Holly's round the world adventures

Sunday 6th July, HOME

2008-07-06T14:36:00.000-07:00

Ok well this is it, my blog is finished, I'm back home and already back at work. I had the time of my life travelling and its only made me want to do more. Thanks to everyone who read my blog and left me various comments and sent me emails :) Twas good to know you hadn't all forgotten me. Anyway thats it folks, last ever blog. THE END

Wednesday 2nd july, The last day!!!

2008-07-01T16:53:00.000-07:00

OMG here it is, my final day of my trip! My last day in New Zealand. As of tommorow I will be starting my 2 day journey home back to lovely sunny Yorkshire :) I'm fairly sure it will absolutly piss it down just because I'm back lol. Thats it really anyway, me and Ev are just chilling out in Auckland, we're going up the sky tower in a bit and of course since its our last night we're going out to party (like we've not spent the last 5 months doing that anyway lol), and we will probably getting on that plane a little worse for wear tommorow. Can't wait to see everyone :) and of course to show you all my photies! xx

Wednesday 15th June, Faceplant!

2008-06-24T15:55:00.000-07:00

Okay so I'm nearing the end of my blog now, with just 9 days left in New Zealand and 10 till I get home. Its gone rather quick and I really don't want to come home and get a job :( So anyways in the last few days me and Ev have been up to quite a lot. After we dropped the van off we stayed in Auckland for a night of two and then we got the Kiwi Experience bus up to Paihia in the bay of islands. Paihia was a bit of a sleepy place with not much going on but as usual we made our own mischief. On our first day in Paihia we got the ferry across the bay to Russell. Russell was quaint looking but there was much to do there, so we had quick look around and hopped back on the ferry. After our uneventful trip to Russell we chilled out for a day or two before going on a day trip up to Cape Reinga. Cape Reinga is the top point of New Zealand, you can see the pacific ocean and the Tasman sea meet. So cue lots of tourist pics, at the point lighthouse and next to the sign which said how many mile we we're from London etc etc. After this we moved on to the sand dunes, this is the fun bit. At the sand dunes we went sand boarding, this was, as one would imagine, a bit sandy more so for me though. I built so much speed up as I went down the hill I slid off the front of my board and carried on sliding without it and smacked my face in the sand and swallowed about half the dune. After we had enough of sand boarding we took the coach down to 90mile beach. This is somewhat of a silly place, because one it is not 90miles long, and two, it is classed as a highway and therefore has a speed limit even tho it is a beach. It was a tad weird been sat on a coach which was driving down the beach but i have done weirder things on my trip so I got over it. On our little sand excursion we also saw the hole in the rock and caught some Pipi and ate the Pipi we caught. So after the 90 mile beach we had a quick stop for fish and chips and then made our way back to Paihia. We were in Paihia for a few more days, we did a cruise of some of the islands around Paihia and got up close to some dolphins, rather cool and that's about it. On Monday we got picked up in Paihia by some of Ev's relatives who we are staying with for a few nights, free accommodation whooo. So that's about it, I shall be seeing you all quite soon xx

Wednesday 18th June, No more space!

2008-06-17T23:27:00.000-07:00

Space has gone. We gave our beloved van back in Auckland, it was a v.v.sad. Anyway its gone. So now we are in Auckland. Before getting to Auckland we visited a couple of other places in the van. First stop it was Waitomo to do the legendary black water rafting. This involves, abseiling 37m into a deep dark hole, traipsing around in the dark for a bit, then zipping down a wire in the dark, then the best bit standing on a ledge with a rubber ring and jumping off the ledge making sure that you land with your bum in the rubber ring. We then travelled around in the water for a bit and climbed a few waterfalls before surfacing out of a poky little hole. I enjoyed it immensely. So after our little adventure we decided to watch the England v All blacks match in the pub, this was a little embarrassing as they totally trashed us and all the kiwis in the pub were taking the mick. We tried to get tickets for the next match in Christchurch but we decided it was a bit far considering we're in Auckland (Its a totally different island). So after Waitomo we went to Raglan, the place to surf whilst in NZ, unfortunately for us the weather was gross and surfing was not an option. So that's about it, we went to Auckland after that but not without a minor incident of getting a flat battery and having to wave down a passerby in the middle of nowhere so that we could call escape to come rescue us, oops. And before you all say it, I did not leave the lights on in the van.

Thursday 12th June, Don't you dare push me!

