TravelStream™ news feed for member daveandlisa on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/daveandlisa en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Mon, 16 Oct 2006 01:06:33 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/daveandlisa/rtw2005/1159990920/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/daveandlisa/rtw2005/1159990920/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/daveandlisa/rtw2005/1159990920/tpod.html Mon, 16 Oct 2006 01:06:33 -0400 Our big, fat trip around the world.

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Bali, Indonesia

After spending months upon months backpacking through the world, we were finally able to take a vacation from our trip. In the heart of resort-land Bali laid our gorgeous hotel. We checked into our spacious room and immediately threw the contents of our bags all over the gigantic bedroom.

This apartment that we would stay in for the week had everything a backpacker could need! (and you thought it was just the stuff on our backs? hell no) We had a spacious kitchen for preparing meals (duh), 2 bathrooms, dining area, lounge complete with a massive television, and a giant balcony for breakfast.

We were right on the beach and had no agenda for the entire week. We literally sat on our asses for 7 days straight. Well, ok... maybe we got up now and then for a beer.

Actually, we did get out of the hotel one day and go scuba diving to a famous wreck dive site in Bali. It's a left-over wreck from one of the wars and is now completely covered with coral. We were able to do a few swim-throughs and see some excellent reef fish. There was also a great garden of garden eels on this dive which we had never seen before. Very cool. Check this and this until we get our underwater pics online!

The week actually slid by quite quickly despite not really doing anything. But it was so wonderful to have a CLEAN toilet, our own kitchen, and someone to hand us towels every morning.

We're purposely keeping this short so we can set the president and actually catch up to where we are now. Hope to have it all caught up before we get home!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/daveandlisa/rtw2005/1151927460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/daveandlisa/rtw2005/1151927460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/daveandlisa/rtw2005/1151927460/tpod.html Mon, 16 Oct 2006 01:02:17 -0400 Our big, fat trip around the world.

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Sapa, Vietnam

The last time we used the word "hill-station" was for Darjeeling, India. That was A LOT of walking. Seriously, we weren't too happy about it. But we had heard Sapa was not to be missed, so we headed out of Hanoi, up into the mountains into yet another chilly hill-station.

Due to our limited time, we chose to book this through a tour company. They had the bus, hotel and hikes (complete with guide) all taken care of. We traveled from Hanoi over night and arrived in Sapa early in the morning. This was perfect, we had breakfast, checked in and headed out on a hike down into the valley.

Once we got out of the town of Sapa you could really get an eye-full. The hills nearby are absolutely stunning. Terraced rice paddies literally cover the surrounding hills as far as the eye can see, and from our vantage point, that's really far! We hiked down through the valley, through the rice paddies and through some of the smaller villages of the hill-tribes around Sapa.

The biggest tribe, the Black H'mong, inhabit most of the area, while some of the smaller tribes occupy a portion of some of the same villages. During our walks in the area we would be joined by people of these tribes. Some were curious what we were doing, others were hoping to sell us something, and others would act as temporary guides then ask for payment later. They were all very friendly, and later in the day Lisa walked along talking to one little girl for quite a while. When it was time for the little girl to turn back home, she gave both of us a bracelet to wear. Neither of us have taken the bracelet off even months after.

The second day of our trip to Sapa was a bit more hardcore. We started earlier and headed down in the valley again. Due to the rain the night before it was fairly muddy, and yet we ended up walking at least 15 km. Not incredibly far, but for such a hilly region, we were absolutely dead by the end of the day.

Sapa is meant to have some of the best scenery in Vietnam and tourists flock there by the bus load to have their own peek. For us, Sapa delivered. From our hotel room, and the dining area in the back, we had a stunning view of the valley that Sapa is perched over. Whenever we had the opportunity you could find us staring in awe at such magnificent scenery. It was gorgeous.

It was hard to pull ourselves away from this place, especially knowing we had to travel at night once again! We would end up arriving in Hanoi by 4am and finding a bed to continue sleeping in. Considering some of the alternatives, this was the preferred method believe it or not!

