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Auckland, New Zealand

Hello There Everyone.

Here we are about to finish our Kiwi Adventure, we thought it was about time we let you all know what we have been up to for the last month or so.

We arrived in Wellington,NZ on the 15th Jan. Martins uncle Patsy and his wife Phil, kindly met us at the airport and whisked us off out to their house. The following day we had something of a family reunion for Martin as all his cousins, some of which he had never met and others hadn't seen since he was a child, all came over for a Barbie (naturally). It was really nice to meet and get to know them all, and they were able to give us plenty of advice on places to visit and stuff to do. We hadn't planned anything for NZ, and really didn't know where we were going.

Without wasting any time, we took off for the South Island the next day. The ferry crossing was calm enough, and if the scenery from the ferry was anything to go by we were in for a big treat.
The ferry docked in Picton, where we hired a car drove south to a place called Kilkora. The drive was stunning, but this only gave us a taste of what was to come.

For two weeks we drove all the way around the south island in a loop, stopping Christchurch, Dunedin, Te Anau, Queenstown, Franz Josef, Hokitaika and finally Nelson. All the way the scenery was spectacular. Before arriving in NZ we were becoming a little weary of traveling all the time, and it was becoming harder and harder to impress us. We'd seen so many beaches, mountains, caves, cliffs, canyons, lakes, monuments, churches, temples, you name it, we'd seen it. So we really weren't expecting anything new, but I have to say, we were totally blown away by the south Island. It is truly amazing.

In Kilkora, Martin took a whale watching flight, and saw 2 Whales, they were about 20 meters long, really impressive creatures.
At Franz Joesf we took a helicopter ride to the top of a glacier, and hiked on the snow for a couple of hours, it was a fantastic experience, climbing though snow caves and sliding around on the ice.
In Dunedin we drove out to the Otago Peninsula, where we watch the sunset at an albatross colony, and in Christchurch we just chilled and checked out the cafes and museums.

On the west coast we visited Te Anau and drove up to Milford Sound, which is a huge fjord. We took a cruise out as far as the sea and back, due to bad weather the views weren't a good as they should have been, but the waterfalls were impressive anyway.

One place everyone talks about is Queenstown, its like the adventure sports capital of the universe. I was expecting it to be very built up and touristy I had heard so much about it, I thought it was going to be huge. When we arrived, I found I was pleasantly surprised, it was quite small, and wasn't full of tacky tourist shops. It's surrounded by mountains and lakes, so the views were, once again, quite spectacular. Everywhere you look people are jumping out of planes, hanging off helicopters, flinging themselves of cliffs or bridges or anything at all that is fixed to the ground. The lake is full of people being pulled by high powered boats, or jumping off them or up on them, just general madness everywhere really. Well, as they say, when in Rome...
We decided to do a skydive. The first afternoon we arrived we went down to the place where you book these things and asked would it be possible to arrange a sky dive within the next few days. Now, in truth, we were half hoping the girl would say "oh god, no, all booked up, can't be done, the weathers to bad, its the wrong season" or something like that, any excuse at all, so we could go off and say we tried, but it didn't work out. But instead she said - "of course, do you want to go now?" ahhh no, says I, maybe I'll wait till tomorrow. We were told to be there the next morning at 8.30 sharp.
After a very restless night, we made our way down to the shop, shaking like leaves the next morning. We were loaded into the mini bus and drove out the drop center. Before I knew what was happening, I was suited up, strapped to a man name Krass an ex policeman from Bulgaria and 12000 feet up in an airplane.
Martin jumped first, I just remember him hanging off the side of the plane with his eyes closed, then he was gone. I didn't hear any screaming, so I assumed he was alright. Then it was my turn. It took all my will power to keep my eyes open, but I was glad I did. The views were fantastic. We did a free fall for about 45 seconds, it felt like forever. I thought I was going to be sick from air rushing up my nose and into my mouth. Then Krass pulled the shoot, and our parachute opened, and after a quick jerk, we were floating effortlessly down toward the ground. It was a fantastic experience, all around me I could see lakes, rivers, mountains. We were very lucky, we got an excellent day - there was hardly a cloud in the sky. The landing was easy, Krass did most of the work, so I didn't break a leg or land in a tree as I feared I would.
Next we tried some jet boating on the shot-over river. It was pretty cool, ripping through a narrow canyon at high speed in a boat, we came very close the walls of the canyon, and it was pretty exhilarating, but to nothing could beat the skydive really.
So we abandoned the extreme sports and went in search of the local pubs.
One such place was the Minus 5 Bar, where everything is made out of Ice. The walls, the bar, the glasses, the seats, everything. They give you a big coat and some gloves and boots before you go in. We warped up, entered and enjoyed some lovely vodka cocktails. I also found a bar that sold cocktails in teapots!!! I couldn't believe it, naturally I had to sample a few different ones, just to be sure. Definitely my favorite bar in New Zealand.

In Hokitiaka we visited some glow worms, which light up in the trees at night, it was magical, like something out of a fairy story. Our final stop on the south island was Nelson(Linda - it was lovely).
We didn't get up to much here, because Martin, in a bizarre accident, managed to get a paper cut in his, wait for this -his eye. So he couldn't see where he was going for almost two days. We thought that is was surely the most unique injury ever, like something you would read about on the Internet, till we visited a doctor who told us she had treated someone for the same thing before. We couldn't believe after jumping out of a plane, being flung about a canyon at high speed and climbing up a glacier, that it was the sports section in the Sunday paper that finally ended his extreme sports career!

So, we headed back to the North Island to visit uncle Patsy and Auntie Phil once more.

Martin - now that he can see again, is going to fill you all in on what we got up to in the north island.

Bye for now,

Roisin
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/muppet/muppets/1108363080/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/muppet/muppets/1108363080/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/muppet/muppets/1108363080/tpod.html Mon, 14 Feb 2005 01:50:41 -0500 The tale of Roisin and Martin's ventures to strange new lands.

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Auckland, New Zealand

Hello Again,

After our two week stint on the south Island we headed back to the north island. After another few nights with Patsy and Phil we headed off on our adventures once more. I would like to thank Patsy and Phil and their family for making us
feel so welcome in their home.



Our first stop in the north island was a town called
"National Park" Yes I also have concerns about the
originality of some of the names in this country :).
Anyhow our reason for going to National Park was to
walk the 17KM Tongaririo crossing which is known as
New Zealands Premier day walk. Not a problem to us - we
thought. Roisin did some research in the hostel and
the guy selling our bus ticket said it was easy. One
of the reasons I wanted to go was because one of the
three volcanos there was the one used as Mount Doom in
Lord of the Rings

So, up bright and early the next morning we headed for
the walk. All around me I could see what I would
classify as serious walkers. They had their sticks and
boots, socks, energy bars and hats. At this point I thought
that either they where over prepared or someone was
fibbing about how hard the walk was. The bus driver
then turned around and said let me know what you think
of the devils staircase. My reaction to this was oh
bugger.

