TravelStream™ news feed for member tofty on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/tofty en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Thu, 17 Apr 2008 04:43:08 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tofty/worl_travels/1208420460/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tofty/worl_travels/1208420460/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tofty/worl_travels/1208420460/tpod.html Thu, 17 Apr 2008 04:43:08 -0400 Jonathan and Emma travel to worldwide shores and see all the sights -woo hoo

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Tokyo, Japan

Well we are all settled in nearly and really loving Japan. I'm pleased to say that its as great as i was hoping for and more, and we are enjoying every minute.

Every day you seem to have a new experience and although some of them are not so great, most of the time they make you smile and remind you how different it is here to the UK.

We have started our Japanese lessons and are going 3 times a week - we found some free classes for trainee teachers. The only thing is that we have to go during the infamous rush hour to the other side of Tokyo! I don't think i really appreciated how crushed you can actually feel and i dread to think what would happen in an accident, but I'm kind of glad to have experienced it! Its one of the strange things about this country where no one wants to speak out for fear of loosing face. In London if someone shoulder barged you and /or physically pushed you into the carriage where you are finding it hard to find room for your feet, I'm sure that someone if not a few people would shout at you and I'm sure there would be a few obscenity's in there along with it. Over here, you see men as well as women wince in pain as they are crushed towards the doors... oh and i haven't even mentioned yet that everyone stands in regimented order all facing the same way... hhhmmm would that ever happen on the tube?!

Its things like that that make you miss home but also make you have a strange appreciation for this place. If it wasn't like that you wouldn't have the politeness and calm of not speaking out in other situations (if that makes sense.)

I saw my first Japanese fight the other day, on my way home from work. It was between 2 very smart salary men. I say a fight but what I mean is 2 men with their noses together sort of grunting at each other slowly louder and louder. Of course passers by were somewhat alarmed including me, but then i remembered me the stuff Ive seen in England and i have to say it made me laugh. At home these guys would have both been either in hand cuffs or in hospital (or both). Id put money on the fact that no punches were thrown..

We are really starting to enjoy our lifestyle here. We have a local very friendly pub where lots of teachers drink and where when you walk in they automatically pour you a pint! On my birthday they even made a cake and everyone sang happy birthday!! We've brought bikes too and we cycle (in our suits!) to the station every day and leave our bikes outside the station next to the hundreds of other commuters. There's very few cars here so everyone owns a bike, although i don't think ill get a hang of the whole riding and holding an umbrella thing, let alone talking on the phone at the same time!

Anyway of course we are homesick but its mainly you guys we miss, not england! The teaching is going well and we are getting more and more used to dishing out discipline to the unruly (sometimes horrendous) kids who throw their books around... although some of them are so tired as we teach some kids at 8/9 O'Clock at night! At the moment we are not so sure that teaching is our calling, but we are very happy with Japan.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tofty/worl_travels/1206243540/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tofty/worl_travels/1206243540/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tofty/worl_travels/1206243540/tpod.html Sun, 23 Mar 2008 00:18:41 -0400 Jonathan and Emma travel to worldwide shores and see all the sights -woo hoo

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Tokyo, Japan

Well, we have finally made it into the land of the sushi, manga and short people! Its taken us 4 months and lots of countries along the way,but we still cant quite believe we are actually here.

We left Ko Samui after our nice period of sunbathing and chilling out and headed back to Bangkok, where we went for our fitting of our suits and hit the shops! Everything was so cheap in Bangkok so we wanted to stock up before Japan. Slightly stupidly though, we headed to the biggest market in the world on Sunday - over 15,000 stalls!! And, it was almost 40 degrees! We literally melted, but it was certainly an experience. They sell everything there from food to pets. The pets/animals section was the most interesting as there are hundreds of dogs, cats, fish, iguanas, spiders, snakes you name it, any pet you could possibly want on sale. It was a bit cruel though with puppy's in small cages and over heated too.. but hey this is Bangkok, you see animals in a much worse state on the street, not nice but you kind of get used to it.

It was so annoying that the weather became so much hotter once we were in Bangkok, but you win some you loose some i guess! But at 40 degrees we had a pool so it could have been worse and I'm glad it wasn't minus 40!

So now that we are in Tokyo we are officially aliens and need to get an alien card! Very funny when we got the little bits of paper saying `welcome alien!` We have been generally browsing the Tokyo streets, trying to find shoes and bags for school and not getting too upset that I'm now a large to x-l! Glad I'm only a size 10 then!! I think the first thing we brought was 2 coats. And I brought some wool and have knitted 2 beanies to keep us warm too! Its been really cold here, but, its getting warmer now and there's talk that the cherry blossom will be blooming pretty soon over the next week or so, which will be great. We took a walk around one of the parks in Ueno - not that far from our new home and there were a few trees that had bloomed already and they looked very beautiful. We`re looking forward to the Sakura viewing parties!

Oh and don't worry everyone, I can satisfy my craft urges!! There's an amazing store here called Tokyu Hands which is the biggest craft shop ever! Quite expensive but amazing all the same and I'm very impressed. It'll be hard not to overspend in there, but ill try to be restrained!


