Andy and Karly's Asia Trip

2007-03-10T13:38:00.000-08:00

Australia!!!!!!!

To anyone who doesn't already know, we are here in Australia! We arrived at the end of December after flying from Thailand on the 20th. Before we go on, a quick summary of our travels:

Best Country: Vietnam
Worst Country: India
Best Moment: Proposing to Karly at Taj Mahal
Worst Moment: 24hr bus ride from Shanghai to Beijing (it was suppose to take 13hrs!)

Heres a link to the best photos from our trip. We've tried to choose the real arty ones:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=2AbtGjFi0ZMWKh

So now onto our life in Oz. We have been staying with Karly's parents for the last 2 months. They live in a place called Green Valley, which is about an hour away from the centre of Sydney. We spent Christmas day having a traditional Aussie meal, of BBQ turkey and some very nice seafood. Andy's friend Bryan was also visiting from the UK, and he stayed with us over Christmas. Andys travelling beard is no more. Karly made him shave it off!

On New Years Eve we went into Sydney to watch the fireworks on the Harbour. The fireworks were pretty impressive, but the crowds were just too big (we were nearly crushed by all the drunken Aussies). Andy's Uni friend Karina, also came out to see the Ashes, so we met up with her and Tom for a drink. As a sporting nation, Andy thinks that the Aussies are very bad winners, they brag and boast even when they have completely humiliated the English cricket team..............very unsporting.

We bought Karly's engagement ring (the proper expensive one) in February. It looks near identical to the cheaper one Andy originally bought, so Andy doesn't see the point in wasting all that money, but for some reason Karly wanted a real one.

A lot of Karly's friends have started having babies. Since we've been here we've met a few new additions. So far Oliver and Kate, with Karly's sister, Rachael, just about to give birth as well. Karly's Aunty also gave birth to very premature twins Andrew and Belinda. Unfortunately poor little Andrew only survived 3 weeks and recently passed away. But Belinda is doing OK at the moment and has put on 150grams in four weeks! She now weighs a tiny 680grams. There are also a few 30ths going on with Karlys brother-in-law, Dave, having a BBQ (and a game of football in the park), and Karly's sisters friend (also called Rachel) having a very elaborate 1920s themed party.

We are now both working in the centre of Sydney, in temping jobs. Karly is working for the Ministry of Sound in the dept that collects royalties. Andy is working for a property development company, where he is packing archive boxes. Its fair to say that Karly's job is probably the more exciting of the two...........

We have recently moved out of Karlys parents place, and are now renting a room in a shared flat in the centre of the city (right in the heart of China Town). We are sharing with 3 Irish people and 1 French student. The real spooky thing about the flat is that it is near identical to the shared flat that Andy had in Croydon (the one he lived in with Bryan, Dawson etc.). For anyone who ever visited Andys old flat, you'll know what that means! Although Karly would like to point our that this one is actually clean.

Anyway, we are due to keep working here until around beginning June. We'll then take a few weeks off to go travelling around Oz to visit a few people, before flying back to England at the beginning of July.

Keep in touch, see you all soon
Andy and Karly

P.S. Here are some photos of our time in Oz so far:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=2AbtGjFi0ZMWKw

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2006-12-18T00:40:00.000-08:00

Bangkok.

We continued our time in Koh Phangan, by sitting on the beach for 5 days doing nothing. We didn't visit anywhere, do anything, and we only left our resort once to go into town for dinner. Absolutely brilliant!

Every restaurant in town shows DVD films while you have dinner, and surprise surprise the film that we watched was 'The Beach'. Like 'Octopussy' in India and 'The Man with the Golden Gun' in Phuket, these places latch onto any film that was made there and show it again, and again, and again.

On Friday we took a 4 hour boat trip, then an 11 hour overnight bus trip to get to Bangkok. We arrived at 5am in the morning and hadn't booked anywhere to stay. So Karly sat in McDonalds with the bags, while Andy wandered around looking for a hotel (while trying to avoid the very nice ladies offering him massages).

We're staying near the Khao San road. This is the heart of backpacker territory, and there are hundreds of stupid white westerners with dreadlocks and guitars. This really seems to be a 24 hour place, as even at 5am in the morning when we arrived there were people sitting in bars playing pool and drinking beer.

We haven't done much yet. On Saturday, we were too tired because of the journey, so we slept most of the day, and then went to the cinema to see Casino Royale. For about 3.50 pounds we were able to watch it in the VIP cinema. This only has about 20 seats, they serve beer while you watch the film, and the chairs are so comfortable that you could easily just fall asleep in them. If you ever come to Bangkok, we highly recommend it.

On Sunday we visited the Grande Palace, where the King lives. In the same grounds is the Emerald Buddha. This was very impressive, but unfortunately the batteries on our camera ran out just as we arrived, so we didn't really take any good photos. We then went and saw a giant golden Buddha. This is about 50 meters long and laying down on it's side. It really is the biggest Buddha we've ever seen.............it had massive feet.

Last night we went to an area called Pat Pong Road. Here we sat in an Irish pub (again) and watched some football (while Andy drank some cider). The Pat Pong road has 2 main industries. The first is a big trade in fake goods (watches, handbags, DVDs etc.) and the second involves Ping Pong balls. We didn't buy either.

We are just going to finish our time in Bangkok by doing some shopping, and then we fly out of here on Wednesday to Sydney.

On our next blog entry, we'll write a summary of the highs and lows of the trip (don't want to write it yet, in case Bangkok turns out to be one of them!).

If anyones interested, we'll continue to write the blog for the next couple of weeks, so that we can cover Christmas and the New year in Sydney. There are a couple of friends from the UK coming over (Bryan and Karina), and we should get some good photos of new years eve at Sydney harbour bridge.

After that we'll probably stop the blog, as we'll have temp jobs and our lives will be boring again!
Goodbye travels, it's been fun.

Heres the photos of above:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=2AbtGjFi0ZMWKD

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2006-12-09T01:55:00.000-08:00

Ko Samui, Ko Phangan, Ko jak

We were very busy on our last few days on Phuket. On Monday we hired a car and drove around the island, where we discovered that Phuket wasn't at all like Patong! Generally Phuket seemed more developed and classy than other places we've been so far (whereas Patong just seemed to be full of neon signs, seedy bars and sex tourists). The rest of Phuket island seemed bearable and you can really understand why it's so touristy, as all the beaches are beautiful with lovely clean sand and bright turquoise water.

We went on a day cruise to Koh Phi Phi. This is where the movie 'The Beach' was filmed. The brochure for the tour we went on said that we would spend an hour snorkeling in Maya Bay (where the majority of the filming was done). However once we were on the boat we discovered that they had changed the itinerary without actually changing what they advertised in the brochure. So instead of stopping to snorkel the boat just slowed down as we went past the beach (from quite far away) so that we could take photos. Karly complained to the tour guide but all she got was some excuse about how it was the travel agent who sold us the tours fault and a patronising pat on the back. Karly did eventually get to go snorkeling. The snorkeling was good and Koh Phi Phi was very picturesque but we were still annoyed that we didn't get to do what we had paid for.

After somehow managing to spend a whole week in Phuket we decided it was time to leave. We headed to the east coast of Thailand and the islands in the Gulf of Thailand. Our first stop was Koh Samui. This is another place full of flash hotels and package tourists so we had alot of hotel envy, especially as we were staying in a cheapish hotel.

We arrived in the middle of a huge storm and woke the next morning to discover the road outside our hotel was flooded. Sarah and Gubby (the two Irish girls we met in Vietnam) met up with us so that Sarah and Karly could have a combined birthday bash. We went to Tesco (yes they have Tesco here and it rains alot, it's just like being back in the UK.) and bought some doughnuts, candles, beer and crisps/chips so that we could kick off the evening with a little party in our room. We then went for dinner and onto an Irish pub so Andy could have cider on tap and the girls would feel at home.

We spent the rest of our time just sitting on the beach. Once the rain cleared up it was quite nice. The water was lovely and there was quite a bit of good surf.

