So, this is the end...We've travelled across the world, slept in over a hundred different beds (not together) and experienced awesomeness such as:
Partying in Bangkok; Ping-Pong shows; Full Moon party; diving in Koh Tao; trekking, Elephant riding, star gazing and Tiger cuddling in Chiang Mai; slow boat to Laos; tubing; riding the worst mopeds known to man; tubing again; 27 hour bus journey from hell to Hanoi; Halong Bay; attempting to cross roads in Vietnam; crawling the Viet Cong Cu-Chi tunnels; shooting a rifle; Angkor Wat; Hiring a camper-van called Helen; damaging Helen; Frasier island; great barrier reef; attempting to order a drive-thru McDonald's in an imaginary car; Betty the ball; surfing; Nimbin; Magnetic Island; Helen being broken into; Cape Tribulation; Campbell Town; Sand-dune boarding; Meeting Arj Barker; Jumping off the Sky-Tower; White Water-rafting; losing my shin on the luge; Alpine crossing; meeting glow-worms; Wellington pub-crawl; sitting inside a replica Whale-Heart; kayaking in Abel Tasman; pouring pints in Greymouth; Spending all my money; Borrowing money; Sky-diving, kayaking and Glacier walking in Franz Josef; Borrowing more money; My Birthday, and getting freaked out in Puzzlingworld in Wanaka; Highest Bungee in NZ, Frisbee golf, Fergburger in Queenstown; star-gazing at Lake Takepo; and swimming with Dolphins in Kaikoura.
My bucket-list has taken a pounding.
It wouldn't have been as amazing if I hadn't met so many awesome people, so below Ive attempted a list of credits. Obviously, it would be impossible to name everyone, but here is my best shot:
Credits (in no particular order):
South-East Asia
Ning
Chonticha
Nook
Tom Meaney
Jenny
Katie
Bird
Mr B
Discount Lady
The Canadian Couple
French Ambassadors
Jan and Dee
Kristin
Ulrike
Scouse Couple
Danish Couple
Sun
Kimberley
Hetty-Kate
Australia
Margot
Jess
Cassie
Babs
Kaya
Jayde
Seb
Phil
Cobby
Dave
Tom Meaney (again)
Tom's family
The Posh Girls
Andreas
Christoff
Dana
James
Nicole
Byron
Lisa
Nina
Fiona
Sandy
Hilde
Marlotte
Tom, Tina and the kids
New Zealand
Jules
Mark
Liv
Peter
Arj
Alison
Zoe
Rachel
Watumba (Jainita)
George
Nick
Dan
Jashan
Niamh
Simone
Rose
Harriet
Nicola
Shane
Chebchenko
Park Ji Sung
Matthius
Aaron
Jessica
Charlotte
The Wolf-Pack:
Sarah Leydon (Queen Wolf)
Rob Sutherland (Flappy-Headed Wolf)
Chris Pearson (Steel Wolf)
Craig Farr (Grumpy Wolf)
Me (Hairy Wolf)
So that's it, I'll probably do another blog in a day or two to describe what its like returning from a big trip.
Massive thanks to everyone named above, and others who I may have missed out by accident.
A special thank you to my parents for helping me out big-time which has allowed me to do everything Ive wanted.
And, of course another thank you to everyone who has read my blog.
Look forward to seeing you all,
Jay
Thursday 23 June 2011
Sunday 19 June 2011
Full Loop
Hey everyone, so been a while since the last blog, here goes...
The last couple of days in Queenstown were awesome, we went and played frisbee golf at the park...They have 18 holes set up around a big old park by the water...each hole has a tee, obstacles and this big metal cup with chains on that you aim for. All you have to do is have a frisbee and you're good to go. We hired them for like 2 pounds so it was cheap as. And absolutely ledge...so much so that we went again the following day, this time taking Sarah along with us. Had a grand craic.
After the golf, we hit the famous Fergburger, a little burger place in Queenstown that apparently do the best burgers ever. And Ive got to say, it was amazing. Ive never eaten a bigger burger in my life (obviously the men all went for the biggest one money could buy, with a big portion of chips on the side) and Sarah (the Queen wolf) had some poncey-woman-chicken-burger. It became a battle towards the end, powering through every last little bit. I think we got through a tree's worth of napkins as well. We all felt ridiculous by the end of it, but it was incredible.
So, the following day we got on the bus (late) to Dunedin...the driver was a bit pissed off, but the wolf-pack just alpha-maled him into letting us off. Dunedin, is one of the most populated places in NZ, with 20% being students. We thought that fact, along with it being a Saturday, was a good excuse to go out. So we did, and it was a pretty good night, good bars and loads of people out...The only problem was that we got to sleep at around 6am, and the bus was coming at 8am to take us to Lake Takepo...We were late again, which annoyed the guy even more (as it was the same bloke) ... This was made worse when we turned up at Sarah's hostel and she wasn't anywhere to be seen. The guy decided to go, and about 10 mins later, Chris gets a call from the Queen-wolf saying she'd just got up. We managed to get the driver to go back and pick her up. I don't think we were his favourites.
Lake Takepo, is a rather good looking place..a tiny little township on the edge of a bright blue lake, with a couple of mountains here and there. We stayed for a few nights, went on some walks around Mt John and relaxed by the fire playing with the kittens. As there is hardly any light pollution there, the view of the stars is unbelievable, so at night, we'd rap up, make a cup of tea and head down to the lake to lay down and look at the night-sky. Sounds super gay, but it was awesome.
After Lake Takepo, we headed to Kaikoura. On the way, is the stop off in Christchurch. They used to do overnight stops there, but due to all the earthquakes, most of the hostels are non-existent. So usually, people only get off if they have flights. Sadly, Sarah did have a flight so we had to say goodbye to the Queen-wolf...emotional times.
Kaikoura is pretty much amazing...its right on the ocean, and is famous for its whale watching and dolphin swimming. The hostel was awesome as well...good film collection (always good), Hot tub, sauna, swimming pool, open fires, 3 kitchens, pool tables etc. and all for just 12 pounds a night..insane. The place was called Dusky lodge (definitely recommend to anyone who is going there). Due to money being incredibly low, I managed to get a little gig there: 3 hours of general cleaning a day which got me free accommodation. Im no Stephen Hawking, but I managed to work out that I would be on 4 pounds an hour.
Luckily, the first day I worked for 2 hours, and the other day I only worked for 1 hour and 20 mins. So it all worked out well in the end. My job was hoovering, which Ive had limited experience doing. But this hoover is one of them where you strap it to your back, like a rucksack and walk about like a Ghost-Buster cleaning shit up. It wants too bad, and I looked flipping awesome.
The main event of Kaikoura, however, was the dolphin swimming. You go out on a boat at silly o'clock in the morning, all wet-suited up (as the water is flippin freezing) and go looking for the Dusky Dolphins. Luckily it wasn't long before we found the first pod. There were around 300 of them, so we quickly got in the water and had a swim. It was absolutely incredible...loads and loads of dolphins came swimming up close to you, swimming round in circles to play. If you made eye contact and made noises, they would keep circling you until you couldn't keep up. The organisers recommended to singing little tunes, as they respond well to it...Im not sure if this is true, or just a wind up. At one point, I came up just to listen to everyone and it was hilarious...loads of idiots making stupid high pitched noises through their snorkels. My tune of choice was The Final Countdown by Europe....so. We had three separate swims with the pod, then enjoyed a nice hot chocolate to defrost, while watching the dolphins show off; doing back-flips, front-flips, back slaps...all sorts. Cocky little things.
Craig's Birthday was on the day we left Kaikoura, so the night before we had a joint party for him and Bobby (Rob the Canadian) as he was leaving the wolf-pack the following day. Went to the shop and bought a few crates of beers and played some drinking games. Now, if you remember back to my Birthday; Craig thought it would be hilarious to get the bus to sing for me. Obviously I couldn't copy this so I needed an original way to get him back. Luckily, a big group of people were sitting in a different common room playing guitar and being generally loud and annoying, butchering classics such as Black Betty by Ram Jam. I took the liberty to ask them all to come in the other room and sing for Craig...they did, about 15/20 of them. The douche-bags with guitars even did a little impromptu gig for him, singing about Cambridge vs Oxford in the boat race, and rye observations such as him sitting on a couch. Pay back.
Ended up climbing the fence into the hot tub at 2am...on the Magic Bus at 7.40am.
Luckily it only takes a 4 hour bus journey, a 3 hour ferry and a taxi transfer to get to the hostel in Wellington. The taxi driver thought he was French, and had decked out his little van in all things Francais. Plus a DVD player and flat screen TV. This would have been awesome, if he hadn't put Michael Jackson's This Is It on. What a load of rubbish.
Watched a load more films and played loads more pool in Wellington, as we'd been there before...Before setting off to Taupo, where we watched loads more films, as we'd been there before also.
Then a night in Rotorua, where we watched a couple more films as guess what, we'd been there before.
And then this morning, we left for Auckland, stopping at another mountain by a beach...called Mt Maunganui. Really nice little area.
And here we are, back in Auckland...Full loop done and with only 4 nights left of the super adventure. We're planning a big night out to cap it all off, so will blog again after that. Then its home time.
Cheers,
Jamie.
P.s Happy Fathers day, and Happy Birthday Dad for tomorrow
The last couple of days in Queenstown were awesome, we went and played frisbee golf at the park...They have 18 holes set up around a big old park by the water...each hole has a tee, obstacles and this big metal cup with chains on that you aim for. All you have to do is have a frisbee and you're good to go. We hired them for like 2 pounds so it was cheap as. And absolutely ledge...so much so that we went again the following day, this time taking Sarah along with us. Had a grand craic.
After the golf, we hit the famous Fergburger, a little burger place in Queenstown that apparently do the best burgers ever. And Ive got to say, it was amazing. Ive never eaten a bigger burger in my life (obviously the men all went for the biggest one money could buy, with a big portion of chips on the side) and Sarah (the Queen wolf) had some poncey-woman-chicken-burger. It became a battle towards the end, powering through every last little bit. I think we got through a tree's worth of napkins as well. We all felt ridiculous by the end of it, but it was incredible.
So, the following day we got on the bus (late) to Dunedin...the driver was a bit pissed off, but the wolf-pack just alpha-maled him into letting us off. Dunedin, is one of the most populated places in NZ, with 20% being students. We thought that fact, along with it being a Saturday, was a good excuse to go out. So we did, and it was a pretty good night, good bars and loads of people out...The only problem was that we got to sleep at around 6am, and the bus was coming at 8am to take us to Lake Takepo...We were late again, which annoyed the guy even more (as it was the same bloke) ... This was made worse when we turned up at Sarah's hostel and she wasn't anywhere to be seen. The guy decided to go, and about 10 mins later, Chris gets a call from the Queen-wolf saying she'd just got up. We managed to get the driver to go back and pick her up. I don't think we were his favourites.
Lake Takepo, is a rather good looking place..a tiny little township on the edge of a bright blue lake, with a couple of mountains here and there. We stayed for a few nights, went on some walks around Mt John and relaxed by the fire playing with the kittens. As there is hardly any light pollution there, the view of the stars is unbelievable, so at night, we'd rap up, make a cup of tea and head down to the lake to lay down and look at the night-sky. Sounds super gay, but it was awesome.
After Lake Takepo, we headed to Kaikoura. On the way, is the stop off in Christchurch. They used to do overnight stops there, but due to all the earthquakes, most of the hostels are non-existent. So usually, people only get off if they have flights. Sadly, Sarah did have a flight so we had to say goodbye to the Queen-wolf...emotional times.
Kaikoura is pretty much amazing...its right on the ocean, and is famous for its whale watching and dolphin swimming. The hostel was awesome as well...good film collection (always good), Hot tub, sauna, swimming pool, open fires, 3 kitchens, pool tables etc. and all for just 12 pounds a night..insane. The place was called Dusky lodge (definitely recommend to anyone who is going there). Due to money being incredibly low, I managed to get a little gig there: 3 hours of general cleaning a day which got me free accommodation. Im no Stephen Hawking, but I managed to work out that I would be on 4 pounds an hour.
Luckily, the first day I worked for 2 hours, and the other day I only worked for 1 hour and 20 mins. So it all worked out well in the end. My job was hoovering, which Ive had limited experience doing. But this hoover is one of them where you strap it to your back, like a rucksack and walk about like a Ghost-Buster cleaning shit up. It wants too bad, and I looked flipping awesome.
The main event of Kaikoura, however, was the dolphin swimming. You go out on a boat at silly o'clock in the morning, all wet-suited up (as the water is flippin freezing) and go looking for the Dusky Dolphins. Luckily it wasn't long before we found the first pod. There were around 300 of them, so we quickly got in the water and had a swim. It was absolutely incredible...loads and loads of dolphins came swimming up close to you, swimming round in circles to play. If you made eye contact and made noises, they would keep circling you until you couldn't keep up. The organisers recommended to singing little tunes, as they respond well to it...Im not sure if this is true, or just a wind up. At one point, I came up just to listen to everyone and it was hilarious...loads of idiots making stupid high pitched noises through their snorkels. My tune of choice was The Final Countdown by Europe....so. We had three separate swims with the pod, then enjoyed a nice hot chocolate to defrost, while watching the dolphins show off; doing back-flips, front-flips, back slaps...all sorts. Cocky little things.
Craig's Birthday was on the day we left Kaikoura, so the night before we had a joint party for him and Bobby (Rob the Canadian) as he was leaving the wolf-pack the following day. Went to the shop and bought a few crates of beers and played some drinking games. Now, if you remember back to my Birthday; Craig thought it would be hilarious to get the bus to sing for me. Obviously I couldn't copy this so I needed an original way to get him back. Luckily, a big group of people were sitting in a different common room playing guitar and being generally loud and annoying, butchering classics such as Black Betty by Ram Jam. I took the liberty to ask them all to come in the other room and sing for Craig...they did, about 15/20 of them. The douche-bags with guitars even did a little impromptu gig for him, singing about Cambridge vs Oxford in the boat race, and rye observations such as him sitting on a couch. Pay back.
Ended up climbing the fence into the hot tub at 2am...on the Magic Bus at 7.40am.
Luckily it only takes a 4 hour bus journey, a 3 hour ferry and a taxi transfer to get to the hostel in Wellington. The taxi driver thought he was French, and had decked out his little van in all things Francais. Plus a DVD player and flat screen TV. This would have been awesome, if he hadn't put Michael Jackson's This Is It on. What a load of rubbish.
Watched a load more films and played loads more pool in Wellington, as we'd been there before...Before setting off to Taupo, where we watched loads more films, as we'd been there before also.
Then a night in Rotorua, where we watched a couple more films as guess what, we'd been there before.
And then this morning, we left for Auckland, stopping at another mountain by a beach...called Mt Maunganui. Really nice little area.
And here we are, back in Auckland...Full loop done and with only 4 nights left of the super adventure. We're planning a big night out to cap it all off, so will blog again after that. Then its home time.
Cheers,
Jamie.
P.s Happy Fathers day, and Happy Birthday Dad for tomorrow
Thursday 2 June 2011
Queenstown
Hey,
So straight into it...
The last time I blogged, was just before visiting what I thought was called 'Puzzle-land"...It was actually called Puzzling World...not far off.
This place is awesome, basically a building filled with loads of optical illusions, 3D images and topsy-turvy rooms. One room, made one person look tiny, and the other look huge...that was pretty good...but the best, had to be this mental room where everything wasn't as it seemed...water ran upwards...a ball on a pool table ran uphill towards the pocket...and you constantly lost balance as the room was tilted all over the place. Really hard to explain, but there'll be some pics on facebook that will make more sense.
That night was a pool and cards night...as the following day we left for Queenstown, after climbing the little mountain for a view of the lake.
Couple of pretty standard stops on the way to Queenstown, but when we got there it looked beautiful; Surrounded by mountains and lakes. It has a real ski-town feel to it, with brick buildings and cosy lighting. Anyway, booked our bungy jump and a trip to Milford Sound...more on those later.
That night, being a Saturday, there was what is called: "A Big Night Out" Pub crawl. We decided to get on it, as It sounded like laugh. It was shit. Full of knob-heads pretending to be more drunk than what they were...Magaluf came to mind. Besides the douchebags, though we had an all right night...once we managed to get away from them all.
Next day was a write-off, so did the usual recovery of films and food. And, of course, mentally prepare for the Bungy on the following day. While playing a game of Cranium (pretty good board game), 2 Swedish girls came into the room making a load of noise. We didn't mind, but a load of people were watching a film so it was a bit rude. Then, after a minute or so, they decided to play music on their ipod speaker as loud as possible...unbelievable. They even went as far as leaving the room for a smoke, while the ipod remained on the table, still playing. Craig left a piece of paper with the word "TWAT" on their table for when they returned. Not sure why I wrote about that, but, I did.
Our jump was booked at 2pm, so plenty of time to get nervous. The bus journey to the jump site was 45 minutes...so even more time to think about what was to come. Finally arrived and got all kitted out for the jump...A little cable-car slowly transports you over to the jump platform...it takes a while, and its freezing...plus you can see right down to the ground below. Once we got into the platform, the nerves just kind of sunk away...music blaring out, and loads of people...so its more of a buzz than nerves. Rob jumped...then it was my turn. He was absolutely buzzing, so I couldn't wait to get up there. Once I was all strapped in, and waddled up to the edge, I felt amazing (also a bit anxious). A quick 3-2-1 from the main man, and I was away...sawing through the air, down 134m towards rocks and rapids....It felt incredible...I mean there's no way of describing the feeling at all. It was over within seconds, and I was pulled back up to the platform upside-down. (the cable that releases your legs so you can sit in a upright position was caught up) And that was it...Then I could watch Chris and Craig jump, while enjoying the buzz.
