Back on The Mother Road, Route 66

We have driven past lots of cool things on Route 66 including, the Muffler Man, who is actually holding a Hot Dog!, the worlds largest covered Wagon, a Watermellon Monument, a Wagon Inn Motel, the Jesse James Wax Museum and the worlds largest Rocking Chair. This road is amazing and was the original road that pushed west through the USA, it's also the one that features in the Grapes of Wrath. Today I got up and am watching the sun rise. I feel pretty lucky to be on this trip. It really is a trip of a lifetime!

Chicago, Milwaukee and St Louis

On our way to Chicago we went to Warren Dunes, an amazing place on the edge of Lake Michigan, it was weird as they had sea gulls, white sand dunes, and waves, though it was fresh water!! No salt for the first time in my life I got out from a swim dried off and felt like i had been in the shower! It was great.

From there we drove to Chicago, like New York, London and Paris, Chicago is expensive, and as we only had two days there I wanted to supprise Bec with a cheap hotel, well for $25 extra a night I got a sale room at the Hilton! Right in downtown, thought Bec would love it. Unfortunately we fought a lot there, we were still trying to pay off a chunk of money that had carried over from France and it kinda felt like we were going into the red more. As well as that we were getting pretty home sick by this point. Sometime you just fight in a traveling relationship! It's just reality. But we managed to enjoy the last day in Chicago a lot and then headed around to visit Jayden and Cas in Milwaukee. We had a great time with them, after that we headed down Route 66 to St Louis.

In St Louis we saw the Arch, the Chain of Rocks Bridge, Lancelles Landing and Six Flags, we got to catch up with a really interesting couple Robert and Pauline from the Queen Mary 2. They are a couple who direct and stage manage plays in St Louis. Their current one is about Sexual Predators in society, with tasor scenes and such, sounded really edgy. They were soo generous with us and if it wasn't for them we would have seen less than half of real St Louis. Six Flags was great, Bec and I rode rollercoasters and screamed a lot! I rode the batman ride and a crazy old one 'the screaming eagle' 3 times in a row each, as there was no ques due to school being back, haha suckers!

On our way to Detroit

We drove and camped in our tent through Tennessee, Kentucky, indianna, Ohio and Michigan, we got to stay with our friends Phil and Jen as had a great time with them and their twin sons, we saw some great art and culture in Detroit, and thoroughly enjoyed it! 

The Appellation Trail

We headed down the appelatian trail all the way down to Chattanooga Tenessee through West Virginia, Pensylvania , Virginia, North Carolina, and Tenessee. We also went through the Smokey Mountains and did some of the dragons tail road. We then dipped down through Georgia and Alabama. Now it was time to head back up north after some southern food.

New Jersey and New York again

Just had a great time in upstate New Jersey, where we stayed in a real 'American Chestnut ' log cabin, went on motorbike rides, saw revolutionary and civil war weapons, and was given a rare Rolling stones record worth $270! By a complete stranger!

In new York we went to David Letterman, stayed a night in the Marriott Hotel, drove down through manhattan on a Friday in Peak hour over a Bridge that was on fire and stayed more with our friends on Long Island

Time to start our USA roadtrip for real!

Ok well we bought a car! Soo cool, though it freaked us out for the first few weeks because one:  we hadn't driven a car for 9 months! Two: we have to sell it in 3 months, ahh and three: it's on the wrong side of the road!!! So after 9 months of not being responsible for anything traveling, just sitting on the train bus, tuk tuk etc, it was time to drive again. But the upside of all that was freedom!!!! We can do what we want, stay where we want and go anywhere, so we are now USA drive adjusted and loving it!

New York, Maryland, Delaware and DC

We started out USA adventure in New York, Long Island specifically, with friends of Dad and Debs, Heidi, Andy, Joe, Vince and Noel. They were all soo lovely to us and we became good friends in the two times we were there.

We then went down to Delaware for a week and a half, then to Ocean City, Maryland, and after that we went and couch surfed with a cool family on Fort Belvoir in Washington DC! It was a great place to start our USA adventure.

The transatlantic crossing

Well after an amazing time in England including London, Hull, Scarborough, Hastings and York, then a quick trip to Scotland, we set sail on the Queen Mary 2 from Southampton to New York.

We had to buy formal attire, though we loved every minute of the voyage! We met wonderful people, and felt blessed to have a week to relax and be taken care of, it was like a holiday from our holiday. As those of you who travel know, backpacking can get tiring from time to time. And when we factored our daily budget in, the cruise only cost us an extra $100 for the week! Well worth snapping up the sale fares when we were back in Vietnam!

