TravelStream™ news feed for member leamlara on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/leamlara en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Fri, 19 May 2006 09:18:46 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leamlara/thailand-2006/1147696020/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leamlara/thailand-2006/1147696020/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leamlara/thailand-2006/1147696020/tpod.html Fri, 19 May 2006 09:18:46 -0400 Thailand and New Zealand...

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

London, United Kingdom

A wonderful last week in Wellington. On the ferry from Picton, dolphins rode the waves created by the ferry boat until we were out of the Sounds. The weather sparkled.
Visited Te Papa, which is a must. This museum is bursting with natural history and historical information about New Zealand. I rode the cable car up to the Botanic Gardens, walked along the waterfront of Wellington Harbour. I would also recommend Cuba Street, funky clothes shops, coffee houses and a strange fountain that splashes you if you are not careful. Spent the last week making the most of New Zealand's fantastic wine and great food.

So, back in London. I feel like I've been abruptly dropped back to reality. I guess there is no other way of doing this. You cannot slowly be weaned away from the travelling life, fingers gently prised away from the well-thumbed guidebook. No, you put yourself on the plane back, because there is no other way out of it, or so it seems, and after 34 hours pinned into an airplane seat, fed constantly, like a battery chicken for the slaughter or sitting in some homogenous transit lounge trying to unfold yourself again, you are delivered to 'Place of Origin'.
Full circle.
But what a circle! It has been a fabulous 3 months. I've got a headful of memories, all good. Met some great people along the way.
And, I've got a burning ambition to travel again in two years. It's already in planning stage!

So, tune in in 2008.
Slainte

Clare
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leamlara/thailand-2006/1146655740/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leamlara/thailand-2006/1146655740/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leamlara/thailand-2006/1146655740/tpod.html Wed, 10 May 2006 07:35:21 -0400 Thailand and New Zealand...

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Kaikoura - Picton, New Zealand

Kaikoura is for all sea-lovers. And I love the sea.
My hostel was just yards away from the sea. I could hear the constant deep boom of the waves hitting the shore from my bed at night. The beach is steep, and waves crash in with a vengence, raking out the black pebbles which cover the shore. There is a constant sea mist over the seafront, as if the waves, in their urgency, are atomising themselves.
In Kaikoura I saw whales, dolphins, fur seals, shags, seagulls, and albatross!
There is very scenic coast walk, which you can choose to do down by the shore or up high along the cliffs. I did the cliff walk twice; about 18-20km circle from my hostel, which winds along the road to the car park, where you can see lounging seals amongst the grass and between the cars. Then up the steep cliff walk and around to South Bay and loop back to Kaikoura town, along the beach, across the railway tracks and into the back gate of my hostel. The first time I walked it as if on a mission, stomping my way around, the second time I took my time and looked at everything, a more enjoyable experience.
Back up to Picton on Wednesday, a gloriously sunny day.
I had one afternoon in Picton as I had decided to take the ferry back to Wellington the next day. The choice was to do one of the walks along the harbour, I hadn't finished the 'Snout' walk, sign up for a bone carving course, or do nothing. I settled on taking the mail boat around the Marlborough Sounds, which is somewhere between doing nothing and something. The mail boat drops off and picks up post and people as demand has it, all along the little bays and inlets of the Sounds. The people are either locals, doing their weekly shop, as many of the bays have no road transport, sea being their only route, or walkers of the Queen Charlotte Track.
It was a easy and satisfying way to spend the afternoon.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leamlara/thailand-2006/1146363840/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leamlara/thailand-2006/1146363840/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leamlara/thailand-2006/1146363840/tpod.html Sun, 07 May 2006 07:28:56 -0400 Thailand and New Zealand...

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Christchurch, New Zealand

I got a lift back up to Greymouth from Ken, who had won a five day holiday to the Fiji Islands. He was on his way there and catching the same train as me, the TransAlpine east to Christchurch from Greymouth. His teenage son came along, and would drive the car back to Franz Josef, after dropping us off at the train station. We spent the drive just the way I like it, listening to very loud music, very little talk, and watching the world go by.
I spent most, if not all, of the four and a half hour train journey out on the open viewing platform, until the potential onset of hypothermia drove me inside. What can I say, more stunning, jaw-dropping scenery. Fleetingly, as you can only do on a speeding train, I saw an old man by the side of the tracks wave at the train; this was about mid-way through the journey. We were high up, with mountains on either side at this stage. The intercom voice said that this old guy had lived out on the mountains on his own now for years. He was the last remaining train worker in that area.
He looked a contented man. I envied him.
Another wet, rain-drenched day. Christchurch slightly unnerved me. Not its fault really. It was the first time in a long while I spent a night in a city. More to the point, it was a city that looked far too familiar. Christchurch could be a city in England. Too soon to be reminded of being back.
Despite the pouring rain, I did visit the Botanic Gardens; well worth a visit, as well as Christchurch Art Gallery and Arts Centre. I would have liked to explore more but the rain drove me back to the comfort of my hostel and hot chocolate.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leamlara/thailand-2006/1146192000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leamlara/thailand-2006/1146192000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leamlara/thailand-2006/1146192000/tpod.html Fri, 05 May 2006 06:56:04 -0400 Thailand and New Zealand...