We were absolutely starving by the time we got home, and wanted nothing more than a Fergburger (a famous burger place in Queenstown) but sadly it was closed for a couple days. We settled for a Devil burger and a beer, then completely crashed. The adrenaline completely gone, replaced by an overwhelming tiredness. So bed time.
Didn't do much the day after the jump, besides watch the videos and talk about how amazing it was.
Wednesday was all about Milford Sound, a World heritage site, about 3 hours away from Queenstown. Its a full day trip, including a 2 hour cruise when you get there.
The scenery is simply stunning, we were all in awe of it. Huge snow topped mountains, ice glaciers, waterfalls, trees, rapids, low lying clouds...all on one stretch of road. No matter where you looked, something incredible was there. The cruise itself was brilliant, it took you up close to waterfalls, and around the area, until you reach the beginning of the Tasman sea. A pod of Dolphins circled the boat for a while as well. Its a shame there's nowhere to stay at Milford Sound, as it would be amazing to stay there for a few days.
That pretty much brings you up to date...plenty of pics on facebook now of New Zealand so far, plus the video of my Bungy.
We leave for Dunedin on Saturday, so hopefully get a round of Frisbee golf in before then.
Talk soon,
Jay
So straight into it...
The last time I blogged, was just before visiting what I thought was called 'Puzzle-land"...It was actually called Puzzling World...not far off.
This place is awesome, basically a building filled with loads of optical illusions, 3D images and topsy-turvy rooms. One room, made one person look tiny, and the other look huge...that was pretty good...but the best, had to be this mental room where everything wasn't as it seemed...water ran upwards...a ball on a pool table ran uphill towards the pocket...and you constantly lost balance as the room was tilted all over the place. Really hard to explain, but there'll be some pics on facebook that will make more sense.
That night was a pool and cards night...as the following day we left for Queenstown, after climbing the little mountain for a view of the lake.
Couple of pretty standard stops on the way to Queenstown, but when we got there it looked beautiful; Surrounded by mountains and lakes. It has a real ski-town feel to it, with brick buildings and cosy lighting. Anyway, booked our bungy jump and a trip to Milford Sound...more on those later.
That night, being a Saturday, there was what is called: "A Big Night Out" Pub crawl. We decided to get on it, as It sounded like laugh. It was shit. Full of knob-heads pretending to be more drunk than what they were...Magaluf came to mind. Besides the douchebags, though we had an all right night...once we managed to get away from them all.
Next day was a write-off, so did the usual recovery of films and food. And, of course, mentally prepare for the Bungy on the following day. While playing a game of Cranium (pretty good board game), 2 Swedish girls came into the room making a load of noise. We didn't mind, but a load of people were watching a film so it was a bit rude. Then, after a minute or so, they decided to play music on their ipod speaker as loud as possible...unbelievable. They even went as far as leaving the room for a smoke, while the ipod remained on the table, still playing. Craig left a piece of paper with the word "TWAT" on their table for when they returned. Not sure why I wrote about that, but, I did.
Our jump was booked at 2pm, so plenty of time to get nervous. The bus journey to the jump site was 45 minutes...so even more time to think about what was to come. Finally arrived and got all kitted out for the jump...A little cable-car slowly transports you over to the jump platform...it takes a while, and its freezing...plus you can see right down to the ground below. Once we got into the platform, the nerves just kind of sunk away...music blaring out, and loads of people...so its more of a buzz than nerves. Rob jumped...then it was my turn. He was absolutely buzzing, so I couldn't wait to get up there. Once I was all strapped in, and waddled up to the edge, I felt amazing (also a bit anxious). A quick 3-2-1 from the main man, and I was away...sawing through the air, down 134m towards rocks and rapids....It felt incredible...I mean there's no way of describing the feeling at all. It was over within seconds, and I was pulled back up to the platform upside-down. (the cable that releases your legs so you can sit in a upright position was caught up) And that was it...Then I could watch Chris and Craig jump, while enjoying the buzz.
We were absolutely starving by the time we got home, and wanted nothing more than a Fergburger (a famous burger place in Queenstown) but sadly it was closed for a couple days. We settled for a Devil burger and a beer, then completely crashed. The adrenaline completely gone, replaced by an overwhelming tiredness. So bed time.
Didn't do much the day after the jump, besides watch the videos and talk about how amazing it was.
Wednesday was all about Milford Sound, a World heritage site, about 3 hours away from Queenstown. Its a full day trip, including a 2 hour cruise when you get there.
The scenery is simply stunning, we were all in awe of it. Huge snow topped mountains, ice glaciers, waterfalls, trees, rapids, low lying clouds...all on one stretch of road. No matter where you looked, something incredible was there. The cruise itself was brilliant, it took you up close to waterfalls, and around the area, until you reach the beginning of the Tasman sea. A pod of Dolphins circled the boat for a while as well. Its a shame there's nowhere to stay at Milford Sound, as it would be amazing to stay there for a few days.
That pretty much brings you up to date...plenty of pics on facebook now of New Zealand so far, plus the video of my Bungy.
We leave for Dunedin on Saturday, so hopefully get a round of Frisbee golf in before then.
Talk soon,
Jay
Friday 27 May 2011
The Big 2-3
Hey,
So eventful few days to talk about,
The day I wrote the last blog, I was meeting Sandy in Wellington...We went to the museum, then had a lovely Italian meal (first time I'd had Peroni since being away).
The following morning was an early one for both of us as we had to catch separate ferries across to the south island. I had to be up at 7am, urgh. Anyway, on the ferry I met Rob, who has been on our bus for a little bit but we'd only had a couple conversations...we spent 3 hours talking about films like Anchorman, Dumb & Dumber and so on...plus I had to teach him about how the league system works in English football (as he is a Canadian...which means the only sport he knows anything about is Ice Hockey) I had to teach him this as the Reading vs Cardiff playoff game was on live. Good game.
So the trip went pretty quickly, and on the other side I was reunited with the wolf-pack...and on to Nelson we went.
Nelson is known as the sunniest place in New Zealand, apparently it gets far more sun than anywhere else, and to be fair the weather was pretty good for the few days we stayed there. We booked a half day Kayak, half day walk at Abel Tasman, a National park nearby. Its absolutely stunning there, beautiful beaches, waterfalls, clear blue ocean and rain-forests...what more could you want. Spent the morning kayaking out to a couple of Islands and watching the Seals (while singing the lyrics 'And we'e never gonna surviiiiiive unless...we get a little crazy) every time we saw a seal....classic.
The walk back was awesome, and considering I'm not a big fan of walking, that says a lot. Oh, by the way, Hi-top white converse are not pleasant for walking in...I cut my tow and tore my heels to shreds...but at least I looked good.
Being modern day Indiana Jones figures, the wolf-pack decided to walk up to the centre of New Zealand, a pinpoint showing the exact centre of the country. Some lovely views, but not much more than that.
That night seemed like a good night to go out, so we did (we only had to catch the bus at 8am...so) Hit a few places with Rob, Zoe and Rachel - some cracking banter as per including a complete Air-Band...I was on drums.
So from Nelson to Franz Josef, there's an overnight stop in Greymouth...They (Magic) only recommend staying one night as theres not a lot to do for tourists, so we took their advice. We did, however do the one thing there is to do in Greymouth, the Monteith's brewery tour, which includes a meal and plenty of beer tasting. The tour itself was pretty boring, and you could tel everyone was just waiting for the bit at the end where you get to taste all the beers, and then pour a pint of your favourite to drink. The woman didnt seem to notice that I brought two glasses up to the bar each time for the tasters. Win. After pouring ourselves a few sneaky extra drinks, we went to the restaurant for probably the best meal Ive had since being away, minted lamb, caramelized onions, potato salad with rocket, and a burger...washed down with Monteith's finest.
The next day we boarded the bus again, this time with an even more painful head...
Franz Josef is amazing...the township is named after the big old Glacier that runs from the mountains down a valley..one of the activities there is to do a hike up the glacier...options being a half day or full day hike (or a helicopter hike if you're Bill Gates) we chose the full day and we were so glad we did. Although it was knackering, it was my favourite activity to that point...climbing up a glacier of bright blue ice, surrounded by rain-forest covered mountains with waterfalls streaming down the side...unbelievable...I was convinced I was at Alton Towers or something, queuing up for their latest roller-coaster. We squeezed through naturallly formed ice-caves (one of which I got stuck for a while, but managed to just about get through by doing a sort of hand-stand and diving through the small hole...then got stuck again because I was facing the wrong way...eventually got out, but with a nice ice graze on my hip) Our guide was quite the adventurous type, and took us through huge crevasses ( I think thats the right term) in the ice which is like shimmying between two huge ice walls with barely enough room to breath. It was awesome. In fact, we were the first ever people to squeeze through one of them, as they'd been waiting a while for the ice to move just enough to fit people through. Such a great day, recommend to anyone.
So the next morning I had a morning kayaking trip booked along with Rob and Sarah (Sarah was staying at the same hostel). Our instructor looked just like Oz from American Pie (we only noticed as we'd watched the film the night before) but it was a spitting image. Anyway, we kayaked across a lake and down an estuary, really chilled out morning, very tranquil.
That night there was a quiz on at one of the many pubs (two in total I think) so we went down, our dream team being Craig, Chris, Rob, Sarah, Matthius (a German guy from our hostel) and my good self. It turned out it was all about the 1995 Rugby World Cup...brilliant. None of us really had a clue so we resorted to giving the most stupid answers we could think of...my personal favourite being our answer to the question "Which French winger scored the most points in some game" to which we answered "Pierre Baguette Le Beof" or something along those lines. Obviously we lost the quiz, but we were given a round of beers and a rugby ball for our amusing answers. There was a free pool table there which we made the most of, and once the drinking became more heavy, the pole was also used. I wont go into it, just check facebook soon.
The next morning, Craig and Chris had there sky-dive booked, so they were already gone when I woke up. I was feeling rough, but as soon as I saw the view from the window it all went away...Clear blue skies over a snow topped mountain, right out the kitchen window...I decided I'd give myself a treat as it was the day before my 23rd Birthday, so I went and booked an 18,000 foot sky-dive, walked to the shop, signed the forms, got in the van, driven to the hanger, met with Craig and Chris, got suited up, got on he plane, flew for 20 minutes enjoying the spectacular views, jumped out, free-fell for 75 seconds, did a few back-flips, steered the parachute, landed, went back. Thats how quick the whole process felt like, although it was probably around 3 hours in total. But what an amazing 3 hours it was. Absolutely unbelievable.
Rob was officially inaugurated into the wolf-pack by this point, so he joined us the following morning to Wanaka, an optional stop-off on the way to Queenstown. On the journey down, we pulled up at a cafe...the driver said for everyone to remain on the bus as he needed to sort something out...then he said on the microphone "Is there a James Hampshire? (pronounced wrong)" I put my hand up and he said I needed to bring my I.D to the front of the bus because he needed it for a hostel booking..so I walked all the way to the front of the bus (as we were right at the back...cool kids.), handed him my ID...Then I realised what was going on...Craig had told him it was my Birthday, so the driver announced this to the entire bus (which was packed) that it was my Birthday and started the song...so embarrassing..I had to walk all the way to the back of the bus with everyone singing to me. Anyone who knows me well enough will know how much I hated this...but it was a good stitch up by Craig, fair play.
Got to Wanaka, an amazing lake with a small township...went to Salvation Army to mooch around and the idea came up that the lads will buy me a disgusting shirt that I was to wear that night. It was an old Asics cycle shirt, from the 90's...God knows how many people have worn it...I was also egged onto shave for the evening so I ended up going out with this awful shirt, and a goatee.
It wouldn't have been so bad if we were going to the cinema to watch Hangover 2...by the time we got there, Id forgotten about my appearance, so I was surprised when 50 people were staring at me as I walked to my seat. The film was distinctly average but there were a few laughs...I would give my full review here, but Ive been typing for 45 minutes...I think average sums it up. Anyway, out we went to a few bars, managed to get some free birthday shots, plus a 30 dollar bar-tab at one place. Really good night out, once again.
So that brings me to now, recovering slowly in Wanaka...planning to head to Puzzle-land or something along those lines...meant to be a good laugh.
I think thats everything covered, although with the amount hats happened I'm bound to have left some things out
Hope all is well
Jay
So eventful few days to talk about,
The day I wrote the last blog, I was meeting Sandy in Wellington...We went to the museum, then had a lovely Italian meal (first time I'd had Peroni since being away).
The following morning was an early one for both of us as we had to catch separate ferries across to the south island. I had to be up at 7am, urgh. Anyway, on the ferry I met Rob, who has been on our bus for a little bit but we'd only had a couple conversations...we spent 3 hours talking about films like Anchorman, Dumb & Dumber and so on...plus I had to teach him about how the league system works in English football (as he is a Canadian...which means the only sport he knows anything about is Ice Hockey) I had to teach him this as the Reading vs Cardiff playoff game was on live. Good game.
So the trip went pretty quickly, and on the other side I was reunited with the wolf-pack...and on to Nelson we went.
Nelson is known as the sunniest place in New Zealand, apparently it gets far more sun than anywhere else, and to be fair the weather was pretty good for the few days we stayed there. We booked a half day Kayak, half day walk at Abel Tasman, a National park nearby. Its absolutely stunning there, beautiful beaches, waterfalls, clear blue ocean and rain-forests...what more could you want. Spent the morning kayaking out to a couple of Islands and watching the Seals (while singing the lyrics 'And we'e never gonna surviiiiiive unless...we get a little crazy) every time we saw a seal....classic.
The walk back was awesome, and considering I'm not a big fan of walking, that says a lot. Oh, by the way, Hi-top white converse are not pleasant for walking in...I cut my tow and tore my heels to shreds...but at least I looked good.
Being modern day Indiana Jones figures, the wolf-pack decided to walk up to the centre of New Zealand, a pinpoint showing the exact centre of the country. Some lovely views, but not much more than that.
That night seemed like a good night to go out, so we did (we only had to catch the bus at 8am...so) Hit a few places with Rob, Zoe and Rachel - some cracking banter as per including a complete Air-Band...I was on drums.
So from Nelson to Franz Josef, there's an overnight stop in Greymouth...They (Magic) only recommend staying one night as theres not a lot to do for tourists, so we took their advice. We did, however do the one thing there is to do in Greymouth, the Monteith's brewery tour, which includes a meal and plenty of beer tasting. The tour itself was pretty boring, and you could tel everyone was just waiting for the bit at the end where you get to taste all the beers, and then pour a pint of your favourite to drink. The woman didnt seem to notice that I brought two glasses up to the bar each time for the tasters. Win. After pouring ourselves a few sneaky extra drinks, we went to the restaurant for probably the best meal Ive had since being away, minted lamb, caramelized onions, potato salad with rocket, and a burger...washed down with Monteith's finest.
The next day we boarded the bus again, this time with an even more painful head...
Franz Josef is amazing...the township is named after the big old Glacier that runs from the mountains down a valley..one of the activities there is to do a hike up the glacier...options being a half day or full day hike (or a helicopter hike if you're Bill Gates) we chose the full day and we were so glad we did. Although it was knackering, it was my favourite activity to that point...climbing up a glacier of bright blue ice, surrounded by rain-forest covered mountains with waterfalls streaming down the side...unbelievable...I was convinced I was at Alton Towers or something, queuing up for their latest roller-coaster. We squeezed through naturallly formed ice-caves (one of which I got stuck for a while, but managed to just about get through by doing a sort of hand-stand and diving through the small hole...then got stuck again because I was facing the wrong way...eventually got out, but with a nice ice graze on my hip) Our guide was quite the adventurous type, and took us through huge crevasses ( I think thats the right term) in the ice which is like shimmying between two huge ice walls with barely enough room to breath. It was awesome. In fact, we were the first ever people to squeeze through one of them, as they'd been waiting a while for the ice to move just enough to fit people through. Such a great day, recommend to anyone.
So the next morning I had a morning kayaking trip booked along with Rob and Sarah (Sarah was staying at the same hostel). Our instructor looked just like Oz from American Pie (we only noticed as we'd watched the film the night before) but it was a spitting image. Anyway, we kayaked across a lake and down an estuary, really chilled out morning, very tranquil.
That night there was a quiz on at one of the many pubs (two in total I think) so we went down, our dream team being Craig, Chris, Rob, Sarah, Matthius (a German guy from our hostel) and my good self. It turned out it was all about the 1995 Rugby World Cup...brilliant. None of us really had a clue so we resorted to giving the most stupid answers we could think of...my personal favourite being our answer to the question "Which French winger scored the most points in some game" to which we answered "Pierre Baguette Le Beof" or something along those lines. Obviously we lost the quiz, but we were given a round of beers and a rugby ball for our amusing answers. There was a free pool table there which we made the most of, and once the drinking became more heavy, the pole was also used. I wont go into it, just check facebook soon.
The next morning, Craig and Chris had there sky-dive booked, so they were already gone when I woke up. I was feeling rough, but as soon as I saw the view from the window it all went away...Clear blue skies over a snow topped mountain, right out the kitchen window...I decided I'd give myself a treat as it was the day before my 23rd Birthday, so I went and booked an 18,000 foot sky-dive, walked to the shop, signed the forms, got in the van, driven to the hanger, met with Craig and Chris, got suited up, got on he plane, flew for 20 minutes enjoying the spectacular views, jumped out, free-fell for 75 seconds, did a few back-flips, steered the parachute, landed, went back. Thats how quick the whole process felt like, although it was probably around 3 hours in total. But what an amazing 3 hours it was. Absolutely unbelievable.