Just finished 4 days in Paris

Well we have done Paris! It was awesome, we went to the Eiffel tower twice at day and night, saw the light show that happens on the hour. Went to the Versailles Palace and to Marie Antionette s Hide a way inside the grounds, we went to the Louvre, an saw the Monna Lisa, Venus Di Milo, and plenty of other amazing art and the biggest amount of Egyptian statues and artifacts ever! ( there must nt be any left in Egypt!) we also went to the Notre Dame Church and to Mont Mare Church and artist district. We also rode the Paris Metro about 20 times!

We are off to the Loire Valley tomorrow to rent bikes and Ride/Camp/Ride for 6 days, should be awesome, looks like good weather too. We will be riding between Samur and Belois, might take in a chateau or two as we go :)

The French people have been pretty nice to us as well ;)

Amsterdam

Yesterday we went to Amsterdam, and while there we went to the riche museum of Art and saw plenty of Rembrandt and Van Gogh ( both Dutch artists) and we saw one of the worlds most famous painting " The night watch" by Rembrandt. It was amazing, we also saw amazing paintings by Goya , William and Henri Van Der Veld. It was the best Art gallery I have ever been to and it only opened a month ago.

We got to have coffee in Rembrandt place and try Hollands best fries and mayo. We went on a canal ride with Berry and Herman, our best Dutch friends! ;) which told us alot about Dutch history and the canals. We floated past Anne Franks house and walked through the red light district and past the coffee shops. Bec got a photo next to a famous statue of a 'Salvation Army' woman, and I got a photo of a funny man doing tricks on his 3 wheeler gopher.

We also got to see the largest bike shed on earth and 1000's of bikes, some cool ones included my favourite Vamoof bikes and even one made all out of wood!

We had a nice night of Accomodation at a hotel at the airport, Funnely enought on Melbourne St!

We had a great time,

It was sad to say goodbye to Berry and Herman, but we know we will see them again.

Bye Norway and thankyou Ikea Bus!

Well our time in Norway is about to end, it has been soo special and we have seen so much natural beauty! Lakes, rivers, Fjords, ocean. It has been fantastic, it is definitely a country to put on the bucket list!

Today we are off to the airport to fly on Norwegian airlines to Amsterdam, so in true backpacker style we have caught the Ikea bus from out towards Stavanger into Oslo S station, ( the Ikea bus runs for free back and fourth to the CBD) and because the bus and trains here are pretty pricy quite a few of the locals hitch a ride with the good ol Ikea bus, but to make it look legit we got an Ikea bag and put a daypack in it. Haha the things we have done to save a bit of coin!) this is Backpacking! :D

Traveling from Bryne to Drammen in Norway

We have been loving our travels in Norway, it is a really cool country. They seem to be right at the front of sustainability, our friends house had lots of good ideas to save heat, it has an airflow system that took air from some rooms like the bathrooms and the main south facing rooms, and then pumps it into the other bedrooms on the north side, funny thing is that it's reverse to 'down under' being in the northern hemisphere they get all their sunlight from the south. That air system combined with floor heating seemed to keep the house really warm all the time, they also get a lot of heat from the sun through tall double glazed glass to the south in the lounge, it was really impressive, would love to use those ideas if we ever get to build a house.

We are on the train again today, heading for Drammen where our friends Alyssa and Anders live with their baby daughter. We are looking forward to catching up with them and seeing what it's like to live around the eastern side of Norway.

The prices of things here have been an eye opener to us, we knew Norway was an expensive country but have seen it first hand now. Though we have worked out people here get paid very well and that helps with the cost of living for them.

Our friends Jørgen and Guri near Bryne helped us travel very cheaply with them, which was a real blessing. They even borrowed bikes from Jorgen's  sister so that we could do the 60 km ride we did the other day. We hope they come to Australia to visit so we can repay the amazing hospitality they showed us.

Bec has been amazing at doing the budget and Europe has put us into the red a little, but for nearly 8 months of travel it's only a little in the red so that's awesome!

We also read some more of Matt Kempes travel book and it made me feel better to know that he thought that $79 pp a day in western Europe was good. And we have been lower than that per person. So that's good.

All in all we are feeling ready for the next part of Norway to explore, and then we will fly to Holland next Tuesday.

The Netherlands

Having a great time in Holland, we have ridden bikes (47km) seen the New land ( land reclaimed from the sea, and tomorrow going into Amsterdam, Can't wait! :)

Norway is going soo well!

