TravelStream™ news feed for member tjwanderer on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/tjwanderer en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sat, 05 Jul 2008 07:06:14 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tjwanderer/1/1213959060/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tjwanderer/1/1213959060/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tjwanderer/1/1213959060/tpod.html Sat, 05 Jul 2008 07:06:14 -0400 From Wellington, Somerset to Wellington, New Zealand...

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Ayutthaya, Thailand

...we decided to make the most of our time left in thailand and to take the night train from Krabi to Bangkok and then on to Ayutthaya, where we visited the UNESCO protected Ayutthayan and early Khmer temple ruins in the centre of the town. This was an unexpectedly very enjoyable four days of wandering around piles of bricks in the scorching midday heat. The majority of the main temples are quite ruinous as the Burmese made an exact job of destroying the city in the 15th and then the 18th centuries, but two of the temple sites we visited, one on the outskirts of the town outside of the canaled "island", was spectacular, and we had the delight of only being two of the half a dozen other toursits wandering around the almost complete and lovingly restored temple grounds. The other temple site which impressed us was the first site we stumbled upon with the most photographed Buddha's head in Thailand, the one which has been engulfed by the roots of a fig tree - you'd have seen the photo on ANY tourist brochure for Thailand! It was still pretty cool and we took our own photographs once the hordes of Malay, Chinese, Korean, Taiwanese and Thai tourists had wondered off.

We decided not to cram too much into our four days here and concentrate on six sites to enjoy in their entirety as we felt too much detail is lost if you have to rush around like an eejit! As it was, the four days we were there were worth it and the photos should sow that Ayutthaya should be on everybodys itinery for visiting thailand. I also figured that a visit to Surathani, a mere 40-50 k's up the road would also have been worth our time, but we both agreed that after Ayutthaya we were al "templed" out!!

With that in mind, we tought we'd spend our last few days in Kanchanaburi and take a look at the bridge over the river kwai and pay our respects to the men (both Allied, Thai, Burmese, Chines and Malay who lost their lives to the horrors of the labour camps set up by the Japanese in order to force a ralway into the depths of Burma and take the offensive to the Allied front in Burma and India.

How littel did we appreciate that such a solemn and terrible period in history could be bolloxed up, vastly mis represented and over touristed (not to mention over priced) by the insatiable quandary that is Thai tourism...
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tjwanderer/1/1213612440/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tjwanderer/1/1213612440/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tjwanderer/1/1213612440/tpod.html Tue, 01 Jul 2008 07:24:35 -0400 From Wellington, Somerset to Wellington, New Zealand...

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Krabi, Thailand

We stayed at the Greenway hotel in Krabi, a nice, clean hotel on the main road through the town, but it was very quiet and the staff were very helpful and welcoming. We had originally decided to take a look at the beaches around the Trang district like Riling beach and maybe stay in a bungalow resort for a few days, catch some sun and swim in the sea, but when we arrived in Krabi we decided to stay in town and expolore the area from there as we'd secured a cracking room in a clean hotel and, besides, we'd only just had a "beach" holiday in Palau Perhentian the week before. I had read about the local Buddhist temple and some 3000 year old wall paintings in a sea cave which I persuaded Jo we should visit. The weather was a lot hotter than in Penang and Palau, so where ever we went we were drenched in sweat, so with that in mind, we thought we'd climb 1,214 steps in the blistering mid day heat to the top of a limestone outcrop and take a look at the Buddhist temple just outside of town- called the Tiger Temple, not because there were tigers there, but because the rock upon which stands the golden Buddha looks like a tigers head (apparently you have to be slightly pissed and look at the rock with squinted eyes to get the full effect, a bit like those 3D posters that were all the rage in the early 90's where people would spend hours staring at them with crossed eyes claiming they could see a shipwreck, or an image of Jesus, or something!)

Anyway, 1,214 long, steep, dehydrating and bloody knackering steps later and we were stood running with sweat, red faced and close to death gazing at a huge image of a meditating Buddha with a very welcome breeze blowing through our sweat soaked clothing. The view was pretty impressive with the sea in the distance and various limestone outcrops draped in liana vines and shrubs poking up through the landscape like claws. The only thing to really spoil the view of the temple and the surrounding countryside were the red and white striped mobile phone radio masts attached to the roof of the temple itself and sticking straight out of the top of some of the more beautiful hills. It wasn't until afterwards, when we'd climbed back down the 1,214 irregularly cut steps with shaking legs and made our way back to the cool air conditioned sanctuary of our hotel room that I realised from reading in our guidebook that we'd missed most of the rest of the temple compound; including a series of caves (located at ground level) in which the monks and nuns spend time in meditation and you can see photos of cadavers which are meant to prevent you from thinking indecent, sexual and immoral thoughts whilst you meditate. As well as this we could have saved ourselves the arduous climb and also visited the oldest standing tree in southern Thailand. Still, never mind, eh?

The following day we booked ourselves on a sea kayaking trip to visit some sea caves on the coast. Luckily the weather had clouded over in the night so the sun was not as vicious. The trip cost 1200 baht each, but it turned out that it was worth the cash as the trip was excellent and included one of the best meals we had enjoyed in Thailand so no complaints there! We were joined by Dan and Laura, a couple from Bristol, of all places, who were great fun and our guide who was excellent and pointed out interesting rock formations, caves, sea crabs, different flora and fauna and was very informative. The first couple of caves we visited were superb and as it was high tide we had to paddle through the low, narrow cave entrances in single file through the darkness, guided by torchlight. The caves went through the cliffs into mangrove swamp lagoons on the other side, so this was very impressive in itself. Our guide pointed out rock fish to us and if I'd not seen them with my own eyes I'd never have believed them. The fish (for that's what they were) were sat on top of rocks sticking out of the water and moved on land on their over large fins like seals pushing themselves along and jumping into the water where they'd skim along the top out of reach.

