We are back in Italy now, in Pederobba, renting the house we were in last time off a good friend. We've decided this is most likely the place or area we will move to permanently.

Italian is coming on well. We initally looked into attending school, but their term ends in a few weeks and does not restart until October so that;s no good. Viviana, a friend here, has been teaching us, plus we have started on a comprehensive computer based course. I'm actually really enjoying the challenge. Soon I'll have Italian and French to my name! (well, very bad but manageable French). I'm currently plugging away to the tune of about 2 hours per day. K will start later today so I've got a 3 day head start, though she is learning lots locally too, just through conversation.

Arriving back here was fun. We bought a cover for the car that we left here last year. They had several metres of snow and a LOT of rain. Seems the cover we bought for 40 Euros was a sun cover and NOT waterproof. Doh! Opened the doors to find a forest of mould inside...

That took a lot of cleaning, and it will take weeks to properly dry. Battery was dead too. Cue another 60 Euros :-(

Was rather chilly too. Still plenty of snow on the mountains...

.. though most of that has melted now and it is really warming up outside. Had several sunny days in a row now.

We've been up the mountain a few times this week to help Elizabetta manage her chestnut forest. Everyone here owns a chunk of the mountain - all passed on through families, and growing chestnuts is a local passion - they have a chestnut festival each September.

Elizabetta has recently had all the trees cut back so there are about 30 piles of small branches that need burning. So that's what we've been up to!

(The rake must be centuries old!)

Very hard work I'll add!

K went to investigate Italian lessons at another school and inadvertently ended up helping in an English class :-) - She's currently investigating what options are on offer for her to make money from this!

I got my PC flown over , and we bought a telly, so we are quite at home now. We also brought an amazing amount of stuff with us on our flight over. Easyjet don't have a weight restriction on hand baggage, only that you must be able to lift your bag into the overhead locker on your own. So I stuffed the bags full, including one of my remote control helicopters and all the associated guff. It went over 20Kg, just for one of the two bags. At security we got separated and they asked K to lift the bag over her head. She JUST managed - I was panicking! Got through OK in the end.

Still battling with the insanely complicated recyclying chedule.

(K and Guido tryign to understand teh recycling calendar - nothing is collected the same day twice!)

Anyhow, won't be much more activity on the blog for some time now until there is new news.

Cio!

Winding Down remains copyright of the author Dodgey, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

(Note - I shoot the videos at 640x480 so if you get a small window you should be able to enlarge it, or download it and view in Quicktime - which I think it does by default anyhow)

(Click on the image above for the video)

We’ve spent a few more days in Luang Prebang, having a good mooch about.

(Yep, they have a lot of Wats in Laos too!)

(With some older bits too)

(Where the monks live, by the Wat/Royal Palace)

On one of the days we decided to hire a boat and check out the other side of the Mekong. We hired a thin long boat for £3 with the driver to wait for us.

(Our boat)

The other side of the river was a shock. Totally untouristic. Mud lanes with farm houses and animals everywhere.

We wandered through the “village” and took a long flight of steps up to a very old temple.

Four young girls followed up the steps, selling flowers to leave at the Buddha as an offering for “lucky lucky”, as the girls told us. They were too cute and we gave in and bought some.

(The temple may be old but they keep their Buddha shiney!)

(Luang Prebang on the other side of the Mekong)

The following morning we woke up to even hazier skies, then, after taking a deep breath, we realised what it was – smoke.

(You can see the smoke in the air, and behind the house and trees should be a near-by hill that we could see the day before!)

We’d read about this in the books. The farmers practice “slash and burn” – i.e. they harvest their rice then burn the stubble. They do it on such a large scale that the whole country lies in a veil of smoke during post-harvest. This was just starting. Even the locals’ eyes go red after a while of this apparently. That was to be the end of any views!

We took a stroll through the night market that evening… lots of silks etc..

The next day we hired two bicycles (scooters were $20 for 8 hours!) and had an explore on wheels.

We soon came upon yet another rickety bridge…

(We so had to cross this! You know I love these – all “Indiana Jones”)

… where we found a bar on a sand bank and had a rewarding beer.

Later that evening we, by chance, bumped into two friends we met in Thailand, Michel and Debbie – he actually walked up to me without my attention and bumped into me – I got such a fright lol

..so we drank some wine (a real treat for us) and sank some beers, then chowed down on some local “meat sticks” by the market.

The next morning was to be our departure to Vang Vieng. I’d booked us two tickets on “Express Bus, Air conditioning, no stops – 6 hours”. The only element of truth to that description was “bus”. Before getting on the monstrosity that was to be our transport for the day I spotted all the monks walking past our room at 7am to take their food offerings – collecting “alms” I believe.

Nice.

Our single deck coach (with sheet glass windows – which horrified me as there is a very good reason vehicles normally have laminated glass) wound it’s way up through the mountains, at unbelievable altitudes. The driver only switched the air conditioning on when we were stationary – clearly as the vehicle didn’t have the power to run the AC going up hills, plus it is a waste of fuel for them. Then he roared along the tortuously windy sections downhill.

I chose to not look half the time. None of the corners are guarded, and one mistake would mean certain death – especially as we were sitting in a giant glass bottle – if the impact didn’t get you you’d be sliced to pieces.

Mind you, we passed some stunning scenery, and some very “back in time” towns

We stopped at one point, for refreshments, and for the driver to do some maintenance….

(water cooled brakes! – thank goodness they thought to do this though. Gives you an idea of the drive we went on – to overheat the brakes)

We arrived at Vang Vieng in pretty good time actually. The whole thing took 6 and a half hours. Pretty surprising really, considering we stopped to pick up and drop off half of Laos, and we spent a considerable amount of time in reverse)

We initially checked into a property I’d pre-booked – it was $40 a night and was supposed to have a bath tub, TV, fridge, air con. All it had from that list was air con, and air con that was preset to a feeble mode. Plus the room was not sealed.

We thought we’d lump it for one night then move, but when I found the shower heater was not working I’d had enough. $40 is a LOT in Vang Vieng. K went and had firm words with the staff, and when they started to mess around, pretending some little girl was the manager, she asked to get the hotel owner in Vientiane on the phone. They immediately gave us a full refund !

We checked into what must be the best hotel here, and we bagged an executive suite for $10 more that the other place, with giant bath, TV, fridge, pool, gym . The lot!

The hotel sits on the river here – can’t remember which river.

(A view from the hotel – smokey/misty though)

… and sat and enjoyed our millionth sunset…

(Our hotel)

(a better view on a clearer day)

Of course, we immediately discovered a rickety bridge. Yay!!

…. And went to check it out.

(On our side, the “final bar” on the “tubing run” – more on that later)

(cute huts on the other side of the bridge)

Vang Vieng is a strange place. A bit of a one-off. You see, the main attraction here, apart from the scenery and caves etc, is drinking, doing drugs, and tubing down the river.

The streets are lined with bars, where they ALL have TV sets playing reruns of “Friends” – and the bars are full of stoned teenagers watching said “entertainment”. There IS some variety however, some bars play the Simpsons. It is a total tune in and drop out culture.

You can readily buy shakes or pizzas with magic mushrooms, hashish, opium, or even methamphetamines (very bad indeed). Needless to say we are past all that kind of thing. Well, mostly!

Now, I mentioned the famous “tubing”. It is one of the reasons we are here right now. We’d heard a lot about it so on day two here, we got straight into it!

You wander for 5 mins into town, in your swimmers, and pay about £5 for a large tractor inner tube, and then get shuttled 5Km up the road with lots of other people, naturally, in their swimmers too!

You then get dropped of at a LOUD bar full of young ones knocking back beers and watching the spectacle that is the vast arrangement of rope swings, zip lines, and diving boards. People have died here. Five in the last few years I believe.

(The 1st bar - empty at 11.30 am but heaving in 30 mins...)

(See!)

It really is totally surreal when you arrive. It is basically a huge party on a river. You get warmed up with a few cold beers (or whatever narcotics you may be into) and then jump in your tube and float away! :- )

(Gives you an idea of the height of the swings)

You almost immediately float past more loud bars who throw out ropes with a water bottle on the end to “fish you in”. This is the first time I’ve actually seen bars fishing for customers!

We stopped at our second bar, watching people flying on death defying rope swings and dropping over 30 feet into the water, and sank some more beers. Two people floated off in their tubes, and one of the bar staff said to us, “wow – they did two “opiums” each!” – I have to say, they did look chilled out. Very chilled out. Lol

(Who needs a bar when you have a rock?)

We then stopped at our third bar. This one was special. They had a HUGE rope swing, PLUS, they had a giant water slide that chucked you into the river.

(The swing launch is where you see the parasol at the top of the tower)

We drank some more, and then, after ascertaining that this part of the river was easily deep enough to be safe, I went for the rope swing.

I have to tell you, once I’d climbed the wooden tower to get to the top I wish I hadn’t started the venture! It was miles up! And you had to reach out for the swing handle (like a trapeze handle), leaning off the edge.

Well, I’d got that far, so I went for it. WOW! – I screamed on the down swing, then again as I carried on up, gaining height. I let go somewhere near the top and shot into the water like a bullet. Must have been 30 plus feet. My trunks disappeared inside me.

What a rush! So much fun. Kirstin immediately followed. Her top came off. (Update - K tried it again 2 days later, and landed at a bad angle - she is very sore - chest and throat :-( )

After that, we did our final bar, then settled into the much calmer water for the ride back to base.

(Not a bad way to spend the afternoon)

It became apparent after a short while that there was a good reason that most people get out after the line of bars and get the truck back. The river was really slow. We were moving at less than walking pace. Saying that, it was stunning. Relaxing in the calm water watching the sun go down. Truly lovely.

(Free whisky - we swigged, then noticed the bottle - bugs of some sort!)

(Michel and I on the second trip - I laughed when I noticed how phallic this photo is -2 men, REAL MEN!)

I think it took about 2 hours to get back!

A real spectacle is watching the teens stumbling through town in their swimmers after 7pm - they are so stoned / drunk it is a miracle they get home. I watched one young girl wandering, in ther dark, in her bikini, clearly out of her mind, through town, at 9pm. Daft as hell.

We are going tubing again tomorrow, and I’m taking the camera this time to make a movie…. Watch this space…ahh! here you go!

.. This one is a biggie - be patient!

(Click on the image above for the video)

Monks and Tubes remains copyright of the author Dodgey, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

After I last posted, we decided to try out a day “experience” called the “Flight of the Gibbons” – you go out into the jungle and fly down zip lines and rappel down trees. They sell is as the only way to be in tree canopies if you are not a scientist. In reality it’s a lot of zip lines, bridges, and ropes high up (very very high) in the jungle. It was very spendy for us, around £40 each but the reviews are all fantastic and it looked like a laugh.

(The wooden things are our "brakes")

A laugh it was. More like terrifying! You go so high up, and end up standing on small wooden platforms built in the trees. Trees which of course sway a bit as people slide down the wires. If you don’t like heights this is not the place for you. You really can’t tell how high it is in the pictures.

(If you look closely, our guide is out there on the wire - upside down)

(Same place, different person - Kirstin this time)

(and again, closer)

(Nice little bridge, miles up)

(Me going backwards on a baby one)

(Blurry, but you can see the fear :-) )

(Another lovely bridge)

(We came down that, on a rope)

(... like this)

We had such a laugh. The guides were fantastic and the scenery stunning. The most frightening part was the rappelling down the trees. The first one was a small one but it still felt horrible being dangled on a small rope. The second one was horrific. They said 50 meters, and it looked like it. You’ll have to judge from the video. The zip lines were fun, though the hard bit was actually stepping off a platform at dizzying heights. It just doesn’t feel right.

At the end of the day, we had a very welcome beer and calmed our nerves somewhat.

(... There was going to be a movie of the treetop experience here but the internet here is 128k at best and I've tried a gazillion times to upload it, so it will come in a later post when I find "real" ADSL! :-) )

The next day, we were set to hire a scooter and ride to Pai, 135Km away, but the company that hired one-way scooters had nothing available and we were fed up of waiting. On top of that, we heard “why go to Pai when you can go to Luang Prabang in Laos. So that’s what we did!

Initially we were going to take a package trip but found that we’d arrive on the border at 4am and get 3 hours sleep before embarking on a 2 day boat trip. We fancied going earlier, so went to the local bus station in Chiang Mai and grabbed seats on a bus departing in about an hour. Worked out well really!

The bus was “interesting”. We got assigned seats in a row of 3, and they were in no way wide enough for Western shoulders! – Kirstin ended up sitting in the middle with her seat fully reclined so she could “slot in” lol. Tough going for the first 3 and a half hours, but after that, lots of Thais got off, and the remaining 4 hours were easy, with lots of spare seats.

We arrived at the border town of Chiang Khong at 8pm and sank a few beers to get over the bus journey. Funny as hell, one guy drinking next to us suddenly disappeared! The floor collapsed and he went down, chair and all. We laughed. A lot. He was fine.

(There was a man sat there....)

The next morning, woken rudely at first by a cockerel, and then by monks bashing gongs, we sauntered down to the river Mekong, grabbed a coffee, and then exited Thailand, catching a quick ferry across the river to Loas.

After grabbing our Visas we had possibly the worst coffee in history – Loas coffee, and then bought tickets for the 2 day slow boat to Laung Prebang. You can take a speedboat that does the job in 6 hours – if you survive. People often don’t.

I’d done my research on the slow boats and knew we had to be there early to get good seats. Well, there are not any good seats, but some are less awful than others. We also bought cushions to ease the pain, plus some grub. A lot of the travellers’ reports regarding the journey are bad, as are the reports of the small village you stay overnight in…

Suitably prepared, we grabbed two seats that were on the side of the boat – so we were sitting one in front of the other. Our purchased cushions paid off big time. Some seats already had them so we had one for our bums and one for our backs, or leaning on, on the side of the boat.

(Nice seats for 2 days...... hmmm)

Sure enough the boat slowly filled up – to capacity, and then we set off – yay!

The journey was wonderful. Great scenery along the way, including elephants. We were comfortable enough too, you just have to move about occasionally to find a new position that relieves the cramp from the last position. There was even a bar on board, so we slowly got pissed and met lots of other travelers and generally had a good laugh.

Six hours later we arrived at PakBeng, a one street town that caters solely for the boat traffic. This would be our first real Loas experience. People have reported it to be a bit seedy. They must live very sheltered lives! It was fine. We secured a 200 Baht room (you can pay in Baht, Dollars, or Loas Kip over here) and slept well. Well enough until about 4 am when another bloody rooster woke us up. This is becoming a common theme.

(Nice way to arrive at Pakbeng)

Next morning we boarded our boat again, although this time it was a different boat, with slopey sides, so you could not lean on the railings. Still, we’d cope.

One American girl got on at 8.55 am (9am departure) and said, with some level of astonishment, “Like, Oh my God, there are like totally no cushions left!” – Like oh my God, get up earlier!

(Early morning mist in Pakbeng)

(Our boat awaits for day 2)

This was to be a much longer day, but again we had a good laugh. There was sod all leg room but we adapted, and after about noon, the beers started appearing and the party spirit kicked off. I even ended up playing someone’s’ guitar!

(Can you spot the elephants? hint - there are two on the rocks, being ridden)

(The speedboat option - not a great pic but they are all hunched up, wearing helmets, for 6 hours)

(Our boat, well, not really, but another one the same)

(The stone is to mark where rocks are, so you can imagine how high the water gets)

Some people were sleeping by the engine room – God only knows how. Deafening. One girl looked like she wanted to kill herself. Seriously – you’d get ear damage after half an hour. People are strange. Talking of which, there was a Canadian couple (hippy types) next to us this day, and they talked about Canada, bears, themselves, “horrible America” for the WHOLE journey. 8 hours. Kirstin helped Bree, a nice American girl we met, remove her hair extensions.

(Nice toilet on the boat. At least it had one)

(Click on the image above for the video)

We arrived in Luang Prebang at 5pm and quickly sorted a guest house for $20 US a night – got drunk, and crashed.

(Arriving at Luang Prebang)

(Having a rewarding beer upon arrival)

(With a nice sunset over the Mekong)

(Followed by some good local BBQ grub- pork on a stick!)

This morning we had a good explore, and have moved to a similar place, but with wifi and air con.

Laos is Very different to Thailand. They are very laid back here. Almost horizontal. We got woken AGAIN by a rooster – so hopefully, our new “sealed” room will be immune – we’ll know tomorrow – fingers crossed.

Oh – read this – standard Laos accommodation rules – particularly points No. 4, 5 and 6. We nearly fell over with laughter.

p.s. It’s pronounced “Lao” not “Laos” (which everyone gets wrong). The “S” comes from the French colonisation, where they would refer to the collection of islands and the mainland as “Les Laos” – the “s” being the French pleural, and consequently silent. No one under the age of 30, or American, understands or adheres to this fact.

(Local scenery in Luang Prebang)

Treetops and a New Country - Laos remains copyright of the author Dodgey, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

We grabbed a local bus and enjoyed a 2 ish hour ride though the countryside. Great bus - the back door was held open with rope so I sat right by it on the back seat - almost like air conditioning, though I always had a hand firmly grasped to the back of my seat!

