Lara's Blog

China

2010-01-10T19:00:00.006+11:00

Kunming
Christmas eve

Christmas Day was spent at the Bird and Flower market, a temple and a park

These kites were being flown so amazingly high you could barely even see them!

Christmas Dinner with Rice wine:

Itinerary for China and HCMC Trip

2009-12-22T12:39:00.001+11:00

23rd Dec 2009: Syd --> Hong Kong
24th Dec: HK --> Kunming
25th Dec - 3rd Jan: Intrepid Tour Yunnan Province: Kunming - Dali - Lijiang - Zhongdian - Kunming
4th Jan 2010: Kunming --> HK --> Macau
5th Jan: Macau --> HK
9th Jan: HK --> Ho Chi Minh City (11th-15th at Cho Ray Hospital)
19th/20th Jan: HCMC --> Sydney

Africa - Tanzania and Zanzibar. Flight Itinerary

2008-07-08T10:15:00.003+10:00

Getting there...
Fri 11th Jul 9:50am Depart Syd, Arrive Jo'burg at 4pm
Sat 12th Jul 10:05am Depart Jo'burg, Arriving Dar es Salaam at 2:35pm

Within Africa...
14JUL DARJRO 0730 (Dar es Salaam - Kilimanjaro)
19JUL ARKZNZ 1530 (Arusha - Zanzibar)
25JUL ZNZJNB 0920 (Zanzibar - Jo'burg)

Going away...
Sat 26th 4:20pm, depart Jo'burg, arrive Perth at 7:30am on Sun 27th
Sun 27th 10am, depart Perth, arrive Sydney 4pm

Itinerary
12-14 July: Da es Salaam
14 July: Flight to Kilimanjaro at 07h30 on PW2420.
14-15 July: Ngorongoro Crater tour
16 July: Oldupai Gorge, often called the “cradle of mankind”, the place where the remains of early human settlements were found. Then continue to Serengeti.
17 July: Full day at Serengeti
18 July: Manyara
19 July: Arusha for flight to Zanzibar on PW431 at 15h35 arriving at 16h45.
20 July -24 July : Zanzibar Beach Resort
25 July flight to Johannesburg at 920am

some more puppy photos

2007-02-14T20:10:00.000+11:00

He sleeps a lot :)

Puppy!!

2007-02-14T17:46:00.000+11:00

I got a new puppy on Saturday! He's 8 weeks old and his name will probably be Henry. He's a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, same as Benji and Bibi

The breeders were in Tahmoor and so he had a long car trip home in a box:

meeting zoe for the first time

He kinda goes crazy for about half an hour, then crashes for about two! It took James 4 days to catch the puppy when he was awake.

exhausted after his big day! (and covered in Zoe saliva)

catch up...

2007-01-28T20:55:00.000+11:00

Wow i can't believe blogger actually loaded.... Last day in PP, we're heading to Bangkok tonight.... v excited about copy bags and DVDs

Yesterday we went to the Russian Markets in PP and got some DVDs too... unfotunately after buying the complete series of grey's anatomy and seasons 4 and 5 of scrubs i only had $2 left so no movies for me.

In the arvo went to the Genocide museum (again). this time with everyone else and we watched the 1hr documentary.

Today we visited the royal palace and silver pagoda. Silver pagoda is so named cos its floor is covered in 1kg silver tiles. very cool. there are lots of buddha statues and other things that are silver, gold and have diamond and other gemstones inlaid. Very pretty. The place has remained like this becuase the khmer rouge decided not to destroy it to pretend to the outside world that they were protecting cambodia's heritage. although it didn't stop them from destroying 60% of the stuff in there anyway.

ok i'm going to copy in a couple of emails ive written just to catch the blog up (rather than REtype)....

26th Jan 2007

Hi everyone!!!!
7 days left of my holiday... then i will start looking for a puppy!!!.... (and a job)
I think my last email was from nahtrang.
We all flew to Ho Chi Minh City, then i leftthe others and they continued to phu quoc island. I had a couple of days in HCMC by myself. I went on a tour of the cu chi tunnels and the caodai temple.Cao Dia is a relgion that has been influenced by hinduism, buddhism, catholocism, confuscionism, taoism.... i can't remember exactly but something like that. The templ was pretty amazing, all bright colours and dragons (and left eyes, the eye close to ur heart). Cu chi tunnels were WAY smaller than the vinh moc ones in the DMZ. the only way to get through them is to crouch-walk. My legs were feeling that for the next few days! I crawled through the full 200m available (most ppl can't make it through the 1st 100m due to claustrophibia) and my legs almost died. even the soldier taking me made us rest halfway through the 2nd 100m!!!! the tunnels are incredible though, how anyone could live there is amazing. we were also shown the way they dissipated the smoke from cooking, so no plumes would be sent up to warn the enemy. oh and i also shot an AK47. Bit of a cop out though cos its bolted to the table so no kick :)
in HCMC i also went to the war crimes museum which has photographs from the vietnam war ("american war") of people about to be killed, or killed, and photographs of the victims of agent orange. Very full on.
next i arrived in phnom penh and met up with my mum.
aaaah the intercontinental hotel!!!!!! that's what i was made for :) My mum was workign during the day so i relaxed by the pool and had massages (hard life). Sally, one of the ppl workign with her, is an austrlaian that has been living in PP for 3 yrs. She can speak Khmer and would take us around to shops and restaurants and night. Very nice! She also took me out to see the diabetic clinic in teh slums. Interesting to see how thy all live.... and although incredibly poor they seem happy. Difficulty with having diabetes in these sorts of countries is the doctors are poorly trained in the disease, and people can't afford treatment. Oh and no fridges to store the insulin. on the weekend we went up to Siem Reap and visited Angkor Wat. Its amazing. the intricacies of the carving!!! also visited another temple that has been overgrown by massive trees. apparently they used it in Tomb Raider (now i'll have to see the movie!)
my mum left on the monday and i've been in Phnom Penh by myself since. Its been nice although very hot. I'm staying on the riverfront where there are lots of international restaurants and expat bars. I've got a nice tuktuk driver (the motorbikes that pull a covered cart thing - much safer than catching motorbikes, head injury is the number one cause of death in cambodia and i've seen at least 3 accidents while i've been here). I've visited the genocide museum (another full on museum. it is in an old high school that was converted to a prison during the khmer rouge and of the 17000 prisoners only aboiut 12 survived the torture.)and the killing fields (where the prisoners were killed, usually bludgeoned to save bullets). both full on. as well as some nicer stuff like shopping, the national museum and having massages. Yesterday an elephant walked down teh street under my balcony. very random! but I think he lives on the hill with the temple and is walked every afternoon.
the others arrive about 1pm today, we head to bangkok on the 28ththen home on the 2nd!
thanks for all the emails, i've read most of them (except for your one about the cat case mich, as much as i love cats........)
see you allsoon

12th Jan 2007

Hey every one, I hope Australia has warmed up a bit and actually tried to give you a summer! i'm in Nah Trang - at the beach finally! Bu ti can't load blogger on this computer for some reason so can't upload (you all must be devestated)
Anyway the DMZ tour north of Hue was good - Vinh Moc Tunnels and visiting Khe Sanh were probably the highlights. The tunnels haven't been enlarged for westerners (unlike the cu chi tunnels outside ho chi minh city). All the men and a lot of the women had mud down their shoulders from bumping into the wet muddy walls as we walked (crouched??) along in the darkness. Pretty amazing.
Back to Hoi An to meet KC!!!!!!! the next 5 days were speant ordering and collecting shoes and clothes (between the 5 of us we got an extra 52 pairs of shoes. FIFTY TWO!!!!!) and avoiding the rain. It was fun at first but a lot of thigns didn't turn out as expected so a bit of frustration and disappointment!!! Mine was pretty much fine cos i ordered a lot of thongs (can't really go wrong) and not many clothes. Unfortunately during our time in Hoi An KC got sick. So sick in fact we called the dr. After he gave her an injection he tried to throw the (recapped) needle into our hotel bin but i said "NOOO!!!!!" and told him to take it with him to the hospital. He thought i was very good. haha. (Anyway she's much better now, just can't enjoy the food very well.) So anyway cos she was sick (and alurelle got sick the next day but not as bad) i didn't want to leave the two of them alone. Nat and Cassie went to Marble mountain and China beach (which were both good apparently)
Now we are in Nah Trang and had our first day at the beach yesterday!! I got a massage on teh beach - which i think i'm now bruised from. In the arvo we had mud baths at the hot springs. Pretty funny. green mud everywhere! Going on a boat tour tomorrow i think snorkelling will be involved.
I leave the group on the 14th at HCMC airport while they continue on to Phu Quoc Island. I have 3 nights in HCMC (just managed to book a hotel after calling FIVE places that were booked out) then i fly to Pnom Penh to meet my mum for a few days before rejoining the group again.
At the moment We're meant to get to bangkok on the 28th jan and stay 3-4 days. Laurelle Kc and I are still going at this stage but if any new developments occur we'll try to change our flights. If anyoen hears anythign i'd appreciate an update.
Anyway keep emailing me :) see you all soon

Hue... and reasonably not slow internet!!!!!