The last cave of the day was the one I'd been looking forward to most as this held cave paintings which had been dated over 3000 years old, but I had my doubts about the authenticity of some of the rock paintings which were located nearer the ground. Unlike the probably original paintings on the cave ceiling at least 15 to 20 feet above our heads, these were accessible from the cave floor and consisted of human like figures with large alien like heads, scrawlings which looked like boats, or possibly cone shaped or UFO's and unidentifiable animal-like images. Maybe they were 3000 year old Neolithic cave art, but I had my issues as I suspect that once the locals realised the cash incentive of showing tourists the "original" cave paintings they'd either "improved" original paintings or highlighted faded paintings themselves by colouring them (which is bad enough) or even imaginatively recreated their own paintings in order to entertain the tourists who flock to this particular cave in order to gaze upon the cave art. In fact, when we arrived there was a party of Malaysian holiday makers scrambling irreverently about the cave, shrieking in their childlike way and taking photos of each other or playing their particular style of Asian pop music on the loudspeakers of their mobile phones. Needless to say, I waited until they'd buggered off before making my own exploration of the cave. Each to his own!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tjwanderer/1/1213438200/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tjwanderer/1/1213438200/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tjwanderer/1/1213438200/tpod.html Tue, 01 Jul 2008 06:29:54 -0400 From Wellington, Somerset to Wellington, New Zealand...

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Penang, Malaysia

We were in Penang for two reasons, to shop for souvenirs and presents for the folks at home and to celebrate Jo's birthday. After we got off the bus from Palau Perhentian, a bloody long journey of over 6 hours through the highlands- very beautiful! The Saturday was Jo's birthday, so we went to a lovely and stylish Indian restaurant located in an impressively refurbished colonial building near the museum for Jo's birthday dinner. The food was excellent, the decor superb, the company delightful and there was even a small four piece jazz band tinkling away in the corner who very kindly played a jazzy version of "happy birthday" for Jo who had, I am told, a lovely time; but, I think the clincher was a generous portion of tiramisu with a single candle stuck in the top!

Jo also had her palms and the back of her hands painted in henna for her birthday gift from me. It looked really lovely and the designs were really intricate, painted on by hand by an expert who usually offers her services for brides who have their hands and feet painted for their weddings.

Once we'd shopped for various gifts of beautiful material and other gifts for family at home we couldn't resist seeing a film at the main cinema again as it so cheap to watch a movie in Malaysia: it cost us 14 Ringit (about £2.50) for us to watch Kung Fu Panda, bargain!

The following morning at 5am we were to be found standing in the street outside of our hotel waiting for the mini van to take us across the Thai border to Krabi, where we planned to spend a few days investigating the delights of the Trang district of the Thai peninsula.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tjwanderer/1/1213422660/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tjwanderer/1/1213422660/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tjwanderer/1/1213422660/tpod.html Fri, 27 Jun 2008 02:00:40 -0400 From Wellington, Somerset to Wellington, New Zealand...

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Pulau Perhentian Besar, Malaysia

We were in Penang for two reasons, shopping for souveniers and for Jo's birthday on 14th June, and as we'd already exhausted the delights that Penang has to offer, we also decided to catch a film at the "oh, so cheap" Malaysian cinemas!
Once Jo had dragged me around every material store in Little India, and we'd wandered around the shopping malls for gifts to take home I made a reservation at a lovely indian restaurant situated in a beautifully restored colonial building near the museum for Jo's birthday dinner. The food was excellent, the ambience was delightful, the decor very tastefull and the company was most enjoyable, there was even a four piece jazz band tinkling away in the corner who kindly played "happy birthday" to Jo when she returned from the ladies room after our meal and before the tiramasu (with lit candle, of course) arrived with the coffee...bless her!

Jo also had her hands painted in henna in a traditonal style normally used by indian women on their wedding day, I must say that they looked really good and the pattern has only just faded over a week later. Once again, we found a lovely shop in Little India for Jo to have her hands painted. It was amongst the many shops in the district sporting burning ghee on the pavement, burning insence wafting from a shrine to Hathi, the elephant god of prosperity and blasting Bollywood music from huge loud speakers- we love this place!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tjwanderer/1/1212650940/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tjwanderer/1/1212650940/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tjwanderer/1/1212650940/tpod.html Sat, 14 Jun 2008 03:50:14 -0400 From Wellington, Somerset to Wellington, New Zealand...

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Pulau Perhentian Besar, Terengganu, Malaysia

After our jungle adventures we decided to have some R&R, so we caught the train onto Kuala Besur and then by boat across the sea to the islands of Pulau Perhanthian (Stop Islands in Malay) where we planned to relax on the sand, get a tan, swim in the crystal clear sea, snorkle over the coral and recharge some of our batteries. We satyed on the smaller of the two islands and booked ourselves into the only available accomodation on Long Beach at moonlight Chalet, a run down dive for 80RM a night. Still, we hadn't planned on spending too long in our room as the lure of the white coral sand beach and warm clear sea beckoned us, so within half an hour of landing on the island we were lying under a sun umbrella with our heads stuck in a good book.

