New Zealand - brrr, campervans, sessions and bungee jumps!

Our second flight of the trip and our first long haul flight was from Bangkok to Christchurch. The flight had a number of stopovers. We flew from Bangkok to Singapore to Melbourne to Christchurch. The nighttime leg from Singapore to Melbourne was freezing. They turn the heating right down and then charge you 7 dollars to rent a blanket. God dam budget airlines. Brrrr!

Three flights of shivers and screaming babies later, we arrived in Christchurch, tired grumpy and needing some rest. We got picked up and brought to our hostel, Kiwi Basecamp. On top of it all, Emmet picked up a bug in Thailand. He was just beginning to get over it before the flight, but ended up sick again once we got to Christchurch. We were quite worried. He had a temperature, which is not good coming from that part of the world. We knew it wasn't Dengue Fever or Malaria because he didn't have he other symptoms. He rested for two days and just as we were about to the doctor he got better. Yeay. Forty dollars extra booze money!

When we left Bangkok it was in the mid to high thirties. When we arrived in New Zealand it was ten degrees. Apparently, they got a cold snap. Thanks for that New Zealand!

We did venture out and see some of Christchurch though. While Emmet was sick, Niamh peeled off into town to a great museum with an exhibition on the earthquake, which was very sad but informative. Coming from the otherside of the world where a natural disaster is a half a foot of snow, it was sobering to see the impact on a community. They had recordings that people made on the day and videos from some of the survivors. They also had a quake metre which showed all the recent quakes, most of which are small. Once Emmet was fit enough to venture out of his bunk bed, we went to the Botanic Gardens and the pop up mall. As most of the city centre was completely destroyed and is still mainly inaccessible, a temporary mall has been set up in brightly painted metal containers. They have some lovely shops, cafes and restaurants. We got a pizza, which was delicious and spent some time window shopping.

Once we were sure Emmet was fully better, we went to rent a camper van. We had done some research and one of the staff members at Kiwi Basecamp done a ring around and some impressive bargaining to get us a good deal with Jucy.We decided to go with a space wagon rather than a camper van, as Niamh thought it was too big, and off we went on our road trip.

The first place we went to was a town called Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula. It is a really pretty French style town and was really nice to walk around it. We stayed in one of the Top Ten campsites, which we had been told are the Ritz of campsites. It was the perfect start to our camper van adventure.

We then took our first long drive down to Dunedin. We heard of a magical place that had a chocolate factory and a brewery. Sounds like heaven! Unfortunately not, it is a bit crap. There isn't much else to do and the admission charges were ridiculous. The campsite, Leith Valley, was pretty nice though.

We left early and went onto Portobello, a little village on the Otago Peninsula. The area was beautiful. Unfortunately, we have started camping a little too early. It was a little too cold to do any of the outdoor activities we planned. We wanted to see penguins, but weren't willing to pay 50 dollars each to sit outside waiting for them in the rain, wind and bitter cold. Someone had told us about a beach where the penguins come in to sleep and you can see them without having to pay a tour guide. The only catch is that you not really meant to be there, so try not to get caught. They are building a look out point, but you can climb into the construction site and have a quick look. We decided to do that. We stood for 45 minutes and the bloody penguins never showed up. We returned to the campsite disappointed and tried to avoid hypothermia.

The next stop was Queenstown, which is a really great place. It is beautiful and warmer than Portobello (although not warm enough, where are you Spring?). The whole town is surrounded by snow covered mountains and is full of lovely cafes, shops and very importantly, pubs with decently priced beer. We stayed at the Queenstown Lakeview Holiday Park. Our first day consisted off sampling some coffees and renting some dvds to watch while polished off our bottle of New Zealand wine (from a bottle, we resisted the cartons). As luck would have it, neither of the two dvds would work properly, which we only figured out after drinking the wine, which ruled out driving down the video shop and exchanging them. Early night!

The following day we went for a hike nearby the town. It was really nice and we had great views of Queenstown down below us. We didn't get to the top, as Emmets age started to tell. We came to a clearing where there were picnic tables. Emmet made a beeline for one and collapsed onto the bench, which is where him and his knobly knees stayed until Niamh realised he would go no further this time. So back down the mountain we went.