After three days on Koh samui we decided to head for Koh Phangan. It's the next island along and supposedly more backpackerish, so hopefully cheaper. So that is where we are now. We've found a little hut on the beach that Andy managed to get for a fifth of what they normally charge (his negotiating skills are coming along quite well). The weather hasn't been great so far but hopefully it will clear up................though we have been treated to a very nice sunset.

Last weeks photo link didn't seem to work, so if you try it now it should be ok.

And here are this weeks photos.....

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2006-11-30T23:35:00.000-08:00

Karlys Birthday, 007 and the best Elephant in the world!

On our last few days in Chiang Mai we tried to cram as much touristy things in as possible. We visited a Buddhist temple on one day and then booked a jam packed day of sight seeing on the next. This included a ride on a bamboo raft, a trip on an Ox Cart, a visit to an Orchid farm, a visit to a Butterfly farm and (the best bit) an Elephant show.

Neither Andy or Karly had ever seen an Elephant show before (as they probably wouldn't really be allowed in the UK or Oz) but it was absolutely brilliant! Amongst other things the elephants balanced on two legs, danced to music, gave a 'thai massage' to a member of the crowd and even painted a picture! We were also allowed to ride them for a bit, but the best part was that the elephants played football. One elephant in particular was able to grip a football in his trunk, throw it into the air and then volley it (without it touching the ground) across the field! Andy thinks that this is perhaps the best thing he has ever seen in his life.........and probably ever will.

In the evening we met up with Gubby and Sarah (the 2 Irish girls we first met when Kayode came to visit us in Vietnam). As they were doing roughly the same journey as us, we knew we'd be able to catch up with them at some point. All together we visited the local night market, and had some Pad Thai. We then went for a drink in a bar run by Lady-boys, while watching a few Thai Kick boxing fights (which were blatantly over acted for the tourists benefit!).

After leaving the girls and Chiang Mai, we flew down to Phuket. This is an island just off the coast of mainland Thailand, and it is truly unlike any other place we have seen so far on our trip. The best way to describe it, is to say that it's worse then Tenerife (for the Brits) or Surfers Paradise in schoolies week (for the Aussies). It is cheap, tacky, full of drunk English people and sex tourists. And it seems to have more Lady-Boys then we've ever seen before. The island itself was quite badly hit by the Asian Tsunami but apart from a few signs about the nearest evacuation point, you would never be able to tell. It is by far the most over developed place we have been on this trip.

On the 1st December Karly celebrated her 28th birthday, so to celebrate we went out for a nice meal and a few drinks. The meal consisted of a large seafood platter and buffet all for about 8 pounds.........bargain! And Karly had her first glass of wine for a very long time (as most places here are either too expensive or don't sell wine).

After dinner we went for a walk along the main touristy stretch in Phuket. This is a mass of neon signs advertising Irish themed pubs, strip clubs and Lady-Boy cabaret shows. It was Karlys idea to go there, not Andy's.

Our first stop was to a bar that is ring side of a Thai Kick boxing ring. Here we watched some more over-acted fake fights (just for the tourists benefit) while drinking cocktails. After this we went to a bar called 'Cocktails and Dreams' (which Karly tells Andy is the name of the bar from the film 'Cocktail'). This was a bar run by Lady-Boys (our 2nd one now!), which had a cabaret show every 15 minutes.

Most of the lady-boys in the place we actually very good imitations of women (some were very attractive). However, the first lady-boy that approached us wasn't perhaps the hardest to tell 'she' was actually a 'he'. See the photo to decide for yourself.

After the cabaret show, we then went to another bar to 'people watch' the numerous weirdo's walking past (usually old fat white men with young attractive Thai girls.........or boys).

Today we went to see some islands off Phuket, called Phang Nga. The James Bond film, The Man with the Golden Gun, was filmed here in 1974. The main island that we visited today was where the baddie (Mr Scaramanga) lived. We saw the beach where James Bonds plane blew up, the stairs where JB nearly shots Nik-Nak, and the massive rock where a giant sunreflector thingy comes out of the top. Brilliant...........well Andy thought so, but Karly didn't seem that interested.

Tomorrow we have hired a car and are going to drive around Phuket a bit more to explore, as the Taxis here are very expensive.

Heres the photos of above (there's quite a few of elephants........and Karly):

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2006-11-25T20:24:00.000-08:00

Lovely Westernised Thailand.

This last week has perhaps been the most boring and tedious week we have had so far in the trip. We spent 3 solid days travelling from Laos to Thailand.

The first 2 days were spent travelling on a slow river boat (which was very overloaded with boxes, food, people etc.) up the river towards the Thailand border. This boat was relatively comfortable (it had a toilet at least) and the views were quite spectacular. Getting on and off the boat was quite tricky (especially with backpacks) because it pulls up along side another boat that is five boats away from the shore. They then connect all of the boats with planks so you have to climb on and off boats and walk planks, all the while carrying an extremely heavy backpack. On one occasion this was all a bit much for Karly and she fell off. Luckily it was the last plank so she only got her shoes wet but she strained quite a few muscles. On the first night we stopped off at a small village to sleep. Unfortunately this village was in the middle of no-where and the Guest house owners knew it (hence they tried to charge us $8-$10 for a room where everywhere else charges $3-$4 for a similar room). Karly had an argument with a very rude guest house owner.

All in all, we think that this sums Laos up. The facilities are very basic (which we didn't mind too much, as it was nice to try and do "authentic" backpacking for once), and yet the prices charged are ridiculously expensive compared to other parts of South East Asia we have visited. Most of the over charging is purely down to the lack of competition, so tourists are pretty much forced to pay the over inflated prices......................Though obviously compared to Western prices it's still very cheap.

We then crossed over the Laos - Thailand border. Here we tasted our first bit of Westernisation for a long time. Thailand has ATMs! Laos didn't have any ATMs that accept international cards (so we used travellers cheques instead), whereas Thailand is full of them!

After a quick meal, we got on a mini-bus for the 6 hour journey to Chiang Mai. This is Thailands 2nd largest city (after Bangkok). We've been here 2 days now and we've done very little, apart from wander around the local market, check emails, post some stuff back to England and watch a bit of footie on ESPN. On a brighter note we did have our first McDonalds for about 2 months. We think were going to like Thailand.......

Oh yes and Karly has just finished a Thai cookery class. It was lots of fun and very informative. The food was great all though the noodles in her pad thai stuck together, her green curry needed to be a little thicker and her chicken salad was a little too dry. But she's sure with a bit more practice the dishes will get better. So from now on if you're invited around to Karly and Andy's for dinner you can pretty much guarantee Thai will be on the menu (or maybe just sausages and mash).

On wednesday we are flying to Phuket in the South of Thailand. We couldn't face the 24 hour bus journey to get there!

Heres the link to the photos (apologies they are quite boring, but this was a very boring week of travelling!):

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=2AbtGjFi0ZMWI4

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2006-11-19T21:56:00.000-08:00

Laos. Not much to say really.

Although we've been in Laos for nearly two weeks, we haven't done much at all. After leaving Don Det (the island in the Mekong where we ate pig) we travelled up to the capital of Laos, called Vientiane.

There's not much to do in Vientiane, in fact as capital cities go, its quite small and boring. As a result, we only stayed there for one night, had dinner then left the next day.

We then took a 6 hour bus journey to a place called Vang Vieng. This is a very relaxed backpacker town, where they serve Pie & chips, and even have a discotheque! But Vang Viengs main claim to fame is the Tubing. This basically involves sitting on an inner tube (from the wheel of a lorry) and floating down the Mekong river for 3 hours. Along the way are various places to stop, have beer and dive into the river using rope swings etc. So we stopped and bought a beer, and had a thoroughly relaxing time just floating down stream.

After 2 days in Vang Vieng we got another bus (this time 7 hours) to a place called Luang Prabang. This is a little picturesque town, that has lots of nice old buildings, so its a UNESCO World Heritage site. We are staying in a hotel that is right next to the river, but our view is obstructed by trees so basically all we can see is the road.

Every night there's a market, which it seems is largely just for tourists (as it only sells souvenirs etc.). We have tried to haggle with the sellers over a couple of things, but they all seem to have fixed there prices pretty much the same, so its difficult to haggle properly.