Arriving back in Hanoi, we actually took a taxi from the train station to our hotel as it was 4 in the morning. Ensuring the driver used the meter, we hopped in and arrived outside our hotel 20 minutes later. Only the meter was reading nearly 6 or 7 times what we were expecting. Dave started muttering "you don't want to make me angry" at the driver, but that didn't seem to do anything.

Dave opted to just get out of the car and make it look like he was going for a translator from our hotel. This made the driver drop the rate by 50%. Dave then gave the driver about half that again without asking for approval. It was too early in the morning to attempt getting down to the real price, but at 25% of what he was asking for, we felt we didn't get ripped off too badly.

Although our timeline was tight, we squeezed everything we wanted in just in time. Why was the timeline tight? Dave's parents gave us a week in their timeshare which was booked months in advance. We hadn't had this kind of deadline since we needed to meet them in Tanzania! Jeez, life is tough though isn't it? Having deadlines to meet, needing to rush off to yet another place? Bali isn't so bad though. Hee hee... you all hate us don't you?

We would fly from Hanoi to Kuala Lumpur via Ho Chi Minh City, then over to Denpesar, Bali a few hours after that. Quite a bit of distance to cover, but we were so excited. We hadn't stayed in this kind of accomodation in years! Our first flight left very early in the morning out of Hanoi, but we weren't sleeping the night before out of excitement anyway! Bali here we come!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/daveandlisa/rtw2005/1151580180/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/daveandlisa/rtw2005/1151580180/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/daveandlisa/rtw2005/1151580180/tpod.html Mon, 16 Oct 2006 01:00:25 -0400 Our big, fat trip around the world.

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Hanoi, Vietnam

Hanoi is a lovely town. There are 3.5 million people living there, and you have a constant hustle and bustle during daylight hours. It seems like everyone is out and about in the early hours and late afternoon; hiding from the heat at high noon. But once it's dark, the place is literally a ghost town. You'd have trouble finding somebody to ask directions in the same neighbourhood you could barely move in 7 hours prior.

But this is also where things kick up early. As the heat is pretty much unbearable after 10:30am, the Vietnamese tend to start their day much earlier. We didn't find this out at first, but on our way back into Hanoi on a future excursion, we arrived at 4am and the city was alive! Although it was still dark, the parks were full of people gathered for their morning calnisthenics, folks out jogging, others with their badminton raquets... it's quite an active city!

The old quarter of Hanoi is centred around a lake within the city. It's an excellent setting for a tourist trap. Beautiful scenery around a small lake with an ancient looking temple on a tiny island in the middle of the lake. Western restaurants have sprung up all around the lake and book sellers, touts and bike-taxi drivers are out in full-swing to help the tourists part with their cash. We stayed in a hotel a few blocks from here so as to stay close to the pulse, yet far enough away to get a quiet place at a good deal.

Before we really even got settled in Hanoi, we booked a trip to Halong bay. This is a small corner of the bay of Tonkin in the South China Sea. Halong Bay is made up of 3000 islands, all rising straight up out of the cloudy blue water (from limestone). The steep rise to the islands gives the bay such a unique look and feel, it's absolutely gorgeous; worth every penny to hire a boat for a few days and cruise around the islands.

We chose to do a two day trip which put us on a boat in time for lunch, and had us off the boat 24 hours later. It was a great trip and we had an opportunity to check out an enormous cave on one island, as well as a look-out on the top of another. The remainder of the time was spent relaxing on the boat, soaking in the scenery, and having several drinks... hey, it was Canada Day and our anniversary... can you blame us? We talked a few of the other foreigners into celebrating with us!

Halong Bay is a UNESCO world heritage site, and rightly so. This small corner of the world remains one of the most beautiful places on our trip.

Back in Hanoi, we went to see a traditional water-puppet show. Historically the farmers would entertain the children (and one another) during the monsoon by constructing puppets that they could control by a long shaft underwater. They would hide behind a screen so as to give the appearance that the puppets were moving around on their own. We had heard some negative feedback on this, but we were really hoping for a good show. The live traditional band had us entranced early on, and once the puppets started coming out we had a great time with our mouths ajar for most of the show. They even had fire-breating dragons... yes, even underwater!