However, we have been learning a little bit of Japanese and have honed the phrase `Eigo O Hanasimas Ka?` - `Do you speak English?` It lets you off a little with your pronunciation even though its blatantly obvious that we aren`t Japanese. We`ve had less people staring at us than i read about which is good. A few people have laughed at us and have been stared at while using chop sticks, but you can sort of ignore it and we need to get fairly used to this I guess.

We start work on Tuesday after meeting a rep on Monday who will show us to our hotel. Unfortunately the apartment we`ll be staying in isn't ready until Sunday so we`ll be living in a hotel until then. Bit of a pain to move yet again but looking forward to the apartment when we get it. We took a trip to our new home station and wandered around the other day. It all seems fine. Except as its been really cold here so we didn't want to wander out in the cold too much.

We decided to go to a local restaurant near to the station and try the local food... hhmmm note to foreigners eating in Tokyo... do not eat at restaurants where there's no plastic food (they have plastic food outside showing what the dishes look like so you can point to the one you want - and you get exactly the same as the plastic version- only edible!) and don't eat where there's no English menu or photos of the dishes!! We used our phrase books well and asked her to recommend something... We ended up having our worst meal yet.. We had cooked squid, chicken(this was OK), something which wasn't beef - tongue or horse perhaps? and the worst part- raw squid!! yummy -not.. I'm afraid i couldn't eat it and Jonathan had to wolf it down, although he said it was OK the one mouthful i had was bad enough. So, from now on, we are sticking to pictures and plastic food places!!


Today we are off to a part of Tokyo called Odaiba which is on reclaimed land just off of Tokyo bay. Its a big area for shops and has the Toyota museum and Sony museum where you can see the latest gadgets etc, so that should be good.

I'm afraid that its taken us 10 different people to ask for an Internet cafe and we went round in circles twice. In the end a guy who we had asked actually took us there, which was really kind... so until we get our Internet sorted it may be a bit of a mission to contact you all, bit of a pain, but I'm hoping that the school will have Internet access. And, on Tuesday we should be given our new mobile phones which will be great.

Its a bit weird, I keep forgetting its Easter Sunday. Of course they don't celebrate Easter here, so there`s no bunnies and eggs here, just lots of Sakura (cherry blossom) things everywhere. So Happy Easter everyone, I hope you are all having a lovely relaxing weekend.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tofty/worl_travels/1205167860/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tofty/worl_travels/1205167860/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tofty/worl_travels/1205167860/tpod.html Wed, 12 Mar 2008 10:40:17 -0400 Jonathan and Emma travel to worldwide shores and see all the sights -woo hoo

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Ko Phangan, Thailand

Our teaching is now over and we have travelled our way down to the islands in the south of Thailand. We loved teaching the kids in Vang Vieng, they were so eager to learn and it was sad to say goodbye even though we were only there for a week. It was strange at first as we were told to do our first lesson on the past tense... so in we went with a full lesson plan, celta course planted (and coming back to us slowely) in our head... except the students didnt know what 'morning, yesterday and last week' meant; hhhmm interesting. We scraped what we were told to do and taught them the times of day and what 'did you have a good evening?' meant. All in all it was really rewarding and seeing the kids - all 100 - of them running behind the tuktuk as we waved goodbye for the day will stay with us for a long time. We didnt teach all 100 -there were a few different classes!

The other great part about staying on the farm was the goats... they had 5 new born baby goats. They are now offically my favourite animal, they were the cutest little things in the world. We fed them most days - well me more than Jonathan if im honest! They had to be bottle fed and one day when i was in there on my own, one (the littlest one - Billy!) fell asleep on my lap!! So it was not only sad to say goodbye to the human kids but the goat kids too. Dont worry though, we didnt leave before another eventful day of tubing down the river, with Jonathan loosing another pair of sunglasses - by Jonny throwing them down to him and them falling in the water! - you cant see through that water!! That'll be about 10 pairs of glasses between us by now!

Anyway we set off from VangVieng for Vientiane, the capitol of Loas. We were warned that theres not much there, and it was pretty much true. A great curry later - yes, they even have indian restaurants in Loas!= and we were on an overnight train to Bangkok. We left it a bit late to book our seats so there were only first class cabins left. But, it was great, unfortunately Jonathan didnt sleep too well, even after 5 beers, but i didnt have too much problem. It was quite strange though, but really cool.. the guy comes in and makes your seat into a bunk bed and you sleep away most of the journey.

We got off the train a bit weary eyed and headed to a tailors where they measured us up and we chose our suits. Its very exciting, although ive made lots for others, ive not had much made for myself and i dont think ive even worn a suit before so im looking forward to picking it up.

We then had the choice to get on another overnight train, a bus and then a ferry to Ko Samui or Phuket, or get a plane. Im afraid we took the easy route after one night on a train and took the plane.

However, we werent overly impressed that it was raining as we touched down! Never mind i thought. its probably just a short shower.... It has rained for the first 5 days of our 'sunbathing' time - not so good when you only have 10. But dont fret, we are loving every minute of sunshine and we are getting our tan back slowly but surely before the cold of Tokyo that will be hitting us soon.

