MaddenLynch Globe Travel

1770, Bundaburg

noreply@blogger.com (Mr T) — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 11:47:00 +0000

We were both knackered after the nine hour drive and at half nine most of the people in our dorm were already asleep. So we went to sleep. It was a pretty good sleep, one were I had to be woken up, which I see as a good thing.

We went for a wee drive to a nearby national park which I forget the name off and can’t check because terry won’t get the guide book because he is watching the tennis and I can’t go as I developed an allergic rash and have cream all over the place and therefore cannot be seen in public.

Anyway, it was beautiful, gorgeous, wish you were here. Then we went to the beach of 1770. There was a large man running, with a dog under his arm, from a large woman who was trying to give him a fine for walking his dog on the beach. This is pretty much the start of the area where people can swim in the sea, as long as they don’t mind the sharks. We only went to 1770 as Bryn suggested it. It is a lovely spot to while away a few days but as we are a smidge time limited we decided to move on.

On the way to Hervey bay we stopped at the Bundaberg distillery so that we could do the tour and terry could get his picture taken with the giant plastic bottle.

It was interesting hearing how the different rums are made and how the barrels are still handmade by one local guy. Apparently they last a hundred years but they are not sure as they had a fire about 70years ago. It was also upsetting to hear that the taxman takes about 2/3 of the value of each barrel.

We all got two drinks in the cost of our ticket, which included drinks only available I the distillery. I was driving so I had one and terry had 3. We bought a liqueur that was only available in the distillery and was yummy.

I was speeding down the road and got caught and camera so I pulled myself over. I told the officer that I was doing about 95 and I had no reason to be speeding. He asked for my licence and then suddenly had a Dublin accent and tod me drive more carefully in future. I was delighted, (chuckling), and very thankful and have stayed in the limit since.

Airlie Beach

noreply@blogger.com (Mr T) — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 11:41:00 +0000

We booked into a hostel in Airlie Beach and tried to book a day trip around the Whitsundays. To be fair the weather was poor and there was a cyclone warning so all of the sailings were cancelled but there was a possibility they would be sailing two days later. We decided to wait a few days and see. We did not realise at the time that there is nothing to do in Airlie beach.

The weather was a bad, there is no cinema, or other distractions. We did our laundry, checked our emails, watched a few movies, had a few drinks, chatted to other backpackers and advised someone how to bake a cake. She was only backing it as a distraction from the nothing to do. Terry was very excited by a rum bar that was in the town. They had loads of rums. It was very exciting.

A couple of days later the sailing were still cancelled so we decided to move on down the coast again. We were not really sure where we were going.
We decided to keep going til we got to 1770, which I was quite nervous about as lots of receptions close at about 7m and it was all ready half past when we made this decision, after driving for about 7 hours.
We got to 1770 and passed a hostel. I went in and the receptionist should have left at 9 but luckily was late leaving. This meant that we did not have to sleeping the car, which I was somewhat delighted about. We stopped at a few towns along the way, which I cannot remember the name of right now but I do remember that we stopped at hungry jacks for dinner. Hungry jacks is burger king which has strange Eddie rockets styling. We did not know this til we went in.

Townsville

noreply@blogger.com (Mr T) — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 11:30:00 +0000

We hit road heading for Townsville. We Mission beach on the way and while enjoyig a stroll with the little crabs on the beach a bunch of skydivers made for our heads.

We had no reason to go there other than to do a dive on a wreck called the Yongala, which is apparently one of the best dive sites in the world. We spent most of Sunday waiting for the dive shop to be actually open and hanging around the lagoon. We had lunch in the surf club. It was mad being in a real life surf club. It is also mad how thrilled I am when we do something associated with an Aussie soap that I have watched at some point or another!
We also went for a walk about Castle Hill which has great views but, surprisingly, no castle.

When the dive shop was eventually open they said their dives were cancelled due to the weather and that they might be heading out Wednesday. Townsville seemed very nice but activities were a bit limited so we decided to move on down the coast, about 3 hours down the coast.
So, back onto the Bruce Highway, heading for Airlie beach and a sail on the Whitsunday Islands.

In Australia there area lot of sighs telling you to slow down as kangaroos, koala bears or emus are in the area. I get very excited every time we see one but so far no sign of any such animals. It is very disappointing. I am starting to think that we will have to go to Australia Zoo but then they are not so wild unless they are animals that might eat one of us.
Anyway, so off we went down the road passing some gorgeous scenery and no visible wild animals. It is actually fair frustrating driving in Australia as the max seed limit is 110, most of the time it is 80 but there are a lot of speed changes and it is easy to is one and you do not realise it until a truck is overtaking you, which is embarrassing, which I am sure you can imagine.

p.s. Happy Birthday sis.

Cairns

noreply@blogger.com (Mr T) — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 10:51:00 +0000

We drove from Cape Tribulation down to Cairns and decided to stay in a lace called the northern greenhouse, which we just happened to drive past. We booked to do a trip to the Atherton Table lands with Uncle Brian, on a fun, falls and forest trip. It had been recommended to us by Lorna who we had met on the Rum Runner and had had a night out with.

We had a wander around Cairns and bought some eskies and food and stuff.
The next day we hung around the man made lagoon. There are quite a few of these in Northern Queensland as there are so many stingers in the sea. I was well impressed with this lovely and free facility.
We had been chatting with our dorm mates the night before and we all decided that it was imperative to go and have a few drinks. God damn happy hour. We got back before midnight but this was still pretty late given we were doing a trip the next day.
Our guide, Shereen, was lovely but very very cheery at 8am on a slight hang over morning. I was contemplating doing something very rude and probably illegal with her microphone. This feeling past as the trip went on. We had a guided walk through the rainforest. This was followed by a snack break. We had lamingtons which was most exciting. Especially if you remember Esmie from a country practice. They were pretty good. We had a look at the Babinda boulders. Then we wandered onto Josephine Falls which were too flooded for us to swim in so we went to another falls which I forget the name of.

We then drove onto Innisfail and had a big lunch. Onto swim at Millaa Millaa falls which you have all seen if you have seen Peter Andreas Mysterious girl or a timotei add. Oh yes, we were there and it was most impressive. Especially when Terry tried to copy the timotei add and I could not quite capture it on film.

Then we went platypus watching which was successful. Woohoo, our first sighting of an Aussie animal. It was pretty extreme. Lastly we went to a volcanic lake called Malanda which was lovely and warm after the waterfalls. While everyone was swimming I went to change into warm clothes. When I came back, (all of five minutes later), there were almost no muffins or hot chocolate left and everyone was gone. Yes it is official terry abandoned me to go look at small turtles. I think that says it all. We then headed back to Cairns down the most windey road in Australia. More than 200 bends. No one got sick.

That night we all went out to for a few drinks. Terry and I left pretty early and got some pizza on the way home as we realised that we had not had dinner.
The next day we jumped out of bed, as you can imagine, and headed to Townsville.

