Pondtales

Krystal & Rhys Go to Thailand!

yellowducks — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 11:19:00 GMT

Waiting at Sydney Airport, July 11, 2012, with far too much time on our hands, I start to panic that this trip should have been booked by a travel agent who knew what to do. My second trip internationally, first to a country with a first language I don’t speak, and I thought “No worries, why pay commission when I can book it all myself?” Once we had shared a beer (no way was I paying that price for 2) and had a feed, the nerves began to subside.

After a 50 minute delay, we were onboard and I could not settle long enough to drift off, mind you, Rhys was already snoring away next to me. Could not fault Emirates food and services though!

A tickle in my throat was growing and by the time we got out of customs (3:30am), after a 10hr flight and a 2hr shuffle in line at customs, we finally were on our way to sprawling out on the over biggest, softest most comfortable bed I have ever seen at the Novotel Suvarnabhumi Airport Hotel.

After a short rest and refresh we made our way to The Grand Sukhumvit Hotel (Accorr). Organised some tours to fill the next few days and checked out the hotel. The staff were so friendly and helpful. Rhys made the mistake of saluting to one of the security guards who gave him a wary stare.

Our first real experience of Bangkok was walking the dangerous looking back streets to the Nana Station and exploring the area around. It was a real culture shock, not one bit of space wasted, no real apparent road rules, every car scratched and dented, tuk tuks and motorbikes (with a family of 4 on the one bike) whizzing past, not to mention the buzzing street powerlines hanging at ear level, it was clear to us we were in another world. Crossing the street was the hardest and scariest challenge. Where there were crossings, people did not slow, but seemed to speed up.

While my head cold worsened, Rhys feed me water and pain killers to ensure I made it through the city temple tour in the 30 something degree heat, wearing jeans and a black top wasn’t the smartest decision I’ve ever made. Despite slight disorientation, I was in awe of the amount of dedication that the budhist Thai community put into their temples that were all covered in hand painted murals or mosaic tiles or housed statues made of sacred stone or precious metals (5.5 tonne solid gold budha!).

That evening I wasn’t up for much and sent Rhys off into Bangkok alone for food while I slept. I watched from our window as he disappeared into Bangkok and thought to myself “Bangkok has him now”. To my surprise, he returned with McDonalds in hand (which he says is the best he’s ever had and he should know as he would live of it if he could). A little sad he had his first Tuk Tuk experience without me. In my absence he also managed to have an older lady offer him favours for 60 Baht ($2 AUD).

The following day, feeling a little better, we went on the Floating markets, River Kwai and Tiger Temple tour. The ride into the floating markets on long tail boat was much more interesting than the markets themselves. I had my first bartering experience and found the women in this market place far too aggressive. To my relief, I later learnt that kind of behaviour was limited to Bangkok.

The River Kwai museum wasn’t too organised or well maintained, however, there was a lady outside from the safari park around the corner trying to raise funds for their leopard program and for a small donation you could have a hold of a real life baby leopard. I had heard many a story of people who kept wild animals caged and charged people for photos but this little guy was healthy and really playful on a long loose leash so I couldn’t resist the chance to have a cuddle. Later that afternoon we went to Tiger temple and I was saddened to see these majestic animals being dragged up onto people laps without stirring at all.

At some point during our stay in Bangkok Rhys ate fried crickets and felt he had achieved something, I felt he had to brush his teeth.

Our last day in Bangkok was spent in MBK shopping centre which was a 7 storey market stall version of Westfield which was great for souvenirs and Christmas presents.

The most amazing part of Bangkok for me was walking along the streets and eating the food from the carts whether it be eating pad Thai for 80 Baht on Khoa San Road whilst watching the street dancers or simply grabbing some delicious foreign fruit and a coconut to wash it down whilst walking round the streets.

After a very quick flight we were in Krabi, a whole world away from Bangkok it seemed. With lush forest, sandstone cliffs, and much quieter roads we agreed that the anxiety of Bangkok had long been forgotten, it was time to relax.

And relax we did spending the first afternoon in the Thai Village Resort’s pool sitting at the swim up bar and sipping on cocktails.

The following day we went to the Phi Phi Islands on a speedboat tour and snorkelled with some colourful fish. Our guide was hilarious.

We spent our evenings wandering the main street eating at a different make shift restaurant each night and each time we left full and satisfied.

Shopping on the main street along the beach was a challenge for Rhys as every third shop was a tailor with a pushy salesman in his face until they reached the territory of the next pushy salesman.

On the third day we met a lovely Belgium couple and went on a kayaking adventure through the mangroves, paddled through some river caves and saw some cave paintings. Ending the day with a dip in a natural pool of cool turquoise water that came from up in the mountain.

The last day we lounged by the pool drinking cocktails and enjoying the sun.

We hired a driver to take us to Khoa Lak and from the moment we arrived at The Sarojin we felt like royalty.

Our room was amazing with 2 showers (one standard and one waterfall style) and indoor garden around the bath which was an eggshell bath more than big enough for 2 people and to top it off we had our own private plunge pool.

We also went kayaking whilst in Khao Lak, however, this time we were paddled with beer and wine in hand. All the staff knew our name and what our activities were and all seemed genuinely interested in us. We then went on a elephant ride through the forest and ate a 2 course meal next to a river in Koh Sok national park.

The only downfall to our stay in Khao lak was that it was the wrong season for snorkelling as the marine life are given 6 months of the year to repopulate.

I cannot speak highly enough of the service we received while staying at The Sarojin and would recommend it to everyone!

We were constantly told how lucky we were that it was raining during the night only, allowing us to enjoy the sun all day long which is unusual for July. Our holiday was amazing, we never went without, came back with so many goodies, great memories and money in our pocket to boot!

Crazy India

yellowducks — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 19:15:00 GMT

India is one country which has always been on my list of countries ‘not to visit’.

Reason due to hearing about the horror stories of extreme food poisoning, the poverty, beggars, pollution, crowds and the 1001 parasites which infest your stomach for life.

So I thought it was time to face my fears and go check out India for myself, so with half a kilo of emergency toilet paper (just incase), bottle of grapeseed oil (which is a super must in preventing food poisoning), I hit the road to India with my mate Rakesh.

We arrived into Dehli in the early hours of the morning. After hearing about the horror stories of Dehli, I was pleasantly surprised at how clean and modern the airport was, very similar to Changi in Singapore.

We were met by our driver who we had pre-organised to drive us up to Dharamashala (home of the Dalai Lama) in the Himalayas. Our driver informed us it was 600km to Dharmashala and in my Australian ignorance I thought 'oh yeah, no worries that should only take us 5-6hours....'

13 hours later!!! after experiencing half completed roads, several near head on collisions with donkeys, cats, cows, chickens, motorbikes bearing several generations of families and massive trucks being driven by drunk drivers (apparently it’s a pre-requisite in India to be drunk to drive a truck!),

I quickly learnt travel in India is long and exhausting.

We made it to Dharmashala in the late evening to the Vipassana meditation centre (check out www.dhamma.org), where for 10days we sat on meditation cushions in silence, fed amazing Indian vegetarian food and got harassed by crazy monkeys who loved breaking and entering into your room and bed bugs which just loved making a feast of you.

Having survived being eaten alive by bed bugs and testosterone filled monkeys, we left the Vipassana course feeling quite peaceful (meditation does have its benefits) as we drove down to Amritsar in the Punjab region to meet up with my brother and his Seikh partner.

The Seikhs welcomed us with open arms and were incredibly hospitable during our stay there; showering us in Jewellery, tailor made clothes and overfeeding us on amazing food, minus the after burn effect! They even demanded we were to come to weddings of people who we didn’t even know nor never met!

We were quick to learn in India, there is a saying ‘if your white its love and first site’, as wherever we travelled in the Punjab people wanted photos with my brother and I, in particular my brother who is 6ft 7 and wears the local gear.

The Seikh families, who have adopted my brother as their own, took myself and Rakesh to the world famous Golden temple (Gurdwara), where thousands of people 24/7 congregate in the holy waters, pray and pay respect to their Gurus. The Golden temple is made of solid Gold and has been there since 1574.

It was an incredible experience and the energy there is unexplainable. After being covered in holy water and bowing countless times, we then experienced the kitchens of the Gurdwara, where 1000’s of people are fed daily for free. The Siekhs believe everyone, no matter their caste, religion or background must be given a free meal. We lined up with the 1000’s of others with plates to receive our meal of rice, dahl and chappatis and ate amongst beggars, poor people and rich people.

The rest of our time spent in the Punjab involved temples, being covered in henna paint, meeting locals and sightseeing in the city and farms. We were blessed at one point in our journey to befriend an awesome woman by the name of Bhavna, who organised us VIP passes and personal police escorts to the Wagha border, to witness the lowering of the flags ceremony between Pakistan and India, a ceremony which has been conducted every evening since 1959. The military men on both sides of the fence are dressed in interesting hats and full military uniform and conduct dances and marches which resemble more of a gymnastics performance then a military parade.

