A Big Scary Trip Around The World

We have decided that Thailand is really two separate countries, there's the south islands where people come for holidays so it is pretty much like any brits abroad destination of booze and sun (although also very pretty) and then there is the north which is much less traveled.

Our first impression of what to expect in the south was on the boat crossing to Ko Phi-Phi

We realised we weren't in Malaysia anymore with it's odd scattering of westerners. Once you get used to the masses of people though you get to see the beautiful scenery, here's some

This next one is of the beach from the film the beach

Next we where off to another island, Ko Samui, while here we got introduced to the Thailand bucket

This contains
1 Small bottle of local whiskey
1 Bottle of Thai Redbull (the stuff we get at home is a watered down version of the Thai original)
1 can of coke
Lots of ice

These things cost between 3 and 4 pounds and have a nasty habit of giving me amnesia, they're great!
Samui was similar to Phi-Phi, lots of people and lots of bars and western fast food chains.

We somehow had managed to time our arrival on Samui with the infamous full moon party that takes place (every full moon surprisingly) on the neighboring island of Ko Pha Nyang. We booked our ticket on a speed boat across and were fully expecting to hate every minute.

Thankfully it was quite good. The party is on the beach with little stalls selling buckets and food and also bars along the beach blasting music out. We arrived after 10pm and there were already people unconscious on the beach but it wasn't as busy as we expected so there was room to move around and sit down. Here are a couple of pics we took

There are always loads of people fire dancing

We're perfectly sober.....honest!

I got given that hat by some guy for jumping over a fire pot, it was a strange night.

After recovering from full moon we were off to Bangkok.

Bangkok has lots of wats (temples) and traffic (especially tuk-tuks), before tackling the traffic we thought we'd see some wats.

This is the one that is in the grounds of the Royal Palace

And this is the giant reclining Buddha that everyone who visits Bangkok has to see, it's about 80m long!

This picture sums up Thailand quite well I think, traffic, tuk-tuks, the King (who is considered a God-king and most Thais adore him) and elephants (which are both revered and treated so badly).

While here we also we to watch Muay Thai (Thai boxing). We watched about 10 matches which have 5, 3 minutes rounds. The fighters wear standard boxing gloves but they barely get used as you can also use any other part of the body to attack including knees which are used to hit the legs, ribs and head a lot and the elbows which are used mainly against the head. It's looks pretty brutal at first but at least it's not like conventional boxing were you get battered in the head for over an hour.

We also took a quick stroll along Patpong road, we didn't go into any bars though as the calls of ping-pong show put Lisa off.

After a few days in Bangkok it was definitely time to leave so we took a really hot and sweaty night train to Chang Mai.

The wats around here looked quite different.

We went to an elephant sanctuary run by a crazy woman called Lek, she's had an elephant pretty much all of her life and decided to help elephants after finding out they way they had their spirit broken. This basically consists of locking the very young elephant in a cage so that it can't move and then torturing it for days (including not allowing it to sleep) until it follows all commands. Less than 50% survive the process. Even after this elephants are treated appallingly as they are considered cattle, I can rant for ages on this so I'll stop now.

Anyway it's quite expensive to go to this sanctuary but it's a great experience, first you get to feed the elephants

Then you take them down to the river and give them a bath (no photos I'm afraid, I really need a waterproof camera). And then when they come out of the river the younger ones have a good play they all get covered in mud

I also got a kiss on the forehead from a young elephant, which felt like a wet vacuum cleaner, that hasn't been through the breaking process. He was rescued when his mum was killed and Lek has looked after him and taught him a few trick without causing pain to him, basically to prove it can be done. Lisa was too busy laughing to get a picture.

We also did a cooking course so expect great Thai food to be cooked for anyone who visits (once we have somewhere to live!)

We then did a trek to a couple of hill tribes around Chang Mai. First stop was this waterfall which was quite nice and we also got to get in and have a very cold shower.

