TravelStream™ news feed for member timeofourlives on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/timeofourlives en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Tue, 22 Jan 2008 17:01:11 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/timeofourlives/grim_up_north/1172613180/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/timeofourlives/grim_up_north/1172613180/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/timeofourlives/grim_up_north/1172613180/tpod.html Tue, 22 Jan 2008 17:01:11 -0500 We've packed our bags to go travelling to see what lies beyond beautiful Bury and sunny Scunny!!

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Perhentian Islands, Malaysia

We arrived on the Perhentian Island (after a roller coaster ride on a speedboat) of Kecil and set off down the beach in search of a hut to rent. We tried a few places but despite the very cheap price tags (about £1 a night) the state of some places was too much for Kerry (and John - thats how bad they were!) to accept. When we found one we discovered dragon-lizardy-type looking things were our neighbours. We dropped our bags off, grabbed our sarongs (yes John included!) and headed to the beach for a spot of sunbathing. After a day catching the rays we dragged ourselves a few metres up the beach and enjoyed a sunset meal for two. We woke to cloud and drizzle the next day so we decided to make our stay on Kecil short but sweet and boarded the boat again to go back to the mainland. The speedboat ride back was equally as bumpy and our already slightly bruised bums got another beating! We then had to sit on them for hours during our taxi-train-and overnight ferry to Ko Phan Ngan in search of the full moon party!!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/timeofourlives/grim_up_north/1172439420/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/timeofourlives/grim_up_north/1172439420/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/timeofourlives/grim_up_north/1172439420/tpod.html Tue, 22 Jan 2008 16:51:12 -0500 We've packed our bags to go travelling to see what lies beyond beautiful Bury and sunny Scunny!!

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Taman Negara, Malaysia

On our first night in the Taman Negara jungle we went out to meet the locals. It wasn't long before we were greeted by scorpions, spiders, snakes and leopards. We were also told that dengy fever was rife in the area but luckily we didn't bump in to that! John nearly has a close encounter with the hospital though when he was nearly thrown off the jeep and into the oncoming traffic when our crazy Malaysian driver slammed on the brakes on our jungle highway!

The next morning we went out to do a canopy walk in the jungle tops - apparently it is (or at least used to be) the worlds longest jungle canopy walk. In the afternoon we continued our exploring with a climb up Teresek Hill and the views at the top were fantastic. Eagre to see more of this region we then visited Orang Asli village. Whilst there the villagers taught us how to blow poisoned darts at prey (or a stuffed toy in the case of tourists) and how to make fire ("aargh arrgh" - Tim the toolman Taylor stylee!). The locals didn't seem too bothered by our invasion (then continued to walk around naked!) and found our dart throwing highly amusing! We on the other hand found the the "chicken" we ordered for dinner that night less than amusing as it bore a strong resemblance to a popular family pet. In order to get over this little trauma we left the jungle and headed to the beautiful Perhentian islands.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/timeofourlives/grim_up_north/1172261640/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/timeofourlives/grim_up_north/1172261640/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/timeofourlives/grim_up_north/1172261640/tpod.html Sun, 20 Jan 2008 15:22:09 -0500 We've packed our bags to go travelling to see what lies beyond beautiful Bury and sunny Scunny!!

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Kuala Lumpar, Malaysia

We arrived in Kuala Lumpar, or KL for those who find it too strenuous to say it in full, at night and it wasn't until the next morning that we fully realised the difference between Singapore and Malaysia. Gone were the clean streets and once again we found ourselves in poor, dirty surroundings - we felt like we were truly travelling again!

We headed out in the sun and walked to chinatown before hopping on a bus to Batu Caves - a highly religious place outside the city. In the afternoon the weather turned so we headed to Petrona towers (once the highest in the southern hemisphere). Unfortunately we hadn't done our homework and the tickets to the top were sold out. We settled for a postcard of the towers instead! We then headed to the telecom tower for the plan b view over KL (sorry, feeling a bit lazy whilst writing this!). The next day we decided to escape the capital and go to the Taman Negara jungle!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/timeofourlives/grim_up_north/1172073840/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/timeofourlives/grim_up_north/1172073840/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/timeofourlives/grim_up_north/1172073840/tpod.html Sun, 20 Jan 2008 11:18:07 -0500 We've packed our bags to go travelling to see what lies beyond beautiful Bury and sunny Scunny!!

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Singapore, Singapore

Singapore was country #15 and our first stop in South-East Asia. We arrived at night so we didn't get our first proper view of it until the next day. The place was just like the guide books described it - very clean and sterile looking with a very hot and humid atmosphere.