Rob was officially inaugurated into the wolf-pack by this point, so he joined us the following morning to Wanaka, an optional stop-off on the way to Queenstown. On the journey down, we pulled up at a cafe...the driver said for everyone to remain on the bus as he needed to sort something out...then he said on the microphone "Is there a James Hampshire? (pronounced wrong)" I put my hand up and he said I needed to bring my I.D to the front of the bus because he needed it for a hostel booking..so I walked all the way to the front of the bus (as we were right at the back...cool kids.), handed him my ID...Then I realised what was going on...Craig had told him it was my Birthday, so the driver announced this to the entire bus (which was packed) that it was my Birthday and started the song...so embarrassing..I had to walk all the way to the back of the bus with everyone singing to me. Anyone who knows me well enough will know how much I hated this...but it was a good stitch up by Craig, fair play.
Got to Wanaka, an amazing lake with a small township...went to Salvation Army to mooch around and the idea came up that the lads will buy me a disgusting shirt that I was to wear that night. It was an old Asics cycle shirt, from the 90's...God knows how many people have worn it...I was also egged onto shave for the evening so I ended up going out with this awful shirt, and a goatee.
It wouldn't have been so bad if we were going to the cinema to watch Hangover 2...by the time we got there, Id forgotten about my appearance, so I was surprised when 50 people were staring at me as I walked to my seat. The film was distinctly average but there were a few laughs...I would give my full review here, but Ive been typing for 45 minutes...I think average sums it up. Anyway, out we went to a few bars, managed to get some free birthday shots, plus a 30 dollar bar-tab at one place. Really good night out, once again.
So that brings me to now, recovering slowly in Wanaka...planning to head to Puzzle-land or something along those lines...meant to be a good laugh.
I think thats everything covered, although with the amount hats happened I'm bound to have left some things out
Hope all is well
Jay
Tuesday 17 May 2011
Big 3-0
So this is my 30th post on this blog. Yay.
OK its been a while, so this will be a lengthy blog, my apologies.
Right, so the last time I blogged was just after the sky-jump in Auckland and I was contemplating going out for a few beers that night with Arj. It got to about midnight and I was feeling very tired...Chris was asleep, as was Craig. Jules, the Dutch girl who had been with us at the Bay of Islands, was in our room, and she had just watched the first episode of Flight of the Concords on my Ipod...So when I got the text saying to meet them at the bar, I asked if she wanted to come. We went. It was packed, so we met quite a few people, some of which were other comedians on tour. Ended up on Tequila at 3am. Needless to say, getting up for the magic bus at 7.30am wasn't pretty, but I made it on time to make our way to Rotorua.
As we chucked our bags in the cargo, the driver introduced himself to us personally...very personally. He leaned in and we had to touch noses. Now, this would be weird under any circumstances, but at 7.30 on a hangover, the last thing you want to do is touch noses with a hobbit.
Id like to say that he didn't talk over the microphone much, or repeat himself over and over again....but that would be a lie. We even stopped at his sisters house so he could wish them well on their holiday. Luckily I had the whole back row of seats to spread out on and sleep. I must have looked awful...I was wearing the same clothes Id been out in, slept in, and woke up in. Nice. We stopped at a giant L+P bottle (Lemon and Paeroa, its a lemonade that is "World famous in New Zealand"...they have a good sense of humour, these Kiwis).
Anyway got to Rotorua, probably the worst smelling place on the planet (Due to the Sulphur in the air). Besides the smell, its a pretty awesome place, with loads of steaming pools of water, boiling mud baths, rivers and what not. We booked our white-water-rafting for the following day, but it was cancelled due to high water levels. Luckily we were staying a few days, so re-booked for the next slot available. Obviously, I took the opportunity to sleep in for as long as possible. Craig and Chris went Zorbing (that big inflatable ball that you get in, and then roll down a steep hill) while I slept. If it wasn't for the receptionist waking me up at 1pm, saying I had a phone call, I would have slept forever. The call was from Craig, saying that the next bus to the luge was at 2. Now, the luge is basically go-karting down hill without an engine, but its just as fun. I made it to the 2pm bus and met the two C's (I mean Chris and Craig...not the bad C-word) at the hill. It was dead cheap, roughly 24 quid for 6 goes, including the lift pass. The first two goes, we took pretty steady, getting photos and what not. Then we decided to go onto the advanced track and race. Now, being rather competitive, Craig and I battled our way down the hill...I managed to overtake him, but then forgot to brake...ended up flying into a sand bank which stopped me from falling down the hill. No injury. Then on the next run, I decided to go as fast as possible down the long straight towards the end of the track...again, I forgot to brake, and smashed straight into a curb, flew out of the luge and ended up a couple of yards away on the side of the track. Injury. My left shin took a battering, ripped quite a bit of skin off. Luckily though, it was right under the chair lift, so everyone saw...and laughed. Id like to say I learnt my lesson...but again, that would be a lie. I came off again on the next run, scraping the same shin all along the curb this time. Im pretty sure most of my shin is still there, so if anyone does the luge in Rotorua, please collect it and send it to me, thanks.
The next day was white water rafting time...Which was absolutely amazing. It was a grade 3 (which means nothing to me) and we dropped down a 7m waterfall. Our guide was a bit mental, and rather inappropriate. When explaining the position to get in when dropping down the waterfall, he described it as this: "Get into the rape position...you know, as if you're being raped" The girls were not impressed. Neither were we to be honest, but we let him off. There were plenty of falls, but the 7m one was awesome...the entire raft submerged, then flipped, so we all ended up under the raft for a bit. We were rescued by one of the other rafts (which was a bit extreme...we didn't really need rescuing, I think they just liked the drama) Either way, it was great fun.
The next morning, we got back on the Magic bus to head to Taupo. On the way, we stopped at some of the boiling mud bath things, and a Geyser that shot out water at 10am every morning. It was pretty impressive, but not as impressive as the guy running the show... This was his best joke: "Now, I know some of you are thinking, thats not a very big Geeza, and you're right...Im the geeza, this is the Geyser" No one laughed.
We were then dropped off at a place called something wonderland...It was 28 dollars to get in, to see more mud and holes shooting water. We didn't fancy it, so the driver pointed us in the direction of a place where a hot river met a cold river. You can swim there, and find the right position to get a hot bath-type-swim. We did, and it was pretty sweet. You only had to move and metre or so, and the temperature would completely change...plus it was all natural. The only thing was, there was a sign saying that if you put your head under, you can get meningitis. Getting meningitis isn't on my to-do list, so we kept our heads well out of the water.
Arrived at Taupo and watched some of the passengers do a little bungy jump, then settled into our hostel. We were only staying one night here, as we will return on the way back up to Auckland. There was a pub quiz at a local bar, so we headed down with most of the guys in the hostel, after a couple of beers and a game of killer. We lost. But it was a good quiz...I learned a few things, which was nice. After the quiz, they started playing classic games such as, 'men and women have to swap their clothes really fast' and 'men have to go find 4 different colour bra's' so we left.
The next day was the journey to National Park, which stopped at the Waitomo caves. These are pretty awesome, as the house thousands of glow-worms. We did a little tour and saw loads of them....then played pool in the local bar before leaving again.
There is only one thing to do in National Park, and thats a massive 19km hike through the Tongariro mountain range, which includes Mount Doom, from the Lord of The Rings films. It was mental, took about 6 hours, was hot, then freezing, then nice, then boring, then tiring, then monotonous. I'm not the biggest fan of just walking, but I can see why people rave about this walk. As far as walks go, I suppose it was pretty good. But I'm not going to put it on my 'best things I did in NZ ' list.
Watched a few VHS's ( I think DVD's are just coming out in NZ) and played a few games of killer, while recovering from our big walk.
Next stop - Wellington, the capital of NZ. We arrived at about 2ish in the afternoon, stocked up on food and beer, slept, woke up, ate, met with the other Magic Bus people and started drinking. It was a Saturday night, plus one of the girls was celebrating her 25th Birthday...Happy Birthday Niamh. Was such a good night, even though Rhianna was played a stupid amount of times...but there was so much banter flying about. Great Craic, as Niamh would say. (as she's Irish...but you guessed that)
Most of the Magic people got the ferry across the the south Island the following morning, but a group of lads and the three of us were staying a few nights, so we spent the next day watching films and playing pool.
Yesterday, we went to the Te Papa museum here. Its completely free and actually quite good. Im not the biggest lover of museums, but this one is one of those fun ones, with loads of games and interactive stuff. I think its meant to be for kids, which is why I loved it. I got inside an actual-sized, replica whale heart. I had to crawl in through what I think was the Vena-Cava. When I crawled out again, there was a kid with his Mum waiting to get in. I felt a little silly.
So, that brings us onto today...The two C's have taken the ferry over to the South, but Ive stayed here, as Sandy arrives this afternoon for one night. So we're going to chill out, then get the ferry first thing tomorrow morning. Then I'll meet back up with the two C's and the other lads on the Magic Bus, from Picton to Nelson.
Wow, that took nearly an hour to type. Apologies.
Hope all is well
Jay
OK its been a while, so this will be a lengthy blog, my apologies.
Right, so the last time I blogged was just after the sky-jump in Auckland and I was contemplating going out for a few beers that night with Arj. It got to about midnight and I was feeling very tired...Chris was asleep, as was Craig. Jules, the Dutch girl who had been with us at the Bay of Islands, was in our room, and she had just watched the first episode of Flight of the Concords on my Ipod...So when I got the text saying to meet them at the bar, I asked if she wanted to come. We went. It was packed, so we met quite a few people, some of which were other comedians on tour. Ended up on Tequila at 3am. Needless to say, getting up for the magic bus at 7.30am wasn't pretty, but I made it on time to make our way to Rotorua.
As we chucked our bags in the cargo, the driver introduced himself to us personally...very personally. He leaned in and we had to touch noses. Now, this would be weird under any circumstances, but at 7.30 on a hangover, the last thing you want to do is touch noses with a hobbit.
Id like to say that he didn't talk over the microphone much, or repeat himself over and over again....but that would be a lie. We even stopped at his sisters house so he could wish them well on their holiday. Luckily I had the whole back row of seats to spread out on and sleep. I must have looked awful...I was wearing the same clothes Id been out in, slept in, and woke up in. Nice. We stopped at a giant L+P bottle (Lemon and Paeroa, its a lemonade that is "World famous in New Zealand"...they have a good sense of humour, these Kiwis).
Anyway got to Rotorua, probably the worst smelling place on the planet (Due to the Sulphur in the air). Besides the smell, its a pretty awesome place, with loads of steaming pools of water, boiling mud baths, rivers and what not. We booked our white-water-rafting for the following day, but it was cancelled due to high water levels. Luckily we were staying a few days, so re-booked for the next slot available. Obviously, I took the opportunity to sleep in for as long as possible. Craig and Chris went Zorbing (that big inflatable ball that you get in, and then roll down a steep hill) while I slept. If it wasn't for the receptionist waking me up at 1pm, saying I had a phone call, I would have slept forever. The call was from Craig, saying that the next bus to the luge was at 2. Now, the luge is basically go-karting down hill without an engine, but its just as fun. I made it to the 2pm bus and met the two C's (I mean Chris and Craig...not the bad C-word) at the hill. It was dead cheap, roughly 24 quid for 6 goes, including the lift pass. The first two goes, we took pretty steady, getting photos and what not. Then we decided to go onto the advanced track and race. Now, being rather competitive, Craig and I battled our way down the hill...I managed to overtake him, but then forgot to brake...ended up flying into a sand bank which stopped me from falling down the hill. No injury. Then on the next run, I decided to go as fast as possible down the long straight towards the end of the track...again, I forgot to brake, and smashed straight into a curb, flew out of the luge and ended up a couple of yards away on the side of the track. Injury. My left shin took a battering, ripped quite a bit of skin off. Luckily though, it was right under the chair lift, so everyone saw...and laughed. Id like to say I learnt my lesson...but again, that would be a lie. I came off again on the next run, scraping the same shin all along the curb this time. Im pretty sure most of my shin is still there, so if anyone does the luge in Rotorua, please collect it and send it to me, thanks.
The next day was white water rafting time...Which was absolutely amazing. It was a grade 3 (which means nothing to me) and we dropped down a 7m waterfall. Our guide was a bit mental, and rather inappropriate. When explaining the position to get in when dropping down the waterfall, he described it as this: "Get into the rape position...you know, as if you're being raped" The girls were not impressed. Neither were we to be honest, but we let him off. There were plenty of falls, but the 7m one was awesome...the entire raft submerged, then flipped, so we all ended up under the raft for a bit. We were rescued by one of the other rafts (which was a bit extreme...we didn't really need rescuing, I think they just liked the drama) Either way, it was great fun.
The next morning, we got back on the Magic bus to head to Taupo. On the way, we stopped at some of the boiling mud bath things, and a Geyser that shot out water at 10am every morning. It was pretty impressive, but not as impressive as the guy running the show... This was his best joke: "Now, I know some of you are thinking, thats not a very big Geeza, and you're right...Im the geeza, this is the Geyser" No one laughed.
We were then dropped off at a place called something wonderland...It was 28 dollars to get in, to see more mud and holes shooting water. We didn't fancy it, so the driver pointed us in the direction of a place where a hot river met a cold river. You can swim there, and find the right position to get a hot bath-type-swim. We did, and it was pretty sweet. You only had to move and metre or so, and the temperature would completely change...plus it was all natural. The only thing was, there was a sign saying that if you put your head under, you can get meningitis. Getting meningitis isn't on my to-do list, so we kept our heads well out of the water.
Arrived at Taupo and watched some of the passengers do a little bungy jump, then settled into our hostel. We were only staying one night here, as we will return on the way back up to Auckland. There was a pub quiz at a local bar, so we headed down with most of the guys in the hostel, after a couple of beers and a game of killer. We lost. But it was a good quiz...I learned a few things, which was nice. After the quiz, they started playing classic games such as, 'men and women have to swap their clothes really fast' and 'men have to go find 4 different colour bra's' so we left.
The next day was the journey to National Park, which stopped at the Waitomo caves. These are pretty awesome, as the house thousands of glow-worms. We did a little tour and saw loads of them....then played pool in the local bar before leaving again.
There is only one thing to do in National Park, and thats a massive 19km hike through the Tongariro mountain range, which includes Mount Doom, from the Lord of The Rings films. It was mental, took about 6 hours, was hot, then freezing, then nice, then boring, then tiring, then monotonous. I'm not the biggest fan of just walking, but I can see why people rave about this walk. As far as walks go, I suppose it was pretty good. But I'm not going to put it on my 'best things I did in NZ ' list.
Watched a few VHS's ( I think DVD's are just coming out in NZ) and played a few games of killer, while recovering from our big walk.
Next stop - Wellington, the capital of NZ. We arrived at about 2ish in the afternoon, stocked up on food and beer, slept, woke up, ate, met with the other Magic Bus people and started drinking. It was a Saturday night, plus one of the girls was celebrating her 25th Birthday...Happy Birthday Niamh. Was such a good night, even though Rhianna was played a stupid amount of times...but there was so much banter flying about. Great Craic, as Niamh would say. (as she's Irish...but you guessed that)
Most of the Magic people got the ferry across the the south Island the following morning, but a group of lads and the three of us were staying a few nights, so we spent the next day watching films and playing pool.
Yesterday, we went to the Te Papa museum here. Its completely free and actually quite good. Im not the biggest lover of museums, but this one is one of those fun ones, with loads of games and interactive stuff. I think its meant to be for kids, which is why I loved it. I got inside an actual-sized, replica whale heart. I had to crawl in through what I think was the Vena-Cava. When I crawled out again, there was a kid with his Mum waiting to get in. I felt a little silly.
So, that brings us onto today...The two C's have taken the ferry over to the South, but Ive stayed here, as Sandy arrives this afternoon for one night. So we're going to chill out, then get the ferry first thing tomorrow morning. Then I'll meet back up with the two C's and the other lads on the Magic Bus, from Picton to Nelson.
Wow, that took nearly an hour to type. Apologies.
Hope all is well
Jay
Friday 6 May 2011
Ridiculously Sweet az few days bro.
Well, the title says it all in this one...since the last blog, its been amazing. Absolutely amazing...and surreal.
We left for the Bay of Islands first thing in the morning on the Magic Bus, Didn't take too long to get there, so took the ferry over to a place called Russel. Had a couple of pints in the first ever licenced hotel to sell alcohol in New Zealand. Beautiful place, Russel I mean, not the hotel...that was pretty standard but we sat outside to look at the beach, water and boats. Headed back and booked a couple of trips, one of which was to Cape Reinga (the most North-western place in NZ...I think) and the other was a dolphin viewing trip.
So up again early doors for this day trip to Cape Reinga, I only took shorts and a singlet (vest)...I immediately regretted this decision as it started pissing down. Luckily by the time we got to our first stop of the day, it had brightened up. This first stop was at a gum-tree forest. It was so boring, and the guide cracked terrible jokes that only the oldies enjoyed. But the forest itself was pretty good looking. Luckily we weren't there too long, and headed up to the most northern tip, where there's a lighthouse and the most spectacular views Ive seen so far (although I'm sure it will be topped at some point in NZ). You could see where the Tasman sea met the ocean. I mean, that wasn't too impressive, but it still looked pretty incredible. Next stop was at the massive sand dunes, where you can 'boogie-board' down from the top. It was awesome...took ages to climb to the top, but it was well worth it. Had a few goes, and managed to reach the little stream at the bottom, got soaked, then covered in sand. This was by far the highlight of the day. We were then driven along the beach to see the "hole in the rock" ...guess what that is. Saw some wild horses pottering about as well which was good. Our guide, by the way, didn't enjoy talking...he f**king loved it. Allllll the way he just didn't stop, some things he said were mildly interesting, but this was about 4% of the content. He told us how to tow another truck out of the sand, how they had a power cut recently and other such fascinating things. Harmless though.
