Bob & Mels Travels

Highlights

2006-07-13T18:50:00.000Z

Just a quick note to say we are now editing our photos and I'm going to host the results of our filtering someplace soon - keep your eyes peeled!

Bobble

Home now

2006-06-19T14:15:00.000Z

Ok kids sorry for the delay but being back home means that you dont go to internet cafe's nor have time to write blogs as your too bust getting your things together and keeping up with the real world...ugh

A big big thank you to all who came together to make the year an absolutely fantastic one - in the words of Steve BEST EVER! Please people keep in contact and we will try and get around and see you all as and when time and money allow! I am working now as a freelance multimedia developer (so if anyone can give me work the more the merrier!!!).

Anyhow to finish the tale Japan was amazing...not half as expensive as we thought and had the most crazy of experience in tokyo. Hakajuku is bonkers at the best of times but on sunday it kicks off...bands left right and centre down the pavement - the coz u play gang out in their vampy dress and the greasers juving till their legs bleed. Sooo crazy - well been back a while now will update with photos soon all the best and thanks to everyone!!!!!

Land of the Rising sun

2006-04-25T07:35:00.000Z

Wow what can I say but japan is amaaazing....sooo nice the people are all increadibly helpful to us foolish gaijin (thats foreigners) but my 4 words of japanese are standing me in good stead and we are having a blast - Kyoto has been fantastic both in itself and as a base for blasting off on the bullet trains to other cities - they are sooo fast that you can get from hakata (on the bottom island) to tokyo in about 5 hours (and thats not even the fastest as the Nozomi `the elitist train` that we cant get on with our passes does it in about 3!) its great fun - Kyotos temples were increadible and the old town of Nara was fantastic even though it was raining- we saw a giant Buddha housed in the biggest wooden structure in the world! We are in Aso San area at the moment - in a crazy youth hostel in Aso town and tommorow we go and have a look at an active volcano! then to Beppu an Onsen (Japanese Spa) town before heading to Tokyo for 3 days of crazyness. then its back home to blighty!!! OH MY GOD the real world again. Will be strange as!!!!! anyhoo bye for now off to explore....

2006-04-17T05:55:00.000Z

starting back in Phnom Pehn the royal palace

At the Killing Fields - this is actually full of human skulls ranging from kids of 4 to 80 year olds...a truly tragic site.

Angkor Wat - bloomin huge it is
This is me at the top.

The amazing serene faces of Bayon
They are trying to remove a tree that was growing through the building
One of Sooo many carvings
Mel clambering down
Our electric bycycles and a very hot Mel
Cambodia whizzing by in our songthaw
Sunset Koh Lanta

Mel after being soaked tee hee

Happy new year! AKA getting wet at songkran

2006-04-17T05:38:00.000Z

Wow the past 3 days (well 4 if you count my day off to recover from an atrocious hangover) have been mental not only did we spend 1 day coming back from the islands due to our phuket to singapore jaunt we have been absolutely soaked at the Songkran festival. What started off as a water blessing has turned into an all out water war with flour bombs and all sorts. We started getting into the spirit of things after leaving Koh Lanta - it was a great 5 days on the island doing absolutely nothing but going to the 7-11 for crates of beer! Leaving however was a true soaking being picked up in a flatbed truck we might as well have had targets painted on us as soak the tourists became the proffesion of choice - by the time we reached the boat we were piss wet through. Thankfully lying on boats for 3 hours allowed us to dry off by the time we got to Phuket we were in a mini bus and safely deliverd to our hostel - well not actually our hostel as these things go in thailand but one close enough for us to walk without harm to.

Next up we went early in the morning to phuket airport paid an extortionate 1000 baht departure tax for not actually leave the country (but as we were flying via singapore technically we did! but try telling thai officials that we want to pay the cheap 50 baht departure tax as we were flying to bangkok english suddenly became marshan but never mind) We arrived in bangkok thinking that maybe we had missed the rest of the festival ha not likely as soon as we approached the monument we realised all the roads were closed around koh san and we were going to have to walk with our bags for about 30 minutes through one of the most debauched festivals I've ever encountered....the thais certainly know how to party and we arrived conga line fasion to our hostel dumped our bags (with perfect flour hand prints on) and dissapeared to our room to emerge seconds later to the CD shop (our fave little bar/ funky music hangout) to get pretty much annihilated a quick jaunt out to a street party reveiled quite some fun too - the only downside was when the police show up battons in hand to break up the party and pure fear takes over as we surged away from the scene of the 'crime' so back to the CD shop it was - and who would we spot on arrival - helen and dave...super...the next day we bezzed around in a tuk tuk (no windows so getting proper wet!) saw more festivities in Pathpong and met helen and daves mates from home - then back to Rambutri to the shop again and even some carpet drinking action into the small hours. At 5:00am we retired - on awaking at 2:00pm i can only quote withnail and say a pig had shat in my head. Ouch. So after a day off here I am and its off to japan tommorow! bonkers...probably wont e-mail then so I will post some photos in a tick and write again when I get home.

Arrgh I hate air Singapore

2006-04-04T13:48:00.000Z

Damn them we have just found out that we cant cancel our flight to Bangkok even though we are in bloomin Bangkok what a load of rubbish. So we have to travel by bus back to Phuket in order to take a flight via Singapore back to Bangkok again. Rubbish! So were going to be about 2 weeks delayed - bummer indeed but at least we are stuck in Thailand and not Japan - weeks would skint us and we'd have to make all our kind friends remortgage their houses and send us money! But never mind as punishment we are going to have an extra week and a half on thai beaches - its a hard life eh...

Ps if STA ever tell you that you can cancel part of your ticket if you travel by land they are lying...the little gits...

PPS the massage course is going amazingly well although I am aching a little from all the hard work..recieving one is definately allot less like hard work than giving one...

Back in Bangkok

2006-04-02T11:17:00.000Z

ok so here we are again back in bangkok after a hideous bus journey from siem reap that took about 15 hours... shocking....but tommorow is the first day of work...a thai massage course (9am start for 6 hours a day)...gonna be good AND THEN ITS JAPAN COMING UP!!!! Cant wait.

So Angkor Wat is as amazing as everyone says its a truly fantastic place - really amazing and our electric bycycles were sooooo much fun. Zipping about the place making virtually no noise was most fun. But the temples are what its all about - probably the most impressive sights I've ever seen - Angkor wat surpasses the hype - its vast - but the real gem for me was the Bayon - covered in giant serene faces it was a joy to just sit in and soak up - fantastic. Its also given me the bug to go and see other big sights such as the Pyramids and Machu Picchu...but on another trip methinks...

anyway back to the chaos...

Siem Reap

2006-03-27T12:51:00.000Z

Ok we are now in Siem Reap at the moment after a great time in the crazy world that is phnom phen...truly exciting city and pretty scary walking home on unlit streets knowing how many guns there are in the town...but only like new york really...anyhoo...The first night we met up with James and Niki went for a few drinks, waking up a little worse for wear we hiked off around time going to visit the Kings palace, the national museum and some mini art galleries..we made it (only just) in the heat of the day and saw some wonderful pieces of khymer art at the museum and the truly impressive palace....got a little confused in the silver pagoda as they had put carpets down covering the thousands of silver tiles so it was a bit like is this it or isnt it? but beautiful nevertheless.

The next day we had a fab time driven around by a guy called Dike to all the genocide sites...the mass graves at the Killing Fields and S21 the site of the prison where they tortured thousands before their execution. A truly harrowing day, made all the worse by speaking to Dike about losing his brother to the Khymer Rhouge. Real heart wrenching stuff - and a real reflection after vietnam thatthe human race still hasn't learnt any lessons - considering whats going on in Iran Iraq and Africa in the current times its crazy. How many times does history have to repeat itself before it stops or is this it? Is this what the human race is destined for until its inevitable destruction?!?...anyhoo I'm ranting but as you can tell truly moving stuff that really makes you think about the nature of the world.

