Brown Adventures

Banana Pancakes

2007-07-28T21:46:00.001-07:00

Here we are in Bangkok again. So far we have had massages, manicures and pedicures, shopped and seen the taylor. We had a fun ride from the island on the first class train. When we arrived in Bangkok I left our most important bag with all our passports and cameras and ipods in it on the train. After a very embarrassing tackle of the nice train man we got it back ok. Today we are going to have some lunch on khoasan rd and then head out to one of the huge malls here to make our packs even heavier.
-Alice

I personally haven't had any manicures.. Only massages. I love this city, it's not as dirty as I remember it (I think that's because now I've been to much dirtier places) and I am in love with the food stalls. They make such good food from such simple ingredients. I think we're going to do a cooking "course" to learn some of it I hope. Only a few more days, then to Sydney with Sophie & Aidan then home. At least I don't have a job to go back too!
-Andrew

Some of my memories

2007-07-25T21:25:00.000-07:00

Our Aussie friend Gordon who we have been hanging out with a bit since we got here left today. Kinda feels like the end of an era of this trip. We leave tomorrow night on the stupidly expensive first class overnight train. I guess we left the booking too late. Anyway thats ok, first class over here isnt quite as fancy as our normal train. Thismorning we had breakfast at Seatanu, our old abide, with Gordon and then made sand castles, well actually Andrew made a big sand hole and planted a coconut. I have seen already today 3 different sized crabs, 2 schools of tiny see through fish, 2 lizards and a frog. The other night there was a huge storm here. You pretty much couldnt go out of your room and you could feel the rain pelting on the ground on the other side of the road before it hit you on yours. It was insane, it caused a huge landslide, well actually sand slide, down a hill about 1m away from our previous hut. That evening there were so so so many frogs out and the sound of them was deafening. Everynight so far we have sat and watched the sunset and nearly everynight we see a lightening storm on other islands dotted around us. Its a pretty magical place here, you feel like you are so far away from the rest of the world. You learn how the beach works, and how the people here live thier everyday. The Seatanu girls watch their thai soaps from 3-5, so watching a movie is out of the question. The Haad Chao Pao family send their son to care in the day then in the evenings they take turns to look after him and run the resturant, he has a wee nap in the hammock around 4. The paragon people all sit and play on the computer all day. The pool filter is broken so everyday the pool gets scummier and scummier until now we cant swim in it. At the resturant across the road the 2year old daughter brings us the menu when we arrive. You will always always get something cheaper than the tag. The guy selling fishermans pants on the beach imports them from the north of thailand and only sees his young family only 1-2 a year(or at least thats what he tells you!).
Anyways, just wanted to write down all these special tings I have learnt about this place. Tonight they are having a party at the pirate bar (the coolest bar Ive ever seen) so we will be dancing on the sand till morning.

Not long to go

2007-07-22T23:33:00.000-07:00

We have been here in our paradise for a week now and I almost cant imagine leaving. Everyday has been filled with beautiful sunsets, watching fireworks on the beach, drinking pina coldas, midnight swims, exploring the beach and jungle and making new friends. The people here are so lovely, and getting to know us now. We would love to stay for 6 months and become part of this place. We have moved back into luxury though, the heat here is insane right now and both Andrew and I were overheating alot. Now we have a nice pool to dunk into and aircon to get us to sleep. I think we will stay settled here until its time to leave and then just a couple of days in Bangkok.
We are looking forward to some home cooked meals and practising our cooking skills too.

Slumming it

2007-07-18T18:35:00.000-07:00

We have finally, after extending our stay here in luxury by 2 extra nights have decided we have to move back out to the real world of backpacking. Have found a lovely place just down the beach with bungaloos for $6 a night and a great vibe. I have fallen in love with a wee puppy dog who has been following us everywhere for the past few days. He is homeless and so far has figured out how to charm the tourists to feed and play with him. I really want to take him home. He is the cutest wee thing!! I suspect I will have my heart broken. Havent got much snorkelling in the last 2 days, visibility is pretty crappy, but it looks like the tide is coming in all the time so we might get some done in the next couple of days.

Thailand

2007-07-16T17:23:00.000-07:00

Well it seems this is our last big stop now. Tried to change our tickets to go back to the Philippines but no luck so we're making the most of our last couple of weeks here. Right now we are on Koh Pangang, a small island in southern Thailand famous for its full moon parties where every backpacker in Thailand congregates to drink buckets on the beach. We arrived on the black moon party night so stayed for a night in a scummy hotel in Haad Rin and then decided to move out to the beach. My how things have changed since we were here last. Our sleepy wee beach that had a shop and fruit stall now has a pharmacy, 2 bookshops and at least 5 general stores for our shopping pleasure. Our wee beach hut has been ripped down to make way for airconditioned condos that cost about 10x as much per night. We are embracing the new wave of aircon and pools though, we are even splashing out on the $3-4 meals. Havent decided quite what else we'll do yet, perhaps move somewhere a bit cheaper tomorrow.

Koh Samui

2007-07-13T00:17:00.000-07:00

Well, we're back in Thailand, we got a flight directly to Koh Samui (one of the islands in the gulf) instead of to Bangkok, and it's been great. The airport on Samui is like a beach hut without walls, last time we came here it was nice, this time, it was unusual to go through immigration in a beach hut. But I have to say I love it here, I did last time, and have been reminded of just why. It is still really cheap, and the weather is awesome, and the beaches are beautiful. Tomorrow we move to Koh Phangan, hopefully find an even cheaper hut and spend the next couple of weeks on the beach relaxing and whatever else we want to do. We managed to find an awesome Thai restaurant, it's pretty budget looking, no A/C or anything, and it's cheap, but the food is simply awesome and it's open 24 hours so it doesn't really get much better than that. 4 meals at the same place in the last 2 days..

I wasn't quite sure how my impressions of this place would have changed after seeing a lot more of the world and maybe it only seemed so amazing since it was the only other place I'd been apart from NZ/Australia, but no, it's still just as good, it's still one of my favorite places I've been. I was surprised that the price hadn't really gone up, and I'd heard that since the Tsunami on the other side of the country that the tourism from there had come here, but it doesn't seem to have changed all that much. I don't remember getting so many insect bites last time though, I have like 20 or so at the moment, it's frustrating, but then again, the pharmacies are dirt cheap and sell anything over the counter, so maybe I'll get something treat it. It's a shame we're only here for a month really. We're also thinking we might go to the Phillipines after this for a couple of weeks too. Better get off the internet and go do something not so nerdy.

Stuff.co.nz

2007-07-07T22:46:00.000-07:00

Today we slept in again because we are so jetlagged, so we will again burn the candle at the other end tonight to make up for it. Thats whats so cool about Hong Kong, it never sleeps, much more than anywhere else we've been.
So we got our luggage back nearly 30 hours after we arrived. Its a shame we spent all day wandering around in our track pants when we could've gone shopping on the insurance for 3G. So anyways...
I was catching up on the news today and I read an article about concerns over the quality of babies being born in our country. The professionals are concerned that uneducated people are having all the babies. They want to put contraceptives IN THE WATER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Every time I go away our country goes bananas. Please please please NZ DO NOT let this happen. How can it even be suggested is beyond me. Why not just castrate all the ugly people at birth? Or abort all unplanned babies. I find this terrifying.
-Alice

Laters Europe

2007-07-06T23:13:00.000-07:00

It's a sad time, but we're finally off the continent of Europe, and back onto the same big old piece of land that is Asia

After Florence we took our last train to Rome, to stay at a camping ground and visit the city of Rome.

We stayed in a camping ground, in a little cabin, about 30 mins bus/metro from Rome, and it was probably one of the coolest places we have stayed in. On our first night, we met some Canadians, and they were painting t-shirts because it was Canada day, and there was a pub crawl "Blame Canada for this party" it was called, and so we decided we'd join because it sounded like a fun night. We somehow became half-honourable Canadians for the evening, and got Canada and colours painted on us. It ended up being quite a patriotic night, with Alice and I being the only Kiwis so we had to single handedly support NZ and I think we did a pretty good job of it because somehow we became the most remembered people of everyone and other people came up to us the next night and told us that they'd heard of our legend..

We spent only 1 day out of our 4 in Rome actually seing things, and man it was hard, we saw basically everything there is to see except the Vatican City, and we spent from 10am to 9pm doing it walking around in the obscene heat (the weather was exactly like a real hot day back in chch) and it was pretty cool, my favorite thing I think was the Trevi Fountain, it's just amazing, and the Collessuem was pretty big and awesome too.

We had 2 flights to our current location of Hong Kong, we had to switch planes in London, and our first flight was late so our bags didn't get transferred, and so when we landed they told us and now we don't have our bags, but they should be here tonight, hopefully, because it'd be really nice to change because we slept in these clothes on the plane ride and then another night, and it's so hot and sticky here in Hong Kong. It's great to be back in Asia though, we were starting to get real tired of travelling around I think, but this has renewed us. There is so much shopping here (it's not that cheap though, same as home) and the amount of buildings and how big they are, makes NY look a little long in the tooth. They have massive over-the-harbour laser light shows and fireworks with the buildings, so I'm looking forward to that tonight. Soon back into Thailand, can't wait.
-Andrew

Well we are coming to the last leg of this journey now, seems hard to believe. We had fun in Florence watching the illegal imitation bag sales men running from the police and watching a beautiful open air classical concert. Our hostel was one of those lock you out during the day and make sure your all tucked in by 2 places. Rome was so much fun, mostly thanks to all our new Canadian buddies who took amazing care of us. We will never forget your help Brad and co seriously!!
Like Andrew said its great to be here in Hong Kong. I had forgotten that feeling of arriving in Asia. Its like walking into a bath going outside and everything is so organized but chaotic all at the same time. We are doing a tea appreciation course on monday as part of a festival they have here at the moment.
-Alice

Hungary

2007-06-29T06:58:00.000-07:00

We've just arrived in Florence, Italy, (I think we've stumbled into the spanish district though..) and soon will get to our hostel. We left Prague on the train and headed onto Austria, to visit Alice's friend Nicole and her Husband Adrain, and their two children, one of whom is very new. It was so good to have a break from the typical travelling, we got to stay in a real bedroom and have real home cooked food and have real conversations with people we knew (I didn't really know them prior to this). It was such an excellent time. The place we stayed at was about half an hour south from Vienna, in a lovely little village. We went swimming in possibly the coolest pool I've ever been in, and also went to a celtic festival. Turns out that the celts didn't just inhabit Scotland, but also a hell of a lot of Northern Europe too. It was a great time, I tried my hand at ordering drinks and food using the best German I could speak and failed. It was a pretty good experience, and probably something we never would have done if we'd just travelled there alone. Staying with Nicole & Adrain was such a highlight of this trip. Unfortunately I was also recovering from being sick, so I wasn't quite up for everything.