We are loving Norway, our friends Jørgen and Guri have been taking such great care of us. They have showed us amazing sights of Norway and shared their culture with us. We feel soo lucky to be able to visit them. We have had all kinds of Norwegian food including Brown Cheese, Norwegian Chocolate ( Norwegian Kit Kats, and their version of Chocolate Wheatons) we have had local beers which were excellent. We also ate their shrimp and smoked salmon, also top knotch. We went into Stavanger yesterday and saw a band playing and was given a free cd, it was a free music festival, pretty cool. We also got to see the old town with cool old buildings and ships in the harbour. We also went to Pulpit Rock, an amazing Rock 600 m strait up from the Fjord below! :)

Jorgen and Guri had a Barbie yesterday and had some friends and family over, it felt really Aussie, especially when one of their friends from work ( who is from England) brought over a Pavlova! She said she thought it was from England but found out from her Mum it was Australian/NZ? Haha. All of their friends and family were soo nice to us! Talking to us and speaking in English etc

It was a great day.

Norway is really special...

20 Countries!!! Ahhhhh!

I can't believe we have hit the 20 country mark!

Here's the list soo far:

1 Singapore

2 Indonesia

3 Malasia

4 Brunei

5 Thailand

6 Vietnam 

7 Cambodia

8 India

9 Nepal

10 Qatar

11Kenya

12 Greece

13 Portugal

14 Spain

15 Germany

16 Austria

17 Italy

18 Vatican

19 Slovenia

20 Croatia

And tomorrow we fly north to Norway! WooHoo!

Catching up with Dennis in Italy

Yesterday we got to spend the day with my brother Dennis who is traveling around Europe with his friends. We changed our train tickets and Accomodation to come to Bologna in Italy and Dennis caught a train down from Milan to Bologna for the day. It was fantastic, I had been looking forward to catching up with him for months. The day before it had been monsoon style raining and hailing, and was about 5 degrees. So I was praying for a good weather day. It was sunny and about 28 degrees. Amazing. We met him at the fountain of Neptune and he Bec and I went for coffee. We spent the next couple of hours exchanging travel stories and amazing experiences. After we had ititially caught up we decided to climb the 93 m Tower of Bologna for some nice views of the old city. Bec decided to stay at the bottom as it was a fairly tight staircase all the way up, ( secretly she was giving us a some bro time to catch up) we sat up the top and chatted about all kinds of things for about half an hour, then went back down, we also got our great views of the city with a big blue sky.

After this we had really nice pizza from a shop selling it by the slice, Dennis and I got two slices and made our own DIY calzones :) Then after this we decided to head about 3 kms up to the top hill overlooking the city, it was sooo nice, a grassy hill that went up and up, with views of Vineyards, farm houses, and the sea of terra cotta roof tops that is old Bologna. We loved it soo much we stayed up there on a picnic rug for another couple of hours chatting about everything.

Then finally it started to cool down a bit around 6 pm so we wandered down to a local recommended Restaraunt where we had really delicious pasta and wine, Dennis had oven Baked Gnocchi, Bec had fat flat pasta and I had Black Tortellini with Truffles. Soo good. After this we looked up a good Gelato place to get desert, boy it was nice, If Fantasi Gelato in Naples was a 10 this one was a 9.5 , I had the dark chocolate with Pestachios and the Sicillian Pestachio flavour ( think I'm spelling Pestachio wrong but seriosly how offer do you use that word? :)

Bec called me a rat, cos I got all the flavours that would kill her, haha, though we all had nice Gelato on our way back to the train station. There we said goodbye to Dennis and went back to the Accomodation.

It was a perfect day in Italy, spending time with family, what a blessing.

Amazing Croatia!

We just got back from Croatia, we went to visit our friends that we met from earlier on the trip in Greece, Tommy and Jo. They live in Zagreb, we went strait to them for 5 days where they shared all about Croatian culture and history. It was great to find out as we didn't know much about it beforehand. Jo actually saw bombs drop during the war with Serbia as a child. We stayed at Jo's flat and got to learn the city from there, we had great Croatian food and wine, we saw mountains and great views of the city and got to share about Australia as well.

We had a great time with them. We then headed down to the 'Istria' Region of Croatia to a town called Rovinj, it was awesome and we enjoyed the bike riding along the ocean, I even went for a swim! Was cold but worth it!

Naples, Rome & Venice

We just came through an amazing journey of Italy, we spent 3 days in Naples, 4 days in Rome and 2 days in Venice. We got to travel with our friends Matt n Chloe from Geelong for a week starting in Naples, it was a great city, Pompei was a highlight, we had amazing pizza at Del Presidente, ( one that Heston loves) and we also had the best Gelato on earth at Fantasia Gelato. They made a white credo mouse Gelato vanilla with smarties that was soooo good, then onto Rome, the Sistine chapel, St Peters cathedral and the Colleseum were the highlights. But just as good was the pantheon diomo and Trevi fountain.
Our time in Venice was perfect because we had great, I mean fantastic weather, it was hot 28deg sunny and blue skies. It was intense as the day went on thousands of tourists packed all public areas, though Bec still managed to find us a cool quiet area near the fort to wander around. It was just like in the movies.
Going to the toilet was expensive though, 1.50€ per time per person, I had to go 3 time in one day but only paid once, you do the math, haha :)
I really struggle to accept having to pay to go to the toilet, and have great ways of getting out of it ;)
Now we are on a Bus to Zabreb, Croatia, it should be a nice change of something 'different' :)
Can't wait!