Well anyhow on that happy note we are off to Ankor Wat (the biggest religious site in the world!) on some electric bicycles (a cross between a moped and a push bike) will update in a couple of days post exhaustion I'd imagine...

Well hello off to phnom phen tommorow

2006-03-23T13:25:00.000Z

Ok so we have spent longer in Saigon than expected - however I really like this city - we've done some cool things so far and the art here has been amazing! We've been to the war remnants museum and the Chu chi tunnels...that has thoroughly explained to me that war is an incredibly horrible and futile occurance in the world. We also visited a Cau Dai temple - quite an amazing experience except for all the tourists... but it was amazing - their religion beleives that they have been saved 3 times by god - once by moses once by jesus - and lastly by confucious - and now in a kind of godly 3 strikes and you're out principle the world has run out of godly luck and we have to save ourselves until it all ends...quite a nice ceremony though lots of crazy singing that built and built.

Anyway we will be sad to say goodbye to HCMC but looking forward to the Cambodian adventure! Phnom Pehn here we come!

Heeeelooo from saigon

2006-03-19T04:24:00.000Z

Well we are in saigon man its a crazy place crossing the road is like having a death wish as you walk out SLoooowwwly to oncoming traffic and let them drive around you...I have never seen so many motorbikes in one place at once...crazy...sooo vietnam adventures are coming to a close but its been an interesting trip - we've just come from Mui Ne that was supposed to be a chilled paradise but was infact a resort packed plastic horrible place that had more wind than perth. Wasll to wall resorts with not an ounce of soul between them...compared to hoi an which we had come from it was a bit of a shock...hoi an was beautiful though - packed again with tourist tat but the old town was stunning - did one of the worst tours there to My Son an ancient temple complex(little tip dont do tours in vietnam if you shy away from being shepherded like a white skinned sheep...baaa) - we were in hoi an for the full moon festival though that was superb really chilled like the old town itself we wandered the streets all lit only by lanterns (they turned all the neon off) and no motorbikes allowed so super quiet (a rarity from the usual beeping that goes on) we watched as kids played a version of pin the tail on the donket that involved smashing stuff ... tiny little kids (4-5 years old) performing kung fu and sword demonstrations...some crazy out of tune singing and loads of guys playing chinese chess...which looks increadibly interesting...gonna get me one of them sets along with a mah jong set - but I do need instructions in english so if anyone knows how to play it help me out - oh and Camy if your reading this please can I go learn to play mah jong with your auntie above Mei mei. ta. Ok then the big news is that we got a ton of clothes made - and by the weight of mels bag now a literal ton! Very nice stuff although the copies of my shirt arent copied but infact the tailor when off and designed something completely random...fits though...got the coolest pair of baggy cords to keep me warm in Japan! Its going to be about 16 degrees there brrrr not looking forward to the temperature at home I can tell you...and on that note I shall say goodbyee for now and see you all sooner than expected probably as we are running out of steam to keep all this tourism malarky up...byeeeee

Good morning from Vietnam

2006-03-10T10:23:00.000Z

So its our first full day in vietnam - arrgh what a shock it is to be here after Laos. We worked our way down from vientiene to pakse(a bit of a dull nothing town but quite relaxing and amazing coffee) then got a boat to Champasak - A very chilled place home of the former royals (you'd be amazed as theres nothing there) - then cycled all the way accross to Wat Poh an amazing ankor era 3 tiered wat with natural springs and amazing carved ruins...a taster methinks for whats to come in Cambodia. From there we had a Wonderful Journey south with the locals - about 40 of us hanging off this thing people on the roof off the sides, all over the place great fun. We ended up in Si Phan Don (4000 islands) in the south for 3 days for extreme relaxed bliss...we met up with Vinnie again (from the slow boat and chang mai!!) as we arrived about 45 minutes apart and took over a section of huts on the sunrise side of the island - our own little balcony with hammocks...Wow the pace of life there is sloooowww....we wake up with the chickens and cockrels at sunrise and were normally asleep soon after sunset but had an amazing time-kayaking on the mekong was pretty relaxing - but then we had to leave (boo)

We headed north on a horribly long local bus (we got totally ripped off too by about 20 dollars!!!- bugger but hey its all character building stuff) and arrived pissed off and tired in Savanaket - one of the busiest 'Cities' in Laos - we were too knackered to appreciate it fully but we wandered around booked a bus to Vietnam saw all the french area and a last sunset on the mekong for a while ate and slept as soon as our heads hit the pillows. Next day an easyish border crossing brought us here to Hue - serious culture shock here as compared to Laos it feels like everyones out to get you...come in my guest house cheap cheap - get on my motorcycle good ride blah blah - just like india again - oh and the use the horn nearly as much i'm sure...but its still quite cute here if super touristy...I reckon a few days of settling in and we'll be well away...so the journey continues country number errrm ...11 blimey ...right best get on with it then as we've only got 2 weeks here rush rush rush running outta time and gotta get back to thailand to do massage courses...hehehe hard life

in vientienne

2006-03-02T09:53:00.000Z

Phew made it out alive-this place is much nicer the capital of Laos is still severely chilled. We've spent the last 24 hours running around like mad trying to see the sights as we leave for the south (Pakse) in about 2 hours - Done the photos so gonna put them up here for ease starting with the latest and working backwards...

First up is That Luang (Royal Stupa) which was constructed in 1566 by King Setthatirat and restored in 1935. Super bling on a gold tip eh!

Next Up is the buddah park...me climbing in a giant concrete pumpkin containing heaven earth and hell....

The park is amazing really bonkers lots of mad hindu/buddhist statues - so that was this morning and this afternoon going back in time to last night there is a massive Laos copy of the Arch de triumph lit up at night which looks like this:

Nice eh shame about the blurry photo but rushing a little in this cafe....ok so the nice bit of Vang Vien looks like this:

Nice eh but the town looks like this:
yuk! And so Moving back even more into the past we have...Yummy street food in Lang Prabang....mnmnmnm the tofu was superb

then the Wat on the hill plus monk Lang Prabang

The PAk Ou Caves with Tons of buddhas crammed in:

Us arriving In lang Prabang
A view on the Mekong:
Last but not least Cooking in Chang Mai!

Hope thak keeps your tastebuds flowing for what we are up to! L8rs folks!

Arrrgghhhh

2006-03-01T05:16:00.000Z

In my last post I said get here before all the tourists do - well scratch that they are already here - in vang vien- we stopped here to break up our journey and its the benidorm / koh samui / full moon party of Laos...and its hideous...I can currently hear 2 episodes of friends at once blaring from the TV bars either side of this internet cafe-what brought the tourists here in the first place - the beautiful Karst hills and caves - have been spoiled forever by the 18 year olds on inflated lorry tyres going down the river off their skulls on 'happy' pizzas and lord knows what else - arrrgh get me out of here - if you do ever get stuck here though gop out of town because the sunset is worth the endurance of westerness in a foriegn land...and the organic cafe and its supporting farm does do amazing sugar beet beer and mulberry pankakes and shakes - in my opinion this places only saving grace...no tv's and right at the end of town - phew...so 1h 35 mins left in this town - I just hope the bus isnt late....you have been warned!

Lang Prabang

2006-02-27T07:16:00.000Z

In Lang Prabang in Laos after a buttock hurting 2 days on the Mekong...even with extra cushions it still is painful to sit down for any length of time...but Laos is definitely all its cracked up to be...most of the land is hills which makes for amazing scenery the people are wonderfully friendly and beer laos is increadible; so good I even bought the T-shirt (oh and one for you Dad to blend in at your poetry gigs!) so far we've seen the royal palace - opulence Laos style is this wonderful understated style...and of course weve already seen a ton of Wats the most spectacular on a hill overlooking the town. Today we have just returned from some caves with heaps of buddah images in them, delivered there by our own private chartered boat - lurrvely. All very nice - just sitting down smiling seems to be pastime enough, that anything you do on top is an added bonus...but we are off cycling around town before we head off soon from this wonderful city (the woman who runs the internet shop singing a lilting tune even as we speak ahhhh.) So basically its great, and if you have a chance get here now before tons of us tourist types muck it up for good.

