So here I am, at home, in England and yes, I have been to Tesco to do my shopping and yes, it was expensive! I have a good excuse for not writing though which I will explain...
Anyway, last time I updated I was in Pai. Well, Pai was brilliant actually. The night we got there we got friendly with an Ozzie couple, a Kiwi couple and a lady from London and decided we'd hire scooters the next day and whizz round the mountains and see some of the sights which turned out to be a mega fun day. I rode on the back as I wasn't feeling brave enough to get my own scooter and actually felt pretty comfortable the whole time (except for a numb bum in the evening). We visited a couple of waterfalls, temples and some natural hot springs. These were amazing, when we got there they were steaming and depending on which part of the water you go in, depends on how hot the water is. So the hottest parts are 80 degrees and obviously not for dipping your toes in whereas the nicer ones to lounge in are about 40 degrees. I'd never seen anything like that before all completely natural so we stayed there for a few hours just soaking ourselves!
From Pai the trip for me turned for the worse really. We had the 3hour windy journey back to Chaing Mai and then a 12 hour bus to Bangkok and I don't think I recovered. I was pretty sick for the last 4 days of our trip and didn't have much energy so spent an awful lot of time in our hotel room. I did however manage an organised day trip to Kanchanaburri where the Bridge over the River Kwai lies along with memorial grounds for the prisoners of war that died whilst building the 'death railway' between Burma and Thailand throughout WW2. I was dreading the trip to be a cheesy tourist day but we actually had a real good time. We were the only english on the trip with a bus load of Koreans who were really friendly. For some reason all the women wanted photos with me which I think might be due to my natural paleness???
Well asides from the River Kwai sightseeing we managed to squeeze in a quick bamboo raft along the river and an elephant trek. This was actually quite scary and I didn't feel that safe perched on a chair on the poor elephants back. I know it's what they do all day but I felt a bit bad for it having to carry round annoying tourists all day so we bought her some bananas for her efforts!!!
So that was pretty much it for our Thailand trip. We spent the last 3 days in and around Bangkok just hanging about really and me having Bangkok Fever (as I liked to call my sickness) until we got to the airport...
This is a really long story and hard to explain in writing but I shall try and believe me I am not exaggerating. As we were on our way to the airport my neck started to feel funny and was slightly hanging to one side and feeling very heavy which I thought was strange but put it down to lying funny on it. However, my neck got worse and worse as we arrived at Bangkok International airport it actually started sinking into my right shoulder and cramping right up. This carried on for 5 hours with my neck spasming into several different and uncomfortable positions. At one point, imagine the top of your head trying to reach the bottom of your spine without any control over it - I looked like I'd been possessed.
Well by the time we got onto the plane I'd calmed down a bit and just slept for the rest of the trip thinking that whole 'spasm' experience was over. Well, was I wrong... Monday night, the second evening back in England, the same thing happened again but much worse. I was by myself and couldn't stop shaking. I tried lying on the floor but my neck and back had a mind of their own and were moving about in all ways. After speaking to a doctor James' Dad drove me to A & E while my cramps and shakes were getting worse. I was given a bed straight away and soon developed lock jaw and was biting the inside of my cheek off without my own consent; parts of my body had just developed a mind of their own.
To cut this very long story short, after another 4 hours of severe discomfort the doctor made the link between my symptoms and the side effects of an anti-sickness tablet I'd been taking in Bangkok. I was given an injection and within 10 minutes felt almost normal except for a very stiff neck. It turns out that spasms, cramps and lock jaw are a known but not common side effect of the anti-nausea pills I'd been prescribed in Bangkok when I wasn't feeling well - it didn't take me long to flush those tablets down the toilet after that!
So there's my excuse for not updating my blog on the last day of our trip like I had planned - I was not really in a good position (literally) to do so.
So that's it - the end of my 7 months around Dubai, Sri Lanka, Australia and Thailand and I feel like I have seen so much. Just looking through my photos I can hardly believe that we drove 27,000 kms in Australia, that Sri Lanka really was 6 months ago or that one little pill can make your body react so badly.
The whole trip is probably still too fresh in my mind for me to know how it has changed me but it definately has. I feel like I know so much more, I may have lost a few academic brain cells along the way but have gained so many new ones by talking to interesting people, seeing different cultures and experiencing totally new things. I feel like I have 'done' Australia as far as being a traveller is concerned. I am happy with what we managed to see there and do not feel the need to go back in a backpacker mindset. I now want to try it out from a living perspective which is why both me and James will be going back there soon on a 1 year working holiday visa.
My opinion on Thailand is that there really is so much more to see. I could easily go back there (just maybe not to Bangkok) and visit other islands and other areas of the country. Sri Lanka is the same really, another country where there is so much more to see but for another time. I obviously enjoyed every country we visited but it was Sri Lanka and Thailand that really made me appreciate what I have here in England and actually how lucky I am. Australia is brilliant to travel around but you never step out of your comfort zone - it's very similar to England but with nicer weather. There aren't large areas of poverty or places where people don't speak a word of English or new religions and cultures to take in.
I decided that I hated England and probably never wanted to live there before I left for my trip but on hindsight, the opposite is probably true. I'm not saying that I definately want to live in England forever but I am saying that it isn't as bad as I thought. In Australia the threat of skin cancer looms over you on every billboard and in huge advertising campaigns, in Sri Lanka, people do not always have a choice of where they want to visit or live and in Thailand a lot of things are quite corrupt and the country lacks consistency leaving you unsure of where you stand.
Overall, my trip to these countries has made me realise how big the world really is and how having travelling as a hobby is a good idea as you will never run out of places to see. It has only pushed my urge to visit more countries and take in new experiences with the knowledge that home isn't too bad.
So for now I'll leave you with my thoughts until my next big adventure...
Tina :)
Thursday, 21 August 2008
Sunday, 10 August 2008
1 week to go!
So this time in 1 week I'll be back in England probably at Tesco buying food for the week! That's a crazy thought, I haven't even seen a supermarket for a while let alone had to shop in one! We've just had lunch in a cafe for 1 pound which included food and drink for both me and James and English people we meet keep telling me how expensive everything is back home now, I can't say I'm looking forward to that aspect!
Anyway, since I last visited my blog we've covered a bit of the country. From Krabi we took a ferry to Koh Phi Phi and then the boat, bus and another bus up to Chaing Mai in the Northern province and then another bus to Pai which is where I am right now!
Koh Phi Phi was a pretty chilled out island. We did a day of diving there which was quite an experience (and that's not because of the fish). Basically, when diving, it is a common rule that when the first person in the group reaches 50bar (you begin with about 200bar) on their air, the whole group makes their way up to the surface to make a relaxing and safe ascent. Well... the particular diving company we chose on Phi Phi thought it would be a good idea to keep going under the water until the last person had reached 50bar meaning me and another guy were breathing off our buddies secondary regulators (the thing which you breathe through) as our air had virtually run out. So there we were, 18 metres underwater, swimming alongside our dive partners sharing the same air tank, not good practice. Their reasoning was, 'well then you get your moneys worth as you get a longer dive'. I have to disagree completely there and say quality over quantity as being pulled along by James underwater sharing one tank whilst fighting current isn't exactly what I paid for and I was concentrating more on that than actually seeing any marine life!
Anyway, asides from the disastrous finish to both dives that day, we did actually get to see some really cool fish and got close to a large green turtle for a good few minutes while it munched its way through some coral, amazing!
We gave diving a miss the other days as our money is really tight now so spent our time sunbathing on the beach and wandering through the markets. There was a messy night out there involving too many buckets of Thai rum and red bull but all good fun!
Well we left Phi Phi on Tuesday and had a long trip to Chaing Mai via Bangkok, about 36 hours including waiting time between buses but actually not as bad as it sounds! Chang Mai was great, a much nicer city than Bangkok and so much cleaner and cheaper. Our very nice but basic double room with A/C, bathroom, cable TV and balcony was costing us 4.50 pounds per night for both of us, fantastic! There were literally hundreds of temples around the city so we visited 3 and then decided that we were quite 'templed out' by then so spent the rest of the time wandering around the street markets and eating more yummy food!
The highlight of that part of the trip and actually one of the best days here in Thailand was the Thai cookery course we did yesterday. We got to choose 6 dishes each so me and James chose different ones to get the most out of the day. First, we were taken to the local market to buy all the ingredients needed for the dishes whilst our teacher talked us through the various fruit and vegetables which was really enlightening. Tasting of the exotic fruit happened afterwards whilst we got to know all our cooking buddies. After that, we were split into small groups depending on the dish we were cooking and taken to the various kitchens to start cooking. It was so well organised and after each dish we came back to our original group so we could all taste each others food and enjoy what we had just made. I was so full by the end of the day and couldn't manage more than a taste of the last 2 dishes but now I have the skill to make them again at home as we were given a recipe book. All in all, a very fun and useful day!
So now we're in Pai, a small mountain village 3 hours from Chaing Mai which has a bit of an alternative vibe to it. There are quite a few other travellers here and I think it's quite a mecca for some! I haven't got my bearings yet as after 3 hours on a windy road up a mountain I just wanted to lie down. I'm hoping to book us onto an elephant trek and bamboo rafting trip tomorrow so I will keep you posted! Bye for now!:)
Anyway, since I last visited my blog we've covered a bit of the country. From Krabi we took a ferry to Koh Phi Phi and then the boat, bus and another bus up to Chaing Mai in the Northern province and then another bus to Pai which is where I am right now!
Koh Phi Phi was a pretty chilled out island. We did a day of diving there which was quite an experience (and that's not because of the fish). Basically, when diving, it is a common rule that when the first person in the group reaches 50bar (you begin with about 200bar) on their air, the whole group makes their way up to the surface to make a relaxing and safe ascent. Well... the particular diving company we chose on Phi Phi thought it would be a good idea to keep going under the water until the last person had reached 50bar meaning me and another guy were breathing off our buddies secondary regulators (the thing which you breathe through) as our air had virtually run out. So there we were, 18 metres underwater, swimming alongside our dive partners sharing the same air tank, not good practice. Their reasoning was, 'well then you get your moneys worth as you get a longer dive'. I have to disagree completely there and say quality over quantity as being pulled along by James underwater sharing one tank whilst fighting current isn't exactly what I paid for and I was concentrating more on that than actually seeing any marine life!
Anyway, asides from the disastrous finish to both dives that day, we did actually get to see some really cool fish and got close to a large green turtle for a good few minutes while it munched its way through some coral, amazing!
We gave diving a miss the other days as our money is really tight now so spent our time sunbathing on the beach and wandering through the markets. There was a messy night out there involving too many buckets of Thai rum and red bull but all good fun!
Well we left Phi Phi on Tuesday and had a long trip to Chaing Mai via Bangkok, about 36 hours including waiting time between buses but actually not as bad as it sounds! Chang Mai was great, a much nicer city than Bangkok and so much cleaner and cheaper. Our very nice but basic double room with A/C, bathroom, cable TV and balcony was costing us 4.50 pounds per night for both of us, fantastic! There were literally hundreds of temples around the city so we visited 3 and then decided that we were quite 'templed out' by then so spent the rest of the time wandering around the street markets and eating more yummy food!
The highlight of that part of the trip and actually one of the best days here in Thailand was the Thai cookery course we did yesterday. We got to choose 6 dishes each so me and James chose different ones to get the most out of the day. First, we were taken to the local market to buy all the ingredients needed for the dishes whilst our teacher talked us through the various fruit and vegetables which was really enlightening. Tasting of the exotic fruit happened afterwards whilst we got to know all our cooking buddies. After that, we were split into small groups depending on the dish we were cooking and taken to the various kitchens to start cooking. It was so well organised and after each dish we came back to our original group so we could all taste each others food and enjoy what we had just made. I was so full by the end of the day and couldn't manage more than a taste of the last 2 dishes but now I have the skill to make them again at home as we were given a recipe book. All in all, a very fun and useful day!
So now we're in Pai, a small mountain village 3 hours from Chaing Mai which has a bit of an alternative vibe to it. There are quite a few other travellers here and I think it's quite a mecca for some! I haven't got my bearings yet as after 3 hours on a windy road up a mountain I just wanted to lie down. I'm hoping to book us onto an elephant trek and bamboo rafting trip tomorrow so I will keep you posted! Bye for now!:)
Thursday, 31 July 2008
Diving Paradise
Next stop... Krabi. That's where I am now after a very busy and fun week on Koh Tao. We basically loved Koh Tao so much that we ended up staying there 8 nights when we were only planning about 4 or 5!
The diving there was brilliant AND i saw a shark, a black tip reef shark which was about 2 metres long. Apart from that, there were more pretty fish like Angelfish and Butterflyfish as well as a big green turtle and lots of cute other marine life. I did 11 dives there including a night dive and it only cost 100 pounds. For all those who don't know how much diving usually is, in Australia, 2 dives cost me 70 pounds and that was the cheapest option!
So apart from the diving in the day we spent the evenings with all our diving 'buddies' drinking cocktails and eating more nice food. We discovered the 'worlds best pancake' too at this little stand outside our hotel, nutella and banana pancakes, yum yum!
Anyway, by Tuesday we thought we better move on so we got the boat back to the mainland and a bus to Krabi on the west coast. Yesterday we went to the beach for the day by longtail boat which was great, its the coolest way to travel here as its so breezy, the only problem is when you stop and its bloody boiling! The beach was nice but I got stung by a jellyfish! I was in the water and felt like a cigarette burn and then when I got out I had red lumps on my ankle and a tentacle mark. A local lady gave me some leaves to rub on it which seemed to do the trick so after 20 minutes the pain had gone! James also managed to stab his foot on a rock while he was exploring a cave so we weren't too lucky all in all!
Today we have been on an organised tour to 'James Bond Island'. It was the set for 'The Man with the Golden Gun' and is pretty touristy to say the least, but still interesting to see. We got taken there by longtail boat too and then onto a monkey temple and waterfall. We had lunch at a Muslim floating village which was quite surreal actually - basically, after being on the boat for about an hour this village pops out from the middle of nowhere and has 2000 habitants, all on water! Our lunch was lovely but the markets we strolled around afterwards were awful. There were stuffed pufferfish and corals everywhere which certainly put all of us off buying anything at all.
Well, my stomach is telling me it's dinner time soon so I better go with it! Our next stop from here is Koh Phi Phi island tomorrow where we'll stay for a few days before heading North so until then...
The diving there was brilliant AND i saw a shark, a black tip reef shark which was about 2 metres long. Apart from that, there were more pretty fish like Angelfish and Butterflyfish as well as a big green turtle and lots of cute other marine life. I did 11 dives there including a night dive and it only cost 100 pounds. For all those who don't know how much diving usually is, in Australia, 2 dives cost me 70 pounds and that was the cheapest option!
So apart from the diving in the day we spent the evenings with all our diving 'buddies' drinking cocktails and eating more nice food. We discovered the 'worlds best pancake' too at this little stand outside our hotel, nutella and banana pancakes, yum yum!