Today we travel to Naples

We are on the train to Naples, the home of the Pizza and close to Pompei. Tomorrow we go to the volcano to celebrate our friend Matt's birthday. Matt n Chloe are also traveling in Europe so we had to bump into them somewhere :)
The train we are on today is like first class on a plane, also it looks like a space ship on the outside. I love these trains in Europe, more than flying. :)

From Munich to Verona

Had an amazing train ride from Germany to Italy yesterday, it went through the Alps and was soooo picturesque !
Going to explore Verona, The home of Romeo and Juliet :)

Berlin and the Autobahn!

Just had a great 4 nights with Bec in Belin, she Organised this apartment through Air BnB an app where you rent a persons house. It was good, went to the Haulocaust memorial information centre, checkpoint Charlie museum and then shared a ride with a guy down to the bottom of Germany, to a town called Ulm. The Autobahn is interesting, nothing like flying down a highway at 200 km/h with the driver on his mobile phone! It wasn't cheap, though this car share website it's 35€ a person , so 70€ for both of us, this is a lot better than the train though, that was going to be 189€! And it's quicker than the train too :)

Santiago De Compostela

Well I thought I haven't blogged for a while so I thought I better get back on the wagon!
We have spent the last 4 days walking! Walking 112 kms to Santiago Spain. There is a pilgrimage walk here where thousands of people walk to the Tomb of James ( One of the 12 dudes that followed Jesus ) Very cool.
Its just like the movie 'the way' with Martin Sheen and Emilio Estevez.
We walked 30 km yesterday and our feet are sore as today, tomorrow we will walk the last 20 km, it will feel good to finish it and get our last stamp ( you get a passport and get it stamped along the way at villages)
It has been a great experience, Bec read about it in a novel a few years ago, researched it and now is doing it! That's the kind of girl she is. Determined :)

Crazy Austrian Woman

Well, on day 1 we came accross this weird woman on the camino, our first experience of her was that she was hiding between trees taking photos of us ( and probably others) as we walked past, ok weird, but not too bad.
Then we noticed her at the Albergue that night as she was in our 50 bed room, she would sing a verse of a song as she entered the room, every time she entered. Then on the second night, she was in our 20 bed room, just by chance because there is a lot of Albergues in each town.
Bec and I were stretching as our legs were really sore, and she takes a photo of us, then makes fun of us and says are you trying to do gymnastics? So I tell her nah just stretching, then she talks over me and tells us how stretching is bad for you, so we disagree etc, she keeps on going in about it. We didn't even want to talk to her? Anyways after dinner she came in and flung open the windows ( it's 2 degrees outside) us and the other guys in the room asked her to close them, she refused, then 3 times through the night different people would close the window and she would keep opening it. We all froze, at one point I said that Bec and I only had sleep sacs and showed her made out of cotton ( no sleeping bags) and she didnt care, she was the craziest most selfish person I have ever seen!
The next day everyone was talking about her, it kinda brought the group of us closer together, haha,
Camino has everything!

Santorini Island!

Wow! We have had a ball here in Santorini. It is a small island in the Mediterranean Sea that used to be or still is a volcano. It apparently had the biggest explosion ever which sunk the island, and now all that remains is what's left of the volcano rim. We have hiked up a hill to see the Ancient city of Theira. And we also walked around the island to the end point Oia which is a 3 hour one way walk. We have had great Greek food at our little town of Perissa Beach. It's a black beach which is really cool . Black sand that is and it has lots of different coloured stones in it, today we did the walk to Oia again cos we loved it soo much. And in 2 Days we catch the 8 hour ferry back to Athens again to see the Acropolis.

Becs 30th birthday!

Today was Becs birthday IN AFRICA! So I wanted for us to do something really special for the occasion, so we are in Masai Mara National Park in Kenya taking in Gods Beautiful creation with the Animals!! How cool!
It was a perfect day, the Breakfast dining room sung happy birthday to Bec, we had a perfect blue sky day which peaked at about 30 degrees. We saw every animal imaginable, even some rare ones: Here is today's list of animals spotted:
Lioness
Male lion
9 cubs
Elephants
Giraffes
25 Hippos
Cheetah
Leopard on grass and up a tree
Giselle's
Thompson Giselle
Jackals
Hyinas
Deer
Wilderbeasts
Guinea fowl
Turtle
Secretary bird
Stork
Eagle
Meerkat
Warthog
Antipope
African buffalo
Plains zebra
Impala
Topi