With new Punjab clothes and hands covered in Henna, we farewelled the Punjab region and joined friends for a nine day 4wd trip through the hill stations of the Himalayas with a Yogi. It was an incredible experience, firstly to meet an Englightened yogi, who doesn’t eat, sleep or drink water and yet had the most amazing level of energy, it was hard to keep up with him!

The Yogi was an incredible being, just being in his presence you felt very peaceful, happy and energised.

We attended a two day festival in the Yogi’s ashram, where we met Sadhus who taught us how to harness the suns energy through meditation techniques, met famous Indian musicians and amazing local people. After the festival the Yogi took our small group travelling through the hill stations, where we met local people who housed us and fed us amazing Indian food. We saw the Dalai Lama on his 77^th birthday in his monastery, had tea with local politicians and doctors and explored the many markets and streets of the Himalayas.

Sadly after an amazing week, we parted ways with our group of friends and the Yogi in a small town called Palampur.

Rakesh and I then drove up to the beautiful tourist town Manali, which is situated at the foothills of the Himalayas. There we met our Indian friends with their Toyota Hiace van. For some crazy reason without prior knowledge we all decided to drive 420kms from Manali to Leh in the Kashmir region.

Setting off on the road to Leh, we quickly realised we’d ended up on some of the world’s worst roads. We faced sheer cliff faces, landslides, roads which would suddenly disappear, waterfalls which had washed out sections of road and to top it off we all came down with altitude sickness.

One mate was so sick we ended up in a military hospital where the doctor yelled at us for not wearing proper footwear (thongs or bare feet are not appropriate at 17,000ft) and warm clothing.

Soon after visiting the military hospital we then bogged the car in deep sand. Due to the altitude we couldn’t dig the car out because it caused us to get dizzy and out of breath. Luckily in the distance we spotted roadworkers, after paying them 1000 Rupees, we witnessed 15 small men literally lift the car out of the sand. Phew!

It took us 2 days of solid driving to cross the distance to Leh, only stopping briefly to sleep in roadside tents in the middle of now-where, with a group of random motorcyclists.

We arrived into Leh totally tired, cold and frozen. The experience though tough was still amazing and learnt next time to pack an oxygen bottle, a shovel and a helluva lot of warm weather gear if proceeding above sea level!

We spent a few days in Leh, with its incredible beauty of red snow capped mountains and beautiful Buddhist monasteries. However we realised we had also ended up in a part of the country which is still considered a war zone. To go anywhere in Leh was like red tape wrapped up a 1000 times, as we struggled to get permits to visit famous icons, their reason for all the paperwork was to deter potential terrorists.

We eventually got permits and headed to the world’s highest lake, Lake Pangong, visited magnetic hill, where gravity pulls your car up the mountain and spent time drinking chai with the locals.

The few days spent in Leh were amazing but tough on the lungs due to the altitude, so it was good to head back to sea level and back to oz.

Few things I learnt from my time in India- the Indians are incredibly hospitable and community oriented, have a great sense of humour and a laid back way of seeing the world (which sometimes drives westerners nuts). We Learnt to drink a lot of Grape Seed oil and avoided getting sick.

You will more likely need half a kilo of toilet paper (not for the runs) but the fact that most of India does not have toilet paper (scarce and expensive). Pack an Oxygen cylinder and a shovel if you intend on going into the Himalayas on some of the worlds worst roads, but most of all go with an open mind, just go with the flow and as they say in India, just Bindas (chillax). J

Eat, Pray, Eat!- Part 2: China

yellowducks — Fri, 3 Aug 2012 11:59:00 GMT

Chinas weather was so much better than the weather in Hong Kong. It was still really hot, but it was dry and if we were lucky, some days it would be really windy and cool as well.

The next couple of days where packed with touristy places to visit, amazing food in ridiculous quantities and very little sleep. We went to: Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, Summer Palace, Temple of Heaven and The Great Wall. All of these places where so beautiful and unique, it’s really hard to describe them and make them justice (hence the large amount of photos attached!). Each place we visited required insane amounts of walking. It was overwhelming at times when I couldn’t understand what was going on around me, but lucky my friend is fluent in Chinese and English, otherwise I have no idea how I would’ve survived!

I recently watched the movie ‘Eat Pray, Love’, and had the idealism that my trip was going to be as self defining, enigmatic and romantic as Julia Roberts adventure. However I think I got lost on the ‘Eat’ part of the trip, and if it wasn’t for the visit to the Big Buddha which I think might classify on the ‘Pray’ side of things, my trip would’ve been purely an eating adventure. Having said this, I have to admit that food was my favourite part of the trip. I am the biggest fan of Chinese food, and ate like there was no tomorrow. We would normally eat with my friends parents, who would order for what seemed to be 10 people instead of 4, but they were determined that I tried everything that came to the table. I have no will power whatsoever when it comes down to food, so even when I said to myself: ‘Ingrid, there is no way you can fit more food in’, when more plates kept coming, I just had to try at least a little piece of whatever it was the lovely waitress was serving next.

I think the day worth mentioning, is the day where we ate the most. We started off with a massive breakfast that involved a lot of sweet treats, soups and deep fried fish (fish for breakfast? I know, weird right?). For lunch we had a variety of chicken, beef and pork prepared in different sauces, stews, noodles and the yummiest chocolate dessert ever! And as if that wasn’t enough for a day, for dinner we went to this restaurant that was famous for their duck. Now, I’m not a big fan of duck, but this was not any duck, it was just amazing! It was coated with sugar so it was sweet and tender in the middle, so delicious! Needless to say, we were so full that the next day we didn’t have anything to eat until it was dinner time again.

And before I knew it, 2 weeks had gone by and it was time to go back home! And so, the nightmare to get back had begun. Now, before you continue reading, I need to warn you that the next paragraph is going to be of me rambling and complaining about how airlines screwed me over, so if you would like to skip this part, just continue onto the next paragraph after this. If, however, you want to find out why I have lost all faith in what once was my favourite airline and my tragic coming-back-home story, please keep reading.

We were meant to leave china on a Friday morning. We left to the airport early to allow enough time to check in and have lunch before boarding. Halfway to the airport, we started noticing there was more congestion than normal, and after spending around 30 minutes in line without even moving, we realized something was wrong. Apparently, there had been an accident up ahead that was blocking the main streets, so no cars could go though. That’s ok, we thought, we still have plenty of time to get to the airport. Wrong. Almost 1 hour later, we were still on the same spot. We got to the airport so late, we knew we missed out flight already, but had the hope of getting on a plane later on that day. We were told all the lights had been fully booked out, and the earliest we could fly out was on Monday morning to Melbourne. Next 2 days went by so slow, as we had nothing planned and had ran out of money to keep visiting places, so we mostly stayed indoors watching movies. Monday morning came and we left to the airport almost 4 hours in advance. Just in case something went wrong again. Luckily it didn’t and we had plenty of time to kill. We got to HK without any issues, and had to kill 3 hours before our connecting flight back to Australia. I tried not sleeping on the first leg of the trip, because I really wanted to sleep at night instead. That backfired on me, as I was unable to sleep all night, and when we landed at 6am in Melbourne, I was really exhausted. I had booked my flight from Melbourne to Sydney on Wednesday morning, to get a train from the airport and come straight to work. Next day, I went to the airport bright and early, and was told my flight had been cancelled. They could put me on the next flight, which was leaving 2 hours later. Deep breath I told myself, I should still be able to be on time to work. Time goes so slow when you’re tire and waiting for something. We were meant to leave at 8:50, but we hadn’t even started boarding at that time yet. There was no announcements anywhere, so I approached a lady who just shrugged and said the flight had been delayed, and to just ‘stick around until your flight number is called’. Why, oh why would they cancel my original flight and make the next one late? I was so beyond furious! I was so happy when I finally got onto the plane and it took off! I landed in Sydney really late to go to work, so I was told to rest and come next day. And I sure did. I went home and slept for 9 hours straight. Any guesses on what airline it was? Hint: When the tickets are $50, you know something’s bound to go wrong. Thank you tiger, I learnt my lesson: cheap tickets are not always the best way to go.

Overall, despite the journey back home, I had an amazing 2 weeks! I had the opportunity to go to Disney land, which had been my dreams since I had use of reason, I got to see places and scenes I never even dreamed of seeing, and I know I’ve told this so many times already, but I had amazing food. I would go back any day without thinking it twice.

