TravelStream™ news feed for member jayaandjoe on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/jayaandjoe en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Tue, 30 Jun 2009 02:55:42 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jayaandjoe/1/1246342112/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jayaandjoe/1/1246342112/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jayaandjoe/1/1246342112/tpod.html Tue, 30 Jun 2009 02:55:42 -0400 Around the world with Jaya and Joe! LOL

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Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

... and i continued not to sleep. something me and Jaya have learned is that if we have a library of new films Jaya will choose to sleep and i will choose to watch films all night!!! waaaaaaaaayyyy!!!
the flight went pretty cool but there was a bit of a fuss at the back of the plane and when we landed the plane was stopped and we weren't allowed to leave because one of the older people at the back had a serious respiratory problem so they thought the plane might have piggy flu. but we didn't have to be quarantined ad for some reason there were more police brought on than medics. but the guy turned out to just be old and unfit. silly people!
anyway we got to the YHA off this coach arranged for us and we found out that Jaya had lost her money card and that she was a narna! it was weird though because we hadn't seen it in the room and we had literally turned it upside down! we got to our room which turned out to be pretty nice which was good because the fantastic heat of Asia was gone and the chili Australian experience is just beginning...
anyway we slept the whole day without waking or at least Jaya did i sat around and waited for jaya to wake up which was pretty late so we nipped next door and got a burger for tea. the rest of the week was pretty much like that we bought some nicer clothes so we could go to interviews and Jaya got a job for the day which after a hour she quit because it was rediculous and her "charity CDs" were actually an artists album that would donate 50c per $20 album. and the people she was selling to were all deaf and should really have been in a home.
anyway we spent our first week up until the saturday which much have been the 13th in the YHA and then we moved on...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jayaandjoe/1/1246340487/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jayaandjoe/1/1246340487/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jayaandjoe/1/1246340487/tpod.html Tue, 30 Jun 2009 02:08:20 -0400 Around the world with Jaya and Joe! LOL

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Hong Kong, China

Today we packed up and left for the airport so that we could go to australia! we went for breakfast at Murphy's bar and restaurant i had a full english and Jaya had bangers and mash which she was very happy with once she argued gravy into it! they tried to give her bangers and mash with no gravy? mental. who would do that to a person?
freakish eating habits aside, we managed to send a parcel home, before we had to go to the airport and go through loads of silly checks and stuff. although we went through loads of them they weren't particularly thorough i brought through my nun-chuks, a gift from Rogan a friend from china, but they did stop us to check for sweeties in the bags... im no expert and if nothing else china proved that, but i think nun chuks are more deadly than chocolate buttons... generally speaking anyway, im sure in the hands of ninja chocolate buttons can cause alot of harm to the unwary.
the flight was very nice we were sat next to a guy who was from just outside of sydney and he was very friendly to us he even knew a fair bit about football or "soccer". the whole flight was really good the three of us got a little drunk and watched films. the onboard meals were immense we had lamb curry and cornettos!! and i was seated in the legroom seat automatically so i didnt have to complain and stand around for hours to get a seat i could fit into!! :)
and the flight continued...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jayaandjoe/1/1246339358/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jayaandjoe/1/1246339358/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jayaandjoe/1/1246339358/tpod.html Tue, 30 Jun 2009 01:40:08 -0400 Around the world with Jaya and Joe! LOL

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Hong Kong, China

today we went to Disneyland and we were really happy and excited, then we waited at the stupid ribbon cutting and walked faster than anyone else to get on the space mountain. but when we got there the bar went down and i needed to put my legs either side of it so they would fit in... but they came over and asked me to leave! i wasn't really embarrassed but it turned out that everything was for littler people so we kicked up a fuss and got a refund :( not cool. Disneyland sucks ass!
but we wernt really upset after leaving because everyone was so nice about it. we went for a curry at night instead, it was pretty good and i had a new lager called blue lady that was pretty nice! so no harm done really.

