Fijian beach.

Anyway Fiji. Short and sweet (enough of the air stewardess on the flight over) especially that now I am bethrothed to Tania!. We only had 3 days there before heading home, we stayed on the main island in a place called Tubakula, a beachfront bungalow which was fully kitted out. The first day was beatiful about 30c glorious sunshine, as you may imagine we spent most of that day on the beach trying to get some sort of colour on us before getting home and being confronted with a nation of halfcasts (possibly not PC?!) after the summer Britains had. Our second day we were awoken at 5:30am buy what we hoped was a local variation on common whistling, unfortunately for us it was no such thing. It turned out to be one of the worst storms either of us had ever seen, just what we didnt want on one of our last few days away but heh, we've had our fair share of good weather (I almost mean that!). The storm pretty much lasted all day so not much to report there, day three we spent lazing about, last minute shopping and killing time before our flight (11:50pm Fiji time 10/08/06 ) the flight into L.A went smoothly, we crossed the 'international date line so actually arrived in L.A at 3:40pm on 10th August which is as close as we've got to time travel yet. Our time in America was short, hectic and annoying, the Yanks (trying my best not to pigeon hole here) we're as expected, fat, loud and irritating, maybe we got a slightly distorted view of the country in our short time there as they were on 'high alert' after the Heathrow shinannigans and we're running around like headless chickens with torrets or maybe there always like that, we'll have to return to find out. We arrived back in London 3 hours late but safely, roughly 6 months after starting our journey. We've come back with some things we didnt have before: brown skin, blonde hair, one engagement ring and an extra 2 stone of combined body mass, but mostly we've come back after having (as hoped) the best six months of our lives. Travelling is the best thing we could have done, we both hope we get chances to do more in the future, got to pay for this one forst though.

Same beach next day.

Us before we leave, Tan looking particularly unpleased.

To conclude we've decided to list some of our favorites and worsts (is that a word??) in a quick questionaire below, adios amigo's!

Favorite country: New Zealand.
Worst country: Singapore.
Favorite city: Tan-Sydney, Ant-Bangkok. (town-Queenstown)
Worst city: Bombay AKA 'Hell on earth'
Best beach: Tan-Whithaven beach Oz, Ant-Paloelem India.
Best excursion: Tan-Jet boat to Whitsundays, Ant-Treking in Chaing Mai Thailand.
Worst excursion: Sentosa island Singapore.
Best activity: Skydive (no competition)
Worst activity: Trampolining (never attempt to do whilst drunk and when its dark).
Best memory: Getting engaged (stopping putting your fingers down your throats you lot!!)
Worst memory: Getting to Bombay seeing the sights near our hotel (took about 15 seconds) and sitting in our room thinking what the bleeding hell are we doing!.

Thank you and good night, Ant and Tan xx xx

Home and hosed. remains copyright of the author ton, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Since we last updated we visited Wellington, only briefly, met up with someone we met on the Trek in Thailand and picked his brains about what to do and see on the South island and indulged in a local beverage or two (Mac's beer in fact, I hope we can get it at home!) we also made it to the Lord of the rings exhibition which had all the origional costumes and some parts of the set, we we're both pleasently impressed with it, far better than we thought it was going to be. We took the 1pm (3 hour) crossing to Picton which has to be the one of the most picturesque crossings around, beautiful coastline, rolling hills and some weird and wonderfull birdlife. We travelled down the West Coast first to the Abel Tasman national park.

Abel Tasman.

As you can see the place is stunning, we dodnt expect to see beaches nicer than most in Thailand/Bali here but NZ is full of suprises.

We travelled down toward the Glaciers making a few stops en route, Punakaiki (pancake rocks), Greymouth, Tuaranga Bay (seal colony) and Hokitika, picturtes to follow.

Seal colony, Tuaranga Bay.

Pancake rocks.

Both the Frans Josef and Fox glaciers (as in mints) were amazing, but what was more impressive was the speed in which they were retreating (a metre a day) it's a shame nothing can be done about it but thats global warming for ya!

Frans Josef Glacier.

Queenstown 'adventure capital of the world' was our next destination, we made pit stops at Haast and 'Wanaka' (try pronouncing that after a few) to see a few things including 'puzzling world'-fun for all the family. It was about then that we picked up Gordon. Gordon just happens to be a mouse, we dont know that for definate but there are a few things we do know for sure.Take a look at the evidence:

Half eaten oxo cubes.
Bags of rice and cereal with mouse size holes in them.
Small packages of round brown 'dropping' like items left at various points of the van.
Strange mousey rustling noises after dark.

So our powers of observation led us to believe we had a small rodent problem. We took all possible precations, swept up crumbs, hid foodstuffs, and as we had no mouse killing pills we sprayed the van with deodrant to try and make him leave. Thankfully and probably for none of the fore mentioned reasons after 3 nights of inscessant mouse activity he decided to leave us in peace, either that or we'll find him dead and decaying in our rucksacks when we pack!

Puzzling world Wanaka.

Swimmers beach.

Us smooching by random lake.

Mt Cook.

Anyway back to our trip, Queenstown was great, our favourite town so far, it really has everything, snow capped peaks, more activities than you could shake a stick at, great shops returants and bars, the only problem is that its so bloody far from home!

Queenstown, view from the top of the Gondala.

