Travels with a whistle

Home

2009-06-28T01:12:00.000-07:00

WOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOO! I HAVE BEEN AROUND THE WORLD. The exact same words I cheered as I landed at Heathrow airport, much to the amusement of the very cute navy officer that I sat next to in my upgraded business class seat. What a perfect end to an amazingly, fabulous, awesome year. I am now safely back to the UK and am looking forward to life's next adventure.

Thanks for reading.

Signing off.

Love to all.

Pip xx

Time to go Home

2009-06-26T08:55:00.000-07:00

12 countries; 34 planes; numerous buses, boats, jeepneys, motorbikes, mini vans, trains, hire cars, campervans, taxis; 100+ dives; 7000+ photos; 3 haircuts; weight lost, gained, lost and regained; 52 books read; 0 books purchased; family, friends old, friends new; rivers, mountains, jungles, oceans, hot springs, volcanoes, geysers, canyons, caves; flora, fauna; sun, snow, wind, rain; sunny blue skies, dark thunderous skies; beautiful sunsets; many a smile; it is time to head home, time to head back to the UK.

Thai Massage

2009-06-21T08:03:00.000-07:00

I have been pampered, pummeled, pushed and pulled a few times on my travels, all voluntarily and all paying good money for. Each has been good in its own way but I have to say the Thai Herbal Massage that I have had was just incredible. You may wonder why I might need a massage with the relaxation that I have been doing recently but I have to say that walking around a city in flip flops can take its toll on the feet, the ankles and the back. The massage I chose was to relieve aches, pains and tensions in the muscles and to improve circulation. It worked very well and I felt great at the end but I did have to endure two hours of being pulled, pummeled, stretched, bent, and rubbed. Plus, after all that was over I was pummeled with what I can only describe as a super heated pestle that I think had been boiled in a herbal infusion before being pressed all over me. Very strange, but very good and my muscles did feel much better afterwards. It is just a shame that I still need to walk the streets in my flip flops.

Contemplation

2009-06-15T22:19:00.000-07:00

I am back in Bangkok and back to the 'normal' routine of a lazy breakfast, a swim or the gym, a little bit of reading and relaxing, maybe the odd stroll around the city, a skytrain ride and an afternoon with Irene reading stories and playing games. A routine that I really shouldn't get too used to. With all this time to relax and the ever closer end to my travels, or at least this particular trip, I have been thinking about some of the things that I haven't done over the last year, or haven't done much. There is always an exception to the rule and most of mine happened in New Zealand but here are a few things that I came up with.

Work! Ha, it is over a year since I left my job and left Cayman and it is one of the best decisions I ever made. I did work aboard the Nautilus on my travels, and although it was the most physically demanding work I have ever done, and the best way to lose weight ever, it doesn't count as I got to dive every day.

Iron. Not a single thing. I think this is going to have to continue in my everyday life.

Laundry, washing up and other general household chores. I did use a washing machine in New Zealand, sweep out my hippie mobile and do a little bit of washing up whilst camping, but I was outside in beautiful surroundings so again I don't think it counts. It will be great not to have to carry my dirty washing around with me once I stop travelling.

Cooking. As with above NZ was the exception as I was camping and the camp sites and hostels are so well set up that there were often cooking facilities available. I have actually missed being able to cook, it is nice to have the choice to either go out to eat or to stay in and with so many lovely markets that I have visited it would have been good to have sampled a few more local delicacies.

Watched tv. A few places have had televisions and on occasion it has been good to catch up on the news, or chill out in front of a film. However, you can catch up on the news quite easily on the internet and to be honest you don't miss much by only tuning in every now and again.

Worn jeans. Wow! My jeans were my wardrobe, I'm not sure I can give them up completely but it will be quite heavenly to be able to open my wardrobe in the mornings and have a choice of what to wear rather than knowing all you have is 3 pairs of trousers and a few tops.

Driving. Again NZ was an exception and also my road trip across the US but on the whole I have done very little driving and have used public transport all the time. Another thing that I should try and carry back to my every day life, though I am not convinced I will be able to do so very succesfully.

Slept in my own bed. Everywhere I have stayed has been clean but there have been varying degrees of comfort along the way and on occasion it has been much cosier to snuggle into my silk sleeping bag liner than to sleep on rough sheets. I am looking forward to a nice comfy pillow.

Angkor Wat

2009-06-08T22:39:00.000-07:00

The outer wall of Angkor Wat

One of the two libraries at Angkor Wat

The Hindu temple inside Angkor Wat

When nature takes over

It takes no prisoners

Bayon

Buddha heads

The reason I ventured into Cambodia and didn't just do a quick visa run to the border was to visit Angkor Wat. It is the one place that everyone I had spoken to on my travels that had visited here agreed was somewhere not to be missed. So with motorbike chauffeur booked for the day I was ready to explore. Now I have visited both Caracol in Belize and Tikal in Guatemala so I wasn't sure if Angkor Wat was going to live up to all the hype and I wasn't quite sure what to expect. The fact that you need transport for the day, you can hire bicycles if you are feeling really energetic, kind of suggested that the area was going to be large, but wow! Tree lined streets, moats 15km x 13km, gates big enough to keep the most determined of pheasants out (!), and intricacies of bas reliefs that was pretty spectacular, not to mention the temples, the Buddha heads and the palaces. The shear size and area of the place is pretty amazing. The buidlings are in varying states of repair with scaffolding and workmen evident in some areas and the force of nature taking over in others. Some of the temples are Hindu and others are Buddhist. If you want to see all the temples and go into great details you can buy a weeks pass to the area but for me, in the heat, one day was plenty to see the major sights and get a good idea about the place. If anyone plans to visit don't forget to practice your most endearing smile and "no thank you" phrase before you arrive as you will have to say it many times to all the people and children trying to sell you things throughout the day - from water, to food, to postcards to guidebooks. Learning to say it in Cambodian doesn't help either, I think it just encourages them more.

Cambodia

2009-06-08T22:12:00.001-07:00

I thought this was cooking oil for sale - until I saw a moped pull up and fill her tank with it.

"tuk tuk lady?" - a call you may start to hear in your sleep it is called so often

Cambodian landscape - pretty flat, and until recently covered with land mines

There are still land mines over other parts of Cambodia, but this area has been cleared for rice growing

With a little spare time on my hands, and a visa that is about to expire, I head over to the border and to Cambodia for a short break - as you do! Having not been on a journey for more than one hour over the last month the journey to Siam Reap, Cambodia seemed rather long and arduous. Skytrain north of Bangkok to the bus station, then a motorbike taxi to the actual bus station when I got lost walking through the park and had no idea where I was heading :-) four and a half hour bus journey to the border, where I had to change seats as the air conditioning was leaking on me - I think it was only water - a bus to the border proper, out through Thai immigration, in through Cambodia immigration and a further four hours to Siam Reap. Add in the torrential rain that started two hours into the journey, didn't let up until about ten minutes from Siam Reap and caused localised flooding at the border - read, Philippa was splashing through ankle deep puddles to walk through the borders, trying to avoid all the children trying to sell a walk under an umbrella and hoping that she was only walking in water - and I was pretty darn knackered by the time I arrived at my hotel. Luckily it was a very nice, clean hotel and a lovely air conditioned ensuite room - all for $6. I was also feeling quite smug as the only other people on the bus from the border to Siam Reap were fellow foreigners and they had paid between $30-$50 for the same journey as a tour which had cost me only $16 - plus an extra $1 for the motorbike ride out of the park in Bangkok!

The Ancient City

2009-06-01T00:42:00.000-07:00

The weekend rolls around again and this weekend we are all off to Muang Boran, or the ancient city, just outside of Bangkok. The ancient city is a large area shaped like Thailand and has all the ancient temples and palaces from all over Thailand represented, either as reproductions or in some cases the original that has been moved here to be preserved. Kind of like a model village but on a much larger scale. It must be quite nice having your auntie to visit, all these weekend trips, it's got to beat sitting at home playing on the computer, and we all managed to stay together this time. Along with all the temples and palaces there is also a water village with lots of eateries and ladies on boats with their kitchens to prepare you a snack or a lite meal. Thai food is so flavoursome, I love it. A simple noodle soup, cooked fresh and flavoured with lemon grass and ginger is just wonderful and it is the perfect mid day food to keep you going the rest of the day. I'm not so sure about the pork balls however, I suppose they are the equivalent to an English sausages - not a lot of meat.

The Grand Palace

2009-06-01T00:21:00.000-07:00

A trip up a very fast flowing and rather grubby looking river and you arrive at the pier that will lead you through to the Grand Palace and the Emerald Buddha. Once you get through the people trying to sell you a bottle of water for 20baht - it is 7baht elsewhere - the tuk tuk drivers trying to scam you saying that the Palace is closed and the tour guides trying to scam you saying you cannot go into the Palace dressed as you are - if you stop to chat they each try and take you someplace else where they receive a commission or scam you into a tour - then it truly is grand. There are rules to what you can and cannot wear to walk around the area but if you are not suitably dressed then there are shirts and sarongs etc. that can be borrowed for the occasion. There is so much gold, gold leaf, gems and all things that sparkle everywhere and the Wat that houses the emerald Buddha is enormous and very elaborate to house such a small Buddha - compared to others around Bangkok it is minuscule - sorry, you cannot take photos. I have been to a lot of the tourist places around Bangkok before but it was worth seeing this again. On the boat ride back along the river I stopped at a local flower market. It is a wholesale market for flowers as well as fruit and vegs and it is a massive area just brimming in piles of chillies, all different sizes, and garlic and onions and herbs and spices, but this is not really a market for your usual kitchen purchases, people were buying chillies in drum fulls and onions and garlic by the truck load. Away from the fruit and veggies are the flower stalls, again mainly for bulk purchasing but you could pick up a dozen roses for one dollar - no excuses for saying it with flowers here. The only disappointment was that there was no beautiful aroma of flowers floating over everywhere, the roses must just not be scented.

Looking after Children

2009-05-28T00:42:00.001-07:00

Locals
Feeding time
Count the carp

Floating market - but only a replica

The weekend came around and Saturday was a trip to Safari World. I had a bit of a moral dilema with this one as I do not agree with the exploitation of animals and when you start dressing up orangutans in clothes it is just plain wrong. Skipping this dilema and apologising for paying money for the profiteering of this exploit Irene did enjoy herself and hopefully learned a little bit about animals, and maybe the park is doing some good - I will have to check in on this.

Children in Thailand have quite a lot of freedom for running around, wondering off and doing their own thing without the ever constant gaze of their parents - or at least Irene seems to. She will be with you one minute and off doing her own merry little thing the next. Which is all well and good when you are in areas that you know and when her mum is there to be the controlling influence, or at least to take the responsibility. However, leave me in charge and it is cause for a few more grey hairs when she goes wondering off in the middle of the Safari Park, not to be seen for the next 30 minutes, and she has to be called over the park's intercom to be found. Needless to say, Irene was quite happy checking out all the parrots in the bird area and was not at all perplexed that she was on her own. I on the other hand was worried sick and will probably not be on babysitting duty ever again :-)

Lazy

2009-05-28T00:23:00.001-07:00

Take the skytrain to avoid the horrendous traffic
A stadium of beer cans - not sure if they are full!

Irene has gone back to school so apart from a couple of afternoons where I have been busy looking through school books, playing on cbeebies website and generally being a seven year old I have had some time to myself and to explore Bangkok. My exploring has taken me..................erm, well, nowhere in particular. I have been enjoying the 'freedom' of not travelling, not moving from one destination to the next and the delights of sleeping, reading, having a fridge, lazing by the pool and the odd trip to the gym. Such a hard life but someone has to do it. I have broken up my laziness with a few wonders around Bangkok, taking in the many, many many, shopping malls, markets, outlets, street stalls etc etc etc. If there is one thing you can do in Bangkok it is shop. Not that I have been buying. Things are not as cheap here as they were in Malaysia and in the Philippines, although I think there is greater variety in Bangkok, and you can get a bargain. The problem with clothes is that a lot of the cheaper places and market stalls where you can pick up some good things you cannot try things on, and I am not exactly the same shape as a Thai so I have abstained. It is also rainy season here so although you can start the day with glorious sunshine odds are at some point during the day it is going to rain, and it is going to rain hard. The good thing about the rain is that it makes the temperatures a little cooler and when it does rain it is not cold, but you just get soaked to the bone. With the rain also comes some amazing thunder storms and it is rather exciting to sit, inside in the dry, and watch the lightening across the Bangkok skyline and duck as the thunder crashes so loud above you that you think the sky is about to fall in.