Cape Tribulation

noreply@blogger.com (Mr T) — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 10:39:00 +0000

We flew to Cairns and on the way we decided that we would rent a car and head straight up the road to Cape Tribulation. We got a lovely Mitsubishi Lancer which was automatic even though we did not ask for it but it turned to be handy when driving on some of the unfamiliar and windey roads with frequent speed changes.

The drive to Cape Trib was stunning, with the coast line and the rainforest looking for our attention.
We stopped in Daintree and asked about accommodation. We booked into PK’s, which is apparently the backpacker central. We were basically staying in a portacabin. There is a lot to do in Cape Trib, night walks in the rainforest, diving, canopy climbs, kayaking. We decided just to do a couple of dives.

There was only one company operating out of Cape Trib, the rum runner, so we booked on with them. We were a bit dubious as the trip is organized as a snorkeling trip with diving as an added option. This meant we did not really get to check out the gear or the instructor or any of that. Also it felt very expensive after Asia, very.
On our first evening we went to a lovely restaurant called Whet. The owner asked me what had happened to my nose. After I explained I asked her about her pregnancy and due date and she said she thought she was ion labour. Cool as the breeze she was, served us all night and was still there after we left. They had a kind of cinema there, which was as expensive as the real cinema. We saw the very exciting, and yet surprisingly crap, Journey to the centre of the earth. Terry even fell asleep in the middle but that could have been the recliner.
The next day we hopped on the Rum Runner and off we went to dive the Great Barrier Reef. How exciting. They had no stinger suits left to fit me and the wet suits were all 5 millimetres so I dived in my bikini which was apparently pretty cool of me. I know I was pretty cool when we swam through a thermacline. The trip was pretty good, very relaxing. We organised our dives with our dive guide, Sam.

The dives were good and we were with a nice group. There was one really irritating guy who kept picking stuff up. Mainly sea cucumbers, but still they are living creatures too. He was really bugging me so of course my buoyancy went mad. Terry had to hold me down a few times. Terry’s mask kept fogging up so had to keep taking it off and clearing it so I had to anchor him so he did not float away or bang into some reef. This sounds bad, but the reef was not all that to be honest, which I was surprised at. We did go to the reef where Steve Irwin died. We saw no stingers though.
After a big feed we headed back to shore with a complimentary glass of wine in hand. A nice end to the trip I thought.
That evening we had dinner at the camp ground and ended up drinking with some of the lovely people we dived with and three of the crew from the rum runner. It was a good night with some sneaking off with drinks to do a spot of night swimming. I do not know how the crew got up the next day to go to work, that is all I am saying.

The next day Terry and I went on a couple of walks through the rainforest and tried to spot a couple of Cassowarys, but to no avail. Then we hoped in the car and headed back to Cairns.

Darwin - Welcome to Oz

noreply@blogger.com (Mr T) — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 08:13:00 +0000

We were lucky enough to be time travelers for a few hours. We left Bali in 2008 and we arrived in Darwin in 2009. If we had hopped straight back onto a plane to Bali we would have been back to 2008. I definitely think that is time travel. Because of the airline that Qantas had contracted our flight to we were unable to buy any duty free, which was fair annoying. Then we had a bit of an anti climactic new years eve in the air, not glass of champagne to be had on the whole plane.

We checked into our hostel and hit the streets of Darwin at 2am. We were sober as judges and everyone else was hammered beyond belief. I had about 3 drinks spilled on me in my first few minutes in the pub. We went to an Irish bar as we liked the sound of the band and stayed there for a few hours. We headed to sleep about 4am after watching two guys get manhandled out of the pub and then the police arrived and pepper sprayed the bouncers. Interesting.

The next day being a public holiday most places were closed but we decided to go on a walking tour outlined in the lonely planet. We wandered along smith street mall, where everything was closed but there were interesting information plaques along the street. We went to survivors look out and then went and peeked in the door of the WWII oil storage tunnels,(it too was closed). We strolled past the government house, the Supreme Court and Lyons Cottages. We then walked down the Esplanade. Terry was very disappointed that the deck chair cinema is closed during the wet season. We had a rest in the bicentennial park and then had a look at St Mary’s Cathedral and the aboriginal Madonna and the wounded Mary.

As we had run out of things to do and it was still only mid afternoon we decided to go to the other cinema, ie indoor. We booked tickets for Frost/Nixon and then to see Australia. It was cool seeing Australia while we were in Darwin and Terry was pleased to see the deck chair cinema in the movie, if nothing else.

The next day was a bit of a housekeeping day. We sorted out our flights with Qantas, picked up a parcel in the post office, booked a trip to Litchfield etc. we are booked to be home on the 25th of February and terry is very excited to be flying on the new A380. It does mean we missed out on a stop over in LA but apparently flying on the A380 is better than LA. I am not so sure. We then headed to a pub to have glass of wine and plan our trip down the east coast. A glass became a bottle, a bottle became two and then terry insisted on another drink. So we got another bottle of wine and were out until midnight after about 6 hours of drinking and chatting to some lovely African lads, I think mainly about dreadlocks.

The next morning I got up to get ready to head to Litchfield. it seems I was still drunk and after a series of unfortunate events I ended up whacking my poor nose off the ground and in the process got two big scabs. Needless to say i was well embarrassed and Terry went to Litchfield on his owneo.

Apparently it was great. Terry saw jumping crocodiles including a 6 meter monster of a fella. He saw magnetic and cathedral termite mounds. He ate a green ant, saw a river with lovely waterfalls and went swimming in a billabong. I am not a bit jealous and I only mostly blame him for my not being able to go. It is all his fault, that’s all I am saying and I did not want to swim in a billabong or eat an ant anyway. We went to the cinema that night so that my entire day would not be a waste and saw the Curious Case of Benjamin Button.

We got the bus to the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territories. Tis very good, if somewhat of a miss-mash and funnily laid out. There is a nice section dedicated to the local Larrakia people, a section about local flora and fauna which includes some freaky looking critters and a fair large crocodile called sweetheart, and a section about Cyclone Tracy.

Overall, despite incurring serious facial injury Darwin was a great place. all lovely and compact, with loads to do and was well easy to get around. Who knew Darwin only had 70,000 people. I reckon a good chunk of them are backpackers, including the lovely Roisin from Skib who we met in our Hostel.

Jimbaran Bay

noreply@blogger.com (Mr T) — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 06:27:00 +0000

We left Legian and headed a little bit down the coast to a place called Jimbaran Bay. We were staying at a cosy resort with self catering facilities. It has been nice to be able to cook a little bit after so many months of eating out.
Oh and we went to Carrefore supermarket which I loved, we were about 3 hours in the supermarket. we also decided that we had better buy a book on Australia.

This was yet another place that involved a lot of relaxing. We watched some dvds, hung at the pool with the Slight family, had a few bevies.

For Christmas eve we had a relly great meal in the hotel, but it just wasnt what we'd have at home. Xmas day we got go a walk along the lovely beach, and a load of drinks by the pool. Happy xmas to everyone by the way - Terry appoligises for his not calling/texting anyone.