That night we decided to go and do a pub crawl. It was an organised one, which we paid 25 NZ dollars for at The World Bar. And off we went, shots at the door at every bar and discounts on certain drinks in different bars. The main reason we went was to get access to the ice bar. We were given massive coats and gloves and went into a bar which was minus seven degrees. There were loads of ice sculptures, even the glasses were made of ice!It was a good enough night overall but a small crowd. By the end of it, we broke away from the group and went back to our favourite bar of the night, the Boiler Room. They had a live band and that night there was a bunch of people in fancy dress, dressed up as old people. One guy got up on the table and had hanging from his shorts a pair of tights with two balls in it. Basically an old mans scrotum, which ended up in Emmets mouth, along with an English bloke who was on the crawl with us. Alcohol, one minute your sober, next minute your....well.....lets move on.

The following day was right off. Niamh stayed in the car until four, at which point I had to wake her. The town is a five minute walk, we drove to the video store. Ruined! So we arrived back, all ready for a quite night in, when two of the Welsh girls, Kate and Claire, that we met in Thailand and live in Queenstown, arrived outside our car, smiles from ear to ear. We knew immediately our quiet night was now over and it had instantly changed to party night. They are two crazy Welsh girls who love to party. And we love them for it. Couldn't ask to meet two nicer people! So that was that, a time and a pub was instantly arranged after we swapped stories about what we'd all been up to for the last few weeks. Another great night out was had.

Myself and Emmet wanted to visit some wineries but had a dilemma, one of us would have to be a designated driver. This was until Kate offered to be our driver and tour guide. We woke up feeling sprightly considering the late night and headed off with Kate on what we thought was our tour, until there was a short detour...to the bungee bridge. Next thing we knew we were being strapped to a rope and standing over a forty foot drop into Kawarau River!  It was the single most terrifying and fun thing we have ever done. We were well up for some wine afterwards.

Emmet terrified showing our bungee tickets.

 

We drove out to four wineries just outside Queenstown. Some of Lord of the Rings was filmed in the area. It is pretty spectacular. The wine was great too. One of them had a little area for boules set up so we had a few games. Kate won, Emmet was crap. We treated ourselves to a bottle in the last place, Chard Farm, which we will save for a barbecue on a sunny day. After a hard days sightseeing we went back to Kate's where we met Claire and they made us delicious spaghetti bolognese.

The next day, we drove out to a pretty little town called Arrowtown. We walked around, had a coffee in a really cute cafe and visited the Chinese settlement, which is where Chinese gold miners lived during the gold rush in the late 1800s. They were treated pretty badly, completely ostracised, and lived in tiny huts. The houses were restored as a memorial.

Afterwards, we went back to Queenstown, went for a walk by the lake and watched people playing golf frisbee. It has the same rules as golf but you use a frisbee! As it was a Saturday, there was a small market on in the town with loads of handicrafts and food. It made Niamh hyperventilate a little.

After staying a few days longer than planned, it was time to say goodbye to Queenstown. We drove to Wanaka over the crown mountain range and enjoyed some beautiful views. We checked into Aspiring Campervan Park, which we cannot recommend enough. They had a hot tub, internet, a car wash and hot chocolate in the morning, with a marshmallow, all of which was free, our favourite price. After exploring the town, we bought fish and chips and ate them by the lake. We fed the leftovers to the seagulls. We would throw the food in the air and they flew up and caught it in their mouths. Kept us entertained for at least a half an hour!  We went for a walk along the lake and then went back to the campsite to use the hot tub. It was everything we hoped for and more!

We left the next morning happy after facebooking friends, drinking our hot chocolate and with a clean car! We had a long drive up to Fox glacier on bendy roads. We had to stop once for a flock of sheep, once for a rock fall to be cleared and once in Haast, the crappest town in the world, for a sandwich.

Thailand - Elephants, Islands and Even More Temples

We have taken our first flight of the trip from Luang Prabang in Laos to Chang Mai in Thailand. In order to get our thirty day visa, we had to enter by air. We would only get a fifteen days visa by arriving overland. It was disappointing not to complete the landmass without flying, but we are proud of the journey we have made, all the way across Europe, Russia, China and through South East Asia.

 

Chang Mai is a great city. We met up with Jerry and Aisling again. We booked into the same guesthouse as them, Kamala Guesthouse. This first evening we went for dinner and drinks and met with Nick and Dan again and another lady they had met previously, Jen. We had a great night chatting until the wee hours. The next day, we embarked on our own walking tour. Chang Mai is covered in Wats (temples), it has Wats coming out of its proverbial arse. And we probably saw all of them. We have displayed a select few below. After all our Wat watching we deserved a big cup of tea and were supplied by the lovely people at Farm Story. For many people a green tea tastes like grass, at best. These people are wrong, especially the green tea at this place. It was one of the most delicious liquids I have ever consumed.