2008-06-11T17:16:00.000-07:00

Right so we had a complete change of plans over the last few days, we didn't do a canyon swing in Taupo as we found a better one in Rotorua however I did do the bungy jump in Taupo which is New Zealands highest water touch bungy. So it was just me for the bungy as Ev can't do it coz she has funny insides. We got to the bungy place and there was quite a few other people, so I watched a few other people jump and I admit, I was mildly horrified. Anyway finally it came around to me, I went onto the platform and they strapped my legs together and put the velcro straps on. Whilst they we're strapping me up another person was doing a jump, by this point I was very nervous, I'm gonna puke was definatly a thought going through my brain. So next it was me, I shuffled up to the edge as obviously my legs were strapped together, and I took one peer over the edge and turned to the guy and babbled I can't do it, its terrfying, don't you dare push me! The guy, who clearly had people do this all the time, turned me back around to the ledge and said you do want to do it otherwise you wouldnt have paid. He then said I'm gonna count to three and say bungy and your going to jump and make sure you smile for your picture. So I turned back around quaking in my trainers, He said one, two, three, bungy, and next thing I know I'm hurtling face first towards are rather cold looking expanse of water. Now my mother would probably have disowened my had she heard the amount of swearing I did but I didn't buy the dvd of my jump so she never has to see it lol. So thats about it, my very first bungy. We also did a few no quite so exciting things whilst in Taupo such as the craters of the moon walk, this was a 45min walk through some craters that due to theraml/volcanic activity hissed and spewed out alot of steam, sounds alot more impressive than it actually was. So after our adventurous day we moved on to Rotorua, on the way to Rotorua we stopped at Kerosene creek to sit in it. Now I know what your all thinking we've finally gone mad or that the bungy jump scambled my brains, why would we sit in a creek. Well the water was hot as it comes from a lake which has thermal activity under it. However if you sit in the actual lake you cook literally, turkey style. So after our quick dip we carried on with our journey to Rotorua. This is where it gets interesting we've had a crazy few days in Rotorua infact I've become a bit of an adrenaline junkie. So far in Rotorua we've done 'the swoop' and white water rafting on the Kaituna which is particulary interesting as it flows over one of the largest commercially rafted waterfalls in world, the 7m Okere falls. In regards to white water rafting, I won't bore you with the details it was exciting and very wet as our raft completly went under. The swoop is where you get in a bag and are winched up to a great height and then you swoop down, the one small detail we mustn't forget here though is the fact that one of us has to pull the cord to let us go! I got the wonderful task of pulling the cord, swooping was great fun but one of the best bits had to be when we saw the pictures after, Ev was pulling such a face the people behind the desk had zoomed in on her and put are large picture of it up on the screen which everyone could see. So as you can see I've been having an exciting time and I'll keep you updated.

Sunday 7th June, Bloody Hillbillies

2008-06-07T19:31:00.000-07:00

Well it's been a good couple of days since I last did my blog and I've been a busy bee. So I'll go back to last Sunday. Last Sunday we were in a little town near Fox glacier. We did a glacier walk up the fox glacier. It was rather exciting I got to wear some spiky things *crampons* on my boots, I got to eat some vintage 50 year old ice, we got to walk through an ice cave and finally drink some glacier water, it was so cold it hurt my teeth! So after our glacier walk we did a short drive in our van to a place called Franz Josef, theres also a large glacier here but we decided we'd seen enough ice for one trip. So after a quick poke around the town and an overnight stay in a car park that said no camping we set off on the long drive to Hamner Springs. Sp fast forward a few hours and we were in Hamner springs. In Hamner Springs we visited the thermal reserve. So basically we spent the whole morning sitting in roasting hot pools whilst the weather was freezing. They were really good but the eggy smell from the sulphur wasn't so good. So after our morning of cooking ourselves in the thermal pools we set off on another journey to Kaikoura on the east coast. In Kaikoura we we're supposed to be going whale watching, I was rather excited about this, so we got up nice and early and got to the shop to be told it was cancelled due to rough seas. Gutted. So since we had a ferry to catch to the north island the next day we couldn't hang around waiting for the sea to calm. Next stop was Picton, here was where we were catching the ferry to Wellington. So fast forward again and we on Thursday and we're in Wellington. Since we didn't think we'd find anywhere to free camp in a city we decided to stay on a campsite *also we probably smelt and needed a shower* When we got to the campsite we got indulged in a few childish antics, there was a huge play park on the campsite, part of which included a huge bouncing pillow thing. Anyway since we we're in a big city we decided to have a night out *our first one since Queenstown as everywhere else we went out was full of hillbillies!* So our night out in Wellington consisted of going to see Sex and the city and then a few vodka and red bulls whilst dancing to the most appalling music I've heard in a long time *every bar/club had shit music* So after our night out in Wellington we moved on to a town called Napier, it was a little bit bizarre all the building we're art deco. There wasn't that much to do in Napier so we moved on again to Taupo. So at the current moment I'm in Taupo. This morning we went Jet boating up the river near the Huka falls *its huge* Tomorrow we're hopefully doing a tandem canyon swing eeek! I'll let you know who screams loudest tomorrow!

Saturday 31st May, Wobbly face

2008-05-30T19:12:00.000-07:00

This is going to be a very short and sweet blog to go, OMG I JUMPED OUT OF A PLANE AT 12000FT!!! Yup this morning at 11 me and Ev drove to the skydive centre in Wanaka, I got all dressed up in my colourful jumpsuit, put a harness on and got in a plane, it was that easy. Just to point out at this point Ev had decided not to jump and had chickened on me. I wasn't even nervous till they opened the plane door *I went first out of the 4 people on the plane* And when they opened that door, excuse the language, I was sat there thinking fuck what am I doing? Am I really going to jump out of a plane?? eeeeeeeeeeeeeek!! Anyway sitting outside the door ready to go wasn't really the time to bottle out so I jumped, and it was amazing. Surprisingly I didn't feel like I was falling apart from my face being wobbly from the speed. The pics make me look like a bit of a fatty really! Anyway I got the whole thing filmed, so when I get home I shall make you all watch it, just to prove I did it!

Friday 30th May. Stop it Ginger you big booby!

