Helen: HELLO!!! We still exist. Really, we do. We've just been sucked back into the real world of work and mobile phones and now seem to have no time to do anything other than sit in front of a screen. Bugger. BUT, having said that, we are enjoying being back - so much so that we've actually gone and bought a house. Moving date is July 31st so come and help us celebrate on Aug 7th (had to explain 'housewarming' to our Swedish friend Joel - guess it is a weird expression). The house is literally one minute's walk away from our old, fabulous, flat - it has a double garage with a proper workbench, a wood burning stove and a flower bed that's all my own. C is busy brewing a 'Homecoming Stout' for the party...it's bubbling away in a corner in the kitchen (we've regressed about 10 years and are currently staying in one room of a shared house with our friends. Having a designated shelf in the fridge makes us feel like students again...)
Edinburgh is still beautiful, although they have dug up all the streets in aid of the huge waste of time, effort and money that is the Tram project, so the traffic is truly awful and it's not quite so pretty as it was a year and a half ago. Also, annoyingly, they seem to have closed most of the city's cultural landmarks, museums and galleries for refurbishment - probably in time for the Olympics. So, while I've been singing the city's praises all round the world for being an architectural and cultural gem, it seems to have regressed to its student days as well. Oh well, at least the festivals are nearly upon us - I have brochures for all of them (Book, Film, Jazz, Fringe and International) and want to try to go to at least one thing at each, which means a lot of reading bumf. Or not, if you're Charlie and can't be bothered.
Not sure what else to tell - work is hectic - back in at the deep end. C had his first day of work today in 2 years. Was very pleased with himself as his commute was 10 mins each way, he got taken out for lunch and they're giving him a new laptop!
Hxx
PS our friend Harold who we met in HK and Beijing is visiting at the moment - we had a hilarious evening with him and his Chinese friend who doesn't speak a word of English last night - I think the Chinese friend got a bit of a surprise when we told him the pub we were in was full of gay men...
Thursday 18 June 2009
Wednesday 27 May 2009
The Last Post?
Helen: We're back. Can't believe we're back. It's been grey and wet all day. That I can believe. Feels very odd, and totally normal, all at the same time. Nothing has changed (apart from C's parent's kitchen of course, which looks fab).
Denmark was fun...but prohibitively expensive. £8 for a pint. We saw Hamlet's castle, rode a tandem round Copenhagen (first 10 minutes were a bit tense, but after C stopped shouting it was fine - Copenhagen is a stunningly beautiful city), and saw some ancient Viking ships, so I think we got Denmark pretty well covered.
I'm sure there's more to tell. Just don't know where to start. Plan for tomorrow is to finish wading through the mountains of our mail that have accumulated over the last year and a half (and that's after Laura and Bob have thrown out the real rubbish) and buy a car. Oh, and to try to fish out some clothes from the bags that are currently in my parents' attic. Will be so nice to have some different clothes!
Will post again when we've done something more newsworthy, like found a place to live!
hx
ps. will be in london on friday evening. not sure where, but planning a pint or two somewhere - let us know if you'll be around :)
Denmark was fun...but prohibitively expensive. £8 for a pint. We saw Hamlet's castle, rode a tandem round Copenhagen (first 10 minutes were a bit tense, but after C stopped shouting it was fine - Copenhagen is a stunningly beautiful city), and saw some ancient Viking ships, so I think we got Denmark pretty well covered.
I'm sure there's more to tell. Just don't know where to start. Plan for tomorrow is to finish wading through the mountains of our mail that have accumulated over the last year and a half (and that's after Laura and Bob have thrown out the real rubbish) and buy a car. Oh, and to try to fish out some clothes from the bags that are currently in my parents' attic. Will be so nice to have some different clothes!
Will post again when we've done something more newsworthy, like found a place to live!
hx
ps. will be in london on friday evening. not sure where, but planning a pint or two somewhere - let us know if you'll be around :)
Sunday 17 May 2009
Mongolia is like the Lake district on steroids
Helen: It's how i imagined NZ was going to be. Honestly, it looks like something from LoTR. Except, up close, it's not quite as impressive - it's sooo dry and dusty. it's just the end of winter here, and everything's just beginning to recover from being under snow for the last 6 months. It'll probably all be green and gorgeous in a few weeks - before the temperatures get up to 40 degrees! I just don't know how anyone manages to live here - the climate is so extreme. but they do - in little white felt covered gers. and they are so hospitable (probably because the climate is so harsh). we stayed with families this past week, or in tourist camps which weren't properly open yet, so we had a real insight into Mongolian life in the countryside - mostly it was just us, our guide who spoke english, our driver (who didn't) and some leathery skinned, toothless herders and their families. Mongolian life in the countryside seems to involve a lot of vodka. but you can't just drink it. you have to dip your third finger of your right hand in it, and touch your forehead (for you) and then flick some vodka in the air over your head (for the sky) and then four flicks around you (for the corners of the earth). then you have to down it. girls are allowed to drink less, but men get funny looks like they might be pansies if they pass. c went off with the driver and a herder to drink when the girls had given up. they came back the minute the vodka was finished though. not at all like sitting around with a pint for hours! it's all about the vodka...
felt like townies the other day - we went for a romantic walk along the shore of yet another stunning mountain lake on the morning of our (6th!) wedding anniversary, and on the way back we found a sheep. It was obviously not a happy sheep as it was on its own. Sheep are never on their own if they can help it. And it didn't move when we went closer. Turns out it was stuck in the mud. Literally. So we walked all the way back to the ger and asked them to come and help us get it out (it really was stuck and was going to die if we left it there). Our driver essentially told us that one sheep wasn't worth the effort as there are so many in Mongolia. One of the herders did come with us though (in a standard shopping car, over rocks and bumps, balancing his 1 year old daughter on his lap). He just manhandled the sheep out of the mud by grabbing it by the neck. C and I felt like such townies - we'd expected that it was going to take machinery or at least 3 people and a lot of time. The country way was so much easier and quicker! We drove past the sheep later in the day and she was doing normal sheep stuff (munching on grass) so all was well in the end.
Back in UB now - thankful for the end of the week long meat diet (no goat testicles, but we did get presented with a bowlful of freshly boiled sheep innards on our last day. I was brave enough to try the smallest bit of stomach lining but it just smelled too bad to eat much before wretching. C refused (which is a bit whimpy I think, considering the day before I'd even eaten a whole cherry tomato). And our Mongolian guides looked at us like we were passing up chocolate brownies as they tucked into blood pudding, heart and lungs.)
Not having the greatest day today though - wanted to buy boots at the market (it's closed), go to a free folk music gig this evening (it's sold out), and sit in our favourite cafe while we use the internet all afternoon (internet's broken). Oh well. Meeting up with a friend we met in Bangkok this evening for a curry, and then it's up at sparrow's fart to get the plane to Denmark tomorrow. No one mention trains...
hxx
ps have a good example of Cyrillic for you: PECTOPAH transliterates as RESTORAN - no prizes for guessing what that means!
felt like townies the other day - we went for a romantic walk along the shore of yet another stunning mountain lake on the morning of our (6th!) wedding anniversary, and on the way back we found a sheep. It was obviously not a happy sheep as it was on its own. Sheep are never on their own if they can help it. And it didn't move when we went closer. Turns out it was stuck in the mud. Literally. So we walked all the way back to the ger and asked them to come and help us get it out (it really was stuck and was going to die if we left it there). Our driver essentially told us that one sheep wasn't worth the effort as there are so many in Mongolia. One of the herders did come with us though (in a standard shopping car, over rocks and bumps, balancing his 1 year old daughter on his lap). He just manhandled the sheep out of the mud by grabbing it by the neck. C and I felt like such townies - we'd expected that it was going to take machinery or at least 3 people and a lot of time. The country way was so much easier and quicker! We drove past the sheep later in the day and she was doing normal sheep stuff (munching on grass) so all was well in the end.
Back in UB now - thankful for the end of the week long meat diet (no goat testicles, but we did get presented with a bowlful of freshly boiled sheep innards on our last day. I was brave enough to try the smallest bit of stomach lining but it just smelled too bad to eat much before wretching. C refused (which is a bit whimpy I think, considering the day before I'd even eaten a whole cherry tomato). And our Mongolian guides looked at us like we were passing up chocolate brownies as they tucked into blood pudding, heart and lungs.)
Not having the greatest day today though - wanted to buy boots at the market (it's closed), go to a free folk music gig this evening (it's sold out), and sit in our favourite cafe while we use the internet all afternoon (internet's broken). Oh well. Meeting up with a friend we met in Bangkok this evening for a curry, and then it's up at sparrow's fart to get the plane to Denmark tomorrow. No one mention trains...
hxx
ps have a good example of Cyrillic for you: PECTOPAH transliterates as RESTORAN - no prizes for guessing what that means!
Monday 11 May 2009
Blue skies at last!
Helen: we were in china and hk for over 2 weeks and it was overcast pretty much the entire time. must've been pollution - 30 hours on a train to get to ulanbator in mongolia and all of a sudden the sky is a brilliant blue. the view from the train was stunning - first the gobi desert - flat sand as far as you could see with the occasional ger (yurt - felt tent) camp and a few horses, and then rolling hills with spiky mountains in the background and melting snow everywhere. and then, bam, the city of ulan bator. it's got such a lovely vibe to it compared to beijing - probably on account of its size (1m as opposed to 14m) - but also the people. they are v friendly and don't stare as much as the chinese. ub isn't going to win any prizes for architecture, and it's very grey here (not much grows in a desert so there's barely any trees and no grass, and most ofthe buildings are soviet inspired), but the food has been great (all european so far - we're stocking up as we're expecting nothing but goat meat and curdled cheese for the next week when we head out into the countryside). we visited a buddhist monastery this morning - was full of monks (with jumpers under their robes it's so damn cold here - we're both wearing our down jackets, thermals and hats - what a difference fromthe last year in the tropics!) but there were also loads of people in suits and on mobile phones, and wearing traditional costumes, just coming to pay their respects. felt like a living working place, not just for the tourists like in beijing
our guest house is crazy - we seem to be living in a (well estalished) shanty town on the outskirts of ub - its like the nomads just moved their lifestyle to the city - you can live in western appartment blocks and wear fashionable sunglasses if you want, and lots of people do, but here, they live in gers and family compounds like they always have. there is even a delightlful nibbly kid goat running around our place (its mother, which belongs to the owners in-laws who live in the countryside, abandoned it, so they are hand rearing it til it can rejoin the flock). c is impressed at their resourcefulness - they have just taken out the engine of a land cruiser in the yard, without a crane, and replaced it with another!