The only thing we hope to see tomorrow is a Rhino, but if it dosnt happen we don't care, we feel blessed to have seen the rest. I expected that we may only see about half of the list!
Then this afternoon we visited the local Masai Mara Tribes village. It was a great experience, Bec became a Masai woman with the Chiefs Son putting red Henna on her cheeks, then I got to do the Jumping Dance with the men. Then Bec and I were chosen by the chiefs son to have a look in the Chiefs house. This was really cool, it's made out of sticks and mud, has 4-5 rooms in it, the baby cows and baby goats sleep in their own rooms next to the bed and the 6 kids sleep in one wooden bed, no mattress. The chief has 5 wives and he spends one night with each in a different house then repeat. The men can have as many wives as they can afford. A wife costs between 6 and 10 cows depending on how high you can jump!,
The higher the cheaper!
It was a great day and Bec had a lot of fun, :) Tomorrow morning we do an early morning safari to see even more animals
Kenya is pretty awesome...

Lazy day in Pokhara (2 weeks ago)

Today was a rest day from the trek, we burnt off photos, I had a good chat to Mum, Bec had a good chat to David and Judith , then we headed down to the lake and walked along it till 5pm. We have just headed to dinner now and it has started sunshowering. Thunder and lightning will follow as it usually has done at night :)

On our way to Masai Mara National Wildlife Park

Well we have been busy. We stayed in a Banda Hut on Lake Naivasha, Mountain Biked through Hells Gate National Park, went to see the flamingos at lake Oloyden. Then we also went to Crater Lake Wildlife Sanctuary. few! Crater lake was great as it is an old Volcano which now has water in it, we hiked on our own in the sanctuary for 4 hours saw Giraffes Zebras, warthogs, wilder beasts, Giselles
It was great, then we climbed to the crater rim and hiked around that, it had a great view.
Today we are starting our 3 day Masai Mara Safari, it's a special thing we are doing for Becs 30th Birthday tomorrow!
We should be able to see all kinds of wild animals here, it's going to be fun.

Nairobi to Lake Naivasha

At the moment we are planning to somehow get from Here to Lake Naivasha, a cool town area that is on a lake that apparently has Hippos in it!! I love Hippos, so to see them in the wild will be well WILD! We have booked a little hut on the lakes edge and now just have to find our way there it is about 2 hours north of Nairobi, the African Adventure begins!!!

KTM security scare, delayed flight, missed flight, now safe in Nairobi, Kenya!

We were told when we were boarded that these was an unidentified bag checked in with no passenger, so we had to disembark on the Tarmac and identify our bags, 2 hours later we took off, missed our connecting flight at Doha, had free dinner and business class lounge which was a nice consolation while we waited 5 hours for the next flight. Anyways we are all safe and happy in Nairobe now. Now what to do in Kenya! :) Haha

Plan for Next Trek in the Himalayas!

We have loved this last 6 days soo much we are already planning our next one!

We would like to go from;

Besishar to

Sleep at Nagadi

Then Jagat

Then Bagarchhap

Then Chame

Then Lower Pisang

Then Nar ( one day side trak)

Then Yakarkah

Then Thorong Phedi

Then cross the Therong-La High Pass 5416m

Then sleep at Muktinath

Then Kagbeni

Then Jomsom

And end in Marpha ( if not Jomsom)

Then catch a jeep down to Beni for about $20-30

This could take between 12 to 20 days depending on how relaxed we want to take it :)

I'm blogging this so I remember the towns :) haha

It really has been a highlight for both of us :) the people are beautiful and the scenery is amazing

Himalaya Trek Night 5

Today we have stopped at a nice small guest house to avoid the rain that came in at about 3 pm. It was a beautiful sunny hot day before that, it seems to change quite quickly up here in the mountains. Today we had a big downhill day, sounds easy but it was a couple of thousand steps down! We went for about 7 and a half hours and descended from 3200m to1700m where we are now .
We will finish our trek tomorrow night back in Pokhara, our first trek has been a wonderful experience, we have learned a lot. And seen the most spectacular scenes we have ever seen.

Poon Hill Sunrise- Annapurna Himalayas

What an amazing morning! Got up at 4 am hiked up 400 m to an Altitude of 3200m. For the best mountain sunrise ever! Bec was amazing, and we were first to get up the lookout tower! Not bad ;) but the best thing was that it stormed bigtime last night hail and all, which created the perfect morning, crystal clear sky, but a funny thing happened. We bumped into friends from Denmark AND Jayden and Cas! From the USA/Australia. Weird as!

