TravelStream™ news feed for member twoelders on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/twoelders en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Sat, 28 Jun 2008 13:54:22 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/twoelders/se-asia/1214675220/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/twoelders/se-asia/1214675220/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/twoelders/se-asia/1214675220/tpod.html Sat, 28 Jun 2008 13:54:22 -0400 Karyn and Malcolm's adventures in South East Asia 2007/2008

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Glasgow, Scotland, United Kingdom

We are home! Well, technically not our home, but Fiona's! We managed (after some begging and pleading) to get put on a standby list at the Dubai airport to take an earlier flight back to Glasgow. Douglas's (Malcolm's youngest brother) university graduation was on Thursday afternoon and a family dinner was planned for that night. We managed to arrive back on Thursday afternoon, and with the help of Fiona we were able to surprise everyone else at dinner that night. Twas a grand time! Lots of tears and hugs all around.Its good to be home.....but by God its cold here! :o)All our love,Back home safe and sound -K & M
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/twoelders/se-asia/1214501880/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/twoelders/se-asia/1214501880/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/twoelders/se-asia/1214501880/tpod.html Sat, 28 Jun 2008 13:45:17 -0400 Karyn and Malcolm's adventures in South East Asia 2007/2008

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Kuala Lumpur, Wilayah Persekutuan, Malaysia

Well, after being in KL several times now, I have finally visited the Petronas Towers. And I learned that all this time, I have been mispronouncing Petronas too boot! (It is actually pronounced Petro-nass, not Puh-trone-as.....)Otherwise, Malcolm and I have mostly just wandered about, not really believing that the trip is nearly over. Its hard to believe that tonight we are on a plane working our way back towards Scotland. The time has really flown by for us, and I wish we were back at the beginning of the trip again!Thanks to everyone at home who has been cheering us on this whole time - we've really enjoyed the comments on the blog and I am really flattered that so many people have been interested in what we've been up to. This is our last entry from SE Asia.....for this trip at least!All our love,K & M
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/twoelders/se-asia/1213982280/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/twoelders/se-asia/1213982280/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/twoelders/se-asia/1213982280/tpod.html Fri, 20 Jun 2008 02:36:08 -0400 Karyn and Malcolm's adventures in South East Asia 2007/2008

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Yogyakarta, Java, Indonesia

After a week on Seraya, and then a couple of days traveling, and then the freezing cold of Bromo, arriving here in Jogja to have a nice hot shower was just the thing! (Our first hot shower in over a month) We decided to splurge and treat ourselves while in Jogja. We are staying in a proper hotel - with a pool, a lovely garden - the works. We have spent the last four days just relaxing, swimming, reading and its been heavenly. Well, mostly - I have a head cold, so besides all the fun stuff I have also been sneezing, wheezing and snuffling!Jogja itself is a really nice town, not too busy, not too chaotic. A little more used to, and geared up for tourists than some places we've been. Now, that also means that there are a lot of people trying to sell us stuff everytime we turn around, but we're quite used to that now. (Sometimes I feel like I am reliving my terrible twos days - all I say most of the day is "no, no, no"!)Tonight, we are off again though - this time overnight on the bus to Jakarta. Personally, I didn't want to go there, but Malcolm was thrilled at the thought of missing out on visiting a capital city of one of our countries. So, we've made a deal - we will be arriving very early in the morning tomorrow, will have some breakfast somewhere, and then we head to the airport for our flight to KL. Not exactly a thorough visit, but an acceptable compromise, I hope!I feel terribly sad at the thought that in less than a week we will be leaving SE Asia. Malcolm and I were chatting last night, and it seems like just yesterday that we were arriving in Hanoi. We really have seen and experienced a lot on this trip, and I have truly loved it. Well, most of it. And, Malx and I are even still speaking to each other (most days)! :o)Still, on the plus side - in case I haven't told everyone yet - we are heading to PEI for part of the summer! By hook or by crook, I shall get there.....even if I have to paddle a canoe across the Atlantic! So, although this trip is coming to an end, we have another one to look forward to straight away. After that its back to Edinburgh, and work, and then we can start planning for our next adventure. (K says South America, M says Africa....who will get their way?!?!)Will write more from KL in a couple of days!All our love,K & M
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/twoelders/se-asia/1213470960/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/twoelders/se-asia/1213470960/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/twoelders/se-asia/1213470960/tpod.html Thu, 19 Jun 2008 10:38:21 -0400 Karyn and Malcolm's adventures in South East Asia 2007/2008