We spent our first day cramming in as many of the sights as possible. Our first stop was a visit to a monastery. After 9 months of living in an English speaking country we did our best to work out signs made up of random squiggles and used sign language and pointing to help us get there. Our efforts resulted in us being dropped off by the bus a rather significant distance away from where we wanted to be. We wandered through the streets in the roasting sun before eventually finding the monastery. The walk was well worth it and we spent a very peaceful few hours enjoying the quietness away from the busy city centre. Therefore, being stressed out can't be used as an excuse for our next stop at the famous Raffles hotel for a Singapore Sling! We spent an outrageous amount of money on 2 of these drinks and then headed out in to the blistering mid-day sun. Oops - that gave away the early hour we were drinking at!

We then visited chinatown and headed to Sentosa Island via the gondola. We spent a few hours taking in the sights before heading to the gardens to watch the laser show. The next day the last place we visited in Singapore was Changi Prison. This was a really interesting place documenting the prisoners held there during the world war. With a little more knowledge under our belts we packed our bags and left to go to Kuala Lumpar the capital of Malaysia.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/timeofourlives/grim_up_north/1171726980/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/timeofourlives/grim_up_north/1171726980/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/timeofourlives/grim_up_north/1171726980/tpod.html Sun, 20 Jan 2008 11:02:45 -0500 We've packed our bags to go travelling to see what lies beyond beautiful Bury and sunny Scunny!!

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Cairns, Australia

Our last port of call in our adopted home Australia was Cairns. We flew there from Brisbane and met up with Claire and Helen. Our last days in Oz were not filled with the sunshine that you might imagine is constantly shining in this country, but instead we found ourselves under a never ending rain cloud - perhaps the weather picked up on the fact we were very sad to leave this place.

Nonetheless, we decided to go swimming in the lagoon, sure if your wet already what does it matter and the rain was warm anyway. We also decided to wet our throats - John hit the bar first leaving us girls to get ready for one final night out together down under - not sure if he was getting out of our way to be polite or if he was in dire need of a drink after sharing a room with 4 very excitable girls!

Whilst in Cairns we just had to visit the Great Barrier Reef. Once again, despite the weather we boarded the boat and headed out on to a very rough sea. At the last count Claire was sick 8 times! When we reached the reef we donned our wetsuits (some put them on backwards - no names mentioned) and jumped in to escape the rocky boat. Even though the weather wasn't great we saw lots of marine life and the coral was very impressive. John cut his foot on some coral at one point and it wasn't long before he was back on the boat as he thought Jaws was going to smell the blood and hunt him down! In the afternoon we went to another spot of the reef and this time it was Kerry's turn to get injured. No longer than 2 minutes after diving in a jellyfish stung her on the arm. She immediately panicked and called for John 'Hasselhoff' Sutcliffe to save her. She frantically told him the jellyfish was still attacking her and after several minutes of checking under the water to get it off her, John realised it was Kerry's bikini string that was rubbing against her!!

We then had one last night in Oz and John decided to overdose on all things Australian - at dinner he had a platter consisting of shark, croc, emu and then watered it down with a few schooners of tooheys! The next day we said a tearful goodbye to Claire, Jane & Helen who then headed up to Cape Tribulation. We boarded our plane to Singapore (via Darwin which was redders - typical!) and began our final leg of our round the world tour. See you again soon Oz! xxx
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/timeofourlives/grim_up_north/1171018560/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/timeofourlives/grim_up_north/1171018560/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/timeofourlives/grim_up_north/1171018560/tpod.html Sat, 24 Nov 2007 06:15:32 -0500 We've packed our bags to go travelling to see what lies beyond beautiful Bury and sunny Scunny!!

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Fraser Island, Australia

After the gorgeous Whitsunday Islands we then headed to the equally beautiful Fraser Island. Fraser island is the largest sand island in the world but before we could set foot on this paradise, we had to work out how to get there! One option was to fly but we could only do that on Tuesdays - not very handy when you turn up there towards the end of the week! Another option was to get the ferry and either hire a 4X4 or go on an organised tour - good options that we pondered over. Jane said that driving was an option as she had a friend who had done that. Not convinced that we could drive to Fraser ISLAND (a clue perhaps!) John enquired about this and was greeted with a 'stupid pomme' look from the travel agent - perhaps if could have got our hands on James Bond's car it would have been an option but on this occasion we decided to opt for the Ferry! We decided on an organised tour and although we weren't keen about being herded around in big organised groups Fraser Island didn't disappoint!