Hungry eye guest house nangataty Lady from upper mustang and Tibet

Met a lovely lady today, she was Tibetan. She moved from her home town of upper mustang (which used to be Tibet, until Nepal moved the boarder) to run a guesthouse. Her parents and family still live there. Upper mustang is really remote an hard to get too. Permits to go there for foreigners are $500 US per person!
She had a cute baby too! :)

Himalpani- on the river and waterfall

Beautiful valley place to stay with raging river and waterfall, great time of year at the start of March
On blue white trek

We changed to the blue white from the red white at Landruk. :) the hungry eye Restaraunt

Hotel Hungry Eye &Restaraunt at Landruk

Good lunch and views of Annapurna south
Rooms with ensuite 500 nr ($5) a night

Pothana- night one on Himalaya Trek

We have arrived to Pothana, a small group of guest house at 1900 m. Our guest house is the Shangrila Guest House and is awesome, it looks 70"s but we found out its brand new and opened 2 weeks ago! It's funny quirky and we love it, it rough cast concrete built and painted pink and blue but with a spectacular view of the valley . My new shoes worked well, and today was the first day they didn't hurt, the breaking in days worked!
Anyways looking forward to tomorrow!

Dhampus - Anu guesthouse and Restaraunt

Best momo and spring roll ever!
Awesome view of peace tail,
Really nice first stop

Rooms 300-600 with inside bathroom
That's 3$-$6!

Have to come back

From India to Nepal

Well we finished up India with a couple of days in Delhi, it made us appreciate how good Udaipur was. Delhi this time round was more hectic, we stayed in a more dodgy part of Paha Gahng so like the road was mud, didn't want to think about what else. But the hotel was slightly. Nicer than the first one. You don't quite get used to people taking a crap on the side of the road, we saw men holding hands and doing number twos together, that was odd. But you see men holding hands everywhere. Their not gay, it's just in their culture. Our eyes were opened here more so than Asia. Most of the time we were 1/3 in amazement, 1/3 Saddened by the extreme poverty and the other 1/3 confused and frustrated with the weird layer cake that is India. You have rich India's ( high caste) driving bentleys right next to beggars and stray dogs. Know where have we seen such extremes living all on top of each other. This made it really confusing how to feel..
One of the hardest things We saw was a deformed boy drinking water out of the gutter. The other really hard thing we saw was kids picking through rubbish. We had a chat with a lovely Nepali couple up at the tower lookout at Nargarkot the other day. And in the conversation the girl who was a Hindu Brahman Nepali with a Muslim name, ha ha, said that we were lucky to be born in Australia. And that really hit home. She is right. To hear it from a locals mouth really touched me. I am soo blessed and lucky that I was born as a human being in Australia. I could have just as easily been born in India.
Now we have Flown into Kathmandu Nepal. It is a really nice change from India. It has a more remote, peaceful feel about it.
The people seem to be nicer and smile a bit more, and the biggest thing we loved in the first couple of days was the wide variety of food you can get here. We have had, Israeli food, fallafels , Italian and we are going to try Momos as well.
Today we are on a local bus on our way to Pokhara. It's about a 6-8 hour bus trip on a really windy hilly pothole riddled road west. We have booked a 6 day trek with a local trekking company and are pretty excited about it. The part of the Himalayas that we will be trekking in is called the Annapurna range. And we should have great views of the Dalgiri range as well. We will be staying in wood huts/homestay lodges along the way which we have been told are basic, no electricity and no hot water or heating. Apparently our last night might have heating in one room.
We are really lucky with the weather, it has been nice and sunny during the day, like 28 deg, and only about 13 at night.
We met a really lovely couple from Denmark, David and Ann. They are traveling for a few months and we got to know then by sharing a car with them to Nargarkot, and had dinner with them a couple of times. They are great, and funny, they met at a Music Festival too!
It is the best part of travel meeting amazing new people who are doing just what you are, and hearing their stories, soo cool.
David and Ann are doing a trek too, but they are more hardcore, doing a 10 day one. We will have to do more in the future I think ;)
We will start our trek tomorrow morning, I have been trying to. Break in my new shoes, and I think I nearly have it sorted.
One funny thing we have seen a lot of is how all the truck drivers love to decorate their trucks, with slogans on the back and weird sounding musical horns, which they use more time than not, :)
We have 4 days in Nepal after our 6 day trek, then we fly via Doha (Qatar) to Kenya, Africa. Therese will be for 2 weeks.
Exciting times ahead! We are really trying to soak in every. It of the next few weeks before we transition through to the developed world. Bec and I don't know what it's going to be like to have clean places to see, no one trying to sell us stuff 24/7, being in a calm environment, no being starred at, having photos and videos taken of us all the time (mostly in a sleazy way), what are we going to do when people arent going to be only seeing us as a $ sign anymore? It is going to be weird man! ( maybe boring?) I dunno haha.
I know that I couldn't do this without Bec and she says the same about me. 90% of the time you are a real strength traveling as a couple, the other 10% you are really annoying and wanna kill each other, but I like those odds ;)