We are now in Christchurch spending our last day in NZ sightseeing before we head onto Fiji hopefully for some sun then we'll be making our way back. It's a very 'bitter-sweet' feeling coming home we obvisouly want to see everyone and there have been things we've missed from home....umm... cant actually think of any as yet (apart from people of course) but we really love this travelling lark, its a fantastic way of living, its just a shame that we dont have a bottomless pit of money which we would need to continue this trip. We have been playing NZ lotto scratch cards in the vain hope of winning some dollars, but unless our streak of bad luck on them ends abruptly then we will see you all very soon.

Oh my god we cant believe it we've never been this far away from home!

Love from Ant and Tan xx

On our last legs! remains copyright of the author ton, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Us putting a brave face on just before getting kitted up.

We both had great instructors who sort of put our minds at rest and the journey up in the very small very rattly plane was suprisingly o.k. Reality set in once the door was opened and people started hurtling themselves out one by one, thankully this process was fairly rapid and before we knew it we were sitting at the door with our legs hanging out and with one look back (for a pre-jump photo) we were out.

Me on the way out, I know the pic looks superimposed but I promise its not, we've got a DVD with more proof if needed! (WARNING: DVD contains graphic facial movement that some viewers may find offensive or just plain wrong)

The freefall lasted about 45 seconds, long enough to stretch out cheeks by a good 8 inches and to make our mouths dryer than a barmaids armpit, but it was the best bit, just a really intense feeling with views of both the East and West coast of NZ amazing! once the chute was opened all was left was a gentle ride down to the ground during which time the instructor even gave me a shot at controlling the chute. Our only complaint was it was over all too quickly and if we get a chance to have another go well do it in the drop of a 'human from 12000ft'!.

We cant really top that event I wouldnt have thought from now on in, but we'll attatch a few pictures of a national park (Taringiao or summit like that) very beatiful!

Snowy national park.

Terinaki falls.

Tan with snow.

Us-lake Roturia.

Take care all, Ant and Tan xx

Skydiving remains copyright of the author ton, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Not a great deal to report from our last 10/12 days or so in Australia, we didnt do a lot, mainly lazing by the pool making the most of the warm weather when we could. We did go to Saturday in the park "festival" its in inverted commars as we're not sure it actually classes as a festival, it didnt really live up to expectations but thats probably more to do with us being spoilt at home with the best festival in the world (Glastonbury!)

Last tuesday we arrived at Auckland airport after a 4 and a half hour flight from Cairns, to be honest the weather wasn't as bad as we had expected, cool yes but not quite brass monkeys so touch wood that'll still be the case when we next update once we're on the South Island (the far colder of the two). Auckland was good, much like many other cities but we enjoyed our few days there, great food (the fish and chips in particular) yes we're really branching out and trying all the local delicassies! We went up the Sky tower there, the tallest building in the Southern hemisphere apparantly, got some great ariel pictures of the city.

We've taken out another 'wicked camper' this one's called 'Dickhead' but amazingly its far less offensive than goold old Charlie. Its a little smaller than Charlie but is a 4X4 which i'm sure we are going to make full use of by the end of this leg, no more getting laughed at for getting stuck in the mud! HA!

We took 'Dickhead' North at first to Northland (wouldnt have guessed from the name I bet?) We visited 90mile beach, which as the name suggests is a large area of sand and sea, the Bay of Islands along with the Largest Kauri tree in the world (second largest species after Californian redwoods) it truely was a monster over 18m in circumference thats around the base(I knew that maths GCSE would come in usefull..........even though it took me four attempts....sorry I digress) anyway very large and very impressive. We then took a couple of days to visit family my (Ant) Grandfathers brother who lives in Whangarei pronounced Faw-ngar-ai yep the New Zealand place names are just as confusing as the Welsh (for all you non Welsh of course) and Tans cousins, in-laws in Hamilton which was really nice, NZ already more than anywhere else has a really homley feel to it, maybe its the visiting family, the weather or the rugby or a mix of the three, but we're really enjoying.

We're now in Rotorua, which smells like Port Talbot after a curry. It's full of steaming Geysers, sticky mud and eggy wiffs but its a fantastic place, so many amazing things to see and do, with that in mind we'll bid our farewells and get to it.

Cheerybye, Ant and Tan xx

New country, New Zealand remains copyright of the author ton, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

G'day Mates, how is everyone, thanks for the comments, its always great to get them!

Since we last updated we've done more driving (in fact the last section) seen some more great things, met some top people and have finally got some good weather, so we're not just as jealous about the weather reports from back home as we were!.

We got to the Whitsundays on a cool and rainy day and even thought twice about spending a princely amount to go and visit them, but it would have been like going to Burger king and not buying a burger..... it just doesnt happen. We plumped for a day trip on an ocean raft, which to give you an idea is a large Dinghy with 2 aircraft engines as outboards, they are the boats which you see going down large rivers in the U.S and NZ, great fun. The boat took us (rather quickly) to a small island for some snorkelling first off, it wasnt quite as warm as snorkelling in Thailand but with a wetsuit and some moving about it wasn't too bad either. saw some weird and wonderfull things under the water including a shark spotting claim by Tan, she did say it was just a baby though. We then went onto to Whitehaven inlet and beach, both absolutley breathtaking you can see why it gets voted worlds number one beach regularly, although we didnt have perfect weather the sun did appear for us at lunch when we arrived at the beach, it gave us a chance to go for a swim and feed some fish. Also included was a bushwalk which included licking an Ants bum, now the conclusion most of you have jumped to is not neccassarily the correct one, although it is the same one as I jumped to when the guide first suggested it. The Ants are local and green-arsed ones which taste kind of like lime, i'd imagine they're pretty good draped over a Margerita, we'll see if tesco will stock them. The journey back consisted of the driver breaking the speed of sound doing various dounuts and handbrake turns, several of the older people in the group making full use of their colostimy bags and me loosing a flip-flop (thong!) But it has to be one of the best days we've had all along.

