The Dolphin Encounter

Lets bring you up to date, 

We have made it to Auckland, staying with a friend I previously volunteered with in Africa, Lucy. So far we haven't really done much in Auckland but it is, as always, lovely to finally have a house rather than a dorm room. 

Let me take you back to Kaikoura, this is where we did our dolphin encounter. Basically you pay a lot of money to swim with wild dolphins. The company make a big point of the fact that they are wild dolphins so it is better but, as they are wild, they can't guarantee that the dolphins will hang around with you. This trip had been recommended by a few friends we met along the way so we were pretty confident. 

We set off that morning, checked in, donned our sexy wet suits and off we went. The sea was "moderate" which means high chance of sea sickness much to the joy of Kinga. We started off leaping up and over the Pacific's attempts to spoil our day and found our first pod of dolphins. We were told to get ready, put our goggles/flippers on and move to the back of the boat then...go go go...we were in the water. The coldness of the ocean instantly took my breath away as the dolphins continued to swim past us. I looked down and could see nothing, about 10 metres into the endless abyss below me. We were surrounded by green plankton and knowing it is a rich and favourite food stuff of a lot of whales I pictured an enormous beast rising from below, mouth wide open, swallowing me whole. A lung full of sea water made it's way down my snorkel quickly snapping me out of my imagined demise as I looked around. Seeing lots of people in the same situation I calmed myself by working out the odds of me being the first eaten. I decided ginger is an acquired taste where as everyone likes Chinese takeaway, so I was safe and focused on swimming around. 

As the dolphins had all gone we were quickly called back to the boat to go search for a new pod. While I was freaking out in the water Kinga was having a whale of a time (sorry, bad joke). It wasn't long before we found some more dolphin and were once again released en masse back into the cold ocean. This time was better, the wetsuit had warmed up and I had got my head around the fact I was risking my life to see some big grey marine mammals that would probably eat me if they had thumbs. Once again it was the same story with the dolphins just swimming by and not playing as promised. By our fourth dip word had reached the skipper that there were a family of killer whales in the area so basically the dolphins were running away hence not hanging around to play with us. Frankly I can't blame them and I didn't like the idea of being in the water dressed as a poor functioning water mammal that would probably make a tasty amuse bocuhe for an orca. With this news we gave up on the dolphins and started to head back. In my various jumps into the water I did get to see 15 or so wild dolphins swimming by me very close which was pretty awesome. 

Pics from the encounter

As we were heading back we managed to track down the orcas so got to spend an hour or so drinking hot chocolate, munching on ginger nuts and watching a family of orcas swim around, Daddy, Mummy and little one. We were so lucky to be able to find them. Upon our return to the port we were told that the company didn't count our day as an encounter so we would be refunded part of our money back to a watchers fee, true to their word. We did get in the water a few times so had they not I would have been disappointed but not surprised.  

I guess in summary we got pretty damn lucky. We were in the water 4 times with wild dolphins, spotted wild orcas and got half our money back, if I was offered that at the beginning of the day I'd say hell yeah. 

Top of One Tree Hill

Since then we have made it to Auckland, a pretty uneventful flight from Christchurch and here we are. We have hiked up a park known as one tree hill, strangely with lots of trees...and sheep. Wandered around Auckland, kind of a mini Sydney and yesterday went to an awesome beach with black sand that glitters in the sun. I can't remember the name of it but I know it as volcanic disco beach. We have a few more days relaxing here before we head of to Fiji for some hammock time before back to the UK...sad face. 

Downtown Auckland

Until next time, look after each other and do it to them before they do it to you.

Volcanic disco beach

New Zealand South

Soooooo, last time we were just waving goodbye to Steven and Dee and good bye to the land of Koalas and Kangaroos on our way to New Zealand. We took off in Sydney for a pretty unspectacular flight until you reach the central mountains of Middle Earth...ummm....I mean New Zealand. From up high coming into Christchurch they looked spectacular. Upon landing we were greeted by many sheep staring inquisitively at this strange herd of people following one another, being shepherded out of our flying machine and into the big barn at the end of their field. I don't know if you know this about New Zealand, but there are a lot of sheep.

Sheep...but you probably knew that.