The next day was the dolphin trip around the bay of islands...another tour-guide who enjoyed his own voice, but this one sounded like he was auditioning for radio 4. Every word over pronounced, with no ers or urms, and of course classic jokes that he's made every day forever. Again, harmless though. We saw a huge pod (as its called) of Dolphins, around 30 apparently. We got all excited as we thought we'd be able to swim with them...sadly its against the law to swim with a pod that has a baby in it. This one did. We didn't swim. They still put on a show for us though, leaping 5 metres into the air and flipping and what not. If it wasn't for the dolphins, the day would have been a non-event...being shown rocks in the sea isn't the most exciting thing in the world.
Had a few drinks that night in the hostel then hit the hay as it was an early departure on the Magic bus the following morning. Magic, by the way, are the company we are travelling with...And I'm impressed so far...they book your hostels for you, sort out trips, and book you on the next bus so you don't have to sort it all out yourself. Not bad.
On the way back, we stopped at a cafe. We were told no longer than 30 minutes before we were to be back on the bus. Everyone was back in time, apart from a Japanese lady. We drove down to the museum to see if she was there, but she wasn't. In fact she was nowhere to be seen. About 20 minutes later, a guy flagged us down and said he'd seen an Asian woman walking on the other side of Bogey (I don't know either)...This place, though, was about 4 miles away, and when we finally caught up with her, she was still walking away from where she started. No idea what she was playing at, but we gave her a massive cheer and applause when she got on...plonker.
Anyway, onto the best part...
I saw in a book that Arj Barker, (Dave from Flight of the Concords) was performing his stand up tour at the Sky theatre in Auckland that night. Chris and I wandered down to see if there were any tickets left, and there were...third row to the right. Buzzing. Came back and had a few beers at the bar (free I might add...an hour of free beer in a hostel that gives you a free mini-meal at 7pm and only charge you 9 pounds a night...Fat Camel its called) Then headed back for the show. It was class...some woman on the front row kept getting up and touching Arj's feet and shouting during jokes, so eventually she was escorted out....A bit later on, Chris need the toilet so headed out...when he came back, he stayed near the back as there wasn't long left. He was lucky enough to be sat right by the foot-fetish woman. He text me saying that he was at the back, and she had a go at him for using his mobile...unbelievable!
So after the show, we thought we'd pop up to see if he was doing any meeting and greeting. He was...having photo's with people etc etc. We didn't have a camera so we just went up to say hello and that we enjoyed it and what not. Got chatting, then he introduced us to a couple of his mates...then invited us for a couple of beers. Obviously we said yes, and went along. It was awesome, just sat having a few beers with Arj Barker and 2 of his mates, chatting about all sorts of comedy etc. We even recommended a comedy to him that he hadn't seen (Garth Marenghi's Dark Place). So anyway, Facebooks got exchanged and we went back to the hostel feeling pretty excited about the whole thing...decided to go out with Julie from our hostel. Ended up in Burger King (standard) at 3 am, throwing gherkins at each other.
Now onto the really amazing bit...
Get a call from Alison, Arj's friend who tours with him...asking us if we want to do the Sky Jump off the Sky Tower. Yes please. So we hurried down, paid a heavily discounted price, kitted up and headed up in the lift to the top floor. Again, it was quite surreal (as we were about to jump off a building with Dave off F.O.T.C) and frightening as we were about to jump off a building. Chris was petrified. Absolutely petrified, it was hilarious.
What happens is, you walk to the end of the platform and jump off....your suspended about 180m above the ground for a few seconds and a photo...then dropped all the way to the bottom. It was mental.
So yeh, that's been the last few days...been invited to have a few more beers with Arj and co after his show tonight, as its his last one in NZ. Might pop along.
Cheers,
Jay
We left for the Bay of Islands first thing in the morning on the Magic Bus, Didn't take too long to get there, so took the ferry over to a place called Russel. Had a couple of pints in the first ever licenced hotel to sell alcohol in New Zealand. Beautiful place, Russel I mean, not the hotel...that was pretty standard but we sat outside to look at the beach, water and boats. Headed back and booked a couple of trips, one of which was to Cape Reinga (the most North-western place in NZ...I think) and the other was a dolphin viewing trip.
So up again early doors for this day trip to Cape Reinga, I only took shorts and a singlet (vest)...I immediately regretted this decision as it started pissing down. Luckily by the time we got to our first stop of the day, it had brightened up. This first stop was at a gum-tree forest. It was so boring, and the guide cracked terrible jokes that only the oldies enjoyed. But the forest itself was pretty good looking. Luckily we weren't there too long, and headed up to the most northern tip, where there's a lighthouse and the most spectacular views Ive seen so far (although I'm sure it will be topped at some point in NZ). You could see where the Tasman sea met the ocean. I mean, that wasn't too impressive, but it still looked pretty incredible. Next stop was at the massive sand dunes, where you can 'boogie-board' down from the top. It was awesome...took ages to climb to the top, but it was well worth it. Had a few goes, and managed to reach the little stream at the bottom, got soaked, then covered in sand. This was by far the highlight of the day. We were then driven along the beach to see the "hole in the rock" ...guess what that is. Saw some wild horses pottering about as well which was good. Our guide, by the way, didn't enjoy talking...he f**king loved it. Allllll the way he just didn't stop, some things he said were mildly interesting, but this was about 4% of the content. He told us how to tow another truck out of the sand, how they had a power cut recently and other such fascinating things. Harmless though.
The next day was the dolphin trip around the bay of islands...another tour-guide who enjoyed his own voice, but this one sounded like he was auditioning for radio 4. Every word over pronounced, with no ers or urms, and of course classic jokes that he's made every day forever. Again, harmless though. We saw a huge pod (as its called) of Dolphins, around 30 apparently. We got all excited as we thought we'd be able to swim with them...sadly its against the law to swim with a pod that has a baby in it. This one did. We didn't swim. They still put on a show for us though, leaping 5 metres into the air and flipping and what not. If it wasn't for the dolphins, the day would have been a non-event...being shown rocks in the sea isn't the most exciting thing in the world.
Had a few drinks that night in the hostel then hit the hay as it was an early departure on the Magic bus the following morning. Magic, by the way, are the company we are travelling with...And I'm impressed so far...they book your hostels for you, sort out trips, and book you on the next bus so you don't have to sort it all out yourself. Not bad.
On the way back, we stopped at a cafe. We were told no longer than 30 minutes before we were to be back on the bus. Everyone was back in time, apart from a Japanese lady. We drove down to the museum to see if she was there, but she wasn't. In fact she was nowhere to be seen. About 20 minutes later, a guy flagged us down and said he'd seen an Asian woman walking on the other side of Bogey (I don't know either)...This place, though, was about 4 miles away, and when we finally caught up with her, she was still walking away from where she started. No idea what she was playing at, but we gave her a massive cheer and applause when she got on...plonker.
Anyway, onto the best part...
I saw in a book that Arj Barker, (Dave from Flight of the Concords) was performing his stand up tour at the Sky theatre in Auckland that night. Chris and I wandered down to see if there were any tickets left, and there were...third row to the right. Buzzing. Came back and had a few beers at the bar (free I might add...an hour of free beer in a hostel that gives you a free mini-meal at 7pm and only charge you 9 pounds a night...Fat Camel its called) Then headed back for the show. It was class...some woman on the front row kept getting up and touching Arj's feet and shouting during jokes, so eventually she was escorted out....A bit later on, Chris need the toilet so headed out...when he came back, he stayed near the back as there wasn't long left. He was lucky enough to be sat right by the foot-fetish woman. He text me saying that he was at the back, and she had a go at him for using his mobile...unbelievable!
So after the show, we thought we'd pop up to see if he was doing any meeting and greeting. He was...having photo's with people etc etc. We didn't have a camera so we just went up to say hello and that we enjoyed it and what not. Got chatting, then he introduced us to a couple of his mates...then invited us for a couple of beers. Obviously we said yes, and went along. It was awesome, just sat having a few beers with Arj Barker and 2 of his mates, chatting about all sorts of comedy etc. We even recommended a comedy to him that he hadn't seen (Garth Marenghi's Dark Place). So anyway, Facebooks got exchanged and we went back to the hostel feeling pretty excited about the whole thing...decided to go out with Julie from our hostel. Ended up in Burger King (standard) at 3 am, throwing gherkins at each other.
Now onto the really amazing bit...
Get a call from Alison, Arj's friend who tours with him...asking us if we want to do the Sky Jump off the Sky Tower. Yes please. So we hurried down, paid a heavily discounted price, kitted up and headed up in the lift to the top floor. Again, it was quite surreal (as we were about to jump off a building with Dave off F.O.T.C) and frightening as we were about to jump off a building. Chris was petrified. Absolutely petrified, it was hilarious.
What happens is, you walk to the end of the platform and jump off....your suspended about 180m above the ground for a few seconds and a photo...then dropped all the way to the bottom. It was mental.
So yeh, that's been the last few days...been invited to have a few more beers with Arj and co after his show tonight, as its his last one in NZ. Might pop along.
Cheers,
Jay
Saturday 30 April 2011
Part 3 - New Zealand
Sweet az bro.
I'm now in New Zealand..Auckland to be precise...
We made a poor decision to not sleep before our flight out of Sydney, which meant we only managed about an hours sleep on the plane, at 9am. Got to Nomads hostel quite easily, nice place...7 floors, sauna, massive kitchen, roof terrace and a decent bar. Obviously went straight to bed when we arrived, and slept through til the following morning. Pottered around most of the day, sorting things out like bus tickets and the like...then hit the town. Not a bad nightlife here to be fair, already beats most of Australia...The first bar we went into had a private function at the back, so we went in anyway (being absolute bad asses) and the place was full of leather-clad lunatics, listening to heavy metal. They didn't mind us being there, one even made a little remark that they were celebrating the royal wedding so we were more than welcome. Talking of which, thank god that's all over...They go on about it just as much as in England...its so boring, the hostel bar had it on the big screen - I nearly fell asleep.
Anyway, after the bad ass T-Bird party, we hit another place, which turned out to be a Dub-step club. Now, someone please tell me the appeal of Dub-step...I know its fashionable to like it nowadays, and perhaps I'm just not cool enough to like it...but its poor. Really poor.
So we moved onto a place called Cassette 9, which was playing more alternative music, and had a really good crowd. Threw some moves about and of course plenty of bant (banter)...Then finished the night with a triple cheeseburger from burger king..get in. On the way home, a steaming Chris Pearson starting brenting (doing the Brent dance from The Office) to every taxi we saw...they weren't as amused as I was.
Today was a bit of a write off, but went shopping to get some warmer clothes, as its pretty chilly out here (you'll be glad to know, its hotter in England).
Off to Bay of Islands the day after tomorrow, apparently dolphins, kayaking and other such activities are there so should be splendid.
I am in an Internet cafe a the moment, which doubles up as a Japanese Karaoke place. I can hear the worst singing Ive ever heard going on in the background. They are now killing Grease - Summer Lovin'
Hope everyone is enjoying the long weekend
Jay
P.S Tragic news, Betty is no longer with us, she was left on a train from Auckland airport. She will be sorely missed, may she rest in peace.
I'm now in New Zealand..Auckland to be precise...
We made a poor decision to not sleep before our flight out of Sydney, which meant we only managed about an hours sleep on the plane, at 9am. Got to Nomads hostel quite easily, nice place...7 floors, sauna, massive kitchen, roof terrace and a decent bar. Obviously went straight to bed when we arrived, and slept through til the following morning. Pottered around most of the day, sorting things out like bus tickets and the like...then hit the town. Not a bad nightlife here to be fair, already beats most of Australia...The first bar we went into had a private function at the back, so we went in anyway (being absolute bad asses) and the place was full of leather-clad lunatics, listening to heavy metal. They didn't mind us being there, one even made a little remark that they were celebrating the royal wedding so we were more than welcome. Talking of which, thank god that's all over...They go on about it just as much as in England...its so boring, the hostel bar had it on the big screen - I nearly fell asleep.
Anyway, after the bad ass T-Bird party, we hit another place, which turned out to be a Dub-step club. Now, someone please tell me the appeal of Dub-step...I know its fashionable to like it nowadays, and perhaps I'm just not cool enough to like it...but its poor. Really poor.
So we moved onto a place called Cassette 9, which was playing more alternative music, and had a really good crowd. Threw some moves about and of course plenty of bant (banter)...Then finished the night with a triple cheeseburger from burger king..get in. On the way home, a steaming Chris Pearson starting brenting (doing the Brent dance from The Office) to every taxi we saw...they weren't as amused as I was.
Today was a bit of a write off, but went shopping to get some warmer clothes, as its pretty chilly out here (you'll be glad to know, its hotter in England).
Off to Bay of Islands the day after tomorrow, apparently dolphins, kayaking and other such activities are there so should be splendid.
I am in an Internet cafe a the moment, which doubles up as a Japanese Karaoke place. I can hear the worst singing Ive ever heard going on in the background. They are now killing Grease - Summer Lovin'
Hope everyone is enjoying the long weekend
Jay
P.S Tragic news, Betty is no longer with us, she was left on a train from Auckland airport. She will be sorely missed, may she rest in peace.
Monday 25 April 2011
Sydney again
Hey,
So we had to depart from the lovely Helen...it was emotional. In fact it was hilarious...we pulled up to the garage to drop it off, the guy who ran the place came out to inspect the van...he was stood at the side, looking at the scratch and smashed window as I got out..He said "So the windows smashed?" I explained the whole robbery, and that the company shouldve informed him...they hadn't. Then he said, "And whats that?!" pointing at the massive scratch covering two panels...I said "Ah that's just a scratch"
"Just a scratch?! Its FUCKED!" He did not look happy, not one bit. It was pretty awkward now, especially when he walked round the other side of the van and saw the other smashed window. He was gradually getting more annoyed...Then he entered the van, after a minute or so he said "You know you are supposed to clean it." "Yeh we gave it a once over, washed up an' that" I replied... Then he started looking through all the plates and cutlery...All of them them still had bits of noodles and other ming on them, he just looked at them obviously disgusted. It was hard not to laugh, I had to turn round and walk a few yards away before I pissed myself. "you washed all this up right?" he said, while holding a broken cup covered in bean juice. I didn't know what to say, so I plumped for "We bought a sieve...you can have that." He ignored me. Then he opened up the fridge to find it was still full, then opened the gas cooker cover to find loads of noodles, beans, rice and other stuff stuck to it. He looked like he'd given up.
So anyway, we did over a 1000 dollars worth of damage to Helen, so that's the bond gone.
So after a couple more days of chilling in Cairns, we had our last night out. Went to the Woolshed, and did the usual stuff such as dancing with the ants, tapping people's shoulders and turning round...you know, the norm.
Had about 3 hours sleep then got up for our flight back to Sydney. I couldn't sleep on the plane which was nice. After an hour or so train journey to UWS (University of Western Australia...Where we stayed before in Sydney) we decided we should get our food shopping done. So we lugged all our bags to the supermarket, got a load of food and then lugged that all back...we had forgotten how far the walk was...It was far.
Anyway, one of the girls who was there at the house got her ps3 out with fifa. We couldn't believe our luck. So most of the time, that's what we've been doing, playing fifa or ping-pong and watching a load of films. One of which is a newish film called Chain Letter...Ive never seen a worse film in all my life...absolutely terrible.
We decided we had to go to Bondi, seeing as we're in Sydney. It took about 2/3 hours to get there, including two train journeys and a connection via bus. It's overrated...sorry to say that, but it is. When we got off the bus, Chris and I both said "This is just like Blackpool or Brighton" ... Obviously the beach is sand, and the sea is clearer...but other than that, its not that great. I prefer Hunstanton.
So, that's Aus pretty much done, we're having a party tomorrow night with all the people here (apparently its a birthday party for Craig and I...my birthday is in a month, Craigs is even further away....but nevermind). Then on Thursday morning we are off to Aukland NZ for the third and final part of the Super Adventure.
Thanks for reading, see you in NZ
Jay
So we had to depart from the lovely Helen...it was emotional. In fact it was hilarious...we pulled up to the garage to drop it off, the guy who ran the place came out to inspect the van...he was stood at the side, looking at the scratch and smashed window as I got out..He said "So the windows smashed?" I explained the whole robbery, and that the company shouldve informed him...they hadn't. Then he said, "And whats that?!" pointing at the massive scratch covering two panels...I said "Ah that's just a scratch"
"Just a scratch?! Its FUCKED!" He did not look happy, not one bit. It was pretty awkward now, especially when he walked round the other side of the van and saw the other smashed window. He was gradually getting more annoyed...Then he entered the van, after a minute or so he said "You know you are supposed to clean it." "Yeh we gave it a once over, washed up an' that" I replied... Then he started looking through all the plates and cutlery...All of them them still had bits of noodles and other ming on them, he just looked at them obviously disgusted. It was hard not to laugh, I had to turn round and walk a few yards away before I pissed myself. "you washed all this up right?" he said, while holding a broken cup covered in bean juice. I didn't know what to say, so I plumped for "We bought a sieve...you can have that." He ignored me. Then he opened up the fridge to find it was still full, then opened the gas cooker cover to find loads of noodles, beans, rice and other stuff stuck to it. He looked like he'd given up.
So anyway, we did over a 1000 dollars worth of damage to Helen, so that's the bond gone.
So after a couple more days of chilling in Cairns, we had our last night out. Went to the Woolshed, and did the usual stuff such as dancing with the ants, tapping people's shoulders and turning round...you know, the norm.
