We finally got our bums up from the beach and took an overnight train to Bangkok. Here we relaxed for a couple of nights before making the day long eventful bus journey to Cambodia - Siem Reap to be precise. Tomorrow we visit the ancient temples of Angkor so should get some good pics. More to follow in the new year.
All the very best for 2009!
Tuesday, 30 December 2008
Wednesday, 24 December 2008
A CHRISTMAS MESSAGE...
as we sit on the beach of haad yuan today under a scorching blue sky overlooking crystal clear waters it is hard to believe it is the eve of christmas, however i'm sure we'll make it one to remember. of course we will be thinking about you all back home and missing you all ! keep following our blog as our journey continues, it means alot to us .... happy christmas xxx
Monday, 22 December 2008
Thursday, 18 December 2008
the kingdom of thailand
we arrived in phuket and checked into a much deserved nice hotel near the airport. having missed our nights sleep you would think we hit the hay immediately but not before a mussaman curry was devoured !! cathy has been telling tom about this, her favourite food ever since i met him so he was keen to give it a try. it is now tom's favourite food ever too !!
koh phi phi don
after a great nights sleep we wasted no time in getting to the islands. we took a boat that morning to phi phi. as most of you will know this island was destroyed by the tsunami of 2004. cathy and myself spent a week there 3 months before the tsunami so we were a bit apprehensive about returning but thankfully life seems to have gotten back to normal for most of the islanders. in saying that there are very obvious signs of the awful tragedy and most of the locals have a very sad story to tell.
we spent 8 nights here and had a fantastic time. i must admit though that in rebuilding the main town on the island they have created a much more hectic atmosphere than the once very relaxed vibe that made this place so attractive. acommodation was pretty poor, you don't get the value for money that you would expect. in saying that there was no shortage of tourist's on 2 week holidays willing to pay more. there seemed to be more western people on the island than thai people themselves, the identity of thailand been swallowed with them all.
koh phi phi leh
one of the days we took a long tail boat across to phi phi leh. this is 'the beach' famous from the movie starring leonardo di caprio. we are pleased to say that it remains as beautiful as ever simply because it is uninhabited and cannot be spoiled. you are allowed to spend a day on it and that we did. having endured sea sickness along the way and many tears (sailing in little long tail boats with any sign's of waves is not lynn's thing !!) we arrived. as everyone around us jumped in the air getting amazing photo's taken lynn lay in a ball on the beach trying to fend off the sickness, a short walk into the jungle followed by repetitive puking (about 17 times !!) sorted her out and we had the best day. it was spent swimming in the crystal clear ocean for hours followed by fantastic snorkelling ...
koh tao
we sailed from phi phi islands back to krabi where we then took a 3 hour bus to surathani. we waited here for a few hours before boarding 'the slow boat' to koh tao. after sailing for 8 hours throughout the night we arived as the sun rose over the island. we had 5 nights here. we stayed in a beautiful beach hut resort which was super value for money compared to phi phi. we had air con for the first time in months !! there was also a fab swimming pool beside our hut so our days were spent by the pool, our evenings drinking fresh fruit shakes, eating beautiful thai food and watching movies ... and an odd few beers !!
koh phangan
so from koh tao to koh phangan. another boat journey but this time a short one. we arrived on this island with so much expectation. myself and cathy having visited previously and loved it ! big blue resort on haad yuan beach was the destination. this is where we are today and are delighted to say it is as amazing as ever. we have been here 8 days so far and don't intend leaving until after christmas. we have a beautiful beach hut perched on the hill over looking the ocean (gulf of thailand). the beauty about this place is that there is no road access so to get here you must take a small taxi boat. it is only 10 mins from the main area by boat but enough to keep this beautiful beach totally unspoiled and peaceful. our days are spent lying on the beach, swimming, kayaking, playing basketball, or table tennis. it's pretty tough going !!!!! i go over the hill to the sanctuary every morning for yoga classes ... yesterday i managed to get tom over with me but we got told off by the yoga instructor for laughing at each other. tom sez while he managed to connect with his inner being on a spiritual level ...... he won't be going back ha ha the only being tom can connect with is a baked bean !!
our evenings are as lazy as our days. we indulge in the fab thai food every night for dinner followed by banana fritters with sweet milk (nana this is tom's new favourite so you may get practising ... and yes anne he eats bananas now !!!) oh and how could i not mention that this is all washed down with an oreo shake. yes this actually is half a pack of oreo biscuits mixed with sweet milk and ice to make the most amazing shake you could ever taste ...
we also managed to attend the world famous full moon party on haad rin beach last friday. we figured it would be wrong not too !! pictures to follow .............
koh phi phi don
after a great nights sleep we wasted no time in getting to the islands. we took a boat that morning to phi phi. as most of you will know this island was destroyed by the tsunami of 2004. cathy and myself spent a week there 3 months before the tsunami so we were a bit apprehensive about returning but thankfully life seems to have gotten back to normal for most of the islanders. in saying that there are very obvious signs of the awful tragedy and most of the locals have a very sad story to tell.
we spent 8 nights here and had a fantastic time. i must admit though that in rebuilding the main town on the island they have created a much more hectic atmosphere than the once very relaxed vibe that made this place so attractive. acommodation was pretty poor, you don't get the value for money that you would expect. in saying that there was no shortage of tourist's on 2 week holidays willing to pay more. there seemed to be more western people on the island than thai people themselves, the identity of thailand been swallowed with them all.