2007-01-03T21:42:00.000+11:00

In Hue!!! and the internet is fast dialup.... almots like slow broadband! its incredible! AND i can load hotmail!!!! So def time for an update. Thanks for your emails people. I mostly can read them (eventually) but replying is another matter. In Hoi An it takes half an hour to access one email. SMS has been fine up until now.

So where was i.... Halong Bay... Cat Ba island!!!

Ok after the bike ride..... or not as the case was for laurelle and me, we went to our hotel, had lunch, then wandered around the island a little. It was kinda like a ghost town. Desolate. Except for all these people on motorbikes who kept wanting us to hire them (with nowhere to go!) or the pearl ladies trying to bully us into buying pearls! In the afternoon we were taken by boat to Monkey Island where we went kayaking again and fed monkeys bananas (and the guide gave one a can of coke which it proceeded to drink!!). That was kinda cool, except that there were all these signs warning us not to go near the monkeys cos they bite, and our guide had given us bananas!! i think they were some kinda baboon. Later Nat and Cassie went out separately to buy pearls and because they didn't go to the same lady they bought 1 ring from they were abused!!! "F--- you! F--- you Australia! F--- your father! F--- you!"
they were really scared and didn't go back out after that!!!!!

So all in all not the best experience.

Back in Hanoi for 4 hrs or so (amazing how we killed the time [the supermarket sells oreos for 80c a pack, its great! and i have converted Cassie to the wonders of chocolate oreos {as opposed to the normal white filled ones}]) and then on the 11pm overnight train down to Denang! We thought the train got in around 1130am but ended up getting there after 1pm!!! loooong trip. 14hrs of fun! they gave us meals on the train, not that we ate any of it. dried noodles for breakfast and rice with weird compartmentalised meat/veges at lunch... hmmm.

anyway we negotiated a deal to get us to hoi an ($10 us for the 4 of us to get a private mini van, as opposed to the $50 the taxi guy was asking!) and yaaaaaay we made it. FINALLY. That afternoon what lse could we do in hoi an but hit the markets :)

Hoi An is great. The town has a nice feel to it, there is less traffic than Hanoi, the food is much better than Hanoi, there is a beach and there are tailors!!!!! We didn't make it to the beach in the 3 days we were there, because it was aabsolutely pouring with rain. hopefully we will get some sun when we're back there in a few days time. Well Laurelle and I hired bikes and cycled the 6km there and back. The beach was quite nice, but yeah overcast. A girl on the beach selling necklaces and bracelets came and chatted to us for a while (wanting us to buy something but also to practice her english) and told us its easy to get a job in Vietnam if you are tall and have a good body, even if you are ugly. So weird that physical appearance matters so much! But she was very nice and said she was studying English and uni (5 yr course) and wanted to become a tour guide.

We have eaten much better food here, (some crap of course but you win some...) and lots of seafood. Laurelle is obsessed! and Cassie is a close second!! And the tailors. Its interesting, you walk along the street and ppl come up to you and chat for ages about where you're from, how long you've been in Hoi An etc. then want you to come to their shop. The first time we went along with it, but now we're starting to get sick of it. the trick is to tell them you're leaving that day or you already have a tailor and they leave you alone!

I've gotten a couple of pairs of shoes made (one pair are too small and i've asked them to remake... who knows what will actually happen. the woman tried to convince me that my feet were swollen because i walk a lot more in her country than in my country and when i go home they will fit but no, they were def at least one size too small!!!! hard time convincing her of this fact though), and i'm in the process of getting a dress made and a trench coat type thing. the clothes i've ordered are from the expensive tailor called Yaly. I haven't bothered with the market because althought the market is cheaper, i think the Yaly final product will be more reliable. Anyway we'll see! Laurelle is buying another bag before we leave Hoi An... i may try to hold out til Bangkok when i will stock up on copies!!! (if we make it to bangkok, keep me updated with any developments. We're meant to be there 28th jan - 2nd feb)

NYE....

Had dinner at the Cargo Club onthe river (which was flooded!!!) which had floating candles going down, very pretty. Then headed across the road to the only club we could find: Tam Tam. The vodka was rough, the rooms were hot, the music was dodgy, there were a couple of Lady Boys (the definition of which is up for contention) but it was fun and it seemed to be the only decent bar! Cassie had the forsight to pack glow sticks with her and we were the only people cool enough to have glowing fluoro bracelets! There was no countdown to midnight, but everyone cheered at approximately midnight - close enough anyway! Laurelle and I left at a reasonable hour and left Cassie and Nat to party on til the wee hours of the morning......

We left Hoi An and our big bags for a few days and got to Hue yesterday. Today we had a tour of the main sights in Hue including the Citadel (we saw elephants! they were availablefor rides. but they had short ankle chains and it was a bit bad. But at least they had lots of green grass), 3 tombs of kings, dragon boat ride, pagoda... We're pretty exhausted, because today was incredibly hot and humid. but tomorrow we are heading off on a 12 hours tour at 6am up to the demilitarised zone, khe sahn, the tunnels that haven't been enlarged for westerners (unlike the ones in ho chi minh city) and a few other things (including the rock pile... or remnants there of). Its so hot and sweaty now. I can't believe its winter. Dont know how they cope the rest of the year!

So we head back to Hoi An on friday and will meet up with KC! How excitement. Think we'll probaly spend another 5 days there or so, cos there are a few day trips we'd like to make, plus we need to spend time at the beach PLUS we need more shopping time. After that proably Natrang... then Ho Chi Minh City. That is where i will leave my friends and head to Cambodia to meet up with my mum for a few days. The others catch up on about the 21st i think.

Anyway keep up the emails. I'm sorry there are no photos in the blog this time, but there is no way i'd get any up on this sort of internet access. You'll just have to wait and see when i get home!!!

Halong Bay at Cat Ba (crap ba!) Island

2006-12-29T21:39:00.000+11:00

Well that was completely different from our last tour! Arrived at Halong Bay wharf thingy after only about 4hrs on a cramped mini bus. There were about 100 or more wooden boats all cramed in together and the wharf was too small to accommodate them all. In order to board our boat we had to climb over two others WITH our packs (me with my wheelie duffle bag!!). So close to killing ourselves. The french canadian almost got crushed between two boats!!! Anyway we're on the boat phew. So cruising around was quite nice. The weather wasn't brilliant and visibility was reduced but it was interesting to see the floating village. We were then told to go on a little putput boat and pay 30 000 dong (a "donation" to the school) and we would go through a cave and see the school. We sorta putted around, diesel fume asphyxiation and apparently we went past the school. I never saw it and it wasn't pointed out. They would've made a fortune and i doubt any of it found its way to the school.
Later we went kayaking - only there weren't enough life jackets to go round!!! Very well organised trip this.
What else..... Lunch was ok i guess! Our cabins were fine too. The bathroom doors didn't close but at least there were ensuites.
Stayed the night on the boat....
next morning got to Cat Ba island

We had chosen to do the 15km bike ride (and paid extra) rather than the 6km hike. So we were separated off (without any warning mind u so were still wearing our thongs!! not exactly appropriate biking wear) and the others went off on their hike. We got to the bike place and they only had HUGE men's mountain bikes. Laurelle and i were too short to ride them. The only way of stopping was to fall off! The guide thought we were idiots but it was dangerous! Nat must've gotten the smallest bike and Cassie's really tall so they said they'd go. Laurelle and I refused. So the guide told nat and cassie to go past the bus and turn left and just go.
They got HUGELY lost (no guide, no map) and ended up on the other side of the island. they had to pay 150 000 dong to get a bus to drive them back and were INCREDIBLY annoyed.