Had about 3 hours sleep then got up for our flight back to Sydney. I couldn't sleep on the plane which was nice. After an hour or so train journey to UWS (University of Western Australia...Where we stayed before in Sydney) we decided we should get our food shopping done. So we lugged all our bags to the supermarket, got a load of food and then lugged that all back...we had forgotten how far the walk was...It was far.
Anyway, one of the girls who was there at the house got her ps3 out with fifa. We couldn't believe our luck. So most of the time, that's what we've been doing, playing fifa or ping-pong and watching a load of films. One of which is a newish film called Chain Letter...Ive never seen a worse film in all my life...absolutely terrible.
We decided we had to go to Bondi, seeing as we're in Sydney. It took about 2/3 hours to get there, including two train journeys and a connection via bus. It's overrated...sorry to say that, but it is. When we got off the bus, Chris and I both said "This is just like Blackpool or Brighton" ... Obviously the beach is sand, and the sea is clearer...but other than that, its not that great. I prefer Hunstanton.
So, that's Aus pretty much done, we're having a party tomorrow night with all the people here (apparently its a birthday party for Craig and I...my birthday is in a month, Craigs is even further away....but nevermind). Then on Thursday morning we are off to Aukland NZ for the third and final part of the Super Adventure.
Thanks for reading, see you in NZ
Jay
Saturday 16 April 2011
Soz about the Reef
Shortly after my last blog, as in within ten minutes, we had booked 3 dives on the reef going from Port Douglas (north of cairns). All we had to do was transfer the money over from our cancelled Whitsundays trip...which also meant we saved about 50 dollars. The dives were booked for two days later, so we had a day to chill out. Went out that night to the Woolshed, another trashy bar/club...but it was ok, good banter with the dutchies and their friends. At one point, we were dancing on the tables (ironically, obviously) and this old guy who was hammered was dancing next to us. Within 6 seconds, the guy had absolutely stacked it off the back of the table onto a load of chairs. He saved his pint. Then sat doing the drunken man head-nod-to-music move. What a tit.
Chris and Craig decided to go to the croc park the following day, but I didn't fancy it too much, so I stayed in Cairns with the Dutch girls for the day and had a lovely little lunch and coffee. Then drove up to pick them off and head up to Port Douglas. P.Doug (as i call it) is a lovely little place with a few shops and cafes, with a couple of big marinas. We parked Helen up beside the marina which serves as a good view when you wake up dripping with sweat. Didn't do much as we were all pretty knackered, and we had to be on-board the boat at 8.15am.
So the next morning, we awoke and boarded the lovely Quicksilver Silver-Swift boat. Besides children, we were the youngest on the boat...It was mainly full of rich families, but that was nice to have a bit of luxury for once. They served an awesome breakfast, all inclusive, and an even better lunch later on.
Craig and I did 3 certified dives, as we got our licence in Koh Tao, Chris did 2 intro dives. It was incredible. Just completely insane to be honest, the sheer volume of life down there is hard to take in. Fish of all colours and sizes, giant clams, Barracudas, Manta-Ray, and even a shark. Apparently it was really special to see a Manta-Ray on that dive so I guess we were lucky there. The giant clam was definitely a highlight..it doesn't sound like it...but these huge things that have been there for god knows how long, sit there open mouthed, and if you put your hand in the opening and touch the sides, it snaps shut. By giant, I mean giant, like bigger than me. I wont go on about it too long, but its just impeccable.
Had a couple of beers by the marina when we disembarked then hit the hay.
The following morning we headed further north to Cape Tribulation, which is a huge national park made of rain forest. We did a couple of boardwalks through the rain forest, one of which was a bored-walk (as i called it) as it was all to do with mangroves zzzzzz. Then we visited a swimming whole, which is basically on a meander of a stream, and has little rope swings into the water...It was amazing there, couldve stayed all day at this spot. As always, some pics will be appearing on facebook soon.
Got back to Cairns last night, and I headed out to meet the Dutchies, as it was their last night before going down south. I met Sandy outside, and the rest came out and chatted for a bit...We decided to go inside, but Sandy hadn't been given a stamp, so she told the bouncer and he said that was no problem, just go in whenever. So we popped in, all of her friends got let straight through, but she was stopped. So it was just me and her stood there with a different huge bouncer which I think was the boss... he had a shite goatee beard. He said "You have to pay, you don't have a stamp" , she explained the situation as best she could, considering her English isn't perfect. Still he said "No you have to pay, I don't give stamps out" This was obviously a lie, so I said that her friends had just got in with stamps, and that Sandy wasn't given one when she left earlier. It still didn't get into his thick skull. Sandy gave up and said, "Ok Im not sure he understands me, but I'll pay" and got her money out. So then this beardy twat bouncer says "no, step outside, go party somewhere else, I wont be talked to like that" he got up and started walking her out, so I said "Woooah, what you doing there? you've obviously misunderstood something, we are going to pay to get in"
He replied with "You can go too" he pushed me out and added "Fuck off". Nice guy. I said "Alllllriiight big dog" and we left.
Her friends came back out, and we went and had some goon back at their hostel, then onto a little bar that had a live band on. These guys were Rasta dudes with a couple guitars, and they sang the classic hits such as 'Lean on me', and 'I can see clearly now the rain has gone'. To be fair, they were really good...one of their aunties was there dancing. She was a right hoochy-mama, whistling and shouting and grinding her booty etc. so funny. By the way, I hope the word Hoochy-mama isnt offensive...I don't think it is...and it wasn't meant to be.
Plan for today = pool and sunbathing.
Catch you soon,
Jay
p.s For some reason, this blog has had views in Chili, Canada, USA, Germany and Malaysia...Which is really strange, but awesome at the the same time...Hope you're enjoying it.
Chris and Craig decided to go to the croc park the following day, but I didn't fancy it too much, so I stayed in Cairns with the Dutch girls for the day and had a lovely little lunch and coffee. Then drove up to pick them off and head up to Port Douglas. P.Doug (as i call it) is a lovely little place with a few shops and cafes, with a couple of big marinas. We parked Helen up beside the marina which serves as a good view when you wake up dripping with sweat. Didn't do much as we were all pretty knackered, and we had to be on-board the boat at 8.15am.
So the next morning, we awoke and boarded the lovely Quicksilver Silver-Swift boat. Besides children, we were the youngest on the boat...It was mainly full of rich families, but that was nice to have a bit of luxury for once. They served an awesome breakfast, all inclusive, and an even better lunch later on.
Craig and I did 3 certified dives, as we got our licence in Koh Tao, Chris did 2 intro dives. It was incredible. Just completely insane to be honest, the sheer volume of life down there is hard to take in. Fish of all colours and sizes, giant clams, Barracudas, Manta-Ray, and even a shark. Apparently it was really special to see a Manta-Ray on that dive so I guess we were lucky there. The giant clam was definitely a highlight..it doesn't sound like it...but these huge things that have been there for god knows how long, sit there open mouthed, and if you put your hand in the opening and touch the sides, it snaps shut. By giant, I mean giant, like bigger than me. I wont go on about it too long, but its just impeccable.
Had a couple of beers by the marina when we disembarked then hit the hay.
The following morning we headed further north to Cape Tribulation, which is a huge national park made of rain forest. We did a couple of boardwalks through the rain forest, one of which was a bored-walk (as i called it) as it was all to do with mangroves zzzzzz. Then we visited a swimming whole, which is basically on a meander of a stream, and has little rope swings into the water...It was amazing there, couldve stayed all day at this spot. As always, some pics will be appearing on facebook soon.
Got back to Cairns last night, and I headed out to meet the Dutchies, as it was their last night before going down south. I met Sandy outside, and the rest came out and chatted for a bit...We decided to go inside, but Sandy hadn't been given a stamp, so she told the bouncer and he said that was no problem, just go in whenever. So we popped in, all of her friends got let straight through, but she was stopped. So it was just me and her stood there with a different huge bouncer which I think was the boss... he had a shite goatee beard. He said "You have to pay, you don't have a stamp" , she explained the situation as best she could, considering her English isn't perfect. Still he said "No you have to pay, I don't give stamps out" This was obviously a lie, so I said that her friends had just got in with stamps, and that Sandy wasn't given one when she left earlier. It still didn't get into his thick skull. Sandy gave up and said, "Ok Im not sure he understands me, but I'll pay" and got her money out. So then this beardy twat bouncer says "no, step outside, go party somewhere else, I wont be talked to like that" he got up and started walking her out, so I said "Woooah, what you doing there? you've obviously misunderstood something, we are going to pay to get in"
He replied with "You can go too" he pushed me out and added "Fuck off". Nice guy. I said "Alllllriiight big dog" and we left.
Her friends came back out, and we went and had some goon back at their hostel, then onto a little bar that had a live band on. These guys were Rasta dudes with a couple guitars, and they sang the classic hits such as 'Lean on me', and 'I can see clearly now the rain has gone'. To be fair, they were really good...one of their aunties was there dancing. She was a right hoochy-mama, whistling and shouting and grinding her booty etc. so funny. By the way, I hope the word Hoochy-mama isnt offensive...I don't think it is...and it wasn't meant to be.
Plan for today = pool and sunbathing.
Catch you soon,
Jay
p.s For some reason, this blog has had views in Chili, Canada, USA, Germany and Malaysia...Which is really strange, but awesome at the the same time...Hope you're enjoying it.
Tuesday 12 April 2011
Unlawful Entry
Hey,
So we left the awesome Magnetic Island, and on the ferry back Craig gets signal for the first time and receives a voicemail. The voicemail said something along the lines of: "This is Travel Wheels, the police have been in touch, someone has broken into your van." Awesome.
So we hurried back to Helen, all of us realising that our passports were inside the van...as we approached her, i saw something laying down at the back of the van...my jeans. I dont know why.
They'd smashed the rear left window and got inside, threw a load of cushions about, ripped a mozzy net with a fork, then left...without taking the passports. I have no idea why they went in...perhaps they just really fancied a pillow fight.
So we had to do the old police station visit and file a report and what not. Very boring. Travel Wheels said we should go to a certain place to get it fixed...This was on a Saturday and it was closed til Monday. Great. So we spent two days doing nothing, just waiting for Monday morning to get the thing fixed...all the while dodging broken glass from inside the van. So Monday morning arrived, and as did we at the repair shop. "We dont have that particular window, so we'll put some plastic over it" .. That was worth two days wait.
We also had a massive scare in Townsville...we lost Betty. She was left under the van, and we drove off. I drove back when we realised but she was nowhere to be seen. Later that day, we went back again for a BBQ and I spotted her being played with by a family, so I wondered over and they kicked it to me before I even got near. Thank God we got her back.
So we drove to Cairns, stopping at Mission beach for a couple hours for a kick about and some sun bathing.
Arrived at sunny Cairns yesterday and had a free meal at Gilligans, which was part of our booking Fraser and Whitsundays. It was roast chicken legs, served with 16 peas and 4 little potato croquet things. Id describe it as a year 6 meal. We went to a BBQ and had snags for dessert.
One of the other windows in the van randomly smashed itself last night, so now theres even more glass to sleep on. Helen is falling apart, poor old girl. Not long til we give her back now, one week to be precise. Not sure how I feel about that, I mean I know I'll miss her, but even 10 bed dorms sound appealing at the moment...especially when I woke up sweating like a beast this morning, and barely being able to breathe. I looked fit.
Right, thats about it I think, hitting the pool a bit later then sorting out what we're doing up here, as there's too much to do and not enough time or money to do it all. Obviously going to do a reef dive, but will try to fit something awesome in to go with it.
Cheers,
Jay
So we left the awesome Magnetic Island, and on the ferry back Craig gets signal for the first time and receives a voicemail. The voicemail said something along the lines of: "This is Travel Wheels, the police have been in touch, someone has broken into your van." Awesome.
So we hurried back to Helen, all of us realising that our passports were inside the van...as we approached her, i saw something laying down at the back of the van...my jeans. I dont know why.
They'd smashed the rear left window and got inside, threw a load of cushions about, ripped a mozzy net with a fork, then left...without taking the passports. I have no idea why they went in...perhaps they just really fancied a pillow fight.
So we had to do the old police station visit and file a report and what not. Very boring. Travel Wheels said we should go to a certain place to get it fixed...This was on a Saturday and it was closed til Monday. Great. So we spent two days doing nothing, just waiting for Monday morning to get the thing fixed...all the while dodging broken glass from inside the van. So Monday morning arrived, and as did we at the repair shop. "We dont have that particular window, so we'll put some plastic over it" .. That was worth two days wait.
We also had a massive scare in Townsville...we lost Betty. She was left under the van, and we drove off. I drove back when we realised but she was nowhere to be seen. Later that day, we went back again for a BBQ and I spotted her being played with by a family, so I wondered over and they kicked it to me before I even got near. Thank God we got her back.
So we drove to Cairns, stopping at Mission beach for a couple hours for a kick about and some sun bathing.
Arrived at sunny Cairns yesterday and had a free meal at Gilligans, which was part of our booking Fraser and Whitsundays. It was roast chicken legs, served with 16 peas and 4 little potato croquet things. Id describe it as a year 6 meal. We went to a BBQ and had snags for dessert.
One of the other windows in the van randomly smashed itself last night, so now theres even more glass to sleep on. Helen is falling apart, poor old girl. Not long til we give her back now, one week to be precise. Not sure how I feel about that, I mean I know I'll miss her, but even 10 bed dorms sound appealing at the moment...especially when I woke up sweating like a beast this morning, and barely being able to breathe. I looked fit.
Right, thats about it I think, hitting the pool a bit later then sorting out what we're doing up here, as there's too much to do and not enough time or money to do it all. Obviously going to do a reef dive, but will try to fit something awesome in to go with it.
Cheers,
Jay
Friday 8 April 2011
Whitsunday, bloody sunday.
OK, so our trip to the Whitsundays got cancelled. The weather was disgusting so we got a full refund and decided to cheer ourselves up with a night out at Airlie beach. Luckily we bumped into a few guys who were with us on Fraser Island so it was a good laugh.
Left Airlie the next day with sore heads, but arrived in a sunny Townsville which cheered us up...Townsville is pretty sweet...loads of parks with BBQs etc, plus its has the ferry that crosses to magnetic island.
We spent the day laying in the sun, eating sausages off the barbie...it actually felt like we were in Australia for the first time in a little while. I decided to go for a little walk along the beach front...some blokes in orange jackets were stood pointing sticks at something...Ive seen weirder things, so i carried on..until one of them said; "careful mate, theres a snake there"...and sure enough, there was. But not just any old snake...it was a brown snake.
This is what Wikipedia says about the brown snake...
The Eastern Brown Snake (Pseudonaja textilis), often referred to as the Common Brown Snake, is an elapid snake native to Australia. This species is considered to be the second most venomous land snake in the world based on LD50 values in mice.[1]
Brilliant.
Luckily, the snake didnt seem too fussed by our presence, and wriggled away. The guys in orange were trying to catch it though, as it couldve gone and killed someone if it fancied it. They didnt manage it.
I went back to tell Craig about it, and within minutes, some massive lizard thing strolled past. Mental.
So a bit later, we had another BBQ (shock, sausages.) and had some goon with 3 dutch girls who were camping next to us. Decided to go out...guess what..the nightlife was awful. plenty of bars, but all of them had about 3 people in... and they were staff. Ended up in an Irish bar, which I consider my worst nightmare. They had Karaoke...even worse. Had a Guinness though, which made a change from boxed wine, and had a "craic". Some guy went up to Chris, as we sat at the table, and groped him. Really strange bloke. Chris' face was hilarious, he just said "ive just been raped...ive actually just been raped by some bloke." in his Sheffield accent. It was funny for us.
Packed our bags in the morning and got the ferry to Magnetic Island, or Maggie as its known. The weather is awesome, and we are staying in a really nice little 3 bed bungalow. There are Wallabies hopping about the place as well which is decent.
Yesterday, we walked to a place called Arthur bay, one of many bays around the island...this one was completely deserted though so we spent a couple hours chilling in the sun and climbing the rocks. Got back to the hostel, and that evening we took part in the coconut bowling competition, where you bowl a coconut into some pins..believe it or not. If you got a strike, you won a jug of beer...I got a strike.
Today, we went to a waterfall for a little swim then did the Forts walk, where we saw some old guns, some spectacular views and a couple of Koalas up trees. Good stuff.
Its ladies night tonight at the hostel...so I imagine it will be full of meat.
Thats all for now, Ive deliberately kept it shorter, as the last blog was ridiculous..
Hope everyone is happy and well
Jay x
Sunday 3 April 2011
Fraser and more...
Hey guys,
And happy Mothers day,
So its been ages since the last blog, and a lots been happening...this is going to be a big one (thats what she said...yes, 'thats what she said' jokes have made it into the banter)
The last time, I was writing from Byron Bay and we were heading to Nimbin...
Nimbin, as described in lonely planet, is the result of an experimental festival in the 70's. By the looks of it, none of the people who live there left after the festival. This place is basically amsterdam but in the jungle. Everyone sits around smoking weed in cafe's, well half...the other half are selling the weed on the street - among other things such as mushies and acid. Within a minute of leaving the van, we were asked by several people if we wanted any drugs. Its actually quite a cool little place, with loads of cafes with good coffee and a load of herbal health places. We visited the museum which was an awesome little walk-through-time-line. It looked amazing and kooky, but it was really just going on about legalising hemp. After a lazy afternoon we headed back to Helen for some dinner...while were eating, a guy pulled up and told us the way to a place up the mountain that's really good to go and watch the sunset (and smoke a spliff, which he so nicely added on at the end.) So we drove up the mountain, and the few was incredible. You could see for miles, all jungle with only a couple of little buildings here and there. We wouldve stayed the night if it wasnt for the amount of insects buzzing around. Chris is the complete opposite of Bear Grylls...he hates any insects or any form of wildlife really. This is great for me as its an easy wind up.