koh phi phi leh
one of the days we took a long tail boat across to phi phi leh. this is 'the beach' famous from the movie starring leonardo di caprio. we are pleased to say that it remains as beautiful as ever simply because it is uninhabited and cannot be spoiled. you are allowed to spend a day on it and that we did. having endured sea sickness along the way and many tears (sailing in little long tail boats with any sign's of waves is not lynn's thing !!) we arrived. as everyone around us jumped in the air getting amazing photo's taken lynn lay in a ball on the beach trying to fend off the sickness, a short walk into the jungle followed by repetitive puking (about 17 times !!) sorted her out and we had the best day. it was spent swimming in the crystal clear ocean for hours followed by fantastic snorkelling ...
koh tao
we sailed from phi phi islands back to krabi where we then took a 3 hour bus to surathani. we waited here for a few hours before boarding 'the slow boat' to koh tao. after sailing for 8 hours throughout the night we arived as the sun rose over the island. we had 5 nights here. we stayed in a beautiful beach hut resort which was super value for money compared to phi phi. we had air con for the first time in months !! there was also a fab swimming pool beside our hut so our days were spent by the pool, our evenings drinking fresh fruit shakes, eating beautiful thai food and watching movies ... and an odd few beers !!
koh phangan
so from koh tao to koh phangan. another boat journey but this time a short one. we arrived on this island with so much expectation. myself and cathy having visited previously and loved it ! big blue resort on haad yuan beach was the destination. this is where we are today and are delighted to say it is as amazing as ever. we have been here 8 days so far and don't intend leaving until after christmas. we have a beautiful beach hut perched on the hill over looking the ocean (gulf of thailand). the beauty about this place is that there is no road access so to get here you must take a small taxi boat. it is only 10 mins from the main area by boat but enough to keep this beautiful beach totally unspoiled and peaceful. our days are spent lying on the beach, swimming, kayaking, playing basketball, or table tennis. it's pretty tough going !!!!! i go over the hill to the sanctuary every morning for yoga classes ... yesterday i managed to get tom over with me but we got told off by the yoga instructor for laughing at each other. tom sez while he managed to connect with his inner being on a spiritual level ...... he won't be going back ha ha the only being tom can connect with is a baked bean !!
our evenings are as lazy as our days. we indulge in the fab thai food every night for dinner followed by banana fritters with sweet milk (nana this is tom's new favourite so you may get practising ... and yes anne he eats bananas now !!!) oh and how could i not mention that this is all washed down with an oreo shake. yes this actually is half a pack of oreo biscuits mixed with sweet milk and ice to make the most amazing shake you could ever taste ...
we also managed to attend the world famous full moon party on haad rin beach last friday. we figured it would be wrong not too !! pictures to follow .............
18 hours in singapore
from perth we took a flight to singapore where we had 18 hours before boarding our flight to thailand. we decided against paying for a hotel so spent a few hours in the airport until sunrise and then we headed into the city itself. this was enough time for cathy to decide that there was so many nice things she could spend her money on !! somehow we managed to talk her out of buying a watch she loved by telling her if it was still there when we pass through singapore again in march we would buy it for her, we might jus choke on those words !!!! anyway apart from that we strolled around the city until tiredness kicked in. we then treated ourselves to a starbucks (first since the day we left dublin). with a great setup for people passing through in the form of a free bus service from airport around the city and back we managed to make the most of our time .... after a few noodles it was time to fly to phuket ....
Sunday, 7 December 2008
western australia
we arrived in perth after a long journey from cape town. as i booked our flights from cape town to jo'burg in a bit of a rush i managed to book us on the wrong flight !! we ended up spending a night sleeping on the floor in cape town airport followed by a 12 hour wait in jo'burg for our flight to perth instead of a simple 2 hour wait between flights !! anyway after surviving an ear bashing from tom and cathy we eventually arrived in perth shattered .....
within minutes of landing on australian soil i was so annoyed. immigration went through my bag inch by inch and took a few bits and pieces off me. i wasn't bothered until they insisted on taking cathy's butter popcorn (anyone that knows cathy well knows this is like gold to her !!) and a necklace i bought for amy (tom's sister) from me. the necklace was bought in africa, i had decided to wait until australia to post it as i wasn't sure how trustworthy the african postal service was but it was a mistake !! immigration called in quarantine and they give me some bullsh*t about the necklace containing wood & stones with seeds inside, a possible threat !! i was furious especially as the woman across the way only half looked at tom's bags which contained half a feckin tree chopped into big wooden pencils for his nephew fin ! she definitely had an eye for him !!
freemantle & rottnest island
after spending about 3 hours in perth airport we got ourselves together and onto a shuttle bus to freemantle. tom now the biggest bush tucker in town wanted to camp but finally us 2 girls twisted his arm and got a well needed bed in a hostel. from freemantle we sailed across to rottnest island. this was everything we needed after 8weeks in africa. it was so peaceful and absolutely stunning. beautiful white sandy beaches isolated and unspoilt. we found a lovely little campsite and had a fine time here. we hired bikes and spent a day cycling around the island. tom & cats got a tandem and kept leaving me behind !! with no cars allowed on rottnest this is a cyclist's haven (not that we are anywhere near cyclists !!!!)
perth
we were lucky enough to have the opportunity to meet up with an old neighbour of mine from home when the weekend arrived. colm is now living in perth and married to a local girl, rom. we had 3 nights at theirs which was a backpackers dream !! with a lovely home to relax in, a sunny garden to laze about in, a beach just a walk away, colm & rom opening cold beers and cooking a few nice treats, what more could you want ?? yes much to tom's delight an award winning pie shop at the top of the street !!