But, before that bit of news... I have done a silver workshop since ive been on Ko Phangan... oh, we hopped from Ko Samui where we landed to Ko Phangan as Ko Samui wasnt great and very overcrowded from tourists, its much better here! So the silver workshop i did on Sunday was great. a guy called Yot taught me who has 2 shops, one in the capitol of the island; Thong Sala and one in Haad Rin (where the full moon party is held and where we stayed for a few days). He was really good and i learnt loads about silver smithing, something ive always wanted to try. And, at the end of the day I had made a ring, of which im really proud! Who knows, maybe ill be a jeweller when i come home?!

So now, we are staying in the North West of the island where its a lot quiter than Haad Rin at a place called Haad Salad (- Haad means beach). The resort is on the beach and the people here are unbelievably friendly and if we ever come back to this part of the world im sure we'll book this place again. We have been snorkelling today and it rivals Fii, so its great.

So back to Tokyo. I have received our new address where we'll be living and we'll be in Ichikawa City which is right next to the main Tokyo district and in the Chiba District. Apparently its about 30 minutes to Tokyo centre and near to the beach too... although i have no idea how right that all is!

We are getting excited about Japan now and also quite nervous, trying desperately to swot up on our little japanese that we know! We arrive in Tokyo on the 18th but dont offically start until the 24th so we are hoping to explore and find our way around.

But in the mean time, we are on the island for another day before we head back to Ko Samui and catch a flight back to Bangkok, so id better get back to my sunbathing!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tofty/worl_travels/1203921000/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tofty/worl_travels/1203921000/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tofty/worl_travels/1203921000/tpod.html Mon, 25 Feb 2008 02:08:44 -0500 Jonathan and Emma travel to worldwide shores and see all the sights -woo hoo

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Vang Vieng, Lao Peoples Dem Rep

Well getting sick has to happen at some point to everyone in Asia and yesterday I'm afraid to say that it hit me side ways. Such a shame to spend a beautiful day running between the hammock and the toilet, but at least there was a hammock and who can really complain when your view is of amazing mountains with the river running along side and the drift of music from the tubing bar...

Wait, tubing? Yes, possibly one of the coolest things in Asia! We arrived in Vang Vieng a few days ago and hit the tubes the very next day. You rent a tube from one company (they have a cartel on it!) and they drop you off at the farm where we are staying and you simply get in the tube and float all the way down the river (not the Mekong - not sure of the name!). Along the way there are many bars blaring out music and many people trying to drag you into the shore (literally - they throw out a stick which you grab and then get pulled in!). It is the best day, with massive mountains all around and music to float by, all topped off by alcohol and great food. For our food, we spotted a bar with no westerners on and stopped by, no English menu, and not much English spoken, we ordered what we thought was enough for 4 - turned out it was enough for about 7and was probably the best food we've eaten so far. However, I'm still not sure that I'm not sick from eating straight after being in the river!

Although i didn't partake (Jonathan definitely did, many many times!) there were some very cool (although scary looking on the safety side) swings and zip lines across the river. Jonathan definitely has the bruises and the cut toe to prove his courage!

After having so much fun and seeing the hostel we are staying in, we have decided to volunteer here for a week and in doing so knock Cambodia off our travel list and go there after Japan (together with Vietnam among others!). We are staying on an organic farm about 3 miles from Vang Vieng where they grow among many other things mulberry trees, so they make amazing mulberry pancakes in the morning and shakes too. They have pigs, chickens, loads of dogs, and goats. On our first day, i was taking a walk around the farm and saw lots of little piglets running around. I never realised that piglets are very similar to puppy's; very playful and very inquisitive too. After one came up to me the others realised that i was OK and followed suit. You cant stroke them though or they sequel and jump about a foot off the ground!! After this experience i was walking some more and saw an open shed with a local inside bottle feeding some goats - only a day old. They are absolutely adorable and Ive fed them a few times since, very cute indeed, finding their feet and squeaking!

So i should fill you in on whats happened since Chaing Mai...

We left Chaing Mai on a bus for Chiang Khong, thinking that we wouldn't have time that day (despite leaving at 6am) to cross the border into Laos. Luckily we tested our luck and made it over (despite meeting others who didn't even try to cross that day and said we couldn't etc). We were so chuffed as we paid less for the government bus (instead of the VIP one), had a really good bus, and made it over the border, so saving a nights stay. It was my first ever land border crossing and was pretty cool having to get a boat across the Mekong to get to Laos.

As we were wondering the streets to find our guest house, a German guy popped out of a bar and said they were going to charter a boat to Luang Prabang and did we want in? In the trusty Lonely Planet, they warn of the slow boats to Luang Prabang being totally over crowded, with up to 100 people on the boat! Of course, we wanted in!

The next day there were 12 of us on our little adventure and unfortunately no captains who spoke English. In comes Dirk, friend of the first German, who is fluent in French. There was one local who spoke Laos and French, so all the negotiations were done in French and hard bargaining occurred... thanks Dirk!!

Jonathan had to for some reason lie to the authorities about how many people were on the boat (only supposed to be 10) and had to keep miss counting the passports to confuse him!!