Immigration was a bit quicker than Australia but no less stressful. We passed through passport control and got to a man at declarations. It seems New Zealand is pretty strict on the fruit and sandwich smuggling trade as a lot of lunch boxes were being swiftly disposed of before they could get busted. We managed to get a banana onto our flight but getting a bit fearful on the way out we decided to ingest it before customs. I know it can be a dangerous choice to make as if the skin splits inside of you you can die of a massive over dose but it was one we had to make. We reached a man who asked us three times very clearly if we had food to declare, he could probably see the panic on my face. Just the previous afternoon I was watching a show where a poor German guy got fined $400 for having a sandwich in his bag and not declaring it. It was found by a sniffer dog, his mum had made it and he forgot it was in there. I hope his mum re-embursed the fine. Anyway, this fresh in my mind we headed through and sure enough there was a sniffer dog. As our bags were on the way out of the scan the dog approached and put his paw on our bag...little shit I thought. But it was really cute so I couldn't hate it that much. The customs lady approached moved us to the side and asked "sir, do you have any food inside this bag you haven't declared?" I was sure I hadn't but maybe i'd forgotten something, I thought to myself, I'm too pretty for prison, especially when they find out I am on the inside for smuggling bananas! Shaking in fear Kinga stepped in and confidently answered "no, have had bananas in there but we have eaten them already". The lady said she had to check our back as the dog had marked it a potentially lethal. She looked through and found the top of a banana stalk, I still wasn't sure if that is punishable but it turns out it's not. I guess it's like finding the needle with out the heroin or papers with no canabis, a close call but we at away with it. We were off the hook and I was allowed to walk as a free man into New Zealand.

Our first day was in Christchurch, not much going on here apart from a lot of building work. In 2011 it was struck with 2 large earthquakes less than 6 months or so apart and it is still recovering. Wandering around you can see how the centre of the city has pretty much been destroyed, I think they have only just finished clearing the rubble and finally things are starting to be built again. 185 people lost their lives in those two earthquakes, I am amazed it wasn't more. 

From there we headed down to Queenstown "the adrenaline capital of NZ!" Sadly it seems adrenaline comes at a hefty price so no bungee jumping or canyon swinging for us, just a bit of wine tasting and mountain hiking. The Pinot Noir down there is lovely! The hostel we were staying in had quite a party element to it. It's quite strange how that in my head I am still young and can hang with the kids but when it comes to it I can't be bothered, I just moan about the noise they make and go to bed. If you are wondering if you are getting old then backpack around New Zealand for a couple of weeks and you will probably work out that you are! The other thing that stands out about the area is just how many Germans there are, I think there are more young German here than are left in Germany. In quite a surprising turn of events it turns out I quite like the Germans I have been meeting. I am British, I am born to not like the Germans be it through history or football but here I am, on the other side of the world finding out that Germans are people too. 

Hiking views and drinking wine

While in Queenstown we managed a day trip to Milford Sounds, wrongly named as it is in fact a Fiord. If you are wondering about the difference, a Fiord or Fjord in Norway is a bunch of water at the bottom of mountains formed by the ocean filling up valleys left behind from glacial movement back in the day. A sound, however, is a bunch or water filled up by the ocean caused by river erosion and natural water movement. Generally meaning fiords will have deeper lakes with steeper sides where as sounds have gentle slopes into the water. Smart huh? Want to know the difference between a Creek and a stream? Well a Creek....Just kidding, look it up yourself. Point being it should be Millford Fiords, not Sound. Any hoo, the trip was 5 hours in a bus there, 2 hours on a boat and 5 hours on a bus back again. That a lot of bus but it was worth it, spectacularly beautiful, we even met someone famous, she played a refugee in Lord of The Rings! She was pretty funny, she said there were loads of locals rounded up to play the extras and the only instructions they were given is "Do not smile". Now having been told that and having a man on a horse with a big beard ride past you shouting "The orcs are coming" well...everyone was in hysterics.

Milton Sound and a hike at Fox Glacier

Without bungee jumping or throwing myself off a mountain Queenstown was still very enjoyable, the hiking was spectacular and the town had a cool little ski town vibe. Our next stop was Nelson but as it is a good 14 hours or so on a bus we had one night at the Fox Glacier. Sadly the weather was awful so we wandered a bit then went to bed, didn't get a chance to see the Glacier but it's just a bit of ice isn't it? I can see that in the freezer every day.

Nelson was a nice little town, we hired a car for the day and asked some people in our hostel to join us for a day of driving around the top part of the South Island which is when we met Mia, our first Japanese traveller friend. We trekked to a waterfall, learnt Japanese and eat lots of Jelly Babies. Well, that last one was just me, I can't be trusted with sweets. 