Left Nimbin the following day to head for Tweed Heads, sunshine coast.
Tom, a friend of my Dads lives near Tweed heads and he kindly offered for us to shower and eat at his house. We met him by the beach and followed him to Hope Island. Our van wouldnt fit in the garage so they put up beds in their children's play room for us to sleep. They were such a nice family; Tom, his wife Sarah and their three youngsters...They also had relatives there, which meant that there were a total of 7 adults and 5 children staying in the same place.
They took us over the road to a place called boardwalk, which is a lovely bar right on the marina. A few beers and a pizza later, we went back to play cards and a few more Tooheys (beer). This was all well and good, til the morning when we were woken by 5 kids screaming, with the adults trying to get them ready for school. It was mental. But obviously we didnt mind, as they were putting us up...but it did make me think twice about having kids.
Hit Surfers Paradise for the day, it was only 33 degrees. Surfers doesnt deserve too much written about it to be honest...not much to do during the day, and at night its meant to be trashy. The beach was awesome though.
Had a more relaxed evening back at Hope Island; After a swim we raided the kids board games and found the most amazing game that I played all the time when I was young...Frustration. I used to cry my eyes out playing this game back at home, I was young though...like 19. I actually won the game, to my surprise, as I was sure Id be reduced to tears. Sarah cooked us up a lovely meal, adults only and we had an earlier night after a few card games.
Mooloolaba was the next stop (and I didnt make that place up, its actually real.) Quite a cool little place, with beaches and rivers to chill out on. We had a voucher for a free paddle-board lesson so we did that down the river for an hour or so. This is kind of like surfing, only on a bigger board and you have an oar to paddle with. The guy was obviously bored so he decided he'd make it his mission to ensure we all fell off into the river. Mission accomplished.
Last stop before Fraser Island was Noosa Heads; a popular beach town. We stayed in a backpacker carpark, but for a few dollars each they let us use the facilities. As it was a Friday, and as one the more popular bars in Noosa was three yards away, we thought we'd have a few. Noosa has the weirdest nightlife ever. It felt like we were in a school disco, surrounded by knob-heads. So we moved on...This place was worse...so bad we took to playing dance-floor golf to keep occupied. Got back feeling a little annoyed at how terrible a night it was. The next day was roasting so we hit the beach. Found a lovely little cove off the main beach called "Little Cove" believe it or not. There was a wedding going on, which had a live band playing Jack Johnson...I was loving it more than the groom. Played football with Betty (our ball) and what not til the sun came down. Had an early night, ready for the Drive to Rainbow beach; the starting point for Fraser Island.
We had a free nights stay at Dingoes backpackers, before the 3 day trip to Fraser Island. This is how the trip works: You are briefed in a big group, and split into smaller groups of around 8 people. You are given a 4WD, camping equipment, food etc for the three days. The following day, you load up the van with everything and set off to the barge for the crossing to Fraser Island. Fraser is a massive sand Island with beautiful lakes, worth a google.
Out group consisted of three Germans, two of which were guys, an English couple and the three of us. The Germans were very reserved and efficient...they didnt say much the night before we left so we talked with the English couple. Guess where they come from...Royston. Really nice couple, full of banter. We had to get up at 6.45 to start setting the car up...when we got to the 4WD, the Germans already had their towels down on the best seats.
After all the hassle of getting everything into Gertrude (the name for our 4WD) we set off to the barge.
The three days on Fraser Island were immense...We visited awesome lakes and view points each day before setting up camp and cooking our delicious meals (Im not being sarcastic either, steak the first night, and chicked stir-fry the second)...Of course, after the meal, the inevitable happened. Out came the goon (boxed wine). We linked ipods to the vans speakers, and lit by reverse lights, we had a little party with all the other groups. After a while, we noticed that a lot of people had gone to bed, one girl had been sick and put to bed, some were monged out in the vans...It was ten to ten.
This happened both nights, and when you wake up in a tent next to two blokes, sweating with the worst hangover ever...you dont feel so hot. Especially as there are no showers for three days, and no sinks to clean teeth in. But everyone was in good spirits throughout which made not-showering more bearable. The Germans came out of their shell more and more throughout the three days, and we ended up having a great laugh with them. In the end, we were sure our group was the best one.
Returning to Rainbow beach was a mixture of sadness from leaving the island, and excitement over having a hot shower. It was the best shower ive had. That night we had a party with our favourite people from the trip, obviously all the guys in Gertrude, plus a few from the other groups. So much banter flying about, especially to a guy on the trip who looked like Justin Bieber. He was from Holland or something and did not like being called Beebs, but he looked about 12 so we werent scared or anything. Actually, at one point on the island, during a goon session, he came into the van. All of us immediately started singing "BABY BABY BABY, OOOOOH" in ernest. He left.
Enough about Fraser, you get the jist, it was awesome.
The next big trip after Fraser is Whitsunday Islands which are situated just off Airlie Beach. Its a long drive so we stopped over in Rockhampton. There are loads of live music venues so we headed out for the night. Started off so well: a guy befriended us and bought us drinks, the band were good, managed to get free entry to a club by charming the girl on the door, then walked in past the bouncers to another club by showing our arms, as if we had stamps. Couldnt believe our luck. But it ran out, the clubs were awful again. Full of knob-heads, and the worst music imagineable. All the guys hated us, especially when we were chatting to girls. Theyd keep coming over and tapping the girls shoulder til they got their attention....like little kids. We got fed up and left, walked over a kilometre just to get a big mac meal. We got their and only the drive-thru was open...so we pretended to be in a car. I was the driver, Craig in the passenger seat and Chris in the back...we slowly pulled up the the speaker thing, making car noises...I wound down my window and tried to order. They ignored us...which is rude considering the effort we went to. Luckily a car pulled up behind us so we jumped in and ordered with them.
So that was Rockhampton.
We are now at Airlie beach, and its pissing down. Fingers crossed the weather picks up for a 2 day 2 night sailing trip around the Whitsundays tomorrow.
Ill blog again with how the trip went.
Cheers,
Jay x
And happy Mothers day,
So its been ages since the last blog, and a lots been happening...this is going to be a big one (thats what she said...yes, 'thats what she said' jokes have made it into the banter)
The last time, I was writing from Byron Bay and we were heading to Nimbin...
Nimbin, as described in lonely planet, is the result of an experimental festival in the 70's. By the looks of it, none of the people who live there left after the festival. This place is basically amsterdam but in the jungle. Everyone sits around smoking weed in cafe's, well half...the other half are selling the weed on the street - among other things such as mushies and acid. Within a minute of leaving the van, we were asked by several people if we wanted any drugs. Its actually quite a cool little place, with loads of cafes with good coffee and a load of herbal health places. We visited the museum which was an awesome little walk-through-time-line. It looked amazing and kooky, but it was really just going on about legalising hemp. After a lazy afternoon we headed back to Helen for some dinner...while were eating, a guy pulled up and told us the way to a place up the mountain that's really good to go and watch the sunset (and smoke a spliff, which he so nicely added on at the end.) So we drove up the mountain, and the few was incredible. You could see for miles, all jungle with only a couple of little buildings here and there. We wouldve stayed the night if it wasnt for the amount of insects buzzing around. Chris is the complete opposite of Bear Grylls...he hates any insects or any form of wildlife really. This is great for me as its an easy wind up.
Left Nimbin the following day to head for Tweed Heads, sunshine coast.
Tom, a friend of my Dads lives near Tweed heads and he kindly offered for us to shower and eat at his house. We met him by the beach and followed him to Hope Island. Our van wouldnt fit in the garage so they put up beds in their children's play room for us to sleep. They were such a nice family; Tom, his wife Sarah and their three youngsters...They also had relatives there, which meant that there were a total of 7 adults and 5 children staying in the same place.
They took us over the road to a place called boardwalk, which is a lovely bar right on the marina. A few beers and a pizza later, we went back to play cards and a few more Tooheys (beer). This was all well and good, til the morning when we were woken by 5 kids screaming, with the adults trying to get them ready for school. It was mental. But obviously we didnt mind, as they were putting us up...but it did make me think twice about having kids.
Hit Surfers Paradise for the day, it was only 33 degrees. Surfers doesnt deserve too much written about it to be honest...not much to do during the day, and at night its meant to be trashy. The beach was awesome though.
Had a more relaxed evening back at Hope Island; After a swim we raided the kids board games and found the most amazing game that I played all the time when I was young...Frustration. I used to cry my eyes out playing this game back at home, I was young though...like 19. I actually won the game, to my surprise, as I was sure Id be reduced to tears. Sarah cooked us up a lovely meal, adults only and we had an earlier night after a few card games.
Mooloolaba was the next stop (and I didnt make that place up, its actually real.) Quite a cool little place, with beaches and rivers to chill out on. We had a voucher for a free paddle-board lesson so we did that down the river for an hour or so. This is kind of like surfing, only on a bigger board and you have an oar to paddle with. The guy was obviously bored so he decided he'd make it his mission to ensure we all fell off into the river. Mission accomplished.
Last stop before Fraser Island was Noosa Heads; a popular beach town. We stayed in a backpacker carpark, but for a few dollars each they let us use the facilities. As it was a Friday, and as one the more popular bars in Noosa was three yards away, we thought we'd have a few. Noosa has the weirdest nightlife ever. It felt like we were in a school disco, surrounded by knob-heads. So we moved on...This place was worse...so bad we took to playing dance-floor golf to keep occupied. Got back feeling a little annoyed at how terrible a night it was. The next day was roasting so we hit the beach. Found a lovely little cove off the main beach called "Little Cove" believe it or not. There was a wedding going on, which had a live band playing Jack Johnson...I was loving it more than the groom. Played football with Betty (our ball) and what not til the sun came down. Had an early night, ready for the Drive to Rainbow beach; the starting point for Fraser Island.
We had a free nights stay at Dingoes backpackers, before the 3 day trip to Fraser Island. This is how the trip works: You are briefed in a big group, and split into smaller groups of around 8 people. You are given a 4WD, camping equipment, food etc for the three days. The following day, you load up the van with everything and set off to the barge for the crossing to Fraser Island. Fraser is a massive sand Island with beautiful lakes, worth a google.
Out group consisted of three Germans, two of which were guys, an English couple and the three of us. The Germans were very reserved and efficient...they didnt say much the night before we left so we talked with the English couple. Guess where they come from...Royston. Really nice couple, full of banter. We had to get up at 6.45 to start setting the car up...when we got to the 4WD, the Germans already had their towels down on the best seats.
After all the hassle of getting everything into Gertrude (the name for our 4WD) we set off to the barge.
The three days on Fraser Island were immense...We visited awesome lakes and view points each day before setting up camp and cooking our delicious meals (Im not being sarcastic either, steak the first night, and chicked stir-fry the second)...Of course, after the meal, the inevitable happened. Out came the goon (boxed wine). We linked ipods to the vans speakers, and lit by reverse lights, we had a little party with all the other groups. After a while, we noticed that a lot of people had gone to bed, one girl had been sick and put to bed, some were monged out in the vans...It was ten to ten.
This happened both nights, and when you wake up in a tent next to two blokes, sweating with the worst hangover ever...you dont feel so hot. Especially as there are no showers for three days, and no sinks to clean teeth in. But everyone was in good spirits throughout which made not-showering more bearable. The Germans came out of their shell more and more throughout the three days, and we ended up having a great laugh with them. In the end, we were sure our group was the best one.
Returning to Rainbow beach was a mixture of sadness from leaving the island, and excitement over having a hot shower. It was the best shower ive had. That night we had a party with our favourite people from the trip, obviously all the guys in Gertrude, plus a few from the other groups. So much banter flying about, especially to a guy on the trip who looked like Justin Bieber. He was from Holland or something and did not like being called Beebs, but he looked about 12 so we werent scared or anything. Actually, at one point on the island, during a goon session, he came into the van. All of us immediately started singing "BABY BABY BABY, OOOOOH" in ernest. He left.
Enough about Fraser, you get the jist, it was awesome.
The next big trip after Fraser is Whitsunday Islands which are situated just off Airlie Beach. Its a long drive so we stopped over in Rockhampton. There are loads of live music venues so we headed out for the night. Started off so well: a guy befriended us and bought us drinks, the band were good, managed to get free entry to a club by charming the girl on the door, then walked in past the bouncers to another club by showing our arms, as if we had stamps. Couldnt believe our luck. But it ran out, the clubs were awful again. Full of knob-heads, and the worst music imagineable. All the guys hated us, especially when we were chatting to girls. Theyd keep coming over and tapping the girls shoulder til they got their attention....like little kids. We got fed up and left, walked over a kilometre just to get a big mac meal. We got their and only the drive-thru was open...so we pretended to be in a car. I was the driver, Craig in the passenger seat and Chris in the back...we slowly pulled up the the speaker thing, making car noises...I wound down my window and tried to order. They ignored us...which is rude considering the effort we went to. Luckily a car pulled up behind us so we jumped in and ordered with them.
So that was Rockhampton.
We are now at Airlie beach, and its pissing down. Fingers crossed the weather picks up for a 2 day 2 night sailing trip around the Whitsundays tomorrow.
Ill blog again with how the trip went.
Cheers,
Jay x
Sunday 20 March 2011
East coast
Hey,
so a few days since Ive managed to get on the internet, so ill try and give a good idea of whats happened...
After a nights sleep in toms house, (well...i say a nights sleep, but i mean being woken up by a girl going "WHO THE FUCK ARE THEY?" to Tom when she got in from a night out...she was goin mental at him for letting us sleep there, awkward.) We loaded the van with boards and hit the beach...the conditions were terrible but we had a go anyway...we were worse than the conditions.
Drove on back to Melbourne where Toms parents had offered us a night's stay...nice people, actually really nice people...sat and had a beer with the whole family.
Dave, who I was at uni with, now lives in Melbourne so I went and met him later than night in the city centre...which is beautiful at night. We hit the casino, as we used to do in leeds on the regs...I won 50 dollars. Dave is working in a box factory, basically packing boxes for 6 hours a day...getting paid 20 dollars an hour...unbelievable.
Next day we set off on the looooong journey back to Sydney, roughly 900km. I had a couple of Monster energy drinks and did a 6 hour stint til 1.30 am...needless to say, it took ages to sleep as I was pretty much shaking.
So after hours of endless driving, we managed to get past Sydney, on through Newcastle and stopped at Coffs harbour (Ive now been to Newcastle in both South Africa and Australia before Ive even set foot in the real one.) Coffs was nice enough, few beaches and a big pier which I jumped off into the sea...The weather was getting a bit minging so we moved on. Then the weather went really bad and a massive storm hit...we were right into the eye, could hardly see as it was now dark and the rain was smashing into the windscreen. It was an awesome storm though.
Crashed in a little park that had BBQ's, had some burgers and a beer for dinner then hit the hay...a couple of hours later, a load of 'bogans' (chavs) parked up, wacked their headlights on, got out of the car and had a big discotheque. Loudest thing ever, and the worst music imaginable...it didnt help that they played the same shite song a thousand times either.
We finally made it to Byron Bay, which is where I am now...It was sunny so we went up to the lighthouse on Cape Byron, to see the views and the Dolphins, really beautiful stuff.
Booked a surf lesson, which seemed wise after our performance in Melbs...Had that yesterday and it was awesome, stood up nearly every wave, and even pulled off a little trick...cant wait to get back on the board.
As it was Saturday last night, we hit the town...had a few drinks with people in the campsite and got a taxi in to the centre. Wasnt the best night in the world...full of 18 year old gap yar students...not ideal. Still better than Ballare.
And thats abooout it...just chilling off the hangover today, heading to Nimbin tomorrow which is meant to be pretty good.
Hope everyone is well, and Ill blog again when I next get on the internet
Cheers x
so a few days since Ive managed to get on the internet, so ill try and give a good idea of whats happened...
After a nights sleep in toms house, (well...i say a nights sleep, but i mean being woken up by a girl going "WHO THE FUCK ARE THEY?" to Tom when she got in from a night out...she was goin mental at him for letting us sleep there, awkward.) We loaded the van with boards and hit the beach...the conditions were terrible but we had a go anyway...we were worse than the conditions.
Drove on back to Melbourne where Toms parents had offered us a night's stay...nice people, actually really nice people...sat and had a beer with the whole family.
Dave, who I was at uni with, now lives in Melbourne so I went and met him later than night in the city centre...which is beautiful at night. We hit the casino, as we used to do in leeds on the regs...I won 50 dollars. Dave is working in a box factory, basically packing boxes for 6 hours a day...getting paid 20 dollars an hour...unbelievable.
Next day we set off on the looooong journey back to Sydney, roughly 900km. I had a couple of Monster energy drinks and did a 6 hour stint til 1.30 am...needless to say, it took ages to sleep as I was pretty much shaking.
So after hours of endless driving, we managed to get past Sydney, on through Newcastle and stopped at Coffs harbour (Ive now been to Newcastle in both South Africa and Australia before Ive even set foot in the real one.) Coffs was nice enough, few beaches and a big pier which I jumped off into the sea...The weather was getting a bit minging so we moved on. Then the weather went really bad and a massive storm hit...we were right into the eye, could hardly see as it was now dark and the rain was smashing into the windscreen. It was an awesome storm though.
Crashed in a little park that had BBQ's, had some burgers and a beer for dinner then hit the hay...a couple of hours later, a load of 'bogans' (chavs) parked up, wacked their headlights on, got out of the car and had a big discotheque. Loudest thing ever, and the worst music imaginable...it didnt help that they played the same shite song a thousand times either.
We finally made it to Byron Bay, which is where I am now...It was sunny so we went up to the lighthouse on Cape Byron, to see the views and the Dolphins, really beautiful stuff.
