate my birthday Thai-style on the island of Kho Pha Ngan. Thai-style really means the same as in Adelaide, but the beer is cheaper and the friends much newer. On my "birthday-eve" Bol and I went out for dinner and then met up with mates to visit some bars as the countdown to midnight began. The bar we were in was short on spirits, and s0 for the big midnight birthday cheers the group of us sat around having shots of beer! I awoke the following day on my actual birthday to find our bungalow had been decorated in balloons. The girls we had been hanging out with for little more than 24 hours had gone to the effort of hanging them in the middle of the night as a surprise. You can't get much nicer than that! The people you meet when you travel ....

Our decorated bungalow - after a few balloons had popped

Not a bad spot for a birthday breakfast

So after a bit of a sleep-in, Bol and I jumped on the motorbike and went for a cruise to find the perfect place for my birthday breakfast. We stopped at a gorgeous bar on the beach for some fresh juice before heading to another beach to have burgers at a resort. I spent the afternoon getting a full-body Thai massage and then a second birthday dinner was held at "Kop Shop" - a gorgeous island restaurant with the nicest owner you'll ever meet. It was also the 30th of another one of the girls - Donna - so we had a big double birthday dinner and then of course, stayed up drinking and chatting into the early hours.

Bol gets creative taking photos of the birthday girls

Our cake was made out of dragonfruit and banana

Tineke, Bol, me, Karen and Donna having evening birthday drinks

All in all, it was a fantastic birthday - but I did miss all my family and friends from home. Thanks for all your phone calls and emails. XXXXXXXXXXXX

2006-07-22T23:43:00.000-07:00

Kanchanaburi

After a couple of crazy days in Bangkok where we spent too many late nights out with mates and too many hours shopping to get a wardrobe ready for Europe, we retired to Kanchanaburi for some sightseeing. As you'd remember, we went to Kanchanaburi back in April when we were travelling with Tim and Traci, but our memory card crashed and we lost all our photos. We had to return to recapture the memories. This time we went with a few new friends - Dave, Doug and Meg. We went back to Erawan National Park with its amazing seven-tiered waterfalls and we also returned to the Tiger Temple. I won't go into details about either of these because I've done that further down in the blog from our last visit - and I'm feeling lazy - but the photos sum it up nicely.

At the second level of the waterfall

Doug, Dave, Bol and Wayne take the plunge

Bol and Dave

Bol and I prepare to go down the natural slipperydip into the pool below

Their paws are bigger than my head!

Bol pretends the tigers are his turntables and has a mix

Bol and I also got the chance this time to go for a train trip along the Thailand to Burma Railway - otherwise known as the Death Railway - across the River Kwai. We also visited Hellfire Pass, where Australian Prisoners of War were forced to work on the railway by the Japanese during WWII. They lived in terrible conditions and had to dig huge tunnels through rock with their hands and dynamite. More than 1000 Australians died during the course of the railway being built. It's an eerie place.

On the train crossing the Bridge over the River Kwai

Hellfire Pass: the POWs had to dig this out by hand

We once again stayed at Little Creek, which is one of our favourite guesthouses. As described last time, it's a series of mud huts spread over 30 acres. There's a great restaurant and swimming pool and it's the perfect place to play poker into the wee hours, as we discovered! It was a great few days and now we're heading back to Bangkok for a couple of nights and then down to the islands for our last two weeks to really relax, because life is just so stressful :)

Our African style hut

Bol unwinds after a stressful day!

The gang - Meg, Wayne, Dave, Doug, Bol and I - play poker at our guesthouse

2006-07-22T22:59:00.000-07:00

Koh Chang

Our journey from Cambodia into Thailand was reminiscent of the television series "The Amazing Race". We caught a taxi, then a ferry, then another taxi, then a bus, then another taxi - running between each - until we jumped on the final ferry headed to Koh Chang with less than a minute to spare. Our race was well worth it though when we arrived at the island which was every bit as relaxing as we had hoped. We originally were going to skip Koh Chang because we'd heard such bad weather reports from other travellers, but as we seem to have done many times on our travels, we took the sunshine with us. We had three days of near perfect weather and we spent our time doing what has become our catch phrase on this trip: "relaxing, eating, drinking and swimming". We also found Koh Chang to be the best place for motorbike riding. Because of its size you could spend a full day riding continuously on the open roads and checking out the many gorgeous beaches tucked away across the island. Granted, there were some more difficult times on the bikes - such as when we had to carry them across a creek because of a broken bridge, to later find we'd be carrying them back across because of a no-through-road ahead! But all in all our riding was so much fun and for Wayne it was his first time riding on this trip, so he was stoked to finally get a chance to get on the bikes.

Long Beach

On the bikes again

One of the many views across Koh Chang

Bol and Wayne cross the creek with the motorbikes

We stayed at Paradise Cottages, which were basic but as the name suggests, absolutely gorgeous. Because it was low season on the islands we paid just 100 baht ($4) for a bungalow on the beach which is usually 400 baht. Bargain! We slept each night with all the windows and doors open so the sea breeze filled the room. The bed was positioned so that our heads were next to a massive window which looked out to the ocean. We'd awake each morning as the sun rose to look out across the sea with the sea breeze gushing in our faces. It was just amazing. Koh Chang was definitely a fantastic start to our return trip to Thailand - and our final month in South East Asia. Next off to Bangkok and Kanchanaburi, which will both be like returning home.

Our humble hut

This is where we'd eat breakfast each morning at our guesthouse

"David" shows you the view from our guesthouse at low tide

Fire twirlers performed on the beach near our guesthouse each night

2006-07-13T01:02:00.000-07:00

Sihanoukville

After Leaving Siem Reap we took the 5 hour bus ride to Phnom Penh and then another 6 hours on another bus to Sihanoukville, a small coastal port town. We we told bfore heading there not to bother because of the constant rain that just wouldn't let up. But it was a choice of taking one of the worst bus trips in Asia from Siem Reap to Bangkok or risk the weather on the coast. Of course we chose the coast trip, not that we don't like long, bumpy, dangerous, uncomfortably cramped bus rides! Anyway, we chose the coast and stuck to it. Indeed the closer we got to Sihanoukville the more it rained, but we didn't care, we just wanted a meal and a drink and somewhere dry to sleep.

The first day there all it did was rain. And rain. And rain. But by the next day the sun started to shine, the sky got blue and we were walking, swimming and generally pretty happy. When we first got off the bus we were greeted by an english bloke called Lee. He co-owened a guest house with his mates called "Monkey Republic". There we stayed and it was like paradise after our trip. Huge tasty meals, cheap cold beer and great bungalows. We were spoilt! It was only a short walk from the beach and internet, had a free pool table and the bonus was it had Playstation 2 with my favourite game, San Andreas! Wicked. And to all my none PS2 mates I didn't just waste my time playing! Only some of it. We spent 6 nights there before heading back to Thailand which was very relaxing. Em, Wayne and I hired some guys to take us to a secluded beach where we swam and ate fresh sea food on the beach. Yep doing it hard for sure.

As this was one of our many relaxing stopovers we didn't get up to very much apart from the eating and swimming and drinking so there isn't that much to tell about Sihanoukville apart from.: if you do go there, which you should if you are in the lower part of Cambodia, stay at Monkey Republic and say hi to Lee for me.

Next it's back to Thailand to enjoy all that Koh Chang has to offer.

Em showing off her bathers that she had made in Vietnam.

Oh the hard hard times....

The short walk to the beach.

Friends hanging out with Lee at Monkey Republic.