Hi ho Hi ho its off to Laos we go

2006-02-21T14:14:00.000Z

Obviously not with a bucket and spade or any hand grenades as they've suffered far too many of them, but we are taking some cusions for the slow boat (to prevent sore bottoms on the plank benches) and half a ton of malaria pills to see us through the next 6 weeks...can you belive they have Boots in Thailand...very odd seeing that...anyway looking forward too the onward adventures! Since I last spoke we havent done allot (apart from copious amounts of drinking with Lyndon and Anne) except for Mountain biking (me not mel obviously) down Doi Suthep. Hmm not really ready for the onslaught it was and on a bike that i'm sure wasnt up to the same standard as the other lads (although I think the rider was more substandard than the bike) I managed to make it to the bottom with only 6-18 falls. I lost count after about 4 oops there i go over the handlebars again...managed to take half the skin off my right arm, and bruise my lower half quite amazingly but i did survive to tell the tale! After suffering from more Thai belly of the excruciatingly bad kind (after eating chang mai sausages doh!) we recovered just in time for our cooking course which was so much fun! Man its so easy I'm never eating western food again - sod stirring and roasting - stir fries all the way...we learned spring rolls too which was a great laugh all that tucking and pasting - very healthy too - the winners will be you lot when I find some holy basil (actually holy to hindu's) in brighton and can make you all our fave chicken with chilli and basil mnnmnnmn my mouths watering just thinking about it! Well that was the first time we've cooked for ourselves for about a month and its gonna be about another 10 weeks before we have to do so again...but hold on 10 weeks arrrgh thats all the time we've got left! Right best get off and utilise it - adios for now speak again maybe inVietnam maybe in Laos (but i doubt it somehow not gonna be able to handle modems!)

So in Chang Mai

2006-02-13T06:18:00.000Z

In an internet cafe alongside a crippled melly - poor things seriously hurt her foot and is hobbling around on crutches :( so we are staying close to the hostel and doing jobs like blogging - and finally uploading all those photos - I went out to the sunday market yesterday which was awesome - a shoppers paradise but also a great cultural treat with stages fireworks and all sorts...great fun - and damn fine chicken kebabs. more chilli chicken on sticks but inmy eyes anything on a stick is a kebab.

anyway at least the view from the hostel isnt so bad...

Stuck in bangkok

2006-02-10T14:34:00.000Z

not as bad as I thought this bangkok malarky but it does seem that they make it terribly hard to leave what with fully booked trains and buses....never mind off tommorow to Chang Mai 13 hours on a friggin bus boo hoo never mind hopefully get to hear all the tortoise albums on the way - the saviour of train journeys.

Ps the rest of Kanchanaburi was reasonably well spent what with us going up to an amazing 7 tiered waterfall in erthan national park...

Then we went to a place called hellfire pass where POW's were forced to excavate a path in the rock using mostly hand tools. Pretty haunting images of the amount of POW's that died in its construction, especially meaningful when you walk around it yourself in that heat its shocking to think of. We then surreally rode the 'death' railway back into town. Very informative but deeply moving place.

Bridge over the river Kwai and Tigers

2006-02-06T06:08:00.000Z

Well we are in Kanchanaburi sleeping in a hostel on (yes actually "on" its floating) the river kwai...we've met up with some lovely folk from the mother country who transported me yesterday on the back of a moped up to the tiger temple and right good fun it was indeed - somehow the monks have given the tigers some kind of enlightenment (could be drug induced you just dont know) and they sit around in a big cavern chilling out and trying not to growl- you could even call it meditating. Then you invite groups of tourists to go and stroke them...yup again when I manage to get photos on CD I will display you with some photos of me being a complete fool again (remember swimming with sharks) and stroking a tiger....sounds even dafter when you say it out loud "I'm stroking a tiger" all very odd but super cute and I can now confirm that like their little cousins I am allergic to tigers...holding off a sneeze when your inches away so you dont scare the little fellas is a pretty mean feat I can tell you.

Here they are:

One got a little annoyed by my stroking advances and decided to kick me...well at least he didn't eat me eh...I missed the procession due to an extreme case of thai belly and not being let back in - monks food I feel should be left to the monks themselves and not eaten by over zealous englishmen...I think its because I've got more hair than a monestry full of monks that beard envy struck and they devided to poison me. Anyway as the sun was setting we buzzed back at 120kmph (on the back of a 100 cc moped is no mean feat and involves precarious balancing and a deathwish) but Steve pulled it off and I lived to see the bridge over the river Kwai...yes that bridge - now if the POW's knew the death railway would be enjoyed so much by hoardes of tourists screaming with delight I dont think it would have lightened their mood....It certainly is a strange world we live in - I never quite can get my head around so many people having such a great time at the sites of great tragedy - but I suppose we did join in getting chased by the train off the bridge (all still wearing our crash helmets - we were quite a sight and became a spectacle itself especially as the train was only going about 1kmph) Anyway off to try and do some exploring today but I fear life on the river has induced both lethargy and illness (belly hurtie) so I must leave you now and dash to the loo byeee

Bangkok tommorow

2006-01-31T12:05:00.000Z

So we've been in Thailand nearly a week - it seems like longer for some reason. We landed in phuket without ahitch and snuck upstairs in the airport avoiding the touts and jumped onto the bus into town...very handy...then found out after a long hot walk into oldtown (not that long but feels like it in the heat with your backpack on) our guesthouse hopeful was fully booked - so we nipped round the corner to the hotel where they filmed the 'boudoir' scene in that appauling film "the beach" ... so my bottom may well have brushed the same spot as leonardo de caprio..and if it is the same room - leo you left some ...echem..."mens" magazines behind

We then got a boat straight to Kho Phi Phi the next day...so nice we kinda got stuck...would still be there now if we didnt have to get to Bangkok to meet mels friend and sort our visas for vietnam and laos and of cause the dreaded japanese rail pass (its going to basically skint us but never mind).... I've worked out that 15 days travel on the train in japan is the equivalent to over 1000 beers in Thailand maybe more..shocking...

Kho Phi Phi is a crazy tourist trap with everything focused on taking you cash..the rooms are overpriced...as is the beer but... its still bloody lovely...so many nice little hideaways - great view - lovely beach - nice folk all in all just what we needed to recharge the batteries superb...however the scale of the devistation from the tsunami there is still very apparent (which is also why you dont mind parting with a little extra cash) theres so many places still being rebuilt - its odd to see all the big hotels up and running but all the people still struggling to build their own houses but I suppose thats tourism for you...the memorials scattered around the island along with all the pictures displayed are pretty moving but its also nice to see everyone just getting on with life.

anyhoo the next installment will come I'm sure after we have negotiated the kho san road and are probably well away from the chaos that awaits us!

Thailand Tommorow

2006-01-25T12:03:00.000Z

Sooo back from malaysia and what a fun time was had...but seriously in need of some pretty beaches after all this smoggy town life. We went from the Cameron Highlands to Penang a little island that once again the British used to call home, jesus, we get everywhere dont we. Anyway penang was odd...not really my favourite place but it grows on you a little. Glad to be back in singapore so you can make your own mind up if you know what I mean. We did travel to an amazing temple and up the penang hill (seeing some sleeping vipers in the trellis was my highlight) but watching the sun set over the town and the lights turn on was quite fun. Anyway I cant wait for the upcoming travels although its all happening a little too quick as we've only got about 97 days left...which considering the amount of time we had at the beggining sounds like peanuts....Japan jaunts are now being reduced to a rush around in 2 weeks due to the fact that we intend drinking at least a weeks worth of the Japan budget on some beatiful white sandy beach (if we havent drunk it already by the time we get there). So speak again from some crazy place in the middle of thailand I suspect....oh and will put photos up shortly when I find a machine whos CD drive works!

