01/10/2008Well I will begin this email by saying..."All good things must come to an end....." but before that I will update you on our last bit of our adventures in the USA!
We left off our last email with our road trip to Vegas...the city that NEVER sleeps!!! Well I can only describe Vegas to you all as being exactly what you see on TV.... the brightest lights and the busiest city we had been too yet. The drive from LA to Vegas (started off on the notorious Route 66) was not too exciting, lots of desert to see and dry baron land - so not a very exciting drive to describe to you. We arrived at our hotel - Treasure Island - we got a room with a view of The Strip and it was just a magnificent sight to see. The roads were heaving with people, cars (taxi's, limo's...) were just everywhere and every person seemed in their element being there :0) We literally tried to go to every hotel/casino on the strip, but it was just impossible, as there are just so many to see, so to name a few: Luxor, Camelot, Bellagio, Wynn, The Venetian, Planet Hollywood, MGM, New York, Paris.......I could just go on and on.... each casino has it's own uniqueness to it, like MGM has lions living in the casino (obviously a closed protected environment) and the Bellagio has the most stunning fountain show, Treasure Island has a pirate show everynight too.
We got some tickets to a fantastic show - one of the Cirque De Soliel (CDS) called "O" - oh my goodness, I never knew people could be that flexible and so talented. I suppose I need to explain what CDS actually is, well it is a very modern circus act, with acrobatic movements etc, and our show was the 'water' cirque show, was just amazing. We also had an amazing dinner at The Eiffel Tower in the Paris hotel - a bit 'snooty' posh for us, but the food was just delicious and the view from the restaurant was just beautiful. We also had to do the rooftop nightclub thing, that all the celebs do when in town, so we got ourselves onto the guest list for a club called Pure (in Caesars Palace Hotel). We met two wonderful Americans (Heather & Andre), who were working in Vegas for the week and we partied the night away with them; didn't see anyone famous though (oh well). The club was sooooo expensive, to get a table to sit at, you had to buy a bottle of spirit/champagne and I think the cheapest bottle of alcohol you could purchase was $300 (vodka). This club has the notorious Pussycat Dolls bar in it too. Well we eventually made it home at 4:30am that morning, so much fun, but we are so getting too old for this...tee hee!
We saved the best for last and that was a Sunset Helicopter Tour over the Grand canyon and over the strip when the lights come on. We were to be picked up at our hotel in a limo, taken to the airport for our grand canyon tour, taken into the canyon for champagne and food and then fly back over the strip as the lights come on! Sounds awesome hey....well you will never believe our luck....as we were waiting for our limo, thunder and dark clouds came over and the biggest rainstorm came down.....we were so bummed as our flight was cancelled and therefore we didn't get to do our one thing that we were most looking forward to on the whole trip! The weather in vegas had been superb and it was just that one night that the storm happened....can you believe it!!!! So we headed towards the Stratosphere Hotel for a cocktail and to get the best view of the lights over Vegas...that was best way we could have ended our trip to Vegas.
We then headed to San Francisco....oh my greatness it was so cold there, very pretty city and we did the typical city sights tour. One thing about San Fran was that there was just so many homeless people everywhere. We were there for two full days and saw the Golden Gate Bridge, Fisherman's Wharf, rode on a tram in the city, drove down the Crookidest Street and saw the house that Mrs Doubtfire was filmed. Not really too much to say on San Fran really, but it also looks like the films with the roads scenes - very pretty! We also made a trip to Alcatraz, the most notorious prision in the 70/80's. Was pretty wierd and a little spooky walking around a prison, but very interesting as well. It's not a prison anymore, as you can appreciate, and the views of San Francisco from this tiny island was just amazing.
We then headed towards towards Disneyland/ California Adventure land in Anaheim - yippy!!!! This place was just awesome and definitely brings out the BIG KID in you! We went on every ride (well only J did the haunted rides...I'm too much of wuss for those). We spent all day at these parks and watched the evening show of disney characters dancing down the main street of Disneyland - who says you need to be a kid to have an awesome time at these places. We are candy floss, did rollercoater rides, got sopping wet and rode some excellent virtual rides, plus got to meet the one and only Mickey & Minnie Mouse!! A memory we will never forget and hopefully take our children there one day to experience the fun someday too :0)
Well I'm going to end off with us in New York - The Big Apple.... this place is amazing and it was wonderful to see the city that always seems to get blown up, invaded by giant gorillas and used for Spiderman's personal swinging playground! We walked so much here that our bodies were literally aching from head to toe, as there is just so much to see and do. I'm not going to bore you with everything, so just to tell you a few.....
- Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island, wow she really is huge
- Empire State Building, what an amazing view of the city, just awesome
- Times Square, well bright lights and constantly busy with people. We even had the opportunity of meeting The Naked Cowboy (he is famous for standing in the middle of times square in his white underpants, cowboy boots and hat and playing his guitar - he is in the Nickelback music video)
- 5th Avenue - awesome shopping, just a shame that J and I were completely broke by this time....
- Central Park
- Wall Street
- Ground Zero (where the twin towers stood) - very sad.
and so so so much more.....
I'm going to end off here now, as I wouldn't want to bore you with such a humongous email to read.
We are now back in the UK and reality is certainly hard to get back into, but I can honestly say that we are settling in nicely and loving seeing all our family and friends again, we have missed them so much.
Onto our next adventure........to be continued!!!!
Lots of love
The Nads
xx
P.S. photo's will be uploaded onto facebook soon. 16/09/2008
Howdie Y'all,
Well I firstly have to say sorry for not writing sooner but time seems to have flown by and we coming to the end of our wonderful adventures....
I am going to keep this short and brief, as I won't be able to fit in EVERYTHING that we have done in the last month.
I ended off my last email with us in NZ at the time.
We just loved NZ, it completely picturesque and what a stunning country to live. We hired our first campervan and did the "real" traveller type stuff. The drive in the camper was a challenge, but J definitely mastered it in the end and did a fab job - when I drove I felt like I was driving a bus! We went skiing/snowboarding and it was so much fun. J had a blast and I finally did some ski school - I really enjoyed it but got too adventurous too soon and unfortunately wiped out quite badly (no broken bones thankfully) and ended up scaring the crap out of myself - so skiing for me needs to stay on the beginners slope only!!!
Auckland was so much fun, we stayed with Tiffany's sister and her boyfriend Thom and we felt so at home straight away and they made our stay their the best. So a HUGE thank you for both of them and we look forward to hearing all their exciting news. We also managed to get a weekend in with my beautiful friend Mel, her husband Douggie and their gorgeous daughter Ella. Thanks to them (and J) I had a wonderful surprise birthday party organised for me - thanks so much it was so much fun!
After NZ we were off to Fiji - BULA (hello). What a blast, we met some amazing people here and did both the relaxing in the hammok (so cool) and we did some island adventures too. We stayed on a boat for two nights (J loved jumping off it with all our boat friends), did diving for the first time (scary but so amazing), snorkelled with manterays, swam in the most stunning coloured seas, stayed on the TV "Celebrity Island" island - and so much more, but won't be able to tell all.
Then we made it over to Honolulu (Hawaii) - oh my goodness complete paradise. We stayed in the area Waikiki beach and it was true American style. Surfers and beach "beauties" everywhere. The beaches were gorgeous, the people were gorgeous and it was so buzzy at nightime. We booked a tour round the island and we got to see where Lost, Jurassic Park, The Karate Kid and other many interesting spots where filmed etc. We went passed a beach just covered with turtles lazing on the sand - amazing to see. Again I could go on and on about this place and we recommend it to everyone to visit here, it is so worth it!
Well we have reached the US of A....
We started off in LA and we did the typical sightseeing of Hollywood, Beverley Hills, Bel Air, Rodeo Drive, Chinese Mann Theatre, Kodak Theatre (where they hold the Oscars), Walk of Fame, Sunset Boulevard etc etc etc. It is all so beautiful and everything is so HUGE here. The cars are big, the food portions are big (and we are getting big too....). America is just like in the movies and on TV, they are loud, charming, very forward when it comes to tipping them and they just love South Africans - especially one lady kept asking J to talk to her (even recite the alphabet...). Our favourite restaurant here is Bubba Gump (the Forest Gump movie) as the shrimps are to die for! We have also done Universal Studios - what a blast and J and I felt like kids the whole day (I even had my photo taken with Shrek).We have completely worn ourselves out already!