Anyway, by Tuesday we thought we better move on so we got the boat back to the mainland and a bus to Krabi on the west coast. Yesterday we went to the beach for the day by longtail boat which was great, its the coolest way to travel here as its so breezy, the only problem is when you stop and its bloody boiling! The beach was nice but I got stung by a jellyfish! I was in the water and felt like a cigarette burn and then when I got out I had red lumps on my ankle and a tentacle mark. A local lady gave me some leaves to rub on it which seemed to do the trick so after 20 minutes the pain had gone! James also managed to stab his foot on a rock while he was exploring a cave so we weren't too lucky all in all!
Today we have been on an organised tour to 'James Bond Island'. It was the set for 'The Man with the Golden Gun' and is pretty touristy to say the least, but still interesting to see. We got taken there by longtail boat too and then onto a monkey temple and waterfall. We had lunch at a Muslim floating village which was quite surreal actually - basically, after being on the boat for about an hour this village pops out from the middle of nowhere and has 2000 habitants, all on water! Our lunch was lovely but the markets we strolled around afterwards were awful. There were stuffed pufferfish and corals everywhere which certainly put all of us off buying anything at all.
Well, my stomach is telling me it's dinner time soon so I better go with it! Our next stop from here is Koh Phi Phi island tomorrow where we'll stay for a few days before heading North so until then...
Thursday, 24 July 2008
Greetings from Koh Tao
I'm now writing from Koh Tao, an island off the East coast of Thailand and have to say, definately feel more in 'holiday' mode!
Bangkok was a crazy place to be, so many people everywhere and really humid and sticky! We visited the Grand Palace and some other temples as well as some really cool markets. We lasted 4 nights there before deciding that we all needed the sea so we made the 9 hour trip by bus and boat down to Koh Tao.
The weather has been great up until today where its been raining a bit but never mind! Yesterday we went diving on 2 different sites and I managed to spot a blue spotted stingray and we saw some beautiful reef fish. I actually thought the quality of the dive was better than the Great Barrier Reef as it was more colourful and there was more marine life to look at. We're back on the boat tomorrow and hoping to spot some sharks, they're definately around and lots of people have seen them so fingers crossed:)
The food here is amazing, we've been in Thailand for nearly a week now and not had one bad meal or spent more than 2 pounds on a dinner! On that aspect it beats Australia by miles!!!
Our plan from here is to get the boat to Koh Samui in a few days and then get back onto the mainland and visit some national parks and then head up North to Chang Mai, Chang Rai and Pai but we'll see how that all goes! We're staying here longer than planned so who knows!
Well James loks like he's about to fall asleep sat next to me so I better finish here, ta ta for now!
Bangkok was a crazy place to be, so many people everywhere and really humid and sticky! We visited the Grand Palace and some other temples as well as some really cool markets. We lasted 4 nights there before deciding that we all needed the sea so we made the 9 hour trip by bus and boat down to Koh Tao.
The weather has been great up until today where its been raining a bit but never mind! Yesterday we went diving on 2 different sites and I managed to spot a blue spotted stingray and we saw some beautiful reef fish. I actually thought the quality of the dive was better than the Great Barrier Reef as it was more colourful and there was more marine life to look at. We're back on the boat tomorrow and hoping to spot some sharks, they're definately around and lots of people have seen them so fingers crossed:)
The food here is amazing, we've been in Thailand for nearly a week now and not had one bad meal or spent more than 2 pounds on a dinner! On that aspect it beats Australia by miles!!!
Our plan from here is to get the boat to Koh Samui in a few days and then get back onto the mainland and visit some national parks and then head up North to Chang Mai, Chang Rai and Pai but we'll see how that all goes! We're staying here longer than planned so who knows!
Well James loks like he's about to fall asleep sat next to me so I better finish here, ta ta for now!
Friday, 18 July 2008
I have now vacated AUSTRALIA!
Well well well... I am now in Bangkok, a long way from where I was last time you all heard from me! The last 2 weeks in Australia have probably been some of the best I've had whilst being over there!
So, I last left you when we were about to visit Magnetic Island. We spent 3 days on the island and basically chilled out a lot. It wasn't the greatest place we've visited and didn't really have anything special but we met some fun people staying in our hostel dorm room and had a really good time there! We did manage to squeeze in some snorkelling but it wasn't too great, a bit dark and sandy but overall, well worth a visit! From there, we continued North to Cairns stopping at the famous Mission Beach which by the way was absolutely gorgeous! I actually felt like I'd arrived in Hawaii or the Caribbean somewhere, we spent the afternoon there fishing and sunbathing but I would have quite happily stayed longer if we weren't on a strict time schedule!
Cairns is a beautiful city and the base for the Great Barrier Reef. We met up with some friends up there and had a crazy night out at Rhino Bar resulting in me having the longest lasting headache from Saturday morning until Sunday night, I guess the night out we had was worth the pain! Hmmm? Cairns doesn't have an accessible beach so it has an amazing artificial lagoon which is so nice to lounge around in and by, it's the biggest pool I've ever seen!
So... did I mention that I dived the Great Barrier Reef??? That's definately up there on the list of things to do before you die and now it's ticked off for me! We went on a day trip and because me and James are qualified as advanced divers (I mean on paper!) we got to dive without a guide which was really cool. We did 2 dives in the inner reef and saw lots of really brightly coloured coral and some funky fish. I have to admit, we didn't see anything amazing and it wasn't as good as diving in the Red Sea in Egypt but definately worth the money. I'd like to dive the area again and explore the outer reefs which aren't as damaged.
So anyway, after Cairns we drove down to our final adventure in Australia which was a 3 day sailing trip in the Whitsunday Islands. This was an absolute blast!
We were on a boat with about 35 people, all backpackers and about our age and had a crew that kept everyone laughing. We basically sailed to South Molle Island which was our home for 2 nights and then explored the other islands and sea in the day. Everyone was so friendly and we all had so much fun building human pyramids on the beach and boats from sand! Whitehaven beach was the main place to visit and it is a stunning white beach which stretches for 9km with the clearest torquoise water. After the sailing trip we all had a beach BBQ and then some of us went out in Airlie Beach which is where we were all staying and got rather drunk on goon (the classy and cheap 'wine' you get in a bag over here)! Overall, the Whitsundays was definately the best way to finish our trip in Australia!
So now we're in Bangkok. We had a long trip to get here - 2700kms of driving from Cairns to Sydney which we did over 3 days and then our 9 hour flight which wasn't too bad. I watched 3 films in a row, a record for me I reckon! We've only been here a day, we arrived in the middle of the night. James' sister arrives this evening which I'm really looking forward to so all in all, its going to be a good month here in Thailand. Today has been a 'get your bearings' day and 'walk around in a daze' day due to lack of sleep so I will keep you all posted about our plans when we actually make some!
So for now, ciao!
So, I last left you when we were about to visit Magnetic Island. We spent 3 days on the island and basically chilled out a lot. It wasn't the greatest place we've visited and didn't really have anything special but we met some fun people staying in our hostel dorm room and had a really good time there! We did manage to squeeze in some snorkelling but it wasn't too great, a bit dark and sandy but overall, well worth a visit! From there, we continued North to Cairns stopping at the famous Mission Beach which by the way was absolutely gorgeous! I actually felt like I'd arrived in Hawaii or the Caribbean somewhere, we spent the afternoon there fishing and sunbathing but I would have quite happily stayed longer if we weren't on a strict time schedule!
Cairns is a beautiful city and the base for the Great Barrier Reef. We met up with some friends up there and had a crazy night out at Rhino Bar resulting in me having the longest lasting headache from Saturday morning until Sunday night, I guess the night out we had was worth the pain! Hmmm? Cairns doesn't have an accessible beach so it has an amazing artificial lagoon which is so nice to lounge around in and by, it's the biggest pool I've ever seen!
So... did I mention that I dived the Great Barrier Reef??? That's definately up there on the list of things to do before you die and now it's ticked off for me! We went on a day trip and because me and James are qualified as advanced divers (I mean on paper!) we got to dive without a guide which was really cool. We did 2 dives in the inner reef and saw lots of really brightly coloured coral and some funky fish. I have to admit, we didn't see anything amazing and it wasn't as good as diving in the Red Sea in Egypt but definately worth the money. I'd like to dive the area again and explore the outer reefs which aren't as damaged.
So anyway, after Cairns we drove down to our final adventure in Australia which was a 3 day sailing trip in the Whitsunday Islands. This was an absolute blast!
We were on a boat with about 35 people, all backpackers and about our age and had a crew that kept everyone laughing. We basically sailed to South Molle Island which was our home for 2 nights and then explored the other islands and sea in the day. Everyone was so friendly and we all had so much fun building human pyramids on the beach and boats from sand! Whitehaven beach was the main place to visit and it is a stunning white beach which stretches for 9km with the clearest torquoise water. After the sailing trip we all had a beach BBQ and then some of us went out in Airlie Beach which is where we were all staying and got rather drunk on goon (the classy and cheap 'wine' you get in a bag over here)! Overall, the Whitsundays was definately the best way to finish our trip in Australia!
So now we're in Bangkok. We had a long trip to get here - 2700kms of driving from Cairns to Sydney which we did over 3 days and then our 9 hour flight which wasn't too bad. I watched 3 films in a row, a record for me I reckon! We've only been here a day, we arrived in the middle of the night. James' sister arrives this evening which I'm really looking forward to so all in all, its going to be a good month here in Thailand. Today has been a 'get your bearings' day and 'walk around in a daze' day due to lack of sleep so I will keep you all posted about our plans when we actually make some!
So for now, ciao!
Saturday, 28 June 2008
Time is whizzing by...
Ok, so our Australia trip is coming close to an end, we leave from Sydney in just over 2 weeks which seems crazy! We've seen so much and still have lots to do, probably have to save some of the sights on our list for our next trip here.
I haven't been very good at all with updating my blog and can't even remember everything we've done since leaving Brisbane but I can say that we are now in Townsville, way up in Queensland and 300km south of Cairns! Phew!
So the weather here is great, perfect for us British people, about 26 degrees and really sunny, can you believe it's actually winter here, life could be worse!
Anyway, after Brisbane we've done a few very cool things. We went to Fraser Island which is the worlds largest sand island and 4 wheel drive only, it was fantastic! Luckily our car is 4WD so we took it over for 4 nights and had so much fun driving around on the beaches and some of the more bumpy tracks, we managed to get stuck in the sand once and had to be pulled out, all part of the fun! Life on Fraser is all about the sunny weather, it's a place to chill out by one of the gorgeous torquoise lakes or as I said, have fun with the car you're driving!
After Fraser Island we had a bit of car trouble and ended up sleeping the night in the mechanics while it was being fixed, not a place I can say I've spent the night before! I had a girly weekend booked down in melbourne to meet my friend Sophie so getting to the airport was a complete nightmare as the car wasn't fixed, in the end we had to rent a car for the day so James could drop me off there. So whilst I was away having so much fun, he spent a further 3 nights at the mechanics! On the plus side though, Melbourne for the second time was even better, definately a city I can see myself spending more time in. Me and Sophie made it a Sex and the City weekend and paid homage to the film by spending all of the Saturday shopping, drinking cocktails and having a glitzy night out at the casino after watching the film which by the way was amazing!!! All in all a very fun and girly weekend!
Other places we've been include Australia Zoo which was very different to what I originally thought it would be like. It is more like a conservation park and really encourages the visitors to think about all the animals that may become extinct if things don't change, a real eye opener I thought, plus the crocodile show was cool!
We're off to Magnetic Island tomorrow for 3 days which I'm looking forward to. It's a small island in the waters of the Great Barrier Reef so there should be some good snorkelling and nice beaches, more laziness really!!! Well, that's where I am at the moment, I know I've missed things out but there is just too much to write about, all I can say is that I'm having lots of fun and experiencing new places, not that they're all great but on the whole put a smile on our faces :)!!!!
Tuesday, 10 June 2008
Oooopsey!
Well the last 2 weeks have whizzed by and I haven't even had a chance to check my emails!
So we're now in Brisbane and have seen quite a bit since leaving Sydney...
James has found his 'perfect wave' at a beach called Crescent Head, I had to drag him away after a couple if days and he has yet to find a wave as good apparently! A lot of our time has been spent chilling out on beaches and camping in the car so not too much to report on really!
We went to Byron Bay which we both loved, such a cruisy place with a really good vibe. We stayed in a hostel there and I was the only girl in a dorm room with like 12guys, can't say I've done that before! The card games we played together were fun though! James had his most drunk night there too at a bar called Cheeky Monkeys which involved him prancing around in his boxers to naked musical chairs - he came second!
Another rather interesting place we visited was Nimbin, a small hippy town where they all believe in the legalisation of weed so you could say that it was a mega chilled out place! We didn't stay long but had a little look round the funky coloured buildings and smelt a few strange things!
The Gold Coast is where we've spent the last few days and it really is the epitamy of commercialisation. Although it's quite nice and pretty, as such, it's so Americanised. There are huge skyscrapers just coming out from the beach and the whole place is full of motels. It was beautiful just before we hit the Gold Coast highway at Tweed Heads but after that, the craziness got a bit, well crazy!
Anyway, 2 minutes left on the internet so must be off, will blog again soon...
So we're now in Brisbane and have seen quite a bit since leaving Sydney...
James has found his 'perfect wave' at a beach called Crescent Head, I had to drag him away after a couple if days and he has yet to find a wave as good apparently! A lot of our time has been spent chilling out on beaches and camping in the car so not too much to report on really!
We went to Byron Bay which we both loved, such a cruisy place with a really good vibe. We stayed in a hostel there and I was the only girl in a dorm room with like 12guys, can't say I've done that before! The card games we played together were fun though! James had his most drunk night there too at a bar called Cheeky Monkeys which involved him prancing around in his boxers to naked musical chairs - he came second!
Another rather interesting place we visited was Nimbin, a small hippy town where they all believe in the legalisation of weed so you could say that it was a mega chilled out place! We didn't stay long but had a little look round the funky coloured buildings and smelt a few strange things!
The Gold Coast is where we've spent the last few days and it really is the epitamy of commercialisation. Although it's quite nice and pretty, as such, it's so Americanised. There are huge skyscrapers just coming out from the beach and the whole place is full of motels. It was beautiful just before we hit the Gold Coast highway at Tweed Heads but after that, the craziness got a bit, well crazy!
Anyway, 2 minutes left on the internet so must be off, will blog again soon...
Sunday, 25 May 2008
Being a bum on Bondi!
Well, we hit Bondi Beach yesterday and I have to say, I loved it round there! Admittedly, it's not peak season here and not quite warm enough for a dip in the sea so it was quieter than usual I'm sure, but it had such a good atmosphere going on.
The beach is actually a lot smaller than you imagine from watching it on TV but still really nice. The whole area is full of lovely little cafes and patisseries and definately our favourite place in Sydney so far. When we come back over next year to work for a few months I think we'll be looking to live in that area! We went to this cute cafe for lunch which was delicious and then just walked around all the markets which were really cool, shame I didn't have any money to spend as I was very tempted!