The waterfalls are 2km "high" and it is a good old climb to get up to the 7th (top) fall. With some cute bridges....

I managed, once again, to kick a tree stump and smash off my healing toe nail. I'm getting used to it now. The walk (and pain) was worth it though...

On the way up we noticed loads of huge fish in the pools...

... which I discovered bite you if you stand still in the water - a very odd feeling, and it totally freaked us out. But still, I braved it :-)

Next stop was Chiang Mai - a long way up into the North of Thailand.

We caught a Government bus back to Bangkok (2.5 hours and about £1) - at one point, two Thai guys got on, spoke to the driver, then punched him in the face! then promptly walked off - I guess the driver cut them up. When we got to the bus station the driver (the punched one) asked us where we were going next, suspicious that he was going to tuck us up I reluctantly told him, "The train station", and then, to our surprise, he kindly told us which bus to catch - most helpful! We got a local bus from the bus depot to the train station - 20 pence and another hour. We are feeling quite smug now. We are regularly using public transport as it is dirt cheap compared to tourist coaches and taxis and you get a good Thai experience.

Not having prebooked anything I tried to get 2 tickets to Chiang Mai in a 1st class private sleeper cabin, but alas, they were sold out so we grabbed 2 second class sleeper tickets - half the price though! :-)

After chilling for a few hours in a bar we boarded our train. It was pretty darn good. The lady who told us our beds were (together) lied. We were sat each side of the train - opposite each other. We both had top bunks. The bottom bunks are almost twice the width of the top ones so people book them in preference. They had double beds, we had submarine bunks.... still - who cares - you are only going to sleep right? Mind you, being that we were sleeping above strangers meant we had to go to bed when they wanted to, and when we got up, they had to, or we'd have nowhere to sit.

Fortunately the Thai woman on K's side let us sit together until bed time so we could watch a movie and eat together.

Kirstin slept like a log. She loved the rocking motion. I fared less well, but we got there alive.

I will admit, I stunk so bad after all that traveling I had to wash myself in my bed with the blanket and a bottle of drinking water - phew! I was minging!

We arrived at Chiang Mai at 7.30 am and , now well versed in the experience, ignored all the taxi and accommodation touts and sat down for a coffee or two. Half an hour later, the dust had settled and we got a cheap cab to our hotel. Which was opposite a huge sound system , set up for the Chiang Mai flower festival. We moved the next day and now we are in a lovely hideaway in the back streets, paying £8 a day for a good room with a fan. No need for air con. It's hot but not unbearably so. It is a touch cooler up north, and all the better for it.

We have had a lazy explore, and stumbled into the flower parade...

(I know I know, no flowers - but these peeps were colourful, and loud)

We have also had a good walk around the bars....

.. and even went to a "reggae bar" - although they played techno!?!?!

Walking the streets is a real eye opener. Chiang Mai is 100% nicer than Bangkok - I think it is like how "Bristol" is to "London", and the prices are way cheaper here. As little as 38 Baht (70p) for a beer compared to the usual 60-70 Baht in Bangkok.

I say it is an eye opener because we somehow manage to walk down all the "red light" streets. It seems the sex trade is booming here. The format is always the same - bar with pool table, several scantily "dressed" Thai girls sitting around, lots of middle aged (and a lot older) English and Dutch men choosing their lady (they hope), for the night. Not the type of people we'd share bar space with. Rather creepy and sad.

We rented a scooter last night and subsequently took a 17k ride up the mountain to see the Wat at Doi Suthep - the most famous one here. A very scenic ride too.

(It was very busy, being Sunday and a big Thai festival too where they all flock to the Wats)

(The 319 odd stairs up to the temples, flanked by Nagas with tails that run all the way up)

(I was the slutty one this time, I had to cover my legs in a rather fetching wrap around thingie)

(Hard to take a pic of something opaque)

(At least they painted the scaffolding gold!)

(The main Buddha inside a temple)

(Buddhas everywhere!)

(And another)

(An ornate building, not a Buddha)

(These are everywhere, I think you ring them for good luck)

(Another beautifully ornate building)

(Something is missing from this picture......)

(Oh yes! Me! - This one is for you, Michael ;-) )

A really beautiful place and a lovely ride through the country.

Back at base now and downloading loads of movies on the free internet. We have even been to "Tesco Lotus" and got ourself a £1 polystyrene ice box so we can make a "fridge" for our room - we are spending time in there catching up on the new "Lost" and "Battlestar Galactica" in the evenings. Sad but true. After over a year of traveling so far, we like our creature comforts.

(Riding down the lanes back to our place. A very carefully, and gingerly self portrait on the move)

Cio!

North Thailand (at last!) remains copyright of the author Dodgey, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Our last few days we generally chilled at bars and on the beach. On one occasion we were happily sipping beers and watching the sea life when a gaggle of “larger women” plonked (quite literally) themselves in front of us. One of them (the one in the centre) actually had the same shape figure as a Manatee (look it up) – all topped off with horrific hair beads. Those beads should be banned.

A truly shocking sight. I always feel sorry for really fat birds that don’t have any breasts – totally unfair for them (you can’t see the front, but trust me, her figure was basically like a lump of play dough). The saddest thing is we saw similar girls wolfing down full English breakfasts the other day. Still, I know I’m hypocritical, smoking myself to death, but I’m stopping before I’m 40 – i.e. in a month or so – then I can be as mean as I like about lardies.

Moving on to prettier subjects, Kirstin found her own private island….

After our beers we wandered down to the far end of the beach where we hadn’t been so far and found a really cool beach bar.

So we sank some more beers, and yes, you guessed it, I managed to injure myself again, this time stubbing my toe on a plank of some sort….

I’m getting truly frustrated with my “Mr Bean” ability to hurt myself now. Still, a small cut and a large blister. I’ll get over it.

Three younger Swedes were on the beach playing Frisbee so I joined in……

What a catch!. We had a good laugh, drunk more beers, then arranged to meet up later at a bar that has a boxing ring, where anyone can challenge anyone else, all for a bucket of drink.

It was a bit of a shocker when we saw the first two contestants were young girls! – one chick was on her own and the other had a gaggle of Essex girls behind her for support. They kicked the shit out of each other! The Essex girl won. No surprise there.

After that, lots more lads had a go with varying levels of success. One memorable fight was a guy who clearly knew what he was doing against another who hadn’t a clue. Carnage. At one time, a guy entered the ring and refused the offer of a head guard. He trounced the other chap. I guess that was a bit of a hint… bit like a gladiator saying, “no need for a sword mate” – time to run.

After that I can’t remember much, but we ended up at a beach party for a short while.

We also ate some more street food. Chicken on skewers, or as Kirstin called them, “bacteria on a stick”. Which reminds me, I had the most fantastic snack the other day. Lots of street vendors offer up fried chicken legs – huge things – not in breadcrumbs like KFC you understand, just deep fried so they are very crispy and dark. On their own, they don’t really appeal, but I carefully instructed one chap to slice mine up, sans bone, and put it in a white bread roll with just mayo. He looked bemused, but dutifully made me the goddamn best chicken sandwich I’ve ever eaten. All that crispy skin! It was heaven! As I was devouring it, a young Australian chap wandered over, looking very concerned, and asked me (In a strong Aussi accent), “Is it safe mate!?!” - , “Sure”, I explained, “As safe as any Thai food – can’t be sure, but at least you can see them re-cook it on the grill, and prepare it in front of you – God only knows what goes on in the kitchens in a normal restaurant”.

With this encouragement, he ordered, and a few minutes later, asked how mine was made, got my advice, and had exactly the same. I’m fairly sure the street vendor will be making many more fried chicken mayo baps. Hey may even be the future founder of TFC.

With a minging hangover (large Chang beers – thanks!) we jumped on a ferry to Phuket, to catch a bus back to Bangkok. I took the trouble to read the Phuket Gazette – wow – what a place – they get one tourist death on a scooter EVERY day. That and shootings, muggings, etc. Not a place to venture out on the streets at night, and especially on a scooter! A lot of the crime is boiling down to the fact that Thailand is suffering a huge loss of tourism after the troubles at Bangkok airport in December, and on top of that, the global recession.

A foreign guy on the ferry put his music player on at full volume (a phone I think) – it was truly awful – some warbling lady at ear piercing levels. A French contingent of people in front of us were looking pissed off, and with my serious hangover, I snapped. “Dude! Turn that crap off! – Get some headphones” – with that prompting the French joined in , supporting me, and he buggered off with his lady to the outside deck. Seriously, what are people like? Why would you ever think that sort of behaviour was ok? Idiot. There seems to be a pattern of Russian sounding people behaving like this as we travel……

At Phuket we got a Government bus to Bangkok. You can get tourist buses but they have a horrific reputation for delays, and more importantly, luggage thefts. They are cheeky enough to put a chap in the luggage hold, and during the 12 hour trip, he goes through all the backpacks, stealing anything valuable. The amount of reports I have read about people having their wallets emptied is incredible. I mean, who in their right mind, puts their wallet in the baggage hold!?!? The Thais are even cheeky enough to crawl, in the dead of night, through the bus, going through people’s day-bags!

The Government buses are cheaper and totally safe. So we booked a first class bus to Bangkok and waited around for 1 hour before boarding. We could have got a “VIP” class bus, where the seats are wide in a way the airline business class seats are, but it was £20 instead of £12 each and we decided that as we’d be asleep the whole way, what’s the point?

As it turned out, the bus was great. We boarded at 6pm, watched a movie on my laptop, ate the free dinner provided, put our earplugs in and eyeblinds on (courtesy of first class Emirates airline :- ) ) and went to sleep.

We woke up at 6am, in the centre of Bangkok (we did get woken up at 12am for dinner in a café – we declined, a very odd time to eat!). After that, we got totally ripped of in a taxi – they told us it was 35k’s to the centre of Bangkok and charged us £6. It was 5k’s and should have cost about 80 pence. Ah well, you can’t win all the time.

(I’ve just moved inside from our balcony in Kanchanburi – you’ll see a pic later – it is sooo hot in Thailand right now, you have no idea. Unreal. And England is engulfed in snow! – all those years with a 4x4 and NOW it snows. Bah!)

Anyway, we chilled in Bangkok for a few days, just to get a feeling of normality back, and fast food….

(Yep, they deliver McDonalds to your room at no extra charge)

We spent most of our time watching the freaks on the Koh San Road, and Soi Rambuttri, where we stayed. I’d show you pics of tattooed nightmares with dreadful hair etc, but this bird was a classic…

(part sofa, part aquarium. What was she thinking?)

After we’d had enough of Bangkok (which doesn’t take long) we decided to go to Kanchanaburi, a provence of Thailand that hosts the “Bridge over the river Kwai” – although the truth is, it’s not on the Kwai, the author of the blockbuster film got it wrong, but the Thais, being creative chaps, renamed the stretch of water under the bridge to match the name of the film.

This time we decided to take the train as we’d enjoyed it so much going down to Cambodia last year. It is slower and a little more expensive than the bus but a much more enjoyable experience.

The station is not far from where we were staying so we decided to walk, avec backpacks etc. Half way we realised the error of our ways and got a tax. Talk about hot and sweaty! – A beer was in order….

And then the station..

T’was a lovely journey and we arrived in good form in Kanchanaburi and jumped on a random songthaw (taxi thing) and got dropped off at a random lodge on the river Kwai (not really the Kwai, you understand). We didn’t like the place so we walked for 2k’s to one we’d read about. It’s on an island on the river. After much asking around we were put on a small ferry shuttle boat and taken there. No idea how much, or what it was like, and it was dark. We laughed on the boat – we really didn’t have a clue.

As it turns out the place is lovely. We have a room which two of its walls are glass sliding doors, looking out over the river. A touch pricey though at £26 a night.

(Our outlook)

(Not a bad way to start the morning)

(Their longtail boats are different here – there are no waves – it’s a river, so they are like “Speedtails”)

Today we took the free boat to shore and hired a scooter and went off to see the Allied Cemetery ..

…and then the War Museum – which catalogued the history of the trauma that was the making of the railroad though the region, under Japanese control (horrific).

After that we scooted up to see the famous “Bridge over the River Kwai” – kind of disappointing really – expected it to be far, far bigger….

But interesting none the less.

We also spotted lots of accommodation for way less than we are paying so we’ll move tomorrow – we are paying 1300 baht and we’ve found AC rooms with good views for under 300 baht…. And I had to buy petrol for the scooter…..

(Petrol in whisky bottles, 40p each. Classy)

It is so quiet here it is unreal. The island resort we are on – well, we are the only people bar 4 Germans. The other guest houses are empty. When we get the free ferry shuttle to our island we are always alone.

It’s lovely, and kind of “real Thai” here. We went out of our way to drink in shitty looking local bars today – and they are very cheap. We’ve been paying 70 Baht (£1.50 for a beer) up until now, but today we’ve paid as little as 40 Baht (£75p) for the same beers. In fact, our resort is so expensive for beers that today we bought some beers in the market for a fraction of the price, 2 x big bags of ice, and a bag of salt, and I’ve made a “freezer” out of our sink. Saved over 100%! Our beers are chilling (or maybe freezing) as I type – ready for after dinner when we watch the marathon that is “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”. 3 Hours.

(Watched the new James Bond last night – a bit contrived and very confusing about what the bad guy is up to. Good pace and action, but they are starting to lose the plot – the bad guy is supposed to be building a world dominating space station, or a special nuclear island, not starve people of water to make some money – bit gay really)

Off to the waterfalls tomorrow then and I’ll report back.....

Moving Inland remains copyright of the author Dodgey, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

After putting it off last year, Kirstin decided at last to get her tattoo! Something small and fun, and on her wrist so she can cover it up with jewelry if it looks awful in her old age.

She had it done the traditional "bamboo" way. No electric "sewing machine", just a guy holding a long bamboo rod with a row of tiny needles in the end, stabbing it rapidly, like, well, a sewing machine. Apparently you get finer detail and a lot less pain and scarring. Don't fret, they use needles fresh out of a new packet!

It all went very well - not much pain, and it looks great. Will update with a picture close up next time. I'm going to put it in with my "injuries" post :-)

Once we'd settles our huge bill for nearly 3 weeks of heavy drinking we caught a quick hour and half ferry to Koh Phi Phi.

We'd put off going there last year as it's very well known, and has a reputation for being expensive and very touristy, but the lure of the "Beach" (from the film of the same name) was too much, and besides, it is near, and on our way back north.

Koh Phi Phi is basically two large land masses of limestone joined by a thin sandy isthmus which makes it's two main beaches, one each side, with the town in the middle. The beach you land on is busy with boats and ferries, the other, is not. It was totally flattened when the tsunami hit and everything has been rebuilt, only bigger.

We were actually pleasantly surprised when we arrived. No building seems to be over 3 stories tall and the beach on the other side is stunning.

(Someone a little more adventurous than us - we fancy European health and safety for this kind of thing)

We managed to secure an A/C room, a really nice one, for 1500 Baht (30 quid) a night in a quiet area away from all the noisy bars. A very good rate for here. Thailand is suffering this year from a loss of tourists due to the argy-bargy that happened at the main Bangkok airport at Christmas.

Overall it is a very good layout here. Great beach, lively town, reasonable prices. We even found a real Italian Pizza house where they serve Prosecco!

Someone English obviously had a hand in the creation of some of the signage here..

And by far my favourite....

(Oh so good! - the irony... the fish.. maybe a woman... see??)

Generally we have been relaxing (of course). I've snared free wifi on our balcony, and I've cracked into another one too - I've totally sussed how to break wifi passwords now - a very useful skill!).

Today we decided to go and check out Ko Phi Phi Ley - it's the smaller island just a mile or so to our north - a protected National Park. You should know of it - they filmed the movie "The Beach" there - hence the great draw for tourists. We read that it gets uber busy after 10.30am - you get lots of day trippers from Krabi, Koh Lanta and Phuket coming over just to run around on "The Beach" and take their photos "en location". We also decided after our last snorkeling trip to NEVER EVER go on a group "anything" EVER again. This feeling was reinforced by our Africa experience. We just can't stand being with tossers. Simple as that. And we like to be on our own timetable.

With all that in mind we got up at 7am this morning and went and secured our ride...

We paid 1500 Baht (30 quid) for a 3 hour trip. We could have done it in a group for about 150 baht I'm sure, but no way buddy. Not gonna happen. Nope! Some things are worth paying for.

Being up at this time in the morning afforded us the opportunity to see the wreckage from last night's beach party....

(Silly ass was fast asleep , in the sun)

Mind you, he probably had a few what we bought last night.....

(Yep, our 1st bucket!! - 1/3rd bottle of what was described as local vodka, and tasted absolutely not like vodka, 2 bottles of red bull, and a can of tonic)

Our driver was a good choice, he went slowly. Some of the other ones go like the clappers.

1st stop was, of course, "The Beach".

As you can see, the advantage of getting up early was clear. When we left there were about 10 big speedboats and a multitude of longtails on it, with screaming Asian tourists everywhere.

We weren't actually interested in the beach itself, the water was more enticing...