We also went to visit a couple of up market resort. One had a stunning beach with a natural waterfall and a jungle backdrop. It was impressive.

So, we fly out on the evening of the 31st and arrive in Oz at 1am on the 1st. we are hoping to meet up with some of the friends that we have made along the way and friends and relatives who are in Australia at the moment.

Bali - Legian - Kuta

noreply@blogger.com (Mr T) — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 06:07:00 +0000

We got the ferry from Trawangan and headed back to Bali. We decided to stay at Legian which is quite touristy but we wanted to be near all of the services. We stayed in a place recommended by Milva.
I have to say that we really did not do much in Legian, we went for dinner with Milva a couple of times and we had a great night out with Milva, Dave and Cheryl.

We had planned to do some major beach hanging and possibly learn to surf as Kuta beach is supposed to be great for that. However once we saw the rubbish dump that is Kuta and Legian Beach we decided not to (we should have listened to Paul). Instead we bought lots of DVD’s and wandered about and had a gander at the shops. We looked for stuff for each other for Christmas.

That was it really for our time in Legain except we had meat fondue.
Also, we reassessed our finances and realized we are good senders and that we have had a great time but that the money was running out so when we get to Australia we are going to try change our flights. See you all soon.

Gili Trawangan

noreply@blogger.com (Mr T) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 05:37:00 +0000

We got to the airport and booked an afternoon flight to Bali. We posted home a few Christmas presents and had a wee wander about airport. While reading the guide to Indonesia the plane we thought maybe we would go to an island with volcanic lakes that change colors several times a year. When we went to book it the flights were awkward and boat travel to the island would take hours/days.
We spent the night at Tuban and left the next day for Panganbai. We spent the night there and then got the ferry to Gili Trawangan for some diving.

It is a beautiful and relaxed island. Terry stayed at a café with the luggage while I went to find us somewhere to stay. We booked into Pesona, where we met the Louise and Lars who we hung out with for a while. I spoke to Evan at Blue Marlin about doing my advanced dive course. I decided to do two dives in one day and then see how I felt. Terry booked some fun dives also.

We also met Milva, our favorite Swiss person of all time. The other lovely lovelies that we met were Cheryl and Dave. We were all in the happy situation of going to Bali after we left Trawangan.

On our fun dives the visibility was good. We had never really dived off a boat into such a strong current. We did not do the fun dives together but saw loads of green turtles and terry saw another shark. After that I decided I would do the advanced dive course, as my anxiety levels were dropping.
I had to do a module on navigation and on deep diving. I choose to do the last three on buoyancy, night diving and multilevel diving.
My first was the deep dive to 30 meters, which took a while because my ears are a bit slow to equalize. I had to do a timed task on the surface and then again at depth. It should have proved how your mind becomes fuzzy the deeper you dive. I was faster at depth. Seems my mind is fuzzy on the surface!

Then I did my buoyancy dive and it was fun, I did underwater scuba limbo and then get my nose onto the tip of a snorkel in the sand. On my multilevel dive I saw blue spotted rays and a shark. My navigation dive was the one I was most worried about as I have difficulty using a compass and I associate it with maths. Usually Blathnaid or Terry acts as the navigator. But I did all the skills right first time, which rocked. I did the night dive off the beach at a project run by all the dive shops called bio-rocks. They are large structures mad out of like a wire and a small electrical current is passed through it to encourage reef regrowth. It was mad. After a while the visibility dropped and, of course, my anxiety level became raised and so did I. thankfully we were no deeper than 18 meters and at the time we were at about 10 meters. I was a bit annoyed with myself but I passed the course so that was good.

In the mean time terry did more fun dives and saw a manta ray, then he decided to do a technical diving course using nitrox so that he could do a deep dive to see a military wreck that still had its cache of weapons. Apparently it was brilliant and well worth it. There were depth charges and large rounds scattered around the place. The best part is its at 45 meters so its not recreational diving anymore for him.
Otherwise we did a bit of snorkeling, sunbathing, swimming and of course drinking. The island was great, beautiful and relaxing and full friendly people.

Singapore - Siobhan turns 30

noreply@blogger.com (Mr T) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 05:10:00 +0000

We flew from Goa to Mumbai, (we had that one booked), and we went to the international terminal to get a flight our flight to Singapore. While we were in the airport we booked a nice hotel on Expedia as I was turning 30 while we were in Singapore.

We got to Singapore and it was a complete contrast to India. Even with all the traffic it seemed very peaceful and clean. The hotel sent us up to an unmade room by accident and they upgraded us to a suite for the inconvenience. This was very different to the service industry in India. It was the perfect place to go and catch our breath after the previous 6 or so weeks.

While we were in Singapore we went to National Museum and spent a few hours wandering around the wonderful exhibits.

We then headed to Raffles for the obligatory Singapore sling. The floor of raffles is covered with peanut shells which was weird to walk on. Then we headed back to the room so that I could have snooze before going out for my birthday.

Two staff from the hotel came up with cake and sang me happy birthday. It was nice of the hotel but it made it a little harder to be away from home on a day that I am usually around a crowd of people.

When I got up from my snooze terry has cake and a bottle of champagne waiting for me. We drank the champers as we got ready to go out.

We went to a centre called Chijmes, which had a few bars. We drank, we danced, and we chatted to strangers. We had McDonalds o the way home. We could only get breakfast as it was 5am.it was made though as there were a lot of runners in Maca’s as there was a marathon starting in the next few minutes.

The next day was a waste cause I was a waste. We had breakfast brought to the room and I was eating morsels til about 6pm. We then went for a walk about. Singapore was in full swing for Christmas, it looked magical, as if santa had upchucked the substance essence of the season all over Singapore. It was lovely.

The next day we went to the airport. All we knew is that we were going to Indonesia. We had no flight, no guide book and no idea where in Indonesia we wanted to go.

Goa - Bogmallo

noreply@blogger.com (Mr T) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 13:17:00 +0000

The quest for diving in India continued. Apparently there are three places to go diving in India, two are fantastic and one is ok. The two fantastic places are the Andaman Islands and Laskshadweep. Both take a bit of an effort to get to and we just could not manage it on this trip. So that left us with Goa, which is a bit hit and miss.

So we got to Bogmallo and we had not booked anywhere to stay. At the first cheap option no one answered the door, at the second cheap option, well it was horrible. As a princess I don’t do horrible. So that left us with the expensive places as there is no midrange in Bogamallo. Then we went to the dive shop and booked our dives.

The first was to a sunken steam boat S.S. Mary that was about a hundred ft long. We only dived about 9 meters but the visibility was very poor, (maybe3/4meters). We would be moving along and then suddenly there would be big hunks of metal looming up in front of me. My anxiety levels increased, my lungs expanded and I floated up too the surface. Bad scuba diver. I decided to end my dive and I swam the 200meters back to the boat. The lovely Terry kept me company. Terry did the second dive and he said the visibility was better but that that it was not a great, although he had fun messing with the surge.