So today we're checking out of our hostel and leaving Sydney to head North along the coast. We're going to Palm Beach about an hour away which is where 'Home and Away' is filmed. I'm pretty excited about that as it's one of the soaps I have watched religiously since I was about 7! My whole family is a fan of the show!
So anyway, not too sure when I'll next be online, we have to bum it for a few days now to compensate for our over spending in Sydney which means no hostels or warm showers for us!!
The beach is actually a lot smaller than you imagine from watching it on TV but still really nice. The whole area is full of lovely little cafes and patisseries and definately our favourite place in Sydney so far. When we come back over next year to work for a few months I think we'll be looking to live in that area! We went to this cute cafe for lunch which was delicious and then just walked around all the markets which were really cool, shame I didn't have any money to spend as I was very tempted!
So today we're checking out of our hostel and leaving Sydney to head North along the coast. We're going to Palm Beach about an hour away which is where 'Home and Away' is filmed. I'm pretty excited about that as it's one of the soaps I have watched religiously since I was about 7! My whole family is a fan of the show!
So anyway, not too sure when I'll next be online, we have to bum it for a few days now to compensate for our over spending in Sydney which means no hostels or warm showers for us!!
Saturday, 24 May 2008
Some mountains they were!!!
Well, we've now been in Sydney for 4 days and had quite a bizare trip here...
After leaving Melbourne, we decided to take a scenic route to Canberra via some mountains and rivers. Well, after hitting the snowy mountain highway, the name wasn't lying! We actually hit snow, real snow. Going from fairly sunny and warm Melbourne to 2 inch snowy mountains was definately a bit surreal, then to hit sunny Canberra the next day. The strangest thing is flicking through my photos on my camera and seeing shorts one day and big jackets the next!
Canberra was a quick sightseeing city. Everyone told us not to bother going as it's basically just the political hub of Australia with not much else to do but we were passing so we popped in! I must say, it's not exactly Sydney or Melbourne but is quite a pretty city with some lovely lakes. The war memorial exhibition was by far the best attraction and we spent a good few hours in there. We also did a tour of the parliament house which was pretty interesting. One rather amusing fact we learnt was the reason for the kangaroo and emu emblem for the Australian crest. Both those animals cannot walk backwards and Australia wants to present itself as a country only moving forwards. Apparently, the tail of a kangaroo would get in the way if it walked backwards and emus have back-to-front knee caps! I thought it was interesting anyway!
So now we're in Sydney. The hostel we're staying in is really nice, walking distance to the centre but away from all the bars so we get good sleep. Of course we've looked at the Opera House and walked along the Harbour Bridge as well as a stroll through the Royal Botanical Gardens and a peek at some of the galleries. We initially wanted to climb the Harbour Bridge only to find out that it is $179 per person, just to walk up some steep steps (it's not really a climb as such). Well, we couldn't spare all that money for a good view so we just crossed the bridge and still got a postcard photo!
Sydney is quite expensive, probably the most expensive place so far but I guess that's comparable to London. We have found a mega cheap place to eat and drink though called 'The Gaff'. We went there last night and got free bangers and mash dinner and 2 free drinks each from a voucher we found. However, the wine I got given for free was quite vile and I held my nose while I drank it!! We decided to head to Kings Cross as it was Saturday night and we thought there would be a good atmosphere and lots of bars. We were wrong. Kings Cross was just full of betting places, strip clubs and fast food joints. Unless we were looking in the wrong place, we didn't find a bar, just sleazy pubs/betting places. Well, I'm glad I had a look! Actually the suburb we're staying in, Surrey Hills, has lots of mellow bars and some cool pubs so it's a better night out on our doorstep!
Well today we're heading up to Bondi beach. You could argue that it is one of the most famous beaches in the world so it'll be good to see it although I have been warned that it might not be as nice as I imagine. The locals never go there as it's just full of tourists and not the nicest beach but we'll have a look!
Anyway, we're leaving Australia in 7 1/2 weeks and the budget is getting quite tight with everything we want to fit in. Yesterday we booked a Whitsunday Islands sailing trip which I'm really excited about. It's a national park with about 70 beautiful islands in it which you sail round for 3 days and sleep on the only island with facilities. Can't wait!
Well, the sunny beach is calling so I better go and make the most of it! Will be in touch soon:)
After leaving Melbourne, we decided to take a scenic route to Canberra via some mountains and rivers. Well, after hitting the snowy mountain highway, the name wasn't lying! We actually hit snow, real snow. Going from fairly sunny and warm Melbourne to 2 inch snowy mountains was definately a bit surreal, then to hit sunny Canberra the next day. The strangest thing is flicking through my photos on my camera and seeing shorts one day and big jackets the next!
Canberra was a quick sightseeing city. Everyone told us not to bother going as it's basically just the political hub of Australia with not much else to do but we were passing so we popped in! I must say, it's not exactly Sydney or Melbourne but is quite a pretty city with some lovely lakes. The war memorial exhibition was by far the best attraction and we spent a good few hours in there. We also did a tour of the parliament house which was pretty interesting. One rather amusing fact we learnt was the reason for the kangaroo and emu emblem for the Australian crest. Both those animals cannot walk backwards and Australia wants to present itself as a country only moving forwards. Apparently, the tail of a kangaroo would get in the way if it walked backwards and emus have back-to-front knee caps! I thought it was interesting anyway!
So now we're in Sydney. The hostel we're staying in is really nice, walking distance to the centre but away from all the bars so we get good sleep. Of course we've looked at the Opera House and walked along the Harbour Bridge as well as a stroll through the Royal Botanical Gardens and a peek at some of the galleries. We initially wanted to climb the Harbour Bridge only to find out that it is $179 per person, just to walk up some steep steps (it's not really a climb as such). Well, we couldn't spare all that money for a good view so we just crossed the bridge and still got a postcard photo!
Sydney is quite expensive, probably the most expensive place so far but I guess that's comparable to London. We have found a mega cheap place to eat and drink though called 'The Gaff'. We went there last night and got free bangers and mash dinner and 2 free drinks each from a voucher we found. However, the wine I got given for free was quite vile and I held my nose while I drank it!! We decided to head to Kings Cross as it was Saturday night and we thought there would be a good atmosphere and lots of bars. We were wrong. Kings Cross was just full of betting places, strip clubs and fast food joints. Unless we were looking in the wrong place, we didn't find a bar, just sleazy pubs/betting places. Well, I'm glad I had a look! Actually the suburb we're staying in, Surrey Hills, has lots of mellow bars and some cool pubs so it's a better night out on our doorstep!
Well today we're heading up to Bondi beach. You could argue that it is one of the most famous beaches in the world so it'll be good to see it although I have been warned that it might not be as nice as I imagine. The locals never go there as it's just full of tourists and not the nicest beach but we'll have a look!
Anyway, we're leaving Australia in 7 1/2 weeks and the budget is getting quite tight with everything we want to fit in. Yesterday we booked a Whitsunday Islands sailing trip which I'm really excited about. It's a national park with about 70 beautiful islands in it which you sail round for 3 days and sleep on the only island with facilities. Can't wait!
Well, the sunny beach is calling so I better go and make the most of it! Will be in touch soon:)
Wednesday, 14 May 2008
Last day in Melbourne
Well we leave Melbourne tomorrow morning, we've been here a week and a half so it's about time to move onto the next place! We had a bit of car trouble, like 2500 dollars worth but it's all sorted now - there goes the budget:(
So the weekend was really good. Friday night we ventured into Port Melbourne to meet some friends which is a classy suburb with some cool bars and little boutiques. We spent the evening in the 'Sloany Pony' - the name definately sells that place! Anyway, about 2 bottles of wine later (that's just me) and 5 hours, we were about ready to go home after having such a fun night, not that I remember it all, we got to bed about 4am and unfortunately had to check out the next morning by 10am, let's just say we weren't feeling great the next day!
We got shown round Lygon Street on Saturday which is the Italian quarter and really charming. Our friend Dave is half Italian and thought he'd show us the sights, we had some gorgeous Italian desserts too, yummy! Dinner there was good and we got such huge portions of homemade pasta before setting off to the MGC (Melbourne Cricket Ground) for some Aussie Rules Football. Everyone told us that when in Melbourne, go to the MCG, even if we're not huge sports fans so we did, and it was great! It's the biggest stadium in Australia and had such a good atmosphere. The team we went for won too which made it even better! Considering I didn't even know which team was which when we first sat down, I did pretty well to follow the game and now actually have a vague understanding of Australian football, perhaps more so than English footie, oops!
Sunday we had a lovely chilled out day with James' friends who we're staying with, had a stroll down the river and a big Sunday lunch! James went down to the coast Monday to have a go at the surf so I made a date with myself! I spent the day wandering around some of the funky shopping streets and visiting a few galleries, was actually a really nice day, I'm not too bad company, hehe!
So today we haven't left the house, a long lie in followed by a late brunch and a load of lazing about on the internet and watching TV, great! We needed that, sometimes it's good to do nothing!
Anyway, as I said, we're off tomorrow and driving down to Philip Island to see the fairy penguins which come out at sunset every evening, they're the world's smallest species of penguin and apparently really cute, should be really fun! From there we're heading North via some mountan ranges and stopping in Canberra for a few days before hitting Sydney for some serious tourism, partying and fun!!!
Well, I'll be in touch again soon:)
So the weekend was really good. Friday night we ventured into Port Melbourne to meet some friends which is a classy suburb with some cool bars and little boutiques. We spent the evening in the 'Sloany Pony' - the name definately sells that place! Anyway, about 2 bottles of wine later (that's just me) and 5 hours, we were about ready to go home after having such a fun night, not that I remember it all, we got to bed about 4am and unfortunately had to check out the next morning by 10am, let's just say we weren't feeling great the next day!
We got shown round Lygon Street on Saturday which is the Italian quarter and really charming. Our friend Dave is half Italian and thought he'd show us the sights, we had some gorgeous Italian desserts too, yummy! Dinner there was good and we got such huge portions of homemade pasta before setting off to the MGC (Melbourne Cricket Ground) for some Aussie Rules Football. Everyone told us that when in Melbourne, go to the MCG, even if we're not huge sports fans so we did, and it was great! It's the biggest stadium in Australia and had such a good atmosphere. The team we went for won too which made it even better! Considering I didn't even know which team was which when we first sat down, I did pretty well to follow the game and now actually have a vague understanding of Australian football, perhaps more so than English footie, oops!
Sunday we had a lovely chilled out day with James' friends who we're staying with, had a stroll down the river and a big Sunday lunch! James went down to the coast Monday to have a go at the surf so I made a date with myself! I spent the day wandering around some of the funky shopping streets and visiting a few galleries, was actually a really nice day, I'm not too bad company, hehe!
So today we haven't left the house, a long lie in followed by a late brunch and a load of lazing about on the internet and watching TV, great! We needed that, sometimes it's good to do nothing!
Anyway, as I said, we're off tomorrow and driving down to Philip Island to see the fairy penguins which come out at sunset every evening, they're the world's smallest species of penguin and apparently really cute, should be really fun! From there we're heading North via some mountan ranges and stopping in Canberra for a few days before hitting Sydney for some serious tourism, partying and fun!!!
Well, I'll be in touch again soon:)
Thursday, 8 May 2008
Thank god its Friday... well not really!
So we've been in Melbourne nearly a week now and I'm definately getting the whole 'Melbourne thing' that the locals talk about. It's not a city that has a huge amount for 'tourists' as such but it's about living here and getting to know all the different suburbs. Melbourne seems to be all about the whole cafe culture thing and I feel like all we've done while we've been here is eat nice food, drink good wine and walk around but that's the whole point here! The last few days have merged together a bit really but as I said, an awful lot of walking! Yesterday we actually did do some touristy things and visited the National Gallery of Victoria and the Ian Potter Gallery and they were both pretty interesting. There was a cool exhibition called 'Black in Fashion' which is self explanatory really. I don't think that was James' favourite part of the gallery but I enjoyed myself!
Last night we sampled some amazing seafood at a restaurant called Claypot when we met up with a couple we met in Croatia on holiday last year. We shared this huge Silver Dorey fish and lots of tapas, really yummy.
Actually Wednesday night was really interesting, we went to see a play called 'The Pain and the Itch' which our friend is acting in this month. The venue was a great little place in a really cool area and there was a really mixed audience. We went out after for drinks and had a really good chilled out night and checked out some funky bars with some of the other actors.
Tuesday it rained all day so we found shelter in the Crown Entertainment Complex, Melbourne's answer to Las Vegas! There's a huge casino there (apparently the largest in the Southern hemisphere), lots of shops, bars, restaurants, clubs and cinema. We watched 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall' which was actually really funny, would definately recommend it!
So today's Friday and we've been wandering around again, feeling quite exhausted from the miles we walked yesterday. We're meeting some friends in Port Melbourne tonight so should be a good one - must save some energy beforehand!
Well James has sat here patiently waiting for me to finish and now looks about ready to keel over so I best be off:) Chat soon!
Last night we sampled some amazing seafood at a restaurant called Claypot when we met up with a couple we met in Croatia on holiday last year. We shared this huge Silver Dorey fish and lots of tapas, really yummy.
Actually Wednesday night was really interesting, we went to see a play called 'The Pain and the Itch' which our friend is acting in this month. The venue was a great little place in a really cool area and there was a really mixed audience. We went out after for drinks and had a really good chilled out night and checked out some funky bars with some of the other actors.
Tuesday it rained all day so we found shelter in the Crown Entertainment Complex, Melbourne's answer to Las Vegas! There's a huge casino there (apparently the largest in the Southern hemisphere), lots of shops, bars, restaurants, clubs and cinema. We watched 'Forgetting Sarah Marshall' which was actually really funny, would definately recommend it!
So today's Friday and we've been wandering around again, feeling quite exhausted from the miles we walked yesterday. We're meeting some friends in Port Melbourne tonight so should be a good one - must save some energy beforehand!
Well James has sat here patiently waiting for me to finish and now looks about ready to keel over so I best be off:) Chat soon!
Monday, 5 May 2008
Mooching around in Melbourne City!
Well well well, we're now in Melbourne and what a place, it's huge! We got here Saturday afternoon and are no closer to getting our bearings (maybe only around the bars!)
The drive here took a little longer than expected. From the Eyre Peninsula just away from Adelaide since I last blogged, we drove up to the Grampians National Park. These aren't too 'famous' and James just found a small flyer about them and we decided to head up there. It's basically a mountain range with lots of scary cliff edges and walks. We spent 2 days there climbing to some of the peaks and taking in the beautiful landscape - not that we had the greatest weather! It was well worth the trip up though.
From there we hit The Great Ocean Road, probably the most famous road in Australia and perhaps up there as being one of the best drives in the world. We'd heard so much about this drive that our expectations were quite high which resulted, unfortunately, with a bit of disappointment from my side anyway. Don't get me wrong, the drive was stunning, lots of cliff edges, beautiful beaches, winding roads but we had rain and grey skies and it just wasn't what I imagined. We'd already done a few ocean/cliff top drives and I thought these were just as good. What I did enjoy about the Great Ocean Road was the contrast between hilltop valleys and beaches and sea, not anything I had seen before - think Wales crossed with Greece! We had a fantastic time and would perhaps like to do it again when it's not so dark and depressing:) I was rather impressed when I saw lots of koalas though, we counted about 10 on this one little road, they really are cute. Oh and of course, we saw the 12 Apostles (well 8 now that 4 have collapsed) but still, they were pretty amazing.
