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Tag: Adventure Travel
Now here is something that I read about often, yet did not really expect so soon; the kindness of strangers along the way. I do believe that cyclists are among the most kindly people you can meet, especially during a hard journey.
My departure from Ushuaia was a hard one, a real trial by fire-- I had chosen the perfect day to leave. It was raining, cold and windy right off the bat as I left the dreary town. But I could not wait to start my journey any longer, I would not wait another day for the sky to clear. So off I went, climbing 50kms through a mountain range, slowly, slowly uphill... until I finally reached the tipping point and raced down the mountain.
The worst was...
13/11/11
Not a bad night I have to admit and after yet another shower where I tried to remove my skin we were ready for a day exploring Singapore. Although they would probably never advertise it, Singapore is a walkable city, as long as you have a map of course. We went from the hotel to the marina district via the financial district, this being a Sunday the roads around the huge glass towers were deserted, but the pavements still had the usual mix of locals and tourists, but not so much that it felt crowded. Through Chinatown we passed the buddha's tooth temple with it's fearsome looking stone guards outside and huge gym complexes designed for the bankers and office workers around the...
10/11/11
We left the room around 0930 to get to the booking office, the plan is to get the night train from Penang to KL, arriving early in the morning and giving us a full day to look around. 10 am came and went but I was reassured by local people also waiting for the office to open, so bet bex breakfast on the opening time and we stood back to wait, sure enough at 1015 the staff member cooly walked up and opened the office, yes! Breakfast on her today!
The price for beds was 40 ringits each (£8) and the train staff said we had the last two, phew! He also told us to be at the ferry nice and early as the train leaves at 2300 and the boats are always late, warning noted.
We left the p...
07/11/11
By now you'll know we only travel in the early morning or over night, so no surprises then when we grabbed a quick takeaway breakfast at the ferry port before boarding our boat which would then stop at Phi Phi where we would transfer to a boat heading back to Phuket, in total 4 hours on ferries. We had already decided to pit stop in a cafe before trying to find a taxi to the Golddiggers resort in Nai Yang, Phuket, thus avoiding the minibus fiasco from the airport. Gold diggers was chosen due to it's location from the airport (1 or 2 km depending on who you believe) and it also had a pool to relax in, as we were just using this as a stop over we hadn't planned any trips or look...
04/11/11
After running in the humidity last night we decided to give the morning a go to compare the two and it started well, with a cloudy early morning sky and nice solid sand near the waves we both felt fresh and awake at 8am. That all changed as the sun came out and the temperature jumped 20c in seconds and suddenly I felt like I was running in treacle , how is it possible to be this hot this early in the day?
As the restaurant was closed on Fridays we decided to rent the bike and eat on the road somewhere. Our destination today was the national park and lighthouse on the southern tip of the island a good 30k away but mostly straight roads, according to the map. I must have looked...
01/11/11
We tried the diner attached to our hotel for breakfast and found the prices normal, so by the looks of things the only place open for food last night was the most expensive in town (I'm convinced the taxi driver took a cut from this!) and by 0930 we were on Kata beach, creamed up and ready to relax. By 10am we were both getting restless, we really are crap at sun bathing and drowning in our own sweat as the sun was beating down already. The sea cools you off, but by the time you are back to your gear your melting again, how on earth do people just lie there day after day for weeks on end and say they have had a holiday?
By midday we had both had enough and decided to walk alo...
29/10/11
Bright sunshine greeted us at 6am, which was not right as normally it's thunderstorms in the morning and sun in the afternoon, never mind I'm not going to complain. I was also feeling a lot better today, nothing was moving but just in case I passed on breakfast until we got back from the dives. Once on the boat seasick tablets were being handed out like smarties as there were other groups on board with us and it was not as flat as it looked, strangely I was feeling fine so I guess my sea legs had finally arrived, while Bex had left hers back in the room and was one of the pill poppers.
Back in my shorts and rashie for the dive down to White Rock and finally I had my buoyancy ...
16/10/11
I'm awake with the sunrise, much to my annoyance. My head cold is getting better but still making sleep a pain and during the night I worked out that the windows, which have bars on, do not have any glass in just mesh. Sometimes being a light sleeper is a real pain in the backside!
We set out to explore around 9 and already the sun was out and the temperature was rising fast, by midday the humidity would be at it's highest too so now was a good time to do any walking around. We grabbed our smoothies and headed for the highest point in town which is mount phousi and the temple which sits on top. It's only 300 steps to the summit, but since everything else sits just above river...