We had to launch the boat off the beach and drag it back up using logs as the winch was broken. That was fun!

There was an overnight trip to a place called Pigeon Island, I did not want to do the trip and in the end Terry decided against it.

Otherwise the rest of our time was spent relaxing by the pool or on the beach, as there was little else to do in Bogmallo. We had no flights booked to anywhere but figured we might head to Singapore or Kuala Lumper.

Hampi

noreply@blogger.com (Mr T) — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 09:46:00 +0000

So we left the paradise of Karnataka and we spent a night in Margoa before getting an early train to Hampi.

Hampi is stunning. It is set in an area that has a river and is surrounded by boulders. It looks like s setting for a movie; in fact a bollywood movie was being filmed while we were there. The photos really do not do it justice.

Hampi was a very important place for Hindus and is the sight of over 800 temples. Many of them were destroyed by invaders and are not used for worship any more but they are still such an integral part of Hampi. As it is a place of such religious importance it is a dry town. So of course all Terry wanted was a beer. We were also looking forward to meeting with Mairead again, whom we had met in Boracay.

Hampi is a great place to just chill, wander around, find a place to read, it is lovely.

We met a couple in our guest house called Maura and Pontus and we hung out a lot with them. We got stuck in the rain at one of the temples. We were stuck for about an hour waiting for some break in the rain. We all booked to-do a cycling tour through the tourist office. It was great but we were all wrecked by the end of it. The first few hours was spent walking to the temples around the main town and we went on a small boat trip down the river. We then got onto the not mountain bikes and started the cycling part of the tour. That was another few hours of cycling. Poor Pontus stepped in some dank water and was fair miserable after that.

One of the locals told us where we could find a few beers so we all went for a bevvy which was nice.

I had to ring home a few times while we were in Hampi but it was very frustrating as the electricity kept cutting out due to unseasonal rain it meant that either the call cut out or I could not make the call at all.

We met up with Mairead and her friend, Brendan. We went to the main temple in the town and I paid a few rupees to get bonked on the head by an elephant. I think she had a cold. Then we went for a wee climb with them to a hill top which historically had been a watch-point. By wee hill, I'm underestimating the sheer cliffyness of the thing. If you slipped you were dead - no joke. We then went for some grub and then Mairead had to go get a boat back to her guest house. Hopefully we will see her in New Zealand.

Terry was still looking for some Indian diving so our next, and last stop in India, was to head back to Goa to a place called Bogmallo, which is apparently the most expensiveplace to stay in Goa.

Karnataka

noreply@blogger.com (Mr T) — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 04:59:00 +0000

From Baga beach we went on a two day trip to Karnataka. We spent a night chilling on a house boat. It was lovely slowly winding our way along the river, watching the world go by. We read, we played board games and we ate the wonderful food the chef sent to the boat. We had some form of custard dessert every night and terry became addicted.

We were so relaxed we were nearly horizontal. It helped that the only other traffic on the river was locals gathering sand from the river mouth and transferring it on over laden tug boats (while bailing for safety) to building sites up river. The contrast between the passing boats was gargantuan.

The next afternoon we were dropped of at an island resort. The resort was set in a woods and the accommodation was all log cabins spread through the woods, with hammocks set up on the trees. You wandered through the woods to the most beautiful empty beach, apart from the crabs. The first day and night we were there we meet absolutely nobody else (except staff) – It was heaven. Terry was in his element, a whole gorgeous beach to himself.

The next evening the resort set up tables by beach and we ate our dinner watching the waves and looking at the stars. It was beautiful. We spent the next morning strolling along the beach, watching some fishermen and then we relaxed for a while and terry had a swim and then we were brought back to the real world.

Goa - Baga Beach

noreply@blogger.com (Mr T) — Thu, 01 Jan 2009 04:29:00 +0000

It turns out Terry really likes the beach.

For weeks all I heard was “when are we going to the beach?” up to 10 times a day. So imagine how happy he was that we were finally going to one. Baga beach is one of the most touristy beaches in Goa with loads of package tours going there.
We decided on Baga beach because we could go diving and drinking. We had only really been able to drink in Darjeeling while in India.

After checking into a hotel with a really great pool, we hunted the internet and asked the locals where the dive shop was after we wandered up the appointed street multiple times and could not find it. Taxi drivers told us where it was but they too could not locate it. We found out later that the shop closed due to owners splitting it seemed like diving was not going to happen in India. Between looking for the dive shop we hung at the beach, ate and drank. Oh, and talked about where we might go after baga beach. We hoped to be able to go to the backwaters of Kerala but it was very expensive to fly there and I was unwilling to spend 3 days on the train.

We did a small tour of the south of Goa which was nice. We also went to a night market on the Saturday night. That was really cool. The market was bustling with the typical stalls as well as food and bar stalls and there was a band playing. There was a great atmosphere and we hung out there, doing some Christmas shopping till about 11pm.

So, when we realized that we would not be able to make it to the back waters of Kerala we booked a two day trip to Karnataka.

It was strange being able to wear shorts and swim wear after so many weeks of making sure I was covered up. Seeing the difference between how European and Indian women are on the beach was mad. Indian women swim and hang out on the beach fully dressed. Big gangs of Indian men go on holiday together and watch the European women while wearing orange thighty whitey’s. We even noticed the men using their phones to take secretive video and photo footage of any and all women on the beach. Every time went into to water Terry made be keep walking until I was neck deep in the sea! Baga and Goa are pretty much a European sun holiday in India.

Mumbai

noreply@blogger.com (Mr T) — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 06:42:00 +0000

So we were dumped in the suburbs of Mumbai off the nightmares bus, miles from the city, in the early morning on a Sunday with an unconfirmed hotel reservation. We were not worried. We really did not do justice to Mumbai for the few days we were there, as we were recovering from the bus.
We saw the new James Bond movie, ate a lot, wandered about and watched lots of DVD’s.
One of the restaurants we ate in served brains but Terry was not allowed to get any as it freaked me out too much.
That was it really for Mumbai, we headed of then on a train to Mumbai.

Udaipur (octopussy country)

noreply@blogger.com (Mr T) — Sat, 27 Dec 2008 06:08:00 +0000

For the first time we meet a lovely tuk tuk driver from the onslaught at the train station, he offered to take us on a sunset ride and a city tour. We had breakfast and a nap asap- night trains are never good for sleeping, but Terry also choose not to sleep on the train and to read Into Thin Air (about the tourist tours and a disaster on Everest – READ IT). After waking we went walking about to find our bearings.

We went to a café called Lotus for a late lunch. They had a thing on the menu called a 'Special Lassi', so a conversation ensued about what made it so special. So of course Terry had to try one. It turns out that a special lassi is laced with special Indian dope called bang. Apparently it was actually very tasty. We headed up to a sunset point up a mountain; the scene was set for a lovely rosemantaic evening until terry started to be very paranoid…

So basically we had to head back to our room and stay in our room while terry questioned me for about two hours about the lassi, his health, time and relativity, Einstein, God, comas, and of course he thought I should write everything he was saying down. He is still upset I did not. It was very funny. They should have bang lassi’s at home.