So now we're in Melbourne and I am liking this city. Although I'm quite happy to be living the country bumpkin lifestyle for a while, city life is far more my thing and I'm happy to have access to a hot shower whatever time of day it is. Up until now we've been living in the car we bought which is a lot better than it sounds, we have a proper double bed fitted and it's really comfy but it's starting to get cold here now and with the rain, getting out and especially into the car have proved awkward without soaking our bed sheets! So we booked into a funky little hostel called 'Pint on Punt' which is above an Irish bar and right in the middle of all the cool suburbs of Melbourne. We're sharing a room with a couple of American guys which at times is amusing but sometimes, irritating (like the snoring last night!) but on the whole it could have been a lot worse!
Saturday night we introduced ourselves to the city by getting acquainted with some of the local bars and therefore punishing ourselves Sunday by feeling not at our best (well me anyway!). It didn't last long though and I soon forgot about the large amount of wine I consumed whilst having lunch with a couple of friends we met over in Western Australia. Today has been a day of exploring with the aid of our Lonely Planet and its walking tour suggestion. We found a real cute alleyway with heaps of eateries and had falafel burgers for lunch before meeting another of James' tree surgeon friends who has settled over here, we had a few drinks and very cheap pizza before coming to this internet cafe so I can inform all you lovely people what we have been up to - nothing too cultural today I'm afraid:(
Not too sure what the plan is for tomorrow, most probably more walking, getting lost and attempting to read maps! I'm quite thirsty now though after my 3 glasses of wine so better go and get myself another drink:)
The drive here took a little longer than expected. From the Eyre Peninsula just away from Adelaide since I last blogged, we drove up to the Grampians National Park. These aren't too 'famous' and James just found a small flyer about them and we decided to head up there. It's basically a mountain range with lots of scary cliff edges and walks. We spent 2 days there climbing to some of the peaks and taking in the beautiful landscape - not that we had the greatest weather! It was well worth the trip up though.
From there we hit The Great Ocean Road, probably the most famous road in Australia and perhaps up there as being one of the best drives in the world. We'd heard so much about this drive that our expectations were quite high which resulted, unfortunately, with a bit of disappointment from my side anyway. Don't get me wrong, the drive was stunning, lots of cliff edges, beautiful beaches, winding roads but we had rain and grey skies and it just wasn't what I imagined. We'd already done a few ocean/cliff top drives and I thought these were just as good. What I did enjoy about the Great Ocean Road was the contrast between hilltop valleys and beaches and sea, not anything I had seen before - think Wales crossed with Greece! We had a fantastic time and would perhaps like to do it again when it's not so dark and depressing:) I was rather impressed when I saw lots of koalas though, we counted about 10 on this one little road, they really are cute. Oh and of course, we saw the 12 Apostles (well 8 now that 4 have collapsed) but still, they were pretty amazing.
So now we're in Melbourne and I am liking this city. Although I'm quite happy to be living the country bumpkin lifestyle for a while, city life is far more my thing and I'm happy to have access to a hot shower whatever time of day it is. Up until now we've been living in the car we bought which is a lot better than it sounds, we have a proper double bed fitted and it's really comfy but it's starting to get cold here now and with the rain, getting out and especially into the car have proved awkward without soaking our bed sheets! So we booked into a funky little hostel called 'Pint on Punt' which is above an Irish bar and right in the middle of all the cool suburbs of Melbourne. We're sharing a room with a couple of American guys which at times is amusing but sometimes, irritating (like the snoring last night!) but on the whole it could have been a lot worse!
Saturday night we introduced ourselves to the city by getting acquainted with some of the local bars and therefore punishing ourselves Sunday by feeling not at our best (well me anyway!). It didn't last long though and I soon forgot about the large amount of wine I consumed whilst having lunch with a couple of friends we met over in Western Australia. Today has been a day of exploring with the aid of our Lonely Planet and its walking tour suggestion. We found a real cute alleyway with heaps of eateries and had falafel burgers for lunch before meeting another of James' tree surgeon friends who has settled over here, we had a few drinks and very cheap pizza before coming to this internet cafe so I can inform all you lovely people what we have been up to - nothing too cultural today I'm afraid:(
Not too sure what the plan is for tomorrow, most probably more walking, getting lost and attempting to read maps! I'm quite thirsty now though after my 3 glasses of wine so better go and get myself another drink:)
Monday, 28 April 2008
Ok, short blog...
Blogging regularly is becoming quite hard now, between each city there are days of tiny villages and that usually means no internet cafes. Anyway, we've left Adelaide now and had a fantastic time, will definately be going back there, maybe even to work for a few months. There was just so much variety there, after we'd had a good explore of the city we went up to the Adelaide Hills which are like 2o minutes drive from the centre. They were so pretty and lots of picturesque towns which sold local produce and crafts. We had a good day just driving through and stopping to buy the odd thing or two.
Another day trip from Adelaide is the Barossa Valley, another wine region which was no hard thing to tackle! We visited Jacob's Creek and Wolf Blass vineyards among others and got pretty tipsy as well as very wet - it has now rained for the last 3 days:( Sunday we treated ourselves to one of the gourmet platters at one of the vineyards which was delicious and really filled us up.
Well James is fishing at the moment, we're in a tiny town called Robe and about to enter the Great Ocean Road and then Melbourne. So I've been on the internet for my limited time (someone is waiting to come on) so I have to be off. Speak soon guys!
Another day trip from Adelaide is the Barossa Valley, another wine region which was no hard thing to tackle! We visited Jacob's Creek and Wolf Blass vineyards among others and got pretty tipsy as well as very wet - it has now rained for the last 3 days:( Sunday we treated ourselves to one of the gourmet platters at one of the vineyards which was delicious and really filled us up.
Well James is fishing at the moment, we're in a tiny town called Robe and about to enter the Great Ocean Road and then Melbourne. So I've been on the internet for my limited time (someone is waiting to come on) so I have to be off. Speak soon guys!
Tuesday, 22 April 2008
Arrived in Adelaide!
We're back to civilisation, well, a city anyway with supermarkets and regular petrol stations and lots of people!
We've driven quite a few kilometres now since we left Mandurah and are definately enjoying staying still for a few days!
So where did I get to in the last blog... The desert drive!
This really wasn't as bad as everyone had told us it would be so I think we were quite prepared. After we left Esperance there wasn't really a proper town until we got to Ceduna, 400km after the South Australian border which made for about 2 and a half days of driving and seeing, well not much! Highlights of the drive I'd say were; the Great Australian Bight which is basically miles upon miles of raw cliff faces where that is all you can see either side of you, pretty amazing, and quite scary when you look over the edge, the clear and starry skies at night as there was no artificial light anywhere and doing crazy dancing to the CD's we had in the car because that's all there is to do!!!
An experience to say the least and one that we would do again!
Just realised I forgot to mention Flinders Ranges. We were there Saturday and Sunday exploring hilltops, caves and getting one on one with nature... in a 4 x 4 (nothings perfect hey!). A lot of walking resulted in sore legs but I was happy to burn off some calories! Definately one of the national parks worth visiting.
Anyway, so we're in Adelaide and having a really good time. We managed to find a decent caravan park in the city centre so can walk in and out as we please which is definately a bonus in Australia (people drive absolutely EVERYWHERE). Today we checked out the covered markets here and bought lots of deli food to take to the park for a picnic. We feasted on stuffed olives, dips, bread, smoked salmon and fruit (not really the typical travellers fare) and generally chilled out on the grass. We also strolled through the Japanese Himeji Gardens which were stunning, it was like walking into a secret garden and really peaceful. I must say, we hadn't heard a good word about Adelaide by the time we got here but we've both really clicked with the place, there's a lot of different cultures and I love just walking up and down the streets looking at all the funky boutiques and cafes. Yesterday we checked out Gouger Street which is renowned for tasty, cheap International cuisine and that it was. We had a pretty tasty chinese meal with drinks for like 15 pounds, enough food for about 4 people though, definately satisfied!
So, so far, so good in Adelaide! Tonight we're having a BBQ as the budget has taken a bit of a beating as is expected I suppose! Not much else to say for now so tah tah:)
We've driven quite a few kilometres now since we left Mandurah and are definately enjoying staying still for a few days!
So where did I get to in the last blog... The desert drive!
This really wasn't as bad as everyone had told us it would be so I think we were quite prepared. After we left Esperance there wasn't really a proper town until we got to Ceduna, 400km after the South Australian border which made for about 2 and a half days of driving and seeing, well not much! Highlights of the drive I'd say were; the Great Australian Bight which is basically miles upon miles of raw cliff faces where that is all you can see either side of you, pretty amazing, and quite scary when you look over the edge, the clear and starry skies at night as there was no artificial light anywhere and doing crazy dancing to the CD's we had in the car because that's all there is to do!!!
An experience to say the least and one that we would do again!
Just realised I forgot to mention Flinders Ranges. We were there Saturday and Sunday exploring hilltops, caves and getting one on one with nature... in a 4 x 4 (nothings perfect hey!). A lot of walking resulted in sore legs but I was happy to burn off some calories! Definately one of the national parks worth visiting.
Anyway, so we're in Adelaide and having a really good time. We managed to find a decent caravan park in the city centre so can walk in and out as we please which is definately a bonus in Australia (people drive absolutely EVERYWHERE). Today we checked out the covered markets here and bought lots of deli food to take to the park for a picnic. We feasted on stuffed olives, dips, bread, smoked salmon and fruit (not really the typical travellers fare) and generally chilled out on the grass. We also strolled through the Japanese Himeji Gardens which were stunning, it was like walking into a secret garden and really peaceful. I must say, we hadn't heard a good word about Adelaide by the time we got here but we've both really clicked with the place, there's a lot of different cultures and I love just walking up and down the streets looking at all the funky boutiques and cafes. Yesterday we checked out Gouger Street which is renowned for tasty, cheap International cuisine and that it was. We had a pretty tasty chinese meal with drinks for like 15 pounds, enough food for about 4 people though, definately satisfied!
So, so far, so good in Adelaide! Tonight we're having a BBQ as the budget has taken a bit of a beating as is expected I suppose! Not much else to say for now so tah tah:)
Tuesday, 15 April 2008
Finally somewhere with internet!
Well I have managed to find a place to use the internet, haven't got too long though as the money is running out and it's pretty expensive!
So we've been up to quite a lot since you last heard from me and are now in a town called Streaky Bay which is in South Australia and about 500km West of Adelaide. James is out on the jetty fishing at the moment so I'm hoping he'll make a catch for lunch!
Well, where do I start...
As you know, we left Mandurah last Monday (7th April) and drove down to Margaret River and it chucked it down all day - this was not a good start to our trip and I really didn't enjoy sorting the car out to sleep in with all the rain and attempting not to get our beds wet or dirty (every night we have to move everything from the back to the front so we can get to our bed) so all in all, that was a pretty uneventful day! Tuesday was so much more fun as the sunshine woke us up! We headed down to the surf competition and watched the surfers for a few hours, pretty impressive stuff but after a while they all just become coloured dots in the waves so we went and had a round of Supa Golf, I obviously hadn't got any better since the last time we played and actually scored worse! I must have had beginners luck before! As we were in the area, we couldn't resist a little look in at the chocolate factory AGAIN to sample some of the yummy chocolate drops! We met up with one of James' friends that evening in Dunsborough and went for a few drinks, they reminisced (don't think that is spelt right!?) about the good old days in the tree surgeon world (they worked together in England) while I tried to keep up with names and things I'd never heard of! We crashed at his house that night which was really cool and him and his girlfriend had the cutest dog ever which I just fell in love with!
So, Wednesday we had a drive to Cape Naturaliste to check out a seal colony and some nice beaches then grabbed lunch at Goana Cafe, really yummy! We popped into another winery afterwards where we got the biggest tasters ever, I swear I'd nearly had a whole glass by the time we left (doesn't happen usually). From there we headed further South and found a lovely camp spot in the forest.
Thursday we visited the Jewel Cave which although was a bit pricey, was really impressive, massive chambers and some beautiful stalagmites and stalagtites. From there we drove to a little town called Pemberton which is inland and houses the Bicentennial Tree. This is a 75m tall tree which has metal spikes coming off it enabling crazy people to climb to the top of it, well that was James - I obviously had to stay at the bottom to take the photos otherwise I would have been up there in a flash... Not! He was just a small dot once at the top and I must say I was quite impressed when he was there but slightly more anxious on his way down! Anyway, he made it down safely and I rewarded him with a trip to Jarrah Jacks brewery where he sampled 6 different beers, it's a hard life!
On Friday we spent most of the day driving and parked for the night at a random camp bay off the main road ready to hit Esperance the next day. Esperance was stunning, probably the prettiest place so far. We did the Ocean Road drive and came across some stunning white sand beaches with torquise waters and couldn't help but stop every time. James managed to catch his first wave on his new surf board so he was a happy chappy. Just after Esperance town was Cape Le Grand National Park where we camped for the night.
Sunday morning we explored the park and climbed to the top of Frenchmans Peak, a 1.5 km steep climb not for the faint hearted! I was gasping by the time we got to the top but that was all forgotten when we saw the view, I tried to take a good photo but those kind of things can only be appreciated when you're there I think. We went for a dip afterwards in Hellfire Bay which was a beautiful beach cove, a good reward for our climbing efforts.
That night we hit the boredom. Australia's longest straightest road at 146km and we parked up halfway across that before entering the Nullarbor (Aboriginal for 'no trees') desert the next day. This was a loooong drive across some very boring vegetation but I'll have to tell you all about that next time I'm online as my time is running out (it's on 1 minute!). Be good and hopefully I'll be on here very soon!:)
So we've been up to quite a lot since you last heard from me and are now in a town called Streaky Bay which is in South Australia and about 500km West of Adelaide. James is out on the jetty fishing at the moment so I'm hoping he'll make a catch for lunch!
Well, where do I start...
As you know, we left Mandurah last Monday (7th April) and drove down to Margaret River and it chucked it down all day - this was not a good start to our trip and I really didn't enjoy sorting the car out to sleep in with all the rain and attempting not to get our beds wet or dirty (every night we have to move everything from the back to the front so we can get to our bed) so all in all, that was a pretty uneventful day! Tuesday was so much more fun as the sunshine woke us up! We headed down to the surf competition and watched the surfers for a few hours, pretty impressive stuff but after a while they all just become coloured dots in the waves so we went and had a round of Supa Golf, I obviously hadn't got any better since the last time we played and actually scored worse! I must have had beginners luck before! As we were in the area, we couldn't resist a little look in at the chocolate factory AGAIN to sample some of the yummy chocolate drops! We met up with one of James' friends that evening in Dunsborough and went for a few drinks, they reminisced (don't think that is spelt right!?) about the good old days in the tree surgeon world (they worked together in England) while I tried to keep up with names and things I'd never heard of! We crashed at his house that night which was really cool and him and his girlfriend had the cutest dog ever which I just fell in love with!
