Budding & The Doctor

New Zealand - The South Island

davebudding — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 12:56:00 GMT

We touched down in Christchurch feeling pretty excited about the next six weeks. From the very conception of this trip, NZ had been a destination we had high hopes for.

The weather in the largest city on the South Island was a small slice of home with a cold, wet drizzle accompanying us to our hostel. With the centrally placed cathedral and boats floating along the Avon river it had a distinct sense of familiarity compared to Asia and Oz.

We spent a day soaking up some of the sights before picking up the campervan that would trustily speed us around on our road trip for the next five weeks. We'd gone with a good solid budget option (old habits die hard) and rented our van from Escape.

It's fair to say their vans are distinctive with each one being painted by a kiwi artist. We were a little aprehensive after seeing some vans on the road with scenes such as a slightly dirtier version of the traditional teddy bears picnic painted on the side. Luckily ours was a little more toned down and so we haven't spent too much time offending old women and children.

First heading was inland towards Mt Cook, the highest peak in Australasia. On route we passed a couple of stunning lakes - Lake Tekapo with it's vibrantly turqoise waters, and Lake Pukaki with a kind of milky blue hue caused by "rock flour". Buggered if I know what that is.

We stopped at the latter for the night, and our pitch was less of a powered campsite and more of a gravelled lay by with spectacular views of the lake and Mt Cook in the distance. This was our first taste of Freedom Camping, the kiwi's liberal approach to just pulling up on the side of the road for the night. I get the feeling I'd fit right in here.

Unfortuntely, the mountain lay shrouded in clouds for most of the night, although it did make a brief cameo through the overcast skies when I stepped out for a tinkle at dusk. Timing is everything.

Next stop was Dunedin, a bit of a studenty spot (dirty freeloaders) plus the steepest street in the world. Being from Bristol with it's abundence of heart attack inducing lanes, we checked out this pretender to the crown. It's fair to say that I wouldn't like to tackle a jog with this bugger in but I'm still not sure it would stand up to the mighty Constitution "good luck in cardiac recovery" Hill.

We'd nearly reached the bottom of the South Island and took the Southern Scenic Route through the Catlins towards the sounds and mountains of Fjordland. There were numerous beaches, reputedly home to sea lions, seals, dolphins and penguins. All we managed to spot was a fossilised tree.

Dissapointing nature spotting aside we headed round towards Milford and it's famous Sound. But not before stopping off in Clifden (stupid kiwis can't even spell) to catch a nosey at its suspension bridge. All sounding a bit familiar?

Again not a spot on the real thing in glorious Brizzle, although they did have some nearby caves that you could go exploring on your own. After squeezing through a couple of tight spots our one dodgy torch started to concern us though so we bravely turned around and bottled it.

Next up was a bit of a gimme for this trip, the glacial carved fjord feeding inland from the Tasman Sea, generally referred to as the Milford Sound for short. It's big and impressive with ludicrously steep snow capped mountains shooting out of water that's over 1000m deep in parts. Or so we're told. It rained and remained resolutely overcast throughout our entire cruise so we missed out on some of the more spectacular views. Still a hugely atmospheric place though, and we even saw our first seal!

Lot's of scenery in the bag by now, so it was time to move on and try and get the adrenaline pumping. Not that Queenstown is short on scenery with The Remarkables and Lake Wakatipu backing it up nicely. I was here though to get a bungy jump out of my system, and what better way than the 134m high Nevis bungy. Biggest in NZ and the third biggest in the world.

Erica went horse riding for the day (wimp) whilst I was carried out by cable car to the suspended capsule that would hopefully hold me and the monster Fergburger I'd eaten last night as I plummeted towards the ground. The blood starts pumping faster as soon as you see the drop, and by the time you've watched three or four people go off the edge you're completely strung out on adrenaline. The jump itself was awesome and that moment when you drop off the edge and can't even feel the rope attached to your legs is fantastic.

Crazy stuff out the way we got ourselves kitted up in Queenstown and headed out on the three day hike that is the Routeburn Track. It's a gentle 34 km over three days and there's no McDonalds along the way so we were loaded up with tasty freeze dried snacks and rabbit food. In summary, Day 1 and 3 were scorching hot and the scenery was incredible. It's an apline trek so you're high up on some ridge or other a lot of the time with panoramic views of the Southern Alps all around. Day 2 was a wash out.

We gratefully accepted our reward of a juicy steak followed by a morning fry up in Queenstown before heading further north up the west coast towards the Franz Josef Glacier.

We opted for a full day hike on the big hunk of ice which involved us following our trusty guide kevin (how can you trust someone called kevin) and his axe (especially when they have an axe). To be fair though, he did a pretty good job of carving steps out of the ice for us to scale the chilly beast. There was plenty of squeezing through tight crevasses barely wide enough for peter crouch and a couple of leaps of faith over faults in the ice of indeterminate depth. Best of all, I got given my own ice axe. All good fun.

A quick dive across the interior of the island via Arthurs Pass and we found ourselves on the east coast in Kaikoura for a bit of whale spotting. We left from the Whaleway Station (chuckle chuckle) and headed out on a catamaran in search of the blubbery chaps. By all accounts we had one of the best trips they'd taken out in ages. Final count was three sperm whales, two blue whales and a bucket full of dusky, and the particularly rare hectors, dolphins. Not bad.