Fishy, on the great barrier reef.

From Airlee beach (the Whitsundays) we headed to Cairns, our final destination stopping off a few times on route, including a day long stop in Atherton just West of Cairns, it had 5 or 6 beatifull waterfalls which we're glad we spent the time going inland to visit.

Us at a waterfall in Atherton.

Making use of our waterproof camera again.

We're now in Cairns and have dropped charlie off *sob* but as soon as we land in icy cold New Zeland we're taking another loudly painted 'wicked camper' out!

Hope everyone well, Love from Ant and Tan xx xx

Why can't all Sundays be like this? remains copyright of the author ton, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Ten days or so on, 2000 miles later were a little bit nearer to our final destination in Oz-Cairns. We've had great fun, the three of us (Me Tan and Charlie) and apart from a few leaks and some funny noises (all coming from Tan I may add) we're getting on brilliantly.

From our last entry in the blue mountains, which incidentally seems like years ago we've visited quite a few different places, some great some not so. Our first stop was Stockton near Newcastle, i've never been to Stockton in the U.K but i'd imagine it has about the same amount of charm and character as Stockton-Aus..... none! we made a quick move from there north, heading towards Byron Bay the hippy resort down under. We made a few other pit stops on the way but nowhere either of us can remember so I wont waste typing time on them.

Byron Bay was great, we finally hit our first patch of good weather (sunny and about 21c) the town reminded us of an upmarket Goa minus the rubbish and with a little bit more class, kind of hippies who werent really hippies they were loaded (lots of nice cars) but just dressed scruffily, not neccassarily a bad thing but just what we picked up on. The beach at Byron was stunning, apparantly 17kms of unbroken white sands altough not having walked the length I cannot confirm or deny that fact. We spent a couple of days there relaxing, we also managed to spot Dolphins at sunset and Whales at sunrise which we were chuffed about, it saved us a packet on paying for a whale watching trip thats for sure.

We headed to the Gold coast from Byron, about 4 hours drive. The Gold coasts a kind of upmarket Costa, spending too much time there is just a bad idea, everything there costs lots. We just had the one day there, after winning a bet a few weeks back Tan had decided to give a rollercoaster a go, which is something i've never been able to convince her to try. We paid a visit to Movieworld, a kind of Warner brothers Disneyworld. True to her word we went on a double looping corkscrewing 150foot terror ride and to my total suprise she loved it, and after we went back to the van and she changed her undies I couldnt get her off the rides for the rest of the day.

Us and Wayne Rooney on a day off from the world cup.

Brisbane was next, we were just an hour too late to catch a footy (Ozzie rules) game at the Gabba which was (Quote-Tan)"dissapointing" so we had to make do with a look around the stadium and a visit to the club shop. We only spent a few hours in Brisbane as the nearest we could camp was about 10kms out, we did meet up with a couple of people we went treking with in Thailand which was great as they are doing the opposite journey to us we compared notes went bowling and had a few stubbies.

Tropical rainforst in Gladstone.

Turtle power!

From there we went to Rainbow beach, the jump off point to Fraser island, the largest sand island in the world. Although it rained like we've never seen before for 4 hours straight during the morning it didnt take anything away, the place was amazing, we went on a 4X4 bus day trip, visited Shipwrecks, lakes, Lagoons, desert, swamps, rainforest and the famous 65mile beach all of this on an island which is just 15kms wide at its widest point, mindblowing!. We didnt know what to expect but we were blown away with how much life there was and with the amount of different enviroments that were packed into such a small area. A great day out and we'd love to come back again and camp here for a little longer, if thats ever possible.

Shipwreck on Fraser island.

Lake Mckenzie.

We're now about 800 miles North at Airlee beach, part of the Whitsundays. Wednesday we take a day trip out to a few of the islands to see what all the fuss is about a bit of snorkelling too, We end up on Whitehaven beach which apparantly has the whitest sand in the world, we'll let you know.

Bye bye for now, Ant and Tan xx xx

The long drive North remains copyright of the author ton, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Well a new country, a new language (sort of) and definately a new climate, crikey! I think the cerimonial 'shrimp throwing on the barbie' will have to wait, its brass monkeys out here. You'd think coming from Wales we'd be hardened and used to cold weather, but it seems not. Arriving at Sydney airport 6am in flip-flops (sorry thongs, using the local talk) a t-shirt and shorts probably wasn't the wisest decsision but it was a bit of a shock to the system and we're slowly but surely acclimatising.