2008-05-29T23:07:00.000-07:00

Right I have so much stuff to waffle on about this blog may be abit boring but tough! I'm going to tell you all it anyway. So a couple of days ago we we're still in Queenstown but alot has happened since then! We left Queenstown on Sunday and decided we would go to Te Anau via a scenic route of the remarkables (a big bunch of mountains), we totally did not read a map before doing this and ended up in a tiny little village called Kinloch at a dead end so we stayed the night there next to a very pretty lake and moved on the next day. We decided us getting to Te Anau was clearly not meant to be and headed for Dunedin on the east coast instead. So after an eventful drive to Dunedin (we killed several bits of wildlife that strayed into our path, got a chip in the wind screen and ran out of petrol, eeek) in Dunedin we headed for a campsite as we decided we needed to charge cameras/ipods and stuff. The next day in Dunedin we went on a wildlife tour, now I know this sounds really geeky but we saw some pretty cool stuff. The trip started in Dunedin harbour, here we got on a boat and travelled the 22km harbour to the Otago penisula where we saw shags, seagulls, albatrosses and fur seals, they were cute especially the fur seals, there was a really noisy one making a racket on a rock by itself. After a while me and Ev then got dropped off at a yellow eyed penguin reserve. The penguins we're really cute and we got really lucky we got to see a pair in their nest as soon as we started looking. So after our exciting wildlife tour we felt the need to keep up the excitement by doing a beach horse ride the next day. Now I'm a little bit wary of horses, after my experience in Peru with one that had a bad case of the nibbles, and it kept biting me and everyone else's horses! Anyway my horse this time was called Trolley, it was fairly normal , it just kept shitting everywhere and then galloping to catch Ginger (Ev's horse) to catch up. The scenery as usual was spectacular and I enjoyed the ride. So after our couple of hours horse riding we headed up the coast and stopped the night in a very nice car park in Moeraki. So on Thursday morning we decided to do a 2km walk on the beach to the Moeraki boulders, these were a pile of rocks on the beach which were creepily sphere shaped, as in almost perfect spheres! So after climbing around on the freaky boulders we drove across country to Mount Cook village. Now our drive to Mount Cook village is another example of that me and Ev should read maps before driving off to places. We thought from Mt cook Village we could drive straight through the next day to the Franz Josef and Fox glaciers, we were however wrong. We got there did a few walks up the Hooker valley and then stayed the night and drove on the next day, 3hours back the way we came from, oops! So now we're on our way to the glaciers and we've stopped the night in Wanaka, which since we're here we decided to do a sky dive tomorrow. Am terrified 12000 ft!! eeeeeeeeeeeek. Will updated you after I've done it!xx

Thursday 22nd May, Pimp my van!

2008-05-21T18:56:00.000-07:00

Ok, so yet again I've swapped countries and I'm now in New Zealand, with SPACE! Space is our camper van, we didn't name it, it already had its name but its name definitely suits it. See picture, me and Space. So we flew into NZ on Sunday and picked our camper van up in Christchurch. From Christchurch we hit the road straight away and admired the scenery on the way to Methven, which is where we spent our first night in space. Our first night was uneventful and surprisingly warm. The next day we went walking around Mount Somers and then drove on to Lake Tekapo, here we parked right next to the lake, like all the other cheapskates who didn't want to pay for a campsite for the night. Now as much as I love having a camper van, its horrific when in the middle of the night you decide you need the loo, because you have to get out of your nice warm camper van and pee, I hate it. Anyway moving on, after our night in Lake Tekapo we drove to Wanaka and spent the day roaming around and we visited 'A Puzzling world'. This was officially ace, there was all sorts of weird and wonderful illusions some of which made me feel a bit sick but still great. Outside of this place is a huge two story maze, the challenge was to get to the 4 different coloured towers in each corner and then get out. So after an hour of dead ends, running around and possibly a bit of swearing we got to all four towers and finally escaped the maze. We then spent the night in Wanaka, the next day we climbed up a hill/mountain called Mt Iron. The views from here were amazing, we could see all of Wanaka and the lake. From Wanaka we drove to Arrowtown, on the way to Arrowtown we stopped at the top of a mountain pass and had lunch. When we finally got to Arrowtown we looked around and then moved on again to Lake Hayes where we spent two hours walking around the lake, yet again the scenery was stunning. We were going to spend the night parked down by the lake, but after having dinner (which was eventful in itself, I found a large bug in my salad cream) we looked out the window and realised it was a bit dark and creepy, so cue mad drive around trying to find somewhere to park the camper van for the night, we finally settled on a random car park which a few other camper vans had parked in. So this morning we woke up in thus mentioned car park to hear pouring rain lashing down on our beloved van, an overcast sky and all the other camper vans had gone :( Today is also Ev's birthday, so I decided to do a little bit of pimp my van! I blew up loads of balloons filled the van with them and put them under the windscreen wipers and put party streamers everywhere. Before any adult/parent reads this, I did remove all of this crap before driving off! So as we speak I'm in Queenstown, debating what to do as heavy snow is due, and we don't have snow chains for our van, eeek. So I will keep you posted :)

Saturday 17th May, No more pasty pete!

2008-05-16T17:53:00.001-07:00

Well this is only a short one, its more really to tell you what I'm going to be doing as I might not be able to use the internet as much when I get to New Zealand as we're hiring a camper van for the month!! Yes I know the idea of me driving a camper van makes alot of people laugh especially Arran, who wants photographic evidence that I actually did it. And just so you all know its not one of those geeky camper vans the one we're getting comes all spray painted and backpacker looking. For my last week in Australia I spent most of it Byron bay, being a beach bum, I'm no longer a Pasty Pete! I came down to Sydney yesterday on the over night bus which was good because it meant I saved on accommodation for that night coz I was on a bus. So since this is my last day in Australia I going to keep this short as I have some last minute pressies to buy people, and be warned they will be tacky and touristy, you can't come home without a fluffy kangaroo lol. Oh and also so you can all gloat, its bloody freezing in Sydney, its like been back at home!