So, Wednesday we had a drive to Cape Naturaliste to check out a seal colony and some nice beaches then grabbed lunch at Goana Cafe, really yummy! We popped into another winery afterwards where we got the biggest tasters ever, I swear I'd nearly had a whole glass by the time we left (doesn't happen usually). From there we headed further South and found a lovely camp spot in the forest.
Thursday we visited the Jewel Cave which although was a bit pricey, was really impressive, massive chambers and some beautiful stalagmites and stalagtites. From there we drove to a little town called Pemberton which is inland and houses the Bicentennial Tree. This is a 75m tall tree which has metal spikes coming off it enabling crazy people to climb to the top of it, well that was James - I obviously had to stay at the bottom to take the photos otherwise I would have been up there in a flash... Not! He was just a small dot once at the top and I must say I was quite impressed when he was there but slightly more anxious on his way down! Anyway, he made it down safely and I rewarded him with a trip to Jarrah Jacks brewery where he sampled 6 different beers, it's a hard life!
On Friday we spent most of the day driving and parked for the night at a random camp bay off the main road ready to hit Esperance the next day. Esperance was stunning, probably the prettiest place so far. We did the Ocean Road drive and came across some stunning white sand beaches with torquise waters and couldn't help but stop every time. James managed to catch his first wave on his new surf board so he was a happy chappy. Just after Esperance town was Cape Le Grand National Park where we camped for the night.
Sunday morning we explored the park and climbed to the top of Frenchmans Peak, a 1.5 km steep climb not for the faint hearted! I was gasping by the time we got to the top but that was all forgotten when we saw the view, I tried to take a good photo but those kind of things can only be appreciated when you're there I think. We went for a dip afterwards in Hellfire Bay which was a beautiful beach cove, a good reward for our climbing efforts.
That night we hit the boredom. Australia's longest straightest road at 146km and we parked up halfway across that before entering the Nullarbor (Aboriginal for 'no trees') desert the next day. This was a loooong drive across some very boring vegetation but I'll have to tell you all about that next time I'm online as my time is running out (it's on 1 minute!). Be good and hopefully I'll be on here very soon!:)
Sunday, 6 April 2008
Heading off today on the big drive!
Well today's the day we leave Mandurah! I've said my goodbyes to everyone and although it was really sad, we'll be back this side in 3 months. I'm just so excited to see everything along the South and East!
Anyway, haven't been on too many great adventures this week. We spent Wednesday and Thursday on Rottnest Island just a ferry ride from Perth and had a real fun time. Its basically a small island where people escape to occasionally where you usually dust off your bikes! We did what everyone else was doing and that was, to cycle round the island, 22km all in all. It was ok while we were cycling although I did have the occasional tantrum when the hills were too steep and I had to walk my bike while James just rode off ahead! It was the next day that was a killer, my legs were so stiff! As we were staying in a hostel dorm room I had bagged top bunk unaware how painful it would be to climb down the ladder after 22km of cycling! To top that off, getting back on the bike that morning was even more painful! I'm not an unfit person as such, I just can't ride a bike very well!!! So apart from the cycling we spent the rest of the time at the beach and managed to see some dolphins quite close and a huge stingray. The island is also famed for the 'Quokkas' which are kangaroos crossed with rats, they're pretty cute actually, google them if you don't have a clue what I'm talking about.
Thursday evening me and Sophie had a girly night up in Subiaco which is a classy suburb of Perth. We had greek dips and pitta bread in a little Mediteranean restaurant and then moved onto another place for our main course before finishing with a hot chocolate in another cafe - our way of seeing the place in one evening! The next day we went shopping in Perth and although I didn't buy much, I had fun spending Sophie's money for her new house!!!
The weekend was quite nice and chilled out as it was Sophie's birthday yesterday. Saturday night we celebrated in style and hit Northbridge in Perth for a Mediteranean dinner and a boogie in a club called Paramount. Lots of drinking, dancing and tequila slammers involved, no one hurt in the process though;) Funny story there really, as it was Sophie's birthday, we decided that all the girls would get ready together and meet the guys at the train station... Come 6:45pm, we got to the train station and James couldn't stand or look me in the eye after drinking a whole bottle of Whisky in the space of about 40 minutes! Not only should you not drink that much in one sitting, but it wasn't even 7pm on a Saturday night and the boy was already dazed and very confused! After that I went to the vending machine and made him eat chocolate and banned alcohol in the restaurant for him - carbs and water for James!!! We swapped his drunkness by the end of the night with him being one of the most sober ones on the train home!
Yesterday we spent the day lazing on the couch, watching DVD's and eating lots of nice food. We went out for dinner at this cosy Italian restaurant and even though we waited quite a while for our meals, they were all really yummy and I think we all came home quite satisfied that Sophie had had a good birthday!
Well, it's about time I get packing to leave. We're driving down to Margaret River today to catch a few days of the surfing competition they have every year. No promises on when I'll next be online but I will be in touch soon, hopefully before we hit the boring desert otherwise you'll all be waiting a while for my update! Be good everyone:)
Anyway, haven't been on too many great adventures this week. We spent Wednesday and Thursday on Rottnest Island just a ferry ride from Perth and had a real fun time. Its basically a small island where people escape to occasionally where you usually dust off your bikes! We did what everyone else was doing and that was, to cycle round the island, 22km all in all. It was ok while we were cycling although I did have the occasional tantrum when the hills were too steep and I had to walk my bike while James just rode off ahead! It was the next day that was a killer, my legs were so stiff! As we were staying in a hostel dorm room I had bagged top bunk unaware how painful it would be to climb down the ladder after 22km of cycling! To top that off, getting back on the bike that morning was even more painful! I'm not an unfit person as such, I just can't ride a bike very well!!! So apart from the cycling we spent the rest of the time at the beach and managed to see some dolphins quite close and a huge stingray. The island is also famed for the 'Quokkas' which are kangaroos crossed with rats, they're pretty cute actually, google them if you don't have a clue what I'm talking about.
Thursday evening me and Sophie had a girly night up in Subiaco which is a classy suburb of Perth. We had greek dips and pitta bread in a little Mediteranean restaurant and then moved onto another place for our main course before finishing with a hot chocolate in another cafe - our way of seeing the place in one evening! The next day we went shopping in Perth and although I didn't buy much, I had fun spending Sophie's money for her new house!!!
The weekend was quite nice and chilled out as it was Sophie's birthday yesterday. Saturday night we celebrated in style and hit Northbridge in Perth for a Mediteranean dinner and a boogie in a club called Paramount. Lots of drinking, dancing and tequila slammers involved, no one hurt in the process though;) Funny story there really, as it was Sophie's birthday, we decided that all the girls would get ready together and meet the guys at the train station... Come 6:45pm, we got to the train station and James couldn't stand or look me in the eye after drinking a whole bottle of Whisky in the space of about 40 minutes! Not only should you not drink that much in one sitting, but it wasn't even 7pm on a Saturday night and the boy was already dazed and very confused! After that I went to the vending machine and made him eat chocolate and banned alcohol in the restaurant for him - carbs and water for James!!! We swapped his drunkness by the end of the night with him being one of the most sober ones on the train home!
Yesterday we spent the day lazing on the couch, watching DVD's and eating lots of nice food. We went out for dinner at this cosy Italian restaurant and even though we waited quite a while for our meals, they were all really yummy and I think we all came home quite satisfied that Sophie had had a good birthday!
Well, it's about time I get packing to leave. We're driving down to Margaret River today to catch a few days of the surfing competition they have every year. No promises on when I'll next be online but I will be in touch soon, hopefully before we hit the boring desert otherwise you'll all be waiting a while for my update! Be good everyone:)
Sunday, 30 March 2008
Good on you Maroon 5 (Adam levine in particular)
Well, what can I say, I had the BEST night on Friday all thanks to my favourite band Maroon 5. I saw them live at the Burswood Dome in Perth and absolutely loved it! For those of you who don't know, James booked us tickets to see them in Paris for my birthday in December way back in May last year but 2 weeks before the show, it was cancelled and I was gutted to say the least. Then Sophie found out they were in Perth when we were and booked us tickets so I have been waiting for 9 months to see them and it was amazing! It was a brilliant show and reinforced my love for Adam Levine, he looked very good indeed :) I managed to sing along to every song as well which I was quite proud of, I guess I did have a while to prepare though!
It's actually been a busy few days and we haven't spent much time in Mandurah really. As I said, Thursday we went to Swan Valley to meet with James' uncle and Auntie and had such a lovely day. We basically drove a route round the Swan river and stopped at lots of different places on the way like some nice wineries, a nougat factory, a brewery, and ice cream factory and for a picnic for lunch! I felt like I was eating and drinking all day! In the evening we stayed with their family and went kangaroo spotting at the golf course and there were so many! Me and James haven't really seen any up close yet so it was really good to see them, they're cute really! I tried my best to sneak up and take a close up photo but as soon as one hops off, they all follow!
Saturday afternoon we went camping in a place called Nanga in Dwellingup, it was only about a 45 minute drive from here but really out in the sticks. It was beautiful there and we camped in between all these tall trees and next to the Murray River which compensated for the long drop toilet and no shower! It got dark pretty early out there so we played lots of card games and yatzee with some rather large moths for company, not a fan of the fluttering species! It was a real fun night though with lots of laughs and just as much alcohol!
Yesterday we found a lovely cidery and winery near to where we camped so went and had a few tasters and a couple of drinks. I was actually quite tipsy after my 2 glasses of sparkling wine and then dropped off to sleep on the way home, that's what drinking in the day does to me!
Today is a first. It is actually tipping it down with rain and thundering outside, it looks like England outside the window!! Apparently when it does rain here it really goes for it so we'll probably have these grey skies all day - looks like we might spend the day watching DVD's!
Well, that's about it for now, we head off one week today on our big drive round to the East so have a few things to prepare, really excited though! Au Revoir for now:)
It's actually been a busy few days and we haven't spent much time in Mandurah really. As I said, Thursday we went to Swan Valley to meet with James' uncle and Auntie and had such a lovely day. We basically drove a route round the Swan river and stopped at lots of different places on the way like some nice wineries, a nougat factory, a brewery, and ice cream factory and for a picnic for lunch! I felt like I was eating and drinking all day! In the evening we stayed with their family and went kangaroo spotting at the golf course and there were so many! Me and James haven't really seen any up close yet so it was really good to see them, they're cute really! I tried my best to sneak up and take a close up photo but as soon as one hops off, they all follow!
Saturday afternoon we went camping in a place called Nanga in Dwellingup, it was only about a 45 minute drive from here but really out in the sticks. It was beautiful there and we camped in between all these tall trees and next to the Murray River which compensated for the long drop toilet and no shower! It got dark pretty early out there so we played lots of card games and yatzee with some rather large moths for company, not a fan of the fluttering species! It was a real fun night though with lots of laughs and just as much alcohol!
Yesterday we found a lovely cidery and winery near to where we camped so went and had a few tasters and a couple of drinks. I was actually quite tipsy after my 2 glasses of sparkling wine and then dropped off to sleep on the way home, that's what drinking in the day does to me!
Today is a first. It is actually tipping it down with rain and thundering outside, it looks like England outside the window!! Apparently when it does rain here it really goes for it so we'll probably have these grey skies all day - looks like we might spend the day watching DVD's!
Well, that's about it for now, we head off one week today on our big drive round to the East so have a few things to prepare, really excited though! Au Revoir for now:)
Wednesday, 26 March 2008
... One More Thing
Forgot to say... I finally managed to find an internet cafe today which would let let me upload my photos onto facebook so there they are! Enjoy!:)
Tipsy after a fun day in Perth!
Just thought I'd pop on here before I go to bed! I think it's always a waste of alcohol to go to bed still feeling tipsy!!
Well me and James have had a fun day in Perth, well, I think it's fair to say I've had a fun day and James has had a less fun day following me round lots of shops! I managed to find myself a cute hooded top seeing as everyone keeps telling me it will get cold soon and I guess I packed really badly with no form of warm clothing so some might say that I needed this top rather than just buying it because I wanted it (that was my excuse to James anyway!)
Well after dragging James round loads of shops in search of birthday presents and re-visiting the same shops, he'd pretty much had enough of the whole shopping experience so we had a good sushi dinner and went for a drink (or 2). We found such a cool place right on the river called 'The Lucky Shag', wasn't what I imagined actually - quite classy and on the water with a really nice menu and some good beer and wine choices. We only stayed for 2 rounds as our car was parked at the station but we got to listen to some really nice live acoustic music and watch the harbour.
We're off into Swan Valley tomorrow to meet up with James' uncle and aunt. It's just outside Perth and where all the wineries and breweries are so there should be some more tasting to do, it's a hard life!
Anyway, bedtime calls...
Well me and James have had a fun day in Perth, well, I think it's fair to say I've had a fun day and James has had a less fun day following me round lots of shops! I managed to find myself a cute hooded top seeing as everyone keeps telling me it will get cold soon and I guess I packed really badly with no form of warm clothing so some might say that I needed this top rather than just buying it because I wanted it (that was my excuse to James anyway!)
Well after dragging James round loads of shops in search of birthday presents and re-visiting the same shops, he'd pretty much had enough of the whole shopping experience so we had a good sushi dinner and went for a drink (or 2). We found such a cool place right on the river called 'The Lucky Shag', wasn't what I imagined actually - quite classy and on the water with a really nice menu and some good beer and wine choices. We only stayed for 2 rounds as our car was parked at the station but we got to listen to some really nice live acoustic music and watch the harbour.
We're off into Swan Valley tomorrow to meet up with James' uncle and aunt. It's just outside Perth and where all the wineries and breweries are so there should be some more tasting to do, it's a hard life!
Anyway, bedtime calls...
Tuesday, 25 March 2008
From Up-North to Down-South
Thanks for sticking with me, I know it's been over a week again but I do have an excuse for not blogging, no internet again plus having a bit too much fun!
Our down south trip was like a holiday within our trip. We've been away for 8 days with Sophie and Cale and have been staying in some really nice accommodation (probably the nicest we'll see while we're here!) and sampling some really yummy food and wine.
Last Sunday we headed down to Yallingup which is about 3 hours South of Perth and a hot surfing place, we had 2 nights there to basically enjoy the sun, sea and surf. James couldn't wait to get in but didn't stay too long as the waves were on the larger side, I stayed in the shallow waters too otherwise thought we all might get swept away! The beach was gorgeous though and it was nice to just sit there and watch people surfing, fishing and generally getting beaten up by the waves!
Tuesday we had a long drive further down to Denmark (not the country - bad joke!!) which took up most of the day. On the way we stopped at Berry Farm Winery in Margaret River which was so cute right in the middle of all these trees and had a scrumptious lunch and some wine tasting which is what that region is all about - gourmet food and superior wines. The place we were staying at in Denmark was so different to everywhere else, a small rural log cabin in the middle of a forest so it was only natural that the boys got down to cutting up wood as soon as we got there to make a fire. We had a really fun evening making dinner, playing charades and drinking way too much wine!