Eat, Pray, Eat!- Part 1: Hong Kong

yellowducks — Fri, 3 Aug 2012 11:43:00 GMT

One of the best birthday presents I’ve ever received, has to be my best friends present this year: A trip to Hong Kong and China! It all seemed so unreal, it wasn’t until we landed in Hong Kong that it actually hit me: I was in a new country! As soon as I stepped from the plane, I knew my friend hadn’t lied when he said: ‘be prepared for the most hot and humid weather you’ve ever experienced.’ His parents picked us up from the airport, and took us back to the hotel where we assumed we would have the chance to rest before exploring the city. Wrong. We dropped our luggage, quickly got changed and left the beautiful coolness of the hotel room to start exploring. We took a cab into the city, and I was promised I was going to have the most amazing yum cha experience of my life. I was so hungry, (plane food as all the travellers would now, is not filling at all!), so I was really looking forward to some authentic yummy Chinese food. We got lost looking for the restaurant, and people kept sending us in the wrong direction. We finally arrived and indeed, had the most amazing yum cha I’d ever had! After that massive lunch, we headed off to The Peak Tram, a really steep tram that takes you to the highest viewing platform in Hong Kong. The view from up there was so stunning! We had a 360-degree panoramic view of the entire city and all the high rise buildings looming below us, it was truly spectacular. Later, we went to the market, were I did a bit of shopping. Afterwards, we went back to the hotel, and even though we were still pretty full from lunch, we had a massive dinner (this was the start to what was going to be the most amazing culinary experience of my life!) and after such a long day, I think I fell asleep almost as soon as my head touched the pillow. I had to rest for the exciting day ahead: My first time in Disney Land!!!

The next day we woke up bright and early for our exciting day ahead. I was in full on tourist mode and was wearing the I [heart] HK t-shirt I had bought the day before. We took a train that took us straight to the little island where Disney Land was. It was the cutest train I’ve ever been in! It was all Disney themed, even the windows and hand bars were shaped like Mickey! After a 40 minute line to get in (so much for ‘it’s going to be empty because school holidays haven’t started yet- the place was packed!), we were finally into the most beautiful place I had ever seen. It was like walking into a story book. We first went to ‘tomorrow land’, which had all the futuristic stuff, and space rides. The day was all muggy, but that wasn’t going to stop us! We waited 40 minutes in line and just as we were about to step onto the ride, it started pouring down. Luckily, we were still on the line, but the people on the ride at that time got extremely soaked! That ride was really mild, just the way I like them. The next rollercoaster was a complete shocker. It was dark and there were so many sharp turns that I was screaming louder than anyone there I think. Pathetic, I waited my whole life to go to Disney land and when I finally make it, I discover I’m scared of roller coasters. Great! But that wasn’t going to ruin the fun either! On our way to the next section of the park, I decided I would complete my touristy attire, and bought a pair of Minnie ears. Yes, I knew I looked silly, but if I was feeling like a 10 year old, I might as well dress like one right? The next section was probably my favourite one: Story book land. I love fairy tales and everything associated with them (yes, I’m a big kid at heart) so I made my friend line up with me to take pictures with all the Disney characters (Mickey, Minnie, Donald and even a Goofy with an Asian costume). We then went to my most favourite ride by far: It’s a Small World. You basically get on a little boat that takes you around the inside of a castle that has been dived into the continents of the world. Each continent had decorations and elements that are unique to countries of that specific continent. There were also puppets of children dancing and singing in their traditional costumes, and almost at the end of the ride, there’s a section where there’s children from all the different regions dressed still dressed in their traditional costume but instead of being their original colours, they’re all dressed in white. It was really beautiful, so much so that I convinced my friend to go twice with me. The day went by really quickly in between queues, more rides, and taking ridiculous amounts of photos. I didn’t want the day to end, but sadly it was time to go home and rest before our flight the next day to China.

And did we rest? Of course not! My friend’s parents had planned for us to go to a viewing deck and see the laser show later that night. Most of the buildings on the harbour light up in different patterns and colours, and there’s also lasers in the sky. It was really pretty, and although we were extremely tired from walking all day, it was worth it. Our last stop in HK before heading to Beijing later on that day was The Big Buddha. The statue was on top of a huge flight of steps, which unfortunately, we had to climb. To my great disappointment; this just proved that I’m more unfit than 60+ old ladies who just walked past me when I was taking breaks every 5 minutes. We spent like 5 minutes taking photos at the top, and down those stairs we came again. Then, time to head to the airport!

Photos: Hong Kong!

yellowducks — Fri, 3 Aug 2012 10:09:00 GMT

Goodbye Mum!

yellowducks — Thu, 31 May 2012 16:41:00 GMT

There is nothing quite like arriving in a city on the other side of the world, by yourself. Much to the embarrassment my mother was putting me through at the airport, I was eventually allowed to board a plane and leave on my first ever trip abroad. I was only 18 and had been convinced by my older “smarter and wiser” cousin that I just had to come to London after high school. It did not take much to convince me. All the talk of pubs, clubs and shopping was all I needed to hear. I saved every penny. So once I was finally free from the clutches of my parents, I was gone!

I have to admit I was scared. I was alone on a plane for what seemed like days. Once I reached Heathrow this is when it truly sunk in that I was on the other side of the world! I have never felt such a thrill of excitement before! I could do whatever I wanted now. All of the things I had been planning were now going to become a reality.

First thing first though, I needed to find my cousin so I could start to settle in what would be my new life for the rest of the year. Once he found me at the airport he took me back to the house I was going to stay in. In my dreams I thought I was going to stay in Buckingham Palace but no, this place was a hole. No, worse than a hole. It was a dirty run down share house that smelt like cigarettes, beer and other unidentifiable smells that made you think about the colour brown. The only thing that made up for the horrors that this house had to offer was my new roomies; two boys, one girl and of course my cousin. They were all London locals and so they knew the city quite well. They really took me under their wings as I was the youngest of the group.

Well, I wouldn’t really say they looked after me. Of course they made sure that I never wandered off and became lost or that no harm came to little ole me. But they certainly encouraged me to come out of my shell. On my first night in London, they took me out for my first experience of London nightlife. As you can imagine, the combination of jet lag and copious amounts of alcohol meant I didn’t last long at all. In fact, for at least a week until I settled in, most nights ended like this. My new family had taken me to all of their favourite clubs and bars. As I had just turned 18, I had never experienced anything like it. And I still haven’t! Nothing back home can compare to the types of places that they have there. For me it was a celebration of my new found freedom and a mark of my independence.

When you’re enjoying yourself, it is strange how quickly time seems to escape you. What I regret most about my time in London, is that I didn’t get to experience and see all that this beautiful country had to offer. During the day time at least that is. Whilst I was busy drinking and being merry, I lost my chance to see London’s art galleries and travel more widely around the country. I don’t think I wasted my opportunity completely, but as I’ve become older I realise that there is more to appreciate with travelling. My motives have now changed. It is no longer about going somewhere to party every night and leave with a headache. I want to appreciate and experience unique cultures, dine of exotic cuisines and learn a foreign language.

I came back completely different. I was no longer a shy timid youngster. I found myself over there. It definitely was an experience that will stay with me. Most nights are a just a hazy memory, but it’s not those nights that are important. Experiencing new places and meeting people who you develop bonds with that will last a life time is what makes a journey like this worth the while. Traveling by yourself is an eye opener. I’m glad I had people there who I could count on, to watch over me and to make sure my mischief was managed.

Time for a Holiday

yellowducks — Tue, 29 May 2012 12:50:00 GMT

After getting back into Bangkok from Laos I had a few days to kill before Lisa my mate from Ireland was arriving, so I went up to Ayuthaya, one of the former capitals and one of the greatest greatest cities in Siam. I was there in 1997 and remembered it quite a quiet, sleepy place, I can remember watching a snake slowly crossing the main road through town in the middle of the afternoon with not a car in sight to bother it. So I was very dissapointed when I got off the bus, Ayuthaya today is an ugly concrete mess, full of traffic and fast food chains.

I had basically gone to photograph the temples, some of which date back 600 years or more. But in top of the bad weather making it very hard to photograph anything, I wasn't too imppresed with the temples, after seeing the temples at Angkor and other temples I've seen in the 7 years since I was last in Thailand they didn't really seem too impressive. All in all a bit of a waste of a few days I could have spent in Laos really!

I then had 2 weeks on 'holiday' with Lisa, we spent a few days in Bangkok while we thought about what to do, we ended up deciding that we should have a proper holiday and went back to Ko Chang for a week. We spent the time on the beach, swimming, did some snorkeling which was pretty good, and went out for an elephant trek, which was very interesting! Very cute elephant, got to feed a baby one as well.

We went back to Bangkok for a couple or days, went out to the Grand Palace which for all the times I'd been to Bangkok I'd never been to before. Shouldn't have bothered really, I don't find Buddhist temples particulaly impressive anyway (apart from some of the older one's in places like Luang Prabang in Laos), and there were too many annoying people getting in the way all the time. Bloody tourists... The most interesting part was the Emerald Buddha, a small jade statue which is the most revered Buddha image in Thailand. Which, as Lisa pointed out, looks exactly like Yoda. On this possibly sacrileges thought we decided that we should proberly leave...

Lisa had to return to Ireland, and I'd decided to go back to Laos for another vist, so after she left I headed north, stopping at Sukhothai, Chaing Mai and Chaing Rai. None of which particualy interested me, I was quite dissapointed with Chaing Mai, notable for me for the 2 day vomiting session it gave me, and Chaing Rai stays in my memory for the night of severe stomach cramps I got there. I realised that Thailand was never going to interest me as much as places like Laos or Cambodia, it was mainly a good place to pass through, sort stuff out then head for somewhere else...it was definatly time for Laos...!