The rest of the time in Hanoi was spent checking out the sights and enjoying the cuisine. One night we managed to find a place to drink beer on the curb at roughly 25 cents a glass. An old lady pumped her keg while we all sat on the road. Unfortunately the cops came and everyone had to squeeze into their tiny store-front of a resaurant. We chose to leave at this point, but once the cops leave there would have been plenty more room to stretch out again.

Hanoi is a great town, despite its heat, and has plenty to see and do... provided you get it done before dark. We never did wake up to join the locals for exercise, but maybe that's because we knew what we'd be getting into at our next destination. The hill-station of Sapa!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/daveandlisa/rtw2005/1151308560/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/daveandlisa/rtw2005/1151308560/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/daveandlisa/rtw2005/1151308560/tpod.html Mon, 16 Oct 2006 00:56:56 -0400 Our big, fat trip around the world.

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Hue, Vietnam

Hue is a busy little town, with loads of history surrounding it. Ancient ruins lie just up the river and you can access them by road, or by hiring a riverboat.

Opting for the latter, we headed upstream and spent the day checking out temples and ruins of palaces, old houses for emperors, etc. Although the buildings themselves were excellent to see, the best part of the day was just wandering through the land around some of these places. Some of these were landscaped so beautifully to have a garden for the owner to wander through. Such natural beauty was captured and often in quite a symmetrical way. The main building in the centre of the area with a grid of gardens, ponds and bridges stemming out from the building. It was all gorgeous.

The best way to get around Vietnam in short distances is by hiring a bike taxi. This is where you hop on the back of some guy's motorbike where he drives you as fast as he wants to your destination. As some of the sights were a bit far from the river, this was often our mode of transportation to and from the boat. Lots of good fun. The round-trip ride is negotiated, and the driver consistently asks you for a tip in the form of a beer when you get back to the boat. Wondering how many "tips" he had already received, we opted not to give him another for the sake of the next tourist he drove.

The river ride itself was beautiful and the company we chose had a lunch prepared for us half-way through the day. It was an excellent way to see a bit of Hue's backyard and pick up a bit of history on the area.

Back in town, there is the usual street-side food you can pick up, but we opted to go for a nice meal with live traditional music being played. It's such a different style of music to hear, and helped us feel like we were really in Viet Nam. That last sentence may sound funny, but after a while of traveling, you start to get into a groove, and getting to a new place becomes mechanical. You get off the bus, look for a place to sleep, look for some food, and look for what activities you can get up to. Taking a bit of time to look around, listen to the people, the music, and smell the food really helps get you into a new place.

The Vietnamese are really friendly people. They're also pretty crazy on the road. To illustrate both points, we were out for dinner and we realized we had no money. The ATMs nearby wouldn't work with our cards, so the manager offered to drive Dave to another ATM 5 minutes away. Dave declined and said that he would walk, but this was while the guy was starting up his bike. So Dave hopped on and 5 or 10 minutes later, he had money in his pocket. Although he was leaving anyway, it was completely out of his way to take Dave to the bank. As the guy attempted a U-turn to head back to the restaurant, he cut across 2 lanes of traffic and they nearly got hit by a few other motorists. Some staring and yelling was exchanged, and they carried on their way. Dave was still confident that although they drive aggressively, and ignore all rules of the road, they must be safe drivers as they ALL drive this way. Dave then asked if there were many accidents in Hue, and all he got was a fit of laughter as his reply.

While in Hue, we took the opportunity to get right out of the city and up into the jungle. A nearby national park called Bak Ma is meant to have some excellent trails as well as some beautiful views and scenery. We booked a day that included lunch and a guide. In hind sight, the guide was unnecessary, but he was very knowledgeable which allowed us to learn a great deal about the flora and fauna of the area. Bak Ma was also a strategic spot in the war, and even a French vacationing spot before that, so our guide had quite a bit of knowledge on the history of the area as well.