Anyhow off we set with the promise that we would be
picked up at the other side 7 hours later. The first bit of track
was easy to walk on but this quickly changed. We
quickly found ourselves climbing up some rocky
escarpments. I thought to myself that devils staircase
wasnt so bad. Then we saw what lay ahead. Yes the
devils staircase is actually a 800 Metre climb up the
side of a volcano. We where both knackered by the time
we got to the top an hour later. Our two litres of
water had also taken a serious hit and we still had
six more hours of this leisurely walk to go. Super.

Suffice to say we found the rest of the walk very
challenging and at the end of it I was able to sleep on
the floor of the bus shelter for thirty minutes.
Personally this was my favourite bit. Ok, to be honest
the scenery for the whole of the walk was stunning and
some day soon when I think I will appreciate the photos when I have a look at them!

Our next stop after National Park was the city of
Rotura. You may have heard of this place. The air is
filled by the smell of sulphur and there are
mineral/mudbaths galore. Yes we tried the mineral
pools I can asure you that it is quite hard to sit in
a pool of thermal water that is 43C for any length of
time. However it was a great experience and it is
supposedly really good for you.

The other activity that we tried was Zorbing. Check it out at
www.zorb.com. In short both of us where inserted
inside a big plastic ball with some water inside. You
are then rolled down a hill and challenged to remain
on your feet for as long as possible. I have to say I
lasted at least two seconds. Then I was upside down
then upright. After that I became so disorientated
that I dont knwo what bloody way up I was.

It was just so funny that we had to have another go
this time we went on the zig zag track individually
which was even more disorientating. I would recommend
it to anyone as it was a great laugh. It could even
work in Ireland!

The next stop in our northern exposure tour was the
town of whatatane. We stayed in a really nice hostel
there that was run by a maori guy, Hare and his wife, Pam. In the
evening they invited all those staying into the
meeting room in the house and then Hare
preceeded to do a question and answer session on maori
culture before getting everyone involved in a maori
sing song. He even attempted to teach us the Maori
alphabet. It was a really enjoyable evening.

The next day we headed off to New Zealands most acive
volcano called white island which is 50KM off the
coast of whakatane and last erupted in 2000. Well if I
thought the smell of Sulphur was bad in Rotura this
put me straight. There where sulphur vents all over
the place and the gas masks that we where given quickly
proved useful. The crater of the volcano is filled
with a huge lake which is the most incredible tourquoise
water which looked so inviting. That is until you learn
that it is at least 66C and with a PH of 11. I quickly
changed my mind about jumping in for a quick swim.

Our next stop was the Cormandel Peninusla. This is a
remote area of New Zealand that reminded me off
Donegal. We spent two days touring around here before
heading north past Auckland into the northlands.

The Northlands are right up at the top of the north
island and they too reminded me of scenry from
Ireland. We stayed in an amazing farm here run by an
Italian, Steffano and his wife, Lindsay. The guy was soccer mad and his
shed was decked out with jerseys from clubs all over
the world. He has also built a five a side soccer
pitch complete with floodlights where the guests play
against each other. He lays claim to holding the first
organised game of soccer in the world at 12:05AM every
new years day. So we played the obligatory game of
soccer the next morning at the more respectable time
of 10:30AM and where narrowly beaten by five goals to
four. I hadnt had so much fun in ages. We both wish we
could have stayed there for a week but alas we had to
leave to come to Auckland.

So as I sit in Auckland writing this it is my last
full day in New Zealand. I realise now that our trip
is coming to a close.

Fortunately starting tomorrow we have a week on beachcomber island in fiji as a holdiay before we leave for San Francisco. The island is fairly small, with no electricy, so no internet for the next week.
However we will be in touch again when we get to the US.
I look forward to seeing you all again soon.

Martin and Roisin
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/muppet/muppets/1105844460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/muppet/muppets/1105844460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/muppet/muppets/1105844460/tpod.html Sun, 13 Feb 2005 22:03:06 -0500 The tale of Roisin and Martin's ventures to strange new lands.

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Melbourne, Australia

We spent our chistmas on the beach in Peppy Beach with Martins sister Sheelagh and her family. The day began very early with Connor and Rory waking us up at 6 am to play with their new trampoline and Soccer table. This won't have been such a big problem had it not take untill 2am to build the bloody things the night before. However once up, we could help but be excited for the boys with all their gifts.
We all headed off the the beach to for a swim, some snorkelling and a bit of cricket - as you do!!
As the day got hotter and hotter, we headed back to the house to cool down with a few beers. Later on we enjoyed a fantastic christmas dinner with all the trimmings, and in ture aussie style, the turkey was cooked on the barbie.
All in all it was a fantastic and throughly enjoyable day.

The next day we took our leave of Peppy Beach and headed back up to the big smoke to prepare for our onward journey. We prepared very well, by hitting a few of the funky pubs in Freemantle (or Freeo as the locals call it). Little Creatures is a really cool spot, it looks just like a big shed really, but brews its own beers and serves deadly pizzas.
The next day we were a little bit sick, and very sad as we said goodbye sheelagh and headed off to Melbourne. We must say a big thank you to Sean, Sheelagh, Rory and Connor for their hospitallity and making our stay in Perth really memorable.

When we landed in Melbourne it was like minus 20 degrees. Ok, that might be a slight exaggeration, it probably wasn't that cold, but it sure felt like it. We had come from 35 to something like 14, and we felt like we had landed back in Ireland. I know I am not getting any sympathy from anyone, so I'll move on.

We stayed with my friend Criona, her husband Dave and dog Guinness at their appartment in Port Melbourne. Her parents were also over visiting from Navan, so we had a full house.
It was a tight squeeze. But with cri's mum, Olive, making pots of tea every 10 minites (a woman after me own heart), and her dad, Dom, inisting on everyone playing cards with him all the time, we had great fun.


Melbourne is really a multicultural city, with all nationalities living there. A the best thing about all these different cultures being there - for us anyway - was the food! You can get any type of food you can imagine on the streets of Melbourne. We really enjoyed checking out all various areas. I had dumplings for the frist time since China! I had forgotten how good they were - and have rekindled our plan to open a dumpling shop in Temple Bar.

We spent our New Years in a place called Lakes Enterance, which is along the east coast, about 4 hours outside the city. We were joined by some of Daves family, so there was a good bunch there. Naturally there was a barbie on the go (what else) and plenty of red wine and vb's to welcome in the new year. We did manage to see some of the local sights while there - some lovely beaches etc, but best attraction was of course the Metung Pub - where we spent most of new years day.