Sunday 11th May, It was less than a metre away, eeeek

2008-05-11T04:51:00.000-07:00

Ok So I have had a brilliant couple of days, I've been to Australia zoo and visited Moreton island. So lets start with Australia zoo I went here on thursday with the usually motely crew (Ev, Siobhan and Ross). There was alot of alligators and crocs which isn't suprising really, some of them had really cool names lik Mr Freshy, Fang or Murray, but more about Murray later as he was in the show. The actual zoo was huge (72 acres I think), the first thing I came across was a tasmanian devil, these are supposed to be noctural but this one clearly decided it had the daytime munchies and was snuffling around for food. Now I could tell you about every animal I saw but lets skip foward to the wildlife warriors show. This show was a little bit cheesy and aimed more at 8year olds but the actual animals in it were cool. This is where murray comes in, he was the croc they were feeding meat and coaxing out of the water to show off his skills. Got some cool pics, but was bloody glad it wern't me feeding him, he had a right set of gnashers! Another part of the show was about birds and they wanted 4 volunteers from the audience, so been the idiot I am I leapt up and waved my hand and of course I got picked. So anyway what they wanted us to do was to be the perches for the birds to land on when they let them out the box and make silly bird noises. Anyway they let the birds out and I made the stupid noise and held my arms out and the damn birds flew away. Don't think it went to plan but never mind. After the show I stood in what could possibly have been the longest queue ever so that I could cuddle a Koala bear, it was well worth it though. The Koala was really cute and seemed to actually enjoy been passed around like a parcel by hundreds of visitors. So enough about the zoo and on to Moreton island, it has to be up there with one of the most beautiful places I've visited. So we got picked up at 7.30am (this was really hard comsidering I went to bed at 6 in the first place) and we got on the ferry to Moreton island. The first thing we did was drop our bags at the campsite and then we went sand boarding, this was amazing and we got up to speeds of 60km, twas a bit sandy though. After this we went snorkelling around some wrecks and saw so cool fish. For the rest of the day we just admired the stunning beaches and swam with dolphins. The next day we saw more stunning beaches and has a pipi race. As you can probably tell by the way I've shortened everything down I'm about to run out of internet time so thats it for now folks.

Thursday 8th May, It smells like dead rat.

2008-05-08T02:19:00.000-07:00

Hello all, I've realised I've been a bit slack with the blogging so I will try my best to get my act together and make a better job of it! Last time I wrote my blog I was on my way to Surfers Paradise, I've since been there and moved on to Brisbane. In Surfers Paradise I had a brill time. On Tuesday I went Hydro Zorbing, now I know most of you are thinking what the buggery is that so I'm going to quickly explain, you get put in a huge ball with a bit of water and rolled down a huge hill! Me, Siobhan and Ross went in a ball together it was a bit like sliding down a really big slide that didn't end. If you have Facebook, Siobhan has tagged me in her pics of Hydro Zorbing. Anyway carrying on and explaining the dead rat thing, the guy who picked us up for the Hydro Zorbing handed us a can of air freshener when we got in the car and said don't mind the smell, a rat got stuck in my dashboard and died. Nice eh? Moving on again, on Wednesday we went to a water park called Wet and Wild, we being me, Ev, Ross, Siobhan and some other people we met on Surf camp. The water park was ace, if a little bit of a tourist thing to do but never mind. I thought it was great especially since I've never been to a proper water park before! Last night we went out around Surfers Paradise, it was somewhat of an interesting night which finished with me and Siobhan eating cold pizza leftover from dinner. This morning we got the train from Surfers Paradise to Brisbane. So I'm now in Brizzy as the Ozzies call it and staying in a very nice backpacking place called Bunk. Tomorow I'm off to Australia zoo (the one where Steve Irwin worked) to cuddle some Koalas and avoid getting too close to some crocodiles! I will try keep up to my blogging!
Gnarly!

Sunday 4th May, Have you pissed in your wetsuit yet? I have.

2008-05-03T22:34:00.000-07:00

Okay so long time no blog, I've been on surf camp! I am now officially addicted to surfing, its ace I love it! So, surf camp started in Sydney at the god awful hour of 7. I had to get up and go get on the bus, I was not a happy bunny! Anyway after a couple hours of driving we got to a place called Seal rocks which is where we then spent the next 3 days. My first surf lesson was hilarious, the first thing I did was do a huge nose dive and went in face first. So several wipeouts later and a lot of seawater I could stand up!! On our second day we went to a different beach and the waves were huge! On the evenings at surf camp we had some serious parties and perhaps a little too much Sangria! I won't bore you all with the details but the week went really quick, I loved every minute and now I'm in Byron bay which is where surf camp finished. Byron bay is beautiful and the beach is gorgeous, so for the weekend all I've done is be a beach bum! Tomorrow I'm off to Surfers Paradise near Brisbane. Anyway that's it! I'll try find some good pictures of me surfing!

Wed 23rd April, If your going to take so many bloody pictures you could at least not have a really irritating flash noise on your camera

2008-04-23T01:10:00.000-07:00

Ok I've got quite an exciting day to tell you all about! I had to get up at 5 this morning so that me and Ev could go to the blue mountains. After going to bed quite late, I felt like I had died when my alarm went off, but I dragged myself out of my bunk and woke everyone else in my room up(I was staying in a dorm in a youth hostel) After a slight run-in with a very mad cleaner with a mop in the kitchen we set off. We first had to catch a bus to Bondi Junction and then a train to Sydney Central and from there a train to Katoomba in the Blue mountains. So a few buses and trains later we we're in the blue mountains for 8.30 (way too early we didn't need to be there till 9.45) So we went to the blue mountains youth hostel and asked the nice lady behind the desk if we could check in early, she let us so we dropped our bags off in our room scoffed a bit and then got on our bus to Jenolan caves. There is quite a few caves up in the blue mountains but we went to the Lucas Cave and the Orient Cave. Both were huge and had several parts too them. The Lucas cave had a huge room which they called the cathedral because the limestone had formed a pulpit and a few other cathedral like features. I was a proper tourist took lots of pictures and will show you all when I get back. After we had looked in both caves which did take a long time (they were very dark too but I guess you'd expect that from a cave) we got back on our bus and came home (well to the youth hostel). And OMG there was this really irritating bunch of tourists who had cameras which made stupid noises everytime they took a picture, I could have throttled them or at least thrown their camera into the deepest darkest hole in the cave! Anyway thats it for today, tommorow we're off to see the 3 sisters (rock fingy) and possibly some horse riding.