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Franz Josef, New Zealand

So far I'm not doing so well on my organised trips.
Today, my kayaking Lake Matheson was called off, this time not because the weather was bad, but because it was good! All the would-be kayakers decided to skydive or Heli-hike instead, as the weather was good enough to for the first time in days. This left me without a group big enough to run the trip. So, instead, I spent the day walking as many of the Franz Josef walks I could do in a day. I walked up Canavan's Knob (!). Another walk was to a very dark and spooky tunnel. I was told if I brought a torch I could walk through it. But one look at this dark, water-dripping, puddle-filled tunnel was enough for me to turn about and call that walk done. Another short bush walk was recommended by the DOC office. This was a path that ran through what, to me, looked like an enchanted forest straight out of a 'Misty' magazine. Misty was my favourite magazine as a young girl; in it, the good girl, more often than not, had 'special powers', inherited from her beautiful, but strange mother, who mysteriously disappeared,leaving her in the care of a rich, but distant Great-Aunt. This, generally, set her apart from the other girls in the class, which inevitably meant being bullied by 'the bad girls'. By the end of the story, the baddest girl would get her comeuppance, usually being sucked into the roots of a gnarled and moss-covered enchanted tree, that looked very much like the trees the lined the path of this particular walk.
The walk was green, and verdent and lush. Climbing strings of green clung to anything, and hung down, curtaining off parts of the forest. Tree stumps, overgrown in green looked like grumpy old elves, refusing to budge.
I saw a tree exhale. I know it must have been the heat of the sun on damp moss. I saw, what looked like foggy breathes of air coming off a tree, and just hanging there, suspended in the light.
When I got back that evening I was told by the hostel owner that I would see glow worms on that walk if I went back at sunset. So of course back I went with a borrowed torch. I walked all the way to the end of the walk through the bush, without seeing a glow worm. At the end of the walk before you have to turn around and retrace your steps, there is a long, straight stream, a narrow path to one side of it and then a high, stone wall. The stone wall was built against a high bank of earth. I saw my first glow worm in the recesses of the stone wall, just when I began to depair of seeing one. As soon as I saw one I could see many; electric blue pinpricks of light, slightly pulsating, all along the crevices of the wall.
Magical.
By the time I started walking back it was very dark. Glow worms hung from the trees around me, and at one part of the walk, there was such a gathering of glow worms on the underside of a canopy of vegetation, it looked like a miniature constellation of stars had formed, underneath the branches of a tree.
I'd swear that bush walk was enchanted. It certainly had me enchanted.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leamlara/thailand-2006/1146106200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leamlara/thailand-2006/1146106200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leamlara/thailand-2006/1146106200/tpod.html Thu, 04 May 2006 23:52:59 -0400 Thailand and New Zealand...

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Abel Tasmin to Franz Josef Glacier, New Zealand