Food

2009-05-21T23:23:00.001-07:00

The happy family

Out to dinner - this is squid

BBQ or fried - your choice

Are they just leaves?

It is lovely to be able to wake up and open the fridge and have a selection of cereal for breakfast and nice fresh cold milk, but I cannot survive on cereal alone and no trip to Thailand is complete with sampling the tasty food. The vast majority of restaurants in Bangkok, even in the outer areas, have menus in English as well as in Thai so it is quite easy to order something that you want, though it is always quite exciting just pointing out something and taking pot luck. [Note to self: if you have a choice between something green and something red go for the red - although it seems to go against logic green chillies are often hotter than red.] It is also fun walking around the markets and seeing everything that is available and there is always something to eat or something cooking everywhere you turn. Having a Thai, Rung, my sister in law, to guide you makes it all the more enjoyable and informative - it also helps to get you samples of things before you buy - or not in the case of some rather hot dishes.

Seven

2009-05-21T22:59:00.000-07:00

Fantasy land at Dreamworld

Snow white's house

Irene and me at the park

Out on the pedalo

Introduction to aquatic life

Oh to be seven years old again!

My first week in Bangkok has past with a blur, the first time in ten months that I will be based in one place for a month or more and I have been running around like a headless chicken. Okay, not quite running as it is far too hot for that kind of activity but it hasn't been like a week on the beach sunning myself and relaxing :-) I have had to find somewhere to stay as my brother has just moved and not only would there be no room for me at his place but everything he owns is in boxes and piled in every space available. I have found myself a lovely studio, equipped with a little kitchenette so I get to buy milk and eat cereal for breakfast - I really cannot get used to fried egg and rice - and have lovely cold drinks whenever I like - though that does mean I have to go shopping and buy them! There is also a gym and a swimming pool and it is very close to a skytrain station so getting about Bangkok is a doddle.

Sorted with accommodation I make the most of Irene being off school until next week and we get busy doing things that 7 year olds like to do - we go to the park, we play on the swings, we feed the fish, we go out on a peddalo (oh my these are hard and sweaty work!), we use my swimming pool and splash about until our fingers are wrinkly and I am cold - I am in Bangkok and I get cold! We then spend a day at a theme park and get to see giants and 4d adventure shows - not for long as 7 year olds can get quite scared. We feed cows and goats and get to see snow whites house and sleeping beauty, we go on rides - I am glad Irene is only 7 as I cannot do fair ground rides that go round and round - and we even get to have a snow ball fight in an indoor snow room. I enjoy playing and hanging out with my niece and I sleep very well in the evenings.

Bangkok

2009-05-16T02:43:00.000-07:00

Irene my niece

The bad news is - I am at my final flight destination before my flight back to the UK, but the good news is - I have over 2 months before that flight home, I will still need to visit another country before I return home as I am only allowed to stay in Thailand for 30 days as a tourist and I have met up with my brother, sister in law and my beautiful niece. I plan to spend as much time as I can with my niece while I am here so I am not sure what I will have to update to my blog other than trips to the park, visiting snow white's house and generally playing the child etc. But do log in every now and again as I am sure I can do some local or touristy things while she is at school.

The perfect souvenir

2009-05-16T02:26:00.000-07:00

I have found the perfect souvenir from my travels. It is functional, eco friendly and it will not shrink in the wash. I have bought re-usable shopping bags from Borneo and Hong Kong. Every time I visit my local supermarket when I am back at home I can take my shopping home in my bags from across the world, which will remind me of my travels as long as help in saving the planet from plastic bags. The hunt is now on to find one from Thailand.

Macau

2009-05-16T01:28:00.001-07:00

Las Vegas on the edge of China

Casinos everywhere

The old....

....and the new???

Balconies to sing from

Forts to defend

Ruins

Chinese street

Plazas

Turbojet

Where Portugal meets Las Vegas on the edge of China! A day trip from Hong Kong the turbojet ferry whisks you across the sea in just over an hour to reach Macau. Like Hong Kong, Macau is part of China but is deemed a separate territory and hence no visa is required to enter, though you do have to travel with your passport and I did get another exit, entry and re-entry stamp to show for my journey. They also use their own currency, however, thankfully everywhere takes the Hong Kong dollar as well. The Portuguese developed the area and have left their mark with European buildings and plazas and the official language here is still Portuguese, along with Chinese. The buildings and ruins aside you still know that you are not in Europe, the side streets are busy selling weird and wonderful things, and little eateries dot every other shop, all very Chinese. To attract the modern day tourist, or just the modern day gambler, there are masses of casinos here and they seemed to be doing a roaring trade. The games I saw being played were very different from anything I had seen before, no black jack or roulette, and the gambling areas were very smokey so I did not hang around for long. Macau is also home to the biggest casino in the world, the Venetian, and although I had watched a National Geographic programme on how it was built and really wanted to see it, it is located on a different island and I was too tired by the time I had seen the rest of Macau so I will have to leave that for another visit!!!

Interlude

2009-05-05T00:30:00.000-07:00

I am back in Hong Kong for a few days before I fly to Bangkok.

I have just had a picnic in the park with crusty fresh bread, baked without any sugar, borsin cheese, baby carrots, cherry tomatoes and fresh pineapple for dessert. How heavenly.

I also no longer appear to be a back packer. With a sarong, towel and a few t-shirts and then a wet suit, fins and booties purchased in the Philippines, a few souvenirs purchased in Borneo and just a little bit of retail therapy here in Hong Kong, I have gone from having one very reasonably packed 12kg back pack to a very heavy, thoroughly stuffed back pack plus a suitcase, which had to be bought to accomodate the excess. I hope my brother doesn't mind storing my junk in Bangkok!

Tough to get used to

2009-05-05T00:08:00.001-07:00

My adventures in Borneo have come to an end. What a lovely green and diverse island, with such flora and fauna, above and below the ocean. Brunei is a bit of an oddity sat in the middle of northern Malaysian Borneo, but there is a distinct cultural difference here and the mosques were certainly the grandest I saw in Borneo. Sarawak is a far more laid back and casual place than Sabah and the people seemed just a touch more friendly. Sabah is fast becoming a destination for the rich - Malaysians and foreigners. A lot of the things to do are by arranged tour only and with this prices can sky rocket. There are still many cheap places to sleep and eat but it can be quite difficult to self travel to some of the more popular areas.

Some things that it would take me a long time to get used to, both here and in the Philippines are:
The humidity - I would say the heat as well but it is not much hotter here than in the Caribbean, though the difference being I was more often than not sat in an air conditioned office in the Caribbean. The humidity is bad, or at least the constant covering of sweet is just yukky!

Spitting - this just makes me cringe. Car drivers will wind down their window and gob on the street and people walking along will clear their throat and then spit it out on the road - just horrible.

Smoking - as mentioned before, there is far more evidence of smoking in public here than in the UK, though Borneo wasn't quite as bad as the Philippines - at least smoking is prohibited on public transport.

Cuts of meat - chicken always seemed to be the safe choice when chosing a dish but I hate to have to pick through my food and when you ask for chicken is is more often than not on the bone and it could be any part or combination of parts of the chicken.

Squat toilets - most places had a choice of squat or western toilets, though some places, mainly bus stops, only had the squat option. We just were not brought up to do it like this. Where are you supposed to put your bag, and it is even worse when you have a rucksack as well!

All the beautiful and extremely thin women. Okay, so at 5ft4 and xxxlbs, I'm not exactly a giant but hey I've been eating the same diet as them for the last 12 weeks or so and I'm still not a stick. At least here, unlike in Ecuador, the men are rather good looking too :-)

Turtles

2009-05-05T00:03:00.000-07:00

How could I forget to mention the masses of turtles that were at Sipidan? They were mainly big green turtles and in the afternoon dives there would be at least 15 in sight at any one time. They would be sleeping on the reef, resting in nooks and crannies, swimming into each other, going up for air, diving down into the depths and generally just 'raining' down on us at every turn. Cool!

Sipidan

2009-05-02T00:04:00.000-07:00

Crystal clear water

Me and my dive buddies

Sipidan Water Village

Roughing it!

Surface interval

I have been spoilt for the rest of my travels! This is a dive destination that has been near the top of my list for quite a while, and to make it extra special I was treating myself to a stay in a rather fancy resort, a resort built on stilts over the water. Everything was just perfect. Beautifully calm seas, blue skies, amazing visibility and clarity underwater, great sightings, a lovely bunch of dive buddies, a fabulous room and great food. The sun shone on every dive and the light just sparkled off the reef and the mass of life that was living on it. I have seen massive schools of jack fish, barracuda, bumphead parrot fish and spade fish, I have seen many white tip and grey reef sharks and I have seen cuttle fish, pygmy sea horses, ghost pipe fish, long nose pipe fish, leaf fish, ribbon eels, moray eels, scorpion fish, big and small, stone fish, crocodile fish, shrimps and crabs, big and small and much more besides. On one dive I watched as a white tip reef shark hunted and devoured an octopus. The shark had is head in a hole and was thrashing about frantically with sand going everywhere. After a little while it gave up and out of the hole emerged the octopus, rather shaken and minus a tentacle. The octopus started to creep over the reef and then started to free swim over the reef, the shark came back and in one gulp the octopus was inside the sharks mouth. Ink from the octopus was everywhere and the shark continued to circle around with just the end of the octopus's tentacle sticking out of its mouth. Not something you see everyday! Awesome!

A birds eye view

2009-05-01T23:52:00.000-07:00

Mount Kinabalu from the plane

Back to KK, long enough to get a hair cut, and then onto Tawau on the eastern side of Sabah and the gateway to the islands of Sipidan, Mabul and Kapalai, for more diving. The flight takes you over Sabah, and after a fabulous view of the top of mount Kinabalu above the cloud the view turns into a rather sadder sight. There was far more evidence of the logging industry flying over Sabah than I had seen in Sarawak. Huge areas of rainforest had been cleared and all that was left to see was networks and veins of logging tracks. Just when I thought the destruction wasn't as bad as I had first thought, as I was starting to see more areas of green I realised that the green I was seeing was a little to regimented and a little too uniformly green. What I had taken for rainforest was enormous plantations of palm trees, palm trees being grown for palm oil. Rainforest destruction is most definitely a reality.

Layang Layang

2009-05-01T23:33:00.000-07:00

Layang Layang

Time to dive

Surface interval

Weight restrictions

Been diving! Been spoilt rotten with lovely accommodation and all inclusive food - oh to eat milk and cereal for breakfast to eat fruit and fresh veggies every day. The schedule was a tough one - eat, dive, rest, dive, eat, rest, dive, rest, eat, rest, sleep and then a bit more of the same the next day. Layang Layang is an island one hours prop plane flight north west ,ish, from Kota Kinabalu. It has been fought over for a number of years, due to the prospect of oil supplies, and ended up in the possession of Malaysia who now have a navy base firmly planted on the island, along with a dive resort and a few thousands birds and that is pretty much it. As the flight was on a prop plane, on check in, not only did my bags need to be weighed but I also had to stand on the check in scales - I'm happy to report that my weight is quite satisfactory, thank you! The diving was good and the focus hear is on hammerhead shark sightings. The morning dives were often out to a point where you dive in the blue hoping to see a hammerhead, or if you are lucky a school of them. I saw the odd one swim by but they were quite deep and then I got to see a school of 15 (ish) - always an awesome sight. The reefs were healthy with plenty of life but unfortunately it was nesting season of the infamous trigger fish, thankfully only in specific areas of the reef. The trigger fish guards it's nest with ferocity, and not only it's nest but an area above it's nest in an ever expanding cone shape. If you happen to swim into its area it will attack with a very viscous bite - and it is not a small fish. The only thing you can do is avoid the area and if you happen to swim into it you need to get out pretty damn quickly - and not upwards as this remains in the 'zone' and the trigger fish will continue to harass you. I am pleased to report no injury.