We got on a lovely train from Vienna to Budapest, Hungary. Wow, what a cool city. I don't really know exactly how to put my finger on what was so great about it, but it was one of our favorite cities we visited. It has a lot of history from the wars too, we visited a WW2 bunker up in the citadel, and Alice got lots of Hungarian souvineirs. We spent 4 nights in a hotel for a change. It was so sweet, to have our own room and privacy and our very own toilet and shower! The food was pretty cheap, and the city was just lovely to walk around.

Unfortunately we had to leave, we hopped on the sleeping train yesteday afternoon and spent the trip talking to a med student from Germany with perfect english. We got into Zurich this morning and tossed up staying there or coming here to Florence, and coming here won out. We've yet to get to our hostel, they don't open until 4, and then have an explore of this city which so far seems pretty nice.
- Andrew

Seems like such a long time since we have had a chance to write here! Prague for us fizzled out after our day there. We tried to go out to this huge nightclub we had heard about but ended up getting there too late for cheap entrance, with no map and no idea when the bus home finishes. The club was 5 floors high, 4 of which were empty when we arrived and slowly filled up with skanky tourists. Staying with Nicole, Adrian, Emilia and Marlon was great, thanks guys!!! such special times.
For me Hungary was amazing, a city so recently effected by communism and war and its scars still visible. It struck me that although this is the case the biggest souvineir market was childrens toys. It was pretty nice to stay in the Ramada too!!!
-Alice

Prague

2007-06-20T04:49:00.000-07:00

Here we are in the confusing Czech Republic. It seems quite a party town, at least at the hostel we~re at anyway. Meet some nice people and stayed up till quite late. Andrew is run down again so is having another bed day. Its hard at this place though because the concenus seems to be that lights on and talking are ok at any time of the day. Tomorrow we are going to visit Nicole, Adrian, Amelia and little Marlon!!! So excited! Anyways here are some more photos for your visual pleasure....................

Here we are, sitting on one of the pyramids. Check out our authentic arabian hats.

Heres Andrew, and a girl Linda we met. In Luxor, in front of a ruined statue.

Ooo, riding camels! Must have been like 5am, thats why its dark.

Alice, in our sweet as swimming pool in Luxor

Andrew taking a nap under a big ole rug up Mount Sinai, before the sun had come up.

Andrew & Alice, at the lovely park in Amsterdam

This is the best tasting ice cream I~ve ever eaten. Its totally in a class of its own. From this wee ice creamery in Amsterdam thats been making it since 1930s.

With our new friend Haitham who took us out for shisha on our last night in Cairo.

The felucca sailing down the Nile. Most of the day was spent lying around in and out of the sun.

The swimming spot we stopped at, our guide told us it would be AWESOME................

Andrew with some massive statues at Abel Simbel

Finally the memorial for the Jewish people killed in the second world war in Berlin. Best memorial Ive ever been to. Amazing the way it makes you feel.

Amsterdam

2007-06-17T00:02:00.000-07:00

Well we have been incredibly fortunate with our trip to Amsterdam this time. After taking a sleeping train to the middle of nowhere and changing trains twice in the early hours of the morning we arrived here at 0820hrs. At least one person we know didnt make the connections and we think prob woke up in Paris by accident. We didnt have anywhere to stay here in Amsterdam so we headed over to the old fav, the flying pig. We didnt know this but at 0830hrs they sold all the beds that we left over for that night. We JUST made it, pretty much after us everyone was turned away. We got a double bunk too which is perfect. Since then we have had to get up early every monring to secure a bed for the following night. So far the job hunting is going slowly. We decided we didnt want to be illegal immigrants so we're only looking for jobs with either a visa attached or just for room and board. We'll leave tommorrow night if nothing eventuates. Still, its been another great time in an amazing city. Being the weekend is a bit different, have to avoid the tourist areas and leave alot of time for getting home through the crowds. Andrew calls this the Vegas of Europe but I reckon that once you get out of the tourist areas this city is magical.

Berlin

2007-06-14T10:41:00.000-07:00

Such an amazing city!! Did a free walking tour yesterday and saw all the amazing memorials and buildings here. The parliment building has this glass dome on top that you can walk around that looks right over the sitting politicians. Pub crawl last night was fun. Learnt heaps about German history and particular about the cold war and Berlin wall. So so so interesting. Today I visited a former concentration camp. I dont think I could write anything to describe it, or that would be respectful of it so I wont. Very humbling experience. Anyway we are off to Amsterdam tonight (surprise!!) to try and find a job (surprise!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Barcelona again

2007-06-11T09:23:00.000-07:00

We said goodbye to Egypt last night. Our 'khabibi' Haitham (wrong spelling I'm sure) took us out for shisha and a goodbye Egypt drink to one of the local places. He explained to us why EVERYONE yells out to Andrew that he is a lucky man and how cats are respected in Egpyt. During the day we went to the market and bought some earrings and last minute nick nacks. I think we are pretty good negotiators now. For the third night in a row we had no sleep flying back from Egpyt.
We arrived here in Barcelona at 5am and had to wait till 12 to get a bed to sleep. The shops dont open here till 10 so we spent the morning reading mags and then headed off to the Havaiana jandals store. The man there was very nice but he laughed at my request to buy a right jandal only. You would think they could sell me one with all the jandals they had there. Anyways I'll keep the old one in case of similar incidents in the future. We have just now returned from a delightful secondhand english bookstore run by this eccentric american man. There are hundreds of books all piled in no apparent order and you can get tea and cookies while he talks your head off about history and consipacy theories. This afternoon we are gonna take an afternoon stroll to the beach and have tapas and sangria at the hostel tonight. Tomorrow to Berlin.

The rest of Egypt

2007-06-10T08:27:00.000-07:00

It's now the end of our trip. It's 7pm, and at 10pm we leave to go to the airport to get our plane. I'm going to miss this place, but I'm really ready to move on. Now, we left off in Aswan

The next morning, we get up at 3am, to get on a bus and go in a military convoy (because we get so close to the Sudan border), and drive through the desert right down to a place called Abu Simbel which is a tomb, which has been moved from it's original place. It's probably the most impressive old thing I have ever seen. It's not as large as the Giza Pyramids, but it's just so much more amazing. It's 4 people engraved into the side of a mountain, and it's absolutely incredible to imagine this was done such a long time ago. But you can only look at it for so long, and then back on the bus for another 2 hours. We got a flat tire on the bus, and we had to get out. I have no idea how people survived in the desert back then, I mean, all of Egypt is basically a big desert and rocks, apart from the Nile which is where almost everyone lives next to.

We got back to our hotel, just in time to leave and go on a Fulucca boat trip for two nights. I wasn't too sure of this before we did it, I thought it could get very boring, but it wasn't. We jumped on the boat which is like a small sailing boat with a small roof and a padded area for lying/sleeping, and left off. It doesn't move very fast, only as fast as the river does, but this was probably the best part of the trip for both of us. We met some really cool people, and we stopped for the night on a beach thing, they served up their food (simple, but I loved it) and got some blankets and just slept. There was a roof, but no walls, very very simple. It gets kinda cold at night. Woke up to the sunrise, and then I got into the Nile and went for a swim. Not as warm as you'd think, but so refreshing. Sailed again very slowly for another day and then parked at night by a swamp. (there was no toilets, so we had to use the side of the shore, and the swamp was the least nice..) We stopped during the day and visited a camel market, the biggest in all of Egypt. Was OK, not nice to see the way they treat them, but was a prett unique time. We then woke up, and learned the guy had already started sailing. I know it sounds like it was quite uneventful, but just the simplicity of it, and the people. One of the top experiences of my life really.

Off the boat, and onto a bus (with the people from the boat) which would go to Luxor, and drop us off at our Hotel. This Hotel was nice.. We immediately got into the swimming pool and cooled off. These places really are hot. We enjoyed a bit of a half day off, wandered around and found some local markets and some egyptian fast food restaurants.

Next day was just a relaxing morning by the pool overlooking the nile, and then in the afternoon we met our guide, an egyptian girl called Amy, and went to visit Karnok and Luxor Temple. Strange situation though, somehow this girl tells us that it's actually meant to be her wedding day but that just yesterday her fiancee married some other woman, although he onl wanted to marry her for a month or two, then divorce, then marry this Amy girl. Why was she at work?? Made the day unusual, although the places we visited were nice. Karnok temple was so incredibly big, would have been impressive when it was two stories high. What's interesting is that these places over the years had been covered with sand and then had a graveyard on top of it! Then someone discovered a massive temple under it. I'm sure there's more stuff they haven't discovered yet.

Another night of relaxing and then getting up early to go with this girl again and see a few other things, Valley of the Kings being the highlight. Was a cool thing to see, and I hate to sound so negative, but you get "templed out" if that makes sense, all these things are so impressive, but unless you have a personal interest in them there is only so much effort you can give. This was our last temple visit though so.. Met a friend on that trip who more or less was going the same way as us for the next few days. Always makes things a lot nicer

Last day we visited the guy we got to know at what we'd call a corner dairy at home. He had christian pictures on his wall, not islam (it's hard to explain just how much that stands out here) and I asked him about it, and he showed me a tattoo he had been given by the government for being Christian and not Muslim. Not easy I think over here, Islam is so ingrained EVERYWHERE. Went to the takeaway bar and got falafel (had lots of it here) and it was only .50 egyptian pounds each, or $0.12NZ, so was very cheap, even for here. Good meal. Considering we had spent 100 egyptian pounds on one meal in an attempt to eat out fancy, which was really average anyway.

Left on a "16" hour sleeping bus. Was so so annoying, I wish they'd turn off the lights. So uncomfortable, and in the end it took 20 hours. I got out at a stop and had "beans", thinking it'd be like maybe mexican beans or baked beans but it was like mashed broad beans, and my Mum knows just how I hate broad beans. Was cheap though. Arrived in Dahab at lunch time and checked in.

Dahab isn't in the big block of Egypt that's in Africa, but on the Sinai Peninsula, in the red sea. It's more of a backpacker town than anything else. Not quite fancy enough to call it a "tourist place" but also not egyptain enough like any other city we went to which were all cities in their own right. Basically this town wouldn't be a hell of a lot without backpackers..

Was such a cool place. They had a line of hostels, then a boardwalk, and then all the restaurants/bars just next to the ocean. Because it rains less than annuall in egypt, it was fine to not have walls, but the ocean breeze meant you didn't need A/C or anything. Such a relaxing awesome place. Met two of the people from our boat trip, which was like getting instant friends. First day we just relaxed and walked around, the second da we planned a trip to two places to go snorkelling, as the red sea as quite a repuation for some of the best snorkelling in the world. We stopped at this place called "the canyon" and got geared up, moved slowly into the water (those flippers make it hard) and swam around. So far, this was the worst snorkelling I have ever done, and I haven't done a lot. I was so disappointed, and it wasn't sandy but rocky and I cut my foot on the way out and was so pissed off. Got in the car with a bad attitude and went to the blue hole. I wasn't going to give up, and when we got there, saw a man made easier way into the water. Sat down and Alice and I counted down and jumped in and WOW..