All that glitters is not Gold.

yellowducks — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 11:51:00 GMT

I love the tropics.

That hot stinking humidity that envelops every pore on your body. That wafting scent of thickness that only South East Asia can produce with muggy resolve.

It was an ordinary night, so ordinary that it was abnormal. That strange lull, rich in serenity and calmness was in the air...ripe for the picking of the predatorily inclined. That toothy golden grin glistening in the eerie full moon light.

Much ado about nothing I say. The usual downing of the cold local brew at any given bar, too lazy laden to even dodge the oversized rat that scurries past the concrete floor. As another happy hour comes to a close and an early retreat to a single foam mattress beckons, an unfamiliar shadow appears. You know the type. The one that looks like they’re not really there for a drink but yet they are there...for a drink.

We all grow up hearing of stories about treasure, or at least watched a movie or two about it. The maps, the excitement finding the treasure chests at the end of an arduous journey, and the obvious joy of basking in the spoils obtained.

Zul didn’t look an assuming man. Well spoken English for a local. Polite and courteous, didn’t smoke or drink, nor did he swear. Drinking in the same bar for weeks on end we never really spoke much, I ordered my drinks and he poured it. From what I could tell he just another hard working fella with a wife and young daughter to feed. That night he whispered his family secret...

Zul's grandfather, as a young fisherman had accidentally discovered a secret underground cave in one of the foremost northerly islands of North Borneo. Swimming under a rock-wall and upon surfacing there would be a narrow passageway, barely wide enough for a grown man to squeeze through that led to a small entrance filled with scattered large stacks of nickel and silver to please. Attached to that entrance was the passageway to a larger chamber, nearly completely sealed off with more stacks of nickel. It was not explored further as barely visible wires attached to the nickel that looked like booby-traps deterred him from doing so. His imagination made him ask: What was in that second chamber that was so valuable it had to be booby-trapped? But as a curious young man, his grandfather peered through a small opening not covered by the nickel and could see within reaching distance a small pile of ornately boxed bullion. Reaching in, at full stretch he retrieved one with his fingertips. What he held in his hands was an ingot of pure platinum, encased in a bronze shell stamped with the assayers name 'Johnson Matthey', a trademark inverted horseshoe and each with a serial number.

Efforts to exhume the booty were realised more than an decade earlier when Zul was just a boy, whereby the dangerous and financially taxing multiple day journey across wild seas to the remote island were undertaken by his father and uncle. Returning with only 2 bars as samples, the men had procured a buyer via contacts with a local goldsmith. A Bruneian man emerged as a likely buyer, handing over a Rm10,000 deposit for an ingot of platinum that he would take back to Brunei to have authenticated and therefore arrange finance to purchase the remaining 50 ingots remaining within the cave. Two weeks had passed and it was clear the buyer had run off without a trace.

Jilted, deceived and angry the two brothers had abandoned hopes of retrieving the treasure altogether. Of the remaining ingot, it is now in Sandakan with the uncle for safe keeping. As time passed, the Philippines Navy had begun to heavily patrol the Balabac Straights, the seas between Borneo and the Philippines policed in emergence of violent maritime kidnappings by the militant group Abu Sayyaf in 2001. This made any attempt to reach the treasure even more treacherous and taxing. Poor and illiterate labourers, the two brothers were forced to forget their family secret in order to focus on work, to provide their families with food, shelter and clothing. And as time passed even more, the two brothers were becoming soon to be old men too entrenched in their living to risk it all in now even more dangerous conditions.

By 2007, Zul was a grown man, married with a wife and baby daughter to feed, had hit financial hardship and in desperation started to explore the idea of retrieving not all, but only some of the platinum in order to make a better future for his young family.

As it turned out, with some research but with no hard evidence to prove it, it became likely that the treasure was in fact part of urban legend of Yamashita's Gold.

Japan's dream of world domination encapsulated World War Two as a truly global affair. To finance its war efforts, under direct orders from the then Emperor Hirohito, Japan's superior Navy headed by the ruthless General Yamashita 'The Tiger of Malaya', plundered and looted from all the countries it had invaded; Philippines, Singapore, Malaya and Borneo. As the war was nearing, it became obvious to Japan that they were losing the war and began strategically hiding their hoards of loot in the Philippines in hope of retrieving it once the war was over. Why the Philippines? With its strategic location Japan saw it as a perfect base to help rebuild its empire post-war. Japan had hoped to broker a deal with the US to keep the Philippines as part of the Japanese empire in anticipation of an imminent surrender. As Japan surrendered, their naval operations were dismantled and General Yamashita hanged by the US for the atrocities committed by the Japanese forces under his direct orders. Unfortunately, as it seems, the only person/s to know the exact locations of each and every treasure site was Yamashita himself. And so the legend was born...

To this day, no one really knows whether the treasures exist or not. Not even the infamous Roxas lawsuit against Ferdinand Marcos himself could verify any legitimacy. As the story's notoriety grow, so does the emergence of countless schemes to rob those in search for it. Fancy maps, imitation bullion, long lost rare US Treasury notes and perhaps even fake treasure sites themselves to lure those blinded by their own gold fever.

In moving onto my next destination I carried this story with me to the next bar, on the next beach, on the next island. I’ve always loved a good drink at sunset. That magical moment where the skyline becomes a painted masterpiece and epiphanies flow freer than the drinks themselves. As I regurgitated my latest travel tale to the next traveller the alcohol cum truth serum delivered a simple but yet insightful query from the undercover brunette beside me:

If the treasure existed, do you seriously think it would still be there?

Bangkok Women Really Are Fellas

yellowducks — Mon, 12 Mar 2012 16:14:00 GMT

Now now, before you drift off into your repressed memory of how you woke up one morning nursing a hangover and regretting that old adage no-one’s ugly after 2am..., the topic at hand is NOT lady-boys.

As we’ve all geared up and stand there on the boat, gently floating on the clear, warm opaque tropical emerald waters offshore, we hear the instructor yell out “Please do your pre-dive safety check!”. Right, what was that acronym again? BWRAF...Begin With Review And Friend? Bruce Willis Ruins All Films? Blonde Women Really Are Fun? No no no, toooo yesterday, got it, Bangkok Women Really Are Fellas!

Having checked our BCD’s, weight belts, releases, air and final ok, we chose to somersault into water with the boat crew giving us a score out of 10 for our water entry. Nailed it...10/10 as I basked in the glory of a round of applause from those on board.

Floating there awaiting the others for their entry, the salt water beads of my face as the Sun continues to illuminate the day. As formalities were completed with the 5-point safety descent, we deflate our BCD’s and slowly submerge into the warm waters...1m, 5m’s, 10m’s...18. As we adjust for neutral buoyancy the instructor checks the current to determine our initial heading. Left it is as he taps his left shoulder to signal the reef to be at our left side.

Gliding along the coral garden we see an array of marine life from delicate ornate corals such as table, plate, brain, crinoids and anemone. Each inhabited by bountiful creatures from benthos dwellers in nudibranch’s, to more curious critters of remoras, moray eels, bashful blue lobsters, sleep stingrays and the majestic lionfish. As we become engrossed in the privilege of swimming underwater, we peer into purple sponge barrel corals in anticipation of what we will find next, a puffer fish, scorpionfish or camouflaged frogfish? Nearing the end of the dive we come across an artificial reef, teeming with diversity and plentiful marine life, from schools of barracuda forming a tornado like figuration around us to ancient hawksbill turtles just passing by.

Cubicle? What cubicle. Time just passes by as we become encapsulated by the beauty of the marine environment.

TINK! TINK! TINK! The sound of the tank banger hitting against the instructors tank to get our attention- safety stop. As we hover there in mid-water at 5metres for 3minutes games are played to pass the time. The instructor takes off his fins, inserts one into the other and stands on them in mid-water to simulate a surfing action. Next, he takes of his BCD, sits on his tank and simulates that he is riding a bull like a cowboy. Show-off...but the blonde next to me is duly impressed as she flashes him her high beams through a foggy mask. The Devil does wear Mares.

Surfacing we return to shore to get re-acquainted with diving head office - the bar. As our meals are being cooked on hot charcoals, the feeling of downing a cold beer on the beach after a long hot day is second to none. Sitting there, we all gaze into the horizon as the setting Sun caresses the gentle waters, painting the skyline with hues of deep yellow and orange, eerie blues, crimson reds and strokes of majestic purple. With home as far away in our thoughts as possible, we let out a deep breath of contentment knowing that the Sun has called it day and the night has only just begun...

The joys of coming home - Dec 2011

yellowducks — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 16:00:00 GMT

OK…so a journal you say for this Dec KPI business!!! Hmmm!!! A little odd I thought at first. While I do see the whole point about people getting to know you a bit better I was still a little…well....reserved about the whole process.