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Seraya, Indonesia

Okay, so every time we go to a new beach destination I say its perfect, and that its like heaven on earth. Well, this time I really really mean it! Seraya Island is absolutely wonderful. Its a tiny island about an hour away from Labuanbajo. There is only one "hotel" - really its about ten huts along the beach, with no running water. You have to order your dinner sometimes the day before so they can go out and catch (or buy) whatever it is you want. The best bit was definitely the snorkeling. No need for a boat, we were able to just walk out a few meters from the beach to see amazing things. There was lots of soft and hard corals, with HEAPS of lovely fishies. We saw a loggerhead turtle most days, and one day it was in the shallows (only about 5 feet of water) sitting on some coral. I swam about 3 feet away from it for a little while which was really lovely. We also saw a cuttlefish once - about a foot long, and watched it change colors and textures several times. One day we were also lucky enough to see four Spotted Eagle rays - the largest was nearly six feet across - after I got over the shock of seeing something that large underwater, it was spectacular! They were so graceful.The only thing that I found a bit unnerving was one night while getting into bed, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye on the mosquito net next to my head. Upon closer inspection - it was a scorpion. On the inside of the net. Only a foot away from me. YIKES! Now, Malcolm will interrupt here and point out that it was a small scorpion. Obviously, I did the most appropriate thing at the time - I leaped out of bed, screeching, and stood on a chair. Hey, if it works for mice, why not scorpions?!? Of course, then the next night I woke up to Malcolm tickling my arm. Then I realized that he was tickling the arm that was facing away from him....how could he reach so far, I wondered? Then I looked down at said arm and realized that it was actually a very large cockroach crawling on me. BLECH! I believe I might've used the chair in that scenario as well. :o)Otherwise though, we had heaps of fun feeding the local goat population, and playing with the zillion cats that were about. No leftovers from dinner here!We are really sad to have to leave this little piece of paradise, but if the opportunity ever arises, we will be back! Hugh - if you are reading this, and you are planning to go to Indonesia, then DEFINITELY you should come here! All our love,K & M
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/twoelders/se-asia/1213657560/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/twoelders/se-asia/1213657560/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/twoelders/se-asia/1213657560/tpod.html Tue, 17 Jun 2008 10:35:29 -0400 Karyn and Malcolm's adventures in South East Asia 2007/2008

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Cemoro Lawang, Indonesia

We heard of Bromo being described as a "lunar" landscape.....and I guess that's right. It certainly doesn't look like something from this world! The Bromo volcano is just one of peaks in the Tengger Crater, its not that big but its certainly beautiful. We got up terribly early to go up to a viewpoint to watch the sunrise over the crater. The weather was not the best ever, but the clouds actually made it a bit more otherworldy, I think. The higher volcano seen in our pictures is Mt Semeru (the highest and most active in this area). The upside-down pudding one is Mt Batok, which is just next to Bromo (which you can't see it very well in some of the sunrise pics). After the sunrise, we went by jeep down into the crater itself, and then walked to the base of Bromo. Someone, at some point, thoughtfully put 253 steps up to the top of Bromo itself. That way, I, and all the grannies from the coach tour could wheeze our way up to the top. Not just from lack of excercise though (in my own defense!) but the sulphur-rich ashy smoke that we had to breath. By the time I made it to the top I was wishing that I hadn't. Malcolm stayed up to have a walk about the rim, but I headed back down pretty sharpish. At least I didn't play the complete lazy tourist and take a pony ride up from the car park!After our lovely week at the beach, it was a bit of a shock to our systems to be in the cold, cold weather. For the sunrise, we had to steal the blankets from our bed in our hotel to keep warm!Even if the weather wasn't perfect, it still was a really amazing thing to see. Next stop Yogyakarta!Love,K & M
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/twoelders/se-asia/1212593280/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/twoelders/se-asia/1212593280/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/twoelders/se-asia/1212593280/tpod.html Tue, 17 Jun 2008 03:05:20 -0400 Karyn and Malcolm's adventures in South East Asia 2007/2008