(Fancy a swim? I did!)

The water was the most beautiful I've ever seen. Crystal clear and full of fish and coral.

I donned a snorkel and mask and dived in, scuba style (backwards).

(Swimming with the fishies - ahhh!)

As I was snorkeling near the boat I saw things dropping into the water, then, within seconds, I was totally engulfed in beautiful colourful fish. Amazing - right by my nose, hundreds of them, coming from everywhere.

What was happening was our driver (sailor? skipper?) was throwing rice into the water by my head. It was totally awesome - I've never seen anything like it before (scuba divers, stop scoffing, I'm new to all this). The fish were touching my feet and legs. A very weird feeling.

At this point I was screaming with delight through my snorkel, which kind of sounds like a whale I guess, but Kirtsin was in the boat. Her tattoo has to be kept dry for a few days :-( - then it occurred to me she could hang with her tattooed arm off the boat steps and put her head underwater. Brilliant - I'm a genius!

She loved it - all I could hear through her snorkel was excited squealing - I also noticed she had her legs and feet curled up - clearly finding it as freaky as I did.

Once we'd done with the rice (I think we got through our driver's lunch) we headed off ....

...to some very , very pretty coves.....

With the most beautiful water

Totally stunning, and very funny too. As we left, other longtails arrived, in great numbers, and the sped in a loop through the bays at break neck speed so they could get their customers back to then grab a new load. Soooo glad we did it privately.

On the way back we passed some caves that the locals farm birds nests from - for birds nest soup - a real delicacy with the Chinese I believe.

Then it was back to the main island - in my new shorts! - Yep - I've gone all "Continental" and got myself some small trunks. Wearing long trunks is all very well and cool, but when you get out of the sea you are soaking for an hour or so - it's a real pain, so I gave in to the European way, and I like it I have to say. Just got to tan my thighs now!

Once we got back we treated ourselves to a full English breakfast!

(Note the name of the cafe..... classic)

Lovely, real bacon, sausages, hash brown, beans and fried bread.

Back off down to the beach now, hope the jellyfish invasion of yesterday has cleared up....

Speak soon!

ON The Beaten Track, and Loving it. remains copyright of the author Dodgey, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

We made the decision to head over to Koh Lanta (West coast), as the weather was supposed to be crap everywhere we decided that we might as well be in a cool place if there was going to be nothing to do but shelter from rain and drink beers and gins.

It’s quite a tall order to get from Koh Phangang to Koh Lanta in one day. It’s not the distance, it’s the variables involved – mainly how long you end up waiting around for each connection. We got the 12.30 ferry across the sea to the mainland, then a coach to a distribution depot, then waited 3 hours for another coach to Krabi. By the time we rolled into Krabi is was 8.50pm, in a bus depot, in the middle of nowhere. We assumed we’d just stay the night in Krabi then hit Lanta in the morning – you only need a 300 baht ferry and it takes about an hour. But… I knew the last car ferry to Lanta was 10pm and I ended up arranging a private taxi all the way , “You can DEFINITELY make the 10pm ferry, right?”, “yeah” – he seemed confident.

We drove so fast, and his music was so loud, I called it the “Nightmare Disco”. At one stage we were doing 145k’s though a 45k limit. He peaked at 165k’s, sometimes cutting corners completely, at night. It was like being on a rollercoaster, only this time, you COULD die.

The upshot was that we got to the ferry at 9.55pm – phew! Clare and Kirstin just talked to each other all the way, about anything and everything, so as to remain distracted to the obvious terror.

Our taxi took us all the way to Fishermans Cottage, where we stayed for 5 weeks last year. We knocked back some travel weary beers, and crashed for the night.

In the morning, guess what… yes… SUNSHINE! Yay! – Silly weather reports.

We met all our old friends here (the owner and staff). They’ve got wifi now! :-)

Generally we have been chilling, swimming, and drinking , of course. I managed to break another toe kicking a rock under water while playing bat and ball. At least this one broke “straight”.

(Back to our favourite beach, tide out)

(Where you are pretty much guaranteed spectacular sunsets)

We had a “big night” on the 16th – Kirstin’s birthday! – Kun cooked us some special food , which he paid for (thanks dude) and we all had a major session and danced on the beach. Clare seemed to do the most dancing…. With the most people… lol.

(Clare with the owner, Kun)

A couple of days ago we went on a speedboat snorkelling trip to Koh Rok – a marine park about 40 minutes away. Saw lots of coral for the first time – some of it moves when you swim near it. Weird stuff, oh, and quite a few clown fish. It seems we only recognise fish if they were on “Finding Nemo”. Cretins we are. It was very good snorkelling, if sometimes a little shallow, people were standing on Coral , bare foot, with their bodies out of the water. Cretins.

(My water babies)

It was a super hot day with little to no shade. Clare summed it up nicely when we got back to the bungalows. She felt like she’s just stepped out of a microwave.

I managed to injure myself AGAIN. I’m getting so ticked off. Perhaps it’s the approach to 40 years old…. This time I was climbing back into the speedboat after snorkelling, and as I pulled myself up with the handrails / steps, the whole thing bloody broke off, trapping my finger (yes, the same one as in Egypt) between the steel railing and something else hard. Result, ANOTHER deep cut that looked all white inside, just above my ring, on the top side.

We plastered it up and I’ve since cleaned it and it seems to be closing up very quickly (and of course we have all the meds with us now). The girls bought me some new plasters today – cartoon ones. They thought it would be funny. Except they are child size too. Look out for an “Injuries” post soon, I’ve got photos of most of mine so far. Lovely.

It’s fair to say we have had a few drinking sessions since Clare has been here. I’ve even got a taste for “White Russian” cocktails now.

We also rented a tuk-tuk and went for a tour of the island, stopping off for lunch at the View Point café…

(Our trusty steed - this one was a LOT easier to drive than last year's)

(View from the cafe)

The tuk-tuk was as hilarious as last time. I tried to navigate a steep-ish drop-off from concrete to dirt, and tipped the whole contraption at about 45 degrees. We thought we were going over. I fell out of my seat and clare was half way out the front, whilst Kirstin was slipping in between the bike and the passenger seats. No harm done, and a lot of laughing.

Clare is setting off back home tomorrow. Will be very sad to see here go. Then, we are off, after a few more days chilling, to Koh Phi Phi for a day or two, then straight up North to discover the other half of Thailand.

Just remembered one more thing, well, two. Kirstin and I went to go to bed the other night only to discover a coconut had fallen through our roof, and onto our mosquito net, which it collapsed. So we were presented with a bed covered in wood and bamboo (from the roof), plus a huge coconut right in the middle. K had a lot of trouble sleeping that night!

Also, when we were in Koh Tao, we heard (and felt) a huge thud very near by. When we looked up, a coconut had fallen and landed in between three girl’s heads, missing one of them by an inch at most. It was close enough to knock off her sunglasses. They were all lying face up asleep. Talk about a lucky escape. These coconuts are dangerous!

Finally - some memories of Clare's visit (and I'm in there too as at last, there are people to take photos of me!)

(Clare's room at the Fishermans Cottage, Koh Lanta)

(My name's Bond, James Bond. .. Well, need to work on the weight a bit ;-) , and the shorts )

(Surprisingly , I really enjoyed this)

(After just a few beers I decided to make our own little Honiker on our balcony)

(Not a bad way to spend the day - Koh Tao)

(... and the night)

(Not our handywork - don't think I could bring myself to do it)

(Clare's "Princess bed" made from 2 mattresses and 2 mosquito nets - took here a long time to perfect this)

By Clare! We'll miss you xx

Snorkelling and Snoozing remains copyright of the author Dodgey, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Koh Tao is fairly low key so we were actually looking forward to it. Not like somewhere like Koh Phangang which would be guaranteed to be crammed with drunk Brits throwing up over each other.

All the bars had something going on, including ours – a free buffet, but we skipped that as we’d booked a table at a decent looking restaurant – which turned out to be superb. We had fillet of beef fondue – it was so good we ordered a second one! We of course necked plenty of gin and beer.

After that we headed to the beach itself equipped with Vodka Redbulls…

…and wandered up and down watching all the fire dancers, fireworks, and various lanterns. It was a great atmosphere. – A note on vodka Redbulls here – their Redbull is their own concoction – far far stronger than ours at home – it’s like being on narcotics!

(Lots of these guys everywhere)

Loads of people were launching fire lanterns – basically a large paper lantern with a candle at the bottom, so it heats up and flies away – to amazing heights. At midnight one bar launched loads of them.

The whole thing was great. Everyone was in good spirits, there were lots of fire “acts” – i.e. staff would spin a giant fire skipping rope and whoever fancied a go would try and skip it. Or they’d have a large “hoop” on fire and you could jump through it. Lots of drunk people set off fireworks that went in all directions, including into bar areas. It’s all in the video below… a small recap of our NYE.

Happy New Year! :- )

A couple of days later Clare arrived from freezing England! So the first thing we did was soak up some sun..

(A little sundowner below our bungalow)

We ended up taking G&T’s down to that small beach and watching the sunset.

We spent a few days chilling in Koh Tao and then decided to move on. The island is fine but kind of repetitive after a while. Ah yeah – K & I had our first “street food” on Koh Tao – chicken and pork – all for a fraction of the price in restaurants, and it was superb. …. And… we never got ill!

So… we took Clare to MaiPenRai on Koh Phangang for some serious R&R and sunbathing.

(Seem familiar? Yep! Jan 2008!)

(Clare relaxing – we got the same bungalow as when Matt and Justin came over)

(Back at the mountain-top bar having sundowners)

We’ve had a few good days of sunbathing and chilling at the “secret beach” and drinking far too many Gins. The weather has turned a bit today – it’s a full moon so the sea gets very choppy. The path below our room gets totally covered by water when large waves come in. We had a good laugh watching people “run the gauntlet”.

(Clare just escaped it)

(This girl was not so lucky)

We had ring side seats and laughed a lot. One guy got a total strop on with his girlfriend for getting drenched – hehe.

Not sure where we are off to next – will need to monitor the weather. The East coast is all a bit crap at the moment so we’ll see….

Oh – nearly forgot – injuries – got some more! – on NYE I had a cigarette in my hand and went to high five some drunk guy next to me (just to shut him up really) and instead of a high five, he clasped my hand, bending over my fag and totally burning my knuckle. That’ll take time to heal! – Also I kicked a rock in the dark on the beach and snapped half a toe nail off – that has almost healed already thankfully.

Still – we are lucky – the amount of scooter accidents over here is shocking. People hire them and don’t know anything about safety. They ride around in summer wear (almost nothing) and then come off – either sober or drunk. When you walk down the main “path” in Koh Tao you frequently see girls and boys with bandages on their legs, knees, and arms – and some horrible scars. We even saw two lads come off right in front of us – they touched the front brake on a sandy path – fatal mistake. If the hire company warned everyone about using the front brake on sandy roads the accident rate would shrink incredibly. Of course, they make a load of money from it so it’s not in their interest.

When I returned my scooter the woman looked at me and said, “No accident!?” in a way that was clear that she was surprised and mildly disappointed!
Speak soon!

Happy New Year!! remains copyright of the author Dodgey, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

The last week has been much of the same - Braai's, swimming, and beers. A great way of life. And I'm totally missing biltong.

We also went to see a cricket match which was a fantastic day out. Sitting on the grass with beers and biltong. It's amazing when they hit a six. I was in line to catch one but as I went for it I was tackled by Michael-Lee and someone else (There is a 500 rand prize for catching a 6) so never quite made it.

After Michael explained the strategy of cricket to me I've started to really enjoy watching it, especially the "20 overs" mayhem games. We watched SA beat NZ the other day - scoring the 2nd ever highest test score. SA have the 1st too.

Back to the pool...

( A regular day round the pool and Braai)

I even had my ears waxed in preparation for Xmas day...

(Yes, it hurt and I shouted like a girl)

Christmas day was a hoot. Not your regular English one. We started the day with a trip to the "happy clappy" church, then hit the champagne properly, joined by lots of the Lester family and friends. As you can guess, we ended up round the pool and had... yep, a Braai :-)

(The pool dragon was more popular with the grown-ups)

Christmas lunch was of course .....

... fillet steak :-) (Oh how I love South Africa)

We had such a good blast. Michael and Niki looked after us so well, and the rest of the family made us really welcome. We'll most certainly be going back again. That is if they get over their memories of meeting me.... i.e. drunken Karate with Mike to mention just one encounter ;-)

We set off about 48 hours ago headed for Thailand again. What a journey!

It's a small miracle we got to our final destination with so many tight connections... 9 hour flight to Abu Dahbi, connecting within 1 hour to fly 6 hours to Bangkok, then 2 hours to get connecting flight to Koh Samui, then a ferry to Koh Tao. The 1st flight was delayed by 1 hour so we were amazed everything came together. We were also very lucky at Bangkok. The queues for immigration were huge, but as we stood in line, a group of about 10 people in front of us left the line, presumably to get their paperwork in order, so we got through in no time at all.

We are now ensconced in our luxury accomodation in Koh Tao.

(Air con, sealed room - very up market for us in Thailand - and bloody expensive , but everything else is booked for New Year)

Looking forward to New Year on the beach, though the weather is overcast and forecast to be the same for the next week. Still, it's hot and humid.

Very excited to see Clare, my sister, too. She's coming over on the 1st.

Cio!

Happy Christmas! remains copyright of the author Dodgey, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Pretty much straight after our arrival we went out for dinner to meet the gang and get acquainted with South African dining.

(Clockwise from left, Kirstin, Dalton, Keegan, Jani, Michael Lee, Nicki (Sis-inlaw), and Michael(dad of all the boys) )

(And I’ve eaten half of that already…)

They certainly know how to eat! – and the Rand is very favourable against the Pound at the moment – I ordered 250g of large prawns for something like £5 – as a “side” ;- )

I went on the “Golf Day” I mentioned last time. Michael and I drove about 160k’s North to the country for a corporate “jolly”. When we arrived at 10.30 all the players already had two or three empty beer bottles by their sides. I was introduced to everyone, we got the briefing for the day – the game was to be an American Scramble (longest drive off each tee gets played – 4-ball teams), and off we set in our golf carts. Except we had 2 carts and there were 5 of us – so a lot of standing on the back took place.

Our host explained that the day was not so much about golf but more about drinking. Excellent! This was to be a most Africaans day out!

There was one chap driving round in a blue cart loaded with ice and beers. On more than one occasion I had to chase after him, belting across fairways to reload, so to speak.

The golf was going well for most, bar one chap who managed to tee off and not even reach the ladies tee. Later he hit one that actually went behind him, and on another occasion he broke the shaft of his driver when he hit the ball with it, instead of the head. At first I contained myself to save his pride, but after the umpteenth cockup we were all in hysterics. The beers were flowing well too….

By the time we’d done the front 9 we had all easily cleared 10 or more beers each. African golf is fun – not just the beers, but the wild animals too – walking across the fairways, or monkeys hanging down to watch your shots from a few feet away.

(Not unusual – well, it is. Normally they are on the fairway!)

We tucked into a meaty lunch – I was wolfing down as much as I could to soak up some of the beer. At one stage one of the guys offered me a beer, “no thanks, I’m trying to get a breather before round 2!”. He replied, in a very Africaans accent, “Roger, South Africa is not a country for pussies”. LOL.

So the afternoon continued. At this stage I’d loaded the back of the cart with an ice bucket full of beers. Well, I didn’t, a chap did. A chap who called me “master”. It was like stepping back in time into a movie.

(Note the ice bucket in the back – sorted!)

The back 9 was basically a drunken brawl. I tried to drive the cart over a foot bridge and got wedged in – just a little too wide! The guys were taking a leak at every tee, the shots were getting worse for the really bad guy, and the laughter was growing. We had a ball :- )

After the golf we sank lots of “Jaegermeister Bombs”, Tequila, and god knows what else, and then headed off to a bar / club. I was totally wasted and Michael was trying to find out where we were staying with little luck. Getting close to despair at about 3am we found we actually had a motel room.

I woke up at 6am, on the floor. The truck was outside, with the windows open with the keys still in the ignition. Michael drove us back to Pretoria and I slept in the back.

Welcome to South Africa! :- )

The rest of this week has been mainly Braai’s & beers. We went to “Meat World” to get our , well, meat.

(meat as far as the eye can see – yay! And the dark stuff hanging above is biltong – ready to be sliced)

Michael and Nicola are members of an evangelical church so we went with them this Sunday – very fascinating and a lot more fun than a regular English service to say the least. Not sure if we’ll go again, but it was a great experience.

Btw – we are staying in a gated golf estate and it is just like being in Desperate Housewives, except there is no one walking the streets, apart from the 1000’s of maids and gardeners. There is actually a dedicated bus service for the maids and gardeners.

(Even the cats are trained to guard)

Update:

Many Braais and beers later – oh , and lots of Biltong – something I detested in England, but here you choose the rareness and size and then they cut it up in front of you. I’ve got a taste for medium rare. It goes down a treat with a cold beer.