After we returned to Melbourne, we felt we should do some more touristy type things, so we decided to rent a car and go exploring some of Victoria. We booked the cheapest rental car (being the buget consious backpackers we are), planned our route, booked some hostel dorms and headed off. When we went to pick up the car, we were told the car we booked wasn't availible, and they would have to upgrade us to a bigger more luxurious fancy model - for free! Not a bad start we thought, very nice indeed.
So off we went and visited the grampian mountain range, these were very nice, it was constantly raining, and we truley did feel like we were in Kerry. We headed for coast, to place called Port Fairy, which used be called Belfast. The weather improved thankfully, and we headed on up the Great Ocean Road. On our last night we stopped in a place called Lorne. I went to check into our hostel were I had made reservations, to be told they had double booked. There were no beds for us in the $20-a-night dorms. Instead they would put us up in one of their luxary suites, at the same price. So for 40 dollars, we got to stay in a 280 dollar room with balcony, tv, kitchen, and a fantastic breakfast!

Aside from all this luxurious living, we spent our time in Melbourne relaxing on the beach by Cri's house, and walking Guinness the dog. It was great to see Cri and Dave again, and once more we very sad when we moved on. I have to say another big thank you to Cri, Dave, Guinness, for a very entertaining and wonderful time.

We flew to New Zealand on the 15th Jan were we met by Martins Uncle, Patsy and his wife Phil.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/muppet/muppets/1103869800/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/muppet/muppets/1103869800/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/muppet/muppets/1103869800/tpod.html Fri, 24 Dec 2004 00:35:18 -0500 The tale of Roisin and Martin's ventures to strange new lands.

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Perth, Australia

Hi All,

In our last update we left you at Cairns. We are now sunning ourselves in Perth, the other end of the country completely.

We left off our van and decided to fly the rest of the way to save time. As luck would have it a number of new no frills airlines have set up in Australia. We made the most of these and booked flights for the rest of our journey around Australia.

Our first stop was Darwin. First we have to tell you about a stop we made on our way there. The plane had to land and refuel in a small mining town called Gove. If the airport was anything to go by, the town must be something out of the Wild West. We got off the plane, and were sent into what looked like a tin shed to check in again. So off we went. We entered the building to find one tiny room. On the right hand side there was the check in desk and on the left all the bag security check things. The shed wasn't big enough for all of this stuff never mind the 100 people who just got off the plane.

We approached the desk; it was one desk divided in two. One side for economy passengers and the other for business class. There was one lady operating both sides of the desk, just stepping from one side to the other alternatively. Behind the desk there was no conveyer belt, just a big door out to the runway, where the plane was parked. When anyone checked in a bag, the lady took it and ran over to the plane with it. After check in, we headed for the security check. which was about two feet from the check in desk. Again they had all the equipment, the x ray things for your hand luggage, the thing you walk through that beeps and even explosives testing things but only about two people doing all the jobs. It was a like a Monty Python sketch. After security we could go to our gate, out the back door of the shed into a sheep pen, with a wire fence and a gate, then herded back onto the plane.

A short plane ride later and we landed in Darwin. Darwin is a lovely city, its all brand new, as the whole city was practically wiped out by a cyclone in 1974, so there are very few buildings older than 30 years in the entire place. Around Darwin there are a number of impressive national parks. One such park, Kakadu is about the size of Wales, and another smaller one is Litchfield at a mere 20,000 square kms.
We took a trip to Litchfield, and explored some beautiful waterfalls. Every 30 minutes or so throughout the day we would stop and go swimming in a waterhole. The ice cold water was a welcome relief with the temp in the high thirties and humidity almost one hundred percent. We also checked out some very impressive termite hills. Now, I know what you are all thinking, termite hills, yeah right. However, these termite hills were in fact about 8 meters tall and about 50 years old.

The next day we visited Katherine, a small town south west of Darwin, home of the famous Katherine Gorges. Because of the time of year, and the on coming monsoon, known as the "wet" locally, not all of the gorges were open. On the day we visited the water level had rose by over a meter that morning. So we only got to see the first two of the five gorges - these were quite impressive.

On our way back to Darwin, we popped into a pub for dinner and ran into a local celebrity standing on the bar - Charlie the buffalo. His claim to fame is that he started in Crocodile Dundee. I am sure you all remember the scene where Paul Hogan puts the buffalo to sleep at the side of the road. However sadly since then he has passed away. The owners of this pub sent him down to Brisbane to be stuffed, at a cost of 20,000 dollars! Charlie isn't even his real name, it's his stage name, before hitting the big time he was know as Bill to his friends. Very Hollywood!

We also took the opportunity to take a quick cruise on the Queen Adelaide River in Darwin. We arrived early in the morning to see the salt-water crocs being fed. Now, these are the real dangerous ones, the ones that grow to about 7 metres long. The guy on boat dangled pieces of raw meat off the end of the stick and the crocs jumped up and grabbed it. I knew what was in store when we boarded the boat so I made sure I was sitting safely in the centre, nowhere near the edge. Martin must have spent too much time with Japanese tourists, as when I looked around I found him hanging over the edge practically sticking his head down in the crocs mouth - for a better shot.

After about a week in Darwin we moved on to Broome, in Western Australia in the hope that it would be a little cooler or even less humid. Unfortunately, this was not the case; it was just as bad. We really didn't plan this part of our trip very well. It was completely the wrong time of the year to be there, due to the heat and wet all the camping trips and tours we wanted to do were cancelled. The town itself was lovely, but very small and quiet. The main shopping area was one street of single storey tin buildings, very modern tin buildings, but tin buildings none the less. It was the type of place where you would expect to balls of tumbleweed blowing down the road, if fact we did once, and then fell around the place laughing.

We stayed at backpackers outside the town at cable beach. The beach was magnificent, and we witnessed some really impressive sunsets.
We spent most our days just chilling out by the pool. Although, I don't know if chilling is the right word, we were anything but chilled, melted would be more accurate. I know I am not getting any sympathy at home, as you probably all had to defrost your cars this morning or something. Sorry.

We did visit some under ground caves, tunnel creek and wynjina gorge. These were nice, but not as impressive as the ones in Darwin. Our guide that day was originally from Melbourne. He proudly told us that his family had been involved in some gangland style shootings in Pizza shops in Melbourne. I don't think we will be looking them up when we get there next week.

This brings us to Perth. We landed on the 2nd Dec, and were greeted by Matins sister Sheelagh, who along with her family, were going to be our hosts for the next three weeks. We arrived full of excitement, staying in a proper house, with the use of a washing machine, TV, cooker and fridge, would be pure luxury for us. Not only that, we wouldn't be expected to check out by 10 in the morning, ahhhh heaven. Bliss.

Did she really know what she was letting herself in for? The first few days were spent checking out the city centre and some of the cool shopping areas. The shops all had their santas and decorations, which felt completely out of place for us. It felt nothing like Christmas, with the clear blue skies and warm sun.

After a few days we left the city for Sheelagh's home in Peppermint grove beach, or Peppi Beach as the locals call it. This is a small seaside town about 3 hour's drive south of Perth. The house is right on a lovely beach. We often go for walks, snorkel or just cool down in the sea just in front of the house. A number of dolphins swim by every so often and we can spot them from the veranda. Last week, Sheelaghs husband, Sean took out his boat, and we all went for a little spin. We spotted a pod of dolphins and they swam around the boat for ages. We pulled up for a short while and I got in for a little swim, it was fantastic.

