Back in the Good Ole USA

After 30 something hours of traveling we made it safe and sound to Georgia, where we will spend the next few days before traveling around for the holidays.

Favorites

Here is the list of the favorites and best things we did.

Beer - Pilsner Urquell
Hot Springs - Unnamed, but the one where we got naked.
Place to Stay - Maria's (of course!) in Warsaw
Hotel - Hotel Madhuban (Jaipur India)
Hostel - Funky Green Voyager (Roturura New Zealand)
Meal - First dinner at Auntie in Jaipur
Restaurant Meal - Union Coffee House (New Delhi)
Beach - Ko Phayam Thailand
Wildlife Viewing - Yellow Eyed Penguin
Big City- Budapest
Michael Saying-"I don't know if they're gay or just German."
Ashley Saying- "Buddha says, Spicy in-Spicy out."
Day Hike- Slovensky Raj (Slovakia)
Paid Attraction- Whale Watching
Book read- Mountains Beyond Mountains (Michael), Lonesome Dove (Ash)
Country most likely to return to - India
Favorite Country - New Zealand

This is the end......

Its hard to believe but tomorrow we leave to go home. Its been a long and crazy trip, and we have had a ton of fun. I guess its time to go home and return to the real world of jobs. Oh well, we will do this again.

Since our last update on caves and waterfalls, we have been busy. Two days ago after posting, we went back to our hostel and saw a sea lion on a nearby sand bar. We went out and were blown away to see an adult sea lion playing with a younger one. It was awesome watching them frolic. Too bad the battery on our camera was dead! We saw them again later, and got some good snaps.

Yesterday, we drove up to Oamaru and saw the blue penguins. We watched them arrive in their urban nest with several tour groups and loads of other people. It wasn't as cool as the yellow penguin sighting, but still very entertaining. Those buggers are just plain silly looking. We stayed at a nice hostel with alpacas, which we fed earlier in the day.

Today, we drove up to Christchurch and did a Maori, the semi-indigenous people, show. It was quite good......then we had several drinks at a nearby bar along with dinner.

We are both sad that we are leaving.

Caves and waterfalls

Over the last 2 days, we have seen a myriad of waterfalls along with two caves. They have all been very scenic. Yesterday, we checked out Matai and Papakanui falls, near Otawa (where we are staying). Each one is about a 20 minute walk from the road, which isn't too bad. Both were stunning but Papakanui was better of the two as it was multi-levels of waterfall.

Today we went and checked out McLean Waterfalls, near Papatauni. It was quite a hike straight uphill but was the best of the three waterfalls. From there, we went and checked out the Cathedral Caves. Its these caves on the beach which is only accessible during low tide. They were seriously cool, and Ashley got a little wet walking to them, as it wasn't quite low tide yet.

Tomorrow we are heading up the east coast to Oamaru to see some more penguins, along with doing a brewery tour in Dunedin.

PS - Ashley is obsessed with the sub compact car sitting outside the internet cafe with a 4 puppies and a baby cow in the hatchback.

Seals, Sea Lions and Penguins

We have had a wildlife viewing extravaganza over the last two day. Yesterday we arrived in Surat Bay, on the Catlin Coast in the SE part of New Zealand. We are staying in this isolated little hostel right next to a wildlife refuge. Yesterday we walked from our place to a beach where we saw 3 Hooker Sea Lions (endangered). They were just napping - Ashley was worried they were dead, but was most happy to discover that they were just taking an afternoon snooze, as that is what they do. Today, we headed over to Nugget Bay where we saw some more Sea Lions along with some Seals.

The highlight of the afternoon was seeing the Yellow Eyed Penguin. It is endangered (about 4000 left), and are one of the most ancient penguins out there. They are also unique in that they don't breed in colonies. They are very scared of people and we had to hike to a hut to view them. We ended up seeing 2, maybe 3, penguins. One came out of the water, walked up the beach and stood around. Another went into the water. The third (not sure if its the second or not), came out of the water. They were adorable!!!! Looking totally goofy walking around.