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jayaandjoe/1/1243954418/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jayaandjoe/1/1243954418/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jayaandjoe/1/1243954418/tpod.html Tue, 02 Jun 2009 10:56:14 -0400 Around the world with Jaya and Joe! LOL

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Hong Kong, China



ok then, so its been a while since I've written anything but now im back (with the help of the inspirational military style music of the heliattack game in the background) and today we met up with Carolin, zach and millie!

but before this Jaya and I went for a walk around the HK bay and had a look at hong kong island which is tomorow's destination and a fry-up in Big John's Cafe!! we also had a look around a science museum which is roughly like retaking GCSE science so pretty easy and we didnt need to revise to know all the answers :P but this was pretty good we didnt really learn much but we had a good browse. although i suppose i learnt to drive a forklift and operate a wrecking ball... useless... but anyway then we headed off to the park to meet the Blackers!!

As if seeing the Blackers in such a strange place wasnt weird enough, Zach is a good foot taller now and Millie isnt a little baby!! Zach now plays rugby and is a marlon (he swims good) they seemed very happy and Millie and Carolin had baked us some cookies, which was really sweet, both figuratively and literally :) Carolin treated us to a meal at spaghetti house which was really nice aswell!! then Zach, Jaya and I went for a swim and then the Blackers had to go. but before we went we found out that Zach will be a disneyland at the same time as us!!!! so were going to see them again soon!!!

then Jaya and i went to a shop bought me some t-shirts and stuff and found that chinese people dont quite make clothes big enough for even the new improved me. :(

Anyway, hope everyone is ok and having as good a time as us!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jayaandjoe/1/1242261900/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jayaandjoe/1/1242261900/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jayaandjoe/1/1242261900/tpod.html Tue, 02 Jun 2009 10:49:43 -0400 Around the world with Jaya and Joe! LOL

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Sanming, Fujian, China

Hallo! I did this entry a while ago but hadn't quite finished it so here you go..

Ni Hao!
We finally arrived here at the martial arts school on Monday evening (4th May)and started training Tuesday morning.

There are 3 training groups to choose from: Shaolin, White Crane and Internal. I decided to do one each day to see which one I liked so ended up doing Shaolin - undoubtably the most physically challenging - on the first day. The Shaolin master is called Jin and is only 24 and looks like a pretty harmless young guy (i think he looks like the guy off the vo5 advert which means I spend half the time with that tune in my head!) however, he is actually amazingly tough, there are pictures of him lying sandwiched between those boards with loads of pins coming out with a fat man stood on top and he moves so quickly I wouldn't be surprised if he could punch someone before they realised he was in the room.
And because he has obviously worked so hard to become this Kung fu machine, he expects blood sweat and tears from every one of his students. That day I was made to wheelbarrow up 69 steps and crawl back down and they were covered in little sharp stones so my hands were bleeding by 7am :s then he made us hop up and down them on one leg (by which time I already thought I might die) then the same on the other leg, and then I had to jump up and down them. Never again. He also did this thing where I had to lie on my front and he stood so that my head was through his legs and streched my back by pulling my feet up and because my back is flexible he thought he'd play around and literally folded me in half and made me count to 20 before he let go which was difficult as my weight was all on my throat. Joe says this is called the walls of Jericho..I think that's a wrestling reference but who knows.. I'm sure Tom and Dan will get it...
So anyways, since then my stomach, back and ribs were in loads of pain whenever I moved. Also, if people don't do things in the way he wants them to be done, Jin's punishment is to make you get in a press up position and raise your bum and put your head on the floor and your hands behind your back- usually outside on the stony floor. I didn't have to do it but it terrifed me... and confirmed my decision that Shaolin is definately not for me! I got through it though because the Mulan song was in my head...you know the one with the uplifting montage..then everything was all good.
'White Crane' is the style Joe has chosen to study, I did that one yesterday, it's all raised knees and flicky kicks and bent wrists.. that one was pretty cool, I'm sure Joe will write lots about it but today I did 'internal' martial arts which mostly 'Xingyi' and is all about your chi/energy. I really enjoyed it and the master Dung started teaching me 'Bagua' outside of the group whilst everyone else learned Tai Chi and everyone at the Martial arts school told me that this is an honour: it's Dung's speciality and he doesn't teach it very often. Apparently I have a good flow of chi and lots of explosive power and am flexible. :) yay. In Bagua u have a big post and you have to walk around it like you are circling someone or stalking your prey..it's weird but pretty cool!
We have to be in training at 6am every day except the weekends and we train 6am-7.30am, 9am-10.30am, 11am-11.30am, 2.30pm-4pm and 4.30pm-5pm. It's a long hard day and the food is mostly rice and a few vegetables and a little bit of meat which isn't really good enough to eat anyway. The breakfast is brilliant though.. egg and chips and this strange boiled bread :)
Anyways, I doubt we will have much to write about over the next month so goodbye for now!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jayaandjoe/1/1241348700/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jayaandjoe/1/1241348700/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jayaandjoe/1/1241348700/tpod.html Fri, 15 May 2009 02:22:58 -0400 Around the world with Jaya and Joe! LOL