The first two days were spent that way, breakfast, beach, lunch, beach, shower, dinner, bar, bed, breakfast, beach and so on. We decided we ought to try and see some of the island other than our square meter of shaded sand so we packed some water and headed off early before the heat hit the beach at midday and walked 10 minutes through the jungle interior to the beach on the other side of the island called coral bay. Upon our sweaty arrival we realised that long beach was definetley the better of the two as there is more beach and the water is much calmer for bathing, so we turned around and trudged back intent on grabbing a shaded patch of sand, stripping off and soaking in the water. I led the way and Jo followed, but so intent was I in getting back I hadn't noticed a metre long thin, white and green headed snake next to the path rearing it's head up at me as i'd walked past it. Jo gave a cry and I looked around to see that I'd inexplicably walked past this venomous beastie which I'd obviously disturbed and caused it to rear up. Slowly it slithered away into the bush and I turned to Jo who said, "I hate the bloody jungle!"

That afternoon we were lazing as per usual when a sea eagle landed on the beach not more than 2 metres from where we were. Wow, a fully grown sea eagle! It just stood there while tourists took photos of it and then hopped a little way further along the beach a dissapeared from view. We found out a day later that this bird is a local resident of the beach and hangs out in the trees at the edge of the jungle, occasionaly taking a jaunt along the sand to see what all the fuss is about!

Five days, three good books and many hours of sunbathing, swimming and snorkling, as well as copious amounts of tiger beer we were ready to leave and return to normality. So we packed up, caught the boat back to the mailand and then a bus across the country westward towards Penang where we planned to shop for souvenirs before heading north back through Thailand via the beaches at Krabi and onto Bangkok
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tjwanderer/1/1212213000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tjwanderer/1/1212213000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tjwanderer/1/1212213000/tpod.html Sat, 14 Jun 2008 03:25:27 -0400 From Wellington, Somerset to Wellington, New Zealand...

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Taman Negara, Malaysia

We left Melaka and caught a bus to Gemas where we crashed for the night at the Tropican Hotel, a tidy little affair undergoing structural refurbisment. Gemmas has nothing to offer in the way of distraction, so we ate at a muslim eatery and booked our tickets at the train staion for the journey to Jerantut where we planned to stay for the night and then make our way to Kuala Tembelling, a small settlement beside the river where we'd then hop on a motorised canoe and take the 3 hour trip up the river to the Taman Negara National Park in the middle of the jungle!

We grabbed a swift breakfast at another eatery in town before heading to the train sation where we were shown some photos on the counter taken by the owners of the cafe. Wierdly, the photos were of a copule of travellers we were chatting to on the bus from Melaka to Gemmas the day before, and the owners told us that they would like to take our photos too and place them on the counter for all to see! Hesitantly, we agreed and there you will find our photographs showing our cheesy and embarassed grins sellotaped to the glass panel in an eatery in Gemmas...enjoy!

The train arrived 2 1/2 hours late and the journey was rather dull, so I got my head down and slept while Jo gazed out of the window at the country side rolling past. The best scenery was supposed to be better further north where the "jungle train" snakes its way through the dense canopies and forested hillsides, however, the occasional town and miles and miles of palm plantations were a little monotomous.

Once we arrived in Jerantut we were approached by a tout asking us if we were going to the Taman Negara and had we somewhere to stay. Usually we'd be disinclined to talk to touts but this guy seemed okay, very friendly and was polite so we lingered and had a chat to him to see what he had to offer. As it turned out we were taken by minibus to a cheap (40 RM- "Hans Travel Hotel") hotel room which was newly built, had plasma tv, ensuite hot and cold shower and was one of the most comfortable places we'd stayed in for the whole trip. Bargain! We were even hosted by the chinese owner and recomended to eat in the chinese restaurant next door to the hotel.

The food was delicious, the beer was cold and although at first glance the lookedpacked we were approached by an English speaking woman who showed us to a table, gave us a menu each, took our order for drinks and food and promptly passed our order to one of the waiting girls, who we could now tell, were wearing green polo shirts and were the ones doing the serving and the taking of orders. Much to our embarresment, we found out that the kind lady who'd approached us and looked after us initially was actually a diner at the restaurant herself and not staff, but she'd talked to us as she spoke English and the waitresses didn't- what a great place!!

Kenny, the manager of the hotel, had arranged for us to be collected at 11am by minibus to be taken to Kuala Tembelling in time to catch the 2pm boats to Teman Negara. When the boats arrived we saw that they were long wooden canoes with an outboard motor attached and housed about 18 travellers and their luggage, after which there was only a handspan from the water to the top of the boats edge- not an assuring prospect as we'd be whizzing up the very fast flowing river to our destination with not very much room for error.

The journey by boat was stimulating at first, but after a while we relaxed, sat back and watched the jungle flow past us. We caught glimpses of kingfishers and bathing water buffalo as well as locals fishing in the river by balancing on the prows of canoes and throwing their nets into the water- most romatic. Three hours later we arrived at the village located on the south side of the river opposite the entrance to the national park proper. The village consists of backpacker accomodation, a school and homes for the locals. We trudged the kilometer up a hill carrying our packs and sweating our arses off towards our chosen billet for the next few days and on our arrival our host ushered us into the shade and gave us a delicious drink filled with ice which sorted out our dehydration issue straight away. The chalet we would be staying in was very reasonably priced at 50RM and included breakfast (about eight quid) so we were very happy despite the 1km hike back to the rivers edge.

We'd decided not to fork out 400RM for a three day trek in the jungle, which is what most backpackers do in the park, but we'd opt for jaunts led by guides to various location such as the ear caves, the Orang Asli village, a jungle safari etc. This left plenty of time for relaxing and exploring the park-you must pay 5PM for a pass to the park or face 3 years imprisonment if you fail to produce said document- money well spent i feel! The first trip we put our names to was to the ear cave (Gua Tellingi- so called because you go in one way and out of the other) so we piled into another smaller boat with two girls from Holland called Helga and Natasja and our guide, a young muslim girl sporting designer trainers, jeans and an England football shirt, and headed along the river and through the jungle to the cave entrance.