We've also noticed that all shops in Laos seem to have a bit of a scam going with the exchange rates. Everyone excepts US dollars or Laos Kip, and the exchange rate between the two is 9,500 kip to the dollar. However, depending upon where you shop they seem to change the rules so that when you pay the bill there are only about 9,000 kip to the dollar (meaning you have to pay more), but when you get the change back they use the exchange rate of 10,000 (so you get less back). Very annoying.

One thing going for Laos, it has nice weather.

Tomorrow we're leaving for the border with Thailand, on a 2 day boat journey, and we've just realised today that we only have a month left before we fly to Oz!

Here's the photos of above:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=2AbtGjFi0ZMWIp

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2006-11-14T01:41:00.000-08:00

The Silence of the Pigs.............

Still in Cambodia, we dragged ourselves away from the beach and headed back to Phnom Penh, where we hired a tuk-tuk for the day. We started with a visit to the Killing Fields, this is where the Khmer Rouge executed and buried 17000 people in the late 70's. They've exhumed a lot of the bodies now, so there are lots of big empty pits with signs telling you how many people were found there (and whether they were men, women or children). There are also signs pointing out what the different trees were used for, whether it was to hang a megaphone that played music to drown out the cries of the people being killed, or if it was used to bash young children to death against (so that they didn't waist precious bullets). There's also a big glass memorial that holds 8000 of the exhumed skulls. This was a particularly horrible site.

As if the Killing Fields weren't enough gruesome history for one day, we then went to the S21 museum. This was a high school that the Khmer Rouge turned into a prison. You can see what the cells and interrogation (torture) rooms were like. While another section of the museum has the mug shots of many of the prisoners that were kept there before being transported to the killing fields. There are so many pictures and lots of them were of children.

Towards the end of the museum was a room that had information on the leaders of the Khmer Rouge. Their pictures had been graffitied over and Pol Pots had actually been removed. There was a knife mark where his eyes probably would have been, but after seeing the Killing Fields and the S21 museum, we can completely understand why.

With the horrific sites and a bit of shopping out of the way we made like Brad and Angelina and headed for one of the local orphanages. We took a 50kg bag of rice and a football. The kids loved the football but weren't too fussed about the rice, although it will apparently feed all 47 of them (and 6 volunteers) for 2 and a half days. Andy joined in the game of football while Karly played with some toddlers. Karly really had to confront her germ issues when one snotty nose kid wet his pants and then wanted her to pick him up. You can't say no to an orphan who wants to be picked up. He then coughed all over her. But he was cute. Some of the boys put Andy to shame while playing keep ups with the football. Andy could barely do 2 while one boy, who was about 8, could do 87 (with no shoes on).

The next day we headed off on our two day journey to Laos. The first day was awful. Our seats were in the back row of a bus where there were 5 seats. However, there were 7 people in our row, the aircon didn't blow in our direction and the road was one of the worst we've ever been on (it was dirt track, full of pot holes). We spent one night in a hotel in the middle of nowhere before continuing our journey.

The next morning we were put on a rather unstable boat full of locals, motorbikes and god knows what else and sent across the Mekong. We were then put in a van and driven to the border. At the Cambodian border we had to pay the officials $1 for each of our passports. Apparently this was to keep their office supplied with paper and pens. We then had to walk through no-mans-land to the Laos border where we had to pay a dollar each again. But this time it was for ink for the stamp. We were then collected by another van that took us to another van that took us to another van that took us to a boat and the boat eventually took us to where we wanted to go.

So we somehow arrived at Don Det which is one of the Four Thousand Islands in the Mekong River in the south of Laos. We found a hut on the river bank and settled in for a few days. The island didn't have any electricity so the whole experience was very rustic. The were no fans (let alone air conditioning) and there was only cold water! But it didn't take us to long to come to terms with things and relax into the laid back way of life. We basically spent four days laying in hammocks waiting for the amazing sunsets. And we spent our evenings laying in our hammocks chatting by candlelight with our neighbours (a couple from Guernsey in the UK).

We did have one productive day where we visited the largest waterfall in South East Asia (looked more like a rapid than a waterfall) and then rushed back to our guesthouse to see the slaughter of the pig we would be having for dinner. Mr B, the owner of our guesthouse, had been to market the day before and bought a pig and then sold us all tickets for the BBQ. Andy watched the slaughter while Karly opted to just listen to the pigs squeals from our hut. Basically they killed it, shaved it, gutted it, marinated it, chucked it on the barbie and then we ate it. Andy's had a funny tummy ever since. No one else seems to have been affected so maybe it wasn't the pig (although he did try some of the tongue, which no else had, so it was probably that).

So we've now left the island and are sitting in a town in the middle of nowhere waiting for a night bus to take us to the capital of Laos.

Here's the photos of above. WARNING: Some of these photos are very graphic and gory, so if you are easily upset or offended then don't look at them!

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2006-11-04T22:18:00.000-08:00

Finally a sunset....

It's taken over 3 and a half months but finally we have seen a truly spectacular sunset! We're in Sihanouk Ville on the south coast of Cambodia and the sun sets over the water creating a very colourful ocean and sky. Well at least it was on the first day, every day since then it's been a little hazy and overcast which really ruins it.

So we've been here nearly a week now and haven't really done anything except lounge around on the beach. Um....... Karly's had a manicure and pedicure, we've done alot of reading, we've been constantly harassed by cute and cheeky children selling jewelry and fruit, we've had a few drinks with other travelers, eaten lots or seafood and um.... well that's it really. Not much else to write about. But that should be about enough to make you jealous as you read this from work.

Here's the photos.......

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2006-10-29T04:57:00.000-08:00

Angkor What?

We are now in Cambodia. We spent our first day in Phnom Penh, where we visited the Silver Pagoda. This is named after the silver tiles that line the floor (not too impressive now as the tiles are mainly covered with rugs so people don't walk on them). More notable is the Buddha statue that is decorated with lots of diamonds, the largest being 25 carets! Karly will be using this as the benchmark for her proper engagement ring when she finally gets it.

We took an interesting bus ride from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap in the north west of the country. We got to see lots of green countryside and cars that were overloaded with people. Our favourite was a van packed with people on the inside. There were a few motorbikes strapped upright to the roof and, just to squeeze a few more people in, they were sitting on the motor bikes!

Siem Reap is the tourist capital of Cambodia due to it being the home of Angkor Wat. These are temples that were built about a thousand years ago and are one of the 7 man made wonders of the world (we would have been a little more impressed if we hadn't already seen the Taj Mahal and the Great Wall of China). Don't get us wrong they are amazing and well worth a look, but they come third in our 'man made wonders of the world sites that we've visited' rankings.

The temples are spread over a large area so we hired a tuk tuk (check out the photo of Andy and our driver Luk). We think two males holding hands here is a common thing, though it still took Andy by surprise when Luk starting grabbing his arm. For two and a half days we did some hard core temple exploring. It was really hard work, as it was very hot and there are lots of stairs, most of which have signs at the bottom saying 'climb at your own risk' (which is reassuring). It was usually fine going up, a bit like rock climbing, but coming down was a bit nerve racking. Andy didn't climb the very tall stairs.

The main temple, called Angkor Wat, is impressive because of it's size, while the next biggest one has hundreds of huge faces sculptured into the stones. However, due to the extensive restoration work done on these two sites they had a bit of a sterile feel to them. Our favourite sites were actually the smaller ones that haven't had as much restoration work, so they have lots of greenery on them and huge tree roots overtaking them. Andy's favourite was the site that was used for the filming of Tomb Raider while Karly preferred a site that had lots of butterflies.

Now that we're all templed out we're going to head down to the beach on the south coast for a well deserved rest.

We took 250 photos but we'll only put a few on the web. Here are our favourites.....

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2006-10-23T05:07:00.000-07:00

Goodbye Kayode, Goodbye Vietnam

We spent our last few days with Kayode doing cheery things like visiting War Museums. The War Remnants Museum was a sobering look at the Vietnam War with lots of photos and stories (and Agent Orange affected fetus' in jars) about the terrible atrocities that happened here. It's the kind of museum you don't want to talk about much after you leave. God only knows how they actually coped with the war when we were so disturbed by the museum. A touch lighter on the old emotions was the Reunification Palace. This was built in 1966 as a place for South Vietnams President to live. Karly thinks the architect went to the Mike Brady School of Architecture (a joke lost on Andy and Kayode as they weren't exposed to as much American culture as she was). Inside the first few floors were pretty boring with lots of 60's looking office furniture but when you got to the top two floors you could tell the President was a bit of a party animal as he had a gambling room and he'd converted the roof terrace into a disco.