We spent out first 3 days in Sydney, it felt like a cleaner, friendlier and generally nicer Britain (maybe the weather helped us reach that comparison?!) we had a great few days, did the usual sight-seeing bit, Opera house, Harbour bridge, Bondi etc... but as with lots of capital cities it was pretty expensive, not quite as pricey as home but having got used to staying at hotels for 3/4quid a night and both eating and drinking for a fiver it was back to the 'real world'.

We've hired a camper van to travel up to Cairns in, its a bit of a shed and covered in some very distastefull graffiti but its got (almost) everything we need, bed, table, cooler, sink, oven etc... no toilet or shower though, we're hoping that our Glastonbury experiences can see us through the hardest of times in 'Charlie' we've not travelled far from Sydney as yet, just a couple of hours West to the Blue Mountains, its a beatiful area there are a few national parks here, caves, lakes and (youve guessed it Mountains, although we've yet to see a Blue one yet!) we spent our first couple of days here camping (in our van) in one of the national parks. Within 20 minutes of geting into the park we realised we didnt have any drinking water then proceeded to get our van stuck in the mud, CLASSIC! we had to get help via some Indian tourists who passed on our S.O.S call to the Rangers who turned up an hour later and rescued our "sorry Pomme arses" (they didnt say that, but they didnt need to). We also thought we'd make use of the skills we had picked up from the Ray Mears 'bushcraft' show and collect and boil our own drinking water from a local source, great idea but it tasted like vomit and our tum's seemed to almost instantly repel it, ah well we did try.

The park was great, we were the only campers there, not unsuprising as the night temprature hovered around freezing! but we had Kangaroos nearby as well as dozens of different brirds including some lovley white parotts who let us hand feed them.

We're now in Katoomba going to spend the night here before making our way back to the coast up toward Newcastle and hopefully to sunnier climbs!

Take care all, Anthony and Tania xx

Antartic Australia remains copyright of the author ton, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Bali was great, brilliant weather, good food, beatiful scenery but like everywhere we've visited so far it had god awful local wine, we have so far resisted the temptation of splashing out on ridicuously priced imported wines and have had to make do with lager and weird sounding highly flammable regional spirits, poor us eh?! So for one reason we're looking forward to getting to Sydney and sampling some of the best Australia has to offer but for so many other reasons we'll be sorry to leave Bali, and Asia as a whole. We've both enjoyed Asia more than we had expected, and could have easily spent our 6 and a half months here but the tickets are booked and no doubt we'll continue to have a great time in Oz and afterwards.

Anyway back to Bali, we only managed to see about a third of the country partly as we got stuck in Kuta (think any one of several hundered resorts around the Med) for almost 2 weeks (long and very boring story....much like the blogs then eh? in fact dont answer that) from there we travelled north to Ubud which is the area that lots of manufacturors (sp?!) artists, writers, desingers (and us) stay. It also had a monkey forest nearby where the monkeys had some some traits as some of the kids from Bonymaen, small, very cheeky, they both tend to have whispy hair around the face and slightly long dirty fingernails (not wanting to stereotype of course, I mean some of the monkeys were positively large) We also hired a car which was terrible, we spent 4 hours the first day avoiding scooters with whole families on, carts filled with fighting cocks (i'll leave you draw your own conclusion) and just continually going around in circles. That was even before we left our hostel! to cut a long story short driving in Bali isn't for us. Once our pride had been bashed and pride alone (more luck than judgement) we gave up and hired a car with a driver, only slightly more expensive but a damn sight less stressfull. He took us to visted a series of beatiful temples and Gunang Batur (Bali's second larget volcano) which was stunning, we've got some great pics and we're hoping to get some on here from Oz.

From Ubud we came south again to Sanur, we only stayed for a couple of nights but managed to see everything worth seeing (we think) we got up the second morning at 5:15am to watch the sunset thinking it would be very romantic to watch the sun come over the horizon sat together on a deserted beach, think again. There must have been at least 300 kids there, apparantely on summer holidays from Java and although they kind of spoilt the romance it just wouldnt be Asia without a few hundered locals at close proximotory, we spent most of the rest of the day playing the biggest game of crazy golf i've seen in my life, 18 punishing holes which incidentally for the record books I (Ant) won, sorry Tan.

Following Sanur we caught a shuttle bus to Dreamland (Erics old stomping ground) we met up with Indra who ran the place where Eric stayed and made camp in his old tree house. It's a fantastic place, the houses are built in a large field which is on top of a cliff overlooking 2 beaches, everyone we met (including Erics cronnies Arya and ChiMien) were so helpfull and friendly we both felt right at home, they even had 3 dogs to amuse us. We had only planned to stay a night or 2 there before heading off to see more of Bali but we didnt leave until we had to come to the airport a week later, again got some photo's to put on here. I think we've said this about each place we've been, but we mean it! that we'd love to come back to Bali again in the future, theres lots we just didnt get to see and do, and lots we'd like to see and do again, Tremacassy Bali!

For some people at home they will be glad that we're leaving an area of moving tectonic plates, civil unrest and bird flu but we'll be a little sad although we do have six weeks in Australia to soften the blow, Ozzy ozzy ozzy!! oh yes and the world cup, i've got to stop Tania continually counting down, 6 days 5 hours 26 minutes, 25 minutes, all in good time Tan.

Seeya this 'arvo, bring your 'ute, fair'd inkum mates.