However, we set sail with our non English speaking captain and we were all so so chuffed at our fortune. I have to say we had such a nice journey along the Mekong, watching the fishermen, women panning for gold etc. We stopped over night in pakbeng and the next day set sail again for 10 hours (7 hours on the first day). This time, stopping at a local village and also the Buddha caves, very picturesque.

I have to tell you, if you've been to New Zealand but not to Asia, and we all know New Zealand is beautiful, you will be gob smacked by the landscape here, it gives NZ such a run for its money! Its crazily beautiful here and we are loving it!

We have taken a day trip to the waterfall too, in Luang Prabang, really blue water which we swam in, a beautiful day trip. Luang Prabang by the way is the nicest city we've been to in Asia so far, its UNESCO listed as a world heritage site and you can tell why. On our last day we got up very early and watched the Alms giving ceremony for the monks. We brought some rice and fruit and the sat at the side of the road. The monks come along and you give them each a piece of fruit etc into their big bowl. The poor family's also sit along the road with empty bowls and the monks give them back some of their food, very touching to see. That evening they had a special festival too.

We followed the locals to a small Wat and watched them all chanting and lighting candles, very beautiful with all the temple lit up by candle light. We then went onto a larger Wat where they had a candle lit procession where you hold incense sticks and candles - the incense symbolising your mother and father and the candle yourself. There were 2 locals who gave up their incense, candles and flowers to give to us! Amazing, and really sweet of them. We were the only westerners there and it was such an amazing experience.

So now we are living on a farm, as i said teaching the kids English. We had our first lesson this morning and another this afternoon of over 30 kids, all screaming and running around, not understanding a word!! It was very tiring, but great and so lovely when every single one of them came up and hugged us at the end shouting 'kop jai la lai' (thank you very much!). How could you not fall in love with kids like that?!

We are hoping to feed the animals too around our teaching and Jonathan will hopefully help build the mud house they are building on the farm. But, we will not be leaving Vang Vieng before another day of tubing!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tofty/worl_travels/1203133920/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tofty/worl_travels/1203133920/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tofty/worl_travels/1203133920/tpod.html Fri, 15 Feb 2008 23:30:05 -0500 Jonathan and Emma travel to worldwide shores and see all the sights -woo hoo

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Chiang Mai, Thailand

We are in the land of the hill tribes! Having travelled up from Bangkok to Ayutthaya, to Sukhotai to Chaing Mai. We spent 2 nights in Ayutthaya (pronounced eh-oot-ey-ah!) and mostly went to lots of wats (temples). Its quite sad as it used to the be the capitol of Thailand, but the Burmese (many years ago) came and burnt all of the temples down, so its now a mass of ruins and broken Buddhas. But, it is still very impressive and the town is built all around these ruins. We stayed with the lovelyest little old Thai lady who spoke great English and in an entreprenurial fashion has created a TukTuk tour for her guests to view all the main wats at night as the sun is setting.

During the day we visited the wat with the buddha head entwined in the roots of a tree and had seen the elephants giving tourist rides up and down the street. It was our first elephants so we were quite excited, until we went to the area where the rides started... it was really upsetting and we had to leave quite quickly as it was so upsetting. All of the elephants were chained up and some were rocking back and forth, an obvious sign of distress.

On our tour in the evening we went to the area where these elephants lived at night, called the elephant Kraal (while on the tuktuk tour). It's where they used to herd the wild elephants to then use them in battle. Again the elephants were chained up and not too happy, but there were, however baby elephants running around, which kept everyone on their toes, as they love to charge at groups of people, like human bowling for them!! They were only 10 days old, so it was quite special to see them so young and nice to see them unchained.

After Ayuttaya we headed north on a bus to Sukhotai, a lovely 6 hour journey on a cramped bus! Sukhotai was nicer then Ayuttaha but in different ways. The wats and temples are 15kms from the main town, so you have to either hire a scooter or a tuk tuk to take you there. This tuk tuk though was a back to front one though, with the seating area (rather; basket) on the front of the motorbike, with the driver steering the basket with his feet and hands! It was really funny, but our driver was great and instead of getting all sweaty by hiring a bike to cycle around the huge park, we motod past in style!! (all for about 4 pounds for the day!).

Chiang Mai is alot bigger than the other 2 towns we have just visited, but obviously smaller than Bangkok. Its a great city, with loads to do. We have been on a cookery course, which i highly reccommend... we made 6 dishes each and seemed to eat all day! The food was amazing as well, and the course came complete with a cook book so we can hopefully recreate the dishes at home!

Yesterday we went on a day trip to see the hill tribes, including the long neck Karen tribe. They have to have brass coils wrapped around their necks from around 6 years old (only the women) to push their shoulders down and make their necks appear longer. They can take them off (by cutting them) but they keep them on for 24 hours a day, sleeping etc in the coils. It makes their skin very bruised and black underneath and must be so painful, and apparently is especially bad in the hot season. They also have these coils around their calves under their knees, so their legs grow around the coils. You can only imagine how uncomfortable it must be. It was certainly eye opening, especially hearing that they can't leave the village as they dont have citizenship in Thailand (they have come to the hills from Burma and China after the wars in Burma) so if they leave their provence they will be arrested! strange when you think how easy it is for us to travel around the world, but some people cant leave their town!

