Be careful what you wish for ...

Thailand and the weather is different all right.

The rain is holding off for today, but it is almost unbearably hot. We are hiding from the heat in an air conditioned internet cafe while we wait for the ferry. Listen to the Ferrang (westener) always complaining about the weather. We had the AC in the room on so high last night it was spitting out ice cube this morning!

We spent two nights in Bangkok in a really lux hotel, we had torrential rain both nights but did get enough clear weather to visit the Royal Palace, which is quite a sight.

From there we flew south to Krabi and caught bus and ferry to the island of Koh Lanta where we stayed it a bungalow on top of a cliff. There was torrential rain most nights (are you seening a pattern developing here?). The days were clear enough for us to go explore the island on rented motor scooters. I lasted half a day before hitting a pot hole and piling the scooter into the surrounding jungle. Luckily I landed on a well padded part of my anatomy, sustaining only a scratched knee and a badly bruised ego. Bike and jungle where not so lucky.

Currently we are on the island of Koh Phi Phi, where there are no motor vehicles at all (I think they heard I was coming and locked them all up). This was the main location for the film "the Beach", but I've seen no sign of Leonardo anywhere. This place was practically wiped out by the tsunami, but the locals have spared no effort in turning this lovely place into a tourist ghetto to rival Torrimolinos or the NJ shore. Oh well.

This afternoon we are getting a ferry back to the mainland to a place called Railie.

Dave just told me the boat is comming, must fly (or sail)...

Farewell ot Oz ...

This is our last day in Oz, tomorrow we fly to Thailand (here's hoping the weather is better!)

But Crikey, what a bonza time we have had. Pictures if the vans as promised ...

Travelling in a fried out combi ...

Spent the last week travelling from Adelaid to Melbourne, camping along the way. There are four of us now as Damian and Julia (recently engaged) joined us in Adelaid. We could not get the camper van (RV) we wanted so have been reduced to hiring a estate car (station wagon) and buying a tent from K-Mart. Today however we traded it in on two small campers from a company called Wicked Campers, sort of like the RentAWreck of the RV world. All there verhicles are quite old, and gaudily painted with cartoons and stuff on the out side, I'll post pictures when I have some.
Tomorrow we sould be setting off to the Yarra vally where Dave and Damo are keen to do some vinyard tours ... this could be messy.

Living in the land down under ...

Roos, koalas, drive thru bottle shops and barbies. Oh and 40c at 6:00 pm in the evening. Spent the best part of the week in Perth, living the Aussie good life. Tomorrow we leave for Adalaide to meet up with Dames and Jules.

Singa - pouring Down!

After a nightmare time at Mumbai international airport, easily the worst place I've ever been, we've reached Singapore. What a complete change. This place is laid back, relaxing , quiet, and VERY expensive. We've just been for drinks at the Long Bar, Raffels hotel (Singapore Sling's all round of course) where it's about 6/7 GBP a drink, gone are the days of Goa where you could drink all night for that and still have change for a taxi home.

This place is SO quiet, even the rain is quite, and there's a lot of that at the moment.

Best of all the toilets are surgically clean (every thing is here), and there's always toilet paper!

Leaving on a jet plane ...

Our time here in India is nearly over, we hop a flight back to Mumbai tomorrow and Monday we fly to Singapore. We've been chilling out in the Keralan town of Port Cochin for a couple of days after crusing the Keralan backwaters and staying out in the country. We took the ferry through the backwaters, deciding to give the house boat thing a miss. It would be very nice and romatic for a couple, but a little claustrophobic for two mates. Also I'm not sure I like the idea of drifting around in expensive luxury through river side villages where people live in almost complete poverty.

At this time we are very much looking forwards to Singapore!

Pictures at 11 ...

Obligatory Goa picture No. 5

(Doesn't Dave look small from 'ere!)

Ahhh... Peace at last

Well Trivandrum was as mad as Mangalore and Bangalore, and just to add to the thrill of it, the bloody place was majority dry. No beer in the hotel, no beer in the resturants! We end up in a real local bar, for local people (Daves my wife now). It goes without saying that we're on the first stage out in the morning. The taxi driver who drives us up the coast introduces me to a new expeiance ... car sickness.

We are now holed up in the cliff top resort of Varkala wondering what to do next. It'a a real nice place and we've been here a couple of nights. All the bars are restuarants are on a cliff top path with a 50m drop the other side. The walk back to the hotel at night is a real laugh...

The road goes ever on ...

Enjoyed four days on the beaches in Goa, discovered that we can afford the better hotels without cramping our budget. Colva was a bit of a mess, but Paolem was what you would expect of Goa. The people there break down into four catagories:
1) Hippy wanabees - generally tall, thin, tanned, beautiful and shallow.
2) Refugees from the costas - Know them by there Arsnel shirts.
3) Empty nester travellers - delight in telling you where you're goin wrong and wont shut up.
4) The locals - They always want to tell you about cheap rooms in good hotels and offer you sight seeing tours in their rickshaws at incredible rates - right!

Then follows ...
a long train journey, six hours on wooden seats and not a privey this side of Mangalore! Apparently train journeys in India are the real adventure... that's one word for it.

Mangalore is a confusing mess of a city, we end up stuck there for two days while we sort out onward travel.

Three nights in Bangalore, but I've not managed to sell Dave into IT slavery with a local firm. We narrowly missed the "now we go to my brothers shop" scam from the tuktuk driver who took us to the local temple. After 15 mins of argument and a considerable bribe I managed to get him to return us to the hotel. Props to Bald Mat and Ade for putting us wise on that one.

Karnataka, the state that Bangalore is in is currently in dispute with it's neighbour Tamil Nadu regarding water rights. To this end there is a general strike happening. We were unable to get a train or bus south today and it will be the same tomorrow. Because of this we've got a flight to Trivandrum tomorrow morning. 35 pounds and no 17 hour train journey, there's only so much advanture a boy can take!

We've become honory locals at a pub round the corner from the hotel in the Mahatma Ghandi road area. It's a great place if you can stand the Bhangara Techno being played at full voulume all the time.

Still no pictures I'm afraid, it may have to wait till we hit Oz before I can replace the forgotten lead for my camera! What a plonker...

Two days

2007-01-30 : Miss out Mumbai, come up smiling in Goa ...

After last minute talks with the British Airways cabin crew union during which they to postpone their strike action by 24 hours, we board a flight to Mumbia, India on the evening of Monday 29th of January. The trip across London on the Picardilly tube line is by far the worst part of the whole trip.
In flight I mentioned to a member of the crew that the inflight entertainment system is not as goo as on Virgin, he answers that "of course Virgin is the luxury airline". Well may be, but they cost the same. I think that BA has some problems.

Landing in Mumbai we change some travellers checks then decide to miss out the whole polution-crime-mad traffic experiance that is the city and hop a cheap domestic flight directly to Goa. The flight is with Jet Airways. Their service levels and cabin crew leave BA standing.

From Goa airport we get a taxi to the state capital of Panajin, our first encounter with Indian driving!! The law of the road is there is no law. The highway code here must read:

1. We would rather you drive on the left.


2. Use horn has frequently as possible.

At Panajin we find a grubby hotel, a nice restaurant, a working ATM (cash point), and serveral new (to us) techniques for disposing of rubbish and sewage. The most popular seems to be leave it lying around untill someone puts some more on top of it. The next day we head south looking for beaches and babes ... well beaches anyway.