We saw it

2006-01-20T02:16:00.000Z

After a 4.5 hour treck through the jungle we saw em...massive things - will post a photo when we have more bandwidth - dont smell as bad though as our guide cleaned em up before hand as they attract snakes, and they have black spitting cobras here - we went and saw 2 males which dont smell then 1ish female (it was already dying back) and some younglings....great fun...anyway off to collapse now byeeee

and here it is....

;)

Cameron Highlands

2006-01-18T09:22:00.000Z

Hello from Malaysia....so what have i been up to well...first up was the sailing boat trip in Sydney harbour....it was supposed to be a really beautiful romantic jaunt - but infact although really fun and tricky (sailing is harder than it looks - allot harder) mel was so ill (vomitus maximus) that I ended up having to eat most of the seafood platter (as Mels seefood wasnt nice) it was lovely sat on deck though if it wasnt so windy it gave you sea sickness with the rocking. But anyhoo it was fun and a niceish end to adventures in OZ.

The flight to Singapore with singapore air was interesting; I think that they are staffed with war painted proffesional feeders - I've never eaten so much food on a plane ever. Singapores nice a bit dull and certainly is the nanny state - the monsoon season there didn't help us enjoy it much as we spent most of the time hiding from rain. Malaysia is much cooler we started off with an easy border crossing on the coach from singapore up to Melaka. Its a real nice small town with an amazing Chinatown - walking around at night made us feel like we were on holiday all over again - met some nice people and found a fave little spot in a cafe down by the river. Have now taken to napping in the afternoon though as the humidity gets overwhelming and really havent acclimatised yet.

We then moved on to KL aka Kuala Lumpur - this place is a real big city - smoke galore and giant high rises everywhere. Its a bit claustrophobic. We did go up the telecom tower (to the top) and the petronas twin towers bridge walk which is an odd experience in itself. It lasts for about 2 mins and you cant go all the way accoss just up 1 tower to the middle back and back down... but its the super complex queueing and waiting system that gets me - must have got it from the british empire along the way somewhere as its totally bonkers.

Anyway sitting in chinatown watching all the illegal hawkers avoid the police was the best bit really. We arrived up in the much cooler much more pleasant Cameron Highlands today and are off on a landrover tommorow in an attempt to see the biggest flower in the world (that stinks like rotting flesh allegedly!) anyhoo if i survive i'll write again...byeee for now

Singapore here we come

2006-01-08T01:35:00.000Z

So just recovered from the 3 day india pacific trip on the train; pheeewie thats a seriously long amount of time to spend on a train. Plus the staff this time were useless...played the same night movie almost every night can you beleive that...shocking. Anyway not a very good journey and to be back in Sydney again is a big shame considering all the other places we have stayed in Oz...I swear the hostels here are worse than anywhere else in the world...(or just the ones we've stayed in anyway). Cant wait for south east asia now as we leave on Wednesday...should be great especially as our roomie is a guy from Malaysia he's been giving us the lowdown on KL and the like; so getting us even more excited...this might be the last major blog for a while as the travelling is going to pick up pace quite drastically...so speak again when I'm able..byyeeeee

Back to sydney tommorrow

2006-01-03T11:26:00.000Z

Well with any luck as long as our train hasnt been cancelled due to floods...in bloody summer I don't know...anyway; Christmas and new year have been an absolute hoot with Simon and Loz (and Helen and Dave) however maybe there was TOO MUCH DRINKING!!! There I said it thought I never would but my kidneys are hurting heheheee....so a few piccies to tell you what we've been up to:
First up Christmas sunshiiine:

at cottesloe...body surfing in nice big waves is a greeeat thing to do after a couple of drinks... then DINNER!
on Simon and Lozzes balcony.

Then boxing day we went to stay with Lozzes freinds down at margaret river where we did some amazing things including attempting to wakeboard?!?!? oohh errr never made it up but did manage to strain every muscle in my entire body!

Then after much mooching and wine tasting (including us chipping in for a $55 bottle...but tasting it now and it is that good) and general hob nobbing in the lovely town of margaret river we made our way to pemberton..home of big karri tree's which you can climb...of course never one to deny fate a chance to kill me off up I went....twice...first up the Glousescter tree clocking in at 61 meters high...

and then the diamond one at 54 meters...oh by the way no safety ropes just steel reinforcing poles hammered into the side of each tree with a bit of wire mesh to the side of it...excillerating stuff....especially when people are trying to get past!Heres a couple of views on the way up...

And so to new year

Stereo Mc's at New Years Eve

Us a little innebriated clockwise from me: Me Helen Dave Simon and Mel!

The last attempt at being a civilised human being before bed....hmmm not working me thinks...

Anyhoo I think thats enough for now sl8rs

Comments

2005-12-20T03:10:00.000Z

hey folks you can comment on my blog now if you want to leave messages although if people I dont know start spamming it I'll turn it off again lets see how it goes...

West Coast Adventures - Perth to Monkey Mia

2005-12-20T01:20:00.000Z

Just got back from up the west coast of Oz with Aussie Outback Safaris...from Perth to Monkey Mia via the Pinnacles, Kalbarri ,Greenough and the Billabong Roadhouse!

The first day was the Pinnacles - amazingly strange desert landscape where large needles of rock stick out from the ground. Some looking distinctly phallic!

Next up was Suicide dune (after 4 attempts and flatter tyres we made it up driving over the otherside in the 4x4 was terrifying) We stopped for a bit of sandboarding (great going down, hell coming back up) - where the dunes were so steep it would have been foolish having never snowboarded to attempt to stand up so it was on my arse on the board I went down.

Next up was Kalbarri a wonderful seaside town and home to the Kalbarri national park, with attractions such as Natures window and some Extreme abseilling. My first one was a genteel lazy backwards abseil down the z bend gorge. Next up though I abseiled down the cliff - forward - yes just like the SAS - running down the rock with a look of sheer terror...and halted in midair like something out of mission impossible (alhough screaming at the top of your lungs like a girl is something Tom Cruise would never be caught doing!)

The gorges are stunning though and natures window a fantastic look out spot and a great place to climb around...

We finally got up to Shark Bay - a world heritage area - and have seen some of the loveliest scenery since we've been in oz... We waded with dolphins at Monkey Mia(at arms length as they eye you up and chirp and squeak like flipper). We saw our first on arrival at sunset. A beatiful evening followed where I slept on the beach in my swag!

The next day we saw the dolphins up close being fed, they are wild dolphins and only get 20% of their food from the rangers. Truly amazing sight!

We then went out on a katamaran and caught a fleeting glimpse of a dundenong at Monkey Mia- a sea cow more closely related to a hippo than the whale it looks like (mind you blink and you miss them coming up for air once every 10 minutes for about 1 second!) On the way back in we went boom netting aka half drowning in a net in the back of a boat as the capitain pulls some speeds in the catamaran attempting to either sink you or tear your arms from their sockets as you cling on for dear life.

I think more impressive was wading with sharks a few miles down the road...reef sharks, black tipped, tiger sharks all live in the area. Sounds like a really stupid thing to do (and is when your tour guide cuts his foot on a rock) but its outstanding seeing these guys litterally feet away....and they are supremely fast when they realise your not food, thankfully! We got one a little confused and he swam between the group (under a meter away from me!).We also stopped at Ocean Park a great place to stop to see the turtles and Sharks being fed by some guys with a real passion for what they are doing

And most importantly, although least impressive, we saw one (out of two) of the only living formations in stromatolites in the world - one of the most important single cell organisms in the history of life on earth; without them working for millions of years putting oxygen in our athmosphere we wouldnt be here at all. Not much to look at as they look like blobby black mushroom shaped rocks but amazing to think what they represent; and to see them bubble air up through the water!