Now, bat poo is not the best smelling thing you can have smeared on your hands and clothing, but little did we know that when we set out that's what we'd be enjoying for the next hour and a half! The caves are really small and you have to clamber on your hands and knees through fissures, over rocks and under stalactites whilst avoiding the agitated bats flying around your head and the occasional poisonous snake lurking in the dark recesses of the caves- a torch and balls of steel are essential. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves, but it wasn't until we were half way through the cave system that the thought of rabies, Leptospirosis (veils disease) and other nasty diseases came into our heads!

The other trip to the village of the Orang Asli, known as the original Peoples of Malaysia who migrated through Indo China from North Africa hundreds of thousands of years before the Chinese, Indians, Arabs and present day Malays found their way into the Malaysian Peninsular, was interesting, although I had my doubts as to the authenticity of the tour as the Orang Asli are nomadic tribes peoples who make their living from the jungle through hunting and fishing and the village we found ourselves in was a shanty settlement made up of shelters put together with palm fronds and tarpaulins. However, our guide assured us that the Orang Asli could leave this area of their own choice and continue their nomadic existence in any part of the national park that they wished, but I wondered why they would want to do that when they have a lucrative income from the tourism trade. It's a dilemma, how much does tourism cost the Orang Asli in stripping their traditions from their lifestyle by outside influence, how much of the revenue generated by tourism go to the Orang Asli, do their children benefit from schooling and how much will that affect the future of the tribe. We asked ourselves these quesations and doubted our own intentions and we both felt very uncomfortable walking around the village with our guide as we received vacant stares from the Orang Asli who had seen rich (in their standards) foreigners gawping at them before.

It wasn't until we were shown a demonstraion of the skill required to make fire from the friction caused by rubbing two pieces of wood together that we felt the ice break. After we were shown the ease at which one of the Orang Asli men made the two pieces of wood ignite in a matter of 30 seconds, I asked if i might have a try. So with a wry grin and smiles thrown to the children who were giggling to themselves and laughing at me behind raised hands I had a go. Five minutes later and I managed to create an ember from my efforts which I gslowly placed in a ball of shavings and gently blew on to cause a flame, whilst not putting out the tiny spark with the torrent of sweat which was running like a river from my forehead to the tip of my nose. What an acievement! Even Ray Mears would be proud of the result! There I had it, a small flame created from tow sticks, a ball of shaving, seven blisters and 3 gallons of sweat. After this triumph, I stood aside and let Jo have a go. She also managed to create a small ember, but it didn't cost her quite so much effort or sweat though!

We were then shown how to use a blow gun and darts by our instructor who expertly wielded the 6 foot long blowpipe, measured the distance to the target (a stuffed bear tied to a pole) and swiflty executed the bear in one lungfull of breath, straight through the heart! Gulp, I thought as he grinned and handed the blowpipe to me, how am I going to beat that? So, with half of the village now watching our attempts having been encouraged by our tries at fire making, I took the pipe from him, gave a sickly grin to the smiling crowd, took aim, took a deep breath and blew hard with all my might. The dart flew through the air and landed in the right arm of the teddy bear. Yes!! I roared, thrilled to even have hit the bloody thing. I grinned at the crown and pulled a worlds strongest man pose with a resounding grrrr!! I took another go and now encouraged by the laughter of my audience I took aim and missed the bear entirely! Still, one more try. This time I managed to get the dart in the head of the bear, and I yelled with accomplishment and a loud grrrr!!! Next, it was Jo's turn. She bravely took centre stage and balanced the blow pipe, placed it to her lips, closed one eye and blew! The dart missed, but unpreturbed she took aim again and killed the teddy bear with two darts! Grrrrrrrr!!!

The following day we decided to take a stroll into the National Park itself, so armed with provisions, sunblock, insect spray our valuable permits and a hand drawn map we strolled along the well maintained paths towards the canopy walkway reputed to be the highest and longest in the country apart from the one we went on in Penang, which also claims to be the longest and highest in Malaysia! Having already bricked myself on the Penang canopy walkway, we decided to follow another track to the top of a hill and then around through the jungle back towards the starting point. We were happily wandering along admiring a long column of ants, various birds and civets when Jo cried out that she had a leech attached to her leg! Horrified, I tried to flick it off with my finger only to have it attach itself to my hand! We were both dancing around and screaming like girls, trying to see where the bloody thing had fallen amongst the debris of the jungle floor. I then took a look at my legs and there was another bloody leech drawing blood from my ankle. Hopping on one leg I managed to pry it off with a stick and stab it to death in a frenzy of bloodlust shouting "bastard, bastard". It turned out that Jo had five leeches on her feet, inside her shoe that had bitten her through her socks and I found another bugger on my other leg. We walked a hell of a lot faster after that despite the natural beauty of the jungle and the enchanting sound of a particular bird we could hear but we never saw. It's song was like that of a plumber tunelessly whistling through his teeth whilst changing a ball cock, and that was exactly what I expected to be around the corner where we could hear this birds song coming from. Bloody jungle- beautiful, yet terrifying!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tjwanderer/1/1211791380/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tjwanderer/1/1211791380/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tjwanderer/1/1211791380/tpod.html Thu, 12 Jun 2008 01:11:29 -0400 From Wellington, Somerset to Wellington, New Zealand...