We went up to a lake camping area yesterday – basically Braai, beers, Biltong (can you see a repetitive theme here?). They provide free canoes and Braai facilities. We had a super day in the sun. It all started innocently, but after many beers it got out of hand. Not one person managed to keep their canoe upright. Some capsizes were due to poor boatmanship but the majority were down to tipping each others’ boats over :- ) . K & I tried a “dry start” where you sit in the boat and get someone to push you off the edge into the water. We took on so much water we had to bail it out with her empty champagne cup.

(Jani, Kirstin and Nicki)

(Familiar feeling being in one of these.. again)

(Michael, me. And K)

(yep, more red meat! – awesome!)

(… and the sparkling wine is going down well…..)

(.. as did the beer, so we decided we could get 3 in a boat – which lasted a minute at best before we capsized – and yes, I’m in my pants)

Having a super time… Other randomness – I noticed a spider scuttling into a corner when I lifted the lid to the pool pump housing. I kept my distance. A few days later some round spikey white egg sacks appeared – like something from an alien movie, so I investigated on the web (yep, there is a joke in there).

It turns out that out guest spider is a Brown Widow – very close relation to the Black Widow. It’s venom is twice as potent but luckily it tends to inject half as much as it’s black cousin. Still not good though and can cause breathing difficulties amongst many other nasty symptoms.

(You can clearly see one of the eggs, and if you look hard, the spider is tucked under the lip in the corner – I was too scared to get any closer)

It had to die! – One can of hair spray and a lighter later and the deed was done. Well, in truth, I bodged it, and she ran to the floor carrying an egg sack. We got her in the end but it’s safe to say that we (Kirstin, Nicki, and me) were all screaming and panicking as it ran about.

Yeuch!

But much nicer…

(Relaxing at the local club house)

Oh – nearly forgot – the weather systems are amazing here. For the most part it’s very hot and sunny, but with little warning thunder storms can move in. On one occasion lightening hit the ground or a conductor about what seemed a couple of hundred feet away. The explosion when you are that close is unbelievable, and terrifying.

Speak soon!

Biltong, Braiis and Beers remains copyright of the author Dodgey, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

We were supposed to stay at “Planet Baobab” – a lodge that is surrounded by Baobab trees – but of course they messed it up again and it was fully booked. Fortunately I got a very quick picture of a Baobab tree!

(Not the best example but still pretty cool. Some of them are extremely fat – they look like “toy” trees)

We ended up in quite a nice place actually, and I got the web for once, so I played a game of poker :- )

The following morning we set off for Kasane Chobe National Park – a great drive – tarmac at last! On the way we got lucky with the wildlife. One of our group spotted an elephant in the bushes, we stopped, and found 2 of them – right by the truck. And I mean right by the truck. As one walked towards me I have to say it was just a tad frightening.

Lovely creatures – when they are not angry ; -)

That afternoon we took a boat safari in Chobe National park – a 3 hour affair where we at last got to see LOTS of hippos up close.

We saw elephants and crocs too but I won’t bore you with yet more pictures.

Next day… and it is the last day of the tour – and to be honest, both of us were really looking forward to being back in our own chosen company – i.e. not in a tour group.

We took a short drive and a painless border crossing into Zimbabwe.

The first thing we noticed is lots of people walking everywhere, shops with bare shelves, and lots of people selling their wares.

Zimbabwe is in a real pickle at the moment as they are suffering hyper inflation – locals can queue for a day to use an ATM, and then the money they get out it so devalued it doesn’t buy a loaf of bread. The people there need everything. It’s very sad. Even more so that we were not briefed by our (Zimbabwean) guide – we would have bought loads of stuff with us like cheap clothes, pens, food etc from Botswana, but no. Nothing mentioned.

Kirstin traded 2 old t-shirts and a biro for a stone sculpture of a hippo, and I traded some old shorts and 100 Rand for two beautiful teak carvings of a man and a woman. Someone suggested that we ought to just give them money and clothes. I disagree. They need money and clothes, and they don’t need carvings and other curios. Trading lets them retain their pride, and it discourages begging, which we saw none of.

Our tour cook came back bare footed. She’s traded her flip-flops for a carving :- )

Curios purchased, we entered Victoria Falls park itself. We hit a good time of year. The water is just starting to build up, and that means the spray is minimal and you can actually see the falls. I’d like to see it in full song too, but this was great, and the spray was already ever-present (It reaches 150ft in height in the wet season).

(The world's most dangerous jacuzzi)

(We met lots of these)

(And gave our left over lunch to the locals)

A true treat to see.

Suitable awed, we checked into our 5 star Elephant Hills hotel.

(Not a bad balcony view hey!?! – and there is a golf course among the trees too)

Internet cost $12 USD an hour and was hopelessly slow. I’m doing this update in SA.

Being that we were in the extreme sport centre of Africa, we got a briefing on all the activities available to us. We HAD planned to skydive – but as with most of the better activities, it was on the other side of the falls in Zambia and the visa for going over for a day is…..

Wait for it…

Wait for it…

$135 USD EACH!

Madness. It seems that as everyone has started going to Zambia instead of Zimbabwe (people are frightened to go to Zim), the Zambians got greedy and upped the visa price. If you want to go to the Zambian side of the falls it is currently cheaper to take a helicopter flight to get your pictures than to walk across the bridge.

Anyhow – being in Vic falls there was one thing we absolutely HAD to do. White water rafting the Zambeze! So we paid up and then had a quiet night in preparation. To say we were apprehensive is an understatement! The Zambeze is regarded as one of the best and most fierce white water rafting locations in the world. That, and one of our group did it the day before and told us it was a mix of fun and terror and that he’d spent 20 seconds underwater at one stage. He also had a large gash across the bridge of his nose……

When we arrived in the morning at the start location one of our group was very surprised that we’d chosen the Zambeze as our first place to try rafting. That helped the fear. Really.

The adventure started with a walk down ludicrously steep steps to the river – 860 meters down..

(All the pictures are screen grabs from the DVD we bought so the quality is a bit crap)

We then had a safety briefing, which terrified us even more. Then we practiced pulling each other back in the raft, and then… we set off…

(That's us on the left)

To be honest, I think we missed the first half of the day as we spend most of our time clinging on for dear life with our eyes closed!. To say it is exhilarating is an understatement. You have to paddle or you’ll flip. You have to work as a team. You have to watch you don’t lance anyone with your paddle. And you have to listen for your guide’s instructions. All the while you are being confronted with 10 foot drops, 20 foot waves, you name it.

After our lunch stop we gained courage and also realised we were actually a good team. We had not flipped once, and we only “lost” two people over the side so far, including a small girl at the very front who got thrown through the air right over the boat.

It’s an odd experience – frequently you see 7 people in front of you, and then seconds later they are all above you…..

The afternoon was much more fun as we had gained confidence. We started looking where we were going, and into what. One of the rapids is called Big Mother. That was the one that threw me over the side. A wave in front of us about 20ft+ high, after a 10ft drop. Before I could blink I was out, and just as quickly I saw the boat and grabbed the rope.

On several sections we all jumped out and floated down the river and through the milder rapids (grade 1) which was awesome fun – we rafted down a mix of grade 2 to grade 5. There was a grade 6 which was deemed too dangerous and we walked round it.

Not once did we totally flip. The one other boat in front of us seemed to flip at every rapid so we felt rather chuffed with our performance.

A totally amazing day. Followed by a killer twist.

How do you get out of a gorge? Walk.

870 metres up – all steep steps carved into the mud. Some steps were rough ladder affairs made from logs – all very Indiana Jones. It was EXHAUSTING! (and we had to carry our helmets, jackets and paddles)

If a guy had not been there with water half way up I’m not sure I would have made it. I could hear my heart pounding.

Fortunately at the top a guide was waiting with chilled beers. We drunk hard and fast! A truly memorable day. I have cuts all over my knuckles. Blisters on my hands, and both of us have thighs that don’t work any more.

Last night we flew into Johannesburg where Nik & Mike (K’s sis and bro in law) picked us up and took us to their house in Pretoria.

I’m liking SA – we went to our first butchers where I have never seen such an array of dead animals in my life! – Braai heaven! And I’m enjoying Biltong and beer :- )

We got trashed. I’ve got an uber hangover, and I’m getting up at 5am tomorrow. I’m going with Mike to a golf course 100k’s away where I’m going to be the golf caddy driver for the day and then we’ll have a session at the clubhouse and stay overnight….

Oh one more thing – say an amazing sight last night – The moon with Venus and Jupiter each side..

Speak soon!

Fun in Zimbabwe remains copyright of the author Dodgey, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Update – we crossed the border yesterday – no photo’s as its apparently a very bad idea to take photos at borders… Still – we were greeted by one huge thing by my feet as we went to sit on the kerb…

(We so nearly sat down by it!)

Off we trundled into Botswana. The first thing I noticed was the lack of fences – in Namibia every bit of land is owned by someone (white people), but the moment you hit Botswana the fences disappear – and consequently, the roaming animals appear – frequently in the road. Things also started to get a little greener – we are hitting the start of their wet season.

By late afternoon we made it to our lodge – although it took 45 minutes to go the last 500 meters as they have a fair few animals in their “sanctuary” (read zoo) , which is not a bad thing – we got to see some more Cheethas real close – right by the truck. They were pacing up and down and we guessed it was approaching feeding time..

(Yep!)

After dinner and a few G&T’s we went to see the local tribe – the “San People” perform a 1 hour ritual dance, which they do every night. Not quite sure of the meaning but there was clearly lots of “cleansing” and “healing” going on. It was an excellent show. As they pace round the fire, they stamp their feet in perfect timing so you can really feel the ground shake.

(That’s as good as it gets with my compact in low light I’m afraid, though I should have a video incoming soon…). Ahh. Here we go..

Today we drove for a few hours to Maun, where we are staying the day in basic rooms (so hot I can’t describe). Most of the group has gone out this afternoon on a scenic flight over the Okavango Delta. We passed up on the offer ($75 each)as it’s a 1 hour flight, and we’ll be flying over it tomorrow, for 20 mins, then back 2 days later, for 20 mins, so can’t really see the point.

(Our bar where we spent a long time!)

At about 9pm something odd happened at the bar – we started to notice hundreds of flying “things” by one of the lamps. Within 10 minutes they were into the 1000’s and engulfing every light in sight. It was a real swarm / invasion – we all had to move closer to the bar but they were still dive bombing us. It turned out they are flying ants, that wait for rain (which we had a heap of), then fly out of the ground, mate, shed their wings, and then die after laying more eggs. It was bizarre – when the commotion died down the floor was totally covered in wings.

(Tricky to photo fast moving objects a night, but you get the idea)

Onto the next day.. and it was time for our flight out to the Okavango Delta – an unfeasibly large area that once had a river running through it, but due to tectonic plate movement further downstream, it got blocked, and consequently the land flooded, and stayed that way – hence a delta of mostly water with many small dry areas of land.

When we got to the airport I had a firm mission to sit in the cockpit – we were flying in small Cessna’s and I’ve always wanted to do it. When we were greeted by our 2 pilots I made it clear I wanted to be up front! – “No problem, you can come with me” – Excellent!!

(Chocks Away Chaps!!)

(Although you see some water, pretty much everything is water, it’s just where the grass / reed is taller it looks dry from above)

(Don’t Touch!!)

It was a super flight, all at 470 feet, airspeed 100 Knots, heading 332 – hehe – I was checking everything! – It is 99% the same as when playing on my computer flight simulator – the only difference was the flaps – operated by a hand wheel. I can honestly say, particularly after the landing – if the pilot kicked the bucket I could of landed it! – The only thing I didn’t know was the approach speed – about 40-50 knots – much slower than I though. A real treat – and K loved it too. Going to see if we can shove her in the cockpit on the way back :- )

(The fire station on the landing strip!)

(Not the biggest runway in the world)

After our landing we were guided through the marshland to our next mode of transport – snall canoes with a “poler” on the back (A chap who does all the work)

(Nice way to travel – although our boat was teeming with ants :- ) )

After a relaxing 40 minute ride we arrived at Gunn’s Camp – a proper Delta camp in the middle of nowhere. It’s all tents and tree houses – very well done – in fact, I’d say we’ve arrived at paradise – Africa as we expected it to be.

The lady in charge showed us around, briefed us about the honesty bar, then warned us that a herd of elephants walks through the camp most nights, and told us what to do if confronted by one! She also told us about resident Warthogs that are likely to sleep under our tents and also jump in the toilet / showers… This all sounds like superb fun! :- )

We are also not to wander away from the main camp paths because of snakes, hyenas, cheetahs and many other things, and we can’t go near the water, particularly after 7pmm because Hippos use it as their highway. We are assured that if you are close enough to a hippo to see its face, you are in deep trouble.

Rather hilariously, when it came to allocating tents she said, “is there a honeymoon couple here I believe?” – no one replied, so Kirstin quickly piped up , “we’ll be the honeymooners if you like!” – so bingo! – we got the only tent that is mounted high up with stunning views over the delta, a double bed and a private shower and toilet.

Over dinner last night it dawned on us that she might have meant “anniversary”, not “honeymoon” – as there is a couple with us who had theirs a few days ago. Ahh well – lol!

(Our balcony)

(Our “bedroom” view)

(Our home for 2 nights)

After a few relaxing beers – and boy is this place relaxing!, we got back in our canoes for a short trip to a walking point, where our guides put us in single file and off we trekked for 2 hours, looking for wildlife.

(offwe go!)

It’s a very strange feeling wandering into an area where there are plenty of animals that can and will kill and/or eat you if you are not careful. A kind of “helpless adventure” feeling. Rather exhilarating.

It didn’t take long to start spotting animals…

We got very close to some Giraffes – and just as we were gawping at them we noticed one much closer to us amongst the trees to our right. It made a run for it and it was awesome! – when you are up close and all you can see are giant legs and you can feel the ground shaking as it runs – wow! – really amazing. When they got to open ground you could really see them run – so graceful – it’s a real treat)

We refocused on the original giraffes. I would have got a better photo but just as I lined up the shot, a woman in our group (who I had previously explained to how the camera flash is useless son long range shots) took a flash shot – and sure enough, they bolted. – “Turn your flash off”, I said, showing her the button on her camera, “why, is it annoying you!?!” – Doh!!! “You know how we were told not to wear bright coloured clothes so we don’t scare off the animals…??? – what do you think your flash does???” Jesus. What can you do.

It’s quite funny actually. Loads of people sport nice Canon 300D cameras with long lenses, and they all use them on the “auto” setting. I’ve tried explaining to some how you can get far superior shots just with a little knowledge, but they revert to auto. They’d be better off spending a quarter as much on a compact with a long zoom like the Panasonic Lumix. And most of them use the flash for everything. Same as in Cambodia, loads of people taking pictures of sunsets with flashes going off everywhere. I wish cameras all came with a big red warning card and a picture of how far a flash has any effect so people start to grasp the idea of turning them off). Ok, moan over. :- )

(there were a bunch of Baboons , but this one caught the sun)

Not forgetting the Termites…

(There was a real “Jurassic Park” feel about the walk, especially in areas where the elephants had destroyed lots of trees, and their giant dung everywhere. I felt very small at times, and just a little wary)

(Not such a lucky Giraffe)

After our (exhausting) walk we came back and hit the bar, supping beers, G&T’s, and red wine, well into the night. We used our giant torch to see lots of eyes reflecting back from the bush, and watched at lots of fire flies flashed like demented Christmas tree lights. One actually hovered just in front of us – they really do look like small LED lights – super bright. Then it was time for bed – the time we were dreading – we made our way back to our tent……

Cheeky bloody insects! – the tent was clear when we left earlier. Now, there was a web + spider across the front “door”, a web + spider from the bed (my side of course) to the tent wall, and to top it all, a scorpion on the ceiling above our bed. It was so bad it was actually funny. Add to that the fact that the power was off and our torch was failing fast!

In the end we squashed 3 spiders, and scooped the scorpion into a piss-pot (yes, we have one) and then crushed it with a bottle of shampoo.

We both lay in bed nervously, sweating profusely in the high humidity, praying for no more bugs. Still, as a bonus we got to lay and look at the stars.

We awoke at 5am this morning to a stunning sunrise – making all the clouds in the sky a perfect salmon pink. A superb way to start the day.

They did another guided walk at 6am – we got up at 8.30 ;- )

(oh yeah- that’s our tent in the distance on the right– the only one high enough to see from the bar – exclusivity hey! :- ) )

Further Update; Well, what a place! – we want to stay here forever – waking up seeing the sunrise at 5am (remember the tent front is just a mesh), then falling back asleep, then waking up again at 8am because you are basically burning in the sun!, that, and all the wildlife around you – warthogs, elephants, you name it. It really is special.

We had a bit of a session last night with the managers of the camp – Chris and Jasmine, plus John, our guide and Geraldine and Paolo, sitting on the deck looking out over the Delta. We noticed that the bar looks exactly like the bar in Star Wars – you know, the one with the aliens playing music and Han Solo shoots the guy under the table…

(see??)

So… after far too many beers, we dressed the girls and John up and recreated the scene…

(lol – we tried!)