That night we went 'roo spotlighting (driving round a cattle station in a 4x4 with a big spotlight finding 'roos) at Eurardy Station. I also made my first ever damper on the fire!!! Great with toasted marshmellows.

The next day on our return journey back to Perth we fed kangaroos, emus, horses, camels, donkeys and pigs at Greenough nature park.

A great place run without funding by people that really care for the animals they have with a passion. He also has a snake breeding program and both had a 3 meter python wrapped round our neck!

Last up was some wine tating in the Swan Valley (actually our 3rd trip there that week as we'd been twice before with Simon and Loz) and got a delicious bottle of white port. Fantastic stuff would do it again; and could live in monkey mia for at least 6 months its beautiful.

Swan Valley

2005-12-11T00:20:00.000Z

Just a quick one to say the Swan Valley is awsome...some of the best wine ever and beer too!

V Drunk now ... night night

Alice to Adelaide to Perth

2005-12-07T12:30:00.000Z

So we're now in Perth after crossing thousands of miles and doing the longest peice of straight train track in the world! so what happened on the way I hear you ask...well Alice Springs was a heady mix of drunken parties, half a ton of fried chicken, massive screaming red bugs and lizards, snakes and crocks at a reptile house. All very fun! We got our train without a hitch back to Adelaide - where we managed to blag our tour guides house! Very nice it was too...so we chilled out went for picnics and generally relaxed in front of the box for 5 days (with a couple of trips to the art galleries for good measure) ... so thanks Steve - best tour guide ever! (PLUG:If your ever in Melbourne or Adelaide do some Groovy Grape Tours!!)

We then went on a 2 night 3 day trip across the Nullarbor Plain with the christmas India Pacific train - so called because we had a bloody Australian Idol winner on board who kept making the train stop to perform gigs...although it was handy in Kalgoorlie as it meant we could slope off to a pub for an hour... man thats a long journey though, thank god for sleeping tablets...lots of very strange places passed through as well...such as cook - an odd place with population of roughly 4! Including 2 very crazy ladies indeed with haircuts in the bowl tradition. Very amusing too seeing a guy dressed as santa in the middle of the desert nearly dying from heat exhaustion...

It was with great relief that we arrived in Perth to see Simon and Loz through he window of the train as it arrived at the platform. A short hop on public transport to their flat (very nice sea views and everything) a couple of drinks later fell asleep at about 9:00. Missed the biggest asteroid falling in Perth due to extreme exhaustion! Never mind I'm sure theres lots to soo coming up!

Back from the Outback

2005-11-25T01:28:00.000Z

So Back in Adelaide after an absoloutly amazing 10 days. I cannot stress how much fun I've had on Desert Patrol! The tour left 10 days ago with our guides Steve and Rob (Rob being in training, his first time in the red centre, and Steve being the guy who started groovy grape and a damn fine guide!) First up was a very hungover bus (allot of them had been on the barossa trip the night before), we went through allot of small towns like Quorn and Hawker - old outpost towns - and to Yourambulla caves a nice warm climb up to the overhangs where we had Aboriginal Rock Drawings explained then drove to Angorichina, in the magnificent Parachilna Gorge where we stayed the night and ate a massiv BBQ with more Roo Mnmnm. Amazing place where the Kids to School of the Air as they are too remote too get to school (its all done on the internet nowadays of course but it used to be done on the radio hence school of the air).

Next day we came off the Oodnadatta Track and followed the Old Ghan Railway and its long abandoned railway settlements. Stopped at a crazy artists place called Talc Alf and at an eerie ghost town. We also stopped at a very strange sculpture park, made in protest to the uranium mining its next to. We ended up driving up to William Creek (South Australia's smallest town) where we set up camp under the desert stars. It is also a massive cattle station made up land about the size of holland...bonkers. After an uneventful night (except for the annoying irish leprecaun of a bloke and mel thinking a plastic bag was a dingo) we ate breakfast with the flies and headed off again. This time to Coober Pedy - Opal Capitol of the world. Its A Crazy place where the locals mostly live underground (due to the temperature extremems) and the water goes through so much filtration that its one of the most expensive tapwaters in the world. Theres a hell of a lot of tax evading going on here and its a really funny place full of colourful characters. That evening we watched the sunset over the breakaways where Mad Max 2 and Pitch Black were filmed, though the flys were a bit of a downer. We even had a pint that night in an underground bar, and slept inour underground hostel. Very odd time.
(Our bus and underground home)

We got up reasonably early the next day and drove up the Stuart Highway with several pitstops en route. We eventually arrived set up camp and went straight to Uluru (Ayres rock) for sunset.. The rock is amazing and it really does change with the light. The only problem was all the thousands of tourists we had to share it with...shocking. We went to bed early to awake to hit it again on the other side for sunrise. Then after walking around it (10k!!!) and learnig about it in the cultural center we finally got some chilled time next to the pool (we actually snuck into a posh resort and used their pool instead of the crappy one they give the campers...much nicer hehehe). Sunset that night we were taken to a secret spot our guide knew where there was no one else but us and watched the sun set again on Uluru and Kata Tjuta (the Olgas) Much better on our own you could really appreciate the place and the stillness of it. A stunning moment as the sky lit up red and the whole group just sat there in silence staring at the beauty of the place.

(check out my added beer weight in this pic...mnmnmn too many new zealand pies too methinks)

That night in camp we had a little visitor...which sent 3 of our group to camp on the van . The visitor being a Snake. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending upon how you look at it) me and Me didnt awake to the hilarity of people falling out their swags trying to run for the bus...never mind

The next day we went up to Kata Tjuta, and hiked the valley of the winds...we had a bit of a lie in but it was still hot hot hot. Sweated buckets on the walk but at least the breeze cooled us down. We had Lunch and headed up to Kings Canyon and unbeleivably our last night in swags (they're suprisingly comfy if you can get over the feeling of being in a canvas bodybag). The night was great with us all sat round the camp fire telling stories, the group really came into its own on the last few days and we made some good mates. The next day we had an amazing walk through kings canyon...the most spectacular walk i think..you go through all these crazy rock formations on this big sandstone plateau then all of a sudden you hit this water hole called the garden of eden and it becomes really lush. We even got to swim in it its that big.

A perfect break in the middle of a very hot walk. The drive back wasnt as simple as we thought. after picking up some passengers off another tour bus (whose bus had broken down) we went up an old dirt road (allegedly part of the highway) when all of a sudden this storm hits us and the ground starts to turn into swamp...sowe turn round drive out to the edge of the storm and wait...whilst cracking out some beers of course. It soon passes and off we go again all the way to Alice springs...We all check into a cackhole of a hostel but it soon doesnt matter as we are all absolutely legless at 2:00 in the morning wondering where on earth we can get more beer from...it doesnt happen so we all pass out to super hangovers in the morning...although it was a very good way to catch up on some seriously needed sleep!

Great Ocean Road

2005-11-14T00:55:00.000Z

So in adelaide and back from touring the great ocean road...I've had an amazing time. We went past Tourquay first and the home of Ripcurl and Quicksilver...lots of big houses where the surfers have got seriously rich but all very close to the beach for obvious reasons... We visited Bells beach home of the giant waves...although not really performing for us and only a couple of guys out :( ... Then we went out past the lighthouse used in Round the Twist (loved that show when i was a nipper) and onto the ocean road Proper... The drive is amazing superb views..crazy jetsons style houses, lush...we eventually ended up at the Twelve Apostles - Crazy rock formations that stand up from the coast...They looked better from the air though as we dove onto a helicopter for a birds eye view...great laugh, amazing views.