We decided that we needed to do something constructive on Kayode's last day so we visited the Caidai Great Temple. Caidoism is the Vietnamese sect that was founded in the 1920's. It's a combination of a few different religions and philosophies and the temple is pretty psychedelic. We also visited the Cu Chi Tunnels. Like the last lot of tunnels we visited these were used during the war by the Northern Vietnamese. These ones were even smaller than the ones we visited before. You had to bend down the entire time you were in there. They were very claustrophobic. Andy didn't go in them.

After the tunnels Andy and Kayode decided to fire some machine guns! Andy fired an M16 and Kayode fired an AK47. As both of them wear glasses, neither were sure if they actually hit the targets they were aiming at.

We spent Kayode's last night having drinks and dinner with the people we have met along the way. It was a nice farewell but not to drunken as everyone (except us) had early flights or busses the next day.

Now that it's just the two of us again we're back to the lazy travelers who don't socialise much and don't start the day till after lunch. We decided we needed to wind down a bit so we headed to Mui Ne Beach on the south east coast. It was perfect because it's only 4 hours away and we're getting sick of long journeys. However, following the trend of never really having an uneventful journey the bus was pulled over for speeding and then it broke down. We had to wait for them to pull the engine apart and put it back together again. Eight hours later we arrived at our destination. We found a lovely little bungalow right on the beach and just ate seafood and read for three days.

The only time we left our sun beds in Mui Ne was when we visited the Red Sand Dunes. As we're getting bored with tours that leave really early and make you stop at places you don't want to stop at we decided to hire two motor bikes (with drivers of course) and do our own thing. Mums - obviously we wore leathers, helmets and proper shoes not the shorts, t-shirts, flip flops/thongs and baseball caps you see in the photos. Once at the sand dunes we were ambushed by at least 20 kids all trying to get us to hire there sand sleds for whatever price we wanted to pay. We ended up choosing two little boys and then recieved a bit of bad language from some of the kids we didn't choose (although he could have been calling out to a friend. Phuc Yu is a common name here). Our two little sand sleders took us to what they said was the best hill and gave us sand sledding instructions. It was fun but the walk back up the hill was exhausting so we only did it a couple of times. We thanked the kids and Andy paid them. They then bullied Andy into handing over more money even though they originally said that their sleds cost whatever we wanted to pay. Finally rid of the kids we sat down and got ready to watch the sun set. This was about the time the wind picked up and we were blasted with red sand. Watching the sun set was very beautiful, but it was also very uncomfortable. Although we got some good photos and that's the main thing.

We're back in Saigon now but tonight is our last night in Vietnam as we leave for Cambodia tomorrow. Karly has just finished reading a book about the war in Cambodia called 'First They Killed My Father' so we imagine there will be lots of light hearted things to see there aswell.

Anyway heres the pictures:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=2AbtGjFi0ZMWHm

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2006-10-14T00:35:00.000-07:00

Nha Trang. Do you want to be in my gang?

After all of the stress we've been under lately we decided it was time for a bit of r&r so we headed to the beach side resort of Nha Trang. It has a really nice beach and plenty of night life. Before arriving in Nha Trang we met up with a couple of Irish girls (Gubby and Sarah) and a guy from east London (Steve). So we basically all hung out together in Nha Trang and were joined by a guy called Ben from Kingston, London. Everyone had the same idea of spending the days relaxing on the beach and a couple of quiet drinks in the evening. However the combination of people meant that the nights were quite drunkard so we didn't get to the beach until the afternoon and then we'd have showers and hit the town again. So basically it was like a holiday in Tenerife. Andy and Karly were the biggest light weights in the group getting home between 3am and 4am each morning while Kayode isn't old and married like us so he stayed out even later then us.

On our first day on the beach some kids challenged Andy and Kayode to a game of football. These kids were selling postcards so the deal was if the kids won, each of the men on Andy's team had to buy a pack of postcards. If the men won they got the postcards for free. The kids obviously won 3 - 0 (they were hustlers and were used to playing bare foot in the sand and they're not 30). The kid that was marking Andy only came up to his waist. After this first meeting on the beach we thought that would be the last we saw of these kids as they'd go off to hustle someone else. But no, they followed us around for the next 4 days hassling us. They were quite cute (the younger ones), very cheeky and spoke great English but got a little annoying at times. Nha Trang has a big problem with pedophiles (ie Gary Glitter) because there are so many of these kids trying to make some money on the beach from tourists. It's really heart breaking as these kids are so sweet. A Canadian Vietnamese woman has set up a bar where all the money goes towards helping the kids so they're not so desperate. It has a school out the back and they get clothes and stuff for them.

Nha Trang wasn't just all drinking and kids annoying us, we also went to some mud baths. First you sit in a bath full of mud, then you bake in the sun, then you shower it off with some high pressure water before sitting in a bath of hot spring water. They also had a swimming pool that was 38 degrees. It was like taking a hot bath but, as the outside temperature was also quite hot, it was all a bit too much after a while. By the end of all these treatments our skin felt great.

We have just arrived in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon). We're hoping to have a quiet few days here before Kayode flies back home but the Irish girls arrive on Monday so we don't know if that's going to happen.

Anyway here's the link to the photos. There's not that many as we didn't take our camera out at night as Nha Trang is the kind of place you get mugged by working girls (it happened to one of the Irish girls) and we didn't really do much in the day to take photos of:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=2AbtGjFi0ZMWHV

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2006-10-08T02:33:00.000-07:00

Triple H (Hanoi, Hue and Hoi An)

Now that Kayode is here we have started to do a few touristy things. In Hanoi we went to visit the Temple of Literature. This had lots of nice old buildings dedicated to Confucius and other great blokes (most of who seemed to be Chinese not Vietnamese).
We also went to visit the oldest prison in Hanoi, nicknamed the Hanoi Hilton (by the American pilots kept there during the Vietnam war).

The prison was originally built by the French, when they ruled Vietnam, so it had a lot of exhibits about how the French tortured and killed Vietnamese freedom fighters, often by guillotine. The part about the American pilots was very interesting. The museum exhibit made their stay in the Hanoi Hilton sound more like a holiday camp then prison (they were allowed to play guitar, volleyball, get presents from home etc.).

After Hanoi we got an overnight train to a place called Hue. It had just suffered from a Typhoon, so a lot of trees were blown over and the smaller houses had no roofs left. Apparently 6 people died in Hue so it was probably a good thing that we arrived late!

In Hue we went to visit a Citadel. This was pretty much a smaller version of the Forbidden City in China, so it was quite difficult for us to get that excited about it (though Kayode seemed to like it).

The following day we went on a coach tour around the DMZ (The Demilitarised Zone). This was the area that separated the North and South of Vietnam, so it had some of the biggest battles during the Vietnam war. The tour included a visit to part of the Ho Chi Minh trail. This was a trail in the jungle that the VC used as a supply route stretching hundreds of miles down the country. In an effort to stop the supply route the Americans used the chemical Agent Orange to destroy the jungle foliage, so the VC couldn't hide from the bombers etc.

Large parts of the area still had little or no vegetation today, 30 years after the war. And our Vietnamese tour guide, also told us that Agent Orange (which 30 years ago was thought not to harm people) actually causes cancer and births defects. He said that there are estimated to be about 8 million Vietnamese still suffering from the side effects even today, so it's still a massive problem in certain parts of the country. God bless America!!!!!!!!

We also visited a war museum at Kah San (yes like the Cold Chisel song), where we saw Choppers, Tanks and Guns. Andy liked this a lot, but Karly didn't seem that bothered. We then visited some actual tunnels that the VC used to live in during the Vietnam war. At one point over 200 VC soldiers (including women and kids) lived in very small tunnels. Karly and Kayode actually went down into the tunnels, but Andy was a big girl and couldn't face it. Instead he listened to the tour guide, as he told how his home village was burnt to the ground by American bombs.