So, the next day we were supposed to go on a tour with the tuk tuk driver from previous night but it was cancelled as he was sick so we went shopping and bumming about getting tickets to the next destination instead. We are getting a bus to Mumbai.

We took that tour of the city and environs with the tuk tuck driver. He took us to a spice market and then told us not to buy anything as the spices were crap there. He took us to the handmaid’s garden, the cenotaphs and to one of the man made lakes. Then of course the obligatory offer to take us to a shop he knows, so we went to a tailor and did buy a couple of bits.

The next day we were all plans to visit the Royal Place but these plans were scuppered when all the ATMs were empty. We took a tuk tuk drive to the other side of the city but they too were out of cash. Inside the bank they are unable access bank accounts and seem only to be able to cash cheques and do corporate banking, which apparently does not involve actual money. As the bank run didn’t turn up any cash we decided to wait it out by getting the cheap ticket for the palace (we had planned on a boat trip with lunch on an island palace in the middle of the lake) and to sneak in the camera as that costs more too. The ATM’s were still out when we finished. At this point we had almost no Rupees left so we go back to get our reserve dollars even though the exchange rate is really bad. We headed to the shop to collect our new clothes and on the way back the ATM was back in order.

Next day we had the worse trip of my life an overnight bus to Mumbai. We were in this small cabin with all of our luggage at the back of the bus. We had no light; with the window open it was cold and with it closed it was too hot. The bus had no suspension. Terry was close to having concussion when we got off, on the outskirts of Mumbai. People were sleeping in the aisles, how I don’t know, and I still cannot talk about the rest stops. Please don’t make me! According to terry the worst part was it didn’t have the IRE vs NZ game and he had to rely on his sisters to send him updates (he thanks both Jennifer and Susan very much).

Agra

noreply@blogger.com (Mr T) — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 14:58:00 +0000

So we once again boarded the night train, this time headed to Agra and the legendary Taj Mahal. We arrived in the morning and decided to have a snooze and have a look about. We were planning on going to see the Taj early in the morning, rather than in the afternoon heat, when it it is very busy - following a few tips from Ronan and Fiona in Darjeeling.
So we had some food and then had a nap. We decided to stroll out to a market mentioned in our guide book, Shilpgram Market it was pretty empty of shops and stalls although there seemed to be lots of tour buses, camels, elephants and sellers about.

We feel as if we must have missed something but we are not sure what.
We then headed to the uber fancy Oberoi Amari Villa Hotel for a few drinks while looking over at the Taj Mahal. The hotel and the drinks were lovely and a nice break from the hustle, bustle and horn rule of daily Indian life.
But it must be noted that for such a plush hotel they didn’t offer wifi to people that were not guests although it was freely available everywhere else around Agra.
The next morning we were up at 5am! Will the early starts never end? We were first in the queue for the Taj and we basically legged it in when the gates opened at dawn which was about 6.20. A guy working there made us run along and took some of our photos and then demanded a tip mentioning figures in the hundreds for the excellent photos.

We then ran up to the crypt and after that we went at a more leisurely pace, wandering into the other buildings and watching the sun come up over the monument and the mist roll in.

(twenty mins after the place opened its mobbed)
When we went to breakfast we bumped into Paige and Trevor, a couple I had annoyed while drunk in Darjeeling (‘painting and drinking’ could replace the last bog post) we were happy to see them and spent a while chatting over breakfast and we arranged to meet for dinner that evening.
They told us about their time in Nepal and being charged a fake fee when they got on a bus again in India. They felt robbed by the scam but would have been kicked off the bus if they had not paid. That evening we went on a small trip to see the Taj Mahal from the back. It was quite lovely as it reflects in the river.
The next day we went shopping and I bought my first Sulwar suit and contemplated buying a sari but I would have had to be fitted for the blouse part and we did not have time as we were booked on a train to Udaipur. Terry bought a Taj Mahal t-shirt;)

Varanasi

noreply@blogger.com (Mr T) — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 14:56:00 +0000

So we arrived in Varanasi and checked into our fantastic hotel, (suriya). It had a pool and a courtyard with tables. Our room had a bath. We did not use it but it was nice to have a shower without soaking the whole room.

We arrived in Varanasi in late afternoon and we were very tired so we just chilled and ate in the hotels lovely restaurant. We planned to get up the next day and do the whole dawn Ganga boat ride thing but we did not.
We just chilled in the morning and headed to the Ghats in the afternoon. We could not get dropped directly to the main Ghat and we ended up getting lost and ending up by Assi Ghat the furthest one from our original plan. We engaged the services of a boat man and ended up cruising on the delightfully dirty Ganges.
We cruised passed the two Ghats where bodies are burned on the edge of the river, palaces, normal Ghats, and many other boats and such. Apparently there are 365 Ghats.
We watched the ceremony of light and I light a candle and floated it on the river as is tradition. Unfortunately my hand accidentally touched the water. I shudder again at the thought. My right hand is now my Ganga hand.
Terry still will not touch it, in case he catches Ganga hand. The river is so filthy you can actually see fecal matter in it; I am worried my hand will fall off.
The ceremony was cool and watching life on the Ganges River was amazing. We passed by the two burning Ghats the bigger one operates 24 hours a day. When we passed there were 11 cremations going on. The family has to pay depending on the type and how much wood is used. Women are not allowed at the burning Ghats as they are not considered strong enough to behave with dignity and also to prevent women jumping on the funeral pyre, as was once traditional.
The next morning we did the dawn boat journey and watched as people washed in the Ganges. The boatman this time was about 10 years old. I cannot tell you how shocking it was to watch people going through their morning ablutions in such filthy water. Absolutely filthy. I mean there was a constant flow of effluent floating past us.
For many people they wash in the Ganga as they have no choice, for others they wash there because of the religious significance. The men often just wear underpants during their bathing but the women have to wash fully dressed.
I am not quite sure how that works.
We then left Varanasi and headed to Agra.

Darjeeling - TheQueen of the Hills.

noreply@blogger.com (Mr T) — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 14:51:00 +0000

Darjeeling my darling. We loved it. We got to NJP and after managing to get past the significant number of rickshaw touts and get to the jeep stand and start our 3 hour, windy James bond road, (but with significant potholes), journey to Darjeeling, the queen of the hills.