The whole area was full of fantastic scenery little coves with stalagtites and blow holes all sorts. The next day we drove further up past rock formations called things like London Bridge the Bay of Matrys and the Bay of Islands (all a bit formationed out by the afternoon). Funny Story about London bridge though. It used to be connected to the mainland but when part of it fell it trapped a couple on the island remaining...all the media came out to film the unlucky couple getting recued. what was more unlucky though was the the couple were actually not husband and wife but a husband with his secretary...naughty boy got totally caught out.

Anyway we came off the ocean road and headed inland towards the grampians. Via an amazing spot where we saw a Koala pass the path in front of us with its baby on its back, and a Waterfall where on our return we were trreated to Kangaroos kick boxing... amazing.The Sunset at the grampians was also amazing from a lookout at the top of a mountain looking right over the valley. The sun was casting light rays in a cheesy hand of god type way absolutely terrific stuff.
After a BBQ and sleep we awoke to a 4.2k walk - some fantastic sights including Grand Canyon (no not that one obviously) and Silent street a tough climb up betweeen huge rock formations up to another great lookout. We unfortunately got off course by about .8k and the bus left without us...leaving us for 30 minutes in the pouring rain (on cue as soon as we knew we were lost the heavens opened) horrid. Thankfully they came back, and drove us to Adelaide...which is bit like Australias version of Croydon. But with a better green belt.

Went to the Barossa valley on some wine tasting here...went to the Orlando Estate ... home of Jacobs Creek....We've both discovered Port...current tipple of choice is the Orlando port...made with brandy as well as the grapes...MNMN...A great sleep aid. Went to some superb wineries and ate Kangaroo at a nice BBQ lunch...delicious and really rich meat! Ended the day sozzled in front of the telly in the hostel with several more glassses of the nose reddening stuff.

Seen Howl's Moving Castle at the cinema here which was a welcome releif and an awsome film if you like Spirited Away. Same Studio superb stuff! So biding our time here till we head off to the outback! Can't wait!

g'day from melbourne

2005-10-31T08:48:00.000Z

Well hello in Melbourne now and its cup day tommorow and the sun is shining!!!! So australia what can i say...on landing in sydney we were greeted with nothing but idiot backpackers sleaze and a serious lack of sleep. The sights are nice but Kings cross sucks. So after 5 days we got the hell out of there to the tranquil town of byron bay for some much needed sleep relaxation and good times...We stayed at a place called the arts factory an old hippy commune and gig venue(originallly the piggery) One of the friendliest places we have stayed. We had allot of fun times apart from stalker stu who was this big (i mean big) guy who just wouldnt leave us alone...never mind. We went to the most easterly point of mainland Oz and watched allot of amazing surfing. We then coached it up to Brisbane for a day trip as the only cheap flight was the next day. Good town and a really funky south bank with a man made beach and swimming pool. v cool.

Me with a lamp post coming outta my head on st kilda pier melbourne(cheers mel)

Anyhoo Melbournes fantastic, good city friendly people and all in all fantastic place to visit...lots of backlane cafe's and bars great parks...even a beach in st kilda...its got everything! So good we are styaying 2 weeks and a bit...then its off down the great ocean road and off to adelaide and then the red centre cant wait anyhoo time up on this machine so byeeeeeee

Christchirch 4 walls and a bed

2005-10-07T23:54:00.000Z

Well hello peeps from Christchurch NZ. This is a very very intruiging little place thats prentending to be somewhere in england...nice try but its full of Kiwis!...anyhoo havent really seen much of it as we have just left the Van...ah the memories the memories...however its fekin ace to be in a real room (especially one with a heater telly fridge telephone own bath and shower and an electric blanket...the luxury of it all) We spent last night eating take out in bed watchin sky movies for about 8 hours listening to the rain outside the windo and chuckling...however this maybe due to the fact that the last days spent in the van were a little trying to say the least. I basically caught flu and we were holed up in akaroa in the middle of a gale on the side of a hill with satan himself unleashing his worst rain and wind at the van..while we huddled inside playing cards

...not that fun really but nevermind...mind you the fish and chips are good there...and its quite cute in the sun... and very french (well for a place in NZ that is)

anyhow what have we been up to..basically from chistchurch we headed down the west coast to te anau and new zealands fiordland..basically really dramatic landscapes and beautiful countryside. We free camped on the banks of the lake and took a trip up to milford sound from there. Milford is renound as NZ's most scenic countryside...however our walk the day before was in spectacular weather and so we were a bit biased but it basically looks like this:

Not bad really. Shame it wasnt either heaving it down (loads of waterfally alllegedly) or as sunny as the day we had before, but never mind - got another boat trip out of it too and saw penguins, and seals and all sorts so cant compain (hehehe) . The next thing we did was go off towards the catlins coast we legged it down to bluff via Invicargill (arrrgh dont stop keep driving they all look like siblings) and headed for the catlins coast...we cut off a load (doh) going on the inland road but doubled back to a place called nugget point...which is an amazingly beautiful place lush beaches and its own penguin and seal colonies... we stayed at a placve called kaka point at the friendliest campsite ever...we'd run out of cash were in the middle of nowhere and they let us stay and use their facilities and then let us drive off in the morning to go to the next village to get their cash for them...so nice! We then went off to omarau past these crazy perfectly spherical boulders where i couldnt resist a little nod to daniel san...well if he had perfectly round boulders instead of a groyne then i bet mr myagi would have him practice on them!

Anyhoo Omaru was a v cool old place with some of the most eccentric characters ever (the book shop guy called bill who is actually a carpenter was prone to getting his mates together dressing up in full english millitary uniform and having organic food fights! He's also a fawn in the new Lion the witch and the wardrobe film) Its also where the wizard of christchurch hangs out when he's not in christchurch. quite. Anyhoo we didnt see the blue penguins there as it looked like a freakshow for the japanese with giant grandstands and all sorts...so we headed up to mount cook for a while and chilled out for a few days walking in the mountains...went to lake tekapo and then killed time got flu and ended up right here... gonna hang around for a while here in Christchirch and hope the weather improves and see what happens. Thats all for now folks!

Hello from queenstown

2005-09-22T01:19:00.000Z

In queenstown at the moment after travelling allot of the south island already (well the west coast anyhoo) now what have we done...Abel Tasmin went on a longish afternoon walk there beautiful countryside lush coastline and lots of sun...we then went down the coast to nelson (beatiful lots of wine growing but a bit boring to be honest) then on down to climb the longest swing bridge in nz (indiana jones eat your heart out) see sea lions in westport...amazing pancake rocks (crazy limestone formations) and dolphins off the coast as well as a beautiful sunset...then into the bad weather of franz joseph and some spectacular scenery of Fox Glacier...which we hiked on (cold feet brrr) really pretty though...then on to wanaka where we met Pierre from rarotonga watched a rail jam (where crazy loons make a snow slide and snowboard a rail if you didnt know all in the middle of wananka high street) and chill in front of a TV and fire. A nice rest from van life

We went to puzzle world and got completely lost in a giant maze and had funny photos of us holding up buildings (or sitting on them in a way the children just didnt understand)...and then have come to queenstown home of the xtreme sport and bungee...not that we are gonna do one - tried to go hang gliding instead but the operators been stoppped oh well te anau and milford sound here we come...still luging was quite fun as was the crazy golf...off to eat more pies now byeeeeee

All's well in Wellington

2005-09-10T03:51:00.000Z

Ah so last day in north island the sun has come out and Melly has a killer of a hangover...wellingtons a great city -with an amazing radio station that plays kruder and dorphmeister on its breakfast show! I kid you not!!!! Its probably the best radio station in the world! heheh superb - I could live here even though there are a few too cool for school folk (especially at the hip hop festie today jeez stop staring at each other and get on with dancin)...but for a capitol its really intimate...pretty much like a large town / small city life really...got an awsome museum te Papa (which is free hurrah) .. .and we have adopted a place called plums as a second home as it makes damn fine giant bowls of coffee...In fact this place rocks...except for the fact that beer is super expensive :(
Anyway picton awaits and another boat journey ... Hurrah!