Diving

2009-04-16T23:15:00.000-07:00

I have just been reunited with my wetsuit, fins and mask and I cannot believe how excited I am that I am off diving again :-) All I need now is to clear away all the snot that is in my head, I love Borneo but it does not seem to have the same affection for me :-(

Gone diving!

Orangutans

2009-04-16T22:49:00.000-07:00

The proboscis monkeys were weird and wonderful, the macaques were mischievous and plentiful but the orangutans are powerful, masterful and just a little bit scary. I wasn't quite in the wild to see them but at a rehabilitaion sanctuary where these endangered animals are looked after before being released back into their dwindling natural habitat. It wasn't quite the wild but it was as near as and they certainly were not in cages. The single orang pictured above was stood in a tree greeting visitors as they arrived into the sanctuary - I think he would have gladly accepted peoples tickets to stamp them in, and then the mother and baby were just sitting on the boardwalk rail happily being photographed. The mother then decided to escort visitors along the boardwalk to the feeding station, stopping ever 5-10m to check that everyone was still following her - don't get too close though, those arms of hers are very long and very powerful - try telling the Japanese that! The feeding platform is used to support the orangs natural feeding, offering them fruit and milk. Once the orangutans have had their fill (and most of the tourist have left) the macaques take over the platform and the orangutans who obvioulsy don't like a huge audience also come along to feed. A great experience.

Mount Kinabalu

2009-04-11T02:58:00.000-07:00

The cloud clears

A rainbow over the mountain
A river hike
Obscured by the clouds

Back to Sabah and this time it was just a short one and a half hours flight from Kuching to Kota Kinabalu - goodness knows how long it would have taken me if I had decided to go by bus! Time enough for a fuel stop and a reflexology foot massage (ouch!) in KK and I am on another bus and heading inland for Mount Kinabalu, the highest mountain between the Himalayas and the island of New Guinea at 4095m. Not that I have any intention of climbing it - I like to hike, but I don't like hiking up so much and in this humidity it would be shear hell for me. With the park entrance at over 1000m the temperature is refreshingly cooler than elsewhere and down right cold at the 4095m mark no doubt. I do however feel like I need to have a little rant about the park set up, there haven't been too many rants over the last 9 months so I feel quite justified for a little one now. I was going to stay in the park itself, however they wanted RM120 for a dorm bed. Now, we are not talking huge amounts of money here, (for ease of calculation 1USd=4RM), but in comparison I have been paying on average RM50 for a private room with bathroom. I thought maybe it was because it was last minute and close to Easter so I just chose to stay outside of the park - not too difficult, a lovely private room with bathroom and a balcony looking out to the mountain for RM80. I then went on a very nice hike through the forest and following a river. I arrived back at HQ, very hot and sweaty and needed a drink. I then thought I would have lunch and chill out in the park for a while. However, lunch in the cafe was RM50 - 5 0 as I repeated to the cashier. I have been paying an average of between RM5 and RM10 for very decent food which often included a drink. So I think the private company that is running all the accommodation, food, guides and hiking permits for the park is taking the Michael - big time. I hate to think how much it costs to climb the mountain. I head back to my hotel and balcony and have a very nice late lunch there. As if the mountain felt my angst it later showed itself from behind the clouds and put on a spectacular display as the sun set and a rainbow formed - now that was worth paying for.

Bako National Park

2009-04-11T02:36:00.000-07:00

The pitcher plant
Another beautiful Borneo sunset

My proboscis monkey

Secluded beaches

View points

Forest walks

Mud skipper - the missing link

No entry

Ocean front

These guys hung out around the human food

This is another one of those moments where I will let the pictures tell the tale. Needless to say with limestone, sandstone, rainforest, mangroves, wetland, dryland, and ocean the Bako National Park has a lot to offer. The guides are very informative and helpful and can point out a lot of stuff, but I have to say there is something quite magical about wandering the rainforest paths alone, listening to the sound of the forest and then coming across your very own group of proboscis monkeys. As my photo is not so great and it is a female rather than a male I have added in this link so you can see how weird and wonderful these monkeys are: http://www.geocities.com/RainForest/Vines/5257/gdc5.html

Kuching

2009-04-11T02:17:00.001-07:00

Multi coloured multi storey car park
The cat is king
Kareoke competition
Museums

Chinese temples

China town

Museums, churches, mosques, Chinese temples, taoist temples, palaces, city halls, white rajahs, British colonial buildings, the most colourful multi storey car park I have ever seen, Saturday afternoon kareoke competitions, cinemas, good food, markets, honour to the cat and a name that sounds like the old store till from Are you Being Served, what is there not to like about Kuching.

No Rush

2009-04-03T02:59:00.000-07:00

As I fly out of the rain forest I need to decide on my next destination and how to get there - no real planning going on here, just heading in a general direction. I opt to head to Kuching, which is pretty much at the far western end of Sarawak, and is either a short flight away or an 8 hour bus journey, with an over night stop followed by a 5 hour boat journey. Guess which I picked. Wrong! As I was in no rush I opted for the bus and boat journey as I felt I would get to see more of the countryside and I actually rather like the bus journeys, and I am in no rush. The bus was very comfortable with wide recline able seats, a decent temperature, though the air con seemed to work over time at the end of the journey and I needed to put my fleece on, regular 2 hourly toilet and food stops and James Bond movies all the way - I resorted to my ipod as you could not hear the sound track. It was an enjoyable journey with much of it finding its way through the rain forest, only interrupted by a few towns and along the way there was clear evidence of the logging industry with huge lorries hurtling past and big logging camps/factories piled high with wood. There was also a large number of longhouses en route - the traditional wooden habitats of indigenous peoples, which is a long house with individual living rooms but with one communal veranda where all the entertainment and merriment occurs. The wooden structures however were often stood in decay with a brand new concrete structure taking its place - just like a row of town houses. The journey was quite tiring and I booked myself into a hotel at the bus station in Sibu. A heavily Chinese populated town which left me searching for food in an area where the eating houses only displayed their offerings in Chinese. Looking very lost and stupid some kind soul must have took pity on me and told me (in Chinese) just to point at something someone else was eating. I ended up with a herbal soup - it was very tasty but I may have been trying to cure something that I didn't have. It was very reminiscent of the eating houses in Ecuador where I didn't know what I was ordering, but at least there there were pictures. Next was the boat to Kuching. Which I missed - oops! I should have asked as my guide book said there were 2 boats at 7:30 and 12:45 but there was only one boat at 11:30. Oh well, another night in Sibu, but this time in the town itself, with more aimless wondering and a lovely discovery of a bottle of ribena - the drinks here all seem to be very sweet. I caught the boat the following day and traveled the river with more signs of logging and across the sea to Kuching. A journey that could have taken an hour or two, that turned into a journey of three days. Oh well, good job I am in no rush.

Life in the Rain Forest

2009-03-31T23:26:00.000-07:00

Mulu National Park

2009-03-31T22:57:00.000-07:00

Entrance to Clearwater cave

Wind cave

Cave formations

Entrance to Deer cave - exit for the bats

Inside out

The park land

Life in the rain forest

River life

Back into Malaysian Borneo and I enter Sarawak via a booming oil town of Miri, a jumble of a town which seems way bigger and busier than KK and is probably the most difficult place I have ever tried to navigate around on foot - there are so many different interlinking streets and nowhere to cross the roads. Good enough for an aimless wonder, which I am getting rather good at, before flying into the interior of Borneo and into the rain forest and to Mulu National Park. Although Mulu is in the rain forest it is more about the caves here than the rain forest itself - if you have ever seen the caves episode of Planet Earth then you will know where I am. The limestone mountains and cliffs in the area allow for numerous and expansive cave systems, some only discovered very recently and most still being explored. There are four 'show caves' that you can visit - Deer, Lang, Wind and Clearwater and they are all huge, with deer cave having the largest chamber and being home to millions of bats, along with their guano and the thousands of insects that feed on it. Clearwater cave is the longest and has a river flowing through it - it is 129km long but visitors are only allowed 400m in - oh how the dark winding cave beckons you onwards. All the caves have good formations in them and are visited either by walks through the rain forest or via a boat trip along the river. The caves themselves are spectacular but the highlight for me was watching, at dusk, the millions of bats leaving the cave. The bats do not always leave the cave as quite sensibly if the weather is foul they will stay in for the night. I went along two nights in a row and the first night, after there being some heavy rain, well it is the rain forest, near to dusk only a few thousand bats left the cave - I'm only estimating obviously. It was still an awesome sight and if I hadn't got back the next night I would have thought that I had seen all the bats leaving. The second night the bats started to emerge in small batches - hundreds or maybe thousands at a time, flying together in a long line swirling around, sticking together to avoid the waiting birds of prey and then one batch started to leave the cave and it was just endless, it must have continued for at least 5 or more minutes - bats after bats after bats - amazing. To top it all, even with all the rain, no sign of leeches :-)

Brunei

2009-03-27T01:02:00.000-07:00

Time for prayer

Houses on stilts

My ferry between Malaysia and Brunei

Very photogenic

The mosque in the background overlooking the water village

The largest mosque in the country

A beautiful Borneo Sunset

I need to stop crossing borders, my passport is getting full. I had only just arrived in Malaysia and I have left already - working my away along the northern coast of Borneo - Sabah, Malaysia to Brunei to Sarawak, Malaysia - passport stamps for arriving and passport stamps for leaving. Brunei is not quite the gold encrusted pavements that I had anticipated but there is clearly wealth here. It is a very safe and quiet place - not much in terms of night life and the streets are almost deserted come 8pm. A very pleasant place to stroll the streets and museums and to discard your shoes and don a robe to visit the local mosques - the insides are relatively plain but the outsides can be rather grand - it is also quite hypnotic to see the sunset over the mosque and at the same time listen to the call to prayer. Although wealth is apparent there is also poverty with the mosque over looking the water villages, although a lot of the houses on stilts do have all the mod cons of modern day society. It is not until you travel the coast of Brunei back into Malaysia that the source of the wealth becomes apparent - oil rigs out to sea and nodding donkeys bordering the highways.

Kota Kinabalu

2009-03-23T22:27:00.000-07:00

A quick snack - flat bread cooked with onion served with curry gravy
Long houses at the museum

Kota Kinabalu front

Just in case you forget that you are in a muslim country

I have arrived in Borneo, and although I have spent a few days resting and trying to shift my germs I have got out a little bit to see the city - more like a town. It is all about eating here - just my cup of tea :-) There are more eating places than anything else and if you are not buying a meal then you can go to the market and buy more food there. There are numerous influences in the food here and it all seems very fresh and very tasty - it is funny to see Filipino restaurants here as to my taste buds the Filipino food is far blander then anything else on offer. My favourite has to be the indian influenced restaurants - very good curries and lots of flat breads - all very cheap. There are even local canned drinks here, which is nice to see that not everywhere has been overtaken by coca cola and pepsi, though they are still present. I haven't tried the soya milk based drinks yet but I did have a can of Chrysanthemum juice - not sure how to describe the flavour but it was very refreshing. I got out to the museum and saw a bit of the history of Borneo, or actually just Sabah (see below) and all about the long houses in the area.

Borneo is one island but three countries - Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia, and the Malysian bit is split into two provinces - Sabah and Sarawak. Get your atlases out and have a look!

Now I just have to get over my fear/disgust of leeches and get out into the jungle to see the

natural highlights of Borneo.

Aeroplanes and Air Conditioning

2009-03-23T22:21:00.001-07:00

Damn them both! Aeroplanes are always a menace with all those germs freely dancing around a small confined area just leisurly chosing their next victim. Add in artic cold air conditioning in flight terminals and all those germs just dart for cover - and what better place to go than into a nice warm cosy place at the back of a poor travellers throat. And not content to stay in the throat some of those germs take a longer journey and travel to the chest. Needless to say I've been a little sick - again - bugger - nothing for 7 months and then twice almost within a month. Nothing serious but enough to keep me in doors and resting. Damn that air conditioning, it is far better to stay hot and exceedingly sweaty - isn't it?