so, we're off for a tour in the countryside tomorrow, back on the 18th. will be our 6th wedding anniversary while we're away! (believe it or not, but we think we're going to buy an original Mongolian modern artwork as a pressie for each other - i know modern art isn't what springs to mind when you think about mongolia (more goat testicles, horses (we've had to impose a moratorium on Horse while we're here - there are just too many!), and furry boots), but we really liked it. picture to follow...
bye for now
hx
ps amusing ourselves no end by just wandering around trying to decipher cyrillic words on bill hoardings. often if you can transliterate the word, it makes sense. often, of course, it's nonsense, but it's fun trying. half their letters are backwards,which explains why it sounds like talking backwards when they speak. somehow, even though we can only understand a handful of words (cafe,internet, bank) it feels much less foreign and more inviting than china where everything was just squiggles. c made a good point - he said this place feels more familliar to us because it's a mix of asian and european - pity we won't see the culture change all the way back to europe...
our guest house is crazy - we seem to be living in a (well estalished) shanty town on the outskirts of ub - its like the nomads just moved their lifestyle to the city - you can live in western appartment blocks and wear fashionable sunglasses if you want, and lots of people do, but here, they live in gers and family compounds like they always have. there is even a delightlful nibbly kid goat running around our place (its mother, which belongs to the owners in-laws who live in the countryside, abandoned it, so they are hand rearing it til it can rejoin the flock). c is impressed at their resourcefulness - they have just taken out the engine of a land cruiser in the yard, without a crane, and replaced it with another!
so, we're off for a tour in the countryside tomorrow, back on the 18th. will be our 6th wedding anniversary while we're away! (believe it or not, but we think we're going to buy an original Mongolian modern artwork as a pressie for each other - i know modern art isn't what springs to mind when you think about mongolia (more goat testicles, horses (we've had to impose a moratorium on Horse while we're here - there are just too many!), and furry boots), but we really liked it. picture to follow...
bye for now
hx
ps amusing ourselves no end by just wandering around trying to decipher cyrillic words on bill hoardings. often if you can transliterate the word, it makes sense. often, of course, it's nonsense, but it's fun trying. half their letters are backwards,which explains why it sounds like talking backwards when they speak. somehow, even though we can only understand a handful of words (cafe,internet, bank) it feels much less foreign and more inviting than china where everything was just squiggles. c made a good point - he said this place feels more familliar to us because it's a mix of asian and european - pity we won't see the culture change all the way back to europe...
Tuesday 5 May 2009
Incognito rock stars
Helen: We've spent all day saying 'ooh, don't forget to put that on the blog', so I'm afraid there's only one thing for it. A list. So, in no particular order, here's what's made us laugh and groan over the last few days:
- we have eaten soooo much. It seems to be the mark of a good Chinese host to make sure that there is food left over at the end of a meal. So they just order, and order and order. And you eat and eat and eat. And then, just when you think it surely must be at an end, more food arrives. It's nuts! (but very yummy)
- people have been taking pictures of us. Lots. And not just in the serupticious way they did it in Vietnam with camera phones. No, since we got to Beijing people have been sitting beside us, plonking their kids next to us, even accosting us in the street and insisting that we shake hands and have photos with every person in their group. At first I thought we were special, and that maybe they thought C's silly hair/beard/sunglasses/hat/tattoos combo meant he was a rock star incognito. But, sadly, no. We're photo worthy just because we're tourists. You would think that Beijing, being the capital city, would be pretty cosmopolitan and they'd be used to seeing people like us. Maybe the people taking pictures of us are Chinese tourists on their hols from the countryside who can now go home proudly with a picture of the foreign freaks? Or maybe they aren't as exposed to Western culture as I thought - our guidebook says only 10 Western films are approved for release every year in China...
- in a similar vein...we were dumbfounded last night when we were having dinner with an old school friend of mine (yes, I know, Old Senockians are everywhere) and his Chinese girlfriend, and we were talking about how odd Cambodia 'after what happened there' and she, quite straight faced said 'what happened in Cambodia?' Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge meant nothing to her (she's pretty much our age). Wierd what state censorship can achieve!
- we got horribly lost when we arrived to Beijing. Our taxi driver didn't know where our hostel was (surprise surprise, although at least he only charged us 20 ickeys - C was very proud of himself for avoiding the taxi touts who wanted 180 for the same journey - that's why he's in charge of the cash - I probably would have gone with the first guys!) Anyway, we got dropped off next to the right block for our hostel...but unlike other cities on grid systems, the old part of Beijing is arranged into 'hutongs' - each big block is subdivided into lots of little alleyways which are mostly pedestrian/used by bikes. It's really charming - usually grid systems are souless, but this way the traffic can still flow and you still get a really intimate feeling. So, we got dropped off 'near' our hostel, then walked in circles for a good half an hour carrying our heavy bags before I went off on my own armed with only my guidebook. Eventually a security guard and his mate at the local hospital helped me out - they took me to a doctor on the 6th floor who spoke a bit of English and then escorted us to the door. Predictably, only 5 mins walk away! We managed to have a great conversation - he spoke Chinese and I spoke English and neither of us understood a word of what the other said, but somehow it worked!
- final point, before my fingers fall off from typing too much - C wants me to tell you about Chinese tour guides - they all have headsets with microphones, attached to loud-speakers that hang from their waists, so it seems that they are shouting from their tummies. And they use the speakers even when the person they're talking to is standing next to them. Very amusing to watch!
OK, nearly out of juice. (had a wonderful day at teh Great Wall today - awesome scenery, good hike, almost totally deserted. Totally opposite to yesterday at the Forbidden City. Swarming with tourists and lacking in information.)
Hx
- we have eaten soooo much. It seems to be the mark of a good Chinese host to make sure that there is food left over at the end of a meal. So they just order, and order and order. And you eat and eat and eat. And then, just when you think it surely must be at an end, more food arrives. It's nuts! (but very yummy)
- people have been taking pictures of us. Lots. And not just in the serupticious way they did it in Vietnam with camera phones. No, since we got to Beijing people have been sitting beside us, plonking their kids next to us, even accosting us in the street and insisting that we shake hands and have photos with every person in their group. At first I thought we were special, and that maybe they thought C's silly hair/beard/sunglasses/hat/tattoos combo meant he was a rock star incognito. But, sadly, no. We're photo worthy just because we're tourists. You would think that Beijing, being the capital city, would be pretty cosmopolitan and they'd be used to seeing people like us. Maybe the people taking pictures of us are Chinese tourists on their hols from the countryside who can now go home proudly with a picture of the foreign freaks? Or maybe they aren't as exposed to Western culture as I thought - our guidebook says only 10 Western films are approved for release every year in China...
- in a similar vein...we were dumbfounded last night when we were having dinner with an old school friend of mine (yes, I know, Old Senockians are everywhere) and his Chinese girlfriend, and we were talking about how odd Cambodia 'after what happened there' and she, quite straight faced said 'what happened in Cambodia?' Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge meant nothing to her (she's pretty much our age). Wierd what state censorship can achieve!
- we got horribly lost when we arrived to Beijing. Our taxi driver didn't know where our hostel was (surprise surprise, although at least he only charged us 20 ickeys - C was very proud of himself for avoiding the taxi touts who wanted 180 for the same journey - that's why he's in charge of the cash - I probably would have gone with the first guys!) Anyway, we got dropped off next to the right block for our hostel...but unlike other cities on grid systems, the old part of Beijing is arranged into 'hutongs' - each big block is subdivided into lots of little alleyways which are mostly pedestrian/used by bikes. It's really charming - usually grid systems are souless, but this way the traffic can still flow and you still get a really intimate feeling. So, we got dropped off 'near' our hostel, then walked in circles for a good half an hour carrying our heavy bags before I went off on my own armed with only my guidebook. Eventually a security guard and his mate at the local hospital helped me out - they took me to a doctor on the 6th floor who spoke a bit of English and then escorted us to the door. Predictably, only 5 mins walk away! We managed to have a great conversation - he spoke Chinese and I spoke English and neither of us understood a word of what the other said, but somehow it worked!
- final point, before my fingers fall off from typing too much - C wants me to tell you about Chinese tour guides - they all have headsets with microphones, attached to loud-speakers that hang from their waists, so it seems that they are shouting from their tummies. And they use the speakers even when the person they're talking to is standing next to them. Very amusing to watch!
OK, nearly out of juice. (had a wonderful day at teh Great Wall today - awesome scenery, good hike, almost totally deserted. Totally opposite to yesterday at the Forbidden City. Swarming with tourists and lacking in information.)
Hx
Wednesday 29 April 2009
China
Helen: Apologies for the lack of posts for a while. This has been due, unusually, to lots of late nights and drinking. It's mid-day now, and our party of 4 has just about surfaced and made themselves respectable, so you see what I mean...
We're in HK at the moment, staying (in the tiniest flat - it makes London living look palatial) with Mike, an old friend from school, and he is doing a fabulous job of showing us around. It makes such a difference having a guide - we've been to so many places we just wouldn't have known existed (bars and restaurants (and a gym)) that are on the upper floors of tower blocks - they have no signs at ground level to let you know what's upstairs, you just have to know! And often to get to a bar, you have to enter through a shop in a mall. But, usually the view is worth it - we had drinks last night from the balcony on the 8th floor with the HK skyline lit up behind us.
HK has been a true delight - I was expecting just the skyscrapers, and was only coming here to visit Mike. We both figured that it would be another Singapore or KL and we'd want to leave after 2 days. But we've just booked our train tickets to Beijing and we're staying over a week because we're having so much fun. It turns out HK isn't just HK island - there are lots of outlying islands, the whole of the New Territories and it's easy to escape to the hills. Yes, hills. Well, mountains really. Yesterday we climbed Lantau Peak, which is a Munroe at 934m. It was steps all the way up. Hard work at the best of times, but especially bad the day after a session at the gym (Mike goes regularly and C really wanted to go, so I went along for a laugh. Now everything hurts. My stomach. My quads. My neck for goodness sake.) The hill was awesome. At the bottom there is a 'giant buddha', a disney type village with a starbucks and hordes and hordes of tourists. But we only saw 5 other people on the trail. Was blissful. It was like Arthur's Seat in as much as you could look one way and see the airport, but if you looked the other way it was as if you were well and truly out in the countryside. Wonderful :) And today we're going to Macau, which is supposed to be totally different again - long Portuguese colonial history, forts, cafes, pastries. Will report back.