Our most amazing trip has been with the elephants in the Elephant Nature Park. It was the dream of an amazing woman called 'Lek' who wanted to help the abused elephants of Thailand. Many of the elephants used for tourist's benefits are badly kept and in need of help. Asian Elephants are not made for tourists to ride on their backs so their backs cave in - they should have rounded backs - not a protruding spine (which we have seen a lot of), so they are often in great pain to give rides to us tourists. Im so glad that we didn't have an elephant ride after hearing about this. The mahoots also break the elephant's wild spirit by putting it in a small cage so it can barely move and poking their legs and the inner ear with nails so that it obeys the humans. Unbelievably cruel and so upsetting. As you can imagine (being the extreme wouss that i am) i was in floods of tears.... But Lek, has taken 31 of these elephants and created a park where all they do is what they want to do - eating, sleeping, bathing. You can visit the park and help to feed them and bath them while giving much needed funds to the park.

It was the most amazing experinence, and we had a great day. Bathing them in the river was incredible, giving then a good old scratch with the brush. They each still have a mahoot who controls them, but only through words and rewarding good behaviour (like teaching a dog), so there are no big metal hooks or sticks. It was so lovely to see them happy and playing.. i thoroughly recommend it... www.elephantnaturefoundation.org

So tomorrow we are off to Loas, probably stopping over night on each side of the border to catch a slow boat to Luang Prabang. heres hoping it all goes smoothly!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tofty/worl_travels/1202309700/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tofty/worl_travels/1202309700/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tofty/worl_travels/1202309700/tpod.html Wed, 06 Feb 2008 10:11:20 -0500 Jonathan and Emma travel to worldwide shores and see all the sights -woo hoo

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Bangkok, Thailand

We have finally arrived in Asia! We are amid the hustle and bustle of Bangkok and loving it! We are staying in the infamous Khos San Road and are right in the thick of it with our hotel right on the street. Its a little noisy at night but we asked for a top floor after reading the rough guide/lonely planet advice and can sleep well. But for only 15 pound each a night, who's complaining - ok it's a bit steep for backpackers and Thailand, but its really nice and you get a good room for the money with a rooftop pool, just what you need after a sweaty days site seeing!

At first we were very wary of everything, this being the first non-speaking english country (Fiji doesnt really count - they all speak english there!)... but the Thais are very friendly (well at least when they think they are going to get your money - but Im hoping thats a Bangkok thing). We have taken a few TukTuks to various places (little motorbike taxis) which are great fun if a little hairy on those bends and when you zip in front of cars!

You may have read on facebook that we received our visas? What a relief and we have a start date too for Japan - 24th March, so we are hoping to arrive in Tokyo around the 20th , although we havent changed our flights yet. We had to go the the embassy here in Bangkok to change the paper for an actual visa in our passport and have to collect our passports tomorrow. So with that in mind, we had to stay in Bangkok rather than leave straight away to explore. We are planning on leaving for the north on friday on our way up to Chiang Mai and the hilltribes.

Today we spent the day mainly looking around the Grand Palace, and grand it certainly is, all I can say is Wow! Covered in gold, gilt, glass, porceline, in fact anything decorative you can think of all thrown together with great workmanship, a definite must see. I have to say its the first time that after only 2 hours of walking around and barely able to walk another step we realised that we were suffering from heat exhaustion. But it was well worth it, so we headed back to our hotel and stayed by the pool for the afternoon before heading onto Khos San Road for some food, yummy shrimps - you should see the size of the them!- amazing, didnt realised they came that big!

We are both shocked by how cheap it is, especially coming from NZ and Oz, the pound goes further here for sure... a meal for 2 with 2 beers, plus sprite for a whole 4 pounds!! Weve been putting our bartering skills to the test and have come away with a few goodies already! Although when we walk down the street I have to keep my arm on Jonathan as he keeps getting asked about ping pong shows and im suspecting theres no table tennis involved!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tofty/worl_travels/1199896560/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tofty/worl_travels/1199896560/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tofty/worl_travels/1199896560/tpod.html Sat, 02 Feb 2008 23:37:31 -0500 Jonathan and Emma travel to worldwide shores and see all the sights -woo hoo

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Franz Josef, New Zealand

We are now in Franz Josef, home of the huge glaciers alongside a big rainforest - strange but true! We left Nelson for Greymouth... hmmm is exactly how it sounds, think Grimsby! Wasn't all that bad though as we went on a tour of one of the main brewerys in New Zealand - Monteiths. Have to say Jonathan enjoyed it more than me, not being a bear drinker. However, they have a shandy type beer and a summer one which has honey in it, which i found almost yummy! Then we headed to Franz Josef which is where we are are now. Its really pretty here with the glacier coming out between the two mountains. Unfortunately the day we arrived they cancelled all the trips (quite rare apparently) due to the really bad weather - it was pouring down. We had wanted to do a heli-hike so we decided to wait another day for the weather to change.