Laurelle and i wanted our money back too cos there was no way we could have gone on those bikes. Oh and we missed the hike cos apparently you were only allowed to go with a local guide.

i better go ppl are waiting for the net
email me!

hmmm

2006-12-26T11:27:00.000+11:00

The train back to Hanoi was muuuch nicer - wood panelling makes all the difference! Except it was incredibly noisey - screechy creaks for most of the night. so i had about 2 hrs sleep. Got back to hotel in Hanoi at 545am to find that our rooms that we had booked AND paid for had been given away to a family who had lost their passports. Poor them, but it means they kicked us out of the hotel!! Supposedly they had booked somewhere else, but turns out they actually hadn't cos thought if we went there ourselves we could get cheaper rates. Tried all these hotels, booked out or really gross. Now waiting to see a hotel where rooms become available at 9am (one and a half hours away...). Hoping they will be clean and non-smelly! ANyway while killing time (at about 6am!) Laurelle and I went for a walk and found a tiny little place that sold Pho Bo (Beef noodle soup everyone seems to have for breakfast) . The old lady that made it for us couldn't speak english and when we asked how much to pay she held up the notes we needed to give her. heheh. So that was interesting at least!! And now we wait......

Merry Christmas from Sapa!!

2006-12-25T17:16:00.000+11:00

Sapa is great!!

We left Hanoi at about 8pm on Sat night. Had an overnight train to Sapa. Bit scary in the cabin but we were able to lock ourselves in so it was ok!! We arrived at 6am and had a windy bumpy bus ride to our hotel for about an hour.

Our tour guide was a local girl, (20 yrs old) and she took the four of us for our trek. Four 12 yr old local girls followed us - each of them picked one of us to talk to and make things for. THey probably looked more lik 8yos though cos they were so tiny. It was very cute! They have their spiels: "where are you from? what's your name? how old are you? so young! how many brothers and sisters do you have? how long are you in sapa?" They followed us for almost the whole trek. "My" girl was named Man. She had 5 sisters and 1 brother and went to school mon-fri. They made us grass horses, crowns, hearts ... Very chatty and cute. They also made us promise to buy things from them when we got to their village. Which we were happy to do, they had put in the hard yards! Good entrepreners. Along the way we were also given sugar cane to try. That was nice, juicy and sweet but not sticky like sugar.

It was great to see, beautiful scenery with huge mountains, terraced with rice paddies, forests of bamboo. Laurelle almost fell in one! only her shoe copped the mud though. Lucky! And then of course the animals - little pot-bellied black pigs (at first we thought they were all pregnant but the piglets look the same!), water buffalo, ducks, chickens, dogs etc. The people are mainly dressed traditionally (hopefully photos to come). We were shown the school, and the plants they use to make indigo dye

We trekked about 10km all up.

Today we walked down a steep mountain to get to a waterfall. On the way we were taken through someone's house. They have two areas for cooking, one for the family and one for the pigs! About 9 ppl lived in the house we visited but i only saw one bed. I guess they sleep on the floor and pack the beds away during the day. There was corn drying hanging from the ceiling and lots of sacks of rice in the roof. THe doorway in was so small we weren't sure if we'd fit!!! Everyone is tiny, and it makes the children look younger than they are. the village was called "cat cat" which means beautiful. It was so steep - and we were offered to walk back up, but for 1000 dong we opted to catch motorbikes back up!!!!! Best dollar i ever spent i think. Although my bike broke down part way up so my driver hit the bike with a rock and it seemed to work after that...

We wandered around the markets for a while. Lots of fresh food - saw a chopped up dog. All that was left was his head and feet. Bit gross sorry :) We tried some local food including sweet potato fritters, fried spring rolls (kinda), and dough balls with sweet stuff in the middle.

Its hard when the local women and girls all want you to buy things from them, and you want to buy from everyone! but you really can't.

Now we have another overnight train tonight back to hanoi. Arriving at 5am - which will be fun since we can't check in to our hotel til 12pm!!!!!!!!! ah well :)

Hope everyone is having a great christmas!

Hanoi dialup...

2006-12-23T00:01:00.000+11:00

Dialup is really annoying.

Anyway this morning we met up with Nat's friend's friend (Chang) and her boyfriend. They took us on their motorbikes (!!!!) to a teeny upstairs restaurant where we had fantastic soup with pork meat balls or something and noodles. I am slightly concerned about the lukewarm temperature of the soup.... time will tell.... meanwhile motorbikes are fun! but i'm not sure if i'd want to go on one where i don't know the driver... Fun dodging traffic though :)
We were then taken to the temple of literature which is over 1000 yrs old.
Then... went to Uncle Ho's museum but it was closed on friday afternoons so we'll have to go back again after we get back... Apparently his moluseum (sp?) is only open in the mornings too. So we have to go back anyway.

Did a bit of souveneir shopping and for some reason a woman in one of the lacquer shops hates me. Because i went there on thursday, and was itnerested in somehting, she said she could give me good price today but not tomorrow (After we said we'd come back). So i went back today not believing her and she was crazy! No cheap price you were here yesterday! Laurelle wanted to go back this afternoon to actually make some purchases so i hid outside. The woman was like "where is your friend? you are here ALL the time". Oh and some of the other women we try to bargain with get really ANGRY when we offer something, even though Chang told us to offer 1/4 - 1/3 of the original price. And there are some that are nice... its very strange. Some of them definitely dont seem to want repeat business.

We booked ourselves for a tour of Sapa, yay. We leave on the overnight train tomorrow night and have 2 days before we return to on another overnight train to Hanoi. So not sure how the internet access will be for the next few days.

Vietnam!

2006-12-21T19:00:00.000+11:00

Well after over 24 hrs in transit we've finally made it to Hanoi (i think the highlight was sleeping in Bangkok airport). Still haven't showered in about 36 hrs. NIIIIIIICE. oh and our taxi driver tried to take us to his mate's hotel, rather than the one we'd booked.

Hotel is nice and only $16.50/night/person although we think this is a rip off anyway! about half as cheap as a huge form in europe. def not complaining!

So i'm travelling with Laurelle (from high school), Nat (her uni friend) and Cassie (Nat's friend). Cassie is particularly excited - she's never been over seas before. They all think i'm psycho cos i immediately started walking out in the middle of the road in front of oncoming traffic - but that's what everyone told me to do!

(btw the hotel has DIALUP internet so no photos until we find somewhere with broadband)

We wandered the streets for a while this afternoon: women carrying baskets of fruit over their shoulders (then make you carry them, get your friends to take a pic then try to sell u a bunch of bananas for the equivalent of $5! i think its cheaper in sydney!!), ppl cooking on the streets, lots of little shops, crazy motorbikes with ppl wearing masks, honking, the lake has green water.... We ordered lunch, with no idea what we were ordering in this TINY (5 table) restaurant. i think altogether the bill was the equivalent of $9 for 4 ppl. Think it'll take me a while to get over the prices!

There is already stuff i've decided i want to buy too, glad i brought the big bag.

anyway i'll keep u updated :) email me!!!!

That's DR Lara to you

2006-12-18T13:30:00.000+11:00

My brother the FBI agent (that's cricket playing in the ear phone!)

Away again soon

2006-12-06T17:10:00.000+11:00

Almost time for me to go overseas again! I'm going to Vietnam and Cambodia on dec 20 for around 6 weeks with Laurelle, Nat and Cassie, and KC for half or so of the trip. Am very disorganised, feel like i just got back from Europe and therefore have not organised anything... still dont have Visa... vaccinations... etc

oh well :)

Bibi died :(

2006-11-09T19:44:00.000+11:00

Bibi died unexpectedly yesterday.

She was only 5 1/2 yrs old. Very rapidly progressing heart failure. Very sad.