I spoke far too soon.
The night of my last entry the heavens opened and a deluge poured out, and it hasn't stopped since. That was four days ago. My 'sail and walk the Abel Tasmin' trip turned into a 'bus ride to the beginning of the Abel Tasmin, have a cup of coffee and stare at the rain for a bit and then walk an hour of the track' trip. Which, I really enjoyed. In the rain it was lush, green, dripping and refreshing. I had a big smile plastering across my face although my clothes dripped and clung to me. I was, again, totally unprepared for the weather. I had on a white trousers which immediately turned transparent in the wet, and a 10 euro rain coat that I bought in a Dunnes Stores in Ireland. It was only capable of keeping a light Irish mist out, not a New Zealand downpour.
The first thing I did when I got back to Nelson was buy a proper Goretex waterproof raincoat, which has already earned its keep.
Since then I've travelled down to Greymouth (I kept on calling it Greystone!) and then down to Franz Josef. We passed a couple of small towns, Westport and Ross. They stuck in my mind and imagination, as these were towns that were built through the goldmining of the 19thC there. Alot of the people that came to these parts to make their fortune were Irish, back almost 200 years ago. I looked around Westport and there were so many Irish names on the shopfronts, even the people looked Irish. The landscape of NZ, especially these areas are very reminiscent of Ireland, as does the weather - lots of rain! It must have felt strangely familiar to these Irish gold diggers back then. I imagine it would have been easier to be somewhere totally alien with no reminder of home, instead of a place that seemed like bits of Irish landscape but, picked up, mixed about, expanded and put together in an unfamiliar placing.
Today I walked a small length of the Franz Josef glacier. The rain had washed off the outer crust of the glacier, so the ice was a translucent blue colour. Very beautiful. We were told by our guide to walk aggressively, so that the crampons would make proper contact with the ice, and prevent slipping and falling, possibly into a deep, dark crevice. I really enjoyed walking very aggressively on the glacier, stomping my way up the very steep ice steps, and hauling myself up the ropes. The rain poured down the whole time but I didn't care.
Tomorrow I have a trip booked, kayaking on Lake Matheson, if the weather holds!!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leamlara/thailand-2006/1145642400/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leamlara/thailand-2006/1145642400/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leamlara/thailand-2006/1145642400/tpod.html Thu, 04 May 2006 05:05:17 -0400 Thailand and New Zealand...

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Nelson, New Zealand

I left Chiang Mai on Thursday morning, 13 April, the official beginning of Songkran. Even though it was early, the bucket stands were stacked up and ready for the waterfest to come.
Flew to NZ, via Bangkok and Sydney. All I saw of Australia, other than from inside the airport, was Sydney Harbour from above in the early morning light as I flew off. It is strange just getting a fleeting glimpse of such a well-known landmark as Sydney Opera House and the Harbour.
My first impression of New Zealand was from the air. I was totally blown away, and still am, by the beauty of the country. It is stunningly beautiful. No wonder it has become the A-list country to film epic movies in! I flew in over Farewell Spit, a bank of sand coming up from the top of the South Island which hooks eastward for about sixteen kilometers, and then over the Marlborough Sounds, before coming into Wellington.
My first six days were spent catching up on news with my friend Jill, in Lower Hutt, and playing 'Hungry Hungry Hippo' and 'Guess Who!' with Ellie, Nina and Rosie. It was a very relaxing week, after two months of trekking about, and eating out, it was a treat to have home-cooked meals, with old friends, in a real home!
I got the ferry down to the South Island on Thursday, stayed in Picton overnight and bused it to Nelson, where I am now. Picton is a really pretty little port, with a lovely coast walk out to 'The Snout', which I only walked half of; will finish when I get back. I expected the weather to be cold, as it is Autumn here, but it has been warm and balmy ever since I landed.
There is so much to do in NZ. I almost hyperventilate when I check out all the activities on offer, from paragliding, skydiving, bungy jumping, swimming with seals, dolphins, whalewatching, caving, sailing, trekking, kayaking, glacier walking... the list goes on.
Tomorrow I am on a sailing, walking trip in the Abel Tasmin National Park, 2 hours sailing and then 4 hours walking along the coast. The plan is to spend a couple of days in Nelson before travelling on southwards, to Greymouth, down to Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers for some glacier hiking and kayaking, back up to catch the Transalpine train across to Christchurch, then up to Hanmer Springs, to chill out in the thermal pools, then to Kaikoura for some whale watching and back up to Picton to walk some of the Queen Charlotte Track, maybe some more kayaking, and then across on the ferry, back up to Wellington and onwards into the North Island.
Hope the plan works! I'm hyperventilating again!!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leamlara/thailand-2006/1144797120/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leamlara/thailand-2006/1144797120/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leamlara/thailand-2006/1144797120/tpod.html Mon, 01 May 2006 04:33:40 -0400 Thailand and New Zealand...

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Chiang Mai, Thailand

I cannot believe it's nearly time to move on from Thailand. I haven't even properly written about my experiences in Chiang Mai yet and it's time to go. I fly down to Bangkok on Thursday and then off to New Zealand. Sad and sweet feelings mixed in together like a raspberry ripple.
When I booked my flight for this trip I had very little knowledge of Thailand and had no clue that 13-15 April was New Year here, hence the very bad timing for flying out. No matter, I've been given a taste of what Songkran is all about already. Songkran is about getting wet, it's warfare with water!
So far today I've been drenched by the girlies who work in the girly bars down Loi Kroi Rd. I've been soaked by a water firing plastic machine gun totting street vendor selling water firing plastic machine guns. Crossing the road just earlier a van sped by with about ten children in the open back with buckets of water and more plastic guns, all firing and dunking water at anything that moved, including me, very quickly across the road. I've had white clay smeared onto my face and neck. This was done by a very small girl beaming from ear to ear, so I had to help by bending down to her height making it easier for her. I get the feeling that you score double points for drenching a farang. Most of the people I saw who were totally soaked were farangs, including me.