Wednesday we did the famous 'Tree Top Walk' in 'The Valley of the Giants' which is basically a big area of 50 metre tall Karri trees in a national park. There is a bridge which is built through the forest at about 40 metres above ground level which moves quite a lot as you walk on it, not for the faint hearted or those afraid of heights! James loved it of course (being a tree surgeon)but said he would have felt safer in the trees rather than on the bridge! From there we stopped at Greene's Pool, an amazing little bay where the water is so clear and nothing but white sand and then onto a toffee factory for a well deserved (we thought) ice-cream!
That night we stayed in a caravan park in Albany which was only about half an hour from Denmark. We grabbed dinner at a cosy restaurant called 'Nonnas' and then just watched a DVD at home which by the way was really rubbish - 'The Eye' with Jessica Alba, don't bother!
Albany was quite a nice town, had a few historic buildings and some nice streets to walk along but I felt like we'd seen it all pretty quick so the next day was another long drive back up to Busselton where we were staying for the last 4 nights of our trip. On the way back up we passed through a town called Manjimup which our Lonely Planet guide said was worth a trip to see 'One Tree Bridge'. Considering James is a fan of trees we thought we'd find this amazing bridge and after driving for a while, came across a small sign for it. After getting out of the car and walking through some trees, there it was - an old broken bridge which was probably about 10 metres long just randomly placed in the forest, not the most impressive sight I've seen while I've been here I must say, so for anyone wondering about seeing it, I'd say its not worth the detour! However, the sign in front is quite a laugh 'bridge no longer in use', who would have thought that when its fenced up in the middle of a forest placed on the ground with both ends broken?
Anyway, Busselton is where we really indulged and where I felt like I was definately on holiday. Our apartment was lovely, really modern and literally a minutes walk from the beach. We all had a game of Supa Golf on Friday which is where you play with big plastic clubs, it was such a laugh and I was quite impressed with myself not to come last, would definately recommend that game to anyone! We visited the Margaret River Chocolate Factory afterwards which wasn't exactly Cadbury World but the chocolate was really good, I couldn't help going back for a fourth time to the free tasters! After too much chocolate and in the wrong order, we went for lunch at a beautiful winery called Providence, you couldn't really ask for much more; sun, shade, lovely wine, tasty lunch AND stunning views over the vineyards and to top it all off, a trip to the beach afterwards for a dip.
Saturday we went to Sophie's favourite restaurant 'The Goose' which sits at the end of the famous Busselton jetty which is 2km long. We walked to the end and back which took just over an hour and worked up a bit of an appetite for our tasty tapas lunch. Me and James squeezed in a bit of snorkelling too and managed to spot a stingray and lots of puffer fish. With even more energy to burn off we played tennis at the resort, don't think I've played since I was 11 but it was really fun!
Sunday was probably the most fun we all had when we went on the all day Bushtucker Winery Tour. We got picked up by this funky bus at 10am and slowly collected another 16 people (all about our age) and headed off to the wineries. Our tour guide Brian was so funny and definately had us all in giggles, especially when he picked on James to eat a 'witchetty-grub' at lunch which is like a giant crunchy maggot, gross. I tried kangaroo for the first time too and thought it was actually really nice! Over the day we visited 4 wineries, 1 brewery, the chocolate factory and the cheese factory and managed to taste about 40 wines! Let's just say we were all pretty merry by the time we got dropped off at 6pm and fell asleep by 10pm with thumping headaches.
Yesterday was just the drive home and a chilled out day all in all. Today we've been to Fremantle again (we went there a few weeks ago) but this time to visit the old prison. This might sound boring but it was really interesting, we went on a tour and the guide told us loads of things about the prisoners and their routines etc and we finished off by visiting the execution chamber which was a bit creepy, what was really weird is that the prison only shut down in 1991 so it's really recent history. We just grabbed a pizza after that and a drink in a really cool place called 'Little Creatures Brewery'.
Well that's my update so far, I'm around in Mandurah for 2 weeks now so will be able to blog more often! For those of you who are wondering about my photos on facebook, well its impossible to upload them anywhere, I'm trying to find an internet which will let me but its so frustrating when it doesn't work!!! Don't worry though, I've got plenty of photos so when I do manage to get them online, you'll all have lots to look at!
Bye for now!!!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=15353&l=cac52&id=508274760
Our down south trip was like a holiday within our trip. We've been away for 8 days with Sophie and Cale and have been staying in some really nice accommodation (probably the nicest we'll see while we're here!) and sampling some really yummy food and wine.
Last Sunday we headed down to Yallingup which is about 3 hours South of Perth and a hot surfing place, we had 2 nights there to basically enjoy the sun, sea and surf. James couldn't wait to get in but didn't stay too long as the waves were on the larger side, I stayed in the shallow waters too otherwise thought we all might get swept away! The beach was gorgeous though and it was nice to just sit there and watch people surfing, fishing and generally getting beaten up by the waves!
Tuesday we had a long drive further down to Denmark (not the country - bad joke!!) which took up most of the day. On the way we stopped at Berry Farm Winery in Margaret River which was so cute right in the middle of all these trees and had a scrumptious lunch and some wine tasting which is what that region is all about - gourmet food and superior wines. The place we were staying at in Denmark was so different to everywhere else, a small rural log cabin in the middle of a forest so it was only natural that the boys got down to cutting up wood as soon as we got there to make a fire. We had a really fun evening making dinner, playing charades and drinking way too much wine!
Wednesday we did the famous 'Tree Top Walk' in 'The Valley of the Giants' which is basically a big area of 50 metre tall Karri trees in a national park. There is a bridge which is built through the forest at about 40 metres above ground level which moves quite a lot as you walk on it, not for the faint hearted or those afraid of heights! James loved it of course (being a tree surgeon)but said he would have felt safer in the trees rather than on the bridge! From there we stopped at Greene's Pool, an amazing little bay where the water is so clear and nothing but white sand and then onto a toffee factory for a well deserved (we thought) ice-cream!
That night we stayed in a caravan park in Albany which was only about half an hour from Denmark. We grabbed dinner at a cosy restaurant called 'Nonnas' and then just watched a DVD at home which by the way was really rubbish - 'The Eye' with Jessica Alba, don't bother!
Albany was quite a nice town, had a few historic buildings and some nice streets to walk along but I felt like we'd seen it all pretty quick so the next day was another long drive back up to Busselton where we were staying for the last 4 nights of our trip. On the way back up we passed through a town called Manjimup which our Lonely Planet guide said was worth a trip to see 'One Tree Bridge'. Considering James is a fan of trees we thought we'd find this amazing bridge and after driving for a while, came across a small sign for it. After getting out of the car and walking through some trees, there it was - an old broken bridge which was probably about 10 metres long just randomly placed in the forest, not the most impressive sight I've seen while I've been here I must say, so for anyone wondering about seeing it, I'd say its not worth the detour! However, the sign in front is quite a laugh 'bridge no longer in use', who would have thought that when its fenced up in the middle of a forest placed on the ground with both ends broken?
Anyway, Busselton is where we really indulged and where I felt like I was definately on holiday. Our apartment was lovely, really modern and literally a minutes walk from the beach. We all had a game of Supa Golf on Friday which is where you play with big plastic clubs, it was such a laugh and I was quite impressed with myself not to come last, would definately recommend that game to anyone! We visited the Margaret River Chocolate Factory afterwards which wasn't exactly Cadbury World but the chocolate was really good, I couldn't help going back for a fourth time to the free tasters! After too much chocolate and in the wrong order, we went for lunch at a beautiful winery called Providence, you couldn't really ask for much more; sun, shade, lovely wine, tasty lunch AND stunning views over the vineyards and to top it all off, a trip to the beach afterwards for a dip.
Saturday we went to Sophie's favourite restaurant 'The Goose' which sits at the end of the famous Busselton jetty which is 2km long. We walked to the end and back which took just over an hour and worked up a bit of an appetite for our tasty tapas lunch. Me and James squeezed in a bit of snorkelling too and managed to spot a stingray and lots of puffer fish. With even more energy to burn off we played tennis at the resort, don't think I've played since I was 11 but it was really fun!
Sunday was probably the most fun we all had when we went on the all day Bushtucker Winery Tour. We got picked up by this funky bus at 10am and slowly collected another 16 people (all about our age) and headed off to the wineries. Our tour guide Brian was so funny and definately had us all in giggles, especially when he picked on James to eat a 'witchetty-grub' at lunch which is like a giant crunchy maggot, gross. I tried kangaroo for the first time too and thought it was actually really nice! Over the day we visited 4 wineries, 1 brewery, the chocolate factory and the cheese factory and managed to taste about 40 wines! Let's just say we were all pretty merry by the time we got dropped off at 6pm and fell asleep by 10pm with thumping headaches.
Yesterday was just the drive home and a chilled out day all in all. Today we've been to Fremantle again (we went there a few weeks ago) but this time to visit the old prison. This might sound boring but it was really interesting, we went on a tour and the guide told us loads of things about the prisoners and their routines etc and we finished off by visiting the execution chamber which was a bit creepy, what was really weird is that the prison only shut down in 1991 so it's really recent history. We just grabbed a pizza after that and a drink in a really cool place called 'Little Creatures Brewery'.
Well that's my update so far, I'm around in Mandurah for 2 weeks now so will be able to blog more often! For those of you who are wondering about my photos on facebook, well its impossible to upload them anywhere, I'm trying to find an internet which will let me but its so frustrating when it doesn't work!!! Don't worry though, I've got plenty of photos so when I do manage to get them online, you'll all have lots to look at!
Bye for now!!!
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Saturday, 15 March 2008
So Much to Write...
Well what can I say, my apologies for abandoning this blog for ages but its been a busy couple of weeks with no internet access most of the time...
Most importantly, we have a car! A Mitsubishi Pajero 4 x 4 and its great, we picked it up last wednesday (5th March) and it's been our home ever since virtually! Me and James have just got back from an up north trip so if I say anything stupid it's because its 11pm, we've been driving all day and I'm way overtired that I'm stupidly awake (if that makes sense!)
Well last Sunday we drove up North for about 7 hours and just stayed in this random little caravan park in the middle of the bush on the way up to Coral Bay - it was fly hell, complete overload and I went to sleep with buzzing in my ear, not a nice feeling! Anyway, we set off early Monday morning and got to Coral Bay at about 3ish, it was beautiful there, it's basically a tiny beach resort with stunning coastlines and good snorkelling. The rest of that day was just spent lazing on the beach and chilling out at the campsite. We went on a really cool boat and snorkelling trip round the Ningaloo Reef on Tuesday, 2 hours out at sea stopping at 2 different snorkel points, there were only 6 of us so we had a real good time. I spotted a turtle while I was snorkelling and managed to follow it for the whole of about 10 seconds (they're fast swimmers) and we also saw a lionfish and lots of pretty reef fish. After the trip James wanted to test drive the car on a 4 x 4 track so we found this little dirt road and followed it to find a completely secluded beach called turtle bay. To imagine this beach is to think back to when you're sat in the office and imagining yourself in some far away island on a beautiful beach with clear blue water, that's exactly what it looked like - the perfect getaway!!
Wednesday we drove down to Denham in the Shark Bay area stopping at various points on the way as suggested by our Lonely Planet guide. The stops were mainly beaches, cliff faces and good panoramic views of the area but this took a while so we ended up getting to the caravan park late afternoon. All we had time for then before the sun went down was a bit of fishing before making a yummy dinner on the BBQ and chatting (and drinking) the evening away with some Dutch people we met, really fun night! We got up mega early Thursday to drive to Monkey Mia to see the morning dolphins; at 7:30am every day a group of them swim to this particular beach and have done for the past 20 years to greet all the tourists awaiting them. It was lovely to see them and they come real close to you. Although it was amazing to see them like that, I have to admit it would be far more satisfying to spot some whilst out snorkelling or diving as it's unexpected then, at Monkey Mia it happens every day so you know it's not a suprise but I'm so glad we went. From there we drove to Francis Peron National Park which is 4 x 4 access only and I think we saw 2 other cars the whole day! It was a bumpy ride round the area and James was seriously enjoying practising his extreme driving skills! There were some really interesting cliff formations there and we walked along the most Westerly part of Australia and managed to spot a Manta Ray and 2 dolphins in the water which was definately the highlight. We spent the rest of the day at a little beach there making lunch. James managed to catch a few fish which we had for dinner that night - although I didn't quite like the process of seeing the fish alive, to being cooked I have to admit it was actually really tasty!
Yesterday was quite a boring day really as we had a long drive to a town called Geraldton. We stopped at a nice little beach town called Kalbarri but it was almost impossible to find somewhere serving lunch at 2:30, it was like a dead town. In Geraldton we went out for dinner for the first time on our little tour, I had a lovely Moroccan lamb dinner then we watched a band called Blaze in this funky bar. I thought they were actually really good and although they didn't do any of their own music, it was all really good covers!
Today has been another day of driving (I managed 4 hours straight!)with the odd little break here and there for fishing and surfing but I am about to fall asleep on the keyboard so am going to have to love you and leave you!
We're off again tomorrow on a down South tour with Sophie and Cale this time and won't be back until Monday 25th March so until then, ciao for now...
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=15286&l=80419&id=508274760
Most importantly, we have a car! A Mitsubishi Pajero 4 x 4 and its great, we picked it up last wednesday (5th March) and it's been our home ever since virtually! Me and James have just got back from an up north trip so if I say anything stupid it's because its 11pm, we've been driving all day and I'm way overtired that I'm stupidly awake (if that makes sense!)
Well last Sunday we drove up North for about 7 hours and just stayed in this random little caravan park in the middle of the bush on the way up to Coral Bay - it was fly hell, complete overload and I went to sleep with buzzing in my ear, not a nice feeling! Anyway, we set off early Monday morning and got to Coral Bay at about 3ish, it was beautiful there, it's basically a tiny beach resort with stunning coastlines and good snorkelling. The rest of that day was just spent lazing on the beach and chilling out at the campsite. We went on a really cool boat and snorkelling trip round the Ningaloo Reef on Tuesday, 2 hours out at sea stopping at 2 different snorkel points, there were only 6 of us so we had a real good time. I spotted a turtle while I was snorkelling and managed to follow it for the whole of about 10 seconds (they're fast swimmers) and we also saw a lionfish and lots of pretty reef fish. After the trip James wanted to test drive the car on a 4 x 4 track so we found this little dirt road and followed it to find a completely secluded beach called turtle bay. To imagine this beach is to think back to when you're sat in the office and imagining yourself in some far away island on a beautiful beach with clear blue water, that's exactly what it looked like - the perfect getaway!!