Our first stop was at Central Station which provided us with a history of the island. Next stop was India Head where you can often see sharks swimming just off the shore - apparently swimming off the coast of Fraser Island is a big no-NO!! We also visited a shipwreck and Eli creek. The following day we went to two of the islands most beautiful lakes. First was Lake Wabba that was reached by a hard but well-worth-it walk over numerous sand dunes.We spent a few hours relaxing there before going to Lake McKenzie. This lake was equally gorgeous and we spent some more quality time here sunbathing! It was such a beautiful place that one guy popped the question to his girlfriend and we gained a newly engaged couple on our tour! Fraser Island for us all was absolute paradise!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/timeofourlives/grim_up_north/1171447740/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/timeofourlives/grim_up_north/1171447740/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/timeofourlives/grim_up_north/1171447740/tpod.html Sat, 24 Nov 2007 05:34:56 -0500 We've packed our bags to go travelling to see what lies beyond beautiful Bury and sunny Scunny!!

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Brisbane, Australia

Our road trip in OZ carried on down the east coast where we stopped off for a speed-sunbathing session in Noosa for a morning and then carried on to Brisbane. Whilst in the Brisbane area we just had to visit Steve Irwin's Australia Zoo! There were still tributes there following his death which was a bit sad to see but the zoo, the animals and the facts about the wildlife were top notch! When we first arrived a zoo keeper came up to us to show us a baby possum asleep wrapped up in a blanket - aaaww, however, when it came to Kerry's turn to stroke it, it attacked her and she screamed, ran and only several shouts of "help" later realised it was the keeper winding her up with a hand-puppet! Kerry and Jane were first in the queue to feed the elephants (several small children lay on the ground after being pushed out of the way by them!) whilst the croc show was really good and probably the highlight of the day - Kerry and Jane were not forming a queue to feed these!

En-route to Brisbane we stopped off at a Bill's cousins before setting up camp for the night. In the morning John and Bill found the girls asleep in the car after they had woke up at 4:30 to discover their tent was leaking - needless to say they weren't good morning people that day, or any other day for that matter! Later that day John and Bill went to visit John's cousin Lisa and left Kerry and Jane to spend Valentines day together in Brisvegas! The girls decided to paint the town red that night and headed straight to the hostel bar with their fellow roommates. The St Valentines day special offer was free champagne for the girls for an hour. They made the most of this and then pieced the rest of the night together the following morning. It roughly consisted of; Jane finding herself on stage and being thrown out of the drinking competition (she didn't realise she was in it so got disqualified because she kept drinking before they said go!), Kerry discovering a door in the bathroom was only on 1 hinge so she tried to fix it which resulted in the door completely falling off leaving the guests entirely exposed when visiting the loo unless they could find a friend to prop it up for them, Jane throwing up in a bucket left for her outside the hostel by the manager and Kerry falling asleep next to her because she got bored waiting for her to stop emptying her stomach contents! In a complete role-reversal John meanwhile spent a lovely few days relaxing on the golf course with his cousin Lisa. Lisa lives near one of the best golf courses in Australia (complete with resident kangaroos that we hope know the meaning of the word "four"!!). From Brisbane we backed up on ourselves and flew north to Cairns for our last stop before leaving OZ.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/timeofourlives/grim_up_north/1170758580/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/timeofourlives/grim_up_north/1170758580/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/timeofourlives/grim_up_north/1170758580/tpod.html Mon, 08 Oct 2007 05:55:37 -0400 We've packed our bags to go travelling to see what lies beyond beautiful Bury and sunny Scunny!!

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Whitsunday Islands, Australia

After spending an amazing time in the middle of OZ in what seemed like a million miles away from anywhere, we headed back towards the coast and civilisation. Our first stop on the east coast was the Whitsundays. The Whitsundays are a group of islands that we arranged to spend a few days sailing around.When we arrived we set about finding a ship and eventually plumped for the 111 year old tall ship 'Defender'! The next morning we hopped aboard and set sail for the islands. Unfortunately the weather was overcast but the group on our ship were a great bunch. We opened a few beers and despite it being cloudy Kerry still ended up with 3rd degree sunburn! We spent the next few days sailing around these gorgeous islands, snorkeling, having BBQ's playing charades (the girls beat the boys of course!), night fishing and then spent our last day playing beach cricket on the beautiful white sand of Whitehaven beach. John was a little bit annoyed when Kerry caught him out for a duck but he handled it well as you can imagine! As we headed back to the mainland a cyclone was heading our way but the weather couldn't dampen what a great time we had with the crew and other passengers on the Defender! Back on less than dry land we sheltered for a night in a hotel before heading further down the east coast.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/timeofourlives/grim_up_north/1170652620/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/timeofourlives/grim_up_north/1170652620/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/timeofourlives/grim_up_north/1170652620/tpod.html Wed, 18 Apr 2007 06:04:20 -0400 We've packed our bags to go travelling to see what lies beyond beautiful Bury and sunny Scunny!!