Sun 20th April, Sydney!

2008-04-20T00:17:00.000-07:00

Right okay folks, I've moved countries again! I'm now in Australia, Bondi beach just outside of Sydney to be precise. I've been staying here in a hostel since Thursday, its really cool, the beach is really nice and the waves are huge! I've not given surfing a go yet but its definatly on my list of things to do. Yesterday me and Ev got the bus to Circular quay in the centre of Sydney and then caught a ferry to darling harbour where we went to Sydney Aquarium. My favourite had to be the seals, they we're cute. We also saw a huge manta ray thing. ooooh and I stroked a blue starfish and a sea slug, it was revolting. After we had been in the aquarium we wondered around the harbour for a bit and then caught a ferry back to Circular quay and then got another to Watsons bay. From Watson's bay we got a bus back to Bondi beach. Apart from that we haven't really done much other than explore around Bondi and use an outdoor swimming pool which fills up with sea water from the waves and is so cold you turn blue and can't feel your limbs! Hopefully tommorow we are moving on but between us we can't actually decide where we want to go next!

Sunday 13th April, Thai new year

2008-04-12T23:27:00.000-07:00

Right ok, this is going to be the quickest blog ever because I'm only in Thailand for 4 days so I don't want to spend too much time in internet cafes updating my blog. Yesterday Me and Ev flew from Sri Lanka to Bangkok, the flight was a bit boring as we were sat on the plane for two hours before it even took off due to there been a system failure and the engineers had to fix it. When we finally got to Bangkok it was mayhem as its new year here. As part of the new year celebration everyone runs round the streets with water pistols and has a huge water fight. They also wipe flour and water all over your face! Oooh I also forgot to mention before we left Sri Lanka me, Steph and Catherine climbed Adams peak. It supposed to be a religious fingy and your supposed to climb it at night and wait for sunrise but we just climbed to the top and came back down before sunrise coz it was peeing it down. On the way down I did get a blessing from a monk tho, he tied a string fing around my wrist, I've no idea what it was actually blessed with tho. After that we went to Negombo for our last night before we left Sri Lanka. So thats it so far, I'm now going to get a water pistol and run round the streets like a loony with everyone else here!

Mon 7th April, Get zapped or go for a muddy swim?

2008-04-07T07:29:00.000-07:00

Ok so it's taken me ages to name this blog I've done so much stuff I didn't know what to put and to make it worse I only have 15 miniscule minutes to tell you all about it. Right anyway enough wittering I will get on with telling you! For the weekend we went back to Unawatuna again, this involved a stupidly long and smelly, like a public toilet, train journey of about 6hours. This time to add a bit of variety we decided to have a go at what the locals do when the train gets full they sit with their legs out the door, this actually turned out to be alot of fun until your bum goes numb and you realise theres still another 5 hours to go! So after a while we decided to go get a seat but it was a good job we did coz we would have missed the crazy man eating swords. It started when we were sat in our seats minding our on business when this man came into the carriage, ranting and raving in singala holding a long thin package. I've got to admit I thought shit whats he got, OMG I'm about to be blown up, but since the all the Sri lankan's wern't looking particualry worried I decided it'd be fine. Anyways he brandished he's package around a bit more and then pulled out 2 huge swords which were bout 2foot long each and shoved then down his gob, and I mean totally down so all that was left was the handle. To be honest at first I couldn't believe what I'd seen, it's like how is that even possible but clearly it is, so if you ever wonder whether you can swallow a 2foot long sword the answer is yes you can. Anyway enough about the train journey onto what I actually did this weekend. We got off the train a few stops early and got a tuktuk to a turtle hatchery. Here we prodded a few turtles which were only a day old, looked at all the 5 types of turtles and took lots of photos. We got to hold a big one too except I don't think it liked me because as soon as I held it it started flapping. From the turtle hatchery we went to Unawatuna where we lounged around on the beach for bit, ate and then went to bed. On saturday morning Steph and me got up and went scuba diving, it was great, I really enjoyed it. We basically saw all the fish you get in Finding Nemo! After Scuba diving we did a bit more lazing around on the beach and then walked to the other end of the bay to have a surfing lesson!! It was ACE!!! But really really hard, my arms still hurt now, I managed to catch two waves properly, had alot of failed attempts and swallowed a more than is healthy amount of sea water. After the surfing we went to Hikkaduwa another nearby town, here we looked around for a bit, found somewhere we could have take out pizza and then went out partying! Thats about it for the weekend except for one last exciting thing! On the train home there was a really bad storm going on (the thunderstorms here are ace, they happen all the time, like huge bolts of forked lightening that hits the floor!) anyway this particular storm knocked the power lines down over the railway line, so we got off the train and walked through a paddy field to the nearest road where we got a bus. Half way through the paddy field we had to hop over the power lines, I did worry I was going to get zapped but it was take the risk at getting zapped or take a swim with the muddy rice water. I chose a potential zap. Anyways thats it! xx

Tues 1st of April, I'll blacklist you!!!!

