TravelStream™ news feed for member katie-jason on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/katie-jason en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Thu, 02 Nov 2006 07:23:40 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/katie-jason/india/1155713220/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/katie-jason/india/1155713220/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/katie-jason/india/1155713220/tpod.html Thu, 02 Nov 2006 07:23:40 -0500 India

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Delhi, India

Jason:

We arrived in Delhi late at night. Myself a bit frantic and pissed off to say the least. The reason being that I left my perscription shades on the joining flight, but didn't realise this till getting off the plane in Delhi. Doh! There's nothing more concrete in realising they're gone than giving your details to someone on the plane and him saying that they'll post them to you, then when leaving the plane 30 seconds later and them asking for all your details again re the glasses.

But, what can I say about Delhi except that it's a shithole. And a hot one at that. No, I've changed my mind, I wont hear a bad word said about the place, I'm deaf!
It seems so long ago now that I've forgotten exactly what we did. We found an air-conditioned Wimpi, no less! Which was much better than McD's! We went to the famous Red Fort; one of many that India's got; and it seems that we've visited em all! We got a cycle rickshaw to show us around Delhi's famous trader market. An experience and a half! The guy managed to peddle the thing through gaps that weren't there! Literally inches above our heads were live electricity wires! This particularly worried us after seeing a burnt out block of shops that were still smouldering!!!

We got out of the place pretty quick, which is what everyone does, and we travelled north to a place called Shimla. A mountain town that the British used to rule from for for half the year when Delhi was too hot. K and I could see why this happened, it was just like being back home; kind of. There was even Scotch mist to spoil the view; totally eradicate the view being more fitting. The place, and our room, were damp as, but still beautiful after the chaos and heat of the capital.

From Shimmy we travelled even further north, can this be possible I hear you cry? Oh yes! Vashisht, a little village just outside a place called Manali, was the destination. K and I, again, did very little here; which was not helped by me getting a nasty case off going-through-the-eye-off-a-needleitus. Talk about feeling rough. Fortunately, we were in a palce that had satelitte TV and it was a Saturday, so a case of R n' R watching footie was just what the doctor ordered.

However, before this, K and I did manage a walk to the bottom of a very impressive waterfall. Which was nice. Marred a bit by the fact that it absolutely chucked it down.

After Vashisht we tarvelled north again. Anyone else following a trend hear? The port of call this time being Leh. A truly beautiful and engaging place. A place where we had the surreal experience of meeting a girl called Emily, the French girilfriend of my former housemate at Uni who we'd not seen in about 4 years, on a load of steps that wound its way up towards a Buddhist stupa. Freaky!

In Leh we had the brilliant experience of doing a trek in the Himalyas. A truly wondeful and humbling endevour! The views were staggering. The guys who were our guides, cooks and who looked after the ponies were wicked. And they fed us like absolute kings. Back of the net! Our chef was a culinary genius. The only man who can make chips crispy at 4 and a half thousand metres above sea level, when others struggle to get water hot enough to make a cuppa chai. Legend!

We had the pleasure/pain (delete as see fit) of doing the trek, and travelling with for a month, with a Scottish guy called Gus. The Indian guys loved him to bits (he'll be displeased at you to know). Most of them said that he looked like Tom Cruise, which he
doesn't, but I don't think they had the guts to tell him that he looked like a stud-muffin to them. The locals would take any opportunity to look, talk, touch, or sit next to him. The fruity lot! Embarrasing for poor old Gus, but funny as for K and I.

After Leh, and briefly stopping back at Vashisht again, K and I headed to Mcleod Ganje. One of the many famous Ganjes that are out there. Some people love the place and do volunteer work there for the Tibetan Goverment in exile that are stationed there, but we thought the place was a bit cliquey, and the "scene" there had disapeared up its own arse.

Amritstar was next. We had just two days there, the place was a bit of a industrial shithole, but it was truly worth it to see the closing of the Indian-Pakistan border that happens every evening. Laugh, it still brings a chuckle to my face now. It's a truly Monty Pythonesque experience. The crowd were nuts as well. Most of them were dancing and cheering manically, and trying to drown out the noise that was coming from the Pakistanis.

After this madness, the quiet spiritual palce of Rishikesh called us. Rishikesh is where The Beatles spent some of 1968 meditating, and a place that Ringo Starr described as being like Butlins. K, Gus and I went along to a couple of yoga classes. Interesting, to say the least. I fell over a lot, laughed a lot, and hurt a lot, particularly afterwards. The worst part was that in the first class, there was a guy with a mullet behind me doing it in his pants! There was some positions that I did, and that he did, where I didn't know where to put my face; I did know that I wanted to put my foot up his arse though! Spiritual place or not.

KATIE:

After Rishikesh we travelled to Agra, a fairly long train journey with another very early start. The only reason to visit is to see the Taj Mahal which really is incredible. Most of the guesthouses are pretty close to the Taj and have rooftop views, so we had our first glimpse of it whilst enjoying an ice cold beer - especially appreciated as Rishikesh was a dry (no alcohol) place. We got up for sunrise and went to the Taj,a whopping 750rupees entrance fee for foreigners and just 20rupees for Indians, but i guess they can charge what they like and people would still go. It was impressive and we were glad to be there in the coolness of the early morning as Agra seemed to be the hottest place on earth!

After Agra we travelled to Jaipur and met up with Kim a friend of Gus and we travelled together through Rajasthan. I don't think any of us particularly enjoyed Jaipur, it was boiling hot then poured down with rain and all the drains flooded and power went off. We also had to spend half an hour arguing with every tuk tuk driver before we could get a reasonable price,and I had a stinking cold so that did not help matters.