The view from the highest point in the park was stunning. Looking over the range, and all the way to the South China sea, we had a great vantage point to take in the surrounding area. We then walked down into the jungles, occaisionally stopping while our guide made bird calls and had a few conversations with these winged animals. We tried to imitate a few, but the birds weren't listening to us.

This was our first run-in with leeches. As it had rained a few days before, the ground was still a bit moist, and once in the jungle they sensed our heat and headed straight for us. Dave was wearing his hiking sandals and shorts which made it easier to see them, and easier for them to latch on... although they never did.

We managed to see a frog that looked identical to a leaf. It was nearly as flat as one, had the same shape and colour, and apparently is only seen in the trees. Our guide got his camera out and was quite excited as he had never seen this frog (despite quite a bit of searching at night) in all his 15 years with the park.

Dave had a swim in a beautiful pool on the river that had a waterfall pooring into it. This river would then lead to a much larger waterfall downstream. On the walk to the larger waterfall, our guide made quite a jump out of the way as he yelled "snake"!! Lisa was next in line and realized that she was at the same spot where our guide was when he yelled so she followed suit by jumping forward as well. Good thing too because only a half-meter from where she was sat a cobra with his next flattened out looking pretty mean. The guide moved him off the trail and we walked on... complete with shaky legs.

The view from the top of this waterfall was incredible. Take a look at the pictures (once we post them). We had a gorgeous view of the jungle valley in front of us and the sound of the rushing water plunging to the gorge below.

On our way back up we saw another cobra, and met up with 2 girls that had seen 3. And Dave was worried about leeches? What a dumbass.

We got back to Hue and prepared for our trip up to Hanoi. It would be an overnight journey due to the distance. Hooray... we missed those overnight buses!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/daveandlisa/rtw2005/1150788480/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/daveandlisa/rtw2005/1150788480/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/daveandlisa/rtw2005/1150788480/tpod.html Mon, 16 Oct 2006 00:53:09 -0400 Our big, fat trip around the world.

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Hoi An, Vietnam

We flew into Danang with the intent on spending the night, but a taxi stand offered to take us all the way to Hoi An for much cheaper than the bus would cost us the next day, and then we didn't have to spend a night in Danang. Sounded like a good plan right?

As we already knew, there's a twist to everything in Asia. Once we left the car park, we re-confirmed the price with the driver. It was his understanding that the price was considerably more than what we had agreed to, so we told him to go back to the car park. Instead, he continued towards Hoi An (probably 30 minutes) and just kept quiet. He never did give us a good feeling that we were all in agreement. Surprisingly he accepted the money we gave him in Hoi An and all was well.

The biggest draw to Hoi An is the tailors. There is a large amount of highly skilled tailors doing fantastic work with excellent fabric. You basically point to the picture in a catalogue, they take your measurements and by 11am the next morning, your clothes are ready. All at bottom of the barrel prices.

There are also a number of crap tailors working with crap material doing a total crap job, and when your clothes are ready, you need to get them to adjust it 5 or 6 times before your satisfied enough to pay them for their work. Most tailors get a deposit up front so you don't just walk away from the whole thing, but you're really walking a tight-rope when choosing a tailor.

Our experience, fortunately, was mostly good.

As it would turn out, Dave went nuts. Lisa showed restraint, and in this once in a lifetime display of turned tables, Lisa picked out a few items of clothing while Dave had 4 suits made along with 11 shirts.

Lisa had a great denim jacket made that would have fit perfectly if her left arm was half the diameter it is and was actually missing the shoulder joint. We never paid for that one, and we believe it's currently on the gimpy mannequin in the shop window.

Everything else worked out well.

The town is absolutely packed with tailors and you can't walk down the street without being attacked every 20 meters to get a suit made. Some are friendly, others demanding and pushy, but the polite smile and firm "no" ususally did the trick.

Nearby was Marble Mountain and China Beach which makes a good day trip while you're waiting for your stack of suits to be made. Marble mountain is literally a big mountain made of marble. There are some great shops nearby that sell amazing marble carvings including 2 meter tall lions suitable for shipping home and using them to guard your driveway entrance. We took a miss on those though.