This morning we flew back out of the Delta to Maun. This time K and I got a tiny Cessna to ourselves. She sat in the front this time, and we flew at 400 feet. She loved it, I loved it. I think if we come back to Africa we are most definitely coming back to Botswana and the Delta…

A random picture for now… then Zimbabwe and Victoria Falls (Which we hope are filling up as we heard it is dry at the moment….)

Oh... and another game park in Botswana 1st....

The Floor is Alive remains copyright of the author Dodgey, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

We had a nice stay in the lodge there, and for once, a Braai (BBQ)!

During the day we drove to Naukluft National Park in the Namib Kalahari desert. There was an optional activity of seeing the !kung tribe (the ! is a click – you know, with your tongue) perform a re-enactment of their hunting process. We enquired about the authenticity and as suspected we found that it is guys from the local town who after doing the show, put back on their Western clothes and drive their Toyotas back into town. At £40 each we decided to give it a miss, and I used the time to update the last blog entry. Rather amusingly, I said to K, “I bet they come back and tell us what fools we’ve been for missing something excellent”. Sure enough, when they got back we were greeted with , “Look what you missed!” and had cameras shoved under our noses. They saw a Giraffe. We are off to a game reserve in three days…. And the local town is full of people who still talk in the “clicking” language – you hear it on the streets and in the shops.

(As far as we went)

After another arduous journey we arrived at our lodge – where we would be staying for two nights. Our first chance to actually unpack proper! – except without being told, we were not at the place we had booked – a nice lodge. We were in a crappy farm. A dump – with a “driveway” that took one and a half hours to traverse in the truck (Something we later found out our guides had not noted – the extra time/distance).

(That’s the back of our room – and the red thing is a wood burner – our hot water heater)

Everyone was peeved, but of course, no one said anything :- ) . Totally dusted out (I cannot begin to tell you how much dust gets in the truck) and knackered, we tucked into another unremarkable dinner – more than unremarkable – they potatoes and rice were undercooked so they took them off to finish them – so we waited. Whilst we waited, the rest of the group ate all the meat, and helped themselves to seconds, so when the rest of the meal came back that was all that remained. You have to laugh.

Oh well, we tucked into the wine and decided to make a night of it, having a good chat with some of the group. It was at this stage we found out that we’d have to get up at 4.30 am the next morning as it was a long drive to the Sossusvlei Sand dunes and our jeep and guide would be waiting for us at 8am. 3.5 hours to get there, 3 hour tour, then 3.5 hours back to the same “lodge” (farm). Off to bed then!

The next morning (very early!) – we departed, albeit delayed as the guy who thought his camera was stolen messed around for 15 minutes. We arrived at the Sossusvlei Dunes entrance at 9.00. Remember our guide was supposed to be waiting for us at 8am, and he’s a further half an hour inside the park. 9.30 we arrived, and he was not there. “Don’t’ worry”, our guides told us, “he’ll be back soon for us”. We knew full well that he’d taken another 3 hour tour and we’d be waiting until 11am. No one admitted this.

To kill time our guides took us for a 500 metre walk and explained the ecosystem of the desert and we wandered up the smallest dune in the world.

By this stage is was getting VERY hot. You could feel your neck burning through factor 30 almost immediately and it occurred to a lot of us that our journey into the “Dead Flay” would end up being through the midday. We could smell disaster!

Sure enough the jeep guy showed up at 11.30, had a brief chat with our guide, then when our guide turned his back, drove off! He didn’t want to take us for our scheduled 3 hour drive and walk through the dunes as he was understandably concerned that people might die in the midday heat!

In the end another guy was persuaded to drive us 5km into the dunes for a brief lesson on the ecosystem, but we would not be able to do our tour into the dunes proper.

(That is the real colour you are seeing – the sand is laced with iron ore which oxidises red/orange)

All kind of interesting but we’d missed our tour, after a 5 hour drive, waited around in the desert for 2 hours, had a less than inspirational “lesson” on sand for 1 hour , by a guy that clearly didn’t want to be there, and then a 5 hour drive back. I say a 5 hour drive back, but it was actually 3 and a half. Somehow our driver ,managed to shave off 1 and a half hours on the way back - on the same route. A theme that will reoccur as we go on….

I asked our guide how they managed to get their timings so horrendously wrong and he came up with , “well, we have never stayed at the farm before so it was longer than we thought, and we waited for the camera guy, and people made toilet stops…”. Hmm. So we were 1 and a half hours late, and the “driveway” to the farm is 1 and a half hours long… Even I can work that out. They never bothered to time how long the driveway took when we arrived the night before. Pretty lame to be honest. A very long day and we missed the main event. (And they are starting to give the excuse, “That’s Africa” pretty frequently now).

On a more upbeat note, I’ve noticed an amazing species of bird in North Namibia. They are called the Sociable Weavers.

They make amazing huge nests out of whatever twigs they can find, and all live together. Hence the name.

They can get so big, like the one above, that they break the tree branches and fall to the floor. They then start again. The nests can weigh up to a tonne!

Inside they make lots of holes which they fly up into….

They even make some “dummy” holes to fool snakes.

We’ve seen nests that have completely engulfed water pump windmills, and one that was made entirely of thatch, as a hut had been re-thatched nearby and they scavenged all they needed from a bountiful supply :- ) I love them – they are so cool.

Next stop was a laughably small “town” called Solitaire where we stocked up on water and snacks.

(Shame we missed that one)

We also passed over the Tropic of Capricorn – I have no idea what it is but K is a Capricorn …

We were heading for Swakopmund, one of the largest cities in Namibia – bearing in mind there is a total population in Namibia of about 1.5 million.

The tour “fun” was continuing… Swakopmund is the “adventure capital” of Namibia and I have been looking forward to doing a few activities there from the start. I checked the night before we set off to see what time we’d be arriving in the town/city, “1pm at the latest”, I was assured, “are you sure?”, I asked, “yep, no problem, it’s an easy drive”. Cool, so plenty of time to do activities that afternoon, and then all the next day….. but things were afoot….

At the daily “meeting” after dinner some people asked if , instead of the usual cheese and spam sandwich lunch, they could go to a nice restaurant en-route to Swakopmund at Walvis Bay. At this point both myself and K interjected with something like, “A nice lunch sounds grand, but only if it does not delay our arrival at Swakopmund as we have lots planned to do there, and we are only in Namibia once….”. Our guides seemed to think it was no problem as it would take the same time as our normal sandwich lunch. “Are you sure?”, I asked, “I can’t imagine anyone wants to go to a nice restaurant for 1 hour max – it takes half an hour to get your drinks and choose food etc”. At this point the guides kind of skirted round the issue, so K intervened and asked for assurance that we’d get there on time and perhaps they could take bookings right now, for tomorrow’s activities on Swakopmund. They dodged that one…. I suggested that perhaps we should leave an hour earlier for a safety margin. They ignored me. You can guess what happens next…

Yep, we left late. Then we stopped to view some unremarkable “moonscape” rocks, and build a “friendship tower of stones”

(It’s a big world)

(With long dusty roads)

Clearly running very late, we also stopped to look at a small bird about 50 metres away, we drove as slow as possible. We stopped and stopped again. We were starting to get the impression they did not want us doing independent activities.

We arrived at Walvis bay at 1.30pm (we were supposed to be there at 12pm). Then it got hilarious. We drove round and round looking for “the” restaurant, and when we found it, half the people on the bus assumed we were going the NEXT day. I approached the guides and asked why we were running so late once again, given that they knew we had an agenda. I got a load of bollocks about the stops taking up time, and that they normally take camping groups who leave earlier… etc etc. Pure bull. I just sighed and said “whatever” and walked off.

At this stage One of the guides came out, apologised, and then told me we are in Africa and I must “chill out” – sure – I’m here ONCE and we are missing things because of lunch in a restaurant. I can eat in restaurants anywhere in the bloody world! Then it got better. He confirmed I could get to Swakopmund by 3pm to catch the Quad biking in time, but everyone else had 15 minutes to have lunch!!! – Great so they put the whole thing on ME – what a situation to be in. I gave in and said, “let’s just eat, forget the activities – you can’t make people have lunch in 15 minutes, in a restaurant”. Bloody ridiculous. So that was our afternoon shagged. Incidentally, the guide also told me that his “activity company” was safe, and they preferred us to use that and not arrange our own activities… now the truth was coming out. They’d delayed us on purpose. I was spitting teeth. I ended up telling him I’d arrange my own activities, like it or not.

As you can imagine, by this stage we are well established as the black sheep of the group :- )

We had a lovely lunch after all that, lol

(Not in there, it was closed, but it looked cool)

We arrived in Swakopmund and headed straight to the activity centre where we watched a presentation and then chose our things for the next day. Of course I wanted to do Quad biking that day so we could sky dive the next day, but that was not to be. I even watched the last group ride off into the dunes. Sigh.

All checked into our new hotel we had a good wander and all went out for a great dinner at a coast side restaurant. K had Oryx steak and I had a huge T-Bone. We had a good laugh, and it was great to eat at a table with a table cloth. I even found Internet so I got to watch my poker show at last.

All the commotion about quad biking had actually created quite a lot of interest lol, so the next day we had a group of 7 of us. There are sand dunes that run 30 km along the coast, and we got to choose our machine for the day. Most of the girls plumped for the 125cc automatics, and myself and Marcus grabbed 250cc manual geared machines. The beauty of having a large group was that we got two guides. One for the slow group and one for the fast group (Me and Markus). Off we zoomed!

Our guide was a certified nutter and we were full throttle all the time to keep up. Riding up near vertical sand dunes maybe 50 foot up or more, then turn, and straight back down – absolutely brilliant!! – They call them “rollercoasters” as you go up and down so much. Lots of wheelying, jumping, sliding. It was fantastic!

(My trusty steed)

After about half an hour We rejoined the “slow” group, and it immediately became clear it was far too slow for some. K was looking pissed off. She’d asked to join our fast group, and with that, one of the horrendously slow riders that she was trying to shake off followed too! K was thinking about reversing her decision so she didn’t mess it up for me and Markus by bringing the slow coach with her. As it turned out, I think the pressure made her “ up” her game and we didn’t have to do much waiting around –she knew she had to gun it or get “demoted again”. K LOVED it – she was flat out all the time wearing a huge grin. Mind you – she got properly stuck :- )

(hehe)

It was a superb day – you really don’t get the chance to quad on sand dunes in many countries. We covered about 60Km, and I managed a few good wheelies. Markus loved it too. I did a “doughnut” – where you spin in circles. Markus then followed suit, and immediately flipped his machine over. I haven’t laughed so much in years. Top fun and everyone had a great time.

Shame that was all we had time for… Still – it was great.

We spend the rest of our time in the town having drinks and eating. Then we found out we’d lost a group member. You know I mentioned there was one person (not named) in my last post that was not very “likeable”. She was demanding, rude at times, and very loud. More eccentric than anything, but we treated her with respect – she was a nice lady, just used to having her own way. Well it seems that she’d overheard other group members moaning about her, and she flew home. A real shame.

On a change of subject – Swakopmund roads are odd. Tarmac, but covered in mud….

(why cover a road in mud? Who knows?)

All amped up from the quad biking, the next morning we headed off for Kamanjab, to see the “Himba Tribe” people. On very dusty roads…

(See that dust behind? Where do you think the dust from the FRONT wheels goes? – yep – inside)

We passed some local vendors on the way…

And stopped at one, where we saw…

(That’s a 3-donkey power vehicle)

Eventually we arrived at our accommodation…..

Which we then found out, yep, they’d buggered it up again. It was closed for renovations. We moved on to another site… where, again, with no explanation, or apology, we were shown to our…..

TENTS!

Our tent was a 2 man tent with 2 wooden beds. So small we left our back packs on the truck. We’ve paid nearly 2 times the cost of a camping tour for accommodation, and we get tents. And guess what? They staff had a room each in proper buildings. You can imagine we are getting more pissed off by the day.

Chin up! We are British!

The morning’s activity was to go and see the Himba Tribe. They are a nomadic tribe who wash with Ocre and butter fat – so they are always red in colour. We were forewarned to wear only clothes that we were not fond of :- )

The situation with the tour is this: The tribe kept getting moved on from peoples’ land, until one farmer let them stay. No one knows the agreement – some say it’s for the money, some say the farmer has a Himba wife. The men have all gone “Western” and don’t’ spend much time in the camp, but the women want to maintain their traditions – so the story goes. And upon inspection it seems to be true. We’ve also seen plenty of Himba women walking around many towns, naked, so it’s clearly for real.

(Where the cows live)

(This is the “Queen” – we all gave her gifts, like bags of rice etc)

(This lady made us laugh, she has a cell phone! – we were told she’s from another tribe, hence no ocre colour)

(She’d been waiting for this opportunity for a long time)

(We sat inside her hut whilst a translator let us ask questions, and vice versa – she was curious why we didn’t have babies at our age – she is 18 and knows nothing about birth control)

(Westernised clothes, African game)

A really interesting visit, although it felt very odd taking photos of people and not being able to speak to them. They seemed happy enough, although they all have their front four lower teeth knocked out with stones when they are 4 years old – ouch! – Apparently it’s for beauty and to make them sound unique compared to other tribes. There are about 10,000 of them left in North Namibia so we are told. Their lucky men get to have as many wives as they can afford. 5 cows each for a dowry. Aids is rife with about a 20% occurrence throughout Namibia, tribes people or not. Mind you, when we get to Botswana, the Aids rate is over 40%! We are VERY careful when making contact with anyone local.

All done and dusted (well, Ocre’d) we set off for Etosha national park (The next morning)

(The local kids are no less cute!)

We drove through the park, from watering hole to watering hole, with various diversions when word got round that there was activity in certain places. Here come the animal shots….

(A Kudu)

(Springbok – seen a load of them)

(The white in the distance is the beginning of the salt pan, about 17,000Km sq of salt)

(Ahh – giraffes with their kids following)

(I know, it’s a tree, but I liked it)

(Some Emu’s :- ) )

(they are so odd!)

(Wilderbeast)

(yep – lions on our 1st day – though my zoom is not really up to the job so this is unzoomed)

(A nice shot, and there are actually lions, male x 2 to the left, but they are too far away)

.. so a good spotting day. Slightly ruined again by our dozy guides. We’d been in the truck for 9 hours – and it’s deafening on the rutted safari tracks and we wanted to get to the lodge by 6pm so we could catch the sunset over their private watering hole, that and our guide had told me we needed to make 6pm to get the room keys (and as you can imagine after all the other accommodation and tour cockups, we have lost trust in them). 6pm was approaching and we were stopping to look at a tiny bird, 30 metres away, in a tree , that no one could see – this was the guides decision. Again, we stopped to see one Ostrich. We’d seen 100’s of them all day, running across the road in front of our truck, this carried on and we got very frustrated. That and the fact that some of our group take photos, and then demand the truck stays put while they put their cameras away and then start videoing .

At one stage, they stopped again, for no apparent reason (no communication) and Kirstin shouted, “move on, come on, let’s go! I need the toilet!”. Amazingly after being told that under no circumstances are we ever allowed out of the vehicle in the park, they immediately stopped, threw her a dirty look, and told her to get out and pee behind the truck. They then took another hour of dawdling to get us to the lodge at 6.30pm. Sunset was at 6.45pm. So we had so literally sprint to the view point and just caught it. It’s the same every day. We always arrive late for everything and it’s getting feking tiring. All they need to do is leave earlier, or prioritise, but no, they dick about.

I’m typing today, at our lodge. We decided we could simply not bear another day of dicking about – a whole day in the rattle-truck pandering to every request to stop and view invisible birds and the 1000 th Springbok. So we are having a super nice day. Last night we shunned yet another crap dinner and ate in the restaurant – fillet steak, chicken, and Oryx streak. Our guide came over to see us, and instead of asking what was wrong just informed us of the next day’s departure time, to which I told him we were not coming. He wasn’t interested why.

So today we are drinking cold beers, swimming, and generally relaxing. We are not panicking about the animals, we have both decided to visit Kruger Park when we join Kirstin’s Sis and Bro in law in December. Relaxing is AWESOME. (small update – everyone just did a half day game drive instead of a whole day as they were all shagged – funny that! :- ) )

It’s a crying shame. We think the guides had not cottoned on to the fact that people who do the accommodated tours have money to spend. We are essentially doing the same tour as campers, but in rooms. By that, I mean that they are treating the lodges like camps – i.e. staying there for as little time as possible. We’ve stayed at so many lovely places, but got there so late we sleep immediately, then depart at 7am, ignoring the lovely bars, and restaurants. The food is also dire. Every lunch is sandwiches with cheddar cheese and spam. Dinners are no better. We’ve had meat three times. Chicken on the first night, an awful beef stroganoff, and one “braai”. Every lodge has a Braai – we never use them. All the other groups do.

We are going to start buying meat at each daily market stop and cook ourselves.

Ahh well – it all sounds negative but it’s all wonderful from an experience point of view.

Little extra update. We had a meeting last night where they asked for our feedback. Kirstin explained that whilst most things are fine, they need to manage “time wasting” as we are arriving at our lodges late every day, and we are missing the opportunity to relax and reflect on each day, and socialise. All the people who previously agreed with us looked at the floor, and said nothing. One chap suggested we should re-read the itinerary! – lol – still – we have made good friends with a few people – Markus and Katia form Germany, Geraldine from Belgium, Paolo from Portugal. Plus, everyone was made to get back on the truck in a timely manner today and so we made it to our destination in daylight! Progress!!!