On the way back I slipped on a wet rock and knocked myself out (apparently, I don't remember being unconscious!), I had a nice lump and a black eye for the next week or so.

This was one of the hill tribe villages

They are very basic but have been set up for tourists, can't blame the people for wanting to make a bit of cash though.

While there we were asked if we wanted to buy this guy

We did and had a nice barbeque. It's the first time I've picked out my food while alive, watched it being killed (a big log smacked against it's head did the trick) and then watched the gutting and cleaning process. I'm quite glad I didn't have to do the gutting.

The next day we bamboo rafted along the river and back to the pick up point. Bamboo rafting is great fun, we got stuck a couple of times and nearly went over a few but eventually made it. Again the lack of waterproof camera means no picture but I did have blisters on my hands for a week and you can see the scars when I get back if you want.

That’s if for now, we're currently just about to head into China, there may not be anymore updates until we get back.

Okay, after Austrailia it was off to Bali. We arrived at Kuta which is kind of like and Austrailian Magaluf, very neon with loads of drunk people. We stayed in a quite nice hotel though with a pool and breakfast included and the bonus was it cost under a tenner a night, I was liking Asia already.

After a couple of days doing not much in the sun in Kuta we headed to Ubud. This place was much smaller, had no neon and felt like a much nicer place that gave a better impression of Bali. First place we headed for was a temple just around the corner from the guesthouse which is over run by macaques, and you buy bananas to feed them. Here are a few pics

Loungin' with a lizard

I gave him fleas

Lisa has the most intelligent conversation for months

He made me jump by grabbing my leg

But then we were mates

There was the opportunity to get a picture of me with two of the big scary males climbing all over me (they noticed me pull bananas out of a bag) but Lisa was too busy laughing and running away (they have big teeth).

The next day we did a trip to several temples, unfortunately the camera battery died and I'd not charged the spare. Here are the few we got before it went.

It was a good day though, the idea was to watch sunset at a temple but it was too cloudy to see a nice sunset so we just saw it gradually get darker. The temples were nice though.

After Ubud we went to some tiny Islands that are about 20 miles off the coast. These were great, they were all really small and we stayed on the biggest which was nothing really except a seafront road with loads of bars and restaurants and then the local village behind. There were no motor vehicles (or dogs) just a few donkey carts and the odd horse. We had a great few days here drinking lots and doing very little and did a great snorkeling trip but didn't take any pictures at the weather was generally overcast or rainy. There was even one day of really heavy rain that totally flooded the road, it got to about knee hight and there was no choice but to wade through it, donkey poo and all.

Next up it was Singapore. This has to be the best organised and one of the cleanest cities in the world. We spent a bit longer here than we planned as we needed a dentist (Lisa to check up on her root canal and I needed a filling) and we just happened to arrive around Chinese New Year so everything shut for a few days. The bonus was we got to see Chinese New year though. There's not much else I can say about Singapore except it has great and cheap food of all descriptions (we had loads of Indian food as we were staying in little India) but the beer is about the same price as home so we couldn't drink. Anyway here are pics.

Clarke Quay at night

Buddha tooth relic temple

Prayer wheel in the hall of 10,000 buddhas

Some of the 10,000 buddhas

These were everywhere, I think they look like mice but they are supposed to be rats, it's now they year of the rat in the chinese calender.

Chinese New Year Fireworks

Smoke and rubbish falling from the sky after the fireworks

I thought this was supposed to be a safe city!

Singapore is hosting some games soon, things like this were scattered around advertising the different sports.

It's Tiger time

Not the greatest pour in the world (it got topped up)

Business district

The Merlion (something made up in the eighties I think as tourist symbol of Singapore, there is also a 30 metre high one that we didn't go to see)

There is also a great zoo in Singapore, so here are more pics

Long neck

A baboon (I think)

Speedy

One of the cutest things in the world

You should get some cream for that mate!