After Nelson cam Blenheim, centre of the Marlborough wine region. We had a day on bikes drinking lots of free wine tasting. Thanks to a friend in a wine company we were able to have a full behind the scenes tour of the Whitehaven Vineyard. From grapes being delivered to drinking plenty of their range in the barrel room with stuff to take home too. Needless to say by the end we were pretty happy, it was my perfect day, apart from the weather. The weather has been a bit of an issue since Queenstown, grey skies and rain all the way which is far from ideal.

Photo bombed by a lama and Marlborough wine region

Our last two stops were Picton and Kaikoura. Picton was amazing, we borrowed bikes from our hostel and they were probably two of the worst bikes available to use, they should have been condemned. Kinga's gears were stuck so she only had the use of two and my little rust bucket had an issue with the handle bars, as in if you were going too fast they turn but the wheel doesn't. Somehow before we found all this out we were at the top of a pretty tricky mountain bike path. And that is the story of how Kinga's mountain biking career started and finished in one glorious 30 minute ride, needless to say it was probably Kinga's worst moment of the whole trip. Well...worst part until the rain came pouring down and we still had another 30 minutes or so to peddle home. 

Kaikoura was where we paid to go on a dolphin encounter to swim with hundreds of wild dolphins. To find out how we got on with the dolphins I guess you will have to wait as our plane is arriving into Auckland and once again I have written far too much to keep your attention.

Keep an eye out for the next update, until then...much love

The rest of Australia

So it has bee a very long time since I have updated this and treated you all to some words of our adventures. I sometimes find myself thinking of England and how far away it seems as we relax on the beach...not often or for very long...in fact once...I might have. Any hoo, we are now in New Zealand, currently sat on a bus twisting and winding it's way through various parts of Middle Earth. It is now Autumn on this side of the world meaning the sun has gotten weaker and the nights shorter but the trees and the changing colours is nothing but spectacular. It is quite strange thinking it is currently Autumn 2014 here, so we are going to have two Autumns and no Springs this year. So how did we get here? I guess that takes us back to Adelaide airport all those weeks ago.....

Another horrible flight, I believe we have found a worse airline than Ryanair in Tiger Airlines but that wasn't the problem, the weather was. Due to storms we were trapped on the plane for a while before take off but when we did finally manage to the turbulance had the plane hopping around more than a kangaroo on crack. It was the longest 1 hour flight I can remember but on the upside it will be a while before I need a manicure. As I am sure you will have worked out by the mere fact you are reading this we landed safely and had arrived in Tasmania.

We wandered over to pick up our rental car only to be given the pinkest of hot pink cars, I loved it. Tasmania was everything you wanted it to be, beautiful, clean and sparsely populated. 

Wineglass bay was a particular highlight with a 6 hour hike and just driving around the island, up and down mountains and through cool climate rainforest, pure nature. At one point we had pulled off the road to enjoy our lunch stop over looking Pirate Bay when a group of bikers came in a couple of minutes behind us. You know the type, loud bikes, big beards. Sensing danger as they looked at my pink wheels I thought I best speak first

"Bet your jealous" I managed to say

"Where ya from mate?" Came the thick Aussie accented reply

"England"

"Leave your testicles there mate or did you come here to get them removed?"

It was at this point I thought back to when we picked the car up and the agent asked if is pink ok or would you like a different colour..I should have probably accepted her offer.

Wineglass Bay

That was pretty much it for Tassie, we drove 1000 kms in 3 days, hiked a fair amount and got abused by local bikers, didn't see any devils but had a great time. Next stop was Brisbane to see our friend for the UK Jon, or Jonno in Australian.

Brisbane....drunk wine, went indoor climbing and spent a day on the beach. That was it really, 5 days watching Netflix and being called corned beef by Jonno's roommates...I don't even like corned beef! It was nice to finally slow down for a few days and relax with friends drinking wine, did I mention the wine?

Jonno, bored on a beach

Brisbane City

Spider Kinga

Sydney was next. We managed to get another deal on a camper van relocation and drove from Brisbane to Sydney, probably one of the most disappointing drives of all time. It looked wonderful on the map, another long coastal road but no, just a long road with nothing to see. Once again we were lucky enough to have friends to stay with, Steven and Dee. They have been quite a big part of our travels, we first met them way back in Laos where we were swimming in waterfalls and then run into them again in Ko Phagnan, Thailand where we partied together at the Full Moon Party. Last time we met them was in Kuala Lumpur as they were flying to Borneo we were heading to Myanmar and now they have ended their trip working in Sydney and let us stay. So four nights out in four different countries, quite an achievement. They are living in Manly, a suburb of Sydney to the North and a beautiful one at that.