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Moni, Indonesia

Hmmm.....everyone likes a road trip, right? Beautiful countryside seen whizzing by while you go far too quickly round hairpin corners half way up a mountain.....listening to the same three music tapes at full volume over and over while you inhale cigarette smoke from your chain-smoking driver.....listening to him honking the horn constantly (I counted 62 honks in 20 minutes).....are you getting the picture yet? Needless to say, our road trip hasn't turned out exactly as we'd hoped. Still, we stopped the first night in Bajawa and our driver picked up two random local guys and one of them drove for a couple of days, and he at least was a good driver, and didn't smoke too much or listen to the music too loudly. If there are any travelers reading this and thinking about taking a driver out of Labuanbajo - honestly I wouldn't. At 500,000 rupiah (roughly $55US) a day it really wasn't very good value. Our driver didn't know how to find anything, didn't like to let us stop for pictures, picked up random strangers, and was basically a real pain in the ass. Also, we were told that our driver would be able to speak some English - now, technically, I guess being able to say "Okay" and "Hello Mister" means that you can speak some English, but again its not exactly what we'd expected!Okay, so the ranting is over. We did get to see Kelimutu which we all wanted to see. Its a dormant volacano that has three coloured crater lakes at the summit. The colours of the lakes change without warning, sometimes as often as once a year. At the moment, the colours are turquoise, chocolate brown and black. The local beliefs are that young people's spirits inhabit the blue lake, older people's spirits inhabit the brown lake and evil people's spirits inhabit the black. The lakes didn't smell like sulphur (typical at a volcano) but we did notice that our eyes, nose and throats burned quite a bit the closer we got to the lakes. The sunrise there was spectacular - probably one of the nicest I've ever seen! We were completely above the clouds and it felt like we were on top of the world. Was even worth getting out of bed before 4am!We also went to a traditional village called Bena, at the base of Mt. Inerie, another dormant volcano. The local headman spoke Dutch, so our two Dutch companions were able to translate for us as he gave us a tour of the village. Although the villagers are all Catholic (as is most of Flores) they still practice older traditional beliefs. In the centre of the village, there are raised areas, divided one for each family. These are where the family members are buried, right back to their ancestors who settled the village roughly 1200 years ago. There are also "totems" to the female and male ancestors. There were even small totem figures on the roofs of some houses, which seemed to indicate whether the house belonged to a male or female. I think the village probably makes most of their money from tourism now, but the women also do some wonderful weaving, and they grow cocoa, vanilla and ummm.....some other stuff. (Can't remember now!) Outside the houses, we saw the bones of buffalo heads on display, and we were told that they are kept as a sign of the wealth of the family. (Each year buffalo are sacrificed at New Year). Even in the remotest of places, I can still manage to do a bit of shopping - bought myself a scarf here in Bena. (See photo!)Now, back to Labuanbajo - hopefully we will arrive in one piece!Love,K & M
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/twoelders/se-asia/1211499780/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/twoelders/se-asia/1211499780/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/twoelders/se-asia/1211499780/tpod.html Tue, 17 Jun 2008 01:41:23 -0400 Karyn and Malcolm's adventures in South East Asia 2007/2008

