indonesia pictures
July 29th, 2008 AmyThere are loads more pictures on my brothers website aswell
check out the ones from 1st-18th June
Road trip to mount bromo.
There are loads more pictures on my brothers website aswell
check out the ones from 1st-18th June
Road trip to mount bromo.
After about five nights in Kuta Beach (Bali’s most touristic locale, but great for enthusiastic budding surfers) we took an hour and a half ferry to the small and sleepy island of Lembongan. And it WAS quiet, so the first day was just spent relaxing a bit and taking advantage of the oh so HAPPY HOUR, which is of course an activity in itself. Read the rest of this entry »
My Aunties and cousins also took us rafting which was very cool…a bit scary at times as well. But all good fun getting bashed about a bit. We went past some amazing bat caves, the walls were black with bats. It stank Of bat poo. Then we jumped off a 3-4metre drop.eeeek. not in the boat..it was a voluntary thing at the end…
Then next the four of us (me, franco, ollie and lu) said g’bye and were on our own in the big bad world again. Headed to Yogyakarta…a 6 hour train journey that went surprisingly fast. I think it was because we played cards the whole way there.
So we arrived in Surabaya on the 4th June and were picked up by my cousin Edmun. We spent a few days just chilling out, playing cards with my other cousin Masato and of course eating lots of delicious food made by my ama (grandma). My aunite Lily’s house is beautiful its huge, japanese style with small waterfalls dotted about and big carp swimming about. Last time I stayed there they had a bad monkey that was terrorising the neighbourhood. Stealing pairs of glasses, tv remotes and killing peoples pets and leaving bits of my cousins rabbit everywhere. I’m glad to hear it has since been caught and punished for it’s crimes (I think someone shot it).
Just a quick message: We’ve gotten a bit behind on the website, so I think its probably a good idea to start from now…and we’ll fill you in later. There is 5weeks in Thailand to catch up on.
We are in bali right now. Planned to do a spot of surfing, but we seemed to have chosen a not so good time. Its the full moon, so the sea is a bit crazy now. Not so good for us beginners. Enormous waves. We need to wait a few days..find something else to do.
So after the amazing time we had in Langkawi, it was time to move on. New island, new country… on the reccomendation of the two french canadians we got a boat to Koh Lipe, Thailand. Its a pretty small island and we arrived just as the quiet season was starting, I can’t put it into better words than Franco, it felt like we’d “arrived at a festival just as it had finished”. There weren’t many people there, but I think that might have been a good think in a way. It didn’t feel over run by tourists. Alot of the shops and restaraunts had closed for the season though so there wasn’t loads of choice. But we still managed to get our first fix of those firery hot hot hot birds eye chillies! wooooh!
loads of pics..appologies if these take ages to download, they took
The Dodgeball team, cool and calm before the big tournament.
Mustafa, Franco, Marc and Guillaume
The Red Devils Read the rest of this entry »
We arrived on the picturesque island of Langkawi by ferry earlyish one wednesday morning. It is an archipelago of exactly 99 islands. Not 98 or even 100 but 99…. count ‘em.
The largest island by a country mile is merely referred to as Langkawi. You can drive around its captivatingly scenic circumfrence in about 3 hours at a leisurely pace on a small motorbike. We know, beacause we did.
There is no public transport on the island so we shared a taxi with two other Brits from the the jetty in the capital of Kuah to our beach (pentai) of choice, Cenang.
After meeting two friendly Swedish guys in the Perhentian islands who recommended a guesthouse they stayed at a few weeks previously, we made a bee line for the Rainbow Lodge. We were greeted by the affable co-owner and manager Addi. A genial chap anywhere between 35 and 45……. its so hard to tell with clean living people with really dark skin! The set-up was almost like an Amercan motel but much much more, with rooms all joined next to each other with covered front patios in front of each, designed for sitting and socialising. About 16 rooms in total with the reception/bar/cafe/TV & cinema room/general social space 20 metres accross the way.
It was still early so we went off for some Indian food whilst our room was being prepared.
We arrived back and settled in (or had a wee nap as some people may say). After chatting for a bit we realised that many guests had been there a while, anywhere from as long as us to a month and a half???? We found out that the next day the Malaysian water festival was to begin, with three days of events organised on the beach and in & around the sea.
The events ranged from arty competitions, to sports events, to big water fights and as it was government funded, it was uber well organised and there was large cash prizes up for grabs.
Whilst shimmying up 45 degree coconut tree to watch a dodgeball game (if this term confuses, look it up or watch the film) the ref asked if anyone wanted to play - I did. As did two other French Canadian guys and a Turkish Dane. At first it was a mess about but we were then asked to enter the competition. And so it began…….
After losing the first game (best of three) to a symphony of mocking from the other teams and supporters, who were exclusively local and quite adept at the game, we won the following three bouts that day. The beginnings of a team had be forged in steel, not to mention a hell of a lot of sand!
We had the following day off, to return two sleeps later to get down to the real knock-out, no messing stuff.
After a unexpectedly tiring but massively enjoyable day, I met up with Amy again to discover she had entered a batik painting competition - and won FIRST PRIZE. I bumped into her waiting to go up on the podium and claim her gold medal and 175 Ringitt prize (about 28 pounds). We all went home and realised the two Franch Canadian guys were staying at out hostel. A few beers were indulged in that night. Just to be sociable you understand!
So, two mornings later we returned, Amy following half an hour later with the best take away breakfast in town - rice, fish curry, spicy young papaya & herb salad, stirfried greens and strong sweet ice coffee. The breakfast of champions I here you say, well we’ll see.
Ok so a long story short, five games later, we won, we won the lot and suddenly people stopped snickering. The team we beat, sorry, stuffed in the semis threw their toys out of the pram and the upshot is I got my bag stolen by some post pubescent kindergarten scumbags. But life has to go on……. The win was still great though and the four of us shared the bounty of 600 Ringitts ( around 25 quid each). Slightly marred but still a great day.
The following day was rest and recovery after the day and night before. Playing cards, drinking beer in the afternoon and the like.
For the three days after that we hired out a motorbike to see the island. We visitied waterfalls, a wildlife park, Kuah town and more local sights. Each night we spent time with our new found friends in our brief but perfect little community.
We spent a few days doing nothing more than playing cards, listening to music and talking, but twice we went fishing in the evenings. Made possible by our ever more friendly and generous host Addi. We borrowed his fishing gear and he gave as a lift, fishing spot.
Amy and I both cought our first fish and I am now hooked……. please excuse the pun.
More to continue at a later date because we need to commence the holiday part of Thailand right now as it seems like we’ve been in small business-like transit towns forever.
Got our visas stamped in Myanmar (Burma) today though. Kho Pan Ngang tomorrow and hopefully a bit of solace and partying in equal proportions - it’s a hard life…….
Well its been a while since we have updated this blog thing now so I guess its about time.
Hiya, so we’ve just sailed back to normality(…well kind of) and have a few hours to kill before we get the coach to Penang on the West coast of Malaysia.
Just before we left the Cameron Highlands we did an amazing jungle treck, walking over rickety bridges one at a time, swimming in a waterfall, having a go on a blow pipe, getting bitten by ants (well that one was franco). What we were most exited about was seeing the Raffelsia Flower. The biggest flower in the world! It was pretty big, although technically its more of a fungus. It’s parasitic and grows off tree roots in the shaded parts of the jungle. It takes 5 years to grow and open up its petals apparently is pretty smelly. Although we couldn’t get close enough to it. They only flower for a week and the one we saw was up the steepest hill, we just about managed to scramble up there grabbing on to tree roots to get a photo.