First day was spent doing the classic touristy stuff, seeing the Opera House, the bridge, we went to Bonai Beach and met another traveller friend of past, Corey who was in Sydney for a few days. Sydney was one of those places that I didn't know if I would like too much as it is so famous and has such a high reputation to live up too but we both loved it. The only downside was the expense of eating hence we found ourselves in the cheapest places, sadly the cheapest is normally McDonalds dirtburgers. Following day was a trip up the coast to Palm Beach AKA Summer Bay, the fictional town where Home and Away is set. We went to our first ever AFL game that evening in the AK Arena built for the Olympics. The Sydney Swans Vs. Collingwood from Melbourne. In the train on the way over we got talking to a couple of fans. One guy told me that you can spot Collingwood fans as they have teeth missing then right on cue a chap over his left shoulder wearing a Collingwood cap who was stood there quietly eavesdropping our conversation removed his front two teeth and shouted "Go Collingwood" (with a lisp). 

The game itself I am sorry to say I found pretty boring, the pitch is so big and the stadium was sparsely populated so the atmosphere wasn't all that great. As for the game, it was like watching lots of men in tight shorts trying to catch an ostrich egg that is rolling down a hill. I don't know whether these two teams just weren't very good but for a game that relies on straight kicking and catching a ball they weren't doing either very well. Even Kinga was disappointed, the men weren't even hot men in tight shorts. On the upside the tickets were pretty cheap so we left at the beginning of the 4th quarter happy that we had seen our fair share of egg chasing for a lifetime.

Watching people fumbling around after eggs

Our last day in Sydney was spent lying on the beach in Manly, finding out that bodyboarding is much harder than it looks and that lungs have a surprisingly high capacity for water before you drown. I didn't find out the upper limit but I managed to take on board a fair share and am still breathing. They have pretty big waves out here. Saying our goodbyes and big thank yous to Steven and Dee before we knew it we were waving goodbye to Australia and enjoying a jaw dropping welcome to New Zealand. We flew into Christchurch which takes you over the central mountains and it was stunning to see.

Steven and Dee, plus us!

So in NZ we have spent a couple of days in Christchurch and a few in Queenstown but I am getting bored of writing now, my head hurts as this has been a very winding bus journey and you are probably bored of reading by now. I am also engaged in a battle with the snoozing Kinga next to me, she is slowly inching her way over to take up both seats and squeeze me into a corner, I must fight back so until next time, peace out home boys and girls x

From Kuta to Adelaide

So we sit here in yet another airport having been told our flight is delayed. Luckily we left plenty of time for our connections as apperntly even if you miss a connecting flight on the same air line "flights are booked at your own risk sir, delays happen." is all the help we're gonna get!

So we left Kuta having learnt to surf, and visiting a village called Bumbang, leaving my calf mussels very pink and crispy boarding a plane to Melbourne. We boarded our first flight from Kuta to Kuala Lumpur where we would change planes to head to Melbourne. For some reason once we were 30,000 feet in the air my brain decided it would now be a good moment to reming me that KL has two airports, a quick check and my fears were confirmed in that we are landing at the wrong one. Another lesson learnt from the Hulland school of travel organisation! As it always seems to it all worked out in the end amongst a mild panic and we landed safely in Melbourne. I thought immigration in the UK was a chore but this took the biscuit. All in all it took us about 2 and a half hours to navigate the various queues before Kinga got taken aside for a brief interrogation and we were free to leave. The interrogation was the usual stuff, lots of small questions to basically say "Do you plan to find a job and stay here illegally?", That would have been much quicker!