Afternoon Tea

2009-03-23T22:05:00.000-07:00

I was the smartest one there - not!

Selection of mousses
Let them eat cake

The Grand Hyatt

I enjoyed this so mush that I felt that it deserved its very own blog post and a few extra photos. I spent the afternoon taking afternoon tea at the Grand Hyatt - if you are a little bit hungry you may want to go and grab yourself a slice of cake before you proceed.

The setting was grand - the first floor of the Hyatt over looking the bay and the buildings on Hong Kong Island, and a man at the grand piano tinkling the ivories before a very well presented buffet afternoon tea - a fine selection of sweet and savoury. I started with a few sandwiches and a little light salad, next came a refreshing plate of fruit to clean the palate - fresh and juicy pineapple, kiwi, melon, orange and a white fleshy fruit with little black seeds (not sure what it is called). No afternoon tea is complete without scones and jam and the biggest dollop of clotted cream you have ever seen - well I could help myself! Next came a little dim sum, noodles, sausage rolls and egg custard with caviar (which I did not like - either the egg custard or the caviar). Next a plate of all the chocolate desserts on offer - and there were quite a few - followed by ice cream, whcih I am sure was haagen daz, and just for good measure another dollop of clotted cream on top. A few heavenly macaroons and then a final plate of slightly less rich but just as delectable fruity cakes - like a mouth watering, melt in your mouth, mango bavarian mousse - oh so nice. And for those that are wondering, yes I did wash it down with tea - a new thing for me - I am okay when the tea is just poured and if there is a lot of water to add but I am still against the taste once the tea has steeped too long - I even have picked up the terminology!!! I was so full that I decided to skip the two MTR stops back to my hotel area and I walked along the front to try and walk off a few of the pounds I had clearly just devoured. A must for anyone visiting Hong Kong!

Hong Kong in Pictures - part 2

2009-03-20T23:13:00.000-07:00

Riding the tram

Visiting the Hong Kong flower festival

A mass of colour

Afternoon tea at the Grand Hyatt - very decadent and ever so scrummy

Visiting giants - they are people in the fore ground

Selecting the only foggy day of the week to ride the cable car - doh!

Riding the MTR - doesn't matter if it is foggy!

Hong Kong in pictures

2009-03-16T21:52:00.000-07:00

Enjoying city parks
Staying out after dark
Catching up on world news

Getting lost amongst the many buildings

Sundays are for hanging out - anywhere you can find room

Messing about on the water

Enjoying art work in the many parks

Riding the longest escalator in the world

Shopping!

Time to reflect

Relaxing in my hotel and enjoying the view

Enjoying fine chinese cuisine

Testing out new religions

How I have been spending my time in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong

2009-03-16T21:02:00.000-07:00

My original trip had me in and out of Hong Kong three times with no real stop over to see the sights on offer, which seemed a bit of a waste, so I have changed my flight times and have a one week stop over in Hong Kong, where I plan to rest and recuperate, take in the fine dining, be a real tourist and basically just blend in to the crowds.

The writing on the wall

2009-03-16T20:56:00.000-07:00

This was not graffiti but it was written on the back of a toilet door in Manila airport - how profound!

"Contentment is not fulfilment of what you wish for but appreciation of what you have. Appreciate life itself, even if it is not perfect."

What a fitting end to a trip to the Philippines. I wonder what people thought when they saw a camera flash going off in the toilet stall ;-)

Cockerels

2009-03-16T20:50:00.000-07:00

I forgot to mention the number of cockerels that there are in the Philippines, even in the middle of Manila you can wake up to the lovely sound of cock-a-doodle-doo - endlessly!!!! I assume the number are due to the fact that cock fighting is still a much practised sport here - coming in third to national past times only to kareoke and texting :-)

Philippine Oddities

2009-03-11T04:18:00.000-07:00

I am coming to the end of my travels in the Philippines and I thought I would just mention a few oddities of travel here. I have not traveled a lot in Asia so I do not know if they are specific to the Philippines or are general throughout.

Cash: credit cards are not accepted in a lot of places here and there are not that many ATMs outside of major towns, and even if there are ATMs they can quite often be 'offline' (not working) and have a maximum withdrawal limit - often $80. You have to be prepared and get your cash out whenever you can and plan your trips around towns/cities. It was with much dismay that having phoned ahead to my dive resort in Cabilao to check if they accepted credit card (which they did) that when I came to pay my bill they said ' we accept credit card but the machine often does not have a signal'. Oh! I had very little cash on me. There was no panic, I was to be accompanied, on my departure, to the next town and its ATM - via the motorbike, boat, jeepney route. After queuing a considerable time at the only ATM in town I was told that the machine does not accept foreign cards. Oh! So what to do? I left my e-mail address and was told that they would get in touch and I could transfer the money bank to bank. What a way to do business! The bill was $200 and as of yet, 6 days later, I have yet to hear from them.

Other things to get used to here:
Smoking - everyone smokes and there are very few smoke free zones, including on the buses. Toilet paper does not go down the loo and a lot of places do not provide it anyway (always carry your own). Not that it bothers the men, they just stop the bus and pee at the side of the road - nice!
Cold showers - most of the places that I have stayed have had cold showers, and in a few places the shower consisted of a big bucket full of water and a little bucket to scoop the water out and throw it over your head.
Mangos and pineapples are in season and have been lovely but remember to ask for no added sugar when asking for fresh juice.
Food is okay and inexpensive but is not as tasty as Thai and Chinese and they like to fry a lot of things.
Most places to stay charge out for a room rather than per person so it is a little more expensive to travel alone.
Enjoy the travel - the journey is just as exciting as the destination.
And be prepared to be stared at - the Filipinos have no quarms at openly staring at you - and I am not even blonde!

Letye

2009-03-11T04:04:00.000-07:00

My travel companions on the ferry

I spoke too soon about buses with flat tires! Another island and another journey - a reverse of the motorbike, boat, jeepney, followed by two more jeepneys, a ferry crossing, a bicycle cab (foot powered tricycle rather than a motorbike powered one) and one more jeepney. The last jeepney being an added bonus as the ferry didn't actually land in the town that I had expected it to - oops! It was also this jeepney that had a flat tire on the journey, but as before it was swifly mended and we didn't even have to get off. A long days travel from Bohol to Leyte and I seem to have left most of the tourists behind, though I did get to share my room with an uninvited guest - a small mouse.

More diving and relaxing for me in Southern Leyte, in an area called Padre Burgos. The diving was good but I didn't see as many critters here as at Cabilao, I am not sure if the critters are just not here or whether the dive guides were just not quite as good at finding them. Very relaxed all the same and some good company with fellow divers.

Cabilao Island, Bohol

2009-03-06T18:15:00.000-08:00

A calm morning
Sunset
In case you've forgotten what I look like (it's a trick of the light - I am not really very brown!)

Sunset

The tree house

This is my kind of diving! I moved on from Alona beach to stay and dive at Cabilao, an island a few hours north from Alona. As I was settling my bill at Alona and discussing my next destination I was told 'the diving is not as good at Cabilao as it is at Alona ' - how wrong they were. I cannot decide whether it was just a sales tactic to try and make me stay on Alona or whether I was just talking to a very different kind of diver to myself, either way, I am glad I did not listen. A tricycle, 2 jeepneys, a boat and a motorbike later, I arrive at Polaris Resort, Cabilao. The journey wasn't as bad as it sounds as each trip was quite short and there was hardly any waiting time between each - though I must say that riding on the back of a motorbike with a 15kg rucksack over rough tracks was a little scary.

The resort is set on the beach with lovely gardens and a pool and I stay in a tree house - almost like the ones you would picture as a kid but quite solid and with it's own bathroom. There is diving all around the island but most of the dives, are a mere 5 minutes boat ride from the resort.

I have seen my first pygmy seahorses - a seahorse no bigger than your little finger nail - I saw a purple one, a pregnant one, a yellow one and an orange one. I have seen 3 huge yellow frog fish, sea grass pipefish, ornate ghost pipefish, numerous nudibranchs, crabs and shrimp that look so much like the thing they are living on that it is almost unbelievable - they only give themselves away by moving. For my first dive I had been in the water for 60 minutes before I even started to wonder how long we would dive for - 80 minutes later and we were getting back on the boat - for non divers 80 minutes is a very long dive - and at 27c I wasn't even feeling cold after 80 minutes which is pretty unusual. The diving continued in this way, with lovely walls that stretched to depths beyond vision but the tops being in only 3-6 meters allowing for longer dives. There was such a big variety of critters that you just knew you would find something different or new on each dive - my kind of diving!

Island Hopping

2009-03-06T17:49:00.000-08:00

If you cannot afford a hotel room!
Alona beach

The submarine

From the island of Negros to the island of Bohol, and apart from the getting between places my trip is all about diving at the moment. Sorry for those that prefer broken down bus tales and all about the colourful life here but for now I am spending most of my time under the water - which is great :-) I thought I might be going under the water in a very different way when I turned up for my ferry between Negros and Bohol as the ferry looked very much like a submarine. But no, it was a passenger ferry, no fish on board, quite fast and even had a big screen tv playing videos for the 1.5hour crossing. Arriving in Bohol and I am whisked via tricycle, through the mango trees of Pangaloa island, to Alona Beach. (Like bananas the mangos are covered in paper when they are ripening to avoid insects so the tree looks like a big tree growing newspaper!). There isn't much to say in favour of Alona beach I am sorry to say, it has obviously grown up for the tourist and the diver and there is nothing Filipino about the place, which is a shame. There are just a mass of hotels and dive shops spread along the beach, all with their boats out on the water with their lines tied up along the beach so it is a bit of an assault course to take a stroll. And while you are avoiding the boat lines you are being accosted for a massage or a boat tour or a tour of the chocolate hills. Not my favourite place I have stayed but if you like a cocktail after diving and a big choice of places to eat then it is not so bad. And talking of cocktails my highlight for the visit was to meet up for drinks with Michelle, who was traveling through the Philippines from Denver, on a whirlwind tour of the dive sights around the area - a trip sponsored by the Philippine's department of tourism to promote the diving to the American market.

The diving was nice and made much better by the enthusiasm of my dive guides - an Italian lady, who put my faith back into Italian divers (they have a bad reputation for touching and standing on coral) and her Dutch boyfriend. The diving was slow and relaxed and the corals are healthy and plentiful and there is a variety of small fish and critters, plenty to keep me entertained for a few dives. I took a trip over to dive nearby Balicasag which offered a very picturesque and shear wall dive and, with the sun shining, the top of the wall at 6 meters was very pretty.

Markets and Piers

2009-02-27T02:06:00.000-08:00

My little retreat

If you cannot afford a tricycle you have to load your stuff on the public jeepney

A cattle truck

Do you think they have insurance?

Candy floss, penny arcades and kiss me quick hats! Oh! Wrong country! This was a busy private pier on Negros Island, built out from silos holding coconut oil and coconut rum with many boats coming and going to transport the goods around the Philippines. I would like to think it is due to the lovely overspill of coconut rum rather than the detritus discarded from all the boats that gives the life to all the weird and wonderful things that live beneath the pier, but I think I would be kidding myself. I had been told that the dive beneath the pier should not be missed, and I wasn't disappointed - schools of catfish, lion fish, nudibranchs, pipefish, frog fish and sea horses all living on the 20m pillars buried in the sea bed supporting the pier. A great dive, though a little disconcerting at the end of the dive when I saw a severed dog's paw - yuk!

Downtime from diving and I treated myself to a lovely place to stay for a few nights, where I could rest my cold filled head (I suppose I was unlikely to go for a whole year without catching a cold) - not extravagent at US$50 per night, but way more than my usual $10-$20. It was worth it as I spent two days in bed just reading and resting, though not too ill to make it to the local market and watch the bidding for water buffalo and the usual hubbub of markets.