Singapore

2006-11-04T18:05:00.000+11:00

Made it to Singapore last night yay. At the airport at Heathrow, the queue for security (this is after having checked in) was so huge that it extended OUTSIDE the actual terminal! the queue outside was at least 100 ppl long. Everyone was freezing because they had all checked their coats with their luggage too, not expecting to have to go OUTSIDE again. took ages to get through. when there was about 10-15 mins left of the queue i got randomly selected for a full body X-ray to check that i was not concealing anything on my person. I assume they check for drugs and stuff hidden internally. Maybe i look more and more like a gun-toting drug-mule these days? But it was good, meant i got away from the annoying lady behind me who kept sucking her teeth and got sped through to the front of the queue after the Xray. I assume they didn't find anything! Be funny if i had swallowed a coin or something random like that :)

This morning we went to the markets to do Tony's shopping and i got a photo of the black chicken ("for soup". everythign is for soup!) and Tony's "Chicken Aunty": We've decided Tony could never have children. He says yes to anything i want him to buy! we got mango pudding like at yum cha from the supermarket. and more mushroom crisps!! I also said he had to buy a steamer so next time i'm here we can steam pork buns and dim sims hehehe. Anyway it's so hot here. Not as bad as my last visit, but a big difference from Dorset! It's also very hazy. Apparently its been like that for the last month because in Malaysia they are burning the rainforests. Or somethign equally bad for the environment.

went to Raffles hotel for "high tea" with tony. Very english! With little sandwiches and the crusts cut off, scones, tarts etc. After that went up to the 70th floor of the swiss hotel to the new asia bar for the famous view of Singapore. unfortunately due to the illegal rainforest burning in Malaysia there is a thick haze over Singapore, and the view was limited by this. Very funny in the bar though, the tables and stools were covered in pink sequinned material! they do it every 1st sat of the month... Tacky! That night we went to a graduation show by the dance faculty at the uni Tony works at (he heads the musical theatre faculty). It was very modern, and i didnt really get it, but interesting!

Left sunday afternoon (very annoying at the airport with no markers for queues etc) and arrived home early on monday morning.

i'm an idiot

2006-11-03T02:17:00.000+11:00

Tony smsed me in the middle of the night last night so when i woke up this morning i reread it. Simple enquiry - what time do i land in singapore? so i actually checked my ticket and guess what? my flight is TONIGHT!!!!!!!! i thought i departed heathrow at 10pm FRIDAY night, not THURSDAY!!!! i was still down south in Dorset this morning! The plan originally was to go with Sherry to Poole/Bournemouth for her lecture, i would wander around the south English seaside then at lunch time collect my bag and catch the train back north to London. So instead Sherry dropped me at Poole station after 9am and i caught the train back to London. I arrived about 1230pm giving me about 5 hrs before i have to leave again to get my plane tonight. Just enough time to buy a case of beer for chris (who i was meant to take out to dinner tonight as thanks!!), repack EVERYTHING and check my email. i'm an idiot.

Anyway yesterday Sherry took me to Stonehenge. It was FREEEEEEZING. i think it was about 3 degrees when we got in the car!! Great to see though. Next we headed to Salisbury and i saw Salisbury cathedral. I went into the Cathedral too, but of course no photography inside. Very impressive and a cute little town too. A couple of hours was spent there, next stop Dorchester. Here i went to the Tutankhamun museum. It was pretty good, although it is full of replicas because the originals are too delicate to transport out of Egypt, or even display at all in some cases.

The Dorset area is typical English countryside with sheep, cows, free range pigs, green fields, hedges, deer, rabbits, thatched roof buildings, tiny stone cottages lining streets barely wide for two cars to pass etc. It was great to visit and get out of London.

Overnight last night there was a frost and this morning all the plants, fields and houses (and cars!) were covered in ice. It was beautiful. Sherry thinks the cold is great! i could do with out it... my ears like to be pain free.

Here is another pic of Sherry's house, with the bell tower:
So i had great plans for tonight, i was going to take Chris out for dinner, then have a few beers with Tracy his exhousemate and maybe Nick fromtour. Then sleep in, leisurely pack tomorrow and head off! As it turns out i now wont see chris before i go because he's working til 7 tonight. Nor will i see anyone else except Linnea (another of his housemates) who is home today.

So to revise.... I'm off to Singapore tonight (not ready for the 13 hours flight!), leaving singapre sunday night and arriving in Sydney mon morn.... are you ready for my return?

Dorset

2006-11-01T00:29:00.000+11:00

I last left you in an internet cafe down the road from Chris' place. Sat night i went out with a couple of people from Haggis tour (Nick and Dave) and some of their mates. Managed to only take one photo unfortunately! Good night, took the Americans to Walkabout, one of the Australian pubs in London.

Nick (note the Magners) and a couple of his mates Marie and Davi

On Monday I caught the train about 2 hours south west of London to get to Sherry (my mum's friend) 's place in Dorset. I arrived last night after dark so didn't get the impact of the area i'm now in til this morning. I'm in Pulham a small village in Dorset county. I think there's about 6 houses and 1 pub! This is ultimate English countryside with green fields, cows and old buildings.

view from an upstairs window

Sherry's house is actually over 300 years old, and used to be a school house. There is a bell tower, and the bell was made by the same people that made the Big Ben! The place was let go before they got here and is quite run down. They've only been here a couple of months but have great plans for the house!

the side of the house, seen from the garden

Greece Tour

2006-10-28T22:41:00.000+10:00

Got up bright and early on mon morn to get to the travel agent by 745am, 15 mins before our bus was due to pick us up .8am comes... still waiting... 810am... sitll waiting.... have they forgotten us??? FINALLY at 840am someone starts saying "Graves? Graves?" yes that's us!!!! Follow them on to a bus around the corner... and there aren't enough seats to go round. this is going to be a fun four days!!!!! turns out we were only heading back to HQ where we would be split on to various buses dependin gon the tour we were on. so that was ok!

DAY 1

Corinth Canal - this was created so ships did not have to sail around the dangerous coast of the pelleponnese, and drastically reduced travelling time. Before the canal was constructed, they used to actually have a slip way with flat rocks and they woudl DRAG the boats across the land!
Ancient theatre at Epidaurus - "perfect acoustic".
Quick stop at Nauplia to let the 5 day tour people off the bus, but we didn't get off. then we went through the plain of Argos and got to Mycenae
Two Mycenaen archaeological sites - one is the Mikines Acropolis with lion's gate (17th century BC) and the guard dog's house and in the distance the mountains look like Agamemnon sleeping. Here we went to the museum and saw the mask of Agamemnon. It's called this, but was actually found in a tomb 400yrs too old to possibly have been his actual death mask. We also went to Agamemnon's actual tomb, from the 13th century BC. It is said to look like a beehive!
That night we arrived in Olympia
Had dinner... pork and rice. which was fine... but little were we to know that it would be followed by pork and rice, THREE nights in a row!!! Rhonda and i wanted to have a few drinks after dinner.... but everyone was in bed by 930pm!

DAY 2

Another early start, and we were one of the first groups at Olympia. Pretty amazing place: site of the original olympic games. There are heaps of ruins, from temples, the alter where they light the flame, the olive tree at the site of the original tree (obviously trees don't live for thousands of years!!) from which they made the crowns, treasuries, gymnasiums and the stadium. the stones they used to build the structures actually have seashells preserved in them. This means the site was once covered by ocean! The sun was streaming through the trees and it was a bit misty. Became much more crowded as we were leaving so timing was good.
Museum at Olympia
Lunch was at a great location by the sea. The water was beautiful. I had prawns - no pork in sight :)
Another long drive and we arrived in Delphi. Had some free time in the afternoon at Delphi - and of course spent more money. Delphi is known as the navel of the world - supposedly two birds flew, one from the east and one from the west and they met at Delphi so that must be the centre. Sunset from our hotel room balcony
Attempted the hotel pool, but it was ICE cold so didn't last long!
Dinner? pork and rice!

DAY 3

Museum at Delphi
Archaeological site at Delphi: the Sanctuary of Apollo - Amazing scenery from here. mountains and water. THe archaeological site was hte international politcal centre of Greece. Again ruins from temples, treasuries, gymnasiums, a theatre and a stadium. Making it up to the stadium was a feat in itself. There was a second smaller sanctuary across the road and it had a pool in the gymnasium!
Headed to Kalambaka which is a small town at the foot of the cliffs on which the Byzantine Monastries are built.

DAY 4

Meteora - Driving towards the monastries we were confronted with a unique environment. I am pretty sure it was located over a fault line, there is no other way it could exist! Sudden great cliffs erupting from the land, and on top some of these are precariously perched monastries. Apparently with at least one monastry, it took 20yrs to get the materials up the cliff, and only 20 days to actually build it!
We visited the Monastry of St Barbara and the Monastry of St Stephenos. The women had to put long skirts on over trousers or shorts.
Returned to Athens after a long drive and made it back to our hostel - everyone else in Hotels!!!