12000 ft of oh my god

2005-09-04T22:32:00.000Z

Ok yes that pictures not fake, theres no blue screen it is me standing very close to the edge of an open plane door attached an absolute stranger...and it must be the collest thing i've ever done...leap out of a plane at 12000ft what a feckin rush...we are in taupo the weather for the jump was perfect blue skies as far as the eye can see and pollen coming out of the trees. Was jumping with a guy called Brad who gave me a wonderful biology/science lesson on the way up and in the parachute on the way down about wind shear and pine pollen...all very good to calm me down from the fact that I JUST JUMPED OUT A FEKKIN PLANE....if you ever get a chance do it, as its an indescribable feeling, just as you tip out as it feels super strange as you fall at 200kph toward the ground...but your far away enough to enjoy the fantastic 360 view rather than fear being splatted and then before you know it (or just as I was thinking "i wonder when he's going to open the parachuuuuuuuuuu" whooosh) 5 minuites of gentle gliding and your back on the ground with the biggest high your ever going to get. Fekkin awsome.

NZ Van Life

2005-08-30T02:59:00.000Z

Hi from NZ currently in Rotorua with another wonderful stench of sulphur...pheeew. Currently sleeping in a van with Wild Things (childrens book) graffiti'd all over It...which gets some looks I can tell you....Aching a bit today as yesterday we were in waitomo and abseiled 26 odd meters down into an underground stream before getting on inner tubes and going underwater caving..turning your helmet light out allows you a view of hundreds and hundreds of glow worms...a phenominal sight (although very tricky navigating by glowworm light alone) a long trudge back upstream and we then had to climb our way back out again...good fun but tires you out especially climbing with a soaking wet super thick wet suit on... NZ country side is amazing and the weather here's treating us right...going off now to get drunk as free camping doesnt allow you to really get to the pub (as you normally have to hide yourself away on mountain sides or woodland) anyway hope ya all having fun...l8rs...(ps heres me at the top end of NZ gonna see if we can make it to stewart island right at the bottom! it wasnt cold just super windy!!!!)

Off to Aukland

2005-08-16T13:40:00.000Z

Just a quick post to say we are off to aukland tommorow woohoo come on the meat pies and Vino you can drink without gagging and an Ale my kingdom for an ale (can you tell i'm excited) we've been sat in the hotel room this morning recovering from a rowdy night at the northern club for mels birthday dreaming of food and civilisation. Good night even if one of the old fellas was trying to tell us that evolution had just been disproved .. oh well...lovely bloke though actually had seen me before on his island in the yasawas and he did buy us a load of booze(well under duress from alan the 72 year old alkie) hehehe it was a laugh though and I had the best tamarind and fish curry ever...proper black it was lurrvely...so yes still eating our way round the world looking forward to eating an entire lamb by the time we've left NZ....just hope the fish is as good as here but we'll see...so next time i write it hopefully wont take me 1000 years to check my e-mail...oh the only downside will be that its going to be freezing in NZ it dropped under 20 degrees when we were in the bush and it felt like sub zero....doesnt bode well really...anyhoo hope you like the image mel + cat and our house in long beach in the yasawas called a bure and would have been lovely if the bed wasnt calapsing!

More from fiji

2005-08-09T00:44:00.000Z

The pace has slowed down quite considerably. That'll be fiji time then...Just got back from Ovalau to the mainland where we've been staying in the bush on a bloke called Bobo's farm. Nice fella - although his wife is german but you cant have everything...he owns an absolute stack of land in which he's built his own house. Drank loads of Kava and went to watch the local rugby team...pretty mad that...all the local women sing lilting war songs as these giant fijians smack 7 bells out of each other. then all go to the local club (more gentlemans club than flashing lights afair) and get smashed out their heads on beer and grog. All great fun. Bobo also has an interesting bath/water source in the form of a home made resevoir. Great for a morning cleanse although you do have to share it with freshwater prawns and fishes! (check bobo diving not bad for a 52 year old!) Off to to the coral coast and singatoka...L8rs

Fiji

2005-07-29T07:24:00.000Z

Just got back from the mamanuca and yasawa islands in fiji. Got quite an expensive tour but its been worth it 12 days cruising around island hopping some of the most beautiful landscapes I have seen. Its been a fantastic few days, but as i havent got much time I'll just give you the highlights:

Caving underwater...snorkelling through underwater caves and swiming under a rock to get in so excillarating... even if did get bitten by sea lice

Coral snorkelling, did loads of it even in the blue lagoon (Brooke Shields film) and by the island Castaway (tom hanks) was set on superb nevber seen anything like it

Boat trips...spent 2 days drinking Kava on the wanataki Kayak and a day cruise on the seaspray...great fun

Swimming with Manta rays...sooo big these things are enormous and so graceful even if they do look a bit like predator...

Lots of chilling and island life in general...man i could settle up here...

any way more when i have more time

Peace Out

Bobble

sun is shining the weather is sweet

2005-07-13T00:28:00.001Z

and at last having the island experience we were hoping for...so far i have snorkeled...made an umu kai feast from scratch with the help of an old crazy islander called Piri Purito III - boxing champ and coconut climber extrodinaire - basically kids dig a big hole in your back yard fill it with volcanic stones...light a fire and heat them up...then soak chicken (or meat of your choice) in sea water, and wait for the stones to heat up....then flatten them out - stuff the chicken with leaves, and wrap them in banana leaves softened on the fire...cover the fire with banan bark...put the chickens round the outside then use salted lamb necks and spinachin a big pile on a few banana leaves wrap them up as well and stick them in the middle throw on root vegetables of your choice and a pumpkin cover with umbrella leaves and go snorkelling for a few hours - come back get some coconuts from trees hack open and use grated coconut as a nice side...if you find any spprouted ones use them as desert and an afterdinner chewing gum!...good stuff...(by the way Piri also makes the best BBQed tuna ever!) anyway finally having a good laugh in the sun met lots of lovely peeps and having a thoroughly good crack getting drunk on rarotongan lager (at 6% it does the trick)!

sun is shining the weather is sweet

2005-07-13T00:28:00.000Z

and at last having the island experience we were hoping for...so far i have snorkeled...made an umu kai feast from scratch - basically kids dig a big hole in your back yard fill it with volcanic stones...light a fire and heat them up...then soak chicken (or meat of your choice) in sea water, and wait for the stones to heat up....then flatten them out - stuff the chicken with leaves, and wrap them in banana leaves softened on the fire....puth the round the outside then use salted lamb necks and spinachin a big pile on a few banana leaves wrap them up as well and stick them in the middle throw on root vegetables of your choice and a pumpkin cover with umbrella leaves and go snorkelling for a few hours - come back get some coconuts from trees

Rain Stops Play

2005-07-06T00:05:00.000Z

Hello world from the cook islands...so you thought you had rain at glastonbury..pah thats nothing compared to the torrential downpour we had for our first 4 days in the cooks...at one point we thought our beach house was going to come down!...its been nicer the last few though have got up to me waist in the water so far hopefully it will be warm enough to actually snorkel tommorow if the rain blasts it down....went to probably the worst night ever last night full of idiot trustafarian backpackers, met a few nice locals but they were more interested in scoring an english slapper than actually talking. Ahhh the english abroad...still the scourge of the seven seas... Hopefully will do a bit more roaming now its brightened up...off to the other main island monday...will report again when i actually have some news...oh and thanks for all those b'day e-cards keep em coming! (shame you cant put fivers in them though hehehehe)

Venice Beach

2005-06-29T03:05:00.000Z

So we are in venice beach now in LA. Still to reitarate if you havent heard allready we definately left our hearts in san francisco...loved the hostel (the green tortoise) as much as the place itself but with a plethora of free festivals it was all a bit too good...We popped down to san diego for a while between san fran and here...it was nice but too full of californian fakes to be a place to warm too...we happened upon the annual ocean beach festival which was good fun but too full of american shallowness to actually be fun. We visited balboa park (that is more like a theme park full of car parks and museums) but did see an amazing conservatory with some wonderful carniverous plants... mind you with the only free thing there it was the highlight! We popped over to tijuana too which is more like an an american pharmacy than real mexico...but a few cheep Coronas and some delicious tacos later and it all felt a bit better...I do feel sorry for the mexicans though, the americans seem to treat it like some kind of theme park where they can feel better about themselves. Some freaky 5 year old mexican singers later and we were back in the alleged safety of America. Venice beach is loverly though. Its what you would expect of LA (i never realised it was quite so big LA is Huuuge) and the smog is a little impending! Lovely beach though and I even managed to do a bit of a hassolhof run sown the white sands....

