CAMBODIA PHOTOS

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cherrybombing/sets/72157606566469493/

INDIA PHOTOS

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cherrybombing/sets/72157606444409698/

THE LAND OF SMILES - THAILAND 11th-18th JULY

Our only aims for the Thailand trip was to relax, shop and get our OPEN WATER DIVING cert........
all of which we did rather well.
After a melting day in Chatachuk market in Bangkok we boarded our over night bus to Koh Tao.
This turned out to be the journey from hell as we had the worst seats at the back of the bus and we ended up at the ferry point hot, tired and my feet had swollen up the size of elephants which resulted in my first trip to the Koh Tao doctor of the holiday
When we got to Koh Tao we started back to school and had to do loads of theory for our PADI, our instructor Alex was great and there were only two more students in our group Charlotte and Mathieu.
Diving itself was amazing! I struggled a lot with equalizing and my ears were pretty painful for the first 2 days.............it was also a weird feeling being under water, breathing like Darth Vader and having loads of beautiful fish swimming about - but I soon got used to it!

On the last day, we had two fantastic dives were we went down to 18m and got up close to a sleeping sea turtle. AMAZING. and suffice to say we all passed the tests and got our PADI.

So with one day left in Koh Tao before heading back to Bangkok I decided to spend the days relaxing on the beach...........George on the other hand wanted to hire motorbikes and go explore the island. Pamela and I decided this would be a more exciting way to spend our last day and so we signed up for the adventure too.

What a ride it was - the result was treacherous dirt track roads that sent me skidding off my bike, we had to get some locals to bring our bikes back to the main road for us and I had to go to the doc for the 2nd time to get 6 stitches in my knee. this was also the end of my swimming in the sea for this holiday!
the bummer was the next day when we had to spend more than we had the whole week in Koh Tao to the rental women who held Georges passport hostage, until we forked up enough money to replace parts on the bike whenever they were only scratched. Live and Learn.

Then we were back in Bangkok in time for another melting hot shopping day at Chatachuk and some great food at our favourite street stalls before flying to Cambodia............

INCREDIBLE INDIA 4th-11th JULY

Our arrival in Delhi was a hot and tired one - it was 4am and our flight had been delayed. So it was really nice to finally arrive at our luxurious accommodation - ha yeah right! india is a whole new world when it comes to travelling and we realised we would have to adapt pretty quickly!

George was instantly put off by the rubbish and dirt, people using the street as a toilet and the cow poo everywhere. I could tell from the start this would probably be his one and only visit to India.

After spending a couple of days with the billion people who live there and of course the "holy cows" we set off from Delhi on the train to meet my lil sis Pamela in Jaipur (this turned out to be a lovely city and thank goodness she had been working hard to find a nice hostel before we came and she did a brill job!)

Then from Jaipur we went to Agra to see the Taj Mahal - this made the visit to India really worth it. It is magnificent - you think you know what it will look like since we've all seen the photos so many time but in real life it just surpasses all expectations. Other than the Taj Agra is pretty much the same as elsewhere and it rained a lot so we were walking in sewage sludge constantly. nice.

Then one humid evening while sitting on our rucksacks in a train station till 2.00am in the morning (while our train was 4 hours late) we managed to see more rats running around than all of us had seen in our lives all together.

 Pamela even managed to go to the same toilet as one at the same time!

When our train finally arrived it took us to Varanassi............apparently a very enlightening place.

Varanassi was definitely completely different to where we had been so far and the Ghats along the Ganges were really amazing. No matter what time we went there was something interesting happening and lots of colourful characters about. We were so keen to see the Ghats at their best we even got up at 5 in the morning for a boat ride. For Hindus this is a very sacred and spiritual place and many people come here to cremate their dead on the river and then mourn for them by bathing in it.

This was another highlight of India and when we managed to escape the loony that chased us up the road shouting "LEAVE INDIA NOW" and put the dirt, rubbish, heat and beggers to the back of our mind - I did genuinely like Varanassi and could see why people fall in love with it.

RUSSIA - MOSCOW 30th JUNE - 3rd JULY

RED Square, the Kremlin, St Basils Cathedral - all were amazing and really worth the vist.
The only other good thing about Moscow is the McDonalds, which we ate at nearly every day mostly because we could read the menu & it was the only food we could afford (MOSCOW is really really expensive)......they have the cleanest poshest McDonalds I have ever seen!!