I would love to tell you all about Melbourne but we changed plans and were only there for around half a day. We were always heading over to Adelaide to meet up with friends but were never sure how we were going to get there then last minute we found a cheap camper van rental. By cheap...I mean it was 50p a day to rent it, the company paid for all of our petrol...and we got $100 travel expenses. It was a relocation rental, so someone left it in Melbourne and we were the lucky people who got to take it the other way. Expecting a small VW style camper I was quite surprised to find the behemoth that sat, waiting for us to return her to her home. We had a TV, cooker, shower, toilet (not that I dared, we had a deal that who used it emptied it! I guess deep down I always knew it would be me emptying it.) everything to sustain a simple existence. Day one was spent driving the Great Ocean Road to the South West of Melbourne, stopping off in Torquay and various other scenic stops. It is lovely but I would re-name it the Very Good Ocean Road because compared to the drive from Biarritz to Bilbao and a couple of others in Europe it's not quite on the same level, but it is still lovely. Maybe the Lovely Ocean Road. 

Fine dining!

 Great Ocean Road

Just as we were looking for somewhere to park up for the night we managed our first wild life encounter, we nearly hit a kangaroo who suicide leaped in front of us but we just managed to swerve. With limited knowledge of kangaroo suicidal tendencies we found a quiet lay by, cooked some carbonara and settled down for the night planning to set off early in the morning, around 8am.

So at 11am we were off and the second day driving was pretty relentless. We passed a few scenic vineyards but is was a long slog of straight roads small towns. The second night was spent in a town called Keith, their claim to fame, owning a Land Rover on a Pole...I couldn't make that stuff up! This time we had smartly decided to park in a rest stop for truck conveniently next to a railway to ensure that sleep would be a very elusive state that night. On the flip side we managed to make and early start and our road adventure concluded in Adelaide.

The amazing town of Keith

In Adelaide we have been staying with the amazing Ormond family. We met Kym travelling through Thailand and he made that mistake of saying "Come stay at my place sometime" so we did! The whole family has been amazing, I managed to get myself KO'd by Kevin, Kym's dad, on our first night. Being KO'd seems to be a family tradition where you are welcomed with so much beer and amazing wine the next morning you feel...lets say fuzzy! Our time in Adelaide has been great including wandering the Riesling trail in Clare Valley, a rainy day at a beach, playing with all the indigenous marsupials we could wish for and enjoying festival events. All that was great fun but by far the highlight has been meeting all the family and enjoying their hospitality...and wine...and whisky...and beer. Our final night was a proper style Aussie barbecue with delights such as kangaroo, alpaca, crocodile sausages and goat on the grill. So I guess this is my last chance to once again say thanks to the whole family, lovely to meet you all and maybe see you in the UK sometime.

Team selfie

Kevin and Kym, father and so. Cooking dream team!

So that's it, you are probably bored by now so i'll wrap it up, we are delayed on our way to Tasmania to start a new chapter of our tour.

Peace and love to all.

Making anemones

So it's been over a week or something like that since I have written to you all so I guess I should take a few minutes to remind you how jealous you all are of us.

So we find ourselves in Lombok, fighting off mosquitoes and the bracelet mafia while enjoying beaches that would easily take there place in my top 5 of all time I have ever been too. More specifically we are in a small town called Kuta which is on the Southern tip of the island. Lombok itself is the island to the East of Bali in Indonesia. So that said lets get going.

Sorry to disappoint you but I feel I must begin by letting you know so far neither of has been sick, which is good I guess, and neither of us had had the poops even though we have been enjoying some very sceptical looking food stuffs. Our first few days were in an area called Jimberan, not much to report really, beaches, fresh fish, lovely hosts at out home stay thats about it. Following this we headed to a cool town called Ubud via many tourist sites and temple, I'll be honest, I have forgotten the name of most of them but they were all....touristy. We did eat some strange coconut jelly sweet things made out of rice. I have no idea how it's rice and I am convinced they are lying to me. I am probably better off not really knowing how they are made anyway. I got suckered in the usual way by me asking what is it, they say try one, I say ok, then I say it's horrible and go to walk away, then they make me feel guilty and I end up buying two. One day I may learn, but no time soon I am sure!