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Christchurch, New Zealand

Christchurch was founded by the strict Anglican colonists from "middle class" England who set sail to create their own strict, moralistic corner of England, so there are numerous English style churches, buildings and even a gothic cathedral in the city, which at least has a bit of historical culture. It has been said that Christchurch was designed to represent the middle England the colonists left behind, so a lot of the buildings wouldn't seem out of place in Oxford or Cambridge, and the park in the city centre, through which runs the amptly named River Avon, is studded with rhodedendrums, oak and beech trees, hazel, hawthorn and (in spring) proudly displays blankets of daffodils, snowdrops and bluebells- which are protected by "no picking of the flowers" signs!

However, Christchurch is not really an accurate representation of England (despite the excellent historical architecture) and has been dubbed "Mocksford" by the cynics (myself included) due to the strong Kiwi feel to the place, which in itself lends another layer of interest to the city.

I really did like Christchurch, and we managed to find our way around very easily, due to the streets being laid out in blocks so you can't really get lost! It was nice to walk amongst the arboreal giants in the park (especially the beautiful specimens of beech trees) and kick our way through drifts of autumn leaves- something we enjoyed doing only 6 months ago in the UK when we were also freezing our proverbials off at home. It was weird to be back in Autumn/Winter after only a short time since our last experience of crappy weather at home and knowing that in England it is early summer and the trees are in leaf, the daff's have come and gone and the countryside is athrong with bleating, frollocking lambs! Sentimental old bugger that I am!

Anyway, we had seven days in Christchurch during which we tried to sell our trusty Tilly to another adventurous traveller who would take her on another tour of the islands (she practically knows her own way around by now) and we tried every trick in the book to sell her, including printing coloured photos and notices detailing her merits and walking around the streets of the city distributing them to the many backpacker hostels in the city. We also posted information about her on several websites, bnut as we did not have a mobile phone with us, we discovered after a few days that potential sellers were finding it difficult getting back to us! You live and learn! However, after we forked out more cash in getting the rear brakes replaced so we could get the van through its warrant of fitness (a bit like an MOT, only they don't really bother too much as long as the vehicle goes forward, stops, has working lights, windscreen wipers and the doors open and close) and tarting her up, we still had no response to our efforts in advertising her! Therefore, we decidied to enjoy our time in Mocksford and as well as exploring the delights of the city we went to watch the semi final match of the Super 14 rugby tournament at the local teams stadium in Christchurch the Crusaders, who were playing the Wellington team called the Hurricanes,whom I was rooting for, although Jo wanted the local lads to win, for some reason! The match was great and the weather was kind so we both enjoyed waving our respective flags each time our chosen team scored a try, penalty, conversion or a dirty foul! The local team won and the Hurricanes let me down terribly with bad play in the second half , still, we had a great time, especially when I insisted that we leave before the end of the match as the Hurricanes were getting stuffed and Jo refused to leave as she wanted to see the fireworks at the end of the match when the local heroes patted themselves on their backs. It was at this point when the highlight of the game took place and a male (unfortunately) streaker ran from the opposition goal end wearing just a pair of socks and his knickers and legged it across the pitch towards the line up taking place in the home teams area! His appearance caused embarassed officials to run after him and caused the crowd to rise to their feet and shout their encouragement to the crazy son of a bitch who was being pursued by burly security guards intent on rugby tackling him to the ground and laying into him. He was finally halted in his mad hysterical dash by one of the Crusaders substitutes and frog marched off the pitch to appreciative cat calls, cheers and applause from the crowd. Of course, I completey forgot to take a photo of this spectacle, but it cheered me up no end!!

On Sunday morning we recieved an email expressing interest in Tilly, so we hurriedly packed her away, tidied her up, put on our best smiles and drove into town to meet our hopeful purchasers. After showing them around our pride and joy and explaining the many attributes of our home on wheels we were still unable to convince the German couple that THIS was the van they had been looking for!

" But, she is very old" pointed out the young lady in a thick German accent.

"Yes" I gently explained to her. " She may be 23 years old, but she has been very well loooked after, loved and cared for and she will take you anywhere you would like to go and not let you down" I crossed my fingers whilst saying this to prevent my soul being banished to the lowest levels of hell. The German couple offered us $1000NZ, at which we firstly stiffled a laugh and then turned down their measly offer (despite wanting to leave NZ and head off to warmer climbs asap!)

Seeing as we were not getting anywhere with these guys we offered to take them to the Backpackers Car Market in town, a run down joint where backpackers can sell their clapped out peices of rust for over hiked prices to other backpackers, and seeing as we had already checked out this establishment and been amazed at the asking prices of some of these buckets of bolts, we hoped that an alternative look for our German buyers at what else was on the market may well be the incentive they required to part with their cash!It worked! As soon as we gave them a guided tour of the vans on offer (expressing feigned surprise and tut tutting at the condition and the price of the afore mentioned vehicles) we left them to explore the "dark side" of the backpacker van buying experience on their own. Finally, they slowly walked back to where we were waiting, casually leaning against the side of the van as though we had all the time in the world -which of course we did as we were in no particular hurry to sell up, but we wanted to get a reasonable and fair price for her considering the her quality, despite her age!

"Okay, ve vill offer you $1400" The Germans told us expectantly

We drew in a breath over our teeth, blew out our cheeks, rubbed our chins, looked sideways at each other, shrugged, tapped our feet, murmered to one another whilst casting looks at theGermans, and hesitantly agreed to let her go at $1400.

"On the condition" I said to them, brushing a tear from my left eye. "That you keep the name of Tilly for the van".
"She was named after his grandmother," Jo explained as I sniffed and turned my head away to hide my pain at parting with our beloved home. What theatrics! What a team!