People weren't unfriendly but were as warm as a Siberian winter and it was a really difficult city to get around. Although the Metro stations are superb with the most fascinating designs for each individual one. Each stop was like walking into a new Art Gallery.

Glad we have been - don't feel the need to go back (to Moscow) again!.

quick summery of Cape Town so far.........

Robben Island - where Nelson Mandela spent 18 years of his life behind bars with hundreds of other "political" prisoners . Our guide was a former political prisoner so we got a very "real" insight into life there.

George thought he looked like Wesley Snipes and was very impressed.

Waterfont - Touristy and expensive.

Table mountain - Got engaged!!!!! views are amazing. Stayed in a gorgeous hotel in Camps Bay.

Cape of Good Hope - unfortunately the heavens opened up on this day. The locals are right when they say the weather can be very unpredictable.

SHARK diving in a CAGE. Amaxing experience seeing Great white sharks up close, which was a surprising calm experience.

tomorrow we fly to London then Edinburgh for our week in Scotland.

CAPETOWN and the Proposal!!

we finally made it to this beautiful city that looks really spectacular with Table mountain at the back and gorgeous beaches to the front.

The big news is that George asked if I would marry him when we were sitting at the top of Table mountain looking out on the world below! I said yes!

It was midday 26th May 2008!

don't forget to check out some of my other photos on flickr.........

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cherrybombing/

George's thoughts about the trip and about South Africa so far.

(1) Sitting in the middle of 30 mainland Chinese miners on a 13 hour flight can be a very smelly experience. I actually wore a surgical mask the whole way it was that bad.

(2) South Africa - beautiful country, shame about the people.

(3) Re (2) above - actually its not that bad, but South Africans are not the warmest people in the world (both black and white). And customer service everywhere is appalling - you'd think people would act like they care about their jobs with national unemployment over 25%.

(4) We survived Johannesburg, but still retaine a constant fear of being car-jacked.

(5) Kruger Park was awesome but leopards are really very hard to find. Stupid leopards.

(6) Ostriches can be dangerous, especially when you fall off them.

Stellenbosch.....wine, hiking, ostriches and the doctor (?)!!

we have finally made it to wine country - yippeee!!! this I have really been looking forward to, there are over 200 vineyards here and you just drive from one to another tasting the wine and eating yummy cheese!!

we have had an interesting 3 days since my last post though!!! At Storms River we decided to get some excercise after spending the last 2 weeks sitting in a car and went to do the 4km hike to a waterfall. George and I took the wrong road and ended up doing 9kms!!!!! Alot of it was climbing over boulders around the coast and was pretty hairy in places!! sufice to say I have survived...........

Then we went to KNYSNA for a night, where we did a bit of tasting of the local oysters................delish! then drove along the coast for an hour before we realised we have forgotten our laundry and had to go back!.............nice blue lagoon here, pity the water is so flamin' cold!!

Then we drove to Ostrich country where our list of "MUST DO's" started with eating ostrich and riding ostrich in that order!! the eating was really good...........words cannot describe the riding!!! I had no idea they could go so fast with someone on top, neither did George, especially when he fell off and ended up at the Doctors with a suspected fractured bone!!!! finally we found out he hadn't done any real harm and a painkilling injection in the bum soon sorted him out.........pics to come soon!!!

So I am now permanently driving as George recuperates and he seems to have become designated wine taster!!

we only had time to visit two vineyards today but after getting the taste for it we've decided to stay on and spend the day here tomorrow too - tough call.

Heading South from Port Elizabeth.

well after almost missing the bus and and then only just surviving the 17hour journey we finally made it to Port Elizabeth (photo)..............a nice seaside town with a relaxed vibe where we spent all Sat walking the beach and chillin' on the seafront. The evening was spent at a comedy show with South african comedians that were staying at the same hostel......
then it was back on the road again yesterday as we hired another VW golf, this one is easier to drive thank goodness! and headed to Jefferys Bay down the coast, SURFERS paradise.........where after todays lesson I realised its not as easy as it looks!! after being battered black and blue by the waves and my surf board I left the water to watch the pro's. george wasn't one of them (!) although I must admit he was getting the hang of it pretty well!

now we are an hour down the road in Storms River............an interesting name, not that we can see if its an interesting place yet as we always seem to arrive everywhere at night!!

So thats us now 1/4 of the way to Cape Town from Port Elizabeth along the Garden route.

Cheetah

Jo'burg

These photos were taken in soweto, in the township called Kliptown. The people we met were living in really poor conditions but were working hard everyday to improve life for themselves and their kids, which was really inspirational........