Looking forward to leaving tommorow though Cook islands here we come!!!!!!

San Fran

2005-06-21T19:33:00.000Z

Wow so after a night playing strange new drinking games (with miller high life of all things...) feeling a little rough today so instead of our usual gallavanting around we've decided to lie in.... Slowly leaving my heart in san francisco tho...the hostels ace with a big room to get drunk on cheep beer in (purfec) although it is swarming with english (but allot of nice english so not all bad) We've done allot and allot of nothing...lots of free festivals over the weekend in the surrounding parks (although hootie and the blowfish are not really to my taste!) We've met some loverly folks here but we met up with gareth again (from chicago). Sat on the dock of the bay in sauselito watching the boats (and the mist) roll in and out. We hicked of the golden gate bridge and got the ferry back past alcatraz...which is a seriously miserable building and could do with cheering up a bit :o) Nice bit of magnolia would do the trick...

anyways off to find a place in china town that does chow mein by the pound (no kidding $1.50 per pound of chow mein allegedly) and get some photos developed ... or maybe a giant burger from burgermeister! who can say...free beer night tonight too so I fear another hangover come tommorow....peace to y'all

adeiu

bobble

NY to San francisco

2005-06-17T19:37:00.000Z

Ok been a while...just got to san francisco after a long long train journey throught the rockies and the sierra nevada. So what have i been up to...

welll after New york we went to niagra to see the falls.

The city is an absolute dump on the american side...real poor town...but the falls themselves are amazing...we turned up to see the falls at night and were shocked to see a tack fest but after a nights sleep we returned, and in the bright sunshine they were amazing...we just hung around the park all day in the baking sun...so impresive, didnt make it over to canada, but did stand underneath them.so powwerful (and refreshing in the mid day sun)

After that we went off to Chicago...oh what a City, we were staying in Lincoln park which is one of the nicest areas there (Even if the hostl had no fans or aircon and it was well in the 30's and had the most unhelpful staff ever). We checked out downtown and met up with a lovely british bloke from Nr worthing called Gareth, got drunk a bit and met some of his sisters friends there, ate chicago pizza pie (MNnnn and huuuuge 2 slices and your full) went to the zoo (freee) chilled on the beach, put me feet in lake mitchegan (freezing but refreshing) and saw some of the best art in the Chicago Museum (free on tuesdays hurrrrrah) finally seeing THAT Hopper.

So after the fun of chicago city we got on an overnight to Glenwood springs on the Calafornia Zephyr...one of the nicest train journeys I can remember (until the one out to san fran here) the rockies are outstanding...and I must urge anyone who wants to find a nice small town with specatcular views and superb walking and relaxing to go to Glenwood Springs. Its amazing...the vapour caves and hot springs are so refrehing (even if they do have radium and lithium in them - sends you a bit loopy) . Its also the best hostel ever Gary and John are the nicest blokes you'll ever meet, and gary has some of the best stories you've ever heard (well he did hang out with allot of cool people in his time and traveled just about everywhere!). Real genuine nice folk. We got out to aspen with a guy called eric too, which was nice, v posh, but met a girl called amanda in a bar who lived in brighton, so a few free pitchers of beer later she took us out to the grotos (lovely ice waterfalls) and the pot holes, where i jumped 10-20ft into an Ice run off pothole full of water....very cold but really refreshing...

So after saying our goodbyes here we are in san francisco...not really explored yet but looks like fun...with a free festie on sunday...will hopefully keep this more up to date now its free here...

New York New York

2005-06-03T03:21:00.000Z

Posting this aftewr a long long day...we arrived yesterday in new york with directions to the hotel got off the tube only to realise we didnt actually have the address...doh!...so after walking back and forth past a kraftwerk gig (and catching a first glimpse of the empire state) we finally got some internet accesss and found the place...went straight out and saw times square (more a road or a triangle really) ....a restless nights sleep later we've now killed our feet by walking all round manhattan....nice city this...even tho everythings supersized! Makes for long walks tho...did the brooklyn bridge too...anyway off to sleep some more after booking our next set of hostels...and an expensive trrain ticket! heee he gonna be good though...dont know when i'll next get access as we'll be running around like mad things....night night kids

bob

Tommorow New York

2005-05-31T17:48:00.000Z

Ok kids panic finally has set in but we are off tommorow - to new york! arrrrgh - so expect pictures of me and mel eating noodles in time square out of a box wearing i love new york hats...oh and pictures of smoke coming out of the ground...hehehe will keep you posted (maybe chicago maybe new york next update) byeeeeeee

Moving out

2005-05-12T09:18:00.000Z

Well we are nearly there big up to Mel again for sorting out the bulk of it...Still yet to pack my studio...I just can't let it go :( ...anyway its all seeming a bit more real, I think when I finally quit work next week it'll hit home and the stomach churning and butterflies will kick in.

bob

Big lebowski bowl Off in the guardian

2005-05-12T09:14:00.000Z

wow. well it was a hazy night in streatham megabowl the white russians flowed so freely i managed to bowl a 9 for 8 bowls and ended up with a 27...hmmm never was that good at bowling but i think the milk afflicted me...

Anyway the night got reviewed in the guardian..have a look...http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/features/story/0,,1481124,00.html, mind you i have no idea how the bloke remembered a thing...+ he stole my outfit...cheeky monkey

My Last Our Front Room

2005-05-05T13:07:00.000Z

Ok its nearly sunday and its nearly time for my last OFR :(
But the good side its a Proper live Gig for my average man project - and we take over all day...check us out on sunday may the 8th from 2:00 at the Prince Albert!... Dont go to the bays theyre rubbish...come and see us spin the wheels of steel (and the bays dont give you popcorn...you heard it here first!)...will keeep you posted on how it went in due time...laters peeps...

bob

Big Lebowski Bowl Off

2005-05-05T13:04:00.000Z

OK me and mel are dressing up again...after a cowboy and indian fest in suffolk we have been called up to become characters from the big lebowski for the big lebowski bowl off in stretham megabowl...might even see some of us in the guardian...keep your eyes peeled

bob

The Waiting Game

2005-04-07T02:00:00.000Z

Ok so its the 6th of April and we have 6 weeks and a day before we leave work for a year, and it can't come soon enough as the days get longer and the time goes slower.

It's also exactly 8 weeks until we go and the preparations are well under way... well by that I mean that Mels done an exceptional job at doing all the hard work and an even better one at kicking my arse into sorting stuff out! (Bug hugs and well deserved thanks though as I couldn't, no probably wouldn't be doing it without you)

Soon enough we'll be on our way but just as a note to anyone who is going to miss us (you know you will really) that there's a couple of parties going on to say cheerio... and everyone loves a party right? First up is on May the 8th where Me and Lewis will be taking over the Albert for my last front room...we hopefully will be starting at around 1/2pm and going until they tell us to stop!

Secondly there's the Firefest! If you want to come along and have some mini festival fun in mid/end may give us a shout!

Anyways with all these butterflies in my stomach i've got to eat peace out....

Bob