Ant and Tan xx

Gnarly Bali. remains copyright of the author ton, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

After the islands we travelled back to Bangkok on another wonderful Boat/Bus combo, another 12 hour fun filled trip on public transport only made bearable by our consumption of half a litre on SamSon(very cheap Local Thai whiskey, very very cheap-like 1 quid 50 for a litre)coke and red bull during another marathon journey. We spent a couple of nights on Th Koah Sarn before booking a trip into Cambodia to visit Angkor Wat.

We needed to leave and re-enter Thailand as our visa was just about out. The trip was three days, day one-travel there, day two-see the temples, day three-travel back. Sounded fine no problems (we thought) We started our journey from Bangkok at about 8am on Sunday, got to the border 4 hours later and proceeded through passport control (another 2/3 hours) when we got to the end we were informed by a seriously moody female police officer that our visa was 2 days out of date! we we're sure this was't the case and tried to argue our point, that was untill she pointed at the visa stamp which read expired 28th April! Ooops, so we paid our fines (1000 Bhat) and went through the border to our 4th country of our trip. As we walked through the border we saw 4 or 5 huge very swish looking casinos, apparantly their illeagal in Thailand and the Thai men come across the border to gamble in their spare time. Once we passed those our impressions we're very simular to those when we firt got to India, "SHIT a bombs gone off!" it was very dirty, there were lots of beggars and pretty much pverty was the order of the day. We were then hussled into a very rickity old minibus, which appeared to have gunshot holes in the windscreen, we found that very reassuring. We headed toward Siem Reap (the town where Angkor Wat is found) the road there can only be described as the worst fooking road in the world, potholes the size of small children dusty as hell with gravel and chippings everywhere. The suspension on the bus didnt really help either it was awfull, to put it in perspective the driver (drive I think his name was) was ragging the bus for all it was worth the whole way and we took 6 hours to get 150kms! we did have a few stops on the way and met some really great people, it still amazes us that the happiest people we seem to meet are the ones with nothing!

Another impressive temple.

We arrived battered and bruised at the hotel around 9pm and arranged to visit Angkor Wat the following day at sunrise, we thought that we may had well do it properly! Angkor Wat and the other 5/6 temples in the grounds were simply breathtaking, neither of us have seen anything remotely like it before and to be honest we probably never will again......unless we go back of course! Its just mindblowing how much detail was on every pillar and post, and the scale of everything was simply immense, its hard to describe it, but it's the kind of place that gets the hairs on the back of your neck stand up (and the ones on Tan's palms we're doing likewise as I remember.......sorry Tan) (hes joking!)(no i'm not)( shut up!)(o.k hairy).....

We spent most of Monday there and travelled back Monday on the same god awfull route, we're now in Bangkok again but just for one more day before we fly to Bali tommorrow morning. We really dont want to leave Thailand, but we must move on. Next stop Bali!

Speak to you all soon, Ant and Tan xx

Us by a tree in the tomb raider temple!

Incredable Angkor! remains copyright of the author ton, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Elephanta island Bombay.

Fish, Koh Tao.

More Pictures remains copyright of the author ton, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Us Gateway to India, the royal Taj hotel and another building.

Goa-Anjuna-Sunset.

Pictures remains copyright of the author ton, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Our waterproof camera's now coming into it's own, thanks Jane and Martin for that, the pictures which will hopefully be on the blog (by blind luck if nothing else) are really clear, we've got over 1500 pictures so far, so all of you lucky people schedule a week or so off so we can bore you ridged with them, and with our stories of the seven sea's (well 4 oceans, 3 sea's and a few rivers).

We've spent the last 3 weeks being extremley lazy, we can now understand why so many travellers spend so long in Thailand, you take things slowly but time seems to speed up!? After the full moon we spent a week recovering (with a bit more partying mixed in) on Ko Phangan, the island was great, we met a lot of really cool people to but the beach for a few days after the party was a bit messy, they do a lot more than the Indians about rubbish (to be fair thats not hard)but with that many people dropping litter its inevitable that things will be a little dirty straight after, it's amazing that the water has stayed so clear, although maybe that wont always be the case.

We then went to Ko Samui, a larger more deleveloped island with its own airport. It was nice as we had a room with satalite t.v (we watched the F.A cup semi's, only because Tan kept on and on about them) ate a few burger kings, shopped at tesco's so it was kind of like being at home which isn't really what we're after although after roughing it for the most part so far it was nice to have some home comforts. There were also lots of old fat white men with their newly found Ting-tong (Thai bride) which was pretty horrible. We did take out a scooter to see the island and i'm pleased to report my driving has improved since I last owned a chicken-chaser no bumps or crashes, not even that many near-misses, although we're not going to tempt fate, we'll keep the scooter riding to a bare minimum.

From Samui we went to the smallest island we've visited so far, Koh Tao. It was beatifull, unspoilt, quiet beaches, great beach bars and huts to stay in and the clearest water either of us have seen so far, its where the pic above was taken. We wished we had longer there but our visa's we're about to run out so we had to head back to Bangkok then onto Cambodia (Angkor Wat) to get a renewal. More updates then. We'll leave another pic at the bottom of a sunset on the last night on Koh Toa, its me (Ant) on the rock.