Hx
PS. Hmm, don't seem to have mentioned China at all yet - we only spent 3 days there before coming to HK - was ok - rained a lot! Had a few language problems, but the people were super friendly and we were always helped out by English students who wanted to practice with us (in fact, we've just got an email from one we met in Nanning who wants to be our penfriend). The landscape was pretty similar to N Vietnam - we went to see some stunning terraced rice fields. Oddly, the other tourists on the trip weren't western backpackers, but domestic Chinese tourists from Beijing. They travel en masse and all buy the same souvenirs and take the same photos. Very bizzare. And, at the top of the hill...there was ice cream and beer! We always joke when we're hill walking in Scotland that there will be beer and ice cream at the top (an insipring thought when it's cold and wet and you're wondering what you're doing on the hillside). Of course there never is. But in China, oh yes. And postcards, souvenir shops. The works!
We're in HK at the moment, staying (in the tiniest flat - it makes London living look palatial) with Mike, an old friend from school, and he is doing a fabulous job of showing us around. It makes such a difference having a guide - we've been to so many places we just wouldn't have known existed (bars and restaurants (and a gym)) that are on the upper floors of tower blocks - they have no signs at ground level to let you know what's upstairs, you just have to know! And often to get to a bar, you have to enter through a shop in a mall. But, usually the view is worth it - we had drinks last night from the balcony on the 8th floor with the HK skyline lit up behind us.
HK has been a true delight - I was expecting just the skyscrapers, and was only coming here to visit Mike. We both figured that it would be another Singapore or KL and we'd want to leave after 2 days. But we've just booked our train tickets to Beijing and we're staying over a week because we're having so much fun. It turns out HK isn't just HK island - there are lots of outlying islands, the whole of the New Territories and it's easy to escape to the hills. Yes, hills. Well, mountains really. Yesterday we climbed Lantau Peak, which is a Munroe at 934m. It was steps all the way up. Hard work at the best of times, but especially bad the day after a session at the gym (Mike goes regularly and C really wanted to go, so I went along for a laugh. Now everything hurts. My stomach. My quads. My neck for goodness sake.) The hill was awesome. At the bottom there is a 'giant buddha', a disney type village with a starbucks and hordes and hordes of tourists. But we only saw 5 other people on the trail. Was blissful. It was like Arthur's Seat in as much as you could look one way and see the airport, but if you looked the other way it was as if you were well and truly out in the countryside. Wonderful :) And today we're going to Macau, which is supposed to be totally different again - long Portuguese colonial history, forts, cafes, pastries. Will report back.
Hx
PS. Hmm, don't seem to have mentioned China at all yet - we only spent 3 days there before coming to HK - was ok - rained a lot! Had a few language problems, but the people were super friendly and we were always helped out by English students who wanted to practice with us (in fact, we've just got an email from one we met in Nanning who wants to be our penfriend). The landscape was pretty similar to N Vietnam - we went to see some stunning terraced rice fields. Oddly, the other tourists on the trip weren't western backpackers, but domestic Chinese tourists from Beijing. They travel en masse and all buy the same souvenirs and take the same photos. Very bizzare. And, at the top of the hill...there was ice cream and beer! We always joke when we're hill walking in Scotland that there will be beer and ice cream at the top (an insipring thought when it's cold and wet and you're wondering what you're doing on the hillside). Of course there never is. But in China, oh yes. And postcards, souvenir shops. The works!
Tuesday 21 April 2009
Toc That
Helen: We seem to have slowed somewhat in our whirlwind trip round SE Asia - we have been in Vietnam for nearly a whole week now. A whole week! Since the last post we took a bus to Phnom Penh (crazy crazy traffic - we sat in a bar and played motorbike poker - we were both tied with 5 people on a bike each, when C spotted a guy carrying, I kid you not, a full size wardrode. We also visited the Tuol Sleng Museum - the old school that was S21 prison during Pol Pot's time. Thousands of people were tortured and murdered there, and it's been left as a memorial to them. There are photos of them on the walls. It was almost too horrific to really take it all in. It didn't really seem real. The most interesting room was an exhibit by a Swede who had visited in 1978 as part of an official tour. Apparently communism was big in Sweeden at the time, and so when he visited he genuinely thought that the Khmer Rouge was a good thing. The exhibition shows the photos he took at the time with his thoughts from 1978, along with his thoughts from now (once the true details of the regime came out he changed his mind - just goes to show how people can be fooled by propoganda - even educated people who ought to know better).
Anyway, I got sidetracked. From PP we went to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) - stayed just long enough to get ripped off by a taxi driver (first time spending Dong so no idea how much stuff costs - we paid at least 10 times too much!) on the way to the train station, and then we spent 4 days in the hills around Hanoi. Wow. Wow. Totally amazing. Have a look at the photos on Flickr to see what we mean. Everywhere we've been so far that's been pretty has looked like Scotland. Not N Vietnam. It looks like nowhere else. Crazy limestone mountains, bright green paddy fields, people working the fields by hand with conical hats, cows that look more like elephants or rhinos. We stayed in stilt huts and traveled on roads that tourists never take - they were rutted, gravely, muddy - C did brilliantly with me on the back. You could tell that tourists never get to these places because every time we stopped to talk to the locals they would stare at C's hair. They would always ask if it was real ('toc that' means 'real hair') and they'd build up the courage to come and pull at it with toothless grins! Our guide Hai was great - he looked like a korean popstar, and was always flirting with the ladies, but he was a real gentleman. He really wanted us to like his country and went out of his way to make sure we had a good time. We stopped and had raw sugar cane juice and sticky rice cooked in bamboo. We saw chop sticks being made and he even took us to his house to meet his family (grandma had black teeth from chewing betel nut and didn't seem to mind that we didn't understand a word she said). We were so lucky - just the two of us and Hai for 4 days.
Right. Off to China tomorrow. Hope we have time to go and see Ho Chi Minh himself before we leave...
Hxx
PS thought you'd like this - we stopped to have lunch one day and a family invited us to join them. We had to decline their offer of home made rice wine (like vodka) but joined them for green tea (we've drunk so much tea in the last few days). We wanted to share with them so we offered them some chocolate. They ate it as if it was beetles, like they were only being polite! Actually, they didn't eat it like it was beetles, because the Vietnamese like beetles (we got served some the other night, and the only reason C ate one is because I ate one first). They eat grasshopers and snails and snakes and chicken feet and pig intestines willingly, but apparently not chocolate!
Anyway, I got sidetracked. From PP we went to Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) - stayed just long enough to get ripped off by a taxi driver (first time spending Dong so no idea how much stuff costs - we paid at least 10 times too much!) on the way to the train station, and then we spent 4 days in the hills around Hanoi. Wow. Wow. Totally amazing. Have a look at the photos on Flickr to see what we mean. Everywhere we've been so far that's been pretty has looked like Scotland. Not N Vietnam. It looks like nowhere else. Crazy limestone mountains, bright green paddy fields, people working the fields by hand with conical hats, cows that look more like elephants or rhinos. We stayed in stilt huts and traveled on roads that tourists never take - they were rutted, gravely, muddy - C did brilliantly with me on the back. You could tell that tourists never get to these places because every time we stopped to talk to the locals they would stare at C's hair. They would always ask if it was real ('toc that' means 'real hair') and they'd build up the courage to come and pull at it with toothless grins! Our guide Hai was great - he looked like a korean popstar, and was always flirting with the ladies, but he was a real gentleman. He really wanted us to like his country and went out of his way to make sure we had a good time. We stopped and had raw sugar cane juice and sticky rice cooked in bamboo. We saw chop sticks being made and he even took us to his house to meet his family (grandma had black teeth from chewing betel nut and didn't seem to mind that we didn't understand a word she said). We were so lucky - just the two of us and Hai for 4 days.
Right. Off to China tomorrow. Hope we have time to go and see Ho Chi Minh himself before we leave...
Hxx
PS thought you'd like this - we stopped to have lunch one day and a family invited us to join them. We had to decline their offer of home made rice wine (like vodka) but joined them for green tea (we've drunk so much tea in the last few days). We wanted to share with them so we offered them some chocolate. They ate it as if it was beetles, like they were only being polite! Actually, they didn't eat it like it was beetles, because the Vietnamese like beetles (we got served some the other night, and the only reason C ate one is because I ate one first). They eat grasshopers and snails and snakes and chicken feet and pig intestines willingly, but apparently not chocolate!
Saturday 11 April 2009
Angkor what?
Helen: Cambodia redeemed itself today - we bicycled all around Angkor Wat (sparrow's fart start at 4am, to avoid the crowds and heat, and see the sun rise, which, of course, we missed, because I had heavy mudguards) and it was magnificent. C, not known for his love of 'piles of stones' even said it was up there with Machu Pichu, which is saying something. Naturally, this didn't mean he actually wanted to spend much time there...but at least he was enjoying himself. You might, if you are lucky, be treated to all of our gazillions of photos of the various temples some time tomorrow - we're on the road again heading to Penom Pehn, to a hostel with, fingers crossed, free wireless. The temples really were awe inspiring (kept expecting Indiana Jones or Lara Croft to appear round the corner (apparently Tomb Raider was filmed at one of them, which might explain Ms Jolie's penchant for Cambodian orphans?) Anyhoo, just wanted to say that we had a glorious day - lots of smiley faces and barely any pressure from hawkers. What a difference a day makes!
More from the capital later (should be fun - tomorrow is Khmer New Year...)
Hx
PS interesting fact: most of the Angkor temples were built as Hindu temples...but they are now Buddhist, so they have Hindu and Buddhist carvings - in a world with too much religious intolerance, it was lovely to see folk just getting along!
More from the capital later (should be fun - tomorrow is Khmer New Year...)
Hx
PS interesting fact: most of the Angkor temples were built as Hindu temples...but they are now Buddhist, so they have Hindu and Buddhist carvings - in a world with too much religious intolerance, it was lovely to see folk just getting along!
Friday 10 April 2009
Ripped off in Cambodia. Again. And again...
Helen: Even having been traveling for the last 18 months or so, we were scammed by all the scammers we'd been warned about today. Felt like newbies. Oh well, at least we got here (via buses that we'd paid for not being available and people insisting we needed their services to get price inflated visas). Not a good first impression of Cambodia. But, the good news is that we have bicycles sorted for tomorrow, and a route from our guest house owner to see all of the temples and avoid the crowds. Fantastic. Only snag is it means brekkie is at 0430. Better go and get some sleep now then.