Met some interesting people on tour. Barb and George, a couple from Australia. They were heading out on a cruise of the islands when we got back so we were able to give them restaurant recommendations and showed Barb the jewellery we bought! Chip and Matt were father and son from Pennsylvania, USA. Matt's actually working in Afghanistan at the moment
THere were a few other Australians and Americans, notably Lesley from Brisbane, a 70+ yo who was particularly irritating!!!!! Tour guide was named Kallina and was our "mother" for the 4 days. She could be strict sometimes!!! and was not impressed when we rocked up for breakfast one morning at 9am. Even though everyone had understood that wakeup was at 8am, not breakfast at 8!!!! It was a good experience, saw some amazing things. Wont remember a single bit of the information that was imparted, but i bought a book on greek history and mythology so that will refresh me!!!!

That night in athens we had dinner with Matt and his dad Chip. After dinner Chip was keen to kick on for a drink and we managed to get Matt into staying out til waaaaaaaaaaaay past his bedtime! haha.

On my last day in Athens we visited the botanical gardens. Very peaceful (apart from kids!).

Had my last gyros! very sad!!!

Lots of stray cats (and dogs, but not as many as Santorini) in athens. We spotted this skinny queen with three kittens (two are hiding in the background). she was friendly but was pretty fluey. Sad, and i don't even like cats! (some vet i'll make)

Dinner was rushed although great, stuffed kalamari. This is a random typical street near where we had dinner. Parts of Athens were very dirty, but others (esp near the Acropolis, i assume it's more touristy there) were quite pretty.Made it to the airport by 830pm. Arrived at chris's doorstep at 2am this morning.

Santorini, Syros and Athens

2006-10-23T01:56:00.000+10:00

random photo from thirassia i uploaded in the wrong place...

i last left you when it was POURING down with rain in santonrini....

well after i left the internet cafe we ducked into the next cafe for coffee and hot choc. sat down, enjoying ourselves... when who should be sitting on the table next to us, but costas, alex and a bouncer from murphy's. such a small island....

alex, me, rhonda - out at murphy's again that night. just for a change....

wednesday proved much better weather (meanwhile tuesday's storm BROKE my umbrella!!) and we wandered around some more. santorini is really such a nice place.

wednesday night we braved the menu-less restaurant, nick's taverna, and had teh BEST food of the entire trip. White eggplant for entree, then prawn with tomato and feta and also squid with white wine sauce. SOOOOOOOO good. the best. i wish i hadn't been so silly and we'd gone their earlier in the week!!!!!

thurs morning, what else but more shopping before catching the ferry to syros.

friday we had the whole day in syros. we saw the main square and town hall and about a MILLION pigeons (mainly white, its weird). Syros is much more like real greece. no souveneir shops (apart from a few magnets and postcards from santorini!!!), street markets selling meat, fish, fruit and veges, old men in coffee shops all day, lots of marble, lots of bouganvileas, LOTS of cats, and everythign actually shuts during siesta. tried a small restaurant off the main square for dinner. squid stuffed with feta and veges was great. although towards the end of teh night this cat kept coming inside the restaurant. the owners kept shooing it out but it was persistent. eventually i lured it over, scruffed it and threw it outside. that worked for a while, but soon it was back!!!! once more for good luck, with a bit less ceremony and hitting the concrete outside a little harder and it didn't come back. headed to a bar on the water after dinner, everyone was still drinking coffee!!!!! wasn't the same without all the tourists and the bar staff we'd come to know!!!!

sat morning we found ourselves at teh archaeological museum. so small it took us all of.... 10 minutes to view the lot. attempted to climb the stairs to ano syros despite lonely planets tip to catch the bus. who knows how far we made it before almost having heart attacks and turning back. got some pretty photos though!!!!! a speciality of syros is the loucoumi (turkish delight equiv) and halvathopita (nougat with almonds between 2 wafers).... SOOOOOOOO good!!!!! will attempt to bring some home but not sure if it'll last. in fact sweet shops are everywhere in syros.

so back on the ferry again and landed in athens.... with no hostel booking. she'll be right!!!! so we got lost trying to find the hostel... actually we were right where we were trying to be, only we'd misread the map and the hostel wasn't there.... eventually foudn it.... booked out. ok try the hotel on teh next block.... booked out... next hotel? about 200 euro per night. no thanks. FINALLY we made it to a hostel with space. only to find ourselves in a dingy CELL of a room down a narrow ricketty spiral staircase (attempt THAT with 30kg of luggage!!!), no mobile reception, and a toilet door that doesn't close. FUN! oh and we can hear every word spoken in the courtyard up til about 3am... then the early risers start from around 6. no i'm not tired...

today we got up bright and early (get AWAY from the hostel!!). made it to flea markets (junk - although rhonda liked it...) wandered around.

coconut sweet man's cart

then headed to archaeological museum. that was really good. we spent hours and hours there. annoyed though cos there was a sign of a camera with a cross through it and u had to check your bags so i left my camera in it. turns out you ARE allowed to take photos, just without flash. so i dont have any :( and the post cards were bad.

and now i'm in an internet cafe. avoiding the hostel.

tomorrow morning we start a 4 day tour of mainland greece which should be interesting.

Greece!

2006-10-17T21:22:00.000+10:00

Made in to Greece!

Had two nights in athens before coming to Santorini

Athens was... quite dingy aroudn the area we were staying. But we went on a walking tour of athens and saw the Temple of Olympian Zeus, the ancient Agora (market place) where the first shopping centre was built! the theatre of Dionysis, and of course the Acropolis. The Acropolis towers over athens, but the walk up is actually quite easy. But not a donkey in sight. The parthenon is covered in scaffolding and there's a sign announcing the restoration "was completed in 2006".... i think they built the sign before they even started!!! Very interesting though, and great views of sprawling athens.

parthenon

Guards outside the president's residence

Early start on thur to catch ferry to santorini. Tickets were for economy which means you sit on plastic chairs in the cafeteria for 9 hours. luckily there was an announcement about upgrades and for only 2 euro each we got nice big comfy chairs!!!!! Arrived in Santorini to be accosted by hotel owners trygin to sell us rooms. we had already booked our first night in the hostel Lara stayed in (meanwhile they've drained the pool!!!!). made it up the hill from the port on the public bus - almost missed it though, it looked like one of the private hotel buses!!

So Santorini is very pretty with its storybook white and blue buildings, perched precariously on the side of the cliffs facing the water. Santoniri is actually the mouth of a volcano. there are heaps of dogs wandering around the streets. some look very skinny and homeless but lots have collars. and they dont smell or anythign which is more than i can say for my own spoilt puppies!!

friday we went shopping all day! there is lots and lots of fun tourist crap to buy here.

saturday the weather was ok and we went to Kamari beach. too cold to go in the water but we walked all along the beach. difficult on the pebbles!!!

Sunday was a nice day and we went to red beach. literally red sand up against a red cliff. you have to climb rocks to get to it, very isolated. Actually went in the water!!!! freezing, but pretty and green. stayed in for almost an hour! meanwhile other tourists were laughing at our bravery.

We went on a boat tour yesterday and visited the active part of the volcano with black magma rocks and holes in the ground with boiling hot steam floating out. on the tour we also visited the hot springs! which could've been warmer :) but still good!!! unfortunately now our swimmers are stained from the sulfur. had lunch in thirassia, an island on the other side of the caldera from santorini. ordered octupus pasta... came out with two long tenticles piled on chips!went up to Oia for the famous sunset.... unfortunately it was too cloudy! must've been these rain clouds on their way. the walk up from the port to oia nearly killed the entire tour group. i wanted to catch a donkey up but was wearing a skirt... not the most practical of donkey riding attire.

random dog that came and sat with us in Oia

the food is great, been having lots of seafood - octopus, cuttlefish, swordfish (but they chargrilled it!!!! ruined!!!!!) as well as dolmades, taramasalata, feta and greek beer.... etc rhonda wants to try on of the restaurants with no menu but i'm scared. what if they give me a big pile of lamb!!?!?!?!

our hostel room is cute. blue and white and we're the only two there. there are stairs to the attic where there are two more beds but its not busy enough. and we have a fridge!!! so been having a few picnics in our room hehehe.

our only hangout at night is Murphy's the irish pub. have become friends with alex the "guest" dj, costas the dj/bartender, katarina the waitress and kristos the bartender. such greek names!!!!!!!!

rhonda and me at murphy's, alex in the background

the weirdest thing about greece is that you're not meant to put toilet paper down the toilet.... the worst thing about greece is the smoking.

now today its absolutely pouring. so lucky we've had a few days of nice weather. we wanted to go to mykynos tomorrow, but chatted to the crepe guy and he said its incredibly windy, and even more expensive than santorini (which is up there with london prices!!). anyway all ferries have been cancelled so we're trapped!!!! booked to go to syros thursday and will find out thurs morning if its canceled or not. not quite sure what we'll do while its raining. and i left my gortex with chris in london - why would i need protected from the elements in santorini!?!?!?!?!?!