The hike up the mountain was quite strenuous, and in 38 degree heat, it's important to bring along lots of water. Of course, that goes double for trying on suits in 38 degree heat... talk about a work out!

After the walk up the mountain, we headed for lunch on China beach. This is an amazing stretch of beach. It's 30 km of unspoilt beach, and from what we could tell, nobody knows about it (despite there being a TV series named after it). It was empty, big, and beautiful. The water was warm and the sea-floor was sandy. We only went in for a few minutes though. You really have to wonder about a beautiful beach where the locals aren't going in the water. What's lurking out there? Besides, it was time to head back to town to try on more clothes!

In the end, we picked up a few more things, but you'll have to drop by our place when we get home to see it all!

We left after about a week and took a bus up to Hue. This section of Vietnamese coast is known for its beauty. We opted for the drive during the day in order to take in the scenery. It was absolutely breathtaking. Such a fantastic way to travel to our next destination!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/daveandlisa/rtw2005/1157527680/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/daveandlisa/rtw2005/1157527680/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/daveandlisa/rtw2005/1157527680/tpod.html Mon, 16 Oct 2006 00:46:53 -0400 Our big, fat trip around the world.

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Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Although a friendly a fun city, our experience was a bit more dramatic. This entry won't contain our usual banter, and as such, we'll keep it short.

During the Khmer Rouge's ruling of Cambodia, a third of the population, or 2 million Cambodians, was put to death. More often than not they were first tortured, then taken to a killing field where they were buried in mass graves.

Our time in Cambodia's capital was a bit of a mind-blower. We spent most of our time visiting one of the more famous killing fields, and the infamous Tuol Sleng prison, previously known as S-21.

Cambodians are some of the most friendliest you could meet on this planet, always with a smile ready, and willing to converse no matter how good their english skills (or ours for that matter!). The country has moved on from their past, embraced such pains to ensure this never happens again.

Tuol Sleng is now a museum, yet left nearly untouched since the days it was operational as a prison. It pains the heart to learn that each family was devastated in some horrible way or another. Not a single person came out of that dark era unscathed.

It's a shame we could not afford more time to such a beautiful country; for the scenery and landscape as well as the people. We'll definitey go back one day to explore the country further.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/daveandlisa/rtw2005/1157524800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/daveandlisa/rtw2005/1157524800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/daveandlisa/rtw2005/1157524800/tpod.html Mon, 16 Oct 2006 00:42:35 -0400 Our big, fat trip around the world.

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Siem Reap, Cambodia

We've opened up a few entries along the way with "Getting there is half the fun". This would be the one time that doesn't hold true.

The trip from Bangkok to the border with Cambodia is pretty easy going. But if you book your bus through one of the tour companies in Bangkok, even an upstanding one, you'll get torn a new one.

What they do is wear you down the entire day so that you arrive in Siem Reap totally exhausted, hot and sweaty. This is where they drop you off at their hotel sometime around 11pm. They figure it's too late for you to go elsewhere, and you're certainly too tired to even think about it having been on the bus since 8am that morning. They then rake in the commissions from the hotel by checking in a bus-load of tourists all at once.

The trip across the border is exhausting in itself. It's around noon, and you're walking for about 30 minutes in the 38 degree sun. Not so bad right? Then they have you wait around for another 30 minutes until the bus gets there. Not to mention "taking care of the visas" for about 1.5 times the usual price.

You take that bus to a depot about an hour away, where we waited for another 90 minutes for our next bus. This bus took us the rest of the way to Siem Reap, but as we got closer, the A/C stopped working (if it ever worked), and they seemed to drive slower.

By the time we got to their hotel of choosing, we needed a shower. The room cost $6 and was cheap enough to give into their scam. We later heard that Russell's bus had a full-on mutiny and not one single traveller checked into their hotel. Right on.

Once settled in Siem Reap, it was time to check out the area. Siem Reap is a small town in the middle of the ancient Angkor region. The region hosts many ruins of ancient cities; spectacular feats of architecture. This includes Angkor Wat, the largest structure built for religion, ever. We hired some bikes and managed to pedal the 2km to Angkor Wat by sunrise. The place is serene at this time of day, and despite this being the most recommended activity in any guide book, there really aren't many people there at that time of day.