However, the next day the weather was still very cloudy and the helicopters wouldnt fly due to the low cloud. Because lots of people were having their trips cancelled, the half day hike was fully booked... ahhh! However, we eventually managed to get booked on the half day hike and off we went at 4pm yesterday. Did everybody fail to tell me how hard it is? Its really quite strenuous, with lots of climbing up and down over huge hills, up and down small, but high ladders and steps that are half the height of me!! However, we went with the slower group and i overcame my fear.. and was fine until Jonathan lost his grip and luckily was holding onto the rope with both hands otherwise would have taken us both out and off for a slide down the side of a really high block of ice! We are both really glad that we did though and although our legs are not thanking us today, we feel more of an achievement than sitting in a helicopter.

So today, we tried to catch the magic bus to head towards Queenstown (we are stopping at Wanaka on the way through). However, there is one road out of Franz Josef and its also the road with the mirrorlake on it, and there's been a fatal car crash so the road is closed! We were due to leave at 8am this morning and we may not leave until 1/2pm! Never mind, hopefully we'll be able to leave soon and you never know you might be reading about some more adventure pursuits in the days/weeks to come.. watch this space!

]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tofty/worl_travels/1201225380/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tofty/worl_travels/1201225380/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tofty/worl_travels/1201225380/tpod.html Sat, 02 Feb 2008 23:35:29 -0500 Jonathan and Emma travel to worldwide shores and see all the sights -woo hoo

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Sydney, Australia

We have finally left New Zealand and are now in Australia, home of the kangaroo, koala and sorry jonathan but the crocodile!
After Franz Josef we eventually left the town and headed into Wanaka. Oh the beautiful wanaka. We fell in love with this town. This is where our wonderful sky dive took place! When we got there in the afternoon we were all ready to go and then there was a small dirt devil right through the area where you are supposed to land, so they called all of the jumps off. I really felt for the 2 poor girls who were actually in the plane, ready to jump and then had to come back down in the plane!
So we travelled back on the next day, Thursday 10th January and committed the unthinkable of jumping from a moving plane at 15,000 ft. Jonathan was absolutely petrified and although i was of course scared, my legs weren't jumping off the floor! When my tamdom guy said 'Ok, lift your feet up' i closed my eyes and did as i was told, knowing that the jumping would be the worse bit. i can safely say that it was the scariest part, definitely. However, you dont actually have to do anything other than tilt your head back and put you legs round underneatht the plane. The guy on your back pushes you out and all you have to do is worry about how fast you are falling... but only for 2 seconds upon which you reach terminal velocity and feel like you are floating on a cloud of air. it really is amazing and the view, well you can see from the pics with all the mountains and the big lake, not to mention the blue sky it was certainly a very good day for it.
After that, we were absolutely buzzing all day! However, we managed to contain ourselves enough to go to the cinema in the evening to watch 'A Mighty Heart' at the local cinema. what an experience! its a very small cinema with sofas to sit on and even a car to watch the film in. At the interval, they serve homemade ice cream and still hot cookies! A really cool place.
The next day we went to Queenstown, the adventure capital of the world. However, we'd pretty much been adventured out by then and done most of the activities on offer so the next day we went to Milford Sound where we overnighted in Te Anau.

Our bus took us all the way out to the sound where we went on a cruise to see all the different waterfalls and the different views, it was fortunately a lovely day and the skys were quite blue. Shame it didnt stay that way...

In the morning at the crack of dawn, the Kayak company picked us up at 5.30am and we headed to the sound. we got totally kitted out to look like ducks and about to step into the water when the whole thing was called off due to strong winds and the possibility of us all capsizing - no thanks! It was such a shame as not only had we stayed purely in Te Anau to do the Kayaks, but we didnt get our money back and had to go on the cruise which we had done the day before - all a bit miffed at having missed our. But there you go, you win some you loose some i guess!

Back in Queenstown, we had a few chill out days not getting up to much except sampling the amazing Ferg burgers - yummy! and a spot of crazy golf at the caddyshack minigolf, where all the holes have some sort of animated model that does something when you pot the ball... like a rocket that launches and the haunted house that has a skull that pops out!

After queenstown we went to Dunedin, the Scottish city of NZ. We went on the Elm wildlife tour and saw some amazing sites. First up were the Albatross as they soared over the cliffs to their nests. - up to 3 metres in wingspan! Then we travelled for about 40 mins to a small secluded private beach where we watched the little yellow eyed penguins come in from the sea after a hard days fishing and waddle up over the cliffs to their familys. Each one would wonder up to their family, where the mum/dad, would waddle out to great them where they had a sort of cuddle and hello, very very cute. Then the chicks would come out and do the same! When we walked back down from the viewing huts that they had there onto the beach, an amazing site was there, a huge sealion arose from the sea and seemed to pose for us on the sand before turning back into the sea. It was really amazing to be so close to this huge animal in the wild.

Our next stop over was at Lake Tekapo. A brilliant blue lake where we braved the ice cold waters (having come from a glacier!) and took a very quick swim and then joined the rest of our bus for a big barbecue. Unfortunately there was too much cloud cover for us to go to the observatory which we had wanted to do, so we looked at the few stars we could see from the comfort of our hostel with wine in hand!