Bikaner was our next stop which was very different to Jaipur, we were constantly approached by friendly Indians wanting to say hello, and the odd one asking for 20rupees. The reason for going to Bikaner was to go on a camel safari so we went to see the Camel Man and booked ourselves up for a 4 day safari, had any of us been on camel before it would have probably been a 1 day safari! Camels are very entertaining creatures but extremely uncomfortable, we rode for 4-6 hours a day and we were all in agony by the end of the day. Other than that it was great! We were joined by a Dutch couple who sensibly went for 2 days. We camped in the desert and had good food cooked for us,were entertained by traditional musicians, and took away the pain with a couple of bottles of rum.

After Bikaner we went to Jaisalmer which is a beautiful old town with an impressive fort, we went to some sand dunes nearby for sunset and enjoyed a bhang lassi and cookie from the government authorised bhang shop - the only one in India.

We said goodbye to Gus and Kim in Jaisalmer and headed to Jodphur - the blue city. We visited the fort which was definitely the nicest one we had seen with great views of the blue city. Our next stop was Udaipur, known as India's most romantic city, it was beautiful. Built on the edge of a lake so there are incredible views from everywhere, we had a fantastic room with a balcony looking onto the lake and city palace.


After a few days relaxing, eating and shopping in Udaipur we travelled to Ahmedebad in Gudjarat, this was a quick stop on our way south. I think we will remember the place for the best meat thali we have eaten anywhere - we had been reluctant vegetarians in India up until this point as meat is quite scarce and generally not that good value, but this thali was excellent.

We then took a long journey south to Goa, it took 24 hours on the train, which sounds terrible but was fine and only cost 370rupees each (about 4 pounds). We had a sleeper bed and friendly people sitting around us so it was fine. We arrived in Goa and it was pouring down with rain not quite what we were expecting, we found a good cheap place to stay in a village called Benaulim. The first day was a bit miserable with the rain, but after that the sun shone everyday and it was great. We found some lovely places to eat with very friendly staff, it was still the beginning of the season so every day new places opened up and the beach became a little cleaner. After a day or so we met 3 guys from Oldham Chris, Mark and Spike, who we have spent the last few days with, they are good fun and J has been happy to have some guys to talk and play sport with. We also met a couple from Uk and Oz, Hildie and Chris, and all of us had a great night out during which we found a 24hr bar and all stumbled home at about 9am the next day - never ever again.

We ended up staying in Benaulim for 10 days, we were quite happy there it was a small local place with a good mix of tourists and some great places to eat. Yesterday we travelled to Baga where we are staying for a week I think, after that we plan to go down south to Kerala. Only 6 weeks to go now, I expected to enjoy India but it has been even better than I ever imagined. Every day you see something different, sometimes it drives us absolutly crazy, the heat, polution, hassle, and general chaos surrounding everything, but it is worth all of that for the great sights, people, food, scenery and the crazy shit you see going on everyday. We will definitely be back!

KATIE:

Now we are further south in Kerala, we took a 16 hour train journey to get here from Goa but it was fine, we had a nice lady and her son sat with us who spoke very little English but took a great interest in our game of scrabble and were keen to learn the rules. We seem to attract quite a lot of attention playing scrabble everyone that walks past on the train stops to have a look.

We are in a place called Kochi or Fort Cochin, most places have 2 names their colonial name and Indian name, both are still used though. It a lovely small and peaceful place, a former portuguese colony, and we have stayed longer than we intended. There is little to do here, but we found a great cafe where we eat lunch everyday. We have been to a Kathikali performance, traditional Keralan theatre where they wear amazing costumes and act out a story in a kind of sign language to music. The tradtional performances last 9-10 hours, fortunatly they have shortened them for the tourists to 1-2 hours. We are leaving tomorrow to go a bit further south and hopefully do a boat trip on the Keralan backwaters.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/katie-jason/seasia/1150794060/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/katie-jason/seasia/1150794060/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/katie-jason/seasia/1150794060/tpod.html Tue, 15 Aug 2006 04:16:30 -0400 South East Asia

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Cambodia, Cambodia

Jason:
The first part of our journey from Bangkok to Cambodia went super smoothly. However, the second leg, the drive from the Thai/Cam border, was quite the opposite. The bus was shite, the road was shiter and the storage of luggage was shitest of all. The bus had to go at an average of about 10-15 miles an hour. The reason being that the road looked like it had just been shelled by enemy planes; or it was a testicle mould for making testicles for scale models of giants. Whatever, the bouncing around that the uneveness caused led to the luggage, which was stacked behind K and I on the back seat, to keep falling on our heads. The journey was so bad that some Irish guys started handing out Valium to all and sundry, and for some people, who had no leg room, to lay on the luggage itself.

However. the Angkor Temples were certainly worth those hours of discomfort. Words truly do not do the place justice and trying to describe them would be simply futile. So I wont. What I will describe, however, are the sheer amount of little kids, amputees etc who try and sell you stuff. Furthermore, the biggest mistake you can try and do is buy their stuff to get rid of them. The effect of this not unnatural course of action is that you get further swarms of people round you, expecting you to buy there stuff as well; or (as happened to myself whilst trying to enjoy a drink on a stinking hot day) your girlfriend forces you to buy something (a t shirt) to get some peace that is not only too small for you, but also about 2 dollars more than it is worth, only for the woman to next try and sell you a book while a new girl tries to get you to buy a further t shirt; oh, and on top of this, your tuk tuk driver laughs at you for being a stupid tourist and paying more than a dollar for a t shirt. Not a particularly joyfull moment for a Yorkshireman.