All the Koh's remains copyright of the author ton, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

The night itself was top drawer, 6/7 stages playing an assortment of music, mostly psy-trance/techno, but some R&B, drum and bass and even some decent house, so plenty to amuse everyone, we've got some good pic's and video clips to show everyone. Also lots of fire dancers, juggling types etc... and in general much fun was had by all. The only dissapointing thing is that we wont be here for the next one! the half moon party in a week (near a waterfall and slightly smaller) should soften the blow somewhat.

The party also coincided with the Thai New Year (Songkran) which from what we can understand is just a 4 day water fight! we've been thourougly soaked through since the start (1am wednesday) when we cheered in the year 2549 with the locals. The festival also meant that there were more people than usual at the party (around 15,000 apparantely)

Not much else to add as these past 4/5 days have just been consumed with the full moon but cheers for everyones comments. Others= (non-comment-makers) pull your fingers out!

Cheerybye Ant and Tan xx

Full mooning at the full moon remains copyright of the author ton, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

We spent a couple of days looking around the town and relaxing before our three day trek. We weren't sure what it would exatly entail, we probably should have guessed by it's name that a fair amount of walking was involved but we didn't. It got pretty hot too (about 40c and not a lot of shelter) we were in a group of 9, a New Zelander 2 Israel's and the rest we're Brits. The whole group got on really well......except one, a girl from Morriston would you believe, she went to school with Steve P, Cooper and Mctaggart Rachael Johns?! ring any bells, bit of a pain in the arse typical Morristonite (other than the people we know from there of course!) the rest were a great bunch and we've already made plans to meet up with some of them in Oz. We were treated to a local homemade liquor called moonshine on the trip, bonkers stuff we have the recipie so when we get home we'll give it a go although it's illegal the buzz you get off it is worth the risk! We also got to do a bit of elephant riding (again not that great they didnt seem to like it one bit) and bamboo rafting which was brilliant, we're both covered in cuts and bruses from ambushing any dry people passing at the end, those poor families!

After 5/6 days in Chaing Mai we got another overnight train to Bangkok, after one night there we got the overnight bus to Ko Phang nang with the help of a ferry. The journey from start to finish took 18 long hours, and it didnt help that we were sat behind a snooring middle aged man (with his Thai bride) who took snoring to a whole new level which he started about 5 minutes out of Bangkok. It's the longest and most uncomfortable journey we've had since we've been away and wont rush to book another bus thats for sure.

Ko Phang nang is beautiful, the place we are staying at has a great bar/pool/beach front location and its great to see a beach again after about 4 weeks of travelling about (its a hard life we know) we havent seen a lot of the island yet but are planning to do that once it cools down later (Ant)as i've sunburnt myself, you'd think we'd be used to it by now but it must be in the British genes that sunburn (under any circumstances) is a given.

We have the full moon party tommorrow night, 5000 people raving on a beach I bet it will have nothing on the 'Swansea bay' parties of 2 summers ago eh?!

Will post again after that......probably a few days after, once fully recovered.

Photos seem to be a no-go but we're still trying, we dont look very different, still as beautiful as you remember us!

Toodledo, Anthony and Tania.

Thailand- top-middle-bottom remains copyright of the author ton, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

We left Bangalore without too many problems...........except Tania's card being swallowed by a starving Indian ATM, is all o.k now.

It was a bit sad leaving India but the excitment of going to a whole new country was enough to soften the blow.

Singapore was nice, very clean, quite expensive (about 2/3quid for a beer, a scandal!) so with our budget in mind 3 days was more than enough there. It also rained everyday (I know that will please some of you) but was about 30c so we muddled through. We spent most of our time there in Chinatown which was very nice, lovley buildings and even better food.

We left for Thailand (2.5 hour flight) on 30th and arrived at our hotel just off Koh Sarn Road about 4pm. Went straight out to the Ko Sarn to take in and become part of the 'madness' it's a fantastic street, anything and everything under the sun being sold and a mad mixture of sights sounds and smells (the smells a mix of street food and crusty hippy types) we've spent 4 days now sussing out the city and doing the usual sight seeing bit. We head tonight on an overnight train to Chang Mai for some treking, rafting and other good stuff like that will keep you all posted.

We did upload some pic's from Singapore but somethings gone wrong...............we're still on the case.

India-Singapore-Thailand remains copyright of the author ton, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Bangalore's been great, a very different kind of city to Kochi, and I dont think theres anywhere like Bombay. It's quite Westernised, lots of shops and names we recognise KFC, Lacoste, Nike etc.... and lots of neon lights at night it almost feels like we've already left India......but you still get the stares and curries here so maybe not. It's slightly refreshing for us (as westerners) to suddenly have all these things on offer but we both hope this isn't the India of the future, unfortunately to a point its inevitable.The most appealing thing about visiting India is the vast differences there are to how we live and definately how we treat people, it sometimes makes you feel slightly uncomfortable and some of it's hard to get your head around, but ultimately it's what makes this place so interesting. It go's without saying that money will help the poverty although it doesn't yet seem to have had much of an impact in Bangalore, but we hope the money doesn't create another America or Britain and India stays Indian, if that makes sense?!