Dive, dive, dive

2009-02-25T01:40:00.000-08:00

I am refreshed. I have been diving. What was I thinking? Work! How could I have been so silly to think that I would like to get back to work - hee, hee! I have instead been to Apo Island, off the island of Negros and dived, dived dived. I love to be around other keen divers, it is great to share the same thrill and excitment of going to a new dive, seeing new things or talking about all the other opportunties to dive around the world. The weather has been a little rotten to us on Apo island, with a few days of rain making the visibilty a little poor, which is a shame as there are some beautiful corals here and if the sun had been out and the waters crystal clear it would have been most lovely. However, the water was a little churned up so although the corals were pretty they did not offer too much of a wow factor, but on the up side I have seen few new creatures - dragon sea moths, funny little critters that crawl along the sandy bottom with dragon like noses, ornate ghost fish, from the family of the sea horse, ribbon eels with their brightly blue and yellow skin and a few old familiars - turtles and nudibranchs and big schools of jacks and an array of anenomes. All fun and exciting and thrilling for me to be back under the water. Why work when can carry on enjoying myself like this!!! And just so you know that you are diving in a diffferent location there is also top side stuff to keep you on your toes. Apo Island has a small community living on it and the weekly community highlight is the Saturday night disco, held al fresco on the basketball court. The whole town turns out, but mainly the children and the grandparents and the foreigners dance - much to the delight of everyone else watching. A very friendly and homely experience and much enjoyed by everyone.

Rest, play and work (work?)

2009-02-19T17:08:00.000-08:00

The reality of travel finally kicks in and as with everything there is always a downside. I am feeling a little travel weary. Continous travel, never knowing where you are going to sleep, whether there are actually any beds available, living constantly out of a rucksack and constantly feeling just a little on the grubby side can take its toll. Okay, okay, not the same stresses as high flying executive bankers, or people struggling with mortgages and debt (no sympathy - don't borrow if you cannot afford to pay it back), but still day to day stresses that can tire one out. It has been with great joy and familiarity that I have found myself back in Manila, with a decent roof over my head, to spend a few days of what seems like more normal life - clean clothes, internet, good food, cinema and perhaps just a little bit of shopping - the rest and play. I have also found myself being offered the opportunity to go and work for 3 months on a diving liveaboard. Now there is something to consider. Lots of good diving and having a base for a period of time. But, and there is always a but, that horrible word work crops into the equation. Watch this space...

Coron

2009-02-16T23:42:00.001-08:00

Coron town
Diving bangka
Hell of a climb - even without dive gear

Clear coves

Coron Island

Coron town - built out over the water

El Nido to Coron: your choices are to go back to Puerto (long and dusty) and fly, catch a Bangka for an 8 hour day crossing, which is little more than a canoe, or to catch the over night ferry, which is also the cheapest option, so no contest. However, the ferry is actually more a cargo ship, and the cargo is fish! Um! Smelly! But safe, and it turned up and I am here to tell the tale so no problem. The journey was midnight to 8am so I didn't get to see much on the journey but the dawn breaking over the limestone cliffs was worth the cost of the journey in itself. Coron is a busy little port town, built out over the water with lots of houses on stilts, and caters to the many divers that come to dive the wrecks here. The sunken fleet consists of many Japanese boats sunk at the end of WWII. Unfortunatley the waters around here are brown and murky, so it is a little like diving in the UK, though the water is considerably warmer. I dived the Akitsushima, a 150m boat tender and the Taiei Maru at 187m in length. 2 good dives but with poor visibility it wasn't enough to make me go back for more.

The other option for a dive was Barracuda lake - based on Coron island and a scramble up and over the limestone ridge to get there, the lake has an amazing thermocline running through it (two seperate layers of different temperature water). After the scramble over the rocks the 28c water was very refreshing, however once you descend to roughly 13m there is an 'oily' residue of water where the two temperatures of water meet and below this 'oily' layer the water is 37c. You can hover in the water and put your hand over your head and feel the cold water and have your other hand by your side and feel like it is in the bath. The two layers also create optical illusions and the once you descend into the warmer layer it looks like the upper layer is air rather than water and there is a line, like a false horizon, running along your line of vision. A most enjoyable, if a little out of the ordinary dive.

El Nido

2009-02-16T23:03:00.001-08:00

Between dives beach
Dive site
View from El Nido town

Local market

Rice - out to dry on the roads (on plastic)

My island hopping bangka on a secluded beach

Jagged limestone outcrops

Islands and beaches

BBQ'ed fresh fish for lunch

Snorkel sight

Limestone formations

El Nido, the gateway to the Bacuit Archipelago, and a long and dusty 8 hours local bus ride from Puerto - it feels even longer when there is a cockerel on board that cock-a-doodle-doos most of the way. But a journey worth while for a beautiful view of the limestone cliffs boardering the turqoise blue seas and all the other limestone monoliths and islands in the archipelago. There was a small market here with local fruit and veg and lots of fish stands selling straight from the days catch - including lots of squid and rays. The squid fishermen go out at night on small boats with huge lights and drop lines over the sides of their boats all night catching squid - the boats go quite a long way out but with all the lights shining it looks like there is a town lit up on the horizon. Not specifically known for the diving I was itching to get under the water and did a two tank dive with Sea Dog Divers - run by a crusty old Englishman from Huddersfield! It was a nice day great views out to the dive sight and a lovely secluded beach for lunch and a little sun bathing in the afternoon. The dives were rich in hard corals but lacking in fish in any quantity and not much colour. Still plenty to see as lots of things are new to me out here, lots of varieties of nudibranchs, squid, cuttlefish, rays, lobster and a shrimp with the biggest goggly eyes I have ever seen. I lovely day with pleasant rather than great diving.

Island hopping is more that El Nido is known for and for good reason, the sea scape is spectacular. The limestone towers out of the sea and there are secluded beaches, coves and lagoons galore. There is even a 'secret' beach where you have to swim through a hole int he limestone cliff, at low tide only, and it opens out into a swim pool with its only little beach - very serene. I have to say, I do not think my photos do El Nido justice, but it was lovely.

Port Barton

2009-02-08T23:44:00.000-08:00

Port Barton beach
Sunset from the hammock
Calm seas

Boating, relaxed style

The healthy rice diet continues

Further up the coast from Sabang is a peaceful little village called Port Barton. You can travel by boat between Sabang and Port Barton but it is a 3-4 hour journey on a boat that appears a little less than stable from someone that is used to bigger, safer diving boats, so the only alternative is back to the main highway - 1 hour on the roof of a jeepney, an unknown wait for a bus going north that you hope will stop at your destination (1 hour wait in the end), a 2 hour journey north and then another 1 hour on jeepney, crossing the island east to west on a rather dusty road. The dust may get you dirty from head to toe but if it has rained the road becomes a little unpassable and the jeepney has a habit of getting stuck along the way - apparently. With all that travel there is nothing for it other than to relax in a hammock for a few days, read a few book, watch a sunset or two and continue on the healthy rice diet - there are no donuts here!

Transportation

2009-02-08T23:25:00.001-08:00

The wheel changing incident
Puerto to Sabang - not a very substantial bus

I did not ride this one, but you get the jist of how they load them

Port Barton to Puerto

I rode on the roof on this one :-)

The view from the roof of the bus

Alternative transport

Pigs ride at the back

Subterranean River

2009-02-08T22:54:00.000-08:00

Monitor lizards scrounging for lunch left overs
Entrance to the underground river
My new Philippino friends on the boat to the underground river

My rice diet - with fresh mango juice

It looks quaint!

Palawan is known as the Philippines last frontier, an unspoilt ecosystem of virgin forests, pristine beaches and clear waters. An island that has not been touched by mass tourism, and in areas not touched by tourism at all. It sounds idealic, of course on the downside it means that infrastructure is poor and in some places electricity is scarce - did I say that was a down side, what I really meant was that it makes everyday an adventure and keeps the riff raff out. I flew from Manila to Puerto Princessa, Palawan's capital and after a short rest stop and a maze of tricycles (the motorbike and side car variety not the cute child variety) I head out on a jeepney to Sabang to go and visit the Subterrean River. The 9am jeepney is sans wheel when I turn up and less than substantial looking, but I am ashored that the bus will be going to Sabang (and that it will get there). 10am and we are on our way - for 1 minute before we stop to load pigs and rice, and then we are on our way, until we stop to load cockerels and children, and then we are on our way, after a quick fuel stop. Fully loaded the 3 hour ride takes us up the north side of Palawan and then crosses the country east to west. The road is paved going north and then compacted gravel east to west. Once outside Puerto the landscape changes to jungle and there are straw huts abound, often next to a rice field and occasional with a tethered ox (maybe a water buffulo) in the yard. All is well until about 2 hours in and there is a large hiss - the said wheel has blown - everyone off the bus, a quick re blow up and back on the way.

Sabang is not on a particulary pretty beach, but it is surrounded by jungle clad mountains and the ferocious waves are quite refreshing after the ride in. I find a place to stay, which looks very quaint from the outside but is a little basic - no flush toilet and the whole town only runs electricity from 6pm until 10pm. The subterrean river is about a 20 minute boat ride around the coast and there are monitor lizards and monkeys to keep you entertained whislt waiting for your boat into the cave. The river runs for over 8km into the mountain but we only travel about 1.5km, being paddled by a guide and being accompanied by swiflets, clicking their way through the caves. There were plenty of bats as well but they were all asleep. The cave system is quite something and although there are not many formations the fact that the river runs through it makes it very memorable. Rather than catching a boat back to the town I do the 5km jungle walk. It starts off up about 350 steps up and through limestone karsts, which is very Indiana Jones and then runs through the jungle and down to the coast. I was dripping with sweat by the time I had finished - nice! Thankful again for the ferocious waves and a cooling down.

Donuts

2009-02-08T22:48:00.000-08:00

A different number of nations have left their mark on the Philippines, the Spanish, the English and the Americans, to name but a few, and I wonder if one of the left overs from the American occupation is the desire for donuts, and I also wonder whether this will be the down fall of the beautiful people. There are donuts stands and shops everywhere - Dunkin Donuts, Mr Donuts, Go nuts donuts, Donuts are us - everywhere there are donuts. I have to admit that so far the Philippines diet is not as flavourful as say Thai but I hope that donuts are not going to take over. From my point of view I am quite happy that I am not such a big fan of donuts, my bread and cheese diet in New Zealand has added on a few extra pounds, always in the wrong places, and I am looking forward to them dropping off again on a nice sensible rice diet.

Manila

2009-01-29T19:13:00.000-08:00

Manila new
Manila old

Are the jeepneys racing each other?

Hot, humid, hectic and just a little fumey. You take your life into your own hands trying to cross the road and put your life into someone elses hands if you jump on to one of the many jeepneys or peddle carts that are all over the city - which I haven't done as I have no idea where the jeepneys are going and most places can be walked to relatively easily. There isn't much to see here in terms of sights and buildings but there are a few nicely laid out and clean parks and the Spanish have left their mark in the older part of a walled in town and fort. There is also a hectic and bustling chinatown with market stalls strewn about the streets, some streets pedestrian only but others you are sharing with all the colourful jeepneys. I haven't taken many pictures as although I feel quite safe walking around I do stand out quite a bit as a westerner and I get stared at quite a bit so I have left my camera tucked away in my bag. The people are very friendly and there is a bit of a western feel here, with a Marks and Spencers in the mall and starbucks in quite a few places, as well as restaurants selling wide and varied types of food - I have succumbed to an iced chocolate in Starbucks -it was lovely and cost US$2 :-) I have also, for US$10, bought myself a sarong, a towel, a few new t-shirts and stocked up on toiletries so I am all set to move on and go and find an idealic beach somewhere and chill - destination Palawan.

Hong Kong

2009-01-28T02:51:00.000-08:00

Oh my! I had forgotten just how busy the real world can be and especially the Asia world - so many people, such big buildings, so much traffic - take me back to New Zealand forthwith! By accident rather than by plan I arrive in Hong Kong just as they are all ready to celebrate the Chinese New Year. Now maybe, I thought, it would be a quiet time with shops closed and people off visiting and staying with family. But no! Everyone was visiting family but the whole family was then out and about walking the streets, parks and shopping malls that remained open, all be it opening a little later than normal. Oh, and it is cold, 14c, I hadn't expected that. Quite nice to walk around in a fleece. What has been even nicer is a room to myself in a nice hotel, with a big do not disturb sign on my door. Not that the hostels were bad in NZ but I had been sharing dorm rooms or sleeping in a tent over the past 3+ weeks so a little luxury and solitude was certainly in order. My choice of eating estblishment has been reduced a tad here as I refuse to eat anywhere that has shark fin soup on the menu and unfortunately that is a lot of restaurants. Perhaps I should investigate a spell on the Sea Shephard as it really does get up my nose that peolpe can destroy such a magnificent animal, in such an horrendous way, for the sake of an unneeded food source. Welcome to Asia!