2008-03-31T21:49:00.000-07:00

Ok so its been a while since my last blog, but there isn't much to write about during the week as all I do is eat, teach and sleep. However the weekends are a totally different story. Our weekend started early last week, on thursday night we went out with the boys we teach for a meal in the local town. Nothing too exciting happened other than one of them did a really good shaggy impression and then got so drunk he passed out and puked, nice eh. The next morning we had to get up really early to catch a train to Galle (the nearest big town to Unawatuna). It was horrific, it smelt and looked like bus station toilet and we were stared at constantly by locals and all the beggars instantly came to us for money, been grabbed by a man with no legs is kinda freaky. Nearly 6 hours later we finally got to Galle and got a tuktuk to Unawatuna. Our hotel we were staying in for the weekend was actually on the beach, as in you walked out the door and it was there infront of you. I've never seen sea so blue it was ace. So then basically we spent till sunday just chilling on the beach and going to a fair few beach parties where prehaps too much Arrack and Vodka was consumed. On sunday I went into Galle to look around with a few other volunteers from the Kosgoda project who were also with us in Unawatuna. It was in Galle I got the best bargain ever (or of the weekend anyway) Ipod speakers that worked and go really loud for less than 3 quid including batteries, whooop. Not much else happened over the weekend other than me and Steph booked to do some scuba diving next weekend so we're going back to Unawatuna, hopefully we will also get to release a baby turtle hatchling into the sea! We came back to Sputnik on monday, we spent 6/7hours on the train to Kandy as there was no direct train and from Kandy we we're supposed to be getting a bus from Kandy back to Sputnik but unfortunatly the train was late and we missed the last bus so we had to get a taxi. I agreed with the taxi driver 2500 rupees however when we got to sputnik he kept going 3500 rupees not 2500, we then argued for half an hour over it and in the end we gave him the money and I then told him I'd tell every tourist I met not to use his taxi firm which sort of worked because he gave us 500 rupees back. Anyways that's about it! xx

Mon 24th March, Its a crocodile!!!No wait its a monitor lizard

2008-03-24T09:11:00.000-07:00

Ok, so I won't bore you with the details of my actual teaching but will instead tell you all about my eventful weekend in Kandy. We (me, Stef and Ev)went to Kandy on friday coz we got the day off because it was Poya Day. It took us about 2hrs by bus to get there, and as soon as we got there we got in a TukTuk to Hotel Suisse, which according to Ev's guide book was a budget hotel, it was so not budget! But in terms of english money we got a nice fancy hotel with a air con, a pool and breakfast in a morning for 15 quid a night not bad eh!After a bit of scoffing and a quick dip in the pool, we decided the best thing to do next would be to try Arrack a local drink which is rather strong and tastes good with coke or sprite. 6hrs later, 2 or 3 bottles of arrack down we went to bed, having made quite a few friends around the hotel. One of our new friends was the hotel managers/owners son and he gave us a lift the next day to the elephant orphanage. Now I've done the whole elephant thing in Nepal, but I still enjoyed it as these were like a whole herd rather than just the odd elephant. We also got in the river and scrubbed one, it then promptly did a huge turd. I was not impressed to be stood in a river next to a whooping great big bull elephant and it do a turd. Oh I almost forgot on the way to the elephant orphanage, the brake on the car failed and we ran into the back of a van full of people, but don't worry I'm fine it was only a little dint. Back at the hotel we met up with some other volunteers and went for a meal. The hotel managers son then took a few of us to a local club it was ace, and yet again way too much arrack was consumed but all in all a brill night. On Sunday we stayed at the pool for a bit before getting a bus back to Sputnik. So that was our fabulous weekend!!! Oh and we saw what we thought was a crocodile at the side of a lake in Kandy as we walked past, we were like OMFG is that a crocodile, it was huge, it turns out it was a monitor lizard, and loads of locals saw us run away from it, i think they think we're a bit potty!

Tue 18th March, Sweating like a fat man at the gym

2008-03-18T09:42:00.000-07:00

Well I'm finally in Sri Lanka, its bloody hot (in a hot, sticky, humid way) and all I have eaten so far is curry and rice, you get it breakfast, lunch and tea, I'm all curried out. Also they don't use cutlery here, they eat with their hands, so when I get home I'll show you all how to eat curry properly, you do this flicky thumb thing to get it in your mouth. I found when I first tried it my t-shirt got more food than I did!! My actual project in Sri Lanka is called Sputnik and its about 3-4 hours drive from Columbo the capital. Theres 3 parts to it, in a morning I teach pre-school, then after lunch I go to a girls childrens orphanage (well I pick them up from school and take them back to their orphanage and stay for a couple of hours) and on a tues and weds night I teach people my age or older english, but tbh they don't need teaching they are fairly fluent. When I say 'I' I mean me and Ev as she's here now!! whoooo. Apart from that I haven't done much. My actual flight to Sri lanka was ok, nothing got cancelled and Delhi airport is still a shithole. When I got to Delhi airport I really wanted junk food as in like Big Mac, I haven't eaten junk food in over 4weeks, I felt deprived! Anyways I ran around like a total idiot trying to find a Mac Donalds and after half an hour I realised I wouldn't find one because in India cows are sacred, so there was definatly no chance of eating one sliced and diced with fries, I was bitterly disappointed and had to have Subway instead. So thats about it! Comments on my blog would be nice, I feel unloved guys!!! xxx

Mon 10th March, I'm so sorry I puked on you!

2008-03-10T03:45:00.000-07:00

Well it's been an interesting couple of days, first of all I finshed off my white water kayaking course on the Seti river. It was ace, I capsized a fair few times and took a bit of a bashing on a few rocks but it was still ace. At night we camped on the beaches at the side of the river, when I say camped we didn't have tents just a small shelter it was like sleeping outside!! By the end we were doing some fairly large drops and some huge waves! I got back to Pokhara on sunday night, where I amazed myself by finding somewhere to have dinner for 60rupees (thats 50p to you guys) it was actually really nice too. Today I went paragliding which was fairly eventful lol, my poor instructor was a french guy called David, and unfortunatly for him in the last 10minutes of my flight we caught a really big thermal (thats a big gust of wind) and were spiralling really fast, it was then I decided I felt bit quesy and emptied the entire contents of my stomach on him. we landed shortly after that and I was like OMG I'm so sorry, he didn't seem too bothered so I think it must happen quite often lol!!! hmmm anyway after my exciting morning I'm just taking it easy in Pokhara and I'm off back to Kathmandu on thursday ready for my flight to Sri lanka on saturday morning, where I get to meet Ev my partner in crime for the rest of my trip!!!