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Sanming, Fujian, China

Okay, we haven't written in quite a while because everything was very hectic and tiring so here goes filling in the last 2 weeks..
So China also have the may day weekend, so we couldn't get train tickets to travel on from Nanchang in south China for the Friday so decided to just stay in Hanoi for the extra day rather than wait around in China (as this would also mean we had to rush out of China after the Martial Arts programme due to our visas being for 30 days after we enter China). Late on the Friday night we caught the train from Hanoi to the border then from there to Nanchang,it was a night train but there wasn't much chance for sleep due to the constant forms, passport checks, Train changes, Temperature takings etc (Temperature takings? Is that correct English? Who knows..). We finally arrived in the Chinese City of Nanchang at around 6am and had to wait in the train station until the window opened at 7.30. Nothing has made me feel more like a traveller so far than sitting on the floor in a train station with backpacks and rucksacks feeling like you haven't slept in days..it's all an experience I suppose :)
After spending a long time explaining to the ticket lady (who seemed absolutely chuffed with herself because I understood most of her English)where I wanted to go, I managed to get tickets for that evening but she said the train was very slow.. she didn't specify how slow though - more on that later. The train was at 9.30pm, making it silly to get a hotel, so we put our luggage in the train station lockers and went in search for food.
Joe was convinced that there had to be a McDonalds but I wasn't so sure so we hopped in a taxi and just asked to go to a coffee shop and did spot a McDonalds on the way.. yay McDonalds breakfast.
In McDonalds, we met an American man who lives in China and teaches English. He talked for ages about anything and everything and was really rude to and about Chinese people i.e.telling a family of five they couldn't sit at his 6 person table when the only other place to sit was a 2 person table.. go figure. He also claimed that he wasn't racist but that Condoleezza Rice was a nigger because he didn't like her. Wow. I guess growing up in Leicester gives you a pretty different view of society than the rest of the world, you could never get away with saying something like that in public where we come from but again, it's all an experience and it's best to know that some people still think that way.
It's not the first time on this trip that people have made comments like that not realising my heritage. When we got outside McDonalds, A girl and a boy approached us and with the girl mostly speaking to us asked where we were from and the usual curious questions people ask when they see westerners. At this point,the American man who had been telling us how good his Chinese was started speaking to her in Chinese and she looked very confused even after he had repeated himself 3 times, at which point, the girl - who was 13 - asked if he could please speak in English. Ouch!
So the girl whose English name was Linda told us about all the May Day celebrations going on in the parks and showed us the way to a big park whilst constantly chattering and giggling away about China and England. She left to find her friends when we arrived and we sat on the grass and were approached now and again by students wanting to practice their English, which was fun. Definately the best way to learn about a culture.
Later on we got on the train, which we had expected to be 23 hours long, but the next day we asked what time we arrived at 6pm and they said 7 so we arranged for a taxi to pick us up at 7. However, at 7.15 we asked again and they told us to go to sleep. They had meant 7am. Oops. Then they spent over half an hour trying to make us undersatnd when we already did, writing it down in Chinese characters for example and we ended up having to lie down to convince them that we understood even though we clearly weren't going to go to sleep at 8 o clock! So all in all, we ended up spending 34 hours on that train :S it wasn't much fun!
When we arrived in Nanping, we eventually found the bus station and bough bus tickets and went for breakfast in a little chinese cafe - we had dumplings filled with spiced pork which were fantastic and this rice porridge stuff which wasn't so good.
Then we got the bus to Taining and were picked up by the taxi, who we had to pay a lot of money for his inconvinience as he had driven all the way to Nanping the day before :(
But we're here now, safe and sound and we start training tomorrow!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jayaandjoe/1/1240833900/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jayaandjoe/1/1240833900/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jayaandjoe/1/1240833900/tpod.html Wed, 13 May 2009 20:44:43 -0400 Around the world with Jaya and Joe! LOL