We were at the Temples for a total of 3 days, but there was so much to see that a week was not enough. The only other good thing about Siam Reap was that the beer was the cheapest we found so far. Other than that, there's not much else to do. The exception being eating food that's covered in ganja, of visiting a landmine museum, which had a stoned/tripping/pissed/altogether happy US doctor there and lots of amputees. A wierd place to say the least.

From Siam Reap we went to Phnom Pehn, the capital. We stayed on a place by the lakeside, which was really beautiful at sunset; if you didn't mind the mossies murdering you of course. Once again, K and I were staying in an area where there was loads of fellow travellers. Therefore, we tried to get to the other areas of the city and get some ideas of what the place was really like. We loved the markets there. I made the mistake of wearing my Hawian shirt whilst tring to buy a new, plainish, short sleeved one. As you can guess, all I was shown by the vendors were shirts even more garish than my own; something which I thought was impossible but I was seriously mistaken.

A more humbling experience was the day we spent at Toul Sleng prison and the Killing Fields, which were just outside the city. The general atmosphere at both places was once again indescribable, but for totally different reasons from before. Toul Sleng was once a school. However, after the Khymer Rouge came to power, it was used as a prison. Considering that most conservative guesses argue that about 2 million Cambodians were killed by there governments actions from 1975-79, I'll leave it to your imagination as to how the prison functioned in all of this. The Killing Fields were also an immensilly powerful place. The area housed a number of pits where incomprehensible amounts of people met their ends; mostly from a terrible blow from a blunt instrument, wielded by children/teenagers. However, there are two powerful images that come to my mind as I write: the first was seeing all the tourists eagerly taking photos of the bits of bone and cloth that littered the site, a concrete reminder of what the site used to be, and a reminder of how eager people are of capturing the moment; second was being inside the monument. I've forgot what the monument was called, but I'll never forget being inside there, and the smell which engulfed me. The monument was a mostly glass structure that housed thousands of skulls of the victims of the Khymer Rouge.

Our next port of call was a place called Kampot. A very small place where not many tourists venture in the wet season. The reason being that it bloody chucks it down. However, K and I enjoyed the place. We went on a day out to an old French Hill Station. A very surreal, and wet, experience to say the least; especially having lunch in a derelict hotel/casino; the film The Shining doesn't come to mind describing the place, more The Posseidon Adventure, the place was literally flooded. The thing that Katie didn't enjoy about Kampot was the lack of lights, of any descrition once dark, and the huge amount of dogs that roam the place at night. Katie's reaction made me chuckle however.

The usual thing for people to do afetr visiting Kampot is to go further south by 20 miles and go to the coast. However, K and I didn't fancy spending time in a place that could be twinned with a wet Skegness, not a pretty sight, so we headed north. Firstly back to Phnom Phen for a night, then to Krachi. We got a wicked room in Krachi that overlooked the river. We also went on a boat trip in which we tried to spot the famous Irrawady freshwater dolphins that are indigenous to the area. Our first hours trip being very unsuccessfull. Our second, however, was exellent for: spotting the dolphins; getting a sunburnt scalp (if your bald) and face (even if you;re not); witnessing your guide taking a huge heron chick from a nest; seeing mortified girls; seeing mortified girls offering to pay the guide to put it back; recognizing that the guides refusal was because he was going to eat the bird, it was a big fucker after all; seeing the bird recognize his/her dilema and rectify it by trying to bite the guides' bollocks/arse every time the guide moved; and, finally, for the noble art of praying mantis boxing, in which I scored a decisive points victory, but no knockout unfortunately.

After Krachi was Stung Treng. An unremarkable border town, but a memorable place for myself as I was greeted off the bus, for the first time, by a man with my name ('Mr Jason' of course) on a piece of card. Naturally, I missed this as I wasn't expecting it, but Katie fortunately saw it. In my defence, I am still trying to get used to my new found fame in South East Asia as a man around town and fashion/facial fuzz icon. I wonder how I'll get on in Laos?
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/katie-jason/seasia/1152263160/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/katie-jason/seasia/1152263160/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/katie-jason/seasia/1152263160/tpod.html Sun, 13 Aug 2006 06:10:55 -0400 South East Asia

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Laos, Lao Peoples Dem Rep

Katie:

We entered Laos from Cambodia, it was by far the most basic and remote border crossing we had ever been to, just a couple of wooden huts and a rope barrier either side in the middle of jungle.

Our first stop was Don Det part of the Four Thousand Islands on the Mekong near the Cambodia border. We decided to go here because a couple of Canadians we met crossing the border said it was supposed to be nice, and it turned out to be a brilliant choice. We stayed at Mo's place in a small basic bungalow over the water for just $2 - what a bargain. Don Det was an amazingly beautiful and peaceful place, lots of rice paddies and small villages I think we both fell in love with Laos from day one. On our frist day we hired bikes, which was a little stressful for Jason given he could hardly fit his knees under in the handlebars and the sun was beating down on us, so we settled for walking after that.
One night some people at the end of the island arranged a birthday party as an excuse to get everyone together and it turned out to be a great party, we met a whole bunch of nice people and drank and danced the night away!

We left Don Det after 3 days and travelled with a Thai girl we met called YuYin. We took the worlds most crowded pick up truck to Champusak and visited Wat Phu a temple from the Angkhor pyramid built on a hill, it was really lovely. We then caught a ride to Pakse and stayed there for a couple of nights. From pakse we took a tour to the Bolavan Plateau a hilly area of countryside filled with some incredible waterfalls, coffee and tea plantations and some ethnic minority tribes.. The tour was great we were accompanied by a French family including a very lively 9 year old who made the day a lot of fun. The following day we went to a silk weaving village near Pakse, we were so grateful to be with Yu Yin as she was able to converse with all the villagers and then translate to us meaning that we got so much more from the whole experience. I bought a couple of pieces of silk (despite jasons grumbling).