Wednesday we drove down to Denham in the Shark Bay area stopping at various points on the way as suggested by our Lonely Planet guide. The stops were mainly beaches, cliff faces and good panoramic views of the area but this took a while so we ended up getting to the caravan park late afternoon. All we had time for then before the sun went down was a bit of fishing before making a yummy dinner on the BBQ and chatting (and drinking) the evening away with some Dutch people we met, really fun night! We got up mega early Thursday to drive to Monkey Mia to see the morning dolphins; at 7:30am every day a group of them swim to this particular beach and have done for the past 20 years to greet all the tourists awaiting them. It was lovely to see them and they come real close to you. Although it was amazing to see them like that, I have to admit it would be far more satisfying to spot some whilst out snorkelling or diving as it's unexpected then, at Monkey Mia it happens every day so you know it's not a suprise but I'm so glad we went. From there we drove to Francis Peron National Park which is 4 x 4 access only and I think we saw 2 other cars the whole day! It was a bumpy ride round the area and James was seriously enjoying practising his extreme driving skills! There were some really interesting cliff formations there and we walked along the most Westerly part of Australia and managed to spot a Manta Ray and 2 dolphins in the water which was definately the highlight. We spent the rest of the day at a little beach there making lunch. James managed to catch a few fish which we had for dinner that night - although I didn't quite like the process of seeing the fish alive, to being cooked I have to admit it was actually really tasty!
Yesterday was quite a boring day really as we had a long drive to a town called Geraldton. We stopped at a nice little beach town called Kalbarri but it was almost impossible to find somewhere serving lunch at 2:30, it was like a dead town. In Geraldton we went out for dinner for the first time on our little tour, I had a lovely Moroccan lamb dinner then we watched a band called Blaze in this funky bar. I thought they were actually really good and although they didn't do any of their own music, it was all really good covers!
Today has been another day of driving (I managed 4 hours straight!)with the odd little break here and there for fishing and surfing but I am about to fall asleep on the keyboard so am going to have to love you and leave you!
We're off again tomorrow on a down South tour with Sophie and Cale this time and won't be back until Monday 25th March so until then, ciao for now...
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Monday, 3 March 2008
1 Month into our Trip
1 month ago today, we left England to start our travels which is really weird, it kind of feels like we've done so much but then also that we haven't been gone long.
Anyway, the last few days have been eventful, we've been out everyday... Shopping on Thursday night was fun, didn't buy anything and thought we'd go and get some dinner in Mandurah town centre afterwards - didn't quite go to plan... Officially by 9:30pm on a Thursday night, every restaurant had finished serving, even the pizza takeout had called it a night so we ended up eating some chinese noodles outside with our only company being some cockroaches, not quite the initial idea but a funny night!
Friday we spent the day in Hillary's Marina which is just past Perth, did the whole lunch thing then spent a few hours in AQWA, the aquarium there, one of the better ones I've been to actually. I must admit though, I'm slightly fretful about meeting an Ozzie jellyfish in the sea now as apparently they're not very friendly at all!
The Stag (Buck in Ozzie language) and Hen's parties were a real good laugh. I can't say much about what the boys got up to except that it involved lots of beer and a stripper but the girls definately had a good day! After doing facials, massaging our feet and playing some fun games we all got ready and went out for dinner and then onto a bar where we had the whole room to ourselves AND a free bar for 2 hours... the rest is a bit of a blur involving karaoke and a stripper, all in all, a very fun evening and probably the most drunk I've been since we left England!
As you can imagine, none of us were in any rush to get out of bed on Sunday but after a well deserved lie in we went out on a boat for the day with Sophie's family. I did fret about not taking any travel sickness pills but it was all fine, on the way to lunch the sea was flat and it was a nice and calm boat trip, however, on the way back we had some huge waves which was definately an experience - holding on for dear life while the boat crashes over each new wave, really funny but left us all with a sore bum!!!
Yesterday was a public holiday here so we all went to a town called Fremantle which was lovely. The day was filled up with eating and drinking really but on a hot day still recovering from a busy weekend, that was a good plan!
Not much else to report on for now; me and James are heading to a small town called Rockingham today to look for a surfboard but no plans for this evening. It looks like we're picking the 4x4 car up tomorrow which is exciting news. Well checking emails awaits me so cheerio for now...
Anyway, the last few days have been eventful, we've been out everyday... Shopping on Thursday night was fun, didn't buy anything and thought we'd go and get some dinner in Mandurah town centre afterwards - didn't quite go to plan... Officially by 9:30pm on a Thursday night, every restaurant had finished serving, even the pizza takeout had called it a night so we ended up eating some chinese noodles outside with our only company being some cockroaches, not quite the initial idea but a funny night!
Friday we spent the day in Hillary's Marina which is just past Perth, did the whole lunch thing then spent a few hours in AQWA, the aquarium there, one of the better ones I've been to actually. I must admit though, I'm slightly fretful about meeting an Ozzie jellyfish in the sea now as apparently they're not very friendly at all!
The Stag (Buck in Ozzie language) and Hen's parties were a real good laugh. I can't say much about what the boys got up to except that it involved lots of beer and a stripper but the girls definately had a good day! After doing facials, massaging our feet and playing some fun games we all got ready and went out for dinner and then onto a bar where we had the whole room to ourselves AND a free bar for 2 hours... the rest is a bit of a blur involving karaoke and a stripper, all in all, a very fun evening and probably the most drunk I've been since we left England!
As you can imagine, none of us were in any rush to get out of bed on Sunday but after a well deserved lie in we went out on a boat for the day with Sophie's family. I did fret about not taking any travel sickness pills but it was all fine, on the way to lunch the sea was flat and it was a nice and calm boat trip, however, on the way back we had some huge waves which was definately an experience - holding on for dear life while the boat crashes over each new wave, really funny but left us all with a sore bum!!!
Yesterday was a public holiday here so we all went to a town called Fremantle which was lovely. The day was filled up with eating and drinking really but on a hot day still recovering from a busy weekend, that was a good plan!
Not much else to report on for now; me and James are heading to a small town called Rockingham today to look for a surfboard but no plans for this evening. It looks like we're picking the 4x4 car up tomorrow which is exciting news. Well checking emails awaits me so cheerio for now...
Wednesday, 27 February 2008
A pretty chilled out week
Well we've been in Oz for a whole week now so I'd say we're just about settled in... James has bought himself some 'thongs' (flip flops to you and me to make himself look less english than in his sandals!) and some boardies (long shorts, again, to look less obviously english) and now that James looks more like an Ozzie, I guess I'm blending into the crowds too!
It's been really hot all week and today its like 37 degrees so we're going between the pool and hiding in the house. My sunburn is no longer sunburn which makes me happy! Me and James spent the day in Perth yesterday, took the train in and hung out in Kings Park which is on the top of a hill overlooking the whole city, really beautiful. We checked out a 4 x 4 car too as the plan is for us to drive round Australia along the South coast. It looked like a good deal and from a girls point of view, was a nice colour, James sorted out all the technical checks so I'll keep you updated on whether we buy it.
Well like I said, most of the week has been quite lazy, we've cycled to the shops, used the buses into Mandurah centre and basically enjoyed the sun, pool and beach. Tonight I'm going on a girls only shopping trip and I think James is going to try his hand at fishing, we'll see how that all pans out...
On Saturday I'm going to a hens party and James is going to a stag night (Sophie and Cale's friends) so it'll be cool to see how the Australians celebrate their last days of freedom. I know the hens party involves a pool, pampering and drinking so no worries there!
Well I'm off to try and catch a bit of a tan and read my book so we'll catch up soon.
It's been really hot all week and today its like 37 degrees so we're going between the pool and hiding in the house. My sunburn is no longer sunburn which makes me happy! Me and James spent the day in Perth yesterday, took the train in and hung out in Kings Park which is on the top of a hill overlooking the whole city, really beautiful. We checked out a 4 x 4 car too as the plan is for us to drive round Australia along the South coast. It looked like a good deal and from a girls point of view, was a nice colour, James sorted out all the technical checks so I'll keep you updated on whether we buy it.
Well like I said, most of the week has been quite lazy, we've cycled to the shops, used the buses into Mandurah centre and basically enjoyed the sun, pool and beach. Tonight I'm going on a girls only shopping trip and I think James is going to try his hand at fishing, we'll see how that all pans out...
On Saturday I'm going to a hens party and James is going to a stag night (Sophie and Cale's friends) so it'll be cool to see how the Australians celebrate their last days of freedom. I know the hens party involves a pool, pampering and drinking so no worries there!
Well I'm off to try and catch a bit of a tan and read my book so we'll catch up soon.
Saturday, 23 February 2008
This week's gone quick!
Well, a whole week ago since I last wrote and to be honest, some of the days have just blurred into one! We're in Australia now in a city called Mandurah (an hour South of Perth) where my best friend Sophie lives. We got here Thursday afternoon after a very long trip and were feeling quite dazed and confused from all the time changes and flights.
Basically, we left Sri Lanka on Tuesday evening after a long weekend of visiting friends and family of Alfie, eating more spicy food, chilling out by the pool and generally not being as frantically busy as the week before. One thing I should probably mention (as I might end up moaning about it) is that I got sunburnt... Anyone knows me knows that this happens on quite a regular basis even though I do try to not get burnt but after a play in the waves at our hotel resort I thought I'd 'dry' myself out for half hour in the sun, well, apparently this was enough to frazzle the whole back of me so ever since that I've been walking around like an old woman trying not to stretch the skin and begging James to put more after sun on me to cool me down - it's not that funny really and to top it all off, this was just before our travel to Australia so I've had to sit on 3 flights for a total of 17 hours with a sore bum, not comfortable at the best of times!
Anyway, now that we've got to Mandurah we've been having a really nice chilled out time just catching up with Sophie and Cale (her fiancee). Popped into the centre of Mandurah on Friday and went to the marina for fish 'n' chips, so English! That night we went for dinner and I have to say I was very happy not to see curry and rice on the menu...
Saturday I spent the day wedding dress shopping with Sophie and her sister Lauren (Sophie and Cale are getting married in January 2009) and had a really lovely girly day browsing stores and 'doing lunch'. We came home to a BBQ and met a few of their friends and had lots of fun playing Charades (girls are so much better at it!)
Well today I think the plan is to hit the beach so I better be careful putting my sun cream on, my stomach is telling me I'm hungry too so I better go grab some brekkie...
Basically, we left Sri Lanka on Tuesday evening after a long weekend of visiting friends and family of Alfie, eating more spicy food, chilling out by the pool and generally not being as frantically busy as the week before. One thing I should probably mention (as I might end up moaning about it) is that I got sunburnt... Anyone knows me knows that this happens on quite a regular basis even though I do try to not get burnt but after a play in the waves at our hotel resort I thought I'd 'dry' myself out for half hour in the sun, well, apparently this was enough to frazzle the whole back of me so ever since that I've been walking around like an old woman trying not to stretch the skin and begging James to put more after sun on me to cool me down - it's not that funny really and to top it all off, this was just before our travel to Australia so I've had to sit on 3 flights for a total of 17 hours with a sore bum, not comfortable at the best of times!
Anyway, now that we've got to Mandurah we've been having a really nice chilled out time just catching up with Sophie and Cale (her fiancee). Popped into the centre of Mandurah on Friday and went to the marina for fish 'n' chips, so English! That night we went for dinner and I have to say I was very happy not to see curry and rice on the menu...
Saturday I spent the day wedding dress shopping with Sophie and her sister Lauren (Sophie and Cale are getting married in January 2009) and had a really lovely girly day browsing stores and 'doing lunch'. We came home to a BBQ and met a few of their friends and had lots of fun playing Charades (girls are so much better at it!)
Well today I think the plan is to hit the beach so I better be careful putting my sun cream on, my stomach is telling me I'm hungry too so I better go grab some brekkie...
Saturday, 16 February 2008
Speedy Tourism around Sri Lanka!
Sorry for not blogging all week, like I said, I doubted internet would be easy to come by on our mountain tour and it wasn't! Our tour finished today (Friday) and it was fantastic, we got to see so much and all at our own pace with our very own driver - Lal. Such a friendly guy and made us laugh the whole way - would definately recommend him and his tour to anyone visiting Sri Lanka.
So we've been travelling for 5 days and stayed in new places the whole way - we've covered some of the central and west of the country and I definately feel I have more of a perspective on how the Sri Lankans live - time moves slower and people are calmer (apart from in Colombo!)
Monday morning we got the train from Colombo to Kandy which is the start of the mountainous area. I have to admit, although I tried to have a nap, the rocking and rollercoaster public transport prevented me from doing so but thats all part of it I guess! Lal met us at Kandy with his very much needed air con car before dropping us at the Royal Botanical Gardens. These were amazing and really grand (although it was a bit annoying to have to pay 20 x more for the entrance fee for being 'foreign' - this is something that happened the whole way though). I don't know much at all about trees and flowers as that's James' expertise but even he hadn't heard of a lot of the things in those gardens - just really beautiful and breezy to walk through. This is also where we had our first encounter with wild monkeys and we fed them bananas which of course they loved!
From there we drove to Pinnawala elephant orphanage where there are roughly 100 elephants of all different sizes! We didn't stay long as it was so hot and I had a headache from my irritating motion sickness in the car but we got to see the walk to the river and the elephants bathing. It is so different being close to them without the barrier of a zoo and you truly realise how big they really are - I definately felt a bit intimidated and stayed near the baby elephants!
Monday was a really busy day as we also visited the Sacred Tooth temple in Kandy which is one of the largest Buddhist temples and then watched some traditional Sri Lankan dancing followed by a walking on fire show, all in all a jam packed day and needless to say, we both fell asleep pretty quick that night!
Tuesday we had the drive from Kandy to Sigiriya which is further North and we visited a Spice Garden on the way up. I was really ill so spent the 'Spice Garden Tour' on the bench with a herbal remedy whilst James actually learned something! The rest of the day is a blur as I just slept and felt sorry for myself although our accommodation was wonderful - a really pretty house in a garden full of lime trees, quite dreamlike.
After sleeping all of Tuesday, Wednesday we climbed to the top of Sigiriya which is a huge rock similar to Ayres Rock. It is the 8th wonder of the world from the 5th century and used to be the palace for the King and all his 500 wives. It was a loooong climb to the top and took a while but once at the top, the views were stunning and we had that added nice feeling of only downward steps to go! After all the climbing we thought we deserved a herbal massage treatment which Lal had recommended... full head and body massage followed by a sauna and steam treatment and a nice shower, fantastic! I think my skin still feels soft 2 days later.
Thursday was quite a chilled day really. We left the Lion Rock Hotel in Sigiriya early and drove to Nuwara Eliya which is a town 2524 metres above sea level and known for its cool climate. We went from 30 to 18 degrees that day which was quite a nice break from the sticky heat. On the way we stopped at Glenloch tea factory for a tour and a real cup of tea. Tea is Sri Lanka's main export and this factory alone collects 10-12 tonnes of tea leaves a day - that's a lot of tea! I've never really thought about the process a tea bag goes through before hitting Tesco so this was a useful tour which showed how hard some people work to bring us our daily PG Tips.