Oh, yeah, I bungee jumped yesterday. It was pretty cool and very scary. I would do it again.......

Every View is a Postcard

So what is so great about new Zealand has all the great landscape elements of America (except desert) but within a 3 hour drive. Yesterday we went from a glacier, to a stunning coast to a mountain town. Today, we tried a hike but it rained on us.....so we read. We decided to skip jet boating, and instead high tail it to this secluded coast with lots of wildlife (penguins, sea lions, dolphins, etc), we hope to see some unique creatures. This may be our last update for a while b.c the area is secluded.

Glacier Love

Yesterday, we hiked up onto the Fox Glacier on the west coast of the Southern Island. It was seriously cool. Its one of the few glaciers in the world that is growing, not shrinking. We did about a four hour hike (with a group) up to the glacier and then onto it. We have some cool pics of the glacier that we hope to get up shortly. We normally shy away from guided tours, as they cost a lot and many times aren't worth it. But this one was quite good. Our guide was knowledgeable and the hike was semi strenuous, plus it was through a temperate rain forest. What a contrast....a glacier surrounded by ferns! Strenuous enough to really wind some other participants (not us though ha, we were winded too).

The day before yesterday, we just hung out in Hokitaka on the west coast. It was a smallish seaside village. We did a nice hike and visited a stunning waterfall, along with getting caught in a road rally on a very small gravel road. It was nerve wracking with all these antique cars driving towards us at high speeds. Anyway, today we head to Wanaka, which is near Queenstown. We hope to do some jet boating there and maybe a bungy jump.

Jay and Carla

So our friends from Denver, Jay and Carla, came to visit us in New Zealand. They just left this morning and we had a grand time with them. They stopped over in Australia and then popped over to New Zealand for an adventuresome 3 days.

We picked them up last Thursday.......and headed straight to our hostel. Luckily Jay and Carla are of the hosteling type, easy to please with the accommodation. Even luckier is that we had a nice hostel not too far from the center of Christchurch. After a quick trip to the market, Jay cooked us an awesome dinner.....veggies and cream sauce over pasta. We then proceeded to get intoxicated and did some bar hopping.

On Friday in the daytime, we headed over to the Canterbury museum in Christchurch and got the low down on Maoris, Antarctica, Colonization and native animals. We then had a nasty drive up to Kaikoura. It was rainy, cold and windy. Our car battery also died along the way. But we made it. We then had a dinner at a local pub, and headed back to the hostel were we caught up with some fellow travelers. Quite a nice time.

On Saturday, we went Whale Watching. See Ashley's post for details. I will say that it was awesome. Saturday night Jay made another fab meal of coconut curry vegetables. Very yummy. We dropped them off this morning.

I have to say that it was a real treat seeing them. They are good friends, who are now much better friends. We made lots of future trip plans together......lol.

This and That

So.....we decided to sleep last night (Sunday) in Waganui before heading to stay with a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend. We didn't do much there, except visit a black sands beach (see flickr) and see Borat. It feels like a sleepy little town, and a nice break from the touristy places we have been going. Today, we will work our way down the west coast of the north island to Wellington.

Thermal Pools

Saturday, we went and checked out the Wai-O-Tapui thermal area. First off we saw the lady knox geyser. We were somewhat disappointed in it as they trigger it to go off as opposed to it going off naturally. From there, we walked around the thermal pools. They were quite impressive being multi-colored and very vibrant.

After the thermal pools, we took a soak in the hot springs we went to the day before. We opted to visit the spring that had the hot and cool streams. We soaked in there until we were as wrinkly as a shairpei. The combination of the hot and cold enable you to stay a long time in the water. We had a nice chat with other visitors as they stopped by and got some suggestions for traveling.

Today our plan was to drive to Tonganero National Park and do the Tonganero Crossing. Well, the weather had different ideas. It was gloomy and overcast....so we skipped the hike and are heading to the shore. We were disappointed about missing the hike as they shot the Mordor scenes there from LOTR there. We could see it from a distance though.