LAS VEGAS BABY YEAH.... oh my goodness, where does one start... this place is exactly like the movies but I am going to end off here and leave it for another time.
Till then....
Love The Nads.
xxxx 28/07/2008
Gooday Maties....
Well we have landed in Oz (Perth) at 05:00am in the morning - completely shattered, but J was excited to Ryan after so many years (Ryan Inocco went to boarding school with J). We were staying with Ryan and his girlfriend Liesel in their home in Perth, with their beautiful dog, Micha and cat, Gizelle. We had an absolute blast with them and so did not want to leave. I personally fell in love with Perth and could so see us living there one day!!!! Ryan took some time off and took us for a personal tour of Perth; there is actually so much to do there that you are so spoilt for choice. The City is an easy drive to work, their beaches are just divine and we managed to take a trip down to Margaret River for a visit to the wine villa's. Ryan took us to the Zoo, where we got up close to Kangaroos and Koloa bears and even Tasmanian devils (noisy animals). It was just so much fun and we couldn't draw ourselves away from feeding the Kangaroos, they were obviously the tame ones, but apparently they are known as "pest" to everyone else in Oz. After finally dragging me away, we made our way back to go out to dinner with some of Ryan's family for a glorious steak and rib combo....yummy! We also managed to go out for an evening of fun fun fun, met some wonderful people and were amazed at how many South African’s live in Perth and we felt just so at ease and had a blast! On our trip down to Margaret River was again so much fun, Ryan and Liesel definitely made a good effort to show us the best bits and make our stay an absolute blast! Margaret River was very pretty and the wine tasting was fun and can you believe it....Free...yes it is all free to taste the wine and we didn't even have to purchase anything. The local people were amazingly friendly. We ended off our wine tasting experience day in a hot tub in the Oz Winter (yes it was freezing!!!!). We were so sad to leave Perth and seriously considered staying for a bit longer, but we decided to make our way to Adelaide as planned. Again to Ryan and Liesel, thank so much again guys, we had the best time ever!
Adelaide....well it was nice enough, but not a city that made any impact on either of us. We stayed in our first Hostel....whoohooo, we are "true" backpackers now - it was called Backpacker OZ/Guesthouse - all good, very clean and very friendly helpful people. We even had a bonus of a free BBQ/ Braai one evening and met some really funny Ozzies. We visited Adelaide Zoo and walked around the city, nice enough but just another city. One of the days we did the Barossa Wine valley and visited Jacobs Creek (a very well know Australian Wine) - which was loads of fun, but far too much to drink by the end of the day (and no we didn't spit - what a waste of good vino!). There were some very funny and entertaining Irish/English girls on our tour, so we were very much entertained for the day!
We hired a car and started organising our road trip down the Great Ocean Road to Melbourne and then eventually onto Sydney. I can't say I wasn't sad to leave Adelaide BUT very excited for our "road trip" adventure. We managed to get ourselves a GPS (complete marriage saver!) and punched in our first destination. We stayed at various little towns along the way i.e. Apollo Bay, Mt Gambier, Lake View and each town had its own little beauty about it!
What can we say about the Great Ocean Road - Wowweeee.....amazing and we were just completely blown away by some of the most stunning views you will ever see. I would love to go into detail about everything we saw, but I would be here for days - I'm sure when you see our photo's (on facebook), you will understand!
Well we have got to Melbourne - again another city, so quite dull looking and city like. But we took a tram trip down to the beachy area called Glenelg (spelt the same way back and front...clever hey), it was beautiful and so nice that just a tram ride away you are at a stunning beach! We ended up doing an organised city tour of Melbourne and we got to see everywhere in Melbourne, the tour guide was brilliant and gave us a true insight of what Melbourne was really like; there is just so much to do there, it's unbelievable. There were some really nice areas to live in, wonderful parks to go running in and theatres, loads of historical buildings - I could go on and on. We also decided to stay in Canberra for a night - just to say that we stayed in Australia's capital city. Very small city, but it was clean and friendly and very lively with young students around, as that is where they tend to go to study.