Booked a surf lesson, which seemed wise after our performance in Melbs...Had that yesterday and it was awesome, stood up nearly every wave, and even pulled off a little trick...cant wait to get back on the board.
As it was Saturday last night, we hit the town...had a few drinks with people in the campsite and got a taxi in to the centre. Wasnt the best night in the world...full of 18 year old gap yar students...not ideal. Still better than Ballare.
And thats abooout it...just chilling off the hangover today, heading to Nimbin tomorrow which is meant to be pretty good.
Hope everyone is well, and Ill blog again when I next get on the internet
Cheers x
Sunday 13 March 2011
Like a Gypsy
Hey everyone,
This is going to be quite a big blog...
Our last day in Campbell town was spent visiting the Blue mountains (they are called blue mountains because the Eucalyptus gives off a blue haze) Was a nice little day and some pics are on facebook.
So we picked up the Camper (which we named Helen...Hell for short.) After being briefly shown how the appliances worked by a distracted Hungarian, we set off to the supermarket to fill her up.
Entering the supermarket car park, we had to drive up the ramp and round the corner. I was driving. I managed to scrape Helen along the wall. Helen was hurt. She now has a massive scrape on the left hand side, dread to think how much that'll cost.
We stocked up on noodles, beans, bread and rice. Decided to sit and make lunch in the car park, beans on toast...well, I say toast, but I mean fried bread...as we have no toaster. We looked like a right group of Gypo's sat on folding chairs eating beans on fried bread on our laps...all topless. People were driving past looking at us. I was wondering how Id react if I was pulling up at Tesco car-park and saw three topless lads sat by a camper van eating from their laps.
We left the supermarket car park...but not before bumping the roof on a low hanging sign...onto Melbourne, which is over 1000km from Sydney, so itl take a few days with some stop-overs.
Hit the beach in Wollongong for an hour or so...Craig and I went into the sea to body surf, while Chris had a lay down. We got absolutely battered in the sea, the waves were mental.
Headed to Jervis Bay, which was a beautiful place...lovely white sandy beaches, along with shower and toilet facilities. Seemed like it was free as well, so that was a bonus.
It only took us about 45 minutes to work out how to set the beds up. When we finally managed it, we realised that there really isn't much room in Helen. Two have to sleep next to each other, with one sleeping in the roof bit. Im so glad I'm not Claustrophobic.
Day 2
Woke up to find a ticket on our windscreen saying we needed to pay 30 dollars camping fee...lovely.
Sorted that out and had a walk on Murray beach before setting off to Pebble beach.
Craig had absolutely no money, plus he hadnt loaded money onto his cash card as he was waiting for a cheque to clear. Chris and I had been lending him money but we'd run out. We needed internet.
We pulled over at a motel to ask if we could use the internet for five minutes...the woman said that she couldnt get on the internet as it was password protected, but she was heading home and would let us use her internet...unbelievable...I couldn't see that happening in England. Imagine a woman inviting three strange men into her home to use the internet...wouldnt happen.
Her name was Phillipa and she had a pet Pirana.
Got to Pebble beach, which has loads of Kangaroos that go on the sand and sometimes into the sea a little bit. Was an awesome place, and had free BBQ's...we wacked some snags on (sausages, remember) and had hot-dogs with whiskey. The woman who ran the site cam over and was going on about paying, so we headed off.
That night we stayed at a magnificent 4 star motel, called the Comfort Inn...The facilities were second to none, with room service, laundry and a swimming pool...we were in the carpark.
Day 3
After the worst nights sleep ever, we realised it was raining, and it didnt look like it was going to get better. The decision was made to go for a massive drive so that the following day it would only take an hour or so to get to Melbourne.
Drove most of the day before getting to a place called Lake Entrance for dinner. We cooked up some rice and veal and sat on a park bench with a beer. Just as we're tucking in we hear 'hey' coming from behind us..we turned around and I responded "Hey, hows it going?"... he replied with "How do you know me?...why did you just say hey Doug?"
This man clearly had special needs of some sort, possibly Autism, but Im not sure.
This is how the conversation went:
"I like to look cool"
"Ah ok"
"I bought some new shoes, they're velcro"
"ah thats cool"
"I want to be a builder"
"thats a good job"
"I like the uniforms"
"ok"
"Do you wear uniforms?"
"No I dont work at the moment, we're ju-"
"catch you later"
And Big Doug was gone.
Luckily, Craig and Chris just sat trying not to laugh, which meant I had to keep up the sort-of-conversation on my own. Cheers lads.
Drove on til nightfall...Found a little rest type place that had a few caravans in...It was free and had toilets so we decided thats where we'd sleep for the night. The toilet block was disgusting. As you walked into the mens side, a big spray painted piece of graffiti read: "REAL MEN EAT COCK" ... do they?
There was also a needle bin. Whenever there is a bin specifically designed to stored used needles, you know there are, or have been heroin addicts popping about. fantastic.
We managed to survive the night, despite our growing fears of being raped, murdered or both. Also, the threat of accidentally standing on a used needle was high. Luckily nothing bad happened.
Day 4
We hadnt showered for over 24 hours, nor had we charged our phones.
The aim was to find a proper camp site and use all their facilities, before speeding off without paying any fees. Managed to find a caravan site/golf course. Hooked up the camper to the electricity supply and got the phones charged. I wandered over to the golf club and found a big changing room with toilets and hot showers...jackpot, ding ding.
While packing the camper, ready to hit the road, a guy came over. We thought, 'oh here we go' . I took the lead and immediately started a conversation about the weather and how it was perfect for a round of golf. This got him going. He never mentioned paying any fee's, but he did break the news about Japan. Its the first we'd heard of it. Chris had just come from there, so it was a bit weird.
I think so far, there's been over 3 big natural disasters since I left England. Not to mention all the floods.
We finally made it to Melbourne, but we had literally no idea where to go, or where to keep the camper. Drove around for a while and found a little car park by an Aussie Rules pitch. There were no toilets, or showers or anything.
It was a Saturday, so we thought it would be rude not to go out.
After drinking a few beers and whiskeys in the camper we headed into town on the tram. Went into one place for a drink then attempted to get into a place called rats. We were denied. The old rule of 'not being allowed in if you have a penis' is in place here.
After another rejection, we ended up in a place called "Sorry Grandma", it was only 20 dollars to get in, and 8 dollars a beer...so...value.
Day 5
When you wake up with a massive headache, and you need a wee like never before, and when you've just slept for 4 hours in a hot, cramped van with two other men, you dont feel so pretty.
Thankfully, Tom, who we met while tubing in Laos lives by a beach near Melbourne. He invited us to stay over.
So thats where we are now, lounging around in his living room, watching step brothers on the TV...They have a games room with a ping pong table. This house is basically a blokes paradise.
We're having a beach day tomorrow, so hopefully the surf will be up.
Well this has taken a long time to write...and im still hanging from last night so its time to get off the net.
Will write again soon x
Monday 7 March 2011
Campbell Town
Hey everyone, been a while but had a pretty busy few days here in sunny Australia.
So, staying here in Campbell Town, about an hours train ride away from Sydney. The place we are staying at is "on res" as they say here, which is basically uni halls. Margot has been amazing host, sorted us out with beds etc and introduced us to the gang.
When we arrived, we hit the supermarket straight away, bought a load of pasta and sausages (a.k.a snags)...Then we went to the big alcohol shop to get some boxed wine (a.k.a Goon) as this is the cheapest way to drink in Aus. Its about 8/9 dollars for a 4 litre box of wine. When compared to the 40 dollars for a crate of beer, thats pretty good.
That night there was a special offer on at the "Tav" which is where all the uni people eat, so we tagged along...Chicken Schnitzel with chips for 6 dollars, and washed it down with a "Scooner" (no idea if thats spelt correctly) of beer. A scooner is basically a glass that is between a half-pint and a pint. All the guys here are really friendly...obviously we've been on the end of some banter as we are the only "poms" about.
Incase you havent noticed, everything has a nick-name in Aus.
Friday was BBQ day, so wacked the snags on the barbie and the Goon out of the fridge...was awesome just sat there all afternoon in the sun drinking and eating...not to mention playing ping-pong and pool. That night was the "Chill-out western" themed evening at the common room. This was basically a cowboy type do, where people dressed up, drank, and had a go on the mechanical bull outside. I had a go. I was rubbish. Good job I havent any plans on riding a real bull.
Was a great night.....eventful too...a highlight of which would be Chris getting into a very loud argument with a girls whose name escapes me....at 3am. It was something to do with American naivety...Either way it ended up in Chris getting very very red and angry. It was hilarious.
I slept on the sofa with a blow-up doll with Tashi's face stuck to the head. The picture is on facebook...brilliant.
(just to clear that up, I was fully dressed thank you very much.)
Saturday was Mardi-Gras in Sydney...a massive gay-parade for gays. Its quite gay. We were all going to go down and watch the gayness but it rained...The hour journey there and back didnt seem too worth it if we were going to get rained on (that is NOT a euphemism). So we stayed in and watched dvds etc.
Sunday was spent at one of Margot's friends uni houses...It has a swimming pool so we had a load of Goon and snags...Also played Killer which went down a storm yet again.
Watched 2 entire series of The Inbetweeners last night with the Aussies...They were lovin it. We were about to hit the hay when Me Myself and Irene started...we stayed up to watch it and went to bed afterwards, woke up at gone midday and have done pretty much nothing besides playing mario-kart and doing laundry...Oh Ive missed Uni life.
Tomorrow we are going to get off our arses and hit the blue mountains for a bit of a bush walk, meant to be very scenic...could do with the fresh air and exercise.
I apologise for the brief descriptions of events in this blog, but Im writing this on a MacBook and Im obviously not cool enough to work these properly yet.
We have the camper all booked up and ready to pick up on wednesday...43 days on the road...in a camper...with 3 other men...in the heat. NOT gay.
Anyway, I hope everyone is OK and Ill blog again when I can
See ya later poms
Jay
Wednesday 2 March 2011
Part 2 - Australia.
G'day, (would've been rude not to say that)
So, yes, I'm here in Sydney...Arrived yesterday morning from Bangkok...
Before I go into Australian escapades, best cover the last few days in Thailand...
The last blog was written 2 days into the Angkor Wat tour...The final day was quite a laugh actually...Our regular Tuk Tuk driver, Mr B was unavailable for the day, so he came and introduced us to his mate, Tiger Rob, who would be driving us around for the day. He looked a bit like Tiger Woods, but smaller...and more Cambodian (also, he confessed that he had a much smaller 'lingam' than Tiger Woods, one can only assume he meant his man-shaft). He was a right laugh.
Drove for over an hour to get to the temples...the first bit wasn't strictly a temple, its a river carving. You walk for 1.5km up through jungle 'til you reach a river (well, it was mainly river bed as its dry season)...and there a load of carvings of various Hindu gods on the river bed. We had a mooch about and I noticed a trail leading into the jungle on the other side of the river bed...I hopped over and walked up the track for a bit...Didnt lead to much so I kept going to see where it led...Walked for a quite a bit before giving up and turning round. I got lost. For a while. It was hot. I got more lost. I got caught up in the trees. I got really hot. I got annoyed. I decided I needed to find which direction I should walk in to get back to the river so I shouted "Hello!"... nothing...shouted again...nothing. Walked a bit more, got more lost, got more hot, got more tangled. Shouted again...this time I could hear a little "hello?" in the distance. But I could tell which direction it was coming from so hacked my way in that direction...Eventually I could hear voices getting nearer and nearer til I popped up back at the riverbed, just about 100 yards away from where I started. Craig was there, so we went down to the waterfall bit which is where you're actually meant to walk. Unfortunately it wasn't much of a waterfall due to the dry season.
Saw another temple a bit later, which was similar to the temples of previous days...It was impressive, but when compared to the others, it seemed pretty average. (I mean, it obviously wasn't average...but in comparison).
On the way back, the Tuk Tuk driver, Tiger, pulled up at a house on the side of the road. There were a few kids running about, and a woman cooking some stuff on a BBQ. He waved us over to a table they prepared for us; we sat and were given some shrimp-type-fried-flat-things and some palm wine. The palm wine is served in a big bamboo shoot and was actually pretty tasty. After a couple of these, Tiger was noticeably drunk so we headed off.
That night, Mr B came to meet us at our guesthouse to go out for a few drinks. We hit a few bars and played pool, usual stuff.
Back to Bangkok...Decided we'd make the most of our last couple nights in Thailand and planned a night out in Sukhumvit. It was mental there, huge club called shock 39...Sat in there and watched the Utd v Wigan match... the prices were sky high so we left there to get some drinks from another bar then head back...Walked into a quiet looking bar where we shown into a room....In this room, there were a few chairs all seated to face the same wall...The wall, wasn't a wall, but a massive window....Behind the window were rows of almost-naked women sat waving at you. Apparently you could chose which one you wanted. We walked straight out. Decided to get a cheap drink from a 7/11 then returned to the night club. Bumped into the French Embassy girls (remember them?), it was one of their birthdays so they were in Bangkok for a night out.
Next day was the usual recovery day; sleep, laundry, eat. Then back on the cheap 7/11 drinks and a few friendly games of poker with the travel-agent woman at the hotel. Now, when I say friendly games of poker...I mean games of poker that end in Craig calling the woman a 'Dick' several times.
Id already lost my money so was drinking and watching some football...they decided to play another hand, they disagreed over something trivial and it escalated to her saying he was a cheat and him calling her a dick repeatedly. It was quite funny from where I was sat.
Went to a couple bars and onto "The Club" Where I bumped into Nook...(remember her? met her in Koh Phi Phi)...it was one of her friends birthday so they were out in Bangkok. Deja-Vu.
After the club called the club had finished, we got some Pad - Thai and headed to Nooks apartment in Sukhumvit . Her apartment happens to be on the 37th floor, overlooking Bangkok. It was awesome, we drank red wine on the balcony then went to bed.
Next day was the usual rush back to the hotel before check-out. They let us have an extra hour so we could shower etc.
Headed to the airport and before we knew it, we landed in Sydney.
Met Chris in the airport (If you dont know who Chris is, read the little introduction bit on this website). He'd just got in from Tokyo. Checked into our mental hostel, which is a huge building with a bar, laundry, kitchen, internet cafe etc. Its expensive but compared to the places we've stayed in so far...its a 5 star.
Its expensive here. I wont say that again on this blog. OK once more, Its F***ing expensive.
We have booked a camper-van for next week...we will have this 4 berth bad-boy for 43 days, and will travel the entire East coast in it. Looking forward to hitting the road.
In the mean time, we are going to Campbell Town, about an hours train journey away from here...we are staying in a university house belonging to Margot...
Margot is a girl I met when lodging with Tashi back in Leeds...Tashi played Tchoukball with me and happens to be a bit of a bezzy...she introduced me to her Australian friend Margot, and she said we should visit...So we are...tomorrow...for a week. Should be awesome to go back to Uni life for a bit (already there to be honest, just ate a massive bowl of cheap pasta and sausages.)
So thats about all so far... one third of the way in...looking forward to the next part of the adventure...
Hope all are well,
Jay x
So, yes, I'm here in Sydney...Arrived yesterday morning from Bangkok...
Before I go into Australian escapades, best cover the last few days in Thailand...
The last blog was written 2 days into the Angkor Wat tour...The final day was quite a laugh actually...Our regular Tuk Tuk driver, Mr B was unavailable for the day, so he came and introduced us to his mate, Tiger Rob, who would be driving us around for the day. He looked a bit like Tiger Woods, but smaller...and more Cambodian (also, he confessed that he had a much smaller 'lingam' than Tiger Woods, one can only assume he meant his man-shaft). He was a right laugh.
Drove for over an hour to get to the temples...the first bit wasn't strictly a temple, its a river carving. You walk for 1.5km up through jungle 'til you reach a river (well, it was mainly river bed as its dry season)...and there a load of carvings of various Hindu gods on the river bed. We had a mooch about and I noticed a trail leading into the jungle on the other side of the river bed...I hopped over and walked up the track for a bit...Didnt lead to much so I kept going to see where it led...Walked for a quite a bit before giving up and turning round. I got lost. For a while. It was hot. I got more lost. I got caught up in the trees. I got really hot. I got annoyed. I decided I needed to find which direction I should walk in to get back to the river so I shouted "Hello!"... nothing...shouted again...nothing. Walked a bit more, got more lost, got more hot, got more tangled. Shouted again...this time I could hear a little "hello?" in the distance. But I could tell which direction it was coming from so hacked my way in that direction...Eventually I could hear voices getting nearer and nearer til I popped up back at the riverbed, just about 100 yards away from where I started. Craig was there, so we went down to the waterfall bit which is where you're actually meant to walk. Unfortunately it wasn't much of a waterfall due to the dry season.
Saw another temple a bit later, which was similar to the temples of previous days...It was impressive, but when compared to the others, it seemed pretty average. (I mean, it obviously wasn't average...but in comparison).
On the way back, the Tuk Tuk driver, Tiger, pulled up at a house on the side of the road. There were a few kids running about, and a woman cooking some stuff on a BBQ. He waved us over to a table they prepared for us; we sat and were given some shrimp-type-fried-flat-things and some palm wine. The palm wine is served in a big bamboo shoot and was actually pretty tasty. After a couple of these, Tiger was noticeably drunk so we headed off.
That night, Mr B came to meet us at our guesthouse to go out for a few drinks. We hit a few bars and played pool, usual stuff.