More later
H&Cxx
More later
H&Cxx
Thursday 9 April 2009
Bangkok rocks
Helen: We both remember Bangkok being totally manic last time we were here...but compared to Singapore and KL it feels relaxed and chilled out! Maybe it's because there aren't many skyscrapers and you can actually see the sky? Or maybe it's the people - always smiling? Or maybe it's because they're all Hindus and Buddhists? Whatever it is, it rocks.
Got here this morning on the sleeper train from Penang (at the Thai border, v amusing sign saying no-one with 'hippie characteristics' (waistcoat with no under garments and long, dirty hair) would be allowed in - C immediately started smoothing down his dreads!) and...we're leaving tomorrow! Going to Angkor Wat in Cambodia. 12 hours on a bus. Better be worth it!
Right, time for bed. Early start tomorrow. Think we 'did' Bangkok pretty well today - took a busy commuter canal boat into town with the locals, (got lost - de rigeur for us in SE Asian cities at the moment), visited Kao San Rd (all the 18 year olds made us feel really grown up), saw a political protest, and went to a traditional puppet show this evening. Tick.
Hx
PS thought you might find these Malaysian words amusing - see if you can figure out what they mean: kastam, imigresen, stesen, farmasie, notis, kaunter, basikal, motosikal
PPS a bloke came up to us at Butterworth train station to introduce himself - he'd been on the cruise ship too and recognised us...and he was traveling from NZ to Europe overland too! He was slightly more adventurous than us though, and is braving Iran...
Got here this morning on the sleeper train from Penang (at the Thai border, v amusing sign saying no-one with 'hippie characteristics' (waistcoat with no under garments and long, dirty hair) would be allowed in - C immediately started smoothing down his dreads!) and...we're leaving tomorrow! Going to Angkor Wat in Cambodia. 12 hours on a bus. Better be worth it!
Right, time for bed. Early start tomorrow. Think we 'did' Bangkok pretty well today - took a busy commuter canal boat into town with the locals, (got lost - de rigeur for us in SE Asian cities at the moment), visited Kao San Rd (all the 18 year olds made us feel really grown up), saw a political protest, and went to a traditional puppet show this evening. Tick.
Hx
PS thought you might find these Malaysian words amusing - see if you can figure out what they mean: kastam, imigresen, stesen, farmasie, notis, kaunter, basikal, motosikal
PPS a bloke came up to us at Butterworth train station to introduce himself - he'd been on the cruise ship too and recognised us...and he was traveling from NZ to Europe overland too! He was slightly more adventurous than us though, and is braving Iran...
Tuesday 7 April 2009
Rain
Helen: We've been in Malaysia 3 days now. And it's rained every single day. Buckets and buckets and buckets. We are currently hiding in our hotel room (clean and friendly, but looks a bit Communist), waiting for the rain to stop so we can venture outside for supper (hmmm, shall we have noodles or curry? Had noodles for breakfast and curry for lunch, and both yesterday and the day before so it's a tough choice...)
Did manage a quick explore earlier though - went to a Khongsi in Georgetown (apparently the whole city is a World Heritage Site - there can't be many UNESCO WHSs that we haven't visited - everywhere we go seems to be listed) and got shown around by a very enthusastic little old Chinese man with bad teeth, a big smile and a smattering of English. He posed for photos with us and we promised to send him copies (he promptly pulled some business cards out of his pocket with his name and address on!) A Khongsi is basically a family compound - this one was beautiful and dated from 1820. There was a temple (lots of gold leaf and ancestral tablets (like gravestones) and living quarters - no one lives there now, but when the Chinese emigrated here in the late 18th and early 19th centuries they grouped together in clans to support each other. (The clans then evolved into Triads and they started killing each other...) Clan life is still v important today and we saw lots of people lighting incense sticks for their relatives.
After that we took the funicular railway to the top of Penange Hill - I've never made it up 800+m so quickly! Took us over an hour to walk down again, spotting monkeys all the way (specially cute ones with black fur and white eyebrows/round their lips. The macaques weren't so friendly. They barred their teeth and started growling at us and we were stuck for a few minutes not knowing how to get past them!)
Generally v glad to have got out of KL - too big, too busy, and no charm. Georgetown is much more appealing. Lots of nooks and crannies and streetlife. Most of the population of Malaysia seems to be Chinese or Indian - both look like they've just stepped out of China/India respectively (I say authoritively, never having actually been to either place!) I don't know quite what I was expecting - but I was definitely expecting the Malaysians to be a distinct culture rather than two imported cultures.
The countryside in between KL and Penang (as seen from the bus) was strange - lots of palm oil plantations (aren't they responsible for killing off orangutans?) and peculiar new build estates that seemed empty (no lights on, no cars, overgrown gardens). I swear the barrat box type houses wouldn't have looked out of place in the Rotherhithe and the Thames estuary. At the other end of the spectrum we saw a few lovely homes as well, at the top of Penang Hill where it's cooler so all the colonials built city retreats and sanotoriums. The houses were twee little olde English style cottages with picket fences and garden furniture like C's parents have in Surrey. And there was a red GR post box outside!! Bonkers.
Right, that's enough. Hasn't stopped raining, but my tummy's rumbling so will have to make a dash for it anyway. Off to Bangkok tomorrow on the train. Going to do a bit of pinyin practice this evening to make sure we don't starve in China.
Hx
Did manage a quick explore earlier though - went to a Khongsi in Georgetown (apparently the whole city is a World Heritage Site - there can't be many UNESCO WHSs that we haven't visited - everywhere we go seems to be listed) and got shown around by a very enthusastic little old Chinese man with bad teeth, a big smile and a smattering of English. He posed for photos with us and we promised to send him copies (he promptly pulled some business cards out of his pocket with his name and address on!) A Khongsi is basically a family compound - this one was beautiful and dated from 1820. There was a temple (lots of gold leaf and ancestral tablets (like gravestones) and living quarters - no one lives there now, but when the Chinese emigrated here in the late 18th and early 19th centuries they grouped together in clans to support each other. (The clans then evolved into Triads and they started killing each other...) Clan life is still v important today and we saw lots of people lighting incense sticks for their relatives.
After that we took the funicular railway to the top of Penange Hill - I've never made it up 800+m so quickly! Took us over an hour to walk down again, spotting monkeys all the way (specially cute ones with black fur and white eyebrows/round their lips. The macaques weren't so friendly. They barred their teeth and started growling at us and we were stuck for a few minutes not knowing how to get past them!)
Generally v glad to have got out of KL - too big, too busy, and no charm. Georgetown is much more appealing. Lots of nooks and crannies and streetlife. Most of the population of Malaysia seems to be Chinese or Indian - both look like they've just stepped out of China/India respectively (I say authoritively, never having actually been to either place!) I don't know quite what I was expecting - but I was definitely expecting the Malaysians to be a distinct culture rather than two imported cultures.
The countryside in between KL and Penang (as seen from the bus) was strange - lots of palm oil plantations (aren't they responsible for killing off orangutans?) and peculiar new build estates that seemed empty (no lights on, no cars, overgrown gardens). I swear the barrat box type houses wouldn't have looked out of place in the Rotherhithe and the Thames estuary. At the other end of the spectrum we saw a few lovely homes as well, at the top of Penang Hill where it's cooler so all the colonials built city retreats and sanotoriums. The houses were twee little olde English style cottages with picket fences and garden furniture like C's parents have in Surrey. And there was a red GR post box outside!! Bonkers.
Right, that's enough. Hasn't stopped raining, but my tummy's rumbling so will have to make a dash for it anyway. Off to Bangkok tomorrow on the train. Going to do a bit of pinyin practice this evening to make sure we don't starve in China.
Hx
Sunday 5 April 2009
F1 frustration
Helen: v quick post - am cold and tired so time for bed - but thought this would make you laugh - C and I went to the Malaysian F1 GrandPrix this afternoon, and totally failed to see any racing at all. It was so badly signposted, that by the time we'd figured out which entrance we had to use (involving much walking, bad directions and a dodgy shuttle bus) the action had been called off by a torrential Tropical downpour and we had to sit in our soaking wet clothes in the air conditioned bus all the way back to the city. Bugger! Still, managed to get the essential tourist photo of the Petronas Towers lit up like Christmas trees, so not a completely wasted day.
Glad to be out of Singapore - decided we'd 'done' the island yesterday - eaten in Little India and Chinatown, ridden the 'does what it says on the tin' "Mass Rapid Transport System" (tube), and had a (yucky, way too sweet) cocktail at Raffles (where we also managed a dance to a live band in front of the hordes of tourists who were herded into the bar by a guide to have their Singapore Sling in 15 minutes before leaving again. I'm not against taking tours...but come on people - do you really need a tour guide to take you to a BAR?)
So, now we're in Umpa Lumpa land. Saw lots of palm oil plantations on the road, and are relieved that everything seems to be getting cheaper! Thinking about heading yet further north tomorrow.
Right, off to sleep - C has dutifully checked the bed for bugs
Hx
Glad to be out of Singapore - decided we'd 'done' the island yesterday - eaten in Little India and Chinatown, ridden the 'does what it says on the tin' "Mass Rapid Transport System" (tube), and had a (yucky, way too sweet) cocktail at Raffles (where we also managed a dance to a live band in front of the hordes of tourists who were herded into the bar by a guide to have their Singapore Sling in 15 minutes before leaving again. I'm not against taking tours...but come on people - do you really need a tour guide to take you to a BAR?)
So, now we're in Umpa Lumpa land. Saw lots of palm oil plantations on the road, and are relieved that everything seems to be getting cheaper! Thinking about heading yet further north tomorrow.
Right, off to sleep - C has dutifully checked the bed for bugs
Hx
Friday 3 April 2009
Raffles here we come
Helen: Is Charlie the only person in the world who hasn't heard of Raffles in Singapore? When I told him that we had to go there this evening to have a Singapore Sling he looked at me blankly and asked why. I tried to explain that Raffles is as famous as Harrods in London or like going to visit the pyramid hotel/casino place in Las Vagas...but he still didn't get it. Never fear though, I shall make him wear one of his two presentable shirts this evening (and I'm going to wear the dress I just finished making) and I shall go to the ball tonight whether he appreciates it or not!