Currently in Windhoek getting very excited about our trip into Botswana tomorrow! – Update again!- Went out for dinner tonight at a big place with the meatiest menu I’ve ever seen. I had a rib eye and fillet combo and K had something called a “bush fire grill” – Oryx, Crocodile, Ostrich, Kudu, Zebra, and maybe something else- pretty much a menu of half the animals we have seen! – Which reminds me – one of our guides, Pilili, has a great habit of describing animals by their name first, followed by the best cut of meat from them – i.e. there you see some cows / T-Bone steaks, over there are Kudu – steaks again, over there are some lamb chops, to the right are some Oryx – great fillets.. etc. I like it a lot! ;- )

Missed Dunes remains copyright of the author Dodgey, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

…off we go! – The truck is basically a two axle lorry with a converted body for passengers with coach style seats and big windows. It’s actually very good – primarily because there is plenty of room to get up and walk around when you feel like it. Secondarily because there are only 12 of us and 28 seats…

As we drove North through South Africa the scenery started to change very quickly. By the time we got to the Cederberg region we started to see “big” views.

We also saw a LOT of vineyards. They grow wine here on an industrial scale. We actually stopped at a winery and got a guided tour of the machinery and all the various processes. No pictures – they are not that interesting unless you like looking at steel vats. We also got our first taste of African heat. The factor 30 came out very quickly.

Our destination for the day was a lodge at Citrus Creek – a region as you’ve probably guessed is known for its citrus fruit growing. A cool place, although most of the group were fairly shocked to find we were sharing “houses” with a room each. No probs though, it gave us a chance to get to know each other over a delicious “poike pot” of chicken stew.

The next morning we departed for the Namibian border. The scenery continued to fascinate. Miles and miles of granite rocks and mountains, all formed by volcanic activity. A kitchen maker’s dream.

(That’s all granite and it falls away in giant sheets over time – each layer cooled at a different time when it was formed so it if full of natural “faults)

Then a quick stop for lunch under a tree…

(The skies are starting to get bigger)

… and onwards to the border…

After a very short hop we arrived at our first Namibian home…

…where we did what all English people should do in Africa…

Gin & Tonic!

The nest morning I took a canoe ride down the Oranje river whilst Kirstin enjoyed a chill out back at the cabana.

A good trip and not too hard a workout, with some fun small rapids.

Suitably knackered we hit the road again. I say road, but this is Africa and we got our first taste of the “African massage” – the roads are just graded dust. You get a noisy vibrating massage all the time – and bear in mind we are covering over 500k’s some days.

It’s not that bad actually but it does get a little tiring after a few hours.

We were quite surprised to find the Namibians make wine – and lots of it! We thought the vineyards in SA were big but nothing can prepare you for the sheer scale of the vineyards in Namibia. They only grown them in one region, along the river, but boy do they make use of the water!

(One of 12 trucks we passed, full of workers for the vineyards)

(The huts the workers live in , and the vineyards in the distance)

(Almost the same picture but it shows the scale of the vineyards better. I like both pictures so much I had to post them both)

At one stage we stopped in the middle of the desert so we could get a feel for what it is like to be in the middle of nowhere. It was certainly eerie.

One of our guides, Pilili, asked what is the first thing you notice and K correctly answered – the silence.

(Thought I’d post one with us in it!)

Our destination this day was the Fish River Canyon – the second biggest in the world (I think you know the biggest…). Absolutely breathtaking!

We had a bite to eat, and some more G&T’s :- ) , then watched the sunset…

And the moon too….

(Our driver and guide, Pilili)

(The colours in the sky are amazing)

That evening we stayed in butt-f@*#k-nowhere, in a place called Seeheim.

(Some “junk” in the garden)

(You’ve now seen all of Seeheim – those tyre tracks are ours – one house, one “station”)

The next morning we set off to see the Quiver trees at Kokerboom Forest and the Giant’s Playground. As we approached the forest we saw our first big cat following us along the side of the road.

(A cheetah!)

The people on the truck got very excited and all the cameras and camcorders were out in a flash.

We had a good walk around the quiver tree forest. The trees are named such because the natives used to use the hollowed out branches for arrow quivers.

(And yes, that is me “Quivering” – don’t underestimate how hard it is to look like you are quivering in a photo – I had to practice!)

The Giants Playground is basically a HUGE collection of rocks, many of which are neatly stacked into large towers (as if giants have been playing here.. see?).

(That’s a LOT of rocks – it goes on for miles and miles – the rocks have split and eroded, leaving them stacked up)

Trucking on we then spent about an hour looking for a tree to have lunch under. There are not many trees here – it really is all desert. We found one tree but it was swarming with hornets and the floor was covered in dung so the group protested and we drove on in search of another tree. It took an hour to find another 2 small ones!

The rest of the drive in the afternoon was hard work – all very rough roads and now the dust had really started. It’s very fine and abundant. I noticed the ingress of the dust when I went to check the time and had to wipe the face of my watch to see the hands! – it makes you choke and sneeze too.

Some observations about the group: It’s very entertaining watching how different people are, especially when they are older and more set in their ways. You know, “Window open all the time”, “Window closed all the time”, “window open all the time even if it means everyone behind moves to get out of the wind” – that kind of thing. All harmless but it’s amusing me how people are definitely less accommodating as they get older. At one time, I emptied the on board chill box (of all the water), bought 4 bags of ice, refilled it, crushed the ice, and before I’d actually finished someone was ramming their bottles of water ON my hand as I was packing the ice down. By the time I’d walked to the back of the bus to get my beers to put in the chiller and returned it was already practically full! – “it’s no biggie, you’d have done the same K said”, nope, I wouldn’t. I’m learning to be more tolerant of people’s foibles. No doubt people have spent years dealing with mine! : - )

2 days later… well – our tolerance has expired! – We’ve agreed that this is the last time we’ll do a group thing. It’s not just a question of whether you like the people or not – in our group everyone is likeable in one way or the other (well, except one), it’s more that fact that they dick about and mess things up for everyone else, that and the sheep mentality. It’s more than funny.

Our guide actually made an announcement yesterday that we are in fact going to a game park later this week where we’ll see all the beasts close up and that we’ll “want to delete all our current photos of animals” and that we should not be stopping so much. No one has taken any notice. We feel like strangling people. Actually, smothering with a pillow.

Still, life goes on and we are loving the scenery and the wildlife – I’m actually finding I have a penchant for botany. The animals are all fine, but I’ve seen them on TV. I know, it sounds shallow, but I have, and I’m sure I’ll love seeing them close up, but I’m finding I’m far more interested in the plant life, and some of the birds.

We stayed at a lovely lodge that night in Stampriet – all done in old fashioned Victorian style with lots of old photos and what not.

Africa – Yep, it’s Definitely Big remains copyright of the author Dodgey, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

.. and I made a mad dash for the liquor store before it closed, with 5 mins to spare – phew!

This morning we got a cab up to Table Mountain, then queued for nearly an hour to get a ticket. No hardship, it was sunny! – and everyone seems very chipper as their summer is late apparently. The cable car is funky – the floor rotates as you go up so everyone gets a bit of everything, view-wise.

Once we got to the top we could see the appeal. The views are stunning!

(The beach below)

(ahh, some pretty flowers)

(A little friend!)

(Mind your step)

We had a good stroll – not too far of course, and then got a cab down to the Riverside area, where we had some lunch and a few glasses of wine and the local “Castle” beer.

I’m liking the eating habits here. When we arrived last night we ordered a deliver – of meat! – Seriously – we had ribs that must have been from a mammoth, steak , chicken, onion rings, fries… not a vegetable in sight! YAY! My poos are back to normal! :-)

For lunch today K had a Crayfish and I had a mixed selection from the Braii (BBQ) – lovely jubbly. I’m definitely in tune with the South African way of eating. Meat and beer!

Starting our African expedition tomorrow…. (please God, just this time, keep the giant spiders away from me….)

Oow's it? We Saw a Naarce Mountain Witt Rlocks and What Not. remains copyright of the author Dodgey, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

When we initially got to Cairo airport the check-in desks were unmanned and unmarked. We just stood right at the front of the 1st desk out of about 8 and waited. Big lines soon formed at all the desks. A mature Australian couple got chatting to us (they wouldn’t stop, in all honesty) and we discussed our travelling, and our plans, and our rucksacks, etc etc (the chap joked that they looked like ideal bomb carrying bags). Eventually the desks were manned, and I asked the woman at our desk if it was for 1st class – yep! It was. The Australian couple never said another word. I think they were stunned into silence. Remember I’m in jeans and a t-shirt and K is not faring much better, and we have rucksacks and daybags. It was hilarious :- ) We checked our bags in and wandered off, leaving a million people behind us who all had to side shuffle into the next queue as they’d all inadvertently queued for 1st class and had to move. Classic stuff.

After chilling in the (frankly not very impressive) 1st class lounge we boarded our flight. Totally amazing. There is a BIG difference between business and 1st – apart from the seating, the service is pretty much one on one. We reclined, activated our massaging chairs, and watched some TV on our giant screens whilst perusing our 7 course menu. We both had a seafood starter affair, and I followed up with a fillet steak, all washed down with oodles of Dom Perignon 2000 Vintage and a few glasses of a 1998 St Emilion Grand Cru Classe. K enjoyed the cheese selection afterwards and I gorged myself on chocolates.

Our waitress had clearly clocked that we were not regular 1st class travellers and asked if we were on our honeymoon :- ) – she was great and loved that we were loving it all. They must tire of grumpy execs after a while. I had to stop her topping up my Champaign after a while!

During that 3 and a half hour stint we managed to stuff ourselves, clear what must have easily been a bottle champers to ourselves, a good bottle of red, and collect lots of eye blinds, toiletries, etc. Dead cool!

We had 4 hours to kill in Dubai’s new terminal 3 but as they had a dedicated 1st class lounge it was an easy task – more akin to a private, free hotel.

Then we had the next 8 hour leg to “endure” :- ) - hell, can you tell I’m oozing with smugness?

This was where the extra space came into it’s own. We had “near flat” beds on our Jordanian business class flights to Bangkok in January, but this was far better. Totally flat, and they give you a mattress to put over your seat. It really does make a proper bed. I went to “bed” almost immediately and woke up 6 hours later feeling fresh. K stayed up a bit longer. Free Dom Perignon was making it hard for her to give up just yet!

I finished off the flight with “breakfast in bed” – you ever had a fillet steak for breakfast? Nope? Neither had I up until now. Why have sausages when you can have steak? Odd, but nice. Kirstin woke up and said I looked like “Little Lord Fonteroy” eating by breakfast . lol.

(Anyone say “leg-room”? - and that’s not a video game in front, they have a “nose cam” so you can watch the take off and landing from the pilot’s perspective – you can also watch a “belly cam” that looks straight down – so I had K’s screen set to that so I could watch both!)

Really totally amazing service, and both have our bags stuffed with freebies lol. I looked up the listed 1st class price for our tickets, on the same site as we got our “lucky ones”, and they come in at $12,000 – Each! depending on the time and date. You can do it for as "little" at $3500 each if you fly odd hours.

Well, now we’ll have to get used to slumming it again. After whisking through Jo’Berg airport…..

(Welcome to South Africa)

We boarded out last 2 hour flight to Cape Town. This bit is economy – we assume because the 1st 2 flights were Emirates, but this one is South African Air. I’m typing from our tiny seat now. My bladder is full, babies are crying, my knees are in the spine of the guy in front, and I turned down the meal offered. I just could not face ruining the memories just yet!.

(Just a bit of a contrast…)

Very smug and content, looking forward to arriving in our hotel in Cape Town and then starting our African adventure.

Economy!? I Thought That's Where They Stored Our Bags! remains copyright of the author Dodgey, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

The next day we set off to see the Egyptian Museum - where all the artifacts form various tombs are kept, plus the Royal Mummies. We decided to walk as it doesn't look too far on the map. Not a bad walk but bloody challenging trying to work out how to get up onto the bridge highways to cross the Nile. We made it though :-)

That's all you are going to see. No cameras allowed inside of course!

A mighty impressive collection of stuff too, and we are not really "museum people". The collection from the TutanKhamun tomb is amazing - particularly when you know that he was a pretty insignificant young king, and therefore the collections in the tombs of the great kings must have been mind boggling (all looted of course - there must be some pretty amazing private collections hidden away round the world).

We saw Tut's mask which was every bit as fabulous as you might imagine it to be in the flesh, plus his coffins , one of which is made of solid gold.

We didn't bother seeing the Royal Mummies as they wanted another £10 each and we decided we could give it a miss and live happy lives still.

Suitable knackered we had lunch at the Ramses Hilton then got a cab back and chilled, and enjoyed the US election on telly :-) - That McCain chap is a bit of a nutter!... "We will stop buying oil from countries that don't like us very much" etc etc. Thank god he din't get in - sounded like a real antagonist. Anyhow, America has their black president now (omg! I said "black" and not African American. For goodness sake!! I'm white, some people are brown, some are black. Daftness I tell you. Daftness. I even noticed UK reporters referring to him as black, in the UK, and then "on location" UK reporters in the US referring to him as "African American". How I laughed.

Moving on....

We went to the Islamic quarter of Cairo today - where the best mosques are and also the famous giant bazaar. We hit the mosque 1st, and immediately "picked up, involuntarily" a "guide". He was great although he fleeced us. He showed us all round and explained how all the different groups of Muslims pray in different areas etc.

(Each rectangle in the carpet is a praying spot, pointing to Mekkah)

After a good tour, he offered to take us up the main Minarette - for £3 each. We agreed and gave him a tenner. He unlocked a door and up we went... small spiral stairs just like in a castle, but in total pitch black - a tricky and unnerving experience!

(Just before our ascent)

When we got to the top we got pretty good views of the old city...

At that point he explained that that was as far as we could go but I noticed some more tiny spiral stairs going up further. After little resistance, he agreed and we went on up right to the very top. No poncey hand rails here...Kirstin stayed below :-)

(That's as far as we could go :-) )

.. he then convinced me to let him keep the £4 change for the "orphans" and then had the cheek to tap me up for another £1 backsheesh!

All Mosqued-out we wandered though parts of the bazaar - I say parts - it covers miles, and it is chaotic with people tyring to squeeze past carts and persistent shop keepers.

(the guy on the right REALLY wanted to be in the picture. I took 3 exposures of this shot to get a dynamic picture (which takes a while to setup) and he stood perfectly still, posing. Lol)

Had fun wandering and gawping. Incidentally, out taxi driver dropped us off at the far end of the market and for a long while we saw no other tourists - which was a little unnerving at 1st but the Egyptians have always proved welcoming and friendly. You could tell we were at the "poor" end - the road was mere dirt and littered with rubbish and various liquids - all very "Indy". We knew when we hit the tourist end - proper roads, and huge coaches, and the pestering got worse.

Talking about pestering - it's bee pretty cool overall. We got constantly hassled in Luxor and it got very tiring. "How much for your wife?", "How many camels?", "You walk like an Egyptian sir!". I had a laugh though. The usual banter was , "Where you from?", "London", "Oh, London, very nice place!". I got fed up after the umpteenth time... "Where you from?", "Space", "Ahh, very nice place!".

Generally though, it was just Luxor. Everywhere else a polite no thankyou "La Shokran" does the trick.

Finally, after over 3 weeks here I'd add one more thing. Just about everyone is Muslim here, varying from "mild" to fully "burkha'd" and not one person seemed "fanatical" or "angry". Just the opposite. Strangers frequently greet us with "welcome to Egypt", or "have a nice time in Egypt" and they are not selling anything. We are left with a great impression of the people here.

Probably the nicest thing someone has said to me for ages was our barman in Dahab when we left - "Insallah" - God willing.

Onward and upwards - we fly to Cape Town tomorrow, and it's going to be an amazing journey. You know I mentioned that our flights (that were economy cost) showed up as 1st class? Well, re didn't really believe it, but I logged back on to check our itinerary last night and they still say 1st class, and our seats have been allocated.... 01E and 01F - it does not take a brain surgeon to work out 01 seats are at the very front. I check on their website and looked at the seating plan for our specific plane, and yep, we are in the front seats of the 1st class cabin tha has only 12 seats in total! - business class is behind, with about another 30 seats.

God knows how this has happened!?! - I joined the airline's frequent flyer programme, and entered our codes when we booked, although we have zero miles. Perhaps their system said, "no economy seats left, bump two people who have membership automatically"? Quite odd but we are most certainly flying 1st class. I'm going to shave tonight.

In Sha'a Allah remains copyright of the author Dodgey, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

We've found a cheapo hotel in Cairo and are soaking up the city atmosphere until the 7th when we fly to Cape Town to start our African adventure.

I've also edited the template for the blog as it's more suited to larger photos. Should be a little less messed up now!

