Travelling 02/02/10-02/08/10

Laos and Thailand...the final blog

emily_zitcer — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 23:05:00 GMT

So here it is, the final chapter in the story. After 6 unbelievably amazing/fulfilling/insane/enjoyable months, I am now in Bangkok awaiting my flight home on Sunday night, arriving back in London on Monday.

Following on from Bali, Dan, Cat and I went to Laos where we spent 10 days in Vang Vieng (still not entirely sure where exactly in Laos this is), mostly just doing tubing, which, for those who don't know, is where you spend the day floating down a river in rubber rings, stopping off at a series of river-side bars along the way. We had a great time, although did get a bit bored of being in one place for so long. We managed to spend a couple of days varying our activities, by going kayaking and caving one day, and taking a tuk tuk out to a really chilled out lagoon 20 minutes out of town. I managed to get a job in one of the bars in the town as well, which was good fun.

But after Laos we were pretty ready to leave and head to Thailand, which has been amazing. We went pretty much straight from Laos (via Bangkok and Phuket for one night) to the island of Koh Phi Phi, which is gorgeous. The beach had amazing sand, the water was bath-water warm and best of all our group of 3 became a group of 13, as we were joined by several friends from uni/past travels/home etc. Having bumped into some by chance on the beach and arranged to meet up with others, all 13 of us were staying in one guesthouse on the island, occupying 6 rooms between us, which made for an incredible time. The days were spent in and around the beach enjoying the fantastic weather, whilst there nights were mainly beach parties. The 13 of us had such a good time together, and on our final day in Phi Phi we went off for a day and night of camping on a remote island 45 minutes away. We were taken to Bamboo Island on a private trip as there were so many of us. We stopped off in the boat on the way at Monkey Beach, which is, as the name implies, a beach occupied by dozens of monkeys. We then were taken to the island, where our amazing guides set up a camping/eating area for us on the beach. We went snorkelling, did a lap of the full circumference of the island, and then spent the night around a bonfire on the beach. We all eventually went to sleep in various spots on the beach.

Following on from Phi Phi, we all went to Koh Phangan, which is an island on the other side of Thailand, mainly visited for the notorious full moon party - the world's largest beach party, which takes place every month on or around full moon, and is basically an all night party taking up an entire beach on the island, attended by thousands and thousands of people. We arrived in Koh Phangan 5 days before the full moon, in order to enjoy the build up to it. Unfortunately we didn't have great weather in the run up to full moon, but there's such a good atmosphere on the island that it didn't really matter. Our group of 13 this time was split into 3 hostels, but there were still 9 of us staying in one homestay in adjacent rooms which was perfect. And full moon itself was such a good night. Everyone partied in the rain on the beach until the early hours enjoying themselves.

And now Dan, Joe Mcgratty and I are in Bangkok, where the boys depart from to go to China tomorrow, and I wait one more day for my flight home. I am dreading this all being over, but look forward to seeing you all very soon!

Photos: Bangkok, Koh Phi Phi & Koh Phangan

emily_zitcer — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 21:13:00 GMT

Photos: Laos

emily_zitcer — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 18:07:00 GMT

Bali and the Gili Islands...a lesson in automobile mechanics

emily_zitcer — Thu, 8 Jul 2010 12:50:00 GMT

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Dan and I started off our trip to Indonesia just under two weeks ago, when we were reunited in Kuta, after his very long trip over from Central America (via 3 flights) and my messed up flights from Australia (do not travel with Jetstar, ever). We spent our first 2 days in Kuta, which is where a lot of people come to Bali to stay, and end up not seeing any of the rest of the island, which is a bit pointless. It’s also the Aussie version of Magaluf, and so is a tad tacky. But it does have a LOT of market stalls/shops, selling every possible fake designer product/souvenirs/leather goods etc etc, so I was happy. So, we (actually just mostly I) spent a lot of time browsing the shops (which is probably the reason that my backpack now weighs over 25kg, and I have just had to take out one fifth of the contents and carry it onto my flight to Bangkok). We were staying in a pretty decent hotel right in the centre of Kuta, so we also managed to enjoy some pool time, which allowed me to continue to work on the tan, which had somewhat faded during my time in Australia. Other than a very disappointing evening of watching the England vs. Germany WC match, Kuta was really good. But we were definitely ready to get out of there after a couple of days, as it’s a massive tourist trap, and I think if one more person had offered me “transport, lady?” or tried to sell me any more fake bags (which I was very restrained, and did not purchase a single one of), I might have snapped.