New Zealand

2009-01-28T02:42:00.000-08:00

Back in Christchurch and awaiting my flight back to Auckland after seven weeks in this beautiful country. I have seen volcanoes and geysers, glaciers and fiords, glacial lakes and oceans, quiet bays and storming oceans, mountains and valleys. I have seen dolphins and seals, penguins and sea lions. I have travelled like a hippy in my hippie mobile, slept in a hut in the middle of nowhere, camped by a river miles from habitation, slept in an old railway carriage (I was allowed to!) and shared dormatories with fellow travellers all with their own tales to tell. I have met like minded people and eaten my way around a lot of fresh produce that New Zealand has to offer. I've never met a person who has a bad word to say about NZ and I am not going to be any different, it has been a great visit and I recommend it to anyone that enjoys the outdoors and great scenery.

Arthur's Pass

2009-01-22T19:58:00.000-08:00

The final drive back towards Christchurch and this time it is up and over Arthur's pass, which is even more impressive than Lewis Pass - sorry Lewis. Initially, although the views are magnificent there are too many signs of man - rail tracks, over head cables etc, but it doesn't take long before this disappears and you are just left with the magnificent mountains, valleys, rivers, waterfalls, and views views views. If there is one thing that NZ is lacking it is not views or scenery. Oh, or fresh yummy food! I continued how I started and ate my way around the north half of the south island. I am such a sucker for good bread and cheese, and the eggs have been like eggs used to be - bright bright yellow and oh so tasty, very nice fried with a fresh slice of bread in the mornings :-)

West Coast

2009-01-22T19:45:00.001-08:00

The west coast is even less inhabited than the east coast and is a lot more rugged. The road winds quite close to the sea and it is a great drive just pootling south along side the sea. There are loads of places to pull over and stop to picnic or take photos along this strech of road - which hasn't been the case in a lot of places - I have just been finding drive ways or flat verges to pull over in. The rocks above are the 'pancake rocks' that appear to exist in just one location along the coast, the rock is limestone and it is layered from top to bottom - the reason for this or its method of formation is unknown.

Clouds

2009-01-22T19:21:00.000-08:00

No camera filters so I took this through my sunglasses - moody huh!

So the weather isn't always blue skies in New Zealand! But it makes for a pleasant change, and some good photography, to have some cloudy and moody skies. The rain is a little less pleasant but we don't need to mention that! These photos were taken on the drive back from Abel Tasman - one of the few places where I had no choice but to back track on myself - everywhere else I have driven in circles (purposely!!??) - but there is only one road in and one road out to Abel Tasman and the northern west tip of the south island.

Abel Tasman

2009-01-22T19:08:00.000-08:00

Taxi stand 2

Taxi stand 1

Views from the track

Taxi!

Storming through the waves

Another one of New Zealands great walks - but how they chose from so many I am not sure. This is a 3-5 day wlk all told or, like me, you can get a water taxi to one spot and walk just a bit of the track. Compared to my other tramps this was a very tame walk and although beautiful it is all very much the same along the way so i am glad I did not do the full tramp - that's my excuse and I am sticking to it. It was good to be back on the water, although it felt a little odd without my dive gear, and I got to see George the resident dolphin and the New Zealand fur selas taking it easy on the rocks.

Nelson

2009-01-22T18:35:00.000-08:00

The cathedral
Cathedral from the tree lined streets

Sunset in Nelson, over the ocean

So I go to a city every now and again, even the hard worn country bumpkins need a little civilisation and a cinema fix every now and again. I am not sure it was worth my money sitting through "the marvellous adventures of Benjamin Button" but it was nice to take a break in Nelson, a small town rather than a city, and take in the art gallery, the cathedral and the odd iced chocolate (too hot for a hot chocolate), along with chilled meander along the streets and a sit in the park. I even had a beginners tango lesson in my backpackers accomodation this evening - it is a lot harder than those celebraties are making it look on the tv.

The Lewis Pass and Hanmer Springs

2009-01-22T18:14:00.000-08:00

Mountains and valleys everywhere
River valleys - a little low on water

The land is quite barren around here

Anyone for a bungy jump?

Snow on the far mountains still

Nelson lakes

This is another Nelson Lake (forgotten the name of each one)

Waterfalls along the route

Mountains all around

From the east coast to the west coast north of Christchurch there are two passes - the Lewis pass and Arthur's pass, if you do not take one of these passes then you have to drive the full coastal road all the way around the north of the island. I chose to take the Lewis pass one way and would come back over the Arthur's pass on my way back to Christchurch. The pass was very empty and I hardly saw another car all day - and if I did I usually had to pull over and let them pass - one because I go so slow and have a tendancy to stop all of a sudden to take a photo, and two because the locals all drive like maniacs anyway and are usually going way fastest than the speed limit. They are quiet freindly though as they usually bib to thank me for pulling over.

Kaikora

2009-01-22T18:00:00.001-08:00

The sea got a little rough - but not much
The day before and the sea was flat calm
A few clouds in the sky but make for a great photo

Walking the penisula

Taking in the sun

Kaikora is the whale watching place to be in NZ, but as I have been there and done that I wasn't ready to fork out a small fortune to go and see the whales - sorry whales. Instead I opted for an 11km penisula walk - from the town centre to the sea lion colony on one side of the penisula, up and over the penisula and back round to the town. It was a very hot day and the first hour of the walk was a little dull, walking along the eslanade, but it was mainly on the road but once I was up on the penisula it was a lovely walk with far reaching views. The sea lions had the right idea for the heat of the day - just taking it easy, lounging about on the rocks, and the cows also were in no hurry to remove themsleves from the footpath along the penisula - anyone would thick it was their feeding time I was interupting! Stayed in a bit of a party hostel here - accidently - must check whether the 'Magic bus' stops right outsode a hostel before I decide to pay for a room!

Banks Penisula

2009-01-21T12:59:00.000-08:00

Views from summit road
One side of the coast to the other

The view from my tent in the morning

A serene picnic spot

Estuary into the sea

A remote beach

More views

I am running out of words to describe the breath taking scenery in New Zealand. Banks penisula is right on the doorstep of Christchurch but is very much up hill and down dale, leaving the distances into Christchurch small but the commute time long due to the winding roads so this also leaves the people behind, another recurring theme here. The penisula is high with the main scenic drive being called summit road and on both sides of the summit you can see down to the many coves and bays that spot the coast. Although this is not a well inhabited area there is still room for plenty of cafes and small shops and farm produced goods along the way, I think this two weeks may turn into an eat my way around NZ - well, there are so many fresh and yummy foods to chose from - lunch is off the farm cheese, with freshly baked bread and a locally made mango, lime and chilli chutney, all eaten on a picnic bench by the sea witht he sun streaming down - ahhhhhh!

What to do?

2009-01-21T12:49:00.000-08:00

Back in Christchurch and said goodbye to my fellow trampers as they head off in their own directions - most back to work, one to continue tramping and another to skydive, canyon, white water raft and all that other fun and adrenalin filled stuff that you can do here in New Zealand. So what shall I do and where shall I head? I am now in 'free' mode and from this point on I have nothing booked or planned other than my flights to different countries, though I always have a few thoughts knocking around in my head - usually too many thoughts but I am getting better at that! As I am well into my NZ budget I need to consider costs as well as what and where I want to go. After a day trolling the internet and visitng the Christchurch tourist information I opt for car hire, a map, a tent and a picnic cool bag. The cheapest camper van I could find was $102 per day whereas the cheapest car was $30 so considering I would still need to pay for fuel and campsites on both I opted for the car. Having been in NZ for a little while now I also decided the car gave me a little more freedom as I could choose between camping and staying in Backpacker hostels (dorm ~ $25) - both of which are usually fully equiped with big kitchens and cooking equipment, and if I needed a little extra luxury I could book into a motel for a night. The Backpackers are also a little more sociable than being in a campervan as there are usually people milling around and willing to talk about their adventures. The destination would be the north of the south island, east and west, but no real plan - and I am off again!

Tramp #3

2009-01-20T15:35:00.001-08:00

The hut in the valley - comfortable sleeping for 20+

A slightly differnet approach to tramping for tramp number 3 - this time we would be tramping in up a river! Perhaps a creek would be a more appropraite description but even still, it was wet, it was scambling over big rocks, with full packs, and it was great fun. Luckily the sun was out so it didn't take long to get used to the cold water. As the group varied in height from about 5ft3 to 6ft3 the water depth varied from thigh deep to knee deep along the way - yes I was in the thigh deep category. After a few hours scambling up the creep we were all very hot and sweety so a nice big deep plunge pool at the end of hour hike was a very welcome sight - off with packs (and t-shirts!!??) and into the icey cold water - ah, how refreshing! The night was spent in a hut and as it was our last proper night out and about we had mulled wine and cheesecake - and even some whiskey for those that were happy to drink it out of a squeezey bottle. The morning was spent getting wet again - this time through the water caves - no packs but deeper water, waterfalls and tight squeezes into, around and through crevices - ha! this time being short was an advantage :-) Great great fun! Witha change of socks it was a 3 hour hike back to the van where we all packed up and headed back to Christchurch, the end of our 11 days. A great way to see New Zealand, to get off the beaten track, to be out in the fresh air, to see some marvellous sights and to spend it in the company of like minded people.

Mount Cook

2009-01-20T15:24:00.000-08:00

The tallest mountain in New Zealand, but no, I wasn't due to climb it, this wasn't even an over night tramp, just a leisurely day hike into the valley leading up to the mountain and to see the glacial lakes on the way. It was a glorious day - far too hot to be tramping with a big pack on ones back, but not quite warm enouhg to have melted the last iceberg floating inthe lake below the mountain. Even the mountain was happy that the sun was out - you would be able to see his smile but I am unable to load any photos at this time - again! We drove out of the valley leading to Mt Cook but camped at the entrance to the valley by the side of a lake and watched the most amazing sunset over the lake and the mountain (I have some great photos - honest) and awoke to yet more blue skies and a great view over the valley - not a bad spot for a free campsite.

Tramping #2

2009-01-16T13:23:00.000-08:00

Tramp number 2 was slightly different from tramp 1in that we had a short tramp on day one and a long tramp on day 2, which was vice versa on tramp 1 and we would be camping on this tramp so we had to carry in tents rather than having a nice warm hut ready for us. We started at Lake Ohau and had a few hours tramping over the lowlands and then walking higher, through the trees to camp at Freehold Creek. After an evening playing games around the camp fire and a rather cold night (my poor feet were so cold) we headed out of the tree line and walked up........and up and up and then just a little further up. But all worth it for those views.

Eating from the ground.

2009-01-16T13:07:00.000-08:00

A big hole is built
The fires are lit and the rocks are heated
The food is displayed........

.......having been lovingly prepared, and then cooked in the ground for a few hours being completely buried in soil (towels cover the food to stop the grit getting into the food)

And wallah! Lovely moist well cooked meat and veggies.

Another lovely night spent in the open.

New Years Day

2009-01-15T22:13:00.000-08:00

An early morning stroll along the beach with dolphins playing near shore
A petrified tree - nothing like the ones in Utah

A walk to a waterfall

Sea lions were scattered along this shoreline

If you zoom in there are two penguins in this shot - top right and bottom left lying down.

What a marvellous way to start the new year - dolphins, seals, sea lions and penguins all in one day and a petrified forest to boot.

Real Hard (ish) Tramping

2009-01-15T21:53:00.000-08:00

The morning lake and ready for the hike out.

Bathroom facilities - or perhaps just a loo.

View from the hut

The yellow brick road to our bed for the night

A stroll through the woods for our last hour to the hut.

Snow and a tarn at our summit for the day (and a lot of wind).

Miles and miles

We did not meet any other trampers along hte way

Great views on the way up.

Pip ready for the antartic!!! Be prepared!