Back to Bangkok...Decided we'd make the most of our last couple nights in Thailand and planned a night out in Sukhumvit. It was mental there, huge club called shock 39...Sat in there and watched the Utd v Wigan match... the prices were sky high so we left there to get some drinks from another bar then head back...Walked into a quiet looking bar where we shown into a room....In this room, there were a few chairs all seated to face the same wall...The wall, wasn't a wall, but a massive window....Behind the window were rows of almost-naked women sat waving at you. Apparently you could chose which one you wanted. We walked straight out. Decided to get a cheap drink from a 7/11 then returned to the night club. Bumped into the French Embassy girls (remember them?), it was one of their birthdays so they were in Bangkok for a night out.
Next day was the usual recovery day; sleep, laundry, eat. Then back on the cheap 7/11 drinks and a few friendly games of poker with the travel-agent woman at the hotel. Now, when I say friendly games of poker...I mean games of poker that end in Craig calling the woman a 'Dick' several times.
Id already lost my money so was drinking and watching some football...they decided to play another hand, they disagreed over something trivial and it escalated to her saying he was a cheat and him calling her a dick repeatedly. It was quite funny from where I was sat.
Went to a couple bars and onto "The Club" Where I bumped into Nook...(remember her? met her in Koh Phi Phi)...it was one of her friends birthday so they were out in Bangkok. Deja-Vu.
After the club called the club had finished, we got some Pad - Thai and headed to Nooks apartment in Sukhumvit . Her apartment happens to be on the 37th floor, overlooking Bangkok. It was awesome, we drank red wine on the balcony then went to bed.
Next day was the usual rush back to the hotel before check-out. They let us have an extra hour so we could shower etc.
Headed to the airport and before we knew it, we landed in Sydney.
Met Chris in the airport (If you dont know who Chris is, read the little introduction bit on this website). He'd just got in from Tokyo. Checked into our mental hostel, which is a huge building with a bar, laundry, kitchen, internet cafe etc. Its expensive but compared to the places we've stayed in so far...its a 5 star.
Its expensive here. I wont say that again on this blog. OK once more, Its F***ing expensive.
We have booked a camper-van for next week...we will have this 4 berth bad-boy for 43 days, and will travel the entire East coast in it. Looking forward to hitting the road.
In the mean time, we are going to Campbell Town, about an hours train journey away from here...we are staying in a university house belonging to Margot...
Margot is a girl I met when lodging with Tashi back in Leeds...Tashi played Tchoukball with me and happens to be a bit of a bezzy...she introduced me to her Australian friend Margot, and she said we should visit...So we are...tomorrow...for a week. Should be awesome to go back to Uni life for a bit (already there to be honest, just ate a massive bowl of cheap pasta and sausages.)
So thats about all so far... one third of the way in...looking forward to the next part of the adventure...
Hope all are well,
Jay x
Monday 21 February 2011
Cambodia
Hey everyone,
Quite a lot to write about...luckily no robberies though.
Journey to Ho Chi Minh
A much better designed and smoother running sleeper bus took us to Ho Chi Minh (Saigon). Was meant to be a 10 hour journey...no surprises, it took much longer.
I wasnt placed next to two girls id never met like last time...shame.
War museum
Despite how massive Ho Chi Minh is, there didnt seem like a lot to do at all...Plus I was getting fed up with Vietnam. I needed some peace and quiet so when we turned up and all we could hear was "beeep beeep beeep beeep beeeeep beeeep f***ing beep"I couldnt believe my luck.
Checked into our hostel...our room was on the fifth floor...there was no lift...luckily, after lugging our bags all the way up the boiling hot stairs, we were greeted with a warm room in which the air-con didnt work properly and there was no fan. Sweat box. Luckily there were showers in the room which helped...It took all of five minutes to have a fresh sweat on after a cold shower though.
We had a few beers to knock us out for the night as we'd planned on getting as much done as possible the following day. Got up nice and early and was pleasantly surprised that id lost about 3 stone overnight. Put it all back on at breakfast which was a couple of baguettes, tea and scrambled eggs (all free).
Went to various unexciting places such as the palace and a roundabout (yep, that was a highlight) before reaching the museum. It basically tells "the story of the Vietnam war from "the other side...turns out the Americans were rather naughty indeed, breaking all sorts of international laws. There were some horrible images of the Vietnamese people (and some American) who had been affected by Dioxin, a chemical used by American troops. They were awful images. Enough said.
Cu chi Tunnels
The next day we planned a half day trip to the Cu Chi tunnels with which the Viet-Cong used in the war. It was a great little trip... educational...so.
Our guide was self-named "Mr Bean" He got a few chuckled early on, but he loved to talk. After 2 hours of non stop talking about the war, I noticed that pretty much everyone on the bus was a sleep...The only person really paying attention was this French guy whose seat was right in front of the Mr Bean. He had no choice but to listen as the guide kept saying "Understand?" after every sentence while looking straight at the French guy. The guise was always shortening the word "understand" to "'stand?" and then to "stan?" Unless the French guys name was Stan...
We stopped at a handcraft by the handicapped place. All the artwork etc was done by people with disabilities. You walked through the workshop before entering the shop...It was weird, loads of people watching the handicapped people work, and taking pictures. Imagine that happening while you were working. They'd made way too much stuff...massive shop full of various ornaments, art etc. Pretty amazing stuff, but really expensive...an ornamental tiger cost 3 grand.
We got to the place and had to watch the most boring video ever made about anything ever...could hardly hear it either.
showed us some interesting things, mainly the booby-traps left by the Viet-Cong. Some were pretty horrific, but ingenious.
We got to fire real guns at one point as well, I chose the M1 Garand rifle.
Then we were shown into the little underground tunnels to walk through them...I say walk, but in no way could you actually walk. I could barely kneel in these dark, hot tunnels. So we shuffled through over a 100m of this, fighting a little claustrophobia. Came out drenched in sweat but smiles on our faces...Dont know how the Viet Cong managed that every day, with bombs going off all over the place.
Cambodia
Was glad to leave Vietnam...Cambodia was the next stop, more specifically; Pnom Penh (capital). I instantly felt more at home in Cambodia...its nothing like home...but you get a feeling about a place very quickly - and it was a positive one. The bus journey was rubbish - took over 5 hours longer than the original 6 and included stops in massive unused lorry-parks where the toilet (as guided to by our driver) was a lovely barbed-wire fence.
Anyway, arrived at Encounters hostel in Pnom Penh...nice little place with Martin, an English guy running the place. He gave us loads of advice on what to do...
S-21 and killing fields
Pol Pot was a bad man - he started a massive revolution in the late 20th century and anyone he considered to be an enemy was killed.
We went to a high school that Pol Pot converted into a prison. It has been left in more-or-less the same state as they found it...and they dont hold back: displaying photos of the dead in each of the 14 cells that were occupied at the end of Pots reign. It was an experience similar to Auschwitz in Poland - so difficult to comprehend the voilence that happened in the same place as you are standing...lots of people were continuously tortured there before being loaded into a truck with 59 other blind-folded prisoners...they werent told where they were going...
Killing fields
This is where they were taken...about 15km away from the prison. The truck would pull up and the prisoners taken into holding cells before taken to the field, executed (sometimes beheaded) and thrown into a mass grave. There was a tree which the Khmer Rouge used to smash babies heads against. Its unbelievable to think that this happened only 30/40 years ago.
As you can imagine, its an eerie place.
Chill at the pool
The following day, we decided to go to a pool to chill out for the day. Managed to find a little restaurant/bar that had a pool and sunbeds...all we had to do was spend over 5 dollars on our tab each and we could use the facilities for free - had a full English breakfast - read - swam - read. It was absolutely baking.
Market
Went to the market in the evening. Purchased some Abercrombie shorts (defo real) and a Hai Dong...Which is basically a big shuttle cock shaped thing with a feather coming out of a spring. Difficult to explain but all the locals love these things. They stand in groups and do kick ups with it. So when we got back to the hostel we played with it outside the front.
Gradually people became interested and a few lads joined in (locals) they were pretty good, and after a while they invited us to play soccer with them...
The ball was this strange woven thing made of thin wood...flip-flops for goalposts. Had a great little game with them, they were pretty awesome as well, some of them were only 8 years old.
Siem Reap
Arrived at our hostel in Siem Reap (Which means "Thailand - Defeat") From when the Cambodians defeated Thailand.
Siem Reap is home to Angkor Wat - The largest religious temple in the world. It takes about 3 days to fully take it all in, so we hired our very own Tuk-Tuk driver for the time we are hear. Hes a ledge, gave us a discount cos I got him a beer...During the day we'll get him the odd can of coke, or pay for his lunch...In return he will take us anywhere at night for free. So he came and picked us up after the first day to go out...more of that later...
Angkor Wat is incredible. Its like a massive area of jungle where the Angkors built their empire. A huge centre-piece temple looks spectacular and has lots of religious symbolism. There are many other temples surrounding the centre-piece...Including pyramid based temples, one with lots of faces, and one now dominated by trees. This was my favourite part - as massive trees wrap their routs around the temples, They are so huge that it looks more like an Alton Towers ride. This temple was where the Tomb Raider movie was filmed.
So the night out then...We arrived at "Mr Hang's" (tuk tuk driver) recommended night spot. It looked OK, a little quiet but they had a big screen with the football on. We decided to go flash and buy a bottle of Jack Daniels for the table, with a loads of cokes, an ice bucket and some lime. The manager came over and introduced himself, he drank with us for a while, talking about football and the like...the like being that the rules of the club were that you pay 3 dollars to actually enter the inside of the club...can pick a girl and she will dance with you for 3 dollars ("This include kissing, touching, dancing") and you can take them back to the hotel, all night for 50 dollars. That was good to know. We drank and played cards...I banged out a couple of magic tricks that they buzzed off (Cheers Segger-pot). They said we were now VIP so we could go into the club for free, we took up his offer and went in. Was actually an awesome club..music was ledge as well. Neither of us used the services...
Went to another club to play pool and carry on drinking...crashed in bed around 4.30am.
Pick up at 9.30am...ouch.
The next day, was today...We were picked up at 5am to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat...Bit cloudy so wasnt really worth it...But went on a different circuit to some other highlights.
Just got back now...Tomorrow we visit some waterfalls and more temples (All the temples are just like Indiana Jones)
If its a comfort to anyone, its too hot here.
OK blog done, Im knackered... will blog again soon...either back in Bangkok or in Sydney, our new destination.
Jay x
Angkor Wat
Quite a lot to write about...luckily no robberies though.
Journey to Ho Chi Minh
A much better designed and smoother running sleeper bus took us to Ho Chi Minh (Saigon). Was meant to be a 10 hour journey...no surprises, it took much longer.
I wasnt placed next to two girls id never met like last time...shame.
War museum
Despite how massive Ho Chi Minh is, there didnt seem like a lot to do at all...Plus I was getting fed up with Vietnam. I needed some peace and quiet so when we turned up and all we could hear was "beeep beeep beeep beeep beeeeep beeeep f***ing beep"I couldnt believe my luck.
Checked into our hostel...our room was on the fifth floor...there was no lift...luckily, after lugging our bags all the way up the boiling hot stairs, we were greeted with a warm room in which the air-con didnt work properly and there was no fan. Sweat box. Luckily there were showers in the room which helped...It took all of five minutes to have a fresh sweat on after a cold shower though.
We had a few beers to knock us out for the night as we'd planned on getting as much done as possible the following day. Got up nice and early and was pleasantly surprised that id lost about 3 stone overnight. Put it all back on at breakfast which was a couple of baguettes, tea and scrambled eggs (all free).
Went to various unexciting places such as the palace and a roundabout (yep, that was a highlight) before reaching the museum. It basically tells "the story of the Vietnam war from "the other side...turns out the Americans were rather naughty indeed, breaking all sorts of international laws. There were some horrible images of the Vietnamese people (and some American) who had been affected by Dioxin, a chemical used by American troops. They were awful images. Enough said.
Cu chi Tunnels
The next day we planned a half day trip to the Cu Chi tunnels with which the Viet-Cong used in the war. It was a great little trip... educational...so.
Our guide was self-named "Mr Bean" He got a few chuckled early on, but he loved to talk. After 2 hours of non stop talking about the war, I noticed that pretty much everyone on the bus was a sleep...The only person really paying attention was this French guy whose seat was right in front of the Mr Bean. He had no choice but to listen as the guide kept saying "Understand?" after every sentence while looking straight at the French guy. The guise was always shortening the word "understand" to "'stand?" and then to "stan?" Unless the French guys name was Stan...
We stopped at a handcraft by the handicapped place. All the artwork etc was done by people with disabilities. You walked through the workshop before entering the shop...It was weird, loads of people watching the handicapped people work, and taking pictures. Imagine that happening while you were working. They'd made way too much stuff...massive shop full of various ornaments, art etc. Pretty amazing stuff, but really expensive...an ornamental tiger cost 3 grand.
We got to the place and had to watch the most boring video ever made about anything ever...could hardly hear it either.
showed us some interesting things, mainly the booby-traps left by the Viet-Cong. Some were pretty horrific, but ingenious.
We got to fire real guns at one point as well, I chose the M1 Garand rifle.
Then we were shown into the little underground tunnels to walk through them...I say walk, but in no way could you actually walk. I could barely kneel in these dark, hot tunnels. So we shuffled through over a 100m of this, fighting a little claustrophobia. Came out drenched in sweat but smiles on our faces...Dont know how the Viet Cong managed that every day, with bombs going off all over the place.
Cambodia
Was glad to leave Vietnam...Cambodia was the next stop, more specifically; Pnom Penh (capital). I instantly felt more at home in Cambodia...its nothing like home...but you get a feeling about a place very quickly - and it was a positive one. The bus journey was rubbish - took over 5 hours longer than the original 6 and included stops in massive unused lorry-parks where the toilet (as guided to by our driver) was a lovely barbed-wire fence.
Anyway, arrived at Encounters hostel in Pnom Penh...nice little place with Martin, an English guy running the place. He gave us loads of advice on what to do...
S-21 and killing fields
Pol Pot was a bad man - he started a massive revolution in the late 20th century and anyone he considered to be an enemy was killed.
We went to a high school that Pol Pot converted into a prison. It has been left in more-or-less the same state as they found it...and they dont hold back: displaying photos of the dead in each of the 14 cells that were occupied at the end of Pots reign. It was an experience similar to Auschwitz in Poland - so difficult to comprehend the voilence that happened in the same place as you are standing...lots of people were continuously tortured there before being loaded into a truck with 59 other blind-folded prisoners...they werent told where they were going...
Killing fields
This is where they were taken...about 15km away from the prison. The truck would pull up and the prisoners taken into holding cells before taken to the field, executed (sometimes beheaded) and thrown into a mass grave. There was a tree which the Khmer Rouge used to smash babies heads against. Its unbelievable to think that this happened only 30/40 years ago.
As you can imagine, its an eerie place.
Chill at the pool
The following day, we decided to go to a pool to chill out for the day. Managed to find a little restaurant/bar that had a pool and sunbeds...all we had to do was spend over 5 dollars on our tab each and we could use the facilities for free - had a full English breakfast - read - swam - read. It was absolutely baking.
Market
Went to the market in the evening. Purchased some Abercrombie shorts (defo real) and a Hai Dong...Which is basically a big shuttle cock shaped thing with a feather coming out of a spring. Difficult to explain but all the locals love these things. They stand in groups and do kick ups with it. So when we got back to the hostel we played with it outside the front.
Gradually people became interested and a few lads joined in (locals) they were pretty good, and after a while they invited us to play soccer with them...
The ball was this strange woven thing made of thin wood...flip-flops for goalposts. Had a great little game with them, they were pretty awesome as well, some of them were only 8 years old.
Siem Reap
Arrived at our hostel in Siem Reap (Which means "Thailand - Defeat") From when the Cambodians defeated Thailand.
Siem Reap is home to Angkor Wat - The largest religious temple in the world. It takes about 3 days to fully take it all in, so we hired our very own Tuk-Tuk driver for the time we are hear. Hes a ledge, gave us a discount cos I got him a beer...During the day we'll get him the odd can of coke, or pay for his lunch...In return he will take us anywhere at night for free. So he came and picked us up after the first day to go out...more of that later...
Angkor Wat is incredible. Its like a massive area of jungle where the Angkors built their empire. A huge centre-piece temple looks spectacular and has lots of religious symbolism. There are many other temples surrounding the centre-piece...Including pyramid based temples, one with lots of faces, and one now dominated by trees. This was my favourite part - as massive trees wrap their routs around the temples, They are so huge that it looks more like an Alton Towers ride. This temple was where the Tomb Raider movie was filmed.
So the night out then...We arrived at "Mr Hang's" (tuk tuk driver) recommended night spot. It looked OK, a little quiet but they had a big screen with the football on. We decided to go flash and buy a bottle of Jack Daniels for the table, with a loads of cokes, an ice bucket and some lime. The manager came over and introduced himself, he drank with us for a while, talking about football and the like...the like being that the rules of the club were that you pay 3 dollars to actually enter the inside of the club...can pick a girl and she will dance with you for 3 dollars ("This include kissing, touching, dancing") and you can take them back to the hotel, all night for 50 dollars. That was good to know. We drank and played cards...I banged out a couple of magic tricks that they buzzed off (Cheers Segger-pot). They said we were now VIP so we could go into the club for free, we took up his offer and went in. Was actually an awesome club..music was ledge as well. Neither of us used the services...
Went to another club to play pool and carry on drinking...crashed in bed around 4.30am.
Pick up at 9.30am...ouch.
The next day, was today...We were picked up at 5am to see the sunrise at Angkor Wat...Bit cloudy so wasnt really worth it...But went on a different circuit to some other highlights.
Just got back now...Tomorrow we visit some waterfalls and more temples (All the temples are just like Indiana Jones)
If its a comfort to anyone, its too hot here.
OK blog done, Im knackered... will blog again soon...either back in Bangkok or in Sydney, our new destination.
Jay x
Angkor Wat
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