We have been checking out some of the surrounding towns, Bunbury and Busselton. On Monday we drove to a town called Denmark, which is on the southern coast. We visited some more stunning beaches, Greenpools
(Where the water is always green), the elephant rocks (where the rocks are shaped like elephants) and Madfish Bay (no idea).

We also stopped of at a place called Walpole, where we checked out the valley of the giants. This is basically a huge forest, where the trees are up to 60 metres high. There is a walkway that you can take which goes right through the tree canopy and then back down to ground level, The views were spectacular, and we had great fun checking out all the mad looking trees.

So now we are back in Peppi beach preparing for Christmas. It feels a little bit more like Christmas now, we have put the decorations and tree up and the kids are starting to get excited. As we had all our shopping done, i.e. the fridge stocked with beer, we spent yesterday touring the local wineries. We visited about five in total and sampled many different wines. We managed to find a few for the Christmas dinner, so we are looking forward to getting into them.

Once of the best things about staying here is getting to spend time with Martins two nephews, Rory (7) and Connor (5). We had the honour of being invited to their end of year school parties, which were highly entertaining. The younger ones did a little play and sang some carols.
The carols were slightly different to the ones we were used to. As it's summer here, songs about snow and sleighs don't make much sense, so they have their own version of jingle bells, in which they sing about swatting flies, eating pies, wearing thongs (flip flops) and bathers. Santa's sleigh is pulled by white boomers - which are kangaroos, as it is too hot for raindeer.

That about brings us up to date. I will sign off now and let you all get back to planning your Christmas sessions.

We wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and wonderful New Year.

Take care,
Roisin and Martin.
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Sydney, Australia

Hello everybody. I suppose you all think that the reason that we have not updated this travelpod was because we were having too much fun in Australia. I have to be honest, if you did, then you where absolutely right.

I have to warn you that we have covered a lot of ground in the last eight weeks and that as a result this entry is far too long. Unfortunately we couldn¡¦t cut it down any more without cutting out bits we wanted to tell you.

Where do I start! We arrived in Sydney on the 15th of October. You dont know how traumatic it was for us. We had just left lovely Thailand a few days earlier where the weather was beautiful and found ourselves in Sydney where the expected high was a mere 14C. For a brief moment I thought I was back in Dublin. However a look outside confirmed that it couldnt be as the sun was actually shining.

We swiftly made our way to the exclusive Kings Cross area of Sydney. Kings cross is where it all happens. There is an abundance of 24hr sport bars, brothels as well as junkies roaming the streets. I have to say my initial impression of the whole city was that it was fantastic. It was really clean and had a shocking amount of nice looking pubs and Kings Cross was similar in some ways to temple bar apart from the visible brothels.

The sunshine did not last however, and the temp dropped to freakishly low for the time of year.
On the first evening we took a walk in the freezing cold towards Sydney Harbour Bridge and opera house. I could see my own breath in front of me for the first time in six months. To make matters even more unpleasant the only thing we had with us where t-shirts. However we endured the harsh weather conditions (god love us, a mere 14 degrees, how did we survive?). Down by the opera house we got our compulsory pictures of ourselves with the opera house and bridge in the background.

Our hostel was filled with what looked like the UK Conservative Party youth division all on their character building gap year that mother and father had promised them before they entered tertiary education. What a fine bunch of young people. Ah the fun we had listening to them telling us how much better their trip was compared to anybody elses. Every one of them must have had the most heavenly unique experience. I bet you all wish you where there.

We had the luxury of a TV in our room in the hostel and we were lucky enough to catch a program about the backpacker serial killer that operated on the Australian East Coast for several years in the early 90s before his capture and imprisonment. This really gave us the lift that we needed.

On our second day in Sydney it started to rain. As all those in Sydney openly celebrated this great event as they really need the water Roisin and I took a rather more dim view of the rain as all we possessed were t-shirts and we got soaked to the skin. Up to now, my impression formed in Ireland of Australia was that it never rained but over the next few weeks of our visit this impression changed dramatically.

While in Sydney we went to the pub to watch the weekly highlights program of the soccer. A Danish guy sat down with us at the table to watch the football. He introduced himself as Martin and in the same sentence told us that he had just left Denmark in order to escapes a prison sentence, for a crime he did commit (not quite the A-Team). He just didnt feel that he should have got sent down for it. I appreciate people being open and honest but some things are better kept to yourself. He then told me about his plans to abscond to South America where he could set up a new life and live happily ever after. As my mother always taught me if you cant say anything nice dont say anything. So I wished him all the best with his new life and left the bar to return to the hostel and the relative safety of the gap year students.

As it continued to rain in Sydney we didnt do much touristy stuff over the next few days. On the Tuesday however we picked up our very own campervan. So we bid farewell to the city of Sydney and headed for the famous Blue Mountains and a small town called Katomba. Yippee the adventure had really begun. Ooooooops more technical problems. It was so cloudy and foggy that we saw nothing. Added to this was the fact that it was about 5C cooler than it was in Sydney. It was so cold that we seriously considered lighting the gas stove in order to heat up the cabin.

We figured that if we headed north up the coast then the weather would get better very quickly. It was then that we realised how big the place actually was, heading up the coast to somewhere warm was going to take more than a few hours, more like a few days! We ended up in a little place called Forster.

This is where we encountered our first real live Aussies. However they didnt match the stereotype. They were two of the most committed born again Christians that I had ever met. Unfortunately for us we must have been viewed as potential convertees. I made the mistake of going and saying hello to them. Two hours and many Scriptures, parables and life stories gone wrong later I returned to a very angry Roisin in the van (where the hell were you etc?). Dont get me wrong they were lovely people and everybody has their religion but they where just too full on. Especially when they tried to sell me the Jesus t-shirt. Luckily for me they accepted my excuse that my backpack was full already.

Anyhow we were getting ready for bed that night when I opened the door in the van. Yer man was just standing there two feet from the van, he scared the life out of me. He must have been listening to us chat. "Hello Martin he said I just popped around to say hello". We decided at this point to leave for pastures new very early the next morning. I had seen two many movies where the next scene played out involved my character losing what looks like 450 litres of blood after being stabbed several times with a crucifix by the madman.

So the next morning we left before the bloodbath could begin in earnest. We arrived in a place called Port Macquarie where the sun was finally shining and we saw our first dolphins swimming in the sea. It was a fantastic place and we ended up staying four nights, which was needed just to see all the beaches in the area. It was here that we encountered our first mullets. There is a real Aussie fixation with the mullet, which I have not been able to work out. There are simply millions of Shane Byrnes here of all shapes and sizes! We visited some Koalas in the in a local sanctuary and got to pet them. Yes they are cuddly and it is the only creature that I know that can sleep more that my old housemate Kim.