The thing is that I am no Bridget Jones! In fact, the very thought of a journal strikes a certain fear in me that stems right back to my primary school years (yes…a very long time). I remember when we used to family holidays my mother would make us keep a journal and I absolutely loathed having to sit down and write about the daily events on any of the school holiday trips we took. And when I did the big 2+ year trip overseas ( you know, the work/travel thing) after Uni, I am very proud to say that I did the travel journal thing for a good three months before finally giving up. I thought that was an extraordinary effort for me considering I didn’t have my mother nagging me to do it. I guess it is understandable now that I am not on Facebook or Twitter and have absolutely no intention of ever starting a Blog.

So anyway, a little background there before I start just in case I need excuses for my banter!

Week 1

Just found out about this months KPI and yay…I’m on the journal directorship!!

It is now 3 days before packing up my life in Wellington NZ and moving back ‘home’. After years of telling people back ‘home’ that I am coming home ‘soon’, it has finally happened and of course this comes at a time when I finally feel settled here (after being here for just over 6 years). Isn’t that just typical!

Still, I won’t be missing the constant wind, 10 month long winters and …hmm..let me see , having to duck for cover or change my accent every time Rugby is mentioned which is about once every 2 seconds over here (if only the Wallabies had a better coach ,eh?)!

Week 2

Fastforward to arriving in Australia, the last days before leaving Wellington were positively hectic and saying goodbyes was hard but upon arriving in Sydney, just the blast of hot air when walking out the front door of the terminal made it all worthwhile…I so missed the heat that an Aussie summer brings! The top temperature I experienced in NZ in 6 years was about 25 degrees and reported as a ‘scorcher’ by the local radio stations! Hilarious!

So now the education begins for my Kiwi husband and children! After 4 days staying in Scone with my parents, my 5 year old displayed all the (mild) symptoms of heat stroke. Oh dear I thought…not a good start to this move however, kids being kids and generally more stoic than us adults, he got over it (and 3 weeks on happily plays in 30+ heat and complains of being cold when the air con is turned on for the really hot days).

Then of course there are the bugs, spiders, snakes etc to deal with. Big education lesson there! New Zealand has no snakes. Apparently there are also no poisonous spiders but I am yet to be convinced of that. I found a few that looked remarkably similar to the funnel web and then of course they also have the infamous and huge bird spider over there (not that I found one of those thank god!).

My husband (a kiwi through and through) continues to tell anyone who will listen that everything kills you in Australia…snakes, spiders, jellyfish , rockfish (potentially wives at times!!!) and of course sharks. Being a scuba diver, he has now given that recreational activity up in fear which I am thinking may be a good thing considering that there does seem to be quite a lot of those there sharks around lately!!! And the look on his face when he is made aware of the big Huntsman spider comfortably and calmly sitting above his head in the lounge room is priceless!

Week 3

Christmas…tick! New Year…tick! Find a house to live in….no tick!

Oh my goodness what a hassle! Anybody got a house to rent on the Central Coast? What a terrible time of year to be looking for a house…or maybe it is just like this all the time! Renting a house over here requires you to sell your soul ...or totally expose it atleast as the information they require when applying is astounding. Oh my, it was so simple in little old New Zealand. Am crossing fingers , toes and everything in between that we get something soon as getting a little desperate now.

That’s it for me. Looking forward to getting to know everyone a little better on my weekly visits to the office when I finally find a home!!!.

Photos: Vietnam

yellowducks — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 13:47:00 GMT

Backpacking through Vietnam

yellowducks — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 13:33:00 GMT

I spent three months backpacking through South East Asia earlier this year, spending three weeks in Vietnam. We moved from south to north, jumping on nightbus and tuk tuk and taxi and motorbike, making my way through all the usual backpacker haunts.

Our first stop was Ho Chi Minh City. That place was crazy! There I was, a cocky Westerner, thinking I could easily navigate my way through an Asian city like a seasoned traveller, I was very wrong. Leaving your hostel without a map – never a good idea. A leisurely stroll through the streets with my boyfriend Chris(our attempt at ‘alone’ time, which is impossible when you’re backpacking on the cheap with a group of friends) turned into two hours of back and forth through the streets, trying to find someone who speaks English , and wanting to help (also very hard to come by in Vietnam).Crossing the streets was always a bit of fun too, especially in the city, trying the avoid the onslaught of cars and motorbikes without looking like a complete fool, it’s hard work people! And always remember, you do not have right of way, they will knock you over if you get in their way, so be careful!

We had one really lovely experience in Vung Tau, (a popular holiday destination for the Vietnamese but relatively untouched by Westerners) My boyfriend and I arranged to meet our friends for dinner on the beach (this town had the best seafood!) and after about half hour we were still wandering up and down the beach. We managed to find them eventually, sitting down on makeshift stools surrounded by older Vietnamese men. We were very enthusiastically invited over to join them and proceeded to have one of the best nights of our trip. They couldn’t speak English, we couldn’t speak Vietnamese, but the beers were flowing and somehow we managed to communicate to each other, much to the amusement of all involved. Vung Tau was also well known in Vietnam for its huge Jesus statue, second in size to Rio’s and rather an odd monument to erect in a primarily Buddhist country.

In every city and town we visited families and friends would gather in huge groups, on beaches, outside houses, even on the streets and they would eat and chat, for hours and hours on end. They weren’t on their phones, there was no facebook, no tv, they were just enjoying each others company. The Vietnamese in particular were such a social group of people, and they seemed to place so much importance on the family unit. The art of conversation, which sometimes seems all but lost in the Western world, was thriving in Vietnam.

Drinking on boats made up a large portion of our Vietnam trip. In Nha Trang(a very popular spot for backpackers) we jumped on a day booze cruise (with a little bit of snorkelling included). We had some very lively, cross-dressing hosts but the highlight was definitely their ‘floating bar.’ Which consisted of one man sitting in a donut shaped floaty pouring Vietnamese whisky (nasty stuff!) into our plastic cups whilst we drunkenly swam around him. Needless to say we passed out as soon as we arrived back to hotel room.

My favourite part of Vietnam was our backpacking booze cruise in Halong Bay (yes, any excuse to drink!). Halong Bay is breathtakingly beautiful and untouched(something you can’t say about a lot of Asia). Part of our cruise included kayaking through the bay, which will go down as one of the most amazing experiences of my life, beer between the legs (yes still drinking the beer, even to kayak) we set off at sunset, already a little pissed and explored the vast landscapes of the bay. It was a phenomenal and a memory I will always cherish.

Vietnam is a great country to travel through, the beers are cheap, the people friendly and you’re spoilt for things to do; you’ve got bustling cities, lazy coastal beach towns and one of the most beautiful bays in the world. Definitely add it to your list if you haven’t already!

I want nobody nobody but you! [clap clap] I want nobody but you! [clap clap]

yellowducks — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 16:33:00 GMT

When the all-girl Korean band Wondergirls released there soon-to-be pop classic Nobody in 2009, somehow I doubt they’d envisage it would become a pole dancing anthem.

Just like marvelling at the Borobudur Temples in Java, watching the sun rise over Borneo at the top of Mt Kinabalu or midnight skinny dipping with a bunch female Canadian exchange students, satisfying my morbid curiosity of the go-go bar phenomenon of the Philippines was on my to-do list for this sultry archipelago.

Did I not notice the subtle hints of what was to come upon arrival? The seemingly ubiquitous pleasantry of “Hello Sirrr, may I know your nationaliteeeeeee?” or something more sinister than the friendly banter amongst foreigners regarding Rufi-coladas, STD burgers or chilli sauce ingeniously used in more ways than one.

There’s always something stimulating about doing something naughty. The giddiness, the sweaty palms or the underlying guilt the conscience envelops us with. Would curiosity finally kill the cat? As this adventurous (yet arguably stupid) traveller was soon running out of lives, the blinding light that flashed before my eyes held a confronting epiphany: Is the how I would want to use my last life? Have I taken it too far this time?

That blinding flash of light was the headlights of my taxi.

Angeles, sin city itself, an enclave, an industry stemming from the nearby former US army base in Clark. Two things automatically stood when one enters: the abundance of flashing neon lights and the strangely comforting yet sickening ease of which one is made to feel that all of this all of this was socially acceptable. Bar-hopping in a place like this could be an indicator of one’s voracious libido but for this traveller it was more about peeling away the superficial layers. And yes I can see the smirk on your face whilst reading this.

Most would be under the impression that ‘One for you and one for me’ would be the polite way to go when ordering drinks. As it turns out it was more like one for me, and one for you and each of your friends. Considering her one was three times the price of my one, it wasn’t long before I had to defibrillate my wallet that went into cardiac arrest. In the midst of financial CPR I am taken aback by the sudden flurry of women racing to the stage with adolescent excitement as their favourite song is played. What was this mysterious song? Laced with foreign vocals and a catchy beat, it had an inexplicable effect on these women, transporting them into a world of melodic ecstasy with synchronised hip thrusts, hand claps and seductive finger nods.