The next day was Christchurch to stay with Sonia and Paul (my Aunt and Uncle). Sonia met us from the bus and took us to their house. Its very beautiful with amazing views. They were very welcoming and acted as taxis to us the whole time we were there which was very kind (thanks S and P!). On Friday 18th we again rose at the crack of dawn - this time at 4am! to go on a hot ari balloon ride over Christchurch. This was brilliant and very smooth. the best bit was hovering over the ground about 3 metres up and then wooshing up over the hedge at the last minute! In the afternoon, I went and partook in some bone carving with a local maori guy, John. It was really interesting to see how its done and Jonathan likes the necklace i made him!

On Saturday Sonia and Paul took us to Akaroa to swim with the dolphins - this time the Hector dolphins as we hadnt had a great experience the first time since there were about 90 people and about 5 dolphins. This time it was totally different, with only 7 people on our boat and over an hour in the water with the dolphins, it was really great albeit the water being very cold even through the wetsuit! That evening we went out with S and P for a curry at the Indian Harbour which was lovely.

Sunday was mainly a chill out day, so we went to see some of the buskers at the World Busker Festival. Then, Monday we had to say good bye to Sonia, Paul and indeed new Zealand and headed off to Sydney.

We went for a wander through and around Sydney on Tuesday. Im ust say im quite surprised how much i like Sydney, its a great city. We did the obligitory photos of the Opera house and had a bit of a chilled out walk which was great.

Yesterday we went on a trip to the blue mountains. It was a great day, very packed in with not quite enough time unfortunately, but we loved every minute. It really put the Grand Canyon into perspective as well! On the way we stopped at The Featherdale Wildlife park, which was really cool as it only really has Australian animals in it. We got to stroke a Koala and to feed Kangaroos!

Today is another chilled out day, catching up on internet stuff and then its Australia day tomorrow so no doubt itll be all go there too!

missing you all lots, trying to send some sunshine your way! x
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tofty/worl_travels/1202010960/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tofty/worl_travels/1202010960/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tofty/worl_travels/1202010960/tpod.html Sat, 02 Feb 2008 23:18:55 -0500 Jonathan and Emma travel to worldwide shores and see all the sights -woo hoo

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Sydney/Melbourne, Australia

Australia Day was amazing, a great day, and these Ozies certainly know how to put on an event. We saw tons of old cars, lots of buskers, tall ships racing by the harbour to get to the Harbour bridge first, an air display by the RAAF with both planes and parachutes, lots of Australia flags and all finished off with a great fireworks display over the Harbour. Our legs certainly ached after walking all those hours, but we were so glad to see Sydney on this special holiday.

On Monday we headed off on another plane to melbourne and stopped first of all in St Kilda. Its a great area of Melbourne and we enjoyed having some more relaxation after the hectic pace of NZ. We played Killer Pool and headed off for bed that night. A few hours later, about 1am we heard so much noise and the corridor outside our room (shared with a private double room - we were in a 4 bed dorm) was almost shaking from the noise. There was one guy shouting all kinds of obscenitys (not to us - but not to be repeated) and rattling our door handle to try to get in - knowing there was a spare bed in our dorm. Thank our lucky stars for Jonathan, who had locked the door from the inside. Then all went quiet for a few hours before more of their herd came back about 4am with much the same occurance of banging and shouting. One of the guys was sick constantly all night it felt like - really nice, all over the corridor and in the bathroom. Its certainly an experience i dont want to repeat and i'm very glad its all over! Im sure they were high on something so we couldn't talk to them - they were too volatile i think, and we couldn't get out to get someone! - yuck...

But, luckily we left the next day and went to stay with Jonathan's 2nd cousin's family - Helen and Lloyd, together with kids; Mina, Guy and Bella and the dogs; Pheobe and Sparky. They made us feel very welcome and we really liked staying there. We have been very lucky with our 'hosts' of friends and family, and are most grateful for the clean houses, bedding and bathrooms not to mention home cooked food and taxi-ing! - Thanks everyone!

We spent a few days chilling on the beaches of St. Kilda and Sandringham (south of Melbourne city - where Helen and Lloyd live) and spent a couple of days in the city. We did a walk through the lanes, which we highly recommend and free too, curtesy of the local info centre! We ate at a cafe where the lane was so narrow that you felt as if you could almost touch those eating on the opposite side!

On Friday we met up with Amber, my old friend that I met when I was an exchange student in the US. It was great, its been 5 years, so it was really nice to catch up, hopefully it wont be another 5 before we meet again.

So now, we are back in Sydney, and thank god our visas for Japan have arrived - just in the nick of time. We were so worried that they would have to be sent to us in Thailand, but no, they have arrived and it suddenly feels more closer than before.. We are not sure of our start date, but are thinking it will be around the 15th March when we land on Japanese shores. Watch this space for where we will be living in Tokyo!