Next stop was Coffs Harbour, which is another beautiful place with miles of picture postcard beaches. We hooked up with Keith who we had met previously in China. It was great to see him once more and was a relief to discover that not all Aussies are the types to stand outside your van in the dead of night listening in to your every word. We spent a lovely day eating fish and chips at the marina and even had the bonus of getting to watch some whales swim by.

There is another fixation in the Aussie national psyche that I have to tell you about. Australians like big theme things. Let me explain, on our way up from Sydney we passed the big rock. This is a scaled down replica of Uluru (Ayers Rock) which houses a hotel and cafe. In Coffs harbour we had the Big Banana where there was a 30ft plastic banana at the front of a banana plantation. Visitors can do a tour of the plantation, buy bananas, and would you believe, go ice-skating or snow tubing. They a have a ski slope in a refrigerated shed with real snow where you can rent a tube and spend a couple of hours happily sliding down, while the sun is splitting the stones outside. Naturally we gave it a go, it was a bit bizarre to say the least, but great fun.

On our way up the coast we also passed such places as the big Prawn 45ft, big oyster, big crab and the big mango and big pineapple. This is all mad but very true. Do you think they are compensating for something!?

We moved further north to Byron Bay. This was one of my favourite places as it was just so relaxed and the campsite that we were on was just right by the sea. It was here that we booked our first big adventure, a trip to the infamous Fraser Island!

But before Fraser we had an appointment with a superstar! Well not quite but we decided to visit Steve Irwins Zoo. Steve and the wife were not there but we still got to see a crocodile show. We seen a 400 Kilo croc jump clean out of the water, this was something else. We have some pictures of it that we will post on the site soon. There was even a crocoseum - a stadium with a capacity of about 5000.

We headed for a place called Rainbow beach for our Fraser Island trip. At the hostel we were put into groups of 10 and given the 4-wheel drive and necessary equipment for our 3-day camping trip. Things looked good at the outset as our jeep had the most beer and goons (goon is like wine in the loosest possible sense, in fact it doesnt contain any grapes and is made from fish eggs and nuts). We had good fun over three days and there were some real characters in our group. We did have one 25yr Old Dutch guy on the trip that was a real grandad. He just thought he knew everything. He kept instructing everyone how to do everything from driving the jeep to how to wash a fork, cook rice, slice bread etc.

I have never had so much fun driving as I did with that jeep particularly when grandad was over the rear axle and we were going over really rough terrain. The sound of his head hitting of the roof was music to my ears.

After Fraser we headed for a place called 1770. Yes you got it right it is called 1770. This is where captain cook first landed in Queensland. It was a beautiful place with the by now usual beautiful beaches and clear blue sea with the added bonus of a captain cook museum which was about the size of a mobile classroom. We hung out with our new friends from Fraser Island and checked out some kite surfing on the beach.

The next day we left for Gladstone where we met another Aussie we met in China. Lydia and her husband Don really looked after us for a few days, they showed us the sights and sounds of Gladstone and its surrounds. Thanks very much Lydia and Don! Whilst there we visited the largest horse sale in the Southern Hemisphere. It lasted for three days and was impressive especially when nearly all those attending had their full cowboy outfits on. There was no danger of us blending into the background there, we stuck out like the proverbial thumb!

After bidding goodbye to Lydia and Don we made our way over the next few days north to the town of Airlie beach to do our Whitsunday trip. Our boat was an ex racing boat and was fantastic. We spent two fantastic days on board visiting such places as the world famous whitehaven beach. I also saw a fish the same size as me when we were snorkelling. When I first seen it I couldn¡¦t believe it. I ended up feeding the fish bread from my hand. We have pictures but not with our digital camera, so you wont see them for a while.

Following Airlie beach we hit Townsville, which was a pleasant little town. We took a ferry over to Magnetic Island. We hired a moke, which is a mini cooper done up like a golf buggy and spent a lovely day exploring the Island. The Island was quite small, so this did not take long, and the remainder of the day was spent lying on the beach enjoying the sun and watching a wedding.

After we returned to the mainland we ventured on to Cairns. Whilst there we made our way up to Cape Tribulation which rates with Byron bay as my favourite places on the East Coast. I had neve seen proper rainforest and was simply amazed at the scenery in every direction. The rainforest came right down to the sea. I dont know if I will put these pictures on the web as I think they will only depress those at home at the moment.

Then we came to one of the saddest moments of our trip to date when we returned our campervan to her rightful home. It was a great way to travel the coast but we simply didnt have the time to continue our trip this way. From now on we would be flying!

Since then we have journeyed across the top of Australia, to Darwin and Broome, and then South to Perth. However, as we know you dont have all day to read this, We will add these to a separate travelpod shortly. Now you have something to look forward to!

Bye for now,


Martin and Roisin.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/muppet/muppets/1098857700/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/muppet/muppets/1098857700/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/muppet/muppets/1098857700/tpod.html Sat, 30 Oct 2004 00:40:44 -0400 The tale of Roisin and Martin's ventures to strange new lands.

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Singapore, Singapore

Hello Again Everyone.

At the moment we are currently driving up the east coast of Australia, having great time bar-b-q-ing and checking out the fab beaches, but more about that later.
First, I thought we would just fill you in on our stopover in Singapore, en route to Sydney.Recovering from our encounters with the Navan girls, with sore and seedy heads we boarded our flight to Singapore.

We arrived late and exhausted, but we still managed to notice that all around us everything was spotless. As we drove though the city to our hostel, we couldn't help but be impressed by all the sky scrapers and unusual buildings.

With only a limited amount of time to spend there, we decided to visit at the Singapore Zoo. There are two zoos, a day zoo and a night one. We bought a combined ticket for each and headed off. We spent the whole afternoon wandering around the day zoo checking out all the exhibits. I think the most impressive thing for me were the salt water crocodiles, they were absolutely huge, the biggest real life animal I have ever seen. No joking they were about 5m long and 1m wide.Martins favorites were the Polar Bears.

At around 6pm, when the sun went down, we took a break after walking around for 4 or 5 hours, we were beginning to think we maybe had overdone the zoo thing, by attempting two in one day. However, as soon as the night zoo opened and we went in, we were glad we did.
We were one of the first people in there, and headed straight for some walking trails. There was one else around and it was extremely eerie wandering through the tracks on our own in the dark.Even though we knew all the animals were safely in their enclosures, every noise made us jump about 10 feet in the air.
Apparently, over 90% of animals are nocturnal, which meant as soon as it was dark they all came alive. The animals were way more active than their cousins in the day zoo.
We were standing in front of the Bengal Tiger exhibit straining to see where he was hidden in the dark, when out of no where, he came running down a hill and stopped about three feet in front of Martin, ok, so there was about 5 inches of plexi glass in between the two of them, but this did not stop us getting the fright of our lives.

After the zoo, we headed home, exhausted and weary, but delighted with all the animals we had seen.
The next day we ventured down town and checked out some of the shopping districts on Orchard Road. And I have to say, we were really impressed with the public transport, its amazing, all the trains are spotless, run regularly on time, and they even refund you some of the money for the ticket at the end of the journey if you hand back over your ticket - you can't ask for more really can you???