After Pakse we said goodbye to YuYin and travelled up to Savanakhet. In Savan we really did very little except relax in our air con room and watch HBO movies - sometimes it has to be done! We then took a 'VIP' bus to Vientine. The VIP bues in Thailand are eqipped with reclining chairs, air con and tv, however, in Laos VIP bus sometimes just means a bus rather than a pick up passenger truck. On this particular journey there was nothing on board to make you feel like a VIP. Anyway we arrived in Vientine 9 hours later, that is another thing in Laos they always seem to underestimate the time of the journey so we quickly learned that a 7 hour jounrey will take 9 hours and so on.

Vientiene was nice, we had a pleasant couple of days sight seeing and relaxing a bit. We went to the Buddha Park, the enormous Golden Stupa and a copy Arc De Triumphe. We enjpyed a beer at sunset by the river, adn ate some decent western food.

Our next stop was Vang Vieng a sort of travellers base for adventure activities such as kayaking, tubing, caving etc. We went kayaking and had a great, great time. I had imagined a gentle trip drifiting down the river, but no, it is the rainy season at the moment which means a relativley shallow river has turned into a fast flowing river with many rapids. Oh my god I was shitting myself when I saw it and the day began by the guides telling us what to do when we capsise! Jason and I shared a kayak and as soon as we started the memories from a canoeing trip we took in France a few years ago came flooding back. I was steering left and Jason steering right, I was panicking that we were going to crash and capsise, it was very funny looking back on it. However, after we went successfully through a couple of rapids, oh and a bush in the middle of river, the adrenalin was pumping and I began to love it. We were going along nicely then we got the biggest set of rapids, we had to go one by one but as we went through a previous kayak had capsised to we crashed and capsised right in the middle, it was panic for a few seconds then we managed to get back on board and a bit shell shocked made it out of the rapids. It really was so much fun.
The following day I went mountain biking with a few people we met the day before, it was a lovely day we visited some caves, stopped for a few swimming stops, it was pretty muddy at times but all good fun.

After Vang Vieng we went north to Luang Prabang, a lovely town on the Mekong river lots of nice Wats, colonial buildings, good restaurants, great night market selling handicrafts. We had a really nice room as well for just $5 so that also made it a nice stay. We took a trip to some caves and waterfalls, where I jumped off the top of a waterfall, I was very pleased with myself as normally I leave Jason to that sort of thing. I forgot to mention in Vang Vieng we had the chance to jump from a rope swing into the raging river, I declined but Jason as always went for it but he hurt his shoulder, so he had to give the waterfall jump a miss.

After a couple of days in Luang Prabang we went north to a small village called Muang Ngoi, on the bus we met a friendly candaian guy called Mike who Jason happily talked sport with a lot of the journey. We ended up spending a few days with Mike and his travelling companions, Louise and Lisa (Oz) and David (US), who were all really nice. Muang Ngoi is a village on the river, accessible only by the river, there are several basic guesthouses and electricity in the evening. On our second day there we went for a trek with the others to some caves and on to a small village called Ban Ai (not sure of spelling), we were suprised to find was a guesthouse there with the most amazing views across the rice paddies. The following day Mike, Jason and I decided to go stay in the village for a night or two, which turned into four. There was just us three and a Polish guy staying there and it was definitely one of the highlights of our trip so far. Life was pretty simple here, the important decisions we faced each day concerened whether to order rice or noodles for dinner from the basic menu. The family who ran the guesthouse were so sweet, the mother was very welcoming and looked after us extremely well. Each day we went down and bathed in the river with the locals, and every evening we played cards and watched the cat hunting the enourmous insects attracted to the light.

One day Mike and I went trekking, J was not feeling too good so stayed behind, we were trying to reach a village about 3 hours walk away, we followed the trail through thick jungle for a couple of hours then decided to return, partly due to my fears of being attached by a tiger, which were not irrational despite what Mike, Jason and Polish guy said as there are tigers in Laos. Anyway the days trek was great looking back on it, even if we did not find the village it was a memorable exoerience.

We finally left Ban Ai after 4 days, oh by the way our bill came to $20 for 4 nights including food - we could not believe it, mind ou the room was only 50 cents and it was one of the nicest rooms we have had! After catching the boat from Muang Ngoi Jason and I went on to Luang Nam Tha for our final few days in Laos.

TO be continued...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/katie-jason/seasia/1155203280/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/katie-jason/seasia/1155203280/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/katie-jason/seasia/1155203280/tpod.html Fri, 11 Aug 2006 06:07:14 -0400 South East Asia

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Nong Khai and Bangkok, Thailand

Katie:
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/katie-jason/seasia/1152879600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/katie-jason/seasia/1152879600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/katie-jason/seasia/1152879600/tpod.html Fri, 11 Aug 2006 05:05:34 -0400 South East Asia

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Bangkok, Thailand

Jason:

Got to Bangkok just before the World Cup started. A World Cup where I had so much hope, but that's a different story altogether; and one that space doesn't allow me to expand on.

Anyway, back to what I'm supposed to be doing. We got into Bangie at about 4am. The cheeky bloody bus driver told us that we were about 2kms from Khao San Road and that we'd have to get a taxi that would cost about 100 Baht (about one and a half quid). However, this American saw through the scam and told us that we were just around the corner from it. Low and behold the guy was right. Khao San was no more than a 5 min walk at most.