yallingup and margaret river
we decided to rent a car the 2nd week and headed down south of perth. we didn't go too far as we were still recovering from our monater journey in africa. we did however make it down to yallingup and the margaret river region. paradise beaches & fully equipped campsites meant we made this our base for the week. on our doorstep was an ambundance of vineyards, a cheese factory, a chocolate factory, a fudge factory and an olive oil factory where tastings were free ! needless to say us 3 fully fledged backpackers thought it was unreal ! cathy was so funny, sneaking 10 free samples of chocolate at one tasting, tom and myself weren't far behind !! rom's parents live down in this area too ... we were lucky enough to get invited for dinner to their home which is set in a beautiful australain countryside with the added bonus of kangaroo's bouncing through their garden. we owe a big thank you to both peter & judy not jus for dinner but for the 2 big blankets that saved us from hypothermia !!! coming from africa we didn't do our 'camping in australia research too well' and got a bit of a shock at how cold the nights were in western australia !
back to perth
we headed back up towards perth at the weekend. we were lucky enough to get another invite for dinner, this time a friend of tom's family living in perth. andy, debbie & baby patrick took us on board and we had a lovely day by their pool followed by a bbq and of course the customary cold beers !! while i'm definitely not ready to extend the family jus yet i must admit bay patrick was such a cutie. tom thought he was back home catching up on all the footie results and cathy even squeezed in an hour of two of her favourite music channel !
our last night was then spent back with colm & rom before embarking on ther next big leg of our journey, ASIA ...
more pic's for you ... see link list on top right
Wednesday, 3 December 2008
diving with the great whites
south africa really was one highlight after another ... i booked myself onto a great white shark cage dive one day while the girls went for a day of pampering. what an experience the sharks were. for me, it was up there with the gorilla tracking ... then again jaws is my fave film of all time so it would be !! we were transported about 2 hours east of the cape to gansbai and then sailed out to an area known as shark alley !!
for reasons unknown this channel between the mainland and island provides one of the finest viewpoints for great white on earth. each year they return for long periods. it turned out to be a mega experience - within minutes of dropping anchor the shark guide had spotted that shadow in the water and the iconic fin coming out from the surface. scary shit !! not one to shirk a challenge i clambered into my wet suit and jumped into the cage with the first group. five of us squeezed into a small cage all vying to get the best view of the sharks. we saw five great whites in all, the largest being a massive 3.5 metres nose to tail and the smallest around 1.5 metres. it got a bit hairy when the big fish approached and smashed it's tail into the cage. your heart kind of stops for a moment, but to see the power of these sharks is incredible. several more adrenaline charged moments followed before it was time to return to the boat and leave the sharks in peace. an amazing experience, i recommend it to anyone visiting south africa.
when i returned i found the girls had the full mashings - manicures, pedicures and hair do's ! cathy even went blonde ! apparently the beautician couldn't believe the girls turned down shark diving for hair do's and treatments, girls will be girls and knowing the davis girls i fully believe it ha ha
last few days ... and good wine !
we rented our second car ... this one lynny's fave, a white mark 1 golf. they offered us a free upgrade but lynny insisted on taking this one despite it having no power steering or air conditioning !! a legend of a car and they still make them over here ! lynny wants to import one back home !??!
so on the last day we drove out to cape point and the cape of good hope, a spectacular walk, amazing views of the endless ocean and stunning photos. before i leave this south african chapter i have to mention one last thing - the wine ! the wine is bloody marvelous here (gaga u would be in heaven!!) there are tonnes of vineyards in the cape area so on our last day we made sure we visited one. we went over to a winery called diemersfontein (who produced a fab wine we had been drinking, recommended earlier) fortunately there happened to be a wine festival on that day, and with temperatures soaring we had a great afternoon in the sunshine with a 'few' tasters of good wine. so it was a great end to our 8 week stay in africa.
i think to summarize africa it has been at times a very challenging place to travel through. it is often unpredictible and tiring however you get a great deal of satisfaction knowing you did it. we have probably experienced more in this 8 weeks than in several years holidays. i think it is fair to say we are glad we have travelled it on our own the hard way (no organised overland trips), but we probably wouldn't do it again, not east africa anyway. however south africa was a true diamond in the rough and a place we would love to revisit again.
off to oz ...
for reasons unknown this channel between the mainland and island provides one of the finest viewpoints for great white on earth. each year they return for long periods. it turned out to be a mega experience - within minutes of dropping anchor the shark guide had spotted that shadow in the water and the iconic fin coming out from the surface. scary shit !! not one to shirk a challenge i clambered into my wet suit and jumped into the cage with the first group. five of us squeezed into a small cage all vying to get the best view of the sharks. we saw five great whites in all, the largest being a massive 3.5 metres nose to tail and the smallest around 1.5 metres. it got a bit hairy when the big fish approached and smashed it's tail into the cage. your heart kind of stops for a moment, but to see the power of these sharks is incredible. several more adrenaline charged moments followed before it was time to return to the boat and leave the sharks in peace. an amazing experience, i recommend it to anyone visiting south africa.
when i returned i found the girls had the full mashings - manicures, pedicures and hair do's ! cathy even went blonde ! apparently the beautician couldn't believe the girls turned down shark diving for hair do's and treatments, girls will be girls and knowing the davis girls i fully believe it ha ha
last few days ... and good wine !
we rented our second car ... this one lynny's fave, a white mark 1 golf. they offered us a free upgrade but lynny insisted on taking this one despite it having no power steering or air conditioning !! a legend of a car and they still make them over here ! lynny wants to import one back home !??!
so on the last day we drove out to cape point and the cape of good hope, a spectacular walk, amazing views of the endless ocean and stunning photos. before i leave this south african chapter i have to mention one last thing - the wine ! the wine is bloody marvelous here (gaga u would be in heaven!!) there are tonnes of vineyards in the cape area so on our last day we made sure we visited one. we went over to a winery called diemersfontein (who produced a fab wine we had been drinking, recommended earlier) fortunately there happened to be a wine festival on that day, and with temperatures soaring we had a great afternoon in the sunshine with a 'few' tasters of good wine. so it was a great end to our 8 week stay in africa.
i think to summarize africa it has been at times a very challenging place to travel through. it is often unpredictible and tiring however you get a great deal of satisfaction knowing you did it. we have probably experienced more in this 8 weeks than in several years holidays. i think it is fair to say we are glad we have travelled it on our own the hard way (no organised overland trips), but we probably wouldn't do it again, not east africa anyway. however south africa was a true diamond in the rough and a place we would love to revisit again.
off to oz ...