However, our short time in Singapore was up, it was time for us to leave for Australia.
We were a bit sad to leave Asia, as we had a great time for the last six months there, but at the same time we were really excited about Oz.

We landed in Sydney on the Oct, and since then it's been non stop travelling. We have alot of ground to cover in only 3 months. As I said at the start we are currently about half way up the east coast in our camper van. We will update you on all our Oz adventures in the next entry.
Until then, take care

Roisin and Martin
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/muppet/muppets/1097472840/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/muppet/muppets/1097472840/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/muppet/muppets/1097472840/tpod.html Wed, 13 Oct 2004 02:50:45 -0400 The tale of Roisin and Martin's ventures to strange new lands.

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Bangkok, Thailand

Hi All,

When we last left you, we were off to enjoy what was left of our time in Asia on some quality beaches in the rain!

Fristly we tried Phuket - thankfully the sun came out and we spent a few pleasant days lounging around there. After about 3 days we decided it was time to move on to Krabi, on the mainland.
We found a lovely room there, at fist I thought the bathroom had was very unusual in that it had a balcony - who has a balcony in their bathroom?. However, we soon realized that it wasn't a balcony, but our shower! This would not have been a problem, but for the fact it rained constantly when we were there, so it was too wet to have a shower!!
In Krabi we experienced the worst thunder storm either of us have ever seen. The thunder sounded like explosions going off right over us and lasted about a minute each. The lightening lit up the whole sky, so even though it was dark outside, it looked like daylight.
As the weather had turned against us, we decided we might as well go some place where at least the nightlife was good. So we headed for Ko Samui in the gulf of Thailand, the other side of country. We arrived on the day of the All-Ireland football final, and made a bee-line for a place called Tropical Murphy's in Chewang. Rumor had it, that this was the only place in Thailand showing the match. When we got there, it was packed with Mayo and Kerry supporters from all over the globe! There was a great atmosphere in the place, and we met lots of people.

For the next few nights we hung out with our new drinking partners, we came second in the Tropical Murphys table quiz, and visited some lady boy cabaret shows (just wait till you all see martins pictures from that). While in Samui we checked out some different parts of the island, but all were pretty much the same, lots of bars, restaurants, souvenir shops and massage parlours. Its the closst thing to the costa del sol that we have seen whilst on this trip.

Our final port of call in our tour was Ko Tao, a smaller and quieter island, north of Koh Samui. This island is very popular with divers, and the whole place is litterly packed with dive centers. After over a week of rain, we were greatful when at last the sun came out for our last few days. So we enjoyed the beautiful beaches on the island, and got some great snorkeling in. We did a boat trip around the island and found one of the nicest beaches we have ever been to.

One evening while standing around the outside the reception of our hotel, we heard someone call Martin's name. We looked around to find an old rugby friend, Richard, who had been living on the island for three years as a dive instructor. As luck would have it, there was a bar near by, what better place to go and catch up??

After two days of catching up, we left Ko Tao and are now back in Bangkok, awaiting our flight to Singapore. Tonight I am off to meet some friends, Claire and Elanie, who arriving from Navan - will Bangkok survive three Navan girls?

will let you know next time...


roisin

Martin here. As a foot note Bangkok did survive three Navan girls, barely! Hopwever I must admit that I really got my eyes opened when the girls took me to all the dodgy areas. It really is a case of innocence lost for me. They even took me to a resturant called Cabbages and Condoms. I have to admit that the noodles where very chewy :)

To Elaine and Claire thanks for meeting us and happy travels!

Martin
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/muppet/muppets/1074076140/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/muppet/muppets/1074076140/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/muppet/muppets/1074076140/tpod.html Tue, 28 Sep 2004 07:26:10 -0400 The tale of Roisin and Martin's ventures to strange new lands.

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Hue, Vietnam

Hello All

Just thought we would drop you a line to let you know that we are still alive and kicking. We are currently in a place called Hue which is in central vietnam, more about that later. We just wanted to keep you up to date with what has happened over the last few weeks.

Laos is a fairly basic country and has the unwanted record of being the most bombed country per head of capita in the history of the world. America bombed this place to bits during the Vietnam war but at the time neglected to tell anybody in our part of the world.

Overall my impressions of Laos are that it is incredible place both in terms of the friendship shown by its people as well as the countries incredible scenery.

We started our trip to Laos with a ferry trip across the river to the border checkpoint. The checkpoint conisisted of a small concrete hut where a guy in a uniform stamped your passport. Impressive indeed!

We then made our way to the aptly named SLOW boat where we would spend our next two days being bored witless. The slow boat was basically a converted cargo boat with lots of lovely little DIY seats that where unfortunately not designed by chiropracters! After a few hours all contact with my bum was lost and the only thing that saved me was the fantastic views.On top of this the owners of the boat tried to force about 50 people too many into the boat. A bloody chicken in a battery farm had more room than us. But as we were all in the same boat (literly) the atmosphere was good. The boat wobbled constantly and the owners screamed in Laos at people not to move about due to fear of capsizing the boat but we made it to Lua Prabang at the end of day two all in one piece.

During the long trip down river we saw the poor unfortunates who had taken the more expensive trip in speed boats. Basically they are small single hulled boats which had a car engine strapped on. The occupants looked absolutely petrified as they hurlted by at 50MPH. This is pretty fastin a river which has loads of debris floating in it at any time. After seeing loads of these guys go by I dont think anyone on our boat would have swapped boats for love nor money. They where able to do our two day trip in 3.5 hours but if they had of hit a log or other debris they may have become fishfood.

Lua Prabang is quite a small place much smaller than Navan but was the old capital of Laos. We went to a travel agent recommened by the Lonely planet as the best in town. We walked in and the guy looked at us if we where from another planet. We asked about trips and everything cost $65 american dollars. This was a bit strange as everyhwhere else in town the tips where 5-8 bucks. He also told us that his trips where too expensive and advied us on how to do the trips cheaply. It was the complete opposite from a hard sell and I can only presume that the place is setup for moneylaundering or something. The "city" was absoltuely littered with Wats (temples) As we were still templed out from India and Thailand there was no real attarction so we made arrangements to go south to Vang Vien.

Vang Vien was an interesting place and we spent six nights there. The highlights included floating down the river in a tractor tube and stopping off at the various bars on our way. The Karst lanscape made the scenery absolutley stunning.

Another great day was spent Kayaking and caving. I opted out of the caving bit as there where no lights and Roisin could barely fit in. It was actually more like potholing. We where in a pitch dark cave filled with water where we couldnt touch the bottom and my head was bumping off the roof and the guide asked us if we had any torches with us as he didnt have one. I dont think that the health and safety concept has reahed Laos yet. The Kayaking was good at one stage Roisin and my boat where hit by another boat and forced into the trees at the side of the river. The current in the river then forced us to capsize. We were then pinned against the boat and required assistance from several guides to free our boat and ourselves. Shortly therafer the guide asked me to switch boats as he said I was too heavy for the Kayak and that it might sink at the next rapids so I swapped Roisin for a little boat on my own. The git.