I have almost never seen something in nature quite so beatiful. It was a massive hole that went down further than we could see (visibility pretty amazing here in the red sea, so they say) and coral and tropical fish everywhere. Swam around for a while and got to the edge of this hole, to another drop off of 2000 meters.. Had an awesome time there, can't really describe it in words.

Got home, realised we're both incredibly sunburnt, and I actually feel ill, which isn't good, because at 11pm we're climbing Mt Sinai, which is the highest mountain in the penisula, where moses got the commandments. Think it was sun stroke or something.

Got on the bus at 11, and drove for a few hours to the base of the mountain and started our climb. It's a rock mountain, no grass or dirt, maybe rocky dust. Was about 2am climbing, by moonlight and torches. I was starting to feel sick again, don't think my body was ready for all the excersise, and I actually threw up a couple of times on the way up. We finally got to the top at like 5am, and tried to sleep, but we couldn't because of a woman who was singing, and then the sun came up at about 5:40am. Was a pretty amazing sight, amazing looking mountains, completely unlike anything at home. Also my birthday up there. Just a shame I felt so sick. Then we started out descent at 6. Got down, and waited until 9am to visit "St Katherine" monastary. Waited like an hour and a half, and once again, hate to sound negative, but was probably the most boring thing I have ever seen. They have the "spiritual successor" of the burning bush from the bible. Lame. Some people were climbing over other people to touch it. Got on the bus back and crashed for the afternoon. Had some relaxing before getting on another sleeping bus (terrible sleeps both sides of my birthday, and I couldn't even find an iceblock which was the only think I wanted)

Got back to Cairo this morning and crashed until 2pm, went to some markets, screwed the sellers over (they were expensive markets, but we'd learnt over the course of the trip the value of everything) and then came back, and I jumped on the internet.

This place has been so amazing, has really inspired me to travel more of the Middle East, the culture here is so unlike the western world at all.

Well, onto Barcelona tonight for one night then Berlin.. Fun time!

New: Random Observations.

This isn't really stuff we've done as such, just stuff we've experienced.
It's like the locals have gone to an english school, and everyone gets taught the same stuff. On our first day we got amazed when some random guy asked us where we were from and we said NZ and he said "Kai Ora" and we were amazed, haven't heard that anywhere else. Took us into a store and told us he had to drink "coke, sprite, fanta, 7-up, 7-down".. cheesy. I've now heard that joke like 3 or 4 times. Also people on the street markets say stuff to you like "how can I take your money" and we had one guy say "come into my store of rubbish, come see my crap". Sometimes I'm not sure they know what they're saying exactly. The people really are nice to you when they don't want your money. Some people are really poor though. The have an amazing sense of humour, it's a hell of a lot simpler than ours, but everyone gets in on the jokes and laughs with you, it's nice. It's hard to explain just what they find funny, but it's just simple play. Once you get used to it, it's actually quite fun to talk and haggle with them.
I saw the two fattest egyptains I saw the entire time yesterday, both at a place called Hardies, which is like Buger King. I think it's too expensive for most of them to eat there, I think people can earn like 100 pounds a week, but a meal might cost 20 pounds, so only rich people eat there. And then they get fat.. Interesting. I actually thought of heaps of things to write here, but then I got on the computer and forgot. Typical

Aswan

2007-06-01T07:33:00.001-07:00

Aswan is even hotter than Luxor is apparently. I heard it was 42 today, and the other day it got to 55. Anyway, we got the "sleeping" train, which was a non sleeping train, at 10pm last night, and arrived here at 12.30 with an OK sleep and sore bodies from conforming to the train seats. It was alright though, I've slept much worse places (I'm still haunted hourly from Madrid International). The hotel we're at is nice, and has A/C, and the guide met us soon after and took us to see a massive Dam, which sounds boring, but it's incredibly big and the important role it plays in Egypt is quite large really. Pretty much prevents Cairo from being swallowed under water. We then saw our first Egyptian temple, which was really interesting, and having someone with us who really knew their stuff was a great help, learnt a lot all about the Egyptian religion and their view on the world and why all these things were there and how it linked into their Monarchy and basically shaped the rest of their lives. Very interesting stuff really.
-Andrew
We are learning a bit of arabic here, just enough to ward off the hagglers and appreciate our helpers. Our guide took us to get a feed of this traditional Egyptian meal, Koshari, after our day out the other day. It was so yummy but I got confused and instead of saying thankyou I said Koshari. Andrew thought this was hilarious and teased me all the way home.
-Alice

Cairo

2007-05-30T11:12:00.000-07:00

Wow

It's the end of our second day, and soon we're taking a sleeping train to Aswan.

We arrived two days ago at midnight, and got into our hostel without experiencing any of Cairo so far. We then ventured out in the morning and experienced Coptic Cairo, Islamic Cairo, The Citadel, and the Egyptian Museum. The sights I have seen have been some of the most amazing things I have seen in my entire life. At the museum they have Tutenkhmens tomb and everything in it, he must have had a big ego. It's almost unbelievable until you see some of these things, and then learn they're 3000+ years old!

Today we got up at 4am, and got on some camels and went to the Giza Pyramids and watched the sunrise. What an experience, it just seems so surreal what we did this morning, it was dawn, in the desert, just sand dunes and us, until we saw some guys riding and yelling on horses. They weren't a threat though. Then we went to the Pyramids and climbed one of them, they're really big. We saw the Sphinx, which was OK, and then rode the camels some more. Parts of the Pyramids are really close to the city, it's odd actually.. We then went to some other tombs, and I have to tell you, I am getting sick of the way here people try to get your money. They act as a tour guide, show you a few things, then ask, or try to persuade, you to give them money. We tell them from the start "we don't want a guide, we have no money to give you" but they come along, and then ask for money and get really angry when you don't give them money. Frustrating. And people ask for tips all the time, I mean, we do have more money than them, but we soon wouldn't if we gave stuff to everyone that has asked us over this entire trip so far.

The sleeping train should be nice, first class apparently. As long as it's air conditioned, because the done near Aswan and Luxor is hot. Can't wait though. It's such a unique place. Cairo is completely mad, 22 million or so they tell us...

-Andrew

What a crazy place. We got up so early thismorning and our lovely taxi driver was waiting for us to take us to Giza. We get there and start riding out to the desert while its still dark. My camel was called Ali Babar. The area around the pyramids is now fenced off and they close the area until 9am everyday. Well, our 'guide' knew some guy whole lived in a shack just inside the fence and bribed him to let us in. Then he bribed the tourist police (such a joke in this place) to climb up the pyramid and inside one of the tombs. We were there for 2 hours and it was just us and these amazing structures. He even gave Andrew some souvineer rocks from the pyramid. After we got back we went to some more pyramids that are less know but the insides are a bit more intact. We are so thankful for our tour guide because he told us exactly how to go about getting tickets. Its crazy because ou get your tickets at one place then you drive to the site and the police tell you you have to buy more tickets, you dont. I quite like the struggle with the hagglers, its fun just sticking up for yourself all the time if you know how to do it.
Anyways tomorrow we are starting this crazy hard core non stop tour of Egypt. Highlights incluse a miltary convoy to Abel Simel and waking up on Mt Sinai on Andrews birthday. The spray from my work pressie is awesome in this heat- thanks guys!! Love you all
-Alice

Freedom to Lobsters

2007-05-28T21:37:00.000-07:00

A phrase they have on the back of our map to learn in Spanish?!!
Well anyways its 6am and Andrew is in bed, I cant sleep so this is my third entry. Last night we went out for a Flamenco show and Spanish tapas meal. It was fun and we meet a crazy Aussie who is living here in Madrid and has the job of being the pub crawl girl AND the breakfast girl at our hostel, harsh. I think our hostel has a big sign on it welcoming all the teenage american girls on college vacation. There´s one guy here who spends all his timei t seems on the internet, funny!
Perhaps its a tad premature to make this announcement but here we go....
I have begun to walk the road of vegetarianism. I havent had meat for about a week now, actually not alot of meat on the trip at all. Its something thats been on my mind for a long time actually, ever since Mandy and Dave introduced me to the idea of my ecological footprint. It started in Morocco when we went to the chicken markets. As you can probably imagine they wouldn´t have got the SPCA seal of approval and they made me sad and sick. I decided that I couldnt be a part of that happening and gave up chicken then. And then I thought is it so different back home, I dont think the chicken we have had has been free range (can you even get that) and it made me realise that I have no idea where the meat I eat comes from or much about how it gets to my plate at all. So, thats it, no more meat, for now anyway. Its going pretty good so far, they have amazing falafel here and even Andrew prefers it to the meat sometimes. I´ll have to talk to Mandy (are you out there sister?) and find out all about how to get my iron and protein.

New Photos

2007-05-28T21:11:00.000-07:00

This is a our hang out loungey area in Amsterdam, had to put this one on there, so many good times!

This is a horrible cheese wrapped in bacon heart stopping kebab we got in a Japanese restaurant in Paris.

This one is of the catacombs in Paris, crazy place where the walls are completely lined with peoples bones. The bones came from an old graveyard and were moved there ages ago due to a funny idea that the cemetary was making the people sick.

The next one is us in Madrid at the royal palace. The gardens in the backgound are the royal gardens.

A spice market in Morocco

Me, standing in front of a doorway in Morocco. You can't see the detail it was amazing.

Alice sitting by the pool in the Riad, taken from the 3rd floor where we stayed.

A cheesy as hell photo of Alice and I above the big square in Marrakesh

Alice standing down the street we took to get to our Riad every day.

Hello Barcelona

2007-05-28T09:19:00.000-07:00

Well it didnt take us too long to get over the craving of own bed. Its been a glorious day in Barcelona today. After breakfast, groceries, posting, Andrew having a hypo we finally hit the beach. Such a lovely blue water, yellow (but coarse) sadny beach. We found a wee second hand bookstore thisafternoon and spent a bit of time browsing all the books. Tonight we are going to a Flamenco show. I have to log off now so Andrew can put some photos on.

Sleeping in airports

2007-05-27T04:46:00.000-07:00

We had our first exciting homelessness night last night. Got in from Morocco just after 10 and being the tight asses we are decided to bunk out in the airport for the night instead of paying for a hostel. We wandered around for a while and saw heaps of people trying to sleep in an assortment of positions an locations. Some were across chairs, some had found chairs with wheels and out them together and lots were just on the hard marble outside the police station. I think ours was the best. We found a few checkout counters right down one end of the airport where nobody was and decided to set up beds on the luggage scales ( the rubbery belt you put them on before getting on the plane). This was quite sqeet because we could put our bags at one end so that if anyone wanted to steal them they´d have to walk over us first and the rubber was much softer and warmer than the marble. I was quite worried that we might get into trouble but after a few police, cleaner and security rounds we realised that noone seemed to care at all. Got about 5 hours sleep all up I reckon. It was heaps of fun. We´re in Barcelona now until tues night when we go to Cairo. We have bought tickets to go from Barcelona to Berlin when we get back so we´ll be coming down Europe instead of up.