The time came for us to make our way to Sydney and we were so excited. We organised to stay with one of Jason's friends, Sally Benedeck, who he knew from his early London days. They hadn't seen each other for 7 years and it was great to finally meet her too. Sally was a true hostess and she really "marketed" Sydney well to us - we just loved it!!!! When we arrived there, she put us in the car and took us for a tour of Bondi Beach area, where we had a wonderful fish & chip lunch and then ended off the day with a sunset cocktail at Icebergs - overlooking the Bondi Beach town and the ocean - stunning. That evening Sally took us to Darling Harbour for a night in a bar watching SA Vs Australia - Jason was in his element - shame we lost though, bummer! The next day was really chilled, went for brekkie in the village, and later we ended up watching a movie at her local cinema (Dark Knight - batman), so we thought it was great to watch the top film, with the late Heath Ledger, in his country - excellent movie, would defo recommend it. Anyhoo Sally kindly dropped us off at our city centre hostel for our last sightseeing days of Sydney. It was World Youth Day in Oz, so everywhere was just packed and hectic, but nice to get the happy vibes from other tourists. We saw loads of Sydney, The Harbour Bridge (which we walked over....), Sydney Opera House (huge), Darling Harbour..... we took a cruise around Sydney the first day and got some magical photo's, but god it was freeeeeeezzzzzing, but so much fun! We met Sally and some of her friends for a drink one night and had an absolute blast, they are such lovely people and definitely love the fact that we would consider living in Oz one day - they are just so welcoming and for that we just fell in love with OZ! J, Sally and myself ended up back at Darling Harbour to get some food, well I have never got such a humongous plate of ribs in my life and they were the best I've ever tasted!!! J had a good steak and we thoroughly enjoyed our last evening with Sally, she really was such a pleasure to spend time with - so Sally thanks so much again for everything!
Unfortunately I am sitting in New Zealand at the moment and it's freezing and my hands have gone blue, so I am ending the OZ adventures off here and leaving NZ for another time, so I bid you all farewell and speak to you soon. For all the emails of hello's and texts we are getting, please keep them coming, we miss you all so much and so love hearing from you - it makes us smile just to get a hello every now and again and to hear that you are doing well! I also apologise for any birthdays, texts, emails that I do get and don't respond, the cost of using computer/internet facilities in these countries can be so expensive, so we try to limit ourselves at times :0)
Love to you all
The Nadaulds
xxxxxxx
P.S. photo's of Oz will be uploaded when we can get on a computer with all the right installations, so please bear with us. 25/07/2008
Well hello again to everyone
We hope you are all well, healthy and happy?!
Another update for you.....My last update ended off with us on our way to Singapore - the cities of all cities!!! It was the cleanest City I think we have ever been in and it completely blew us away in the sense that if people can make the effort to keep a city so clean and beautiful, why can't it be like that in most Cities!! But anyhoo the experience was great and the best thing was, the toilets were normal....yippppppyyyy!!! We felt like we were back to 'civilization' again, but obviously not having enjoyed the wonderful experiences we have had in Asia and will never forget it!
Singapore was a very buzzy, busy city with many different cultures, races of people and everyone was just so friendly and helpful. The weather was that great to start off with but as soon as it stopped raining we hit the town. We obviously started at the Tecci Stores for Jason, but didn't managed to find any good bargains and J seemed a little disappointed with what they had to offer; their technology didn't seem advanced at all and we worked out that we could get better value in the UK - very bizarre for a city that is renowned for their technology. Well after that we decided to visit the notorious Raffels Hotel, where the singapore sling was first served - we went to the Lounge Bar where you eat shelled peanuts and you then just throw the shells on the floor - good fun and the singapore sling was delicious!!! Could only afford one drink, so we headed off for dinner after that. We walked around the beautiful harbour where all the restaurants are and we were spoilt for choice. J also managed to get to watch the rugby at one of the bars (I forget who SA were playing). On one of the days we decided to take a tour bus trip over to the Sentosa Island; we got there by cable car and visited their Underwater World, we were able to stroke a baby shark and feed the stingrays..... Then Sentosa have a evening light and laser show, which was very cute and fun to watch, but it was moreso for kiddies. We also walked down Orchard Road, the posh street of Singapore, the shops like Hugo Boss, Prada etc etc - if only we could shop in those hey!!! Singapore was definitely a wonderful experience and would so recommend it to anyone to visit.