No sooner had we sold her to the German couple, we drove back to the backpackers where the new owners of Tilly were staying so that they could give us the readies. Things didn't go quite as smoothly as we had hoped though as the Germans wanted us to show them again how the seats in the van folded down to make the bed, how the awning was put up and all the other little bits of information we could provide them with. It was while I was "excitiedly" showing them again how to turn the passenger seats around and lay out the bed that I noticed a particularly foul smell eminating from the floor of the van and on inspection I was horrified to find I had inadvertantly stepped into the runniest, smelliest, most disgusting piece of cat shite in the world and walked it onto the rug placed on the floor of the van- what's the bloody chances!! I hadn't even seen a bloody cat anywhere, but yes, here was it's excrement caking the sole of my shoe and now pasted across the floor of the very vehicle I was trying to get rid of! Naturally, the German couple were somewhat put out as I explained what had happened, threatened to murder the bloody cat and jokingly asked them what cat shit is in German whilst trying to find the funny side of the experience. I think it might have ben "catten shitten" but I'm not quite sure what they said when they replied with stoney expressions on their faces.

Jo came to the rescue and offered to show them every item in the storage boxes, including getting out the tins of soup and beans for them to look at whilst I hastily cleaned up the van, changed my shoes for a pair of trainers, washed the carpet with cleaning fluid and hastily threw away the soiled rug into the bin. When Jo had exhausted the contents of the boxes she moved on to showing them the contents of the cutlery box, as well as trying to explain to the non English speaking German where they should travel in New Zealand and pointing out the name places in the road atlas and getting a response of " Ya, Ya" from the nervously smiling guy, we managed to run through the last items of sale and get our hands on the cash! However, when the German girl realised that I had thrown the rug away, she was very upset and explained that she had really liked it. I almost guiltily handed back $20 in compensation until Jo stepped in and explained tha we had only paid $12 for the rug at Warehouse, a budget superstore, and that they could easily and cheaply replace it. While she was talking, I tucked the cash away, grabbed our bags and slowly edged away from them toward the roadside.

We stayed that night in a cracking little backpackers hostel called (imaginatively) Chester Street Backpackers, on (yes you've guessed it) Chester Street. It was built in the 19th Century and was very quaint and comfortable, with a double bed and everything!! We were just delighted to be able to go for a wazz in the night without having to put every item of clothing on, including our boots, walk across a freezing campsite to sit on a cold toilet seat in the middle of the night! That evening, once we'd enjoyed the thrill of being able to have so much space to ourselves, we telephoned Qantas and changed our flights from June 17th to the following day, so at 12.30pm the next day we were at Chrischurch airport waiting to board a plane for a flight to Sydney and then on to Singapore where we planned to spend one night in a hotel near to the airport and then on Wednesday, bugger off back to Melaka where we had arranged to stay at Number Twenty for a couple of nights.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tjwanderer/1/1212051000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tjwanderer/1/1212051000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tjwanderer/1/1212051000/tpod.html Thu, 29 May 2008 04:52:40 -0400 From Wellington, Somerset to Wellington, New Zealand...

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Melaka, Melaka State, Malaysia

Ahh, Melaka, you little beauty!! Despite the heat and humidity, it's good to be back here in this "Dutch-uguese-malay" town! The boys at Twenty were as welcoming as always and the room was immaculate, as always, but we have also really enjoyed walking around this cracking little town again in just a pair of shorts and tshirts instead of 17 layers of clothes, a wooly hat and heavy waterproof boots! What a life! Jo has caught the siun on her nose already and I am sweating from every pore, but it's good to be back in Malaysia. This town has even changed since we were here in March. There is a new tower built in the town centre which has a revolving saucer fitted with glass walls, floor and seating, in which you can travel 100 odd feet in the air and enjoy the roof top view of Melaka. Needless to say, that's the last bloody thing you'd get me to go up in, but it's just one of the improvements to Melaka we've seen. As well as this terrifiying tourist attraction there has been built an historical addition to the riverside- a reconstructed 17th century water mill!

Woooo! I hear you say!

We planned on being here until Friday, but we have found out that there is a malaysian food festival tomorrow night, and a street carnival, so with the promise of free food, it was decided that we should stay until saturday when we think we will arrange to catch a bus to KL and then on to the North East coast where we hope to laze on white sandy beaches on the islands of Pulau Pehentian for the last few weeks of this trip. So, with that in mind, I had better try and find out which bus we need to take, so, ta ta for now and we hope that the sun has finally decided to show it's face in Blighty at last!

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tjwanderer/1/1211261520/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tjwanderer/1/1211261520/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tjwanderer/1/1211261520/tpod.html Tue, 20 May 2008 01:27:44 -0400 From Wellington, Somerset to Wellington, New Zealand...

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Wanaka, South Island, New Zealand

However, the campsite we did find after the most beautiful and amazingly spectacular drive through the stunning Kiwi countryside between Haas and Wanaka was better- at least it was next door to a pub with a huge log fire and Monteiths Original Ale on tap!

Really, the most incredible scenery we have seen (Abel Tasman National Park as the exception) in the South Island has been between Haas and the town of Wanaka, situated at the southern end of the huge, long Lake Wanaka. The town is wonderful, quaint, is very friendly and the air smelt of wood smoke fires from the smoking chimneys of the villas and homes in the town. We saw some lovely sunsets over the lake, lighting up the snow clad peaks behind in inks, mauves and reds. Wanaka really comes to life in the winter and summer when folks take to the ski slopes and take to the water sports on the lake in the summer, but we saw the town at its quiet time, the deep breath before the rush of winter, and we really liked it! We discussed the fact that if we had our arms twisted and were told that we HAD to live in New Zealand, we'd choose either the Abel Tasman area or Wannake in which to settle as this town really felt welcoming and felt a little like home as the silver birch trees were yellow with autumn leaf.