One thing the money hasn't done is 'create reasnable opening hours' for pubs and bars, 11:30 is the latest they can get a licsence for. We only discovered this on Friday when we went out for a few drinks, thankfully after about an hour of searching for somewhere to carry on we came accros a bar that was just closing up (around midnight) and the owner, once he saw we were 2 white people immediately re-opened and had a lock in untill about 2:30am! it just emphasises how friendly and helpfull everyone here is, and we'll definately miss that but we're both sure we'll come back again, possibly not as travellers maybe as honeymooners! who knows.

We'll update again, hopefully with pictures from Singapore.

Bye for now, Anthony and Tania xx xx

Namaskar India, we'll be back! remains copyright of the author ton, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Seriously though we're both very happy and are looking forward to having a bit of a shin-dig when we get back......in about 6 months! no definate plans about a date etc... all in good time.

Other than the news not a lot to report, as I mentioned we've just been sat in some dark, dingy, smelly little bars for the past 48hours its been very romantic necking booze and scoffing pork scratchings.

We're off on another night train tonight to Bangalore (our final destination) leaving at 8:30pm arriving at 7am, no doubt another interesting experience.

We'll love you and leave you (dont get any ideas Tan!) speak to you all soon.

Anthony and Tania (soon to be Mr and Mrs David-Wallace-Jones.....maybe) xx

Bit of news remains copyright of the author ton, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Right from Palolem we took the train to Trivindrum (capital of Kerala) which was a plesent 14 hour overnight journey, this time we chose to downgrade to a cheaper class, not quite 'chicken and goat' class but a downgrade all the same, we passed some of the time playing our new game 'spot the turd' which can be played by two or more players on any railway track in India, simply spot a stray dropping on the track and yell 'TURD' that gives you (and/or your team)one point it's amazing how the hours get eaten up playing it!

Trivindrum was o.k, we just spent one day there visiting the Zoo, zoo zoo. Along with some temples and an old palace. After such a franticly hectic day we thought it was time to take things a little easier so we caught another train, played some more 'spot the turd' and got off at Varkala, a beach resort perched on some deathly high cliffs. After 2 days of relaxing and generally festering in our increasing wiffy clothes we moved onto Allepey which is the home of the houseboats.

The houseboats are like giant motorised whicker baskets, although that description does them no justice at all. If anyones interested google - houseboats, kerala, backwaters. we hired an extravigantly (sp?!) luxurious boat for 22hours and it took us around a series of lakes, streams rivers etc... for the princely sum of RS3500 (about 32quid) the price included all the food drinks and the company of 3 ridicuously helpfull boatmen, or seamen as we preferred to call them.

From Allepey we took a 6 hour bus ride to Kumily, the town just outside Periyar wildlife santuary. we organised a day gentle treking through the park (or at least we thought) when we saw an Indian version of Daily Thompson arrive to pick us up at 5:30am our concerns began. These concerns continued to grow as 'Daily' set of at world record pace (for the 400m) after 10 minutes we were pleased to see leeches sucking the blood ot of our legs......it gave us a chance to stop and take on water! Good old Daily then provided us with leech socks which allowed us to continue on at our monstorously punishing pace (Great!) Thankfully about 40 minutes in we spotted a family of elephants (Mum,Dad,Baby) and it gave us a chance to stop for a while and take some photos (hopefully uploaded from Singapore next week) we also got glimpses on Bison, Deer, giant squirells, monkeys, numerous creepy crawlies (tania loved that bit) and of course the obligitory cow (it is India after all) A fantastic day, and i'm sure if we had got a chance to get used to the conditions and had, had some altitude training we'd have faired much better with the hiking! (well thats our excuse and we're sticking to it)

Next stop was Munnar, about 5 hours North of Kumily and about 5000ft above sea level (even raising a bottle of beer there leaves you breathless) this place was stunning, steep hills and moutains covered in tea and spice plantations, with lots of lakes, rivers and waterfalls dotted about its just about the most beautiful and tranquil place either of us has visited, its certainly a far cry from Bombay!

We've now arrived back on the coast (Kochi) we we're staring to get withdrawal symptoms from not being able to go to the beach and we're here for 3 days before getting our very last train in India (*sob*) to Bangalore on Wednesday.We'll be sure to savour our last week in India but i'm sure we'll return here again one day, it's such an amazing place!

TTFN, we'll update again soon (we'll at least think about it anyway!)

Love from Anthony and Tania xx

Kerala-Gods own country! remains copyright of the author ton, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Bit of a mixed week, after our early confidence in the local food we were brought down to earth with a bang (well an explosion of some description) I think we just got a bit cocky and started ordering just about anything on the menu that was meat or seafood based. The straw that broke the camels back was the shark and chips and Tuna and chips we shared for breakfast last Sunday. Even as I (Ant) started to eat it I thought 'hang on a minute, theres something fishy about this ummm fish' and low and behold about 6 hours later we were both suffering from acute rapid vomiting and explosive diarrherea simultaniously (sorry for the graphic description if youve just had your lunch, especially if it was a tuna and mayo sarnie! yuck). We've chalked it up to experience after a few days in bed we're just about back on form.

We've moved a few times since our last update, from Anjuna to Baga which is like the costa del sol on India absolutely 'orrible place with 'orrible British people taking in some "Indian culture" LOL. We made a sharp exit from there onto Benaulim which was a quieter town again on the beach but nothing too exciting to report from our 2 days there just lots of sunbathing, swimming and drinking (how is the weather back home?!)