Other musings....
- The hostel we stayed in was the best we have stayed in so far. Clean and very friendly. We were quite pleased with it.
- We have met many Americans in New Zealand. There were about 8 staying at our hostel. It was nice to chat with them.

First thoughts on New Zealand

So, we just arrived in New Zealand last night. It took all day to get from the blue mountains to Auckland (9am-10pm), but so far its worth it. The people are quite lovely, and it appears to much cheaper here than Australia. We are renting a car tomorrow to tour around it. After checking into our hotel, we found out that renting a car was going to be just a little more than taking the bus. We figure the extra freedom will be worth it. Ok, that's all for now. We haven't done much in Auckland today. Ash is getting her hair cut right now, and we spent the morning doing planning on new Zealand.

The Blue Sorta Mountains

So, we decided to escape the craziness of the Australian cities and head to the nearby Blue Mountains for a couple of nights. It was nice to be out in nature and hiking, something we really haven't done since Slovakia. Well, after taking the train from Sydney, we arrived in Kotoomba. The first thing we noticed was that it wasn't really the mountains. More like foothills, or cliffs. There was no visible peaks to us. This isn't to say it wasn't nice, as it was quite relaxing but its a
misnomer to call them mountains.

Yesterday, we did a really nice hike through the park. We walked along a cliff edge and saw some local sights (some waterfalls, three sisters, cockatoos, echo point) check flickr for pics. We enjoyed our time here, but it pales in comparison to the American West.

It was a lovely national park and very well organized. You can walk to the park from the town, or take a shuttle bus. There was also a lot of attractions nearby.....caves, skyways, scenic railroads, etc. We opted to hike instead of ride.

Other musings....
- We head to New Zealand today. I write this from an airport lounge. We are excited about New Zealand, but recognize that it signifies the end of our trip. :-( Only 23 days left until we head home.
- We are quite excited to meet our friends Jay and Carla in New Zealand. We are going to have a blast.
- Australia was nice, but its pretty much just like America with funny accents and driving on the wrong side of the road.
- I would like to put a museum in my basement when we return to America. For some reasons, museums make me sleepy and it would nice to have a way to fall asleep when I have insomnia.
- Coopers Pale Ale is a very good beer. Not sure if its available outside of Australia, but we really enjoyed drinking it.
- Both Ash and I have that lingering cold. We would like to get well!

G'day Mates

So after a long travel day (is there any other kind?), we made it to Sydney yesterday. The travel day shouldn't have been too long but the mini-bus from the Sydney airport to our hostel took longer than the plane ride. Strange. Anyway, they actually say G'day mate in Australia. I somewhat thought it was just a catch phrase, but I have heard it said to me numerous times.

Today in Sydney we had a relatively full day of sightseeing (didn't spend a penny either until Dinner). We walked over to the Royal Botanical Gardens and looked at the harbor. Sydney is quite lovely and the weather while not perfect is much better than Melbourne. The Botanical Gardens were nice with lots of birds and plants. The birds were all quite strange looking. We thought we would see more strange birds on our trip, but outside the kingfisher we saw in Thailand, nothing too exotic. Until today that is. We saw some odd ducks (check flickr) along with a wild parrot and very large ravens.

From the botanical gardens, we headed around the bay to see the Sydney Opera House. It was just as cool as the pictures show. We wandered around the Circular Quay and watched some street performers. There were several aborigines playing the Dierado, which was pretty cool. After that, we checked out the Museum of Contemporary Art. It was a decent museum, with one excellent exhibit on some aussie modern artist. I can't remember his name, but we both liked his stuff especially the Manta Ray and the neon rhinoceros.

Other tidbits....
- Ashley was slightly sick in Melbourne, and I have seem to have caught it. Nothing to serious, just a cold.
- We have figured out that Germany actually is deserted. They are all out traveling. Sydney is loaded with them.
- We are back to hostels for our accommodation, as my mom commented, its a steep drop from where we stayed in Thailand. But hostels are nice cause you can cook (we got sick of eating out in Thailand). Plus, the showers are relatively normal and the bathroom sinks actually have hot water.
- Australia is definitely expensive, mostly cause the dollar is weak. We are managing to stay on budget by cooking.