Tuesday, 2 December 2008
a sense of normality in south africa
so we jumped on the baz bus which took us from swaziland into south africa on the 26th of october. this is a bus designed for backpackers but the prices are not !! they basically hike up their prices because they drop you 'door to door' ... they dropped us on a roundabout some miles from our chosen destination !! - hluhluwe backbackers, near hluhluwe national park. fortunately lynny had called the backpackers manager dave davies ... who later was renamed d*ckhead dave !!! a fine rip off merchant and weird cross breed look alike of hanibal lecter and david essex !! ha ha anyway we got to the camp and checked into a caravan (a bit like mrs p's last year but less spacious) the next morning we went on a full day game drive (because d*ckhead dave insisted we must pay for the entire day as it would be the 'only sure way to see all the animals'. funny that we only saw animals during the first 3 hours of the drive ! we choose hluhluwe (pronounced shushlooway - to our embarrasment after calling it hoolooway for the best part of a week) as it was the oldest national park in south africa, far smaller than widely known kruger and supposedly densely packed with africa's big 5 - leopard, lion, black rhino, elephant and buffalo ... we only saw one, the buffalo !! we see enough of them in buffalo joe's every weekend in the toon !! on a brighter note we did see white rhino families and got some stunning shots of giraffe and zebra, one of cathy's favourites oh and a lion's footprint ! it was amazing to see them all in their natural habitat. oh and we saw loads of impala ... dead boring antelope type things which are apparently seen as a mc donalds - an easy fast food feed for a lion !!! all in all we were a tad disappointed by the day and even worse when all dave the d*ckhead could offer us was a mug to drink one of the finest bottles of south african red wine and a cheese toastie fit for a hamster
moving further south ...
next day we got up and left pretty sharpish after hiring a motor to drive us south ... not before d*ckhead dave tried to rip us off. i won't blab as this has become a common theme in africa however he tried to overcharge us for the caravan claiming we had been misquoted by the little african dude who checked us in. after some haggling we got the initial price ... though i dread to think what kind of bollocking the little african dude got from dh dave. another ass we were glad to leave behind. so our super flash upgraded 1.4 fiesta with air con arrived and i blasted us down the south african coast. for the fella's reading - this was the most fun drive of my life, the girls slept alot of the journey (cathy the most as she turned the car into a mobile bedroom, nana i'm sure you get the picture !) i razed the motor twisting and turning around cliff edges with hardly any cars and no strict speed limits. the scenery was some of the best i have seen, how can i ever drive the A19 again ??!! i loved it.
the first place we stopped off was a place called umzumbe after bypassing durban. here we stayed at a really cool backpackers in a teepee. with a pool and jacuzi, plenty of cheap beers and home cooked 'borga' this place was mint. cathy might argue this point having found a giant millipeed in her bed !!
our next stop was some 500k south at chintsa, here we stayed at a recommended place called buccaneers, location right by a stunning beach. this place turned out to be top craic, we stayed 3 nights camping on the viewing platform ! and we palled up with a great crowd made up of sweeds, dutch, welsh and northern irish. an afternoon of volleyball was renamed wineyball after 2 free 5 litre boxes of wine arrived to sip on during regular intervals. this got everyone going and day turned to night by sunset down on the beach. (cathy now reckons adults are much more fun when they have a few drinks!!) brilliant time had here !!
next day lynn, cats and i indulged in a few treatments. the girls got facials and i got a massage. we felt we deserved it for all this hard work :-)
next we pushed on a further 600k south for an overnight in knysna before heading to cape town ...
cape town
from knysna we jumped in the motor and i drove the remaining 200k to cape town via the garden route. driving into 'the cape' was amazing - the outline of table mountain appearing in the distance, the city is built around the base of this unique mountain and is of course surrounded by ocean to add to its appeal. we ditched the car and checked into a nice tent free place for a couple of nights. we were later to move onto long street - cape town's hip and happening place for a couple more nights before returing to the tent and reduce spends. we did many of the tourist essentials in our week long stay, thou sadly lynny missed out on her wish to see robben island as it had been closed for maintenance for a couple of weeks, bummer :-( for all of us it would have been fascinating to see nelson mandela's prison cell where he had been kept for some 27 years. that afternoon we headed up to table mountain. we walked up part of the way and took a cable car up the remainder. the views from the top of here are breathtaking. this made for some incredible pictures down over the city and adjoining oceans. we literally felt on top of the world up here. it made cathy's day as this is somewhere she always wanted to go ever since her uncle conor visited here some years ago and told her all about it, not to forget mentioning her favourite orange t-shirt he brought her home that she still won't part with even though she was only 6 back then.
the following day we checked out the niall melon township project, mandela park. niall melon is an irish businessman who visited the depleted south african townships back in 2003 as a tourist and was so horrified by what he saw that he launched a home funding and building project. here every year hundreds of irish workers go out to cape town for two weeks and build homes to rehouse the locals whom had been living in what only can be described as tin shacks. it is an amazing achievement and testament to the very giving nature of the irish.
more to be added soon and lots more pic's on the way :D love tom, lynn & cats
moving further south ...