So, now we're landlubbers again and struggling to come to terms with life when we have to feed ourselves and work out what we want to do for ourselves - it's a bit like how I imagine a caterpillar feels when it emerges from its cocoon blinking in the sunlight trying to work out how to use the new flappy things its acquired... It won't surprise anyone to learn that the very first thing we did when we got here was go out in the heat and have an argument! Yup, nothing like the tropics and busy streets to get us grumpy (but no raised voices in the street - not the done thing at all apparently. Canoodling (sic), jaywalking, not flushing the loo properly and eating with your left hand are also all out.)
We've only been here a couple of hours, but have decided there are lots of places we'd rather see on our tight schedule than a busy city, so we're heading for Umpa Lumpa tomorrow.
Lots of love
H&C
PS a few thoughts from the cruise:
- we were harrangued several times by Americans from the deep south who told us we should read the bible and carry guns
- C didn't win the boat building competition :( General opinion is that he was robbed though
- they have hand sanitizers everywhere and the staff won't shake your hands even at formal dos for fear of the dreaded lurgee - guess it would spread pretty quick
- the security guards were out in force when we entered Indonesian waters - on the look out for pirates we reckoned...
- Bali was wonderful (lots of Indiana Jones style temples and gorgeous fabrics) Java was mental (C said they drove their cars like they were motorcycles, often filtering on the wrong side of the road...) but we visited an amazing 8th Century temple and got some good karma from the lucky Buddha
So, now we're landlubbers again and struggling to come to terms with life when we have to feed ourselves and work out what we want to do for ourselves - it's a bit like how I imagine a caterpillar feels when it emerges from its cocoon blinking in the sunlight trying to work out how to use the new flappy things its acquired... It won't surprise anyone to learn that the very first thing we did when we got here was go out in the heat and have an argument! Yup, nothing like the tropics and busy streets to get us grumpy (but no raised voices in the street - not the done thing at all apparently. Canoodling (sic), jaywalking, not flushing the loo properly and eating with your left hand are also all out.)
We've only been here a couple of hours, but have decided there are lots of places we'd rather see on our tight schedule than a busy city, so we're heading for Umpa Lumpa tomorrow.
Lots of love
H&C
PS a few thoughts from the cruise:
- we were harrangued several times by Americans from the deep south who told us we should read the bible and carry guns
- C didn't win the boat building competition :( General opinion is that he was robbed though
- they have hand sanitizers everywhere and the staff won't shake your hands even at formal dos for fear of the dreaded lurgee - guess it would spread pretty quick
- the security guards were out in force when we entered Indonesian waters - on the look out for pirates we reckoned...
- Bali was wonderful (lots of Indiana Jones style temples and gorgeous fabrics) Java was mental (C said they drove their cars like they were motorcycles, often filtering on the wrong side of the road...) but we visited an amazing 8th Century temple and got some good karma from the lucky Buddha
Friday 27 March 2009
Crocodile Dundee land
Helen: Well, well, well. Our glorified ferry ride is turning out to be quite an experience! Our cabin is the biggest room we've stayed in since we left home and we have a private bathroom, all to ourselves. We even have a little man who turns down our bed, leaves choccies in our room and makes us a different towel animal each night (I'm not kidding, Holland America (the cruise line) has even published a book of the '40 best towel animals'!). I'm in planning and sewing heaven – I get a daily schedule so I can organise my day to the nearest nannosecond and I've met a group of ladies who knit and sew! How ridiculous is that. Marylin is a lovely little old lady who has taught me how to spin, and I've been getting tips galore on my new dress – it's going ok (now I've let our one of the seams I can actually breathe fully) and should be finished for our final night dinner next week.
C is also, despite himself, having a whale of a time. He's in the gym every day, which means he has made friends with all the ladies who work in the Spa next door – very useful as they are now searching high and low for materials for him as he is...building a model boat! It has to carry a cargo of 12 cans of Coke and will be tested in the Jacuzzi on the last day of the trip! So far he's had the staff collecting chop sticks and cans and I've made him a Red Ensign.
The biggest down side of the cruise isn't actually all the other people (in among all the fatties we've met some lovely folks) it's the time ashore. You don't get long, the shore excursions they arrange are uber expensive and they usually visit the more developed destinations as they're the only ones that can cope with 1400 people in one go. I've actually enjoyed the 'at sea' days more than the days on land! We've been to the Whitsundays (golf cart madness) and Cairns (bush turkeys were the highlight – what does that tell you) and we're currently en route to Darwin. Think we might save our money and just hang out in town in Darwin so we can hire a car in Bali and go and see some temples and rice paddies.
Not sure what else to tell – tonight is 'formal' night which means everyone is dressed up in tux's – apart from us. We're off to the buffet and then maybe the cinema. We even saw a magician a couple of days ago – he made his lovely assistant vanish – I know there's a rational reason how he did it...but it impressed me and made me giggle like a small child nonetheless.
Will write again when we get to Singapore on April 4
Lots of love
H&Cxx
PS We had our first jive lesson last night! We were swinging away, when we noticed someone doing fantastic jiving...and he turned out to be both a lovely guy and a dance instructor, so he taught us the basics. V cool. And the drummer from the band (old Polish man who's been with the company for 39 years!) said he might give me a drum lesson too!
C is also, despite himself, having a whale of a time. He's in the gym every day, which means he has made friends with all the ladies who work in the Spa next door – very useful as they are now searching high and low for materials for him as he is...building a model boat! It has to carry a cargo of 12 cans of Coke and will be tested in the Jacuzzi on the last day of the trip! So far he's had the staff collecting chop sticks and cans and I've made him a Red Ensign.
The biggest down side of the cruise isn't actually all the other people (in among all the fatties we've met some lovely folks) it's the time ashore. You don't get long, the shore excursions they arrange are uber expensive and they usually visit the more developed destinations as they're the only ones that can cope with 1400 people in one go. I've actually enjoyed the 'at sea' days more than the days on land! We've been to the Whitsundays (golf cart madness) and Cairns (bush turkeys were the highlight – what does that tell you) and we're currently en route to Darwin. Think we might save our money and just hang out in town in Darwin so we can hire a car in Bali and go and see some temples and rice paddies.
Not sure what else to tell – tonight is 'formal' night which means everyone is dressed up in tux's – apart from us. We're off to the buffet and then maybe the cinema. We even saw a magician a couple of days ago – he made his lovely assistant vanish – I know there's a rational reason how he did it...but it impressed me and made me giggle like a small child nonetheless.
Will write again when we get to Singapore on April 4
Lots of love
H&Cxx
PS We had our first jive lesson last night! We were swinging away, when we noticed someone doing fantastic jiving...and he turned out to be both a lovely guy and a dance instructor, so he taught us the basics. V cool. And the drummer from the band (old Polish man who's been with the company for 39 years!) said he might give me a drum lesson too!
Thursday 19 March 2009
Floating hotel
Helen: We checked into our cruise ship yesterday. It's SO cool :) Admitedly we are the youngest people on board by about 30 years (we did spy one other backpacker couple in the check-in queue though) and the decor is late 70s/early 80s (lots of sparkles and shinyness, despite the fact that the ship is only 9 years old - probably deliberate to make the old dears feel at home). But, all the staff have been absolutely wonderful (as well they ought to be - we are being charged an 'optional' $11 a day/person for tips!). Nothing is too much trouble and no one has so much as batted an eye lid over C's out-of-the-ordinary dreads. Our room is ok too - not in the engine bay after all. We have an en-suite bathroom, two wardrobes and even two portholes, as well as our own flat screen TV and DVD player (which was on when we got to our room playing a welcome message - very Big Brother). That makes it about the most luxurious room we've stayed in all trip! There's a gym that opens at 6am where C will likely be spending most of his time, we've found one of the restaurants that doesn't have a formal dress code, there's dancing and music every night and three screenings of two films every night too. I'm not going to want to visit any of the places we stop at at this rate!
C even begrudingly admitted he thought it was pretty cool too. It's so convenient - we have the best hotel spot in the city! He was a bit upset though - we had to give htem our passports and credit card details - and all we got in return was a little bit of yellow paper as a receipt!
So, we're off at midnight tonight. Then two 'sea days' before we get to the Whitsundays where we hope to do some diving, then Cairns, then the Great Barrier Reef, then Darwin, Bali and Semarang before Singapore. Very excited :) Will try to post en route if we can get to internet cafes, but I think our time ashore will be pretty limited and internet on board is via satelite so v expensive.
H&Cxx
C even begrudingly admitted he thought it was pretty cool too. It's so convenient - we have the best hotel spot in the city! He was a bit upset though - we had to give htem our passports and credit card details - and all we got in return was a little bit of yellow paper as a receipt!
So, we're off at midnight tonight. Then two 'sea days' before we get to the Whitsundays where we hope to do some diving, then Cairns, then the Great Barrier Reef, then Darwin, Bali and Semarang before Singapore. Very excited :) Will try to post en route if we can get to internet cafes, but I think our time ashore will be pretty limited and internet on board is via satelite so v expensive.
H&Cxx
Tuesday 17 March 2009
Aussie mossies
Helen: Went kayaking and camping at the weekend. Lots of fun, even for a self confessed non-camper, although I could have done without the Aussie strength mossies. They were even biting me through my clothes the bastards. Now have bright red welts on my backside. Not a good look when I was trying on bikinis in Bondi yesterday (you should have seen the look on C's face as he waited paitently in the shop. Didn't know where to look - even I was a bit bemused by all the gazillions of different styles of swimming costume there are out there. Sadly the only bikini I liked that wasn't 3 triangles of material held together with some floss was $150. $150!!)
Going to the zoo today to see koalas ("but we can see koalas in the zoo at home" from you know who) and maybe even a platypus. And then maybe to see the Star Wars exhibition at one of the local museums. Apparently they have a weightlessness simulator...
Not much else to report - have mostly been relaxing at Al and Hazel's house - catching up on admin/practising guitar (C is getting pretty good at Johnny Be Good) and I've started making another dress - was getting bored and tetchy - nothing like a good sew to sort me out.
Our boat arrives tomorrow and we sail at midnight on Friday. Very exciting. Al has lent C a shirt with a collar so that he stands a chance of being fed in the restaurants on board (although, it is a hawaian shirt!)
Hxx
PS still no decision on how we're getting home - the bloody Russian embassy here won't give us visas (long story - basically we have to go back to London to get them) so it looks like we might have to fly from Mongolia to Europe and then catch the ferry from Estonia or Denmark or somewhere like that. Hope to have it sorted this week - will let you know!