We were welcomed to the Khao San Road by lots of local and foreign wildlife. The typical sort seemed to be the the greater red-faced drunken ape, which is indigenous, but not solely found in England. Perched on whose lap you can usually spot the former cockfighting Bangkok local, but which now passes itself off as a member of the tit family, AKA the ladyboy. Of all shapes and sizes (and stubble growth), I might add!

K and I booked in at a place called Good Guest House, which was a bit of an exaggeration, but which was cheap. K and I enjoyed the sights, and smells!, of Khao San so much that it took us a week to put in our visa application for India. Our days were usually spent wandering aimlessly and laughing at the varying state of the people that passed us. Our nights, on the other hand, were spent wandering aimlessy and laughing at the varying state of the people that passed us; and drinking; and watching football of course.

The most surreal place we watched the footie was in an old Shell petrol station. The place was always rammed as it had a huge screen and a wicked atmosphere. The locals cheered for any team which took their fancy, e.g., there was a Thai gu, wearing a Japan shirt, screaming his head off for Mexico! "It's a funny old game!"

K and I met lots of weird and wonderful people (and creatures) during our time in BK. To mention them all would entail an entry a mile long. That last sentence sounds a bit dodgy. Must be that old Bangkok majic rubbing off on me.

Seriously, the people we've met there; the sights we've seen; the smells we've smelt; and the things we've felt (in more ways than one), will live with us for a long time. Especially the smells! So, my hat goes off to you, in no particular order of merit: the guys from Leeds; the sulky faced ladyboy waitress/waiter from Cool Corner who had a face like a slapped arse, and who gave you a look that coud kill everytime you ordered something; the beautiful Royal Palace; the monk with the Minnie Mouse umbrella; the durian fruit; the various cooked insects that you could bu by the bag, stick etc; the guy in the Indian Embassy who said that our visas would be ready in "maybe thirty minutes, or maybe half an hour???"; the French guys who were cheering for Trinidad vs England, this was before the French started playing football so the buggers got the piss ripped out of 'em, which they took well; the Thai couple who cheered for England (even though we were crap) during the same game; the overpass to the MBK centre; the MBK centre itself, especially all those whole cooked ducks that had there heads on, aaah; the sushi and the molten hot wasabi source from the MBK; Chata a chak market, a true experience for the whole senses; the Sky Train thingy that had wicked views; the gay guy who ran the place tha served the cheapest beer near Khao San Road and who kept feeling me up; katie's face everytime the guy did it; me putting up with it cos the beer was cheap, and secretly loving it, by the way; the crazy-arsed tuk tuk/taxi/all drivers, you're all nutters; the scrawny arsed dogs, no, not the ladyboys; the ladyboys themselves, especially the ones that prayed on drunken white guys at about 3 am; the drunken white guys themselves, I'd say sorry for laughing at you but ou'd do the same if you saw me arm in arm with something that looks like Mr Miyagi in drag...the list could go on and on...

All that and we've not even been to a ping-pong show yet! Anyway, K and I are back there for her Birthday, which should be a laugh.

So keep tuned for more of our exploits from Bangkok, with some stuff thrown in about Cambodia and Laos, of course.

ps, will add more stuff as and when I can remeber it. A lot of it might me suppressed in my memory, therefore, it could take a while. Probably best thing to do is buy me loads of beers when I'm back!!! That'll get it out of me!!! Especially considering I wont have a pot to piss in!!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/katie-jason/seasia/1148714460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/katie-jason/seasia/1148714460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/katie-jason/seasia/1148714460/tpod.html Tue, 20 Jun 2006 07:24:51 -0400 South East Asia

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Krabi, Koh Phi Phi, Phuket, Koh Samui, Koh Phanag, Thailand

Jason:

Katie and I's crossing of the Malay/Thai border was a breeze and stress free. A far cry from some of the crossings we did in Central America. An added bonus of the crossing being that we saw a huge Moniter Lizard. And I mean huge. This thing, from head to tail, was about two metres long. We saw it as we were in the no mans land bit, the bit that's between the borders. It occurred to me that it could be a joint border cost-cutting exercise as they're probably easier to keep than guard dogs. The things would get less fuss and attention from the border police, especially considering that the things will have your arm off, but lots of opened mouth gawping from those crossing the border, e.g., us.

K and I's first port of call was Krabi, pronounced grabee. We stayed in a nice hotel; although the lady who ran it looked a bit butch; in fact, she looked butcher than most of the Thai men we've seen. Katie and I frequented one restaurant in particular which served good, cheap and spicy food. Yum yum! The bars and restaurants also generally show films of an evening and we were greeted to the spectacle of a Bond film on our first night, which is always good, except for the Roger Moore era, and on our second night we watched the DaVinci Code, which was a bit shit. Although the audience in the theatre, where it was filmed, were very well behaved and sat in their places all the way through.

After a couple of days in Krabi K and I caught a ferry to Koh Phi Phi. A beautiful place, but which was just a bit quiet for us. However, this didn't stop us from fully enjoying the island; except for one afternoon when Kate got stung by a jellyfish. Katie claimed she got "limited sympathy" from myself when it happened. A charge I don't deny, but, in truth, I couldn't offer her more sympathy than I did because of the cries and moans that came from her mouth. Incidently, this is a topic she brings up quite frequently. The last time being some 2 to 3 hours ago.

From Phi Phi, Katie and I caught another ferry to Phuket. Phuket was nothing special. Indeed, the beaches that we were near were, in fact, a little ugly and covered in litter. Much better, for me anyway, was the walk past the bars where Tai ladies, I presume they were ladies anyway, gyrate and shake their booties at the side of the road to lure people in. A fact that doesn't cause that many crashes it seems. These bars are ephuemistically called "sports bars". I'll leave it up to you lot to think of why that is. After all, this blog doesn't have a XXX rating.