Firstly the lonely planet guide map is useless as there are no contours so the roads really make no sense. Because of this, and sheer exhaustion, we got a taxi to our hotel which had magnificent views of the Himalayas.
When I write this we have been to two other parts of India so I feel confident when I say that Darjeeling is different from other parts of India.
Firstly I was not hassled, there was still spitting but way less visible other bodily functions and it has way more of a mix of people and a way less strict dress code. However it is quite cold so one ends up wearing loads of clothes anyway.
When we arrived I needed to go to the doctor for my monthly blood test. I met with the lovely Dr. Das. I had to wait until the next morning to get the blood test as the Lab Technician said that I had to have the test fasting. We were staying in a lovely hotel ran by a Tibetan crowd called Dekeling. The following day I had the results within 3 hours and all was well. It cost a total of 400 rupees which is about 6.50. Dr Das told us about another Cork Woman called Edith Wilkins who was running a children’s home and he told us to visit her and gave us her number. We were not sure whether to call or not.

We spent our first few days wandering about and hanging about with a girl we met while queuing (for 2hrs) to buy train tickets called Sabina. We had a few beverages and lots of cake in Glenarys, a café we would return to for nearly every breakfast and quiet a few dinners and beers over the 2 weeks in the hill station. We saw the market and wandered about the streets absorbing the atmosphere.
We went to watch the sunrise at Tiger Hill. This involved getting up at 3.30 and catching a share jeep up the windy road to tiger hill. We could see the Jeep stand from our window so Terry was watching to see what time the crowd would arrive so we would not have to hang about in the cold too long. Typical stupid tourists we did not realize that the massive crowd of Indians on the road were not just Jeep drivers, touts and workers but also tourists. We got down to the jeep stand and managed to pile into a mini-minivan with an Indian family who were going to tiger hill. The mini-minivan seemed to be run on LPG or something but the smell of gas made me feel pretty unwell and eventually i had to get sick.

The sunrise was good and it was especially good as all of the Indian tourists started waving and clapping when the sun came up. The view of the sunrise glowing off the Himalayas was worth it, as well as being able to see the summit of Everest. On the way back down we stopped at Ghoom Buddhist temple and the war memorial garden at the Batista Loop.

We went back to bed at 7am when we got back to our hotel.
We did the joyride on the toy train which took about 3 hours to-do what I think was a 12 km round trip. The train is a world heritage site and set up a small museum which was interesting. You can get the train own to the main line at NJP where we arrived first, but it takes over 9 hours.

We also went to Observatory hill and had a gander at the site which is sacred to both Buddhists and Hindus, there is a cool temple in a cave. We also decided to find the Tibetan Refugee Centre. After searching for the place for hours we ended up getting very lost and eventually we ran out of road. We had 3 options; scramble up the hill until we came to another path, go back the way we came or go up the path that was behind an not so open gate next to us
So we choose to go through the gate. At first we thought we were in the botanical gardens as all of the trees had labels. We came out into a big garden with a gorgeous house in it and we were still wondering if we were in the botanical gardens except that there was nobody about we headed towards the gate were a multitude of soldiers with rifle, shot guns and state issued machine guns asked us what we were doing at the governor’s house as it was a restricted area. We hastily explained our situation and were thankfully not arrested.

The next day we met a lovely newly wedded couple from Dublin, Ronan and Fiona. Ronans brother the scrum half that is keeping Isaac Boss out of the Ulster team, Fiona’s dad and brother are world (or maybe just Irish I cant remember) handball champions and Ronan’s granny was friends with Edith so I said that I would go with them the next day to go and find the children’s home.

Terry did not go as he was sick – with the lack of cold weather clothes and an early morning freezing session watching the sun, he had developed a pretty poor flu and chest infection.
It turns out that terry and I were very close to the Tibetan Refugee place and the children’s home when we got lost. We arrived during the midst of the moving chaos. The foundation had built and adapted two buildings for the needs of their residential and drop in children. Edith spent years in Calcutta before moving to Darjeeling and setting up the place in Darjeeling and then in Siliguri. Fiona, Ronan and I,(and terry but he did not know it yet), offered to paint some of the rooms to help them get the houses ready a bit faster.
The four of us would spend a little over a week cleaning and painting with Fiona, in particular putting in Trojan work even though she was sick. We were invited to a party in Emma’s house that first night. Emma is from Cork and works for the foundation. She is engaged to the lovely Roshin who put up with my drunken ramblings. Terry did not come to the party as he was sick. The rest of us had a lovely evening with some good food, good company and a good old sing song. I got back to our accommodations at about 1am.everything in Darjeeling closes at 10 so I had to wake the poor doorman up.

The next day the painting began in earnest. 'Supervised' by Omar. Over the week we painted and did the glossing in the prayer room, counseling room, hall, parents are and the music room. Fiona scrubbed clean the carpets, furniture etc. we also pained some metal covers for the second floor windows and a few fire guards.

We were lucky enough to be there during Diwali and experienced the chaos of a few hundred children celebrating their first puja (Indian prayer thingies) in their new home and then being let lose, (while supervised), with a variety of small fireworks and sparklers. It was amazing.
We were at a lock in at the fantastic Joeys pub and did not get home until teen past the 11.

The next night we went for stew at Ediths and had to wake our poor doorman up again. Edith made Terry a separate pork dinner as he told her when drunk that he did not like stew. It was far from that kind of choice he was rared!
We had an absolutely fantastic time in Darjeeling. We enjoyed the painting and the hospitality of the children’s home. Particularly a lovely lady called Shopna who gave us lunch everyday. Edith and Emma were very generous with their time and opened up their homes to us. Poor Fiona and Ronan saw us for abut 12 hours a day. Not sure how they felt about that on their Honeymoon. If you feel like finding out more about the foundation or donating money this is their website, no pressure.
Anywho we decided it was time to head and our next destination was Varanasi and the holy Ganga River. Before we left we had another sightseeing day and we headed to the Zoo, the Himalayan Mountaineering Institute (a really interesting place that had a museum about the Everest attempts),
the Happy Valley Tea plantation and high tea in a posh gaff. We saw snow leopards, yaks, the tiny tent used I the death zone at nearly 19000 ft and how tea is made for Harrods. Never use the toilet at the tea plantation. It is like every festival toilet ever, in one. Seriously.
We popped up to the home to say bye to everyone and the children presented us with lovely gifts. Ter nearly cried. Well ok he did not but I nearly did

Kolkata - Calcuta

noreply@blogger.com (Poohwho) — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 12:53:00 +0000

So we got through customs and into the main part of the airport to find there were no ATM’s, so we changed our dollars into rupees and prepaid a taxi to Sudder Street, where our guidebook, hastily read on the plane, advised that most backpackers stayed.

The taxi drive was mad, there appeared to be no lanes and no rules, except to toot your horn as often as possible. We past elegantly decaying buildings, piles of rubbish, food stalls, street markets and loads of women in colourful saris. It all seemed manic.

We wandered into a few guesthouses and they were all pretty much shitholes. We eventually picked one and then went for a walk trying to find the Victoria monument. We got quite lost and still have not seen it. we did, however, find a cinema and we saw that film with Russell Crowe and Leonardo di Caprio, we cannot remember the name of it but it was good.

All I can say is I was in shock. Total and utter shock.

I was aware of the begging and spitting. But nothing had prepared me for India.