Thursday night was our last night on the tour and our last night with Lal AND mine and James' 4th year anniversary so we thought that was a cause for celebration... We bought a bottle of Arrac which is a cheap spirit over here made from Coconut, it's 34% but you'd never know it,it went down quite easily and got us all rather tipsy. The electricity went out just when we were about to have dinner so me and James ended up with a candlelit dinner on Valentines Day after all.
Today has been a day of driving, 5 hours in total and we got to Beruwala on the West coast at about 3pm to meet our friend Althaf who lives here. After being introduced to his family we took the scooters out for a quick whizz around the block and gave the locals something to look at - I don't think they're quite used to tourists on scooters in sarongs (uh hum James) - we're normally in an air con car with a driver but today, we were the tourist attraction and got quite a few waves and funny looks!
Althaf has sorted us out with an amazing hotel right on the beach, I've never stayed anywhere so luxurious - I'm sat on a huge bed watching the sunset and waves listening to elevator music - perfect!
Anyway, we're just waiting to be picked up by Althaf as we're heading over to his house for a lovely dinner, I'm really hungry so can't wait so I best get ready. Thanks for reading guys (sorry it was a long one!)
So we've been travelling for 5 days and stayed in new places the whole way - we've covered some of the central and west of the country and I definately feel I have more of a perspective on how the Sri Lankans live - time moves slower and people are calmer (apart from in Colombo!)
Monday morning we got the train from Colombo to Kandy which is the start of the mountainous area. I have to admit, although I tried to have a nap, the rocking and rollercoaster public transport prevented me from doing so but thats all part of it I guess! Lal met us at Kandy with his very much needed air con car before dropping us at the Royal Botanical Gardens. These were amazing and really grand (although it was a bit annoying to have to pay 20 x more for the entrance fee for being 'foreign' - this is something that happened the whole way though). I don't know much at all about trees and flowers as that's James' expertise but even he hadn't heard of a lot of the things in those gardens - just really beautiful and breezy to walk through. This is also where we had our first encounter with wild monkeys and we fed them bananas which of course they loved!
From there we drove to Pinnawala elephant orphanage where there are roughly 100 elephants of all different sizes! We didn't stay long as it was so hot and I had a headache from my irritating motion sickness in the car but we got to see the walk to the river and the elephants bathing. It is so different being close to them without the barrier of a zoo and you truly realise how big they really are - I definately felt a bit intimidated and stayed near the baby elephants!
Monday was a really busy day as we also visited the Sacred Tooth temple in Kandy which is one of the largest Buddhist temples and then watched some traditional Sri Lankan dancing followed by a walking on fire show, all in all a jam packed day and needless to say, we both fell asleep pretty quick that night!
Tuesday we had the drive from Kandy to Sigiriya which is further North and we visited a Spice Garden on the way up. I was really ill so spent the 'Spice Garden Tour' on the bench with a herbal remedy whilst James actually learned something! The rest of the day is a blur as I just slept and felt sorry for myself although our accommodation was wonderful - a really pretty house in a garden full of lime trees, quite dreamlike.
After sleeping all of Tuesday, Wednesday we climbed to the top of Sigiriya which is a huge rock similar to Ayres Rock. It is the 8th wonder of the world from the 5th century and used to be the palace for the King and all his 500 wives. It was a loooong climb to the top and took a while but once at the top, the views were stunning and we had that added nice feeling of only downward steps to go! After all the climbing we thought we deserved a herbal massage treatment which Lal had recommended... full head and body massage followed by a sauna and steam treatment and a nice shower, fantastic! I think my skin still feels soft 2 days later.
Thursday was quite a chilled day really. We left the Lion Rock Hotel in Sigiriya early and drove to Nuwara Eliya which is a town 2524 metres above sea level and known for its cool climate. We went from 30 to 18 degrees that day which was quite a nice break from the sticky heat. On the way we stopped at Glenloch tea factory for a tour and a real cup of tea. Tea is Sri Lanka's main export and this factory alone collects 10-12 tonnes of tea leaves a day - that's a lot of tea! I've never really thought about the process a tea bag goes through before hitting Tesco so this was a useful tour which showed how hard some people work to bring us our daily PG Tips.
Thursday night was our last night on the tour and our last night with Lal AND mine and James' 4th year anniversary so we thought that was a cause for celebration... We bought a bottle of Arrac which is a cheap spirit over here made from Coconut, it's 34% but you'd never know it,it went down quite easily and got us all rather tipsy. The electricity went out just when we were about to have dinner so me and James ended up with a candlelit dinner on Valentines Day after all.
Today has been a day of driving, 5 hours in total and we got to Beruwala on the West coast at about 3pm to meet our friend Althaf who lives here. After being introduced to his family we took the scooters out for a quick whizz around the block and gave the locals something to look at - I don't think they're quite used to tourists on scooters in sarongs (uh hum James) - we're normally in an air con car with a driver but today, we were the tourist attraction and got quite a few waves and funny looks!
Althaf has sorted us out with an amazing hotel right on the beach, I've never stayed anywhere so luxurious - I'm sat on a huge bed watching the sunset and waves listening to elevator music - perfect!
Anyway, we're just waiting to be picked up by Althaf as we're heading over to his house for a lovely dinner, I'm really hungry so can't wait so I best get ready. Thanks for reading guys (sorry it was a long one!)
Sunday, 10 February 2008
Hectic Colombo City
I've just got back from the local beach in Mount Lavinia, me and James thought we'd go and see the sunset, got some nice photos which I'll pop onto my Facebook page soon! Couldn't believe how packed it was there, think we were the only tourists though and forgot it was a Sunday, days just merge into each other when you're out of routine! I think the locals thought we were a bit of an attraction, especially my camera anyway, they were posing like crazy!
Well we've had a pretty busy and hot 2 days! We've been at Dehiwala Zoo all day which was so much better than some other zoos I've visited, it took us about 5 hours to walk round and we got up, close and personal with some of the animals too!! Lots of the monkeys kept reaching their hands out to shake ours, so funny! I went to shake one hand though and I don't think the monkey liked it, made a right old growl at me!!
Yesterday we ventured into Colombo city, we're actually staying about 10km south in a quieter area. I don't think I knew the meaning of the word hectic until we got to the markets in Colombo, it was crazy... Being some of the only tourists around the city at this time of year, everyone was trying to sell us things and get us to use their taxis, it was so hot and humid too that we gave up in the end and got a tuc tuc (open 3 wheeler over here) to the city park and hid under some trees on a bench! I was even too hot and sticky to get my camera out and that says something for those that know me!
After getting our breath back in the park, we thought we'd head to a Lonely Planet recommended sushi bar, took us forever to get there after missing the turning and then finding out it didn't open for another hour... anyway, after an air conditioned drink in good old Mcdonalds, the sushi bar was well worth the wait, 'Sakura' if anyone ever goes to Colombo, really yummy!
A thing I've noticed about Sri Lanka which I suppose I'll just have to get used to is the spicy food. No matter where you go and how mild the waiters say it is, the food burns my mouth, its a good thing water is so cheap as I'm getting through it by the gallon over dinner time! I thought I'd be safe ordering a chicken sandwich for breakfast this morning but no, it contained curry sauce, just what I fancied after waking up!!
Well we're finishing our stay in Colombo early tomorrow morning. We've booked onto a 5 day tour up into the central and more Northern parts of Sri Lanka where we'll be seeing an elephant orphanage, jungles and going on a safari as well as lots of beautiful famous sights. It should be a really amazing trip so I'm pretty excited! The only down side is that we have to get picked up at 6am tomorrow, early night for us I think!!! I probably won't get a chance to update you all on my trip until we get back to the city sometime next weekend so until then, take care...
Well we've had a pretty busy and hot 2 days! We've been at Dehiwala Zoo all day which was so much better than some other zoos I've visited, it took us about 5 hours to walk round and we got up, close and personal with some of the animals too!! Lots of the monkeys kept reaching their hands out to shake ours, so funny! I went to shake one hand though and I don't think the monkey liked it, made a right old growl at me!!
Yesterday we ventured into Colombo city, we're actually staying about 10km south in a quieter area. I don't think I knew the meaning of the word hectic until we got to the markets in Colombo, it was crazy... Being some of the only tourists around the city at this time of year, everyone was trying to sell us things and get us to use their taxis, it was so hot and humid too that we gave up in the end and got a tuc tuc (open 3 wheeler over here) to the city park and hid under some trees on a bench! I was even too hot and sticky to get my camera out and that says something for those that know me!
After getting our breath back in the park, we thought we'd head to a Lonely Planet recommended sushi bar, took us forever to get there after missing the turning and then finding out it didn't open for another hour... anyway, after an air conditioned drink in good old Mcdonalds, the sushi bar was well worth the wait, 'Sakura' if anyone ever goes to Colombo, really yummy!
A thing I've noticed about Sri Lanka which I suppose I'll just have to get used to is the spicy food. No matter where you go and how mild the waiters say it is, the food burns my mouth, its a good thing water is so cheap as I'm getting through it by the gallon over dinner time! I thought I'd be safe ordering a chicken sandwich for breakfast this morning but no, it contained curry sauce, just what I fancied after waking up!!
Well we're finishing our stay in Colombo early tomorrow morning. We've booked onto a 5 day tour up into the central and more Northern parts of Sri Lanka where we'll be seeing an elephant orphanage, jungles and going on a safari as well as lots of beautiful famous sights. It should be a really amazing trip so I'm pretty excited! The only down side is that we have to get picked up at 6am tomorrow, early night for us I think!!! I probably won't get a chance to update you all on my trip until we get back to the city sometime next weekend so until then, take care...
Saturday, 9 February 2008
3 days in Dubai...
Well my Dubai trip is now over and we've just arrived in Sri Lanka. Its been a weird trip but... interesting! A word of warning though for all travellers to Dubai, when you don't want a taxi, you will get hassled every 5 minutes by taxi drivers and when you do want a taxi (like us trying to get to the airport after the bus was a no show), they are virtually impossible to find leaving us running around for ages with our backpacks on panicking about not getting to the airport on time! Anyway...
Basically, Dubai seems to be a city very much for the 'richer pockets' although you can definately get some bargains too. There's a creek which splits up the two sides of Dubai and its almost as if as soon as you've crossed that creek, you're in a completely different city. We stayed in Deira in a fairly cheap hotel right snap bang in the middle of all the souks (markets) and locals and perhaps, a more 'true' version of Dubai. From our street we could see the upper class hotels and majority of tourists who might venture to this side once on a day trip before going back to the comfort of their 5 star hotels...
... and speaking of hotels, we thought we better check out the Burj Al Arab which is supposed to be the only 7 star hotel in the world. A half hour bus journey later, this hotel looms over the road and we get out to take a look and get the token photo everyone wants. Well, no one tells you you can't actually get near to the hotel unless you have an invite or want to split with 70 pounds for a cocktail!!! Instead, you get directed to the public beach down the road (not many of these exist) where the majority of lighter budget tourists are also taking photos! We had to laugh at the poor tourists sucked into going on the bus tour and getting their cameras out in the split second the bus roars past the Burj Al Arab, it seemed to be the only part of the road with no traffic so their photographs may not have turned out quite like they imagined!!!
I think Dubai is well worth a peek... But, if you, like us, are travelling on a budget, don't expect to see any of the amazing hotels and beaches you probably think of, as James says, 'its just a rich kids playground.'
That said, we've really enjoyed some of the activities that locals have in their everyday lives like wandering through the various markets and crazy streets which spring to life at night! I have to say, the highlight of our trip here is going back and forth the Dubai creek on the cheapest and simplest form of transport in this city - the dhows. These are simply made indestructible wooden boats/barges which could also be described as the bumper cars of the creek! For 1 AED (approx 15 pence) you can cross to 'the other side' on a rather comfy wooden bench and take in the lovely breeze and some of the most amazing architecture Dubai has to offer.
Well today we're off exploring Colombo city and the local beach which should definately be an eye opener. The taxi from the airport showed us some sights we're definately not used to in England! Hopefully I'll be on again soon but I must say, finding an internet that works AND allows the 'cookies' needed for this blog - it's not that easy!!!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=13612&l=d8e61&id=508274760
Basically, Dubai seems to be a city very much for the 'richer pockets' although you can definately get some bargains too. There's a creek which splits up the two sides of Dubai and its almost as if as soon as you've crossed that creek, you're in a completely different city. We stayed in Deira in a fairly cheap hotel right snap bang in the middle of all the souks (markets) and locals and perhaps, a more 'true' version of Dubai. From our street we could see the upper class hotels and majority of tourists who might venture to this side once on a day trip before going back to the comfort of their 5 star hotels...
... and speaking of hotels, we thought we better check out the Burj Al Arab which is supposed to be the only 7 star hotel in the world. A half hour bus journey later, this hotel looms over the road and we get out to take a look and get the token photo everyone wants. Well, no one tells you you can't actually get near to the hotel unless you have an invite or want to split with 70 pounds for a cocktail!!! Instead, you get directed to the public beach down the road (not many of these exist) where the majority of lighter budget tourists are also taking photos! We had to laugh at the poor tourists sucked into going on the bus tour and getting their cameras out in the split second the bus roars past the Burj Al Arab, it seemed to be the only part of the road with no traffic so their photographs may not have turned out quite like they imagined!!!
I think Dubai is well worth a peek... But, if you, like us, are travelling on a budget, don't expect to see any of the amazing hotels and beaches you probably think of, as James says, 'its just a rich kids playground.'
That said, we've really enjoyed some of the activities that locals have in their everyday lives like wandering through the various markets and crazy streets which spring to life at night! I have to say, the highlight of our trip here is going back and forth the Dubai creek on the cheapest and simplest form of transport in this city - the dhows. These are simply made indestructible wooden boats/barges which could also be described as the bumper cars of the creek! For 1 AED (approx 15 pence) you can cross to 'the other side' on a rather comfy wooden bench and take in the lovely breeze and some of the most amazing architecture Dubai has to offer.
Well today we're off exploring Colombo city and the local beach which should definately be an eye opener. The taxi from the airport showed us some sights we're definately not used to in England! Hopefully I'll be on again soon but I must say, finding an internet that works AND allows the 'cookies' needed for this blog - it's not that easy!!!
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=13612&l=d8e61&id=508274760
Monday, 4 February 2008
Still in England!!!
Hey Guys!
Well this is the day me and James (my boyfriend) leave England... for 7 MONTHS! Our flight out is at 20:30 from Birmingham International and our first stop is Dubai, roll on 7 star hotels and very classy restaurants (we won't be in those, try 2 star!) After Dubai, we'll be stopping in Sri Lanka, Australia and Thailand.
Well not much to say on my first blog really as I'm still in England but keep an eye out for our next adventure. Wish us luck for our first long haul flight and I'll be in touch very soon...
Well this is the day me and James (my boyfriend) leave England... for 7 MONTHS! Our flight out is at 20:30 from Birmingham International and our first stop is Dubai, roll on 7 star hotels and very classy restaurants (we won't be in those, try 2 star!) After Dubai, we'll be stopping in Sri Lanka, Australia and Thailand.
Well not much to say on my first blog really as I'm still in England but keep an eye out for our next adventure. Wish us luck for our first long haul flight and I'll be in touch very soon...
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