Morocco

2007-05-25T02:39:00.000-07:00

Morocco, where do I start?

This place is amazing, I've never been anywhere like this place, it's completely unlike anywhere else we've been so far in Europe. We got in late Tuesday, got a taxi into the medina to get to our Riad (Like a B&B), I knew cars couldn't drive into the Medina (It's the city centre that was built before roads, so the streets are tiny), so I knew we'd have to walk some, the driver told us it would be 100m, so we thought that was fine. We get there and straight away this guy comes up to us asking if we want somewhere to stay, we told him we already have somewhere, and he asks us where so we told him and he tells us he'll take us there. I was skeptical but before I knew it we were following him, I knew nothing would be for free. At one stage we were walking down this dark thin alleyway (it had been way further than 100m) and I'd never been more weary of being mugged but it turned out fine, he got us to this place and asked for a tip, he said something like "come on man, just 100 dirham" and I didn't really know how much that was worth to him so I gave it to him, not really the situation for thinking straight, anyway we got inside to our GLORIOUS Riad, and told the owner about it, and he chased the guy and got us our money back, I actually think he didn't catch the guy and took it out of his own pocket. We got our bags inside (completely stunned at the place, so beautiful, but so completely unlike any fancy place we'd stayed before, nicer imo) and went to go out for an explore, and lucky us, saw a couple we recogised from the (better than you'd expect) easyjet flight, found out they were aussies (they are EVERYWHERE in europe) and decided to play it safe and venture out with them.

We are staying in a real mint location, only 5 minutes from the big square, and what a unique place that was. In our visits there we've seen a snake charmer, with the cobra and the flute/trumpet thing, random music gatherings, which is so people can collect money from you (nothing is for free here), we saw one woman (often they're all covered up because this is a muslim country, it's not all that extreme though, just everywhere) with a duck and two hedgehogs... I don't know what she was trying to do with them or how she was trying to get money from people by displaying these two rather ordinary species, but lots of people were gathered around, probably wondering the same things. There are stalls that come out at night for food too, lots of spicy smells. We saw this big ring of people surrounding two people, so we had a look, and it was a spontaneous boxing match! When we got there we saw the people all gloved up (no face pads no mouthguards) and wondered if they really would box. The guy "running" it spent ages saying stuff in arabic and I think he was asking people to give money (I think the winner got the money) and after a while it started, and it was hardcore, instantly the fight would end up on the edges of the crowd and it was full on street fighting with gloves. Interesting..

We've spent time, and gotten lost, in the souks, which is the street markets. They're all in tiny streets, unlike other markets, and they hound you all the time to come into their store. It's not as cheap here as I would have hoped, €1 gets you about 11 dirham, but a can of diet coke can cost 10-15 dirham, so for some stuff it's about the same price as europe, which makes it more expensive than home!! Amazing when you consider the relative poorness (is that a word) of this place. The food is a bit cheaper, I'm partially addicted to tangines, which is a sort of stew thing in a special cooker, with (obviously) morrocan spices.

An odd thing here is that most people are bilingual Arabic and French of all languages. So we just try to use french to communicate, it works, but it's odd. We're gutted we couldn't visit the desert, but the only trips out there were overnight. And it's unusual, and creepy, to hear the muslim call to prayer, four times a day, it's an unusual call really.

Wow, there has been so much other amazing stuff we have seen here, but I can't write it all, it's by far my favorite part of the trip so far, it'll stay in my memories forever I hope. Oh, and people, feel free to comment, I feel like I'm writing to no-one..

Addition: I forgot to mention we both got this traditional massage thing called Hammam, actually, the massage isn't part of the traditional thing. The got us into our underwear and covered us in this brown goo, then made us bake in a sauna for what seemed like way too long, then threw water over us and rubbed these abrasive gloves over us and stripped a whole lot of skin off, and more sauna time and more goo. I forgot how the order went, then they massaged us. Since the girls and the guys can't do it at the same time Alice actually had the massage first while the goo dispensing was laid onto me, and then we swapped. I also forgot to mention how insane these people are with their motorcycle riding. Everywhere you go people are buzzing past you on a little scooter or bike, at high speeds, dubbing people and generally risking their lives, because while it's just a bit insane them doing it in the big crowds of people (dodging the donkey drawn carts) it's completely mad when they do it down the thin alleys of the medina because they are going fast and they really are thin. Haven't seen an accident yet.. Amazing.

We're leaving tonight, I'm sad to go, but I'm also ready to go. While it's pretty awesome to be here, there's not a hell of a lot to do really other than just be here experiencing it.

Bye bye Madrid

2007-05-22T02:08:00.000-07:00

Today we are leaving Madrid. We have packed up our bags already and are going to walk around the city for a while till our flight to Morocco. Madrid is such a cool city. Last night we went out walking about 11 and the streets were packed with people, drinking sangria and having tapas. We got invited to have free drinks at a bar so we went there for a while. Meet some nice people in the hostel and had a chat to the Browns.
-Alice

Before I got to Madrid, I couldn´t help but think the country would be a bit like a third world nation, or more like Mexico to be honest. I couldn´t imagine that they´d have technology (that worked) like the rest of Europe, but I have to say I have been pleasantly surprised. This country isn´t in fact third world and is instead quite enjoyable. People are a bit different here, they have dinner at 10pm and the pet stores have hairless cats. Less people speak English here, so I´ve had to pull out my spanish skills, often talking up a storm the locals and impressing all the girls. Not really.
Andrew

Éspáñól

2007-05-20T07:53:00.000-07:00

I´m not quite sure which vowels of Éspáñól has the thing above it so I added it to as many letters as possible. I think I covered all my bases there.

So we´re in Madrid. We left Paris and trained to Bordeaux after a mess of train booking. I just realised I´ve already mentioned this. Anyway, Bordeaux was kinda boring, we did a wine tour which was ok, but lots wasn´t in English, which made it kinda boring, but the wine they let us taste was nice.

So then we trained to Madrid. Which is now. Not much to write really. I keep thinking there has been things I´ve wanted to write about but keep forgetting. Lots of random interesting things have been happening, but when it comes time to write, I forget. Oh well

Hola!!!

2007-05-20T07:38:00.000-07:00

Hola from Madrid! After a couple of average days in a crappy hotel in Bordeaux and after much confusion at the train station we boarded a train to Irun, a wee town just on the border between France and Spain. It was a nice train actually, one of those ones with cabins for you to sit in and spread out a bit. Just before we got into Irun a French man with a huge yellow balloon visited us to play hit the balloon around the cabin. Random. He seemed really nice thoug, kept trying to make us understand his French, we didnt. We decided to have a walk around Irun since it was a friday night and we had a couple of hours to spend. We soon found out the locals didnt seem to keen to have us there, lots of weird looks and crossing the street so as not to pass us.
We had booked a ´couchette´ for our trip to Madrid so that we could sleep. It was amazing to see 6 people and all our luggage fit into this tiny cabin. About half an hour into our trip there was a bit of a halla ballo outside our cabin, most of it was in a tounge we didnt understand but we could hear over and over ´we are the police you must give us your passport´. After a while a plain clothes cop came into our cabin to see our passports too. I made sure I checked out his badge and we gave him our passports. They carried on for some time outside the cabin with the passport check resistors and eventually it all calmed down. Drama!
We got here to Madrid this morning and its awesome. It seems the further south we go the less english is spoken. We are making good use of our phrase book here. It feels a bit silly talking Spanish though, you kinda have to lisp some sounds. Andrew learnt the word for beer pretty quick though. We went to the Royal Palace thismorning. I have never seen such opulence and extravagence before. It was amazing, one room was entirely covered in porcelin.
Our hostel seems fun but maybe not as much as the flying pig. All the rooms face onto a communal courtyard which we are hoping is where the party is at tonight.
Tomorrow we have been promised a tour by a spanish guy we meet on the subway today. He was on his way home from a party at 8 when we were arriving.

Onward

2007-05-17T05:09:00.000-07:00

So we're in Paris now. We should be in Bordeaux but we managed to underestimate just how booked the trains would be.

We got on our "cruise ship" in Amsterdam on Friday afternoon, and once set up headed back into the city for one final night. How different it was, being a Friday night. That place changes on the weekend, and I didn't like it. It's a shame, as I bet most people end up visiting then and get a pretty horrible impression of the place. What's weird, is that despite the tolerence that Amsterdam is known for, liberal laws on soft drugs and legalised prostitution, which some people might think are bad things, the worst thing I saw was drunk people, which happens everywhere in the world..

We arrived in Rotterdam at 1pm, and no offence Rotterdam, but what a boring city. Most of it was bombed in WWII so it's all new. It's just like Christchurch really, probably nice to live in but not so nice to visit.

Next day was Antwerp, Belgium. This city was alright actually. We found ourselves in a big square, which had a lot of restaurants and bars and a big old church and was just nice to be in. We had some chocolate.

We arrived the next day in Brussels but hopped on the first train to Paris. Paris is a nice city, quite big and a lot of old stuff. The louvre is huge and has a lot of art and the people dress well, not as well as in Amsterdam though. The first day was only ok for me but as time went on I enjoyed it more and more. We saw the Eiffel Tower and everything else. Stuff is old here.

Anyway, internet time ticks by quickly and expensively over here, especially when paying in euros..

Heineken Experience

2007-05-11T01:31:00.000-07:00

I should have put this in the last post but I forgot, and I can't work out on these dutch computers which is "edit post" so it's just a new one for now.

Two days ago we went to the "Heineken Experience" which is like a brewery tour, but more like science alive in how it works. It was $11 (imagine that $ is actually a euro sign) each which ended up quite good value because they gave us 3 tokens each for a beer and also a gift token which netted us 1 bottle opener and bottle opener holder in each of our hands. And since Alice doesn't like beer all that much, I got her tokens. So we stopped at the first bar stop and I got 2, and then send a video from the museum of us dancing in front of a dutch windmill to our families, and continued around. They had comfy personal seats that showed all their ads on TV since the 50's and they just had tons of cool rides and things to do. Then the next bar came along so I got another 2 beers, and while sitting down enjoying those I got gifted another 2 tokens, the seat I had picked happened to be by the door, and a lot of people apparently don't want to drink beer, so they'd hand their tokens onto the person sitting at the door, me. Some people from a christian college from Kentucky sat next to us and I got gifted x amount of coins which at this stage meant I had 2 new beers in front of me and 7 tokens in my hand. I ended up giving some of the tokens away but I feel I got very good value for money from the place and would highly recommend it, even if you don't enjoy free beer.