Defibrillator aside, I was transfixed on obtaining this mysterious super-power, harnessing it to achieve complete and utter world domination. I closed my eyes and began to internalise the forces that be, channelling the powers towards my inner sanctum I uttered with quiet authority: By the powers of Grey Skull, I am He-Man!

Fail.

As the night wore on, invariably clichés would emerge. The bar-girls were all poor rural girls forced to work in this industry to support their family and all the men were twice divorced Westerners who had become disenchanted with life back home. Like every Yin there was a Yang, however this marriage of two needs created moral napalm. Not that it mattered to either party.

Sitting there, quietly observing my surroundings I’d admit that Sheryl Crow got it all wrong as it was clear that Bill or Billy or Mac or buddy was finally having a day of fun. The twice divorced aging westerner with a girlfriend under each arm, accompanied by free flowing liquor had a grin so wide that Satan himself would be envious of.

Ironically, it’s not always the high life for these born-again hedonists. Periodically, an insignificant reference to a foreigner gone missing, kidnapped and/or murdered pops up in the local newspaper. Men who have become addicted to the glitz and glamour that their foreign currency could buy, gone broke by their lavish spending, artificial friendships and the overwhelming fear of having to address the gaping hole in their lives that drew them there in the first place. Men who have essentially become victim to the system they foolishly thought they owned. Seems like Sheryl Crow did get it right from the beginning after all.

Hit it!
This ain't no disco
And it ain't no country club either,
This is Angeles City...

But seriously, who on Earth ends a journal with the opening lines of a song anyway?

Photos: Hawaii

yellowducks — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 15:20:00 GMT

Maui

Getting Lost anywhere in the USA

yellowducks — Mon, 28 Nov 2011 11:01:00 GMT

We arrived in LA for our stop over after a long flight, we were lucky that our hotel would let us check in as we arrived early morning, despite the general rule about getting adjusted to the time difference, we fell asleep.

We woke up in the late afternoon, with nothing to do at our airport hotel so we went shopping at the nearest outlet mall as they have a free shuttle service there and back. We went to best buys and bought a Laptop and video camera to use on our trip. We had the first of many Pizzas.

The next day was really the start of our trip when we flew to NEW YORK!!! This is the second time we have been to New York, but from the moment we arrived it was all new because there were so many things to see. We had a great hotel it was two blocks from Times Square which was great but it still did not stop us from getting lost.

After our well earned rest, we had a free day to do whatever we wanted......so we went shopping, we spent the day walking around Times Square shopping and sightseeing it was great.

When it is two people travelling it is a challenge to get a photo of the two of you together and because we have already been to New York we figured we never know if we will get the opportunity to go back so we wanted some great pics together, We found a great walking tour that include a photographer and 150+ photos to take home it was great.

The next day consisted of not only more pizza but a tour about and including pizza, we did the slice of Brooklyn tour, it was such a great tour it was a great day. We got see the sights in Brooklyn and we were taken to two different famous pizza places, first we went to Grimaldi's under the Brooklyn Bridge where we had Neapolitan-style pizza (This was my sister favourite). Next we went to L&B Spumoni Gardens in Bensonhurst where we has the legendary Sicilian-style pizza, which in my opinion was the best pizza I have ever had.

I think everyone who goes to New York needs to spend the whole day in central park and just work around we had amazing weather and It was a great day to walk around and see the many sites within the park, we had a rather disappointing lunch at the boat house but it was still a great day.

Sadly our time in New York had to come to end at some point; we flew from NYC to Raleigh, North Carolina where we hired a car

and drove to Wilmington to which the guy in the car hire place though was hilarious and told us there is nothing much there. So we were a bit apprehensive to start off with, we choose Wilmington because we are a big fan of movies and TV shows and they film a lot of them there like fire starter, Betsy's Wedding, Dawson's Creek, Divine Secrets Of The Ya-Ya Sisterhood, Eastbound & Down (HBO), One Tree Hill and Empire Records just to name a few.

So after a 3 hour plus drive we arrived at hotel which the inside of the hotel smelt damp and look like the inside of the bates motel, at this point we were starting to think that guy was right. We managed to find a target so we did all our DVD shopping, YAY!!

We did two tours, one being a tour of the Screen Gem studios which was ok got to see the sets of One Tree Hill, then we did a movie walking tour of old Wilmington which was really embarrassing because the guy was weird and he had a mega phone which he kept on shouting action and cut. So after that we decide to find stuff ourselves, we found Karen’s Cafe and other stuff.

Back on the road again we drove for 8 hours in the one day which was not too bad because we shared the driving, but we booked a cabin in the smoky mountains national park. I was very hard to find and we go lost and pulled into someone’s long driveway thinking it was our cabin, but it wasn’t, ha-ha. We eventually found it and it was so worth it, the cabin was amazing. We spent the 3 days bumming around, enjoying the hot tub with national park in our backyard. On our trip back to return the car we pulled in to have lunch and we discovered Arby’s, this now became second go to place to eat other than pizza.

Next we went on to New Orleans which was a lot different than I expected it is hard to explain it is very diverse city. We stayed in the business district just outside the French quarter and we spent most of our time around the French markets and the Warf.

We went on the Natchez dinner cruise which was great, beautiful meal while we listen to Jazz music, the following day we did a tour of the Oak Alley Plantation which was amazing the front path had like 28 live oaks, planted in the early 1700's. It was amazing.

We also did a swamp and bayou tour it was a beautiful day to spend on a boat, we got to see a few alligators and turtles.

Because the food was mostly Cajun, which we did try but because I cannot handle much spicy food we did have Arby’s like three days in a row it was great. I did have a shrimp po-boy and some gumbo Ya Ya. I bought a New Orleans cookbook so I will attempt to cook some not so spicy gumbo at home.

Last stop was San Antonio, we did not have anything planned here we spent our days shopping and see the sights. Our Hotel was close to the river walk so we walked along the river walk. As we were there over Halloween we knew they had a big festival on for this but we missed it because we did not realise that Halloween fell on Monday so they put the festival on the Saturday that had already passed.

We had a great time and hopefully we get to go again!!!!

WorldNomads October Staff Meeting & Treasure Hunt...

yellowducks — Mon, 31 Oct 2011 10:51:00 GMT

In the words of INXS...achtung baby! This month's Germany themed staff cultural presentation centred around Oktoberfest, jam-packed with beer wenches, great food, chicken dance competition and even a WWII themed treasure hunt. Special thanks to Robyn, Michael, Kathryn, Simone, Dave, Kat and Vanda for their efforts in making the evening a wonderful one. I've even been told by Craig Pike it was better than the Spain night!

Big congrats to our Assistant Editorial Manager Kate Hoffman for hunting down the treasure, beating both the Claims and Customer Service teams to it. The squeaky rubber chicken prize was won by the one only Lisa Cape, literally the only one...
Deli selections, sausages, kransky's, schnitzels, lots of German beverages and even a Black Forest cake! Our regular MC could not make it but we had a replacement that was just as good, well...yeah! Michael and Malcolm did their best German equivalent to the Riverdance but don't give up your day jobs fellas! With great company in the form of Jager and Schnapps the evening continued as we welcomed the weekend a few hours early. Bring on Mo-vember!!!

Photos: Ducks

yellowducks — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 14:38:00 GMT

Curb your celebration!

yellowducks — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 14:14:00 GMT

At World Nomads HQ, the Pond is lucky enough to be located on Level 6 - it's sunny and spacious and probably most important of all we love to celebrate. We celebrate Fridays, we celebrate staff meetings (usually with some form of ethnic food and dress, and a dancing competition) and most importantly, we celebrate birthdays.

Whenever someone has a birthday, whoever's not on the phone sings happy birthday to the birthday boy or girl and then we all get to eat yummy yummy cake. We've had cheesecakes and mudcakes and sponge cakes and my personal favourite, a tiramisu cake - culminating in a week with 3 birthdays, and yes 3 cakes!

Alas our days of cake are numbered! Pond members are devastated that our birthday celebrations have been limited to once a month among rumours that we all eat soooo much cake that building management is worried that we will fall through the floor. And being in a heritage building that is simply not acceptable!

Hawaii - ahhhhhhhh

yellowducks — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 13:46:00 GMT

Part 2 Hawaii

10 hours on a plane – no on demand entertainment and no food for free or for vegetarians! But we got there – Honoloulu...ahhhhhhhhhhh. New York was great, but we were ready to relax!

I love Hawaiian airports, they are an odd mix of normal airport and open air corridors and waiting areas making the whole experience much more pleasant. We picked up our convertible and headed off to our hotel on Waikiki beach. We stayed at the Aston Waikiki Beach Hotel. Great location as it’s right at the end of the beach , but just heads up for anyone going to Honolulu – parking and traffic are terrible! Use the very efficient bus system and save yourself some time, hassle and a whole lotta money. Most hotels only offer valet parking which they charge like wounded bulls for.