George felt right at home hanging with his "homies"!!!!

By the way I can only put a small snippet of the photos on this site but you can go my Photopage on Flickr to see some more;

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cherrybombing/

I'll be adding to it as often as I can

some more photos.............give me time, this takes a while!!!

the story so far.........

ok so its been a while since we've had access to the internet as we've been busy tracking wild animals in KRUGER national park.........we proved to be very good at this and found everything apart from the elusive leopard!!

heres a quick rundown on our adventure so far.......

we started in Jo'burg one week ago, staying long enough to visit the Apartied museum, the Soweto township and to be scared senseless!! it is not advisable to go outside your accomodation after 5.30 at night when it gets dark, which makes it a really hard place to get to know as you feel caged in most of the time. anyway Jo'burg was a real experience and was good to start the trip with a really thourgh introduction to South afirca's "colourful" history.

Then we headed to De Wilt Cheetah reserve as we heard that it was virtually impossible to find a cheetah in Kruger...........little did we know that we would! anyway it was cool to see them up close and personal, while getting to stroke one (photos will come as soon as I can get to a good computer!)

Next to Kruger via Groskop - famous for its savoury pancakes and the 3rd largest canyon - tres bien. This is where I nearly fell down the side of the canyon and ended up with very attractive bruises and cuts from my knee to my ankle...........managed to keep the camera safe though - thats the most important thing!!! our last stop on the way to Kruger was Pretoria the capital where all the government stuff happens - and a lot of well off white people live.

Kruger was amazing, we had our own car and just drove and drove and drove (in intense sun) to find the animals..........its was so flamin hot I started to halucinate and shouting stop for a rhino when it was acutally a rock, or an elephant that was actually a tree!

For obvious reasons you can't get out of your car when your touring around, so we signed up for a guided walk. Your guides walk you through the bush and carry guns to protect you - don't know how effective that would be against a charging herd of breeding elephants! this also involved a 4.00 wake up, whcih amazingly I was able to do. I seem to be able to get up easier on holiday than when working - funny that!!!

Over all my view so far on South Africa is amazing country...........people could be a little friendlier though, but I guess that has a lot to do with their recent turbulant past.

Now we are catching the Greyhound bus to Port elizabeth to start the next leg of our trip..............a 17hour journey. doubt there'll be much to report on that!

hey ho only 2 weeks to go..........

so far april has been a fab month, there was my birthday where I had a cool chinese banquet with all my mates in the famous roast goose restaurant YUNG KEE, then my photography course where I learnt how to take quality photos for when we are on safari and finally learnt what all the buttons were for on my camera!!

Now it really is count down time; my Visa got confirmed for Australia yesterday and we just need to finish our jobs, get packed and go...................after we have a huge JUNK party HK style on 2nd May, of course. Can't wait.

EASTER HOLS

some more travelling before we leave............over easter I've headed to sunny northern ireland to chill and enjoy the clean fresh air, while georgous is partying like the animal he is in Shanghai.

travel tip - avoid Heathrow!!! it was a nightmare yesterday when they decided to start finger printing and photographing every passenger even though there was aprox 1/2 million people running late for their flights. Yeah good idea BAA.

Things George won't miss about Hong Kong

1. Being woken up by the noise of jackhammers at 8:15AM on Saturday.

2....

MARCH - still in Hong Kong.........

Well it's less than 2 months until I am no longer a Hong Kong resident (!!!) which is both sad and really exciting at the same time. The mixed emotions are a result of the wonderful 4 years I've had living here combined with the anticipation of our travels ahead where eventually we'll finish up in Sydney!!! (this is rather exciting for me but george isn't too fussed since he has always lived there!)

Anyway the next 7 weeks are to be spent enjoying this fab city, spending time with my lovely friends and packing!!! So to start the ball rolling on this travel diary I thought I'd show you all the view we've had from our window for the last two years (thats for everyone that didn't quite make it out to visit me!!!) - I will miss it, but not the nasty neighbours who throw rubbish out the window - TRUE (and we live on the 14th floor!)

I did think of putting our travel plans up for all to see but then decided against spoiling the surprise!! you'll just have to stay tuned........May 6th is the offical departure date.

BTW the adventure ahead is supposed to be updated by both Georgous and myself..........DO NOT be surprised if you never see a post from George.......... he is too busy doing useful things(George) (GEORGE, you can't add things to my posts - stick to your own)