Our next visit....Bali....honeymoon destination at last! We booked ourselves into a hotel called The Melia Bali and we were completely blown away by the stunning gardens and how huge the hotel was. We basically chilled out in Bali, the weather was gorgeous, the sun was just perfect and we left with some very good tans. We found a little complex, called Bali Collection, with restaurants and shops and had some wonderful dinner evenings there. We also booked a couple of tours; dolphin watching - which was amazing, we took a speed boat out into the ocean and saw hundreds of dolphins, some even managed to do a flip or two for us; then the second tour was a trip around the Bali Island, up to the Volcano's and the Rice Paddies and visted their temple (yes another Temple), but this one was definitely the most impressive one we have seen yet and well worth the trip (J had to wear a sarong...). Our last tour was a "fun boat" as I call it - it took you out to a floating structure in the middle of the sea (the journey there was good fun, but the rocking of the boat on the way back was awful and I seriously thought I was going to throw up...whilst J managed to drink his cocktails and enjoy the ride....not fair!)- we went snorkelling, we went in a submarine and saw right to the bottom of the ocean and it even had a super slide into the sea on it, that was great fun! We met a lovely couple who were on their honeymoon too on that tour - Oliviea & Valentina - such nice people and had our last dinner with them - we ordered the biggest seafood platter - unfortunately didn't manage to get through it all, but it was divine! On one of the nights we went for a sundown dinner at one of the local beaches called Jimbarain, we weren't too impressed with the food, but the sunset was absolutely stunning and well worth the trip. We also managed to hit the buzzy town of Kuta for a night out; great town, loads of bars, restaurants, but the locals were a bit pushy with selling their goods, but hey we were definitely getting used to that and it was getting more and more easier to just ignore and keep walking. We just loved Bali and had the best time ever, we finally felt a little more relaxed after such a whirlwind of Asia and Malaysia and we were getting VERY excited for OZ.
Well my next email will have all the news of our OZ experience, as I don't want to bombard you all at once :0)
Lots of love
The Nadaulds
xxx 20/06/2008Hello Everyone
Well again it's so hard to know where to start with all our news.....we are currently in Malaysia and on our way to Singapore tonight on an overnight train.
I ended off our news last time saying that we had finally reached the beautiful sea. We visited numerous islands and each one was beautiful in itself; we started off on the island of Koh Phang Nagan (again apologies if I spell the names wrong) and I have to admit that this island was our favourite by far. The sand was white, the sea was just the right temperature, the peace and quite was much needed as well. We ended up going to one of the "Moon Parties" on the island - which is why people come to this particular island - well we went to the Black Moon Party (No moon) - what a blast - everything was in this glow paint; J got a dragon painted on his arm (just for you Matt) and I of course got a butterfly on my back...tee hee. Well as you can expect there was alot of drinking and the next day was a complete right off, but it was ok as it was our first rainy day we had so far in Thailand, so staying in bed didn't feel too bad. When we did manage to rise from our beds we went for a glorious swim in the sea and just chilled - what a life hey! J found these wonderful lanterns you light up and send them off into the sky, we ended up getting loads as J was having so much fun.
The second island we visited was Koh Tao - the island again stunning, with warm clear waters and this is where we sat in the sea sipping our beers watching the sun set over the ocean.....it was the best thing we had ever seen! On this island J wanted to hire a Quad, so we did and we went quadding it round the island....needless to say my butt was extremely sore afterwards as the roads are bumpy and sandy :0)
The third island we ended up on was Koh Samui (the largest of the islands) - again very beautiful, but very touristy and commercial, so you can imagine that things were very pricey. Our hotel finally had a pool....yippy...so after a hard day on the beach we came back to a lovely cool refreshing pool to swim in; glorious! This was our last island with our tour group, so we all went out for a last dinner; our table was literally only a few feet from the sea and the meal was lovely. we ended off the evening dancing and booging down with our group; Good Fun! OH forgot to mention that we went to a proper LadyBoy Show and it was fantastic, they are so good and funny - the show was such good fun! (don't worry we have pictures, which we will send soon).