So, from Kuta we went to the Gili Islands for a few days in complete paradise. We headed straight to Gili Trawangan, which is the largest and most popular of the 3 habitable Gili Islands (unless you have a lot of money to spend in one of the smart resorts on Gili Air). We had a brilliant four days there, spending the day times on the beautiful white sand beach and in the crystal clear sea, lounging on one of the many different seating options on the beach, all of which are owned by one restaurant/bar or the other, and so you get food/drink brought directly to you. A traveller’s dream. Gili Trawangan is full of young travelers and holidaying Aussies, so is a really sociable place. There is one main street which has a ton of open air bars and restaurants on it, many of which serve a fish BBQ in the evening, which were very good. And the best thing about Indonesia in general is that everything is crazy cheap, which makes a nice change from the ridiculous cost of living in Australia. We have been eating meals for under 2 quid sometimes, which I have obviously been loving.

On one of the days in Gili we decided to actually be productive and went on a snorkeling trip around the different islands, which was amazing. Having not seen too much on our first three snorkels other than fish, on our last swim of the trip we went to Turtle Point and saw loads of turtles which was really great.

After the Gili Islands, we came back to Bali to embark on what would prove to be a very interesting (!) road trip round the island. For the first couple of days it was just Dan and me, but then one of his friends from uni (who we will now be traveling with for the rest of the time) joined us. The whole thing started with a bunch of people recommending to us that driving round the island is the easiest way, and having found a car for 120,000IDR rental per day (less than 10 pounds) we decided to take it on, and met what looked like a very fun, yet slightly decrepit, jeep which would be the bane of our existence for the next week. It all started off less than smoothly as Dan had to negotiate the tiny alleys of Kuta, which somehow manage to pass for “roads” with 2-way traffic on them. After hitting a wall within the first 5 minutes, getting wedged in a road, and causing various traffic jams (the other problem with driving around Bali is that there are hundreds of scooter/motorbike drivers everywhere, all of whom seem to have a death wish and don’t get out of the way of cars), we managed to get out of Kuta and got on our way. Seeing the island from our own car was definitely a brilliant way of doing it. However the problems started to emerge on the second morning, when we mysteriously couldn’t get the car started. After help from the owner of the homestay where we were, we managed to get what seemed to be a knackered battery going with a rolling start (I think I have learnt more about the mechanics of a car in the last 6 days than I have in the entire 4 and a half years I’ve been driving). We then thought everything was fine, until we came back to the car after going to see a temple that morning (which was beautiful – perched on a cliff overlooking the sea), and again couldn’t get it started. And so a pattern emerged – every time we turned the car off for more than 20 minutes, the battery died and we had to do a rolling start, usually with the assistance of more than one local, who luckily were incredibly helpful. So not only did we always have to park on a hill, with masses of space behind us (which is not always easy to find), but most of the time it was easier just to not stop the car. Which became interesting for example when we picked up Dan’s friend from the airport, and whilst waiting for her for half an hour couldn’t turn the car off as it wouldn’t have turned back on, so we had to drive round the airport car park for half an hour solid.

We did manage to go to some great places – Uluwatu in the very south of the island, where we visited our first temple, Padang Padang, which is a very popular surf spot with a beautiful beach, an incredibly stunning lake called Batur in the north, which has two huge volcanoes next to it and so makes for incredible views. However, when I parked up in Ubud (which is a really cool, arty part of the island where we spent 2 nights), and I was waiting in the car whilst the others went to find somewhere to stay and I suddenly saw a group of locals pointing at the bonnet of the car, from where a huge amount of smoke was emerging, and then the engine wouldn’t turn off even when the key was out of the ignition (the car had some odd capabilities), we decided that enough was enough and called the guy we’d rented it from, who brought us a replacement car straight away (also a decrepit jeep, but it turned on!).

The last couple of days were spent around Lake Batur as we loved it so much, and yesterday morning we did a sunrise hike of the volcano, which was brilliant. Starting at 3am, we walked up for a couple of hours and then sat at the very top to watch the sun rise around 6.30am.

I think we were just all delighted to be able to return the car to Kuta yesterday afternoon with it and us unscathed. I also managed to negotiate Kuta’s streets without a single scrape/accident/infuriated local, which was fairly miraculous given how ridiculous the streets are. So it all worked out for the best in the end!

Photos: Bali & The Gili Islands

emily_zitcer — Mon, 5 Jul 2010 20:10:00 GMT

Photos: Down Under

emily_zitcer — Sat, 3 Jul 2010 18:50:00 GMT

Down Under

emily_zitcer — Fri, 2 Jul 2010 21:16:00 GMT

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To all those who are following the blog, I apologise massively for the delay in writing about Australia. It was completely non-stop for the entire time we were there, and so chances to get on the internet for extended periods were limited.

But...here is the story. So I arrived in Cairns on the 8th of June, after nearly 3 weeks in incredible (absolutely loved it!) Fiji. My time in Cairns was pretty much limited to sorting out the rest of my trip through the various travel agencies there which are specifically geared towards backpackers, especially since the lagoon there was closed for maintainance (as have been many things during our trip so far...very aggravating). But anyway, it was a nice surprise to find that Cairns was quite as hot as it was, and I got to see most of the town, as well as have some really good nights out there.

But then I was straight off to Airlie Beach, from where everyone traveling down the East Coast of Australia does one of the most popular activities, which is a 3 day sailing trip around the Whitsundays - a very popular group of islands just off Queensland which are really stunning. I was on a boat called The New Horizon, which is a big sailing ship which takes groups of about 30 people out for 3 days, and everyone sleeps on the boat in big wooden dorms below deck. Everyone raves about the Whitsundays trip, and it was easy to see why. We spent the days snorkelling (following turtles and fish bigger than I've ever seen), and the nights chilling on the deck of the boat. There was a really lovely crew of 4 young aussie guys, who make incredible food for everyone and are just really nice and pretty knowledgeable on the Whitsundays. On the second day, the skipper drove (if that's the right word) us straight to Whitehaven beach - which is an absolutely incredible beach on one of the islands, where the sand is pure white (hence the name), consisting on 98% silica, so it's incredibly fine. And the waters are amazingly turquoise - all in all it's just a postcard perfect place. We spent the day on the beach there, and then went snorkeling around the area. Other than a horrifically bumpy journey back on the last day, which resulted in all 30 passengers squeezing onto the back deck of the boat in order to protect ourselves from the pouring rain and sit in silence as we all felt so sea-sick, the whole thing was amazing, and so sociable.

As soon as I was done with the Whitsundays, I had to leave straight away to do an overnight bus to Rainbow Beach, which was a bit of a shame as the whole boat had an after-party that night at one of the bars. But I was a bit pushed for time, so it had to be done. Rainbow Beach is only a feature of everyone’s East Coast trip as it’s where everyone does their Fraser Island tour from. Fraser Island is the biggest sand island in the world – the whole thing is just sand (pretty self-explanatory). And the vast majority of people do a self-drive tour round the island for 3 days – there are a couple of main companies who organize these, and each one puts people into groups of 8, and then each group is given a 4x4 jeep to drive round the island on your own in. It was definitely my favourite thing during my East Coast trip. Our trip had 7 jeeps which drove together most of the way. After a 3 hour briefing on the day I arrived in Rainbow, followed by a 2 hour briefing the next morning, in which we were given the lowdown on how to drive a 4x4 correctly, how to drive on sand (you spend about 80% of the time driving along the beach, which is basically Fraser’s version of roads), and how to look after the car etc, we were waved off at the ferry terminal by the owner of the jeep company, and then our 7 jeeps drove in convoy most of the way for 3 amazing days on Fraser. On the first day, all the cars (well, except one which we had to leave behind as its clutch was broken and so that group had to wait for a mechanic to come out) went to a massive lake – Lake Mckenzie - where those brave enough went in the freezing cold water, and we all just hung out on the beach. It was so much fun having all the jeeps together, and so even when we all got lost (we were given a map each, but there are very few signs around the island, so you sort of have to wing it and hope for the best), we all were in it together. And each night we would camp out on the beach, in tents provided by the company. The first night was definitely interesting, as due to getting lost, we all arrived at camp after dark, and it started to pour with rain. So we ended up attempting to put up tents in the pouring rain and pitch black, and then trying to cook ( I did manage to rustle up a lovely chicken stir fry though!). A lot of people just got on the alcohol in order to overcome the situation! And even more people just ended up sleeping in the jeeps as tents were all over the place, and one of ours was broken. But it was such a good night!!

The next day we did more driving along the beach, stopping at a creek which everyone swam down, and we set up our little cookers and rustled up some breakfast. Luckily the weather was better the second day, so all of us could just chill on the beach. We then drove on to see a famous ship wreck (from 1935…I think) that’s moored on the beach, and then onto a big look out point at one end of the island. Camp set-up on the second night was much easier, as we got there very early and managed to set up everything and cook in the light (huge achievement). And so then we could just relax for the rest of the night. There were a couple of close encounters that night with the local dingoes (the wild dogs that populate the island), but luckily other than a few frights everyone was fine. And then we spent the last day visiting another big lake which is in the midst of some massive sand dunes, and has a whole bunch of cat-fish in it. Pretty cool.

The whole thing was a great 3 days, and I had really great people in my jeep so was very lucky. But after that, I had to move straight on to Noosa (just north of Brisbane), where I spent a very relaxed day with one of the girls from my Fraser Island trip. Other than disastrously waking myself up at 4.30am for the pointless England v. Algeria World Cup match, we had a really nice time in Noosa. But I was only there for one day before moving onto Brisbane, where I spent the next 2 nights. A lot of people have very little positive to say about Brisbane, but I fell in love with it. It’s a decent sized city, with lots of cool areas. They have a South Bank (where I spent one day at the local weekend market and on their man-made beach) which replicates London’s South Bank, with its own mini London-eye. I also spent some time in their New Farm area, which has a gorgeous park and some lovely little cafes. I travelled down the Brisbane River on their boat transport – the City Cat – which was also really nice as I had gorgeous weather during my whole stay there.

And then it was onto Byron Bay, which is a really popular beach/surf spot. It’s a very very chilled out place, and caters specifically to the backpacker crowd. I stayed in a cool hostel there called The Arts Factory, which has accommodation ranging from dorms to tents and teepees. On a friend’s recommendation, we spent one day there in Bangalow, which is a small town just down the road with great vintage style shops and cute cafes. Very chic.

After Byron Bay, I took an overnight bus to Sydney, where I spent 3 days staying with a family friend – which was so lovely, but very surreal having a room to myself. I already loved Sydney from the last time I was there, and being there this time just reconfirmed that. I did everything I loved from before – seeing the opera house, the Harbour Bridge, doing some obligatory shopping, plus I went to Manly beach for the day, and had some lovely meals out with my great hosts. So Sydney went down a storm (as expected)

And now I have been reunited with Dan in Bali – which we are LOVING. It’s pure paradise here, and incredibly hot. We are currently on a road trip for 3 days, in a great old banger of a jeep. But more of that later….

Fiji!

emily_zitcer — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 08:32:00 GMT

Now I can really say that I have been to Paradise and back, in the form of Fiji.

Having finished our time in New Zealand (which ended with a really great little road trip around the Coromandul Peninsula in the North Island, where Debs, Sinead, Suzanne and I hired a car for 3 days and cruised along the coast) we spent our final day there attempting to plan our trip to Fiji, which we knew relatively little about. Following various advice, the 5 of us bought Bula Combo passes - which are transport and accomodation passes for the Yasawa Islands in Fiji (the bit of Fiji that everyone goes to, although relatively small compared to the whole of Fiji), which means that you can hop on and off this big yellow catamaran that is the only means of transport between the islands. It also gives you a certain number of nights' accomodation at the "resorts" on the islands - there are between 20 and 30 different "resorts", which are self-contained hostel/hotel type accomodations, with their own restaurants/dining areas, and you can choose between them, with most people choosing a series of resorts and staying at each one for a couple of nights, before moving on, on the yellow boat, to their next island resort.

Our first full day in Fiji was spent on the main land, in Nadi (where our flight from NZ landed), celebrating my birthday. The girls set up a lovely balloon/banner set-up by the pool of my hostel, and we spent the morning sunbathing by the pool. In the afternoon, Debs and I headed to Natandula beach (the best beach in Fiji, and supposedly one of the best beaches in the world), where we went horseriding along the beach. As it was the end of the day, the beach was completely empty, so we had the whole thing to ourselves which was amazing. That evening, the 5 of us went out for dinner and did some more celebrating

The next day, we started our Bula passes - we took the boat up to the very top of the group of islands, to spend 2 nights at Coral View resort. The resort is pretty nice, with a big area of grass outside the dorms, directly overlooking the beach. Most of the resorts put on some form of night-time entertainment, and Coral View was no different, with the staff doing songs after dinner, and then organising a series of 'games', led by a crazy Fijian lady. It's definitely true what they say about the Fijians being incredibly friendly and welcoming, and she certainly ensured everyone had a good time. The resorts are also incredibly sociable, as there are set meal times and so everyone eats together, which makes for a really good atmosphere.

After Coral View, we headed to a resort called Korovou, slightly south, which had a pool! Korovou's other main feature is their very popular 'Bula Boys', who are a group of the young male members of staff, who do 'Bula dances' every night, whereby they dance around topless, smothered in some sort of horrific smelling oil. Safe to say most of the girls enjoy this bit of Korovou! The staff there are also particularly friendly, and there was a whole bunch of free (yes!) activities whilst we were there, including fish feeding and coconut cracking (one of the staff members did a very impressive cracking of the coconut using his hands only). I think that we all preferred Korovou to Coral View, although the dorm room wasn't as nice. We were lucky with the weather there as well, and spent most of our time developing the tans

After Korovou, we headed further south to a lovely resort called Wailailai, which consists of a series of thatched-roof dorms/bures (private rooms) on staggered hillside overlooking the beach. The dining area is entirely outdoors, on a gorgeous decking area directly over the beach, from which many a stunning sunset can be watched. As soon as we arrived in Wailailai, a few of the girls and me went off to do a jewellery making/weaving lesson with some of the ladies from the local village (a lot of the islands have a nearby village, which usually has some sort of interaction with the resort itself, and in the case of Wailailai, the village actually runs the resort). On our one night in Wailailai, we were lucky to catch the first of many Fijian nights we would see (a lot of the resorts have at least one night a week which is "Fiji night", consisting of typical Fijian entertainment by the staff/villagers, and typical Fijian food). The Fijian night got underway with a Kava drinking ceremony - Kava is the typical drink of Fiji, made from the root of a pepper tree, which is ground and mixed with water to make a pretty vile drink which looks (and tastes) just like muddy water. There is a whole tradition around how the Kava is drunk, involving a small bowl made of coconut, and a particular way in which you have to clap before and after downing a bowl of it. So we sampled our first tast of Kava at Wailailai with all the men of the local village. We then had a big Fijian buffet, sitting on the decking overlooking the sea. After dinner, the villagers did a set of traditional Fijian songs (which we now know off by heart, having heard them so many times), and dances. It was a really nice evening.

The next day, we headed from Wailailai to Octopus (with the exception of Nic, as Octopus is one of the resorts which you have to pay a suplement for, and Nic was sensible and mostly chose to stick to the free resorts). This was the point at which Fiji went from being great/lovely/gorgeous to incredible/heaven/perfect. Octopus is one of the most popular resorts, and whereas with most of the resorts you can just book it when on the boat on the way to the resort, with Octopus we'd had to book it a few days before. It is a proper holiday-destination type place, where everything is done perfectly - there is a big swimming pool, gorgeous cottage-style dorms, immaculate beach, and unbelievable food. It was incredibly luxurious, and the girls and I instantly fell in love with the place. Unlike a lot of the other resorts, Octopus actually has lots of holiday-makers, families and couples staying there, rather than just the standard backpackers. Each night, there is a different form of entertainment, and for the 2 nights we were there we had quiz night and Fijian night - which involved a big Fijian show around the swimming pool, followed by a Fijian buffet brought to each table. Having all agreed we'd only stay there 2 nights, Sinead and Suzanne decided that they couldn't leave, and so ended up spending even more to stay a third night in a private Bure. Debs and I, however, went up to another resort called Sunrise Lagoon where we'd planned on meeting Nic. The problem with that decision was that we went from pure luxury at Octopus to a resort that was incredibly basic, and had a mental dog, which attacked us as we were sunbathing on the beach, and at all meal times. So, although we were meant to stay there for 2 nights, after the first night, the Octopus withdrawl symptoms got too much for me to bear, and so I headed back to Octopus for one more night - which was Sunday night, and so movie night - they put up a big screen by the pool, and after dinner everyone lies on the sofa area by the pool watching a movie, with free popcorn. It was amazing!

So after we'd all split up a bit for a couple of days, we met up again in Kuata, which is another of the free resorts, directly opposite Wailailai. They also have "Bula Boys", and so we got to enjoy yet more oil-smothered topless male dancers. It's a hard life. I also did shark snorkelling at Kuata (one of their speciality activities), where you get to snorkel with their 'friendly' reef sharks, which the staff feed in front of you - such a good experience!

After a night at Kuata, I went down to Beachcomber (the party resort) to meet up with Nick and Greg (friends from uni), and the three of us spent one night there, before going back up to Kuata together to see the girls (other than Sinead, who'd headed back to Octopus!) for their last night on the islands, as they were leaving Fiji 3 days before me.

Once the girls had left, the guys and I headed back to Korovou for one night, and then spent our last two nights on South Sea Island - which is the smallest of the Yasawa Island resorts, on its own private island, which takes about 3 minutes to walk the entire circumference of.

So all in all, Fiji was absolutely amazing, and incredibly restful. I am already planning a return trip there at some point. We were incredibly lucky with the weather, only having a couple of days of cloud, but warm all the time and only about 1 hour of rain in the whole (nearly 3 weeks) time I was there

Photos: Fiji Time

emily_zitcer — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 18:40:00 GMT

Photos: New Zealand continued

emily_zitcer — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 18:23:00 GMT

Dolphins, sky diving, maori, luging etc...More from New Zealand

emily_zitcer — Sat, 15 May 2010 18:30:00 GMT

Since last writing we have moved from the South island up to the North, where we went from Wellington to Taupo, onto Rotorua and then Auckland, and we are now almost at the most northerly point in The Bay of Islands, near the end of our time on the Kiwi Experience

Whilst still on the South Island, we went swimming with dolphins for a day in Rotorua, which was incredible. Even though I've done this before, I've never seen quite so many dolphins - there were literally hundreds swimming around the boat, and when we were in the water they were all around us, coming right up close. It was amazing to see so many, and worth getting in the freezing water for. We swam amongst the dolphins for about 45 minutes or so, before cruising on the boat around a few more dolphin pods, all of which had several hundred dolphins.

Once on the North Island, at our first port of call in Wellington, we spent some time at the national museum (still can count the number of museums visited on one hand, but getting slightly more cultural at least) - Te Papa - which is a huge building filled with interactive exhibitions about NZ's history, culture etc (it's actually a lot more interesting than it sounds). The museum also now houses the largest Giant Squid ever caught, which was pretty impressive.

From Wellington, we moved on to Taupo, where I did my skydive. It sprang up on us pretty quickly, as we'd been told that the weather on the day we arrived in Taupo (a township on the border of the largest lake in NZ) wasn't clear enough for us to dive, so we'd taken our mind off it and thought we'd get round to doing our flight in the following two days. However, once we arrived at the skydive office, the weather cleared up, and so they speedily (though obviously very professionally!) got us ready in the fetching skydive suits, harnessed us up, introduced us to our tandem master, and then we were off in the plane to complete the 20 minute scenic flight up to 15,000 ft - the height at which we were to jump (pretty high!). At that point, the rather unsturdy sliding door on the side of the tiny plane was opened, and as my tandem master and I were at the back of the plane, closest to the door, it was my turn first. I can't really remember the exit from the plane as it all happened so quickly, but the next thing I knew we were free-falling out of the plane, through an ice cloud (shards of ice hitting my face!), and then into the clear sky from where you could see incredible views over the lake and surrounding countryside. At 15,000ft you get 60secs of freefall, but it goes past incredibly quickly. The skydive certainly takes your breath away at first, but it was nowhere near as scary as the bungy jump. It was slightly difficult though attempting to look in any way calm and serene for the camera man, who jumps from the plane slightly before you and your tandem master in order to film/photograph you on the way down. But once the freefall was over (so quickly!) and the parachute was up, the rest of the flight down was incredible and very comfortable. It was an amazing experience, and I would definitely do that again over they bungy!

The rest of our time in Taupo was filled with a full day hike over the Tongariro Crossing (known to be one of the best full day hikes in NZ), cycling round the lake etc. Then in Rotorua we had a really enjoyable evening at a Maori village, where the villagers put on a show (think haka, singing, dancing etc), tell stories about Maori life, and then put on a big Maori feast. I also spent more time there doing even more shopping, which seems to have been a theme of our time here in NZ.

We spent a day in Auckland yesterday, before coming today up to the Bay of Islands - which is a series of about 140 islands just off the coast in Northern NZ. Unfortunately the crappy weather we got used to on the South Island followed us here, and so although it's really pretty up here, the views have been dampened by the rain. But we have the rest of tomorrow to enjoy it, and then we head back to Auckland, where 3 of the girls and I are hiring a car for a few days to head off to see some of NZ on our own

Photos: Skydiving...Lake Taupo, NZ

emily_zitcer — Sun, 9 May 2010 17:56:00 GMT

Photos: Nevis bungy jump - official photos

emily_zitcer — Wed, 5 May 2010 15:50:00 GMT

Glaciers, bungy, etc....New Zealand, the South Island

emily_zitcer — Wed, 5 May 2010 15:49:00 GMT

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We have now been in New Zealand for just over two weeks, making our way across the South Island on the Kiwi Experience – a hop on, hop off bus service, that takes you to the major cities and towns across New Zealand, stopping at points of interest along the way. We started our time here in Christchurch, where I met up with the girls for the first time. We spent the day in the gorgeous sunshine wandering round the city, which we were surprisingly fond of given that we hadn’t heard the best things about it.

Having spent just the one night in Christchurch, we decided to head straight off to commence our Kiwi Experience. We met up with our driver, Morrie, who, it turns out, is renowned for being one of the two worst drivers (just generally not a nice guy) out of the 30 or so Kiwi Experience drivers. So unfortunately he slightly tainted our first week or so on the Kiwi Experience. But we still had an amazing time – stopping off quite often to see the amazing scenery, visiting local places of interest etc. From Christchurch, we moved to Westport – a godforsaken town, where luckily we only stayed for one night, which we just spent at a local pub. From there, we went for an overnight stop at a hostel in Lake Mahipau (can’t really remember what it’s called), where every Kiwi Experience bus stops for a fancy dress night, which was pretty good Franz Josef, which is a small township named after the glacier it neighbours. We spent an amazing day there hiking across the glacier, which is the main activity to do in Wanaka. The weather continued to worsen whilst we were in Franz Josef, and the 2 days before we went on our hike, all other hikes had been cancelled due to severe weather conditions. Luckily, ours still managed to go ahead, even though our guide told us that she was convinced it wouldn’t as it was the worst weather she’d ever climbed the glacier in. Great. Nonetheless, we had an amazing day, battling the severe winds and heavy rain. Our guide even managed to lose her axe, which she was using to carve out steps in the ice for us to climb on. So we were in a slightly worse situation then, but we still persevered, and at least the ice looked more amazing than usual as all the blue ice had been exposed, so it was pretty spectacular.

Onwards to Wanaka, which is a really lovely town on the edge of a big lake (we have seen a lot of these!). Unfortunately it rained (as it has done a lot of since we got here) for our entire time there, so we didn’t get much of a chance to see the town, other than from our hostel window.

After Wanaka we moved onto Queenstown, via a local attraction called Puzzling World (lots of optical illusions etc). On the way, we stopped off at one of the bungy jumping sites, where I signed up for my jump for two days later. We then spent 5 nights in Queenstown, which has definitely been our favourite place so far, needless to say this has been partially due to it being the best place in New Zealand for nightlife. The town there is really lovely, with good shops, cafes etc, and it also borders a big lake, which we wandered around. In Queenstown we were joined by Nick (another friend from uni) and his friend Greg, so it was lovely to spend a few days with them.

On our second day in Queenstown, I went off to do my Nevis bungy jump (the third highest bungy in the world, at 134m). Safe to say it was probably the scariest thing I’ve ever done. The bungy is done from a stationary cable car, suspended in the middle of a valley over a river. A small moving cage takes you across to the cable car pod, where the bungy team strap two ankle cuffs onto your legs, from which the bungy chord is later attached. Annoyingly, the jumping is done in reverse weight order, and so not only was I last out of the 13 people from my Kiwi bus who were jumping, but I then also had to wait for a further 6 people who arrived in the pod when the penultimate person from our group was about to jump to bungy before I was able to go. When it was finally my turn (the last jump of the day!), I was put into a dentist-type chair, where one of the team attached the bungy rope to my feet, and gave a few instructions. Then the nerves really set in, as I pigeon-stepped to the very edge of the pod, where there is a tiny platform sticking out into mid-air from which you jump. You have to put your toes on the very edge of the platform, whilst the crew member holds onto the back of your harness. Then he gives you a count down and you dive off – absolutely heart-stopping. The sensation of jumping was insane, as the floor hurtles towards you. After reaching the bottom of the jump, you are then pushed back up, where, at the very top of the jump, there is a 3 second feeling of complete weightlessness, which is very odd. After a few more up and down bounces, a weight then comes down and you are pulled back up to the pod. It was an amazing experience, but one that I certainly will not be doing again!

Having left Queenstown, we are now in Kaikoura, where tomorrow we will be swimming with dolphins. Then onto the North Island, where we will spend a few days in Wellington, and hopefully continue our journey with a better bus driver!

Photos: New Zealand, the South Island

emily_zitcer — Mon, 3 May 2010 17:30:00 GMT

Photos: The Inca Trail

emily_zitcer — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 20:23:00 GMT

The Inca Trail

emily_zitcer — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 17:22:00 GMT

So…a few days ago we completed the main activity of our trip so far….the Inca Trail, ending in Machu Picchu. Given the recent flooding that had occurred just before we came out here, we were incredibly lucky that our trek actually went ahead, with the trail only re-opening on the 1^st of April, and our trip commencing on the 13^th.

Before heading off on the trip last Tuesday, we had an orientation meeting at the company organising our trip, SAS Peru. Luckily, we had heard only good things about the company, and their levels of organisation, enjoyment of the trip etc. But the initiation meeting did leave us slightly sceptical. Not only were we the youngest in our group by quite a long way (there were a couple of people in their late 20s, but all the rest were in their 30s, 40s, 50s and 60s – I know this isn´t old, but we were used to spending all our time with people of a similar age to us), but also the guides (Saul – our main guide, Valentine and E-something) mentioned a few times that the 2^nd of the 4 days of trekking would be incredibly challenging, with 4.5 hours of uphill trekking first thing in the morning. So we left the orientation a little unsure as to exactly how enjoyable the whole thing would be. But it turns out that any concerns were entirely unwarranted, as it’s safe to say we all had the most amazing 4 days, and loved it from start to finish.

So, the first day started with a 5am pick up from our hostel (unhappy boys!), from where we were taken in a bus with the rest of our 17-person group to the start of the Inca Trail. Our group consisted of the three of us, 4 friends from San Francisco in their late 20s/early 30s, one of that group (Andrea’s) Aunt and Uncle (in their 50s/60s), a lovely Kiwi couple who now live in Dubai, 4 Norwegian nurses in their 30s and two middle-aged guys from the US (who very much reminded me of Dad and Jon Tyler as they were such a pair). At the start of the Inca Trail, we were given the first of our meals, that would turn out to all be amazing. It’s probably useful at this point to explain about the porters, who are known on the trail as “chatskis”, as “porter” is seen as disrespectful. Between the 17 of us, we had about 23 chatskis, who carried all the general equipment, tents, food, plus any additional items that you paid them to carry (which most people did, in order to make your personal load lighter). The chatskis all come from towns along the Inca Trail or towns near to Cusco. And they are all super-human. They range in age from 18 to about 45, and each carries between 20 and 25kg of stuff on their backs. Not only that, but they run up the trail in order to arrive at each campsite/lunch spot at least an hour before the group, and set everything up for you. They set up the tents, put out basins of hot water to wash with before meals, set up a dining tent at every meal, put up tables and stools to sit on, bring you hot tea in your tents in the morning, and are in general amazing.

They started as they would continue, by, within 10minutes of getting off the bus at the start, having set up a table and chairs for all of us, with tea, coffee and a breakfast spread. Then, we set off to begin the trail. The first day set a fairly good precedent for what the trail would be like. The terrain was fairly varied in gradient, with a few sections of uphill and downhill, and a lot of “inca” flat (or “undulating” as Saul described it) on and rocky path. We also saw the first 2 Inca ruins of the trip, which are pretty impressively well kept ruins, some of which are on the trail itself and you can therefore walk around, whilst others are only visible from a distance.

The group got on really well, and we all chatted the whole way along. There was a pretty natural split though whilst we were walking, with Dan, Josh and I, along with the Kiwi couple and a couple of the Americans sticking to the front, whilst the others largely took it at a slower pace. But there was a really nice feeling amongst the group, and we all waited for each other at the top of uphill sections or at landmark spots. Plus, Saul had a very thorough knowledge of the Incas and so filled us in on all the history as we went along.

The weather treated us incredibly well, which really helped. We had bright sunshine for the entirety of the trek, with rain only a couple of times once we were in our tents at night.

The first day was fairly easy, with a long break for lunch (set up in a dining tent in the middle of the hillside, and consisting of starters followed by about 8 different choices of dish for mains). When we finished for the day, we arrived at a fully set up campsite, and dumped our stuff in the tents (Dan, Josh and I were sharing a 2-man tent…at least we weren´t cold at night) by which time “tea” was ready – an amazing spread of every type of tea and coffee, biscuits and a never-ending supply of pop corn. We all headed to bed pretty early (you´re in a pitch black campsite with nothing to do) in preparation for our 4.30am wake up call the next day.

On day two, all a little apprehensive about the 900m climb with which we were to start the day, we had breakfast (toast, porridge, pancakes….) and set off. The climb was actually, although very challenging and pretty relentless, nowhere near as bad as the guides had made out. We stopped fairly regularly and everyone just took it at their own pace. Plus, the views were incredible, as you could see for miles down the Sacred Valley (through which the Inca Trail snakes). And it all paid off when we got to the top of Dead Woman´s Pass – the highest point on the trail, at 4200m, named after the features of a woman you can see in the rocks. Plus, there is an amazing feeling of camaraderie on the trail….all the groups obviously are walking the same route, and we bumped into about 8 other groups on a regular basis. Each time people passed each other, one group would applaud the other (all very cliché). This was particularly the case at the top of Dead Woman´s Pass, where everyone waited for the rest of their group to complete the most challenging part of the trek.

The rest of day two consisted of more up and down sections, obviously a three-course lunch, and a few more Inca sites. We finished a long day with the usual tea at camp. The chatskis further proved their worth when Linda and Phil (the older couple) were still on the trail after night fell, and one of them ran back and brought Linda back to camp on his back. Hero.

Day three was the easiest so far, as SAS make you walk particularly far on the 2^nd day in order to have a half day on the third, which allows you to chill out at the campsite in the afternoon (and have much craved-for hot showers), and go to the most spectacular Inca site so far. That evening was also really nice as all the groups were together, and everyone sat and had drinks together. The chatskis even cooked a massive cake with “Welcome to Machu Picchu” on it.

The next morning, the final one, we were woken early in order to start the 2 hour descent to Machu Picchu. The path was fairly congested at this point as everyone aims to get to Machu Picchu early before the rest of the tourists (who come on the train) arrive. So we walked the first part in the pitch black, just using torches (other than Dan, who obviously did not have one!), arriving at the Sun Gate (the site from which you get the first glimpse of Machu Picchu) at around 6am. We then continued on, finally arriving in Machu Picchu at around 7. Unfortunately, we got our first spell of day-time rain at this point, but it didn´t ruin the experience at all, as Machu Picchu was still an amazing site. Saul gave us a couple of hours of guided tour, before we were free to wander round. The site is very impressive, and absolutely huge. We took the obligatory photos, after which our 4 days were pretty much over.

We spent the next couple of days back in Cusco meeting up with some of our group, who we are definitely going to stay in touch with. The Inca Trail was definitely well worth the cost and build-up, and we had an amazing time. The boys and I have now separated, as they head off to central America, whilst I am currently in Santiago for one day, following the first 2 of 4 flights which will take me to New Zealand to meet up with the girls

Photos: Peru....Lake Titicaca, Cusco, Huacachina and Lima

emily_zitcer — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 18:30:00 GMT

Photos: The World´s Most Dangerous Road etc...the rest of Bolivia

emily_zitcer — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 18:07:00 GMT

Photos: Bolivia...Tupiza and the Salt Flats

emily_zitcer — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 17:30:00 GMT