We spent the rest of the day cycling around a smaller circuit of the region and taking in the sights. Each spot is such a mind-blower. We also managed to stop in and see the ruins where Tomb Raider was filmed. It was amazing to see how the jungle had slowly overtaken the ruins; trees and plants growing out of the cracks of the walls, and in many cases, holding the walls together with their roots! See the movie. When Angelina Jolie is following a butterfly through some ruins, that's exactly what these ruins look like. Oh, except for the part with the sword-fighting rock-men.

We hinted earlier that it's fairly warm in this area of the world. Cycling around in 35+ degrees weather for an entire day isn't always the best thing to do. Needless to say we hired a tuk-tuk the next day for the longer route. We saw a lot of the same sorts of things but were much more relaxed doing it.

On the way back to our hostel at the end of the day, the monsoons were upon us. Massive downpours were absolutely flooding the road. Although the driver had side panels that he could zip-up around us, it didn't keep us dry. Mostly because we had to push him out of the muddy gutter when he drove off the road to narrowly miss the tuk-tuk in front of him. Oh yeah... that was great fun.

The next morning we hired a driver and headed out to one of the farther ruins. They're quite a distance away from the town so it's necessary to hire a car. Many people don't bother with going this distance, but for us, it was the highlight. The ruins we chose to go to were completely overtaken by jungle. In most cases there were just piles of rocks instead of an actual structure that had just fallen over. Trees and plants growing everywhere, it was great fun to wander around getting lost within the ruins. It really was like a maze. Russell and Dave spent a few good hours wandering aimlessly around the place and took turns being Indiana Jones while the other sang the theme song. All we needed was the hat and whip and we were there. Spider webs, creepy shadows, mummies and rolling boulders. You get the idea.

On the way back into town, we got the driver to take us to the Land Mine Museum. This is a collection of disabled land mines and unexploded ordinance left all over Cambodia. The owner, Aki Ra, has personally disabled thousands and he also lended his expertise helping out in Africa a few years back. He also fosters land-mine survivors, or orphans of land-mine victims. The man is a legend, and simply wants to get rid of landmines and make his country safe. The museum displays astonishing facts about landmines: almost all casualties are civilian, and although new mines have not been laid in more than 20 years, people are still dying regularly. Check out the website here. Or better yet, go see it for yourself.

Last but not least, is downtown Siem Reap. There is a single street for the backpackers called "bar street". This is where all the tourists go to hang out and drink $1 pints after a hard day slogging around the ruins.

As luck would have it, our English friends Tom and James (who we also met in India) popped up in Siem Reap at the same time. The bunch of us went and watch England play their second game. The really funny thing is that Russell, Tom and James each have a very close look-alike that played for England. They could have put on jerseys and sat on the street signing autographs (except for the fact that everyone was watching them live on TV in Germany).

It's always great fun to meet up with such cool people, but once again, it was time to head on. Knowing we had limited time, we were in a hurry to check out Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital city, then head over to do a tour of northern Viet Nam.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/daveandlisa/rtw2005/1158716040/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/daveandlisa/rtw2005/1158716040/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/daveandlisa/rtw2005/1158716040/tpod.html Sun, 15 Oct 2006 21:57:10 -0400 Our big, fat trip around the world.

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Auckland, New Zealand

New Zealand has also been a bit of a blur. There is so much to see in such a small country. We managed to get on to a tour bus where you can hop on and off. This would enable us to see most of the country at a fairly quick pace, yet enabling us to hop off and enjoy some of the cities a little longer if wanted.