next day we got up and left pretty sharpish after hiring a motor to drive us south ... not before d*ckhead dave tried to rip us off. i won't blab as this has become a common theme in africa however he tried to overcharge us for the caravan claiming we had been misquoted by the little african dude who checked us in. after some haggling we got the initial price ... though i dread to think what kind of bollocking the little african dude got from dh dave. another ass we were glad to leave behind. so our super flash upgraded 1.4 fiesta with air con arrived and i blasted us down the south african coast. for the fella's reading - this was the most fun drive of my life, the girls slept alot of the journey (cathy the most as she turned the car into a mobile bedroom, nana i'm sure you get the picture !) i razed the motor twisting and turning around cliff edges with hardly any cars and no strict speed limits. the scenery was some of the best i have seen, how can i ever drive the A19 again ??!! i loved it.
the first place we stopped off was a place called umzumbe after bypassing durban. here we stayed at a really cool backpackers in a teepee. with a pool and jacuzi, plenty of cheap beers and home cooked 'borga' this place was mint. cathy might argue this point having found a giant millipeed in her bed !!
our next stop was some 500k south at chintsa, here we stayed at a recommended place called buccaneers, location right by a stunning beach. this place turned out to be top craic, we stayed 3 nights camping on the viewing platform ! and we palled up with a great crowd made up of sweeds, dutch, welsh and northern irish. an afternoon of volleyball was renamed wineyball after 2 free 5 litre boxes of wine arrived to sip on during regular intervals. this got everyone going and day turned to night by sunset down on the beach. (cathy now reckons adults are much more fun when they have a few drinks!!) brilliant time had here !!
next day lynn, cats and i indulged in a few treatments. the girls got facials and i got a massage. we felt we deserved it for all this hard work :-)
next we pushed on a further 600k south for an overnight in knysna before heading to cape town ...
cape town
from knysna we jumped in the motor and i drove the remaining 200k to cape town via the garden route. driving into 'the cape' was amazing - the outline of table mountain appearing in the distance, the city is built around the base of this unique mountain and is of course surrounded by ocean to add to its appeal. we ditched the car and checked into a nice tent free place for a couple of nights. we were later to move onto long street - cape town's hip and happening place for a couple more nights before returing to the tent and reduce spends. we did many of the tourist essentials in our week long stay, thou sadly lynny missed out on her wish to see robben island as it had been closed for maintenance for a couple of weeks, bummer :-( for all of us it would have been fascinating to see nelson mandela's prison cell where he had been kept for some 27 years. that afternoon we headed up to table mountain. we walked up part of the way and took a cable car up the remainder. the views from the top of here are breathtaking. this made for some incredible pictures down over the city and adjoining oceans. we literally felt on top of the world up here. it made cathy's day as this is somewhere she always wanted to go ever since her uncle conor visited here some years ago and told her all about it, not to forget mentioning her favourite orange t-shirt he brought her home that she still won't part with even though she was only 6 back then.
the following day we checked out the niall melon township project, mandela park. niall melon is an irish businessman who visited the depleted south african townships back in 2003 as a tourist and was so horrified by what he saw that he launched a home funding and building project. here every year hundreds of irish workers go out to cape town for two weeks and build homes to rehouse the locals whom had been living in what only can be described as tin shacks. it is an amazing achievement and testament to the very giving nature of the irish.
more to be added soon and lots more pic's on the way :D love tom, lynn & cats
Saturday, 8 November 2008
the best was yet to come
when we finally got down further south into mozambique we happened upon the most amazing beaches. we spent our time doing absolutely nothing only lazing about soaking up the sunshine and sampling a few local african beer. the daily routine was a little different here thou, morning began at 5am, lunch time was at 9am, the hottest sun of the day was between ten and one ...
after our well earned rest we headed further south to maputo. camping here in the city was a whole new experience. high up on a concrete platform with an almost vertical ladder seemed a little scary to both cathy and me. tom's concern was sleeping on concrete !! from here we were south africa bound ...
we left maputo after one night and boarded a small bus to south africa or so we thought !! we believed we were going to transit through swaziland but when the bus driver stopped at the swaziland border, dumped us there, turned and drove off we realised there was a misunderstanding and 'yes i can take you to where you need to go' really means 'i will dump you at the border and you can find your own way from there' !!
we walked across the border from mozambique to swaziland doing the usual passport control procedures. we almost got ourselves a lift with an old south african couple but they decided not to take us. we weren't concerned as we expected to be mobbed by bus and taxi drivers but it was not the case. we headed off on foot until some local spotted 3 struggling backpackers and helped us with a bus ticket. we went into manzini and from there made our way to the outskirts of the malkerns valley. after some time on foot the long and winding road led us to sondzela's. our mishap into the middle of swaziland was a blessing in disguise. what a perfect place, we even upgraded from our tent to a bed in a dorm !! dinner was cooked for us too on a camp fire, pumpkin and bean/beef stew ... it felt like 5 star treatment even though it was still in many respects completely basic. we spent the couple of days here walking through the fields, mountain biking over the hills and cathy even convinced us to spend our breakfast money on triple chocolate cornetto's which was a delight !!
click on the link on the top right for our photos of mozambique and swaziland ....
Thursday, 6 November 2008
photos at last !!!
it's taken almost 8 weeks, tom has perservered endlessly, the internet cafe refused to allow us to upload ... when they did the computers crashed repeatedly but thankfully cape town has helped to sort this all out, enjoy the photos of tanzania and uganda ... hit the links on the top right (Our travelling pics) you should see our scruffy travelling heads !!!!! more to follow soon ...