Even after all the bad things that have happened to this country, you might expect the Vietnamese people to hold a slight grudge, but everyone here seems very friendly and welcoming (even to American tourists).

After Hue we went onto a place called Hoi An. The main attraction here was a ruined temple, called My Son. It was supposed to be the best preserved temple ruins in Vietnam, but largely it was just a pile of bricks. The most preserved buildings were blown up by the Americans during the war, as the VC were using them to hide in. It even had a massive crater where one of the bombs fell.

On the way back from the temple we were waiting for our boat, when a large group of Vietnamese kids crowded around us. They all seemed to find Kayode very interesting, with one little girl chasing him around with a stick! We don't think they often see black men in Vietnam.

Here are the pictures from above:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=2AbtGjFi0ZMWGz

And here are the pictures from our last blog entry that we couldn't get to work:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=2AbtGjFi0ZMWHE

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2006-10-03T03:56:00.000-07:00

Hip Hip Hanoi

We flew into Vietnam last Tuesday and things didn't get off to a great start. The taxi driver tried to scam us by taking us to his mates hotel and trying to pass it off as the one we booked into. Luckily we'd read about the scam already so we knew what was going on. That incident aside we're really liking Hanoi. The people are friendly, there's lots of trendy cafe's and it's cheap.

The traffic is absolutely crazy. In the few days we're been here we're seen a father and son knocked off their bike and our taxi hit another bike. It's a huge effort to cross the road. You just have to step out onto the road and walk and millions of motor bikes navigate there way around you. We're getting the hang of it.

We went on a three day cruise around Halong Bay. Which is a UNESCO World Heritage site made up of limestone mountains jutting out of the water. It was very spectacular. We spent the first day looking in some caves and swimming and then we slept on the boat. The next day we went swimming off Monkey Island which obviously has heaps of monkeys on it. They were extremely cheeky and would steel anything they could but they seemed to prefer beer. Apparently they bite so we kept our distance. We spent the second night in a hotel on an island. This is where we bonded with our tour group which consisted of some Canadians, Australians, a French guy, a gay Irish guy and the Vietnamese rent boy he'd hired for the weekend and our lovely Vietnamese tour guide. The Canadians we're obsessed with getting on the 'hard liquor' so we ended up drinking Vodka (aswell as some beers). It was a fun night that ended with some Karaoke.

Karly was quite hung over the next day but Andy had one of the worst hang overs he has ever had. This was probably the worst day to be hung over as we had a very bumpy bus ride followed by a boat ride and then a four hour bus journey back to Hanoi. He was sick all the way. But the rest of the group was very supportive and didn't seem to mind him spewing in a bag on the bus for four hours.

Andy's friend Kayode has arrived and will be spending the next two and a half weeks with us (if he can put up with us!).

We haven't managed to put any photos on yet. Hopefully we can do it shortly.

Tonight we are leaving Hanoi and getting a sleeper train to Hue. Hue has just suffered a large storm so we might not be staying there too long, as there may not be very much left to look at.

2006-09-24T20:34:00.000-07:00

The Great Wall, Shaolin Monks and dodgy Dutchmen.

We've been in Beijing just over a week now and we're only just starting to understand how to cross the road. The driving here is terrible. Possibly worse than India.

We've had quite a productive week. We went to the cinema to watch the newest Chinese blockbuster, called 'The Banquet'. It was about an Emperor of China, his nephew (who is the rightful heir to the kingdom), and the Empress marrying the bloke who killed her husband. It has lots of cool fighting scenes and loads of beautiful scenery. The first 90 minutes are brilliant (with the last 15 mins being a bit of a let down), but we highly recommend seeing it. Though not sure it'll come out in Oz or England.

The following day we went to see the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. The Forbidden City is where a few of the Chinese Emperors lived during the Ming and the Qing Dynasties. Its called the Forbidden City because it was off limits to the public for over 500 years. It was ok, but just a little boring after a while. The main large building in the middle of the City was covered up with scaffolding and green sheets, so it lost a little of its mystique.

Next to the City is Tiananmen Square. This is the largest public square in the world, so it was very large indeed. Generally it was also quite boring, with loads of people just standing around (though we imagine it would be considerably less boring with Tanks driving around). It has a massive picture of Chairman Mao, and some chinese writing (which apparently says something like Chinese people forever).

One interesting thing about the Square, is that there were a lot of Uniformed Policemen on guard, and each one of them had a fire extinguisher next to him. Andy reckons that the only possible reason that they all have fire extinguishers is to put out people who set themselves on fire as a protest (which has happened before in the square). As there isnt really anything else that could catch fire, as its all concrete.

Besides the Policemen, the square also had a nice floral display which they are getting ready for the Olympics in 2008. The mascots are, as far as we could tell, going to be 5 Panda bears doing various Olympic sports (such as swimming, weightlifting etc.). Very cute........

In the evening we went to a local Food market. Although we only ate food that was relatively normal (like beef kebabs etc.), there was a large selection of animals and insects to eat. Among them were Scorpions, Crickets, SeaHorses and other insect looking things. We weren't sure if these were largely for show (for the tourists), or if anyone was actually eating them.

To try to be a bit healthy we hired two bikes to ride around a special route (taken from the Lonely Planet). While we saw a few nice sights, the whole experience was a little unnerving because of the erratic driving in Beijing. When on the big roads we had to really concentrate to make sure we didn't end up under a bus! But on the roads that had bike lanes it was quite safe, and a rather nice way to get about town.

The next day we went to visit the Great Wall of China, in a place called Mutianyu. We were dropped off at the visitor car park, and then had to walk about 30 mins to reach the wall. It was quite a hard walk up the hill, but once we got to the top the views were spectacular. We then stopped half way along the wall and had lunch (from a packed lunch that we brought with us, just like at school). The only thing that slightly spoilt the peaceful atmosphere was some loud Americans, who could be heard from miles away.

On Saturday we did a bit of shopping, and Andy really got into haggling with the locals. In the evening we then went to a bar to watch the football where, after quite a few beers, we started talking to some backpacking Dutchmen. They seemed very nice, and so we went with them to the night club next door. Against everything that Andy stands for, we bought a round of drinks (which included 4 bottles of beer for them). And then when everyone had finished drinking not one of them offered to buy us a drink in return. The bloody cheek!

We certainly wont trust anymore backpacking lay-abouts ever again! After Karly had danced on the bar for a bit, we said our goodbyes and finally got home at about 3:30 in the morning. As a result Sunday wasn't very productive.

However, in the evening we did go and see some Shaolin Monks. These guys were truly mad. They did stuff like smashing iron bars over their heads and balancing on spears. We were also highly impressed with the little kids doing Kung-Fu and summersaults on their heads.

Today we went to another market, where we saw live Scorpions being put onto kebab sticks ready for the BBQ. They were still wriggling when they went onto the flame. Nice.

We fly out of Beijing on Tuesday 26th Sept, and arrive in Hanoi (Vietnam). So goodbye China!

Here's the link to the photos of Beijing:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=2AbtGjFi0ZMWGi

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2006-09-18T05:12:00.000-07:00

Chicken feet and smelly dorms.

So we finally left friendly Malaysia and our laid back hostel in Kuala Lumpur for the very fast paced and regimented Shanghai (that's in China if you don't know). We flew into Shanghai early in the morning and caught the Maglev train (it gets up to 430kn/h!) into the city.

Accomodation in Shanghai is so expensive so we decided to stay in a dorm. This was a nice enough room but there were 8 other people in it (who all seemed to smell), our beds were at opposite ends of the room and Karly was the only girl. So we didn't like it much. Although the bar on the top floor had a great view of the Shanghai skyline so it was nice to go up there and have a few happy hour beers.

We spent our first day at the Shanghai National Museum. It had lots of ancient ceramics, jade stuff and other typically Chinese stuff. It was interesting ......... for a while. In the evening we went for a stroll along The Bund (the riverfront). You get great views of the bright lights on the new side of the river but there were lots of people hassling us (beggars, people selling stuff) so not a great place to hang around for a long time. Some random locals asked for a photo with us (both of us not just Karly this time). It was a bit weird.