The group prepares to tramp

This was our first overnight tramp, along the Hunter range, up to 1000m and to green lake.

Camping

2009-01-15T21:46:00.000-08:00

One wrong move in the night and we would have rolled down the bank and into the river!
The sun going down over camp.

The sand flies were a pest here but it was great to be outdoors and by the lake.

Kayaking Milford Sound

2009-01-15T21:30:00.001-08:00

View of the Sound - which is actually a fiord
The day started very cloudy and dull but cleared to a bright blue sky

I promise - I did Kayak. My track record of looking after cameras is not great, hence the camera stayed safe and dry on shore.

The very long and dark tunnel to get into the Sound

The views on the the way out.

Trampers!

2009-01-11T23:51:00.001-08:00

My fellow trampers, our guide and our transport, storage and kitchen facilities for 11 days.

It started in Queenstown

2009-01-11T23:44:00.001-08:00

A picteresque town on a lake. By the time I had arrived and checked into my YHA the sun was starting to go down and the rain was just beginning to fall after a beautiful bus journey down from Christchurch.

Tramping New Zealand

2009-01-08T21:33:00.000-08:00

I am going to let the pictures tell the tale, when I can upload them, but I am back from tramping the south island of New Zealand and the one word that comes to mind is spectacular. Other words that sprung into my head over the last eleven days also include, wow, awesome, amazing, intermingled with a few choice phrases like, ow my back hurts, who was snoring last night, we are walking UP hill again, did you say we are walking up a river and the like :-) What an amazing way to see New Zealand, I have camped, I have done 3 two day hikes either staying in a very well serviced hut or camping, including carrying all the gear required to camp, I have hiked a river, I have explored water caves, I have swam in glacial streams, drunk water from glacial streams and tarns, eaten from the ground, picniced on the beach, seen penguins, seals, sea lions, dolphins, I have kayaked in Milford Sound, and I have walked many a kilometre, both up and down and spent 11 glorious days with 11 fabulous people. I look forward to sharing the photos with you.

Tramping

2008-12-26T22:27:00.001-08:00

I am off tramping and will possibly not be blogging for over a week as I will be camping up the side of a mountain somewhere. Happy 2009!

Christchurch and Christmas

2008-12-26T22:15:00.000-08:00

The botanic gardens

Pip on Christmas Day

The river Avon

In honour of the women who fought for the vote - 3 cheers!

Christchurch buildings

Christchurch - the garden city, more English than an English town. How very true! Christchurch is a lovely, pedestrianised, tree lined, park abundant town on a river - the river Avon no less! There is a very friendly, clean and fresh air about the place and it is a delight to walk around the city, along the river, around the botanic gardens and in the museums. I was a little apprehensive as to what it would be like over Christmas but arriving on Christmas eve if this is as busy as the place gets then it is fabulous - who says Christmas is stressful? Cannot think of anything better than to spend two weeks in a campervan to avoid the build up to Christmas and then spend Christmas itself in a beautiful town, staying in a nice hotel, taking in a few bars on Christmas eve followed by carols at the cathedral - yes, after a few drinks in the bars i was the best carol singer in the cathedral! Chrsitmas day itself was spent watching films on my large flat screen tv in my room, followed by a walk around town and the botanic gardens, where it felt more like a Sunday than Christmas day as there were a lot of people walking around and a few things were still open - including KFC - and then Christmas cake and a few drinks with the other people in the hotel. Boxing day and the sun was blazing, all the shops were back open and it was as if Christmas had never been. Perfect!

Merry Christmas

2008-12-22T19:57:00.001-08:00

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year - love Pip xx

And back to Auckland

2008-12-22T19:50:00.000-08:00

Where does the time go? How can two weeks fly by so so quickly? It feels like yesterday when I was picking up the yellow submarine and now I have to hand her back and no doubt send her out on another joint. Two weeks is just not long enough to do the north island let alone the whole of New Zealand. I went at a very relaxed pace and thoroughly enjoyed everywhere that I went to but I did not get any further south than Taupo so I missed the volcanic national park, though I did catch a glimpse of its snow capped peak whilst in Taupo, and I didn't get to Gimborne or Napier or the capital Wellington. Never mind, perhaps I will come back, or perhaps I will not want to leave the south island once i get there. Off up the skytower to see Auckalnd - it is a lovely sunny day.

Back to Nature

2008-12-22T18:06:00.001-08:00

Sparkling sun
Picnic spot

Other beach users

Crashing
Serene

Peaceful

Ahhhhhhhh! Back to the coast! This time the central east coast and up, back and around towards Auckland. Absolutely nothing to rant about here. The scenery is idyllic and peaceful or rugged and fierce depending on where you are. I will never tire of watching the sun sparkle off the sea and when you add in crashing waves and remote spots I think I could just retire here (and now! - oh no, I cannot afford to retire here, not now anyway). There are more towns around this bit of the coast and they are a little bigger than in Northland, and the road skirts the sea a lot closer so it makes for more spectacular driving, but on the downside to this there are not as many remote and isolated spots where you can be the only person on a beach for what seems like miles.

Some of you may be wondering about the diving around here - as I have been. I have spoken to a few dive centres and came very close to going for a dive in the Bay Islands in Northland but the water is currently only 16c and with the offer of a 7mm wetsuit, all hired gear, quite a lengthy boat ride and the image of a manta ray hovering above me still with me I decided not to go. What a whimp! :-)

Heated Earth

2008-12-22T17:46:00.000-08:00

The trees get covered in a green algae - yes it is brown in colour
Spurting

Fish pond at the bottom of the garden

Steaming fields

So you want to sell your house, but instead of advertising ' fish pond at the bottom of the garden' you can advertise ' boiling mud pools at bottom of the garden'. Possibly adding in 'steaming holes in the garden' and 'central heating not required'. This is the area inland in central north island - the thermal area. But instead of making the area a national park, i.e. Yellowstone, the Kiwi's build towns and make use of this 'free' resource. At what cost I am not sure, i do not think I would like to live in an area that is so close to the earths core it is seeking an escape or where my child may just happen to fall into a boiling mud pool, or where the smell of sulphur is ever present. But hey, I am a tourist and it makes for a very picteresque if not a little risky area. The thermal area is quite extensive from the Lakes ot Taupo to the Lakes of Rotorua and beyond and in between these two towns there are 'thermal towns', volcanic areas', 'natural hot springs', thermal wonderlands' lots of areas all plying for your NZ$ to go and see the earth at its thinist - not at all like Yellowstone where one national park fee of US$25 will get a car load of people into the park for 7 days. As from my previous post things here are quite expensive and for almost each of the varying 'experiences' there is a cost of about $28 per person - quite steep if you are a family and you want to see a geyser and to swim in a hot pool! Oh dear! Am I ranting? Anyway.......

Waitupo offers a geyser, the Lady Knox and a thermal area with extensive steam pots, mud pools, fumuroles. lakes, rivers and waterfalls, all layed out in three varying length circular walks. The geyer is 'maniulated' to go off on a regular basis - daily at 10:15 - by having a soap like substance dropped down its hole to break the water tension between a cooler hot pool and a lower boiling pool thus making them mix and spurt out of the earth. The geyser flies to about 30m for a short while and then continues to spurt for almost an hour so quite spectacular. However, what are we doing by manipulating the event - the geyser would go off naturally on its own, possibly once every three days, but obvioulsy, far less pradictably. The 3 circular walks were very interesting and the sulphur waterfall was quite pretty - very yellow. If I had not been to Yellowstone then this would have been an amazing experience, as it is, I have been to Yellowstone, and it is far superior in many many ways. Perhaps too much travel is not such a good thing, perhaps our expectations just grow and grow and we are ever more difficult to please.

Waitomo Caves

2008-12-20T16:59:00.000-08:00

Caves
If you double click and open this one you can see the glow worm fishing lines

No photos of the glow worms - sorry, you'll have to take my word for it to how amazing they were.

Inland for a little while, and although the weather has been kind, with only a sprinkling of rain and that always in the evenings, today it has decided to throw it down - in buckets! Not a bad day to go underground! I have to say that I am finding things quite expensive out here - compared to not spending anything for the last month +, and compared to Ecuador - and visiting some caves is no exception - NZ$78 for 2 caves (current exchange rate GBP2.75 and US$1.47). But as I am here and as David Attenborough chose to visit these caves I thought what the hell. I have to say that the caves are nothing too spectacular, with the whole process becoming a little too sterile with the concrete walk ways and lighting - okay, so I like things a little more natural and yes I would prefer things that the masses find inaccessible. What was amazing was the glow worms - hundreds of these little creatures living down in the dark with their blue light luminating walls and ceiling of the caves. This was best appreciated at the end of the visit when you get into a boat, and sail out of the cave in complete silence and darkness and just stare straight up and the cave ceiling is like the night sky - amazing.

You know when you are in New Zealand when.....

2008-12-20T16:57:00.000-08:00

Standing atop a bluff with almost 360 degree views of the sea you pass comment to the person standing next to you:
"what a most magnificent view"
and the reply:
"yeah, it's a bute init"

Back to the coast

2008-12-18T18:23:00.000-08:00

No rush
Some of the coastline

The ocean just draws me to it and so far I like the central west coast better than both coasts in Northland. The road follows the coast more dramatically, there are wider bays and higher cliffs, and the beaches seem to be a little more frequented than in Northland - not that this is always a good thing but as I am on m own I'm not so keen on strolling places all alone. There are plenty of surfers along the beaches and everywhere is pretty well set up with toilets, changing rooms and bbqs. Following the coast south the tarmac soon gave way to dirt and the sign said bendy roads for the next 28kms - I wasn't sure if it was the way I wanted to go but the road looked interesting so I followed it. The road skirted in nad out along the coast the whole 28kms and you could see the sea the whole way with dramatic up up ups and bendy down down downs, not too many places to pull over and take photos but a fantastic drive. Once I was away from the coast but still onthe dirt track I came to a hault behind a man on his motorbike with 3 dogs herding about 200 sheep along the road. He pulled over and asked if I was in a rush - I am not sure what he was going to do with the sheep had i said yes, but as it was I just sat back and watched the dogs at work - though I think the sheep knew where they were going and the roads were built up either side so forwards was pretty much the only way to go.

Central

2008-12-18T18:16:00.000-08:00

The luxuries of camping
What a view

Some of the campsites were really busy - not!

No sooner are you talking with the sheep and cows when they change to houses and garages and fast food joints and your quiet one lane country road turns into a hurtling 3 lane motorway - almost in the blink of an eye. To go from North to central you have no other choice than to go via Auckland as Auckland is located in the bottle neck between the two and all traffice is filtered this way. But again, no sooner has the view of the Skytower zoomed past in the distance when the houses start to fade away and the 3 lanes turn to 2 and back to a one lane country road - it took slightly longer than when going north but not quite like driving the M1 out of London! The yellow submarine is easy to drive with good visibility and not too bad fuel consumption and it is certainly a talking point - people keep taking photographs of it (not me) and kids wave as I go by - how quaint. I have seen a few other decorated campers on the road and I thing I like mine the best so far, I am certainly glad I am not driving the one with 3 naked ladies onthe side of it - what would people think!!!!????

Lighthouses, Beaches and trees

2008-12-18T18:05:00.000-08:00

Fancy driving on this - 90mile beach
The lighthouse

Say farewell

Amazing dunes

The, almost, most northerly tip of New Zealand is Cape Reinga, and although quite a way to drive to it, has a lovely lighthouse warning off any boats that may be travelling either the Tasman sea or the Pacific. This is also where the Maori believe the souls of their dead move to the next world, and based on the view it would be quite a journey. As is the journey to get to the north tip. Although surrounded by coast the road goes straight up the middle of the land and you barely get a single view of the ocean, which kind of makes when you do see it all the more rewarding. If you were not in a hire car your drive back from the point could be along the beach - 90 mile beach, which is in fact 60 miles long - but due to the beach being relatively narrow and you having to do the drive 2 hours pre or post tide hire companies do not insure you to take the trip - surprising huh! You can visit the beach but I am sure I couldn't see for 60 miles, but it was a very long way and those waves sure do crash in so I wouldn't want to mess up those tide times, hire car or no. The west coast of Northland is just as scenic as the east and takes in cliffs and dunes and beaches and into a forest where the Kauri tree grows. The Kauri tree is the largest tree in NZ and I am not sure how it compares to the giant sequoias in the states but they sure are big - large white trunk with a girth of...........lots!