Amsterdamage

2007-05-10T07:10:00.000-07:00

Once again, concurrent posts..

London was a lot of fun, I grew to like the place more and more as time went on, and I really enjoyed the time we spent with Jeremy & Sarah. Good times, good memories.

It's Thursday today, which is a shame because it means only one more day here after today. I love this place, it's so cool to walk around, just such a beautiful city, and our hostel (Flying Pig Amsterdam) is probably one of the best hostels I have ever seen. They have a bar and are quite tolerant of people's activities and it's a greaat place. It rained the first few days but it doesn't really matter.

We went for a walking tour which was really interesting, and just walking around at night time is fun, they of course have the red light district which is an interesting walk, I actually think the city council have put this part of the city aside for adults because there are signposts with red lights in them when you go into the area, and it's like they've done it to remind parents not to bring their children, it's just odd that it's so "official". It's the very city centre so it's interesting architecurally too..

We've been having a great time, it's probably the most fun place I've visited so far.

Amsterdam

2007-05-10T07:04:00.001-07:00

I think I've had the most fun of my life here in Amsterdam. And so you dont get any strange ideas, not because of the typical Amsterdam pleasures. The hostel we are staying at is so cool, so many people to meet. We have been out to dinner, to the pub or walking around with different people everyday. Last night we went out to dinner with Corey and Laura from the US. We started the night getting horribly lost and taking an hour to get to this place that was 5 mins away from our hostel. I dont think the night would have been quite as fun if we had just gone there. Today we did a walking tour with Jess and Joel all through old medievel Amsterdam. Theres some crazy random things here. The flowers are so beautiful and cheap that I bought myself a huge bunch of pink roses. Andrew is trying to dream up ways that we can move here. We realised last night that we hadnt really eaten meat at all since we got here, there's so much amazing delicious food. We've been having the best falafeel every day for lunch with a huge fresh salad. Finally Andrew conceeds that ultra healthy food can be yummy too!!!!
-Alice

Leaving London

2007-05-06T16:15:00.000-07:00

We've had a brillant time here with Jeremy and Sarah, Miriam and Robert and Tim. Its sooo nice to be with friends isnt it. Big ups to Jeremy and Sarah for having us stay and taking us to the yummiest spanish resturant ever. We will have amazing linen for you for when you need to stay with us. Sorry to Rob and Tim again for being an hour late to meet you guys for lunch. Blimmen tube. Glad you are patient. Sorry to miss Izzy.
Heres a list of my top six fav bands of the moment (in no particular order)
-Crowded House
-Feelers
-Elemnopea
-Micheal Buble
-Chilli Peppers
-Switchfoot

Things I like
-Nice sheets
-Paper shopping bags
-Purfume
-Hamsters
-The colour pink
-Murder mystery books/Historal romance
-Hand written letters
-The tired achy after exercise feeling
-Clean socks
-Family (mostly)
-Having piggyback races

Things that I would like to do
-Eat a very sweet strawberry
-Give more hugs
-Write more letters
-Try vegetarianism
-Have a baby
-Form an opinion
-Lie in a park all day and watch the clouds go by
-Be completely myself
-Own a boat
-Fly kites
-Write more poems
-Love completely without inhibition or pride

Alice

London Chappies

2007-05-03T15:30:00.000-07:00

Our first stop in a different country, still English speaking though. We have spent most of our time here so far being jet lagged and in bed, which is a shame. I got a cold on leaving NYC and have been glad for the bed at Jeremy's and Sarah's where we've been able to chill out a bit.Our nice friends at HSBC helped us get some money and off we trotted to the shops with it. Had a yummy tea on Wed at Wagamama's- very nice Asian cuisine and tonight a nice home cooked and few bottles of wine meal with Jeremy and Sarah. Went to Harrods today, tried the perfume in the bathrooms and found the NZ baby gear (just on our way past that section of course). I dont think we'll see it all here, its really nice to see old friends though.
-Alice

Well, I was gutted to leave America. I actually really liked it, I think I fitted in quite well really. But times goes on. The flight was nice because we weren't with American Airlines and so we actually got fed and got to watch something. I watched "Children of Men" and personally, don't get what all the fuss is about. Landed in London and met Jeremy, which was good, really good actually. Very tired from the crappy plane sleep so slept most of yesterday day and went to a pub and to a restaurant last night. Today slept in and went to the science museum and harrods, and yeah. London is quite a bit different to New York, I mean, well, you don't exactly expect them to be the same, but they're probably the two biggest city centres in the western world, and they couldn't be much different. The people are the difference really.
-Andrew

Here's the top of the cruise ship, where people can choose to sunbath if they don't like peace or quiet.

Here's Alice sitting on a 2000 year old Mayan ruin.

Here's the waterfall in Jamaica, running into the Ocean

Here's one of the rastafarians in front of some coconut drink.

Here's Alice on the cruise ship in the room with a towel pig they made us.

Alice again, and the Dodge minivan we converted into a poor-mans campervan, at a rest stop.

The nice beach in Grand Cayman, where we saw fish, some jellyfish stung Alice and a plastic bag scared the crap out of me.

Hey Alice how come you're in every picture? This is the Jack Daniels Distillery.

The hot-tub at the log cabin, looking into a forest in the smokey mountains

"Foam Henge", a fake Stone Henge replica on some back road randomly in Virginia

The Orioles mascot, a big bird!

As close as you can get (as a pedestrian) to the white house.

Abraham Lincoln. So big.

We went up the Rockefeller centre so we could see the empire state building, one thing you can't see from the empire state building. Such a large city.

Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty. I did not feel liberated, just sea sick.

Doug, Amy & Kayla (spelling?), the kind family we stayed with in San Francisco, at Muir Woods

The golden gate bridge, which is not made of gold, and has more of a toll booth than a gate.

nyc2

2007-04-30T19:56:00.000-07:00

So another day over in the big apple. The more time I spend here the more I like it, it's a shame we're leaving tomorrow but oh well. This morning, got on a boat and floated around the harbour and saw ellis island (statue of liberty) and the statue is really nice, but a lot smaller than it looks. Then we went to the former WTC site, which is, a construction site for the horrible "freedom" tower, it was, odd, to be there. Didn't really expect to feel anything, but what I did feel was quite unusual and unexpected.. It should just be a monument, but I guess real estate is just far too expensive to "waste" it on something like that.
We got on the subway and went to the Ed Sullivan theatre to get our (free, they just give them out on the street) tickets to the Late Show, and thankful to Alice's joyous manner, they thought we showed enthusiasm, so they put us in the front row, and on the show was an impressionist and Kirsten Dunst! Because Spider Man 3 comes out this friday here (the world premier was tonight, here in NYC) it was about that. She is ridiciously skinny, kinda gross, but it was a great experience and something I hope to remember forever (like most things this trip!)
We went to dinner and then * hang on, I just remembered, yesterday I had chocolate and peanut butter (sorry my diabetes) ice cream and it was the best icecream I have ever had * anyway, dinner, then walked around and went back to Macy*s. It's large and I got Alice to try on some clothes to my tastes and didn't get anything, and came back home. Fun day.
-Andrew

Highlight of the day today was the Letterman show for me. We saw Kirsten Dunst and some random illusionist guy. Letterman is smaller than you think and not as funny as you would think. Did a cruise around the statue, very impressive.
We'll be sad to leave the big apple, have really liked it here. Onwards and upwards and all that. Scary to think of going to Europe next all on our wee own selves.
-Alice

New York New York

2007-04-29T17:28:00.000-07:00

Before I start could someone please inform me of who won the world cup???!!!!!!!!!!
Here we are in NYC, love this place. Have walked so far over 200 blocks. Spent some time in Central Park, up the Rockafella center, Times Sq and the 'garment' district. So huge and so many people. Going to be an audience for David Letterman tomorrow and then to see the phantom.
And the big news is...... Andrew bought a tie!! Can you imagine it! I love it
-Alice

Well we dropped off the car and had driven ~2000 miles since Saturday. Including LA I've driven about ~3000 miles on the wrong side of the road now. It now feels normal to drive there, weird..

Now we're in Manhatten, NYC and I love it. You know how when you talk to people about New York and they say "It's not that big", well, it's huge. There are so many people and shops and things to do, and the buildings are large and everyone dresses nicer than me and it has a real unique feeling, I think it's because this city has everything in it and people's entire lives are conducted in a large metropolitan city. It's hard to explain. And I think the bright lights give Vegas a run for their money, not strickly in size, but in taste. And we went to the world's largest department store today, Macy's NY, which was pretty big, as you'd imagine. The view from the Rockefeller centre was amazing, got to look at the Empire State Building and everything else. Tomorrow we're off to visit other places and go in the Audience for the Late Show. Love it here!
-Andrew

End of the Road Trip

2007-04-27T17:39:00.000-07:00

Once again you'll get two posts about the same events, redundancy and all.

After we left the Chatanooga library we got on the road. The interstates are pretty good really, real fast and always enough lanes so it moves at the speed limit. We drove until we got to the turn off to go to the JD Distillery, and once we were off the interstate the speed slowed down and we got a real taste of what backcountry redneck America looks like. "kill all gays" inscribed into public toilets says a lot I think, but the people are generally nice, they wave at ya from the street even though they don't know who we are.

The Distillery was amazing. I have a new found respect for JD now, and really respect the Tennessee Whiskey, and it fully contends with Bourbon. I had always thought that the JD Single Barrel was the smoothest whiskey I had tasted, and now seeing how it gets made, well, it was a golden experience. I was impressed with how close you got to everything (standing over the fermentation vats, I could have spit in it if I felt the need) and where they burn the wood to make the charcoal and also a bottling plant. Man they make a lot of whiskey though. It's quite hard to fathom just how much they have in stock considering it has to be aged for at least 5 years, and so you have to have enough barrel houses to hold 5 years of stock at any one time.

We finished that evening by rolling in Nashville, and we went to a mall! How authentic. We looked around the stores and some people tried to sell us a time-share and then we went to the "Rain Forest" cafe which is like a themed restaurant. Nice enough. We toured the main street and it was full of country music funnily enough. We found another rest stop and slept.

Next day we got up and intended to go to these mountain ranges, and on the way got a log cabin. The place was mint, and I loved every second there, and I made pancakes with sugar-free syrup which was enjoyable! If I ever get another chance to upload some photos you'll get a chance to see it!

We got back on the road and drove into Virginia, and the scenery changes again. The scenery around America is really nice, quite different to NZ and quite a lot like you see in TV, saw a few farms with white wooden post fences. The scenery doesn't change as often either, but that's more or less expected.