We are off to Thailand via Singapore tomorrow and stopped in Melbourne for a last travel clinic check up to stock up on all the necessarys to stop delhi-belly (hopefully!). We are a little apprehensive about Asia, as first timers there, but we have lonely planets in hand and have planned our route. After all with the size of our first aid kit now, we must be prepared for everything!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tofty/worl_travels/1199504700/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tofty/worl_travels/1199504700/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/tofty/worl_travels/1199504700/tpod.html Tue, 08 Jan 2008 17:36:04 -0500 Jonathan and Emma travel to worldwide shores and see all the sights -woo hoo

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Nelson, New Zealand

Well since Christmas we have been non stop every day, fitting in as many action packed things as we can manage. We left Paihia on the 27th December and travelled on the magic bus down the west coast of the Northland to Opononi. We stayed there for 2 nights so that we could see the Kaori forest and go on a night time tour with the local maoris. It was very magical and we saw loads of humungous 2,000 year old trees, together with maori prayers, songs and medicine techniques from the forest.

On the 29th we headed back to Auckland for an overnight stay to then catch the next magic bus to waitomo on the 30th. This was when the action started! We went black water rafting with CaveWorld where you travel through the caves on a small black rubebr tyre, together with a wetsuit, helmet, headtorch and really fetching white wellies! It was really cool as you layed back and looked up at the glowworms all lit up as you sailed down through the caves... however then you had to jump off a 2 metre high ledge into the black behind you, which was a little scary but managable. There were loads of creepys down there apparently but thankfully we didnt see any, thanks in part to the darkness.

After Waitomo we headed off to Rotorua where we stopped for a few nights for New years. We continued the rafting craze with white water rafting on the Kaituna river, which is a grade 5 raft (it only goes up to 5!)... Again we donned wet suits and jumped into a big boat this time to navigate the river. We started with a few gentle drops leading up to the big one - a 7 metre water fall! The boat actually went vertical before dumping us all under the river and out the other side, with us all hanging on for dear life. It was certainly an experience and my heart was going full throtle! In the afternoon of New years eve we went on a gondola up the hill and went on a luge ride down to the bottom of the hill. This is like a little go cart which you just stop by pulling the handles towards you. Its great fun and great catching the ski lift up to the top again - not been on one before!

New Years eve, evening was im afraid a little bit of a let down. We started off at The Shed in Rotorua which had some great oldie music, and a big band of bagpipes came in while we were eating, slightly random, but good all the same. For some readon we left to see the festival on the lake front.. which im afraid was rubbish, so we headed back to our hostel and The Lava bar... not good, there was a really bad vibe about the place and lots of big scary maoris clearly looking for totty! So we left fairly early after the bells. However, we definitely had the best day ever.

On New Years day, we headed off to Hells Gate where we partook in a spot of mud bathing! A perfect hangover cure.. you jump into a warm mud bath and smother mud all over. The you run screaming through an ice cold shower (to get the mud all out of your pores) before jumping into a boiling hot spa. Very nice and although he wasnt that interested at first, I think Jonathan was suprised at how much he enjoyed it! In the evening we went to the Maori show in a maori village. It was pretty cool, with a display of different maori songs, the Haka and different traditions, together with all you can eat Hangi (the food is cooked under ground in a fire). A great evening.

The next day we got our bus out of Rotorua to Taupo. Although its only actually an hour away, we stopped at a few places along the way. First stop was at the Wai -o- Tapo thermal wonderland, where a lot of the geysers are (there were some at Hells Gate too, but this is much better). We saw some pretty amazingly coloured waters and rocks - Martin, you would have been trigger happy with your camera - wish i was a better photographer! Then we went to the Rock n Ropes assult course.

Now, i had seen this advertised but didnt know much about it and so off we went to get signed up as i decided we were both going to do it. (whatever 'it' was!). It wasnt until we were harnessed up and fully payed that we found out - just as well as think i would have chickened out! We had to climb up a huge pole (about 25 metres high, one at a time. At the top you had to put one leg up onto the top (theres nothing to hold onto up there so its a lot harder than it sounds). Then you put both hands on the left knee and try to push off so that your right leg comes next to your left with you standing up. Now when you are at 25 metres up, with just a small area to put your feet on and no room to spare let alone that you cant hold onto anything, and then try to put all your weight onto one leg, its very difficult as all your legs want to do it shake! It took a little longer for me (than Jonathan) but i managed it and the next task was to jump off the pole and grab the trapeze in front of you! We both managed it and it felt really good, especially as everyone below us clapped! With one part of the task over, the next was The Swing. We again climbed a huge pole and stood on a platform this time at the top. They clipped us one at a time to a long rope and we jumped off the side of the platform - like a bungy but half the size and without the stretch! It took you in a huge arch and then you kind of swung back and forth. This definitely confirmed my need not to do a bungy. Good job as the bus then took us to the bungy site over lake Taupo! Pretty cool place to do a bungy, but a no no for me thanks!

After over nighting at Taupo we got the bus down to Wellington where we stayed one night before getting the boat over to Picton yesterday. So now we are in Nelson, the start of our journey around the south island. We went to the WOW museum today - amazing, i want to enter! It stands for World of Wearable Art and is a yearly competition of very creaturey/big costumes. Really cool. Anyway better go and explore more of Nelson, its definitely our favourite town in new Zealand so far. xxx
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