Northland

2008-12-15T23:42:00.000-08:00

Working hard!
So me and the yellow submarine have been hitting the road! From Auckland I headed north, to what sounded like peace, tranquility, beaches, cliffs, few people and few cars. Well, this is New Zealand. Leaving Auckland on a 3 lane motorway, it took about 5 minutes for it to turn to a 2 lane highway and then another 5 minutes to be a normal road, leaving people, habitation, and other cars behind. And turn off this main road and you could drive for miles without seeing another soul - though if you drive for too many miles the road turns to dirt track and you fall into the ocean. The roads do not skirt the ocean as closely as I would have liked but it doesn't take much to turn off a road and head down to a secluded bay, a rocky out crop or a surf beach where, whatever time of day or day of the week there always seems to be someone surfing. The scenery is very 'British' - think Peak district, meets Lake district, meets Scotland meets Cornwall - and if you are not from the UK then it is just very green and hilly. Unlike the UK however there really are not many people around, in a stretch from Auckland, north to 150 -200 miles there is only one city, that is more like a big town and then just small towns or villages and farms. Not so many sheep up here but they are around, along with cattle and vineyards and crops. It is strawberry season so I am eating strawberries for breakfast, lunch and dinner. It is also avocado season but I'm not fond of those so they can stay on the tree. I am travelling with a bottle of New Zealand Merlot and when I am comfortably settled in my campsite for the night I sit and look at the scenery and sample a glass of the NZ nectar.

The Yellow Submarine

2008-12-12T12:47:00.000-08:00

The yellow submarine
The hippie mobile

The computer is not letting me post photos at the moment, but you must come back at a later date and see a picture of my yellow submarine! It is my campervan, my hippie mobile, my home for the next two weeks. I knew the campers were going to be painted in elaborate fashion but I didn't think I could get one quite so hippie - on one side there is a big yellow submarine and on the other there are the Beatles, sergeant pepper and a big blue genie. I haven't seen any others on the road yet so I am not sure how mine compares but I think it may be marginally better than the other one in the garage, which was covered in winnie the pooh characters - just a little too cute maybe! I will let you know if I get stared at a lot while travelling around - now me and my yellow submarine are going to hit the road jack, hope we don't need any help and I say goodbye and you say hello (okay, so I can't remember too many Beatles tracks at this time but that is no bad thing!). Tutty bye!

Auckland contd.

2008-12-12T12:40:00.000-08:00

The meter ran out during my last post! So, back to Auckland, although there really isn't much to say, it is a city and as far as cities go, not all that impressive. The harbour front is a little 'claustrophobic' with just a hint of run downness (is so a word!) and a little grimey. I am, of cause, comparing it all to Sydney so it doesn't really stand much of a chance, and I am still a little tired and out of whack so it really does not stand a chance at all. Auckland does have a good museum, set atop a hill over looking down town and the harbour - which I am sure is lovely but the rain and fog is blocking the view - which has lots of Maori stuff in it and is a great way to spend a few hours out of the rain. I'm sure Auckland has a little more to offer than I am giving it justice for but that's it for me for now, it has served a need and now I am ready to hit the road and see the real New Zealand.

Auckland

2008-12-09T12:43:00.000-08:00

It bloody rains in New Zealand! And not just rain, that lovely fine all day drizzle just like in the UK - so this is why all the Brits like NZ, it reminds them of home so much :-) And not just rain but very changeable weather. The day I arrived it must have been in the mid 20s (celsius) which was just great as when your flight lands at 6am and you cannot check into your hotel until 2pm what are you meant to do - go and sleep in the park, obvioulsy! The following day was dry but the temperature had dropped a little and then a day of drizzle. Great for catching up on all those little issues that you need to do even when you are travelling - paperwork, checking bank statements, unblocking credit cards (doh!) and watching 007.

New Zealand

2008-12-07T22:00:00.000-08:00

Just when you are fully relaxed, refreshed and pampered you have to get on an aeroplane, or make that 3, and fly long haul across the globe, and over the interntaional date line, and screw up your whole body clock. I am not sure what day of the week it is or what time of the day it is but I am in New Zealand - I can tell as everyone talks funny :-)

Relaxing in Style

2008-12-07T21:51:00.000-08:00

Not quite backpacking!
Relaxation

Time for a little relaxation and to treat myself to a few days of luxury - well, I got a free diving trip so I can afford to spend my two week budget in one :-) And what better way to have relaxation and luxury than booking oneself into an all inclusive beach resort, along a stretch of the coast between Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo. Not my usual choice of holiday but when all I want to do is sleep and read I cannot think of anything better than not having to think about anything - other than can I get suntan lotion on my back and which book shall I read next. I was booked into the RIU Santa Fe for 5 nights and it was just what the doctor ordered - a great location with beach and pools, lots of space, a nice room, a sea view and plenty of restaurants and bars to entertain. I am also not one for sitting at a bar in an evening and talking to strangers but in such a safe environment it seemed a very natural thing to do and I met some very intersting and fun people. I am fully relaxed and refreshed and believe even my bruises have now faded to nothing.

Oh yes, I was working!

2008-12-04T17:36:00.000-08:00

When I wasn't on my last dive dive dive trip I did manage to do some work - and some! A typical day was long and one that has you constantly on the go, always on your feet and always having to be happy and smiley to serve the guests, with the only reprieve a dive in the afternoon where you could shut out everything and at times be the only person in the ocean as you took your dive between the guests taking theirs. Although the work is hard and continuous the crew are a great bunch of people and you could have a lot of fun throughout the day. Some guests are fun and some not so much, which could make a big difference between having a fantastic trip and having a trip where you just wanted to stay out of all the guests way and not talk to any one of them - which is near on impossible. Am I a natural server? Hell no! Did I manage to do it? Sure! I have learnt a lot about how to deal with people and observed a great number of ways of how other people interact and how people go about trying to get what they want for themselves - and am amazed at how some people just aren't continuously being punched on the nose :-)

Diving

2008-12-04T17:14:00.000-08:00

Yes I have been working very hard, yes I have been exhausted, battered and bruised, yes I was on my feet all day for a month and yes I have had to 'serve' other people but I have also been diving and as that is my passion and far more interesting to write about I will cover that first. Great white sharks, sea lions, giant mantas, dolphin, hammerheads, silkies, white tips, silver tips, galapagos sharks, octopus, eels, tuna, kelp, nudibranchs :-) , wrecks, pinnacles, walls, an abundance of fish that unfortunetly I cannot name and diving solo, knowing that I am the only person in the ocean for miles around - all pretty amazing stuff. The great whites was not something that previously I was particularly interested in - I love to dive, not to be put in a cage. But wow! You are still in their environment and everything is still on their terms so it still feels like you are watching nature as it happens rather than nature being made to perform for human enjoyment. But what a natural performance! Such large, majestic animals that come oh so close to the cages which means oh so close to you. You can stand on the back deck of the boat and see the sharks swim by, you can sit eating your lunch and see a great white swim past the window, you get the whole Jaws fin out of the water experience and if you are very lucky you get to see a great white shark breach. Guadalupe is also an area for whale sightings and although not diving with them it is always great to see the tell tale sign of a blow of water and then the undulating body of a shark swim by and the splash of a tail as the whales continue on their way. Dolphins were seen on numerous occasions playing off the bow of the boat or out feeding around the boat and on one occasion the divers in my group got giving a personal performace of four dolphin under the water. The setting was almost like a circus ring - a circluar sandy bottom surrounded by rock and coral and the dolphon would just keep swimming into the 'ring'. There they would lie on their side or their back or their belly and just stop, ensure everyone could see what they were doing and then swim off and play with each other and then back to the ring to perform again. Ever wanted to see a school of hammerhead in the 'blue' of the ocean - no visual reference of wall or reef, just a drift in the ocean with nothing but sun beems breaking the surface and creating spectacular light shows below? No? Why ever not? It is quite an eerie feeling to just drift with the current and then all of a sudden start to see one, no two, no ten, no, how many, hammerhead sharks swim underneath you, a few rather curious, breaking rank and circling the divers and then just contining along their way. I have no idea how many hammerheads where around but the sightings went on for a very long time. And how about swimming with manta rays - manta rays that seem to crave attention and not just one manta ray but four all together and ot just on one dive but to have them waiting for you on your second your third and your fourth dive. Manta rays that approach you and that will stop above you so that they can have their tummy stroked. Oh my! How utterly spectacular. Did I have fun - you bet ya!

Where have I been?

2008-12-04T17:09:00.000-08:00

Working and diving on the liveaboard dive boat Nautilus Explorer - see link! My travels have taken me from Ensenada on the northern tip of the Mexican Baja on a five day cage diving trip with the great white sharks, at the Island of Guadalupe, on a 10 day combine Guadalupe shark trip and a motor down the Baja coast diving at Rocas Alijos and Benitos islands along the way, bringing me to the southern tip of the Baja and Cabo San Lucas. From Cabo San Lucas I have done a 7 day sea of Cortez trip and two 9 day Socorro trips to dive with the giant manta. My second Soccoro trip was unplanned and I got to travel aboard the Nautilus as a 'volunteer' rather than as a paid crew member which meant I got to dive dive dive!

Land Legs

2008-11-29T18:07:00.000-08:00

HELLO! Pip is back on dry land! Not quite got her land legs and a little cut, bruised, achey and tired but all in a good way. My month stretched out a little longer than anticipated when I found out I could get back on the Nautilus as a volunteer and get to do loads more diving - basically a free dive trip so how could I refuse???? I've had a fabulous time and look forward to telling you all about very soon - once I can find better internet connection and I don't spend over twelve hours sleeping :-)

Blogging Holiday

2008-10-16T17:52:00.000-07:00

I am about to leave for Mexico and will be out on the ocean for the next four weeks so I will be taking a blogging holiday, along with a holiday from land, television, cars, and holidaying, as I will be working my butt off. It should be a blast! See you all back here real soon. xx

Viva Las Vegas

2008-10-13T14:50:00.001-07:00

Bright lights, towering buildings, cars, fountains, lions, people, the eiffel tower, the statue of liberty, casinos, gambling, shows, food, nowhere other than Las Vegas. And as the saying goes,

what happens in Vegas.............

Zion National Park

2008-10-13T14:34:00.000-07:00

From Utah to Arizona, and back to Utah, losing an hour and gaining it back at the cross of a state line. After nearly four weeks of rock, geological wonders and nature at its best it is with some trepidation that we head to another national park - can we really still get excited at more rock? Well, actually, yes! It is different rock, it is a different colour, it is a different formation, it is in a different place and it has its very own tale to tell. The Zion national park has a great set up, due to the large number of visitors and the smaller size of the canyon shuttle buses have been put to use to take you in, around and out of the canyon, stopping at many view points, eating areas and trail heads. It was great to give the car up for a day, take a shuttle bus and spend the day hiking - emerald pools, hanging gardens, a snake, a tarantula, a river and a very narrow canyon - called the narrows! Utah rocks!

The Grand Daddy of Rock

2008-10-13T14:29:00.000-07:00

From Montana to Arizona, and from Yellowstone to the Grand Canyon, our road trip takes us to the grand daddy of all things rock. Our visit took us to the north rim of the grand canyon, where the people are fewer, the rim higher and the landscape more lush and covered in trees, bringing with it many deer, condor and kaibab squirrels. The views are breath taking, the picnic tables very close to the edge and the sunsets serene. Again, to repeat myself, beautiful and amazing, truly awesome.

Bryce Canyon

2008-10-13T14:18:00.000-07:00

Oh my! Wow! So now how do I decide whether Bryce Canyon is better than Yellowstone – I don’t – they are both amazing, very different from one another and both awe inspiring. The drive takes you along the canyon rim, at an average altitude of 8000ft, and there are many view points where you can stop and view the hundreds of hoodoos and rock fins that descend from the rim and a view that reaches between 90 and 120 miles into the distance. The colours sparkle and change with the light and you can just sit and stare and marvel at the view.