After a minor panic attack (ok major), when I realised I had left all of my very expensive underwear in the new York hotel (including the strapless bra I was going to wear under my wedding dress that took me 3 months to find and cost me a small fortune) and a few frantic calls to New York to find my knickers, we met up with some friends to find a place to eat.

It is absolutely gorgeous walking along the beach front at sunset. We eventually settled on California Pizza Kitchen as Waikiki is not massively vegetarian friendly. It was great – definitely in my top 10 of pizza experiences, maybe even my top 5. We wandered around and did a bit of shopping and then headed back for an early night.

We were up with the dawn the next day to head over to Hanauma Bay – a protected marine life conservation area on the eastern side of Oahu that is renowned for it’s snorkelling. You have to get there early to get a car park. We watched a short film made in the 80’s about the park and how to behave before we headed down into the flooded crater. We were the first group to go through so it was still quiet. We had brought one set of snorkel gear, and when they told us the price to hire another snorkel, we decided to take turns with the one we had! All in all we had a good time at Hanauma Bay and saw some really cool fish, but the water was cloudy and so shallow over the reefs that is was dangerous at times, and just plain uncomfortable (scraping up against the coral) for the rest.

We left Hanauma Bay and travelled further around the east coast of Oahu to The Sea Life Park. This is where they shot some of the scenes for the Adam Sandler/Drew Barrymore movie 50 First Dates. We had booked in to swim with the dolphins in the afternoon and wanted to check out the park before that. We saw a couple of great dolphin shows where they not only show off the dolphins, but the relationship that they have with their trainers and handlers. They do a great show at one of the indoor amphitheatres where they bring out the seals so the kids can see them up close – I’ve never seen a seal do a handstand/flipperstand before –that’s some serious upper body strength! The dolphins splash the crowd, the kids scream with delight, it was great!

When it was time we headed over to the main dolphin pool for our swim. We were lucky enough to be in the water with the adorable Nani who the trainer calls his naughty teenager and Kekaimalu the worlds only “Wolphin” – a cross between a fasle killer whale and bottle nose dolphin. We got to do a dorsal fin ride (where they come up behind you and you grab onto their dorsal fins and the 2 dolphins tow you) and a foot push (the dolphins dive under water and come up under your feet pushing you up and along the water) which was one of the coolest things I have ever experienced. We were also allowed to be in the water while the dolphins swam up to you so you could touch them and learned the commands for their acrobatic trips – you know just in case I quit my job and become a dolphin trainer.

We said goodbye to our dolphin and wolphin and headed back to Waikiki for a much needed shower – the dolphin pool was a bit icky! Once we were cleaned up we headed out for dinner – our mission, get a table at the Cheesecake Factory. We’d heard the food was good and we wanted to see if any of the girls looked like Penny from Big Bang Theory and take a photo with her. Alas it was not to be – the wait for a table was already an hour and a half. So we settled for something else, did a bit more shopping (I was frantically trying to find a strapless bra to replace the one I’d left in New York), watched a crazy lady with parrots swear and scream at a passer-by who looked at her birds and headed back to the hotel for our last night in Waikiki.

I was more than happy to be leaving Honolulu the next day as we headed for the glorious Maui. We did some cool things in Honolulu, but it’s pretty much just an upmarket Gold Coast. Maui on the other hand is wonderful.

This fabulous island is named after the Hawaiian god Maui who slowed the progress of the sun in the sky so his people could enjoy the sunlight. Sunrise and sunset are extremely special times and many activities revolve around these very auspicious times of day.

On every previous visit to Maui I have stayed in the little town of Kihei. Technically in South Maui, Kihei is about 30 mins drive from Kahului airport. It has enough basic shopping, great holiday villa/serviced apartment accommodation and some pretty good eating as well as surf schools and a boat ramp for pick up for scuba diving and snorkelling trips. It’s also 15 mins drive from what I consider to be Hawaii’s best each- Makena or Big Beach.We were staying in a lovely little cottage just back from the beach.

Now if you’re ever in Maui make sure you rent a car. And make sure that car is a convertible! We picked up our friends from their hotel and began the drive to Lahaina. The drive from Kihei is mostly in a westerly direction and at sunset it is absolutely stunning. There are plenty of places to stop on the way, and in fact you’ll see many people (tourists and locals) doing just that to farewell the sun. The drive takes about 40 minutes when he traffic is good and the road winds right around the coast. Lahaina is an old whaling town that is now a quaint little combination of restaurants, jewellers, art galleries and tourist shops. It’s right on the water and a lot of the restaurants have live entertainment. We managed to squeeze in at the Hard Rock cafe (not very local I know, but in a town that pretty much just serves fish, eating out is a struggle for the vegetarian crowd!) and finished off with some Coldstone ice cream – it’s the American version of Cold Rock, you know where you choose the ice cream and then they smash all the extra bits into it – yummy!!!

For our first full day in Maui, the first order of business was the beach – Big Beach or Makena to be exact. This is my favourite beach in the world. And if you’re a bit cheeky, it’s right next door to Little Beach where you can strip down to your birthday suit and really enjoy the splendour of the valley isle.

Makena is part of a national park – there’s no shops, there’s no showers, there’s no loos (don’t use the porta-loo, you may not live to see another day), there’s only a guy in a caravan selling fajitas, hot dogs, drinks and coconuts. There’s no rubbish bins, so bring your own rubbish bag and take it all with you. And on glorious days the parking lot is full well before lunchtime.

We found a spot on the molten sand and pretty much got straight in the water. It’s no good for surfing as the waves break really close to the beach. But it’s fantastic for some good solid wave jumping. It can get a bit rough so if you’re not a reasonably strong swimmer, Big beach probably isn’t for you.

The water on Maui is so clear you can see the sand between your toes. I love being in the ocean as it always makes me feel part of something bigger. But on Maui the feeling is amplified because it is just so incredibly clean and beautiful. I stayed in the water for almost 4 hours straight, just floating in paradise before calling it a day. I was a bit pink but at this stage wasn’t too worried. We began to get our stuff together when my lovely partner gasps and pulls some very soggy, salty car keys out of her pocket. I nearly wet myself laughing as it says in very big red letters on the brochure you get when you collect your car “DO NOT GET THE CAR KEYS WET. THE CAR WILL NOT START IF YOU DO”. Now they are the new fancy remote car keys, but come on, seriously? I was amazed that after 4 hours in quite big swell, they were still in her pocket so wasn’t ready to panic yet. I did say a quick little prayer however as I had no pants over my bikini bottoms and didn’t fancy tramping all the way into town like that!

It was tense walk back to our fabulous gunmetal grey mustang convertible, but when we got there the car was very obliging and started first go – thank goodness!

We grabbed some dinner and headed back home for an easy night in when I saw the full extent of my day in the water. I was red like a lobster! My face was practically radioactive and I had the most fantastic strap marks from my top. It seems while I had been floating in the ocean, blissfully unaware of anything else – I had not made any consideration for the re-application of sunscreen, or what this would mean for my one shouldered wedding dress the next day. Now I was no bridezilla, but after leaving all my knickers and strapless bra in New York, I was starting to get a little crazy! So I jumped in the car for a late night dash to Longs drugs to find some tan healing/setting/browning cream and some nuclear strength bronzer. I then spent the night applying Maui babe browning lotion to my entire body every hour. It was a sticky, sticky night!

When I awoke on my wedding day, to my horror (though not to my surprise), I was still a very Christmassy shade of red. So I just kept applying the Maui Babe and praying to any deity who would have me that either my sunburn would suddenly and miraculously fade, or that it was true what my partner and friends were saying – “it’ll look fine once you’re in your dress, no one will notice” or my favourite “you can always get the photographer to photoshop it”.

By the time I got to the beauty salon to have my hair done I was radiating a heat so fierce that I thought my face was going to melt off! It was also a very, very warm day on Maui so the freak out factor was increasing. I wasn’t worried about the actual marrying of my partner – that was something I knew I absolutely, most definitely wanted to do – I just wanted to be beautiful in my pretty white dress on the most special day of my life.

A few hours later the wonderful ladies at Sisters and Co salon in Wailea had worked a miracle. I’d given them no instruction for my hair other than it had to be all up and out of my face and that I needed my make up to minimise the sunburn but not make me look like a drag queen. They did a great job on all of us. There was now nothing to do but pick up the bouquet, get dressed and get to the beach!

When I finally stood in my dress with my hair and make-up done it really hit me. This was it. The day that girls dream of. I’d been bronzed within an inch of my life – and suddenly my sunburn didn’t matter anymore – and it really didn’t look that bad. There was no more preparations, no more decisions about how everything should go. It was all done. We had arrived at the point of no return. My partner looked so beautiful that I couldn’t stop smiling at her. I know we’d technically “gotten married” last week in New York, but this was the one we had planned. This was the one that was the wedding we had dreamed of.

We drove a bit further south to a tiny little beach called Paipu. It was perfect. I haven’t seen a photo that does this place justice, it’s just something you have to see for yourself. The sun was getting lower in the sky and it was shaping up to be a magnificent sunset. We met our celebrant who was a radiant elderly lady who asked us if she could chant a Hawaiian blessing and blow the conch shell for us.