Going to the zoo today to see koalas ("but we can see koalas in the zoo at home" from you know who) and maybe even a platypus. And then maybe to see the Star Wars exhibition at one of the local museums. Apparently they have a weightlessness simulator...
Not much else to report - have mostly been relaxing at Al and Hazel's house - catching up on admin/practising guitar (C is getting pretty good at Johnny Be Good) and I've started making another dress - was getting bored and tetchy - nothing like a good sew to sort me out.
Our boat arrives tomorrow and we sail at midnight on Friday. Very exciting. Al has lent C a shirt with a collar so that he stands a chance of being fed in the restaurants on board (although, it is a hawaian shirt!)
Hxx
PS still no decision on how we're getting home - the bloody Russian embassy here won't give us visas (long story - basically we have to go back to London to get them) so it looks like we might have to fly from Mongolia to Europe and then catch the ferry from Estonia or Denmark or somewhere like that. Hope to have it sorted this week - will let you know!
Sunday 8 March 2009
New hat
Helen: What a difference a few hundred miles makes! Sydney is green and wet - it rained for hours last night. The only thing that crunches here underfoot are the cockroaches and the small blue jellyfish on the beach (that I told C not to stand on as they were probably poisonous just before I inadvertently trod on one and shreiked when it made a loud popping sound as I burst its air sack.)
We arrived here via several embassies in Canberra - a wierd Milton Keynes sort of a city - lots of monumental architecture and big boulevards...but lacking in atmosphere. Everyone on the streets had sensible hair and suits - most of them work for the government. We had hoped to be in and out in one day...but, predictably, I guess, getting the visas took longer than anticipated (we now have Mongolian and Vietnamese visas though - only Russia to get - got all the endless paperwork (no clue what it says as it's all in Cyrillic) and we're going there tomorrow)). So, we were stuck there overnight and had a few hours for sightseeing - I asked C which of the many 'National...' museums/galleries he wanted to go and see and he chose the Portrait Gallery as he said these are usually the smallest galleries. Hah! The one in Canberra is huge! (but also not very good so we whizzed through it). Saw a protest tent village outside the Old Parliament House - Aborigines and something about land rights - but no one offered to explain anything about it to us, and I couldn't help thinking they'd slightly missed the point. There were no actual polictians near their protest - they're all at the NEW parliament house just down the road...
Now we're in Sydney with our friends from Scotland Al and Hazel who live in Bondi. Reassuringly they don't sound a bit different from when we last saw them 3 years ago. Very comforting to hear a Scottish burr again. We've been to the Opera House to see Shostakovich (!) and I've got a new hat as the old one really was beginning to fall apart and I felt very unfashionable with all the beautiful people in Bondi.
Right, time for a cup of tea...
Hxxx
PS must mention the Melbourne Motorshow - it was full of manicured, made up birds in off the shoulder dresses and high heels who didn't know anything about cars. What's that all about? (C says I should try a bike show - the ladies there are in bikinis apparently!)
We arrived here via several embassies in Canberra - a wierd Milton Keynes sort of a city - lots of monumental architecture and big boulevards...but lacking in atmosphere. Everyone on the streets had sensible hair and suits - most of them work for the government. We had hoped to be in and out in one day...but, predictably, I guess, getting the visas took longer than anticipated (we now have Mongolian and Vietnamese visas though - only Russia to get - got all the endless paperwork (no clue what it says as it's all in Cyrillic) and we're going there tomorrow)). So, we were stuck there overnight and had a few hours for sightseeing - I asked C which of the many 'National...' museums/galleries he wanted to go and see and he chose the Portrait Gallery as he said these are usually the smallest galleries. Hah! The one in Canberra is huge! (but also not very good so we whizzed through it). Saw a protest tent village outside the Old Parliament House - Aborigines and something about land rights - but no one offered to explain anything about it to us, and I couldn't help thinking they'd slightly missed the point. There were no actual polictians near their protest - they're all at the NEW parliament house just down the road...
Now we're in Sydney with our friends from Scotland Al and Hazel who live in Bondi. Reassuringly they don't sound a bit different from when we last saw them 3 years ago. Very comforting to hear a Scottish burr again. We've been to the Opera House to see Shostakovich (!) and I've got a new hat as the old one really was beginning to fall apart and I felt very unfashionable with all the beautiful people in Bondi.
Right, time for a cup of tea...
Hxxx
PS must mention the Melbourne Motorshow - it was full of manicured, made up birds in off the shoulder dresses and high heels who didn't know anything about cars. What's that all about? (C says I should try a bike show - the ladies there are in bikinis apparently!)
Monday 2 March 2009
Dry and crispy
Helen: Everything is dry and crispy. The grass is dry and crispy. The trees are losing their leaves and it's still summer. At least half the days that we've been here have been 'Total Fire Ban' days where you're not even supposed to smoke outside. They've had a drought here for the last decade, and yet people still manage to use more than 170l per person per day. The target is 150l. C, Stuart and I used 300l over 27 days (ok, so we were pretty grubby by the end, but you get the idea.) Jenny and Gareth (our hosts) are fanatical with water - they have buckets in the shower and reuse the grey water from the washing machine for the vegie patch - but they still manage to use nearly 100l per person per day - washing machines must be so horrifically uneconomical with water.
Jenny said something funny the other day - we were going to the Grampians national park for a long weekend camping (named for the Gramps in Scotland, although they are so far from the lush green hills in the UK it's bonkers). She said the first time she visited the Grampians here, over a year ago, she thought they were dry and red and dusty. Now she's recalibrated and thinks they're lush and green! Have a look at the photos (once we upload them) and see for yourselves!
What else have we been up to? Went to see The Taming of the Shrew outside (I've only ever seen it outside!) - very wierd to hear the Bard in a strong Aussie accent. Also visited the National (shouldn't that be 'State'?) Gallery of Victoria which even I agreed was the worst excuse for an art gallery I've ever visited (lots of china and furniture and pictures of Jesus) although it did have a very good temporary exhibition of C18th European satirical drawings from Hogarth and co.
Going to the Motorshow today (C's reward for having been so well behaved in the Chinese embassy) and we're leaving Melbourne for Canberra and more fun with the Vietnamese and Mongolian embassies tomorrow.
More later
Hx
Jenny said something funny the other day - we were going to the Grampians national park for a long weekend camping (named for the Gramps in Scotland, although they are so far from the lush green hills in the UK it's bonkers). She said the first time she visited the Grampians here, over a year ago, she thought they were dry and red and dusty. Now she's recalibrated and thinks they're lush and green! Have a look at the photos (once we upload them) and see for yourselves!
What else have we been up to? Went to see The Taming of the Shrew outside (I've only ever seen it outside!) - very wierd to hear the Bard in a strong Aussie accent. Also visited the National (shouldn't that be 'State'?) Gallery of Victoria which even I agreed was the worst excuse for an art gallery I've ever visited (lots of china and furniture and pictures of Jesus) although it did have a very good temporary exhibition of C18th European satirical drawings from Hogarth and co.
Going to the Motorshow today (C's reward for having been so well behaved in the Chinese embassy) and we're leaving Melbourne for Canberra and more fun with the Vietnamese and Mongolian embassies tomorrow.
More later
Hx
Wednesday 25 February 2009
Helen's, er, well, got a job, um, in Edinburgh
Helen: Yup, that's right, I've gone and got myself a job. In Edinburgh. Starting at the beginning of June. On the one hand I'm sad that our trip will be ending soon, and that we won't get to spend as long as I'd hoped exploring Central Asia. But on the other hand, I'm certainly done with living out of a backpack and whatever we don't manage this time round we'll do the next time. And, I have to say, I am excited about having a job, using my brain, and working for the Fed (my old job with city farms/community gardens) again. I loved my work and it was a real wrench to leave, so I'm happy. And C is even more excited. He's already talking feverishly about what he's going to do when he gets home - skiing, putting a bike engine in his caterham, lots of climbing, martial arts...you name it. Think he thinks he's going to be a kept man!
It's late here and I'm off to bed. But, more news soon, I promise
hx
ps forgot to say, we're now in melbourne - it's great - v v different from nz, and from sydney for that matter. It feels like London or Glasgow. Lots of old buildings and character. There are more people in this one city than in all of NZ put together. Was quite a culture shock when Jenny and Gareth picked us up from the airport and we drove home on a 4 lane each way road! That's the biggest road we've seen since we left the UK!
It's late here and I'm off to bed. But, more news soon, I promise
hx
ps forgot to say, we're now in melbourne - it's great - v v different from nz, and from sydney for that matter. It feels like London or Glasgow. Lots of old buildings and character. There are more people in this one city than in all of NZ put together. Was quite a culture shock when Jenny and Gareth picked us up from the airport and we drove home on a 4 lane each way road! That's the biggest road we've seen since we left the UK!
Tuesday 17 February 2009
Don't let the bed bugs bite
Helen: Not been a particularly inspiring week, I have to be honest. We drove to ChristChurch from Nelson, and have been waiting here since then in limbo. We were all geared up to leave NZ and head to Aus after our YM exams...and then we got stuck here because C wanted to retake. Thankfully that's all sorted now and he's doing his exam again on Sat (back in bloody Nelson though. Another long drive - and we don't even have any Dan Brown to keep us occupied (I won't say amused or interested) this time). Oh well... hope he passes this time!
We have managed to go swing dancing once, meet up with some friends (from Tahiti - who are now having a baby - I told C that everyone we know is having babies now so maybe we should too and he just said 'no, all we need is some new friends!), and go to the cinema (Valkyrie is very good, if you can ignore Tom Cruise, which, I admit, is hard as he's the main character). But we haven't managed much, partly because we've been in wierdo limbo land, and partly because we've been hanging out at the Backpackers Car Market every day. It's about as glamourous and exciting as it sounds. We've been trying to sell our car for 3 days now and no one wants it! It's really upsetting C that people would rather buy rust-buckets that even I think sound awful than spend decent money on our car, which he's looked after well. I'm going to cover the car in coloured stickers tomorrow in an attempt to get people's attention.
Only other thing of note that's happened to us is that C has been munched by bed bugs. Yup, bed bugs. He had so many itchy red bumps he even went to the doctor to see if he had chicken pox. He didn't, so he went rooting around under the mattress in our hostel and found a colony of the little buggers. All our possessions have now been fumigated. It's making me itchy just writing this (although, I have, unusually, escaped, unscathed. Normally, if there's a rash to be got, I'll get it, but not this time. Serves C right as he insisted on swapping sides of the bed with me - he ended up in the bed bug nest not me!)