After K and I spent our mandatory couple of days in Phuket, we made the sensible decision to move on, we were staying in a place that had a messy beach; but we made the not so sensible decision of booking our journey to Koh Samui on a mini-bus/ferry combination. To say that the mini-bus was a bit cramped was an understatement to say the least. However, the ferry journey was beautiful and it felt nice that they had the air-con pumped up to full-blast and maximum chill-factor. Oh yes!

Our room in samui was near a Lamai beach, which is the second most popular place to stay on the island. The beach was really nice and had beautiful white sand. However, the water wasn't as clear as some places, but that owed to people jet-skiing and churning up the sea-bed more than pollution. k and I spent the majority of the time on the beach, both in the day and at night as we had some really nice meals on the beach. A fact that really reminded us of our time in Central America and Mexico.

K and I didn't find many people to talk to. The reason for this was that most of the bars were the kind of "sports bars" that i mentioned earlier. These places were far from cheap, but were also not ideal in meeting the people we wanted to talk to, i.e., everyone but dirty old men who were leching after young Thai girls.


The next place on our travels was Koh Phangan. A place that was a lot more conducive to meeting people, i.e., on our last night there we bumped into Elenoer and Shain, the two Welsh girls we first met in Singapore, who we also bumped into in Malaysia. However, what was not so nice about Phangan was our accommodation. The room that we envisaged staying in fell through and the room that was promised us instead went up a 100 baht, which is only about one pound thirty, but, on a point of principle, Katie and I decided to stay next door instead, which was dead as and the room was nowhere near as nice, but we weren't gonna give lying buggers our custom.

K and I had a couple of mad nights in Koh Phangan, fueled by their toxic rice-whiskey called Sang Som. You drink the thing in a bucket, which is about the same size as a childs' bucket in a bucket and spade set, and you drink the stuff with Red Bull and coke. Quite nice, but the hangover you get is shocking. One night K and I slept on the beach, which is not as romantic as it sounds. Especially considering that we did this after drinking too much Sang Som. So it was more like us passing out than falling asleep. How we made it home is a small miracle. The reason being was that we had to climb over rocks and stuff in almost complete darkness. Scary for Katie who remembers it and a piece of piss for me who doesn't.

Another messy night in Koh Phangan involved a wrestling match between yours truly vs Katie and the two Welsh girlies; I've no idea who won but I'm sure I enjoyed the contest hugely. One thing we didn't do in Koh Phangan was attend the famous Full Moon Party that they hold. K and I got there tool early and we didn't feel like staying there long enough for us to attend it. We believed we had a good enough time there anyway. So, on that bombshell, we left for Bangkok! Which is another story entirely. And one, I'm sure, will get a lot of people reading the entry. You dirty buggers!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/katie-jason/seasia/1147689360/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/katie-jason/seasia/1147689360/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/katie-jason/seasia/1147689360/tpod.html Fri, 16 Jun 2006 05:08:00 -0400 South East Asia

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Melaka, KL, Cameroon Highlands and Penang, Malaysia

KATIE:
We travelled from Singapore to Melaka, Malaysia on 15th May. We stayed near the Chinatown area in Eastern Heritige Hotel which was ok. Melaka was pretty quiet we ventured out and found some good, cheap food (noodles and curry for 3RM or 40p). The heat is still quite unbearable, hopefully begin to get used to it soon!

The following day we went to the history museum, art gallery, and literatue museum. We seemed to be the only people in any of them! We tried to take a boat trip on the river but a coach full of school kids from Singapore showed up and filled the boat so we decided to give it a miss! Instead we bumped into a German guy we met yesterday on the bus and wandered the streets of Chinatown with him. We ate Chinese food at a hawker stand and chatted with a friendly Malaysian man.

We only stayed 2 nights in Melaka as there was not much to do, it was nice though. We took the bus to Kuala Lumpur on 17th May which took about 4 hours. We arrived in KL and easily found a nice hostel, the rooms felt a bit like a prison but it had nice communal areas including a roof top garden and bar.

We spent a couple of days exploring KL, we walked round the Golden Triangle where there are lots of shops and cinemas etc. We also went to the National History Museum and the Islamic Arts Museum, which was really good. We walked everywhere and got lost several times! Crossing the road was also a challenge at times, even at a pedestrian crossing it can turn into a mad sprint to get out the way of the traffic tearing towards you!

We spent the evenings wandering up and down the night market in Chinatown to the calls of 'mister, mister watches, t-shirts, cds...'. We also bumped into the Welsh girls from the hostel in Singapore.

We took the bus to Cameron Highlands on 20th May, this took about 4 hours, the last hour was very windy roads as we went up into the highlands -I was glad when we got off the bus! We stayed in Daniel's Lodge, a nice hostel where we met lots of nice people (including the Welsh girls - again!). We had some nice meals in Tanah Rata, I think the best was a Steamboat, which is a sort of Chinese fondu, we had so much food and all for less than $2! We spent the evenings having a couple of beers and chatting to the others which was cool.

We took a tour to tea plantations and butterfly park, where Jason held a whole variety of beetles, insects, tortoise and more! We also did a walk in the jungle which was really nice, but we got lost!