There are so many bicylces in Shanghai. None of them stop for traffic lights, even when we are crossing the road. But there are traffic police who yell at any pedestrian who step onto the road when they are not supposed to.

The next day we had Dim Sum for lunch. The menu was in Chinese so we just went for the one the waitress recomended. It included chicken feet. They are quite slippery so hard to pick up with chop sticks and there's not much meat on them so a lot of effort that's not really worth it.

After lunch we went to some very very beautiful and very old Chinese Gardens. There were heaps of huge fish in the ponds that seemed to eat whatever tourists through at them.

On Saturday we caught a bus from Shanghai to Beijing. When we bought the tickets we were told the trip would take 13 to 18 hours. We thought this sounded not too bad as it was a sleeper bus (it had beds). The trip ended up taking 24 hours! It was dreadful we only stopped properly once (and that was two hours into the trip). There was a loo on the bus but Karly wasn't to keen on using it so didn't drink much water and we only had enough snacks for the evening as we though we'd be in Beijing in time for breakfast. The bus stopped a couple of times on the side of the road and the driver would yell something in Chinese. We always assumed he was announcing the stop name not 'we're stopping for food'. It was only when we'd see people get back on with food that we'd realise.

Anyway, we finally got to the outskirts of Beijing and the bus dropped us at a bus garage in the middle of nowhere. The map we had and the map at the station both said there was a subway station close by so we set out to find it with no luck(It's only now we realise it's a proposed line that will be ready in time for the Olympics but it didn't say that anywhere!). We tried to get a taxi but no taxi driver could understand us. It got to the point that Karly nearly passed out due to dehydration, lack of food, heat and a heavy back pack (Andy says her lips turned blue). Luckily she had this funny turn in front of a five star hotel so we ended up checking in there for the night and then made our way into central Beijing the next day.

So here we are in Beijing. They need to get things together before the Olympics. It's a bit hard to find your way around.

Here is the link to the photos of above:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=2AbtGjFi0ZMWGR

2006-09-11T03:22:00.000-07:00

Beaches, Leeches and Germans.

To get to the Taman Negara National Park we took a three hour boat trip along the Temberling River. This river was exactly how you'd imagine a river in the Amazon to look e.g. with high jungle trees lining the riverside. This was quite a slow journey, but the views were worth taking time to appreciate.

Everywhere we've traveled so far in Malaysia we have found the vast majority of other backpackers have been German. We're not sure why this is (we've even asked some Germans why there are some many of them), but nobody seems to know why. We guess its because the friendly, warmed natured Malaysian way of life must be very appealing to Germans! Or maybe its just cheap.

When we arrived in Taman Negara we stayed in a dorm that sleeps 6 (it was the cheapest option). Funnily enough, the other people in our dorm were German. We had a good long chat with them one night, and became quite friendly (we had dinner with them twice). In particular we got on well with Daniel and Ela. At first we mistook them for a couple, but they only know each other through a friend of a friend, and they have come traveling together after only meeting 3 weeks previously. Ela has a bloke back home anyway, so we don't think anything was going to happen.

On our first full day in Taman Negara, we joined Daniel and Ela (and 2 other German girls) on a walk into the Jungle. Karly and the others went onto a rope bridge that circled the canopy tops of the tress in the jungle. At some points they were over 50 meters high, so the views were very impressive. Andy doesn't like heights, and thought the rope bridge wobbled a bit too much, so he stayed on the ground and watched.

Unlike our Forrest walk in the Cameron Highlands, this time we had the proper clothes on to go jungle walking. We wore trainers, socks and trousers, and even carried extra water and food in case we got lost (but generally we stuck to the path so they wasn't much danger of getting lost).

Andy didn't have any suitable trousers to wear (only heavy jeans), so he had to buy some very trendy white linen trouser (take a look at the pictures!). There are leeches in the jungle so you have to tuck your trousers into your socks. Despite tucking his cool new trousers into his socks Andy wasn't able to avoid the leeches and ended up with two bites on his ankle. There was heaps of blood but it didn't hurt and he survived (though Andy thinks he was lucky to have survived such a ferocious animal attack!).

After the jungle we moved to the Perhentian Islands. These were probably the closest thing to paradise that either of us have seen before. The beaches were beautiful, the water clear and blue, and the weather was hot and sunny. Perfect.

Here we stayed for 6 days. Generally doing very little indeed apart from reading books, laying about, sleeping, drinking and eating. All the guest houses on the island have a BBQ every night, so we had lots of nice beef, chicken and fish. This makes a nice change from the rice and noddles and fast food that we have been living on recently.

Karly did some snorkeling, Andy sat and played his Gameboy. The only down side to this paradise island was that alcohol wasn't that freely available (only a few places sold it). But we did still manage to have a few drinks, see the photos.

On the last day Daniel and Ela (the Germans) from Taman Negara arrived on the island, so we had dinner with them again. We then went and watched football, Liverpool v Everton, and had a few beers while saying goodbye to the would-be-couple.

We are now back in Kuala Lumpur for one night before we fly to China on the 12th. Today we had lunch at the Kenny Rodgers Rooster Chicken restaurant. This is actually a chain of (relatively) healthy chicken restaurants owned by the great country and western singer Kenny Rodgers. He wasn't in the restaurant personally.

Our next blog entry will be from China, so goodbye from the lovely Malaysia.

Auntie Karly and Uncle Andy (Karlys sister, Rachael, is up the duff, and due in March).

Heres the link to our photos of above:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=2AbtGjFi0ZMWGA

P.S. we notice that the link to the photos of our previous blog entry didn't work, so if you try the link again now it should work.

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2006-09-01T05:38:00.000-07:00

Tea for Two.

We have travelled from the hustle and bustle of Kuala Lumpur to a place called the Cameron Highlands. This is where they grow, harvest and package the majority of Malaysian tea.

Our journey to the Cameron Highlands was very eventful. The coach tire blew while we were driving along the motorway. The driver was actually very claim and managed to pull over to the hard shoulder, while keeping the coach under control. We were shitting ourselves!

As a result, a coach trip that should have taken 4 hours, took nearly twice as long (as we had to wait for another coach to come and pick us up from the hard shoulder). Then, when we got closer to the Cameron Highlands the roads became very narrow and winding, often right next to a cliff edge that you could look down as we went round a corner.

When we arrived at our hotel / hostel we signed up for a couple of day trips to local places of interest. The first was a trip to meet some local tribal people called the Orang Asli. These are the original indigenous people of Malaysia. When we arrived in their village most of the people were hiding away in there huts, with the children staring at us through windows or holes in the wall. We then went and had tea with the tribes chief, and learnt a bit more about their customs etc. Andy also got the chance to try a Blow Pipe, which they used to hunt monkeys, birds etc. Karly didn't want to try the Blow pipe, due to germ issues.

The whole experience, while very informative, was still a little weird. We felt that we were walking into someone's front room and snooping around, while they hide upstairs. But, the Orang Asli need tourists to visit them, as they need the money, so we didn't feel too bad about the whole thing. And to help them even further, Karly bought a hand-woven mat and Andy bought a bamboo puzzle game (each for 10 Ringetts)....................it would have cost us a lot more in the local shop near our hotel so we saved a fortune!

Our second day trip was a walk in the Forest. This gave us a chance to see lots of interesting plants, and flowers (no it really was interesting), as well as some great views when we got to the top. The guides we really good as well, and they seemed to really have a passion for what they were doing, so they were able to answer all of our questions. The only problem with the Forest walk, is that both Andy and Karly were not properly attired for the trip e.g. everyone else had trainers and trousers on, while we had shorts and flip flops / thongs. So basically we got our expensive Birkenstocks very dirty!

After our Forest walk we visited a local tea factory, and did a little tour. Karly found this very boring, while Andy was quite interested (as they had a couple of large machines that were crushing, grinding, and sorting all the tea leaves). The surrounding hill tops were very picturesque, see our photos below.

We are now in Kuala Lumpur for a night before travelling to the Taman Negara National Park (a big jungle, with rope bridges etc.). We will be there for a couple of nights, before moving onto the Pulau Perhentian Islands, (which have beautiful beaches apparently) as we need a break from all this hard travelling. Unfortunately the islands do not have many amenities (like banks, telephones, internet or even 24 hour electricity), so we might not be able to check our emails for a week or so.

Bon voyage!

Here is the link to our photos of the Cameron Highlands:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=2AbtGjFi0ZMWF_

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2006-08-27T05:07:00.000-07:00

Like it or Lumpur

We are now in Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia. Its a very clean and tidy place as well (though maybe not as clean as Singapore, but far cleaner than India!).

But going back to our last few days in Singapore, we went to the Raffles Hotel that Karly thinks is world known (and Andy had never heard of). Karly had the traditional Singapore Sling, while Andy had the not-so-traditonal Long Island Ice Tea. The prices were massively hiked up because of the Raffles name, but we did get unlimited free peanuts, and we were able to throw the shells onto the floor (as that is sort of the Raffles bar trade mark). This is probably the only place in Singapore where you can throw anything onto the floor without instantly being shot.

The following day we went to the Island resort just off the South coast of Singapore, called Sentosa. This was (as you would expect from Singapore) very clean, tidy and efficient. Though it did have the feel of a very manufactured paradise, a bit like the Park Hyatt Hotel in Goa.

Its claim to fame is that is has the Southern most point of continental Asia. We thought that this was a bit of a fraudulant claim, as you had to go over a long bridge (or take a very very high cable car ride) to get to Sentosa. You even had to cross a final rope bridge to get to the Southern most point, so claiming to be the Southern most point of "continental" Asia (when you are in fact only attached because of a bridge) was a bit of a large claim. But no-one else seemed to be that bothered, so we just got on with taking photos.

Our hotel in Singapore was more of a hostel then a hotel. It had threatening warning signs about "devious" types, and we even found a cockroach under the bed. But, that aside, we still loved Singapore, and would recommend it to anyone who gets a chance to come.

Here are our last photos from wonderful Singapore:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=2AbtGjFi0ZMWFd

So onto Malaysia. We caught a very efficient train from Singapore to Kuala Lumpur. We checked into a nice hotel for a couple of nights to spoil ourselves before checking into our current abode which feels like a student Union Bar with extremely basic rooms upstairs. But it's quite central, the beers cheap and we can watch football.

The shopping here is great. You can get great fakes (handbags, t-shirst, key rings) and dodgy DVD's, CD's and games. Andy obviously likes the games. He bought one for his Gameboy Advance after some expert haggling so now he doesn't even have to talk to Karly during half time of the football. Karly is going to hold off on her handbag purchase until China as she thinks they might be cheaper there. A 'good' fake Chloe bag here costs about 100pound and 'ordinary' fake was about 15 pounds.

Karly finally got the henna tatto she'd been contemplating since India. She still can't decide if it's as daggy as getting Bali Braids when you go to Bali but she thought this is the last place we're visiting with an Indian population so she might aswell.

Today we went to the National Museum. It was pretty uninspiring and out of the way but we got an idea of some of the history of Malaysia and we had a good laugh at the very interesting manaquins.

Here are our photos so far from Kuala Lumpur:

http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=2AbtGjFi0ZMWFu

2006-08-21T00:44:00.000-07:00

Goodbye India. Hello Singapore.

Our last few days in India were eventful. Karly did some Karaoke, Andy was bitten by an extremely large mosquito, local men lined up to have their photo taken with Karly and we had a not so pleasant journey on a night train (there were lots of security men with machine guns that they pointed any which way, including at us while we were trying to sleep! They even left them unattended while they went off to use the loo).

We had two days in Mumbai (the home of Bollywood), where we went and watched 2 films. The first was a new Bollywood hit, called "Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna". It was a epic love story of betrayal, lust, adultery and dancing. The second was "Superman Returns".

We also went to Mumbai's 'premiere tourist attraction' Elephanta Island. There were some old stone carvings in some caves. There were lots of monkeys roaming around the island and one stole Karly's coke from her hands bringing several traumatic childhood memories back to her.

To celebrate leaving India we splashed out on an expensive dinner of lobster. Andy thought it tasted a bit like crab sticks and Karly thought it was a bit dry (but for 10 pounds you can't really complain).

Here are the photos of our last few days in India:

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We flew to Singapore via Sri Lanka. Andy was ripped off at Colombo Airport in Sri Lanka when he paid about 20 pounds for a computer game that said it had 32 games on it but it really only had 7. When he complained he was laughed at. He then wrote an angry jet lagged letter of complaint and we probably will never go back to Sri Lanka again.

Anyway we love Singapore. It's so clean. A germaphobes paradise. The people talk to you just to help you, not because they're trying to sell you something or begging (unlike India). Everyone is just so friendly.

We spent our first day in Chinatown. We went and saw some Chinese 'Opera'. It was a long talk about the opera followed by some women miming to a backing tape. But it was still very entertaining.

Yesterday we went to the Singapore Zoo. It seemed to us that nearly every animal we saw was either doing something rude, or was deliberately turning their backs just as we were about to take a photo.

We are planning on going to a famous hotel called Raffles later on today. Apparently, its where they invented the Singapore Sling (Andy has never heard of the place, but Karly thinks it is very famous). Its very posh, so we can't wear shorts or sandals.

Most of our t-shirts are now blue. We put all of our washing in to be cleaned, but forgot about a dark blue sarong that we bought in Goa. As a result the dye leaked all over our clothes, making most of them a tie-dyed blue / grey colour. Andy thinks that Karly did this deliberately, so she would have an excuse to buy a new wardrobe.

Here are the photos of Singapore so far:

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2006-08-13T00:34:00.000-07:00

Andys 30th Birthday

For Andys birthday Karly organised to stay in a 5 star hotel (The Goa Park Hyatt). It was very posh, with a massive sunken bath and a thing called a Rain Shower (a really big shower that comes down from the middle of the ceiling e.g. as if you are having a shower in the rain). Andy and Karly are not used to these luxuries, especailly a clean toilet and fresh towels every day (sometimes they changed them twice a day!). We even got bath robes to wear, which we would have stolen but the hotel has our credit card details.

It was quite nice to have a tv for a few days. As it rained most days we got to catch up on all our television favourites like Knight Rider and Full House. And the movie channel was showing The Castle so Karly was happy. They have alot of ads for the Sauna Belt (a heated belt which helps you sweat off an inch of fat in just 15minutes!). Apparently if you get fat, your fiancee may not want to marry you or if you're already married your husband might have and affair.

The resort was generally very nice, but it also had the sense of being a little false. It was set over 45 acres of land right next to the beach (in fact it has its own private beach that is patrolled by security guards). It seemed to be a very manufactured place, with nice lawns, lakes and palm trees set out in perfect symmetry. It couldn't have been any different from the other places in India that we've seen.

Because we were effectively held to ransom on the resort (e.g. there were no other restaurants or shops nearby) we had to eat in the resort restaurants most of the time. These had very good quality food, but were very expensive compared to the rest of India, in fact everything was massively overpriced. The biggest rip off was the internet and the taxis. The resort charged 430 rupees an hour to use the internet, when in Delhi we were charged 10 rupees an hour!

But, aside from the over inflated prices, the resort was lovely and relaxing..............if a little pricey.

Over the course of staying at the resort Andy received 3 birthday cakes. The hotel sent one to us on the day we arrived (3 days too early), then they sent another one on the actual day of Andys birthday, and then when we went out to dinner in the evening, the restaurant staff brought out another cake.

Not wanting to sound ungrateful, but these chocolate cakes were bloody awful. By the time we had received the 3rd cake, we were sick of the things! But we still had to eat some because the restaurant staff were standing over us (and it would have looked a bit rude if we'd have refused a free cake!).

We have now left the Park Hyatt resort, and are staying just down the road from it, closer to the beach. It may be cheaper, dirtier, more congested, and there are people hassling us to buy jewellery and get henna, but in a strange way, Karly and Andy prefer where we are now.

Heres the link to the photos of Andys Birthday:

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2006-08-06T01:46:00.000-07:00

A right Goa.

We are now in Goa. This is a much more touristy place to stay but yet it's still very relaxed and friendly e.g. with loads of cafes and restaurants serving anything but Indian food. In fact Andy and Karly haven't eaten any actual Indian food for the last week or so. Mainly because Karly has been ill (again) and Andy is just getting a little bored with chicken curry every night.