Ok, that's all. Time for bed
Hxxxx
We have managed to go swing dancing once, meet up with some friends (from Tahiti - who are now having a baby - I told C that everyone we know is having babies now so maybe we should too and he just said 'no, all we need is some new friends!), and go to the cinema (Valkyrie is very good, if you can ignore Tom Cruise, which, I admit, is hard as he's the main character). But we haven't managed much, partly because we've been in wierdo limbo land, and partly because we've been hanging out at the Backpackers Car Market every day. It's about as glamourous and exciting as it sounds. We've been trying to sell our car for 3 days now and no one wants it! It's really upsetting C that people would rather buy rust-buckets that even I think sound awful than spend decent money on our car, which he's looked after well. I'm going to cover the car in coloured stickers tomorrow in an attempt to get people's attention.
Only other thing of note that's happened to us is that C has been munched by bed bugs. Yup, bed bugs. He had so many itchy red bumps he even went to the doctor to see if he had chicken pox. He didn't, so he went rooting around under the mattress in our hostel and found a colony of the little buggers. All our possessions have now been fumigated. It's making me itchy just writing this (although, I have, unusually, escaped, unscathed. Normally, if there's a rash to be got, I'll get it, but not this time. Serves C right as he insisted on swapping sides of the bed with me - he ended up in the bed bug nest not me!)
Ok, that's all. Time for bed
Hxxxx
Tuesday 10 February 2009
not Yachtmasters :(
Helen: Well...we didn't pass our sailing exam. Thanks for all your good luck messages all the same. We went for RYA Yachtmaster which is the highest non-commercial qualification you can get, as well as the lowest commercially endorsable qualification, and the exam was bloody hard! The examiner had us picking up buoys under sail, anchoring under sail and doing blind navigation round imaginary reefs. In the end he said he thought we sailed well together, and that his kids would be safe with us, but that we didn't have the experience for YM, so he gave us Coastal Skipper instead, which is the level below. To be honest, I'm dead chuffed with that. I wasn't really sure that I was up to YM, and Coastal is good enough for me. I've had a lot of sailing experience in the last year, but not much boat handling or skippering, so I think it was a fair decision for me.
C on the other hand is fuming. He didn't like the examiner from the start and thinks he has been treated very unfairly. Our instructor agrees, and they're in the process of lodging an official complaint to the RYA. C is cross about all sorts of things, the edited highlights of which are:
- when the examiner came on board he said he'd be examining us, but also that he hoped we'd learn something too - which put us in a very difficult position - all the time we weren't sure if he was testing us or teaching us, especially when he told us to do manoeuvres differently from how we'd been taught
- he didn't seem to be able to treat me and C differently - it was as if we were a job lot and I feel that C might have been tarred with my brush as it were. For example, the examiner said that it took C 5 attempts to pick up a buoy under sail which just isn't true - that was me!!
- he put us under stress by his personality, rather than just stress from the situation, which isn't allowed in RYA guidelines
- he wouldn't allow us to do manoeuvres the way we'd been taught by an RYA instructor - he wanted them done his way instead, which is just daft. If he's an RYA examiner he ought to abide by RYA regs.
And so on. You get the idea. Anyway, we're now back in Ch-Ch totally knackered (I'm writing this from bed, and it's 1135 in the morning - don't plan on doing much today at all - might finish reading Dan Brown to C (I keep him amused while he's driving by reading drivel that doesn't require much brain power) but that's pretty much it - oh, and we might go and meet some people we met in Tahiti for a beer). Then we have to sell the car, and head to Oz - but C might want to retake his YM exam in Nelson first...
Will keep you posted
Hxx
C on the other hand is fuming. He didn't like the examiner from the start and thinks he has been treated very unfairly. Our instructor agrees, and they're in the process of lodging an official complaint to the RYA. C is cross about all sorts of things, the edited highlights of which are:
- when the examiner came on board he said he'd be examining us, but also that he hoped we'd learn something too - which put us in a very difficult position - all the time we weren't sure if he was testing us or teaching us, especially when he told us to do manoeuvres differently from how we'd been taught
- he didn't seem to be able to treat me and C differently - it was as if we were a job lot and I feel that C might have been tarred with my brush as it were. For example, the examiner said that it took C 5 attempts to pick up a buoy under sail which just isn't true - that was me!!
- he put us under stress by his personality, rather than just stress from the situation, which isn't allowed in RYA guidelines
- he wouldn't allow us to do manoeuvres the way we'd been taught by an RYA instructor - he wanted them done his way instead, which is just daft. If he's an RYA examiner he ought to abide by RYA regs.
And so on. You get the idea. Anyway, we're now back in Ch-Ch totally knackered (I'm writing this from bed, and it's 1135 in the morning - don't plan on doing much today at all - might finish reading Dan Brown to C (I keep him amused while he's driving by reading drivel that doesn't require much brain power) but that's pretty much it - oh, and we might go and meet some people we met in Tahiti for a beer). Then we have to sell the car, and head to Oz - but C might want to retake his YM exam in Nelson first...
Will keep you posted
Hxx
Wednesday 4 February 2009
And then there were two...
Helen: Now we're all on our lonely ownly ownsome. L, B and W went home a couple of days ago and now it's just us again. It's all quiet without them - but much easier to wash up after 2 people than 5! Predictably our baggage still expands to fill the boot of our car, and most of the back seat, even though we sent a whole bunch of stuff home with the Panks!
The last few days the rest of the clan were here we went kayaking in Milford and walked the hallowed Milford Track (well, 2 miles of it anyway) - have to say it didn't look that different to the rest of the rainforest we've seen in NZ! C & W got very excited because they thought they'd seen a kiwi in the wild - it turned out to be a weka instead (small, brown bird so they could be forgiven for the mistake). Then we went to Queenstown (where we saw real kiwis in a bird sanctuary), wine tasting in Otago (yum, yum, yum is all I can say) and ended up in Mt Cook where we got an amazing picture postcard perfect day with clear blue skies behind the snow and ice capped mountains. Bloody gorgeous.
Now we're back in Nelson (stayed a couple of nights on the West Coast where we encountered the rudest man we've yet met on our travels - he was, I hate to say, English, about 55, very fat and traveling with a much younger German girl. We were minding our own business in the lounge playing guitar and harmonica (we're getting quite good together) and he just started playing music on his laptop without asking us if we minded. Of course, we didn't complain - not the British way - but we should have. Bloody Dido droning on for hours. They went upstairs and left her wailing away - mercifully she stopped after 20 mins or so all by itself...and he had the cheek to accuse us of messing about with his computer - it had just run out of battery because he'd plugged it into the wrong socket. He was really agressive and accusatory. Wanker. Then we had to listen to him and his girlfriend shagging all night. Delightful. I can only assume that she was with him for his money...) Anyway, as I said, now we're in Nelson, in our favourite hostel, swotting up for our yachtmaster exam on Sunday. Cross your fingers for us.
Lots of love
Hxx
The last few days the rest of the clan were here we went kayaking in Milford and walked the hallowed Milford Track (well, 2 miles of it anyway) - have to say it didn't look that different to the rest of the rainforest we've seen in NZ! C & W got very excited because they thought they'd seen a kiwi in the wild - it turned out to be a weka instead (small, brown bird so they could be forgiven for the mistake). Then we went to Queenstown (where we saw real kiwis in a bird sanctuary), wine tasting in Otago (yum, yum, yum is all I can say) and ended up in Mt Cook where we got an amazing picture postcard perfect day with clear blue skies behind the snow and ice capped mountains. Bloody gorgeous.
Now we're back in Nelson (stayed a couple of nights on the West Coast where we encountered the rudest man we've yet met on our travels - he was, I hate to say, English, about 55, very fat and traveling with a much younger German girl. We were minding our own business in the lounge playing guitar and harmonica (we're getting quite good together) and he just started playing music on his laptop without asking us if we minded. Of course, we didn't complain - not the British way - but we should have. Bloody Dido droning on for hours. They went upstairs and left her wailing away - mercifully she stopped after 20 mins or so all by itself...and he had the cheek to accuse us of messing about with his computer - it had just run out of battery because he'd plugged it into the wrong socket. He was really agressive and accusatory. Wanker. Then we had to listen to him and his girlfriend shagging all night. Delightful. I can only assume that she was with him for his money...) Anyway, as I said, now we're in Nelson, in our favourite hostel, swotting up for our yachtmaster exam on Sunday. Cross your fingers for us.
Lots of love
Hxx
Squalid Tours
Helen: Well, we've been a fair old way since I last wrote – we all bundled into Ming, our trusty Mitsubishi estate (it's a good thing Panks are small and travel light is all I can say) and then we headed off for Dunedin. The guide book promised 'the Edinburgh of the South'...but it wasn't a patch on the real thing. We visited Princes St and George St and saw a few old stone buildings, but the real attraction was that we saw penguins! They come ashore when it gets dark, so we waited for them on the beach and saw a handful of them waddle ashore with white tummies and big yellow eyebrows and their ankles effectively tied together. You have to stay a long way away from them otherwise you frighten them so they won't return to their nests to feed their babies. Was a magical night – no one else but us and the penguins.
Then it was on to Curio Bay – beautiful beach (L, B and W appreciated it more than us – you can tell they haven't been sailing round the world recently as they were excited by the dolphins too), and then a 3 day tramp. It rained pretty much the whole time (typical West Coast weather – much like the West Coast of Scotland) and we didn't get any views at the top, but the huts were very luxurious – you could even buy wine and beer! Now enjoying a well earned rest before kayaking in Milford Sound tomorrow and wine tasting in Otago after that...
Hxx
PS had a hilarious game of 'international' boggle while on our tramp – we met a lovely Dutch couple and an Israeli girl who all spoke pretty good English so they joined in with our game (Bob's a star and carried travel Boggle all the way up the hill). In the spirit of international relations we decided we ought to play a round in Dutch and a round in Hebrew too. Was interesting how many Dutch words the non-Dutch contingent came up with (they only counted if you could also come up with a reasonable definition and the word actually existed in Dutch) – we didn't do so well in Hebrew though!