Temple somewhere in Bali

Ubud was great, every corner you turn is another mystical archeological wonder, but more fun than buildings...they have a monkey forest. By now I am sure you know I can never miss the chance to interact with my primitive brothers. Just as you walk in there is a small fountain where they jump, swim and fight, this could keep me amused for hours just watching them monkey around. We explored further and had a good laugh at a poor spanish tourist who had given a baby monkey a small snack. I guess the mother was jealous and stole it from her baby, not very nice. As mummy walked of she dropped the food and sensing the opportunity the Spanish girl went to give it back to the baby but no....it was a trap. No sooner had she touched the food, mummy was back on the scene ninja kicking her to the face throwing in an uppercut, bitchy words and a bite to the shoulder. Screaming as loud as anyone would when under attack from ninja monkey the girl ran away. Sadly she ran the wrong way and got herself cornered! She was a full on prisoner, mummy sat looking uninterested but every movement Spain made she spun around and hissed at her. Spain looked to baby for support but he just sat there looking desperately at his little monkey paws, they had food but now just hung there...empty. After a few minutes one of the park attendants came to negotiate the release of the hostage with a big stick, given ninja monkeys previous moves I thought a stick would not pose much of a problem, alas she run away and the Ubud hostage crisis of 2014 came to an end. Spain did take a bite to the shoulder but it didn't look like the skin was broken so she should be safe from rabies.

After our entertainment was over we wandered a bit further and found a quiet little corner to snack on a biscuit...it had been 2 hours since breakfast. Looking everywhere we were pretty confident and cracked them out. We were in an alleyway, no monkeys in front, none behind, an 11 foot wall to the left and long building to the right, we were as secure as we possibly could be. As Kinga unwrapped our snack....BOOM...I received a killer blow to the head as a monkey from nowhere landed on me, launching off my noggin as quickly as he had appeared ninja monkey the sequel 360'd in mid air, cartwheeling over my hand. Kinga stepped back and let out a defensive scream to irritate the monkey but impervious to human screaming he grabbed the biscuits with four of his buddies and they were off, as quickly as they appeared. We had just been mugged. As if to rub it in one just sat there, staring us down as he munched on our biscuit, eyes saying to me "come and take this delicious oat cake back...I dare you." Defeated and hungry we slopped off to find some real lunch.

 Monkey...eating my bloody biscuit!!

The rest of Ubud was no where near as exciting as that but still an amazing town. After three days we were on the road again and heading here...Kuta. The trip was uneventful except for at one of our bus changes the driver started telling us how mosquitoes are everywhere at the moment, the way he was taking it sounds like malaria and dengue fever is a certainty rather than a possibility. Happy to report so far we are fine but our mosquito repellent is running out fast and every time we blow our nose we assume it's malaria.

 Ubud rice fields

As I mentioned earlier Kuta is pretty amazing, we have mopeds and have been exploring beaches up and down the coast and everyone of them deserves a place in my top 5. The tourists around here don't seem too nice though, it is a bit of a surfer town so everyone seems to be trying to act really cool, makes it hard for me to fit in, I gave that up a few years ago! The locals are all amazing and friendly, especially the little kids that try to sell you bracelets, they are frekin' relentless. "Hello sir hello ma'am, want to buy bracelet?" Over the course of a meal you will get asked by about 15 kids between the ages of 5-15 at a guess. I want to know where the money goes, of course they say they make it but I bet they don't, there must be a boss who supplies the materials, I am on the scent and I will expose these underground bracelet gangs.

The one other thing of interest happened today during a swimming session in the warm water off the beautiful beach we were chilling on. Have I mentioned the beaches? So we were swimming and paused by some rocks when Kinga just looked at me and said "Don't move." And I am talking about a proper don't move, full on serious voice and stone cold eyes. So naturally I shit myself and spun around looking for what se was looking at fully expecting to be eaten by a shark or at least speared by a swordfish or something. As I spun I stood up and as my high pitched screams gave away I had found it. We were surrounded by sea anemones, those little poisonous spiky little bastards and I had just stepped right on one. My foot was bleeding and on fire so we swam back quicker than I have ever managed before. By the time we were back at the beach the pain had subsided but still there. We asked an expert, by expert I mean a local man selling pineapples on the beach, he reckons I should be fine, I guess I will know tomorrow morning. I am either going to wake up with a foot or a massive swollen pus ball, makes for an exciting night!

 One of Kuta's amazing beaches

Well that really is it, thank you and well done if you are still reading, that is 10 minutes of your life you will never get back! Soon we are of to Kangaroo land but before that I need to learn how to surf, thats for tomorrow.

Goodnight and I love you all!

 Me, struggling on through

Arrived in Bali

So after a gap of three months we are back on our adventure and have arrived in Bali.

Whenever you are travelling long distances to go away I always believe it is a really good idea to spend that little bit of extra cash and buy a good quality flight. I am not talking first class...unless you can afford it...if you can hit me up, we should talk...but at least a direct flight to get to your destination as quickly as possible leaving you refreshed and ready to go from day one. Sadly, what I believe and what I do are quite the opposite, that is why we were tavelling for 32 hours, leaving London in the wee hours of Tuesday morning to fly to Mumbai, 9 hours overnight there waiting for another 5 hour flight to Singapore. 3 more hours there before getting on our next flight to Bali and finally arriving at around 1am Friday morning.