On a brighter note the people of Goa obviously don't consider the cow to be as sacred as everywhere else in Indian, cause Andy has had his first beef burger in nearly 3 weeks!

Unfortunately the weather hasn't been very sunny, though its still quite hot. Thats why in all of our photos it looks so overcast and rainy.

As a special treat for Andys approaching 30th Karly has booked us both into a 5 star hotel. After staying in places that dont have hot water, towels, air conditioning, or even toilets that can handle toilet paper (we have to put it in a bin!), we are looking forward to some luxury.

Heres some of the photos so far from Goa (Damion, i'm wearing the present you and Tracey bought me!):

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Before we went to Goa we were in Udaipur. This is where they filmed the James Bond Film Octopussy. The locals like to remind you of this everywhere you go, and nearly all of the restaurants show Octopussy every night at 7pm (Dawson, you would love it here). In fact, the waiters were quoting lines from the film while they served the food.

We didnt't actually go out to the Hotel in the lake (which Octopussy used as her fortress), because they charged a ridiculous amount of money to go and see it. But we did go into the City Palace (which James Bond stays in).

The city Palace was quite impressive, with some great views of the Udaipur skyline.

Heres some of the photos from Udaipur:

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Before Udaipur we were in Jaipur. This had probably the worlds crapiest "palace", but it also had quite a good Sun-Dial park. This is where an old Moghul King built loads of massive monuments which he used to tell the time, read the stars, follow the calendar etc.

Heres some of the photos from Jaipur:

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2006-07-31T07:11:00.000-07:00

On the run.........

If ever there was a sign that perhaps Andy had made the wrong decision, by proposing to Karly, then this must be it. Ever since that fateful day at the Taj Mahal both Andy and Karly have had the shits! (Karly wants to point out that when we say "we have the shits" we DON'T mean the Australian term for being annoyed!).

This has meant that the last 5 days have been very boring for us. We had to spend an extra 2 days in Agra, because we couldn't face the 5 hour bus journey that awaited us. Especially as the bus didn't have any toilets. All we ended up doing was spending the whole time in bed, or running to the loo.

Moving on, we are now in a place called Jaipur. This is most famous for the centre of the town being pink (though we think it's more Terracotta). It was painted pink as a tribute to King Edward VII, when he visited the place in 1876, and they have kept it that colour ever since. Probably just for the tourists.

As a treat for us, we have chosen to stay in a nice hotel. It used to be a palace, and it has a TV, hot water, toilet roll and all the other "luxuries" that our previous hotels haven't had. We have taken some photos, which we will put on this blog at some point (we are having trouble downloading the pics at the moment).

Thanks to everyone who has emailed us to say congratulations. We will reply to you all, but we are really busy at the moment e.g. drinking lots of water, having lots of Imodium etc.

Andy & Karly

2006-07-28T06:05:00.000-07:00

We're engaged!!!!

Andy proposed in front of the Taj Mahal. It was very romantic......

You can view the pictures at;

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Also there are more photos from our last blog entry that we have just put on. To view these go to;

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2006-07-26T01:14:00.000-07:00

Our last days in Delhi.

On Sunday we went to the National Museum of India. Here we saw lots of stone statues of Krishna, Vishnu (the elephant god with many arms) and other various important people. On the right is a picture of Andy in front of the Temple Chariot that sits outside the museum. This was made as a tribute to one of the gods..............we forget which one.

The museum covered India's history over the last 4000 years. Andy's favourite section was the Armory, displaying all of the swords, spears, armor and guns that various Indian Kings used to suppress the poor with over the centuries. He also liked some of the very "realistic" and well proportioned statues.

After the museum we went shopping and Karly bought a salwar kameez (Indian dress, with trousers and scarf). She'd look like a real local now if it weren't for her blonde hair and the big English guy in the cowboy hat that accompanies her everywhere.

In the evening we went and saw the Lotus Temple, Karly thinks it looks a little like the Opera House. Its supposed to be in the shape of a Lotus flower, but Andy couldn't see the resemblance. Next to the Lotus Temple we went for dinner at a restaurant called Govindas. This was a strictly vegetarian place run by Hare Krishnas. Karly loved the food (in fact she went up 3 times for more helpings!). Andy thought the food was good, but a few sausages would have improved it.

On our last day we went shopping at a local market called the Dilli Hatt. This was pretty much full with stands selling wood carvings, paintings, jewellery and other hand made stuff. In the evening Dr Giri invited us to dinner with him, his wife and son. We had some very nice home made Indian food, and we both ate way too much.

We are now in a place called Agra (where the Taj Mahal is). We are planning on going to see it this afternoon, but at the moment its raining quite heavily, so i'm not sure how good our photos are going to be! Also Karly has the flu so she might look a bit rough.

We have noticed that nearly every attraction that we have been to has 2 prices. For example, the Taj Mahal charges 20 Rupees for Indians (which is about 25 pence) and 750 Rupees for tourists (which is close to 10 pounds). Obviously this must be because the average Indian earns very little, and also the average tourist can easily afford 750 Rupees, but even so Andy feels a little ripped off!

2006-07-22T09:19:00.000-07:00

The Red Fort and Gandhis' Glasses.

The driving in Delhi reminds us of dodgem cars. There have been so many close calls but somehow they never connect. We've seen entire families on motorbikes. Our favourite was a dad driving , with a mum sitting side saddle on the back holding a sleeping baby. And to think of the fuss they made when Brittney held Sean Preston on her lap in the front seat. We are slowly getting the hang af bargaining. We have had some pointers from Dr Giri on technique and what prices roughly should be so I don't think we're getting ripped off. Karly has started wearing Andy's clothes as men seem to stare at her boobs and 'accidentally' bump into her if she wears clothes that reveal any kind of womanly shape. The tops she bought with her aren't particularly tight and they cover her shoulders and arms so she thought they'd be fine but no. She looks very frumpy in Andy's clothes yet the men still stare, but not so much at her breasts.

Today we had our first trip in an AutoRickshaw (basically the same as one of those old bicycle rickshaws that you see in the films, but this one is powered by a motorbike). It is a very firghtening experience, as the Rickshaw drivers dont really seem to stop for anything (lights, people, other cars etc.). The only few times they do actually stop at lights, we then get bombarded by women and children (often with some sort of disability) trying to sell us flowers, or just plain begging.

The first place that the rickshaw took us too was the Red Fort. This is a big red fort that was built hundreds of years ago by a Mogul King of India. It had been invaded many times over the years, most recently by the English (hurray!). It had loads of different palaces inside its walls, mainly because each new King that took over added a new bit for himself.

Stuff we learnt today: Gandhis' first name was not originally Mahatma, it was Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi He was given the title Mahatma (meaning Great Soul) by the Indian people. I'm sure Hoda might tell you something different, but this is want we learnt at the Gandhi musuem!

Here's a link to our photos of above;

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2006-07-21T03:56:00.000-07:00

Hello all,

We have arrived in India, safe and well. The journey from the airport was very chaotic, with our driver generally weaving from lane to lane, and beeping his horn at just about everything that moved. Sometimes it proved quite difficult to see which side of the road we were supposed to be on!

The place we are staying is very nice, and located in an area which isn't very touristy, so we are getting a real genuine experience of India. Thanks to Hoda for organising it (Dr Giri is friendly and helpful).

So far the food has been good (and all cooked properly, cause we haven't had any Delhi belly). Yesterday Andy had a chicken tandoori and Karly had lentils with rice, when we went to a place called the Deer Park. This is, funnily enough, a park full of loads of deers running around.

Other then that we haven't done much else, as we've been sleeping most of the time. Hopefully our next entry will have some more interesting things to write about (as we are planning on going to see the Red Fort in Old Delhi tomorrow, as well as Gandhi's monument).

Hope to hear from you soon,
Andy and Karly

P.S. the picture above was taken ages ago (we just havent taken any pictures in India yet!).

2006-07-05T02:21:00.000-07:00

The email addresses you can reach us on while we're travelling are:

andypigott@hotmail.co.uk

karly.loy@hotmail.co.uk