Monday, 3 November 2008
more mozambique
so our monster journey through mozambique continued. it was a tough one especially those damn bus journeys, the worst been a 23 hour trip from queileman to maxixe. it was the usual story, a scheduled 18 hour journey turned into 23 hours of pure hell. we set off on this sort of old battered school type bus. in the first 3 minutes we narrowly escaped a bus topple ! then the nightmare completely unfolded as they opened the door 2 minutes from the bus station and let any one who wanted onto the bus. each seat held about 3 people and the likes in the middle was jus rammed with children all lying on top of one another. then this women across from me who had 3 children (one hanging from her shoulder, one on her knee and one at her feet) decided to hand me the youngest child who we guessed was about 10 months old. for about 10 minutes it was fun until he kept really forcefully pulling my hair (i think everyone the child ever met had a shaved head or braids) to the point where he was really annoying me, he was teething too so he was slobbering all; over me ! finally i got the child onto someone else's knee but that jus left me wide open for another one. this time i got a girl about 4 years old we guessed. her brothers and sisters seemed in their teens and were lying on the floor so threw her on my knee. 11 hours later i was getting agitated as she was moaning and crying and with a big language barrier i didn't know what was wrong with her. i asked her sister what was wrong and she said she was cold !! obviously her english was not up to scratch because at this stage the child started poo'in on me !! i freaked out and tried to life the child up and push her through the bodies back to her sister !! seriously i'll jus leave the rest to your imagination but it was a horrible final 6 hours ! tom didn't get away lightly either thou, he had a guy next to him who kept piss'in into a bottle and then leaning over and pouring it out the window. how there wasn't a serious fight between tom and this man i will never know. tom now seriously agitated was having words with this guy to the point where they were having a 'staring at each other competition' ... been the only whitey's once again on the bus we decided it was best for him not to pull a punch and eventually we left quietly. cathy somehow managed to sleep through it all
Friday, 31 October 2008
mozambique from lynn's diary
the journey into mozambique began when we got an early morning lift from mtwara (south tanzania) to the ruvoma river. this border crossing was something we had only read a bit about but believe me it was so unreal when we got there .... myself and cathy were piggybacked to a tiny old boat due to excessive mud, tom was left to fend for himself !! serious overcrowding on board this boat, the fee tripled by the time we reached the other side because we were the only whitey's on board not to mention the hippo's in the water .... anyway we made it across after getting jammed in a few sand dunes and eventually got the stamp on the passport when we set foot on mozambique soil. we were expecting a bus of some sort somewhere on the other side but then realised that we really were in africa's only remaining wild frontier !! we managed to get a lift in the back of a pick up truck which we stayed on for 6 hours. we had no idea where we were going, had no guide book and no map so things were rough, also we had a huge language barrier. not a word could we speak to anyone. we jus kept trying to draw 'south' in sand to indicate that we wanted to head down the country.
anyway we survived the pick up truck journey despite 26 other people jumping in too. you name it, it was there ... mothers, fathers, grandmothers, children, 2 women breast feeding and some goats for good measure (this was a pleasant ride for the goats as normally they tie them to the roof of the bus, no joke !! this really gets to cathy !!) we ended up in a really remote one horse town in a rough little so called guest house. at 16$ for our room we felt robbed having only paid 7$ the night before, our cheapest room to date !! the room was so hot it was sauna like, we had one flickering bulb that was fuelled by a roaring generator slowly fading until we eventually resorted to candle light for our usual games of uno and dominoe's. the shower consisted of a trough of dirty stagnet water that you ladel over yourself and the toilet well i'll say no more !!!!!!!
to be continued ....
anyway we survived the pick up truck journey despite 26 other people jumping in too. you name it, it was there ... mothers, fathers, grandmothers, children, 2 women breast feeding and some goats for good measure (this was a pleasant ride for the goats as normally they tie them to the roof of the bus, no joke !! this really gets to cathy !!) we ended up in a really remote one horse town in a rough little so called guest house. at 16$ for our room we felt robbed having only paid 7$ the night before, our cheapest room to date !! the room was so hot it was sauna like, we had one flickering bulb that was fuelled by a roaring generator slowly fading until we eventually resorted to candle light for our usual games of uno and dominoe's. the shower consisted of a trough of dirty stagnet water that you ladel over yourself and the toilet well i'll say no more !!!!!!!
to be continued ....
Sunday, 26 October 2008
The Ugandan Experience
This was one hell of an adventure!! It was eventful to say the least. I'll start with the gorillas....It was just amazing! just like gorillas in the mist. we got over to the mountain and trekked through forest for about 2 hours. Jus when I thought we were not gonna find them the rangers chopped a few branches in front of us then there they were....a family of 26 gorillas. 2 silverbacks, a blackback, a load of females and loads of baby ones including a 2 month old baby. The most incredible experience. We were 7 metres away. One kept runnin over to us and we kept crouching (best not to run if you value your life!!!). It was all playful fun though. Lynn got amazing pics and I got some priceless video footage!!! Amazing. Even better the fact that the species are so rare - only a few hundred mountain gorilla in the world and only found in africa. It's funny how before going I was scared about them charging etc but they really are quite peaceful vegitarians...and judging by the way the silverback was posing he's used to the camera!!! You'll get chance to see piccies on our blog in the next weeks I promise!!!