Oh a note for smokers out there (Yes, I know, smoking kills... etc) - I bought 200 at a shop - you will never guess how much! £3.50. Yep. £3.50 - for 200!!! That's 35 pence a packet. And they are good. So when people tell you your smoking is costing the NHS loads of money in healthcare - total nonsense. I reckon, at 35p a pack, after markting, transport, storage, retail markup, they probably cost about 2-5 pence a pack to make. So when you are paying £6 a pack in the Uk you are giving about £5.95 to the government. Smokers should get VIP private medical healthcare!

Map updated remains copyright of the author Dodgey, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Notice how the palms are permanently bent? Yep - Windy.

We are definatley in more of a genuine Arabian landscape now.

(Passing traffic)

The hotel room staff leave some great touches (rather than stealing everything, which is nice). We came back one day to find this on our bed....

(We loved the way it was garnished with our water bottle tops - others in our group got various animals, including a heart made of one girl's various washing objects and a teddie bear)

Dahab is a diving and snorkeling mecca. We have done neither yet. A large portion of our group did a 3 day PADI course and they are all delightedly qualified now.

On the second night we paid to go to a "Bedouin dinner" in the desert. We knew it would be a con, but what the hell, the gang was great fun so we knew we had to go.

We drove in a couple of jeeps into the middle of nowhere....

(Dan, Nicola and Michelle in the back of the jeep. Dan ended up on the roof body surfing. The girls screamed. I grabbed a leg)

On arrival is was indeed a con. A made-up tent in the middle of nowhere with a small BBQ. So obviously a tourist trap - a real shame as we hoped to meet Bedouin people (and perhabs buy an obligatory birthing blanket). Still, we got pissed.

We ended up going back into town and getting thoroughly trashed. The last thing I remember is trying to walk into a "club" with a bottle of wine in my hand.

It's very laid back here. Lots of bars along the coast (beach is a little kind...). We are spending all our time in the "sit on the floor" bars and chilling. Wifi is plentiful so I'm doing well on the poker front.

Kirstin went out with Michelle horse riding. She tells me it's the best ever! They got to ride around a lagoon and go as fast as they wanted, on the beach! All for £8 each for 1 and a half hours.

I gave it a miss - my kidneys never forgave me last time I rode a horse.

Talking of health - I ended up getting a doctor to see me as my shits never stopped. I got an injection in my butt, and loads of pills to take, one of which I have since found out is banned nearly world wide. I had some odd side effects. One day I was just plain confused and spaced out. I stopped taking them.

Yesterday I had my 1st recognisable stool! YAY! -in 5 days!!! I'm feeling fine now... and my finger has totally healed, although I still have about 50% mobility in my finger tip. I think it will come back in time.

It's a great place to be. Take a look at the picture below - the coast/mountains you can see - that's Saudi Arabia!

They even have puppies (who I think wanted to get in our back packs)

As I'm typing we have been in the same "floor" bar most of the afternoon, sipping gins and beers and surfing the net. We've moved to a new hotel. Our tour group returned to Cairo for the last 2 days of the tour. We opted out - 8.5 hours in a mini van again. We are getting a proper coach on Monday. then 2 days of Cairo museums and Mosques before Africa proper!

A couple of funny things I remember:

In Luxor, Nicola shouted out to one of our guides, "Mohamed, Mohamed!". 5 or 6 guys came running over! :-)

I learnt some numbers in Arabic, and a week later, we are watching "24" on TV, and a terrorist says, "Haamsa blah blah blah". And I understood the 1st bit!!! Haamsa = 5. And I was right! Who would have known! :-)

Looking forward to Africa now, but no hurry :-)

Camels, Horses, Wind and Stools remains copyright of the author Dodgey, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

There was a small column with a scarab on it. "Apparently" (yeah, right) - you walk round it 7 times and make a wish. Kirstin joined in - the shame of it!

Suitable in awe, and hoping K's wish came true (younger man??) we moved onto the Luxor Temples. Luxor is a little disappointing after Karnak but still pretty cool.

... Then we headed up to the Valley of The Kings - but 1st we had to get our donkeys for our ride, which we foolishly assumed would actually be through the Valley of the Kings. Not so - we just trotted up a main road for 10 minutes. Bloody funny though. Some were clearly out of control and I had the accolade of being the only person to fall off.

(My view from the "dashboard")

(Another random statue at the donkey pick up point)

Excellent fun and we both want a donkey each now. So much better than walking.

Once we reached the Valley of The Kings we chose 3 tombs to see each - this is the place where Tut's tomb is, plus a lot of others. We skipped Tut's as it's crap apparently and you have to pay a whole lot more to see it - a victim of it's fame - there is no treasure inside - it is all in the museum. I can't show you any pictures as they are fanatical about no photography as the flash lights take their toll on the paint. All I can tell you is they are way cool with lots of very vibrant colours and giant coffins (can't spell sarcophagus...?) inside each tomb.

(You can't see inside a tomb but I thought I'd give you a teaser)

The above picture is the steps leading to a tomb where you have to stoop down and clamber though to get in. Amazing paintings and carvings again.

Templed out, we explored Luxor a bit, and finding our favourite restaurant was fully booked we grabbed a horse drawn carriage to , of all places, MacDonalds! - YAY!

The next stage of the trip was to get a mini-van to Hurghada to catch a ferry to Sharm El Sheik. An exciting journey, if not a little worrysome. We had to go in a Police convoy, with two Police jeeps at the back and two at the front, bristling with armed cops in flak jackets and helmets. I guess because we were driving through the desert. The convoy was huge. A good 20 or more coaches, some mini vans, and some jeeps. The police ahead stopped the traffic at every junction so we never stopped ourselves. It was a very impressive sight when we went round long corners seeing loads of our convoy, all zooming along with hazard lights flashing.

This was to be a four and a half hour journey, followed by a sleep at Hurghada, then catch the 3 hour ferry to Sharm, but at the 3 hour mark our new guide told us there was a 70% change that the ferry would not sail due to high winds. What was the alternative I asked? Oh, just another 15 hours in the convoy , driving round the coast line. Not a chance! no way we were going to spend about 20 hours in a minivan, and we made this clear. Our new (hopeless) guide was a little bemused and told us there was no other way. Still, no way were were going to do this.

When we got to the hotel we enquired about flights (Thanks Matt :-) ) - which had no room for 3 days! I think the Gods were looking over us and the ferry company confirmed that all was well at 11.30pm. Thank God!

At this stage I had the shits. I'd had them for about 12 hours and took Immodium to get through the journey.

The next day we caught the ferry - in essence a huge speedboat - and the sea was indeed very rough, we frequently got airborne, and it rocked so much side to side that the view went from sky to all sea through the side windows. A few of the Aussie guys had a laugh sitting on the floor - they'd float in the air and come down with a hard landing when we jumped over big waves. A few of the girls were less happy. Lots of sick bags and very white faces. Poor things.

We are now in Dahab, a laid back seaside resort kind of area. My shits never subsided so I called out a doctor today and got a jab in the butt and some medicine to take. Bacterial infection number 2! (literally)

Oh! - regarding my finger - I got a doc to look at it in Luxor. He told me off for not getting it stitched but it's healing well and I have some dresings and stuff to put on it now. All seems well. Though I'm not convinced I didnt' rip a tendon. I can't bend the last segment of my finger but that may be purely down to lack of use, being bandaged and all.

Tomorrow I think K is organising a horse ride along the beach. I may relax some more :-)

Many, Many More Temples....And The Shits remains copyright of the author Dodgey, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Then an enjoyable journey to Padova, an hour away. One thing struck me, well, two- EVERY, and I mean every, every house has a wood store (for their fire/BBQ) and every single spare bit of land is used for growing what we think is Maize – for polenta. After that we got the high speed train to Milan, then a bus to the airport. Note: was a bit odd when we left Italy, all the train tracks have been sprayed with something white – no idea, and the sky was really grey for the first time – it felt like getting a train in Zermatt.

Two flights later, after stopping in Athens, we landed in Cairo. One thing struck us as we flew over Cairo – how HUGE it is. You may laugh, but we both had stereotypical images of Cairo being like something out of an Indiana Jones movie – you know, dusty streets with bazaars and horse drawn carts. Such muppets! – it turns out they have a population of 20 million! Over twice that of London.

We met our rep, a nice guy called Mohamed , who I gave far too much money for our Visas in all he confusion at 3 in the morning, and we jumped in our taxi to the hotel. Not any ordinary hotel. We did a search on the web to check reviews – we’ve booked a package so it is all pre ordained anyhow. The reviews are the worst I have ever seen! – such quotes as “Even if you have paid in advance, cancel , lose your money, and go elsewhere – you will thank me!”

As it turns out, on initial inspection, it’s just fine for £40 a night, and they have the biggest pool in the world. We were immediately introduced to the world of “backsheesh” – i.e. tipping for anything and everything. The barman was more friendly than possible, then his friend drove us round the complex (at 4.30am) – opportunity for another backsheesh. I think we’ll get the hang of it.

Day 2: I got my hair cut today – another learning experience! – This time, after the usual “cut throat” trimming, he got a pair of closed scissors, wrapped cotton tightly round the tip and sprayed alcohol on the cotton. I thought he was going to de-wax my ears, but oh no, he, then set it on fire – and proceeded to burn off the hairs on my ears – Bloody hot it was! Very effective though. Then, he got a roll of cotton and formed a little “cradle” of thread in his hands, and used the cotton to pluck the hairs from inside and outside my ears – kind of like in a scissor motion. Very painful indeed but I have been assured my hairs won’t grow back for 2 months now. He even trimmed my nasal hairs.

I was offered a shave too but the cut throat makes me nervous so I declined, though feeling how baby soft my ears are now I think I’ll go for a full shave soon…

So far the Egyptians are proving to be very welcoming and friendly. Also, we can see the great pyramids of Gisa from out hotel roof – a taste of things to come. We’ve got our tour “pre briefing / welcome meeting” in an hour followed by a Nile dinner cruise. Tomorrow we go and see the great pyramids, then it’s an overnight train to Aswan where we pick up our boat for 3 nights (our Nile cruise only actually consists of 4 days on water.. )

(You can see the pyramids from our hotel roof bar)

Day ?...

.. Well, the “Nile dinner cruise” was the con we thought it would be, but good fun none the less, and more importantly it gave us a chance to meet the rest of our group – who are pretty much all 20-something Australians, and a nice crowd too. Dinner was so-so, the wine was a rip off and gave me a dreadful hangover but they had some good dancing – one particular bit where a chap spun around in a circular “dress”, much like a spinning top, for a good 10 minutes without stopping, was the most impressive bit. Time for a good sleep after that.

The next morning we set off in a coach to the pyramids.. at last! – our first stop was the stepped pyramid – though to be the oldest pyramid in existence. When you see it on the Discovery Channel it looks small. When you approach it, it looks small, when you walk up to it, it’s HUGE! – very impressive.

…A bit of history for you – at first they buried their royalty in tombs underground (waiting for their resurrection), but people robbed the tombs, so they build a large square slab of stones over the tombs to protect them. The problem often though, was that the construction was finished before the “owner” had died, and with his new “house” ready, the Kings would have him killed so he could “move in” so to speak. So one owner got clever and told his construction team to keep working, and add another layer on top of the first “slab” – a smaller one this time. Still he was not ready to die, so another slab added, and so on – and you end up with a stepped pyramid.

Shortly after visiting the stepped pyramid (note to self: must add macro in Word to type “Pyramid”) we went to a rather shabby one that is almost unique in that it has hieroglyphics inside the tomb. You aren’t allowed to take pictures, which of course I did. It was a cramped and steep climb down, then lots of stooping, but nothing compared to the tunnels in Vietnam.

(so old, like 3000BC)

(spacious too)

All very fascinating – by the way, the hawkers are as persistent as we’d heard they would be, but we have the knack of looking thoroughly disinterested by now after 10 months of it. I am however tiring of “where you from?”, “London”, “Ahhh! You like David Beckham!?!”. “no – don’t know what you are talking about”. I’ve tried replying, “Austria”, but they know how to say hello in just about every language of the World.

After a lunch break it was off to the Greta Pyramids themselves. Small problem. As we got off the coach I realised I had left my smokes behind and skipped back to the coach, and went for the stairs, only to fall over…. Some advice – and I don’t have much to give. NEVER run up stairs.

I fell forward, put my hands out, and I remember, as I made contact, thinking “Oh my god, my finger is going to snap off backwards!” – it bent back that far. Just in time, my other hand took the weight off but I was in pain, but at the same time relieved as I didn’t hear a snapping sound (I snapped a toe in England and I know the sound well). Then I noticed the blood. A lot of blood.

I turned my hand over to find a cut that ran from one side to the other on the upper segment of my ring finger on my right hand, and it was bleeding like hell. I pulled the slit open to be greeted by the sight of fat and “insidy stuff”. At first I through it was bone and I’d snapped my finger and pushed the bone through (there was nothing sharp on the steps at all) but after some pulling and prodding we ascertained I’d probably not broken it. By now my hands were covered in blood and a crowd was forming.

Fortunately , one of our “gang” is a first aider and before I could blink he had rubber gloves on and was cleaning the wound with salt solution etc. He cleaned it up and put a plaster on – stopping the kind bus driver from trying to clean it with his own tissues. As the gash was (is) on the inside of my finder it is quite easy to stop the bleeding by simply curling my finder inwards. So, happy that it was clean, and knowing not a lot could be done there, we carried onto the pyramids. I didn’t take any pictures. Two of the girls in the group nearly fell over when they saw it open! I doubt you’d want to see. Definitely a stitch job under normal circumstances, but we figured we could deal with it. Healing is healing, and the thing is to keep it clean.

We cleaned it with Iodine (ouch!) and applied a few “butterfly stitches” from a sterile kit we have and put a plaster over the top to hold it all in place, and then bandaged it to keep it clean. I’m on day three now and there is no sign of infection, though I have no idea what infection looks like, other than from films! – no smell and no ganky stuff, and no bleeding so we are hoping it heals in time for swimming in a week or so, though I have my doubts. We’ll see. I really thought I’d lost a finger for a short while! If it looks at all odd we’ll see a doctor, though we are on such a tight schedule with the tour it’s hard to know when that will be possible. (You may notice me holding my hand up in a lot of pyramid photos – now you know why – to stop the bleeding lol!)

Back to pointy things…

(One of the great pyramids)

A spectacular place, if not surrounded by the city itself.

After walking around the great pyramids we opted for the ubiquitous camel rides :- )

(Pretty cool hey!?!)

(yep – that’s me, on a camel, smoking a camel light – oh the irony)

(Something Kirstin has always wanted to do)

It was great fun, we even had a bit of a “camel canter” – tricky with only one hand available, but then it made me ride “western style”!

Pushing on (you have no idea how much they rush you on a tour) we went to see the Sphynx..

All fantastic stuff and a real dream realised.

Getting tired now and still more to do! – it was time for the tour group special of the day, you know, the bit where they take you to some shop and fleece you with tat to take home as gifts. On this occasion it was a perfumery, where they have bottles of flower oil, which they claim is the base to all perfumes. Funnily all their oils were supposed to be the base for all the famous expensive brands. Odd that. Especially when they told us that the big companies just add alcohol and sell it for 10 times more. Seems to simple to me… Still a lot of shopping ensued and the rest of the group loved it.

The host was very entertaining. We didn’t buy anything, but it was enjoyable all the same.

At last, some rest for three hours, then we hit the train station for our overnight “First class” train.

Not too bad – a 14 hour journey in what are basically old fashioned business class plane seats. We got sporadic sleep and marvelled at the scenery – mostly desert and very, very basic stone huts and very, very poor communities. No pics I’m afraid as experience has taught me that pics from moving trains/cars though glass just don’t work.

At last we arrived at Aswan.

By now we are knackered! And the fun continues! – No time for rest – more sight seeing. First up was the Aswan Great Dam.

Not that interesting to be honest, although it is the second largest dam in the world apparently.

Onwards and it was the Philae temple next – located on an island. We took a small motor boat to the island.

(The approach)

(inside)

Really fascinating again. The temple was actually moved about 50 meters to a new island when the dam was built, else it would be underwater (which it was for a while). The project was started just after I was born. A lot of the carvings have been mutilated – they don’t know by whom, but the assumption is that it was the Christians, who viewed the Egyptian religion as Pagan. A crying shame, but as I said to Kirstin, if it were not for religion, the temples would not have been built in the first place…

No time for rest – next stop was out “Nubian dinner”. The Nubians (translates to People of Gold) are darker than Egyptians and are pretty close to African. We caught a boat to one of their villages up the Nile at night time. A boat, by the way, that could not cope with the currents. The engine conked out and we drifted backwards in currents that I have never witnessed so strong before. There were whirlpools forming!. We had to all move to the back of the boat. We made it in the end.

We walked though dusty streets and entered a Nubian restaurant. Clearly a tourist trap, but on a scale of one to ten in authenticity, it scored a good 8. I think stepping over goat dung added 2 points to that score.

We had a good “Nubian” feast, lots of people including K got Henna tattoos (Don’t worry they come off!), and then it was a boozy sail back with local music and dancing, though the Australians managed to turn it into a very long “She’ll be coming round the mountains when she comes..”. A great laugh.