I walked hand in hand with my partner down the beach to stand with her while we spoke the vows we had written and exchanged rings. Maui gave us the most spectacular sunset as we committed our lives to each other and I know it will be the best decision I ever made in my life.

After getting my dress soaking wet in the ocean, we headed back to get changed and out for dinner. I’d always wanted to have my “reception” dinner at Fred’s Mex on the water. So we celebrated our wedding with the most massive plate of nachos I’ve ever seen and some very yummy frozen strawberry daquiri’s! Perfect!

The rest of our time was spent enjoying the beauty of Maui. We got up at 3am one morning to drive to the top of the Haleakala volcano to watch the sunrise – a very early, very tedious drive and totally freezing at the top, but worth the site you see at the top. The sky looked like molten gold at times, like red or pink lava at others. We also took a short snorkel trip out to the Molokini crater. We went with a company called Blue water rafting who blasts heavy rock music while hammering over the waves and practically ejecting you from your very precarious seating on the edge of the boat! The snorkelling at Molokini was wonderful. The water was so clear and blue. The fish would come right up to you and there were so many varieties. It was so nice snorkelling in deep water where you didn’t have to be worried about getting smashed against coral. We started on the inside of the crater and because the weather was good, we were lucky enough to hop back in the boat and have them drop us off the back side of the crater. We spent almost 2 hours in the water and as it was starting to get rough – and I was starting to feel quite seasick because of all the up and down – we climbed back into the boat and headed home. I managed to keep my breakfast down, but not everyone was quite so lucky!

On our last day we went to Makena one last time, got tattoos while we watched a guy who had taken way to many drugs get horn implants (he was convinced once they were done that weren’t straight!), and enjoyed our final sunset o the sea wall in Kihei. We were fortunate enough to see some sea turtles which are supposed to be good luck.

It’s always a sad moment when you have to leave Hawaii. The people are so friendly and so respectful of their islands. Everything is clean and fresh and it hurt my heart to leave, as it always does. But I was returning back to my regular life having started something amazing. We had already started planning our next trip to Hawaii even before we had left.

New York New York!

yellowducks — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 12:30:00 GMT

Part 1 New York, New York!

After 32 hours of very unpleasant air travel I arrived in New York. I’d been subject to overbooked flights, nearby passengers who got drunk and sick (gross), a side trip to Boston where we sat on the tarmac for 2 hours and a few dozen laps of the runway at JFK. But I had arrived and that was the important thing. After a knuckle-whitening cab trip with an angry Sikh cab driver who swore at every car we passed, I arrived at the Hotel Stanford in midtown and fell relieved into the arms of my partner who had been anxiously awaiting my arrival.

After washing all that plane ick off me we went in search of the nearest NYC pizza joint. I was delighted that only a block away was the Little Italy pizza shop. Damn they make good pizza! But this was only the beginning. My mission was to eat pizza everyday, multiple times a day if possible – that’s a bit odd, you may say but let me give you some backstory. I love pizza. I think it is the best food in the world. If I was stuck on a desert island and I could only eat 1 food for the rest of my life it would be Margherita pizza. I know I wouldn’t survive that long but damn I’d be happy. At home I am only allowed to eat pizza once a week – New York was the exception to this rule. Not only did I want to make the most of my time there and eat as much of the best pizza in the world as I could, but I also wanted to prove my partner wrong when she said there was no way I could eat it every day.

We spent our time seeing all the sights. For me it was my 2^nd visit to the city that never sleeps, but my partner, who is an amazing photographer, was seeing it all for the very first time. Funnily enough, on our first day out and about she asked if we could go to New Jersey.

No that’s not a typo, she wanted to leave the glorious city of New York to go to Hoboken New Jersey to see Buddy at Carlo’s bakery. If that means nothing to you, check out the tv show Cake Boss on foxtel – it’s awesome. So after being disappointed at not being able to see Ground Zero because of all the scaffolding around the freedom tower, we hopped in a cab (again with a crazy driver that looked like a homeless guy) and paid him way too much to take us to Hoboken, NJ.

We arrived at the little bakery thinking we might have a short wait to get in. We were horrified when we saw that the wait time was approximately 2 hours. Now I love cake Boss, but seriously, I was giving up Manhattan time for this. Nevertheless, we took our place at the end of the line where we chatted to the other Americans who marvelled at our accents and couldn’t believe we’d come all the way from Australia to visit a cake shop in New Jersey!

2 very hot and sweaty hours later we got in. We spent about 30 more minutes in the crush waiting to be served and left with a T-shirt, a photo of Mary (Buddy’s sister), a tiramisu cake and what were allegedly the best cannoli’s ever. We found a spot on the waterfront and gobbled down our treats with a beautiful view of the east side of Manhattan. The Cannoli’s were amazing – so amazing that we suffered a massive belly ache for the rest of the day from all the cream, but it was totally worth it!

After about 3 days of coming and going from our midtown hotel, we were walking to the trusty local pizza shop for yet another slice of Manhattan’s finest, when I looked up. And what do you know – on the street behind ours there was the Empire State Building. We’d been up it the night before at about 1am (way cooler at night than during the day), we’d walked up and down the street multiple times a day and only just realised it. As a result, every subsequent time we passed it one of us said to the other “holy crap babe, did you know the Empire State Building was there?” To which we would dissolve into a fit of laughter at how dumb we were not to have realised it earlier.

One of my very important missions while in NYC was to find a killer pair of sneakers (shoes are so much cheaper in the US and the dollar was at $1.10 or something). We decided after being denied entry to Toys R Us in Times Square by the bomb squad (it’s Times Square, I didn’t think it was too weird at the time) that we’d pop into Foot Locker to see what they had. About 5 minutes later, the bomb squad bursts into Foot Locker telling us all to get out immediately. No one knew what was happening. I asked the security guards and they said there had been a bomb threat on the subway – UH OH! There were cops everywhere trying to empty out Times Square. It was early August. I’d never seen so many people in the one place. It was like every tourist that was in NYC had come to Times Square that night. We were herded down Broadway by mounted police, as 90% of people demanded to be let back into stores or tried to take photos of the cops. Way to go guys! With all these angry tourists clogging the streets, we figured we’d head home for the night. We were staying only 10 blocks away, if Times Square blew up in the night, we’d know about it.

Our 4^th day in New York was a pretty important one –we were getting married (for the first time) on the steps of the New York City Public library (where Carrie was supposed to marry Big before he freaked out and stood her up). Why for the first time you ask? When organising our trip we had already booked and paid for a ceremony on the beach in Hawaii. About a week before we arrived in New York, gay marriage was legalised there. We felt that we needed to be a part of something so momentous, and wanted it at least to be legal somewhere! And so at 10am on August 4, we met with the beautiful Reverend Annie Lawrence at one of Manhattans most iconic buildings, dressed in thongs and T-shirts and said “I do”.

We spent the rest of the day listening to the live performances by Broadway stars in Bryant Park, hanging with the dinosaurs in the Museum of Natural history, saw a guy propose to his girlfriend in Central Park, lazed around on the great lawn (I was having 3 men and a baby flashbacks) and ended the evening with cocktails and a Broadway show (Addams Family – fantastic!)

Friday night and we were off to the ball game! The Yankees weren’t playing at home for the whole time we were in NYC, so being a massive baseball nut I bought tickets to see the Mets. (We were originally going to the Wednesday night game, but after arriving and waiting 2 and a half hours in the rain, buying exorbitantly priced rain ponchos, and some really bad vegetarian hotdogs and beer, they cancelled the game. We weren’t sure why they made us wait that long to decide but for anybody who goes in future – baseball players are wimps and don’t play in the rain). Long story short, the Atlanta braves kicked the Mets asses in a serious way. It was still good fun though. Especially as our section had an awesome beer vender with a Queens accent yelling “Budd, Budd light! Who wants it? Speak up! You gotta speak up!” He would then attempt to make eye contact and stare you down until you bought a beer! And he hated it when the pretzel guy got in his way!

7 days after arriving in the Big Apple I had eaten copious amounts of delicious pizza, visited all of the obligatory New York icons (including getting lost in the bowels of Rockafeller centre where I had a little sense of humour failure), got hugged and subsequently felt up by an Asian Cookie Monster (can’t believe the cheeky bastard went for the boob grab!), survived a bomb scare, stuffed my face with Whole Foods goodness resulting in a permanent craving for Granola and Fizzy Izze’s, rode the Toys R US Ferris Wheel, bought the most amazing pair of Nikes I’ve ever seen, gotten way too excited when we found the HBO True Blood store, struggled to get the machines to work in a Chinese Laundromat, realised that the Mets suck, eaten more peanut butter M & M’s than would be considered reasonable by any insurance policy and married the love of my life – legally.

Oh and guys, when you’re next in Manhattan make sure you visit The Counter: Custom built burgers in Times Square... mmmmmmmmmmmmmm!!!