Donald Duck...An ancient buddist symbol!

After a little disco nap we visited the night bazaar with Jerry and Aisling, which sold everything you can imagine and got some grub and a beer. We then had a really fun party where we had a scrabble off and played pool. Stop judging. We had our fun and thats all, that matters.

Myself and Emmet booked into do a cooking course that the others had done previously. It was one of the most fun activities we have done. We cooked six dishes and made curry paste from scratch. And of course ate it all, fat bastards I know, but if you cannot have six dinners when your travelling, then when can you? One of the best dishes was druken noodles, which involved putting water on oil so it explodes and you look shit cool.

Out next destination was Pai, the hippie capital of the world. We got the vomit bus there, which gets its name from the fact that many people vomit on it. Neither of us are bad travellers, but Niamh did start feeling pretty queasy. Maybe eating six dinners in one day before getting the vomit bus wasn't the best laid plan.

We stayed in a guesthouse outside the town called Amy's Guesthouse. The place was nice, the owners were lovely, they went out of their way for us, but it was a bit far outside the town. Pai is a cool place with loads of great cafes, bars and shops and we would have liked to spend more time in it.

The best way to see the area is moped, which we were all for. Pai has a mini grand canyon, so that was our first stop. We tried to complete the walking circuit, but parts of it were too treacherous, so we decided to live instead.

Our second stop were the hot springs. These ones were without the dodgy overhead cables like the ones in the cave in China. You can buy eggs on the way up and boil them in the river. We didn't. That was just a fact we thought we would share. It might come up in a table quiz sometime, but in reality probably not. The water at the spring is 80 degrees and it was very hot where we were sitting a little further down stream. It was pretty cool sitting in a river outside but with the freshly poured bath effect.

Our final stop of the day was a Chinese village, in the middle of Thailand! Whatever will they come up with next. It did feel like being back in China. All the houses had the red good luck messages over the front door and we got dumplings for the first time in months. The houses were made of mud and straw, which was a bit less Chinese, but very rustic looking.

 

After all our sightseeing, it started getting late so we decided to hit for home before it got dark. Of course, at that very moment, it starts pouring out of the heavens. We managed to get home during a drizzle period, but affected our plans for a fun night out. What hampered the plans even more was the fact that there are no taxis after six o clock. We had to arrange a lift home with Rob the owner of the guesthouse. We didn't want to be keeping him up too late so arranged a lift for eleven o clock. It felt like being a teenager again! Luckily we had checked with him though, otherwise we would have had a long walk home in the rain. We went for food in one of the great little restaurants and went to a cool bar with a pool table. We ended up bumping into a couple we had met on the cooking course and had a few drinks with them.

We returned to Chang Mai the next day on the vomit bus, where loads of people vomited, eugh, to be ready for our visit to the elephant nature park the following day. This was the most expensive but most amazing thing we have done on the trip so far. The park rescues mistreated elephants and provides a sanctuary for them. Elephants eat a lot, so they make the money to house and feed them from tourists.

When we arrived in the morning, we fed them baskets of fruit. You hold out the fruit and they take it off you in their trunks. When we got a little more confident, we learned how to put it directly into their mouths. Some of the elephants we really fussy, one of them hated pumpkin and refused to eat any that was given!

Afterwards we went down to the river. Some of the more placid elephants were brought for their wash. They wash daily to cool themselves and wash off the mud they use to protect their skin.They stood in the river and we threw water on them. This was probably one of the funest things we have ever done. One of them loves her bath and rolled over while people scrubbed her. We then went to a look out point where we watched the baby elephants bathe. The mothers are very protective so they don't let tourists in the river with the babies. But we were able to approach them afterwards.

After lunch, which was an amazing buffet, we watched a documentary which told us more about the park, its owner and the elephants. The domestic elephants in Thailand are not treated very well. The wild elephants are classed as endangered and are given certain rights. However, the domestic ones are classed as livestock and can be killed or harmed with little repercussions. The park is campaigning to give domestic elephants the same protection as wild ones, which is probably not enough as it is considering how their habitat is being encroached upon. The most shocking element was definitely how the elephants are trained. They are tortured into becoming submissive. They are locked in a cage just big enough to hold them and beaten with sticks with nails in them until they learn the commands. For an animal that is in one hand revered and is the symbol of the country, they are treated really badly. It was horrible to watch and we are glad we didn't go on any of the elephants riding tours now. Hopefully the laws will be changed sooner rather than later.