Well it's our last day in Koh Samui and we decided to head back to our favourite island Koh Phan Nagan. We ended up staying at this absolutely stunning resort called Sunset Cove Resort & Boutique. The place was like a honeymooners dream, the people were the nicest we had ever met and made the stay that extra special. The room was gorgeous, it had a huge wooden bathtub and an outdoor shower room. The pool was an infinity that overlooked the beach and our room faced the pool and beach, so we watched the sunset again and it was beautiful. We hired a jeep and went exploring the island, drove down to other beaches and walked around the towns. We then found a South African resort called Milky Bay, so decided to stay there for a night before we headed off to Phuket - was ok there and the people were very friendly and the place was buzzy with younger people staying there.
Well off to Phuket today - sorry for jumping so quickly from one thing to another, but I don't want to babble and bore you with such a long email - and the journey was horrendous....we were up at 5:45 to get a taxi to the ferry, then on a ferry for 3 hours, then on a bus for 2hours, then got dropped off at some dodgy looking place where were told to sit and wait for our bus to come at 13:00 - well J & I were expecting a proper bus, along comes this crappy little combi type thing (5.5hours drive), with no leg room, the seats were torn and there was one stinky person on board just to top it all off....don't want to complain or anything but I think this was the first time since being in Thailand that i haven't felt comfortable and quite scared, as no one really speaks very good english here, they mostly say yes to anything you say and we have to trust them 100% with ourselves, so needless to say I was "shitting" my pants that day! J just laughed at me, but his bum was so sore at the end of the journey I was laughing then!!!
We finally made it to Phuket (thank god), and booked into this again beautiful place to stay called Busuari - Keith Floyd has his restaurant there....too expensive for us to actually eat there, but the rooms were such a pleasure AND the minibar was free - first free thing we have had! Phuket was lovely, the streets had a smell to it and the constant hassling from the shop owners to go into their shops and restaurants was a bit annoying, but you just smiled and said no. J managed to get himself some good deals on T-Shirts. The town was buzzy and full of life, we ended up walking down the main road one night and sat at a bar just watching all the "ladyboys" do their touting....whatever that may be I will leave to the imagination, but boy is it entertaining. We actually get so confused as to which ladies are actually men and women - you really can't tell, which is scary. We most definitely saw alot of older men with Thai women - mostly on hire I suppose, but again who can tell nowadays what is what anymore - J & I have seen things along the way so far that we are not shocked at much anymore!
Well just to sum things off to you as my time is running out and our taxi will be here soon, we are off back to Kuala Lumpar, beautiful city....the people aren't so nice there, but the Petronis Twin Towers were just magical and the underground train systems were very easy to use, so J & I were hopping off at all the stops to take a look see. The shopping centres are huge and cater very much for the Posh People (Jimmy Choos, Chanel...etc). We decided to take a quick trip to Malaka, which is on the coast in Mayalsia and it's really pretty, but very quiet and not much to do, but it was lovely to visit for the night.
As I said before we are off to Singapore tonight and very excited, we are travelling on an overnight train and J decided that we should once in our lives travel first class...so this is our first class travel (when I show you the photo's you will just crack up laughing though).
Well I will touch base with all again once we have completed our Singapore trip and tell you all about that and our Indonesia travels (Bali).
Love to you all and hope to hear from you all soon.
The Nadaulds.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx Hello there everyone
Right here is a first email to you all to let you know firstly that we are still ok and having an absolute blast!!!! I am so sorry that I have not written sooner, but actually getting the time and to an internet cafe has proven very difficult :0).
Right were should I start......we have done so much since we landed and everything has been like a whirlwind, so apologies again if I forget to tell you anything ( I am keeping a diary of each day, so we can update you as and when).