We took the bus to Penang (6 hours) on 23rd May.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/katie-jason/new_zealand/1141974660/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/katie-jason/new_zealand/1141974660/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/katie-jason/new_zealand/1141974660/tpod.html Tue, 23 May 2006 07:05:49 -0400 New Zealand

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Auckland, New Zealand

Katie:

We spend our first night in NZ in Auckland Central Hostel which is a massive hostel right in the middle of town. It really does have everything and is very efficient but was a bit too much for us! We picked up a hire car on Saturday the cheapest we could find it was a bit of a banger but suited us fine. On Saturday we headed north up to Waipua forest where we camped for the night, it was a beautiful forest and we went on a walk to see the Kauri trees - and got soaked in the rain!
We then headed further north as far as we could go to Cape Reinga, we camped at a DOC (Department of Conservation) campsite near the cape right on the beach, it was lovely. We watched the sunset at the cape and enjoyed a beer and dinner (cold beans and cheese sandwiches!).
The following day we headed south, stopping at Maunganui for fish and chips which live up to their reputation as the best in New Zealand! The location was great too looking over the harbour in the warm sunshine. We also stopped at some beautiful beaches along the coast including Mangawhai heads.
We camped at another DOC site in the forest west of Pahia, almost had the place to ourselves and we were very proud of ourselves for managing to build a great fire that we kept going all evening.
We spent a day in Pahia which is a pretty town on the Bay of Islands. We did a 6 hour walk along the coast to Opua then up into the forest, the second half was a bit of a let down with lots of hills and very few interesting views so we treated ourselves to a pint at the end!
We camped in Pahia and Whangerai on our way back to Auckland.

We arrived back in Auckland on 17th March to collect Mum and Dad from the airport, was really great to see them. We dropped them off at their rather nice hotel downtown then met them later for a meal, the first of many nice meals we enjoyed with them! We took a trip up the sky tower to view Auckland by night which was beautiful.

The next day Mum, Dad and I went to visit our relatives Phyl, Ivor and Pam in Onehunga. They gave us a tour of the best views in Auckland including Mount Eden. We met up with Jason again in the evening for food. On our final day in Auckland we all moved to a motel in Pakuranga (east Auckland) where we met up with Phyl, Ivor and Pam in the evening to go to Valentines for dinner where we all enjoyed a buffet or 'smorgersboard' much to Jason's delight! He really was in his element. During the day we went over to Murawai beach where we saw the gannet colony and had a swim.

When we left Auckland we headed for the Coromandel peninsula, we drove up through Thames and Coromandal town and stopped in Whitianga for lunch. We then drove down to Hot Water Beach where there are natural hot springs and at low tide you can dig in the sand to form a hot water pool. Well we waited for low tide but there was some quite fierce competition for the hot water pools so we settled for digging our feet in the sand and warming them up instead! That night we stayed in the worst place we stayed in on the whole holiday, a small hotel room with 3 beds for the 4 of us bit depressing at the time but we managed to laugh at it - we also learned the lesson to arrive before dark and look at the room before paying!!

Our next stop was Mount Manganui where we stayed a couple of nights in a huge apartment with lovely views of the sea. We spent some time on the beach and Jason and I climbed the mount while mum and Dad walked around it. We then travelled south to Rotorua and spent one night there. During the day we went to Thermal land a few kms away from the town, this is a park with geysers it was incredible and very smelly! We saw some of the strangest colours as well, red and cooper rocks and a bright lime green lake - very odd.

In the evening we went to a traditional Mauri concert and hangi feast, which was good fun. The four of us along with a coach load of American and aussie tourists watched the concert in the traditional hut then piled into the dining hall for the buffet, which was very good and we all ate far too much! I think I tried every type of desert there -what a pig! The evening ended with each of the nations present having to sing a song from their home country. After some impressive performances including the Canadian national anthem, Home on the Rangce by the Americans, we rather feebly stood up and sang 'My Old Man's a Dustman', which seemed to be the only song that anyone knew and even then we could only remember one verse! Very embarrassing. We caught a lift back to our hotel in the American's coach during which they sung Stars and Stripes, mmmmm.

After Rotorua we travelled down to Wellington, a long journey which took all day. We spent the night in Wellington and enjoyed a Chinese meal. The next morning we managed to squeeze a trip in to the Botanical Gardens and cable car before going to catch the ferry at 1pm. Unfortunately we arrived at the ferry terminal to find out the ferry let at 10am and the next one was not until 7pm! So we left our bags and headed back into the city and had some lunch. In the afternoon we visited the Te Papa museum before catching the ferry at last!

We arrived in Picton at 10.30pm and checked into a local motel then went to the bar next door to experience the Picton Saturday night life - or lack of! The following morning we picked up the Campervan or battle bus as mum preferred to call it and headed off to Blenheim. The van was great, bigger than I expected though and the ride in the back was pretty bumping and hair raising at times!

In the South Island we travelled to Greymouth, Hokitika (jade capital), then Franz Josef Glacier where Jason and I did a glacier walk. We then spent the night in Haast just to the south a bit where we had a really nice meal in a local restaurant and got to experience the incredible NZ stars.

We then travelled across to Wanaka which I think was a favourite place for all of us, the colours of the tree and hills were so beautiful and the lake so blue, it was perfect. Mum and Dad took a flight to Milford Sound then a cruise which they said was great, although the plane was a bit smaller than they expected! J and I did a lovely walk at Diamond Lake which gave great views over Wanaka and Mt Aspiring National Park.

We headed to Queenstown after Wanaka which is also a great place. Jason did a bungey jump which we all went to watch. Mum and I went horse riding in Glenorchy where they filmed Lord of the Rings. I rode Issac who featured in the film - he was great! That was definitely a highlight for me, and mum. Jason and Dad went to play golf. We took the cable car up to the luge where J and Dad rode the luge several times, mum and i had great fun watching them!

After Queenstown we drove to Lake Tekapo and spent a night there, we had a nice dinner in a restaurant with the famous lake view - by night. Then we headed to Christchurch where Jason finally got his rucksack fixed which I think we were all relieved at! We also went to the botanical gardens and camped the night in Spencerville just to the north a bit.

