TravelStream™ news feed for member kieranandclaire on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/kieranandclaire en-us Copyright ©2010 TravelPod.com Wed, 25 Mar 2009 15:57:04 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kieranandclaire/1/1238009100/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kieranandclaire/1/1238009100/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kieranandclaire/1/1238009100/tpod.html Wed, 25 Mar 2009 15:57:04 -0400 NZ to UK

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Dundee, Scotland, United Kingdom

Finally arrived in Scotland on the 14th March, living in the loft in Claire's house, which in Drumoig in Fife around 5 mins drive from the city of Dundee, where we have been going for shopping and to meet up with claire's friends. We have mainly spent our time at home searching for jobs but we have managed to do some sightseeing. Spending a day in St.Andrews, which about 20 mins away and a day in the capital Edinburgh which about an hours drive away. Kieran seems very impressed with all the old buildings, especially the castles.... Kieran says: Scotland has felt the most like home of any destinations so far, the landscape is similar to the east coast of the south island in many ways (particularly all the gorse bushes). The gothic architecture is amazing and these are peoples homes!.. every one of them is hundreds of years older than New Zealand! Dundee is a city but small and managable in size like wellington, the people are extremely friendly and helpful here, it seems so unusual for a bus driver to make conversation and to say please and thankyou but they do here... maybe it's because they know i'm from out of town but never-the-less I like it.
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Manchester, England, United Kingdom

We took the Megabus up to Manchester which took a few hours and was rather hot and uncomfy, buses are probably the worst mode of transport you can take....met my sister who's house we stayed in for a few days. Our first day was spent shopping, Kieran basically got a whole new wardrobe....the next day we did a bit of sightseeing, visitng all the canals and to the Urbis Museum, a huge glass building with different city exhibits inside. In the evening Ruth took us out to a couple bars so we could experience Manchester student nightlife....
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London, England, United Kingdom

Ended up staying over a week at Kierans brothers in Kennington, South London. After a couple days realxing and getting over the jet lag we started our sightseeing. Ash gave us an Oyster card each so we got discounted travel on the tube which we used to get everywhere. Our first stop was South Kensington where we visited the Natural History Museum so Kieran could see the dinasours and then to the Science Museum where se spent most of our time in the interactive section with all the kids trying out different experiments, etc. In the evening we joined Ash and his workmates for a few drinks.

Next day we walked miles.......Started off at Buckingham Palace to take a few photos at the gate then walked through Hyde Park. After lunch we walked across the Millenium Bridge to the South Bank to see the London Eye and all the street buskers and then back across another bridge to see the Houses of Parliament and Big Ben.

Ash's day off work so the three of us went for Sunday lunch at his local pub, The Black Sheep. We then spent the afternoon at Camden Market, looking through all the shops, stalls and watching all the punks go by! Very cool place, go could buy almost anything there, we settled for just gloves and scarves to keep us warm...

More museums today, the V&A which full of arts from painting, textiles, sculptures and fashion, the best bit the actual building itself which very grand. We then went shopping along the main streets of Oxford and Regents Street, bought new winter clother, Kieran excited to be introduced to some British shops!

The next day we decided to get out the city and took the train to Brighton for the day, a seaside town right at the bottom of England which took about an hour to get to. Had a wander along the waterfront and pier and through the streets. Very nice but I think more of a summer place, high winds and very grey, we were glad to get home!

Over the next couple days we visited the Southbank again to cross Tower bridge and visit Tower of London, saw Trafalgar Sqaure, visited Borough Market, an organic place where Jamie Oliver used to shop. I got a very nice chicken wrap and Kieran and Ash tried out the venison burgers followed by some organic cider....Finally we had a day at Hampsted Heath which was great, a massive park and woodland in the middle of London, felt like we were in the countryside....
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Beijing, China

Took another night train from Shangahai to Bejing, except this time we only had seats. Ok at first as a much more modern train but trying to sleep upright soon got a bit uncomfortable. Arrived Bejing early morning, the coldest place we have been so far! Relaxed for the rest of the day, in the evening we went to a food night market just round the corner from our hostel, lots of strange food to try, i just stuck with some delicious caramalised strawberries and Kieran had some unidentifiable meat on a stick...

The next day we visited the Forbidden City, where the emperors used to live. A huge maze of impressive buildings. Next we went across the street to Jingshan park to visit the different temples up on top of the hill. Very scenic with good views over the forbidden city and the rest of Bejing, despite being icy and freezing... we then began walking towards Tianamen Sqaure with a hot kumara from a stall to keep us warm. This is when we had the idea of catching a rickshaw and you all know how that turned out! So $400 poorer we arruived at the square for a quick look around.

The next day had wander around all the fancy malls and the less fancy markets.

Our last day was spent taking a trip to the Great Wall of China, we joined a tour group and went to the Mutianyu section which was probably the most impressive thing we have seen on our entire trip. We climbed the steps for 4km in sub zero temp!! Extremely exhausting and felt a little bit sick as we had had no time for breakfast but worth it when we reached the top. Sun shining, completely deserted and dusted with fresh snow. Walked along the wall for an hour or so, sometimes struggling a bit with the extremely steep icy steps, we also went out to an unrestored section of the wall which was very impressive if a bit dangerous.... Unfortunately our camera decided to break this very day, our tour guide took pics for us but she seems to have forgotten to email us, very annoying but we have found a pic off the net that looks just like the wall the day we were there.....