We then popped down to the capital Vientiane for a night. This is a fairly quite town, with not much happening, more of a stop over. So we booked a bus ticket to the four thousand islands in the very south of the country. There we spent a pleasant few days on an island called Don Khong. This place was so relaxed that it would take an earthquake to wake the people up. One of the days we cycled around the Island. It was covered in Paddy Fields along with Chickens geese and water buffalo. Quite a sight I have to admit.
One day while sitting enjoying a quite beer, when we struck up a conversation with two mad Cork people and a couple of aussies at the next table, we decided to join them for a beer, one thing lead to another, and it all ended in chaos with us watching a man united v's arsnel match in the sitting room of the poeple who owned the guesthouse, along with some israelies - so much for our quite stay on an remote island!

But our time in Laos by this time had run out and we needed to make the move to Vietnam. We headed back north to a town called Pakse to try and arrange transport.

An Indian guy told us he could get us to Vietnam that day on a VIP bus with air con. We jumped at the chance and really thought he was doing us a favour.

On this occasion we where sold at an exorbitant price the trip from hell.

At 4PM we arrived at the bus the guy who sold us the ticket promised that we would arrive in Hue in Vietnam no later than 9AM. Our air condition VIP bus turned out to be none other than a piece of crap which would have passed for a modern bus during the second world war. Not only where most of the seats missing (replaced with garden chairs but the bus was full of all sorts of cargo including red bull custard creams, rice steamers, exotic caged birds, snails, puppies. Did I forget anyhting... Oh yes the entire smoking population of vietnam and Laos where on board as well.

Ah sure, we said this will be a good experience and we can mix with the locals (not likely as none of them spoke a word of english apart from a buddhist monk). The bus finally left at 5PM and travelled all off 7KM to a bus station north of town. Here it waited for two hours (AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH) Eventually we set off at 7:15PM and about three hours later where stopped by a dodgy looking police patrol they got everybody off the bus and put the bus through a rigourous Laos safety check. The bus was passed to continue (or the bribe was paid) and once more we set off. Did I mention that the driver was addicted to the centre line of the road and stuck to it like glue only swerving at the last moment to avoid oncoming traffic and bouncing from one side of the road to the other.

About ten PM we suffered the tyre blow out and the entire bus filled with really stinking smoke which briefly was even stronger than the smoke from the 3 million smokers that we had on board. So once agin we all got off the bus and everybody crowded around to watch as the flat tyre was replaced. I grimaced as this was the only spare we had and it was likely that the way the driver was going that we were going to need more. Maybe he would ease off to preserve rubber. However the bus driver raced on as if his life depended on him reaching the border as quickly as possible. We reached the border at 2AM. You wouldnt have beleived how delighted I was to learn that the border didnt open until 7AM. So it was us and the seven million others in the back of a bus. After a sleepless night we eventually headed for the border checkpoint. To cut a long story short I can confirm that communist civil servants both in Laos and in Vietnam rank as the most inefficent in the world. It took us over two hours before we eventaully left the border area. Inconceivably the bus then immediately stopped for another hour break. We then lost our seat to more important cargo of custard creams and red bull even though we paid five times more than anyone else.

To cap matters the bus didnt go to the town we wanted to go to but dropped us ten KM outside (screwed again). Here at 2:30PM (not quite the promised 9AM) on the side of the main road we were left at the mercy of the bikers who charged us handsomely for the short trip into town.

Anyhow we made it and after three days can report that Hue is a lovely town and that we have receovered. What we have learned from the experience is never to take a local bus and be careful what you buy, as if it sounds too good to be true it is.

Tomorrow we are off to explore some war tunnels, and after that we are heading north to Hanoi.
We will update you all on our vietnam adventures as they happen... stay tuned..

Martin and Roisin
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Bangkok, Thailand

Hello Again,
Here we are again, back in Bangkok.
Since our last update we have left Vietnam, and traveled up the Mekong River into Cambodia.

We arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon)safe and sound after an uneventful bus journey. We checked into a guess house which some fellow travelers recommended - called hotel 64.
This place is run by Madam Cue and her entirely female family. The girls were lovely, and looked after us very well. As soon as you walked in the door, they had your shoes off, you were sitting down and being presented with bowls of noodles, spring rolls, more banana's than you could eat, and lots of tea and lemon juice. This was before you had even checked in!

Saigon was a nice city, we didn't over extend ourselves there too much, mostly just walked around city. One afternoon we came across an Irish bar, we though we better check this out, so we went in for a beer. This place was crazy, the owner was a big breaded man, named Mike from Barane. He explained to us that the staff had to fulfill two criteria to work there: 1. You had adopt an Irish name, we had Molly, Aofie, Paddy and Maureen behind the bar, all of which were locals. 2. All staff members had to be learn to play a traditional Irish instrument and sing Irish songs - for the nightly session.
We were slightly skeptical about this, but sure enough, that evening at 8 O'Clock they all donned tweed caps, came out from behind the bar and began banging out Pouges and Christy Moore numbers. It was a great nights entertainment!.

After we recovered from our Trad-Veitnamese session, we headed off to the Mekong delta on a three day tour. The tour basically consisted of us being herded though a number of factories on various islands on the Mekong delta, the idea I think was to see how the people from these parts make a living. We saw rice husking, rice noodles, coconut factories, and crocodile farms. The most exciting thing was Martin getting to play with a Python at one of the stops. On the second day we saw some floating markets, and mostly spent the day travelling up the river, heading toward Cambodia.
We finally arrived in Cambodia on the third day. The border crossing was uneventful, which we were a little bit disappointed with, we had heard tales of hard it was, how corrupt all the guards were - expecting pay offs and the like. Well, there was no drama, they couldn't have been nicer, even taught us a few Khmer sayings to get us started.

We headed straight for the capital Phon Phenn, which is a funny city. The people seemed to have a little more money than those in Vietnam, as they all have cars. But even in the city center, if you turn off the main street you find yourself on dirt roads, which are full of muck if its raining or dry red dust if its not. Whilst there we decided to explore some of the city. We visited the Killing fields and saw the temple which contains 10000 skulls catogerised by age and gender. We also visted the S21 prison camp, together they were the most sobering and depressing things we have ever seen. In all the Khmer Rouge killed 2 million people about a quarter of the countries population. At the S21 prison camp there where pictures of each of the 14000 men women and young children who where "destroyed" there for such offences as being able to read and for wearing glasses.