Our time in Udaipur

Well we just got back from Udaipur. What a city, on the water, small lane ways up and down hills, palaces, forts, temples, mosques, it was like a weird Indian version of What I could imagine Venice to be. We loved Udaipur. It was coined the most romantic place in India in the Lonely Planet. We really had a good time there . It was a million times better than Agra, and we were told that Varenassi was worse than Agra. We are now back up in Delhi ( courtesy of the night train) and we now have one full day before we fly to Nepal, and to say I'm excited about that is an understatement. The weather looks great there for the next 2 weeks and Bec n I can't wait to trek around the rooftop of the world. We will spend the first 5 days in and around Katmandu, then the next 9 days in Pokhara and the Annapurna Mountain Range. We have booked a 6 day guided trek in the Annapurna Range
It will about 6 hours a day of trekking up to the final destination of Poon hill (Altitude 3150 m) Apparently the mountain views along the way are amazing.
Can't wait!

After nearly 4 months in South East Asia, we head to India

I can't believe that in a few days we would have been away for 4 months! The time has gone fast but thinking back we have seen so much from Komodo dragons in Indonesia, to Volcanos in Java, to proboscis monkeys in the wild in Brunei, then to the snorkeling islands of Sabah, Koh Samui and the Ang Thong Marine Park. We have Treked in Sapa, Vietnam just off the Chinese boarder, meeting some of the nicest most memorable Black Mong People. ( Hill tribe people) . From the Vietnam war tunnels to the Epic Angkor Wat Temples I feel soo blessed to see this stuff with my best friend and wife Bec. Now we are at the Airport again about to embark on another new journey to India. This is flight number 15, today we fly on Malaysian Airlines, we have been told that we will be picked up in Delhi, so hopefully this is the case. We will miss a lot of the things in Asia that we have come to love, but I'm sure that India and Nepal will have some 'same same but different' things to love too!

Free Week!

Well it finally arrived, the week of free Accomodation turned out not to be a scam! Woohoo. So we can get the budget back in order, which is great.
We are in Pattya, Thailand. It is on the beach in the gulf of Thailand. It's a west coast so you get nice sunsets over the ocean. It is a weird place, dirty, with lots of American and Russian Men walking around with Escorts accompanying them. It sounds gross, but it's not that bad. Maybe we have been in Asia too long but honestly we have seen a lot worse. We had another really early morning today. Because we wanted to watch the NFL Superbowl. A local Irish Pub was doing a Superbowl Party so we got up at 4.30 to get down there for a 5.30 am start ( ahh time zones!) they had an all you can eat breakfast for 200 Baht ( $6) which was great, I made a Canadian breakfast with the lot. It was great. It is bazaar how many Russians there are here, way more that Phuket! Most signs have Thai and Russian on them. It is funny hearing their accents everywhere. We are spending a nice afternoon by the pool, trying to get as much of that in before we fly to India on Saturday. We have booked the first 3 nights in Delhi which is a relief, as we are expecting quite the culture shock. My youngest brother Paul turned 26 the other day. It is amazing that we are all old now haha. Anyways the weather is pretty good here, hopefully it stays that way for te rest of the week. But we can't complain, we have only had about a weeks of cold wet weather in 3 1/2 months, it's been the longest summer ever! :) What a blessing...

The Verigo Sky Bar Restaraunt in Bangkok

We are visiting friends of ours in Bangkok, Friends that we only met 6 weeks ago in Hoi An, Vietnam. Luke and Michelle, as well as their 2 lovely kids Jade and Levi were staying at the same Accomodation and we just started chatting. Luke works at the Australian Embassy in Bangkok and also did a stint in Afganistan! They invited us to crash with them for a couple of days when we came back to Bangkok. They live in an awesome apartment and Levi was a legend sacrificing his bedroom for us ( thanks heaps again Levi :) , Last night they took us to probably the most amazing Sky Bar ( a Bar/ Restaraunt on the roof of one of the skyscrapers here in Bangkok) we got there just before sunset, so got some great photos and we state up there for about an hour and a half, it was fantastic. The view was matched by the perfect temperature, probably a nice balmy 28 deg with a nice breeze. And over the next hour seeing all the lights turn on, it gave us an awesome perspective of Bangkok from the air. It really has a beautiful skyline.

Transit Day, Cambodia to Thailand by Land.