Thurs 6th march, Chicken Hips

2008-03-06T06:05:00.000-08:00

So today I started a 4 days white water kayaking course, eeeeeeeee! Our first day was on lake Fewa in Pokhara, we just did all the basics, eg. eskimo rolls, paddling, T-rescues etc without the rapids! I discovered I hate doing eskimo rolls, as I have chicken hips according to my instructor. When you capsize your supposed to flick your hips before bringing your head up to get back the right way. Except I don't do it with enough power hence the name chicken hips, your supposed to have tiger hips lol! From tommorow we'll actually be on the river and doing some rapids whooooo, we camp at night by the side of the river, I can't wait!!!! I've not really done much else today other than eat lol. So I will update you on how it all goes on Monday, hopefully I won't drown!!! Oooo, one final thing I'm going paragliding next week!!!!!
xxx

Tues 4th March, ELEPHANTS!!!

2008-03-05T20:39:00.000-08:00

Today has been one of my best days so far of my trip, it was that good!!!I got up about 7.30, ate a quick brekkie and hopped in the back of a wagon down to the river, where I was going to be going crocodile hunting. Now crocodile hunting is one of those things I thought was completly pointless and we wern't going to see one, but hey guess what 5 minutes into our hunt we spotted a long nosed crocodile, these ones are just harmless they just eat fish. The crocodile I really wanted to see was a marsh mugger, these ones are a bit vicious and eat anything including humans!! We carried on down the river for another 30min, eventually we stopped and pulled upto a river bank in our boat. From here we walked through some open grassland to an elephant breeding centre. On the way to the centre there was a chance we could see a rhino but all we saw was a huge pile of its shit and a few footprints. The elephant centre was ace, although it was a bit sad that some of the elephants were chained up, however the centre was completly outdoors and very like the wild for them. The baby elephants were allowed to roam free, there was one which was less than a week old it was CUTE!! I then bought a bag of cookies to fed the baby elephants (don't worry I'm not that stupid they were special elephant cookies) The elephants were well smart as soon as they saw the bag of cookies they were straight over, if you put them in your pocket they would put their trunk in your pocket to get them out. The bigger ones were a bit more cheeky and would gang up on you s they got more cookies! Anyways we finished the feeding and moved on to see a Thuro village. The Thuro's were the original indigenous people in the Chitwan area. Chitwan means heart of the jungle. After we finished looking round we went back to river for the elephant bathing. There were 4 elephants in the river playing and spraying water. The guide was like would anyone like a go, the rest of my group were all boring and said no, but typically me, I was like hell yes. One of the elephants then came over to the river bank and sat down, I then climbed on its back and it stood up (just to note they had their keepers with them, they wern't totally wild). The elephant then waded into the middle of the river and started spraying me with it trunk and generally messing around, however nothing prepared me for what it did next. It clearly decided I wasn't wet enough and ROLLED OVER, sending me into the river with a big splash. Now at this point I totally shit myself I thought it was gonna roll over again and squash me! I've never moved so quick, I was out of that river quicker than you could say elephant. Anyways after a bit more splashing we headed back to the lodge to get dry and have some food. In the afternoon we went on an elephant safari, this was ace, we climbed onto the elephant and disappeared into the jungle for 3hours, where I got to see two rhinos!!!!! They usually really shy and quite dangerous so we were quite lucky to see them. So anyways that was my fantastic day!!!!

Mon 3rd March, OMG can he even drive?

2008-03-05T02:41:00.000-08:00

Today has been crazy, I'll cut all the boring bits out and skip a few hours bus ride and we're at the rafting site!!!! The river we were going to be rafting on was called the Trisuli river, it was huge and eventually meets with the Ganges river in India. Anyways onto the rafting, it was a bit boring to start as we had aload of newbies so we were just doing basic paddling but eventually we set off properly and onto the good stuff. Some of the rapids we did were grade 3-4 so they were fair large and I really did think I was gonna fall out of the boat. So 3 hours later we were coming to an end, one person had fallen in, I was thoroughly drenched and it was thunder and lightening!!! After I'd finished the rafting I needed to catch a bus to Chitwan, the national park. This was some what traumatic, I didn't dare sleep incase my stuff got nicked, the woman next to me kept puking out the window and the driver would have been better placed in a loony bin rather than behind the wheel of a bus. But anyway 2hours later I was in Chitwan, by this point I was starting to think shit I'm going to be sleeping in some mud hut and its gonna be awlful, however it turned out ace, my hotel (which I booked in Kathmandu as part of a tour thing) was really nice, hot shower, double bed, the lot! So thats it! Tommorow I'm off crocodile hunting, rhino spotting, elephant bathing and a safari, I'll let you know how it goes!!!

29th Feb, Burning Yak shit to keep warm!