We are now in Palolem which is the beach featured on most of the pictures you see of Goa, it's stunning! we're staying in the cozy nook beach huts and they're bloody great, slightly more pricey than what we've been used to (about IRS900, which is 8 quid(ish)) but well worth the extra, theres a coconut tree growing through our main room (looks lovley but can be a pain when you get up for a wee in the middle of the night),a bed outside in our own little garden area, along with comfy chairs and chair hammocks just in front abd its dotted with lots of candles and seashells, it's proper like! oh and most importantly its faces the nicest beach we've been to yet! Unfortunately our budget wont allow us to stay here forever but we're going to enjoy the few nights we've got there before we move back to another cheap cockroach infested fleapit (cant wait!)

We've booked to go on 2 boat trips, one to spot dolphins on Monday and another to go snorkelling on butterly island we've realised that sitting on a beach all day isn't all we can do! we'll let you know how they go.

We've found the camera cable that Tan lost but the connection is slower than Bob is putting his hand in his pockets for a round (just kidding!) so we'll have to wait until we get to probably Singapore (26th March) before we can upload any pictures.

Speak to you all soon, Anthony and Tania xx

Palolem-picture postcard stuff remains copyright of the author ton, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

The introduction of meat and seafood into my diet has yet to have any dramatic potentially explosive consequences so I dont know if thats down to my iron stomach or the lack of hygine in our home cooking but so far so good, Tan's still not ventured outside the world of fried cottage cheese and lady fingers (we have no idea what these things are but they appear in every vegitarian meal here) but she did say that the rat kebab and dog hair in pitta sounded almost irrisistable so she may yet be broken.

We're spending our second day in Anjuna which is picture postcard stuff. The beach is miles long and the waters crystal clear (jelous anyone? sorry) theres lots of beach bars and cafe's pumping out techno from about 10am and loads of stalls selling rubbish hippy clothes (Eric would love it) it's like a small Glastonbury by the sea, but with beatiful weather (again sorry)

Looks like we're going to stay here for a few days and i might have to show Tan my moves on a scooter which there are millions of locally, (I wonder if they have Scarabeo's?)

There are far few beggars here only the odd Blind man and one legged cyclops about on the beach but the shop owners are still more pushy than Ian Huntley at bath time.

Right we're off for a dip in the sea (sorry once more people) will write once we've done more than just laze about eat and get drunk ..........which could be a while.

Anthony and Tania xx

Goa Tie-dye central remains copyright of the author ton, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

We got talking to lots of different Indians and they all have been some of the friendliest and most genuine people we've ever met, our first impressions were most definately way off the mark. The staring thing is apparantely down to them being inquisitive about us and they also find it strange that 2 white people are on holiday in the armpit of the sub continient! and to be fair they have a point Bombay isn't the most attractive city we've ever been to, in fact Merthyr is more asthetically pleasing, but it does have a lot to see and do and it's impossible to be bored there for even a minute. We're both glad we visited and ended up staying for 4 days.

In our 4 days we visited lots of impressive (some tired looking) buildings from the colonial days, Elephanta island and we got to watch the last day of the England Mumbai cricket match which Tania was ecstatic about, to be honest she's still brimming with excitment even today, 3 days later! we've got quite a few photo's already so will have a go soon uploading them.

We left Mumbai on the train yesterday, we thought as it was our first train journey we'd splash out and get 1st class A/C which was about 18quid each for about a 1000 mile journey which we had been led to believe took 8 hours, 13 hours after getting on the train we arrived at old Goa sweaty tired and suffering slightly with cabin fever, the trains here are straight from the 1960's and are using a different clock to the 24hour one the rest of the world uses. The toilets on board were interesting, basically 2 foot rests and a hole to aim into which evidentally went straight onto the track, nice! (im just suprised that someone has the time to scoop all of it up and take it all the way to central Mumbai to drop off)

Went to our first beach today Mariman wich was really nice only spent 2 hours sunbathing but we both managed (even with factor 25 on) to get frazzled we'd only need to order egg and chips and a pint of carling and we'd be the quintessential British tourists!

We passed a resturant near the cricket stadium which we had to eat in, from what the owner says they do a cracking toad in the hole and the sausage curry is not to be missed.....the photo will explain all.

We're off now to have a go at uploading some photo's then im going to bite the bullet and have some tiger prawns which are a bit of a speciallity down this neck of the woods.

Speak to you all soon, Anthony and Tania.

Goodbye Mumbai, Yoa Goa remains copyright of the author ton, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

Not done anything as yet just been checking out our view from our hotel room, its of an off white dust wall, and very nice it is to.

Off now to soak up some culture and have some sort of chicken dish at the local fast food joint i think its called TajDonalds!

Will write more soon, Ta Ta for now.

Ant and Tan.

Arrival in deepest Bombay remains copyright of the author ton, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

We'll update this blog as soon as we arrive, but thats after we sort out tickets for the England V Mumbai 11 warmup game for the upcoming tests (priorities first)

Speak to you all soon, Anthony and Tania.

One more sleep. remains copyright of the author ton, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs

First stop Mumbai! Roll on February 17th, will keep you all posted.

Toodlepip.

4 Weeks to go! remains copyright of the author ton, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

Comment on this entry | Tweet this | Your own free travel blog | More Travellerspoint blogs