Recovering in London

2006-10-10T00:29:00.000+10:00

And now i'm back in London with ten irish pounds and 5 scottish pounds. Not sure if theire accepted in england but will see. Chris and Malin are in spain, so i get their bed, yay! Got back yesterday evening from Scotland, sooo tired. Massive sleep in. All good. Catching up on rest, blog, email etc today and figuring how i get to the airport by 4am tomorrow morning. Fun.

Like i said, Scotland and the Haggis tour were great. I really enjoyed it. Scotland has such a rich (and somewhat violent) history that's really interesting. Made all the better by Fergie's great story telling ability. Another definite recommendation: 6 day Haggis tour!!!!

Going to Greece tomorrow! Rhonda is airborne and on her way. Not sure if rhonda has plans, but i want to play it by ear, depending on the weather. I def want to see some of the ancient sites such as parthenon. haven't exactly researched yet but that's ok!!!!

Scotland continues...

2006-10-09T23:34:00.000+10:00

Day 4

Fergie announces we're going to go on a "Healthy Walk"... uh oh... if the "wee walks" nearly killed us, what is a healthy walk going to do!?!?!?!?! so slightly stressful bus ride...
Bone Caves - the walk to the bone caves was really actually quite easy. Easier than our wee walks anyway!! Although prbably longer. we came to a natural spring and had a drink. Cool seeing the water bubbling out of the ground, then continued on up the mountain. Made it to the caves!!! i was the only one that climbed inside the cave, and would've gone further but there was a big puddle. Got pretty muddy...
rock skimming - there was a loch with all these really flat rocks on the beach. HAD to skim rocks. and true to Fergie's girl sterotype, i couldn't go more than two. Found a starfish eating a snail though which was kinda cool. Fergie reckons he's the world record holder for rock skimming and we should look up the Guiness Book of World Records for this year. about page 147ish.
Ullapool - world's best fish and chips
Glen Ord Distillery - unfortunately it was sleeping. They "sleep" for a couple of months a year for maintenance. We were able to go into the store room with some 12 yo whiskey. 2% is lost to evaporation every year so by the time the whiskey is ready at 12yrs, they have lost almost a quarter of the total volume!!! the smell was very strong. the casks were previously used for either bourban or sherry, and this gives the whiskey colour. Had a taste test too. All the trees around are blackened from the alcohol in the air!
Measach - "ugly falls". Not really ugly! just corkscrew shaped, kinda.
Clansmen centre - a guy was dressed in traditional kilt - ie a 6m blanket wrapped strategically and told us about history, weaponry and how to put on a real kilt.
Stayed the night in a great hostel.

Day 5

Glenfinnan - small walk up for a great view. Also saw the bridge used in Harry Potter!
Went to the site used for training the first commandos. apparently 1/5 of them died during training, because real bombs were dropped on them to make training more realistic...
Weather wasn't too great, drove around a bit contemplating a walk on the beach but decided it was too miserable.
Mallaig - fantastic prawn salad roll for lunch!!!
then the bus broke down.... well there was a bang and a hiss, and then the bus lost its suspension... we spent about half an hour in a pub while fergie tried to figure out what to do. Luckily the weather was so bad anyway, we decided just to head back to the hostel and start our evening.
Saw a few "Steamer creamers" on the way - people who follow the steam engines around to watch them/take photos
Last night all together! went out to a local pub and fun was had by all. Lots of photos taken, but here are just a few

Tara, Glen, Nick, Fergie, Priscilla

Yvonne, me

me, dave, matt, nicky

Day 6

After changing buses (and annoyingly, the bigger bus had LESS luggage space, so about 5 bags had to be put on the back seat!) we continued the last day of the tour
Loch morlich - circular lake. absolutely FREEZING and matt and andrew who always wore shorts, and dave who always wore a tshirt, finally conceded defeat to the scottish weather.
Dunkell for lunch
Visited a Cathedral that has a grave stone in it that killed two mourners by falling on them
Forth Rail Bridge - inspired by the loch ness monster, and it inspired the eiffel tower! looks like the eiffel tower when turned on its side.
got back to edinburgh and went out for one last drink with everyone.

Haggis Adventure in Bonnie Scotland

2006-10-09T22:55:00.000+10:00

This has the potential to be a long one so i'll do it in bullet points...

Day 1

Wallace Monument - too misty for the view! This is a monument for William Wallace
Doune Castle - used in Monty Python's Holy Grail
Hamish the Highland Coo - so cute!!!!
Loch Luibnig - 'lake with a bend in it'. with over 33000 lochs, the scottish lost some creativity with names. there's even a loch called Loch Lochy - 'lake lakie'. This loch was beautiful and so still.
Glencoe - where the campbells massacred the macdonalds
free whiskey tasting!!!!
loch that looks like a map of scotland
Isle of Skye
Spent the night at 'Saucy Mary's' where fisherman drink for free in return for seafood - had seafood platter for dinner!

Day 2

Faerie glen - lots of myths and luck stories in scotland
Sligach - meaning glen of seashells. The wind blows seashells from the beach to here. The water is meant to have special powers of healing, and if you put your face in it, it will stay the same for 10 yrs (there's a money back guarantee from haggis, if you bring a before and after photo to them... so far noone's come back!!! haha)
Portree - beautiful little town. Saw lots of these!!
Faerie Waterfall - if you climb to the top (slipping and sliding through the mud) and drink the water, you get a wish!!!
"Wee Walk" number one - down a VERY steep "path" made by sheep. Cool waterfall at the bottom, and ruins ofa seaweed processing plant (i think) but the climb back up almost killed us all. There are lots of sheep around that have black faces but aren't suffolks. they're Highland Black Face Sheep. and they all have long tails!!! they are perched around the mountains more like mountain goats than our sheepies.
Kilt Rock - cliff with vertical ridges so looks like a kilt. its the cliff in the distance, not the waterfall in the foreground
"Wee Walk" number two - uuuuuuuupppp a big mountain. Slipped and slid around and finally made it to the top. great view. More sheepies!
that night had a bit of a big one at the bar in Saucy Mary's. Many ciders!

Day 3

Plockton - palm trees naturally grow here, swept up on the beach from who knows where.
Eilean Donan Castle - has a piece of Mary Queen of Scot's dress from when she was beheaded, still with blood stains. Amazing view from the Castle. The whole of Scotland is incredibly beautiful. Meanwhile their seagulls are massive.
Lord Moriston's love nest - very nice spot with big waterfall
Loch Ness! - Fergie allowed us to buy tacky souveneirs but he said the only thing that was ok was something that could be stuck on the fridge. My purchase of a magnet and shot glass was met with approval. Loch Ness is absolutely massive. It is apparently 5 times deeper than the Mediteranean, and if you take all the water from England, Ireland and Wales, you will only fill it by 1/5. It is on a fault line and connects to the ocean i think. There are also fish in there that were thought to be extinct for millions of years, AND sonar has revealed 12 things that move around and are between 15-25 feet in length... a family of Nessies?????? I took some "fossilised Nessie crap" as souvenier - ie the red rocks on the shore of the Loch
Lunch in Inverness at about 4pm - STARVING
Culodin - (sp?) site of fight between Jacobites (catholic scots) and prodestants (the english). one of the worst Scottish defeats, probably because they didn't choose the site. Scottish were incredible fighters and their history is pretty amazing.
Clava - three large stone burial chambers constructed before stone henge and the pyramids

Stayed the night in Carbisdale Castle - which has been converted into a hostel!!!! Went out to a tiny pub in Carbisdale, poor locals couldn't fit in! Nick the american really came into his own that night... and made a few aquaintances...