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Surabaya, Java, Indonesia

Well, we've never been in three countries in one day before. That's been interesting (and tiring!) We had breakfast in Singapore, lunch in Malaysia, and dinner in Indonesia. We left Singapore and made the reverse trip back to the airport without any bother. We arrived in Surabaya just in time for rush hour traffic. Although, we have since realised that any time of the day is rush hour traffic. For some reason, I never really thought of Indonesia as being heavily populated. I was absolutely dumbfounded to realise that the island of Java alone has a population of nearly 130 million people! Holy Moly! And there are a lot of vehicles on the roads. Lots and lots and lots. But still, through a combination of bus, minivan and cyclo we arrived in one piece to our hotel. The sun sets sooooo early here - that's one thing that will need getting used to. The sun is below the horizon by about 5:15pm and its fully completely dark before 6pm. So, our first meal in Indonesia was room service in our hotel (how posh of us!) and an ealy night. We can save the exploring until tomorrow.Our main object here in Surabaya is to try to figure out the fastest/easiest/cheapest way to get to Flores. What I think we are going to discover is that there is no such thing. I dread to think what will end up being involved! As long as I don't have to paddle a kayak there myself, I guess I'll be fine.More soon,K & M
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/twoelders/se-asia/1211333700/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/twoelders/se-asia/1211333700/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/twoelders/se-asia/1211333700/tpod.html Tue, 17 Jun 2008 01:06:26 -0400 Karyn and Malcolm's adventures in South East Asia 2007/2008

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Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia

Its been a while since we've had a ten hour bus journey and I think I was starting to suffer from withdrawal. Fortunately enough, we had such a journey yesterday so I can relax now! Semporna to Kota Kinabalu was actually a rather nice journey, lots to see. Sadly, Mt. Kinabalu was wreathed in cloud (as is the norm I think) so we couldn't see the summit.Kota Kinabalu itself is quite a nice town, certainly more modern and affluent than elsewhere in Sabah. We only have a short time here, so mostly just walked about the downtown and saw the sights. For dinner we decided to take a wander down to the night market on the harbour. We wolfed down and BBQ'd rabbitfish and enjoyed ourselves immensely!Tomorrow morning we are flying to Johor Bahru on Peninsular Malaysia and then taking the bus to Singapore. Hopefully it shouldn't be too much bother as we only have one night in Singapore (all the budget would allow for!) before we head to Indonesia.All our love,K & M
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/twoelders/se-asia/1209694320/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/twoelders/se-asia/1209694320/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/twoelders/se-asia/1209694320/tpod.html Fri, 06 Jun 2008 01:15:35 -0400 Karyn and Malcolm's adventures in South East Asia 2007/2008

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Labuanbajo, East Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia

I've never been so glad to arrive at a hotel as tonight! We left our beautiful Gili Air at 7:30am on May 30, heading for Labuanbajo on Flores island. We took a small boat to the Lombok, then a van to Mataram (Lombok), then a bus across Lombok, then a ferry to Sumbawa, then two buses across Sumbawa, then another ferry to Labuanbajo, eventually arriving at 6:30pm on May 31. In total, the journey took us 35 hours. EEK!! Even a cold shower was a welcome one at that point. Mostly today we wandered about the town and rested a bit. Tomorrow we head out on our next adventure - to see Flores by car. We have decided to splurge a bit and have rented a car and driver for four days along with a Dutch couple. Apparently its the easiest way to see the island as the public transport is a bit slow/infrequent.All our love!K & M
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/twoelders/se-asia/1212105180/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/twoelders/se-asia/1212105180/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/twoelders/se-asia/1212105180/tpod.html Sun, 01 Jun 2008 09:05:12 -0400 Karyn and Malcolm's adventures in South East Asia 2007/2008

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Gili Air, West Nusa Tenggara, Indonesia

There is such a thing as heaven on earth and we have found it! We have just spent the most wonderful few days hanging out on the beach and sunning ourselves on Gili Air. We did manage to work up enough energy to do one day of snorkeling which was great as well. We saw green turtles, scorpion fish, puffer fish, and lots, lots more. Most of the time though was spent just relaxing! Met a few really fun people there and learned a new dice game called Kiriki. We will definitely have to show you pictures (when we get better internet) because I don't think I can explain it with words well enough. But, I'll try for now! We had a nice bungalow about 10 meters from the water, with a lovely big veranda with a nice big hammock. Between us and the water was a few little raised covered platforms that had some big floor cushions and low tables, so you could sit back and eat/drink and relax and watch the sea. We ate most of our meals there, and hid from sun during the really hot part of the day. There were lots of palm trees about, and some bamboo sun chairs on the beach. Idyllic sunsets. Not a terribly stressful few days!Lots of love,K & M
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