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Quy Nhon, Vietnam

hello today we are staying in a palace. not a literal palace but the most beautiful room you will get for 200,000 dong ($12.5) which is so awesome. the guide book says that all the rooms are different so if anyone is searching its name right now we are talking about room 202. great family aswell.

anyhu the room is huge and we have a big shower and a bath and a fridge and tv and aircon... think... i could live there... actually needs a kitchen. anyway great room we are over the moon about that and weare going out for a drink tonight because we had brunch at 4. so we arent hungry, but money saved can be spent on drinks!!!! (i think thats how money is saved..right?)

we are like celebrities here aswell because there are so few western people coming through here so a giant and a beautiful lady dont go unnoticed we'v been waving all day!!

we also got in a strange contraptionwhere you sit on the front of the bicycle andsomeone pedals youhome, which involved alot of waving aswell.had a bad feeling i was gna get JFK'ed though waving about so much in our parade.

going to go for those drinks now, goodbye all.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jayaandjoe/1/1240916280/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jayaandjoe/1/1240916280/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jayaandjoe/1/1240916280/tpod.html Sat, 02 May 2009 07:38:32 -0400 Around the world with Jaya and Joe! LOL

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Hanoi, Vietnam

hi all!!
today we travelled overnight in some delightful little four bedded room with much more space than before and we were on the bottom bunks so we were extremely happy with this. until the really loud Japanese people arrived answering calls at 1am when everyone was asleep, naughty boys. but all in all a very pleasant trip.

then we booked into a hotel, got jayas money flowing again and bought some rubbish dvds. good day!!

oh we also ate at one of the most lovely restaurants ive ever been to. cant rememeber the name but i had the sauteed beef in black pepper sauce and it rocked!

bye!!
P.S none too dramatic i hope?
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jayaandjoe/1/1240746540/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jayaandjoe/1/1240746540/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jayaandjoe/1/1240746540/tpod.html Mon, 27 Apr 2009 08:05:00 -0400 Around the world with Jaya and Joe! LOL

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Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

wow today was a really cool day.

first we had to go get Jaya's nationwide card from the mysteriousd "Mr.Hung" who turned out to be really nice and helpful. legend. and justgave Jaya her card after seeing a passport and a driver's licence. we didnt even think he was at work because the bank was closed and he wasnt in any form of uniform, so a big thank you to Mr.Hung!

then we checked out of our hotel on time... with Jaya... enough said really. you know thats the start of a memorable day.

then we kinda had to hang around the streets for a lil while till 8:30, which was alright in the end. the first two hours were tourturously long, but then we went and sat on a park bench and got attacked by a very nice pair of vietnamese students that were looking for english people to perfect their language skills. the were very very pleasant and we spent 3 hours talking to them about everything from the fact that Jackie Chan isnt really called Jackie chan (its just sous and the yankiedoodles can remember him!) to the fact they believe in their culture that videogames lead to cardiac arrest!! (:s)

Then we got to talk to the Simpsons!!! (and a Weeks) which was really nice for Jaya and Me! Skype is free and awesome everyone should get it and then they can talk to us maybe even see us!!! do it, do it now!!

then we got on a 13 hour train in which we found out 3 things:
a. we were on the top bunk of a 3 storey bunk bed.
b. the space was roughly that given to a corpse in england. (not a good corpse either like an average one.)
c. overnight trains rule!!

serious the 13 hours felt like about 4 and that was just because my psp ran out an hour before we gotthere! i slept in my casket for 10 hours and played fm09 for another 2. awesome. looking forward to the 21 hour one tomorow on soft sleepers. (2 storey beds, and we booked the bottom ones.)

love to all!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jayaandjoe/1/1240660440/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jayaandjoe/1/1240660440/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/jayaandjoe/1/1240660440/tpod.html Sat, 25 Apr 2009 08:02:08 -0400 Around the world with Jaya and Joe! LOL

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Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

happy birthday Sakile!! (sakile is Jaya's lil bro!)

today we got a bus all the way to saigon (ho chi minh city).

first thing we did was got a hotel, second thing we did was had Jaya's money card eaten by a machine... yummy. it's ok though people we had our panic then phoned the free number and now we are going to collect it tomorow. again totally not her fault.... shes really unlucky... still waiting on my first catastrophe...

now were going for dinner... bit of an uneventful day really... not really worth your time... ah well you'll keep reading anyway... course you will... you love it.

bye bye!!
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