TravelStream™ news feed for member kingsandems on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/kingsandems en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sun, 04 Oct 2009 14:49:45 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kingsandems/1/1245237849/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kingsandems/1/1245237849/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kingsandems/1/1245237849/tpod.html Sun, 04 Oct 2009 14:49:45 -0400 Sunseekers - Chasing summer south ..... and then back north

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Amed, Bali, Indonesia

A four hour drive slowly took us away from the lush interior, past the ubiquitous temples and with the changing views of the volcano to the drier, poorer side of Bali. Here we found dusty river beds, small villages and lots of salt-drying frames. Here the beaches are mainly black from volcanic residue but the sea is clear and the traditional fishing boats are picturesque. This sleepy coast was the perfect place for massages by the pool, diving and watching the boats leave at sunrise and return at sunset. Dives directly in front of the hotel started with black seabed with a giant eel garden before lovely reefs replete with amazing nudibranches and it was only a short drive to make a repeat visit to the wreck of the Liberty, this time with a camera.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kingsandems/1/1243605600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kingsandems/1/1243605600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kingsandems/1/1243605600/tpod.html Sat, 03 Oct 2009 07:38:03 -0400 Sunseekers - Chasing summer south ..... and then back north

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Ubud, Bali, Indonesia

We went to the main Bali Airport (Denpasar) to say our goodbyes to our friend Richard. It had been an awesome month of travels together through the deepest parts of Cambodia and then Indonesia (Bali & Komodo) with a "prechish and comricated pran" to get to some of the best and wildest diving we have ever done. Mission well and truly accomplished. The Indonesian part of the trip had not been in our travel plans but it is one we would gladly come back to as it is an amazing place for many different reasons. We had a few weeks left and decided to find a place to “chill” and relax. We had briefly seen UBUD on the way to Padangbai and all of us had commented that it looked like a great place to relax. So a 14$ (1.5hour) taxi ride and we were in the artist, spa and chilled out Mecca called Ubud. Our Hotel room was spacious, clean, had AC and there was a lovely pool, for 14$ per night. We were loving this place! The town is set in amongst the rice fields and the surrounding views are tranquil, easy to see why artists from all over settle here. The art galleries, Spas, restaurants abound. Plenty to while-away the days with, in a very relaxing setting. An interesting evening at a show started off as interesting and amusing however the music is hard to enjoy, and after 90 minutes of it, it feels like someone wrapping silk gently around two tambourines and smashing you on each side of head in no apparent rhythm… See the video clip and make your own mind upOne day we woke early and went down to the Monkey shrine forest. Pretty place with shrines, forest and plenty of monkeys. There are Beware the monkey signs and the reasons why all over the place in every language…. Many tourists pay no attention and herein lay the humor…. It should be noted that these monkeys are aggressive, eager, and only too wily in that they sense those people with food. We got to see this in action when a couple who had purchased a few bananas, then wrapped them in plastic and placed and fastened deep into the wife's rucksack – at first everything seemed to go well, we were all walking down the various paths, there were monkeys everywhere, very tame, 10 minutes later we stopped to see hundreds of monkeys of all ages in a clearing all playing and providing some great photo opportunities. Most of us tourists had backpacks for cameras, but the monkeys could sense which people had food, and the couple with the bananas made for easy pickings when a young monkey scrambled up the ladies leg onto her back, opened the bag, dug in and found the plastic bag and removed the bunch of bananas. Other monkeys did the same to other people who had food hidden or not… Given the signs all over regarding food and aggressive monkeys one can only wonder how on earth these people have jobs, earn money and afford to go on holiday.Ubud is a winner and well worth a few days to relax, go to the spa and take in some culture and charge the batteries….. After a week we were craving some more diving and decided it was time to have a few more hours under the water exploring the US Liberty Wreck dive at Tulamben.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kingsandems/1/1242721860/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kingsandems/1/1242721860/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kingsandems/1/1242721860/tpod.html Sat, 03 Oct 2009 07:33:55 -0400 Sunseekers - Chasing summer south ..... and then back north

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Labuanbajo, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia

I was dead against spending so much money for our liveaboard in Komodo, however after being there and experiencing the wonders of Komodo National Park, the hospitality, awesome food and scenery, sublime wild diving I would do it again in a heartbeat. Thanks to Ems and Rich who convinced me to splash out… what an experience…. But the fun did not end there….We got back to Labuanbajo after 4 days on the Mona Lisa. LabuanBajo is an acquired taste, it is a ramschackle of a port on the edge of West Flores, the population are not wealthy and the majority of the town is very third world. There are very few places to stay as most of the tourists are divers that use this place as a launch-pad to Komodo National Park . Having said that we managed to get stranded here for an extra couple of nights. It turns out that our very scary, "wow!! Holy Crap!! what the F%^&*!!! I am sure this is not the right angle….speed…. clunk!! Bump! skid… stop… !! thank god we are alive !!" landing had taken its toll on the one and only plane back to Denpensar. Long story short,…. We trekked from town to the airport, no plane, no one knows what is happening? back to town to the Airline office? no make that airline hovell…. More people show up, no one can advise when the next plane will be available…Lots of angry people. We gave up, after our hotel rep gave us the low down and offered to sort our our flights and get us booked into their hotel at a reduced rate.We gladly accepted and headed up the hill to the Golo Hiplltop retreat.. The best place by miles to stay in LabuanBajo…. The views are spectacular and there are a few bars nearby to watch the spectacular sunsets and drink cold beer…..and a chance for a nights drinking with Joe.Also decided to try arak in the Lounge (Recently seen on Last Chance to See with Stephen Fry but we were there first) . We could hardly drink one between 3 of us and the result was Rich and I singing badly as we climed home in the moonlight.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kingsandems/1/1242588480/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kingsandems/1/1242588480/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kingsandems/1/1242588480/tpod.html Sat, 03 Oct 2009 07:09:36 -0400 Sunseekers - Chasing summer south ..... and then back north

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Komodo National Park, West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia

What is the recipe for a fabulous fantasy novel? Surely it must include a deadly dragon or two, some unicorns and daring adventures and chances to fly. Komodo provided all of this and more. While checking-in at Bali airport we bumped into Joe, our dive master in the Similans. He was heading to Komodo for the season. It was Joe who had got us excited about Komodo so we were thrilled to see him.The idyllic flight, over turquoise sea fringing dotted islands, ended abruptly when we banked over a cliff on Flores and the pilot crashed us into the runway. Still shaking we met Igor and headed to the dive shop to try on rental gear before heading to the jetty and our speedboat out to the Mona Lisa.With sapphire blue seas and unique emerald and arid islands in every direction we drank it all in. On the sight of the Charlie, we were glad we had let Rich persuade us to plump for the Mona Lisa and when we  rounded the corner to see the romantic sight of our own wooden sailboat we were enchanted.Already on the boat was a group of man-hating feminist adrenaline junkies and Nic, the dive director. The girls were: Miss Yoga (she owned female-only tarot cards and like showing off by doing headstands for 30 mins at a time), Miss Hardcore (a human rights lawyer from Souf London trying to keep up with her new boyfriend who was a technical diver) and Mademoiselle Bump -the-reef who was covered in sores from where she had slammed into fire coral. They went to dive the Cauldron and left us and Igor in peace to our amazing lunch. Over the next few days we would eat the best food of our entire trip. And despite having three 3-course meals and morning and afternoon teas (with cakes and fresh juice) every day we would all lose weight. Why will become clear. Igor took us on our sunset orientation dive. Kingsley had bought a new non-magnifying mask and spent the entire dive behaving (and apparently feeling like) a drunk man.  A squadron of Pygmy devil rays (like miniature Manta rays) kept circling us. Our first taste of the wonder of Komodo.The next day our second dive (at Castle Rock) was our introduction to Komodo's deadly currents. I still cannot figure out why the people at the dive shop in Sanur did not sell us a reef hook when we told them where we were going, or why they don’t provide them on the boat. To stay at our safety stop and not get pulled away we had to form a chain with Igor hooked onto a rock, Kings gripping his shoulder, me hanging on to Kings and Rich clasping me. Over the next few dives we quickly learnt to stay close to the reef, to rest in sheltered inlets and caves and to sometimes stick close to the bottom and fly! Nothing quite beats flying around a corner to see a Manta ray above you (sorry Rich and Kings…. Too slow!)Only in Komodo would you see a choppy river surging through the sea. This river was rushing past Batu Bolong (a huge rock our crop) the first time we dived it and we carefully hung in a narrow band of shelter and worked our way to the surface. On the second dive there Nic timed it perfectly for slack current and we managed to circle the whole rock and appreciate what an amazing site it truly was. The combination of crystal sea, colourful reef, sponges and anemones and a soup of every fish species with the drop-offs and canyons made this the ultimate fantasy land.Igor had been a wonderfully patient DM helping us get used to the currents and very entertaining with his Aussie impersonation but he and the girls had to go and Leo (a Dutch man) joined us in their place.  A break from diving was provided with a day-trip to Rinca. This is one of the islands were the Komodo dragons live. We passed the cheeky Macaques that catch crabs by sticking their tails down the crab holes, and walked across a stark plain to the ranger station where we were shown the blood stains on the walls of the ranger station where a ranger was attacked by a dragon (he was lucky and survived). There were a lot of dragons lounging underneath the rangers’ kitchen (attracted by the smell of food). We then did a forest walk. We managed to spot and green tree snake and some birds but no dragons in the forest.The final fantasy world that we visited was on a night muck dive near one of the islands. In this sandy bottom we saw lots of creatures too weird to imagine. The highlight was two big sea horses. There were decorator crabs, which disguise themselves by sticking things like anemones to themselves, sea cucumbers that produce long arms to feed themselves, snake eels, sea spiders and lots of lovely shrimps.Combined with all the adventure we enjoyed sunning ourselves on the deck, chatting to Nic and Leo and dozing and a speedboat ride to take pictures of our beloved boat. Nic had been fascinating conversation and a fun host and Leo a great addition to our gang. We left enchanted and planning on returning.... again and again.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kingsandems/1/1242030000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kingsandems/1/1242030000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kingsandems/1/1242030000/tpod.html Sun, 16 Aug 2009 16:36:55 -0400 Sunseekers - Chasing summer south ..... and then back north

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Gili Meno, West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia

We caught a fast ferry to Gili Trawangan. The Gilis have no motorized transport and the port was full of horses and carts. We found a deli-cafe and Kings left us eating ABCLT's (avo, bacon, cheddar, lettuce) while he negotiated us a transfer to Gili Meno. We paid the driver and three local people used the opportunity to hitch a ride. One teenager was thrilled to practice his English and told Rich that Gili Meno was full of monkeys. He must have dined out on the gullibility of tourists for days as they are NO monkeys there.On arrival at Gili Meno we donned our packs and walked until the path ran out and eventually found our hotel. he rude manager tried to claim we had booked 3 rooms instead of 2. He put Kingsley and I in a room with leaking roof and would not move us to the other room at the same rate despite the fact that we had supposedly been offered all three rooms at the same price!!  Rich decided to walk around the island at about midday. We decided it was much too hot and instead went to get masks for snorkeling. By the time he returned (sheepishly admitting that it was more than a 30 min walk) it was late enough to go snorkeling. We were pleased to discover that there was decent reef and life directly in front of our bungalows. TWe figured the island was too small to get lost, so took the"road less traveled" for our first sundowners. After a rather windy back road passing chickens and children paying in sandy yards and rather bleak saline lake we arrived just in time to catch the sunset. Sitting on raised platforms with G&Ts and a spectacular sunset over the Volcano on Bali, we decided we had found a true island paradise for Richard.The next few days were taken up with- sunrise over Lombok,pancakes and coffee, snorkeling, visiting the baby turtles in the sanctuary,wandering past the beaches strewn with skimpily-clad loved-up honeymooners,afternoon naps, more snorkeling, sunset over Bali with spring rolls... and walking home by moonlight. The excessively skimpy dress of the other tourists was exemplified by an Australian couple in their seventies with a generous portion of leather-covered fat rolls. He wore a red string g-string and she wore a blue one. There was also a Russian girl who wore only asee-through white t-shirt and g-string knickers no matter time of day or night.After three nights we had had enough of salt water showers and we ready to head back to civilization and excited to be heading to Komodo and the Mona Lisa. While waiting for the ferry we discovered that the young Russian thought that wearing a see-through white t-shirt bra-less was also appropriate for travel- at least for the ferry she decided on shorts instead of the usual g-string!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kingsandems/1/1242217440/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kingsandems/1/1242217440/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kingsandems/1/1242217440/tpod.html Sun, 16 Aug 2009 16:36:00 -0400 Sunseekers - Chasing summer south ..... and then back north

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Sanur, Bali, Indonesia

Our ferry back to Bali was built for speed. The cabin had racing seats and we all got comfy with our books and music. Soon the weather became very rough and even the seats could not keep us happy. In amongst the travellers was one Dutch family with two young daughters. Daddy was feeding them oreos to keep the distracted, but after the boat started bouncing over waves that were splashing over the hold nothing could stay the terror and Rich (who was staving off his own sea-sickness with eyes closed and music on loud) looked up as one of them vomited all over the place. The WAG-like creature sitting next to her could not move quickly enough and was devastated when a drop landed on her thigh.After that it was a relief to get to our hotel in Sanur. That afternoon it bucketed down with rain so we did not have much chance to explore, but we ventured with golf umbrellas to a fabulous Mexican restaurant before getting an early night in anticipation of our journey to Komodo the next day.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kingsandems/1/1241871420/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kingsandems/1/1241871420/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kingsandems/1/1241871420/tpod.html Tue, 09 Jun 2009 11:29:17 -0400 Sunseekers - Chasing summer south ..... and then back north

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Padangbai, Bali, Indonesia

This is a wonderful little fishing village on a pretty bay. Not what we expected but all the guide books play this place down so we were pleasantly surprised. We were not here for the views, the beach, the great food and the friendly people that we found, we were here to try some diving!!Again we had not read or heard many things about diving in Bali. We found the guys at WaterWorx (David and Wolfgang) to be impartial and full of good advice. Within 3 minutes of being at the dive-shop we overheard some other people asking about going to Manta Point..."you have Mantas here?"" yes we have 85% chance of sightings at the feeding station" was the reply.... No more needed to be said we booked and were off early the next day.. sure enough everything they told us was true... the waves were rough and the ride was long but soon we were watching as three manta rays repeatedly circled over the cleaning station. The excitement of seeing a Manta for the first time kept Rich(who one Manta singled out for special treatment) from being seasick on the rough return ride to Nusa penida for the second dive(a fringing reef called S.D).The next day we headed north to Tulamben to dive the shipwreck of the Liberty.  This is justifiably Bali's most famous dive site and we loved both our dives on it.We decided on a sunset walk to a picturesque beach one afternoon. Turned out we had to walk through a constructions site as they are building a resort there. Still not quite the island paradise we were looking for so we made plans to head to the Gilis.In addition to the spring roll tasting and good Indonesian food we discovered a couple of other culinary delights in Padang bai- amazing guacamole and California shrimps (prawns and melted cheese on toast). No-one could say that we ate unhealthily!!The day of our departure was a Hindu festival so we saw lots of colourful locals carrying offerings on our way to the fast boat to Gili Trawangan
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kingsandems/1/1241626440/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kingsandems/1/1241626440/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kingsandems/1/1241626440/tpod.html Tue, 09 Jun 2009 10:22:33 -0400 Sunseekers - Chasing summer south ..... and then back north

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Kuta, Bali, Indonesia

Not much to say about this place other than give it a skip....!! It is not a good representation of the wonderful place that Bali is! It is the type of beach resort frequented by partying teenagers and undiscerning tourists on package deals resulting in a overdeveloped strip with tacky shops and overpriced hotels.The one upside was that the Austalian influence meant we found a cafe with incredible poached eggs for breakfast. After eating and less than 12 hour there we made a run for it and headed to Padang Bai.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kingsandems/1/1238947320/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kingsandems/1/1238947320/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kingsandems/1/1238947320/tpod.html Tue, 09 Jun 2009 10:04:32 -0400 Sunseekers - Chasing summer south ..... and then back north

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Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia

Since we had a short stop over and we trying to save money for our diving to come we booked a triple room in a hotel in a time warp. Also known as the Heritage station hotel! Kings liked it as it reminded him of boarding school, but Rich was horrified. Kingsley's love affair rapidly ended when he decided that there were fleas in the carpet.After spring roll mania Rich was sick of Asian food and craving KFC so we headed out looking for China town. After crossing several motorways, sewerage canals and some scary back roads we entered a scene from Blade Runner (aka Chinatown KL). The next day after queueing for tickets for the skybridge at Petronas towers we had a caffine fix and muffins at starbucks, wandered the park and returned for our tour. It was delayed and after sitting through the proaganga video for Petronas we had to miss the skybridge for a second time in order to catch our taxi to the airport.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kingsandems/1/1241434800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kingsandems/1/1241434800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kingsandems/1/1241434800/tpod.html Sat, 23 May 2009 04:24:39 -0400 Sunseekers - Chasing summer south ..... and then back north

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Kep, Cambodia

Many people get the impression that Kep is a chilled out place that can be compared to small towns on the coast of Thailand. First impressions are that you have arrived at a beautiful place that time somehow has forgotten. On further investigation this impression is further solidified. Kep is a tiny place that was a weekend and holiday getaway to the rich and French colonials living in Phnom Pehn. Many of the buildings look like they were built before the 40s and were once majestic. It has a flavor of the South of France left to ruin. The coastal roads are there and the payments and old lampposts mark once glory days. Small stalls doubling up as simple shops and restaurants along the beachfront roads mark Kep for their famous Blue Crabs. Many of the old houses higher up on the hillsides are on large properties with lovely old grand walls but are all overgrown and in ruin. The effect gives the traveler a special something with loads of charm and an air of "what must have been". Our first night was in luxury compared to what we had been used to and we all agreed that extending for the duration of our stay in Kep would be ideal. Sadly this was not to be as they were booked out over the next couple of days (it was a weekend which is when all the American expats living in PP seem to invade Kep) which left us with a dilemma of finding somewhere else to stay. Not deterred Boorman and Hull made some enquires and hired 2 scooters... I somehow ended up with the one with no working brakes that backfired every few minutes, with the handling of a truck and with the clutch permanently slipping. After leaving the gals with a couple of G&Ts lounging by the pool we set off and did a full Recee of the town and find somewhere to stay. This ended up with us finding a delightful place to spend the next few days as well as a bike race to see who could go fastest. The Kep roads are challenging with some twisting bits and the occasional truck and array of bikes and motorbikes. I was doing well even though Rich's bike was newer and more powerful until I got my rattletrap up to the 100kmph mark when my helmet blew off my head but still attached to my neck by the strap and thus strangling me in the process. We moved hotels hired new- better, faster, bigger and cheaper bikes. These brought us freedom to roam the countryside and get about. All trips, even close-by restaurants were travelled to by bike - cos we could! At first Char was a reluctant passenger but after several squeals she became accustomed to Rich's driving antics. We had a super time and found some interesting places to eat crab, Drink, drink and more. We found one bar, The Real (the Cambodian currency) Bar (Owned by a German), where they had great music, a large pool table and loads of Black Panthers aka Slazengers. One night after 7... or so I took Ems and we left Rich and Char propping up the pool table and speaking to the owner and headed for bed. Next day we had arranged a boat trip to Rabbit Island under advice from the Lonely Planet. Sadly I had indeed been slammed in the head by a cricket ball (Rich claimed he had 'broken me' but I think the BPs take the blame) which had me man-down and I lay in bed feeding my liver get-well biscuits. I apparently did not miss much as the rest reported a dull day. Apparently the beaches are not golden, the snorkeling is non-existent rather than fabulous and both Rich and Ems managed to get sea urchin spines in their feet. We decided to do some more sightseeing so one morning we got up reasonably early filled the bikes with so go-go juice (seriously - the petrol comes in 3 different colours Red, Green and Yellow. Through some trial and error we found the bikes worked best on Red! ) and set off to find the caves and a temple. Finding the turnoff was hard as we missed it and had to turn back. Then on finding the off-road I pelted off towards our destination, after a couple of minutes I turned to see that Rich and Char were not following us. Thinking we had taken a wrong turn we retraced our tracks, still no sign of them so we started back to the main road dreading they may have fallen into one of the ditches. We found them back up the main road at one of the small stalls where their bike was being mended after it had a flat. Back on the trail we found a set of caves, did the tour, paid the myriad of kids who spoke great English and had shown us around with great enthusiasm and then when we showed them the photo in the Lonely Planet found out it was the wrong set of caves, headed off again up some more dust roads into rural Cambodia. We found the temple and a couple more kids as guides took us by foot up the hill to the entrance of the temple within the cave leaving their friends to guard our bikes and helmets. The temple inside the cave (which is older than any at Angkor Wat) was spectacular. Rich convinced Char that the cave penetration tour would be "fun" so the 2 of them with their guides and a couple of others climbed through the labyrinth that came out at the bottom of the hill with an opening the required getting onto your hands and knees to get out. Brave people!!! Kingsley and I followed our guide (the tiniest in history- she was 7 but was the size of a Western 4 year old). She was adorable and spoke excellent English with a good sense of humour and innate understanding of human nature. Ems was tempted to bring her back in our suitcase.On our return we stopped at a temple and took some happy snaps. I turned to look inside and saw human remains and a pile of skulls and other human remains in the corner bleached white. A stark reminder that these parts were one of the last strong hold of the Khmer Rouge less than 30 years ago.Hopefully the pics give one a sense for what this charming whacky little place Kep and its surrounds are.... We had a brilliant time and were sad that our time with Char had come to an end, only a taxi ride back to PP and we would be parting company. Who was going to keep Boorman in check now? One less person on the spring roll tasting panel. Not to mention deserting Ems to the boys- no browsing handbags and dresses from now on. The whole experience of both seeing Char and Cambodia had been such an adventure that we will have to arrange something else soon in the not too distant future.
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