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.
Wednesday, 27 February 2008
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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