This is a type of monkey, not a cat

A different type of baboon (again, I think)

These are just plain ugly

And these were massive

But not quite this big

and finally a bum faced monkey (not it's official name)

After getting our teeth sorted we headed to Borneo with plans to clim a mountain and trek though the jungle. Unfortunately it rained most of the time we were there so we didn't climb the mountain and or go into any jungle into the jungle. From what we heard from other people though we made the right decision as they all sounded like they had terrible times due to the weather.

We did go to an Orangutan rehabilitation sanctuary though and watched the dependent ones get fed, we have about 400 picture from this but here are three.

And we also did an over night stay on an island that is a turtle sanctuary where apparently turtles come to lay eggs every night, the keepers then gather them and keep them buried in a safe area until they hatch, they are then released. Unfortunately we didn't see any big turtles laying because first of all it was raining (what, a creature that lives in the sea is scared of a bit of rain!) and then cos the moon was too bright!!! We did see a few hatchlings get released though but as there were only about ten I'll put money on them all getting eaten pretty quickly.

This is the hatchery

and the view from the island.

You had to pay to take pictures of the hatchings being released but as you couldn't use flash we didn't bother as my camera doesn't have night vision.

Then we went back to mainland Malaysia and our first stop was the old colonial town (when I first read this I nearly ran away, we had enough colonial towns in South America) of Malaka. Malaka has been used by the Dutch, the Portugese and the English over the centuries as it had a strategic naval place. You can see the influence in the buildings but it wasn't like been in South America again. There are loads of different museum here which gave us a good run down of the history of Malaka and Malaysia and also some great food and pretty streets....like this one

This is apparently what the Sultans palce looked like before the Dutch came and ruined everything

It was then off to the Cameron Highlands, named after some Scottish guy with the surname Cameron and because they are quite high. This also meant it was a lot cooler that anywhere we had been for quite some time, I even had to dig my fleece out from the bottom of my bag, it smelt a bit funny.

We did a bit of walking around here and it's still pretty jungle like

And this is where we got to, the second highest peak in the area (there is no point going to the highest as it's always in the clounds)

The next day we did a day trip to a few places, first was another small walk though forest and we saw loads of pitcher plants

I like these cos they eat flies, but to get the flies to fall in they get them drunk first on their necter that is kind of fermented.

Then we came to one of the greatest sight in the world for any Brit, huge amounts of tea

Tea is the main export from this area but it is all owned by one scottish family named........Cameron. The original Cameron found the highlands and realised they were perfect for tea growth which is the only reason there is anything other than forest there now.

Then it was off to an Orang Asli village. The Orang Asli are the people who have lived in the forests and buy the rivers for centuries, there are different tribes all over the country and Orang Asli is just a new term meaning Original People to include them all.

It's a bit strange walking around a village taking pictures like it's a theme park so we didn't take too many, here's what it looks like though

This is this particular tribes traditional musical instrument

I'm still not totally convinced they weren't taking the mick.

And all the tribes used these

We all had a go and they are surprisingly accurate and powerful.

The next day we were off to Taman Negara, which we later found out just means national park. Anyway we basically went to a little village which is the launching point to go into jungle that is apparently some of the oldest in the world and way older than the Brazilian rain forest.

This was the village from the other side of the river

as you can see it's not that big. Most of the restaurants are floating in the river, luckily it's not rough enough to trigger my sea sickness.

Again we did plan to do a jungle trek here but it had been quite wet for a few days before we got there and not only did we not have any decent trekking footwear (nike trainers really aren't decent trekking footwear), we saw people coming back who were covered in blood, the leeches were out in force. We decided to forget about the trek and do a night safari in a the back of a truck instead. It wasn't the greatest and we didn't see that much but on the way back we had to swerve to miss this

apparently it's a viper, I'm quite glad I didn't go for a trek now, no one told me there were vipers around!