The next day we took a 10 hour flight to London Heathrow where we met Kierans brother Ash. The flight was pure luxury compared to what we have been used to!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kieranandclaire/1/1234789140/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kieranandclaire/1/1234789140/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kieranandclaire/1/1234789140/tpod.html Thu, 26 Feb 2009 08:37:58 -0500 NZ to UK

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Shanghai, Shanghai, China

Our first stop in China was the city of Shenzhen, south east of the country and only about half an hour away from Hong Kong. We stayed a couple nights at a very nice YHA, only saw a very small amount of the city, mainly spent in different malls trying to find food and a phrasebook. Nobody speaks English which been bit of shock, Shenzhen is not touristy at all so we got many strange looks. However nobody trying to sell us anything so been a relaxing couple of days.

From Shenzhen took the night train to Shanghai, we loved the train due to the novelty of not flying. We opted for a hard sleeper for the 15 hours. The train split up into different sections with 6 beds each, luckily we got on 1st so got the bottom 2 bunks, it was bit of a climb on a very thin ladder if you were up the top. Only other problem on the train was the squatter toilets but we soon grew used to them.

Arrived Shangai early the next morning. After a rest, went for a walk along The Bund by the waterfront, which has views of the city and all the tall buildings. The freezing waether bit of a shock after all the hot places we been to but i think now we actually prefer the cold.

On our second day in Shangahai we took the travellers tunnel under the river (little carriage takes us through tunnel full of flashing lights...) to reach the famous Oriental Pearl TV Tower, took the elevator to the middle section of it to get views of the city. Back through the tunnel again we explored the busy Nanjing Road where all the shops are and visited the Peoples Square, which a little park right in centre of town.
The next day we took a walk to an old style Chinese shopping district, lots of traditional buildings, etc.... we then attempted to find the Botanic Gradens but got a bit lost and with the rain beginning to get pretty heavy we gave up and returned to the warmth of the malls!

Our camera is now broken so i don't think i can upload any more photos until it is fixed......
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Bangkok, Thailand

After a bit of a sleep in due to a very late arrival of 3am last night, met up with our friend David from the yha who been travelling since around Oct. The 3 of us went to the Grand Palace and to visit the 'big' buddha. Lots of golden temples and statues very ornately decorated, all very impressive. In the evening we sampled the nightlife of the very busy Koh San road, lots of bars, streete stalls and people trying to sell you things. We took adnavtage of the relatively cheap cocktail buckets, advertised to be 'very strong' but we think they were exaggerating....

Second day was spent generally wandering around.....went for a nice Indian dinner at night, said our goodbyes to David who now heading to Korea. We noe off to China, cannot wait for some cool weather!
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Phi Phi Island, Thailand

This is our last day of our week stay on Phi Phi Don Island. Took almost 2 hours to get here from Phuket by boat. Today we have opted to pay a little more to get a speedboat back to Phuket, which takes only 50 mins. We were staying right in the middle of Loh Dalum Bay and Tonsai Bay, just takes about 10 mins to walk between the bays as we are staying on the narrowest part of island. Our days have been spent relaxing, which a welcome break from the busy cities. Lots of lying on the beach, eating out and window shoppig (very nice shops here but all a bit expensive). Attempted to go swimming but the water never went past our knees even after walking out for 10 mins....bit annoying.

Our favourite day was spent going out on an afternoon tour boat. We visited monkey beach (as name suggests lots of monkeys running wild trying to steal things off you), some other bays can't remember the names off and down to Phi Phi Lay island which below Phi Phi Don where we staying, the differnce being that Phi Phi Lay as no accommodation on it so a bit more scenic. Our final stop was Maya Bay on Phi Phi Lay where "The Beach" was filmed. The tour also included snorkeling which was great fun and dinner on the boat while watching the sunset.

We now just killing a few hours before getting boat back to Phuket and our late evening flight to Bangkok.
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Phuket, Thailand

Had one full day in town of Phuket. Spent the day wandering around the shops and trying not to get lost. A lot smaller and quieter than Kuala Lumpur with very few people trying to sell things so was quite relaxing, despite the extreme heat. Not many tourists around, seems to be a halfway point between arriving in Thailand and going out to one of the islands.
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Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia

Today we took an hours bus trip to see the Batu Caves. We were first greeted by a a massive golden statue and then 200 very steep steps to climb, surrounded by crazy monkeys jumping around everywhere trying to get food. The caves very impressive, used for services and praying.
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Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia

Arrived in Kuala Lumpur early morning of the 27th to a deserted airport due to us being in the low cost terminal with only our flight arriving, made it very easy. We then had to get a bus into town which took us around one hour, followed by a taxi ride to our hostel. After a rest we went out for a wander, had dinner at a small cafe/stall that seemed popular with the locals, RM3 each which is only $1.50NZ! After dinner headed to the Pavilluion shopping mall, which was a welcome break from the extreme humidity outside. Huge building with lots of designer stores and fancy foodcourts, a big difference from the shopping street slums of Bali. Walking further we found the Convention centre which led to a massive underground maze of more shops, seems people can walk for miles underground to keep outof the heat.... Came out one exit to find the famous Petronas Twin Towers, very impressive when lit up at night.

Second day = more walking. Explored Chinatown which again a big contrast from the big shopping malls within the Golden Triangle,very crowded, lots of stores and beggers (who all strangely seemed to be severley crippled in some way) and shopping markets. We then headed to the outskirts of town to visit the Lake Gardens, which consisted of lots ofdifferent gardens, a huge bird sanctuary and random monkeys by the side of the road....Out of the gardens led to the National Mosque of Malysia. Back to the hostel as the heat and humitidy becoming unbearable!

Yesterday we visited the Aquarium and walked through the malls to the towers again and the surrounding parks. Today we have had a more relaxing day, enjoying the food courts of the Pavillion followed by a visit to the Times Square Building, lots of shops again but also the largest indoor theme park in Malyasia. Plan for tomorrow is to head out of the city to the Batu caves.
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