The first flight was nice enough, my streak of surviving with my clothes clean came to an abbrut end as the sweetcorn from  BBQ chicken wrap became dislodged by some mild turbulance and left 4 or 5 nice saucey streaks down my shirt. After an hour or so of non stop bumpinesds the sick bag was on standby but never really threatened. Mumbai airport is dry...Goes without saying I didn't enjoy it there. Having flown through Doha before and encountering the same situation I vowed never to go to a dry airport again, looks like I failed. We did concoct a plan that involed duty free wine and a couple of Costa coffee cups, we even got the cups but then did a little research to find out that you need a permit to consume alcohol in Mumbai state. Not wanting to get arrested before we even finished our transit we veto'd that plan and set about finding a quiet corner to make a nest for the night.

The next flight was a 5 hour ordeal on a plane that would make Ryan Air seen spacious. We also had the pleasure of being right on the back row so we couldn't recline our seats and we had a constant audience of people waiting to us the lavotory looking at us. At least I entertained them as one of the side effects of not being able to recline your seat is that you must sleep pretty upright. The result...That thing you do when your head colaspes forward and you wake yourself up as if you have just beed slapped around the face. I spend 4 hours doing my best nodding dog impression. It was also on this flight that Kinga also decided to cover herself in red wine and sweet and sour chicken. I know what your thinking...Red...with sweet and sour? Sadly they didn't have any Alsace Dry Reisling!

Finally we made it to Singapore where we would have to clear immigration, collect our bags and check in again. We were officially in Singapore for 32 minutes, 22 of them waiting for my stupid luggage. Finally after one more flight we have arrived.

Our system of tactical naps and red wine has worked and have woken up feeling fit, strong, ready for a day of sightseeing but it is raining like mad. That said, being British this never bothers me. 

That's about it for now, as I sit on out terrace writing Kinga is next to me, scaring us by reading all the side effects of the various drugs we have with us. Apparently a side effect of travel sickness pills is nausea and vomiting...Hmmmmm.  Keep an eye out for updates, I am sure I will get the message to you if you can't be bothered to look. I hope you are all well and let the adventure re-commence.

Peace

A Strange Turn Of Events

Hmmm, England in Winter...I didn't think I'd be here. Right now as I write this I should be staggering around Sydney Harbor in a drunken stupor having seen in the New Year under an explosion of bright fireworks lighting up the Opera House. Realistically I would be asleep in a park somewhere as I couldn't afford an outrageously priced hotel, stone cold sober as the drinks are so expensive having seen a few blurry flashes of fireworks in the sky from 10 kilometers away. Alas neither of these are true as I am sat on a couch back in the amazing small town of Bury St Edmunds in England.

Due to family reasons we are taking a break in our trip, we arrived back in the cold on the 20th December and started work the next day...grrrr...work. Out next flight is booked from Kuala Lumpur to Melbourne and we will be picking this up again in February.

It was a long time since my previous travelly post so lets give you a swift overview of what we got up to.

Thailand after Pai...

Lopburi, I didn't catch rabies.

Ayutthaya, Nice temples and a lovely break from the craziness of Bangkok

Bangkok, Crazy

Train Ride, Hungry followed by an evening in a random town called Don Sak with no-where to eat so Pot Noodles for dinner.

Koh Phag-nan, Full Moon party craziness

Koh Lanta, Rainy

Koh Phi Phi, Stunningly beautiful and took Kinga to an all you can eat buffet and a boxing match #Romance!

Phuket, one night, up at 3am

Kuala Lumpur, Disappointing at first but pulled through in the end

Myanmar/Burma, Loved it

Yangon, Expected nothing but loved it

Mandalay, Expected loads but disappointed

Bagan, Temples and greatness

Back to Yangon, loved it again

Malaysia

Kuching, Borneo, Very nice people.

After that, Bury St Edmunds, center of the universe!!!!

So, that brings you up to date. There are so many stories in between like sweet chili mackerel and pee-ing by the side of the road in Myanmar but i can't write them right now. If your lucky i will in the future...or you'll have to buy the book!

Happy New Year everyone, roll on 2014!