You also can't got to Taman Negara without doing the canopy walk. This is a few kilometres into the jungle and is several swingy walkways suspended between big trees. The walkways are basically aluminium ladder laid horizontally with plywood tied to make the platform. This is then held onto the steel cables that are between the trees with nylon rope. It doesn't look that safe, swings and bounces around an awful lot and is no place for anyone with a fear of heights as it must have been at least 20 metres off the ground in places. It had great views into the trees though

After Taman Negara it was of to the Perhentians, a couple of islands a few miles of the coast. We got there quiet late and this was the view

This was where we were staying

(not the hammock the building behind it)

And this was the beach that our guest house was sat just behind.

We didn't do much again here except get a tan and do some snorkeling. It's only just the end of monsoon season at the moment so the water hasn't fully cleared up yet but the snorkeling was still amazing. As well as all the usual fish and things we got to see a reef shark and have a bit of a swim behind a massive green turtle, when he got bored of us following he went and sat of the bottom which was way too deep for us.

Anyway there we go, that's a pretty brief update. We're currently in Thailand, it's hot, I've already had a really bad hangover due to dodgy Chang beer and also been walked on by a Thai lady while having a massage. I'll try and update more often but there are a lot of beaches around here so I can't promise anything.

First stop in Oz was Alice Springs. We arrived from what had been quite a warm few days in NZ but were greated with staggering heat, it's summer in Oz and Alice is generally a standard 40 degrees. Luckily the heat is really dry so you don't sweat too much but we where told the heat can cook the fat under your skin so it's best to wear long sleeves and trousers...obviously we didn't cos it was too hot.

Anyway we booked ourselves onto a tour to Uluru (Ayers Rock) which included a few other stops along the way.

After an early start and a several hour minibus journey we arrived at Kings Canyon.

Here we did a nice 5km walk in midday heat, it was great!! We did have a stop halfway to swim in a waterhole which was needed. The walk was good though and our guide (Beej) was full of local knowledge I bet you didn't know the trees in the Oz bush produce oil to stop the water evaporating out? Only problem is it also makes them highly combustable.

After the walk (and food I think) we got back into the bus and drove for another few hours to our campsite for the night where we lit a big fire and got food cooking.

While food was on the go we saw some local wildlife

and a very nice sunset.

Then we settled down in our swags for a sleep.

I don't think I've ever slept out in the open before but I have to admit I probably wouldn't have chosen the country with the most deadly animals in the world to do it. It was a bit strange at first but after staring at the millions of stars in the really clear sky for a while I managed to get to sleep.

Thankfully we all woke up the next morning (so no snake or spider bites in the night) and went set of to the Olgas, we were greeted with this

And guess what? As it was 9am we started walking. The walk was about 8km and although it was still quite early it was hot, after about 30 minutes the water I was carrying was hot enough to make tea. Again it was a good walk though but with one major problem flys, there were quite a few the day before but here there were swarms, one even posed on Lisa so I could take a picture.

After taking in about 2 gallons of water to replace that sweated out while walking we went to the next campsite which was on a resort so we could have a swim in the pool and a shower, it was great. Then it was time to go to the main attraction, Uluru for sunset. We found out that this big rock isn't important to all Aboriginal people just the ones in the territories around it, we also saw the geological explination for it but if you want to know that I'm sure you can look it up. Here it is anyway

After a few beers it was bed time in the open again and then up really early to get back to the rock for sunrise. This seemed a bit strange but look

The difference in colour is pretty good. Anyway after that it was back in the bus for a big journey back to Alice, which is 500km away from Uluru along just 2 roads that look like this for the entire distance

After a few beers that night (were we forgot to take the camera out) we woke up to a hangover in the heat which was great fun. Luckily we didn't have aything to do that day. Then the next day it was off to Darwin.

Darwin isn't as hot as Alice but unfortunately it's humid, very humid, in fact it's a tropical climate that has a stupid amount of rain each year and humidity that is always nearly 100%. I sweated a lot.