Wet and Cold

So, our plan before the trip was to have basically an endless summer. Start out in Europe during the summer, have India during the fall (when its not summer just feels like it), a little splash during Thailand dry season (warm again) and then finish it up with later spring early summer down under. Well that got shot down as soon as we got to Melbourne. Its downright chilly here.....and rainy. Quite annoying, hopefully Sydney (where we go tomorrow) is warmer.

We really didn't do that much today except check out two museums. The first was on Australian art. The facilities were quite nice, however outside the aboriginal art, the art was lackluster. The second was the international art museum. It had both nice facilities and art, but we lacked the time to explore it fully.

Other musings.....
- Our total travel time from our hotel in Thailand to our Hotel in Sydney was 31 1/2 hrs. It didn't feel that bad due to a combination of nice airport lounges and Xanax.
- Our budget will feel the pinch in Australia. Our accommodation willl take up over 50% of our budget, which won't leave that much money for food or sights. We handled it well in europe, and I think we can do it here. Plus, we banked up a solid reserve in Thailand.
- Its nice to hear people speak English.
- Ashley and I were looking forward to western food, but all we have had in Australia so far is Indian fare. HA!

Lady Boys

Last night, we went to a show at Simon Cabaret. The whole production is staged by Lady Boys, or Katheoy in Thai. These are Thai men/boys who have chosen to live their lives as women as opposed to men. It seems to be accepted throughout Thailand, as we have seen many women who we suspected to be men in actuality. To learn more, check out the wiki page. But its not like we are going to ask them. So anyway, we went to check out the show....essentially a drag show. It was top notch, as the performance were well rehearsed and choreographed. They danced, and lipsynched to a variety of tunes. Many of them looked exactly like women, but the shoulders on some gave them away. Overall, it was quite a hoot and a good ending to a visit to Thailand. We just wish we had brought our camera. I don't know why we always forget it!!!!

Musings.....
- We have really enjoyed Thailand. We set out to spend about 8 days here, and are actually spending 27 days. What a change. Its quite easy to travel and the locals are friendly, plus its very reasonable on the wallet.
- We spent the last two nights in Patong, which more of a touristy area. I am so glad we spent the bulk of our beach time (16 days) in less touristy areas. Not only is it cheaper, but it was cleaner, safer and way more relaxing. We liked both Ko Phayam and Ko Jum light years more than this area (or the Marriott and all of its luxury).
- I read a ton of books in Thailand. English books were widely available, if not slightly pricey. Some of my reads include - long way down by hornsby (quite good), the lincoln lawyer by michael connelley (another good one), Indigo Slam by Robert Crais, Backpacker by some unknown author, Jane Eyre by Bronte (very good!), Kim by Rudyard Kipling (god awful), Trace by Cornwell (almost terrible), a clancy novel along with a couple of others that I cannot recall. I am simultanously reading an Elizabeth George and Lonesome dove. I read Lonesome Dove about 18 years ago, and am re-reading it. Ash has first dibs on it, but I pick it up when she is snoozing.
- I listened to my ipod quite a bit.....favs included Jackie Brown soundtrack, Tool (10,000 days is a great album), and American Analog Set. For some reason, I can't remember what else I listened to.....must be something else we did a lot of in Thailand.
- I write this in the internet area at the Royal Silk Lounge in Bangkok Airport.....another perk about traveling so much for work was getting status and free access to the VIP lounges!

Ko Jum

We just got back from another deserted island. Its also on the Indian Ocean side of Thailand, but further south from Ko Phayam. It was truly delightful. The island was somewhat similar to the first one, but there were no crabs and the surf was lackluster. However, the accommodation was a little nicer (still no hot water) and the water definitely clearer. We really didn't do all that much during our visit there, except read, drink, swim and walk. But we did take another sea kayak adventure (hopefully pics to be posted later) to a nearby island and snorkeled. Before the Tsunami, the snorkeling at Ko Jum was supposedly pretty nice. However, the Tsunami destroyed much of the coral nearby and the related marine life. We still saw some cool fish but not as many as we would have a few years ago.