We have had a wonderful time in Cambodia, everyone should put " Angkor Wat " in Siem Reap on their Bucket List. It is the biggest area/amount of Temples in the world. It was really amazing to explore them all. We took 3 full days with a cool tuk tuk driver 'Vong' who took us to every one, a lot of ones that tour s don't go to, as well as the big ones like the Jungle Temple out of the movie Tomb Raider.
We got up at 4 am one day to be at Angkor Wat half n hour before sunrise, I got some great sunrise photos on the dslr,
With the reflection on the water :) I'm slowly learning how to use the camera.
We took a 4 hour bus to Poipet on the Thai border, then a 15 min taxi, then it took 45 min to get through the Cambodia departures bit, then a 5 min walk accross the border, then 45 min to get through Thai immigration, then a 5 min tuk tuk, then we just made our 3 rd class train to Bangkok, it is a wooden seat train, no padding, it is a 5 hour trip to Bangkok. Though it's not soo bad, kinda cool actually, with all the windows down and a nice breeze blowing through the carriage.
And it is definitely the cheapest train ride I have ever been on at $1.50 for the 5 hour journey!
Tomorrow we r off to the Indian embassy in Bangkok to get out tourist visas then te next day we are catching a night train up to Chiang Mai.
Should be Fun!

Yesterday the Chaing Mai Zoo, today the Queens Botanical Gardens

Yesterday we went to church, then went to the Zoo, it was awesome, and was only $3 to get in, we saw a seal show, they did all kinds of cool tricks. Then we saw hippos, rhinos, elephants, then saw gibbons, and a really cool bird show where they had taught blue and red macaws to ride bikes!
Then today we rode our scooter to the Queens Botanical gardens. It was impressive with about 6 large indoor glasshouses, it was spread over 1000 hectares, so I'm glad they let you bring your scooter in to ride around the roads in it. We went to the waterfall, and there was a big group of students swimming in it haha. Then we went for a joyride up into the valley further on from there and it was really pretty, it reminded us of bright, with all the leafing trees, there were steep winding roads up over mountains with brown leaves all over the sides of the road. Our bums were starting to go numb from the old seat on our scooter so we came back to our $12 a night guest house we have made our home here. We are going to the movies tonight. It is amazing we are spending about $40-$50 a day here, today will be $50 with the movies, but the last 2-3 days were only $40 for 2 people! It's helping the budget a bit :)
Anyways tomorrow is our last day here before we catch the VIP bus back to Bangkok on Wednesday, Chiang Mai has been great, but especially the surrounding areas/mountains/ and towns have been the highlight for us.

Today in Chiang Mai, in Northern Thailand

Today we rented a manual 125 cc scooter, it was a bit older but we were going to do some steep mountain riding today and needed to have a bit more grunt than the 110 auto scooter. It handled both of us well. ( we were wearing jeans and long sleeve shirts as well as helmets loving parents) lol :)
It is only $7 a day with insurance, and petrol is like $2 so it's cheaper than to catch a cheap tuk tuk cos they charge
$3.50 to go one way anywhere?
It was a great day we ventured up the mountain and saw great gardens and temples and a great view. Not that were back I think I'll go for a swim in the pool :)
Till next time ;)

Our 8th Wedding Anniversary!

What an achievement ! 8 years, man I can't believe it has gone sooo fast! I am soo lucky to be married to the best, most amazing woman in the world! I dunno how
She puts up with me :)
We have had a cruizy day today, Bec had a massage, I got a haircut, we went for a walk along the Mighty Meekong River ( as they all call it) we had an Aussie lunch. A $1.75 loaf of bread, we made vegimite sandwiches and ate them on the them on the river edge. Just wanna say hi to Tim!!! Cos I know at least he reads my blog , haha :)
Um we are going to " Laughing Fatman" for dinner and tomorrow we catch a bus ( hopefully a good one) 6 hours to Siem Reap to see " Ankor Wat" really looking forward to that, and we have managed to find a backpackers for $3.50 each per night there, so we will see how that goes!!
Soo far loving Cambodia, much better than Vietnam. The people are really nice and actually smile! I have had fun bargaining with the locals, my haircut today $2! Ow yeah! And I'm joking alot with the tuk tuk drivers haha
Till next time ! :)

We're in Cambodia!

Just got here today and gotta say the initial vibe is great. We went to the museum today and are going to the Killing Fields tomorrow, then we are heading up to Angkor wat. Can't wait . Its a great temperature here too about 27-28 c
:)

Trekking in Sapa

Well we are on the train back to Hanoi after 3 days of awesome mountain treks, it was freezing wet and really muddy, but we loved it, it was soo slippery I fell over and got mud everywhere. But washed and dried my jeans that night at the homestay the homestay was awesome great food and rice wine. Good times with our new friends from Germany and Dubai/New York. And the icing on the cake is that we got the whole cabin on the train to ourselves, no one on the top bunks :)