Thats the good part of the story....the bad bit was our driver!!! He turned out to be a right a*se (excuse french). To cut the wind out of story - this joker turned up for us in a clapped out vehicle. Kept braking down, he had fekk all money so kept tapping off me. He told us that we'd get it all back at the end of the journey and stupidly I believed him. Anyway this went on and on until the last day when Lynn & I lost our tempers and told him to take us to the gorillas and we would not be paying him. I coulda wrung his bloody neck...but I thought better of it as he had an AK47 with him!!! (for safety apparently!). That day he asked for around $300 to take him home. Thankfully we got rid of him and after the journey we put him through on the last day we broke pretty much even so I'm happy. I felt sorry for all the western tourists who get shafted by these guys. If you have not got your wits about you they will take you for a ride. Unbelievable like. Anyway, we got rid of him, and things have worked out perfect since then. We met 2 of the nicest gents you could meet at the gorillas. 2 english, one a copper and the other a former marine...proper sound guys. After we palled up and they heard our story they kindly offerred to drive us out of the jungle and to a bus terminal to get us home to kampala. It's funny how you find help when you need it!!
I'll stop waffling now but before I forget...there was an earthquake the night before the gorilla trek!!! the tent was all over the place!! My genius theory was a gorilla jumping out of a tree and a tent stampede!!!! hahahaha
Oh, and p.s..that 28 hour bus journey back to Tanzania turned out to be 35 hours!!! Absolute murder. Believe it or not worse journey's we're to come in Mozambique! - Lynny will fill you in on the Mozambique leg shortly...bye for now ;-)
Thats the good part of the story....the bad bit was our driver!!! He turned out to be a right a*se (excuse french). To cut the wind out of story - this joker turned up for us in a clapped out vehicle. Kept braking down, he had fekk all money so kept tapping off me. He told us that we'd get it all back at the end of the journey and stupidly I believed him. Anyway this went on and on until the last day when Lynn & I lost our tempers and told him to take us to the gorillas and we would not be paying him. I coulda wrung his bloody neck...but I thought better of it as he had an AK47 with him!!! (for safety apparently!). That day he asked for around $300 to take him home. Thankfully we got rid of him and after the journey we put him through on the last day we broke pretty much even so I'm happy. I felt sorry for all the western tourists who get shafted by these guys. If you have not got your wits about you they will take you for a ride. Unbelievable like. Anyway, we got rid of him, and things have worked out perfect since then. We met 2 of the nicest gents you could meet at the gorillas. 2 english, one a copper and the other a former marine...proper sound guys. After we palled up and they heard our story they kindly offerred to drive us out of the jungle and to a bus terminal to get us home to kampala. It's funny how you find help when you need it!!
I'll stop waffling now but before I forget...there was an earthquake the night before the gorilla trek!!! the tent was all over the place!! My genius theory was a gorilla jumping out of a tree and a tent stampede!!!! hahahaha
Oh, and p.s..that 28 hour bus journey back to Tanzania turned out to be 35 hours!!! Absolute murder. Believe it or not worse journey's we're to come in Mozambique! - Lynny will fill you in on the Mozambique leg shortly...bye for now ;-)
Friday, 26 September 2008
Back on Mainland Africa...
Dear Bloggers,
Despite the beautiful beaches of Zanzibar we decided to cut our time there short in favour of Kipepeo beach south of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Lynn discovered this place on the net and it has proved to be a cracking destination. We used our tent!!!!!! Lynn has taken to this like a true pro, cathy also pretty good while I have taken to the tent just like a true city boy - dreadful. me back's gone! ;-) On a serious note I'm getting into it and really starting to enjoy the simple life. To walk out of the tent first thing n the morning and jump into the indian ocean is amazing!
After 7 nights in Kipepeo (no internet sorry folks), we now find ourselves back deep in the city of Dar es Salaam - what an eye opener. Anyway, only 1 night here as tomorrow morning we set off on a 28 hour! bus journey to kampala, uganda via nairobi, kenya. Sorry no photos yet available as computers found so far don't support usb. All yet to come. Hopefully we'll be back in touch during our uganda (gorilla) experience.
Love Tom, Lynn, Cats x x x
Despite the beautiful beaches of Zanzibar we decided to cut our time there short in favour of Kipepeo beach south of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Lynn discovered this place on the net and it has proved to be a cracking destination. We used our tent!!!!!! Lynn has taken to this like a true pro, cathy also pretty good while I have taken to the tent just like a true city boy - dreadful. me back's gone! ;-) On a serious note I'm getting into it and really starting to enjoy the simple life. To walk out of the tent first thing n the morning and jump into the indian ocean is amazing!
After 7 nights in Kipepeo (no internet sorry folks), we now find ourselves back deep in the city of Dar es Salaam - what an eye opener. Anyway, only 1 night here as tomorrow morning we set off on a 28 hour! bus journey to kampala, uganda via nairobi, kenya. Sorry no photos yet available as computers found so far don't support usb. All yet to come. Hopefully we'll be back in touch during our uganda (gorilla) experience.
Love Tom, Lynn, Cats x x x
Thursday, 18 September 2008
Greetings to all from Zanzibar (east africa not stockton!)
Dear Bloggers,
So we arrived in Zanzibar paradise! Serious culture shock upon landing in Tanzania...and when your read the phrase 'there is no such thing as time in africa' - BELIEVE IT!!!! Anyway, we got to our first hotel and I checked out the rooms. Now I know we're in africa, but this hotel was the sh*ts. So Myself and the girls bolted in a taxi to the east of the island straight away!! $45 taxi above budget, but with heavy backpacks on and scolding temperatures - we didn't mind. plus the fact the journey was about an hour so fare not bad compared to home. The journey across came with a tour guided taxi (the guy was proud of his land!) and he proceeded to drive us through wilderness passing all the fruit trees you want, plus zanzibar renowned spice plantations. All this at about 80mph on sticksy roads with oncoming trucks doing the same. After he nearly cleaned out 9 or 10 cyclists carrying items such as eggs and corn (I couldn't help but laugh at the fear of god in the cyclists faces!!!)