Well we arrived in Bangkok.....what a culture shock!!!!! The way the Thai's live is both amazing and horrible... explaining some things might sound a little gross, but we have done and seen things that we cannot believe that we have done it either! Bangkok is a very buzzy city, with lots of interesting sights to see, but it's so hot and humid that as soon as you leave the aircon you instantly sweat....not nice.... the people are friendly enough, but we are finding that everywhere is very touristy and they want to take you for every penny you have, we are learning our lessons very quickly as we go along. We then met up with our tour group - such lovely people and we loved every minute with them. I will quickly mention the toilet situation, as it is disgusting....they are mostly squat toilets and if they are normal toilets, you can't put toilet tissue down them, you have to throw it away in the bin next to you and then with a bucket of water and bowl you have to flush the loos....we are both still not into this and find it very hard to deal with :0/
We left Bangkok to go up north Thailand and start our "real" adventure and insight to Thai culture etc. We arrived in quite sweet cities and spent a night or two there, did some shopping (and haggling - J loves it), then off for the trekking to the Hill Tribes.....all I am going to say is....thank goodness it's over, but so glad we actually did it and survived it! The total trekking was 22km, mostly uphill and the downhill was so steep it was a killer.
The first day of trekking was through a jungle - with leeches, bugs everything.... - some of our group were sick, but most of us seemed ok and you will laugh, but I actually enjoyed it. We walked up to a waterfall and it was stunning and so cool and refreshing. We arrived at the first Hill Tribe people called Lisu Tribe, very friendly, clean and the place we stayed in was a proper unit. We visited the local school and met some really wonderful Thai children...so cute and friendly. J and another tour group friend bought them all (all being 130 children) an ice-cream and they were in their element, it was the highlight just to see their faces.
We then started on our second bit of the trekking...this was mostly grassland, but the uphill was a struggle. We arrived in the second village called the Aka Tribe, now imagine dirt....now imagine dirt the reddest mud you have ever seen, then put children, animals etc together - it was so dirty and the place we stayed at, looked like it had been put together in about a day. Oh sorry forgot to mention that the beds we have been given are the thinnest mattresses you have ever seen and there has been freezing cold shower only on this trip. We woke at about 4:00am to the sound of cockrels and dogs barking, then the locals decided that we were the most interesting people ever and just sat outside our little hut thing and just stared, it was bizarre, but hilarious!
Well the last day of trekking has come, mostly downhill now, but so steep that a couple of people, including J, had a wipeout on their bottoms!!! It finally came to an end....yippy and I can honestly say that J and I are so completely grateful for everything we have had and will have in our lives. To see how others live was a total eye opener and made us so aware of things now.
We are done so many other things too; we have ridden and elephant and gone trekking through the jungle with them, fed them banana's and got up really close to them too - wonderful experience - I loved it!!! We have been to Chaing Mai, Chaing Rai, some other places I can't spell..sorry, done loads of temple visits; seem and been blessed by a Monk. One fascinating bit was that we went to a temple and everyone has their own Buddah's - depending on days etc - the guide - who took both our birth dates, looked at both me and asked whether we know each other and we said that we just got married, he then said that we had the same Buddah, which is a very rare thing to have as a coupe --so we felt very special.
The food here is an experience too - lots of noodles and far too much rice...we are so over rice. Its so funny but when we see on the menu a pizza we always go straight for it, but it's not the same as home. We are trying new things to eat, but mostly it's very spicey, but its all yum but the tummy's have taken it's toll too with all the oiled dishes. We both are lovers of a new curry, called Musaman Curry and we both went to Thai cookery school day together and learnt how to cook traditional Thai food - that was loads of fun!
We are now on our beach bit of our tour and this is what we imagined Thailand to be - stunning. The water is crystal clear, the fishes (snorkelling) is wonderful and we are having a blast. J went jet-skiing today and was in his element! Also the best was drinking a beer in the warmest sea watching the sunset, beautiful!
Gosh there is still so much to tell, but my time is running out and wanted to tell you about the first bit of our trip so far. So I promise to write again and tell you about the second half.
Our tans are coming along nicely, slowly, but we don't want to get too burnt otherwise you can't carry your backpacks....
Let us know how you all are!!