We stayed in Wannake for three days and on the second we went horse riding in the beautiful valleys amongst the hills between Wannaka and Queenstown, Jo (now feeling somewhat better after her dose of antibiotics) was a little nervous about ridding a horse on a trek, but I assured her that the horses had western saddles on them and these were a lot harder to fall out of! Anyway, we had a two hour ride on palomino horses amongst some lovely scenery; I went off with five other more experienced riders for a canter and met up with an aching, sore Jo walking around like John Wayne with a contorted face and a distinct limp to the left leg. I was sooo glad to get off the horse myself and I copied Jo's gambling crouched walk from the stable sot the van, before we downed a couple of nurofen and headed back to the campsite for a soak in the hot tub before walking the 20 minutes to the pub in town to watch the semi final rugby match of the Super 14's tournament between the Highlanders (from Dunedin) and the Crusaders (from Christchurch) with Chris and Lisa, a delightful, funny and entertaining couple from Bristol (of all places, although Lisa is from Sydney, Australia originally) - thanks for a great night guys!! By the way, the Highlanders stuffed the Crusaders for a crack at the championship next weekend!!

We left Wannaka with the intention of driving all the way to Christchurch for Tuesday as we want to sell Tilly and get ourselves back to Malaysia for some "top up tan" time in the East of the Peninsular for our last 4-5 weeks of this trip, so we'll let you know when we've waved goodbye to our beloved, trustworthy and dependable home and have flown back to the tropics for some SUN!!!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tjwanderer/1/1209445740/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tjwanderer/1/1209445740/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tjwanderer/1/1209445740/tpod.html Tue, 20 May 2008 00:37:24 -0400 From Wellington, Somerset to Wellington, New Zealand...

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Wellington, North Island, New Zealand

So, here we are on 29th April in Wellington, New Zealand, looking around the "Windy City" and passing time until tommorrow when we catch the ferry across the Straits to Picton in the South Island, which (we have been assured) is far better than the North Island and has the best scenery!!

It's hard to believe we have been in NZ for just over a month now, and we've seen so much!! The week after we were WWOOFing we house/dog sat for a well known Kiwi novelist called Kelly Anna Moran, who was off running around the Northland reading to kids in schools (rather her than me) and we had the use of her little home, which was decked out in retro 1950's style furniture - she's rather eccentric!! She even let us have the use of her 1960's MG!! I loved driving that, it was a lot like driving a little go-cart around the winding country lanes of New Zealand.

Since then, we have bought ourselves a van (called Tilly, a 1985 Toyota TownAce van, named after my late grandmother who was also bloody stubborn, but reliable) in which we can see so much more of the islands. It's the only way to travel here, it means you can get off the beaten track and explore some of the remotest beaches, forests, mountains and delightful countryside this country has to offer. Once we'd kitted Tilly out with the necessaries, we hit the road and headed north where we got away from the busy highway and found a delightful sandy beach running for 4 miles along the northeast coast. After an hour long walk we drove on towards Whangarei where we stayed at the best campsite we have been to on this leg of the trip. It had a FREE Spa (hot tub) which we used for the evening. Every campsite here has a fully fitted kitchen for campers use and usually a TV lounge, where you can make sure you don't miss your weekly fix of "Bones"!!!

The town of Whangarei had a pretty good waterfall and a nice hour long walk to a Kaori tree forest. Some of these trees are huge, and are hundreds of years old. We left Whangarei and headed west toward Dargaville as we had heard on the TV that the weather was going to turn for the worst, so we bolted westwards to avoid the heavy rain. Sadly, we failed and for 3 days it rained almost constantly, which was interesting enough as we were driving through the deep bush on the west coast, along steep, winding roads through hail and high water!!

The idea had been to make our way back eastwards toward the Bay of Islands, where we'd been told was some of the most delightful countryside in the Norhlands. Unfortunatley, we saw none of it as the weather refused to break, but that didn't stop us going kayaking along a rather swollen river for an hour! That night though, if at all possible, the weather worsened - we were told it was some of the worst weather they'd had for months and I was going to punch the next Kiwi in the face who said to us " uh, you shoulda been here in the summer, mate, we had the best weather for as long as I can remember up until a week ago, 'ey!" (Kiwis end EVERY sentence with "'ey!", drives me bloody mad, and they're so bloody fit too, they never walk anywhere, they run, and if they are walking, they always have to walk so fast!!)

So, after getting Tilly stuck in the mud at the last campsite we were at and flooding the engine with petrol as I was revving her too much in order to get out of the miasma the campsite had become, we headed south again toward Auckland as the weather forecast ahd predicted better weather to the south. Off we plodded along Highway 1 and we stopped at a little town called Waiwera, where we sat in a natural spa pool resort for the afternoon while it continued to rain. The next day though, the sun came out and we ran southwards with all haste into warmth and sunlight! We stayed that night at another spa resort area called Miranda, where the campsite had a large pool heated by the hot water springs leaking from underground! Pretty cool! The plan from there was to follow the coastline to Coromandel and drive along the west coast all the way around to the hot water beaches near Whitianga, but it was so cold that we decided to keep our clothes on and wait until the next day to dig our hole in the sand and let the hot water from under the ground fill it!!

The day after, the sun made a comeback and for days we actually went for a walk without our fleeces. We took a stroll along the coast through some native bush to Cathedral Cove, a white sandy beach with a natural cave arch in the cliff through which you can access another lovely, white sanded beach. It was delightful and very relaxing just to sit in the sun and enjoy the sound of the waves breaking on the shoreline! This is what it was all about!!

We followed the line of the coast around to the beach resort town of Tuaranga, but before we got there, we spent our first night in one of the DOC (Department of Conservation) campsites, a rudimentary camground with long drop toilets, running water taken from the spring and a fabulous walk along the fast flowing river to the head of the watrefall. This walk took us 3 hours, there and back, but the waterfall was amazing and it was in full flood due to the amount of rain we'd had.