So we got to the east coast and checked in to a beautiful resort. Our beach hut is quite literally on the beach...and I'm not making it up guys....it's the finest beach I have seen. Pure paradise just like the piccies. We're all getting to grips with the food now so I'm happy about that. And now we've found this tinternet cafe so happy days. Sorry no piccies yet guys as not got the camera on me (didn't want to look like a tourist asking to be robbed haha) Lots of love to all x The adventure continues...
So we arrived in Zanzibar paradise! Serious culture shock upon landing in Tanzania...and when your read the phrase 'there is no such thing as time in africa' - BELIEVE IT!!!! Anyway, we got to our first hotel and I checked out the rooms. Now I know we're in africa, but this hotel was the sh*ts. So Myself and the girls bolted in a taxi to the east of the island straight away!! $45 taxi above budget, but with heavy backpacks on and scolding temperatures - we didn't mind. plus the fact the journey was about an hour so fare not bad compared to home. The journey across came with a tour guided taxi (the guy was proud of his land!) and he proceeded to drive us through wilderness passing all the fruit trees you want, plus zanzibar renowned spice plantations. All this at about 80mph on sticksy roads with oncoming trucks doing the same. After he nearly cleaned out 9 or 10 cyclists carrying items such as eggs and corn (I couldn't help but laugh at the fear of god in the cyclists faces!!!)
So we got to the east coast and checked in to a beautiful resort. Our beach hut is quite literally on the beach...and I'm not making it up guys....it's the finest beach I have seen. Pure paradise just like the piccies. We're all getting to grips with the food now so I'm happy about that. And now we've found this tinternet cafe so happy days. Sorry no piccies yet guys as not got the camera on me (didn't want to look like a tourist asking to be robbed haha) Lots of love to all x The adventure continues...
Thursday, 11 September 2008
CATHY'S EXAM RESULTS ARE OUT!
WELL DONE SUPERSTAR! Yesterday Cathy received 6 A's & 5 B's in her junior cert exams (GCSE's to those in england)....Amazing results. We are all so proud of you Cats! We are sure you will enjoy your year away from the books as you deserve it :)
A Message To All Our Family & Friends...
WE WILL MISS YOU!!!! Make sure you all look after yourselves. We want to see lots of happy healthy faces upon our return! Take care lots of love x
Monday, 18 August 2008
Productive Day - Chinese Leg
After Lynn arranged the Zanz flights, we booked the Chinese leg of the tour. We have budget flights (air asia), to take us from Bangkok up into Shenzhen, a city near to Hong Kong. To recap the asia leg of the tour is booked separately to our rtw tour, as we could not include asia with africa. We can't have it all, but we're havin a bloody good go at it! So we figure as we are there, we may as well hang out in Hong Kong for a few days...before we take on the monstrous journey by land through China. This will take us north through Shanghai to Beijing, before heading West to Chengdu, Lhasa and on toward Nepal/India - some 3000-4000km+ I believe. We'll be sorted for special fried rice and spring rolls for a good while anyhow...and when we're done with that, we'll be moving in to lamb bhuna territory :)
A Week of Zanzibar Paradise!
For those who don't know already, our first week is going to be a relaxing chilled out affair on the island of Zanzibar (not the nightclub for all of the teesside crew! ;) It's supposed to be a pure paradise island so we just can't wait...check out the images and link http://www.cristalresort.net/. We decided to sort out the first weeks accomodation fully, so that we can take in the scale of the journey we are about to go on....and also get a bit of a tan so that it's not a case of 'spot the tourists!!' We plan to wing it all the way from there on :)
Lynn has today organised flights to take us from Tanzania straight to Zanzibar...she said the journey is supposed to be a bit hairy!!! A rickety old plane probably flown by a cowboy, but who cares. With 1 year off school/work to come, we'll be in dreamland!!!!
Thursday, 17 July 2008
Sorry We've Been Away!!!
We're back on the blog! A combination of my laptop being in repair, pure laziness and SAVE SAVE SAVE have contributed to the lack of postings....sorry all!
So where are we, well just over 8 weeks till launch. Lynn & I have not got long left at work now...you can imagine our motivation for the workplace these last weeks - non existent! :) Check out Dilbert, the key to modern life!
Cathy has broken up quite some time ago and will not go back to education until Sept 09 - the lucky divvel.
We've been trying to balance saving with buying all the stuff we need. Not easy. The one thing I have learned is that saving is a long hard slog, and takes a long time to look like anything worthwhile....but we're getting there now. Besides, there's always plan B - the credit card/s!
Tuesday, 13 May 2008
Tom Pat's 30th
Yippiyiyay Yippiyiyo! Plans on hold all last week as I turned 30!! I now join the rest of you oldies ;-)
Me mam also celebrated her very own birthday that very night. Don't worry mum, I won't reveal your age haha
Hit the link for pics of the big night out in toon...
http://picasaweb.google.com/tommyp78/TomPatS30th
Me mam also celebrated her very own birthday that very night. Don't worry mum, I won't reveal your age haha
Hit the link for pics of the big night out in toon...
http://picasaweb.google.com/tommyp78/TomPatS30th
Sunday, 27 April 2008
Gorillas Here We Come!!
Major breakthrough this weekend. Lynny got through to the UWA (Uganda Wildlife Authority) after previous difficulties. She managed to reserve us 3 tickets to go up and track a Gorilla family at Bwindi, Uganda on October 5th. This could potentially be the highlight of our year. We discovered that the minimum age to track Gorillas is 15...and how old is Cathy D when we arrive? 15 years old. HAPPY DAYS ;-)
Wednesday, 19 March 2008
Only 6 Months To Go!!!
I am currently feeling like a human pin cushion with all the vaccinations required for this mad trip! Lynn is pretty much covered, so she is focusing on the nitty gritty of visas and getting us from A to B. Cats is getting excited!!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