PPS had an awful 'oh-bollocks-I've-lost-6-hours-work-on-the-computer' moment last night (believe it or not I'm applying for my old job in Edinburgh again). Annoyingly, I'm now too old to blame the computer (well, I would, but C just looks at me reproachfully when I do.
PPPS read a brilliant bit in the guidebook yesterday – apparently the Maori believe the Fiords were created by a god with an axe and they were so beautiful that the Goddess of Death had to unleash sandflies on the area so that people wouldn't want to stay here forever! It worked!
Final PS – It's Jan 29th today. One year since Matt died. God I wish he was still here. Hannah, we're thinking about you and Nooka and all the good times we had together.
Monday 19 January 2009
Blades of Glory
Helen: C and I are now the proud owners of Pank crafted knives. Ok, so we had a bit of help, but I reckon we made at least 60 % of the knives ourselves - everything from forging the metal in hot coals and bashing the hell out of it on anvils (C was very good at this part - I was a bit pathetic and the man (with lopsided shoulders) had to come and help me out). Then we made the handles (from late 19th C wood no less) and spent hours and hours grinding the blades into shape and then polishing them. Mine is long and curvy and C's is short and stubby - you can definitely tell which is the girly one and which is the manly one. Unfortunately they didn't run a sheath making workshop too, so our beautiful new knives are now being stored in carboard tubes held together with packing tape!
Other than that we haven't done much exciting for the last few days - Greymouth was pretty grey and uninspiring and now we're in Ch-Ch, which, although not so grey, is also not very inspiring. You can punt on the river, and the botanical gardens are lovely - but they're not a patch on the real thing in Oxford or Cambridge. But...none of that matters too much just now as we have other things to keep us busy - Bob, Laura and Will arrived yesterday :) I don't know what the collective term for a group of Panks is, but we are now it. They are remarkably un-jetlagged and we're heading out of town tomorrow to start some proper sightseeing along the south coast.
Will write more when I've got something more interesting to report!
Hxx
PS forgot to tell you that when we were on the Abel Tasman walk we saw lots of marble. I know that sounds like a daft thing to add as a PS, but I think it's super cool - the whole of the park is made of limestone, but some of it got so pressurised in the earth's crust that it turned to marble, and now there are great lumps of it just lying around on the path - proper white shiny marble with veins in it - I just couldn't get over it, considering how expensive marble is at home - I wanted marble kitchen works surfaces til I found out how much it would cost!
PPS you'll be glad to know I now have another sewing project on the go. After all, as C pointed out what is an old sew-and-sew do do with nothing to sew... (I got some Maori print material to make a dress with sleeves - trying to get C to help me choose which print to buy was like pulling teeth. Getting material was the last thing on our very strange shopping list: pipe cleaners (for cleaning the camp stove), liquid fuel (for stove), red plastic (to help with C's colour blindness - if you look at a red light through red plastic you can still see it; if you look at a green light through red plastic it disappears. V important for sailing so you can tell which way the boats are going!), strong thread for fixing my shoes, some parcel tape and a big laundry bag).
Other than that we haven't done much exciting for the last few days - Greymouth was pretty grey and uninspiring and now we're in Ch-Ch, which, although not so grey, is also not very inspiring. You can punt on the river, and the botanical gardens are lovely - but they're not a patch on the real thing in Oxford or Cambridge. But...none of that matters too much just now as we have other things to keep us busy - Bob, Laura and Will arrived yesterday :) I don't know what the collective term for a group of Panks is, but we are now it. They are remarkably un-jetlagged and we're heading out of town tomorrow to start some proper sightseeing along the south coast.
Will write more when I've got something more interesting to report!
Hxx
PS forgot to tell you that when we were on the Abel Tasman walk we saw lots of marble. I know that sounds like a daft thing to add as a PS, but I think it's super cool - the whole of the park is made of limestone, but some of it got so pressurised in the earth's crust that it turned to marble, and now there are great lumps of it just lying around on the path - proper white shiny marble with veins in it - I just couldn't get over it, considering how expensive marble is at home - I wanted marble kitchen works surfaces til I found out how much it would cost!
PPS you'll be glad to know I now have another sewing project on the go. After all, as C pointed out what is an old sew-and-sew do do with nothing to sew... (I got some Maori print material to make a dress with sleeves - trying to get C to help me choose which print to buy was like pulling teeth. Getting material was the last thing on our very strange shopping list: pipe cleaners (for cleaning the camp stove), liquid fuel (for stove), red plastic (to help with C's colour blindness - if you look at a red light through red plastic you can still see it; if you look at a green light through red plastic it disappears. V important for sailing so you can tell which way the boats are going!), strong thread for fixing my shoes, some parcel tape and a big laundry bag).
Wednesday 14 January 2009
Abel Seamen
Helen: No news for a while because we've been at sea or up hills. It was odd being back on board again after so long on land, but we settled back into the routine well enough (the routine including mandatory sea-sickness for the first 24 hours) and had a great week. Our sailing instructor turned out to be my friend Eva's uncle Johnny (I swear there aren't many people in NZ, or the world for that matter, who Eva doesn't know by some roundabout way or other) and he was about as different from our last RYA instructor (who was an arrogant knob-head) as it is possible to be. He laughed and encouraged me through 5 days of sailing and manoeuvring leaving me feeling much more confident about our exam on Feb 9th. Still not sure I'm going to pass...but at least I feel I have a chance now. C did really well too – but he was always much better at all that stuff than me anyway. He bought himself a 'Drizzabone' hat so he looks like a professional now too!
Nelson is a friendly wee town – not as much character as Wellington, but nice enough. Got some yummy cherries from the road side on our way in, have met our yachtie friends Pagos and caught up on all their news, and are feeling very smug as we've booked the next leg of our journey... C is mortally embarrassed about this but we are going on a CRUISE from Sydney to Singapore from Mar 19 to April 4. Yes, I know it'll be full of blue rinse old bats, but it's way way way cheaper than getting a cargo ship (weird, huh?) and it means we don't have to fly – we've got this far without flying (ok, technically we did fly a teeny weeny bit in the Caribbean, but not much), so it would be a shame to start now. We're also deep in discussions with Igor and Anastasia (I kid you not – I bet their real names are Darren and Tracey) in the UK who are going to sort out visas and train tickets for us for Russia, China, Mongolia and Khazakstan. Just so long as I don't have to do it!
We've also been hiking in the Abel Tasman National Park (top of the south island) – the place is crawling with tourists, but 95% of them do the easy walk along the coast – we opted for the inland route and got the place mostly to ourselves (we saw 13 people for 3 days, apart from the last half an hour which is along the popular Coastal Route where we saw 49!)
OK, got to go now – just put Star Wars 1 in the CD drive (I know it's awful, I know, in fact I'm sure the first time I saw it I swore I'd never see it again, but we want to see 2 and 3 again and they won't make sense if we don't watch this one first, so we'll grit our teeth and bear it. All particularly galling considering we could have been watching Erol Flynn's Robin Hood this evening at an open air screening – but it's too far away and C's not feeling well – sore throat – so it's Darth Maul instead.)
Okey Cokey – that's all for now,
Lots of love
H&Cxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sunday 4 January 2009
South Island
Helen: Woke up this morning in Wellington...and now we're in Nelson - have gone from the south of the north island to the north of the south island! Was sad to say goodbye to Eva and Den and the boys - has been lovely having a good friend just down the road - but good to get back on the road again. C said going on a ferry always makes him feel like he's going on holiday as he always went on the ferry to go camping in France when he was little.
Wellington has great galleries, museums and gardens. And lots of cafes, bars and shopping. And hills. And walks. And the sea. And quirky wee buildings. All in all, our favourite place so far in NZ. Reminded us both of San Fran. You won't believe it, but we both quite enjoyed 'cat-sitting' for Noodles for the last week or so - we're both so definitely dog people and not cat people though it was quite a revelation to find that somehow we'd ended up with a ball of purring fluff on our laps every evening! We won't miss the telly though - we watched loads while we were house-sitting - just goes to show that if it's there we'll watch it - we're only human!
Nelson, from what we've seen so far, is great. More later when we've done some exploring. Won't be for a few days though as we're off sailing tomorrow - we have 5 days with a sailing school to prepare for yachtmaster (and then the exam on Feb 7 - yikes!) So, will likely be incommunicado til the weekend (I can't wait for Friday night - we're going to go and see an open air screening of Erol Flynn's Robin Hood - I've been trying to get that on DVD for years now)
OK, time for bed. C is already passed out with the lights on - he had 2 pints of strong stout/dark beer from the independent pub over the road! (The pub had oodles of charm - it had black boards on all the walls with quotations to read, cross words to fill in, points to argue (who would win a 'no-holds-barred' fight - Emimem or Elvis) and things to make you think (can you name 10 body parts with only 3 letters - abbreviations like bum, pec and ass don't count - C and I finally managed it in about 12 minutes - the record is apparently 3.5. Don't worry, next time I write I'll tell you the answer and put you out of your misery...)
Lots of love
Hxxx
Wellington has great galleries, museums and gardens. And lots of cafes, bars and shopping. And hills. And walks. And the sea. And quirky wee buildings. All in all, our favourite place so far in NZ. Reminded us both of San Fran. You won't believe it, but we both quite enjoyed 'cat-sitting' for Noodles for the last week or so - we're both so definitely dog people and not cat people though it was quite a revelation to find that somehow we'd ended up with a ball of purring fluff on our laps every evening! We won't miss the telly though - we watched loads while we were house-sitting - just goes to show that if it's there we'll watch it - we're only human!
Nelson, from what we've seen so far, is great. More later when we've done some exploring. Won't be for a few days though as we're off sailing tomorrow - we have 5 days with a sailing school to prepare for yachtmaster (and then the exam on Feb 7 - yikes!) So, will likely be incommunicado til the weekend (I can't wait for Friday night - we're going to go and see an open air screening of Erol Flynn's Robin Hood - I've been trying to get that on DVD for years now)
OK, time for bed. C is already passed out with the lights on - he had 2 pints of strong stout/dark beer from the independent pub over the road! (The pub had oodles of charm - it had black boards on all the walls with quotations to read, cross words to fill in, points to argue (who would win a 'no-holds-barred' fight - Emimem or Elvis) and things to make you think (can you name 10 body parts with only 3 letters - abbreviations like bum, pec and ass don't count - C and I finally managed it in about 12 minutes - the record is apparently 3.5. Don't worry, next time I write I'll tell you the answer and put you out of your misery...)
Lots of love
Hxxx
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