When we arrived, we found a guest house called Meaghera - well, it was spelt a bit different, but pronounced the same. Martin took this as a good omen and we checked in. It was a great place, the owner and staff could not have been more friendly, and it was right across the street form a beautiful stretch of beach. We found a beach shack which stayed open 24 hours - we thought we were in heaven, we could sit all evening on our deck chairs, sipping cocktails and eating delicious fish and chips (they even had vinegar!!!).
Every day on the beach we would be approached by children of no more than 5 or 6 years of age selling fruit, crisps, bracelets, all manner of tourist trinkets. Some of these kids were hilarious, they had excellent English and were very smart. They would ask you to play a game of X's and O's with them in the sand, and if you lost you had to buy something off them, or if they lost you got it for free - they never lost. They normally all started with the same spiel, they ask you were are you from, you tell them, and they tell you the capital, the population and your currency, then they will ask for a sample of our currency to "remember" us.
But the other day I was at a bus stop and this adorable little boy came running up to me and asked me where I was from, I told him expecting the standard response, when he looked up at me, smiled and said Ah Conas ata tu ? Ta me go mhaith, I nearly fell over laughing, I bought his postcards and bracelets and everything else he was selling.

Next on our itinerary was Seim Reap, were we sent two long days visiting Angkor Wat. These ruins were amazing and it is difficult for me to describe how trully fantastic they are. They lived up to everything people have told us. We were at Angor Wat at 5 am in the morning, watching the sunrise and also stayed for sunset. I am posting a couple of pictures, for you all to have a look at.

After Ankor, we decided there wasn't much more we wanted to see in Cambodia, so we headed for Bangkok and partook in some retail therapy. Last night we decided to treat ourselves to a trip to the cinema. There is a VIP cinema here, which is only a little bit more expensive than the normal one, but boy, is it worth it. When you go in you get served fruit punch with crushed ice in a Martini glass, the seats are all individual seats which recline, it's like being in first class on a plane. Pure luxury for us.
We are now deciding what to do next, we are going to check out some islands before heading for OZ next month but we are not sure which ones - dilemmas dilemmas dilemmas...

However, you will all be pleased to know that is rainy season, and no matter which one we pick, it will more than likely be raining there, so it's not all good,

on that happy note, I will leave youse for now,

Roisin.
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Chiang Mai, Thailand

Hi everyone,

Since our last update we have been having a most enjoyable time here in Thailand.

We started in Phuket, relaxing for a few days and topping up our tans. While there we visited many of the near-by islands and bays, like Phi Phi island, where the film the beach was made. These were all fantastic, the scenery was amazing, blue/green waters, clear skies, white sandy beaches, beautiful brightly coloured fishes swimming in coral. But you have already seen some of the pictures, so I won't go on about it too much.
We also went snorkelling - which was excellent. I got bitten by a giant hammer head shark - well ok, it wasn't quite a hammer head shark, and it was more the size of a goldfish and wasn't really a shark, but it was a traumatic experience for me none the less!

Another local attraction was the island used in the James Bond flim, the man with the golden gun - this was a bit of a let down as it was a complete tourist trap with about 50 boats pulling up and everyone queueing to get the same pictures from the tiny little beach (which had lots of souvenior shops at the other end, surprise surprise). We also spent a day paddling about some lagoons, well, we sat on the inflatable canoe, and a man called 7 who was a big Roy Keane fan paddled us about for the day - very relaxing indeed.

So, we were having a great time, chilling on the beach by day, tasting all the wonderful local food and beers and trying to guess whether some of the local ladies were really ladies or not by night, when we realised our time was up and we had to go and meet my Dad. So we tearfully took a plane to Bangkok (we even considered calling Dad and making up some excuse for not being able to leave Phuket, but conscience got the better of me.

Bangkok turned out to be better than we anticipated. We were expecting another smelly smog filled city, full of hawkers and sleezy bars - which it was, but it didn't bother us as much as we though it would. We stayed in a nice enough area, Silom Road, which was near really good night markets, and some interesting bars!

One evening we were sitting outside one of these bars having dinner, when we noticed the man at the table next to us. He was dressed quite conservatively, shirt and dark shorts and was in his mid sixties. He was sitting with a younger thai man. The weird thing was, he was wearing the maddest,brightest red runners. My cosin Andrea, struck up a conversation with him, and asked him about them, to which he replied, oh, these are my ruby shoes to get me back to Kansas (where he was from). He then pulled out his portable Dvd Player, and we all began watching the Wizard of OZ! This was fine, a little surreal, but fine, untill, Dorothy (as he liked to be called) jumped up, grabbed a waiter and began to skip up and down the street in the same way as Judy Garland and the scarecrow on the yellow brick road. Fearing we might get dragged into some kind of reenactment of the entire film, we asked for our check and left.

We did visit some sites outside bangkok, like the floating markets and the bridge over the river kwai. We also visited some more temples and Wats and ruins in the ancient capital of Auruytta. I think we already have some of these pictures up.
The best fun however was the cookery class. I have added a couple of picutres of us working hard, to this update for everyone to laugh at. It was a really good course, much better than our indian cookery course. So when we get back we will have you all arround for Pad Thai noodles and Banana with Coconut milk for dessert!

After a week in Bangkok, it was time for Dad and Andrea to leave :( and for us to move north to Chaing Mai. Which is where we have been ever since. This is a fairly relaxed, laid back place full of other travelers. Even though it's the second biggest city in Thailand, it feels like a small town, its easy to get arround and the people here are very friendly and helpful. Our guest house is excellent, with satellite tv and a fridge (pure luxury for us) all for 5 euros a night. The lady who runs the place is a bit phsycotic, she laughs to herself all day, but in nice not norman bates sort of way. Once you get over that, she's alright really.

At the moment we are getting over our 3 day trek to see some hill tribes. We are all aches, pains, lumps, bumps, bruises and bites. It was a great experience, but hard going. It hadn't occured to us untill half way throug the first day, when we were were already knackered from climbing - that hill tribes live in.... Hills! - and to see these we were going to have to climb the hills. In our enthusiasim to be at one with nature and the thai people, we had overlooked this. Nevertheless, after the first day we had the worst over with. The villages were great, except we met more Europeans than actually thai native hill tribe people. The ones we did see all had mobile phones and were wearing track suits.

I am sure the villagers where all in a hut somewhere watching Sky Sports, eating a pizza delivery or something. We were outside in a candle lit hut with no walls and bamboo sticks for matresses, in the pouring rain, eating rice and the mushrooms our guide had gathered on the way up the mountain. On the second day there was not some much climbing, but more walking through paddy feilds. Again, the scenery was fantastic, as long as you didn't look down at what was crawling all over your feet. At lunch we stopped in another village, which give us a chance to pull the leeches off our feet - lovely! On the second night we stopped at waterfall camp which was lovely. The following evening when we returned to Chiang Mai - neither of us have ever been so happy to see a warm shower. After a quick rest our trekking group met up in a local bar for debriefing, which ended up in us being thrown out of the bar at 1am as they wanted to close up for the night.

It has been two days now, and we are almost fully recovered (from the trek and the debriefing session). We are planning to leave Chiang Mai tommorow. The next stop is Laos. We are going north to Chiang Khong first and then taking a boat down the Mekong river for a couple of days.

No doubt we will be in touch soon

Take care
Roisin
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