Anyway as it is only just the end of the wet season we couldn't go to Kakadu park as most of it is under water, instead we went to Litchfield. First stop we saw this.

You may have noticed something strange about this croc, he's missing an arm which was apparently lost when fighting another big 'un. He a saltwater croc and was about 6 metres long which means his head is a fair few metres out of the water. We also got to play with so snakes at this first stop, it's funny watching how scared people are of harmless snakes.

Then we saw these

That is a giant termite mound, I hate to think how many are in there but as they weren't on me I didn't care. We also saw magnetic termite mounds that are long thin mounds that align north south, although they are called magnetic it's actually to do with gathering the suns heat in the morning and evening, pretty smart of a bnch of creatures without anything that can be classed as a brain.

In the park we also got to swim in some really nice waterholes (that were bout croc areas....or so they told us), and out guide to us on some strange adventure course that means diving into pools, going under small waterfalls, sliding down shallow rivers on our bellies and passing under spiders (probably poisonous) that were sitting on there web across the river. It was all good fun and we only got a few minor scrapes and bruises.

That was it for Oz, we had to make it short as we spent all or cash in NZ, I think we'll be back to holiday in to cities though.

It's been a while since the last entry (again) so this all happened a while ago and we did a lot on the south island so this will be brief with a lot of pics.

Firstly I forgot to mention on the last one that we also went white water rafting down class 5 rapids (which apparently are quite hard) which included the highest commercially raft-able waterfall, it's 9 metres high and we went over it in what was basically an inflatable dingy! It was good fun though but again we didn't buy the pictures.

Anyway onto the south island.

After Christmas we visited the antarctic centre which is in Christchurch because that is where all the researches going to the antarctic leave from. It was very informative, we got to experience a fake blizzard with temperature at -8 and wind of 30 mph.....it was cold. I also went down this slide.

We also went on a ride in this thing

They use them to get around on the ice, you can gues the type of ride from Lisa's face in this picture.

Then it was time to pick up our transport and bed for the next few weeks

We nicknamed it sickvan as it smelt a bit like sick when we picked it up, luckily the smell faded pretty quickly.

Then it was time to head north and around the top of the south island, for some reason we didn't take too many pictures in the next few days but here's one to show you the type of views we had.

We also visited quite a few vineyards and spent too much money on nice wine, unfortunately that meant all we could afford to eat was fish and chip or pasta made on the stove in the back of the van but it was worth it.

It was now new years eve so we stopped at a place at the top of the west coast called Westport. This is a tiny town but we had a good, if slightly random, night. Firstly a group of Scottish pipers came through the pub we were in

and then later on in the night we found the bar were everyone in the town was and there was a reggae band on

Not like any other new years eve I've had but it ended up being a good night..... and so so that it did feel like new years eve we both got nicely drunk.

The next day after a fry-up to help the hangover we headed to here

You might not be able to tell from the picture but that is a new zealand fur seal colony (although they are actually sealions), it smelt.

After that we got the first idea of what a lot of the rest of the time here would involve

it gets a bit boring driving here especially as we did most of it at 80kph to save money on fuel. That is about 50mph which as most of you probably know is a bit slower that I usually drive!

Then it was onto pancake rocks, you can google them to find out why they are like this

Then we found our campsite for the night, not bad view for a free campsite

Then we headed further south to Franz Josef and fox glaciers. We couldn't get on them that day as all the tours were booked up so we went to see some more scenery

Then we thought we'd try to camp on a beach, as we were driving on we saw a sign saying "4 wheel drive vehicles only" but we had seen cars on there earlier that day so didn't think it would be a problem, guess what happened?

Anyway after about 2 hours of digging, shoving stones/bits of wood under wheels, letting air out of the tyres, pushing, sweating and a lot of swearing we eventually got out and off the beach. It would have been a lot easier if the van hadn't been automatic, what a stupid idea automatics are, when a wheel starts to spin all the power goes to that wheel and not to the one with grip, but obviously I was more stupid for ignoring the sign, oh well. Anyway as an extra little reminded of this I got these

Sandflys are not nice. You feel them when they bite and then the bites itch for weeks, I now have scars from them.