We checked into our cruise ship. It’s actually great – we have a mini “suite” with living room, bedroom and bathroom, TV, fridge, Air con etc. The priced are steep of course – so when we were in the Nubian village I did a deal and bought 10 beers for 1 UKP each, instead of the 2.8 UKP on the boat. Our fridge is stocked! (we had to smuggle them on :- ) ).

The staff are hilarious. Everyone is on a con. In the restaurant the staff discount your drinks if you pay cash, instead of putting them on the bill, and our young barman explained in very hushed tones that he will run us a private tab and give us “very big discount” at the end of the trip…. We are keeping a diary of all our expenditure! Even the young bell boys blew Kirstin a kiss, and then dumped our bags when we gave them only 10 pence as a tip. So much fun.

I was shattered this morning so I slept in while K visited our first port of call – a temple of some sort, but here is a picture of it from our balcony…

After that, time for relaxing…

Onwards we go… more temples incoming….

… well well well. An interesting 24 hours… First the best bits – we sailed for 3 hours ….

(Take a good look – that’s the last you’ll see of the Nile.. more on that later)

At one stage we sailed past a large village at prayer time and the sound of loads of mosques all chanting their “call to prayer” was really haunting, and loud. I’ve recorded it but by the time I get to upload this blog update I don’t think I’ll have time for video.

Then we hit Edfu temple – really amazing – the best so far. Wall to wall carvings and all on such a great scale. We visited it at night time, which panned out well as all the artificial lighting really highlights the carvings.

Once the temple was done with we haggled some cheapo outfits for the “fancy dress party” on the boat – something my Mum warned me to avoid – but what can you do? Yep, it was crap! – we stayed for 10 minutes ! I accessorised my outfit with two bed covers – looked quite the part.

It really was crap so we all abandoned the party and went on the top deck , froze to death, but drank until 3am.

Part of our motivation to go up top was to see what we could see of the Nile – the reason?... a large Indian contingent on the boat had pre-arranged for us to sail to Luxor (our final destination on the boat) overnight – so they could have an extra day at Luxor. What’s the problem with that you ask? Well.. one big problem… our “Nile cruise” – we did it in the dark! – I’m typing this sitting on the deck, moored to three other ships, a stench of diesel in the air, and our bedroom faces another ship – so it’s pitch black. This was supposed to be our beautiful day on the deck viewing the passing scenery.

We have had in total, three hours cruising in daylight – we have basically totally missed the “Nile cruise” element! Cheeky feckers! The rest of our group is less than amused, and the guide has done a runner. You get what you pay for I guess, but it’s criminal, who is going to get another chance to cruise the Nile?

(That was our view for 99% of the cuise)

We are now officially at war. The next time our guide tries to rush us off a site to go to a parchment/gold/perfume shop we’ll be telling him to take a hike. Oh the fun :- )

You Buy! You Buy! You Like? Where You From? 1 Dollar! remains copyright of the author Dodgey, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

As you might notice - Kirstin has had a drastic image change! - Blonde and short. Taking some getting used to!

Everyone has been fantastic here, we've met so many people and made new friends. Lovely place. Will definately be back! (who knows, maybe even to live!?!)

On Thursday this week we get the train to Milan, then fly to Cairo, Egypt. We've booked a 2 week Nile cruise that takes in all the main sites ending at the beach at Dahab. We may well stay at the beach for a further week and make our own way back to Cairo from where we....

...Fly to Cape Town, South Africa to pick up our 3 week overland tour of Africa! - we are going up into Namibia, then accross, though Namibia, Botswana, ending up at Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe. Should be lots of game viewing and lots of adventure (I'm particularly looking forward to Quad biking in the Namibian desert and white water rafting the Zambezi river which is graded "5" apparently. Oh, and flying in a microlight :-)

Then... after that... we fly to Johannesburg where we meet Kirstin's Sister and Brother in Law who are looking after us in Pretoria for all of December, including Xmas.

..Then!.. we fly to Bangkok on Dec 27th - going to spend new year on a beach in Thailand then continue our adventure in Asia where we left off, going North into Thailand this time, up into Laos, then accross into Vietnam. We are hoping if our timing is right, to fly to Hong Kong in Jan to catch the Chinese New Year fireworks... we'll see...

After all that, who knows, almost certainly China and India...

Oh! - regarding flights - well, when I was booking the Cairo to Cape Town flights, which is broken into 3 stages - two long ones and one tiny one, I got the best rate of about £320 each and proceded to book... when I noticed, the 1st 2 legs of the journey were marked "1st Class". The 3rd leg (only an hour) - "Economy/Coach". Hmm, A mistake I assumed. I've since got the email confirmation and the 1st two legs of the journey are 100% marked 1st Class. We'll see. I just can't believe it, but that's what it said at booking, and that's what our e-ticket says, so we'll be going to 1st class check-in and finding out! :-)

Speak soon! (Lets' see how much wifi I get in Egypt! - more likely than Africa I guess! - Might be one HUGE update in a few weeks :-)

Ciao!

Finally We Move On remains copyright of the author Dodgey, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

(Yep, she's off "C.H.I.P.S" - or maybe Cartman)

When we got to the farm, the truth behind the invitation became clear.... a LOT of grapes to be picked. We were handed a tub each and a pair of cutters and off we went! :-)

...For the impatient, I made a video montage!!...(Click on the image below to load the movie)

...it's actually quite theraputic. We picked for about an hour I guess, untill we had a tractor load full.

(Lovely Prosecco grapes, sprinkled with a touch of sugar)

After that it was a fun (downhill) cycle back to Gorgio's house where they put the grapes into a machine that basically smashes them up and separates the stems. Note: When people tell you about being careful not to bruise your wine by pouring it roughly, I'd take that with a pinch of salt! - Apart from the machine, I can't say I put the bunches of grapes into the tubs with much tenderness ;-)

(Chomp, chomp)

That machine then pumps the juice into a giant "bucket" in a garage room..

Next step was to put some of the juice into a beaker and then drop a weight into it with a scale that gives you a reading. This tells you how much alcohol the prosecco will eventually have - in this case we got a reading of 16 which equated to about 10.5% proof. Not too shabby, though they always hope for more!

(Eagerly looking up on the chart what the alcohol level well be)

Gorgio makes the best wine in teh village apparently, though he's had less luck with his carrots...

... still, you can't be great at everything!

We had a taste of the juice, and well, it tasted like Prosecco without any alcohol or fizz. Nice enough though.

Once the whole procedure was completed, the Italian tradition of eating and drinking could commence!

... lots of home made wine, prosecco and sopresso meat. Gorgio also grows a mean French Cab Sov amongst others.

It was during the feasting I noticed an incredible collection of home made Grappa in the "wine room". With great enthusiasm, Gorgio started uncorking one made with Basil leaved. Delicious! I think he could tell I liked it, as he then poured me one made with things that look very similar to asparagus. Even nicer!

He opened every bottle! - about 10 different ones as far as I can remember - some with liquorice root, some with , well, some unidentifiable red berries - I think from holly. There was one I tried that was 50% proof! I nearly fell over. By this stage I couldn't tell the difference between any of them - I was getting just a little knobbled.

Gorgio even opened a 30 year old bottle for me to try. A great guy who clearly loves his work ;-)

Thanks to Gorgio and all his friends and family. We had a fantastic day - a real treat.

Making Prosecco! remains copyright of the author Dodgey, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

... and pretty it was, with fascinating rock formations. The water is glacial - you can rent waders and wander up the gorge a little bit, we opted out of that and just had a good wander about and sat by the river.

Afterwards we, again on our hosts' recommendation, drove to Piazza Armerina, which was about half way on our route straight across Sicily. The drive was fun - we'd heard that the roads would be bad as the mafia tend to siphon off the funds. They were indeed bad! In fact someone told us that one stretch of motorway in South Italy has taken 10 years to complete, and it cost so much they could have built a bridge to South Africa with the same money!....

Anyhow - back to Piazza Armerina - very underwhelming when you arrive at the town. We think the signage is deliberately bad to "encourage" you to spend money in the town itself. It's hillarious - one minute you are following brown signs to "Mosaics", the next minute the signs are yellow and marked "Roman Castel", then they are white and marked "Castel Mosaics", then they disappear altogether - sending you round and round the town in circles.

We found it eventually - the site is a few K's out of town - it's a very old Roman Villa, dating back to around 300AD and it is amazingly well preserved - mainly because the town moved to where Piazza Armerina is now located, leaving the villa behind and abandoned.

The whole reason for the special interest are the mosaics on the floors, and wow! you are not disappointed!

(As you approach the site)

(You are not disappointed by the 1st mosaics you see)

(When you look closely the level of complexity and detail is amazing, the small size of the tiles and the colour shading)

The above picture is a zoom-in of ....

(Yep! - an arse - I'm so childish)

(These Romans invented bikini's long before we thought possible)

(When you start looking at the main square perimeter you start to get a grasp of the scale of the works - this path runs in the other direction too, and all the way round the whole main building)

(A Roman latrine - crafty sods!)

The pics are only a brief glimpse as what is to be seen there - there are more mosaics than you can shake a stick at. Must have taken an age to do - they got African specialists to come over and do them apparently.

Really amazing - so glad we went.

Catching the ferry was a laugh. We got there quite early so we had a quick rip-off dinner at the port then checked in for our sailing.

We picked the duff boat.

(That's the nice one, with casino, pool, hot tub etc etc - I think it was called the Supremo or something like that)

Our was...

(Great - a cargo boat - called.... the "Corragio" which I guess means cargo)

They had a large "sleeper" room with reclining chairs so we bagged a row of seats each as there were not many passengers on our crud boat, and after a few fortifying glasses of wine, bedded down for the night....

.....only to wake up at 4am to a guy snoring at volume levels that had to be experienced to be believed. Even worse, as he breathed out, someone else snored, to fill int he gaps, so to speak. I got up, Kirstin got up, loads of people got up.

Kirstin considered going over and hitting him with a rolled up magazine but figured he'd only roll over and start again - she knows the drill after putting up with me for years.

We moved into the lounge and used the sofas. I managed to put my head in a sweat top to blank out the lights.

It worked until about 7am when a nutty Italian walked around with music playing on his phone through the speaker. He did this for the while 20 odd hours of the crossing. Even more oddly, the same song, over and over. Weird.

When we arrived we caned it up to Sarzana to hook up with Stephano and Debborah who we'd met through friends in Pederroba - they cooked us a great local dinner on their fire - that's something that the Italians seem to like to do - they make their fire places so that they are big enough to BBQ on. Great idea.

After that we did a little sight seeing with them the next day and now we are back in Pederroba, chilling and planning our next leg of the journey... Africa!

Water, Mosaics and Ferries remains copyright of the author Dodgey, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

We grabbed a ticket (29 Euros) and sat in the queue. A queue that never moved..... Didn't take long for everyone to start honking their horns. Bear in mind the sun is scorching, fire-fighting planes are flying over us and skimming the sea, refilling from the sea to put out mountain fires... it was that hot. That, and I'd been driving since 7am. I had to stop at 10.30 and have a 15 minute kip in a service station. I knew I had to stop - I'd started day-dreaming of warm comfy beds, duvets, fluffy pillows. It's amazing how 15 mins of shut eye (not sleeping mind you, just shut eye) can totally revive you. Coffee didn't work, but 15 mins with my feet on the door, eyes closed, and I was 100% ok. Amazing really. Never tried it before.

The queue didn't move for an hour and a half. The Italians amuse me. We are all stuck and they beep their horns, get out of their cars, wave their arms, have small meetings to discuss what could possibly be holding them up. All drama.

Then we started moving. It seems there were two queues. One, our one, where we'd bought tickets on the day, and another that we assumed had prebooked. They were getting priority, and there was a police car and a police man there controlling everything. Each time we inched forwards it was a mad race to see who could accelerate as hard as possible to move into the fastest lane of the three. We were winning! :-)

At one stage a lorry driver cut me up (well, I cut him up , and he won the fight.. almost) and I had two choices. Sit in a siding, stuck, OR - if I could zoom around the police car, which no one else was doing. I chose the latter. Bingo! miles ahead of the lorry! At which stage the copper blew his whistle and put his hand up to me to stop :-( - "what?" I gesticulated - and pointed at my ticket looking confused..., "not go round car!!" , "ahhh - so sorry - English", "ok, go on". YAY! zoomed off and just got ahead of the lorry. Looking back, we got the last spot hahaha.

The thing we've noticed about Italian driving (and much the same as they are on foot - i.e. queuing, or the lack of) - is that it's a clear case of "if there is a short cut, an opportunity to get ahead, a chance, anything, TAKE IT!". If you don't you can guarantee there will be 5 cars behind you honking their horns. None of this, "after you sir" malarky - you see an opportunity - you go, and you go fast. The funny thing is, no one seems to make much of a deal of it - it's like they all share the understanding - "if you don't, I will", and "if you do, fair play, respect, and Oh, I'm right behind you so MOVE IT BUDDY!"

I like it. It's a good laugh. Survival of the fittest. If your are a timid driver don't come here, you'll fill your pants.

Sooo. we finally got on the boat....

Another hour South in Sicily and we found our B&B we'd been recommended by someone on the Thorntree travel forum. What a find! - we were greeted by the owner who showed us round, told us to pick any apartment as it was empty, and he'd charge us "dorm" rates. He would rather we were happy and have an apartment - no point being in an empty dorm. We have a GREAT place, above the pool and overlooking the mountains. Breakfast is included, as is pretty much everything, all for 60 Euros a night. Plus I found Wi-Fi :-)

Very happy here.

They don't do any food so we drove into the local village to grab beers wine and pizza - at which stage the heavens opened! - not rain, but hail. Not normal hail. Hail stones were hitting the ground and splitting into three pieces, each piece the size of a gold ball!! I'm not kidding. I instantly realised that if one hit us on the head we'd be in serious trouble - i.e. dead. We ran under cover and cowered.

It made the papers the next day. They've never seen hail like it (neither have we). 6cm diameter hail stones! I'm not sure they've even seen hail before down here.

I watched a couple slam into the car with massive bangs. Sure enough. We have a few dents..... Here is one of a few...

The storm carried on that night...

And the next day.....

Great fun to watch - I got the shots using the video mode on my camera. I missed the real biggies - 3 or 4 forks hitting the mountain right in front of us.

The weather has mainly settled now and we went up to Mount Etna (Eric - your travel site doesn't know about Mount Etna in Italy! ). We's read lots of excited reports of laval flows, eruptions etc, but we were not so lucky. A thick cloud base was over the peak so most of our time was spent in near zero visibility. We paid the full 50 Euros each for the cable car up, then a 4x4 truck up further, then a walk with a guide.

- As a side note - I got to use the Italian word I 1st learnt - Nebbia!! - there are a million road signs "In Casa Di Nebbia - 50Km/h" - i.e. in case of fog, slow down. - I was so chuffed - "Nebbia! Nebbia! " I exclaimed to the guide!, "yes, fog" he said. YAY! - p..s. I've got my Italian numbers down to a tee now - I always count my money in Italian, and more often than not, the people in the shops then reply in English to check they have got their English right too. I have lost count of how many times I've heard, "you practice your Italian, I practice my English, ok?". I like that attitude. A lot. Besides which, Nebbia! - what a word. "Doctor, I've got a sore Nebbia", or "can you see my nebbia through these trousers?" Truly great word.

We saw craters steaming, and some great views, but not a whole lot of volcanic activity. Fun, but dissapointing to be honest. No probs - we have volcanoes to see in South America - Mark Hiley, a good friend, was there recently, and told me of his experience jumping over lava flows! Still, this was fun, albeit very expensive.

(I'd done my homework and we went with jeans, trainers and jackets. Many had not - it was bloody freezing up there - don't forget it's a skit resort too!)

(At last! a steaming crater!)

(A burried building from a few years ago)

(all I want to be is a Space Man, Space Man!)

We are back at the apartment now. We finally managed to grab some groceries. In mainland Italy the shops close from around 12.30 to 3pm, sometimes 3.30pm. Here, however, they close at 12, and open at 5pm. It's mighty tricky! Our local pizza place sells ice cream in large polystyrene boxes. You choose your flavours and they fill it up, and chuck in some cones and other bits.

It's funny, at home we treat ice cream like a kids thing. Here it's like buying wine. And so it should be!- Stracciatella!!! maybe spelt wrong - but my favourite, followed by Kinder Egg ice cream.

We had a chat this evening and agreed that we are seeing places for the sake of ticking boxes, and it's costing us an arm and a leg, so we are cutting short our Sicily trip. We had planned to go to Sardinia and then Corsica, but to be honest, they would be "beach" resorts, and we can do that better in places like Thailand, for a LOT less money, so we tonight booked a car ferry back to the North of Italy for the 19th. SO many sites quoted us anywhere from 400 Euros to 1000 Euros for the 20 hour car ferry. I went to the Italian site direct. 200 Euros. Sailing from Palermo so will check that out in a couple of days...

Got lots of food and booze in-house, a good pool, great views, time for some r&r (like we haven't had any yet lol)

Forget about it! remains copyright of the author Dodgey, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs