TravelStream™ news feed for member kukuwu on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/kukuwu en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Wed, 23 Jul 2008 02:00:43 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kukuwu/24/1215865800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kukuwu/24/1215865800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kukuwu/24/1215865800/tpod.html Wed, 23 Jul 2008 02:00:43 -0400 Lotsa Laksa

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Penang, Malaysia

I had been dreaming about the food in malaysia for about a week. We wanted our first meal in Malaysia to be a laksa (me) and chicken curry (Andrew) but we before we could find those particular dishes we were side tracked by delicious chicken satays, roast duck, hainese chicken rice, wonton noodles, twisties and cheezels!  - and we simply couldn't fit anymore in. Penang is a town oozing character - you can see it's mixed history in the buildings and feel it's racial diversity inb the atmosphere - within any five muinutes you could here bollywood songs blasting from cars or shops, the muslim call to prayer or the click clacking of mahjong tiles. We decided to see a bit of the city by cycle rickshaw and as we came to the rickshaw rank there were quite a few to choose from. Out of compassion Andrew chose the oldest, frailest man to be our driver. As we rode along at literally a snail's pace we quickly became embarrassed at the fact that we two young, healthy and relatively fit foriegners were paying a 75 year old man to ride us around at slower then walking pace.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kukuwu/23/1215337380/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kukuwu/23/1215337380/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kukuwu/23/1215337380/tpod.html Thu, 17 Jul 2008 06:24:14 -0400 Thailand and Cambodia

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Kho Phi Phi, Thailand

We were looking forward to getting to Phi Phi and having some people to talk to other then each other and who we didn't have to tell our life storeis to - cue Sharon and Richard. It was a really relaxing couple of days - lazing about the pool bar, snorkelling, watching the sunset and just generally enjoying life.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kukuwu/23/1213509060/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kukuwu/23/1213509060/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kukuwu/23/1213509060/tpod.html Thu, 17 Jul 2008 06:19:15 -0400 Thailand and Cambodia

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Bangkok, Thailand

Bangkok is one of those cities that you either love or hate and well we loved it - maybe because we had just come from travelling in India and Africa or maybe just because we were pampering ourselves with massages and lots of home comforts every day. In the several days that we were there we didn't do too much sight seeing - instead we spent the mornings recovering from our norturnal activities and the afternoons shopping or going to the cinema. In the evening of one especially uneventful day we decided to leave the confines of Koh Sanh Rd and head to Patpong to see what we could see. After an unforunate misunderstanding with the taxi driver which resulted in us being taken to a police station we arrived (don't ask). Patpong consists of a rather unexciting night market full of bad quality fakes surrounded by numerous dodgy looking girly bars. We had been approached several times with offers to see a Ping Pong Show and had politely declined, embarrassed that we seemed like the type of people that would frequent such a display. Somehow several beers later we found ourselves entering just such an establishment. I won't go into to too much detail but even though it was rather grim it was hard not to watch with fascination as each of the girls performed their own special trick.We even hit the clubs (which is quite hard to get Ol' Man Kukljan to do nowadays!). It's funny how you do things while travelling that you would never normally dream of doing when at home - like drinking buckets of beer out of straws with complete strangers - a mid trip/life crisis, but a fun one.We did do the big sights though - playing frogger on the highway on the way to the awesome Golden Palace, examining the serenity of the budha with mini microscopes at the amulet market, trying to stay dry at Wat Pho, eating dim-sum-to-go in Chinatown and catching the Skytrain from one end to On Nut just because Andrew is a nut.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kukuwu/23/1215509340/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kukuwu/23/1215509340/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kukuwu/23/1215509340/tpod.html Wed, 16 Jul 2008 08:26:00 -0400 Thailand and Cambodia

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Phuket, Thailand

After finally checking into a hotel we ate junk food and watched dvds - heaven. The next day we booked into the Kata Palm with a blue lagoon swimming pool and a couple of minutes walk to the beach.Despite what people say about Phuket we enjoyed it there - Kata and Karon beaches are lovely to just chill out on.  There were also some good beginner waves so Andrew hired a surf board and took to the water. That evening he had come up in a rash and wasn't feeling the best, so we decided to stay in Phuket a couple of extra days. That's really it for Phuket - although I'm still convinced that Andrew just said he wasn't feeling well so that we could stay in our nice blue lagoon resort!!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kukuwu/23/1215250080/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kukuwu/23/1215250080/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kukuwu/23/1215250080/tpod.html Wed, 16 Jul 2008 08:19:18 -0400 Thailand and Cambodia

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Pai, Thailand

A lot of this trip has been about animals - and in every continent we have been to there has been one animal that is always lurking about - the king of the jungle - the elephant. We have been constantly considering how we felt about riding an elephant and had come to the decision that we would just go with the flow. A number of times we decided against it but had heard that Pai was a good place for it and it was - we had one of the best experiences of this whole trip.The elephant camp was setup not far from a river and we were to ride the elephant down to the river and back for just one hour. As we had seen previously we were expecting a chair type contraption to be strapped to the elephant's back and for us to climb the ladder to a raised platform and simply get in. Instead they just threw an old piece of carpet on the elephant and then instructed Andrew to step on the elephant's trunk and grab onto her as she lifted him up onto her head. He was then supposed to slide his way forward, turn around and sit on the carpet - the only problem was that he wasn't told the last part and so just lay balancing precariously on the elephant's head waiting for something else to happen - it was hilarious.Eventually we got under way - and I have to say that it was the most uncomfortable ride of our lives (and we suffered from chaffing for the next couple of days). Just as we were about to tell the guide that we had to get down because we couldn't stand it anymore, we got to the river. We weren't even remotely suspicious when our guide jumped off the elephant, stripped off and asked us to hand him everything that we had in our pockets. As soon as this was done the elephant bounded into the water with us on top and began to swim and play, squirting us with water from her trunk, throwing us into the water and then waiting for us to jump back on her to do it all again. We were the only foreigners around and the locals were watching and laughing at our antics. It was so much fun and an amazing experience. Just thinking about it makes me feel happy.Pai itself is a lovely little town - it's really chilled and it caters well for the tourists that make it that far north. It seems that there are a lot of foreigners who get there and then decide to stay - and it's easy to see why.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kukuwu/23/1214903460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kukuwu/23/1214903460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kukuwu/23/1214903460/tpod.html Wed, 16 Jul 2008 07:45:45 -0400 Thailand and Cambodia

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Chiang Mai, Thailand

I loved Chiangmai - the Sunday walking market has got to be in my top 3 favourite markets ever - and that's a pretty high rating from a market queen such as myself.  We spent most of our days wandering about, shopping, eating and getting massages - what a charmed life we're leading. We hired a scooter one day just because it was too hot to walk (and we wonder why we haven't lost any weight on this trip). I went to the Women's Prison for a massage and we did a fantastic Thai cooking course - where Andrew was definitely teachers favourite - though he was not best pleased when she joked about him being old..... 
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kukuwu/23/1214742420/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kukuwu/23/1214742420/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kukuwu/23/1214742420/tpod.html Fri, 11 Jul 2008 05:33:04 -0400 Thailand and Cambodia

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Kanchanaburi, Thailand

We decided to head to Kanchanaburi to find out more about the infamous WW2 POW camps and to see the famous Tiger Temple. In a very uncharacteristic manner we arranged to go to the Tiger Temple on the very day we arrived in Kanchanaburi. We were really excited to be seeing tigers as they're our favourite cats and the temple was known for saving orphaned tigers. Further, the 300 baht entrance fee was to go towards a 12 acre forest to enable the tigers to roam freely.I'm not sure what we were expecting but when we got there it was a real conveyor belt of tourists being shuttled around the tigers by one guide while another guide used your camera to take photos of your "experience". The tigers were all supposedly sleeping and are discreetly chained but it's hard to believe that they will endure being pet by hundreds of tourists for several hours each day and are not drugged. So it was with conflicting emotions that we left the sanctuary.The following day we were reading the newspaper while having breakfast only to read that investigations were being made into the Tiger Temple as it was thought to be illegally breeding and trading in tigers!! So in short - if you're in Kanchanaburi don't go to the Tiger Temple.We were feeling a little down about the tigers so we decided to cheer ourselves up a bit by heading to the Erawan Waterfalls. It's a seven tiered waterfall spread over about 2 kms and at the bottom of each tier there are large pools where you can swim. Awesome fun - although watchout for the nibbling fish.We also visited the Bridge over the River Kwai, Death Railway and the War Museum/cemetary (which serves vegemite on toast) - all really interesting and worth a visit. As you can imagine there were a lot of Australians visiting the war cemetary - probably the most that we have seen in any one place on our whole trip.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kukuwu/22/1212080160/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kukuwu/22/1212080160/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kukuwu/22/1212080160/tpod.html Fri, 11 Jul 2008 04:52:04 -0400 Treking Blah, We Love Safaris and Beaches!

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Stonetown, Zanzibar, Tanzania

It was closing in on Andrew's birthday and so we had to get a wiggle on if we were to make it to the beautiful island of Zanzibar in time - 13 hours, two buses, three boda-bodas and a ferry later - we made it with a day to spare. As we booked into the expensive birthday hotel we were told that there was no electricity on the whole island - so much for the AC and cable tv! Stone town is a lovely place with so much character - you can wander around the cool lanes for hours, spotting intricately carved doors and atmospheric old buildings whenever you make the effiort to look up. There are photo opportunites everywhere you look. There are great antique shops filled to the brim with old Portugese, British and African bits and bobs.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kukuwu/22/1212751920/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kukuwu/22/1212751920/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kukuwu/22/1212751920/tpod.html Sat, 21 Jun 2008 00:40:25 -0400 Treking Blah, We Love Safaris and Beaches!

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Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania

Dar is made up of three distinct areas - the Asian, African and Western. Our hotel was in the Asian area and the streets were filled with everything and anything Asian - intriately decorated copies of the Koran, bright garlands of flowers, piles of freshly cooked tandoori chicken, paan stains, people praying on the pavement, 100's of sqwarking caged chickens, street side halal restaurants. The African area had the usual cacophony of music but mainly bongo flava, colouful kangas hanging everywhere and the call of Jumbo, Mambo? from just about everyone we passed. We didn't really have a chance to explore the Western area but we figured that we probably weren't missing much.On our last night we went to the Mango Garden - an outdoor music bar which had been recommended by some friendly locals that we had met. It was certainly a local place - as we walked in everybody (including the band) turned to watch us. We had a great night although unfortunately I 'm not any closer to being able to move my hips like an African can.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kukuwu/22/1211392260/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kukuwu/22/1211392260/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/kukuwu/22/1211392260/tpod.html Sat, 21 Jun 2008 00:33:46 -0400 Treking Blah, We Love Safaris and Beaches!

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Serengeti, Tanzania

The night before we were to leave for safari we were so excited we couldn't sleep. We had opted for the budget option of going in a group of 4 and camping but when we got to the office we were told that the other couple had chosen lodges so we were being upgraded at no additional cost - sweet! As is to be expected it took us a while to get going - we were made to sit in their office for about an hour for a so called briefing which consisted of a cup of tea. Our first stop was apparently due to the guide's weak bladder and was conveniently timed to coincide with a large souvenir emporium. Then finally it was on to Lake Manyara a small park famed for it's tree climbing lions. It was pretty cool - the landscape is flat and the foliage not as dense as at other parks we'd been to, so the animal viewing was excellent. When we got to the lodge we were blown away by our rooms - each room had a glass wall leading out to a balcony with a superb view over the lake and with the binos you could see the animals roaming below. The Serengeti was as spectacular as you imagine it to be - the sunsets are perfect. The landscape is a mixture of flat plains, scrubby bush and outcrops of large rocks. We were so excited to be there during the wildebeast migration and we had been told that the tail end of it was still passing through the region. One morning we were on the way to a watering hole when we saw it - there were thousands of wildebeats and zebras stampeding their way to the water - it looked like chaos - they were trampling, kicking, stamping and biting at each other. The sounds were amazing - grunting, barking, snorting. We were the first ones there and our guide allowed us to watch it in peace for about half an hour before he called it in to the other 4WDs and within 5 minutes we were surrounded by at least 10 others. If you want to see lions then this is the place to do it - every day we saw at least 15 lions lazing about. A couple of times we just missed them eating their kill or making a kill.We were all quite hyped about Ngorongoro - there was a good chance of seeing the endangered black rhino and the elusive leopard. On the way to the lodge we were all just dozing about in the car when the guide stopped the 4WD suddenly and pointed emphatically. There was a leopard crossing the road, it stopped in the bushes looked at us and then turned and walked away. All of us were too enthralled with watching it to get a picture but it was one of the most beautiful animals I have ever seen. We were a bit unlucky and didn't see any other leopards or black rhinos but we did see some cheetah and lots of hyena.We will definitely be back to Africa for more of the safari thing....
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