It's actually very refreshing getting drenched every few steps, as the weather is incredibly humid. The only shocker is that some clever, well-organised water-dunkers get you with icy cold water, you can hear my 'eeeeeeeking' from a block away. I must remember to bring a spare set of clothes in my bag tomorrow, and water-proof my valuables!

I've read that the symbology of being dunked with water is to wash away all past doings, and to start afresh. I like this. It makes me stop and take the drenching all the more, and to relish the feeling of the cold water shloping all away, making way for the new.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leamlara/thailand-2006/1142296620/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leamlara/thailand-2006/1142296620/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leamlara/thailand-2006/1142296620/tpod.html Mon, 01 May 2006 04:29:59 -0400 Thailand and New Zealand...

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Koh Pha Ngan to Koh Lanta, Thailand

Our fasting week on Koh Pha Ngan was not an easy one. Despite all the benefits on the island to distract from the daily round of clay drinks, lymph flushes and herbal intakes and collonic out-takes, it was a drag. Our little group of 3 and a half day fasters spent alot of time talking about food, especially the first meal we wanted to eat when it was all over. Mine was pasta and lots of fattening cheese sauce; Suzi wanted tea and toast. This line of thought seemed to negate the purpose of the fast, i.e., giving the digestive system a break, and shifting ones relationship to food to a more healthier one. But, most people spent a number of moments a day stepping onto the scales and checking how much weight was lost!
I did become slightly concerned we wouldn't get off the island, as we were a longtail boat ride to the ferry - no road, we were remote - and two days before due leave date the sea started heaving and crashing against the shoreline. The sky also went an unusual green colour. After one night, two long and high lines of seaweed pushed out of the sea and was heaped onto the sand.
But, thankfully, on the last day of our fast a longtail boat did appear, as if to the rescue. One hair-raising ride, in which the whole time I was calculating the distance from boat to shore, if the boat did tip over would I make the swim. Post-fast I wasn't confident of my chances. Longboats are flatbottomed, which means, they don't glide through high waves, instead they flip over the top at scary angles and wallop onto the water. One rogue wave and a boat-load of post-fasters and dynamic meditating rebirthers would be no more.
Anyway, we made it.
Koh Lanta for the second week. I really loved the island; mostly for its people, the friendliest and unscathed so far by the worst side-effects of tourism. We stayed at the south side of Hat Khlong Dao in a cookery school called Time for Lime, with a gorgeous little row of bungalows for rent. The development on the beach was fairly low key. If you wanted a more remote beach you could go further south, but having a few nice restaurants and very relaxing campfire bars along the beach was good. We did 'remote' the week before. Sunsets were amazing, and nights generally entailed lying on one of the beach bar rugs, a fruit smoothie within reach, listening to good music and watching the stars move slowly across the sky. Along the horizon line of the sea, lights from the shrimp fishermen's boats were strung along like fairy lights.
We did alot on Lanta. Elephant trekking, and caving down Tham Mai Kaew, which was great fun. I didn't think I'd like caving, but I loved it. It wasn't for the faint-hearted, at some points we had to climb across two poles lashed together to get over a deep dark ravine. Our guide, Romany, kept on pulling our legs (at least we thought he was), saying, "don't put out your hands onto the rocks without looking, the spiders were 50/50% poisonous"! Suzi and myself also did a one day cookery course at Time for Lime, great fun again. Another day we hired a longtail boat and along with our guide, Suzanne, an American woman, and her Thai husband Captain Sun, we visited some of the nearby, more remote islands, and snorkelled. I really had to be prised out of the sea at the end of the day. I just didn't want to stop gazing down at the fish and coral. I scared myself by snorkelling over drop-off points; I get a strange feeling of falling into the depths. We also swam through a karst, a hollowed out limestack stack which rears out of the sea. There are many of these around the Andaman Sea. Swimming about 70 metres through the karst in the dark, we got to the centre, which is like a tiny hidden beach, surrounded on all sides by the outer limestone walls.
Funnily enough, when we got to the centre, what voices do I hear inside, but from a bunch of young Dubliners and Corkonians!