We spent a couple of days in Kaikoura hoping to go whale watching but the sea was too choppy so we had to settle for a trip to winery instead! We also got to see the fur seals at the colony and some dolphins in the distance. We had a lovely meal in a place called Hislops probably one of the best on the holiday - we ate really well during this part of our trip!

We then had to go back to the north island for mum and dad to leave, we stopped in Taupo on the way where mum adz I enjoyed a massage and the hot pools. Then we went up to Orewa, north of Auckland, for their final night. We stayed in a great hotel on the beach front a nice place for them to spend their last day but did not make it any easier to go home! We caught up with Phyl, Ivor and Pam for lunch before heading to drop the airport - I was sad to say goodbye!

Jason and I had a couple of days left in NZ so we went back to maungawhai heads which we briefly visited before and liked. The beach is beautiful and it was warm enough for us to laze on the beach all day! We flew to Sydney for the next leg of our journey on 15th April, we left NZ with lots of great memories and a few pounds heavier after all the great food!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/katie-jason/seasia/1147430280/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/katie-jason/seasia/1147430280/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/katie-jason/seasia/1147430280/tpod.html Tue, 23 May 2006 06:35:09 -0400 South East Asia

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Singapore, Singapore

KATIE:

We arrived in Singapore on 12th May about 6pm. We picked up a flyer in the airport for a hostel in Little India, Prince of Wales which has $10 (3.50 pounds) dorms so decided to head there. Singapore is a very efficient city so getting from the airport was very easy and pretty cheap. The hostel turned out to be good for the price which also included breaksfast.

We loved Little India in particular the food! I rediscovered roti prata which I remembered from the last time I was in Singapore, it is pancake type thing which you dip into a yummy curry sauce - all for $1, great.

We rode the hop on hop off SIA bus around the city which is good value and saves walking in the heat. It is pretty hot but also very very humid we are both trying to get used to the heat. J is constantly sweating! We saw the main sights including Chinatown where we had lunch from a hawker stall.

On our second day we went to Sentosa Island, which as an experience just lots of cheesey activities and a man made beach. It was fun although the sea was not very tempting!

We left Singapore on 15th April and took the bus to Melaka, Malaysia.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/katie-jason/australia/1137324840/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/katie-jason/australia/1137324840/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/katie-jason/australia/1137324840/tpod.html Tue, 23 May 2006 06:21:42 -0400 Our travels in Oz.

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Sydney, NSW, Australia

JASON:

When we flew into Sydney, Katie and I immediatelly thought beach, and that we had to get our arses there. And to us, and everyone who thinks of beaches in Oz (except for those obsessed by bloody Home and Away), that means Bondi Beach. If Shepherds Bush is Little Australia, then Bondi has a definate claim to be called Little Britain. Fill your own blanks when musing upon some of the characters that we faced.

Anyway, Bondi was mostly sunny and hot, but prone to a bit of breeze; however, that didn't stop us from enjoying the beach everyday; what would eh! The first place we stayed was called The Lamrock, which was a bit of a shithole; and made worse by the fact that it had no communal area. On the plus side, some guys from Leeds were also staying there (if that can be deemed as being a plus for them I do not know) and having just heard that Sheff U just won promotion, some slight ribbing was in order. Just my look that they turned out to be Rugby League fans who had no interest in a "puffs' game". However, they still drunk to our future successes and I to having more League players in Englands' union team. We need it.

I've digressed somewhat, so back to Oz. After a couple of days in the first place, K and I moved to a hostel up the road, which had more life in it, but which also had the habit of playing every single song, by every single artist that should be shot for crimes against music/ humanity; delete as appropriate. K and I also went through all the rigmorole of finding work, e.g., getting interviews with agencies, buying work/smart clothes and opening bank accounts etc, when we had an epithany. We thought bollocks to it, and came up with a plan to get out of Oz earlier than we expected and hiring a campervan to get around in and see stuff. A much better prospect than working there we thought.

We booked ourselves a van through a company called Wicked Campers. And lo and behold, luckilly for us, we got a van with a Tarzan mural on it, not a mincing, debauched and sadistic homo as the company's name implies. Phew!

So off we toddled in old Tarzie to our first port of call the Blue Mountains. As the name suggests, the mountains have a blue hew around them, which is caused by the moisture in the air and the sap that rises from the euciliptus trees that are housed in the floor of the ravines and valleys. The reason why it's blue, and not neon pink or mauve, is because of the principle of refraction, which is also the reason why the sky appears blue.

For those who haven't nodded off I'll carry on, for those who have fallen asleep, a little message, drink my fart. The Blue Mountains were very beautiful and we did lots of walking and drinking of foul, boxed wine of an evening. I deduced that the reason why it's boxed is because if they put it in a wine bottle the manufacturers would be sued under the trade descriptions act; calling it wine is fine, but they can't male it look like it...cos it doesn't taste like it.

Back to the travels, sorry, please excuse me, I'm hot and grumpy at the mo, I'm writing this in Malaysia and it's bloody humid! After the Blue M's, K and I headed for the NSW coast. We found some lovely spots, some beautiful beaches and loads of elderly, talkative older Aussies. And I mean talkative. Katie loved not only talking to the oldies, but also describing that each small beachtown we stumbled on was "just how I imagined Summer Bay to be like". For those lucky enough not to know, Summer Bay is the setting for Homer and Away. I'm sure you can imagine my response to K's musings.

k and I are glad that we didn't worl in Oz, as even though we were not there as long as we planned, I think we saw a lot more than our original plan, about working there, would have let us. And I'm positive that we have left the place with fonder memories as well. Aahhh!
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