Stopped somewhere random, close to DC, which we then drove into in the morning. What a mission! The traffic was horrible and the signposting even worse and no parking. We basically played car tourist that day, and didn't even see that much! We did go to the Arlington cemetary, a massive military cemetary (all the little white uniform tombstones) and that was kind of interesting. We drove to Baltimore and stumbled across a baseball game which was cool, Orilose vs Red Sox, we got a hot dog but not peanuts and enjoyed American Sports atmosphere. It felt a lot more civilised that going to a rugby game back at home.

Next day (today) we got up early and tried to get to DC early but it actually took us 2 hours to get 30 miles and park. We walked so much and so a whole bunch of thing. The big Lincoln Memorial with him sitting on a seat is really big in real life, and then you turn around and see the reflecting pool reflecting the Washington (maybe?) monument and it's really impressive. The reflecting pool was in Forrest Gump when he does the unintended speech in his Army Uniform and Jenny runs into the pool to come to him? Remember that? Well, I was there. The Natural History museum was AMAZING and I saw some cool rocks and some dinosaurs and a whole bunch of awesome things which aren't really all that interesting to talk about but were interesting to look at.

Now we're close to Dulles Airport just outside of DC in Virginia, having a night NOT sleeping in the van, about to fly to New York (thanks lastminute.com, you were cheaper to fly than to train, no wonder no one trains) for a few days then to visit the Scott of Jeremy in London.

Tennesse and onwards

2007-04-27T17:15:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone
Feels like we are just getting into the real traveling thing now we are about to get rid of the car. My legs are feeling it after a day walking round DC. The road up here was interesting. Stopped at the Jack Daniels distillery (did I already tell you about that?) anyways, great place, sooo interesting. They let you see all the corn mash and the coals they filter the whiskey through.
After that we headed up to the smokey mountians for a wee bit of a break along the way. We shouted ourselves to a night in a log cabin in the mountains. We loved it there, our cabin had a loft and a basement, a heart shaped spa bath and a hot tub on the deck overlooking the mountains. Andrew made me a proper dinner with lots of vegges (yum) and pancakes for breakfast in the morning. Very nice experience!! The next day we decided to take life a bit slower and headed onto a road through the woods. We saw wild deer on the side, they were so cute!!
Another night in the van and onto DC. What a freaken mission. I wont go wildly into the details but I would recommend anyone going to DC, dont take a car and please plan your trip. We got stuck in traffic for a couple of hours and when we got to where we wanted it was closed. It turned out ok in the end though. We found ourselves in Baltimore, Maryland and as we got into town saw that there was a baseball game on. We decided to embrace this all American tradition and went along. Primo seats for only $15. We didnt really understand too many of the rules though.
Today we got stuck in traffic again in DC, took us 2 hours to go 20miles (I'm so thankful that Andrew is so much more patient than I am). After a terrible start of not being able to find a park, only finding spanish speaking info people and not having any way to get to NYC the next day the day did get better. We saw the White house, Lincon Memorial, Reflective pool, the Museum of Natural History and the Museum of the American Indiain (thanks Marsha for the tip- had lunch there was yummy).
We are flying to NY tomorrow and then onto London to see Jeremy and Sarah!! Can't wait to see you guys!!!

Road Trippin'

2007-04-23T08:14:00.000-07:00

For the first time ever, Alice and I have access to more than one computer so instead of putting two posts in one, we're doing it simultaneously, so expect redundancy!

Anyway, right now we're in Chatanooga, Tennessee, and it's quite nice, although we've only just got here.

We left the ship Saturday morning and we walked into the car park with only an idea of driving up. We hopped on a shuttle and after a while of messing about with going backwards and forward trying to get a good deal we finally got a big Dodge Grand Caravan to drive up north in. We got on the road and out of Miami as quickly as possible. We ended up driving out through the slums and they looked far worse than anything I had seen in LA. We drove up and stopped and got some cheap food and then continued and got to Daytona Beach. We weren't really planning on stopping there but it's a cool place. A massive long beach that you can drive on and it's really like going back to the 50's, so much more so than South Beach in Miami, and we went to a mall and shopped! I really liked Daytona, and we saw the race track, which was HUGE. We got back on the road and found a rest area which is basically designed for people to park up and sleep in, and stayed there.

Sunday we woke up, and drove to St Augustine which is the oldest permanent settlement of the country, and visited the oldest house in the country and looked around the "olde tyme stores" but they were quite commericialised (as you probably expect) and everything costs money to go visit here so we didn't go to too much more. Got on the road again and went to a Wal*Mart which was an experience. Not as nice as target but a bit cheaper and generally big and holy crap it would be cheap to furnish your house (albeit, not necessarily nicely) over here. We got some gas and drove onto Atlanta, Georgia, which is one of the nicest looking cities I have ever seen. Either that city is all fancy and tidy and clean or we somehow drove through the entire city only sticking to the rich parts. Anyway it's so nice and we went to the Movies. We drove onto another rest area and made our beds. We have an airbed in the back of this Mini-Van which cost us $10..

We got on the road today and drove here to Chatanooga, and soon found a library in which to internet on, and now we're going to the Jack Daniels distillery, which ironically is in a dry (no alcohol) county, and then up to Nashville, TN, and then who knows.

Got some great news today that Tim Anderson got engaged, congratulations, and I'm quite priviledged to have been able to meet Christine and give her my approval so that Tim could commence with the engagement activities. CONGRATULATION

Keep in touch everybody!

Road Trip USA

2007-04-23T08:06:00.000-07:00

Feels like ages since we've been in touch here. We're in Catanooga now (choo choo) but heres the storey so far.....
After Jamacia we had one more day onboard and enjoyed a few last meals of fillet steak, quail and escargo before we reverted back to crackers for breakfast. On the last night at dinner all the waiters (about 40 of them) in the dining room lined up and sang us a goodbye version of Leaving on a Jetplane (they sang leaving on a funship). Our waiter was really nice, Lama from Nepal. He told us that he works from 0530 till 1100 with 3 hours break in the middle, 7 days a week for 7 months! They had a huge show in the Rome Lounge with lots of dancing, better than the one we saw in Vegas I think.
Anyways we didnt do much that day, mostly say around a had a few pina coladas. My wasp sting swelled up the whole side of my body though so we had a wee visit to the ship doctor.
The next day we were up early with the idea to hire a car and drive up north. We managed to jump on a courtesy van to the rental car place and hook ourselves up with a Dodge minivan (almost the same as we had in San Fran with Doug and Becky). We've kitted it out with an airbed and pillows (and some extremely indulgent 800thread count pillowcases) and have spent the last two nights sleeping on the side of the freeways. Its actually pretty good to do that here, they have rest stops with bathrooms and one the first night there was security there to keep us safe also. Stupid Georgia law says that you cant actually sleep at a rest stop but we did anyway. So we drove first up to St Augustine, stopping at Daytona and the space center on the way. (Actually the space center was nearly closed so we just went to the gift shop.) St Augustine was recommended to me by Jason at work and its a really lovely old settlement. We took a tour of a house from the 1500s and had a walk around town and the fort. Yesterday we found ourselves in Atlanta, Georgia. Beautiful city! We kept thinking we were in its Fendalton but everywhere we drove was equally as nice. We decided to do something special and went to see Fracture at the movies (I liked it). Kinda a bad idea to see a scary movie when you are lost in a city and about to sleep illegally in your car. To get over the feeling we stopped in at a truckers stop and I had a big bowl of chilli.
Today we are heading up to Linchburg pop316 and the center for the Jack Daniels distillerly. Interestingly it is in a dry county! Tonight we hope to be in Nashville and might even treat ourselves to a cheap hotel.
Miss you all, Thankyou for your messages!! Nana I hear you are getting internet savy- thats great!! Hope you are enjoying it.

Grand Cayman & Jamaica

2007-04-19T10:27:00.000-07:00

Well, we're in Jamaica right now and it is hot, but it's really nice. We got off the boat at 8.30 and started to walk to these famous water falls instead of taking a tour and half way there we stumbled onto some other falls which may or may not have been as nice but they weren't full of tourists and we met some rastas and spent most of the morning with them, they're pretty nice people and we got photos and they showed us some cool stuff and we swam in the ocean and sat under some waterfalls, it's seriously like something out of a catalogue, probably one of the more authentic and unique experiences we're going to have this trip!
-Andrew
I really liked Grand Caymen. Its a small British Island and very pretty. We walked along and found a nice place to snorkel and spend most of the morning doing this. They have stringrays you can swim with. I got a bit freaked out after being stung by a Jellyfish though so it took a bit to get back in the water. We had lunch at a resturant on the beach and they looked after our stuff while we went back out into the ocean. It was heaps deeper here, we swam out a bit and found an old shipwreck. I got scared again when we saw sharks (just little ones) so that was the end of snorkelling for the day.
Jamaica is AWESOME! I love it here, the people are so beautiful. We hung out with our new rasta friends Andrew and Rowan for the morning it was fun. They showed us how to break open and almond and coconut shell. Really nice guys. I got stung again here by a massive Jamacain wasp, its 4 hours later and still stings like crazy but they tell me its ok. Rowan got some special leaves to rub on it and then some garlic a bit later (?). We are back on the boat soon heading back to Miami.
-Alice

Mexico and beyond

2007-04-16T11:15:00.000-07:00

Today is the first day we can use email without cashing in our savings. We left San Fran sadly last thursday, our flight was delayed and the hotel pickup took an hour so we didnt get in till about 1am, such a shame too cause the hotel we booked was prob the nicest we´ve stayed in yet. Miami was nice, lots of people and ugly old buildings. I could take or leave south beach myself. Cruise started a couple of days ago and we´re loving it. I love the gentle rocking of the boat, epspecially at night. Our cabin is really nice, they come and make it up twice a day. The best bit is all the free stuff. You can pretty much eat whatever you want whenever you want and its all free. We like the fine dining lunches, you can sit where you want and they serve you really quick. The table we´re assigned to for dinner has all
Isrealies and we cant speak any ´Hebrew. Today we are in Mexico again, Cozumel this time, its much nicer than Tijuana. We have hired a car and have been to some ancient ruins (that they let you walk all over, crazy eh) and had a swim. We{re gonna find a nice place to snorkel after this.
-Alice

The cruise is pretty mint, they have everything on board including a casino, which when I walked into it, reminded me just of Las Vegas. I´m not a fan of the rocking myself, tends to make me a bit sick, but I can deal with it. Cozumel here is quite nice, the water is warm, we´ve already been for an ocean swim and hopefully another soon! Miami was interesting, it just proves that different parts of the US are just so different to other parts. So much dining, the most I´ve personally seen anywhere, and it´s all art deco which imo looks pretty ugly, everything is 80´s pink and blue.. Apparently South Beach is one of the very top party spots in the world, along with Ibiza, but we never really got a chance to check it out, I don´t really feel like we missed out though.
- Andrew