Kolkata has some stunning buildings and the people are lovely. However, recycling means something else in Kolkata, mainly throwing everything on the street and the poor people find a use for it

Also, it was quite common for men to veer towards me on the street so they could bang off me. This was quite unsettling. I won’t talk about the snot.

We decided that night to move to Darjeeling as soon as possible.

So the next day we went to a ticket agent and paid far too much for a night train to NJP station, which is about 3 hours from Darjeeling. Our train was leaving from a station not mentioned in the guidebook, so we were turning up on trust. We spent the afternoon in the Indian Natural History Museum which was pretty cool and then we went to the train station which did exist and hopped onto the long train to NJP.
http://trevorandpaige.blogspot.com/

Bangkok Airport

noreply@blogger.com (Mr T) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 13:58:00 +0000

We left Ko Tao for Bangkok and while there we picked up a guide to India and a few toiletries. We spent the night off Ko San Rd with a plan to head early to the airport.
We got to Bangkok Airport at about 7.30am and Terry stayed with the bags and I wandered along the counters, quickly realising that most of them were closed as it was a Sunday.
I eventually found an open Jet Airways desk that was able to give us a flight to Kolkata, (Calcutta) for less than 370 Euros. It was, however, leaving in one hour and ten minutes time. We went to the check in desk, where there was a chaos of Indian men who were not only checking in their luggage but also sound systems, women’s shoes, flat screen TV’s and dogs. We then went to the bureau de change but they had no rupees so we changed our few baht into dollars. Then we stopped and picked something take away for breakfast. It was not until we were on the plane that we realized that we were flying first class!
It was really nice, a cold towel on arrival, good food on real crockery and an entertainment system. We could even have had champagne if we wanted. However we decided that it was way too early and that not even the queen would be drinking that early.
The flight was delayed and we arrived about an hour late to Kolkata. But alas the flight was so short and the friendly captain kept giving us reports so we didn’t get to finish our movies. So if anyone knows how Get Smart (Ter) or Indiana Jones 4 (Siobhan) ends leave us a comment.

Ko Tao

noreply@blogger.com (Mr T) — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 13:53:00 +0000

So we got the bus from Bangkok to Chumpon and stayed there overnight in a completely overpriced room.
We got a share jeep the next morning to the port. It was the earliest we had been up in Thailand and so we actually got to see the monks receiving alms.
We arrived in Ko Tao at about 10 and we hopped in a share jeep to Sairee town to Sairee beach huts.
Myself and Siobhan Harrison (that’s the 2nd Siobhan we’ve met), who we met on the ferry, walked the beach to price different accommodation options and we ended up staying where we had landed.
When I got back there terry was talking to Scuba instructor Anthony and asking about dives.
We went for a wander about the town and then went to a bar called Choppers for happy hour and food. I was a wee bit hung over the next day.
Much of our time on Ko Tao was spent chilling, wandering about, playing pool and diving.
Terry went on 6 dives and I went on two. Our dive master was Dan. He was very chilled and helped me out after with a lift to the police station.

On one of terry’s dives they even saw a 2 meter reef shark. Dan was very impressed with himself for seeing the reef shark but also because his high pressure hose broke during the dive and he still had more air than Terry left in his tank!
I was very impressed with myself for actually diving again but also because it involved stepping off the boat, which I had never done before. It took me about ten minutes to step off the first time. Also there were two lads doing their 3rd open water dive at the same time and I was way better at taking my time and not panicking when I equalized.
We decided to rent a scrambler for Ter and a quad for me. We tried to take a trip about the island but ters bike kept cutting out. Eventually he could not start it at all. Eventually a small boy showed up, walked the bike to a workshop and repaired it in about 10 minutes. Ter and I had sent the day arguing as I kept spinning off and so after it was all sorted we went to happy hour in Choppers and met the lovely Inbar and Stas who had just gotten engaged.

We also went to a lady-boy show which was fairly good and I took way too many photos.
The next day Terry was going to the post office for me as I was sick from booze again. He took the quad but was back in 20 minutes telling me he had nearly died, that the wheel had come off the Quad. He went back to the shop to watch the guy take the bike out of the ditch. He arranged to meet the owner at 4pm.
We went back at four and the owner tried to charge us about 800 euros for damage which we had not been at fault for. I saw red and started crying saying terry could have been seriously injured and there was no way I was paying any money. This was a problem as he had my passport!
Dan happened to be passing by and he took me to the police station.
The police man was not too helpful. He told me the shop, Sairee Star Travel was known for this but that he could not help in a civil case.
I went back and said this to terry who was keeping an eye on the quad. I told the shop owner that he could keep the passport, that I would get a new one. Then I went to call the high consul.
Between the jigs and the reels the high consul in Phuket was fantastic but the best she could do was get the man down to 10,000 baht, (about 200 euro).it made us sick to pay it and we had lost two days to sleepless nights and waiting for calls. The next day we left for Bangkok with the plan of spending the night, picking up book about India and going to the airport the next day and hope we can get a flight. Which we did…

We are alive

noreply@blogger.com (Mr T) — Sat, 01 Nov 2008 13:18:00 +0000

We are currently in Darjeeling and soon to give a better description of events gone by. But we are busy living the lives of hobo's.

Watch this space.

Chiang Mai

noreply@blogger.com (Mr T) — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 07:17:00 +0000

Beautiful, lovely Chiang Mai.

It is a lovely walled city with a moat. I kid you not and on Sundays there is the Sunday Walking Market and all the nights of the week there is a night bazaar. I decided in Bangkok that I hate shopping but I love browsing so it is all good.

We hopped of the train and onto the back of a truck and went directly to Awana sleep and swim. For 600 baht we have a lovely room, like really nice. The swim is more of a paddle but that is ok. We are a small stroll from the moat and the Thae Pae Gate. We spent the first day wandering about and seeing what the town was like. We arrived on a Sunday so we had a look at the Sunday market. We went for food and then went in search of a bar. We ended up in a rock bar with a cover band made up of the bar owner, his son and a guy in his late fifties playing lead guitar, wearing leathers and a wig of curly hair. There also seemed to be a large gang of urban cowboys, hats ‘n’ all! We chilled there for the evening, drinking rice whiskey and cheering on the band.

The next day we decided to book a jungle trek. We looked at our options and booked a two day/one night trek at a cost of 1400 baht each. We met with one of the guides that evening, Mr. Ku, and he answered some of our questions and lent us small backpacks. So we chilled at a Muay Thai match, ate and packed that evening. The Muay Thai night was mad. It looked like a lot of hugging and kicking to me during the earlier pairings and the first ladies match was very poor. but as the skill level increased the matches became more interesting. There was even a fun match where 4 boxers were placed in the ring, blindfolded and one of their trainers was placed in there without a blindfold. The whole purpose was for the boxers to take swings and kicks if they felt anyone near them, even if it was the trainer. The trainer would just randomly come up and thump them or spin them around or something. There seemed to be a good friendship between all of the boxers and the hung about the stadium afterwards chatting to people.