Well I have to sign off now, so cheerio from us for now and will write soon
Lots and lots of love to you all.
Lyndy & Jason
xxxxx 18/06/2008
Had a good night sleep in the quiet and airconditioned room. We were both excited today as we were going to a Tai cooking class. The setup was very impressive and the chef spoke good english. There were about 12 people in the class and Jason wasn't the only guy. One older dude was there :-)
We then proceeded to be taught and cooked our own meal one at a time and then ate it. We first cooked Pad Thai (Noodle with Chiken), Prawn Soup, Massaman Curry (Yummy) and stick rice with Mango (Tasty). Food was just amazing if we don't say so ourselves. Only wishing we had skipped breakfast and had more space....
We had the afternoon and took the oppotumity to have a tactical snooze - needeed it after all the food we had eaten.
That evening we took a walk down to the river that flows through Chang Mai and had dinner at the riverside restuarant.
Ended off the evening with neck and sholders massage. Heaven for lyndy and bring on the pain for Jason again! 17/06/2008
Woke up early and sleep was very broken during the evering due to the different sounds and motions but still a cool experience. We even had a monk sleep opposite us.
Arrived at Chang Mai and stayed in People's Place Hotel. Was basic but we were just grateful to have aircon. Once we freshened up we headed out for our Elephant experience. What an experience riding on Elephants. Very exicting yet a little scary. The asian elephants aren't as big as african elephants. We boughts loads of bannas and it kept stopping every few steps to get fed - greedy thing! At one point we just shoved about 10 bananas into it's mouth.
We then had lunch at a local roadside cafe. The cheapest yet at only 30 Bhat a meal. We had Pad Tai which is a noodle dish mixed with meat, we choose chicken which we thought would be safe.
On returning to Chang Mai city we wanderd around and came across a Starbucks. Yeeeeha a real coffe and funny enough at London prices.
The night markets in Chang Mai were probably amony the best and we picked up a few suvenoirs but didn't want to get too much as we have such a long holiday still to go. We cheated for dinner by having burgers and ribs at a western restuarant and then off to a local irish pub for a night cap.
Ended off the night with a Thai foot massage. Heaven for Lyndy. Pain for Jason. Must be those city-boy feet. 16/06/2008
Woke up to roosters crowing and birds chirping from the nearby land. The water was very calm and the whole atmostphere was very peaceful.
We headed back to where we started and returned to Apple guest house where we freshened up and then proceeded to travel three hours on a Song Tu (the open bakkie). Safe to say all our bums were numb when we got to Ayuthaya (former capital of Thailand). We had a quick swim at Sherwood quest house and then off to see Wat Phanon Choeng (Biggest Budha Image) and Wat Yai Chai Mongkoi (Victory Stupa of great king). We learnt today that we both share the same Budha which is the Saturday buddha. It's the Budha of protection. Also that our colour is purple and that Lyndy was born in the chinese yaer of the horse and Jason in the year of the Dragon.
After sightseeing we headed back to the guest house to freshen up (it's so hot this is required as often as possible) for the overnight Train to Chang Mai.
The Train was an experience an a half. A lot more comfortable than I thought it would be with bunk beds. I (Jason) got the bottom to protect Lyndy. That was my excuse anyway to get the bigger bed :-) 15/06/2008
Today we were transferred onto a raft boat which consisted of three rafts joined together. All three were open on the sides and the first had an area for sunbathing, the second had a kitchen and our sleeping area while the third had a dinning table and dance floor. Sounds very grand but it was extremely basic. Nevertheless part of teh adventure so we jumped on and 20 minutes later were being dragged in the river on floating tubes sipping on beers - Nice!
We visited a few tmples on the way one of which was built onto the side a cliff and you walked through the mouth a dragon and up stairs which was along it's belly into a cave where the temple resided. J treid to race the youngest guy up the stairs - bad move.
Another few swims in the river Kwai on our tubes and it was dinner time. Had a ginger soup and some rice dishes not reallly sure what wa sin them. Then a bit of a disco which is a little lame with only 12 people so we ended up just playing drinking UNO. Had a great sleep as it was cooler with the breeze flowing over us from the river. |
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