Among the many experiences we had in New Zealand, here are some of the highlights:
* Hot water beach where you dig your own spa in the sand as geo-thermic water fills up the hole!
* Sea kayaking in Hahei, along the limestone cliffs, in and out of caves and blow-holes, seeing seals, eagle rays and being in the middle of a pod of orcas!
* Tubing through the extensive Waitomo caves, crawling through tight fits and seeing glow worms on the ceiling
* White water rafting over a 7m waterfall in Rotorua (the smelliest town in New Zealand, geo-thermic activity produces a lingering sulphurous smell)
* Hiking through Mordor; the Tongariro crossing from Taupo was exhausting but beautiful
* Checking out ancient Maori culture at the Te Papa museum in Wellington
* Taking in the beautiful scenery of Abel Tasman national park
* Knife making and bone carving in Barrytown (and a bit too much cross-dressing)
* Checking out the pancake rocks outside of Barrytown, created by hundreds of years of slow volcanic activity
* Franz Josef: heli-hiking on the glacier and sky diving over the Fox glacier
* Queenstown: Lisa horse riding through Edoras (Glenorchy) and Dave bungy jumping off a bridge over the Kawarau river, then later river surfing down it.
* Boat ride through Milford sound
* Ferry over to Stewart Island; fishing with the locals for Blue Cod in the deep blue sea
* Speight's brewery tour, and Cadbury factory tour in Dunedin
* Went whale watching (Sperm whales) and swimming with Dusky dolphins in Kaikoura.
* Enjoying nightlife in Christchurch with friends we've met along our travels in New Zealand

New Zealand is an absolutely gorgeous country. Everywhere you travel in the country has a beautiful lookout or view of mountains. Gorgeous green fields dotted with sheep and cattle.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/daveandlisa/rtw2005/1155171060/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/daveandlisa/rtw2005/1155171060/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/daveandlisa/rtw2005/1155171060/tpod.html Sun, 15 Oct 2006 21:32:30 -0400 Our big, fat trip around the world.

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Sydney, Australia

When we arrived in Sydney, we had to race to our friends' house. The customs took a little longer than we expected as they had to clean our shoes for us. Australia is very vigilant about not letting foreign bacteria and bugs into their borders. Good on them, but it slowed us down considerably.

We stayed with our friends that we had met in Borneo for a few days. Gracious hosts as they were, they drove us around town to do a bit of sight seeing and even dropped us off at the airport to meet Jeff, Lisa's brother.

Once we hooked up with Jeff, we headed back into town to check into the Sydney Mariott (thanks to Dave's sister for the hook-up!). It was still only 8am at this point and we had all been up for hours. It was time to grab a bite of food and celebrate meeting up after not seeing each other for 9 months.

Fortunately Sydney has 24-hour bars and we managed to find a place that would serve us beers in no time.

A few hours later, Dave and Jeff came down with a slight case of "toomanybeersbefore10am" and went and shaved their heads. Although Lisa kept her hair the way it was, she had no problem laughing and taking photos of the whole ordeal. Jeff's "jetlag" set in shortly after dinner and we had an early night.

Over the next two days we got ourselves a Wicked Camper-van, complete with beds, a cooker, an icebox, and a spray-painted mural of "The Eagles" on the outside body of the van. Before we left town we picked up a greatest hits CD and a case of Victoria Bitter (VB), then hit the road.

We had a blast making our way up to Cairns over the next three weeks. Here's a bit of a list of the things we got up to:

* Hiking in the Blue Mountains, just north-west of Sydney
* Seeing our first kangaroos on the way back to the coast
* Camel rides on the beach in Port Macquarie
* Coffs Harbour: Sea kayaking with dolphins for Jeff and Lisa, scuba diving for Dave
* Relaxing on the beach in Byron Bay
* Pub crawl in Surfer's Paradise
* Meeting up with friends from Viet Nam and holding Koalas in Brisbane
* Partying and 4x4 on Fraser Island, second largest sand island in the world
* Airlie Beach, sailing in the Whitsundays
* Cairns, drove up to the Daintree river to spot crocs and swam in a fresh water gorge


We flew back to Sydney and saw Jeff off at the airport. It was a great 3 weeks. The van was our home. You can imagine the smells of random socks and wet towels and whatever else goes along with living in a van for three weeks!

We then took a bus out to Melbourne where we stayed with a friend we had met a few years ago in Canada. Ash took a day off work to drive us around the Dandenongs, a lush bit of rainforest covering a very hilly range near Melbourne. It was very beautiful and great to catch up with our old friend.