The next morning we hopped into the back of the van with Sabrina and Stefane from Belgium, Bonnie and Dominic from Germany and Ibrahim from Turkey and our guide, Tim. We went first to a market so Tim could buy our dinner and breakfast and then we headed to a small village for a lunch of fried rice and fruit. We then started our 3 hour jungle trek to the river village of the Lahu people.

We were shattered and sweaty when we got there let me tell you. We knew we would be staying in huts but it did not occurred to me that there would be no electricity. The place we stayed was right over the river and was made of bamboo and wood. The owner was not Lahu but was Akha and was a very happy lady. We were told that there were about 50 families in the village and that it is only accessible by the track we used or the river. The nearest school was 6km away and many of the children stayed in the school during the week. The tribes’ people marry very young, from about 15, and one of our assistant guides told us he is 17, married and his wife was expecting a baby.

Some of us went for a swim in the river to wash off some of the sweat and then waited for dinner as we were wrecked.

Dinner was cooked over an open fire in one of the huts but was lovely.

Our guide brought out a guitar and a sing song ensued. I went to bed before it finished but Ter and some of the men stayed up and had a few beers.

It was kinda cool going to bed by candle light in our groups hut but we were basically on thin bedrolls with thin blankets and it was actually cold.

I got very little sleep because of loud rain and was not appreciative of the gang of cockerels that started their dawn chorus at 4am. Ter slept quite well after his beers.

While we had our breakfast of boiled eggs and toast we watched our bamboo raft being constructed. We then went on an elephant trek on Thai elephants. They are smaller tan Indian and African elephants. Apparently the Lisu are the people with the best voodoo to control the elephants. The trek was a little scary for me at times because 1. We were going under low lying trees; they contain large insects and 2. The track was steep at points and elephants can slip, apparently. I would just like to assure you that Terry is both a good seatbelt and insect hunter ;)

The elephant kept stopping to eat and at one point tried to fell a tree!

We then changed and put our bags into plastic bags for the bamboo rafting trip. We have no pictures of this as the likelihood of the raft tipping and us losing our camera was high.

The three men had to assist the skipper by using poles of bamboo to help steer the raft. Us ladies sat down. We had to get off and walk at one point as the rapids were too dangerous for us ladies!

All of the men folk were overboard at one point or another. We all got soaked as the raft was often so far under water that I was mid-chest in the river. Fun! We did not tip over but we were all looking forward to a shower!

Ter and I went to a shopping centre that evening and went to the Pizza company chain, which do very good pizza. We then went to see Eagle Eye which was alright, defo better than Bangkok dangerous. We got a bit lost getting back out onto the street and were feeling a bit vulnerable on the side of the road with no public transport appearing but after ten minutes a truck arrived, woohoo.

We have been to the night market a few times. It is good but huge with a good few food options including the usual McDonalds, Subway and Burger King.

Ter - So siobs not feeling well today but she still soldiered on and went to a massage course she’s been dying to do since she read it in a book before we left. While she was doing that I had a stroll around the old town, more wats, heat and sweat. I ditched the walking tour plan and went for an iced coffee instead. Reading a book and listening to my iPod – reminded me of college – similar circumstance too, nothing to do but waste time. I gave in to the wife’s demands of shaving but I got some Thai lady to do the honors – it was a pretty poor job but I got a haircut as well for 200baht so not too bad – no photos yet but keep an eye out for the new look – its exactly what I asked for ‘A haircut’ nothing fancy. I spent the latter half of the wait drinking a beer watching the world go by while trying to get a wooden cube back together stoopid wooden puzzle beat me but not until I had missed Siobhan walking by to meet me back at the hotel. I caught up with her twenty minutes later when she walked back towards the message place.

As Ter wrote I did a Thai reflexology course, which is actually just foot massage, but I enjoyed it. Ter got a hair cut and a very poor shave. It was very bad; he had a lot of hair on his face. When Terry did not turn up at the hotel I was, of course, as cool as a cucumber. I was calmly wondering how long I could reasonably leave it to start calling hospitals! I was not feeling very well so we went and had great burgers in Mikes and then headed to a bar so Ter could have a beer.

We ended up playing pool with sisters Bim and Bam and then going to a brilliant Reggae club with them! On the way we passed a cart selling fried insects. Terry had a mixed platter while I tried not to heave. Apparently they are lovely as long as you do not mind tentacles between your teeth. We eventually decided to go home as we had an early start for rock climbing in the morning!!!

We did not go rock climbing in the morning, I was not hung over but I was still unwell. Terry, however, hugged the loo bowl for a small while.

We had another lie in and then went to pizza hut. It was really poor. If you are ever making the choice between pizza hut and Pizza Company I advise Pizza Company all the way. We went to The Zohan, which is only ok. I feel like a student but I love being able to go to the cinema whenever.

We then went on an impromptu shopping trip and bought a couple of bits for our gaff!

We are doing a lot of strolling about the city and chilling, tis lovely.

We met with Bim and went to the lake with her. It is actually a reservoir with lots of open huts around it. Thai people go swimming there and spend the day there chilling, eating and having a few beers. We went to the bar for a few drinks and then strolled about the night market. I was not feeling well I went home and Ter went for a beer.

Bim brought us to Doi Suthep and we wandered about the grounds for a while. Then Bim brought us to a restaurant that she used to work in that mainly serves vegetarian and organic food. I was stilling feeling a bit unwell so I decided to go to the doctor for a blood test. I went to a local clinic and it was really good but I had to wait about two and a half hours to see the doctor and come back the next day with a sample. Everything was perfect and it only cost350 baht including the lab results, which only took an hour.

The next day we decided to head to Ko Tao.

From Our Koh Chang Thai Cooking School Experience - part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Mr T) — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 17:58:00 +0000

Phad Thai – for 2 people

Sauce

1/3 cup coconut sugar or brown sugar

3 tablespoons fish sauce

3 tablespoons tamarind sauce (o 2 ½ white vinegar)

2 tablespoons chili sauce

Ingredients

5-6 tablespoons vegetable oil

5-6 tablespoons chopped shallot

4 tablespoons hard tofu

2 teaspoons dried shrimp

4 teaspoons chopped pickled white radish

8 fresh shrimp or 2 fresh chicken breasts chopped

2 eggs beaten well

Rice noodles or vermicelli

8-10 tablespoons Phad Thai sauce

½ cup Chinese chives

1 cup bean sprouts

Steps (tip- keep everything moving once in the pan over a medium to high temperature)

Heat oil in a wok until hot, add chopped shallot. Fry until fragrant
Add tofu, dried shrimp and white radish
Add meat, cook until done and set aside on pan
Add eggs (to empty side of pan) move all cooked ingredients on top of the egg, wait until egg gets firm and flip over
Add noodles
Add Phad Thai sauce and mix everything well
Add chili powder to own taste
Add bean sprouts and chives. Mix everything well
Serve with a lime wedge (if shrimp), crushed peanuts, fresh chives and trimmed bean sprouts