More SF

2007-04-12T16:22:00.000-07:00

So we've just spent the last 2 days in San Francisco and are about to leave to fly to the horrible horrible LAX and onto Miami.
I love San Francisco, this city rules, it's not too big that you can't walk across it in 3/4 hour but there is so much, and it's relatively clean and today it was sunny and there are lots of shops! They have a Westfield just like at home only this one is classy. I liked sitting in Union Square, it's a nice square, equal in it's proportions, and I quite like the liberal/tolerance of this city, so many people just doing what they want.
I want to come back here and maybe even move here but it is so expensive to rent or buy!
-Andrew

Today we had our first lazy, nothing on the agenda day. For the most part we sat around in Union Square and watched all the people go by. There was a school band that marched past and I enjoyed it so much I gave them all my pennies. I think travelling helps me put my life into perspective. We found out today that our tenant wants to move- usually this would stress me out but I didnt really care too much, there are heaps of people with much bigger problems than this in life. Anyone need a place to rent???????
Anyways we're off with our packs to the airport. We already have too much stuff.
Miss you all
-Alice

San Francisco

2007-04-09T20:42:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was easter sunday, our first one in LA. We went to this HUGE church with Marsha and had a lovely easter service there. They have a massive organ, one of the biggest in the world. After church we did a wee tiki tour of LA and saw the new catholic catherdral which costs $12 to park!!! It smelt like cinnamon and is made out of mexican marble. Marsha made us an amaing and huge easter meal. Over here is it quite traditional to have a family meal for easter, like we would for christmas. We had our first proper artichokes- yum!
Today we got up really early and found our way back to LAX. We were very glad that we got up early because it took over an hour waiting in line to get checked in. I marvel at how LAX can work properly!! We arrived here in San Fran and were meet by Doug, Becky, Caelia and Amy. We all went into town and had clam chowder in real sourdough bread bowls, very good. After that we went to Muir Woods and had a walk around the redwoods, some of them 1000 years old. We saw a chipmunk that looked a bit sick, poor wee chipmunk. San Fran looks like a great city- we really like it here.
Alice

I know Alice mentioned it, about how stuff is so cheap over here, but she didn't really give it justice. I bought a new pair of DC's for $40 and some were at $20. Levis $30, label t-shirts, $12. It's so cheap to dress nice. Bottle of JD, $17 at the supermarket! And this is us not even shopping for deals, just buying stuff when we see it. Subway is more expensive though, which I guess is to counteract McDonalds being about half the price it is at home. I guess the 99c Double Cheeseburger wins again! And capatilism reigns here. There is nothing you can do that doesn't come with the optional t-shirt. As I'll mention later we went to a forest today, and just to show the world you went, why not buy a t-shirt or cap or grey hoody with "MUIR WOODS" written across the chest. It's great to be able to show your support for trees in the face of the evil global warming corporation.

Anyway, onto more recent things, San Francisco is awesome! It's a pretty city but property is expensive. Actually that doesn't get in the way of me enjoying the city, just my desires of moving here. We went to a redwood forest today, those trees are tall! We're going to do some more tomorrow and then tomorrow night is our first night in a youth hostel which should be simultaniously fun and disgusting!

I'm missing all the keeping in touch with friends stuff :( I'm having a great time but I do miss my friends. You know who you are.

Impressions of the USA

2007-04-07T19:52:00.000-07:00

Some things I have noticed in my first week here
1. Some stuff is very very cheap ie fast food, clothes and soda
2. Some stuff is very expensive ie healthy food and theme parks (well, no wonder really)
3. People are alot more friendly and tolerant than I had assumed they would be
4. New Zealand doesnt know how lucky it is with it's lack of waiting in lines
5. Personal space is different over here, its quite ok to stand so close to someone that you are actually touching them
6. Noone cares when someone jumps the line, well they might care but not enough to do anything
7. Americans dont usually understand a New Zealand accent- it is very weird not being understood in an english speaking country
8. Life flies by unless you stop to smell the roses

Some things I have reflected on
1. The difference in social welfare systems here, in Mexico and New Zealand and how freakin blessed kiwis are to be born into a world where they are taken care of
2. The difference in levels of personal responsibility that are expected in different places
3. The advent of advertising and its impact on a community
4. How lucky I am to work in a job that is interesting, not repetitive and helpful to people in need rather than in want.

Las Vegas & Tijuana

2007-04-06T21:13:00.000-07:00

You know how when anybody talks about Las Vegas and they go "oh, it's not that big" well, they're full of crap. It's freakin huge. Including all the buildings..

That's the Luxor. It's large inside and also hollow and lots of gambin' goin' on. We went to all the big casino's, which is a lot of them over a very large amount of land. Everything is bright and flashy..

That there is the "New York New York" casino (The lion is actually the massive gold lion from the MGM Grand which I have to say, is very grand) with a roller coaster and the manhatten skyline turned into a hotel. In "Caesers Palace" there is a mall half as long as Northlands and the entire roof is painted like the sky and it's like it's day time, when outside, it's night! It had me fooled for a short while! We didn't actually gamble all that much at all, and everything we did, we lost. I think I know the secret to the casino's success.. We stayed at Hooters which was very convientently placed and we could walk to the strip in 5 minutes and we also saw a very vegas-style show "Folies Bergere" which was great and very flamboyant..

Earlier today we went to Tijuana, we drove from Las Vegas to San Diego and then walked over but I don't like Tijuana all that much at all, very very dirty and the solicitation was beyond comfortable. That place scares me more than it should, maybe I'm just a wuss or maybe it was because they saw my (relatively) rich white person a mile away and thought $$$ but anyway, not my cup of tea. Maybe other parts (I sure hope so for their sake) of Mexico is nicer..
- Andrew

On our way over to Vegas we took a detour through the desert. I really liked it, it was so hot and in the middle we found an old train station that they had turned into a museum. It was full of Joshua trees that only grow in that region and aren't really trees at all but yukkas

When we got to Vegas Andrew got us lost and I got mad but it turned out pretty easy to find the main strip. There are hundreds of people there, all feeding money into every hole they can find, its amazing. I liked the Lions at the MGM, they reminded me of a huge biscuit. The tamers were playing ball with them and they did the thing that she does with her back legs when she gets a ball.

We're off to Universal Studios tomorrow! Love ya'll
-Alice

Disneyland

2007-04-02T19:52:00.000-07:00

You know how when anybody talks about Disneyland and they go "oh, it's not that big" well, they're full of crap. It's freakin huge. And full of people. Oh my goodness. We had to get up at 5.30am and get on the freeway and we ended up on one massive freeways 8 lanes wide, in one direction but I drove like a pro and we got there at 7.30 and got tickets just in time to get in. We went on some rides and they were so good, really long and the quality is just so good. Space Mountain is an indoor roller coaster with lights. I also enjoyed the psychedelic flavours of the Winnie the Pooh ride which was bright and colourful and was pooh bears "honey" induced dream-state.. Very interesting, I'll leave some other things up to Alice so I don't take everything..
- Andrew

Well Andrew is right he does drive like a pro, but only with me directing him I might add. Disneyland was completely different to how I remember it. You have to have a strategy or else be prepared to stand in queues ALL day. The longest we waited was an hour and a half for space mountain, it was worth it. They had the chilli peppers playing with bright flashing lights and holograms while you ride the rollercoaster. We blitzed Indiania Jones, Pirates and the Haunted mansion early, wow!!! Amazing holograms and spooky flying things galore. I just wish I could get Andrew to smile in a photo........

Oh no, they shrunk me

And then made me HUGE

And at the end of the day we cruised away on the happiest cruise in the world.

Los Angeles, CA

2007-04-01T17:59:00.000-07:00

Arrived here yesterday in sunny LA. We picked up our car after a line up at the car rental place!! Andrew drives pretty well and with the help of map quest we found our way to Marsha's. That night we went out for tea to what Marsha calls a 'hole in the wall' restaurant (good food, av atmosphere) and ALL the staff there sang me happy birthday and gave me a flan with a candle. The food was yummy and Andrew got REALLY full. After that we went into Hollywood and had a look at the Chinese Theatre. That was amazing with all the lights. There were heaps of scary dressed up people there though, I held very close to Andrew.
Today we drove to Venice Beach and had a look around. Nice place, some weird people there though. We gave 75 cents to a guy for making up a poem for us, it didn't really have much to do with us so prob the same one he tells everyone.
On the way back we tried to go to Union Station but mapquest.com lead us up the garden path twice so we came home and bought up large at Target instead.
Tomorrow we're off to Disneyland and then Vegas baby on Tues. We miss you all heaps!!!
Alice

You know how when anybody talks about LA and they go "oh, it's not that big" well, they're full of crap. LA is so freaking huge. It takes literally an hour of 70mph driving to get from the Airport to where we are. And the freeways are insane, they drain you quite a bit too because you're forever changing lanes at high speeds in wrong-hand-drive cars but at least I've got a master co-pilot because my directional skills suck so the team effort works pretty well, just a shame the internet directions we printed off don't always......
Venice Beach is pretty cool, it's kinda how you imagine LA beach's to be like but even more so, the culture diversity here is crazy too, not quite 98% white like ole' christchurch... And down hollywood boulevard was kinda crazy, lights and stretch hummers and bling and bang and people dressing up as darth vader for $$ and massive everything... It really is a big bag of neon lights on top of some pretty scummy buildings though, it's so blatantly tourist and dirty... It's also the spot where Borat meets back up with his director, I felt pretty special then..

- Andrew

Me in Breckenridge...

Alice, just turned 25..

Muscle Beach, there were some crazy posers for real..

Just a scene of Venice Beach

No more work!!

2007-03-27T14:27:00.000-07:00

I have finally finished my slog of 5 nights!! It all seems a bit of a blur, I was so tired by the end. On my last three nights we had a party, first one with Helen T, next one with Anna and the crew and the last one was the biggest. We had a HUGE tea trolley with cheese, dips and chocolate. The night went pretty quick and I am glad that the lactulose and charcoal days are gone. I will miss everyone alot. I wrote this poem for them

Working in the ICU
Patients many, nurses few

Doctor in bed one wants some ABs
While bedspace five hides the keys

With 10 turns to do the float's job is never done
When the beep goes off to an arrest she will run

Watch out on Tues, tubes will go
And strumming on the ward round makes it very slow

Geoff loves to show us his machine
We know the Infusrite helps us to wean

Listen up- dont give Gent
And with APC the budget's spent

Beware if the unit is smelling foul
Its Joyce again and her love for the bowel

Helen's baking keeps us full
And Hilmar with his chocolate too

Germaine keeps us on our toes
And with her help our knowledge grows

A pregnancy epidemic happens now and then
We dont know who, we dont know when

Thanks Helen for your work on the roster
Ensuring us a normal life to foster

Nikki grants our holiday wish
Though she knows we will be surely missed

We will never know the difference we've made
To the grieving widow who's worst fear is displayed

When a loving husband's heart is breaking
We gently guide him through the news he has taken

Dont stop doing the precious work that you do
You all deserve a payrise and a medal too

Thankyou all- you are an amazing group
It is sadness I feel as I fly the coup

Breckenridge, Colorado

2007-03-27T08:45:00.000-07:00

So, I'm in Breckenridge, Colorado, and it's cold. It's really ncie and fun though. It's like 3 km in the sky, so the air is mighty thin, helps me get "fit" though!