I'll continue in the next post in case this is getting too big.

back from tour

2006-10-08T17:31:00.000+10:00

hi i'm back from the Haggis adventure! the tour was fantastic, i really enjoyed it and would def recommend to everyone! Everyone (almost) was really nice and fun. there were 26 ppl, ages ranged from 20 the 36 (i was 4th youngest i think!!) that came from lots of different places: australia (of course), canada, germany, america, england, sth africa.... and many different types of jobs incl doctor, chemist, IT guy, accountant, lawyer, nurse.... etc. so interesting group. funniest was probably Yvonne, aka german girl. and next probably nick the 20yo american that loved australians so much that he's decided to disown america!!

the scenery was georgeous, the tour guide was hilarious and incredibly knowledgable, and we had nights out every night. tour guide was so crude it was funny. instead of saying there are the toilets if you need them, he would say "if you need to squeeze one out". i think that might be the catch phrase of the tour. Niiice.

oh and i went to Loch Ness, and i tried haggis :)

i'm about to catch a train back to london but i'll try to get photos up soon. i'm going to greece early tues morn so not sure when i'll do it but i'll try!!!!

one more from edinburgh

2006-10-02T03:03:00.000+10:00

Last night i went out again with Jess and a few other girls from the hostel. Went to the bar with £1 drinks (and jelly shots!) and then on to Frankenstein the funny club. Drinks in test tubes?? and about 15 mins before it closed a robotic frankenstein was lowered towards the dance floor. he sat up, looked around then lay back down again and was taken away! Very odd...

This morning i headed down the end of the Royal Mile to the Holyrood House - the queen's scotland residence. Quite expensive to go in, but there was a free audio guide so that was good. Everything is so highly decorated it's so.... opulent or something. But bare at the same time. These large rooms with minimal furniture. I wonder if its just for display purposes or if they're really furnished like that. There are the ruins of an old abbey outside with are kind of eery. Apparently the roof caved in.

Later i decided to head up Salisbury Crag. That was so incredibly steep!!!!!! Walk that every day and a marathon would be easy. Good views though.

The palace from the crag

After coming back down i was sitting in teh park and a Pipe and Drum band came past!!! So exciting!!!!!! I love bagpipes.... and i realise many of you think i've got a problem for actually liking them! no idea why they were playing, but they had a police escort too.

So tomorrow morning i go on my tour. Not looking forward to getting my bag up to high street. Never realised how up and down Edinburgh is, but apparently its situated on 7 hills. Can't remember if i said but the castle is actually on top of an extinct volcano.

Wee Edinburgh

2006-10-01T03:43:00.000+10:00

i'm in edinburgh! caught the train up yesterday. I'm staying in Budget Hostel. painted all bright colours on teh interior - and along the walls there are cartoons about sydney, new zealand, hawaii... not quite appropriate but anyway!

one of the guys who works here (from Barcelona, coincidently!) organised a pub crawl last night, so i thought i should go to meet some people. It was fun! mainly girls from the hostel came out and i met an Australian girl (from Albury) called Jess, as well as a few spanish girls, a swedish girl, a girl from teh states.... and a few others.

Jess and me

this morning i went on a walking tour - Saints and Sinners. I was the only person who went!!!!!! so i had a private tour. hehe. i saw the school that they THINK (and she hasn't denied it) J K Rowling was inspired by. It was established in the 17th century and is still a public school today (and by public, they mean private). I saw the grave of the first guy to teach anatomy, and was told the stories about grave robbers - and scotlands first and only serial killers! bodies were bought by the med school for £7.50/male and £10/female - average earnings for the year was about £30 so these geniuses decided that instead of digging up people, they'd just kill them themselves!!

and of course i saw the greyfriars bobby monument. A little skye terrier that visited his owner's grave everyday for 14 years after his death.

today was open doors day. one day a year places that are normally closed to the public open their doors. i was all excited abotu seeing the anatomy museum at the medical school , but for unforseen circumstances they had to keep it closed today. very disappointing! they did have 2 elephant skeletons on display, and the pelvises from 7 women who had some of the first caesarian sections performed on them. they had VERY distorted pelvic canals and were physically unable to give birth. none of the women survived... but a couple of the babies did.

after that i went to Edinburgh castle. no visit to Edinburgh is complete without visiting the castle! It is situated on top of an extinct volcano. it was interesting as well. saw the scottish crown jewels, a cemetry for soldier's dogs, the royal apartment, the war memorial and the vaults which were converted into a prison in times of war.

Cambridge

2006-09-29T05:53:00.000+10:00

Cambridge is a beautiful town. I went up for a day trip today. I went punting...
Punting on the river Cam

and was shown a few famous landmarks such as King's College, Bridge of Sighs, Trinity College...

After that i went on a walking tour and saw lots of things! Went into the King's College chapel - amazing building. And i think the organist was practicing - impressive. the acoustics are great. Saw the outside of isaac newton's room when he was in college (they've planted an apple tree outside now!), had a "cider and crisps" in the pub (The Eagle) where the discoverers of DNA announced their finding for the first time. it was very enjoyable. interestingly students are banned from having cars, so everyone rides bikes! and apparently the older and dodgier the bike and the bigger the basket on the front, the more likely the rider has won a Nobel Prize. Any fancy new bike is most likely owned by new foreign students!!!

The apple tree outside Newton's old college room

back in London

2006-09-28T03:36:00.000+10:00

On Monday it was sunny again (ok this going ot be annoying, the space bar on thisc omputer is sticky so many typos to follow) - so Lara and i made it to the beach !!! yay!! first bit of beach for the year. AND there were awves. it was kinda dumpy/shore breakers, but still fun. interesting to see how the european women all go topless, especially the old leathery ones. So now i've swum in the Mediteranean... (and still can't spell it). Only downfall wast here were all these JELLYFISH in the water. I even got stung!!! but it must've been an old tired jelly fish that got me, cos it barely hurt. i did get about 10 welts on my arm, but they went away in 15 minutes or so. Another thing that's funny about the beach is the amount of pebbles mixed in the dirty sand. I had rocks in my hair, in my pockets, everywhere!

After beach did some more shopping (Barcelona is great for that!) and had noodle paella lunch at about 5pm. Yum.

Tuesday was spent pretty much travelling. took me ages to get to and from the airport (flew into Stansted so the train back to london cost about as much as my flight from Barcelona). So i'm back staying at Chris' - finally met the mystery housemate Tom!

And now i'm in London! Today i went to the Tower of London. That was really interesting - saw the 530 carat diamond amongst the crown jewels. Definitely born into the wrong family. And i never realised that the yeomen or beefeaters actually LIVED in the tower grounds!

went out to walkabout and cheapskates that night...

sunshine!

2006-09-25T07:46:00.000+10:00

it was sunny today! yay! so we saw a few more sights: the castell de montjuic on top of the hill (great view of barcelona, wow its a massive city); parc de la ciutedella (ok i can´t remember how to spell it); the gothic quarter; paella (ok not so much a sight... yum though!); parade of giants

but last night... wow....

so we were thiiinking of going on a pub crawl, undecided though. but first we thought we´d see the fire run. this is a parade that takes place every year at this time in order to ward off the plague. the little brochure we had had a warning for the parade, saying if you want to dance with the devils then you need to wear protective clothing, including masks and ski goggles... with this in mind we went in singlet tops with our long hair out.... it was raining, so we stood in a shop alcove for protection. as the parade was approaching by about 930pm we could hear loud BANGS and rumbling. they appeared in teh distance as sparks flying amongst the crowd. then they were upon us! huge groups of people, many dressed as devils with pitch forks BANG loudly and that spray fireworks into the crowd dancing around, followed by bands of drummers playing intensely. we were in our little alcove... which meant there was no where to run and hide!!!!! we were so scared!!!!! we put our umbrella up to help shield our arms. the sparks were flying right at us! then there were the demons, big dinosaurs, pigs, dragons, (and a donkey, random), bulls that would spray a huge amount of fireworks out of them and would careen around into the crowds. There was lots of smoke, very loud noise, and eery drumming. and we were trapped! really got the adrenalin going! after a while the parade thinned out a bit, so we took the chance to run across it to get into a side street so we could make a getaway if we wanted. lucky we did because one of the animals got waaaaay too close for comfort to our alcove! we ended up staying at the parade for over an hour and a half, and it was still going! and pouring with rain by this stage.
i´m not very eloquent with my writing so not sure if i can express it properly, but it was the craziest and most exciting thing! many of the locals, including kids, dressed in long sleeves, hoods, masks, hats and would run through the flames with the devils. couldn´t believe the bravery/stupidity!

oh yeah and we never made it to the pubcrawl. definitelyno regrets about that one!

stiff drink after the fire run!

i highly recommend barcelona to anyone thinking of coming here soon, there are sights, great shopping, and an incredible night life. and if you can come during this festival next year, which started on friday and finishes today, you wont regret it! i think its called festival merce or somethign like that...

it´s raining...