We had a great day visiting the elephant camp and it was a highlight so far. The following day we decided to head to Ayuthaya where there are some more nice temples. It was a long trip, so we went for the night train instead. The train left at 5.30 p.m and was to arrive at 6.44 a.m the following morning. But this is Asia. The most dangerous of our delays to date, and hopefully remains as such.

We felt a huge jerk and we came to an abrupt halt, much like you would if your leading train carriage had derailed for example. In fact, thats exactly what happened. An hour and a half into our trip, the engine came off the tracks, managed to stop before the 30 to 40 foot drop just to the left of the tracks themselves. Ppphew! So all was well thankfully, but we sat there for hours upon hours. There is only one track, so it took ages to get the correct equipment there to sort it out. We finally left and ended up arriving in seven and a half hours late. And there was us thinking, great, no buses this time, should be a smooth trip. Lesson learned S.E. Asia.

We got a tuc tuc to our guesthouse called Baan Lotus in Ayuthaya, which was thankfully still holding our booking, as we said we would arrive about seven in the morning.It was a nice place and the lady who owns it is lovely and very helpful. She has this massive pond, about half an acre, with a wooden decking built out onto it, with hammocks and all. It is a great little spot, even if the town isn't much to write home about. So I won't. The area where the temples are was really nice though. So myself and the birdfriend rented bikes the following morning and checked out a couple. Not too many as we have seen many, many temples over the last few months. A commonly used phrase one hears on the backpacker trail is "templed out", and we certainly are.

Our plan was to head to some of the islands on both the east and west coast over two weeks starting with Ko Tao. However, when we showed up to get our bus tickets, the bus was full, so we bought tickets to Ko Phangan instead. We got the VIP bus which sounds fancy and looks nice until you realise you have to sit for the entire overnight journey. They also don't include customer service as part of the package. Our conductor was one of the rudest creatures you will ever encounter. Fun times.

We got the bus to a pier and were to get the first boat in the morning from there. We were waiting for the boat to arrive when a little soap opera unfolded right before our very eyes. One of the passengers robbed a blanket from the bus. Our 'delightful' conductor realised. However, instead of being professional  and taking the person aside to ask for it back she decided to create a scene instead. The girl who robbed it wasn't much  better and instead of owning up and giving it back, she denied the massive bulge in her bag was the blanket and got quite aggressive. The whole thing escalated from there and the police were called and then another police man with a gun showed up. Lets not forget that this is over a blanket! Our boat was delayed as they threatened to kick the girl off the boat. Eventually the whole thing was resolved and the entertainment ceased.

We got an overpriced taxi to the west side of the island and looked around for accommodation and after a long walk in the heat found Shiralea. It is a great place. We met a fella Bryn from New Zealand and had some great sessions. We had only planned to stay a few days, but were having so much fun we decided to stay longer. We passed away the days on the beach, in the pool and at the bar.

At this stage it was getting close to full moon time. We originally weren't fussed about going, but when in Rome. Shiralea was booked out for it so we moved over to the South side of the island for a few days to Coral Bungalows. We have heard so many things, both good and bad, about the Full Moon Party. We headed down to the beach around midnight. At that stage the beach was jammed. We bought some buckets and went to meet Bryn at Rock bar. It turned out to be a great spot. There was a really good DJ and a relatively quiet spot where we could dance. We plonked ourselves there for the night and had a great time.

 

 

At this stage, we debated whether to head to another island or head back to Shiralea. It was raining on Ko Phi Phi and didn't seem worth the overnight journey. So we decided an island is an island and when you have found a good one stick with it! When we got back to Shiralea, some new guests had arrived. Bryn introduced to a group of friends from New Zealand and the UK. They were great craic and we had another few days alternating between the beach, pool and bar! Not exciting reading, but a great few days.

It was eventually time to leave, so we got an overnight train to Bangkok with some of the Shiralea crowd. We stayed the first night at Home guesthouse. That evening we passed up the opportunity to see a ping pong show and went to the cinema for the first time in months to see the new Batman film. Emmet liked, Niamh fell asleep!

We needed to lay low for a few days to rest our wallets and livers after Ko Phangan and decided to look for somewhere with a TV for the evening times. We spent hours wandering around Bangkok in search of clean but reasonably priced accommodation. It seems this does not exist in Bangkok. Everywhere is either an absolute shithole or else pure luxury. We ended up moving to a place called Wild Orchid Villa. It is pretty mediocre but done for a couple of days. Emmet got a really high temperature the first night so Niamh freaked out and googled malaria symptoms. Luckily, he was fine but it scuppered any sightseeing plans for the following few days. We'll have to save the next adventure for New Zealand.