2008-02-29T01:09:00.000-08:00

HELLO!!! I'm back from my trip to Everest Base camp and IT WAS ACE! I don't really know where to start so I'm going to start with the plane journey to Lukla from Kathmandu, it was horrific! It was one of those tiny 15 people planes and the runway at lukla, are you ready for this, was only 300m long and on a uphill slope, I've never looked so green in my entire life. From lukla it was 9 days hard walking till basecamp, it was fairly cold, as in thermals and big fleeces. At the coldest point it was -16!! To save firewood they burnt dried yak shit, this kept me endlessly amused and smelly as there was no showers for the full 14days!!!! I STUNK by the time I got back to Kathmandu but so did everyone else so it was okay. Actual basecamp was nothing like I expected, it was a pile of loose boulders and rocks on top of a glacier, there was no sign, no hut, no nothing to distinguish it from any other bit of mountain we walked over, a good job Ashuk (our group leader) said 'this is it!' At base camp there was a lot of pictures and a bottle of rum and then we walked back down to the nearest tea house. One other bit I've so got to mention was sliding around on the frozen rivers/glaciers up there, you could just take a running leap and you'd slide for ages and half way down the hill which meant less walking! I just looked like bambi on ice, I couldn't stay stood up at all! When we were coming down from Base camp it was PARTY TIME, as we had not been allowed to drink on the way up as it could have made altitude sickness worse, so our first big party night was in a town called namche bazaar,we went a bit overboard there was a lot of rum, alot of beer and alot of puke from several people!! All good though. So a couple more days partying and walking and we were back in lukla!! The plane ride home was even worse, because all they do is let it run down the runway as its on a steep slope and you gotta hope it takes off by the end!! Back in kathmandu it was serious shower time as 14days without was hard. Luckily for me one of the girls on the trip has a place on a tour going from Kathmandu to Delhi, seeing the taj mahal and stuff and she doesnt want it so shes trying to give it to me aslong as the tour company agrees, which would be totally mint, so there could be a change of plans if not I'm off to the chitwan national park to do some rafting and see some rhinos!!!! Anyways must go as I have 12kg of washing to pick up!!!!!!
love ya
xx

16th Feb, Your not scottish??

2008-02-16T06:08:00.000-08:00

Well today hasn't been quite as exciting as yesterday but still quite good. I met up with my group that I'm going to trek to base camp with. Theres 12 of us but more than half are from Oz, they all think I'm scottish because of the yorkshire accent LMAO, they really have no idea. I'm also the youngest by far they're all like 23-25. Apart from meeting the group, haven't really done much today, had a bit of a wander round Thamel and went for a meal tonight with my group. So not much to blog really, but for all my avid readers (not lol) I won't be putting anything new up till the 1st of march when I'm back in civilisation from my trek up everest, I'm sure I will have alot to say!!!
xxx

7.35pm 15th Feb

2008-02-15T06:52:00.000-08:00

Well today has been jam packed! i got up at 8 and enjoyed a suprisingly warm shower, I was expecting a cold one. I had no idea what I wanted to do today so I just packed a bag and headed out the door! I was acosted straight away with various people saying do my tour, do this book that but in the end I settled for a tour in a rickshaw. Now the driving on the roads here is a little hairy at the best of times but in a rickshaw it was a tad terrifying. First stop on my tour was a hindu temple and a weird sunken lake (well he called it a lake it was just a sunken square hole to me) Anyway next stop was Hanuman-dhoka Durbar Square, this was again various shrines and places of worship all together, its quite hard to explain so I'll show you all the pics when I get back. Then it was on to the 'monkey temple', its name is fairly self explainatary, its a 3000 year old temple with monkeys living in ti and on its grounds. Its at the top of a hill so 500 steep steps later I was at the top. It was amazing I could see all of Kathmandu even despite the hazy smog. The temple itself was farily cool but I definatly like the monkeys and the tibeten prayer flags the best. The tibeten prayer flags were everywhere, they're multicoloured flag which are strug up a bit like bunting. They have prayers written on them and they're supposed to bring good luck and health. Finally the last place I visited was Sundhara-dharahara, this was a huge white tower in the middle of the city, 299 NR later and I was at the top of it. The veiw was again impressive but not quite as good as the one at the monkey temple. After my tour I went back to Thamel (the more tourist district of Kathmandu), and wandered round for a bit. By this point I was starving as it was nearly 1pm and I hadn't eaten yet so been the lazy bugger that I'am, I sourced a tube of pringles in a shop and kept on wandering. By 3 I was knackered so I headed back to the guesthouse to sit outside in the bar and read all the leaflets I had picked up on stuff to do in Kathmandu. I then had a small nap (yes I'am that lazy) and headed out at 6 to find more food. I settled on pizza (not very nepalise but very nice). It was a bit un-nerving sitting by myself in a restaurant but there was quite a few other people on their tod so it wasn't that bad lol. So I'm now writing this whilst considering an early night could be in order as I'm giving Tibeten yoga a go tommorow morning at like 7 and I'm meeting my trekking group to do base camp with, so au revoir xx

DAY UNO (14th Feb)

2008-02-14T08:25:00.000-08:00

Well this is going to be a real quick one as my time on the internet has almost run out!!! Flights were ace, till I got to Delhi where I found out they cancelled my flight to Kathmandu *cue huge panic* I had to buy another ticket, which on top of that the only ones left were in business class, so basically I spent a small fortune before I even got here!! Nepal is nothing like I imagined, it really busy and nosy and the nightlife is ace, tonight I've been to see some local bands however I knew the songs better than the locals coz the were all english songs!! I've made a few mates too, travellers tend to stick together lol, A guy from oz and a girl from korea whos name I really can't pronounce!! I even had nepalise food for tea, it was just like chinese if you ask me but heyho lol. Anyway I have one minute remaining so must dash!! Tommorow I'm off for a wonder in the city to the palace etc and maybe even some yoga with some tibeten dude.
loves you all
xxx

The first one!!

2008-02-12T05:19:00.000-08:00

Right so this is my first post on my blog, I decided I should start the day before I go just to see that I've actually set it up right coz I'm a bit thick like that lol. Well anyways I'm so excited about going tommorow I'm actually bouncing off the walls!! And as for packing well it just doesn't all seem to fit in my bag, I've sat on it, jumped on it and it's still not going in, so its currently all in a heap on the floor and the bag is empty. Anyway I think thats enough ranting on, so hopefully when I do my next post I will be in Nepal!! Andf you all better read my blog since I bothered to make one!!
xx