It snowed the other day and it was like a foot deep, and it was pretty fun, it's 0 humidity, so while it's cold, it's never really miserable. I missed all the -20 weather and these days it's around 2 degrees so that's pretty managable. Also, Americans HATE to be uncomfortable, so it's always warm inside.

And the food. I tried to take some photos but I can't upload them here but the food is amazing in it's extremities. It's also ridiculous what Americans have to be reminded about too. I saw an ad for a car, and the guy drove off a jetty into the water and at the bottom of the screen "do not attempt" but I guess it's because they love to sue over here.

I had a terrible plane trip, because I hate flying, maybe I need to drink more water, I'm not sure really. In America I got pulled over into a seperate customs office to get interrogated, because they thought it was dodgy I was travelling without my wife. Typical American hardass enforcers though. They took me through and I asked why I was in there and they'd say "just wait there" and they wouldn't help me out at all until they actually talked to me, they love to intimidate with their black uniforms and bolbous abdominal regions.

LA airport was crazy, instantly someone gave me a hardcover hari krishna book, and then I got a quarter pounder at the airport (how could I not?) and was served by a sassy mexican girl that sounded like rosi perez (? from white men can't jump) and then found the way to my other terminal, and managed to not buy burger king from the two burger kings on the walk from the start of terminal 4 to gate whatever-it-was.

I got picked up by Tim and his girlfriend Christine (thanks!!!!) and driven to Breckenridge, about an hour away.

I'm going to go to Denver on Thursday I think, get into a backpackers and explore the city, and then on Saturday at 6 am I've got a flight back to LA to meet Alice, and I honestly can't wait! I've missed her so much in the last week, well, half week, but it seems like so long!

We're going out for $2 wings tonight in a different city I think, it should be fun. And tasty. Oh, and the microwave pizzas here are the very best, they also contain approximately 120% of your daily recommended dosage of fat so I share them.....

Oh and did I mention I hate tax? Think that $0.99 burger is actually going to cost $0.99? You'd better think again buddy. And it means I end up with the worst change in my pocket because everything ends up costing $x.43 or something and it's a pain in the ass, but then again, if you're being served, you just round up to the next dollar or so as a tip, they're actually pretty trusting here, you really do just leave the money on the table and leave and they grab it later. Pretty cool really.

Americans are pretty friendly, but I will admit, not very smart.. Not really arrogant though, although I am in Colorado and not LA so maybe I'll experience something different.

Anyway, time to go buy some toilet paper and some lunch for tomorrow from the city-mart supermarket.

Goodbyes

2007-03-18T18:38:00.000-07:00

The fun thing about going away is all the nice goodbye do's you have before you go. So far we've had a great time
Having Indian with Douglas and Raewyn
Having Pizza with Kris, Sam, Paula, Cam and Jane
Having beers with the boys from Cutting Edge (Andrew's work)
Having lazy afternoon drinks with Rach
Having prayers and mud cake with the bible study crew
Signing papers and saying goodbyes to our awesome lawyers
Late night coffee with Sarah and her boys
Cheese with Tina and baby Adelin

We look forward to
An Indian extravaganza with the Browns
Teppanyaki with the Birses
Book club yummies with the nursing girls
Cornish pasties after work with Sue
Hanging out with Mike, Katrina and all the many Sampson children

Perhaps we could delay the trip and just keep having goodbye do's..................

not long

2007-03-09T22:37:00.000-08:00

I'm off on the 22nd, today is the 10th.
I think the only thing left to finalise is the insurance. We decided to pre-book a place in Amsterdam, as it's expensive and popular (why?)
1 week of work left. 6 1/2 years at my job, I can't believe I'm finally finishing, wow it's amazing!

Aspects of research

2007-02-24T04:41:00.000-08:00

It's probably quite obvious, but you want to have an idea about where your going, about the things in the cities that you're going to. I mean, imagine coming to Christchurch and not going to the square and seeing that massive cup/chalice thing made of leaves! You might as well have not even come!

The idea here, is I'm going to research some places, and then write about it. You think that's boring? Well I've got news for you buddy, it's my blog and I'll write what I damn well want to write. Also, if you hate history, well, you're (not) in luck, because this blog isn't just fun, it's edufuncational!

Anyway, Rotterdam. We leave Amsterdam on a boat to Rotterdam despite the fact that it's like an hour on the train, in fact, I just learned, only 80kms. We're taking an easycruise which is a cruise ship, but don't let yourselves think that it's a luxury cruise liner, it's a ship with cabins, and it's about as cheap as normal accomodation, only you're moving. So, we get to Rotterdam at 1pm and then have to leave by 4am the next morning. So we get the afternoon to do what we can in the city, have dinner, wander/drink and then get back.

Here is what Rotterdam looks like:

Holy moly! I didn't know we'd be catching up with Christopher Columbus! Also, did you know that blogger has terrible html when you use it to add images. I had to edit the html because it looked ugly? html should look somewhat sexy but always decent and in control.

Rotterdam has the biggest port in Europe. They do a lot of shipping there I assume. Rotterdam also has a Tax Museum. The population is about 600,000. Apparently there is a reasonable amount of northern African inhabitants that live in or around streets, which also apparently isn't really an issue, despite the fact that there has been recent tension between the native Dutch and Muslims.

The natural centre of the city was bombed away in WWII, so there's a lot of new architecture (sweet) but the city lacks a centralised "feel", or so they say.

Since Rotterdam has like 14 million museums, no doubt we'll have to check a couple out, which ones though I don't know. I'm not personally all that interested in art history, but they have an architecture museum and this one with a really weird website. They also have a zoo with an aquarium, and Alice loves aquariums, so we should probably go there! They also have a massive tall thing, one of those things cities do so they can be better than others. This one is called the Euromast Space Tower, and has been extended a number of times to retain records.

There doesn't actually appear to be a whole lot else in the city, I mean, I'm sure there is, but Rotterdam isn't a massive tourist destination, so a lot of the experiencing we're going to have to do is just that, experiencing the city, which is fine by me, even though as I mentioned the city doesn't really have a centre, so it might not be easy.

Antwerp is no longer the Netherlands, it's Belguim. It's one last stop before Brussels. "Antwerp, the second biggest city in Belgium and also one of the biggest ports in Europe, is the capital of the province of the same name. As well as being at the forefront of the diamond industry, it’s also well known as one of the most up-and-coming fashion design centres in Europe."

This handy guide informs me.. It too has more museums than McDonalds, so maybe we could drop by some of them. We really are going to be spoilt for choice with Museums in Europe, but in these two places, we're only going to have a few hours of day-time, so mabye we might have to skip them just to do some other things, although, in these relatively old cities that aren't real touristy, maybe there won't be all that much else to do, tourist wise. There will always be lots to see, as in, look at but not all that much to do. We might have to find a "trendy" bar and sit and drink the day away, as Antwerp is meant to be quite a fashionable city, although, I'm sure that means that I just won't fit in.

I guess there's not a lot of point trying to work out too much about these cities any more than I've done. I guess when we get there these cities hopefully will be a bit more obvious, and I'm sure that we'll see the bunches of drunks that are on the cruise with us, which will make it interesting too.

Destinations

2007-02-23T04:51:00.000-08:00

We're going to be visiting a lot of places on this trip. I'm going to try to list the main stops we've planned, to see if I can remember:

LA
Colorado
Las Vegas
Tijuana
San Francisco
Miami
Carribbean Islands
New York
London
Amsterdam
Antwerp
Rotterdam
Brussels
Paris?
Madrid
Marakech
Barcelona
Egypt
Whole bunch of European cities on the way from Barcelona to Italy, Czech Republic, Germany, Greece
Hong Kong
Thailand

It's late and I can't think. This list doubles for me so I can keep a track of my preperations too.

plans so far

2007-02-20T13:32:00.000-08:00

So we've had a bit of a hard decision to make. In order to go to Egypt we'd either have to move some flights so we don't cut into our Europe time, or cut into our Europe time. We don't want to cut into our Europe time, so we had to see if we could move the flight from the UK to Bangkok back 2 weeks. Well, it was only possible to move it back 6 weeks, which would mean we'd be spending about an extra 6-8 weeks travelling longer than we had expected. So instead of either of those two, now we're re-issuing our tickets so that instead of going from the UK -> Bangkok, we now go to Hong Kong in between, for two weeks (we hope) so now we get to experience China too! Bonus! Then fly directly into Koh Samui, not the 'kok.

Ejipt

2007-02-18T13:15:00.000-08:00

Guess what. I've been abused that I haven't been updating this thing. Don't get mad at me it's just as much Alice's job too!
Anyway, We've decided to add Egypt to our trip. We still don't know how we're going to get there, well, we have options, but they're all expensive. Thankfully Egypt itself isn't, with accommodation costing less than $6 some places.. We're planning to go there for 2 weeks. Did I also mention we're going to Morocco? That's 2 African countries we'll be going to!

It's only 4 weeks and 3-4 days until I go and then another week until Alice leaves. Wow it's close. There's still a few things to do. We have to choose travel insurance. One option is a cheaper medical only one (probably the potentially most expensive thing that could happen), and then another is a comprehensive one, which is considerably more expensive. Don't know what to choose, but then again, it's insurance, you never know do you?

Also, we're hitting Thailand for 4 weeks, what are we going to do there? Are we going to cruise to Cambodia for a while? I hear the landmines are nice this time of year.. Or will we just relax. Or maybe something else. We really wanted to go to India or China, but the effort and cost might not be worth it, and the time involved to get visa. Stupid countries without easy visa entries! Why do you hate freedom?????

Just for the record

2007-01-15T22:51:00.000-08:00

There is no toplessness at Hooters and we are staying there because its DIRT cheap.

las vegas accomodation

2007-01-15T22:49:00.000-08:00

guess where we're stayin' in las vegas? i'll give you a clue..

Planes, trains and automoblies

2007-01-13T22:14:00.000-08:00

Over the next 6 months this blog will take us through an entirely new place in our lives. Soon we will move out of of lovely house, quit our jobs and take to the road. For us, as a newly married couple it will be the most time we have, and probably will ever have completely together. For the next 2 months we'll be posting about all our preparations, and then in March we are off. We look forward to sharing this journey with all of you.