Having not hiked up a mountain or glacier for a few days we were getting itchy feet so decided on a little mountain biking expedition along the Kaikoura Coastal Track. This is a 43km walk that can be done on a bike if you wish in a day less. Sounded like a nice laid back way to see some scenery but our lack of research into the terrain meant that we hadn't spotted the 500m climb that we'd have to do each day. When they say mountain, they mean mountain. I'd have to say I really enjoyed pushing erica's bike up the hill after I'd got mine to the top. Honest.

With our legs now shattered into lactic acid saturated pieces, we decided to finish the South Island circuit with something far more appealing. A little wine tasting in the renowned Marlborough region. Being driven around and getting pissed wasn't a bad way to wind down before finally jumping on the ferry at Picton to make our way to the gateway of the North Island, Wellington.

We may have even got carried away and shipped 12 bottles of their finest sauv blanc back to the UK. Whether they'll escape the clutches of Erica's mum, or more likely Hagg and Sam, is another matter entirely...

Photos!

davebudding — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 11:07:00 GMT

Thought some people might like some pictures to go with these tall tales.

The links are to albums that I've posted on facebook and cover everything from Thailand to our latest spot of fun on the south island in New Zealand.

Might get round to writing the blog for those last three weeks as well at some point...

Thailand: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=73925&l=ff0db&id=811660453

More Thailand: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=76165&l=ec8e3&id=811660453

Malaysia - Diving at Pilau Sipidan: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=75813&l=465f7&id=811660453

Malaysia - Orangutan Sanctuary: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=76169&l=f0c5b&id=811660453

Oz - Sydney to Melbourne, The Great Ocean Road & Tasmania: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=99945&l=903ec&id=895525374

Oz - Cairns to Brisbane: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=92058&l=04dd5&id=895525374

Oz - Brisbane to Sydney: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=95255&l=b713c&id=895525374

New Zealand - South Island: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=103176&l=b1156&id=895525374

Oz - Brisbane to Sydney

davebudding — Sun, 2 Mar 2008 20:43:00 GMT

It's amazing how much you can fit into 6 weeks and we reached Brisvegas feeling like we'd dutifully bent over and taken everything that the east coast could throw at us. However, with the spectacular beaches of new south wales beckoning, it was time to loosen up and brace ourselves for the final leg of this aussie adventure.

We gave brisbane all of 18 hours before deciding that there was bugger all to do and so we jumped in our souped up hyundai getz to burn on down to surfers paradise.

This gold coast resort comes across as something resembling the illegitimate love child of a steamy affair between magaluf and ayia napa. It's pretty much ibiza in oz and there's not much more to say.

There was a brief jaunt up to Springbrook National Park, only 40km inland from surfers and boasting some stunning views and wildlife. Unfortunately for us, nature designed this national park on top of a plateau meaning the panoramic vistas were replace with a whole load of clouds and plenty of rain. Always wondered why they call nature a mother...

Slacking that off pretty quickly we headed down to the gem of new south wales' coastline, Byron Bay. We had high expectations and we weren't disappointed. It's like surfer's cooler, slicker and better looking older brother. There are more bars, restaurants and bars than you can shake a stick at, not to mention a huge stretch of beach that served up some nice big waves for me to hurt myself in the whole five days we were there. I even had time to fit in one of the worst hangovers I've had since freshers week. Lying on the pavement outside the supermarket, groaning something about not feeling to well, didn't leave Erica hugely impressed. Sympathy was in short supply.

We left ourselves a few days between Byron and Sydney to see what else we could stumble across. We could have easily stayed longer but sometimes you've just got to move on (sob). We stopped into a few national parks which, whilst they were as senic and peaceful as anywhere else we'd been, all started looking a bit familiar.

We decided to shake off this mild sense of monotony with a frantic day of wine, cheese and beer tasting in the Hunter Valley. Six wineries and many more glasses of vino later we were seeing the countryside with a rose tinted glow again and feeling pretty good about life in general.

There was a brief stop in sydney say farewell and impose on sam and hannah's couch again - and even a rare opportunity for me to godrinking with some accountants!

That action packed piece of fun out the way we jumped on a plane bound for New Zealand and all that awaited us there.

We arrived in oz not sure how it could live up to Asia, and itching to get to the scenery and adrenaline of NZ. It's fair to say though that it was better than we could have imagined. Sweet as bro...

Oz - Cairns to Brisbane

davebudding — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 14:50:00 GMT

Having roughed it in our second hand tent for a couple of weeks we decided that there were far too many spiders/snake/crocs up in queensland to be lying out in the bush under a tea towel supported by a couple of twigs. Instead, we settled for some good old fashioned back packing down the east coast via the greyhound bus and some celubrious hostels.

We landed in cairns and headed straight for the beach but were promptly informed that if you set just one toe in the water a salt water croc would bite your leg off. Settling for the man made lagoon instead we quickly decided to get out of cairns asap as it was - to be honest - pretty crap.

First stop was mission beach for some white water rafting on the tully river. This one just for dave as erica was still a little shaken from the our last white water experience in thailand when i nearly got squashed by a rock. You thought it might have been me who was worried but...hey ho.

The tully is a cracking little grade 3/4 river and we had a suitably insane guide to steer our boat for us. Comments like...

"right...you see that big rock that the boat in front just avoided...well we're going to hit it straight on as fast as we can and see if we can tip the boat..."

...made for a decent trip down the foaming madness. We even managed to "taco" the boat at one point which basically involves getting the front to touch the back. Excellent fun all round.

We'd put the diving on hold for a bit after se asia as it's a little more pricey out here. However, we couldn't really pass up the opportunity to see the Yongala wreck, a cargo/passenger ship that sank over 90 years ago off the coast near Townsville, and has now formed into one of the most vibrant articial reefs in the world.

The abundance of coral and plants here means that marine life flocks from far around and seeing as there's so much food everything is just that little bit bigger. On a good day you can hope to see some 4m bull sharks and manta rays. Unfortunately, we just had to settle for shedloads of really big fish and the most poisonous snake in the world swimming around my toes.

Next stop was airlie beach. This is the launching point for your whitsundays sailing trip and one of the must do's on any jaunt down the east coast. To take care of us we had a suitably moody captain with a liking for blues guitar and a mildly insane deckhand who cooked a mean lasagne. An unusal but effective pairing. Our group of 14 also consisted of a few too many germans for most peoples liking (8 of the buggers - seriously, what are the chances).

The trip itself lasted 3 days and took in, amongst other things, the world famous whitehaven beach. It's an early start to beat the masses to the lookout on whitsunday island but its worth it for a uncrowded view of the brilliant white sands and crystal clear blue water that make up the 3rd best beach in the world (and apparently one of the top two will be under water in a few years anyway so that's a sure fire promotion - got to love global warming). On the beach itself you can stroll around in the shallows with the resident junvenile sand sharks and stingrays, or just sit back and admire the stunning views.

Everyone took advantage of the chance to do a bit of sailing as well. There were plently of guns being flexed as the sails raced their ways to the top of the masts, not to mention some steady hands on the wheel as we cruised along on a 45 degree slant at a breezy 15 knots.

Boating fun done with, we headed further down the coast towards the hamlets of Agnes Water and Town of 1770. Mind you, this wasn't before we'd had a brief stopover in Rockhampton - beef capital of oz with 2.5 million of the beasts within a 250km radius - and had a juicy 16oz beauty [of a steak].

Town of 1770 was a good spot to see the great barrier reef from, so we took the chance to head out to Lady Musgrave Island as we figured we couldn't come all the way to oz and not see that mother of all reefs. I'll be honest though, unless you're flying over the thing and can take in the scale of it, it just looks like any other big bit of coral. You live and learn.

Rainbow beach was the launching spot for the second must do of the trip - Fraser Island, the largest sand bar in the world stretching 120km alongside the coast of oz. We were introduced to 9 new friends and loaded up with enough food and goon (i.e. 4 litre bags of "wine" more suited to strippping paint) for 3 days of merriment, plus a mean looking 4x4 truck to negotiate the beaches and dirt tracks of fraser. The driving was great fun and the temptation to perhaps take the vehicle past it's limits of off roading was hard to resist at times.

Even though it didn't stop bloody raining for 3 days it was still a fantastic place. Lake Mckenzie with its clear blue waters and white sandy beach, Lake Wabby with something called tea tree oil in it (girls tell me it's good for you), and the Champagne Pools where the Pacific crashes into some natural rock pools, were all highlights. You couldn't go in the sea as a tiger shark would bite you on the arse but then the currents that would drag you all the way back to cairns weren't too appealing either.

Back on dry land and smelling slightly better than we had before we left the island, we jumped on a bus to trendy noosa. Unfortunately plans to have a swanky meal and night out were put to the sword by a poorly erica and I had to settle for nachos and a pint in the hostel.

Final stop was the Australia Zoo, former home of the crocodile hunter Steve Irwin, before crusing into Brissie. I'd say more about Brisbane but it was so pants we only stayed for about 18 hours before grabbing our car for the final leg of our Australia jolly down to Sydney.

p.s. if anyone is on facebook there are even photos to accompany this little tale. enjoy!

Sydney to Melbourne, The Great Ocean Road & Tassie!

davebudding — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 16:41:00 GMT

Having had our fill of sydney and its surrounds we decided to plough a furrow south in search of some good weather, big surf and plenty of alcohol.

We'd acquired ourselves a bargain tent in the blue mountains from some unsuspecting germans - $40 for a tent and airbed seemed like a good fleecing to me - and so set out on a different kind of trip as we camped it up down the coast of new south wales and victoria in our trusty hire car.

We stopped off at jervis bay and north durras on our first two nights in nsw and were greeted by some unspoilt secluded surf beaches and even some friendly kangaroos on the campsite.

Determined to get as much in as possible we ploughed on round the south east corner and into victoria. There was a brief stop over in lakes entrance to break up the trip (bit touristy but still had a reasonably impressive 7 mile stretch of golden sand) before rolling into Wilsons Promontory national park.

"The prom" is a 60km peninsular poking out from the arse end of the australia and has the privilege of being the only place in eastern australia where you can watch the sunset over the sea. Couple of great walks to be done in the area and we pottered to the top of mount oberon for a panoramic view of the whole place. We even had a friendly wombat living in the bush by our tent (apparently they can kill foxes but I think that might be what is technically known as bollocks).

We drove straight past melbourne, knowing we'd be back to soak up that little cosmopolitan gem in a week or so, and headed off along that most iconic of ozzie driving routes - the great ocean road.

This stretch of track hugs the coastline all the way from Torquay to Wornambool, some 150km away. It winds up and down the cliffs showing off plenty of rugged coastline being relentlessly pounded by the sea, and all in all its damned good fun - even if we did have a hyundai getz rather than a porsche. They even put handy signs on each bend advising a sensible speed limit. All you have to do is add 20km/h and you have a good racing line to overtake that pesky campervan.

Erica had time to grab a surf lesson in anglesea and we spotted some koala bears on cape otway, before we veered north up into the grampian mountains for some climbing. Not being known for my rippling muscular frame i found I was even less well equipped with the guns required for clambering up sheer rock faces. We managed to scramble our way ungracefully up some reasonably challenging routes before doing a cheeky 25m abseil to end the day.

That done, it was time for tasmania. The residents of this little nugget of an island state off the se coast are inclined to feel a little like the forgotten world at times, and well they might as apparently tassie gets missed off the majority of maps altogether.

We only had a few days to sample what it had to offer so spent the first day driving up and down the tamar valley to stock up on plenty of wine and the famous local cheese. All boozed and cheddered up, we headed to bay of fires on the east coast and found a free camp site right on the edge of a white sandy beach with some 3 metre swell crashing down onto the shore. A different kind of wine and cheese evening but quality all the same.

Next stop was the famous(ish) wine glass bay, allegedly ranked in the top ten beaches in the world. It's a 6km hike out there over the saddle of a mountain. Having got there, you can join the hoardes of tourists spending the day on the white sands, admiring the hazards mountain range that towers over the bay.

We fancied a bit more peace and quiet though and so strapped our camping gear and alcohol to our backs and hiked on out. Arriving as the crowds were leaving was a nice touch and we spent the evening trying to stop the wallabies eating my chilli con carne and admiring the views with the handful of other folk who had made the effort.

Last stop was port arthur - a former penal colony for really naughty boys - to hear about how some dirty convicts were sent here once upon a time and ended up hanging around.

Melbourne was our last stop on this little mini adventure and we arrived just in time for australia day and a good old fashioned bbq with part of the australian kpmg contingent. We took a bit a of time to soak up the sporting shrine that is the MCG and even managed to sit still on the beach at St Kilda (hadn't been doing enough of that recently).

All done down here in the freezing cold south (i.e. below 40 degrees) , we hopped on a plane and jetted up to tropical cairns...

Oz - Sydney & The Blue Mountains

davebudding — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 17:50:00 GMT

Right, second blog entry in a row. This is turning into a big job.

We arrived in sydney days before new years eve and met a couple of friends from home, sam and hannah, who had kindly agreed to suffer us for as long we were cheeky enough to hang around. That said i did put erica to work in the kitchen (she was dying to cook so there'll be no abuse for dave on this one) and she knocked up some cracking meals whilst we were there.

after spending the first day just recovering from an overnight flight - on which i failed to get even one minutes sleep again - we spent the day wandering around centennial park in paddington where we were staying and soaking up a bit of sydney suburban life. the evening was spent with half of the kpmg sydney office (or at least those that had moved there from bristol and reading) in a decent little place on five ways road that did a cracking fillet steak and a local specialilty, salt and pepper squid.

next day, new years eve, and me and sam headed down to bondi for some boogie boarding action. we were greeted with some massive waves and proceeded to look pretty crap whilst simultanesouly having a great time. waves and current were pretty strong and at one point ripped my boardies off in full view of most of the beach. one pair of new shorts later we were back for more.

whilst we'd been having fun the girls had been slaving over a hot kitchen and cooked up a big picnic to take down to rushcutters bay for a view of the fireworks. what with all the booze being from the offy it turned out one of the cheapest and best new years for a while. there was one set of fireworks at 9pm and one on the dot of new years and it was definitely 4 million AUD well spent!

new years day - hangover.

rest of the week was spent taking in more of sydney - manly was great although they closed the beach due to some more massive waves, and me and sam got drunk at the cricket whilst sachin notched up a cheeky 156 n.o. for india against the dirty cheating ozzies (only joking (not really)). we were 8 pints not out by close of play and ended the evening with some pretty random karaoke.

we'd been bumming around for over a week now so decided to leave sam and hannah in peace for a bit and head up to the blue moutains. canyoning seems to be the thing to do here and so we dived right in with a trip to sheep dip & rocky canyons, so called because one has you jumping in and out of the water like - you guessed it - a sheep dip, and the other one is...errr...rocky?!?

saw some pretty fantastic scenary as well with echo point taking in a stunning view of the three sisters, a huge rock formation at the edge of a vast valley that stretches for miles and has a blue tinge (hence blue mountains) hanging over it.

that done, we dropped back into sydney for one last drunken evening before finally leaving our weary hosts in peace.

we had planned to head north but the weather was so shocking we switched it all around and hired a car for the drive to melbourne and the great ocean road.

got to love a road trip.

Malaysia - Sarawak & The Peninsular

davebudding — Tue, 29 Jan 2008 17:26:00 GMT

After some serious pressure being exerted on me to get the blog up to date (mostly from erica's immediate and extended family to be honest) i've taken it upon myself to bring the damned thing right up to date. prepare yourselves for three thrilling(ish) installments of erica and dave's travels...

After a cracking 10 days in sabah we jetted over to neighbouring sarawak for a few days to get a flavour of the place. we flew into the lively kuching and checked into a hostel that had been recommended to us. erica was horrified to notice the guitars leaning against the wall as we walked in and we braced ourselves for a few days of smelly hippies.

the first day was a well earned rest day afater mountain climbing, orangutan hunting (not really) and diving with man eating sharks. the evening started quietly enough until we were collared into having dinner in the hostel with aforementioned smelly hippies.

I was lured into eating some fried grubs (tasted like chicken) and a pungent fruit called durian was passed around. you wouldn't have thought it was possible to find a fruit that tasted like gone off mutton but the malaysians have somehow managed it. the evening reached an all time low when the guitars were brought out and they all started closing their eyes and singing. we quietly sloped off to bed.

the next day we headed over to bako national park to and get back in touch with nature. it's pretty remote and needed a 30 minute boat ride to get us to park hq. we did a couple of short walks that felt like three days hikes in 1000% humidity. it was worth it though and we got to see some of the native proboscis monkeys and a green pit viper, not to mention some nice big spiders on a dusk stroll we took.

the next day we ended our short stint in sarawak and headed over to kl. erica's cousin, jon, lives here in a reasonably (ie very) swanky apartment. our outdoor, waterfall style, shower was much appreciated after our time in the jungle.

we took in the sights (baku caves, kl tower, petronas towers) and had a couple of damned good meals out. bbq'd stingray is something i'll be looking out for back in bristol.

after sweating it out for a nearly three weeks now down in borneo and kl we retired north to the cameron highlands for some cooler air. it's a major tea producing area so we indulged in some local cha and took a few walks in the hills, albeit one of them turning into a bit of an off the track adventure after we picked a less than well maintained track. a red mark on a tree in the undergrowth every 50 yards or so is not the kind of hiking erica had in mind.

we visited some local tribes as well, the orang asli who are indiginous to malaysia (albeit having moved here from the old khmer emipre originally). they were even kind enought to let us get some blowpipe action in (shooting stuff with poison darts). i was all up for finding dinner but had to settle for an old flip flop nailed to the head man's hut instead. still got it right between the thong though.

by this time we were pretty much at xmas day so we headed over to a posh(ish) resort on the west coast near the island of pulau pangokor. we knew it had to be good when the first thing we saw was a sign banning the prviously mentioned durian fruits. only problem was it was miles from anywhere and the food turned out to be shite. merry f***ing xmas!

all done with our crappy xmas we headed south to melaka and whilst erica suffered with a mild delhi belly i took in the various colonial buildings from times gone by when everyone seemed to be fighting over this little nugget of a port.

final stop in se asia was singapore, a brief one day stop over. not much to say about the place to be honest. pretty dull and not too sad to leave. erica thought she could live there. will have to have a word about that.

oz and some rather good fireworks next...

Malaysia - Sabah

davebudding — Sun, 6 Jan 2008 10:18:00 GMT

We jetted into kl with the ever reliable airasia (like easyjet but more reliable, cleaner and not run by a greek) and immediately bounced over to kota kinabalu. We had a mountain to climb.

Mount Kinabalu stands 4095m tall in the middle of Kinabalu National Park. As you arrive the top is ominously shrouded in cloud and it looks like an awfully long way up without going all that far on the horizontal. Our briefing kindly informed us that the slopes ranged between 15% and 30% gradients.

We set out in some mildly inclement weather that unfortunately was only going to get worse. The slopes are brutal from the start with steps measuring 2 foot in height kindly put in for your convenience. It was a 4 hour trek through some fantastic rainforest to the resthouse at 3200m where we were to spend the night. We arrived in relatively dry conditions but the poor bastards who trudged in after dark soaked to the skin must have wished they'd hauled their asses out of bed a little earlier.

The final trek to the top was only an extra 2.7km but the sheer granite slopes past the "edge of vegetation" and arctic conditions mean its a slow and steady 2 hour climb. The torrential rain that kindly came in overnight didn't help and we were feeling less than enthusiastic at 3am as we set off.

The painfully early start is designed to get you there for the spectacular sunrise. As we arrived triumphantly at the top we were unfortunately only greeted by cloud. We hung around briefly for a souvenier picture of the low's peak sign before heading back down. Luckily the cloud lifted a few 100m down and the view all the way to the South China Sea was spectacular enough to soothe our frozen and aching bodies.

Mountain conquered, we headed east to Sepilok to see some apes. Orangutans to be precise. The Malaysian government sees a lot of money in oil palm plantations (roughly 60% of malaysia's land mass is covered with the things) but to make way the rainforest is a big casualty. The orangutans orphaned and made homeless by this land clearing are taking in by Sepilok for rehabilitation.

As a visitor you're entitled to see them at feeding station A. Baby orangutans doing cartwheels through the trees and a short tailed macaque monkey picking a fight with a fully grown male orangutan over a banana provided some cracking entertainment for the day. That said, it does feel a little like a case of who's watching who.

Next stop was semporna, the mainland base for diving trips to pilau sipidan. This ranks amongst the top ten dive sites in the world and it's soon obvious why. Sipidan is a picture post card tropical island in the middle of the south china sea. No one can stay on the island as they've had a couple of minor problems with some pesky pirates trying to kidnap people.

This has helped to preserve the island though, and the gently sloping coral that fans out in all directions is like the biggest aquarium in the world. This is nothing however compared to the "drop off" on all sides of the reef. One side plummets to 600m whilst the other falls away to a staggering 2km trench. As you swim along the wall the ocean drops away to nothingness beneath you, whilst turtles, sharks, more turtles and more sharks, casually drift around you.

Probably the best place we've been so far and highly recommended for anyone in this part of the world. 10 days of adventure out of the way, we headed over to Sarawak and Peninsular Malaysia to see what they had in store for us over there.

Thailand - The South

davebudding — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 22:17:00 GMT

Our trip to the south began with a gruelling two day journey by train and bus from chaing mai in the north, down to koh tao. the only highlight being the chance to see england disgrace themselves on the way out of the qualifiers at 4am in some dodgy cafe in chumpong. we then caught the catarmaran from the mainland to the island, braving some seriously choppy seas along the way (sitting at the front felt like free falling - sick bags were in high demand).

we rolled into coral grand divers resort at 10am feeling less than fresh and spent the rest of the day on the beach, save some cheesy american videos to begin our PADI openwater scuba diver course. the course began in earnest the next day with some introductory dives in the pool. all went well and we were set for the real thing on day 3.

word to the wise now - do NOT go diving on koh tao in november. espcially at full moon. apparently the moon generates lots of current and this prompts the fish to start spreading their seed. not a nice thought when you're swimming through this muck.

the visibility was less than 5m and it's fair to say that descending for that first time down the buoy line was like entering the abyss. this was all a bit much for erica and her PADI was postponed until a clearer day on koh phi phi. I managed to soldier through and completed my - not entirely memorable - PADI course. I could probably count the fish I saw on one hand. Not to worry though as better was to come...

we moved on from koh tao - gracefully sidestepping ko phan ngang and the hordes of full moon revellers - to arrive on koh samui for some r&r. the 2 months of living the dream in london at the marriot paid off as i cash in my well earned points for some luxury at the marriot koh samui spa resort. all 5 stars of it.

east coast done, the west coast beckoned. it was a pretty immediate contrast with the east coast being slightly out of season with the monsoon coming in, whilst the west coast was well and truly in season. we stopped over in krabi (bit of a shit hole) for one night before heading out to koh phi phi, location for the film "the beach".

the throng of chavs and pikeys that greeted us was at once both homely and disconcerting. we quickly jumped on a long tail boat from the main beach to the slightly more relaxed hat yao beach (aka long beach). a rather cool bamboo hut made do for accomodation on the beach front, ravenous mozzies included free of charge. you could make a dot to dot of a turtle on erica's back by the end of our stay.

we took the opportunity to get some more diving in and erica had a chance to complete her PADI course. conditions were significantly better than koh tao and we spotted an octopus climbing a reef like a monkey, a lone turtle (the mozzie bites must have been a sign), and most impressively a group of around five black tip reef sharks (a couple as big as me) circling us in a rather disconcerting way.

our last few days in thailand were spent out at the hongs around the coast line of krabi. think james bond style islands set in crystal clear seas and you've got the jist of it. we paddled around the lagoons in a couple of seas kayaks - stopping along the way to rescue some capsized koreans who weren't too hot on swimming - before a bit of snorkelling and beach time.

not that I'm any kind of judge, but our tour guide for the day was by far the worst attempt at a lady boy that I have ever seen. poor show.

next borneo...

Thailand - Bangkok and The North

davebudding — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 18:02:00 GMT

some might say i've been a little lazy in updating the blog, having left thailand all of a week ago and with three and a half week of merriment still undocumented. i say, balls to them.

i have now howeve managed to find a gap in my busy schedule to fill you in on what we've been up to.

we flew into bankgkok way back in the second week of november and made our way, like a fly makes its way to the lightbulb, to khao san road. a couple of dodgy suits later and we headed off to explore the sites. the grand palace was high up the agenda but we were constantly stopped by kind hearted locals who told us that because of a - surprisingly unnamed - buddhist festival the palace was closed, but if we wanted to head to their mate's jeweller/tailors we were more than welcome. we politely told them to bugger off and headed to the very open palace. needless to say it was pretty impessive. they really like their king here.

painful shopping aside not much else went on in bangkok and we soon headed up north to chaing mai for some trekking. we were, or maybe it should be I was, very fortunate to be put in a group including 7 irish girls who were well up for getting on "the flame" aka the lash. the miserable swedes were less entertaining.

we headed out into the hills around for three day of elephant riding, bamboo rafting and plenty of walking. our guide was a bit of a legend and even demonstrated this with a story of how he'd killed a tiger on a trek the week befoe and bbq'd it. to remove any doubt of this tall tale he even presented part of the carcass to us before inclduing some leftovers in a tasty curry on the second night.

the first night was my birthday and it wan't your average celebration. we arrived in our first hill tribe village (5* floorboards for beds included free of charge) and an impromptu game of 5 a side between foreigners an villagers began. 90 minutes later the villagers ran out lucky 20-19 winner although i'm sure they had twice as many players on average.

the evening was then spent drinking rice whisky like it was ribena whilst the locals sat in the corner smoking some seriously dubious cigarettes. the highlight for me was one of the irish lads thrashing the locals at a friendly game of snap and taunting them with cries of "where's your buddha now". it's all about building bridges.

next, onto the south...

Cambodia

davebudding — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 13:02:00 GMT

After chasing down the bus on our hastily commandeered moped we crusied through the cambodian country side towards phnom penh. We'd heard that cambodia was the third poorest country in the world. True or not, it was soon pretty obvious that vietnam was doing slightly better for itself than it's neighbour.

Arriving in phnom penh, we went in search of a half decent place to crash for the night. Unforunately the best we could do was a room with no windows and floor boards that you couldn't help but feel were hiding something slightly distrubing.

Quickly escaping this luxury we ventured out for a bite to eat and some cool beverages with an irish couple we got chatting to on the bus. Got some good tips on diving courses in Koh Tao (on the agenda in a couple of weeks) before myself and Dom played out the longest and most painful game of pool in history. Some may say I'm out of practice.

Regretting the few extra beers of the night before we rose at a unforgiving 530am to catch the fast boat to siem riep. $25 each turned out to be a complete rip off when we discovered there was a bus for $4 that took roughly the same amount of time. The very faint silver lining was chilling out on the roof as the boat powered up the Tonle Sap lake at brisk 100mph (well that's what it felt like).

Siem riep gave the impression of being so laid back it was almost horizontal. Plenty of relaxed bars and restuarants with sofas out the front and ice cold beers standing ready. More tourists than in phnom penh, mainly due to the temples at Angkor, but it still had a decent local feel to it. Food was also some of the best we'd had so far. I'd heartily recommend the amok fish and khmer curry. It was good to finally find some spice in our food.

Continuing the theme of abnormal wake up times we met our tuk tuk driver the next day at 6am to head over to the temples of Angkor. This one was definitely worth it as we arrived at Angkor Wat just after sunrise. This was, quite frankly, a spectacular site. Also, there was the added bonus of missing the hordes of korean and japanese tourists that had arrived 30 minutes earlier for sunrise and had a habit of making the place seem like disneyland.

Aside from a brief repremand from erica for taking more pictures of the monkeys than the temples, we were both suprisingly cultured and took an active interest in angkor wat, the bayon and ta prohm - the main sites to visit. We even went to the extent of buying a guide book (rrp $27, offered for $10, bought for $3 - now that's my kind of discount).

Ta prohm was probably the favourite with enourmous trees growing throughout the ruined temple. When the french found it they decided to leave this one site in it's original state, rather than restore it. Some may say lazy cheese eating surrender monkeys but after wandering through the place i'd say it was pretty good shout.

The day finished atop the highest temple (50m climb in the heat of the day - bloody knackered). Here we had an interesting chat with a local lad who told a touching story about how someone had fancied his girlfriend so he "boxed" them. Apparently he didn't get any trouble after that. True romance is alive and kicking in cambodia.

Culture out the way, we headed back to phnom penh. The prospect of a 10 hour bus ride to bangkok from siem riep was quickly rejected for the comfort of a one hour flight from phnom penh.

A very sombre morning was spent visiting the killing fields at cheung ek and the toul sleng genocide musuem, also known as s21. These are the two most significant sites that reveal the attrocities carried out by the Khmer Rouge during the late 70's. A tour guide at both locations made it a very real experience, both of them being survivors of the genocide. It's easy to forget that many people you see on the streets lived through the regime. Estimates of the dead during the 5 year rule of Pol Pot range from 500,000 to 3,000,000.

The afternoon was more light hearted with a visit to the royal palace. compound and the silver pagoda. We even saw a glimpse of kings left shoulder as he was whisked from the palace in a limo for the ceremonial lighting of a flame. We think it was cambodian independence day, but it could have easily been liberation day (a volatile history would be an understatement for this place).

Phnom Penh finished with, the next morning we were on our way to bangkok. But not before being stuck in a rush hour jam on a tuk tuk for 2 hours on route to the airport. Made check in by 2 minutes. Phew!

Thailand next...

Gallery: Hong Kong, Vietnam & Cambodia

davebudding — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 20:39:00 GMT

The Dream

Back in 'Nam

davebudding — Fri, 9 Nov 2007 20:16:00 GMT

So. The relative comforts of hong kong out the way, we packed up and jumped on a short flight to ho chi minh city (saigon to all us veterans). to say we were uncertain of what to expect would be an understatement.

On arrival the first thing that sprung was to mind was the slight contrast with hong kong. if hong kong was odd, then saigon is just plain mental. we soon discovered, minutes into our taxi journey from the airport, that braking is overrated in this place. the most effective way to cross a busy junction is to sound your horn, close your eyes, and hit the gas. to be fair, it seemed to work every time.

crossing the road was also more of an adventure than anticipated. basically you just start walking, regardless of traffic, and don't stop. if you do, you will be run over. fact.

traffic fun out the way we set off for a leisurly stroll around saigon to take in the sights. highlight was probably the war remnants museum, a nice little propaganda centre for the former North Vietnamese Army. Plenty of graffic photos and debris of war, and not for the last time as well.

a trip to the cu chi tunnels was in order for the next day. more war propaganda with a video about local "american killer heroes".

VC rebels were based here during the war and there is a legacy of very hot and sweaty network of tunnels to prove the point. the passages have been widened to a generous 120cm by 80cm but it's still a pretty tight experience for a 6' 1" lanky bastard like me.

the recorded machine gun noises that continually broke the silence of the jungle also turned out to be very real machine gun noises from the on site firing range. never one to miss an opportunity i picked up my m16 rifle but succeeded only in scaring some rabbits in the neigbouring field, quite comfortably missed the target with all 10 of my rounds.

the mekong delta beckoned next and a few leisurely days cruising around on a boat and soaking up the local villages, some of them floating as the locals can't afford to buy any land (erica even saw a floating basketball court - shotgun not going to fetch the ball).

also got to make friends with a python (not a euphamism). apparently he'd been recently fed - most likely with a recent tourist - so there was nothing to worry about. if they say so...

the temptation to head up north and take in some more of the country was diminished by the floods and spectacular thunder storms so we packed up and headed to cambodia by bus.

well, almost.

we got as far as border control and became separated from our group because we had a different type of visa. on emerging from customs our bus was nowhere in sight. minutes later though, all was well. a trusty cambodian aide rolled up with his moped and reassured us that the bus was a mere 2km down the road and we could catch them up. where was the other moped i asked? oh no sir...one will be fine for the three of us!

there's nothing like arriving in style...

Hong Kong for starters...

davebudding — Thu, 1 Nov 2007 21:02:00 GMT

So we've finally arrived somewhere that isn't in the uk (previous destinations of note being po na na in bristol and reigate).

Hong Kong is - quite frankly - odd. Think high rise, new york style skyscraper, neighboured by ghetto style, flea ridden cess pit, neighboured by skyscraper, and so on. The place seems to have been designed by arhitect on speed. I think the word is juxtaposition but i'd be wary of using that in polite company as I am a mildly illiterate welsh man.

Arrived in hong kong airport to be greeted by 1) starbucks, 2) burger king and 3) mcdonalds. Nothing like experiencing a bit of culture. Got to the rather swanky marriot on hong kong island (living in london for 8 weeks had to be worth something) and fought through the jet lag to go out for a stroll. Hong kong is big on shopping making it a rather ironic destination for a man with a pathological phobia of that particular activity. That out the way and jet lag dealt with, headed to the big buddha on lantau island. What can I say, it was big.

You may be sensing a certain lack of enthusiasm up to this point and you'd be right/ jet lag plus a minor delhi belly had added up to a gruelling first day and a half. However the view of victoria harbour from the star ferry on wednesday evening more than made up for everything. Nicely filtering out the aforementioned ghettos, the view was pretty stunning.

The evening was then rounded off with a trip to happy valley race course. You wouldn't think you could cram a 1500m, 55,000 seater race course into a place as compact as hong kong. you'd be wrong (they also got a 300 yard driving range in there). Excellent night out rounded of nicely by dave beating erica (comfortably) in the betting by $43 profit to %27 (a whole 1 welsh pound).

Today has been filled with a trip to the peak which despite being shrouded in the clouds, was still pretty cool. One minor disappointment was heading to the peninsular hotel. I was reliably informed before i went that it had wonderful views of the harbour and that when you went for a pee it was like tinkling in the river. Unfortunately there has been a minor land grab in front of the hotel and now all you can see is the arse end of the space museum. Oh well.

Off to lang kwai fong tonight for a bite to eat and drinks before flying off to 'nam tomorrow morning.

Until next time...

ps photos to come when we find a half decent internet cafe with somewhere to plug in the camera.

Leaving Party

davebudding — Wed, 24 Oct 2007 06:34:00 GMT

Not officially the start of travelling but definitely a fitting end to our current stint in brizzle. After sourcing a 159" projector for our flat to accomodate the inconvenience of england getting to the world cup final (a token gesture at best says the bitter welsh man) we welcomed the hoards to pembroke road for some quiet pre club drinks. A few hundred bottles of beer later 30 inconsolable english, and a few indifferent welshies ventured down to po na na for a well planned night.

After spending a good 30 minutes in the guest list queue that was a mere 10 times the size of the regular queue we strolled in to the sound of some classic cheese and the promise of vodka.

The ball ache of negotiating 35 people through the door soon proved futile as intoxicated monkeys rapidly started getting ejected. Highlights being:

1) Simon being politely asked to sit down or get out after attempting a bind and drive manouvre on the dancefloor

2) Gruesome trying to escape through the fire escape (there was no fire)

3) And a whole lot of Vigorous Dancing (courtesy of the Hagg/Turley/Brewster/Davies dancing troupe)

Good night all round and the only complaint seems to be from my liver. I say "pipe down you mincy organ"!