It was sad to leave Lanta and sadder to say goodbye to Suzi as she fly back to London!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leamlara/thailand-2006/1140663900/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leamlara/thailand-2006/1140663900/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leamlara/thailand-2006/1140663900/tpod.html Mon, 01 May 2006 04:25:28 -0400 Thailand and New Zealand...

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Bangkok, Thailand

My third day at Wat Pho Massage School. Still beyond my expectations. Learning so much.

i really enjoy mornings now, i don't think I'll have such an interesting walk to 'work' again (but never say never i suppose).
(By the way, excuse lower case 'i's', this computer doesn't do higher case 'i's'. i am plagued with sticky keyboards here).

i tend to leave the guesthouse at about 7.30am. Mornings are really lovely and fresh. i walk through the nearby market to get to the ferry, which at this time in the morning is buzzing.

Markets here are more than a place of commercial transaction. They are living, breathing communities. The other morning i saw a woman breast feeding her baby in lotus position on an empty stall. This evening on my way home i had to duck under a projection screen to make my way home. i had passed through an outdoor cinema. The projection screen was strung across a space in the market, rows of children sitting in front, on rugs. Adults were perched about, eating, chatting and watching the film. The projector was a beautiful looking monster, clattering away behind the audience. In the evenings I've seen stalls cleared away and families having their evening meal around them, from toddlers to grandfathers. On another day, walking through the market, I spotted a pool table, in a space cleared of empty crates, which were stacked around. A proper pool table light was suspended above. The green felt of the table gleamed in the light and seemed incongruous against the old timber boxes and plastic basins of fish.

The ferry pier is always a buzz in the mornings as well. Rows of tuk-tuks and motorcycle taxis line either side of the ferry pier exit, waiting for customers to disembark.

Three more days in Bangkok before i move on. Even though i said that Bangkok wasn't beautiful, it certainly has it's own beauty, which is alot more intriguing than obvious kind.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leamlara/thailand-2006/1140492360/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leamlara/thailand-2006/1140492360/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/leamlara/thailand-2006/1140492360/tpod.html Mon, 01 May 2006 04:24:24 -0400 Thailand and New Zealand...

Jump to the full
entry & travel map

Bangkok, Thailand

I'm leaving great gaps out of my blog. On Sunday I moved from Chinatown to The Thewes. It feels less claustrophobic here, I am now north of Khao San Road, which is on the edge of backpackers land. It is very chilled out, with more places to sit and gaze. The Express ferry stop is minutes away, through the market, which means I can get the ferry to and from Wat Pho. Yesterday, I visited the Grand Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha (Wat Pra Keaw). The Temple blew me away, amazingly beautiful, every inch of its surface is covered in tiny pieces of coloured glass and gold painted tiles. In the midday sun it is impossible to look at it without shading your eyes. Later in the afternoon I hopped on a cross river ferry to visit Wat Arun. Wat Arun is the Temple of the Dawn, sitting on the west bank of the river. The broken ceramic plates that decorate and covers its surface glitter in the morning sun, I'm told. I haven't seen this yet, but I did see the edges of it sparkle one evening while I was passing by on a ferry boat.

Up this morning at 6am, to make my way into Wat Pho Massage School for 8am registration. I'm so glad I was forced up this early. The air was cool, the traffic was less than chaotic and the market nearby was up and ready. A woman was sitting in perfect lotus position on her stall, breast feeding her tiny baby. I saw a Thai stall owner giving alms to a monk. The woman was in wai position while the monk chanted over her, holding his bowl with the offered food already inside. The ferry ride down to Wat Pho was fresh and lovely. All kinds of rubbish float on the river itself. The morning sun had still not touched Wat Arun, but soon maybe.
It took me a while to find the school, but when I got there it was humming. It's a very busy school. The day was fantastic. There is one tutor to three students, which means you get full attention. The students are a mix, from Ireland (me), Singapore, China, Japan, America, Italy, Sweden,Germany and Thailand. There are probably more countries represented in the class, I just haven't spoken to everyone yet.

Today, just before lunch the heavens opened and it rained in a great downpour. A cool rain-driven breeze drifted through the classroom and blew the hot, humid air out.

The school canteen, full meal costs 30 baht, is on the roof of the school. Just across from Wat Arun.

I'm going to get up early tomorrow and have a Thai Massage before class begins. The teachers offer massage for 300 baht, that's about five pounds!
]]>