The bungalow we stayed at was owned by a British ex-pat, so everyone hanging around was British or Scottish. It was so nice having people to chat with in both our native tongues! Plus, they had a wide stock of English reading material. The food at the bungalow was not as good as it was at Ko Phayam, but still pretty tasty and cheap. An added bonus was satellite TV in the bar (not in our room), where we could get caught up on the elections. So glad to see that the democrats won, its time for a change in America.

We leave for Australia on Monday afternoon. So probably not many updates until Weds. It take over a day to get there from here.

Loi Krathong

On Nov 5, we did a bit of cultural voyeurism. Loi Krathong is a festival on the night of full moon in November. I have no idea what the festival celebrates. Our guidebook covers it, but only what happens not why. Nor did I see any information on it last night, but a Thai guy told me it was like Thai New Year and you make wishes. Basically, you float banana leaf boats/baskets filled with flowers, incense, a candle and a coin for good luck. People also light these paper balloons. So, last night at Ton Sai, we went out got really drunk and floated a basket along with watching others floating baskets/balloons. It was pretty cool.

There was a full on party atmosphere happening.....bands, raves, fire twirlers, etc. Very hippiesh but also a nice time. They celebrate every full moon with a party at many places in Thailand, but only once a year is Loi Krathong. We really enjoyed the little bit of Thainess that we saw last night.

The beach (Ton Sai) we are staying at (you can hardly call it a beach) is a backpacker hangout, specifically of the rock climbing kind. There are loads of Americans here which is a nice change as we have seen so few in recent months. The beach is basically rocks, so not much swimming going on but there are tons of other activities. At low tide, we can wade around a set of rocks to get to a real beach. From here, we head to Ko Jam, which from what I gather is even more isolated so not much updates from there. There is internet here, but its 4 Baht a minute, which is about 6-8x what we have been paying.

Best Body Surfing Ever

So for the last few days, we have been at Ko Phayam (Ash will write more about it later). It was absolutely amazing place - totally tranquil and isolated.....but no internet. We just chilled out for a few days and read - which was an absolute relaxing time. The beach was pretty nice, about 3 km long with white sand. The water was relatively clear but did have some debris and silt.

One of the best things about the beach was that it was awesome for body surfing. The first day there was no surf, but it picked up every day. Since the beach is very wide and with a gradual incline, waves break slowly. You can easily catch a wave and ride it for a long time (assuming that it was big enough). It was great fun standing out there and catching waves. I do wish there were more waves to catch, but the seas were relatively calm while we were there. Hopefully we will get pictures up soon, but no promises. Although we really didn't do anything worthy of taking photos.

Backpacker lifestyle

So.....we are loving the Marriott. It seems so plush to what we have become accustomed too. They have such nice things as washclothes! Anyway, I feel slightly out of place here. It seems to extreme of a jump to go from dread locked smelly backpackers to fat germans (the resort is loaded with them). We also have carried some backpacker lifesytle options over to the Marriott which makes it tough. No way are we eating the $15 breakfasts, so its yogurt and museli for us. $9 burgers - No Way! Its PB&J for us. We have a Tesco (british wal-mart) across the street so its easy to shop, and we have a fridge so we can store beer, jelly and yogurt in our room. But it does feel a little silly sitting on a plush bed eating a PB&J....oh well 3 more nights till we go back to our normal lifestyle.

Changing Rupees

As we were leaving India, the Thomas Cook guy said to change our Rupees in Bangkok as we would get a better rate. So today, we decided to trade them in. Well after 5 stops at banks were they wouldn't accept Rupees.....we were cursing him. It took the better part of the morning to trade them in. We did get a better rate but only marginally so.

Other than that we checked out the royal palace in Bangkok (check flickr) which was pretty cool. They have this emerald buddha, actually made of jade They dress it up for the seasons....ha! Tomorrow we head for Hua Hin and the much awaited Marriott resort.

Other tidbits on Bangkok
- The touts have nothing on the Indian touts.
- We have been traveling by ferry in Bangkok which is a nice change of pace
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