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Somewhere in the outback!, Australia

Our road trip around Oz then took us to the Northern Territory. Our first stop was at Uluru, this is the aboriginal name for what is more commmonly still known as Ayres Rock. We arrived there late in the afternoon so that we could see the colour of the rock changing as the sun goes down. For what is essentially just a big rock in the middle of nowhere it was surprising how special it looked! The next morning we got up at the crack of dawn so that we could climb Ayres Rock before the temperature got too hot. Despite getting there early while it was cool it was still very hard work to climb. After clambering up, around and over it we got to the top. The views (although of nothing in particualr except a wide open space) were also pretty special! We then had a bit of a wander around the rock to take a look at the aboriginal murrels on the walls.

After Ayres Rock we went on a trek around Kings Canyon - yet another beautiful place in the middle of nowhere. On the trek we saw Dingoes, a Kangaroo crossed our path and we swam in the Garden of Eden waterhole. At the campsite in the evening we fed rock wallabies - a smaller looking version of a Kangaroo. During our time in the outback Jane also managed to develop physical and verbal tourettes and for about 2 weeks we most commonly found her swearing at and/or swatting flies!

On the following and final day of our stay in the Red Centre we visited a few more chasms and gorges before heading back towards the coast - it was only a few thousand kilometres and a couple of days drive away!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/timeofourlives/grim_up_north/1167712140/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/timeofourlives/grim_up_north/1167712140/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/timeofourlives/grim_up_north/1167712140/tpod.html Fri, 09 Mar 2007 01:17:04 -0500 We've packed our bags to go travelling to see what lies beyond beautiful Bury and sunny Scunny!!

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Sydney, Australia

We had 3 weeks left in Sydney after the New Year and decided that we would cram them with as much fun as possible!

Firstly we booked ourselves onto a sunset climb over the Harbour Bridge. We set off with John's sister Claire and a couple of her mates and got kitted up in grey boiler suits and harnesses - highly attractive! The walk itself was quite easy and the views were amazing. We saw the sun setting over the city as well as a comet flying through the sky!

We also decided to take a wine tasting trip to the Hunter Valley. There were 13 of us so we hired a minibus and a guide and off we went! On the way we stopped at the Australian Reptile Park and cuddled Koalas and fed Kangaroo's. We also saw dingos, owls, snakes and a 3 legged croc who was a bit aggressive and had lost one of his feet in a fight with another croc! Once in the Hunter valley we wasted no time in getting stuck into the vino! We were sat in a semi-circle and taught how to wine taste using our eyes, nose and of course our mouths. We tried about 7 wines as well as sherry and port so we left there feeling a bit tipsy! We visited a couple more wineries throughout the day and stocked up at all of them. On the journey home we managed to go through most of the wine we had bought and had a good sing-song! Back in Sydney we carried on the party in a bar in the City well into the night!

Every year in Sydney they have a music festival called the Big Day Out so we went along with John's sister and Jane. The site was massive with about ten stages and loads of food and booze stalls. There were some good bands on and we saw Lily Allen, Jet, The Streets, Muse, Evermore and loads more. The highlight of the day though was definitely The Killers!

The first of the four couples to leave was Fran and Paul. For their last weekend we split into boys and girls and while the girls pampered themselves the boys went for a sophisticated round of golf at Bondi. That night we all met up in Coogee and had a meal and then some drinks on the beach. Paul and Fran then did a speech and gave us all photos to remember our time together in Sydney.

We had been staying at Pete and Claire's for the majority of January but for our last week they threw us out onto the streets (they said something about Claire's brother coming to stay...) so John found us a room to stay in above a pub! It turned out to be the worst place we have stayed since we've been travelling! The place was filthy and every morning John was awoken by the sound of Kerry hitting the floor with her flip-flop to kill the cockroaches that came into our room every night! Luckily it was only down the road from Pete and Claire's so we still spent a lot of time there.

The weather was really nice in Sydney before we left so we spent time at the beaches and
in Centennial Park playing cricket and having picnics. On our last week in Sydney we arranged a leaving meal with all our mates that we had met in Sydney. There was a good group of us including Dosh & Pecks (aka Pete and Claire), Gerard & Bernice, Yorkie, Paul & Trudy, Claire, Rebecca, Jax & Jo and Cian. Shelley couldn't make it because she had been to boxercise the night before and had injured every muscle in her body and couldn't move! After the meal we moved onto a pub until late so the next day we all had bad heads!!

For our very last night in Sydney we had a bbq at Pete and Claire's (for a change!!). We
all said a (drunken) speech and said our goodbyes. John and Gerd decided it was a good idea to shave mohawks in each others hair as a farewell gesture - Pete is too good-looking (and wise!) to do this to himself!!

We were lucky enough to meet some fantastic people in Sydney and have made some lifelong friends, it really felt like we were leaving "home" but we were excited about our
roadtrip the next day with Bill.
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