Among the other things we got up to over the next week are the following:

* Watching candy (lollies) being made at the farmer's market in Melbourne
* Driving out the great ocean road over a few days taking in the spectacular sights
* Seeing Koalas in the wild. So CUTE!
* Seeing mother and calf southern right whales from the beach in Warnambool
* Driving and hiking in the Grampians
* Dodging huge kangaroos in our rental car


After our trip out to Melbourne, we had another few days in Sydney where we managed to squeeze in a wine tour to the Hunter Valley. It was a great day of wine tasting, and we even went to a wildlife reserve where they had a young Wombat you could cuddle up to for pictures.

Oz was a great 5 weeks of fun, and we managed to squeeze a hell of a lot into such a short time. It's a huge country and we're happy to have seen all that we did!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/daveandlisa/rtw2005/1153166400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/daveandlisa/rtw2005/1153166400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/daveandlisa/rtw2005/1153166400/tpod.html Sun, 15 Oct 2006 20:51:23 -0400 Our big, fat trip around the world.

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Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia

Borneo is an absolutely amazing place. It has so much to offer that it's really worth spending a few months. But isn't this always the way?!

We spent a night camping on a small island off the coast of this larger island. It was great, we put our tent up and had nobody nearby. There was a resort around the other side of the island, but we were free to put on a mask and snorkel and explore the reef only 20 meters from our tent without anyone around. It was really peaceful and fun. Of course, it wouldn't have been the same without our welcome committee: 2 big monitor lizards as we set up our tent. Good fun.

We then headed inland and went straight for the Sepilok Orang Utan Sanctuary. This is where orphaned or hurt Orang Utans are rehabilitated back into the wild. They know when feeding time is and can choose to come out of the wild forest to the feeding platform to have a meal if they want to. The catch is that there's a few busload of us tourists waiting there to get a million pictures of them! It's great because you do get some great shots of wild, rehabilitated Orang Utans, and the money that the tourists generate goes to keeping the centre open. This still doesn't solve the source of the problem. Most of these Orang Utans require the rehabilitation because of their gross loss of habitat. But we keep on logging! It makes you a bit sick...

From here we continued on to Uncle Tan's. This is an outfit that takes us out to the middle of the jungle by boat for a 2 night jungle experience. We have two afternoon boat rides, one night boat ride, one night walk, one morning walk and one morning boat ride. We saw REALLY wild Orang Utans, a massive croc and a bunch of small ones, proboscis monkeys, giant centipedes (poisonous!), spiders, frogs, macaques, otters, etc. And, although hornbills are always flying overhead in Borneo, there was a huge amount of them while we were in this particular part of the jungle. It was great.

We then headed straight for the coast. Staying in Semporna was a great spot for our dives to Sipadan and the surrounding islands. This was some serious diving with great visibility, swimming with loads of giant turtles and sharks, not to mention a great selection of reef fish and all the other life you get along with coral. It was world class diving, and it absolutely blew our minds. We even had a tornado of approximately 2000 barracudas above us at one point. A little freaky, but amazing.

From here we headed in-land again and decided to splurge on a trip to Danum Valley. This is actually reserved for research activity and is not really set up for tourists at all. If you want to pay the extra cash and you can get permission ahead of time, it's an amazing place. We went gibbon tracking, saw loads more wildlife and had a great time with a bunch of the scientists.

From Danum, we headed back to Kota Kinabalu and took it easy for a few days. It was pretty rainy weather at this point, and about the only thing we got up to was searching for the giant Rafflesia flower. Sizing up at over a meter in diameter, it's the world's largest flower. We found one that wasn't quite that big, but it was pretty cool to see. It's a very funky looking flower. It also gives off a stench of rotting meat to attract flies in order to help with polination, but we weren't able to smell this.

Although there was plenty left to do in Sabah, and certainly loads more to do in Borneo, we had to move on. We were excited to get to Australia and experience the shock of returning to a 1st world nation. Also, we were due to meet Lisa's brother and create some of our own thunder down under!
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