14/10/11
Bitty day today, it's the night train to Hanoi again tonight so we have to check out of the room by 1030. I was woken at 3am last night by a huge storm going on outside and the rain on the window sounded like someone trying to get in. I pulled one of the curtains aside and was almost blinded by the lightning, is it strange there was no thunder to go with it?
The rain continued into mid morning so the day was pretty much taken up with writing this and watching the new arrivals entering the town. If you arrive during the week the place is a lot quieter, but from Thursday to Sunday it's a mass of day trippers and new arrivals, so I was glad to be leaving, but for this reason o...
12/10/11
Another early start but this time we were mountain biking from the town into the lower villages along the river valley and yet again the sun had decided it was summer not winter! We had the same guide, Hoe, as the day before and I hoped he was a fitter biker than he was walker, so water on board we started out along the road for 6k. Once the nightmare traffic was negotiated we hopped off onto a dirt track and into the first village, waving at the kids and trying to avoid the farm animals who seemed intent on killing themselves under our wheels!
The first climb and all hopes of a better biker vanished, Hoe soon realised that we had done this before and was left trailing some w...
08/10/11
Nothing worse than an early bus ride in the rain to Halong Bay. It's 3 hours on some of the worst roads in the world, and our bus seems to be mounted on two pogo sticks so writing is almost impossible, at best I'm correcting more words than I write. As we move further away from Hanoi the weather has improved slightly, it's still very grey but the rain is only appearing in showers and I'm more encouraged by the dry roads.
I'm told that our junk will be the Paloma and it was build in 2009, so unless we hit an island, there is no real risk of it sinking, so let's hope they have better captains than they do drivers!
On arrival at the dock we are herded into a small boat which w...
06/10/11
We decided to to make the next destination Hanoi in the north, I had spoken to a few locals and they all agreed that there really is not much to miss in the middle, plus storm number 3 was passing through the area and the middle highlands were pretty much no go due to the rain. Our choices were a 2 day train or and hour flight, well, it's a no brained really!
As we stepped off the plane two things happened, first the temperature dropped by 15 degrees and secondly the rain came down in buckets!
We found a taxi ($16) which took us to our hostel for the next two nights. Ms Han, the owner of the Hanoi guesthouse, speaks fantastic English and could not be helpful enough and it o...
04/10/11
Almost 12hrs later we get up for breakfast, which is included and provided by the restaurant joined nextdoor. It serves local fare as well as bread, jam, bacon, hotdog sausages and cereals so pretty much everyone is catered for and, since it's a buffet, you can each as much as you like.
The first thing you do in Saigon, is leave any hope of living at the hotel. There are 5 million motorbikes here and rules of the road are simple, there are no rules! To cross the road you have to weave your way across, through the swarms of bikes, taxi's and anything else with a motor they choose to ride. They don't just come from the left or right, if they don't want to wait in a line they ri...
30/09/11
An early (ish) breakfast with the family in Calistoga and it was back on the road again for a 4hr drive to yosemite national park and the Yosemite lodge for an overnight stay. This may be quite a short chapter, mostly because nothing happened on the drive down, the scenery was spectacular, the roads wide open and straight. Once we entered the park that all changed to tight bendy roads, cliff faces and waterfalls. It really is one of the most fantastic drives I have ever done.
01/10/11
Our intention was to walk half dome, which would be a 14hr round trip. Due to the American need to prebook everything just incase I wasnt able to get a permit which would be needed to sca...
''Unbelievable! Can''t believe he did that....''. Kieran exclaimed as he concluded a story from the last staff night out together. ''I''ve got a story...'' I murmur. My dinner guests continue to talk, laugh and soak up the atmosphere. My heart begins to pound and Kimmi''s side glance tells me she''s pretending not to hear me. Kieran clocks my nerves. He has no idea, but he switches on that this could be big. ''Shh! Shh'' Kieran hushes over our closest six friends around the table in my rented London flat. ''Brett has something to say!'' The chatter comes to a stop and all eyes are on me. I''m never lost for words. My closest friends that have become my London family for so many years are wai...
In one of my circles of friends (I have thousands dahling), we use the expression ‘nicotine corner.’ It comes from when my brother was cutting a carpet to go round our then-boss’s office. He’s not known for being meticulous, my bro, but this time he was doing a really good job – taking his painstaking time and neatly trimming round every nook in the wall. Until the very last corner that is. By this time he’d had enough and needed a fag, so he took a huge diagonal swipe at the remaining carpet, shoved a desk on top of it and went off to smoke. And that corner of the office became forever known as nicotine corner, to the bafflement of the boss. (Apart from when we tell my parents the story, when we call it caffeine corner and substitute the word fag for the word tea.) |
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