Tuaranga was meant to be my chance to get into the waves and try my hand at surfing in New Zealand, but unfortunatley, it proved impossible for me to find anybody who would hire a board or give me any lessons, so dissapointed, we drove on to the incredibly stinky town of Roturua. Just north of the town is a buried village, www.buriedvillage.co.nz, which was practically destroyed by the eruption of a nearby volcano in 1886. Today, you can walk around the excavated and rebuilt remains of the colonial town, but for us, the most interesting part of the experience was enjoying the 1/2 hour guided tour of the museum by a local Maori guide, who was the grandchild of the Maori chief who had taken refuge in the Whare (meeting house) during the eruption which killed 123 people.

The musueum exhibits were great, as well as the talk given by the guide (and his song) but for me the wierdest moment was when he told us about what happened to the remains of the whare his grandfather sheltered in. The beautifully carved remains were transported to none other that Guildford in Surrey, where today they stand in the grounds of Clandon Park, West Clandon, near Guildford, and I remember seeing the same building as a kid in the grounds of the park! http://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/main/w-vh/w-visits/w-findaplace/w-clandonpark/w-clandonpark-photo_gallery.htm The fact that this building saved the lives of so many of the villagers, as well as the grandfather of the guy who was telling us the story, was not lost on us, but the guide had never seen the same whare as it is now in a park on the other side of the world, but I had! A wierd circle, to have come half way around the world and be stood in the ruined village where a house once stood which I'd seen at home!

The day after, we drove through the sulphurous smelling town of Roturua (stinks of rotten eggs) and headed southwards towards the Tongariro National Park. The rain followed us, but once we'd parked up next to the information centre in Whakapapa (pronounced fuckapapa - I kid you not - "wh" is pronounced as "f" in Maori, so nearly every town has a wh in it's name, which means a lot of swear words!!!) the watery sun made a show and finally broke through the clouds enabling a walk along the torrnetial Whakapapanui river running from the mountain ranges into the bogs lower down.

We were here in order to walk the Tongariro Crossing, an eight hour hike over the Tongariro volcano ranges, so we were hoping for good wether. The next day the weather was not so good, so we opted to wait until the day after, but we took a ski lift to the peak of mount Ruapehu, the highest of the three volcanoes in the park. This was my first time on a ski lift and as I hate heights, i was bricking it half way up the mountainside, to find that i was actually enjoying having 50 foot of air beneath my dangling boots to the jagged volcanic rocks below me!!

The 1 1/2 hour hike to the ridgline was knackering, but the view from the top across either side of the mountain and toward the conical shape of the volcano next to us was breath taking - we were at 2100 ft above sea level! So, as we were the only people on the mountain that day, and in true Goring-Norman style, we stripped down to our matching stripey thermals and posed for the camera on top of a live volcano - as you do!! (photos to come shortly!!)

The following day the weather changed, so at 7am we were stood waiting for the coach to take 18 of us to the foot fo the crossing to be picked up 8 hours later on the other side! The day was beautiful, and although it was cold due to the altitude we were at only 1800 ft, at the top, the sun was beating down on us, making rivers of sweat run down our faces as we plodded our way up the stepp paths towards the first stop, the Red Crater. It was here that we bumped into a couple from Switzerland we had met back at the campsite in Whangaei who had shared the hot tub with us and another traveller! (What a small world, in fact I was to find out that it is even smaller as the van parked next to us at the campsite we stayed at that night was being rented and driven by a girl who works behind the bar in the pub called The Farmers, which is in the village of Skaynes Hill, where my brother lives and where I'd stayed last summer while I was teaching in Brighton. When she stepped out of her van during a conversation I was having with her boyfriend, we were amazed to recognise each other, as I'd chatted to her when I had been in the pub back in England!!)

We may have been struggling up the steep sides of the volcano, but there were families with kids as young as 5 or six, dressed in shorts and t-shirtts, practically running up the side of the volcano! Bloody Kiwis, always have to go one better!! The Red Crater and the view was out of this world, well worth the ten minute tea brak we had at the top. Although the walk along the ridge and eventually down the other side of the volcano took us three hours, we finally made it back to the car park on the other side six and a half hours later; sore, bruised, knackered and swearing never to do it again! It was awesome!!!

That night, as we were washing the dishes from dinner, Jo and I jumped six feet in the air with a scream as a bloody mouse leapt from it's hiding place in the kitchen, straight for our throats, before it landed in the soapy water amongst our dirty dishes, where it proceeded to do fifty laps of the sink trying to get out. Being a masculine chap I decided to let Jo tackle the mouse as thoughts of viels disease and disease infested rabid Kiwi field mice went through my head. With a look of disdain and several rude derogatory words thrown in my direction, Jo grabbed a saucepan and lid and scooped the offending rodent up, clamped on the lid and headed outside to let "Jerry" go free!!

Aching in every part of our bodies (i still ache now), we drove south westward to the town of Wanganui in order to stay at a campsite where we knew they had a hot tub! Wanganui was just like a mid American town, the kind of place you see on TV, wooden houses and buildings built on a grid system, very un European, but impossible to get lost in!! After our soak and a breather for the night, we decided to book our crossing to the South Island on Wednesday 30th April,which cost $200 (about 80 quid) for us and Tilly. With that in mind, we trotted off southwards towards Wellington where we could relax before we sail on Wednesday. We hope to be astounded with the "Lord of the Rings" scenery in the South Island we have been promised, so we'll be updating soon along with photos of the trip over the last week or so!

TTFN
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