2006-09-23T18:15:00.000+10:00

I´m still in Barcelona, and it´s raining!!! Yesterday Lara and I got up bright and early (7AM!) and caught a bus up to Costa Brava. We went to Palafrugel and from their caught a bus to Llafranc and Calaella. The two little beach towns are picture postcard with their small white sand beaches, sailing boats, white terraces and stone paths. We were planning a beachy day but unfortunately weather has turned and it was almost cold! and it sprinkled a bit. So instead of laying on the beach, we tried a Paella at one of the seaside restaurants and went on a walk along the coast above lots of teh beaches. Very pretty area and it really was a shame about the weather, but still good to see a bit more of Spain! The bus drove through the country side and it was good to get out of the city as well.

Last night we got home and were SO tired, but the Festival started last night and there was Spanish and pop music being played by a band outside our balcony in the Plaça Reill. That inspired us to go out for "one drink". We left the hostel about midnight, the streets were packed!! and a few live bands scattered around. We headed towards the water and heaps of people tried to convince us to come to their bars and clubs. it´s great everyone is handing out free or 2 for 1 coupons or free entry. We ended up in a cocktail bar where the bar tender gave us a free mojito (i guess he was bored??) and when we ordered our cocktails we got free shots too. Such a funky little place with stone walls and couches. There was even a powerpoint slide show with the cocktail list, and the symbol for the daquiri was a mylittle pony!!!!!!!!!! after a while we left their and found The shot bar i keep talking about. unfortunately it was full! so we continued on and went out on to the water. there´s a whole shopping centre out on one of the wharves and up top is a series of clubs. Ended up at an irish cocktail bar, and a band came on at about 2am... playing reggae!!!! (as well as normal covers) veyr random and their really isn´t much like it in sydney. Barcelona really is a party town. and they know how to do it.
so our ¨quiet one¨ended up with us getting back into the hostel at about 3:45am... oops.

And now i´ve just finished the free breakfast, 6 hours later, and its raining outside!!!!!! not sure what we´re going to do today, might have to sacrifice sights and go shopping. poor us :)

Barcelona!!

2006-09-22T05:00:00.000+10:00

well i´m in Kabul Hostel in barcelona. there is free internet, but i can´t get access to a usb port so no photos. (there are also no powerpoints in the rooms so you have to give your electronics to reception for charging! very odd)

i arrived in barcelona on wednesday afternoon - managed to make my way to the hostel from the airport without any hiccups, despite not thinking to check to see HOW i get there until actually on the plane - and not speaking spanish... lucky my europe on a shoestring had a tiny little map that i was able to work from!

had a wander around la rambla. many more people than there were last time i was here, and very warm!! unfortunately, unlike singapore, the air conditioning is really not up to scratch. in fact the hostel turns off the air conditioning when summer is over and it was SO hot in the room last nigth that the windows literally steamed up!

speaking of hostel rooms... Lara and I are in a dorm of eight... the two of us, one american guy and five noisey, obnoxious italian boys. think we got about 2 hrs sleep last night with their late night singing, yelling, opening and closing the door and getting out the fire extinguisher and spraying the room! or maybe i´m just getting grumpy in my old age. barcelona really is a party town. our room opens on to placa reiall and we could hear people partying last night (ie a school night!) til at least 6am.

La rambla still has the bird stalls with all the exotic pets. i took lots of photos of hamsters, iguanas, turtles, snakes, a giant millipede, and these furry rodents with bushy tails and stripes. don´t think they´re chinchillas but have no idea. i dont think Lara quite understands or appreciates my excitement over these pocket pets :)

What kind of animal is this??

Today we focused on Gaudi with Sagrada Familia and Park Guell and a couple of other buildings.

sorry about the sideways view - not sure how to change it

Lara didn´t really like the Sagrada Familia, preferring the stark death side to the busy life side. She liked the park though! I really like all of the Gaudi stuff. It´s so different to any other kind of architecture and design i´ve seen! They´re still working on the sangrada familia of course. will be interesting to see if they ever finish it! While wandering around the park we noticed that europeans seem to over dress for travelling. we were in shorts, tshirts and thongs and there were girls in heels, dresses, excessive jewellery and makeup, and wearing dressy jeans in this crazy heat!! not to mention the smoking...

Mosaic tiles at Parque Guell

Tomorrow we´re going to try to go to Costa Brava. Hopefully we´ll get more sleep tongiht than last, although i don´t like our chances!

Lara is a great travelling buddy! (haha if you´re reading this :P ) we both want to get out and see things during the day, and dont feel the need to stay out all night. and caffie, she brought her hair straightener too! and has been roughing it more than i have :)

ok i can't get the photos to work so maybe this will...

2006-09-20T02:08:00.000+10:00

kitch ad for cat food on a bus in singapore

st james park

buckingham palace (and it's almost sunny!!)

ok its not working anymore, that must be all the computer wants to let me upload!!

I'm in London!

2006-09-20T01:17:00.000+10:00

Well i arrived in Singapore late on thurs night only to be BLASTED with the humidity! it's amazing: midnight and you can wander around outside in shorts and singlets and still feel hot. On Friday i wandered up Orchard st (the main road) but got trapped in one of the shopping centres (horror of horrors) due to a sudden down pouring of rain. Singapore is good for shopping! i think thatäs probably what its known for. I didnät buy anything cos iäm coming back at the end of my trip. Something i had that was cool (haha funny pun!) was a bowl of crushed ice with a bit of coconut milk, pinepple juice and pineapple pieces. Very nice.

On friday night Tony and i went to the night safari. It was great! the weirdest thing we saw was the 'babirusa' pig. the boar's upper canines grow upwards, through the roof of his mouth, curl around and penetrate the skull between his eyes!!!!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babirusa
apart from the animals the zoo also had fire breathers which was also impressive

On saturday we went to the markets. The chicken lady had these blue-black chickens. So weird looking. apparently theyäre just that colour and are used for soup. EVerything seems to be used for soup. Later we did something touristy and went on the Duck tour. THatäs where you go on one of those ex miliatary vehicles that are amphibious. So saw a few sights in singapore, the bay is nice. There were all these trees along the coast which i quite liked, but then the guide said it was reclaimed land (creating more land) and they allow trees to grow on it for 10yrs to stablise the new land before chopping them down and building apartments and other buildings on them! So singapore! THey have an opera house which they built... a few years ago, but thereäs nothing to put in it! so the government is putting lots of money back into the arts to try to get actors i guess. thatäs where tony comes in i suppose.

I'm now in london. Had a wander around yesterday and saw a few sights such as buck palace, trafalga sq, leicester sq, st james park, westminster abbey, big ben... St james park is beautiful - and there are squirrels!!! Went into the Royal Mews at the palace (the working stables). Saw horseys and all the carriages. pretty impressive.

Last night i went to Phantom of the Opera. It was great!!! although, i guess it was affected by having run for 20yrs. the cast was no Michael Crawford. But iäm glad i've FINALLY seen it!! when i come back i think i'll see another one... any recommendations?

So now i'm at chris' place in North Clapham. His housemates are great (although i havenät met Tom yet, he's been at his gf's all weekend). Tracy is from Melbourne, Linnea is Malin's friend from sweden (whose computer i'm using, hence the weirdo letters like äöå), Malin is chris' girlfriend from sweden and of course Chris. Chris thinks he might come back to AUstralia in October next year.

I'm going to Barcelona tomorrow to meet up with Lara. Very exciting!

Plans

2006-05-24T15:38:00.000+10:00

September
14-16 Singapore to visit Tony
17-20 London with chris
20-26 Barcelona with Lara H
26-29 London w/ Cambridge 28th
29- Edinburgh

October
2-7 Tour of Scotland with Radical Travel
7-8 Edinburgh
8-10 London
10-27 Greece and Greek Islands with Rhonda
28- London/Sherry's/Bath/Stonehenge

November
-2 London/Sherry's/Bath/Stonehenge
3-6 Singapore