Then next day (after I'd had a shower and a drink) we got to get in a helicopter for the first time ever

and flew to Fox Glacier for a little hike on the ice

The next day we went to lake Wanaka and booked to throw ourselves out of a plane the same day (so that Lisa didn't spend the whole day and night worrying about it), here's the plane that took us up to 15000ft.

and here am I just about to jump

To be honest you don't actually jump, more get thrown out by the guy you are strapped to! Skydiving is crazy, we had about a minute of free fall and my guy decided to put us into a really fast spin (which nearly made me sick). The views were amazing though as we could see mount Cook and all the surrounding mountains. After the shoot got opened I also got to steer which was good fun, I think the only reason I got to do it was that I could reach the control wires with my monkey arms.

The next day we carried on south but had to stop and puzzling world

This place has this maze outside

and loads of little puzzles inside. There is also optical illusion stuff and strange things that really confuse you. The toilets weren't that private though!

Then we were in Queenstown. In winter Queenstown is a sky resort so there is only one real reason to come here in summer (except the scenery, but that is great everywhere in NZ) and that's BUNGY!! I decided to do the three A.J. Hackett jumps in one day, this was the first which was the first commercial jump in the world, it's 47 metres high and you can get wet

I was lucky and only got wet arms. The next was the Nevis

134m high, if you get wet here you are in trouble as the stream was only a couple of inches deep. This is me bouncing around at the bottom the elastic band.

The final one was a bit different as you are strapped at the waist and not the ankles, this means you can do a running jump. It isn't very high but is built on the edge of the mountain that over looks Queenstown, here's the view from the jump

and here I am mid-air

I have a dvd of me doing all three which is pretty funny.

After the excitement of Queenstown we were off to the serene beauty of Milford Sounds, we did a lot of driving to get there and then jumped on a boat to see the sights, here are a few pics.

At this point we were getting pretty short on time so had to do a lot of driving and only stay at places for short amounts of time. The next stop was Dunedin which has quite an impressive train station

And a Cadbury's factory which we did the tour of

(yes you do get free chocolate)

And the Speights brewery where you get about 30 minutes of beer tasting

it's more like beer drinking as fast as possible to be honest as you pour your own but I just about tasted most of it.

Dunedin also has the worlds steepest street which we managed to get sick van up

Coming down was quite scary!

Then we stopped at these things

No one really knows why they are there, they are like big pebbles on the beach.

And then to see some stunningly blue glacial lakes, one of which I went for a swim in

It was cold, really, really cold!

On our final day in NZ we went swimming with Hectors dolphins, which are at most 1 metre long, very endangered and only found in NZ. We had to get a boat and go out into the bay near the open sea and try and find some dolphins that aren't busy fishing and also feel like playing with us. After getting in the water a couple of times without any real luck we finally found a couple that liked swimming around and up to us. You have to make noises so they don't think you are boring and then apparently the best thing to do is get eye contact and try to keep it as they swim around you, I managed it for a few seconds but they are pretty quick little things. We weren't allowed to try and touch the dolphins (not that we are quick enough to) as the bacteria on our skin can damage their skin. This was a great way to end our time in NZ, the whole place is one of the best we have been to, I just wish we had more time (and more money as it's not as cheap as south america) but hopefully we'll be back.

Oh yeah about they blog titles, if you didn't know, NZ has 10 times as many sheep as people (4m people, 40m sheep) and they are everywhere, look

Here's a link to me just about to jump out of a plane at 15000 ft. It's only there for 2 weeks and I doubt I'll be buying it so have a good laugh at my face while you can.

http://www.skydivenz.com/photos/htdocs/closeup.php?date=2008-01-05&page=6&pics=th_PICT0054.JPG